...I strike at thee, RIAA!" If every nerd in the world voted with their wallets the result would be hardly noticeable.
RIAA doesn't give a shit about the effects piracy, they don't earn or lose money from record sales - their salaries are paid as long as they walk around and strike the lawhammer, regardless of the result. It is their mission to make people miserable, wreck and ruin.
The problem lies in the system that says that everything can be owned - including soft things like code, music, algorithms and speech. This causes a massive land-grab where some sit on everything they can, and then demand payment from the rest. The situation worsen when independent organs are shaped that feed upon this process.
Once you bought physical object, and did what you wanted with them. Music is not a physical object which confuses everyone. The media companies want to interpret the trade contract such as that they would own your media experience - because that would benefit them - whereas you want to interpret the trade contract such as that you own the object you bought and can do what you want with it - because that would benefit you.
So what you need to do instead of complaining on Slashdot is to address the source of the problem - society as a whole must deal with the issue of ownership of information. You are doomed in USA because you have already embraced software patents, building a huge and lucrative industry out of owning algorithms. This allows the concept of owning ethereal things to spread into other areas, such as media.
In Europe we are still reluctant to software patents, and we also still have a much saner view on copyright. SO FAR, the pro-software patent lobbying never ends.
Seriously - in what fashion is XP obsolete? Or Windows 2000, even?
I hear people mention DirectX 10 and various esoteric tools that are only of interest to sysadmins. Perhaps someone would mention media capabilities.
If you aren't interested in any of those because you mainly need OpenOffice and perhaps FireFox, what the crap has Vista to offer over XP? Or XP over 2000? Or 2000 over NT4? I draw the line at NT4, because 3.51 had a horrible GUI and the DOS-based Windows lack all multi-user and safety features.
The problem with Vista is that it has no practical benefits to offer.
> We can only hope that environmental concerns will not again stifle our progress.
Even looking at this phrase with my most benevolent goggles, it still looks like a terrible thing to say.
"Progress" in contemporary society does not automatically denote "that which is beneficial to mankind", a lot of people equal it to "profit". Or "winning" whatever race they imagine we are having.
Unfortunately, I guess it would only create a larger amount of uneducated ignorants who spend their time watching NASCAR and think that whatever bills fly around are probably good and just, because their favourite anchorman said so in some show sponsored by MPAA, and that it is traitorous to the american way to think otherwise.
I would postulate that increased education is a better protection against being owned by Big Money.
While I salute progress, it is tiring to see all the stupid ideas that emerge from time to time where the creator clearly disregarded customer demand, human nature et cetera.
Historically, most every time the car business present an alternative like electric cars they tend to stuff the new technology in the most ridiculous outfit they could conjure. Three-wheeled contraptions made from edible plastic or some such.
Monorails, maglevs, shuttles that you wrap around your body - one more preposterous than the other, all dropping like bat guano from the ivory towers by old men who - when pressed on the subject - admit that they don't really expect anyone to actually WANT one of these things.
Putting on my tin foil hat for a moment, these kind of displays seems to me only serve one purpose, and that is to show us consumers that we should be grateful for how cars look today, because - behold the laughable only alternative we could invent!
How about presenting a REGULAR DAMN CAR that runs on electricity instead? It is a thing so simple I can build one in the basement.
While it is neat with DIY open-source gear, I just want to drop by and tell that 3D printing has been around for decades.
It's called Rapid Prototyping, and you can get a professional grade machine for say $20k. There are several different technologies depending on how good and expensive you need your prototype to be, from crude and ugly porous blocks (FDM, LOM) to samples that are good enough to replace the real thing (EBM, SLS).
Well, the OLPC XO is about to be spread across the globe, creating a generation of computer literates among the yet uncomputerized part of mankind.
They happen to be very very many and their first contact with computing will be Linux. Chances are that they will continue to use it. Expect that desktop distros that are similar to the XO will appear, since they are likely to want to remain in their familiar environment.
Also expect the market share to increase dramatically between 10-15 years from now - the time these kids need to grow up and get out of the crop fields and into newly made offices and make homes of their own with desktop computers of their own, as the poor world gets less poor.
How long until someone accidentally or willfully creates a pandemic plague?
During my life I have heard enough misanthropes announce opinions that we are all a scourge on the poor planet and that it would be better if we all dropped dead. I don't hold it for impossible that such a person with the right skills and tools might succeed doing it.
