What I'm trying to say is that to express the idea of equal access, you need not reach for an analogy to source code - especially when the topic you are discussing has absolutely nothing to do with software.
Believe it or not, I completely agree with you here. Exessive free software analogies make me want to puke, and mine is completely unnesecary, and a very long stretch. But I needed an analogy to close my comment, and I really couldn't think of any other. I tried.
It sounds nice at first, but it may be more destructive than it sounds. I've been spelunking and studying geology as a hobby for several years now, and it is quite possible that the act of opening the caves to the public alone can destroy some crystals.
What, then, would you have us do? Sure, we could preserve the caves indefinately by sealing them up forever. But then they would benifit no one.
As the article says, the choices, as far as the mining copmany sees it, is tourism and mining. Obviously mining the caves for the crystals in much more destructive than letting people take a look.
Even saying that we could avoid this dichotomy, what are the alternatives? Just let "seriosu" spelunker down there? That seems rather elitist to me. I'm not a seriopus spelunker, but I have a healthy respect for and awe of mother nature, and to be told that I can't go spreading around my water vapor, only "serious spelukners" just seems wrong to me. Shouldn't everyone be given equal access to the gaves, in anyone is giving access? Then everyone can enjoy them, and some regular guys might become interested in serious spelunking.
To me, this seems to paralell the ideals behind free software. Everyone is given equal acess to the finite software resiource (coders can only work so hard), and everyone can appreciate it, all in the sense of irony. And if a microsofty can be one over for Linux or BSD, everyone wins.
I just read the story, and I'm impressed by the stance the mining company is taking. Instead of chopping up these huge crystals and selling them to collectors and museums, they're gradually cooling the 100-degree caves in order to show them off to the public.
A plan like this keeps natural wonders like this intact and let's us general public take a peek and what's going on inside our planet.
On a side note, doesn't this look like the sort of thing you always see on cheezy movies abiout the deep underground? Not so chessy after all, it seems.
I know, I wasn't really clear about that... He is selling something, but they're not actually Klein bottles. Anyway, it's still a joke, in that it's obvious that the site is primarily intended to be humorous.
All right, agreed with on all points. It was unclear from your first post whether or not you meant the entire site was a hoax (like bonzaikitten). But the site is obviously intended to be amusing, and I think it succeed. And the almost-klein-bottles are pretty cool. To bad they can't be embedded in this dimension, only immersed.
Er, since I'm addressing the humor-impaired, I should probably point out that http://www.kleinbottle.com is a joke as well.
Err, are you sure. His website makes it fairly clear that he really is selling Klein bottles:
Are you serious, or is this some kind of joke?
I do sell glass Klein Bottles. I fill orders quickly and guarantee satisfaction. Over a hundred presumably happy mathematicians now own my Klein Bottles.
He explains all about the topology of a klein bottle, admits that what he makes aren't klein bottles in the truest sense, but merely a 3d immersion of a klein bottle. I'd have to say that you're wrong, this guy really is seelinf klein bottles. And he even accepts paypal.
They hog system resources, they slow down pretty much EVERYTHING, they require CONSTANT updating, they interfere with installers, and on top of that, they don't fix anything!
Antivirus software can be very *very* helpful, if they're configured correctly. I worked for the local school district a couple sumemrs ago doing basic software upgrades/configuration on all of the district's PC. Every computer had McAfee installed, but it was almost always poorly configured. The software was often disabled, or not configured to retrieve updates automatically, which made it basically worthless.
And, suprise surprise, we'd find "nests" of viruses in the labs with poorly configured (or no) virus protection. The PCs, as a result, were baerly functioning. We'd bring McAfee back up to speed, give the computer a thorough scan, and eliminate every trace of trouble, almost with no problem (the most infected machine had over 300 infected files, and it got up and worked fine after a thorough scan). On machines so crippled McAfee couldn't be installed, it was a simnple matter to share it's hardrives across the network, and have McAfee scan the drive remotely, which worked like a charm.
While AV software might not be as useful on the home PC, I would say it is essential in corporations and large business. And I would recomend getting AV software at home, too, if for nothing else than to scan downloaded files.
But for many users it IS difficult and time-wasting for them to compile hundreds of different libraries and programs, and to ensure they all work well together.
