Unfortunately, "interfering" is subject to the individual officer's opinion, just like "resisting arrest" and a thousand other subjective offenses. In court, it's your word against his. Guess who the judge will side with?
You were "interfering" with the officers desire to shoot an innocent person and claim it was in 'self-defense'. Or their ability to beat the crap out of their 'suspect' for refusing to comply to their questioning.
The problem isn't android at all. The problem is that any phone past the 2 years release date is not supported. Heck, one year is often enough to never see an update. With CyanogenMod and other ROM makers out there supporting older devices supporting it by the Manufacturers shouldn't be an issue. Heck, they could hand off support to Cyanogen if they wanted, but that doesn't sell new handsets every 1.5 years.
Buying an Apple might get you updates beyond 2 years.
And good luck with any other OS.
Cyanogen (& other mods) thus far don't support a lot of the features in most models. Kinda defeats the purpose when to "upgrade" your 2y/o phone it means losing camera and wi-fi support.
Before we go to far on it, it should also be noted that the lady in question only sued them for a relatively small amount (medical bills, $50K if I recall although it's been a while) - McD's *refused* to pay, and took it to court where they lost big time. They really would have been far better off just settling with her like she wanted originally.
Explain to me where I'm supposed to get my GEOS updated for my Commodore 64? And I sent in my warranty registration card, but I never heard back from them.
Right now when someone buys a cell phone, they have it in their brains that they're making an "investment", that the phone will last for the next 20 years, or even forever.
They do? Who are these people?
For a sufficiently true portion of "everyone," "everyone" just gets a new phone every two years on contract anyway.
My Nokia 6102i works just fine for what I need it for, thanks. I don't even remember when I got it, has to be at least 6 years ago now, and I see no reason to get rid of it (I bought a galaxy S2 test Android programs, but I have no intention of using it as a "phone"). In fact, I have two Nokia "spares" I got on ebay for $10 ea, just in case (cat knocked my last one off the desk and broke the hinge). I don't need the internet strapped to my hip 24/7, I'd rather experience the real world around me.
This applies to a lot of things - a house built in the 1940's for example might have only 2 wire electrical and little insulation, leaky wood windows, etc.
Sure, you can insulate the walls, rewire, all new doors/windows, etc... but it will probably never be as good as a more modernly constructed house can be. Now, the question is, if it's going to cost you $80K for new windows, rewire, etc, vs. $250K to tear it down and build a similarly sized house on the same lot, which is more "cost effective" in the longer term?
Yeah, that's fucking brilliant. Let's package Netflix along with 105 other online services we'll never use, all for only $125 a month.
Moron.
Sure, you can get Netflix - but that only comes in a package with 12 sites selling sex toys, 3 sports sites, and 5 online shopping sites (amazon not included, that's another package), for only $125/mo + applicable taxes. All other sites are blocked unless you pay for them, or pay for the $500/mo "unlimited" package that gets you all 300million websites on the internet.
Perhaps, but I'm betting 9 times out of 10 the US based vendor is buying their product from the same place you're buying it from on ebay, and just marking the price up. I've seen numerous ones even just on ebay where a US seller and a China seller have the exact same thing (even to the same packaging), and it's twice as expensive to get it from the US seller. Now, mind you, it might be faster (say a week) than from China (say 2 weeks), but if it's not something you desperately need right away...
I would argue that having any government move to open source is good for everyone. I don't know if it will be cheaper but I do think it will like give the people more bang for their buck. Instead of those dollars going into one person's pockets, they can not only still be used to solve the government's software problems but also provide software libraries and frameworks for other to bulid off of.
Agreed. All government documents should be written with LaTeX and/or XML to get away from any proprietary or screw-ball formats.
... and I can't tell if that's heavy sarcasm or not. Well played.:P
They can take away the rights of people whom the public despises. Right now it's largely Muslim terrorists and pedophiles.
... and tomorrow, once they explain they have secret evidence that's been proven in a secret court, evidence which they can't show to the public but which *proves* that you are a "Gay Terrorist Muslim Pedophile", the public will despise you too and won't have any problem with them taking away your rights either.
It's a slippery slope once you start allowing rights to be taken away.
It's Islam Shariah Law. The rich are always favored over the poor. The publicity from this in Iran is worth every penny of "compensation" (which will indeed be pennies).
