Maybe students will now be able to have the opportunity to start *learning* something about computers, rather than just dinking around with them like they do at my high school. Sure Linux has its downfalls when it comes to a desktop OS, but you sure as hell learn a lot about how computers really work when tinkering with Linux. Few public high schools offer any computer classes beyond keyboarding. Once interests sparks in teachers, students, and parents for Linux, public school education systems hopefully will recognize Linux as a useful tool in computer education.
I'm all for action. If it gets bad enough,
I say we resort to busting crackers out of
jail and straight-out open resistance.
That would not be civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is simply the refusal to obey certain laws that are unjust, while being completely passive. The DMCA prohibits
"Circumvention of copyright protection systems."
Henry David Thoreau didn't pay his taxes because he disagreed with the government's stance
regarding the abolitionist cause and the Mexican War. Thoreau willfully went to jail for his
act of protest. That is what civil disobedience is, Not using any force at all.
So what can we do?
Do what Henry David Thoreau did. If enough people do this, the laws would change.
The problems are:
Arrogance - Most people are not willing to go to jail for this.
Ignorance - Most people aren't aware of the DMCA and how it affects everyone.
Apathy - Most people figure that the DMCA doesn't really affect them, since they wouldn't try and circumvent copyright protection anyway.
The solution is education. People need to get off their asses and educate their friends, neighbors, and colleagues about the problems with the DMCA, and what they need to do to help.
How can they filter between legal public domain works being shared, and copyrighted media piracy? Do they have a magic filter which can sense the difference?
What's wrong with Konqueror?
on
Mozilla 0.9 Out
·
· Score: 1
I've been using Konqueror ever since it came out. Why? because Netscape was slow and ugly. Konqueror is much faster, and feels like Internet explorer. Mozilla isn't any better. Last time I checked it, they included a lot of bloated features, rather than fixes to the core of the thing. I wasn't happy. So why are so many people interested in Mozilla and not Konqueror?
What can it do that Konqueror can not?
Imagine you have a heart condition. You're at home, and all of a sudden, you have a heart attack. This system notifies your medical care provider, which then instantly relays the information to 911, who then sends paramedics to your house to save you.
Or similar devices could be implanted in patients who have other illnesses, severe epilepsy perhaps? Respitory problems?
We could see a whole new line of devices that would be able to remotely monitor patients' health. Daily data could be compiled into a databse, so doctors can review organ operation when a problem comes up. Not all patients can give reliable information to their doctors either, Espescially the elderly:
"Have you been having problems breathing?"
"I'm not sure, I don't really remember"
could become "I see you've been having problems breathing, here's something I can do to help..."
I hope to see these devices appear more and more, because frankly, I think it's a good idea.
BSD licensed code has this problem,
which is one of the reasons why the GPL exists.
It is interesting how sucessful GPL code has been
in the software industry. There are many commercial
linux distributions, which has helped the Linux community. Other
companies that have traditionally been involved with closed-source, propietary software
are now recognizing free software as a viable alternative.
SGI is involved with their
XFS project,
among other things. IBM is involved with
many
linux related projects. And is being an incredible
influence in the community. BSD has not received anywhere
near as much commercial attention, which I find interesting, considering that the
BSD/MIT license
is considerably more corporation friendly, by giving rights to "use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software".
The BSD license allows companies like Apple to use BSD code with little (if any) accountability to the open source community,
which is why the GPL is more widely accepted by open source developers.
But the question really becomes that of licensing.
Apple has their APSL license, and IBM has their
IPL license.
A major difference between these two licenses is that the IPL is OSI approved.
Apple's APSL is not.
Apple is using the phrase "open source" as a means of marketing. It's not right and I plan to ignore them until they clean up their act.
Apple has used BSD code, and has not contributed to the BSD community. But the BSD community doesn't require this. So who is to blame?
It's simple. If you do not want companies to exploit your work, don't let them. Use GPL licensing. That's what it's for.
This is simply not possible. DOCSIS cable modems, as well as most propietary modems on the market, have a maximum speed of somewhere between 27 and 33 Megabits/sec. Of course, these speeds are never reached. most cable connections seem to get 20kbytes/sec to 500kbytes/sec.
34Megabits/sec would be like 3,500kbytes/sec, which is like 3.5MB a second. A significant load.
If a telephone company or DSL ISP disconnects service to a customer petitioning against the ISP's practices, does the ISP gain *anything* from this at all?
Disconnecting a paying user from the service is going to lower their number of subscribers. Bad for the ISP. Bad for the consumer.
If consumers petitioning efforts against the ISP/teleco are causing the ISP/teleco to lose money, then the ISP/teleco needs to fix that. They fix it by fixing their policy. This is one of the many ways that companies improve their business.
Companies have a responsibility to keep their customers happy. Why should I buy DSL service from a company that sucks?
As far as NAT is concerned, if bandwidth is an issue, then they should limit bandwidth. But I honestly don't beleive that bandwidth is the issue. The issue here is that they're control freaks. They've demonstrated that.
