I would like to see micropayments get worked in to a system like this, THAT would be a compelling reason for consumers to adopt such a system. Access premium content by logging in through a gateway and digitally signing a payment agreement, no credit card hassle every time you want 25 cent comics.
The way the poster worded this he might as well have said "what is the best political party, Green party or Natural Law?". Does the rights of the dead resting in peace and any of his ancestors play a role here?
I see it as a similar concept to emergency scheduling of dangerous drugs. To compensate for the slow moving wheels of government bodies, focus groups are allowed to make "emergency" rulings for the better of the people, and later those choices are carefully evaluated and upheld in a more formal manner or dismissed. Microsoft products have proven time and time again to be unstable for mission critical applications (look at the recent US army decision), prone to security flaws that may or may not be fixed (see IE's currently outstanding ActiveX insecurities), and harsh licensing terms (one of the deciding factors in Munich's OSS switchover). Add in other countries inherent distrust of the US and corporations with close ties to government (US government is Microsoft's number one client) and the economic impact of buying American software in a country that is trying to minimize it's imports, and the decision makes more sense. I'm thinking a lot of countries have been using MS products as a necessary evil to keep up with the times, and only recently has Linux and other free software become a viable alternative.
Except that Darl McBride never distributed Samba; SCO did. I seriously doubt any lawsuits will break the SCO corporate veil; eventually the company will go down in litigation flames and the board of execs will walk away all the richer.
Re:Speaking of wireless
on
Wireless Hacks
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I don't know how Starbucks does it in particular, but I've seen several different setups. Often times the authentication is done at the DHCP server, where a temporary IP on a network with no net access is assigned to unauthenticated clients, and an IP on the net-connected network is assigned once you have authenticated and restarted your network connection. On campus here @ WSU, your wifi will pick up a good IP but the only route to the internet is through a VPN tunnel you have to authenticate with, and load a kernel module that only exists for 2.2 and 2.4 Linux:-(. Another popular scheme is redirecting HTTP with a proxy, as was already mentioned.
"Especially the bit about where the software vendor is not liable for anything: errors, crashes, defective security or lost data."
As opposed to the GPL?
"This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details."
[i]3. Much higher efficiency. Practically speaking that means straight C. Nobody has figured out how to architect, write, maintain, or compile C++ efficiently. Don't use it.[/i]
Why stop at such a high level language like C? Shouldn't we be writing assembly for each platform, getting rid of all those compiler inefficiencies?
C++ allows you to build layers upon layers and handle extremely complex design models that would be nearly unthinkable in a non object oriented language. What good are 10,000 lines of code if only the author can understand the flow of the code? Where would KDE be today without the beautiful C++ design of the QT library?
What about the benefit of running low overhead with a web based company? The ability to advertise and sell direct to customers worldwide? From your post you make it seem as if all this flies out the window because you have to pay sales tax that is already owed to states and counties in the first place.
A lot of comments also missed a major platform, laptops.
I've been furiously tweaking out my Averatec to get the quickest possible bootup (and shutdown); everything from a highly customized 2.6.0 kernel, to experimenting with software suspend and custom startup scripts. Right now I have my system booting the bare bones necessary services to get me in to X so I can turn the laptop on and fire up OpenOffice in class. The rest of the service launching is done with a shell script that I call after booting if I want to do more, like get on the net, use Samba or print.
I've been a QT fan for a while, ever since hacking on the MythTV project and realizing the beauty of QT code. Unfortunately I've had to make the switch to wxWindows for the latest project I'm on. This is a GPL project, none of us have QT licenses and so we work with the GPLed QT releases. Unfortunately Trolltech has dropped support for the GPL release on Windows in the 3.x series, so if we design a great new UI in Designer on Linux there's no way it's compiling with the latest release on Windows which as of right now is 2.3.
