User: FirstOne

Estoppel prevents SCO from asserting claims.

On: SCO Invoices For Unix Licenses Get Closer

SCO by distributing linux and source code, et al, has agreed to the terms and conditions of GPL license. Furthermore, SCO has benefited greatly from usage and distribution of GPL software. GPL software is a collection of copyrighted works, whose distribution license requires the express requirement that future distribution, and usage rights may not be encumbered by the licensee.

A few definitions from Black's law.

"Estoppel" means that party is prevented by his own acts from claiming a right detriment of other party who was entitled to rely on such conduct and acted accordingly. Graham v. Asbury, 112 Ariz. 184, 540 P.2d 656, 658.

A principle that provides that an individual is barred from denying or alleging a certain fact or state of facts because of that individuals previous conduct, allegation, or denial. A doctrine which holds that an inconsistent position, attitude, or course of conduct may not be adopted to loss or injury of another. Brand v. Farmers Mut. Protective Ass'n or Texas, Tex,Civ.App., 95 S.W.2d 994, 997.

Thus by matter of record, SCO is Estopped from asserting any claims to the distribution or usage of GPL code which SCO has itself distributed. SCO is also prohibited by the doctrine of "Apparent authority" from asserting the claim that the distribution was not authorized.

Basically, an open and shut case. SCO loses. (Defendant should seek both costs and scantions on plaintiff)

Re:but something is missing...

On: Say Goodbye To Your CD-Rs In Two Years?

"But something is missing, The speed in which the CDR is burned sometimes it makes a difference, for the highest reliability I think 1x is the best."

I agree.. Slower recording speeds will usually improve the contrast ratio of the resulting recording.
One can confirm this by making several cd-r's writing at different speeds using the same type of media, and then visually comparing the cd-r's data surfaces, (For recorded areas, Darker is better).

A fair number of CD recording programs DO NOT have a VERIFY cd-r contents option after a burning, and is a major pain in the ass. This problem got me good when I used some 12x Office Depot media for saving some TV show mpegs. Bad move,
I found out months later, that 50% of initial recordings had one or more non recoverable bad spots. :-(

Nero is the only mastering program I know of, which will verify cd-r contents after burning :-),
But it doesn't do it for all recording formats :-( .

Re:Not the only offender

On: Netgear Routers DoS UWisc Time Server

"When investigating time (mis)keeping on the D-Link DI614+, I found exactly the same thing there. Walking the strings of the firmware reveals a hardcoded list ntp servers and from observation it looks like they walk down the list, primary ntp servers first, to get the time."

Add the DI-604 (hardwired router) to that list.

"I have an NTP server on my linux box already and I tried pointing the router to it, but every time it polls the time, it screws up the routers clock :-/"

I've had the same experience with a number of Win/Unix based Time Servers. No luck.

Too add to the insult, each of the D-Link boxes queries the time server EVERY HOUR, and if there is slightest amount of dropped packet activity, the router CORRUPTS the time value returned from the NTP server and set's some random date/time between 1990 and 2150.

Oh.. if you leave the field blank.. it goes down that list of NTP servers..
Trying a different NTP server every 10 seconds. Each HOUR, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, etc..

Way to go.. D-Link.. Head buried too far into the ground ?
Note: This completely screws up ALL "scheduling" capabilities.

Logged complaints with Dlink a long time ago, for both DI-614+ and DI-604. First report Mar 26, 2003 and follow-up call Jun 12, 2003. They've yet to address any of problems.

Re:Don't you have a firewall?

On: Using Spyware to Report Pirates?

" Nope, they will just use http encapsulation or ssh tunnels."

If you're setting up dedicated "test" machines which only need local access.

1. Make sure any built in modem is not connected to a phone line.
2. Do not configure or set up any email programs on test system.
3. Use Static private network IP address assignments (192.168.xx.xx) and program the firewall/router/nat box to block ALL internet traffic to/form the test systems IP address. Note: A Dlink-604 router/nat(~$20) will do nicely.

By following all of the above suggestions, any "DIAL HOME" capabilities will be automatically blocked.

Re:When #2 becomes #1 (hate to burst your bubble.)

On: Microsoft Names Linux its Number Two Risk

"The group of economists that officially determines when we're in a recession just released these numbers earlier this week
Just thought you'd like to know, we haven't been in a recession since 2001. This is just a period of slow growth."

Basically.. NBER sold out.
For the first time they used the Governments fudged up GDP numbers as justification for declaring the recession ended.

Now for the skinny on BOGUS GDP numbers..

