The biggest problem with most users is, that they only tell you, at first contact: "It doesn't work!" in a frustrated and aggravating, accusing tone (You can convey tone in writing, too). If they do tell you what it is that's not working, they almost never fail to leave out all the relevant details like where they were working from, what they were doing exactly and what the precise error message was. So you always need to be able to contact them, to probe them further, otherwise you're up shit creek with a paddle, and you don't even know what country you're in, let alone which way the shore is. Not unlike when the customer left his telephone number on the off-hours semaphone, some time back, whithout specifying the area code. I could only ignore it.
What I'm trying to say is: if you start such a thing, be very very sure they'll leave a valid and rapid mode of contact, and urge them to give you a full description of the actual problem. Make it clear in big letters, that if you can't contact them, they're the ones up shit creek, with that paddle, and that you won't shower them should they get out.
Stefan "Microsoft follows standards, much like fish follow migrating caribou." Paul Tomblin, in the monastery,
How many databases like this one are we in? How many of these are legal under EU law? These are questions I want answers to!
A couple of years back a law was passed on databases containing private information: all such databases must be registered with a central instance, precisely documenting its contents and its intended uses. Furthermore, anyone asking for their entry in a database must be provided with the full details. I've forgotten the name of where this information has to be filed, but that should be reletively easy to find out. And so it was: it's called de regitratiekamer (the registration chamber). They have an "English" option, so not knowing Dutch is not a problem for Merkins and other English speaking furriners.
Stefan. Privacy is like a souvenir: you'd never known you've lost it until you looked for it.
This weekend in a town in Holland a fireworks factory exploded, resulting in 500 destroyed houses, more than 500 people injured, and an unknown amount of people killed. Up to now they found 17 bodies and lots of bodyparts, but there are still more than 200 persons missing.
<PEDANT>You mean the Netherlands. Enchede, the town in question, is not in Holland, but in the east of the Netherlands.</PEDANT> The over 200 persons supposed to be missing is just the length of the list of unfound people, a list, that is a compilation of lists from several sources, and containing double entries from misspellings and such. So noone knows how many people are actually missing, it might be, in the best scenario, that all of those are actually all the entries with errors in them, and the people they stem from having been taken off the list from the correct entry. So there is no knowing how many people are still actually missing. There will be some, I'm sure, because there must have been more than 17 people killed, if you consider the neighbourhood and have seen the terrible blast from the explosion and the resultant damage. When I saw it I thought there would be hundreds of deaths. And a lot of people had been attracted by the firework "display" before the big blast came.
Stefan. Shocked by human stupidity: who'd in his right mind allows a fireworks depot ( it was not a factory) inside a housing area? Enquiring minds want to have him publically flogged, tarred and feathered.
It has been estimated that the average Dutch citizen has an entry in 400 databases. Makes you think.
But luckily it's still against the law to combine those databases, though of course, in the end that will happen. And it will be used for maintaining laws and finding all sorts of offences. "Hmm, no income reported over the last couple of years, but two expensive cars and a couple of houses... Lets check into that."
Of course, I don't object to that, but there's other privacy matters that are scarier. Read 1984, for examples.
Stefan. Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages. --Terry Pratchett in "Wyrd Sisters"
IANAL, but I think you may have to remove the posts, that contain copyrighted material, allthough if they only quote from it (partly, not wholly), then not. The links, of course, can stay: if Microsoft has a problem with those, they should take action against the owners of the websites with the alleged illegal material. The circumvention technique would, in my view, fall under freedom of speech: just like information about how to make bombs is treated.
So, im my book, only the first set of posts should be checked on whether they transgress copyright law, the other two I'd leave as is.
