I know it's silly but I always love when IBM uses the phrase "FUD" in corporate announcements
The irony is delicious, especially when it was Gene Amdahl who coined the phrase "fear, uncertainty and doubt" to describe IBM's tactics towards his company after he quit IBM and founded Amdahl Computers (see one of the 1975 entries at http://www.academic.marist.edu/pennings/hyprhsty.h tm
If anyone can make a good assesment of the situation without compromising any IP, its Richard M. Stallman. He should be allowed, paid even, to view all the documents and given time to make a critical assesment.
You mean the Richard M. Stallman that SCO quotes out of context on their web site, in what some people have seen as an attempt to smear the Open Source/Free Software movements?
At 11:30PM on Friday the CEO of IBM should fax SCO a Xerox of his butt. That seems an appropriate response.
Ahem. Xerox (r) is registered trademark of the Xerox Corporation. Please prepare to be boarded by 40,000 attack lawyers unless you provide $67.843 x 10^325 to the Xerox Corporation in the next 34 femtoseconds. Thank you.
Something VERY worth listening to is Derek Jacobi reading both "Leaf by Niggle" and "Farmer Giles of Ham". The narrations are really ourstanding. The tapes are pretty generally availalbe: I saw one at our local Borders.
This is definitely NOT a childrens book. It is absolutely crammed with in-jokes that are firmly directed at linguists and philologists and other academics.
For example, when Tolkien talks about Farmer Giles' blunderbuss, he makes a point of saying that people might not know what a blunderbuss is, then goes on to say the "the four wise clerks of Oxenford" define it as . This is lifted EXACTLY from the then-current edition of the the Oxford English Dictionary.
The dry, pedantic style was also directed at the similar style employed by academics.
Also, one has to remember that this was written in the aftermath of one of the most terrible wars the country had ever seen, and also came at the end of rationing in the UK, and despite the style, FGoH is a rollicking great belly laugh, definitely one of JRRT's really intelligent works.
BTW, was going through my papers last night and found my old copies of JRRT's poems, "Imram," which chronicles the travels of Saint Brendan, and "The Lay of Aotrao and Itroun", a very dark epic poem in the Breton tradition, which I copied by hand from the original manuscripts back in the '70s. As far as I know these have never been published, which is a shame, as they are both excellent works...
I am surprised that this was offered. Microsoft is not out of the legal woods in Europe and a discount of this magnitude can almost only be construed as an attempt to leverage a monopoly situation. There can be no other rational business reason for this discount.
Has everybody forgotten this article already. It quotes Orlando Ayala, who was top sales executive at MS, as saying "under NO circumstances lose against Linux"
Oh and by the way, the electrodes and wires will make great radio antennas (esp for 60 hz noise)!
A few years ago I was undergoing a *HUGE* battery of tests at a London hospital to investigate potential Multiple Sclerosis. I had hours and hours of MRI (I loved that: just like being in a torpedo tube, I imagine, but VERY cosy), visual stimulation combined with extensive EEG studies, but the most interesting thing was the nerve conduction stuff.
They stick electrodes into major nerves (upper arm, thigh, etc., etc.) and measure the speed of sigmal propogation down to the extremities. Well, apparently the easiest way to tell whether the electrode (ultra-thin wire) is in a nerve is to include the nerve as part of an antenna for an RF tuner. Basically, they hook it to a radio receiver and jiggle it about in the arm until you get a good signal!!! I was amazed and highly amused by the whole process. Capital 95.8 to cheer you up when you're being checked for major degenerative nerve disease!
Paul Terwilliger, director of product development at Sequoia Voting Systems
A brother, perhaps, of one Robert Underdunk Terwilliger, a man known to have rigged at least one election, as well as having been convicted of attempteed murder!!!
The financial marketplace - the smart money - believes SCO is going to win, at least partly. Their stock price has more than doubled since mid-February.
Bzzzt! Faulty logic. What is probably happening is that they have realised that SCO might be a long shot. The cap of SCO is currently about $55m, so when people started buying it was, say, $27m. If investors see even a slight possiblity that IBM might buy them out or buy them off, then it is a reasonable strategy to add SCO to the high-risk section of your portfolio. Also, don't forget, the markets are insanity- and coke-driven, not rational...
As pointed out before, it is almost inconceivable that SCO would not have maintained a source control repository for their code base. This is the sort of thing that can easily be subpeona'd. Any discrepancies at or around significant dates in the suit would be highly suspicious. And past employees' testimony would be sure to play a part as well.
IBM's recent alliance with MS et al in the Trustworthy Computing Alliance, I feel, casts more than a shadow of doubt, regarding it's true intentions
Oh, come on! It is not conceivable that IBM would not participate in this sort of initiative. Not because they are in bed with Microsoft, but because, at the very least, they feel thay must have a voice in an industry consortium of this type. It is certainly not impossible that there are various common interests, but just because there are alliances of this sort in place, it doesn't mean that the allies aren't getting ready to shaft each other. Look at Hitler and Stalin in WWII: it just so happened that Hitler got there first.
