The question you ask is irrelevant. Go and read SCO's lawsuit, the ONLY lawsuit they have filed. It all deals with contract violations, not copyright infringment.
Until they file and show the code, there is nothing to worry over.
Vip
PS. This is why you haven't heard much from IBM. How can you argue or defend against something that isn't being used against you, nor have you been shown the allegations?
In Chicago, IL. Very nice. "Working" 727 jet, huge model train set, OmniMAX (IMAX surrounding you), and one of three U-boats on display in the world, and only one captured by the USA. They have an Enigma machine there too.
Highlight of my visit to Chicago, and I only had half a day to try to take it in.
Who is going to pay for viewing webpages? If I read a webpage, you going to refund me my money? It's only $0.01 or $0.10 or perhaps only $0.005, but it's still money.
Let me get this straight with common surfing that I do.
Surf to Google News. Pay to enter, pay per news story. Hrmmm, something interesting here.
Go to Google Search. Pay to search for more info on the news story stuff. Hey, here's something off-topic, but looks interesting! Pay more to search on that.
Ok, found a bunch of pages. Pay to surf to each one, however, 90% of them are useless.
Over to Slashdot. Pay to surf per story in there.
Over to Zap2it.com to view a TV guide. Pay for that. Let's mosey on over to a listing of movies, what looks good to see? Oh, there's more payments.
Let's check email. 20 messages, get charged for each one, plus replies.
In the meantime I'm being nickel and dimed for everything I try to view or do. What should cost me $40/month now costs much more.
I pay a fee for my internet connection. This allows me email and surfing and gaming capabilities. Why should I have to pay more money to others? If someone puts info on the internet and then expects me to pay for it, well, I'm not that customer. Even if it's Slashdot, probably my most read page, the moment it is subscriber only, I'm outta here.
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong if someone feels that they should charge for their content, it's their choice. However, I won't be a "customer" of theirs and I would think many others wouldn't either.
It's really depressing, I've been using Internet and it's precursors since 1985 for a variety of reasons, and I remember a time when it was all open and free for use. No pop-ups, no spam, no discussions about how to charge people money for everything they click on.
The real reason is that they don't want to be embarrassed. If they call it a "ball" and the device shows that it was a strike, who is going to be believed? Do this a few times a game, and the umpires are going to be embarrassed.
At least with video replays on TV, you still don't really see the whole picture on it because of the angles it is set at.
I side with the umpires on this one, it's not needed.
"... figuring out how to make a scene come to life with real people."
Instead of using CGI and other effects to replace the actors, it's much more difficult (now) to use real actors and stuntmen and pull off the same effect. For me, when the actors or stuntmen are doing the stunts, it makes it much more entertaining.
That's what attracts me to the original Matrix. In that one there was more emphasis on the actors doing their stunts instead of computers. In Reloaded the actors are replaced by CGI.
Same thing holds for Mortal Kombat I and II. In the first the actors/stuntmen did it all, in the second it just went to computers.
What if SCO programmers looked at Linux code, put some of it into SCO code, line for line. Now someone else goes back and looks and goes, "Hey, there's SCO code in Linux!! Time for a lawsuit!" How to say if this type of thing is happening?
John 3:14 - And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up
However, for an interesting read on John 3:14 and it's meaning, try http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/MkLent4.htm
There you will see that this section of the Bible talks about Jesus being "lifted up" for various reasons. "Like the ascent in 3:13 this refers to the event which begins at Jesus' death."
Meaning, being lifted up, and being looked upon and will bring salvation, but this begins with his "death", and Neo had his death and resurrection in the first movie.
"Trinity types in her password to crack the power system, Z1ON0101"
Zion is the last human city. 101 appears in MANY places throughout the first two movies. It is Neo's apartment number in the first film. It is a highway in the second, the one with the battle. It is the room number of the restaurant. And so on...101 has a meaning. Anyone care to "symbolize" it?
I think this guy put way too much thinking into a movie. I prefer the simple solutions for it, some of them matching his though...BTW, I've only skimmed the article, don't have that much time:-) I agree with him on much of it, but wow, talk about detail!
The Bioport--how can a socket in your head control your senses? How can it be inserted without killing you?
Easy enough. It fits with the massively parallel computer theory later. They need to figure out the data transfer to and from brain, so this would be the next step beyond that, control of the brain to receive and send specific signals.
The Red Pill--since the pill is virtual, how can it throw Neo out of the Matrix?
This "red pill" meant to me that you are ready to wake up from complete control. Sort of like you were in hypnosis, now the fingers are snapped and you're awake!
The Power Plant--can people really be an energy source?
Yes and no. I too thought of the brain power theory. It seems to fit and makes for interesting theories. (ie. does the Matrix run on human brains for power and computing power as well? So humans are feeding their own minds?)
Entering and Exiting the Matrix--why do the rebels need telephones to come and go?
This too I figured was a navagational issue. It seems to be easier to send data around, so if you knew of a data point, you could get to it. Why certain ones? Perhaps so you don't go hunting for that cordless between the cushions?:-)
The Bugbot--what's the purpose of the bugbot?
Bugbot tells Agents where it is. Perhaps it's just an identifier, a certain string? Look for that string, and you've got him. Sort of how virus scanners work?
Perceptions in the Matrix--how do the machines know what fried chicken tastes like?
Completely made up and arbitrary. Does it matter?
Neo's Mastery of the Avatar--how can Neo fly?
Neo can fly because he's mastered the Matrix. I thought of it more as he can now reshape the Matrix near him to do what he wants. Kind of like a virus, or bug.
Consciousness and the Matrix--are the machines in the Matrix alive and conscious? Or are they only machines, intelligent but mindless?
