Obviously Disney got what they wanted, and in the short term, this will be good for them.
Their best works have come from the Public Domain, and as other have said, the net effect of this decision is to terminate the Public Domain in the 1920's. Their ability to produce future works is hampered in two directions. First, their in-house stuff just hasn't been that good, and I suspect that's a product of the same corporate culture that just got this decision. You take the bad with the good. Second, they've been getting a string of lawsuits by artists who feel they've been screwed. Disney bought what appeared to be "limited" rights from the artists, and then as technology raised the limits, gave them no further compensation. Now they're buying "unlimited" rights, and I expect artists and agents to be much more shrewd.
Centuries from now, when the archaeologists dig us up, we'll be in the "century of artistic impoverishment." They'll see all of these shiny disks around, some perhaps in perfect condition, many not, but enough to get complete bit samples. They'll even be able to read the bits - but not the content. OK, to properly investigate electronic media from the 21st century will require cracker-ologists. But history will still look at the oxymoron of deliberately making PUBLISHED works INACCESSABLE.
Another step down the declining road for the USA, perhaps the West. Wonder how long it will take us to be overtaken. Wonder how bad it will hit my later years, or my kids.
Plays fine on Athlon XP 2100+ and Radeon 8500LE, now that I've got it installed. Cranked up the resolution, colors, and detail, and it still plays fine. Didn't save my old games, so I'll have to play through to get to the Rime Age. That's the real test.
Back around the time of the Oklahoma bombing, there was talk of requiring taggants in all explosive, and that some had them, already. Of course Oklahoma would have required taggants in fertilizer, as well. I don't know if they were seriously proposing that.
But with the amount of fireworks and roadwork going on, wind dispersal and all, it seemed to me at the time that we'd rapidly get to the point where *every* environmental sample would include some background level of taggants. At that point, tracing explosives would become a statistical process, and certainty would be long gone.
IMHO, the problem with RFID in everything would be the sheer data volume. Assume each and every RFID had a unique number, and then imagine the size of the database to track all of that, not to mention the monitoring infrastructure. Then remember that they can't even track election results.
This is it, in the fewest words. Others have danced around the question, but IMHO this is really it.
I understand that if I want to play MPAA or RIAA content, I may need to have a DRM OS, probably Palladium, and it will need to be on a system with a TCPA BIOS.
But what if I want to just boot Linux (or trusty old Win98SE) to program or play games?
Will I be permitted to run an "untrusted" computer, or is it only a matter of time until the only new computer is a trusted computer that will only run a trusted OS?
The current top-end graphics cards are in the $300 range. The second tier is around half that, and the third tier half again. The real sales on the top-end graphics cards are rather small, and grow as you go down. But having that top-end card helps your lower tiers, because of the assumption that good top-end implies good rest-of-line.
In today's market that's not necessarily true. IMHO both nVidia and ATI short-cut the lower ends with the MX and 9000 lines, respectively. Both of those product lines have cut features from a previous generation, and ramped the clock to regain performance. Also, both product lines will show their age on newer (let's face it, DoomIII) games.
I recently bought a third-tier card - a Radeon 8500LE. It has all the features, a slightly lower clock, and a much lower price. The reasonable competition would have been a GeForce3 Ti200 for a little more. This is also a stopgap card - in a year or so I want to step up and get DX9/OGL2 features when they're available in the second tier. (I know OGL2 is still an unknown.)
The reason to pay attention to the top end is because it presumably brings features down to the bottom end. But both dominant suppliers today have broken that feature chain. So if someone else comes in with the features and performance I want, and linux support through drivers or documentation, I'll buy, even if they don't own the top end.
Reading the article, it came to me that in the "Windows PC" we crossed the Rubicon long ago. I don't know exactly when, and it would be interesting to determine.
An appliance is a machine that performs some number of functions, usually predefined. A blender is an appliance that does one thing, at various speeds. A Kitchen Aid is another appliance that can do multiple things, using attachments, but it's fundamentally a mixer. A GameCube is an appliance, with plug-ins to allow multiple faces on its basic function.