And that is different than the US, UK, EU, how exactly? How many lobbyists do you have working for you on K-street in DC? How many bankers went to jail after 2008? Where do our Treasury Secretaries, SEC/CFTC heads, etc, come from? Go to after they leave? When exactly was the last time a "poor" person was elected President?
No, but I'll bet he's happy to live in a country that has progressed beyond institutionalized racism. I'm pretty sure just being of Jewish descent is enough for a prosecution in Iran.
Actually their real problem is with the *state* of Israel, not all people of Jewish descent. Might have something to do with Israel taking land from countries Iran might see as their "neighbors" and constantly threatening them? You might want to read up on the difference between being Jewish and being Zionist, they aren't the same thing.
Iran hasn't actually started a war against any country in 300+ years. The last real war they were in was when Iraq/Saddam *invaded them* in the 80's, which was purely defense on their part. How many countries has the US started wars with or put troops into in the past even 100 years? Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, to mention a few, not counting financing the 'overthrow' (or attempt) of Syria, Libya, Ukraine, and of course "aid" to help put brutal leaders all over South America at various times, and financing death squads, drug lords, etc. I guess since we blow up/kill/coerce/control/overthrow African/Asian/Middle-Eastern/Slavic/etc people with equal prejudice we're not "racist" right?
Agreed. Iran has some pretty intelligent people there, and much of the population is college educated.
The problem is, after seeing Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, etc., no one is looking to overthrow a government any time soon, but looking instead for slower reforms.
Well, after the CIA's last involvement with "government reform" in their country (aka - ousting their democratically elected leader and installing the Shah), can you exactly blame them that they aren't interested in "rapid reform" like the CIA/US.Military backed "reform" in Iraq, Syria, Libya, etc?
I've already got a 'smart' home system... a thermostat on the wall with no web interface (just a couple wires to the furnace), a 'fridge with food and beer in it where the only 'connections' are the icemaker water hose and a 110V plug, etc. 'Smart' being there's nothing on the internet or wi-fi enabled so someone can hack it, and it doesn't report back to some vendor intimate details of my life.
Computer technology is vastly improved in so many ways readily apparent to the average user. 1) touch screens were not widely available then, they are everywhere now. 2) GPU technology has improved by at least two generations. Ask any gamer what that means in terms of experience and performance. 3) Hard drive space has improved dramatically, and there weren't even SSDs back then. 4) battery and efficiency technologies can keep a notebook running for several hours, instead of maybe one hour. 5) LCD innovations, resolution improvements, and LED back lighting instead of flourescent back lighting. 6) Virtualizable 64-bit multi-core computing, instead of 32-bit single-core computing, let you run multiple OS at the same time.
1) I have a keyboard and mouse, and I'm a touch typist (any programmer should be, right?) at 80WPM. What exactly does a "touch screen" do for me? I watch enough people swiping around on their phones all day already. 2) I'm not a gamer, and my "GPU" video card has 512M and works just fine for what I need to do. 3) Agreed, but... why wouldn't I just buy a bigger hard drive for my machine if I needed it? (And I don't need an SSD). 4) Dunno, my laptop rarely gets used (and is max 1GB ram), I mostly use my desktop machine. 5) Yeah, I like my 19" LCD on my desktop, far lighter than the 20" CRT I used to have that was just a beast to move around. Of course, even my 19" LCD is old, 1280x1024 max resolution - but good enough for what I need it to do. 6) Tell me again why your average home user needs 64-bit multi-core virtualizable computers that can run multiple OS's at the same time, to browse the internet, check email, etc?... oh, wait, I know the answer to #6... because every release of the OS they make it use way more CPU & memory than the last version with foo-foo GUI changes and other stuff that doesn't do a damn thing for the average user, but sells lots of new hardware for their partner vendors. Pretty soon they'll just stop supporting 32-bit CPUs entirely because y'know, they're old... and who cares if it still works fine, we live in a disposable society right?
What's illegal about it? Is it illegal to use Microsoft's provided tools to edit my registry, browing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA, then creating a new key called PosReady, then creating a new dword in PosReady called "Installed" with a value of 00000001?
No more illegal than disguising yourself as a legitimate copyright holder and fooling someone into letting you make a copy of a piece of media.
