We'll they can't complain now that there isn't enough bandwidth so they have to meter it now.
Sure they can. It'd just be lying. Dishonest. Factually incorrect.
But hey, they can accept $200 billion of they taxpayers' money, promising to deliver broadband internet everywhere and then not deliver on that promise. In my mind, that's equivalent to stealing ~$650 from every citizen.
So they have the moral to steal, but they're not going to lie. Riiiight...
What if we ran an open data project like an open source project? What would this look like?
Wikipedia. With all the inherent problems of self-proclaimed authorities
Who do not have commit access.
That is one of the keys to running an open source project well: you, being the giant with some source code, let everybody stand on your shoulders so they can see farther. And you let others stand on their shoulders so they can see even farther still.
But you don't let just about anyone become part of your shoulders. Especially not if that would weaken your shoulders (i.e. bad code or citation-free encyclopaedia entries).
That's the difference between Open Source projects and the Wikipedia project: Wikipedia lets the midgets stand on the shoulders of the giant, even if that makes the giant shorter rather than taller. Well-run open source projects don't let that happen. And poorly run open source projects don't exist due to survivor bias;-)
I feel really... really weird defending Ubisoft. I don't mean to, sorry;-)
But here goes: I don't think this DRM would be a huge problem in my life*.
[(*) Assuming it worked "correctly"--i.e. the Ubisoft servers were never down and always said "let Jonas play" as long as I had a valid, purchased license to play the game. Yes, that's a stretchy, unrealistic assumption.]
The few hours/year my ISP is down (~one day total), I have other games to play.
And the few times where I (1) don't have internet access; (2) is in a good position to player computer games; (3) want to play a single player game; those times I can count on one hand. Maybe even one without fingers.
(1) was true staying in a cabin in the woods with friends, but then (3) wasn't true, I wanted to play with my friends rather than alone. (1) is true every day while I commute, but then (2) isn't true. And (1) looks like it's going to not ever be true again, given tetherable `tubes' on my next cell phone.
No, I don't want that kind of DRM in my games. But if it performed according to specifications (again, yes that's unrealistic), I don't think I would be inconvenienced that much.
Then teachers are doing it wrong. It's their *job* to provide students the passion to learn.
I think the teachers are fighting an uphill battle on that front. If a student doesn't like school (and this is likely if school is compulsory), they're going to not like their teachers that much either, because the teachers are the school's agents, upholding the school's oppressive rules.
That's not to say that most schools have insane rules or that teachers are wrong in upholding them---it's the compulsion that screws everything up.
If kids weren't forced into anything, they'd like learning the things they did do a lot better. Heck, they're natural learners; 3-year-old kids always ask lots of questions: "why is the sky blue?", "why is water wet?", etc.
How come they stop being so eager to learn once they have to learn on someone else's schedule?
The problem I see with content creators using this new canvas is that it subtracts from the freedom of the reader's imagination.
I imagine a 1920's film maker complaining how sound might subtract from the freedom of the viewer's imagination.
Sure, the world being represented has one less degree of freedom. But it still has so many that the reader's (or viewer's) imagination has a large enough "playground" to not run out of things to wonder about.
I wouldn't worry. Yes, it's going to be different. No, it's not going to be worse. It won't make people stupid and illiterate, just like radio didn't, TV didn't, the internet didn't, rock music didn't, bell bottom pants didn't, pot only did a little bit, and glam rock didn't. Different times. That's all (I guesstimate).
I don't see why some real time games couldn't work. [...] Just as a point of reference, Battle for Wesnoth has an iPhone port that I believe allows you to play online multiplayer with the full desktop version.
If you go RTFWebsite, it says
The Battle for Wesnoth is a Free, turn-based tactical strategy game
in my case, each of my tracks is supposed to evoke certain imagry and emotional responses...something that a non-organic system simply can't replicate.
If a non-organic system produced exactly the same sound wave as one of your compositions, would it have the same capacity to evoke emotion in the listener?
If not, why not? Be careful---does your argument also imply that music performed by humans, recorded faithfully (no loss of information) and played back on a computer is never as good as experiencing the same sound wave live (even if all you experience is the sound, i.e. no looking at the performers)? If so, why do you believe that to be true?
Or in terms of car analogies, when you drive along and you can either turn 90 degrees right, along a road near to you, or 45 degrees right on a road a bit further away in the same crossing, if you turn to the 45 degree angle far road, your turning is "Amish right". Sorta' right, but not quite...
Laws made to that effect are either communist (enforcing a community good over personal freedom)
Just to clarify your definition of communism, then, I have a few questions.
