My understanding when I read about their organization some time ago is that this inital letter is basically a flag in the ground. They'll come for the audit, and basically say "prove that this was purchased before we sent you the first letter". Its to prevent someone from going out and buying all the software they use once they know they're going to be audited ("here's the single receipt for all 23 seats we bought yesterday").
If this is the case I don't think there's a whole lot you can do... Get ready to negotiate!:-)
Using Linux for academic research is hardly a new idea. In my group alone one of the profs has been publishing papers and giving talks about research using Linux since 2000.
When I was thrust into the role of assistant System Administrator at the first company I worked at out of university, the "UNIX System Administration Handbook" by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, & Trent R. Hein was recommended to me as a good overview book of maintaining a Unix system, and a great reference for whenever you needed to do something. I was very impressed, still have and use my copy today, and would recommend it to any other new SysAdmin out there.
Everyone seems pretty down on this, but I think I'll throw out a question anyways:-).
It says free long distance and call forwarding in the article. Does this mean you could set yourself up as a relay for family members to call overseas? "Ok mom, call back in two minutes, and it'll ring through to Aunt Chow in Korea...". Can you do this with other VoIP services?
Up in Canada we can get free LD throughout the country fairly inexpensively, so it'd be possible to do this for all your relatives fairly easily...
Sorry if I was unclear in my writing (it happens often!:-), I was saying that Limewire DOES do this, but that they release their source. I still consider it commercial, but appreciate that they release the code. Since writing this I've found gnucleus from other posts here, which is exactly what I was calling out for!:-)
Next I'm going to put the call out for a machine to help us out with repetitive tasks. I think it should be called a... COMPUTER!
Why is it that EVERY p2p client/protocol seems to eventually bow to the wishes and choose these really slimey advertisement strategies? I *HATE* Gator and its ilk. I realize that the advertising piggy-bank has dried up, the p2p is way worse the other advertisement driven technologies, and in my mind, use far less resources (eDonkey has a few people doing development and whatnot, their only bandwidth costs are for the client download and hosting some forums. Slashdot has how many people and what kind of bandwidth usage???)
(sigh) Even though Gnutella started open-source, the only usable clients seem to commercial (which campy I'll include Limewire since they did a dance with the gator crew)... Seems to be crying out for a truely open-source alternative...
First I wasn't fast enough to get an advertisement driven PC, then I couldn't get a dot-com to give me a VW Beetle painted with their colours... now I'm too alive to cash in on this...
back to exchanging goods and/or services for money for me
It used to be that only the hackers were playing around with computers, and for them pirating presented no significant technical hurdles. Now everyone and his sister is using a computer, and they're far more likely to just go out and buy their OS, office and a couple of games to go with this nice shiny computer mom and dad bought them.
The computer nerds are probably copying just as much, its just that the nerds with computers are a smaller ratio of the user population every day.
I'm not totally sure about the legal question, but I *LOVE* these sites. I get nostalgic for games I played in my youth (some of which I even bought!;-) download them and am in heaven for a few minutes.
The funny this is, except for VERY rare great gameplay games, the novelty wears off pretty fast and I just delete it again for a few years. I really appreciate having them available though...
I was stuck in a cantina and needed some cash. There was a slot machine there, but being a young wholesome lad, I knew better then to gamble. Then I realized that I could save games between pulls. How can it be gambling if you never lose? Soon I was rolling in buckazoids and have done nothing but sink deeper into depravity since...
One thing no one seems to be talking about, which to my mind is at the heart of the case, is that this software lets you duplicate something that the publishers don't want you duplicating. I think the whole "letting poor blind hear books" is really beside the point and not something we should distract ourselves with. The publisher wants people to buy every copy they use, and consumers wants make backups (fair use) or to get it for free from their friends.
I don't think any law currently guarrantees the second position right now (otherwise why is it so difficult for me to make/use backups for my playstation games?) so isn't Adobe almost required to defend their intellectual property?
I also remember the glory days of RPG with games like "Bard's Tale" (which I *NEVER* managed to beat, yanked it out for a couple of days recently). Mapping and wandering the world seemed to be a big part of the experience, which they've streamlined away to make it easier to play through the game.
Part of me likes it though, I'm somewhat ashamed to admit. It used to really *SUCK* getting stuck at a certain stage in a game and not being able to progress because I had to be in a certain tile when the moon was full, and I needed to piece together clues from 5 towns people in 3 different towns to have figured out that was what I needed to do.
Its nice to know now that its shouldn't be TOO hard to keep going and I can enjoy the nice art, better battles, watching my characters improve and a storyline which, as you say, isn't much more complicated then a movie.
One thing that kind of gets me scatching my head (I'm sure its my intellectual shortcomings, not those who initate these projects) is the idea that "I'll finish this then release it as open source". I've seen the same thing with software projects where people say "I'll release the code once I've cleaned it up".
