Hey, troll. Here's a hint: When RMS uses the word "free", he is rarely referring to $0.00.
Go read that article you linked, and keep that in mind.
(Oh, here's a choice bit: I think it is acceptable to do what MySQL AB [..] do[es]: release under the GPL, but sell alternative licenses permitting proprietary extensions to their code)
Right on. How much do want to bet that using this tactic, the RIAA harasses a disproportinate percentage of non-whites?
Well, let's see...
"A large percentage [of the vendors] are of a Hispanic nature," Langley said. "Today he's Jose Rodriguez, tomorrow he's Raul something or other, and tomorrow after that he's something else. These people change their identity all the time."
"Okay, boys. Throw it over on the pile there with BSD and Apple..."
As someone who reads between three and a dozen newsgroups on a semi-regular basis, I'd disagree with your claim that Usenet is dead. Unless you meant, "I no longer read Usenet; therefore it is no longer viable." In which case, please don't stop reading this post. Wait, no, don't look away, I'm begging y
This post has violated the ChaoticChaos Rule of Viability and has therefore been terminated
How the hell did the parent post get modded to 5, "Insightful" after claiming that "the GPL relies on copyright to keep derivative works in the public domain."?
Look, "public domain" is a very specific concept. It's the removal of any and all copyright and patent restrictions on a piece of property.
The GPL doesn't "keep derivative works in the public domain" any more than paying a SCO license fee "keeps Linux legal". It's problematic to FOSS's acceptance and proper use to conflate the two.
(However, to be fair, I completely agree with the point about software patents. Perhaps the moderators only read the last paragraph of any given post?)
There needs to be a name for the law of software development that bug-free products are not found in nature.
Agreed, if you tack on "...for any sufficiently complex software". I'm willing to believe that there is some variant of "Hello World" executable that, for a given system, is bug-free.
And as for the name for this law, I suggest "Jimbo's Law". You're certainly not the first to note it, but you raise a good point that we should just be able to reference Jimbo's Law rather than having to say "there is no bug free software, only software where the next bug hasn't been found yet" each time the point needs to be made.
So, congratulations. Unless I hear that it's already been named, it's now "Jimbo's Law".
You're now in the company of Moore and (this being an Apple topic discussion) Fitz. How's the air up there?
The most puzzling god that was almost completely missing from American Gods was the big one...
The way I see it, you've only got two options with that guy. I mean, we're talking about a book that was, among other things, about a bunch of different gods dealing with each other. When you introduce one whose motto is "There are no other gods", you can either make him a self-centered deluded sociopath xenophobe (which I'm guessing wasn't worth the controversy) or you can ignore Him outright.
The Judeo-Christian God wasn't much of a character in The Sandman, either -- Lucifer played an important role, but about all we hear about the old guy with the white beard is that he's Remiel and Duma's boss and could he please have the key to a realm he created back, at least by proxy. He's become a fairly important character in "Lucifer", the Vertigo title, but that's not Gaiman's work and therefore neither here nor there.
About the closest Gaiman has come to writing a story about or around the Western idea of a single God (capital-G) that I can think of was "Murder Mysteries"; and Gaiman didn't present a very flattering view of Him then, either.
(No, I'm not ignoring Good Omens -- but given that that was a collaborative effort, I don't know if it counts.)
The story was about a sultan of Baghdad around 1000 AD, when Baghdad was the absolute pinnacle of civilization...
Sorry about going all Comic Book Guy, but wasn't that Sandman #50, "Ramadan"? I thought the Sandman Special #1 issue was "Orpheus".
"Ramadan" was actually the first Sandman (maybe second) comic I ever picked up, since at the time I was really into collecting holofoil comics and their ilk. Didn't understand a word of it (hey, at the time I was really into superheroes -- don't even ask about my music tastes). Took me five or six years to come back to it and enjoy it... but of course now I've got pretty much everything Gaiman's written that I can get my hands on.
So based on the above, you either think that GNUcash is MUCH better than Quicken in terms of power, flexibility and usability, OR you think that Microsoft Paint is much better than GNUcash
You seem to have trouble with analogies. When I posted I was in a rather foul mood; since I'm not anymore, I'll spell this one out rather than just flame some more:
The GIMP is extremely powerful. It's extremely flexible. However, one place where it falls down is in the usability department -- due to the power and flexibility, it's got a rather bizarre user interface that takes a while to get used to.
On the other hand, Microsoft Paint is anything but powerful. It's not very flexible. But it's one of my three-year-old niece's favorite programs, because the interface is simple. The program is extremely usable.
I think I just think that GNUcash will never catch on, because it hasn't caught on yet, and it's been around for a long time.
Repeat after me: "Ending is better than mending!"
Whatever. GNUcash works -- now -- and is to Quicken what the GIMP is to Microsoft Paint (with regards to power, flexibility, and yes usability.) Take your soma and go stare at the wall, or something.
