My company already uses these for off-site employees so we can access the company intranet. Ditto for Mrs. Overt Coward's company, which is in a dramatically different field.
All of the replies I've read are focusing on SCO's licensing claims and possible pump-and-dump stock action. The thing I read that made my ears perk up was:
SCO is also going to bundle its worthless linux licenses with its Unix operating systems.
Seems to me that this is a nice end-run for SCO to allow them to claim that they have "sold" a whole bunch more of those Linux licenses (as part of a "package deal") in order to give that license some additional, but false, credibility.
But the result isn't quite like viewing something truly filmed in 3D. Most of the 3D effects are "from the screen backwards, (with) no off-the-screen effects," Harman says. This could be a disappointment to aficionados of 1950s guilty-pleasure flicks, who know that the whole point of watching a 3D movie is to see various objects (mostly monsters) popping out of the screen.
There's no technological reason that we don't have flying cars -- it's more human factors. The idiots you can't trust in two dimensions working in three? It's frightening just to imagine...
Many, if not most, of today's conflicts revolve around scarcity or perceived scarcity.
Power sources might still be an issue, but even so, if scarcity is removed as a cause for conflict, then that means that agressive instincts will be turned towards matters ideological... which in turn always leads to the worst kinds of wars.
In other words, I doubt this will be a significant harbinger of peace.
If you've read (and remembered) The Diamond Age, you'll recall that the citizens of each society didn't trust to laws and treaties to stay safe from this type of attack -- they instead created their own defense nanites to attack the attackers or provide defensive shields.
Exactly. The state of Linux right now is still similar to a car designed by auto enthusiasts -- if you know what you're doing (and enjoy doing it, to boot), it's relatively easy to use and maintain.
But the average person doesn't tinker under the hood of their car much, or at all. (Heck, most people don't even change their own oil these days.) They just want a product that works with little to no detailed knowledge of what's actually going on, and rely on support (mechanics, JiffyLube, whatever) for keeping the thing working properly.
Same for operating systems -- most users aren't going to want to spend the time or energy learning how to maintain their own system. Linux "for the masses" will require a system that can be maintained with a minimum amount of effort from the end user. In a corporate setting, this is less important because those machines would be administered by IT specialists, but in a personal/home setting, self-maintaining systems are a must.
Whenever the subject comes up, I always hear people saying that the government should do "something" to stop the offshoring trend. My question: what possible remedies could the government implement that would actually encourage companies to not outsource while not simply driving them out of the country altogether?
how is this NOT dumping? if Sony or Hitachi did this with TV's they would be prosecuted.
Probably because the entire console video game industry uses the consoles as loss-leaders for selling games. If it were just Microsoft doing this, you might have a point. But Nintendo and Sony also (intentionally) lose money on their consoles, so it'd be hard to make the case that Microsoft was engaging in any nefarious activity here.
If SCO lawyers were actually smart, they would sue a "friendly" user and have the user settle for $1 but have a clause in the settlement that would seal the terms of the settlement. Then they could post their claims about how user so-and-so chose to settle because they knew the SCO was right, blah, blah, blah...
I have two receivers and receiver #2 has never been plugged into a phone line except during initial setup. No problems whatsoever and still only charged the extra $5/month for an extra receiver.
Absolutely... in heavy rain I may lose my DirecTV signal for 10-15 minutes -- this happens once or twice a year. If cable goes down for any reason, though, it takes hours, if not days, for them to repair it.
On the whole, the satellite is cheaper and higehr quality than cable. The only downside is the requirements for the unobstructed view to the southern sky -- some of my relatives in New York and Connecticut can't get DirecTV because of too many trees in their way (the angle of the dish gets pretty shallow in the northern latitudes...)
My guess is no -- the $99 price point (assuming that it exists) will probably be to clear out inventory of the original units. I'd bet that the network adapter included model will still be priced higher, though a drop to $149 wouldn't be a surprise.
I work as a contractor to the State Departent, on the next-generation of CLASS (still in limited beta testing). The CLASS system was not infected and was never down because of the virus. CLASS isn't even on Windows -- it runs on a mainframe.
The sub-network CLASS resdies on was disconnected from the rest of the State Department network in order to clean other systems -- during that time, CLASS could not be reached by consulates. There was no security problem because visas cannot be issued when no name check system is available -- just some inconvenience for people waiting on their visas.