A better approach to my mind would be to start it open source from the get-go. Put your outline, rough content, ideas, etc. out there, and get peer review throughout the process. I'm sure people could contribute to every stage as you write the work, and opening it up in SOME format (it doesn't have to be pretty) wouldn't be too time consuming.
I was really excited initially when I saw they started releasing complete seasons of shows on DVD. Since getting a couple, truth be told, I hardly watch them at all... There's some things that I'm willing to invest the energy to put on and watch, and other things that I'm only willing to pick up when channel surfing.
The only thing I've found them really valuable for is when someone hasn't seen a series, and I want to show them a few episodes (e.g. The Sopranos). I was delighted to get the first season of "The Simpsons" and tore through the special features, but haven't watched a single episode from it. Something like TNG everyone's seen and I really can't see myself getting a craving to see "Data's Day" and throwing it on...
Am I a freak or do other people buy these things and not watch them?
I also graduated with a CS degree, so that's the only one I can really comment on. Most jobs I looked into (especially in the SF Bay area) wanted a CS degree, even for SysAdmin work (which to me, means they value something from the degree beyond technical competence, as I didn't take any courses that would have helped me with admin work).
Basically, IMHO, a CS degree will qualify you for just about any TECHNICAL direction you decide to move in. Its definitely what I would suggest.
Does anyone know who builds the systems that run wargames like this? Would it be internal to the military or do you think they'd contract out for the software (or at least tool sets to build the software)?
That'd be a pretty cool job setting up this sort of thing!
The thing to keep in mind with this sort of this, is there's a difference between necessarily owning the copyright/trademark/patent on something and enforcing. Michael Jackson owns the rights to "Happy Birthday", do you think he could sue any 8-year olds birthday party? What about a movie it was sung in? of course not...
I'm working in San Francisco having come here from Canada and the main reason I came here was because I could make a lot more money (double what some of my fellow graduates were making).
Probably most other countries will only want to be hiring Americans if they're really specialized, in which case the demand is higher than the supply, so try to get a high rate!
(travel is great, but visa issues/cultural adjustment/future uncertainty are all issues that you should be compensated for)
Slashdot Mirror
How did they deal with their Acacia demand?
If this is the case I don't think there's a whole lot you can do... Get ready to negotiate! :-)
I *THINK* hard drives tend to be about the same size physically.
Using Linux for academic research is hardly a new idea. In my group alone one of the profs has been publishing papers and giving talks about research using Linux since 2000.
d f - about the evolution of Linux
An example of such is http://plg.uwaterloo.ca/~migod/papers/evolution.p
To what do you attribute the disproportionate success Canadians have had as Comedians, Actors and Singers in the US?
As you've been all three, I assume you have a unique perspective on this.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0130206016/ qid=/sr=/ref=cm_lm_asin/103-3920026-0250219
When I was thrust into the role of assistant System Administrator at the first company I worked at out of university, the "UNIX System Administration Handbook" by Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass, & Trent R. Hein was recommended to me as a good overview book of maintaining a Unix system, and a great reference for whenever you needed to do something. I was very impressed, still have and use my copy today, and would recommend it to any other new SysAdmin out there.
Everyone seems pretty down on this, but I think I'll throw out a question anyways :-).
It says free long distance and call forwarding in the article. Does this mean you could set yourself up as a relay for family members to call overseas? "Ok mom, call back in two minutes, and it'll ring through to Aunt Chow in Korea...". Can you do this with other VoIP services?
Up in Canada we can get free LD throughout the country fairly inexpensively, so it'd be possible to do this for all your relatives fairly easily...
John
Sorry if I was unclear in my writing (it happens often! :-), I was saying that Limewire DOES do this, but that they release their source. I still consider it commercial, but appreciate that they release the code. Since writing this I've found gnucleus from other posts here, which is exactly what I was calling out for! :-)
Next I'm going to put the call out for a machine to help us out with repetitive tasks. I think it should be called a... COMPUTER!
Why is it that EVERY p2p client/protocol seems to eventually bow to the wishes and choose these really slimey advertisement strategies? I *HATE* Gator and its ilk. I realize that the advertising piggy-bank has dried up, the p2p is way worse the other advertisement driven technologies, and in my mind, use far less resources (eDonkey has a few people doing development and whatnot, their only bandwidth costs are for the client download and hosting some forums. Slashdot has how many people and what kind of bandwidth usage???)
(sigh) Even though Gnutella started open-source, the only usable clients seem to commercial (which campy I'll include Limewire since they did a dance with the gator crew)... Seems to be crying out for a truely open-source alternative...
First I wasn't fast enough to get an advertisement driven PC, then I couldn't get a dot-com to give me a VW Beetle painted with their colours... now I'm too alive to cash in on this...
back to exchanging goods and/or services for money for me
It used to be that only the hackers were playing around with computers, and for them pirating presented no significant technical hurdles. Now everyone and his sister is using a computer, and they're far more likely to just go out and buy their OS, office and a couple of games to go with this nice shiny computer mom and dad bought them.
