There is some information on the CD levy at this location. There are links from there to the text of the bill. I will quote the appropriate section from the FAQ:
Can I now legally copy audio CDs for my friends?
The simple answer is NO, but you can legally copy your friend's audio CD for YOUR OWN use.
To paraphrase the introduction to the Copyright Board's ruling:
On March 19, 1998, Part VIII of the Copyright Act came into force. Until then, copying any sound recording for almost any purpose infringed copyright.
Part VIII legalizes one such activity: copying of sound recordings of musical works onto recording media for the private use of the person who makes the copy.
It does not matter whether you own the original sound recording (on any medium), you can legally make a copy for your own private use.
To emphasize this point, endnote 4 of the Copyright Board's ruling says:
Section 80 does not legalize (a) copies made for the use of someone other than the person making the copy; and (b) copies of anything else than sound recordings of musical works. It does legalize making a personal copy of a recording owned by someone else.
I wonder how this affects people in Canada. The music industry got a bill passed here that allows us to make copies of any music whatsoever, so long as it is not for commercial gain or for trade, in exchange for a levy on blank CD-R's (even those used strictly for computer purposes).
In other words, it is perfectly legal here to make MP3s of music that you own. In fact, it is perfectly legal to make MP3s of music that you do not own because of the levy on blank CD's. You just cannot trade the MP3s (actually, you just cannot make the MP3s with the intention to trade them).
I'm not sure an additional levy on mp3s would be legal, therefore, because the levy on blank CD-Rs gives us the right to make MP3s (whether we are using the CD-Rs to store them or not).
My computer is plenty quick enough to do all kinds of processing once it receives the text. Even with my cable modem, the bottleneck is in my Internet feed, not my browser.
With that in mind, why make the server do all kinds of preprocessing when my machine is quite happy to do so? We can move off some of the processing requirements from the server and reduce the chances that this will become a bottleneck worse even than bandwidth (which is often the case these days).
You are, of course, right. XML is not a layout language either. However, XHTML (HTML rolled into XML) seems to have been designed from the ground up realising that layout was also important. With HTML, the layout is just a hack on top.
HTML was used initially instead of LaTeX because LaTeX is a layout language and HTML is a markup language. Of course, layout has now been hacked into HTML but still...
HTML was not designed to be a layout language. It is, instead, a markup language. There's no wonder that people are trying to replace HTML with something like XML. Of course, HTML now does support some layout functionality, particularly in combination with CSS.
But why bother replacing HTML with LaTeX? XML is more extensible and is a closer relation to HTML in any case.
OpenBSD seems to be hugely popular at the University of Alberta, particularly in the Department of Computing Science. Could you talk about why this is so, why the department settled on OpenBSD instead of some other Unix, how OpenBSD is used there, and why several staff at the university work on the OpenBSD project?
Linux has FreeSco, a product that fits on a 3.5 inch floppy disk and acts as a router and NAT (Network Address Translation). I always thought something like this would be ideal for OpenBSD. After all, I would rather trust OpenBSD than Linux for this.
Are there any plans to produce something like this? Something with a very simple user interface that is quick and easy to get set up? I'd love to play with OpenBSD and do it by hand but I simply do not have the time.
Make sure you have a decent power supply on those AMD machines. 300 Watts or higher. Make sure you are not running into heat problems (keep the CPU below 50C). Make sure you don't have faulty RAM (use MemTest86 or something similar).
Just some suggestions. My AMD machine is rock-solid.
Is it worth your professional reputation? No, definitely not. Your professional reputation is hopefully worth much more than you'd save by going AMD, despite the fact that AMD is significantly faster. I mean, virtually nobody has run into any problems with AMD CPUs, at least at the Athlon or better (at least, those that are not the result of motherboard defects or invalid assumptions in programs... which could just as easily affect Intel CPUs). And many (most?) of us are now running computers with AMD CPUs at home.
But that doesn't make it worth your while staking everything. I've run into problems with AMD CPUs before, back in the 486 days. I haven't run into any with the Thunderbirds and Durons but who knows, they may exist.
So should you stake your reputation on Intel CPUs? Most definitely not. There have been far more problems with Intel CPUs recently compared to AMD CPUs. Far too many to risk your reputation.
Except, of course, you almost certainly won't be. If you go AMD and you run into any problems, your reputation is shot. If you go Intel and you run into problems, your reputation is likely as not unaffected.
