In that respect make sure you get the WRT54GL version.
Cisco, has gutted the normal WRT54G and so far has destroyed its quality and usefulness. (Much like the crap it sells anyway.) They have pulled out the memory, destroyed the ability to put better antennas on the unit, etc.
In short, they want to make sure they get as much money as possible, and your wireless sucks ass.
CISCO has SO FAR left the WRT54GL alone, and it is an exceptional beast, once you flash it with dd-wrt.
Pick the voip generic package. (dd-wrt.v24_voip_generic.bin )
Then select the.bin file above as the target flash upgrade in the normal admin page for the WRT54GL.
Wait 5 minutes for the process to complete, and try to pull a web page from it. If you get a web page, wipe the config with the resessed button on the back of the unit, wait 2 minutes, then power cycle the unit.
It should come up as 192.168.1.1 and login with "root" and "admin" as the password.
Personally, I do not see any problem with modifying traffic for whatever reason THE CUSTOMER WHO IS PAYING THE BILL has.
For the provider to do so smacks of WAY too much power in the hands of a few people to manipulate information.
I mean, look at what they are doing to people now with that power, such as injecting banners and adds into html streams and other extra crap that actually creates MORE problems.
With all due respect, traffic should be managed at the end points by the customer and the ISP's should concentrate on providing as much bandwidth as possible upstream.
Not trying to restrict it so they do not have to be competitive with other providers.
Which, if you live in the US, this whole situation is very dangerous as there are not only a VERY LIMITED choice of ISP's to pick from.
Free markets work when the customer really DOES have a choice.
In the USA anyhow, this is increasingly not the case, and in response the providers are starting to put all sorts of things in the service architecture that businesses do not want, do not need.
This is a dangerous trend, and if it continues the result is going to be exceptionally high prices, very low service quality due to filtering by the ISP to maximize profit.
How can an idiot like this write a response to these issues like this when this stuff is already reality in some areas?
...seem to be centered around whether or not this is actual progress to sell tools for free.
I think this is entirely missing the point.
Nobody has pointed out so far that the tool sets come with the source code.
This is one reason why commercial tools cannot compete with open source.
No source=innovation at a snails pace.
Companies cannot compete against the large number of available engineers on the internet.
Something else to consider is motivation.
When people see a tool they want to fix right in the commercial space they may tell the company about it, but ultimately the company will decide if a bug gets fixed, or a feature gets added.
That is a fundamental disadvantage when a developer using a open source tool can rebuild the tool with his feature added, by himself.
Usually passion is what drives the developer and practical need rather than a marketing plan to make these changes.
So the engineering, the fundamental design tends to improve or be a lot better with open Source projects.
Then of course there is shame. When I publish code on the internet, it is no where NEAR the crap I keep privately. My database tables are always properly indexed and in correct normalized form as well as the API and code that follows very good java doc api rules and correct object design methodologies. (I am a fan of the Yourdon method. Not surprising, he is also one of my favorite authors.)
Then there is the fact that it doesn't take much to make a patch from a subversion source tree. It is easy.
All in all though, this simply means more writing on the wall that selling software as a license per copy cannot be the only way to generate revenue, and the market continues to move in that direction.
Exclaiming that the sky is falling simply because a particular company wants the world to stand still and do "business as usual" is not an excuse to whine about open source.
If you support the idea of strict IP, then the world will increasingly concentrate wealth into fewer and fewer hands.
You know, we already have plenty of mechanisms to keep the poor and the powerless in misery.
We do not need Intellectual Property rights.
I would like to point out, that the way society progresses, is to NOT have IP of any kind.
The internet, and its success is built upon that assumption.
This sort of IP, that we have now, is based on the idea that a bunch of "Fat Kats" sit around all day long and do nothing, except collect a check for royalties. They contribute nothing to society because they do not make anything with the ideas they posses and keep locked up. In FACT, it is bad for business to have things materialize from "ideas". You should only license one time you know. So you want to insure you VERY slowly license ideas and at the same time make it very expensive.
I see IP as people blood sucking on society plain and simple. It sort of brings back the days of Louis XIV of France. Check that out for details.
For a more productive view of IP, all IP should be open and unrestricted. The ideas people take, are then given form, and the labor to do that should form the basis of the economy in my opinion.
That way a sort of "its important to be first" drives innovation, and it must be a continual one of innovation as some people will inevitably try and make a short buck, by just copying the product.
Obviously technology, science, society advances VERY quickly in this sort of context.
But, back to the present, things move MUCH more slowly. I still get a kick out of people on the street sometimes. Wow, Toyota America is introducing a car called the PRIUS that gets a whopping 60 MPG!!!
What a big advance.
LOL
Anyway, I would like to point out, besides the blood sucker part of this idea of "owning intellectual property" rights the worse is the fact nobody can drive innovation except those that have all the cash.
Why is that you say? Well, because by definition, if you cannot afford the license to purchase the idea, you can't make whatever it is you want to make legally.
So we have this definition of "innovation" in the computer industry right now.
