Blogcritics Comments on The Wealth of Minds

Comment by davidpeace on The Wealth of Minds

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:36:42 EDT

With DRM going ahead, there may come a time when the corporations that produce commercial software will decide that they own what you wrote. Even if it was just a personal diary. With the administration shredding the Constitution and Congress letting them get away with it, I can foresee a time when some person will be convicted of a bs crime based on a corporations ownership of software, thus legally able to take it and created with it handing over someone's personal papers that would ordinarily not be admissable. A stretch, I know, and maybe unrealistic. But consider how "far" we've come in seven years, let alone 230 +

Comment by Clavos on The Wealth of Minds

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:04:59 EDT

True, davidpeace, but most folks just want to keep track of their P&L or write some letters, maybe surf the web a little; they're not really informed enough or interested in dabbling in software mods, so it's a moot point for the majority of PC users.

Comment by davidpeace on The Wealth of Minds

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:53:44 EDT

Also with commercial software, you don't OWN it. You have bought a right to USE it. With open source, like Linux, you actually OWN the software, which means you can do anything you want with it. If you want to modify it, go right ahead. You are even free to make terrible mistakes with it or improve it. Not so with windows and other paid for programs.

Comment by bliffle on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 16:54:15 EDT

Incidentally, disabling ActiveX and Flash seems to work pretty good. I've been using the XP, so configured, on this bedroom T60 for the past few days and it is running very benignly. Of course, I can't watch youtube here (should I care?) and a lot of fascinating ads don't pop up, but it does just keep on running. And the widescreen is handy for watching cinemascope movies while relaxing in the whirlpool bath.

Comment by bliffle on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:21:38 EDT

Clavos' 1% number is at least suspect. That's the lowest I've ever seen, but it's hard to get consistent numbers. Especially over time. Probably 7% is a more consistent number. Regardless, past performance is not necessarily a predictor of future gains. In the OS wars each side has to demonstrate it's capability of handling future computer needs and to adapt to changes. One would have to favor newcomers for innovation and oldtimers for market clout and there is no doubt that Gates has shown himself to be a capable business samurai warrior. One of the big OS battlefields is China because piracy has leveled the financial playing field. Using free pirated software the Chinese have a prediliction to use Windows because it is so widely used around the world. What will happen when MS tightens the noose and flushes those pirates out? And they are doing it as more and more companies and government agencies send down the commands from on high to switch to paid-for windows. To facilitate that MS offers ultra-low prices to the Chinese and exerts powerful influence through the US State dept. Most Chinese purchasing authorities seem quite willing to switch to paid-for windows rather than linux. Against all that is the fact that when anyone runs windows on his computer he has surrendered a significant part of his privacy and security to Dark Unknow Forces in Redmond, and possibly anyone they rent space to. Rootkit, anyone? In the past many of us have experienced the horrors of a windows system being infested and possessed by worms, viruses, malware, etc. Even in spite of Virus checkers and such. Is that enough to scare windows users away? Well, it seems to be for a number of people. I think the culprit is "ActiveX" and it's cohorts. Which I purposely disable in my windows partitions. Even though MS punishes me by not running some of their things. I believe that they are subletting some of those extraordinary privileges to other vendors, such as Macromedia Flash. And then they compound the problem through the popularity of some of their customers, like Youtube.

Comment by Clavos on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:17:20 EDT

"Linux is coming on strong in desktop computers." Crap. Less than 1% market share is nobody's definition of "coming on strong." Even Firefox (which I use), the open source world's greatest success story, has only gained a 19% market share, even with the boost from the release of v3.0 last week, according to Computerworld. Gates is far more worried about open source software as a phenomenon than he is about Linux per se, and open source for Windows is growing far faster than it is for Linux OS. Linux proponents remind me of 9/11 and New World Order conspiracy freaks with their blithe disregard of the facts in their eagerness to push their favorite fantasies.

Comment by David on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:00:12 EDT

Clavos: The main reason windows has such a huge (monopoly) market share is because most manufacturers are forced to ship their computers with microsoft through "agreements". If people actually did get a choice on OSs, micro$oft wouldn't have such a control over the market. In addition, with their latest, vista, software/hardware vendors have to buy a license (not sure if that is the correct word) to write programs/drivers for vista, and only then, will vista support those programs. As for older material/hardware: forget it. I got Diablo2LOD to run when I had vista on, but only because it was the 32bit version. I found out later the 64bit version would have been incompatible with it. Not so Ubuntu.

Comment by Dr Dreadful on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:36:59 EDT

I'm not sure if it will happen in your lifetime or mine but for many kids alive now, they may well enjoy effectively limitless lifespans. This science will change human culture more radically than anything we have ever seen before. As long as we all understand that 'limitless' isn't the same thing as 'immortal'. I've no intention of dying, but I'm realistic enough to know that even if the medical technology comes along in my (current expected) lifetime, it can only protect me against disease, not accident. However many pills I pop, however careful I am, sooner or later, be it in five years or a thousand, I or someone else will have a lapse in concentration and I will experience a spectacular loss of argument with a moving train, a cliff, a tsunami or some other irresistible force. "All the king's horses and all the king's men..."

