Information wants to be free, not because it is concious and has desires, but because of entropy. Gas molecules want to spread out everywhere instead of clumping up in the corner. Information wants to be free. Entropy.
Re:Competing with pretty good products
on
Why Not MySQL?
·
· Score: 1
But regarding their GPLing an obsolete version: so what? That's useless. What are people going to do: fork it? Take a couple year old product and re-invent features in the latest version? I didn't think so... Well, if they were just going to re-invent the features of the latest version, then they should just use the latest version! But if they want to take a different path, then they are free to save many years of effort and start with the version that has been GPL'd. No?
Well it looks like people use the networking side of X more than I thought, though I'm not convinced that they are doing anything that can't be done as well through a web browswer or java app, which seem to be easier to implement, more platform independent, and probably less of a headache in the long run. Once dhtml and other advanced web-based specs take foot, the argument for running a low level graphics connection over the network would seem pointless to me in most situations.
I don't think the typical desktop user - the ones that are holding back on linux because of it's gui's and lack of microsoft office - would even care if the network features were missing.
Yeah yeah, X runs over a network. That's great. I would gladly give up that overhead in a flash if I could get better hardware and font support. In my short 12 years of running X, I have used it over a network exactly 5 times. If I wan't to do something to a remote computer I'll just do it in a shell or through a web browser. That's what I'm using 95% of the time I'm on the machine anyway. Really, now be honest, how many of you people really need to use X over a network? Honest answers please...
Re:Competing with pretty good products
on
Why Not MySQL?
·
· Score: 1
I'm not sure if you are agree or disagree with me, or what the flaw in my logic is. I simply stated it is good to have source code whether it is officially Open Source buzz word compliant or not. You seem to be agreeing with me that it helps to track down and fix bugs that would otherwise be obscure, right? I enjoy writing medical applications too!
I enjoyed reading your comment. I used to use C++ heavily. I bought into the Java hype and I have a few python books. I've actually had a rather nice time with perl's OO. True to Perl's nature, it's OO constructs allow a lot of flexibility in implementating your goals. The only thing that scares me a bit is type safety, but for web apps it hasn't really been a big problem for me.
Why not write your access functions like:
sub setx {
$_[0]->{x}=$_[1]; }
Or sub property { return $_[0]->{$_[1]}=$_[2] if $_[2]; return $_[0]->{$_[1]}; }
Sure, it's ugly as hell when you first come to perl, but after a while it's not so bad at all.
You wrote: sub foo { my %hash = @_; die "foo not found" unless exists $hash{foo}; die "bar not found" unless exists $hash{bar}: unless ( $hash{bar} > 5 && $hash{bar} 5 && $y 10 ); $i = $x; $j = $y; $k = $z; for my $item ( @w ) {... } } # end foo
Why not sub foo { my $h=@_; for(qw(foo bar)) { die "$_ not found" unless exists $h{$_}} if( insert $h test conditions) { set variables } else { die "Invalid variables";} }
How much cleaner does it get with Python? (I don't have much experience with phython - so it's not a rhetorical question).
p.s. how do we get slashdot to print a right bracket?
Full server API accessible in resident scripting language.
Resident scripting language is TCL - not my favorite.
Re:Competing with pretty good products
on
Why Not MySQL?
·
· Score: 1
Give me a break! You know what I mean. So what buzz word do you use for programs whose source code is open if I can't use that word anymore. You can read the freakin source code!
Do you believe that there is no benefit to having the source code to a program you are using? Isn't that the biggest benefit of an official "Open Source" program? The ability to take the code and make your own competing product is less important since most people are just interested in using the program, and having the source code can definitely help track down some annoying bugs. I wonder how many "Open Source" fanatics actually read or write source code!
Re:Competing with pretty good products
on
Why Not MySQL?