QT is great when your a) working on the platform(s) that are supported in the GPL version exclusively, or b) you are shelling out money to Trolltech. Otherwise you find yourself relying on their ui compiler, their moc compiler, and their qmake and may find yourself SOL. With wxWindows, you have pure C++ code, and any platform the wxWindows library compiles on will work fine.
I toured Cyan's studio a few months back, as it's local to the area. The sound engineers and artists primarily still use Macs, but the programmers have entirely shifted over to MSVC/Win32 platforms, to speed up the release cycle and avoid cross-platform issues. The game is based entirely on DirectX libraries, so doing other platforms wouldn't be an easy task. It's hard enough to find competent programmers at all in Spokane, let alone ones that can write cross-platform 3D games.
If you are looking for high quality upscaling, a variety of output options AND a software base built on Linux entirely under the GPL, take a look at my URL (Focus Theater).
If you cheat to win a competition and noone finds out, you still "won" in the sense that you get awarded the trophy and everyone is under the belief that you won, until someone finds out you cheated. This is what happened with Enron. I think you are using a different definition of "right". The stock market reflects current going prices for shares, whether those prices were illegally inflated or not has nothing to do with the original poster's argument.
This is a very strong argument against adopting Linux in the enterprise world. Every project is on it's own timeframe with it's own volunteer developers, so if you need a bug fixed in USB hotplugging to work with your new shipment of 5,000 Dell machines, or a device driver for your new SCSI drives, you can ask nicely and maybe get it the next day or maybe get the finger. Unless you are employing an army of coders, then you can do all the modifications in-house.
IMPORTANT-READ CAREFULLY: This End-User License Agreement ("EULA") is a legal agreement between you (either an individual or a single legal entity) and the manufacturer ("Manufacturer") of the computer system or computer system component ("HARDWARE") with which you acquired the Microsoft software product(s) identified above ("SOFTWARE"). The SOFTWARE includes Microsoft computer software, and may include associated media, printed materials, "online," or electronic documentation and Internet based services. Note, however, that any software, documentation, or web services that are included in the SOFTWARE, or accessible via the SOFTWARE, and are accompanied by their own license agreements or terms of use are governed by such agreements rather than this EULA. The terms of a printed, paper EULA, which may accompany the SOFTWARE, supersede the terms of any on-screen EULA. This EULA is valid and grants the end -user rights ONLY if the SOFTWARE is genuine and a genuine Certificate of Authenticity for the SOFTWARE is included. For more information on identifying whether your software is genuine, please see http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/howtotell.
By installing, copying, downloading, accessing or otherwise using the SOFTWARE, you agree to be bound by the terms of this EULA. If you do not agree to the terms of this EULA, you may not use or copy the SOFTWARE, and you should promptly contact Manufacturer for instructions on return of the unused product(s) in accordance with Manufacturer's return policies.
SOFTWARE PRODUCT LICENSE
The term "COMPUTER" as used herein shall mean the HARDWARE, if the HARDWARE is a single computer system, or shall mean the computer system with which the HARDWARE operates, if the HARDWARE is a computer system component.
1. GRANT OF LICENSE. Manufacturer grants you the following
rights, provided you comply with all of the terms and
conditions of this EULA:
* Installation and Use. Except as otherwise expressly
provided in this EULA, you may install, use, access,
display and run only one (1) copy of the SOFTWARE on
the COMPUTER. The SOFTWARE may not
be used by more than two (2) processors at any one time
on the COMPUTER, unless a higher number is indicated
on the Certificate of Authenticity. You may permit a
maximum of ten (10) ("Connection Maximum") computers
or other electronic devices (each a "Device") to connect
to the COMPUTER to utilize the services of the SOFTWARE
solely for File and Print services, Internet Information
services, and remote access (including connection sharing
and telephony services). The ten (10) Connection Maximum
includes any indirect connections made through
"multiplexing" or other software or hardware which pools
or aggregates connections. Except as otherwise permitted
below, you may not use the Device to use, access, display
or run the SOFTWARE, the SOFTWARE's
User Interface or other executable software residing
on the COMPUTER.
