nemexi - Slashdot User

Can you beat the virtual skeptic in a debate?

Submitted by

Sextus_Empiricus

on Monday March 12 2007, @09:29PM

Sextus_Empiricus writes "http://webscript.princeton.edu/~amendelo/skeptic

Here's an excerpt. Can you do better?

************************************************ *****

Skeptic: So tell me, David, what are your views on Mathematics?

David:

Skeptic: Well?

David: Mathematical truths cannot be disputed.

Skeptic: You mentioned something about truth. What does it mean for something to be true?

David: For something to be true it must correlate with all other parts of a system.

Skeptic: Please justify your claim that for something to be true it must correlate with all other parts of a system.

[ David has reached the suspension of judgment. He is now tranquil. ]"

Why pirated software is a problem in the 3rd world

Submitted by RockDoctor on Sunday February 11 2007, @06:17AM

RockDoctor writes "Dark Reading, the security-related online journal, carries an article by one Nathan Spande who works in Cambodia. Locally he finds that OpenOffice.Org and MS Office are the same price ($2), or $7-20 by downloading. He discusses why the economics of OpenSource don't work in this environment, and how it contributes to global computer security issues through the "little extras" (trojans, spambots and other malware) that typically accompany such "local editions" of software. Spande's analysis strikes me as being solid. I still remember my suspiscion of buying software in Russia (a 5-language dictionary-thesaurus-pronunciation assistant) for $10, and my utter astonishment when it's on-line activation routine actually worked and left me (well, my wife) with a computer that is still working 2½ years later. Hmm, 4 new versions of Lingvo since we got her copy — maybe we should upgrade next time one of us is in Russia.
The economics of software outside the west are very different to what most people are used to."

Comment: Switching from Ubuntu to OS X (Score 2, Insightful) 957

by nemexi on Monday July 03 2006, @04:42PM (#15652615) Attached to: Nerds Switching from Apple to Ubuntu?

I have been using Ubuntu for about a year and have now, after purchasing a MacBook, switched to OS X. And I'm quite happy with it so far. I guess Apple's customer base is changing at the moment -- as Macs become more popular with the my-ipod-needs-a-companion crowd, Apple might lose some of its earlier users. That said it _would_ be a smart move by Apple to listen to people like Mark Pilgrim and be more transparent with regard to file formats.