Many of the goals of this program are quite insidious...The only positive benefit is long term relationships between the technologically apt people from outside the US and those inside. This is a good thing.
It also gives people a chance to save some bucks...many more opportunities here for high tech jobs.
But the dark side...all the lies used to prop this thing up...false employment statistics, targeted wage controls...all this is rather blatant proff of how sickeningly corrupt the USA is.
My solution is raising the cap on immigration...permanent immigration...and making it illegal to discriminate against people on the basis of wealth or education.
This way, we'd end the abuse, and get lots of doctors, airline pilots, politicians, lawyers, bakers, workers...people from all walks of life. We'd even get some great progammers.
The whole H1B program is a sickening scam, both on US citizens -- due to the lies used to support it -- to the US programmers who are getting their wages and status held down -- and to the visa holders, who work for cheap, get no assurance they can stay, and the average american who is paying more than they should have to for many union protected fields.
Not to mention brain-draining the country of origin.
When I was growing up, the kids a few blocks away had this really fun thing they would do to newbies to their block.
They'd take you over to meet "Bud", a really friendly dog. Bud was in on it, too.
They'd say "Look at Bud! He's a friendly irish setter. Go pet him.
Bud sat near the porch, tail wagging, with this friendly, eager look on his face.
Of course, as soon as you got close, he would suddenly growl and leap at you, chasing you down the hill til his chain ran out, biting and snarling the whole way.
The kids would roar with laughter. During my introduction, my pants were torn a bit, but no broken skin, forutnately!
The problem I've noticed with moderation is that it tends to snuff out alternative ideas, and the people who post them.
This leads to a "lowest common denominator" effect on the site in question; a milque toast effect; a trend towards genericity.
In short, I don't like karma at all. I think it's completely wrong. Each post should be unemcumbered by the quality of previous posts; judged on its own merit.
Obviously, every site has the right to do whatever they please...
Kind of an odd little paper. Sounds more like he's venting at frustration of explaining to a group of linux porters the basics of working in a group -- CVS, committing frequently, liberal use of assertions, commenting out chucks of code rather than deleting.
Still enjoyable. I would have preferred something more along the lines of comparing media API's between the two platforms, and the workarounds the gaming community is implementing to get past platform differences.
I am often saddened that Andre LaMothe decided to "go windows" rather than move his gaming expertise into a more neutral OpenGL and Linux direction. I found his book exciting and style easy to read.
It would be so cool to see someone compare and contrast the methods in "Black Art of 3D Game Programming (LaMothe)", essentially a DOS book, into something modern and Linux-based.
Obviously, I'm fairly new at all this, because it looks like OpenGL makes a lot of the code in the "Black Art" book redundant. Nevertheless, it would be an interesting treatise on game programming to see all the 2D, 3D sound stuff in that book re-written for OGL/Linux.
gcc : Yes, we have problems, too...yet it does appear to be improving. Some of the templating and inlining seems really, really broken.
It seems to me the author has been threatened that he will be sued for IP violations, and that penalties will accrue the longer he leaves the material up.
He then asked for clarification; that is, what exactly is illegal on the site and what laws were being violated.
K & K did not provide the information.
Therefore, it seems to me that any accrual of financial penalties has now become their burden, for failing to provide the information necessary for the flyingbuttmonkey to determine how best to serve their viewing public.
Anyway, IANAL. Everyone compares computer hardware to cars, and the "welded hood" analogy. It seems to fall apart when you get into these "give away the razor, and make you're money selling blades".
Have any aftermarket car companies been sued for making GM/FORD/HONDA/TOYO replacement parts? Shocks, Tires, Wheels, pistons, etc? What laws let someone take their car apart and posting dimensions of the piston, for example?
Also, Steve Ciarcia (former Byte Magazine/Circuit Cellar guru) ran a lengthy series on the design and programming of barcode readers.
Sheesh, only a small percentage of people getting this thing are going to hack it, anyway. All Digital Divergence is doing is screwing their image with the computing elite. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.
Legislators, for the most part, do listen to their mail.
As the author states, it would get spammed by scripters -- either bored script kiddies or pros hired by the music industry to trash the process. This could do more harm than good.
Legislators need to know that the requests come from legitimate sources, in their district, that will remember their legislative support and, in retuen, support that legislator in the future. They don't want astroturf or people out of their districts.
It would be far better to *ORGANIZE*. This means getting several influential people behind it -- from a variety of backgrounds, with an eye towards a long term winning strategy for individual freedom -- not some dot com's freedom to rip people or corporations off.
This would be a many pronged attack -- through newspapers, radio, the web, etc.
Individual freedom to back up, restore, transfer and even (to a limited extent) share IP or copyrighted material, because libraries share IP and copyrighted material, as is already done in other forms of media (my family shares DVDs, videos, books all the time, the library loans it out, etc) so limited IP or copyright violations, for personal use are clearly legal. This sharing needs to expanded and protected on the net.
This is how orgs like the AMA and Sierra Club do things. They do it with forethought, strategy, publicity and big names to back it up.
That's the problem with the net -- everything is instant gratification in your face. No one considers long term strategies, alliances, etc.
To me, the EFF, FSF, ACLU should all be working together on a coherent strategy to free both code and binary content within, say, a 5-10 year time frame, placing responsibility for copyright violations where it belongs -- on the individual, not a conduit.
There should be more exposure in the main stream media to people with an interest in freedom on the net, regardless of their background. Alliances need to make sure there is a "give and take" process -- one hand needs to wash the other.
Any such plan should make it a easy 2-3 minute processs for an individual to get a web-based, persoanlized form letter emailed or displayed to them, complete with a second sheet that has the appropriate return address and target legislator address as well.
