woah..! that's some chuck norris level self defence:)
i dont live in america so i dont know what commonly goes on, but do many people defend themselves with hulking great machine guns? are the police ok with people unleashing a barrage of hot lead from an m-16 if someone breaks into their house?
can you carry a machine gun around in a public place as long as it's hidden under your jacket and you have a license? or is it just pistols?
very true about the iraq (and vietnam) thing. looks like all you need are glocks and hunting rifles.
and the last line of my post was supposed to be a new paragraph, not bold, i pressed the wrong button:D
It'll be interesting to see how far america has to go down the pan before people start militias and attempted coups. Does anyone ever argue in congress about the need to allow free ownership of assault weapons to enable more effective coups? Becuase that's basically the (legal) point of having one. Or alternatively to have fun blasting targets and animals with big guns.
surely if the second amendement is supposed to leave the populace with the means to overthrow their government, isnt it a bit innefective unless you get the right to keep and bear a massive standing army, including helicopter gunships, nuclear missles and aircraft carriers?
i doubt youd be very successful storming the pentagon carrying glocks and hunting rifles.
Yes, the thing to remember is that ANYONE is allowed to make money of a particular GPL program. So if you "work for them" you are simultaneously working for yourself too. You are working for everybody, and everybody benefits.
Or alternatively, pay nothing for a high quality product, get nominal DIY support also for free, and if you feel the need, pay someone for intensive support.
Which is the way open source works; think fedora/red hat. So i don't see a service economy as necessarily a screw over - in the Red Hat case it's a really good model for consumers. But obviously MS is used to having their customers over a barrel, and would only pursue a service model if it meant forcing customers to pay stupid amounts of money forever, like the way you described. The thing they need to do to survive competitively against service models like red hat is adopt a more sensible pricing scheme. But I doubt they will until it's too late and then they'll get their just desserts.
MS are just floundering around trying to figure out some more convoluted licensing models in desperate attempt to contrive some kind of attraction to productised software, which they have to overprice to sustain their outdated business model.
The trouble is that services are the future for the consumer market, not products. Free (as in beer) software is going to render Pricey software uncompetitive soon. But MS's collosal consumer business model is built alomst entirely on people paying through the nose to install their software. It remains to be seen if MS can adjust to the rapidly approaching age of a service based consumer software industry.
Except when their hardware cant be supported by linux, in which case there should be a GOTO line in your linux procedure that points to step 1 of the windows procedure.
Yes, i know it's no one's fault but the hardware vendors and for a lot of people it isnt even an issue but you cant discount this issue. I'm computer savvy and i couldn't run debian no matter how much i wanted to until ubuntu came out simply because it wouldnt drive my DSL modem.
I personally look forward to the day when i can give my friends linux cds and recommend they try it, but i know the chance of intractible hardware issues popping up make it not worth the aggro yet.
just the chamber that the ball of the joystick sat in. i think it pulls on a rubber band or something to operate the sensors, but i cant remember now. the vaseline never escaped into the electronic bits, and those joysticks are still tight and functioning to this day.
Why doesnt someone write a virus that is a virulent as Slammer or whatever, but that blocks off the victim's internet connection (expect for it's own worm activity)?
That way all these people who don't know or (infuratingly) don't care that their windows box has no firewall, virus scanner or security updates applied will be FORCED TO FUCKING UNDERSTAND AND CARE that they need to protect themselves and the rest of us from this stuff if they want to use the internet.
As irresponsible as this suggestion is on face value, if you look at the eventual outcome, what you get is lots of non-protected windows boxes blocked from accessing the internet until their owners either get advice on protecting their box, or learn how to do it themselves.
I had to get T.H.E. to replace my N64 controllers 3 times until i learnt to dismantle the joystick and fill it with vaseline to stop it wearing out after a month of use.
That's the only time i needed a warranty on a console.
Perhaps someone should make a linux app that sets up MSOffice under wine automatically with a wizard like the regular installer has. Or any other major windows apps.
That would be really handy actually. It could run as a daemon and watch for binaries of certain windows app installers being run and interject on their behalf to set it up properly.
I totally agree - I set up Win2K on an old PC for my sister and she got used to that. Then i got into Ubuntu and suggested her trying it, but she wasnt interested.
then i got an old laptop and put Ubuntu on it, which she then proceeded to hog for months, and now her Win2k PC is complaining that "no operating system is present" she wants to buy a laptop and get me to put Ubuntu on it.
