However, I was arguing that music should cost money, (see my reply above) - not that it should be encumbered with DRM. I find DRM to be just as ridiculous as anybody else here, and you have my congratulations on extending my analogy to illustrate this so amusingly:)
...so the hammer now costs one cent. Everybody says, "Why does this hammer only cost one cent? There must be something wrong with it!" Then they go and buy exactly the same hammer from the shop across the road, because its elevated price gives it perceived worth.
If you didn't help these companies to the best of your ability, you wouldn't be doing your job. After all, it's not your decision what work you take on, it's your bosses'. The responsibility for an action lies with the individuals who decide, under their own free will, to perform it (or have it performed). This is why most people don't equate "soldier" with "murderer". Although interestingly, people don't generally equate "politician" with "murderer", either. Perhaps they should...
I wonder. I suspect that most companies start out "friendly", (I do believe that people are basically good), but become more "evil" as they begin to make larger profits. I think we're witnessing this in Google right now. The pressure is there (especially since they went public) to make as much money as possible, in any way possible.
There is no morality in a big/successful company. I think it's because of the whole "groupthink" mentality that's built-in to the human psyche - even though any given member of the board of directors may know that what the company is doing is against ordinary individual morals, it's the group that's doing it, and so it isn't their individual fault. This links back to the famous Stanley Milgram experiment, where people are shown to be willing to do horrific things, provided somebody lifts the burden of responsibility. Furthermore, a vote against something that will make profit (morality aside) may be perceived as a sign of weakness, possibly jeopardising the individual's career. For these reasons, the ethics which you and I live by simply do not apply to corporations, no matter how well-intentioned their founders were.
This may not sit comfortably with many on Slashdot who love to hate the "bad guys", (Microsoft, Sony), whilst pouring adoration on the "good guys" (Google, Apple), but I'm afraid it's the truth. In the world of business there is no good and bad - just money and the best way of acquiring it.
Ah, seems like as good a place to ask this as any (and since we're already off-topic):
How would I connect my own LED to a motherboard's HDD/PWR headers? What voltage is provided? What value of resistor do I have to put in line with it? How much current can it safely draw? I'm building my own case from scratch, and I can't think of any way of finding these things out...
Gentoo attracts new Linux users? When did this happen?
I use Gentoo myself but I'd never recommend it to anybody who hadn't been using Linux for a year or two already. If anything, it'd be more likely to scare off any unfortunate newbies that tried it as their first distro.
I wonder how many of you remember when you first typed ls/, and wondered what all those weird three-letter abbreviations meant? (/opt? What's that? Does it have to do with lenses?)
Not only that, but when I SSH into my box from somewhere else, I'll no longer be able to retrieve a bookmark by simply peeking at the handy HTML file Firefox currently keeps them in. Will Mozilla be implementing some alternative plaintext bookmark file for such use, or will I have to go hunting for an extension to enable it?
Actually yes, the desktop console for my speakers (with the volume knobs and the amp circuit) has an incredibly bright blue light on the front. Before I moved my desk around so it was hidden behind my monitor, I was on the verge of sticking some masking tape over it to stop it from dazzling me...
...except that this particular comparison is actually valid.
To draw a parallel, should Godwin's Law be invoked during an explanation of who the KKK are, and what they stand for? I'm not too clear on the finer points...
This deserves +5 informative - I read the summary, became briefly angry, and then thought, "wait - I bet that link is to the Daily Mail". A quick mouseover later and I am smiling a wry smile.
The Daily Mail will blow any story out of proportion, and put the most sensationalist spin on it possible, because it knows that if a story makes someone angry, they're more likely to buy the paper to find out more about it.
For the record, if I thought the story was true then I would be just as angry as any other reasonable-minded person. But because of its source, I'm strongly inclined to disbelieve it's anywhere near as bad as the summary makes it out to be. Also, I'm not going to RTFA as I don't want to give the bigots advertising revenue.
You have a point. I guess the question is, what are we patenting? The device itself or simply the plans to build it?
It seems to me that the device should be patentable, whereas its blueprints should fall under copyright.
To bring that reasoning back to the original topic, if somebody "ported" the 1-click code to some scheme for designing a physical interface, (as opposed to a web-based one), and then built this physical interface, and the interface was deemed to be innovative (not "obvious") then the physical interface should be patentable. The original code, and its ported version, would automatically be eligible for copyright, but not patentable.
Please explain to me how a "hello world" program in C is a blueprint. It comprises instructions for how to make a line of text appear on a screen, or some other output device. Agreed, an HDL program is analogous to a blueprint if that's how some hardware is designed these days, but just because one language is blueprint-like doesn't mean that all are - that's just false logic.
No, if they want to keep hold of their costumers they should lower the price of threads and fabric. As for patches (critical or otherwise)... those are so last season!
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.sickipedia.org/
:)
Hahaha, I quite like this analogy.
:)
However, I was arguing that music should cost money, (see my reply above) - not that it should be encumbered with DRM. I find DRM to be just as ridiculous as anybody else here, and you have my congratulations on extending my analogy to illustrate this so amusingly
...so the hammer now costs one cent. Everybody says, "Why does this hammer only cost one cent? There must be something wrong with it!" Then they go and buy exactly the same hammer from the shop across the road, because its elevated price gives it perceived worth.
If you go into a hardware store and buy a hammer, you won't be paying the amount it cost to produce and ship it.
To continue to produce their product, any company has to make a profit. That is why your music can't be free.
