Redhat *MUST SPEND* resources for very little profit in order to 'sell' Linux. They are unable to make changes to the system's GPL'd parts without releasing the changes, thereby bringing the value of their contribution to zero. They are required by the GPL to do this to ensure that the software remains Free.
Their entire business plan revolves around supporting Linux, a product to which they control very little IP. At no point could they go off and create an optimized RedHat Linux that they, and only they, could sell. A business built around something that is easily replicated and at its core nonessential is on precarious ground and at the mercy of its employees.
If at any time the employees decided to leave to start a new company, they would be able to take with them all the GPL'd IP that exists. The original company (let's say RedHat) would have no business advantage over the new company, and in fact be at a significant disadvantage if they were to lose their best engineers to the new company.
So as a business case goes, companies basing their products and services on Free Software have significant hurdles to overcome, and it is clear from the examples given above that even if the initial hurdles are cleared there are an infinite number of hurdles remaining. These hurdles are in place exactly because of the nature of Free Software.
Despite DashingLeech's long, yet vapid, response to the article claiming that Linux is somehow cheaper than BSD and that Lyons didn't conduct a cost/benefit analysis, he misses the essential point.
Linux is Free Software.
This is misread by almost everyone in the business community and seriously almost everyone in the OSS community. Even the originator of the concept doesn't fully grasp the depth of the statement as he has become one of the proponents of what I call "the Free Software Lie". The Lie is that the "Free" in Free Software is freedom for the developer. It is NOT.
The Freedom referred to in Free Software is freedom for the software under the GPL. Because of the license, the Software has gained Freedom from being exploited in a commercial sense. It is Free from the possibility of being exploited for personal gain of a company.
It is precisely unfit for business for exactly the things that Lyons says in his article. Companies can't imprison or hide the software and remain in the good graces of the GPL and copyright law. If you want a license that grants developers rights, then stick with the BSD (UnFree) license. If you care about the Freedom of Software, then go with the GPL.
I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but there have been a lot of security updates lately. The pace of patching has increased significantly since the time XP was released.
I wonder if they've got some better testers in there or some new automatic code scanning software that can find exploits easily.
NES cartridges were specially designed to help the large-handed Americans grasp the cartridge. Famicom cartridges are smaller and sleeker and cannot be played in the NES machine.
The article is not clear, however it stands to reason that this adapter may only work with Famicom cartridges and not with the clumsier NES cartridges.
The games back then were much better than games today in getting kids interested in programming. Who among us didn't look at a game and think of ways to make it better? It wasn't that hard to think of improvements, c'mon, look at the games!
So we got a copy of the BASIC source on our Apple ][ and changed the background color. Or we added beeps (chr$(7)) to certain events. It was pretty easy to implement the improvement because everything was a piece of cake to get to.
Today's games are polished beyond belief. No doubt that the games made today blow away older games in terms of gameplay, graphics, audio, and any other parameter you can apply to a game. In essence, the game is finished at the time you buy it. Sure, you can improve games like Doom or Quake or CS with graphics tweaks that take weeks and special software to develop, but the incentive isn't there as the games, as delivered, are usually really good.
So you end up with kids who are accustomed to simply plugging in the latest and greatest game and playing it as is, without any thought as to improving it or writing their own. Even if they do think about writing their own they quickly become discouraged to learn how hard it is to actually come up with something interesting.
This all leads to a lower number of programmers in the future, as we are currently training them to be users instead of builders.
On the one hand you have Edison, a generally gregarious fellow who worked hard and built a company full of smart folks and is remembered as one of the fathers of invention. He was probably a little overboard taking credit where credit wasn't due, but as the CEO you get to do that.
On the other hand you have Tesla, a genius in every respect of the word. Smart, talented, able to make leaps of intuition where others (including Edison) muddled, and able to cause an uproar with his outrageous comments and frequently backed up his statements with serious science. He was a geek, IOW.
One died rich and went down in history as a great inventor. The other died poor and in poor standing with the scientific community and is generally regarded as a kook.
You can't seriously say that Edison was the one who made the mistakes.
