I use one maltron at work (WinNT only) and one at home (switched between WinNT and Debian GNU/Linux) and I have to tell you that they are simply the best keyboards ever invented. I had to completely relearn how to type, but in the process I eliminated almost all of my old, bad habits.
I used to have serious CTS (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome). I didn't have surgery, but I did get regular cortizone injections, wear wrist braces when I worked and had acupuncture. What really did it to end the pain was the maltron keyboard....since using it I haven't had to do anything for my CTS pain...it's largely gone away!
And, I type faster and more accurately because the keys are placed in rational places (I use the regular QWERTY-like layout, not the MALTRON layout, in part because the MALTRON layout sucks for writing C++ code because of the placement of all the syntax characters in the MALTRON layout), increasing my productivity. And if I forget where something is on the keyboard, most of the non-text characters (i.e. ()[]{}, etc.) are placed in symmetrical positions.
Yes, they're $400. Do you have ANY idea how much a single worker's comp claim costs your company? And with new laws coming in, if anyone at your company gets a single case of CTS, it will literally cost them millions of dollars to do a RSI assessment. And acupuncture and rheumatologists and wrist splints aren't cheap either.
Look at it this way: You're paying $400 to be more productive and probably never have any wrist or finger pain and never have to have seriously debilitating pain. Is that a good investment? Probably.
I can write up a full review if anybody likes. (Rob?)
I use a maltron, and it's probably the best investment that my company has ever made in my physical well-being. Yup, they're $400. However, they're very well made, and the customer service is excellent (I have two versions of it and wanted to remap one key around, which I can't do on WinNT, which I am forced to use on the job, so they reprogrammed the chip for me). They're entirely hand-made, and light as a feather.
But perhaps most importantly, they have completely eliminated my CTS pain.
If more people bought them, the price would go down. If the price goes down, more people might buy them. Vicious cycle.
Besides, the cost used to be $200, and not enough people bought them....but they had no advertising or marketing or distribution.
A monopolist, even in a "natural monopoly", will charge whatever the demand curve indicates that they are allowed to by the market. The prevalent solutions indicated by case law and current (and past, Chicago School be damned) economic thought are to either:
(1) End the monopoly by force (i.e. require competition [see AT&T Breakup, Telecom deregulation])
or
(2) Heavily regulate the monopoly to limit its profits beyond its marginal cost (i.e. public utilities such as gas and electric and water).
Note that the second is really only used for what used to be called a "natural monopoly," which is when a monopoly exists by some natural condition of the industry where the consumer is ultimately helped by the monopoly (such as not having differing standards and supplies for water to the house....the distribution of water makes a lot more sense as a regulated monopoly when you look at how it benefits consumers).
The only question is how badly the courts will dismember Micro$oft, and if they don't, and even if they just find against Micro$oft, how much penalties get assigned (remember that antitrust is a finding of fact w.r.t. future legal decisions, and all that is left is damages if someone can say that M$' illegal activities damaged them, and they get triple damages).
For example, Netscape (or now AOL) can argue that Microsoft killed the browser market and did so in an illegal fashion (which is a finding of fact by the court), and they can then argue that this hurt them $5bn in potential profits, and M$ then owes them $15bn, or just declares bankruptcy. The only thing to be argued about is the damages, not whether or not M$ needs to pay.
God I love antitrust law.
And as an aside, go to the microsoft page and try to vote in their poll about what to do with them....you have to register with them to do so, thus removing your ability to vote anonymously. Gotta love that kind of gumption.
A data base/ data set cannot be copyrighted, and therefore cannot be copylefted (if there are no intellectual property rights that could be enforced you cannot create a license that is predicated on restricting you from enforcing intellectual property rights).
It is in the public domain. You cannot GPL something in the public domain unless:
(1) it COULD be copyrighted (this can't),
and
(2) You make "substantial" changes to it.
This is a data set.
I think Mr. Perens refers to any derivitive products based on it, such as a mapping program, which can include this for free.
But it's not GPLed. I can release even the copy he gives me on a proprietary product w/o source code.
Remember, the dataset is GPL'd now, so there's no obstacle to keep them from doing so.
Well, he claims it's GPLed... but it's not unless someone makes a derivitive work or change to it and re-releases it. Because the data set is in the public domain (and ALL datasets are, unless they're trade secret, check the phone book business on other sub-threads), you can't just all of a sudden take it and make it more restrictive. Since the GPL is essentially a very restrictive form of PD, you can't further restrict the TIGER license or lack thereof.
People need to remember that PD != GPL, and the mapping from PD --> GPL can't happen transparently and seamlessly. I can't just take a copy of the phone book and copy-left it unless I have some rights over it to release. To issue a more restrictive license you must have rights over that thing. No one has rights over anything in the PD, so unless you make changes and make it into a copy-rightable item, you can't copy-left it.
Unless you REALLY trust the people who are managing your UIN/Username/etc on the server, you don't WAN'T them to share everything between themselves. Besides, in Europe, it's illegal for them to do so.
A far better notion is to have all that information available to YOU, and YOU decide what to share with them. However, this technology (like a digital wallet) has been around for a really long time in web-world and has been abandoned for now, mostly because people don't want to administer them. You move computers, you have to move the thing. Floppies suck, smart cards aren't everywhere.
Now once GSM with PID smart-cards come to the US and I can use one card for credit, ATM, computer security and phone.... yum.... pervasive technology with privacy rights...
