I know what you mean with this. I have started putting out all my documentation in ASCII text. Then I get a call from one of our Intel (not the chip company) people saying that Word had put all sorts of bullets, extra spaces, tabs and generally screwed up the whole document. 25 pages I had to give to him in WordPerfect format just so it would open up in Word correctly. Even then Word wanted to put all kinds of wooferdills in. Drove us nuts. Delivery was hard copy so I just printed out the ASCII file from WP, then tried the same thing in StarOffice, lpr , Abiword, and a couple others. Turns out that Word was the only one that had troubles with the straight ASCII format.
Let's see, cannot reverse engineer the format or would break the new laws, doesn't approve of any other format than it's own. Hmm, sounds like a monopoly to me. BUT this is about AbiWord.
I like it, but the idea of not enough and not really good filters bothers me about almost all of them. The only one that has a decent set of filters is StarOffice.
The primary complaint I have with all the Linux office suites is filters. Yes, Word documents dominate the workplace so a major concern of mine is can I read and write.doc files to the point that it doesn't matter if someone has Word, they open my files fine and that I can open.doc files without having to go through fourty levels of "what type file is this?" "are you sure?"
Suitland Md. March 22, a man in his house was rudely interrupted by a larger man kicking in the patio door. Homeowner had a pistol, burglar went to the hospital.
DeCSS - I get to watch the movies I paid for.
Gee, there seems to be a large disparity of the good each can do as well. Allowed a homeowner to live Vs watching a movie.
So, the level of positive outcome balances the negative outcome (more so that people use firearms on the order of 5 to 1 at the low end to 40 to 1 on the high end for defensive use Vs criminal use) and both become along the same lines.
Who even suggested that I was talking about YOU? If you can hold intelligent conversations with those who absolutely disagree with you, then you are one that I would like to talk with. I'm always willing to hear the other side of whatever story I have.
I like the 9th Amendment argument, but it is even more vague than the 2d.
But, this is primarily about DeCSS. So, my original posting was an example of the idea that people get wrapped up in a tool and forget the basis of law that it's actions that break laws, not the ownership or availability of tools.
First amendment grounds:
Anarchists Cookbook, that someone else has already mentioned. Legal to own, legal to sell, legal to have on line etc. Even though if someone built some of the things in it, they could then go do severe harm to themselves or others. Or they could clear their field of stumps. The knowledge or the tool is not the cause of harm, it's the implementation of the tool or knowledge that actually does the harm and that requires action.
Got a Cue Cat(unmodified)? - no
Got a Smart Card Reader? - no
Got a new hard drive? - SCSI only
Got a network card? - yes, but I change the HWADDR
Got Windows? - no, not on any machine
Got MS Office? - no
Got a Microsoft Optical Mouse? - no
Any Matell Software? - no
Around here they're still putting in first generation fibre lines. I'm sure they are putting the cuts in the sidewalk only to bypass my building and run the lines across the street. Why did the telecos not think ahead and pre-position areas to upgrade or put in PVC piping or such so they could run new fibre lines at will instead of ripping up roads, sidewalks etc to put in technology that is three or four steps behind what exists?
All you who think this is off topic, read it all the way through first.
DeCSS is a tool. Nothing more, nothing less. I wonder about those who holler about free speech, claim that DeCSS is only a tool to be used or misused by the person who has it, then they turn around and claim that guns are evil and should be banned.
The MPAA views DeCSS the same way liberals view guns. 'It can only be used for one thing' 'makes life a whole lot easier for those who will break laws'
If you are for free speech to the point of thinking that the MPAA is full of BS for trying to stop DeCSS, think about those of us who use firearms daily in a non-agressive, non-criminal manner before you decry the use of them because criminals misuse them.
(now THAT's going to annoy some who are less than thrilled with anyone who disagrees with them.)
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
The original claim was that they were giving away piracy TOOLS. That, in and of itself is BS. Then they slap an injunction for the linking of it. That is beyond anything a 'reasonable man' should even consider sueing for.
I hope this makes it to the Supreme Court and becomes case law of the 1st Amendment variety.
