“... supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults with (most) mineral or vitamin supplements has no clear benefit...”
This is a great example of how a precise statement by a researcher is misinterpreted or misrepresented when presented to the general public. The above statement is a useful result with a well-defined meaning which is being used in a context that makes it sound like supplements have zero benefit. It's no surprise that that supplements have no clear benefit... when you are a "well-nourished adult'! The danger is that this result can cause people who are not well-nourished to stop taking supplements that may be keeping them outside of harm.
Writers looking to make a story where there isn't one cause much more harm than supplements ever could. (No facts were harmed in the making of that statement.)
Let me tell you, back in the day we kept beads of mercury in our pockets to tell the temperature. To cover the fumes I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time.
Kudos for giving credit, but bad karma to you for completely misunderstanding copyright law. An item is copyright the instant it is created, even if no such copyright statement is present. Without an explicit license stating otherwise you have to assume you are NOT granted a license to use the work in any way.
Seriously people, many of your posts sound make you sound like high school kids copying each others homework. Have some pride in your work and the work of others.
> Is it legitimate to use source code that's publicly available but doesn't fall under any particular license?
Of course it is. This kind of thing happens all the time. So does fraud, burglery and worse but it doesn't mean it's legal.
Frankly, I'm glad you don't work for us. The fact that you would consider "rewriting" code that works well just because it was written by someone external to your company doesn't speak well for your sense of business priorities or usage of time. Nobody in their right mind would ever purchase your services or products again. They would not rewrite the code because it was created externally, they would rewrite it because legally and ethically they have not been given rights to use the code. I would not do business with anybody who would knowingly use code of dubious license.
> The original author didn't attach any particular license to the code.
I think that says it all. Yes, that means they have no license to the code and must ask for one. End of story.
At worst it's a licensing infringement and at best it's plagiarism.
You don't need to start a full on war unless the copying has been rampant, but it has to be addressed and not only for ethical reasons. If your company gets taken to court over copied code you can bet it will impact your employment situation.
I would suggest mention during the next meeting that the company as a whole needs to give credit for all code and remind them that an in intellectual property suit could made life difficult. As for the existing code, if you come across more code you aren't sure about the license for, ask the original author for permission to use it. If it is not granted bring it up with management that you attempted to resolve the issue but unfortunately the code will have to be replaced. It won't take many times of duplicating work already done before management starts making sure licenses are checked before incorporating code.
There is no need for finger pointing unless the copying continues in the future. If it does, then start raising your voice to protect both yourself and the company.
And YES, the code is copyrighted the instant it is created. And NO, because it's publicly viewable does not mean you are granted a license to do anything more than read it.
Exactly my point. And on the scale of applications the size of Firefox, OpenOffice or any other reasonably large application it would take an impossible amount of time and money to create them in assembler. Ergo, it's not feasible. High level tools make larger software possible, and automatic garbage collection is one of those tools.
Your argument is nonsense. If what you said held true, large scale applications should be able to be written is assembler. Without high level tools it wouldn't be feasible to create applications the scale we do today.
There is a good chance there is some bug that can be found to cast reasonable doubt. An off-by-one error, a timing issue, an uninitialized variable, anything along those lines.
This thing reminds me a lot of the IBM Workpad z50 I had. Yes, it's not as powerful as a laptop. Yes, it's bigger than a PDA. But I still miss the little thing. Sometimes you just need a full-sized keyboard and reasonable display and don't want the overhead of a laptop. I don't care if I can't run Eclipse. I don't care if it won't run some hulking Adobe application, I just want something a step up from a word processor where I can write documents and code fragments that gets out of the way and lets me think about the problem. I want to turn it on and start typing, not sit there stewing while it boots or lose my concentration because applications are nagging me about trivial updates.
Think of it as a modern Tandy 102 and it begins to make sense. I'm not sure I trust Palm the company, but that's somewhat unrelated to this specific piece of hardware.
I still hear the music from the Faery Tale Adventure in my head from time to time. Not that it was particularily good, it's just the game was very long and it played over and over and over. By that logic I'm sure I'll remember some Slashdot stories forever.
SpeedBall II: Brutal Deluxe is still the most adrenaline-pumping game I have played, though the original Half Life came close. The balance and playability of SBII was spot on, the sounds complemented the atmosphere and two-player mode was immensely fun.
If their logic is correct then it doesn't matter at what point the label "chicken" could be applied, what was contained the egg still must have been a "chicken".
The nice thing about space is that you can get there from anywhere on the planet. If the United States makes it more difficult to run a space tourism business in the country than out then launch site will just be moved elsewhere.
