Services are being provided in a far more efficient manner than they had been. In case you hadn't noticed, the Federal government has been running at a surplus for the first time in decades, despite the continuing debt load brought on by massive military deficit spending in the Ronald Raygun years.
You've got to go to http://slashdot.org/index.pl in order to get your filter working. I almost complained when I saw "Star Wars" come up tonight, baut then I realized that it was "It's Funny" not "Star Wars".
God, I never realized how much nicer/. is now that I don't have ACs to look at!
If Escient owns the CDDB data and want to be bastards, they can put in copyright traps, i.e., listings for nonexistant CDs
There's only data that makes it from CDDB onto peoples local CD info caches. They put a CD into the drive, and retrieve the data. So people only have real CDs locally stored.
This data may or may not belong to Escient. If users were to upload that data to a free server that converts the data to XML, we should not be in any trouble.
Analogy: I can take the phone company's directory, reformat it, and sell it myself. The phone numbers are sort of public, but the directory is copyrighted by TPC. If my directory has enhancements, I'm entitled to roll my own. IANAL, of course.
Similarly, users should be able to voluntarily give us the CDDB data (which after all is actually owned by the artists and record companies), and we can enhance it by offering more fields to be filled in, etc. The enhanced data becomes ours, not Escient's, and we give it away with a viral free license (copyleft).
Sure, there's prior art, but it is (mostly at least) their prior art. So, maybe they can and will patent it. But as I understand the GPL (IANAL) the code is available for free forever, without licensing fees. So it's a bloody useless patent.
There's several efforts underway, most seem to be supporting backward compat.
The new / extended protocols would better support more complete data such as artist for each track of compilations, release dates, country of origin, maybe liner notes, maybe links, maybe a voting system, who knows?
The CD player I use thanks Steve personally in the "About..." box, for his "knowledge, helpful nature, and devotion to duty", so don't accuse him of trolling (unless someone simply created an ID with the name of a CDDBer).
I used to work for Escent's CEO, Scott Jones, back when he'd just taken Boston Technology public. He's a nice enough guy (although at the time he had no idea how to manage growth, and people at BT worked their butts off and most got shat upon in the end -- not Scott's doing).
Anyway, it's interesting to hear about his hometown. And that is one scary motto!
Maybe I'm more clueless than I'd like to believe, but I just "discovered" the CDDB a few days ago, partially because I haven't exercised my upgrade privilege on CD Wizzard since 1994.
Now I've been feverishly adding CD tables - of - contents over the weekend, and now I find that the CDDB owners are scum.
So, we've got to scramble, come up with an alternative free standard, and convince all the freeware and shareware authors to support it instead of succumbing to the draconian licensing terms of Escient.
And we need some sort of upgrade utility that will read the cache of CDs on everyone's machines and load them to the new databases, so that our database gets populated quickly. Or would grabbing all that data violate a previous license with CDDB?
Until now, I've been a consumer rather than contributer in the open source movement; this may get me off my ass.
I don't use arrow keys very often (I'm more of a mouser and don't use emacs much), and I love my MS Natural Elite, which I got for about $25 extra over the default keyboard when I bought a PC at PCs for Everyone last summer. PCfE was one of the first places to buy a PC with preinstalled Red Hat. Their quality is high and prices are most reasonabubble. Lifetime labor warrantee on all their systems. I'm a most happy customer.
The Boston Globe's boston.com today carried the Reuter's story that was also on http://news.yahoo.com . But their blurb about the article on the boston.com homepage reads
IBM Corp. and Red Hat Software Inc. said today that IBM will begin selling computers with Linux,
a Red Hat version of the Unix operating system for network computers.
"Linux, a Red Hat version..."?!? Isn't the whole point that Linux isn't owned by any one vendor?
Yeah, in a wave of RIGHT WING TERRORISM not seen since the assassinations of the 60's... abusing GOVERNMENT RECORDS in the name of STALKING is "free speech".
Oh, I absolutely agree that abusing government records and stalking in the name of free speech is apalling. But should the clinic be suing Compuserve???
I just submitted this to Rob (forgot to this morning). It seems that a Florida abortion clinic is suing Compuserve because anti-choice demonstrators wrote down the license plate numbers of patients visiting the clinic, then used Compuserve to download personal information (telephone, address, etc) about the patients, and proceeded to harass the patients (and sometimes their parents who had not known their daughters had been to the clinic).
