What makes you think any of what you described in 'meatspace' is illegal? It's not, in the US, anyway. PERHAPS could be considered under harassment or stalking laws if it was very blatent, but if you are in public, you are subject to anyone recording/photographing you and what you are doing, pretty much.
Leaving aside, for the moment, the question of whether or not a virus is 'life' -- this question would apply to a bacterial disease as well -- how is this any different than the attempts in the last century to eradicate the North American wolf? They were dangerous (and quite inconvenient) to humans. Thankfully (to some...) we failed, and many people are happy they are returning. The reasons we wanted them gone haven't changed (although hardly as much an issue with the hugely reduced numbers).
If it's not OK to eradicate a species that looks like the family dog, what about if they were squirrel-sized? Insects? Where's the line, exactly, where we say 'OK, on this side, it's good and right to completely remove this species from existence, but on the other side of the line, it's a 'protected species' to be preserved, and we just control it? One could argue that wolves served a purpose in the ecosystem by controlling deer and other game population -- but honestly, we will never allow the grey wolf population to grow to a number to have any real effect on that anymore.
Not really taking a side on whether or not to eliminate the stocks we have of smallpox, but I feel like there certainly is an ethical question in whether or not it's OK to do so.
(As a side note, I think 'genocide' only applies to killing humans, but you get the idea, I'm sure)
You think they'd submit some totally bogus/badly written requests just for the court to reject to make the optics on the numbers look better. It's not like the actual details get released on any of this. This is how little the gov't gives a shit (and how little the people give a shit either, since this is barely 'news' outside Techdirt and the like).... they can't even be bothered to do the small amount of work to FAKE oversight...
Most criticisms 'scrubbed' from that page are really just unfavorable comparisons to other languages, which are subjective and, imho, don't really belong in a wikipedia article on a topic anyway. Wikipedia is not a place to list every grievance anyone has on a particular topic.
The problem with the US market when it comes to broadband, wireless tech, etc vs. Europe or Japan is population density. US cities (It's an American mentality, I suppose) tend to sprawl out, and most of the country is rural, but still fairly populated. Most countries have a higher density (the US is 178th), and most of the non-3rd-world ones that are lower (Canada, Russia, Brazil, etc) have large areas that are entirely unpopulated (and thus don't need to be taken into account for density when it comes to rolling out tech). Not to mention the US is freakin' huge to begin with -- Portugal is a little smaller than Maine, our 38th biggest state. But with a population of 10 million, that's more than Michigan, our 8th most populous state. Rolling out a technology here in the US requires an _enormous_ outlay of cash because of the area that needs to be covered in order to cover enough people to make it worthwhile.
Enlightenment 17 is the only WM (aside from, I think, a tiling one called 'Awesome') that lets you change desktops on a per-monitor basis while having TwinView or Xinerama active (so you can drag windows between). Compiz ought to be able to do it, but for some reason does not. Expect some stability issues with E17, though. I ended up going back to seperate screens, as I don't drag between monitors often and E17 crashes too much.
Some companies are concerned about the 'viral' nature of the GPL in particular (some suit read an article about open source that talked about the GPL, and now 'open source' == GPL in his head) There are still many unresolved questions about the GPL in the US, as I'm aware it's only been rarely if ever tested in most jurisdictions in an actual court of law.
Personally, I expect to be compensated for my time and effort. This needn't be in money -- I release free software as a 'gift' for the community because I (and most of us) have received many such gifts in kind (Indeed, almost all the software I use, from the kernel down to the tiniest little nifty script) was a 'gift' to me by other members of the community). A commercial interest, on the other hand, will have to find some other way to compensate me for my work, as they (typically) are not part of the 'community' that has already compensated me for my time. Cash works well.
What is up with appliances having to use twitter? There's been a serious rash of pointlessly tweeting appliances that are, for some reason, getting linked from/. "For cigar aficianados, this means a lot". No, it means you're a dick who wants to show off your cigars and expensive toys. If you care about the condition of your cigars, have it text/email/whatever YOU. That's kind of cool, and useful. Why is twitter necessary for this? (For that matter, why is twitter necessary for anything, but that's besides the point)
P.S. Obligatory "/. has gone downhill in the last few years" comment.