30 years now from research to everyday use we have been doing the graphical ICONS and MOUSE thing with pretty much NO ADVANCE in interfaces between humans and machines.
Why do you think that is? Here is a homework assignment for you. Go to the library and study the history of user interface design from about the time of Xerox Park, to now and pay attention to the patents issued in the trail you follow. Pay also close attention to the touch screen patent history.
Then ask yourself this question: "When could we have had a better user interface like touch, that everyone is going crazy about in just the past few years."
That should be most enlightening.
In fact, if we had the same Intellectual property laws as we did at the time Newton published his Principia. We would probably still be running around in horse and buggies as anyone who read it, would be put in jail for not having a license for duplication or use.
Sort of like what we do to people who copy DVD's today. Imprison members of society because they copied a DVD.
EBooks are next of course....
This is the direction these E-Book sellars want us to go in. Buy one of our nice E Book readers so it becomes popular like Windows, and you cannot read anything, eventually if you do not buy one.
Well, not read anything "legally" in fact without a proper license.
But the reason why we have these laws in my opinion is this:
1) People believe that if they could just stop working, and not do anything except wait for a check in the mail, they would achieve some sort of Nirvana and be happy.
That is of course a fallacy.
2) People are inherently lazy. Laziness extends from not doing what we want to do because we have
Yes and then I hear they are going to turn it into a Al Gore vehicle and make the movie about global warming.
Good God.
Since most of the people behind the funding for Global Warming are the Oil companies anyway, you would think the whole "system" is making enough money off of that contrived research.
Want a free PhD? Just do research on Shell or Exxon's technology to reduce global warming.
Make me sick. If you are doing that sort of research by the way...
YOU SUCK IT.
Now where was I....
It would have been nice to update the movie with stuff like thousands of civilized worlds living in peace with societies accomplishing a great deal in our galaxy....then panning to the earth where we basically don't do sh*t and waste our lives trying to buy things, kill things and destroy and control things for a buck. They have a big meeting about US and decide they should intervene before we get to far accomplished in space technology to spread this vile disease of violence.
To facilitate that, they have Gort come down and destroy all of the major corporations on the planet and teach us a lesson.
Happy Ending.:-)
But to take a movie that has so much reverence and destroy the plot by changing the movie and keeping the title is blasphemous.
Seems like Hollywood is almost SCARED of the challenge to remake such a fine movie of the past so they have to make it different.
If you are feeling your job or career is not rewarding, tedious and boring, it probably means you have an over controlling micro managing boss like I have.
The only reason why I put up with this idiot (in I.T. terms) is that he is a personal friend of mine from high school, that I have known for a long time.
Secondly, in 16 months I am re-entering the academic realm, UW-Madison. So I HAVE TO put up with the idiot as I stuff checks away in the bank account and prepare to renter school at the ripe old age of 41.
But I digress, and really your problem is my problem. The people I work with particularly have very low skill sets. Nothing will tank your day, after a "boss" like my friend unilaterally decides he wants to move the primary linux router in the computer room, and plugs the thing into the wall outlet.
When, I would like to point out, this "boss" of mine spent 3K in UPS equipment and just decided the router doesn't need to be plugged into a UPS because he IS THE BOSS.
Meanwhile, my pager goes off at 2AM because the entire company is down as a result. Lots of brown outs at night in my area.
Ok, so then I install tc QoS controls on all the routers so that our new sipxpbx phone system gets the bandwidth it needs to function correctly, and this "boss" decides: "The QoS policies are not working properly, so I will just turn them off." He can't explain why though they are not working. (i.e. He can't understand no matter how many times I explain it, how QoS works on a computer network. He also doesn't like the term Stochastic Fairness Queueing. This frightens "boss" so he turns it off.)
1 Week later the guy installs a video surveillance system pumping video over the wan links to monitor workers. Thats fine.
But the idiot turned off the QoS policies and as a result the video system basically took over the computer network and killed all of the terminal server sessions at, you guessed it, 2AM in the morning when the supervisor was told to try it out when he got into work at the remote site.
Now, this "boss" friend of mine wasn't hired into this position as a manager. He was simply hired first, thats ALL. If he actually had to go out and compete with people for a IT management position, he would be eaten alive. (2 year tech school degree and his previous occupation was working on phone systems.)
Now if that isn't enough to make you quit, get burned out or find your job is absolutely FUTILE, I do not know what is and that is just two items off of a list of probably 10 things this guys has done in just the past year to make everyones life miserable.
The only thing that keeps me going is open source. I get to work on open source stuff all the time so I can find solace and make my own little world here at work.
That is perhaps what you need to do yourself. Find something that you can work on that isn't a drag because other people are stupid and therefore frustrate your goals.
Otherwise people like this "boss" friend of mine will drive you crazy, and make you feel like your just spinning your wheels and not getting anything accomplished.
Well, that and Slashdot because if I didn't have the community here to write too, I think I would probably freak and you would see me on Fox News or something.
"Network Manager Goes Freaky, Next on Fox N Friends in the Morning".:-)
In my opinion this is in direct conflict with the goals of the OLPC project. (i.e. Included closed source options as platforms for the laptop).
