I would suggest that Apple aren't keen on jailbreaking and will be less so in the future. When it first came out it was easy to jailbreak them when they were using 1.1.1 firmware, and it has got steadily harder since. If you want to jailbreak an ipod touch/iphone you still have to downgrade to 1.1.1 so you can exploit a hack that they did fix in 1.1.2. I think this puts more people off than anything - I don't want to run a hacked firmware from a source I don't know on an application that I use to sign into various sites...
I don't know why you think this needs a "WTF", the reason most people are annoyed at what MS did was that the browser was integrated into the OS in a way that you just couldn't get it out, even if you really wanted to. On XP this also introduced a whole host of security issues (although this may have been fixed with Vista's sandbox but because I'm not even remotely interested in MS products I've not looked that up).
Firefox won't be integrated into any OS in the way that IE was, because you can uninstall it. Not only that I suspect that the integration won't be the team going "Oh, lets stick parts of this browser into the kernel..." I think they are going for a smoother transition from Firefox to OS to the point where at the user level you'd struggle to tell them apart - but I think that the actual OS will see a very clear divide.
I just wanted to say that whilst I don't always agree with you on everything I think that having someone who is as reasonable as you helping to protect us from the whims of big vendors and especially MS can be no bad thing. I'm not sure how I can support you in any way in this endeavor but I wish you all the luck in the world.
To be fair Marxism has made quite a few valid critical points concerning the structure of our society and of capitalism more generally. The circuits of capital argument seems to have been proven right time and again (although it seems to lack a strong predictive element in terms of exact timing). So there seems to be evidence for it regardless of potential to falsify it. If astrology had done something similar, regardless of whether it meets poper's standard of science or not, then I would suggest we should listen to it anyway. The problem is it hasn't.
Still, breaking up with a woman over astrology is stupid
It's a shame you didn't post a link to some of your articles, I'd have liked to have had a look. One thing which seems especially interesting here (other than the methodological issues concerning sampling - but methodology seems to be my hobby horse) is the question of "why" it should be that being exposed to one thing makes you more likely for a limited time to do that thing... I wouldn't have thought that socialisation could work in such a short space of time, and I think normalisation is the same. We can see people doing things all the time which we still feel are wrong and shouldn't be emulated. So the question is still "why"?
Off the top of my head (and I'm not a researcher in this field - it may show) but I wonder if evolutionary psychology might not have something to say here... could it be that seeing violence prepares us to either fight or "fly", and that results in more violence - I guess this would cause feelings which seem to pop up out of nowhere and then disappear after 20 mins or so.
Anyway, an interesting field... anyone got any research on the why?
the main impact upon me that D&D has had really hasn't been through D&D as a game in and of itself, but instead through nethack. I seem to spend so much of my life playing that game now and it just wouldn't be possible without D&D having existed.
I know many other people on/. will feel the same here, and that seems like a good way to remember the people who made it possible
its good to see other people have got that nethack-takes-over-life thing as well, although to he fair a bag of holding is a good idea. Have you had that thing where when you're reading you keep looking at the letters as potential things to kill?
I completely disagree. How am I going to find which EULA applies to the specific software I am going to buy? Online i may just about be able to to find a general one for that company if I knew were to look and that such a thing was necessary (which a lot of consumers won't). So it is still incredibly uncertain even if you know what your doing.
Then you have the problem that they reserve the right to change it without warning and you continuing to use it is counted as acceptance.
That's without considering cases where you just dont know that there will be one, as you might find with an iPod say. Finally I would just say that products which come with a license arenot luxury goods anymore, they are neccesites - people souls not need a degree in law (and even then that's not a guarantee) in order to get what they need. The are manifestly unfair.
"Except that in the case of falling 300 feet causing death is a theory that has been tested. We know what kinds of forces will kill a human, so any impact that will create those forces will be lethal."
