Lets suppose you work for VA. If your company can withstand criticism, go ahead, lets see it defend itself. Ultimately, we'll see whos right and who's wrong, who's trying to cover their ass, and who's trying to paint an accurate picture. Bring it on, i'm ready.
If I were you, I wouldnt open my mouth if I weren't sure of what the hell was going to come out of it.;)
Why? Simple. Money. You know, the thing VA's board of directors wants the company to make?:)
Here's what I mean:
Fruitful projects mean increased income. Popular projects, at the very least, mean increased banner traffic. A substantial part of VA's income is generated purely by click-thru sales. High-traffic sites with focused demographics = good income.
VA only has a 5% marketshare in the Linux hardware market. Compaq by comparrison is doing 5x that..
Look how much Sourceforge has done for VA's money-making ability. If the situation on community.themes.org in '98-99 can be seen as a microcosm of whats currently happening on SourceForge, you can expect developers to be ripped off in droves.
You pose a valid question, but the answer becomes clear once you have an understanding of the motives involved. VA doesnt have a Department of Caring. Theyre in it for the money above all else. Its time for all of us to get square and flush with that idea, because alot of us will get hurt if we continue to believe VA is some sort of fluffy philanthropic organization that can materialize money out of thin air.
Now, ask yourself this -- Why does SourceForge's terms of service go into very specific detail about legalities, but yet, totally ignores the priacy concerns of its users?
More importantly, why does VA give itself total immunity in the TOS (Terms of Service agreement) from lawsuits, and reserve the right to change the TOS without warning at any time?
1) VA has yet to turn a profit. Infact, they're still seriously in debt. This "partnership" creates a dependence on VA financial situation. If VA goes down the tubes (as nearly 80% of.com companies are expected to do within the next 1-2 years) after burning through their cash reserves, what happens to MySQL?
2) VA has absolutely no policy in place to protect the work of users who house their projects on SourceForge. Infact, Linux Weekly News (as independent a source as you can get nowadays..they arent owned.) ran an article nearly 5 months ago pointing this out. SourceForge's privacy policy amounted to a one-line "We'ere working on it" statement. 5 months later, it still hasn't changed. Right now, from a legal standpoint, nothing prevents VA's management from picking and choosing from the collective ideas of 37,000 people, and nearly 6,000 projects in development, putting full-time employees on the task of replicating the work of the volunteers, and consequently leaving them in the dust without a legal leg to stand on.
This includes MySQL.
You can read LWN's two articles on SourceForge's lack of a security policy here and here
Y'know, i've been reading about wearable computers for quite a while now, and it still just doesn't quite click with me as being something i'd lust after.
When I was 5, I had an experience standing outside a storefront in a shopping mall that changed my life. Standing there with my dad, I saw one of the first laserdiscs. It was 1979, and this was so eye-bleedingly high tech that the crowd was 10 deep to see an ABBA laserdisc. It was a cold winter day, and a hundred or so Chicagoans stood awestruck at the sight of four musical Swedes. Everyone except me, that is. I could care less that ABBA music videos were playing. I was fixated by the frame counter..a little digital clock counter displayed in the corner of the TV screen. It blew my 5 year old mind to see anything be able to count and run so fast. The people standing infront of the store were probably saying to eachother, "Wow, this is the future! Soon we're all going to have laserdiscs. Forget VHS and Beta -- laserdiscs are where its at!"
It never happened.
A few years later, when I was about 9 or so, I was walking around with my parents in a mall near where I lived. There was a big glass case stuck on a storefront that was drawing a huge crowd..I caught a peek of what it was they were all gawking at. A little tv screen wristwatch.
The crowd, of course, considered this sort of thing to be the true wave of the future. Soon everyone would have a TV on their wrists, so we could all be better informed, and make better decisions. We'd all just tune in, and glance over at our wrists while we work to catch up on the latest news and entertainment.
That didn't happen either.
I get the same sort of feeling about wearable computers. I dont think it will ever get beyond the point of being a novelty. Like beer hats at baseball games, or shower radios, it will appeal to few, and life will go on as it always has.
The function of clothing is to clothe the wearer, not inform the wearer. We dont drive nails with socket wrenches, we use hammers. Sorry gang, but I just dont see how this will ever be anything more than a passing curiosity..At the risk of making a grand visionary Bill Gates "no one will ever need more than 640K" speech, i'd call the development of wearable computers a novelty at best.
...I think this guy has got it wrong. The "digital revolution" (if you even wanna call it that) hasn't been around long enough to really have a an accurate assessment of its impact on things. Most people in this country didn't even fathom the idea of using a computer for day-to-day things up until just a few years ago. Like hot water, indoor plumbing an electricity, digital technology will become less of a novelty and more of a necessity as time goes on.
Want proof? Ok, take television for example. The technology has been around since the late 1920's, but its impact as a medium wasn't really felt until the mid 1960's. Take radio. Its been around since 1910 or so, but its impact as a medium wasn't felt until the 1940's and 50's.
We've got along way to go with this..Things are just getting started. To say something like the digital revolution hasn't had any impact is fairly short-sighted..Its too early to judge the big picture. Here we have a technology that has the capability to collectively educate millions of people, keep everyone in touch worldwide and beyond, and allow us to work more wisely & efficiently as a species. To say that this sort of thing wont have an impact down the line is like saying the Gutenberg press was only good for smashing grapes.
