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Slashback: Vaidhyanathan, Oregon, Opteron

Slashback this evening with a few more notes on AMD's upcoming Opteron processor, Siva Vaidhyanathan (three times quickly), Oregon's open source bill, and more. Read on below for this round of updates and amplifications. That Charlie's no dummy. softwareJoe writes "Tim Bray has come right out saying that if IP chancer Charlie Northrup manages to enforce his most recent claim, the consequences would be 'disastrous.'

'It would become impossible to have Open Source implementations of key pieces of the infrastructure. This would be harmful, perhaps fatal, to the grand plans of those who want to deploy Web services everywhere,' Bray is reported as saying, in XML Industry Newsletter ."

Waiting for the low-power version. Jethro writes "Ace's hardware Opteron review was a very interesting read which shows some real Java webserver benchmarks on SUSE and Debian Linux, and real world database performance in MySQL and MS SQL server 2000. A lot better than those synthetic mysql benchmarks that Tom's hardware served up."

And Distinguished Hero writes "[H]ardocp.com ([H]ardNews 1oth Edition) is reporting that the Opteron processor does not actually have an integrated dual channel controller. This explains why all the Opteron reviews only used a single channel configuration. While the integrated memory controlled is not dual channel, it can be bypassed by an external (Northbridge) memory controller connected to the processor via the HyperTransport bus."

One more: EconolineCrush writes "Yesterday's Opteron launch gave us all glimpse at AMD's new 64-bit platform, but the Opteron is a server and workstation chip that will be out of reach for the majority of consumers. AMD's upcoming Athlon 64, however, will bring 64-bit computing to the desktop. Drawing heavily from what we've seen of the Opteron's performance thus far, Tech-Report has posted its thoughts on what it will take for the Athlon 64 to succeed. It's an interesting read for anyone salivating at the thought of an affordable 64-bit desktop platform."

Ma'am, can you please ask those anarchists in the carrels to pipe down a bit? BrianWCarver writes "Readers may recall a Slashdot interview with Siva Vaidhyanathan, Professor at NYU, and author of Copyrights and Copywrongs. Vaidhyanathan is working on a new book, The Anarchist in the Library, and was interviewed on the blog, Eyeteeth. This is a brilliant and amazing interview where Vaidhyanathan discusses how creative communities share, the DMCA, the American industrial production of culture, the USA Patriot Act, the importance of libraries and librarians, and the policies of the FCC. It is a must-read for those who care about the future of creative and democratic culture."

Technically, Oregon is not Washington. Daniel Phillips is among the many folks who have been following the progress of a bill in Oregon (HB 2892) to encourage open source software, and he points out this Register story (picked up from NewsForge, actually), writing "Apparently, moving Oregon's open source bill forward comes down to convincing the house speaker."

Reader PotatoHead fleshes that out just a bit: " Despite reports detailing the demise of HB 2982, this bill continues to be a topic at the Oregon Legislature. We have broad support for HB 2892, but need everyone to continue showing support in the form of your phone calls, e-mails, faxes and snail-mail to your Oregon Representatives. We have the attention of the Oregon Legislature in a pretty big way and need to keep up the good work if HB 2892 is to move forward against the constant efforts of the usual industry lobbyists. If you don't already know, here is how you contact your representative. Please take a moment --right now-- and show your support for HB 2982. Every contact matters as we continue to move forward with HB 2892!"

Sir, can you direct me to the nearest buggy whip store so I can beat this dead horse? If $98 billion seems to you a bit much for the music cartel to charge students for even the most indiscriminant file swapping, you may be interested in following the chilling effects that it generates, too: PL_2003 writes "A follow up on a previous slashdot article. It really seems like the recording industry is determined to continue its fight.Check this NYTimes article (free reg. required). My Take: Couldn't they use their brains for a better business model?"

OK, here are the rules ... Grub (mentioned previously) is apparently causing consternation among many webmasters. Though they claim the client honors robots.txt , it seems that only the central servers check it (and don't honor it properly) and that grub clients don't don't check it at all. Ooops.

Time to round up and segregate the arrogant. jtheory writes "There's an AP story today here on Yahoo news) that the Justice department has dropped its probe into the recommendation policy of a Texas Tech bio professor. It's encouraging that all he had to do to stop the investigation was make some very minor changes in his policy, but it's still horrifying to me that he got into trouble in the first place. Is it even safe to encourage strict Creationists (or others with strong anti-scientific beliefs) to become doctors? Would they ignore animal research results, etc?"

13 of 517 comments (clear)

  1. The RIAA better win... by ZenShadow · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...against those college students. They'll make nothing from it, but the results of them losing could be pretty ugly.

    Could you imagine the counter-suit? I'd call a $98 BILLION lawsuit against "poor" college students "malicious prosecution."

    --ZS

    --
    -- sigs cause cancer.
  2. Unprecedented levels of confusion... by xcomputer_man · · Score: 4, Funny

    HB 2892 ... HB 2982 ... HB 2892 ... HB 2892 ... HB 2982

    Perhaps we might actually get this bill through if we managed to figure out what the correct number is for once.

  3. Three Times Quickly... by philovivero · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hell, saying Siva Vaidhyanathan three times quickly is trivial.

    It's saying it one time correctly that's the challenge.

    1. Re:Three Times Quickly... by Wakkow · · Score: 2, Funny

      Siva Vaidhyanathan? Yeah, well, at least you're name isn't Michael Bolton.

  4. Re:Where do they come up with these names? by The+Bungi · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's pronounced 'Smith'.

  5. Re:Sad news ... Stephen King dead at 55 by subzerohen · · Score: 2, Funny

    You must be new here...

  6. Re:Opteron by mgblst · · Score: 2, Funny

    To keep the price down, just get 128Mb of memory.

  7. Re:Get real. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    You dummy. In rap music, it's used as 'nigga', which is not the same as the word you use. Black people use it to greet each other, talk about people, etc. For example:

    description of someone else: "Dat nigga be trippin!"
    greeting: "Yo what up, nigga?"

    Perfectly fine if black people use it. White people, no way. It is not the same thing as the word you describe.

  8. Re:I see... by rco3 · · Score: 2, Funny
    Can you give me an example of another way to 'validate knowledge' besides the scientific method?

    Well, reading it on Slashdot comes to mind...

    Oops, forgot the sarcasm tags.

    --

    Ce n'est pas un vrai mouvement de robot!
  9. racial slurs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Forgive my ignorance of racist epithets; there is a fellow from Norway whom I'd like to insult. I'm wondering if what you say here means that I should be calling my friend a fjord-nigger?

  10. Re:Where do they come up with these names? by ddimas · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have no problems with that name.

    Sincerely,
    Constantinos Dimopoulos

  11. Simple Solution by rsm00th · · Score: 3, Funny
    <?PHP
    if(strpos($HTTP_USER_AGENT, "grub-client"))
    {
    echo "Grub is teh lame!";
    exit;
    }
    ?>
  12. Re:No kidding by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I think the "micro-evolution makes sense macro-evolution is wrong" idea is more akin to "I believe in postive integers but negative integers are wrong and don't get me started on 0".