I would disagree here. Lets say that I have a theory which argues that actually people sometimes die just before they hit the ground because their brain switches off or shuts down or whatever. When they actually hit the ground the impacts etc. just seem to have killed them because of the damage they have done. So I can doubt whether it is the forces that kill them or something else. That's the first issue.
The second issue is that It simply isn't true that falling 300 (or however many you care to mention) feet causes death, because it doesn't happen all the time, so there are exceptions. So we can say (even if we disregard the first issue) is that it sometimes results in death. I think this is far short of "causation" in the strong sense.
Now taking this back to the issue of global warming, what if we say "more greenhouse gases (CO2, whatever) in the environment usually results, over time, with higher temperature levels" then we're really not too far away from what we said about falling. We seem to be fairly close to the falling argument above. Yes it does SEEM linked, but it is possible other things are going on - but this at the moment to most trained people seems most likely (and I don't have a problem with deferring). Secondly there may be years in which the temperature goes down, but in the same way that we don't start jumping out of windows because one person survives I would say we shouldn't completely reject this idea in these circumstances...
So problems with induction and the general issue of never "proving" anything in any science should make us cautious, but not more so with regards to warming than to falling
I agree with your point that correlation and causation are not the same thing, and maybe even that this should be taught in schools (I dont know what age they are thinking of here but being from the uk I'm still thinking below 16), but there is a worry for me of teaching this idea just in relation to this specific topic because it will make people think that the amount of knowledge we have here is less than it is. It is true that if you follow the idea of strict separation of correlation and causation then when you want to get to the ground floor of a 300 foot building you should just jump out the window, its true its been correlated with death in the past, but why should it in the future?
because of needing the user password I wonder how different it is from attacking people who run ssh and sudo (as home users, it might be more effective against servers though). Last time I looked you could get root access on an Ubuntu box doing:
sudo su -
That's pretty serious too and I don't know if it has been closed, but assuming it hasn't then this problem just seems like a fancier way of doing the same thing... If anyone could test this out now I'd really be interested to see if it still gives root access without asking for a password (or if it does if the user password is enough).
Although just thinking about it maybe removing the user from the sudo list might fix this, but that wouldn't work for ubuntu home boxes becaused they need access to sudo anyway
I too have had similar experiences (this time in the UK). Just this week I had a printer cartridge not turn up so I got in touch with them. They replied within 4 hours (and it was actually after 8o'clock to suggest I waited until it had been 4 days after the expected date, at which point I got back in touch with them and they sent me a new one immediately using the fastest delivery they can (it was next day special delivery). I really can't complain about their service. YMMV.
I'm confused by your comment... I hope it was a joke but I really can't figure it out so I'll respond as if it wasn't and allow someone else to apply the ASCII man with the "woosh" thing later
"Let's see, the "poor" must be able to afford (at somebody else's dime, of course) food, shelter, medical care, a TV, and a car. Now the ability to "share" somebody else's music is also viewed as important by Slashdot's illiberal crowd..."
This sounds like you are suggesting that when people are poor for whatever reason they shouldn't get food or shelter or medical care? Do you really want the poor to starve on the streets? or get infectious diseases which they can spread to you and your family? Isn't it easier to treat that one sick person than for you to have to take medication just so the dying outside your door or on your street don't give you a fatal disease? Maybe I'm an old lefty (although in the UK I'm considered right-wing) but I think that people have a right to food independent of any duty to work simply because as humans we should never allow another to die when we can prevent it so easily - for me the fact that I have to pay for it is a good thing, we should want to pay for it. It's a strange state of affairs when people would rather see them die.
As far as I am aware when it comes to the ipod touch (which I have) or the iPhone you can't use them on linux because they've changed how they move files (possibly to break this support). If I'm wrong I'd really like to know, but as far as I am aware through the searching that I did when I got it (not that long ago) it simply isn't the case that it works with linux.
