From the article, describing building a new VAX program from scratch:
In each case [of rewriting an existing feature in VMS] our reason was hubris, ignorance, or laziness to learn more about the computer we were using.
(emphasis mine)
Unfortunately, the first thing I thought of when I read this quote was Larry Wall's infamous quote describing the Three Virtues of a Programmer: laziness, impatience, and hubris......
*ahem* It certainly was not for lack of trying! The quality of the investigation can be measured by the fact that the author attempted to cover every base, which, by my measure, he did very well. Sure, his leads came up dry, but it looks like the few people involved with LinuxOne have disappeared. I personally found it to be a very good article that at least tried to uncover the truth.
The Brandenburg/Suzanne Vega article mentioned a new format that Brandenburg's research group is working on - MP4, which the article called a "more secure" compression algorithm than MP3. Does anyone know much about this? How is it "more secure"? Does that mean that it will be encrypted (and thus, a new tool for the Evil Recording Industry (tm))? "The world doesn't really need more busy people, maybe not even more intelligent people. It needs 'deep people'..."
I saw some pretty innovative stuff on a site featuring 5 KB websites - even a 5040 or so byte e-commerce site. That's impressive, and I feel like it should get copyright protection. Then I look at the crappy website my friend made (great guy, no html skills) and think "no way!" Shouldn't there be some hard and fast rule? Ideas?
To paraphrase a popular phrase, "it's not the size of your code, it's what you do with it." Implementation is the key. Agreed. I think that, in this case, Company X's implementation was more like a rough sketch of the final product, and our hero's design the actual thing. Seems clear to me that the huge burden is on Company X to prove any harm at all was done...
"The world doesn't really need more busy people, maybe not even more intelligent people. It needs 'deep people'..."
As long as there's an upfront disclaimer, all such monitoring has been upheld by the courts. It doesn't even have to appear at login; you could have signed a blanket disclaimer when you were hired, and it was just one of a dozen sheets of paper you John-Hancocked and forgot about. Question: I was in a temporary working situation which was just fine - did some recreational web surfing now and then, etc. Turns out that everyone's surfing was being monitored - without our knowledge until after the fact! Is there anything wrong with that? Certainly in a perfect world, I would not have been surfing, so I'm not fighting for the right to abuse my employer. But still... it creeped me out... and just seems wrong... "The world doesn't really need more busy people, maybe not even more intelligent people. It needs 'deep people'..."
Though unquestionably expressive, these things identified by the Court are not traditional speech. Particularly, a musical score cannot be read by the majority of the public but can be used as a means of communication among musicians. Likewise, computer source code, though unintelligible to many, is the preferred method of communication among computer programers.
ROCK ON!
As a long-time musician and burgeoning programmer, this is the killer analogy right here, IMO. If this argument doesn't end the dabate, I don't know what will.:)
In the absence of identification the hosts are responsible for the contents and liable to six months to prison.
The national assembly voted yesterday, March 22, on a bearing amendment regarding the responsibility for Web site hosts.
This vote comes after the vote of the senate on January 19 which (created?) the obligation for the hosts to give the identity of an author to any third party under penalty of six months of prison.
All the Web sites for which the identity of the author is not known are legally the responsibility of the host. To release me [the host] from this responsibility, I should obtain the identity of each of the 48000 users of altern.org.
Well, ecommerce will be content; what could be better than a file customer which the law obliges you to constitute by leaving you any latitude to exploit it commercially?
The objective of this law seems to be the installation of a phenomenon of self-censorship on the level of the host who must proceed to 'appropriate diligence' following a setting of residence of a third. And on the level of the author who beyond the preliminary declaration under penalty of prison, does not have any insurance when with the marketing of his identity.
This law goes against the European legislation, and to that of all the democratic countries. This vote is not definitive; a third and last reading must take place. But it will be a question of smoothing out the differences between the text of the senate and of the assembly; thus one can fear still worse.
Concerning the future of altern.org: as opposed to what I said yesterday before taking note of the exact text, I can continue to work as long as I accept my new role of watchdog.
What about, say, Mandrake? I guess I'm not sure where it ranks, salewise, with the "top 5." It's a _great_ distro - just wondering how much it's used out there, and whether it deserves to be up there...
Interesting, but my reaction to the author's description of the market in the future seems suspect. Sure, we can pile super-giga computers on the market, analyzing it over and over again, but the main fluctuations will always be there, because of one fact: no matter how powerful the computers, there will always be stupid people running them. GIGO. You can't compensate for human stupidity in any system. There will always be that the market will behave in unpredictable ways - completely chaotically.
Right on, good sir. I'm newish to this site, and I think it's downright silly to complain that your story didn't get accepted! I LOVE this site! There is no doubt in my mind that the people who run this site are just very cool. I mean, seriously, what kind of axe could any of our friendly editors have to grind with any posters? It's nothing personal to y'all - jd already hit that by pointing out the slim odds of getting a post accepted. Let's just have fun, and talk about stuff that matters. That's what we're all about, eh?
"The world doesn't really need more busy people, maybe not even more intelligent people. It needs 'deep people'..." -Don Postema"
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IIRC, Quake I was compiled using DJGPP, or at least that was claimed on the DJGPP web site.