1) Stop by your local asian food market and get several packages of salted dried plums. There are different types, so try to find one that is both sweet and sour.
2) Swing by the liquor store on the way back, it's probably near the asian food market. Pick up a bottle of tequila.
3) At home, take three shots of tequila from the new bottle of liquor.
4) Stuff as many pickled plums as possible into the tequila bottle.
5) Put in the freezer for at least 3 hours or until pickled plums imbue their color to the tequila. Tequila should also be ice cold.
6) Drink tequila in shots until bottle is empty.
7) If possible, use a chopstick to pull the tequila-soaked plums out of the bottle for a refreshing after-binge snack.
Repeat as necessary.
That was hilarious
on
Skittlebrau
·
· Score: 4, Funny
I have experienced no problems with it since I had VoIP installed by my ISP. Long distance calls to the US are essentially free, as are calls to Germany, Japan, and really anywhere except for Africa. I haven't tried calling NZ yet, but I imagine that it's pretty much the same as calling any other place in Oceania.
However, I'd suggest skipping the Ansel Adams texts altogether and get the Basic Techniques book right off the bat. It distills all three Adams' books into a larger and frankly more interesting text than its sources. It's also cheaper to get the one Schaefer book than to get the three Adams books. It would be redundant to buy all four. So either buy 1,2,and 3, or buy 4. After finishing these books you will have an experts understanding of what your camera can do and how to make it do it.
However, despite having read the excellent books recommended by muonzoo, I found that they skimped on the topic of composition. At least they were very vague and 'mysterious' when discussing composition. The National Geographic Photoguide series does a really good job at introducing the basics and techniques of composition (at the cost of skimping on camera basics). In combination with the Adams/Schaefer recommendations, the Burian/Caputo books can really jump start your photography hobby.
Barring all this reading, you can spend a few bucks and take some photography classes at the community college. That's always a possibility, but it's also hit or miss as to what level the teacher is ready to take you. If you focus (as so many geeks do) on the techniques of photographing you may find yourself a technical wiz, but without an artistic sense your pictures may be lackluster. The technical aspect is really the least important part of taking a picture and one that you can learn in a couple weeks time. The artistic sense takes a much longer time to develop and much more intellectual energy to tune.
We first had these two great movies, Alien and Predator.
Alien featured a lesbian Sigourney Weaver (but I repeat myself) and a gruesome thing which poked its way through people's stomachs and that you could pretend that you didn't see the cheezy stick manipulating it.
Predator featured two future governors! One was Jesse "I ain't got time to bleed" the body Ventura, and the other was Arnold "Whachu talkin' 'bout Willis" Schwarzenegger. There was also some weird invisible guy who ran around the jungle killing people.
Capitalizing on the success of these two movies, game makers made a game where the Alien from Alien and the Predator from Predator fought. They keep remaking this game.
I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to be able to track people. However, there must be some limit placed upon the government to prevent them from tracking people beyond their warrant.
I think it'd be a good idea to just set the cutoff at 18 years of age, or whatever age of adulthood is in a particular country, and make it legal to track minors. That way these towers could work in partnership with parents instead of being some dark government bogeyman.
but bad for the individual. I have no problem with the concept, it is actually a very good one.
However, when the initial concept that "an ex-employee ought not to make an identical product as one that his previous company made" becomes "you'll never work in this town again", something is wrong.
I don't blame this on anyone but the Canadian courts for such a travesty. The engineers involved are effectively prevented from earning a livelihood because of the injunction.
Slashdot Mirror
And then there was this 500 Internal Server Error and my wit and wisdom were lost forever to the bit bucket in the sky.
But we aren't disagreeing.
Redhat *MUST SPEND* resources for very little profit in order to 'sell' Linux. They are unable to make changes to the system's GPL'd parts without releasing the changes, thereby bringing the value of their contribution to zero. They are required by the GPL to do this to ensure that the software remains Free.
Their entire business plan revolves around supporting Linux, a product to which they control very little IP. At no point could they go off and create an optimized RedHat Linux that they, and only they, could sell. A business built around something that is easily replicated and at its core nonessential is on precarious ground and at the mercy of its employees.
