Slashdot Mirror

Microsoft, public, and beta should not exist together. In fact, they don't.

Corel is freely releasing their contributed source code changes to an open source project, even though they don't have to.

The WINE license allows you to incorporate the entire WINE project, modify it, not release the changes, and sell it. That's fine, but Corel isn't doing that.

The WINE project is a reimplementation of the Windows libraries and environment on top of Linux, (and *BSD and hopefully all of Unix with a little x86 emulation... :) allowing easy execution and porting of Windows applications on/to Linux.

Microsoft, on the other hand, places their products on a very restrictive license, sometimes charges people for beta releases, (and for that matter always charges people for "gold" releases that would be better called beta releases ;) and wouldn't dream of freely releasing Windows source code.

Heck, they wouldn't even give you access to an ftp archive, and say "check out the alpha Windows daily builds", unless you're a WaReZ d00d. (anyone remember Windows '97?)

I'd be happy with Microsoft if they decently ported *any* of their apps to Linux with WINE, and contributing to the WINE project would be a plus. Because MainWin blows on Solaris and HP/UX, and I've run IE 3.0 and Photoshop 3.0 under Wine so far, so I don't think it would take that much work on their part, and they'd get a decent software port.

The only reason for them *not* to port to Linux is their OS monopoly, because a lot of people would still buy their software. Especially if they tried giving back to the community for once, instead of just taking our money and giving us substandard products.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Malicious code

Oh no, Slashdot is vulnerable! No one is safe from the dreaded CERT Advisory Exploits! :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Your post was wonderful and fair until you mentioned the incredibly stupid "GNU/[blah blah blah]" flamewar.

First, some "facts" about Linux. Linus didn't even want to call it Linux, or GNU/Linux, or Bob, or anything. In his mind, it was probably originally called "386 protected mode assembly tutorial", and eventually grew into an OS kernel. He did mention that he wanted to call it FreaX, or something silly like that. The guy on the ftp archive said "Nah, that's a dumb name. His name is Linus, I'll call it Linux." This is all paraphrasing what I remember about the subject -- feel free to post more detailed accounts of this story if you wish.

Second, once development really got going in C, and Linus managed to get gcc running under Linux, he was grateful enough that he GPL'ed the Linux kernel. Linux is essentially an excellent GPL'ed, Unix-looking OS kernel, which can be used to fulfill the final bit of the GNU project. Calling Linux GNU/Linux makes about as much sense as calling GNU GNU/Linux.

Linux can also be used with many other free and commercial packages, but is not dependent on them, as it is an OS kernel. If you wanted to, you could probably run iBCS, and use FreeBSD or SCO or Solaris's system tools. Most people would rather just compile the GNU ones, but this is a distribution issue, not a kernel issue. Even so, we don't name the kernel or the distribution by the name of the packages within. Otherwise, the full and accurate name of my modified Redhat 6.0 distribution would consist of about 494 separate names, not counting anything I compiled myself. That's a long name, and unless you're writing the new Sumerian Unix epic poem, I don't recommend doing so.

Finally, if you're stupid or arrogant enough to call the OS kernel GNU/Linux, or the distribution "a GNU/Linux system", why stop there? How about "GNU/RedHat 6.1", even though the GNU project has no real corporate association with RedHat? (they didn't merge or anything, guys)

The GPL cuts both ways. We can use your software, and we'll give you your source, but the GPL doesn't include any "advertising clause". Is this what you want, RMS? The good old BSD license provisions to protect you?

How about a new license, the JPL, for "Jealous Public License", requiring any program or collection of programs to clearly state all the programs or projects involved in its name, regardless of how stupid, inane, or non-marketable the resulting name sounds? If using the GPL for your software isn't enough for you, does that sound inane enough for you, RMS? (*please* don't take this seriously. I *beg* of you.)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

All this means is that the TI CEO thinks wireless internet devices or whatever are the "next big thing".

Well, everyone is investing in all kinds of crazy stuff hoping it will be the next big thing. Feel free to make a generator for it, using the words "innovative", "wireless", "internet", "hand-held", "touch screen", "Open-Source", "integrated", "internet-ready", "small footprint", "network", "Java", "device", "organizer", etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah. We'll all be sick of it soon enough.