Yes, of course I took those words. There was no context whatsoever to change the meaning of those words in the slightest manner. My impression was, that the man looked from the closed bindings he was sown into. If you say the above as a librarian, well, take him back a couple of millenia and we're hacking text into slabs of stone. Much more durable, granted, but perhaps not so convenient. As I said in another reply, I'm thinking of preservation of all the good stuff our ancestors wrote, and perhaps even the bad stuff, simply for knowledges sake. Think of the book Animal Farm, All aminals are equal, but some are more equal than others. That's is my point, in part. You cannot rewrite history if you can read reports by those who lived it. And believe me, with current technology, 1984 is closer than you would like to think.
Stefan, sometimes a little paranoid, which doesn't mean tey're not out to get me.
Damn! Hell and triple boils to the devil damn! I had HTML in there to make it more legible, and I don't know how to delete this mess and repost it with more style.
Well I'm not sure about the less susceptible to decay, in 40 years will we still be able to read the CD-ROMs and computer tapes from today? Will we still be able to read the document formats? When I wrote that, I was thinking of the Library of Alexandria, and the cries of woe of archivists having to deal with not enough money to preserve all the worthwile modern books, which are printed on less sturdy materials than the ancients did. What to choose, the dead-sea scrolls, or the complete worls of Shakespeare? You can't save both, so choose. Modern digital methods are somewhat less susceptible to decay, I heard, so in my opinion there is no time to lose to even preserve all but Vogon poetry, and preferably even that. If only to preserve what was, to illustrate how it was. As to formats, old programs can usually, if they themselves are preserved, be translated to new media, so the reading part can be a task, but at least there is some task to undertake, unlocking older "scripts". It's been done before, from a stone found by a man called Rosetta.To know where you have to go, it tremendously helps to know where you came from. Stefan..nosig today.
Good article, it just says what I've been telling friends for some weeks/years. (For the record: I've been post-Micro$loth from times pre-Micro$loth;-) I'd learnt that from experiences with Big Blue back when they were in charge. Post-IBM since 1988 or so, when the first Unix machine entered at my then employer.) M$ will go the way of IBM. Not disappearing, but gradually losing their nr. 1 spot in the computing world, losing their power to impose or corrupt standards. But that is the consequence of the open source movement started suiting Linux to the endLuser requirements, thus creating an affordable, viable alternative for the moloch's shitware. (And yes, we're not there yet, not quite.) Another reason is the resulting recognition of the other big companies like Oracle, which the previous brought about. The USA vs. M$ lawsuit is sooner a consequence rather than a start of M$ losing their monopoly, I think.
Nice to see, though, anyhow.:-)
Stefan. Talkers are no good doers. -- William Shakespeare, "Henry VI"
which is missing is increased support for such emerging protocols such as XML and SOAP,
And there is me thinking for a moment the latter, SOAP, is a new protocol for the new application called soapbox, with which you can submit your latest advocacy to all relevant newsgroups and forums and the like, instead of all over the place. *grumble* A look at whatis woke from that illusion, so I'll still be seeing vi/emacs wars in alt.binary.pictures.sex.teenage.girls. *sigh* When will we learn...
But that's not the point, is it? I, and others like me want nothing to do with Windows, because we think it's a waste of money and hardware. Now the games are here, creating music is about the only application I can think of that I can't do (well) under Linux, that I'd have to go to Windows for. So, yes, we're talking about the state of affairs in the Linux for Music world (or Music for Linux, depending where you come from). Pointing out that it can be done under windows in this thread is about as useful as a guy shouting "I'm horny" in a Lesbian clubhouse.
Another big surprise is, that noone seems to know or mention Jack Vance, but then he's so much better known over here in the Netherlands, that that American author releases his novels first in the Netherlands, only then in the States.:-)
His ideas and humor are so good, as well as the characters, that I'm still surprised noone mentioned him. I almost cannot recommend specific books, as all are above average, but "the Demon Princes" series is among the best: "the Star King", "the Killing Machine", "the Face", "the Palace of Love", "the Book of Dreams".
Stefan Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages. --Terry Pratchett in "Wyrd Sisters".
