That's a good idea, or you could channel money directly to others you know could use it. Like if you use Debian's distro, just send them some money (check their web site, they have details on how to contribute money).
Another good idea along these lines is to donate used equipment (or better yet, new equipment). As most businesses have some machines laying around that will never get used again, and this could be a big help to the right project.
2. Arrange a Licensing scheme with Linux distributor and use their distribution.
Another good idea. But I (and maybe others) would be interested in how you mean this. Are you talking about paying a certain amount of each sale to them to 'license' their distro for each device you sell? Or is there some other arrangement you are talking about?
3. Make an announcement to the media "So and so chooses Linux for mission critical
applications".
This is an excellent idea no matter what else you end up doing. Our company uses Linux on all of our workstations and we have put prominent "We support Linux" sort of messages on our web site and even some of our literature. And here's the kicker, we are a cabinet company!.
4. Open Source any thing that is not proprietary. By proprietary I mean things that are
considered corporate secrets, such as the software that runs the equipment. Anything
generic like kernel modifications, drivers, libraries could certainly be released."
OK, be careful on this one. Anything generic like kernel modifications (if you are modifying existing code) has to be released (nature of the current license for using the kernel). A driver doesn't have to be released as GPL if it is loaded as a module. And unless you modify an existing library you should be able to keep your 'new' libraries to yourself. But any other 'generic' things have to be released if you base them on previously GPLed code.
However, I applaud the idea of releasing whatever else you can as GPL or at least as open source software. It's too bad more companies don't feel any sort of 'moral obligation' when 'given' something free of charge that helps them.
If you think our (America's) government is actually owned/controlled by the people, you obviously haven't been paying attention.
Big business controlls not only the elected officials (gotta pay back those campaign contributors), but it seems they also controll the courts. If you are 'the common man' (or woman) you're pretty much shit in the eyes of the government.
That's very cool. I wish more people had your approach to 'teaching' children. Teaching them isn't about "do what I say", it's far more about "do you understand why I say".
Unfortunately, the Christian groups, and the government are trying very hard to strip parents of their responsibilities (because it's 'good for you'). Until more parents stand up and say, "I know what's best for my children" it's going to keep getting worse.
Maybe, just maybe, those 'Christian' parents are doing what real parents should do and watching their children. I know, you can't keep an iron grip on them all the time (and that's not what I'm proposing). But it is possible to make browsing the web a family activity (or at least a father-son or mother-daughter or vice-versa). Why do 'Christian' group leaders assume that everyone in the 'group' is completely incompetent.
My god people. At one second they are complaining because children 'aren't being raised right' and the next they are trying to promote lazy parenting.
The TV generation proved the the television is not a good babysitter. You still need parental supervision, and you still need to spend time with your children. Why do people assume that the computer is going to make a better babysitter?
Spend time with your kids. Teach them right from wrong. Watch over them. Don't expect software, daycare, and babysitters (especially technological babysitters) to do those things for you.
Excuse me, I have a question for you:
Did you and Jon Katz go to the same school, or did you just find a book of 'really big words you can use to confuse people'?
I think I picked up enough of that to make a little sense, but I have a feeling most of us didn't understand that Katzspeak so well. Could you convert to dumbass English so the rest of us could understand? Thank you.
Does anyone else notice that Katz is the only person doing book reviews that don't seem like reviews? I mean, it seems like his reviews are more of a chance for him to spout off some theory. Now, maybe this theory is the one the author was trying to convey, or maybe not. Personally, I doubt it very much. Katz seems to miss the point on so many things (witness some of his latest columns published here) that I have a really, really hard time believing he would get the premise of a book right.
I really wish he would just give us a sampling of the book, and a breif outline of the general topics discussed. Instead, what he gives us is another diatribe of his idiotic ideals wrapped in the premise that the author of the given book shares his ideals.
Sorry if this seems flamebaitish, but this doesn't seem to be a book review. It seemed more like an editorial inspired by a book reading.
I use a AudioPCI Ensoniq (now soundblaster) card that I picked up years ago for $99. The last I saw them they were only $50, they may be less by now. Anyway, my sound card doesn't have any audio quality problems.
