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Slashback: VIP, Makers, RMS

Slashbacked below are a handful of updates, corrections and followups, on topics ranging from Tito in space to who really developed the next-generation OS/2. Please enjoy.

But who's counting? Martin Bogolmoni wrote in response to the report on the well-and-truly networked Dutch gaming fest called The Gathering, as mentioned here and praised for it's huge number of available gaming connections.

" The Gathering 99 -- 5300 switchports, but only 2,500 attendees (tickets). 2500 tickets has been all that can be sold for the last few years. TG01 was the first time that more than that have been sold .. 4,100. Also, for people coming from out of the Netherlands, (USA, England, etc..) there is no entrance fee. You are considered a VIP. -grin- Just a quick correction, since I love attending and working with The Gathering. (Not to mention speaking there...) "

Thanks, Martin :)

Whodunnit, really? A number of people emailed (some of them even politely!) to correct the story about the new eComStation, including Bob St John of Serenity Systems International, to point out that " the developer is not Mensys .. they are our distributor ... Serenity Systems is the developer."

Radu Trimbitas adds: "Mensys (like Indelible Blue in U.S.) is the main distributor of eComStation in Europe, among other things (Linux, BeOS, etc. distributors). They are very OS/2-friendly, so they made efforts to support this distribution, providing a web site with infos, support, etc."

Money may not talk but it has great facial expressions. Darren.Moffat writes "OSOpinion has updated their story and the OpenGroup also now mentions Apple this came from Daily Daemon News"

Space for me, and not for thee. csy writes "Dennis Tito returns jubilant to Earth. Meanwhile, John Glenn criticizes Tito's trip as a "misuse of a spacecraft designed for research". I guess space junkets by geriatric senators must count as research. Read the story on CNN."

And speaking of reactions, DelphiGeek writes: "There have been a plethora of stories on Microsoft's Mundie and his comments on Open Source. Postings of ESR, Linus and others rebuttals were posted here. However, I never saw anything displaying RMS' response. I find this odd seeing how the GPL was the license that was directly attacked. Here is a link to RMS' official response. Also on GNU there are several documents that are older that state his postion."

You'll note that RMS does not find "conciliatory" in his personal dictionary ;)

Nobody's opening any kimonos here, pal!

"Since the kimono has already been opened...

RLX is going to be demoing the RLX System 324 Web Server at Networld+Interop. RLX is not on the show floor but if you want to see it, look on their website and call the number or email sales@rlxtechnologies.com to get the info and get into see it.

Just a few notes of what has already been done with these things. An initial 220 Node Beowulf Cluster in one rack in under two man days, just as a proof of concept. On that line, RLX has been working with Scyld, (people like Don Becker and the original Beowulf crew), on some real cool integration of Scyld Beowulf. Brings the time down for a beowulf from days to hours. The rumor is they will even have a small cluster using the Scyld stuff at N+I.

24 of 160 comments (clear)

  1. But what was the true cost? by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 3

    Tito paid 20 million dollars for the trip. That covered the Russian Soyuz flight and maybe subsidized Russian space flight operations. However, station operations were basically shut down for that period. Since the ISS is a work in progress, that also meant that equipment was not installed, further delaying fully operational status.
    The United states has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in this station. Because of budgetary considerations, plans to increase the crew capacity to six (from three) have been put on hold.

    Could one make an economic case for building a multi billion dollar space station, and then renting it out to tourists for the cost of delivering them to orbit? No way! How would you pay for your multi billion dollar space station?

    The ISS was obstensibly designed for research. Tourists are a distraction. If some idiot with cash to burn believes that there is a sustainable market for space tourism, let him build his own space station.

  2. new .sig quote by h2odragon · · Score: 4
    [of Microsloth]: "they're simply trying to scare people out of dealing with a competitor they can't buy, can't intimidate, and can't stop." --RMS in GNU press release.


    That's so well said it bears repeating. There's no better sign of impending victory than the frenzied confusion of an opponent who simply has no clue what to do.

