From the article: SCO has a clear choice: either pledge not to use any Open Source/Free
Software in any of their products, or actively participate in the Open
Source/Free Software movement and reap the benefits.
Those are not the only choices. The option that SCO is pursuing appears to be to declare the GPL invalid, at which point they hope to be able to grab any piece of GPL'd software and make it their own. That's not hypocrisy, that's strategy.
... is a bit condencending towards those who believe SCO doesn't have a case. A sort of, "we told you so" and it reproduces a lot of McBride's rhetoric about the evils of
open source
They are QUOTING the guy. That's what publications often do.
Heise is not a very open-source friendly news outlet.
That's simply not true. Don't base your opinion on a bad babelfish translation...
From the article:
Adopting Linux allows organizations to increase their IT efficiency without requiring the IT department to increase ITS efficiency.
I don't buy that. In fact, I think adopting linux would lead to an increase in needed support, because the average computer user knows nothing about linux. In fact, this has been one of the mantras of people trying to convince companies to jump on the open source bandwagon: give away your product for free, and make money on support.
Linux may be more stable (but on the other hand: my win2k never crashes either), but that doesn't really matter all that much. To most people the occasional crash is a fact of life. They press the reset button and continue working. You don't need support for that. Support is needed when your computer is completely messed up and/or needs (re)configuration. There, Windows and MacOS have linux beat hands down. Most average computer users can do minor tweaks of their Windows or MacOS box without requiring any help. Put them in front of a linux box, and they're completely lost.
Thank you for restating in different words what I already said. I'm not sure why you did it, but I'm sure it was well-intended and served some higher purpose.
Many years ago I read an interesting observation in a popular science magazine: not only is the average life-expectancy increasing, it is increasing ever faster. Extrapolating from some numbers, they estimated that within a few decades life-expectancy would be increasing faster than real time, making everybody effectively immortal.
Do you have faith in the justice system (or IBM's Lawyers) to draw the right conclusions?
IBM's lawyers are not out to defend the GPL, they are out to defend IBM. The two are not necessarily compatible. And in the end, whether or not IBM's lawyers "draw the right conclusions" (taken to mean they interpret and defend the GPL the way your average slashdot reader would like them to) is rather irrelevant. What matters is the judge's ruling. That brings us to the justice system... Given the choices that have been made in recent years, one could argue that there currently is no justice system. This started with the election of the president by the supreme court, and continued with the systematic suspension of basic rights guaranteed under the constitution.
When your own government can spy on you, detain you without access to anyone for as long as they want, and then try and sentence you in secret, you have, in effect, no judicial system...
What's described in the article all seems pretty straightforward and already well understood. Either the article is outright lying about this "bold paper" being published in the "Foundations of Physics Letters", or august is a really slow month and they needed some amusing filler...
Is use of the terms "skydiving" and "free fall" really correct when the guy achieved 35 kilometers horizontal motion for only 9 kilometers of vertical motion? Sounds more like "gliding" to me... (for comparison, it's equivalent to a 26% incline, about the same as an average ski-slope)
There's absolutely no need to maintain DNA after the expiration of your term of service to "prove" anything.
I didn't mean to imply that your DNA sample would be used as proof that you were in the military and thus entitled to certain benefits. As you say, that's what the DD-214 is for. However, that DD-214 won't do you much good if nobody is able to identify you from your charred remains. That's what I meant: you find an unidentifiable dead person somewhere, you check the DNA database to find out if that person used to be in the military. I agree that if the samples were taken with the assurance that they would ONLY be used for identification of remains, then using them to identify non-deceased people is wrong. It's too bad the article doesn't go into detail about the "stringent rules" regarding the use of the database.
... although if that were the only
reason, the samples would be automatically destroyed at the end of the servicemember's contract.
Even people who have left the military are entitled to a military burial in some cases, or their surviving spouse may be eligible to receive a widow's pension. That could be a reason to keep the DNA samples of ex-servicepeople.
I know a lot of people for whom Quark is the killer app that prevents them from moving to Linux
That makes it sound like moving to linux is a goal in itself. It is not. The goal is to use your computer for whatever work or play you need. I mean, if all you do with your computer is "run linux" or "run OSX" or "run windows", then you're not really doing anything useful with your computer, are you?
In order to reliably move data from computer A to computer B, computers A and B need to know each other's IP address. Once they have your IP address, they can simply subpoena your provider for your name and address, and presto, you end up with a cease-and-desist or worse.
The method described in the article (ignore connections from known RIAA IP addresses) only gives a false sense of security. The RIAA is able to use new IP addresses faster than people can update the software. The only reliable way to keep them off your back is to not engage in filesharing in any way.
The Atlantic and Pacific oceans come to mind... Ad-hoc wireless networking may work great in an urban area, but as soon as you hit rural areas or need to communicate across oceans, you start needing some really powerful transmitters, and you'll have to put up with lots of hops for your traffic.
(tip for Karma Whores: reply to this post with some jokes about lousy Quake ping-times)
So? Does that mean we should give up and stop trying to stop terrorists? What are you saying?
It's pretty much the same argument people are using to argue against copyrights and copy-protection: it's useless, it will be broken, people will copy stuff anyway, you might as well stop trying to prevent it.