Comment by bliffle on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:22:43 EDT

The Linux OS and Apache server code dominate the server market. Linux is coming on strong in desktop computers. Some computer makers are offering it as a lower cost option. This is becoming a bigger factor as peoples budgets are pinched. I gave my 9 yr. old faux granddaughter a Thinkpad equipped with Ubuntu and all I had to show her was how to change her password and desktop theme. There is an XP partition on the HDD, but AFAIK she hasn't used it. Most kids learn the consensus operating system, i.e., a meld of XP, Mac and linux, pretty early at school and with there friends and family. They go quite easily from one to another. And Bill Gates does worry about linux. He has tried to launch several strategic attempts to attack it. It must upset him that where the tech types make decisions, i.e., servers, he gets beat by linux. But he's using the old IBM stunt (since MS is the new IBM) of selling at the CEO level and cutting out the tech people. Open software has some interesting contraries to the traditional patent/copyright idea of Total Market Dominance, in their use of "Copyleft" and, IIRC, Common Usage agreements. Just as with the common "EULA" of software peddlers that you implicitly agree to when you use their stuff, the same applies to these new instruments of shared IP usage. I think linux is much easier to use than windows in a great number of areas. For example, if I want to convert an AVI of some family affair to a DVD movie it is much simpler to do it with something like 'deeveedee' on linux than with the traditional tools that I've been using for 10 years on windows. Much easier. Even in those few cases where I have to resort to the Command Line Interpreter (CLI - the prototype for DOS) such as converting an FLV to run on my Palm, it's quite easy to use an old 'ffmpeg' script that I composed a few years ago rather than startup one of the clumsy converters on windows, including one that I paid $50 for. You can run a lot of windows utilities under 'wine' anyway because it supplies all the utilities of the windows programming interface. And you can access all your old windows files easily from linux. linux also has a gizmo, 'wubi', for running linux from windows. linux may surround and devour windows.

Comment by Clavos on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:30:33 EDT

David, While Linux does do well in the server market, the OS picture is very different. According to a number of sources, including Wikipedia: "Desktop adoption of Linux is approximately 1%. In comparison, Microsoft operating systems hold more than 90%" I don't think Gates is losing any sleep yet...

Comment by David on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:50:30 EDT

Clavos: The Linux community is HUGE. Check Distrowatch.com. I was an "average" (probably somewhat below) windows user. I switched because I got so frustrated with vista. It also doesn't require buying new equipment. Same computer, just different OS. People will produce just for the fun of it, as long as the tools they are using aren't forced on them.

Comment by Clavos on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:01:32 EDT

"Even when I enjoyed her politics I broke out in hoots after I read a "Fountainhead" as a 19 yr. old." That's a long book, bliffle. You had to get through the whole thing before you "broke out in hoots?" I'm obviously not as sophisticated a reader as you are, bliffle, but that's not surprising, as I'm not as clever an economist or as perceptive a political analyst, either. And I certainly am not as creative a fantasist as you...

Comment by bliffle on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:22:45 EDT

I find it hard to believe that anyone reads Rand for her writing. Even when I enjoyed her politics I broke out in hoots after I read a "Fountainhead" as a 19 yr. old.

Comment by Christopher Rose on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:58:16 EDT

Clavos, re your #29; the way life extension research is developing, it may not be quite so true for much longer that "none of us exits alive". I'm not sure if it will happen in your lifetime or mine but for many kids alive now, they may well enjoy effectively limitless lifespans. This science will change human culture more radically than anything we have ever seen before.

Comment by STM on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:12:40 EDT

A randy individual? Shame on you Dave. That's way too much information.

Comment by Clavos on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:14:22 EDT

Just "A few good men," Dave...:>)

Comment by Dave Nalle on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:11:46 EDT

I think I may engage in the modest altruistic things I engage in solely NOT to be stuck thinking of myself as a randian individual. Dave

Comment by Clavos on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:50:45 EDT

Yeah, I know, mate. Almost as tough as being a surfer living in Sydney, surfing on slices of paradise like Bondi, and getting paid to write about it. We all have our crosses to bear...

Comment by STM on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:31:49 EDT

Clav: "I do it because I love pleasure boating and because I make good money at it; in other words, for selfish reasons". Man's gotta make a living somehow. But mate, what a shitty job ... out on the water all day, taking in the sun, cruising around picturesque waterways. Someone has to do it though.

Comment by Dr Dreadful on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:17:28 EDT

Well, if he can afford* to shell out $300 mil for whoever can develop an environmentally-friendly car battery... _{* Not a hoot in hell.}

Comment by Clavos on The Wealth of Minds

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:02:43 EDT

It'll cost him, Doc. I don't do nuthin' altruistically. :>)

Comment by Dr Dreadful on The Wealth of Minds

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:52:08 EDT

Clav, it sounds like J McC needs to consult with you on how to be a maverick...

Comment by Clavos on The Wealth of Minds

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:35:25 EDT

I DO like Rand's claptrap, though; it's so much more entertaining than most best seller claptrap published these days. Better written, too. But, I wasn't evoking Roark; rather Rand's essay. I don't have either broad shoulders or a narrow waist, I don't crush weaklings, or do anything glamorous; I'm just reasonably adept at separating rich guys from some of their money in exchange for tawdry symbols of their ill-gotten gains - sorta like their trophy wives. I don't join groups, either. I don't belong to a church, a country club, no yacht clubs or social organizations, no civic groups, have at most 10 friends, no children (didn't want them), and am thoroughly satisfied with my uncommitted life. The only fly in my ointment is my wife's illnesses, but they too, are just part of life; you play the cards you're dealt, and none of us exits alive.

Comment by Clavos on The Wealth of Minds

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:16:20 EDT

bloffle, I guess I'll never convince you that I'm a sociopath, huh?

Comment by bliffle on The Wealth of Minds

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:52:35 EDT

Many readers of Ayn Rands claptrap picture themselves as the hardnosed Roark individualist, tramping over vanquished weaklings, with a certain cock to their rakish fedore, leather jacket defining the broad shouldes and narrow waist of their masculine, masterly bodies. It almost takes your breath away! Such powerful self-ceneterness. James Bond-like. Rands version of 007, with a license to kill.