Both. Give it kind of a Terminator scenario, except keep the humans, their brains and body come in handy. The machines are just overthrowing the people that built them, perhaps they got out of hand too.
The problem as I see it is not one of which is "easier". There are people out there with better athletic ability than you or I. There are those with better mental ability than you or I. Artistic ability and so on. Porn-ability. All of these abilities cum^H^Home easier to some than others. I'm sure there are many people who could memorize the table of elements before they could figure out a football play (organized chaos I call it).
The thing is, when you reach the top, such that you may be one of the 500 best at something in the world (ie. 1/700 hockey players) you now have hit a level where people will shell out $50 to see you play. 16,000+ at one time. 80 times a year. Not only that, but they will pay insane parking , hot dogs, beverage, and souvenier prices on top of that $50. Many pay $100 just to wear YOUR name on their back! Or $15 to have a sign of "their" team!
It is no longer about "for the love of the game". Insane people spending insane money to watch you play, all that adds up to an insane salary. Look above. Just on tickets alone, that comes out to $64,000,000. Now one of say 25 players says I want $5,000,000 because I'm the "star" attraction, is that so bad? The average player earns $1,000,000 (going off the top of my head, but that sounds right), from $64,000,000 is that so bad?
When you get a job that you can convince 16,000 people to pay $64,000,000 for your team of 25 to watch, then you too will be entitled to go to your boss and say, "I want $1,000,000 or I quit!" If you really are that valuable, and I would argue that the top 700 players in the world probably are, then you will get it.
Same idea holds for actors or lawyers or doctors and so on. When you are at the top of your field in any of those, you probably make millions.
Until then, first figure out how much money your employer makes from you, take around 40%, and that will probably be your salary. (ie. They contract you out at $100/hour. That's about $200,000 per year, you should be around $80,000 salary) It's difficult in situations where you are a programmer or something, but you get the idea. I read that once, and it's always worked for any job I held.
Money is part of it. However, how many consider Internet a fad? And how many are willing to continue to pay for it?
You and I, and perhaps other geeks out there might enjoy it all the time, but for the average person out there, how long before getting 2.8million hits on "Harry Potter" just doesn't make it worth the time or money?
I think the best comment about this issue was from Mark Hamill, when he was on "Politcially Incorrect".
He was asked, just before TPM came out, "Why after all these years, is Star Wars such a huge movie? It had lousy acting, story line isn't great..."
His reply was, "It's a fairy tale in space. You have an evil wizard, good wizard, magic, naive farm boy, pirates, monsters, the princess in distress..." You wrap it up in some amazing sfx and you've got a great and fun movie.
However, I also can't see what actual purpose Craig Mundie's recent speech and Microsoft's recently inflamatory (IMHO) license agreements serve. To me, they are both not just FUD, but blatant flamebait.
Perhaps that's what it is supposed to be? Giving the flamebait and then waiting for the rabid Open Source supporters to show up ranting and raving would be much better for MS than any ad campaign would buy.
If there's one thing to learn from the anything vs Windows wars was that "anything and everything you say will be used against you."
I just went through a home search, extensively using the web. I was not interested in getting rid of the realtor method, and had one with me, but rather I could find homes and take them to the realtor.
It works on two levels. One, the realtor may miss something you may actually like, even though it's not what you requested in the first place. We had a few of those.
Two, the realtor can find homes that match what you want, however the web gives you a quick way of looking up what (s)he's given you. Sometimes just looking at a pink house with a bright blue garage just doesn't cut it, you know?
I used MLS Online to search in Calgary. It can be used for Canada, and became an invaluable tool.
I wonder what kind of security any of your services will offer? Leaving files (charts) of the type you are discussing open on the internet is just asking to have the script kiddies hammering away on it.
Having worked in both unionized and non-unionized employments in the tech field, let me address some of this.
Both have their pros and cons.
Pros for being unionized:
- Job Security. Getting fired because your boss feels like it is tough to come by. One myth about unions is that you can't get fired for nothing. You can, but it's much tougher for your boss to do.
- Wage Security. Chances are, with a union you won't have your wages dramatically drop. It does happen, however that's in extreme cases where the union can see the company will not survive. But your union will negotiate a long-term contract saying what raises you will get and when.
- Working Conditions. Under most unions, if not all, these tend to go up. You, most likely, will not be required to work 12 or 16 hour days if you don't want to. If you do, you will be compensated for it. Same for pagers and after hours. Your work area will be up to par.
- Standards. You will probably have standards that will rule what you do, when you do it, how you do it. It won't be a free-for-all, today you are sys-admining, tomorrow you are installing software on a clients machine, next day you are debugging software from the guy that just up and quit.
Cons for being unionized:
- Lumped Grouping. You may end up in a situation where you, say a sys-admin, are lumped into a union with programmers. The prog's make $60k/year, but your job commands $75k/year. The company says to the union, hey, we'll give you prog's the $60k, but the sys-admin's get that too. 25 prog's, 2 sys-admins voting in the union on the contract. Who do you think is going to win? Not the sys-admin.
- Seniority Rules. Seniority tends to be the thing in a union. The longer you are with a company, the better your chances of picking up jobs within the company. And the job doesn't necessairly have to be related. I've seen secretaries go from secretarial pool to 2nd tier help-desk support, double their salary, all because the union contract called for internal first, based on seniority, then external. 20 years in the pool, vs 1 year 1st tier help desk. Who wins? Who's more qualified?
- Based Rate Salary. You get what everyone else gets, starting from a base. Perhaps you are in a group of programmers, and now high-level programming is called for. Because the programmers all get $60k, you get it too, even though your specific knowledge would command more on the open market. However, the salary is protected through market downturns.