Lets re-examine the issues with respect to the OLPC more subtle goals:
1) To provide a foundation for poor countries to develop technology in ways in which they can contribute, as a whole to the world of open source.
This is why Linux was included. The barrier for development in the Linux world is usually lots of time and elbow grease. Not huge cash withdrawals AND lots of time and elbow grease to vendors.
Given this fact, young people will be exposed to a technology they can home grow themselves in their own countries.
Pray tell, how will they do that if closed systems are attached to the laptop?
In my opinion, this is just another way for the West and its corrupt software industries to get their claws into the developing world with an unfair advantage.
2) The industrial infrastructure of most poor countries is non existent. Whether it be due to lack of materials, lack of resources or lack of food.
To keep costs low, the OLPC project included Linux so that infrastructure could be grown with the lowest common denominator that is practically possible.
(i.e. For example mesh 802.11/Mesh networking).
This was recognized immediately, so that OLPC laptops could serve as relay points for "infrastructure in a box" to be constructed, by children.
Personally, the invocation of closed systems into the design of the software or the hardware of the project introduces a tax on this sort of infrastructure long term and caps its growth. This tax obviously would be in the form of licensing fees for development tools to continue or grow whatever closed system was put on the laptop in the first place.
I believe that many of the industrialists in the west are terrified of Africa, Gates and his ilk included. An Industrialized and developed African continent that can support itself would be more competition.
Everyone knows how Gates LOVES competition do we not? So I see the introductions of Windows here as a not so subtle attempt at sabotaging the project before it got off the ground.
3) OLPC laptop is fundamentally not just about getting laptops in the hands of children. It is really about technology introduction at a time in the development of a child that sparks maximum interest.
One of the key strengths here is that this technology, OPEN SOURCE not CLOSED appeals to a childs interest to take things apart and see how they work. Not just the unit itself, but the software which makes the OLPC laptop actually useful.
No doubt, versions of the firmware will be whacked apart and there will be gaming OLPC's, educational ones, and ones that have compilers on them as the product flushes itself out.
With millions of children, if only 2% actually decide to get into programming, that will be enough to sustain the population with useful software.
This has nothing to do with Microsoft helping, this fact alone is what concerns Microsoft. Children very young and impressionable understanding they really can use technology in some way to change the lives in the village they live in, without a slave tax to Redmond like 90% of the developed world.
Self determination is not something Industrialists like, unless of course, they have determined they own 99% of the market.
4) Quite frankly, and this final point I would like to make is that the authors original comment that thinks the Linux operating system kernel was included just to be technically smart, is misleading.
As I stated above, Linux does not just embody a technically smart piece of software in the form of a Operating System Kernel.
It embodies a belief system called the GPL. Fundamental to this belief system is the following:
To improve and scale software the GPL is charged with providing the following three mantras, which if not taken together cannot achieve the stated goals of the GPL
Yes, but I would remind you that the same applies to closed systems as well.
Open systems do not have that sort of baggage closed systems have in the same category. (Secret changes to the source code that cannot be reviewed for example with Back Doors built into them.)
Security cannot be achieved with closed source or closed hardware. The problem of security is too difficult, so it is best to create a "culture" of security based around a simple set of rules:
1) All software implemented in Network Systems must be open and source code must be peer reviewed on a regular basis.
2)Hardware should be as generic as possible and should be built upon agreed standards so you can mix and match components.
3) Cultural security is laid at the foundations of software and hardware. Once everyone knows the foundations any single individual or group will find it very hard to con an entire community.
Even if they succeed it will not take long for the culture to detect the deception.
Personally, I am glad the Chinese are screwing Cisco. Remember folks, we are talking about the same company that sold the Chinese government a ton of security products to hunt down and kill/torture or imprison political dissidents.
Last year I got rid of the final pieces of Cisco gear in my network and everything is working just fine with Open Source equivalents.
I peer review my own patch updates, and follow the lists carefully as the comminity as a whole deals with coding the upgrades.
First of all, to end your message with a tongue and cheek response of "let me know if you find a better business model", is the worse ending in hubris I have ever seen.
Do you honestly expect open source community members to accept that ludicrous excuse? The community did not put the company up for sale and now that you did, your looking for US to fix this major gaffe on your part?
Secondly, this move is fundamentally against what built MySQL in the first place. It is with a total disregard for the validity of peer review, the cornerstone of what makes well engineered software better than commercial software in the open source world, that personally got me upset as a end user.
I can only image what this is doing to the developers.
PostGRES anyone?
It would have been better if you would have not responded as it just makes it that much more infuriating.
I think a majority of the people here are confused.
The premise is that the ethics of writing a EULA which forces a person to accept terms which are plain unreasonable, combined with software that on purpose disables something you bought, and paid for is stupid.
If you click OK, well, you ARE STUPID. Sorry if that is a strong term for most to swallow.
I look back on half of the posts here and most of them are way off on a tangent claiming I never did this or that with EULA's, never owned or used an iPhone....etc. (All false by the way.)
That really is not the point either.
