This is all rather silly, since I'm a GPL proponent myself. (Don't believe me? Check the link in my sig.) However FUD is still FUD, whether it's spread by Microsoft or by GPL advocates.
BSD and Proprietary licences ensure works or derivatives BECOME or STAY UNFREE.
Wrong. Derivatives of BSD may or may not be free, but the original works will always be free. You might not gain from someone else's development, but you never lose anything.
Using public money to create works or derivatives that become or stay unfree is ridiculous. [..] It really pisses me off to pay for something twice. Once by taxation for the reasearch to create a resource and again for that same resource at retail.
When your tax dollars are spent developing software that's licensed under the BSD, you will always be able to use it for free. You contend that because 1% of a commercial software product contains government-produced source code, the entire package must be free. I'm sorry, but THAT is ridiculous.
Microsoft uses the BSD TCP/IP stack for free, then sells it to us.
You aren't paying for the TCP/IP stack - you're paying for everything else added in. If all you wanted was Berkeley's TCP/IP stack you could have gotten it for free yourself - BECAUSE IT WILL ALWAYS BE FREE.
I release my projects under the GPL because I choose to. And that is how it should be - a matter of choice. This blind, raving, zealotry that so many GPL advocates seem to posess is something we could all do without.
I usually use the GPL for projects that I do. That said, there is a time and a place for BSD-like licenses.
The Internet as we know it would probably not be the inexpensive and vast resource that it is today were it not for BSD licensed software (Berkley's TCP/IP stack springs to mind).
I want that research GPL'ed so that I know its available, that I, as a tax payer [...] gets the benifits, and that it can be made even better by the world (and thus can help my government/business/etc).
All of the demands that you have listed can just as easily be met by the BSD. The fact that Microsoft used Berkley's TCP/IP stack didn't make it vanish from the face of the Earth.
Like I said, I prefer to use the GPL license, but I'm not so righteous that I demand everyone else do so as well. Free software is supposed to be about MORE choice, not LESS.
Our current administration is authoritarian and too concerned about what's moral, correct, and in the best interest of scaring the populace. Free speech == bad in the eyes of the Bush regime.
Oh bullshit. Where do you think legislation like the CBDTPA (formerly the SSSCA), DMCA, CDA (Communications Decency Act), et al. come from? Hint - it aint the Republicans, it's Hollywood (or as it's known as in Washington - the Democratic Party).
Historically, Republicans have been against legislation that invades privacy. It's the fucking nutballs like Fritz Hollings that you have to worry about.
You haven't been working with intel processors for the last 2 years or so have you. The celeray stalks of old were the last intel CPU's that you could do this with in any significant fasion.
2 years is about right, but it wasn't a Celeron. My current proc is a P3 600/100 overclocked to 800/133 (stock fan).
With AMD, you always get more bang for your buck, so to speak, as well.
Not always. My experience is that AMD tends to run their processors a little closer to maximum spec than Intel. Therefore, you can often pick up a cheap Intel CPU and OC the hell out of it. While AMD procs are pretty much maxed out when they leave the factory. Of course, YMMV.
Or maybe you mean the sooner we're all on Intel's DRM technology the better.
Exactly what Intel-sponsored DRM are you referring to? The only technology that Intel has introduced that bothered me was the short-lived serial number fiasco, and once the press put some heat on them they dropped that quicker than a pair of wet undies.
Most of the hardware companies out there are not too keen on DRM. How does it benefit them? It's the legislation sponsored by content providers that you have to worry about.
In the IA64, Intel decided to make a clean break and go to a new architecture [...] AMD instead blew out the IA32 architecture to 64 bits.
Right, and what's interesting is that from a pure geek perspective, Intel did the right thing - AMD did not.
People have been griping about CISC and Intel's grotesque manifestations of x86 for years now. So they finally do the right thing and sit down with HP to spend a couple years hammering out a brand new design. And what do they get from the geeks? Nothing but boohs and hisses. You guys should be ashamed of yourselves. Did you really want a Pentium V, VI, etc.?
I'm glad Intel finally quit x86 cold turkey. AMD may have bought themselves a little time with the Opteron, but the sooner we're all off x86 the better.
Oh, and don't think that IA64 won't be looking MUCH better once we start seeing properly optimized software and later iterations of it. Intel is just like Microsoft, the first implementations invariably suck, but they always get better from there.
Ideally the world would work in a similar way: one ultimate being dictates what should happen (and its good) and people do it (and the result is good).
Excellent! Thank you for your very informative answer. That experiment actually makes sense now.
