Well, since they have the copyrights over loads of stuff, and they are a public organization, not a company, I think they'll just have to shut up. They're simply serving the public like they're supposed to:-)
This news absolutely makes my day. Week! If they manage to do this just a little, this just made my year.
Quotes like this: "I believe that we are about to move into a second phase of the digital revolution, a phase which will be more about public than private value; about free, not pay services; about inclusivity, not exclusion.
Doesn't that single quote look more exciting than a whole porn site?:-)
The whole BBC library! All the documentaries and stuff... all the Monty Pythons, all the Young Ones, all the Bottoms, all the AbFab, all the Men Behaving Badly, all the Blackadders!
All the cricket Test matches they used to broadcast!!
The part they translated from the online article is pretty much all the substance there is in it. The actual results and further information aren't there.
The last paragraph of that:
In the September issue of PC Active, that will be in stores on 22 August, the shocking results are described in detail. Besides the possible causes of losing data over time we also a give a number of valuable tips to preserve the data on a writeable CD for the future. On the free cd-rom there is also a program to discover the state of a cd-rom for yourself.
So the info is in the paper version, and I don't have it.
As a business, generally, I don't want to deal with a college kid. No offense, but I can't have my business riding on software that's written by a college kid for free, no matter how good it is.
Like Linux:-)
No, seriously, I'm not really a college kid. I'm 29, I work in a company writing J2EE apps (almost) full time, it's just that I still need to finish this thesis thingy. I mentioned it because I believe typical open source apps are written, or at least started, by people whose day time job is actually something else, and I think someone working as a programmer part time and who is a student the other half is pretty typical.
Actually, writing business software for a small company is what I do as a job right now, but this software will never be open source. Which is why I feel I could write something like it in my free time. But when you ask for a business solution, you want something that is already there, that is therefore not written for a specific small company. And apparently you have some set of features in mind, that I don't know.
It's all pretty theoretical anyway, I'm in Europe, the specifics of what is needed for a small company will be different anyway.
I did have a point somewhere, but I've forgotten it (writing this in a short free moment).
Us business owners need BUSINESS applications. We don't need servers. We don't needs cutesy tools. We need some business apps. If someone wanted to sell me an OSS package, all ready to go, I'd look at it. As is, I'd have to cobble it together myself, and I just don't have the time.
I consider myself the other side of the coin. I'm a Java programmer slash computer science student, and I'm pretty good. I believe OSS has the future. I would like to make some software for (small?) businesses and maybe make some money on supporting it, or writing extra features.
But I have no idea what a "business application" needs. I don't know business. I have a general idea of what accounting is, but I just don't know all the myriad details of what such software has to be able to do.
If this were something I was making for myself, I'd just make what I need for myself. Then perhaps other people use it and there's feedback, etc. That way I produce, well, server and coding stuff.
I can't just start making something and hope it will be useful. There's probably a lot of things that you need that the software won't do, so the software won't be used and it won't improve. And I won't even be using it myself.
If you can sit down and write *detailed* specifications of everything you'd want your business application to do, and then put a reward on one that's open source, standards compliant et cetera, then it sounds interesting. But I would certainly need specs to build to.
OTOH, there is also Compiere. Which looks good, but still relies on an Oracle database. But it looks professional enough. Is that the sort of thing you need?
well I guess I'm unclear on the rules then. I thought it had to be board states a-b-a-b-a-b in order to claim the draw, either that or perpetual check/50 moves without a pawn move or capture.
I'm in Europe, so I know only the FIDE (international) rules. The USCF is strange in that it is the only national federation that uses its own rules.
But in FIDE rules, it is like this: if it is your move, and the current exact position (including castling rights, en passant capture rights) occurs for the third time in the game, OR you can currently make a move which would cause a position to occur for the third time, you may claim a draw.
Note that in the last case, you don't actually make the move. In really official tournament play, you would stop the clock, notify the arbiter and explain to him which move you intend to make, and that you claim a third time repetition based on that move.
