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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!paladin.american.edu!news.jhu.edu!boingo.amil.jhu.edu!europa.chnt.gtegsc.com!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!news.mathworks.com!news.duke.edu!news-server.ncren.net!taco.cc.ncsu.edu!crazytrain.eos.ncsu.edu!not-for-mail From: kpneal@eos.ncsu.edu (Kevin P. Neal) Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Subject: Re: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker paper, benchmarks, and the world of free UNIX) Followup-To: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Date: 22 Apr 1996 22:01:42 GMT Organization: The House of RetroComputing Lines: 94 Message-ID: <4lgvk6$enc@taco.cc.ncsu.edu> References: <4ki055$60l@Radon.Stanford.EDU> <tporczykDq3C55.4zE@netcom.com> <4l96pm$mrt@nnrp1.news.primenet.com> <4lecrd$155@taco.cc.ncsu.edu> <4lg7al$ap4@nnrp1.news.primenet.com> <4lg85t$42f@news.hic.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: crazytrain.eos.ncsu.edu X-Newsreader: TIN [UNIX 1.3 950824BETA PL0] Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:22108 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:791 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3445 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3300 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:17985 comp.os.linux.advocacy:46819 Charles A. Tilbury (ctilbury@hic.net) wrote: : In article <4lg7al$ap4@nnrp1.news.primenet.com>, jstern@primenet.com says... : > : >Kevin P. Neal <kpneal@eos.ncsu.edu> wrote: : >>Josh Stern (jstern@primenet.com) wrote: : > : >>: If the : >>: business consumer cannot turn to PC Magazine, : >>: Byte, or even the Wall Street Journal or : <<<<snip>>>> : > : >>Unbiased journalism is a crock. It does not exist (as far as I can : >>tell). : > : <<<<<snip>>>>> : > To take an analogy, if I claim the : >problem with your bicycle is the friction caused : >by the back wheel brushing against the mud guard, : >it's not particularly meaningful to come back and tell : >me that all wheels have some friction. : > : : Seems to me that the "bias" as it is used here referrs to : whether the "media" has an agenda or not. If they have : an agenda, any agenda, then I automatically invalidate 1/3 : of what they have to say. : Pretty much. There is also the problem of the journalist making conclusions that are based mostly on his/her personal opinions. Most of the world believes that PCs are the end-all be-all computer. I once had a person ask me (concerning my Amiga) "Does it run PC programs?" No "Well, does it run Mac programs?" Nope "Well, what does it run?" Amiga programs. "Oh, really?" Sigh. Most of the journalists I have been exposed to tend to write about how people should buy a PC, I mean it works for them, right? My Dad bought my brother a Win95 box for Christmas. Now Dad is learning about all of the crap that Windows brings along with it. He asks me: "So why do people put up with all of this?" Because, Dad, this is *normal* to most people. Journalists included. You never ever hear about how, for example, Plug and Play has problems. You never hear about how ISA is 15 years old and should have been ditched 10 years ago. You never hear about how PC Windows programs keep getting larger and slower. Because the vast majority of users, journalists included, consider this to be normal. What Free Unix needs is reporters in high places who support our view. I tend to discount any media coverage of computers in general, they tend to screw up. One local news channel had reporters on the scene with a sattalite. link-up to bring the live pictures to the rest of the Triangle area of people (Ohmygosh ohmygosh) BUYING the First copies of Win95! Whee! As if it was exciting or something. She (the reporter) thought it was. Another example of a local journalist saying something dumb: This university (NCSU) has around 27,000 students. We have an extensive Public Safety force, to the point where I (a male) feel perfectly fine walking around on campus at 4 in the morning. Raleigh also was a police force (of course). A couple of years ago there was a dispute about where the powers of the Police start and the Public Safety end. The O-So-Wonderful idea presented by the Noise and Disturber as a fact is this: Make PS officers able to only write tickets, force them to call in the "real" police if there is a real violation of the law. Huh? A journalist presents this idea pretty near the front page? What's his angle? Or does he just not really understand what campus life is like? No, I mean what it is like TODAY, not (sits down in rocker, groans) when (in gravely voice) "I was in school, we didn't have ..." [you get the point.]. I don't read the paper here, it's just full of inaccuracys. I wonder what the angle of te person writing is. I wonder what is being left out. I wonder what the writer *wanted* me to feel by reading the news, and that leads me to wonder if I am being manipulated. That's what I mean by news "bias". Sorry for being long winded. Oh, and this message was brought to you by my Windows 95 laptop, an IBM thinkpad that doesn't run IBM's OS/2 because it doesn't work very well on this IBM equipment. Also, I'm posting from a Dec Alpha running NetBSD. Attribute typos to 95% OK Win95 vt100 emulation. Attribute brainos to me being just 21, and raised in a small town. Well, I'm in a city now, like it, and am in the process of getting out from behind my computer. Scary, huh? -- XCOMM Kevin P. Neal, Sophomore, Comp. Sci. \ kpneal@interpath.com XCOMM Frue, Secret Agent of Smerp (shh!) \ kpneal@eos.ncsu.edu XCOMM Visit the House of RetroComputing at / Perm. Email: XCOMM http://www4.ncsu.edu/~kpneal/www/ / kevinneal@bix.com