What is more stupid is buying stuff from manufacturers that can turn off your communications at will, or disable things you paid for, for example like your computer.
Furthermore, people totally missed the point of the term "brick".
If you are out in the desert and you do not have your sdk/computer handy to restore the iPhone, and it is disabled, it effectively is bricked. Really no difference there in the terminology, just the context. There is a cell tower nearby of course, but that won't do you much good will it? (A rather hungry looking set of Vultures are sitting on the tower too.....others are circling your position.....and of course, also want an iPhone and will probably get one.....
In time of course....but Vultures are VERY patient birds and the typical iPhone user is very very easy to kill with no food or water nearby.:-)
Not only that but the whole basis for refinery capacity and oil scarcity I think is going to have to be seriously reconsidered.
Primarily due to the fact that Hydro carbons have been revealed to be plentiful throughout the solar system and it would appear that oil, gas and many other hydrocarbons are of geologic origin.
I suspect, once we have the technology and the Russians have proven we do, to get down 20,000 feet or more
This isn't some bad manufacturing defect or a hardware problem. This software was PRGRAMMED by Apple to SELF DESTRUCT and ON PURPOSE leave you with no alternative.
Do you think I am a child?
Of COURSE Apple's systems engineers understood this!
Apples developers knew EXACTLY what would happen.
What next? This is just OK for these sorts of restrictions to be placed in everything from your TV to your cars firmware?
How about your friggin Pacemaker?
It is NEVER acceptable to build code into a product to make it self destruct.
Thats the point, and the point IS it IS unethical.
I believe that people are getting incredibly stupid about all this EULA terms of service.
I mean, on the Apple forums I am seeing posts "Well, they turned my $800 dollar phone into a brick, but schucks, I guess I deserve it because it is in the EULA."
I mean people go BERZERK over Microsoft shutting down their systems after upgrades and their keys fail to match the hardware anymore so Vista doesn't boot.
Apple users are just happy and content they spent $800 bucks it would seem for a phone and the company just turned it off, with no recourse.
I can see it now: "Damn, stuck out in nowhere with a flat tire.....Darn...looks like my EULA is gone, so I will have to die out here in the heat. Darn, but I guess I deserve it."
Absolutely amazing. I wonder if the EULA comes with a agreement that your IQ must be reduced to a 2 year old?
The only person who is ever going to shut my phone or PC off is going to be me and when I and only I hit the off button.
Next generation hardware that is patent encumbered and will require a lawyer and several court proceedings for anyone and everyone to get their data back.
I mean come on, when is the industry going to figure out we do not need proprietary, closed storage solutions that are a rehash of the old IBM AS/400 days when you could only buy super expensive IBM gear.
No thanks I will take my open code and commodity hardware and build solutions that will kick this patented solutions arse at 1/100th the cost.
Besides, if these features are really worth their salt the open source community will provide them sooner or later. Preferably in Europe where these silly patent claims that this product is so unique nobody could possibly figure it out, gimme a lot of money because I am brilliant.
Not brilliant and not worth the cost in my opinion. (Both in restrictions due to the patents and infrastructure choices this product imposes and the cost in currency).
Oh you mean like the way they claim they use open standards, and as a example cite they participate in open satndards procedural bodies while at the same time closing markets, getting sued by the billions by the european union for doing exactly the opposite?
Slashdot Mirror
I was raised on it. :-)
Green, a bright green on a very black background is incredibly easy to read for me.
A close tie for second is yellow on black and orange on black.
-Hack
Ok, so many have tried, all have failed.
It may take a decade to test the assertions that this so called proof attempts to demonstrate.
Perhaps we could give the guy a consolation prize, wait for the work to be "proven" wrong and then off course, issue an Apology:
http://www.math.purdue.edu/~branges/apology.pdf :-)
-Hack
PS: Does anyone find it STRANGE that the guy who can solve this problem has issues finding a job?
WTF?
Yes, that should not be a problem.
First however, you need a decent router:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124190&nm_mc=OTC-Froogle&cm_mmc=OTC-Froogle-_-Network+-+Wireless+Routers-_-LINKSYS-_-33124190
In that respect make sure you get the WRT54GL version.
Cisco, has gutted the normal WRT54G and so far has destroyed its quality and usefulness. (Much like the crap it sells anyway.) They have pulled out the memory, destroyed the ability to put better antennas on the unit, etc.
In short, they want to make sure they get as much money as possible, and your wireless sucks ass.
CISCO has SO FAR left the WRT54GL alone, and it is an exceptional beast, once you flash it with dd-wrt.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php
You want the package in this directory:
http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv2/down.php?path=downloads%2Fv24%2FBroadcom%2FLinksys%2FWRT54GL_1.1/
Pick the voip generic package. (dd-wrt.v24_voip_generic.bin )
Then select the .bin file above as the target flash upgrade in the normal admin page for the WRT54GL.
Wait 5 minutes for the process to complete, and try to pull a web page from it. If you get a web page, wipe the config with the resessed button on the back of the unit, wait 2 minutes, then power cycle the unit.
It should come up as 192.168.1.1 and login with "root" and "admin" as the password.