In my opinion, three fold repetition is a property of a game (series of positions), not of a position. You need to be able to check all the positions since the last pawn move/castle/capture (moves that can't be "undone"). It is possible that a position repeats for the third time twenty moves after the first time it occurs.
A position does need to record how many half moves have gone since the last capture or pawn move, for the 50 move rule. This is important for programs (if the program is still trying to win, it should move a pawn or capture if 49 moves without have gone).
As for encoding moves, there was at least one database program that encoded moves depending on the number of possible moves in a position. If a position has 32 or fewer possible moves, the one chosen can be encoded in 5 bits, et cetera. But that was a database program (NICbase), speed is not as all important as in an engine.
Sorry, I just don't see how terrorists would be motivated to try to cause blackouts.
They would do it in combination with other attacks, of course. Like bombs in Manhattan buildings, or under the bridges that thousands were crossing by foot.
I think an attack where the terrorists took care to shut down the power of the whole northeast of the US first would mess with your minds more than just a bomb.
That's precisely what the GPL prohibits. I cannot take proprietary code, link it with GPL code, and sell the resulting binary unless I put the entire thing under the GPL.
Unless you're the copyright holder. And SCO is claiming ownership of all Linux code because it's a "Unix derivative" and they claim the rights to all that.
My favorite game is a online soccer management game, Hattrick.
They have the right model: playing it is absolutely free and will remain free. Besides that, you can become "supporter", for about 20 Euro per year. Supporter gives you some extras - a guestbook and logo at your team's page, very handy bookmarks, lots of statistics - but nothing that will help you with the game. Supporter is fun, but doesn't give an advantage inside the game.
Hattrick has about 150,000 players and is expanding rapidly. Around 10%, perhaps a bit more, are supporter. This is enough for them to make a small profit.
Yes, judges are the watchdogs. Would you agree that this system of plea bargains shuts out their influence completely?
Would a judge ever refuse a plea bargain where the defendant pleads guilty because he think the defendant was pressurized into it, before the case even begins? I don't think so.
The fact that the Feds are willing to plea bargain with Mike means that he at least was involved enough with terrorists to implicate them in crimes. That's more than close enough to make him guilty in my book.
First, you were guilty when a judge convicted you of a crime.
Then, you were guilty when the Feds were able to pressure you into a plea bargain.
Now, you are guilty when the Feds are willing to plea bargain.
I don't know what happened to fair trials, but it happened a long time ago.
If you agree with the democrats ideology why would you vote republican ? and vice versa...
Maybe Dutch politics are more complicated than American ones, but here at least it's not that simple anymore... There's not one single party that wants everything I want, and we have nine or so big enough to make parliament. For some issues I like the "left wing" solution better, for others the "right wing" solution. So each election I have to decide which issues I think are most important at that moment, and which party is closest to what I want on those, and not too far away on the other issues...
I don't know any party who simply follow one simple ideology anymore, not even the hard core socialists.
Sigh... I am a Republican but on this issue they are pissing me off...
Funny how Americans say "I am a Republican" while a Dutchman would say "I voted VVD last election"... Did you get some sort of label when you were born?:-)
Seriously, it seems like people in the US pretty much always vote what they always voted, simply because that's the camp they feel they belong to... Nothing's ever going to change that way.
I find the best part of doing the 'mini-goals' is that as I see more and more things physically checked/crossed off, my pace picks up. When you see so many things scratched off and fewer things left, it's like seeing the finish line.
For me, it's just the feeling of accomplishment after a day's work. Writing a thesis is supposed to take me half a year but it's taking over one now. I was always feeling guilty about procrastinating, even when I did actually do quite a bit during the day, there was so much still to do...
Now, when I have a few concretely defined chunks to do in a day and I have finished them, I can then go and do whatever I want to do to relax and feel no guilt at all. That works much better than avoiding the work by doing the relaxing stuff first, while feeling guilty all the time, and never getting anything done... Small chunks are the key. And admitting to myself that I actually worked hard today:-).
