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Comment Re:Mission Option: It already isn't.... (Score 1) 804

by steltho (#29551553) Attached to: In 100 Years, Health Care Won't Be An Issue Because ...

If he had stayed with "healthcare is a basic human right no one should be without," well, you can't really argue against that without looking heartless.

Why, just because you need it to survive? You need food to survive, too. Does that make food a basic human right? I'm sorry, but just because I'm running a restaurant or grocery doesn't make me morally obligated to feed every starving moneyless waif who comes along. I guess that makes me heartless.

As a private business owner, you are not obligated to provide food to all who are hungry. However, the government is responsible for this as well as insuring that each citizen is not denied any of his or her basic human rights.

Comment Re:Dear Pranknet (Score 1) 543

by steltho (#29011273) Attached to: The Outing of Pranknet

Health care in America is a huge problem, and since the insurance companies are profitable

I hate to break it to you but insurance companies are not the only or even the biggest problem that our health care system faces. The insurance companies aren't the ones who set up the "pay for service" model that encourages health care inflation. The insurance companies aren't the reason that we have a shortage of GPs. The insurance companies aren't the reason why malpractice insurance rates are so high. I know it's popular for the Democrats to paint this as a "big insurance vs. everybody else" battle but there's really a lot more to it than that.

You cut off my quote in mid-sentence, and I think you missed my point. It sounds like we agree that the health care system is a problem. However, since the health care companies are profitable, they have no incentive to try and fix the system. This means the government has no choice but to step in and do something.

Comment Re:Dear Pranknet (Score 1) 543

by steltho (#29007937) Attached to: The Outing of Pranknet

It's technically also true that you need to do business with the food companies to stay alive. Maybe the Government should take over the agriculture industry as well?

Oh wait, through corporate welfare and lobbying interests (tax breaks, money into boondoggles like ethanol, a need to appease Iowa to win Presidential primaries, etc, etc) it already has. Hmm, I wonder what the result is? Surely a balanced and well managed system that's working for the greater good, right? I bet if you had left it up to the free market we could have wound up with something that runs on fast food and high fructose corn syrup and which has resulted in 30% of Americans being obese.

Farm subsidies are just a way to manage the country's resources, I do not think it would be good for America if all the farmers were going out of business and selling their farms to housing developers. Besides, the American agriculture industry is one of the best in the world, whereas the health care system in America is almost completely private and one of the least efficient in the world.

You'll forgive my skepticism that the Government is going to improve the health care system.

Health care in America is a huge problem, and since the insurance companies are profitable, they are not going to do anything to change the system. The government is obligated to protect its citizens, so it has to do something to change the system.

Comment Re:Dear Pranknet (Score 5, Insightful) 543

by steltho (#29006911) Attached to: The Outing of Pranknet

Yes, they will. Ever heard the expression 'caveat emptor'? The difference between your friendly mega-corp and the government is that nobody is forcing you to do business with the mega-corp. The mega-corp can't come and take your money at gunpoint. You have to decide to do business with them.

Technically this is true, however, since the alternative to not doing business with health care companies is a likely early death. You are in a way forced to do business with them, if you want to stay alive.

Comment Re:Why dont I need word? (Score 1) 843

by steltho (#28931695) Attached to: 20 Years of MS Word and Why It Should Die a Swift Death

It is not "just as good." I attempted to switch my company from MS Office to Open Office. We came across one spreadsheet it butchered to hell when it opened. It opened all the rest just fine but that one. In a business environment 99.9999% compatible isn't good enough. If a program can't open one file then there is no reason to switch.

I would say Open Office is "just as good", the only complaint I have ever heard about it is just what you said. It does not open Word files correctly 100% of the time. This fact really has nothing to do with its quality as a word processor.

It may work just fine for individual use, but in an enterprise environment when you constantly transfer documents between hundreds of other companies Open Office is completely useless.

This is only true if your business relies on storing its data in a proprietary format. If businesses stored all of their documents as ODF files, you would probably have the same complaint about Microsoft Word.

