I think they have to wait until a court settlement is reached in the legal areas, or two when the stock collapses and they have evidence that it was "pumped". Someone else pointed out that this is still only 2%, which probably isn't setting off trip-wires either.
Okay, let's have a little mind experiment. Supposed that everything you said happens and the US government throws out the GPL in court, then sets up this copyright distribution center.
What would happen next? The rest of the world would probably keep marching on down the path of Open Source and scoff at the US. Then from a competitive standpoint, foreign businesses who adopted Linux would have lowered expenses in their IT departments and enjoy a market advantage over the US. The US would have to fund such a venture as well through taxes and/or fees.
So this would all be a huge step backward, and I for one would be buying my ticket for Europe--seeing as how I've made a living for many years as a consultant using Linux and GPL'd software. That said I have huge doubts that such an approach would be pursued by the US government due to the amount of setback and cost that would be induced.
Hmmmm. There was an earlier question of why IBM didn't just buy SCO. Maybe they asked their lawyers how quickly they could be sued into oblivion and the total was less than the buyout, so they choose to let loose the 800-lb gorilla.
I liked Red Hat's letter to SCO. So much that it leaves me wondering what would happen if every Linux user coordinated sending a copy with their demands to SCO on the same day. We could all demand responses.
Instead of supporting their FUD campaign with license fees, we could create cost by forcing them to deal with a mountain of letters. Make sure you send it registered/certified so that someone has to sign for it.
Just picture the tractor trailer backing up full of letters...
>I just fixed this problem on my neighbors computer, and he then asked me, "How do I secure Outlook?". I replied, "Uninstall it."
So you installed KDE on his comp (must be a dual boot?) and now he's just using Windows anyways? Heh...
First of all, 'Uninstall Outlook' is not equal to 'Install Linux'. It is a possibility, as well as Opera, Mozilla and various other options. Actually, I recommended Mozilla.
An earlier responder claimed that I was not being realistic. I think I was being very realistic. Outlook is a menance. It is about the most unsecure thing one can have running on a computer these days. I didn't say install Linux, I said DON'T RUN OUTLOOK.
Also please note that Mozilla is an Open Source Alternative and works quite nicely--without having to install Linux. What's unrealistic is IT policies in many companies.
For the unheard of low price of $0.00, you can install KDE and get rid of those annoying popups.
How about functional? KDE doesn't seem to suffer from the annoying popup problem.
I just fixed this problem on my neighbors computer, and he then asked me, "How do I secure Outlook?". I replied, "Uninstall it."
Basic Economics Slaps the RIAA Upside the Head.
on
The Effect of Pirated CDs
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Pirating + economic downturn + vinyl replacement finished = far less CD sales.
Also mentioned were that teenagers are more interested in cell phones than
music these days.
The RIAA and CD Industry has been fined twice for price fixing, and pirating
is heavily undercutting the pricing schemes established by the CD industry.
So overchaging to the point that pirated copies become massively popular is
the implication.
No singles available on CD translates to file sharing with the current high
pricing scheme as well.
What would be a good solution?
I remember when Dave Matthews stirred up people, by sending in anti-bootleg
teams to bust record stores across the country. They were selling bootleg
copies of his concerts, that were unavailable on commerical releases.
Apparently demand for his product was higher than delivery. His response was
to put people out of business for trying to meet the demand. His record sales
dropped as the hard core fanatics got pissed and quit buying his stuff.
Bob Dylan's response. He went out and bought all the bootlegs. Then picked the
best tracks and released a 3-cd set of "Bob Dylan: Best of the Bootlegs",
thus meeting the demand for more music. He undercut the bootleggers, because
his collection was of known quality and cheaper than buying a bunch of $30 bootlegs to find the good tracks.
The RIAA needs to get real and realize that it's current business model is
failing. One, it needs to offer more reasonable pricing and cut out the
excessive "advertising/promotion" budgets that are used to rip off the
artists. Secondly it needs to offer downloads of mp3's at even more
reasonable prices since no manufactoring is requited. This would handle the
singles market. Then it can attack the bootleg market head on, because it
offers a competitive affordable product in line with demand.
Attacking filesharers, is not the best approach. Here's the reasons I see:
1) It would take 2000 years to supoena every file sharer at current rate.
