If you can get 40000 virtual Linux instances running on a single S390, does that not offer some interesting possibilities ?
Lots of people run sites using Apache and Linux, with Perl, PHP, databases and other stuff behind it. The software was built on a model that it runs on a single PC, and all visitors to the site share that PC. This is the simplest model, the load balancing stuff and the 'front end web server and back-end database server models' are neat (and essential) refinements. OK, we do have Beowulf clusters (not in my bedroom, though.....). In essence, though, the software was written to run on one solitary PC, and is constrained by this.
Notwithstanding the colossal price, does a machine that allows the creation of 40000+ individual virtual Linux boxes not open up other opportunities ? Plumb one of these into your web-site, and each connection to your server could have the full resources of a virtual Linux box all to themselves. Very exciting.
Right , all we need now is a number of Open Source developers to get an S/390 installed in their garage to do some work on........
How about someone setting up a web-site which offers a randomly generated psychological profile that you can read over the phone to the Pinkerton's man ?
The FACT is that it is the teachers and administrators who don't take the threat of violence seriously. They're the ones who turn a blind eye ("kids will be kids") right up to the moment one kid blows another's brains out.
I can only speak of my experience in the UK. I fully accept that we should expect teachers and administrators to act in a professional manner.
Problem is, it's a bit like 'security staff', who get minimum wage and an ill-fitting uniform. The money they get paid isn't enough to risk getting killed for.
Another issue for teachers is litigation. We expect teachers to act 'in loco parentis'. We then expose them to violence, litigation and disciplinary action when they do. Do we have the right to act all indignant when they step aside while Kid A blows Kid B away ?
Moral: Don't blame teachers and administrators in schools. The problem they face starts much earlier than school - and is down to parenting and home life.
Once again, the UK government is caught on the horns of a dillemma of their own making.
The Labour Government has made voluminous noises about its wish to kick-start the UK economy with e-commerce. At the same time, different parts of the UK apparat are engaged in 'synchronised foot-shooting' mode.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill : - this could criminalise anyone using encryption. Not a great start for e-commerce - strike one
This ruling means that ISPs like Demon now have to monitor all content. OK, IANAL, but I accept thatlibel is a bad thing. The problem is a law which is out of touch with the digital age. This will make ISPs in Britain uncompetitive. They will have to move their server-space and companies out of the UK - strike two
British Telecom still hold the monopoly on telecoms in the UK, particularly to homes. Despite pressure from the government, they are still dragging their feet in rolling out technologies such as ADSL and even in relinquishing total control of the local loop - strike three
In terms of building the e-economy on the UK - we are dead in the water at present. The rest of the world will have to start without us. We'll catch up later, no doubt on terms dictated to us at that time.
IANAL, but it would seem that what Yahoo needs to do is
Open a branch office in Taiwan
House their servers there
Publish that all auctions are subject to the laws of Taiwan
Better still - do it in Malta. They may need to build the telecom infrastructure from scratch, but an invasion and censorship from the mainland Chinese is less of a threat.
The governments will try to tax the Internet. The governments depend on tax revenue for their very existences.
Whether this taxation is necessary for the health of the nation-state is irrelevant to government. Whether it is in in the best interests of the citizens is even less relevant to them. Ignore the crap about 'democracy' - the plain fact is that government milks its citizens for tax like a farmer milking cows. It takes what it wants, without any accountability to the tax-payer.
OK - you say - but we vote these guys in. WRONG !!! You vote in a set of elected representatives. The apparatus of government is run by the civil service, the apparatchiks, by 'employees of the state'. The elected masters have little control over them. For proof, see how long it takes to fully reverse a piece of legislation, once the government overturns it.
This is not an internet problem. This is a problem of government with no true accountability. Ultimately, government must change, and so will taxation. Instead of being milked like cows - they will need to treat us like customers. The only other possible path is anarchy, once the population realises the government does not represent them, and has its own agenda.
OK, so by a slight bit of technical jiggery-pokery, you can copy your DVD to VHS.
Funny thing is, I've had the technical capability to copy audio CDs to cassette tape for years. No one has seen the need to 'fix' CD players to prevent people like me from doing this. The entertainment business has not been bankrupted by people doing this.
So why is this any different ? In building clever hardware to prevent writing VHS tapes, Sony will increase production costs of the PS2, increase complexity and decrease reliability - it will be one more component to go wrong. It isn't even a bit that is needed to make the PS2 work ! The entertainment industry will have their DVDs protected for now.