My $0.02,
Bowie J. Poag
Re:OpenBSD == The Way To Go For Thinkpad Users
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OpenBSD == The Way To Go For Thinkpad Users
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OpenBSD 2.7 Released
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Just picked up a Thinkpad iSeries 1450 last week, and i've been having problems getting everything running under RH6.2 -- During my epic saga of a search for a fix, I found this page, which was tremendously helpful:
*NIX On The IBM Thinkpad
This page has a run-down of several free *NIX'es, and how they compare against eachother on the Thinkpad. Turns out OpenBSD 2.6 wins hands down.
I'd give it... oh, I dunno..5 minutes before someone comes up with a Perl script to replicate someone's typing style?
I remember doing this when I was like 12. Dialing into local Commodore 64 warez BBS'es acting like I had a terrible grasp of English, and typing terribly slow to convince the Sysop I was dialing in from l33t-land, Europe. A whole big charade to give me an unlimited ratio. Worked nearly every time.
There are so many holes in a technology like this that i'd shitcan it before it even got off the ground. If you're going to identify someone, there are far, far better ways of going about it than this, i'm afraid.
Egads. Didn't know that..I thought it was only for takeoffs and landings that such rules applied. So much for scanning for the transponder on my return flight.;)
I'm reluctant to admit to such a flagrant act of nerdiness, but, here goes::)
My last airline flight happened about a month ago. I thought it would be neat to take my new portable hand-held shortwave radio with me on the plane to see if I could pick up the transponder on the aircraft's black box(es), or maybe some of the cockpit/tower discussion. The flight was pretty much empty (I always take the red-eye) so for about an hour, I sat there with my earphones on and my antenna pitched up and scanned the whole damn plane from 1 Mhz all the way up to about 400 Mhz or so in short, medium, longwave and FM.
I didn't find anything recognizable. I was seated far enough away from the engines to rule out any interference, and the whole spectrum was peppered with odd little noises generated by the aircraft (This was a Boeing 767-300 if I remember correctly) but nothing resembling any sort of communications. Considering the fact I was seated in a giant metal tube, I can also rule out ambient interference. There was a guy with a laptop about 10 rows up, and I could pick up his machine pretty easilly. Anyway, no luck.
Most analog cell phone transmissions occur between 800 and 950 MHz. Youre going to have a hard time finding a scanner than will allow you to listen to that range. If I remember correctly, there was a law passed in '93 or so which made it illegal to sell scanners with capability in that range, in order to protect the privacy of analog cell phone users.
You wouldn't believe the stuff I heard. People's conversations get sorta...weird after 9PM. It's a sick world.:)
Bowie
PS.. No "You didn't hear anything in the cockpit because the crew was asleep" jokes, please.:)
Right when I was fresh out of high school, I was fiddling around with the idea of going into a career in graphic arts, instead of computers. Got word through a friend that none other than Williams Bally Midway out here in Chicago was hiring some new blood, so I tried out.
Showed up with like 3 years worth of my portfolio on VHS tape. They liked it, and called me back.
Brought some new stuff in. They liked it, and called me back a second time. This time I got a tour -- In order to get to the inner sanctum where the video games are developed, it was necessary to walk though the pinball machine assembly line. Reminded me of a sweatshop -- Thousands of clickety-clack relays, wire harnesses and all..very cold war.:)
During that visit, they sat me down in a darkened room filled with about 20 artists and programmers, a few years older than me (I was 19 at the time).. And took turns picking my brain while everyone reviewed my tapes. What amazed me was the fact that many of them thought I was a fraud, and used artificial sources to create realistic looking effects like marbleizing, eroded stone, fire, etc.. Here's how the conversation went, to the best of my recollection. Big guy in the corner: "What did you use to render the fire effect with?"
Me: "Huh? Its not rendered."
(Various whispers among the artists..)
Big guy in the corner: "Well then, what did you use to do it with??"
Me: (nervous laugh) "Hire me, and i'll tell ya.:)"
Big guy in the corner: "Seriously. Where did you get that filter?"
Me: "..Filter? Whats a filter?"
Big guy in the cornerL "Have you ever used Photoshop?"
Me: "No. Just Amiga stuff."
Big guy in the corner: "Well how did you do it then?"
Me: "Heh..Well...Ok, Well how about you tell me how you guys do it first, then i'll tell you how I do it."
Big guy in the corner: "Well.....to be honest, we go get some newspapers and lighter fluid, and take a camcorder out in the back lot. We crumple up the newspaper, set it on fire, then videotape it for a few minutes. Take the tape back inside, and framegrab it."
Me: Jeez. Its nothing like that. Doesn't that take alot of time?
Big guy in the corner: "Not really. We grab the frames with an SGI Workstation. Takes us about a day to get it to look right."
Me: "God. Ok......" (awkward pause)
Big guy in the corner: "...What?"
Me: "I dont do anything like that. You've got DPaint IV right? Just draw a the shape of a flame, and pick it up as a brush. Go into the gradient editor, and make a gradient that goes from white to yellow, from yellow to red, then from red to black. Switch to Range Mode, and spray the screen with the airbrush tool, using that flame shape. Within a few seconds, a wall of flame will begin to emerge from the background. Takes about 15 seconds to paint a whole wall of flames, its pretty cool.."
Heh. My interview sort of concluded very quickly after that. The guy who co-designed Mortal Kombat walked me out to the reception office, and told me he'd put in his reccomendation with Jack Haeger. Never heard from them again.:)
Chris, you weren't even there. How the hell could you even have a "version of events" ? The only thing you know is what you've gleaned from your fellow VA employees, after the fact, and months after we closed shop. Hardly what I'd call first-hand knowledge. Nice try, tho.
To address your A)...
Yes, I claim I came up with the basic premise for the project and the name "SourceForge". FYI, I wrote zero code. My job was to manage the project, not to code it. Scott and Seth were brought on for that purpose in late '99 once Propaganda was squared away.