2) Filesharers tend to be youth who are fans of music. Attacking them is
attacking your future market. Creating animosity with the primary consumer is
not good business strategy.
3) A lot of filesharers probably wouldn't buy a copy if left with no other
choice than buying it. In my youth, I was a pirate of computer games, I had
no money to buy them--therefore I couldn't and I stole them. Had my only
option been purchase at $35/title, I wouldn't have. If I could have bought them for $5/$10
a piece I probably would have. I'm not justifying my behavior, just
explaining the business case that the RIAA seems to have missed.
A bunch of entrenched lazy bureacrats who can't keep up with change is half of
the problem. The other half, is people without enough self control
(encouraged by continuous marketing and consumer culture), who feel compelled
to create large markets based on theft.
Supply/Demand economics slapping the RIAA upside the head is what's going
really going on.
Let the rest of the world worry about running out of addresses spaces and things like global warming. Who [around me] cares as long as I can drive my SUV?
I went to college in New Orleans. I discoverd a "standard" schedule was impossible to keep. The walls of apartments that students could afford were paper thin, and there was a bar open to 4am on every corner. If I went to bed I couldn't sleep, and I would be exhausted the next day.
I eventually figured out a schedule that worked for me in the environment. I got up around 7-8pm, ate supper. Then I would go out with friends in the evening. I would get back late and do homework and study. This would seqway into breakfast and going to classes at 8am and when those were finished it was back to bed.
Self motivation was the second factor. I had precious little money to spend, but I only allowed my self to buy a compact disc when I had gotten a good grade on a project or test. At first I was saving money, as I began studying for a new cd harder and harder-- I had to make the rewards harder and harder for myself to attain. Self-motivation will work wonders.
The quantity of tinfoil you must be using in that hat of yours almost makes me want to go out and buy stock in Alcoa...
Hmmm, just now that EE training is kicking in and I see a distict problem with tin-foil hats. Aluminum isn't the best conductor and certain electromagnetic signals can penetrate it easily. Therefore we should be wearing copper hats. I see a market in copper foil hats opening...
Actually there is a B#. B# is enharmonically equivalent to C on an equally tempered scale. On different tunings this is not true. I routinely see B# written into piano music, especially by Debussy.
You ever get the feeling that you're in a crowd gathering around a school yard fight? There's this weasel who's irritated everyone with his loud mouth, and he went too far and shoved a full back on the foot ball team. The full back is standing there silently as the weasel dances around jabbering about cleaning the football stars clock.
The crowd gathers and the jeers begin. "Punch him in the gut!"
"Go for the nose!" "We want BLOOD!"
The weasel bellows out, "I'll have you all in the office for this."
But consider, if McBride had to pursue a lawsuit against everyone using Linux, and we stood united against him. I think there's a lot more of use than him.
As long as they can single you out, they can pick you off one by one...
I think it would be even better if the kernel developers started a class actions against SCO. Shooting back is an even better strategy.
How about I send McBride a letter that says: "Bring it on!"
How about every Linux nut in the world, send McBride a letter that says: "Bring it on!"
Screw hiding my head in the sand. I think Linux is legit and McBride doesn't have a leg to stand on. Stand together and proud. Hiding only serves as an implicit admission of guilt.
And the vast majority of the Spam I receive is in Chinese. About 100/day. Don't know how I made the Chinese spammer's lists so deeply, but I did. By the way, the only language I speak is bad English. Just cause you don't have the problem, doesn't mean that others don't.
I grew up drinking well water. It turned my teeth a really funky yellow. Everyone's teeth from this area were yellow.
Guess what, I've never had a cavity. I rarely goto the dentist. They always try to talk me into a teeth whitening program. They never find a cavity. I'm 36. I'm convinced that once they bleach those wonderful minerals out of my teeth, then I'll start having all those wonderful cavities that people with white teeth suffer from. Also as a side benefit, they glow brightly under black light, so when I goto a funky bar-- I got the brightest teeth.
Don't bleach them, smile proudly anyway, screw marketing. Please brush however, noone likes bad breath.
P.S. Slashdot is not a place for any kind of real advice.
