You know, if stupidity were contagious, you'd be a friggin weapon of mass destruction. Thank God the only knowledge you have of anything beyond your trailer park came from your Carmen Sandiago games.
Thanks for proving me right:)
(sigh) Ego,... ego... ego... And I'll have you know, it was Zack McCracken and the Alien Mindbenders , Not Carmen Sandiago. I never lived in a trailer, but I did lose my virginity in one if that counts. In the spirit of your drivel I should probably allude to a female member of your immediate family being in that trailer at the time (sibling or matriarch are usually appropriate for such insults if I remember 8'th grade correctly), but I'll refrain.
You *really* need to spend some time away from your computer. You've all but mastered the art of schoolyard insults, perhaps try something a (little) more productive and appropriate for your age?
While you have done a simply wonderful job of insulting me, the fact remains that 'ethics of profit or debit' remains fragmented and unexplained.
Ethics is something that is posessed, used (by demonstration), which makes it (in your use) a noun. 'Ethical' would be a completely different story.
Profit or Debit describe the state of something, a number to be specific, which makes them prepositions (in your usage of them). This should be the other way around. Profit can have no 'ethics', nor can debt. Some guy named Michael Moore touched on this when he complained of the government declaring war on nouns.
You still need a subordinator of some sort, I suspect. The sentence is just too fragmented to continue trying to decipher. What was that about proper English, again?:)
About 'globalism', we are working from two entirely different meanings of the word. Colloqually, its (broadly) assumed to reference a single unified 'global' economy without hinderence of special interests influencing government and trade.
Global is good because we really should be working together (united) to get off this rock before it can no longer sustain us rather than worrying so much about 'profit and debit' as you put it.. you are welcome to call Stephen Hawking 'stupid' too, if you like. I would not be at all amazed to see you pick on a guy in a wheel chair. Wow, 8'th grade is really coming back now. IT WAS YOU! YOU BASTARD! YOUR THE ONE WHO DUNKED MY HEAD IN THE TOILET AND FLUSHED FIFTY TIMES!
On a more serious note..
I want to remove the barriers on which you perch while throwing eggs at people via tcp/ip, I doub't sincerely that we'd ever come to a meeting of the minds. Let us just both agree that is a good thing, and move along.. move along.. nothing more to see here.
This post and the few that predicate it are off topic. Please moderate accordingly, unless of course you also lost your virginity in a trailer while plaing Zack McCracken on a Dell laptop that caught on fire.
No, that is not what I just did. I just said quit busting on American workers and putting us down, when our money is what drives the entire world's economic engine.
No, its not (anymore):) At least not nearly as much as it was. You need to get off the superiority complex.
Globalists are reducing humanity to nothing more than the ethics of profit or debit.
Do explain the 'ethics of profit or debit' you refer to. Your statement makes no sense.
They're using IP laws to shortcircuit the open source movement and consolidate power around the world into the hands of the wealthy elite.
No, that would be (mostly) American owned large companies like Haliburton, Bechtel and others.
In globalism, unsafe workplaces, polluted rivers and strict corporate control of citizens, is the fastest path to riches for those at the top.
I'm from South Baltimore.. I didn't need to leave the country to see dirty rivers and unsafe workplaces:)
Globalists will smack down Open Source if they can, because it cuts deeply into their profits and denies them control. They're trying to destroy Open Source right this minute, with software patent laws.
How the hell does open source cut into my profits? I built a business AROUND supporting and advancing open source.
You are a perfect example of why Americans traveling abroad have such a difficult time. The rest of the world assumes we're all just like you.
But for you to say American reps - techies, no less - have poorer English skills than East Indian reps - is horribly wrong and very, very racist.
You are touching on a rather heated debate between linguists. Americanized English is not (quite) linguistically 'proper' English, because it has some major inconsistencies in spelling, grammer and vowel accenture.
This is the primary reason English was internationalized into many different containers by OS and application vendors. We use the letter 'z' where we should (probably) use 's', (as example) and lots of other very trivial things.
To someone speaking English but not as their native language, this is not so trivial. The relationships between consonants and vowels in Americanized English don't always lend the proper clue as to how that vowel should be prononunced (if other than usual).
I'm an American, I work mostly in South East asia helping to get call centers organized. I can tell you that 80% of my staff most likely speak English (as in International English) *much* better than I do when it comes to adhering to proper sentence and word structure.
The problem is their native language pronounces vowels quite a bit differently so they vastly go misunderstood. The biggest cause of this? The second they hang up the phone, they go right back to speaking their native language to their coworkers, their brain then re-trains on how vowels should be pronounced.
I speak four languages and work with people who speak up to 7. Its *very* difficult to change accent gears that quickly, I know of only a few people who can (really) do it.
So though the agent you're speaking to may be quite fluent in English, you would not be able to tell it speaking with them. The bigger, reputable call centers have imposed "English Only" rules at work, if your caugh speaking in say.. Tagalog (Philippine National Language) in between service calls, you get quite a bit of flack from your superiors or possibly terminated.
Global call centers have to deal with people from dozens of countries calling in , each trying their best to speak International English. The US Accounts for only 25-30% of call center business in SE Asia, believe it or not. Booming Wireless phone and ISP markets in developing countries account for (most of) the rest.
The agents here need to understand folks from the UK, US, Australia, Russia, Germany, Africa.. all kinds of places.
I train (our) agents to use their brain, there are no scripts, however I do conceed that we take a unique approach that costs more money, so not many other companies do it.
You globalists depend on America's money. Otherwise you wouldn't sell so much to us. At least show us some respect.
