REDHAT is never going to have the same level of support cert as Microsoft. The reason? Microsoft . They own a chunk of Sylvin-Prometic. With out a national testing system willing to give the Redhat test how can it work?
I don't think it would take that long to build up the number of trainers. But you need a place to give the tests.
Certifications aren't a scam per se, but there is a marketing and profit center aspect to them. The idea of the MCSE was pretty much stolen from Novell way back when. Back in 92' my CNE instructor said that CNE was the greatest invention since sliced bread. You get people to pay you to do your support.
This is not say there is not value in the test. There was a time when a CNE was a pretty smart person. But the same problem with the CNE tests also exist for MCSE. The tests don't change much. The never changes. It makes it easier for people to slip by who really shouldn't.
Usually there are two types of people in the IT field. Those who have "it"...and those who don't. I've found that the longer time goes by the less you can rely on a Title to dictate knowledge or skill level. People can cram for a test. When they get on the job they slip. The more interviews I have with the "highly" qualified MCSE the more I find that they are being pumped through for profit schools and that they lack the down and dirty basic knowledge of the computer. And example is a MCSE whom was asked how to install a NIC card. His reply was that he'd have "PC Support" people do it.
I've found there are people who barely have a high school diploma that have a better understanding of what's going on inside the computer than a CompSci Major with an MCSE.
This is where I think CISCO does a good job. Tests based on real problems. Have the student configure the router. Send them out to lunch and mess with it. They pass if they can fix it. These are real problem solving skills that can't be taught from a Dummies book. You have to understand what's going on. NOT ONLY HOW TO CONFIGURE SOMETHING, BUT WHY YOU CONFIGURE IT THAT WAY. You either have it or you don't.
Slackware is certainly known to be one of the longest running Linux Distro's. It's popular among ISP who like the advanced user interface.
However, a year ago many ISP mailing lists were commenting that Slackware releases were few and far between. Poeple wondered if Slackware was still being developed. Now there is a lot of momentium behind Slackware.
Was there this perception of Slackware no longer being developed real? Or would you say it's associated with the low key media attention Slackware gets (or doesn't get)?
The X Box is the best thing to come out of M$ since the California MSN rebate money. Why you ask?
Well, game consoles are sold at a loss. Sega, Sony, Nintendo, it's at cost, or below cost. Maybe* when you start pumping 15 Million units a year do you start seeing money from console sales. It's all in the games. Getting a chunk of the game sales makes up for the loss of the console.
Okay, so MS will lose money if people don't buy the games...what does that get us? Well, let's look at eh X-Box. It's all standard PC stuff. Probally Micro ATX form factor. In fact it's probally the same system that ASUS sells to various US phone companies for their set top boxes.
So what does that get you? Add Linux, Mozilla, X Window. You're got a nice set top box that will run all the fun software from Loki, and has a good (non-MS) web browser to boot. Best of all MS took a bath on this because you're never going to buy a X-Box game.
The problem was more in how the switch from being ARPA to comercial was handled. A lot of loose ends were left up in the air and the real power went to NSI. Everytime ICAN rattled the saber they were slapped around by certain congress members. 21 Bil for NSI goes a long way.
At any account the two large issues were trademark and the incredible chunks of change a row in a database cost.
As for trademarks I echo what others have said. Although there are rules in place they arn't applied across the board. For instance, by NSI's rules etoy should have never been pulled. But the deeper issues are corporate interests VS. "the little guy".
An example is nissan.com. This domain is owned by Mr. Nissan, (who's family has held the name for almost 3000 years). Nissan Computer Corp has had a trademark since 1991 on the name. Nissan Motor corp wants the name. Although NSI rules have kept Nissan Motors from taking the name outright they can still litigate Mr. Nissan into the poor house.
No matter how you cut it money and power pervail over rightful ownership.
Not really. Nissan and Ford have very close ties , in fact Nissan, Mazda and Ford have been involved in Joint Ventures since the 60's. It would never be allowed for Mazda to be owned by a forign company. Mazda has agreed has allowed some of it's joint ventures outside of Japan to have the controlling shares owned by Ford. This is not unusual because they also have JV's with Matsushita. Ford has increased it's shares of Mazda to 33.4 percent (Which was a scandel in itself.) 66 percent of Mazda Japan is owned by Japanesse interests. Ford is a large partner of Mazda and has enough stock in the company to throw some weight around. But Mazda is not "owned" by form. In fact is you go to Mazda's japanesse web site they have a page that is dedicated to explaining why Ford does not own Mazda.
