Of course their efforts are somewhat hampered by the fact that chip manufacturing equipment is awfully expensive. If you could buy a Star Trek style replicator for the price of a PC, I guess we would see a lot more free hardware.
The Wikipedia article also mentions a publication in 1909 without copyright notice that may or may not render the 1935 registration invalid. I guess that this makes the US status of "Happy Birthday" somewhat uncertain.
If the uprising gets large enough, I think the US DoD would have trouble crushing it. Look at Iraq, a much smaller country. The US troops don't have things under control there.
That is why 4. is so important for the US government. When a sizable part of the population resists, even dictatorships may be in trouble.
Yes, Civilisation (II) cheats, at least on the higher levels. Play as Emperor or Deity and the computer gets a significant productivity bonus. Other games simply give the AI more ressources to start with, and the player has to find a way to compensate.
If a bit can play their game, it is a fault of Blizzard making a repetitive game for dullards
You mean "If a bot can play their game"? Damn right, and if Blizzard wasn't already on my boycott list, this would be a warning against buying WOW by itself. I've recently beta-tested a game that might be playable by a bot as well: Rappelz(http://rappelz.gpotato.com/). Nice graphics, but after two weeks I can't bring myself to log in anymore. It's just too boring.
I doubt that IBM will settle, unless whoever administers the remains will admit on behalf of SCO that they were wrong from the start (and sign over all IP that might be the basis for further lawsuits).
To IBM, stopping the FUD is more important than getting a few millions out of SCO. Otherwise, they might have settled by now.
Personally, I would choose the "Do nothing" option as described by "The Old New Thing", which actually includes putting up a Knowledge Base article that describes the bug and the remedy. With the exception that I might contact the Samba team directly with a bug report.
I don't quite understand how the first statement ("When the government fails...") fits in.
The second one is partly correct: When a private company fails due to superior competition, it shows the Free Market is working. But even on a non-working market, I guess companies could fail by sheer incompetence.
If that happens, some copyright holder could sue Novell because they distribute Linux without being able to give their customers a sublicensable license. Worst case, Novell is just as blocked from distributing Linux as anyone else (assuming the patents are valid). So I guess the 'promise' not to sue is not very meaningful and Novell may have made a big mistake with this agreement.
Heh. The free market is efficient by weeding out the inefficient. Survival of the fittest and such. It seems that Kaiser Permanente is maybe not fit enough;-)
I actually think that Microsoft will pull a fast one and try to ride atop Linux like Apple rides OpenBSD.
If so, the GPL may give them some problems down the line. As others have pointed out, Section 7 of the GPL may even now prevent the distribution of a patent-encumbered Linux distribution.
If Microsoft wants to use Open Source, they would be far better off to pull an Apple and grab some BSD as basis for their plans. With BSD, closing the source is perfectly legal. So I guess Microsoft are either trying spread FUD or they are simply miscalculating.
If something along this lines happens (still not sure if it is realistic), I'd expect it to follow another logic: -MS refuses to pay fines -EU seizes MS assets, including copyrights -EU releases Windows into the public domain
Note the difference: Instead of simply ignoring the Berne Convention, the EU delares the intellectual property forfeit as punishment. Taking away property as punishment is not unusual, and might not violate the Berne Convention.
If you follow the outcome of studies and the identity of the sponsors for a while, you will find that they rarely contradict the position/interests of the sponsors.
Circumstantial ad-hominem is, unfortunately, a realistic way of looking at things.
The first people to ask would be geologists and other scientists who have done relevant research. That may include some people from the oil industry: While I would expect them to toe the company line and avoid saying things that are bad for business, I'm sure they have some valuable knowledge about oil pumping and known reserves. Take their statements with a grain of salt, but talking to them may still be worthwile.