The computer nerds are probably copying just as much, its just that the nerds with computers are a smaller ratio of the user population every day.
I'm not totally sure about the legal question, but I *LOVE* these sites. I get nostalgic for games I played in my youth (some of which I even bought! ;-) download them and am in heaven for a few minutes.
The funny this is, except for VERY rare great gameplay games, the novelty wears off pretty fast and I just delete it again for a few years. I really appreciate having them available though...
I remember it well...
I was stuck in a cantina and needed some cash. There was a slot machine there, but being a young wholesome lad, I knew better then to gamble. Then I realized that I could save games between pulls. How can it be gambling if you never lose? Soon I was rolling in buckazoids and have done nothing but sink deeper into depravity since...
Is where Vulcan is and how we can get in touch with them without having to build some dang warp powered rocket...
One thing no one seems to be talking about, which to my mind is at the heart of the case, is that this software lets you duplicate something that the publishers don't want you duplicating. I think the whole "letting poor blind hear books" is really beside the point and not something we should distract ourselves with. The publisher wants people to buy every copy they use, and consumers wants make backups (fair use) or to get it for free from their friends.
:-)
I don't think any law currently guarrantees the second position right now (otherwise why is it so difficult for me to make/use backups for my playstation games?) so isn't Adobe almost required to defend their intellectual property?
Please flame my ideas, not me!
John
I also remember the glory days of RPG with games like "Bard's Tale" (which I *NEVER* managed to beat, yanked it out for a couple of days recently). Mapping and wandering the world seemed to be a big part of the experience, which they've streamlined away to make it easier to play through the game.
Part of me likes it though, I'm somewhat ashamed to admit. It used to really *SUCK* getting stuck at a certain stage in a game and not being able to progress because I had to be in a certain tile when the moon was full, and I needed to piece together clues from 5 towns people in 3 different towns to have figured out that was what I needed to do.
Its nice to know now that its shouldn't be TOO hard to keep going and I can enjoy the nice art, better battles, watching my characters improve and a storyline which, as you say, isn't much more complicated then a movie.
Just my two copper pieces...
One thing that kind of gets me scatching my head (I'm sure its my intellectual shortcomings, not those who initate these projects) is the idea that "I'll finish this then release it as open source". I've seen the same thing with software projects where people say "I'll release the code once I've cleaned it up".
A better approach to my mind would be to start it open source from the get-go. Put your outline, rough content, ideas, etc. out there, and get peer review throughout the process. I'm sure people could contribute to every stage as you write the work, and opening it up in SOME format (it doesn't have to be pretty) wouldn't be too time consuming.
For what its worth...
I was really excited initially when I saw they started releasing complete seasons of shows on DVD. Since getting a couple, truth be told, I hardly watch them at all... There's some things that I'm willing to invest the energy to put on and watch, and other things that I'm only willing to pick up when channel surfing.
The only thing I've found them really valuable for is when someone hasn't seen a series, and I want to show them a few episodes (e.g. The Sopranos). I was delighted to get the first season of "The Simpsons" and tore through the special features, but haven't watched a single episode from it. Something like TNG everyone's seen and I really can't see myself getting a craving to see "Data's Day" and throwing it on...
Am I a freak or do other people buy these things and not watch them?
I also graduated with a CS degree, so that's the only one I can really comment on. Most jobs I looked into (especially in the SF Bay area) wanted a CS degree, even for SysAdmin work (which to me, means they value something from the degree beyond technical competence, as I didn't take any courses that would have helped me with admin work).
Basically, IMHO, a CS degree will qualify you for just about any TECHNICAL direction you decide to move in. Its definitely what I would suggest.
It WAS blocking some boats from going under, so that might have been a good reason not to make it a tourist attraction...
However as a Canadian living in SF, I thought it was great.
"A source code contains full details of how a software program works."
Ah! So that's what source code is for! And I suppose that the words provide full details of what a book is about?
It was released in 1994 (I'm picky maybe, but I KNEW it was earlier than 95) and is available:
2 &page=15
for purchase at http://www.spun.com/games/browse-date.jsp?platid=
and for download at http://www.gamingdepot.com/Masterorion.htm
Does anyone know who builds the systems that run wargames like this? Would it be internal to the military or do you think they'd contract out for the software (or at least tool sets to build the software)? That'd be a pretty cool job setting up this sort of thing!
The thing to keep in mind with this sort of this, is there's a difference between necessarily owning the copyright/trademark/patent on something and enforcing. Michael Jackson owns the rights to "Happy Birthday", do you think he could sue any 8-year olds birthday party? What about a movie it was sung in? of course not...
I'm working in San Francisco having come here from Canada and the main reason I came here was because I could make a lot more money (double what some of my fellow graduates were making). Probably most other countries will only want to be hiring Americans if they're really specialized, in which case the demand is higher than the supply, so try to get a high rate! (travel is great, but visa issues/cultural adjustment/future uncertainty are all issues that you should be compensated for)