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Comment Re:Rather symbolic isn't it? (Score 1) 794

It used to be, most journalist exercised some judgment with respect to what and when something should be printed. Apparently, Classified NOFORN documents no longer fall within the umbrella of things that common sense would dictate should not be published for general consumption.

I'm all for freedom of speech, but this is just not helpful, or a good idea. If our allies suddenly can't trust our foreign service to keep classified information, well, classified, how likely do you think it is they will continue to trust our diplomats? These so-called journalists just made the job of the fine folks in our State Department that much harder. When diplomacy becomes a more difficult or unworkable option, The Man may decide it's time to resort to a more forceful form of dispute resolution.

The guys behind wikileaks are not heroes. They are idiots. I hope they get caught, and if they do, they get the prison sentences they deserve.

Comment Wait a min. - IBM wanted Government to dogfood OO? (Score 1) 331

IBM has been spending millions of dollars lobbying for governments to mandate the use of Open Office, and yet they couldn't internally dogfood their own products? Sorry, but that's just too funny.

Maybe they thought those government types were going to turn in good bug reports so they wouldn't have to!

Comment Re:Unlike IE, you can actually stop using Safari.. (Score 1) 578

As an Apple guy, I can tell you this is completely wrong. WebKit (the engine powering Safari) is a shared framework. it can be found here: /System/Library/Frameworks/WebKit.framework. This framework is key to the "help" Display system and Dictionary. In fact, the new safari 4 engine replaces the webkit framework.

You can check out more information at developers.apple.com

I don't want anyone to strip out the underlying code on either system - having someone else do all the work for building a Help system is a relief.

Comment Re:I'm kinda in the vet biz (Score 1) 655

My wife is a Veterinarian, and her practice has gone digital for all radiology. But the office and all radiology is PC only whereas our house is Mac (with some Linux server stuff - not important here).

I'd love to know what vendors are considering mac products for anything in the vet field. Ideally, my wife would love to be able to look at film on the mac, or even better on her iPhone.

Plums is now on the iPhone, as are a few other apps, looking at film would be the bees knees.

Comment Re:Know what you want from a degree (Score 1) 918

There are some good points there, but I'll offer another possibility; maybe the "end" college provides is more significant than just the goal portion.

I hire people, and generally I treat a college degree as a prerequisite. Not because of specific coursework, but because the fact someone has completed a degree demonstrates an ability to keep on task for an extended period of time regardless of distractions. I don't mind major switchers, and I'm not looking for someone who did it in three years to the exclusion of life. Rather, I want to see that someone figured out how to navigate the always Byzantine requirements to get the right class into your schedule in the right order within a time limit.

Additionally, the social skills from college become pretty important - it's pretty hard to make it out of college without some kind of lab class that involves working with classmates on a group project. And everyone had someone in that project who didn't do what everyone wanted, or at least didn't pull their fair share. I want to know how you dealt with that, how did you feel about it, and what did you learn from it.

Finally, and MOST critically, I am always on the lookout for people who can write well on deadline. regardless of the technical nature of the project, the ability to explain what you are doing and why is just essential.

So yes, it's great if you can see your path in college as stepping stones to specific knowledge, but you shouldn't ignore the ancillary benefits that employers count on.

Comment How to Experiment w/ Fast Booting Linux:3 EZ Steps (Score 1) 241


Step 1. Download UNetBootin from SourceForge (2 minutes)

Step 2. Stick in a blank USB thumb drive and use UNetBootin to install Linux Mint version 6 or Puppy Linux version 4 onto the drive. (3 to 30 minutes depending on network speed)

Step 3. Reboot and tell your BIOS to make your newly bootable USB thumb drive the boot drive. (2 minutes)

Comment Re:Three strikes plan? (Score 1) 81

I shall repeat:

Musicians DO choose the method of music distribution that best suits their needs! they CHOOSE to sign a contract with a studio rather than using the self publishing route. Musicians have the same inalienable rights as the rest of us, they are fully emancipated.

That some of them choose to go through a studio that has draconian DRM policies is their choice! If you feel strongly about it, then the choice of studio that the musician makes should help you decide if you want to listen to his/her music.

Nothing will work faster at changing polices like lack of money to studio artists.

Comment Re:Three strikes plan? (Score 2, Insightful) 81

Since when did produced, professional music become such a life necessity that you get to dictate the cost structure and business model?

If you don't like how they distribute music, Don't BUY IT!

Why is that so damn hard to understand? The value of the music is the nexus of what the artist/studio is willing to sell it for, and what you are willing to pay for it. The "21st Century Definition of a Musician" clearly includes the ability of a musician to refuse to sign a contract with a big studio. Why do you somehow think the artist is being repressed? The artists have heard of the internet too, yet somehow, they keep doing deals with studios! I wonder if somehow, they think studios do things that they will have to spend a lot of time and money to do, like front money for big venues, pay for plane tickets, studio time, etc etc.

I am so sick and tired of the bastille storming attitude regarding music. I've decided to buy the (little) I want, and ignore the rest.

To shake your little fist in the air at the music "man" is just sad and pathetic.

Comment Moody and Allison need to re-read history on GPLv3 (Score 1) 408

I'm bothered that FSF has pulled down the discussion and dialog that led to the GPLv3, but if anyone can find it, you will see that under v2 you could structure a patent licensing deal in a way that did not cover downstream users of the code. The clear and obvious example was the Novell deal. v3 was altered to prevent patent deals like the Novell deal (and you'll note that Linux still seems to stick with v2).

So for Jeremy to argue that deals can't be done under v2 flies in the face of Eben Moglen's reading of the law. And while Jeremy's a better coder, Moglen's a better lawyer.

This is pure bunk. Ignore and move on.

Microsoft

Submission + - Micosoft Sues TomTom for Patent Infringement

morganew writes: "Microsoft has filed suit against GPS handheld manufacturer TomTom for infringing on 8 separate patents; 5 related to nav, and 3 related to file systems. While Microsoft is the usual black hat on slashdot, it appears that this might be blackhat on blackhat violence. TomTom were found to be a gpl violator in '04, sued Garmin in '07 and Toyota in '08 for infringing TomTom patents, and have a very restrictive EULA. So who's wearing the white hat here?"

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