The main problem with communism and free software is that, in order to get get to the blissful anarchy that Marx promises, you need a period of totalitarian management to restructure from the existing system to the new one. Unfortunately, absolute power corrupts asolutely, and you're stuck with a totalitarian system that doesn't want to give up.
That is a sign of hipocricy and lack of fundamental understanding of what you're preaching. I'm not saying your analogy with communism is a good one though, because it's a too loaded and misunderstood concept. I have yet to see RMS sue anybody/sticking guns to their heads for not calling their software GNU/whatever.
But in general, whoever wants to make really great changes in society should live what one preaches, be a great example. There are plenty of those in modern times, Mother Theresa, Mahatma Ghandi and Dalai Lama being a nice selection of famous examples. There are many others, although much more anonymous and subtle. Live life, don't just talk about it. (Which is one of the reasons I'm considering stopping reading and posting on/.)
Yeah, a decent movie, except for the horrible hollywoodish ending. I mean, come on! How can anyone destroy a movie so easily. These guys can't sleep well at night. It's like they KNOW you're not going to turn off the VCR, even though afterwards you'll regret it.
Ditto that. As long as several such posts don't get moderated up, I have no problem with this. I'm sure the previous poster said something like this because he's struggling to get above 0 karma or something.
Good points on both of you. I'd just like to add that you've hit the nail on the head. Humanity needs an upgrade. People will have to realize their power and take responsibility. I don't think your conclusion about who to pay and not is impractical at all. After all, it works for you doesn't it? Likewise, people will have to reach their own conclusions. This is already happening. As evidence I point to all the ethical discussion that are taking place in society on a more frequent basis nowadays. I don't believe the top-to-bottom power hierarchy is going to survive the future. That is, people will have to start policing themselves, and they will want to. After all, we are our own best judge and jury, as long as we're made aware of what we are and what we're doing. But it also requires willingess to help those that are repressed and ignorant. Make them realize how to break out of it etc. It's a very big and complex issue, but it seems to be happening. Old patterns break every day. It's going to be harder and harder for those who resist the changes.
Many people view these times as the end of the world. However, I believe all the events happening are just to make people more free. That is ironic, but necessary. Just like a depressed person, society needs to reach its low in order to find strength and courage to break completely free. It doesn't have to be that way though.
Some may argue that some people can't be helped, they're just plain evil/stupid/lazy. However, if you really get to know them, you'll change those prejudiced opinions real fast. There'll always be differences, that is part of the charm. To learn to appreciate helping others though, we'll need to learn to differentiate comfortableness and happiness.
I don't expect anyone to take these ideas at face value. They're just ideas to make you think wider (hopefully).
Wow, that practically sums up all our points against RH, evil company behemoth. Let's rally against Loki. Kick them in the nads while they're lying down!
Since you're reading this, it means you're also having this opinion. Wether you like it or not!;*)
(Frankly, I couldn't care less about either RH or Loki going down in flames or rising to the sky.)
Dmitry is a russian, but currently he can't leave Northern California. He's on bail. A $50,000 bond portrays him as a bad-ass criminal. Obviously, doing his job was a bad excuse. They didn't arrest his boss though.
Sorry, I thought you were saying capitalists wouldn't do it. I may have read too many "free market" and "true capitlist" posts lately..;-) Sorry.
However, instead of focusing on flaws in other people. How about focusing on their good qualities?:-) Focus on negativity is a self-fullfilling prophecy.
Thanks for a very sensible reply. I'll try to return your courtesy.
I think you have a great point. Some group-think is powerful these days. For instance, at work we act out what's in the best interest for our company often disregarding thought-processes that we would have if we were to make the decision for ourselves as opposed to our employer.
As you said, there are many groups and levels. The biggest group is that of the whole populace of earth (that we know of). Then we have the national level, the city level, the suburb level, the local community level, immediate relationships and yourself. (These levels are of course not set in stone, and the possible hierarchy much more complex.) Many people don't have a healthy balance between these. In fact, relatively new entities called 'workplace' and 'bussiness' seems to be predominant in our priorities - of attention, faith and support.
It can even be argued that individual thinking does not exist. It's a matter of definition and beliefs though, so let's leave that open.
