You let your kids be controlled by marketing? What a lousy parent.
I let my kids live in the real world. Not controlled by marketing, but not hidden from it either.
And of all the toys kids could want mine latched onto lego & pokemon. I encouraged the lego, they discovered pokemon on their own. The cards are collectible, the game is decent. I couldn't be happier to have kids that chose building things and turn based strategy games as their favorite indoor play activities.
My kids both like pokemon. I don't blame them... its collectible, and collecting is fun.
What did we collect when I was a kid? Hockey cards? Baseball cards? Same idea but a hell of a lot less fun. Especially if you didn't really care about the sport...
I'm vaguely surprised that Pokemon hasn't been replaced by something newer, but I'm not surprised that its still around. Nintendo has done well with the marketing.
Hear, hear! He would correctly point out that to use force (government) to seize the intellectual property of others....
If by "correctly" you mean the complete opposite of anything "correct".
The ideas are already out there, so the government isn't seizing anything, so your entire argument is nonsense. As soon as a product hits the streets competitors can tear it down and see what makes it tick.
The role of the government with patents is to use force to prevent competitors who already have your IP from being allowed to make something that uses it. That is the opposite of "seizing".
Okay, and I was once pulled over for possible DUI. I was swerving because I dropped my tea and was trying to grab it - it was late at night, and they were right, it looked like a DUI.
In other words, you were pulled over for not maintaining proper and safe control of your vehicle, and suspected you were even drunk.
Your erratic driving was enough to warrant a ticket; had they felt like being jerks about it.
Ever think that maybe, just maybe they had an actual reason for pulling you over?
I assume they had a reason, but I don't think it was good enough to warrant pulling me over.
I wasn't pulled over for doing anything overtly wrong. I was pulled over for being "suspicious". I was driving slowly downtown (we were looking for an address) in an empty deserted part of town at 2am (I needed to do some onsite server admin at a site I'd only been to once before and it had to be at 2am because that was as offpeak as possible). I was in a Porsche with a couple coworkers (carpooling).
When I asked why I'd been pulled over, I was told I was "driving suspiciously".
So I assume they thought the car was stolen and hadn't been reported yet. Either that or we were "casing the area".
But the point remains that I was doing nothing illegal or dangerous, and yet had to present identity and proof of ownership of the car to go on my merry way.
I also hear in a certain US state, they can just "think you aren't a legal citizen" and you have to present your papers now. Of course, a citizen isn't obligated to carry papers so its a bit unclear how your evening will go if they decide to ask for them and you don't have any on you to show them. I'm sure they'll just let you go... you know... since not having them on you proves your a citizen.
Just be careful that it doesn't end up a Northwest American Republic, or somesuch.
1 in 4 British Columbians are "non-white", and the minorities aren't all illegal migrant farm workers or impoverished either. They're fairly well integrated into society, represented in government, etc. I don't know about the rest of "Cascadia" but racial supremacy isn't likely to get a strong foothold there.
This will now make it a DMCA violation to circumvent the bootloader process. That is probably the REAL intention of this.
Meh... jailbreaking phones has already been ruled legal, iirc. I don't see the DMCA having much teeth vs circumventing the bootloader process on computers you own either.
The real purpose of secure boot is to stop unauthorized software from running. When the user controls it, then its good, and even Richard Stallman thinks its a fine idea.
When the manufacturer controls it... then the computer becomes an appliance, the user loses control and has to jump through highly technical hoops to regain control.
All because you can't be fucked to go into the bios and disable it. Seriously, that's all it takes.
We're talking about a hypothetical not-to-distant future where the option to go into bios and disable it has been removed. The way it has been removed in Windows 8 certified ARM devices today.
You say that like very cheap Linux-capable hardware does not currently exist.
It does, but if you want to build a linux PC using off the shelf parts, and every component has to be "linux edition", then the price WILL go up and the selection WILL go down.
It does. We've even had way too many stories about one example of it here on Slashdot of late...
Oh that... Its a novelty, you can do neat things with it. But its hardly a desktop computer. Its great that it exists, but I hardly want linux to relegated to just that.
Dual boot really only has any relevance when it is impractical, either due to lack of space or money, to own multiple computers.