Also, without hacking the device using firmware from a source who you almost fundamentally can't trust (and who'd want to do that on a device they go onto sign-in websites with) it is locked down to keep out the development community
"A bright, enterprising individual would do well to come up with an online and -- even better -- a brick and mortar store that specializes in selling hardware that works well on Linux"
I completely agree, although I would prefer something a bit more like what apple have done, so I can buy a computer or laptop which looks nice (hell, even looking OK would do), comes with linux and works flawlessly (I know everything has problems but it should work as good as Apples). I'd pledge to buy one from someone like the EFF if they set this up where I could buy it (in the UK).
Maybe the Asus is the first step towards this, but I'm waiting for a more high end system to come out with Linux on
"If you ask me "did you download this file/commit this crime/say this phrase yesterday?" and I answer "no," I am under no further obligation to assist you. I may know that Joe over there is who you're looking for, but you failed to ask the proper question."
thanks for posting the link, I'll download an album or so when I'm next at my computer. I myself have had songs on collaborative albums which were free on the net and I agree its a good feeling that you get when you know other people are listening to your music - we even sold a CD (I know most people would not be happy with just one CD sale but we were young and not that good so it was ace). I wish you all the best with your music and if I like your music I'll consider buying a cd or donating or something when I actually get an income...
"Interestingly, televisions without inbuilt digital decoding are still on the market today - though I can't think why."
I can tell you why; because people like me buy them. I live in an area that just can't get a digital signal. If I bought a non-analogue tv then I just wouldn't be able to use it. I'd like to get a set top box but that's out of the question. It wouldn't be so bad but I live in the middle of england (actually not too far from the exact center), they don't even have a date when it might work!
I read the interview-type-thing they had going on with Baron-Cohen (mainly because I've read some of his stuff, and his cousin is really funny). I worry about his attitude to equality though; perhaps this is just something which comes with age... he said;
"I still believe in it some aspects of the idea of equality, but I can no longer accept the whole package. The question is, is it worth holding on to some elements of the idea if you've given up other elements? Does it make sense to have a partial belief in equality? Do you have to either believe in all of it, or none of it? My mind has been changed from my youthful starting point where I might have hoped that equality could be followed in all areas of life, but I still see value in holding on to some aspects of the principle. Striving to give people equality of social opportunity is still a value system worth defending, even if in the realm of biology, we have to accept equality has no place."
It might be true that under his conception of biology equality has not place, but I think equality has more of a role to play that he seems to be allowing it. Firstly he could easily accept moral equality; that fits with his equality of social opportunity but also seems to fit nicely into a conception of "biological" equality. I also think if you take a commitment to equality of social opportunity then you'll probably have to bring in a great whack of economic equality because otherwise social situations just end up layered with complex social inequalities based on pride/respect people attach to themselves and others. Equality completely could still be achieved though through some kind of idea like Van-Parijs's "undominated diversity" could work (an idea, stated very basically, of "how much would we have to pay you to swap places with that person including all their physical defects") that way you have equality between complete endowments, even if not directly between each individual element.
But then again, I guess some people think other values are more important than equality - liberty seems to be a popular one (and in extremes they seem to me to be pretty opposed...), but I'm sure there are other principles as well people like; fraternity/community?
the linik doesn't lead to anything about mineral oil, it just redirects to something called "myminicity" that I've heard a bit about these days... whether you think it's bad or good or whatever, this just isn't honest. The link has nothing to do with that the text or/. look-up says it is.
I agree completely agree with you about him not explaining on that site what it is and why it's bad. Today is the first time I've heard of this "myminicity" and I have no idea what it is, or how people get rewards (and what rewards these are) for spamming...