-Hack
Its....sniff.......ahem....beautiful man.....sniff....just ...just beautiful.
Oh God anyone got a hanky?
-Hack
His opinion.
Personally, I do not see any problem with modifying traffic for whatever reason THE CUSTOMER WHO IS PAYING THE BILL has.
For the provider to do so smacks of WAY too much power in the hands of a few people to manipulate information.
I mean, look at what they are doing to people now with that power, such as injecting banners and adds into html streams and other extra crap that actually creates MORE problems.
With all due respect, traffic should be managed at the end points by the customer and the ISP's should concentrate on providing as much bandwidth as possible upstream.
Not trying to restrict it so they do not have to be competitive with other providers.
Which, if you live in the US, this whole situation is very dangerous as there are not only a VERY LIMITED choice of ISP's to pick from.
Free markets work when the customer really DOES have a choice.
In the USA anyhow, this is increasingly not the case, and in response the providers are starting to put all sorts of things in the service architecture that businesses do not want, do not need.
This is a dangerous trend, and if it continues the result is going to be exceptionally high prices, very low service quality due to filtering by the ISP to maximize profit.
How can an idiot like this write a response to these issues like this when this stuff is already reality in some areas?
-Hack
...seem to be centered around whether or not this is actual progress to sell tools for free.
I think this is entirely missing the point.
Nobody has pointed out so far that the tool sets come with the source code.
This is one reason why commercial tools cannot compete with open source.
No source=innovation at a snails pace.
Companies cannot compete against the large number of available engineers on the internet.
Something else to consider is motivation.
When people see a tool they want to fix right in the commercial space they may tell the company about it, but ultimately the company will decide if a bug gets fixed, or a feature gets added.
That is a fundamental disadvantage when a developer using a open source tool can rebuild the tool with his feature added, by himself.
Usually passion is what drives the developer and practical need rather than a marketing plan to make these changes.
So the engineering, the fundamental design tends to improve or be a lot better with open Source projects.
Then of course there is shame. When I publish code on the internet, it is no where NEAR the crap I keep privately. My database tables are always properly indexed and in correct normalized form as well as the API and code that follows very good java doc api rules and correct object design methodologies. (I am a fan of the Yourdon method. Not surprising, he is also one of my favorite authors.)
Then there is the fact that it doesn't take much to make a patch from a subversion source tree. It is easy.
All in all though, this simply means more writing on the wall that selling software as a license per copy cannot be the only way to generate revenue, and the market continues to move in that direction.
Exclaiming that the sky is falling simply because a particular company wants the world to stand still and do "business as usual" is not an excuse to whine about open source.
-Hack
Well, and I had hopes that since Alienware was bought by DELL, things would improve.
Guess not.
Alienware's hardware and support is REALLY bad.
So I suspect DELL has some of its own house to clean first before it makes any improvement on Alienwares.
Meanwhile people's new Alienware 4K laptops are burning up and the cases are cracking from the thermal expansion of the case.
Tons of overheating and quality control issues for a 4 THOUSAND dollar laptop.
Yikes!!
-Hack
If you support the idea of strict IP, then the world will increasingly concentrate wealth into fewer and fewer hands.
You know, we already have plenty of mechanisms to keep the poor and the powerless in misery.
We do not need Intellectual Property rights.
I would like to point out, that the way society progresses, is to NOT have IP of any kind.
The internet, and its success is built upon that assumption.
This sort of IP, that we have now, is based on the idea that a bunch of "Fat Kats" sit around all day long and do nothing, except collect a check for royalties. They contribute nothing to society because they do not make anything with the ideas they posses and keep locked up. In FACT, it is bad for business to have things materialize from "ideas". You should only license one time you know. So you want to insure you VERY slowly license ideas and at the same time make it very expensive.
I see IP as people blood sucking on society plain and simple. It sort of brings back the days of Louis XIV of France. Check that out for details.
For a more productive view of IP, all IP should be open and unrestricted. The ideas people take, are then given form, and the labor to do that should form the basis of the economy in my opinion.
That way a sort of "its important to be first" drives innovation, and it must be a continual one of innovation as some people will inevitably try and make a short buck, by just copying the product.
Obviously technology, science, society advances VERY quickly in this sort of context.
But, back to the present, things move MUCH more slowly. I still get a kick out of people on the street sometimes. Wow, Toyota America is introducing a car called the PRIUS that gets a whopping 60 MPG!!!
What a big advance.
LOL
Anyway, I would like to point out, besides the blood sucker part of this idea of "owning intellectual property" rights the worse is the fact nobody can drive innovation except those that have all the cash.
Why is that you say? Well, because by definition, if you cannot afford the license to purchase the idea, you can't make whatever it is you want to make legally.
So we have this definition of "innovation" in the computer industry right now.
30 years now from research to everyday use we have been doing the graphical ICONS and MOUSE thing with pretty much NO ADVANCE in interfaces between humans and machines.
Why do you think that is? Here is a homework assignment for you. Go to the library and study the history of user interface design from about the time of Xerox Park, to now and pay attention to the patents issued in the trail you follow. Pay also close attention to the touch screen patent history.
