Was down at the Level3 colocation here in Denver, when I bumped into a guy setting up some Enterprise 4500's. I mentioned to him how our E420R's would mysteriously/instantly reboot. Of course, this is last week, and both he and I knew of the problems Sun is having with their processor architecture, and how it is related to "garbage" getting in the cache. Of course, the point is that the UltraSparc III's share a lot in common with the UltraSparc II's, esp. the ones found in their E10K servers, and the ones found in the E420R's, etc. He mentioned that these next-gen chips were delayed _precisely_ because Sun was having so much trouble with their existing chips, and that they share a lot in common. Of course, this is just one sysadmin talking to another. But from the troubles I've had with the E420R's and E220R's, I'm much more inclined to believe him.
Sun claims they have top shelf equipment, and for the most part, they're right. But they should be ashamed of themselves for sitting a problem as big as this one has been (the whole Cache/corruption thing).
I'd sure like to see where, exactly, it says in their contract they can't do something like this...
But let's assume for the moment, it _is_ true, and Sony has no other choice but to sue them into oblivion if they don't do as they're told. If the big 5 record companies say "we're just looking out for our artists" and then beat them over the head with contract law, what does that say? Technicall, you're right. Symbolically, though, The Offspring wanted to have the artistic freedom to do with _their_ songs as they pleased, only to have Sony crack down on them like a bunch of goose-stepping Nazis that they are in this case.
Hopefully when the contract expires, The Offspring will choose a contract that won't restrict them in these ways. I, for one, am looking forward to the day when the artist can get directly to his fan base without the middleman (or at least, the middleman is significantly reduced).
Nvidia is clearly the graphics chip maker to shoot for now, obviously.
What I _am_ concerned about is the proprietary infrastructure they've put in place in order to support Direct Rendering. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they aren't using the standard "stuff" that XFree provides but their own special infrastructue to support direct rendering. Their binary drivers have recently caught up in performance to its Windows cousin, but I'm always weary about having just binary only drivers. Want to upgrade to the newest kernel? Got the source? No problem! Binary only? You may have to wait for the vendor to release a version for that kernel...
As for my next system, I will purchase a Matrox G450/w dualhead. They've even released driver source/binary to support dualhead, etc (link provided below)
For basic infrastructure type stuff, I am in full favor of forcing companies to pony up and play fair in the name of standards. Just think what would have happened if companies were competing to introduce a ubiquitous protocol suite such as TCP/IP?
My whole point was that we, as the open source community (Free Software community, geek community, whatever you want to call us), should work to make our own laws. Introduce these laws as bills to curtail excessive copyright length, and make it harder for coporations, in particular, to quit intimidating an individual with the laws that they pretty much bought and paid for...
Of course, we'd need some help from a few legal types to help us create a bill. But once we were at that point, we could introduce it at the state level, or perhaps at the nation level.
I'm just beginning my research into copyright law. If anyone has a good online resource, I would greatly appreciate an email, just remove the nospam out of the address.
The GPL is a great license, don't get me wrong. It has provided the Free Software community the protection of not having some scumbag corporate entity or institution from taking the source code and not sharing it back. We all know this...
You hear about GPL violations, and how people go after them. Usually, in the case of GPL violations, it is the individual or a group beating a corporate entity or institution over the head.
So, now you hear about Sega going after people that are offering/trading ROMs. Usually, in the case of sharing "stuff" (ROMs, mp3's, movies), it is the corporate entity beating individuals they happen to catch over the head.
The first point is, that the GPL is not the end all, be all of the spectrum of licenses. Indeed, games are usually one type of software that doesn't fit well under the bazaar model. I respect and vote with my pocket book to buy games like Quake 3 Arena, precisely because John Carmack "gets it" (Quake 1 is GPL'd). Those companies that don't, I might not be so inclined to hand them my money.
The deeper issue, to me, is one of copyright length. All I want is what is fair. A work shouldn't be under copyright for a century. Another reader I read is right, copyright needs to be reasonable to allow the creator profit from that ideal for a limited amount of time. This is my second point.
I plan on looking at specific copyright laws, patent laws, and trademark laws. Perhaps the time is right for an uber-geek and lawyer to sit down and craft a "Copyright/Patent/Trademark Reform Act"? What would we want if one were to be crafted?
I'm not that familiar with SCO, but suffice to say that momentum was not on their side. There may be some SCO shops out there that will be using their products for some time, but they will be stuck in a time warp. It's amazing how important momentum, or at least perceived momentum is in the computer industry. Linux has momentum. AMD, once against the ropes and beaten up by Intel, now has significant momentum. If your momentum dies, you risk becoming just another company / movement that no one has ever heard of... Most eccentric Unices will fade away IMO, leaving us with Solaris, AIX (Monterey), Linux, and *BSD. The argument for paying for a commercial Unix on an Intel platform has pretty much disappeared. If you need anything bigger, you're going to use Solaris/SPARC, or AIX/RS6000. So long SCO....
So the shot across the bow has been fired. I have no problems with a company using strong crypto. Read about the Utopia group cracking the Sega Dreamcast GD-ROM format? Impossible to crack it, right? While not exactly the same thing, the point is, that someone will find a way, no matter how good the encryption is... it may take a while, but I have confidence it will be done.
