I'll never say GNU/Linux because in my opinion its silly to demand it. If I was the FSF I'd be busting my ass to get Hurd, er GNU/Hurd stable and get some vendors like Oracle to port some mission critical commercial software to it. Oh wait, commercial software is evil. Scratch that idea.
There's been some good points made by the Linux crowd, specifically some installations having no GNU utilities, some installations having fewer GNU code, or less lines of GNU code, etc. No matter what the percentage of GNU code is, its still Linux to me. The chicken and the egg logic used to further the GNU position is just about as pointless an argument to me. We still have our chickens and we still have our eggs and I know the difference between the two. As long as I get the job done I don't care who made what possible for who.
So to give credit where credit is due...
Linus, thank you for the kernel. RMS, thank you for helping me appreciate vi.
Or the latest videogame which debuts for $54.95 and then drops to $39.95 a couple months later after all the die hard fans have spent all their lunch money on the $54.95 copy.
The first thought that popped into my head was not about the horror of the event or even those who dies but rather a disturbed feeling that this is the start of a long erosion of everyone's rights
The first thought that popped into my head when I read this post is "damn, what a selfish, insensitive person." People are dying, lives are being changed forever, and the first thought has nothing to do with the horror but with the erosion of liberties?
Today, a year later, I don't feel much grief for those 600 or so foreign nationals and the one American who faces military justice. They'll still see a more fair justice system than they would in their native countries, or in Padilla's case the country he chose as his new home.
Giving up a little freedom (and I haven't noticed losing any) is a sacrifice I am willing to make until this thing is over. And compared to the sacrifices that police and rescue in NYC made last year, well it doesn't even compare and it is just unbelievably selfish to even try.
Flooding a network with spoofed files would drive users to more reliable music sources -- like the labels' own online sites.
The problem is the labels don't have their own online sites. Sooner or later (its bound to happen) the labels are gonna hire some college grads who grew up on sharing and understand the problem. Maybe then a compromise will be reached.
Its the fan made websites and not the greedy players, owners, and union that have ruined the game. Close down the sites. All I can say is thank God it is football season or there might be a.001% chance that I would give a damn.
Write a little program that accepts SMTP or POP connections on localhost and then just loop some rediculously large garbage messages through those ports. If eBlaster grabs sent emails based on port activity and forwards them to the boss, you should know if your company is using it about the time your company's email server fills up and crashes. Of course you might have a little explaining to do...
The keystroke logger bothers me a bit. That is very invasive. Of course it wouldn't be too hard to have a program that sends "My boss is a tool" a few thousand times to notepad or Word while you're away at lunch either.
During my cable company's (first Continental Cable, then MediaOne, now AT&T Broadband, and soon to be ComCast I suppose) roll out of broadband they changed hands twice. It took me 2 years longer than my original estimated service date to get Broadband. I don't think the US has a good reason to be lagging but I'm sure some of the cable companies do. Too many acquisitions and a loss of focus.
Honestly though, if I didn't need broadband for snappy VPN access to the office I wouldn't have it. $45 a month isn't the problem either. The internet just doesn't do it for me.
Although they perform different functions, IE is to Windows what bash is to Linux. Both can be removed but the consequences will be pretty severe. The best option is to install whatever it is you like better and just use it. Let IE sit there and let the system utilize it when needed or let bash sit there and let the system utilize it when needed. Besides in the Windows world there are more annoyances other than the difficulty of removing IE. The constant struggle between RealAudio and Quicktime for example. But back to the subject...
The Apple iPrograms are nice. iMovie may not replace Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premier for the professional or advanced video editor but what is the alternative for the novice? Its not like I order a Mac and add a firewire option and then select the vendors choice of editing software. Sony, Dell, Gateway, etc aren't in the picture and their customized licensed video software isn't competing with iMovie or anything else. Its different when you control the hardware. Microsoft's problem stemmed from the resellers. If you were a PC company and you spent money licensing video editing, audio editing, web browsing, and other software to gain edge over the competition and then suddenly Microsoft included all of that into Windows you might feel that Microsoft just leveled the playing field. Honestly I don't think Microsoft did this to hurt the resellers as much as they did it to compete with Apple. In many cases, the software that is bundled by some of the resellers beats what Microsoft includes.