A personal computer is a general-purpose machine. It traces its roots back to the Universal Turing Machine, with a heavy emphasis on "Universal." From a calculation point of view, it's ready to do *anything*, and express that through a flexible peripheral interface.
A "Windows PC" is a step between a general-purpose computing machine and an appliance. For most usage, it's really a glorified GameCube. But the real appliance side of its nature comes when you start to see the "sneakware" that comes along with the software you buy. The end user has clearly lost control of what's running on the machine. At the moment, that control lies with the software provider, meaning today it's total anarchy, with essentially everyone but the end user vying for control. It's possible for the end user to regain control, but it's also really hard. Personally I don't know enough about Windows to truly regain control, myself. I can only exercise control by being darned careful about what I let on the machine in the first place.
Palladium finishes off the general-purpose PC, and really turns it into a more flexible GameCube. With Palladium in charge, your PC truly is an appliance. It may even be more stable than just Windows, because Microsoft will be in control, not competing with Earthlink and Kazaa and...
But Linux gives me control limited only by my learning. Not only that, but the community shuns the spyware stunts common in Windows.
Vision is whatever helped our ancestors survive. If that were a pure image of objective reality, that would be how we see. If it were an interpretation based on past events, and that that predator is going to eat me and deprive me of my right of reproduction if I don't move, pronto, then that would be how we see.
How well this fits into modern life and jury trials is another issue.
As I said, it was slow on a K6-3-428 (4.5*95, slight overclock) with a Matrox G400. I'm hoping it will be just a little faster on an Athlon XP 2100+ with a Radeon 8500LE.
When I rail against "science as a tool of public policy," it's precisely against slanting of results of basic research according to a political agenda. Again, enough slanting gets done already without making it a part of official policy.
A few years back they brought RealMyst to market to try out the 3D engine. I almost enough (K6III-400 + G400) machine to run it, and wallowed through, since I'd never played Myst before. For Christmas we got new machine parts that I'm still setting up, (time-challenged) and I'm looking forward to seeing RealMyst perform.
Cyan was candid about RealMyst being a technology vehicle for a future game, and included a "Bonus Age" at the end to check out more features. While most of RealMyst was merely slow-ish, the Rime Age was downright glacial. I'll be sure to check this out on the new machine, too.
But I have neither the time nor money to pick up on a time-chewer online game.
Look where America grants its greatest rewards, at least in terms of financial remuneration or fame, and it certainly isn't science. Obviously money isn't everything, but it sure helps to have enough to put a roof over the head, food on the table, and a computer in the study. Some people are born to be scientists, and probably will be despite the economics. Others are lured to the Dark Side.
Not to call here a Dark Sider, but Cindy Crawford used to be a chem major who did modelling on the side. Her professor told her she was nuts for sticking to chemistry with her looks and success so far at modelling. Apparently she listened. One would hope she sacked away enough money during her prime, because a supermodel probably has fewer productive years than a pro football player.
You're right, though I was trying to focus on more recent American history.
But you also prove my point. None of your examples look good or were good in the long run. IMHO the only good public science policy is to foster education and research. Controls should be minimal safeguards for public safety, and facts have enough misinterpretation problems without adding an official slant to it.
I wasn't thinking of creationism, there. I was more thinking of our stupid copyright and DRM polices. There has been noise that through WIPO and such, things like the DMCA are going abroad. There has been some pleasant noise recently about second thoughts on this direction.
It really amounts to the beginning of the Decline of Western Civilization.
Go back to around the tenth century, for a moment. Islamic civilization was supreme. Science was seen as learning about God and his works, rather than being in conflict with religion. Eventually the Islamic dominance came under seige for other reasons, but they lost that attitude toward science. European civilization picked it up, and the era of Western dominance began.
Nor do I mean to hold up Science as a religion. For my working definition, Science is the mindset that we can study and attempt to understand the Universe and its contents. For the religious, this really is learning about God and his works, essentially the old Muslim belief.