Just add a envelope and a stamp, and it's a no brainer, under 2 minute process.
This kind of thing needs a group of intelligent, relaxed, long term strategic thinkers. Not too easy to find on the web or involved in computing, but there are certainly a few jewels that could be leveraged.
I challenge anyone to take a reasonable look at the job listings for C/C++ programmers in any region of the country, and what will you see? A big drop in ads over the last several years.
I'm not talking about sys admins, I've talking about raw software here, folks.
Now, add that my bro works for a large aerospace company that "pads" their website with (literally) 100's of jobs, engineering jobs, that go unfilled. They get resumes, but they never interview or hire, just send a card. Why? So they can extend project milestones, put pressure on the gov for H1B, and move a number of R&D jobs overseas.
The whole H1B thing has been a scam from the beginning -- goal 1: lower/stabilize programmer wages. Goal 2: brain drain competitive countries.
Kennedy Clan, Bush (George, Jeb, George W.), Albert Gore (Al Gore).
This is a country that runs on nepotism, political favors, bribes, payoffs and kickbacks.
If the vote had been closer, then it would have mattered, and he should have bowed out. I suspect that the Supreme Court, for the most part, did not feel they had cause to fast track this case, so it's no big deal.
If we were at war, and it involved national security or something, then, yes, I think they would have heard it.
The bigger picture, where the two lead candidates for the USA's presidency both come from "political families", is scary. It's like having fucking royalty all over again.
it can be very good for a family to have one eldery person bust his ass, work the system, then, as an insider, the genetic leavenings can slide into positions of high authority w/o really doing much.
Albert Gore begat Al Gore.
George Bush begat G.W. Bush (and Jeb).
Joe Kennedy begat...oh shit let's not go there.
the real problem is the corruption. I mean, the smartest thing Bill Gates and Co. can do now is start doing background/lineage checks on all the appeals court Judges to see where they stand as far as employing their offspring in Microsoft or a shadow affiliate.
You can bet Rehnquist's son will have favor in the law firm, as a result in this decision, even though it wasn't even close. My gut feeling : it made no difference. Had the vote been closer, then I think he should have bowed out.
Remember, this is the richest man in the world, living in a highly corrupt country. It's unlikely that MSHAFT will ever get more than a handslap/$1 fine, for example.
The appeals court is fairly corruptable with a lot of ultra rightists at the top.
On several occasions they have not hesitated to come to the full support of Microsoft.
It's pretty much up to Linux and the rest of the world now...freedom today and into the future has been severely jeopardized by this horrendous decision. As more systems are taken by MS, that will mean fewer US Linux jobs, and less open source code from the USA.
Think about it -- something like half the court is somewhat liberal, and only one of them dissented.
What do you think will happen when it hits the more easily manipulated, Microsoft friendly appeals court? At a minimum, a hand slap -- probably a $1 fine to Gates. Most certainly, all of Judge Jackson's remedies will be rejected.
One of the major distros (Mandrake/RedHat/Storm), or some other org/group, do something like:
Accept donations to create/send out dozens of CDs of the latest versions of the various distros to universities/business IT departments worldwide, or if some "White Knight" has the resources, send 'em out for free;
Possibly work with one of the "PC Recyclers" that test, rehab, send discarded/obsolete western PCs to third world countries, and have them install Linux.
This would be a great intro to freedom for many of the global populace.
This is great news. Every "standard" microsoft creates, and keeps closed, is more ammo for the government's lawsuit, and more frustrating for MS users.
Why can't grandma sent her grandson mail at the university? Cuz Billy Borgware says so. Or, as he says, "they use legacy Sun servers, and your grandson is using a low value OS, (Linux/Mac/BSD/Beos/Amiga whatever).
Who's going to be pissed off? Poor old Grandma, who's going to vent about it to everyone in her frickin' knitting group, the Gray Panthers, whatever. Her Grandson just sighs, cuz he knew all this was coming years ago.
Of course, she can read *his* emails just fine, because federal criminals didn't write that originating client or the intervening server.
So this is good thing. Every microsoft attempt at controlling the net, and refusing to cooperate with the W3c (and other standards committees) is going to eventually boomerang and smack them right in the nuts.
the only future for this thing is the appliance crowd. those people who want to plug it in, and have it work.
example: both my parents went to fryes, bought new computers, and both crashed on boot. both were returned to the manufacturer, who sent replacements, which worked.
i just don't see the "pc in a box" thing happening. the road to "web tv" has been littered with bankruptcy so far.
if anyone make a truly cool console/net/tv appliance, it will be someone like hp, dell, compaq, sun, sgi, sony. not these fools or microsoft x box.
thus, the eventual winner will prolly run Linux just fine.
Leave the installer the way it is, and ship the distro with a "Debian Installation Keypad" -- it's a pressure sensitive mousepad with the word "ENTER" silkscreened on it. Just pound your fist on it about 100 times, and your done.
But seriously, I think it would be best to let the user describe what they want to use the system for, then allow customization from that point forward.
also might be nice to let the knuckle draggers choose the classic install up front.
why on earth would anyone want to buy closed hardware? to use with closed software? just because the imac did well, doesn't mean this thing will take the industry by storm.
in fact, if it does well, it could have a devastating effect on microsoft. let's face it, there are numerous hardware companies that can probably bring a better, faster, cheaper product to market than MS, and have it be an open standard (they wouldn't have misguided loyalty to der fuhrer)
MS has had awful luck with previous ventures into hardware. the only two devices that ever sold were the mouse and keyboard, which, as i recall, were invented elesewhere and BBB (bought by bill).
i stopped buying MS software/products in about 1993, after they settled with stac, cuz i don't buy products from illegal, lying corporations. i did buy a natural keyboard, tho. i just don't understand why anyone would use a microsoft anything, given a choice.
about a year ago, i stopped buying computer hardware -- mostly because of bill (and friends) outrageous behavior in a court of law. i really have no interest in spending any money on PC hardware or software until MS is basically destroyed.
here's hoping the Xbox will be another nail in the coffin. fortunately, i have enough put aside from my unix career that i'll be able to just walk away from it all in a year or so, even if bill is able to bribe/lie/cheat his way through his legal problems again.
