>After all, when you buy a copy of Windows, you don't sign any contract saying you won't make copies for all your friends, but your first use of the product counts as your agreement to abide by the licensing terms.
That's not what restricts copying.
Commercial sales of all types in the U.S. are generally covered under the U.C.C., or Uniform Commercial Code. It's what regulates that if you go into a restaurant, sit down, and ask for food, you are legally obligated to pay for it. Software sales rules are clearly spelled out, including the right to make back-up copies, the restriction on giving copies to anyone else, and I believe things like being able to resell the software.
Generally if you want to change the conditions, you need to go with a contract, and that's when signatures are needed. (Also, for larger transactions, a contract is generally preferred.) Thus the whole shrink-wrap license idea is highly questionable legally, and there has been some effort by SPA types to get the UCC updated to legitimize those licenses.
IANAL, but I apparently do have a default score of 2...:-)
But who is the Chancellor keeping this mission secret from? Primarily one would think it was the Trade Federation folks and their allies, in which case sending a diplomatic vessel with a couple of Jedi (ok, not everyone knows how to spot those) straight to the leaders of the trade fed just isn't going to keep it secret.
I also wonder why, in a world where people can fly halfway across the galaxy in (what seems like) a few hours, there isn't anyone who will exchange Republic credits for whatever ones are used on Tatooine -- one would think the Hutts would arrange to for usurious rates if no one else would. And don't the Jedi have any secret way to wire for cash/aid? Clearly they had the potential of contacting Naboo (otherwise there was no way they could respond to the pleas for her return), so they should have been able to call elsewhere.
Apparently by the time of Star Wars, btw, those exchange problems must have been worked out by those efficient Imperials; Han didn't worry about the different credits he was getting on Tatooine versus Alderaan.
Last little note: Darth Vader apparently wasn't the only one to survive the explosion of the original Death Star. The same actor who plays the part of the guy who tells Grand Moff Tarkin that there is a danger in "A New Hope" appears in , I believe, "The Empire Strikes Back", again as an Imperial officer. So apparently he took his own advice.
Ah. Which explains why they show up in a brightly painted diplomatic vessel (according to the Star Wars Scrapbook) and immediately go talk to the leaders. Well, given the size of the galaxy, at least this is secret to the rest of the Senate. Point taken, particularly given that Valorum *is* weak and corrupt.
The victory at Naboo eliminates the Trade Federation as a vassal of Sidious's, which given the hundred (disappearing? Where did the others in the blockade go?) battleships they had was a significant force. So Sidous did lose something significant in that battle, although the Chancellorship for Palpitane was probably more than compensation.
>Luke made the Ewoks (spit!) fight the Empire?
No, his actions were just a vital step in getting the Ewok involvement. Otherwise, Luke, Han, and Chewie were going to be eaten. There was no indication the Ewoks would have spontaneously attacked the shield generator, and Leia would have been hard-pressed to do it with just herself, the robots, and any help she could get from the Ewoks.
Apparently in early scripts the Ewoks were Wookies.
Another non-ubermench who plays a vital role is Wedge Antilles, who survives the first Death Star attack, takes out an Imperial walker, and leads the attack on the Death Star, talking out the main power coupling or something like that.
Your average Jedi knights, perhaps. But these ones are *specifically* identified as ambassadors, and were empowered to negotiate.
Brin is incorrect in his assertion that "(a) Lucas never even tries to use this excuse [that Vader is completely controlled by the Emperor], so why concoct it?" But Vader clearly says "I *must* obey my master." in the scene where he meets Luke on Endor.
Darth Maul isn't out to kill Amidala, he's out to kill the Jedi, thus leaving her without advisors other than Palpitane. If Maul had succeeded, he would have fixed what (to me) is the biggest plot hole in the movie, the whole "let's send a committee rather than an army" bit in the Senate. Exsqueeze me? They had *just sent* a committee, two Jedi knight ambassadors, and the Trade Federation had destroyed their ship and its crew and attempted to murder the ambassadors via multiple means. Said ambassadors were available as witnesses. Just exactly what would be enough evidence for the Senate?
Oh, and Luke *did* matter in ROTJ; without his Force skills, the Ewoks would never have attacked the Stormtroopers.
Re:Mr. Popper's Penguin's
on
Penguin Pets
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· Score: 1
>Then at the end, they start putting some in the Artic circle.
