I had to teach my typing teacher that computers need you to really type 1 and that I was not a substitute. I don't think she really believed me. She must have asked someone in the math (they had the computers) department. Because the next day she agreed not to count me off for the extra time it took to reach the 1 key.
In the end typing was one of the most beneficial classes I took in high school.
Post the idea on a website to get donations from people that think the idea is worth protecting for FOSS. If you get enough donations to get the pantent then license it with a FOSS like license and start a FOSP movement. If you do not get enough donations then maybe the idea is not worth protecting or at least the FOSS comunity has had there chance. Donate the extra money to EFF or FSF or some other FOSS group.
I have to pay a yearly property tax based on the value of my real property as set by the assessor (at the town or city level of government here in the USA).
They look at the price other properties like mine have sold for in the last few years and from time to time check to see if I have increased the value by fixing the place up or if the value has increased because of some other change in the neighborhood, like if a lot of other people have fix up there properties.
So, in the world of copyright the value of the copyrighted work could be assessed based on sales of the rights and sales of copies and the value of other similar works. Based on the assessed value the tax could be set.
This would mean that little or no tax would fall on this post as it brings in no revenue and there is nobody would make a meaningful offer of any value for the copyright itself. Now if I someday become famous the value of this post might increase and I might have to pay the copyright tax or let it go. For the garage band hitting it big the cost of the tax would be little compared to being able to sell copies.
The cost of maintaining a copyright would change based on the value of the work (both as a work and as copies). The worst that could happen to someone how did not pay the tax would be to have the copyright put up for tax auction. If it was worth something someone who could pay the tax would by it or if there were no bids it could go into the public domain.
Wrong. The GPL states that if you distribute binaries that you have to make the source code available, TO THE PERSON (OR COMPANY) THAT YOU DISTRIBUTED THE SOFTWARE TO.
Now you can't stop them from distributing it ferther but if you make use of option A then there would seem to be no ferther obligation on your part.
This is somewhat true, there are a few cases where the software is a real advantage. This is simmler to the military case where the software provides and advantage. In both cases the code that is the key part (or the customization that is the key part a work for higher. It will still be GPL but the company will not distribute it. Just like the military may have GPL programs as long as it does not distribute them it does not have to share.
Remember the GPL only requires the copyright holder to give the code to parties that the copyright holder has distributed the program to.
Since lots of design focused people may read this.
Build cell phones with the number pad at the top and the screen at the bottom. this makes using the keys on a small phone easy for western hands that are often bigger.
Most niche software is highly specialized (that is why it is a niche). It is not so much the software the customer is buying (or licensing) it is the knowledge and experience of the developer.
My experience as a consultant (back in the days of DB3 and Clipper) is that the customer paid for the software and I did the customizations. The only change I can see in this FOSS world is now the customer (may or may not pay for the application) and I will still get paid for the customizations. In fact it is likely I could get paid a bit more since the total cost of ownership will be lower. It was my understanding of their busyness and my understanding of my code that make the relationship work.
I suspect that in most cases even if the software was GPL and offered for free on the net nobody serious about there company would use it without going to the author for a support contract, the latest version, and lots of customizations. Because the relationship with the author is more valuable than the software. Even if a competitor was to start their own shop supporting the software they would not succeed innless they could provide a better understanding of the product and the niche market than the original author. It is unlikely that anyone would enter the niche innless the niche was to big for the original author, the original author was not able to provide real service (that is how I got my start in DB3 and Clipper) or there was a sub-niche that the new company could exploit.
As a software company that created a Linux distribution for them to say they did not know what was in it is for them to admit that they were not doing there job as a distribution.
The reason to by a distribution like RH, Caldera, or Lindows is to have someone bring the product together and make sure it works. As well as provide support and other services.
It would be one thing if it was a distribution by an non-software company, or by a private group or individual. Then maybe I could imagen that they did not know what they were selling, but Caldera's pitch was buy our product because we know what we are doing.
They could have at least taken the ISO and incrypted it. Even if they mailed the pass phraze after the disk arrived safely or emailed it or called up and told the people at the other end. It would have made stealing it a moot point. Inless it was an inside job, but once the bad guys are inside all bets are off.
I can understand where your are coming from. I am dyslexic. Basic math is a struggle. I having gone thought tech school then collage I now work as in professional services (programming, teaching, and supporting customers). I am happy with what I have acheaved at work and in the rest of my like.