IBM is going to fight this in a court of law. SCO is fighting this in the court of public opinion. The rules are different. Anyone who truly intends to fight in a court of law doesn't run his mouth unnecessarily. IBM's lawyers are going to have a field day with SCO's public statements.
Of course. But that's in three years or so. In the meantime this cloud of FUD is doing damage.
But apparently IBM is already issuing statements, as someone else replied, I missed that.
This is hurting IBM's image as a Linux vendor. We all believe they are going to win the law suit utterly. Why aren't they issuing any statements with some short reasons why these claims are ridiculous?
Okay, I'm really confused here. If there's a prior implementation, how can it be patented, especially when it's not like Apple can claim that they don't know about any competitors?
Patents are for a specific method of implementation. So if Apple made the same thing Microsoft already has, but with a different method of implementation under the hood, that is fine.
The parent is modded funny, and the best part is that the comment could be true. How many out there can find Hungary on a map? Do you have much of an idea of where it is?
Although it's always funny to poke at Americans like this, of course everybody around the world is exactly the same. I'm in the Netherlands, and there was a TV program a few years ago where they asked people in the streets to locate the Netherlands on a map of Europe. Of course, half of them were unable to...
Since our education has declined since then, it's probably worse now. Ignorance is everywhere.
Does this mean that Data East titles such as Heavy Barrel and Bad Dudes are now abandonware?
Sure, as long as you remember that that doesn't actually mean anything. So-called "abandonware" games aren't legal to download, they're just considered unlikely to cause legal trouble in the eyes of some people running a site.
The rights to these games will be bought by someone, and they get to decide what you can do - downloading them for free off some third party site isn't likely to be first on their list.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps I will someday. But I already have a stack of unread books and little time to read them.
That's no problem. Simply put the Hitchhiker's Guide on top of the stack.
Well, since they have the copyrights over loads of stuff, and they are a public organization, not a company, I think they'll just have to shut up. They're simply serving the public like they're supposed to :-)
This news absolutely makes my day. Week! If they manage to do this just a little, this just made my year.
Quotes like this:
"I believe that we are about to move into a second phase of the digital revolution, a phase which will be more about public than private value; about free, not pay services; about inclusivity, not exclusion.
Doesn't that single quote look more exciting than a whole porn site? :-)
The whole BBC library! All the documentaries and stuff... all the Monty Pythons, all the Young Ones, all the Bottoms, all the AbFab, all the Men Behaving Badly, all the Blackadders!
All the cricket Test matches they used to broadcast!!
Oh... Excuse me, I think I just wet my pants.
The part they translated from the online article is pretty much all the substance there is in it. The actual results and further information aren't there.
The last paragraph of that:
In the September issue of PC Active, that will be in stores on 22 August, the shocking results are described in detail. Besides the possible causes of losing data over time we also a give a number of valuable tips to preserve the data on a writeable CD for the future. On the free cd-rom there is also a program to discover the state of a cd-rom for yourself.
So the info is in the paper version, and I don't have it.
As a business, generally, I don't want to deal with a college kid. No offense, but I can't have my business riding on software that's written by a college kid for free, no matter how good it is.
Like Linux :-)
No, seriously, I'm not really a college kid. I'm 29, I work in a company writing J2EE apps (almost) full time, it's just that I still need to finish this thesis thingy. I mentioned it because I believe typical open source apps are written, or at least started, by people whose day time job is actually something else, and I think someone working as a programmer part time and who is a student the other half is pretty typical.
Actually, writing business software for a small company is what I do as a job right now, but this software will never be open source. Which is why I feel I could write something like it in my free time. But when you ask for a business solution, you want something that is already there, that is therefore not written for a specific small company. And apparently you have some set of features in mind, that I don't know.
It's all pretty theoretical anyway, I'm in Europe, the specifics of what is needed for a small company will be different anyway.
I did have a point somewhere, but I've forgotten it (writing this in a short free moment).