When speaking about individual power, I don't speak of the same power that so-called rich and powerful people talk about - the power to rule over others. Individual power is power over your own life-experience. It basically means that whatever happens to you, should only move you from your center if you let it. Why do you think Tibetan munks said to forgive the chinese invaders for looting, murdering and raping? They have it.
Today, few people are in the center. They are imbalanced and believe that a good outer experience is necessary to be happy. Our entire society works on this principle - feverishness for ones desires and cravings. However, instead of creating happiness and abundance it creates ill feelings, scarcity and an endless chase for good outer experiences. Many people actually believe humans live solely for that chase. That we'll stagnate if we don't do it. We're already stagnant, spiritually. We've come a long way technically, but without proper grounding it threatens our very existance.
This mentality is also a group mentality that we're stuck in. To get out of it, we have to follow another group mentality. A more positive, one that puts faith in humans. However, a person should follow a mentalities with awareness. Through breath-exercises, yoga and meditation you can raise that awareness about your everyday life. Being aware and observing releases bad habits. (This you can try) I recommend finding someone to teach you breath exercises and that can follow you up.
Why do people smoke? To feel good, but it lasts only for a very short time. In fact, most bad habits are like that and they worsen the situation for the individual, creating a mental addiction. Through awareness in everyday life, in time, you can much more easily break those habits. Just observe what you're doing.
I'm living this right now, this is not just some words embedded in HTML. Raising awareness, observing, breaking bad habits and limitations will improve your life quality. It requires to find a good teacher/group to do it with though. There are many powerful techniques that will work if you let them.
Why should I spend research time on some obscure process that has already been patented but not formalized? I would still have to license the technology that I did my research on! You talked about unfair? I talk about stifling research.
Therefore, I completely disagree with you. Software technology is not like chemistry, and shouldn't adhere to the same rules. You can only stretch an analogy so far, and in this case it snapped. Or else, would you REALLY like software engineering to become even more black arts and enshrouded in mystery as it already is? Is it good to have robber barons with lots of CPU-power get monopoly on not-yet-understood algorithms and ideas? An algorithm like that is completely worthless in most scenarios. Of course we should use our common sense to discriminate between what cases. Ie, text-to-speech will never be perfect.
I still think it's a neat idea though. But this patenting computer-made ideas just keeps screaming RAMBUS! in my poor ears.. People have come up with all sorts of get-rich-by-doing-nothing schemes. None of these are a benefit to humanity and society, except as a moral lesson. We'll see what sorts of patent they release though. I know patents can be a necessary evil.
I really have little-to-no clue about GA, although I tried to make something like this a couple of years back using x86 assembly. I believe the problem is ultimately one of processing power. Nature, as magnificent as it is, has tremendous computing power and detail. So, whatever we accomplish with our clunky serial/SMP processors (a tiny part of the universe) today is not comparable at all.
Nature being very flexible, could also speed up evolution by changing the evolving process itself. This is opposed to our computers and software, which remain pretty static.
However, just like you. I cannot really understand how everything has come to be just because of evolution. And if I can accept that I possess a mind, why shouldn't I be able to accept that there might be a bigger mind of some sorts behind the universe? To me, the essential building block of the universe seems to be consciousness - the dreamer. However, I'm perfectly aware that this only remains an idea/concept and shouldn't stop us from searching for more scientific or other spiritual answers.
Re:The Great Microsoft Problem
on
Windows in 2020
·
· Score: 1
No. Please don't blame this on capitalism bogging down or the system failing. I agree with your claims, but they are just too superficial. Any system is given life by its participants. It's WE as human beings that are failing to support the system. We have lost faith in the political and commercial process.
Your very complaint about prices on processors and coke, really shows where the problem is. No wonder the system is going down when everyone is focusing on such trivial luxury "problems" in their everyday life. Do you really believe you would be happy if just the prices on processors would cut in half? At what cost to the employees? No sweat, in a year it will be. Have patience.
Imagine you did get all that you crave for. What really matters to you? I bet you could discard all those things, that thing would still be there.
Bullshit. For real efficiancy Freenet should be coded and optimized in Assembly. Those who say that you need to pick the right algorithm is simply wrong. Just code in Assembly and you'll come out allright. If it's too slow, just optimize the code some more.