You're paying them for the time/effort it took to organize and ensure compatability between all the different componants and to compile them for your particular architecture as well as support.
But why should I pay them for that? Lets face it, most people wouldn't even think of giving away their cash just becasue they think a copmany is good. We, as a society, are not that nice. Sure, they put hard work into it, but as long as they give the source away, it's not at all hard for me to compile it on my own machine. Where's the incentive for me to part with my money?
Now, if both the client and the server are GPL'ed it will be that much harder to crack down on the cheaters. The biggest hurdle these folks have right now is that they can't access the code directly and must play a constant game of cat 'n mouse with simple scripting tools.
Pretty much everyone can agree that security through obscurity is not really secure at all. Linux is all open source, but does this mean that cracks run rampant? No, it generally means that is is even easier to take steps to prevent cracking, as long as you think about it the right way.
What an open source client and server does mean is that the developer will have to find ways of securing the game that actually *is* secure. This means a smarter server, clients the don't implicitly trust other clients, data that is verified by the "secure" server, and smarter in RAM encrpytion techniques for game variables.
But we are forgetting the golden rule of the GPL. There will be (in theory) hundreds of coders, artists, and designers working on the free server, which should make it a better game than the pay-servers.
Want an example? How about Linux vs. Windows
And Linux companies are turning a huge profit, too, while Mircrosoft goes broke.
Why play the pay servers when the free ones are just as good??
Because the pay serves have professional game deisgners, artist, and level designers bakcing it up. As the story says, the game data is propietary. Sure, the framework for the game is free, but the meaty parts that make code into a game belong to the company running the pay server. Its likely a lot of gamers won't mind subpar graphics/maps/whatever and forego the pay servers, but I imagine there will be those that do want the "good stuff", and will pay for it.
Now, the biggest problem with your solution (that is, emailing your big files to yourself) is that this is another STUPID way to be transferring files. There are always better ways to transfer files than email. It should be the method of last resort. Let's see, http, scp, ftp... that's enough for now. Or use one of the free netdrive services.
Doesn't seem so stupid to me. It works great. The email server is on the campus ethernet so files get transferred to it it no time, and I can grab it from and computer that runs a broawer (web mail client). After I've transferred the file, I just delete the email. Works great. And if the server is handling the mail for the entire campus (which it is) a couple of 50-60 meggers isn't gonna kill it. Sure, I can (and sometimes do) run an FTP server off of my computer, or something like that, but not all other computers on campus can easily access it. Email works rather well.
and if you go to college these days, you seriously can't get by without a ZIP drive
I don't see why not. I'm in college, and I haven't given Zip disks a second thought. Any large files I need transfered (and I very rarely do) I can just email to myself. If I need to free up harddrive space, I have a much more "standard" and usefull CD-Recorder. No one else I know has a zip drive, really. No need for them.
Marketeer 1: You gave this guy $20 for what?
Marketeer 2: For his complete web history. Isn't trading privacy on the free market great? Now we can use this for market research!
Marketeer 1: But all this guy does is reload/. and conversatron hundreds of times a day! It's as if this person is a complete and utter nerd! We can't get any usefull research out of this!
Marketeer 2: But it only cost $20! It cost more if the person has a life...
its a void function returning a value! It cant be done!
Ah, there's the problem. Well, I um, I meant it that way. It's, um, part of the joke... Ok, ok, I admit it, this is a horrible example of C code. Sorry. it was just a silly joke.
2. Hypothetically. If the pilots are incapicitated, how is someone else going to *easily* take control of the aircraft. Oooopss wait while I strap on some electrodes... oh nevermind there's the ground.
I see now reason why the plane couldn't also be fitted traditional manual controls. Most things with automated controls these days have "manual overrides," I'm sure it'd be the same.
Surely blue vs. red is just a dress rehersal for the final show down between windows and linux - with windows represented by Big Blue, and the linux forces gathering behind Redhat.
I honestly don't see this type of war for the future of mankind. Without trying to sound morbid, the whole point of war is _not_ to blow up your enemies' toys, but to kill the opposing legion's fighters.
You're completely off the mark. A war of attrition is pretty much the last thing that anyone wants. The way to fight war is not hope that you can kill all of them before they kill all of your guys. In this kind of war, you just end up with a lot of dead guys. The whole point of a war is to remove the enemies ability to successfully fight you.