Netflix, along with CleanFlix and the like are stupid distribution methods though.
That's an interesting observation, given that Netflix has shown a profit and most of the broadband movie delivery services haven't.
Judging from the rest of your post, you're conflating the MPAA and its member organizations. They don't actually do any distribution themselves. And as for the reason why they (assuming the member organizations) don't just "shoot[] them to you via the internet for $1.00 less", you're ignoring the part where the "middleman" takes care of all the nasty details of actually dealing with customers, and removes that level of headache from the studios. There's a hell of a lot of infrastructure that would have to be built before you're going to see DVD data delivered via broadband.
And I would imagine nobody's even seriously considering it right now because it would take Mom & Pop more than a day to download over their 56k modem that they just broke down and bought last year so they could get The Internet on their Win98 box in the den. Then, once they've downloaded it, they would realize they either need to watch it on their 15" monitor, or go buy a DVD burner and get Sonny to hook that up as well so they can burn it -- and then go buy a DVD player, when they've already got a perfectly fine VCR.
The biggest thing about the news, I think, is the fact that it was a victory in LA. Y'know, where they make movies and music and all that. The RIAA and MPAA probably just assumed that all of the money they're throwing around town would guarantee them a victory.
Obviously, the immediate upshot is that -- miracle of miracles -- Stephen Wilson won't ever see another case brought by either cartel.
However, this is a good precedent. Even judges in the belly of the beast realize just how far the media giants have overextended themselves. My only disappointment is that this has no direct bearing on the "industry vs. Napster VCs" case that was recently brought.
While I agree with the majority of your post, I have to take exception to the "no skimpy clothes" bit. That skirt Alis is wearing on the title screen was in my dreams for years.
However, compared to (say) Lara Croft... okay, yeah.
I wonder if they're going to include some form of lossless compression (like flac) on the sound
Unless I'm mistaken, lossless audio compression can't be done realtime, even with fast processors. The reason lossy compression can be done realtime is because it's actually dropping data based on an acoustical model; if something comes in that's outside the model, drop the unnecessary stuff right there.
On the other hand, lossless compression uses the entire span of the audio clip to figure out what to compress. Perhaps they could come up with some sort of automatic five-minute-chunk lossless compression, but I have no idea if the amount of saved space would outweigh the additional processing hassle.
The question is can you do to anyone what was done to the spammer.
Well, if no one's allowed to do what Uy did to Moore, then I'm going to be raking in the money from every phone book around!
And while mail fraud charges could be brought up against the people who ordered magazines and packages to his address, there doesn't seem to be any indication that Uy was one of those who did that.
Since I know my address and phone number are both a matter of public record, I look at the fact that I haven't received too many catalogs I didn't request or magazine subscriptions I never signed up for more as a result of my having a career that doesn't involve annoying people on a daily basis. Some would call that particular view "karma".
There's no middle here. The people who fraudulently ordered catalogs, were they to be found (of course, there's about as much to go on there as there is in faked headers generated from an attack on an open relay), could be prosecuted. Beyond that, nobody's breaking any laws.
Slashdot Mirror
Go read that article you linked, and keep that in mind.
(Oh, here's a choice bit: I think it is acceptable to do what MySQL AB [..] do[es]: release under the GPL, but sell alternative licenses permitting proprietary extensions to their code)
I think you mean nudge, nudge.
Well, let's see...
Nah, I'm sure they harrass everyone equally.Put another way, it's that first byte after 10G that's expensive. The rest is dirt cheap.
"Okay, boys. Throw it over on the pile there with BSD and Apple..."
As someone who reads between three and a dozen newsgroups on a semi-regular basis, I'd disagree with your claim that Usenet is dead. Unless you meant, "I no longer read Usenet; therefore it is no longer viable." In which case, please don't stop reading this post. Wait, no, don't look away, I'm begging y
This post has violated the ChaoticChaos Rule of Viability and has therefore been terminated
Look, "public domain" is a very specific concept. It's the removal of any and all copyright and patent restrictions on a piece of property.
The GPL doesn't "keep derivative works in the public domain" any more than paying a SCO license fee "keeps Linux legal". It's problematic to FOSS's acceptance and proper use to conflate the two.
(However, to be fair, I completely agree with the point about software patents. Perhaps the moderators only read the last paragraph of any given post?)
Pity.
Did you know your last name was an adverb?
Agreed, if you tack on "...for any sufficiently complex software". I'm willing to believe that there is some variant of "Hello World" executable that, for a given system, is bug-free.
And as for the name for this law, I suggest "Jimbo's Law". You're certainly not the first to note it, but you raise a good point that we should just be able to reference Jimbo's Law rather than having to say "there is no bug free software, only software where the next bug hasn't been found yet" each time the point needs to be made.
