You really don't get the Bible or the religion. Sure, you can pull out one liners and short stories, but when you take them out of the context of the entire thing, they're useless. It's not surprising that you don't get it. I don't, either. Jesus three times told his disciples (who followed him around constantly and heard everything he said) that they didn't get it.
While I've studied this quite a bit, I still don't think I know enough to take issue with your corrections, and I appreciate your convictions. There's one critical factor both sides of the debate always seem to leave out though -- after as many countless times as it has been translated and interpreted, are you still taking this as the word of God? If so, how do you know what to throw out due to translational or interpretational error?
"even though their motives may be primarily cash, they still must abide by proper Open Source rules"
Just out of curiosity, what are these? Not 'all' rules -- but does anybody know (or offer wild speculation on) what happens when open source and fat wads of cash collide?
It's not alturism. It's the exact opposite of altruism -- it's just good ol' fashion capitalism...Ayn Rand style objectivism, if you prefer. There is a clear right and wrong here, what's what by Google is what's right by their customers -- and what's right by consumers is what's right by Google. There's always a value in 'doing no evil', but it's not usually quite this easy to see!
I tend to agree, although I wouldn't say it turned me off completely. I wasn't exactly the brightest bulb (I still isn't, I suppose), and even at age 8 or so I had the same objections...
But I kept watching -- and I'm thankful I did. Mr. Wizard taught me how to make a blow torch out of a lighter, a can of hairspray and a paper towel roll (well, just the aerosol part, but I filled in the blanks). Needless to say...almost burned down the house, but good times, good times!
Well...I'm definitely a 'power user' on Windows -- and as such, I'm just sick of its limitations. Linux is DEFINITELY the answer -- but I happen to be in that awkward position of knowing too much about 'the windows way' and nothing about 'the unix way'...here are some of my frustrations...
-- I figured out how to write a bash script, but I haven't figured out how to get it to autorun itself as root on bootup (similar to the 'Startup' folder in windows...I need at least to run a script to fstab my Windows hd)
-- I figured out how to mount my data drive, but I have to do it through the gui -- I can't figure out the write way to mount a fat drive with fstab in bash (so I can't automount it)
-- I can't attach my external USB hd (it's one ntfs partition...when I cand find some room to swap its contents, I'll reformat to fat32...that may help)
-- the buttons on my Vaio laptop don't work right...I've played with all kinds daemons for the sonypi driver, even hacked and recompiled three (a great experiment anyway, and my first good look at ruby, perl and c) but I can't get them to work right (yeah, I know that's Sony's fault for releasing a closed-source driver -- but still agitating when you've gotten so accustomed to using the volume buttons right on the keyboard)
-- in order to get my speakers to work, apparently I need to have the output at 48,000 hz or something...and apparently I have to do that in alsa..but I don't even know where to begin
-- shutdown is VERY touchy, and only works occasionally...restart 'always' hangs and hibernate is a freakin' disaster! I've found resources that may help me address this, but it's going to take time...a lot of it, it appears
Overall, I'm still in love with Linux. I plan on putting a number of people I 'administer' on it -- as soon as I have a good solid understanding of how to tweak it to the point where they won't be able to break it easily, and still do the standard 'average user tasks' much faster and easier than on windows (I'm SICK of cleaning up spyware!)...
If you're writing a book about how to do THAT, sign me up -- I'll buy your first copy!
What is this magic distro you speak of?...I'm a noob who's been pimping an ubuntu distro for about a month -- and I'm really not as happy as I thought I'd be. In many ways I LOVE linux and what it's offering me (like endless fun with tweaking), but ultimately, it's not all it's cracked up to me. I've grown weary of Microsoft, and really wanted to switch full time -- but I find myself back in the dual boot of XP almost daily -- just so I can 'get things done'.
Damn fine point...that's the one thing I miss about OS X...
However -- you're only part right. Windows apps occasionally allow 'copy' and typically allow you to 'paste' text into password boxes -- so THERE! Now that's some good securitizing...and shit!
"Any time you use someone else's words or thinking with the intent to imply that *you* were the author of those words or thoughts, you are a plagiarist."
Wait...wait...just out of curiousity...how *do* you copy thinking or author thoughts? You mean mind-reading is finally here? Damnit -- how did I miss that Slashdot headline?!