If you render the enemies weapons innefective, they can no longer fight you, you win. If you can degrade their information to the point that they can no longer attac you or succesfully defend your attacks, the they can no longer gifght you, and you win. If you can strategically use your space toys to lessen their ability to fight you (ie, destroy their GPS and observation satellites) you are ahead. If you combine this with conventional air and ground strikes to the point where they can no longer fight you, you win.
Sure, if you kill so many of their troops that they cannot fight you, you win. But no one likes death, and destroying their toys is often just as effective, if you're smart about it.
This, I have to say, is a novel concept; paying a middle man when there (technically) isn't one.
If Alice wants to download a Metallica tune from Bob, I don't really see them shelling out the $$$ for Napster.
I think it should be fairly obvious to anyone that you are wouldn't shelling out money to Napster for nothing. If Alice wants to download a Metallica tune from Bob, she is free to do so without maying money to anyone. Bob ca njust email her the song. But that is not how Napster works. Alice asks the Napster server (and servers are not free) who has the Metallicxa song she wants. Napster searches its database (databases do not maintain themselves) and tells Alice who has the song she wants (the high speed lines it communicates with are not free).
Take a look at this real life example. If you want three keys of coke, do you find a supplier yourseld? No, you call up your cousin Vinnie, who "knows people," down on the docks. Vinnie has names written in his little black book. Vinnie'll hook you up, 'casue he has the connections. And is Vinnie gonna want a cut? Sure is. Vinnie provided you with a service.
Napster is providing users with a similar service. Right now they are doing at no cost to the user (be gratefull) but the record gods must be appeased, lest they call down the thunder. "Open source" and "free software" are great ideals, but Napster has a right to charge for its service. And you have a right to boycott it.
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What I'm trying to say is that to express the idea of equal access, you need not reach for an analogy to source code - especially when the topic you are discussing has absolutely nothing to do with software.
Believe it or not, I completely agree with you here. Exessive free software analogies make me want to puke, and mine is completely unnesecary, and a very long stretch. But I needed an analogy to close my comment, and I really couldn't think of any other. I tried.
p.s.: I use Windows, not Linux.
It sounds nice at first, but it may be more destructive than it sounds. I've been spelunking and studying geology as a hobby for several years now, and it is quite possible that the act of opening the caves to the public alone can destroy some crystals.
What, then, would you have us do? Sure, we could preserve the caves indefinately by sealing them up forever. But then they would benifit no one.
As the article says, the choices, as far as the mining copmany sees it, is tourism and mining. Obviously mining the caves for the crystals in much more destructive than letting people take a look.
Even saying that we could avoid this dichotomy, what are the alternatives? Just let "seriosu" spelunker down there? That seems rather elitist to me. I'm not a seriopus spelunker, but I have a healthy respect for and awe of mother nature, and to be told that I can't go spreading around my water vapor, only "serious spelukners" just seems wrong to me. Shouldn't everyone be given equal access to the gaves, in anyone is giving access? Then everyone can enjoy them, and some regular guys might become interested in serious spelunking.
To me, this seems to paralell the ideals behind free software. Everyone is given equal acess to the finite software resiource (coders can only work so hard), and everyone can appreciate it, all in the sense of irony. And if a microsofty can be one over for Linux or BSD, everyone wins.
I just read the story, and I'm impressed by the stance the mining company is taking. Instead of chopping up these huge crystals and selling them to collectors and museums, they're gradually cooling the 100-degree caves in order to show them off to the public.
A plan like this keeps natural wonders like this intact and let's us general public take a peek and what's going on inside our planet.
On a side note, doesn't this look like the sort of thing you always see on cheezy movies abiout the deep underground? Not so chessy after all, it seems.
I just visited, and I do not believe flash is required.
I know, I wasn't really clear about that... He is selling something, but they're not actually Klein bottles. Anyway, it's still a joke, in that it's obvious that the site is primarily intended to be humorous.
All right, agreed with on all points. It was unclear from your first post whether or not you meant the entire site was a hoax (like bonzaikitten). But the site is obviously intended to be amusing, and I think it succeed. And the almost-klein-bottles are pretty cool. To bad they can't be embedded in this dimension, only immersed.
