Surely we're not supposed to remember it. MS depends upon customers being forgetful. I remember when computers were reliable. (But then, that was 1976 on a computer which ran millions of instructions per second and we had access to the vendor's source code and shared our improvements with others...and added improvements while making code smaller.) After all, they execute the same instructions the same way every time.
Actually, the TV show Voyager showed the extreme sport version of this: re-entry wearing only an armored space suit. None of this namby-pamby parachute-like heat shield. Just friction against your suit, varied based on how you choose to fly.
I remember these inflatable cones were proposed decades ago for space station lifeboats. An astronaut in a suit would be able to do an emergency re-entry with this technology. I think NASA was not considering full lifeboats due to mass and complexity -- they already have human-qualified life support spacesuits.
Christopher Reeve is funding several research projects related to curing spinal cord damage. He has stated that he's simply aiming to get himself and people like him cured. A few days ago a project partially funded by him said they'd persuaded rat spinal nerves to grow by canceling the "Nogo protein" which causes them to not regrow.
"The possibility that the Internet (where data can be updated instantly) will nearly eliminate disks as the medium of choice shows the risks of making laws in a technologically fast-moving field. On the Internet, a server can detect enormous amounts of copying from a single user and block access to that user."
Technology has rendered such blocking obsolete also. A "single user" cannot be identified due to the possibilities of one process using multiple IP addresses due to proxies or variable addresses (random dialup IP addresses or DHCP-assigned IP addresses on high-speed links). And that's without using anonymous server technologies which are designed to hide requestor information.
Keep in mind that "it doesn't affect him" also applies to internal effects. A reporter who reports based on their emotions will be biased toward reporting which does not conflict with their own emotional viewpoint of an issue. The "vested interest" may not be apparent on any external facts (I'd say "not on paper" except it may be discerned through reading past reports).
Actually, at the time Transmeta hired Linus this "Linux" thing hadn't been recognized by most markets as significant, so at the time how much it might affect marketing was not obvious. Transmeta obviously saw some possibilities and was willing to invest somewhat in Linux. Linus obviously chose a place where he'd be able to do interesting things while continuing to develop Linux. Linus probably charged somewhat more for his services due to his Linux leadership, and Transmeta was obviously willing to pay a satisfactory amount.
Transmeta certainly wasn't making itself obvious during recent years, other than perhaps maintaining a scent of mystery. Their employment of certain people attracted some attention. But the attention we've been seeing up to now has been outsiders trying to look behind the curtain.
They certainly could have emitted occasional press releases which mentioned Linus or Linux if they wanted to use him in public. Well, they could if their contract with Linus doesn't forbid it...we don't know.
Notice that it did best on TWO, SIX, and SEVEN. Those have plosive and hisser fricative sounds which are very easy to detect. Actually, microphone noise resembles them.
Actually, trade secrets can be used if the holder of the secret gave it to you and if you help them keep the secret (the agreement between the two of you will have such details).
Also, you can use a trade secret if you discover it legally. You can't steal the secret from a safe. You could analyze the product yourself and try to duplicate it. The secret holder is not required to confirm that you did it right, of course. But the keeper of the secret has no legal protection against someone else rediscovering the secret. [IANAL; you can look it up in any introductory protection document]
The simple solution to making a warning sign for 500 years in the future is issue a yearly contract to a paint shop to repaint the sign in the current language.;-)
Of course, although your punch cards have survived your storage room you no longer have a card reader. Fortunately, you can read them with your sheetfed scanner or holding them in front of your video camera...
[In case you're referring to my own converting-code-to-GPL, that was actually done by the original copyright holder at the time that I was given the code...but I'm just mentioning this for future readers as you probably did not realize that someone in this thread was involved in a similar situation]
The greatest government-mandated spring game: Tax!
Of course there's a different version already for each country that needs one, but a good Linux tax calculation program would be nice. Notice that actually all that's needed are
Spreadsheet
Spreadsheet definition for this tax year
Printing program (to print the spreadsheet info in acceptable format)
Those of us in the USA know that the most popular programs aren't available for Linux. All that's needed is for one company to make their tax rules definition public so a Linux tax program can be written to use it -- then the tax product company is actually selling copies of their annual tax database.
