there are quite a few threads under this story about civil rights in the usa and their abridgement since 9/11.
remember when it happened? the immediate consensus afterward was that we needed to carry on with our lives as before, or else "the terrorists would have won." we couldn't allow them to cow us, by god!
but, after all, we did change the way we live, with all this "homeland security" and "USA-PATRIOT" and guantanamo and abu ghraib and all the other abridgements of civil and human rights... the sad truth is that, thanks to the current administration, "the terrorists" did win...
i leave you with this quote from louis brandeis:
"experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purpose is beneficent. men born to freedom
are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
"If you think this corruption has started since 9/11, you haven't been paying much attention"
that's not what he said. he said, "since 9/11 the american government is growing more and more corrupt," not that it started then. this assertion is not incompatible with yours.
your post is a spurious straw man. you pay more attention next time, and don't waste everybody's time with your bullshit.
as a swiss citizen, i must protest this defamation of our fine emmentaler cheese by its being mentioned in the same sentence as microsoft software. please find another way to say "full of holes."
"How can you using Lynx - not being able to access a website - teach anyone else about accessibility?
"The result is simply going to be that you're not going to see the website."
no, there's another result; hits from lynx browsers will appear in the site's web access logs, and any statistics (cf. webalizer) derived therefrom.
the hope is that the site operators will see this and realize that they need to make their sites accessible to such browsers.
whether this is a realistic hope is another question. i'd guess that the vast majority of website operators are completely ignorant of such things. it's not that they don't care about accessibility to text browsers, but worse: they don't even know such things exist.
i agree 100% with the parent. i live in the UK, and we've seen all but the very last episode here now.
the series started off absolutely brilliantly, and i got very excited - it was almost perfect. then, suddenly, one week, they showed a real stinker of an episode... i remember thinking, "well, ok, nothing is perfect, i have to look at the big picture; on average, it's still really great overall."
sadly, though, it never got good again. i won't mention specifics, so as not to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet, but after those first (roughly six or eight) episodes, the rest are ruined by inconsistencies, implausibilities, incongruities, and discontinuities. i've found myself every episode thinking, "why would they do *that?*" or "that character would never behave that way" and so forth.
by all means, watch it, but just don't let those first few episodes get your hopes too high.
"...everything bad that happens anywhere in the entire world can be blamed on americans, even tsunamis."
this faux persecution complex is disingenuous and at least as bogus as the nonexistent phenomenon it purports to illustrate.
it's a very weak combination of a straw man (someone is blaming everything on americans) and an appeal to pity (poor persecuted americans!). the poster's motive is a mystery, but this drivel is most certainly not insightful.
"[The] attitude (that Solaris has 'very little support for any kind of strange hardware') is perfectly fine for any Solaris release prior to 10."
considering that solaris 10 isn't even released yet - it's still in beta - i'd say that that attitude is perfectly valid. after solaris 10 is released, then we can talk.
Ant writes "This SF Gate story says stacks of new releases for hungry video game enthusiasts mean it's boom time for an industry now even bigger than Hollywood. The $10 billion video game industry, which generates more revenue than Hollywood...
Yes, but how big is the video game industry as compared to Hollywood?
"Linux can be a threat to national security because any computer-savvy terrorist can hack it."
no, it can't. that's like saying "a door can be a threat to my personal security because any lockpick-savvy burglar can pick it."
if a burglar were to pick a lock on one of your doors and thereby jeopardize your personal security, it would be he, not the door, who posed a threat to you.
likewise, if a "computer-savvy terrorist" were to "hack" into some sensitive linux system and thereby compromise national security, it would be he, not the linux system, who posed a threat. the system he used to do so would merely be the vector.
maybe it seems like hair-splitting to you, but not to me. bad premises lead to bad conclusions.
a) my post is an informal comment, not a piece presented as a work of journalism;
b) my use of lowercase is intentional, *not* due to ignorance, and
c) my use of lowercase does not alter my meaning.
your objection is disingenuous and simply bogus. exclusive use of lowercase is a matter of presentation, not of content; a matter of style, not of substance. it makes no more difference to the validity of my comment than if it were printed in red letters; the meaning remains the same. i assure you that when i present essays for public perusal, professional journalistic style is observed.