You do realize that Government spending numbers are included in the GDP reports. So when the fed's whip out the old gov' spending card the claimed GDP numbers rise. We've gone from 140B annual surplus to 500+B deficit in just a few years.. (Hmmm.. That's at least 4 to 5% of GDP).

Here is a truer picture of the US economy.. Fed's tax receipts.
Since the peak of tax collections Oct 2000.. The BEA claims GDP has grown by 3.7%

But,
1. Real Fed tax receipts are down by 14% since Oct 2000. (and still dropping)
2. Inflation Since Oct 2000 up by 7%.
(claimed GDP numbers are already adjusted, but tax receipts are in current dollars. )
3. Work age pop growth since Oct 2000 up by 3.2% (Vast majority of taxes come from workers).

So in REAL terms taxes receipts from the private sector is down by ~27%.
And the divergence from claimed GDP numbers is something like ~31%.

Isn't it fun how they can cook the numbers and come up with growth?
In summary.. the US economy is definitely in COLLAPSE MODE.

Re:Wifi uh ?

On: UN Recommends WiFi for Poor Countries

"How about giving reliable electricity, then computers to poor third world countries first (and also drinkable water and sufficient food, since you're there) ?"

Think about it, Solar panels and Wifi will both work great after they get rid of all those pesky trees.
Then they can report to the world, about a mud slide burying a neighboring town, in just a few seconds.

Re:SMP? RCU?

On: SCO Amends Suit, Clarifies "Violations", Triples Damages

"System V derived systems had SMP capabilities prior to 1990. USL (Unix System Labs), eventually bought by Novell, had SMP support that was licensable in 1990. I ran a group of companies that ported that version to the 88K processor. The claim that SCO makes about any System V derivative arguably being SCO property may not be all that crazy. In the early days of System V UNIX, the standard contracts to license the code included the provision that derivative works were owned by USL. We didn't agree to those terms and I doubt that IBM would have."

I removed those rights to derivative modifications from those contracts... The world can thank me later....
(Hint Real-time unix, makes a very nice SMP OS, B.T.W. it was running on SMP 68K platforms, first, then ported to 88K, then Intel).

SCO has no claim, as AT&T & sub licensee quickly backed down on that clause during source code contract negotiations...
Note: I pointed out that the "we are entitled to your modifications" clause was an obvious violation of then Anti-trust statutes.
They both agreed.. clause removed.. SCO is so screwed...

Lastly, the clause was never exclusive, for obvious reasons. Thus companies & employees were free to give the code to anyone they choose.

Re:Hundreds of line of code - not enought!

On: SCO's Real Motive... A Buyout?

"'McBride said: "We're not going to show two lines of code. We're going to show hundreds of lines of code" that allegedly violate SCO's intellectual property...' - hundreds of lines of code, is that enough to prove the SCO's claim? "

I do you one better.. SCO distributes millions of line of GPL open source code and corresponding objects with Each Unixware Media Kit they sell. Hence SCO wants the fruit of other peoples labor, yet makes a dubious Billion dollar claim when, allegedly a very tiny fraction of their code is found in a Linux kernel.

One last item.. If the original author of the code submitted the same code to both Linux and SCO, it would still be perfectly legal.
If an author once created a module for some private Unix distribution and SCO/AT&T/Novell mis-appropriated it.. well it could be SCO's neck on the line. Big time..

Now the real question is.. "who really wrote the code SCO claims was stolen"? I'll bet their ownership claims aren't nearly as strong as they claim.

Re:Blame the dividend double-tax

On: Silicon Valley Has Learned to Love the Bust

"Total income $500/y. After tax, $250/y. (38% Federal, 10% Kalifornia, 2% rounding :), or about 2.5%. But why not just buy $100K of T-bills or state/municipal bonds, which yield a tax-free 2% - close enough, really, especially since they're risk-free!"

A few errors. Cities and Munis have defaulted bonds before.
Check your history books.. Quite a lot of them back in 1930's.

T-bill interest is still subject to Federal income/AMT tax.. (up to 38% for the really rich).
And the fed's are racking up some really big numbers lately, the risk of default is greater than zero.

Same argument could be said for Interest payments.
Except for mortgages and business loans, interest paid on loans must be paid with after tax dollars.
Why should the lenders also pay income taxes on those same payments?

Re:CEO/CIO versus the grunt laborer at the bottom

On: Silicon Valley Has Learned to Love the Bust

"And again by historical standards, unemployment has remained low during the recent recession."

You're comparing apples and oranges.. The only thing historic about our unemployment rate is the record amount of government statistical fudging.

