This won't stop the professional pirates, who have ALWAYS been able to break any sort of crypto and produce clean DIGITAL copies, and who will ALWAYS be able to do so.
It won't stop the kiddiez from pirating stuff onto Kazaa or through BitTorrent. Maybe at first they'll have to produce the files through literally aiming a video camera at their monitor and using a stereo microphone for sound... but I seriously doubt it.
This bill won't do a goddamned thing. It's a waste of our lawmakers' time and energy.
Let's talk about what users "want". Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, wants their home computer to run slowly. Period, end of sentence.
The software Dell installs on computers can make them run (or, at best, start up) slowly. It can also eat up precious RAM, forcing users to buy more just to get good performance. And NO ONE wants this.
The problem is that the average users do not know that this stuff isn't "just part of the system".
End-users want their computers to operate quickly and efficiently. They just do not know what is normal in these regards; they aren't aware of how much more smoothly their systems will run/start up without this crap until they are educated.
It's not a small minority who "want" their home PCs to operate quickly, it's everyone. Period. The only people who specifically and directly ask for the crapware to be removed from their Dells are those who have been educated enough to know that it's lessening the performance of their systems, yes-- but that's not to say that only "a small minority" would appreciate it if their systems started up faster and had lower RAM loads.
I think Dell makes a good case here for why vendors should be forced to package clean OS discs...
Should vendors be forced to package clean OS discs? Of course. But it's never gonna happen. Two reasons:
1) End-users are not astute enough to demand it. The average end-user would just give you a blank look if you tried to explain the problem to them. They've never installed an OS themselves. They don't know, and quite frankly they don't care.
2) Free market religionists would scream bloody murder if you seriously talked about "forcing" any company to do anything (besides maybe "don't murder people").
There is a notion in this country that if something is wanted, "the market" (read: users) will demand it, and *poof* an offering will appear. The problem is that "the market" is too uneducated to know what to want, and the companies are too complacent to offer anything to them unless it's become clear that one of their competitors will do so first.
Thus we see crap like the bloated, polluted Dell installs. Even an average end-user is astute enough to see an improvement in speed after you've removed all the crap Dell installs alongside Windows (One end-user told me that their computer "has never been so fast" after I removed all of the crapola), but until they know the problem exists-- and most don't and never will-- they'll simply assume that their computer is supposed to be that slow, have those problems, take that long booting up, etc.
What's needed here is user education, but unfortunately the only two entities with the power and potential to step up to the bat-- the public school system and Microsoft-- aren't interested. The former is more interested in teaching kids the top few MS Word, MS Excel and MSIE functions purely by rote (and then telling them they're "computer literate"), and the latter... well, we all know what the latter wants. If they had an educated consumer base, things would look a lot different.
...the webpage suggests 'that Macintosh users migrate to more recent web browsing technologies such as Apple's Safari.'
In other news, the RNC chairperson suggested 'that Republicans migrate to other parties such as the Democratic party', and North Korean leader Kim Jung-Il suggest that 'North Koreans embrace alternative political systems, such as capitalism'...
And don't go saying "Oh, but they aren't 100% made up of atheists." Duh. As much as you'd like to think otherwise, lack of belief in any given God does not constitute a religion. Any organization with no religious ties (direct or indirect) is, by definition, a secular organization. Goodwill isn't an organization where everyone has to be atheistic, but they are an organization which has no religious affiliation whatsoever. And they're definitely within an order of magnitude of the Salvation Army.
Furthermore, I view the motivations of any religion-affiliated charity with great suspicion and cynicism. Are they really doing good "for goodness's sake", are they doing good so that people will be impressed with their God and convert to worshipping him, or are they doing good to get into heaven? Or some strange mix of the three?
Religious groups who do charitable things are much like businesses who do charitable things-- you have to question their motivations. Yes, they're doing good, but for what reason?
I'd rather they do good things because it's the right thing to do, not as an excuse to talk about their Personal Relationship with Jesus(TM), and not to look good for The Man Upstairs.
Err. I meant to edit that into something more akin to "...to further one of the biggest and most well-organized supporters of the cause of Jesusism", but tuckered out halfway. Oops.
[Salvation Army members] work endless hours, seemingly tirelessly, and never lose their smiles.
Of course they don't. They're there to look happy and smiley so they can convert you. What did you think "salvation" referred to?