Or no more illegal than me getting his CC info and using it online to go buy things. After all, I'm only using a browser and OS on my own system to access a site with the 'key' (CC info) I got, right? Why should that be illegal?
What's illegal about it? Is it illegal to use Microsoft's provided tools to edit my registry, browing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA, then creating a new key called PosReady, then creating a new dword in PosReady called "Installed" with a value of 00000001?
See Aaron Swartz: Federal prosecutors later charged him with two counts of wire fraud and 11 violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,[12] carrying a cumulative maximum penalty of $1 million in fines, 35 years in prison, asset forfeiture, restitution and supervised release.[13]
And he actually had a legal account to access the JSTOR information, which he was accused of 'unlawfully accessing'. (Hint for them, don't give people accounts if you don't want the data accessed:rolleyes:).
Seriously, if your physical security is so poor that people can tap into your ethernet cabling, then you shouldn't be in charge of any kind of IT security. (And since the POS is probably taking CC data in and sending it to the server for authentication (?), it really should be an encrypted connection to the server anyways). Hell, if your security is that poor why bother with tapping the ethernet cable, you could just pop a couple screws and open the POS register itself and install some hardware/software to wifi the data out.... though, I do realize that what I just said means most stores I've seen shouldn't be using any IT, since most of the POS registers I've seen have exposed wires hanging off the back. So I really hope the data going to their server is encrypted.:-P
That still counts as "on-the-internet" (unless you somehow have a dedicate line going from the POS to the server), so you're plenty vulnerable to spoofing and man-in-the-middle attacks.
Um, no, what he described is a local network -> server -> internet connection. As long as the POS network is 'in house' only and on it's own switch, with one connection from that switch to the server, then a separate NIC on the server going to another switch with the internet (router/firewall hopefully between) side should be ok.... of course, that means your server better be protected, firewall setup properly to block anything incoming, etc, but unless you specifically have the server setup to route between two separate NIC's on it, should be safe as long as the server itself stays safe. And, well, if you can't figure out how to have a couple POS terminals setup isolated from another network, then you shouldn't be having anything to do with configuring a network.
You focused on the "first tier", but if the author chooses the GPL license he is not only removing choice from the *next* level of user, he is removing the choice from *ALL* levels of users. It completely removes my freedom of choice as a 2nd, 3rd, or beyond level of user.
With the BSD license, each "tier" of user has a choice.. I am not restricting their choice of whether they want to publish their mods or not. Interestingly enough, given the choice there seem to be an awful lot of users who modify BSD licensed code and redistribute the source. I myself am working on some things that are BSD licensed that I certainly will be putting back out into the user community. I believe in open software, and if I modify something that is open source (whether BSD'd or GPL'd) I personally belive that I should give it back to the world... carrying on the open source "tradition" if you will. But I prefer not to have a legally binding contract *forcing* me to do it...
Actually, from what I've heard, MS *did* have some BSD network code in Windows at one point. I think its funny... a company worth billions of dollars with a team of hundreds (probably thousands) of paid programmers can't write their own code, they have to grab someone elses?? Its actually a testimony to how well open-source software is designed that they'd do that... And then you could say, gee.. I spend $400 to get BSD network code from Micro$oft, without source, or get it for free on the net...
Remember that, no matter what mods a user makes, the original source is still open-source BSD. If someone wants to make mods and keep them private, its their freedom to do so... I don't want to *force* them to, no matter how much I disagree with it... anymore than I'd want to *force* you to buy a Chevy because I like them, even though you like Ford's. (Actually I don't even own a Chevy, but just to illustrate the point...)
Would I be frustrated as a 2nd tier user to have a program that was BSD'd that someone modified the original source and didn't BSD their mods?? Maybe.. depends on whether I needed those mods. But then again, since I enjoy programming I'd take it as a good challenge to modify the original to do the non-BSD'd functionality and more... and then send it out BSD'd it. Thats what open-source is all about... taking the functionality of someone else's proprietary code, re-writing it yourself and giving it away to the community.
Just my opinion. Your preferred license is, of course, your free choice. Not up to me to choose your license, nor do I really care...