I don't understand whether that was some kind of joke or not.
I'm swedish and I have had plenty of work experience from working with finns and their corporate culture, and my observations are that they are excellent professional people.
Honest and sincere, with great integrity and work ethics, and industrious as beavers. Their culture is in the outskirts of western civilization which makes them less tainted by international politics and bureaucracy.
The worst thing I can think of to say about them would be that they sometimes have a tendency to bypass protocol to get work done, supposedly because of personal pride in their work, which can get bothersome if you are their boss.
This man did none of such things, and should be praised.
> The test, known as a CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart) > , was originally designed at Carnegie Mellon to help to keep out automated programs known as "bots."
Anyone who has been burning rubber with a motorbike should be thoroughly aware that it can get grip and take off like a trebuchet payload, possibly launching the driver into orbit in the process.
You wear a helmet, and you wear a leather suit, or there WILL be embarrassments such as these.
Further, if you have a bazillion horsepower, why would you need soap water? Amateurs.
Err... no. Because there is this thing called aerodynamic drag, see.
The faster you go the more power you need to move all that air aside, and the less power remains to accelerate the vehicle. After a while you reach an equilibrium between drag and engine power where it won't accelerate anymore (if your gearing is sane).
Slashdot Mirror
Because OGG is a set of high quality, open source, patent-free standards that anyone can implement, no catch.
HTML is to browsers what OGG is to sound and video, ODT to documents, PNG to pictures.
Whereas WMV, RA and Flash are proprietary patented corporate bullshit designed for vendor lock-in.
...I strike at thee, RIAA!" If every nerd in the world voted with their wallets the result would be hardly noticeable.
RIAA doesn't give a shit about the effects piracy, they don't earn or lose money from record sales - their salaries are paid as long as they walk around and strike the lawhammer, regardless of the result. It is their mission to make people miserable, wreck and ruin.
The problem lies in the system that says that everything can be owned - including soft things like code, music, algorithms and speech. This causes a massive land-grab where some sit on everything they can, and then demand payment from the rest. The situation worsen when independent organs are shaped that feed upon this process.
Once you bought physical object, and did what you wanted with them. Music is not a physical object which confuses everyone. The media companies want to interpret the trade contract such as that they would own your media experience - because that would benefit them - whereas you want to interpret the trade contract such as that you own the object you bought and can do what you want with it - because that would benefit you.
So what you need to do instead of complaining on Slashdot is to address the source of the problem - society as a whole must deal with the issue of ownership of information. You are doomed in USA because you have already embraced software patents, building a huge and lucrative industry out of owning algorithms. This allows the concept of owning ethereal things to spread into other areas, such as media.
In Europe we are still reluctant to software patents, and we also still have a much saner view on copyright. SO FAR, the pro-software patent lobbying never ends.
> It's almost as if they abandoned sensible work for a "let's try everything and
> see what works" attitude.
Sounds a great deal like software patents.
Incidentally, the people pushing those and the people pushing the laws you refer to are usually the same.
A million indignant geeks shake their fists in anger in their parents' basement.
I suggest an iron pipe, brought to the offenders' kneecaps, rapidly, repeatedly.
I often get frightened by the Pandoras' Box that our revered biotechs are opening time and time again.
for a badge that says "this PC can run Windows"?
And then it turns out to be "a Windows", not "Windows, period"?
Must feel good to be in the customer shafting business.
Like the swedish witch Häxan Surtant says: "I love charging people too much money!"
There are at least five totally different types of life on earth that have nothing in common.
http://www.google.se/search?q=Five+kingdoms+of+life
Also, I find spiders to be highly suspicious what with having no muscles and using hydraulics instead and all.
And the verdict is still out on viruses, whether they are alive or not and whether they would be an own lifetype.
Seriously - in what fashion is XP obsolete? Or Windows 2000, even?
I hear people mention DirectX 10 and various esoteric tools that are only of interest to sysadmins. Perhaps someone would mention media capabilities.
If you aren't interested in any of those because you mainly need OpenOffice and perhaps FireFox, what the crap has Vista to offer over XP? Or XP over 2000? Or 2000 over NT4? I draw the line at NT4, because 3.51 had a horrible GUI and the DOS-based Windows lack all multi-user and safety features.
The problem with Vista is that it has no practical benefits to offer.
> We can only hope that environmental concerns will not again stifle our progress.
Even looking at this phrase with my most benevolent goggles, it still looks like a terrible thing to say.