On a side note, I've noticed some 'audiophiles' saying that MP3s sound like garbage. I would like to tell them to try MP3s made by a Franhauer (sp?) MP3 compressor (I use MP3Enc on Linux). I used to use Bladenc, but when listening to MP3s made that way I would get a high end hiss and high sounds would make digital noise that is most disturbing at high volumes. Using the same CDs and compressing through MP3Enc has produced MP3s that sound exactly the same as the CDs. I know, some people would say that's not possible, but I tell you, even at high volumes there is no difference in quality. And hooked up to my stereo I can annoy the neighbors for hundreds of hours at a time without touching a thing.;-).
I like this better (and think that it is much closer to the original statement):
Hours and hours of coding, punctuated by screaming from my wife for attention. (That should be enough to produce terror in any man.)
OK, now in reality, my wife never has to (nor has she) scream for attention. In fact, most of the time she has to say, "Leave me alone for a few minutes you dumbass!"
//disclaimer
(Sorry honey, it's all in good fun.)//end disclaimer.
I think you missed something. The part that really really pissed people off was that he said that the KDE developers should now BEG FORGIVENESS OF OTHER GNU/GPL developers.
What this appears as is just an attempt to keep the fire stirring. Now that the problem is gone (at least, the problem he was always bitching about), he invented a new problem. Personally, I see that as a way to not say, "Way to go" and move on with your life. He just wanted to keep making KDE out to be 'that big evil project'.
I'm sick of the whole 'do it my way from day one or I will always call you a piece of garbage' mentallity that flows out of RMS. And I really doubt that I am the only one.
It's kind of like why all those morons want to get pierced bodies. They want to be different, just like everybody else.
I guess I'll never understand that mentality. It's like when the word 'alternative' suddenly meant 'popular' in music circles.
//begin old man rant from a 26 year old
Back in my day when you wanted to do something 'different' you actually used your brain and came up with something (gasp) *original*. Why must we all assume that the last person to come up with a good idea must be the last person to ever come up with a good idea? Doesn't anybody realize we are all acting like cattle (and believe me I'm talking from experience here. When I worked on a farm if one cow took off in another direction, or even looked with her ears perked in another direction, every damn cow in the herd would go running in that direction trying to see what was so damn interesting over there.). Originality counts for nothing anymore. The morons that come afterwards get far more credit than the person that came up with the idea. Oh god the humanity of it all. //end old man rant...
Please file this post under: FIRST iPost from a disgruntled ePoster
I realize that this is probably a troll, but it does bring up an interesting point.
Why does every company getting involved in the web (and even some of them that always have been) insist on sticking either an 'i' or an 'e' at the begginning of their name?
A local editorial on a news program was done by a man that had a similar view to mine. He said, "If I see one more company try to get publicity by sticking an 'e' at the beginning of a common word I'm gonna shove a knife in my eye to prevent me from seeing another."
The very next day I saw that PC Week had changed their name to eWeek. I never found out if the guy followed through with his threat, but I never saw him on the tube again.
Oh my god. You have a choice between corporate sponsored candidate # 1 and corporate sponsored candidate # 2.
Or, for those that want the illusion of independent thought, there are the non-sponsored (but quickly spanked) odball party candidates.
If the elections were open from the get go (in other words, real people got to be involved in the primaries, you know, like it used to be), then I wouldn't be speaking right now. But the fact is that without huge corporate sponsorship, there is no way a person can get enough coverage to be elected. An open source government would rule (if you could get enough people interested in it).
Unfortunately, right now, even if you pulled it off, you would only interest the few people that haven't already shrugged off the stupidity that government 'votes' have become. I don't think you would gain any huge amount of interest. People are too jaded, and most would suspect some sort of trickery.
Welcome to reality. I wanted to be the engineer of my own powerful and prosperous model train layout. Guess
what? I grew up instead.
Hey man, I live firmly in the realm of reality (and it sucks hard core let me tell you), but I still want to be the engineer of my own powerful and prosperous model train layout (amongst my many other obsessions, like a 1,000 gallon aquarium).
In actuality, I know of someone that is the aforementioned engineer. He runs a place called the Model Railroad Museum (in Illinois I think?, been a long time since I visited there).