I doubt this story has anything to do with crypto or the ilk. Japan is a very protectionist country. If a large company like sony (Who's profits have been on the decline because of the yen) asks to Japanese gov't keep the PSx2's inside the country so marketing doesn't get ruined then that's what is going to happen.
To date no japanese company has ever been purchased by a forign company.
When the first American company (Cargill, Inc. the largest private company in the world) attempted to trade on the nippon market they were boycotted. They had to enter into a partnership with a Japanese company before anyone would accept their trades.
This is nothing new to a country that has a long history of being over protective with their markets.
Ever been to Hopkins? Let me explain something. Hopkins is small suburban town USA. There are two employers out there who would be considered big. SuperValue Foods and Alient Tech (Former Division of Honeywell that makes big guns and bombs). There aren't a whole lot of other companies that have more than a couple hundred employees. Most offices in the town have less 50 people.
The police force is feeble at best. If they made an arrest it was because whatever companies involved spoon fed them the case.
Had you read the judges decision you would have found that the the Gov't messed up on two points:
One) The investigation of SJG was slim at best before the warrent. The SS connected to the SJG BBS but didn't investigate beyond the banner page. That is why the judge gave the SS agent a tounge lashing for a half assed investigation to the point of insinuating that they mislead the majistrate.
Two) As a member of the press SJG is protected for most forms of search. Although the SS agent is not expected to know the law it was expected that Assistent Federal Attorney Cox who wrote the wrote and obtained the search warrent would. Again, tounge lashing all around for not doing thier job and misleading the judge.
The problems with warrents is there is no burden of proof. You put an order in front of a judge stating the "facts" and he'll sign it. There is no check that the facts are correct.
The secret service holds an interesting place in law enforcement. As part of the department of tresury you'd think they'd only be going after counterfitters? Well, not really. The SS (as I like to call them) is a gun for hire. Are you a powerful company or gov't office? Well the secret service is there for you.
In this case the SS was the lackie of Bell South. The big companies had lobbied congress for some goon-squad funding for "computer crime."
Which, to the Bell Souths defence was the only option since the FBI won't do jack for you unless they can get a couple good press confrences out of it. And back in 1990 these types of stories weren't news worthy. And the hacker computer back then didn't have any script kiddies. Wisdom pervailed and no one took down the Bell South E911 system. All they would have had is some guy went dumpster diving and found a document and put it online...Ooooooooooo.
So, the SS is now the lackie of Big Business, in this case Bell South. They target Kluepfel for having the document open to the public, and decide to mess with him and anyone he knows. Enter Steve Jackson Games.
At this point you should be thinking "Gee, smear tactics to label legit businesses... Trumped up charges and a drawn out legal battle designed to force someone out of business... Can you say MPAA? I though you could."
It's great to see the EFF pervail, but the since the case was won so long after the initial flap it's page 10 news. If anything this should be a reminder that it's been 10 years since SJG. Although things haven't gotten worse, they certainly haven't gotten better. There's a long road ahead, and we should be glad the EFF is there.
Although I've read articles in the past that have noted IBM running linux on the 370, I liked this more detailed article.
It should be noted that a Mainframe has huge ammounts of I/O bandwidth. I've seen five year old mainframes put new as/400's to shame. By all rights the 400 has more processing power, but the mainframe has such huge ammounts of bandwidth that it can move the information around quicker. When you think of a web server you realize that the actual program isn't all that complicated. Most of the CPU time is dedicated to feeding I/O out to the TCP stack. A mainframe may not be as powerful as the as/400 or a new Xeon, but it has a lot of smaller processors, and they aren't wasting cycles waiting for I/O to give them something to crunch.
I'm talking about the linux market. Not retail sales. Most people I know who have linux boxes can be divided into two categories. One) Cheap POS gfx cards. Usually a Trident or some other sub $20 card that has decent Linux support. Two) High end. Usually a old creative card, like a banshee or voodoo 2. Although there are some who like to have TV features, I think most Linux user are using cards based on the BT chipset. This is a cheap turner card, but with huge support in the Linux world.
This leads to the question of will this actually hurt the DeCSS case? I can see the lawyers now saying that now that ATI (And Sigma too) have released linux drivers there is no reason for people to use DeCSS.
Of course the reality is that ATI has limited market share at best, and Sigma has even less. But we've gone from 0% market penitration to 5-10%. My fear is that the case will go on so long that the MPAA is going to seriously twist reality on this. (Not that they haven't already) It will no longer be about lawful reverse engineering.
DVDs costing more in the UK is very perdictable. It certainly isn't the first product you can go across the channel and find for less.
Besides a VAT (Value Added Tax) that makes a 9% east coast sales tax look like a deal you have inflated currency, and a confusing system that allows distributors to to mask higher prices. Many times the VAT or a higher price on sterling is blamed for why things simple cost more in the UK than anywhere else in Europe.