    1. Re:new .sig quote by QuantumG · · Score: 3

      Blah. It is quite possible in a few years if hording source code has gone the way of the dodo that people will say "oh yes, Microsoft decided that it was better to let everyone see their sourcecode and the rest of the industry followed suit" and someone will say "but wasn't there open source before that?" and the reply will come back "oh yer, but it wasn't anything important, just hobbiest stuff". Microsoft has that way of getting at the mainstream. Anyone who was in the industry at the time would listen to that conversation and shudder but what are you gunna do, walk over and tell them off?

      --
      How we know is more important than what we know.
  3. Microsoft and the their "Shared Source" by ansible · · Score: 5

    An evil thought just occured to me...

    I think Microsoft has a more hidden purpose to it's "shared source" initiative. Everyone who gets to look at their source code undoubtedly must sign an NDA saying that they'll never reveal the source to the public, nor use the code or ideas for any other project.

    Every developer that agrees to it is now "tainted" when it comes to working on an open source software project. MS now has grounds for going after individual developers working on open source software, and has an indimidation tool for those just thinking about it. And as we know with legal stuff, it doesn't necessarily have to hold up in a trial, legal arguments just have to sound plausible enough for threats.

    Ideally (from MS's point of view), everyone in the world would sign such NDAs, and thereby stifle open source software development.

  4. Re:All The RMS You'll Ever Need. by doom · · Score: 3
    The Free Software Foundation is not anit-business, and is not a synonym for communism.

    You've heard this before I imagine, but you can't see anything but the standard dualities.

    And let me see, you're *complaining* that Stallman *only* got as far as writing a (1) compiler (2) some utilities (3) an integrated development environment that includes an editor.

  5. Re:In my day we had to WALK to space, with no shoe by sharkey · · Score: 3

    So, are we getting any closer to a "B" ark?

    --

    --

    --
    "Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next.
  6. Re:Geriatric senators? by glebfrank · · Score: 5

    Yes, it was research. It may not have been the most hard-hitting, or vital research, but comparing John Glenn to Dennis Tito is
    insulting. John Glenn earned his place in space. He risked his life to be the first man to orbit the Earth in a capsule that was little
    more than a projectile. He went back into space as a genuine hero to many Americans. Dennis Tito was nothing but a crass opportunist using his money to buy something he could never earn.


    Bullshit. Whether or not Glenn "earned" it, it was still a joyride, so it's doubly hypocritical for him to call Tito's trip misuse of equipment.

    Tito is a pioneer no less than Glenn: commercial exploration of space is going to be crucial in the future, and Tito's trip is an important early step.

  7. Re:Dennis Tito In Space by ostiguy · · Score: 3

    How much money have you donated for AIDS drugs in Africa this year?

    ostiguy won't hold his breath

  8. Re:Eben Moglen by SirSlud · · Score: 4

    I like to think of it this way:

    People will use free software as a proof of concept for starting out before someone with money backs the idea (or where the free software in question really /is/ better than the commercial software; this is obviously judged on an app by app basis and obviously is true in many cases). Once the general public starts handing said person money for their concept, they can pay someone else money to buy commercial software. This earns them more sales people through third party sales, etc, a financial crutch should they need it (I'm sure we're aware of companies buying other companies just because that company was their best billboard and customer), and accountability for failure and fault (what I like to call the 'killer finger', in spirit of the term 'killer app'). Thusly, they never grow as big and rich as Microsoft, and consequently, not as evil either. Microsoft is the karma garberator for the technology age! ;)

    People always seem intent on prooving that the only grass worth standing on is the grass on their side of the fence .. personally, I see the balance of power as both integral to the pervasion and success of technology and inevitable. It's like jaywalking .. if we ALL did it, traffic would never go anywhere, but if no one did it .. well, see, that just never happens. =) The balance is struck due to the benifits society as a whole reaps from it. (Can you tell I buy into the whole ying/yang thing?)

    Anyhow, this is a long winded way of saying that I do agree with your comment. I get tired of the blind supporters of either side .. software and technology has massive influence economic and social issues. It certainly ain't sports - you know what I'm saying?

    And Eben Moglen .. makes me think of hemoglobin, which is funny 'cause Microsoft is the blood sucker, and RMS is with the Eben Moglen (okay, its a stretch, but say it fast :P)

    Now Dance, Santa!