But asking politicians? That guarantees maximally agenda-driven statements combined with a minimum of actual knowledge;-)
Their previous beef was about bnetd allowing people to play online without buying games. They could care less if people played the game on Linux, they just wanted to make sure people went through official servers and paid to play the game. Again, some Linux users jump to conclusions that Blizzard was targeting the Linux userbase in general.
In some old discussions I've read that the official servers were less than reliable at the time and for many users, bnetd was a way to get their paid games work properly. Allowing warez'd clients to play was a side effect.
Anyway, for me the key point was that the bnetd project created their own code, without stealing from Blizzard, and was still sued into oblivion. Since that time, Blizzard is on my personal boycott list so I can watch the current discussion from the outside;-)
I don't know if this would be allowed by EU law, but if yes, warezing Windows could suddenly be legal. That would allow EU businesses to bridge the time until Linux replacements for their tools are available.
If you can live with mediocre performance, I'd recommend something with passive cooling. Because the video card fans are often crap and there are far less replacements in the market than with CPU coolers. A passive heat sink will solve that problem altogether. But note that you should have a well ventilated case for passive cooling.
AMD states a Thermal Design Power of 65 Watts for the EE parts (on socket AM2, up to the EE 4600+, don't know about the 5000+). The corresponding non-EE parts are rated at 89 or 104 watts.
Note that AMD's TDP ratings are rather conservative, reviews of earlier parts showed the AMDs using less power in real life. Thus, I would expect the Athlon 64 EE to run cooler than an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 which is also rated at 65 Watts.
I don't think many are aware how hard Microsoft has to work to maintain compatibility... I once talked with one of the MS engineers -- he said much of the OS code has preamble code to run through a giant "case" statement to accommodate and make allowances for either bad or incorrect coding by outside developers, or bugs in their code that don't execute correctly for the outside software. It's a lot of baggage to carry around, but it's baggage worth billions of dollars.
Interestingly (to me) is I don't think Linux's big task yet is to maintain backwards compatibility with Linux programs (though that would be nice, and seems to mostly be a given anyway), I think the bigger task for Linux is to maintain backwards compatibility with Microsoft programs, specifically legacy Windows software. Unless and until that hurdle is cleared, Linux will always be #2, or #3, etc.
I wonder if Microsoft would be better off if they disregarded at least the incorrect coding by outside developers. I guess the baggage you mentioned has had its share of delaying Vista.
Speaking of Linux, where do they need to maintain backwards compatibility with Microsoft programs? That may be a problem for WINE and Samba, but those are Linux applications rather than core components. The Linux kernel is not compatible to Microsoft programs, except if you count the support for FAT.
Actually both AMD and Intel have improved in heat & power consumption.
On Intel's side, the Core2Duo has a lower power consumption than the P4, despite having two cores. If you get the "smallest" version, the E6300, you should end up with a PC that has moderate power consumption combined with very nice performance.
AMD has recently lowered the prices on their "energy efficient" series of dual cores, and the availability has improved. If you buy an Athlon 64 EE 3800+ or an EE 4200+, you should also get a nice ratio of performance to power consumption, both at a somewhat lower level than with a Core 2 Duo. BTW, the higher-clocked models are IMHO overpriced when compared to the Intel Core2Duo.
Like one of my past CIOs always said: he likes to use applications made by people he can sue. You will find that a pretty solid and intelligent viewpoint, one which is in complete contrast with those who want to play with unproven technology on company time (like the entire IT staff of the city of Munich, for example).
Probably a troll, but I'll bite:
1) Have you ever read a Microsoft EULA? They do their best to avoid any liability for bugs in their software.
2) Do you know anyone who has successfully sued Microsoft because a Microsoft application has scrambled his data?
...and I do see how Microsoft wouldn't care about free software because it isn't on their radar screen. I don't know of much free software that is really competitive because truly free software doesn't have the support that it needs to compete with software that does have support. I'd rather see ad-bloated "free" software like Google Mail than bug-ridden memory-leaking software like Thunderbird. I use Firefox, but it is still a memory leaker that competes well with IE in terms of falling apart over a few hours of work.