Does that mean this will be the next big thing? They sure hope so. We'll see a lot of attempts, and most of them will fail. These devices have their place, and some of them will live on. Some of them might even replace cell phones and pagers, and let you check on your stuff when you're on the road. That's really handy.

But the PC will live on. PC's will always have more brute computational force, display your games prettier, give you more room to surf the web and chat with people, play your music, etc., etc. Technological advances from both sides will be folded together. I can't wait to have a PC with a nice big flat screen, and a few really efficient processors.

But I still wouldn't want to take it on the road, and it's still a PC, just as much as my old Tandy with the monochrome monitor and the full-sized keyboard. Heck, anyone who hasn't been keeping up would just know that PC's are more like TV's now, they're prettier and stuff. Outwardly, they look pretty similar. Screen, keyboard, CPU, etc. I don't think that's gonna change for a while.

Screw paradigm shifts, I'm staying right here. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

No, feel free to share. I, for one, am curious.

I think your experience applies to this conversation, since becoming a citizen would be the next logical step after getting the green card, and this article claims that at least one of these have gotten better when in fact that may not be strictly true, especially wherever you are.

It's scary to think that some people might not be "good enough for gov't work". At least there's work at the post office too...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

This wouldn't be as regards the Open-NP project, would it? A project to "portman to an OpenSource environment", perhaps?

Well, that post was hilarious, so maybe we need to start a "TrollForge" website for such projects and related postings, etc., etc. Some sort of central slashdot repository so we can store all of the funny troll postings. Heck, make it searchable too, then we can copyright it. *snicker*

Portman

"Trollin', Trollin', Trollin',
perl scripts a' pollin',
keep on slashdot trollin',
Portman!
Mae Ling Mak and First Post,
So I can now boast,
Wishin' my gal was petrified.
All the things I'm missin',
My Karma, baths, and wimmin,
I don't care, or else I'd cry!

CHORUS
Click 'em on, post 'em up
Post 'em up, click 'em on
Click 'em on, post 'em up
Portman!
Click 'em on, post 'em up
Post 'em up, click 'em on
Click 'em on, post 'em up
Portman!

Keep movin', movin', movin',
Though they're disapprovin',
Keep them fingers movin,
Portman!
Don't try to understand 'em,
Just post and reprimand 'em,
Soon we'll be trollin' far and wide!
My porn's stimulatin'
My right hand will be achin'
I don't care or else I'd cry!

Portman!
Portman!
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Quick, patent the 'locate' command, and the resultant indexes, and you'll own everything, ha ha ha ha ha!

Doesn't Microsoft own a *lot* of this stuff now? And now Time-Warner / AOL? That scares me.

Also, rules against "linking to a web site" strike me as being incredibly stupid. Oh no, I made links to the current stories on slashdot's main page. They're going to sue me for infringing on their content. Good thing everyone else is doing it too, now, and we should be thanking them for cutting down on wasted bandwidth, and cross-indexing sites for us in a useful fashion...

"Can't we all just get along?" :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Anyone else think it's scary that people are quoting Slashdot comments, probably out of context, in a court of law, attempting to present some kind of "accurate representation" of the community and its opinions?

Man, if I was the other lawyer in that case, I'd read a few "Naked and Petrified" comments and destroy that "Anonymous Coward" guys testimony.

No, I know, they could just look at my user number, and make me an "expert witness"! :P

I guess my question for Jon would be "Do you think tactics like using posts from one user, out of context, from an online forum should be allowed as testimony to represent the views of the community at large?"

Geez, I like DNA testing much better compared to this crap. With DNA testing, I'm 99.9999% certain as to someone's identity. With Slashdot, I've got the other 0.0001% certain about their identity, that they mean what they say, that they have any idea what they're talking about... etc., etc.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Oh my God, I just found out today that Bill Gates has something to do with Microsoft! I bet that's why they sell so much stuff...

Transmeta employs Linus because he wanted a cool job where he could do something interesting and work on Linux on the side. And guess what, that's what he did.

And if you haven't checked lately, there are special icons on slashdot for *everything* now, including but not limited to Beanies, Star Wars Prequels, Wine, and Christmas Cheer...