I'm often curious how many people who get into the venomous license debate actually write code... ?? I see so many people arguing about the BSD bozos or the GPL losers and wonder if they'd even comprehend a simple statement like:
for (blah=0;blah 5;blah++) *bufptr++ = *zz++;
or is it just because they *can* have it that they feel its important. "I want a schematic diagram for my TV... I can't read one, will never use one, but I'll be pissed off if I don't get one". I'd gladly take an OS kernel without source if it was free and rock-solid stable and did what I wanted it to do...
I use M$Word at work, it prints my little one page memo's and whatever documentation I write up just fine... why would I need the source? Even if I had it how long would it take me to figure out where the code is for font kerning, how it works, and how to modify it to fix whatever problem I'm having. Probably by the time I got through that the memo would be horribly out of date and meaningless, and I'd probably be fired for not doing what my job really is!!
Hmm... and so instead of denying me my right to free speech, or the right to *not* speak, you are going to *FORCE* me to speak???
Who is trampling on whose rights there?
Freedom isn't really free if its *FORCED*.
Of course, the wonderful thing about this whole argument... which all the zealots on both sides refuse to see... is that this whole thread is a perfect example of freedom of choice!!!
If I choose to GPL my source... its my free choice to do so!! And if I choose to modify some code I have the choice to modify GPL source and publish the mods, or to choose non-GPL source (or write my own) and keep my ideas to myself. Or GPL my own rewritten version.. or BSD it.. or whatever.
If I choose to BSD my source... its my free choice to do so!! Maybe I *want* to let businesses around the world use my code for profit if they want to... maybe I write for the fun & challenge of it and don't want to force anybody to publish their mods if they don't want to... guess what folks, its *MY FREE CHOICE* to do this if I choose this license! And if I choose this, who the heck are you to tell me what I should do with *MY* code???
If I choose to write my own license terms... guess what?!?!? I'm free to do so!!!
So isn't freedom great?!? And if you don't agree with my choice of licenses?? Great!! You are perfectly free to have your own opinion, think I'm a total a-hole jerk moron, or whatever!! Isn't that WONDERFUL?!?!? And do I care what your opinion is??? NOPE, because I chose my license out of my own free will because it is what fits my idea of how I want *MY* code to be used!
FREEDOM is such a wonderful thing... isn't it?
Re:Who are you to tell me what license I should us
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... and their customers get another product they can't learn from or fix... and there's more proprietary software in the world.
...and so the makers of cable-TV descramblers should just GPL the code for their boxes so anyone can make them, modify the code, etc.. thus negating the reason for having them anyways (not that I'm a fan of cable-TV premiums). Theres a few people out of jobs and a lot of lost revenue.
...and Oracle should just GPL the source to their database software so everyone can just copy it freely and they can lay off 1000's of programmers since they can get the "user" community to do it for them... oh, but wait, then they can't charge for it either can they? There goes the unemployment rate...
...and the makers of that Defibrillator at the hospital should just GPL the code.. so any old Joe who thinks he's a good embedded systems programmer and knows how to "fix that Y2K problem" can just "tweak" the code... and kill you with a "slight bug" he introduced...
Not all "proprietary" software is *evil*, horrible, deadly to innovation. In fact, I'd hate to trust the defibrillator above or an aircraft tower control system to an OpenSource community. "Oh yeah, I just whipped up a patch for that bug.. works on my machine fine!" (oops, how many lives depend on your machine?). Would you be glad if your bank was keeping all of its account information on MSQL?
With enough manpower, you can "fix" anything.. souce code or not. Ever run a disassembler on a 64k PROM and then commented the whole listing and figured out what it does? Not fun, but it can be done (I know). Want to know how a database works? Rather than telling Oracle they should GPL their source so you can "learn" from it (I'm sure you won't get far), try getting some good literature on database design and getting the code for MSQL and looking at that.
If they want to "compete" by having software nobody else can get, they ought to pay through the nose.
I think they do... hire 100 programmers at an average of $60K/yr each... there's $6mil. HR staff, management, facilities, equipment. Plus, once they hire *you* to write code for them you may want to think twice about giving it away.
.. But then again, McDonalds pays $8/hr around here...
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Unfortunately, "interfering" is subject to the individual officer's opinion, just like "resisting arrest" and a thousand other subjective offenses. In court, it's your word against his. Guess who the judge will side with?