Honestly, I doubt that education would help the worst offenders.
Maybe so, but if it'll halve the number of intolerants each generation, I'd be happy nonetheless. But it's not only education that's needed, example is the other side of the same coin: as long as racist politicians can, without counterspeech and -action, freely spew their rotten hearts, others will see that and think: "Oh, it's ok then to think and act like that."
Freedom of speech is a right, that implies responsability. If you can't handle the responsability by advocating lies and promoting hatred, there is justification to limit your speech of freedom. This is why over here in the Netherlands, racism in word or act is forbidden by law. And, believe me, that is a Good Thing: Racism can thereby be actively battled, if not eradicated. We do not want another A. Hitler over here, with reason, for the masses will follow charisma, despite misgivings about some of the ideas. And if you don't believe that, just look at any elections. Nincompoops like Reagan can be elected president of the USA, and even Dane Quayl could have been president. And I'm just commenting on their mental ability, not their ideas.
But to recap: yes, education will help fight intolerance and racism, but it needs to be accompanied by example.
Stefan. Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages. --Terry Pratchett in "Wyrd Sisters".
Noone is going to tell me what I should think about any comic, whether I like the comic or not. To me, Userfriendly, Dilbert, the Bastard Operator From Hell stories and the Computer Stupidities section of Rinkworks are sources of relief for those of us, who, from time to time, get severly frustrated by the apparent inability or unwillingness of users to understand even the most simple of instructions or concepts. I think they'd rather have that than us going postal. I did, back when I was a newbie, ages ago, though I fancy myself never having been a luser.
As the new year rolls in all over the world nothing stubbornly continues to happen: no blackouts, no computers failing, just business as usual as the script kiddies are outside burning car tyres and anything else they can get their grubby hands on. Fireworks take the usual toll in autodarwinists, but hospitals and other public services sit with their thumbs up their ass, because of overstaffing for the supposed problems with computers, lifts and other imagined vulnerable systems everywhere. Computer staff around the world toast eachother with slurred voices, saying: "See, 's no prob... Prob... Nothing to it."
However, out of the wood(works) bugeyed survivalists are creeping back towrds continued civilization, asking: "What the f*ck am I going to do with a two year supply of preserved foods, eh? Who's gonna pay for that? I left my job, divorced my wife, thinking there's be enough young chicks free after the men started to kill off eachother after the disaster, put all my money into stuff I thought I could barter with, but what do I do now? No job, no wife, no g*dd*m money! I'm gonna sue all those doom-prophets penniless, you mark my words. Now I only need to find a no-cure-no-pay lawyer and I'm rolling. I may be penniless, but I'm not stoopid!", said one true blooded American as he came out of his survival bunker after midnight. It's heart-warming to see how the American spirit cannot be beaten through even the most abhorrent setbacks.
An another front, companies are starting to ask why they spent so many millions in what has started to be classified as the greatest hoax of the century, already. "We spent all that, for nothing? We want our money back, and we know who took it.", said one spokesman for a large, Redmond-based company.
It's going to be a busy and profitful years for lawyers.
Seriously, nothing much happening over here, apart from me getting sloshed, having succesfully tested the basics. Sipping champagne, now, putting up another CD on my linux box, as soon as the fireworks tone down, can't hear myself thinking for that: over here in the Netherlands, it's legal to fire fireworks for on hour each year: the first hour of the new year. Can't see dick for the smog, already.
God bless you, everyone. (tm) Dickens.
Stefan. -- Ah, good, seeing the police going by just now, to keep an eye out for things going wrong. Happy new dear!
