The warning is there because Microsoft can still choose to screw you over for using Mono. You may have an excellent defense (maybe a more substantial one than Google's) and you may win the case, too, but unless you have your own legal teams that get paid whether they're busy or not, you're going to get bankrupted in the process, while Microsoft buys your IP at the fire sale.
No, not being actively opposed to US interests is the key. And that's not a unique position for the US, it's common throughout history to all nations (and people) who have the power to enforce their views.
Nobody wants Iran to have nukes because Iran has been busy painting itself as an irrational radical, possibly just crazy enough to actually lob a nuke at Israel, provoke a major response from the US, and cause a major fire storm across the region to drag us all into another world war.
Given the alternative of dropping a few heavies on Iran's nuclear facilities and causing deaths and unavoidable backlash, I think Stuxnet was nothing short of brilliant in its intent, design, and execution. It just screwed up equipment, nobody died from the damage. I wish all future wars were fought like that, rather than cities lying in ashes and people being crippled or killed by the thousands.
Until Google+ came along I didn't feel spooked by Google's strong presence and pervasive services, but G+ has suddenly made it obvious to me that even if Google claims not to be evil, their policies and actions are fueling and spreading increasing doubt about this claim. It's not what you say, Google, it's what you do.
I, too, am strongly considering migrating away from Google now, all services.
Question to anyone whose Google account has been suspended (for whatever reason): Is the gmail account still accessible and functional via IMAP4/POP3, or is it a total lock-out?
As the copyright holders, it's the publisher's right to determine how they want it distributed, whether they're being smart about it or complete retards. It's their right!
Google's "altruistic" motives, on the other hand, are rather self-serving in this case, and they're telling the publishers that they're wrong, and Google is right. That's rather arrogant of Google.
Oh, you don't want me to rip off your stuff and give it away? Well, I think it's cool stuff and a lot of people would like it, so I'm gonna flip you off and do it anyway.
Didn't Google used to have a motto, something about not being evil? I guess that became a little cumbersome after a while.
A real solution? (a) opt-in rather than opt-out, (b) for every page viewed, pay a tiny amount to the copyright holder.
The text in proprietary software can be patched to change attribution, and viruses can be attached to binaries easily enough. It's just a little easier with software for which the source code is available. Either way, don't "shop" in the wrong place.
I don't think that spite was an issue, but then again I really don't know whether Larry Ellison was punching stuffed birds all this time and cackling, "let the f---ers sweat!"
I suspect rather that Oracle didn't have the ability, willingness, or the guts to revise the source code licensing/assignment restrictions put in place by Sun Microsystems. And maybe they would have liked to, but could not legally resolve the assignments with a change to a more open license. Maybe it took them all this time to realize that they were sort of screwed one way or another and, with most of the OO.o talent leaving for Libre, they couldn't make this work anymore even if they wanted to. Maybe they had just wasted too much time thinking what to do, and maybe it was just easier to pass it on to the Apache Foundation and let them deal with the whole mess of making it work or whatever.
At least Oracle did give OO.o to Apache, instead of hanging onto it forever. The question that concerns me now is not whether they did it out of spite, or whatever the reasons were, but whether Apache can and will help reunited the two code bases. Personally, I'm sticking with Libre, but I hope that eventually the difference between OO and Libre will be merely cosmetic.
In any case, this looks to be a good thing for the community.
If this decision spurs research into clean, renewable energy technologies then it may well turn out to be a good thing down the line.
But this decision looks like a costly knee-jerk reaction to me. Germany is not subject to massive natural disturbances like Japan, so earthquakes and tsunamis aren't an issue, and neither are hurricanes or tornadoes. Shutting down all the nuclear power plants will be extremely costly, because you can't just turn off the switch, throw the whole thing onto the trash heap, and forget about it.
Turbo Pascal 1.0 cost $50 and it compiled almost faster than you could release the compile key. In fact, it was so fast (on a 4.77Mhz 8088) that it took me several minutes to overcome my disbelief. Considering that today's computers are easily 1000 times faster than that, it would seem reasonable that the entire Linux kernel should compile easily in 1 second or less. Except that it doesn't.
It did this by keeping the source in memory. It was also limited to 64KB.com files. But at the time that was plenty, so Turbo Pascal rocked.
I upgraded to a beta of Firefox 5 a few days ago, noticed that the URL no longer included the protocol, and went back immediately to Firefox 4.
If I could have restored that feature, fine, but it looks like Mozilla is trying to force feed me their stupid decisions, and I shall not be a willing participant in that kind of abuse.