They can't come after BSD. That code is most assuredly unencumbered. Look at Kirk McKusick's article, which states that
The lawsuit settlement also stipulated that USL would not sue any organization using 4.4BSD-Lite as the base for their system. So, all the BSD groups that were doing releases at that time, BSDI, NetBSD, and FreeBSD, had to restart their code base with the 4.4BSD-Lite sources into which they then merged their enhancements and improvements. While this reintegration caused a short-term delay in the development of the various BSD systems, it was a blessing in disguise since it forced all the divergent groups to resynchronize with the three years of development that had occurred at the CSRG since the release of Networking Release 2.
Doesn't seem to run well with the spirit of Free Speech
In my view everybody has the right, absolutely, to free speech. However, I have the right, absolutely, not to be forced to hear it, or even know that somebody is speaking at all, if that is my wish.
All they are doing is matching the price of the software they are competing against, how is that dumping exactly ?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't dumping in this case related to how much it costs Microsoft?
The cost of the competing software is immaterial. If M$ are giving it away for free, that is dumping, no matter what, unless the cost to them of each unit is literally zero dollars, shekels, Flanian Pobble Beads, Triganic Pughs, or whatever...
Copy protection licencing is sufficiently expensive and a hassle to the producers that's it's only used on 'popular' artists.
No, it's filtering down. The latest Calxico CD, Feast of Wire, was playback-crippled too.
One interesting thing, though, is that the Netherlands version I got had a "Copy Controlled" sticker, while my friend's US version did not. The RIAA seem to be happy with forcing their victims^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcustomers to grab their ankles, but European distributors are more circumspect...
Actually, 'criterium' as an alternate singluar form of criteria is accepted by the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, though 'criterion' is certainly more common. I don't currently have access to the full OED, so I am not able to say whether it is now deprecated or not.
Slashdot Mirror
I know it's silly but I always love when IBM uses the phrase "FUD" in corporate announcements
h tm
The irony is delicious, especially when it was Gene Amdahl who coined the phrase "fear, uncertainty and doubt" to describe IBM's tactics towards his company after he quit IBM and founded Amdahl Computers (see one of the 1975 entries at http://www.academic.marist.edu/pennings/hyprhsty.
If anyone can make a good assesment of the situation without compromising any IP, its Richard M. Stallman. He should be allowed, paid even, to view all the documents and given time to make a critical assesment.
You mean the Richard M. Stallman that SCO quotes out of context on their web site, in what some people have seen as an attempt to smear the Open Source/Free Software movements?
Somehow I don't see that one flying...
At 11:30PM on Friday the CEO of IBM should fax SCO a Xerox of his butt. That seems an appropriate response.
Ahem. Xerox (r) is registered trademark of the Xerox Corporation. Please prepare to be boarded by 40,000 attack lawyers unless you provide $67.843 x 10^325 to the Xerox Corporation in the next 34 femtoseconds. Thank you.
WHERE'S THE BEEF
Where's the DEADBEEF (see http://www.deadbeef.com/ for more details...)
but I'm a rabid RAR zealot :^)
Rar! Rar! Rar!
Something VERY worth listening to is Derek Jacobi reading both "Leaf by Niggle" and "Farmer Giles of Ham". The narrations are really ourstanding. The tapes are pretty generally availalbe: I saw one at our local Borders.
This is definitely NOT a childrens book. It is absolutely crammed with in-jokes that are firmly directed at linguists and philologists and other academics.
For example, when Tolkien talks about Farmer Giles' blunderbuss, he makes a point of saying that people might not know what a blunderbuss is, then goes on to say the "the four wise clerks of Oxenford" define it as . This is lifted EXACTLY from the then-current edition of the the Oxford English Dictionary.
The dry, pedantic style was also directed at the similar style employed by academics.
Also, one has to remember that this was written in the aftermath of one of the most terrible wars the country had ever seen, and also came at the end of rationing in the UK, and despite the style, FGoH is a rollicking great belly laugh, definitely one of JRRT's really intelligent works.
BTW, was going through my papers last night and found my old copies of JRRT's poems, "Imram," which chronicles the travels of Saint Brendan, and "The Lay of Aotrao and Itroun", a very dark epic poem in the Breton tradition, which I copied by hand from the original manuscripts back in the '70s. As far as I know these have never been published, which is a shame, as they are both excellent works...
My toddler can do all that. Can't yours?
Ok, Peter Parker, move along. Nothing to see here...
If they can get Leonard Nimoy to sing the Bilbo Baggins song on stage, I'd go ;)
With a big fuck-off gun, I hope...
The plot twists and turns are making this into a very intersting story.
/.
You are in a little maze od twisty passages, all different.
Of course, in this maze, there is also the pirate, so it really does belong on
I am surprised that this was offered. Microsoft is not out of the legal woods in Europe and a discount of this magnitude can almost only be construed as an attempt to leverage a monopoly situation. There can be no other rational business reason for this discount.