That might be kinda cruel, given that penguins live in the Southern hemisphere...
Just a few more. I still use Windows more than Linux, even though I'm trying to move over more and more, so hopefully I have some useful insights. (It might be nice to have an archive of these.)
Windows Cons: Drive letters: more specifically, the logical volume structure *is* the physical volume structure. NT may be able to change the letter order so at least adding a new partition doesn't destroy all the links, but fundamentally you see the cruft. So instead of the beauty of a/home directory, the files for a given user are anywhere and everywhere. Along the same lines, symbolic links of directories are second-class citizens (selecting one in an open/save directory changes the filename to the name of the link file.)
Windows pro: Odds are you know someone who is pretty good with Windows to go to for help. Ditto on trying to hire programmers, admins, etc.
Windows pro: uniformity of interface for Windowed applications. While far from perfect, it is still more uniform than Linux ones.
Windows con: Apps generally designed from the ground up to have graphical interface, with batch modes added later. Linux stuff tends to be command-driven first and foremost. Thus Windows apps are typically less scriptable. Likewise scripting languages seem less mature, although perhaps VBA is getting usable for this.
If the harpooning is not done automatically but is controlled by folks on the ground, will the controllers saying "Thar she blows!" and calling their chief Captain Ahab?
>Now, your objection to having a mail/news client at all is a bit troublesome: are you saying that it was a failure of Mozilla that Netscape wanted a mail/news client that was cross-platform and tightly integrated, etc.?
My perception is that Mozilla's primary goal at this point should be to get a working browser out. Many (most?) people already have e-mail clients they like, and apparently only a smallish fraction of internet users read news. Mozilla's primary impact, therefore, is probably going to be as a browser. So if putting more people on the browser and fewer on the news and mail stuff gets us that browser earlier and news and mail stuff later, it seems to me this would be a preferable situation to just about all concerned. And they'd get the OSS contribution all the sooner.
Now perhaps I misunderstand the goals of those paying the salaries of the 100 Mozilla developers. If so, then ignore the above.
Part of the problem is that the standard installation stuff is not very start bar savvy; almost every app creates a new folder off of the programs branch and plunks everything it needs in there. If the installation tools were smarter, better use of subfolders could be made so the clutter would be hidden most of the time.
You can press the "Windows" key, if you have one, to open the start menu, and then cursor control keys to select items.
As for 4), right-clicking the start bar gives you a menu including an "explore" option. Since the start menu is represented within the file system, it opens an explorer pane to that part of the file system. Perhaps Properties would be a better name for it.
It really should have a "recent programs" thingie, where the things most recently done from the start menu or desktop shortcuts are stored.
I found I used the start menu a lot more once I created new folders on the main menu, and put my most important stuff into those folders -- so I only have one sub-menu to hit.
>Well, I have a 6 year old who saw the movie and Jar Jar was put in the damn movie just for him, it seems.
That's funny, since my four year old barely noticed Jar Jar (nor cares about him on the 10 million+ items of Star Wars merchandise one can buy), yet talks all day about Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Darth Maul, and Anakin. I wonder if that'll change when we get the video?
Re:There were so many other problems too
on
Episode II Rumours
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· Score: 1
>If in the other three episodes, Jedi's could detect the presence of other Jedi's
Actually, I don't think it's been established that this is the case. The link between the detector and detected has not just been force-sensitive to force-sensitive. Vader could detect his son (ok, so why not his daughter?) and Obi-Wan, and vice-versa. It may be that being strong in the force is necessary but not sufficient to feel another's presence and recognize it. A Jedi might detect both good and bad around them, and in the presence of a crowd, singling out a random individual with no close relationship as being strong in one or the other may be impossible.
It might also require training to bring out recognizable force "auras", and thus Darth didn't detect Leia as more than just a headstrong individual.
>Rasterman has been in the cube next to Mandrake for a few weeks now.
They have cubicles? Gads, the drain on productivity. With no walls at all, you have the benefit of open communication, but distractions. With offices, you have no distractions but hindered communication. With cubicles, you have both distractions and hindered communication. Cubicles are evil.
>(although Bob Dole was a Grade-A war hero, POW, and so forth)
I believe this is partially incorrect, that Dole was never a POW. He served in Italy, where his right arm was wounded to the point that he was honorably discharged, and he still suffers from that injury. (All this from memory, so there's a good possibility it's not fully correct.)
