Slashdot Mirror
Metalab Changes Its Name (Again)
Simon Spero writes: "Metalab, the site formerly known as SunSITE, is now www.ibiblio.org .
This change has been made in response to a donation by Bob Young and Mark Ewing of Redhat of $4 million; this grant will be used to apply the techniques and philosophies of the Open Source Movement to more traditional kinds of information, creating the first of a new kind of digital library. " Metalab URLs will continue to work.
Here's
the FAQ and
some more press coverage. Really the name change is secondary (I still hadn't stopped using sunsite bookmarks) but this could be really cool.
Sort of like Al Gore's famed "Open Source Web Page" idea? *ducks and runs for cover*
--
My username is PD. For the right donation, I will change my username to whatever you desire. Thank you for your support.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
This "join venture" will house newer stuff, and not the old stuff that is housed on wiretap.
Unlike wiretaps, which is there mostly because copyright has expired, these works will be produced 'in the spirit of open-source' -- much like research papers are in the world of academia I guess.
Signal 11 is an error.
prosthetic-monkey.com
nice to see they continue to give back to the community.
donfede
Wow, haven't heard rhetoric this good since the Junior High lunchroom.
Votes do count, and this is a government based and dependant on participation. If corporations fill a large part of that participation, it is becuase of a lack of yours.
Naive question: where in the TOS does SourceForge get the rights to your creation? I just skimmed throught the "Content" section, and the only relevant section was the 6th paragraph, which applies only to "text or data entered into and stored by publicly-accessible site features such as message boards and bug trackers" and "publicly-availabe statistical content. .
I take this to mean that you can't claim patches submitted via Sourceforge to be your own property; and since whatever work in question is presumably under an Open Source license, SourceForge's ability to "turn around and sell your work without giving you a cent" is the same as any other group's (Red Hat, for example).
It does seem that the TOS is intended for pieces of code rather than artistic content, so I'm not entirely clear how the TOS would work with a project such as propaganda. Even so, there doesn't seem to be anything that would give SF ownership of your work.
So, what am I missing in the TOS?
in the spirit of open-source' -- much like research papers are in the world of academia I guess.
If that were only true. Research papers published in respected journals are much less free than you might think. Pick up a random journal and find the "Information for Authors" section and read it. If you are an open source advocate, what you see will make your stomach flip.
And there are other days when I think it's only a matter of time before the domain squatting starts to wind down as more gTLDs are opened up
NOT. Witness Google.net and Google.org . Microsoft.com is the same site as Microsoft..net . Squatters will squat on every available TLD. Even Slashdot.org has its own .com.
<O
( \
XGNOME vs. KDE: the game!
Will I retire or break 10K?
A lot of those articles would've done quite nicely over at Rusty's K5 site, and I know I would've voted for a few of 'em...
...
Some of them are quite interesting. What's this about X.Org and Sun teaming up? And Linux binaries? And "Linux under attack"?
Man, I wanna see those stories... slashdot should make them available for reading regardless, just not turn on the feedback forum for each one
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Search for the word "royalties". Its embedded in legalese, but its right there in black and white, along with the clause that allows them to change the wording in the TOS at any time without notification.
Bowie J. Poag
Bowie J. Poag
In each such case, the submitting user grants SourceForge the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive and fully sublicensable right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such Content (in whole or part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later develope all subject to the terms of any applicable Open Source Initiative-approved license.
Which means that you choose the license, and we will continue to use your code or whatever under the license you chose., The point of this is so that people can't pretend thier code isn't under a licences that they released it under previously. You're familiar with the OSI right? The GPL maybe? Well, if you aren't there are a lot of resources on the web for you, you probably shoudl start with them.
People, whenever you read a bowie post you should go back in the /. archives and read the previous responses as we've all heard his rants before and already addressed them.
Chris DiBona
VA Linux Systems
--
Grant Chair, Linux Int.