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. 'Nobody ever got fired for going Intel'. (Of course, this used to be 'IBM').
Would I go AMD over Intel? Yes. Would I risk my reputation on it? No, though it is clearly the better (and safer) option theoretically.
I find it significantly more convenient to keep Britney Spears locked in my basement, available 24/7, rather than have to reach for a disc every time I want to see her perform.
Not the same thing at all. More similar, you own a Britney Spears CD but do not have a portable CD player. You therefore copy it to tape for the times you are out jogging. Under Canadian law, this is quite definitely legal. This may not be legal in the U.S. but most people think it should be on the basis that you are paying for the right to listen to the music. Furthermore, nobody is going to listen to your CD while you are out jogging because it is your CD.
The question comes down to whether we are buying a license to watch the DVD (or listen to the music) or whether we are buying the DVD (or CD) itself. If we are buying the DVD, we can do whatever we want with it, for our own personal use. Heck, we can make a profit by providing public viewings of it, etc.
If we are buying a license to watch the DVD, we should be allowed to watch the DVD however we choose. I do not recall being asked to sign a contract stating that I would only view the DVD using licensed hardware. Provided that I can only watch one copy of it at a time, the use should be legitimate.
I based that opinion, by the way, on the assumption that clock speeds double every 18 months or so (I know this is not Moore's Law...) and given that we currently have 1.2 Ghz and 1.5 Ghz systems, I'd expect to see 3 - 5 Ghz systems in 18 - 30 months.
I make no claims that it will be the current set of AMD chips that run at that speed, though I do expect the P4 (perhaps with some minor changes) to be around past 3 Ghz.
And yes, for people who have any real knowledge at all, AMD CPUs are the way to go at the moment except in a few minor cases. I just picked up an Athlon 900 Mhz system, the first time I bought a non-Intel CPU since the early 80s.
You are right, AMD is faster given the same Ghz chips. My point was meant to be that if AMD can produce chips with the same speed rating (that is, the same Ghz), they would possibly cripple Intel. Because they would be substantially faster than Intel's chips, perhaps by as much as 50%, because they would probably be cheaper, too.
However, AMD does not need to produce chips running at the same Ghz to pose a significant problem to Intel. They already do so with chips running with 20% fewer Mhz.
The question is... can they? Intel is apparently betting, with the P4, that AMD will fall behind, will not be able to run their chips anywhere near as fast as Intel can.
Yes, the Pentium IV is substantially slower, Ghz-for-Ghz, than the Athlon Thunderbird. And yes, I'm sure it is slower, clock-for-clock, than the Pentium III.
That is not the point.
Intel is not trying to beat the competition immediately, despite appearances to the contrary. They are, instead, looking on the Pentium IV as a long-term solution.
Take a look at the chip. The whole thing is designed to run at faster and faster clock speeds. Now, I am not taking a stand on whether AMD will be able to out-clock Intel (though personally, I hope so) but their CPUs do not sacrifice as much to clock speed at the moment. That is, AMD prefers to produce more complex, slightly less highly-clockable CPUs.
Of course, these chips could be clocked higher than Intel's Pentium III chips, and they were more stable as well. But now Intel has redesigned.
Really, the question comes down to how well AMD can scale to faster clock speeds. If AMD can hit even only 3.5 gigahertz by the time Intel hits 5 gigahertz, AMD will have won. But it is quite possible that AMD will not be able to do this, at least not without a redesign. Of course, if AMD can match Intel Ghz-for-Ghz, Intel is in serious trouble.
In Canada, this is basically how it works now. They introduced a CD-R tax and as a result, we are free (in the legal sense) to make copies of music on any format we want, provided that this is done for our own personal use and not for profit.
In fact, the law actually says we don't need to own the music in the first place. That is, it is perfectly legal to copy music from, say, the radio.
The Multics system was up and running at least until the summer of 1991. I used it for about a year from 1990 to 1991. After the summer of '91, though, I lost access. It could have been because they were decommissioning it, I'm not sure.
I think I first accessed the Internet on that system.
Microsoft has the xpertise to push it through? Ha ha. I was talking to someone from Electronic Arts here in Canada a while back and he pointed out that Microsoft has a terrible track record with hardware.
Oftentimes, Microsoft will announce some hot new hardware. Only occasionally are they able to actually bring a product to market.
Sure, they've had some big successes (Microsoft Mouse, Microsoft Natural Keyboard), but they have had a lot of failures and broken promises as well.
