This is making the assumption that everyone goal is to move everyone to Linux.
Very good point.
The goal, in fact, is to move everyone to Free Software. Frankly -- I couldn't really care less whether people use Windows, OS X, Linux, or BSD, or whatever. (Disclaimer: I use Linux.) Why could a port of KDE to Windows possibly be bad? It just means that more Free Software will be available to more people. Of course, in the long run we want people away from Windows -- or Windows to become Free Software! In my eyes, that's all that matters. Why does it have to be Linux? I happen to like Linux. Others may not. So what? If we can manage to get people to use more Free Software, we're making progress. That's what counts! So, please, while Linux is a wonderful thing, it is but a milestone toward more Free Software. (Of course, one of the most important ones, together with Mozilla, Apache, PHP, etc!)
Don't ask whether something helps or hurts Linux. Ask whether it helps or hurts Free Software.
Wow. You manage to find something negative in everything. Why not be a bit more positive and optimistic about it?
FYI, this is the ad that ran in the German well-known newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). This image is taken from an article in another well-respected German magazine called DER SPIEGEL. They've been reporting quite a lot about Firefox... and about this campaign. The ad text says:
FIRE! Together, hundreds of programmers develop a revolutionary Internet browser. The volunteer their time for it and then present it as a free gift to the whole world. Thereupon, 2403 people and companies finance this advertisement to tell you:
Firefox 1.0 is out. Free download at http://www.mozilla-europe.org/de/.
Well... I think these ads are a fantastic idea. And to get back to your point, I think that is utter nonsense. Look at the image I've linked to. Sure, there are a lot of names. But you won't get confused by them! But the large list symbolizes the power behind this open-source browser movement very well. And with the FIRE! at the top and the clear message, it manages to catch your eye and give you its information extremely well, I think.
It's OK to not be overly optimistic about anything, but please don't be so overly pessimistic either.
Assuming you're on a *nix system, I would recommend Pan. Nice GTK-based newsreader, and the only one for UNIX to get a perfect score on the Good Net-Keeping Seal of Approval evaluations. And it has all kinds of features for alt.binaries lurkers like you, for example yEnc support.
I dunno, personally I'd probably never use my email client as a news client as well. I kinda like the two things separate... for some reason I never liked the user interface of a combined mail/news reader. But I read my mail with mutt anyway, so I'm not really representative anywhere outside Slashdot...
That just reminds me of this song I heard recently:
Chorus:
In ten years we're gonna have one million lawyers
One million lawyers, one million lawyers
In ten years we're gonna have one million lawyers
How much can a poor nation stand
Humankind has survived some disasters for sure
Like locusts and flash floods and flu
There's never a moment when we've been secure
From the ills that the flesh is heir to
If it isn't a war it's some gruesome disease
If it isn't disease then it's war
But there's worse still to come, and I'm asking you, please
How the world's gonna take any more
The world shook with dread of Attila the Hun
As he conquered with fire and steel
And Genghis and Kubla and all of the Khans
Ground a groaning world under the heel
Disaster, disaster - so what else is new
We've suffered the worst, and then some
So I'm sorry to tell you, my suffering friends
Of the terrible scourge still to come
Oh, a suffering world cries for mercy
As far as the eye can see
Lawyers around every bend in the road
Lawyers in every tree
Lawyers in restaurants
Lawyers in clubs
Lawyers behind every door
Behind windows and potted plants
Shade trees and shrubs
Lawyers on pogo sticks
Lawyers in politics
In ten years we're gonna have one million lawyers
How much can a poor nation stand
In spring it's tornados and rampaging floods
In summer it's heat stroke and drought
There's Ivy League football to ruin the fall
It's a terrible scourge without doubt
There are blizzards to batter the shivering plain
There are dust storms that strike, but far worse
Is the threat of disaster to shrivel the brain
It's the threat of implacable curse
I'd like to repost (and slightly edit) a post of mine to an earlier discussion (aaargh, it's a dupe!!!:) ), mostly because I came a bit late in that other story, and so I did not receive any replies to my questions.