But now for the decline of the West... We have apparently decided that the current business models of the entertainment industry are more important than digital innovation. Both the legislation *and the attitude under which we crafted that legislation* are significant. Recently there was a blurb about the Bush Administration wanting science to have a "conservative tilt." Science has always been used and tilted, but AFAIK never as a piece of public policy. New Age pseudoscience is on the rise - creation "science", crystals, magnets, copper bracelets, etc.
Essentially, the West is beginning to turn its collective back on science and progress - to remain comfortable in what is known or at least doesn't require really hard work. (like math) Most of what I mention happens in the US, but those same things have analogs around the rest of the Western world, so don't pretend non-US shouldn't worry.
Obviously this isn't universal. There are people fighting these trends, there are people still studying science, math, etc. Presumably the trend is still reversible, I hope. But it's there, it's growing, and it lends another chunk of urgency to the FSF's fight.
OK, I ran a den for a few years. Our pack alternated between Pinewood Derby, Rocket Derby, and Raingutter Regatta.
Pinewood Derby - Race little wood cars down a track. Rocket Derby - Race little rubber-band propeller-driven "rockets" down a piece of fishline; you go for distance, not speed. Raingutter Regatta - Race little sailboats down a length of raingutter, powered by Cub Scout breath.
The biggest challenge to all three of these is to make sure the boys, not the fathers, do the bulk of the work. For most hand tools this isn't too hard, though the boys usually want the slicker looks that Dads can produce. You also want the boys to be able to have win-capable racers, without stepping in too much. We built the Pinewood Derby racers in den meetings, and I insisted that fathers (where available, a sad story in itself) attend with their boys. We settled on a basic design, and each boy got two cuts on the radial arm saw with me, while the fathers supervised other work like polishing axles. My hands were on top of theirs, the cars were clamped, but they got to run the saw back and forth, and learned a little about power tools, safety glasses, and hearing protection.
Oh, a tip, speaking of polishing the axles. Those little nails they give you for axles often have a burr on the inside of the head. You want to chuck the nail into a drill, and polish that burr off. It's also a good idea to tilt the angle of the inside of the head a little obtuse from the shaft, so that the inside of the wheel rides on a slight cone - less area for friction.
Of course my son didn't win, so maybe you should ignore this. But I will second any vote for graphite.
"Read the rest of this comment..." is definitely worthwhile.
Old story about venting heat to another room
on
Computer Room Hot?
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· Score: 2
Not into the wall, at least.
They vented an old IBM System/7 into another room for cooling. Those beasts were bipolar, and really hot.
The people in the other room didn't know that they were being used as a computer cooling resource, they just knew that they were too hot. So they blocked the vent. The System/7 overheated, destructively.
Moral: When getting rid of your heat, make sure you've sent it to an acceptable and accepting place.
The criticisms of sending heat into the wall focus on pressure and humidity effects. How about a really old home where the walls are stuffed with old newspaper, corncobs, and magazines?
I thought the original intent was that the GPL'ed program can always be fixed or enhanced by one who wishes to do so.
By linking you first have to differentiate between static and dynamic. I don't think anyone's going to argue against dynamic linking. At that point, you may as well say no proprietary programs on Linux, at all.
So back to static linking. I seem to remember reading once that this could still be handled, if the proprietary portion were supplied in some linkable form. In other words, the GPL'ed portion could be fixed or enhanced, and then re-linked with the proprietary portion.
This looks to me like what nVidia does with their tarball distributions. There is some source and a *big*.o file. The source pieces do include some Linux headers. But the essence is that one can fix/enhance the GPL'ed parts of the system, and then rebuild the nVidia drivers with the components they have given.
One exposure is that.o files are a bit more accessable than executables, hence the obfuscation.
I seem to have gotten the impression years ago reading GNAT documentation. They chose to release their library components under LGPL, so I'm not sure if I've described GPL or LGPL behavior, but I thought it was the former.