I live in Denmark. As a consequence, I pay high taxes.
In return, I get free health, free tuition at universities, free public libraries, almost free public service television with no ads, welfare you can live on (if only barely) and a mythical free lunch;)
Yes, I give up the personal freedom to spend my tax money the way I like. But in return, I get (more) healthy, educated and informed compatriots. This is a benefit to me, just as it's a benefit to my compatriots that their tax kroner was invested in my education---otherwise I might not have gotten it, but now that I have it I can return more tax money to the community pot.
Yes, the tax-paid benefits have their biggest effect on the recipients of those benefits; but the second-order effects are valuable to us all.
LA is solidly blue on a political demographic map. OC is bright red.
An infomercial to those inexperienced in USA politics: blue is to the left of red in the political palette (Democrats=blue vs. Republicans=red). And it's not because they place the communist party mirrored relative to the rest of the world ^_^
See also "Hey, it's the same guy controlling both the puppets!"
Did it every occur to you that some people might actually hold the opposite opinion? That they might be glad Ubuntu chose a single desktop to focus on, rather than dividing their efforts
That's not the opposite opinion.
Gnome, which is sleek, clean, and works, rather than the horrible, ugly, cluttered mess that is KDE?
That is.
Everything about KDE rules.
Ubuntu's terrible implementation of KDE
Riiiight...
If you note it, your parent said worse things about (the ubuntu implementation of) KDE than he did about GNOME---at least if you consider "terrible" worse than "[has] shortcomings".
These and other network effects make it hard for competing search engines to catch up. [...] To me, it sounds like MS is saying, "No one uses our search engine because Google provides better search results and that is wrong."
The "network effects" bit makes me think MS is trying to convey something like this:
Google provides better search results
Thus, more people use Google web search
This makes Google provide better search results
Few people use our search engine, so we have bad results, so we can't make people use our search engine. No fair.
Similarly to why people start using Microsoft Office ${next_version}: because everybody else uses it already; a competitor has to break that cycle to even get a foothold.
I'm not convinced Microsoft is doing this out of a motivation having to do with the well-functioning of the market and consumer benefit---in fact, I think Microsoft worries much more about its own benefit---but at least they have a "it's bad for the market and hence the public" angle they can use to argue and justify policy that benefits them.
Should I complain that auto manufacturers have access to huge factories and production lines and I have none so it's anti-trust that I cannot enter the automobile market?
The large amount of capital required to enter the automobile market is a barrier to entry and hence a barrier to competition---something the free market works best without.
I'm not advocating a particular policy, though. But I think it's worth considering how large capital requirements skews the market towards having few competitors with all the good (hah!) side effects that has.
More people die in car accidents every single day than died in this earthquake.
And that, I think, is actually a real problem---it would be really great if you could somehow get people to drive a bit more safely. It'd save a lot of lives, including the lives of a bunch of productive citizens, i.e. it'd also bring more material wealth for everybody.
Yeah, sure, that shouldn't take the spotlight away from a recent significant event (which also has a lot of wounded and property damage).
But maybe it's something worth pouring resources into?
Just put a timer on the buttons that won't let them click it for 10 seconds.
It doesn't take 10 seconds to recognize "yeah, this is the same dialog as before"
but ultimately you can't fix stupid.
It's not all stupid (only 99%). Sometimes it's "not well enough informed". Say, in the firefox example. Should I trust "Joe Random Add-On Developer"? Yeah, sure*. Forcing me to spend 10 seconds on a 3-second decision just annoys me.
* No, I shouldn't. But I'm gonna'. And all you people who run ad block plus and what have you, you haven't met with the developers and verified that they have the best intentions about your computer. They could be evil, you know...
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We'll they can't complain now that there isn't enough bandwidth so they have to meter it now.
Sure they can. It'd just be lying. Dishonest. Factually incorrect.
But hey, they can accept $200 billion of they taxpayers' money, promising to deliver broadband internet everywhere and then not deliver on that promise. In my mind, that's equivalent to stealing ~$650 from every citizen.
So they have the moral to steal, but they're not going to lie. Riiiight...
What if we ran an open data project like an open source project? What would this look like?
Wikipedia. With all the inherent problems of self-proclaimed authorities
Who do not have commit access.
That is one of the keys to running an open source project well: you, being the giant with some source code, let everybody stand on your shoulders so they can see farther. And you let others stand on their shoulders so they can see even farther still.
But you don't let just about anyone become part of your shoulders. Especially not if that would weaken your shoulders (i.e. bad code or citation-free encyclopaedia entries).