    --
    "Old man yells at systemd"
  9. Is it just me... by twjordan · · Score: 3
    or is Mensys a REALLY bad name for a company?

    Tony

  10. Re:Geriatric senators? by Chairboy · · Score: 3

    It was absolutely NOT research. NASA has a program where all current and previous astronauts that have flown get a regular checkup (every few years) to monitor the later effects in life of space travel.

    John Glenn is one of the only astronauts who refuses to participate in this program. There is no good data for any researchers to use because unlike the rest of the aging astronauts (including positively ancient Story Musgrave), there are no data points between 1961 and 1997 on Glenn.

    Anyone who thinks that Glenn was doing anything other then collecting on a presidential political favor is delusional and does not understand the true story behind his return to space.

  11. Open Source Advocate Has Yet To Rebut Craig Mundie by Xenex · · Score: 3
    Nice to see RMS rebutt Mundie. I mean, there have been shocking things as seen on this story on Segfault.org:

    Open Source Advocate Has Yet To Rebut Craig Mundie

    Jeff Parns considers himself a model for free software advocacy: helping out at installfests, answering questions on the Central Kansas Free Unix User's Group mailing list, working in his spare time on a user-friendly graphical interface to cron. Why, then, has he yet to write a long-winded essay rebutting Microsoft exec Craig Mundie's recent remarks about open source?

    Our crack interviewing team cornerned Parns in his home, where he was conspicuously not combing through the text of Mundie's remarks, just as he had not been in attendance at NYU's Stern School of Business on May 3 to hear Mundie speak. What justified this weird behavior?

    "I really think there are enough rebuttals already, " said Parns. "I mean, have you even read all those things? "

    Eric S. Raymond, whose two preemptive rebuttals sparked the craze, was pessimistic about the chances for a Parns rebuttal in the future. "Obviously, we can't force him to write a rebuttal to Mundie's wrong-headed remarks about open source," said Raymond. "However, it's possible that my new paper, 'How I Rebutted Craig Mundie's Wrong-Headed Remarks About Open Source In Copious Detail--And How You Can Too' will give him some ideas. In fact, there's sort of a little form rebuttal in Appendix C which he can sign his name to and get it linked from Linux Today."

    "As a full-time programmer, my day is pretty busy," said Brian Behlendorf of the Apache Software Foundation, whose anti-Mundie remarks were picked up by Infoworld. "Yet even I managed to stop by Mundie's speech and make a few remarks to the press. I don't think this Parns is even trying. I mean, even Steve Ballmer published a 3000-word Mundie rebuttal. Sic transit gloria Mundie, I guess."

    Even Parns' neighbors have begun to notice this gap in the open source ranks. "The way he helped me with my Red Hat install, I was sure he was some sort of hot-shot free software advocate," said Millie Leman, a local dominatrix and mother of two. "But I haven't heard one word from him about this Mundie thing. It makes a person wonder."

    "Look, it's spring, my son's about to graduate from junior high, I'm trying to get KCron to 1.0," said Parns, shooing this reporter out his front door. "Just leave me alone."

    Will Parns rebut? Already, rebuttals with his name on them have begun showing up, though he denies authorship. Watch for the rebuttal signed with Parns' Gnu Privacy Guard key, and keep reading Segfault.org for complete coverage of every Mundie rebuttal ever written.

    Tomorrow: An in-depth look at the rebuttal that Mark Billings of London saved to ~mark/mundie.txt, but never showed to anybody.

    (This 'story' was first shown at Segfault.org here, and was written by Leonard Richardson)

  12. All The RMS You'll Ever Need. by istartedi · · Score: 3

    perl -e 's/Open Source/Free Software/gi' -p -i.bak *.html

    perl -e 's/Linux/GNU\/Linux/gi' -p -i.bak *.html

    I'm probably leaving out something. Anybody wanna help? Come-on, we can replace RMS and his lawyer with a Perl script. I just started playing around with Perl this week. I bet a real guru could implement a complete RMS in one or two lines.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    1. Re:All The RMS You'll Ever Need. by istartedi · · Score: 3

      OK, I'll bite. First, I was going for "Funny". You plainly aren't, so I'll stay in a serious mode.