The evidence for violating Constitutional law is pretty much there in plain sight. Bush authorized the illegal wiretapping, but everybody is getting away with it if they are up high enough in the food chain. The ones without big friends are getting screwed.
The Bush and Obama (and future) administrations are (and will be) going after whistle blowers with such tenacity and on trumped-up charges because they want to discourage future whistle blowers from exposing the illegal things that the government is doing. They really don't care that they are undermining in that process the very ideals of liberty and freedom that have defined this country, and are setting the stage for an increasingly oppressive state in which people will fiercely mind their own business and let the government do whatever it wants.
On a more abstract level, this kind of prosecution encourages self-censorship from the bottom up, and relieves the government of being the one to impose it from the top down. The government can thus continue to pretend that our freedoms are intact, and most people will see it that way because only the terrorists and their sympathizers would expose the secrets that keep us all safe, right? Deviously clever, really. But it really isn't a government of the people and for the people, unless "the people" is only the big fish in government and industry. It's debatable whether this has always been that way, or is a relatively recent development.
Well, Bush has set the (bad) standard of criminally violating the Constitution in the name of keeping us safe from the terrorists. Obama is in the difficult position of having to be at least as "tough", or he's going to get raped for being soft on terrorists. All that has to happen now is another big attack, and the next president will have to one-up Obama. If it's not already too late, it'll just go straight over the cliff from there.
I'm shocked that we haven't launched prosecutions of most of the Bush Administration over its mis-handling of everything related to security and the Constitution.
You're shocked? Let me guess, you're not the one actually in charge, are you?
As little as about four decades ago not even The President could get away with blatantly violating the law, but Bush did it handily because any expendable fish who blew the whistle got fucked fast and hard and for a long time, and anyone who should have done something to set things straight was already in Bush's pocket. What does that say to you about our leaders?
Looks to me like The Terrorists succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. All they did is nudge us, and we fell right in line.
But we can cry and moan as much as we want to, it's only when people demand better of their representatives, and make enough noise to shake the house, that things have a chance of improving. We got to where we are because We, The People really didn't care enough to call the government on the scare tactics, because we let our elected representatives call the shots, because we elected them again, and we continue to stay quiet as they dismantle our freedoms in the name of security.
Damn right! We should have everything with IP addresses: I want my shoe laces to have IP addresses, and my shoes should be wireless routers, so that I can be alerted on my cell phone when my shoe laces are untied, or when I've stepped in dog shit, or the soles are starting to wear thin. But why stop there, I want IP addresses in each slice of cheese, too, so that I can monitor its nutritional value as it slowly decays in my refrigerator. And my soap dispenser needs to alert me when the soap is running low. And the floor boards in my house need to alert me to moisture content and progressive warping issues as I walk on them. And,... and,...
Ah! So it's okay for Americans to force their beliefs on people, but not for others.
I should think that there is a clear difference between forcing our belief on others that people should not be oppressed, injured, or even killed, versus forcing the spread of beliefs that support such ugliness.
Icarus does not plan for a human crew. It's all robotic.
Also, similar to Project Daedalus on which Project Icarus builds, this is predominantly a concept to research the actual feasibility of going to another star using what science, technology, and production capability we have today as opposed to back in the 1970s.
Project Daedalus did not plan for a reverse Oberth maneuver at the destination star, but would shoot past it. Icarus plans to achieve orbit at the destination star. Also, I do not know what acceleration forces and temperature extremes the craft would be subjected to in order to reach a speed of 0.12c or slow down again at the other end of the trip, but given those requirements and our technical limitations at this point (not to mention the utter uncertainties of what we find there, or not find), a human crew might simply not fit into the mission profile.
It will be quite a bit less time than four billion years before life on Earth becomes increasingly uncomfortable: By the time that another 500 million years have passed the sun will be producing about 10% more heat, drastically reducing the availability of liquid water on Earth's surface.
Yes, 500 million years is a long time, it's about as long as fish have existed, and longer than plants on land. It's about 8 times longer than the dinosaurs have been extinct, but from the beginning of life on Earth to the end of it in about 500 million years, we're down to the final 10 or 15 percent of the remaining span of comfort.
Add to that the pressure of a dense population competing for natural resources, and the the impact of their waste on the environment, and I think we can either sit around and squabble for grub until the end of time, or export our exciting life style to another world before things get too crazy back here at home.
Slashdot Mirror
The warning is there because Microsoft can still choose to screw you over for using Mono. You may have an excellent defense (maybe a more substantial one than Google's) and you may win the case, too, but unless you have your own legal teams that get paid whether they're busy or not, you're going to get bankrupted in the process, while Microsoft buys your IP at the fire sale.
