or, Google could release the source code to the app. This would give a great example for other developers to create other apps for Latitude: open social networks always work well (see Twitter). It would also prevent any legal issues with Apple, as there are many open-source apps out there right now, and Google has a good history with open source. If someone wants it, they can compile it themselves or (more likely) get it from someone else who has already compiled it.
As an added bonus, a non-jailed application can do background updates.
I think overall people will be more free and happier when we live in a post-scarcity society.
post-scarcity society
Congratulations on being the first visible comment to recognize this. I think the idea is that when robots take over the work, everything will be negligibly cheap. You don't need to work much at all to get $0.
Now excuse me while I set up the Ohio State University Adhocracy. I'm gonna get me some whuffie with this.
Unfortunately, in my experience, the anti-Microsoft sentiment around here is only due to the great Slashdot Echo Chamber. In general, people don't hate Microsoft any more than, usually, just a general annoyed feeling about their software. You could say that they hate Nullsoft on the same grounds.
Of course it would be nice if every piece of software and hardware on earth was 'free', but things aren't like that, just live with it. It's not like we have attained world peace, eliminated poverty and created an ecologically sustainable world economy yet, but that doesn't mean initiatives to get closer, even a little bit, are impure, wrong and should be rejected because they aren't perfect or don't apply to yourself.
I really don't understand what you're talking about here. I have a right to point out when I feel that someone is doing something in a way that could be better. If this initiative benefits me, I'll still be happy that it's happening, but that won't stop me from trying to make it better.
I use the binary nVidia drivers in just about every linux-based system I have installed, and I have stuck with only nVidia cards because I respect their choice to release these drivers and love them for it. That doesn't stop me from wishing they were free, and telling that to nVidia.
Draek made a good point about the Coke recipe disclosure, but I also have an objection to the comparison between the Coke recipe and source code.
When you go out and buy a coke, you are free to modify it and add a lemon, or boil it down, or use it in a baking soda volcano reaction. The same is true for most physical goods, even hardware. You can crack open your laptop to add memory, or add some wires to a Furby mainboard to have it make weird noises. Whatever. (You usually void the warranty with these things, but that is a reasonable thing for a company to require. If I make an instrument out of Furby, I don't expect the company to fix it if it breaks.)
Programs, on the other hand, are distributed as binaries, which are prohibitively difficult to modify. Yes, you can disassemble them if you really want to, but working on disassembled code is like brain surgery on buckets of the constituent elements of the brain. To make it worse, these programs usually come with an end user license agreement that prohibits any modification, not just at the expense of support, but at the expense of your right to use it.
In order to own a program, you must have the source, otherwise you just have a license to use it under the specifications of the creator. Note that commercial programs can be GPL'd, as long as they provide the source along with the binaries on purchase.
DX10 added some features, if I recall correctly, that can be implemented on most graphics cards without adding much stress at all to the CPU. Off the top of my head, I can only think of Geometry Shaders, but I'm sure a quick Google search would find some more. These were possible before, but making it part of DX proper made it more accessable to programmers and more likely to be well implemented on the hardware
There are in fact some visual improvements to be had when switching from DX9 to DX10 without increasing CPU load. At least, as long as programmers are on the ball.
I don't think that the importance of space exploration in survival can be overstated. Yes, deep sea exploration would provide some level of protection, but anything involving a large scale impact would screw over anything on the planet.
We're a very fragile species living in a fragile environment in one place. For our survival we need to get the hell off this rock as soon as possible.
One important thing to note is that actual, human brains are more than likely also just algorithms (or software, whichever strikes your fancy). If software is patentable, then so are simulated brains. Imagine a future in which people are patented.
This touches on the argument used a lot around here that desktop Linux isn't all that popular in part because of the amount of choices each distribution has for its parts, resulting in distributions that are all different. This does, in fact, make applications extremely hard to distribute amongst all distributions. (I have some brief experience with this, and I already hate it.)
However, it's important to note here that Linux is just the kernel, not the operating system. I would go as far as to say Ubuntu and Gentoo are about as similar as FreeBSD and Mac OS X, and that expecting there to be enough similarities between them to be able to treat them as one operating system is impossible. Each Linux distribution is its own operating system, they just happen to share the same kernel.
I agree that having a standard base would increase adoption, but only as much as a standard base between OS X and Windows would increase adoption. It's also just as unrealistic.
They need to revise, an IP address identifies a NETWORK, but not neccessarily conclusively any particular computer.
One important thing to note is that in the current IP system, an IP address usually identifies a network only due to a nasty little hack known as Network Address Translation. In the glorious IPv6 future (any day now), all computers should have their own unique address. IPv6 was designed for it, with enough IP addresses for every gram on the earth to have an insane amount of them.