Win2k would be as good choice as Linux IMHO. I run it now (with Service Pack 2 or something;*), and it runs beautifully. The only problem I have is that I probably need to upgrade/patch IE too. IE doesn't seem stable out-of-the-box.
NT on the other hand shouldn't be touched with a long pole for anything critical. I use it at work, and long for the day we'll install Win2k.
I usually get any OS to crash horribly, due to all the configuration tweaking and installations I usually do. So that I like Win2k along with Linux count for something. I like to think so anyways. Maybe I'm biased, I really didn't expect much from Win2k before I tried it.
It's been an argument I've used for a while now. Any human authority system, even as close to ideals as possible is corruptable. People will find ways like water will errode rocks. Sure, a great leader may ensure stability for a while, but the world is always shifting and changing.
The differences between countries and governments is often not the system, but mentality of the people. That's why the people in russia gets abused time and time again. It's in their mentality/karma. It's also why there are so many wars at Balkan. The people there have a different mentality/history.
So, what needs to change is your mentality. The world can be nasty, but are you part of the problem or part of the solution? Think about that.
I know (except for the sueing part). I just wanted to counter-argument obviously false claims. Free software is just that, the software is free but not the people. It's a great concept to counter proprietary software, but I think people should stop seeing this as a war. Using patents to extend the GPL, breaks the spirit of the GPL and is just part of a war I don't want any part in.
Slashdot Mirror
Haha! You didn't get his joke. The joke is all on you! Unless.... your reply was also a joke. Then it's all on me... Aooouuucchh! d;*P
Lesson: Everything's a joke. Don't be so serious or you won't get it.
- Steeltoe
The main problem with communism and free software is that, in order to get get to the blissful anarchy that Marx promises, you need a period of totalitarian management to restructure from the existing system to the new one. Unfortunately, absolute power corrupts asolutely, and you're stuck with a totalitarian system that doesn't want to give up.
/.)
That is a sign of hipocricy and lack of fundamental understanding of what you're preaching. I'm not saying your analogy with communism is a good one though, because it's a too loaded and misunderstood concept. I have yet to see RMS sue anybody/sticking guns to their heads for not calling their software GNU/whatever.
But in general, whoever wants to make really great changes in society should live what one preaches, be a great example. There are plenty of those in modern times, Mother Theresa, Mahatma Ghandi and Dalai Lama being a nice selection of famous examples. There are many others, although much more anonymous and subtle. Live life, don't just talk about it. (Which is one of the reasons I'm considering stopping reading and posting on
- Steeltoe
It's funny to read both your posts and realize that you're both prejudiced and uninformative. Cheers! Keep it up ;-)
- Steeltoe
Then it's your job to say what you think about the matter. If you speak the truth, eventually people will listen.
- Steeltoe
Yeah, a decent movie, except for the horrible hollywoodish ending. I mean, come on! How can anyone destroy a movie so easily. These guys can't sleep well at night. It's like they KNOW you're not going to turn off the VCR, even though afterwards you'll regret it.
- Steeltoe
Earth has more than enough energy to support us in millions of years to come, if we just learn to cooperate with her and eachother.
- Steeltoe
Tell that to Jon Johansen in Norway who contributed in making DeCSS.
- Steeltoe
Ditto that. As long as several such posts don't get moderated up, I have no problem with this. I'm sure the previous poster said something like this because he's struggling to get above 0 karma or something.
- Steeltoe
Microserf: "We'll turn the Personal Computer into a Network Computer. FINALLY, we can conq..."
Open Source Zealot (covering his ears): "LALALALALALALALALALALALA!"
Frankly, people should quit complaining and start coding.
- Steeltoe
Good points on both of you. I'd just like to add that you've hit the nail on the head. Humanity needs an upgrade. People will have to realize their power and take responsibility. I don't think your conclusion about who to pay and not is impractical at all. After all, it works for you doesn't it? Likewise, people will have to reach their own conclusions. This is already happening. As evidence I point to all the ethical discussion that are taking place in society on a more frequent basis nowadays. I don't believe the top-to-bottom power hierarchy is going to survive the future. That is, people will have to start policing themselves, and they will want to. After all, we are our own best judge and jury, as long as we're made aware of what we are and what we're doing. But it also requires willingess to help those that are repressed and ignorant. Make them realize how to break out of it etc. It's a very big and complex issue, but it seems to be happening. Old patterns break every day. It's going to be harder and harder for those who resist the changes.