Take for instance Beer. You would think buying a pint of Guiness form a pub in the UK would be cheaper than buying it from the store in the States? Afterall, that pint in the States had to travel across the ocean, then buy truck several hundred miles. You'd be wrong. It's about 25% more.
Stocks have been traded in EUROs for some time in the UK, but the normal current is still Sterling (lbs). Consumers are starting to put together that most distributors have a vested interest in keeping the UK from fulling adopting the EU.
Once the UK changes the currency then tarrifs with other EU countries will be gone as well. That means that someone can see what a product costs across the channel in france.
With free trade, and a uniform currency then there is no way to hide the fact that you are screwing the UK consumer.
Of course that won't matter with region coding. If you make it hard to buy other region material then you will have defeated the purpose the the EU in the first place. A wedge of technology that is designed to maximize profits and take the "consumer choice" factor out of the equation.
That being said keep in mind that the inflated prices of UK products is usually going to the UK distributor and not directly to an American company. This is happening in the UK because they are letting it happen, just as we let the DMCA pass will little fanfair in the US.
I can understand them wanting to protect the apple logo. I think I expect people to know better.
It's odd though how some companies get about web sites or computer media in general that use logo's. In perticular Spelling Entertainment, and Fox. Two entities that are well known for crushing fan sites into dust.
The funny thing is these are the same companies that would pay to have product placement in movies.
They think it's great to have their products associated with controverial movies, but lord forbid losing control and have you product assocaited with a fan site.
Good PR is good PR. Don't bite the hand that feeds you/buys your products/watches your show.
It's a nice demo but take a look around at the places that sell CPU's. Go on look... Notice something? There doesn't seem to be anyone selling the 800Mhz chip Intel was "shipping in quantity" over a month ago.
Check Pricewatch, and thechipmerchant. No 800Mhz. Best they have is 733Mhz.
From what I gather the point of a defensive patent is to hold off predatory organizations such as Amazon. The question is of course is was it really needed?
On one hand of the equation you could argue that in the event of a law suit you could prove previous art existed and prevail. On the other hand you can say that by obtaining the patent you have protected yourself from the lawsuit in the first place. Or at the very least positioned yourself on the high ground making the opposition work a very hard game uphill.
Smiting Microsoft...others have suggested that BSD and the ilk could be licensed however Microsoft could be shut out. Although against the general morality factor of the Open Source community I doubt anyone would shed a tear for Microsoft. But, stealing code isn't anything new for them. See Stac Electronics V. Microsoft. But how would you prove that closed source violated your patent? Microsoft isn't going to just turn over their source to you. And for every expert you say that they stole your code they'd have another say the opposite. And this time they won't get caught tampering with the video tape evidence.
In the end the patent system in the country combined with the legal system does little to protect the interests of a small entity or person. when it is pitted against a large foe. It may offer a small bit of protection from a large company trying to "innovate" you into oblivion, but when it comes down to the basics it fails us all. Our legal system is based on throwing money at lawyers to solve the problem. When it is a case of a large foe against the little guy the little guy loses. Why? Because the little guy barely has enough money to cover lawyer cost for half the first trial. Couple appeals later your out a big sum of cash and don't have the means to go further.
Good read, very dramatic and all, it had serveral good facts in the story but there were some glaring omisions.
I didn't see jack about the Xeon and what it's market state is. The author is talking directly about Intel's margins getting chipped away yet there was nothing about how the Xeon is doing.
I agree with the fact that Intel is losing it's margins, but I've read too many stories like this about IBM over the years. I know better. Companies like Intel have huge investments, and large reserves. Even smaller companies like Apple have enough in reserves to last many years of beatings.
If you want to get me worried about my investments I need to see some hard numbers. Comparisons of fiscal reports. Reports of profits from Networking, chipsets and other lateral markets.
It's a nice read and make a good point about AMD opening a can of whoop ass...but "Death Toll for Intel"...give me a break.
Okay, this could be a bit off topic, but what's the deal with companies being incorporated in Delaware? I noticed that ALL the movie studios in the DeCSS flap were Delaware, MP3.COM is Delaware... Does being incorporated in Delaware give them some sort of legal advantage in these matters?
I think it's importent to remember that a judge is just a lawyer who wears a robe. A jugde is an elected official, but rarely do people know enough to make a qualified decision about which judge to vote for.
I think all the cards have been played now in this case as far as legal grand standing and media attention. A look at the latest zdnet.com comentery on Linus's remarks about the DVD flap shows that the media either going to a) Sell out or b) report on something that is actually new.