"...exercise for sedentary the slabs."
on
Lab-Grown Steak
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· Score: 1
Sounds like there may be some contributions and/or benefits for the hacker community, here.
My cousin had a different way of putting it. For sheer earthmoving power, he once read that we had enough nukes to physically remove the island of Madagascar. (or whatever they call that big island East of Africa, these days.)
I'm obviously unfamiliar with tactical nukes, and had no idea that there was stuff with yields that low.
The existence of such low-yield nukes makes the whole issue even more frightening. As long as the yields were up in the kiloton-and-higher range, nukes were a boolean issue. You nuke or you don't nuke, and there's no in-between.
Low-yield tactical nukes and well as high-yield conventional weapons blur the line. Once you cross that line, and now it may be hard to know exactly when that happened, then it may be "easier" to simply escalate the yield than it would have been to begin with a old-fashioned tens-of-kilotons nuclear device.
Nope, we're still orders of magnitude off, even for the piddling little Hiroshima bomb. 15,000 lbs is just 7.5 tons, almost 3 orders of magnitude off of the 10 kiloton estimate in the parent post. Even if blasting slurry is more powerful than TNT, I suspect we're still 2 or more orders of magnitude between a Daisy Cutter and a nuke.
IMHO the Nuke is kind of like Space... It's BIG, so BIG that the ordinary human mind just doesn't take it in. Unfortunately the world seems to be losing its fear of nuclear weapons - I guess the memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are fading. I suspect someone is going to have to lose another city to re-vaccinate the human race with proper fear of nuclear weapons.
Also IMHO, as bad as Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, in the larger view of history, it may be a good thing that nuclear weapons were used in war when only one side had them, and there was no chance of an escalation. No head of state could have left such a potent weapon unused for so long had it not be demonstrated to be that terrible.
Slashdot Mirror
Obviously Disney got what they wanted, and in the short term, this will be good for them.
Their best works have come from the Public Domain, and as other have said, the net effect of this decision is to terminate the Public Domain in the 1920's. Their ability to produce future works is hampered in two directions. First, their in-house stuff just hasn't been that good, and I suspect that's a product of the same corporate culture that just got this decision. You take the bad with the good. Second, they've been getting a string of lawsuits by artists who feel they've been screwed. Disney bought what appeared to be "limited" rights from the artists, and then as technology raised the limits, gave them no further compensation. Now they're buying "unlimited" rights, and I expect artists and agents to be much more shrewd.
Centuries from now, when the archaeologists dig us up, we'll be in the "century of artistic impoverishment." They'll see all of these shiny disks around, some perhaps in perfect condition, many not, but enough to get complete bit samples. They'll even be able to read the bits - but not the content. OK, to properly investigate electronic media from the 21st century will require cracker-ologists. But history will still look at the oxymoron of deliberately making PUBLISHED works INACCESSABLE.
Another step down the declining road for the USA, perhaps the West. Wonder how long it will take us to be overtaken. Wonder how bad it will hit my later years, or my kids.
Wonder if it can be reversed.
Plays fine on Athlon XP 2100+ and Radeon 8500LE, now that I've got it installed. Cranked up the resolution, colors, and detail, and it still plays fine. Didn't save my old games, so I'll have to play through to get to the Rime Age. That's the real test.
Back around the time of the Oklahoma bombing, there was talk of requiring taggants in all explosive, and that some had them, already. Of course Oklahoma would have required taggants in fertilizer, as well. I don't know if they were seriously proposing that.
But with the amount of fireworks and roadwork going on, wind dispersal and all, it seemed to me at the time that we'd rapidly get to the point where *every* environmental sample would include some background level of taggants. At that point, tracing explosives would become a statistical process, and certainty would be long gone.
IMHO, the problem with RFID in everything would be the sheer data volume. Assume each and every RFID had a unique number, and then imagine the size of the database to track all of that, not to mention the monitoring infrastructure. Then remember that they can't even track election results.
This is it, in the fewest words. Others have danced around the question, but IMHO this is really it.