The point is i have constantly been tinkering with Ubuntu and even as a techie person there has been a learning curve for administration of linux rather than windows, but for someone who just wants to browse the web and chat on messenger Gnome is no different to windows, it has no viruses and it looks nicer.
In the comments under his article, the Koraraa guy says it came from a kernel developer. Other than that he wouldn't be more specific. ATI have so far ignored his emails and Nvidia have told him it isnt a problem from their perspective.
All the bluff and bluster in these slashdot threads seems to overlook the fact that Nvidia explained that any part of their driver that links against the kernel is included as GPL'd source code. So including the Nvidia drivers doesnt violate the GPL. Although ATI have not said anything, they must have a similar system, because otherwise their drivers would violate the GPL just by being available, irrespective of how they are actually distributed.
At first glance it seems someone with a stake in the Kernel wants to make trouble for people endorsing binary drivers. But unless they want to sue this Korrara guy and have a legitamate case, it's just FUD. If it turns out it's just one disgruntled nerd i dont think it will go anywhere.
That's a generalisation. You can't make sweeping generalisations like that without having watched a comprehensive selection of porn, and been in relationships with a comprehensive selection of people. And besides, who says sex has to be confined to "actual relationships". Some people like sex with strangers.
The only people who are aware of the Wii are gamers, because it isn't out yet, so soccer moms have had little opportunity to make their minds up one way or another.
People who found the N64, GameCube, PS, PS2, and X-Box "intimidating, complex, or alienating" are not going to look at the Wii and say "Wow! Wireless motion-sensor control! That changes everything! I want I want I want!"
Why not? How do you know? Oh wait, this is slashdot, you don't.
The point is that any group that has sufficient interest in this happening can raise the funds and create the software they want. MS Office isnt given away - disabled people had to pay to have a new version of Office with accessibility features in, and by all accounts they really had to hassle microsoft to do it. All you need is a government or charity to sponsor some modifications to KOffice or openoffice, of which Google with their "summer of code" thing could be a likely propostion, and it will get done.
The thing about "the open source community" is that it consists of anyone in the world that wants a peice of software that suits their needs and is prepared to make it happen. It isnt just a bunch of hackers coding for kicks, or big blue chip companies with vested interests.
the fact it runs linux isnt really a strange dilution. it's just a kernel, which any digital media player is going to need. the applications it comes with are purely to display various types of media, including the web, so not much diluting going on there.
i agree the battery life is absolutely minimal and isnt much use if you want to watch more than one movie.
and yes 800 dollars is a ripoff. i dont think it's overpowered though - they seemed to have designed it with enough oomph to decode modern video files.
Slashdot Mirror
argh i did the bold thing again
i dont live in america so i dont know what commonly goes on, but do many people defend themselves with hulking great machine guns? are the police ok with people unleashing a barrage of hot lead from an m-16 if someone breaks into their house? can you carry a machine gun around in a public place as long as it's hidden under your jacket and you have a license? or is it just pistols?
and the last line of my post was supposed to be a new paragraph, not bold, i pressed the wrong button :D
It'll be interesting to see how far america has to go down the pan before people start militias and attempted coups. Does anyone ever argue in congress about the need to allow free ownership of assault weapons to enable more effective coups? Becuase that's basically the (legal) point of having one. Or alternatively to have fun blasting targets and animals with big guns.
Have i missed any other legimate reasons?
surely if the second amendement is supposed to leave the populace with the means to overthrow their government, isnt it a bit innefective unless you get the right to keep and bear a massive standing army, including helicopter gunships, nuclear missles and aircraft carriers? i doubt youd be very successful storming the pentagon carrying glocks and hunting rifles.
i thought it was because it started out as a condom manufacturer.
i dont know about RPMs but dpkg/apt/synaptic can display where every file is that a package installed.
The economic market doesnt work either way - just abolish it. The FAQ on technocracy.org makes for fascinating reading.
Yes, the thing to remember is that ANYONE is allowed to make money of a particular GPL program. So if you "work for them" you are simultaneously working for yourself too. You are working for everybody, and everybody benefits.
Which is the way open source works; think fedora/red hat. So i don't see a service economy as necessarily a screw over - in the Red Hat case it's a really good model for consumers. But obviously MS is used to having their customers over a barrel, and would only pursue a service model if it meant forcing customers to pay stupid amounts of money forever, like the way you described. The thing they need to do to survive competitively against service models like red hat is adopt a more sensible pricing scheme. But I doubt they will until it's too late and then they'll get their just desserts.
