just because it is legal and you happen to agree with it, doesn't make it not censorship.
QFT, and/signed.
Waiting patiently to be modded into oblivion, even though "I hate censorship" is actually on-topic, and "you should hate censorship, too" is actually relevant. Slashdot censors its own...
...in an effort to keep themselves accessible around the world, we'll see hosting providers around the world bend over backwards to censor themselves and their users just because somebody, somewhere in the world, might object to some kind of political content one of their users posted.
Google got blocked in China, and they just moved their services outside the country. China then capitulated, due to the international backlash. Yay for Google? Sure, right up until you realize they own *everything*. Speaking of which, did you notice they just bought Motorola? I have a sneaky suspicion that my next android device will be made by Motorola...
... that modified it's grammar and writing style just like it did to me.
Um, no. bmuon's grammar is correct.
"modified" != "incorrect".
In other words, the grammar is technically correct, but the syntax and grammatical structure is not congruent with typical American usage.
More's the pity... most Americans have such a poor grasp of the only language they speak that they couldn't debate their way out of a paper bag if their opponent were a wet sock. I wish it weren't so, and I am quite concerned about my country's future. Don't think I'm just bashing Americans. We're already well on our way to overthrowing ourselves, thank you very much.
With the USA rapidly transitioning from a 1st World to a 2nd World country
OK, this is just nonsense. US GDP per capita is ~$47k, twice that of the highest "2nd World" (formerly Communist) country, Slovenia (~$23k). The sky isn't falling, and America isn't a poor country. Not saying that there aren't areas of extreme need, or that you can't do a lot of good work here, just that you should think about things like this before you say them.
How much is a dozen eggs in Slovenia? Not arguing against your point, per se, but if person A makes a million dollars a year, and person B makes ten dollars a year, but person A pays $50,000.00 for a dozen eggs, and person B pays $0.05, then person A is no richer than person B. This exaggerated example extends beyond the pricing of poultry fetus, of course.
If I were a country whose internal stability relies on the economy and the economy relies solely on exports, I'd be really careful about doing that.
If I were a country large enough to embrace, engulf, and extinguish any problematic regions were my clandestine activities detected, I might be careful about doing it, but not too terribly worried about the consequences of getting caught.
"There's nothing that precludes a copyright holder from making a derivative work based on its own GPL code and releasing it under a different license."
Except, you know, the GPL license itself. Ironic how you used the word derivative, proving the point in your own statement...
"but Oracle would be free to distribute any future versions as binary-only modules."
Again, the GPL license, it doesn't magically get removed by a "new version". They thought long and hard when they came up with it, its not perfect and you can still ruin it thoroughly (see: Tivo) but its not as simple as you seem to think.
Actually, if you own the copyright, you can release it under any license you please, and you're not required to release your own work under any sort of public license whatsoever. The part you're not thinking about is that the person doing the releasing under whichever license they please doesn't need a license to use their own code in any way they see fit... "derivative work" or not.... They own the copyright.
You see, all they have to do is stop releasing "new" versions under the GPL, and anyone and everyone who wants to can fork the GPL'd version until they're blue in the face... but any further releases by the copyright holder could be under the "We own your PC" license, if that's what they want to do.
I know I'm risking my karma with this, but this subject is just screaming for a rant.
If we can't legally have freedoms anymore, then we'll just have to have them illegally (at least those of us with the backbone to stand up for our rights). Maybe this will be the straw that breaks the patent camel's back. When it becomes obvious that corporations are simply using patents as big sticks to wave at one another and beat down competitors, it becomes just as apparent that patents need to be abolished, not just reformed.
I, for one, couldn't care less about patents... especially when they are used in direct contradiction to the purpose and concepts that originated them in the first place. Patents should not be used as a tool to inhibit technological growth, and if importing Android products becomes illegal, I predict a huge and thriving black market. Furthering that point, I would predict that at the point where personal freedom is infringed for every consumer, we will either all lie down and accept the boot of our masters on our heads, or we will do the same thing we did when they outlawed alcohol; We will ignore the laws, and do what we please... especially when you consider that this latest batch of kids is the "entitlement" generation, with no concepts like "accountability" or "responsibility" to impede them.
I know there's a baby in this bathwater somewhere, but I'm soaked to the skin, and the plug is so much easier to find... -- "This is why we can't have nice things."
How about you press that nice big shiny button on the box itself?