Many of these Universities have leading edge legal departments -- full of fairly smart people, to say the least.
The recent prosecution of an *individual* for sharing files is almost admitting what many have said from the beginning -- it's not the pipe or the software that commits crimes, it's the individual.
If this can be proven, Lars, Metallica, RIAA may be in for some major corporate lawsuits, and even class action lawsuits for denying individuals access to their software and internet, not to mention a reasonable expectation of privacy (netcop should watch out, too).
Hopefully this will come to pass. I'd really enjoy seeing these bastards get wiped out for violating our civil rights.
> No. Saying Linux will be as valid as Windows for > the desktop is deluding yourself.
Yes, in many cases, it's better for the desktop. We have many machines at work that don't shut down properly with win98, endless problems with ILOVEYOU virus attacks, BSODs under all versions (fewer on the newer versions, I'll give you that).
> Few examples:
> Office Suites: If WordPerfect Office 2000 is
> better in Windows than in Linux, why use Linux?
Free/Open office suites like OpenOffice/StarOffice show a lot of promise. They are low cost, easy to install, and fairly reliable. I am able to manipulate larger Word docs under Linux w/ SO than under NT, given the same mem/cpu setup. Licensing issues are non-existent, and they will only get worse as MS moves forward. There is a lot of lost time in many companies when dealing with license issues, waiting for legal copies of software to show up, etc.
> Gadget Software: Where's that ultra-simple
> photo-grabber/correcter for my $50 scanner?
I don't know, but I have a scsi flash card reader that I use with Linux and my digital camera, and it's rock solid. Under WinDOS, it's iffy. Not always recognized, needs reboots, etc. It just worked under Linux. CD burning is also more reliable under Linux, at least for me. As far as a scanner, I'm not sure what the state of that is, I've heard they are advancing.
> Games: Even QuakeIII get's boring eventually.
There are a few games for Linux, many more for WinDOS. What is your big hurry? Things are improving, especially with XFree 4.0, which has much better support for GL accelerator cards. No on is saying Linux is better than Windows at everything, but it's pretty hard to ignore the speed at which Linux is improving -- in many areas.
> Being "as valid" for the desktop as Windows
> takes more than just technical quality. It takes
> creature comforts, asthetics, ease of use,
> integration.
Linux is still maturing, using a development process that is completely radical and new. It's use is spreading rapidly. In several graphics benchmarks, Linux is superior to all MS products. Same with server benchmarks.
Can you really say the Gnome Desktop (ala Helix Code) lacks aesthetics, integration and ease of use? That's really reaching. It's solid and easy to use. If your a shorcut or DND guy who;s going apeshit over X, remember that the vast majority of people don't even use either, and the situation is being worked on by some of the best in the field.
> 1) There are very few creature comforts in
> Linux. Sure stuff like ActiveDesktop or Win98
> Explorer (with the integrated preview) are not
> absolutely necessary, but they're nice to have.
Many people strongly dislike the previews and active desktop. There's nothing quite like watching an active control freeze your desktop, or watching the AD render a bunch of crap when I only want to see the files. Not much of a comfort for the many people (like me) who get frustrating watching there system freeze while Window is off doing God knows what.
> 2) Linux has no asthetics. Asthetics goes beyond
> pretty GUIs into the system itself. There is
> only so much KDE and GNOME do for you. Once you
> get into the system itself, its ugly.
And the system, as seen via MKS in NT, is not ugly? Surely your making a big joke here. After programming NT for 2 years all I can say is many things, from the GUI API, to DLLs, to font handing, to the command environment, to the documentation are horrifying compared to nearly any Unix variant.
> Initscripts are ugly (except in Slackware).
> Adding hardware is ugly. The config files are
> ugly. (My thinking is that the whole mess in
>/etc could be condensed into a dozen well
> planned files.)
Yellow question marks in the device manager, driver hunts, and downloads of many a binary file are your elegant solution. I don't think so! In many cases, I've been able to fix minor problems on my machine with a quick search on deja.com and a simple edit of a config file. No 20 meg service packs.
> 3) Linux has a learning curve shaped like an L.
> Sure, if your doing basic stupid-user stuff,
> it's just as easy as Windows. However, the
> minute you need to do something a little more
> advanced (like install non-KDE software!) or
> have to configure hardware less than 10 years
> old, you've got a problem. Take ALSA for
> example. This is supposed to be the next-gen
> Linux sound architecture, but I need to tell it
> how many soundcards I have? WTF! Need to install
> NAT? Though luck, you have to figure out the
> mess in/etc/rc.d first. Setting up a telnet
> server? Figure out inet first. It doesn't have
> to be that way. Take a look at BeOS. Setting up
> telnet and ftp servers is literally just a
> checkbox and a password-field away. Look
> underneath, however, and you have those
> plain-text config files, giving power to both
> groups of users. For some odd reason, no
> enterprising distro maker thought of this? (And
> don't point me to some link on FreashMeat. If
> the user was advanced enough to do that, then
> they'd be able to figure out inet. Also, find a
> way to get that link to the thousands of people
> who are sitting without a personal telnet server
> (incredibly usefull if you've got DSL and a
> static IP) because they can't figure it out.