Err, are you sure. His website makes it fairly clear that he really is selling Klein bottles:
He explains all about the topology of a klein bottle, admits that what he makes aren't klein bottles in the truest sense, but merely a 3d immersion of a klein bottle. I'd have to say that you're wrong, this guy really is seelinf klein bottles. And he even accepts paypal.
Who uses antivirus software anyways?
They hog system resources, they slow down pretty much EVERYTHING, they require CONSTANT updating, they interfere with installers, and on top of that, they don't fix anything!
Antivirus software can be very *very* helpful, if they're configured correctly. I worked for the local school district a couple sumemrs ago doing basic software upgrades/configuration on all of the district's PC. Every computer had McAfee installed, but it was almost always poorly configured. The software was often disabled, or not configured to retrieve updates automatically, which made it basically worthless.
And, suprise surprise, we'd find "nests" of viruses in the labs with poorly configured (or no) virus protection. The PCs, as a result, were baerly functioning. We'd bring McAfee back up to speed, give the computer a thorough scan, and eliminate every trace of trouble, almost with no problem (the most infected machine had over 300 infected files, and it got up and worked fine after a thorough scan). On machines so crippled McAfee couldn't be installed, it was a simnple matter to share it's hardrives across the network, and have McAfee scan the drive remotely, which worked like a charm.
While AV software might not be as useful on the home PC, I would say it is essential in corporations and large business. And I would recomend getting AV software at home, too, if for nothing else than to scan downloaded files.
But for many users it IS difficult and time-wasting for them to compile hundreds of different libraries and programs, and to ensure they all work well together.
ISO!
You're paying them for the time/effort it took to organize and ensure compatability between all the different componants and to compile them for your particular architecture as well as support.
But why should I pay them for that? Lets face it, most people wouldn't even think of giving away their cash just becasue they think a copmany is good. We, as a society, are not that nice. Sure, they put hard work into it, but as long as they give the source away, it's not at all hard for me to compile it on my own machine. Where's the incentive for me to part with my money?
Now, if both the client and the server are GPL'ed it will be that much harder to crack down on the cheaters. The biggest hurdle these folks have right now is that they can't access the code directly and must play a constant game of cat 'n mouse with simple scripting tools.
a rd_01.htm
Pretty much everyone can agree that security through obscurity is not really secure at all. Linux is all open source, but does this mean that cracks run rampant? No, it generally means that is is even easier to take steps to prevent cracking, as long as you think about it the right way.
What an open source client and server does mean is that the developer will have to find ways of securing the game that actually *is* secure. This means a smarter server, clients the don't implicitly trust other clients, data that is verified by the "secure" server, and smarter in RAM encrpytion techniques for game variables.
For more info on security against MMOG cheaters, read the excellent gamasutra.com atricle at: http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000724/pritch
But we are forgetting the golden rule of the GPL. There will be (in theory) hundreds of coders, artists, and designers working on the free server, which should make it a better game than the pay-servers. Want an example? How about Linux vs. Windows
And Linux companies are turning a huge profit, too, while Mircrosoft goes broke.
Why play the pay servers when the free ones are just as good??
Because the pay serves have professional game deisgners, artist, and level designers bakcing it up. As the story says, the game data is propietary. Sure, the framework for the game is free, but the meaty parts that make code into a game belong to the company running the pay server. Its likely a lot of gamers won't mind subpar graphics/maps/whatever and forego the pay servers, but I imagine there will be those that do want the "good stuff", and will pay for it.
Now, the biggest problem with your solution (that is, emailing your big files to yourself) is that this is another STUPID way to be transferring files. There are always better ways to transfer files than email. It should be the method of last resort. Let's see, http, scp, ftp ... that's enough for now. Or use one of the free netdrive services.
Doesn't seem so stupid to me. It works great. The email server is on the campus ethernet so files get transferred to it it no time, and I can grab it from and computer that runs a broawer (web mail client). After I've transferred the file, I just delete the email. Works great. And if the server is handling the mail for the entire campus (which it is) a couple of 50-60 meggers isn't gonna kill it. Sure, I can (and sometimes do) run an FTP server off of my computer, or something like that, but not all other computers on campus can easily access it. Email works rather well.
and if you go to college these days, you seriously can't get by without a ZIP drive
I don't see why not. I'm in college, and I haven't given Zip disks a second thought. Any large files I need transfered (and I very rarely do) I can just email to myself. If I need to free up harddrive space, I have a much more "standard" and usefull CD-Recorder. No one else I know has a zip drive, really. No need for them.