I was the maintainer and lead developer on GAIM for over a year before Rob took over. I will NEVER lead an OSS project again, or even donate my fixes to projects I use (except anonymously), with the exception of some SE or EDA projects that the 13-year-olds will NEVER get ahold of. Why? Because 99% of you all are a bunch of whining, stupid, ignorant bitches. I don't want you contacting me and wasting my time. I couldn't STAND it. _Especially_ on a project that is designed to allow people to get in touch with you, almost all I got to hear was people bitching about this and that. OSS developers DO have a 'real life' and you incessantly bug them about a feature YOU want but are too ignorant/stupid to write yourself, or if you're not, totally ignore the code style used in the project (It makes it a horrible BITCH to integrate.) You drive off talented developers because they don't want to be the whipping boy of the completely ungrateful "OSS community".
That's why I say that Rob (and guys like Rob) are why OSS works. Somehow (for four years now, I guess ), Rob has been willing to put up with the bullshit involved with leading an OSS project. He's a rare commodity. Most of those of us talented enough to do the development can't (or simply aren't willing to) put up with the crap involved.
So take some time to thank the guys who write the software you use, send them some beer (I was living with Rob when the beer mentioned in the article arrived -- and it was MUCH appreciated), some cash, some interesting hardware, an email, or in GAIM's case, an IM, SOMETHING just to show that you are at least a little grateful for the hours and effort put in, instead of bitching about one little thing wrong with the software and talking crap about how much better it could be, when you're not willing to lift a finger yourself.
Modules don't have to be GPL, so that's not an issue. Only trick to remember is you can't steal code from GPL'd modules if you're gonna do this:) On the other hand, I don't think it would violate the GPL anyway, since the firmware code, to the kernel module, is simply data and not executable code, so I think you could get away with a GPL'd module. Jim
The subject says it all. USPS Priority mail is one of the greatest things ever. It's far cheaper than USPS or Fedex and gets there within 2 to 3 days. For more than the weight limit (2 pounds?) It's not all that expensive either. Sure, if you need it there overnight, it's not the way to go, but if you just need it there, USPS is really great. The fact is, computers are great but sometimes you need your penguin mints and you can't FTP them!
Linux is not 100% on big multi-processor machines. Big thing that was pointed out with the Mindcraft benchmarks was that Linux does not bind seperate NICs to seperate processors. The question is, can you bind your gigabit NIC to a different processor than your Fibre Channel setup? The major problem with Linux and multi-processor machines is that the kernel hackers don't HAVE quad processor Xeons:) And since only a small fraction of hardware support is paid and not just people writing drivers for what they have, unfortunate little work gets done on the big high-end machines:( Linux is not (yet) the answer for mega-machines like that, but for clusters of smaller machines, it's the way to go.
Oh, and BTW, I realize I've said some things that may get me flamed (I mentioned the Mindcraft benchmarks!) but hey guys, I'm a Linux fanatic as much or more than most of you, but you gotta be realistic.:)
The real question here, is why aren't you releasing your source? What did you write? Why are you keeping it to yourself? Huh? huh? huh? Share the code! Whether you've violated the GPL or not, it's not very nice to keep your code to yourself, you're more than happy to use other people's code it seems!
Professional music is _very_ stressful. Just like programmng professionally is often boring and stressful.. I'd just like to see how many people who really only 'excessively' use the keyboard while hacking at home for fun get RSIs, or how many amateur musicians who play at night for fun get RSIs...
If you notice the people who get carpal tunnel and similar wrist/finger injuries, they're almost always people in jobs they don't enjoy -- typists, data entry, etc. Rarely do you see hackers getting these injuries (at least when they are doing hacking at work:).. I think that's because when you're at a stressful job, your muscles tighten up and such injuries happen. And those who are enjoying their time at the keyboard rarely get these injuries, because they are comfortable and relaxed. Anyone else notice this?
Wait -- you shut down his server..and do it again?
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hehe the poor guy got nailed once on ONE server, and Rob blasts the other!
Just because RedHat doesn't ship with it doesn't mean it's not the stable branch. Redhat has nothing to do with whether or not a given kernel is stable. If Linus calls the minor version number even, I call the kernel STABLE.
I've had a Tux tattoo for months!
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Always meant to post - http://students.ou.edu/D/James.R.Duchek-1/tat.html if you care to look.