Us business owners need BUSINESS applications. We don't need servers. We don't needs cutesy tools. We need some business apps. If someone wanted to sell me an OSS package, all ready to go, I'd look at it. As is, I'd have to cobble it together myself, and I just don't have the time.
I consider myself the other side of the coin. I'm a Java programmer slash computer science student, and I'm pretty good. I believe OSS has the future. I would like to make some software for (small?) businesses and maybe make some money on supporting it, or writing extra features.
But I have no idea what a "business application" needs. I don't know business. I have a general idea of what accounting is, but I just don't know all the myriad details of what such software has to be able to do.
If this were something I was making for myself, I'd just make what I need for myself. Then perhaps other people use it and there's feedback, etc. That way I produce, well, server and coding stuff.
I can't just start making something and hope it will be useful. There's probably a lot of things that you need that the software won't do, so the software won't be used and it won't improve. And I won't even be using it myself.
If you can sit down and write *detailed* specifications of everything you'd want your business application to do, and then put a reward on one that's open source, standards compliant et cetera, then it sounds interesting. But I would certainly need specs to build to.
OTOH, there is also Compiere. Which looks good, but still relies on an Oracle database. But it looks professional enough. Is that the sort of thing you need?
well I guess I'm unclear on the rules then. I thought it had to be board states a-b-a-b-a-b in order to claim the draw, either that or perpetual check/50 moves without a pawn move or capture.
I'm in Europe, so I know only the FIDE (international) rules. The USCF is strange in that it is the only national federation that uses its own rules.
But in FIDE rules, it is like this: if it is your move, and the current exact position (including castling rights, en passant capture rights) occurs for the third time in the game, OR you can currently make a move which would cause a position to occur for the third time, you may claim a draw.
Note that in the last case, you don't actually make the move. In really official tournament play, you would stop the clock, notify the arbiter and explain to him which move you intend to make, and that you claim a third time repetition based on that move.
In my opinion, three fold repetition is a property of a game (series of positions), not of a position. You need to be able to check all the positions since the last pawn move/castle/capture (moves that can't be "undone"). It is possible that a position repeats for the third time twenty moves after the first time it occurs.
A position does need to record how many half moves have gone since the last capture or pawn move, for the 50 move rule. This is important for programs (if the program is still trying to win, it should move a pawn or capture if 49 moves without have gone).
As for encoding moves, there was at least one database program that encoded moves depending on the number of possible moves in a position. If a position has 32 or fewer possible moves, the one chosen can be encoded in 5 bits, et cetera. But that was a database program (NICbase), speed is not as all important as in an engine.
Missing option: The Web
The game I'm addicted to play in any browser (it's called Hattrick)...
Oh, and occassionally Nethack through a terminal :-)
Sorry, I just don't see how terrorists would be motivated to try to cause blackouts.
They would do it in combination with other attacks, of course. Like bombs in Manhattan buildings, or under the bridges that thousands were crossing by foot.
I think an attack where the terrorists took care to shut down the power of the whole northeast of the US first would mess with your minds more than just a bomb.
That's precisely what the GPL prohibits. I cannot take proprietary code, link it with GPL code, and sell the resulting binary unless I put the entire thing under the GPL.
Unless you're the copyright holder. And SCO is claiming ownership of all Linux code because it's a "Unix derivative" and they claim the rights to all that.
My favorite game is a online soccer management game, Hattrick.
They have the right model: playing it is absolutely free and will remain free. Besides that, you can become "supporter", for about 20 Euro per year. Supporter gives you some extras - a guestbook and logo at your team's page, very handy bookmarks, lots of statistics - but nothing that will help you with the game. Supporter is fun, but doesn't give an advantage inside the game.
Hattrick has about 150,000 players and is expanding rapidly. Around 10%, perhaps a bit more, are supporter. This is enough for them to make a small profit.
Norwegian teenager will instantly launch a crippling countersuit at SCO, like everyone else.
Yes, judges are the watchdogs. Would you agree that this system of plea bargains shuts out their influence completely?
Would a judge ever refuse a plea bargain where the defendant pleads guilty because he think the defendant was pressurized into it, before the case even begins? I don't think so.