With that in mind, IP addresses will be able to identify one computer. Given that most computers are used by only a handful of people, and sometimes only one, I would count that as personally identifiable information. However, I agree that you lose the right to a private IP when connect to a server. I think the real issue here is that this information was used without consent from the users. (automatic update)
In fact, we've only had a white Christmas twice in the last 5 of 6 years!
This is off topic, but this sentence is ridiculously hard do decipher.
If you had a white Christmas 2 times in the last 5 of 6 years, then we can assume the one year was omitted because it was a white Christmas, to make the fraction more impressive. Then, there was a white Christmas 3 out of 6 years.
I love it when "half the time" becomes "twice in five of the last six years".
... of course, it could just be a typo. Fun exercise though!
The police need a much higher level of evidence to do a strip search. School administrators need much less evidence (I believe the technical term is reasonable suspicion, but IANAL and I'm not entirely sure), and they act as parents when the children are in the building and can do more on less evidence than police.
For example, a school administrator can search a purse for drugs with only suspicion, but police need a warrant.
I'm sure there are those less tech-inclined (and less likely to comment on slashdot) that still use their numpad as a directional pad. It always annoys me when num lock is off and I start Blender, though.
I'm actually curious as to what some of these keys have ever done, like pause or scroll lock.
As long as we're mentioning garage bands and low-budget movies as acceptable stand-ins for, say, the Flaming Lips and the Dark Knight, I thought I may as well mention Big Buck Bunny and Elephants Dream.
Sure, Elephants Dream was a bit odd on the story and acting side, but it was visually impressive. BBB was a standard cartoony short. These were not at Pixar's level, but they were released under a Creative Commons license with all of their sources.
Psh, don't you know? Linux will never move past GPL 2.
The RIAA just got lucky.
Re:Professional graphic artists and retouchers
on
Beginning GIMP
·
· Score: 1
It seems as though everyone here decides whether a tool is good in the first five minutes. The GIMP really isn't hard to learn. I took at least as long learning Photoshop than I did the GIMP. I still prefer the GIMP, but maybe that's because I started with it.
Slashdot Mirror
or, Google could release the source code to the app. This would give a great example for other developers to create other apps for Latitude: open social networks always work well (see Twitter). It would also prevent any legal issues with Apple, as there are many open-source apps out there right now, and Google has a good history with open source. If someone wants it, they can compile it themselves or (more likely) get it from someone else who has already compiled it.
As an added bonus, a non-jailed application can do background updates.
I think overall people will be more free and happier when we live in a post-scarcity society.
post-scarcity society
Congratulations on being the first visible comment to recognize this. I think the idea is that when robots take over the work, everything will be negligibly cheap. You don't need to work much at all to get $0.
Now excuse me while I set up the Ohio State University Adhocracy. I'm gonna get me some whuffie with this.
Unfortunately, in my experience, the anti-Microsoft sentiment around here is only due to the great Slashdot Echo Chamber. In general, people don't hate Microsoft any more than, usually, just a general annoyed feeling about their software. You could say that they hate Nullsoft on the same grounds.
Of course it would be nice if every piece of software and hardware on earth was 'free', but things aren't like that, just live with it. It's not like we have attained world peace, eliminated poverty and created an ecologically sustainable world economy yet, but that doesn't mean initiatives to get closer, even a little bit, are impure, wrong and should be rejected because they aren't perfect or don't apply to yourself.
I really don't understand what you're talking about here. I have a right to point out when I feel that someone is doing something in a way that could be better. If this initiative benefits me, I'll still be happy that it's happening, but that won't stop me from trying to make it better.
I use the binary nVidia drivers in just about every linux-based system I have installed, and I have stuck with only nVidia cards because I respect their choice to release these drivers and love them for it. That doesn't stop me from wishing they were free, and telling that to nVidia.
When did we start talking about Feynman?
Draek made a good point about the Coke recipe disclosure, but I also have an objection to the comparison between the Coke recipe and source code.
When you go out and buy a coke, you are free to modify it and add a lemon, or boil it down, or use it in a baking soda volcano reaction. The same is true for most physical goods, even hardware. You can crack open your laptop to add memory, or add some wires to a Furby mainboard to have it make weird noises. Whatever. (You usually void the warranty with these things, but that is a reasonable thing for a company to require. If I make an instrument out of Furby, I don't expect the company to fix it if it breaks.)
