Uuuuh? You think that someone who's attempting to do something is cooler than someone with an actual finished product, that you can build yourself right now as the designer's have published the software & hardware schematics?
Seriously? What makes this kid's attempt at something much cooler than eyebeam's table?
what has Microsoft done wrong with this? What has the ISO body done wrong?
Frankly this is obvious to anyone who's read anything about this - I'm going to assume you're a troll if you're still asking the question.
Just in case you're not trolling; ISO standards should be independently implementable by anyone. OOXML cannot be independently implemented. Therefor MS should not have submitted & ISO body should not have approved.
it will most likely just be used for more nuclear weapons simulations [emph mine]
The majority (but not all) supercomputers on the top 500 supercomputer list are related not to nuclear weapons research, but meteorological/oceanographic & other scientific uses.
This, of course, relies on the fact that ships WANT to get away from whales - but couldn't a whaling ship use this to home in on its prey?
I don't think there's a helluva lot of Norwegian & Japanese whaling inside Massachusetts Bay.
then instead of ridiculous chases across the Southern Ocean environmental activists could simply charter a plane and drop thousands of the things around known whale migratory zones.
The area of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is 50 million square kilometers. I don't think your solution is particularly practical.
Seriously, can they just make an ubuntu-hippie distro? I understand that some of these problems have legal issues around them,
I don't think you do understand the legal issues. Ubuntu can't legally redistribute. Philosophy / OSS fundamentalism / Debian mentality doesn't come into it.
If the NSA can listen in, then PGP isn't doing their job.
It's got to be decrypted at one end of the other - there's not much PGP can do about a compromised terminal, keyloggers, passive listening devices (reconstructing passwords from the sound of keyboard tapping), etc.
Basically, a well-resourced, determined attacked doesn't have to crack PGP itself.
Is it possible that lawyers don't even know about PGP?"
Is it possible that the submitter doesn't even know about keyloggers, passive listening devices (for phones), compromised encryption binaries, vulnerabilities in protocols, etc?
If the goddamn NSA can't snoop on an encrypted conversation between a lawyer & client, then frankly, they're not doing their job
Read-write is also easy, but a little riskier (do you really want Windows to prompt you to reformat your root partition if it wasn't unmounted cleanly?)
Or possible Mac, it is still more user friendly then Ubuntu.
Or mac, which is indeed, more user friendly than Ubuntu.
However. Even with a mac, you're going to have to explain how to do a bunch of stuff. Just because, it's, well, different from what they're used to.
Honestly, if seriously all you're doing is surfing, IMing & emailing, Ubuntu is just as good as a mac. (and alot cheaper if you've got some compatible hardware lying around.)
Yeah well, I have a girlfriend too, and all she ever does on a computer is watch music videos on YouTube, write e-mails and chat on MSN
And how well do you think your girlfriend would go on a vanilla windows install with no flash installed, MSN account not setup, etc?
If the article's author had setup flash / pidgin / explained the difference between GIMP & Open Office draw, his girlfriend would have had few problems.
I'd suggest to you (honestly) - that if all your gf really does is youtube, mail & chat, then she'd be much better off on Ubuntu than windows.
If they go by popularity in terms of the number of visits, I'm guessing that the entries like 'breast' and 'lesbianism in erotica' are very likely to make the final cut. But will it include all the pictures?
My kneejerk reaction is that if only 5% of the sale price ends up in the pockets of Wikimedia: that sounds a little thin to me
My kneejerk reaction is that if nothing is required to be contributed back to Wikimedia, then 5% is awesome!
Remember wikipedia's content is licensed under the GNU FDL, which states:
The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document "free" in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially.
I will illustrate your point, with an example I saw on CNN:
But you don't really illustrate the point - the OP was talking about scientists, and you illustrated the point with a story about a journalist and an environmental activist.
Slashdot Mirror
GrandParent: I can't name a single significant open source project that originated as an OS X-only application but now runs on Linux, for example.
You: Um, how about KHTML, which started open source [emph mine]
Do you know what originated means?
And he used a Mac. Much cooler.
Uuuuh? You think that someone who's attempting to do something is cooler than someone with an actual finished product, that you can build yourself right now as the designer's have published the software & hardware schematics?
Seriously? What makes this kid's attempt at something much cooler than eyebeam's table?
(Oh, and your name is like my sig)
what has Microsoft done wrong with this? What has the ISO body done wrong?
Frankly this is obvious to anyone who's read anything about this - I'm going to assume you're a troll if you're still asking the question.
Just in case you're not trolling; ISO standards should be independently implementable by anyone. OOXML cannot be independently implemented. Therefor MS should not have submitted & ISO body should not have approved.
1) Commuters drag their phone with them everywhere.
2) Commuters stuck on public transport for over three hours a day crave portable entertainment.
3) Sell Commuters entertainment they can watch on a device they're already carrying.
4) Who cares if we profit from this? We're a monopoly. We'll find another way to screw consumers if this fails.
Yeah, but what about those NOT on the list...
