You do realise that if he succeeds in nullifying the GPL, ALL copyrights will be nullified? You also realise that the reason Linksys got into trouble was because they used someone else's code without permission? Are you REALLY sure that you want the GPL nullified?
No worries. This guy is so dumb he needs a roadmap to pull up his socks. He inherited his money from his hardworking ancestors and now feels guilty about it. In response, he wants to tax anything and anyone who does work for a living and give our money to anyone with a hand out.
Typical Minnesota urban white Democrat.
And yes, I do know what I'm talking about. I'm a native Minnesotan. Heck, I'm a 4th generation Iron Ranger whose family has pretty much voted Republican or independent (a major sin on Da Raynch) since my great-grandfather got his citizenship papers.
If you're dealing with such an idiot, don't bother. If you really feel pressed to talk to someone at that company, contact his boss.
Personally, I'd avoid the headache and take my business elsewhere. If you're feeling generous, send a politely worded letter (preferably handwritten or typed) to the CEO of the company explaining why you've given up doing business with his firm. It's amazing what a little injection of reality at the right level will do sometimes.:)
Wow. The Strib (or the Red Rag as my friends call it) missed an opportunity to slam Republicans? When they even had the truth on their side?? Are you sure you're not reading a copy that mysteriously got transported here from an alternate universe?
Go back and re-read the grandparent. He's going to start teaching his kids about shooting when his kids are 4. My dad, like most parents out in rural America, started the lessons about then as well. You know what he taught me?
"This is a rifle. You don't point it at someone unless you mean to kill them. Killing people is almost always wrong, so pointing a gun at someone is almost always wrong."
"This rifle is always loaded, even if you just saw me take out all the bullets. That's the only way to be safe with a firearm."
That's it. End of lesson plan until he decided I was old enough to start actually shooting when I was around 10 or 11.
I dunno. What's so special about country kids that we know what self defense is and city kids don't? What's so special about country kids that we understand that tools are dangerous and city kids don't?
Personally, I don't think we ARE special. It's just that we're directly exposed to a lot of things that someone who grew up in an apartment or in the suburbs only see at a distance, if at all. However, if some parent living in the city wanted to teach his kid the same thing I learned at that age, I think s/he could just by keeping the lessons simple.
(I'd like to call myself one, but honesty won't allow me to do so until I get my PhD.)
That's odd. Some of the best theoretical and lab work has been done by scientists who didn't have PhDs. If you work in research (even as a grad student), why shouldn't you call yourself a scientist? Afraid of what your peers might say?
...most of which you never hear about -- because I guess these dumbass musicians grab their outta tune guitars and worn out drums and build something that is as much of a production as any slick piece of work you see from Disney...all on their own.
I can't tell if you meant this to be sarcastic or not. If/when it's true (think guys like IceT who've gone to completely self publishing models who are now making more money than they ever did through the RIAA), then I'm sorry but the world has changed. Deal with it. Find a different career/hobby.
The oft-quoted Heinlein's point about businesses not being able to force legislation to maintain an old business is just as true for us grunts on the shop floor as it is for the guys in the front office.
Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America
We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
All cynicism aside, the US Constitution stands up pretty well when you look at its support for the right of the people to govern. But then, it was crafted by some of the same people who had signed the Declaration of Independence 15 years earlier:
The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Oh, I don't know. There are a lot of us who work for companies that own IBM mainframes, for example. They haven't disappeared off the face of the earth despite all the doomsayers for the past 3 decades.
I think there are some jobs that are best performed by very large boxes. If a company like Irix or IBM wants to fund the developers or donate some of their codebase, why should the Linux kernel developers turn it down?
After all, IBM was responsible for a lot of the donations to the 2.6 kernel that theoretically should make 64 processor boxes quite feasible. We won't know until some actual production boxes come online, but all reports of the 2.6 test kernels has been pretty positive.
I'm sure IBM did so in the full expectation that they would be able to sell enough 64 CPU linux boxes to recoup their investment. If they thought that they could sell 1024 CPU boxes, I'm sure they'd figure out a way to donate that code, too.
This was a an overload level of legit traffic, if your server can't handle it then you need a better server.
WHAT????? What planet are you from that doing ANY kind of network monitoring once a second is considered legit traffic? No, this was either a deliberate attempt to generate a ton of false positives, or total incompetence on the part of the monitoring company.
If I were the owner of the hosting company, the FIRST thing that I would have done was refuse all requests coming in from the monitoring company so I could get traffic flowing for all my customers. That is what they are paying for, after all.
The second thing that I would have done would be to save off copies of all logs that might be considered relavent in a legal situation to read only media.