Our customers won't do that, rather we'll be babysitting a little more alert than usual. I'll pull down one sendmail just before midnight to test whether the automated alarm system keeps working after midnight, but for that I feel even a bit ashamed. Of course it'll keep on working, we'd know by now from the half of the world which has already passed the feared rollover. I see the headlines tomorrow: "Disaster strikes! Nothing untowards keeps on happening, thousands of doom prophets left without money and (powdered) egg on their face. Ravioli prices plummet as stored chaches of food are sold back at cut-me-own-throat prices to recoup some losses. Ammo and guns at all-time-low prices to be had at the following adresses:"
Stefan. -- Y2K? Indeed, we ask: why? There's a whole year left in the 20th century.
And so it was, said #4220.:-) Still, gaining roughly 3000 in 7 hours time means it's still a long time and way to 2,000,000. Personally, I think it's too high a goal to reach, given the passive nature of "masses". On the other hand, eToys surely took notice of the internet community. So why not reach for the stars? PStefan.
*oopsie* YKYHBBWTMLOTCWY read "man of the century" instead of "man of the year". Sorry about the misrwead, and sorry about replying to my own comment, but hey, it needed be done.
Stefan -- You know you have been bombarded with too many lists of the century when you...
Without him, there would be no internet, no Red Hat, no VALinux, no MP3 stations, no fraggin'. And no Slashdot, either. Maybe no Linux, either. So there.
Stefan -- Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages. --Terry Pratchett in "Wyrd Sisters".
And come on, let's get real: You don't seriously believe that anyone in the goverment would stop Microsoft from shipping Windows 2000 to Germany, are you?
I, for one, do believe that: when a user of xs4all in the Netherlands published a copy of the German forbidden radical-left magazine Radikal on his homepage, the German government instituted a ban to all of xs4all from Germany, which got widespread implementation, thereby also banning access to Dutch writer Karin Spainks anti-Scientology pages one the same site. So I don't see why a ban on Windoze Y2K would not be similarly accepted and followed. xs4all sued, but I can't remember the outcome.
Unrelated, I, too, have from time to time a mild form of RSI, which I always attributed to my work, combined with hobbying at home behind my own computer. Now I'm getting afraid, that would it come to real harm, I'll have to answer slightly embarrassing questions about my imaginary love-life. Pictures in my mind: "And, sir, how often would you say you resort to take matters in your own hand, eh?" and then getting my claim revoked. That does not bear thinking about.
Mazur -- Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages. -- Terry Pratchett in "Wyrd Sisters".
Slashdot Mirror
What I'm trying to say is: if you start such a thing, be very very sure they'll leave a valid and rapid mode of contact, and urge them to give you a full description of the actual problem. Make it clear in big letters, that if you can't contact them, they're the ones up shit creek, with that paddle, and that you won't shower them should they get out.
Stefan
"Microsoft follows standards, much like fish follow migrating caribou." Paul Tomblin, in the monastery,
A couple of years back a law was passed on databases containing private information: all such databases must be registered with a central instance, precisely documenting its contents and its intended uses. Furthermore, anyone asking for their entry in a database must be provided with the full details. I've forgotten the name of where this information has to be filed, but that should be reletively easy to find out. And so it was: it's called de regitratiekamer (the registration chamber). They have an "English" option, so not knowing Dutch is not a problem for Merkins and other English speaking furriners.
Stefan.
Privacy is like a souvenir: you'd never known you've lost it until you looked for it.
Stefan.
<PEDANT>You mean the Netherlands. Enchede, the town in question, is not in Holland, but in the east of the Netherlands.</PEDANT> The over 200 persons supposed to be missing is just the length of the list of unfound people, a list, that is a compilation of lists from several sources, and containing double entries from misspellings and such. So noone knows how many people are actually missing, it might be, in the best scenario, that all of those are actually all the entries with errors in them, and the people they stem from having been taken off the list from the correct entry. So there is no knowing how many people are still actually missing. There will be some, I'm sure, because there must have been more than 17 people killed, if you consider the neighbourhood and have seen the terrible blast from the explosion and the resultant damage. When I saw it I thought there would be hundreds of deaths. And a lot of people had been attracted by the firework "display" before the big blast came.
Stefan.