Since electricity can't be stored in large amounts, we still need other resources to ensure that energy is available when people need to use it.
Use the power to pump water uphill and store it in a reservoir or heat a large amount of water. There are plenty of ways to store large amounts of electricity.
It is not a contradiction at all. In the first part he is stating that unless the code is designed to be used in a library it is difficult to re-use. In the second he says corporations re-use code all the time. The missing link is that the code companies re-use would most often be libraries.
SPARK is used heavily in the safety critical software in the Eurofighter amongst other projects. It is a complete pain to type all of the annotation, takes forever to run the tool and it very rarely comes up with any real problems in the code.
This type of unprofessional crap is the reason people have such low expectations of software. You didn't want to use the tool because it was a "pain to type"?! If the length of time it takes you to type your code is a bottleneck then you're not doing enough thinking before you type. The extar effort requierd to type more verbose code is close to zero. You're coming across like an aeronatical engineer would if they tightened a critical bolt to only 90% of the required torque because it was less effort.
By saying very rarely comes up with any real problems" means it found some, and those problems may have been easily been overlooked by other types of testing. And what are problems wouldn't be "real" in saefty critical code?! Yes, there are other tools besides SPARK that could have been used but the principles should have been the same.
Don't ever forget you're talking about a serious piece of hardware and there's a human being sitting in the pointy end. If I was a pilot of something that had a bug in it's safety critical software because of your lack of pride I would kick your ass.
This is a system that has only one real customer, the merchant. It's sole purpose is to make life easier for the retailer and provides very, very few benefits to the consumer. It has all of the hassle of buying from a brick and mortar store with none of the benefits.
The only advantage of a software vending machine to the consumer is that they always get the latest version of the software. In any reasonably stocked computer store this shouldn't be an issue anyway.
There is also another reason to postpone trials and drag the legal battle out as long as possible... deprecation and interest. A rate of 5% interest over 3 years on 600 million is approximately 100 million dollars. That's got to be like, what, a thousand bucks for every lawyer?
Slashdot Mirror
“... supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults with (most) mineral or vitamin supplements has no clear benefit...”
This is a great example of how a precise statement by a researcher is misinterpreted or misrepresented when presented to the general public. The above statement is a useful result with a well-defined meaning which is being used in a context that makes it sound like supplements have zero benefit. It's no surprise that that supplements have no clear benefit... when you are a "well-nourished adult'! The danger is that this result can cause people who are not well-nourished to stop taking supplements that may be keeping them outside of harm.
Writers looking to make a story where there isn't one cause much more harm than supplements ever could. (No facts were harmed in the making of that statement.)
No thank you.
Let me tell you, back in the day we kept beads of mercury in our pockets to tell the temperature. To cover the fumes I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time.
Sheldon
Please send me all the code you have created, ever. I want to give it to someone who may want to use it some day.
Kudos for giving credit, but bad karma to you for completely misunderstanding copyright law. An item is copyright the instant it is created, even if no such copyright statement is present. Without an explicit license stating otherwise you have to assume you are NOT granted a license to use the work in any way.
Seriously people, many of your posts sound make you sound like high school kids copying each others homework. Have some pride in your work and the work of others.
Of course it is. This kind of thing happens all the time. So does fraud, burglery and worse but it doesn't mean it's legal. Frankly, I'm glad you don't work for us. The fact that you would consider "rewriting" code that works well just because it was written by someone external to your company doesn't speak well for your sense of business priorities or usage of time. Nobody in their right mind would ever purchase your services or products again. They would not rewrite the code because it was created externally, they would rewrite it because legally and ethically they have not been given rights to use the code. I would not do business with anybody who would knowingly use code of dubious license.
> The original author didn't attach any particular license to the code.
I think that says it all. Yes, that means they have no license to the code and must ask for one. End of story.
At worst it's a licensing infringement and at best it's plagiarism.
You don't need to start a full on war unless the copying has been rampant, but it has to be addressed and not only for ethical reasons. If your company gets taken to court over copied code you can bet it will impact your employment situation.
I would suggest mention during the next meeting that the company as a whole needs to give credit for all code and remind them that an in intellectual property suit could made life difficult. As for the existing code, if you come across more code you aren't sure about the license for, ask the original author for permission to use it. If it is not granted bring it up with management that you attempted to resolve the issue but unfortunately the code will have to be replaced. It won't take many times of duplicating work already done before management starts making sure licenses are checked before incorporating code.
There is no need for finger pointing unless the copying continues in the future. If it does, then start raising your voice to protect both yourself and the company.
