That's what this is all about. SCO couldn't raise enough hundreds of millions of dollars to do more discovery and debunking than the sum of the entire free software and linux community.
Imagine the dismay of SCO's million-dollar lawyers as they read slashdot and groklaw and see their case being categorically RIPPED TO SHREDS before it's even had it's day in court?
Imagine how easy it would be find evidence to counter SCO's claims EVEN FOR BAD LAWYERS... all they need to do is quite literally enter a plain english sentence question about SCO's claims into Google, and they've got the results of a million opensource paralegals (of which, at least a dozen or so are probably providing critical info.)
This harkens to the meme of The Second Superpower
The more I think about it, all these SCO guys are quite likely going to end up in jail (perhaps a nice jail, but still... jail)
As anyone who has ever worked in a commerical software house can tell you, for every one super-skilled developer writing code, there are dozens (hundreds?) of others who are not.
The reason that Linux's codebase has remained so cohesive, focused, and flexible is that Linux has so many really skilled developers -- the kind that most companies are fortunate to have just a handful of.
Software development is one thing where the difference in output between the most skilled person and the average person can be orders of magnitude.
There really aren't many other fields or occupations where you could argue that the top people/employees are orders of magnitude better than the median person/employee.
Thanks for explaining why Kermit is still relevant -- I was going to flame on about how choosing kermit over zmodem was about as dumb as choosing 'compress' over 'bzip2';)
Previously, I've had a Canon Rebel 2000, Canon AE-1, Nikon FM-2. I also have a Canon Elph Advantix, and A Sea&Sea MX10
After last year's vacation, we came back with 45 rolls of film. Cost of film and processing was close to the price of a digital rebel today.
Additionally, I'm not so pleased with processing from Costco or Longs - they auto-adjust things in a way you may not want, they don't change chemicals often enough, and the person developing your pics is probably not a photography expert.
So, it's a pay now for digital or pay later for film.
Since I was scanning my best photos into the computer anyway (which by the way takes a ton of time... for mediocre results), going digital made lots of sense.
I ended up getting the digitial rebel, repurposing my Rebel 2000 28-200 quantaray lens, and purchasing a 2gb CF card and an extra battery.
On the highest jpeg resolution and least compression, I can store close to 600 photos in the camera. On lower settings, I can store thousands of picures.
Now, I can see the results instantly to see if I need to change settings or take more photos, and I have the results immediately.
Digital may not be able to replace medium format cameras yet, but I'm definitely not going back to film.
NEWS: MAE-West, one of the nation's key switching facilities for Internet connectivity, was completely destroyed by 500 pounds of Energel explosive after confirmation of a rumor that one of the routers in there was being used to send MP3 files to the dreaded user@KaZaA
"I believe that we have stopped to illegal tranfer of copyrighted materials in the most effective and timely manner possible", stated Bradley A. Buckles, head of the Anti-Piracy Unit of the Recording Industry Association of America and former director of the ATF.
"It is truly unfortunate that half of the US now has to go on without internet access just because of the actions of a few unscrupulous file traders" Buckles continues, "File swapping really does hurt everyone."
MAE-West was one of two major network traffic exchange points in the United States. The other, MAE-East, is in Vienna, Virginia.
When asked about MAE-East, Buckles said, "We'll blow that up too, if it turns out that kazaaliteuser@KaZaA is using that for illegal file sharing."
The RIAA now is pleased to announce in partnership with AT&T and PG&E the formal unveiling of "MediaNet". MediaNet is a network that connects your electrical system with the sewer system to form a massive computer network that can be billed per election transferred. Additionally, packet headers are decoded to determine to origin of traffic and impose any and all necessary foreign and domestic tarrifs and taxes.
We will be installing new meters alongside the ones you already have and you will be billed automatically for the webpages you access. MP3 ID3 tags are automatically read and you will be charged "fair market value" for any files transferred. When copyrighted images or sound clips load, users will also be charged "fair market value" for a single use right to view and hear them.
We believe that MediaNet will be a great success and will provide millions of homes and businesses with a valuable metered internet lifeline.
MediaNet service is a mandatory addition to your current utilities. Basic use fees will start at $50/month*
* Basic use fees do not include state data tax, universal MediaNet tax, interstate data transfer surcharge, or billing meter rental fees.
there's more than a shred of truth to that quip about Google....
Let's say you spend $30,000/year for unlimited patch access and you have a 4000 node linux server farm that has an expected usable life of no more than 3 years.
That's $90,000 for "lifetime" patching of 4000 machines or a $22.50 uplift on purchase price of each individual machine for lifetime patching.
