For those of you just tuning into this soap opera, here is a brief summary of the plot so far.
Ken Brown, president of a Washington think tank called the
Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
has written a book claiming open source using GPL is a bad idea and that Linus Torvalds stole Linux from MINIX, which I wrote. Linus, the alleged stealer,
responded.
As the alleged stealee I also felt the need to
respond.
Now Ken Brown has
reacted to my responses.
I very much doubt that when he came to visit me, he was expecting me to (1) defend Linus in
our interview and then (2) do it fairly publicly later.
I was planning to spend my Sunday afternoon doing something useful, but since Brown has
directly challenged me in his posting cited above, I feel I should respond. I will do this in
the form of commenting on his posting. His comments are set off typographically like this:
"Samizdat is a series of excerpts from an upcoming book on open source and operating systems that will be published later
this year. AdTI did not publish Samizdat with the expectation that rabidly pro-Linux developers would embrace it."
I have to give credit where credit is due. Brown got that one completely right.
"The United States is the home of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, an internationally respected agency which
contributes to the worldwide effort to protect and govern intellectual property."
***EVERY*** country has a patent office. The United States is not unique in this respect.
Furthermore, many people think that patenting software is a terrible idea.
The subject of
software patents is a very controversial issue in Europe right now.
"The Samizdat report recommends that the U.S. government should invest $5 billion in research and development efforts that
produce true open source products, such as BSD and MIT license-based open source. Government investment in open source
development will accelerate innovation."
I can live with this. Professors are always on the lookout for new sources of research funding.
"The disturbing reality is that the hybrid source model depends heavily upon sponging talent from U.S. corporations
and/or U.S. proprietary software. Much of this questionable borrowing is a) not in the best interest U.S. corporations..."
Excuse me? A Finnish student writes some software (in Finland) that a lot of people like and he is accused on
sponging off U.S. corporations?
And last time I checked, quite a few U.S. Corporations, such as IBM, seemed quite happy with Linux. And a very large
number of U.S. corporations seem to be using the (open source) Apache web server.
And even if open source weren't in the best interest of U.S. corporations, where is it written that all activities
everywhere in the world must be done with the interests of U.S. corporations as their primary goal?
"Linux is a leprosy;..."
This statement is not grammatically, politically, or factually correct.
Does he mean "Linus has
Hansen's disease"?
I hope not. But if he does, fortunately, it is highly treatable these days.
If he means Linux is wasting away, the facts speak otherwise.
If he means "Linux is very contagious" this is true, but a better wording could have been chosen.
"... and is having a deleterious effect on the U.S. IT industry because it is steadily depreciating the value of the software
industry sector. Software is also embedded in hardware, chips, printers and even consumer electronics
I don't know how I made it so long without finding this out, but I recently learned that you can simply tell it not to reboot and go back into Window Update and install the rest of the patches.
This is a big time saver, and it has worked flawlessly for me. I typically still reboot after installing a service pack however. Not sure if this is needed.
Using Global Positioning, WIFI internet connections, cell phones and custom software designed by the Pac-Manhattan team, Pac-man and the ghosts will be tracked from a central location and their progress will be broadcast over the internet for viewers from around the world.
heh.. I think I sense sarcasm in your comment (as OOo of course has no product activation and is $0), but the truth is OOo really does have trouble competing at that price level. $60 every couple of years per computer for guaranteed mainstream compatibility is a very easy decision for University department heads.
I love open source, but were I the decision maker, I imagine I'd go with Microsoft products in our environment. They're not perfect, and they take a chunk out of the budget, but being different has too many consequences:
If anything goes wrong, the idiot who tried something new will get the blame.