We "rabid" Linux users would be very interested in that "box of shit", because Linus tends to have more integrity than that. Say what you will, but he hasn't let me down yet, unlike Bill Gates.

I'd be easily manipulated if I didn't question your post. Fortunately, I know enough about the people and forum involved that I don't, citizen. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Well, this is definitely unfair. We aren't supposed to lose our rights after we enter the schoolhouse gate, but I guess things change.

Universities are big business nowadays. I'm glad that at least one company has been able to provide competing phone service here at NCSU, but by and large we don't have that many choices, AT&T enjoys a virtual monopoly here, and I'd hate to see our few bad choices get limited even further.

...and I'll trade campuses with you. My university switched to Pepsi, and I can't stand it. However, getting Coke from off campus is cheaper than buying Pepsi on campus, and of course Coke is far superior... :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Good observation, but I think Bruce Sterling still beat you to it. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Here's a site in Australia that has some more detailed information. Everything the Anonymous Coward first poster said sounds pretty accurate (!).

The card they're using here is the Telsat Turbo, from SatNet. It's a PCI card, and it says in their FAQ that they're working on drivers for MacOS and Linux. It should already work under Windows NT. And yeah, you need a modem too.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Cool! All source rpm's...

Heck, it's just cool to see the list of programs they're cramming into this.

It doesn't look like a bad start for a root/boot disk. :)

---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Actually, Laserjets are far and away the printing platform used in business. And it's nice to see VA Linux supporting the community by using SourceForge, and HP promoting (even indirectly) Linux, where before some would have seen it as competition.
<ZEALOT>
I yearn for the day when companies write drivers for Linux(/Unix) and opensource them so that all Unixes can share in the glory, and we all laugh at Windows for a decade because it's fragmented, hard to use for longer than 30 minutes, and it locks you into proprietary solutions. :)
</ZEALOT>
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

I would have to agree, because in practice, I never use any of the graphical monitoring tools.

Ktop looks pretty, I like the tree view, and the process monitoring mode, (showing user and system in different colors) but it's still a bit of a hog. However, I know the text in /proc takes some time to parse, which is another argument for a complimentary binary interface to process info.

I haven't used ntop, but it sounds handy. Mostly, top, sort, grep, etc. are good enough.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Thanks for the info. I've seen minix running on an 8086, and it ran horribly... but I guess the miracle is that it ran at all. I haven't tried it on a 286, but I might someday.

Hadn't heard of VsTA... Support for SMP? Hmm...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

This was a good technical article with some interesting ideas, and I'm proud to see it on Slashdot.

I think the reason that functional languages are left out of the evaluation is that they are "research", and as such tend to have more of the features that will be in "The Language Of The Future", which will be whatever is worthy to finally replace C/C++ as the development language of the future, and do a good job.

I've been learning Scheme lately, and the design of the language encourages a lot of flexibility and reuse. Since the data types are numbers and symbols (which are atoms), and lists, (and S-expressions and functions...) all you can really do is recursive list manipulation. But that turns out to be a lot. (and you can build code from data, too) Some of these concepts will take off and be successful, and others won't, but it will be interesting to see what the future holds...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

:) Yeah, running on a Root disk sucks. The best thing to do is see if you can get it to use some swap. However, if it crashed when you say it did, (at startup, basically) you're probably out of luck.

Which distro did you try to install? Some linux distros, like Small Linux, claim to be able to do what you want.

I've got a 286 that I tried running ELKS on, and... well, it's *really* not ready for prime time. And I wouldn't want to do any real work on minix, either. No, I'd probably run DOS--try to get the Second Reality demo looping on it instead. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

On the download page, they say something about it being a "special, not for distribution" version, and some other licensing stuff. Anyone who considers themselves a GPL expert, take a look. My take on it is they aren't ready to distribute it to the masses.

However, if they gave you the binaries, and there's GPLed code in there, they owe you the source. So we'll see how this goes. (Please, not another lawsuit! I'd love to test the GPL, but...)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Looks like this is for making embedded linux solutions on x86 and PowerPC. It's free for download, and they'll have to at least release whatever changes they've made to the 2.2 kernel, if they aren't just kernel modules. It will be interesting to see what functionality this shares with MobileLinux (if any), and how much of it we can cobble together between the two of them.

