But your point about a standard like OpenGL not existing is true. We'll probably have a rehash of the early graphics library incompatabilities again.::shudder::
You think people would learn. Open standards help a new technology to expand and to become accepted. It helps *everybody* in the industry.
You'd like to think so wouldn't you. Makes you feel warm and comfy to be able to say "wow, that country sucks, mine is great" doesn't it?
The truth, however, is typically much less black and white. Remember, many of the *proposed* laws in the US that you hear about are just that: proposed. They don't pass automatically. Not to mention the fact that the wold seems terribly interested in our "dirty laundry" to the point that all they seem to get in the news is "bad" news.
So take off the old rose-colored glasses and stop drinking the slashdoot kool-aid.
Don't worry. I'm *sure* this is somehow the fault of the USA. We just haven't thought hard enought yet. Surely there must be something the US has done wrong?
That's right! This is *Canada* after all! We *all* know that crackpots only exist in America!
*whew*
I'm sure everything will just turn out alright. And if they don't, we can blame the Americans!
Sarcasm aside, there was just a recent post about how some nut in Utah wanted to pass a silly law. The anti-American folk were out in full color. Somehow though, I don't see a ton of anti-Canadian folk around for this story...
True enough. Perhaps my phrasing wasn't "strong enough."
WinXP *does* have an option for 'let no window steal focus' (need the TweakUI powertool to set it). However instead it causes the toolbar icon of the app to 'blink' and auto-raises the toolbar if you have it set to auto-hide.
Again, an annoying option, but at does remove the likelyhood of accidently agreeing to something.
Fully agreed! This is partially why I'm such a fan of the command line.
I'd given it some thought, and wondered why one couldn't build a GUI such that some small 'notifications' window was in the lower/upper left/right that displays things that would normally be pop-ups. Something like having a terminal display 'tail -f/var/log/messages' but for GUI messages. Most pop-up windows aren't *urgent* (like need attention RIGHT NOW), but are more informational.
Such grown-up speak too! "Rupublicrats" and "Deomocans." Wonderful.
I suggest you take a look at your local officials, and see what they've voted on in the past. You may find more differences than you thought existed. And I doubt it'll fall along party lines too much. People like you seem to follow parties, rather than people. Again, ignore the campaign banter, that's all a load of crap.
Here in Europe people remember the last two wars we fought
Err.. The US fought in those wars too you know. In fact, in the second one we fought against Germany, Italy, *and* Japan (thanks for the help in the pacific by the way).
coming from a nation with only two parties, which are identical anyway
Which is a *riot* coming from a person unfamliar with our parties. Check some voting records sometime. Don't just listen to the idiots on the campaign trail from afar.
It's a first offence without precedent. I can see the fine being low. I bet repeat offences will be punished much more severely, and other companies that offend for the first time will likewise be punished.
It's not like a company is just going to pay $15,000 fine a month to the FCC to continue blocking VOIP.
the US in the 1950's being the most outstanding example of that fluke, where societal equal standing was at its height.
I hope you're joking. The civil rights movment of the '60s degraded equality? You think Dr. King thought the '50s were the height of equal standing in the US? Not to mention the womens movment?
Name one time in the history of the world where the government in power of a country has willingly relinquished any authority to a lower body in a situation where they were able to dictate things from the top efficiently. You will not find one.
I think the EU is a bit different though. I think of it more like the UN in relation to the US. The problem is that each nation still has an identity as a country. If the EU goes too far, I think that something will give in one country and they'll just pull out. Sorta like how the US now nearly disregards the UN. Sure, the UN and EU may not relenquish power, but it will be stripped from them if they're not careful.
The problem is that in *many* areas broadband is NOT a competitive marketplace yet. You have large monopolies (cable, phone) that have a strangle-hold on broadband.
This isn't "I don't like Foo's prices, I'll go up the street."
That's fine, but I think we should be concentrating more on medical science, and stem cell research.