"UNIX-based development methods" -- huh? What exactly are these "methods", and under what terms does SCO claim to have ownership of such "methods"? What part of IBM's contract held by SCO licenses these "methods" and restricts their use?
If other Linux distributors follow suit, (or perhaps band together into a class action?) and sue SCO
The other distributors should file suits, but not as a class action -- a class action would allow SCO to only have to respond once. (The only time plaintiffs should go for class action is when the per-plaintif recovery is so small it doesn't make sense to litigate it directly.)
Force SCO to try and get the individual suits merged into a single class-action.
Does "misleading" include Spam headers like "re: Blah, Blah, Blah", where they try to make it look like a response to a request you made for their "services"? Those are the ones that annoy me the most -- I know who I've sent email to.. and it ain't them!
Just below that on the annoyance scale is any subject line that refers to me as "Friend" -- that ought to be "misleading" regardless of content because if they're spamming me, then I am certainly not their friend!
I've seen some posts that tap-dance around the real reason that OSS in particular doesn't interoperate well, but they all seem to miss the mark slightly. It's not really about ego, or the NIH syndome, or laziness, or poor design (if any).
The real reason, I believe, has to do with the fundemantal drive behind an open-source project -- find an itch, then scratch it. OSS projects (in general) start because someone sees a specific need or want for software that performs a specific purpose. By its very nature, that project is looking at the world in a bottom-up fashion -- and that inevitably pushes interoperability off until "later".
Integration or interoperability is typicaly an "add-on" to an already successful project -- no one really starts thinking about "well, I'd love to be able to do X from program Y" until both projects X and Y have developed strong user bases. It's sort of a natural selection in software -- the "best" projects survive and eventually breed (interoperate) with other projects to evolve higher-order software.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I've been known to be wrong... though of course, those who discover that have been known to disappear...
There's a big difference between a voluntary transaction and coersion or extortion. The examples you cite would be contract violations by the landlord or employer, and as such, actionable in court. Historically, a renter or employee never had realistic access to the legal system which, for all its other faults, is quite accessible in today's world.
It's real easy if we allow that points B and C are the same, then there is no segment BC on either line (it requires two distinct points to make a segment), and therefore there is no overlapping segments on lines AB(C) and B(C)D.
Manhole covers are round so that they don't fall in -- the round shape prevents them from slipping down the whole if someone sets it down at an incorrect angle.
On the other hand, becoming the paid spokesperson for a company or political figure doesn't "give away" a person's right to free speech.
When you sell a vote, you still exercise it yourself, but you have chosen to allow an external factor to influence how you exercise it.
Honestly, except for the lack of subtlety, what's the difference between that and voting for candidate X because he offers you some "goodie" like a particular social program, or a subsidy or tax break?
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My company already uses these for off-site employees so we can access the company intranet. Ditto for Mrs. Overt Coward's company, which is in a dramatically different field.
Seems to me that this is a nice end-run for SCO to allow them to claim that they have "sold" a whole bunch more of those Linux licenses (as part of a "package deal") in order to give that license some additional, but false, credibility.
Choice quote:
There's no technological reason that we don't have flying cars -- it's more human factors. The idiots you can't trust in two dimensions working in three? It's frightening just to imagine...
Power sources might still be an issue, but even so, if scarcity is removed as a cause for conflict, then that means that agressive instincts will be turned towards matters ideological... which in turn always leads to the worst kinds of wars.
In other words, I doubt this will be a significant harbinger of peace.
If you've read (and remembered) The Diamond Age, you'll recall that the citizens of each society didn't trust to laws and treaties to stay safe from this type of attack -- they instead created their own defense nanites to attack the attackers or provide defensive shields.
But the average person doesn't tinker under the hood of their car much, or at all. (Heck, most people don't even change their own oil these days.) They just want a product that works with little to no detailed knowledge of what's actually going on, and rely on support (mechanics, JiffyLube, whatever) for keeping the thing working properly.
Same for operating systems -- most users aren't going to want to spend the time or energy learning how to maintain their own system. Linux "for the masses" will require a system that can be maintained with a minimum amount of effort from the end user. In a corporate setting, this is less important because those machines would be administered by IT specialists, but in a personal/home setting, self-maintaining systems are a must.