My thoughts are: Do not let the math get you down there is a lot of programming and other high tech work in the world that does not require doing much mathematics. Most of the mathematical heavy lifting is being done by the computer scientists. Most of us just need to use the tools they create with some care and understanding to get good results.
Learn to do the kinds of programming your are good at. It may be scripting, or user interface. Or you may find that a very specific type of work is correct something so specific that nobody thinks there is a market for it but by being very very good at it you can make a market for yourself.
Go to collage I took as many computer science courses as I could but my degree is in anthropology. Many days what I learned in anthro is as useful as anything I know about technology.
Do not give, up but also realize that you may not be a RMS or a Linus more than likely you will work very hard to be average. Start by excepting that and make sure you do the other things you want to do in your life.
You like everyone else in the world has to choose a path. If you choose a path you are very likely to fail at you will be very likely to be unhappy (but you can change paths). If you choose a path that lacks challenge and or does not interest you, you will also be unhappy. Finding a path that is challenging and rewarding that you struggle and succeed is somewhere in between but that is a path the you will most likely be happy on.
Solar is by its nature distributed like the PC empowers people. Fusion is centralized and empowers the power company. Or did you think they were in the electricity business.
What about ballet boxes that have a set of paper tapes (the old teletype type would do).Each ballet would be recorded on one of the tapes at random (so that the order of the votes could not be matched with the order people voted.)
Then for counting or recounting the box could be connected to a system at could read the tapes through a window (or they could be read by a person). But the box would never be unsealed.
(Of course if a tape was broken or something like that there would have to be some kind of process for fixing it. but that would be rare and could be done in public view or under the eye of a judge.)
If I remember my Dr. Who rules (though since when have the rules been a problem for the Dr.) This will be the ninth and there for last Dr. Who. Of course they could go back and fill in the early life of the first Dr. or something like that.
With you coin (lets not get into the coin toss problem). There is nothing of note changing in the environment. In the case of asteroids, earthquakes, and pandemic the conditions it the environment are changing. New rocks are getting nearer to earth, stuff is getting pushed around in the Kuiper belt. Faults are locking and stress is building. New viruses are being mutated, and genetic material is moving around. All these types of changes change the chases of things happening.
With you coin (lets not get into the coin toss problem). There is nothing of note changing in the environment. In the case of asteroids, earthquakes, and pandemic the conditions it the environment are changing. New rocks are getting nearer to earth, stuff is getting pushed around in the Kuiper belt. Faults are locking and stress is building. New viruses are being mutated, and genetic material is moving around. All these types of changes change the chases of things happening.
The suggestions about filming yourself are interesting, if nothing else you will have something you can use yourselves as a promotional tool. I have help helped run small activities like this for the my local SCA group. The big thing is to have a story or narrative.
Set out your goals, getting to the site, setting up, whom do you expect to communicant with. What are the risks? What are the rewards? There needs to be tension. Set your goals high so that there is some risk of failure. If there is no risk there is no story. (I am not talking uncontrolled stupid risks.)
I would watch many "Junk Yard Wars" episodes to look at how they build a narrative around what would be otherwise boring. In some respects you are doing the same thing.
Then do it. Film it. Keep notes, like temperature and wind. Gets lots of comments and background on the people.
Then from all the film and tape build the documentary. You can even build more than one for different audiences. A outdoors story with radio, a radio story in the outdoors, a technical story, and so on. Finally test the documentaries and edit till you get good results.
Consider contacting a local collage to see if they have film or media students that need a subject to cover. The SCA documentaries I have helped with were filmed by students from a collage media program.
You are not comparing the same things.The time from discovery to fix as apposed to the time from creation to fix. Your question is interesting, but the way you ask it is more political than scientific.
And for a more poetic version (no don't run screaming this is a cool poem).
Kipling published this in the paper when Chamberlain returned from paying danegelt in the from of "Poland" for "Peace in our time" to the National Socialists of Germany and you know what that got us.
Slashdot Mirror
You could rent a copy from http://www.globaleffects.com/C_b02_frameset_links. html
I had to teach my typing teacher that computers need you to really type 1 and that I was not a substitute. I don't think she really believed me. She must have asked someone in the math (they had the computers) department. Because the next day she agreed not to count me off for the extra time it took to reach the 1 key.
In the end typing was one of the most beneficial classes I took in high school.