The third thing that I would have done is send out an email to all affected customers explaining the reasons for the downtime incurred, what had been done to alleviate the situation for all concerned, and that further efforts were ongoing to resolve the issue permanently.
Then, call my lawyers. Ask for a Cease and Desist order to be sent right away.
No way do I play nice with assholes trying to put me out of business.
No, it's much, much worse. Since MS's cost to produce their product is close to nil, California is basically allowing the drug dealer to give out free samples to the already addicted to keep them in thrall.
I don't mean to come off like some kind of religious nut, but shouldn't your relationship with the Almighty (however you define him/her/it) take precedence over your job?:)
I think Mandrake not only just lost a customer, they lost all my recommendations.
With Mandrake's support turning over every 6 months? My desktop has been upgraded faithfully from 8.0 on. I've been a Mandrake Club member since they started. I purchased a couple of boxed sets when I had the cahs.
Also, I'm going to have to quit recommending it as a good newbie desktop. I can't imagine anything that would infuriate my friends and family more than all those ads. (Note the link from the guy who determined that ads will be placed at install in ALL versions.
Hey, don't feel too bad. I think there's still a few of us small 'c' conservatives left. Too bad the neo-cons (I refuse to dignify them as neoconservatives) are giving the old school a bad rep.
No, Texas doesn't have such a law. However, I will say that I'm beginning to think that Heinlein was right: The only capital crime should be bad manners. I think Darl & Co. more than qualify for execution with that as the criteria.:)
Oh? Have you figured out how to get links created in a document exported to PDF format? Every time I try it, the link text shows up underlined and in a pretty blue color but it's not active. HUGE problem for us.
I don't mind wizards at all. I'm a fan of Mandrake, myself. However, I will stipulate that when a Mandrake wizard goes south it's tough to figure out what it did.
This whole problem wouldn't be an issue if the wizards just LOGGED what they did. Say, under/var/log someplace where logs belong.
My opinion is just one that comes from someone with an enthusiastic appreciation of art in all its forms but with no talent whatsoever of my own. I first really developed that appreciation for art when I took a two semester course in the history of art while filling the liberal arts portion of an EE degree. I found it by far the most fascinating part of my coursework. No wonder I never finished the degree, eh? The lack of a degree really hasn't held up my career, though. I've progressed from network designer and implementer to enterprise architect over the course of 15 or so years. I suppose it helps that my parents taught me that you never really stop going to school.
Anyhow, take the following for what it's worth, the opinion of an outsider to this world, but one who loves it.
"Art theories" (really, "schools"), or "paradigms" are more like fads or social trends. They have a limited life cycle. They form weak bases for further development and don't lead to engineering technology.
I'm not so sure that this is completely true. Granted, you find lots of schools of thought (probably a better choice of words than theory in this context) rising and falling over the course of a few months or years. Most of these can be safely ignored for the lack of depth that they show. However, there are exceptions that prove the rule. In another sense, though, you really can't call these schools of thought. They are in the way of being part of a conversation between the practioners of art and the rest of society that has been going on since Ogg first started painting on cave walls and Mogg bitched about his choice of color and composition.
One of the more obvious examples of this conversation shows up when you compare art from just prior to the outbreak of the Black Death plague in Europe in the 14th century through the Renaissance. When you view paintings from the century prior to this time period, there are several major changes in style that are happening simultaneously in several places on the continent. As the the plague reaches its peak and subsides, there is a very clear demarcation in style and subject matter. It's so obvious it's almost a break in continuity. The emotional pain and horror from the loss of all the lives of loved ones and strangers shows up clearly in every example that you can find. There's also a limitation in the forms of expression used and subject matter chosen. It's as if the artists were (maybe unconsciously) deliberately limiting what and how they would express themselves.
As some emotional distance develops over the next century or so, you can see the artists' innate optimism and joy of life reasserting itself. The changes in style begin to evolve again. As you move forward through the Renaissance, you can see it over and over. Art becomes more secular in nature, more varied in its subject matter, and more experimental in the techniques used. By the end of the Renaissance.
To bring this around to being on topic: I think you can see the same thing happening in the world of computer gaming. MUDs have gone from simple text based systems to the graphically rich formats that we see today. This has allowed for a much wider variety of subject matter and techniques. You can argue that they are still limited in scope and expression, but to a large degree those limits are a direct result of the medium. You still see the same conversation going on between the artists and the rest of society.
What I'm trying to say is that when you evaluate a school of thought, you really need to back up a bit. Put it in context of the medium, its place in the history of the conversation, and its immediate impact on society. Only then can you determine whether or not it will leave a lasting impression on the world around it.