Funny, I didn't have much problems with Firefox or the Mozilla Suite over the last years. While I had some crashes (rare enough to be considered a minor issue), IE and Outlook frequently made the IT news by offering gaping security holes. I'd rather restart Firefox once in a few days than risk surfing the web with IE;-)
Considering the attitudes of Indians about working for free: I won't contradict you there, but even if you are right, they might still take advantage of the Westerners working for free. Which would translate into Indians contributing not much to Open Source but still using it.
Slashdot Mirror
Some guys actually try to create open source hardware.- Graphics
A graphics card:
http://wiki.duskglow.com/tiki-index.php?page=Open
Various Open Source processors:
http://www.opencores.org/
Of course their efforts are somewhat hampered by the fact that chip manufacturing equipment is awfully expensive. If you could buy a Star Trek style replicator for the price of a PC, I guess we would see a lot more free hardware.
The Wikipedia article also mentions a publication in 1909 without copyright notice that may or may not render the 1935 registration invalid. I guess that this makes the US status of "Happy Birthday" somewhat uncertain.
If the uprising gets large enough, I think the US DoD would have trouble crushing it. Look at Iraq, a much smaller country. The US troops don't have things under control there.
That is why 4. is so important for the US government. When a sizable part of the population resists, even dictatorships may be in trouble.
Yes, Civilisation (II) cheats, at least on the higher levels. Play as Emperor or Deity and the computer gets a significant productivity bonus. Other games simply give the AI more ressources to start with, and the player has to find a way to compensate.
You mean "If a bot can play their game"?
Damn right, and if Blizzard wasn't already on my boycott list, this would be a warning against buying WOW by itself.
I've recently beta-tested a game that might be playable by a bot as well:
Rappelz(http://rappelz.gpotato.com/). Nice graphics, but after two weeks I can't bring myself to log in anymore. It's just too boring.
I doubt that IBM will settle, unless whoever administers the remains will admit on behalf of SCO that they were wrong from the start (and sign over all IP that might be the basis for further lawsuits).
To IBM, stopping the FUD is more important than getting a few millions out of SCO. Otherwise, they might have settled by now.
There are other options. If you follow the link to the original blog entry, http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2006/03/ 30/564809.aspx#comments, you will find a list of ways to handle the problem, all of which are more or less reasonable.
Personally, I would choose the "Do nothing" option as described by "The Old New Thing", which actually includes putting up a Knowledge Base article that describes the bug and the remedy. With the exception that I might contact the Samba team directly with a bug report.
I don't quite understand how the first statement ("When the government fails...") fits in.
The second one is partly correct:
When a private company fails due to superior competition, it shows the Free Market is working.
But even on a non-working market, I guess companies could fail by sheer incompetence.
If that happens, some copyright holder could sue Novell because they distribute Linux without being able to give their customers a sublicensable license.
Worst case, Novell is just as blocked from distributing Linux as anyone else (assuming the patents are valid). So I guess the 'promise' not to sue is not very meaningful and Novell may have made a big mistake with this agreement.
Heh. The free market is efficient by weeding out the inefficient. Survival of the fittest and such. ;-)
It seems that Kaiser Permanente is maybe not fit enough
If so, the GPL may give them some problems down the line. As others have pointed out, Section 7 of the GPL may even now prevent the distribution of a patent-encumbered Linux distribution.
If Microsoft wants to use Open Source, they would be far better off to pull an Apple and grab some BSD as basis for their plans. With BSD, closing the source is perfectly legal. So I guess Microsoft are either trying spread FUD or they are simply miscalculating.
In the crushed state, he might have difficulty understanding things...
If something along this lines happens (still not sure if it is realistic), I'd expect it to follow another logic:
-MS refuses to pay fines
-EU seizes MS assets, including copyrights
-EU releases Windows into the public domain
Note the difference:
Instead of simply ignoring the Berne Convention, the EU delares the intellectual property forfeit as punishment. Taking away property as punishment is not unusual, and might not violate the Berne Convention.