If at any time the employees decided to leave to start a new company, they would be able to take with them all the GPL'd IP that exists. The original company (let's say RedHat) would have no business advantage over the new company, and in fact be at a significant disadvantage if they were to lose their best engineers to the new company.
So as a business case goes, companies basing their products and services on Free Software have significant hurdles to overcome, and it is clear from the examples given above that even if the initial hurdles are cleared there are an infinite number of hurdles remaining. These hurdles are in place exactly because of the nature of Free Software.
Despite DashingLeech's long, yet vapid, response to the article claiming that Linux is somehow cheaper than BSD and that Lyons didn't conduct a cost/benefit analysis, he misses the essential point.
Linux is Free Software.
This is misread by almost everyone in the business community and seriously almost everyone in the OSS community. Even the originator of the concept doesn't fully grasp the depth of the statement as he has become one of the proponents of what I call "the Free Software Lie". The Lie is that the "Free" in Free Software is freedom for the developer. It is NOT.
The Freedom referred to in Free Software is freedom for the software under the GPL. Because of the license, the Software has gained Freedom from being exploited in a commercial sense. It is Free from the possibility of being exploited for personal gain of a company.
It is precisely unfit for business for exactly the things that Lyons says in his article. Companies can't imprison or hide the software and remain in the good graces of the GPL and copyright law. If you want a license that grants developers rights, then stick with the BSD (UnFree) license. If you care about the Freedom of Software, then go with the GPL.
I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but there have been a lot of security updates lately. The pace of patching has increased significantly since the time XP was released.
I wonder if they've got some better testers in there or some new automatic code scanning software that can find exploits easily.
There were 7 updates yesterday!
When asked, say you are bound by an NDA and can't divulge any information about the projects except in the broadest terms.
You will be hired for being able to keep a secret. It's an asset that companies find very valuable.
Was the word 'ban' not clear enough?
It's MSN Messenger.
NES cartridges were specially designed to help the large-handed Americans grasp the cartridge. Famicom cartridges are smaller and sleeker and cannot be played in the NES machine.
The article is not clear, however it stands to reason that this adapter may only work with Famicom cartridges and not with the clumsier NES cartridges.
So one CIO in 7 has changed his plans to switch to Linux.
That's not a paltry number, I'm sure.
A more interesting article regarding kids and games today is here.
The games back then were much better than games today in getting kids interested in programming. Who among us didn't look at a game and think of ways to make it better? It wasn't that hard to think of improvements, c'mon, look at the games!
So we got a copy of the BASIC source on our Apple ][ and changed the background color. Or we added beeps (chr$(7)) to certain events. It was pretty easy to implement the improvement because everything was a piece of cake to get to.
Today's games are polished beyond belief. No doubt that the games made today blow away older games in terms of gameplay, graphics, audio, and any other parameter you can apply to a game. In essence, the game is finished at the time you buy it. Sure, you can improve games like Doom or Quake or CS with graphics tweaks that take weeks and special software to develop, but the incentive isn't there as the games, as delivered, are usually really good.
So you end up with kids who are accustomed to simply plugging in the latest and greatest game and playing it as is, without any thought as to improving it or writing their own. Even if they do think about writing their own they quickly become discouraged to learn how hard it is to actually come up with something interesting.
This all leads to a lower number of programmers in the future, as we are currently training them to be users instead of builders.
On the one hand you have Edison, a generally gregarious fellow who worked hard and built a company full of smart folks and is remembered as one of the fathers of invention. He was probably a little overboard taking credit where credit wasn't due, but as the CEO you get to do that.
On the other hand you have Tesla, a genius in every respect of the word. Smart, talented, able to make leaps of intuition where others (including Edison) muddled, and able to cause an uproar with his outrageous comments and frequently backed up his statements with serious science. He was a geek, IOW.
One died rich and went down in history as a great inventor. The other died poor and in poor standing with the scientific community and is generally regarded as a kook.
You can't seriously say that Edison was the one who made the mistakes.
The rabbit hole goes deeper than you can imagine.
1) Stop by your local asian food market and get several packages of salted dried plums. There are different types, so try to find one that is both sweet and sour.
