My high school statistics class flipped 100,000 coins and we discovered no statistically significant variance from an hypothesis of even probabilities. We should have easily seen an effect as large as this.
I read the patent clause. It contains a poison pill. You agree to grant a license to your patents when you contribute software. If you later file a suit claiming infringement, you lost your patent license.
Technically it's an "additional restriction" not bpermitted by the GPL. But it's an important and useful additional restriction that promotes the freedom of the code.
It may be GPL-incompatible, but it's arguably better than the GPL.
My concern is not that people are over scrupulous about sticking to the requirements of licenses. The licenses reflect the intent of the authors about how their work may be reused. It is very important to respect the author's wishes in this respect.
My concern is the bizarre definition of "free" used by the Debian project and their distain at anything which dosn't use the GPL.
It was Sun's control of Java which allowed them to take on Microsoft and force them to cease distributing their embraced and extended, incompatible version of Java. A totally unencumbered standard would have been completely coopted by MS by now if it hadn't been for Sun.
"Dark Matter" and "Dark Energy" are convenient labels to talk about unexpected observations. Either dark matter and dark energy exist or gravity and space-time don't behave the way we think they do.
What's important is that we have a way to talk about unexpected observations. We observe stronger than expected gravity and it makes sense to talk about that in terms of matter which does not otherwise interact. If it were interacting, we'd have seen it. Perhaps it's really matter in an adjacent universe. But that's as unreal and inacessible as dark matter.
Similarly, dark energy is a way to talk about the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe. So far, it's the simplest explanation which explains the current observations. Perhpas the real explanation is that the gravitational constant, G, varies over time. But without a mechanism to understand how and why G changes, it's not a very fruitful path.
Physicists talk about new phenenoma in terms of familiar objects. It allows them to organize the observations and try to fit them into a well understood framework. Eventually, if enough observations are made which can not be fit into the framework, a new framework is necessary.
It depends on the infrastructure. Certainly digital cable allows for this type of monitoring as does analog cable with a cable box.
It's even feasable with ordinary cable because of the resonance established between the analog tuner and the cable. Though I can't see that it's economic for a cable company to install such a detector.
The cable company can detect what channels you're watching and when just as easily as TiVo. Except they aren't telling you what information they are collecting and they haven't promised not to make personally identifying information available.
First of all, my TiVo is only connected to a phone line once every 10 days to download guide data. Any keystrokes I entered during the Super Bowl won't be transmitted to TiVo until next weekend when I plug it into the wall again. I doubt they'll still be interested in how many times I watched Janet disrobe.
In balance, I think that the TiVo is less intrusive than affinity cards which I still refuse to use. And if my TiVo habits mean that I get to see more SciFi and Anime on TV, then all those clicks will have been worth it.
I've been using a single email address for almost 10 years. I've had 7 or 8 ISPs in that time and I've used this address with all of them. In fact, I've never used many of the email addresses that came with the Internet service I've purchased. I currently use this email address with T-Mobile on my Sidekick, with Optimum Online when sending from home and with whatever tier 2 providers my place of business has used for their multiple T-1s.
If SPF takes off, it looks like I'm going to have to switch to an email address on a domain I own just so that I can code an SPF record that will allow me to do exactly what I've been doing since late 1994 -- sending email from various devices. With luck, I'll be able to automate the process of adding a new SMTP server for when I stay in a hotel and use their IP services.
First, there is no loss of information. The original data streams are maintained and kept available.
Second, the images *need* processing. They are taken in ambient light which does not contain the same distribution of frequencies as "white" light on Earth. The cameras are designed to be calibrated with the ambient light actually found when they land for later postprocessing.
WHen Hubble uses false color, that fact is *always* noted at the official site. If other people use the images and drop NASA's text, they can't be held responsible.
And, yes, NASA has to color correct just about every image one of their probes or landers takes. It's necessary because of now the images are taken. That ain't no cheap digital camera up there.
Such a clause in any contract is patently unenforcable. A contract is evidence of an actual agreement between parties. A contract which can be unilaterally altered in fundamental ways no longer represents an actual "meeting of the minds" which is a requirement for an actual contract to exist.
If a copyright is registered in a timely manner, then statutory damages of $5,000 per violation are available. It is unnecessary to prove actual damages if stautory damages are available.
If comments have been copied, it's a pretty good indication that the surrounding code, if similar or identical, was copied as well. It makes the task of proving copying much easier.
The judge in the USL case ruled that the Unix header files were uncopyrightable. There's already a ruling on the books which holds that SCO has no leg to stand on here.
In fact, comments are probably the most copyrightable thing about software. Becuase they are free form and do not have to conform to a syntax (other than the methods of initiating and ending a comment) and because they don't have a functional purpose, they are purely expressive. Copyright protects original works of expression.
Now the particular comments that SCO pointed out were the actual error messages printed out by the system in association with the various errors the system was prepared to report. Since the text of these messages is largely dictated by POSIX, it is no surprise that they often match SCO's even though the enumeration of them can and does vary on some architectures.
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My high school statistics class flipped 100,000 coins and we discovered no statistically significant variance from an hypothesis of even probabilities. We should have easily seen an effect as large as this.
I read the patent clause. It contains a poison pill. You agree to grant a license to your patents when you contribute software. If you later file a suit claiming infringement, you lost your patent license.
Technically it's an "additional restriction" not bpermitted by the GPL. But it's an important and useful additional restriction that promotes the freedom of the code.
It may be GPL-incompatible, but it's arguably better than the GPL.
High rez PDFs of Monopoly money from Hasbro.