Pres, SVLUG
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
Hiya Wong. :) Theyre backgrounds, not foregrounds..And considering there are >800 of them, i'm puzzled that you can't find at least one you like. Thats more a reflection of your monitor's quality than it is a reflection of my work ethic. :) If an image appears "blurry", its probably time to look into getting a new display.
Anyway, I was referring to VA ripping off our work during System 12's run, not Propaganda. Its too late to do anything about S12 except learn from it. Like hell I would let them do the same thing to me twice.
Ciao,
Bowie J. Poag
Bowie J. Poag
Project Gutenberg accepts only public domain texts. This means that even if PG manages to OCR everything published on or before December 31, 1922, there's that pesky perpetual copyright problem due in part to a loophole in the Constitution.
<O
( \
XGNOME vs. KDE: the game!
Will I retire or break 10K?
Bowie J. Poag (uid=16898) is not a troll. Bowie J. Paog (uid=229002), on the other hand... Check the user bio's.
<O
( \
XGNOME vs. KDE: the game!
Will I retire or break 10K?
yeah, this guy and his elite team of hackers, who keep metalab up and running.
and, oh yeah, moderators, mod this one up.
- Entertaining Bits from the Ancient Kernel Tree
Why does every company getting involved in the web (and even some of them that always have been) insist on sticking either an 'i' or an 'e' at the begginning of their name?
.com names where taken.
It's simple... because all the good
Some "brilliant" person came up with the idea of sticking a letter in front of the name they initially wanted and thus where able to register it.
load "linux",8,1
Ah, I get it.
//begin old man rant from a 26 year old
//end old man rant...
It's kind of like why all those morons want to get pierced bodies. They want to be different, just like everybody else.
I guess I'll never understand that mentality. It's like when the word 'alternative' suddenly meant 'popular' in music circles.
Back in my day when you wanted to do something 'different' you actually used your brain and came up with something (gasp) *original*. Why must we all assume that the last person to come up with a good idea must be the last person to ever come up with a good idea? Doesn't anybody realize we are all acting like cattle (and believe me I'm talking from experience here. When I worked on a farm if one cow took off in another direction, or even looked with her ears perked in another direction, every damn cow in the herd would go running in that direction trying to see what was so damn interesting over there.). Originality counts for nothing anymore. The morons that come afterwards get far more credit than the person that came up with the idea. Oh god the humanity of it all.
Please file this post under:
FIRST iPost from a disgruntled ePoster
Bite my yammer.
You ever tried voting?
Of course it a new kind. The old kind didn't get $4 million donations from open source companies.
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"Rock over London... Rock on Chicago..." -Wesley Willis
Are you kidding me. Do you really think the current setup cares about the common voter? Once in seat, they follow the direction of special interest and big business.
/.
Don't we have the technology to go with a true democracy? Why not let everyone vote on all legislation and have your rep/sen vote the way of his constituent majority. Or just do away with Congress all together.
chaswell
--this is the most fun I have ever had on
After VA Linux Systems decided to rip us off and left us bleeding from the ass, (*cough*SOURCEFORGE*cough*) we opted to leave and do it on our own rather than stay and continue to take it. One of the first places to offer us a new home after we cut our ties with VA was MetaLab. They've been extremely helpful to us from the very beginning, going out of their way to make the transition as painless as possible. And, i'm quite happy to say that since April we've managed to regain our audience to the point where we are pulling in more people and more traffic now than at any point during our time with VA..
MetaLab is one of the last places i've ever seen that's willing to lend a hand and not really expect anything in return...So today, i've regained a little faith in Red Hat. Kudos to them for supporting an honest-to-God good thing. There needs to be an alternative to the VA resource monopoly, and SunSITE/MetaLab/iBiblio represents that ideal perfectly. Considering SourceForge's Terms Of Service agreement, you'de be insane to host your project there. Youre essentially giving up your right to own that what you've created. When you move your project to SourceForge, VA now owns your project..It says so clearly in their TOS Agreement. They can turn around and sell your work without giving you a cent, or co-opt your work like they did with us, and leave you holding the bag. They're opportunists. The guys at MetaLab just want to provide a home for developers..they have no vested interests in what goes on there.