I'm currently working on an article about an easy way to generate all the base classes you need for persistence. It's a lot of repetitative work to build that interface layer between SQL and target language.
The basic idea is that one converts SQL into XML, then applies and XSLT to generate all the base classes. I've applied this idea to three projects now, and I've gotten to where the autogenerator handles things like intersects properly.
So if you get it right in the XSL, one can change the SQL structure of the tables and the code can stay updated automatically. Find a bug in the persistence code, fix it in one place. Voila it propagates to all instances. A serious timesaver this is.
Just thought I'd throw this in for those interested in this topic. Consider it like an ice-cream topping.
"Per infringement" means "per copy you make". If they make and sell 1000 copies, they commit 1000 infringements.
So if each of the authors of the code in the kernel, took this letter as a piece of evidence, and the other statements and filed a class action lawsuit against SCO--each infringement would be also per author. Let's for fun say that there are 1000 authors of kernel code (I suspect more). That's 1000 copies X 1000 authors = 1 million infrigements. Now since the code is "free", the copyright violations come in at 100k a piece according to a previous IANAL. This puts damages at 100 billion dollars.
Is this enough money to get a high powered team of lawyers drooling? They of course would be limited by the total cash value of SCO, but I would advocate that kernel developers band together and file a class action. They might just get paid...
Where does the the line between "News for Nerds and Stuff that Matter" and Crap end? I can't take another SCO Article. Where is John Katz when you need him.
You know I was just thinking this morning, with all the press about SCO among techies it'll be interesting in the future to see what "SCO" mean. Bush Sr. made a name for himself in Japan when he threw up on senior government officials. "Bushie" became a verb in Japanese, meaning "to throw up, embarrassingly". I was thinking that SCO would have some meaning like, "That Dude totally SCOed out", meaning his anger got the best of him and he acted like a rabid dog in heat.
Your comment has me changing my mind. Now I'm thinking it's more like, "That news is so SCOed." meaning, that news is so overplayed and replayed. For example, the OJ trial was so SCOed it made me sick.
[TROLL]Maybe the coverage is fair
on
Special Ops
·
· Score: 0, Insightful
Maybe Windows needs 7 chapters to Linux's 1 on securing it. This would be fair coverage.
Feeling like stirring the kettle today with karma to burn.
What if someone complains about people who post offensive postings and gets a reply from goatsx? Do they have to post his reply? Maybe goatsx has a use after all, like irritating these lawmakers.
I have years ago conceptually solved all of the worlds problems.
Well if your concept was correct, then it would be implementable. I think statements such as these only serve to further make my point. You obviously missed something in your concept of a solution to the worlds problems.
I'll tell you a practical hands on example. I'm currently maintaining code I didn't write. It has the best design, and accompying documentation. That said, it violates just about every example of bad implementation I've ever seen. Functions are 2000-3000 lines a piece, all variables are global or static to a routine. Control variables are passed between routines. Macros abound. Just about every coding no-no with the exception of gotos exist in the code. That said, it works perfectly to the requirements and specification. Plus I was able to make changes and enhancements due to the wonderful documentation with very little effort.
On the flip side, I've seen near perfect craftsmanship in code. Textbook cohesion and minimal coupling throughout. All pretty printing--and it didn't work to spec or do anything like the customer wanted
Think about it in terms of a house. A blueprint for it goes much further than a good cut on a piece of lumber-- or a good clean cut on a whole pile of lumber for that matter.
PHB's also haven't figured out that developers aren't interchangeable widgets. If you know C, it doesn't mean you'll be immediately productive in Korn shell scripting, and vice-versa.
I think this statement is true, but only because of the failure of education (or lack thereof). A good software analyst, is trained to think about the concepts, not the language. When I was a senior, we had a class where every project was a new language. One of the professor's summed it up, "Any monkey can learn a programming language by reading a book. An analyst will know what he's doing, no matter the language." It's all too sad that most employers hire based on language experience, and not successful software engineering practices.
The "problem with software" is almost entirely a management issue, imho.
For many reasons, but proper software engineering is understood but not popular. The results of a Cleanroom Engineering project have been well documented. Why isn't it popular? It doesn't have a fun sounding name and it's tedious to do correctly.