RMS is an interesting personality. I don't think he wants the GNU in there for personal reasons. I think, really, he couldn't care less if noone knew who HE was. But he's right in wanting GNU in there, for the reasons he says. People _need_ to be exposed to what the Free Software Foundation stands for. People are really getting the wrong idea from people who advocate Open Source (TM), I think people need to see and understand free software. _freedom_ is what it's about really, not openness -- openness is just a part of freedom. While I love Linux and Linus as much as the next guy (probably more than most;) and I see nothing wrong with commercialization, I'd like to see the GNU in there. For several reasons. Firstly, to give credit where credit is due! The free software movement is often enough about ego and contributions from the masses, and it's _very_ important to give credit to the people who provide a certain service. While there are definitely other parts to my system than GNU and Linux, they are by far the MAIN parts that we can all agree on. Secondly, to expose people to GNU. I know a lot of people who USE Linux-kerneled systems who haven't heard of GNU or if they have, don't really know what it is. The FSF is the most important free software organization. Thirdly, it provides an understanding of how what some people call 'Linux' really works. I run WindowMaker. Often enough non-geeks will ask me 'Is that Linux?' I don't know what to say to this question. If I say no, I have to go through a pretty long explanation they won't understand. If I say yes, I feel as if I'm lying to them. If we call the system GNU/Linux it'll make things a little more understandable.
Just as a note, perhaps we should refer to our systems as 'Debian' or 'Red Hat'.. since that's really the name of an entire OS.
The last JDK 1.1 release didn't work with glibc 2.1, this one does. Three cheers for blackdown. I was just playing with this stuff too, and I (in a fit of wisdom (read: stupidity) fucked up my libc).. BIG (sarcastic) THANK YOU to RED HAT for not making ANYTHING statically compiled except for ash, rmmod, and insmod. Here's a hint to those making distributions -- Either statically compile or have a statically compiled version lying around (ie rm.static) of rm, cp, ln, and cat. At least.. Thank you.
Slashdot Mirror
What makes you think any of what you described in 'meatspace' is illegal? It's not, in the US, anyway. PERHAPS could be considered under harassment or stalking laws if it was very blatent, but if you are in public, you are subject to anyone recording/photographing you and what you are doing, pretty much.
Leaving aside, for the moment, the question of whether or not a virus is 'life' -- this question would apply to a bacterial disease as well -- how is this any different than the attempts in the last century to eradicate the North American wolf? They were dangerous (and quite inconvenient) to humans. Thankfully (to some...) we failed, and many people are happy they are returning. The reasons we wanted them gone haven't changed (although hardly as much an issue with the hugely reduced numbers).
If it's not OK to eradicate a species that looks like the family dog, what about if they were squirrel-sized? Insects? Where's the line, exactly, where we say 'OK, on this side, it's good and right to completely remove this species from existence, but on the other side of the line, it's a 'protected species' to be preserved, and we just control it? One could argue that wolves served a purpose in the ecosystem by controlling deer and other game population -- but honestly, we will never allow the grey wolf population to grow to a number to have any real effect on that anymore.
Not really taking a side on whether or not to eliminate the stocks we have of smallpox, but I feel like there certainly is an ethical question in whether or not it's OK to do so.
(As a side note, I think 'genocide' only applies to killing humans, but you get the idea, I'm sure)
You think they'd submit some totally bogus/badly written requests just for the court to reject to make the optics on the numbers look better. It's not like the actual details get released on any of this. This is how little the gov't gives a shit (and how little the people give a shit either, since this is barely 'news' outside Techdirt and the like).... they can't even be bothered to do the small amount of work to FAKE oversight...
Just sayin...
Most criticisms 'scrubbed' from that page are really just unfavorable comparisons to other languages, which are subjective and, imho, don't really belong in a wikipedia article on a topic anyway. Wikipedia is not a place to list every grievance anyone has on a particular topic.
The problem with the US market when it comes to broadband, wireless tech, etc vs. Europe or Japan is population density. US cities (It's an American mentality, I suppose) tend to sprawl out, and most of the country is rural, but still fairly populated. Most countries have a higher density (the US is 178th), and most of the non-3rd-world ones that are lower (Canada, Russia, Brazil, etc) have large areas that are entirely unpopulated (and thus don't need to be taken into account for density when it comes to rolling out tech). Not to mention the US is freakin' huge to begin with -- Portugal is a little smaller than Maine, our 38th biggest state. But with a population of 10 million, that's more than Michigan, our 8th most populous state. Rolling out a technology here in the US requires an _enormous_ outlay of cash because of the area that needs to be covered in order to cover enough people to make it worthwhile.