If you've never seen a pack of turkey vultures take down a young cow, I highly recommend it...apparently it happens quite a bit (has happened several times on my buddy's dairy farm)...and it's quite a site!
The Greek tragedian Euripides was infamous for resolving difficulties in his plays by lowering a god from a crane (the machina, in Latin) who would then resolve all the outstanding issues.
I had a pretentious english teacher in highschool that used to spit that phrase out twice per book. I never really knew what it meant -- and apparently, neither did he...
So it's kind of like what Kevin Smith did at the end of Dogma?
I agree whole-heartedly -- and this is precisely what capitalism is *supposed* to be. We have an overabundance of products, as well as an overabundance of information about any given product; any shady tactics that product's producer(s) may have employed; potential competitors' strengths/weaknesses; any shady tactics they may have employed...rinse, lather, repeat. I would LOVE to be an informed consumer, but there is just too much information to digest. Ironically, in time this problem may be solved by a well-designed social networking site (read: NOT myspace). It seems to me this is one area the net has failed, but will ultimately prove most valuable.
Greed is fine -- but greed has reprocussions. As it stands now, it can all be obfuscated away. You may call me a dreamer...but one day...one day down the line...who knows...
Corporations don't care about what's moral or immoral, they care about what makes them money (and/or "market share"/power). This is true not only of Microsoft, but of essentially every other for-profit corporation.
And this doesn't apply to not-for-profits as well? Are you really that naive? To quote a post I just read: "Which is why it is the duty of we, the public, to intensely criticise any corporation when it does do something unethical, so that the ethical choice becomes the most profitable one."
Except houses are depreciating assets, just like cars and clothes and food.
Houses are indeed depreciating assets. Land on the other hand...
To quote the late, great Sam Clements..."Buy land, they're not making any more of it."
And that statement is as true today as it was a century ago. Just look around the 'burbs -- you'll see. While your post is a bit over the top, my useless degree in finance gives me just enough understanding of market dynamics to know you're mostly right. However, so long as we have a government willing to take your land just as soon as they'd take your gold, I'm sorry to inform you -- there IS no safe investment.
Yes, I'm a fscking noob...and no, I will never type that again -- your childish little language is foreign and queer to me -- one of the main reasons I've never bothered with Linux before -- people like you...
That said, I'm sufficiently angry with Microsoft and bored with Windows and, for the most part, am in LOVE with what Linux and the community (apart from goobers like yourself) has to offer -- but there are clearly some shortcomings. I'm not much of a programmer, but in the coming months and years, I would love to do my part to help close a few of those gaps...
One thing that I immediately notice every time I turn on my comp is the boot loader (GRUB in my case) -- and how unattractive it is. I was writing to ask if there was anything -- perhaps a layer that sits on top of GRUB or LILO -- that could spruce it up. I don't believe what you linked to was that -- after all, I'm running Ubuntu, and they have their own version of that -- the splash is not the boot loader...
One really nice feature for any distrubution would be to default to a themed bootloader -- for instance, for Ubuntu, have that goofy little circle flash up on the screen with the timeout as defined in GRUB or LILO...and an 'escape for more options' or something...
Then, graphically depict the different multi-boots available...it doesn't *seem* like it would be difficult to pull off, and would be a huge improvement over the Windows experience itself.
Linux seems to get the little things right in a lot of places -- but in others, they could really win with the wow factor by *improving* on the Windows experience, rather than just trying to match it. This would be a nice touch -- and I would be perfectly happy to lay out the graphics and program it myself, if someone would just point me to some resources about what this may entail (how the graphics would need to be set up...what kind of language I would have to use that would run natively for all x86...how to completely parse the GRUB and/or LILO settings).
Seems like a pretty easy project with a little bit of elbow grease. Does anyone know of a similar project in progress?
This may sound rediculous -- but is there any way to gussy up my boat loader a bit? I'm running GRUB right now with a dualboot for XP on my VAIO laptop (I know...Sony...but give me a break -- it's old). When I first boot, it plays the VAIO sound and drops a quick animation with the graphic. If it can do something like that during BIOS, how come my boat loader has to look like garbage?
Any body know of any interesting hacks to make 'er a little more palatable?