Oh well, some people grow up, some people grow older. I choose to grow up, and refuse to grow older.
And I thought I was the only one that still thought about Transoformers.
And by the way, Starscream wouldn't try to prevent the Deceptacons from using it for reinforcements, he wanted to lead the Deceptacons. Even during his 'battle' with Megatron most of the other Deceptacons didn't give a crap who was in charge (well, other than Galvitron).
And to finish off that little bit of dignity that's clinging to me (get off damn it!). Did you perhaps mean Jetfire? He was the first and arguably the most powerful of the Autobot jets.
I get the same feeling riding on Wild Thing at Valley Fair, and still my wife and I jump right back in line.
So, my point it basically that people enjoy a thrill every now and then, and that includes the fear that is instrinsic to the thrill.
I'd jump at the chance to go on a space elevator. I want to visit space terribly. Maybe this would give me an affordable way to do it. Of course, it won't probably happen in my lifetime. But still...
If it's done like most American funded projects it will be billed to the American public (through tax dollars) and then we (the American public) will have to pay 5x as much as anyone else to use it (because we should have to pay for our right to pay for our right to pay for our right to pay for our right to pay for our right to use it, or something like that).
Sorry to point this out, but to RMS, the only license that is compatible with the GPL is the GPL.
Yes, but don't foget that if you don't release your code under the GPL right away then you will always be 'incompatible'.
Witness the latest fiasco over the GPLing of Qt and the fact that RMS thinks KDE is still in some kind of violation of the GPL until they 'beg forgiveness'. Someone needs to stop his religious zealotry. It isn't a jihad, it's software for christ sake!
Slashdot Mirror
That's a good idea, or you could channel money directly to others you know could use it. Like if you use Debian's distro, just send them some money (check their web site, they have details on how to contribute money).
Another good idea along these lines is to donate used equipment (or better yet, new equipment). As most businesses have some machines laying around that will never get used again, and this could be a big help to the right project.
Another good idea. But I (and maybe others) would be interested in how you mean this. Are you talking about paying a certain amount of each sale to them to 'license' their distro for each device you sell? Or is there some other arrangement you are talking about?
This is an excellent idea no matter what else you end up doing. Our company uses Linux on all of our workstations and we have put prominent "We support Linux" sort of messages on our web site and even some of our literature. And here's the kicker, we are a cabinet company!.
OK, be careful on this one. Anything generic like kernel modifications (if you are modifying existing code) has to be released (nature of the current license for using the kernel). A driver doesn't have to be released as GPL if it is loaded as a module. And unless you modify an existing library you should be able to keep your 'new' libraries to yourself. But any other 'generic' things have to be released if you base them on previously GPLed code.
However, I applaud the idea of releasing whatever else you can as GPL or at least as open source software. It's too bad more companies don't feel any sort of 'moral obligation' when 'given' something free of charge that helps them.
Good luck to you.
If you think our (America's) government is actually owned/controlled by the people, you obviously haven't been paying attention.
Big business controlls not only the elected officials (gotta pay back those campaign contributors), but it seems they also controll the courts. If you are 'the common man' (or woman) you're pretty much shit in the eyes of the government.
George dubwa?
Well, does that mean that you assume all people act like cats: arrogant, self-assured, and utterly convinced of their own superiority.
Oh wait, I guess you do have it right.
That's very cool. I wish more people had your approach to 'teaching' children. Teaching them isn't about "do what I say", it's far more about "do you understand why I say".
Unfortunately, the Christian groups, and the government are trying very hard to strip parents of their responsibilities (because it's 'good for you'). Until more parents stand up and say, "I know what's best for my children" it's going to keep getting worse.
Good point. Here's an idea:
Maybe, just maybe, those 'Christian' parents are doing what real parents should do and watching their children. I know, you can't keep an iron grip on them all the time (and that's not what I'm proposing). But it is possible to make browsing the web a family activity (or at least a father-son or mother-daughter or vice-versa). Why do 'Christian' group leaders assume that everyone in the 'group' is completely incompetent.
My god people. At one second they are complaining because children 'aren't being raised right' and the next they are trying to promote lazy parenting.