Here are a few tidbits.. Start with the U6 rate.. 10.4 % or about 15 Million under/unemployed workers.

Tack on a few other factors..
Like of the 9 Million DOL's has labeled as "Self Employed" workers, but only 1 in 5 are paying enough individual estimated taxes to cover Self employment taxes(15.3%) for a full time minimum wage (2000hr x5.15/hr *.9285 *.153).
Note: This assumes the other 4 out of 5 make zero income and I'm not even accounting for fed income taxes.
Note: Fed's inflict heavy penalties for underpayment of estimated taxes..
Net result, shift 7 million of the 9 million to the under/unemployed category.

"Disability rolls rise, skew labor data "
That's good enough to add 3 another million to the unemployed/uncounted catagory.

Add in the FACT that the DOL changed(1994) the household survey data collection method(page 180) and resulting in the doubling of the non-parcipation rate, from Five (5) to Ten (10) Percent(*2)(Page181) . The DOL accomplished this feat by substituting a scientifically sound MAIL IN form, with scientifically discredited IN PERSON interviews. Just imagine those newly intimidated 5% additional non responding households had at least one(1) unemployed worker. Tack on another 5 Million to the unemployed roles.

Estimates indicate that at least 2 million homeless people are roaming the streets, but you'll never see the DOL performing a household survey on homeless shelter.

So in short order, I've found, (with some minor overlapping of subsets),
Enough under/unemployed workers to double the U6 rate to over 20%..

.

Re:SCO's claims don't pass the sniff test

On: SCO Sues IBM for Sharing Secrets with Unix and Linux

"At least some of the claims just don't pass the sniff test."

"When AIX came out in 1990 or so, it was so different from SVR4 that competitors cried "AIX isn't UNIX". IBM really did a huge amount of kernel work and had all sorts of administrative features borrowed conceptually from the mainframe that were lacking in UNIX at the time. Journalling filesys"At leatems, logical volume management, etc. just for starters. The toolset for managing AIX was (and still is, to some extent) quite different from other UNIXes. I think IBM kept the SVR3/4 APIs but re-wrote most of the code below it back in the late 80s."

Actually AIX started out with a SVR2 code base.. Circa 1984.. stuff.. really primitive..
IBM tacked on a Berkeley networking stack, added database style front-end for system management.. viola.. AIX.

I negotiated Unix source licenses back in 88. At the time AT&T and other vendor licensors tried to sneak in a clause requiring all improvements made by the licensee be returned to licensor. It's clearly illegal and defeats the whole purpose of licensing. I rattled their cage by threatening them, (as a fortune 50 co), with an anti-trust lawsuit. Needless to say, they dropped the clause like a hot potato.

I think IBM should call into question weather, or not, SCO even OWN's the IP property they claimed to have invented.
A fair number of licensees may have not had the leverage, to remove bogus clauses. However, it still doesn't allow SCO to claim inventorsor trade secrets rights.

As for innovating features, I think most of the SVR4.x features were poorly designed addons(PDI/DDI/DKI) tacked onto a stable SVR3 base. Other companies had come up with far better enhancements, (Preemptive Real-time, SMP,locks, semaphores, mutli layered IO subsystems, etc.), long before these features were included in SVR4 releases. see..

"Furht, Borko: REAL-TIME UNIX SYSTEMS - Design and Application Guide"
Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers; (January 1991) *
ISBN: 0792390997
*Note: Usenix conference papers covered a fair number of these features back in the mid 80's.

Never going to FLY..

On: Wi-Fi From The Sky

Why not?.. you may ask..

You can't make them stationary..
Tie them to ground.. The tie down cable becomes an aviation hazard.
Thirteen (13) mile long cables of any strength are somewhat heavy.

Volume needed to lift ~10 pounds to 75,000 ft requires a balloon 30 to 40feet in diameter.

Let them float, they get blown around (world) by the jet streams. (Lots of surface area * 100 m/s winds).
Tendency to come down in unwanted places (Insurance companies nightmare).
(I.E. High tension power lines, Expressways, Planes in flight, Tall buildings, etc.)

Try to make them stationary under own power. Not!!
Bigger == More surface area to catch wind == More engine/more weight == Never going to happen!!

Domestic terrorists pose a greater threat?

On: Because Only Terrorists Use 802.11

Obviously......
The Fed's consider domestic terrorists to be a greater threat than the one posed by the foreign terrorists?
Not a day goes by, without my server being an attacked by Nimda, or some hack attempt from a foreign land.
Nothing in their grand plan secures those foreign ISP's or those already hacked domestic PC's.
Or the million or so, H1-B's tech workers they left running amuck in the USA.
Makes you wonder, just who is running the Fed's funny farm?