Enlightenment 17 is the only WM (aside from, I think, a tiling one called 'Awesome') that lets you change desktops on a per-monitor basis while having TwinView or Xinerama active (so you can drag windows between). Compiz ought to be able to do it, but for some reason does not. Expect some stability issues with E17, though. I ended up going back to seperate screens, as I don't drag between monitors often and E17 crashes too much.
Some companies are concerned about the 'viral' nature of the GPL in particular (some suit read an article about open source that talked about the GPL, and now 'open source' == GPL in his head) There are still many unresolved questions about the GPL in the US, as I'm aware it's only been rarely if ever tested in most jurisdictions in an actual court of law.
Personally, I expect to be compensated for my time and effort. This needn't be in money -- I release free software as a 'gift' for the community because I (and most of us) have received many such gifts in kind (Indeed, almost all the software I use, from the kernel down to the tiniest little nifty script) was a 'gift' to me by other members of the community). A commercial interest, on the other hand, will have to find some other way to compensate me for my work, as they (typically) are not part of the 'community' that has already compensated me for my time. Cash works well.
What is up with appliances having to use twitter? There's been a serious rash of pointlessly tweeting appliances that are, for some reason, getting linked from /. "For cigar aficianados, this means a lot". No, it means you're a dick who wants to show off your cigars and expensive toys. If you care about the condition of your cigars, have it text/email/whatever YOU. That's kind of cool, and useful. Why is twitter necessary for this? (For that matter, why is twitter necessary for anything, but that's besides the point)
P.S. Obligatory "/. has gone downhill in the last few years" comment.
Damn skippy. Love ya Rob. Do you have any idea where all my crap is? (Bass, CD's, books)
I was the maintainer and lead developer on GAIM for over a year before Rob took over. I will NEVER lead an OSS project again, or even donate my fixes to projects I use (except anonymously), with the exception of some SE or EDA projects that the 13-year-olds will NEVER get ahold of. Why? Because 99% of you all are a bunch of whining, stupid, ignorant bitches. I don't want you contacting me and wasting my time. I couldn't STAND it. _Especially_ on a project that is designed to allow people to get in touch with you, almost all I got to hear was people bitching about this and that. OSS developers DO have a 'real life' and you incessantly bug them about a feature YOU want but are too ignorant/stupid to write yourself, or if you're not, totally ignore the code style used in the project (It makes it a horrible BITCH to integrate.) You drive off talented developers because they don't want to be the whipping boy of the completely ungrateful "OSS community".
That's why I say that Rob (and guys like Rob) are why OSS works. Somehow (for four years now, I guess ), Rob has been willing to put up with the bullshit involved with leading an OSS project. He's a rare commodity. Most of those of us talented enough to do the development can't (or simply aren't willing to) put up with the crap involved.
So take some time to thank the guys who write the software you use, send them some beer (I was living with Rob when the beer mentioned in the article arrived -- and it was MUCH appreciated), some cash, some interesting hardware, an email, or in GAIM's case, an IM, SOMETHING just to show that you are at least a little grateful for the hours and effort put in, instead of bitching about one little thing wrong with the software and talking crap about how much better it could be, when you're not willing to lift a finger yourself.
Modules don't have to be GPL, so that's not an issue. Only trick to remember is you can't steal code from GPL'd modules if you're gonna do this :) On the other hand, I don't think it would violate the GPL anyway, since the firmware code, to the kernel module, is simply data and not executable code, so I think you could get away with a GPL'd module. Jim
The subject says it all. USPS Priority mail is one of the greatest things ever. It's far cheaper than USPS or Fedex and gets there within 2 to 3 days. For more than the weight limit (2 pounds?) It's not all that expensive either. Sure, if you need it there overnight, it's not the way to go, but if you just need it there, USPS is really great. The fact is, computers are great but sometimes you need your penguin mints and you can't FTP them!