Post the idea on a website to get donations from people that think the idea is worth protecting for FOSS. If you get enough donations to get the pantent then license it with a FOSS like license and start a FOSP movement. If you do not get enough donations then maybe the idea is not worth protecting or at least the FOSS comunity has had there chance. Donate the extra money to EFF or FSF or some other FOSS group.
I have to pay a yearly property tax based on the value of my real property as set by the assessor (at the town or city level of government here in the USA).
They look at the price other properties like mine have sold for in the last few years and from time to time check to see if I have increased the value by fixing the place up or if the value has increased because of some other change in the neighborhood, like if a lot of other people have fix up there properties.
So, in the world of copyright the value of the copyrighted work could be assessed based on sales of the rights and sales of copies and the value of other similar works. Based on the assessed value the tax could be set.
This would mean that little or no tax would fall on this post as it brings in no revenue and there is nobody would make a meaningful offer of any value for the copyright itself. Now if I someday become famous the value of this post might increase and I might have to pay the copyright tax or let it go. For the garage band hitting it big the cost of the tax would be little compared to being able to sell copies.
The cost of maintaining a copyright would change based on the value of the work (both as a work and as copies). The worst that could happen to someone how did not pay the tax would be to have the copyright put up for tax auction. If it was worth something someone who could pay the tax would by it or if there were no bids it could go into the public domain.
More likely the Libertarian will support the DMCA becase Libertarians like property rights and anything that makes property rights stronger is good.
Wrong. The GPL states that if you distribute binaries that you have to make the source code available, TO THE PERSON (OR COMPANY) THAT YOU DISTRIBUTED THE SOFTWARE TO.
Now you can't stop them from distributing it ferther but if you make use of option A then there would seem to be no ferther obligation on your part.
This is somewhat true, there are a few cases where the software is a real advantage. This is simmler to the military case where the software provides and advantage. In both cases the code that is the key part (or the customization that is the key part a work for higher. It will still be GPL but the company will not distribute it. Just like the military may have GPL programs as long as it does not distribute them it does not have to share.
Remember the GPL only requires the copyright holder to give the code to parties that the copyright holder has distributed the program to.
Since lots of design focused people may read this.
Build cell phones with the number pad at the top and the screen at the bottom. this makes using the keys on a small phone easy for western hands that are often bigger.
Charles Puffer
Most niche software is highly specialized (that is why it is a niche). It is not so much the software the customer is buying (or licensing) it is the knowledge and experience of the developer.
My experience as a consultant (back in the days of DB3 and Clipper) is that the customer paid for the software and I did the customizations. The only change I can see in this FOSS world is now the customer (may or may not pay for the application) and I will still get paid for the customizations. In fact it is likely I could get paid a bit more since the total cost of ownership will be lower. It was my understanding of their busyness and my understanding of my code that make the relationship work.
I suspect that in most cases even if the software was GPL and offered for free on the net nobody serious about there company would use it without going to the author for a support contract, the latest version, and lots of customizations. Because the relationship with the author is more valuable than the software. Even if a competitor was to start their own shop supporting the software they would not succeed innless they could provide a better understanding of the product and the niche market than the original author. It is unlikely that anyone would enter the niche innless the niche was to big for the original author, the original author was not able to provide real service (that is how I got my start in DB3 and Clipper) or there was a sub-niche that the new company could exploit.
As a software company that created a Linux distribution for them to say they did not know what was in it is for them to admit that they were not doing there job as a distribution.
The reason to by a distribution like RH, Caldera, or Lindows is to have someone bring the product together and make sure it works. As well as provide support and other services.
It would be one thing if it was a distribution by an non-software company, or by a private group or individual. Then maybe I could imagen that they did not know what they were selling, but Caldera's pitch was buy our product because we know what we are doing.
They could have at least taken the ISO and incrypted it. Even if they mailed the pass phraze after the disk arrived safely or emailed it or called up and told the people at the other end. It would have made stealing it a moot point. Inless it was an inside job, but once the bad guys are inside all bets are off.
Charles Puffer
Anything that can generate the deltaV of the Enterprise will have no problem flying around in and atmosphere by brute force alown.
I can understand where your are coming from. I am dyslexic. Basic math is a struggle. I having gone thought tech school then collage I now work as in professional services (programming, teaching, and supporting customers). I am happy with what I have acheaved at work and in the rest of my like.
