Say what you will about his business practices, Bill (with, I'm sure, some conscience prodding from his wife) is doing some good stuff with his money. More than you'd ever see Ellison or McNealy do with their coin (if they had as much as he does, that is).
Hell, Ellison would do something loony like buy Costa Rica and turn it into the Federated Republic of Oracle, complete with its own airforce and navy.
...what would the effects of the creation of a kind of 'net traffic cops;' i.e. a law enforcement type of agency which monitors web traffic and fines individuals which break laws, i.e. distribute copyrighted information?
Easy. You'd see more and more encryption in use. How hard would it actually be to tack in some IPsec or ssh code into the filesharing flavor-of-the-day? (answer: not very)
De Viron's team found that earthlings can expect the length of an average day to increase by 11 millionths of a second per decade, corresponding to an overall increase of about one ten-thousandth of a second by the close of the century.
Oh... my... GOD! The ramifications of this are... uh, on second thought, never mind.
Pshaw, I bet we could accelerate the Earth more effectively than that if we'd all get together on the first of every month, point all our cars West, and punch the accelerator simultaneously.
It's really just "Discriminatory Pricing" -- a way to eke out a few more bucks from their capacity, by finding the people who get more value from it and trying to get them to pay more. Airlines have been doing it for years by charging business customers more.
Yeah, and just like the power companies make people who use more electricity pay more. And the same as gas companies make you pay more if you use more gas.
When you license software under a non-free software license, you take away my freedoms as listed by the free software definition.
Huh?
Which of these scenarios gives you *less* freedom?
1.1) I write cool program.
1.2) I let you run cool program, but don't release the source (ie, I license cool program under non-free license).
2.1) I write cool program.
2.2) I keep cool program to myself, and don't let *anyone* run it at all, other than me.
Seems to me that releasing the source under a non-free license gives you more freedoms than not releasing the source at all. Or are you honestly suggesting that you should have the right to use every single piece of code I've ever written, ever, whether I've chosen to release it or not? Should you have the right to use my code the instant I type it? Where do you suggest we draw the line here?
Shit, dog, I gotta say that interstitials are TONS better than popups. Or popunders. If clicking through an ad to the article gets 'em some coin in exchange for the free content, that doesn't particularly bother me.
The things that piss me off in web advertising are thus:
#1: Noisy ads. If your ad makes sound, it makes me hate you.
#2: Screwing around with my browser window. Leave it the correct size, dammit.
#3: Pop-ups / pop-unders. Basically, along with rule #2, don't do anything that affects my desktop/screen layout--if I have to mouse around to clean up after you, I'm pissed off.
#4: Flash ads and the like that obscure the content they appear over. I want to read my article, dammit, I can still see your ad over on the side or wherever.
This gives us the following rule of thumb:
Minimal intrusion.
Personally, I find the interstitial (aka "jump-through") ad is a reasonable compromise--provided I can click through it quickly to the article if I'm not interested in the product. It doesn't screw with my desktop, it doesn't pop up any annoying windows, etc etc etc. It makes me click one extra thing, or wait until the ad finishes if I'm so inclined, and in exchange for that relatively mild inconvenience, provides some coin to the site provider.
In case you forgot, this actually came up for a vote a couple years back; thanks to aggressive MediaOne lobbying, the referendum failed to reach the 60% vote needed to pass. The BPW in Holland is all for it--they're just not allowed as thing currently stand. (And they weren't allowed to lobby back, either, since they're publically held, vs. MediaOne's corporate status).
I ran into a MediaOne Grand Poobah from their Detroit office at a Cubs game a couple months after they sold our local branch to AT he said, basically, that the people of Holland were fools, and should've voted for the referendum.
He also said that the biggest reason MediaOne refused to upgrade the local cable was that city ordinances required them to use the local fiber loop; they couldn't install their own, which they very much wanted to do, for various assorted and sundry technical reasons.
All told, it's a corporate/municipal/legal/technical jungle. Yecch.
You can get on the city's fiber loop yourself, though, and from there get 'net access through MacNet (or whoever else is on it). Once installed, the city charges less than a hundred bucks a month for the link. MacNet will hit you for $325 for a T1's worth of bandwidth though.