(*RANT)The only people missing from the equation is us, the consumer. We will pay for these 'design modifications', get more complex, less reliable products, and be expected to pay for the resulting repairs when they go wrong. Solving the problem by technological means is stupid, particularly when the problem is not technological in the first case. OK, there is a threat of piracy. Piracy is less of a problem when you are giving genuine value for money, and don't have a business process supporting a vast array of expensively upholstered intermediaries. This is the real problem faced by the entertainment industry. They need to downsize and restructure, like the rest of us have had to do, or die. Their lawyers will not help them ultimately, because ultimately they rely on the patronage of people like you and me, and someone will eventually 'get it' and take their business from them.(*/RANT)
Yes, and these are the kind of morons that the government wants to give the key to every encryption system used within the UK.
Too bloody right they are !!!!!!
As well as the (*irony*) beautifully crafted RIP bill (*/irony), in their infinite wisdom, the UK government now are bringing in a new 'Terrorism Act' which redefines terrorism as being err.... anything that the Government want really. So swiping a lap-top some MI5 civil service type left unattended can get you 'Enemy of the State' status as well....... bit like being chased by the Keystone Cops, I suppose.
I am more worried about the software, particularly if it is of the 64kBug variety. It could cause some real social problems:
The whole exoskeleton population has a nervous twitch at the turn of each century or on a leap year
Cult of the Dead Cow develop a tool exploiting vulnerabilities in the exoskeleton security, forcing it to perform Monty Python Silly Walks and the Can-Can every Tuesday at 3pm.
The 'Eiffel 65 effect' - the suit locks up solid and the whole world turns blue
Each service pack applied to the suit alters its behaviour subtly. This damages user confidence and they require counselling
Shock troopers from the DoJ keep attacking you with chain-saws, to remove functionality which they feel shouldn't have really been bundled into the suit in the first place
Personally - I'll stick to waring the hides of dead animals - much safer and warmer.
Will the UK government now need to extend the RIP legislation to include this technology *lol* I wait with bated breath.....
Instead of encrypted e-mails, will I now be able to pass a genetically modified goldfish to my KGB controller each month, right under the noses of MI.5 ? What legislation will the UK government pass then to tap my goldfish ?
I am really tempted to send a link for this article to my MP, to see what confusion it causes......
Let's face it, we all have an idea of how much it costs us to cut a CD, don't we ? On an industrial scale, it will cost a fraction of that per unit.
We accept that we should be paying the artist to listen to his music, otherwise that is theft. Since it has to go on some medium or other - we can see why we need to stand the cost of the CD. The rest of the money we pay for a CD, a high percentage of it, is tax and payments to various intermediaries, for shipping, talent management, production, distribution and so on.
Is there room for a business model which distributes music straight from the artist to paying customers, cutting all the intervening crap ? The artist gets paid, which is groovy, and the customer gets a keener price. The only real losers are all the intermediaries in the music business, which is why they will fight internet access to music tooth and nail.
Note that the artists are not complaining as loudly as the intermediaries.
Microsoft and Apple have a considerable budget that they set aside for the wooing of public education. Because of this many teachers may have been taught certain things about linux that are no longer true
Too right, they do !
This raises a number of interesting issues. The path that Microsoft are beating is one followed by IBM in the past. Educators see Microsoft products as 'industry standard', for three reasons - they are market leaders, they sell them cheap(er) software and tell them so, and here in the UK they are the only player in town really doing this (Apple don't to any extent). Pupils become familiar with the products, and a new generation is influenced.
The Open Source movement can and should learn from this. By reaching pupils and students young enough, the movement can be strengthened. The gate-keepers are the teachers, and you need to influence/de-programme/educate them first.
Any material produced for this market should shun excessively technical language - my experience of teachers is that most wil run a mile to avoid being exposed as less than omnipotent in front of their class (I realise it is wrong - but it is also a fact of life). The right package at the right price (and GPL and Open Source can most definitely compete on price - which is a big issue in education) could be a winner, and secure a new generation of converts for the cause.
I have Mandrake 7 as well. KDE and Gnome are both quite polished. It is still a long way from being a suitable tool to put on the desk of a technically challenged user. In terms of fighting M$ on its home turf, it has to be significantly better to have any impact. It has a long way to go. Not that I would exemplify any M$ OS as a paragon of anything worthwhile in this respect....
Things may be different elsewhere, but Apple has become increasingly marginal in the UK market. IMO this has been a victory for marketing dollars over product quality. I haven't seen OS/X yet, but would be disappointed if it failed to live up to Apple's previous high standards for GUI design and ergonomics. If the UK market is representative, then I can't see OS/X taking over as the desktop of choice for the masses just yet. In terms of market penetration, Apple are too far behind. For organisations with hundreds of these things to support, the skill base isn't out there.