The TV generation proved the the television is not a good babysitter. You still need parental supervision, and you still need to spend time with your children. Why do people assume that the computer is going to make a better babysitter?
Spend time with your kids. Teach them right from wrong. Watch over them. Don't expect software, daycare, and babysitters (especially technological babysitters) to do those things for you.
Excuse me, I have a question for you:
Did you and Jon Katz go to the same school, or did you just find a book of 'really big words you can use to confuse people'?
I think I picked up enough of that to make a little sense, but I have a feeling most of us didn't understand that Katzspeak so well. Could you convert to dumbass English so the rest of us could understand? Thank you.
I'm sorry, I don't normally do this, but I feel the 'fuck's sake' post should be modded up to +5:Insightful.
If that isn't an appropriate use of the word 'fuck' then I've never seen one.
Does anyone else notice that Katz is the only person doing book reviews that don't seem like reviews? I mean, it seems like his reviews are more of a chance for him to spout off some theory. Now, maybe this theory is the one the author was trying to convey, or maybe not. Personally, I doubt it very much. Katz seems to miss the point on so many things (witness some of his latest columns published here) that I have a really, really hard time believing he would get the premise of a book right.
I really wish he would just give us a sampling of the book, and a breif outline of the general topics discussed. Instead, what he gives us is another diatribe of his idiotic ideals wrapped in the premise that the author of the given book shares his ideals.
Sorry if this seems flamebaitish, but this doesn't seem to be a book review. It seemed more like an editorial inspired by a book reading.
I use a AudioPCI Ensoniq (now soundblaster) card that I picked up years ago for $99. The last I saw them they were only $50, they may be less by now. Anyway, my sound card doesn't have any audio quality problems.
On a side note, I've noticed some 'audiophiles' saying that MP3s sound like garbage. I would like to tell them to try MP3s made by a Franhauer (sp?) MP3 compressor (I use MP3Enc on Linux). I used to use Bladenc, but when listening to MP3s made that way I would get a high end hiss and high sounds would make digital noise that is most disturbing at high volumes. Using the same CDs and compressing through MP3Enc has produced MP3s that sound exactly the same as the CDs. I know, some people would say that's not possible, but I tell you, even at high volumes there is no difference in quality. And hooked up to my stereo I can annoy the neighbors for hundreds of hours at a time without touching a thing.;-).
I like this better (and think that it is much closer to the original statement):
//disclaimer
(Sorry honey, it's all in good fun.) //end disclaimer.
Hours and hours of coding, punctuated by screaming from my wife for attention. (That should be enough to produce terror in any man.)
OK, now in reality, my wife never has to (nor has she) scream for attention. In fact, most of the time she has to say, "Leave me alone for a few minutes you dumbass!"
I think you missed something. The part that really really pissed people off was that he said that the KDE developers should now BEG FORGIVENESS OF OTHER GNU/GPL developers.
What this appears as is just an attempt to keep the fire stirring. Now that the problem is gone (at least, the problem he was always bitching about), he invented a new problem. Personally, I see that as a way to not say, "Way to go" and move on with your life. He just wanted to keep making KDE out to be 'that big evil project'.
I'm sick of the whole 'do it my way from day one or I will always call you a piece of garbage' mentallity that flows out of RMS. And I really doubt that I am the only one.
Wow, that explains the high voice in that song then. I always wondered how they did that.
Ah, I get it.
//begin old man rant from a 26 year old
//end old man rant...
It's kind of like why all those morons want to get pierced bodies. They want to be different, just like everybody else.
I guess I'll never understand that mentality. It's like when the word 'alternative' suddenly meant 'popular' in music circles.
Back in my day when you wanted to do something 'different' you actually used your brain and came up with something (gasp) *original*. Why must we all assume that the last person to come up with a good idea must be the last person to ever come up with a good idea? Doesn't anybody realize we are all acting like cattle (and believe me I'm talking from experience here. When I worked on a farm if one cow took off in another direction, or even looked with her ears perked in another direction, every damn cow in the herd would go running in that direction trying to see what was so damn interesting over there.). Originality counts for nothing anymore. The morons that come afterwards get far more credit than the person that came up with the idea. Oh god the humanity of it all.