Lack of space is a bigger issue than you allow for, the pc itself can be arbitrarily small, but then you have keyboards and mice and monitors and kvm solutions are lacking, especially when the newest computer is hdmi and the older one is still VGA, etc. And nearly all of us only want to carry around one laptop.
Not to mention that people are more power conscious than they were a few years ago.
Computers these days are small and cheap enough that not only is it practical to have two or more, but even many non-geeks do.
Right, but in this hypothetical not-to-distant-future, unless those extra computers were specifically bought to run linux, they will be locked to running windows.
I don't quite see the business model of filing an idiotically general patent, waiting around, suing someone for using it, spending millions defending it in court, and getting the patent thrown out and paying the competitor's legal fees.
That assumes the competitor can afford the fight. Given apple's current bank balance...
If I want to buy a Windows lockin computer to run Windows, that doesn't keep anyone from producing a product that can run any free os.
That is correct, but playing devil's advocate here... the market for such a product would be relatively small, and it would need to be purpose built for that market, and purpose bought.
The days of taking home a used PC from the office that had been retired and popping linux on it to play around would be over.
The days of dropping a live distro in would be over.
The days of buying a PC and dual booting linux would be over.
We would instead need to special order a linux capable product, and use it for that purpose. Its not the end of the world, but it would be the end of an era that would be greatly missed by those of us that care.
The mod chips isn't what sank Lik-Sang; Sony did go after them over mod chips, and won, but Lik Sang bounced back from that.
They were ultimately shut down for "grey market product" or "imports". Buying stuff in one region where it was available and selling it in regions that it wasn't.
Suppose your project is to build a cool new distributed file system targeted at high performance hierarchical enterprise storage based on a few clever innovative ideas about how to look at the problem differently.
I don't really think your example is applicable, the requirements for the file system are going to be pretty well defined up front. There'd be no reason whatsoever for constantly showing up with a new version, and then revising it.
Even if you were doing something "agile-like" you wouldn't tackle it the same way you'd tackle automating business processes -- which are never well defined, and difficult to communicate.
a) because having a separate tab or window for all my mail accounts is far less inconvenient than having it all in one in thunderbird.
b) i tend to have a lot of browser tabs and windows open already. The last thing in the world I want is to have all my email windows lumped in with those. I like my email windows to be a separate icon and stack on the taskbar.
Honestly as an avid Xbox 360 gamer and user of windows [and slashdot reader] I enjoy the product but am disappointed that a service I pay 60 dollars a year to maintain is still trying to squeeze money out of my pockets
Ok... I get joe consumer buying an xbox, but why you? Why not use an htpc/gaming pc? You can get most of the xobx games for windows, you can even use an xbox controller if you want, no subscriptions for basic multiplayer access, the games on windows tend to come out a few $ cheaper, and drop in price much faster than the console version.
Sure the PC is a little more complex to setup, but you are here so i assume that's not an issue. Its a little more money upfront, but again you are here, so i assume you could spec and build decent gaming pc on the cheap if budget was a concern. And you'll make up the price difference on no subscriptions and savings on games in the long run.
You also pick up the full flexibility of having a PC. Hard drive as big as you like, bluray drive if you want one, MAME etc if you are into retro games. Humble Bundles, GoG, Steam deals...
So I'm curious what the appeal of the xbox is for you?
I'm trying to imagine any of my family members looking up operating system EOL dates online before making a purchase...
True enough... but my point was they in fact actually documented it, which is unusual. With iOS / OSX you really have no idea.
My ist gen ipod touch I picked up in spring 2008; had to pay to update to ios2 in summer 2008, pay again to update to ios3 in 2009, and apple dropped support for the device in June 2010 when ios4 launched. Barely 2 years. C'est la vie.
Slashdot Mirror
That is more an issue with having a line in the sand definition of "child".
If you were to talk about 4 and 5 year olds, who we can all universally agree are children, your example would have a very different impact.
Are you arguing Stadivarius violins were protected by patents?
You let your kids be controlled by marketing? What a lousy parent.
I let my kids live in the real world. Not controlled by marketing, but not hidden from it either.
And of all the toys kids could want mine latched onto lego & pokemon. I encouraged the lego, they discovered pokemon on their own. The cards are collectible, the game is decent. I couldn't be happier to have kids that chose building things and turn based strategy games as their favorite indoor play activities.
My kids both like pokemon. I don't blame them... its collectible, and collecting is fun.