Also, some of this code might be handy for making a modern version of Linux that runs well on old computers without that much RAM. (yeah, yeah, yeah, 386 with 4MB RAM. Of course it's possible, but have you tried it lately? I wouldn't mind a distro that made it easier.)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

I think what our friends at CNN meant to say was:

1) There are *too many* graphical monitoring tools for Linux.

Therefore,

2) It's too confusing. I bet there are text tools. No one on Unix would use graphical tools...

3) If we told the truth, we'd lose our "Microsoft Journalistic Objectivity", and get shunned by the other trade rags. Oh no!

4) We're really incompetent to review anything but Windows, but we'll pretend we can do it to sound smarter... And we wouldn't want to actually *ask* anyone else for help. ...except Microsoft. They're okay. They provide support...

Finally, for those curious about the link / screenshot, I'm running a modified Redhat 6.0. That is, it's somewhere between RH6.0 and RH6.1, and also supports the freaky network stuff my university (NCSU) uses for networking. It's neet. And I was running DOSEmu (Fire demo) for the CPU cycles, and a Scheme interpreter (essentially doing 6^6^6^6, for the swap). Gtop is a pig, I like xosview and xsysinfo.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

I think what our friends at CNN meant to say was:

1) There are *too many* graphical monitoring tools for Linux.

Therefore,

2) It's too confusing. I bet there are text tools. No one on Unix would use graphical tools...

3) If we told the truth, we'd lose our "Microsoft Journalistic Objectivity", and get shunned by the other trade rags. Oh no!

4) We're really incompetent to review anything but Windows, but we'll pretend we can do it to sound smarter... And we wouldn't want to actually *ask* anyone else for help. ...except Microsoft. They're okay. They provide support...

Finally, for those curious about the link / screenshot, I'm running a modified Redhat 6.0. That is, it's somewhere between RH6.0 and RH6.1, and also supports the freaky network stuff my university (NCSU) uses for networking. It's neet. And I was running DOSEmu (Fire demo) for the CPU cycles, and a Scheme interpreter (essentially doing 6^6^6^6, for the swap). Gtop is a pig, I like xosview and xsysinfo.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Fortunately, I can drink beer and type, not simultaneously, but in close proximity. While you, sir, are still rude.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

There are times when I'll take free beer over free speech. Because sometimes you just want to shut up and drink some beer. But it's good to see that the Open Source community is having an effect on traditional business models, even if traditional businessmen still don't get it.

Yeah, it'll probably be released under the SCSL again. Big deal. We need a generic, DFSG-compliant (or whatever it's called this week) software license that doesn't scare corporate lawyers. Convincing them to use that because its good for them would be a big step for hackers everywhere.

(Almost as big as stopping people from taking our stuff because we code programs that lawyers do not like or understand. My favorite, IIRC, is probably when they did this to Steve Jackson Games in The Hacker Crackdown. That was a classic.)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. All of these were or are conspiracies to limit the rights, freedom, and usefulness of hackers and computer professionals. Especially "First Post". :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Oh man, do we have to see this happen *every* decade? The only difference between this one and the last one is that the police might get suspicious if you took your hard drive out by now.

Other than that it looks like no one else has learned anything apart from the usual "Computer crime is bad. Hackers should be punished. Computer crime is anything computer-related that I don't understand but someone says is bad. Big corporations are there to protect me..." Of course, we hackers know the difference. But that hasn't changed, either.

Yo, NSA and MPA(A)! I can watch DVDs on my computer, break your patented triple-XOR encryption in my head, and therefore decrypt your 31337 secret K0deZ. Better send someone here to shut me up real quick and steal my stuff without cause, 'cause you know I'm an evil HaX0r commie pinko, and I deserve whatever I get, no matter how illegal it is for you to do it! :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

It looks like INT gets caught in the kernel, trapped by vm86(). And DOSEmu doesn't emulate much hardware, besides maybe faking some hard-drive layout stuff and some memory addresses. As much as possible, they've made it run just like a DOS virtual machine, otherwise protected mode would be much easier to fully implement, and you'd all be running Win '98 or whatever on DOSEmu...

