Both fair use and the ease of copying DVDs without decryption certainly were mentioned. I have read all the trial transcripts as they have become available. Boring as hell, but part of my job.
An interesting note is that Slashdot was mentioned over and over again as a primary source of information by both the plaintiffs and the defendants. Even Judge Kaplan seemed to have read many of the/. comments about the case.
His decision is going to be interesting. I look forward to reading it.
Re:Hooray, some analysis instead of paranoia
on
The Myth Of The Borg
·
· Score: 2
Yup. Finding and fixing structural problems is more complex and less dramatic than blaming everything negative on some sort of personified evil. Look at the number of novels and movies (and religious works) where the fate of the world (or a galaxy or the entire universe) hinges on the actions of one Hero fighting one Villain.
It's like a corruption case in the Maryland Legislature that is currently playing out in the local news media. An "evil" lobbyist was convicted of ripping off his clients by colluding with a legislator to imply that bills would be introduced that would harm their businesses if they didn't cough up big campaign bucks.
This conviction won't change the overall cultural problem in the legislature: that dollar-wielding corporate lobbyists have become an integral part of the system. to the point where they can "buy" passage of bills opposed by the majority of those who attend hearings or otherwise make their voices known. UCITA is a prime example. Although it passed in a watered-down form, the chairman of the legislative subcommittee through which it passed on its way to the house floor told me bluntly, before any hearings were held, that UCITA was going to pass. Period.
Taking MS or a lobbyist to court makes for compelling news coverage, but does little to change the underlying conditions that allowed them to do their dirty deeds.
I have no good solutions to any of these problems. Perhaps there aren't any.:)
Mind you, I still don't buy Microsoft products. I spent part of this morning on the phone to Dell, trying to buy an Inspiron 3800 laptop without Win98 on it.
You can buy a $3000 laptop from Dell with Red Hat on it, but not the lower-cost model (about $1700) that is all I really need. It's a quandary. I like the screen and the keyboard, but am I willing to go through all the crap to get the Windows refund from Dell after I buy one of the things?
Yes, I can buy from Tuxtops, and perhaps I will in the end. It depends on how their new models look and how they are priced, and how their keyboards feel.
I suppose CmdrTaco and some of the other Slashdot krewe must have similar thoughts when they buy or rent a movie on DVD (which I never do).
If we stopped dealing with all "evil" corporations we'd severely reduce our quality of life. There are no easy answers these days, just hard questions, I suppose.
I don't write these editorials because I have all the answers, but so that I can read the responses to them, many of which are (in my opinion) more worthwhile than my own thoughts that spurred them.
...and offers of more. Most of it is for Windows software I don't need or want, and that I'm not going to review.
I happen to like Mandrake. It is my favorite Linux distribution. I just installed it on a laptop today, glitch-free. And I *bought* the copy I installed out of my own pocket because I wanted to have the actual boxed set, with the books, just once.
Usually, like any other person competent enough to write a Linux software or distribution review, I download what I need.
News has been slow this summer. But this slow?
- Robin
PS - the opinions in this post are mine alone. Slashdot and Andover/VA editors are individuals and do not always think alike.:)
(sigh) It's not just Silicon Valley. I grew up mostly in Orange, California, back when the biggest industry in Orange County was citrus growing and packing. My parents had an Eichler house (they're common in SV too) they bought for something like $25,000.
I heard that "our" old house recently resold for over $500,000.
Such is life. The little quiet low-life nook where I now live, in Marylan,d is suddenly getting filled with cheesy, thrown-up townhouses that sell for $150,000 to $200,000. Traffic is getting worse and drivers are getting ruder. At least there's lots of convenient shopping, so I suppose there's an upside to the development, even if all the new restaurants seem to be chain outlets staffed by teenagers who are strictly at the "put it in the microwave" level of cooking.
I may move. What the hell. I telecommute anyway. Why not Mazatlan? Or Monterrey? (These are both cities in Mexico that have pretty good Internet access.) Or at least one of the U.S. Gulf Coast states?
But since I guess I am (sigh again) now a dot com yuppie myself, except for the "young" part, would I be helping to destroy those areas too?
You can't win.
- Robin (suffering from a burst of nostalgia over a California childhood that seems idyllic now, but didn't feel all that great at the time.)
Interestingly enough, American drug companies also price their wares by country and region. This is why the exact same prescription medicine, from the exact same factory, can cost something like 1/4 as much in Mexico as it does in the U.S.
It's the same principle as the DVD regions, but it's being applied to products that are, to my mind, just slightly more important than movies.
There are already LUGs that meet at UMBC and in Laurel that are within a reasonable drive for you, and a new one is starting in Columbia that'll be meeting right near Rte. 175 and Rte. 108. E-mail me and I'll dig up more info on it for you.
I have no intention of spending my life on a cold steel derrick in the North Sea, thank you. Some guys I know are setting up a data haven in a free trade zone in Panama. If I go anywhere, it'll be there. Warm weather (year-round sailing!), low rent, no taxes on offshore corporate income, rum and cigarettes at 1/5 U.S. prices (or less), good nightlife and beaches, quality medical care (I have diabetes, so this is important), lots of international fiber to hook into *plus* sat link as backup.