Not really, and the Dollar hasn't been doing so well lately either. Racism takes yet another (ugly) form when one demands respect based solely on his ethnicity, which is what you just did.
Globalists are pioneers and thinkers who are working very diligently to a global economy where all can benefit. As we broadly support businesses who take capitalize on open source technology that was developed globally, I really fail to see how one's country of origin has *anything* to do with it:)
Newspapers that use headlines that actually tell you what the story is aobut, rather than making a cheap joke out of someone's misey? If the profession of journalism had any integrity, this would never have been a story, because the offensiveness of turning news headlines in to jokes would never have happened in the first place.
Lets look back on that story about Dick Cheney shooting his lawyer buddy in the face with a shotgun. What this article is talking about doing is reducing the headlines within the html semantics (h1 - h5) to accurately summarize in as few words (all unique) as possible.
Often, this is the same practice employed by someone wanting to inject a spin on the headline. Lets say for instance, I needed to reduce the story about Cheney, it would probably read something like :
h1 - "Cheney shoots lawyer in the face"
And I'd augment with my supporting details in h2 - h5 tags, iterating through them.
h2 - "Tragic hunting accident"... etc. Someone reading my headline would immediately smell a spin;)
My point is (and yes I have one) is that this would have a reverse effect. Headlines will most likely seem even funnier since the irony was unintentional and most likely machine generated, yet similar to what a human with a sense of humor or sarcasm would conjure.
The flip side of "Linus is inhibited by greed" is that "Linux is not responsive to the needs of the marketplace". There are no dollars on the line for linux.
I disagree. There are plenty of opportunities for dollars on the hour in Linux that just aren't in play on center stage.
Companies very often contribute money to distros, packagers or repackagers of distros, or OSS application authors to enhance something to suit their need and release the enhancement back to open source.
This is typically known as a "work-with", meaning you "work-with" the author or packagers getting things done just the way you like while paying a (modest) fee, and allowing the improvements you made to (possibly) be put back into the project.
This isn't even counting the dollars avaiable to those who *really do* understand how Linux works and know how to market themselves. Linux has fed me rather well for quite some time now:)
There are plenty of dollars in Linux and Open Source, the question is can you get enough of them in one place to make you happy?
I think its like hearing someone complain how much pro atheletes make. Its not that the guys in the minors are paid too little for what they do, the guys in the majors just make way to damn much doing it.
>> If this was to happen in the US, would the FDIC cover these types of things?
I don't think so. The FDIC is more of a surerty for the bank itself. In this case the bank wasn't actually the one robbed, the customers were digitally conned. It's a good business for FDIC itself as your premium as a bank would depend on your fraud record.
[this] bank is being pretty cool about it, probably because the phishing e-mail containing the trojan appeared to come from the bank's domain. Its a semi dangerous public precedent they're setting however.
People should take the same precaution logging into their bank from home as they would take using an ATM in a neighborhood where you hear gunfire close by as a normal thing, but for some reason, they just don't get it.
I really doubt FDIC would ever DREAM of rewarding irresponsible behavior (cough ahem wheeze) , that would *never* happen, right? So look for FDIC digi-thug premium hikes in Q3 of this year, less interest paid in checking yet again.. and probably (yes) they'll begin to cover it, and banks have no choice but to buy it.
>> Come on now, yea, there may have been a mistake made, but it has nothing to do with the money going to a Slain >> Soldiers' Family.
>> Why the need for so much drama?
If it weren't for drama , spin and hype.. those of us who enjoy studying the art of social engineering from the comfort and safety of our desk chairs would have little to do. Your question opens up the 'empathy' can of worms in a more interesting way than you intended, I think. Here's how (on the odd chance you may be curious)
People reading this headline will have one of a few predictable reactions :
1 - Anger (applies to both) that is triggered from taking the headline at face value amplified by :
* Relation to a previous experience with PayPal
* Relation to someone who died in the armed forces
* Relation to a disgust for irresponsible media
2 - Remorse :
* No matter how you feel, you feel bad for the people who have the funds delayed
* You feel worse for a recent loss due to war time
* You feel bad that humans are headed in an appalling direction.. Or a combination of all of the above.
Point being, we're easy to piss off and its even easier to make us feel bad for things we had nothing to do with in the first place.
Of course, there are many more reasons and ways people could feel after reading the headline newsletter in their inbox, I just described two.
This clearly demonstrates reasoning behind PayPal delaying the payment, as humans are so easily tricked into a sense of accountability. This is why special donation links and accounts are setup. PayPal wants to ensure that nobody is going to have a change of heart (in giving) prior to releasing the funds which is a fiscally responsible action on their part.
Slashdot further compounded this bizarre empathy triangle with a 'from the why think if you have policy' dept.
What is irresponsible is propagating an assumption that money you earn from the internet is your's the second you get notification that a funds transfer of some sort has been completed, and PayPal needs to own up to that a bit more than they do. If they're guilty of something, its fine print.. but what (major) company today is not?
I , like many will just sit back and continue to read.. and enjoy all the free data/. so thoughtfully provides by example on how to hack a human being and continue to wonder about the possibility of empathy being a genetic fluke:)
>> Perhaps it is because in the U.S. there is no statutory definition of how to dedicate works to the public >> domain.
I, like many people first found C through snippets and skeletal code on the network that predicated usenet, all of them were 'public domain'..
Where did it go? I don't mean to sound like a dinosaur with a bad memory, but could someone shed some light on exactly where, at what point things got.. (for lack of a better word).. nuts? Is there one precedent that started it?