If you aren't interested in giving significant sums of money to further one of the cause of Jesusism, may I suggest CARE, Goodwill, or another secular charity?
1. Company does something geeks perceive as evil.
2. Geeks write a story which boils down to "Hey, this is evil!"
3. Geeks find a way in which this hurts some disadvantaged group.
4. Geeks write a story pointing this out.
5. ???
6. Profit!
Not to defend Lucasarts or anything, but...yeesh. Are the disabled nothing more than pawns to be used to attack companies with? I seem to recall similar articles blasting Windows (and other things) for not being disabled-friendly. I don't recall many (if any) articles blasting how eeeeeeeeeevil NetBSD is for not catering to the blind or disabled...
I am speaking in a literal sense. As in, you cannot literally, directly, physically destroy a plane through beating on it with a book or throwing a book at it. Christ.
It's hilarious, really. In some communist countries, the very idea of capitalism is treated as one would treat an infectious disease, and books/sites about it are banned. Are we (here in the US) now stooping so low as to treat the idea of communism precisely the same way?
Why did he have to provide his "name, address, phone number and Social Security number"... to read a book?
Cue discussion of RMS's paper on "The Right To Read", but still. Is this just sensationalism, or does one actually have to give all one's personal information to read this?
Yeah, no shit. They do this sort of crap to me all the time. It was meant as a joke; how it was a Troll is beyond me. (Maybe they resented my English-Nazi signature?)
Of course, I'm sure some vengeful fuckwit is going to mod me (-1, Off-topic) for this response here. Shit, I get (-1, Off-topic) for plenty of perfectly on-topic stuff on a regular basis.
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This won't stop the professional pirates, who have ALWAYS been able to break any sort of crypto and produce clean DIGITAL copies, and who will ALWAYS be able to do so.
It won't stop the kiddiez from pirating stuff onto Kazaa or through BitTorrent. Maybe at first they'll have to produce the files through literally aiming a video camera at their monitor and using a stereo microphone for sound... but I seriously doubt it.
This bill won't do a goddamned thing. It's a waste of our lawmakers' time and energy.
I'll bite, troll.
Let's talk about what users "want". Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, wants their home computer to run slowly. Period, end of sentence.
The software Dell installs on computers can make them run (or, at best, start up) slowly. It can also eat up precious RAM, forcing users to buy more just to get good performance. And NO ONE wants this.
The problem is that the average users do not know that this stuff isn't "just part of the system".
End-users want their computers to operate quickly and efficiently. They just do not know what is normal in these regards; they aren't aware of how much more smoothly their systems will run/start up without this crap until they are educated.
It's not a small minority who "want" their home PCs to operate quickly, it's everyone. Period. The only people who specifically and directly ask for the crapware to be removed from their Dells are those who have been educated enough to know that it's lessening the performance of their systems, yes-- but that's not to say that only "a small minority" would appreciate it if their systems started up faster and had lower RAM loads.
Should vendors be forced to package clean OS discs? Of course. But it's never gonna happen. Two reasons:
1) End-users are not astute enough to demand it. The average end-user would just give you a blank look if you tried to explain the problem to them. They've never installed an OS themselves. They don't know, and quite frankly they don't care.
2) Free market religionists would scream bloody murder if you seriously talked about "forcing" any company to do anything (besides maybe "don't murder people").
There is a notion in this country that if something is wanted, "the market" (read: users) will demand it, and *poof* an offering will appear. The problem is that "the market" is too uneducated to know what to want, and the companies are too complacent to offer anything to them unless it's become clear that one of their competitors will do so first.
Thus we see crap like the bloated, polluted Dell installs. Even an average end-user is astute enough to see an improvement in speed after you've removed all the crap Dell installs alongside Windows (One end-user told me that their computer "has never been so fast" after I removed all of the crapola), but until they know the problem exists-- and most don't and never will-- they'll simply assume that their computer is supposed to be that slow, have those problems, take that long booting up, etc.
What's needed here is user education, but unfortunately the only two entities with the power and potential to step up to the bat-- the public school system and Microsoft-- aren't interested. The former is more interested in teaching kids the top few MS Word, MS Excel and MSIE functions purely by rote (and then telling them they're "computer literate"), and the latter... well, we all know what the latter wants. If they had an educated consumer base, things would look a lot different.