And it will exist the way you like it until it becomes noticed. I don't think the politicians have screwed it up as much as the business people have. The politicians didn't wake up one morning and say lets fuck with the internet. Business people on the otherhand did.
Actually, the 2 year old bug he was talking about was the SSL man in the middle attack. Now if I understand that bug and how it works, a malicious site operator would have to obtain and install the certificate from the site he would like to spoof. Then he would simply link to an image on the real secure site and IE would be fooled and think it was on the real site. The problem is the first part, obtaining the certificate of the site you want to spoof. It is not something that can be easily done in the real world.
Perhaps he is refering to Michael's comment at the end of the article. "Please be sure to read the EULA before installing the patch." I looked all over for it, there was none.
I thought it worked like this. The added weight of the smart card throws the CD off balance making it very unstable and therefore unreadable when spun faster than an audio CD.;-)
Instead of waiting 2 more years and GPL'ing the full source, why not license it for cheap after Doom III comes out, then GPL later?
If I had code that people were willing to pay $250k for I don't think I'd drop my price any time soon. Especially if it was code that people were going to use to develop a product which will compete with my product.
Any gem of value is going to create the same kinds of situations which is making you lean away from diamonds. If she really wants one get her one. If you want to avoid feeling bad about supporting the cartels and the slavery then consider another market. Check with your family, grandparents would be great, to see if they have a ring or a stone you can use. I would think your fiance would really appreciate a family heirloom. Even if you end up with just a stone you can have it mounted in a new ring, perhaps even one you and she design yourselves. Find a local jeweler, not a huge chain in a mall, and you'll save some money even if you do buy something totally new.
Godzilla is a fictional character, Mozilla is a web browser and a user-agent. The term "Mozilla" as a user-agent has been around since the early days of Netscape. My guess is that any attempt to sue the Mozilla organization for trademark violation would be laughed out of court.
Rename Mozilla to Mickey and give it a logo that is a 4 fingered hand see how long before Disney jumps in. It doesn't really matter if ultimately you think it will be laughed out of court. Its the cost of getting it that far that often decides these things. How far can Mozilla afford to go with this?
AFAIK the "networks" in the US don't actually provide television to viewers. Instead they work through intermediate local stations, who operate a single transmitter.
That is true. In the 1950's that is basically how it had to be in order to get network programming to the masses. With the widespread use of cable and satellite the networks don't really need the affiliates and in some cases the affiliates don't need the networks anymore. How long will the networks stick with their model which was created back when they couldn't afford to put broadcast towers in every market across the nation?
Broadcasters just need to change their business models and "theft" will be reduced.
Starting next week I will be looking for "Napsterized" copies of Enterprise because we lost UPN in our area. Now if the networks offered programming on demand through cable and satellite where I could just go to UPN, CBS, FOX, etc and select the show I want to watch when I want to watch it I would pay for that service. It beats waiting for hours to get a full copy (that works) off Kazaa or IRC.
You'll still have some piracy. You always will. But I think there are a lot of people like me who download programming because it is more convenient than the current alternatives.
Evidently it is just more economical for the entertainment industry to pay politicians for some bills than it is to adapt their business models to work with the new technologies and mindsets of the people. Our choice is a simple one. We can either fight the industry by telling them we don't like their strategy and we will refuse to consume what they have to offer. Or we can fight the policians by not electing those who support these industries over the people. Unfortunatly in the last case, the average voter probably doesn't understand what is going on here or it just isn't that important to them.
Considering that terrorists and the like usually have many aliases and false identities I think these folks already have the anonymity they need. What is the privacy advocate afraid of if the FBI has access to public library records? I'm not trying to troll but I just don't see it. As for bookstores and purchased books I can see the argument. The buyer and seller are both private entities and their transaction should be a private manner. A libary is however a public entity and I don't really see a problem with records being public for that matter.
Has there ever been an industry which has survived solely on the basis of legislation?
The dry cleaning industry is trying to do it now. Discount dry cleaners are hurting the smaller independently owned cleaners and they are banning together to try to stop the big chains from going in. It seems that the discount guys are charging the same for women's clothing as they do for men's and that has these smaller guys in an uproar.