I think it's unfortunate that the results of that experiment are generally attributed to relative motion rather than "acceleration". I have to wonder how many other kids are left scratching their heads on that one.
they got two atomic clocks and stuck one on a plane and after two years of the plane flying around aimlessly they found a minute difference
I've heard of this experiment, but I have a serious question about it that's always bothered me.
This assumes that Clock A is stationary at 0 mph and Clock B is traveling at 400 mph, right? But, given that the Earth rotates AND orbits the Sun that assumption isn't really true. Relative to a given point, sometimes they're going faster and other times slower. Also, since Clock B is ideally flying in a big circle (around the Earth) doesn't its velocity (in relation to a set point) average out to 0 as well?
I would think that this experiment would only work if Clock A was dropped off somewhere in space and Clock B was launched in a straight line relative to Clock A. Where am I wrong?
"We are raising computer security by avoiding a monoculture."
This is not really a valid argument, since all systems need to be secure. More systems, more potentially open doors.
It is a valid argument because if all your systems are identical then they all have the same exploits. Once one of them has been cracked, cracking the rest is trivial.
This is the same reason that it's a bad idea to have all your crops based on the same genetic lineage. One disease can wipe out everything.
I'll bet real pirates are pissed that their image has been hijacked for the sake of copyright protection.
Pirates used to be swarthy, maruading, swashbucklers, living adventurously on the high seas. Now the term has been relegated to the description of pimply-faced, 16 year-old, recluses, downloading techno MP3s in the middle of the night.
The whole ordeal must be quite disheartening for them.
But he wants people to licence software under the GPL, which allows what Caldera et al are proposing. As long as they supply the source code...
Wrong. If everything in UnitedLinux was GPL'd then they couldn't put restrictive licensing terms on it. That's the point of the GPL.
I'm not saying it's wrong, they have to make money too. But the reason they can license it per-seat is because of the components that aren't under the GPL.
It is past time that people and consumers organize once again and restore some social responsibility to these businesses. Businesses and corporations exist at the sufferance of the people... perhaps we should end that sufference in a couple of high-profile cases and the other behometh's will fall in line.
I like what you have to say. When does your fight club meet?
I don't think you understand. Whether or not something "sucks" is entirely subjective. All the things you listed that you think suck are obviously very "unsucky" to a large number of people.
Actually, popularity is the ONLY halfway decent measurement of whether or not something sucks on a non-personal level. If you disagree, then how would you define it (non-egocentrically)?
Your statement should have been: "Being popular doesn't mean it doesn't suck to me."
Note: This has to be the stupidest exchange I've ever partaken in on Slashdot. I wish I could say that I am drunk, but it's way too early for that.
I don't want to be a jackass, but the game is called SimCity for a reason - it's a simulation of a city. The idea is to realistically recreate the experience of managing a town or city.
You want 95% green space, no cars, communal agriculture, etc.? I'm not sure what you're looking for, but it sounds more like FantasyCity than SimCity.
[...] endeavor instead to change yourself, your life, your job, etc., so that you are no longer trapped in systems designed to keep you in misery and frustration. All one needs to achieve this is to learn. Achieve a calm state of being, and you will find that sympathetic vibration, (for lack of a better term), will no longer be found in loathsome art, but instead in lighter thoughts. Life power, awareness and happiness will similarly increase as you focus away from sad things.
I cannot find one of my chakras. Do you think you could help?
I question the truth of this post. [...] it's a bit odd that the author of this post offers no link to a news bulletin about this. I mean, certainly it was covered somewhere. The local paper should have picked up on it.
I'm not going to partake in idle speculation on the validity of his claim. However, you're faith in local news coverage is largely undeserved. I live in a medium sized town and I've been privy to my share of newsworthy stories. And you'd be quite surprised just how many "big" stories don't get picked up by the local media.
What are you so scared of?
on
USB Remote Control
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
The potential ability for this company to collect a lot of data on "typical" viewing habits is a bit scary.
I'm not looking to get flamed here, but why are people so terrified of the collection of anonymous, aggregate, viewing statistics? Or for that matter even the collection of individual viewing data? Am I the only one tired of receiving douche coupons and Metamucil samples in the mail?
Exactly what are the negative aspects of more accurate advertising profiles? We might as well get used to advertising - it's here to stay. If I'm going to be inundated with junkmail - I'd at least prefer it to be potentially useful.
Slashdot Mirror
This is all rather silly, since I'm a GPL proponent myself. (Don't believe me? Check the link in my sig.) However FUD is still FUD, whether it's spread by Microsoft or by GPL advocates.
BSD and Proprietary licences ensure works or derivatives BECOME or STAY UNFREE.
Wrong. Derivatives of BSD may or may not be free, but the original works will always be free. You might not gain from someone else's development, but you never lose anything.