You were "interfering" with the officers desire to shoot an innocent person and claim it was in 'self-defense'. Or their ability to beat the crap out of their 'suspect' for refusing to comply to their questioning.
The problem isn't android at all. The problem is that any phone past the 2 years release date is not supported. Heck, one year is often enough to never see an update. With CyanogenMod and other ROM makers out there supporting older devices supporting it by the Manufacturers shouldn't be an issue. Heck, they could hand off support to Cyanogen if they wanted, but that doesn't sell new handsets every 1.5 years.
Buying an Apple might get you updates beyond 2 years.
And good luck with any other OS.
Cyanogen (& other mods) thus far don't support a lot of the features in most models. Kinda defeats the purpose when to "upgrade" your 2y/o phone it means losing camera and wi-fi support.
ugh, less than $50K, serves me right for using the LT sign. Article you linked to says $20K.
Before we go to far on it, it should also be noted that the lady in question only sued them for a relatively small amount (medical bills, $50K if I recall although it's been a while) - McD's *refused* to pay, and took it to court where they lost big time. They really would have been far better off just settling with her like she wanted originally.
Explain to me where I'm supposed to get my GEOS updated for my Commodore 64? And I sent in my warranty registration card, but I never heard back from them.
Why, is there a security problem with it?
Right now when someone buys a cell phone, they have it in their brains that they're making an "investment", that the phone will last for the next 20 years, or even forever.
They do? Who are these people?
For a sufficiently true portion of "everyone," "everyone" just gets a new phone every two years on contract anyway.
My Nokia 6102i works just fine for what I need it for, thanks. I don't even remember when I got it, has to be at least 6 years ago now, and I see no reason to get rid of it (I bought a galaxy S2 test Android programs, but I have no intention of using it as a "phone"). In fact, I have two Nokia "spares" I got on ebay for $10 ea, just in case (cat knocked my last one off the desk and broke the hinge). I don't need the internet strapped to my hip 24/7, I'd rather experience the real world around me.
This applies to a lot of things - a house built in the 1940's for example might have only 2 wire electrical and little insulation, leaky wood windows, etc.
Sure, you can insulate the walls, rewire, all new doors/windows, etc... but it will probably never be as good as a more modernly constructed house can be. Now, the question is, if it's going to cost you $80K for new windows, rewire, etc, vs. $250K to tear it down and build a similarly sized house on the same lot, which is more "cost effective" in the longer term?
Yeah, that's fucking brilliant. Let's package Netflix along with 105 other online services we'll never use, all for only $125 a month.
Moron.
Sure, you can get Netflix - but that only comes in a package with 12 sites selling sex toys, 3 sports sites, and 5 online shopping sites (amazon not included, that's another package), for only $125/mo + applicable taxes. All other sites are blocked unless you pay for them, or pay for the $500/mo "unlimited" package that gets you all 300million websites on the internet.
I wonder what I'm missing here
Quality control laws
(how effective they are is up to the reader)
Perhaps, but I'm betting 9 times out of 10 the US based vendor is buying their product from the same place you're buying it from on ebay, and just marking the price up. I've seen numerous ones even just on ebay where a US seller and a China seller have the exact same thing (even to the same packaging), and it's twice as expensive to get it from the US seller. Now, mind you, it might be faster (say a week) than from China (say 2 weeks), but if it's not something you desperately need right away...
I would argue that having any government move to open source is good for everyone. I don't know if it will be cheaper but I do think it will like give the people more bang for their buck. Instead of those dollars going into one person's pockets, they can not only still be used to solve the government's software problems but also provide software libraries and frameworks for other to bulid off of.
Agreed. All government documents should be written with LaTeX and/or XML to get away from any proprietary or screw-ball formats.
... and I can't tell if that's heavy sarcasm or not. Well played. :P
They can take away the rights of people whom the public despises. Right now it's largely Muslim terrorists and pedophiles.
... and tomorrow, once they explain they have secret evidence that's been proven in a secret court, evidence which they can't show to the public but which *proves* that you are a "Gay Terrorist Muslim Pedophile", the public will despise you too and won't have any problem with them taking away your rights either.
It's a slippery slope once you start allowing rights to be taken away.