Redcarpet licenses cost a whole lot more than that!
I can't wait for Progeny to offer their patching services for Redhat Enterprise Linux 3.0... oh wait... isn't Redhat Planning on making all of their money from Support?!?
Sun's Java desktop is going to run on all of their OSes and platforms.
So, they can sell the 'java desktop system' and when users "outgrow" Linux, they can upgrade their users to Solaris on Sparc and they'll have the same user experience.
At least that's how I see Sun's thought process... gingerly adopt and support Linux while finding ways to sell Solaris on Sparc
I have a few hundred stubborn old Netscape 4.X users who will *never* switch to I.E. for windows, and if they don't get their integrated browser/mail/news combo client, they'll keep using Netscape 4.X
I still have lots of users who are reluctant to use Mozilla because it's not "Netscape".
Mozilla firebird?? How many hits with a clue stick will it take to get die-hard netscape 4 users to switch to that?!?
Last time I was in my kick to use as many different OSes as possible, I found the hardware support for BeOS terribly lacking. Does it support modern graphics cards now? What hardware *won't* work with BeOS?
Is BeOS still stuck in the gcc 2.95 world due to c++ libraries?
At one time, I cared. BeOS could have beaten OSX to the punch. It could have been a kick-a$$ multimedia box.
Now, though, aside from the coolness factor of it being yet another OS that runs on Intel hardware, what exactly does BeOS have that makes it a desirable platform for users? Or put more succintly, Is there anything in BeOS that is not available in Linux?
I just recently started doing email on my Palm PDA, and while I'm darn good at Graffiti, writing an email in graffiti gets tiring quickly and I'm looking for a thumbboard.
So... when I saw the phone layout above, It immediately made sense, and I'm sure I could type twice as fast as with the alphabetical layout.
Probably the biggest hurdle to the adoption of this layout is the general perception that John Q. Public is a moron. Seriously, though, I bet that there are a lot of cell phone makers that would GREATLY fear that using a modified QWERTY layout would confuse too many people, while ABCD is understood by everyone and so the speed and efficiency is secondary.
I've noticed that within the last few years, most of the department store bridal registry kiosks have switched from an abcdef layout to QWERTY. I assume that they finally gained confidence that this layout was more familiar and easier to use.
Let's hope the phone companies do some usability studies with the 'WIRED' crowd who will be the early adopters and actually try to do email on these phones instead of pandering to people who don't know how to type.
Give me a break, That's like saying, "It's okay for people to steal from the supermarket because they're hungry -- what do you expect them to do - work for food?"
We're no longer hunter-gatherers, in most evolving countries famine and disease don't kill off the population. Despite what us dot-com-starbucks-drinkin-wireless-pda-mp3-playing -technobabblers think, life is still pretty darned easy. People who produce something have the right to be compensated.
In the US, being poor means that you get fat from fast food and that you need to drink American beer instead of imported beer. I can hear a nation of unemployed couch potatoes whining about "how am I going to design my webpage/blog if I can't steal content? What music am I going to listen to if I can't get it for free from KaZaa? What movies am I going to watch from my couch while I design my website?"
Waa!
I argue that the world has never had so much entertainment, music, art, food, information resources, etc. and that 90% of the creators of above items have never received so little compensation... and we're complaining that everything's not free?!?
The internet is starting to feel like a giant virtual riot in the streets where everyone starts breaking windows and stealing TV's just because they don't want to miss out on the action.
Okay, so looking at things from the GPL perspective, we're enabling people to "inherit" the work of others. "My philanthropy is donating code to project X so that the future generations can benefit" is a noble cause, but don't mistake your cause with other people's rights.
It seems that the current generation raised on Internet don't realize that for hundreds of years there have been laws esatablished to protect people's rights and just because law on the internet has been difficult to enforce doesn't mean that people's rights stopped being important.
There is an alarming trend for the opensource community to appear to outsiders as very cavalier with issues dealing with protecting rights for others to derive profit from their works. Perhaps the mindset is "I gave all my code away for free, why should I care if you make money from your game/music/movie/software/patent/intellectual property/licensed image/registered trademark ?".
Do "opensourcers" belive that if something is not covered by a GPL-like license that it's okay to ignore that license, just because they're not afraid of being caught?
I'm all for patent reform and whatnot, but... until laws are changed, those laws still exist. Do I think that the RIAA and MPAA are locked in a downward spiral and that they're getting ready to pull a 'SCO'? Sure I do. With a world full of indedpendent artists and movie makers and the internet as a distribution method, It's completely conceivable that we could have "GPL" bands and movie studios releasing GOOD STUFF onto P2P network. Hey opensource/free software community: In a band? Have a video camera?
