The best reason to give why Linux should be considered is that it removes your government's implicit support to a convicted criminal enterprise. By using (and continuing to use) Microsoft Products (including their lack-of-support options), you are supporting them and their "business model".
Of course, there is the cost issue. Let's see, $79.95 for a single copy of RedHat 7.1 or $44.95 for a single copy of Slackware. Opposed to $199.95 for a single copy of XP. Hmmmm. A more in depth cost analysis can be seen at my web site.
I can't tell you how relieved I was to see that the BSA aren't targeting the town I live in (Saginaw, Michigan). With all the pirated software that I must have on my computer, I would surely owe them something. Heck, even my officesuite is pirated. My desktop environment is pirated. Let them come on by and audit me...
When you purchase a product, ANY product, you are purchasing the right to do with that product as you wish within the confines of the law. This means that you are free to take your DVD and use it for skeet practice, glue it to the rear bumper of your car, or play it in any device that can interpret it. There is no license, there is no condition of sale, and I really doubt that the clerks at Best Buy really care what you are going to do with it after you hand them your credit card. Since there is no specific law outlawing the playing of DVD's on "unlicensed players", there is nothing directly to stop you from doing so.
Your analogy about rights to view a movie don't hold. You aren't purchasing a product when you go to a theatre, you are purchasing a service.
I have a real DVD player - built into my laptop. It refuses to work under Windows. It works flawlessly under Linux. And yes, I have a set-top box too. It doesn't work that well on airplanes though...
BTW: this is NOT like cable descramblers. Cable descramblers exist for the sole purpose of theft of service. Since I paid for the DVD, there is no theft.
The main reason the FBI and the DOJ are getting so excited about this is obviously simple to me...
Some idiot within the government must have decided that Windows XP would be the new standard of choice for the "secure computers" within the government. As such, they (the government) have probably just about finished rolling out the new infrastructure to all the remote branches. All that work has essentially been thrown out the door, XP has just proven what a crock of crap MS has been feeding the general public. The government is beginning to actually realize just how reliable those "sales glossies" are...
Fixed bid contracts are just fine, as long as you also include language to limit the number of hours you are expected to put into a job.
Example: Provide national ID database programming on Oracle DB, provide secure interfaces for client access, implement solution at all end customer locations, provide on-site training and support services. Not to exceed 10 hours. $10,000.00
This is perfectly legit and I have used this form for jobs several times successfully.
Appgen makes MyBooks, which is very similar to quickbooks, and can be purchased with development modules. This is made by the same people who do Moneydance.
As a former user of Mybooks from Appgen, I can tell you with absolute certainty that it is NOTHING like Quickbooks. The ease of use features are not there, it requires you to use purchased pre-printed forms (QB will print forms on blank paper if you ask it to), can't do fractional unit billings, can't email a form directly, can't modify the form layout at all. MyBooks is an accountant-centric piece of software - if you aren't an accountant, it is useless.
Currently for my business, there are exactly 2 programs that keep me in the Windows world - AutoCad and Quickbooks. Until these apps are available (or realistic workalikes), I will need to maintain a Windows desktop in my office - and I specialize in Linux Software/Support services.
I have been trying to implement Paypal's "Instant Payment Notification" service within my website. Before I go live though, I want to thoroughly test all my code and the interface with Paypal. There is no documented way to test the payment interface with Paypal.
Their customer support people have been totally unresponsive to my question. "Is there a way to test IPN without actually sending money?" is the question. I don't want to go live with my code until I have a chance to test it out thoroughly.
Their service is useful and fairly inexpensive, but their customer support is absolutly horrible.
Why not forgo the whole cabling experience and go wireless instead? You can connect every room in the house with a single hub. It's cheaper than buying the cable and hub/switch, and a whole lot more convenient.
...and your neighbors will greatly appreciate the free bandwidth you are providing them...
1) Criminalize the intentional falsification of header information - primary target is Spam senders and IP address spoofing.
2) Make it absolutely legal to defend my property (servers, IP address space, etc) through any means available (NULL routing, reverse hacking, packet amplifiers, RBL, etc...)
Unless and until they openly support Linux on ALL of their computer based products, I will NOT be a believer. Case in point: the USB Webcams - they will only let a developer work on this through an NDA. Not very supportive as far as I can tell...