But in the case of the dry cleaners they are trying to stay in business via legislation where the entertainment industry is just trying to keep from being ripped off. Its not like the RIAA or the MPAA is preventing independent artists from distributing their work and making money. They aren't doing this to stifle competition. Maybe long term if they get their way then it would be difficult for an independent artist to produce and sell work without their representation but I don't think that is their goal. Even today if an artist were to sell his own MP3's for $.50 a song, those songs if good would be all over the P2P networks and he'd be just as pissed as Hillary Rosen.
Oracle has offered me free apps as an incentive to use their database over a competitors so I don't think you are correct in saying they are all about their applications. But I guess that really depends on who you talk to inside the company. A database person will have a different opinion over an applications person.
You are right about their products being overkill for most companies out there. I've called Oracle knowing exactly what license I need. Before my conversation is over they've always tried to change my requirements and sell me more than I need. They've even suggested I change my server platform to Linux so I can free up some money for buying their additional stuff. If this continues to be their practice, other solutions, maybe even open source might be an alternative for me in the future. But I can see where companies can get tricked into getting more than they need and end up with overkill for a simple solution.
'We are unappreciated and no-one knows what we do for 364 days of the year.'
Apparently you don't spend much time looking at calendars during those 364 days or you'd notice an extra day stuffed in there somewhere. Unless you meant to say "what we do for the other 364 days a year.":)
So what would happen if the MPAA started to hack your web site of ftp server and you redirected them to a site operated by the CIA? That would be fun. They could explain their immunity as they lie face down on the floor with a gun pointed to the back of their heads.
There are plenty of other things they can do to stop piracy but I don't see them doing it. Go to usenet groups or IRC rooms where movies are traded. Its the same people doing it every day. Is it that hard for the MPAA and RIAA to go to the ISPs, colleges, or even the local governments where these files originate and ask that something be done? It seems they'd rather attack everyone through legislation and abolish fair use than go after the source. Now they want to put themselves above the law and take things into their own hands. If this passes then what is next? I'm going to go write my representatives now.
I don't see why current copyright laws can't protect software and music. When I see a label saying not to make unauthorized or illegal copies why shouldn't that mean something? Using the excuse "well I wouldn't have bought it anyway" is just an excuse and it screams of the lack of ethics and morals in America today.
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I'll never say GNU/Linux because in my opinion its silly to demand it. If I was the FSF I'd be busting my ass to get Hurd, er GNU/Hurd stable and get some vendors like Oracle to port some mission critical commercial software to it. Oh wait, commercial software is evil. Scratch that idea.
There's been some good points made by the Linux crowd, specifically some installations having no GNU utilities, some installations having fewer GNU code, or less lines of GNU code, etc. No matter what the percentage of GNU code is, its still Linux to me. The chicken and the egg logic used to further the GNU position is just about as pointless an argument to me. We still have our chickens and we still have our eggs and I know the difference between the two. As long as I get the job done I don't care who made what possible for who.
So to give credit where credit is due...
Linus, thank you for the kernel.
RMS, thank you for helping me appreciate vi.
Or the latest videogame which debuts for $54.95 and then drops to $39.95 a couple months later after all the die hard fans have spent all their lunch money on the $54.95 copy.
The first thought that popped into my head was not about the horror of the event or even those who dies but rather a disturbed feeling that this is the start of a long erosion of everyone's rights
The first thought that popped into my head when I read this post is "damn, what a selfish, insensitive person." People are dying, lives are being changed forever, and the first thought has nothing to do with the horror but with the erosion of liberties?
Today, a year later, I don't feel much grief for those 600 or so foreign nationals and the one American who faces military justice. They'll still see a more fair justice system than they would in their native countries, or in Padilla's case the country he chose as his new home.
Giving up a little freedom (and I haven't noticed losing any) is a sacrifice I am willing to make until this thing is over. And compared to the sacrifices that police and rescue in NYC made last year, well it doesn't even compare and it is just unbelievably selfish to even try.
I was going to say, "Wow, finally a machine that can handle the resource requirements of GNOME." but I didn't have the gnads.
Flooding a network with spoofed files would drive users to more reliable music sources -- like the labels' own online sites.
The problem is the labels don't have their own online sites. Sooner or later (its bound to happen) the labels are gonna hire some college grads who grew up on sharing and understand the problem. Maybe then a compromise will be reached.
Its the fan made websites and not the greedy players, owners, and union that have ruined the game. Close down the sites. All I can say is thank God it is football season or there might be a .001% chance that I would give a damn.