I cannot find anything that holds the MPAA's view, I can only find things in case law that show their claim is invalid.
What was the original Judge smoking to rule against 2600?
I would prefer not getting DSL from the telecos just out of principle. Get your DSL from speakeasy. Most of the failed ones (Bazillion comes to mind) have sent their people over to speakeasy anyway. If you don't know the status or don't trust the DSL provider you're with, give them a call.
Not paid by and don't work for them, I'm just a happy customer.
There are conversations on rec.aviation type newsgroups about 'what are the chances...'
We lived through skylab, we live through billions of metorites every day (most microscopic) and we have survived things falling from space since man began, this will be little different.
I like the people who do the chicken little imitation. I also like the greenies who holler about all of this even though most of it will burn up and what doesn't should rust away before too long.
This will be something to look at to see if we can see it fall, though.
Cancer - why not? if all research facilities required open source, then we wouldn't waste a lot of effort duplicating methods that don't work.
World Hunger - again, it would be a good thing if all the ways to harvest, bring water, etc were open sourced, then even the poorest countries would be able to afford the details and could figure out how to make it happen.
Suicide - so? Do you really want people who commit suicide in the gene pool?
War - as long as there are people, there will be war. That's the way it is.
AIDS - see cancer
Pollution - see cancer
Violence - see war
Britney Spears - umm, you got me there, I'm not sure there is a cure. Maybe Natilie Portman petrified made out of grits?
Just let me choose what I want, what I want to do, what I want in a software package. I don't give a darn what the ethos is or what the theology is for a software package. I want the best package for the best (not necessarily least) price I can get. I do NOT want stuck with one company (read microsoft) products because they are the only fish in the pond and they squash all competition one way or another.
Open source is another type of competitor. It's better in that MS cannot buy up the IP rights and then jack up the price or kill the project just because it competes with one of their packages. They have to actually play by the best software wins rules and they are not doing a hell of a job of that.
One way or another, let me choose, don't force the choice no matter which side of the house you're on.
Most of the non-competes are for exatly what they stated, that a person cannot use the inside information of a company to better another company. It is agreeable that should be restricted. What this and a lot of other 'non-compete' clauses look like any more is the company saying, "you cannot even LOOK for another job, so if we cut your pay/benifits/perks, there is nothing you can do about it because we'll sue the pants off you and you will lose."
This is BS. Just another way for companies to have 'at-will' employment but only the company has the ability to terminate the employment. The employee is stuck without even the ability to be able to leave due to a clause in the agreement.
Don't give me the 'you knew what the agreement was when you joined' because this whole thing is an employee who had the rules changed on him and got screwed for something that was not put out and signed by all the 'agreeing' parties. Sounds like some of these negative agreement mailings you get where if you do nothing you agree to whatever terms they give whether or not you actually received the notice.
They've talked about this with grunts with personal voice activated radios, GPS uplinks and smart sights on rifles.
That DARPA is actually doing it is a good thing because the military is where a whole lot of ideas begin their life and make their way into the civilian sector.
The problem with this whole thing is the weight/bulk of all the equipment they want soldiers to carry. Grunts (I was one) already carry a buttload of equipment for everything and now they want to add more stuff.
"But it's only five ounces" you might say, well, that's true, but this is five, that is another ten, the other is a pound itself. Pretty soon you've got the person with 20 Lbs of equipment before they even get to the soldering equipment.
Another problem is battery life. How long do/will the batteries last? Soldier in the field come to depend on this piece of equipment to get his butt out of a sling and the battery dies at the worst possible time? Movement and contact is usually at night so solar is not a reliable backup.
It's worth a try, it's REALLY worth R&D money, I just hope they come up with some good answers to the problems that will creep up. The soldier in the field has already been screwed by a whole bunch of political baggage that has nothing to do with warfighting but the congresscritter has mandated because it'll bring one or two jobs in his/her district. I hope this does not become one of those.
Ahhh, 'with a name like ceesco, it has to be good'
Personally, I took out a $3,000 Cisco and dropped in a P100 RedHat box for about 300 computers. No one has been able to tell the difference for the two years it's been running.