Oh, come on. Things just aren't that bad anymore. Ever since IBM announced its billion dollar commitment to Linux, corporate adoption has moving forward. Sure, it started slow. Remember, though, it started from nothing and the growth rates are phenomenol. For example, IDC reported that the number of Linux servers shipped grew by 90% last year! That's a huge jump when you consider that last year Linux had about 15% of the total server market in those terms. The whole market only grew by what? 7%?
I work in IT in the banking and financial industry in the US. My company is in the top 10 in terms of assets. A more hidebound, conservative bunch you can't hope to find anywhere.
For years I've kept my Linux advocacy low key. I wanted to persuade people that it was a worthwhile option for us, not get branded as a loon. Imagine my surprise when I learned that not only are we looking seriously at Linux/Apache partitions running on our mainframe, we're also seriously looking at Lintel platforms for a variety of server related tasks.
We're also in the process of reviewing our branch environment with an eye towards Linux throughout. Many in this industry are. Unlike most of those others, we've run NT, not OS/2, in the branches for several years. We're still going to at least LOOK at Linux on all desktops in the branches.
Those many banks that still run OS/2 are looking really, really hard at Linux. If they make the move, you're talking about what? Maybe a couple of million desktops up for grabs in the US alone?
Unreal Tournament 2003. In the box, although not labeled. It's on CD3.
America's Army. Free download, as is the Windows client.
Neverwinter Nights. Linux client available for free DL from the company Web site.
Savage. Game currently in beta for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Doom 3. I keep hearing unconfirmed rumors that this will come out with a Linux and Mac client. Stress unconfirmed.
So, that's 3 mainstream games with equal treatment of the client, one that requires additional download, and one unconfirmed support. Not a lot, but compare the situation to even 18 months ago. The game companies are beginning to wake up to the changing market. Shouldn't you?
Things are changing in the gaming world, you know. Off the top of my head, I can think of the following fairly popular current games that come with native Linux clients:
America's Army (free download either Windows or Linux. Development paid for by the US Army, as it's seen as a recruitment tool. I understand that it's based on the next generation Unreal engine.)
Neverwinter Nights (DL off their Web site)
Unreal Tournament 2003 (Linux client in the box, although not labeled that way)
Savage (currently available as a beta DL. Boxed set is supposed to include both clients in box)
Doom 3 (less sure about this one. I keep hearing rumors that it will come out as both Linux and Windows)
I'm sure other people will be able to add games that I've forgotten.
So, while it is certainly true that the vast majority of the commercial games out there are not available as Linux clients, things are improving pretty quickly.
Slashdot Mirror
You do realise that if he succeeds in nullifying the GPL, ALL copyrights will be nullified? You also realise that the reason Linksys got into trouble was because they used someone else's code without permission? Are you REALLY sure that you want the GPL nullified?
Think carefully before answering.
No worries. This guy is so dumb he needs a roadmap to pull up his socks. He inherited his money from his hardworking ancestors and now feels guilty about it. In response, he wants to tax anything and anyone who does work for a living and give our money to anyone with a hand out.
Typical Minnesota urban white Democrat.
And yes, I do know what I'm talking about. I'm a native Minnesotan. Heck, I'm a 4th generation Iron Ranger whose family has pretty much voted Republican or independent (a major sin on Da Raynch) since my great-grandfather got his citizenship papers.
If you're dealing with such an idiot, don't bother. If you really feel pressed to talk to someone at that company, contact his boss.
:)
Personally, I'd avoid the headache and take my business elsewhere. If you're feeling generous, send a politely worded letter (preferably handwritten or typed) to the CEO of the company explaining why you've given up doing business with his firm. It's amazing what a little injection of reality at the right level will do sometimes.
Not quite. Remember, MS hired Jim Allchin away from DEC, and he brought some of his development team with him. They worked on ...drum roll... VMS.
Allchin was once asked if it was a coincidence that Windows NT was one letter off from VMS. His response? "What do you think?"
Wow. The Strib (or the Red Rag as my friends call it) missed an opportunity to slam Republicans? When they even had the truth on their side?? Are you sure you're not reading a copy that mysteriously got transported here from an alternate universe?
Go back and re-read the grandparent. He's going to start teaching his kids about shooting when his kids are 4. My dad, like most parents out in rural America, started the lessons about then as well. You know what he taught me?
"This is a rifle. You don't point it at someone unless you mean to kill them. Killing people is almost always wrong, so pointing a gun at someone is almost always wrong."
"This rifle is always loaded, even if you just saw me take out all the bullets. That's the only way to be safe with a firearm."
That's it. End of lesson plan until he decided I was old enough to start actually shooting when I was around 10 or 11.