I am from Germany. We have about 61 million voters. Our elections are always held on Sundays. Our ballots are pen-and-paper. You mark a cross inside the circle next to your candidate/party. You put your ballot inside an envelope before you leave the booth (think about that, North Carolina!), and put it into the ballot box. The votes are then hand-counted at each polling place. The polling places close at 6pm. At exactly that time, TV station release the first projections based on their exit polls. As far as I know, they are usually within a margin of error of 1 to 1.5 percent (sic!). Correct me if I'm wrong there. At 11pm, the "preliminary official final results" are broadcast. These usually include 99 percent of all votes, with minor changes after that being accounted for within the next hours and normally not significant to the outcome. (Again, please correct me if I'm wrong here.) This system is simple, but has always (as far as I can remember) worked flawlessly. So I can not understand why there is even a need for electronic voting, or machines of any kind. Their only effect is to cause distrust -- especially if the systems can not be checked. Not that I'm all against electronic voting -- it could be nice to practically have an instantaneous result without hours of waiting. But that's just about the same argument as adding ActiveX to MSIE -- yeah, there's cool things you can do with it, but maybe the vulnerabilities outweigh the advantages?
I am currently in the States. I would love to line up with some appropriate organization (ACLU? Blackbox? EFF?) and at least advocate a federal effort for voting machine standardization, and for standardized testing and auditing methods as well as to form an independent body to conduct these audits. Can anyone point me to the right place to get involved? I'm a student, so I don't have a lot of money to give -- but at least I'd like to get informed better as a first step, and take it from there.
Oh, by the way, I should maybe mention that I am almost 100% certain that if Germany were to introduce electronic voting machines produced by some company, and that company's CEO would openly proclaim his support for a particular party, he could go find a new job.
I have to absolutely second that. I am from Germany. We have about 61 million voters. Our elections are always held on Sundays. Our ballots are pen-and-paper. You mark a cross inside the circle next to your candidate/party. You put your ballot inside an envelope before you leave the booth (think about that, North Carolina!), and put it into the ballot box. The votes are then hand-counted at each polling place. The polling places close at 6pm. At exactly that time, TV station release the first projections based on their exit polls. As far as I know, they are usually within a margin of error of 1 to 1.5 percent (sic!). Correct me if I'm wrong there. At 11pm, the "preliminary official final results" are broadcast. These usually include 99 percent of all votes, with minor changes after that being accounted for within the next hours and normally not significant to the outcome. (Again, please correct me if I'm wrong here.) This system is simple, but has always (as far as I can remember) worked flawlessly. So I can not understand why there is even a need for electronic voting, or machines of any kind. Their only effect is to cause distrust -- especially if the systems can not be checked.
I am currently in the States. I would love to line up with some appropriate organization (ACLU? Blackbox? EFF?) and at least advocate a federal effort for voting machine standardization, and for standardized testing and auditing methods as well as to form an independent body to conduct these audits. Can anyone point me to the right place to get involved? I'm a student, so I don't have a lot of money to give -- but at least I'd like to get informed better as a first step, and take it from there.
But remember, the moment you are allowed to cast a vote for the US president, by doing so you also legitimize his power over you. I'd rather vote for my German government and have that in power, thanks...
Regarding all the polls, in the past days I found this page pretty interesting. These guys collect all the polls that come out and provide a convenient map including different prediction methods for the final result.
The poll map there, of course, is not showing you much more than how close things actually are (this story from yesterday is an interesting read) -- but at least it gives you a good overview of what is going on.
By the way, maybe there are 735 bills a year. BUT it should be common sense to have some priorities, and it did seem clear to most people that the PATRIOT act was something bigger as, say, the latest bill "recognizing the accomplishments and loyal service of XYZ" (there's quite a bunch of those, check loc.gov). So it is CLEARLY not required for them to read all 735. But it is also obvious that priorities are important.
But we shouldn't really be arguing too much about this, because even though I like the job Moore is doing, we must recognize that he also knows where to spin facts and exaggerate things to make his overall point.
What you need to do is to stop terrorists at their source not after they've gotten their goods into the harbours.
Exactly. What you need to do is to stop terrorists at their source, and not terrorize your own people by hurting their privacy rights.