Files brought to/from home may not work right on work computers
Collaboration with other universities' faculty could be hindered
The presentation machines (conference rooms, lecture halls, etc) have to have MS Office on them to guarentee perfect presentations (at times given by senators, govenors, provosts, etc), and having a different environment on presentation machines than office machines isn't really acceptable
Grad students and profs do some funky stuff in office.. not that it's right to use Office for them, but between all of the users, people actually *use* all those crazy "features" MS stuffs in there
At the university where I work, MS volume pricing is amazing compared to retail. We get the latest version of Office Pro for around $60, and Windows XP Pro for around $50.. not to mention that both come sans product activation.
It's hard to justify going with something non-mainstream at those prices.. but of course all of the professors end up paying retail prices to get the same software on their home computer(s), so Microsoft still makes a bundle from it.
Well, even if his math was wrong, his point is still valid.. going from 5 trillion years to 5 billion years isn't much different (of course, even 128 bit encryption is currently thought to take much longer than a measly 5 trillion years to brute force).
Most cryptology systems are purposefully designed to take an absolutely absurd amount of time to crack -- exactly to account for many of these instant 1000 fold improvements.
If your processor is at least 400Mhz or so, I'd echo the other replies to your comment about making sure you're not out of RAM; but also, remember that most laptops come with a 4200 RPM Hard drive. If you can afford it, I've found it's a *huge* performance improvement to upgrade to a 5400 or even a 7200 RPM drive. Be careful to purchase a hard drive that's compatible with your laptop, though.
If the news of this 18-34 male viewer decline disturbs you and you wish to explain it, you can start by simply performing a statistical analysis of this Slashdot article's comments (many of us are 18-34 males). Hint: Check for the number of posts complaining about too many reality shows.
I'm a 25 year old male, and I might watch more TV if less of it were catered directly to the teenage/gossipy girl demographic.. It's not that hard to figure out that "Hmm, now that we show 20% less of a demographic's favorite shows (and show certain reality shows that are actually repulsive to this demographic), we've lost 20% of our viewership from them".
P.S. For those actual TV execs reading, if you really want me back, show more Star Trek next generation (or other sci-fi will work), racing, and sports;-)
Humor aside, it is wild how cheap a cluster can be these days..
$7500 for 35Ghz/3.2GB is downright expensive these days. For example, a 2.16Ghz Athlon 3000+ machine w/256M ram & 40GB HD is listed on pricewatch at $229.
That's 16 machines to get 35Ghz/4GB at a price of $3664. I know quite a few people that have spent that amount or close to it for a single machine! This is part of why I love computers, constant progress.. the next generation will laugh at us paying $3660 dollars (even with inflation) for 35Ghz/4GB.
Well, if you rose from the ranks, then you should be able to perform a simple test:
Think of a task that will take about 20 minutes to program
Program it in both Perl (use perldoc as another poster suggested) and PHP (use php.net/manual/en)
Wait 2 weeks
Attempt to add a simple feature to each script. Time yourself and compare
???
Profit!
When I go back and look at my Perl scripts I wrote a couple weeks ago, it takes me a while to get my head back into the script. With PHP, the code is always straight forward. It may be more verbose, but I understand it much more quickly than my Perl.
Besides this, I've found PHP's documentation to be far superior to any other languages'. When I do web programming, give me PHP anyday.
The only thing Perl has over PHP in my mind is that CPAN is currently far superior to PEAR. If you need many special libraries, you may want to consider Perl.
You know, I was nodding my head as I read your comment, and wondered if perhaps I had given up on Perl too quickly... then I read your signature and went back to my PHP code;-).
OK, I realize this is 80% Flamebait and 15% troll, but the 5% truth hiding in there is what prompts me to reply.
You mention PostGreSQL as an alternative to MySQL. That's fine. But then you bash PHP without mentioning an alternative. What's a good, easy-to-use open source tool to make dynamic web pages besides PHP? No other language I've used is so simple to use and well documented, so I'm curious if you (or someone else) has a decent PHP replacement in mind..
For your particular example, why not just turn off sending referrer information in your browser? The prefbar has a nice check box that lets you turn off sending referrer whenever you like.
