Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: BitKeeper, Maine, Novell
I thought Adam Smith was in favor of free markets and the exchange of ideas. mrjive writes "The plot thickens. In response to yesterday's story, it turns out that the attack on the free software movement was attached to the end of the letter in question by Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash, who happens to have Microsoft as his biggest beneficiary. The original authors of the letter have sent an angry response for essentially twisting its original purpose. Read the full scoop here."
For the even-fuller scoop, see Roblimo's article on NewsForge.
Not bottling it up inside of himself. An anonymous reader writes "Richard M. Stallman has responded to comments made a week ago in response to his own Linux kernel mailing list post about the BitKeeper controversy. 'A technical issue or project sometimes raises ethical issues,' Stallman began. He did not stop there. More on the (newly cached and therefore a little bit Slashdot-immune) Linux and Main . Be gentle."
Free knowledge for sale for free, etc. OverCode@work writes "The complete LaTeX source to Loki Software's game programming book, Programming Linux Games, is now available on the author's site. This book was reviewed here a while back. Mad props to the publisher for letting this happen."
Everybody'sSQL haggar writes "MySQL (commercial license) will be shipped as standard with NetWare according to this announcement. I consider it a follow-up to the Slashdot story about the PostgreSQL port for NetWare. Apparently, the options for NetWare users are widening, thanks to open-source products!"
An iBook in every (lobster)pot! Call Me Black Cloud writes "Some time ago Maine awarded a contract to Apple for laptops for school kids. MacCentral has an interview with Maine governor Angus King where he discusses the success of the program. Despite the Maine state legislature's attempts to kill the program, it continues on. Why? Well, a $1M grant from the Gates Foundation certainly helped. Over the summer Apple delivered 18,000 iBooks and installed 239 wireless networks in 239 schools."
So long as they're not mandatory. Polo writes "I noticed that the Garmin Rino 110 and 120 are shipping. If you don't remember, these are FRS/GMRS Radios with integrated GPS. You can transmit your position to other units so they can hear you and see where you are. Pretty cool. This is a follow-up to an older story"
What the market will bear. His Nastiness writes "Just a follow-up that I ran across that indicates that Steve Ballmer may have just been blowing hot air on not selling the XBox in Austrailia anymore. See the previous thread here."
Bill and Melinda are helping out 7th graders with ibooks?!
Why is the Gates Foundation sponsoring a campaign to buy Apple laptops? Not a troll, just wondering.
... itturns out that the attack on the free software movement was attached to the end of the letter in question by Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash, who happens to have Microsoft as his biggest beneficiary.
No surprise -- Microsoft is a huge contributor to both parties, including the Democrats -- whom some believe are supposed to be our saviors from the "evil, corporate Republicans." They're not -- they're on the inside what Republicans are on the outside.
If you really want a change, don't vote for either party -- vote Libertarian if you're on the right, Green Party if you're on the left, and independant otherwise. Both parties are in the pockets of big business, and that's bad both for those who advocate freedom from the government as well as those who despise deregulation.
The more we have third party, the closer we get to fairer, European-style representation.
vote Libertarian if you're on the right, Green Party if you're on the left
What are you supposed to vote in the middle? Libertarian National Socialist Green Party?
Will I retire or break 10K?
It is a stretch to conclude anything about the general attitude or character of a person from one action, so I would not say the people who distribute non-free software are "evil people" in a general sense. I will say they have done one thing that is evil: distributing a non-free program.
Evil \E"vil\ ([=e]"v'l) n.
- Anything which impairs the happiness of a being or
deprives a being of any good; anything which causes
suffering of any kind to sentient beings; injury;
mischief; harm; -- opposed to good.
The only one being impaired of happiness. or suffering is Richard Stallman. Methinks someone is a little too big for his britches.Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Why is the Gates Foundation sponsoring a campaign to buy Apple laptops?
For one thing, the Gates Foundation and Microsoft Corporation are completely separate bodies; GF might have simply chosen what computer would benefit students the most. For another, MS Office and MS IE run on Macintosh computers.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I've lived in Maine for about six years now, even though I'm in Mass for college at present. Education was one of the major draws when my parents moved there, and it will continue to be one of the major draws for other families, especially with this program in place.
I was back to visit for the Pop!Tech conference this past weekend; at Governor King's suggestion (he spoke briefly), I took a look at the Camden middle school, and it was incredible. The students were thoroughly engaged, and the teacher had the liberty to roam the isles and show them how to do things on their individual computers.
Yeah, I wish the program had used a linux distro, but anything is better than nothing. It's a really special thing.
Read jack phelps dot net
Our forefathers fought long and hard to rid ourselves of the savagery of the multiparty system that plagued Europe during the Middle Ages through the 18th century and continues to plague it more today than ever. It may have been Providence that allowed them to see the wisdom of a bicameral system wherein the parties would gain support by absorbing competing ideas from the general populace.
In a multi-party (and by multi, I mean more than two) political system, the ideas and concepts are fractured and you end up with "Single Issue" parties. This is great, so long as the candidates of those parties are not also single-issue dullards, but as history as shown throughout Europe and also, but to a limited extent, in the US, dullards are pretty much all extra-mainstream parties offer.
So with the bicameral system, we have two parties who can represent broad views across the spectrum on all sort of issues because of each party's ability to absorb issues from concered third parties. Perhaps this is where the benefit of extra-mainstream parties can be felt, in offering up ideas for the mainstream parties to make their own.
This early post for Ida!
*looks at the overcode.net server, sitting next to him*
*grabs a fire extinguisher*
at least John warned me that the box was gonna be slashdotted......
(if you don't believe me, look up my IP address and then overcode.net's IP address, or email me nullset onthesite overcode.net)
--buddy
The only one being impaired of happiness. or suffering is Richard Stallman.
Or anybody who wants to work on both the Linux kernel and revision control software. Even if working on Linux and working on Subversion are separate jobs, the restrictions of the Bitkeeper license apply to the person and thus cross from one job to the other, as I mentioned in my other comment.
Will I retire or break 10K?
1st make "i support open software -- and vote" bumper stickers
2nd beat up some old people and force them to wear them
3rd -- profit
"Martha Stewart can lick my Scrotum......do i have a scrotum?" -- Sharon Osbourne
Either the press need to learn to actualy quote people acurate, or Microsoft needs to stop talking out of both ends (probably both.)
2 582
3 04223.html
A Microsoft spokeswoman said that Ballmer's remarks were not specifically related to the Xbox, and that the company was committed to selling the console in Australia. http://www.gamemarketwatch.com/news/item.asp?nid=
versus
Microsoft would be forced to reconsider selling the Xbox video game system in Australia, or seek changes to the law, following the acquittal in July of a Sydney man alleged to have sold chips that modify a Sony PlayStation 2 to play imported games, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said yesterday. http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/10/18/1034561
Just a short note on the GF and iBook debacle.
I thought Microsoft had a large interest in Apple, interest as in stocks? Didn't they basically save Apple's ass a couple of years ago?
Then it doesn't matter what they buy, does it? Now, if they had tried to buy Walmart PC's with Lindows, I bet the foundation would have cried Foul Play!
If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
Whichever way you cut it. Activism doesn't belong in a technical list, even if he says that it's an ethical discusion. In Slashdot, he would be already at (-1, Offtopic). (Well, he wouldn't, but he should).
The don't communicate via satellite, they get their position from the gps satellites just like other gps receivers, then they can transmit their position to other users using the radio.
First read about them here: Gates Foundation
Here's a few highlights of the year ending 12/31/2001
Financial Position highlights
Amounts are in thousands of dollars.
Net assets: $32,751,466
(note: That's BILLIONS)
Grants Paid
Global Healthcare: $855,567
Education: $177,944
They are the largest private contributor fighting global health issues (and it is believed to be the largest driving force behind malaria eradication in the world)
There are very few real things in this world...this isn't one of them.
Their website has a lot of information on what it's done, and I must say, the foundation rocks. Click on the "Grants" link for a graph of grants given. $5.5B. That's a lot of mo... In 2001 (from the annual report), "...we gave over $1 billion in grants in support of more than 2,050 grantees." You may hate the company, but that monopoly is doing some good somewhere!
Here's more about the grant to Maine.
I live in Maine. I never heard of the grant. It's a good program and I hope it doesn't get canned.
I wonder which OS the kiddies are using? OS X, maybe??
1. claim he said things which he didn't
2. describe your feelings about his definition of "freedom"
3. claim that the GPL "forces" you to do things
4. be sure to never address the issue he raises
5. ???
6. profit!
how easy!
I have a close friend who works for a medical research institution here in Chile. They research contraceptives and provide free reproductive health care for extremely poor people. They are supported, to a large extent, by grants from the Gates Foundation. Think what you may about Microsoft, I think Mr. Gates has done some really good things through the Foundation.
AFAIK, the Gates Foundation is also responsible for vaccines for millions of African kids, in places where the government can't or won't do it.
No
Apparently, BitMover has removed the most objectionable term (the non-compete agreement) from the no-cash BitKeeper license. Please moderate down the parent comment.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Mod me down if you like, I'll admit, this will sound like some sort of psuedo-troll. But the question must be asked. Microsoft is a corporation that grew up in North America. It is a corporation that grew and thrived only because of the country in which it was established, the United States.
So.. South America gets the gift of life, while our downtrodden get free iMacs. That's great, you know?
Contrary to the widely-held belief of the rest of the world, everyone living in the United States isn't the owner of a Rolls Royce, nor do they routinely sport top hats and monocles. We've enough poor to kill our surplus of food that's sitting around spoiling. We've enough people with STDs and other diseases to fill beds in hospital upon hospital.
It's nice of Mr. Gates to give a big middle finger to the country that is the reason he has his millions, eh?
Sure, it's all nice and humanitarian that the Foundation is helping the poor of the world, but don't think it's out of some actual desire to see the poor given quality care and such. See it for what it is. A way for Mr. Gates to point out, "I'm rich, and I can eradicate diseases as I choose. I have power, I have money and you, you do not."
So it was with oil, steel and other barons with the past. So it stands today. The rich don't give a shit about the poor, they care about the bragging rights from throwing millions and billions about.
This gets battered around a lot, but Microsoft has a very tiny interest in Apple. When someone tells you "I heard Apple was bailed out...blah blah..." they are probably more than a little confused.
Microsoft's supposed bail-out was an investment of $150 million dollars into a company that had over 4 billion in reserves at the time. Apple still has over 4 billion in "liquid" like investments.
--- I do not moderate.
I randomly punched 4494400 on my calculator, I pressed the HEX button to see what it does, and it just divides the number by 10.
Seems the major problem open source developers are having with the BitKeeper license is that it places a certain requirement on them, just like the GPL. The GPL community response to criticism has always been, "don't use GPL code if you don't like the license." Seems perfectly reasonable. If you don't like the BitKeeper license, then don't use BitKeeper. When you get down to the basics, it's the same damn issue.
-- Will program for bandwidth
Anyone want to explain to me why this is a "troll"?
I'd like to know so that I don't do it again.
You can transmit your position to other units so they can hear you and see where you are.
:)
I have been doing it since 1997.
--fatboy
I don't know if these rino units will really catch on. The range of these things is only about a half a mile with buildings and stuff around. At that range, you can almost always see a common landmark, if you can't see each other. Still, if you're going to use both a GPS and a radio, it's better than lugging both around. And they look pretty cool, besides. A better application might be on cell phones. Then the first sentence of every conversation wouldn't be "where you at?" Aren't they doing something like this for 911 reasons anyway?
This space intentionally left blank.
This qoute just says it all,
"Congressman Adam Smith's staff contacted Open Source Public Policy advocates around 6:00pm EDT to say they were flooded by calls from reporters about the letter that sparked this thread. Many staffers of the 67 Congressman who signed are now claiming they didn't know what they were signing and the letter is being withdrawn.
It does not get much better than that!
ROME
Welcome to the Software Police State. You will be given public housing. However, we are a police state with Three (count em, three!) dictators. You can CHOOSE which dictator you wish to be ruled by. WHICH WILL YOU CHOOSE??
...
...
...
Dictator #1: GENERAL BSD
General BSD is a benevolent dictator, despite his devlish appearance. Here are his rules for living in the BSD Housing Project:
INSIDE THE HOUSE: You can do whatever you like.
OUTSIDE THE HOUSE: You can do whatever you like.
Note: Someone might move into your house when you're gone, move all the furniture around, and change the locks. They will replace your favorite beer with wine coolers (yuck).
Dictator #2: GENERAL STALLMAN
Stallman is a loud and obnoxious dictator. If you live in a Stallman House, you must follow these rules:
INSIDE THE HOUSE: You can do whatever you like.
OUTSIDE THE HOUSE: If you ever leave the house, you will be escorted by a Stallmanist agent, who will whine to you about freedom, and also how to pronounce certain words.
Note: People may enter the house while you're gone, but they're not allowed to touch anything. And they won't be allowed to drink any of your beer (yay). Did I mention the whining?
Dictator #3: GENERAL MCVOY
General McVoy is a bit of an asshole himself. He whines all the time about how he needs to pay his army, and how nice it is of him to let you live in HIS house temporarily, and when are you going to get a job so you can pay for the house.
INSIDE THE HOUSE: You are monitored 24 hours a day. Remember, it's McVoy's house, you freeloader! And you better drink McVoy's favorite beer or he'll take your house away!!
OUTSIDE THE HOUSE: You are not allowed to leave the house. Sorry.
It seems that Congress has suddenly been made aware that, despite Microsoft's massive anti-GPL lobbying efforts, there are plenty of pro-GPL and pro-Open Source activists out there who have email accounts, fax machines, and telephones -- and enough sense to contact not only members of Congress, but influential reporters as well.
Hold the phone. You mean to tell me that people in our congress actually listen to regular people, despite all the money that can be had by helping out Microsoft?
That doesn't jive with 99% of the Slashdotter's here! According to them, money talks and everything lese walks. That must have been some kinda typo or something.
Heck, I always thought that bicameral meant that there were two chambers/bodies of legislators (i.e. House and Senate). Silly me.
I live in Maine, AND was one of the estimators involved with the laptop program. Our company was subcontracted by apple to do the physical installations (244 of them in all) in every school, and I have this to say: we spoke to many of the teachers; yes, many were against it to start. By the end of THEIR training, the vast majority of them were in love with the program. It comes down to this; you CANNOT overspend on education. That combination of words has no place in America; or shouldn't, at any rate. Yes, the laptops were expensive, and yes some kids may damage them; but the state was also given a (quite hefty) warranty program by Apple, and rules on whether they (the laptops) go home with the students or not are set individually by each school. It gives not only the schools a sense of independence and technological edge, but the students as well. They know that they are some of the only students in the world involved with a technology initiative this big. Also, it's well known that students who start using computers early and often are those people who don't need a dissertation on double-clicking in order to get "online" later in life :-).
In Europe we already have combined GPS/GSM unit like the Benefon Esc! NT2002. The principle is so basic that they are even giving them to hunting dogs (who have a tendancy to get lost in the Finnish woods). True a glorified walkie-talkie requires no infrastructure and is cheaper to operate, but an infrastructure plus a pay per call means that the GPS solution will work in more places (try using a walkie-talkie around a mountain).
I don't know why people have trouble with this. This isn't about the GPL, or Stallman per se. It's about the fact that you can't develop for both the Linux kernel and a source code control system (e.g., CVS) at the same time without paying for BitKeeper.
Obviously RMS has set himself up for flaming. People on any mailing list people tend to be very touchy about what they consider topical. :-) On the other hand, if you are a kernel developer using BitKeeper, then you can't work on CVS without paying money to BitKeeper.
-- Jessica
The mutant geek grrl from Hell.
Legally, Linus can distribute GPL'd code any way he likes. But what gives Linus the ethical right to publicly endorse a commercial source control management system using the GPL'd work of hundreds of contributors to the Linux kernel (of which he is just one)? Was a vote taken? No, he effectively said if you want to be in the fast lane of kernel development use this commercial product to stay in sync with the latest source code in near-realtime.
It has been shown time and time again that when something is "free enough" there is very little incentive to create a viable and complete free alternative.
Would the world have created a free operating system if Linus never worked on what would become the Linux kernel? Of course - and in short order too. The GNU Hurd was just the next logical piece in the GNU toolchain - the very reason for GNU's existance. Linux with its implicit GNU contract co-opted developer interest from GNU Hurd. As such there is a moral obligation to follow the principles of the original GNU project.
Where would free software be without GCC and the GNU tools? Conservatively, at least 25 years behind.
It should really be named the Melinda Gates Foundation. She must be quite a woman. Until Bill made the best decision in his career, his charitable contributions from 1976 to 1997 amounted to be a big fat ZERO!!! It does appear the Melinda has had an enormous influence. In the past few years, the Gates Foundation has grown to one of the largest charitable contributors in the world when measured by dollars, but still is one of the smaller ones when you look at the percentage of the endowment they donate to charities. John D. Rockefeller gave 10% of his income every year to charity, beacause he realized that he built his fortune through the society and he owed that society a substantial debt. Maybe, someday, Bll Gates will come to the same conclusion.
Until then, I wil stand by my conclusion that Bill Gates has been a tightwad, of previously un-imaginable proportion.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
I think as he's got older he mellowed out somewhat. Besides he's got a huge karma debt to repay for loosing Windows on the world.
That $150 million was offered to Amelio when he was CEO. The catch was that IE come bundled with MacOS.. Amelio said no way - he wanted a guarantee of timely ports of MS Office instead of the cash, Gates said no.. So it stayed at a stalemate.
When Jobs did his usual dirty underhanded crap and got Amelio ousted (killing off Pippin and the Newton (one of their ONLY profitable divisions at the time!) as soon as he got in the door), he immediately grabbed that cash, even though by that time they didn't need it.
My source? Gil Amelio.
On the firing line: my 500 days at Apple by Gil Amelio
Very interesting read. Very. I knew Jobs was scum before, this book clinched it.
Cheers,
Backov
In the law there is no overlap between theft and copyright infringement whatsoever.
I got one because i was looking to get a gps unit anyways for backpacking, but then they came out with this one, with all the same gps features as the other one i was looking at (a garmin etrex venture), for the same price (at rei.com), but it has walkie-talkie built in, essentially for free. That's why i got one. And it's awesome!
I completely disagree with this. But then, my code of ethics may not be the same as yours. And that might be why the "evil" tag makes sense to some while a rather outlandish claim to others. So under what code of ethics is Microsoft "evil"?
There seems to be a rather common code of ethics amoung techies. It centers around enabling various components and systems to interoperate. The ability to interoperate in a desired manner is good. Anything that interferes with that interoperation is bad.
Of course, its not a perfect world. Bad things happen. Overcoming and/or fixing bad things is part of the challenge. But sometimes bad things happen on purpose. Anything that interferes with interoperability on purpose with the sole intent to interfere is evil.
When Microsoft is being labled as evil, it is based on this code of techie ethics. Microsoft interferes with interoperability on a regular bassis from incompatible file formats, to obscure protocols (or incompatible extensions to open protocols), to restrictive licenses... and the list goes on. And while they may not be the only "evil" company out there, Microsoft has certainly fine tuned the art.
Of course, Microsoft also tends to run afoul with more traditional ethics too. For example, Microsoft has a rather tough time keeping truthful - whether it is PR, advertising copy, documentation, policy, or court testimony.
Granted - Microsoft could be running on its own ethical code. Or perhapse it has adopted ethical codes that have lead other large corporations in to scandle. But in any case, it shouldn't come as much of a suprise if few around here buy in on the idea of Microsoft as "ethical" or "not evil".
Great idea! when a book is selling almost no copies, Give it away on the internet so it sells Absolutely no copies! Brilliant!
They need books and teaching.
As much as I'm into technology, kids will learn material far better by reading a book, listening to a lecture, and doing the homework. I don't even agree with the use of calculators prior to high school.
Most computers purchased for educational use are simply wasted money. Same with televisions and other audio-video equipment.
Yeah yeah, I know... keep the kids engaged. Whatever, you can also keep the kids engaged by having a teacher who knows what the fuck they are talking about and thus make the class interesting. Best class I ever had in high school was World History my junior year. Not one film strip, not one movie, not one poster. We read books and the teacher lectured and not one person in that class left without knowing what the Magna Carta meant or what year it was signed.
The moderators.
You have a two party system because it's modeled on Westminster.
We do not have a two party system, it is just that currently (and usually) only two of the parties are able to garner enough votes to even be considered.
The current system has virtually no input from the population and is becoming more and more like the royal courts of Europe used to be. A quick example is the number of career politicans and the number of Father/Son teams. Republican = Democrat there is so little difference as to be insulting.
The system has virtually no input because virtually nobody votes. It is rare to even get a 20% turnout. There are major differences between the parties, it is just that they are rarely talked about on political TV ads. Instead, the ads state:
You can stick your head in the sand and trot out the party line about democracy, freedom, liberty etc but please do not try and use examples to back you up that you obiuosly have not researched.
As an example of such un-researched examples:
Research how closely related by blood American politicans are to European. Then go on to research where your current politicans were educated? Then see if you can guess why the population of America has virtually no say in their goverment or laws?
How many people reading this are American citizens of age 18 or over who are not voting? I think that I can guess why they have virtually no say in their government and its laws.
The two part system gives the illusion of a democracy when in reality all we do is change dictators.
The are four main political views in America today. They are Libertarianism, Conservativism, Liberalism, and Socialism. The Libertarians and Conservatives have generally resided in the Republican party, although some conservatives are in the Democratic Party. Liberals and Socialists (the mainstream ones at least) are generally Democrats. The Libertarians and the Socialists have recently been splitting off as there own parties, the Libertarian and the Green parties. Neither of them will ever amount to much on any presidental election (lets hope) since they are to exteme for most people, and too extreme for comprimise.
The problem with the Libertarians is that they fail to realise that we actually do need a government, even a federal government, and we always will. They mainly only side with Conservatives because they aren't Democrats, who generally think that the solution to anything is a large government program.
The problem with the Greens/Socialists is that they want to replace the system of primarily corporate development and activity, which, while it has problem, actually works, with a system that has been demonstrated to not work on several occasions, all for the benefit of spotted tree frogs and the like. They will never get anywhere, because the American public likes their SUV's, McDonald's, non-fair-trade coffee, and cheap sweatshop clothing, and don't want to be told to change, and definitely not that they are evil.
Best Slashdot comment ever
>>> It's about the fact that you can't develop for both the Linux kernel and a source code control system (e.g., CVS) at the same time without paying for BitKeeper
This is just not true. As mentioned before there is absolutely no need to use BitKeeper for kernel development. Many core kernel developers (e.g. Alan Cox) do not use BitKeeper at all and just send regular patches against development releases to Linus.
-- kryps
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The second criticism applies most directly to Microsoft the company, and I personally think pretty indisputable.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
A very telling line from the NewsForge article:
Many staffers of the 67 Congressman who signed are now claiming they didn't know what they were signing and the letter is being withdrawn.
So what this in effect says is at least 67 Congressmen don't read what they sign.
Ah, my tax dollars at work.
Karma: Frotzed (mostly due to the Frobozz Magic Karma Company)
I'll take "oxymoron" for 800 Alex.
kthx
Comment removed based on user account deletion
What RMS is saying that if you use software with that kind of license, it's going to be bad for you and for others in the long run. It's similar to saying that SUVs are bad for the world or that smoking is bad for you--you may disagree, and you may insist on your right to do something that's legal, but there is no reason why others should stop complaining about it.
Of course, RMS may be wrong, but nobody seems to have made a convincing counter-argument. And whether the GPL is "more free" or "less free" is completely irrelevant to anything.
I've heard that she made MS Bob... witch made that horrible resource hogg that, although is not on by default in Office Xp, shows up as a FREAKING DOG in my search window for WINDOWS.... heck, it was in the INSTALLER for windows XP. ... It's a cute idea yeah, but how much productivity have I lost because some stupid thing pops up and slows down my computer then takes 5 seconds to animate to disapear??!?!
(BTW, I don't know if she really did make MS BOB or not)
I actually like MS XP... after I turned off all the distracting glop...
anyway, I thought MS had some contracts with Apple... and at one time made more money on Apples than Apple did... heck, they're using IE...
I'm not sure I want Bill Gates being lord of the people because he is the best swindler.. (however... I would much rather smack the patent system etc...
If he could keep a monopoly not protected by copyright and patents... I'd almost bow to the man... But Illgotten goods (stealing from people because of copyright and patents) shouldn't be spread in a way that benefites the man who stole them.
Please use [ informative / summarizing ] SUBJECT LINES
Flame me here
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I wish they followed up on their "threat".
I don't know who they were threatening, though.
The consumers? I don't think they are going to cry about it.
"Oh no! I can't buy an XBox! I've been PUNISHED!!! Quickly, give me something else to buy! I MUST CONSUME!!! Oh well, I'll just buy the PS2. Or the GameCube. Microsoft just lost a sale. Ha! Take that, Microsoft"
What a punishment.
Not like the XBox is worth it, anyway.
No games (other than "American" games... that'll change soon though (I hope)...).
My XBox has a layer of dust on it. I lost so much money when Microsoft dropped the price to compete with Sony that I can't afford to sell it. I'd be making a huge loss.
I finished Halo. It was pretty good. And repetitive. And that's about all that the XBox had/has going for it. It's been quite a while since it was released, and I'm still waiting for something worthwhile.
Let's see if I got it right. MySQL gets money to deliver something far inferior on features, programming integrity and scalability to PostgreSQL which was free.
Incidentally, that shows one of the copyleft virtues: using dual licensing with GNU GPL, MySQL gets more resources even being far inferior to its non-copyleft counterpart.
Leandro Guimarães Faria Corcete DUTRA
DA, DBA, SysAdmin, Data Modeller
GNU Project, Debian GNU/Lin
...but they can give money with certain conditions attached.
Like:
"Here, take this $DOLLAR_VALUE, but you'll have to convince us that you'll only buy Intel boxes running MS software. (Thus giving us a substantial amount of $DOLLAR_VALUE back and further entrenching the MS monopoly, while giving us a PR boost.)"
Charity is very often self serving and calculating.
It is also a relatively inexpensive complement to advertising.
And good PR is essential for any self respecting illegal monopoly.
"First lesson," Jon said. "Stick them with the pointy end."
How can libertarianism in any way, shape or form be called "middle"?
If libertarianism isn't extreme I don't know what is.
I'm not trying to bash it (at least not today), I'm just sayin it's not in any way in the middle of the political spectra.
Not even in the US.
Libertarian ideas are pretty radical by most standards.
"First lesson," Jon said. "Stick them with the pointy end."
pity their only accepts North American grants first. True internationalism, means that the more needy should get serviced first. Odd that India gets a chop, African Americans - well done, but nought for Africa or South America, arguably more needy than Maine schools.
Genius with the malaria, but Ted Turner smarter, as his grants are more international Would like the money spread outside the border.
Last time I checked asshat, Bill Gates IS an American. If you want charity then go farm your rice fields some more, build an empire, and donate to those lousy fucks you call peasants in your shithole of a third world country.
So then, you have no idea at all what the NRA is really about, do you? They do more than any other group to educate children about gun saftey with their "Eddie Eagle" program. They work hard to make sure that the laws of our country are actually applied, as opposed to simply used as PR for political campaigns. They help to organize and promote a wide array of shooting sports. And, of course, they work their asses off to ensure that we don't lose our right to bear arms.
I think the poster you're replying to has a very interesting and sensable giving program. ACLU to protect most of our Constitutional rights (they read more into the 1st Amendment than I think is warranted and ignore the 2nd, but that's for another rant), NRA to cover the 2nd (in addition to all the other good they do), and the EFF because the "mainstream" groups don't really get how technology changes the challanges to our liberty. Very nice.
What you, dear troll, seem to be saying (in your delightfully ignorant way) is: "I don't like the NRA, so they shouldn't get any special status." Very enlightened of you. Guess what? Millions of people disagree with you. They are off all races and creeds, both men and women, young and old. They span the political spectrum from way off the Right edge to just shy of falling off the left edge. What they have in common is an abiding belief in our basic right to defend ourself and those we love against those who would rob us of our property, or liberty or our life.
We do not have a two party system, it is just that currently (and usually) only two of the parties are able to garner enough votes to even be considered.
Alas, this isn't even formally true. I was at the presidential debates at the JFK library in 2000. Ralph Nader wasn't even allowed to watch much less participate in the debates because the Commission on Presidential Debates concerns itself with maintaining the two party system.
It is true that in some dream world there could be a viable third party candidate, but outside the jfk library that night there were hundreds of riot police with facemasks and no badge numbers showing on their uniforms to tell us that there was no way a third candidate was going to be allowed to compete with the major parties' free advertising in the form of corporate sponsored debates.
There are two exceptions to my thesis in recent history, but they don't really damage my point much. John Anderson in 1980 was an anomaly while the Watergate crisis was still fresh in the minds of the public, and he didn't get to participate in all the debates anyway. Ross Perot bought his way into the debates. This proves the point that money drives politics, but I'm sure if you got Microsoft's chief lobbyist drunk and asked her why she never thought of running someone from microsoft as a pres candidate, she'd tell you it's just cheaper to buy them both off, and that Ross Perot was kinda nuts.
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
Actually the nordic lands were ruled by a somewhat democratic system into the early part of the middle ages IIRC. The Kings were elected. They didn't become hereditary in this part of the world until relatively late.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
but that one tends to get avoided because people take it as a slam on everyone else.
But Libertarianism is 'middle' in relation to right and left, it's just off a bit on a different axis as well. Take the quiz and look at the Nolan chart and you'll see what I mean.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
I don't understand why LinuxandMain (or Slashdot) doesn't give a link to the actual exchange of messages. Summaries are fine for the casual reader, but if one cares about the debate or wants to judge for herself, it's best to read the original.
Anyway, here's one URL for the thread, starting with RMS' comments on ethics.
The questions seemed pretty biased to make anyone a libertarian. I got pretty close, and, trust me, I am no libertarian :-)
Anyway, I like the 2D view on politics used in this quiz. It says a lot more than the stereotypical left-right 1D perspective.
"First lesson," Jon said. "Stick them with the pointy end."
The Reform Party under Perot was pretty middle-of-the-road - fiscally conservative and socially liberal - as was the MN Independence Party (Jesse Ventura) that split from it. At least that's how it advertised itself. I'm from MN and I haven't seen much the state government reduce taxes significantly in the last 4 years. Well, I guess the socially liberal part has shown to be true. Ventura says a lot of stupid things.
Under Buchanan the Reform Party moved to the right (a little), and essentially became a Republican clone. That's why it fizzled out. If you're looking for a party on the right - with the backbone to actually do something - look to the Constitution Party. To change government, change your vote.
I'd actually advice everyone reading this post to vote third party. Seems like everyone in this country complains about gov't in some way, but nobody has the balls to vote for anything but status quo. The change starts with you.
Americans don't think of Europe as a threat and Europe hasn't really tried to prevent the US from doing what it wants. So what do Americans think about Europe? Most of the ones I have met don't talk about Europe much, unless it is in the context of a business trip or vacation or speaking about their family history (try asking a third-or more generation caucasian American what nationality their family is; you'll likely get a list of European countries). I'd hardly call that anti-European.
From the things I've heard Europeans say, a significant number (not necesarily a majority) seem to be anti-American. It usually depends on where they are from, their economic status or what their personal experience with Americans. But then again, many Americans are anti-government (or at least, not supportive of the current government, depending on who is currently in power) or anti-big-business. So who/what are they (and we) really for/against?
science is a religion
Here's a small Wisdom McNugget from my congressman, Rep. Adam Smith. Yes, it's Redmond's good old "Burger and Fries Metaphor(tm) again.
Some time back, Slashdot noted that MS had a congressional spam-o-matic page about the DoJ lawsuit, placed in a section where they knew only MS religionists would be bothering to read. Slashdot responded by posting up an article saying "Use this MS page to write your Congressman. Give our side of the story, politely." So I did, politely.
By way of reply, Rep. Smith placed me on his spam list, with monthly doses of more or less the same marketing horseshit as in the above McNugget, with no means of removal. Emails to the congressional sysadmin went unanswered, naturally, so I had to phone up Smith's office, and explain to some hapless young secretary at length how to remove my name from the mailing list.
It's worth noting that Rep. Smith and Agent Smith have never been seen together in the same photo. They are almost certainly the same person.
http://fsfeurope.org/
Gates himself is quite a philanthropist, and deserves brownie points for spending some of his enourmous fortune on helping people out.
The problems with Microsoft don't stem from Bill Gates being evil. I've met the man (albeit briefly), and I don't believe that he's evil. I don't even believe that it's the money.
I believe that Bill Gates is utterly convinced that the Microsoft way is the right way. Mercilessly killing the competition saves the world from the threats of what he perceives as unreliable and overcomplicated software produced by everyone else.
His vision is powerful, and he's (through luck and ruthlessness) achieved a position where he's capable of realizing it. Of course, he's blind to its inherent flaws. His competitive streak is so fierce that *everything* gets turned into a game, including (and I'm not kidding), "Let's see if I can run this lavalier microphone through my shirt faster than you can put a battery into the transmitter."
Similarly, I don't doubt for a second that Adolph Hitler was convinced that everything he did was for the good of the German people. Of course, the recants of history tend to be less forgiving than the heat of the moment. Something about hindsight being 20/20, and the discovery that Auschwitz wasn't really a sausage factory.
Bill Gates would never have ended up as an ordinary average Joe. He's too intelligent, too competitive by nature and too committed to his dream. I have a lot of admiration for the man, as flawed as his vision and his horrible software may be.
Having said that, there are a few reasons why Linux isn't yet ready for mass adoption on the desktop.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
It had something to do with oysters, but that's all I remember...
Geez, I don't know whether to moderate or go comment. OK, I'll comment. I am SO confused about this election stuff. When I was growing up in back in the ought-50's, the party lines were clear. Well, sorta. There were military sorts who wanted "1984" for everyone not of the ruling class, worldwide. They were called Republicans. They acted like the British Tories. Old Money. There were the "Save the Poor (but ignore the minorities)" Democrats. Then the Southern Democrats got blind-sided by Johnson who managed to make it uneconomical to practice racial descrimination. Used to be all social outcasts were downtrodden Democrats. Now all them folks in the hills have become Republicans, wailing that the Democrats are coming to try to take their guns. Then, while the totalitarian Tory/Nixonites were snoozing, the anti-gun-control, anti-big-government, anti-federalized-medicine, and anti-Census Reagonites took over the Republican party. (The Repubicans were Tories, but now they are Labour?) Democrats were labeled "tax and spend" but they are only party that make Fed. Surpluses happen. (every time so far. really. Unfortunately, they do not seem to know how they do it.) The Republicans re-labeled themselves as anti-big-government, but they always enter office with a huge surplus and always leave with a huge deficit and much more government. Heck, even Bikers are now chic and becoming Conservatives (Tories?).