That's the difference between Open Source projects and the Wikipedia project: Wikipedia lets the midgets stand on the shoulders of the giant, even if that makes the giant shorter rather than taller. Well-run open source projects don't let that happen. And poorly run open source projects don't exist due to survivor bias ;-)
AMD is advocating for a similar technology that works on their hardware as well as on nVidia's
That sounds a bit like "both country and western" to me.
Ah well, I guess it isn't AMD's fault that when they make open standards there are only two (maybe three) implementers...
*sigh* Always with the delusion of reference...
I feel really... really weird defending Ubisoft. I don't mean to, sorry ;-)
But here goes: I don't think this DRM would be a huge problem in my life*.
[(*) Assuming it worked "correctly"--i.e. the Ubisoft servers were never down and always said "let Jonas play" as long as I had a valid, purchased license to play the game. Yes, that's a stretchy, unrealistic assumption.]
The few hours/year my ISP is down (~one day total), I have other games to play.
And the few times where I (1) don't have internet access; (2) is in a good position to player computer games; (3) want to play a single player game; those times I can count on one hand. Maybe even one without fingers.
(1) was true staying in a cabin in the woods with friends, but then (3) wasn't true, I wanted to play with my friends rather than alone. (1) is true every day while I commute, but then (2) isn't true. And (1) looks like it's going to not ever be true again, given tetherable `tubes' on my next cell phone.
No, I don't want that kind of DRM in my games. But if it performed according to specifications (again, yes that's unrealistic), I don't think I would be inconvenienced that much.
To understand infinitesimal calculus, you must first understand the easy half of infinitesimal calculus.
Then teachers are doing it wrong. It's their *job* to provide students the passion to learn.
I think the teachers are fighting an uphill battle on that front. If a student doesn't like school (and this is likely if school is compulsory), they're going to not like their teachers that much either, because the teachers are the school's agents, upholding the school's oppressive rules.
That's not to say that most schools have insane rules or that teachers are wrong in upholding them---it's the compulsion that screws everything up.
If kids weren't forced into anything, they'd like learning the things they did do a lot better. Heck, they're natural learners; 3-year-old kids always ask lots of questions: "why is the sky blue?", "why is water wet?", etc.
How come they stop being so eager to learn once they have to learn on someone else's schedule?
The problem I see with content creators using this new canvas is that it subtracts from the freedom of the reader's imagination.
I imagine a 1920's film maker complaining how sound might subtract from the freedom of the viewer's imagination.
Sure, the world being represented has one less degree of freedom. But it still has so many that the reader's (or viewer's) imagination has a large enough "playground" to not run out of things to wonder about.
I wouldn't worry. Yes, it's going to be different. No, it's not going to be worse. It won't make people stupid and illiterate, just like radio didn't, TV didn't, the internet didn't, rock music didn't, bell bottom pants didn't, pot only did a little bit, and glam rock didn't. Different times. That's all (I guesstimate).
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a truck full of tapes hurling down the highway
Is that some kind of metaphor for the internet?
I don't see why some real time games couldn't work. [...] Just as a point of reference, Battle for Wesnoth has an iPhone port that I believe allows you to play online multiplayer with the full desktop version.
If you go RTFWebsite, it says
The Battle for Wesnoth is a Free, turn-based tactical strategy game
Real time != turn-based.
in my case, each of my tracks is supposed to evoke certain imagry and emotional responses...something that a non-organic system simply can't replicate.
If a non-organic system produced exactly the same sound wave as one of your compositions, would it have the same capacity to evoke emotion in the listener?
If not, why not? Be careful---does your argument also imply that music performed by humans, recorded faithfully (no loss of information) and played back on a computer is never as good as experiencing the same sound wave live (even if all you experience is the sound, i.e. no looking at the performers)? If so, why do you believe that to be true?
Since it's so beneficial for everybody let's make these high taxes voluntary.
No, because some people are cheap, and others don't realise the benefit of paying the taxes.
Hey, if it's such a good deal, it's not a problem that's it compulsory.
"So IS your turning Amish right?"
Or in terms of car analogies, when you drive along and you can either turn 90 degrees right, along a road near to you, or 45 degrees right on a road a bit further away in the same crossing, if you turn to the 45 degree angle far road, your turning is "Amish right". Sorta' right, but not quite...
Laws made to that effect are either communist (enforcing a community good over personal freedom)
Just to clarify your definition of communism, then, I have a few questions.
I live in Denmark. As a consequence, I pay high taxes.