Write a little program that accepts SMTP or POP connections on localhost and then just loop some rediculously large garbage messages through those ports. If eBlaster grabs sent emails based on port activity and forwards them to the boss, you should know if your company is using it about the time your company's email server fills up and crashes. Of course you might have a little explaining to do...
The keystroke logger bothers me a bit. That is very invasive. Of course it wouldn't be too hard to have a program that sends "My boss is a tool" a few thousand times to notepad or Word while you're away at lunch either.
Its petty arguments like these which makes me happy that neither browser runs on my Amiga A500.
During my cable company's (first Continental Cable, then MediaOne, now AT&T Broadband, and soon to be ComCast I suppose) roll out of broadband they changed hands twice. It took me 2 years longer than my original estimated service date to get Broadband. I don't think the US has a good reason to be lagging but I'm sure some of the cable companies do. Too many acquisitions and a loss of focus.
Honestly though, if I didn't need broadband for snappy VPN access to the office I wouldn't have it. $45 a month isn't the problem either. The internet just doesn't do it for me.
Although they perform different functions, IE is to Windows what bash is to Linux. Both can be removed but the consequences will be pretty severe. The best option is to install whatever it is you like better and just use it. Let IE sit there and let the system utilize it when needed or let bash sit there and let the system utilize it when needed. Besides in the Windows world there are more annoyances other than the difficulty of removing IE. The constant struggle between RealAudio and Quicktime for example. But back to the subject...
The Apple iPrograms are nice. iMovie may not replace Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premier for the professional or advanced video editor but what is the alternative for the novice? Its not like I order a Mac and add a firewire option and then select the vendors choice of editing software. Sony, Dell, Gateway, etc aren't in the picture and their customized licensed video software isn't competing with iMovie or anything else. Its different when you control the hardware. Microsoft's problem stemmed from the resellers. If you were a PC company and you spent money licensing video editing, audio editing, web browsing, and other software to gain edge over the competition and then suddenly Microsoft included all of that into Windows you might feel that Microsoft just leveled the playing field. Honestly I don't think Microsoft did this to hurt the resellers as much as they did it to compete with Apple. In many cases, the software that is bundled by some of the resellers beats what Microsoft includes.
And it will exist the way you like it until it becomes noticed. I don't think the politicians have screwed it up as much as the business people have. The politicians didn't wake up one morning and say lets fuck with the internet. Business people on the otherhand did.
Actually, the 2 year old bug he was talking about was the SSL man in the middle attack. Now if I understand that bug and how it works, a malicious site operator would have to obtain and install the certificate from the site he would like to spoof. Then he would simply link to an image on the real secure site and IE would be fooled and think it was on the real site. The problem is the first part, obtaining the certificate of the site you want to spoof. It is not something that can be easily done in the real world.
Perhaps he is refering to Michael's comment at the end of the article. "Please be sure to read the EULA before installing the patch." I looked all over for it, there was none.
I thought it worked like this. The added weight of the smart card throws the CD off balance making it very unstable and therefore unreadable when spun faster than an audio CD. ;-)
Instead of waiting 2 more years and GPL'ing the full source, why not license it for cheap after Doom III comes out, then GPL later?
If I had code that people were willing to pay $250k for I don't think I'd drop my price any time soon. Especially if it was code that people were going to use to develop a product which will compete with my product.
Any gem of value is going to create the same kinds of situations which is making you lean away from diamonds. If she really wants one get her one. If you want to avoid feeling bad about supporting the cartels and the slavery then consider another market. Check with your family, grandparents would be great, to see if they have a ring or a stone you can use. I would think your fiance would really appreciate a family heirloom. Even if you end up with just a stone you can have it mounted in a new ring, perhaps even one you and she design yourselves. Find a local jeweler, not a huge chain in a mall, and you'll save some money even if you do buy something totally new.
Godzilla is a fictional character, Mozilla is a web browser and a user-agent. The term "Mozilla" as a user-agent has been around since the early days of Netscape. My guess is that any attempt to sue the Mozilla organization for trademark violation would be laughed out of court.
Rename Mozilla to Mickey and give it a logo that is a 4 fingered hand see how long before Disney jumps in. It doesn't really matter if ultimately you think it will be laughed out of court. Its the cost of getting it that far that often decides these things. How far can Mozilla afford to go with this?