The fact that the Feds are willing to plea bargain with Mike means that he at least was involved enough with terrorists to implicate them in crimes. That's more than close enough to make him guilty in my book.
First, you were guilty when a judge convicted you of a crime.
Then, you were guilty when the Feds were able to pressure you into a plea bargain.
Now, you are guilty when the Feds are willing to plea bargain.
I don't know what happened to fair trials, but it happened a long time ago.
What a complicated procedure to get a glass that's both full and empty!
I usually just get two glasses that are both half full and half empty and pour them together.
If you agree with the democrats ideology why would you vote republican ? and vice versa...
Maybe Dutch politics are more complicated than American ones, but here at least it's not that simple anymore... There's not one single party that wants everything I want, and we have nine or so big enough to make parliament. For some issues I like the "left wing" solution better, for others the "right wing" solution. So each election I have to decide which issues I think are most important at that moment, and which party is closest to what I want on those, and not too far away on the other issues...
I don't know any party who simply follow one simple ideology anymore, not even the hard core socialists.
Sigh... I am a Republican but on this issue they are pissing me off...
Funny how Americans say "I am a Republican" while a Dutchman would say "I voted VVD last election"... Did you get some sort of label when you were born? :-)
Seriously, it seems like people in the US pretty much always vote what they always voted, simply because that's the camp they feel they belong to... Nothing's ever going to change that way.
I find the best part of doing the 'mini-goals' is that as I see more and more things physically checked/crossed off, my pace picks up. When you see so many things scratched off and fewer things left, it's like seeing the finish line.
For me, it's just the feeling of accomplishment after a day's work. Writing a thesis is supposed to take me half a year but it's taking over one now. I was always feeling guilty about procrastinating, even when I did actually do quite a bit during the day, there was so much still to do...
Now, when I have a few concretely defined chunks to do in a day and I have finished them, I can then go and do whatever I want to do to relax and feel no guilt at all. That works much better than avoiding the work by doing the relaxing stuff first, while feeling guilty all the time, and never getting anything done... Small chunks are the key. And admitting to myself that I actually worked hard today :-).
Root for MicroSoft, if we get overly broad patents taken care of, MicroSoft will have one less weapon against Linux.
Root against MS. Hurt them badly enough, and it might even cause stupid patent laws to be reformed.
IBM is going to fight this in a court of law. SCO is fighting this in the court of public opinion. The rules are different. Anyone who truly intends to fight in a court of law doesn't run his mouth unnecessarily. IBM's lawyers are going to have a field day with SCO's public statements.
Of course. But that's in three years or so. In the meantime this cloud of FUD is doing damage.
But apparently IBM is already issuing statements, as someone else replied, I missed that.
This is hurting IBM's image as a Linux vendor. We all believe they are going to win the law suit utterly. Why aren't they issuing any statements with some short reasons why these claims are ridiculous?
Okay, I'm really confused here. If there's a prior implementation, how can it be patented, especially when it's not like Apple can claim that they don't know about any competitors?
Patents are for a specific method of implementation. So if Apple made the same thing Microsoft already has, but with a different method of implementation under the hood, that is fine.
The parent is modded funny, and the best part is that the comment could be true. How many out there can find Hungary on a map? Do you have much of an idea of where it is?
Although it's always funny to poke at Americans like this, of course everybody around the world is exactly the same. I'm in the Netherlands, and there was a TV program a few years ago where they asked people in the streets to locate the Netherlands on a map of Europe. Of course, half of them were unable to...
Since our education has declined since then, it's probably worse now. Ignorance is everywhere.
Does this mean that Data East titles such as Heavy Barrel and Bad Dudes are now abandonware?
Sure, as long as you remember that that doesn't actually mean anything. So-called "abandonware" games aren't legal to download, they're just considered unlikely to cause legal trouble in the eyes of some people running a site.
The rights to these games will be bought by someone, and they get to decide what you can do - downloading them for free off some third party site isn't likely to be first on their list.