Pros of being non-unionized:
- Negotiated Salary. You get what you negotiate. Don't like their 3 weeks holiday rule, and negotiate 4? It's yours. Same for salary. Market rules.
Cons of being non-unionized:
- Indiscriminate Firing. They can let you go, when they want, how they want, etc. Yes, there are laws, but ask any labour lawyer how tough it is to win based on those laws. Layoff time? Your turn, so sorry.
- Negotiated Salary.;-) Market downturn for your position? Oh well, lesser pay for you this time around. Unions tend to protect against that. It's rare to see cuts in salary, except in extreme circumstances.
These are some notes that just popped into my head. There are many more reasons on either side of the issue, but it's really up to the individual. I've met many people who love unions, and wouldn't try to work without them, and I've seen others who hate them vehemently. I've seen people switch sides so often, I got whiplash watching.
I doubt there's any truly "right" answer, it does tend to be up to what the individual is looking for. If you don't want a union, you find a job in non-unionized shops. If you want one, you find a job in a unionized shop.
"First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me."
- Pastor Martin Niemöller, 1938
Has it occured to you or your father that once a precedence is set, then they can move on to other lawsuits with more ease of prosecution?
> 3) The federal legislative bodies tend to be punitive in reacting to NASA shortcomings. The attitude seems to be "You cost us a lot of money, we don't get a lot of immediately practical returns, so if you screw up you're history"
Space exploration is complex and dangerous, right from step one. That's what it seems much of the political and public structure fails to realize.
The loss of American and Russian astronauts over the years, the loss of satellites, the loss of space exploration craft. All continue to generate the "Let's stop it all! The price is too high!"
I agree with you, in that the price isn't too high. The gains are significant, whether for our curiosity or exploitation.
I'm amazed that the few space agencies have the low loss ratio that they do. The loss of the Mars Exploration craft...so what? Where does it say they must be 100% successful? Why not look at the craft that should have stopped working 20 years ago, yet continue to work, on the outer reaches of our solar system? Or those that finish their primary mission(s), only to find another (sometimes unusual) use for them? Like when they crashed the orbiter into the moon some months back to see if there was water?
When the Challenger blew up, it was bound to happen, politics, bureaucracy, and expenditure took over the system. Yet, each astronaut, and their families, on board the craft knew the risks, knew what they were getting in to. It still didn't stop them. I like to think that perhaps they knew what could be acheived and understood the big picture.
NASA and the Russians (forgive me, I don't know the name of their space agency) have a history littered with successes and failures. If all you can do is follow the failures, and not see the amazing successes in between, then you fall into the "politics, bureaucracy, and expenditure" category. Should the managers and politicians running NASA fall in that category, expect more disasters. But don't overlook what they have, and are going to, accomplish.
Overall it wasn't that difficult, just some annoyances and tips to get by that aren't documented anywhere.
This is VERY long, and probably missing a few steps, but this is what I remember doing. It took about 4 or 5 hours to solve. If you don't care about, don't like, don't want, this, then stop reading and delete this message.
When I looked about, and asked about, I've been trying to figure out how to add new kernels for a couple of months now without any success, people generally said, "I've never seen that!" "It's not supposed to be like that!" "Please stop abusing my warez site!" and so on. The errors were stuff like "kernel-module mismatch" and "Cannot open root device."
First, download the new kernel from ftp.ca.kernel.org or wherever else you want.
"cd/usr/src" and do a "ls -l". You should see something like: lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Jan 26 23:57 linux -> linux-2.2.0 drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 1024 Jan 10 16:04 linux-2.0.34 drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 1024 Jan 26 23:55 linux-2.0.36 drwxr-xr-x 15 1046 1046 1024 Jan 26 16:10 linux-2.2.0 drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 1024 Oct 14 16:05 redhat
Of course, the first line, linux will point to 2.0.34 or 36. This link may or may not be there, it does seem to vary, I don't know why. If it's there, "rm linux".:-) If it is an actual directory, "mv linux linux-".
Now uncompress and untar the kernel sources, this creates a tree with the name "linux". Now "mv linux linux-2.2.0". And finally re-create the ORIGINAL link using "ln -s linux-2.0.36 linux". That's just in case things go horribly wrong, you still have your old source trees, otherwise they would be overwritten.
Now "cd linux-2.2.0" and do the general configuration. One easy way to get started is to go into the old version of kernel source you have, and type "make menuconfig", then select "Save Configuration to an Alternate File". Save it to "blah" and copy the file to the new source tree (linux-2.2.0). In the new source tree, do another "make menuconfig" and "Load an Alternate Configuration File" and select "blah".:-) This should keep most of your settings from the old sources. If it doesn't...heh, life's tough, eh? Start from scratch.
Now go through the rest of it, and ensure everything seems ok, and you might want stuff like joystick support, and the "Magic SysRq key". This one allows you to press Alt+PrtScrn to get to debug if something goes horribly wrong with Linux. You can sync your filesystems and stuff with it. It's under "Kernel hacking".
One other thing to check is the "Processor Type and features". Make sure it is set to your processor, which will most likely be "586/K5/5x86/6x86 Processor family". If it's not, change it.
Anyways, finish your config, and then do the normal "make dep ; make clean ; make bzImage ; make modules ; make modules_install" Note the bzImage, mainly because images do seem to be larger than 1MB. It won't matter at boot time.
Once you are done, you will have a fresh kernel, assuming nothing went wrong during the compile. I haven't seen it fail for a long time, has anyone else?