Switches, switches, switches. Got networking on the brain and routers come to mind when I'm thinking about networking equipment.
3Com makes some wonderful networking equipment. They see that there's not going to be much R&D money in the immediate future so they consolidate and go back to what they're best at. Making network cards, routers, switches etc.
This is not news other than "3Com got smart in the declining economy and went back to what they do best and put the R&D onto the back burner."
There was a test of an overclocking team who put the motherboard into a freezer. 486dx25 or somesuch. They had the clock speed up to about 200 before it melted into slag.
But people would look at you strange if you had your cables running into a freezer and just used it as a normal computer. wouldn't they?
Okay, got to say it. I wonder what this would do for a beowulf cluster of overclocked computers...
I'm surprised they could find a venture capatilist who would even consider their IPO, or maybe that's why they're pulling it.
The markets are in a slump. It may end up being a full scale recession, but as of right now it's just a slump. IPO is for stable/growing markets.
Too bad people gave Clinton the credit for Regan and Bush's economy and now that Clinton's economic policies are coming home to roost, the same people want to blame someone who has been in office for less than a hundred days.
Now, maybe people will figure out that Democrat's economic policies are BS and maybe we can get the market back to rising and TurboLinux can IPO with a proper market to do it in.
Slashdot Mirror
I know what you mean with this. I have started putting out all my documentation in ASCII text. Then I get a call from one of our Intel (not the chip company) people saying that Word had put all sorts of bullets, extra spaces, tabs and generally screwed up the whole document. 25 pages I had to give to him in WordPerfect format just so it would open up in Word correctly. Even then Word wanted to put all kinds of wooferdills in. Drove us nuts. Delivery was hard copy so I just printed out the ASCII file from WP, then tried the same thing in StarOffice, lpr , Abiword, and a couple others. Turns out that Word was the only one that had troubles with the straight ASCII format.
Let's see, cannot reverse engineer the format or would break the new laws, doesn't approve of any other format than it's own. Hmm, sounds like a monopoly to me. BUT this is about AbiWord.
I like it, but the idea of not enough and not really good filters bothers me about almost all of them. The only one that has a decent set of filters is StarOffice.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
The primary complaint I have with all the Linux office suites is filters. Yes, Word documents dominate the workplace so a major concern of mine is can I read and write .doc files to the point that it doesn't matter if someone has Word, they open my files fine and that I can open .doc files without having to go through fourty levels of "what type file is this?" "are you sure?"
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Got 10 shares of RH when it was about $.50 more than it is now. Looks like it's time to buy more.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
I would have expected Humorix to get to it first. Oh well, maybe after it gets done being slashdotted, I'll be able to read it.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
So the other way should work too:
Suitland Md. March 22, a man in his house was rudely interrupted by a larger man kicking in the patio door. Homeowner had a pistol, burglar went to the hospital.
DeCSS - I get to watch the movies I paid for.
Gee, there seems to be a large disparity of the good each can do as well. Allowed a homeowner to live Vs watching a movie.
So, the level of positive outcome balances the negative outcome (more so that people use firearms on the order of 5 to 1 at the low end to 40 to 1 on the high end for defensive use Vs criminal use) and both become along the same lines.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Who even suggested that I was talking about YOU? If you can hold intelligent conversations with those who absolutely disagree with you, then you are one that I would like to talk with. I'm always willing to hear the other side of whatever story I have.
I like the 9th Amendment argument, but it is even more vague than the 2d.
But, this is primarily about DeCSS. So, my original posting was an example of the idea that people get wrapped up in a tool and forget the basis of law that it's actions that break laws, not the ownership or availability of tools.
First amendment grounds:
Anarchists Cookbook, that someone else has already mentioned. Legal to own, legal to sell, legal to have on line etc. Even though if someone built some of the things in it, they could then go do severe harm to themselves or others. Or they could clear their field of stumps. The knowledge or the tool is not the cause of harm, it's the implementation of the tool or knowledge that actually does the harm and that requires action.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Got a Cue Cat(unmodified)? - no
Got a Smart Card Reader? - no
Got a new hard drive? - SCSI only
Got a network card? - yes, but I change the HWADDR
Got Windows? - no, not on any machine
Got MS Office? - no
Got a Microsoft Optical Mouse? - no
Any Matell Software? - no
I'm sorry, you were saying?