I don't know what you mean about installing a telnet server. Most distros let you choose that from the install, others require something really challenging like "apt-get install telnetd" or some such.
> Another this is recompiling important system
> software. One of the great potential benifits of
> Linux is allowing users to custom compile their
> software for speed. However, most system
> software is so ridiculously (comparativly)
> difficult to hand configure, that this feature
> goes unused. A GUI interface for making any
> source package? That's the right thing to do. If
> Linux were judged by the same standards Windows
> is judged by, reviewers would bitch constantly
> about this missed opportunity. The bottom line
> is that Linux is hard. For ultra-basic uses, it
> may be easy, but the minute you venture out of
> KDE or GNOME, you hit a mess of legacy
> configuration crap, ill-thought-out
> configuration methods, and a totally
> inconsistant system. In Linux there are no
> advanced or intermediate users. There are
> newbies, and there are UNIX-gurus.
And if you want to compile anything under WinDOS, go shell out the bucks for Visual Studio, and spend hours learning how to tweak all the settings for whatever it is you're trying to compile.
And then you go on to imply that any novice to advanced windows user can or should be able to do this. Ridiculous. No one needs to compile any software for Linux, especially "critical system software", in any case.
But if someone chooses to go download a tarball, extract it, do a "./configure; make" in their home directory, they hardly need to be a "unix guru". The newsgroups are full of stories of people doing just that, who have no experience with Unix, and enjoyed the learning experience of how software is built. All for free! The tools came with their distro, in most cases.
Have you ever even used Kdevelop, Glade or DDD?
> 4) Linux isn't an OS. It is a bunch of software
> randomally glued together by a distro maker.
> Case in point: Some software uses make
> config/make/make install. Others use straight
> make. Others use the BSD style edit the config
> file, run make. Others use xmkmf. The kernel
> uses its own method. That's the wrong way to do
> it. There is no standard format for config
> files.
Actually, make, xmkmf, imake, BSD tools, etc. are all defacto standards with their strengths and weaknesses, proponents and detractors. For some reason, you don't like any of them, and you choose to say they are all horrible. Is there any environment you like, besides VS and MFC? Or are you just all about "Be"? I don't care about Be, but I also don't go looking for press releases about Be and posting endless falsehoods about what a crappy product it is.
Basic computer science, and common sense, tells you that if a distro were put together in a random fashion it wouldn't compile, let alone run. Give it a rest.
> Good GUI interfaces for configuration aren't
> included in the OS, and aren't similar to each
> other. Sure it may be hard to get so many
> developers to agree, but consistancy is a good
> thing for an OS to have, and I could care less
> about the managerial problems on OS has to bring
> consistancy to me. If its an inherent problem
> with the development model, then too bad, Linux
> should be judged by the same ruler as a
> commercial OS.
Gnome (especially the helixcode stuff) and KDE are both fairly intuitive and consistent.
> Can't fill a niche in the Linux software line?
> Then go help at www.beunited.org, where every
> developer counts.
After reading your post, I think I'd tend to shy away from Be, in ever increasing increments...Linux has a much larger following, and so many people using the product really helps to get it stable, and gives employers a nice pool of potential employees. Not to mention I don't get caught up in some marketing depts. grand sceme of how their going to dethrone Billy the Borg. No thanks.
Is the source code for Be availible? Just curious.
...let's face it, programming in the USA was rapidly approaching the status of "doctor" or "lawyer". In the late 80's, a hot programmer could freelance for a fortune.
This made life very tough on Sun, Oracle, Microsoft and IBM. The last thing they needed was having to pay $40-$100 an hour for programmers.
Thus, immense financial pressure begat H1B. I knew it was a lie from the start, intended to hobble the wealth and status of American Software Engineers, Developers and programmers.
I would have far preferred we let in a mix of people from a variety of backgrounds, on a permanent basis. Lawyers, Police, Doctors, Nurses, Politicians, Pilots, Teachers, whatever. But the various unions would have stopped it cold. Thus, the congress had to target geeky programmers -- highly paid, but no organizing skills.
Now we're stuck with the result. H1B Programmers and Technicians only; many of which will not be granted permanent residence and thus have to return home.
IMHO, this is one of the most egregious actions that the congress of the USA has ever taken, and that's saying a lot since they generally fuck everyone on the globe on a daily basis.
The downturn in the economy, the global corporatists (GE just opened a $100M engineering facility in Bangladore), stagnation of the platform have all contributed to this situation.
All I can say is, take a look at the local want ads. There are a fraction of the programming jobs that existed just a few years ago. My brother works for a massive aerospace company which has 100s of job openings on their website. The resumes pour in, but the jobs are never filled, and only rarely is anyone even interviewed.
Why? because the company uses vacant engineering slots to pressure the government in a lot of ways -- more time to complete projects, more pressure to expand H1B, etc.
Hate to say it, but for many H1B people, this was your vacation in America. Some global corporation got to pay you a fraction of what he would have paid me. Now, it's time for the next crop. Sooner or later, most programming will be done in China and India, and you will make more than the guy down the street.
Who really wins? The big shareholders in the Globals. That is, the top 1-5% of the US population. Many will do well in India/China, though. Personally, I think you got a pretty good deal.
Who can say Linus + family wouldn't have an enjoyable life back in Helsinki? I seriously doubt he'd have trouble finding a job!
Slashdot Mirror
...for segfaulting, bloated software.
Especially when I can get it for free from corezilla and netscrape.
Many of the goals of this program are quite insidious...The only positive benefit is long term relationships between the technologically apt people from outside the US and those inside. This is a good thing.
It also gives people a chance to save some bucks...many more opportunities here for high tech jobs.
But the dark side...all the lies used to prop this thing up...false employment statistics, targeted wage controls...all this is rather blatant proff of how sickeningly corrupt the USA is.
