I can glean one of the universal truths from this article.
If the project is going to father other projects - start other issues and then wanders off leaving you to "take care of them", it is a male. You can then be assured that there's a prick and a couple of nuts on the project team.
If it creates more projects inside itself that it must nurture along until they take on a life of thier own, it is female. There's going to be a cunt and at leats a couple of dumb tits working on it.
In either case, however, there is always an asshole.
I'd be inclined to agree with you, however look at the names up there. Every last one of those businesses has something to gain by having the Windows hegeonomy fall. As well, they actually have the weaponry needed to put up a pretty good battle this time.
I'm not sure about 2004 being the "Year of the Linux Desktop", but the battle for the desktop is definately on again. With a vengance.
Me, I'm smiling. This is almost certainly going to be fun to watch. For the first time in quite a while, I'm really interested in desktop technology again.
Soko
Re:US Gov't on Linux
on
Linux in 2004?
·
· Score: 5, Funny
OMG...Imagine if SCO is stupid enough ^W^W^W has the cojones to take on Oracle too. O_O
"Haha, you fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous, is never get involved in a litigation war with a company who has more lawyers than Linden, Utah has farmers. But only slightly less well-known is this: Never go in against a meglomaniac when big bucks are on the line! Ahahahahaha! Ahahahaha! Ahahaha--" ~ Larry Elliston
Soko
Re:isnt this what "On Demand" is?
on
Does IT Matter?
·
· Score: 1
All very true, except for the word defensive. Being smart and agressive about using the resources you have is hardly "defensive". Maybe you mean defending your wallet against yet more big ticket items in order to get a miniscule return on the investment?;)
Businesses today aren't saying "We got burned", they're saying "We invested, we got a bit of payback, so how do actually get the huge payback we were promised here?". This is Microsoft's biggest problem - not being able to come up with that one idea that will cause businesses to totally re-engineer thier infrastruture and business processes yet again. CxOs are looking to leverage thier already significant investments into something that works even better. IBM is spot on - tieing everything together via middleware is the hot button these days.
Interestingly, the one system that is very, very good at speaking to a plethora of disparate systems is - you guessed it - Linux. IBM suddenly seems to be making a lot of sense, doesn't it?
You are totally correct, of course, but unfortunately that view is WIDELY believed by a great many people who are not already up to date.
Public opinion or misconception does not apply in a court of law - only the law does.
I have sat down in person with people, to explain why this is not true, including going over the GPL in detail with them, line by line.. and they still don't buy it.. the FUD machine has them believing you CANNOT write proprietary software for linux.
A judge setting precedent on an issue such as this will listen to the Law, not FUD, since his rulings would likely be thrown out and him being censured upon appeal for not knowing what he was ruling on.
SCO is not only fighting IBMs legal department, they're against the Free Software Foundation's legal team as well. How so? If you think for a second that Richard Stallman drafted the GPL without some top notch legal advice on how create it in such that it was as unassailable as possible, well, you need to pass that crack pipe on over to Darl McBride and Chris Sontang.
Not only would Rekall be great for that functionality, but it would also be cross platform - meaning the Apple and *nix users could play too.
Here, IMHO, is the reason that Microsoft is mortified at OSS. Having a complete office suite that is cross platform means that the average person can be productive on whatever OS they want, not just Windows.
From the user's point of view, realising that they don't need Microsoft in order to use thier computer for productivity tasks means they have the power to tell Microsoft to "pound sand" if they so choose. They have the freedom of choice restored.
From the MS point of view, OSS doesn't play ball the way any other competitor does. It doesn't try a full frontal marketing assault, it doesn't introduce any "features" that you have to reverse engineer, nor does it try to use any of the other tactics that a corporate entity does (and which Microsoft is very good at defending against). It simply tries to take away the very reason your users need you. If no one needs you, you have to create that need - and with Office and Windows not being needed, how will Microsoft grow? It's a pretty much two horse company, and a viable, complete office suite would suffocate both of the ponies pulling along the monopoly at once.
Steve Ballmer must sweat at night knowing that there's not a lot he can do to stop the development of things like ReKall - things that will pry the monopoly out of his sweaty little palms whether he likes it or not.
Open Source at least is a labor of love. I'd just like to see SOMEONE commit to solid testing so that in the future people wouldn't have to put up with such bug ridden software.
Ask and ye shall receive - ever hear of this place? They employ a few reallygood programmers, BTW...