·
· Score: 1
Most of the other open source products...???? Um, MySQL is not Open Source. Cheap: yes, Open Source: no
Strange you should say that, I seem to recall that you can download the source here
The latest version is not GPL, but the source is open for you to read and submit patches if you wish.
Do you believe the sales impact of fans trading mp3's, which is probably negligible, is greater than the impact of legal actions in alienating your fans? How carefully have you thought this through? You may not have intended it to come across this way, but your recent actions make it seem like you are more in touch with record company executives and lawyers than with your fans, which are increasingly on line.
I can respect your wanting to defend your ability to make a living, to control your music's presentation, and also stick up for the "little" artists. But you should know that most of the struggling artists out there make their living primarily on performing live, not from royalties. And taping and trading live shows doesn't seem to hurt the live show business, especially in your case. And what's wrong with giving up a little control and giving your fans a little freedom with your music - you made it for them didn't you?
Don't forget the coming (soon) age of intellegent machines (read Bill Joy's article) that are mobile (robots) and can adapt and autonomously reproduce.
Faster, stronger and smarter than us
Think they won't find a way around those "be nice to humans" instructions in their programs? Ha!
I agree. Printed manuals are largely a waste of money and space.
Better to have all of the documents in a database or CVS system so that you can always get the most up to date documents as well as the older ones. Updating paper is too much of a hassle.
It's good journalism to cite your sources. Even if it's just a username And the comments and usernames are already out there for everyone to read on Slashdot, so you aren't violating someone's privacy, etc by at least crediting their comments to them.
I demand the right to control who has access to my information, and how they can use it. This is about privacy as much as anything else. What's the difference between my private information and my source code?
Personal facts, which are specific to you, ought to be controlled by you. But what gives you the right, besides the unfair "intellectual property" system, to dictate how other people use information that is not specific to you - information that would still be relavant and useful to others even if you didn't exist. Nobody should be able to "own" information about the quickest way to sort, or the makeup and function of a human gene. If we completely rid ourselves of patents, would our way of life collapse? No. People would still want to pay money for good and services that they cannot produce for themselves or don't have time to do for themselves. Companies would still compete for those consumer's dollars. The companies that offered the most desireable implementations at a good price will flourish. The current anticompetitive situation in which potential comptetitors, who might offer consumers a cheaper or higher quality implementation, are held at bay by threats of patent litigation does not help consumers (who are the "society at large"). I think people need to get past the idea that an idea entitles you to some sort of windfall just because you got to the patent office first. That just invites laziness. Consumers don't give a flip about your idea. They want a product, and they want to buy the cheapest, best quality version of it they can get. That process of creating, distributing, and supporting a product is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. The rewards should go to the people that best give consumers what they want, not those who are best at hoarding "intellectual property". So if there is no IP, does that mean that nobody is going to do any more research? No! You will still do research to get ahead. Even if others can duplicate your work over time, you still get the rewards of faster time to market. That's right - you should be rewarded for being first to market, not first to the patent office! And when others are hot on your heels, you'd better think of the next step in getting ahead. Or some competitor will, and you will fall behind. That's too bad for you. But it's good for everyone else (consumers/ordinary people). It just makes a lot more economic sense.
Yes, the data in them may be public. But collecting it and putting it all together takes a lot of work!
But in the case of Ebay and lots of other sites, the information wasn't entered by the Ebay people, but rather the public. I think the meta-auction sites should be OK.
you sure as shit can't use English to solve problems in quantum chromodynamics.
Why not? There is a mapping that relates english words to the symbols and mathematical operations used to calculate quantum states. Just replace all the notation with the english equivolents and you're doing QCD in english. QED?
I firmly believe music servers will become the mainstay of the future stereo system. Get the music on that hard drive, and you can access it from anywhere in the house. 200 CD monster changers were a nice try, but not the answer. I want to get my CD on the network and NEVER touch it again.