"What happens when Fedora 9 comes out? Will I just be able to push a button and seamlessly upgrade the whole thing in place? I doubt it"
To be fair I tried doing this on ubuntu but it just wouldn't work. It was a real nightmare, caused by a couple of programs from the repos that didn't have partners but I also didn't get the option just to remove, which I could in the end only resolve by installing another OS from scratch. And I'd really like to say that people are looking at setting up a system where you can get mail-outs of CDs. Support is good from forums although there isn't a paid for option as far as I am aware (although I wouldn't be surprised if you could find paid support somewhere) - this may be because the update cycle is intentionally so fast so as to be "bleeding edge". Fedora has a really good community, fedora has rpms (which I, and a lot of other people, seem to like), fedora has really good constantly updated repos in a way that ubuntu doesn't (I was still using gaim for ages in the (at the time) most current version of ubuntu, despite the fact that in fedora 7 you could already get pidgin easily). Also, fedora is more than just a beta for redhat, they provide a lot of support and money - but why is that a bad thing? we want bleeding edge, that's what we get...
Also, security. We get SELinux installed by default (not seen any other non-fedora distro with that), I think on ubuntu this would still work (it used to) "sudo su - && rm -rf/", try is and see if you need to enter any passwords...
So maybe it's horses for courses, but for me fedora is the best.
"If you want to make an arguement without considering established law, all you're doing is intellectual masturbation. If you want to make an arguement about how the law should be changed, by all means, make it."
Well, I would have to say that I disagree here. If we can discuss what justice requires in a situation without using current law then we end up having a very strong argument for change (assuming that what is and what should be differ). Normative arguments don't have to lack force so long as they are sufficiently consistent.
I'm 22, so maybe there is a difference between our ages which could explain some of the difference. I think I have quite a lot of my age group but then I'm about 1/3 of the way through my masters degree; this could make me more or less likely to have books, I'm not sure (more likely because I need more books around and have a lot to read, or less because I borrow loads from the library). It would be interesting though to see how differing generations handle reading, I know I quite like electronic journal which give pdfs (although the uni insists on using adobe which makes our new Core2Duo powered machines go so slow it'd as good be running on difference engine).
Slashdot Mirror
I would suggest that Apple aren't keen on jailbreaking and will be less so in the future. When it first came out it was easy to jailbreak them when they were using 1.1.1 firmware, and it has got steadily harder since. If you want to jailbreak an ipod touch/iphone you still have to downgrade to 1.1.1 so you can exploit a hack that they did fix in 1.1.2. I think this puts more people off than anything - I don't want to run a hacked firmware from a source I don't know on an application that I use to sign into various sites...
I don't know why you think this needs a "WTF", the reason most people are annoyed at what MS did was that the browser was integrated into the OS in a way that you just couldn't get it out, even if you really wanted to. On XP this also introduced a whole host of security issues (although this may have been fixed with Vista's sandbox but because I'm not even remotely interested in MS products I've not looked that up).
Firefox won't be integrated into any OS in the way that IE was, because you can uninstall it. Not only that I suspect that the integration won't be the team going "Oh, lets stick parts of this browser into the kernel..." I think they are going for a smoother transition from Firefox to OS to the point where at the user level you'd struggle to tell them apart - but I think that the actual OS will see a very clear divide.
Bruce,
I just wanted to say that whilst I don't always agree with you on everything I think that having someone who is as reasonable as you helping to protect us from the whims of big vendors and especially MS can be no bad thing. I'm not sure how I can support you in any way in this endeavor but I wish you all the luck in the world.
To be fair Marxism has made quite a few valid critical points concerning the structure of our society and of capitalism more generally. The circuits of capital argument seems to have been proven right time and again (although it seems to lack a strong predictive element in terms of exact timing). So there seems to be evidence for it regardless of potential to falsify it. If astrology had done something similar, regardless of whether it meets poper's standard of science or not, then I would suggest we should listen to it anyway. The problem is it hasn't.
Still, breaking up with a woman over astrology is stupid
It's a shame you didn't post a link to some of your articles, I'd have liked to have had a look. One thing which seems especially interesting here (other than the methodological issues concerning sampling - but methodology seems to be my hobby horse) is the question of "why" it should be that being exposed to one thing makes you more likely for a limited time to do that thing... I wouldn't have thought that socialisation could work in such a short space of time, and I think normalisation is the same. We can see people doing things all the time which we still feel are wrong and shouldn't be emulated. So the question is still "why"?
