This is why I'm considering law...
on
Perens on Patents
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· Score: 1
It's precisely the stupidity of legislators and the courts when it comes to issues of a technical nature that Mr. Perens talks about that is making me consider going into IP law. People within the industry seem to be doing nothing but whining, and people within the law are clueless. We need more lawyers who actually know what the hell they're litigating about, and don't put together embarrassing defenses like the one presented in the DeCSS case.
and he said that the author spent most of the chapters trying to sell his Zen Buddhist meets physics stuf, and only addresses physics in the last chapter. He also uses as a primary reference for the last chapter a paper that he himself wrote back in the 1970's on the subject.
Then this will be great. Until then, it shouldn't be used as a standard for admission. Standardized tests are flawed, but most of the coursework that one has to do in school is grounded in the stuff tested by the SAT/ACT/etc. Efforts to come up with a broader admission standard are good, but only in combination with standards that reflect one's ability to do the coursework and are applied objectively. Otherwise the standards are unfair to the people who do work hard to do well on the tests, and patronizing to those who don't. I'm not sure how great I'd feel to fail a few core courses after being accepted into a school on the basis of my LEGO abilities. Learning institutions are responsible for screening out those applicants who don't have a good chance of making it at the institution. Maybe if the finals in all of the courses were either a 125 question exam or a LEGO project....
This is interesting, but really all they are doindg is starting yet another affiliate program, albeit with a source code giveaway. As people have already mentioned, the source is not open in the GPL/BSD/artistic license sense, rather they're letting people who enter their affiliate program use it. This is almost identical to the model used by Infoseek and Excite, except that people get to compile the source, and they pay by being an advertising shill instead of just buying a license to use the search engine.
I'm surprised at the amount of response to what is basically puffery from Cisco marketing. Those of us in DC or San Francisco have been able to use Ricochet wireles for a few years now. True, the speed is 28.8 kbps, but Metricom is rolling out R2 in early 2000 to 28 markets. R2 will be ~128kbps, fully wireless, and work at up to 70 miles per hour, i.e. driving down the highway. It's been testing okay, and should be priced between $50-100 per month. IMHO, this is a lot more interesting right now. Yours truly, Mr. X
RMS!=gadfly; RMS==impolite;
on
GNU Inside?
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· Score: 1
In personal dealing with RMS, and anecdotes about his dealings with the press, I am convinced that Mr. Stallman is afflicted with a terminal case of rudeness. It is one thing to believe something. It is similar thing to voice that belief. However, to refuse to let others speak is quite different, crossing firmly into the land of rudeness. In this way, RMS effectively negates the respect he deserves.
The problem here was that two kids snapped and decided that they wanted to kill a bunch of people. The fact that they did it with guns has no more importace than that they did it while wearing trenchcoats.
As an example, in Japan, a country with very heavy gun control laws, a group of terrorists took over one of the government agencies by force using swords. (i don't remember the specifics, though I think it was sometime in the 70s) It just goes to show that people intent on committing acts of violence will do so with whatever tools available, and that controlling the tools will not solve the problem, i.e. one can't stop people from eating by outlawing forks.
Peace, Nick
Stronger than ever, than ever before / KMFDM is a drug against war -- KMFDM (ironic, isn't it?)
It's obvious that guns weren't the issue, pipes were the issue. If these kids didn't have pipes, they wouldn't have been able to make pipe bombs. And let's not forget propane tanks. We need to better control them as well.
What you are failing to see is that guns in this case are on the same level as Marilyn Manson/black trenchcoats/Doom/Quake/etc. The root of the problem is two screwed up kids that decided to get even with the poeple that tormented them. The methods don't matter, and attacking the symptoms won't help a damn thing.
Peace, Nick
Stronger than ever, than ever before / KMFDM is a drug against war -- KMFDM (ironic, isn't it?)
I have to disagree with you, not in principle, but in methodology. First of all, legislation is rarely if ever a useful tool for stopping this sort of random, chaotic problem, with more contributing factors and root causes than can easily be counted.
Secondly, gun control wouldn't have stopped this tragedy from happening. Guns were only a tool used by the perpetrators, not a root cause. If guns were not available, they wouldn't have decided against this massacre. They probably just would have built a few more pipe bombs. (BTW, the answer is not stricter pipe control either)
The solution is complex and difficult. People in high school need to be nicer to each other. Parents need to be more involved in their children's lives (no, this does not mean that they need to be better wardens of the penitentiary called Home). Teachers and administrators need to be more sensitive and learn to communicate better with students (even those who are difficult to understand).
