Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×

Comment Got an Apple ][+ and paper tape (Score 1) 422

I have paper tape for various programs I wrote for a DEC PDP-8. I've occasionally shown the paper tape, just to show how much better things have gotten since then.

I also have an Apple ][+ and an Apple //e. The Apple ][+ is actually an original Apple ][, but with a new motherboard (due to a blown capacitor that fried the board). I sometimes bring out the Apples and run the games I wrote for them. A number of the disks are still readable, believe it or not.

As far as I'm concerned, what matters for games is if they are FUN. 100 FPS doesn't matter if it's boring. There are games that are text-only, or run on 40x40 pixel blocks, that are lots more fun, and that makes them better games.

Comment Re:Reedit redux (Score 1) 82

I have been reading more reddit than /. lately, and I missed that one.

I think the signal:noise here is a bit higher than reddit (scary, I know!) Or it could be that there is just less signal here to pick through. This place is a ghost town!

Back in the day, this story would have like 500 comments by now. As of now, this story has 37 comments.

Comment Crafty isn't open source software (Fruit 2.1 is) (Score 1) 315

Crafty is not open source software, though its license has similarities to an open source software license. Crafty is for "personal use only", which means that it fails the Open Source Definition criteria "No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor".

Crafty's main.c file says: "All rights reserved. No part of this program may be reproduced in any form or by any means, for other than your personal use, without the express written permission of the authors. This program may not be used in whole, nor in part, to enter any computer chess competition without written permission from the authors. Such permission will include the requirement that the program be entered under the name "Crafty" so that the program's ancestry will be known."

Fruit up to 2.1 is open source software (GPL)

Comment More results taken from the people who paid for it (Score 1) 527

Sigh. Yet another project that took the money from the people, and took away the results from the people. That's rediculous. If "we the people" paid for research, then "we the people" should get the result. It should be a rule that all government-funded research software must be released as open source software (unless it's classified or for some other reason can't be released to the public in any form)... at least by default. If someone wants to develop proprietary software, then they should be investing their own money, not taking mine. Why am I not getting what I paid for?

Comment Re:Sad, but I can see doing it too (Score 1) 950

"You have health care and the complaints you have about it will be much worse after the government has taken over the insurance industry"
that doesn't mean the current system isn't broken. also, your point is a good one, glad you are not a troll. There is one single thing that undermines your point: the rest of the developed world has government run healthcare. And it works. Not perfectly, but it works. I don't think you could make the same statement about ours. it works OK for some people, and is completely busted for the rest.

It's easier to reform a system where everyone has the same universal plan. Currently, the US has a patchwork of health plans. Any changes to legislation under the current system has a ton of unintended consequences. If you have the same experience for everyone, then the repercussions are the same for everyone. This provides incentive to produce good legislation.

The middle class will pay for this because the current political climate in the US gives corporations and the very wealthy a free ride. If corporations and the very wealthy paid their fair share, then this wouldn't be a problem. You could ensure this by doing one thing, and one thing alone: impose a 14% federal flat income tax on EVERYBODY, corporations included. One exception: determine a poverty level for each state, and anyone at or below this poverty level pays no taxes.

I'd bet that universal healthcare could take a lot of the burden off the welfare system as well, maybe even make it obsolete. If you don't wanna work, you get health care so nobody here in the US is going to die from a lack of care. But you will need to work, since you need a home and food and clothes. In other words, the government will help keep you alive. But what you make of your life is up to you.

Comment Re:Sad, but I can see doing it too (Score 1) 950

I am calling you out as a troll.

I gave you a reply and you never bothered to address it, since it showed your statement to be fallacious.

If you have nothing better to do than serve as a shill for HMOs, why don't you get a hobby?

Defend the current health care system that you claim is so great and everyone should like. This time, try to use sound logic. You can't. It's broken, and so are you.

Comment Re:Sad, but I can see doing it too (Score 1) 950

I do, and I have what people would consider "good" insurance and a great job. I have never ever been unemployed since I was 14 years old.

I am far from happy with my insurance.

There is so much bureaucracy to deal with. I know that government run healthcare would still suffer from this, obviously. But privatized healthcare has this same bureaucracy but it is coupled with greed. Insurance companies have an interest in making it difficult for you to get the coverage you need, because every dollar they can get you to pay out of pocket is more for the bottom line. These insurance use fabian tactics and diffusion of responsibility to get out of taking care of you. If you want to spend an entire day on the phone or writing letters, you can sometimes get somewhere. But who has that much time to dedicate to making the insurance company do what you are PAYING THEM to do? When I go to work, I do the job I am paid to do. Insurance companies have to be wrestled with to get them to cover your expenses properly. I guess since I cannot fire them (they have a monopoly after all) I just have to suck it up.

My wife had some health problems and needed a surgery. Well, long story short, despite the fact I have insurance, I ended up with a $2000 bill I had to pay off. And at my current job, I find that if I ever need to take my children to the doctor, the insurance company always finds ways out of covering everything, so I always get stuck with bills. Because I don't believe in being dishonest I pay the bills off. I could probably use some shady means to get out of paying them, but that would make me just like the politicians and corporations I hate so much.

It makes me angry to think that people think this system is ok. Those people come off as either naive (because they haven't really ever had to use insurance or are just very young), evil (because they stand to profit from the current situation at everyone's expense), or just plain dumb (because they just fall for the insurance companies' propaganda).

Comment Re:Sad, but I can see doing it too (Score 1) 950

yes, because you're 20 years old and male.

Try being a 35 year old woman. Or having children. Or just getting older.

You suffer from the same narrow minded mentality as many others here: oh, it doesn't affect me (yet) so it's not a problem! What's wrong with these whiners?

Healthcare in the US is broken beyond belief. You are either incredibly naive or a beneficiary of this broken system.

Comment Rediculous - Spamhaus should outright win. (Score 1) 143

Spamhaus didn't respond at all originally, but shouldn't an appeals court be able to reverse a decision and say, "Spamhaus, you're right"? This is a freedom of speech issue. Anyone (including Spamhaus) should be able to say "X is a spammer" if X is, indeed, a spammer. And although anyone has a right to speak, others have a right to choose not to listen; if people don't want to listen to anyone Spamhaus doesn't like, it's their decision.

Slashdot Top Deals

Cobol programmers are down in the dumps.

Working...