Better yet folks , here's a more down to the (real) world example and question.
Lets say, I write something trivial.. lets say its a backup utility similar to something else thats included in open source distros, however I decided that the world could use a version with less bloat and better loggging. So I wrote one from scratch with this header :///*
* Backup Utility Version 1.0
* By John Q Public, Written January 2007
* This program is not copyrighted in any way, and is hereby donated to the public domain without warranty
* of any kind, in hopes someone finds it useful.
* Bug reports : john@qpublic.com */... program code
Now, to distribute this, I don't zip it, or tar it.. I simply link to it in my blog (say its just a single.c file) and give instructions in the header on how to compile it.
If XYZ Linux distro , that is distributed under the xyz license wanted to pick it up, it couldn't.. because there is no clear license for it.
Can someone, please.. explain to me why something *must* be licensed and copyrighted to be included in free OS distributions? Or am I completely misunderstanding the current hype and debate over licensing? This isn't flamebait, I don't want to start an argument, I honestly want to know what license is compatable with what , what licenses don't allow for uncopyrighted or unlicensed code, and a general indication of why not.
Link to something useful on the matter, anyone? Preferably one not riddled with legal-ese? I'm really trying to understand this, and I think the absurdity of it is preventing me from doing so.
Thanks to anyone in advance who can answer here, or give a link.. and I don't think I'm the only one who is thoroughly confused.
>> >> As far as I'm concerned, use of public domain material in a program puts that program into the public domain >> >> also.
>> The lawyers would disagree. This is why we have copyleft in the form of the GNU GPL.
Where, oh where did the days go where you could write something like this in the header of your code and it would suffice? :/*
* Program to dominate the world.
* If your cat goes psycotic and slits your throat while you sleep, or gets your fish pregnant,
* I'm not responsible. This comes with no warranty.
* Hereby donated to the public domain in hopes that someone finds it useful
* If you use this, I'd appreciate an e-mail at blah@blahblah.blah
*
* Revision notes :
* blah blah blah */
That system worked so well for so long. Can someone, please tell me why someone can't release code freely, without copyright or any obligation for anything on the user's end? I mean you can, but unless you slap a well accepted license (thats prone to be incompatable with some other license) on it, nobody uses it for fear of it not having a license.
For free software I think this is just completely absurd. Is this a result of ego-vating instead of innovating, or did we just leave the lawyers alone in a room together a few minutes too long?
lynx --dump http://slashdot.org/ | mail -s "Your slashfix, sir." you@yourdomain.com
work just as well?
My connection here in Manila has been perfect throughout the whole mess, amazingly, but that isn't always the case. So I found a cogent connected DC who sold me a win2k3 termserv for $50 a month, which works beautifully for surfing, buying stuff, etc / al.
Since my ISP uses cogent BW, I found that getting a remote hop on the same network was the best way to go. So I enjoy full connectivity from my house, or my termserv in NY, depending on what the network is doing. I've also bypassed my ISP's DNS servers and use my own in the US, again on Cogent connected BW. Willtell would be another pretty good bet, numerous ISP's here in Asia also use them.
You can get a VPS very cheap and use simple VNC to do your reading, just be sure that VPS is connected through carriers you can reach.. or keep it simple and just use lynx.
Don't confuse broken with fragmented. Right now its [ the internet ] is fragmented.. not broken. Broken means you can't access anything. Fragmented means with a little creativity and a couple bucks you can get around the issues.
Mod ^^^^^^ up +5 insightful for mentioning Noam Chomsky.
I heard him interviewed by Amy Goodman several times which sparked me to begin reading his stuff. Its *difficult* to read because Noam can't possibly fully explain himself and how he reaches his conclusions inside of a book that weighs under 20 lbs.
However, once you read his books (several times each), no matter your political orientation a light bulb will go on in your brain. Its not just what he says that is of extreme use and interest, its getting insight into his thought process that is most amazing.
Now for my confusing 2 cents : I'm no longer alarmed that the nation as a whole was not extremely alarmed when we first invaded Iraq, which I find rather alarming in and of itself.
There is nothing to de-classify about the war in Iraq, you can't hope to document a negative. Better explained :
The fact that the entire mess happened without most people even lifting a finger to question it is the issue, the means of aggression (in this case our Government) is incidental, just a catalyst, the fact that it happened at all is what should be examined.
None of that is classified because there was no resistance whatsoever, nothing to document, nothing to cover up. Its all perfecly (not) out in the open.
>> I live in Manila (yup fil-a-peens) and I'm a PLDT subscriber. Its as slow as molasses. Dial-up wasn't this bad.
I think it really depends on where you are. I'm still in awe that I haven't had so much as a hiccup. The net cafe's down the street that I pass on the way to the store have their gates shut and locked (Globe) so my guess is they're down too.
I had Bayantel for a while, every time it rained my connection went out and from what I saw on the news they're totally down too.
Down for Destiny is a typical state of being (had them in Quezon City and Mandaluyong) both were horrible.
.. Yes I said 80% except for one , and this is because the 20% still operational are (basically) re-selling PLDT's network. *ALMOST* forgot this was/.:)
>> No idea about the Philippines, but it's usually safe to assume they have gotten the worst of any unpleasant >> situation.
I'm an American living in Manila (fil-a-peens) for the geographically challenged. 80% of all ISP's are down or experiencing issues (major) except for one :
I don't know *HOW* they did it, but they put humpty dumpty back together again quickly. Its amazing, I don't expect a solid BGP multi honed network from a third world ISP, but they have exceeded my expectations beyond belief. I'm posting this using Smart Wifi (PLDT powered) and enjoying my full limit (about 384 - 500 kbps) without much of an interruption at all.
