And if you play a videogame for a week, you'll probably also in that time have a six-pack of soda, various snacks, several full meals, etc, so really that means that even if a game seems "cheap" compared to a night at the movies, the full "Video Game Experience" will end up costing you nearly $200!
here's a special trick you can do: don't give people money until they are only asking for an amount you're willing to spend. I just picked up Mirror's Edge AND DC vs Mortal Kombat for a total of £10. From a major retailer. If you don't want to spend $60 on a game, don't do it. Don't even complain about it. Just don't do it.
But very few people on slashdot have ever argued in favor of the abolishment of copyright. copyright reform which eliminates abuses and shortens terms, sure, but if you want arguments for abolishment,/. will see more of that directed at particular forms of patent law (which can also be considered "patent reform", as it wouldn't usually abolish the whole system)
And rather than saying "the ends justify the means", we're saying "the means aren't in question, the means are neutral. We're talking about the ends. We've been talking about the ends all along."
- I am opposed to laws which ban the sale or construction of X
- I am in favor of laws which ban the malicious use of X
- I would prefer if laws were written which banned only the action Y in which X were used, and did not mention X at all
- I do not like the overall concept of Y
- I like the overall concept of X
- I do not think that X should be used to do Y
- I rely on the use of X on a daily basis
- I don't particularly like many aspects of X
Thank you! It's not "Linux" that needs UI changes, it's "a bunch of Linux Software". The only reason one can even mention "Windows" to mean "a bunch of Windows software" is because it's mostly produced by the same company.
Except that most people don't distribute source code along with the binary distribution. It's not "give the modified source code as well as the binaries", it's "give the modified sourcecode along with the binaries". Now it's arguable that "A URL to a page with a tar.bz2" is a medium customary to software interchange, but it is also arguable that a URL is simply "a written offer to provide" sourcecode (which fits b, not a).
There is no option to provide a written offer which is valid only to those who have received binaries from you, so it's "give at the same time" or "give to everyone".
Sure, cases now offer alternatives to screws. But not/standard/ alternatives. My current case (around the $100 range) has screwless-everything, sure. But when all the non-standard plastic drive rails snapped, I was left with 4 spaces for hard drives which were unusable because they were too wide to work with screws (rails or nothing!) and even if that weren't the case, where the "screw holes" should have been were completely inaccessible, because while the slots were very convenient to use when pulling rails out in one direction, the "sides" of the drive were completely covered by other parts of the case, making it impossible to get at them in the other direction.
I've yet to meet a case I liked. Building a new PC, getting a new case along with it is just one of the perks ("Did they get it right this time? Hm, slightly better, but still completely stupid.")
As for "standards": Position of holes are about the only things standard in PC cases. They're one of the least-standard components of a system, and really a huge failure of the industry. In most cases, you _still_ need to either: use a screwdriver -or- use a completely non-standard and often very difficult/impossible to replace part which is used instead of screws (bonus points: many cases have no alternative to using the nonstandard parts) Cases are still almost universally cramped, with no standard whatsoever for how they are accessed, how to get at the more-cramped parts, etc. Replacing "front-panel" components like USB plugs or audio connectors is pretty much a duct-tape-or-nothing situation. In any case, they all seem designed as "build once, never enter again" pieces of shit.
English dictionaries have also never been intended to list what/isn't/ a word, only to record the meanings of those they list. Do you know what virii means? Does everyone else you know, know? Is it possible to use the word "virii" in conversation without the slightest pause to consider its meaning? Then there is no debate as to whether or not it is a meaningful word. To pretend that it is meaningless is only to lie for no useful end.
Though I would not challenge the assertion that "virii" refers usually to a plurality of computer "viruses", not biological ones. (if we can use the term "biological ones" without falling dangerously back on-topic and attempting to conclude whether or not a non-computer virus can be considered biological)
Because if they really just need to send one huge packet a day, maybe they don't need the Internet anyway. But that's not the case - otherwise they wouldn't have signed up (they would have just used a car).