During the months of April thru June of '99, Trae McCombs and I had a series of rather long telephone conversations. Many of these conversations involved discussions of things we were going to do/were doing, and many sessions revolved around trying to come up with a name for the project. I remember quite clearly proposing the name "SourceForge", "MediaForge", and other *Forge variants. I also remember Trae saying he didn't like the word "Forge". Then whammo, 5 months later, here comes a project called "SourceForge". How the hell do you explain that one? Infinite monkeys and typewriters? Come on. I'm tempted to post telephone records from that period.. you still have a problem believing me.
I could honestly care less if they took the name, in particular. Its their refusal to be honest about it that pisses me off. Dont even get me started on the other crap.
And now, for B)...
No, I will not post the documents publically. The documents which refer to BSI (Jeff, Rob and others) and Andover.net's dealings do not belong in a public forum. They are private emails. Since I dont have permission from the parties involved to post it publically, i'm not going to. Anyone who wants to read it is welcome to email me privately. Its just not going to go up here.
Howdy. Normally, I dont reply to flames, but i'll give you a chance.
A) First of all, I never claimed to have invented SourceForge, nor write it. However, the premise behind the project, and even its name were taken from conversations between Trae McCombs and I between May and July of '99. We were building a material stockpile, the idea being, to give developers development space as a thank-you for using our gear. The ultimate goal being that we as a group would be an asset to VA once we managed to round up enough projects/developers. We were promised employment if we delivered 500,000 pageviews a day, sustained for 6 months. In May of '99, I agreed to go into it for the long haul. 1-2 years, I figured. A co-lo machine was set aside for us to use shortly thereafter (early June 99).
If the old themes.org was still around, I could even point you to an interview I did with none other than Trae McCombs himself way back in early 1998 where the idea was discussed. I'd been wanting to do this sort of thing for years -- And when I finally got the chance to do it, guess who was there to rip me off.
B) I dont need any more "credit", and I dont need any more "ego boost". I've had my share. Besides, if I wanted that, I'd keep flogging the Propaganda horse every few weeks. I'm quite happy doing absolutely nothing for free now, thank you.
The "phantom documents" you're referring to exist, and as I pointed out, you're welcome to read them. Email me. It's an email between BSI and Andover.net's reps..One of the people who I worked with on System 12, her father was an exec at Andover.net in Canada. If you want to the gory details, I didn't believe her at first when she told me that Rob and the others were in the process of selling out. I demanded she come up with proof, and she did, via her father. Thats how I came to posess the email. (Rob knows this, by the way. Sent him a copy of it not too long ago.)
You can believe what you want to believe. Its a weird story, and alot of people aren't really comfortable thinking about an entity like VA might be something other than friendly to the Linux community. Like you, I used to think VA was great. I was a big flag-waver for them. Originally, I even refused to believe I got screwed. I thought it was a simple duplication of effort, and bowed out to prevent the public from viewing our project as a thorn in VA's side. All that's well and good, but telling me to "quit ranting" is pretty weak. Take a look at the facts involved, and perhaps you'll see past the crap and speculation and get to the root of it. I had to.
Just keep one thing in mind, tho. I had the responsibility of leading 11 people for 6 months, and I took that responsibility very seriously. I was promised alot of things by someone who wasn't in a position to make any promises, all of which never came to fruition. Getting screwed the way we did, you'd think I'd have a right to be pissed.
Howdy. Normally, I dont reply to flames, but i'll give you a chance.
A) First of all, I never claimed to have invented SourceForge, nor write it. However, the premise behind the project, and even its name were taken from conversations between Trae McCombs and I between May and July of '99. We were building a material stockpile, the idea being, to give developers development space as a thank-you for using our gear. The ultimate goal being that we as a group would be an asset to VA once we managed to round up enough projects/developers. We were promised employment if we delivered 500,000 pageviews a day, sustained for 6 months. In May of '99, I agreed to go into it for the long haul. 1-2 years, I figured. A co-lo machine was set aside for us to use shortly thereafter (early June 99).
If the old themes.org was still around, I could even point you to an interview I did with none other than Trae McCombs himself way back in early 1998 where the idea was discussed. I'd been wanting to do this sort of thing for years -- And when I finally got the chance to do it, guess who was there to rip me off.
B) I dont need any more "credit", and I dont need any more "ego boost". I've had my share. Besides, if I wanted that, I'd keep flogging the Propaganda horse every few weeks. I'm quite happy doing absolutely nothing for free now, thank you.
The "phantom documents" you're referring to exist, and as I pointed out, you're welcome to read them. Email me. It's an email between BSI and Andover.net's reps..One of the people who I worked with on System 12, her father was an exec at Andover.net in Canada. If you want to the gory details, I didn't believe her at first when she told me that Rob and the others were in the process of selling out. I demanded she come up with proof, and she did, via her father. Thats how I came to posess the email. (Rob knows this, by the way. Sent him a copy of it not too long ago.)
You can believe what you want to believe. Its a weird story, and alot of people aren't really comfortable thinking about an entity like VA might be something other than friendly to the Linux community. Like you, I used to think VA was great. I was a big flag-waver for them. Originally, I even refused to believe I got screwed. I thought it was a simple duplication of effort, and bowed out to prevent the public from viewing our project as a thorn in VA's side. All that's well and good, but telling me to "quit ranting" is pretty weak. Take a look at the facts involved, and perhaps you'll see past the crap and speculation and get to the root of it. I had to.
Just keep one thing in mind. I had the responsibility of leading 11 people for 6 months, and I took that responsibility very seriously. I was promised alot of things by someone who wasn't in a position to make any promises, all of which never came to fruition. Getting screwed the way we did, you'd think I'd have a right to be pissed.