"Progress" in contemporary society does not automatically denote "that which is beneficial to mankind", a lot of people equal it to "profit". Or "winning" whatever race they imagine we are having.
Unfortunately, I guess it would only create a larger amount of uneducated ignorants who spend their time watching NASCAR and think that whatever bills fly around are probably good and just, because their favourite anchorman said so in some show sponsored by MPAA, and that it is traitorous to the american way to think otherwise.
I would postulate that increased education is a better protection against being owned by Big Money.
No, I a busy making my old musclecar run on E85. The Buick already does.
While I salute progress, it is tiring to see all the stupid ideas that emerge from time to time where the creator clearly disregarded customer demand, human nature et cetera.
Historically, most every time the car business present an alternative like electric cars they tend to stuff the new technology in the most ridiculous outfit they could conjure. Three-wheeled contraptions made from edible plastic or some such.
Monorails, maglevs, shuttles that you wrap around your body - one more preposterous than the other, all dropping like bat guano from the ivory towers by old men who - when pressed on the subject - admit that they don't really expect anyone to actually WANT one of these things.
Putting on my tin foil hat for a moment, these kind of displays seems to me only serve one purpose, and that is to show us consumers that we should be grateful for how cars look today, because - behold the laughable only alternative we could invent!
How about presenting a REGULAR DAMN CAR that runs on electricity instead? It is a thing so simple I can build one in the basement.
Following uprising in Nigeria, many personal computers reluctantly have been dressed in mandriva.
We want more to use your Widows operating of system and wish to purchase license to the order of $10'000'000
Require though a proof of sample please send license and insurance for delivery $400'000 which will be given back when order is laid.
Sincere regards
[Bah, the lame(ness) filter will not allow me to post in all caps]
Har har har har ^_^
cough wheeze
While it is neat with DIY open-source gear, I just want to drop by and tell that 3D printing has been around for decades.
It's called Rapid Prototyping, and you can get a professional grade machine for say $20k. There are several different technologies depending on how good and expensive you need your prototype to be, from crude and ugly porous blocks (FDM, LOM) to samples that are good enough to replace the real thing (EBM, SLS).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_prototyping
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_Printing
Sounds no harder than signing with your name.
Well, the OLPC XO is about to be spread across the globe, creating a generation of computer literates among the yet uncomputerized part of mankind.
They happen to be very very many and their first contact with computing will be Linux. Chances are that they will continue to use it. Expect that desktop distros that are similar to the XO will appear, since they are likely to want to remain in their familiar environment.
Also expect the market share to increase dramatically between 10-15 years from now - the time these kids need to grow up and get out of the crop fields and into newly made offices and make homes of their own with desktop computers of their own, as the poor world gets less poor.
by posting something witty about it on Slashdot.
>_
DNA science is a Pandoras' Box.
How long until someone accidentally or willfully creates a pandemic plague?
During my life I have heard enough misanthropes announce opinions that we are all a scourge on the poor planet and that it would be better if we all dropped dead. I don't hold it for impossible that such a person with the right skills and tools might succeed doing it.
I don't understand whether that was some kind of joke or not.
I'm swedish and I have had plenty of work experience from working with finns and their corporate culture, and my observations are that they are excellent professional people.
Honest and sincere, with great integrity and work ethics, and industrious as beavers. Their culture is in the outskirts of western civilization which makes them less tainted by international politics and bureaucracy.
The worst thing I can think of to say about them would be that they sometimes have a tendency to bypass protocol to get work done, supposedly because of personal pride in their work, which can get bothersome if you are their boss.
This man did none of such things, and should be praised.
> The test, known as a CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart)
> , was originally designed at Carnegie Mellon to help to keep out automated programs known as "bots."
Where did they get the "P" from?
Anyone who has been burning rubber with a motorbike should be thoroughly aware that it can get grip and take off like a trebuchet payload, possibly launching the driver into orbit in the process.
You wear a helmet, and you wear a leather suit, or there WILL be embarrassments such as these.
Further, if you have a bazillion horsepower, why would you need soap water? Amateurs.
Err... no. Because there is this thing called aerodynamic drag, see.
The faster you go the more power you need to move all that air aside, and the less power remains to accelerate the vehicle. After a while you reach an equilibrium between drag and engine power where it won't accelerate anymore (if your gearing is sane).
I came here intending to post just what you did. AGP and all. ^_^
What I said.