It doesn't suprise me. Here's a snippet from the x86 installation page linked from the "notes" page, about how installation can be run from a VNC client (which is pretty cool in of itself, but I digress):
The following examples show the how the boot-time option is specified for standard and non-standard ports:
linux vnc vncconnect=pigdog.example.com
linux vnc vncconnect=pigdog.example.com:27910
A server named "pigdog". Pigdog! "Sorry boss, be back in the meeting in 5 minutes - I have to go check my cron script on PIGDOG." Ha - what's next, a Windows 2003 server named "FUCKUP"?
If that isn't a underhanded swipe at stuffy PHBs, I'll eat my RedHat. IME those who actually 'get' OSS tend to be clear headed, intelligent, respect the intelligence of others and have a really wicked sense of humour.
"Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong."
Mr. Adams seems to be very observant, so one can understand him not putting Daryl McBride and SCO in an award poll for weasels.
Besides it being terribly insulting to the weasels to have them in such a poll, SCO and it's CEO would (IMHO) be better classified as asses - as in "having the same countenance as the un-washed behind of a warthog".
Note that merely "providing the source" isn't particularly helpful. The elections standards arm of the government is going to have to contract out the review and assure that it is done by a diverse group of peers other than the implementor -- and most likely including their competitors -- and not just rely on interested citizens to happen to take a peek (welcome as that might be).
In this case, you can make your money by selling the hardware. There need be no trade secrets involved in building an(sic) voting machine.
Open up everything in your product, even to your compeditors? I think that would be a hard sell to any businesses shareholders. IOW, it isn't going to fly very far with the private sector.
That being said, why not contract the nice folks at MIT, Carnagie Mellon and Berkeley to do this particular job for Uncle Sam? If a computerised voting system is to be developed in a scientific manner, using real scientists would be a good idea, IMHO.
If I reduced SCO's "income" by 16% they'd probably put a contract out on me.
Ummmmm, not really, given thier business accumen (or lack thereof), and state of mind (insanity).
They'd likely send the guy in the office down the hall an invoice for 160% of the profits, stating that "There's this guy who owes us money, so you do too!" Then they'd fax you a news relase of what they did with a threatening letter, release the news blurb to news.com.com with a few chioce comments by Sontag or McBride, and sell lots of stock on the ensuing rise in share price.
The profits of thier company don't matter - thier share price does.
Ummm.... One to the power of twenty is one, times ten to the power three which is one thousand, equals one thousand. No megabytes there.
Are you referring to 2^20*10^3, which would indeed be "one thousand megabytes"? Sorry for being pendantic, but with all of the prefixes and their associated numbers, powers and all I'm trying to not get confused more than I already am.
The main thing that's different between requests and support problems is that you can ignore a request for nearly forever and have that be the correct response (low priority etc.) but most ticket/request systems don't hardcode any logic that makes this an issue.
*BOFH Mode*
There are no differences between "requests" and "support problems". Feh - "Customers (internal lines of business)" is marketing drivel for lusers - don't fall for it. Lusers having the temerity to "request" (read: Whine at you to do yet more work) deserve a LART.
The only software you need for a correct response to these "requests" is rm -rf. "Clickety-click.";^)
You are, I think, speaking of the Nemesis Theory which is just that - a theory, yet to be proven.
Actually, IIRC there's been some recent evidence that casts serious doubts on the validity of the theory, but can't seem to locate the link(s) at present. Google for more, of course.
Wow. I read "In a German article on SCO/Cannopy, I recently learned that Darl McBride is a "devout mormon" as "In a German article on SCO/Cannopy, I recently learned that Darl McBride is a "devout moron" which would be much more germaine to the discussion. Sorry 'bout that!;^)
The obvious solution for Linksys is to pull an NVidia - link the binary driver to the kernel with a GPLed stub of some sort. Cheap and sleazy to be sure, but still a valid way out if they'd have Broadcom taking them to court.
That would satisfy most everyone's concerns, except the die-hard GPL zealots. Linus is tolerant of such things, IIRC, so the rest will likely be as well. Besides, there's no one on that post screaming for legal blood - they want it solved amicably.
Companies like Linksys do need to get past the "Free Beer" aspect of the GPL, though - you do need to realise it's a valid license, and you do need to plan to abide by it's terms. If you find you can't abide by those, you shouldn't use GPLed code.
Slashdot Mirror
I can glean one of the universal truths from this article.
If the project is going to father other projects - start other issues and then wanders off leaving you to "take care of them", it is a male. You can then be assured that there's a prick and a couple of nuts on the project team.
If it creates more projects inside itself that it must nurture along until they take on a life of thier own, it is female. There's going to be a cunt and at leats a couple of dumb tits working on it.
In either case, however, there is always an asshole.
Soko
I agree - the title is confusing. I first thought that maybe someone found an old Hamm CD and thought Debian Planet was, erm, "Out-of-this-world".