Fact: If VA was interested in philanthropy, they would have left Andover.Net alone and simply given money to Slashdot and Freshmeat to allow them to continue running. They didn't do that. Why? They wanted control over the resources provided to the Linux community, and paid millions to get it.
Fact: VA Linux Systems originally attempted to purchase both Freshmeat and Slashdot in late spring/early summer '99. If someone wants proof of this, email me privately, and i'll provide you with it. Their offer was refused due to contract conditions VA wanted, and refused to exclude in order to complete the deal. This is why Slashdot and Freshmeat ended up under Andover.net's umbrella. As a result, VA Linux Systems immediately began work on trying to replicate both resources.
Fact: VA's post-IPO cash allowed them to aquire Andover.net, and their holdings -- Once the purchase became imminent, construction on one or more projects (ColdStorage, VA's Freshmeat clone among them) were halted.
For those of you who haven't been following what I've been saying for the past 7 months or so, several of VA's employees then began cannibalizing volunteer projects like mine, looking for more things to replicate. What began as community property became increasingly centered on generating profit.
Result: All of us would be well-served by keeping at least a healthy suspicion of VA. The sad part about the whole Linux movement is, that when you get down to it, VA and companies like them don't care about you. They don't have to care. They're going to do everything within their power to screw their way into the black and keep the board of directors happy, just like any other publically held business.
My bet is, if you think this "merger" will affect nothing, you're probably going to be wrong. First of all, despite what Chris DiBonehead has said in the past (and will probably continue to say) this isn't a merger. VA Linux Systems purchased Andover.net outright. Gobbled up and absorbed, just as their SEC filing points out. VA and Andover.net didn't join hands in a feild of flowers and go skipping off into the sunset. One ate the other.
Keep your ears up and your eyes open, and make up your own mind based on the facts. There's a wealth of it out there. "Quit bitching, Bowie" is nice, but, I gain nothing by pointing out why people should not trust this company. I simply just want people to be aware of what I've seen, after having worked in and among the company for nearly two years.
On the other hand, you'll likely also hear the opinion(s) of one or more employees of VA, at least one whom is a paid mouthpiece of the company, speaking without "editorial independence". Hi, Chris.
If I try and pass a check at a band with a signature other than my own, that's illegal. I'm convicted of check fraud, and I go to prison.
If I walk into a bar with a fake ID, or attempt to purchase a firearm go with false identification, I'll get busted as well.
If I send a piece of mail through the US Postal Service posing as someone I'm not, then bingo, i'm guilty of mail fraud.
Now, in the case of fradulent spam, I attempt to tell tens of thousands of people I am someone who I'm not. Worse yet, i'm trying to use that identity to sell something. Why should that form of fraud be punished any differently than other forms of fraud?
Thank you, but I dont need you of all people telling the rest of the community what I "think" of your company Mr. DiBona. If you're going to do that, at least get your shit straight. It's what I know about your company (from working with you and others for nearly two years) not what I think.
You also failed to point out that you are an employee of VA Linux Systems. More importantly, you're their mouthpiece. "Linux Community Evangelist", isn't it? Tsk tsk.. Its only when people look at your bio that they see you're an employee of the company.
In the meantime, feel free to pull your head out of your ass anytime you feel up to it, Chris. From the looks of it, it sounds like it may take a while to dislodge. I'm not afraid of people hearing what I've had to say about your company (and what I'll continue to say) because all of it is basically true. Why should I be afraid?
On that note, here you go, kids..Knock yourself out:
What makes BeOpen superior to SourceForge? Easy. BeOpen is not affiliated with VA Linux Systems, of which we've already established has a near monopoly on resources when it comes to the Linux community. Looking past the "VA Linux Systems will screw you and your project raw if you let them" argument, the simple act of merely housing everything under one umbrella is dangerous. If VA Linux Systems goes straight into the crapper (seen their stock performance lately?) like the vast majority of other.com companies will, then they will take all the assets they own down with the ship, including the very page you're reading right now.
Diversity is a good thing for Linux. One company owning and running it all is not.
Bootlegging is OK. Dubbing Metallica albums onto casette is OK. Trading those casettes with people is OK. But trading an MP3 is not?
What difference is it, other than the alignment of bits on magnetic surface? Would Lars be OK with it if Napster users traded MP3's of tracks ripped off explicitly off casettes?
I can understand Lars being pissed. I would be too. But the situation mandates he examine his own logic before attempting to scrutinize someone else's.
Slashdot Mirror
Not quite.
;)
Lets suppose you work for VA. If your company can withstand criticism, go ahead, lets see it defend itself. Ultimately, we'll see whos right and who's wrong, who's trying to cover their ass, and who's trying to paint an accurate picture. Bring it on, i'm ready.
If I were you, I wouldnt open my mouth if I weren't sure of what the hell was going to come out of it.
Bowie J. Poag
Why? Simple. Money. You know, the thing VA's board of directors wants the company to make? :)
Here's what I mean:
Fruitful projects mean increased income. Popular projects, at the very least, mean increased banner traffic. A substantial part of VA's income is generated purely by click-thru sales. High-traffic sites with focused demographics = good income.
VA only has a 5% marketshare in the Linux hardware market. Compaq by comparrison is doing 5x that..
Look how much Sourceforge has done for VA's money-making ability. If the situation on community.themes.org in '98-99 can be seen as a microcosm of whats currently happening on SourceForge, you can expect developers to be ripped off in droves.