      Some people read what he writes, but the words go in one ear and out the other.

      The implication here is that I don't understand or comprehend RMS. My contention is simply that I understand him in a way that is different from the way you understand him.

      If you actually think that RMS exists only to correct people on their usage of Linux vs. GNU/Linux, then you're dead wrong.

      No, that's not what I think. It was humor.

      Long after all of the c00l d00dz that use linux have abandoned the idea of Free software in favor of software that brings the platform users and bastardizes it for corporate interests, RMS will still be standing there with the GPL.

      Almost certainly true. I would be very surprised if RMS didn't hold his postion for the rest of his life. OTOH, what you see as "bastardiz[ing] for corporate interests" others see as progress. Because RMS operates in a world of technology, people often lose sight of the fact that he is really just another Leftist. When you peal away the mystique of computing from all this, it's really just Republicans and Democrats going at it like they always do.

      And you know what? People can flame all they want, but LOOK AT THE RESULTS HE'S GOTTEN. Go to ftp.gnu.org and tell me if that isn't one of the finest collections of software anywhere, free as in beer, free as in speech, or otherwise.

      He started to write a complete OS in the mid 80s. He wrote a C-compiler, and a text editor bloated with a Lisp interpreter. He hacked some *NIX tools, much of them written by others. He would be largely forgotten if the McArthur Foundation hadn't given him a grant that allowed him to devote more time to the project. Where do you think the Foundation got it's money? I'll tell you where--"evil" capitalism, that's where. Even with the grant, his system would still be nowhere without Linus. In return for this, RMS insults Linus by comparing him to Han Solo (not enough revolutionary purity in Linus).

      It's fun to chip away at a pillar of the community while you don't understand that the pillars are what hold the community up.

      RMS's vision of community is about subverting the institutions of US democracy in order to advance the cause of socialism. At this point, many people (especially moderators) have thought I was joking. How does that go? First they laugh...

      I am firmly convinced that when history is written, RMS will be compared to Eugene Debs, or possibly Upton Sinclair. His contributions to politics are in many ways more noteworthy than his contributions to computer science. Indeed, Sinclair "aimed for the heart and hit the stomach". RMS aimed for the mouth and hit the wallet. Such is the way of socialism in the US--it just doesn't play here like it does in Europe. Thank God.

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    2. Re:All The RMS You'll Ever Need. by The+Pim · · Score: 3
      perl -e 's/Linux/GNU\/Linux/gi' -p -i.bak *.html

      There is a major bug in your program: you are keeping a backup of the offensive file. It should be permanently eradicated. You might consider writing the correct version to a different disk, and destroying the old disk when you are done.

      --

      The evaluation of an action as 'practical' . . . depends on what it is that one wishes to practice.
  13. In my day we had to WALK to space, with no shoes! by Chester+K · · Score: 5

    I guess space junkets by geriatric senators must count as research.

    Of course it does. In a few years we'll be overrun with too many Baby Boomer Senior Citizens. We had to investigate to see if launching them into space was a viable plan to save the rest of humanity.

    It's either that or suffer through a dark future where there's a worldwide shortage of Fixodent and the AARP manages to lobby Congress into making illegally parking in a handicapped parking space a capital offense.

    --

    NO CARRIER
  14. Dennis Tito In Space by xp · · Score: 5
    Space for me, and not for thee. csy writes "Dennis Tito returns jubilant to Earth. Meanwhile, John Glenn criticizes Tito's trip as a "misuse of a spacecraft designed for research". I guess space junkets by geriatric senators must count as research.

    Umm, it's not clear to me why Dennis needs to be morally assaulted for spending his own money by the senator who got a free ride on the taxpayers.

    Tired of day trading with real money? Try Peak Trader.

  15. Re:Geriatric senators? by lpontiac · · Score: 5
    > Dennis Tito was nothing but a crass opportunist using his money to buy something he could never earn

    Umm, yeah, that's how capitalism works. You work at the things you're good at, get paid, and use that money to buy the things you can't produce yourself because you lack the skills or capital investment to do so.