Corporations are running scared. They have invested billions in their existing infrastructure, business processes and marketing methods. the Internet threatens to change the rules and to remove competitive advantage gained from this investment.
They are trying to eliminate this threat by emasculating the Internet. It was designed to withstand a nuclear war, so they know they can't kill it.
Music royalties are a regular battleground. Yet the music industry is littered with fat cats and hangers on, each creaming off their percentage. Let's face it, we can all hazard a guess at how much it costs to press CDs in bulk. The artist gets probably pennies of each £14 or so that is paid for an album. There are too many intermediaries in that business, and the prices demonstrate this. The internet is great at bypassing intermediaries.
In conclusion, I would say that the biggest threat to these corporations was not the internet, but their own attachment to business processes which have worked in the past, but will fail them in the future. I believe and fervently hope that no amount of rapacious legislation will stop this from happening.
I am in a similar position to the writer of the parent item, and agree 100% with what he says. Over the last fifteen years, available desktop computer functionality has risen exponentially, and training of users who need it has not kept pace. In addition, more users are being expected to use PCs (in the generic sense) at work. People like ourselves are specialists, but we remain specialists primarily because of our enthusiasm for computing.
At the risk of being flamed into oblivion, I am not sure whether Linux (or any of the Unices) is the right OS for many naive users. At command line level, the functionality comes in small pieces which the user puts together themselves for a particular task.
Granted, the user would have to be presented with X on the desktop. All of the small functional OS building blocks are still just below the surface, and to get best use out of them you need to be technically confident enough to pick them up and play with them.
OK, you say, they will be using StarOffice, or some similar app, and the building blocks won't be touched. Firstly, I would say, nice as StarOffice is, Microsoft Office is nicer. At this point, you are using Unix/Linux to fight M$ on their home turf. Whatever your views on M$, it is easier to find staff out there to support M$ than for Linux/Unix desktops. Our masters don't really care about the technical niceties, they want the job done.
I know this sounds like a horrible re-run of the cliche "No-one ever got sacked for buying IBM". Personally, I use M$ at work, and Linux at home. And I hope to able to use Linux at work too. But I have a wife, a child and a mortgage to support, so I'll need some convincing.
Re:What's wrong with giving TM holders first dibs?
on
Master Of Your Domain
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· Score: 1
Just out of curiosity, which corporations who have exploited the internet best ?
It has been new corporations, with new business processes, and no established trademark at the time of doing business
As for the large multi-nationals who had a trademark and a business first, and bolted the internet thing on at a later date....... let them have their trademarks. It keeps their attorneys in work, gives their marketing execs something to exercise their brains with. The companies who seem to have got it are using domains, and carving trademarks out on their own.
Perhaps it is not cricket that we as individuals have fewer rights than the multi-nationals in carving out new domain-space. But, hell, the multinationals have attorneys, and are not going to give up without a fight, are they ?. And evidence to date suggests that any of use are more likely to do something cool if we do our thing, with our own name anyway.
So let them have it. In the long term a trademark and a zillion associated domain names won't save a multinational from extinction if they retain business processes and attitudes from the 1970s.
Fundamentally, this is a civil liberties issue All civilized nations have the requirement of evidence before conviction and imprisonment. This legislation denies this fundamental right. It is even more appalling when you consider that in the UK's glory years, we exported this very principle of law across the globe ! It moves the UK much closer to becoming a police state. In that respect, this legislation is worse than anything passed in the Thatcher years. It attaches too much power to a PACE warrant. Given the recent track record of the Police in the UK, they are already demonstrably abusing great power, and should not be given any more. In addition, the recent revelations on ECHELON suggest that the need for a warrant to tap your phone line is a paper formality in any case.
One big concern which governments about the globe must be facing is how to levy tax on e-commerce, particularly if it is encrypted. It works fine in the UK, where your every wage-slip is shared with the Inland Revenue, and your every purchase open to scrutiny by the VATman. I believe that this legislation is targetted not at criminals and child molesters. This is emotive language used by the government to justify this bill. I believe that this legislation, if it goes through, will be used for one by the Inland Revenue to pursue alleged tax evaders. This misses the real issue, which is that taxation is coercive in nature, and the citizen is forced to pay what the government demand, instead of the government treating its citizens like consumers of their services, with rights.