Now, given a choice between setting up your servers someplace cold and nasty or coming to a nice warm place (especially in winter) to set them up in person (at company expense - or tax-deductible if you're self-employed), which is more attractive?
I'm in the process of getting my passport renewed and a work visa for Panama set up. I'm not saying I'll suddenly start telecommuting from Central America, but I'm not saying I won't, either. *G*
The point isn't getting people to go to Kansas. Regional shows should give people in Kansas and surrounding states, or wherever they are held, a chance to attend a Linux gathering without having to go to high-buck places like New York or Silly Valley.
I agree that there are enough big-time shows already, but we need more Linux "gatherings" (or whatever you want to call them) that cost something like $50 ($25 students) to attend. You don't necessarily need a "big name" speaker at something like this, just a chance to share technical expertise and meet other Linux and Open Source enthusiasts.
Keep the whole thing small and simple, something for 200 - 400 people held in a (low cost) hotel instead of a convention center. Make it simple and inexpensive for vendors to attend, especially smaller vendors that can't afford the ever-growing cost and "booth inflation" of the big shows.
I have a major personal preference for small, humble Linux gatherings. They're more in the spirit of the true Linux community than shows that only corporate-backed people can afford to attend.
I believe regional gatherings should be held Friday and Saturday so that they give both the people who can get their employers to give them the day off, and those who are coming on their own time, a chance to be there. This is also an easier schedule for vendors, who can fly in on Thursday night, set up tabletops Friday morning, have a good time until Saturday, then break down their exhibits and fly out either Saturday evening or, because airfare is often a lot less if you stay over for a Saturday night, Sunday morning.
It's a lot more palatable for, say, Red Hat to send one or two people and a tabletop display that can be shipped via UPS to a regional meeting that only promises 300 or 400 attendees than it is for them to send a full-blown "trucked in" display and a dozen people to run it to a show ten times that size.
Wow! After reading today's SlashBack I am suddenly inspired to start selling copies of CDs online at very low prices. Example:
*YOUR CHOICE ONLY $2.99*
Copy of MS Office CD Copy of Red Hat 6.2 CD Copy of Corel Draw CD Copy of Metallica's latest CD Copy of MS Win2000 CD
- hundreds of other popular titles available!
(Plus $5 shipping and handling per order, of course.)
Who wants to partner up with me on this thing? I'll supply the Xerox color copier. You make the Web site. We'll send out millions and millions of emails to lucky "pretargeted" Internet users! We'll get rich!
</joke>
This scam-thought is partially inspired by the many nude enounter parlors that dotted San Francisco when I lived there years ago. They all had signs that claimed they offered "Oral Sex." After a hapless tourist bit on the come-on and forked over his cash, he was informed that oral sex meant... talking about it.
"Dominated" the front page does not mean that the picture took up the entire thing, although it did take up most of the space "above the fold." BTW, when I posted the original piece, the "I installed Linux and lived" sidebar was not yet online. Now it is. Check this link.
- Robin
Maryland UCITA Removes Liability for GPL Software
on
Copyrant
·
· Score: 3
The version of UCITA that passed in Maryland had a clause added that shields free software from liability claims. This extends to all software that has a free *license* even if that software is part of a package that is sold shrink-wrapped in stores.
So relax already. Maryland is the only state where UCITA is actually law (it doesn't go into effect in Virginia until it is "studied" for a year) and most of the worst UCITA clauses were taken out of the version of the bill that actually passed and was signed by Gov. Parris "I hate working people" Glendenning.
The liability shield for free software is similar to the "good samaritan" law we have that frees doctors from the risk of malpractice lawsuits if they render medical aid at crash scenes or in other emergencies, and indeed was modeled on it.
We haven't made a formal announcement yet, but it's no secret - we don't really need to have two competing Open Source hosting sites within the same company, and SourceForge was farther along than Server51 when the VA/Andover merger was announced to us troops, so it's going to be the "keeper."
It's sort of sad; scoop put a lot of heart into Server51. But now he and his gang can devote their full energy to freshmeat. I don't know if you've noticed, but freshmeat is now updated 24/7, not just when scoop has time, it has editorials every Saturday, and is generally getting bigger and better a little at a time, week after week.
Hmmmm... I haven't seen many submissions of Salon pieces lately. Leonard hasn't been writing much breaking news about Linux and Open Source stuff in Salon lately, which might explain it. (I believe he's working on a book about Open Source, though.)
But I like Andy Leonard just fine, and I think everybody else around Slashdot does too. He's a pretty good guy and a good reporter; spells the names right, is unbiased (which means he shares *our* biases), and all that.
Actually, I was Slashdot user #357, and had been reading and posting comments on Slashdot before I heard of Andover, and only started posting on Slashdot as an author with Rob's approval.:)
True but untold story: the plan was for me to do hardly anything but submission bin reading and culling for at least the first month. This is how we started Emmett and Timothy, and it's the right way to bring someone new into Slashdot, with a chance to acclimate and fit into the mold before actually posting stories. I was only supposed to take some of the load off of Rob and Jeff, who had been running this site without a break and hardly even a day off for over two years at that point, not take over the whole thing.