Thanks, Bob.
My $0.02,
Bowie J. Poag
Bowie J. Poag
It's the sound you make when you flip your finger up and down over your lips ... that or Porky Pig's astrological sign...
I'm a ib-ib-ib-ib-leo!
Vote Naked 2000
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The company known as Ibiblio, formerly known as Metalab, formerly known as SunSITE, has now issued a press release stating that their new name will be F**kedCompany, as soon as they complete the purchase of the domain FuckedCompany.com
Oh yeah, like that hasn't been done ...
Sarkazmo is the assumed identity of a long-time
Ok, so you were trying for the (+1, Funny), I'll respond anyway. . .
It would make sense:
'eye-bib-lee-o' does make the most sense.
Personally, I'm amazed at how much Red Hat continues to give back to the community. Not only do they pay the upper kernel hackers (ala Alan Cox), but they hold true to the Open Source ideals. Some said that once they became public, they would become greedy and evil to meet shareholder's demands. Instead it has given them more money to expand Linux and give back to the community. Keep up the good work, Red Hat.
Looking for a computer support specialist for your small business? Check out
either set up your /etc/hosts or hosts.sam(I think that's the windows file???) to point sunsite.unc.edu to 152.2.210.81, as well as metalab.unc.edu. That should fix any links you encounter on older web pages, as well that sentimental feeling we all get typing up the old address.
Why yes, there's a link to it on the front page. Doesn't really bug me, if they want to call it my.i.e.dotcom.b2b.org , cool with me.
On a side note, Is it just me or all the iBeHeader.com MyEviscerator.com eImpaler.com domain names already seem dated?
No Way! I have always loved SunSite. It's probably the best site on the net for this sort of thing.
In recent news, iBiblio (formerly known as Bruce Perens) was quoted as saying, "Heck, I'll change my name to Slashdot, if VA will cough up the right amount of change." The Technocrat formerly known as Bruce later retracted the statement, claiming it to be a hoax perpetrated by a "Bruce Perens.", not the real iBiblio. Other comments to reporters about a low "user-id" got lost in the mix, as the storied guru was repeatedly harassed to explain about "eunuchs" and other obscure topics. No word yet on how this will affect Bruce 2.0.
(sorry Bruce, it's been a long day)
--
"It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
first it was sunsite/metalab.unc.edu which changed
then Walnut Creek changed from ftp.cdrom.com to ftp.freesoftware.com
time to go back to gatekeeper.dec.com or wuarchive.wustl.edu
What's wrong with their terms of serivce?
The agreement basically says:
1) You agree that by agreeing, you are agreeing.
And by agreeing, you are bound by this contract.
2) We host the code, we don't give you dialup/WAN access.
3) Give us your real name. Mike Hunt is not a valid name.
4) You're responsible for your content. If you're going to host code, it has to be open source (as defined by OSI guidlines) as that's the focus of our site.
5) Don't resell this service.
6) We reserve the right to limit the service if need be (i.e.: bandwidth cap, file sizes cap).
7) Violation of our TOS, abuse of the site, a request for removal, and court order are valid reasons for removing a hosted site.
8) This is the web, we have links. If you link to DeCSS, we're not responsible
9) We're not liable for what we can't control.
10) Our trademarks are ours, and your are yours
11) Ditto for copyrights. Tell us if people violate this and #10.
12) This contract is the only thing you have to sign for us (sourceforge admins). Nothing more is required for hosting, etc.
13) Violations of this should be reported.
Hardly the totalitarian dictatorship conspiracy by ESR, RMS, VA, etc.. In fact, grepping for "sell," the only occurance of it is in point #5 about not reselling service!
If you're so afraid of people selling code you've worked on, don't make it opensource!
Otherwise, you're just being a troll.