My solution is raising the cap on immigration...permanent immigration...and making it illegal to discriminate against people on the basis of wealth or education.
This way, we'd end the abuse, and get lots of doctors, airline pilots, politicians, lawyers, bakers, workers...people from all walks of life. We'd even get some great progammers.
The whole H1B program is a sickening scam, both on US citizens -- due to the lies used to support it -- to the US programmers who are getting their wages and status held down -- and to the visa holders, who work for cheap, get no assurance they can stay, and the average american who is paying more than they should have to for many union protected fields.
Not to mention brain-draining the country of origin.
this link returns:
"Your browser sent a message this server could not understand."
Yup, microsoft is in da house.
When I was growing up, the kids a few blocks away had this really fun thing they would do to newbies to their block.
They'd take you over to meet "Bud", a really friendly dog. Bud was in on it, too.
They'd say "Look at Bud! He's a friendly irish setter. Go pet him.
Bud sat near the porch, tail wagging, with this friendly, eager look on his face.
Of course, as soon as you got close, he would suddenly growl and leap at you, chasing you down the hill til his chain ran out, biting and snarling the whole way.
The kids would roar with laughter. During my introduction, my pants were torn a bit, but no broken skin, forutnately!
Anyway, welcome to Microsoft "Bud".
The problem I've noticed with moderation is that it tends to snuff out alternative ideas, and the people who post them.
This leads to a "lowest common denominator" effect on the site in question; a milque toast effect; a trend towards genericity.
In short, I don't like karma at all. I think it's completely wrong. Each post should be unemcumbered by the quality of previous posts; judged on its own merit.
Obviously, every site has the right to do whatever they please...
Kind of an odd little paper. Sounds more like he's venting at frustration of explaining to a group of linux porters the basics of working in a group -- CVS, committing frequently, liberal use of assertions, commenting out chucks of code rather than deleting.
Still enjoyable. I would have preferred something more along the lines of comparing media API's between the two platforms, and the workarounds the gaming community is implementing to get past platform differences.
I am often saddened that Andre LaMothe decided to "go windows" rather than move his gaming expertise into a more neutral OpenGL and Linux direction. I found his book exciting and style easy to read.
It would be so cool to see someone compare and contrast the methods in "Black Art of 3D Game Programming (LaMothe)", essentially a DOS book, into something modern and Linux-based.
Obviously, I'm fairly new at all this, because it looks like OpenGL makes a lot of the code in the "Black Art" book redundant. Nevertheless, it would be an interesting treatise on game programming to see all the 2D, 3D sound stuff in that book re-written for OGL/Linux.
gcc : Yes, we have problems, too...yet it does appear to be improving. Some of the templating and inlining seems really, really broken.
It seems to me the author has been threatened that he will be sued for IP violations, and that penalties will accrue the longer he leaves the material up.
He then asked for clarification; that is, what exactly is illegal on the site and what laws were being violated.
K & K did not provide the information.
Therefore, it seems to me that any accrual of financial penalties has now become their burden, for failing to provide the information necessary for the flyingbuttmonkey to determine how best to serve their viewing public.
Anyway, IANAL. Everyone compares computer hardware to cars, and the "welded hood" analogy. It seems to fall apart when you get into these "give away the razor, and make you're money selling blades".
Have any aftermarket car companies been sued for making GM/FORD/HONDA/TOYO replacement parts? Shocks, Tires, Wheels, pistons, etc? What laws let someone take their car apart and posting dimensions of the piston, for example?
Also, Steve Ciarcia (former Byte Magazine/Circuit Cellar guru) ran a lengthy series on the design and programming of barcode readers.
Sheesh, only a small percentage of people getting this thing are going to hack it, anyway. All Digital Divergence is doing is screwing their image with the computing elite. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.
Legislators, for the most part, do listen to their mail.
As the author states, it would get spammed by scripters -- either bored script kiddies or pros hired by the music industry to trash the process. This could do more harm than good.
Legislators need to know that the requests come from legitimate sources, in their district, that will remember their legislative support and, in retuen, support that legislator in the future. They don't want astroturf or people out of their districts.
It would be far better to *ORGANIZE*. This means getting several influential people behind it -- from a variety of backgrounds, with an eye towards a long term winning strategy for individual freedom -- not some dot com's freedom to rip people or corporations off.
This would be a many pronged attack -- through newspapers, radio, the web, etc.
Individual freedom to back up, restore, transfer and even (to a limited extent) share IP or copyrighted material, because libraries share IP and copyrighted material, as is already done in other forms of media (my family shares DVDs, videos, books all the time, the library loans it out, etc) so limited IP or copyright violations, for personal use are clearly legal. This sharing needs to expanded and protected on the net.
This is how orgs like the AMA and Sierra Club do things. They do it with forethought, strategy, publicity and big names to back it up.
That's the problem with the net -- everything is instant gratification in your face. No one considers long term strategies, alliances, etc.
To me, the EFF, FSF, ACLU should all be working together on a coherent strategy to free both code and binary content within, say, a 5-10 year time frame, placing responsibility for copyright violations where it belongs -- on the individual, not a conduit.
There should be more exposure in the main stream media to people with an interest in freedom on the net, regardless of their background. Alliances need to make sure there is a "give and take" process -- one hand needs to wash the other.
Any such plan should make it a easy 2-3 minute processs for an individual to get a web-based, persoanlized form letter emailed or displayed to them, complete with a second sheet that has the appropriate return address and target legislator address as well.
Just add a envelope and a stamp, and it's a no brainer, under 2 minute process.
This kind of thing needs a group of intelligent, relaxed, long term strategic thinkers. Not too easy to find on the web or involved in computing, but there are certainly a few jewels that could be leveraged.