but you already knew that, which is why you posted anonymously.
look. i'm not trying to troll, here; honestly, i'm not, but this "review" is absolutely wretched. the misuse of "quid pro quo" was only the tip of the iceberg; the entire thing is filled with misused language and poor structure and development. it reads like an essay by a 7th grader who thinks he can fool the teacher into giving him good marks by using "big words."
why doesn't slashdot follow the journalistic practices of proofreading and editing? seriously, i'd really like to know. what excuse is there for the horribly low standard of writing here?
go ahead, slashbot mods; slam me for daring to criticize, but i'd really love to know the answer to this. on the off chance that anybody in authority actually reads this and cares, *yes*, i *do* volunteer to do it for you. give me a job; i'll clean up the language for you and turn it into a source of pride instead of the embarrassing laughingstock that it is now. but even if not me, please, i'm begging you, get *someone* to do it!
"Solaris will initially be 'free' (as in beer with an annual subscription fee for bug fixes and support)."
this model worries me, both with redhat and now solaris: if income arises not from the -RELEASE versions of the software, but rather from the PATCHES, what incentive is there to create a stable, bug-free -RELEASE? indeed, it would actually be to the companies' advantage to intentionally include bugs in the -RELEASE versions, in order to drive demand for patches...
Re:Open mouth, insert paranoid foot
on
Bobby Fischer Found
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
"
Even I, a complete amateur, know more than a couple dozen opening lines past the 8th move."
dude. if you know more than a couple dozen opening lines past the 8th move, you're hardly a complete amateur. 8-P
"
When will they understand that computers are simply tools?"
"When will they understand firearms are simply tools? Now you know how peace loving gun owners have been feeling for years."
that's a bogus analogy. computers have many uses, ranging from the productive to the destructive; guns can be used only to destroy. when's the last time anyone needed a gun to build a house? or perform surgery? or write a book?
even if we allow the stretch of calling guns "tools," it must be pointed out that computers are multi-purpose tools, guns are single-purpose - and that purpose is destructive.
"
No [the BSDs] don't [run all the same software [as] linux."
ok, you got me. you pulled out a fringe-case example of some low-level, kernel-specific - linux-specific - software as an "exception" to my statement.
here's my original assertion amended for the literal-minded who need to have everything spelled out for them:
the BSDs run the vast majority of the same general purpose software that you've become accustomed to under linux.
that said, though, it's also worth noting that at least one of the BSDs has a linux binary emulation layer which can run a lot of linux binaries.
"
Some of us would like to do more than server stuff with Linux."
my statement doesn't say nor imply that BSD can be used for "server stuff" only, nor is that the case in fact. "workstation" software like GUIs (including gnome and kde, etc.), mozilla, xmms, mplayer, etc. are available as well.
i use BSD on my laptop and most of my other computers as well; your perception that BSD is only for servers is as erroneous as that of a windows user who might believe the same to be true of linux.
in conclusion: while there is, of course, software specific to any given platform, the BSDs and linux, as "unix-like" operating systems, share the vast majority of the software that they run. for the vast majority of users (that is, users not tied to a platform-specific application), the BSDs are generally functionally equivalent to linux, and represent serious, mature, capable alternatives to that system.
"some distros suck more; the paradoxical thin[g] is that none of them suck less."
for me, the answer was to move to BSD. the BSDs - openbsd, freebsd, and netbsd - are excellent, free (in both senses), totally community-driven, unencumbered with the sort of corporate bullcrap that's going on in much of the linux world, and they run all the same software that you've become accustomed to under linux.
serious unix users owe it to themselves to check these systems out; they really are superb - if you doubt it, poke around netcraft for a while and see for yourself.
Slashdot Mirror
there are quite a few threads under this story about civil rights in the usa and their abridgement since 9/11.
remember when it happened? the immediate consensus afterward was that we needed to carry on with our lives as before, or else "the terrorists would have won." we couldn't allow them to cow us, by god!
but, after all, we did change the way we live, with all this "homeland security" and "USA-PATRIOT" and guantanamo and abu ghraib and all the other abridgements of civil and human rights... the sad truth is that, thanks to the current administration, "the terrorists" did win...
i leave you with this quote from louis brandeis:
"experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purpose is beneficent. men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."
that's not what he said. he said, "since 9/11 the american government is growing more and more corrupt," not that it started then. this assertion is not incompatible with yours.
your post is a spurious straw man. you pay more attention next time, and don't waste everybody's time with your bullshit.