If you follow the outcome of studies and the identity of the sponsors for a while, you will find that they rarely contradict the position/interests of the sponsors.
Circumstantial ad-hominem is, unfortunately, a realistic way of looking at things.
The first people to ask would be geologists and other scientists who have done relevant research. That may include some people from the oil industry:
;-)
While I would expect them to toe the company line and avoid saying things that are bad for business, I'm sure they have some valuable knowledge about oil pumping and known reserves. Take their statements with a grain of salt, but talking to them may still be worthwile.
But asking politicians? That guarantees maximally agenda-driven statements combined with a minimum of actual knowledge
Getting really off-topic now, but those macs are expensive.
;-)
Unless I really want OS X, I think I can put together a system that suits me for much less. Including a nice designer case
In some old discussions I've read that the official servers were less than reliable at the time and for many users, bnetd was a way to get their paid games work properly. Allowing warez'd clients to play was a side effect.
Anyway, for me the key point was that the bnetd project created their own code, without stealing from Blizzard, and was still sued into oblivion. Since that time, Blizzard is on my personal boycott list so I can watch the current discussion from the outside
Such as the copyright on Windows?
I don't know if this would be allowed by EU law, but if yes, warezing Windows could suddenly be legal. That would allow EU businesses to bridge the time until Linux replacements for their tools are available.
Sure, but maybe you could move the parts that create most heat to the outside of the chip. That would disperse the heat at least somewhat.
If you can live with mediocre performance, I'd recommend something with passive cooling. Because the video card fans are often crap and there are far less replacements in the market than with CPU coolers. A passive heat sink will solve that problem altogether.
But note that you should have a well ventilated case for passive cooling.
AMD states a Thermal Design Power of 65 Watts for the EE parts (on socket AM2, up to the EE 4600+, don't know about the 5000+). The corresponding non-EE parts are rated at 89 or 104 watts.
Note that AMD's TDP ratings are rather conservative, reviews of earlier parts showed the AMDs using less power in real life. Thus, I would expect the Athlon 64 EE to run cooler than an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 which is also rated at 65 Watts.
I wonder if Microsoft would be better off if they disregarded at least the incorrect coding by outside developers. I guess the baggage you mentioned has had its share of delaying Vista.
Speaking of Linux, where do they need to maintain backwards compatibility with Microsoft programs?
That may be a problem for WINE and Samba, but those are Linux applications rather than core components. The Linux kernel is not compatible to Microsoft programs, except if you count the support for FAT.
Actually both AMD and Intel have improved in heat & power consumption.
On Intel's side, the Core2Duo has a lower power consumption than the P4, despite having two cores. If you get the "smallest" version, the E6300, you should end up with a PC that has moderate power consumption combined with very nice performance.
AMD has recently lowered the prices on their "energy efficient" series of dual cores, and the availability has improved. If you buy an Athlon 64 EE 3800+ or an EE 4200+, you should also get a nice ratio of performance to power consumption, both at a somewhat lower level than with a Core 2 Duo. BTW, the higher-clocked models are IMHO overpriced when compared to the Intel Core2Duo.
Probably a troll, but I'll bite:
1) Have you ever read a Microsoft EULA? They do their best to avoid any liability for bugs in their software.
2) Do you know anyone who has successfully sued Microsoft because a Microsoft application has scrambled his data?
Funny, I didn't have much problems with Firefox or the Mozilla Suite over the last years. While I had some crashes (rare enough to be considered a minor issue), IE and Outlook frequently made the IT news by offering gaping security holes. I'd rather restart Firefox once in a few days than risk surfing the web with IE
Considering the attitudes of Indians about working for free:
I won't contradict you there, but even if you are right, they might still take advantage of the Westerners working for free. Which would translate into Indians contributing not much to Open Source but still using it.