Please file this post under:
FIRST iPost from a disgruntled ePoster
I realize that this is probably a troll, but it does bring up an interesting point.
Why does every company getting involved in the web (and even some of them that always have been) insist on sticking either an 'i' or an 'e' at the begginning of their name?
A local editorial on a news program was done by a man that had a similar view to mine. He said, "If I see one more company try to get publicity by sticking an 'e' at the beginning of a common word I'm gonna shove a knife in my eye to prevent me from seeing another."
The very next day I saw that PC Week had changed their name to eWeek. I never found out if the guy followed through with his threat, but I never saw him on the tube again.
Oh my god. You have a choice between corporate sponsored candidate # 1 and corporate sponsored candidate # 2.
Or, for those that want the illusion of independent thought, there are the non-sponsored (but quickly spanked) odball party candidates.
If the elections were open from the get go (in other words, real people got to be involved in the primaries, you know, like it used to be), then I wouldn't be speaking right now. But the fact is that without huge corporate sponsorship, there is no way a person can get enough coverage to be elected. An open source government would rule (if you could get enough people interested in it).
Unfortunately, right now, even if you pulled it off, you would only interest the few people that haven't already shrugged off the stupidity that government 'votes' have become. I don't think you would gain any huge amount of interest. People are too jaded, and most would suspect some sort of trickery.
Hey man, I live firmly in the realm of reality (and it sucks hard core let me tell you), but I still want to be the engineer of my own powerful and prosperous model train layout (amongst my many other obsessions, like a 1,000 gallon aquarium).
In actuality, I know of someone that is the aforementioned engineer. He runs a place called the Model Railroad Museum (in Illinois I think?, been a long time since I visited there).
Oh well, some people grow up, some people grow older. I choose to grow up, and refuse to grow older.
Spend money on useless crap.
In fact, I think they do that better than anyone else.
Moderators, feel free to mod this down as Redundant and Troll. After all, we all know the government doesn't spend money uselessly;-).
And I thought I was the only one that still thought about Transoformers.
And by the way, Starscream wouldn't try to prevent the Deceptacons from using it for reinforcements, he wanted to lead the Deceptacons. Even during his 'battle' with Megatron most of the other Deceptacons didn't give a crap who was in charge (well, other than Galvitron).
And to finish off that little bit of dignity that's clinging to me (get off damn it!). Did you perhaps mean Jetfire? He was the first and arguably the most powerful of the Autobot jets.
Pardon me, I have a date with a rope.
I get the same feeling riding on Wild Thing at Valley Fair, and still my wife and I jump right back in line.
So, my point it basically that people enjoy a thrill every now and then, and that includes the fear that is instrinsic to the thrill.
I'd jump at the chance to go on a space elevator. I want to visit space terribly. Maybe this would give me an affordable way to do it. Of course, it won't probably happen in my lifetime. But still...
If it's done like most American funded projects it will be billed to the American public (through tax dollars) and then we (the American public) will have to pay 5x as much as anyone else to use it (because we should have to pay for our right to pay for our right to pay for our right to pay for our right to pay for our right to use it, or something like that).
In three or four months maybe. I'm waiting out the local telco on their DSL setup. (The only local cable modem provider won't allow servers.)
I'm actually kind of suprised we haven't heard that yet. After all, isn't the Linux kernel under a 'modified' version of the GPL?
I can see the headline now: RMS declares Linux worthless to the Free Software community!
Yes, but don't foget that if you don't release your code under the GPL right away then you will always be 'incompatible'.
Witness the latest fiasco over the GPLing of Qt and the fact that RMS thinks KDE is still in some kind of violation of the GPL until they 'beg forgiveness'. Someone needs to stop his religious zealotry. It isn't a jihad, it's software for christ sake!
RMS is a zealot. His latest tirade has left me with the feeling that he is just one step seperated from a Catholic Priest.
Priest: You must beg god for forgiveness.
RMS: You must beg the creator for forgiveness.
Priest: You shall have no other god before my god.
RMS: You shall have no other license before the GPL.
Priest: You must admit to the possibility of one true god.
RMS: You must admit that no license is open source except for the GPL.
Is anyone else sick of this diatribe?