Slashdot Mirror
I think they have to wait until a court settlement is reached in the legal areas, or two when the stock collapses and they have evidence that it was "pumped". Someone else pointed out that this is still only 2%, which probably isn't setting off trip-wires either.
Okay, let's have a little mind experiment. Supposed that everything you said happens and the US government throws out the GPL in court, then sets up this copyright distribution center.
What would happen next? The rest of the world would probably keep marching on down the path of Open Source and scoff at the US. Then from a competitive standpoint, foreign businesses who adopted Linux would have lowered expenses in their IT departments and enjoy a market advantage over the US. The US would have to fund such a venture as well through taxes and/or fees.
So this would all be a huge step backward, and I for one would be buying my ticket for Europe--seeing as how I've made a living for many years as a consultant using Linux and GPL'd software. That said I have huge doubts that such an approach would be pursued by the US government due to the amount of setback and cost that would be induced.
Hmmmm. There was an earlier question of why IBM didn't just buy SCO. Maybe they asked their lawyers how quickly they could be sued into oblivion and the total was less than the buyout, so they choose to let loose the 800-lb gorilla.
I liked Red Hat's letter to SCO. So much that it leaves me wondering what would happen if every Linux user coordinated sending a copy with their demands to SCO on the same day. We could all demand responses.
Instead of supporting their FUD campaign with license fees, we could create cost by forcing them to deal with a mountain of letters. Make sure you send it registered/certified so that someone has to sign for it.
Just picture the tractor trailer backing up full of letters...
>I just fixed this problem on my neighbors computer, and he then asked me, "How do I secure Outlook?". I replied, "Uninstall it."
So you installed KDE on his comp (must be a dual boot?) and now he's just using Windows anyways? Heh...
First of all, 'Uninstall Outlook' is not equal to 'Install Linux'. It is a possibility, as well as Opera, Mozilla and various other options. Actually, I recommended Mozilla.
An earlier responder claimed that I was not being realistic. I think I was being very realistic. Outlook is a menance. It is about the most unsecure thing one can have running on a computer these days. I didn't say install Linux, I said DON'T RUN OUTLOOK.
Also please note that Mozilla is an Open Source Alternative and works quite nicely--without having to install Linux. What's unrealistic is IT policies in many companies.
For the unheard of low price of $0.00, you can install KDE and get rid of those annoying popups.
How about functional? KDE doesn't seem to suffer from the annoying popup problem.
I just fixed this problem on my neighbors computer, and he then asked me, "How do I secure Outlook?". I replied, "Uninstall it."
Pirating + economic downturn + vinyl replacement finished = far less CD sales. Also mentioned were that teenagers are more interested in cell phones than music these days.
The RIAA and CD Industry has been fined twice for price fixing, and pirating is heavily undercutting the pricing schemes established by the CD industry. So overchaging to the point that pirated copies become massively popular is the implication.
No singles available on CD translates to file sharing with the current high pricing scheme as well.
What would be a good solution?
I remember when Dave Matthews stirred up people, by sending in anti-bootleg teams to bust record stores across the country. They were selling bootleg copies of his concerts, that were unavailable on commerical releases. Apparently demand for his product was higher than delivery. His response was to put people out of business for trying to meet the demand. His record sales dropped as the hard core fanatics got pissed and quit buying his stuff.
Bob Dylan's response. He went out and bought all the bootlegs. Then picked the best tracks and released a 3-cd set of "Bob Dylan: Best of the Bootlegs", thus meeting the demand for more music. He undercut the bootleggers, because his collection was of known quality and cheaper than buying a bunch of $30 bootlegs to find the good tracks.
The RIAA needs to get real and realize that it's current business model is failing. One, it needs to offer more reasonable pricing and cut out the excessive "advertising/promotion" budgets that are used to rip off the artists. Secondly it needs to offer downloads of mp3's at even more reasonable prices since no manufactoring is requited. This would handle the singles market. Then it can attack the bootleg market head on, because it offers a competitive affordable product in line with demand.