I don't see Jeff Bezos's "we-have-to-patent-it-to-save-us-from-the-big-bad- megacorp" argument holding any water. While Amazon is an innovator in the ecommerce world, I don't see that fear of being taken over by a huge corporation like walmart justifies what Amazon has done.
Right on !!!!
Bezos is clearly wrapping himself in the "Little Internet startup against the big nasty corporations" flag, and O'Reilly inhaled the smoke. At the same time, Bezos is using the "corporate playbook" to patent this 'technology' and to beat up Barnes and Noble.
He can't have it both ways, can he ? Bezos needs to be careful. There is a certain comfort in having the markets view Amazon as 'one for the future', particularly if they don't look at its burn rate too closely in the interim. If Bezos starts throwing his weight about in public, he risks attracting the kind of attention he doesn't want, and lavishing the kind of legal fees and management focus his company doesn't need.
As a customer, I hope Amazon succeeds. I fear that they will not, as they seem to be wasting a lot of valuable energy on these patent issues.
This is actually a pretty damned cool idea, once some of you next-gen unix admins start operating in a lab/server enviroment you'll see how this can be a really f*****g quality concept.
Of us next-gen unix admins - count me out, I am definitely current gen.
As for the concept, it is an interesting application using some ideas which have been around for a long time. I question whether it is at all useful, and can see it being a hinderance. If this is an exciting, patentable innovation, as Microsoft suggest, then I definitely don't get it. Looking at this page, no-one else seems to get why Microsoft is getting so excited either. It has nothing at all to do with Microsoft, their products, or business practices. I genuinely believe that fitting an ash-tray on the handlebars of a motor bike would be more useful than this 'innovation'.
If you get it, 'Score Whore', then please share your enlightenment.
Even so, it is still a pretty underwhelming invention !
How often do you have two identical files which you really wish were one plus a pointer ?
Or, what if you wish one of the two identical files to cease to be identical ? Will you end up editing the single copy you wish to edit, only to find you have edited every copy on your system ?
I don't think this is a great achievement or innovation. The savings in disk space are probably not worth the development, debugging and service pack release costs. I can also see instances when this innovative feature will be a positive nuisance.
Still, as long as it mops up a few more MIPS........
Governments have a problem with taxation on the Internet. That much is obvious.
The problem is not of the Internet, but of government.
Government has built apparatus which effectively snoops on every financial transaction we make, to ensure they get their cut. The citizens have no choice but to pay whatever government demands, otherwise coercive measures are exacted.
The internet changes the rules. Transactions can be encrypted, and happen across national boundaries in hyperspace. Governmments can't tax what they can't see. We have already seen the UK government the rapacious 'Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act', an immoral piece of legislation targetted directly at users of encryption. It is cited as a crime fighting measure, but I am sure they will get around to using this legislation to track 'tax evasion'.
As I said, the problem is with government. The concept of democracy is a myth, when an elected party is in power unchallenged for four or five years, and runs the nation through a set of civil service administrators and other government employees, each with their own agenda. Current taxation is little more than institutionalised protection racketeering by the state. We have to pay what they demand for the services we need, or else.
The Internet may force government to change. Instead of protection rackets, they may end up having to talk with people, to treat some people like valued customers. They may ultimately need to negotiate a fair price with some people for the services that those people want, on the pain of those people choosing to live elsewhere. Where this leaves those people who aren't 'some people', who are not in a position to negotiate, the poor, the old, the unemployed and the 'technically challenged' is a big social problem for the 21st Century.
"Verisign spokesman Gray Chapman confirmed that GoHip is certified by Verisign, but stressed that his company was not in the business of passing judgment on the business practice of its client."
By certifying GoHip, they are endorsing their business practices. This statement is a cop-out. The credibility of Verisign wil be damaged by the actions of GoHip, unless they take action.
As for 'passing judgement', there is little that needs to be said in judging any organisation who distributes of trojans like this.
This places the UK government in an uncomfortable situation.
On the one hand, as one of their stated goals is to be at the 'heart of Europe', they should be alarmed. On the other, as a signatory to the original UKUSA COMINT agreement, they are partly responsible for ECHELON (but perhaps not for its misuse).A bit of a dilemma, I'd say....
Also, when you consider the introduction by the UK government of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act alongside ECHELON, it is interesting. Under the new act, failure to hand over your encryption key to the police on demand may result in imprisonment. At the risk of being a conspiracy theorist, are they scared that all their investment in COMINT technology will go down the pan if everyone starts using encryption ?
Slashdot Mirror
If you can get 40000 virtual Linux instances running on a single S390, does that not offer some interesting possibilities ?