>You don't get it! They're talking about kids online! Not adults! Geez
Maybe you should actually *read* the article? Given that the first sentence is: "GOP presidential hopeful Elizabeth Dole on Monday called for restrictions on what Web sites adults may visit in public libraries", I think you owe us an apology.
Are we reading the same article? It starts off talking about 1 gig chips. Then it mentions using 8 to make a 1 gigabyte SIMM, instead of 16 as is done currently. It also mentions using 2 or 4 chips to make 128 or 256 MB DRAMs, this lowering costs over using 8 or 16 chips.
At this rate, we may be maxing out memory before most processors are sold with 64-bit addressing. EMM/XMM, anybody?:-)
Strange chain there. If Linux users use it because it's free, not because it's better than Windows, then if they're willing to pirate Linux games, um, wouldn't they just pirate Windows?
Yep, you can leave the country. In Libertarian theory, the owner of property can set just about any rules on anyone who wants to stay on that property, a la neighborhood HOAs. Consider the Constitution et al as a super HOA agreement covering the U.S., and everything is *perfectly* Libertarian.
Deeds to property are granted by Federal and/or State authorities. Don't fall under the foolish assumption that any individual owns property outright.
>It's all about open vs. close - does MS Source Safe work with ANYTHING except MS (n/n)?
Yes, Metrowerks Codewarrior at the very least. We use it as the source control system for a Mac/Windows project with a high degree of common source.
Re:Quality product? (buahaha)
on
qt 2.0 released
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· Score: 1
>Look at the code it generates then.
That's rather like slamming the internal combustion engine because Yugos are crap. If no compiler handles templates well, then that means it's a feature ahead of its time, not that it is inherently awful.
Slashdot Mirror
>After all, when you buy a copy of Windows, you don't sign any contract saying you won't make copies for all your friends, but your first use of the product counts as your agreement to abide by the licensing terms.
That's not what restricts copying.
Commercial sales of all types in the U.S. are generally covered under the U.C.C., or Uniform Commercial Code. It's what regulates that if you go into a restaurant, sit down, and ask for food, you are legally obligated to pay for it. Software sales rules are clearly spelled out, including the right to make back-up copies, the restriction on giving copies to anyone else, and I believe things like being able to resell the software.
Generally if you want to change the conditions, you need to go with a contract, and that's when signatures are needed. (Also, for larger transactions, a contract is generally preferred.) Thus the whole shrink-wrap license idea is highly questionable legally, and there has been some effort by SPA types to get the UCC updated to legitimize those licenses.
IANAL, but I apparently do have a default score of 2...:-)
But who is the Chancellor keeping this mission secret from? Primarily one would think it was the Trade Federation folks and their allies, in which case sending a diplomatic vessel with a couple of Jedi (ok, not everyone knows how to spot those) straight to the leaders of the trade fed just isn't going to keep it secret.
I also wonder why, in a world where people can fly halfway across the galaxy in (what seems like) a few hours, there isn't anyone who will exchange Republic credits for whatever ones are used on Tatooine -- one would think the Hutts would arrange to for usurious rates if no one else would. And don't the Jedi have any secret way to wire for cash/aid? Clearly they had the potential of contacting Naboo (otherwise there was no way they could respond to the pleas for her return), so they should have been able to call elsewhere.
Apparently by the time of Star Wars, btw, those exchange problems must have been worked out by those efficient Imperials; Han didn't worry about the different credits he was getting on Tatooine versus Alderaan.
Last little note: Darth Vader apparently wasn't the only one to survive the explosion of the original Death Star. The same actor who plays the part of the guy who tells Grand Moff Tarkin that there is a danger in "A New Hope" appears in , I believe, "The Empire Strikes Back", again as an Imperial officer. So apparently he took his own advice.
[The Jedi were sent in secret]
Ah. Which explains why they show up in a brightly painted diplomatic vessel (according to the Star Wars Scrapbook) and immediately go talk to the leaders. Well, given the size of the galaxy, at least this is secret to the rest of the Senate. Point taken, particularly given that Valorum *is* weak and corrupt.
The victory at Naboo eliminates the Trade Federation as a vassal of Sidious's, which given the hundred (disappearing? Where did the others in the blockade go?) battleships they had was a significant force. So Sidous did lose something significant in that battle, although the Chancellorship for Palpitane was probably more than compensation.