Did anyone other than me notice that this was for the "developers" cert - i.e. signing of programs (aka - the "Microsoft Authenticode")?
Doesn't appear to have a damn thing to do with web browsers (SSL Certs). Besides, you can always do a "make certificate" in the OpenSSL directory and make a "self-signed" certificate anyhow. They work just as well as the CA signed certs and they cost a whole lot less.
Having spent a few months doing "development" work at General Motors under their "COE", I can attest to you that it was a major pain in the rear. Getting ANYthing out of the "ordinary" required an act of God himself.
Man did they have a cow when I installed BASH and GCC on my NT workstation. And when they discovered that I had installed VMWare (My own purchased license), they went ballistic.
Basically, I was told to develop software, but I could not use any tools to do it - well, I *could* use notepad to write the code.
Wavelength of the feedhorn - who needs to be concerned with that...
There is a reason that standard feedhorns are patterned out of machined steel/aluminum - dimensional control. The size AND shape of the feedhorn is critical for proper (and efficient) transfer of energy from the wire to the waveguide/air. Even the shape of the exciter element (the 1.15" wire soldered to the end of the RF connector) is quite important.
Then again, this reminds me of those folk who THINK that putting a bunch of aluminum around the ends of their (old) TV antenna's actually make the thing work better. It works for one articulate idiot so the rest of the world jumps right in. Can anyone say "Lemmings"?
I am pleased to announce my patenting of an encryption method of music whereby without my specifically licensed decryption device, you can not legally listen to this music. All owners of this decryption device must pay me $10.00 per year per device to continue to use the device.
This decryption device, which we call a "LoudSpeaker(tm)", is a device we have invented and pantented to afford us the maximum return on our Intellectual Property investments.
Any individual caught using an unlicensed "LoudSpeaker(tm)" will be sued into non-existance thanks to the anti-circumvention clause of the DMCA.
I would like to thank the MPAA for spending it's hard earned money to buy a law as strong as the DMCA. Without money like they have, this wonderful law could not exist and we would have no effective business plan. Only in America can one buy a law like this!
I have encountered this situation as well. In both cases, it was with potential employers. They always seem to include the "IP Protection agreement" just before you are going to sign on with them.
In both cases, (one was with EDS, wanted to own me, all my prior work, and my life for a year after I left the company - the other was a machinery manufacturer in Michigan). In both cases, I got up and walked out of the interview on the spot. I let the interviewer know right there that this sort of theft (criminal conversion by any other name) was not acceptable.
Nowadays, I am in a much better job - better pay, better benefits, no "big brother" attitude, and no stress. No regrets either. You don't need to accept these attempts at corporate theft - there ARE better jobs out there - you just gotta look!
FWIW, the only reason I use a "BIG ISP" is because I do a fair amount of overnight travel and can't afford to be "out of touch" with my email. Plus it gives me something to keep me busy in those long nights in a hotel room...
That said, my travel requirements have been quite low of late and I am considering going back to a "regional" ISP. Then again, I am also considering STARTING my own ISP (I am already doing web hosting). I strongly prefer a regional because you simply get better service and response. Regionals are willing to learn new things (like how to support Linux), where the BIG ISP's are all too willing to give the old standby - "Sorry, but we don't support that."
These places generally have a "mail opener" piece of hardware. Essentially a rotating blade that shaves off the very end of the envelope. Then they use a stream of air and gravity to extract the contents. Very quick, efficient, and no human hands in use.
Using a very loose interpretation of the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA, it would allow all media players for ANY FORMAT to be declared illegal. From the human eyes perspective, a cassette tape can not have it's contents interpreted. It is effectively encrypted . Without a decryption device (cassette tape player), you can not access it's contents. By extension, it will not be long before cassette tape players are either licensed or made illegal. This can be extended to Television, Radio, CD's, even stereo speakers (since the electrical signal coming through the wire can not be interpreted without the decryption device - the speakers - the contents are effectively protected).
From an Electronics perspective, this means that most test gear would be considered decryption devices and subject to the anti-circumvention clauses. Devices like Spectrum Analysers, Oscilloscopes, MultiMeters, even simple logic probes - they are all decryption devices. They all decrypt a signal into a "readable form".