It's Islam Shariah Law. The rich are always favored over the poor. The publicity from this in Iran is worth every penny of "compensation" (which will indeed be pennies).
And that is different than the US, UK, EU, how exactly? How many lobbyists do you have working for you on K-street in DC? How many bankers went to jail after 2008? Where do our Treasury Secretaries, SEC/CFTC heads, etc, come from? Go to after they leave? When exactly was the last time a "poor" person was elected President?
No, but I'll bet he's happy to live in a country that has progressed beyond institutionalized racism. I'm pretty sure just being of Jewish descent is enough for a prosecution in Iran.
Actually their real problem is with the *state* of Israel, not all people of Jewish descent. Might have something to do with Israel taking land from countries Iran might see as their "neighbors" and constantly threatening them? You might want to read up on the difference between being Jewish and being Zionist, they aren't the same thing.
Iran hasn't actually started a war against any country in 300+ years. The last real war they were in was when Iraq/Saddam *invaded them* in the 80's, which was purely defense on their part. How many countries has the US started wars with or put troops into in the past even 100 years? Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, to mention a few, not counting financing the 'overthrow' (or attempt) of Syria, Libya, Ukraine, and of course "aid" to help put brutal leaders all over South America at various times, and financing death squads, drug lords, etc. I guess since we blow up/kill/coerce/control/overthrow African/Asian/Middle-Eastern/Slavic/etc people with equal prejudice we're not "racist" right?
Agreed. Iran has some pretty intelligent people there, and much of the population is college educated.
The problem is, after seeing Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, etc., no one is looking to overthrow a government any time soon, but looking instead for slower reforms.
Well, after the CIA's last involvement with "government reform" in their country (aka - ousting their democratically elected leader and installing the Shah), can you exactly blame them that they aren't interested in "rapid reform" like the CIA/US.Military backed "reform" in Iraq, Syria, Libya, etc?
I've already got a 'smart' home system... a thermostat on the wall with no web interface (just a couple wires to the furnace), a 'fridge with food and beer in it where the only 'connections' are the icemaker water hose and a 110V plug, etc. 'Smart' being there's nothing on the internet or wi-fi enabled so someone can hack it, and it doesn't report back to some vendor intimate details of my life.
Computer technology is vastly improved in so many ways readily apparent to the average user.
1) touch screens were not widely available then, they are everywhere now.
2) GPU technology has improved by at least two generations. Ask any gamer what that means in terms of experience and performance.
3) Hard drive space has improved dramatically, and there weren't even SSDs back then.
4) battery and efficiency technologies can keep a notebook running for several hours, instead of maybe one hour.
5) LCD innovations, resolution improvements, and LED back lighting instead of flourescent back lighting.
6) Virtualizable 64-bit multi-core computing, instead of 32-bit single-core computing, let you run multiple OS at the same time.
1) I have a keyboard and mouse, and I'm a touch typist (any programmer should be, right?) at 80WPM. What exactly does a "touch screen" do for me? I watch enough people swiping around on their phones all day already. ... oh, wait, I know the answer to #6... because every release of the OS they make it use way more CPU & memory than the last version with foo-foo GUI changes and other stuff that doesn't do a damn thing for the average user, but sells lots of new hardware for their partner vendors. Pretty soon they'll just stop supporting 32-bit CPUs entirely because y'know, they're old... and who cares if it still works fine, we live in a disposable society right?
2) I'm not a gamer, and my "GPU" video card has 512M and works just fine for what I need to do.
3) Agreed, but... why wouldn't I just buy a bigger hard drive for my machine if I needed it? (And I don't need an SSD).
4) Dunno, my laptop rarely gets used (and is max 1GB ram), I mostly use my desktop machine.
5) Yeah, I like my 19" LCD on my desktop, far lighter than the 20" CRT I used to have that was just a beast to move around. Of course, even my 19" LCD is old, 1280x1024 max resolution - but good enough for what I need it to do.
6) Tell me again why your average home user needs 64-bit multi-core virtualizable computers that can run multiple OS's at the same time, to browse the internet, check email, etc?
What's illegal about it? Is it illegal to use Microsoft's provided tools to edit my registry, browing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA, then creating a new key called PosReady, then creating a new dword in PosReady called "Installed" with a value of 00000001?
