This particular donkey probably does think you should be charged with a crime for being late on payment of rent, along with pretty much anything else. This stuff is such BS, and everyone has known this starting with the first TOS (pre web btw). I have been a programmer before and since then, and have *never* read one and don't intend to. I am not interested in computers so i can read long legal documents that are complete nonsense and give everything to "the company" and nothing to me. This is part of the revolution as far as i am concerned.

I will believe the troops are coming home from Iraq when the troops come home from Germany! When they stop constructing billion dollar bases in Iraq. When Israel stops using oil that they don't have. When the US protects the Kurdish people as promised. In general, when the USA stops behaving as bullies and thugs. When citizenship is stripped from the same corporations who depleted the US treasury to their own benefit. When the US rebuilds Iraq as promised. When we sop killing our own people without trial or charge. etc etc etc

As long as the updates actually work. As of now they don't!

Right on! Since when is it a good idea to not test products, but rather have the user test? I can see that some money can be saved, but is that the idea behind FOSS? Saving money? I am. for the first time since Mozilla announced FF, looking to switch! Damn! I have, btw switched from, Ubuntu, and will switch from any product who pulls this crap. "It's not ready yet!" - "I don't care it's due!" Unless someone can show otherwise this is a stupid and backwards way to do software.

Right on brother ... If they take the net away, they will find out they have taken it from everybody. This net is the people's net, not fcking verizon's. We built the web and we built Usenet and we built the torrents. If these brainless morons can't understand that they are useful tools, we will build them again and lock those pricks out. How many programmers would not work to bring these lying bastards down if their net was cut off. No net leaves a lot of free time on our hands... Just remember Abraham Lincoln didn't die in vein - He died in Washington DC.

As one who was also at OOPSLA many years ago (the first one and the second as well) - What I heard was the Microsoft VP in the Mens room saying "why do you all hate us so much ...?" As one who also worked in and taught both languages (C++ and Java) I would say you have some really cool sayings there, unfortunately they are B.S.

Java was better in almost every way. What Gosling said was true as far as it goes. Not only smalltalk, but also UCSD Pascal had a VM way back in the early 80's,way before C++ was unleashed. Unfortunately, at that time systems were so slow that both were useless, but the idea was there. Sort of like Xerox and Apple if you would. That does not mean that the Mac was not an innovative machine, nor Java an innovative language.

One more thing, the reason people get so passionate about a language is that they spend a lot of time (years) getting to really understand it. Not just a couple of sound bytes. Therefore - switching from C++ to Java was not just some jump to the new lingo, but was rather accomplished by a lot of thought about merits and faults. In the same way that my jump from Fortran to C to Pascal to C++ all were

So please - stop with the snide comments unless you really have something to say...

I can't believe anyone is surprised by this behaviour. It is written (somewhere) the the Gods of Commerce get to do whatever the hell they want, and we all know that they sure as hell DON'T want to share...

However, we are very lucky. Rarely is the solution so clear.

1. If you willingly do biz with Oracle, especially in the Java arena, but really in any context, you lose your right to bitch about Oracle's bad behaviour.

2. Go back to the last FOSS version of Java and fork it. And this time don't sell it to any greed heads - yep, I am putting Sun in this category also.

Hang in there - we are all in this together ...

So... you use Linux to be part of the Linux Community? Seems a little backward. I use Linux because i think it is technically superior, costs less, and is open. Then i seek the community for help, which i always find. I would not let some immature member of the community chase me from Linux, although i might try to educate them.

Perhaps the backward approach is the reason for your bitter view of the community? At any rate, as a happy, and well served member of that community I for one don't appreciate the total BS you laid out. To paraphrase ... If you don't like the Linux community please do go back to MS, Apple or whatever you think is better.

As a user of Ubuntu since 7.04, and one who is making a switch right this moment, I am one of the disenchanted. I cannot say exactly why except with the generalization that Ubuntu seems more windoze like with each passing release. Most recently i am running 10.04 and the thing that jumps out at me is the "...Are you sure?" type messages, and other similar Big Brother OS type behavior. This has been a gradual process, and maybe it is helpful for noobs, but it is one of the reasons i abandoned doze a long time ago. Another windoze like trait is the idea that more complex is better - check out grub2, which was foisted on us in 10.04. I find absolutely no benefit for my use, and yet it is a huge pain to revert, as every update of the os wants grub2. These are just a few things that have bugged me lately about Ubuntu, but it is enough to get me off of it. btw - notice no bad mouth here, I feel Ubuntu is still a valuable OS for some - just not for me.

Well - wrong again... As an anarchist, i DO have the legal right to do anything i want - been doing that for more than 68 years - no problems yet.

My first thought when i read this! Right on TigerTheMad...

What the hell - the pedophiles whose minions are groping children in airports are now the pedophile cops??!?

DHS needs to go, along with DEA, NSA, and a few other 3 letter acronyms - but it won't, because the number of politicians in DC who care at all about the People can be counted on one hand. I am sorry that i lived to see this, but here it is.

Time to "...water the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Back in the day, we used to connect modem to modem - and make BBSs (a place to connect where others connect) - Only a phone line needed.

scathing? I thought the whole conversation was pretty mellow...

check youtube for a video made from a webcam mounted on an RC helicopter and equipped with wifi

Not just one person in one place - this is a widespread tactic.