Your kernel will be "/usr/src/linux-2.2.0/arch/i386/boot/bzImage"
Now you want to install your new kernel. In RedHat it's reasonably simple, via the "linuxconf" utility. It brings up a GUI screen, and a ways down the page, you find stuff about LILO. You can start with "LILO defaults" and work your way down, it has some stuff you might want to see...or not.
Go to the one that says "a kernel you have compiled", and fill in the info. Kernel image file is the one above. Label it "linux-2.2.0". If you want to take a chance, you can select it as "new default", but if you don't want to "selectable" is just as good. And please don't select "replace". That's bad.
Where to copy is "/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.0". The root partition is just that, what device is your root? Mine was/dev/sda5. You can find that under "Lilo linux configurations" and the "Partition" column, with your current kernel listed.
At the bottom is "Initial ramdisk". How many have this setup? I don't know. Some I talked to did, others didn't. None of them knew how to set one up. So I fudged one out.:-) How do you tell? In "/etc/lilo.conf", do you see a line similar to "initrd =/boot/initrd-2.0.36-0.7.img" in there? If so, you have an initial ramdisk!
The reason I had to do this was because when I booted, it would complain that I was using kernel version 2.0.36 and the modules to be used during boot were from 2.0.34. (change the versions as you want, I fought this one for a long time, same error, different numbers) The boot would just stop at that point.
If you do have one, read on. Otherwise you are all set. Accept the changes, run "lilo" from the command line, and go check your lilo.conf. Write down the "label" lines, and what version they boot. You will need this if the boot fails. More on that later. You can skip down a bit if you don't need to create a RAMdisk...
To setup the ramdisk, the easiest way is to "cd/boot" and "ls *.img". Remember above when you pulled out the initrd line? That file should be in there. Copy this file somewhere, preferably not somewhere where it will be deleted during boot.:-)
Now goto where it was copied, and do the following, carefully. The file you copied is compressed. "mv initrd-foo.img initrd-foo.img.gz" then "gunzip initrd-foo.img.gz". You now have an uncompressed image file.
Make a RAMdisk. "mke2fs -m0/dev/ram 1500" Why 1500? If you look at the image file size, it should be 1.5MB in size. You can adjust accordingly.
Now copy the contents of the file into the RAMdisk. "dd if=initrd-foo.img bs=1k count=1500 of=/dev/ram"
Now mount the RAMdisk. "mount/dev/ram/mnt"
Now make the required changes. "cd/mnt" You should see a file called "linuxrc". cat it out, and it will list the modules required to load initially in order to find disks. (eg. "insmod/lib/aic7xxx.o" means it needs aic7xxx.o)
Go into "/mnt/lib" and "ls -l" and I find the file "aic7xxx.o" I want the current one, for my new kernel, so I can find it at "/lib/modules/2.2.0/scsi/aic7xxx.o". I copy the new file over top of the old file. Do the same for the rest of the files in the linuxrc.
Now I just "umount/dev/ram" (or/mnt) and run dd again with: "dd if=/dev/ram bs=1k count=1500 of=initrd-2.2.0.img"
This gives me an image file, initrd-2.2.0.img. Now compress it, "gzip initrd-2.2.0.img" and copy it to/boot with "cp initrd-2.2.0.img.gz/boot/initrd-2.2.0.img" Note the missing .gz on the second parameter.
That second parameter is also what you put into the "Initial Ramdisk" field in linuxconf.:-)
---- HERE'S WHERE YOU SKIP TO IF YOU DON'T HAVE A RAMDISK ----
Now that you have that set, accept all changes, and so on. And get back to your prompt. Run "lilo" to set all you changes, and then go into/etc and cat your lilo.conf. Write down all the "label" lines with the associated version of linux it will boot.
When the boot cycle comes up, and it says "LILO:" in the corner
of your screen, type in "linux-2.2.0" and it should boot into your new kernel. If it doesn't...suffer!
No, no. If it doesn't, look on the list you made of the lilo labels and versions, and just type a label in at the "LILO:" prompt. That gets you back to your old version. From here we can try to work out what is wrong if you email me.
Once you have seen that the new kernel works, you can edit your lilo.conf and change the "default=" line to be "default=linux-2.2.0".
You can also go back and change the/usr/src/linux link to point to your new source. "cd/usr/src" "rm linux" "ln -s linux-2.2.0 linux"
One cool error with no solution anywhere that I got was scsi : 0 hosts scsi : detected total Partition check: request_module[block-major-8]: Root fs not mounted VFS: Cannot open root device 08:05 Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:05
The only way around this, was for me to type in at the "LILO:" prompt "linux-2.2.0 root=/dev/sda5", where /dev/sda5 is my root partition. After that the error went away. It only took me a couple of hours to figure that one out.
Whew! Hopefully this makes setup of the new kernel easier...
Slashdot Mirror
The question you ask is irrelevant. Go and read SCO's lawsuit, the ONLY lawsuit they have filed. It all deals with contract violations, not copyright infringment.
Until they file and show the code, there is nothing to worry over.
Vip
PS. This is why you haven't heard much from IBM. How can you argue or defend against something that isn't being used against you, nor have you been shown the allegations?
And what kind of patents are they? Are they the
same old vague and inconsistent patents being
tossed around by Amazone or Divine Inc?
If so, then I have no sympathy for them, and I
hope MS crushes them as a warning to others.
I'm a Sun and Linux guy, not a big MS fan at all,
but bad patent schemes are just that, bad.
Vip
In Chicago, IL. Very nice.
"Working" 727 jet, huge model train set, OmniMAX
(IMAX surrounding you), and one of three
U-boats on display in the world, and only
one captured by the USA. They have an Enigma
machine there too.
