The DRM that Apple uses on the iTMS content isn't their own - it's licensed from FairPlay (http://64.244.235.240/). I suspect that anyone who wants to also license the scheme from FairPlay would also be able to create an iTMS compatible player.
To follow up on this, I think it's relevant to point out that sticking with Microsoft will not save you from having to re-train your office administration staff.
For example, the Mail Merge function (a very popular function with office staff) changed completely between MS Office 2000 and MS Office XP. Our IS department spent a lot of time helping various offices try to make the same merges work in the new system. Likewise, some people find the UI differences between Windows 2000 and Windows XP to be incredibly frustrating.
If users can accomodate the changes caused by product upgrades from Microsoft, it's not unreasonable for them to accomodate a change to a non-Microsoft system.
At least with the iTunes music store, when I make backups I write audio CD's (which the iTunes TOS allows you to do an unlimited number of times). Consequently, if I ever lost the music, I wouldn't have to re-authorize anything, I could just re-rip it.
M$ has licensing programs for this reason
on
SCO News Roundup
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No one would pay that rate. That's why institutions with a lot of desktops are charged on a yearly subscription basis. Here's the interesting bit - that yearly subscription, for companies/institutions large enough (~5000 users) is about $40-50 per user, including the OS, Office suite, and all the CALs (client access licenses) for connecting to servers. So even over a three year span (how often many companies refresh their hardware assets) that's only $150 per seat.
Granted, you have to pay around $2000 per "support incident" for actual support from Microsoft, which is usually not terribly helpful, but that's still cheaper than SCO's proposed licensing.
Given SCO's legal tactics to date, is it any surprise that a Linux company would avoid hiring someone who'd worked at SCO? That employee would have first-hand knowledge of SCO's alleged IP, and I would suspect that Mr. McBride would file suit before the ink had dried on the new employee's contract.
This isn't an FU move, this is plain and simple CYA.
I was discussing with a friend of mine last night about organizations such as the peace corps, and my lack of applicable skills to help an NGO (non-governmental-org, I believe). She pointed out that NGOs need people to do all the same things that we need people for here in the first world, citing that the hospital for which she had worked in Haiti required administrative staff and an IS department, despite being a hospital run by an NGO in Haiti.
I agree that there are definitely priorities, the food and shelter bit. Also, it's remarkably difficult to give people technology when there are so many prerequisites for it. It's a tough call to make, whether www access is that helpful to people in the third world, who may not even have the necessary reading skills (language skills, too) to utilize the information they find.
That said, if bringing technology to these people also brings literacy and knowledge, then it can be an important step in enabling these people to grow on their own.
Actually, the way Apple and MacOS (Classic and X) do aliases is far superior to the way symlinks or shortcuts work. An alias in MacOS still tracks it's target until it's moved to a different filesystem. You won't gate a broken link until you delete the target. With Symlinks/Shortcuts, you move the file once, it's gone. I'll stick with my aliases, thanks. (Oh, yeah, and if you make an alias, the Terminal/shell treats it as a symlink.)
This seems like a great device, but it uses USB to connect to the computer. Sure, that's fine, and you can fit plenty of audio through your USB bus, but then add that USB Zip drive, and your printer, etc., all of which cut into your bandwidth, even when you're not using them.
Would you want to use 10BT Ethernet to connect the devices in your computer, instead of PCI? This kind of device will just give you latency, which is the number one complaint of every audio recording hobbiest I know.
A device with such a plethora of connectors needs to have a real bus to drive, not USB.
Okay, this is so far the second place I've seen this mentioned. Does anyone have any more info on Microsoft dropping SMB? Info on what they'll allegedly replace it with? I haven't been able to dig up any real dirt on this, and I haven't gotten more than hearsay, this snippet here and a mention in passing by an Apple sales guy. Any info would be helpful.
In MacOS X, even though my user account has "Administrator" privledges on my system, when I want to change certain preferences or install software that requires access to/System, I'm prompted to enter my password again. Mac users don't regard being prompted for a password on their systems lightly, so this will probably set a red-flag for most people. Basically, root-level exploits won't be helped all that much. Besides which, you downloaded the application - and you weren't planning on executing it?