Off the top of my head (and I'm not a researcher in this field - it may show) but I wonder if evolutionary psychology might not have something to say here... could it be that seeing violence prepares us to either fight or "fly", and that results in more violence - I guess this would cause feelings which seem to pop up out of nowhere and then disappear after 20 mins or so.
Anyway, an interesting field... anyone got any research on the why?
the main impact upon me that D&D has had really hasn't been through D&D as a game in and of itself, but instead through nethack. I seem to spend so much of my life playing that game now and it just wouldn't be possible without D&D having existed.
/. will feel the same here, and that seems like a good way to remember the people who made it possible
I know many other people on
its good to see other people have got that nethack-takes-over-life thing as well, although to he fair a bag of holding is a good idea. Have you had that thing where when you're reading you keep looking at the letters as potential things to kill?
I completely disagree. How am I going to find which EULA applies to the specific software I am going to buy? Online i may just about be able to to find a general one for that company if I knew were to look and that such a thing was necessary (which a lot of consumers won't). So it is still incredibly uncertain even if you know what your doing. Then you have the problem that they reserve the right to change it without warning and you continuing to use it is counted as acceptance.
That's without considering cases where you just dont know that there will be one, as you might find with an iPod say. Finally I would just say that products which come with a license arenot luxury goods anymore, they are neccesites - people souls not need a degree in law (and even then that's not a guarantee) in order to get what they need. The are manifestly unfair.
"Except that in the case of falling 300 feet causing death is a theory that has been tested. We know what kinds of forces will kill a human, so any impact that will create those forces will be lethal."
I would disagree here. Lets say that I have a theory which argues that actually people sometimes die just before they hit the ground because their brain switches off or shuts down or whatever. When they actually hit the ground the impacts etc. just seem to have killed them because of the damage they have done. So I can doubt whether it is the forces that kill them or something else. That's the first issue.
The second issue is that It simply isn't true that falling 300 (or however many you care to mention) feet causes death, because it doesn't happen all the time, so there are exceptions. So we can say (even if we disregard the first issue) is that it sometimes results in death. I think this is far short of "causation" in the strong sense.
Now taking this back to the issue of global warming, what if we say "more greenhouse gases (CO2, whatever) in the environment usually results, over time, with higher temperature levels" then we're really not too far away from what we said about falling. We seem to be fairly close to the falling argument above. Yes it does SEEM linked, but it is possible other things are going on - but this at the moment to most trained people seems most likely (and I don't have a problem with deferring). Secondly there may be years in which the temperature goes down, but in the same way that we don't start jumping out of windows because one person survives I would say we shouldn't completely reject this idea in these circumstances...
So problems with induction and the general issue of never "proving" anything in any science should make us cautious, but not more so with regards to warming than to falling
I agree with your point that correlation and causation are not the same thing, and maybe even that this should be taught in schools (I dont know what age they are thinking of here but being from the uk I'm still thinking below 16), but there is a worry for me of teaching this idea just in relation to this specific topic because it will make people think that the amount of knowledge we have here is less than it is. It is true that if you follow the idea of strict separation of correlation and causation then when you want to get to the ground floor of a 300 foot building you should just jump out the window, its true its been correlated with death in the past, but why should it in the future?
because of needing the user password I wonder how different it is from attacking people who run ssh and sudo (as home users, it might be more effective against servers though). Last time I looked you could get root access on an Ubuntu box doing:
sudo su -
That's pretty serious too and I don't know if it has been closed, but assuming it hasn't then this problem just seems like a fancier way of doing the same thing... If anyone could test this out now I'd really be interested to see if it still gives root access without asking for a password (or if it does if the user password is enough).