You pose a valid question, but the answer becomes clear once you have an understanding of the motives involved. VA doesnt have a Department of Caring. Theyre in it for the money above all else. Its time for all of us to get square and flush with that idea, because alot of us will get hurt if we continue to believe VA is some sort of fluffy philanthropic organization that can materialize money out of thin air.
Now, ask yourself this -- Why does SourceForge's terms of service go into very specific detail about legalities, but yet, totally ignores the priacy concerns of its users?
More importantly, why does VA give itself total immunity in the TOS (Terms of Service agreement) from lawsuits, and reserve the right to change the TOS without warning at any time?
Ask more questions, get more answers, bud.
Bowie J. Poag
Ok, time for a reality check:
1) VA has yet to turn a profit. Infact, they're still seriously in debt. This "partnership" creates a dependence on VA financial situation. If VA goes down the tubes (as nearly 80% of
2) VA has absolutely no policy in place to protect the work of users who house their projects on SourceForge. Infact, Linux Weekly News (as independent a source as you can get nowadays..they arent owned.) ran an article nearly 5 months ago pointing this out. SourceForge's privacy policy amounted to a one-line "We'ere working on it" statement. 5 months later, it still hasn't changed. Right now, from a legal standpoint, nothing prevents VA's management from picking and choosing from the collective ideas of 37,000 people, and nearly 6,000 projects in development, putting full-time employees on the task of replicating the work of the volunteers, and consequently leaving them in the dust without a legal leg to stand on.
This includes MySQL.
You can read LWN's two articles on SourceForge's lack of a security policy here and here
Relevant links:
Press Release, "VA Linux Forms Strategic Alliance With MySQL; MySQL Becomes Completely Open Source And Hosts Project On SourceForge
VA Linux Shareholder To Sell 1.55M Shares
Jon Richards files SEC 114 to dump restricted shares
IDC Report on VA's 5% Marketshare
And for fun, a story on VA's stock performance..or lack thereof..
Those are the facts. Educate yourself, folks.
Bowie J. Poag
Y'know, i've been reading about wearable computers for quite a while now, and it still just doesn't quite click with me as being something i'd lust after.
When I was 5, I had an experience standing outside a storefront in a shopping mall that changed my life. Standing there with my dad, I saw one of the first laserdiscs. It was 1979, and this was so eye-bleedingly high tech that the crowd was 10 deep to see an ABBA laserdisc. It was a cold winter day, and a hundred or so Chicagoans stood awestruck at the sight of four musical Swedes. Everyone except me, that is. I could care less that ABBA music videos were playing. I was fixated by the frame counter..a little digital clock counter displayed in the corner of the TV screen. It blew my 5 year old mind to see anything be able to count and run so fast. The people standing infront of the store were probably saying to eachother, "Wow, this is the future! Soon we're all going to have laserdiscs. Forget VHS and Beta -- laserdiscs are where its at!"
It never happened.
A few years later, when I was about 9 or so, I was walking around with my parents in a mall near where I lived. There was a big glass case stuck on a storefront that was drawing a huge crowd..I caught a peek of what it was they were all gawking at. A little tv screen wristwatch.
The crowd, of course, considered this sort of thing to be the true wave of the future. Soon everyone would have a TV on their wrists, so we could all be better informed, and make better decisions. We'd all just tune in, and glance over at our wrists while we work to catch up on the latest news and entertainment.
That didn't happen either.
I get the same sort of feeling about wearable computers. I dont think it will ever get beyond the point of being a novelty. Like beer hats at baseball games, or shower radios, it will appeal to few, and life will go on as it always has.
The function of clothing is to clothe the wearer, not inform the wearer. We dont drive nails with socket wrenches, we use hammers. Sorry gang, but I just dont see how this will ever be anything more than a passing curiosity..At the risk of making a grand visionary Bill Gates "no one will ever need more than 640K" speech, i'd call the development of wearable computers a novelty at best.
My $0.02
Bowie J. Poag
...I think this guy has got it wrong. The "digital revolution" (if you even wanna call it that) hasn't been around long enough to really have a an accurate assessment of its impact on things. Most people in this country didn't even fathom the idea of using a computer for day-to-day things up until just a few years ago. Like hot water, indoor plumbing an electricity, digital technology will become less of a novelty and more of a necessity as time goes on.
Want proof? Ok, take television for example. The technology has been around since the late 1920's, but its impact as a medium wasn't really felt until the mid 1960's. Take radio. Its been around since 1910 or so, but its impact as a medium wasn't felt until the 1940's and 50's.
We've got along way to go with this..Things are just getting started. To say something like the digital revolution hasn't had any impact is fairly short-sighted..Its too early to judge the big picture. Here we have a technology that has the capability to collectively educate millions of people, keep everyone in touch worldwide and beyond, and allow us to work more wisely & efficiently as a species. To say that this sort of thing wont have an impact down the line is like saying the Gutenberg press was only good for smashing grapes.
My $0.02,
Bowie J. Poag
Damnit, Beavis..
Here's the link:
UNIX on the Thinkpad
Bowie J. Poag
Just picked up a Thinkpad iSeries 1450 last week, and i've been having problems getting everything running under RH6.2 -- During my epic saga of a search for a fix, I found this page, which was tremendously helpful:
*NIX On The IBM Thinkpad
This page has a run-down of several free *NIX'es, and how they compare against eachother on the Thinkpad. Turns out OpenBSD 2.6 wins hands down.
Now I may rest.
Bowie J. Poag
Learn, modify, then repeat until failure.
Yours in science,
Bowie J. Poag
I'd give it... oh, I dunno..5 minutes before someone comes up with a Perl script to replicate someone's typing style?
