What's your position on this fad of appliances needing networking and whatnot other connections? Especially in the light of other devices (like routers) usually running something that used to be free software 'til the appliance maker got their hands onto it. It is likely that some if not many or even the majority of IoT appliances will run (allegedly) free software in one way or another, and most likely without any regard of the underlying licensing model.

Would you rather see it as a vehicle for OSS to move into everyone's home and literally become a household thing, or is it just yet another abuse of free software by makers of appliances who just like to cut corners?

Sorry, clicked the wrong article. Someone mod the parent of this one (also by me) offtopic if you have some modpoints to spare. Thanks.

When has this happened? I couldn't think of a single instance right now.

Well, technically, RMS has more similarities with Santa...

I shudder at the thought. Imagine people with lower coding skills who resort to cargo cult programming thinking that hey, after all, it's from the biggest OS in the world, it can't be bad code!

Won't fly. Despite all efforts to make smartphones anything BUT a phone, they still are. And hence you still need a carrier.

And carriers won't really enjoy the idea of NOT being able to lock you down to their contract.

Uh, do we have any REAL questions?

That's where pathogens are superior to us. They neither have politics nor religion.

Go ahead, I don't mind it. Hey, whatever floats your boat, who am I to judge someone's preferences?

But I'm also not insensitive to people not wanting others ogling them. I have to admit it would make me uneasy if someone kept staring at me. Not even in a sexual way, just staring. I do not like attention too much and I prefer not to be the center of it.

I guess not minding being ogled is something only really existing in natural exhibitionists and people who'd rather get paid to put some clothes on than to take them off and hence never experienced it first hand.

No. Might be different with some stranger.

If you can't see the difference, I'm sorry for you. Get out of your basement from time to time.

You have a reasonable expectation that nobody but your second floor neighbors can watch you. That difference is important. You know your neighbors. And even if you don't know for sure that they won't stand at their window and masturbate to you lying next to your pool, it's fairly unlikely due to you easily being able to identify them and throw the book at them.

It's a bit different with random strangers walking by your property. Not only does it multiply the chance of getting a pervert, they are also fairly sure they can get away with perving on you if you don't happen to know them.

You'd probably save that shot for when whoever installed it returns...

I can update a proper linux system. apt-get update (etc etc) and I'm good. it could be a 5 yr old linux install, 10 yr even more. it will still get security and major bugfixes.

android? yeah, right. my nexus one (go ahead, laugh at the old guy with the ancient phone) has not had an update for over 3 years now; probably more than that. 2.x distro from cyan and even they stopped doing updates. I have no time in my schedule to learn android internals well enough to do this myself (I could do it for linux, but I have no desire to waste time on phone crap, too many other things to get done). and so, I am running quite old software on a mobile computer and unless I pay for new hardware (my old hw works fine, still) I can't get updates.

this is the main reason why I hate google so much. they totally messed up on the whole android build/deploy/update system. its not linux, its not separatable (gfx and kernel and ip stack all are comingled, like a college-hire might design, sigh) and you can't update just the parts you need. its a whole update or nothing at all. HOW UTTERLY STUPID.

I wish I could get to love apple gear. then again, they EOL their old products, too, and so I'd have to keep rebuying hardware just like android guys are forced to do.

I may just go back to dumb phones again. this is ridiculous. a mobile computer with wireless access, a lot of my personal info on it and yet no update mechanism at all. essentially its abandonware. hundreds of dollars and I have a device that won't ever get updated even though there's not a single good reason for that.

what I can't figure out is: was google stupid or smart when they planned this? I tend to think they were both; stupid due to having too many kids onboard who don't understand the longevity of embedded systems in the real world; and smart since they force people to keep re-re-rebuying things and that must make their hardware partners very happy. they also can ignore older hardware and save time on multiple forks and build trees. but it was all the wrong design for END USERS. we are the ones who get screwed by this.

I cannot ever forgive google. they could have kept linux clean on the phone and allowed users to update ip-stack, kernel, etc. but they put a lot of effort into NOT allowing this and we all pay for it with security problems; and ones that we won't ever be able to fix, either, unless we do the work ourselves (which is not acceptable for an embedded system).

Their cousin?

Probably more than the site is worth from an advertisers' point of view.

What do you get with the site? Basically, a lot of eyeballs. That's it. You can use it as an ad platform or as a platform to get your information out.

That in turn only is something you benefit from if you have something to offer that will not IMMEDIATELY be ripped apart by tech-savvy people, along with people who pretend to be tech-savvy but are essentially just here to run their mouth without any measurable knowledge in the subject. You have a crowd here that is rather toxic to anything even remotely "big business" or corporate. Anything that comes out of management or C-Level is by default regarded with suspicion or outright hostility, and any legal changes are at the very least met with the same sentiments.

You can't even do the FOX bit and drone on the same political agenda with the option to reinforce and resonate the agenda you wish to push, for this the audience is far too diverse, ranging in the political spectrum from the far right to the far left.

This all makes it a great place for a discussion and to get input from various opinions and stances, but it' horrible from a corporate point of view. Corporations want consent about their agenda. They don't want you to question it.