I love freaking people out by just reaching over and pressing the power button, then watching as the system gracefully shuts down. They're so used to only touching the actual tower to turn the system *on* that it throws them for a loop when I use the exact same button to turn it *off*.
When Microsoft started Windows, that was also true. There were rules for how to do GUI stuff and if you implemented that "GUI stuff" you also had to implement the keyboard version of the navigations.
Are you kidding me? Things like, oh for example the Ribbon interface in Office 2010 make using just a keyboard even EASIER. EVERYTHING is accessible by keyboard, with key combinations that could be memorized, as opposed to having to navigate menus with the keyboard for anything where there wasn't an assigned keyboard shortcut.
Except you didn't read the above comment, and responded as if you thought it said the exact opposite of what it actually says... Originally, *everything* had an ALT+Key combination... The magic ribbon didn't actually change anything, it just utilized the previously arranged instruction set. In other words, there was no "navigating menus" once you understood the keyboard combinations. The magic ribbon just changed the "look and feel" of the interface, and alienated anyone who had gotten used to the old way of doing things.
But the form of payment is openness. And given that the GPL want anyone to profit from it, there is no single entity that has suffered monetary damages. So payment can only be openness.
I have heard over and over again that copyright infringement is theft. If that is the case, why can't we just arrest and jail everyone in the company?
Or can we just make up a magic amount per copy distributed, and charge AVM millions of monetary units for each of the hundreds or thousands of illegal copies they have distributed? Think of all those poor, starving Linux coders!
Or perhaps we can just sue the living crap out of AVM, forcing them to stop doing business in this particular field, because they failed to understand that "GPL" != "Public Domain".
Alternatively, we could jail every one of them for a few years, and then forbid them to use "technological devices" ever again, disallowing things as apparently harmless as a touch-tone phone because it "could be used to harm others".
Yes, this is taking several logical fallacies (or fantasies) to an extreme to make a point. No, I don't think it actually works this way. I just wish it did (a level playing field regardless of personal wealth, not the ridiculous and over-the-top "punishments" I have described - which come from real court cases, in some instances).
Copyright doesn't give you the right to control every single use of your work in every way forever. There are limits like fair use that apply to GPL software just as they apply to any other software. Various interoperability clauses allow me to use your software in a way you might not like, and then not release the code. Too bad for you. Just because *you* think that *my* work is a derived work, doesn't make it so. A court gets to decide that, in the case that you actually decide to sue me, which most GPL copyleft owners don't seem to be doing.
I love Open Source, the GPL, and Free Software. I'm a big believer. But I don't also don't think that the GPL should be used the same way that DRM is used, preventing people from doing what they have the legal right to do.
I think you missed the point. Nothing in the GPL says you can't do anything you damn well please with it if you keep it in-house. It's when you try to distribute it that you run into issues; you must distribute the source along with the product, or (as I understand it) at the very least make the source available.
To change gears and address the rest of your comment, your comparison of the GPL to DRM is absolutely absurd. DRM attempts to prevent unauthorized distribution, whereas the GPL attempts to ensure that the software remains open-source. Allow me to rephrase, in case you missed it: DRM wants to keep you from copying the product at all, whereas GPL wants to make sure that when/if you give a (derivative) copy of the product away, the plans for how to build it go with it.
I have to assume that they aren't suggesting they stick with a stock Android phone, as the vendors load the phones with so much crap-ware and the phones are just as locked down as the iPhone.
I have to assume you're an idiot who can't be bothered doing a few seconds of research to see just how incredibly inaccurate that statement is.
Yes, some companies (hi, Sprint) lock their android devices down nice and tight, preventing the user from removing the stock apps, etc... others (such as AT&T) have a system that is remarkably open, and you wouldn't feel the need to root your device unless you were trying to circumvent specific things (the lack of wi-fi hotspot capability unless you pay an exorbitant fee, for example).
I bought an Atrix, and my Sprint/Cricket-using friends were all amazed when I showed them that I can uninstall/reinstall the stock AT&T-branded apps at will, with no flashing or rooting required.
A windows license is considerably less than $200 here. Dunno where you're doing your shopping.
As for a laptop? If she really only needs it for email and surfing, then pretty much anything will do the trick. With the exception of some flash games, nothing accessible via browser or email client is going to require much in the way of processor power.
I find it laughable that companies are actually arguing over the browser performance on a device with a screen less than 4" in size. What's next, are we going to start testing surround-sound on cell phones too? Hell of a 1/4" subwoofer you got there...