No, not being actively opposed to US interests is the key. And that's not a unique position for the US, it's common throughout history to all nations (and people) who have the power to enforce their views.
Nobody wants Iran to have nukes because Iran has been busy painting itself as an irrational radical, possibly just crazy enough to actually lob a nuke at Israel, provoke a major response from the US, and cause a major fire storm across the region to drag us all into another world war.
Given the alternative of dropping a few heavies on Iran's nuclear facilities and causing deaths and unavoidable backlash, I think Stuxnet was nothing short of brilliant in its intent, design, and execution. It just screwed up equipment, nobody died from the damage. I wish all future wars were fought like that, rather than cities lying in ashes and people being crippled or killed by the thousands.
Until Google+ came along I didn't feel spooked by Google's strong presence and pervasive services, but G+ has suddenly made it obvious to me that even if Google claims not to be evil, their policies and actions are fueling and spreading increasing doubt about this claim. It's not what you say, Google, it's what you do.
I, too, am strongly considering migrating away from Google now, all services.
Question to anyone whose Google account has been suspended (for whatever reason): Is the gmail account still accessible and functional via IMAP4/POP3, or is it a total lock-out?
As the copyright holders, it's the publisher's right to determine how they want it distributed, whether they're being smart about it or complete retards. It's their right!
Google's "altruistic" motives, on the other hand, are rather self-serving in this case, and they're telling the publishers that they're wrong, and Google is right. That's rather arrogant of Google.
Oh, you don't want me to rip off your stuff and give it away? Well, I think it's cool stuff and a lot of people would like it, so I'm gonna flip you off and do it anyway.
Didn't Google used to have a motto, something about not being evil? I guess that became a little cumbersome after a while.
A real solution? (a) opt-in rather than opt-out, (b) for every page viewed, pay a tiny amount to the copyright holder.
The text in proprietary software can be patched to change attribution, and viruses can be attached to binaries easily enough. It's just a little easier with software for which the source code is available. Either way, don't "shop" in the wrong place.
Brown Scream of Despair (BSoD), of course.
+1 :-)
I swear, it's written on a tiny, tiny grain of sand that got blown out of the window and is now somewhere in the back yard ...
Bravo. Warned twice already? I wish that anti-social behavior were outed like this more often.
No cruel and unusual punishment, but either one by itself is permitted. Logic says we're screwed.
I don't think that spite was an issue, but then again I really don't know whether Larry Ellison was punching stuffed birds all this time and cackling, "let the f---ers sweat!"
I suspect rather that Oracle didn't have the ability, willingness, or the guts to revise the source code licensing/assignment restrictions put in place by Sun Microsystems. And maybe they would have liked to, but could not legally resolve the assignments with a change to a more open license. Maybe it took them all this time to realize that they were sort of screwed one way or another and, with most of the OO.o talent leaving for Libre, they couldn't make this work anymore even if they wanted to. Maybe they had just wasted too much time thinking what to do, and maybe it was just easier to pass it on to the Apache Foundation and let them deal with the whole mess of making it work or whatever.
At least Oracle did give OO.o to Apache, instead of hanging onto it forever. The question that concerns me now is not whether they did it out of spite, or whatever the reasons were, but whether Apache can and will help reunited the two code bases. Personally, I'm sticking with Libre, but I hope that eventually the difference between OO and Libre will be merely cosmetic.
In any case, this looks to be a good thing for the community.
If this decision spurs research into clean, renewable energy technologies then it may well turn out to be a good thing down the line.
But this decision looks like a costly knee-jerk reaction to me. Germany is not subject to massive natural disturbances like Japan, so earthquakes and tsunamis aren't an issue, and neither are hurricanes or tornadoes. Shutting down all the nuclear power plants will be extremely costly, because you can't just turn off the switch, throw the whole thing onto the trash heap, and forget about it.
Turbo Pascal 1.0 cost $50 and it compiled almost faster than you could release the compile key. In fact, it was so fast (on a 4.77Mhz 8088) that it took me several minutes to overcome my disbelief. Considering that today's computers are easily 1000 times faster than that, it would seem reasonable that the entire Linux kernel should compile easily in 1 second or less. Except that it doesn't.
It did this by keeping the source in memory. It was also limited to 64KB .com files. But at the time that was plenty, so Turbo Pascal rocked.
I upgraded to a beta of Firefox 5 a few days ago, noticed that the URL no longer included the protocol, and went back immediately to Firefox 4.
If I could have restored that feature, fine, but it looks like Mozilla is trying to force feed me their stupid decisions, and I shall not be a willing participant in that kind of abuse.