No, Earth is not covered and is not a closed system. The top of our atmosphere leaks, and we're venting gases just as Mars did. Fortunately we've got more gases, have greater gravity so leak more slowly, and might be reabsorbing more snowballs (if we are indeed getting hit by ice from space...some of that would be our own leakage). Warmer gases will expand the atmosphere and more will leak away more quickly (in addition to dragging more on Mir). Not a problem as long as we've got enough water to keep making enough water vapor to keep us above the freezing point (where we'd be without the water vapor greenhouse).
Well, temperatures are higher now that in the "Mini Ice Age" several hundred years ago. Look it up, and then see if your favorite environmentalists started measuring temperatures from that known extraordinary low point.
Yes, I recognize the satire of the posting I'm replying to.
Actually, open source is also a trap for thieves. As the full code is probably available in machine-readable form, a thief is more likely to steal it whole. This makes the stolen code easier to identify than if the thief was looking at the code, such as in a book, and while retyping it was tempted to tinker with the implementation of the algorithm. A lazy thief will just steal code. A license violator may go to the trouble of understanding the algorithm and rewriting part of it (although even a line of original GPL code is enough to keep it under the GPL).
Yes, people stealing GPL modules for use in proprietary shells would be improper. But as GPL source is open, it is susceptible to such theft. There's not much you can do other than make sure each module is clearly labeled as being under the GPL, and even then it won't matter as a criminal is not stopped by laws.
Later you can scan commercial programs for the fingerprints of your routines (sequences of code, etc.), but at that point you're trying to do law enforcement rather than prevention. If you're keeping records of how much time was spent on each routine that may help set a price/damages for any court case, but here we're wandering in the nebulous world of what may be decided at the stroke of a judge's pen.
The original article can be interpreted several ways. My insight was based on people replacing modules with compatible proprietary ones. I'll reply separately to the other thread about stealing modules.
It's an open interface. It's designed so others can interface to it. You can't stop it. You really should be asking how to embrace it.
You could produce a manual which clearly describes the components and interfaces, and get a tiny income by selling it to that handful of developers who will be creating new modules.
You could make what you're supplying so good that nobody will want to replace it.
You could encourage replacement of components and focus on providing good parts for those components. Such as assuming that your user interface isn't the best, but you've decided that you're just making a user interface which is so flexible that it will be tuned by others to do what they need.
Well, this article reeks of Freud's dreams. I thought psychological classes were now teaching better concepts than id/ego/superego. Or maybe the author only had an introductory course and he'll know better next semester.
Personally, I prefer the Triune Brain and variations thereof. The "power" which the original author ascribed to high-level conscious thought would be low-level reptilian preservation and domination instinct. The "community" is from the mammalian brain, whose emotions often are wired for herd or wolf-pack behavior, depending upon the species.
This article has some interesting observations, but I think they are pigeonholed in some obsolete psychological technology.
He should go on that quiz show only if he's wearing a Linux-powered wearable and we can all see his webcast...and have our votes visible in his monitor. Of course they might have some rules against that for some reason...
Slashdot Mirror
Surely we're not supposed to remember it. MS depends upon customers being forgetful. I remember when computers were reliable. (But then, that was 1976 on a computer which ran millions of instructions per second and we had access to the vendor's source code and shared our improvements with others...and added improvements while making code smaller.) After all, they execute the same instructions the same way every time.
Oh, but is it the respondents or MS which is predictable?
Actually, the TV show Voyager showed the extreme sport version of this: re-entry wearing only an armored space suit. None of this namby-pamby parachute-like heat shield. Just friction against your suit, varied based on how you choose to fly.
At first I thought someone was testing rubber duckies in zero-gravity water puddles.
I remember these inflatable cones were proposed decades ago for space station lifeboats. An astronaut in a suit would be able to do an emergency re-entry with this technology. I think NASA was not considering full lifeboats due to mass and complexity -- they already have human-qualified life support spacesuits.
Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation
Keep in mind that "it doesn't affect him" also applies to internal effects. A reporter who reports based on their emotions will be biased toward reporting which does not conflict with their own emotional viewpoint of an issue. The "vested interest" may not be apparent on any external facts (I'd say "not on paper" except it may be discerned through reading past reports).