Whenever the subject comes up, I always hear people saying that the government should do "something" to stop the offshoring trend. My question: what possible remedies could the government implement that would actually encourage companies to not outsource while not simply driving them out of the country altogether?
Probably because the entire console video game industry uses the consoles as loss-leaders for selling games. If it were just Microsoft doing this, you might have a point. But Nintendo and Sony also (intentionally) lose money on their consoles, so it'd be hard to make the case that Microsoft was engaging in any nefarious activity here.
If SCO lawyers were actually smart, they would sue a "friendly" user and have the user settle for $1 but have a clause in the settlement that would seal the terms of the settlement. Then they could post their claims about how user so-and-so chose to settle because they knew the SCO was right, blah, blah, blah...
I have two receivers and receiver #2 has never been plugged into a phone line except during initial setup. No problems whatsoever and still only charged the extra $5/month for an extra receiver.
On the whole, the satellite is cheaper and higehr quality than cable. The only downside is the requirements for the unobstructed view to the southern sky -- some of my relatives in New York and Connecticut can't get DirecTV because of too many trees in their way (the angle of the dish gets pretty shallow in the northern latitudes...)
Actually, yes I do remember. And I have them on DVD.
My guess is no -- the $99 price point (assuming that it exists) will probably be to clear out inventory of the original units. I'd bet that the network adapter included model will still be priced higher, though a drop to $149 wouldn't be a surprise.
The sub-network CLASS resdies on was disconnected from the rest of the State Department network in order to clean other systems -- during that time, CLASS could not be reached by consulates. There was no security problem because visas cannot be issued when no name check system is available -- just some inconvenience for people waiting on their visas.
You are buying a license to use the software in a particular fashion. You aren't buying the software itself.
"UNIX-based development methods" -- huh? What exactly are these "methods", and under what terms does SCO claim to have ownership of such "methods"? What part of IBM's contract held by SCO licenses these "methods" and restricts their use?
The other distributors should file suits, but not as a class action -- a class action would allow SCO to only have to respond once. (The only time plaintiffs should go for class action is when the per-plaintif recovery is so small it doesn't make sense to litigate it directly.)
Force SCO to try and get the individual suits merged into a single class-action.
... but don't worry, Microsoft's cost for this move will be paid by all of us via the "Microsoft tax" the next time we buy a computer.
Does "misleading" include Spam headers like "re: Blah, Blah, Blah", where they try to make it look like a response to a request you made for their "services"? Those are the ones that annoy me the most -- I know who I've sent email to.. and it ain't them!
Just below that on the annoyance scale is any subject line that refers to me as "Friend" -- that ought to be "misleading" regardless of content because if they're spamming me, then I am certainly not their friend!
The real reason, I believe, has to do with the fundemantal drive behind an open-source project -- find an itch, then scratch it. OSS projects (in general) start because someone sees a specific need or want for software that performs a specific purpose. By its very nature, that project is looking at the world in a bottom-up fashion -- and that inevitably pushes interoperability off until "later".
Integration or interoperability is typicaly an "add-on" to an already successful project -- no one really starts thinking about "well, I'd love to be able to do X from program Y" until both projects X and Y have developed strong user bases. It's sort of a natural selection in software -- the "best" projects survive and eventually breed (interoperate) with other projects to evolve higher-order software.
Of course, that's just my opinion. I've been known to be wrong... though of course, those who discover that have been known to disappear...
There's a big difference between a voluntary transaction and coersion or extortion. The examples you cite would be contract violations by the landlord or employer, and as such, actionable in court. Historically, a renter or employee never had realistic access to the legal system which, for all its other faults, is quite accessible in today's world.
It's real easy if we allow that points B and C are the same, then there is no segment BC on either line (it requires two distinct points to make a segment), and therefore there is no overlapping segments on lines AB(C) and B(C)D.
Manhole covers are round so that they don't fall in -- the round shape prevents them from slipping down the whole if someone sets it down at an incorrect angle.
Honestly, except for the lack of subtlety, what's the difference between that and voting for candidate X because he offers you some "goodie" like a particular social program, or a subsidy or tax break?