Ever wonder why department stores play MUZAK? It's because they PAY a company for the rights to play that MUZAK in their store, and MUZAK is cheaper than real music. If we really care so much, isn't it our responsibility to provide an alternative?
If you own a bar and play a radio with hip-hop tunes on it, do you know that you should be paying royalties to the artists? Do you know that if you run a restaurant and you show a movie in your restaurant that you are supposed to pay royalties?
Do you know that you're not allowed to have a picture of Bart Simpson on your website? Do you know that your favorite movie sound clips may not be 'fair use'?
Just because the internet has made it easy to share content, doesn't mean it's right or legal. Try to picture it from the viewpoint of Linux vs. Commerical OSes - if you don't want to support MPAA and RIAA, then *WE* need to provide an alternative, otherwise we need to play by their rules or petition to have the rules changed.
There is a common misconception that IT folk can do a simple 1 hour task just because someone sends an email saying, "Please do this simple 1 hour task (and put it at the top of your stack)"
When 50 people send an IT person an email about a simple 1 hour task that needs to be done today or tomorrow, you've got a problem.
None of these tasks may be unreasonable. None of the users may be overbearing or unreasonable (although, it's more common that users consider their task to be the only priority)
Here's what to do:
- always assume that it will take 5 times as long to do something as you think. For a 1-2 hour job, tell your customer it will take a day. That way, when you get 3 emergencies and you don't get to that one hour job until 4pm, your user won't be upset. If you happen to finish this by noon, your user will be *THRILLED* that you're ahead of schedule. If you get 5 or 10 clear emergencies that push a task back, immediately notify said user that there is an emergency and you will not be able to get to their job until tommorw.
- Use your own judgement to prioritize requests to start with - everyone knows what is inherently important and what can wait
- When your stack overflows, and your "day's work" turns into a week's work, list the things that need to get done and what you think their priority is and talk with your manager to ensure that they agree. Discuss what tasks will have to be dropped or slipped and by how much with your manager first and then with your users. In the event of a tie or question or indecisive manager, talk with users and let them know that the only way you can do "x" is if they get user2 to agree to let "y" slip. Once you get users trying to convince other users about how important their demands on your time are, they are now negotiating for your time and realize that something has to give.
- Know when to say that you're so busy that you won't be able to get to anything additional for another week unless your manager approves you dropping a project
- Keep a record of what you do for your manager and constantly build the case for additional headcount (assuming it will take forever...)
- be efficient - look for trends to problems and solve the root cause by scripting or automating instead of fixing the symptoms over and over
- Don't get suckered into working 16 hours a day - you won't be effecive and you'll be bitter. Learn to put in you 8-12 hours and leave work behind. meditate. Exercise. Chop wood (it's very theraputic!)
- Be effective - don't waste all day on slashdot - while you might actually read something useful here, your job description probably doesn't inclde surfing slashdot. Work is called WORK for a reason...
SCO stock probably went up because the analysts looked at some cards with code samples. The analysys probably said, "looks like the same stuff, so thereforce SCO will win -- UPGRADE"
Problem is that many analysyts are not worth a sack of S___. They don't understand all of the issues - they're just trying to make a quick buck for their company and investors. The sad truth is that once something is reported as news on Marketwatch or CNBC or Bloomberg, it no longer matters whether the information is accurate or correct - the stocks move.
Movement in the stock market is not driven by facts, technology, or capabilities -- it's driven by speculation and opinions.
The stock market is just a game who's rules change as fast as the technology the traders use does.
Kind of like Sun's monopoly of Solaris/Sparc systems, and HP's monopoly of PA-RISC/HP/UX systems, and IBM's monopoly of POWER/AIX system?
When did Apple "discover" the rackmount server market? 2003?
Solaris runs on many vendors' hardware and Sun is now pushing Linux and Solaris on X86, HP is moving their hardware and OS and customers to IA64, and IBM is a HUGE supporter of Linux on X86 and every other platform they make and have stated that they will replace AIX when Linux contains all of the required functionality
The name of the company is Apple Computer, Inc. Not AppleSoft. They make computers. That is their business.
Of course... AppleSoft is floating point basic for the Apple ][, everyone knows that;)
They tried the OS license game. Those hardware vendors did nothing to expand the market but instead just canabilized Apple's hardware sales.
Exactly - everyone was able to make a cheaper PPC box than Apple, and Apple *HARDWARE* revenue dropped. That tells me Apple hardware isn't/wasn't competetive. If this has changed, the notion still exists in many people's minds that Apple hardware is overpriced.
