... who is being partisan? (or maybe this comment should have been titled "Case in point, 2")
You could always read the following quote from the above/. article summary:-
Case in point: Enron's Kenneth Lay, who died of natural causes last week, shortly after being sentenced to prison. His Wikipedia entry was altered repeatedly to include unfounded rumors that he had killed himself, or the stress from his trial had caused the heart attack
as itself being partisan in assuming the "rumours" are "unfounded" and the death was owing to "natural causes". Please note that I am not suggesting an opinion either way on the facts of Kenneth Lay's death, only pointing out that accusations of partisanship in the media (including "The Washington Post" and even "Slashdot"!) work both ways!
One odd thing about the site is that the www.openlinux.org address resolves (at least from here) as 131.188.40.90 which according to a Network whois is in a netblock owned by the University of Erlangen, Nuremberg.
The domain name does look to be SCO owned though according to the domain whois.
"Spin, spin, spin the Wheel of Justice, see how fast the B****rd turns". -- I know what you're thinking, but I am not a nut-bag. -- Millroy the Magician
45mins is, I would guess, on the shorter side of average for London commutes.
My commute time is currently 40-45 minutes door to door (~8 minutes walk, ~5 minutes wait, ~30 minutes underground). I am shortly moving house to somewhere further from London where I'll have something more like 1.5 hours commute (15 minutes walk, 45 minutes train, 8 minutes walk, plus time waiting for the train). Why? Quality of life/living environment. The size and type of house that I can afford further from London is far better than property of comparable price where I currently live. I also prefer to live in a countryside location rathern than the urban sprawl of my current location.
I have no qualms about the extra commute time. Then again, I do have an employer who is fairly flexible about work hours and working from home so perhaps I'm not the best sample point.
Not many people that I know at work have commutes any shorter than 45 minutes. Many have 1.5 hours or longer.
Instead of bitching, write a proxy program that sends a text file over SSH connection with rate limiting. Shouldn't be hard either - read a character from standard input (or file), write it to standard output (connected to the SSH program), sleep 250 milliseconds (better yet, 200 + random(1-100), to keep the rate from being suspiciously even), repeat until end of file is reached, exit.
The original poster could even re-use the code in the Expect language entry for the 99 bottles of beer song which not only simulates a human typing, it also simulates said human getting drunker and drunker as the song goes on and making more and more typing errors. Entirely consistent with student programming projects;-)
In fact, this claim is based on the technologies acquired in the Symantec/Veritas merger/takeover.
The Veritas technologies in question are used (and hence make a profit for Symantec) on many operating systems other than windows. For example, I'd guess (without checking - maybe I'm wrong) that the bulk of the profits form their VxVM volume management technology come from their sales on the Solaris platform.
There's more to Symantec than the antivirus area nowadays (where 'doze is the primary place they can make a profit). -- This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. -- Wolfgang Pauli
As far as I can tell from reading around the voluminous literature about IE's (and other browsers, but mainly IE's) brokenness, it would appear that they are likely to fix some of the bugs people have used to work around their brokenness, without fixing the underlying brokenness (e.g. the bug required to use the "holly hack" or the "* HTML" hack.
The following (which you are probably aware of, but others may not be) are good references on CSS/HTML/XHTML etc. which I came across whilst trying to work out why my standards compliant pages were so badly broken in IE6 -- it absolutely amazed me how much of the websites about CSS etc. are devoted to IE bugs and workarounds.
Actually, it's well known (outside of Kansas) that blackberries evolved from navel fluff. -- I'm not politically incorrect, I'm just differently articulate
I read it as a typo/thinko for "gut-rending" (or perhaps the effect poorly trained speech recognition software on it!) which is a commonly mistaken attempt at "gut-wrenching" (perhaps mixing it up with "heart-rending"). -- This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. -- Wolfgang Pauli
As a completely off-topic aside, his brother Daniel Sleator is a CS prof who re-wrote the internet chess server code, morphing it into what is now the internet chess club. -- I'm always serious, never more so than when I'm being flippant. -- Cr. Ziller
My only issue is that I'm a little weary about using only my laptop for storing e-mail, since it's a lot more likely to fail.
but why does "using only your laptop for storing e-mail" make you tired?