"What I think is keeping [Apple] out of the market is the little matter of 150 million Microsoft dollars that saved [them] back in '97."
I think different. (sorry 8-)
I think that what's really holding back OSX/x86 is that the instant it's released, no more MS Office for Apple.
"Antoine Bugleboy?" next, you'll be telling us that LEVI'S are named after a person!
>> Microsoft and security?
>> Chalk and cheese?
> Don't you mean simply "swiss cheese"? ;-)
as a swiss citizen, i must protest this defamation of our fine emmentaler cheese by its being mentioned in the same sentence as microsoft software. please find another way to say "full of holes."
thank you|danke|merci|grazie|grazia.
;-)
"How can you using Lynx - not being able to access a website - teach anyone else about accessibility?
"The result is simply going to be that you're not going to see the website."
no, there's another result; hits from lynx browsers will appear in the site's web access logs, and any statistics (cf. webalizer) derived therefrom.
the hope is that the site operators will see this and realize that they need to make their sites accessible to such browsers.
whether this is a realistic hope is another question. i'd guess that the vast majority of website operators are completely ignorant of such things. it's not that they don't care about accessibility to text browsers, but worse: they don't even know such things exist.
i hope the interface they're designing is better than the one on their website...
jokes aside, what does this have to do with 'news for nerds?' this story just doesn't belong on slashdot...
dunno why i bother; this site has been in the shitter for years now...
i agree 100% with the parent. i live in the UK, and we've seen all but the very last episode here now.
the series started off absolutely brilliantly, and i got very excited - it was almost perfect. then, suddenly, one week, they showed a real stinker of an episode... i remember thinking, "well, ok, nothing is perfect, i have to look at the big picture; on average, it's still really great overall."
sadly, though, it never got good again. i won't mention specifics, so as not to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet, but after those first (roughly six or eight) episodes, the rest are ruined by inconsistencies, implausibilities, incongruities, and discontinuities. i've found myself every episode thinking, "why would they do *that?*" or "that character would never behave that way" and so forth.
by all means, watch it, but just don't let those first few episodes get your hopes too high.
"Who's the idiot (as well as the coward) now?"
you.
"...everything bad that happens anywhere in the entire world can be blamed on americans, even tsunamis."
this faux persecution complex is disingenuous and at least as bogus as the nonexistent phenomenon it purports to illustrate.
it's a very weak combination of a straw man (someone is blaming everything on americans) and an appeal to pity (poor persecuted americans!). the poster's motive is a mystery, but this drivel is most certainly not insightful.
"[The] attitude (that Solaris has 'very little support for any kind of strange hardware') is perfectly fine for any Solaris release prior to 10."
considering that solaris 10 isn't even released yet - it's still in beta - i'd say that that attitude is perfectly valid. after solaris 10 is released, then we can talk.
Game Industry Bigger Than Hollywood
Ant writes "This SF Gate story says stacks of new releases for hungry video game enthusiasts mean it's boom time for an industry now even bigger than Hollywood. The $10 billion video game industry, which generates more revenue than Hollywood...
Yes, but how big is the video game industry as compared to Hollywood?
:P
This principle was first described in the Bible in the story of "David and The Leading Competitor."
"No Child Left Behind When We Reinstate The Draft," they mean.
if you disagree, read this before you respond.
"Linux can be a threat to national security because any computer-savvy terrorist can hack it."
no, it can't. that's like saying "a door can be a threat to my personal security because any lockpick-savvy burglar can pick it."
if a burglar were to pick a lock on one of your doors and thereby jeopardize your personal security, it would be he, not the door, who posed a threat to you.
likewise, if a "computer-savvy terrorist" were to "hack" into some sensitive linux system and thereby compromise national security, it would be he, not the linux system, who posed a threat. the system he used to do so would merely be the vector.
maybe it seems like hair-splitting to you, but not to me. bad premises lead to bad conclusions.
thanks for listening.