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Around here they're still putting in first generation fibre lines. I'm sure they are putting the cuts in the sidewalk only to bypass my building and run the lines across the street. Why did the telecos not think ahead and pre-position areas to upgrade or put in PVC piping or such so they could run new fibre lines at will instead of ripping up roads, sidewalks etc to put in technology that is three or four steps behind what exists?
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
All you who think this is off topic, read it all the way through first.
DeCSS is a tool. Nothing more, nothing less. I wonder about those who holler about free speech, claim that DeCSS is only a tool to be used or misused by the person who has it, then they turn around and claim that guns are evil and should be banned.
The MPAA views DeCSS the same way liberals view guns. 'It can only be used for one thing' 'makes life a whole lot easier for those who will break laws'
If you are for free speech to the point of thinking that the MPAA is full of BS for trying to stop DeCSS, think about those of us who use firearms daily in a non-agressive, non-criminal manner before you decry the use of them because criminals misuse them.
(now THAT's going to annoy some who are less than thrilled with anyone who disagrees with them.)
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
The original claim was that they were giving away piracy TOOLS. That, in and of itself is BS. Then they slap an injunction for the linking of it. That is beyond anything a 'reasonable man' should even consider sueing for.
I hope this makes it to the Supreme Court and becomes case law of the 1st Amendment variety.
I cannot find anything that holds the MPAA's view, I can only find things in case law that show their claim is invalid.
What was the original Judge smoking to rule against 2600?
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
I would prefer not getting DSL from the telecos just out of principle. Get your DSL from speakeasy. Most of the failed ones (Bazillion comes to mind) have sent their people over to speakeasy anyway. If you don't know the status or don't trust the DSL provider you're with, give them a call.
Not paid by and don't work for them, I'm just a happy customer.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
or is that an intel only thing. That tells me which I'm getting.
AMD here I come.
Mix this with the chip cooler from yesterday and we'll have something that will suck electricity like there's no tomorrow.
Oh, it seems the pre-shipments went to California already. About a month or so ago, right? May want to hold off getting one.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Apple is a capitalistic company, they have to make money. Their primary goal is to make money.
Linux is a hobby with most people working on it. Their primary goal is to make the best, most stable thing they can.
Apple has to appeal to the lowest common denominator, Linux types appeal to the tech inclined anyway.
This is like... like.... comparing apples to penguins.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
There are conversations on rec.aviation type newsgroups about 'what are the chances...'
We lived through skylab, we live through billions of metorites every day (most microscopic) and we have survived things falling from space since man began, this will be little different.
I like the people who do the chicken little imitation. I also like the greenies who holler about all of this even though most of it will burn up and what doesn't should rust away before too long.
This will be something to look at to see if we can see it fall, though.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Cancer - why not? if all research facilities required open source, then we wouldn't waste a lot of effort duplicating methods that don't work.
World Hunger - again, it would be a good thing if all the ways to harvest, bring water, etc were open sourced, then even the poorest countries would be able to afford the details and could figure out how to make it happen.
Suicide - so? Do you really want people who commit suicide in the gene pool?
War - as long as there are people, there will be war. That's the way it is.
AIDS - see cancer
Pollution - see cancer
Violence - see war
Britney Spears - umm, you got me there, I'm not sure there is a cure. Maybe Natilie Portman petrified made out of grits?
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Just let me choose what I want, what I want to do, what I want in a software package. I don't give a darn what the ethos is or what the theology is for a software package. I want the best package for the best (not necessarily least) price I can get. I do NOT want stuck with one company (read microsoft) products because they are the only fish in the pond and they squash all competition one way or another.
Open source is another type of competitor. It's better in that MS cannot buy up the IP rights and then jack up the price or kill the project just because it competes with one of their packages. They have to actually play by the best software wins rules and they are not doing a hell of a job of that.