Transmeta certainly wasn't making itself obvious during recent years, other than perhaps maintaining a scent of mystery. Their employment of certain people attracted some attention. But the attention we've been seeing up to now has been outsiders trying to look behind the curtain.
They certainly could have emitted occasional press releases which mentioned Linus or Linux if they wanted to use him in public. Well, they could if their contract with Linus doesn't forbid it...we don't know.
Notice that it did best on TWO, SIX, and SEVEN. Those have plosive and hisser fricative sounds which are very easy to detect. Actually, microphone noise resembles them.
Also, you can use a trade secret if you discover it legally. You can't steal the secret from a safe. You could analyze the product yourself and try to duplicate it. The secret holder is not required to confirm that you did it right, of course. But the keeper of the secret has no legal protection against someone else rediscovering the secret. [IANAL; you can look it up in any introductory protection document]
The simple solution to making a warning sign for 500 years in the future is issue a yearly contract to a paint shop to repaint the sign in the current language. ;-)
Because they'll TRY to scan everything with them?
Of course, although your punch cards have survived your storage room you no longer have a card reader. Fortunately, you can read them with your sheetfed scanner or holding them in front of your video camera...
[In case you're referring to my own converting-code-to-GPL, that was actually done by the original copyright holder at the time that I was given the code...but I'm just mentioning this for future readers as you probably did not realize that someone in this thread was involved in a similar situation]
No, because moderation is often needed before there are 50 comments in order to separate the noise from the signal. [Pun Intentional]
Of course there's a different version already for each country that needs one, but a good Linux tax calculation program would be nice. Notice that actually all that's needed are
- Spreadsheet
- Spreadsheet definition for this tax year
- Printing program (to print the spreadsheet info in acceptable format)
Those of us in the USA know that the most popular programs aren't available for Linux. All that's needed is for one company to make their tax rules definition public so a Linux tax program can be written to use it -- then the tax product company is actually selling copies of their annual tax database.No, Earth is not covered and is not a closed system. The top of our atmosphere leaks, and we're venting gases just as Mars did. Fortunately we've got more gases, have greater gravity so leak more slowly, and might be reabsorbing more snowballs (if we are indeed getting hit by ice from space...some of that would be our own leakage). Warmer gases will expand the atmosphere and more will leak away more quickly (in addition to dragging more on Mir). Not a problem as long as we've got enough water to keep making enough water vapor to keep us above the freezing point (where we'd be without the water vapor greenhouse).
Yes, I recognize the satire of the posting I'm replying to.
Actually, open source is also a trap for thieves. As the full code is probably available in machine-readable form, a thief is more likely to steal it whole. This makes the stolen code easier to identify than if the thief was looking at the code, such as in a book, and while retyping it was tempted to tinker with the implementation of the algorithm. A lazy thief will just steal code. A license violator may go to the trouble of understanding the algorithm and rewriting part of it (although even a line of original GPL code is enough to keep it under the GPL).
Later you can scan commercial programs for the fingerprints of your routines (sequences of code, etc.), but at that point you're trying to do law enforcement rather than prevention. If you're keeping records of how much time was spent on each routine that may help set a price/damages for any court case, but here we're wandering in the nebulous world of what may be decided at the stroke of a judge's pen.
The original article can be interpreted several ways. My insight was based on people replacing modules with compatible proprietary ones. I'll reply separately to the other thread about stealing modules.
You could produce a manual which clearly describes the components and interfaces, and get a tiny income by selling it to that handful of developers who will be creating new modules.
You could make what you're supplying so good that nobody will want to replace it.
You could encourage replacement of components and focus on providing good parts for those components. Such as assuming that your user interface isn't the best, but you've decided that you're just making a user interface which is so flexible that it will be tuned by others to do what they need.
Personally, I prefer the Triune Brain and variations thereof. The "power" which the original author ascribed to high-level conscious thought would be low-level reptilian preservation and domination instinct. The "community" is from the mammalian brain, whose emotions often are wired for herd or wolf-pack behavior, depending upon the species.
This article has some interesting observations, but I think they are pigeonholed in some obsolete psychological technology.
He should go on that quiz show only if he's wearing a Linux-powered wearable and we can all see his webcast...and have our votes visible in his monitor. Of course they might have some rules against that for some reason...