* Software as a Component of the Computer - Transfer. THIS
LICENSE MAY NOT BE SHARED,
TRANSFERRED TO OR USED CONCURRENTLY
ON DIFFERENT COMPUTERS. The SOFTWARE
is licensed with the HARDWARE as a single integrated
product and may only be used with the HARDWARE. If the
SOFTWARE is not accompanied by new HARDWARE, you may
not use the SOFTWARE. You may permanently transfer all
of your rights under this EULA only as part of a
permanent sale or transfer of the HARDWARE, provided
you retain no copies, if you transfer all of the SOFTWARE
(including all component parts, the media and printed
materials, any upgrade
I wouldn't get a laywer for a $199 small claims fee.
In Washington state it's only $20 of your money, find a friend of yours to subpoena the corporation (in WA a fictional entity such as a corporation can be subpoenaed, and the corporation is held liable if someone doesn't represent on behalf), and pick a day that you can take off work and learn about the legal system firsthand. Even if you lose your learn a lot by watching everyone else's claims and will be prepared if a future landlord or utilities company takes you to small claims. You file for $199 in damages, and if you win you show the judge the receipt for your small claims filing and add $20 to the damages, as well as any receipts from a laywer if you sought legal counseling. At worst you're out twenty bucks and a day for an education.
Cash sales generally happen in person. The main abuse I see with this system is black market money being moved around without a trail, but this isn't a whole lot different than Western Union.
Slashdot Mirror
I would like to see micropayments get worked in to a system like this, THAT would be a compelling reason for consumers to adopt such a system. Access premium content by logging in through a gateway and digitally signing a payment agreement, no credit card hassle every time you want 25 cent comics.
The way the poster worded this he might as well have said "what is the best political party, Green party or Natural Law?". Does the rights of the dead resting in peace and any of his ancestors play a role here?
I see it as a similar concept to emergency scheduling of dangerous drugs. To compensate for the slow moving wheels of government bodies, focus groups are allowed to make "emergency" rulings for the better of the people, and later those choices are carefully evaluated and upheld in a more formal manner or dismissed. Microsoft products have proven time and time again to be unstable for mission critical applications (look at the recent US army decision), prone to security flaws that may or may not be fixed (see IE's currently outstanding ActiveX insecurities), and harsh licensing terms (one of the deciding factors in Munich's OSS switchover). Add in other countries inherent distrust of the US and corporations with close ties to government (US government is Microsoft's number one client) and the economic impact of buying American software in a country that is trying to minimize it's imports, and the decision makes more sense. I'm thinking a lot of countries have been using MS products as a necessary evil to keep up with the times, and only recently has Linux and other free software become a viable alternative.
Except that Darl McBride never distributed Samba; SCO did. I seriously doubt any lawsuits will break the SCO corporate veil; eventually the company will go down in litigation flames and the board of execs will walk away all the richer.
The fact that NTSC is 29.97 frames per second?
I don't know how Starbucks does it in particular, but I've seen several different setups. Often times the authentication is done at the DHCP server, where a temporary IP on a network with no net access is assigned to unauthenticated clients, and an IP on the net-connected network is assigned once you have authenticated and restarted your network connection. On campus here @ WSU, your wifi will pick up a good IP but the only route to the internet is through a VPN tunnel you have to authenticate with, and load a kernel module that only exists for 2.2 and 2.4 Linux :-(. Another popular scheme is redirecting HTTP with a proxy, as was already mentioned.
"Especially the bit about where the software vendor is not liable for anything: errors, crashes, defective security or lost data."
As opposed to the GPL?
"This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details."
Go out and buy homebrew games for the Gamecube? Do you have a link where I can purchase those?
Or maybe you missed the point.