I can see where the anti-circumvention provisions will make it illegal to possess a simple Fluke Multimeter without special licenses. And before anyone asks - yes, there are some technologies that "encrypt" their signals as DC voltage levels on a wire.
One of the constant battlecries coming out of Redmond is that the total cost of ownership (TCO) for Microsoft products is lower than with *nix. This little stunt by Microsoft really helps drive this point home. 5 tech staffers a full month to do all the basic research, plus new computer requests being delayed. All because Microsoft *THINKS* there *MIGHT* be an invalid license somewhere in the chain? Does this sound like lower TCO to you???? If Microsoft can demand you produce documentation to support your claim of proper licensing, it sounds like they are raising the TCO intentionally.
The whole lunacy of this "shortage of workers" crap is that the workers don't want to relocate to where the work is. There are plenty of highly skilled people located all around the US of A - these people are just too damn smart to relocate to the high-cost major metropolitan cities. For example, I live in Saginaw Michigan. I refuse to work in Detroit - where all the "high tech" work is - because my cost of living would essentially double. Insurance costs, fuel costs, housing costs, these are all reasons why there is a "shortage".
When these high tech companies begin to finally realize that the high tech workers actually are smart enough to stay from these cities will they realize that there never was a shortage of workers to begin with.
In example, I was offered an opportunity to join HP's embedded appliance project. I turned the job down flat because it required a relocation to San Francisco - one of the highest costs cities in California. They didn't even want to consider tele-commuting (or even relocating their operation to a more reasonable cost location). Their loss as far as I am concerned.
Slashdot Mirror
The best reason to give why Linux should be considered is that it removes your government's implicit support to a convicted criminal enterprise. By using (and continuing to use) Microsoft Products (including their lack-of-support options), you are supporting them and their "business model".
Of course, there is the cost issue. Let's see, $79.95 for a single copy of RedHat 7.1 or $44.95 for a single copy of Slackware. Opposed to $199.95 for a single copy of XP. Hmmmm. A more in depth cost analysis can be seen at my web site.
I can't tell you how relieved I was to see that the BSA aren't targeting the town I live in (Saginaw, Michigan). With all the pirated software that I must have on my computer, I would surely owe them something. Heck, even my office suite is pirated. My desktop environment is pirated. Let them come on by and audit me...
Um, I hate to disagree with you, but...
When you purchase a product, ANY product, you are purchasing the right to do with that product as you wish within the confines of the law. This means that you are free to take your DVD and use it for skeet practice, glue it to the rear bumper of your car, or play it in any device that can interpret it. There is no license, there is no condition of sale, and I really doubt that the clerks at Best Buy really care what you are going to do with it after you hand them your credit card. Since there is no specific law outlawing the playing of DVD's on "unlicensed players", there is nothing directly to stop you from doing so.
Your analogy about rights to view a movie don't hold. You aren't purchasing a product when you go to a theatre, you are purchasing a service.
I have a real DVD player - built into my laptop. It refuses to work under Windows. It works flawlessly under Linux. And yes, I have a set-top box too. It doesn't work that well on airplanes though...
BTW: this is NOT like cable descramblers. Cable descramblers exist for the sole purpose of theft of service. Since I paid for the DVD, there is no theft.
The main reason the FBI and the DOJ are getting so excited about this is obviously simple to me...
Some idiot within the government must have decided that Windows XP would be the new standard of choice for the "secure computers" within the government. As such, they (the government) have probably just about finished rolling out the new infrastructure to all the remote branches. All that work has essentially been thrown out the door, XP has just proven what a crock of crap MS has been feeding the general public. The government is beginning to actually realize just how reliable those "sales glossies" are...
Fixed bid contracts are just fine, as long as you also include language to limit the number of hours you are expected to put into a job.
Example: Provide national ID database programming on Oracle DB, provide secure interfaces for client access, implement solution at all end customer locations, provide on-site training and support services. Not to exceed 10 hours. $10,000.00
This is perfectly legit and I have used this form for jobs several times successfully.
Appgen makes MyBooks, which is very similar to quickbooks, and can be purchased with development modules. This is made by the same people who do Moneydance.