>Luke made the Ewoks (spit!) fight the Empire?
No, his actions were just a vital step in getting the Ewok involvement. Otherwise, Luke, Han, and Chewie were going to be eaten. There was no indication the Ewoks would have spontaneously attacked the shield generator, and Leia would have been hard-pressed to do it with just herself, the robots, and any help she could get from the Ewoks.
Apparently in early scripts the Ewoks were Wookies.
Another non-ubermench who plays a vital role is Wedge Antilles, who survives the first Death Star attack, takes out an Imperial walker, and leads the attack on the Death Star, talking out the main power coupling or something like that.
>Jedi knights probably are considered partisan.
Your average Jedi knights, perhaps. But these ones are *specifically* identified as ambassadors, and were empowered to negotiate.
Brin is incorrect in his assertion that "(a) Lucas never even tries to use this excuse [that Vader is completely controlled by the Emperor], so why concoct it?" But Vader clearly says "I *must* obey my master." in the scene where he meets Luke on Endor.
Darth Maul isn't out to kill Amidala, he's out to kill the Jedi, thus leaving her without advisors other than Palpitane. If Maul had succeeded, he would have fixed what (to me) is the biggest plot hole in the movie, the whole "let's send a committee rather than an army" bit in the Senate. Exsqueeze me? They had *just sent* a committee, two Jedi knight ambassadors, and the Trade Federation had destroyed their ship and its crew and attempted to murder the ambassadors via multiple means. Said ambassadors were available as witnesses. Just exactly what would be enough evidence for the Senate?
Oh, and Luke *did* matter in ROTJ; without his Force skills, the Ewoks would never have attacked the Stormtroopers.
>Then at the end, they start putting some in the Artic circle.
That might be kinda cruel, given that penguins live in the Southern hemisphere...
Just a few more. I still use Windows more than Linux, even though I'm trying to move over more and more, so hopefully I have some useful insights. (It might be nice to have an archive of these.)
/home directory, the files for a given user are anywhere and everywhere. Along the same lines, symbolic links of directories are second-class citizens (selecting one in an open/save directory changes the filename to the name of the link file.)
Windows Cons:
Drive letters: more specifically, the logical volume structure *is* the physical volume structure. NT may be able to change the letter order so at least adding a new partition doesn't destroy all the links, but fundamentally you see the cruft. So instead of the beauty of a
Windows pro: Odds are you know someone who is pretty good with Windows to go to for help. Ditto on trying to hire programmers, admins, etc.
Windows pro: uniformity of interface for Windowed applications. While far from perfect, it is still more uniform than Linux ones.
Windows con: Apps generally designed from the ground up to have graphical interface, with batch modes added later. Linux stuff tends to be command-driven first and foremost. Thus Windows apps are typically less scriptable. Likewise scripting languages seem less mature, although perhaps VBA is getting usable for this.
>...than the fact that the moment this thing gets onto the market, one of you lot will put Linux on it.
Well I do know that I'd love to see a Beowulf cluster of these...;-)
>When are we going to see some statistics on some real life tests, and when is the male model going to come out?
And do we call it the "Bro" or the "Manssiere"?
If the harpooning is not done automatically but is controlled by folks on the ground, will the controllers saying "Thar she blows!" and calling their chief Captain Ahab?
Call me Ishmael.
"Will you ask your master if he cares to join us on our quest for the Holy Prime Meridian?"
"Well I'll ask him, but I don't think he'll be very keen... 'e's already got one, you see."
"Already got one?"
"Yes, it's a-very nice."
>Red Hat AND SuSE both report that their biggest revenues come from the sales of Software.
But, at least in Red Hat's case, isn't that selling packaging (handy CD and printed manual) and basic support?
>Now, your objection to having a mail/news client at all is a bit troublesome: are you saying that it was a failure of Mozilla that Netscape wanted a mail/news client that was cross-platform and tightly integrated, etc.?
My perception is that Mozilla's primary goal at this point should be to get a working browser out. Many (most?) people already have e-mail clients they like, and apparently only a smallish fraction of internet users read news. Mozilla's primary impact, therefore, is probably going to be as a browser. So if putting more people on the browser and fewer on the news and mail stuff gets us that browser earlier and news and mail stuff later, it seems to me this would be a preferable situation to just about all concerned. And they'd get the OSS contribution all the sooner.