This kind of disaster is a nightmare for any ISP. PLDT planned ahead, and it paid off.. so many kudos to them:) Its very... rare here to see companies invest profit into things with no immediate pay off, which is why they deserve a pat on the back. I was expecting to be completely screwed. Most US ILEC's could learn something from PLDT.
The rest, Bayantel, Destiny , and others are almost in complete blackout.
If you are worrying that your outsourced call centers are going to be down for an extended period of time (and not using PLDT), you're dead on right to worry. This could take months to straighten out, and yes.. we do get the shit end of the stick when this happens:)
I'm fully over it, actually never found myself under it:) I have an all Penguin company. But I must continue to whine relentlessly over things that I have absolutely no control over.. to do otherwise would be , well, boring.
Its still a low down dirty market grab putting themselevs quietly in a position of authority they have no business assuming, any way you cut it. We can debate the roots of a definition, but the fact remains that this is going to cost some mom and pops a few conversions.
>> Actually, I think that there are 20.6 million lawsuits waiting to be filed against Microsoft. I admit that I'm >> not a proponent of excessive litigation, but in this case I am in favor of it.
I agree, a legal (litigation) based denial of service attack against MS is entirely warranted. Microsoft is trying to make themselves an authority on something they have absolutely no business being involved in. Their scope is to provide an operating system, and secure that operating system.
Things beyond that should not be part of (or optional during) the installation of that operating system. This doesn't mean that they can't offer tools that 'protect people from Internet muggings' , however, these tools should be a component offered OUTSIDE of the initial OS installation, or installation of any package available in their OS.
IE installs as *part of* Windows, even though its not really part of Windows, its an application that runs *under* windows. If you're going to bundle IE with windows, you can't bundle these extra tools with IE.
If they want to do this (bundle it with IE) , then IE needs to be a component people elect to download and install, or install from supplemental media (another CD) included with Windows. Or, they could simply make this new gimmick as an optional download or install from a separate set of cabinets.
In short, they're just asking for it this time.. and I hope they 'get it' in more sense of the phrase than one.
Your exactly right. At first, nothing really is changing. MySQL will continue to build binaries and Debian will continue to package them appropriately (albeit slowly) into stable release trees, and it looks like some new packages (and changes in meta packages) are in sight 'down the road'.
The same thing applies to Ubuntu, and every other Linux distribution that actively maintains its packages. Its up to the packagers (as always) to make things available.
Yum / aptitude / emerge (whatever) do not download packages from MySQL , they download packages from whatever you put in their list of sources.
Amazing what people will do just to get a story posted on/.
This is fud. The story here is that soon better packages will be available as package maintainers begin to include better things from MySQL.
This is FUD. Nothing more to see here, move along.. move along..
>> Our company did last year, cities of Vienna and Munich did, it should work out very nicely for you too. Our >> former XP users love KDE.
You wouldn't be interested in sharing what KDE applications you left in your typical workstation setup? I'm guessing Firefox, open office stuff, evolution (or similar) and possibly GAIM or some other IM client.
What else did you leave in that you find people actually using that's not further confusing them, if you don't mind sharing (and even realize I asked because you [understandably] posted anon)?
VLC ( found here ) overcame the last hurdle I had with transitioning some client networks.. media playback was the breaking point in selling. Are you using it? How do the users seem to like it vs Media Player if so?
This goes out to any other anon cowards who would like to share (or non anon cowards, too!):)
>> What about someone who warns that there may be civil unrest in the future due to the consequences of a >> particular government policy?
>> The word is so vague, that in addition to what I said before, even non-malicious actions could be perceived as >> terrorism
Good point.. and I think the distinction can be made on the anomity of an "attack". Leaving a bomb to go off or detonating from a safe distance is quite a bit different than mugging someone.
A "terrorist" attack is also very indiscriminate, where a mugging indicates a precise target.
So , you clobber someone for their wallet.. your a mugger. You empty 3 AK clips into a schoolyard.. your a terrorist. Its a different.. detached and more.. ugly sort of violence in that it demonstrates a severe lack of empathy as a whole rather than just desperation.
Its still a very good point, and I'm glad you mentioned it.
>> It's scarey now that something like this - which is obviously a purely criminal act (one of vandalism and >> possibly GBH or even murder) - can now be called a "terrorist act". With all the negative connotations which >> are implied. I wonder what else our government will start declaring as "terrorism", surely any malicious >> act could ultimately fall under the government's ever widening definition of the word.
Sorry, but if you look at the word.. the shoe fits. Terrorism is doing things to make people fear for their safety in hopes they see your point of view. Its ugly, despicable and (you are correct) a very easy label to slap on anything of this nature.
I really hope this was just kids being stupid. We (Gen X kids) all did dumb shit too, but we never endangered someone's life or physical safety in the process. Making someone piss their pants : fun. Making someone bleed : not fun.
If it was a disgruntled customer.. sorry, but the T word fits and should be applied.
I got a chuckle out of this too since nobody got hurt but someone very easily could have.. there's a fine line between prankish fun and violence.
>> I was a terrorist in my youth. I'd blow up army men with firecrackers, filled tennis balls with gasoline, >> even constructed solid fuel rockets with an explosive payload. Of course terrorism was a lot more popular in >> the 70s than it is now.
I think every self respecting geek kid had similar fun. I chucked a coffee can full of flash powder and ground up M80's ina storm drain and ended up making a pretty impressive crater. We also had fun making our own short range rockets with estes kits and D sized engines. Never got one working that could do serious damage with its payload, but shooting them horizontally really scared the piss out of whoever you aimed at.