[i]3. Much higher efficiency. Practically speaking that means straight C. Nobody has figured out how to architect, write, maintain, or compile C++ efficiently. Don't use it.[/i]
Why stop at such a high level language like C? Shouldn't we be writing assembly for each platform, getting rid of all those compiler inefficiencies?
C++ allows you to build layers upon layers and handle extremely complex design models that would be nearly unthinkable in a non object oriented language. What good are 10,000 lines of code if only the author can understand the flow of the code? Where would KDE be today without the beautiful C++ design of the QT library?
What about the benefit of running low overhead with a web based company? The ability to advertise and sell direct to customers worldwide? From your post you make it seem as if all this flies out the window because you have to pay sales tax that is already owed to states and counties in the first place.
A lot of comments also missed a major platform, laptops.
I've been furiously tweaking out my Averatec to get the quickest possible bootup (and shutdown); everything from a highly customized 2.6.0 kernel, to experimenting with software suspend and custom startup scripts. Right now I have my system booting the bare bones necessary services to get me in to X so I can turn the laptop on and fire up OpenOffice in class. The rest of the service launching is done with a shell script that I call after booting if I want to do more, like get on the net, use Samba or print.
Less time wasted on video games, more time for programming.
I've been a QT fan for a while, ever since hacking on the MythTV project and realizing the beauty of QT code. Unfortunately I've had to make the switch to wxWindows for the latest project I'm on. This is a GPL project, none of us have QT licenses and so we work with the GPLed QT releases. Unfortunately Trolltech has dropped support for the GPL release on Windows in the 3.x series, so if we design a great new UI in Designer on Linux there's no way it's compiling with the latest release on Windows which as of right now is 2.3.
QT is great when your a) working on the platform(s) that are supported in the GPL version exclusively, or b) you are shelling out money to Trolltech. Otherwise you find yourself relying on their ui compiler, their moc compiler, and their qmake and may find yourself SOL. With wxWindows, you have pure C++ code, and any platform the wxWindows library compiles on will work fine.
I toured Cyan's studio a few months back, as it's local to the area. The sound engineers and artists primarily still use Macs, but the programmers have entirely shifted over to MSVC/Win32 platforms, to speed up the release cycle and avoid cross-platform issues. The game is based entirely on DirectX libraries, so doing other platforms wouldn't be an easy task. It's hard enough to find competent programmers at all in Spokane, let alone ones that can write cross-platform 3D games.
* Begin shameless self promotion *
If you are looking for high quality upscaling, a variety of output options AND a software base built on Linux entirely under the GPL, take a look at my URL (Focus Theater).
* End shameless self promotion *
No way, MSFT is going to lock the protocol down tight, just like the XBox.
...
...
*Looks over at Gentoo running on the XBox*
Yeah, I'd give it a few days.
Is it opening a shell on port 4444 or a tftp server?
If you cheat to win a competition and noone finds out, you still "won" in the sense that you get awarded the trophy and everyone is under the belief that you won, until someone finds out you cheated. This is what happened with Enron. I think you are using a different definition of "right". The stock market reflects current going prices for shares, whether those prices were illegally inflated or not has nothing to do with the original poster's argument.
This is a very strong argument against adopting Linux in the enterprise world. Every project is on it's own timeframe with it's own volunteer developers, so if you need a bug fixed in USB hotplugging to work with your new shipment of 5,000 Dell machines, or a device driver for your new SCSI drives, you can ask nicely and maybe get it the next day or maybe get the finger. Unless you are employing an army of coders, then you can do all the modifications in-house.