Tough statement, I know, but really just a logical conclusion from your argument...
Besides that (and back more on-topic, sorry), I think in this case the nomenclature is just unfortunate with the customs department being part of the DHS. On the other hand, look what this did to the shop owner... scare tactics at work.
Remember, there is a difference between clicking on an article link and then actually reading the article. I'm sure everyone clicks the link... it's just that 90% of slashdotters hit the back button about 2 nanoseconds later.:)
Did anyone else think that Kerry(*) is shooting himself in the foot by consistently providing the shortest, least specific answers? I mean, I'm definitely not someone who would vote for Bush, but can Kerry really think that his one-line or one-paragraph answers can do any good to his campaign? This weighs in even more when you consider that Bush's(*) answers were relatively long and attempted to explain his government's policy. So at least, in a way, they were -real- answers.
Question 11 was especially interesting. Nader(*) kind-of answered the question, but Kerry just pasted some general blurb. And it's even more interesting (and revealing?) that Bush declined to answer this one...
Actually, I would really like to see a network-connected board version of the game. Play on a (slightly electronically enhanced) standard board, connected to the Internet. I just think it's so much nicer to play this game on an actual board... maybe with one or two friends, and one or two more via the net:)
I think the live streams are quite useful. I'm from germany myself, but currently in the US. I regularly listen to German news radio stations via the net and watch the German 'Tagesschau' news stream. So technically, I think it's fine to have to pay for it if I do the same thing in Germany (which I did sometimes when I had missed the eight o'clock news). I'm not entirely happy with these stations' programming, but still, I'd actually rather pay these fees than see these stations drown in advertisement bullshit as well, just like the private stations...
Apparently the Heliodisplay is not related to the 3DSolar stuff. It looks interesting nonetheless, but all this 3D display stuff so far has kind of a 'flying car' feel to it. Guess I'll have to see some more substantial reports to believe in it.
May be one of those thousands of employees belongs to al-quada and wants to slip in some malicious code. It would be difficult but I would not say that it's impossible.
May be one of those millions of open-source developers belongs to al-Quaeda and wants to slip in some malicious code. It would be difficult but I would not say that it's impossible.
So there. Your argument does not work.
And besides, can we please cut this completely off-topic terrorist paranoia crap?
I think it would help just not to give all the electorate votes of a state to majority in that state, but instead split it up, like Colorado intends to, and Nebraska and Maine already do. Because let's face it, under the winner-take-all scheme, if your vote was not for the majority, it is effectively not counted.
You might want to look at this paper. It's relevant to what you are suggesting and additionally allows the human to verify his vote was actually counted for.
Slashdot Mirror
Very good point.
The goal, in fact, is to move everyone to Free Software. Frankly -- I couldn't really care less whether people use Windows, OS X, Linux, or BSD, or whatever. (Disclaimer: I use Linux.) Why could a port of KDE to Windows possibly be bad? It just means that more Free Software will be available to more people. Of course, in the long run we want people away from Windows -- or Windows to become Free Software! In my eyes, that's all that matters. Why does it have to be Linux? I happen to like Linux. Others may not. So what? If we can manage to get people to use more Free Software, we're making progress. That's what counts! So, please, while Linux is a wonderful thing, it is but a milestone toward more Free Software. (Of course, one of the most important ones, together with Mozilla, Apache, PHP, etc!)
Don't ask whether something helps or hurts Linux. Ask whether it helps or hurts Free Software.
Wow, that's gotta be a new one! A Dupe of another comment in a Dupe of another story. Not bad, Mister Coward!
Of course, it was suggested...
Wow. You manage to find something negative in everything. Why not be a bit more positive and optimistic about it?
FYI, this is the ad that ran in the German well-known newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). This image is taken from an article in another well-respected German magazine called DER SPIEGEL. They've been reporting quite a lot about Firefox... and about this campaign. The ad text says:
Well... I think these ads are a fantastic idea. And to get back to your point, I think that is utter nonsense. Look at the image I've linked to. Sure, there are a lot of names. But you won't get confused by them! But the large list symbolizes the power behind this open-source browser movement very well. And with the FIRE! at the top and the clear message, it manages to catch your eye and give you its information extremely well, I think.