Jim
Linux is not 100% on big multi-processor machines. Big thing that was pointed out with the Mindcraft benchmarks was that Linux does not bind seperate NICs to seperate processors. The question is, can you bind your gigabit NIC to a different processor than your Fibre Channel setup? The major problem with Linux and multi-processor machines is that the kernel hackers don't HAVE quad processor Xeons :) And since only a small fraction of hardware support is paid and not just people writing drivers for what they have, unfortunate little work gets done on the big high-end machines :( Linux is not (yet) the answer for mega-machines like that, but for clusters of smaller machines, it's the way to go.
:)
Oh, and BTW, I realize I've said some things that may get me flamed (I mentioned the Mindcraft benchmarks!) but hey guys, I'm a Linux fanatic as much or more than most of you, but you gotta be realistic.
The real question here, is why aren't you releasing your source? What did you write? Why are you keeping it to yourself? Huh? huh? huh? Share the code! Whether you've violated the GPL or not, it's not very nice to keep your code to yourself, you're more than happy to use other people's code it seems!
Jim
The only thing that makes a "Linux distribution" :)
a Linux distribution is the kernel the rest is almost all GNU.. back to the GNU/Linux thing...
Jim
Professional music is _very_ stressful. Just like programmng professionally is often boring and stressful.. I'd just like to see how many people who really only 'excessively' use the keyboard while hacking at home for fun get RSIs, or how many amateur musicians who play at night for fun get RSIs...
If you notice the people who get carpal tunnel and similar wrist/finger injuries, they're almost always people in jobs they don't enjoy -- typists, data entry, etc. Rarely do you see hackers getting these injuries (at least when they are doing hacking at work :).. I think that's because when you're at a stressful job, your muscles tighten up and such injuries happen. And those who are enjoying their time at the keyboard rarely get these injuries, because they are comfortable and relaxed. Anyone else notice this?
hehe the poor guy got nailed once on ONE server, and Rob blasts the other!
Jim
I remember seeing a point saying you wanted to clean it up before you released anything past 0.2. Who cares!? Release it!
Please make a post saying what's real and what's
fake, thanks. Maybe make a filter for FAKE news.
Just because RedHat doesn't ship with it doesn't mean it's not the stable branch. Redhat has nothing to do with whether or not a given kernel is stable. If Linus calls the minor version number even, I call the kernel STABLE.
Always meant to post - http://students.ou.edu/D/James.R.Duchek-1/tat.html if you care to look.
RMS is an interesting personality. I don't think he wants the GNU in there for personal reasons. I think, really, he couldn't care less if noone knew who HE was. But he's right in wanting GNU in there, for the reasons he says. People _need_ to be exposed to what the Free Software Foundation stands for. People are really getting the wrong idea from people who advocate Open Source (TM), I think people need to see and understand free software. _freedom_ is what it's about really, not openness -- openness is just a part of freedom. While I love Linux and Linus as much as the next guy (probably more than most ;) and I see nothing wrong with commercialization, I'd like to see the GNU in there. For several reasons.
Firstly, to give credit where credit is due! The free software movement is often enough about ego and contributions from the masses, and it's _very_ important to give credit to the people who provide a certain service. While there are definitely other parts to my system than GNU and Linux, they are by far the MAIN parts that we can all agree on.
Secondly, to expose people to GNU. I know a lot of people who USE Linux-kerneled systems who haven't heard of GNU or if they have, don't really know what it is. The FSF is the most important free software organization.
Thirdly, it provides an understanding of how what some people call 'Linux' really works. I run WindowMaker. Often enough non-geeks will ask me 'Is that Linux?' I don't know what to say to this question. If I say no, I have to go through a pretty long explanation they won't understand. If I say yes, I feel as if I'm lying to them. If we call the system GNU/Linux it'll make things a little more understandable.
Just as a note, perhaps we should refer to our systems as 'Debian' or 'Red Hat'.. since that's really the name of an entire OS.
The last JDK 1.1 release didn't work with glibc 2.1, this one does. Three cheers for blackdown. I was just playing with this stuff too, and I (in a fit of wisdom (read: stupidity) fucked up my libc).. BIG (sarcastic) THANK YOU to RED HAT for not making ANYTHING statically compiled except for ash, rmmod, and insmod. Here's a hint to those making distributions -- Either statically compile or have a statically compiled version lying around (ie rm.static) of rm, cp, ln, and cat. At least.. Thank you.
Jim