When I can go to Fry's and build a system that runs OSX, I probably will -- betcha there's lots of Slashdotters who fall into the same category - user who would be quick to piece together a generic PPC system for $500 and pay Apple $120 for an OS, but wouldn't buy the entire sytstem from Apple.
Seriously, this is something that I believe hurts the cause of anyone who supports a choice in OSes.
Users should use what makes them productive.
If Apple really wanted to vie for a major place on the desktop, they'd release an X86 distribution, and then all of the MAC addicts would buy up copies of it for their significant others and extended families. I mean, the MAC fanatics I know would be giving everyone they know a copy of OS-X86 for Christmas!
Heck, Apple could probably even strongarm the software companies into supporting osx on multiple architectures.
But herein lies the problem - Apple still tries to be a Hardware&Software company and own their whole show. They need to port and license their OS. If they would have done this in the 80's, all of my Gateways and Dells would be running some variant of an Apple OS
As long as OSX doesn't run on commodity hardware (and Apple has done a good job ensuring that other vendors' PPC systems don't/won't challenge their hardware monopoly), it will remain a niche OS.
Linux has a major upper hand here -- find me a CPU, a bus, some storage device, a display device, and a gcc cross compiler and I can get linux running with a huge base of applications quickly.
What many people may not have noticed is that Linux is eating DOS's lunch in the embedded market since it runs on *ANYTHING* and has no licensing cost.
If anything will be the downfall of NVIDIA, it will be the fact that nobody but a hardware weenie can figure out what card is better based on the age/name without a secret decoder ring.
Seriously.. what average person would know that an a Geforce 3 TI200 was better than a Geforce 4 MX400. I mean.. geforce 4 sound better, right?
Likewise, who would think that an "old" Geforce 4 TI4200 is way better than a new Geforce FX 5200.
Please, NVIDIA, can you come up with some names that actually convey to people whether they're buying the 'Value' version of your graphics card, or the 'Professional/Platinum' version.
Sorry, but I'm waiting for everyone like you to be unemployed long enough that you're forced to sell your house into a buyers' market flooded with people who can't get even close to what they're asking for.
Housing prices in the bay area are artificially high - everyone leveraged themselves 30 years into the future based on dual incomes with yearly bonuses and stock option grants already factored in as to what they could afford per month in the late 1990s... then all-time low interest rates pushed housing demand, which kept prices high. Now, people are still unemployed, still losing jobs, still not getting raises, and stock options?? fuhgeddaboutit...
Just look at nearly any property in silicon valley and look at the discrepancy between what it would *RENT* for now as opposed to what it would *SELL* for.
No kidding. I too was furious that the PS2 wouldn't play VCD or SVCD. A number of Sony's other DVD players also don't support VCD, so I suppose it shouldn't be a huge surprise, but it s still a major disappointment. No cdr photo cd support either.
I'm glad they made the PS2 quieter - I was disappointed with how noisy it was compared to my PSX.
I wish they offered a high speed DVD drive, thought - the game load and access times from the standard DVD are pretty bad for computer gamers. For a few bucks they could put in a small hard disk to use a cache for the DVD drive and performance would be significantly better.
Lastly, if only they would have included a hard disk and a network adapter in the standard unit. Online gaming, Linux, and PS2 hacking need these components to be more widespread for the PS2 to take off further.
Seriously, at the moment the XBOX is looking like a much better console for hacking and linux than PS2
I would like to know when I will be able claim that Linux is UNIX. I know all about the crazy UNIX certification requirements...
If the evolution of Linux means the death of UNIX (since nearly no Linux meets UNIX certification and Linux prospers most at the expense of commercial UNIX), then isn't it in your best interest to change the certification rules so that Linux becomes UNIX? Once UNIX is irrelevant, where is SCO? Only you can change this.
UNIX is Dead Linux isn't UNIX Long live Linux
Good luck with your Lawsuit and thanks for for the all of the publicity for Linux.
Slashdot Mirror
... this should have been the story, and it needs a Farkin' boobies tag.
Oh wait, I thought this was fark for a moment.
Slashfark?
How about a boobies.slashdot.org section?
Used record shop?? Haven't seen one of those in a while.
Do DJ's even still use records?
Buy the music for the professor. Put the albums on reserve in the library. Play it in class. Let students sort it out.
Or... contact one of the firms that sells custom CDs. have them put together a compilation cd and *sell* it at the bookstore.
you're right about not making the class about piracy or RIAA or p2p or music distribution. Just focus on the music.
That's what this is all about. SCO couldn't raise enough hundreds of millions of dollars to do more discovery and debunking than the sum of the entire free software and linux community.