Many people view these times as the end of the world. However, I believe all the events happening are just to make people more free. That is ironic, but necessary. Just like a depressed person, society needs to reach its low in order to find strength and courage to break completely free. It doesn't have to be that way though.
Some may argue that some people can't be helped, they're just plain evil/stupid/lazy. However, if you really get to know them, you'll change those prejudiced opinions real fast. There'll always be differences, that is part of the charm. To learn to appreciate helping others though, we'll need to learn to differentiate comfortableness and happiness.
I don't expect anyone to take these ideas at face value. They're just ideas to make you think wider (hopefully).
- Steeltoe
Yeah, that'd be great. +1 Troll +1 Troll +1 Flamebait ;-)
- Steeltoe
Wow, that practically sums up all our points against RH, evil company behemoth. Let's rally against Loki. Kick them in the nads while they're lying down!
;*)
Since you're reading this, it means you're also having this opinion. Wether you like it or not!
(Frankly, I couldn't care less about either RH or Loki going down in flames or rising to the sky.)
- Steeltoe
Dmitry is a russian, but currently he can't leave Northern California. He's on bail. A $50,000 bond portrays him as a bad-ass criminal. Obviously, doing his job was a bad excuse. They didn't arrest his boss though.
- Steeltoe
Sorry, I thought you were saying capitalists wouldn't do it. I may have read too many "free market" and "true capitlist" posts lately.. ;-) Sorry.
:-) Focus on negativity is a self-fullfilling prophecy.
However, instead of focusing on flaws in other people. How about focusing on their good qualities?
- Steeltoe
Thanks for a very sensible reply. I'll try to return your courtesy.
I think you have a great point. Some group-think is powerful these days. For instance, at work we act out what's in the best interest for our company often disregarding thought-processes that we would have if we were to make the decision for ourselves as opposed to our employer.
As you said, there are many groups and levels. The biggest group is that of the whole populace of earth (that we know of). Then we have the national level, the city level, the suburb level, the local community level, immediate relationships and yourself. (These levels are of course not set in stone, and the possible hierarchy much more complex.) Many people don't have a healthy balance between these. In fact, relatively new entities called 'workplace' and 'bussiness' seems to be predominant in our priorities - of attention, faith and support.
It can even be argued that individual thinking does not exist. It's a matter of definition and beliefs though, so let's leave that open.
When speaking about individual power, I don't speak of the same power that so-called rich and powerful people talk about - the power to rule over others. Individual power is power over your own life-experience. It basically means that whatever happens to you, should only move you from your center if you let it. Why do you think Tibetan munks said to forgive the chinese invaders for looting, murdering and raping? They have it.
Today, few people are in the center. They are imbalanced and believe that a good outer experience is necessary to be happy. Our entire society works on this principle - feverishness for ones desires and cravings. However, instead of creating happiness and abundance it creates ill feelings, scarcity and an endless chase for good outer experiences. Many people actually believe humans live solely for that chase. That we'll stagnate if we don't do it. We're already stagnant, spiritually. We've come a long way technically, but without proper grounding it threatens our very existance.
This mentality is also a group mentality that we're stuck in. To get out of it, we have to follow another group mentality. A more positive, one that puts faith in humans. However, a person should follow a mentalities with awareness. Through breath-exercises, yoga and meditation you can raise that awareness about your everyday life. Being aware and observing releases bad habits. (This you can try) I recommend finding someone to teach you breath exercises and that can follow you up.
Why do people smoke? To feel good, but it lasts only for a very short time. In fact, most bad habits are like that and they worsen the situation for the individual, creating a mental addiction. Through awareness in everyday life, in time, you can much more easily break those habits. Just observe what you're doing.
I'm living this right now, this is not just some words embedded in HTML. Raising awareness, observing, breaking bad habits and limitations will improve your life quality. It requires to find a good teacher/group to do it with though. There are many powerful techniques that will work if you let them.
- Steeltoe
Why should I spend research time on some obscure process that has already been patented but not formalized? I would still have to license the technology that I did my research on! You talked about unfair? I talk about stifling research.