Shareware/Freeware/GPL/Open Source developers certainly will have access to this signing process. They can either buy a Verisign certificate themselves, or if they don't want to, five bucks says organized groups of some sort will step in to sign apps for those poor downtrodden shareware/freeware/gpl/open source guys.
In any event, the people who really care will all be using Linux anyway, so who cares? --
all executables that expect to run on Windows will have to be Microsoft certified
No, all executables will have to be signed by the developer. Which is done using a Microsoft tool that you can get free. Although you have to pay Verisign for an ID.
Assuming there's a low-cost option for free/smallbie developers that want to release signed binaries, I don't have any problem with it m'self. I haven't looked at Verisign pricing lately, so I don't remember what the rate schedule looks like; was $400/year for a full-blown corporate development certificate I used to sign ActiveX's at my last job. (Note--*I* signed them, not Microsoft). But yep, that is a good chunk more than I'd be inclined to pay m'self. --
Uh, I thought it wasn't a question of fair use of copyright, but dilution of trademark.
Weird Al *does* make money off his parodies; however, he does *not* use the names of the artists he's spoofing. He just spoofs their songs (and their image).
It's just like that game in the movie "Princess Bride", where a man reasons that to poison your drinking partner, you put the poison into your own glass.
Funny, I wonder where last year's winning entry (Iocaine Powder) got it's name?;-)
After witnessing the success of the AI Bots challenge a few months ago, it'll be interesting to see if a program like this is possible.
I'd hardly call their AI Bots contest a success; far from it, as a matter of fact. The entire contest died on the launching pad---they generated a fair amount of excitement, then proceeded to completely drop the ball.
Based on that precedent, while this haiku generator contest is an interesting idea, I don't feel inclined to join in, based on my expectation that the dotcomma guys will forget about the whole thing in a week or so.
dotcomma contest flurry of activity soon is forgotten
I hope, for the sake of your immortal soul, that wasn't a reference to Lord Chroma of Andy and the Airwave Rangers, which is the worst film EVER. I mean EVER. If you have the opportunity to see this film, just stab yourself in the eye instead. You'll find it a vastly more pleasurable experience. --
If he covered integrating MySQL and Python, I'd be all over this book. Might still pick it up regardelss, but still.
While the O'Reilly MySQL & mSQL book has a Python section, I've read very mixed reviews for it; does anyone know of a good reference for using Python and MySQL? --
Of course, NVidia's gonna kick their GeForce 2 out the door sometime in the next couple weeks; if 3dfx is struggling against the GeForce, it'll be even stickier going against it's more refined successor. --
The DC240 is pretty dang smooth as well--got one for my folks for Christmas last year. 1280x960, USB, serial, compact flash, etc.
The Mavicas, while the floppy stuff is kinda handy, are sort of big and clunky to hold. While the floppy storage is kind of neat, a single floppy doesn't really hold *that* much; a 32MB (or larger) compact flash chip holds a shitload of pics.
And, for this sort of device, the fewer moving parts the better, I'm inclined to think; I've seen enough cheap-ass floppy drives go bad in PC's that I get a little cagey about having one in a $600 digital camera. (Yes, I imagine Sony's got some pretty good hardward in there, but still).
Overall, from the admittedly limited experience I've had with 'em, the Kodaks are pretty swanky.
I've come to love OpenBSD and have *tremendous* respect for the development team (IPF on OpenBSD rocks!). However, reading what I've been able to see of the exchanges 'tween Theo and Alex, I can't help but wonder if the OpenSSH guys aren't being a little inflexible.
OTOH, from what I've seen, Theo's not known for his patience; he's a straightforward, blunt, no-bullshit kinda guy (as is not uncommon amongst brilliant coder types:). Could just be that Alex is putting a smoother front on the whole issue.
Wasn't there talk of Emmett here from/. doing a story on the whole thing? Would be nice to get a feel for what went down.
More importantly, it would be *very* nice for the folks involved to get everything sorted out:) --
Man, if someone would make one of these buggers with a decent 3D accelerator (3dfx, NVidia, heck, even a Rage128 wouldn't suck), and slap a 10/100 network port on it, it'd be damn near perfect to take over to your friend's house for LAN gaming fun. 'Specially with a nice flat-panel screen. (Hmmm... I'm kinda talking about a laptop again though, I guess)
But still. Granted, you can get 10mb USB ethernet adaptors, but is it *really* so jam-packed they couldn't squeeze one in?