What did we collect when I was a kid? Hockey cards? Baseball cards? Same idea but a hell of a lot less fun. Especially if you didn't really care about the sport...
I'm vaguely surprised that Pokemon hasn't been replaced by something newer, but I'm not surprised that its still around. Nintendo has done well with the marketing.
How is it religion based?
Atheists tend to think sex with five year olds is just as disgusting and harmful to the child as everyone else does.
Hear, hear! He would correctly point out that to use force (government) to seize the intellectual property of others ....
If by "correctly" you mean the complete opposite of anything "correct".
The ideas are already out there, so the government isn't seizing anything, so your entire argument is nonsense. As soon as a product hits the streets competitors can tear it down and see what makes it tick.
The role of the government with patents is to use force to prevent competitors who already have your IP from being allowed to make something that uses it. That is the opposite of "seizing".
There is actually a CD format that is just called CD?
He's referring to a standard non-writeable pressed CD.
There's also these things...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millenniata
The discs at least appear to live a long time. The only question is whether the technology will catch on enough.
Okay, and I was once pulled over for possible DUI. I was swerving because I dropped my tea and was trying to grab it - it was late at night, and they were right, it looked like a DUI.
In other words, you were pulled over for not maintaining proper and safe control of your vehicle, and suspected you were even drunk.
Your erratic driving was enough to warrant a ticket; had they felt like being jerks about it.
Ever think that maybe, just maybe they had an actual reason for pulling you over?
I assume they had a reason, but I don't think it was good enough to warrant pulling me over.
I wasn't pulled over for doing anything overtly wrong. I was pulled over for being "suspicious". I was driving slowly downtown (we were looking for an address) in an empty deserted part of town at 2am (I needed to do some onsite server admin at a site I'd only been to once before and it had to be at 2am because that was as offpeak as possible). I was in a Porsche with a couple coworkers (carpooling).
When I asked why I'd been pulled over, I was told I was "driving suspiciously".
So I assume they thought the car was stolen and hadn't been reported yet. Either that or we were "casing the area".
But the point remains that I was doing nothing illegal or dangerous, and yet had to present identity and proof of ownership of the car to go on my merry way.
I also hear in a certain US state, they can just "think you aren't a legal citizen" and you have to present your papers now. Of course, a citizen isn't obligated to carry papers so its a bit unclear how your evening will go if they decide to ask for them and you don't have any on you to show them. I'm sure they'll just let you go... you know... since not having them on you proves your a citizen.
Just be careful that it doesn't end up a Northwest American Republic, or somesuch.
1 in 4 British Columbians are "non-white", and the minorities aren't all illegal migrant farm workers or impoverished either. They're fairly well integrated into society, represented in government, etc. I don't know about the rest of "Cascadia" but racial supremacy isn't likely to get a strong foothold there.
This will now make it a DMCA violation to circumvent the bootloader process. That is probably the REAL intention of this.
Meh... jailbreaking phones has already been ruled legal, iirc. I don't see the DMCA having much teeth vs circumventing the bootloader process on computers you own either.
The real purpose of secure boot is to stop unauthorized software from running. When the user controls it, then its good, and even Richard Stallman thinks its a fine idea.
When the manufacturer controls it... then the computer becomes an appliance, the user loses control and has to jump through highly technical hoops to regain control.
All because you can't be fucked to go into the bios and disable it. Seriously, that's all it takes.
We're talking about a hypothetical not-to-distant future where the option to go into bios and disable it has been removed. The way it has been removed in Windows 8 certified ARM devices today.
The days of Android are numbered.Once they hit 'Zucchini Lemon Muffins' they will have nowhere else to go.
OSX will run out of cool wild cats before Android runs out alphabet.
OSX Ocelot FTW
But B16BA115 does.
And you'd need them to use that as a magic constant in linux kernel code. :)
unless I was pulled over for something like speeding, or some other traffic violation.
I was pulled over once for "driving suspiciously".
You say that like very cheap Linux-capable hardware does not currently exist.
It does, but if you want to build a linux PC using off the shelf parts, and every component has to be "linux edition", then the price WILL go up and the selection WILL go down.
It does. We've even had way too many stories about one example of it here on Slashdot of late...