.....). In essence, though, the software was written to run on one solitary PC, and is constrained by this.
........
Lots of people run sites using Apache and Linux, with Perl, PHP, databases and other stuff behind it. The software was built on a model that it runs on a single PC, and all visitors to the site share that PC. This is the simplest model, the load balancing stuff and the 'front end web server and back-end database server models' are neat (and essential) refinements. OK, we do have Beowulf clusters (not in my bedroom, though
Notwithstanding the colossal price, does a machine that allows the creation of 40000+ individual virtual Linux boxes not open up other opportunities ? Plumb one of these into your web-site, and each connection to your server could have the full resources of a virtual Linux box all to themselves. Very exciting.
Right , all we need now is a number of Open Source developers to get an S/390 installed in their garage to do some work on
How about someone setting up a web-site which offers a randomly generated psychological profile that you can read over the phone to the Pinkerton's man ?
The FACT is that it is the teachers and administrators who don't take the threat of violence seriously. They're the ones who turn a blind eye ("kids will be kids") right up to the moment one kid blows another's brains out.
I can only speak of my experience in the UK. I fully accept that we should expect teachers and administrators to act in a professional manner.
Problem is, it's a bit like 'security staff', who get minimum wage and an ill-fitting uniform. The money they get paid isn't enough to risk getting killed for.
Another issue for teachers is litigation. We expect teachers to act 'in loco parentis'. We then expose them to violence, litigation and disciplinary action when they do. Do we have the right to act all indignant when they step aside while Kid A blows Kid B away ?
Moral: Don't blame teachers and administrators in schools. The problem they face starts much earlier than school - and is down to parenting and home life.
Oh no, another British spy laptop goes walkabout ..........
The Labour Government has made voluminous noises about its wish to kick-start the UK economy with e-commerce. At the same time, different parts of the UK apparat are engaged in 'synchronised foot-shooting' mode.
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill : - this could criminalise anyone using encryption. Not a great start for e-commerce - strike one
This ruling means that ISPs like Demon now have to monitor all content. OK, IANAL, but I accept thatlibel is a bad thing. The problem is a law which is out of touch with the digital age. This will make ISPs in Britain uncompetitive. They will have to move their server-space and companies out of the UK - strike two
British Telecom still hold the monopoly on telecoms in the UK, particularly to homes. Despite pressure from the government, they are still dragging their feet in rolling out technologies such as ADSL and even in relinquishing total control of the local loop - strike three
In terms of building the e-economy on the UK - we are dead in the water at present. The rest of the world will have to start without us. We'll catch up later, no doubt on terms dictated to us at that time.
Open a branch office in Taiwan
House their servers there
Publish that all auctions are subject to the laws of Taiwan
Better still - do it in Malta. They may need to build the telecom infrastructure from scratch, but an invasion and censorship from the mainland Chinese is less of a threat.
Apologies up front - this is way off-topic
Regarding internet taxation:
The governments will try to tax the Internet. The governments depend on tax revenue for their very existences.
Whether this taxation is necessary for the health of the nation-state is irrelevant to government. Whether it is in in the best interests of the citizens is even less relevant to them. Ignore the crap about 'democracy' - the plain fact is that government milks its citizens for tax like a farmer milking cows. It takes what it wants, without any accountability to the tax-payer.
OK - you say - but we vote these guys in. WRONG !!! You vote in a set of elected representatives. The apparatus of government is run by the civil service, the apparatchiks, by 'employees of the state'. The elected masters have little control over them. For proof, see how long it takes to fully reverse a piece of legislation, once the government overturns it.
This is not an internet problem. This is a problem of government with no true accountability. Ultimately, government must change, and so will taxation. Instead of being milked like cows - they will need to treat us like customers. The only other possible path is anarchy, once the population realises the government does not represent them, and has its own agenda.
OK, so by a slight bit of technical jiggery-pokery, you can copy your DVD to VHS.
Funny thing is, I've had the technical capability to copy audio CDs to cassette tape for years. No one has seen the need to 'fix' CD players to prevent people like me from doing this. The entertainment business has not been bankrupted by people doing this.
So why is this any different ? In building clever hardware to prevent writing VHS tapes, Sony will increase production costs of the PS2, increase complexity and decrease reliability - it will be one more component to go wrong. It isn't even a bit that is needed to make the PS2 work ! The entertainment industry will have their DVDs protected for now.