As you have probably noticed, none of the above solutions is feasibly legislatable. None of them are easy to implement. They won't head off every case of random violence, but they will help a lot. They'll also work a lot better than simply banning/controlling/cracking down on guns/pipes/Quake/Marilyn Manson/trenchcoats/geeks/insert your favorite bit of counterculture here.
Just my thoughts on the issue. I would be happy to respond to questions via email, as well as in this forum (if I get the time to check it).
Peace, Nick
Stronger than ever, than ever before / KMFDM is a drug against war -- KMFDM (ironic, ain't it?)
It's interesting to note that one of the points that ESR makes is that the Open Source modus operandi of screaming at the top of one's lungs whenever something looks out of whack needs to be tempered when dealing with the public/media. It's somewhat akin to not shooting your own in war/consulting (same difference), and generally is a good idea.
This is not to say that if quiet discussion doesn't solve the problem it's not apropos to scream really loud, just keep the two in order.
If Windows sucks, and Microsoft sucks, then why in the world would we need the DOJ to hack the company up into little pieces and give away all of their valuable IP? Perhaps Windows doesn't suck as bad as you would like it to, and having the government step in is the only way that whatever it is that "doesn't suck" can prevail.
Having the government nationalize MS opens the door to the nationalization of Linux and/or GNU. Imagine a group of vocal distro companies clamoring about how open-source doesn't allow them to remain competitive. The DOJ steps in, nullifies the GNU license, and voila! What was open becomes closed.
If the alternatives are better, they will prevail. If not, tough cookies.
One of the issues that I am not sure was mentioned or stressed by mr. mettler (I haven't read his article {server slashdotted}) is that of the individual Linux user installing.rpm files that have been compiled with trojan style holes in them. As a reasonably novice Linux user, I install.rpm files if I have an option (I don't like compiling). If the code base is sufficiently large, a hole could be built in to a packeage, and go undiscovered for a good while.
I realize that this is mitigated by the relatively quicker patching of any said holes, and the signing of packages, but it still remains within the realm of possibility, and given the highly configurable set of tools/packages that one can choose to put on one's system, is vulnerable more often than a Windows OS.
I met Richard M Stallman at last year's Linux Expo. Not a horrible person, not evil (not many people are really). He reminded me a lot of a SysAdmin that I know. Long hair, scraggly beard, technical knowledge that seemed to have replaced most social skills.
As I recall, He, ESR, and Brue Perens were giving a panel discussion about the Open Source movement. Mr. Stallman did waste about 15 minutes of the discussion harping on the GNU/Linux thing, which if you've ever been subjected to experiencing it personally, you know is even more annoying and childish than people make it sound.
What I remember the best is him standing up and yelling at me for making the point that while I appreciated the work of the GNU/OSM/etc., I believed that proprietary software had many advantages, including more money for me as a developer of said software.
That background being given, while I respect Mr. Stallman's work, I don't have much respect for Mr. Stallman outside of a very narrow segment of Computer Science, or stated another way, he is a socially inept, annoying, whiny man who vaguely resembles a street person, but he's really smart/talented (at least the MacArthur Foundation thinks so).
As to the general incivility/close-mindedness of the Linux community to non-free/open/GNU/Unix software and its creators, I have experienced it. It makes me a little sad really. I remember Bob Young getting up to do a presentation at the aforementioned Linux Expo, and stating loudly that he was using Applix Presents(?) as a presentation tool, as he unsuccessfully tried to get it to work. Most of the other presenters had used PowerPoint. What frustrated me was the way people applauded him settling for software that didn't work (which is just a tool for filling up HDs), in lieu of using a Microsoft product that did the job. I turned to the my friend and said, "I'll clap when it works". Sometimes MS software is better, and when I need something done, I don't want an ideology/religion, I want a workable tool.
In general, the Linux community needs to be just a little bit more civil to the larger Computer Science/Computer Industry/Software/Internet community.
The new and improved RedHat site has nothing to do with RedHat. It is a piss-poor attempt at co-branding (vis a vis/. and Freshmeat). I already have three portal sites, and all three of them are better than RedHat's. The colors are ugly, and the content is lame/irrelevant/sucks.
Psychic prediction: The RedHat site will be changed within the next two days.