--
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Ok, here we go - the site formerly known as Metalab's history:
Does anybody see where this next one might be headed? I can see it now:
--The formation of yet another company with its own interests .. When it happens .. remember you saw it here first!
So step away from the crack pipe and re-read that TOS.
P.S. It wasn't "royalties" but rather "royalty-free"
actually metalab/ibiblio has been one of the major distribution sites for Project Gutenberg for quite some time. we've enjoyed working with michael hart and we always learn from him
Certified Black Helicopter Pilot *** Unwitting Dupe of One World Gov'ment
Big hug ! Really nice way to spend the money !
How about getting the 300 000 or so Library of Congress Subject Classification Categories down from the server of the Library of Congress and sort the internet content scientifically ? How about a google search on each of the subject categories in addition search books according to their subject classification schedule ?
A nice big/huge searchable "ilibrary" category tree ? It's almost there, but not really as it
could be.
I think there already is one, isn't there? The Church of EMACS Or is that open source as a religion?
Grey (Chris Lusena)
- sunsite - 4 years of working with sun, but trying to maintain our academic and non-commercial identity
- metalab - 4 years of scrambling for support and getting nice but smaller gifts of support from a variety of commercial entities
- ibiblio - 5 year committment from a private foundation to extend the ideas and projects for the past 8 years
after that i am close to retirementCertified Black Helicopter Pilot *** Unwitting Dupe of One World Gov'ment
i strongly support this effort ;->
Certified Black Helicopter Pilot *** Unwitting Dupe of One World Gov'ment
That's cool - whatever. Metalab/Sunsite/whatever has always been there, since the WAAAAY early days. A place that seems to be overlooked in this day and age of Freshmeat and Slapdot.
Long live... Err... Ibiblio!
i'm assuming that's pronounced "eye-bib-lee-o" and not "ib-ib-lee-o" or "ibby-blee-o" or "i-buy-bly-o" or somethign else.. the word just looks mangled..
wish
Vote for freedom!
---
Welcome back people, I haven't seen this many earnest young bespectacled men since
... hey, do you have any shares of VA Linux handy?"
my last Star Trek convention. How many here like old Trek versus new Trek?
Yeah, I thought so.
Remember to click on the banner ads, that's what keep the power flowing to the Geek
Compound.
Did I tell I tell you I visited the Geek Compound a while ago? A nice place, bigger than
you expect, with an amazing intense air about it. Kind of like the Vatican, but with fewer
releases of the libido.
Anyhow, I was in the bathroom their, a big place, when I heard two members of the Slashdot
staff in adjacent stalls.
CT: "Hey H, that bean dip did a number on me, and this stall is out of toilet paper,
do you have any on that side?"
H: "Sorry CT, this side is out too."
CT: "Bummer,
Thank you, thank you , you've been a wonderful audience.
So, they get a $4million donation, a definate plus for the Open (as in my fly) source community, and yet the thrust of the post here is about a name change?
Maybe I should change my name, I could use 15 minutes of fame.
-Space for rent
I wonder what would happen, though, if Zen programming were created. Or perhaps Expressionist network design. Or Republican computer repair....
Got Rhinos?
----
We're all about freedom, man! Free Tibet, free Burma, Free Love, you get the picture. We offer a free platform for the exchange of free thought. We host tons of cultural sites like the DocSouth Project, Zen@iBiblio, and North Carolina Raves (all of which can be seen from our collections index). We are also one of the first servers to mirror the original Linux kernel, so you can tell we're big on free software, too.
Hehehehe. :)
first of a new kind of digital library
What about wiretap?
What makes this a 'new kind'?
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Whom does Larry Wall quote in
(consider i'm a little miffed that, once again, i submit a story in a timely manner, holding off on posting until the day of the press conference, and several days later another poster gets the same story posted where mine was rejected. silly me, i thought i had the inside track - being one of the designers of the new ibilio site.. oh well)
:)
the donation did not come from RedHat, as many readers assume. the headline even says the money came from individual investors, which is closer to the mark. reading the full story will reveal that the $4 million donation came from the Red Hat Center (center of what?) which is a "non-profit organization that supports, promotes, and engages in a wide range of initiatives to advance the principles of transparent technology" (Bob Young's term for open source)
the guys from Red Hat started the Center with their own money (acquired from.. duh!) to use in promoting open source projects, even those in competition with RedHat.