Anyone care to guess when an ATX mobo (single, dual or quad) will show up on pricewatch?
I've posted on this before.
I challenge anyone to take a reasonable look at the job listings for C/C++ programmers in any region of the country, and what will you see? A big drop in ads over the last several years.
I'm not talking about sys admins, I've talking about raw software here, folks.
Now, add that my bro works for a large aerospace company that "pads" their website with (literally) 100's of jobs, engineering jobs, that go unfilled. They get resumes, but they never interview or hire, just send a card. Why? So they can extend project milestones, put pressure on the gov for H1B, and move a number of R&D jobs overseas.
The whole H1B thing has been a scam from the beginning -- goal 1: lower/stabilize programmer wages. Goal 2: brain drain competitive countries.
Disgusting.
Kennedy Clan, Bush (George, Jeb, George W.), Albert Gore (Al Gore).
This is a country that runs on nepotism, political favors, bribes, payoffs and kickbacks.
If the vote had been closer, then it would have mattered, and he should have bowed out. I suspect that the Supreme Court, for the most part, did not feel they had cause to fast track this case, so it's no big deal.
If we were at war, and it involved national security or something, then, yes, I think they would have heard it.
The bigger picture, where the two lead candidates for the USA's presidency both come from "political families", is scary. It's like having fucking royalty all over again.
it can be very good for a family to have one eldery person bust his ass, work the system, then, as an insider, the genetic leavenings can slide into positions of high authority w/o really doing much.
Albert Gore begat Al Gore.
George Bush begat G.W. Bush (and Jeb).
Joe Kennedy begat...oh shit let's not go there.
the real problem is the corruption. I mean, the smartest thing Bill Gates and Co. can do now is start doing background/lineage checks on all the appeals court Judges to see where they stand as far as employing their offspring in Microsoft or a shadow affiliate.
You can bet Rehnquist's son will have favor in the law firm, as a result in this decision, even though it wasn't even close. My gut feeling : it made no difference. Had the vote been closer, then I think he should have bowed out.
Remember, this is the richest man in the world, living in a highly corrupt country. It's unlikely that MSHAFT will ever get more than a handslap/$1 fine, for example.
The appeals court is fairly corruptable with a lot of ultra rightists at the top. On several occasions they have not hesitated to come to the full support of Microsoft. It's pretty much up to Linux and the rest of the world now...freedom today and into the future has been severely jeopardized by this horrendous decision. As more systems are taken by MS, that will mean fewer US Linux jobs, and less open source code from the USA. Think about it -- something like half the court is somewhat liberal, and only one of them dissented. What do you think will happen when it hits the more easily manipulated, Microsoft friendly appeals court? At a minimum, a hand slap -- probably a $1 fine to Gates. Most certainly, all of Judge Jackson's remedies will be rejected.
reuter
...instead of the news service, you get "free web based email" -- just enter your uname and password.
who would have guessed the web could make our lives so simple?
One of the major distros (Mandrake/RedHat/Storm), or some other org/group, do something like:
Accept donations to create/send out dozens of CDs of the latest versions of the various distros to universities/business IT departments worldwide, or if some "White Knight" has the resources, send 'em out for free;
Possibly work with one of the "PC Recyclers" that test, rehab, send discarded/obsolete western PCs to third world countries, and have them install Linux.
This would be a great intro to freedom for many of the global populace.
This is great news. Every "standard" microsoft creates, and keeps closed, is more ammo for the government's lawsuit, and more frustrating for MS users.
Why can't grandma sent her grandson mail at the university? Cuz Billy Borgware says so. Or, as he says, "they use legacy Sun servers, and your grandson is using a low value OS, (Linux/Mac/BSD/Beos/Amiga whatever).
Who's going to be pissed off? Poor old Grandma, who's going to vent about it to everyone in her frickin' knitting group, the Gray Panthers, whatever. Her Grandson just sighs, cuz he knew all this was coming years ago.
Of course, she can read *his* emails just fine, because federal criminals didn't write that originating client or the intervening server.
So this is good thing. Every microsoft attempt at controlling the net, and refusing to cooperate with the W3c (and other standards committees) is going to eventually boomerang and smack them right in the nuts.
Go, Billy Borgware, Go!
oh, i wish the dumb bastard would try to sue harvard...the law school would eat him alive.
sux. webtv. overpriced. low value.
what are these morons thinking?
the only future for this thing is the appliance crowd. those people who want to plug it in, and have it work.
example: both my parents went to fryes, bought new computers, and both crashed on boot. both were returned to the manufacturer, who sent replacements, which worked.
i just don't see the "pc in a box" thing happening. the road to "web tv" has been littered with bankruptcy so far.
if anyone make a truly cool console/net/tv appliance, it will be someone like hp, dell, compaq, sun, sgi, sony. not these fools or microsoft x box.
thus, the eventual winner will prolly run Linux just fine.
Leave the installer the way it is, and ship the distro with a "Debian Installation Keypad" -- it's a pressure sensitive mousepad with the word "ENTER" silkscreened on it. Just pound your fist on it about 100 times, and your done.