And ultimately, why even keep the music and videos on your personal HD. You can already stream stuff from mp3.com and other sites. MP3.com also lets you create you own "radio station" that others can tune in to. I would be willing to pay a $20/month subscription fee for access to a complete online music server that lets me play anything of interest and create custom lists or queries.
If you don't mind me asking, how did you set up your server (I'm planning on putting together something similar for home). Linux/apache/mysql/mpg123 with multiple sound cards and amps? Any advice on multiple sound cards (which type) with Linux?
I know this sounds a bit superficial, but IMHO, you've got to consider the weather. Pittsburgh is charming enough and the steel industry smog seems to have cleared. It's just too cold!
While we're at it, we need to vacate Chicago too, as it is also way too cold. There are too many other areas in the country that are more conducive to human life. Just pack up all of the nice museums, restaurants, etc and ship them to Florida or South Carolina.
Not only am I happy to be Canadian, but also happy to have paid health coverage, and the chance at a good life in Canada. In the US, however, fear accompanies sickness because of the bills that will follow the treatment. Pretty sad if you ask me.
Ah, the healthcare angle again. It seems that the stereotype of the US is alive and well as we can all see.
In my personal experience as a doc in the US, I've had a lot of opportunities to discuss the US and Canadian systems with Canadian physicians and nurses that come here for training or work. While it is true that everyone in Canada has "insurance", the system is underfunded and there are huge problems with getting timely care. If you have an emergency condition, you will be treated promptly. But if you have nagging gallstone pain or near constant pain from a herniated disc, expect to wait quite a bit longer for treatment in Canada! Tired of waiting around for your public Canadian Orthopedic surgeon to fix that knee? You could try going to someone "out of the system" to get it done faster, but it is impossible because there is no private practice in Canada (by law)! Your choices are way too limited. A homeless bum in the U.S. could get his fixed faster than you as a charity case if he seeks care. At least in the UK patients have a choice between the "public" service and private practice.
The multitiered healthcare system in the U.S. is a paid for by an overly complex system of cost shifting that needs some simplification. But the U.S. system is nowhere near as bad as you seem to imply.
In Canada, public healthcare providers can, and do, go on strike (except for emergencies)! This is not an indictment of the Canadian health care providers since they are as good as any, but the system has serious undeniable problems and should not be held up as a shining example for everyone else in the world to strive for.
"Not for profit" hospitals in the U.S. get a tax break in return for committing to a certain amount of charity care. Any university hospital will take care of patients without any insurance. Of course the U.S system isn't without need for improvement, but the myth of a vast population of people in the US who have no access to medical care is way overblown. In fact, it isn't uncommon at all for Canadians who are tired of waiting around for care to fly down to the U.S. for treatment. The Mayo Clinic sees a lot of this, and even I, a relative pion, have taken care of some neglected Canadians.
I appreciate Canada for its safer cities, Rush, SCTV, hockey, scenic vistas, Vancouver, etc., but am not too fond of its tax policies, french successionist movement, cold temperatures, Celine Dion (sp?), or its healthcare system.
Slashdot Mirror
Information wants to be free, not because it is concious and has desires, but because of entropy. Gas molecules want to spread out everywhere instead of clumping up in the corner. Information wants to be free. Entropy.
But regarding their GPLing an obsolete version: so what? That's useless. What are people going to do: fork it? Take a couple year old product and re-invent features in the latest version? I didn't think so... Well, if they were just going to re-invent the features of the latest version, then they should just use the latest version! But if they want to take a different path, then they are free to save many years of effort and start with the version that has been GPL'd. No?
Well it looks like people use the networking side of X more than I thought, though I'm not convinced that they are doing anything that can't be done as well through a web browswer or java app, which seem to be easier to implement, more platform independent, and probably less of a headache in the long run. Once dhtml and other advanced web-based specs take foot, the argument for running a low level graphics connection over the network would seem pointless to me in most situations.
I don't think the typical desktop user - the ones that are holding back on linux because of it's gui's and lack of microsoft office - would even care if the network features were missing.
