Comment Re:Yes, it's free. Also, the patent system sucks (Score 1) 198
MS language is potentially worse than the default. And there is room for litigation to surprise us.
MS language is potentially worse than the default. And there is room for litigation to surprise us.
I enabled MSE in Firefox in the previous version, and the HTML5 YT videos seemed to work fine except 1080/60p videos, which stuttered a lot. As of v37, that seems to have also been fixed. YMMV, but it's A-OK for me.
It may not be on by default, and it may be 'incomplete', but I turned that on in Firefox some time ago and can view HTML5 YT videos in resolutions greater than 720p. It's certainly good enough for now (though I don't know why it's not on by default).
Yes. The last stuff I wrote that I couldn't compile today was in "Promal" or "Paradox". My C and C++ code from 1980 still builds and runs.
All of my web development is on Ruby on Rails. That environment has had a lot of development and I've had to port to new versions. So old code for RoR would not quite run out of the box, but it's close.
Popular computing languages do not in general have only one Open Source implementation, and do not get abandoned.
2nd potential mechanism. Due to competition for rare leadership positions, serfs showing leadership potential are killed outright, leaving behind only those with brains enough to do the job that the lord wants them to do. Once a dynasty and traditional economy are established, eight nor nine generations of this and you'll end up with a genetic separation between "noble blood/highborn" and "serf/lowborn" populations.
For an extreme comedic version of this, see https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCscVT3d-EEQsq-5rPozTyJw/, these English actors portrayed the four class English system perfectly, complete with simulated IQ levels.
In feudalism, and in certain forms of tribalism, the chief/King and his family eat first, and then everybody else eats what is left over from their table. (in Calapuya Chinook, the title of the chief was the Hias Mucktymuck- quite literally "the dude sitting at the head of the table", from which we get the saying "Lord High MucktyMuck"). I'd call that a very powerful selection mechanism.
Development with a proprietary language is ultimately harmful to your own interests, whether you make proprietary software for a profit or Free software.
The one thing every business needs is control. When you make it possible for another company to block your business, you lose control. Your options become limited. Solving business problems potentially becomes very costly, involving a complete rewrite.
The one thing that should be abundantly clear to everyone by now is that making your business dependent on Microsoft anything is ultimately a losing proposition. They have a long history of deprecating their own products after customers have built products upon them.
I like this. It also fits the Cain and Abel hunter-gatherer vs agriculturalist interpretation.
All Open Source licenses come with an implicit patent grant, it's an exhaustion doctrine in equitable law.
The problem is not patent holders who contribute to the code, you're protected from them. It's trolls who make no contribution and then sue.
Of course these same trolls sue regarding proprietary code as well.
Because reaching your customers directly is hard. If it was easy, nobody would sign up for these services. Its especially hard for a small business like these- you expect them not only to be master craftsmen, but master marketers, master SEOs, and master businessmen as well? And do all of it in the span of a working day? Not exactly realistic. Now alternatives competing on margin- that can and will happen. Amazon isn't even the first here. Some of them, like ANgie's list, are paid for by monthly subscriptions.
No they don't. At least not in the US. Do you think the guy who drives a train has a state certification? And they're the originals.
Does it matter? I'd think Amazon will be happy to grab a percentage on as many of them as they can. 20% of 50% of transactions > 20% of 0% of transactions.
I suspect that evolution is involved. Those who have power in society are making the decisions and thus NEED the larger brains. Those whose grandfathers were ditch diggers and under 99% of the societies ever designed would be ditch diggers themselves, didn't need big brains and in fact were better able to survive without them.
"I am, therefore I am." -- Akira