Using public money to create works or derivatives that become or stay unfree is ridiculous. [..] It really pisses me off to pay for something twice. Once by taxation for the reasearch to create a resource and again for that same resource at retail.
When your tax dollars are spent developing software that's licensed under the BSD, you will always be able to use it for free. You contend that because 1% of a commercial software product contains government-produced source code, the entire package must be free. I'm sorry, but THAT is ridiculous.
Microsoft uses the BSD TCP/IP stack for free, then sells it to us.
You aren't paying for the TCP/IP stack - you're paying for everything else added in. If all you wanted was Berkeley's TCP/IP stack you could have gotten it for free yourself - BECAUSE IT WILL ALWAYS BE FREE.
I release my projects under the GPL because I choose to. And that is how it should be - a matter of choice. This blind, raving, zealotry that so many GPL advocates seem to posess is something we could all do without.
I usually use the GPL for projects that I do. That said, there is a time and a place for BSD-like licenses.
The Internet as we know it would probably not be the inexpensive and vast resource that it is today were it not for BSD licensed software (Berkley's TCP/IP stack springs to mind).
I want that research GPL'ed so that I know its available, that I, as a tax payer [...] gets the benifits, and that it can be made even better by the world (and thus can help my government/business/etc).
All of the demands that you have listed can just as easily be met by the BSD. The fact that Microsoft used Berkley's TCP/IP stack didn't make it vanish from the face of the Earth.
Like I said, I prefer to use the GPL license, but I'm not so righteous that I demand everyone else do so as well. Free software is supposed to be about MORE choice, not LESS.
Our current administration is authoritarian and too concerned about what's moral, correct, and in the best interest of scaring the populace. Free speech == bad in the eyes of the Bush regime.
Oh bullshit. Where do you think legislation like the CBDTPA (formerly the SSSCA), DMCA, CDA (Communications Decency Act), et al. come from? Hint - it aint the Republicans, it's Hollywood (or as it's known as in Washington - the Democratic Party).
Historically, Republicans have been against legislation that invades privacy. It's the fucking nutballs like Fritz Hollings that you have to worry about.
Haha - fear my l33t karma-whoring skillz.
Since the site's down, here is the Google cached copy.
You haven't been working with intel processors for the last 2 years or so have you. The celeray stalks of old were the last intel CPU's that you could do this with in any significant fasion.
2 years is about right, but it wasn't a Celeron. My current proc is a P3 600/100 overclocked to 800/133 (stock fan).
With AMD, you always get more bang for your buck, so to speak, as well.
Not always. My experience is that AMD tends to run their processors a little closer to maximum spec than Intel. Therefore, you can often pick up a cheap Intel CPU and OC the hell out of it. While AMD procs are pretty much maxed out when they leave the factory. Of course, YMMV.
Or maybe you mean the sooner we're all on Intel's DRM technology the better.
Exactly what Intel-sponsored DRM are you referring to? The only technology that Intel has introduced that bothered me was the short-lived serial number fiasco, and once the press put some heat on them they dropped that quicker than a pair of wet undies.
Most of the hardware companies out there are not too keen on DRM. How does it benefit them? It's the legislation sponsored by content providers that you have to worry about.
In the IA64, Intel decided to make a clean break and go to a new architecture [...] AMD instead blew out the IA32 architecture to 64 bits.
Right, and what's interesting is that from a pure geek perspective, Intel did the right thing - AMD did not.
People have been griping about CISC and Intel's grotesque manifestations of x86 for years now. So they finally do the right thing and sit down with HP to spend a couple years hammering out a brand new design. And what do they get from the geeks? Nothing but boohs and hisses. You guys should be ashamed of yourselves. Did you really want a Pentium V, VI, etc.?
I'm glad Intel finally quit x86 cold turkey. AMD may have bought themselves a little time with the Opteron, but the sooner we're all off x86 the better.
Oh, and don't think that IA64 won't be looking MUCH better once we start seeing properly optimized software and later iterations of it. Intel is just like Microsoft, the first implementations invariably suck, but they always get better from there.
Ideally the world would work in a similar way: one ultimate being dictates what should happen (and its good) and people do it (and the result is good).
Who are you - young Anakin?
Excellent! Thank you for your very informative answer. That experiment actually makes sense now.
I think it's unfortunate that the results of that experiment are generally attributed to relative motion rather than "acceleration". I have to wonder how many other kids are left scratching their heads on that one.
they got two atomic clocks and stuck one on a plane and after two years of the plane flying around aimlessly they found a minute difference
I've heard of this experiment, but I have a serious question about it that's always bothered me.