In return, I get free health, free tuition at universities, free public libraries, almost free public service television with no ads, welfare you can live on (if only barely) and a mythical free lunch ;)
Yes, I give up the personal freedom to spend my tax money the way I like. But in return, I get (more) healthy, educated and informed compatriots. This is a benefit to me, just as it's a benefit to my compatriots that their tax kroner was invested in my education---otherwise I might not have gotten it, but now that I have it I can return more tax money to the community pot.
Yes, the tax-paid benefits have their biggest effect on the recipients of those benefits; but the second-order effects are valuable to us all.
Is that communism? If so, I want more of that :-)
LA is solidly blue on a political demographic map. OC is bright red.
An infomercial to those inexperienced in USA politics: blue is to the left of red in the political palette (Democrats=blue vs. Republicans=red). And it's not because they place the communist party mirrored relative to the rest of the world ^_^
See also "Hey, it's the same guy controlling both the puppets!"
I don't know to what extent these problems are the fault of Ubuntu as opposed to KDE, or the fault of the Linux kernel using Pulse or what.
There's your problem: whenever sound is troubling you on Ubuntu, step one is always to uninstall PulseAudio.
Now, PulseAudio might be great. I hear it is. It just isn't on Ubuntu. So remove that from the equation, and sound should work much better.
(Speaking only from personal experience, apply salt, YMMV, etc.)
Did it every occur to you that some people might actually hold the opposite opinion? That they might be glad Ubuntu chose a single desktop to focus on, rather than dividing their efforts
That's not the opposite opinion.
Gnome, which is sleek, clean, and works, rather than the horrible, ugly, cluttered mess that is KDE?
That is.
Everything about KDE rules.
Ubuntu's terrible implementation of KDE
Riiiight...
If you note it, your parent said worse things about (the ubuntu implementation of) KDE than he did about GNOME---at least if you consider "terrible" worse than "[has] shortcomings".
How come you felt a need to become so defensive?
These and other network effects make it hard for competing search engines to catch up. [...] To me, it sounds like MS is saying, "No one uses our search engine because Google provides better search results and that is wrong."
The "network effects" bit makes me think MS is trying to convey something like this:
Similarly to why people start using Microsoft Office ${next_version}: because everybody else uses it already; a competitor has to break that cycle to even get a foothold.
I'm not convinced Microsoft is doing this out of a motivation having to do with the well-functioning of the market and consumer benefit---in fact, I think Microsoft worries much more about its own benefit---but at least they have a "it's bad for the market and hence the public" angle they can use to argue and justify policy that benefits them.
Should I complain that auto manufacturers have access to huge factories and production lines and I have none so it's anti-trust that I cannot enter the automobile market?
The large amount of capital required to enter the automobile market is a barrier to entry and hence a barrier to competition---something the free market works best without.
I'm not advocating a particular policy, though. But I think it's worth considering how large capital requirements skews the market towards having few competitors with all the good (hah!) side effects that has.
but given a photo of Barack Obama's face with half of it blacked out, you can estimate with great accuracy what was in the other half.
It's rather easy to guess what's in the half that isn't blacked out, yeah? ;-)
Slashdot readers are to videogame violence as Fox News viewers are to global warming.
Somehow, both video game violence and global warming are related to piracy ;-)
the Solo case [...] It is not a judgment against Solo [...] has to prove that Solo [...] what's really going on here with Solo
Solo, Solo, Solo.
The fat corporate cats seem more like Greed(o).
Sorry. I'll see myself to the door.
More people die in car accidents every single day than died in this earthquake.
And that, I think, is actually a real problem---it would be really great if you could somehow get people to drive a bit more safely. It'd save a lot of lives, including the lives of a bunch of productive citizens, i.e. it'd also bring more material wealth for everybody.
Yeah, sure, that shouldn't take the spotlight away from a recent significant event (which also has a lot of wounded and property damage).
But maybe it's something worth pouring resources into?
Linux errors are usually more useful, descriptive and since the order of the buttons change from window to window, you have to be more careful. ;-)
That's the best argument for ui inconsistency I've heard in a long time ;-)
Hail Linux!
Just put a timer on the buttons that won't let them click it for 10 seconds.
It doesn't take 10 seconds to recognize "yeah, this is the same dialog as before"
but ultimately you can't fix stupid.
It's not all stupid (only 99%). Sometimes it's "not well enough informed". Say, in the firefox example. Should I trust "Joe Random Add-On Developer"? Yeah, sure*. Forcing me to spend 10 seconds on a 3-second decision just annoys me.
* No, I shouldn't. But I'm gonna'. And all you people who run ad block plus and what have you, you haven't met with the developers and verified that they have the best intentions about your computer. They could be evil, you know...