My middle school chemistry teacher had this neat "trustee" program so he could go smoke weed while the smart kids looked after the dumb ones, so supplies of bromide, potassium, sulphur, etc were rather abundant.
Precussion explosives made with bromide were also fun, especially when the same key the teacher gave us to get to the supply closet also opened the band storage room. The problem with my recipe is you had to rig the carbon from a matchbook in just the right way on the tip of the big mallets the bass drummer used, and after a while he began checking.
That was childhood fun, I remember it fondly.. but we're in a slightly different era now. The really scary part is your kid could do the same thing in a deliberate attempt to have you tortured by the CIA to find out how the kid happened upon such "dangerous" knowledge.
Me (and my rectum) hope to god they take "Google" for an answer.. my daughter is 1 year old now and has the same twinkle in her eye that I did. Whooooboy.
Slashdot Mirror
No, but I saw boobs once.
Thanks for proving me right
(sigh) Ego,
You *really* need to spend some time away from your computer. You've all but mastered the art of schoolyard insults, perhaps try something a (little) more productive and appropriate for your age?
While you have done a simply wonderful job of insulting me, the fact remains that 'ethics of profit or debit' remains fragmented and unexplained.
Ethics is something that is posessed, used (by demonstration), which makes it (in your use) a noun. 'Ethical' would be a completely different story.
Profit or Debit describe the state of something, a number to be specific, which makes them prepositions (in your usage of them). This should be the other way around. Profit can have no 'ethics', nor can debt. Some guy named Michael Moore touched on this when he complained of the government declaring war on nouns.
You still need a subordinator of some sort, I suspect. The sentence is just too fragmented to continue trying to decipher. What was that about proper English, again?
About 'globalism', we are working from two entirely different meanings of the word. Colloqually, its (broadly) assumed to reference a single unified 'global' economy without hinderence of special interests influencing government and trade.
Global is good because we really should be working together (united) to get off this rock before it can no longer sustain us rather than worrying so much about 'profit and debit' as you put it.. you are welcome to call Stephen Hawking 'stupid' too, if you like. I would not be at all amazed to see you pick on a guy in a wheel chair. Wow, 8'th grade is really coming back now. IT WAS YOU! YOU BASTARD! YOUR THE ONE WHO DUNKED MY HEAD IN THE TOILET AND FLUSHED FIFTY TIMES!
On a more serious note
I want to remove the barriers on which you perch while throwing eggs at people via tcp/ip, I doub't sincerely that we'd ever come to a meeting of the minds. Let us just both agree that is a good thing, and move along
This post and the few that predicate it are off topic. Please moderate accordingly, unless of course you also lost your virginity in a trailer while plaing Zack McCracken on a Dell laptop that caught on fire.
I'd be interested in seeing what it thinks of Microsoft Bob, personally.
No, its not (anymore)
Do explain the 'ethics of profit or debit' you refer to. Your statement makes no sense.
No, that would be (mostly) American owned large companies like Haliburton, Bechtel and others.
I'm from South Baltimore
How the hell does open source cut into my profits? I built a business AROUND supporting and advancing open source.
You are a perfect example of why Americans traveling abroad have such a difficult time. The rest of the world assumes we're all just like you.
Stay in the US, dude. You belong there.
You are touching on a rather heated debate between linguists. Americanized English is not (quite) linguistically 'proper' English, because it has some major inconsistencies in spelling, grammer and vowel accenture.
This is the primary reason English was internationalized into many different containers by OS and application vendors. We use the letter 'z' where we should (probably) use 's', (as example) and lots of other very trivial things.
To someone speaking English but not as their native language, this is not so trivial. The relationships between consonants and vowels in Americanized English don't always lend the proper clue as to how that vowel should be prononunced (if other than usual).
I'm an American, I work mostly in South East asia helping to get call centers organized. I can tell you that 80% of my staff most likely speak English (as in International English) *much* better than I do when it comes to adhering to proper sentence and word structure.
The problem is their native language pronounces vowels quite a bit differently so they vastly go misunderstood. The biggest cause of this? The second they hang up the phone, they go right back to speaking their native language to their coworkers, their brain then re-trains on how vowels should be pronounced.
I speak four languages and work with people who speak up to 7. Its *very* difficult to change accent gears that quickly, I know of only a few people who can (really) do it.
So though the agent you're speaking to may be quite fluent in English, you would not be able to tell it speaking with them. The bigger, reputable call centers have imposed "English Only" rules at work, if your caugh speaking in say
Global call centers have to deal with people from dozens of countries calling in , each trying their best to speak International English. The US Accounts for only 25-30% of call center business in SE Asia, believe it or not. Booming Wireless phone and ISP markets in developing countries account for (most of) the rest.
The agents here need to understand folks from the UK, US, Australia, Russia, Germany, Africa
I train (our) agents to use their brain, there are no scripts, however I do conceed that we take a unique approach that costs more money, so not many other companies do it.
Not really, and the Dollar hasn't been doing so well lately either. Racism takes yet another (ugly) form when one demands respect based solely on his ethnicity, which is what you just did.
Globalists are pioneers and thinkers who are working very diligently to a global economy where all can benefit. As we broadly support businesses who take capitalize on open source technology that was developed globally, I really fail to see how one's country of origin has *anything* to do with it
Often, this is the same practice employed by someone wanting to inject a spin on the headline. Lets say for instance, I needed to reduce the story about Cheney, it would probably read something like :
h1 - "Cheney shoots lawyer in the face"
And I'd augment with my supporting details in h2 - h5 tags, iterating through them.
h2 - "Tragic hunting accident"
My point is (and yes I have one) is that this would have a reverse effect. Headlines will most likely seem even funnier since the irony was unintentional and most likely machine generated, yet similar to what a human with a sense of humor or sarcasm would conjure.