2) Swing by the liquor store on the way back, it's probably near the asian food market. Pick up a bottle of tequila.
3) At home, take three shots of tequila from the new bottle of liquor.
4) Stuff as many pickled plums as possible into the tequila bottle.
5) Put in the freezer for at least 3 hours or until pickled plums imbue their color to the tequila. Tequila should also be ice cold.
6) Drink tequila in shots until bottle is empty.
7) If possible, use a chopstick to pull the tequila-soaked plums out of the bottle for a refreshing after-binge snack.
Repeat as necessary.
I've got brauspittle all over my keyboard!
In the end a Patriot missile took out the Chinese ICBMs.
I think Morgan Freeman and Jack Palance were in it.
Snail mail doesn't require a password.
I have experienced no problems with it since I had VoIP installed by my ISP. Long distance calls to the US are essentially free, as are calls to Germany, Japan, and really anywhere except for Africa. I haven't tried calling NZ yet, but I imagine that it's pretty much the same as calling any other place in Oceania.
However, I'd suggest skipping the Ansel Adams texts altogether and get the Basic Techniques book right off the bat. It distills all three Adams' books into a larger and frankly more interesting text than its sources. It's also cheaper to get the one Schaefer book than to get the three Adams books. It would be redundant to buy all four. So either buy 1,2,and 3, or buy 4. After finishing these books you will have an experts understanding of what your camera can do and how to make it do it.
However, despite having read the excellent books recommended by muonzoo, I found that they skimped on the topic of composition. At least they were very vague and 'mysterious' when discussing composition. The National Geographic Photoguide series does a really good job at introducing the basics and techniques of composition (at the cost of skimping on camera basics). In combination with the Adams/Schaefer recommendations, the Burian/Caputo books can really jump start your photography hobby.
Barring all this reading, you can spend a few bucks and take some photography classes at the community college. That's always a possibility, but it's also hit or miss as to what level the teacher is ready to take you. If you focus (as so many geeks do) on the techniques of photographing you may find yourself a technical wiz, but without an artistic sense your pictures may be lackluster. The technical aspect is really the least important part of taking a picture and one that you can learn in a couple weeks time. The artistic sense takes a much longer time to develop and much more intellectual energy to tune.
We first had these two great movies, Alien and Predator.
Alien featured a lesbian Sigourney Weaver (but I repeat myself) and a gruesome thing which poked its way through people's stomachs and that you could pretend that you didn't see the cheezy stick manipulating it.
Predator featured two future governors! One was Jesse "I ain't got time to bleed" the body Ventura, and the other was Arnold "Whachu talkin' 'bout Willis" Schwarzenegger. There was also some weird invisible guy who ran around the jungle killing people.
Capitalizing on the success of these two movies, game makers made a game where the Alien from Alien and the Predator from Predator fought. They keep remaking this game.
The end
Is it cheaper to get a printer only to find out that your scanner needs to upgraded?
Perhaps it would be better to get a better scanner and monitors in the first place.
A little rocket to scare those pesky rebels back into submission, eh Mao?
"Oh yeah, btw, these rockets can also be refitted with those kooky warheads, ring-a-ding-ding!"
I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to be able to track people. However, there must be some limit placed upon the government to prevent them from tracking people beyond their warrant.
I think it'd be a good idea to just set the cutoff at 18 years of age, or whatever age of adulthood is in a particular country, and make it legal to track minors. That way these towers could work in partnership with parents instead of being some dark government bogeyman.
but bad for the individual. I have no problem with the concept, it is actually a very good one.
However, when the initial concept that "an ex-employee ought not to make an identical product as one that his previous company made" becomes "you'll never work in this town again", something is wrong.
I don't blame this on anyone but the Canadian courts for such a travesty. The engineers involved are effectively prevented from earning a livelihood because of the injunction.
Quebec, no less.
It's the kissing disease.
And all the little elves are chained to their benches.
When we need a little more output we tell the drummer to increase the tempo and in cases that we are really falling behind we break out the whip.
Sometimes we get the whip out just for the hell of it. It's a great motivator and a lot of fun.