You made a good decision not installing the Yahoo search bar. I haven't bothered to read why exactly, but the Spybot -- Search & Destroy software labels it and/or its components as spyware.
For some reason, whenever I run across machines that have the Yahoo Search bar, this lovely "Search Assistant" thing that gives extra pop up windows when searching is on the machines as well..
Slashdot Mirror
Introduction
For those of you just tuning into this soap opera, here is a brief summary of the plot so far. Ken Brown, president of a Washington think tank called the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution has written a book claiming open source using GPL is a bad idea and that Linus Torvalds stole Linux from MINIX, which I wrote. Linus, the alleged stealer, responded. As the alleged stealee I also felt the need to respond. Now Ken Brown has reacted to my responses. I very much doubt that when he came to visit me, he was expecting me to (1) defend Linus in our interview and then (2) do it fairly publicly later.
I was planning to spend my Sunday afternoon doing something useful, but since Brown has directly challenged me in his posting cited above, I feel I should respond. I will do this in the form of commenting on his posting. His comments are set off typographically like this:
I have to give credit where credit is due. Brown got that one completely right.
***EVERY*** country has a patent office. The United States is not unique in this respect. Furthermore, many people think that patenting software is a terrible idea. The subject of software patents is a very controversial issue in Europe right now.
I can live with this. Professors are always on the lookout for new sources of research funding.
Excuse me? A Finnish student writes some software (in Finland) that a lot of people like and he is accused on sponging off U.S. corporations? And last time I checked, quite a few U.S. Corporations, such as IBM, seemed quite happy with Linux. And a very large number of U.S. corporations seem to be using the (open source) Apache web server. And even if open source weren't in the best interest of U.S. corporations, where is it written that all activities everywhere in the world must be done with the interests of U.S. corporations as their primary goal?
This statement is not grammatically, politically, or factually correct. Does he mean "Linus has Hansen's disease"? I hope not. But if he does, fortunately, it is highly treatable these days. If he means Linux is wasting away, the facts speak otherwise. If he means "Linux is very contagious" this is true, but a better wording could have been chosen.
Nice mirror.. 430KBps to Kansas, USA! Thanks.
Trash at Pizza Hut??? I've heard some outlandish claims on Slashdot, but.. come on, man! Gimme a deep dish meat lovers any day, any meal!
Yeah, for XP, I know that many critical updates don't show up until after you've rebooted after installing the service pack. Forgot about that.
I don't know how I made it so long without finding this out, but I recently learned that you can simply tell it not to reboot and go back into Window Update and install the rest of the patches.
This is a big time saver, and it has worked flawlessly for me. I typically still reboot after installing a service pack however. Not sure if this is needed.
Hey, no fair criticizing me with text that didn't exist when I posted my comment. As I posted here, they updated the site between our posts.
Whoah, I thought you were just messin' with me, but you're right, the site does read as you say now.
/. comment. :-p
My quote was copy-pasted from the site, as can be proved (until Google updates it cache.. true as of 5/3/04 9:05AM CST) by Google's cache
The FAQ stating that they did not use GPS wasn't on the page at that time either. They probably updated the site after reading my
Um, from the site:
Using Global Positioning, WIFI internet connections, cell phones and custom software designed by the Pac-Manhattan team, Pac-man and the ghosts will be tracked from a central location and their progress will be broadcast over the internet for viewers from around the world.
Just Google for "benefits of indirect lighting"
Try Spybot (Decent speed download here).
Spybot is a bit over-sensitive (it whines about some tracking cookies and such minor issues), but it's effective.
I love open source, but were I the decision maker, I imagine I'd go with Microsoft products in our environment. They're not perfect, and they take a chunk out of the budget, but being different has too many consequences:
At the university where I work, MS volume pricing is amazing compared to retail. We get the latest version of Office Pro for around $60, and Windows XP Pro for around $50.. not to mention that both come sans product activation.