That is so 2000 of you. Everything you say used to be true, but seriously, XP and Office XP and beyond are rock solid.
While that's very true, and I've been running it on different PCs for about the same time (with nary a problem), you have to admit, it is pretty stale. I was forced to run OS X at work for about a year and a half, and that never really did it for me either.
I'd never set so much as a finger on a Linux distro until a few weeks ago when I downloaded an Ubuntu LiveCD for a simple partitioning tool I couldn't get through Windows...
Now, I've spent the last few weeks toiling away, reading about how to properly convert my laptop over as a duel-boot!
I really was an MS "fanboy" for all these years...and yes, XP does "just work"...but from my perspective, Linux has BLOWN past XP in features...and probably some time ago, but I was just too busy to look. I don't know about Apple, but I agree with the GP -- if my stubborn ass is switching, then yes, expect a banner year for Linux distros!
I'm typing this post on a one year old VAIO laptop that I really couldn't be happier with. One of its most impressive attributes is its screen -- I'm in the market for a widescreen TV and I'm about to drop a lot of cash...
I REALLY love this screen...I'd really love to watch TV on it......but after this, how could I really be sure my TV won't blow up if a friend pops in some DVD that happens to be pirated?
Not unlike asking your real estate to give you a cut of the commission on a house that is particularly desirable for an agent to list.
Well, sort of...if you're the lister, you can avoid this 'kickback' problem by negotiating down the commission rate. If you're the buyer, it is illegal in most states for you to get any piece of this commission if you're not a licensed real estate agent, and since the seller is paying it, you can't negotiate it's rate.
Of course, like with anything else...with a little creativity there are ways around this -- especially if it's an especially expensive piece of property. But the bottom line is people can choose to use a broker (Google), or opt go it alone, FSBO style -- just robot.txt the damn site and quit whining.
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You really don't get the Bible or the religion. Sure, you can pull out one liners and short stories, but when you take them out of the context of the entire thing, they're useless. It's not surprising that you don't get it. I don't, either. Jesus three times told his disciples (who followed him around constantly and heard everything he said) that they didn't get it.
While I've studied this quite a bit, I still don't think I know enough to take issue with your corrections, and I appreciate your convictions. There's one critical factor both sides of the debate always seem to leave out though -- after as many countless times as it has been translated and interpreted, are you still taking this as the word of God? If so, how do you know what to throw out due to translational or interpretational error?
"Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable."
- Sammie Clements
"Millions upon millions of people on this planet prefer the style of freedoms and restrictions granted by their government over Americas"
...it's a shame, really.
Interestingly, we in America used to believe that -- or at least those that founded it as a federation...
Sadly, almost everybody here seems to think that word means "big, hulking central government"
"even though their motives may be primarily cash, they still must abide by proper Open Source rules"
Just out of curiosity, what are these? Not 'all' rules -- but does anybody know (or offer wild speculation on) what happens when open source and fat wads of cash collide?
It's not alturism. It's the exact opposite of altruism -- it's just good ol' fashion capitalism...Ayn Rand style objectivism, if you prefer. There is a clear right and wrong here, what's what by Google is what's right by their customers -- and what's right by consumers is what's right by Google. There's always a value in 'doing no evil', but it's not usually quite this easy to see!
I tend to agree, although I wouldn't say it turned me off completely. I wasn't exactly the brightest bulb (I still isn't, I suppose), and even at age 8 or so I had the same objections...
But I kept watching -- and I'm thankful I did. Mr. Wizard taught me how to make a blow torch out of a lighter, a can of hairspray and a paper towel roll (well, just the aerosol part, but I filled in the blanks). Needless to say...almost burned down the house, but good times, good times!
Well...I'm definitely a 'power user' on Windows -- and as such, I'm just sick of its limitations. Linux is DEFINITELY the answer -- but I happen to be in that awkward position of knowing too much about 'the windows way' and nothing about 'the unix way' ...here are some of my frustrations...