First language or not, it's mean-spirited to reply to someone that way for making a common typo.
:)
And damn, now I've posted here I can't mod it Troll. Ah well, I'm sure somebody else will
You hope he dies? For misclassifying a story? You have anger management issues...
"I was only following orders."
If you didn't help these companies to the best of your ability, you wouldn't be doing your job. After all, it's not your decision what work you take on, it's your bosses'. The responsibility for an action lies with the individuals who decide, under their own free will, to perform it (or have it performed). This is why most people don't equate "soldier" with "murderer". Although interestingly, people don't generally equate "politician" with "murderer", either. Perhaps they should...
I wonder. I suspect that most companies start out "friendly", (I do believe that people are basically good), but become more "evil" as they begin to make larger profits. I think we're witnessing this in Google right now. The pressure is there (especially since they went public) to make as much money as possible, in any way possible.
There is no morality in a big/successful company. I think it's because of the whole "groupthink" mentality that's built-in to the human psyche - even though any given member of the board of directors may know that what the company is doing is against ordinary individual morals, it's the group that's doing it, and so it isn't their individual fault. This links back to the famous Stanley Milgram experiment, where people are shown to be willing to do horrific things, provided somebody lifts the burden of responsibility. Furthermore, a vote against something that will make profit (morality aside) may be perceived as a sign of weakness, possibly jeopardising the individual's career. For these reasons, the ethics which you and I live by simply do not apply to corporations, no matter how well-intentioned their founders were.
This may not sit comfortably with many on Slashdot who love to hate the "bad guys", (Microsoft, Sony), whilst pouring adoration on the "good guys" (Google, Apple), but I'm afraid it's the truth. In the world of business there is no good and bad - just money and the best way of acquiring it.
"The" company? Surely this describes all companies?
The only ones which appear friendly do so because they make more profit that way (people prefer to buy from them).
Ah, seems like as good a place to ask this as any (and since we're already off-topic):
How would I connect my own LED to a motherboard's HDD/PWR headers? What voltage is provided? What value of resistor do I have to put in line with it? How much current can it safely draw? I'm building my own case from scratch, and I can't think of any way of finding these things out...
I'm guessing he meant to control a variable resistor...
:(
And you want to stop breathing solder fumes? Get the lead-free variety - it smells horrible
Gentoo attracts new Linux users? When did this happen?
/, and wondered what all those weird three-letter abbreviations meant? (/opt? What's that? Does it have to do with lenses?)
I use Gentoo myself but I'd never recommend it to anybody who hadn't been using Linux for a year or two already. If anything, it'd be more likely to scare off any unfortunate newbies that tried it as their first distro.
I wonder how many of you remember when you first typed ls
Not only that, but when I SSH into my box from somewhere else, I'll no longer be able to retrieve a bookmark by simply peeking at the handy HTML file Firefox currently keeps them in. Will Mozilla be implementing some alternative plaintext bookmark file for such use, or will I have to go hunting for an extension to enable it?
Actually yes, the desktop console for my speakers (with the volume knobs and the amp circuit) has an incredibly bright blue light on the front. Before I moved my desk around so it was hidden behind my monitor, I was on the verge of sticking some masking tape over it to stop it from dazzling me...
...except that this particular comparison is actually valid.
To draw a parallel, should Godwin's Law be invoked during an explanation of who the KKK are, and what they stand for? I'm not too clear on the finer points...
Who modded this flamebait?
This deserves +5 informative - I read the summary, became briefly angry, and then thought, "wait - I bet that link is to the Daily Mail". A quick mouseover later and I am smiling a wry smile.
The Daily Mail will blow any story out of proportion, and put the most sensationalist spin on it possible, because it knows that if a story makes someone angry, they're more likely to buy the paper to find out more about it.
For the record, if I thought the story was true then I would be just as angry as any other reasonable-minded person. But because of its source, I'm strongly inclined to disbelieve it's anywhere near as bad as the summary makes it out to be. Also, I'm not going to RTFA as I don't want to give the bigots advertising revenue.
You don't like it that there's no cure for cancer? Develop one already.
You have a point. I guess the question is, what are we patenting? The device itself or simply the plans to build it?
It seems to me that the device should be patentable, whereas its blueprints should fall under copyright.
To bring that reasoning back to the original topic, if somebody "ported" the 1-click code to some scheme for designing a physical interface, (as opposed to a web-based one), and then built this physical interface, and the interface was deemed to be innovative (not "obvious") then the physical interface should be patentable. The original code, and its ported version, would automatically be eligible for copyright, but not patentable.
Please explain to me how a "hello world" program in C is a blueprint. It comprises instructions for how to make a line of text appear on a screen, or some other output device. Agreed, an HDL program is analogous to a blueprint if that's how some hardware is designed these days, but just because one language is blueprint-like doesn't mean that all are - that's just false logic.
No, if they want to keep hold of their costumers they should lower the price of threads and fabric. As for patches (critical or otherwise)... those are so last season!
Would someone mind telling me how, exactly, that looks sad in any way?
It just looks weird to me...
What if you don't have a server running at your home, waiting to take these connections?
The majority of people don't.
In the heart of Transylvania
In the vampire hall of fame, yeah
There's not a vampire zanier than...
Really? I thought it was the lower-case letter T?
Heh, I'm only 19 and my first computer had both an excellent GUI and a mere 20mb hard drive.
:)
(Mac SE