Copyright laws suck, and prop up a huge government-protected cartel, but I'm not going to try to make the point about how long copyright terms currently last by officially registering 4,294,967,296 separate works. Saying "I'm doing this to prove a point!" beforehand doesn't magically make the act relevant.
it's more that it's meaningless because it's impossible to measure what counts as "bandwidth". If I stick a repeating router in the middle of a line, have I just doubled the "total bandwidth" of the network, just because where there was 1hBps of bandwidth between point A and B, there is not 1hBps of bandwidth between point A and C, and another 1hBps of bandwidth between point C and B. Meaningless.
I could transfer 4gb faster by tossing an SD card across the room than I could by sending it over our LAN, that doesn't mean the LAN is bad, or slow, it just means that "a Truck full of harddrives has more bandwidth than the whole of the internet"[admitting that "whole of the internet" is a meaningless term in terms of bandwidth]- point being that bandwidth isn't everything
Recently the following has happened:
- A year ago I was allowed to install Linux on my work PC. I'm very familiar with Linux and wanted to use it to be more compatible with the environment we were eventually releasing to.
- Eight months ago, my boss switched to Linux, after seeing my use of it. He was generally familiar with Linux as he used it for server admin stuff.
- Six months ago, we needed a new PC for a new programmer. They had delays getting it out, "because we didn't have an install CD in stock". We told them to skip the installation, and put Linux on instead. The new programmer was not familiar with Linux, but was generally a very technical-minded person.
- Two weeks ago, we had a new hire. She is entirely non-technical, but once we determined that there weren't any tools she used which were windows-specific, we sat her in front of a Linux machine. No troubles yet.
bug tracking is not a solved problem, half our problems in government today are from people proposing "solutions" which are not actually that. Public revision control would be nice, though.
It's not ridiculous that we charge an extra $3000 for your car to have tires, since we put the wheels in the center of the car, and you need to cut the body in half to get at them!
Isn't it their job to know that this wouldn't help anything? They already have the option of offering Americans "in-home access to high-value, high definition video content" This is evident because: Americans already HAVE "in-home access to high-value, high definition video content"
To negate that argument: 1) Computer controlled 2) Ride-sharing
No need to "own" a vehicle. Pay the price of a cab fare, be driven to where you want to go, "cab" is flown back and maintained by Someone Who Wants To Not Kill His Customers.
You think you're joking, but just because technology has moved beyond "here's a neat thingy made from shaping two other thingies and sticking them together" and into the realm of pure development (you know,/Software/), doesn't make the progress any less important. Social technologies have progressed in revolutionary leaps and bounds, algorithms have improved to extents that were only "not unexpected" in 1969 because people have unrealistic and downright stupid expectations about what 1995 would look like ("You can make a box with lights on it that displays a picture of a cat OR a duck? That definitely means I'll be able to talk to it like a normal person, but it will be so super-smart that I can just ask it to build me a spaceship and it will do so instantly! Out of dirt!") Nobody foresaw social networking in the form we have today.
Mathematics, Computer Science, Biology, and several fields which didn't even bother too much to even exist fifty years ago, these have done far more than "incrementally improve" in the past 50 years, and the only real difference is you can't pick it up and hold it in your hands. Detaching the process of development from the necessity of "building a thing out of wood and metal, then pushing it off a cliff to see if it works" doesn't mean progress has slowed, it has instead allowed it to increase exponentially. The only thing that's slowed down is how often we build a thing out of wood and metal.
Though there's this whole class of accidents which come about when a 3rd dimension is involved. "Stalled vehicle on highway, traffic backed up for ten miles, delayed for fifty miles, more minor accidents as a result of the start and stop flow" becomes "Stalled vehicle on highway, traffic continues to move smoothly. Hundreds dead as stalled vehicle crashes into St Baby Fluffy Kitten's home for dyslexic cute animals during a field trip from the Orphanage For The Quite Uninteresting But Still Adorable (OFQUBSA)"
Slashdot Mirror
More recently than the last time I got laid after going to a movie
And if you play a videogame for a week, you'll probably also in that time have a six-pack of soda, various snacks, several full meals, etc, so really that means that even if a game seems "cheap" compared to a night at the movies, the full "Video Game Experience" will end up costing you nearly $200!
here's a special trick you can do: don't give people money until they are only asking for an amount you're willing to spend. I just picked up Mirror's Edge AND DC vs Mortal Kombat for a total of £10. From a major retailer.