If this is going to work I think a couple things need to happen. First, this needs to be kept in the public light. Tell your friends, organize, let public opinion know that the man is trying to stick it to us. And for christ sake, if you're script kiddie, go home, lock yourself in your room, don't come out until 2001. It's YOUR comments slashdot and 2600 that gave the man the ability to get the injuction.
Second, play the game like the man, don't get played by the man. Don't refer to DeCSS as a "crack", "hack", or any other k001 terms. DeCSS is source code that was created by reverse engineering CSS in order to allow non-supported OS to play DVD's. If I wear to say "IBM reverse Engineered CSS and produced DeCSS to allow AIX systems to play DVD's" there would never be an injunction granted on those merits. Credibility is created by how things are phrased.
Third, there are other channels you can go to. Enough written letters to congressmen asking for oversight on this issue feeds the media and betters the cause. Let them know that your freedom of speech is being steped on and (in the words of Microsoft *snicker*) "The Freedom to Inovate" is being smashed!
Well, some of the questions were skirted (ie using PPC or AMD) but it's damned refreshing to see someone in a high possition say what we all know about software patents.
So many times I read "So and So has the legal obligation to share holders to patent software...blah blah blah..."
As far as sour grapes about not making the list...well, hey no matter what they do they will never make everyone happy. It's just not possible. At least they are making a try at it. Most IPO's only go to large valued customers at big brokerage houses. I.e. Not John Smith with the e-trade account.
Back in the 50's, yeah University was free or low cost. The state paid most of the bill. Now days you're lucky to get by under 2K a quarter.
My Point: State Funding for school hasn't exactly been on the raise in the past 20 years. Until the state can prove they're paying the majority of the bill I don't think they have any right ot dictate college life.
I think it would be much more productive to look at all the money that goes into college and figure out where that goes. Considering all the money that sports generate, money from alums., money from corporations, etc. Then consider sitting in a 300 student Calc I class being taught by the unpaid non-english speaking TA. Maybe the fact that most students who are paying their own way feel like they've been screwed has something to do with the drop out rate...
Perhaps this just seems obvious to me, but it seems to me that all the raw materials needed to effect change are here. You have the people who want the change. These people are usually in some sort of technical field and statistically make more money that the average. You have up to date information. And you have a community that generates huge volumes of feedback.
This is the base for a political organization. A lobby if you will.
WHY: I've seen a pattern over the past few months of slashdot articles. Whenever we are critical of those who enforce gov't regulations we find that the responce is: "I'm just enforcing the law, if you don't like it, get the law changed." This is something that corporations understand. The DMCA didn't just appear out of the blue.
The fact is there is no one out there looking after the geek interests. There are great organizations like the ACLU, however, I don't think they understand the issues like we do. And organizations like the EFF, while do a very good job, are not really chartered to loby congress.
WHO: Everyone who's a nerd. I don't care if you use Linux, Windows, or even Mac OS. You're a geek and it's about time we organize. It's proven that a well organized loby does in fact effect change. Look at the AARP (The old people loby;).) You can joke about them all you want but the fact is they are very effective. Everyone knows that the best voter turn out is the older generation.
MISSION: I'm not suggesting a silly "Rock the Vote" type campain. I'm talking about a real loby with a technology edge. I'd like to see on-line voting records on key laws. I'd like it clear that we are watching the law makers and we will be presenting the facts to members on how you voted on issues. Big companies can swing a lot of money, but I think we could swing a lot of votes.
SLASHDOT: Slashdot it self should not be the loby. It has far more value as members of the press. But I think slashdot could be the starting place for action.
They can't touch transmeta. Reason being that transmeta is having IBM fab the chips. IBM and Intel have a cross license that pretty much makes it possible for IBM to make an exact clone of a PIII chip and sell it. To ward off Anti-trust fears Intel did a number of these agreements with large vendors. The idea being that, while IBM has some of the best fab facilities in the world they can't d it as cheaply as Intel. And in this cut throat market nobody is going ot pay more for the CPU than they have to.
Most of the six law suits that Intel failed to prevail against Cryix were based on the fact that some of the production was fabed by IBM.
This brings up the interesting point of how much of a leg does VIA have to stand on? The VIA PR guy claims that Intel never won against Cryix so they aren't worried. But this case is different. I would wager that VIA's key point will be based on if the license agreement is really terminated because Intel said so?
On the bright site I would not be suprised to see the OEM's that via is sending chips to here in the states file with the court on behalf of VIA. They will get just as hurt as Via if Intel prevails.
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REDHAT is never going to have the same level of support cert as Microsoft. The reason? Microsoft . They own a chunk of Sylvin-Prometic. With out a national testing system willing to give the Redhat test how can it work?