"It just seems to be a pity to me that people can't find something better than sex to get people to assert their collective voice."
uh... better than sex? *scratches head*
"Mr. Kettle? I've got a Mr. Pot on the line."
wrong:
a) my post is an informal comment, not a piece presented as a work of journalism;
b) my use of lowercase is intentional, *not* due to ignorance, and
c) my use of lowercase does not alter my meaning.
your objection is disingenuous and simply bogus. exclusive use of lowercase is a matter of presentation, not of content; a matter of style, not of substance. it makes no more difference to the validity of my comment than if it were printed in red letters; the meaning remains the same. i assure you that when i present essays for public perusal, professional journalistic style is observed.
but you already knew that, which is why you posted anonymously.
thanks for playing. next!
look. i'm not trying to troll, here; honestly, i'm not, but this "review" is absolutely wretched. the misuse of "quid pro quo" was only the tip of the iceberg; the entire thing is filled with misused language and poor structure and development. it reads like an essay by a 7th grader who thinks he can fool the teacher into giving him good marks by using "big words."
why doesn't slashdot follow the journalistic practices of proofreading and editing? seriously, i'd really like to know. what excuse is there for the horribly low standard of writing here?
go ahead, slashbot mods; slam me for daring to criticize, but i'd really love to know the answer to this. on the off chance that anybody in authority actually reads this and cares, *yes*, i *do* volunteer to do it for you. give me a job; i'll clean up the language for you and turn it into a source of pride instead of the embarrassing laughingstock that it is now. but even if not me, please, i'm begging you, get *someone* to do it!
- disgusted with the proliferation of illiteracy
as the post says:
"Solaris will initially be 'free' (as in beer with an annual subscription fee for bug fixes and support)."
this model worries me, both with redhat and now solaris: if income arises not from the -RELEASE versions of the software, but rather from the PATCHES, what incentive is there to create a stable, bug-free -RELEASE? indeed, it would actually be to the companies' advantage to intentionally include bugs in the -RELEASE versions, in order to drive demand for patches...
dude. if you know more than a couple dozen opening lines past the 8th move, you're hardly a complete amateur. 8-P
that's a bogus analogy. computers have many uses, ranging from the productive to the destructive; guns can be used only to destroy. when's the last time anyone needed a gun to build a house? or perform surgery? or write a book?
even if we allow the stretch of calling guns "tools," it must be pointed out that computers are multi-purpose tools, guns are single-purpose - and that purpose is destructive.
ok, you got me. you pulled out a fringe-case example of some low-level, kernel-specific - linux-specific - software as an "exception" to my statement.
here's my original assertion amended for the literal-minded who need to have everything spelled out for them:
the BSDs run the vast majority of the same general purpose software that you've become accustomed to under linux.
that said, though, it's also worth noting that at least one of the BSDs has a linux binary emulation layer which can run a lot of linux binaries.
my statement doesn't say nor imply that BSD can be used for "server stuff" only, nor is that the case in fact. "workstation" software like GUIs (including gnome and kde, etc.), mozilla, xmms, mplayer, etc. are available as well.
i use BSD on my laptop and most of my other computers as well; your perception that BSD is only for servers is as erroneous as that of a windows user who might believe the same to be true of linux.
in conclusion: while there is, of course, software specific to any given platform, the BSDs and linux, as "unix-like" operating systems, share the vast majority of the software that they run. for the vast majority of users (that is, users not tied to a platform-specific application), the BSDs are generally functionally equivalent to linux, and represent serious, mature, capable alternatives to that system.
"some distros suck more; the paradoxical thin[g] is that none of them suck less."
for me, the answer was to move to BSD. the BSDs - openbsd, freebsd, and netbsd - are excellent, free (in both senses), totally community-driven, unencumbered with the sort of corporate bullcrap that's going on in much of the linux world, and they run all the same software that you've become accustomed to under linux.
serious unix users owe it to themselves to check these systems out; they really are superb - if you doubt it, poke around netcraft for a while and see for yourself.
cheers,
- pete g
"This gives new meaning to 'I roxored your boxor,' except that it is your own boxor that is doing the roxoring."
if the boxor is roxoring, don't come a-knoxoring?
sorry. 8-)