If you don't want to spend $60 on a game, don't do it. Don't even complain about it. Just don't do it.
But very few people on slashdot have ever argued in favor of the abolishment of copyright. copyright reform which eliminates abuses and shortens terms, sure, but if you want arguments for abolishment, /. will see more of that directed at particular forms of patent law (which can also be considered "patent reform", as it wouldn't usually abolish the whole system)
And rather than saying "the ends justify the means", we're saying "the means aren't in question, the means are neutral. We're talking about the ends. We've been talking about the ends all along."
- I am opposed to laws which ban the sale or construction of X
- I am in favor of laws which ban the malicious use of X
- I would prefer if laws were written which banned only the action Y in which X were used, and did not mention X at all
- I do not like the overall concept of Y
- I like the overall concept of X
- I do not think that X should be used to do Y
- I rely on the use of X on a daily basis
- I don't particularly like many aspects of X
none of these are conflicting statements.
Thank you! It's not "Linux" that needs UI changes, it's "a bunch of Linux Software". The only reason one can even mention "Windows" to mean "a bunch of Windows software" is because it's mostly produced by the same company.
Except that most people don't distribute source code along with the binary distribution. It's not "give the modified source code as well as the binaries", it's "give the modified sourcecode along with the binaries".
Now it's arguable that "A URL to a page with a tar.bz2" is a medium customary to software interchange, but it is also arguable that a URL is simply "a written offer to provide" sourcecode (which fits b, not a).
There is no option to provide a written offer which is valid only to those who have received binaries from you, so it's "give at the same time" or "give to everyone".
Sure, cases now offer alternatives to screws. But not /standard/ alternatives. My current case (around the $100 range) has screwless-everything, sure. But when all the non-standard plastic drive rails snapped, I was left with 4 spaces for hard drives which were unusable because they were too wide to work with screws (rails or nothing!) and even if that weren't the case, where the "screw holes" should have been were completely inaccessible, because while the slots were very convenient to use when pulling rails out in one direction, the "sides" of the drive were completely covered by other parts of the case, making it impossible to get at them in the other direction.
I've yet to meet a case I liked. Building a new PC, getting a new case along with it is just one of the perks ("Did they get it right this time? Hm, slightly better, but still completely stupid.")
As for "standards": Position of holes are about the only things standard in PC cases. They're one of the least-standard components of a system, and really a huge failure of the industry. In most cases, you _still_ need to either: use a screwdriver -or- use a completely non-standard and often very difficult/impossible to replace part which is used instead of screws (bonus points: many cases have no alternative to using the nonstandard parts)
Cases are still almost universally cramped, with no standard whatsoever for how they are accessed, how to get at the more-cramped parts, etc. Replacing "front-panel" components like USB plugs or audio connectors is pretty much a duct-tape-or-nothing situation. In any case, they all seem designed as "build once, never enter again" pieces of shit.
English dictionaries have also never been intended to list what /isn't/ a word, only to record the meanings of those they list. Do you know what virii means? Does everyone else you know, know? Is it possible to use the word "virii" in conversation without the slightest pause to consider its meaning? Then there is no debate as to whether or not it is a meaningful word. To pretend that it is meaningless is only to lie for no useful end.
Though I would not challenge the assertion that "virii" refers usually to a plurality of computer "viruses", not biological ones. (if we can use the term "biological ones" without falling dangerously back on-topic and attempting to conclude whether or not a non-computer virus can be considered biological)
virii is an English word. Whether or not a word is a valid Greek word has never been and never will be a criterion for being valid English.
More to the point: You don't ever get to declare something "not a word" after it has been intentionally used.
what the hell is wrong with being charged by the byte?
one better: take amazon completely out of the picture. Put a "lock my kindle" button on the account management page.
Because if they really just need to send one huge packet a day, maybe they don't need the Internet anyway. But that's not the case - otherwise they wouldn't have signed up (they would have just used a car).