One way or another, let me choose, don't force the choice no matter which side of the house you're on.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Most of the non-competes are for exatly what they stated, that a person cannot use the inside information of a company to better another company. It is agreeable that should be restricted. What this and a lot of other 'non-compete' clauses look like any more is the company saying, "you cannot even LOOK for another job, so if we cut your pay/benifits/perks, there is nothing you can do about it because we'll sue the pants off you and you will lose."
This is BS. Just another way for companies to have 'at-will' employment but only the company has the ability to terminate the employment. The employee is stuck without even the ability to be able to leave due to a clause in the agreement.
Don't give me the 'you knew what the agreement was when you joined' because this whole thing is an employee who had the rules changed on him and got screwed for something that was not put out and signed by all the 'agreeing' parties. Sounds like some of these negative agreement mailings you get where if you do nothing you agree to whatever terms they give whether or not you actually received the notice.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
So that means that they have discovered something that does nothing? Invisible, has no mass and travel at fantastic speeds?
You mean they have finally discovered ill-suited laws that Congress tries to pass? Wow.
Maybe they should have set up camp in Washington DC.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
They've talked about this with grunts with personal voice activated radios, GPS uplinks and smart sights on rifles.
That DARPA is actually doing it is a good thing because the military is where a whole lot of ideas begin their life and make their way into the civilian sector.
The problem with this whole thing is the weight/bulk of all the equipment they want soldiers to carry. Grunts (I was one) already carry a buttload of equipment for everything and now they want to add more stuff.
"But it's only five ounces" you might say, well, that's true, but this is five, that is another ten, the other is a pound itself. Pretty soon you've got the person with 20 Lbs of equipment before they even get to the soldering equipment.
Another problem is battery life. How long do/will the batteries last? Soldier in the field come to depend on this piece of equipment to get his butt out of a sling and the battery dies at the worst possible time? Movement and contact is usually at night so solar is not a reliable backup.
It's worth a try, it's REALLY worth R&D money, I just hope they come up with some good answers to the problems that will creep up. The soldier in the field has already been screwed by a whole bunch of political baggage that has nothing to do with warfighting but the congresscritter has mandated because it'll bring one or two jobs in his/her district. I hope this does not become one of those.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Ahhh, 'with a name like ceesco, it has to be good'
Personally, I took out a $3,000 Cisco and dropped in a P100 RedHat box for about 300 computers. No one has been able to tell the difference for the two years it's been running.
Switches, switches, switches. Got networking on the brain and routers come to mind when I'm thinking about networking equipment.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
3Com makes some wonderful networking equipment. They see that there's not going to be much R&D money in the immediate future so they consolidate and go back to what they're best at. Making network cards, routers, switches etc.
This is not news other than "3Com got smart in the declining economy and went back to what they do best and put the R&D onto the back burner."
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
Astro-Turf galore. Why not, they wrote letters to the editor, fan mail etc.
This is the same thing and just as sickning.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
There was a test of an overclocking team who put the motherboard into a freezer. 486dx25 or somesuch. They had the clock speed up to about 200 before it melted into slag.
But people would look at you strange if you had your cables running into a freezer and just used it as a normal computer. wouldn't they?
Okay, got to say it. I wonder what this would do for a beowulf cluster of overclocked computers...
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
I'm surprised they could find a venture capatilist who would even consider their IPO, or maybe that's why they're pulling it.
The markets are in a slump. It may end up being a full scale recession, but as of right now it's just a slump. IPO is for stable/growing markets.
Too bad people gave Clinton the credit for Regan and Bush's economy and now that Clinton's economic policies are coming home to roost, the same people want to blame someone who has been in office for less than a hundred days.
Now, maybe people will figure out that Democrat's economic policies are BS and maybe we can get the market back to rising and TurboLinux can IPO with a proper market to do it in.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page
If it's 'too easy to crack' then look at OpenBSD. Out of the box security supposedly and it's a BSD, what's not to like?
Solaris x86 IS a dog, that's true, but for web serving, SPARCStation2 is fine up to a point. Cheap too.
DanH
Cav Pilot's Reference Page