Do you get it? Do YOU? Probably not. I'll explain. The "world" as it were does not need to concentrate on "one thing" at a time. Believe it or not, people as a whole are capable of accomplishing many tasks at once. Go figure.
No one in this day and age would be seen going into a store or restaurant that discriminates against some group, unless they want to be ostracized from friends and co-workers.
Never been to the US "south" and eaten at a Denny's have you?
That's not true though... Ma Bell was a monopoly, and Microsoft has been declared a monopoly. If it were illegal, they would be fined or otherwise made to stop (broken up like Ma Bell).
What it illegal from what I can tell, is abusing a monopoly to maintain said monopoly. IOW, they start to play by different rules (in theory).
Otherwise the first player in any new market would automatically be illegal (they would be the only player, and thus a monopoly).
Okay, this just sounds really stupid at this point. I know this is way off-topic, but can one be a convicted monopolist? Doesn't convicted imply "found guilty of doing something wrong?" Being a monopoly isn't illegal. Misusing one is. Microsoft has been *declared* a monopoly by the courts. But I don't think they were *convicted* of it.
I work for a company that has been declared a Fortune 500 company. Not one that has been convicted of being a Fourtune 500 company.
Slashdot Mirror
Mmmmm. Apparently there is an open source lib for physics.
::shudder::
http://ode.org/
But your point about a standard like OpenGL not existing is true. We'll probably have a rehash of the early graphics library incompatabilities again.
You think people would learn. Open standards help a new technology to expand and to become accepted. It helps *everybody* in the industry.
You'd like to think so wouldn't you. Makes you feel warm and comfy to be able to say "wow, that country sucks, mine is great" doesn't it?
The truth, however, is typically much less black and white. Remember, many of the *proposed* laws in the US that you hear about are just that: proposed. They don't pass automatically. Not to mention the fact that the wold seems terribly interested in our "dirty laundry" to the point that all they seem to get in the news is "bad" news.
So take off the old rose-colored glasses and stop drinking the slashdoot kool-aid.
Don't worry. I'm *sure* this is somehow the fault of the USA. We just haven't thought hard enought yet. Surely there must be something the US has done wrong?
Things like wiretaps and recording conversations can be done with a government order but in the States they are done without court approval.
Really? Got any evidence for this?
That's right! This is *Canada* after all! We *all* know that crackpots only exist in America!
*whew*
I'm sure everything will just turn out alright. And if they don't, we can blame the Americans!
Sarcasm aside, there was just a recent post about how some nut in Utah wanted to pass a silly law. The anti-American folk were out in full color. Somehow though, I don't see a ton of anti-Canadian folk around for this story...
Americans? Do you know anything about Utah? Blame the friggin' mormons. It's their state.
True enough. Perhaps my phrasing wasn't "strong enough."
WinXP *does* have an option for 'let no window steal focus' (need the TweakUI powertool to set it). However instead it causes the toolbar icon of the app to 'blink' and auto-raises the toolbar if you have it set to auto-hide.
Again, an annoying option, but at does remove the likelyhood of accidently agreeing to something.
Fully agreed! This is partially why I'm such a fan of the command line.
/var/log/messages' but for GUI messages. Most pop-up windows aren't *urgent* (like need attention RIGHT NOW), but are more informational.
I'd given it some thought, and wondered why one couldn't build a GUI such that some small 'notifications' window was in the lower/upper left/right that displays things that would normally be pop-ups. Something like having a terminal display 'tail -f
They're trying for a more rapid development cycle. 2.6 hasn't feature frozen like in the past.
It seems to be what the vendors want. RedHat 2.4 kernels have so much 2.6 stuff back-ported they're barely 2.4 anymore.
My god. If only I had mod points to give you.
Actually, there can be no more than 3 people of any one party on the panel.
So yes, they have party ties, but at least they make an attempt at keeping things 'even' of sorts.
Such grown-up speak too! "Rupublicrats" and "Deomocans." Wonderful.