June of ... WHAT YEAR?!
The evidence for violating Constitutional law is pretty much there in plain sight. Bush authorized the illegal wiretapping, but everybody is getting away with it if they are up high enough in the food chain. The ones without big friends are getting screwed.
The Bush and Obama (and future) administrations are (and will be) going after whistle blowers with such tenacity and on trumped-up charges because they want to discourage future whistle blowers from exposing the illegal things that the government is doing. They really don't care that they are undermining in that process the very ideals of liberty and freedom that have defined this country, and are setting the stage for an increasingly oppressive state in which people will fiercely mind their own business and let the government do whatever it wants.
On a more abstract level, this kind of prosecution encourages self-censorship from the bottom up, and relieves the government of being the one to impose it from the top down. The government can thus continue to pretend that our freedoms are intact, and most people will see it that way because only the terrorists and their sympathizers would expose the secrets that keep us all safe, right? Deviously clever, really. But it really isn't a government of the people and for the people, unless "the people" is only the big fish in government and industry. It's debatable whether this has always been that way, or is a relatively recent development.
Well, Bush has set the (bad) standard of criminally violating the Constitution in the name of keeping us safe from the terrorists. Obama is in the difficult position of having to be at least as "tough", or he's going to get raped for being soft on terrorists. All that has to happen now is another big attack, and the next president will have to one-up Obama. If it's not already too late, it'll just go straight over the cliff from there.
I'm shocked that we haven't launched prosecutions of most of the Bush Administration over its mis-handling of everything related to security and the Constitution.
You're shocked? Let me guess, you're not the one actually in charge, are you?
As little as about four decades ago not even The President could get away with blatantly violating the law, but Bush did it handily because any expendable fish who blew the whistle got fucked fast and hard and for a long time, and anyone who should have done something to set things straight was already in Bush's pocket. What does that say to you about our leaders?
Looks to me like The Terrorists succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. All they did is nudge us, and we fell right in line.
But we can cry and moan as much as we want to, it's only when people demand better of their representatives, and make enough noise to shake the house, that things have a chance of improving. We got to where we are because We, The People really didn't care enough to call the government on the scare tactics, because we let our elected representatives call the shots, because we elected them again, and we continue to stay quiet as they dismantle our freedoms in the name of security.
Sheep on!
(Or will you look up, and stop the slide?)
Damn right! We should have everything with IP addresses: I want my shoe laces to have IP addresses, and my shoes should be wireless routers, so that I can be alerted on my cell phone when my shoe laces are untied, or when I've stepped in dog shit, or the soles are starting to wear thin. But why stop there, I want IP addresses in each slice of cheese, too, so that I can monitor its nutritional value as it slowly decays in my refrigerator. And my soap dispenser needs to alert me when the soap is running low. And the floor boards in my house need to alert me to moisture content and progressive warping issues as I walk on them. And, ... and, ...
/groan
Oh, let's all be sensible, logical, responsible, practical!
I should think that there is a clear difference between forcing our belief on others that people should not be oppressed, injured, or even killed, versus forcing the spread of beliefs that support such ugliness.
Icarus does not plan for a human crew. It's all robotic.
Also, similar to Project Daedalus on which Project Icarus builds, this is predominantly a concept to research the actual feasibility of going to another star using what science, technology, and production capability we have today as opposed to back in the 1970s.
Project Daedalus did not plan for a reverse Oberth maneuver at the destination star, but would shoot past it. Icarus plans to achieve orbit at the destination star. Also, I do not know what acceleration forces and temperature extremes the craft would be subjected to in order to reach a speed of 0.12c or slow down again at the other end of the trip, but given those requirements and our technical limitations at this point (not to mention the utter uncertainties of what we find there, or not find), a human crew might simply not fit into the mission profile.
Icarus aimed too high, too fast, too soon. We have better "wax" these days, and hindsight to guide our planning.
The meek shall inherit the Earth, the rest of us shall take the stars!
It will be quite a bit less time than four billion years before life on Earth becomes increasingly uncomfortable: By the time that another 500 million years have passed the sun will be producing about 10% more heat, drastically reducing the availability of liquid water on Earth's surface.
Yes, 500 million years is a long time, it's about as long as fish have existed, and longer than plants on land. It's about 8 times longer than the dinosaurs have been extinct, but from the beginning of life on Earth to the end of it in about 500 million years, we're down to the final 10 or 15 percent of the remaining span of comfort.
Add to that the pressure of a dense population competing for natural resources, and the the impact of their waste on the environment, and I think we can either sit around and squabble for grub until the end of time, or export our exciting life style to another world before things get too crazy back here at home.