I don't think it would take that long to build up the number of trainers. But you need a place to give the tests.
Certifications aren't a scam per se, but there is a marketing and profit center aspect to them. The idea of the MCSE was pretty much stolen from Novell way back when. Back in 92' my CNE instructor said that CNE was the greatest invention since sliced bread. You get people to pay you to do your support.
This is not say there is not value in the test. There was a time when a CNE was a pretty smart person. But the same problem with the CNE tests also exist for MCSE. The tests don't change much. The never changes. It makes it easier for people to slip by who really shouldn't.
Usually there are two types of people in the IT field. Those who have "it"...and those who don't. I've found that the longer time goes by the less you can rely on a Title to dictate knowledge or skill level. People can cram for a test. When they get on the job they slip. The more interviews I have with the "highly" qualified MCSE the more I find that they are being pumped through for profit schools and that they lack the down and dirty basic knowledge of the computer. And example is a MCSE whom was asked how to install a NIC card. His reply was that he'd have "PC Support" people do it.
I've found there are people who barely have a high school diploma that have a better understanding of what's going on inside the computer than a CompSci Major with an MCSE.
This is where I think CISCO does a good job. Tests based on real problems. Have the student configure the router. Send them out to lunch and mess with it. They pass if they can fix it. These are real problem solving skills that can't be taught from a Dummies book. You have to understand what's going on. NOT ONLY HOW TO CONFIGURE SOMETHING, BUT WHY YOU CONFIGURE IT THAT WAY. You either have it or you don't.
Slackware is certainly known to be one of the longest running Linux Distro's. It's popular among ISP who like the advanced user interface.
However, a year ago many ISP mailing lists were commenting that Slackware releases were few and far between. Poeple wondered if Slackware was still being developed. Now there is a lot of momentium behind Slackware.
Was there this perception of Slackware no longer being developed real? Or would you say it's associated with the low key media attention Slackware gets (or doesn't get)?
The X Box is the best thing to come out of M$ since the California MSN rebate money. Why you ask?
Well, game consoles are sold at a loss. Sega, Sony, Nintendo, it's at cost, or below cost. Maybe* when you start pumping 15 Million units a year do you start seeing money from console sales. It's all in the games. Getting a chunk of the game sales makes up for the loss of the console.
Okay, so MS will lose money if people don't buy the games...what does that get us? Well, let's look at eh X-Box. It's all standard PC stuff. Probally Micro ATX form factor. In fact it's probally the same system that ASUS sells to various US phone companies for their set top boxes.
So what does that get you? Add Linux, Mozilla, X Window. You're got a nice set top box that will run all the fun software from Loki, and has a good (non-MS) web browser to boot. Best of all MS took a bath on this because you're never going to buy a X-Box game.
The problem was more in how the switch from being ARPA to comercial was handled. A lot of loose ends were left up in the air and the real power went to NSI. Everytime ICAN rattled the saber they were slapped around by certain congress members. 21 Bil for NSI goes a long way.
At any account the two large issues were trademark and the incredible chunks of change a row in a database cost.
As for trademarks I echo what others have said. Although there are rules in place they arn't applied across the board. For instance, by NSI's rules etoy should have never been pulled. But the deeper issues are corporate interests VS. "the little guy".
An example is nissan.com. This domain is owned by Mr. Nissan, (who's family has held the name for almost 3000 years). Nissan Computer Corp has had a trademark since 1991 on the name. Nissan Motor corp wants the name. Although NSI rules have kept Nissan Motors from taking the name outright they can still litigate Mr. Nissan into the poor house.
No matter how you cut it money and power pervail over rightful ownership.
Not really. Nissan and Ford have very close ties , in fact Nissan, Mazda and Ford have been involved in Joint Ventures since the 60's. It would never be allowed for Mazda to be owned by a forign company. Mazda has agreed has allowed some of it's joint ventures outside of Japan to have the controlling shares owned by Ford. This is not unusual because they also have JV's with Matsushita. Ford has increased it's shares of Mazda to 33.4 percent (Which was a scandel in itself.) 66 percent of Mazda Japan is owned by Japanesse interests. Ford is a large partner of Mazda and has enough stock in the company to throw some weight around. But Mazda is not "owned" by form. In fact is you go to Mazda's japanesse web site they have a page that is dedicated to explaining why Ford does not own Mazda.
I doubt this story has anything to do with crypto or the ilk. Japan is a very protectionist country. If a large company like sony (Who's profits have been on the decline because of the yen) asks to Japanese gov't keep the PSx2's inside the country so marketing doesn't get ruined then that's what is going to happen.