Note that, in accordance with a long tradition of posts pointing out spelling errors, this post has not been previewed in the hope that it will then contain at least one spelling error. -- I know what you're thinking, but I am not a nut-bag. -- Millroy the Magician
So, Sony's losses in having to recall and replace something like 5 million CDs (at least) by anywhere between 20 and 50+ artists any aren't real losses? That won't cost SonyBMG real money?
The reference above to "losses" (at least the one I wrote in the article submission, assuming that's the one you refer to) was to these, absolutely real, monetary losses.
I couldn't agree more that the so-called losses owing to "piracy" (incidentally, isn't this also "falling for their vocabulary changes" - surely you meant "copyright infringement"?) are not real at all and are, for the most part, random numbers apparently generated at will by RIAA/MPAA to sensationalise copyright infringement cases.
Dynamic prices - very good fun for beer. Went to a bar in Hong Kong in 1999 (I think) that worked like this.
They had large display boards with the beer prices and every 10 minutes or so, the prices would change depending on what had sold in the last 10 minutes. Great fun. I know there are other places around the world that also do/did this (e.g. I think Manchester or Leeds in England once had one called the Beer Exchange).
Yeah, you're right -- very good point -- Windows XP was a bad example. (I even thought about the "genuine Windows" offer you mention after I wrote my comment).
I probably should have used one of the Adobe, Apple or Microsoft applications that the company in this story got caught for (whatever they were) as my example.
That said, Microsoft's genuine Windows offer is just that, an offer they choose to make for the reasons you state above, so perhaps I should have said that MS could theoretically have come after me, and my claim that Honest John said it was genuine probably wouldn't save me in court.
I could be completely wrong here, but since Sony distributed the software, isn't the copyright owner's primary recourse against Sony, not first4internet?
If Sony then wants to try and recoup any monetary damages it has to pay, or try and repair some of the reputational damage by itself suing first4internet for breach of contract/misrepresentation or whatever (I'd hope that Sony would have some form of undertaking/indemnification from f4i that they were actually legally able to license the software to Sony or would have done enough due diligence on the deal to be sure that the software was indeed f4i's to license) then fine. But isn't that Sony's prerogative?
I would have thought that the Copyright owner could also go against f4i if they so wished, but surely they must be able to sue Sony as the distributor.
I'd draw a (probably flawed) analogy as follows: Suppose I go down to a computer fair and buy 20 Windows XP CDs from "Honest John's Windows Stall" which he tells me are genuinely licensed Microsoft products (but in fact are not). Then if I use these CDs, and Microsoft or the BSA come after me for using unlicensed Software, can I claim that they have no case against me - they should take it up with "Honest John"? What if instead of using the dodgy Windows copies, I instead sell them on (assuming this isn't against the terms of the (supposedly MS) EULA that "Honest John" showed me when I bought them). Can I again claim that MS or the BSA should leave me alone and go after Honest John? I imagine that they'd like to go after him too, but I bet that wouldn't stop them pursuing me.
Apologies in advance if there is a Slashdot user called "Honest John" - I'm not really suggesting you're a software pirate (Unless of course you work for Sony and were responsible for distributing this GPL software without complying with the license;-) ). -- I'm always serious, never more so than when I'm being flippant. -- Cr. Ziller
I think that the LGPL violation is one of the major issues in this story. since it seems pretty clear that.ocx files on the CD actually statically link LAME code (i.e. it's not just a few strings/tables included in go.exe either accidentally, or as part of a LAME recognition routine as was previously speculated).
I'm surprised that more isn't being made of it either by the media (who could doubtless use Sony/RIAA-type language to describe it "Sony distributes pirated software on copy-protected CDs" or even more sensationalist "Sony stole software for virus CDs") or the LAME maintainers/copyright holders.
I'd love to see Sony forced to explain/justify their own copyright infringement to the public at large, and preferably to the courts.
-- I'm not politically incorrect, I'm just differently articulate
Aargh... replace "doing this than" with "doing this then". Ironically, "than" in place of "then" is one of the typos/thinkos/idiocies that most annoys me when I read it elsewhere (I think "loose" in place of "lose" is the worst though). -- This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. -- Wolfgang Pauli
I am simply pointing out that the poster of the article has used several 'loaded' words in a situation where they do not actually apply.