I guess I'm just the only guy who still uses one of those "old-fashioned" desktop monitors or an HDTV to drive my web experience. Apparently double-digit monitors are overrated.
I find it laughable that you don't have enough imagination to figure out why the "tiny screen" on the phone may or may not have anything to do with why people want a faster browser.
I have a Motorola Atrix. I used to have an EVO. The Atrix has a dual-core 1Ghz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage, and the SD slot allows for another 32GB. This "phone" beats the pants off the machine I was using a few years ago to play GTA3 and Neverwinter Nights... and it fits in my pocket.
Both phones have the ability to output via HDMI, and the Atrix actually does it in 1080p (and unlike the EVO, comes with the required cable). Looks great on my 37" LCD (sorry, not a home theatre buff, yet, so no 60" plasma). Note, this output is complete with audio, so there's a TV, a phone, and a single cable involved in watching 1080p video. No crazy rat's nest of cables, and I'm willing to bet that wireless can catch up to the required speeds fairly quickly.
The Atrix has that awesome laptop dock that charges your phone while allowing you to use a normal-sized (for laptops) keyboard, and a decent sized screen. As a matter of fact, the only thing separating most modern smartphones from modern laptops is that one of them fits in your pocket, and the carriers' rules about just what the phones can do.
The saddest part of all of this is that the carriers don't have any imagination, either, and are simply nickel-and-diming the market for every penny they could get, instead of sparking people's imaginations and starting the personal computing war all over again.
Slashdot Mirror
just because it is legal and you happen to agree with it, doesn't make it not censorship.
QFT, and /signed.
Waiting patiently to be modded into oblivion, even though "I hate censorship" is actually on-topic, and "you should hate censorship, too" is actually relevant.
Slashdot censors its own...
...in an effort to keep themselves accessible around the world, we'll see hosting providers around the world bend over backwards to censor themselves and their users just because somebody, somewhere in the world, might object to some kind of political content one of their users posted.
Google got blocked in China, and they just moved their services outside the country. China then capitulated, due to the international backlash. Yay for Google? Sure, right up until you realize they own *everything*. Speaking of which, did you notice they just bought Motorola? I have a sneaky suspicion that my next android device will be made by Motorola...
... that modified it's grammar and writing style just like it did to me.
Um, no. bmuon's grammar is correct.
"modified" != "incorrect".
In other words, the grammar is technically correct, but the syntax and grammatical structure is not congruent with typical American usage.
More's the pity... most Americans have such a poor grasp of the only language they speak that they couldn't debate their way out of a paper bag if their opponent were a wet sock. I wish it weren't so, and I am quite concerned about my country's future. Don't think I'm just bashing Americans. We're already well on our way to overthrowing ourselves, thank you very much.
Bread and circuses, indeed.
With the USA rapidly transitioning from a 1st World to a 2nd World country
OK, this is just nonsense. US GDP per capita is ~$47k, twice that of the highest "2nd World" (formerly Communist) country, Slovenia (~$23k). The sky isn't falling, and America isn't a poor country. Not saying that there aren't areas of extreme need, or that you can't do a lot of good work here, just that you should think about things like this before you say them.
How much is a dozen eggs in Slovenia? Not arguing against your point, per se, but if person A makes a million dollars a year, and person B makes ten dollars a year, but person A pays $50,000.00 for a dozen eggs, and person B pays $0.05, then person A is no richer than person B. This exaggerated example extends beyond the pricing of poultry fetus, of course.
You forgot modified video card firmware... where's your hand-wavy magic for that one?
</tin-foil>
Good to use an onscreen keyboard to prevent hardware key loggers.
... because there's no way to log mouse movement and clicks, right? Oh, wait...
If I were a country whose internal stability relies on the economy and the economy relies solely on exports, I'd be really careful about doing that.
If I were a country large enough to embrace, engulf, and extinguish any problematic regions were my clandestine activities detected, I might be careful about doing it, but not too terribly worried about the consequences of getting caught.
Has anyone else noticed the github repo for ksplice has now disappeared?
Doesn't that violate GNU GPL2 ?
If they've stopped distributing the software, are they compelled for some reason to continue distributing the source?
"There's nothing that precludes a copyright holder from making a derivative work based on its own GPL code and releasing it under a different license."
Except, you know, the GPL license itself. Ironic how you used the word derivative, proving the point in your own statement...
"but Oracle would be free to distribute any future versions as binary-only modules."