(*RANT)The only people missing from the equation is us, the consumer. We will pay for these 'design modifications', get more complex, less reliable products, and be expected to pay for the resulting repairs when they go wrong. Solving the problem by technological means is stupid, particularly when the problem is not technological in the first case. OK, there is a threat of piracy. Piracy is less of a problem when you are giving genuine value for money, and don't have a business process supporting a vast array of expensively upholstered intermediaries. This is the real problem faced by the entertainment industry. They need to downsize and restructure, like the rest of us have had to do, or die. Their lawyers will not help them ultimately, because ultimately they rely on the patronage of people like you and me, and someone will eventually 'get it' and take their business from them.(*/RANT)
Yes, and these are the kind of morons that the government wants to give the key to every encryption system used within the UK.
Too bloody right they are !!!!!!
As well as the (*irony*) beautifully crafted RIP bill (*/irony), in their infinite wisdom, the UK government now are bringing in a new 'Terrorism Act' which redefines terrorism as being err.... anything that the Government want really. So swiping a lap-top some MI5 civil service type left unattended can get you 'Enemy of the State' status as well....... bit like being chased by the Keystone Cops, I suppose.
The whole exoskeleton population has a nervous twitch at the turn of each century or on a leap year
Cult of the Dead Cow develop a tool exploiting vulnerabilities in the exoskeleton security, forcing it to perform Monty Python Silly Walks and the Can-Can every Tuesday at 3pm.
The 'Eiffel 65 effect' - the suit locks up solid and the whole world turns blue
Each service pack applied to the suit alters its behaviour subtly. This damages user confidence and they require counselling
Shock troopers from the DoJ keep attacking you with chain-saws, to remove functionality which they feel shouldn't have really been bundled into the suit in the first place
Personally - I'll stick to waring the hides of dead animals - much safer and warmer.
Will the UK government now need to extend the RIP legislation to include this technology *lol* I wait with bated breath .....
......
Instead of encrypted e-mails, will I now be able to pass a genetically modified goldfish to my KGB controller each month, right under the noses of MI.5 ? What legislation will the UK government pass then to tap my goldfish ?
I am really tempted to send a link for this article to my MP, to see what confusion it causes
The music industry is loaded with intermediaries.
Let's face it, we all have an idea of how much it costs us to cut a CD, don't we ? On an industrial scale, it will cost a fraction of that per unit.
We accept that we should be paying the artist to listen to his music, otherwise that is theft. Since it has to go on some medium or other - we can see why we need to stand the cost of the CD. The rest of the money we pay for a CD, a high percentage of it, is tax and payments to various intermediaries, for shipping, talent management, production, distribution and so on.
Is there room for a business model which distributes music straight from the artist to paying customers, cutting all the intervening crap ? The artist gets paid, which is groovy, and the customer gets a keener price. The only real losers are all the intermediaries in the music business, which is why they will fight internet access to music tooth and nail.
Note that the artists are not complaining as loudly as the intermediaries.
Microsoft and Apple have a considerable budget that they set aside for the wooing of public education. Because of this many teachers may have been taught certain things about linux that are no longer true
Too right, they do !
This raises a number of interesting issues. The path that Microsoft are beating is one followed by IBM in the past. Educators see Microsoft products as 'industry standard', for three reasons - they are market leaders, they sell them cheap(er) software and tell them so, and here in the UK they are the only player in town really doing this (Apple don't to any extent). Pupils become familiar with the products, and a new generation is influenced.
The Open Source movement can and should learn from this. By reaching pupils and students young enough, the movement can be strengthened. The gate-keepers are the teachers, and you need to influence/de-programme/educate them first.
Any material produced for this market should shun excessively technical language - my experience of teachers is that most wil run a mile to avoid being exposed as less than omnipotent in front of their class (I realise it is wrong - but it is also a fact of life). The right package at the right price (and GPL and Open Source can most definitely compete on price - which is a big issue in education) could be a winner, and secure a new generation of converts for the cause.
I have Mandrake 7 as well. KDE and Gnome are both quite polished. It is still a long way from being a suitable tool to put on the desk of a technically challenged user. In terms of fighting M$ on its home turf, it has to be significantly better to have any impact. It has a long way to go. Not that I would exemplify any M$ OS as a paragon of anything worthwhile in this respect ....
Things may be different elsewhere, but Apple has become increasingly marginal in the UK market. IMO this has been a victory for marketing dollars over product quality. I haven't seen OS/X yet, but would be disappointed if it failed to live up to Apple's previous high standards for GUI design and ergonomics. If the UK market is representative, then I can't see OS/X taking over as the desktop of choice for the masses just yet. In terms of market penetration, Apple are too far behind. For organisations with hundreds of these things to support, the skill base isn't out there.