My thoughts are:
Do not let the math get you down there is a lot of programming and other high tech work in the world that does not require doing much mathematics. Most of the mathematical heavy lifting is being done by the computer scientists. Most of us just need to use the tools they create with some care and understanding to get good results.
Learn to do the kinds of programming your are good at. It may be scripting, or user interface. Or you may find that a very specific type of work is correct something so specific that nobody thinks there is a market for it but by being very very good at it you can make a market for yourself.
Go to collage I took as many computer science courses as I could but my degree is in anthropology. Many days what I learned in anthro is as useful as anything I know about technology.
Do not give, up but also realize that you may not be a RMS or a Linus more than likely you will work very hard to be average. Start by excepting that and make sure you do the other things you want to do in your life.
You like everyone else in the world has to choose a path. If you choose a path you are very likely to fail at you will be very likely to be unhappy (but you can change paths). If you choose a path that lacks challenge and or does not interest you, you will also be unhappy. Finding a path that is challenging and rewarding that you struggle and succeed is somewhere in between but that is a path the you will most likely be happy on.
Charles Puffer
Solar is by its nature distributed like the PC empowers people. Fusion is centralized and empowers the power company. Or did you think they were in the electricity business.
What about ballet boxes that have a set of paper tapes (the old teletype type would do) .Each ballet would be recorded on one of the tapes at random (so that the order of the votes could not be matched with the order people voted.)
Then for counting or recounting the box could be connected to a system at could read the tapes through a window (or they could be read by a person). But the box would never be unsealed.
(Of course if a tape was broken or something like that there would have to be some kind of process for fixing it. but that would be rare and could be done in public view or under the eye of a judge.)
Charles Puffer
Bad memory, and just happy to be corrected without being skinned alive.
Though a series on the early years of the first Dr. would be interesting.
If I remember my Dr. Who rules (though since when have the rules been a problem for the Dr.) This will be the ninth and there for last Dr. Who.
Of course they could go back and fill in the early life of the first Dr. or something like that.
So if is she was version 2.0 is she now 2.8 or would that be 2.0 release 8
With you coin (lets not get into the coin toss problem). There is nothing of note changing in the environment. In the case of asteroids, earthquakes, and pandemic the conditions it the environment are changing. New rocks are getting nearer to earth, stuff is getting pushed around in the Kuiper belt. Faults are locking and stress is building. New viruses are being mutated, and genetic material is moving around. All these types of changes change the chases of things happening.
(yes I reposted this in the correct place)
With you coin (lets not get into the coin toss problem). There is nothing of note changing in the environment. In the case of asteroids, earthquakes, and pandemic the conditions it the environment are changing. New rocks are getting nearer to earth, stuff is getting pushed around in the Kuiper belt. Faults are locking and stress is building. New viruses are being mutated, and genetic material is moving around. All these types of changes change the chases of things happening.
But, if it was one of those "Just fell of a Truck" deals this might be the correct discription or the party in question.
The suggestions about filming yourself are interesting, if nothing else you will have something you can use yourselves as a promotional tool. I have help helped run small activities like this for the my local SCA group. The big thing is to have a story or narrative.
Set out your goals, getting to the site, setting up, whom do you expect to communicant with. What are the risks? What are the rewards? There needs to be tension. Set your goals high so that there is some risk of failure. If there is no risk there is no story. (I am not talking uncontrolled stupid risks.)
I would watch many "Junk Yard Wars" episodes to look at how they build a narrative around what would be otherwise boring. In some respects you are doing the same thing.
Then do it. Film it. Keep notes, like temperature and wind. Gets lots of comments and background on the people.
Then from all the film and tape build the documentary. You can even build more than one for different audiences. A outdoors story with radio, a radio story in the outdoors, a technical story, and so on. Finally test the documentaries and edit till you get good results.
Consider contacting a local collage to see if they have film or media students that need a subject to cover. The SCA documentaries I have helped with were filmed by students from a collage media program.
Charles Puffer
You are not comparing the same things.The time from discovery to fix as apposed to the time from creation to fix. Your question is interesting, but the way you ask it is more political than scientific.
And for a more poetic version (no don't run screaming this is a cool poem).
/ K/ KiplingRudyard/verse/english_history/danegeld.html
Kipling published this in the paper when Chamberlain returned from paying danegelt in the from of "Poland" for "Peace in our time" to the National Socialists of Germany and you know what that got us.
http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors
What did you say was wrong with the old version of the Paranoia RPG, citizen?