It's OK to not be overly optimistic about anything, but please don't be so overly pessimistic either.
Assuming you're on a *nix system, I would recommend Pan. Nice GTK-based newsreader, and the only one for UNIX to get a perfect score on the Good Net-Keeping Seal of Approval evaluations. And it has all kinds of features for alt.binaries lurkers like you, for example yEnc support.
I dunno, personally I'd probably never use my email client as a news client as well. I kinda like the two things separate... for some reason I never liked the user interface of a combined mail/news reader. But I read my mail with mutt anyway, so I'm not really representative anywhere outside Slashdot...
That just reminds me of this song I heard recently:
All they have RELEASED so far is concept art.
Wow.
Then why the hell would anyone in their right mind vote for something they've never seen?!?
I mean, do you sign a contract from some door-to-door salesman that you weren't allowed to read beforehand?
The sarcastic me thinks that it might be exactly the same people that voted for Bush who might do just that.
I'd like to repost (and slightly edit) a post of mine to an earlier discussion (aaargh, it's a dupe!!! :) ), mostly because I came a bit late in that other story, and so I did not receive any replies to my questions.
I am from Germany. We have about 61 million voters. Our elections are always held on Sundays. Our ballots are pen-and-paper. You mark a cross inside the circle next to your candidate/party. You put your ballot inside an envelope before you leave the booth (think about that, North Carolina!), and put it into the ballot box. The votes are then hand-counted at each polling place. The polling places close at 6pm. At exactly that time, TV station release the first projections based on their exit polls. As far as I know, they are usually within a margin of error of 1 to 1.5 percent (sic!). Correct me if I'm wrong there. At 11pm, the "preliminary official final results" are broadcast. These usually include 99 percent of all votes, with minor changes after that being accounted for within the next hours and normally not significant to the outcome. (Again, please correct me if I'm wrong here.) This system is simple, but has always (as far as I can remember) worked flawlessly. So I can not understand why there is even a need for electronic voting, or machines of any kind. Their only effect is to cause distrust -- especially if the systems can not be checked. Not that I'm all against electronic voting -- it could be nice to practically have an instantaneous result without hours of waiting. But that's just about the same argument as adding ActiveX to MSIE -- yeah, there's cool things you can do with it, but maybe the vulnerabilities outweigh the advantages?
I am currently in the States. I would love to line up with some appropriate organization (ACLU? Blackbox? EFF?) and at least advocate a federal effort for voting machine standardization, and for standardized testing and auditing methods as well as to form an independent body to conduct these audits. Can anyone point me to the right place to get involved? I'm a student, so I don't have a lot of money to give -- but at least I'd like to get informed better as a first step, and take it from there.
Oh, by the way, I should maybe mention that I am almost 100% certain that if Germany were to introduce electronic voting machines produced by some company, and that company's CEO would openly proclaim his support for a particular party, he could go find a new job.
I have to absolutely second that. I am from Germany. We have about 61 million voters. Our elections are always held on Sundays. Our ballots are pen-and-paper. You mark a cross inside the circle next to your candidate/party. You put your ballot inside an envelope before you leave the booth (think about that, North Carolina!), and put it into the ballot box. The votes are then hand-counted at each polling place. The polling places close at 6pm. At exactly that time, TV station release the first projections based on their exit polls. As far as I know, they are usually within a margin of error of 1 to 1.5 percent (sic!). Correct me if I'm wrong there. At 11pm, the "preliminary official final results" are broadcast. These usually include 99 percent of all votes, with minor changes after that being accounted for within the next hours and normally not significant to the outcome. (Again, please correct me if I'm wrong here.) This system is simple, but has always (as far as I can remember) worked flawlessly. So I can not understand why there is even a need for electronic voting, or machines of any kind. Their only effect is to cause distrust -- especially if the systems can not be checked.
I am currently in the States. I would love to line up with some appropriate organization (ACLU? Blackbox? EFF?) and at least advocate a federal effort for voting machine standardization, and for standardized testing and auditing methods as well as to form an independent body to conduct these audits. Can anyone point me to the right place to get involved? I'm a student, so I don't have a lot of money to give -- but at least I'd like to get informed better as a first step, and take it from there.