Imagine the dismay of SCO's million-dollar lawyers as they read slashdot and groklaw and see their case being categorically RIPPED TO SHREDS before it's even had it's day in court?
Imagine how easy it would be find evidence to counter SCO's claims EVEN FOR BAD LAWYERS... all they need to do is quite literally enter a plain english sentence question about SCO's claims into Google, and they've got the results of a million opensource paralegals (of which, at least a dozen or so are probably providing critical info.)
This harkens to the meme of The Second Superpower
The more I think about it, all these SCO guys are quite likely going to end up in jail (perhaps a nice jail, but still... jail)
If you really want to emulate a gazillion OSes,
see:
MESS.org
It's based on MAME's CPU and hardware emulation and codebase.
MESS Currently emulates 294 systems (alright 60 are marked as not-working...)
Don't see your favorite system emulated? Help out!
As anyone who has ever worked in a commerical software house can tell you, for every one super-skilled developer writing code, there are dozens (hundreds?) of others who are not.
The reason that Linux's codebase has remained so cohesive, focused, and flexible is that Linux has so many really skilled developers -- the kind that most companies are fortunate to have just a handful of.
Software development is one thing where the difference in output between the most skilled person and the average person can be orders of magnitude.
There really aren't many other fields or occupations where you could argue that the top people/employees are orders of magnitude better than the median person/employee.
Thanks for explaining why Kermit is still relevant -- I was going to flame on about how choosing kermit over zmodem was about as dumb as choosing 'compress' over 'bzip2' ;)
I recently go a Canon Digital Rebel.
Previously, I've had a Canon Rebel 2000, Canon AE-1, Nikon FM-2. I also have a Canon Elph Advantix, and A Sea&Sea MX10
After last year's vacation, we came back with 45 rolls of film. Cost of film and processing was close to the price of a digital rebel today.
Additionally, I'm not so pleased with processing from Costco or Longs - they auto-adjust things in a way you may not want, they don't change chemicals often enough, and the person developing your pics is probably not a photography expert.
So, it's a pay now for digital or pay later for film.
Since I was scanning my best photos into the computer anyway (which by the way takes a ton of time... for mediocre results), going digital made lots of sense.
I ended up getting the digitial rebel, repurposing my Rebel 2000 28-200 quantaray lens, and purchasing a 2gb CF card and an extra battery.
On the highest jpeg resolution and least compression, I can store close to 600 photos in the camera. On lower settings, I can store thousands of picures.
Now, I can see the results instantly to see if I need to change settings or take more photos, and I have the results immediately.
Digital may not be able to replace medium format cameras yet, but I'm definitely not going back to film.
NEWS: MAE-West, one of the nation's key switching facilities for Internet connectivity, was completely destroyed by 500 pounds of Energel explosive after confirmation of a rumor that one of the routers in there was being used to send MP3 files to the dreaded user@KaZaA
"I believe that we have stopped to illegal tranfer of copyrighted materials in the most effective and timely manner possible", stated Bradley A. Buckles, head of the Anti-Piracy Unit of the Recording Industry Association of America and former director of the ATF.
"It is truly unfortunate that half of the US now has to go on without internet access just because of the actions of a few unscrupulous file traders" Buckles continues, "File swapping really does hurt everyone."
MAE-West was one of two major network traffic exchange points in the United States. The other, MAE-East, is in Vienna, Virginia.
When asked about MAE-East, Buckles said, "We'll blow that up too, if it turns out that kazaaliteuser@KaZaA is using that for illegal file sharing."
The RIAA now is pleased to announce in partnership with AT&T and PG&E the formal unveiling of "MediaNet". MediaNet is a network that connects your electrical system with the sewer system to form a massive computer network that can be billed per election transferred. Additionally, packet headers are decoded to determine to origin of traffic and impose any and all necessary foreign and domestic tarrifs and taxes.
We will be installing new meters alongside the ones you already have and you will be billed automatically for the webpages you access. MP3 ID3 tags are automatically read and you will be charged "fair market value" for any files transferred. When copyrighted images or sound clips load, users will also be charged "fair market value" for a single use right to view and hear them.
We believe that MediaNet will be a great success and will provide millions of homes and businesses with a valuable metered internet lifeline.
MediaNet service is a mandatory addition to your current utilities. Basic use fees will start at $50/month*
* Basic use fees do not include state data tax, universal MediaNet tax, interstate data transfer surcharge, or billing meter rental fees.
there's more than a shred of truth to that quip about Google....
Let's say you spend $30,000/year for unlimited patch access and you have a 4000 node linux server farm that has an expected usable life of no more than 3 years.