I understand that if I want to play MPAA or RIAA content, I may need to have a DRM OS, probably Palladium, and it will need to be on a system with a TCPA BIOS.
But what if I want to just boot Linux (or trusty old Win98SE) to program or play games?
Will I be permitted to run an "untrusted" computer, or is it only a matter of time until the only new computer is a trusted computer that will only run a trusted OS?
Maybe people like me?
The current top-end graphics cards are in the $300 range. The second tier is around half that, and the third tier half again. The real sales on the top-end graphics cards are rather small, and grow as you go down. But having that top-end card helps your lower tiers, because of the assumption that good top-end implies good rest-of-line.
In today's market that's not necessarily true. IMHO both nVidia and ATI short-cut the lower ends with the MX and 9000 lines, respectively. Both of those product lines have cut features from a previous generation, and ramped the clock to regain performance. Also, both product lines will show their age on newer (let's face it, DoomIII) games.
I recently bought a third-tier card - a Radeon 8500LE. It has all the features, a slightly lower clock, and a much lower price. The reasonable competition would have been a GeForce3 Ti200 for a little more. This is also a stopgap card - in a year or so I want to step up and get DX9/OGL2 features when they're available in the second tier. (I know OGL2 is still an unknown.)
The reason to pay attention to the top end is because it presumably brings features down to the bottom end. But both dominant suppliers today have broken that feature chain. So if someone else comes in with the features and performance I want, and linux support through drivers or documentation, I'll buy, even if they don't own the top end.
Reading the article, it came to me that in the "Windows PC" we crossed the Rubicon long ago. I don't know exactly when, and it would be interesting to determine.
...
An appliance is a machine that performs some number of functions, usually predefined. A blender is an appliance that does one thing, at various speeds. A Kitchen Aid is another appliance that can do multiple things, using attachments, but it's fundamentally a mixer. A GameCube is an appliance, with plug-ins to allow multiple faces on its basic function.
A personal computer is a general-purpose machine. It traces its roots back to the Universal Turing Machine, with a heavy emphasis on "Universal." From a calculation point of view, it's ready to do *anything*, and express that through a flexible peripheral interface.
A "Windows PC" is a step between a general-purpose computing machine and an appliance. For most usage, it's really a glorified GameCube. But the real appliance side of its nature comes when you start to see the "sneakware" that comes along with the software you buy. The end user has clearly lost control of what's running on the machine. At the moment, that control lies with the software provider, meaning today it's total anarchy, with essentially everyone but the end user vying for control. It's possible for the end user to regain control, but it's also really hard. Personally I don't know enough about Windows to truly regain control, myself. I can only exercise control by being darned careful about what I let on the machine in the first place.
Palladium finishes off the general-purpose PC, and really turns it into a more flexible GameCube. With Palladium in charge, your PC truly is an appliance. It may even be more stable than just Windows, because Microsoft will be in control, not competing with Earthlink and Kazaa and
But Linux gives me control limited only by my learning. Not only that, but the community shuns the spyware stunts common in Windows.
Vision is whatever helped our ancestors survive. If that were a pure image of objective reality, that would be how we see. If it were an interpretation based on past events, and that that predator is going to eat me and deprive me of my right of reproduction if I don't move, pronto, then that would be how we see.
How well this fits into modern life and jury trials is another issue.
One of the things Microsoft does best is to create the easy path.
You may not know where that path leads...
If you can lift your head and figure out the direction, you may not like it...
But the next step is always easiest the Microsoft Way.
Who's to blame when you get to their destination, not yours?
I guess the same goes for business decisions driven by quarterly reports.
As I said, it was slow on a K6-3-428 (4.5*95, slight overclock) with a Matrox G400. I'm hoping it will be just a little faster on an Athlon XP 2100+ with a Radeon 8500LE.
Actually, I'll agree with everything you say.
When I rail against "science as a tool of public policy," it's precisely against slanting of results of basic research according to a political agenda. Again, enough slanting gets done already without making it a part of official policy.