Yeah yeah, X runs over a network. That's great. I would gladly give up that overhead in a flash if I could get better hardware and font support. In my short 12 years of running X, I have used it over a network exactly 5 times. If I wan't to do something to a remote computer I'll just do it in a shell or through a web browser. That's what I'm using 95% of the time I'm on the machine anyway. Really, now be honest, how many of you people really need to use X over a network? Honest answers please...
I'm not sure if you are agree or disagree with me, or what the flaw in my logic is. I simply stated it is good to have source code whether it is officially Open Source buzz word compliant or not. You seem to be agreeing with me that it helps to track down and fix bugs that would otherwise be obscure, right? I enjoy writing medical applications too!
Why not write your access functions like:
How much cleaner does it get with Python? (I don't have much experience with phython - so it's not a rhetorical question).
p.s. how do we get slashdot to print a right bracket?
Give me a break! You know what I mean. So what buzz word do you use for programs whose source code is open if I can't use that word anymore. You can read the freakin source code!
Do you believe that there is no benefit to having the source code to a program you are using? Isn't that the biggest benefit of an official "Open Source" program? The ability to take the code and make your own competing product is less important since most people are just interested in using the program, and having the source code can definitely help track down some annoying bugs. I wonder how many "Open Source" fanatics actually read or write source code!
Most of the other open source products...???? Um, MySQL is not Open Source. Cheap: yes, Open Source: no
Strange you should say that, I seem to recall that you can download the source here
The latest version is not GPL, but the source is open for you to read and submit patches if you wish.
Do you believe the sales impact of fans trading mp3's, which is probably negligible, is greater than the impact of legal actions in alienating your fans? How carefully have you thought this through? You may not have intended it to come across this way, but your recent actions make it seem like you are more in touch with record company executives and lawyers than with your fans, which are increasingly on line.
I can respect your wanting to defend your ability to make a living, to control your music's presentation, and also stick up for the "little" artists. But you should know that most of the struggling artists out there make their living primarily on performing live, not from royalties. And taping and trading live shows doesn't seem to hurt the live show business, especially in your case. And what's wrong with giving up a little control and giving your fans a little freedom with your music - you made it for them didn't you?
Don't forget the coming (soon) age of intellegent machines (read Bill Joy's article) that are mobile (robots) and can adapt and autonomously reproduce.
Faster, stronger and smarter than us
Think they won't find a way around those "be nice to humans" instructions in their programs? Ha!
The human race is toast!
I agree. Printed manuals are largely a waste of money and space.
Better to have all of the documents in a database or CVS system so that you can always get the most up to date documents as well as the older ones. Updating paper is too much of a hassle.
Linus hates emacs. He uses vi.
It's good journalism to cite your sources.
Even if it's just a username
And the comments and usernames are already out there for everyone to read on Slashdot, so you aren't violating someone's privacy, etc by at least crediting their comments to them.
Is there a charity for that? Why not keep usernames attached to the comments?
If you haven't already done so, ready Susan Blackmore's "The Meme Machine". Memes now dominate genes ... Now where's the Human Memome Project?
Advertising memes. Pesky little things.
?
I thought Ethernet made do with 2. No?
It will be interesting to see if JINI catches on for these kinds of things.
