Well, if RH had been doing their job as bad MS has been doing, wouldn't that be OK? Really, that's intended effect, if you do a bad job, you go out of business. It doesn't matter if it is a company based on free software or proprietary software, bad work = you die... However, it is possible that free software will last because of the increased peer-review.
I have gone on to create a basic FOAF-file. That's Semantic Web vaporware project. Well, it's not vaporware, since it works, and it is pretty cool. There's even SlashFoaf, so create your FOAF RDF today!
It's not hard to make a nuclear bomb.... The hard part is to survive making it, and an even harder part is to have all the resources you need. Technically, well, can you think of any other 1940-ties technology that isn't trivial today...?
Actually, I think a liability that follows the money would actually be a good idea, for the free software community too. Think about it, companies like Red Hat would actually have a real product -- the warranty -- they would sell a warranty that their products are performing as advertized. They would earn more money and need to hire more people to audit code, resulting in more jobs and better code. And since we all know that free software is better than proprietary, well, we would be the winners!
Yeah, I remember when I was a kid, I had to have a full pack of batteries just to drive a small LEGO car. Now, my girlfriend's nephew got a small train for his birthday. The locomotive has a small battery-driven motor, it is really small, yet it does pull a few wagons. I was impressed. So, battery technology has progressed.
Also, my first cell-phone lasted 48 hours in standby, just a few years ago. My new Siemens ME45 lasts about a week. That's definately progress.
That being said, I'm not buying a laptop for myself before they have more than a few hours battery time.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard just announced his own DMCA -- Digital Music Coercion Act.
"This is what needs to be done", the prime minister said, "music sales has been going steadily down recently, as consumers no longer are blindly taking abuse and buying music".
"The music industry has been fatally damaged", an ARIA spokesman who prefers to remain anonymous said, "people are actually boycotting our products, and the artists are starving."
The law makes it possible for ARIA official to first throw people who do not buy music in jail, exposing them to hours of listening to ARIA products and depriving them of sleep. If that doesn't brainwash them sufficiently to voluntarily purchase more music, they will be taken to a record store at gunpoint, and forced to purchase products chosen for them.
ACs who post boycot cries on/. will be shot right away.
A US Senator who carries the nickname "Disney" has pledged that the law will also be implemented in the United States tomorrow, and that it will be exported to other countries shortly thereafter as a part of Trade Agreements.
A couple of years ago, there was an interview posting with PRZ where I asked about quantum computing and quantum cryptography (were the answers ever posted?) They are technnically two quite different beasts, but both should be kept in mind when considering future cryptgraphy needs.
I think we really need some quantum cryptography that will stand when large-prime-based methods fail... Are there any good hackers working on this?
Voyager has been moving through space in ways unexplainable by physics.
Any references I can read? astro-ph will do fine...:-)
So far we have not found any of this "dark matter."
Oh yes, there are many detections of massive astrophysical compact halo objects in our galaxy, P. Popowski et al, and there is also a lot of work going on to use the same ideas to look for similar bodies in other galaxies. In fact, the microlensing ideas were first proposed for extragalactic studies by Chang and Refsdal in an article in Nature in 1979. The funny thing about this is that it doesn't matter what kind of matter it is, as long as it is gravitating. Also, it is easier if it is clumped, but it doesn't need to be.
The weirdest thing about this is that he actually seems to solicit my comments...:-) I mean, I'm a newbie, but I did compile the 2.6.0-test8 and 9 kernels. Couldn't get them to boot well, though, so I gave up pretty quickly. That's on a desktop machine. I posted a few things about the ordeal on debian-users, but that is how far I took it.
Usually, I would think that there is so little I can get out of a non-working kernel that it is hardly worth reporting. It's little beyond "uhm, it doesn't work. Basically, it stopped when it got to".... Not a very interesting report.
But Linus seems to be saying that those reports can be useful for the kernel hackers anyway...
What do you think, should I post something? In that case, where?
Yeah, what linuxprinting.org needs is a review of the corporate policy of the companies. Allthough Lexmark and HP both have excellent support, there are corporate policy issues about them that are really bad. Before going out to buy a printer, it's something one should know about.
Yeah, someone run over to google and ask them to burn a copy to a CD...:-) I did that with this site some time ago. I'm quite sure someone is going to pretend that site never existed. I'll remind them...
Well, yes, basically, it is this stuff about the Semantic Web, which is currently TimBL's favorite topic. It's going to take a long time, yes that's true and probably longer than TimBL envisions, but 300 years...?