A few years back they brought RealMyst to market to try out the 3D engine. I almost enough (K6III-400 + G400) machine to run it, and wallowed through, since I'd never played Myst before. For Christmas we got new machine parts that I'm still setting up, (time-challenged) and I'm looking forward to seeing RealMyst perform.
Cyan was candid about RealMyst being a technology vehicle for a future game, and included a "Bonus Age" at the end to check out more features. While most of RealMyst was merely slow-ish, the Rime Age was downright glacial. I'll be sure to check this out on the new machine, too.
But I have neither the time nor money to pick up on a time-chewer online game.
Look where America grants its greatest rewards, at least in terms of financial remuneration or fame, and it certainly isn't science. Obviously money isn't everything, but it sure helps to have enough to put a roof over the head, food on the table, and a computer in the study. Some people are born to be scientists, and probably will be despite the economics. Others are lured to the Dark Side.
Not to call here a Dark Sider, but Cindy Crawford used to be a chem major who did modelling on the side. Her professor told her she was nuts for sticking to chemistry with her looks and success so far at modelling. Apparently she listened. One would hope she sacked away enough money during her prime, because a supermodel probably has fewer productive years than a pro football player.
You're right, though I was trying to focus on more recent American history.
But you also prove my point. None of your examples look good or were good in the long run. IMHO the only good public science policy is to foster education and research. Controls should be minimal safeguards for public safety, and facts have enough misinterpretation problems without adding an official slant to it.
I wasn't thinking of creationism, there. I was more thinking of our stupid copyright and DRM polices. There has been noise that through WIPO and such, things like the DMCA are going abroad. There has been some pleasant noise recently about second thoughts on this direction.
simple matters of P2P and copyright.
It really amounts to the beginning of the Decline of Western Civilization.
Go back to around the tenth century, for a moment. Islamic civilization was supreme. Science was seen as learning about God and his works, rather than being in conflict with religion. Eventually the Islamic dominance came under seige for other reasons, but they lost that attitude toward science. European civilization picked it up, and the era of Western dominance began.
Nor do I mean to hold up Science as a religion. For my working definition, Science is the mindset that we can study and attempt to understand the Universe and its contents. For the religious, this really is learning about God and his works, essentially the old Muslim belief.
But now for the decline of the West... We have apparently decided that the current business models of the entertainment industry are more important than digital innovation. Both the legislation *and the attitude under which we crafted that legislation* are significant. Recently there was a blurb about the Bush Administration wanting science to have a "conservative tilt." Science has always been used and tilted, but AFAIK never as a piece of public policy. New Age pseudoscience is on the rise - creation "science", crystals, magnets, copper bracelets, etc.
Essentially, the West is beginning to turn its collective back on science and progress - to remain comfortable in what is known or at least doesn't require really hard work. (like math) Most of what I mention happens in the US, but those same things have analogs around the rest of the Western world, so don't pretend non-US shouldn't worry.
Obviously this isn't universal. There are people fighting these trends, there are people still studying science, math, etc. Presumably the trend is still reversible, I hope. But it's there, it's growing, and it lends another chunk of urgency to the FSF's fight.
OK, I ran a den for a few years. Our pack alternated between Pinewood Derby, Rocket Derby, and Raingutter Regatta.
Pinewood Derby - Race little wood cars down a track.
Rocket Derby - Race little rubber-band propeller-driven "rockets" down a piece of fishline; you go for distance, not speed.
Raingutter Regatta - Race little sailboats down a length of raingutter, powered by Cub Scout breath.
The biggest challenge to all three of these is to make sure the boys, not the fathers, do the bulk of the work. For most hand tools this isn't too hard, though the boys usually want the slicker looks that Dads can produce. You also want the boys to be able to have win-capable racers, without stepping in too much. We built the Pinewood Derby racers in den meetings, and I insisted that fathers (where available, a sad story in itself) attend with their boys. We settled on a basic design, and each boy got two cuts on the radial arm saw with me, while the fathers supervised other work like polishing axles. My hands were on top of theirs, the cars were clamped, but they got to run the saw back and forth, and learned a little about power tools, safety glasses, and hearing protection.