It's hard to justify going with something non-mainstream at those prices.. but of course all of the professors end up paying retail prices to get the same software on their home computer(s), so Microsoft still makes a bundle from it.
Well, even if his math was wrong, his point is still valid.. going from 5 trillion years to 5 billion years isn't much different (of course, even 128 bit encryption is currently thought to take much longer than a measly 5 trillion years to brute force).
Most cryptology systems are purposefully designed to take an absolutely absurd amount of time to crack -- exactly to account for many of these instant 1000 fold improvements.
If your processor is at least 400Mhz or so, I'd echo the other replies to your comment about making sure you're not out of RAM; but also, remember that most laptops come with a 4200 RPM Hard drive. If you can afford it, I've found it's a *huge* performance improvement to upgrade to a 5400 or even a 7200 RPM drive. Be careful to purchase a hard drive that's compatible with your laptop, though.
10,000,000.00 now.. and note that the silly thing isn't even fully operational anymore..
Mr. T.V. Executive,
;-)
If the news of this 18-34 male viewer decline disturbs you and you wish to explain it, you can start by simply performing a statistical analysis of this Slashdot article's comments (many of us are 18-34 males). Hint: Check for the number of posts complaining about too many reality shows.
I'm a 25 year old male, and I might watch more TV if less of it were catered directly to the teenage/gossipy girl demographic.. It's not that hard to figure out that "Hmm, now that we show 20% less of a demographic's favorite shows (and show certain reality shows that are actually repulsive to this demographic), we've lost 20% of our viewership from them".
P.S. For those actual TV execs reading, if you really want me back, show more Star Trek next generation (or other sci-fi will work), racing, and sports
You know, I think editors can submit stories themselves, Hemos, you don't have to wait for our submissions.. :-p
Humor aside, it is wild how cheap a cluster can be these days..
$7500 for 35Ghz/3.2GB is downright expensive these days. For example, a 2.16Ghz Athlon 3000+ machine w/256M ram & 40GB HD is listed on pricewatch at $229.
That's 16 machines to get 35Ghz/4GB at a price of $3664. I know quite a few people that have spent that amount or close to it for a single machine! This is part of why I love computers, constant progress.. the next generation will laugh at us paying $3660 dollars (even with inflation) for 35Ghz/4GB.
isn't off topic!
When I go back and look at my Perl scripts I wrote a couple weeks ago, it takes me a while to get my head back into the script. With PHP, the code is always straight forward. It may be more verbose, but I understand it much more quickly than my Perl.
Besides this, I've found PHP's documentation to be far superior to any other languages'. When I do web programming, give me PHP anyday.
The only thing Perl has over PHP in my mind is that CPAN is currently far superior to PEAR. If you need many special libraries, you may want to consider Perl.
</ramble>I know it sounds right, but unfortunately you're wrong.
You know, I was nodding my head as I read your comment, and wondered if perhaps I had given up on Perl too quickly... then I read your signature and went back to my PHP code ;-).
OK, I realize this is 80% Flamebait and 15% troll, but the 5% truth hiding in there is what prompts me to reply.
You mention PostGreSQL as an alternative to MySQL. That's fine. But then you bash PHP without mentioning an alternative. What's a good, easy-to-use open source tool to make dynamic web pages besides PHP? No other language I've used is so simple to use and well documented, so I'm curious if you (or someone else) has a decent PHP replacement in mind..
For your particular example, why not just turn off sending referrer information in your browser? The prefbar has a nice check box that lets you turn off sending referrer whenever you like.
You made a good decision not installing the Yahoo search bar. I haven't bothered to read why exactly, but the Spybot -- Search & Destroy software labels it and/or its components as spyware.
For some reason, whenever I run across machines that have the Yahoo Search bar, this lovely "Search Assistant" thing that gives extra pop up windows when searching is on the machines as well..