Then ask yourself this question: "When could we have had a better user interface like touch, that everyone is going crazy about in just the past few years."
That should be most enlightening.
In fact, if we had the same Intellectual property laws as we did at the time Newton published his Principia. We would probably still be running around in horse and buggies as anyone who read it, would be put in jail for not having a license for duplication or use.
Sort of like what we do to people who copy DVD's today. Imprison members of society because they copied a DVD.
EBooks are next of course....
This is the direction these E-Book sellars want us to go in. Buy one of our nice E Book readers so it becomes popular like Windows, and you cannot read anything, eventually if you do not buy one.
Well, not read anything "legally" in fact without a proper license.
But the reason why we have these laws in my opinion is this:
1) People believe that if they could just stop working, and not do anything except wait for a check in the mail, they would achieve some sort of Nirvana and be happy.
That is of course a fallacy.
2) People are inherently lazy. Laziness extends from not doing what we want to do because we have
Yes and then I hear they are going to turn it into a Al Gore vehicle and make the movie about global warming.
:-)
Good God.
Since most of the people behind the funding for Global Warming are the Oil companies anyway, you would think the whole "system" is making enough money off of that contrived research.
Want a free PhD? Just do research on Shell or Exxon's technology to reduce global warming.
Make me sick. If you are doing that sort of research by the way...
YOU SUCK IT.
Now where was I....
It would have been nice to update the movie with stuff like thousands of civilized worlds living in peace with societies accomplishing a great deal in our galaxy....then panning to the earth where we basically don't do sh*t and waste our lives trying to buy things, kill things and destroy and control things for a buck. They have a big meeting about US and decide they should intervene before we get to far accomplished in space technology to spread this vile disease of violence.
To facilitate that, they have Gort come down and destroy all of the major corporations on the planet and teach us a lesson.
Happy Ending.
But to take a movie that has so much reverence and destroy the plot by changing the movie and keeping the title is blasphemous.
Seems like Hollywood is almost SCARED of the challenge to remake such a fine movie of the past so they have to make it different.
-Hack
A method, for the rich and powerful to keep the poor in their place by charging for materials that normally poor have access to for self education.
This allows the poor to become more educated, which of course must be stopped.
Why not institute a method to reprint everything in a electronic format that only can be bought and sold.
Can't buy it or license it, you can not legally learn anything.
Sounds like a perfect plan for 21st century feudalism.
-Hack
How can the GPLv2 which essentially is a public domain license with a few twists of ownership thrown in, violate Anti Trust laws?
Freaks!
I say they can run, but they cannot hide.
-Hack
If you are feeling your job or career is not rewarding, tedious and boring, it probably means you have an over controlling micro managing boss like I have.
:-)
The only reason why I put up with this idiot (in I.T. terms) is that he is a personal friend of mine from high school, that I have known for a long time.
Secondly, in 16 months I am re-entering the academic realm, UW-Madison. So I HAVE TO put up with the idiot as I stuff checks away in the bank account and prepare to renter school at the ripe old age of 41.
But I digress, and really your problem is my problem. The people I work with particularly have very low skill sets. Nothing will tank your day, after a "boss" like my friend unilaterally decides he wants to move the primary linux router in the computer room, and plugs the thing into the wall outlet.
When, I would like to point out, this "boss" of mine spent 3K in UPS equipment and just decided the router doesn't need to be plugged into a UPS because he IS THE BOSS.
Meanwhile, my pager goes off at 2AM because the entire company is down as a result. Lots of brown outs at night in my area.
Ok, so then I install tc QoS controls on all the routers so that our new sipxpbx phone system gets the bandwidth it needs to function correctly, and this "boss" decides: "The QoS policies are not working properly, so I will just turn them off."
He can't explain why though they are not working.
(i.e. He can't understand no matter how many times I explain it, how QoS works on a computer network. He also doesn't like the term Stochastic Fairness Queueing. This frightens "boss" so he turns it off.)
1 Week later the guy installs a video surveillance system pumping video over the wan links to monitor workers. Thats fine.
But the idiot turned off the QoS policies and as a result the video system basically took over the computer network and killed all of the terminal server sessions at, you guessed it, 2AM in the morning when the supervisor was told to try it out when he got into work at the remote site.
Now, this "boss" friend of mine wasn't hired into this position as a manager. He was simply hired first, thats ALL. If he actually had to go out and compete with people for a IT management position, he would be eaten alive. (2 year tech school degree and his previous occupation was working on phone systems.)
Now if that isn't enough to make you quit, get burned out or find your job is absolutely FUTILE, I do not know what is and that is just two items off of a list of probably 10 things this guys has done in just the past year to make everyones life miserable.
The only thing that keeps me going is open source. I get to work on open source stuff all the time so I can find solace and make my own little world here at work.
That is perhaps what you need to do yourself. Find something that you can work on that isn't a drag because other people are stupid and therefore frustrate your goals.
Otherwise people like this "boss" friend of mine will drive you crazy, and make you feel like your just spinning your wheels and not getting anything accomplished.