And YES, the code is copyrighted the instant it is created. And NO, because it's publicly viewable does not mean you are granted a license to do anything more than read it.
Exactly my point. And on the scale of applications the size of Firefox, OpenOffice or any other reasonably large application it would take an impossible amount of time and money to create them in assembler. Ergo, it's not feasible. High level tools make larger software possible, and automatic garbage collection is one of those tools.
Your argument is nonsense. If what you said held true, large scale applications should be able to be written is assembler. Without high level tools it wouldn't be feasible to create applications the scale we do today.
... only if you believe in bug-free software.
There is a good chance there is some bug that can be found to cast reasonable doubt. An off-by-one error, a timing issue, an uninitialized variable, anything along those lines.
This thing reminds me a lot of the IBM Workpad z50 I had. Yes, it's not as powerful as a laptop. Yes, it's bigger than a PDA. But I still miss the little thing. Sometimes you just need a full-sized keyboard and reasonable display and don't want the overhead of a laptop. I don't care if I can't run Eclipse. I don't care if it won't run some hulking Adobe application, I just want something a step up from a word processor where I can write documents and code fragments that gets out of the way and lets me think about the problem. I want to turn it on and start typing, not sit there stewing while it boots or lose my concentration because applications are nagging me about trivial updates.
Think of it as a modern Tandy 102 and it begins to make sense. I'm not sure I trust Palm the company, but that's somewhat unrelated to this specific piece of hardware.
I still hear the music from the Faery Tale Adventure in my head from time to time. Not that it was particularily good, it's just the game was very long and it played over and over and over. By that logic I'm sure I'll remember some Slashdot stories forever.
SpeedBall II: Brutal Deluxe is still the most adrenaline-pumping game I have played, though the original Half Life came close. The balance and playability of SBII was spot on, the sounds complemented the atmosphere and two-player mode was immensely fun.
If their logic is correct then it doesn't matter at what point the label "chicken" could be applied, what was contained the egg still must have been a "chicken".
How is $4million, split between the many record companies and artists, a substantial amount?
The $4 million was only the amount collected on non-removable memory, such as iPods.
While driving around Vancouver I noticed Fir St and chuckled. But just a little.
Ahardy Drew
The nice thing about space is that you can get there from anywhere on the planet. If the United States makes it more difficult to run a space tourism business in the country than out then launch site will just be moved elsewhere.
Since electricity can't be stored in large amounts, we still need other resources to ensure that energy is available when people need to use it.
Use the power to pump water uphill and store it in a reservoir or heat a large amount of water. There are plenty of ways to store large amounts of electricity.
Canadian Aviation is a very well done magazine for those who long to fly a float plane. Sigh....
It is not a contradiction at all. In the first part he is stating that unless the code is designed to be used in a library it is difficult to re-use. In the second he says corporations re-use code all the time. The missing link is that the code companies re-use would most often be libraries.
SPARK is used heavily in the safety critical software in the Eurofighter amongst other projects. It is a complete pain to type all of the annotation, takes forever to run the tool and it very rarely comes up with any real problems in the code.
This type of unprofessional crap is the reason people have such low expectations of software. You didn't want to use the tool because it was a "pain to type"?! If the length of time it takes you to type your code is a bottleneck then you're not doing enough thinking before you type. The extar effort requierd to type more verbose code is close to zero. You're coming across like an aeronatical engineer would if they tightened a critical bolt to only 90% of the required torque because it was less effort.
By saying very rarely comes up with any real problems" means it found some, and those problems may have been easily been overlooked by other types of testing. And what are problems wouldn't be "real" in saefty critical code?! Yes, there are other tools besides SPARK that could have been used but the principles should have been the same.
Don't ever forget you're talking about a serious piece of hardware and there's a human being sitting in the pointy end. If I was a pilot of something that had a bug in it's safety critical software because of your lack of pride I would kick your ass.
F) Drive along with a truck and a shovel, collecting enough solar panels and batteries to power your house.
In Perl for you geeks out there:
my $life = $activity[0]
My life has an activity index of zero.
This is a system that has only one real customer, the merchant. It's sole purpose is to make life easier for the retailer and provides very, very few benefits to the consumer. It has all of the hassle of buying from a brick and mortar store with none of the benefits.
The only advantage of a software vending machine to the consumer is that they always get the latest version of the software. In any reasonably stocked computer store this shouldn't be an issue anyway.
There is also another reason to postpone trials and drag the legal battle out as long as possible... deprecation and interest. A rate of 5% interest over 3 years on 600 million is approximately 100 million dollars. That's got to be like, what, a thousand bucks for every lawyer?