My version of Kazaa Lite seems to have a bug where when I check the box to disable file sharing, it forgets and shares next time I start it up. Would I have a defense that I took all reasonable precautions against file sharing, but that the software forced it upon me? Perhaps.
I think most people here are missing the point. I've read posts about Valve employees coming from Microsoft, DirectX 9 being better than OpenGL and prohibitive costs in doing a Linux port. All good arguments, but not the main point of the article.
Valve expects Linux users to support their game by running the server, but doesn't understand that they should support Linux users by giving them a client. If supporting Linux is too much work, then they should shove their Linux server up their ass and make due with whoever wants to run a Windows server.
A friend of mine wears size 14. Is that big enough? I think we can all say for certain that people with big feet do exist, so what's all the debate about?
Have you ever used a 3D desktop? Maybe all the 3D desktops on Windows (try shellcity.net for a few links) are just bad implementations, but they are a lot more cumbersome to use. Remember that it's better to be able to launch apps quickly than it is to fit a million icons on a screen.
One Windows 3D desktop I remember was like Quake. You'd walk around this map and launch apps on the wall. To focus an app, you walk up to the wall and hit an action button. Cool, but not practical.
Another was a sort of empty 3D area with floating icons and a ground as a reference point so you don't get lost. The floating icons were just cubes with the 2D icon textured on each side, but it was functional. The trouble was that you either ended up organizing all these 3D icons within your field of vision as if it was a 2D desktop or you wasted half your time turning around and flying towards whichever icon you wanted to click on.
Any 3D desktop that works will have to be extraordinarily revolutionary just to be useable.
Web site ad revenues aren't spotty, they're quite good. Do you think Google is having problems finding advertisers?
The trouble is that any doofus who runs a web site expects that clickthrough banner ads should generate some revenue. Webmasters try to generate revenue from mediocre traffic. You can't do that in any other form of advertising, so I don't see why you should be able to on the web.
The web site I run at work generates about $350,000/year in legitimate ads (Ford, TD Bank, Esso, McDonalds, Government of Canada, etc) and none of that money comes from clickthroughs. We charge appropriately for the size of the audience and because we have good audience demographic information it makes it really easy to sell ads. And no popups!
In this case, the legitimate use is dependent on an illegal activity. The record companies must decide which is more valuable. I suspect that some will tell the RIAA not to sue violators of their copyrights while other record companies will still want to sue.
Chances are they had some pro bono lawyer who didn't have time to really study the case. He saw a list of songs the girl was trading and said, "looks like you're guilty, take the offer". And he'd be right. Why would this family take the chance of losing in court (which they couldn't pay for to begin with) and owing many times more money?
THIS is exactly why Open Source works. It's not because of IBM or Red Hat or geeks from Finland. It's because people in the community are willing to step up to any challenge.
Obviously, if Microsoft provided exactly what these governments wanted in an OS they wouldn't going off and making their own. They're not deciding who wins, they're trying to get the OS they want.
The whole "Track and Trace" thing is what bothers me the most. What information are they going to send? What about a remote exploit? What if I have a firewall? What amount of network usage will this require?
You can't just have a low-level part of the computer like the BIOS start connecting to the Internet to send out information and not expect huge security and privacy problems.
I have dealt very closly with IBM engineers for several years. I pushed Linux on them years ago and they pushed back with AIX (settled on NT due to costs), then they pushed Linux next time around. I actually ran one of their first production Websphere on Linux web sites when their very beta Websphere for Linux was released as a final version.
I still won't claim to be an expert, but given my background with IBM I would have to say that if they are recommending it, then it's probably the worst thing you can possibly do. IMO, they experiment on their customers. At least they did on me. The worst part is that my experience shows they are not very adept at getting people to help you through problems. They'll send somebody in who's read the manual and he'll hack around for a few days before calling in the real guy.
Any idea how much bandwidth costs? At work our site can push through 6GB a day on 50,000 visitors. Hosting cost us $70,000 last year. Sooner or later that $20/member is going to run out.
What does that do? I put it in my console and it didn't do anything. I'll leave it running for a few years just to be sure. I'd better try it on all the college computer labs, too, so I can verify any output.
I don't know why NYC doesn't show as completely dark, but I don't think the population density is much higher than that of Toronto. It IS higher, but not nearly enough to make the difference from black to light. Those lights on the map show a HUGE area, not just NYC. I'm guessing that some outlying areas had at least partial power.
If you're happy with Redhat's software installation then you've never tried Suse. Now THAT'S how software installation should be done.
For any programs that come with Suse you simply navigate to it in the install menu and Yast will install it after asking for the CD (or it will get it via FTP). If you want to install a different package like an RPM, Yast will take over and do it exactly how Suse apps are installed, including menu items.
Read those points again. Both explicitly deal with the license and GCC's license will not change to deny its use on SCO systems. GCC does not have to be compatible with every sytem in existence to be Open Source, as you seem to think.
Slashdot Mirror
My version of Kazaa Lite seems to have a bug where when I check the box to disable file sharing, it forgets and shares next time I start it up. Would I have a defense that I took all reasonable precautions against file sharing, but that the software forced it upon me? Perhaps.
I should upgrade to see if this bug still exists.