Companies very often contribute money to distros, packagers or repackagers of distros, or OSS application authors to enhance something to suit their need and release the enhancement back to open source.
This is typically known as a "work-with", meaning you "work-with" the author or packagers getting things done just the way you like while paying a (modest) fee, and allowing the improvements you made to (possibly) be put back into the project.
This isn't even counting the dollars avaiable to those who *really do* understand how Linux works and know how to market themselves. Linux has fed me rather well for quite some time now
There are plenty of dollars in Linux and Open Source, the question is can you get enough of them in one place to make you happy?
I think its like hearing someone complain how much pro atheletes make. Its not that the guys in the minors are paid too little for what they do, the guys in the majors just make way to damn much doing it.
>> If this was to happen in the US, would the FDIC cover these types of things?
.. and probably (yes) they'll begin to cover it, and banks have no choice but to buy it.
I don't think so. The FDIC is more of a surerty for the bank itself. In this case the bank wasn't actually the one robbed, the customers were digitally conned. It's a good business for FDIC itself as your premium as a bank would depend on your fraud record.
[this] bank is being pretty cool about it, probably because the phishing e-mail containing the trojan appeared to come from the bank's domain. Its a semi dangerous public precedent they're setting however.
People should take the same precaution logging into their bank from home as they would take using an ATM in a neighborhood where you hear gunfire close by as a normal thing, but for some reason, they just don't get it.
I really doubt FDIC would ever DREAM of rewarding irresponsible behavior (cough ahem wheeze) , that would *never* happen, right? So look for FDIC digi-thug premium hikes in Q3 of this year, less interest paid in checking yet again
>> Come on now, yea, there may have been a mistake made, but it has nothing to do with the money going to a Slain
.. those of us who enjoy studying the art of social engineering from the comfort and safety of our desk chairs would have little to do. Your question opens up the 'empathy' can of worms in a more interesting way than you intended, I think. Here's how (on the odd chance you may be curious)
.. Or a combination of all of the above.
.. but what (major) company today is not?
.. and enjoy all the free data /. so thoughtfully provides by example on how to hack a human being and continue to wonder about the possibility of empathy being a genetic fluke :)
>> Soldiers' Family.
>> Why the need for so much drama?
If it weren't for drama , spin and hype
People reading this headline will have one of a few predictable reactions :
1 - Anger (applies to both) that is triggered from taking the headline at face value amplified by :
* Relation to a previous experience with PayPal
* Relation to someone who died in the armed forces
* Relation to a disgust for irresponsible media
2 - Remorse :
* No matter how you feel, you feel bad for the people who have the funds delayed
* You feel worse for a recent loss due to war time
* You feel bad that humans are headed in an appalling direction
Point being, we're easy to piss off and its even easier to make us feel bad for things we had nothing to do with in the first place.
Of course, there are many more reasons and ways people could feel after reading the headline newsletter in their inbox, I just described two.
This clearly demonstrates reasoning behind PayPal delaying the payment, as humans are so easily tricked into a sense of accountability. This is why special donation links and accounts are setup. PayPal wants to ensure that nobody is going to have a change of heart (in giving) prior to releasing the funds which is a fiscally responsible action on their part.
Slashdot further compounded this bizarre empathy triangle with a 'from the why think if you have policy' dept.
What is irresponsible is propagating an assumption that money you earn from the internet is your's the second you get notification that a funds transfer of some sort has been completed, and PayPal needs to own up to that a bit more than they do. If they're guilty of something, its fine print
I , like many will just sit back and continue to read
>> Perhaps it is because in the U.S. there is no statutory definition of how to dedicate works to the public
.. (for lack of a better word) .. nuts? Is there one precedent that started it?
:)
>> domain.
I, like many people first found C through snippets and skeletal code on the network that predicated usenet, all of them were 'public domain'..
Where did it go? I don't mean to sound like a dinosaur with a bad memory, but could someone shed some light on exactly where, at what point things got
Thanks
Better yet folks , here's a more down to the (real) world example and question.
// /* ... program code
.. I simply link to it in my blog (say its just a single .c file) and give instructions in the header on how to compile it.
.. because there is no clear license for it.
.. explain to me why something *must* be licensed and copyrighted to be included in free OS distributions? Or am I completely misunderstanding the current hype and debate over licensing? This isn't flamebait, I don't want to start an argument, I honestly want to know what license is compatable with what , what licenses don't allow for uncopyrighted or unlicensed code, and a general indication of why not.
Lets say, I write something trivial.. lets say its a backup utility similar to something else thats included in open source distros, however I decided that the world could use a version with less bloat and better loggging. So I wrote one from scratch with this header :
* Backup Utility Version 1.0
* By John Q Public, Written January 2007
* This program is not copyrighted in any way, and is hereby donated to the public domain without warranty
* of any kind, in hopes someone finds it useful.
* Bug reports : john@qpublic.com
*/
Now, to distribute this, I don't zip it, or tar it
If XYZ Linux distro , that is distributed under the xyz license wanted to pick it up, it couldn't
Can someone, please
Link to something useful on the matter, anyone? Preferably one not riddled with legal-ese? I'm really trying to understand this, and I think the absurdity of it is preventing me from doing so.