Again, the GPL license, it doesn't magically get removed by a "new version". They thought long and hard when they came up with it, its not perfect and you can still ruin it thoroughly (see: Tivo) but its not as simple as you seem to think.
Actually, if you own the copyright, you can release it under any license you please, and you're not required to release your own work under any sort of public license whatsoever. The part you're not thinking about is that the person doing the releasing under whichever license they please doesn't need a license to use their own code in any way they see fit... "derivative work" or not.... They own the copyright.
You see, all they have to do is stop releasing "new" versions under the GPL, and anyone and everyone who wants to can fork the GPL'd version until they're blue in the face... but any further releases by the copyright holder could be under the "We own your PC" license, if that's what they want to do.
This is the most insightful post I've seen all day... as the quote goes, "He who does not remember history is doomed to repeat it."
If not modded up for being on-topic and insightful, it should at least be left alone... s/he actually managed to use "they're" and "there" correctly.
I know I'm risking my karma with this, but this subject is just screaming for a rant.
If we can't legally have freedoms anymore, then we'll just have to have them illegally (at least those of us with the backbone to stand up for our rights). Maybe this will be the straw that breaks the patent camel's back. When it becomes obvious that corporations are simply using patents as big sticks to wave at one another and beat down competitors, it becomes just as apparent that patents need to be abolished, not just reformed.
I, for one, couldn't care less about patents... especially when they are used in direct contradiction to the purpose and concepts that originated them in the first place. Patents should not be used as a tool to inhibit technological growth, and if importing Android products becomes illegal, I predict a huge and thriving black market. Furthering that point, I would predict that at the point where personal freedom is infringed for every consumer, we will either all lie down and accept the boot of our masters on our heads, or we will do the same thing we did when they outlawed alcohol; We will ignore the laws, and do what we please... especially when you consider that this latest batch of kids is the "entitlement" generation, with no concepts like "accountability" or "responsibility" to impede them.
I know there's a baby in this bathwater somewhere, but I'm soaked to the skin, and the plug is so much easier to find...
--
"This is why we can't have nice things."
Has anyone considered that this is simply a high-profile device for:
A: Selling amazing amounts of the specified WD 500GB HDD?
B: Giving WD some free (or nearly so, $10k is pennies in the pot) development of a product line, via a third-party agent?
How about you press that nice big shiny button on the box itself?
I love freaking people out by just reaching over and pressing the power button, then watching as the system gracefully shuts down.
They're so used to only touching the actual tower to turn the system *on* that it throws them for a loop when I use the exact same button to turn it *off*.
Surprise!
When Microsoft started Windows, that was also true. There were rules for how to
do GUI stuff and if you implemented that "GUI stuff" you also had to implement
the keyboard version of the navigations.
Are you kidding me? Things like, oh for example the Ribbon interface in Office 2010 make using just a keyboard even EASIER. EVERYTHING is accessible by keyboard, with key combinations that could be memorized, as opposed to having to navigate menus with the keyboard for anything where there wasn't an assigned keyboard shortcut.
Except you didn't read the above comment, and responded as if you thought it said the exact opposite of what it actually says... Originally, *everything* had an ALT+Key combination... The magic ribbon didn't actually change anything, it just utilized the previously arranged instruction set. In other words, there was no "navigating menus" once you understood the keyboard combinations. The magic ribbon just changed the "look and feel" of the interface, and alienated anyone who had gotten used to the old way of doing things.
But the form of payment is openness. And given that the GPL want anyone to profit from it, there is no single entity that has suffered monetary damages. So payment can only be openness.
I have heard over and over again that copyright infringement is theft. If that is the case, why can't we just arrest and jail everyone in the company?
Or can we just make up a magic amount per copy distributed, and charge AVM millions of monetary units for each of the hundreds or thousands of illegal copies they have distributed? Think of all those poor, starving Linux coders!
Or perhaps we can just sue the living crap out of AVM, forcing them to stop doing business in this particular field, because they failed to understand that "GPL" != "Public Domain".
Alternatively, we could jail every one of them for a few years, and then forbid them to use "technological devices" ever again, disallowing things as apparently harmless as a touch-tone phone because it "could be used to harm others".
Yes, this is taking several logical fallacies (or fantasies) to an extreme to make a point. No, I don't think it actually works this way. I just wish it did (a level playing field regardless of personal wealth, not the ridiculous and over-the-top "punishments" I have described - which come from real court cases, in some instances).