No more illegal than disguising yourself as a legitimate copyright holder and fooling someone into letting you make a copy of a piece of media.
Or no more illegal than me getting his CC info and using it online to go buy things. After all, I'm only using a browser and OS on my own system to access a site with the 'key' (CC info) I got, right? Why should that be illegal?
What's illegal about it? Is it illegal to use Microsoft's provided tools to edit my registry, browing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA, then creating a new key called PosReady, then creating a new dword in PosReady called "Installed" with a value of 00000001?
See Aaron Swartz: Federal prosecutors later charged him with two counts of wire fraud and 11 violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,[12] carrying a cumulative maximum penalty of $1 million in fines, 35 years in prison, asset forfeiture, restitution and supervised release.[13]
And he actually had a legal account to access the JSTOR information, which he was accused of 'unlawfully accessing'. (Hint for them, don't give people accounts if you don't want the data accessed :rolleyes:).
It'll only work right if it's set as a 0 or 1 in trinary.
Seriously, if your physical security is so poor that people can tap into your ethernet cabling, then you shouldn't be in charge of any kind of IT security. (And since the POS is probably taking CC data in and sending it to the server for authentication (?), it really should be an encrypted connection to the server anyways). Hell, if your security is that poor why bother with tapping the ethernet cable, you could just pop a couple screws and open the POS register itself and install some hardware/software to wifi the data out. ... though, I do realize that what I just said means most stores I've seen shouldn't be using any IT, since most of the POS registers I've seen have exposed wires hanging off the back. So I really hope the data going to their server is encrypted. :-P
That still counts as "on-the-internet" (unless you somehow have a dedicate line going from the POS to the server), so you're plenty vulnerable to spoofing and man-in-the-middle attacks.
Um, no, what he described is a local network -> server -> internet connection. As long as the POS network is 'in house' only and on it's own switch, with one connection from that switch to the server, then a separate NIC on the server going to another switch with the internet (router/firewall hopefully between) side should be ok. ... of course, that means your server better be protected, firewall setup properly to block anything incoming, etc, but unless you specifically have the server setup to route between two separate NIC's on it, should be safe as long as the server itself stays safe. And, well, if you can't figure out how to have a couple POS terminals setup isolated from another network, then you shouldn't be having anything to do with configuring a network.
thats "blah (less than sign) 5"... my less than got stripped out... :-(
...and I think you do, too.
Actually, I prefer the BSD license...
You focused on the "first tier", but if the author chooses the GPL license he is not only removing choice from the *next* level of user, he is removing the choice from *ALL* levels of users. It completely removes my freedom of choice as a 2nd, 3rd, or beyond level of user.
With the BSD license, each "tier" of user has a choice.. I am not restricting their choice of whether they want to publish their mods or not. Interestingly enough, given the choice there seem to be an awful lot of users who modify BSD licensed code and redistribute the source. I myself am working on some things that are BSD licensed that I certainly will be putting back out into the user community. I believe in open software, and if I modify something that is open source (whether BSD'd or GPL'd) I personally belive that I should give it back to the world... carrying on the open source "tradition" if you will. But I prefer not to have a legally binding contract *forcing* me to do it...
Actually, from what I've heard, MS *did* have some BSD network code in Windows at one point. I think its funny... a company worth billions of dollars with a team of hundreds (probably thousands) of paid programmers can't write their own code, they have to grab someone elses?? Its actually a testimony to how well open-source software is designed that they'd do that... And then you could say, gee.. I spend $400 to get BSD network code from Micro$oft, without source, or get it for free on the net...
Remember that, no matter what mods a user makes, the original source is still open-source BSD. If someone wants to make mods and keep them private, its their freedom to do so... I don't want to *force* them to, no matter how much I disagree with it... anymore than I'd want to *force* you to buy a Chevy because I like them, even though you like Ford's. (Actually I don't even own a Chevy, but just to illustrate the point...)
Would I be frustrated as a 2nd tier user to have a program that was BSD'd that someone modified the original source and didn't BSD their mods?? Maybe.. depends on whether I needed those mods. But then again, since I enjoy programming I'd take it as a good challenge to modify the original to do the non-BSD'd functionality and more... and then send it out BSD'd it. Thats what open-source is all about... taking the functionality of someone else's proprietary code, re-writing it yourself and giving it away to the community.