Now perhaps I misunderstand the goals of those paying the salaries of the 100 Mozilla developers. If so, then ignore the above.
Part of the problem is that the standard installation stuff is not very start bar savvy; almost every app creates a new folder off of the programs branch and plunks everything it needs in there. If the installation tools were smarter, better use of subfolders could be made so the clutter would be hidden most of the time.
You can press the "Windows" key, if you have one, to open the start menu, and then cursor control keys to select items.
As for 4), right-clicking the start bar gives you a menu including an "explore" option. Since the start menu is represented within the file system, it opens an explorer pane to that part of the file system. Perhaps Properties would be a better name for it.
It really should have a "recent programs" thingie, where the things most recently done from the start menu or desktop shortcuts are stored.
I found I used the start menu a lot more once I created new folders on the main menu, and put my most important stuff into those folders -- so I only have one sub-menu to hit.
>Well, I have a 6 year old who saw the movie and Jar Jar was put in the damn movie just for him, it seems.
That's funny, since my four year old barely noticed Jar Jar (nor cares about him on the 10 million+ items of Star Wars merchandise one can buy), yet talks all day about Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Darth Maul, and Anakin. I wonder if that'll change when we get the video?
>If in the other three episodes, Jedi's could detect the presence of other Jedi's
Actually, I don't think it's been established that this is the case. The link between the detector and detected has not just been force-sensitive to force-sensitive. Vader could detect his son (ok, so why not his daughter?) and Obi-Wan, and vice-versa. It may be that being strong in the force is necessary but not sufficient to feel another's presence and recognize it. A Jedi might detect both good and bad around them, and in the presence of a crowd, singling out a random individual with no close relationship as being strong in one or the other may be impossible.
It might also require training to bring out recognizable force "auras", and thus Darth didn't detect Leia as more than just a headstrong individual.
>Rasterman has been in the cube next to Mandrake for a few weeks now.
They have cubicles? Gads, the drain on productivity. With no walls at all, you have the benefit of open communication, but distractions. With offices, you have no distractions but hindered communication. With cubicles, you have both distractions and hindered communication. Cubicles are evil.
>(although Bob Dole was a Grade-A war hero, POW, and so forth)
I believe this is partially incorrect, that Dole was never a POW. He served in Italy, where his right arm was wounded to the point that he was honorably discharged, and he still suffers from that injury. (All this from memory, so there's a good possibility it's not fully correct.)
>You don't get it! They're talking about kids online! Not adults! Geez
Maybe you should actually *read* the article? Given that the first sentence is:
"GOP presidential hopeful Elizabeth Dole on Monday called for restrictions on what Web sites adults may visit in public libraries", I think you owe us an apology.
Are we reading the same article? It starts off talking about 1 gig chips. Then it mentions using 8 to make a 1 gigabyte SIMM, instead of 16 as is done currently. It also mentions using 2 or 4 chips to make 128 or 256 MB DRAMs, this lowering costs over using 8 or 16 chips.
:-)
At this rate, we may be maxing out memory before most processors are sold with 64-bit addressing. EMM/XMM, anybody?
Actually, the header refers to modules, which generally have eight chips on them (more for ECC or parity), not chips. So you're both right.
I've never seen a 1 gig SIMM for sale on any of the standard shopping sites, so I'd be happy to see them for the consumer market.
Strange chain there. If Linux users use it because it's free, not because it's better than Windows, then if they're willing to pirate Linux games, um, wouldn't they just pirate Windows?
>[...] can I opt out?
Yep, you can leave the country. In Libertarian theory, the owner of property can set just about any rules on anyone who wants to stay on that property, a la neighborhood HOAs. Consider the Constitution et al as a super HOA agreement covering the U.S., and everything is *perfectly* Libertarian.
Deeds to property are granted by Federal and/or State authorities. Don't fall under the foolish assumption that any individual owns property outright.
>It's all about open vs. close - does MS Source Safe work with ANYTHING except MS (n/n)?
Yes, Metrowerks Codewarrior at the very least. We use it as the source control system for a Mac/Windows project with a high degree of common source.
>Look at the code it generates then.
That's rather like slamming the internal combustion engine because Yugos are crap. If no compiler handles templates well, then that means it's a feature ahead of its time, not that it is inherently awful.