That's $90,000 for "lifetime" patching of 4000 machines or a $22.50 uplift on purchase price of each individual machine for lifetime patching.
Redcarpet licenses cost a whole lot more than that!
I can't wait for Progeny to offer their patching services for Redhat Enterprise Linux 3.0... oh wait... isn't Redhat Planning on making all of their money from Support?!?
Poor Redhat...
That's the rub.
Sun's Java desktop is going to run on all of their OSes and platforms.
So, they can sell the 'java desktop system' and when users "outgrow" Linux, they can upgrade their users to Solaris on Sparc and they'll have the same user experience.
At least that's how I see Sun's thought process... gingerly adopt and support Linux while finding ways to sell Solaris on Sparc
... Welcome our new Gigapixel overlords
Now I just need a gigapixel flatscreen so I can use his picture for a background.
I have a few hundred stubborn old Netscape 4.X users who will *never* switch to I.E. for windows, and if they don't get their integrated browser/mail/news combo client, they'll keep using Netscape 4.X
I still have lots of users who are reluctant to use Mozilla because it's not "Netscape".
Mozilla firebird?? How many hits with a clue stick will it take to get die-hard netscape 4 users to switch to that?!?
Last time I was in my kick to use as many different OSes as possible, I found the hardware support for BeOS terribly lacking. Does it support modern graphics cards now? What hardware *won't* work with BeOS?
Is BeOS still stuck in the gcc 2.95 world due to c++ libraries?
At one time, I cared. BeOS could have beaten OSX to the punch. It could have been a kick-a$$ multimedia box.
Now, though, aside from the coolness factor of it being yet another OS that runs on Intel hardware, what exactly does BeOS have that makes it a desirable platform for users? Or put more succintly, Is there anything in BeOS that is not available in Linux?
I just recently started doing email on my Palm PDA, and while I'm darn good at Graffiti, writing an email in graffiti gets tiring quickly and I'm looking for a thumbboard.
So... when I saw the phone layout above, It immediately made sense, and I'm sure I could type twice as fast as with the alphabetical layout.
Probably the biggest hurdle to the adoption of this layout is the general perception that John Q. Public is a moron. Seriously, though, I bet that there are a lot of cell phone makers that would GREATLY fear that using a modified QWERTY layout would confuse too many people, while ABCD is understood by everyone and so the speed and efficiency is secondary.
I've noticed that within the last few years, most of the department store bridal registry kiosks have switched from an abcdef layout to QWERTY. I assume that they finally gained confidence that this layout was more familiar and easier to use.
Let's hope the phone companies do some usability studies with the 'WIRED' crowd who will be the early adopters and actually try to do email on these phones instead of pandering to people who don't know how to type.
...."And the result is that we all become cynics."
Welcome to the harsh world of reality. Do or Die.
--
How do you build wealth?
By making more money than you spend?
How do you do that?
By only spending what you are absolutely required to spend and not a dollar more.
How do you do better than that?
By finding ways to spend less than your you are required to spend
Give me a break, That's like saying, "It's okay for people to steal from the supermarket because they're hungry -- what do you expect them to do - work for food?"
g -technobabblers think, life is still pretty darned easy. People who produce something have the right to be compensated.
We're no longer hunter-gatherers, in most evolving countries famine and disease don't kill off the population. Despite what us dot-com-starbucks-drinkin-wireless-pda-mp3-playin
In the US, being poor means that you get fat from fast food and that you need to drink American beer instead of imported beer. I can hear a nation of unemployed couch potatoes whining about "how am I going to design my webpage/blog if I can't steal content? What music am I going to listen to if I can't get it for free from KaZaa? What movies am I going to watch from my couch while I design my website?"
Waa!
I argue that the world has never had so much entertainment, music, art, food, information resources, etc. and that 90% of the creators of above items have never received so little compensation... and we're complaining that everything's not free?!?
The internet is starting to feel like a giant virtual riot in the streets where everyone starts breaking windows and stealing TV's just because they don't want to miss out on the action.
Okay, so looking at things from the GPL perspective, we're enabling people to "inherit" the work of others. "My philanthropy is donating code to project X so that the future generations can benefit" is a noble cause, but don't mistake your cause with other people's rights.
It seems that the current generation raised on Internet don't realize that for hundreds of years there have been laws esatablished to protect people's rights and just because law on the internet has been difficult to enforce doesn't mean that people's rights stopped being important.
There is an alarming trend for the opensource community to appear to outsiders as very cavalier with issues dealing with protecting rights for others to derive profit from their works. Perhaps the mindset is "I gave all my code away for free, why should I care if you make money from your game/music/movie/software/patent/intellectual property/licensed image/registered trademark ?".