Shocked by human stupidity: who'd in his right mind allows a fireworks depot ( it was not a factory) inside a housing area? Enquiring minds want to have him publically flogged, tarred and feathered.
But luckily it's still against the law to combine those databases, though of course, in the end that will happen. And it will be used for maintaining laws and finding all sorts of offences. "Hmm, no income reported over the last couple of years, but two expensive cars and a couple of houses... Lets check into that."
Of course, I don't object to that, but there's other privacy matters that are scarier. Read 1984, for examples.
Stefan.
Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.
--Terry Pratchett in "Wyrd Sisters"
So, im my book, only the first set of posts should be checked on whether they transgress copyright law, the other two I'd leave as is.
Stefan.
Again: IANAL.
Stefan, sometimes a little paranoid, which doesn't mean tey're not out to get me.
Stefan, angry.
Well I'm not sure about the less susceptible to decay, in 40 years will we still be able to read the CD-ROMs and computer tapes from today? Will we still be able to read the document formats? When I wrote that, I was thinking of the Library of Alexandria, and the cries of woe of archivists having to deal with not enough money to preserve all the worthwile modern books, which are printed on less sturdy materials than the ancients did. What to choose, the dead-sea scrolls, or the complete worls of Shakespeare? You can't save both, so choose. Modern digital methods are somewhat less susceptible to decay, I heard, so in my opinion there is no time to lose to even preserve all but Vogon poetry, and preferably even that. If only to preserve what was, to illustrate how it was. As to formats, old programs can usually, if they themselves are preserved, be translated to new media, so the reading part can be a task, but at least there is some task to undertake, unlocking older "scripts". It's been done before, from a stone found by a man called Rosetta.To know where you have to go, it tremendously helps to know where you came from. Stefan..nosig today.
I'd like a digitized library very much, naturally, as we would all:
Stefan .sig today, my love has gone away...
No
Stefan.
Nice to see, though, anyhow. :-)
Stefan.
Talkers are no good doers.
-- William Shakespeare, "Henry VI"
And there is me thinking for a moment the latter, SOAP, is a new protocol for the new application called soapbox, with which you can submit your latest advocacy to all relevant newsgroups and forums and the like, instead of all over the place. *grumble* A look at whatis woke from that illusion, so I'll still be seeing vi/emacs wars in alt.binary.pictures.sex.teenage.girls. *sigh* When will we learn...
Stefan.
All generalisations are untrue.
But that's not the point, is it? I, and others like me want nothing to do with Windows, because we think it's a waste of money and hardware. Now the games are here, creating music is about the only application I can think of that I can't do (well) under Linux, that I'd have to go to Windows for. So, yes, we're talking about the state of affairs in the Linux for Music world (or Music for Linux, depending where you come from). Pointing out that it can be done under windows in this thread is about as useful as a guy shouting "I'm horny" in a Lesbian clubhouse.
That goes for the USA, as well, so that in itself means little.
Stefan.
His ideas and humor are so good, as well as the characters, that I'm still surprised noone mentioned him. I almost cannot recommend specific books, as all are above average, but "the Demon Princes" series is among the best: "the Star King", "the Killing Machine", "the Face", "the Palace of Love", "the Book of Dreams".
Stefan
Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.
--Terry Pratchett in "Wyrd Sisters".
Maybe so, but if it'll halve the number of intolerants each generation, I'd be happy nonetheless. But it's not only education that's needed, example is the other side of the same coin: as long as racist politicians can, without counterspeech and -action, freely spew their rotten hearts, others will see that and think: "Oh, it's ok then to think and act like that."
Freedom of speech is a right, that implies responsability. If you can't handle the responsability by advocating lies and promoting hatred, there is justification to limit your speech of freedom. This is why over here in the Netherlands, racism in word or act is forbidden by law. And, believe me, that is a Good Thing: Racism can thereby be actively battled, if not eradicated. We do not want another A. Hitler over here, with reason, for the masses will follow charisma, despite misgivings about some of the ideas. And if you don't believe that, just look at any elections. Nincompoops like Reagan can be elected president of the USA, and even Dane Quayl could have been president. And I'm just commenting on their mental ability, not their ideas.
