The thing I don't quite understand is why they haven't done this in the past. I mean - all it would take would be for them to violate the
GPL in some little application they release and then get taken to court by some developer.
Of course if the GPL is upheld and a case like that gets kicked all the way up to the Supreme Court then they really would be up a creek (if the Supreme Court upheld the GPL), so that might be a good reason not to. And maybe that's what they're afraid of.
I think they've already played out that scenario and looked into the GPL and they have good reason to think they would lose (in spite of all their lawyers).
So barring that what can they do? They could try and blacklist GPL programmers and call us all socialists or communists or something =) Unfortunately for them, McCarthy already tried that and look where it got him.
They could go after the developers by persuading Congress that GPL programs are written by hackers and that it is illegal to write software with a compiler which doesn't embed some unique id into the binary which allows the developer to be tracked down.
I don't know - what's the worst possible thing M$ could do that would cripple Open Source? M$ is trying to discredit and destroy a philosphy, which is historically a lot more difficult to do than going after an individual or a corporation. Even countries that have used much more extreme measures than anything M$ has tried have failed when it comes to that.
I think the zombies came from the first
Castle Wolfenstein - I can't remember
which episode but it was the one where you
had to go into this Nazi doctor's castle where
he was taking dead Nazi's and turning them
into zombies (and doing fun things like mounting
machine guns in their chests).
Anyway...at the end the super-demon that you
have to kill is this crazy doctor running around throwing these syringes filled with zombie fluid at you.
I'm pretty sure that's where the zombies are coming from. It was one of the coolest
episodes and had one of the creepiest bad guys.
This was on the documentation section of the
web site:
"pitou is based on an existing freeware GPL'ed 8052 simulator, called ucsim, written by Dániel Drótos and can be found here, which has been heavily modified (sorry Dave). The pitou documentation is based on ucsim's"
So according it is under the GPL and the source should be available. Of course given the fact that the whole project enables people to pirate
DirectTV, does anyone really think the guy who wrote this gives a fuck about the GPL?
I don't know where this "government funded research" thing comes from...maybe unix back in the 60's?
I thought that was weird too. Just a guess, but could it be that he was referring to the
security-enhanced version of linux the NSA released?
I mean despite all of what Microsquish has been
saying about Linux being a security threat because of its open-source nature, that has to make Linux somewhat more appealing to suits who are interested in keeping secrets.
In short, Suck is spewing without understanding why things are the way they are in the software industry -...
From the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 4th Edition: Sarcasm
NOUN : 1. A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound. 2. A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule. 3. The use of sarcasm. See wit.
ETYMOLOGY: Late Latin sarcasmus, from Greek sarkasmos, from sarkazein, to bite the lips in rage, from sarxsark-, flesh.
No they aren't that dumb - and most
of them aren't nearly as literal-minded as you are. Mellow out and read some Mark Twain;-)
Right now you're making good money - but situations change. Unions for all their problems are still just about the only thing standing in the way of corporate power. And a large and powerful IT Union would pose a powerful counter-lever to the corporations.
Your're expendable. Everyone is. And the only protection against being just another number IMHO that can be pink-slipped is through a Union.
The reason is that the strength of the DSL signal decreases linearly as you move away from a CO (the telephone company - or some box on a telephone line which boosts the signal). If you test a DSL modem and get a graphical display of the signal-to-noise ratio plot, and have the
modem plugged into a line simulator, you can actually see this happening in real-time. It's pretty cool. If the line distance is greater than 2-3 miles, it's kind've iffy about the quality of the signal you will receive, and how constant it will be.
The DSL signal is transmitted on higher-frequency bandwidth channels than normal voice communication, because you can get higher compression that way. The downside of that is random noise on the line anywhere along the path
can make your average connection speed vary pretty wildly. And in the US this is especially true, because in some parts of the country, DSL signals are being broadcast on lines 50-100 years old. I don't know why it's better in Canada. Maybe in the urban areas they have a better infrastructure to work with than we do in the states.
I think that's like comparing apples with
oranges....artists are using a completely different set of skills and abilities than
programmers. What makes any game something
you want to keep coming back to? For me
its things like storyline, level design, and
art. There are a few people who are brilliant programmers and artists and have no problem doing both, but I think most people in this thread are deluding themselves into thinking that programming and art are synonymous. They really are not.
Is art only about skill? If it was, then why don't I get the same tingly feeling up and down
my spine when I look at a Shaker rocking chair
as I do when Janis Joplin sings 'Me and Bobby McGee'? Really good art - IMHO - is about
risking some deep emotional part of yourself
and communicating that with others in some
way to try to put them in the same mind space
you're in when you are creating it.