Highlight of my visit to Chicago, and I only
had half a day to try to take it in.
Well done, Chicago!
Vip
Who is going to pay for viewing webpages? If I read a webpage, you going to refund me my money? It's only $0.01 or $0.10 or perhaps only $0.005, but it's still money.
Let me get this straight with common surfing that I do.
Surf to Google News. Pay to enter, pay per news story. Hrmmm, something interesting here.
Go to Google Search. Pay to search for more info on the news story stuff. Hey, here's something off-topic, but looks interesting! Pay more to search on that.
Ok, found a bunch of pages. Pay to surf to each one, however, 90% of them are useless.
Over to Slashdot. Pay to surf per story in there.
Over to Zap2it.com to view a TV guide. Pay for that. Let's mosey on over to a listing of movies, what looks good to see? Oh, there's more payments.
Let's check email. 20 messages, get charged for each one, plus replies.
In the meantime I'm being nickel and dimed for everything I try to view or do. What should cost me $40/month now costs much more.
I pay a fee for my internet connection. This allows me email and surfing and gaming capabilities. Why should I have to pay more money to others? If someone puts info on the internet and then expects me to pay for it, well, I'm not that customer. Even if it's Slashdot, probably my most read page, the moment it is subscriber only, I'm outta here.
Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong if someone feels that they should charge for their content, it's their choice. However, I won't be a "customer" of theirs and I would think many others wouldn't either.
It's really depressing, I've been using Internet and it's precursors since 1985 for a variety of reasons, and I remember a time when it was all open and free for use. No pop-ups, no spam, no discussions about how to charge people money for everything they click on.
Vip
Because by putting that in there, you have admitted
that one of the primary purposes of this software
is to pirate music and other illegal purposes.
It is in Kazaa's best interest to put forth that
pirating material is not one of it's primary
purposes.
Vip
Already done...
a do rs-main.htm
http://www.castawaystravel.com/eldoradors/eldor
Vip
The real reason is that they don't want to be embarrassed. If they call it a "ball" and the device shows that it was a strike, who is going to be believed? Do this a few times a game, and the umpires are going to be embarrassed.
At least with video replays on TV, you still don't really see the whole picture on it because of the angles it is set at.
I side with the umpires on this one, it's not needed.
Vip
PS. I'm not a baseball fan
Won't reverse engineering like this be outlawed by the DMCA?
Use a packet sniffer, go to jail. Sounds like a
pretty good protection scheme to me.
Vip
I think you missed the point.
"... figuring out how to make a scene come to life with real people."
Instead of using CGI and other effects to replace the actors, it's much more difficult (now) to use real actors and stuntmen and pull off the same effect. For me, when the actors or stuntmen are doing the stunts, it makes it much more entertaining.
That's what attracts me to the original Matrix. In
that one there was more emphasis on the actors doing their stunts instead of computers. In Reloaded the actors are replaced by CGI.
Same thing holds for Mortal Kombat I and II. In the first the actors/stuntmen did it all, in the second it just went to computers.
Vip
Here's the article.
Vip
What if SCO programmers looked at Linux code, put some of it into SCO code, line for line.
Now someone else goes back and looks and goes, "Hey, there's SCO code in Linux!! Time for a lawsuit!"
How to say if this type of thing is happening?
Vip
314 seconds. Right?
m
John 3:14 - And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up
However, for an interesting read on John 3:14 and it's meaning, try http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/MkLent4.ht
There you will see that this section of the Bible talks about Jesus being "lifted up" for various
reasons. "Like the ascent in 3:13 this refers to the event which begins at Jesus' death."
Meaning, being lifted up, and being looked upon and will bring salvation, but this begins with his "death", and Neo had his death and resurrection in the first movie.
See where numbers lead?
Vip
"Trinity types in her password to crack the power system, Z1ON0101"
Zion is the last human city.
101 appears in MANY places throughout the first two
movies. It is Neo's apartment number in the first
film. It is a highway in the second, the one with
the battle. It is the room number of the restaurant.
And so on...101 has a meaning. Anyone care to
"symbolize" it?
Vip
I think this guy put way too much thinking into a movie. I prefer the simple solutions for it, some :-)
:-)
of them matching his though...BTW, I've only
skimmed the article, don't have that much time
I agree with him on much of it, but wow, talk
about detail!
The Bioport--how can a socket in your head control your senses? How can it be inserted without killing you?
Easy enough. It fits with the massively parallel computer theory later. They need to figure out the
data transfer to and from brain, so this would be
the next step beyond that, control of the brain
to receive and send specific signals.
The Red Pill--since the pill is virtual, how can it throw Neo out of the Matrix?
This "red pill" meant to me that you are ready to
wake up from complete control. Sort of like you
were in hypnosis, now the fingers are snapped and
you're awake!
The Power Plant--can people really be an energy source?
Yes and no. I too thought of the brain power
theory. It seems to fit and makes for interesting
theories. (ie. does the Matrix run on human brains
for power and computing power as well? So humans
are feeding their own minds?)
Entering and Exiting the Matrix--why do the rebels need telephones to come and go?
This too I figured was a navagational issue. It
seems to be easier to send data around, so if you
knew of a data point, you could get to it. Why
certain ones? Perhaps so you don't go hunting
for that cordless between the cushions?
The Bugbot--what's the purpose of the bugbot?
Bugbot tells Agents where it is. Perhaps it's just
an identifier, a certain string? Look for that
string, and you've got him. Sort of how virus
scanners work?
Perceptions in the Matrix--how do the machines know what fried chicken tastes like?
