Slashback: Spolsky, Mandrake, Geography

Tonight's Slashback features another string of updates, corrections, etc. to previous stories. In this case, that means more on the discoveries of America, the Mandrake-StarOffice connection, Joel Spolsky and more, all below.

Update: not everyone agrees on everything. ipoverscsi writes: "SoftwareMarketSolution has a followup interview with Joel Spolsky comprised mainly of rebuttals from the comments section of an older article on Slashdot. A quote I found interesting regarding re-writing software: 'Don't even talk to me about spending money replacing something that works. The only question that is relevant is -- what does it cost to fix it if it doesn't work?'"

'First' seems to be relative. MattJ writes: "A week or two ago, Gavni Menzies' theory about Chinese explorations preceding Columbus were mentioned on Slashdot. He has now made his presentation to the Royal Geographical Society. According to MSNBC, the response from historians who saw it was somewhat muted. They say they need to wait for his book to come out to treat the theory fairly, but right now it looks like a tower of suppositions."

"Or, to vote for 'irresponsible disclosure,' please press No ...". juliao writes: "The IETF has dropped the draft proposal for responsible disclosure of bugs."

Fax early and often. jd142 writes: "A follow up to Friday's CBDTPA story. Electronic petitions and e-mail are unlikely to sway a Senator. Dead trees do. Luckily you can easily have a message faxed to your Senators. Letters are good too, so send both. This is a case where the more paper we can swamp them with, the better chance we have of killing this. And take the time to personalize your faxes and letters."

A matter of phrasing? I mentioned that StarOffice 6.0 was due for retail release in April; Jacques Le Marois from Mandrakesoft (among many others) wrote to point out that "MandrakeClub is the first and only place in the world where you can get StarOffice 6.0 currently!" They've worked out an OEM deal with Sun to let those who've paid for a "Silver" membership to MandrakeClub ($120 annually) download the software.

Exactly which MandrakeClub members were eligible for the payware StarOffice was the cause of some contention. "We also answer to your previous post about the ZDNet controversy. It's an interesting case of mis-information spread."

Comments

StarOffice 6.0 and OpenOffice

[Metrollica]

StarOffice 6.0 and OpenOffice is basicly the same product, much like Netscape 6 and Mozilla, where the product is just rebadged. How can MandrakeClub be the "first and only place in the world where you can get StarOffice 6.0" if OpenOffice has always been available for download at its homepage. I would also expect OpenOffice to feature the latest updates and improvements so why would anyone even bother with StarOffice. For those MandrakeClub members complaining that you're not getting StarOffice, just go download OpenOffice.

Re:StarOffice 6.0 and OpenOffice

[Anonymous Coward]

Because StarOffice includes some closedsource apps, such as a database app.

Chinese do not believe China discovered America

[Andy Tai]

The official Chinese history, taught in schools, show that the Ming Dynasty's fleets did reach Southeast and South Asia, Arabia and East Africa, but that was as far as they went. There is no doubt that the Ming had the technology to go to West Africa or even "discovered" Western Europe for China, but going across an ocean like the Pacific or the Atlantic may be questionable. (Note the Ming routes were mainly along coasts known to the Chinese people)

See http://www.chinapage.com/zhenghe.html (near the middle of the page) for a map of the Ming voyage based on China's historical records.

It would be great that China discovered America, but the Chinese people do not claim something that cannot be supported. And remember, it is a Englishman, not a Chinese, who makes this claim.

Re:Analog is illegal?

[thomaswahl]

"First off we all not this is not entirely true for everybody. Maybe this statement means sum content."

Could you please rephase this in grammatical english?

"So wait analog is safe?"

Could you please rephase this in grammatical english?

My SSSCA/CBDTPA message

[The G]

I am writing to urge you to reject the Hollings copy protection bill, also known as
the Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act (CBDTPA). I
strongly oppose the bill for the following reason:

Every technical measure that "protects" a piece of data from some uses (such as
illegal copying) but not from others (such as legal viewing) must do so by making
the data accessible only to some programs and not to others. But as there is no
technical way to determine the intentions of a computer program, the decision
must be made by some controlling human authority (the DVD-CCA being an
example of such an authority). Moreover, since that authority cannot be present
at every computer in the world, it must somehow "sign" or "authorize" the devices
which it has chosen to grant access. Furthermore, that signature or authorization
must be somehow rendered secret so that malicious or simply curious people are
not able to duplicate the authorization on unauthorized devices.

The simple implication, then, is that every electronic device, or at least some piece
of software on every electronic device, must be secret from its user. In effect,
knowing how a computer works must be made impossible or illegal or both in order
to implement the provisions of this bill.

The would effectively destroy the general-purpose computer by making all of its
means of input, storage, and output subject to such protected secrecy. If
implemented at the hardware level, it would render illegal the development of
electronic devices by amateurs and hobbyists; if implemented at the software level
it would render illegal all amateur or collaborative software development.

Additionally, since the majority of copyright "piracy" takes place outside of the
United States and thus beyond the reach of this or any other law, the measure
would be of little actual help to the media companies which have lobbied for this
measure.

It would be an understatement to say that this would harm the technology industry.
It would destroy the technology industry in the United States, while drastically
expanding the industry in technology-friendly nations like India and China. It would
compromise the mainstay of the US economy and at the same time doing
irreparable damage to our global leadership and national security. Already,
prominent software developers are declining to visit the United States for fear that
the software they have written might run afoul of the existing Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA); the CBDTPA will exacerbate this problem exponentially.
As a software engineer, I have seen co-workers making preparations to emigrate
or seek expatriate assignments if this bill is enacted. "I will need to consult a lawyer
every time I write a line of code," quipped one of my co-workers; the remark is not
far from the truth.

If you really wish to protect American media companies from revenues lost to
copyright violations, I urge you to support stronger enforcement of the well-tested,
well-understood, and legally and constitutionally sound laws already on the books.
Contrary to the language of many supporters of digital content control, copyright
infringement is already illegal, and needs no additional laws to make it more so.
The proposed measure, like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) before it,
takes a "shotgun" approach to a small and well-defined crime, and will cause
tremendous injury to American technological leadership and one of the fastest-
growing segments of our economy for very little compensating benefit.

I am severely disappointed in your support of the Hollings bill, and respectfully
request that you remove yourself as a co-sponsor.

Re:Customizing?

[geekoid]

Fewer and fewer politicians are taking USPS delivered mail in any timely fashion.
My representitves only want fax or email.