But seriously, I think it would be best to let the user describe what they want to use the system for, then allow customization from that point forward.
also might be nice to let the knuckle draggers choose the classic install up front.
xbox...no, i don't think so.
why on earth would anyone want to buy closed hardware? to use with closed software? just because the imac did well, doesn't mean this thing will take the industry by storm.
in fact, if it does well, it could have a devastating effect on microsoft. let's face it, there are numerous hardware companies that can probably bring a better, faster, cheaper product to market than MS, and have it be an open standard (they wouldn't have misguided loyalty to der fuhrer)
MS has had awful luck with previous ventures into hardware. the only two devices that ever sold were the mouse and keyboard, which, as i recall, were invented elesewhere and BBB (bought by bill).
i stopped buying MS software/products in about 1993, after they settled with stac, cuz i don't buy products from illegal, lying corporations. i did buy a natural keyboard, tho. i just don't understand why anyone would use a microsoft anything, given a choice.
about a year ago, i stopped buying computer hardware -- mostly because of bill (and friends) outrageous behavior in a court of law. i really have no interest in spending any money on PC hardware or software until MS is basically destroyed.
here's hoping the Xbox will be another nail in the coffin. fortunately, i have enough put aside from my unix career that i'll be able to just walk away from it all in a year or so, even if bill is able to bribe/lie/cheat his way through his legal problems again.
Many of these Universities have leading edge legal departments -- full of fairly smart people, to say the least.
The recent prosecution of an *individual* for sharing files is almost admitting what many have said from the beginning -- it's not the pipe or the software that commits crimes, it's the individual.
If this can be proven, Lars, Metallica, RIAA may be in for some major corporate lawsuits, and even class action lawsuits for denying individuals access to their software and internet, not to mention a reasonable expectation of privacy (netcop should watch out, too).
Hopefully this will come to pass. I'd really enjoy seeing these bastards get wiped out for violating our civil rights.
> No. Saying Linux will be as valid as Windows for > the desktop is deluding yourself.
/etc could be condensed into a dozen well
/etc/rc.d first. Setting up a telnet
Yes, in many cases, it's better for the desktop. We have many machines at work that don't shut down properly with win98, endless problems with ILOVEYOU virus attacks, BSODs under all versions (fewer on the newer versions, I'll give you that).
> Few examples:
> Office Suites: If WordPerfect Office 2000 is
> better in Windows than in Linux, why use Linux?
Free/Open office suites like OpenOffice/StarOffice show a lot of promise. They are low cost, easy to install, and fairly reliable. I am able to manipulate larger Word docs under Linux w/ SO than under NT, given the same mem/cpu setup. Licensing issues are non-existent, and they will only get worse as MS moves forward. There is a lot of lost time in many companies when dealing with license issues, waiting for legal copies of software to show up, etc.
> Gadget Software: Where's that ultra-simple
> photo-grabber/correcter for my $50 scanner?
I don't know, but I have a scsi flash card reader that I use with Linux and my digital camera, and it's rock solid. Under WinDOS, it's iffy. Not always recognized, needs reboots, etc. It just worked under Linux. CD burning is also more reliable under Linux, at least for me. As far as a scanner, I'm not sure what the state of that is, I've heard they are advancing.
> Games: Even QuakeIII get's boring eventually.
There are a few games for Linux, many more for WinDOS. What is your big hurry? Things are improving, especially with XFree 4.0, which has much better support for GL accelerator cards. No on is saying Linux is better than Windows at everything, but it's pretty hard to ignore the speed at which Linux is improving -- in many areas.
> Being "as valid" for the desktop as Windows
> takes more than just technical quality. It takes
> creature comforts, asthetics, ease of use,
> integration.
Linux is still maturing, using a development process that is completely radical and new. It's use is spreading rapidly. In several graphics benchmarks, Linux is superior to all MS products. Same with server benchmarks.
Can you really say the Gnome Desktop (ala Helix Code) lacks aesthetics, integration and ease of use? That's really reaching. It's solid and easy to use. If your a shorcut or DND guy who;s going apeshit over X, remember that the vast majority of people don't even use either, and the situation is being worked on by some of the best in the field.
> 1) There are very few creature comforts in
> Linux. Sure stuff like ActiveDesktop or Win98
> Explorer (with the integrated preview) are not
> absolutely necessary, but they're nice to have.
Many people strongly dislike the previews and active desktop. There's nothing quite like watching an active control freeze your desktop, or watching the AD render a bunch of crap when I only want to see the files. Not much of a comfort for the many people (like me) who get frustrating watching there system freeze while Window is off doing God knows what.
> 2) Linux has no asthetics. Asthetics goes beyond
> pretty GUIs into the system itself. There is
> only so much KDE and GNOME do for you. Once you
> get into the system itself, its ugly.
And the system, as seen via MKS in NT, is not ugly? Surely your making a big joke here. After programming NT for 2 years all I can say is many things, from the GUI API, to DLLs, to font handing, to the command environment, to the documentation are horrifying compared to nearly any Unix variant.
> Initscripts are ugly (except in Slackware).
> Adding hardware is ugly. The config files are
> ugly. (My thinking is that the whole mess in
>
> planned files.)
Yellow question marks in the device manager, driver hunts, and downloads of many a binary file are your elegant solution. I don't think so! In many cases, I've been able to fix minor problems on my machine with a quick search on deja.com and a simple edit of a config file. No 20 meg service packs.
> 3) Linux has a learning curve shaped like an L.
> Sure, if your doing basic stupid-user stuff,
> it's just as easy as Windows. However, the
> minute you need to do something a little more
> advanced (like install non-KDE software!) or
> have to configure hardware less than 10 years
> old, you've got a problem. Take ALSA for
> example. This is supposed to be the next-gen
> Linux sound architecture, but I need to tell it
> how many soundcards I have? WTF! Need to install
> NAT? Though luck, you have to figure out the
> mess in
> server? Figure out inet first. It doesn't have
> to be that way. Take a look at BeOS. Setting up
> telnet and ftp servers is literally just a
> checkbox and a password-field away. Look
> underneath, however, and you have those
> plain-text config files, giving power to both
> groups of users. For some odd reason, no
> enterprising distro maker thought of this? (And
> don't point me to some link on FreashMeat. If
> the user was advanced enough to do that, then
> they'd be able to figure out inet. Also, find a
> way to get that link to the thousands of people
> who are sitting without a personal telnet server
> (incredibly usefull if you've got DSL and a
> static IP) because they can't figure it out.