Soko
I'd be inclined to agree with you, however look at the names up there. Every last one of those businesses has something to gain by having the Windows hegeonomy fall. As well, they actually have the weaponry needed to put up a pretty good battle this time.
I'm not sure about 2004 being the "Year of the Linux Desktop", but the battle for the desktop is definately on again. With a vengance.
Me, I'm smiling. This is almost certainly going to be fun to watch. For the first time in quite a while, I'm really interested in desktop technology again.
Soko
A distro from the NSA? Whoa.
That just has to be called TinfoilHat Linux.
Soko
Linux is as responsible for the success of this as a dog is responsible for the bus that hit it.
Report to Analogy Class - immediately. HTH. HAND.
Soko
OMG...Imagine if SCO is stupid enough ^W^W^W has the cojones to take on Oracle too. O_O
"Haha, you fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous, is never get involved in a litigation war with a company who has more lawyers than Linden, Utah has farmers. But only slightly less well-known is this: Never go in against a meglomaniac when big bucks are on the line! Ahahahahaha! Ahahahaha! Ahahaha--" ~ Larry Elliston
Soko
All very true, except for the word defensive. Being smart and agressive about using the resources you have is hardly "defensive". Maybe you mean defending your wallet against yet more big ticket items in order to get a miniscule return on the investment? ;)
Businesses today aren't saying "We got burned", they're saying "We invested, we got a bit of payback, so how do actually get the huge payback we were promised here?". This is Microsoft's biggest problem - not being able to come up with that one idea that will cause businesses to totally re-engineer thier infrastruture and business processes yet again. CxOs are looking to leverage thier already significant investments into something that works even better. IBM is spot on - tieing everything together via middleware is the hot button these days.
Interestingly, the one system that is very, very good at speaking to a plethora of disparate systems is - you guessed it - Linux. IBM suddenly seems to be making a lot of sense, doesn't it?
Soko
You are totally correct, of course, but unfortunately that view is WIDELY believed by a great many people who are not already up to date.
Public opinion or misconception does not apply in a court of law - only the law does.
I have sat down in person with people, to explain why this is not true, including going over the GPL in detail with them, line by line.. and they still don't buy it.. the FUD machine has them believing you CANNOT write proprietary software for linux.
A judge setting precedent on an issue such as this will listen to the Law, not FUD, since his rulings would likely be thrown out and him being censured upon appeal for not knowing what he was ruling on.
SCO is not only fighting IBMs legal department, they're against the Free Software Foundation's legal team as well. How so? If you think for a second that Richard Stallman drafted the GPL without some top notch legal advice on how create it in such that it was as unassailable as possible, well, you need to pass that crack pipe on over to Darl McBride and Chris Sontang.
Soko
Not only would Rekall be great for that functionality, but it would also be cross platform - meaning the Apple and *nix users could play too.
Here, IMHO, is the reason that Microsoft is mortified at OSS. Having a complete office suite that is cross platform means that the average person can be productive on whatever OS they want, not just Windows.
From the user's point of view, realising that they don't need Microsoft in order to use thier computer for productivity tasks means they have the power to tell Microsoft to "pound sand" if they so choose. They have the freedom of choice restored.
From the MS point of view, OSS doesn't play ball the way any other competitor does. It doesn't try a full frontal marketing assault, it doesn't introduce any "features" that you have to reverse engineer, nor does it try to use any of the other tactics that a corporate entity does (and which Microsoft is very good at defending against). It simply tries to take away the very reason your users need you. If no one needs you, you have to create that need - and with Office and Windows not being needed, how will Microsoft grow? It's a pretty much two horse company, and a viable, complete office suite would suffocate both of the ponies pulling along the monopoly at once.
Steve Ballmer must sweat at night knowing that there's not a lot he can do to stop the development of things like ReKall - things that will pry the monopoly out of his sweaty little palms whether he likes it or not.
Soko
Oddly enough, last weeks linux.ars had a cursory look at Fedora Core 1. Go check it out.
Soko
Business Diplomacy. As someone's .sig here on /. so aptly puts it:
"Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock." - Will Rogers
Soko
"Big fricken robot sharks with big frickin' lasers on thier heads..."
Guess so.
Soko
The parent post is neither troll nor funny. If I had mod points at present, it would get "+1 Insightful".
In reality, though, I'd rather give it "+1 Scary".
Soko
Open Source at least is a labor of love. I'd just like to see SOMEONE commit to solid testing so that in the future people wouldn't have to put up with such bug ridden software.
Ask and ye shall receive - ever hear of this place? They employ a few really good programmers, BTW...