Therefore, I completely disagree with you. Software technology is not like chemistry, and shouldn't adhere to the same rules. You can only stretch an analogy so far, and in this case it snapped. Or else, would you REALLY like software engineering to become even more black arts and enshrouded in mystery as it already is? Is it good to have robber barons with lots of CPU-power get monopoly on not-yet-understood algorithms and ideas? An algorithm like that is completely worthless in most scenarios. Of course we should use our common sense to discriminate between what cases. Ie, text-to-speech will never be perfect.
I still think it's a neat idea though. But this patenting computer-made ideas just keeps screaming RAMBUS! in my poor ears.. People have come up with all sorts of get-rich-by-doing-nothing schemes. None of these are a benefit to humanity and society, except as a moral lesson. We'll see what sorts of patent they release though. I know patents can be a necessary evil.
- Steeltoe
I really have little-to-no clue about GA, although I tried to make something like this a couple of years back using x86 assembly. I believe the problem is ultimately one of processing power. Nature, as magnificent as it is, has tremendous computing power and detail. So, whatever we accomplish with our clunky serial/SMP processors (a tiny part of the universe) today is not comparable at all.
Nature being very flexible, could also speed up evolution by changing the evolving process itself. This is opposed to our computers and software, which remain pretty static.
However, just like you. I cannot really understand how everything has come to be just because of evolution. And if I can accept that I possess a mind, why shouldn't I be able to accept that there might be a bigger mind of some sorts behind the universe? To me, the essential building block of the universe seems to be consciousness - the dreamer. However, I'm perfectly aware that this only remains an idea/concept and shouldn't stop us from searching for more scientific or other spiritual answers.
- Steeltoe
You sound just like an idealist to me though. ;-)
- Steeltoe
No. Please don't blame this on capitalism bogging down or the system failing. I agree with your claims, but they are just too superficial. Any system is given life by its participants. It's WE as human beings that are failing to support the system. We have lost faith in the political and commercial process.
Your very complaint about prices on processors and coke, really shows where the problem is. No wonder the system is going down when everyone is focusing on such trivial luxury "problems" in their everyday life. Do you really believe you would be happy if just the prices on processors would cut in half? At what cost to the employees? No sweat, in a year it will be. Have patience.
Imagine you did get all that you crave for. What really matters to you? I bet you could discard all those things, that thing would still be there.
- Steeltoe
Bullshit. For real efficiancy Freenet should be coded and optimized in Assembly. Those who say that you need to pick the right algorithm is simply wrong. Just code in Assembly and you'll come out allright. If it's too slow, just optimize the code some more.
- Steeltoe
Win2k would be as good choice as Linux IMHO. I run it now (with Service Pack 2 or something ;*), and it runs beautifully. The only problem I have is that I probably need to upgrade/patch IE too. IE doesn't seem stable out-of-the-box.
NT on the other hand shouldn't be touched with a long pole for anything critical. I use it at work, and long for the day we'll install Win2k.
I usually get any OS to crash horribly, due to all the configuration tweaking and installations I usually do. So that I like Win2k along with Linux count for something. I like to think so anyways. Maybe I'm biased, I really didn't expect much from Win2k before I tried it.
- Steeltoe
Wrong. If you include one more number you end up with 72.14895%. You should have rounded upwards..
- Steeltoe
Who are you to give legal advice?
Observing yourself before speaking or acting is a good idea.
- Steeltoe
It's been an argument I've used for a while now. Any human authority system, even as close to ideals as possible is corruptable. People will find ways like water will errode rocks. Sure, a great leader may ensure stability for a while, but the world is always shifting and changing.
The differences between countries and governments is often not the system, but mentality of the people. That's why the people in russia gets abused time and time again. It's in their mentality/karma. It's also why there are so many wars at Balkan. The people there have a different mentality/history.
So, what needs to change is your mentality. The world can be nasty, but are you part of the problem or part of the solution? Think about that.
- Steeltoe
I know (except for the sueing part). I just wanted to counter-argument obviously false claims. Free software is just that, the software is free but not the people. It's a great concept to counter proprietary software, but I think people should stop seeing this as a war. Using patents to extend the GPL, breaks the spirit of the GPL and is just part of a war I don't want any part in.
- Steeltoe