So, congratulations. Unless I hear that it's already been named, it's now "Jimbo's Law".
You're now in the company of Moore and (this being an Apple topic discussion) Fitz. How's the air up there?
The Judeo-Christian God wasn't much of a character in The Sandman, either -- Lucifer played an important role, but about all we hear about the old guy with the white beard is that he's Remiel and Duma's boss and could he please have the key to a realm he created back, at least by proxy. He's become a fairly important character in "Lucifer", the Vertigo title, but that's not Gaiman's work and therefore neither here nor there.
About the closest Gaiman has come to writing a story about or around the Western idea of a single God (capital-G) that I can think of was "Murder Mysteries"; and Gaiman didn't present a very flattering view of Him then, either.
(No, I'm not ignoring Good Omens -- but given that that was a collaborative effort, I don't know if it counts.)
I'm not a big fan of the direction "left". So by "left turn", I meant *right* turn.
What color is the sky in your world, anyway?
Sorry about going all Comic Book Guy, but wasn't that Sandman #50, "Ramadan"? I thought the Sandman Special #1 issue was "Orpheus".
"Ramadan" was actually the first Sandman (maybe second) comic I ever picked up, since at the time I was really into collecting holofoil comics and their ilk. Didn't understand a word of it (hey, at the time I was really into superheroes -- don't even ask about my music tastes). Took me five or six years to come back to it and enjoy it... but of course now I've got pretty much everything Gaiman's written that I can get my hands on.
(Er... and yeah, yay new Gaiman Sandman.)
The GIMP is extremely powerful. It's extremely flexible. However, one place where it falls down is in the usability department -- due to the power and flexibility, it's got a rather bizarre user interface that takes a while to get used to.
On the other hand, Microsoft Paint is anything but powerful. It's not very flexible. But it's one of my three-year-old niece's favorite programs, because the interface is simple. The program is extremely usable.
There, now. Does that make it better?
Oh. No, wait. It's the entire point of my post, zooming by miles overhead.
Whatever. GNUcash works -- now -- and is to Quicken what the GIMP is to Microsoft Paint (with regards to power, flexibility, and yes usability.) Take your soma and go stare at the wall, or something.
The exact same way Joe McCarthy got so many "communists" to testify against each other.
<Foghorn>You're doing a lot of choppin', but no chips are flyin'</Foghorn>
Judging from the rest of your post, you're conflating the MPAA and its member organizations. They don't actually do any distribution themselves. And as for the reason why they (assuming the member organizations) don't just "shoot[] them to you via the internet for $1.00 less", you're ignoring the part where the "middleman" takes care of all the nasty details of actually dealing with customers, and removes that level of headache from the studios. There's a hell of a lot of infrastructure that would have to be built before you're going to see DVD data delivered via broadband.
And I would imagine nobody's even seriously considering it right now because it would take Mom & Pop more than a day to download over their 56k modem that they just broke down and bought last year so they could get The Internet on their Win98 box in the den. Then, once they've downloaded it, they would realize they either need to watch it on their 15" monitor, or go buy a DVD burner and get Sonny to hook that up as well so they can burn it -- and then go buy a DVD player, when they've already got a perfectly fine VCR.
I don't think Lars uses two equal signs when he wants to say "is".
Obviously, the immediate upshot is that -- miracle of miracles -- Stephen Wilson won't ever see another case brought by either cartel.
However, this is a good precedent. Even judges in the belly of the beast realize just how far the media giants have overextended themselves. My only disappointment is that this has no direct bearing on the "industry vs. Napster VCs" case that was recently brought.
However, compared to (say) Lara Croft... okay, yeah.
Unless I'm mistaken, lossless audio compression can't be done realtime, even with fast processors. The reason lossy compression can be done realtime is because it's actually dropping data based on an acoustical model; if something comes in that's outside the model, drop the unnecessary stuff right there.
On the other hand, lossless compression uses the entire span of the audio clip to figure out what to compress. Perhaps they could come up with some sort of automatic five-minute-chunk lossless compression, but I have no idea if the amount of saved space would outweigh the additional processing hassle.
Well, if no one's allowed to do what Uy did to Moore, then I'm going to be raking in the money from every phone book around!
And while mail fraud charges could be brought up against the people who ordered magazines and packages to his address, there doesn't seem to be any indication that Uy was one of those who did that.
Since I know my address and phone number are both a matter of public record, I look at the fact that I haven't received too many catalogs I didn't request or magazine subscriptions I never signed up for more as a result of my having a career that doesn't involve annoying people on a daily basis. Some would call that particular view "karma".
There's no middle here. The people who fraudulently ordered catalogs, were they to be found (of course, there's about as much to go on there as there is in faked headers generated from an attack on an open relay), could be prosecuted. Beyond that, nobody's breaking any laws.