Slashdot Mirror
It's precisely the stupidity of legislators and the courts when it comes to issues of a technical nature that Mr. Perens talks about that is making me consider going into IP law. People within the industry seem to be doing nothing but whining, and people within the law are clueless. We need more lawyers who actually know what the hell they're litigating about, and don't put together embarrassing defenses like the one presented in the DeCSS case.
Yours truly,
Mr. X
and he said that the author spent most of the chapters trying to sell his Zen Buddhist meets physics stuf, and only addresses physics in the last chapter. He also uses as a primary reference for the last chapter a paper that he himself wrote back in the 1970's on the subject.
In other words, physics this book ain't.
Mr. X
Then this will be great. Until then, it shouldn't be used as a standard for admission. Standardized tests are flawed, but most of the coursework that one has to do in school is grounded in the stuff tested by the SAT/ACT/etc.
Efforts to come up with a broader admission standard are good, but only in combination with standards that reflect one's ability to do the coursework and are applied objectively. Otherwise the standards are unfair to the people who do work hard to do well on the tests, and patronizing to those who don't.
I'm not sure how great I'd feel to fail a few core courses after being accepted into a school on the basis of my LEGO abilities. Learning institutions are responsible for screening out those applicants who don't have a good chance of making it at the institution. Maybe if the finals in all of the courses were either a 125 question exam or a LEGO project....
Yours truly,
Mr. X
This is interesting, but really all they are doindg is starting yet another affiliate program, albeit with a source code giveaway. As people have already mentioned, the source is not open in the GPL/BSD/artistic license sense, rather they're letting people who enter their affiliate program use it. This is almost identical to the model used by Infoseek and Excite, except that people get to compile the source, and they pay by being an advertising shill instead of just buying a license to use the search engine.
Yours truly,
Mr. X
I'm surprised at the amount of response to what is basically puffery from Cisco marketing. Those of us in DC or San Francisco have been able to use Ricochet wireles for a few years now. True, the speed is 28.8 kbps, but Metricom is rolling out R2 in early 2000 to 28 markets. R2 will be ~128kbps, fully wireless, and work at up to 70 miles per hour, i.e. driving down the highway. It's been testing okay, and should be priced between $50-100 per month. IMHO, this is a lot more interesting right now. Yours truly, Mr. X
In personal dealing with RMS, and anecdotes about his dealings with the press, I am convinced that Mr. Stallman is afflicted with a terminal case of rudeness. It is one thing to believe something. It is similar thing to voice that belief. However, to refuse to let others speak is quite different, crossing firmly into the land of rudeness. In this way, RMS effectively negates the respect he deserves.
Genius is not an excuse for rudeness.
Peace,
Nick
The problem here was that two kids snapped and decided that they wanted to kill a bunch of people. The fact that they did it with guns has no more importace than that they did it while wearing trenchcoats.
As an example, in Japan, a country with very heavy gun control laws, a group of terrorists took over one of the government agencies by force using swords. (i don't remember the specifics, though I think it was sometime in the 70s) It just goes to show that people intent on committing acts of violence will do so with whatever tools available, and that controlling the tools will not solve the problem, i.e. one can't stop people from eating by outlawing forks.
Peace,
Nick
Stronger than ever, than ever before /
KMFDM is a drug against war -- KMFDM
(ironic, isn't it?)
It's obvious that guns weren't the issue, pipes were the issue. If these kids didn't have pipes, they wouldn't have been able to make pipe bombs. And let's not forget propane tanks. We need to better control them as well.
What you are failing to see is that guns in this case are on the same level as Marilyn Manson/black trenchcoats/Doom/Quake/etc. The root of the problem is two screwed up kids that decided to get even with the poeple that tormented them. The methods don't matter, and attacking the symptoms won't help a damn thing.
Peace,
Nick
Stronger than ever, than ever before /
KMFDM is a drug against war -- KMFDM (ironic, isn't it?)
I have to disagree with you, not in principle, but in methodology. First of all, legislation is rarely if ever a useful tool for stopping this sort of random, chaotic problem, with more contributing factors and root causes than can easily be counted.
Secondly, gun control wouldn't have stopped this tragedy from happening. Guns were only a tool used by the perpetrators, not a root cause. If guns were not available, they wouldn't have decided against this massacre. They probably just would have built a few more pipe bombs. (BTW, the answer is not stricter pipe control either)
The solution is complex and difficult. People in high school need to be nicer to each other. Parents need to be more involved in their children's lives (no, this does not mean that they need to be better wardens of the penitentiary called Home). Teachers and administrators need to be more sensitive and learn to communicate better with students (even those who are difficult to understand).