Heck, they have a hard enough time getting their core software out, on-time and functioning correctly. And they have experience with operating systems and office suites. They have no experience with video game consoles.
Until I see the X-Box for sale, I'll just assume it is vapourware thank you very much. I do not care much for the Playstation 2 but at least I can buy one (or at least, steal one...).
There's been no money in console system hardware for years. Companies are always selling them for a loss. In exchange, they get a licensing fee for every piece of software (made by them or by another company) to be made for that platform.
This is why I have serious doubts about Indrema. I cannot see how they can get their hardware out, at a loss which someone has to absorb, and retain open-sourcedness.
Anyway, now that Sega is moving out of the console hardware market, there goes all their opportunity for profits from licensing fees. And this is a huge chunk of profit. There is far less to be made in the PC game field.
Saying that they will simply forget about their money-losing hardware business and instead concentrate on their money-making software business is misleading because a lot of the money in software comes to them from their hardware.
Does the HP370 actually do hardware RAID? I know several cards on the market don't really, they require software to do it. Kind of a bummer. I don't know about the HP370, though.
You can find Gentus Linux by going to the BP6 web site. However, you probably knew that, and probably knew it would not work. Try posting to the message boards on the Bp6 site, I'm sure someone will have a copy for you.
I really like the Abit motherboards. I currently run the BP6 with two celerons. I'm not sure I would go for an 'experiemental' motherboard in the future, though.
Note that by law in Alberta, Canada, a person must be paid for three hours minimum when called in regardless of whether they worked three hours or two minutes.
I don't know if this applies to salaried employees, though.
This is a good plan, though did you guys get paid for the entire 5 pm - 8 am shift or just for the time spent on the call itself?
I would suggest a flat fee of $60 for the evening being on-call plus $30 per call after the first one if you can resolve it over the phone or $60 per call if you have to go on site.
The most important thing is bill this back to the department who paged you!
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In other words, it is perfectly legal here to make MP3s of music that you own. In fact, it is perfectly legal to make MP3s of music that you do not own because of the levy on blank CD's. You just cannot trade the MP3s (actually, you just cannot make the MP3s with the intention to trade them).
I'm not sure an additional levy on mp3s would be legal, therefore, because the levy on blank CD-Rs gives us the right to make MP3s (whether we are using the CD-Rs to store them or not).
With that in mind, why make the server do all kinds of preprocessing when my machine is quite happy to do so? We can move off some of the processing requirements from the server and reduce the chances that this will become a bottleneck worse even than bandwidth (which is often the case these days).
You are, of course, right. XML is not a layout language either. However, XHTML (HTML rolled into XML) seems to have been designed from the ground up realising that layout was also important. With HTML, the layout is just a hack on top.
HTML was used initially instead of LaTeX because LaTeX is a layout language and HTML is a markup language. Of course, layout has now been hacked into HTML but still...
But why bother replacing HTML with LaTeX? XML is more extensible and is a closer relation to HTML in any case.
OpenBSD seems to be hugely popular at the University of Alberta, particularly in the Department of Computing Science. Could you talk about why this is so, why the department settled on OpenBSD instead of some other Unix, how OpenBSD is used there, and why several staff at the university work on the OpenBSD project?
Are there any plans to produce something like this? Something with a very simple user interface that is quick and easy to get set up? I'd love to play with OpenBSD and do it by hand but I simply do not have the time.
Bid on it at EBay. Lots of people are selling their copy.
Make sure you have a decent power supply on those AMD machines. 300 Watts or higher. Make sure you are not running into heat problems (keep the CPU below 50C). Make sure you don't have faulty RAM (use MemTest86 or something similar).
Just some suggestions. My AMD machine is rock-solid.
But that doesn't make it worth your while staking everything. I've run into problems with AMD CPUs before, back in the 486 days. I haven't run into any with the Thunderbirds and Durons but who knows, they may exist.
So should you stake your reputation on Intel CPUs? Most definitely not. There have been far more problems with Intel CPUs recently compared to AMD CPUs. Far too many to risk your reputation.
Except, of course, you almost certainly won't be. If you go AMD and you run into any problems, your reputation is shot. If you go Intel and you run into problems, your reputation is likely as not unaffected.
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt. 'Nobody ever got fired for going Intel'. (Of course, this used to be 'IBM').
Would I go AMD over Intel? Yes. Would I risk my reputation on it? No, though it is clearly the better (and safer) option theoretically.