You think I'm kidding? Look at marketing trends. Apple released the iMac line in multiple colors, and then we immediately saw Irons, staplers, Nintendo 64, and Compaq PC's out, in all the same colors. Now, Apple has released the Titanium Powerbook: software, hardware, everything is now "Titanium.
I've received three offers for Titanium Visa cards so far. If the cards were actually made of titanium, I might actually get one...
When I install MacOS on my system, I just run the installer. OS 9, OS 10, it just installs, boots up, and i'm good to go. I can change my screen resolution very easily, and my OS automatically detects which resolutions I can/should use, and what their refresh rates are. Same with color depth.
I run OS X. I can run X windows, alongside Aqua. Do I? Not usually. X windows was designed as a remote GUI - Aqua was designed as an heir to the Macintosh GUI, and it's smooth, slick, and it's hands down the nicest GUI I've used (This includes MacOS, BeOS, Gnome, KDE, Windowmaker, WinWhatever). And just about everything works from within the GUI - I'm not a slave to the command line if I want to change a setting, somewhere. (Yes, I know that Linux has GUI tools to create the config files: I also know that the config files usually require rewriting afterwords)
As far as generating enthusiasm, though, that just comes from being a Mac. People get excited about Macs. Apple is where New Stuff comes from, to be later parrotted by Microsoft. So when Apple says "This is the New Thing," people listen.
Something else to note: It's an old OpenSource adage that software is written to "scratch an itch." This is why Linux is not going to become the Desktop OS of choice for the average user; the average Linux Hacker (the people who make the OS) has very different needs than the average Schoolteacher or Grandmother (this isn't to say that there aren't school teachers and grandmothers that Hack Linux, but on average, they don't). Therefore, it takes a company like Apple, who gets paid for installations of their OS, to create an OS that meets the needs of the Average user.
In some cases bad is good. Like, for example Michael Jackson (Bad), or James Brown (I'm Real) or a really good Motorcycle (That is one Bad HOG...). For example.
If I recall from hearing him speak, RMS used to charge $150 to send you a tape with emacs on it. Sure, it was complete with source and you were free to do whatever with it, or give it to whomever you liked, but he was still getting money to develop it.
Free software, as in free speech, isn't about not charging money for it. It's about the freedom to do what you want to with the software you use.
I'm pretty sure that Dimitry going to trial is a very good thing. Yeah, it sucks for him, but someone has to be the first to be called to the stand. The trick is, in the US, laws can't be changed until someone breaks them.
So unfortunately for Dimitry, he's the one to be tried for it, but if this case goes forward, maybe the courts will realize what a crock the DMCA is. And since he's a Russian National, perhaps they will also rule that he's safe, that way. Either of these rulings sets a precedent that needs to be set: in one case, a strike against the validity of the DMCA, or in the other, a limit placed on the reach of American Corporations to litigate. But in order for any of this to happen, we need this case to be tried.
I work in the IS department of a reasonably large medical school (4500 or so network users), and this already happens. We have network shares for each user, and one for each department, and they show up as drive letters in Windows, consistent for each user. The really amazing thing about this? The number of users who don't realize that their data isn't stored on the computer in front of them. "You mean the H: drive isn't in my computer? But it's always here."
Bottom line, you know where your data is, I know where my data is, but we're special. Joe and Jane User may not even notice when M$ starts doing this. When SUN tried to do this in the 90's, they were trying to get sysadmins to buy it. But M$ is selling this to the AOL users who thought that Usenet was part of their service, and the people who see my name on instant messenger and wonder why they can't send mail to my "AOL account."
Bottom line is, the eyes will meet the wool, and Microsoft will probably move forward with this.
Not the fining without due process, which is creepy enough. Note what else it says in the article:
"An agent can even shut a car off by remote control if it's going too fast or heading into territory it's not supposed to be in."
This sounds a bit dangerous, no? If you're already speeding, and someone decides to turn off your engine? In most cars, this will lock the steering wheel, too, and turn off the power brakes. Looks like I'm not planning on renting a car from Acme any time ever...
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So here's a question: Why is it that while the OSes are named for large cats, the O'Reilly books on things Mac-related all feature dogs on the covers?
I believe you're mistaken. D stands for "Duke Nukem Forever."
The delays in release of the game are simply a result of having to wait for a new programming language in which to write the software.
No, you're confused. This is a company that's making projections of future technology, not making a projector that uses futuristic technology.