I think most people here are missing the point. I've read posts about Valve employees coming from Microsoft, DirectX 9 being better than OpenGL and prohibitive costs in doing a Linux port. All good arguments, but not the main point of the article.
Valve expects Linux users to support their game by running the server, but doesn't understand that they should support Linux users by giving them a client. If supporting Linux is too much work, then they should shove their Linux server up their ass and make due with whoever wants to run a Windows server.
I'll go to the Toronto date, but am not part of the local LUG. How can we organize something big?
Just in time for Red Hat 10 beta!
A friend of mine wears size 14. Is that big enough? I think we can all say for certain that people with big feet do exist, so what's all the debate about?
Have you ever used a 3D desktop? Maybe all the 3D desktops on Windows (try shellcity.net for a few links) are just bad implementations, but they are a lot more cumbersome to use. Remember that it's better to be able to launch apps quickly than it is to fit a million icons on a screen.
One Windows 3D desktop I remember was like Quake. You'd walk around this map and launch apps on the wall. To focus an app, you walk up to the wall and hit an action button. Cool, but not practical.
Another was a sort of empty 3D area with floating icons and a ground as a reference point so you don't get lost. The floating icons were just cubes with the 2D icon textured on each side, but it was functional. The trouble was that you either ended up organizing all these 3D icons within your field of vision as if it was a 2D desktop or you wasted half your time turning around and flying towards whichever icon you wanted to click on.
Any 3D desktop that works will have to be extraordinarily revolutionary just to be useable.
Web site ad revenues aren't spotty, they're quite good. Do you think Google is having problems finding advertisers?
The trouble is that any doofus who runs a web site expects that clickthrough banner ads should generate some revenue. Webmasters try to generate revenue from mediocre traffic. You can't do that in any other form of advertising, so I don't see why you should be able to on the web.
The web site I run at work generates about $350,000/year in legitimate ads (Ford, TD Bank, Esso, McDonalds, Government of Canada, etc) and none of that money comes from clickthroughs. We charge appropriately for the size of the audience and because we have good audience demographic information it makes it really easy to sell ads. And no popups!
In this case, the legitimate use is dependent on an illegal activity. The record companies must decide which is more valuable. I suspect that some will tell the RIAA not to sue violators of their copyrights while other record companies will still want to sue.
Chances are they had some pro bono lawyer who didn't have time to really study the case. He saw a list of songs the girl was trading and said, "looks like you're guilty, take the offer". And he'd be right. Why would this family take the chance of losing in court (which they couldn't pay for to begin with) and owing many times more money?
THIS is exactly why Open Source works. It's not because of IBM or Red Hat or geeks from Finland. It's because people in the community are willing to step up to any challenge.
Thanks, ESR.
But how many elephants is that?
Did they mean dessert robot race? My entry will be CowboyNealBot.
I think the answer is pretty obvious.
Obviously, if Microsoft provided exactly what these governments wanted in an OS they wouldn't going off and making their own. They're not deciding who wins, they're trying to get the OS they want.
"I owe most of my karma to SCO"
Nice sig. By extension, I guess this means Slashdot is a derivative of System V.
I'm sure the government will step in and ensure changes are made before we have a massive blackout.
The whole "Track and Trace" thing is what bothers me the most. What information are they going to send? What about a remote exploit? What if I have a firewall? What amount of network usage will this require?
You can't just have a low-level part of the computer like the BIOS start connecting to the Internet to send out information and not expect huge security and privacy problems.
I have dealt very closly with IBM engineers for several years. I pushed Linux on them years ago and they pushed back with AIX (settled on NT due to costs), then they pushed Linux next time around. I actually ran one of their first production Websphere on Linux web sites when their very beta Websphere for Linux was released as a final version.
I still won't claim to be an expert, but given my background with IBM I would have to say that if they are recommending it, then it's probably the worst thing you can possibly do. IMO, they experiment on their customers. At least they did on me. The worst part is that my experience shows they are not very adept at getting people to help you through problems. They'll send somebody in who's read the manual and he'll hack around for a few days before calling in the real guy.
Any idea how much bandwidth costs? At work our site can push through 6GB a day on 50,000 visitors. Hosting cost us $70,000 last year. Sooner or later that $20/member is going to run out.
What does that do? I put it in my console and it didn't do anything. I'll leave it running for a few years just to be sure. I'd better try it on all the college computer labs, too, so I can verify any output.
First a paperless office and now no physical media.
I don't know why NYC doesn't show as completely dark, but I don't think the population density is much higher than that of Toronto. It IS higher, but not nearly enough to make the difference from black to light. Those lights on the map show a HUGE area, not just NYC. I'm guessing that some outlying areas had at least partial power.
If you're happy with Redhat's software installation then you've never tried Suse. Now THAT'S how software installation should be done.
For any programs that come with Suse you simply navigate to it in the install menu and Yast will install it after asking for the CD (or it will get it via FTP). If you want to install a different package like an RPM, Yast will take over and do it exactly how Suse apps are installed, including menu items.
Read those points again. Both explicitly deal with the license and GCC's license will not change to deny its use on SCO systems. GCC does not have to be compatible with every sytem in existence to be Open Source, as you seem to think.
If MS started shipping Mozilla, PostgreSQL and Eudora with Windows I don't think anybody would complain.