To date no japanese company has ever been purchased by a forign company.
When the first American company (Cargill, Inc. the largest private company in the world) attempted to trade on the nippon market they were boycotted. They had to enter into a partnership with a Japanese company before anyone would accept their trades.
This is nothing new to a country that has a long history of being over protective with their markets.
Ever been to Hopkins? Let me explain something. Hopkins is small suburban town USA. There are two employers out there who would be considered big. SuperValue Foods and Alient Tech (Former Division of Honeywell that makes big guns and bombs). There aren't a whole lot of other companies that have more than a couple hundred employees. Most offices in the town have less 50 people.
The police force is feeble at best. If they made an arrest it was because whatever companies involved spoon fed them the case.
Had you read the judges decision you would have found that the the Gov't messed up on two points:
One) The investigation of SJG was slim at best before the warrent. The SS connected to the SJG BBS but didn't investigate beyond the banner page. That is why the judge gave the SS agent a tounge lashing for a half assed investigation to the point of insinuating that they mislead the majistrate.
Two) As a member of the press SJG is protected for most forms of search. Although the SS agent is not expected to know the law it was expected that Assistent Federal Attorney Cox who wrote the wrote and obtained the search warrent would. Again, tounge lashing all around for not doing thier job and misleading the judge.
The problems with warrents is there is no burden of proof. You put an order in front of a judge stating the "facts" and he'll sign it. There is no check that the facts are correct.
The secret service holds an interesting place in law enforcement. As part of the department of tresury you'd think they'd only be going after counterfitters? Well, not really. The SS (as I like to call them) is a gun for hire. Are you a powerful company or gov't office? Well the secret service is there for you.
In this case the SS was the lackie of Bell South. The big companies had lobbied congress for some goon-squad funding for "computer crime."
Which, to the Bell Souths defence was the only option since the FBI won't do jack for you unless they can get a couple good press confrences out of it. And back in 1990 these types of stories weren't news worthy. And the hacker computer back then didn't have any script kiddies. Wisdom pervailed and no one took down the Bell South E911 system. All they would have had is some guy went dumpster diving and found a document and put it online...Ooooooooooo.
So, the SS is now the lackie of Big Business, in this case Bell South. They target Kluepfel for having the document open to the public, and decide to mess with him and anyone he knows. Enter Steve Jackson Games.
At this point you should be thinking "Gee, smear tactics to label legit businesses... Trumped up charges and a drawn out legal battle designed to force someone out of business... Can you say MPAA? I though you could."
It's great to see the EFF pervail, but the since the case was won so long after the initial flap it's page 10 news. If anything this should be a reminder that it's been 10 years since SJG. Although things haven't gotten worse, they certainly haven't gotten better. There's a long road ahead, and we should be glad the EFF is there.
Although I've read articles in the past that have noted IBM running linux on the 370, I liked this more detailed article.
It should be noted that a Mainframe has huge ammounts of I/O bandwidth. I've seen five year old mainframes put new as/400's to shame. By all rights the 400 has more processing power, but the mainframe has such huge ammounts of bandwidth that it can move the information around quicker. When you think of a web server you realize that the actual program isn't all that complicated. Most of the CPU time is dedicated to feeding I/O out to the TCP stack. A mainframe may not be as powerful as the as/400 or a new Xeon, but it has a lot of smaller processors, and they aren't wasting cycles waiting for I/O to give them something to crunch.
I'm talking about the linux market. Not retail sales. Most people I know who have linux boxes can be divided into two categories. One) Cheap POS gfx cards. Usually a Trident or some other sub $20 card that has decent Linux support. Two) High end. Usually a old creative card, like a banshee or voodoo 2. Although there are some who like to have TV features, I think most Linux user are using cards based on the BT chipset. This is a cheap turner card, but with huge support in the Linux world.
This leads to the question of will this actually hurt the DeCSS case? I can see the lawyers now saying that now that ATI (And Sigma too) have released linux drivers there is no reason for people to use DeCSS.
Of course the reality is that ATI has limited market share at best, and Sigma has even less. But we've gone from 0% market penitration to 5-10%. My fear is that the case will go on so long that the MPAA is going to seriously twist reality on this. (Not that they haven't already) It will no longer be about lawful reverse engineering.
DVDs costing more in the UK is very perdictable. It certainly isn't the first product you can go across the channel and find for less.
Besides a VAT (Value Added Tax) that makes a 9% east coast sales tax look like a deal you have inflated currency, and a confusing system that allows distributors to to mask higher prices. Many times the VAT or a higher price on sterling is blamed for why things simple cost more in the UK than anywhere else in Europe.