I'd speculate that most of them would be doing crypto-breaking rather than nuclear weapons simulations.
it will most likely just be used for more nuclear weapons simulations [emph mine]
The majority (but not all) supercomputers on the top 500 supercomputer list are related not to nuclear weapons research, but meteorological/oceanographic & other scientific uses.
This, of course, relies on the fact that ships WANT to get away from whales - but couldn't a whaling ship use this to home in on its prey?
I don't think there's a helluva lot of Norwegian & Japanese whaling inside Massachusetts Bay.
then instead of ridiculous chases across the Southern Ocean environmental activists could simply charter a plane and drop thousands of the things around known whale migratory zones.
The area of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary is 50 million square kilometers. I don't think your solution is particularly practical.
Linux on the desktop is trying to be like (or catch up to) Windows,
I take it you've never used gnome? It borrows ideas from OS X, beos, OS/2, etc.
Seriously, can they just make an ubuntu-hippie distro? I understand that some of these problems have legal issues around them,
I don't think you do understand the legal issues. Ubuntu can't legally redistribute. Philosophy / OSS fundamentalism / Debian mentality doesn't come into it.
If the NSA can listen in, then PGP isn't doing their job.
It's got to be decrypted at one end of the other - there's not much PGP can do about a compromised terminal, keyloggers, passive listening devices (reconstructing passwords from the sound of keyboard tapping), etc.
Basically, a well-resourced, determined attacked doesn't have to crack PGP itself.
Is it possible that lawyers don't even know about PGP?"
Is it possible that the submitter doesn't even know about keyloggers, passive listening devices (for phones), compromised encryption binaries, vulnerabilities in protocols, etc?
If the goddamn NSA can't snoop on an encrypted conversation between a lawyer & client, then frankly, they're not doing their job
Is that even possible?
Read only is easy. And quite possibly safe.
Read-write is also easy, but a little riskier (do you really want Windows to prompt you to reformat your root partition if it wasn't unmounted cleanly?)
Or possible Mac, it is still more user friendly then Ubuntu.
Or mac, which is indeed, more user friendly than Ubuntu.
However. Even with a mac, you're going to have to explain how to do a bunch of stuff. Just because, it's, well, different from what they're used to.
Honestly, if seriously all you're doing is surfing, IMing & emailing, Ubuntu is just as good as a mac. (and alot cheaper if you've got some compatible hardware lying around.)
Around 1/2 a megabyte. Yup. That big.
(Front Page?)
I think Windows achieved 12 out of 12 at least 5 or 6 years ago!
I'd love to see the same test done a default current (let alone 5 or 6 years old!) windows install.
Advanced image manipulation? Torrents? Finding stuff on a non-windows-format partition? I doubt it.
Yeah well, I have a girlfriend too, and all she ever does on a computer is watch music videos on YouTube, write e-mails and chat on MSN
And how well do you think your girlfriend would go on a vanilla windows install with no flash installed, MSN account not setup, etc?
If the article's author had setup flash / pidgin / explained the difference between GIMP & Open Office draw, his girlfriend would have had few problems.
I'd suggest to you (honestly) - that if all your gf really does is youtube, mail & chat, then she'd be much better off on Ubuntu than windows.
Indeed sir, you are correct.
Kudos to Kubuntu; Panegnyric to Ubuntu.
1) Use internet. Successful.
2) Watch youtube. Unsuccessful. No Flash.
3) Use torrent. Successful (but this is not a novice user task)
4) Draw pic. 1/2 Successful. Chose wrong tool.
5) Burn music. Unsuccessful
6) Mouse speed change. Successful.
7) Theme change. Successful.
8) Desktop background change. Successful.
9) Scree resolution change. Unsuccessful.
10) Advanced image manipulation. Successful
11) MSN. Unsuccessful
12) Install & Use skype. Successful.
Note, the problem with 5) burning music was not the actual burning, but finding the mp3s on a windows partition.
So, 8/12. (maybe 9.5/12)
To be honest, I've seen experience computer users have more trouble doing the above tasks when switching from windows to OS X.
Kudos to Ubuntu.
The general public will not know what "geometric" means*.
This Captcha suffers from the same old problem. As Captchas get harder more humans will fail them.
*or annotate... or centre
If they go by popularity in terms of the number of visits, I'm guessing that the entries like 'breast' and 'lesbianism in erotica' are very likely to make the final cut. But will it include all the pictures?
If you're going to talk about breasts, at least include clickies: Breast & lesbianism in erotica.
Both of those articles are NSFW & fascinating examples of the more subtle form of wiki trolling that seems to be becoming more prevalent.
My kneejerk reaction is that if nothing is required to be contributed back to Wikimedia, then 5% is awesome!
Remember wikipedia's content is licensed under the GNU FDL, which states:
I wonder if they're going to grow that ear on a mouse.
Let me get this clear.
I have never met a vegan who arrived there for a different reason than animal welfare.
So, every single vegan you've met would be happy to eat cloned meat provided there was no animal involved?
I will illustrate your point, with an example I saw on CNN:
But you don't really illustrate the point - the OP was talking about scientists, and you illustrated the point with a story about a journalist and an environmental activist.
Oh - and can you pls link to the CNN article?
There is never any point finishing a car analogy on slashdot....