The DRM that Apple uses on the iTMS content isn't their own - it's licensed from FairPlay (http://64.244.235.240/). I suspect that anyone who wants to also license the scheme from FairPlay would also be able to create an iTMS compatible player.
To follow up on this, I think it's relevant to point out that sticking with Microsoft will not save you from having to re-train your office administration staff.
For example, the Mail Merge function (a very popular function with office staff) changed completely between MS Office 2000 and MS Office XP. Our IS department spent a lot of time helping various offices try to make the same merges work in the new system. Likewise, some people find the UI differences between Windows 2000 and Windows XP to be incredibly frustrating.
If users can accomodate the changes caused by product upgrades from Microsoft, it's not unreasonable for them to accomodate a change to a non-Microsoft system.
Your comparison falls through, though: Steve Jobs' annual salary is $1.
At least with the iTunes music store, when I make backups I write audio CD's (which the iTunes TOS allows you to do an unlimited number of times). Consequently, if I ever lost the music, I wouldn't have to re-authorize anything, I could just re-rip it.
No one would pay that rate. That's why institutions with a lot of desktops are charged on a yearly subscription basis. Here's the interesting bit - that yearly subscription, for companies/institutions large enough (~5000 users) is about $40-50 per user, including the OS, Office suite, and all the CALs (client access licenses) for connecting to servers. So even over a three year span (how often many companies refresh their hardware assets) that's only $150 per seat.
Granted, you have to pay around $2000 per "support incident" for actual support from Microsoft, which is usually not terribly helpful, but that's still cheaper than SCO's proposed licensing.
The directive should be:
"UsePAM no"
Case matters.
Given SCO's legal tactics to date, is it any surprise that a Linux company would avoid hiring someone who'd worked at SCO? That employee would have first-hand knowledge of SCO's alleged IP, and I would suspect that Mr. McBride would file suit before the ink had dried on the new employee's contract.
This isn't an FU move, this is plain and simple CYA.
So, since AT&T would technically be the parent here, wouldn't that role naturally fall to them?
I recall something like this showing up in "Demolition Man," the Sly Stallone movie modeled somewhat after Aldous Huxley's _Brave New World_.
I was discussing with a friend of mine last night about organizations such as the peace corps, and my lack of applicable skills to help an NGO (non-governmental-org, I believe). She pointed out that NGOs need people to do all the same things that we need people for here in the first world, citing that the hospital for which she had worked in Haiti required administrative staff and an IS department, despite being a hospital run by an NGO in Haiti.
I agree that there are definitely priorities, the food and shelter bit. Also, it's remarkably difficult to give people technology when there are so many prerequisites for it. It's a tough call to make, whether www access is that helpful to people in the third world, who may not even have the necessary reading skills (language skills, too) to utilize the information they find.
That said, if bringing technology to these people also brings literacy and knowledge, then it can be an important step in enabling these people to grow on their own.
Actually, the way Apple and MacOS (Classic and X) do aliases is far superior to the way symlinks or shortcuts work. An alias in MacOS still tracks it's target until it's moved to a different filesystem. You won't gate a broken link until you delete the target. With Symlinks/Shortcuts, you move the file once, it's gone. I'll stick with my aliases, thanks. (Oh, yeah, and if you make an alias, the Terminal/shell treats it as a symlink.)
This seems like a great device, but it uses USB to connect to the computer. Sure, that's fine, and you can fit plenty of audio through your USB bus, but then add that USB Zip drive, and your printer, etc., all of which cut into your bandwidth, even when you're not using them.
Would you want to use 10BT Ethernet to connect the devices in your computer, instead of PCI? This kind of device will just give you latency, which is the number one complaint of every audio recording hobbiest I know.
A device with such a plethora of connectors needs to have a real bus to drive, not USB.
HP Calculators are backwards. They use Reverse Polish Notation...
Does anyone have any idea where it got that name?
Okay, this is so far the second place I've seen this mentioned. Does anyone have any more info on Microsoft dropping SMB? Info on what they'll allegedly replace it with? I haven't been able to dig up any real dirt on this, and I haven't gotten more than hearsay, this snippet here and a mention in passing by an Apple sales guy. Any info would be helpful.