The original poster (me) merely used words quoted from one of the articles he linked in his submission in order to help summarise it. My first reaction therefore was to just reply "RTFA". Unfortunately, the article link in question has been trimmed by the/. editor before posting the story so "TFA" in question wasn't there to "R".
If their claim of Sony being "one of up to five leading companies" doing this than "cartel" may indeed be correct. Of course that would imply some collusion taking place. The other companies they claim are involved are Panasonic, Sharp, Phillips and Hitachi.
Hope this clears up the language in the original submission.
-- I'm not politically incorrect, I'm just differently articulate
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah - me too.
</aol>
Gopher all the way. A colleague showed me this WorldWideWeb thingy from his NeXT station, but I really couldn't see the point.
(Sorry - couldn't resist.)
--
I know what you're thinking, but I am not a nut-bag. -- Millroy the Magician
You could always read the following quote from the above /. article summary:-
as itself being partisan in assuming the "rumours" are "unfounded" and the death was owing to "natural causes". Please note that I am not suggesting an opinion either way on the facts of Kenneth Lay's death, only pointing out that accusations of partisanship in the media (including "The Washington Post" and even "Slashdot"!) work both ways!
The domain name does look to be SCO owned though according to the domain whois.
See this link for details.
"Spin, spin, spin the Wheel of Justice, see how fast the B****rd turns".
--
I know what you're thinking, but I am not a nut-bag. -- Millroy the Magician
My commute time is currently 40-45 minutes door to door (~8 minutes walk, ~5 minutes wait, ~30 minutes underground). I am shortly moving house to somewhere further from London where I'll have something more like 1.5 hours commute (15 minutes walk, 45 minutes train, 8 minutes walk, plus time waiting for the train). Why? Quality of life/living environment. The size and type of house that I can afford further from London is far better than property of comparable price where I currently live. I also prefer to live in a countryside location rathern than the urban sprawl of my current location.
I have no qualms about the extra commute time. Then again, I do have an employer who is fairly flexible about work hours and working from home so perhaps I'm not the best sample point.
Not many people that I know at work have commutes any shorter than 45 minutes. Many have 1.5 hours or longer.
The original poster could even re-use the code in the Expect language entry for the 99 bottles of beer song which not only simulates a human typing, it also simulates said human getting drunker and drunker as the song goes on and making more and more typing errors. Entirely consistent with student programming projects ;-)
The Veritas technologies in question are used (and hence make a profit for Symantec) on many operating systems other than windows. For example, I'd guess (without checking - maybe I'm wrong) that the bulk of the profits form their VxVM volume management technology come from their sales on the Solaris platform.
There's more to Symantec than the antivirus area nowadays (where 'doze is the primary place they can make a profit).
--
This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. -- Wolfgang Pauli
The following (which you are probably aware of, but others may not be) are good references on CSS/HTML/XHTML etc. which I came across whilst trying to work out why my standards compliant pages were so badly broken in IE6 -- it absolutely amazed me how much of the websites about CSS etc. are devoted to IE bugs and workarounds.
Cheers,
Mark
Chess! Oh, and NetHack, of course.
--
I know what you're thinking, but I am not a nut-bag. -- Millroy the Magician
Actually, it's well known (outside of Kansas) that blackberries evolved from navel fluff.
--
I'm not politically incorrect, I'm just differently articulate
I read it as a typo/thinko for "gut-rending" (or perhaps the effect poorly trained speech recognition software on it!) which is a commonly mistaken attempt at "gut-wrenching" (perhaps mixing it up with "heart-rending").
--
This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. -- Wolfgang Pauli
As a completely off-topic aside, his brother Daniel Sleator is a CS prof who re-wrote the internet chess server code, morphing it into what is now the internet chess club.
--
I'm always serious, never more so than when I'm being flippant. -- Cr. Ziller
Note that, in accordance with a long tradition of posts pointing out spelling errors, this post has not been previewed in the hope that it will then contain at least one spelling error.
--
I know what you're thinking, but I am not a nut-bag. -- Millroy the Magician
You want the special stones made of "ferrous and non-ferrous materials" and "quartz crystal oscillators" near the transformers of your equipment!