MS are just floundering around trying to figure out some more convoluted licensing models in desperate attempt to contrive some kind of attraction to productised software, which they have to overprice to sustain their outdated business model.
The trouble is that services are the future for the consumer market, not products. Free (as in beer) software is going to render Pricey software uncompetitive soon. But MS's collosal consumer business model is built alomst entirely on people paying through the nose to install their software. It remains to be seen if MS can adjust to the rapidly approaching age of a service based consumer software industry.
Yes, i know it's no one's fault but the hardware vendors and for a lot of people it isnt even an issue but you cant discount this issue. I'm computer savvy and i couldn't run debian no matter how much i wanted to until ubuntu came out simply because it wouldnt drive my DSL modem.
I personally look forward to the day when i can give my friends linux cds and recommend they try it, but i know the chance of intractible hardware issues popping up make it not worth the aggro yet.
just the chamber that the ball of the joystick sat in. i think it pulls on a rubber band or something to operate the sensors, but i cant remember now. the vaseline never escaped into the electronic bits, and those joysticks are still tight and functioning to this day.
That way all these people who don't know or (infuratingly) don't care that their windows box has no firewall, virus scanner or security updates applied will be FORCED TO FUCKING UNDERSTAND AND CARE that they need to protect themselves and the rest of us from this stuff if they want to use the internet.
As irresponsible as this suggestion is on face value, if you look at the eventual outcome, what you get is lots of non-protected windows boxes blocked from accessing the internet until their owners either get advice on protecting their box, or learn how to do it themselves.
That's the only time i needed a warranty on a console.
i think dapper has better suspend/resume stuff.
you better tell google their calculator is broken then :p
That would be really handy actually. It could run as a daemon and watch for binaries of certain windows app installers being run and interject on their behalf to set it up properly.
then i got an old laptop and put Ubuntu on it, which she then proceeded to hog for months, and now her Win2k PC is complaining that "no operating system is present" she wants to buy a laptop and get me to put Ubuntu on it.
The point is i have constantly been tinkering with Ubuntu and even as a techie person there has been a learning curve for administration of linux rather than windows, but for someone who just wants to browse the web and chat on messenger Gnome is no different to windows, it has no viruses and it looks nicer.
All the bluff and bluster in these slashdot threads seems to overlook the fact that Nvidia explained that any part of their driver that links against the kernel is included as GPL'd source code. So including the Nvidia drivers doesnt violate the GPL. Although ATI have not said anything, they must have a similar system, because otherwise their drivers would violate the GPL just by being available, irrespective of how they are actually distributed.
At first glance it seems someone with a stake in the Kernel wants to make trouble for people endorsing binary drivers. But unless they want to sue this Korrara guy and have a legitamate case, it's just FUD. If it turns out it's just one disgruntled nerd i dont think it will go anywhere.
That's a generalisation. You can't make sweeping generalisations like that without having watched a comprehensive selection of porn, and been in relationships with a comprehensive selection of people. And besides, who says sex has to be confined to "actual relationships". Some people like sex with strangers.
The only people who are aware of the Wii are gamers, because it isn't out yet, so soccer moms have had little opportunity to make their minds up one way or another. People who found the N64, GameCube, PS, PS2, and X-Box "intimidating, complex, or alienating" are not going to look at the Wii and say "Wow! Wireless motion-sensor control! That changes everything! I want I want I want!" Why not? How do you know? Oh wait, this is slashdot, you don't.
The thing about "the open source community" is that it consists of anyone in the world that wants a peice of software that suits their needs and is prepared to make it happen. It isnt just a bunch of hackers coding for kicks, or big blue chip companies with vested interests.
the fact it runs linux isnt really a strange dilution. it's just a kernel, which any digital media player is going to need. the applications it comes with are purely to display various types of media, including the web, so not much diluting going on there. i agree the battery life is absolutely minimal and isnt much use if you want to watch more than one movie. and yes 800 dollars is a ripoff. i dont think it's overpowered though - they seemed to have designed it with enough oomph to decode modern video files.
You dont have to wave your arms in the air, anymore than you have crawl around on your desk to use a mouse.
Why didn't they build it with 6001 hulls!?!!