Comment Re:Sometimes SLASHDOT is worse than FOX NEWS (Score 1) 508

by steltho (#28802421) Attached to: Microsoft's Code Contribution Due To GPL Violation

How on earth do you equate Microsoft following the rules of the GPL as something bad?

If you were to read TFA, you would know that Microsoft was not following the rules of the GPL. They only released the code because they were caught violating the GPL. So, while they are currently in compliance with the GPL, it was never really their intention to be. This is why people are so upset.

Comment It worked last year (Score 2, Interesting) 120

by steltho (#27263193) Attached to: Streaming March Madness On Linux?
I was able to watch the games online last year using the mediaplayerconnectivity plugin for firefox and vlc. I tried this year, but they block all non-IE browsers from accessing the video streams. I was able to get past this check by using the UserAgentSwitcher plugin, but now it won't let me get to the streams because I don't have windows media player.
Software

Submission + - sourceforge.net adds git hosting

Submitted by steltho
steltho writes: While browsing sourceforge, I noticed that they now offer git hosting. I have not seen a formal announcement of this, but this is great news for sourceforge projects that want to use distributed version control.
Debian

Submission + - Excellent Debian Server Guide (technichristian.net)

Submitted by
Bob Thomas
Bob Thomas writes: "Here is an excellent Debian server guide that is comprehensive and well written and covers lighttpd (including ssl), postfix, postgrey and other necessary server software. Use it to quickly set up a single mail/web/ftp server."
Google

Submission + - WSJ spreads FUD on open source and Google Phone (wsj.com) 2

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Ben Worthen at the Wall Street Journal shows a laughable grasp of what "open source" means: 'Here's the first thing that will happen when a phone with Google's operating system hits the market: Information-technology departments will ban employees from connecting phones that run Google's operating system to their computers or the corporate network. The reason is that Google's operating system is open, meaning anyone can write software for it. That includes bad guys, who will doubtlessly develop viruses and other malicious code for these phones, which unsuspecting Google phones owners will download. Employees could spread the malicious code to the rest of the company when they synch their phones to their computers or use it to check email. The way to combat this is to develop anti-virus and anti-malware software for phones and to develop security procedures similar to those that have evolved for PCs over the last several years. But that's going to take time and money — neither of which the average IT department has. So until then, expect Google phones to be persona non grata at companies.'
Communications

Submission + - The Pirate Bay developing new P2P protocol to repl (blorge.com)

Submitted by
mlauzon
mlauzon writes: "(TITLE SHOULD READ:The Pirate Bay developing new P2P protocol to replace BitTorrent)


The Pirate Bay, one of the largest BitTorrent trackers in the world, is reported to be actively working on developing a new peer to peer file sharing protocol. The reason? Brokep, One of the head honchos at TPB, claims that BitTorrent as a protocol won't last longer than 12 months. Brokep was interviewed at a conference over the weekend by German website Netzpolitick.org and spoke about The Pirate Bay, and it's future plans for world domination. When asked about the future of the site, he revealed:

"I think we will still grow for a couple of months or maybe a year, and I don't think Bittorrent as a protocol will survive much longer. So if our new protocol works, we will be one of the big websites still. If it doesn't, maybe someone else takes over."

"The biggest problem is that it's owned by the Bittorrent company, which developes new versions of it. So we don't have any input as users to say what we want in the protocol. And Bittorrent is funded by companies which we don't necessarily like as well."
It seems that The Pirate Bay aren't too happy with BitTorrent Inc. and it's recent decision to make some newer additions to the client closed source. They also want to develop a new protocol which will better fend off the increasing incidents of anti-piracy organisations and spammers from affecting the flow of file sharing. The rest of the interview doesn't really reveal any secrets or surprises but this is big news. The BitTorrent protocol has revolutionised the trade in illegal files over the Internet. Which is why sites such as TPB are so intent on keeping the flow going, and why organisations like the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) are so intent on shutting them down and disrupting their activities. The Pirate Bay pirates (for want of a better description) are already working on the new client, but a release of any kind is unlikely until next year."

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