I don't know what you mean about installing a telnet server. Most distros let you choose that from the install, others require something really challenging like "apt-get install telnetd" or some such.
> Another this is recompiling important system
> software. One of the great potential benifits of
> Linux is allowing users to custom compile their
> software for speed. However, most system
> software is so ridiculously (comparativly)
> difficult to hand configure, that this feature
> goes unused. A GUI interface for making any
> source package? That's the right thing to do. If
> Linux were judged by the same standards Windows
> is judged by, reviewers would bitch constantly
> about this missed opportunity. The bottom line
> is that Linux is hard. For ultra-basic uses, it
> may be easy, but the minute you venture out of
> KDE or GNOME, you hit a mess of legacy
> configuration crap, ill-thought-out
> configuration methods, and a totally
> inconsistant system. In Linux there are no
> advanced or intermediate users. There are
> newbies, and there are UNIX-gurus.
And if you want to compile anything under WinDOS, go shell out the bucks for Visual Studio, and spend hours learning how to tweak all the settings for whatever it is you're trying to compile.
And then you go on to imply that any novice to advanced windows user can or should be able to do this. Ridiculous. No one needs to compile any software for Linux, especially "critical system software", in any case.
But if someone chooses to go download a tarball, extract it, do a "./configure; make" in their home directory, they hardly need to be a "unix guru". The newsgroups are full of stories of people doing just that, who have no experience with Unix, and enjoyed the learning experience of how software is built. All for free! The tools came with their distro, in most cases.
Have you ever even used Kdevelop, Glade or DDD?
> 4) Linux isn't an OS. It is a bunch of software
> randomally glued together by a distro maker.
> Case in point: Some software uses make
> config/make/make install. Others use straight
> make. Others use the BSD style edit the config
> file, run make. Others use xmkmf. The kernel
> uses its own method. That's the wrong way to do
> it. There is no standard format for config
> files.
Actually, make, xmkmf, imake, BSD tools, etc. are all defacto standards with their strengths and weaknesses, proponents and detractors. For some reason, you don't like any of them, and you choose to say they are all horrible. Is there any environment you like, besides VS and MFC? Or are you just all about "Be"? I don't care about Be, but I also don't go looking for press releases about Be and posting endless falsehoods about what a crappy product it is.
Basic computer science, and common sense, tells you that if a distro were put together in a random fashion it wouldn't compile, let alone run. Give it a rest.
> Good GUI interfaces for configuration aren't
> included in the OS, and aren't similar to each
> other. Sure it may be hard to get so many
> developers to agree, but consistancy is a good
> thing for an OS to have, and I could care less
> about the managerial problems on OS has to bring
> consistancy to me. If its an inherent problem
> with the development model, then too bad, Linux
> should be judged by the same ruler as a
> commercial OS.
Gnome (especially the helixcode stuff) and KDE are both fairly intuitive and consistent.
> Can't fill a niche in the Linux software line?
> Then go help at www.beunited.org, where every
> developer counts.
After reading your post, I think I'd tend to shy away from Be, in ever increasing increments...Linux has a much larger following, and so many people using the product really helps to get it stable, and gives employers a nice pool of potential employees. Not to mention I don't get caught up in some marketing depts. grand sceme of how their going to dethrone Billy the Borg. No thanks.
Is the source code for Be availible? Just curious.
no way. there's still a lot of cool shit that needs to be added.
maybe they'll get to 1.0 in Q1 of 2002 or something.
...let's face it, programming in the USA was rapidly approaching the status of "doctor" or "lawyer". In the late 80's, a hot programmer could freelance for a fortune.
This made life very tough on Sun, Oracle, Microsoft and IBM. The last thing they needed was having to pay $40-$100 an hour for programmers.
Thus, immense financial pressure begat H1B. I knew it was a lie from the start, intended to hobble the wealth and status of American Software Engineers, Developers and programmers.
I would have far preferred we let in a mix of people from a variety of backgrounds, on a permanent basis. Lawyers, Police, Doctors, Nurses, Politicians, Pilots, Teachers, whatever. But the various unions would have stopped it cold. Thus, the congress had to target geeky programmers -- highly paid, but no organizing skills.
Now we're stuck with the result. H1B Programmers and Technicians only; many of which will not be granted permanent residence and thus have to return home.
IMHO, this is one of the most egregious actions that the congress of the USA has ever taken, and that's saying a lot since they generally fuck everyone on the globe on a daily basis.
The downturn in the economy, the global corporatists (GE just opened a $100M engineering facility in Bangladore), stagnation of the platform have all contributed to this situation.
All I can say is, take a look at the local want ads. There are a fraction of the programming jobs that existed just a few years ago. My brother works for a massive aerospace company which has 100s of job openings on their website. The resumes pour in, but the jobs are never filled, and only rarely is anyone even interviewed.
Why? because the company uses vacant engineering slots to pressure the government in a lot of ways -- more time to complete projects, more pressure to expand H1B, etc.
Hate to say it, but for many H1B people, this was your vacation in America. Some global corporation got to pay you a fraction of what he would have paid me. Now, it's time for the next crop. Sooner or later, most programming will be done in China and India, and you will make more than the guy down the street.
Who really wins? The big shareholders in the Globals. That is, the top 1-5% of the US population. Many will do well in India/China, though. Personally, I think you got a pretty good deal.
Who can say Linus + family wouldn't have an enjoyable life back in Helsinki? I seriously doubt he'd have trouble finding a job!
add compression and you can get past infinity.