Attacking filesharers, is not the best approach. Here's the reasons I see: 1) It would take 2000 years to supoena every file sharer at current rate. 2) Filesharers tend to be youth who are fans of music. Attacking them is attacking your future market. Creating animosity with the primary consumer is not good business strategy. 3) A lot of filesharers probably wouldn't buy a copy if left with no other choice than buying it. In my youth, I was a pirate of computer games, I had no money to buy them--therefore I couldn't and I stole them. Had my only option been purchase at $35/title, I wouldn't have. If I could have bought them for $5/$10 a piece I probably would have. I'm not justifying my behavior, just explaining the business case that the RIAA seems to have missed.
A bunch of entrenched lazy bureacrats who can't keep up with change is half of the problem. The other half, is people without enough self control (encouraged by continuous marketing and consumer culture), who feel compelled to create large markets based on theft.
Supply/Demand economics slapping the RIAA upside the head is what's going really going on.
Let the rest of the world worry about running out of addresses spaces and things like global warming. Who [around me] cares as long as I can drive my SUV?
I went to college in New Orleans. I discoverd a "standard" schedule was impossible to keep. The walls of apartments that students could afford were paper thin, and there was a bar open to 4am on every corner. If I went to bed I couldn't sleep, and I would be exhausted the next day.
I eventually figured out a schedule that worked for me in the environment. I got up around 7-8pm, ate supper. Then I would go out with friends in the evening. I would get back late and do homework and study. This would seqway into breakfast and going to classes at 8am and when those were finished it was back to bed.
Self motivation was the second factor. I had precious little money to spend, but I only allowed my self to buy a compact disc when I had gotten a good grade on a project or test. At first I was saving money, as I began studying for a new cd harder and harder-- I had to make the rewards harder and harder for myself to attain. Self-motivation will work wonders.
The quantity of tinfoil you must be using in that hat of yours almost makes me want to go out and buy stock in Alcoa...
Hmmm, just now that EE training is kicking in and I see a distict problem with tin-foil hats. Aluminum isn't the best conductor and certain electromagnetic signals can penetrate it easily. Therefore we should be wearing copper hats. I see a market in copper foil hats opening...
Bzzzzzt Wrong, thank you play again.
Actually there is a B#. B# is enharmonically equivalent to C on an equally tempered scale. On different tunings this is not true. I routinely see B# written into piano music, especially by Debussy.
Remind me to never play in a band with YOU.
You ever get the feeling that you're in a crowd gathering around a school yard fight? There's this weasel who's irritated everyone with his loud mouth, and he went too far and shoved a full back on the foot ball team. The full back is standing there silently as the weasel dances around jabbering about cleaning the football stars clock.
The crowd gathers and the jeers begin. "Punch him in the gut!"
"Go for the nose!" "We want BLOOD!"
The weasel bellows out, "I'll have you all in the office for this."
But consider, if McBride had to pursue a lawsuit against everyone using Linux, and we stood united against him. I think there's a lot more of use than him.
As long as they can single you out, they can pick you off one by one...
I think it would be even better if the kernel developers started a class actions against SCO. Shooting back is an even better strategy.
How about I send McBride a letter that says: "Bring it on!"
How about every Linux nut in the world, send McBride a letter that says: "Bring it on!"
Screw hiding my head in the sand. I think Linux is legit and McBride doesn't have a leg to stand on. Stand together and proud. Hiding only serves as an implicit admission of guilt.
And the vast majority of the Spam I receive is in Chinese. About 100/day. Don't know how I made the Chinese spammer's lists so deeply, but I did. By the way, the only language I speak is bad English. Just cause you don't have the problem, doesn't mean that others don't.
I grew up drinking well water. It turned my teeth a really funky yellow. Everyone's teeth from this area were yellow. Guess what, I've never had a cavity. I rarely goto the dentist. They always try to talk me into a teeth whitening program. They never find a cavity. I'm 36. I'm convinced that once they bleach those wonderful minerals out of my teeth, then I'll start having all those wonderful cavities that people with white teeth suffer from. Also as a side benefit, they glow brightly under black light, so when I goto a funky bar-- I got the brightest teeth. Don't bleach them, smile proudly anyway, screw marketing. Please brush however, noone likes bad breath. P.S. Slashdot is not a place for any kind of real advice.
I'm currently working on an article about an easy way to generate all the base classes you need for persistence. It's a lot of repetitative work to build that interface layer between SQL and target language.