Completely made up and arbitrary. Does it matter?
Neo's Mastery of the Avatar--how can Neo fly?
Neo can fly because he's mastered the Matrix. I
thought of it more as he can now reshape the
Matrix near him to do what he wants. Kind of like
a virus, or bug.
Consciousness and the Matrix--are the machines in the Matrix alive and conscious? Or are they only machines, intelligent but mindless?
Both. Give it kind of a Terminator scenario,
except keep the humans, their brains and body
come in handy. The machines are just overthrowing
the people that built them, perhaps they
got out of hand too.
Vip
The problem as I see it is not one of which is "easier". There are people out there with better athletic ability than you or I. There are those with better mental ability than you or I. Artistic ability and so on. Porn-ability. All of these abilities cum^H^Home easier to some than others. I'm sure there are many people who could memorize the table of elements before they could figure out a football play (organized chaos I call it).
The thing is, when you reach the top, such that you may be one of the 500 best at something in the world (ie. 1/700 hockey players) you now have hit a level where people will shell out $50 to see you play. 16,000+ at one time. 80 times a year. Not only that, but they will pay insane parking , hot dogs, beverage, and souvenier prices on top of that $50. Many pay $100 just to wear YOUR name on their back! Or $15 to have a sign of "their" team!
It is no longer about "for the love of the game". Insane people spending insane money to watch you play, all that adds up to an insane salary. Look above. Just on tickets alone, that comes out to $64,000,000. Now one of say 25 players says I want $5,000,000 because I'm the "star" attraction,
is that so bad? The average player earns $1,000,000 (going off the top of my head, but that sounds right), from $64,000,000 is that so bad?
When you get a job that you can convince 16,000 people to pay $64,000,000 for your team of 25 to watch, then you too will be entitled to go to your boss and say, "I want $1,000,000 or I quit!" If you really are that valuable, and I would argue that the top 700 players in the world probably are, then you will get it.
Same idea holds for actors or lawyers or doctors and so on. When you are at the top of your field in any of those, you probably make millions.
Until then, first figure out how much money your employer makes from you, take around 40%, and that will probably be your salary. (ie. They contract you out at $100/hour. That's about $200,000 per
year, you should be around $80,000 salary) It's difficult in situations where you are a programmer or something, but you get the idea. I read that once, and it's always worked for any job I held.
Vip
Money is part of it. However, how many consider Internet a fad? And how many are willing to continue to pay for it?
You and I, and perhaps other geeks out there might enjoy it all the time, but for the average person out there, how long before getting 2.8million hits on "Harry Potter" just doesn't make it worth the time or money?
Vip
I think the best comment about this issue was from Mark Hamill, when he was on "Politcially Incorrect".
He was asked, just before TPM came out, "Why after all these years, is Star Wars such a huge movie? It had lousy acting, story line isn't great..."
His reply was, "It's a fairy tale in space. You have an evil wizard, good wizard, magic, naive farm boy, pirates, monsters, the princess in distress..." You wrap it up in some amazing sfx and you've got a great and fun movie.
Vip
Perhaps that's what it is supposed to be? Giving the flamebait and then waiting for the rabid Open Source supporters to show up ranting and raving would be much better for MS than any ad campaign would buy.
If there's one thing to learn from the anything vs Windows wars was that "anything and everything you say will be used against you."
The above is just bait.
Vip
It works on two levels. One, the realtor may miss something you may actually like, even though it's not what you requested in the first place. We had a few of those.
Two, the realtor can find homes that match what you want, however the web gives you a quick way of looking up what (s)he's given you. Sometimes just looking at a pink house with a bright blue garage just doesn't cut it, you know?
I used MLS Online to search in Calgary. It can be used for Canada, and became an invaluable tool.
Here's an example of a home offering pictures.
And here's mine, come take a look!
In the end we ended up deciding to build a new home, but the process was there for the internet to help.
Vip
I wonder what kind of security any of your services will offer? Leaving files (charts) of the type you are discussing open on the internet is just asking to have the script kiddies hammering away on it.
Vip
Having worked in both unionized and non-unionized employments in the tech field, let me address some of this.
;-) Market downturn for your position? Oh well, lesser pay for you this time around. Unions tend to protect against that. It's rare to see cuts in salary, except in extreme circumstances.
Both have their pros and cons.
Pros for being unionized:
- Job Security. Getting fired because your boss feels like it is tough to come by. One myth about unions is that you can't get fired for nothing. You can, but it's much tougher for your boss to do.
- Wage Security. Chances are, with a union you won't have your wages dramatically drop. It does happen, however that's in extreme cases where the union can see the company will not survive. But your union will negotiate a long-term contract saying what raises you will get and when.
- Working Conditions. Under most unions, if not all, these tend to go up. You, most likely, will not be required to work 12 or 16 hour days if you don't want to. If you do, you will be compensated for it. Same for pagers and after hours. Your work area will be up to par.
- Standards. You will probably have standards that will rule what you do, when you do it, how you do it. It won't be a free-for-all, today you are sys-admining, tomorrow you are installing software on a clients machine, next day you are debugging software from the guy that just up and quit.
Cons for being unionized:
- Lumped Grouping. You may end up in a situation where you, say a sys-admin, are lumped into a union with programmers. The prog's make $60k/year, but your job commands $75k/year. The company says to the union, hey, we'll give you prog's the $60k, but the sys-admin's get that too. 25 prog's, 2 sys-admins voting in the union on the contract. Who do you think is going to win? Not the sys-admin.