Now I'm as pro-choice as the next guy, but public records are public records are public records, whether you look through a folder at the DMV, or whether you do a search through Compuserve. Individuals ought to be able to opt out of having this information available. In fact, they can opt out in Florida, but Florida does not tell people that they can. In Massachusetts, they changed the law recently so that only cops, courts, and private eyes can get the info.
Is it the telephone company's fault when someone gets harassing phone calls? Only if they screwed up and divulged an unlisted number. Why should Compuserve, or especially little ISPs, get in trouble over content?
The "Slackware" distribution of Linux (http://www.slackware.org) is distributed by Walnut Creek, I believe. The Slackware CD does mention Walnut Creek, and Walnut Creek is also mentioned on Slackware.org.
And effeminate is better?... we do not allow our children to watch Telebubbies because of Tinky Winky's effeminate tendencies, homosexual leanings (like either is good)...
If you are into following the letter of the Bible, Leviticus says something to the effect that "a man shalt not lay with another man as he does with a woman, it is an abomination". Of course Leviticus outlaws selling food at a profit, charging interest on loans, shaving your sideburns, etc. etc. etc.
Paul rails against homosexuals in a couple of letters in the New Testament. I personally regard Paul as a bigot and a madman, and try to study the gospels and John's work instead.
Is there is any biblical condemnation of men who disregard the strict gender dress codes of the day? I haven't found it. Am I breaking God's Law by wearing a cloth briefcase over my shoulder instead of a leather briefcase with only a handle? How high can my heels be before I end up with Eternal Damnation?
Tinky Winky, the biggest of the tubbies, the purple one, is effeminate. He likes to wear a skirt, he usually carries a handbag. He likes to dance. This makes him possibly a crossdresser, but certainly not gay.
The other "male" tubby, Dipsy, runs away from the skirt, and prefers to wear a big silly cow-print hat.
When will these religious conservatives begin to understand that there is a difference between gender expression and sexual preference?!?
KDE is of poor quality and it's incosistent
on
KDE 1.1 is out
·
· Score: 1
I know that "income distribution" is a naughty word in today's high tech libertarian world.
That said, poverty does not exist because there isn't enough stuff being produced. Poverty exists because the resources are being consumed in a monsterously inequitable manner. The wealthiest 5% or so of all nations out-consume the planet's ability in nearly all nations, and most everyone in the wealthiest nations (esp. here in the Good Ol' U S of A) overconsumes.
Yes, in the high-tech nations things have gotten cleaner. Talk to the Ogoni people of Nigeria and ask them if things have gotten cleaner in the past two decades. Europe's population may be crashing just in time to make room for floods of 3rd world refugees. Look at India's birthrate, for example.
Slashdot Mirror
(BPR != Downsizing)
Services are being provided in a far more efficient manner than they had been. In case you hadn't noticed, the Federal government has been running at a surplus for the first time in decades, despite the continuing debt load brought on by massive military deficit spending in the Ronald Raygun years.
Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity
God, I never realized how much nicer
Thank you, Cmdr!!!!!
Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity
He promoted the clipper-chip, he did not stand up to the CDA and its bastard children.
OTOH, he has done a heck of a job of re-engineering stupid government processes, and saved the good citizens billions of dollars in red tape.
Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity
There's only data that makes it from CDDB onto peoples local CD info caches. They put a CD into the drive, and retrieve the data. So people only have real CDs locally stored.
This data may or may not belong to Escient. If users were to upload that data to a free server that converts the data to XML, we should not be in any trouble.
Analogy: I can take the phone company's directory, reformat it, and sell it myself. The phone numbers are sort of public, but the directory is copyrighted by TPC. If my directory has enhancements, I'm entitled to roll my own. IANAL, of course.
Similarly, users should be able to voluntarily give us the CDDB data (which after all is actually owned by the artists and record companies), and we can enhance it by offering more fields to be filled in, etc. The enhanced data becomes ours, not Escient's, and we give it away with a viral free license (copyleft).
Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity
Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity
They only own the data, and that's debatable.
Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity
The new / extended protocols would better support more complete data such as artist for each track of compilations, release dates, country of origin, maybe liner notes, maybe links, maybe a voting system, who knows?
Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity
Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity
Anyway, it's interesting to hear about his hometown. And that is one scary motto!
Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity
Now I've been feverishly adding CD tables - of - contents over the weekend, and now I find that the CDDB owners are scum.