RHC has also given big chunks of change (tho none in the $4 million range) to the EFF (electronic fronteirs foundation), probono.net, and the Center for Media Education in Washington, DC
something folks haven't said much about is the plan to make ibiblio more slashdot-like in its sense of community, discussions, and ranking of the content. silly me, i would have thought cmdrtaco would have mentioned that
- Entertaining Bits from the Ancient Kernel Tree
There are days when I cynically think that it can only get worse, as more people get on the Net and register their own domains. And there are other days when I think it's only a matter of time before the domain squatting starts to wind down as more gTLDs are opened up and people get away from the magic "dot com" obsession.
If they change that then I'm screwed. It's burned in.
This is my signature. There are many signatures like it but this one is mine..
What do you mean metalab.unc.edu changed it's name to www.ibiblio.org. Does sunsite.unc.edu still work? I'd hate to have to go through & change all of my FTP links.
the name change, which is generating the same comments on /. as it was around the office (twiddling finger over lips, porky pig, etc) is something of a distraction, it seems, from the goal of ibiblio
ibiblio (pronounced EYE bib lee oh, or by twiddling one's finger over one's lips) is "the public's library," a collaboration between UNC-CH (the home of metalab) and the RedHat center (the home of Bob Young's stock options) and has the goal of encompassing much more than just the metalab content, though that is the only thing under the ibiblio ubmbrella for now, and will likely continue to be the lion's share of what is there for a while to come.
so, it isn't that SunSITE/metalab == ibiblio, but rather that ibiblio == metalab + (add bunch of open source projects and archives here)
dig?
- Entertaining Bits from the Ancient Kernel Tree
I'm curious if the community could scrape up enough cash to get a name that doesn't suck. "ibiblio"? Sounds like a Tolkein character that ended up rightfully in the trash. I know it's supposed to be a recerence to the "I"nternet and a library (biblio), but c'mon people. Uck!
You can't even get the link right . . .
first the gift/collaboration is with the red hat center, a private foundation founded by marc ewing and bob young. not from red hat inc.
second, the new library idea is that we hope to use tools and experience familiar to those of us in open source development in other areas. we've done shared metadata, for example, for years in the LSMs and in the software archive on metalab/ibiblio/sunsite (you pick). This article in the Chronicle of High Education gets it pretty much right. i have an article forthcoming in CACM which tells more and can post to folks who are interested.
we last changed our name, from sunsite.unc.edu, because sunsite was owned by sun. when we went to enter into a collaboration with red hat center, they thought that a new name that showed something of a larger direction would be appropriate. i agree. i can't type it yet either, but then i typed meatbal for metalab for the past three years too
it's is our hope to create a library as noisy and democratic as slashdot itself. it will take us a while to combine, develop and implement the great ideas from the LSMs, slashdot, advogato, apache, sourceforge and the multitude of projects on sunsite/metalab/ibiblio. and we want your help.
peace love and sharing
Paul
Certified Black Helicopter Pilot *** Unwitting Dupe of One World Gov'ment
actually we're trying to buy micr0soft
Certified Black Helicopter Pilot *** Unwitting Dupe of One World Gov'ment
i know that if there were not already a case going on that we might try to see what we could to to accept it -- rather than to reject it out of hand.
Certified Black Helicopter Pilot *** Unwitting Dupe of One World Gov'ment
"that's the main function of the project -- to allow Linux developers to increase the quality of their work, and make ourselves an integral part of what it means to develop applications for Linux as a whole."
Thank you.
