If only the packages are signed, then an impostor update server could use Apple's older update packages to introduce old security holes into target systems.
...if it wasn't for the fact that the system update program won't downgrade the version of any Apple package.
Back in the 90s on Usenet I used to tabulate and compare prices between MacWarehouse's UK and US catalogs. I'd subtract the VAT to ensure the comparison was fair. The result showed markups of 50-100% on a regular basis.
In most cases, any localization done was incomplete. For example, ClarisWorks still referred to "color".
As I recall, the #1 winner was Dave Winer's Userland Software. Their Frontier product had something like a 200% markup in the UK, and zero localization performed.
I actually contacted some of the winners about their UK pricing. One company told me that the markup was because a small number of distributors controlled the UK software market, and those distributors were the ones setting the prices.
It's worth noting one of the side effects of this practice: my experience in the 90s was that everyone ran the US version of Mac OS and ordered their software from the US in order to save money. This indirectly killed the market for Mac software in the UK.
Also, the BSA used to estimate software piracy by comparing the number of people running (say) Microsoft Word with the number of UK sales of Microsoft Word. So the gray market meant that US piracy stats were depressed, and UK piracy stats were artificially inflated.
(I was going to link to some of my 1992 Usenet posts, but Google Groups doesn't seem to have them.)
OS X had search indexing and VPU-accelerated windowing long before Microsoft. So I kinda doubt that Linux waited until they saw Microsoft doing it before copying.
I thought it was ironic that IBM Security Systems put out the report, since IBM doesn't support use of IE 7 internally--everyone is told to stay on IE 6 until various applications can be updated.
I keep looking at Google Docs, but so far the answer is no; it doesn't even replace WordPad. The main defect is that it doesn't support paragraph spacing. How they can claim it's a word processor without paragraph support is beyond me.
I've been using JiveTalk with the Blackberry (not advertising this) to avoid text messaging fees for a while now. JiveTalk is 30 bucks for a user license, but it's gotten good reviews from BGR, etc. so I thought it might not be a bad deal.
Considering the current BlackBerry firmware comes with Google, ICQ, AIM and MSN clients built in, paying $30 for that functionality doesn't seem like a terribly good deal to me.
As far as I'm concerned, having to change the UI of the software in order to be allowed to redistribute it should make it non-free software. The Debian maintainers apparently agree.
Licenses that only allow you to distribute source unmodified, like Dan Bernstein's old Qmail licenses, have also been declared unacceptable by free software advocates.
So I think in this case, Stallman made a mistake, probably because he doesn't value user interface design and thinks it's a trivial job to rip and replace it.
Does anyone else know more about this "non-free" as in not-GPL stuff that is in Mozilla based software?
All the artwork, logos, and the program name.
Mozilla won't let Debian distribute their own Firefox build called Firefox with the Firefox logo. Hence Debian's version was renamed IceWeasel, and later IceCat to appease angry Mozilla developers, and given different artwork.
I raised this issue to RMS during the GPL 3 discussion period, but he doesn't think it's enough of an issue to be bothersome. Me, I disagree--consider if Apple took some GPL software, stuck an iPod interface on it, and released it as a desktop media player. They could release the source, and you still wouldn't be able to redistribute it, because the iPod UI is heavily trademarked.
That and they should rip out the Mono crap that's already part of the GNOME desktop. If they did that I might go back to GNOME, given the state of KDE 4.1.
(I finally switched from KDE to GNOME just in time for them to add Mono to GNOME, so I switched back.)
Funny, I'm tired of seeing YAML in places where XML would work fine.
Like serializing my Ruby objects, for example. When I don't care about performance, XML is best, because almost everything else will read and write it, including my text editor, and I know the syntax. When I *do* care about performance, I'm not going to use YAML either.
Yeah, I think the UI for CookieSafe (CS Lite), FlashBlock and NoScript should be available as standard. The default Firefox UI for cookie permissions is such a pain that it's almost like they are trying to make it awkward to please the people who want to track us.
Slashdot Mirror
Not really the same alley, since FOP requires that you learn XSL-FO, rather than familiar old HTML.
Back in the 90s on Usenet I used to tabulate and compare prices between MacWarehouse's UK and US catalogs. I'd subtract the VAT to ensure the comparison was fair. The result showed markups of 50-100% on a regular basis.
In most cases, any localization done was incomplete. For example, ClarisWorks still referred to "color".
As I recall, the #1 winner was Dave Winer's Userland Software. Their Frontier product had something like a 200% markup in the UK, and zero localization performed.
I actually contacted some of the winners about their UK pricing. One company told me that the markup was because a small number of distributors controlled the UK software market, and those distributors were the ones setting the prices.