My most used search will probably be: "I want this-and-that for dinner tonight, what do I need?" The UA would first contact my fridge to see what is in there, then look up recipes for the food I want, then query nearby stores to see what they have on offer and at what prize, and then report back to me where I should be going to get what I need at the best prize. Really, I don't think this should be that far into the future...
I visited Dublin once. Look around you. See those cameras? They're everywhere. I've never been to a place more intensely surveillanced than Dublin. They know exactly where you are. Since when meant national integrity anything?
Nobody needs more arms or bombs. What is needed is for people to get off their asses.
Without having researched SIL, the ccTLDs are built on the top of ISO-3166, and so, it is certainly a non-trivial matter to change all this... This is essentially a tax on everything on the Internet, and would be huge burden. I submitted this story last night, BTW, but it was rejected.
I'm glad this was modded so high, because the point is absolutely critical. I think micropayments is a very important development, and I strongly support it, but it won't work before it is removed from the control of single companies. You can't have a single company controlling micropayments, it will lead to all kinds of evil, so you need open specifications, implementable at no cost for anybody. Only then can we make a feasible micropayments system.
Yeah, and I mean, I wouldn't dream of paying a subscription for/.! Besides, I block their ads. There's not any cash-flow coming from here to/. Cool, eh?
However, if there were micropayment information, and say once a week, it pops up a box which asks me to pay a little something, voluntarily, I would for the best articles. Well, actually, if/.ers themselves could include payment information in their comments, I'd even drop them something for an insightful comment.
Well, you do have a point here, but there are examples that may indicate the opposite:
Around here, payment per SMS is a huge thing, there are billions in this market, and it is all micropayments. People charge their accounts with cards they purchase somewhere, and they spend an amount for something small by sending an SMS to whoever sells it. It works well, it is micropayments, and it seems to be a quite stable situation.
Where it stands out from web content is that you pay in advance, and I don't think it is a viable alternative for web content to be paid this way.
The reason why BitPass et al is failing, IMHO, is that it is not standardized. Micropayments won't work unless you get good, open standards, that can be implemented by anyone, at no cost, and without having any single entity controlling any bit of the process.
I would like to see a system where you have the opportunity to make voluntary micropayments after you've read the article: Your browser keeps track of what you read or see, pages themselves are marked up with payment information, and say once a week, you get a list with requested payments, and you pay those you'd like to pay with a couple simple clicks.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, if RH had been doing their job as bad MS has been doing, wouldn't that be OK? Really, that's intended effect, if you do a bad job, you go out of business. It doesn't matter if it is a company based on free software or proprietary software, bad work = you die... However, it is possible that free software will last because of the increased peer-review.
I have gone on to create a basic FOAF-file. That's Semantic Web vaporware project. Well, it's not vaporware, since it works, and it is pretty cool. There's even SlashFoaf, so create your FOAF RDF today!
It's not hard to make a nuclear bomb.... The hard part is to survive making it, and an even harder part is to have all the resources you need. Technically, well, can you think of any other 1940-ties technology that isn't trivial today...?
But then, Linus would listen to the lawyers for five minutes, and go "yeah, yeah, I'm prepared now. They're on crack. Can I go back to coding now?"
Actually, I think a liability that follows the money would actually be a good idea, for the free software community too. Think about it, companies like Red Hat would actually have a real product -- the warranty -- they would sell a warranty that their products are performing as advertized. They would earn more money and need to hire more people to audit code, resulting in more jobs and better code. And since we all know that free software is better than proprietary, well, we would be the winners!
Also, my first cell-phone lasted 48 hours in standby, just a few years ago. My new Siemens ME45 lasts about a week. That's definately progress.
That being said, I'm not buying a laptop for myself before they have more than a few hours battery time.
"This is what needs to be done", the prime minister said, "music sales has been going steadily down recently, as consumers no longer are blindly taking abuse and buying music".
"The music industry has been fatally damaged", an ARIA spokesman who prefers to remain anonymous said, "people are actually boycotting our products, and the artists are starving."
The law makes it possible for ARIA official to first throw people who do not buy music in jail, exposing them to hours of listening to ARIA products and depriving them of sleep. If that doesn't brainwash them sufficiently to voluntarily purchase more music, they will be taken to a record store at gunpoint, and forced to purchase products chosen for them.
ACs who post boycot cries on /. will be shot right away.
A US Senator who carries the nickname "Disney" has pledged that the law will also be implemented in the United States tomorrow, and that it will be exported to other countries shortly thereafter as a part of Trade Agreements.
