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Java applets are an essential tool for science education -- as simulators, calculators etc. Are all these research groups supposed to get some authority to digitally sign their applets?

Fundametally, a major aspect of Java security is that, since it runs on a VM, an applet it is inherently encapsulated. Yes, VM bugs can cause problems, but the value of all the free educational applets online far exceeds any possibly security benefits of unptached VM bugs.

I am a homeschooling Dad with an S.M. in EE/CS. I choose to teach "programming" to one of my kids who was interested using David Eck's Introduction to Programming Using Java back in the 2000 timeframe. The course material was free online, and was very adaptable to the high-school-level. My kid really liked it, and got a lot out of it, especially one of the client server projects and the Human-Machine-Interface (HMI) element. She later graduated as a very successful college CS major and took on a pretty nifty HMI-related job with one of the Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC).

As in most subjects, interest level and match between curriculum and student are keys to success. I tried teaching the same course to another one of my kids, and she was uninterested (except for making web pages using HTML), so we never completed and moved on to something else. She ended up going into the social sciences. Your mileage will vary.

GIMP is not... Adobe Photoshop

Yeah, and GNU's Not UNIX. Have you SEEN these two apps?
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y162/neotheawakening/FreeTutsPhotoshopToolbox1.jpg
http://math.hws.edu/eck/cs324/s04/lab1/gimp_toolbox.png
The marquee, lasso, magic wand, eyedropper, mgnifying glass, paint bucket, pencil, brush, eraser, airbrush, clone, blur, dodge, and smudge tools all look remarkably similar. (This was even moreso the case a few years ago before both apps got more stylized.) Some, like a rectangular marquee, are generic, others, like the paint bucket, pen, lasso, are quite specific. And even if Susan Kare made them for MacPaint in the first place, there are other differences. Look at the exact arrangement of the color-choosing items: the foreground, background, default, and switch icons and their arrangement are IDENTICAL.

>Bzzt. Look closer.

>The Linux kernel has _always_ been under the GPL v2. Nothing else has ever
>been valid.

Bzzt. Look even closer.

From http://math.hws.edu/orr/linuxtalk/my10bits.html:
In December of that year, Linus released the first stand-alone version (0.11) of the Linux kernel and chunked minix completely. Up to this point, he destributed his code under a personal copyright that allowed anyone to freely distribute the code, but was more restrictive than the GPL (no money could change hands for example). Linux had been using GNU tools to develop Linux, and partly out of gratitude to the GNU project, he placed the Linux kernel under the GPL a couple of weeks later, with version 0.12. He later admitted that it was one of the smartest things he ever did.

boa

What are you talking about? It seems to work fine for these guys: http://people.hws.edu/orgs/chiphi/brothersonly.htm l

• math.hws.edu/javanotes/
• www.mindview.net/Books/TIJ/
• javaboutique.internet.com/tutorials/Thread0/
• www.labsoftware.com/Java/

As usual, the lawyers are not at responsible here. They are the lap dogs of the corporation. Let's talk to the people who are going to be most affected and who are most responsible.

For example:
Spira, James C.
Director and COO at American Greetings
As of 2003-01-06 Reported to own 210,000 shares of American Greetings. As of this post, his holdings are probably worth approx 2.95 million USD.

List of Officers at American Greetings

But it should be noted that currently American Greetings is in the process of changing their executives, so it's unclear who would actually be responsible for these kinds of positions/acts.

Insider Trade Filings for American Greetings (Give you an idea of who's interested in making money off the stock)

Z.