This is just what we need. *another* media. Sound exciting
But does it run the latest kernel?
What if India uses all thir dirty, dirty, technology to send strong cryptography into space? Quick, quick, outlaw rockets!
Marketeer 1: You gave this guy $20 for what? /. and conversatron hundreds of times a day! It's as if this person is a complete and utter nerd! We can't get any usefull research out of this!
Marketeer 2: For his complete web history. Isn't trading privacy on the free market great? Now we can use this for market research!
Marketeer 1: But all this guy does is reload
Marketeer 2: But it only cost $20! It cost more if the person has a life...
its a void function returning a value! It cant be done!
Ah, there's the problem. Well, I um, I meant it that way. It's, um, part of the joke... Ok, ok, I admit it, this is a horrible example of C code. Sorry. it was just a silly joke.
And how does one develop under such a system? Post your programs and hope they get modded up to compile-threshold level?
//try to get modded up
//windowz sux0rz! linux is k-rad!
Of course, you could write karma whore code to get the compiler to notice you.
void main(void)
{
linux=++good;
windows=++un_good;
return WINDOWS_TO_THE_STORE
}
2. Hypothetically. If the pilots are incapicitated, how is someone else going to *easily* take control of the aircraft. Oooopss wait while I strap on some electrodes... oh nevermind there's the ground.
I see now reason why the plane couldn't also be fitted traditional manual controls. Most things with automated controls these days have "manual overrides," I'm sure it'd be the same.
Surely blue vs. red is just a dress rehersal for the final show down between windows and linux - with windows represented by Big Blue, and the linux forces gathering behind Redhat.
Didn't blue win the war game?
I was, of course, just kidding. I was hoping I was being funny enough to be modded up. Becasue I am a karma whore. (I'm being serious now)
I honestly don't see this type of war for the future of mankind. Without trying to sound morbid, the whole point of war is _not_ to blow up your enemies' toys, but to kill the opposing legion's fighters.
You're completely off the mark. A war of attrition is pretty much the last thing that anyone wants. The way to fight war is not hope that you can kill all of them before they kill all of your guys. In this kind of war, you just end up with a lot of dead guys. The whole point of a war is to remove the enemies ability to successfully fight you.
If you render the enemies weapons innefective, they can no longer fight you, you win. If you can degrade their information to the point that they can no longer attac you or succesfully defend your attacks, the they can no longer gifght you, and you win. If you can strategically use your space toys to lessen their ability to fight you (ie, destroy their GPS and observation satellites) you are ahead. If you combine this with conventional air and ground strikes to the point where they can no longer fight you, you win.
Sure, if you kill so many of their troops that they cannot fight you, you win. But no one likes death, and destroying their toys is often just as effective, if you're smart about it.
If you want to know what combat in space would be like, don't play war games. Just read Ender's Game. Who needs sattelites when you have 0g laser tag?
This, I have to say, is a novel concept; paying a middle man when there (technically) isn't one.
If Alice wants to download a Metallica tune from Bob, I don't really see them shelling out the $$$ for Napster.
I think it should be fairly obvious to anyone that you are wouldn't shelling out money to Napster for nothing. If Alice wants to download a Metallica tune from Bob, she is free to do so without maying money to anyone. Bob ca njust email her the song. But that is not how Napster works. Alice asks the Napster server (and servers are not free) who has the Metallicxa song she wants. Napster searches its database (databases do not maintain themselves) and tells Alice who has the song she wants (the high speed lines it communicates with are not free).
Take a look at this real life example. If you want three keys of coke, do you find a supplier yourseld? No, you call up your cousin Vinnie, who "knows people," down on the docks. Vinnie has names written in his little black book. Vinnie'll hook you up, 'casue he has the connections. And is Vinnie gonna want a cut? Sure is. Vinnie provided you with a service.
Napster is providing users with a similar service. Right now they are doing at no cost to the user (be gratefull) but the record gods must be appeased, lest they call down the thunder. "Open source" and "free software" are great ideals, but Napster has a right to charge for its service. And you have a right to boycott it.