Slashdot Mirror
I use one maltron at work (WinNT only) and one at home (switched between WinNT and Debian GNU/Linux) and I have to tell you that they are simply the best keyboards ever invented. I had to completely relearn how to type, but in the process I eliminated almost all of my old, bad habits.
I used to have serious CTS (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome). I didn't have surgery, but I did get regular cortizone injections, wear wrist braces when I worked and had acupuncture. What really did it to end the pain was the maltron keyboard....since using it I haven't had to do anything for my CTS pain...it's largely gone away!
And, I type faster and more accurately because the keys are placed in rational places (I use the regular QWERTY-like layout, not the MALTRON layout, in part because the MALTRON layout sucks for writing C++ code because of the placement of all the syntax characters in the MALTRON layout), increasing my productivity. And if I forget where something is on the keyboard, most of the non-text characters (i.e. ()[]{}, etc.) are placed in symmetrical positions.
Yes, they're $400. Do you have ANY idea how much a single worker's comp claim costs your company? And with new laws coming in, if anyone at your company gets a single case of CTS, it will literally cost them millions of dollars to do a RSI assessment. And acupuncture and rheumatologists and wrist splints aren't cheap either.
Look at it this way: You're paying $400 to be more productive and probably never have any wrist or finger pain and never have to have seriously debilitating pain. Is that a good investment? Probably.
I can write up a full review if anybody likes. (Rob?)
Kirk
I use a maltron, and it's probably the best investment that my company has ever made in my physical well-being. Yup, they're $400. However, they're very well made, and the customer service is excellent (I have two versions of it and wanted to remap one key around, which I can't do on WinNT, which I am forced to use on the job, so they reprogrammed the chip for me). They're entirely hand-made, and light as a feather.
But perhaps most importantly, they have completely eliminated my CTS pain.
If more people bought them, the price would go down. If the price goes down, more people might buy them. Vicious cycle.
Besides, the cost used to be $200, and not enough people bought them....but they had no advertising or marketing or distribution.
Kirk
A monopolist, even in a "natural monopoly", will charge whatever the demand curve indicates that they are allowed to by the market. The prevalent solutions indicated by case law and current (and past, Chicago School be damned) economic thought are to either:
(1) End the monopoly by force (i.e. require competition [see AT&T Breakup, Telecom deregulation])
or
(2) Heavily regulate the monopoly to limit its profits beyond its marginal cost (i.e. public utilities such as gas and electric and water).
Note that the second is really only used for what used to be called a "natural monopoly," which is when a monopoly exists by some natural condition of the industry where the consumer is ultimately helped by the monopoly (such as not having differing standards and supplies for water to the house....the distribution of water makes a lot more sense as a regulated monopoly when you look at how it benefits consumers).
The only question is how badly the courts will dismember Micro$oft, and if they don't, and even if they just find against Micro$oft, how much penalties get assigned (remember that antitrust is a finding of fact w.r.t. future legal decisions, and all that is left is damages if someone can say that M$' illegal activities damaged them, and they get triple damages).
For example, Netscape (or now AOL) can argue that Microsoft killed the browser market and did so in an illegal fashion (which is a finding of fact by the court), and they can then argue that this hurt them $5bn in potential profits, and M$ then owes them $15bn, or just declares bankruptcy. The only thing to be argued about is the damages, not whether or not M$ needs to pay.
God I love antitrust law.
And as an aside, go to the microsoft page and try to vote in their poll about what to do with them....you have to register with them to do so, thus removing your ability to vote anonymously. Gotta love that kind of gumption.
A data base/ data set cannot be copyrighted, and therefore cannot be copylefted (if there are no intellectual property rights that could be enforced you cannot create a license that is predicated on restricting you from enforcing intellectual property rights).
It is in the public domain. You cannot GPL something in the public domain unless:
(1) it COULD be copyrighted (this can't),
and
(2) You make "substantial" changes to it.
This is a data set.
I think Mr. Perens refers to any derivitive products based on it, such as a mapping program, which can include this for free.
But it's not GPLed. I can release even the copy he gives me on a proprietary product w/o source code.
But of course IANAL.
Well, he claims it's GPLed... but it's not unless someone makes a derivitive work or change to it and re-releases it. Because the data set is in the public domain (and ALL datasets are, unless they're trade secret, check the phone book business on other sub-threads), you can't just all of a sudden take it and make it more restrictive. Since the GPL is essentially a very restrictive form of PD, you can't further restrict the TIGER license or lack thereof.
People need to remember that PD != GPL, and the mapping from PD --> GPL can't happen transparently and seamlessly. I can't just take a copy of the phone book and copy-left it unless I have some rights over it to release. To issue a more restrictive license you must have rights over that thing. No one has rights over anything in the PD, so unless you make changes and make it into a copy-rightable item, you can't copy-left it.
But then again I'm not a lawyer.
Unless you REALLY trust the people who are managing your UIN/Username/etc on the server, you don't WAN'T them to share everything between themselves. Besides, in Europe, it's illegal for them to do so.
A far better notion is to have all that information available to YOU, and YOU decide what to share with them. However, this technology (like a digital wallet) has been around for a really long time in web-world and has been abandoned for now, mostly because people don't want to administer them. You move computers, you have to move the thing. Floppies suck, smart cards aren't everywhere.
Now once GSM with PID smart-cards come to the US and I can use one card for credit, ATM, computer security and phone.... yum.... pervasive technology with privacy rights...