Oh, a tip, speaking of polishing the axles. Those little nails they give you for axles often have a burr on the inside of the head. You want to chuck the nail into a drill, and polish that burr off. It's also a good idea to tilt the angle of the inside of the head a little obtuse from the shaft, so that the inside of the wheel rides on a slight cone - less area for friction.
Of course my son didn't win, so maybe you should ignore this. But I will second any vote for graphite.
"Read the rest of this comment..." is definitely worthwhile.
Not into the wall, at least.
They vented an old IBM System/7 into another room for cooling. Those beasts were bipolar, and really hot.
The people in the other room didn't know that they were being used as a computer cooling resource, they just knew that they were too hot. So they blocked the vent. The System/7 overheated, destructively.
Moral: When getting rid of your heat, make sure you've sent it to an acceptable and accepting place.
The criticisms of sending heat into the wall focus on pressure and humidity effects. How about a really old home where the walls are stuffed with old newspaper, corncobs, and magazines?
RFC1149 CP/IP
That's another annoyance of DRM - it doesn't disable when the copyright expires. It's de-facto permanent copyright.
I thought the original intent was that the GPL'ed program can always be fixed or enhanced by one who wishes to do so.
.o file. The source pieces do include some Linux headers. But the essence is that one can fix/enhance the GPL'ed parts of the system, and then rebuild the nVidia drivers with the components they have given.
.o files are a bit more accessable than executables, hence the obfuscation.
By linking you first have to differentiate between static and dynamic. I don't think anyone's going to argue against dynamic linking. At that point, you may as well say no proprietary programs on Linux, at all.
So back to static linking. I seem to remember reading once that this could still be handled, if the proprietary portion were supplied in some linkable form. In other words, the GPL'ed portion could be fixed or enhanced, and then re-linked with the proprietary portion.
This looks to me like what nVidia does with their tarball distributions. There is some source and a *big*
One exposure is that
I seem to have gotten the impression years ago reading GNAT documentation. They chose to release their library components under LGPL, so I'm not sure if I've described GPL or LGPL behavior, but I thought it was the former.
Sounds like there may be some contributions and/or benefits for the hacker community, here.
My cousin had a different way of putting it. For sheer earthmoving power, he once read that we had enough nukes to physically remove the island of Madagascar. (or whatever they call that big island East of Africa, these days.)
I'm obviously unfamiliar with tactical nukes, and had no idea that there was stuff with yields that low.
The existence of such low-yield nukes makes the whole issue even more frightening. As long as the yields were up in the kiloton-and-higher range, nukes were a boolean issue. You nuke or you don't nuke, and there's no in-between.
Low-yield tactical nukes and well as high-yield conventional weapons blur the line. Once you cross that line, and now it may be hard to know exactly when that happened, then it may be "easier" to simply escalate the yield than it would have been to begin with a old-fashioned tens-of-kilotons nuclear device.
Nope, we're still orders of magnitude off, even for the piddling little Hiroshima bomb. 15,000 lbs is just 7.5 tons, almost 3 orders of magnitude off of the 10 kiloton estimate in the parent post. Even if blasting slurry is more powerful than TNT, I suspect we're still 2 or more orders of magnitude between a Daisy Cutter and a nuke.
IMHO the Nuke is kind of like Space... It's BIG, so BIG that the ordinary human mind just doesn't take it in. Unfortunately the world seems to be losing its fear of nuclear weapons - I guess the memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are fading. I suspect someone is going to have to lose another city to re-vaccinate the human race with proper fear of nuclear weapons.
Also IMHO, as bad as Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, in the larger view of history, it may be a good thing that nuclear weapons were used in war when only one side had them, and there was no chance of an escalation. No head of state could have left such a potent weapon unused for so long had it not be demonstrated to be that terrible.