Thanks to anyone in advance who can answer here, or give a link.. and I don't think I'm the only one who is thoroughly confused.
>> >> As far as I'm concerned, use of public domain material in a program puts that program into the public domain
/*
>> >> also.
>> The lawyers would disagree. This is why we have copyleft in the form of the GNU GPL.
Where, oh where did the days go where you could write something like this in the header of your code and it would suffice? :
* Program to dominate the world.
* If your cat goes psycotic and slits your throat while you sleep, or gets your fish pregnant,
* I'm not responsible. This comes with no warranty.
* Hereby donated to the public domain in hopes that someone finds it useful
* If you use this, I'd appreciate an e-mail at blah@blahblah.blah
*
* Revision notes :
* blah blah blah
*/
That system worked so well for so long. Can someone, please tell me why someone can't release code freely, without copyright or any obligation for anything on the user's end? I mean you can, but unless you slap a well accepted license (thats prone to be incompatable with some other license) on it, nobody uses it for fear of it not having a license.
For free software I think this is just completely absurd. Is this a result of ego-vating instead of innovating, or did we just leave the lawyers alone in a room together a few minutes too long?
Would not :
lynx --dump http://slashdot.org/ | mail -s "Your slashfix, sir." you@yourdomain.com
work just as well?
My connection here in Manila has been perfect throughout the whole mess, amazingly, but that isn't always the case. So I found a cogent connected DC who sold me a win2k3 termserv for $50 a month, which works beautifully for surfing, buying stuff, etc / al.
Since my ISP uses cogent BW, I found that getting a remote hop on the same network was the best way to go. So I enjoy full connectivity from my house, or my termserv in NY, depending on what the network is doing. I've also bypassed my ISP's DNS servers and use my own in the US, again on Cogent connected BW. Willtell would be another pretty good bet, numerous ISP's here in Asia also use them.
You can get a VPS very cheap and use simple VNC to do your reading, just be sure that VPS is connected through carriers you can reach.. or keep it simple and just use lynx.
Don't confuse broken with fragmented. Right now its [ the internet ] is fragmented.. not broken. Broken means you can't access anything. Fragmented means with a little creativity and a couple bucks you can get around the issues.
Mod ^^^^^^ up +5 insightful for mentioning Noam Chomsky.
I heard him interviewed by Amy Goodman several times which sparked me to begin reading his stuff. Its *difficult* to read because Noam can't possibly fully explain himself and how he reaches his conclusions inside of a book that weighs under 20 lbs.
However, once you read his books (several times each), no matter your political orientation a light bulb will go on in your brain. Its not just what he says that is of extreme use and interest, its getting insight into his thought process that is most amazing.
Now for my confusing 2 cents : I'm no longer alarmed that the nation as a whole was not extremely alarmed when we first invaded Iraq, which I find rather alarming in and of itself.
There is nothing to de-classify about the war in Iraq, you can't hope to document a negative. Better explained :
The fact that the entire mess happened without most people even lifting a finger to question it is the issue, the means of aggression (in this case our Government) is incidental, just a catalyst, the fact that it happened at all is what should be examined.
None of that is classified because there was no resistance whatsoever, nothing to document, nothing to cover up. Its all perfecly (not) out in the open.
Brilliant, Mr Rove.
>> I live in Manila (yup fil-a-peens) and I'm a PLDT subscriber. Its as slow as molasses. Dial-up wasn't this bad.
..
I think it really depends on where you are. I'm still in awe that I haven't had so much as a hiccup. The net cafe's down the street that I pass on the way to the store have their gates shut and locked (Globe) so my guess is they're down too.
I had Bayantel for a while, every time it rained my connection went out and from what I saw on the news they're totally down too.
Down for Destiny is a typical state of being (had them in Quezon City and Mandaluyong) both were horrible.
I think at this point, be thankful for molasses
.. Yes I said 80% except for one , and this is because the 20% still operational are (basically) re-selling PLDT's network. *ALMOST* forgot this was /. :)
>> No idea about the Philippines, but it's usually safe to assume they have gotten the worst of any unpleasant
:) Its very ... rare here to see companies invest profit into things with no immediate pay off, which is why they deserve a pat on the back. I was expecting to be completely screwed. Most US ILEC's could learn something from PLDT.
.. we do get the shit end of the stick when this happens :)
>> situation.
I'm an American living in Manila (fil-a-peens) for the geographically challenged. 80% of all ISP's are down or experiencing issues (major) except for one :
PLDT (The Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company) http://www.pldt.com.ph/
I don't know *HOW* they did it, but they put humpty dumpty back together again quickly. Its amazing, I don't expect a solid BGP multi honed network from a third world ISP, but they have exceeded my expectations beyond belief. I'm posting this using Smart Wifi (PLDT powered) and enjoying my full limit (about 384 - 500 kbps) without much of an interruption at all.
This kind of disaster is a nightmare for any ISP. PLDT planned ahead, and it paid off.. so many kudos to them
The rest, Bayantel, Destiny , and others are almost in complete blackout.
If you are worrying that your outsourced call centers are going to be down for an extended period of time (and not using PLDT), you're dead on right to worry. This could take months to straighten out, and yes
>> Get over it.
:) I have an all Penguin company. But I must continue to whine relentlessly over things that I have absolutely no control over .. to do otherwise would be , well, boring.
I'm fully over it, actually never found myself under it
Its still a low down dirty market grab putting themselevs quietly in a position of authority they have no business assuming, any way you cut it. We can debate the roots of a definition, but the fact remains that this is going to cost some mom and pops a few conversions.
That's sad.