Microsoft(r) Windows(r) XP Professional
END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
IMPORTANT-READ CAREFULLY: This End-User
License Agreement ("EULA") is a legal agreement between you
(either an individual or a single legal entity) and the
manufacturer ("Manufacturer") of the computer system or computer
system component ("HARDWARE") with which you acquired the
Microsoft software product(s) identified above ("SOFTWARE"). The
SOFTWARE includes Microsoft computer software, and may include
associated media, printed materials, "online," or electronic
documentation and Internet based services. Note, however, that
any software, documentation, or web services that are included in
the SOFTWARE, or accessible via the SOFTWARE, and are accompanied
by their own license agreements or terms of use are governed by
such agreements rather than this EULA. The terms of a printed,
paper EULA, which may accompany the SOFTWARE, supersede the terms
of any on-screen EULA. This EULA is valid and grants the end
-user rights ONLY if the SOFTWARE is genuine and a genuine
Certificate of Authenticity for the SOFTWARE is included. For
more information on identifying whether your software is genuine,
please see http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/howtotell.
By installing, copying, downloading, accessing or otherwise using
the SOFTWARE, you agree to be bound by the terms of this EULA.
If you do not agree to the terms of this EULA, you may not use or
copy the SOFTWARE, and you should promptly contact Manufacturer
for instructions on return of the unused product(s) in accordance
with Manufacturer's return policies.
SOFTWARE PRODUCT LICENSE
The term "COMPUTER" as used herein shall mean the HARDWARE, if
the HARDWARE is a single computer system, or shall mean the
computer system with which the HARDWARE operates, if the HARDWARE
is a computer system component.
1. GRANT OF LICENSE. Manufacturer grants you the following
rights, provided you comply with all of the terms and
conditions of this EULA:
* Installation and Use. Except as otherwise expressly
provided in this EULA, you may install, use, access,
display and run only one (1) copy of the SOFTWARE on
the COMPUTER. The SOFTWARE may not
be used by more than two (2) processors at any one time
on the COMPUTER, unless a higher number is indicated
on the Certificate of Authenticity. You may permit a
maximum of ten (10) ("Connection Maximum") computers
or other electronic devices (each a "Device") to connect
to the COMPUTER to utilize the services of the SOFTWARE
solely for File and Print services, Internet Information
services, and remote access (including connection sharing
and telephony services). The ten (10) Connection Maximum
includes any indirect connections made through
"multiplexing" or other software or hardware which pools
or aggregates connections. Except as otherwise permitted
below, you may not use the Device to use, access, display
or run the SOFTWARE, the SOFTWARE's
User Interface or other executable software residing
on the COMPUTER.
* Software as a Component of the Computer - Transfer. THIS
LICENSE MAY NOT BE SHARED,
TRANSFERRED TO OR USED CONCURRENTLY
ON DIFFERENT COMPUTERS. The SOFTWARE
is licensed with the HARDWARE as a single integrated
product and may only be used with the HARDWARE. If the
SOFTWARE is not accompanied by new HARDWARE, you may
not use the SOFTWARE. You may permanently transfer all
of your rights under this EULA only as part of a
permanent sale or transfer of the HARDWARE, provided
you retain no copies, if you transfer all of the SOFTWARE
(including all component parts, the media and printed
materials, any upgrade
The article refers to a notebook, which AFAIK you can't build yourself.
I wouldn't get a laywer for a $199 small claims fee.
In Washington state it's only $20 of your money, find a friend of yours to subpoena the corporation (in WA a fictional entity such as a corporation can be subpoenaed, and the corporation is held liable if someone doesn't represent on behalf), and pick a day that you can take off work and learn about the legal system firsthand. Even if you lose your learn a lot by watching everyone else's claims and will be prepared if a future landlord or utilities company takes you to small claims. You file for $199 in damages, and if you win you show the judge the receipt for your small claims filing and add $20 to the damages, as well as any receipts from a laywer if you sought legal counseling. At worst you're out twenty bucks and a day for an education.
Nope, motorcycles can't split lanes in Spokane, WA.
:-).
Nice to see my hometown on Slashdot, at least something inventive came out of here
Unless you live in a dorm :-)
I already have a linux router set up, so extending it in to a wireless AP could be a fun project.
Cash sales generally happen in person. The main abuse I see with this system is black market money being moved around without a trail, but this isn't a whole lot different than Western Union.