It was UNIVAC.
(btw, this took all of a Google search on "computer 1952 election".)
But remember, the moment you are allowed to cast a vote for the US president, by doing so you also legitimize his power over you. I'd rather vote for my German government and have that in power, thanks...
Regarding all the polls, in the past days I found this page pretty interesting. These guys collect all the polls that come out and provide a convenient map including different prediction methods for the final result.
The poll map there, of course, is not showing you much more than how close things actually are (this story from yesterday is an interesting read) -- but at least it gives you a good overview of what is going on.
No. You'd expect him to abstain.
By the way, maybe there are 735 bills a year. BUT it should be common sense to have some priorities, and it did seem clear to most people that the PATRIOT act was something bigger as, say, the latest bill "recognizing the accomplishments and loyal service of XYZ" (there's quite a bunch of those, check loc.gov). So it is CLEARLY not required for them to read all 735. But it is also obvious that priorities are important.
But we shouldn't really be arguing too much about this, because even though I like the job Moore is doing, we must recognize that he also knows where to spin facts and exaggerate things to make his overall point.
Exactly. What you need to do is to stop terrorists at their source, and not terrorize your own people by hurting their privacy rights.
Tough statement, I know, but really just a logical conclusion from your argument...
Besides that (and back more on-topic, sorry), I think in this case the nomenclature is just unfortunate with the customs department being part of the DHS. On the other hand, look what this did to the shop owner... scare tactics at work.
Solar cells are definitely gonna be useless, I think... I mean we're talking about winter here...
Remember, there is a difference between clicking on an article link and then actually reading the article. I'm sure everyone clicks the link... it's just that 90% of slashdotters hit the back button about 2 nanoseconds later. :)
Did anyone else think that Kerry(*) is shooting himself in the foot by consistently providing the shortest, least specific answers? I mean, I'm definitely not someone who would vote for Bush, but can Kerry really think that his one-line or one-paragraph answers can do any good to his campaign? This weighs in even more when you consider that Bush's(*) answers were relatively long and attempted to explain his government's policy. So at least, in a way, they were -real- answers.
:)
Question 11 was especially interesting. Nader(*) kind-of answered the question, but Kerry just pasted some general blurb. And it's even more interesting (and revealing?) that Bush declined to answer this one...
(*) or their respective ghostwriters of course
Actually, I would really like to see a network-connected board version of the game. Play on a (slightly electronically enhanced) standard board, connected to the Internet. I just think it's so much nicer to play this game on an actual board... maybe with one or two friends, and one or two more via the net :)
I think the live streams are quite useful. I'm from germany myself, but currently in the US. I regularly listen to German news radio stations via the net and watch the German 'Tagesschau' news stream. So technically, I think it's fine to have to pay for it if I do the same thing in Germany (which I did sometimes when I had missed the eight o'clock news). I'm not entirely happy with these stations' programming, but still, I'd actually rather pay these fees than see these stations drown in advertisement bullshit as well, just like the private stations...
Apparently the Heliodisplay is not related to the 3DSolar stuff. It looks interesting nonetheless, but all this 3D display stuff so far has kind of a 'flying car' feel to it. Guess I'll have to see some more substantial reports to believe in it.
I suppose, then, whatever standards the IETF make don't matter either?
Good thing they never had any impact, whatsoever, on reality. You should just be glad that these IP, TCP, and HTTP things happen to work with IE...
Troll.
You mean a Beowulf cluster of optical illusions?
Forgive me.
May be one of those millions of open-source developers belongs to al-Quaeda and wants to slip in some malicious code. It would be difficult but I would not say that it's impossible.
So there. Your argument does not work.
And besides, can we please cut this completely off-topic terrorist paranoia crap?
I think it would help just not to give all the electorate votes of a state to majority in that state, but instead split it up, like Colorado intends to, and Nebraska and Maine already do. Because let's face it, under the winner-take-all scheme, if your vote was not for the majority, it is effectively not counted.
You might want to look at this paper. It's relevant to what you are suggesting and additionally allows the human to verify his vote was actually counted for.