What's NASA's budget for fiscal year 2005?
What's the military's?
"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a penguin's face - forever."
Here's a revolutionary idea: Throw more money at NASA than at the DOD.
It was an attempt at pointing out irony. (You insensitive clods!)
In other news, the RNC chairperson suggested 'that Republicans migrate to other parties such as the Democratic party', and North Korean leader Kim Jung-Il suggest that 'North Koreans embrace alternative political systems, such as capitalism'...
I stand (sit) corrected. The Salvation Army is evidently between 1-2 powers of ten bigger than Goodwill. Of course, "bigger" doesn't mean "better".
As far as I am aware, these guys are secular.
And don't go saying "Oh, but they aren't 100% made up of atheists." Duh. As much as you'd like to think otherwise, lack of belief in any given God does not constitute a religion. Any organization with no religious ties (direct or indirect) is, by definition, a secular organization. Goodwill isn't an organization where everyone has to be atheistic, but they are an organization which has no religious affiliation whatsoever. And they're definitely within an order of magnitude of the Salvation Army.
Furthermore, I view the motivations of any religion-affiliated charity with great suspicion and cynicism. Are they really doing good "for goodness's sake", are they doing good so that people will be impressed with their God and convert to worshipping him, or are they doing good to get into heaven? Or some strange mix of the three?
Religious groups who do charitable things are much like businesses who do charitable things-- you have to question their motivations. Yes, they're doing good, but for what reason?
I'd rather they do good things because it's the right thing to do, not as an excuse to talk about their Personal Relationship with Jesus(TM), and not to look good for The Man Upstairs.
A lot of people who would never knowingly help a church are unaware that the SA is, in fact, one.
Err. I meant to edit that into something more akin to "...to further one of the biggest and most well-organized supporters of the cause of Jesusism", but tuckered out halfway. Oops.
Of course they don't. They're there to look happy and smiley so they can convert you. What did you think "salvation" referred to?
If you aren't interested in giving significant sums of money to further one of the cause of Jesusism, may I suggest CARE, Goodwill, or another secular charity?
1. Company does something geeks perceive as evil.
2. Geeks write a story which boils down to "Hey, this is evil!"
3. Geeks find a way in which this hurts some disadvantaged group.
4. Geeks write a story pointing this out.
5. ???
6. Profit!
Not to defend Lucasarts or anything, but...yeesh. Are the disabled nothing more than pawns to be used to attack companies with? I seem to recall similar articles blasting Windows (and other things) for not being disabled-friendly. I don't recall many (if any) articles blasting how eeeeeeeeeevil NetBSD is for not catering to the blind or disabled...
I am speaking in a literal sense. As in, you cannot literally, directly, physically destroy a plane through beating on it with a book or throwing a book at it. Christ.
Um... darkness isn't deadly.
Although I agree with your noble and poetic sentiment, the fact remains that you cannot destroy a plane with a book. Not in any literal sense, anyhow.
It's hilarious, really. In some communist countries, the very idea of capitalism is treated as one would treat an infectious disease, and books/sites about it are banned. Are we (here in the US) now stooping so low as to treat the idea of communism precisely the same way?
This is a bit different. One bomb on a plane will kill everyone on board. One book is still, well, just a fucking book.
Why did he have to provide his "name, address, phone number and Social Security number" ... to read a book?
Cue discussion of RMS's paper on "The Right To Read", but still. Is this just sensationalism, or does one actually have to give all one's personal information to read this?
I stopped reading here.
I don't know what these people are doing with the Commodore name, but whatever it is, it isn't Commodore.
Yeah, no shit. They do this sort of crap to me all the time. It was meant as a joke; how it was a Troll is beyond me. (Maybe they resented my English-Nazi signature?)
Of course, I'm sure some vengeful fuckwit is going to mod me (-1, Off-topic) for this response here. Shit, I get (-1, Off-topic) for plenty of perfectly on-topic stuff on a regular basis.
Go ahead, crackheaded mods. Do your worst.
(Oh, for the record? I can't stand Bush.)
(-1, Flamebait)
End-users too ignorant/stupid/confused/computer-illiterate to adapt to Firefox are NOT going to be using RSS in the first place.
For the umpteenth time, "Flash" is not an acronym.
It isn't written in all caps. (Unless, of course, you're emphasizing it... but I doubt that's why you wrote it in all caps).