Although just thinking about it maybe removing the user from the sudo list might fix this, but that wouldn't work for ubuntu home boxes becaused they need access to sudo anyway
I too have had similar experiences (this time in the UK). Just this week I had a printer cartridge not turn up so I got in touch with them. They replied within 4 hours (and it was actually after 8o'clock to suggest I waited until it had been 4 days after the expected date, at which point I got back in touch with them and they sent me a new one immediately using the fastest delivery they can (it was next day special delivery). I really can't complain about their service. YMMV.
I'm confused by your comment... I hope it was a joke but I really can't figure it out so I'll respond as if it wasn't and allow someone else to apply the ASCII man with the "woosh" thing later
"Let's see, the "poor" must be able to afford (at somebody else's dime, of course) food, shelter, medical care, a TV, and a car. Now the ability to "share" somebody else's music is also viewed as important by Slashdot's illiberal crowd..."
This sounds like you are suggesting that when people are poor for whatever reason they shouldn't get food or shelter or medical care? Do you really want the poor to starve on the streets? or get infectious diseases which they can spread to you and your family? Isn't it easier to treat that one sick person than for you to have to take medication just so the dying outside your door or on your street don't give you a fatal disease? Maybe I'm an old lefty (although in the UK I'm considered right-wing) but I think that people have a right to food independent of any duty to work simply because as humans we should never allow another to die when we can prevent it so easily - for me the fact that I have to pay for it is a good thing, we should want to pay for it. It's a strange state of affairs when people would rather see them die.
As far as I am aware when it comes to the ipod touch (which I have) or the iPhone you can't use them on linux because they've changed how they move files (possibly to break this support). If I'm wrong I'd really like to know, but as far as I am aware through the searching that I did when I got it (not that long ago) it simply isn't the case that it works with linux.
Also, without hacking the device using firmware from a source who you almost fundamentally can't trust (and who'd want to do that on a device they go onto sign-in websites with) it is locked down to keep out the development community
"A bright, enterprising individual would do well to come up with an online and -- even better -- a brick and mortar store that specializes in selling hardware that works well on Linux"
I completely agree, although I would prefer something a bit more like what apple have done, so I can buy a computer or laptop which looks nice (hell, even looking OK would do), comes with linux and works flawlessly (I know everything has problems but it should work as good as Apples). I'd pledge to buy one from someone like the EFF if they set this up where I could buy it (in the UK).
Maybe the Asus is the first step towards this, but I'm waiting for a more high end system to come out with Linux on
"If you ask me "did you download this file/commit this crime/say this phrase yesterday?" and I answer "no," I am under no further obligation to assist you. I may know that Joe over there is who you're looking for, but you failed to ask the proper question."
Dude, thanks for covering for me
thanks for posting the link, I'll download an album or so when I'm next at my computer. I myself have had songs on collaborative albums which were free on the net and I agree its a good feeling that you get when you know other people are listening to your music - we even sold a CD (I know most people would not be happy with just one CD sale but we were young and not that good so it was ace). I wish you all the best with your music and if I like your music I'll consider buying a cd or donating or something when I actually get an income...
"Interestingly, televisions without inbuilt digital decoding are still on the market today - though I can't think why."
I can tell you why; because people like me buy them. I live in an area that just can't get a digital signal. If I bought a non-analogue tv then I just wouldn't be able to use it. I'd like to get a set top box but that's out of the question. It wouldn't be so bad but I live in the middle of england (actually not too far from the exact center), they don't even have a date when it might work!
I read the interview-type-thing they had going on with Baron-Cohen (mainly because I've read some of his stuff, and his cousin is really funny). I worry about his attitude to equality though; perhaps this is just something which comes with age... he said;
"I still believe in it some aspects of the idea of equality, but I can no longer accept the whole package. The question is, is it worth holding on to some elements of the idea if you've given up other elements? Does it make sense to have a partial belief in equality? Do you have to either believe in all of it, or none of it? My mind has been changed from my youthful starting point where I might have hoped that equality could be followed in all areas of life, but I still see value in holding on to some aspects of the principle. Striving to give people equality of social opportunity is still a value system worth defending, even if in the realm of biology, we have to accept equality has no place."