I dunno. What's so special about country kids that we know what self defense is and city kids don't? What's so special about country kids that we understand that tools are dangerous and city kids don't?
Personally, I don't think we ARE special. It's just that we're directly exposed to a lot of things that someone who grew up in an apartment or in the suburbs only see at a distance, if at all. However, if some parent living in the city wanted to teach his kid the same thing I learned at that age, I think s/he could just by keeping the lessons simple.
6 TIMES nathional champion. :)
I can't tell if you meant this to be sarcastic or not. If/when it's true (think guys like IceT who've gone to completely self publishing models who are now making more money than they ever did through the RIAA), then I'm sorry but the world has changed. Deal with it. Find a different career/hobby.
The oft-quoted Heinlein's point about businesses not being able to force legislation to maintain an old business is just as true for us grunts on the shop floor as it is for the guys in the front office.
Dear General Washington:
;)
Please schedule all future battles in excellent weather. It's great for the morale of our troops and we get to use all of our gunpowder weapons.
Thanks.
Thomas Jefferson
for the Continental Congress
What? You think worrying about the weather is a new problem for any military?
All cynicism aside, the US Constitution stands up pretty well when you look at its support for the right of the people to govern. But then, it was crafted by some of the same people who had signed the Declaration of Independence 15 years earlier:
Oh, I don't know. There are a lot of us who work for companies that own IBM mainframes, for example. They haven't disappeared off the face of the earth despite all the doomsayers for the past 3 decades.
I think there are some jobs that are best performed by very large boxes. If a company like Irix or IBM wants to fund the developers or donate some of their codebase, why should the Linux kernel developers turn it down?
After all, IBM was responsible for a lot of the donations to the 2.6 kernel that theoretically should make 64 processor boxes quite feasible. We won't know until some actual production boxes come online, but all reports of the 2.6 test kernels has been pretty positive.
I'm sure IBM did so in the full expectation that they would be able to sell enough 64 CPU linux boxes to recoup their investment. If they thought that they could sell 1024 CPU boxes, I'm sure they'd figure out a way to donate that code, too.
WHAT????? What planet are you from that doing ANY kind of network monitoring once a second is considered legit traffic? No, this was either a deliberate attempt to generate a ton of false positives, or total incompetence on the part of the monitoring company.
If I were the owner of the hosting company, the FIRST thing that I would have done was refuse all requests coming in from the monitoring company so I could get traffic flowing for all my customers. That is what they are paying for, after all.
The second thing that I would have done would be to save off copies of all logs that might be considered relavent in a legal situation to read only media.
The third thing that I would have done is send out an email to all affected customers explaining the reasons for the downtime incurred, what had been done to alleviate the situation for all concerned, and that further efforts were ongoing to resolve the issue permanently.
Then, call my lawyers. Ask for a Cease and Desist order to be sent right away.
No way do I play nice with assholes trying to put me out of business.
No, it's much, much worse. Since MS's cost to produce their product is close to nil, California is basically allowing the drug dealer to give out free samples to the already addicted to keep them in thrall.
I don't mean to come off like some kind of religious nut, but shouldn't your relationship with the Almighty (however you define him/her/it) take precedence over your job? :)
I think Mandrake not only just lost a customer, they lost all my recommendations.
With Mandrake's support turning over every 6 months? My desktop has been upgraded faithfully from 8.0 on. I've been a Mandrake Club member since they started. I purchased a couple of boxed sets when I had the cahs.
Also, I'm going to have to quit recommending it as a good newbie desktop. I can't imagine anything that would infuriate my friends and family more than all those ads. (Note the link from the guy who determined that ads will be placed at install in ALL versions.
Hey, don't feel too bad. I think there's still a few of us small 'c' conservatives left. Too bad the neo-cons (I refuse to dignify them as neoconservatives) are giving the old school a bad rep.
No, Texas doesn't have such a law. However, I will say that I'm beginning to think that Heinlein was right: The only capital crime should be bad manners. I think Darl & Co. more than qualify for execution with that as the criteria. :)
Oh? Have you figured out how to get links created in a document exported to PDF format? Every time I try it, the link text shows up underlined and in a pretty blue color but it's not active. HUGE problem for us.
I don't mind wizards at all. I'm a fan of Mandrake, myself. However, I will stipulate that when a Mandrake wizard goes south it's tough to figure out what it did.
/var/log someplace where logs belong.
This whole problem wouldn't be an issue if the wizards just LOGGED what they did. Say, under
Anyhow, take the following for what it's worth, the opinion of an outsider to this world, but one who loves it.