...but the performance is really incredible. When I tested it with the BYTEMarks, it would only be a couple percent slower than the real thing, and in anything involving disk access, it's faster, because Linux caches the drives so much better than DOS ever did. And as I've mentioned before, you can tell DOSEmu the maximum amount of RAM you want it to use, but it should never start out using more than 4MB or so, unlike VMWare.

The I/O seems to work fine the way they have it, and this is of course bug-for-bug compatible with the original. But yes, I would be very happy if it handled video better! Maybe some X DGA stuff. Of course, sometime I'd love to work on this stuff myself, but not yet... it seems like I'm always going to school or working. Oh well, I'll just have to find the time to needlessly confuse myself with the source code. :)

And yes, programs fiddle with DOS data structures in memory all the time. That's why DOSEmu just gives them their memory and makes sure they don't access beyond it or touch anything really sensitive, otherwise giving crufty old programs free reign to check whatever stupid memory locations they can... It's the easiest way to make sure it all works. I bet my code that set the BIOS bits (and messed with the CAPS/NUM/SCROLL LOCK lights) doesn't work except *maybe* in raw keyboard mode, but I should try it sometime. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

I think I echo the other anti-NT comments by saying:

"You would have to eat 12 bowls of Windows NT to get the features found in one bowl of Linux! Also, NT is lacking in Iron, Stability, Support, and other vital nutrients."

Please, guys, keep it funny. It's a funny post. :)

Or, for the English-impaired:

grep -iv FUD funny.post
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Of course, MS-DOS 6.22 is the most "compatible" DOS around, because everybody wrote for its bugs and quirks and used its drivers. What features do you want to see implemented better for compatibility? Also, have you guys considered (do any of you) work on the DOSEmu project? (I've been tempted to, just because I'd *love* to be able to properly run the Second Reality demo again...)

---

Also, maybe we should try to interview the DOSEmu guys sometime, 'cause I have more questions for them.

DOSEmu issues (not necessarily your problem :)

The stuff I've had the biggest problems with under DOSEmu are probably Sound Support, DPMI, Video Support, and Mouse Support, in that order.

I've managed to get MIDI working before (but I want to try it through Timidity)

I've gotten sound on Star Control 2, (b/c it does DMA writes) and that's about it for sound. Other applications detect it, but can't use it, or they hang.
(I realize there isn't much sound code fleshed out there... :)

I had DPMI problems under OpenDOS, and when I tried FreeDOS it probably wasn't as far along as it is now. (good thing I still own MS-DOS 6.22 :)

Video much over 320x200 generally doesn't work well for me, I don't know much about this in DOSEmu. Also palette support in X could use some work.

And I had fun configuring the mouse options, and deciding whether I wanted to fake a Serial port and use the Microsoft drivers, or trust gpm to do it for me. I've gotten varying results, but eventually it works.

Also, how's the DOSEmu project going, if anyone knows? I saw an update to the stable stuff, but nothing in development for a while. Do they need fresh blood sacrifices, or have people just lost interest?
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

In that case, Caldera should sue Caldera for diluting their trademark on the name "Caldera". Then you'd have Caldera OpenLinux, and "The company formerly known as Caldera" OpenDOS...

Personally, I'd much rather own Cult of the Dead Cow (CDC) stock than Caldera stock. Maybe I'd change my mind if Caldera opened up their secret archive of funny and off-color text files. ...but then they'd probably just sue Microsoft for e-mailing the darn things to everyone... (can I collect that money from Bill Gates now? I forwarded the message... ;)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too. Actually, what struck me was the $96 figure cropping up again for the Celerons--I believe that's the same price Transmeta was quoted at for one of their chips too.

And I thought it was really suspicious that no one mentioned Transmeta right after their huge announcement about mobile computing, being a competitor in the laptop market, etc., etc.

...and I never got a story posted before. Gee. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

God, I didn't realize how much slashdot truly sucks these days... All those patent stories were bad enough (and now there are *too many* company-doing-foo-with-linux announcements to post. Oh darn. Well, here's a hint, next time you're posting "Big Corporation Sues Bobby Over Cheerios", say "Wait, I've got this cool corporation porting product FOO to Linux article here, too. Hmm."

