Isn't the whole point of having GSM so that you can talk anywhere in the world? It's the only reason I would have bought one...not that I leave North America that often. One more thing. Why no Sprint coverage? I know smart ass, sprint uses PCS but that's not what I'm getting at. Sprint has decent coverage but cheap rates. I currently use them AND have a visor, it would have been great if I could ditch the phone and just carry the Visor.
I'm in exactly the same boat: I've got a Visor and a Sprint PCS plan ($50/mo. for 1500 minutes nationwide). I'd get the VisorPhone in a New York minute, but the Pac Bell plans in my area aren't worth it ($150 for 1500 min./mo. nationwide -- yes, three times as much).
One option is to wait for AirPrime to ship their CDMA VisorPhone, the SB1000, to their OEMs -- which I believe includes Sprint -- this summer.
I would hate to have to buy a proprietary commercial license to write non-proprietary and non-commercial software.
So get over your FSF paranoia and GPL your code. Trolltech has: "We have experienced tremendous success with our GPL licensing of Qt for the Unix desktop," said Eirik Eng, president of Trolltech.
If you're going to restrict other people's freedom, it's only fair that Trolltech restrict yours. Besides, I don't know how the LGPL would change anything, since the only code sealed off from the copyleft is the toolkit itself.
Truth is, Microsoft has every right to do such an audit.
They're not doing the audit. They're requiring the City to do the audit, at taxpayers' expense, and with no stated probable cause. If that's not illegal, it should be on principle. Unfortunately, you are right in the sense that Virginia Beach agreed to the EULA. There's no better argument for using Free Software.
Even MS is painfully aware how much their software is pirated every day, and especially larger companies or organizations are prone to buy, say, a 1000-station license when they really have over 5000 stations.
What's being contested here is the audit, not the hypothetical licensing infraction.
Microsoft is a business, they are out to make money, and if something is denying them legitimately of their money, then power to them for enforcing their own licenses!
Therein lies the problem: that amorphous "something." Did they have reason to believe that VB was fudging copies of MS sofware on their workstations, or was it a random test? If it was a random test, then I would argue that Microsoft is denying Virginia Beach taxpayers legitimately of their money (not to mention services). If there was probable cause, MS should have taken their evidence to the FTC or (gasp!) the DOJ -- oh, but then VB would be innocent until proven guilty. Further evidence that corporations are more powerful than governments.
The only reason such a big fuss is being made is because it's Microsoft. If it were any other company, like Corel or a smaller developer, this would never had made any news.
More's the pity. Judging from some of the comments I've read in these threads from IT professionals, audits like these aren't unheard of. So if this kind of activity has been under the radar, I'm glad Microsoft's notoriety brought the practice to public consciousness.
People are going to try and use this as fuel to attack Microsoft because they're the "big bad evil empire out to enslave us all." They're just a business, simply one that is highly effective.
I enjoy MS bashing as much as the next guy, but I do try to limit myself to valid criticisms. And frankly, this software audit has "evil empire" written all over it. That said, they do occasionally do something worthwhile. For instance, I love my IntelliMouse.
Yes, it's true that spelling often has little to do with pronunciation (which is why I suck at it), but past ambiguities are no excuse for creating new ones.
Too late. We all spell it "email" and pronounce it with a long E. Deal with it.
If My.MP3.com licenses content from the major labels, while requiring downloaders to prove they own the material they download, doesn't that mean that the record labels are getting paid twice on the same music?
Serious hole indeed. I really like the part about the "transmitting organization," which effectively knocks consumer-only P2P out of the loop. It's probably the best the EFF can do, legally, but I'd rather have a bill that explicitly supports decentralized, distrubuted file sharing as well.
The minute I heard about the MS investment in Corel, I immediately assumed that it was a way to maintain The Man's monopoly on MS Office file formats in the enterprise by adding 100% compatible MS files to WP Office. It's exactly what MS did with its similar stake in Apple. After all, does any Apple user use anything other than Office 98 for an office suite? Seriously, who cares about.Net?
You can see the screenshots for the VisorPhone UI and and Flash demo of the VP in action at Handspring.com. It's actually very well thought out, especially the SMS feature. And because the VP has a modem, you're not stuck with a WAP (CRAP) browser for internet connectivity.
Furthermore, you should be able to take notes on your PDA while talking on your phone, and I _don't_ want yet another wire/cable/dongle to carry around, or lose, or break, or forget, etc, so don't recommend the "hands-free" solution
I always takes notes on a piece of paper when I'm on the phone, even if I have my PDA on me. It's just faster and less irritating to the person on the other end not to be interrupted while you edit your Graffiti. I transer the note into the PDA after I get off the phone. Besides, I only take notes for maybe 10-20% of my calls.