Well, that and Slashdot because if I didn't have the community here to write too, I think I would probably freak and you would see me on Fox News or something.
"Network Manager Goes Freaky, Next on Fox N Friends in the Morning".
-Hack
In my opinion this is in direct conflict with the goals of the OLPC project. (i.e. Included closed source options as platforms for the laptop).
Lets re-examine the issues with respect to the OLPC more subtle goals:
1) To provide a foundation for poor countries to develop technology in ways in which they can contribute, as a whole to the world of open source.
This is why Linux was included. The barrier for development in the Linux world is usually lots of time and elbow grease. Not huge cash withdrawals AND lots of time and elbow grease to vendors.
Given this fact, young people will be exposed to a technology they can home grow themselves in their own countries.
Pray tell, how will they do that if closed systems are attached to the laptop?
In my opinion, this is just another way for the West and its corrupt software industries to get their claws into the developing world with an unfair advantage.
2) The industrial infrastructure of most poor countries is non existent. Whether it be due to lack of materials, lack of resources or lack of food.
To keep costs low, the OLPC project included Linux so that infrastructure could be grown with the lowest common denominator that is practically possible.
(i.e. For example mesh 802.11/Mesh networking).
This was recognized immediately, so that OLPC laptops could serve as relay points for "infrastructure in a box" to be constructed, by children.
Personally, the invocation of closed systems into the design of the software or the hardware of the project introduces a tax on this sort of infrastructure long term and caps its growth. This tax obviously would be in the form of licensing fees for development tools to continue or grow whatever closed system was put on the laptop in the first place.
I believe that many of the industrialists in the west are terrified of Africa, Gates and his ilk included. An Industrialized and developed African continent that can support itself would be more competition.
Everyone knows how Gates LOVES competition do we not? So I see the introductions of Windows here as a not so subtle attempt at sabotaging the project before it got off the ground.
3) OLPC laptop is fundamentally not just about getting laptops in the hands of children. It is really about technology introduction at a time in the development of a child that sparks maximum interest.
One of the key strengths here is that this technology, OPEN SOURCE not CLOSED appeals to a childs interest to take things apart and see how they work. Not just the unit itself, but the software which makes the OLPC laptop actually useful.
No doubt, versions of the firmware will be whacked apart and there will be gaming OLPC's, educational ones, and ones that have compilers on them as the product flushes itself out.
With millions of children, if only 2% actually decide to get into programming, that will be enough to sustain the population with useful software.
This has nothing to do with Microsoft helping, this fact alone is what concerns Microsoft. Children very young and impressionable understanding they really can use technology in some way to change the lives in the village they live in, without a slave tax to Redmond like 90% of the developed world.
Self determination is not something Industrialists like, unless of course, they have determined they own 99% of the market.
4) Quite frankly, and this final point I would like to make is that the authors original comment that thinks the Linux operating system kernel was included just to be technically smart, is misleading.
As I stated above, Linux does not just embody a technically smart piece of software in the form of a Operating System Kernel.
It embodies a belief system called the GPL. Fundamental to this belief system is the following:
To improve and scale software the GPL is charged with providing the following three mantras, which if not taken together cannot achieve the stated goals of the GPL
Yes, but I would remind you that the same applies to closed systems as well.
Open systems do not have that sort of baggage closed systems have in the same category.
(Secret changes to the source code that cannot be reviewed for example with Back Doors built into them.)
-Hack
Security cannot be achieved with closed source or closed hardware. The problem of security is too difficult, so it is best to create a "culture" of security based around a simple set of rules:
1) All software implemented in Network Systems must be open and source code must be peer reviewed on a regular basis.
2)Hardware should be as generic as possible and should be built upon agreed standards so you can mix and match components.
3) Cultural security is laid at the foundations of software and hardware. Once everyone knows the foundations any single individual or group will find it very hard to con an entire community.
Even if they succeed it will not take long for the culture to detect the deception.
Personally, I am glad the Chinese are screwing Cisco. Remember folks, we are talking about the same company that sold the Chinese government a ton of security products to hunt down and kill/torture or imprison political dissidents.
Last year I got rid of the final pieces of Cisco gear in my network and everything is working just fine with Open Source equivalents.
I peer review my own patch updates, and follow the lists carefully as the comminity as a whole deals with coding the upgrades.
I really do know what my routers are doing.
How many here can say that?
-Hack
First of all, to end your message with a tongue and cheek response of "let me know if you find a better business model", is the worse ending in hubris I have ever seen.
Do you honestly expect open source community members to accept that ludicrous excuse? The community did not put the company up for sale and now that you did, your looking for US to fix this major gaffe on your part?
Secondly, this move is fundamentally against what built MySQL in the first place. It is with a total disregard for the validity of peer review, the cornerstone of what makes well engineered software better than commercial software in the open source world, that personally got me upset as a end user.
I can only image what this is doing to the developers.
PostGRES anyone?
It would have been better if you would have not responded as it just makes it that much more infuriating.
-Hack
Read my posting carefully.
:-)
I think a majority of the people here are confused.