>> Actually, I think that there are 20.6 million lawsuits waiting to be filed against Microsoft. I admit that I'm
>> not a proponent of excessive litigation, but in this case I am in favor of it.
I agree, a legal (litigation) based denial of service attack against MS is entirely warranted. Microsoft is trying to make themselves an authority on something they have absolutely no business being involved in. Their scope is to provide an operating system, and secure that operating system.
Things beyond that should not be part of (or optional during) the installation of that operating system. This doesn't mean that they can't offer tools that 'protect people from Internet muggings' , however, these tools should be a component offered OUTSIDE of the initial OS installation, or installation of any package available in their OS.
IE installs as *part of* Windows, even though its not really part of Windows, its an application that runs *under* windows. If you're going to bundle IE with windows, you can't bundle these extra tools with IE.
If they want to do this (bundle it with IE) , then IE needs to be a component people elect to download and install, or install from supplemental media (another CD) included with Windows. Or, they could simply make this new gimmick as an optional download or install from a separate set of cabinets.
In short, they're just asking for it this time.. and I hope they 'get it' in more sense of the phrase than one.
Your exactly right. At first, nothing really is changing. MySQL will continue to build binaries and Debian will continue to package them appropriately (albeit slowly) into stable release trees, and it looks like some new packages (and changes in meta packages) are in sight 'down the road'.
/.
.. move along ..
The same thing applies to Ubuntu, and every other Linux distribution that actively maintains its packages. Its up to the packagers (as always) to make things available.
Yum / aptitude / emerge (whatever) do not download packages from MySQL , they download packages from whatever you put in their list of sources.
Amazing what people will do just to get a story posted on
This is fud. The story here is that soon better packages will be available as package maintainers begin to include better things from MySQL.
This is FUD. Nothing more to see here, move along
>> Our company did last year, cities of Vienna and Munich did, it should work out very nicely for you too. Our
.. media playback was the breaking point in selling. Are you using it? How do the users seem to like it vs Media Player if so?
:)
>> former XP users love KDE.
You wouldn't be interested in sharing what KDE applications you left in your typical workstation setup? I'm guessing Firefox, open office stuff, evolution (or similar) and possibly GAIM or some other IM client.
What else did you leave in that you find people actually using that's not further confusing them, if you don't mind sharing (and even realize I asked because you [understandably] posted anon)?
VLC ( found here ) overcame the last hurdle I had with transitioning some client networks
This goes out to any other anon cowards who would like to share (or non anon cowards, too!)
>> What about someone who warns that there may be civil unrest in the future due to the consequences of a
.. your a mugger. You empty 3 AK clips into a schoolyard .. your a terrorist. Its a different .. detached and more .. ugly sort of violence in that it demonstrates a severe lack of empathy as a whole rather than just desperation.
>> particular government policy?
>> The word is so vague, that in addition to what I said before, even non-malicious actions could be perceived as
>> terrorism
Good point.. and I think the distinction can be made on the anomity of an "attack". Leaving a bomb to go off or detonating from a safe distance is quite a bit different than mugging someone.
A "terrorist" attack is also very indiscriminate, where a mugging indicates a precise target.
So , you clobber someone for their wallet
Its still a very good point, and I'm glad you mentioned it.
>> It's scarey now that something like this - which is obviously a purely criminal act (one of vandalism and
.. the shoe fits. Terrorism is doing things to make people fear for their safety in hopes they see your point of view. Its ugly, despicable and (you are correct) a very easy label to slap on anything of this nature.
.. sorry, but the T word fits and should be applied.
.. there's a fine line between prankish fun and violence.
>> possibly GBH or even murder) - can now be called a "terrorist act". With all the negative connotations which
>> are implied. I wonder what else our government will start declaring as "terrorism", surely any malicious
>> act could ultimately fall under the government's ever widening definition of the word.
Sorry, but if you look at the word
I really hope this was just kids being stupid. We (Gen X kids) all did dumb shit too, but we never endangered someone's life or physical safety in the process. Making someone piss their pants : fun. Making someone bleed : not fun.
If it was a disgruntled customer
I got a chuckle out of this too since nobody got hurt but someone very easily could have
>> I was a terrorist in my youth. I'd blow up army men with firecrackers, filled tennis balls with gasoline,
.. my daughter is 1 year old now and has the same twinkle in her eye that I did. Whooooboy.
>> even constructed solid fuel rockets with an explosive payload. Of course terrorism was a lot more popular in >> the 70s than it is now.
I think every self respecting geek kid had similar fun. I chucked a coffee can full of flash powder and ground up M80's ina storm drain and ended up making a pretty impressive crater. We also had fun making our own short range rockets with estes kits and D sized engines. Never got one working that could do serious damage with its payload, but shooting them horizontally really scared the piss out of whoever you aimed at.
My middle school chemistry teacher had this neat "trustee" program so he could go smoke weed while the smart kids looked after the dumb ones, so supplies of bromide, potassium, sulphur, etc were rather abundant.
Precussion explosives made with bromide were also fun, especially when the same key the teacher gave us to get to the supply closet also opened the band storage room. The problem with my recipe is you had to rig the carbon from a matchbook in just the right way on the tip of the big mallets the bass drummer used, and after a while he began checking.
That was childhood fun, I remember it fondly.. but we're in a slightly different era now. The really scary part is your kid could do the same thing in a deliberate attempt to have you tortured by the CIA to find out how the kid happened upon such "dangerous" knowledge.
Me (and my rectum) hope to god they take "Google" for an answer
"I think our relationship may be in perl .. err, peril .. "