As you have probably noticed, none of the above solutions is feasibly legislatable. None of them are easy to implement. They won't head off every case of random violence, but they will help a lot. They'll also work a lot better than simply banning/controlling/cracking down on guns/pipes/Quake/Marilyn Manson/trenchcoats/geeks/insert your favorite bit of counterculture here.
Just my thoughts on the issue. I would be happy to respond to questions via email, as well as in this forum (if I get the time to check it).
Peace,
Nick
Stronger than ever, than ever before /
KMFDM is a drug against war -- KMFDM (ironic, ain't it?)
It's interesting to note that one of the points that ESR makes is that the Open Source modus operandi of screaming at the top of one's lungs whenever something looks out of whack needs to be tempered when dealing with the public/media. It's somewhat akin to not shooting your own in war/consulting (same difference), and generally is a good idea.
This is not to say that if quiet discussion doesn't solve the problem it's not apropos to scream really loud, just keep the two in order.
Just my thoughts, or reasonable facsimiles.
If Windows sucks, and Microsoft sucks, then why in the world would we need the DOJ to hack the company up into little pieces and give away all of their valuable IP? Perhaps Windows doesn't suck as bad as you would like it to, and having the government step in is the only way that whatever it is that "doesn't suck" can prevail.
Having the government nationalize MS opens the door to the nationalization of Linux and/or GNU. Imagine a group of vocal distro companies clamoring about how open-source doesn't allow them to remain competitive. The DOJ steps in, nullifies the GNU license, and voila! What was open becomes closed.
If the alternatives are better, they will prevail. If not, tough cookies.
One of the issues that I am not sure was mentioned or stressed by mr. mettler (I haven't read his article {server slashdotted}) is that of the individual Linux user installing .rpm files that have been compiled with trojan style holes in them. As a reasonably novice Linux user, I install .rpm files if I have an option (I don't like compiling). If the code base is sufficiently large, a hole could be built in to a packeage, and go undiscovered for a good while.
I realize that this is mitigated by the relatively quicker patching of any said holes, and the signing of packages, but it still remains within the realm of possibility, and given the highly configurable set of tools/packages that one can choose to put on one's system, is vulnerable more often than a Windows OS.
Peace
I met Richard M Stallman at last year's Linux Expo. Not a horrible person, not evil (not many people are really). He reminded me a lot of a SysAdmin that I know. Long hair, scraggly beard, technical knowledge that seemed to have replaced most social skills.
As I recall, He, ESR, and Brue Perens were giving a panel discussion about the Open Source movement. Mr. Stallman did waste about 15 minutes of the discussion harping on the GNU/Linux thing, which if you've ever been subjected to experiencing it personally, you know is even more annoying and childish than people make it sound.
What I remember the best is him standing up and yelling at me for making the point that while I appreciated the work of the GNU/OSM/etc., I believed that proprietary software had many advantages, including more money for me as a developer of said software.
That background being given, while I respect Mr. Stallman's work, I don't have much respect for Mr. Stallman outside of a very narrow segment of Computer Science, or stated another way, he is a socially inept, annoying, whiny man who vaguely resembles a street person, but he's really smart/talented (at least the MacArthur Foundation thinks so).
As to the general incivility/close-mindedness of the Linux community to non-free/open/GNU/Unix software and its creators, I have experienced it. It makes me a little sad really. I remember Bob Young getting up to do a presentation at the aforementioned Linux Expo, and stating loudly that he was using Applix Presents(?) as a presentation tool, as he unsuccessfully tried to get it to work. Most of the other presenters had used PowerPoint. What frustrated me was the way people applauded him settling for software that didn't work (which is just a tool for filling up HDs), in lieu of using a Microsoft product that did the job. I turned to the my friend and said, "I'll clap when it works". Sometimes MS software is better, and when I need something done, I don't want an ideology/religion, I want a workable tool.
In general, the Linux community needs to be just a little bit more civil to the larger Computer Science/Computer Industry/Software/Internet community.
Peace
The new and improved RedHat site has nothing to do with RedHat. It is a piss-poor attempt at co-branding (vis a vis /. and Freshmeat). I already have three portal sites, and all three of them are better than RedHat's. The colors are ugly, and the content is lame/irrelevant/sucks.
Psychic prediction: The RedHat site will be changed within the next two days.