Personal facts, which are specific to you, ought to be controlled by you. But what gives you the right, besides the unfair "intellectual property" system, to dictate how other people use information that is not specific to you - information that would still be relavant and useful to others even if you didn't exist. Nobody should be able to "own" information about the quickest way to sort, or the makeup and function of a human gene. If we completely rid ourselves of patents, would our way of life collapse? No. People would still want to pay money for good and services that they cannot produce for themselves or don't have time to do for themselves. Companies would still compete for those consumer's dollars. The companies that offered the most desireable implementations at a good price will flourish. The current anticompetitive situation in which potential comptetitors, who might offer consumers a cheaper or higher quality implementation, are held at bay by threats of patent litigation does not help consumers (who are the "society at large"). I think people need to get past the idea that an idea entitles you to some sort of windfall just because you got to the patent office first. That just invites laziness. Consumers don't give a flip about your idea. They want a product, and they want to buy the cheapest, best quality version of it they can get. That process of creating, distributing, and supporting a product is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. The rewards should go to the people that best give consumers what they want, not those who are best at hoarding "intellectual property". So if there is no IP, does that mean that nobody is going to do any more research? No! You will still do research to get ahead. Even if others can duplicate your work over time, you still get the rewards of faster time to market. That's right - you should be rewarded for being first to market, not first to the patent office! And when others are hot on your heels, you'd better think of the next step in getting ahead. Or some competitor will, and you will fall behind. That's too bad for you. But it's good for everyone else (consumers/ordinary people). It just makes a lot more economic sense.
But in the case of Ebay and lots of other sites, the information wasn't entered by the Ebay people, but rather the public. I think the meta-auction sites should be OK.
Why not? There is a mapping that relates english words to the symbols and mathematical operations used to calculate quantum states. Just replace all the notation with the english equivolents and you're doing QCD in english. QED?
And ultimately, why even keep the music and videos on your personal HD. You can already stream stuff from mp3.com and other sites. MP3.com also lets you create you own "radio station" that others can tune in to. I would be willing to pay a $20/month subscription fee for access to a complete online music server that lets me play anything of interest and create custom lists or queries.
If you don't mind me asking, how did you set up your server (I'm planning on putting together something similar for home). Linux/apache/mysql/mpg123 with multiple sound cards and amps? Any advice on multiple sound cards (which type) with Linux?
While we're at it, we need to vacate Chicago too, as it is also way too cold. There are too many other areas in the country that are more conducive to human life. Just pack up all of the nice museums, restaurants, etc and ship them to Florida or South Carolina.
Ah, the healthcare angle again. It seems that the stereotype of the US is alive and well as we can all see.
In my personal experience as a doc in the US, I've had a lot of opportunities to discuss the US and Canadian systems with Canadian physicians and nurses that come here for training or work. While it is true that everyone in Canada has "insurance", the system is underfunded and there are huge problems with getting timely care. If you have an emergency condition, you will be treated promptly. But if you have nagging gallstone pain or near constant pain from a herniated disc, expect to wait quite a bit longer for treatment in Canada! Tired of waiting around for your public Canadian Orthopedic surgeon to fix that knee? You could try going to someone "out of the system" to get it done faster, but it is impossible because there is no private practice in Canada (by law)! Your choices are way too limited. A homeless bum in the U.S. could get his fixed faster than you as a charity case if he seeks care. At least in the UK patients have a choice between the "public" service and private practice.
The multitiered healthcare system in the U.S. is a paid for by an overly complex system of cost shifting that needs some simplification. But the U.S. system is nowhere near as bad as you seem to imply.
In Canada, public healthcare providers can, and do, go on strike (except for emergencies)! This is not an indictment of the Canadian health care providers since they are as good as any, but the system has serious undeniable problems and should not be held up as a shining example for everyone else in the world to strive for.
"Not for profit" hospitals in the U.S. get a tax break in return for committing to a certain amount of charity care. Any university hospital will take care of patients without any insurance. Of course the U.S system isn't without need for improvement, but the myth of a vast population of people in the US who have no access to medical care is way overblown. In fact, it isn't uncommon at all for Canadians who are tired of waiting around for care to fly down to the U.S. for treatment. The Mayo Clinic sees a lot of this, and even I, a relative pion, have taken care of some neglected Canadians.
I appreciate Canada for its safer cities, Rush, SCTV, hockey, scenic vistas, Vancouver, etc., but am not too fond of its tax policies, french successionist movement, cold temperatures, Celine Dion (sp?), or its healthcare system.