Slashdot Mirror
Was down at the Level3 colocation here in Denver, when I bumped into a guy setting up some Enterprise 4500's. I mentioned to him how our E420R's would mysteriously/instantly reboot. Of course, this is last week, and both he and I knew of the problems Sun is having with their processor architecture, and how it is related to "garbage" getting in the cache. Of course, the point is that the UltraSparc III's share a lot in common with the UltraSparc II's, esp. the ones found in their E10K servers, and the ones found in the E420R's, etc. He mentioned that these next-gen chips were delayed _precisely_ because Sun was having so much trouble with their existing chips, and that they share a lot in common. Of course, this is just one sysadmin talking to another. But from the troubles I've had with the E420R's and E220R's, I'm much more inclined to believe him.
Sun claims they have top shelf equipment, and for the most part, they're right. But they should be ashamed of themselves for sitting a problem as big as this one has been (the whole Cache/corruption thing).
I'd sure like to see where, exactly, it says in their contract they can't do something like this...
But let's assume for the moment, it _is_ true, and Sony has no other choice but to sue them into oblivion if they don't do as they're told. If the big 5 record companies say "we're just looking out for our artists" and then beat them over the head with contract law, what does that say? Technicall, you're right. Symbolically, though, The Offspring wanted to have the artistic freedom to do with _their_ songs as they pleased, only to have Sony crack down on them like a bunch of goose-stepping Nazis that they are in this case.
Hopefully when the contract expires, The Offspring will choose a contract that won't restrict them in these ways. I, for one, am looking forward to the day when the artist can get directly to his fan base without the middleman (or at least, the middleman is significantly reduced).
Just my two cents....
Nvidia is clearly the graphics chip maker to shoot for now, obviously.
What I _am_ concerned about is the proprietary infrastructure they've put in place in order to support Direct Rendering. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they aren't using the standard "stuff" that XFree provides but their own special infrastructue to support direct rendering. Their binary drivers have recently caught up in performance to its Windows cousin, but I'm always weary about having just binary only drivers. Want to upgrade to the newest kernel? Got the source? No problem! Binary only? You may have to wait for the vendor to release a version for that kernel...
As for my next system, I will purchase a Matrox G450 /w dualhead. They've even released driver source/binary to support dualhead, etc (link provided below)
Matrox beta drivers
For basic infrastructure type stuff, I am in full favor of forcing companies to pony up and play fair in the name of standards. Just think what would have happened if companies were competing to introduce a ubiquitous protocol suite such as TCP/IP?
My whole point was that we, as the open source community (Free Software community, geek community, whatever you want to call us), should work to make our own laws. Introduce these laws as bills to curtail excessive copyright length, and make it harder for coporations, in particular, to quit intimidating an individual with the laws that they pretty much bought and paid for...
Of course, we'd need some help from a few legal types to help us create a bill. But once we were at that point, we could introduce it at the state level, or perhaps at the nation level.
I'm just beginning my research into copyright law. If anyone has a good online resource, I would greatly appreciate an email, just remove the nospam out of the address.
The GPL is a great license, don't get me wrong. It has provided the Free Software community the protection of not having some scumbag corporate entity or institution from taking the source code and not sharing it back. We all know this...
You hear about GPL violations, and how people go after them. Usually, in the case of GPL violations, it is the individual or a group beating a corporate entity or institution over the head.
So, now you hear about Sega going after people that are offering/trading ROMs. Usually, in the case of sharing "stuff" (ROMs, mp3's, movies), it is the corporate entity beating individuals they happen to catch over the head.
The first point is, that the GPL is not the end all, be all of the spectrum of licenses. Indeed, games are usually one type of software that doesn't fit well under the bazaar model. I respect and vote with my pocket book to buy games like Quake 3 Arena, precisely because John Carmack "gets it" (Quake 1 is GPL'd). Those companies that don't, I might not be so inclined to hand them my money.
The deeper issue, to me, is one of copyright length. All I want is what is fair. A work shouldn't be under copyright for a century. Another reader I read is right, copyright needs to be reasonable to allow the creator profit from that ideal for a limited amount of time. This is my second point.
I plan on looking at specific copyright laws, patent laws, and trademark laws. Perhaps the time is right for an uber-geek and lawyer to sit down and craft a "Copyright/Patent/Trademark Reform Act"? What would we want if one were to be crafted?
I welcome any comments.
I'm not that familiar with SCO, but suffice to say that momentum was not on their side. There may be some SCO shops out there that will be using their products for some time, but they will be stuck in a time warp. It's amazing how important momentum, or at least perceived momentum is in the computer industry. Linux has momentum. AMD, once against the ropes and beaten up by Intel, now has significant momentum. If your momentum dies, you risk becoming just another company / movement that no one has ever heard of... Most eccentric Unices will fade away IMO, leaving us with Solaris, AIX (Monterey), Linux, and *BSD. The argument for paying for a commercial Unix on an Intel platform has pretty much disappeared. If you need anything bigger, you're going to use Solaris/SPARC, or AIX/RS6000. So long SCO....
So the shot across the bow has been fired. I have no problems with a company using strong crypto. Read about the Utopia group cracking the Sega Dreamcast GD-ROM format? Impossible to crack it, right? While not exactly the same thing, the point is, that someone will find a way, no matter how good the encryption is... it may take a while, but I have confidence it will be done.