People who truly think of and use the computer as a tool could care less about what OS they happen to be using.
Windows, Linux, MacOS, this or that distro -- in in the end, it's all bullsh*t. The only important thing is that I can use the computer to get work done quickly.
This, IMHO, is the number one reason to use Linux and F/OSS : transparency.
As the current trend of draconian DRM restrictions and monitoring continues to its logical conclusion, users of Windows and MacOS will be firmly lodged in the tentacles of the RIAA, MPAA, and their ilk -- big brother will be programmed into every nook and cranny of their OS.
Not so with Linux. We have the source code. That makes all the difference.
"Oh, won't somebody please think of the children!!!"
Way to go with the kneejerk reaction. You're ready to send the guy to death row, despite knowing none of the facts of the case.
How do you know the files were his (maybe he has a creepy friend/roommate/uncle), or that he even had any idea they were there? Indeed, I would argue that he certainly acted as if he didn't know that crap was on his computer, considering that he just blithely brought the thing in to Dell for repair.
It's pretty easy to envision any number of ways a computer (especially if it was a Windoze box) could be hacked and have creepy stuff uploaded to it. Might even explain why it was broken in the first place.
With apologies to Grampa Simpson
on
Power Up
·
· Score: 1
"Dear Mr. President of Sony, there are too many buttons on game controllers nowadays. Please eliminate three. I am not a crackpot."
When I buy a CD, I really don't give a rat's ass about the stupid shiny disk -- it's just the "box" that the music comes in.
I simply want to be able to listen to the music, and once I've put my good money down, I demand to do that whenever and wherever I damn please. That means I want to play it on my MP3 player when I'm running, in my car when I'm driving, or on my computer when I'm working. Should I choose to, I want to be able to sample it for use in my cell phone's ringtone, or mix it into the soundtrack of my family's home videos.
I'm sick of the recording industry assuming that I'm a criminal, and disgusted by their repeated attempts to limit my fair use of a commodity after I've already paid for it.
Does anyone remember an uber-cheesy made-for-TV movie named Mazes and Monsters? Sort of like Reefer Madness for RPGs, Tom Hanks (in a role he'd probably like to forget) is driven insane from playing a Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy game.
I suppose that this premise sounded plausible in an era when "Just Say No" was the state-sanctioned form of teenage birth control...
Despite this perceived "downhill slide", even today the Simpsons is still far superior to 99.99% of the rest of the crap on the tube, particularly on the show's own network (I mean c'mon -- "Joe Millionaire"? "Married by America"?? "Man vs. Beast"??? Good God! -- every time I think Fox has finally set the idiot bar too high, they somehow leap over it).
LucasArts' lawyers won't stop here -- this was just a shot across the bow. When you bill by the hour, it's in your best interest to keep stirring the pot. The simple fact that their claim has no merit won't stop them from launching an expensive lawsuit, particularly when they can use the legal process to achieve their goal of killing the project.
I doubt they'll make a distinction between submitting original LucasArts software and reverse-engineered code, despite the provisions for RE in US copyright law. It's easy to envision them invoking the DMCA and arguing that the SCUMM opcodes are copyrighted IP and that SCUMMvm is a circumvention device.
I recall Nintendo and Sega using similar arguments to go after sites distributing console emulators.
I'm surprised that I haven't seen more Infocom games -- Zork 1-3, Witness, Sorcerer, etc. I just fired up Lurking Horror a few weeks ago. One thing about those old text-based games -- they scale pretty well to whatever hardware you run them on!
Perhaps the most bizarre aspect of the story is this comment by Kent Redford:
"There is a very hollow echo of a gaur in the birth of that animal to a cow in Iowa," said Kent Redford, an international program scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York. "To say that is a gaur is to disrespect all gaurs in all the places where gaurs live. That animal will never live its life in true gaurdom, to wander in the forests of India and frolic with other gaurs and die and let teak trees grow out of it. That's the gaur I'm working to save."
"To die and let teak trees grow out of it"? Where did they find this guy?
As a pure app company, the-company-formerly-known-as-Microsoft would surely port the IE browser to other platforms, most notably Unix/Linux. Considering that the Windows version of IE (IMHO as a web developer) soundly trounces Netscape, seems that Jim Clark has a vested interest in protecting his browser's remaining strongholds and preventing a "full-strength" multi-platform IE from taking his weaker browser's market share. After all, Netscape has shown that it would rather compete with litigation instead of providing a rich, full-featured product.
Slashdot Mirror
http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=1999-1
Given that he article was dated December 1999, this one line struck me as particularly poignant: Doh!
There's a huge difference : Penn's football team sucks...
What a load of smug, self-congratulatory crap.
People who truly think of and use the computer as a tool could care less about what OS they happen to be using.
Windows, Linux, MacOS, this or that distro -- in in the end, it's all bullsh*t. The only important thing is that I can use the computer to get work done quickly.