This assumes that Clock A is stationary at 0 mph and Clock B is traveling at 400 mph, right? But, given that the Earth rotates AND orbits the Sun that assumption isn't really true. Relative to a given point, sometimes they're going faster and other times slower. Also, since Clock B is ideally flying in a big circle (around the Earth) doesn't its velocity (in relation to a set point) average out to 0 as well?
I would think that this experiment would only work if Clock A was dropped off somewhere in space and Clock B was launched in a straight line relative to Clock A. Where am I wrong?
It's called .NET (Mono).
"We are raising computer security by avoiding a monoculture."
This is not really a valid argument, since all systems need to be secure. More systems, more potentially open doors.
It is a valid argument because if all your systems are identical then they all have the same exploits. Once one of them has been cracked, cracking the rest is trivial.
This is the same reason that it's a bad idea to have all your crops based on the same genetic lineage. One disease can wipe out everything.
if I use my Jeep Wrangler as a getaway car in a robbery maybe we should sue Jeep for "Breaking Laws" and giving me the opportunity to commit a crime.
FYI - Wranglers make shitty getaway vehicles.
I'll bet real pirates are pissed that their image has been hijacked for the sake of copyright protection.
Pirates used to be swarthy, maruading, swashbucklers, living adventurously on the high seas. Now the term has been relegated to the description of pimply-faced, 16 year-old, recluses, downloading techno MP3s in the middle of the night.
The whole ordeal must be quite disheartening for them.
But he wants people to licence software under the GPL, which allows what Caldera et al are proposing. As long as they supply the source code ...
Wrong. If everything in UnitedLinux was GPL'd then they couldn't put restrictive licensing terms on it. That's the point of the GPL.
I'm not saying it's wrong, they have to make money too. But the reason they can license it per-seat is because of the components that aren't under the GPL.
For once, I stand by RMS and by the GPL.
;-)
Wow - endorsing the GPL on Slashdot. Way to show some balls.
Here's a commentary recently run by Linux Journal on a comparison between monolithic kernels (e.g. Linux) and microkernels (e.g. Mach, Hurd).
Obviously it's biased towards monolithic, but it's an interesting read nontheless.
It is past time that people and consumers organize once again and restore some social responsibility to these businesses. Businesses and corporations exist at the sufferance of the people ... perhaps we should end that sufference in a couple of high-profile cases and the other behometh's will fall in line.
I like what you have to say. When does your fight club meet?
Being popular doesn't mean it doesn't suck.
I don't think you understand. Whether or not something "sucks" is entirely subjective. All the things you listed that you think suck are obviously very "unsucky" to a large number of people.
Actually, popularity is the ONLY halfway decent measurement of whether or not something sucks on a non-personal level. If you disagree, then how would you define it (non-egocentrically)?
Your statement should have been: "Being popular doesn't mean it doesn't suck to me."
Note: This has to be the stupidest exchange I've ever partaken in on Slashdot. I wish I could say that I am drunk, but it's way too early for that.
I don't want to be a jackass, but the game is called SimCity for a reason - it's a simulation of a city. The idea is to realistically recreate the experience of managing a town or city.
You want 95% green space, no cars, communal agriculture, etc.? I'm not sure what you're looking for, but it sounds more like FantasyCity than SimCity.
What you want is already being done. It's called OpenBSD.
[...] endeavor instead to change yourself, your life, your job, etc., so that you are no longer trapped in systems designed to keep you in misery and frustration. All one needs to achieve this is to learn. Achieve a calm state of being, and you will find that sympathetic vibration, (for lack of a better term), will no longer be found in loathsome art, but instead in lighter thoughts. Life power, awareness and happiness will similarly increase as you focus away from sad things.
I cannot find one of my chakras. Do you think you could help?
I question the truth of this post. [...] it's a bit odd that the author of this post offers no link to a news bulletin about this. I mean, certainly it was covered somewhere. The local paper should have picked up on it.
I'm not going to partake in idle speculation on the validity of his claim. However, you're faith in local news coverage is largely undeserved. I live in a medium sized town and I've been privy to my share of newsworthy stories. And you'd be quite surprised just how many "big" stories don't get picked up by the local media.
The potential ability for this company to collect a lot of data on "typical" viewing habits is a bit scary.
I'm not looking to get flamed here, but why are people so terrified of the collection of anonymous, aggregate, viewing statistics? Or for that matter even the collection of individual viewing data? Am I the only one tired of receiving douche coupons and Metamucil samples in the mail?
Exactly what are the negative aspects of more accurate advertising profiles? We might as well get used to advertising - it's here to stay. If I'm going to be inundated with junkmail - I'd at least prefer it to be potentially useful.
[I knew I should have worn my tinfoil hat today.]