As I stated, "Imagine having designs for all the technology necessary to maintain human life made freely available to anyone who wants to produce these goods."
Were talking about information. The physical goods have to be produced, but the designs for the goods and the designs for the equipment to produce the goods, and the designs and knowhow for the tools to build the equipment to produce the goods. Scarcity is a myth. Ever since Thomas Malthus completed the first comprehensive inventory of the earth's resources in 1810, people have bought into this idea of scarcity. If Malthus were to be brought back to life and preform his survey again, he would reach the opposite of conclusion that he reached in his time. Remember it was Malthus who pointed out that "Populations increase geometrically while the resources to feed them increase arithmetically. Malthus would reach the conclusion that scarcity is myth, part of an ideology. Since the invention of refrigeration, preservatives, bio-engineered plants, genetic engineering, we can already produce, package, store and distribute enough food to feed the world's population today and for many doublings of the population to come.
We can increase the standard of living of everyone on Earth if we extend the concepts of the GNU General Public License beyond the software industry.
Imagine having designs for all the technology necessary to maintain human life made freely available to anyone who wants to produce these goods. This would be a huge aid to developing nations, such as in the former Soviet republics, Latin America, Indonesia and many others.
It may turn out the Stallman's GPL will prove to be a turning point in human history and the process of cultural evolution.
Since the illegal M$ tax can now be avoided on laptops, I can consider buying one this year. Though the email for refund battle appears to be less convenient then buying the CPU(s) and componets to build another desktop system.
Fresh Plan: find cheap Toshiba Libreto in back of Computer Shopper or pricewatch.com. Purchase via mail order to avoid state sales tax. Grind out series of emails to get a refund for the M$ tax. Could be an an attractive option for about $500. Happy happy, joy joy!
Stop your whineing and write native GNU-Linux apps
on
NYT covers WINE
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· Score: 1
From my point of view WINE is stunningly pointless. Any time spent on WINE would be better spent writing native GNU-Linux applications. Stop the maddness. Drop WINE.
Just because "big monopolies are the best thing for the computer industry," does not mean that MS should be allowed to operate without government regulation. The reason for this is that the federal governement is a monopoly that itself needs to be regulated. The feds certainly do push half-assed and buggy legislation, excuse lousy support and sky-high tax and license fees.
We need to open up competition in the government market.
Just as newspapers survived radio and radio survived television, so will more traditional retailers survive net retailing. In fact, as Katz pointed out, many retailers are adding net retailing to their mix of services. Stores have been closing long before the net was invented. The net is not the cause of store closings. The most significant shift is the shift towards more of the economy being based upon the consumption of information and less on the consumption of physical goods. Information goods can be delivered more cost effectively on line than on main street. In the information economy, physical goods are still very necessary for physical life support. But these physical needs are finite. Demand for entertain, education and other information have more room to grow than the physical life support slice of the pie chart.
More depth, less filling.
SAMBA has been a great product for many years.
on
Samba 2.0 Released
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· Score: 1
Given that the United States, China, Canada and others nations, are the largest consumers of computer software in their respective countries, it is obvious that public money pays for plenty of private/proprietary/commercial software development.
The relatively small amount of money that governments spend on research grants is money well spent, particulary when the source code that results from the research are published under the GNU General Public License.
Slashdot Mirror
As I stated, "Imagine having designs for all the technology necessary to maintain human life made freely available to anyone who wants to produce these goods."
Were talking about information. The physical goods have to be produced, but the designs for the goods and the designs for the equipment to produce the goods, and the designs and knowhow for the tools to build the equipment to produce the goods.
Scarcity is a myth. Ever since Thomas Malthus completed the first comprehensive inventory of the earth's resources in 1810, people have bought into this idea of scarcity. If Malthus were to be brought back to life and preform his survey again, he would reach the opposite of conclusion that he reached in his time. Remember it was Malthus who pointed out that "Populations increase geometrically while the resources to feed them increase arithmetically. Malthus would reach the conclusion that scarcity is myth, part of an ideology. Since the invention of refrigeration, preservatives, bio-engineered plants, genetic engineering, we can already produce, package, store and distribute enough food to feed the world's population today and for many doublings of the population to come.
We can increase the standard of living of everyone on Earth if we extend the concepts of the GNU General Public License beyond the software industry.
Imagine having designs for all the technology necessary to maintain human life made freely available to anyone who wants to produce these goods. This would be a huge aid to developing nations, such as in the former Soviet republics, Latin America, Indonesia and many others.
It may turn out the Stallman's GPL will prove to be a turning point in human history and the process of cultural evolution.
Long live the GPL!
Since the illegal M$ tax can now be avoided on laptops, I can consider buying one this year. Though the email for refund battle appears to be less convenient then buying the CPU(s) and componets to build another desktop system.
Fresh Plan: find cheap Toshiba Libreto in back of Computer Shopper or pricewatch.com. Purchase via mail order to avoid state sales tax. Grind out series of emails to get a refund for the M$ tax.
Could be an an attractive option for about $500.
Happy happy, joy joy!
From my point of view WINE is stunningly pointless. Any time spent on WINE would be better spent writing native GNU-Linux applications. Stop the maddness. Drop WINE.
Emulators for classic games are cool, however.
Skyshadow,
Just because "big monopolies are the best thing for the computer industry," does not mean that MS should be allowed to operate without government regulation. The reason for this is that the federal governement is a monopoly that itself needs to be regulated. The feds certainly do push half-assed and buggy legislation, excuse lousy support and sky-high tax and license fees.
We need to open up competition in the government market.
Just as newspapers survived radio and radio survived television, so will more traditional retailers survive net retailing. In fact, as Katz pointed out, many retailers are adding net retailing to their mix of services. Stores have been closing long before the net was invented. The net is not the cause of store closings. The most significant shift is the shift towards more of the economy being based upon the consumption of information and less on the consumption of physical goods. Information goods can be delivered more cost effectively on line than on main street. In the information economy, physical goods are still very necessary for physical life support. But these physical needs are finite. Demand for entertain, education and other information have more room to grow than the physical life support slice of the pie chart.
More depth, less filling.
We can be confident that 2.0 will be even better!
Go Team SAMBA!
Given that the United States, China, Canada and others nations, are the largest consumers of computer software in their respective countries, it is obvious that public money pays for plenty of private/proprietary/commercial software development.
The relatively small amount of money that governments spend on research grants is money well spent, particulary when the source code that results from the research are published under the GNU General Public License.