In MacOS X, even though my user account has "Administrator" privledges on my system, when I want to change certain preferences or install software that requires access to /System, I'm prompted to enter my password again. Mac users don't regard being prompted for a password on their systems lightly, so this will probably set a red-flag for most people. Basically, root-level exploits won't be helped all that much. Besides which, you downloaded the application - and you weren't planning on executing it?
The answer is simple: because Steve Jobs said so.
You think I'm kidding? Look at marketing trends. Apple released the iMac line in multiple colors, and then we immediately saw Irons, staplers, Nintendo 64, and Compaq PC's out, in all the same colors. Now, Apple has released the Titanium Powerbook: software, hardware, everything is now "Titanium.
I've received three offers for Titanium Visa cards so far. If the cards were actually made of titanium, I might actually get one...
When I install MacOS on my system, I just run the installer. OS 9, OS 10, it just installs, boots up, and i'm good to go. I can change my screen resolution very easily, and my OS automatically detects which resolutions I can/should use, and what their refresh rates are. Same with color depth.
I run OS X. I can run X windows, alongside Aqua. Do I? Not usually. X windows was designed as a remote GUI - Aqua was designed as an heir to the Macintosh GUI, and it's smooth, slick, and it's hands down the nicest GUI I've used (This includes MacOS, BeOS, Gnome, KDE, Windowmaker, WinWhatever). And just about everything works from within the GUI - I'm not a slave to the command line if I want to change a setting, somewhere. (Yes, I know that Linux has GUI tools to create the config files: I also know that the config files usually require rewriting afterwords)
As far as generating enthusiasm, though, that just comes from being a Mac. People get excited about Macs. Apple is where New Stuff comes from, to be later parrotted by Microsoft. So when Apple says "This is the New Thing," people listen.
Something else to note: It's an old OpenSource adage that software is written to "scratch an itch." This is why Linux is not going to become the Desktop OS of choice for the average user; the average Linux Hacker (the people who make the OS) has very different needs than the average Schoolteacher or Grandmother (this isn't to say that there aren't school teachers and grandmothers that Hack Linux, but on average, they don't). Therefore, it takes a company like Apple, who gets paid for installations of their OS, to create an OS that meets the needs of the Average user.
In some cases bad is good. Like, for example Michael Jackson (Bad), or James Brown (I'm Real) or a really good Motorcycle (That is one Bad HOG...). For example.
If I recall from hearing him speak, RMS used to charge $150 to send you a tape with emacs on it. Sure, it was complete with source and you were free to do whatever with it, or give it to whomever you liked, but he was still getting money to develop it.
Free software, as in free speech, isn't about not charging money for it. It's about the freedom to do what you want to with the software you use.
I'm pretty sure that Dimitry going to trial is a very good thing. Yeah, it sucks for him, but someone has to be the first to be called to the stand. The trick is, in the US, laws can't be changed until someone breaks them. So unfortunately for Dimitry, he's the one to be tried for it, but if this case goes forward, maybe the courts will realize what a crock the DMCA is. And since he's a Russian National, perhaps they will also rule that he's safe, that way. Either of these rulings sets a precedent that needs to be set: in one case, a strike against the validity of the DMCA, or in the other, a limit placed on the reach of American Corporations to litigate. But in order for any of this to happen, we need this case to be tried.
I work in the IS department of a reasonably large medical school (4500 or so network users), and this already happens. We have network shares for each user, and one for each department, and they show up as drive letters in Windows, consistent for each user. The really amazing thing about this? The number of users who don't realize that their data isn't stored on the computer in front of them. "You mean the H: drive isn't in my computer? But it's always here."
Bottom line, you know where your data is, I know where my data is, but we're special. Joe and Jane User may not even notice when M$ starts doing this. When SUN tried to do this in the 90's, they were trying to get sysadmins to buy it. But M$ is selling this to the AOL users who thought that Usenet was part of their service, and the people who see my name on instant messenger and wonder why they can't send mail to my "AOL account."
Bottom line is, the eyes will meet the wool, and Microsoft will probably move forward with this.
Not the fining without due process, which is creepy enough. Note what else it says in the article:
"An agent can even shut a car off by remote control if it's going too fast or heading into territory it's not supposed to be in."
This sounds a bit dangerous, no? If you're already speeding, and someone decides to turn off your engine? In most cars, this will lock the steering wheel, too, and turn off the power brakes. Looks like I'm not planning on renting a car from Acme any time ever...