Re:Double Nope

On: Magnetic Poles May Be About To Flip

"A thatched roof is going to catch quite a few UV rays too. You're pretty much buggered either way on the whole "x-ray/gama-ray" end of things, but corrogated (SP?) aluminum isn't that hard to come by, even in some third world country. And I'd be suprised if there weren't some relatively common primitive building material that would work. Adobe maybe? You know, mud."

I wouldn't worry.

Earth's magnetic fields do not absorb ionized radiation. They deflect it, to the magnetic poles. I.E. Same amount of energy hitting the planet all the time. In today's world, most of the ionized particles are deflected and concentrated to the polar regions. Net effect of a polar shift, atmosphere stays the same size. If anything earth's magnetic fields act like a giant vacuum cleaner, sucking up charged particles from 5 to 10 times the earths diameter. If the field goes away, no more vacuum cleaner effect, which results in LESS ionized particles hitting earth. (Global cooling, perhaps???)

We've had radar stations and plenty of other sensitive electronics in the polar regions for a long time. Even at concentrated radiation levels, most of it still doesn't get through our atmosphere (14.7PSI). 14.7 PSI is roughly equivilent to a 32 foot/~10 meter column of water. Plenty of shielding.

Re:Sue the patent office?

On: San Diego Company Owns E-Commerce

But, you can to get their actions declared unconstitutional.
I see little in the current implementation that could possibly resemble a patent office.
The USPTO should be renamed to "Office of declaring old is new for a small fee".

Re:A simple commodity landrush like any other

On: Boulevard of Broken .dreams

Reading the article, I spotted this shoddy tabloid journalism:
{{{Assuming annual registration fees between $15 and $30 these days}}}

Actually, that's probably an underestimate, more like $70 per domain.
Network solutions was the only registrar up until late 1999, almost 2000.
See. History of the Shared Registration System.

In the early stages of the shared registration system, there weren't many bargains like there are today.
As I recall, NS only offered two year initial registrations ($70) and yearly renewals ($35yr).
Two year initial registrations placed in 1999 expired in 2001.

So your really looking $70*15m or 1 Billion+.. Even more bear money!!

Re:Yes, They--Or Their Organization--Can Be Wrong

On: 235,000 Software Engineers Can't Be Wrong, Right?

Minor correction..
FY 2002... Q2 should read.

51,800 H1-B's where imported from Jan 1, 2002 to Mar 31, 2002. (Q2)

Re:Yes, They--Or Their Organization--Can Be Wrong

On: 235,000 Software Engineers Can't Be Wrong, Right?

"First, the math: " .. I see no attempt at using math.. Only distortions..

"Second, the subject is moot
Despite the fact that Congress authorized up to 160,000 H-1B visas per year, the Globe article points out that only 40,000 were used last year, and only half of those were for IT jobs."

It would be nice if quoted the article correctly..
160,000 for last year.. HM... claimed only 40,000 this year. But, this year isn't completed, he was quoting partial year stats..

Here are some accurate numbers..

Over 357,000 H1-B's where imported in Federal FY 2001.. (that's Oct. 1, 2000 to Sept. 30, 2001)..
Approximately 187,000 of the 357,000+ newly imported H1-B's applied towards the (195,000) cap.

For Federal FY 2002..
54,000 H1-B's where imported from Oct. 1, 2001 to Dec 31,2001. (Q1)
51,800 H1-B's where imported from Jan 1, 2002 to Mar 31, 2000. (Q2)

Now, start over and try again using facts rather than misquotes.

Bad news down the road

On: Internet Giants Prepare for WorldCom 'Storm'

Since it looks like Worldcom has secured debtor-in-possession financing, Sources: WorldCom May File ... .

The typical exit strategy for a bankruptcy like this, chapter 11, is a debt for equity swap.
Where the bond holders and banks become the new stockholders.
And existing stockholders get the short end of the stick !!

The only questions which remain are.....
Will the emerging DEBT FREE comm giant, OUT COMPETE, the remaining DEBT LADEN survivors?
Trigging a cascade of bankruptcies? AT&T, Sprint, etc. who is next?
Will the same thing happen to airline industry?
Kinda like musical chairs, the first company to bankruptcy court wins?

Re:Buckeye's Terms of Service

On: FBI Raids Homes and Seizes Bandwidth Pirates' PCs

A smart lawyer will get them off..
Maybe even nail the Cable co for some big bucks..