Soko
It doesn't suprise me. Here's a snippet from the x86 installation page linked from the "notes" page, about how installation can be run from a VNC client (which is pretty cool in of itself, but I digress):
The following examples show the how the boot-time option is specified for standard and non-standard ports:
linux vnc vncconnect=pigdog.example.com
linux vnc vncconnect=pigdog.example.com:27910
A server named "pigdog". Pigdog! "Sorry boss, be back in the meeting in 5 minutes - I have to go check my cron script on PIGDOG." Ha - what's next, a Windows 2003 server named "FUCKUP"?
If that isn't a underhanded swipe at stuffy PHBs, I'll eat my RedHat. IME those who actually 'get' OSS tend to be clear headed, intelligent, respect the intelligence of others and have a really wicked sense of humour.
"Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong."
Soko
Mr. Adams seems to be very observant, so one can understand him not putting Daryl McBride and SCO in an award poll for weasels.
Besides it being terribly insulting to the weasels to have them in such a poll, SCO and it's CEO would (IMHO) be better classified as asses - as in "having the same countenance as the un-washed behind of a warthog".
HTH. HAND.
Soko
Note that merely "providing the source" isn't particularly helpful. The elections standards arm of the government is going to have to contract out the review and assure that it is done by a diverse group of peers other than the implementor -- and most likely including their competitors -- and not just rely on interested citizens to happen to take a peek (welcome as that might be).
In this case, you can make your money by selling the hardware. There need be no trade secrets involved in building an(sic) voting machine.
Open up everything in your product, even to your compeditors? I think that would be a hard sell to any businesses shareholders. IOW, it isn't going to fly very far with the private sector.
That being said, why not contract the nice folks at MIT, Carnagie Mellon and Berkeley to do this particular job for Uncle Sam? If a computerised voting system is to be developed in a scientific manner, using real scientists would be a good idea, IMHO.
Soko
If I reduced SCO's "income" by 16% they'd probably put a contract out on me.
Ummmmm, not really, given thier business accumen (or lack thereof), and state of mind (insanity).
They'd likely send the guy in the office down the hall an invoice for 160% of the profits, stating that "There's this guy who owes us money, so you do too!" Then they'd fax you a news relase of what they did with a threatening letter, release the news blurb to news.com.com with a few chioce comments by Sontag or McBride, and sell lots of stock on the ensuing rise in share price.
The profits of thier company don't matter - thier share price does.
Soko
Well, that's what you get for not taking into account the element of suprise.
Soko
1^20*10^3 (i.e. one thousand megabytes)
Ummm.... One to the power of twenty is one, times ten to the power three which is one thousand, equals one thousand. No megabytes there.
Are you referring to 2^20*10^3, which would indeed be "one thousand megabytes"? Sorry for being pendantic, but with all of the prefixes and their associated numbers, powers and all I'm trying to not get confused more than I already am.
Soko
The main thing that's different between requests and support problems is that you can ignore a request for nearly forever and have that be the correct response (low priority etc.) but most ticket/request systems don't hardcode any logic that makes this an issue.
;^)
*BOFH Mode*
There are no differences between "requests" and "support problems". Feh - "Customers (internal lines of business)" is marketing drivel for lusers - don't fall for it. Lusers having the temerity to "request" (read: Whine at you to do yet more work) deserve a LART.
The only software you need for a correct response to these "requests" is rm -rf. "Clickety-click."
Soko
There should me no comma before *either* 'that' or 'was an early'.
;)
Curse of the Grammer Nazis, dude. Get used to it. The Karma police will be along shortly.
Soko
You are, I think, speaking of the Nemesis Theory which is just that - a theory, yet to be proven.
Actually, IIRC there's been some recent evidence that casts serious doubts on the validity of the theory, but can't seem to locate the link(s) at present. Google for more, of course.
Soko
Wow. I read ;^)
"In a German article on SCO/Cannopy, I recently learned that Darl McBride is a "devout mormon"
as
"In a German article on SCO/Cannopy, I recently learned that Darl McBride is a "devout moron"
which would be much more germaine to the discussion. Sorry 'bout that!
Soko
The obvious solution for Linksys is to pull an NVidia - link the binary driver to the kernel with a GPLed stub of some sort. Cheap and sleazy to be sure, but still a valid way out if they'd have Broadcom taking them to court.
That would satisfy most everyone's concerns, except the die-hard GPL zealots. Linus is tolerant of such things, IIRC, so the rest will likely be as well. Besides, there's no one on that post screaming for legal blood - they want it solved amicably.
Companies like Linksys do need to get past the "Free Beer" aspect of the GPL, though - you do need to realise it's a valid license, and you do need to plan to abide by it's terms. If you find you can't abide by those, you shouldn't use GPLed code.
Soko