My concern is not that people are over scrupulous about sticking to the requirements of licenses. The licenses reflect the intent of the authors about how their work may be reused. It is very important to respect the author's wishes in this respect.
My concern is the bizarre definition of "free" used by the Debian project and their distain at anything which dosn't use the GPL.
Apparently the XF86 license hasn't been a problem in the past. Debian has managed to distribute it without problem for many years.
It seems the license change is merely a pretext for the license nazis to jump on what has, until now, been a valuable project.
It was Sun's control of Java which allowed them to take on Microsoft and force them to cease distributing their embraced and extended, incompatible version of Java. A totally unencumbered standard would have been completely coopted by MS by now if it hadn't been for Sun.
"Dark Matter" and "Dark Energy" are convenient labels to talk about unexpected observations. Either dark matter and dark energy exist or gravity and space-time don't behave the way we think they do.
What's important is that we have a way to talk about unexpected observations. We observe stronger than expected gravity and it makes sense to talk about that in terms of matter which does not otherwise interact. If it were interacting, we'd have seen it. Perhaps it's really matter in an adjacent universe. But that's as unreal and inacessible as dark matter.
Similarly, dark energy is a way to talk about the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe. So far, it's the simplest explanation which explains the current observations. Perhpas the real explanation is that the gravitational constant, G, varies over time. But without a mechanism to understand how and why G changes, it's not a very fruitful path.
Physicists talk about new phenenoma in terms of familiar objects. It allows them to organize the observations and try to fit them into a well understood framework. Eventually, if enough observations are made which can not be fit into the framework, a new framework is necessary.
Science is provisional.
It depends on the infrastructure. Certainly digital cable allows for this type of monitoring as does analog cable with a cable box.
It's even feasable with ordinary cable because of the resonance established between the analog tuner and the cable. Though I can't see that it's economic for a cable company to install such a detector.
The cable company can detect what channels you're watching and when just as easily as TiVo. Except they aren't telling you what information they are collecting and they haven't promised not to make personally identifying information available.
First of all, my TiVo is only connected to a phone line once every 10 days to download guide data. Any keystrokes I entered during the Super Bowl won't be transmitted to TiVo until next weekend when I plug it into the wall again. I doubt they'll still be interested in how many times I watched Janet disrobe.
In balance, I think that the TiVo is less intrusive than affinity cards which I still refuse to use. And if my TiVo habits mean that I get to see more SciFi and Anime on TV, then all those clicks will have been worth it.
There's no way to set the SMTP server you use on the T-Mobile Sidekick.
It could probably be done on my Sharp Zaurus, but only becuasse it runs Linux and can be appropriately modified.
Authenticated SMTP is not a service that most ISPs are ready to provide today.
I've been using a single email address for almost 10 years. I've had 7 or 8 ISPs in that time and I've used this address with all of them. In fact, I've never used many of the email addresses that came with the Internet service I've purchased. I currently use this email address with T-Mobile on my Sidekick, with Optimum Online when sending from home and with whatever tier 2 providers my place of business has used for their multiple T-1s.
If SPF takes off, it looks like I'm going to have to switch to an email address on a domain I own just so that I can code an SPF record that will allow me to do exactly what I've been doing since late 1994 -- sending email from various devices. With luck, I'll be able to automate the process of adding a new SMTP server for when I stay in a hotel and use their IP services.
I hardly call this a step forward.
Okay, print this symbol on your letterhead next time you write to your MP...
Sorry, it's 2005 and your printer driver reports you to the counterfeiting authorities for trying to print the forbidden pattern.
Where is 575,
Slashdot master of haiku?
Did he get a life?
But, does it come with ed, the standard text editor?
ed, man! !man ed?
It's a conspiracy, I tell you!
... will it install the GNU/Linux meme in the owner of the system?
First, there is no loss of information. The original data streams are maintained and kept available.
Second, the images *need* processing. They are taken in ambient light which does not contain the same distribution of frequencies as "white" light on Earth. The cameras are designed to be calibrated with the ambient light actually found when they land for later postprocessing.
WHen Hubble uses false color, that fact is *always* noted at the official site. If other people use the images and drop NASA's text, they can't be held responsible.
And, yes, NASA has to color correct just about every image one of their probes or landers takes. It's necessary because of now the images are taken. That ain't no cheap digital camera up there.
Not an agreement which they can modify without notice. That's just whack.
Such a clause in any contract is patently unenforcable. A contract is evidence of an actual agreement between parties. A contract which can be unilaterally altered in fundamental ways no longer represents an actual "meeting of the minds" which is a requirement for an actual contract to exist.
If a copyright is registered in a timely manner, then statutory damages of $5,000 per violation are available. It is unnecessary to prove actual damages if stautory damages are available.
If comments have been copied, it's a pretty good indication that the surrounding code, if similar or identical, was copied as well. It makes the task of proving copying much easier.
The judge in the USL case ruled that the Unix header files were uncopyrightable. There's already a ruling on the books which holds that SCO has no leg to stand on here.
In fact, comments are probably the most copyrightable thing about software. Becuase they are free form and do not have to conform to a syntax (other than the methods of initiating and ending a comment) and because they don't have a functional purpose, they are purely expressive. Copyright protects original works of expression.
Now the particular comments that SCO pointed out were the actual error messages printed out by the system in association with the various errors the system was prepared to report. Since the text of these messages is largely dictated by POSIX, it is no surprise that they often match SCO's even though the enumeration of them can and does vary on some architectures.
It was a joke that I should have deleted before submitting.