It might be true that under his conception of biology equality has not place, but I think equality has more of a role to play that he seems to be allowing it. Firstly he could easily accept moral equality; that fits with his equality of social opportunity but also seems to fit nicely into a conception of "biological" equality. I also think if you take a commitment to equality of social opportunity then you'll probably have to bring in a great whack of economic equality because otherwise social situations just end up layered with complex social inequalities based on pride/respect people attach to themselves and others. Equality completely could still be achieved though through some kind of idea like Van-Parijs's "undominated diversity" could work (an idea, stated very basically, of "how much would we have to pay you to swap places with that person including all their physical defects") that way you have equality between complete endowments, even if not directly between each individual element.
But then again, I guess some people think other values are more important than equality - liberty seems to be a popular one (and in extremes they seem to me to be pretty opposed...), but I'm sure there are other principles as well people like; fraternity/community?
the linik doesn't lead to anything about mineral oil, it just redirects to something called "myminicity" that I've heard a bit about these days... whether you think it's bad or good or whatever, this just isn't honest. The link has nothing to do with that the text or /. look-up says it is.
I agree completely agree with you about him not explaining on that site what it is and why it's bad. Today is the first time I've heard of this "myminicity" and I have no idea what it is, or how people get rewards (and what rewards these are) for spamming...
"What happens when Fedora 9 comes out? Will I just be able to push a button and seamlessly upgrade the whole thing in place? I doubt it"
/", try is and see if you need to enter any passwords...
To be fair I tried doing this on ubuntu but it just wouldn't work. It was a real nightmare, caused by a couple of programs from the repos that didn't have partners but I also didn't get the option just to remove, which I could in the end only resolve by installing another OS from scratch. And I'd really like to say that people are looking at setting up a system where you can get mail-outs of CDs. Support is good from forums although there isn't a paid for option as far as I am aware (although I wouldn't be surprised if you could find paid support somewhere) - this may be because the update cycle is intentionally so fast so as to be "bleeding edge". Fedora has a really good community, fedora has rpms (which I, and a lot of other people, seem to like), fedora has really good constantly updated repos in a way that ubuntu doesn't (I was still using gaim for ages in the (at the time) most current version of ubuntu, despite the fact that in fedora 7 you could already get pidgin easily). Also, fedora is more than just a beta for redhat, they provide a lot of support and money - but why is that a bad thing? we want bleeding edge, that's what we get...
Also, security. We get SELinux installed by default (not seen any other non-fedora distro with that), I think on ubuntu this would still work (it used to) "sudo su - && rm -rf
So maybe it's horses for courses, but for me fedora is the best.
whilst this is useful is there a way to find where the stream actually is? they seem to go out of their way to make sure you can't see it...
"If you want to make an arguement without considering established law, all you're doing is intellectual masturbation. If you want to make an arguement about how the law should be changed, by all means, make it."
Well, I would have to say that I disagree here. If we can discuss what justice requires in a situation without using current law then we end up having a very strong argument for change (assuming that what is and what should be differ). Normative arguments don't have to lack force so long as they are sufficiently consistent.
I'm 22, so maybe there is a difference between our ages which could explain some of the difference. I think I have quite a lot of my age group but then I'm about 1/3 of the way through my masters degree; this could make me more or less likely to have books, I'm not sure (more likely because I need more books around and have a lot to read, or less because I borrow loads from the library). It would be interesting though to see how differing generations handle reading, I know I quite like electronic journal which give pdfs (although the uni insists on using adobe which makes our new Core2Duo powered machines go so slow it'd as good be running on difference engine).
/. and news online.
And obviously, I read a lot of