From the article, describing building a new VAX program from scratch:
In each case [of rewriting an existing feature in VMS] our reason was hubris, ignorance, or laziness to learn more about the computer we were using.(emphasis mine)
Unfortunately, the first thing I thought of when I read this quote was Larry Wall's infamous quote describing the Three Virtues of a Programmer: laziness, impatience, and hubris......
(just a FWIW, NOT flamebait!)
judging by the ASCII art it renders, I'd say it has something to do with semaphores...
*ahem* It certainly was not for lack of trying! The quality of the investigation can be measured by the fact that the author attempted to cover every base, which, by my measure, he did very well. Sure, his leads came up dry, but it looks like the few people involved with LinuxOne have disappeared. I personally found it to be a very good article that at least tried to uncover the truth.
The Brandenburg/Suzanne Vega article mentioned a new format that Brandenburg's research group is working on - MP4, which the article called a "more secure" compression algorithm than MP3. Does anyone know much about this? How is it "more secure"? Does that mean that it will be encrypted (and thus, a new tool for the Evil Recording Industry (tm))?
"The world doesn't really need more busy people, maybe not even more intelligent people. It needs 'deep people'..."
I saw some pretty innovative stuff on a site featuring 5 KB websites - even a 5040 or so byte e-commerce site. That's impressive, and I feel like it should get copyright protection. Then I look at the crappy website my friend made (great guy, no html skills) and think "no way!" Shouldn't there be some hard and fast rule? Ideas?
To paraphrase a popular phrase, "it's not the size of your code, it's what you do with it." Implementation is the key. Agreed. I think that, in this case, Company X's implementation was more like a rough sketch of the final product, and our hero's design the actual thing. Seems clear to me that the huge burden is on Company X to prove any harm at all was done...
"The world doesn't really need more busy people, maybe not even more intelligent people. It needs 'deep people'..."
As long as there's an upfront disclaimer, all such monitoring has been upheld by the courts. It doesn't even have to appear at login; you could have signed a blanket disclaimer when you were hired, and it was just one of a dozen sheets of paper you John-Hancocked and forgot about. Question: I was in a temporary working situation which was just fine - did some recreational web surfing now and then, etc. Turns out that everyone's surfing was being monitored - without our knowledge until after the fact! Is there anything wrong with that? Certainly in a perfect world, I would not have been surfing, so I'm not fighting for the right to abuse my employer. But still... it creeped me out... and just seems wrong...
"The world doesn't really need more busy people, maybe not even more intelligent people. It needs 'deep people'..."
Here is an implementation I found of Enigma in Java, FYI.
Though unquestionably expressive, these things identified by the Court are not traditional speech. Particularly, a musical score cannot be read by the majority of the public but can be used as a means of communication among musicians. Likewise, computer source code, though unintelligible to many, is the preferred method of communication among computer programers.
ROCK ON!
As a long-time musician and burgeoning programmer, this is the killer analogy right here, IMO. If this argument doesn't end the dabate, I don't know what will. :)
My cleaned-up Babelfish version:
In the absence of identification the hosts are responsible for the contents and liable to six months to prison.
The national assembly voted yesterday, March 22, on a bearing amendment regarding the responsibility for Web site hosts.
This vote comes after the vote of the senate on January 19 which (created?) the obligation for the hosts to give the identity of an author to any third party under penalty of six months of prison.
All the Web sites for which the identity of the author is not known are legally the responsibility of the host. To release me [the host] from this responsibility, I should obtain the identity of each of the 48000 users of altern.org.
Well, ecommerce will be content; what could be better than a file customer which the law obliges you to constitute by leaving you any latitude to exploit it commercially?
The objective of this law seems to be the installation of a phenomenon of self-censorship on the level of the host who must proceed to 'appropriate diligence' following a setting of residence of a third. And on the level of the author who beyond the preliminary declaration under penalty of prison, does not have any insurance when with the marketing of his identity.
This law goes against the European legislation, and to that of all the democratic countries.
This vote is not definitive; a third and last reading must take place. But it will be a question of smoothing out the differences between the text of the senate and of the assembly; thus one can fear still worse.
Concerning the future of altern.org: as opposed to what I said yesterday before taking note of the exact text, I can continue to work as long as I accept my new role of watchdog.
What about, say, Mandrake? I guess I'm not sure where it ranks, salewise, with the "top 5." It's a _great_ distro - just wondering how much it's used out there, and whether it deserves to be up there...
Interesting, but my reaction to the author's description of the market in the future seems suspect. Sure, we can pile super-giga computers on the market, analyzing it over and over again, but the main fluctuations will always be there, because of one fact: no matter how powerful the computers, there will always be stupid people running them. GIGO. You can't compensate for human stupidity in any system. There will always be that the market will behave in unpredictable ways - completely chaotically.
Right on, good sir. I'm newish to this site, and I think it's downright silly to complain that your story didn't get accepted! I LOVE this site! There is no doubt in my mind that the people who run this site are just very cool. I mean, seriously, what kind of axe could any of our friendly editors have to grind with any posters? It's nothing personal to y'all - jd already hit that by pointing out the slim odds of getting a post accepted. Let's just have fun, and talk about stuff that matters. That's what we're all about, eh?
"The world doesn't really need more busy people, maybe not even more intelligent people. It needs 'deep people'..." -Don Postema"