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Comment Re:Surprised at current "least popular" results! (Score 1) 315

I think you're wrong, you have to look at the answers in relation to this specific subgroup. To take your OS-example: Yes, many of us use less popular OS'es, but most of us does not use the least popular variant. I think we can use this poll to learn, for example, what os'es people use:
Those who voted "Most popular" uses Ubuntu ("Everyone uses Ubuntu")
Those who voted "Least popular" uses Slackware ("It's difficult, therefore I'm special")
Those who voted "In the middle" uses Red Hat or Debian ("Lots of people use Debian/Red Hat, but I guess most people use Ubuntu")
Those who voted "Don't vote" uses Windows ("Linux Suxors, I win!")
Those who voted "Straight ticket" use a Mac ("This poll sucks, Mac should be at the top of the list!")

If this poll was in a regular newspaper however, most Slashdotters would answer "Least Popular" ("I'm better than most people")

Comment Re:Happiness is Mandatory! (Score 1) 437

You might want to remove that reefer from your mouth. Laws are put in place so that people who transgress against them can be jailed or fined. It's the courts' job to do that, not judge whether or not the laws are wrong.

You're not quite right. It's the courts job to test laws against higher laws, typically a country's constitution or international treaties such as international law on human rights. If a law is found to break with these higher laws the court may as far as I know declare a law illegal or something like that. I don't know if this law breaks anything like this but The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights includes protection against "Arbitrary arrest" and being arrested based uppon a secret law sounds like arbitrary arrest to me at least.

Zune Won't Play Old DRM Infected Files 463

Spritzer writes "According to the EFF, the new Zune portable media player from Microsoft won't play files infected with the old Microsoft DRM. It seems that all of the 'PlaysforSure' media that has been sold and is currently being sold will not play on the Zune. In addition, Microsoft has now advocated violating the DMCA in order to transfer files to the player. Microsoft Zune architect J Allard was quoted as saying there's 'Lots of DVD ripping software out there that encodes to those formats, so the most popular formats out there, whether it's MPEG-4 or H.264, we'll support those.'" ZDNet offers up additional commentary on this revelation.
Toys

Journal Journal: This is YOU!

You know computers.
You can fix almost any computer-related problem.
You are, to be honest, a computer expert.

You also have a career.
Your job is knowledge-based, and you can't easily be replaced because you often know now best at your workplace.
You are, to be honest, so valuable that you respond when people say "human capital".
Announcements

Journal Journal: The real predictions of 2004

Lots of people try to predict what will happen in 2004, and i'm one of them. But I'm right! In 2004...
  • ...Darl McBride will rob an old lady in broad daylight and blame it on the Pope.
  • ... some hotheaded Linux zealot will claim Linus Thorvalds should be elected Pope. And president of the US. And General secretary of the UN.
  • ... a huge consultant-agency will predict something

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