I use it because:
I am poor, and it allows me to legally use software without paying for it, and use old hardware without suffering.
I enjoy the fact that people like you get so worked up about why I use software.
It gives me a lot of control.
It takes care of its self.
I don't have to worry about using cpu cycles to keep my web browsing from hosing my machine.
It's one of the few situations in life where I actually benefit from the investments of huge corporations.

Not in any way important to you. But there it is.

ivan

or defeat the Shadow.

Recombinant researchers are the next big thing!

Madam Goodall could study radio active apes, perhaps saving us from Godzilla.
Nikolai Newton would levitate apples for us.
Alan Crick and Werner Watson could use RNA, traveling along, and changing, and infinitely long strand of DNA to control the path of a ballistic missile.

Truly, we would live in an age of miracles.

a little tid bit from the bottom of the page.

Actually... between the browser endorsement and the Web 2.0 hatred, that should be enough to get a rise out of anyone on Slashdot....

I peel 'em off with my thumbnail and smudge it a bit with my finger. All gone.

I have to admit, These are all older computers; the newest one I've tried it one was about three when I got it, stickers intact. Have they switched to a more obnoxious sticker system?

You mean modern car keys which are "enhanced" to the extent that a new one costs >$50, and the car will only accept a maximum of five keys?

Keys which, should they fail to produce the appropriate secret handshake, can lock the ignition system.

Modern locks are a total PITA.

ivan

There are a hell of a lot of people in Africa who think there are some problems with your metric.

ivan

I've got a P4 desktop at the office. I've also a P3 Coppermine Laptop which is just waiting for me to put it on a desk for customers to use, should they need to look up a recipe.

ivan

I find Moby Dick to be quite a bit of fun. You just have to skip the plot and get into the geekery of whaling and sailing. Oh, and don't worry about accuracy.

ivan

Rather than investigate what you've just claimed, I'm going to ask if it makes any kind of sense to have a restrictive policy on disclosing one's user level password, and expect that you'll just turn over a system level password to an unknown number of unknown people.

Of course he shouldn't have had sole administrative access to the network; however, it seems likely that the fastest typist among the authorized, well intentioned people hearing this information would be far outpaced by the hypothetical fastest typist among any hypothetical bad guys.

Assuming youre assertion is correct, it is evidence that the people he worked for were even more incompetent to handle the network than he feared. That doesn't put him on the right side of the law, but it does make his position sound a lot more sane.

ivan

I dunno, it seems pretty obvious that he would have been shafted just as hard had he turned over the passwords to a an unknowable number of unauthorized people and anything unpleasant had happened to the network. Especially since it's a government. It seems likely that a violation of the security policy, if that can be made to seem like it's connected to an actually problem, would lead to the same results for Childs.

He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. At least this way he gets to have been the good guy who stood up for something, instead of the pragmatist whose caving to convenience got him fired and put in prison.

Obviously, there's no certainty that it would have turned ugly, but it wasn't a forgone conclusion that it would turn ugly this way, either.

Guy got fucked, and probably would have anyway.

ivan

It's always a little cool and crushing to see someone actually doing the things I talk about. I've actually been thinking that It needs to be a generic 35mm digital back. There ought to be plenty of room for a substantial battery and memory/processing with those two big spaces either side of the area of exposure.

Here's to people who actually follow through on those nifty ideas which seem to float around looking for a patch of fertile motivation.

ivan

* What flavor of Linux would be best for a robot girlfriend? (and, no, you can't use 'GirLinux')

I'd go with Debian. Stability ranks pretty highly with me.

ivan

I think you mean to say that no Americans have been prosecuted by the US governtment for waterboarding accused terrorists in the past decade. People, including Americans have been prosecuted for waterboarding by the US government.

I'll not cite sources, if you can't find 'em, you're not interested.

ivan

I think the better way of putting it is:

If you try to hack the system, don't whine when the system retaliates. You knew it was a risk when you made your choice.

ivan