Take for instance Beer. You would think buying a pint of Guiness form a pub in the UK would be cheaper than buying it from the store in the States? Afterall, that pint in the States had to travel across the ocean, then buy truck several hundred miles. You'd be wrong. It's about 25% more.
Stocks have been traded in EUROs for some time in the UK, but the normal current is still Sterling (lbs). Consumers are starting to put together that most distributors have a vested interest in keeping the UK from fulling adopting the EU.
Once the UK changes the currency then tarrifs with other EU countries will be gone as well. That means that someone can see what a product costs across the channel in france.
With free trade, and a uniform currency then there is no way to hide the fact that you are screwing the UK consumer.
Of course that won't matter with region coding. If you make it hard to buy other region material then you will have defeated the purpose the the EU in the first place. A wedge of technology that is designed to maximize profits and take the "consumer choice" factor out of the equation.
That being said keep in mind that the inflated prices of UK products is usually going to the UK distributor and not directly to an American company. This is happening in the UK because they are letting it happen, just as we let the DMCA pass will little fanfair in the US.
I can understand them wanting to protect the apple logo. I think I expect people to know better.
It's odd though how some companies get about web sites or computer media in general that use logo's. In perticular Spelling Entertainment, and Fox. Two entities that are well known for crushing fan sites into dust.
The funny thing is these are the same companies that would pay to have product placement in movies.
They think it's great to have their products associated with controverial movies, but lord forbid losing control and have you product assocaited with a fan site.
Good PR is good PR. Don't bite the hand that feeds you/buys your products/watches your show.
It's a nice demo but take a look around at the places that sell CPU's. Go on look... Notice something? There doesn't seem to be anyone selling the 800Mhz chip Intel was "shipping in quantity" over a month ago.
Check Pricewatch, and thechipmerchant. No 800Mhz. Best they have is 733Mhz.
Plenty of AMD though.
From what I gather the point of a defensive patent is to hold off predatory organizations such as Amazon. The question is of course is was it really needed?
On one hand of the equation you could argue that in the event of a law suit you could prove previous art existed and prevail. On the other hand you can say that by obtaining the patent you have protected yourself from the lawsuit in the first place. Or at the very least positioned yourself on the high ground making the opposition work a very hard game uphill.
Smiting Microsoft...others have suggested that BSD and the ilk could be licensed however Microsoft could be shut out. Although against the general morality factor of the Open Source community I doubt anyone would shed a tear for Microsoft. But, stealing code isn't anything new for them. See Stac Electronics V. Microsoft. But how would you prove that closed source violated your patent? Microsoft isn't going to just turn over their source to you. And for every expert you say that they stole your code they'd have another say the opposite. And this time they won't get caught tampering with the video tape evidence.
In the end the patent system in the country combined with the legal system does little to protect the interests of a small entity or person. when it is pitted against a large foe. It may offer a small bit of protection from a large company trying to "innovate" you into oblivion, but when it comes down to the basics it fails us all. Our legal system is based on throwing money at lawyers to solve the problem. When it is a case of a large foe against the little guy the little guy loses. Why? Because the little guy barely has enough money to cover lawyer cost for half the first trial. Couple appeals later your out a big sum of cash and don't have the means to go further.
Good read, very dramatic and all, it had serveral good facts in the story but there were some glaring omisions.
I didn't see jack about the Xeon and what it's market state is. The author is talking directly about Intel's margins getting chipped away yet there was nothing about how the Xeon is doing.
I agree with the fact that Intel is losing it's margins, but I've read too many stories like this about IBM over the years. I know better. Companies like Intel have huge investments, and large reserves. Even smaller companies like Apple have enough in reserves to last many years of beatings.
If you want to get me worried about my investments I need to see some hard numbers. Comparisons of fiscal reports. Reports of profits from Networking, chipsets and other lateral markets.
It's a nice read and make a good point about AMD opening a can of whoop ass...but "Death Toll for Intel"...give me a break.
Okay, this could be a bit off topic, but what's the deal with companies being incorporated in Delaware? I noticed that ALL the movie studios in the DeCSS flap were Delaware, MP3.COM is Delaware... Does being incorporated in Delaware give them some sort of legal advantage in these matters?
I think it's importent to remember that a judge is just a lawyer who wears a robe. A jugde is an elected official, but rarely do people know enough to make a qualified decision about which judge to vote for.
I think all the cards have been played now in this case as far as legal grand standing and media attention. A look at the latest zdnet.com comentery on Linus's remarks about the DVD flap shows that the media either going to a) Sell out or b) report on something that is actually new.