So there.
The reference above to "losses" (at least the one I wrote in the article submission, assuming that's the one you refer to) was to these, absolutely real, monetary losses.
I couldn't agree more that the so-called losses owing to "piracy" (incidentally, isn't this also "falling for their vocabulary changes" - surely you meant "copyright infringement"?) are not real at all and are, for the most part, random numbers apparently generated at will by RIAA/MPAA to sensationalise copyright infringement cases.
They had large display boards with the beer prices and every 10 minutes or so, the prices would change depending on what had sold in the last 10 minutes. Great fun. I know there are other places around the world that also do/did this (e.g. I think Manchester or Leeds in England once had one called the Beer Exchange).
I probably should have used one of the Adobe, Apple or Microsoft applications that the company in this story got caught for (whatever they were) as my example.
That said, Microsoft's genuine Windows offer is just that, an offer they choose to make for the reasons you state above, so perhaps I should have said that MS could theoretically have come after me, and my claim that Honest John said it was genuine probably wouldn't save me in court.
I could be completely wrong here, but since Sony distributed the software, isn't the copyright owner's primary recourse against Sony, not first4internet?
If Sony then wants to try and recoup any monetary damages it has to pay, or try and repair some of the reputational damage by itself suing first4internet for breach of contract/misrepresentation or whatever (I'd hope that Sony would have some form of undertaking/indemnification from f4i that they were actually legally able to license the software to Sony or would have done enough due diligence on the deal to be sure that the software was indeed f4i's to license) then fine. But isn't that Sony's prerogative?
I would have thought that the Copyright owner could also go against f4i if they so wished, but surely they must be able to sue Sony as the distributor.
I'd draw a (probably flawed) analogy as follows: Suppose I go down to a computer fair and buy 20 Windows XP CDs from "Honest John's Windows Stall" which he tells me are genuinely licensed Microsoft products (but in fact are not). Then if I use these CDs, and Microsoft or the BSA come after me for using unlicensed Software, can I claim that they have no case against me - they should take it up with "Honest John"? What if instead of using the dodgy Windows copies, I instead sell them on (assuming this isn't against the terms of the (supposedly MS) EULA that "Honest John" showed me when I bought them). Can I again claim that MS or the BSA should leave me alone and go after Honest John? I imagine that they'd like to go after him too, but I bet that wouldn't stop them pursuing me.
Apologies in advance if there is a Slashdot user called "Honest John" - I'm not really suggesting you're a software pirate (Unless of course you work for Sony and were responsible for distributing this GPL software without complying with the license ;-) ).
--
I'm always serious, never more so than when I'm being flippant. -- Cr. Ziller
I'm surprised that more isn't being made of it either by the media (who could doubtless use Sony/RIAA-type language to describe it "Sony distributes pirated software on copy-protected CDs" or even more sensationalist "Sony stole software for virus CDs") or the LAME maintainers/copyright holders.
I'd love to see Sony forced to explain/justify their own copyright infringement to the public at large, and preferably to the courts.
--
I'm not politically incorrect, I'm just differently articulate
Aargh... replace "doing this than" with "doing this then". Ironically, "than" in place of "then" is one of the typos/thinkos/idiocies that most annoys me when I read it elsewhere (I think "loose" in place of "lose" is the worst though).
--
This isn't right. This isn't even wrong. -- Wolfgang Pauli
The original poster (me) merely used words quoted from one of the articles he linked in his submission in order to help summarise it. My first reaction therefore was to just reply "RTFA". Unfortunately, the article link in question has been trimmed by the /. editor before posting the story so "TFA" in question wasn't there to "R".
The article I refer to is here at The Scotsman.
If their claim of Sony being "one of up to five leading companies" doing this than "cartel" may indeed be correct. Of course that would imply some collusion taking place. The other companies they claim are involved are Panasonic, Sharp, Phillips and Hitachi.
Hope this clears up the language in the original submission.
--
I'm not politically incorrect, I'm just differently articulate
Sony rootkit's web-based uninstaller opens huge security hole on computers
--
I'm always serious, never more so than when I'm being flippant. -- Cr. Ziller