Copyright laws suck, and prop up a huge government-protected cartel, but I'm not going to try to make the point about how long copyright terms currently last by officially registering 4,294,967,296 separate works. Saying "I'm doing this to prove a point!" beforehand doesn't magically make the act relevant.
it's more that it's meaningless because it's impossible to measure what counts as "bandwidth". If I stick a repeating router in the middle of a line, have I just doubled the "total bandwidth" of the network, just because where there was 1hBps of bandwidth between point A and B, there is not 1hBps of bandwidth between point A and C, and another 1hBps of bandwidth between point C and B. Meaningless.
I could transfer 4gb faster by tossing an SD card across the room than I could by sending it over our LAN, that doesn't mean the LAN is bad, or slow, it just means that "a Truck full of harddrives has more bandwidth than the whole of the internet"[admitting that "whole of the internet" is a meaningless term in terms of bandwidth]- point being that bandwidth isn't everything
Recently the following has happened:
- A year ago I was allowed to install Linux on my work PC. I'm very familiar with Linux and wanted to use it to be more compatible with the environment we were eventually releasing to.
- Eight months ago, my boss switched to Linux, after seeing my use of it. He was generally familiar with Linux as he used it for server admin stuff.
- Six months ago, we needed a new PC for a new programmer. They had delays getting it out, "because we didn't have an install CD in stock". We told them to skip the installation, and put Linux on instead. The new programmer was not familiar with Linux, but was generally a very technical-minded person.
- Two weeks ago, we had a new hire. She is entirely non-technical, but once we determined that there weren't any tools she used which were windows-specific, we sat her in front of a Linux machine. No troubles yet.
bug tracking is not a solved problem, half our problems in government today are from people proposing "solutions" which are not actually that.
Public revision control would be nice, though.
Can I please have money from everyone purchasing a crowbar, as they may some day use it to break into my house?
It's not ridiculous that we charge an extra $3000 for your car to have tires, since we put the wheels in the center of the car, and you need to cut the body in half to get at them!
Isn't it their job to know that this wouldn't help anything?
They already have the option of offering Americans "in-home access to high-value, high definition video content"
This is evident because: Americans already HAVE "in-home access to high-value, high definition video content"
To negate that argument:
1) Computer controlled
2) Ride-sharing
No need to "own" a vehicle. Pay the price of a cab fare, be driven to where you want to go, "cab" is flown back and maintained by Someone Who Wants To Not Kill His Customers.
You think you're joking, but just because technology has moved beyond "here's a neat thingy made from shaping two other thingies and sticking them together" and into the realm of pure development (you know, /Software/), doesn't make the progress any less important.
Social technologies have progressed in revolutionary leaps and bounds, algorithms have improved to extents that were only "not unexpected" in 1969 because people have unrealistic and downright stupid expectations about what 1995 would look like ("You can make a box with lights on it that displays a picture of a cat OR a duck? That definitely means I'll be able to talk to it like a normal person, but it will be so super-smart that I can just ask it to build me a spaceship and it will do so instantly! Out of dirt!") Nobody foresaw social networking in the form we have today.
Mathematics, Computer Science, Biology, and several fields which didn't even bother too much to even exist fifty years ago, these have done far more than "incrementally improve" in the past 50 years, and the only real difference is you can't pick it up and hold it in your hands. Detaching the process of development from the necessity of "building a thing out of wood and metal, then pushing it off a cliff to see if it works" doesn't mean progress has slowed, it has instead allowed it to increase exponentially. The only thing that's slowed down is how often we build a thing out of wood and metal.
Though there's this whole class of accidents which come about when a 3rd dimension is involved. "Stalled vehicle on highway, traffic backed up for ten miles, delayed for fifty miles, more minor accidents as a result of the start and stop flow" becomes "Stalled vehicle on highway, traffic continues to move smoothly. Hundreds dead as stalled vehicle crashes into St Baby Fluffy Kitten's home for dyslexic cute animals during a field trip from the Orphanage For The Quite Uninteresting But Still Adorable (OFQUBSA)"
Anyone who "thinks of the children" when writing or promoting legislation will be deported to the moon.
giving skype money is the best alternative currently available to "explaining to your mom how to get skype to work"