Copyright doesn't give you the right to control every single use of your work in every way forever. There are limits like fair use that apply to GPL software just as they apply to any other software. Various interoperability clauses allow me to use your software in a way you might not like, and then not release the code. Too bad for you. Just because *you* think that *my* work is a derived work, doesn't make it so. A court gets to decide that, in the case that you actually decide to sue me, which most GPL copyleft owners don't seem to be doing.
I love Open Source, the GPL, and Free Software. I'm a big believer. But I don't also don't think that the GPL should be used the same way that DRM is used, preventing people from doing what they have the legal right to do.
I think you missed the point. Nothing in the GPL says you can't do anything you damn well please with it if you keep it in-house. It's when you try to distribute it that you run into issues; you must distribute the source along with the product, or (as I understand it) at the very least make the source available.
To change gears and address the rest of your comment, your comparison of the GPL to DRM is absolutely absurd. DRM attempts to prevent unauthorized distribution, whereas the GPL attempts to ensure that the software remains open-source. Allow me to rephrase, in case you missed it: DRM wants to keep you from copying the product at all, whereas GPL wants to make sure that when/if you give a (derivative) copy of the product away, the plans for how to build it go with it.
I have to assume that they aren't suggesting they stick with a stock Android phone, as the vendors load the phones with so much crap-ware and the phones are just as locked down as the iPhone.
I have to assume you're an idiot who can't be bothered doing a few seconds of research to see just how incredibly inaccurate that statement is.
Yes, some companies (hi, Sprint) lock their android devices down nice and tight, preventing the user from removing the stock apps, etc... others (such as AT&T) have a system that is remarkably open, and you wouldn't feel the need to root your device unless you were trying to circumvent specific things (the lack of wi-fi hotspot capability unless you pay an exorbitant fee, for example).
I bought an Atrix, and my Sprint/Cricket-using friends were all amazed when I showed them that I can uninstall/reinstall the stock AT&T-branded apps at will, with no flashing or rooting required.
Sadly, Sony will be able to use this against GeoHot, as in "all those hackers are alike, see?"
"You may stop this individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike." -Hacker Manifesto
the wayback machine has more information, but you have to go way back to get it. here's a link.
A windows license is considerably less than $200 here. Dunno where you're doing your shopping.
As for a laptop? If she really only needs it for email and surfing, then pretty much anything will do the trick. With the exception of some flash games, nothing accessible via browser or email client is going to require much in the way of processor power.
Comas have a purpose.
As do commas.
Just a little giggle. When correcting someone's spelling and/or grammar, you are bound and determined to make at least one mistake, yourself.
Not only that but he was wearing a fabulous suit made out of Monopoly. I wonder if that's 3 or 4 buttons....
Its Steve Jobs, so it will be a 1 button suit.
Wouldn't that be Amazon?
I find it laughable that companies are actually arguing over the browser performance on a device with a screen less than 4" in size. What's next, are we going to start testing surround-sound on cell phones too? Hell of a 1/4" subwoofer you got there...
I guess I'm just the only guy who still uses one of those "old-fashioned" desktop monitors or an HDTV to drive my web experience. Apparently double-digit monitors are overrated.
I find it laughable that you don't have enough imagination to figure out why the "tiny screen" on the phone may or may not have anything to do with why people want a faster browser.
I have a Motorola Atrix. I used to have an EVO. The Atrix has a dual-core 1Ghz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage, and the SD slot allows for another 32GB. This "phone" beats the pants off the machine I was using a few years ago to play GTA3 and Neverwinter Nights... and it fits in my pocket.
Both phones have the ability to output via HDMI, and the Atrix actually does it in 1080p (and unlike the EVO, comes with the required cable). Looks great on my 37" LCD (sorry, not a home theatre buff, yet, so no 60" plasma). Note, this output is complete with audio, so there's a TV, a phone, and a single cable involved in watching 1080p video. No crazy rat's nest of cables, and I'm willing to bet that wireless can catch up to the required speeds fairly quickly.
The Atrix has that awesome laptop dock that charges your phone while allowing you to use a normal-sized (for laptops) keyboard, and a decent sized screen. As a matter of fact, the only thing separating most modern smartphones from modern laptops is that one of them fits in your pocket, and the carriers' rules about just what the phones can do.
The saddest part of all of this is that the carriers don't have any imagination, either, and are simply nickel-and-diming the market for every penny they could get, instead of sparking people's imaginations and starting the personal computing war all over again.
At this time, Sony only has rights to look up until February 1st 2011.
FTFY