Do "opensourcers" belive that if something is not covered by a GPL-like license that it's okay to ignore that license, just because they're not afraid of being caught?
I'm all for patent reform and whatnot, but... until laws are changed, those laws still exist. Do I think that the RIAA and MPAA are locked in a downward spiral and that they're getting ready to pull a 'SCO'? Sure I do. With a world full of indedpendent artists and movie makers and the internet as a distribution method, It's completely conceivable that we could have "GPL" bands and movie studios releasing GOOD STUFF onto P2P network. Hey opensource/free software community: In a band? Have a video camera?
Ever wonder why department stores play MUZAK? It's because they PAY a company for the rights to play that MUZAK in their store, and MUZAK is cheaper than real music. If we really care so much, isn't it our responsibility to provide an alternative?
If you own a bar and play a radio with hip-hop tunes on it, do you know that you should be paying royalties to the artists? Do you know that if you run a restaurant and you show a movie in your restaurant that you are supposed to pay royalties?
Do you know that you're not allowed to have a picture of Bart Simpson on your website? Do you know that your favorite movie sound clips may not be 'fair use'?
Just because the internet has made it easy to share content, doesn't mean it's right or legal. Try to picture it from the viewpoint of Linux vs. Commerical OSes - if you don't want to support MPAA and RIAA, then *WE* need to provide an alternative, otherwise we need to play by their rules or petition to have the rules changed.
There is a common misconception that IT folk can do a simple 1 hour task just because someone sends an email saying, "Please do this simple 1 hour task (and put it at the top of your stack)"
When 50 people send an IT person an email about a simple 1 hour task that needs to be done today or tomorrow, you've got a problem.
None of these tasks may be unreasonable. None of the users may be overbearing or unreasonable (although, it's more common that users consider their task to be the only priority)
Here's what to do:
- always assume that it will take 5 times as long to do something as you think. For a 1-2 hour job, tell your customer it will take a day. That way, when you get 3 emergencies and you don't get to that one hour job until 4pm, your user won't be upset. If you happen to finish this by noon, your user will be *THRILLED* that you're ahead of schedule. If you get 5 or 10 clear emergencies that push a task back, immediately notify said user that there is an emergency and you will not be able to get to their job until tommorw.
- Use your own judgement to prioritize requests to start with - everyone knows what is inherently important and what can wait
- When your stack overflows, and your "day's work" turns into a week's work, list the things that need to get done and what you think their priority is and talk with your manager to ensure that they agree. Discuss what tasks will have to be dropped or slipped and by how much with your manager first and then with your users. In the event of a tie or question or indecisive manager, talk with users and let them know that the only way you can do "x" is if they get user2 to agree to let "y" slip. Once you get users trying to convince other users about how important their demands on your time are, they are now negotiating for your time and realize that something has to give.
- Know when to say that you're so busy that you won't be able to get to anything additional for another week unless your manager approves you dropping a project
- Keep a record of what you do for your manager and constantly build the case for additional headcount (assuming it will take forever...)
- be efficient - look for trends to problems and solve the root cause by scripting or automating instead of fixing the symptoms over and over
- Don't get suckered into working 16 hours a day - you won't be effecive and you'll be bitter. Learn to put in you 8-12 hours and leave work behind. meditate. Exercise. Chop wood (it's very theraputic!)
- Be effective - don't waste all day on slashdot - while you might actually read something useful here, your job description probably doesn't inclde surfing slashdot. Work is called WORK for a reason...
So, on behalf of your manager, GET BACK TO WORK!
SCO stock probably went up because the analysts looked at some cards with code samples. The analysys probably said, "looks like the same stuff, so thereforce SCO will win -- UPGRADE"
Problem is that many analysyts are not worth a sack of S___. They don't understand all of the issues - they're just trying to make a quick buck for their company and investors. The sad truth is that once something is reported as news on Marketwatch or CNBC or Bloomberg, it no longer matters whether the information is accurate or correct - the stocks move.
Movement in the stock market is not driven by facts, technology, or capabilities -- it's driven by speculation and opinions.
The stock market is just a game who's rules change as fast as the technology the traders use does.
Kind of like Sun's monopoly of Solaris/Sparc systems, and HP's monopoly of PA-RISC/HP/UX systems, and IBM's monopoly of POWER/AIX system?
;)
When did Apple "discover" the rackmount server market? 2003?