Slashdot Mirror
Is music art? are movies art? are theatrical plays art? Is there anything in the entertainment industry that is *not* art?
Does your "calculater" have a spell checker?
This looks _very_ interesting.
So effectively, this patch would not allow a forkbomb type script to starve CPU cycles from the rest of the system?
Spelling check,
Losing, not loosing.
Maybe students will now be able to have the opportunity to start *learning* something about computers, rather than just dinking around with them like they do at my high school. Sure Linux has its downfalls when it comes to a desktop OS, but you sure as hell learn a lot about how computers really work when tinkering with Linux. Few public high schools offer any computer classes beyond keyboarding. Once interests sparks in teachers, students, and parents for Linux, public school education systems hopefully will recognize Linux as a useful tool in computer education.
That would not be civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is simply the refusal to obey certain laws that are unjust, while being completely passive. The DMCA prohibits "Circumvention of copyright protection systems." Henry David Thoreau didn't pay his taxes because he disagreed with the government's stance regarding the abolitionist cause and the Mexican War. Thoreau willfully went to jail for his act of protest. That is what civil disobedience is, Not using any force at all.
So what can we do? Do what Henry David Thoreau did. If enough people do this, the laws would change.
The problems are:
Arrogance - Most people are not willing to go to jail for this.
Ignorance - Most people aren't aware of the DMCA and how it affects everyone.
Apathy - Most people figure that the DMCA doesn't really affect them, since they wouldn't try and circumvent copyright protection anyway.
The solution is education. People need to get off their asses and educate their friends, neighbors, and colleagues about the problems with the DMCA, and what they need to do to help.
How can they filter between legal public domain works being shared, and copyrighted media piracy? Do they have a magic filter which can sense the difference?
I've been using Konqueror ever since it came out. Why? because Netscape was slow and ugly. Konqueror is much faster, and feels like Internet explorer. Mozilla isn't any better. Last time I checked it, they included a lot of bloated features, rather than fixes to the core of the thing. I wasn't happy. So why are so many people interested in Mozilla and not Konqueror? What can it do that Konqueror can not?
Imagine you have a heart condition. You're at home, and all of a sudden, you have a heart attack. This system notifies your medical care provider, which then instantly relays the information to 911, who then sends paramedics to your house to save you. Or similar devices could be implanted in patients who have other illnesses, severe epilepsy perhaps? Respitory problems? We could see a whole new line of devices that would be able to remotely monitor patients' health. Daily data could be compiled into a databse, so doctors can review organ operation when a problem comes up. Not all patients can give reliable information to their doctors either, Espescially the elderly: "Have you been having problems breathing?" "I'm not sure, I don't really remember" could become "I see you've been having problems breathing, here's something I can do to help..."
I hope to see these devices appear more and more, because frankly, I think it's a good idea.
BSD licensed code has this problem, which is one of the reasons why the GPL exists.
It is interesting how sucessful GPL code has been in the software industry. There are many commercial linux distributions, which has helped the Linux community. Other companies that have traditionally been involved with closed-source, propietary software are now recognizing free software as a viable alternative.
SGI is involved with their XFS project, among other things. IBM is involved with many linux related projects. And is being an incredible influence in the community. BSD has not received anywhere near as much commercial attention, which I find interesting, considering that the BSD/MIT license is considerably more corporation friendly, by giving rights to "use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software".
The BSD license allows companies like Apple to use BSD code with little (if any) accountability to the open source community, which is why the GPL is more widely accepted by open source developers. But the question really becomes that of licensing. Apple has their APSL license, and IBM has their IPL license. A major difference between these two licenses is that the IPL is OSI approved. Apple's APSL is not.
Apple is using the phrase "open source" as a means of marketing. It's not right and I plan to ignore them until they clean up their act. Apple has used BSD code, and has not contributed to the BSD community. But the BSD community doesn't require this. So who is to blame? It's simple. If you do not want companies to exploit your work, don't let them. Use GPL licensing. That's what it's for.
This is simply not possible. DOCSIS cable modems, as well as most propietary modems on the market, have a maximum speed of somewhere between 27 and 33 Megabits/sec. Of course, these speeds are never reached. most cable connections seem to get 20kbytes/sec to 500kbytes/sec. 34Megabits/sec would be like 3,500kbytes/sec, which is like 3.5MB a second. A significant load.
If a telephone company or DSL ISP disconnects service to a customer petitioning against the ISP's practices, does the ISP gain *anything* from this at all?
Disconnecting a paying user from the service is going to lower their number of subscribers. Bad for the ISP. Bad for the consumer.
If consumers petitioning efforts against the ISP/teleco are causing the ISP/teleco to lose money, then the ISP/teleco needs to fix that. They fix it by fixing their policy. This is one of the many ways that companies improve their business.
Companies have a responsibility to keep their customers happy. Why should I buy DSL service from a company that sucks?
As far as NAT is concerned, if bandwidth is an issue, then they should limit bandwidth. But I honestly don't beleive that bandwidth is the issue. The issue here is that they're control freaks. They've demonstrated that.