I'm not so sure that this is completely true. Granted, you find lots of schools of thought (probably a better choice of words than theory in this context) rising and falling over the course of a few months or years. Most of these can be safely ignored for the lack of depth that they show. However, there are exceptions that prove the rule. In another sense, though, you really can't call these schools of thought. They are in the way of being part of a conversation between the practioners of art and the rest of society that has been going on since Ogg first started painting on cave walls and Mogg bitched about his choice of color and composition.
One of the more obvious examples of this conversation shows up when you compare art from just prior to the outbreak of the Black Death plague in Europe in the 14th century through the Renaissance. When you view paintings from the century prior to this time period, there are several major changes in style that are happening simultaneously in several places on the continent. As the the plague reaches its peak and subsides, there is a very clear demarcation in style and subject matter. It's so obvious it's almost a break in continuity. The emotional pain and horror from the loss of all the lives of loved ones and strangers shows up clearly in every example that you can find. There's also a limitation in the forms of expression used and subject matter chosen. It's as if the artists were (maybe unconsciously) deliberately limiting what and how they would express themselves.
As some emotional distance develops over the next century or so, you can see the artists' innate optimism and joy of life reasserting itself. The changes in style begin to evolve again. As you move forward through the Renaissance, you can see it over and over. Art becomes more secular in nature, more varied in its subject matter, and more experimental in the techniques used. By the end of the Renaissance.
To bring this around to being on topic: I think you can see the same thing happening in the world of computer gaming. MUDs have gone from simple text based systems to the graphically rich formats that we see today. This has allowed for a much wider variety of subject matter and techniques. You can argue that they are still limited in scope and expression, but to a large degree those limits are a direct result of the medium. You still see the same conversation going on between the artists and the rest of society.
What I'm trying to say is that when you evaluate a school of thought, you really need to back up a bit. Put it in context of the medium, its place in the history of the conversation, and its immediate impact on society. Only then can you determine whether or not it will leave a lasting impression on the world around it.
Oh, come on. Things just aren't that bad anymore. Ever since IBM announced its billion dollar commitment to Linux, corporate adoption has moving forward. Sure, it started slow. Remember, though, it started from nothing and the growth rates are phenomenol. For example, IDC reported that the number of Linux servers shipped grew by 90% last year! That's a huge jump when you consider that last year Linux had about 15% of the total server market in those terms. The whole market only grew by what? 7%?
I work in IT in the banking and financial industry in the US. My company is in the top 10 in terms of assets. A more hidebound, conservative bunch you can't hope to find anywhere.
For years I've kept my Linux advocacy low key. I wanted to persuade people that it was a worthwhile option for us, not get branded as a loon. Imagine my surprise when I learned that not only are we looking seriously at Linux/Apache partitions running on our mainframe, we're also seriously looking at Lintel platforms for a variety of server related tasks.
We're also in the process of reviewing our branch environment with an eye towards Linux throughout. Many in this industry are. Unlike most of those others, we've run NT, not OS/2, in the branches for several years. We're still going to at least LOOK at Linux on all desktops in the branches.
Those many banks that still run OS/2 are looking really, really hard at Linux. If they make the move, you're talking about what? Maybe a couple of million desktops up for grabs in the US alone?
My company is still a major Notes shop and will be for at least a couple of years. Any support for syncing to Notes client or Domino servers?
Unreal Tournament 2003. In the box, although not labeled. It's on CD3.
America's Army. Free download, as is the Windows client.
Neverwinter Nights. Linux client available for free DL from the company Web site.
Savage. Game currently in beta for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Doom 3. I keep hearing unconfirmed rumors that this will come out with a Linux and Mac client. Stress unconfirmed.
So, that's 3 mainstream games with equal treatment of the client, one that requires additional download, and one unconfirmed support. Not a lot, but compare the situation to even 18 months ago. The game companies are beginning to wake up to the changing market. Shouldn't you?
Bugmaster;
Things are changing in the gaming world, you know. Off the top of my head, I can think of the following fairly popular current games that come with native Linux clients:
America's Army (free download either Windows or Linux. Development paid for by the US Army, as it's seen as a recruitment tool. I understand that it's based on the next generation Unreal engine.)
Neverwinter Nights (DL off their Web site)
Unreal Tournament 2003 (Linux client in the box, although not labeled that way)
Savage (currently available as a beta DL. Boxed set is supposed to include both clients in box)
Doom 3 (less sure about this one. I keep hearing rumors that it will come out as both Linux and Windows)
I'm sure other people will be able to add games that I've forgotten.
So, while it is certainly true that the vast majority of the commercial games out there are not available as Linux clients, things are improving pretty quickly.