I remember doing this when I was like 12. Dialing into local Commodore 64 warez BBS'es acting like I had a terrible grasp of English, and typing terribly slow to convince the Sysop I was dialing in from l33t-land, Europe. A whole big charade to give me an unlimited ratio. Worked nearly every time.
There are so many holes in a technology like this that i'd shitcan it before it even got off the ground. If you're going to identify someone, there are far, far better ways of going about it than this, i'm afraid.
Bowie J. Poag
Egads. Didn't know that..I thought it was only for takeoffs and landings that such rules applied. So much for scanning for the transponder on my return flight.
Bowie J. Poag
I'm reluctant to admit to such a flagrant act of nerdiness, but, here goes:
My last airline flight happened about a month ago. I thought it would be neat to take my new portable hand-held shortwave radio with me on the plane to see if I could pick up the transponder on the aircraft's black box(es), or maybe some of the cockpit/tower discussion. The flight was pretty much empty (I always take the red-eye) so for about an hour, I sat there with my earphones on and my antenna pitched up and scanned the whole damn plane from 1 Mhz all the way up to about 400 Mhz or so in short, medium, longwave and FM.
I didn't find anything recognizable. I was seated far enough away from the engines to rule out any interference, and the whole spectrum was peppered with odd little noises generated by the aircraft (This was a Boeing 767-300 if I remember correctly) but nothing resembling any sort of communications. Considering the fact I was seated in a giant metal tube, I can also rule out ambient interference. There was a guy with a laptop about 10 rows up, and I could pick up his machine pretty easilly. Anyway, no luck.
Most analog cell phone transmissions occur between 800 and 950 MHz. Youre going to have a hard time finding a scanner than will allow you to listen to that range. If I remember correctly, there was a law passed in '93 or so which made it illegal to sell scanners with capability in that range, in order to protect the privacy of analog cell phone users.
You wouldn't believe the stuff I heard. People's conversations get sorta...weird after 9PM. It's a sick world.
Bowie
PS.. No "You didn't hear anything in the cockpit because the crew was asleep" jokes, please.
Bowie J. Poag
Man, get a sense of humor already, kids.. jeezus. :)
Bowie J. Poag
Three words:
Prisoners On Treadmills.
Bowie J. Poag
I dont look at it as a matter of choice. I look at it as a matter of intelligence.
;)
One of them is smart, one of them is less smart, and the third is just plain stupid.
Bowie J. Poag
Personally, I don't really see why we need more IDE's for Java. I'm perfectly happy with vim+syntax highlighting.
Some helpful links for the unbathed masses:
IBM's Java AlphaWorks SDK For Linux
IBM's VisualAge Java SDK For Linux
Sun's "Java 2" SDK for Linux
Get crackin',
Bowie J. Poag
Right when I was fresh out of high school, I was fiddling around with the idea of going into a career in graphic arts, instead of computers. Got word through a friend that none other than Williams Bally Midway out here in Chicago was hiring some new blood, so I tried out.
Showed up with like 3 years worth of my portfolio on VHS tape. They liked it, and called me back.
Brought some new stuff in. They liked it, and called me back a second time. This time I got a tour -- In order to get to the inner sanctum where the video games are developed, it was necessary to walk though the pinball machine assembly line. Reminded me of a sweatshop -- Thousands of clickety-clack relays, wire harnesses and all..very cold war.
During that visit, they sat me down in a darkened room filled with about 20 artists and programmers, a few years older than me (I was 19 at the time).. And took turns picking my brain while everyone reviewed my tapes. What amazed me was the fact that many of them thought I was a fraud, and used artificial sources to create realistic looking effects like marbleizing, eroded stone, fire, etc.. Here's how the conversation went, to the best of my recollection.
Big guy in the corner: "What did you use to render the fire effect with?"
Me: "Huh? Its not rendered."
(Various whispers among the artists..)
Big guy in the corner: "Well then, what did you use to do it with??"
Me: (nervous laugh) "Hire me, and i'll tell ya.
Big guy in the corner: "Seriously. Where did you get that filter?"
Me: "..Filter? Whats a filter?"
Big guy in the cornerL "Have you ever used Photoshop?"
Me: "No. Just Amiga stuff."
Big guy in the corner: "Well how did you do it then?"
Me: "Heh..Well...Ok, Well how about you tell me how you guys do it first, then i'll tell you how I do it."
Big guy in the corner: "Well.....to be honest, we go get some newspapers and lighter fluid, and take a camcorder out in the back lot. We crumple up the newspaper, set it on fire, then videotape it for a few minutes. Take the tape back inside, and framegrab it."
Me: Jeez. Its nothing like that. Doesn't that take alot of time?
Big guy in the corner: "Not really. We grab the frames with an SGI Workstation. Takes us about a day to get it to look right."
Me: "God. Ok......" (awkward pause)
Big guy in the corner: "...What?"
Me: "I dont do anything like that. You've got DPaint IV right? Just draw a the shape of a flame, and pick it up as a brush. Go into the gradient editor, and make a gradient that goes from white to yellow, from yellow to red, then from red to black. Switch to Range Mode, and spray the screen with the airbrush tool, using that flame shape. Within a few seconds, a wall of flame will begin to emerge from the background. Takes about 15 seconds to paint a whole wall of flames, its pretty cool.."
Heh. My interview sort of concluded very quickly after that. The guy who co-designed Mortal Kombat walked me out to the reception office, and told me he'd put in his reccomendation with Jack Haeger. Never heard from them again.
Bowie J. Poag
Chris, you weren't even there. How the hell could you even have a "version of events" ?
The only thing you know is what you've gleaned from your fellow VA employees, after the fact, and months after we closed shop. Hardly what I'd call first-hand knowledge. Nice try, tho.