It's worth noting one of the side effects of this practice: my experience in the 90s was that everyone ran the US version of Mac OS and ordered their software from the US in order to save money. This indirectly killed the market for Mac software in the UK.
Also, the BSA used to estimate software piracy by comparing the number of people running (say) Microsoft Word with the number of UK sales of Microsoft Word. So the gray market meant that US piracy stats were depressed, and UK piracy stats were artificially inflated.
(I was going to link to some of my 1992 Usenet posts, but Google Groups doesn't seem to have them.)
That's because localization is the correct English spelling. Check the OED some time.
KickOff's functionality may have been a big improvement for you, but for some of us it is a huge leap backwards.
Real's SDK prohibits you from decoding Real-encoded files into other formats.
Adobe's Flash SDK used to prohibit making software that would play Flash files.
Of course, the entire point of JSON was that it was just JavaScript, so you could evaluate it to get at the values.
If you're concerned about the security of doing so, maybe you should have used XML, which already has native support in JavaScript in browsers.
Tell that to Microsoft about the Vista launch.
OS X had search indexing and VPU-accelerated windowing long before Microsoft. So I kinda doubt that Linux waited until they saw Microsoft doing it before copying.
I thought it was ironic that IBM Security Systems put out the report, since IBM doesn't support use of IE 7 internally--everyone is told to stay on IE 6 until various applications can be updated.
Firefox is supported, however.
[Opinions mine, not IBM's.]
I keep looking at Google Docs, but so far the answer is no; it doesn't even replace WordPad. The main defect is that it doesn't support paragraph spacing. How they can claim it's a word processor without paragraph support is beyond me.
Yeah, 2008-07-25 is so much easier to remember than 26.
Considering the current BlackBerry firmware comes with Google, ICQ, AIM and MSN clients built in, paying $30 for that functionality doesn't seem like a terribly good deal to me.
As far as I'm concerned, having to change the UI of the software in order to be allowed to redistribute it should make it non-free software. The Debian maintainers apparently agree.
Licenses that only allow you to distribute source unmodified, like Dan Bernstein's old Qmail licenses, have also been declared unacceptable by free software advocates.
So I think in this case, Stallman made a mistake, probably because he doesn't value user interface design and thinks it's a trivial job to rip and replace it.
All the artwork, logos, and the program name.
Mozilla won't let Debian distribute their own Firefox build called Firefox with the Firefox logo. Hence Debian's version was renamed IceWeasel, and later IceCat to appease angry Mozilla developers, and given different artwork.
I raised this issue to RMS during the GPL 3 discussion period, but he doesn't think it's enough of an issue to be bothersome. Me, I disagree--consider if Apple took some GPL software, stuck an iPod interface on it, and released it as a desktop media player. They could release the source, and you still wouldn't be able to redistribute it, because the iPod UI is heavily trademarked.
Nice spin, but Mono is a required part of the GNOME desktop as distributed.
Yeah, you can rip it out and only lose part of the desktop environment, but that's not good enough.
That and they should rip out the Mono crap that's already part of the GNOME desktop. If they did that I might go back to GNOME, given the state of KDE 4.1.
(I finally switched from KDE to GNOME just in time for them to add Mono to GNOME, so I switched back.)
If you're going to be dishonest and call it 'stealing', why not go all the way?
It's copyright rape. PirateBay is raping movies. Don't rape music. See? Even more spuriously emotive.
Funny, I'm tired of seeing YAML in places where XML would work fine.
Like serializing my Ruby objects, for example. When I don't care about performance, XML is best, because almost everything else will read and write it, including my text editor, and I know the syntax. When I *do* care about performance, I'm not going to use YAML either.
I don't see the niche YAML fits, frankly.
http://slashdot.org/~hansreiser/friends/
I was thinking more that there would be snide comments inciting flamewars.
"Hans, do you want to take a stab at a suitable patch?", that sort of thing.
Umm, I kinda doubt that's going to happen, can you imagine the response to his participating in discussion threads on kernel.org?
For similar reasons, I kinda doubt he'll be returning to Slashdot. Or at least, not with his current login.
"Ah, so *that's* what an invisible frontier looks like!"
I'm really surprised that more people haven't worked this out.
I have unlimited Internet, so I just log in to Google Talk and anyone can message me that way.
For messaging with the spouse, I use BlackBerry Messenger, because it's reliable and works even if she forgets to log in.
Yeah, I think the UI for CookieSafe (CS Lite), FlashBlock and NoScript should be available as standard. The default Firefox UI for cookie permissions is such a pain that it's almost like they are trying to make it awkward to please the people who want to track us.