Oh that... Its a novelty, you can do neat things with it. But its hardly a desktop computer. Its great that it exists, but I hardly want linux to relegated to just that.
Dual boot really only has any relevance when it is impractical, either due to lack of space or money, to own multiple computers.
Lack of space is a bigger issue than you allow for, the pc itself can be arbitrarily small, but then you have keyboards and mice and monitors and kvm solutions are lacking, especially when the newest computer is hdmi and the older one is still VGA, etc. And nearly all of us only want to carry around one laptop.
Not to mention that people are more power conscious than they were a few years ago.
Computers these days are small and cheap enough that not only is it practical to have two or more, but even many non-geeks do.
Right, but in this hypothetical not-to-distant-future, unless those extra computers were specifically bought to run linux, they will be locked to running windows.
I don't quite see the business model of filing an idiotically general patent, waiting around, suing someone for using it, spending millions defending it in court, and getting the patent thrown out and paying the competitor's legal fees.
That assumes the competitor can afford the fight. Given apple's current bank balance...
If I want to buy a Windows lockin computer to run Windows, that doesn't keep anyone from producing a product that can run any free os.
That is correct, but playing devil's advocate here... the market for such a product would be relatively small, and it would need to be purpose built for that market, and purpose bought.
The days of taking home a used PC from the office that had been retired and popping linux on it to play around would be over.
The days of dropping a live distro in would be over.
The days of buying a PC and dual booting linux would be over.
We would instead need to special order a linux capable product, and use it for that purpose. Its not the end of the world, but it would be the end of an era that would be greatly missed by those of us that care.
The mod chips isn't what sank Lik-Sang; Sony did go after them over mod chips, and won, but Lik Sang bounced back from that.
They were ultimately shut down for "grey market product" or "imports". Buying stuff in one region where it was available and selling it in regions that it wasn't.
Suppose your project is to build a cool new distributed file system targeted at high performance hierarchical enterprise storage based on a few clever innovative ideas about how to look at the problem differently.
I don't really think your example is applicable, the requirements for the file system are going to be pretty well defined up front. There'd be no reason whatsoever for constantly showing up with a new version, and then revising it.
Even if you were doing something "agile-like" you wouldn't tackle it the same way you'd tackle automating business processes -- which are never well defined, and difficult to communicate.
Do you mind elaborating on why?
a) because having a separate tab or window for all my mail accounts is far less inconvenient than having it all in one in thunderbird.
b) i tend to have a lot of browser tabs and windows open already. The last thing in the world I want is to have all my email windows lumped in with those. I like my email windows to be a separate icon and stack on the taskbar.
Just fyi, several mail accounts (Gmail, Google accounts mail) can be opened simultaneously in different tabs, in the same browser.
Thanks (and useful in a pinch), but no thanks. I don't want to work like that.
Honestly as an avid Xbox 360 gamer and user of windows [and slashdot reader] I enjoy the product but am disappointed that a service I pay 60 dollars a year to maintain is still trying to squeeze money out of my pockets
Ok... I get joe consumer buying an xbox, but why you? Why not use an htpc/gaming pc? You can get most of the xobx games for windows, you can even use an xbox controller if you want, no subscriptions for basic multiplayer access, the games on windows tend to come out a few $ cheaper, and drop in price much faster than the console version.
Sure the PC is a little more complex to setup, but you are here so i assume that's not an issue. Its a little more money upfront, but again you are here, so i assume you could spec and build decent gaming pc on the cheap if budget was a concern. And you'll make up the price difference on no subscriptions and savings on games in the long run.
You also pick up the full flexibility of having a PC. Hard drive as big as you like, bluray drive if you want one, MAME etc if you are into retro games. Humble Bundles, GoG, Steam deals...
So I'm curious what the appeal of the xbox is for you?
They don't hold a candle to the Macbook Air despite a lot of windows users wanting something that does.
I dunno the new Dell XPS 13 and 15 look pretty decent.
I'm trying to imagine any of my family members looking up operating system EOL dates online before making a purchase...
True enough... but my point was they in fact actually documented it, which is unusual. With iOS / OSX you really have no idea.
My ist gen ipod touch I picked up in spring 2008; had to pay to update to ios2 in summer 2008, pay again to update to ios3 in 2009, and apple dropped support for the device in June 2010 when ios4 launched. Barely 2 years. C'est la vie.