Look at the beginning of clause "14. The Subscriber acknowledges that the Service provides full access to the Internet without restriction and that some content on the Internet may be offensive or inappropriate for certain people."

The cable company is in obvious default..
They don't provide full access if it's bandwidth limited to a small fraction of the equipment's capabilities.

Re:Debris

On: Weather Balloons & Wireless

"Every time I read one of these pie in the sky (or balloon in this case) stories, I can't believe the reporter didn't ask what I'd think would be the basic question: What is all this junk going to end up?"

I agree on this issue.. 50,000 large balloons per year, Yikes!
Taking a 5 to 6lb payload to 100,000 feet requires a sizable balloon. At least 30 to 40 ft in diameter!!

Those suckers are going to come down, sometimes in a controlled fashion. But, a fair number will come down all by themselves!!

On a busy highway?
A commercial jet liner in flight?
On a tall building/or bridge?
Maybe some power lines?

Imagine the headlines, when some school bus full of kids goes careening into a ravine, because a vary large balloon blocked the drivers vision!! NO thanks!

Re:I'll tell you why!

On: Why (Most) Software is so Bad

"2. Companies don't want to pay enough $$$ to hire what really counts---EXPERIENCE---so they hire low-cost H1B programmers instead. "

Amen to that.. Philosopher George Santayana wrote, "Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it."

Now just how much experience, do you expect too find in a country who has less than 1 computer per 100 people? Answer: Damned little.

"3. There's rampant AGE DISCRIMINATION so older experienced software engineers stop prorgamming and become managers, or go into other fields. "

The CEO's/upper management have decided that those older engineers with proven track records are a liabilities rather than assets.

"I joined an R&D group when I turned 40, after spending years managing software products that have earned billions of $$ in revenue cumulatively over the years. Why? Because I didn't want to be forced into managing products staffed with inexperienced and inexepensive programmers, or be involved with shipping non-glamouous tasks (device drivers, etc) to India."

Smart move.. But your new profession has also been targeted by the globalists and their H1-B program.
You might want consider yet another career change..

Re:Total number of H1B's?

On: Fewer Jobs, Less Pay In The IT Industry

"Anyone know how many there are? I'm looking to do a comparison of the total unemployed vs the total H1Bs. Thanks"

Yearly H1-B import levels, based on federal fiscal year, Oct 1 -> Sep 30.
Initial H1-B visa length 3 years, + 3 year extension, +1 year if GC application pending. (Total length 7 years).

FY 1997, 65,000 (H1-B cap first reached)
FY 1998, 65,000
FY 1999, 138,385
FY 2000, 149,850
FY 2001, 357,000+
FY 2002, 54,000(Q1)*4 = 216,000(projected)?

Left over from FY 1996 & 95 == ~50,000*2

Answer.. about a million.. .

Re:Dead pixels

On: 21.3" LCD Monitor Reviewed

It sure looked like that screen had quite a number of stuck pixels (16 or so). Note: Each stuck white pixel is counted as three(3)(RGB). Not a good sign for $3800 investment. Or it could have been just lint on the screen.

Re:Is CEO a dead-end job?

On: Is Programming a Dead End Job?

"Many H1B workers are US-educated: they have come here on student visas and then transition into the workforce."

The vast majority are not.

"The ones that aren't US-educated usually come from excellent universities in their home countries."

Most credentials are faked... The desire to get into the US, where the average wage pays more than 99% of the rest of world is too great. Hell, they don't even have too have a degree. Just three (faked) years relevant work history is good enough.

"So, in my experience, these people tend to be highly qualified."
In my experience they tend to be very unqualified.. I just had a conversation with a friend who used to work at Cisco.

He related just one his experiences, female H1-B programmer.. not very good, barely knew anything about computers.
Her pay rate. 7$ an hour.. The body shop which peddled her, was collecting 28$ an hour!

B.T.W.. In case you haven't noticed, virtually every software based product being produced today has MAJOR flaws.
I wonder way.. could it be the old lesson.. those who do not learn from the lessons of history, are doomed to repeat them? Throw away your older most experienced workers, and those companies are doomed to a future of newbie mistakes.

"Note that the H1B visa program requires employers to document worker qualifications and to make an effort to find similarly qualified US workers prior to hiring a foreign candidate. "

Now, that is a joke.. The are literally hundreds of ways to get around the law..

One favorite tactic, is to advertise for an impossible set of qualifications with a sub par wage. There are many, many, more. Note: Impossible set of qualifications are NO PROBLEM for those people who have faked/forged educational and/or work history.