Solaris runs on many vendors' hardware and Sun is now pushing Linux and Solaris on X86, HP is moving their hardware and OS and customers to IA64, and IBM is a HUGE supporter of Linux on X86 and every other platform they make and have stated that they will replace AIX when Linux contains all of the required functionality
The name of the company is Apple Computer, Inc. Not AppleSoft. They make computers. That is their business.
Of course... AppleSoft is floating point basic for the Apple ][, everyone knows that
They tried the OS license game. Those hardware vendors did nothing to expand the market but instead just canabilized Apple's hardware sales.
Exactly - everyone was able to make a cheaper PPC box than Apple, and Apple *HARDWARE* revenue dropped. That tells me Apple hardware isn't/wasn't competetive. If this has changed, the notion still exists in many people's minds that Apple hardware is overpriced.
When I can go to Fry's and build a system that runs OSX, I probably will -- betcha there's lots of Slashdotters who fall into the same category - user who would be quick to piece together a generic PPC system for $500 and pay Apple $120 for an OS, but wouldn't buy the entire sytstem from Apple.
... is a Macintosh user.
Seriously, this is something that I believe hurts the cause of anyone who supports a choice in OSes.
Users should use what makes them productive.
If Apple really wanted to vie for a major place on the desktop, they'd release an X86 distribution, and then all of the MAC addicts would buy up copies of it for their significant others and extended families. I mean, the MAC fanatics I know would be giving everyone they know a copy of OS-X86 for Christmas!
Heck, Apple could probably even strongarm the software companies into supporting osx on multiple architectures.
But herein lies the problem - Apple still tries to be a Hardware&Software company and own their whole show. They need to port and license their OS. If they would have done this in the 80's, all of my Gateways and Dells would be running some variant of an Apple OS
As long as OSX doesn't run on commodity hardware (and Apple has done a good job ensuring that other vendors' PPC systems don't/won't challenge their hardware monopoly), it will remain a niche OS.
Linux has a major upper hand here -- find me a CPU, a bus, some storage device, a display device, and a gcc cross compiler and I can get linux running with a huge base of applications quickly.
What many people may not have noticed is that Linux is eating DOS's lunch in the embedded market since it runs on *ANYTHING* and has no licensing cost.
If anything will be the downfall of NVIDIA, it will be the fact that nobody but a hardware weenie can figure out what card is better based on the age/name without a secret decoder ring.
Seriously.. what average person would know that an a Geforce 3 TI200 was better than a Geforce 4 MX400. I mean.. geforce 4 sound better, right?
Likewise, who would think that an "old" Geforce 4 TI4200 is way better than a new Geforce FX 5200.
Please, NVIDIA, can you come up with some names that actually convey to people whether they're buying the 'Value' version of your graphics card, or the 'Professional/Platinum' version.
Sorry, but I'm waiting for everyone like you to be unemployed long enough that you're forced to sell your house into a buyers' market flooded with people who can't get even close to what they're asking for.
Housing prices in the bay area are artificially high - everyone leveraged themselves 30 years into the future based on dual incomes with yearly bonuses and stock option grants already factored in as to what they could afford per month in the late 1990s... then all-time low interest rates pushed housing demand, which kept prices high. Now, people are still unemployed, still losing jobs, still not getting raises, and stock options?? fuhgeddaboutit...
Just look at nearly any property in silicon valley and look at the discrepancy between what it would *RENT* for now as opposed to what it would *SELL* for.
No kidding. I too was furious that the PS2 wouldn't play VCD or SVCD. A number of Sony's other DVD players also don't support VCD, so I suppose it shouldn't be a huge surprise, but it
s still a major disappointment. No cdr photo cd support either.
I'm glad they made the PS2 quieter - I was disappointed with how noisy it was compared to my PSX.
I wish they offered a high speed DVD drive, thought - the game load and access times from the standard DVD are pretty bad for computer gamers. For a few bucks they could put in a small hard disk to use a cache for the DVD drive and performance would be significantly better.
Lastly, if only they would have included a hard disk and a network adapter in the standard unit. Online gaming, Linux, and PS2 hacking need these components to be more widespread for the PS2 to take off further.
Seriously, at the moment the XBOX is looking like a much better console for hacking and linux than PS2
Dear SCO,
I would like to know when I will be able claim that Linux is UNIX. I know all about the crazy UNIX certification requirements...
If the evolution of Linux means the death of UNIX (since nearly no Linux meets UNIX certification and Linux prospers most at the expense of commercial UNIX), then isn't it in your best interest to change the certification rules so that Linux becomes UNIX? Once UNIX is irrelevant, where is SCO? Only you can change this.
UNIX is Dead
Linux isn't UNIX
Long live Linux
Good luck with your Lawsuit and thanks for for the all of the publicity for Linux.