The basic idea is that one converts SQL into XML, then applies and XSLT to generate all the base classes. I've applied this idea to three projects now, and I've gotten to where the autogenerator handles things like intersects properly.
So if you get it right in the XSL, one can change the SQL structure of the tables and the code can stay updated automatically. Find a bug in the persistence code, fix it in one place. Voila it propagates to all instances. A serious timesaver this is.
Just thought I'd throw this in for those interested in this topic. Consider it like an ice-cream topping.
"Per infringement" means "per copy you make". If they make and sell 1000 copies, they commit 1000 infringements.
So if each of the authors of the code in the kernel, took this letter as a piece of evidence, and the other statements and filed a class action lawsuit against SCO--each infringement would be also per author. Let's for fun say that there are 1000 authors of kernel code (I suspect more). That's 1000 copies X 1000 authors = 1 million infrigements. Now since the code is "free", the copyright violations come in at 100k a piece according to a previous IANAL. This puts damages at 100 billion dollars.
Is this enough money to get a high powered team of lawyers drooling? They of course would be limited by the total cash value of SCO, but I would advocate that kernel developers band together and file a class action. They might just get paid...
I see your 50 billion and up you 50.
Where does the the line between "News for Nerds and Stuff that Matter" and Crap end? I can't take another SCO Article. Where is John Katz when you need him.
You know I was just thinking this morning, with all the press about SCO among techies it'll be interesting in the future to see what "SCO" mean. Bush Sr. made a name for himself in Japan when he threw up on senior government officials. "Bushie" became a verb in Japanese, meaning "to throw up, embarrassingly". I was thinking that SCO would have some meaning like, "That Dude totally SCOed out", meaning his anger got the best of him and he acted like a rabid dog in heat.
Your comment has me changing my mind. Now I'm thinking it's more like, "That news is so SCOed." meaning, that news is so overplayed and replayed. For example, the OJ trial was so SCOed it made me sick.
Maybe Windows needs 7 chapters to Linux's 1 on securing it. This would be fair coverage.
Feeling like stirring the kettle today with karma to burn.
Yeah. It's not a domain I keep on the tip of my fingers. Well I guess someone does.
What if someone complains about people who post offensive postings and gets a reply from goatsx? Do they have to post his reply? Maybe goatsx has a use after all, like irritating these lawmakers.
The owners of the copied code will band together and sue them for $2G
Okay, let's see what the damages against sales of the free source Linux tally up too...
I have years ago conceptually solved all of the worlds problems.
Well if your concept was correct, then it would be implementable. I think statements such as these only serve to further make my point. You obviously missed something in your concept of a solution to the worlds problems.
I'll tell you a practical hands on example. I'm currently maintaining code I didn't write. It has the best design, and accompying documentation. That said, it violates just about every example of bad implementation I've ever seen. Functions are 2000-3000 lines a piece, all variables are global or static to a routine. Control variables are passed between routines. Macros abound. Just about every coding no-no with the exception of gotos exist in the code. That said, it works perfectly to the requirements and specification. Plus I was able to make changes and enhancements due to the wonderful documentation with very little effort.
On the flip side, I've seen near perfect craftsmanship in code. Textbook cohesion and minimal coupling throughout. All pretty printing--and it didn't work to spec or do anything like the customer wanted
Think about it in terms of a house. A blueprint for it goes much further than a good cut on a piece of lumber-- or a good clean cut on a whole pile of lumber for that matter.
PHB's also haven't figured out that developers aren't interchangeable widgets. If you know C, it doesn't mean you'll be immediately productive in Korn shell scripting, and vice-versa.
I think this statement is true, but only because of the failure of education (or lack thereof). A good software analyst, is trained to think about the concepts, not the language. When I was a senior, we had a class where every project was a new language. One of the professor's summed it up, "Any monkey can learn a programming language by reading a book. An analyst will know what he's doing, no matter the language." It's all too sad that most employers hire based on language experience, and not successful software engineering practices.
The "problem with software" is almost entirely a management issue, imho.
For many reasons, but proper software engineering is understood but not popular. The results of a Cleanroom Engineering project have been well documented. Why isn't it popular? It doesn't have a fun sounding name and it's tedious to do correctly.