To address your A)...
Yes, I claim I came up with the basic premise for the project and the name "SourceForge". FYI, I wrote zero code. My job was to manage the project, not to code it. Scott and Seth were brought on for that purpose in late '99 once Propaganda was squared away.
During the months of April thru June of '99, Trae McCombs and I had a series of rather long telephone conversations. Many of these conversations involved discussions of things we were going to do/were doing, and many sessions revolved around trying to come up with a name for the project. I remember quite clearly proposing the name "SourceForge", "MediaForge", and other *Forge variants. I also remember Trae saying he didn't like the word "Forge". Then whammo, 5 months later, here comes a project called "SourceForge". How the hell do you explain that one? Infinite monkeys and typewriters? Come on. I'm tempted to post telephone records from that period.. you still have a problem believing me.
I could honestly care less if they took the name, in particular. Its their refusal to be honest about it that pisses me off. Dont even get me started on the other crap.
And now, for B)
No, I will not post the documents publically. The documents which refer to BSI (Jeff, Rob and others) and Andover.net's dealings do not belong in a public forum. They are private emails. Since I dont have permission from the parties involved to post it publically, i'm not going to. Anyone who wants to read it is welcome to email me privately. Its just not going to go up here.
Have a swell day,
Bowie J. Poag
Howdy. Normally, I dont reply to flames, but i'll give you a chance.
A) First of all, I never claimed to have invented SourceForge, nor write it. However, the premise behind the project, and even its name were taken from conversations between Trae McCombs and I between May and July of '99. We were building a material stockpile, the idea being, to give developers development space as a thank-you for using our gear. The ultimate goal being that we as a group would be an asset to VA once we managed to round up enough projects/developers. We were promised employment if we delivered 500,000 pageviews a day, sustained for 6 months. In May of '99, I agreed to go into it for the long haul. 1-2 years, I figured. A co-lo machine was set aside for us to use shortly thereafter (early June 99).
If the old themes.org was still around, I could even point you to an interview I did with none other than Trae McCombs himself way back in early 1998 where the idea was discussed. I'd been wanting to do this sort of thing for years -- And when I finally got the chance to do it, guess who was there to rip me off.
B) I dont need any more "credit", and I dont need any more "ego boost". I've had my share. Besides, if I wanted that, I'd keep flogging the Propaganda horse every few weeks. I'm quite happy doing absolutely nothing for free now, thank you.
The "phantom documents" you're referring to exist, and as I pointed out, you're welcome to read them. Email me. It's an email between BSI and Andover.net's reps..One of the people who I worked with on System 12, her father was an exec at Andover.net in Canada. If you want to the gory details, I didn't believe her at first when she told me that Rob and the others were in the process of selling out. I demanded she come up with proof, and she did, via her father. Thats how I came to posess the email. (Rob knows this, by the way. Sent him a copy of it not too long ago.)
You can believe what you want to believe. Its a weird story, and alot of people aren't really comfortable thinking about an entity like VA might be something other than friendly to the Linux community. Like you, I used to think VA was great. I was a big flag-waver for them. Originally, I even refused to believe I got screwed. I thought it was a simple duplication of effort, and bowed out to prevent the public from viewing our project as a thorn in VA's side. All that's well and good, but telling me to "quit ranting" is pretty weak. Take a look at the facts involved, and perhaps you'll see past the crap and speculation and get to the root of it. I had to.
Just keep one thing in mind, tho. I had the responsibility of leading 11 people for 6 months, and I took that responsibility very seriously. I was promised alot of things by someone who wasn't in a position to make any promises, all of which never came to fruition. Getting screwed the way we did, you'd think I'd have a right to be pissed.
Duty now,
Bowie J. Poag
Howdy. Normally, I dont reply to flames, but i'll give you a chance.
A) First of all, I never claimed to have invented SourceForge, nor write it. However, the premise behind the project, and even its name were taken from conversations between Trae McCombs and I between May and July of '99. We were building a material stockpile, the idea being, to give developers development space as a thank-you for using our gear. The ultimate goal being that we as a group would be an asset to VA once we managed to round up enough projects/developers. We were promised employment if we delivered 500,000 pageviews a day, sustained for 6 months. In May of '99, I agreed to go into it for the long haul. 1-2 years, I figured. A co-lo machine was set aside for us to use shortly thereafter (early June 99).
If the old themes.org was still around, I could even point you to an interview I did with none other than Trae McCombs himself way back in early 1998 where the idea was discussed. I'd been wanting to do this sort of thing for years -- And when I finally got the chance to do it, guess who was there to rip me off.
B) I dont need any more "credit", and I dont need any more "ego boost". I've had my share. Besides, if I wanted that, I'd keep flogging the Propaganda horse every few weeks. I'm quite happy doing absolutely nothing for free now, thank you.
The "phantom documents" you're referring to exist, and as I pointed out, you're welcome to read them. Email me. It's an email between BSI and Andover.net's reps..One of the people who I worked with on System 12, her father was an exec at Andover.net in Canada. If you want to the gory details, I didn't believe her at first when she told me that Rob and the others were in the process of selling out. I demanded she come up with proof, and she did, via her father. Thats how I came to posess the email. (Rob knows this, by the way. Sent him a copy of it not too long ago.)
You can believe what you want to believe. Its a weird story, and alot of people aren't really comfortable thinking about an entity like VA might be something other than friendly to the Linux community. Like you, I used to think VA was great. I was a big flag-waver for them. Originally, I even refused to believe I got screwed. I thought it was a simple duplication of effort, and bowed out to prevent the public from viewing our project as a thorn in VA's side. All that's well and good, but telling me to "quit ranting" is pretty weak. Take a look at the facts involved, and perhaps you'll see past the crap and speculation and get to the root of it. I had to.