-- I figured out how to write a bash script, but I haven't figured out how to get it to autorun itself as root on bootup (similar to the 'Startup' folder in windows...I need at least to run a script to fstab my Windows hd)
-- I figured out how to mount my data drive, but I have to do it through the gui -- I can't figure out the write way to mount a fat drive with fstab in bash (so I can't automount it)
-- I can't attach my external USB hd (it's one ntfs partition...when I cand find some room to swap its contents, I'll reformat to fat32...that may help)
-- the buttons on my Vaio laptop don't work right...I've played with all kinds daemons for the sonypi driver, even hacked and recompiled three (a great experiment anyway, and my first good look at ruby, perl and c) but I can't get them to work right (yeah, I know that's Sony's fault for releasing a closed-source driver -- but still agitating when you've gotten so accustomed to using the volume buttons right on the keyboard)
-- in order to get my speakers to work, apparently I need to have the output at 48,000 hz or something...and apparently I have to do that in alsa..but I don't even know where to begin
-- shutdown is VERY touchy, and only works occasionally...restart 'always' hangs and hibernate is a freakin' disaster! I've found resources that may help me address this, but it's going to take time...a lot of it, it appears
Overall, I'm still in love with Linux. I plan on putting a number of people I 'administer' on it -- as soon as I have a good solid understanding of how to tweak it to the point where they won't be able to break it easily, and still do the standard 'average user tasks' much faster and easier than on windows (I'm SICK of cleaning up spyware!)...
If you're writing a book about how to do THAT, sign me up -- I'll buy your first copy!
What is this magic distro you speak of? ...I'm a noob who's been pimping an ubuntu distro for about a month -- and I'm really not as happy as I thought I'd be. In many ways I LOVE linux and what it's offering me (like endless fun with tweaking), but ultimately, it's not all it's cracked up to me. I've grown weary of Microsoft, and really wanted to switch full time -- but I find myself back in the dual boot of XP almost daily -- just so I can 'get things done'.
Damn fine point...that's the one thing I miss about OS X...
However -- you're only part right. Windows apps occasionally allow 'copy' and typically allow you to 'paste' text into password boxes -- so THERE! Now that's some good securitizing...and shit!
"Any time you use someone else's words or thinking with the intent to imply that *you* were the author of those words or thoughts, you are a plagiarist."
Wait...wait...just out of curiousity...how *do* you copy thinking or author thoughts? You mean mind-reading is finally here? Damnit -- how did I miss that Slashdot headline?!
Agreed...
If you've never seen a pack of turkey vultures take down a young cow, I highly recommend it...apparently it happens quite a bit (has happened several times on my buddy's dairy farm)...and it's quite a site!
The Greek tragedian Euripides was infamous for resolving difficulties in his plays by lowering a god from a crane (the machina, in Latin) who would then resolve all the outstanding issues.
I had a pretentious english teacher in highschool that used to spit that phrase out twice per book. I never really knew what it meant -- and apparently, neither did he... So it's kind of like what Kevin Smith did at the end of Dogma?
I agree whole-heartedly -- and this is precisely what capitalism is *supposed* to be. We have an overabundance of products, as well as an overabundance of information about any given product; any shady tactics that product's producer(s) may have employed; potential competitors' strengths/weaknesses; any shady tactics they may have employed...rinse, lather, repeat. I would LOVE to be an informed consumer, but there is just too much information to digest. Ironically, in time this problem may be solved by a well-designed social networking site (read: NOT myspace). It seems to me this is one area the net has failed, but will ultimately prove most valuable.
Greed is fine -- but greed has reprocussions. As it stands now, it can all be obfuscated away. You may call me a dreamer...but one day...one day down the line...who knows...
Corporations don't care about what's moral or immoral, they care about what makes them money (and/or "market share"/power). This is true not only of Microsoft, but of essentially every other for-profit corporation.
And this doesn't apply to not-for-profits as well? Are you really that naive? To quote a post I just read: "Which is why it is the duty of we, the public, to intensely criticise any corporation when it does do something unethical, so that the ethical choice becomes the most profitable one."
Except houses are depreciating assets, just like cars and clothes and food.
Houses are indeed depreciating assets. Land on the other hand...
To quote the late, great Sam Clements..."Buy land, they're not making any more of it."
And that statement is as true today as it was a century ago. Just look around the 'burbs -- you'll see. While your post is a bit over the top, my useless degree in finance gives me just enough understanding of market dynamics to know you're mostly right. However, so long as we have a government willing to take your land just as soon as they'd take your gold, I'm sorry to inform you -- there IS no safe investment.