If this is going to work I think a couple things need to happen. First, this needs to be kept in the public light. Tell your friends, organize, let public opinion know that the man is trying to stick it to us. And for christ sake, if you're script kiddie, go home, lock yourself in your room, don't come out until 2001. It's YOUR comments slashdot and 2600 that gave the man the ability to get the injuction.
Second, play the game like the man, don't get played by the man. Don't refer to DeCSS as a "crack", "hack", or any other k001 terms. DeCSS is source code that was created by reverse engineering CSS in order to allow non-supported OS to play DVD's. If I wear to say "IBM reverse Engineered CSS and produced DeCSS to allow AIX systems to play DVD's" there would never be an injunction granted on those merits. Credibility is created by how things are phrased.
Third, there are other channels you can go to. Enough written letters to congressmen asking for oversight on this issue feeds the media and betters the cause. Let them know that your freedom of speech is being steped on and (in the words of Microsoft *snicker*) "The Freedom to Inovate" is being smashed!
Well, some of the questions were skirted (ie using PPC or AMD) but it's damned refreshing to see someone in a high possition say what we all know about software patents.
So many times I read "So and So has the legal obligation to share holders to patent software...blah blah blah..."
As far as sour grapes about not making the list...well, hey no matter what they do they will never make everyone happy. It's just not possible. At least they are making a try at it. Most IPO's only go to large valued customers at big brokerage houses. I.e. Not John Smith with the e-trade account.
Back in the 50's, yeah University was free or low cost. The state paid most of the bill. Now days you're lucky to get by under 2K a quarter.
My Point: State Funding for school hasn't exactly been on the raise in the past 20 years. Until the state can prove they're paying the majority of the bill I don't think they have any right ot dictate college life.
I think it would be much more productive to look at all the money that goes into college and figure out where that goes. Considering all the money that sports generate, money from alums., money from corporations, etc. Then consider sitting in a 300 student Calc I class being taught by the unpaid non-english speaking TA. Maybe the fact that most students who are paying their own way feel like they've been screwed has something to do with the drop out rate...
Perhaps this just seems obvious to me, but it seems to me that all the raw materials needed to effect change are here. You have the people who want the change. These people are usually in some sort of technical field and statistically make more money that the average. You have up to date information. And you have a community that generates huge volumes of feedback.
;) .) You can joke about them all you want but the fact is they are very effective. Everyone knows that the best voter turn out is the older generation.
This is the base for a political organization. A lobby if you will.
WHY: I've seen a pattern over the past few months of slashdot articles. Whenever we are critical of those who enforce gov't regulations we find that the responce is: "I'm just enforcing the law, if you don't like it, get the law changed." This is something that corporations understand. The DMCA didn't just appear out of the blue.
The fact is there is no one out there looking after the geek interests. There are great organizations like the ACLU, however, I don't think they understand the issues like we do. And organizations like the EFF, while do a very good job, are not really chartered to loby congress.
WHO: Everyone who's a nerd. I don't care if you use Linux, Windows, or even Mac OS. You're a geek and it's about time we organize. It's proven that a well organized loby does in fact effect change. Look at the AARP (The old people loby
MISSION: I'm not suggesting a silly "Rock the Vote" type campain. I'm talking about a real loby with a technology edge. I'd like to see on-line voting records on key laws. I'd like it clear that we are watching the law makers and we will be presenting the facts to members on how you voted on issues. Big companies can swing a lot of money, but I think we could swing a lot of votes.
SLASHDOT: Slashdot it self should not be the loby. It has far more value as members of the press. But I think slashdot could be the starting place for action.
Considering that Philips is a big player in TiVO I doubt there will be a chance of injunction. Maybe in 5-10 years they might get some money over it.
My question is why isn't replay being sued too? The technology is pretty much the same.
They can't touch transmeta. Reason being that transmeta is having IBM fab the chips. IBM and Intel have a cross license that pretty much makes it possible for IBM to make an exact clone of a PIII chip and sell it. To ward off Anti-trust fears Intel did a number of these agreements with large vendors. The idea being that, while IBM has some of the best fab facilities in the world they can't d it as cheaply as Intel. And in this cut throat market nobody is going ot pay more for the CPU than they have to.
Most of the six law suits that Intel failed to prevail against Cryix were based on the fact that some of the production was fabed by IBM.
This brings up the interesting point of how much of a leg does VIA have to stand on? The VIA PR guy claims that Intel never won against Cryix so they aren't worried. But this case is different. I would wager that VIA's key point will be based on if the license agreement is really terminated because Intel said so?
On the bright site I would not be suprised to see the OEM's that via is sending chips to here in the states file with the court on behalf of VIA. They will get just as hurt as Via if Intel prevails.