The premise is that the ethics of writing a EULA which forces a person to accept terms which are plain unreasonable, combined with software that on purpose disables something you bought, and paid for is stupid.
If you click OK, well, you ARE STUPID. Sorry if that is a strong term for most to swallow.
I look back on half of the posts here and most of them are way off on a tangent claiming I never did this or that with EULA's, never owned or used an iPhone....etc.
(All false by the way.)
That really is not the point either.
What is more stupid is buying stuff from manufacturers that can turn off your communications at will, or disable things you paid for, for example like your computer.
Furthermore, people totally missed the point of the term "brick".
If you are out in the desert and you do not have your sdk/computer handy to restore the iPhone, and it is disabled, it effectively is bricked. Really no difference there in the terminology, just the context. There is a cell tower nearby of course, but that won't do you much good will it?
(A rather hungry looking set of Vultures are sitting on the tower too.....others are circling your position.....and of course, also want an iPhone and will probably get one.....
In time of course....but Vultures are VERY patient birds and the typical iPhone user is very very easy to kill with no food or water nearby.
-Hackus
Not only that but the whole basis for refinery capacity and oil scarcity I think is going to have to be seriously reconsidered.
Primarily due to the fact that Hydro carbons have been revealed to be plentiful throughout the solar system and it would appear that oil, gas and many other hydrocarbons are of geologic origin.
I suspect, once we have the technology and the Russians have proven we do, to get down 20,000 feet or more
http://www.vialls.com/wecontrolamerica/peakoil.html
I think it is readily apparent that oil is not a scarce resource, but a resource that is artificially controlled to insure scarcity and high prices.
-Hack
No I am not kidding.
If you look at the posts in the forums the users are a bunch of sheep.
You have become so indoctrinated that software should fail on any product you purchase, as an acceptable policy.
I do not care if the EULA says it is going to die and you as a developer are fully aware it will.
Building software with those sorts of goals is just plain unethical and it is wrong.
I am sorry if you think those kinds of expectations are wrong.
I do not.
-Hack
I dont care if it is Alpha.
:-)
You leave the user with NO recourse, after all the phone belongs to the user or is at least SUPPOSE TO belong to the user after purchase.
It is unethical to vandalize property the user rightfully owns.
Perhaps Apple doesn't really think you own the hardware?
Oh, it just keeps getting better doesn't it?
-Hack
Now wait a second.
This isn't some bad manufacturing defect or a hardware problem. This software was PRGRAMMED by Apple to SELF DESTRUCT and ON PURPOSE leave you with no alternative.
Do you think I am a child?
Of COURSE Apple's systems engineers understood this!
Apples developers knew EXACTLY what would happen.
What next? This is just OK for these sorts of restrictions to be placed in everything from your TV to your cars firmware?
How about your friggin Pacemaker?
It is NEVER acceptable to build code into a product to make it self destruct.
Thats the point, and the point IS it IS unethical.
-Hack
You forgot 11.
AMD Executives paid themselves MASSIVELY during the quarters when AMD was doing its worst.
http://finance.google.com/group/google.finance.327/browse_thread/thread/372bff68c6244c13
-Hack
It would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.
I believe that people are getting incredibly stupid about all this EULA terms of service.
I mean, on the Apple forums I am seeing posts "Well, they turned my $800 dollar phone into a brick, but schucks, I guess I deserve it because it is in the EULA."
I mean people go BERZERK over Microsoft shutting down their systems after upgrades and their keys fail to match the hardware anymore so Vista doesn't boot.
Apple users are just happy and content they spent $800 bucks it would seem for a phone and the company just turned it off, with no recourse.
I can see it now: "Damn, stuck out in nowhere with a flat tire.....Darn...looks like my EULA is gone, so I will have to die out here in the heat. Darn, but I guess I deserve it."
Absolutely amazing. I wonder if the EULA comes with a agreement that your IQ must be reduced to a 2 year old?
The only person who is ever going to shut my phone or PC off is going to be me and when I and only I hit the off button.
Mac Customers=Stupid
-Hack
Exactly what we do not need.
Next generation hardware that is patent encumbered and will require a lawyer and several court proceedings for anyone and everyone to get their data back.
I mean come on, when is the industry going to figure out we do not need proprietary, closed storage solutions that are a rehash of the old IBM AS/400 days when you could only buy super expensive IBM gear.
No thanks I will take my open code and commodity hardware and build solutions that will kick this patented solutions arse at 1/100th the cost.
Besides, if these features are really worth their salt the open source community will provide them sooner or later. Preferably in Europe where these silly patent claims that this product is so unique nobody could possibly figure it out, gimme a lot of money because I am brilliant.
Not brilliant and not worth the cost in my opinion. (Both in restrictions due to the patents and infrastructure choices this product imposes and the cost in currency).
-Hack
Oh you mean like the way they claim they use open standards, and as a example cite they participate in open satndards procedural bodies while at the same time closing markets, getting sued by the billions by the european union for doing exactly the opposite?
I am a troll?
I hope you call rot in proprietary software hell!
-Hack