Just keep one thing in mind. I had the responsibility of leading 11 people for 6 months, and I took that responsibility very seriously. I was promised alot of things by someone who wasn't in a position to make any promises, all of which never came to fruition. Getting screwed the way we did, you'd think I'd have a right to be pissed.
Duty now,
Bowie J. Poag
Ugh.. not again.
Fact: If VA was interested in philanthropy, they would have left Andover.Net alone and simply given money to Slashdot and Freshmeat to allow them to continue running. They didn't do that. Why? They wanted control over the resources provided to the Linux community, and paid millions to get it.
Fact: VA Linux Systems originally attempted to purchase both Freshmeat and Slashdot in late spring/early summer '99. If someone wants proof of this, email me privately, and i'll provide you with it. Their offer was refused due to contract conditions VA wanted, and refused to exclude in order to complete the deal. This is why Slashdot and Freshmeat ended up under Andover.net's umbrella. As a result, VA Linux Systems immediately began work on trying to replicate both resources.
Fact: VA's post-IPO cash allowed them to aquire Andover.net, and their holdings -- Once the purchase became imminent, construction on one or more projects (ColdStorage, VA's Freshmeat clone among them) were halted.
For those of you who haven't been following what I've been saying for the past 7 months or so, several of VA's employees then began cannibalizing volunteer projects like mine, looking for more things to replicate. What began as community property became increasingly centered on generating profit.
Result: All of us would be well-served by keeping at least a healthy suspicion of VA. The sad part about the whole Linux movement is, that when you get down to it, VA and companies like them don't care about you. They don't have to care. They're going to do everything within their power to screw their way into the black and keep the board of directors happy, just like any other publically held business.
My bet is, if you think this "merger" will affect nothing, you're probably going to be wrong. First of all, despite what Chris DiBonehead has said in the past (and will probably continue to say) this isn't a merger. VA Linux Systems purchased Andover.net outright. Gobbled up and absorbed, just as their SEC filing points out. VA and Andover.net didn't join hands in a feild of flowers and go skipping off into the sunset. One ate the other.
Keep your ears up and your eyes open, and make up your own mind based on the facts. There's a wealth of it out there. "Quit bitching, Bowie" is nice, but, I gain nothing by pointing out why people should not trust this company. I simply just want people to be aware of what I've seen, after having worked in and among the company for nearly two years.
On the other hand, you'll likely also hear the opinion(s) of one or more employees of VA, at least one whom is a paid mouthpiece of the company, speaking without "editorial independence". Hi, Chris.
Duty Now,
Bowie J. Poag
Ding-Ding-Ding! All aboard the Logic Train! (tm)
If I try and pass a check at a band with a signature other than my own, that's illegal. I'm convicted of check fraud, and I go to prison.
If I walk into a bar with a fake ID, or attempt to purchase a firearm go with false identification, I'll get busted as well.
If I send a piece of mail through the US Postal Service posing as someone I'm not, then bingo, i'm guilty of mail fraud.
Now, in the case of fradulent spam, I attempt to tell tens of thousands of people I am someone who I'm not. Worse yet, i'm trying to use that identity to sell something. Why should that form of fraud be punished any differently than other forms of fraud?
Bowie J. Poag
Thank you, but I dont need you of all people telling the rest of the community what I "think" of your company Mr. DiBona. If you're going to do that, at least get your shit straight. It's what I know about your company (from working with you and others for nearly two years) not what I think.
You also failed to point out that you are an employee of VA Linux Systems. More importantly, you're their mouthpiece. "Linux Community Evangelist", isn't it? Tsk tsk.. Its only when people look at your bio that they see you're an employee of the company.
In the meantime, feel free to pull your head out of your ass anytime you feel up to it, Chris. From the looks of it, it sounds like it may take a while to dislodge. I'm not afraid of people hearing what I've had to say about your company (and what I'll continue to say) because all of it is basically true. Why should I be afraid?
On that note, here you go, kids..Knock yourself out:
A list of everything I've written on Slashdot in the past 9 months or so.
Enjoy!
Bowie J. Poag
What makes BeOpen superior to SourceForge? Easy. BeOpen is not affiliated with VA Linux Systems, of which we've already established has a near monopoly on resources when it comes to the Linux community. Looking past the "VA Linux Systems will screw you and your project raw if you let them" argument, the simple act of merely housing everything under one umbrella is dangerous. If VA Linux Systems goes straight into the crapper (seen their stock performance lately?) like the vast majority of other
Diversity is a good thing for Linux. One company owning and running it all is not.
My $0.02,
Bowie J. Poag
Bootlegging is OK.
Dubbing Metallica albums onto casette is OK.
Trading those casettes with people is OK.
But trading an MP3 is not?
What difference is it, other than the alignment of bits on magnetic surface? Would Lars be OK with it if Napster users traded MP3's of tracks ripped off explicitly off casettes?
I can understand Lars being pissed. I would be too. But the situation mandates he examine his own logic before attempting to scrutinize someone else's.
Bowie J. Poag
Popping the screenshots into vi in binary mode reveals this partial image header:
ÿØÿà^@^PJFIF^@^A^B^A^@^O^@^O^@^@ÿí^O| Photoshop 3.0^@8BIM
And this, later on in the data:
^@^@^@^VIEC http://www.iec.ch^@^@^
And this:
@desc^@^@^@^@^@^@^@.IEC 61966-2.1 Default RGB colour space - sRGB
Makes you wonder, don't it. Anyone wanna investigate this one?
Bowie J. Poag