Lest you think this is unsubstantiated, read some of Linux Weekly News. How could slashdot have sunk so low as to not post an article by The Gartner Group? That's some important press, and it sounds like it's getting better. Heck, I haven't even seen a good Linux opinion story in a while, and I like to see what the mainstream is being told even when the articles are mostly just recycled. This is more important, because this is what the *corporations* are being told.

(Patiently waiting for a Linux+Crusoe server announcement. Hopefully they'll wait a bit before the other-VLIW-chip-makers try to crush them...)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

I haven't upgraded some parts of my system since RedHat 6.0, (legacy cruft, don't ask) but I understand that Gnome has come a long way. What I have is already fairly usable, but I'll be happy to see it get better. Here's what I want:

* a better (more intuitive) filemanager for Unix.

Even if I don't end up using it, (CLI rules!) I'd love to see at least *one* decent filemanager for Unix, because there are a *lot* of crappy, unfinished ones out there. What KDE has looks pretty neat, at least. (and, once it's completely free, we can borrow / steal it all, ha ha ha!)

* Interoperability between toolkits / widget sets.

This is an idea I've had for a while. A consistent theming interface might make my idea obsolete, but in any case, I'd love to have a library that had a front end to handle the different function calls and a back end to map them onto a chosen widget set. Sort of like the GGI project with displays, except for widgets.

I know how hard this would be to implement, but think about it, 'cause it could save a lot of duplication of effort in the long run. Maybe we could end up working together, and have one awesome set of Unix desktop tools, instead of two pretty good ones.

* Window manager?

As far as window managers go, I really like Sawmill. And it looks fast enough and flexible enough to be used for... whatever. Also, now that I'm getting into Lisp and Scheme, it's good to see how useful they can still be...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

:) Quite right, fighting FUD with FUD... Microsoft didn't convince me on the BIND issue, or the LDAP implementation, but we'll see. "Standards-compliance" has always been iffy with them, just like NT is "POSIX-compliant".

Of course, we could apply the same tactics to basic facts, and I'm sure we'd get different responses to them.

"Did you know that Windows 2000 hasn't been released yet? Even though Microsoft has announced that it is finished working on it and has distributed it to certain major players, it is not publically available yet."

"Did you know that Netware 5 has been released? Even though Novell can't publicize a paper bag, it is possible to get a copy of Netware 5 now."

"Did you know that Microsoft traditionally does lousy disk caching anyhow? Defragmenting a drive on a Microsoft Operating System is better done under Linux. (tested with DOSEmu :)"

"Did you know that the Earth is spiraling into the sun? Even though it's getting there very slowly, it will eventually become uninhabitable."

Incidentally, if you're running Windows, load up a copy of RegEdit, and change your Windows Tips. Now *that's* fun. "Do not, under any circumstances, eat the yellow snow"...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Ah, thanks, that definitely clears things up. If you actually own the CD, you should be able to get the .mp3--i.e., you could make it yourself. Of course, if you borrowed the CD from a friend, that doesn't mean you own it, yet you could still download the .mp3's. However, you could also rip them yourself, probably in less time. So I think the point here is moot. And it should be just as legal to compile a vast database (of mp3's apparently, that makes sense) as it is to compile a small one, otherwise people with 20 CD's (owned, ripped) might be legal while people with 200 CD's wouldn't be, and that's just arbitrary. I'm sure mp3.com owns all of the music in question. (If they don't, then there would be a real issue...)

Geez, it's my fourth year here at State. But since we both went to S&M, I guess me and my friends are either unknown, or we're the stuff of legend. I'm sure we vaguely know some people in common, at least. What was your take on the "FETC"? (Frederick was a real jerk, it's great that he's finally gone)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

"What's that smell?"

"I got spammed!"
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Hmm. That's a good point, but all I could find in the article talked about how it "is not legal to compile a vast database of our member's sound recordings with no permission and no license."

That's what didn't make sense to me. It's not about copying, it's about making a list of what CD's people have. At least, that's what that sentence sounds like to me.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Called the 'iSmell'?