Yes, I'm a fscking noob...and no, I will never type that again -- your childish little language is foreign and queer to me -- one of the main reasons I've never bothered with Linux before -- people like you...
That said, I'm sufficiently angry with Microsoft and bored with Windows and, for the most part, am in LOVE with what Linux and the community (apart from goobers like yourself) has to offer -- but there are clearly some shortcomings. I'm not much of a programmer, but in the coming months and years, I would love to do my part to help close a few of those gaps...
One thing that I immediately notice every time I turn on my comp is the boot loader (GRUB in my case) -- and how unattractive it is. I was writing to ask if there was anything -- perhaps a layer that sits on top of GRUB or LILO -- that could spruce it up. I don't believe what you linked to was that -- after all, I'm running Ubuntu, and they have their own version of that -- the splash is not the boot loader...
One really nice feature for any distrubution would be to default to a themed bootloader -- for instance, for Ubuntu, have that goofy little circle flash up on the screen with the timeout as defined in GRUB or LILO...and an 'escape for more options' or something...
Then, graphically depict the different multi-boots available...it doesn't *seem* like it would be difficult to pull off, and would be a huge improvement over the Windows experience itself.
Linux seems to get the little things right in a lot of places -- but in others, they could really win with the wow factor by *improving* on the Windows experience, rather than just trying to match it. This would be a nice touch -- and I would be perfectly happy to lay out the graphics and program it myself, if someone would just point me to some resources about what this may entail (how the graphics would need to be set up...what kind of language I would have to use that would run natively for all x86...how to completely parse the GRUB and/or LILO settings).
Seems like a pretty easy project with a little bit of elbow grease. Does anyone know of a similar project in progress?
This may sound rediculous -- but is there any way to gussy up my boat loader a bit? I'm running GRUB right now with a dualboot for XP on my VAIO laptop (I know...Sony...but give me a break -- it's old). When I first boot, it plays the VAIO sound and drops a quick animation with the graphic. If it can do something like that during BIOS, how come my boat loader has to look like garbage?
Any body know of any interesting hacks to make 'er a little more palatable?
That is so 2000 of you. Everything you say used to be true, but seriously, XP and Office XP and beyond are rock solid.
While that's very true, and I've been running it on different PCs for about the same time (with nary a problem), you have to admit, it is pretty stale. I was forced to run OS X at work for about a year and a half, and that never really did it for me either.
I'd never set so much as a finger on a Linux distro until a few weeks ago when I downloaded an Ubuntu LiveCD for a simple partitioning tool I couldn't get through Windows...
Now, I've spent the last few weeks toiling away, reading about how to properly convert my laptop over as a duel-boot!
I really was an MS "fanboy" for all these years...and yes, XP does "just work"...but from my perspective, Linux has BLOWN past XP in features...and probably some time ago, but I was just too busy to look. I don't know about Apple, but I agree with the GP -- if my stubborn ass is switching, then yes, expect a banner year for Linux distros!
i suppose next your you're going to tell me 2 + 2 = 4? WHAT?!
I'm typing this post on a one year old VAIO laptop that I really couldn't be happier with. One of its most impressive attributes is its screen -- I'm in the market for a widescreen TV and I'm about to drop a lot of cash... I REALLY love this screen...I'd really love to watch TV on it... ...but after this, how could I really be sure my TV won't blow up if a friend pops in some DVD that happens to be pirated?
Not unlike asking your real estate to give you a cut of the commission on a house that is particularly desirable for an agent to list.
Well, sort of...if you're the lister, you can avoid this 'kickback' problem by negotiating down the commission rate. If you're the buyer, it is illegal in most states for you to get any piece of this commission if you're not a licensed real estate agent, and since the seller is paying it, you can't negotiate it's rate.
Of course, like with anything else...with a little creativity there are ways around this -- especially if it's an especially expensive piece of property. But the bottom line is people can choose to use a broker (Google), or opt go it alone, FSBO style -- just robot.txt the damn site and quit whining.
Funny that usually the 2-3 seconds of radio I hear each time are...either a DJ, or a commercial.
Funny...same here, until my iPod broke one day, and I noticed something...and you're sure you didn't accidentally leave your tuner set to talk radio?