Programs, on the other hand, are distributed as binaries, which are prohibitively difficult to modify. Yes, you can disassemble them if you really want to, but working on disassembled code is like brain surgery on buckets of the constituent elements of the brain. To make it worse, these programs usually come with an end user license agreement that prohibits any modification, not just at the expense of support, but at the expense of your right to use it.
In order to own a program, you must have the source, otherwise you just have a license to use it under the specifications of the creator. Note that commercial programs can be GPL'd, as long as they provide the source along with the binaries on purchase.
DX10 added some features, if I recall correctly, that can be implemented on most graphics cards without adding much stress at all to the CPU. Off the top of my head, I can only think of Geometry Shaders, but I'm sure a quick Google search would find some more. These were possible before, but making it part of DX proper made it more accessable to programmers and more likely to be well implemented on the hardware
There are in fact some visual improvements to be had when switching from DX9 to DX10 without increasing CPU load. At least, as long as programmers are on the ball.
I don't think that the importance of space exploration in survival can be overstated. Yes, deep sea exploration would provide some level of protection, but anything involving a large scale impact would screw over anything on the planet.
We're a very fragile species living in a fragile environment in one place. For our survival we need to get the hell off this rock as soon as possible.
One important thing to note is that actual, human brains are more than likely also just algorithms (or software, whichever strikes your fancy). If software is patentable, then so are simulated brains. Imagine a future in which people are patented.
This touches on the argument used a lot around here that desktop Linux isn't all that popular in part because of the amount of choices each distribution has for its parts, resulting in distributions that are all different. This does, in fact, make applications extremely hard to distribute amongst all distributions. (I have some brief experience with this, and I already hate it.)
However, it's important to note here that Linux is just the kernel, not the operating system. I would go as far as to say Ubuntu and Gentoo are about as similar as FreeBSD and Mac OS X, and that expecting there to be enough similarities between them to be able to treat them as one operating system is impossible. Each Linux distribution is its own operating system, they just happen to share the same kernel.
I agree that having a standard base would increase adoption, but only as much as a standard base between OS X and Windows would increase adoption. It's also just as unrealistic.
They need to revise, an IP address identifies a NETWORK, but not neccessarily conclusively any particular computer.
One important thing to note is that in the current IP system, an IP address usually identifies a network only due to a nasty little hack known as Network Address Translation. In the glorious IPv6 future (any day now), all computers should have their own unique address. IPv6 was designed for it, with enough IP addresses for every gram on the earth to have an insane amount of them.
With that in mind, IP addresses will be able to identify one computer. Given that most computers are used by only a handful of people, and sometimes only one, I would count that as personally identifiable information. However, I agree that you lose the right to a private IP when connect to a server. I think the real issue here is that this information was used without consent from the users. (automatic update)
In fact, we've only had a white Christmas twice in the last 5 of 6 years!
This is off topic, but this sentence is ridiculously hard do decipher.
If you had a white Christmas 2 times in the last 5 of 6 years, then we can assume the one year was omitted because it was a white Christmas, to make the fraction more impressive. Then, there was a white Christmas 3 out of 6 years.
I love it when "half the time" becomes "twice in five of the last six years".
... of course, it could just be a typo. Fun exercise though!
I mean if you think about it, old age is a disease.
Oh no, you have it all wrong. Death is a human rights violation.
The police need a much higher level of evidence to do a strip search. School administrators need much less evidence (I believe the technical term is reasonable suspicion, but IANAL and I'm not entirely sure), and they act as parents when the children are in the building and can do more on less evidence than police.
For example, a school administrator can search a purse for drugs with only suspicion, but police need a warrant.
I'm sure there are those less tech-inclined (and less likely to comment on slashdot) that still use their numpad as a directional pad. It always annoys me when num lock is off and I start Blender, though. I'm actually curious as to what some of these keys have ever done, like pause or scroll lock.
I think Dr. X is at the house of the venerable and inscrutable colonel right now though.
As long as we're mentioning garage bands and low-budget movies as acceptable stand-ins for, say, the Flaming Lips and the Dark Knight, I thought I may as well mention Big Buck Bunny and Elephants Dream.
Sure, Elephants Dream was a bit odd on the story and acting side, but it was visually impressive. BBB was a standard cartoony short. These were not at Pixar's level, but they were released under a Creative Commons license with all of their sources.
I've been hearing good things about Durian, too.
Psh, don't you know? Linux will never move past GPL 2.
The RIAA just got lucky.
It seems as though everyone here decides whether a tool is good in the first five minutes. The GIMP really isn't hard to learn. I took at least as long learning Photoshop than I did the GIMP. I still prefer the GIMP, but maybe that's because I started with it.
And the GIMP is not just a tool for code-monkeys. Neither is blender.