AFAIK the "networks" in the US don't actually provide television to viewers. Instead they work through intermediate local stations, who operate a single transmitter.
That is true. In the 1950's that is basically how it had to be in order to get network programming to the masses. With the widespread use of cable and satellite the networks don't really need the affiliates and in some cases the affiliates don't need the networks anymore. How long will the networks stick with their model which was created back when they couldn't afford to put broadcast towers in every market across the nation?
Broadcasters just need to change their business models and "theft" will be reduced.
Starting next week I will be looking for "Napsterized" copies of Enterprise because we lost UPN in our area. Now if the networks offered programming on demand through cable and satellite where I could just go to UPN, CBS, FOX, etc and select the show I want to watch when I want to watch it I would pay for that service. It beats waiting for hours to get a full copy (that works) off Kazaa or IRC.
You'll still have some piracy. You always will. But I think there are a lot of people like me who download programming because it is more convenient than the current alternatives.
Evidently it is just more economical for the entertainment industry to pay politicians for some bills than it is to adapt their business models to work with the new technologies and mindsets of the people. Our choice is a simple one. We can either fight the industry by telling them we don't like their strategy and we will refuse to consume what they have to offer. Or we can fight the policians by not electing those who support these industries over the people. Unfortunatly in the last case, the average voter probably doesn't understand what is going on here or it just isn't that important to them.
Considering that terrorists and the like usually have many aliases and false identities I think these folks already have the anonymity they need. What is the privacy advocate afraid of if the FBI has access to public library records? I'm not trying to troll but I just don't see it. As for bookstores and purchased books I can see the argument. The buyer and seller are both private entities and their transaction should be a private manner. A libary is however a public entity and I don't really see a problem with records being public for that matter.
Has there ever been an industry which has survived solely on the basis of legislation?
The dry cleaning industry is trying to do it now. Discount dry cleaners are hurting the smaller independently owned cleaners and they are banning together to try to stop the big chains from going in. It seems that the discount guys are charging the same for women's clothing as they do for men's and that has these smaller guys in an uproar.
But in the case of the dry cleaners they are trying to stay in business via legislation where the entertainment industry is just trying to keep from being ripped off. Its not like the RIAA or the MPAA is preventing independent artists from distributing their work and making money. They aren't doing this to stifle competition. Maybe long term if they get their way then it would be difficult for an independent artist to produce and sell work without their representation but I don't think that is their goal. Even today if an artist were to sell his own MP3's for $.50 a song, those songs if good would be all over the P2P networks and he'd be just as pissed as Hillary Rosen.
Oracle has offered me free apps as an incentive to use their database over a competitors so I don't think you are correct in saying they are all about their applications. But I guess that really depends on who you talk to inside the company. A database person will have a different opinion over an applications person.
You are right about their products being overkill for most companies out there. I've called Oracle knowing exactly what license I need. Before my conversation is over they've always tried to change my requirements and sell me more than I need. They've even suggested I change my server platform to Linux so I can free up some money for buying their additional stuff. If this continues to be their practice, other solutions, maybe even open source might be an alternative for me in the future. But I can see where companies can get tricked into getting more than they need and end up with overkill for a simple solution.
'We are unappreciated and no-one knows what we do for 364 days of the year.'
:)
Apparently you don't spend much time looking at calendars during those 364 days or you'd notice an extra day stuffed in there somewhere. Unless you meant to say "what we do for the other 364 days a year."
So what would happen if the MPAA started to hack your web site of ftp server and you redirected them to a site operated by the CIA? That would be fun. They could explain their immunity as they lie face down on the floor with a gun pointed to the back of their heads.
There are plenty of other things they can do to stop piracy but I don't see them doing it. Go to usenet groups or IRC rooms where movies are traded. Its the same people doing it every day. Is it that hard for the MPAA and RIAA to go to the ISPs, colleges, or even the local governments where these files originate and ask that something be done? It seems they'd rather attack everyone through legislation and abolish fair use than go after the source. Now they want to put themselves above the law and take things into their own hands. If this passes then what is next? I'm going to go write my representatives now.
Can you rape a prostitute using your logic?
I don't see why current copyright laws can't protect software and music. When I see a label saying not to make unauthorized or illegal copies why shouldn't that mean something? Using the excuse "well I wouldn't have bought it anyway" is just an excuse and it screams of the lack of ethics and morals in America today.