But to recap: yes, education will help fight intolerance and racism, but it needs to be accompanied by example.
Stefan.
Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.
--Terry Pratchett in "Wyrd Sisters".
Noone is going to tell me what I should think about any comic, whether I like the comic or not. To me, Userfriendly, Dilbert, the Bastard Operator From Hell stories and the Computer Stupidities section of Rinkworks are sources of relief for those of us, who, from time to time, get severly frustrated by the apparent inability or unwillingness of users to understand even the most simple of instructions or concepts. I think they'd rather have that than us going postal. I did, back when I was a newbie, ages ago, though I fancy myself never having been a luser.
However, out of the wood(works) bugeyed survivalists are creeping back towrds continued civilization, asking: "What the f*ck am I going to do with a two year supply of preserved foods, eh? Who's gonna pay for that? I left my job, divorced my wife, thinking there's be enough young chicks free after the men started to kill off eachother after the disaster, put all my money into stuff I thought I could barter with, but what do I do now? No job, no wife, no g*dd*m money! I'm gonna sue all those doom-prophets penniless, you mark my words. Now I only need to find a no-cure-no-pay lawyer and I'm rolling. I may be penniless, but I'm not stoopid!", said one true blooded American as he came out of his survival bunker after midnight. It's heart-warming to see how the American spirit cannot be beaten through even the most abhorrent setbacks.
An another front, companies are starting to ask why they spent so many millions in what has started to be classified as the greatest hoax of the century, already. "We spent all that, for nothing? We want our money back, and we know who took it.", said one spokesman for a large, Redmond-based company.
It's going to be a busy and profitful years for lawyers.
Seriously, nothing much happening over here, apart from me getting sloshed, having succesfully tested the basics. Sipping champagne, now, putting up another CD on my linux box, as soon as the fireworks tone down, can't hear myself thinking for that: over here in the Netherlands, it's legal to fire fireworks for on hour each year: the first hour of the new year. Can't see dick for the smog, already.
God bless you, everyone. (tm) Dickens.
Stefan.
--
Ah, good, seeing the police going by just now, to keep an eye out for things going wrong. Happy new dear!
Stefan.
--
Y2K? Indeed, we ask: why? There's a whole year left in the 20th century.
And so it was, said #4220. :-) Still, gaining roughly 3000 in 7 hours time means it's still a long time and way to 2,000,000. Personally, I think it's too high a goal to reach, given the passive nature of "masses". On the other hand, eToys surely took notice of the internet community. So why not reach for the stars? PStefan.
Stefan
--
You know you have been bombarded with too many lists of the century when you...
Stefan
--
Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages. --Terry Pratchett in "Wyrd Sisters".
I, for one, do believe that: when a user of xs4all in the Netherlands published a copy of the German forbidden radical-left magazine Radikal on his homepage, the German government instituted a ban to all of xs4all from Germany, which got widespread implementation, thereby also banning access to Dutch writer Karin Spainks anti-Scientology pages one the same site. So I don't see why a ban on Windoze Y2K would not be similarly accepted and followed. xs4all sued, but I can't remember the outcome.
About the pronunciation, Linus has the definitive word on that, I'm sure.
Unrelated, I, too, have from time to time a mild form of RSI, which I always attributed to my work, combined with hobbying at home behind my own computer. Now I'm getting afraid, that would it come to real harm, I'll have to answer slightly embarrassing questions about my imaginary love-life. Pictures in my mind: "And, sir, how often would you say you resort to take matters in your own hand, eh?" and then getting my claim revoked. That does not bear thinking about.
Mazur
--
Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages. -- Terry Pratchett in "Wyrd Sisters".