- Seniority Rules. Seniority tends to be the thing in a union. The longer you are with a company, the better your chances of picking up jobs within the company. And the job doesn't necessairly have to be related. I've seen secretaries go from secretarial pool to 2nd tier help-desk support, double their salary, all because the union contract called for internal first, based on seniority, then external. 20 years in the pool, vs 1 year 1st tier help desk. Who wins? Who's more qualified?
- Based Rate Salary. You get what everyone else gets, starting from a base. Perhaps you are in a group of programmers, and now high-level programming is called for. Because the programmers all get $60k, you get it too, even though your specific knowledge would command more on the open market. However, the salary is protected through market downturns.
Pros of being non-unionized:
- Negotiated Salary. You get what you negotiate. Don't like their 3 weeks holiday rule, and negotiate 4? It's yours. Same for salary. Market rules.
Cons of being non-unionized:
- Indiscriminate Firing. They can let you go, when they want, how they want, etc. Yes, there are laws, but ask any labour lawyer how tough it is to win based on those laws. Layoff time? Your turn, so sorry.
- Negotiated Salary.
These are some notes that just popped into my head. There are many more reasons on either side of the issue, but it's really up to the individual. I've met many people who love unions, and wouldn't try to work without them, and I've seen others who hate them vehemently. I've seen people switch sides so often, I got whiplash watching.
I doubt there's any truly "right" answer, it does tend to be up to what the individual is looking for. If you don't want a union, you find a job in non-unionized shops. If you want one, you find a job in a unionized shop.
Vip
Why does this sound so much like:
"First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me."
- Pastor Martin Niemöller, 1938
Has it occured to you or your father that once a precedence is set, then they can move on to other lawsuits with more ease of prosecution?
Vip
> 3) The federal legislative bodies tend to be punitive in reacting to NASA shortcomings. The attitude seems to be "You cost us a lot of money, we don't get a lot of immediately practical returns, so if you screw up you're history"
Space exploration is complex and dangerous, right from step one. That's what it seems much of the political and public structure fails to realize.
The loss of American and Russian astronauts over the years, the loss of satellites, the loss of space exploration craft. All continue to generate the "Let's stop it all! The price is too high!"
I agree with you, in that the price isn't too high. The gains are significant, whether for our curiosity or exploitation.
I'm amazed that the few space agencies have the low loss ratio that they do. The loss of the Mars Exploration craft...so what? Where does it say they must be 100% successful? Why not look at the craft that should have stopped working 20 years ago, yet continue to work, on the outer reaches of our solar system? Or those that finish their primary mission(s), only to find another (sometimes unusual) use for them? Like when they crashed the orbiter into the moon some months back to see if there was water?
When the Challenger blew up, it was bound to happen, politics, bureaucracy, and expenditure took over the system. Yet, each astronaut, and their families, on board the craft knew the risks, knew what they were getting in to. It still didn't stop them. I like to think that perhaps they knew what could be acheived and understood the big picture.
NASA and the Russians (forgive me, I don't know the name of their space agency) have a history littered with successes and failures. If all you can do is follow the failures, and not see the amazing successes in between, then you fall into the "politics, bureaucracy, and expenditure" category. Should the managers and politicians running NASA fall in that category, expect more disasters. But don't overlook what they have, and are going to, accomplish.
Vip
I do know they gave the award to OS/2 for a
number of years. (5 years?)
And now Linux (well, RedHat, but Linux none-the-
less) for 3 years.
How long has this award been around, and who
were the winners, and how many times did a
MS OS make the list?
Vip
Overall it wasn't that difficult, just some annoyances and tips
/usr/src" and do a "ls -l". You should see something like:
:-) If it is an actual
:-)
/dev/sda5.
:-) /boot/initrd-2.0.36-0.7.img" in there?
/boot" and "ls *.img". :-)
/dev/ram 1500" Why 1500? If you look
/dev/ram /mnt"
/mnt" You should see /lib/aic7xxx.o" means it needs aic7xxx.o)
/dev/ram" (or /mnt) and run dd again with:
/boot with /boot/initrd-2.2.0.img" Note the missing
:-)
/etc and cat your lilo.conf. Write down all
/usr/src/linux link to /usr/src" "rm linux"
to get by that aren't documented anywhere.
This is VERY long, and probably missing a few steps, but this
is what I remember doing. It took about 4 or 5 hours to solve.
If you don't care about, don't like, don't want, this, then
stop reading and delete this message.
When I looked about, and asked about, I've been trying to figure
out how to add new kernels for a couple of months now without any
success, people generally said, "I've never seen that!" "It's
not supposed to be like that!" "Please stop abusing my warez
site!" and so on. The errors were stuff like "kernel-module
mismatch" and "Cannot open root device."
First, download the new kernel from ftp.ca.kernel.org or wherever
else you want.
"cd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Jan 26 23:57 linux -> linux-2.2.0
drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 1024 Jan 10 16:04 linux-2.0.34
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 1024 Jan 26 23:55 linux-2.0.36
drwxr-xr-x 15 1046 1046 1024 Jan 26 16:10 linux-2.2.0
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root 1024 Oct 14 16:05 redhat
Of course, the first line, linux will point to 2.0.34 or 36. This
link may or may not be there, it does seem to vary, I don't know
why. If it's there, "rm linux".
directory, "mv linux linux-".
Now uncompress and untar the kernel sources, this creates a tree
with the name "linux". Now "mv linux linux-2.2.0". And finally
re-create the ORIGINAL link using "ln -s linux-2.0.36 linux".
That's just in case things go horribly wrong, you still have your
old source trees, otherwise they would be overwritten.