So, we've got to scramble, come up with an alternative free standard, and convince all the freeware and shareware authors to support it instead of succumbing to the draconian licensing terms of Escient.
And we need some sort of upgrade utility that will read the cache of CDs on everyone's machines and load them to the new databases, so that our database gets populated quickly. Or would grabbing all that data violate a previous license with CDDB?
Until now, I've been a consumer rather than contributer in the open source movement; this may get me off my ass.
Bravery, Kindness, Clarity, Honesty, Compassion, Generosity
Dumb, stupid, crap!
I don't use arrow keys very often (I'm more of a mouser and don't use emacs much), and I love my MS Natural Elite, which I got for about $25 extra over the default keyboard when I bought a PC at PCs for Everyone last summer. PCfE was one of the first places to buy a PC with preinstalled Red Hat. Their quality is high and prices are most reasonabubble. Lifetime labor warrantee on all their systems. I'm a most happy customer.
Oh, never mind.
You need to knife trees in order to make books, but forks aren't necessary.
Sorry, couldn't resist
I'm showing my age here, but how could someone call himself a hacker, and not have at least 5 Yes albums?
Oy.
I'd love to get hardware in exchange for personal info.
GOVERNMENT RECORDS in the name of STALKING is "free speech".
Oh, I absolutely agree that abusing government records and stalking in the name of free speech is apalling. But should the clinic be suing Compuserve ???
I just submitted this to Rob (forgot to this morning). It seems that a Florida abortion clinic is suing Compuserve because anti-choice demonstrators wrote down the license plate numbers of patients visiting the clinic, then used Compuserve to download personal information (telephone, address, etc) about the patients, and proceeded to harass the patients (and sometimes their parents who had not known their daughters had been to the clinic).
Now I'm as pro-choice as the next guy, but public records are public records are public records, whether you look through a folder at the DMV, or whether you do a search through Compuserve. Individuals ought to be able to opt out of having this information available. In fact, they can opt out in Florida, but Florida does not tell people that they can. In Massachusetts, they changed the law recently so that only cops, courts, and private eyes can get the info.
Is it the telephone company's fault when someone gets harassing phone calls? Only if they screwed up and divulged an unlisted number. Why should Compuserve, or especially little ISPs, get in trouble over content?
The "Slackware" distribution of Linux (http://www.slackware.org) is distributed by Walnut Creek, I believe. The Slackware CD does mention Walnut Creek, and Walnut Creek is also mentioned on Slackware.org.
Ain't no such thing as Stackware, though.
If you are into following the letter of the Bible, Leviticus says something to the effect that "a man shalt not lay with another man as he does with a woman, it is an abomination". Of course Leviticus outlaws selling food at a profit, charging interest on loans, shaving your sideburns, etc. etc. etc.
Paul rails against homosexuals in a couple of letters in the New Testament. I personally regard Paul as a bigot and a madman, and try to study the gospels and John's work instead.
Is there is any biblical condemnation of men who disregard the strict gender dress codes of the day? I haven't found it. Am I breaking God's Law by wearing a cloth briefcase over my shoulder instead of a leather briefcase with only a handle? How high can my heels be before I end up with Eternal Damnation?
Tinky Winky, the biggest of the tubbies, the purple one, is effeminate. He likes to wear a skirt, he usually carries a handbag. He likes to dance. This makes him possibly a crossdresser, but certainly not gay.
The other "male" tubby, Dipsy, runs away from the skirt, and prefers to wear a big silly cow-print hat.
When will these religious conservatives begin to understand that there is a difference between gender expression and sexual preference?!?
Full of spelling mistakes? Like incosistent?
That said, poverty does not exist because there isn't enough stuff being produced. Poverty exists because the resources are being consumed in a monsterously inequitable manner. The wealthiest 5% or so of all nations out-consume the planet's ability in nearly all nations, and most everyone in the wealthiest nations (esp. here in the Good Ol' U S of A) overconsumes.
Yes, in the high-tech nations things have gotten cleaner. Talk to the Ogoni people of Nigeria and ask them if things have gotten cleaner in the past two decades. Europe's population may be crashing just in time to make room for floods of 3rd world refugees. Look at India's birthrate, for example.
For the most comprehensive look at the numbers I've found, check out the State of the World" series from the Worldwatch Institute.
Several weeks ago, the lunatic Judge Bork proposed splitting mSoft into 3 identicle companies.