This, IMHO, is the number one reason to use Linux and F/OSS : transparency.
As the current trend of draconian DRM restrictions and monitoring continues to its logical conclusion, users of Windows and MacOS will be firmly lodged in the tentacles of the RIAA, MPAA, and their ilk -- big brother will be programmed into every nook and cranny of their OS.
Not so with Linux. We have the source code. That makes all the difference.
"Oh, won't somebody please think of the children!!!"
Way to go with the kneejerk reaction. You're ready to send the guy to death row, despite knowing none of the facts of the case.
How do you know the files were his (maybe he has a creepy friend/roommate/uncle), or that he even had any idea they were there? Indeed, I would argue that he certainly acted as if he didn't know that crap was on his computer, considering that he just blithely brought the thing in to Dell for repair.
It's pretty easy to envision any number of ways a computer (especially if it was a Windoze box) could be hacked and have creepy stuff uploaded to it. Might even explain why it was broken in the first place.
"Dear Mr. President of Sony, there are too many buttons on game controllers nowadays. Please eliminate three. I am not a crackpot."
Professor Hathaway: I want to see more of you around the lab.
Chris: Fine. I'll gain weight.
$100 million... geez.
Must be nice to work for an organization where your revenue is guaranteed by law.
Fonts can't be copyrighted (at least, they can't in the US). Seems like the same argument could be made against Copyleft:
g al.html/
http://www.totse.com/en/law/justice_for_all/sf-le
The following link may be helpful for those of us who are a little fuzzy on quantum computing: http://www.cs.caltech.edu/~westside/quantum-intro. html
When I buy a CD, I really don't give a rat's ass about the stupid shiny disk -- it's just the "box" that the music comes in.
I simply want to be able to listen to the music, and once I've put my good money down, I demand to do that whenever and wherever I damn please. That means I want to play it on my MP3 player when I'm running, in my car when I'm driving, or on my computer when I'm working. Should I choose to, I want to be able to sample it for use in my cell phone's ringtone, or mix it into the soundtrack of my family's home videos.
I'm sick of the recording industry assuming that I'm a criminal, and disgusted by their repeated attempts to limit my fair use of a commodity after I've already paid for it.
Does anyone remember an uber-cheesy made-for-TV movie named Mazes and Monsters? Sort of like Reefer Madness for RPGs, Tom Hanks (in a role he'd probably like to forget) is driven insane from playing a Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy game.
I suppose that this premise sounded plausible in an era when "Just Say No" was the state-sanctioned form of teenage birth control...
"I'm sick of you people -- you're nothing but a bunch of fickle mush heads."
Every day I read fiery posts on Slashdot condemning the evil deeds of the MPAA and RIAA and vowing to boycott their products forever.
Yet here you are, absolutely salivating over the prospect of handing your money over to them.
Let's look at the big picture, people!
Despite this perceived "downhill slide", even today the Simpsons is still far superior to 99.99% of the rest of the crap on the tube, particularly on the show's own network (I mean c'mon -- "Joe Millionaire"? "Married by America"?? "Man vs. Beast"??? Good God! -- every time I think Fox has finally set the idiot bar too high, they somehow leap over it).
LucasArts' lawyers won't stop here -- this was just a shot across the bow. When you bill by the hour, it's in your best interest to keep stirring the pot. The simple fact that their claim has no merit won't stop them from launching an expensive lawsuit, particularly when they can use the legal process to achieve their goal of killing the project.
I doubt they'll make a distinction between submitting original LucasArts software and reverse-engineered code, despite the provisions for RE in US copyright law. It's easy to envision them invoking the DMCA and arguing that the SCUMM opcodes are copyrighted IP and that SCUMMvm is a circumvention device.
I recall Nintendo and Sega using similar arguments to go after sites distributing console emulators.
I heard someone say that the biggest technological contribution to archaeology in the last 50 years was the zip-lok bag.
"Insightful"??? Mod this DOWN!
>Anyways, I gotta go to lunch, but I'll follow up later.
I have discovered a truly remarkable proof of Creationism, which this margin is too small to contain.
I'm surprised that I haven't seen more Infocom games -- Zork 1-3, Witness, Sorcerer, etc. I just fired up Lurking Horror a few weeks ago. One thing about those old text-based games -- they scale pretty well to whatever hardware you run them on!
Flying toasters beamed directly on your retina. Cool.
They seem to be missing a crucial point: words are harmless as long as they aren't followed by bullets.
As a pure app company, the-company-formerly-known-as-Microsoft would surely port the IE browser to other platforms, most notably Unix/Linux. Considering that the Windows version of IE (IMHO as a web developer) soundly trounces Netscape, seems that Jim Clark has a vested interest in protecting his browser's remaining strongholds and preventing a "full-strength" multi-platform IE from taking his weaker browser's market share. After all, Netscape has shown that it would rather compete with litigation instead of providing a rich, full-featured product.