Great story -- wish it was in the article
on
Linux and Shrek
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· Score: 1
I think a lot more people would find your story relatable than a quote from someone in a niche field. The quote explain why they wanted to change the source code, and there's no discussion of the advantages of having access to the source even if you don't change it, as in your story.
Some of the HP stuff later on in the article is good PR, but this isn't an article that I'd post on my cube. The most important part is the headline; the second most important part is what appears early in the story, before you lose most readers.
I'm in an NT shop, and post Linux articles every so often. The last one was WSJ Interactive's "Linux gains corporate respectability" on April 9.
*I* know that, but the casual reader doesn't
on
Linux and Shrek
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· Score: 1
The quote I was referring to doesn't help people understand the
benefit of someone else being able to change the source code:
"Although we're a shop of 1,300 people, we don't have the clout to get
Microsoft to change their operating system," says Andy Hendrickson,
director of systems development at Industrial Light & Magic. "With Linux,
we can do it all ourselves."
Some might read that and think "GNU/Linux is not for me; I don't want to change the operating system myself."
Most users don't want to change the kernel code
on
Linux and Shrek
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· Score: 1
Have you missed the whole "Open Source" marketing campaign for free software? Quality and features make a big difference, plus the absence of vendor lock-in. Users benefit from free software whether they want to change the code themselves or not.
article won't persuade most potential users
on
Linux and Shrek
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· Score: 1
The quote about being able to modify the operating system makes it seem like that's the big selling point of a free-software OS.
Ask anybody who has breastfed a newborn -- not even the nipple is intuitive. Sucking is instinctive, but getting a good latch on the nipple is learned. A more correct saying would be, "Sucking is the only intuitive interface; everything else is learned."
He pushed legislation which opened up the NSFNET to businesses, etc. AFAIK, he never claimed to have invented the technology when speaking about his involvement. In a sense, the legislation did create the network we now know as the Internet.
There's a vocal minority on each side that makes lots of hostile noise about the other license, but I think most in the free software community are more relaxed about it. In certain cases like Ogg/Vorbis, RMS even advocates BSD. I don't know a lot of people who would eschew BSD-licensed software just because they prefer GPL or vice versa.
Mosaic was what made the WWW into something one would want to bring to the masses. Specifically, when NCSA hacked up this IMG tag mess, much less thought-out than, say, the FIG (or was it FIGURE?) tag that the w3c eventually designed but couldn't get industry to accept. The IMG tag made the WWW into whiz-bang technology that got people excited.
MIT had a system called TechInfo that made it much easier to provide information to the net than the WWW did, but its acceptance was limited by the non-sexiness of plain text. With the WWW, people were willing to do extra work because the result looked so cool in Mosaic.
lawyer needn't snap -- will pursue immediately
on
RFC for Spammers
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· Score: 1
One thing that makes trademark protection different from copyright/patent protection is that you can lose trademark protection if you don't defend it. The only reason Slashdot hasn't been contacted yet is probably that it hasn't come to the attention of Hormel's legal department. (I learned about this back when MIT was suing the former mit.com, an innocent organization that happened to share MIT's trademarked TLA.)
The "secret of life" referred to may be different from the "answer". Maybe it's the same as the "meaning of life", which is twofold:
Human beings live their lives relatively close to enlightenment, but few reach it because the mundacities and distractions of everyday life prevent them from studying, meditating on and practicing spiritual principles.
People aren't wearing enough hats.
Does the "secrets" book talk about the hats thing?
P.S. In replies, please change the subject line to specify what aspect of hats you want to discuss.
Helping the learning disabled is a great cause, in that it's harder for them to benefit from technology as easily as, say, verbally skilled blind people. You might also look at work in developing countries.
Sounds like you're asking specific advice rather than a general law question, so no lawyer is going to answer you over the internet. As a non-lawyer, I'll answer you: If you hold the copyright, you can license as many ways as you please. However, contributions people send back for the GPL version might have copyright owners other than you, so you might not automatically be able to include them in the crippled version.
The FSF's Why We Must Fight UCITA article seems to say that UCITA invalidates free-software disclaimers. Is this true? Why or why not?
lighting candles at home from the Internet
on
The Worst Of Times
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· Score: 1
You cannot start a business based on a device to light candles at home from the Internet. I already have software and business method patents on that concept.
There certainly areas where non-free software can fill a niche and meet a need until some point in the future when free software gets there. But for a lot of people, the motivation for free software is to get rid of MSFT products, their lack of interoperability, and upgrade treadmills.
Unless the writer of that essay fabricated some of his material, it seems a solid case that Newton was not being sarcastic; he was writing in genuine humility and admiration.
Perl is also "fast enough"; case in point, Slashdot
I had a really good argument as to why that's not true, but during the 72 seconds I waited for this form to come up after I clicked "Reply to This", I forgot what my argument was.
P.S. I have a fast connection and image loading turned off.
I have a printout of our inter-office phone directory (database-generated with BRL/LaTeX) up on my wall because, although I type fast, my fingers are slower than my eyes for finding a specific name.
Printed reports are also useful for face-to-face meetings.
Hundred-page reports are probably for archival purposes. It's understandable that a lot of people are more comfortable with paper archives than electronic archives, given the general low quality of software today, and the obsolescence, sometimes intentional, of file formats.
I've had success with pdflatex for PDF generation from.tex files created by BRL. This is a text-based solution rather than the drag/drop you wanted, but I consider that a feature, not a bug, having spent a year doing PowerBuilder datawindows. I'd much rather insert some text where a new column should go rather than have to drag existing columns/headers to the left and the right.