Just my opinion. Your preferred license is, of course, your free choice. Not up to me to choose your license, nor do I really care...
I'm often curious how many people who get into the venomous license debate actually write code... ?? I see so many people arguing about the BSD bozos or the GPL losers and wonder if they'd even comprehend a simple statement like:
for (blah=0;blah 5;blah++) *bufptr++ = *zz++;
or is it just because they *can* have it that they feel its important. "I want a schematic diagram for my TV... I can't read one, will never use one, but I'll be pissed off if I don't get one". I'd gladly take an OS kernel without source if it was free and rock-solid stable and did what I wanted it to do...
I use M$Word at work, it prints my little one page memo's and whatever documentation I write up just fine... why would I need the source? Even if I had it how long would it take me to figure out where the code is for font kerning, how it works, and how to modify it to fix whatever problem I'm having. Probably by the time I got through that the memo would be horribly out of date and meaningless, and I'd probably be fired for not doing what my job really is!!
Hmm... and so instead of denying me my right to free speech, or the right to *not* speak, you are going to *FORCE* me to speak???
Who is trampling on whose rights there?
Freedom isn't really free if its *FORCED*.
Of course, the wonderful thing about this whole argument... which all the zealots on both sides refuse to see... is that this whole thread is a perfect example of freedom of choice!!!
If I choose to GPL my source... its my free choice to do so!! And if I choose to modify some code I have the choice to modify GPL source and publish the mods, or to choose non-GPL source (or write my own) and keep my ideas to myself. Or GPL my own rewritten version.. or BSD it.. or whatever.
If I choose to BSD my source... its my free choice to do so!! Maybe I *want* to let businesses around the world use my code for profit if they want to... maybe I write for the fun & challenge of it and don't want to force anybody to publish their mods if they don't want to... guess what folks, its *MY FREE CHOICE* to do this if I choose this license! And if I choose this, who the heck are you to tell me what I should do with *MY* code???
If I choose to write my own license terms... guess what?!?!? I'm free to do so!!!
So isn't freedom great?!? And if you don't agree with my choice of licenses?? Great!! You are perfectly free to have your own opinion, think I'm a total a-hole jerk moron, or whatever!! Isn't that WONDERFUL?!?!? And do I care what your opinion is??? NOPE, because I chose my license out of my own free will because it is what fits my idea of how I want *MY* code to be used!
FREEDOM is such a wonderful thing... isn't it?
... and their customers get another product they can't learn from or fix... and there's more proprietary software in the world.
...and so the makers of cable-TV descramblers should just GPL the code for their boxes so anyone can make them, modify the code, etc.. thus negating the reason for having them anyways (not that I'm a fan of cable-TV premiums). Theres a few people out of jobs and a lot of lost revenue.
...and Oracle should just GPL the source to their database software so everyone can just copy it freely and they can lay off 1000's of programmers since they can get the "user" community to do it for them... oh, but wait, then they can't charge for it either can they? There goes the unemployment rate...
...and the makers of that Defibrillator at the hospital should just GPL the code.. so any old Joe who thinks he's a good embedded systems programmer and knows how to "fix that Y2K problem" can just "tweak" the code... and kill you with a "slight bug" he introduced...
Not all "proprietary" software is *evil*, horrible, deadly to innovation. In fact, I'd hate to trust the defibrillator above or an aircraft tower control system to an OpenSource community. "Oh yeah, I just whipped up a patch for that bug.. works on my machine fine!" (oops, how many lives depend on your machine?). Would you be glad if your bank was keeping all of its account information on MSQL?
With enough manpower, you can "fix" anything.. souce code or not. Ever run a disassembler on a 64k PROM and then commented the whole listing and figured out what it does? Not fun, but it can be done (I know). Want to know how a database works? Rather than telling Oracle they should GPL their source so you can "learn" from it (I'm sure you won't get far), try getting some good literature on database design and getting the code for MSQL and looking at that.
If they want to "compete" by having software nobody else can get, they ought to pay through the nose.
I think they do... hire 100 programmers at an average of $60K/yr each... there's $6mil. HR staff, management, facilities, equipment. Plus, once they hire *you* to write code for them you may want to think twice about giving it away.
.. But then again, McDonalds pays $8/hr around here...