Not the same thing at all. More similar, you own a Britney Spears CD but do not have a portable CD player. You therefore copy it to tape for the times you are out jogging. Under Canadian law, this is quite definitely legal. This may not be legal in the U.S. but most people think it should be on the basis that you are paying for the right to listen to the music. Furthermore, nobody is going to listen to your CD while you are out jogging because it is your CD.
The question comes down to whether we are buying a license to watch the DVD (or listen to the music) or whether we are buying the DVD (or CD) itself. If we are buying the DVD, we can do whatever we want with it, for our own personal use. Heck, we can make a profit by providing public viewings of it, etc.
If we are buying a license to watch the DVD, we should be allowed to watch the DVD however we choose. I do not recall being asked to sign a contract stating that I would only view the DVD using licensed hardware. Provided that I can only watch one copy of it at a time, the use should be legitimate.
I make no claims that it will be the current set of AMD chips that run at that speed, though I do expect the P4 (perhaps with some minor changes) to be around past 3 Ghz.
And yes, for people who have any real knowledge at all, AMD CPUs are the way to go at the moment except in a few minor cases. I just picked up an Athlon 900 Mhz system, the first time I bought a non-Intel CPU since the early 80s.
However, AMD does not need to produce chips running at the same Ghz to pose a significant problem to Intel. They already do so with chips running with 20% fewer Mhz.
The question is... can they? Intel is apparently betting, with the P4, that AMD will fall behind, will not be able to run their chips anywhere near as fast as Intel can.
That is not the point.
Intel is not trying to beat the competition immediately, despite appearances to the contrary. They are, instead, looking on the Pentium IV as a long-term solution.
Take a look at the chip. The whole thing is designed to run at faster and faster clock speeds. Now, I am not taking a stand on whether AMD will be able to out-clock Intel (though personally, I hope so) but their CPUs do not sacrifice as much to clock speed at the moment. That is, AMD prefers to produce more complex, slightly less highly-clockable CPUs.
Of course, these chips could be clocked higher than Intel's Pentium III chips, and they were more stable as well. But now Intel has redesigned.
Really, the question comes down to how well AMD can scale to faster clock speeds. If AMD can hit even only 3.5 gigahertz by the time Intel hits 5 gigahertz, AMD will have won. But it is quite possible that AMD will not be able to do this, at least not without a redesign. Of course, if AMD can match Intel Ghz-for-Ghz, Intel is in serious trouble.
And that, my friends, is the point.
In fact, the law actually says we don't need to own the music in the first place. That is, it is perfectly legal to copy music from, say, the radio.
I think I first accessed the Internet on that system.
No, the IPO was yesterday wasn't it? Today, the stock is open for regular trading.
Oftentimes, Microsoft will announce some hot new hardware. Only occasionally are they able to actually bring a product to market.
Sure, they've had some big successes (Microsoft Mouse, Microsoft Natural Keyboard), but they have had a lot of failures and broken promises as well.
Heck, they have a hard enough time getting their core software out, on-time and functioning correctly. And they have experience with operating systems and office suites. They have no experience with video game consoles.
Until I see the X-Box for sale, I'll just assume it is vapourware thank you very much. I do not care much for the Playstation 2 but at least I can buy one (or at least, steal one...).
This is why I have serious doubts about Indrema. I cannot see how they can get their hardware out, at a loss which someone has to absorb, and retain open-sourcedness.
Anyway, now that Sega is moving out of the console hardware market, there goes all their opportunity for profits from licensing fees. And this is a huge chunk of profit. There is far less to be made in the PC game field.
Saying that they will simply forget about their money-losing hardware business and instead concentrate on their money-making software business is misleading because a lot of the money in software comes to them from their hardware.
Really? Quake 3? Starcraft? You know, I really can't think anyone would class those two as the worst games of the year.
You can find Gentus Linux by going to the BP6 web site. However, you probably knew that, and probably knew it would not work. Try posting to the message boards on the Bp6 site, I'm sure someone will have a copy for you.
I really like the Abit motherboards. I currently run the BP6 with two celerons. I'm not sure I would go for an 'experiemental' motherboard in the future, though.
Except, of course, that this does not apply to IT professionals because the Alberta government is susceptable to bribes.
I don't know if this applies to salaried employees, though.
I would suggest a flat fee of $60 for the evening being on-call plus $30 per call after the first one if you can resolve it over the phone or $60 per call if you have to go on site.
The most important thing is bill this back to the department who paged you!