Right on !!!!!!!
Corporations are running scared. They have invested billions in their existing infrastructure, business processes and marketing methods. the Internet threatens to change the rules and to remove competitive advantage gained from this investment.
They are trying to eliminate this threat by emasculating the Internet. It was designed to withstand a nuclear war, so they know they can't kill it.
Music royalties are a regular battleground. Yet the music industry is littered with fat cats and hangers on, each creaming off their percentage. Let's face it, we can all hazard a guess at how much it costs to press CDs in bulk. The artist gets probably pennies of each £14 or so that is paid for an album. There are too many intermediaries in that business, and the prices demonstrate this. The internet is great at bypassing intermediaries.
In conclusion, I would say that the biggest threat to these corporations was not the internet, but their own attachment to business processes which have worked in the past, but will fail them in the future. I believe and fervently hope that no amount of rapacious legislation will stop this from happening.
I am in a similar position to the writer of the parent item, and agree 100% with what he says. Over the last fifteen years, available desktop computer functionality has risen exponentially, and training of users who need it has not kept pace. In addition, more users are being expected to use PCs (in the generic sense) at work. People like ourselves are specialists, but we remain specialists primarily because of our enthusiasm for computing.
At the risk of being flamed into oblivion, I am not sure whether Linux (or any of the Unices) is the right OS for many naive users. At command line level, the functionality comes in small pieces which the user puts together themselves for a particular task.
Granted, the user would have to be presented with X on the desktop. All of the small functional OS building blocks are still just below the surface, and to get best use out of them you need to be technically confident enough to pick them up and play with them.
OK, you say, they will be using StarOffice, or some similar app, and the building blocks won't be touched. Firstly, I would say, nice as StarOffice is, Microsoft Office is nicer. At this point, you are using Unix/Linux to fight M$ on their home turf. Whatever your views on M$, it is easier to find staff out there to support M$ than for Linux/Unix desktops. Our masters don't really care about the technical niceties, they want the job done.
I know this sounds like a horrible re-run of the cliche "No-one ever got sacked for buying IBM". Personally, I use M$ at work, and Linux at home. And I hope to able to use Linux at work too. But I have a wife, a child and a mortgage to support, so I'll need some convincing.
Just out of curiosity, which corporations who have exploited the internet best ?
....... let them have their trademarks. It keeps their attorneys in work, gives their marketing execs something to exercise their brains with. The companies who seem to have got it are using domains, and carving trademarks out on their own.
It has been new corporations, with new business processes, and no established trademark at the time of doing business
As for the large multi-nationals who had a trademark and a business first, and bolted the internet thing on at a later date
Perhaps it is not cricket that we as individuals have fewer rights than the multi-nationals in carving out new domain-space. But, hell, the multinationals have attorneys, and are not going to give up without a fight, are they ?. And evidence to date suggests that any of use are more likely to do something cool if we do our thing, with our own name anyway.
So let them have it. In the long term a trademark and a zillion associated domain names won't save a multinational from extinction if they retain business processes and attitudes from the 1970s.
I draw your attention to this article, posted previously on /.
Blizzard set their attorney onto the owner of 'blizzard.net', demanding that they hand over the domain, or face the consequences.
I offer this as information - not criticism. It's your call where you spend your money.
Fundamentally, this is a civil liberties issue All civilized nations have the requirement of evidence before conviction and imprisonment. This legislation denies this fundamental right. It is even more appalling when you consider that in the UK's glory years, we exported this very principle of law across the globe ! It moves the UK much closer to becoming a police state. In that respect, this legislation is worse than anything passed in the Thatcher years. It attaches too much power to a PACE warrant. Given the recent track record of the Police in the UK, they are already demonstrably abusing great power, and should not be given any more. In addition, the recent revelations on ECHELON suggest that the need for a warrant to tap your phone line is a paper formality in any case.
One big concern which governments about the globe must be facing is how to levy tax on e-commerce, particularly if it is encrypted. It works fine in the UK, where your every wage-slip is shared with the Inland Revenue, and your every purchase open to scrutiny by the VATman. I believe that this legislation is targetted not at criminals and child molesters. This is emotive language used by the government to justify this bill. I believe that this legislation, if it goes through, will be used for one by the Inland Revenue to pursue alleged tax evaders. This misses the real issue, which is that taxation is coercive in nature, and the citizen is forced to pay what the government demand, instead of the government treating its citizens like consumers of their services, with rights.