Slashdot Mirror
Those are not the only choices. The option that SCO is pursuing appears to be to declare the GPL invalid, at which point they hope to be able to grab any piece of GPL'd software and make it their own. That's not hypocrisy, that's strategy.
They probably just had the spellchecker mess it up when they made the presentation-slides.
They are QUOTING the guy. That's what publications often do.
Heise is not a very open-source friendly news outlet.
That's simply not true. Don't base your opinion on a bad babelfish translation...
If I had moderation points right now, the parent would get 'em...
The supposed original sourcefile that was referred to in the summary is "Copyright SGI". So why is SCO suing IBM?
I don't buy that. In fact, I think adopting linux would lead to an increase in needed support, because the average computer user knows nothing about linux. In fact, this has been one of the mantras of people trying to convince companies to jump on the open source bandwagon: give away your product for free, and make money on support.
Linux may be more stable (but on the other hand: my win2k never crashes either), but that doesn't really matter all that much. To most people the occasional crash is a fact of life. They press the reset button and continue working. You don't need support for that. Support is needed when your computer is completely messed up and/or needs (re)configuration. There, Windows and MacOS have linux beat hands down. Most average computer users can do minor tweaks of their Windows or MacOS box without requiring any help. Put them in front of a linux box, and they're completely lost.
Thank you for restating in different words what I already said. I'm not sure why you did it, but I'm sure it was well-intended and served some higher purpose.
Many years ago I read an interesting observation in a popular science magazine: not only is the average life-expectancy increasing, it is increasing ever faster. Extrapolating from some numbers, they estimated that within a few decades life-expectancy would be increasing faster than real time, making everybody effectively immortal.
IBM's lawyers are not out to defend the GPL, they are out to defend IBM. The two are not necessarily compatible. And in the end, whether or not IBM's lawyers "draw the right conclusions" (taken to mean they interpret and defend the GPL the way your average slashdot reader would like them to) is rather irrelevant. What matters is the judge's ruling. That brings us to the justice system... Given the choices that have been made in recent years, one could argue that there currently is no justice system. This started with the election of the president by the supreme court, and continued with the systematic suspension of basic rights guaranteed under the constitution.
When your own government can spy on you, detain you without access to anyone for as long as they want, and then try and sentence you in secret, you have, in effect, no judicial system...
What's described in the article all seems pretty straightforward and already well understood. Either the article is outright lying about this "bold paper" being published in the "Foundations of Physics Letters", or august is a really slow month and they needed some amusing filler...
Is use of the terms "skydiving" and "free fall" really correct when the guy achieved 35 kilometers horizontal motion for only 9 kilometers of vertical motion? Sounds more like "gliding" to me...
(for comparison, it's equivalent to a 26% incline, about the same as an average ski-slope)
.. notice how large parts of the article are not describing the way things actually went, but are speculation about possible alternatives.
This guy's page was mentioned last year.
I didn't mean to imply that your DNA sample would be used as proof that you were in the military and thus entitled to certain benefits. As you say, that's what the DD-214 is for. However, that DD-214 won't do you much good if nobody is able to identify you from your charred remains. That's what I meant: you find an unidentifiable dead person somewhere, you check the DNA database to find out if that person used to be in the military. I agree that if the samples were taken with the assurance that they would ONLY be used for identification of remains, then using them to identify non-deceased people is wrong. It's too bad the article doesn't go into detail about the "stringent rules" regarding the use of the database.
Even people who have left the military are entitled to a military burial in some cases, or their surviving spouse may be eligible to receive a widow's pension. That could be a reason to keep the DNA samples of ex-servicepeople.
One already exists
That makes it sound like moving to linux is a goal in itself. It is not. The goal is to use your computer for whatever work or play you need. I mean, if all you do with your computer is "run linux" or "run OSX" or "run windows", then you're not really doing anything useful with your computer, are you?
In order to reliably move data from computer A to computer B, computers A and B need to know each other's IP address. Once they have your IP address, they can simply subpoena your provider for your name and address, and presto, you end up with a cease-and-desist or worse.
The method described in the article (ignore connections from known RIAA IP addresses) only gives a false sense of security. The RIAA is able to use new IP addresses faster than people can update the software. The only reliable way to keep them off your back is to not engage in filesharing in any way.
Somebody should tell the Israelis. They think the BBC is biased, and their reporting is akin to nazi propaganda.
I was wondering why this story seemed so familiar. Then I remembered: I already read it on Wired three days ago...
So somebody does a dump of a CD and posts the resulting image online. And this is news WHY?
The Atlantic and Pacific oceans come to mind... Ad-hoc wireless networking may work great in an urban area, but as soon as you hit rural areas or need to communicate across oceans, you start needing some really powerful transmitters, and you'll have to put up with lots of hops for your traffic.
(tip for Karma Whores: reply to this post with some jokes about lousy Quake ping-times)
You will be labeled a terrorist, detained indefinitely without access to a lawyer, and eventually sentenced to death by a secret military tribunal.
It's pretty much the same argument people are using to argue against copyrights and copy-protection: it's useless, it will be broken, people will copy stuff anyway, you might as well stop trying to prevent it.