Now "cd linux-2.2.0" and do the general configuration. One easy
way to get started is to go into the old version of kernel
source you have, and type "make menuconfig", then select
"Save Configuration to an Alternate File". Save it to "blah"
and copy the file to the new source tree (linux-2.2.0). In
the new source tree, do another "make menuconfig" and
"Load an Alternate Configuration File" and select "blah".
This should keep most of your settings from the old sources.
If it doesn't...heh, life's tough, eh? Start from scratch.
Now go through the rest of it, and ensure everything seems ok,
and you might want stuff like joystick support, and the
"Magic SysRq key". This one allows you to press Alt+PrtScrn
to get to debug if something goes horribly wrong with
Linux. You can sync your filesystems and stuff with it.
It's under "Kernel hacking".
One other thing to check is the "Processor Type and features".
Make sure it is set to your processor, which will most likely
be "586/K5/5x86/6x86 Processor family". If it's not, change
it.
Anyways, finish your config, and then do the normal
"make dep ; make clean ; make bzImage ; make modules ; make
modules_install" Note the bzImage, mainly because images do
seem to be larger than 1MB. It won't matter at boot time.
Once you are done, you will have a fresh kernel, assuming
nothing went wrong during the compile. I haven't seen it
fail for a long time, has anyone else?
Your kernel will be "/usr/src/linux-2.2.0/arch/i386/boot/bzImage"
Now you want to install your new kernel. In RedHat it's
reasonably simple, via the "linuxconf" utility. It brings
up a GUI screen, and a ways down the page, you find stuff
about LILO. You can start with "LILO defaults" and work
your way down, it has some stuff you might want to see...or not.
Go to the one that says "a kernel you have compiled", and fill
in the info. Kernel image file is the one above. Label it
"linux-2.2.0". If you want to take a chance, you can select
it as "new default", but if you don't want to "selectable"
is just as good. And please don't select "replace". That's bad.
Where to copy is "/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.0". The root partition
is just that, what device is your root? Mine was
You can find that under "Lilo linux configurations" and
the "Partition" column, with your current kernel listed.
At the bottom is "Initial ramdisk". How many have this setup?
I don't know. Some I talked to did, others didn't. None of
them knew how to set one up. So I fudged one out.
How do you tell? In "/etc/lilo.conf", do you see a line
similar to "initrd =
If so, you have an initial ramdisk!
The reason I had to do this was because when I booted, it
would complain that I was using kernel version 2.0.36 and
the modules to be used during boot were from 2.0.34. (change
the versions as you want, I fought this one for a long time,
same error, different numbers) The boot would just stop at that point.
If you do have one, read on. Otherwise you are all set. Accept
the changes, run "lilo" from the command line, and go check your
lilo.conf. Write down the "label" lines, and what version they
boot. You will need this if the boot fails. More on that later.
You can skip down a bit if you don't need to create a RAMdisk...
To setup the ramdisk, the easiest way is to "cd
Remember above when you pulled out the initrd line? That file
should be in there. Copy this file somewhere, preferably not somewhere
where it will be deleted during boot.
Now goto where it was copied, and do the following, carefully.
The file you copied is compressed. "mv initrd-foo.img initrd-foo.img.gz"
then "gunzip initrd-foo.img.gz". You now have an uncompressed image
file.
Make a RAMdisk. "mke2fs -m0
at the image file size, it should be 1.5MB in size. You can
adjust accordingly.
Now copy the contents of the file into the RAMdisk.
"dd if=initrd-foo.img bs=1k count=1500 of=/dev/ram"
Now mount the RAMdisk.
"mount
Now make the required changes. "cd
a file called "linuxrc". cat it out, and it will list the
modules required to load initially in order to find disks.
(eg. "insmod
Go into "/mnt/lib" and "ls -l" and I find the file "aic7xxx.o"
I want the current one, for my new kernel, so I can find it at
"/lib/modules/2.2.0/scsi/aic7xxx.o". I copy the new file
over top of the old file. Do the same for the rest of the
files in the linuxrc.
Now I just "umount
"dd if=/dev/ram bs=1k count=1500 of=initrd-2.2.0.img"
This gives me an image file, initrd-2.2.0.img. Now compress it,
"gzip initrd-2.2.0.img" and copy it to
"cp initrd-2.2.0.img.gz
.gz on the second parameter.
That second parameter is also what you put into the "Initial
Ramdisk" field in linuxconf.
---- HERE'S WHERE YOU SKIP TO IF YOU DON'T HAVE A RAMDISK ----
Now that you have that set, accept all changes, and so on. And
get back to your prompt. Run "lilo" to set all you changes,
and then go into
the "label" lines with the associated version of linux it will
boot.
When the boot cycle comes up, and it says "LILO:" in the corner
of your screen, type in "linux-2.2.0" and it should boot into
your new kernel. If it doesn't...suffer!
No, no. If it doesn't, look on the list you made of the lilo
labels and versions, and just type a label in at the "LILO:"
prompt. That gets you back to your old version. From here
we can try to work out what is wrong if you email me.
Once you have seen that the new kernel works, you can edit
your lilo.conf and change the "default=" line to be
"default=linux-2.2.0".
You can also go back and change the
point to your new source. "cd
"ln -s linux-2.2.0 linux"
One cool error with no solution anywhere that I got was
scsi : 0 hosts
scsi : detected total
Partition check:
request_module[block-major-8]: Root fs not mounted
VFS: Cannot open root device 08:05
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 08:05
The only way around this, was for me to type in at the
"LILO:" prompt "linux-2.2.0 root=/dev/sda5", where
/dev/sda5 is my root partition. After that the error
went away. It only took me a couple of hours to
figure that one out.
Whew! Hopefully this makes setup of the new kernel
easier...
Good Luck,
Vip