I suggest you take a look at your local officials, and see what they've voted on in the past. You may find more differences than you thought existed. And I doubt it'll fall along party lines too much. People like you seem to follow parties, rather than people. Again, ignore the campaign banter, that's all a load of crap.
Here in Europe people remember the last two wars we fought
Err.. The US fought in those wars too you know. In fact, in the second one we fought against Germany, Italy, *and* Japan (thanks for the help in the pacific by the way).
coming from a nation with only two parties, which are identical anyway
Which is a *riot* coming from a person unfamliar with our parties. Check some voting records sometime. Don't just listen to the idiots on the campaign trail from afar.
It's a first offence without precedent. I can see the fine being low. I bet repeat offences will be punished much more severely, and other companies that offend for the first time will likewise be punished.
It's not like a company is just going to pay $15,000 fine a month to the FCC to continue blocking VOIP.
the US in the 1950's being the most outstanding example of that fluke, where societal equal standing was at its height.
I hope you're joking. The civil rights movment of the '60s degraded equality? You think Dr. King thought the '50s were the height of equal standing in the US? Not to mention the womens movment?
Name one time in the history of the world where the government in power of a country has willingly relinquished any authority to a lower body in a situation where they were able to dictate things from the top efficiently. You will not find one.
I think the EU is a bit different though. I think of it more like the UN in relation to the US. The problem is that each nation still has an identity as a country. If the EU goes too far, I think that something will give in one country and they'll just pull out. Sorta like how the US now nearly disregards the UN. Sure, the UN and EU may not relenquish power, but it will be stripped from them if they're not careful.
No, it's still slashdot.
The "knee-jerk" reactions are a bit late on this one though. Now it just needs to be modded up to "+5 insightful."
Yep. There they go. I'm not even allowed to post this comment now. Or to say that George Bush is a moron and doesn't deserve to be president.
Wow, I hate this new fascism. Why do I bother writing this? Nobody will ever see it now that my rights on-line are gone...
Sooo, I benefit from shelling out ~$40/mo for my cable modem, and paying higher taxes so some schmuck can get free porn on the interweb?
The problem is that in *many* areas broadband is NOT a competitive marketplace yet. You have large monopolies (cable, phone) that have a strangle-hold on broadband.
This isn't "I don't like Foo's prices, I'll go up the street."
That's fine, but I think we should be concentrating more on medical science, and stem cell research.
Do you get it? Do YOU? Probably not. I'll explain. The "world" as it were does not need to concentrate on "one thing" at a time. Believe it or not, people as a whole are capable of accomplishing many tasks at once. Go figure.
No one in this day and age would be seen going into a store or restaurant that discriminates against some group, unless they want to be ostracized from friends and co-workers.
Never been to the US "south" and eaten at a Denny's have you?
That's not true though... Ma Bell was a monopoly, and Microsoft has been declared a monopoly. If it were illegal, they would be fined or otherwise made to stop (broken up like Ma Bell).
What it illegal from what I can tell, is abusing a monopoly to maintain said monopoly. IOW, they start to play by different rules (in theory).
Otherwise the first player in any new market would automatically be illegal (they would be the only player, and thus a monopoly).
I did ask. But blame again implies "wrong" being done. You may disagree with monopolies but they aren't illegal, nor are they necessarily wrong.
I disagree with the catholic church, but I wouldn't call a priest a "convicted catholic."
Honorary Convicted Monopolist or something
Okay, this just sounds really stupid at this point. I know this is way off-topic, but can one be a convicted monopolist? Doesn't convicted imply "found guilty of doing something wrong?" Being a monopoly isn't illegal. Misusing one is. Microsoft has been *declared* a monopoly by the courts. But I don't think they were *convicted* of it.
I work for a company that has been declared a Fortune 500 company. Not one that has been convicted of being a Fourtune 500 company.
You *are* joking, right? I hope...
"I was buying groceries, and there was this one register where if I simply sold my soul, I wouldn't have to wait in line. What choice did I have?"