Cheers,
Bowie J. Poag
Bowie J. Poag
what we aim for is quite different from UofA, a place i was glad to help become a sunsite several years back. our goal is a contributor-run library using what we have learned from the linux archives (since 1992), the LSMs, advogato, even slashdot and sourceforge and of course successful projects like apache.
this article in Chronicle of Higher Education mostly gets it right.
Certified Black Helicopter Pilot *** Unwitting Dupe of One World Gov'ment
2. Why is it alll the the the adolescent prats (probly runnng KDE and slagging of RMS cos they have no clue!) seem to to feel that as soon as a RH story appears Red Hat just has to be slagged off
Lets make this point again kiddies Red Hat have probably contributed ore to FREE (not OSS) software than anyone else (inc debian - just)
The point of the story is that basically a site for free software controlled by a propriety s/w copany has to all intents and purposes been taken over by a company that note not BSD, QPL,MPL or any other "I can shaft you later but aren't I virtuous" license eg: QPL ala KDE)
2. Note Has invested a not insignificant aount of money in making a proprietory site into a free sotware site
'nuff said
Microsoft(tm) - a particular virulent virus that has infected most Pc's.
Why is this excellent news ? /. a company near daily denegrated by submitters of posts (Linux 6.2),yet the donation of $4 causes hat throwing.
..
Yet again, we see here on
Does not anyone else find it menacing that RedHat hold so much authority that in providing adonation, that they can force metalabs to redirect it's URL to something unpronouncable, and unmemorable ?
.
I think they left out some "i"'s
Does anyone knows what ibiblio means?
Listening to Raekwon's "Sneakers"
That's pretty weak, dudes.
If their all about freedom, has anyone uploaded a copy of deCSS yet? Would they fight to keep it?
On the other hand, I'd hate to see them burn through the entire $4M donation in lawyer bills....
foo to you and yours,
-l
It means "Redhat bought some good PR and ruined a good name."
>I still hadn't stopped using sunsite bookmarks
Are those like Favorites?
...with a collection of muddy smudged and blurred background images anyhow.
Damn those Va Linux guys for getting rich off of your ugly smudge work! Damn the man!
- Toby
What? Sunsite changed its name? But everyone talks about putting their stuff on sunsite... and people tell me that I can use sunsite as a mirror for their distibution of choice... and I always *type* ftp sunsite.unc.edu...
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
There's one at SourceForge, but it seems pre-alpha. Demons not running, and all that.
__
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
...and may-the-source-be-with-you-too.org
:q!
vi
i
"Enter your comments here!"
ESC
vi
i
"Enter your comments here!"
ESC
"creating the first of a new kind of digital library."
I think Michael Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg had this "new kind of library" very much in mind in 1971 when he started PG. I think that ibiblbibiblbiblio is a great site, it's just that it is not quite as groundbreaking as an idea as that.
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The truth is out th- oh, wait, here it is...
First? No. This has been done: UofA Sunsite
There are probably others too.
I had no idea this was going on. This is just too cool for words. It is so rejeuvinating to hear about an artist that cares about music as art and is doing something about it instead of using music as a ticket to noteriety and money.
Anybody else hear that the Smashing Pumpkins released their final album only as .mp3? Well, they did press 25 vinyl copies...
Maybe Sunsite, er, Metalab, er, iBiblio can do for music what mp3.com and napster have claimed they were going to do and failed.
I am sure that if someone bids $8 million, they will change their name again to something like now-this-is-our-final-name.org or closed-source-is-evil.org or even may-the-source-be-with-you.org. ;-)
As long as the old bookmarks will keep working, no one will care
I getting so sick of this RH bashing that some people think are cool here at slashdot. All the software RH writes is released under the GPL and they support lots of projects with men/machine/money . They are one of the biggest contributers to the open source community and they give money back to the community and this makes them bad???? I really dont understand this!!
BUT! back to the story..
If you just read the about this you will see that is Mark Ewing and Bob Young as persons that are giving away the money. I guess they are spending some of the money they earned when RH IPO:ed.
"One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad
I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!