    Am I a crass opportunist for purchasing socks made in a factory with my money? I don't think so. I'd say that by earning the money to spend on the purchase of something, I've become perfectly entitled to it.

  16. Why NASA can't back Tito, et al by mojo-raisin · · Score: 3

    My take on Tito:

    If NASA begins to support space tourism, they will experience a huge backlash against their organization and lose much of their funding. The novelity of space tourists will quickly wear off, and soon people will realize their taxes are going to a program that can only be used by the super-wealthy. At that point, any other lofty goals NASA has will be history.

    If NASA wants to continue as an organization under its current mission, it cannot support space tourism.

    Of course, the question is then: Do we really want NASA around at all? It seems privatized access to space is the only long term solution.

  17. Geriatric senators? by fmaxwell · · Score: 4
    I guess space junkets by geriatric senators must count as research.

    Yes, it was research. It may not have been the most hard-hitting, or vital research, but comparing John Glenn to Dennis Tito is insulting. John Glenn earned his place in space. He risked his life to be the first man to orbit the Earth in a capsule that was little more than a projectile. He went back into space as a genuine hero to many Americans. Dennis Tito was nothing but a crass opportunist using his money to buy something he could never earn.

    1. Re:Geriatric senators? by McSpew · · Score: 3

      He risked his life to be the first man to orbit the Earth in a capsule that was little more than a projectile.

      Ahem. Ever heard of a man named Yuri Gagarin? He orbited the Earth nearly a year before Glenn.

      Now, that said, Glenn was a patriot and a hero to his country, but just because NASA forced him into retirement (he was too valuable as a living icon to risk losing in a fiery accident), does not mean they owed him a trip to space nearly 40 years later.

      The cover story about researching the similarities between aging and life in zero-gee didn't fool anybody. It was a publicity stunt by NASA to get some good press and earn some more good favor with politicians.

      Yes, Glenn underwent far more training than did Dennis Tito and yes, the Russians were irresponsible to send Tito into orbit without putting him through the same sort of training as any other guest cosmonaut, but Tito is a pioneer. He's the first space tourist who paid his own way. Hopefully, he won't be the last. Unfortunately, it's unlikely that any of us will ever be space tourists, but maybe our kids or grandkids will be some day.

  18. Re:OS/2? by XO · · Score: 3

    I'm surprised there's no other mentions of OS/2 floating around here. Quite the amazing system for it's time, during the Warp 3 era. Still quite an amazing system.. I just wish it could be easily trimmed back to be a lean monster like Linux can be. But it would take lot of effort to do so. I wonder if eComStation will be any better, less geared towards absolute redundancy and enterprise class server operations, even in the client edition. It's biggest downfall is it's resource usage. But at least it knew what to -do- with those resources, whereas it's competitor of the time NT, was just a resource slug that didn't use the resources for anything good except lunch.
    All your base belong to ---===*> XO

    --
    "Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
  19. Scene by bLitzfeuer · · Score: 3

    The Gathering isn't meant to be so much a "gamer" party as it is supposed to be for the Demo Scene .

    Good examples of what demos are are here if you have a win32 or DOS box around.

    More parties like Mekka, Assembly, The Party and others exist.

  20. getting into space by Supa+Mentat · · Score: 5

    You know, it occurs to me that every person in America with a conection to NASA (like John Glenn) really had a lot to say about Tito getting into space. I've even seen /.ers bitching about it. Guess what, he went up in a RUSSIAN ship and had to sign a legally binding contract saying that he wouldn't touch anything on the American part of the station. What gives anyone out of Russia the right to act offended? Not only did Russia get over $20 million dollars out of the deal (and do they ever need all the cash they can get), they set a precedent for a method of helping to pay for missions in space. The fact that NASA tried to block him from going up (they expected Russia to fold too) and that every damn politician in this country passed judgement on it and acted like it was an area in which they had supreme authority reeks of haughtyness. Maybe things like this are why the US was voted off the Human Rights commission for the UN as well as the International Narcotics Control Board a few days ago. Just something to think about next time we feel like giving orders to another country.

    --
    "A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire