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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."
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
*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?
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
Canada has managed quite well with a multi-party system; sure, they get some single-issue parties (like the Bloc Quebecois), and yes, they make trouble, but they also get stable, mostly competent majority governments most of the time.
--Larry
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence
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.
This strikes me as truly a bizarre comment.
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
So what you're saying is that "those savages in Europe" haven't changed their governing methods at all since the Middle Ages? There is no democracy in England or France or Germany, merely a plague of some kind passing for democratic government? What exactly are you saying?
It seems like you're saying that it's a good thing if a sizable percentage of US voters have no direct voice in US government and that any system which offers a voice to the minorities among the populace is a savage and unwise one.
You know, everyone is always accusing Europeans of anti-Americanism. I think that Americans are at least as anti-European.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
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.
While I agree that the bicameral (two-house) system is quite efficient and is a good legislative solution, please remember that the Constitution has absolutely nothing to say about political parties.
Who the fuck modded this up.
You have a two party system because it's modeled on Westminster.
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.
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.
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?
The two part system gives the illusion of a democracy when in reality all we do is change dictators.
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
What???? Do you any idea what you are talking about?
Have you ever read Madison 10? The entire document is about the need for factions and the worry that there might not be enough. And what do you mean by forefathers? Last time I checked there weren't provisions for Republican and Democratic parties in the Constitution.
BTW, there were no democracies (at least in their current incarnation) in Europe in the Middle Ages. The only thing that even comes close is the Roman Republic which collapsed several centuries before the time period known as "the Middle Ages." So your first statement makes absolutely no sense.
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.
For all the faults I would lay at the feet of Microsoft - in terms of technical and business issues - Gates himself is quite a philanthropist, and deserves brownie points for spending some of his enourmous fortune on helping people out.
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
As for the current state of affairs in Europe, parties are either given seats in direct relation to their voter numbers (proportional representation - used in most European democracies) or using the winner-takes-all system (single-member district plurality system, used in the US and Britain).
Both have downsides, neither is ideal. However having just two major parties does lead to a convergence of policies as both try to appeal to a broad "centre ground" spectrum of voters - as seen in both the US (where both candidates were accused of being in the pockets of business/media corporations) and the UK (the current Labour government being seen as following many of the previous Conservative policies). This results in a denial of choice to the voter, with low turnouts being a typical sympton. Another possibility is that of extremists gaining votes simply by virtue of being of only ones to offer something new.
As for dullards, the US has had an undistinguished record recently with Clinton being the only one who seemed to know what he was talking about policy-wise (as long as he kept his trouser zipper shut). Bush Snr and Reagan had their policies pretty much set by unelected advisors, and as for Bush Jnr...well saying he seems an improvement over Dan Quayle is the only compliment I can pay him. Europe's problem has been more with corruption rather than talent(German ex-Chancellor Kohl, French President Chirac and Italian President Berlusconi being examples).
Yeah! And if we're lucky we'll see it evolve into a one party system and there will not be any reason for all the petty bickering that hinders progress at the moment, that's when democracy will finally be true democracy, one man, one vote, one party!
Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
No, we get stuck with a middle-of-the-road Liberal party in power becuase the other interests in the country can't get their act together and get them out. And thanks to the lack of term limits and anything resembling the power of the US house/senate, we get essentially a dictatorship that has been in power so long that they are corrupt.
At least you have change in government every now and again, and some way to oppose a decision taken by the president.
Do you even know anything about perl? -- AC Replying to Tom Christiansen post.
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.
Your post was, of course, utter bullshit. The bit about "there is so little difference [between the parties] as to be insulting," particularly so. If you let your political opinions get sufficiently out of whack with the mainstream, then I suppose it's possible that Republicans and Democrats might look pretty much the same to you. Both parties advocate various degrees of laisse faire capitalism, for example. This is not inherently a bad thing.
Our system of government is not designed to be the best of all possible systems. It's designed to be just good enough. That's why it's stood unchallenged for over 225 years.
And your little remark about "the illusion of democracy?" The United States of America is not now, and never has been, a democracy. Pure democracy is a system fraught with more flaws than you can shake a pointed stick at. After all, the saying goes that a dictatorship is a country where you have to do what one stupid asshole says, and a democracy is a country where you have to do what one million stupid assholes say.
So the USA is not a democracy. It's a representative republic. Is this the perfect system? I doubt it. But is it the best one we've-- as a species, I mean-- come up with so far? Yes, definitely. Name one government that has worked as long or as well as the United States'.
I write in my journal
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.
"Is this the perfect system? I doubt it. But is it the best one we've-- as a species, I mean-- come up with so far? Yes, definitely."
I don't think so. It is not nearly representitive enough. For most people in the US voting is a futile experience because of the winner take all system. If you live in Montana and want to vote democrat you might as well not even bother. Same if you are a republican in NY.
I know lots of people like you are perfectly content and are convinced that the US is the greatest country in the world and all but complacency is a bad thing. We can make our system lots better by utilizing all kinds of methods to achieve a more representitive govt. The first thing we have to do is to get rid of winner take all.
"Name one government that has worked as long or as well as the United States'."
America is only 200 years old ya moron. Most countries are older then the US.
War is necrophilia.
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.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that philanthropy is a wonderful tax write-off, especially as Gates can donate money to his own foundation, from which he receives money back via administrative and charitable expenses.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
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. "
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
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Microsoft != Bill Gates.
That's right, Microsoft actually has less cash on hand than would be necessary to buy all of Bill Gates' shares, which, as of Oct 21 2002, are worth 59 billion dollars. Microsoft only has $40 billion in cash on hand, so the $2 billion/year interest figure is actually a conservative estimate.
Keep in mind, Microsoft also hasn't paid dividends to its shareholders in over ten years, and given that Bill Gates is a 12% shareholder, that amounts to a hefty amount of taxes that he's not paying. By not paying dividends, he avoids paying the top marginal tax rate of 39.6 percent that would apply to income distributed as dividends. By taking earnings entirely through stock sales, he lowers his tax rate to the maximum 20 percent that applies to capital gains. According to the most recent SEC reports on insider trades, Mr Gates sold more than $2.9 billion in Microsoft stock in 2001, benefiting enormously from the lower tax rate that applies to stock sales.
So, as I was saying... If Gates really was such a great individual, he would have donated more, and wouldn't be dodging federal tax laws (while simultaneously screwing smaller Microsoft shareholders).
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
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.
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.