As a former user of Mybooks from Appgen, I can tell you with absolute certainty that it is NOTHING like Quickbooks. The ease of use features are not there, it requires you to use purchased pre-printed forms (QB will print forms on blank paper if you ask it to), can't do fractional unit billings, can't email a form directly, can't modify the form layout at all. MyBooks is an accountant-centric piece of software - if you aren't an accountant, it is useless.
Currently for my business, there are exactly 2 programs that keep me in the Windows world - AutoCad and Quickbooks. Until these apps are available (or realistic workalikes), I will need to maintain a Windows desktop in my office - and I specialize in Linux Software/Support services.
I have been trying to implement Paypal's "Instant Payment Notification" service within my website. Before I go live though, I want to thoroughly test all my code and the interface with Paypal. There is no documented way to test the payment interface with Paypal.
Their customer support people have been totally unresponsive to my question. "Is there a way to test IPN without actually sending money?" is the question. I don't want to go live with my code until I have a chance to test it out thoroughly.
Their service is useful and fairly inexpensive, but their customer support is absolutly horrible.
Why not forgo the whole cabling experience and go wireless instead? You can connect every room in the house with a single hub. It's cheaper than buying the cable and hub/switch, and a whole lot more convenient.
...and your neighbors will greatly appreciate the free bandwidth you are providing them...
A high GPA after all, is a measure of dedication and perseverance.
Um, I hate to tell you this, but all a high GPA means is that someone was able to remember what they read in the text book the night before the exam.
I wonder what this button does... Oops...
1) Criminalize the intentional falsification of header information - primary target is Spam senders and IP address spoofing.
2) Make it absolutely legal to defend my property (servers, IP address space, etc) through any means available (NULL routing, reverse hacking, packet amplifiers, RBL, etc...)
I'll believe it when I see it.
Unless and until they openly support Linux on ALL of their computer based products, I will NOT be a believer. Case in point: the USB Webcams - they will only let a developer work on this through an NDA. Not very supportive as far as I can tell...
Did anyone other than me notice that this was for the "developers" cert - i.e. signing of programs (aka - the "Microsoft Authenticode")?
Doesn't appear to have a damn thing to do with web browsers (SSL Certs). Besides, you can always do a "make certificate" in the OpenSSL directory and make a "self-signed" certificate anyhow. They work just as well as the CA signed certs and they cost a whole lot less.
Having spent a few months doing "development" work at General Motors under their "COE", I can attest to you that it was a major pain in the rear. Getting ANYthing out of the "ordinary" required an act of God himself.
Man did they have a cow when I installed BASH and GCC on my NT workstation. And when they discovered that I had installed VMWare (My own purchased license), they went ballistic.
Basically, I was told to develop software, but I could not use any tools to do it - well, I *could* use notepad to write the code.
I quit them after 6 months of this bullshit.
Let's see - at my day job, one development machine (Slackware 8) and at least 2 more on the way (kicking MS Proxy Server out the door permanently).
At my home-office, my main work machine, my firewall, my laptop computer, and a spare "development" machine - all running Slackware 8.
At my co-lo ISP, one machine running Slackware 7.1 - makes a total of 6 with 2 more on the way.
Damn Sourceforge, sometimes they suck sooooo badly!!!
Currently getting 5.6k per second on the download from them, and I am on an OC-3.
Anyone know of a good, fast mirror?
I'm saying that he is getting the 20db gain (if any at all) from the dish, not from the feedhorn.
This is quite interesting...
SWR - who needs to be concerned with that...
Wavelength of the feedhorn - who needs to be concerned with that...
There is a reason that standard feedhorns are patterned out of machined steel/aluminum - dimensional control. The size AND shape of the feedhorn is critical for proper (and efficient) transfer of energy from the wire to the waveguide/air. Even the shape of the exciter element (the 1.15" wire soldered to the end of the RF connector) is quite important.
Then again, this reminds me of those folk who THINK that putting a bunch of aluminum around the ends of their (old) TV antenna's actually make the thing work better. It works for one articulate idiot so the rest of the world jumps right in. Can anyone say "Lemmings"?
I am pleased to announce my patenting of an encryption method of music whereby without my specifically licensed decryption device, you can not legally listen to this music. All owners of this decryption device must pay me $10.00 per year per device to continue to use the device.