I don't see Jeff Bezos's "we-have-to-patent-it-to-save-us-from-the-big-bad- megacorp" argument holding any water. While Amazon is an innovator in the ecommerce world, I don't see that fear of being taken over by a huge corporation like walmart justifies what Amazon has done.
Right on !!!!
Bezos is clearly wrapping himself in the "Little Internet startup against the big nasty corporations" flag, and O'Reilly inhaled the smoke. At the same time, Bezos is using the "corporate playbook" to patent this 'technology' and to beat up Barnes and Noble.
He can't have it both ways, can he ? Bezos needs to be careful. There is a certain comfort in having the markets view Amazon as 'one for the future', particularly if they don't look at its burn rate too closely in the interim. If Bezos starts throwing his weight about in public, he risks attracting the kind of attention he doesn't want, and lavishing the kind of legal fees and management focus his company doesn't need.
As a customer, I hope Amazon succeeds. I fear that they will not, as they seem to be wasting a lot of valuable energy on these patent issues.
This is actually a pretty damned cool idea, once some of you next-gen unix admins start operating in a lab/server enviroment you'll see how this can be a really f*****g quality concept.
Of us next-gen unix admins - count me out, I am definitely current gen.
As for the concept, it is an interesting application using some ideas which have been around for a long time. I question whether it is at all useful, and can see it being a hinderance. If this is an exciting, patentable innovation, as Microsoft suggest, then I definitely don't get it. Looking at this page, no-one else seems to get why Microsoft is getting so excited either. It has nothing at all to do with Microsoft, their products, or business practices. I genuinely believe that fitting an ash-tray on the handlebars of a motor bike would be more useful than this 'innovation'.
If you get it, 'Score Whore', then please share your enlightenment.
Even so, it is still a pretty underwhelming invention !
........
How often do you have two identical files which you really wish were one plus a pointer ?
Or, what if you wish one of the two identical files to cease to be identical ? Will you end up editing the single copy you wish to edit, only to find you have edited every copy on your system ?
I don't think this is a great achievement or innovation. The savings in disk space are probably not worth the development, debugging and service pack release costs. I can also see instances when this innovative feature will be a positive nuisance.
Still, as long as it mops up a few more MIPS
Governments have a problem with taxation on the Internet. That much is obvious.
The problem is not of the Internet, but of government.
Government has built apparatus which effectively snoops on every financial transaction we make, to ensure they get their cut. The citizens have no choice but to pay whatever government demands, otherwise coercive measures are exacted.
The internet changes the rules. Transactions can be encrypted, and happen across national boundaries in hyperspace. Governmments can't tax what they can't see. We have already seen the UK government the rapacious 'Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act', an immoral piece of legislation targetted directly at users of encryption. It is cited as a crime fighting measure, but I am sure they will get around to using this legislation to track 'tax evasion'.
As I said, the problem is with government. The concept of democracy is a myth, when an elected party is in power unchallenged for four or five years, and runs the nation through a set of civil service administrators and other government employees, each with their own agenda. Current taxation is little more than institutionalised protection racketeering by the state. We have to pay what they demand for the services we need, or else.
The Internet may force government to change. Instead of protection rackets, they may end up having to talk with people, to treat some people like valued customers. They may ultimately need to negotiate a fair price with some people for the services that those people want, on the pain of those people choosing to live elsewhere. Where this leaves those people who aren't 'some people', who are not in a position to negotiate, the poor, the old, the unemployed and the 'technically challenged' is a big social problem for the 21st Century.
"Verisign spokesman Gray Chapman confirmed that GoHip is certified by Verisign, but stressed that his company was not in the business of passing judgment on the business practice of its client."
By certifying GoHip, they are endorsing their business practices. This statement is a cop-out. The credibility of Verisign wil be damaged by the actions of GoHip, unless they take action.
As for 'passing judgement', there is little that needs to be said in judging any organisation who distributes of trojans like this.
This places the UK government in an uncomfortable situation.
On the one hand, as one of their stated goals is to be at the 'heart of Europe', they should be alarmed. On the other, as a signatory to the original UKUSA COMINT agreement, they are partly responsible for ECHELON (but perhaps not for its misuse).A bit of a dilemma, I'd say....
Also, when you consider the introduction by the UK government of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act alongside ECHELON, it is interesting. Under the new act, failure to hand over your encryption key to the police on demand may result in imprisonment. At the risk of being a conspiracy theorist, are they scared that all their investment in COMINT technology will go down the pan if everyone starts using encryption ?