And just why is it that none of the laptop makers never slap a decent video chip in their designs? I'm guessing size, power consumption, heat dissipation, some combination of those three.
Ah well, for now, my VAIO's got Mandrake, and a small partition for Win98; works great for Diablo, should work just as great for Diablo II, don't need the 3D for those, at least:)
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Say what you will about his business practices, Bill (with, I'm sure, some conscience prodding from his wife) is doing some good stuff with his money. More than you'd ever see Ellison or McNealy do with their coin (if they had as much as he does, that is).
Hell, Ellison would do something loony like buy Costa Rica and turn it into the Federated Republic of Oracle, complete with its own airforce and navy.
Now that I mention it, that'd be sorta cool.
Easy. You'd see more and more encryption in use. How hard would it actually be to tack in some IPsec or ssh code into the filesharing flavor-of-the-day? (answer: not very)
Oh... my... GOD! The ramifications of this are... uh, on second thought, never mind.
Pshaw, I bet we could accelerate the Earth more effectively than that if we'd all get together on the first of every month, point all our cars West, and punch the accelerator simultaneously.
Yeah, and just like the power companies make people who use more electricity pay more. And the same as gas companies make you pay more if you use more gas.
Bastards.
Huh?
Which of these scenarios gives you *less* freedom?
1.1) I write cool program.
1.2) I let you run cool program, but don't release the source (ie, I license cool program under non-free license).
2.1) I write cool program.
2.2) I keep cool program to myself, and don't let *anyone* run it at all, other than me.
Seems to me that releasing the source under a non-free license gives you more freedoms than not releasing the source at all. Or are you honestly suggesting that you should have the right to use every single piece of code I've ever written, ever, whether I've chosen to release it or not? Should you have the right to use my code the instant I type it? Where do you suggest we draw the line here?
Shit, dog, I gotta say that interstitials are TONS better than popups. Or popunders. If clicking through an ad to the article gets 'em some coin in exchange for the free content, that doesn't particularly bother me.
The things that piss me off in web advertising are thus:
#1: Noisy ads. If your ad makes sound, it makes me hate you.
#2: Screwing around with my browser window. Leave it the correct size, dammit.
#3: Pop-ups / pop-unders. Basically, along with rule #2, don't do anything that affects my desktop/screen layout--if I have to mouse around to clean up after you, I'm pissed off.
#4: Flash ads and the like that obscure the content they appear over. I want to read my article, dammit, I can still see your ad over on the side or wherever.
This gives us the following rule of thumb:
Minimal intrusion.
Personally, I find the interstitial (aka "jump-through") ad is a reasonable compromise--provided I can click through it quickly to the article if I'm not interested in the product. It doesn't screw with my desktop, it doesn't pop up any annoying windows, etc etc etc. It makes me click one extra thing, or wait until the ad finishes if I'm so inclined, and in exchange for that relatively mild inconvenience, provides some coin to the site provider.
In case you forgot, this actually came up for a vote a couple years back; thanks to aggressive MediaOne lobbying, the referendum failed to reach the 60% vote needed to pass. The BPW in Holland is all for it--they're just not allowed as thing currently stand. (And they weren't allowed to lobby back, either, since they're publically held, vs. MediaOne's corporate status).
I ran into a MediaOne Grand Poobah from their Detroit office at a Cubs game a couple months after they sold our local branch to AT he said, basically, that the people of Holland were fools, and should've voted for the referendum.
He also said that the biggest reason MediaOne refused to upgrade the local cable was that city ordinances required them to use the local fiber loop; they couldn't install their own, which they very much wanted to do, for various assorted and sundry technical reasons.
All told, it's a corporate/municipal/legal/technical jungle. Yecch.
You can get on the city's fiber loop yourself, though, and from there get 'net access through MacNet (or whoever else is on it). Once installed, the city charges less than a hundred bucks a month for the link. MacNet will hit you for $325 for a T1's worth of bandwidth though.
Of course, you'd need a meta-constitution to ensure that the new one specified that it would be replaced *again* 50 years later.
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In any event, the people who really care will all be using Linux anyway, so who cares?
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No, all executables will have to be signed by the developer. Which is done using a Microsoft tool that you can get free. Although you have to pay Verisign for an ID.