Has everybody forgotten this article already. It quotes Orlando Ayala, who was top sales executive at MS, as saying "under NO circumstances lose against Linux"
Oh and by the way, the electrodes and wires will make great radio antennas (esp for 60 hz noise)!
A few years ago I was undergoing a *HUGE* battery of tests at a London hospital to investigate potential Multiple Sclerosis. I had hours and hours of MRI (I loved that: just like being in a torpedo tube, I imagine, but VERY cosy), visual stimulation combined with extensive EEG studies, but the most interesting thing was the nerve conduction stuff.
They stick electrodes into major nerves (upper arm, thigh, etc., etc.) and measure the speed of sigmal propogation down to the extremities. Well, apparently the easiest way to tell whether the electrode (ultra-thin wire) is in a nerve is to include the nerve as part of an antenna for an RF tuner. Basically, they hook it to a radio receiver and jiggle it about in the arm until you get a good signal!!! I was amazed and highly amused by the whole process. Capital 95.8 to cheer you up when you're being checked for major degenerative nerve disease!
A Democrat leading the charge to outlaw Linux and open source AGAIN!
Amplification: A Democrat whose constituency includes Overlake (do YOU know where Microsoft is based?)...
Paul Terwilliger, director of product development at Sequoia Voting Systems
A brother, perhaps, of one Robert Underdunk Terwilliger, a man known to have rigged at least one election, as well as having been convicted of attempteed murder!!!
The financial marketplace - the smart money - believes SCO is going to win, at least partly. Their stock price has more than doubled since mid-February.
Bzzzt! Faulty logic. What is probably happening is that they have realised that SCO might be a long shot. The cap of SCO is currently about $55m, so when people started buying it was, say, $27m. If investors see even a slight possiblity that IBM might buy them out or buy them off, then it is a reasonable strategy to add SCO to the high-risk section of your portfolio. Also, don't forget, the markets are insanity- and coke-driven, not rational...
it does decrease credibility of SCO and its attorneys
I protest, your Honor. My credibility can't get any lower!
--Lionel Hutz
As pointed out before, it is almost inconceivable that SCO would not have maintained a source control repository for their code base. This is the sort of thing that can easily be subpeona'd. Any discrepancies at or around significant dates in the suit would be highly suspicious. And past employees' testimony would be sure to play a part as well.
IBM's recent alliance with MS et al in the Trustworthy Computing Alliance, I feel, casts more than a shadow of doubt, regarding it's true intentions
Oh, come on! It is not conceivable that IBM would not participate in this sort of initiative. Not because they are in bed with Microsoft, but because, at the very least, they feel thay must have a voice in an industry consortium of this type. It is certainly not impossible that there are various common interests, but just because there are alliances of this sort in place, it doesn't mean that the allies aren't getting ready to shaft each other. Look at Hitler and Stalin in WWII: it just so happened that Hitler got there first.
They can't come after BSD. That code is most assuredly unencumbered. Look at Kirk McKusick's article, which states that
The lawsuit settlement also stipulated that USL would not sue any organization using 4.4BSD-Lite as the base for their system. So, all the BSD groups that were doing releases at that time, BSDI, NetBSD, and FreeBSD, had to restart their code base with the 4.4BSD-Lite sources into which they then merged their enhancements and improvements. While this reintegration caused a short-term delay in the development of the various BSD systems, it was a blessing in disguise since it forced all the divergent groups to resynchronize with the three years of development that had occurred at the CSRG since the release of Networking Release 2.
Doesn't seem to run well with the spirit of Free Speech
In my view everybody has the right, absolutely, to free speech. However, I have the right, absolutely, not to be forced to hear it, or even know that somebody is speaking at all, if that is my wish.
SCO is giving Microsoft the best anti Linux ammo it could hope for.
Right. People are saying that SCO wants IBM to buy them out. Anybody want to check to see whether MS has already done so?
All they are doing is matching the price of the software they are competing against, how is that dumping exactly ?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't dumping in this case related to how much it costs Microsoft?
The cost of the competing software is immaterial. If M$ are giving it away for free, that is dumping, no matter what, unless the cost to them of each unit is literally zero dollars, shekels, Flanian Pobble Beads, Triganic Pughs, or whatever...
Copy protection licencing is sufficiently expensive and a hassle to the producers that's it's only used on 'popular' artists.
No, it's filtering down. The latest Calxico CD, Feast of Wire, was playback-crippled too.
One interesting thing, though, is that the Netherlands version I got had a "Copy Controlled" sticker, while my friend's US version did not. The RIAA seem to be happy with forcing their victims^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcustomers to grab their ankles, but European distributors are more circumspect...
Now I have to wait 3 years to stop receiving spam from them!!
Yeah, but think of all the walls you can beat down with your mighty c*ck while you're waiting!!
The singular of 'criteria' is 'criterion'.
Actually, 'criterium' as an alternate singluar form of criteria is accepted by the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, though 'criterion' is certainly more common. I don't currently have access to the full OED, so I am not able to say whether it is now deprecated or not.