They're just very scared when they're chased by Tux!
I think we really need some quantum cryptography that will stand when large-prime-based methods fail... Are there any good hackers working on this?
Any references I can read? astro-ph will do fine... :-)
Oh yes, there are many detections of massive astrophysical compact halo objects in our galaxy, P. Popowski et al, and there is also a lot of work going on to use the same ideas to look for similar bodies in other galaxies. In fact, the microlensing ideas were first proposed for extragalactic studies by Chang and Refsdal in an article in Nature in 1979. The funny thing about this is that it doesn't matter what kind of matter it is, as long as it is gravitating. Also, it is easier if it is clumped, but it doesn't need to be.
Shameless plug: My thesis: Gravitational Microlensing of Quasar Clouds: Detectability in a Worst-Case Scenario.
Would be cool!Usually, I would think that there is so little I can get out of a non-working kernel that it is hardly worth reporting. It's little beyond "uhm, it doesn't work. Basically, it stopped when it got to".... Not a very interesting report.
But Linus seems to be saying that those reports can be useful for the kernel hackers anyway...
What do you think, should I post something? In that case, where?
Yeah, what linuxprinting.org needs is a review of the corporate policy of the companies. Allthough Lexmark and HP both have excellent support, there are corporate policy issues about them that are really bad. Before going out to buy a printer, it's something one should know about.
I've climbed on my own two feet to 20,000 feet. :-)
Absolutely! Expect to see Bush send in the bombers to remove those University Campuses from the face of the earth Real Soon Now[tm]! :-)
I mean, it could cause unrest if Joe Average read those memos.
Look, there is dynamite in those memos, it pretty much proves that the Diebold machines are severly flawed and that the 2000 election was unfair.
Let's keep the focus on the important things. It's no need to get up in arms about someone's .sig.
Yeah, someone run over to google and ask them to burn a copy to a CD... :-) I did that with this site some time ago. I'm quite sure someone is going to pretend that site never existed. I'll remind them...
Linus Pauling got the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 for work on chemical bonds and the Peace prize in 1962 for his guts...
My most used search will probably be: "I want this-and-that for dinner tonight, what do I need?" The UA would first contact my fridge to see what is in there, then look up recipes for the food I want, then query nearby stores to see what they have on offer and at what prize, and then report back to me where I should be going to get what I need at the best prize. Really, I don't think this should be that far into the future...
Nobody needs more arms or bombs. What is needed is for people to get off their asses.
Without having researched SIL, the ccTLDs are built on the top of ISO-3166, and so, it is certainly a non-trivial matter to change all this... This is essentially a tax on everything on the Internet, and would be huge burden. I submitted this story last night, BTW, but it was rejected.
I'm glad this was modded so high, because the point is absolutely critical. I think micropayments is a very important development, and I strongly support it, but it won't work before it is removed from the control of single companies. You can't have a single company controlling micropayments, it will lead to all kinds of evil, so you need open specifications, implementable at no cost for anybody. Only then can we make a feasible micropayments system.
However, if there were micropayment information, and say once a week, it pops up a box which asks me to pay a little something, voluntarily, I would for the best articles. Well, actually, if /.ers themselves could include payment information in their comments, I'd even drop them something for an insightful comment.
Around here, payment per SMS is a huge thing, there are billions in this market, and it is all micropayments. People charge their accounts with cards they purchase somewhere, and they spend an amount for something small by sending an SMS to whoever sells it. It works well, it is micropayments, and it seems to be a quite stable situation.
Where it stands out from web content is that you pay in advance, and I don't think it is a viable alternative for web content to be paid this way.
The reason why BitPass et al is failing, IMHO, is that it is not standardized. Micropayments won't work unless you get good, open standards, that can be implemented by anyone, at no cost, and without having any single entity controlling any bit of the process.
I would like to see a system where you have the opportunity to make voluntary micropayments after you've read the article: Your browser keeps track of what you read or see, pages themselves are marked up with payment information, and say once a week, you get a list with requested payments, and you pay those you'd like to pay with a couple simple clicks.
You get a trial membership to Anonymizer.com if you donate more than $25 to EFF. No, that wasn't my primary point.
For those who haven't discovered, Iran has a very vibrant community of bloggers, for those interested, start at Hoder's blog.
I haven't had a lot good to say about the current US administration, but funding anonymizers is an excellent move, that may help a lot of people.
However, it may become a rat-race between the anonymizing services and the Iranian authorities, who will try to block it.
Any suggestions how the anonymizers will win that?