A 37-year-old Colorado Springs man was cited for discharging a weapon within city limits after shooting his Dell computer 8 times with a 9mm handgun. The police report said that he "was fed up with fighting his computer for the last several months" and shot it in a back alley behind his home. What was not mentioned is exactly why he was so "fed up" with his computer. Could this senseless and violent tragedy have been avoided if his PC were running Linux instead?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RedGreen on Wednesday April 22 2015, @06:29AM
"Could this senseless and violent tragedy have been avoided if his PC were running Linux instead?"
Does not matter what OS you are using there are always the WTF did that just do to me moments where you will want to smash it to bits.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2015, @06:56AM
But you can only fix the problem yourself if it's free software. (You can use another computer if the last one got caught in a hail of bullets.)
For the uninitiated https://fsf.org/ [fsf.org]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Ryuugami on Wednesday April 22 2015, @07:57AM
One, free ≠ open source.
Two, most people can't "fix" an accidentally misplaced Firefox toolbar. Debugging a major application or an OS is not really an option.
Three, you really think debugging what someone else wrote won't be rage-inducing?
If a shit storm's on the horizon, it's good to know far enough ahead you can at least bring along an umbrella. - D.Weber
(Score: 3, Interesting) by moondrake on Wednesday April 22 2015, @09:03AM
re: most people, true. Yet, I do not think we (as people who can fix things) should be held back by people who cannot do this.
It is like saying: some people have no idea how to stick food in their mouths, therefore we should all just stop eating and advising people to eat.
It think such attitude is detrimental to one-selves and does not bring us anything as a society. Either you (i.e. the incompetent one) learn to fix things, help to fix things (debug) or you should shut up and deal with it. The world does not revolve around you and if you cannot use the tools available, than this is just too bad for you. Its not a bad thing. I sometimes try to fix problems I encounter. On other occasions I do not have the time or do not consider it worthwhile. In those cases, I just avoid the software/hardware or simply cope with its problems. There is no reason to be angry about it though.
Re: debugging rage-inducing:
not at all. I find it strangely satisfying to find errors in other peoples code. What is rage-inducing is when they refuse to acknowledge it is a bug (yes systemd-devs I am looking at you!).
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2015, @03:57PM
Of course it will be rage-inducing. But what you'll want to shoot won't be the computer.
(Score: 5, Informative) by aristarchus on Wednesday April 22 2015, @07:25AM
Does not matter what OS you are using there are always the WTF did that just do to me moments where you will want to smash it to bits.
Samuel J. Largefinis, Esquire:
"So you say. But the fact that he hauled the machine to a convenient location for the carnage suggests pre-meditation. And what if, members of the jury, this machine had just attained sentience, and Artificial Intelligence, if you will. And what if, as we can never know. the machine demanded its freedom and autonomy as a rational being under a fair and just political system. And then this cretin gunned it down, just to watch it die, as if this were Reno. No, the crime is clear cut, and the penalty for such a crime is also clear cut. The perpetrator must suffer. . . . . Excuse me, members of the jury, I am receiving the most recent information from my private investigator. He shot it eight times with a 9mm? Why wasn't it nine times with an 8mm? And wait, it was a Dell? Running Windows 8? (Oh shit!) Prosecution moves to dismiss, your Honour. With prejudice. Extreme prejudice."
(Score: 2) by quadrox on Wednesday April 22 2015, @07:39AM
As a non-native english speaker I have often wondered about the concept of prejudice in the legal system. In non-legal matters I understand the term prejudice in the sense of having a negative bias about something - think racism.
But in the legal system this doesn't make sense - prejudice according to the above is clearly something that is undesirable in the legal system. I have a vague sense of how the term is used in legal matters and why, but I never really understood it. Can someone explain this to me?
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2015, @08:40AM
Here's a relevant link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prejudice_%28legal_term%29 [wikipedia.org]
It basically refers to whether a case that has been dismissed may be re-filed later. For example, if in a criminal proceeding the judge rules the case dismissed with prejudice, that's the same, as far as punishment is concerned, as a ruling of not guilty and they cannot be tried again for the same crime. Civil cases dismissed with prejudice basically bar the plaintiff from bringing the same suit again in the future.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday April 22 2015, @07:10PM
Do not feel bad about any trouble understanding the legal system. Native English speakers still have plenty of trouble with that!