This decryption device, which we call a "LoudSpeaker(tm)", is a device we have invented and pantented to afford us the maximum return on our Intellectual Property investments.
Any individual caught using an unlicensed "LoudSpeaker(tm)" will be sued into non-existance thanks to the anti-circumvention clause of the DMCA.
I would like to thank the MPAA for spending it's hard earned money to buy a law as strong as the DMCA. Without money like they have, this wonderful law could not exist and we would have no effective business plan. Only in America can one buy a law like this!
Hmmm, isn't this like the one technology demonstration, given by our friend "Bill", regarding USB support for Win98?
Can anyone say "blue screen of death"?
I have encountered this situation as well. In both cases, it was with potential employers. They always seem to include the "IP Protection agreement" just before you are going to sign on with them.
In both cases, (one was with EDS, wanted to own me, all my prior work, and my life for a year after I left the company - the other was a machinery manufacturer in Michigan). In both cases, I got up and walked out of the interview on the spot. I let the interviewer know right there that this sort of theft (criminal conversion by any other name) was not acceptable.
Nowadays, I am in a much better job - better pay, better benefits, no "big brother" attitude, and no stress. No regrets either. You don't need to accept these attempts at corporate theft - there ARE better jobs out there - you just gotta look!
FWIW, the only reason I use a "BIG ISP" is because I do a fair amount of overnight travel and can't afford to be "out of touch" with my email. Plus it gives me something to keep me busy in those long nights in a hotel room...
That said, my travel requirements have been quite low of late and I am considering going back to a "regional" ISP. Then again, I am also considering STARTING my own ISP (I am already doing web hosting). I strongly prefer a regional because you simply get better service and response. Regionals are willing to learn new things (like how to support Linux), where the BIG ISP's are all too willing to give the old standby - "Sorry, but we don't support that."
These places generally have a "mail opener" piece of hardware. Essentially a rotating blade that shaves off the very end of the envelope. Then they use a stream of air and gravity to extract the contents. Very quick, efficient, and no human hands in use.
Using a very loose interpretation of the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA, it would allow all media players for ANY FORMAT to be declared illegal. From the human eyes perspective, a cassette tape can not have it's contents interpreted. It is effectively encrypted . Without a decryption device (cassette tape player), you can not access it's contents. By extension, it will not be long before cassette tape players are either licensed or made illegal. This can be extended to Television, Radio, CD's, even stereo speakers (since the electrical signal coming through the wire can not be interpreted without the decryption device - the speakers - the contents are effectively protected).
From an Electronics perspective, this means that most test gear would be considered decryption devices and subject to the anti-circumvention clauses. Devices like Spectrum Analysers, Oscilloscopes, MultiMeters, even simple logic probes - they are all decryption devices. They all decrypt a signal into a "readable form".
I can see where the anti-circumvention provisions will make it illegal to possess a simple Fluke Multimeter without special licenses. And before anyone asks - yes, there are some technologies that "encrypt" their signals as DC voltage levels on a wire.
One of the constant battlecries coming out of Redmond is that the total cost of ownership (TCO) for Microsoft products is lower than with *nix. This little stunt by Microsoft really helps drive this point home. 5 tech staffers a full month to do all the basic research, plus new computer requests being delayed. All because Microsoft *THINKS* there *MIGHT* be an invalid license somewhere in the chain? Does this sound like lower TCO to you???? If Microsoft can demand you produce documentation to support your claim of proper licensing, it sounds like they are raising the TCO intentionally.
The whole lunacy of this "shortage of workers" crap is that the workers don't want to relocate to where the work is. There are plenty of highly skilled people located all around the US of A - these people are just too damn smart to relocate to the high-cost major metropolitan cities. For example, I live in Saginaw Michigan. I refuse to work in Detroit - where all the "high tech" work is - because my cost of living would essentially double. Insurance costs, fuel costs, housing costs, these are all reasons why there is a "shortage".
When these high tech companies begin to finally realize that the high tech workers actually are smart enough to stay from these cities will they realize that there never was a shortage of workers to begin with.
In example, I was offered an opportunity to join HP's embedded appliance project. I turned the job down flat because it required a relocation to San Francisco - one of the highest costs cities in California. They didn't even want to consider tele-commuting (or even relocating their operation to a more reasonable cost location). Their loss as far as I am concerned.