No, that was a good call. Unless
of course you think William Shakespeare
should take its rightful place behind
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone or
(*shudder* - Ayn Rand).
Slashdot Mirror
How's that?
Surface Area = 4*pi*r^2 for a sphere, Since the diameter = 2*r and A ~ r^2, a smaller diameter means a smaller surface area.
The thing I don't quite understand is why they haven't done this in the past. I mean - all it would take would be for them to violate the GPL in some little application they release and then get taken to court by some developer.
Of course if the GPL is upheld and a case like that gets kicked all the way up to the Supreme Court then they really would be up a creek (if the Supreme Court upheld the GPL), so that might be a good reason not to. And maybe that's what they're afraid of.
I think they've already played out that scenario and looked into the GPL and they have good reason to think they would lose (in spite of all their lawyers).
So barring that what can they do? They could try and blacklist GPL programmers and call us all socialists or communists or something =) Unfortunately for them, McCarthy already tried that and look where it got him.
They could go after the developers by persuading Congress that GPL programs are written by hackers and that it is illegal to write software with a compiler which doesn't embed some unique id into the binary which allows the developer to be tracked down.
I don't know - what's the worst possible thing M$ could do that would cripple Open Source? M$ is trying to discredit and destroy a philosphy, which is historically a lot more difficult to do than going after an individual or a corporation. Even countries that have used much more extreme measures than anything M$ has tried have failed when it comes to that.
Anyway...at the end the super-demon that you have to kill is this crazy doctor running around throwing these syringes filled with zombie fluid at you. I'm pretty sure that's where the zombies are coming from. It was one of the coolest episodes and had one of the creepiest bad guys.
This was on the documentation section of the web site:
"pitou is based on an existing freeware GPL'ed 8052 simulator, called ucsim, written by Dániel
Drótos and can be found here, which has been heavily modified (sorry Dave).
The pitou documentation is based on ucsim's"
So according it is under the GPL and the source should be available. Of course given the fact that the whole project enables people to pirate DirectTV, does anyone really think the guy who wrote this gives a fuck about the GPL?
I thought that was weird too. Just a guess, but could it be that he was referring to the security-enhanced version of linux the NSA released? I mean despite all of what Microsquish has been saying about Linux being a security threat because of its open-source nature, that has to make Linux somewhat more appealing to suits who are interested in keeping secrets.
From the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 4th Edition:
Sarcasm
NOUN : 1. A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound. 2. A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule. 3. The use of sarcasm. See wit.
ETYMOLOGY: Late Latin sarcasmus, from Greek sarkasmos, from sarkazein, to bite the lips in rage, from sarxsark-, flesh.
No they aren't that dumb - and most of them aren't nearly as literal-minded as you are. Mellow out and read some Mark Twain ;-)
Right now you're making good money - but situations change. Unions for all their problems are still just about the only thing standing in the way of corporate power. And a large and powerful IT Union would pose a powerful counter-lever to the corporations.
Your're expendable. Everyone is. And the only protection against being just another number IMHO that can be pink-slipped is through a Union.
The reason is that the strength of the DSL signal decreases linearly as you move away from a CO (the telephone company - or some box on a telephone line which boosts the signal). If you test a DSL modem and get a graphical display of the signal-to-noise ratio plot, and have the modem plugged into a line simulator, you can actually see this happening in real-time. It's pretty cool. If the line distance is greater than 2-3 miles, it's kind've iffy about the quality of the signal you will receive, and how constant it will be.
The DSL signal is transmitted on higher-frequency bandwidth channels than normal voice communication, because you can get higher compression that way. The downside of that is random noise on the line anywhere along the path can make your average connection speed vary pretty wildly. And in the US this is especially true, because in some parts of the country, DSL signals are being broadcast on lines 50-100 years old. I don't know why it's better in Canada. Maybe in the urban areas they have a better infrastructure to work with than we do in the states.
I think that's like comparing apples with oranges....artists are using a completely different set of skills and abilities than programmers. What makes any game something you want to keep coming back to? For me its things like storyline, level design, and art. There are a few people who are brilliant programmers and artists and have no problem doing both, but I think most people in this thread are deluding themselves into thinking that programming and art are synonymous. They really are not.
Is art only about skill? If it was, then why don't I get the same tingly feeling up and down my spine when I look at a Shaker rocking chair as I do when Janis Joplin sings 'Me and Bobby McGee'? Really good art - IMHO - is about risking some deep emotional part of yourself and communicating that with others in some way to try to put them in the same mind space you're in when you are creating it.
No, that was a good call. Unless of course you think William Shakespeare should take its rightful place behind Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone or (*shudder* - Ayn Rand).