There's a website that needs some deodorant.

Transmeta.com -- it smells nice, but you just can't put your finger on what it is.

Freebsd.org -- sulfur? brimstone?

Microsoft.com -- sulfur? brimstone?

www.tux.org -- It's, cool, crisp, and... someone burped. Herring? What?
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

? Why does this surprise you? Blame Tipper Gore, while you're at it. Many women do the censorship / moral grandstanding / campaigning for *rights* for blah blah blah that ends up taking away rights.

I'm just glad the women I know aren't like that.

Of course, there are men who do this too, Jesse Helms being the best example to come to mind. But women can apparently play the "protecting the family" / "protecting the defamation of" [whatever] angle better.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

The RIAA is saying that you need permission from them and a license to find out what CD's someone bought, and they can't just *tell* you? I figured they'd be against the vast compilation of mp3's.

So, if a site wants to know what other books I might be interested in, and I send them a list of all the books I own, is there any sane reason why publishers get mad? Do we go apeshit over Nielsen ratings, to find out what shows people watch?

Did I misinterpret this entirely, or does this lawsuit / article have absolutely no basis in reality?
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

:) No, no, no, you've got it all wrong! Use the famous, incredible, all-powerful XOR algorithm! Not only can it encrypt more than 26 characters, but to *decrypt* it, you have to know the magic word!

Jeez, this whole thing is too silly. Of course, once I file my patent on my incredible "one-click-XOR-playback" technology, they will all owe me money, ha ha ha ha ha!

Ah well. Another sad legal day in the history of slashdot. I guess I'll wait patiently for more Crusoe info to cheer me up. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Geez, that would be like Microsoft admitting they had a security problem, or like the US loosening regulations on encryption...

Strange times we live in, indeed.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Hmm. Recursive acronym. Well, the obvious start would be: "Tinkerbell Is Not", but past that you've got me stumped. Maybe words like "Karma", "Leet", "Eleet", or "Troll" might creep in there somewhere? You do use all the letters coherently, right? With T standing for Tinkerbell?

Oh, and... yo, moderators, lighten up. I remember when MEEPT! used to get moderated up. Because it was funny. I didn't think this was terribly funny, but more deserving of 0 than -1, at least. Redundant? Please, it's the second post.

And heck, expect some crap in an AOL story. At least we don't have the porn spam mail on slashdot like almost every AOL user gets...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Didn't the old AOL do this, too? I remember you couldn't really telnet then. I'm not too surprised, since AOL's web browser is still based on Internet Explorer, and they're all still evil.

Anyhow, yet another reason not to upgrade from AOL 4.0, and wait for them to switch to Mozilla, (Netscape 5.0, when it's released...) and hope they don't screw up again. I feel sorry for all those people stuck with AOL, for whatever reason.

AOL: we make your life simpler provided you don't know what you're doing... and we intend to keep it that way!
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

DES is dead. Long live DES.

The purely computational reasoning you propose is flawed, and always will be until the exponential advances in technology and algorithms are figured into the calculations.

Distributed.net is *not* the end-all, be-all of decryption. It *is* a massive display of brute-force, cracking power. That's it.

...and if 128-bit encryption is safe enough, why can't we legally be more paranoid? That's the real question.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

All I can say is, it's about time. People have been whining about the duplication of effort on the SETI@Home project for a while.

This abundance of processor time is actually a pretty good argument for a good, open, generic distributed project framework. (unfortunately, most of them don't look as *cool* as SETI. :)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

This means the movie company feels that it has "lost" $50,000,000, which has been "stolen" from them, since obviously no one will ever see this movie in the theatre or buy their own copy again now that someone has managed to play it under Linux...

I quote from "the Bible" on stupid government hacker punishment, Bruce Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown, 4:2 and a few pages down... (feel free to read more, it's all relevant--in this case, I didn't even quote *enough*.)


The E911 Document was also proving a weak reed. It had originally been valued at $79,449. Unlike Shadowhawk's arcane Artificial Intelligence booty, the E911 Document was not software - it
was written in English. Computer-knowledgeable people found this value - for a twelve-page bureaucratic document - frankly incredible. In his "Crime and Puzzlement" manifesto for EFF,
Barlow commented: "We will probably never know how this figure was reached or by whom, though I like to imagine an appraisal team consisting of Franz Kafka, Joseph Heller, and Thomas
Pynchon."