Assuming there's a low-cost option for free/smallbie developers that want to release signed binaries, I don't have any problem with it m'self. I haven't looked at Verisign pricing lately, so I don't remember what the rate schedule looks like; was $400/year for a full-blown corporate development certificate I used to sign ActiveX's at my last job. (Note--*I* signed them, not Microsoft). But yep, that is a good chunk more than I'd be inclined to pay m'self.
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Katz sez: [Bryan Singer] had to live up to the high expectations set by his last movie, Usual Suspects.
Actually, his last film was the less well-received Apt Pupil (mind you, 99% of filmdom qualifies as less well-received than Usual Suspects).
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Would that I had some mod points to moderate this post up. Please, someone else, do :)
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(it'd be tough to go downhill, that's for sure)
No it wouldn't.
Two words: Battlefield Earth.
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Uh, I thought it wasn't a question of fair use of copyright, but dilution of trademark.
Weird Al *does* make money off his parodies; however, he does *not* use the names of the artists he's spoofing. He just spoofs their songs (and their image).
Copyright != Trademark.
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It's just like that game in the movie "Princess Bride", where a man reasons that to poison your drinking partner, you put the poison into your own glass.
Funny, I wonder where last year's winning entry (Iocaine Powder) got it's name? ;-)
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After witnessing the success of the AI Bots challenge a few months ago, it'll be interesting to see if a program like this is possible.
I'd hardly call their AI Bots contest a success; far from it, as a matter of fact. The entire contest died on the launching pad---they generated a fair amount of excitement, then proceeded to completely drop the ball.
Based on that precedent, while this haiku generator contest is an interesting idea, I don't feel inclined to join in, based on my expectation that the dotcomma guys will forget about the whole thing in a week or so.
dotcomma contest
flurry of activity
soon is forgotten
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And it runs Mandrake quite cheerfully :-)
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I hope, for the sake of your immortal soul, that wasn't a reference to Lord Chroma of Andy and the Airwave Rangers, which is the worst film EVER. I mean EVER. If you have the opportunity to see this film, just stab yourself in the eye instead. You'll find it a vastly more pleasurable experience.
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While the O'Reilly MySQL & mSQL book has a Python section, I've read very mixed reviews for it; does anyone know of a good reference for using Python and MySQL?
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Of course, NVidia's gonna kick their GeForce 2 out the door sometime in the next couple weeks; if 3dfx is struggling against the GeForce, it'll be even stickier going against it's more refined successor.
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The Mavicas, while the floppy stuff is kinda handy, are sort of big and clunky to hold. While the floppy storage is kind of neat, a single floppy doesn't really hold *that* much; a 32MB (or larger) compact flash chip holds a shitload of pics.
And, for this sort of device, the fewer moving parts the better, I'm inclined to think; I've seen enough cheap-ass floppy drives go bad in PC's that I get a little cagey about having one in a $600 digital camera. (Yes, I imagine Sony's got some pretty good hardward in there, but still).
Overall, from the admittedly limited experience I've had with 'em, the Kodaks are pretty swanky.
The DC240 product page
Kodak Digital Cameras product page
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I've got *tremendous* respect and gratitude towards Darren Reed, too :)
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OTOH, from what I've seen, Theo's not known for his patience; he's a straightforward, blunt, no-bullshit kinda guy (as is not uncommon amongst brilliant coder types :). Could just be that Alex is putting a smoother front on the whole issue.
Wasn't there talk of Emmett here from /. doing a story on the whole thing? Would be nice to get a feel for what went down.
More importantly, it would be *very* nice for the folks involved to get everything sorted out :)
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Hey, that's MY post! How dare you reprint my words?
Which way do you want it, fer chrissakes?
Sheesh.
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But still. Granted, you can get 10mb USB ethernet adaptors, but is it *really* so jam-packed they couldn't squeeze one in?
And just why is it that none of the laptop makers never slap a decent video chip in their designs? I'm guessing size, power consumption, heat dissipation, some combination of those three.
Ah well, for now, my VAIO's got Mandrake, and a small partition for Win98; works great for Diablo, should work just as great for Diablo II, don't need the 3D for those, at least :)
(Oh, and here's a link straight to the product page for the terminally lazy, save yourself a click)
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