Visit Ask Your Sweetie for an example (with source) that lets you send an HTML form in e-mail, or alternatively a plaintext message with a URL for the form.
Slashdot Mirror
I think a lot more people would find your story relatable than a quote from someone in a niche field. The quote explain why they wanted to change the source code, and there's no discussion of the advantages of having access to the source even if you don't change it, as in your story.
Some of the HP stuff later on in the article is good PR, but this isn't an article that I'd post on my cube. The most important part is the headline; the second most important part is what appears early in the story, before you lose most readers.
I'm in an NT shop, and post Linux articles every so often. The last one was WSJ Interactive's "Linux gains corporate respectability" on April 9.
Bruce Perens, noting that the story appeared in the WSJ print edition, implies that the story is "Linux PR".
Have you missed the whole "Open Source" marketing campaign for free software? Quality and features make a big difference, plus the absence of vendor lock-in. Users benefit from free software whether they want to change the code themselves or not.
The quote about being able to modify the operating system makes it seem like that's the big selling point of a free-software OS.
Ask anybody who has breastfed a newborn -- not even the nipple is intuitive. Sucking is instinctive, but getting a good latch on the nipple is learned. A more correct saying would be, "Sucking is the only intuitive interface; everything else is learned."
Hmmm...that doesn't sound right either.
He pushed legislation which opened up the NSFNET to businesses, etc. AFAIK, he never claimed to have invented the technology when speaking about his involvement. In a sense, the legislation did create the network we now know as the Internet.
There's a vocal minority on each side that makes lots of hostile noise about the other license, but I think most in the free software community are more relaxed about it. In certain cases like Ogg/Vorbis, RMS even advocates BSD. I don't know a lot of people who would eschew BSD-licensed software just because they prefer GPL or vice versa.
Mosaic was what made the WWW into something one would want to bring to the masses. Specifically, when NCSA hacked up this IMG tag mess, much less thought-out than, say, the FIG (or was it FIGURE?) tag that the w3c eventually designed but couldn't get industry to accept. The IMG tag made the WWW into whiz-bang technology that got people excited.
MIT had a system called TechInfo that made it much easier to provide information to the net than the WWW did, but its acceptance was limited by the non-sexiness of plain text. With the WWW, people were willing to do extra work because the result looked so cool in Mosaic.
One thing that makes trademark protection different from copyright/patent protection is that you can lose trademark protection if you don't defend it. The only reason Slashdot hasn't been contacted yet is probably that it hasn't come to the attention of Hormel's legal department. (I learned about this back when MIT was suing the former mit.com, an innocent organization that happened to share MIT's trademarked TLA.)
The "secret of life" referred to may be different from the "answer". Maybe it's the same as the "meaning of life", which is twofold:
Does the "secrets" book talk about the hats thing?
P.S. In replies, please change the subject line to specify what aspect of hats you want to discuss.
Helping the learning disabled is a great cause, in that it's harder for them to benefit from technology as easily as, say, verbally skilled blind people. You might also look at work in developing countries.
Good luck getting your rough estimate based on IP addresses. I think it's great that you're eschewing cookies; go for cache friendliness.
Sign the code over to the FSF, whom you can rely on to be more zealous about suing violators than any of your development team ever will be.
Sounds like you're asking specific advice rather than a general law question, so no lawyer is going to answer you over the internet. As a non-lawyer, I'll answer you: If you hold the copyright, you can license as many ways as you please. However, contributions people send back for the GPL version might have copyright owners other than you, so you might not automatically be able to include them in the crippled version.
The FSF's Why We Must Fight UCITA article seems to say that UCITA invalidates free-software disclaimers. Is this true? Why or why not?
You cannot start a business based on a device to light candles at home from the Internet. I already have software and business method patents on that concept.
There certainly areas where non-free software can fill a niche and meet a need until some point in the future when free software gets there. But for a lot of people, the motivation for free software is to get rid of MSFT products, their lack of interoperability, and upgrade treadmills.
Unless the writer of that essay fabricated some of his material, it seems a solid case that Newton was not being sarcastic; he was writing in genuine humility and admiration.
I had a really good argument as to why that's not true, but during the 72 seconds I waited for this form to come up after I clicked "Reply to This", I forgot what my argument was.
P.S. I have a fast connection and image loading turned off.
I have a printout of our inter-office phone directory (database-generated with BRL/LaTeX) up on my wall because, although I type fast, my fingers are slower than my eyes for finding a specific name.
Printed reports are also useful for face-to-face meetings.
Hundred-page reports are probably for archival purposes. It's understandable that a lot of people are more comfortable with paper archives than electronic archives, given the general low quality of software today, and the obsolescence, sometimes intentional, of file formats.
I've had success with pdflatex for PDF generation from .tex files created by BRL. This is a text-based solution rather than the drag/drop you wanted, but I consider that a feature, not a bug, having spent a year doing PowerBuilder datawindows. I'd much rather insert some text where a new column should go rather than have to drag existing columns/headers to the left and the right.
BRL is easier and more powerful than CF, especially for database-driven apps. You can also make use of Java objects easily. I'm biased, but I'm right.
Visit Ask Your Sweetie for an example (with source) that lets you send an HTML form in e-mail, or alternatively a plaintext message with a URL for the form.
If someone would build a highly-visible web site or two with CL-HTTPD and/or BRL, maybe that would change.