As it happened, Barlow was unduly pessimistic. The EFF did, in fact, eventually discover exactly how this figure was reached, and by whom - but only in 1991, long after the Neidorf trial was
over.

Kim Megahee, a Southern Bell security manager, had arrived at the document's value by simply adding up the "costs associated with the production" of the E911 Document. Those "costs" were as
follows:

1.A technical writer had been hired to research and write the E911 Document. 200 hours of work, at $35 an hour, cost : $7,000. A Project Manager had overseen the technical writer. 200
hours, at $31 an hour, made: $6,200.
2.A week of typing had cost $721 dollars. A week of formatting had cost $721. A week of graphics formatting had cost $742.
3.Two days of editing cost $367.
4.A box of order labels cost five dollars.
5.Preparing a purchase order for the Document, including typing and the obtaining of an authorizing signature from within the BellSouth bureaucracy, cost $129.
6.Printing cost $313. Mailing the Document to fifty people took fifty hours by a clerk, and cost $858.
7.Placing the Document in an index took two clerks an hour each, totalling $43.

Bureaucratic overhead alone, therefore, was alleged to have cost a whopping $17,099. According to Mr. Megahee, the typing of a twelve-page document had taken a full week. Writing it had taken
five weeks, including an overseer who apparently did nothing else but watch the author for five weeks. Editing twelve pages had taken two days. Printing and mailing an electronic document (which
was already available on the Southern Bell Data Network to any telco employee who needed it), had cost over a thousand dollars.

But this was just the beginning. There were also the hardware expenses. Eight hundred fifty dollars for a VT220 computer monitor. Thirty-one thousand dollars for a sophisticated VAXstation II
computer. Six thousand dollars for a computer printer. Twenty-two thousand dollars for a copy of "Interleaf" software. Two thousand five hundred dollars for VMS software. All this to create the
twelve-page Document.
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

No, no, no, this is the government. And, believe it or not, it's gotten better .

But yes, I agree with you. If I have to e-mail them *at all*, it will be in ASCII. And the last time I did, all I got is an automated reply. Maybe they'll get back to me when I start collecting social security...
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Hopefully this will work out, and they will get some thoughtful comments to chew on. I remember when we were worried about "taxing bandwidth", and I submitted a comment to the FCC... their rules for submitting it were completely draconian! (something about sending them a disk with a wordperfect file so they could post it on the web)

This page isn't written in English as we know it, (I'm not fluent in Legalese) but at least it looks like they take e-mailed comments. And the bottom of the page is rather interesting too... Hopefully the government is getting a clue.

[...]
Dated: November 15, 1999.
Marybeth Peters,
Register of Copyrights.
Approved by:
James H. Billington,
The Librarian of Congress.
[FR Doc. 99-30556 Filed 11-23-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 1410-30-P

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2000 20:38:35 GMT
Server: Apache/1.3.9 (Unix) Debian/GNU mod_perl/1.21
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<TITLE>200 OK</TITLE>
</HEAD><BODY>
<H1>OK</H1>
The server encountered an internal error or
misconfiguration and was unable to complete
your request.<P>
Please contact the server administrator,
webmaster@sailor.lib.md.us and inform them of the time the error occurred,
and anything you might have done that may have
caused the error.<P>
More information about this error may be available
in the server error log.<P>
</BODY></HTML>

---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.

Yep, some things haven't really changed at all. Bill Gates still doesn't get it. Sometimes I wonder how much good code could possibly get written by unenthusiastic workers...

It's unsurprising to see that the quality of Microsoft's support and their willingness to explain to the customer what they've "bought" with their money hasn't changed one iota in 20 years.

The TRS-80 sucked, but it sucks even worse how little these companies cared about their users. That's an excellent justification to "rip them off".

("If you won't support me, I'll find a way to do it anyhow" -- people want to accomplish their goals, and if you try to hinder them when you should be helping them, let it be on your head.)
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.