I cannot figure out if I am a compassionate Republican or a pragmatic Democrat. The British have the "Liberal Democrats" but over here that's considered redundant. When I was a kid (in my 20s), I was a flaming liberal. As near as I can tell, my political views have not changed an iota since 1972, with the exception of certain hawkish tendencies toward anything terroristic. I am also now considered a Conservative. (Ok, barely.) Over the years, my waist size passed my inseam and my radical viewpoints became mainstream. I am beginning to think that is no need to worry about the world not changing for the better. I do think we might need to get the damn thing slowed down a little bit. Whew! I am SO Confused.
No problem, I wasn't able to load it until 10:45...
Analysis: Yesterday's load (from http://isengard.overcode.net/usage/usage_200210.ht ml) is around 6 times higher than would be expected on an even distribution. Today's, as of 6:38 this morning are already twice as high as would be expected daily. More interesting is that amost half of your traffic came in to the link posted in the article, and half of that left immediately. (Likely to a mirror.) Around a third of it seems to have gone to your local mirror, either to get the pdf (a quarter of those who came in to the article's link) or the whole thing. (Assuming they downloaded and immediatly left. This based on where they left from.)
The stats don't quite show the spike I would exect, mostly because you have been having high traffic for the last four days... Still, interesting, and Thanks!
'Sensible' is a curse word.
where did you get your education?
Lets just say that I didn't get it in a country where pre law graduates can be amazed that someone from Australia speaks English. - True story.
The average level of education in the US appeared to me while I was there to be about that of Mexico, but the majority I met in Mexico had left school at 15!
Don't believe the nonsense, unless you hear it from me directly.
That's it, isn't it? If you really believe that the essence of morality means always putting others before yourself, and you apply that principle consistently, then it can't ever be enough -- you could always give more.
When your money is gone, you could always give your time and your effort. When you don't have an hour left in the day, you could always give any posession of any worth that you might have. When you have nothing left in the world, you could always give your food, water, and shelter.
Keep practicing that. Keep giving away your money, for the sake of the poor; keep giving away your time, for the sake of those who need your help; keep giving away your possessions, for the sake of those who are "not fortunate enough"; keep giving up goals, discovery, happiness, enjoyment, love, and beauty, so that others may have them. Give away all that you have and all that you are, because others come first. Sacrifice yourself like an animal for them, ask them to drink your blood and eat your body -- or suffer the consequence of knowing that "it's not enough." It never is enough. Until you're dead.
Apply the principle of altruism consistently, follow it to its logical conclusion, and this is the result. There's no reason to stop at any point -- believe in the basic idea and you have no reason not to go to this extreme. No compromise is possible. That is the ugly truth.
Unless, of course, achievement and happiness really are important to you. Unless you really do want a life of your own, and don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to help others as well, as fellow travelers in life met with genuine goodwill. If this is the way you want to live, then you must put yourself first at all times and in all things. You must derive your sense of moral satisfaction from your ability to make real what should be -- first in yourself, and by extension in the world around you. And you must protect what you create. Never let any man claim anything of yours by right, it is yours to give only if you choose to do so. Let your sense of right and wrong be the method by which you make your personal, life-altering decisions. Don't give up on who you are and what you want.
Give help to those who deserve it. Give nothing to those that don't.
Good or Evil: Make your choice.
Ever wondered about the origins of the term "bugs" as applied to computer
technology? U.S. Navy Capt. Grace Murray Hopper has firsthand explanation.
The 74-year-old captain, who is still on active duty, was a pioneer in
computer technology during World War II. At the C.W. Post Center of Long
Island University, Hopper told a group of Long Island public school adminis-
trators that the first computer "bug" was a real bug--a moth. At Harvard
one August night in 1945, Hopper and her associates were working on the
"granddaddy" of modern computers, the Mark I. "Things were going badly;
there was something wrong in one of the circuits of the long glass-enclosed
computer," she said. "Finally, someone located the trouble spot and, using
ordinary tweezers, removed the problem, a two-inch moth. From then on, when
anything went wrong with a computer, we said it had bugs in it." Hopper
said that when the veracity of her story was questioned recently, "I referred
them to my 1945 log book, now in the collection of the Naval Surface Weapons
Center, and they found the remains of that moth taped to the page in
question."
[actually, the term "bug" had even earlier usage in
regard to problems with radio hardware. Ed.]
- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...
Welcome to UNIX! Enjoy your session! Have a great time! Note the
use of exclamation points! They are a very effective method for
demonstrating excitement, and can also spice up an otherwise plain-looking
sentence! However, there are drawbacks! Too much unnecessary exclaiming
can lead to a reduction in the effect that an exclamation point has on
the reader! For example, the sentence
Jane went to the store to buy bread
should only be ended with an exclamation point if there is something
sensational about her going to the store, for example, if Jane is a
cocker spaniel or if Jane is on a diet that doesn't allow bread or if
Jane doesn't exist for some reason! See how easy it is?! Proper control
of exclamation points can add new meaning to your life! Call now to receive
my free pamphlet, "The Wonder and Mystery of the Exclamation Point!"!
Enclose fifteen(!) dollars for postage and handling! Operators are
standing by! (Which is pretty amazing, because they're all cocker spaniels!)
- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...