Napster could help lead the fight against IP facism by practicing what they preach and actually allow The Offspring to distribute Napster t-shirts, as long as they don't sell them. That way, Napster wouldn't look like hypocrites, and the Offspring would have to take a loss on the production costs if they feel strongly enough about using Napster's trademark.
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I'm in exactly the same boat: I've got a Visor and a Sprint PCS plan ($50/mo. for 1500 minutes nationwide). I'd get the VisorPhone in a New York minute, but the Pac Bell plans in my area aren't worth it ($150 for 1500 min./mo. nationwide -- yes, three times as much). One option is to wait for AirPrime to ship their CDMA VisorPhone, the SB1000, to their OEMs -- which I believe includes Sprint -- this summer.
Boy, and I thought the creation of UNIX and C were showstoppers.
So get over your FSF paranoia and GPL your code. Trolltech has: "We have experienced tremendous success with our GPL licensing of Qt for the Unix desktop," said Eirik Eng, president of Trolltech.
If you're going to restrict other people's freedom, it's only fair that Trolltech restrict yours. Besides, I don't know how the LGPL would change anything, since the only code sealed off from the copyleft is the toolkit itself.
They're not doing the audit. They're requiring the City to do the audit, at taxpayers' expense, and with no stated probable cause. If that's not illegal, it should be on principle. Unfortunately, you are right in the sense that Virginia Beach agreed to the EULA. There's no better argument for using Free Software.
Even MS is painfully aware how much their software is pirated every day, and especially larger companies or organizations are prone to buy, say, a 1000-station license when they really have over 5000 stations.
What's being contested here is the audit, not the hypothetical licensing infraction.
Microsoft is a business, they are out to make money, and if something is denying them legitimately of their money, then power to them for enforcing their own licenses!
Therein lies the problem: that amorphous "something." Did they have reason to believe that VB was fudging copies of MS sofware on their workstations, or was it a random test? If it was a random test, then I would argue that Microsoft is denying Virginia Beach taxpayers legitimately of their money (not to mention services). If there was probable cause, MS should have taken their evidence to the FTC or (gasp!) the DOJ -- oh, but then VB would be innocent until proven guilty. Further evidence that corporations are more powerful than governments.
The only reason such a big fuss is being made is because it's Microsoft. If it were any other company, like Corel or a smaller developer, this would never had made any news.
More's the pity. Judging from some of the comments I've read in these threads from IT professionals, audits like these aren't unheard of. So if this kind of activity has been under the radar, I'm glad Microsoft's notoriety brought the practice to public consciousness.
People are going to try and use this as fuel to attack Microsoft because they're the "big bad evil empire out to enslave us all." They're just a business, simply one that is highly effective.
I enjoy MS bashing as much as the next guy, but I do try to limit myself to valid criticisms. And frankly, this software audit has "evil empire" written all over it. That said, they do occasionally do something worthwhile. For instance, I love my IntelliMouse.
Yes, it's true that spelling often has little to do with pronunciation (which is why I suck at it), but past ambiguities are no excuse for creating new ones. Too late. We all spell it "email" and pronounce it with a long E. Deal with it.
If My.MP3.com licenses content from the major labels, while requiring downloaders to prove they own the material they download, doesn't that mean that the record labels are getting paid twice on the same music?
Serious hole indeed. I really like the part about the "transmitting organization," which effectively knocks consumer-only P2P out of the loop. It's probably the best the EFF can do, legally, but I'd rather have a bill that explicitly supports decentralized, distrubuted file sharing as well.
The minute I heard about the MS investment in Corel, I immediately assumed that it was a way to maintain The Man's monopoly on MS Office file formats in the enterprise by adding 100% compatible MS files to WP Office. It's exactly what MS did with its similar stake in Apple. After all, does any Apple user use anything other than Office 98 for an office suite? Seriously, who cares about .Net?
You can see the screenshots for the VisorPhone UI and and Flash demo of the VP in action at Handspring.com. It's actually very well thought out, especially the SMS feature. And because the VP has a modem, you're not stuck with a WAP (CRAP) browser for internet connectivity.
Furthermore, you should be able to take notes on your PDA while talking on your phone, and I _don't_ want yet another wire/cable/dongle to carry around, or lose, or break, or forget, etc, so don't recommend the "hands-free" solution I always takes notes on a piece of paper when I'm on the phone, even if I have my PDA on me. It's just faster and less irritating to the person on the other end not to be interrupted while you edit your Graffiti. I transer the note into the PDA after I get off the phone. Besides, I only take notes for maybe 10-20% of my calls.
Amen to that. Give that man a 5.
Napster could help lead the fight against IP facism by practicing what they preach and actually allow The Offspring to distribute Napster t-shirts, as long as they don't sell them. That way, Napster wouldn't look like hypocrites, and the Offspring would have to take a loss on the production costs if they feel strongly enough about using Napster's trademark.