But things got screwed up because the geek compound lost power and phone service the day after the Andover acquisition due to some horrible weather in Holland, and I was the only person around who had an author's login and could reach the server. For the next few days it looked like I (and therefore Andover) had totally taken control of Slashdot. Nobody wanted things to be that way. We all cringed at the way it looked, and I endured a lot of abuse over it, but there was no real choice.
Now we've got Timothy and Emmett going full time and doing a great job, plus Jamie and Cliff and Michael and Nik and Jim and others kicking in as often as they can, so I've settled into my "real" role, which is to spend most of my time making sure Slashdot and freshmeat remain free of editorial influence from marketdroids, advertisers, and PR people (including ours), and to do my best to fend off attacks from the RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft, the courts, and anyone else who comes along and thinks they, not you or Rob Malda or Jeff Bates, have a right to decide what does and does not belong on this site.
Timothy Lord, Steve Killen (from freshmeat), and I all live close to one another and have been known to (GASP!) trade copies of books back and forth.
What's worse, we've all been known to patronize dens of print piracy called "used bookstores" and have been spotted skulking around an infamous spot full of books that can be read as freely as commie-style GPL software that we fondly call a "public library."
The funny thing is, a while back KDE had a whole bunch of new stuff to announce within a fairly short time and Gnome was comparatively quiet, so Slashdot got slammed for doing more KDE than Gnome coverage.
Right now Gnome has more to say than KDE. Then, at some point, KDE 2 will appear and the balance will swing the other way.
So it goes. I've used both desktops and agree that each one has strengths and weaknesses. And the people who develop both desktops are very nice, helpful, and hard-working and both groups deserve plenty of recognition and praise.
Yes, the "numbers stations" are almost certainly using one-time pads, but there are levels of obscurity they may use that go beyond that:
1) There is no reason all the numbers broadcast 24/7 must have any meaning, so a "key" could contain instructions that tell a recipient to listen for the string "24 41 00 65" after 12:32 p.m. and that the numbers between that string and "24 41 00 56" are the message.
2) A one-time pad usually encodes phrases, not letters or single words. A complex one can have multiple phrases available from which one can construct a complete message, ie 48 = "meet me," 47 = "at the courthouse steps," 97 = "at phillip's house," and so on. Both the numbers and the phrases can be chosen arbitrarily, and can be changed every week or even every day.
3) The date/time key can be kept separate from the decode key; that is, which strings to listen to, and when to listen for them, can be kept as a "key book" in an embassy safe, while the number/phrase "code book" can be in the possession of a staff member who does not live or work on the premises. If someone gets hold of the key book it does them no good without the code book, and vice versa.
This is good old-fahioned human stuff. To "decode" a message, you have to both suborn the embassy staff and find the code book. And if the person who has the code book doesn't report in, that code won't be used again, so capturing a code book does not allow you to decode future messages. Key books, too, can be changed if there is any suspicion that one has fallen into wrong hands.
Bill Gates might be able to crack this kind of code - not with computers, but by bribing both embassy staff members and the outside people to whom the actual messages are being sent, assuming the above message-passing method is the one being used, which may not be the case.
Humans are always the weak link. Even with "unbreakable" codes or ciphers, if the person who writes the original message is an enemy agent all the transmission security in the world won't keep it away from the enemy (or commercial competitor).
In light of all this, if I wanted to "prove" I could crack a "number station" code, I'd bribe someone at the transmitting end to send a message with content I already knew, at a predetermined time that I also knew.
This is not a particularly original thought, BTW. It's been used in at least a few spy novels as a way for a turncoat agent to gain a new master's trust.
Well, Lars and the other Metallica guys were upset about the criticism they got over their "too slick" answers in the famous Yahoo! chat interview they did. And Yahoo! got heat for the slickness, too.
Now Slashdot gets criticized for running a verbatim transcript of a phone interview that, like it or not, makes it clear (by its roughness) that Lars was speaking for himself and wasn't sitting on a legal or PR puppetmaster's knee.
If accurate interview transcripts are now considered unethical journalism -- especially when the interview subject has agreed to have his or her answers transcribed and published verbatim -- than we need to rethink the concept of ethical journalism.
I'm sorry, but I will continue to believe that accuracy is the essence of good journalism, and I will continue to detest articles that are rewritten press releases, interviews that are laundered to make their subjects sound better than they do in person, and all the other tricks that make news (and newsmakers) look "slick" at the expense of truth.
But don't worry. I'm not young, and all the guys my age will be dead or retired in a decade or two. The spinmeisters who come after us will do what you want; make everything look all fresh and pretty, because they'll want all subscribers to the one remaining TV/Internet/Print news source (after all the mergers) to be happy, happy, happy with Hereditary President George Bush IV* (who will never make a mistake during an interview, as far you will be allowed to know).
I sure as hell hope I die before this happens!
- Robin
* no partisan insinuation meant; it could just as easily be Hereditary President Gore. Or, since the two families have children of about the same age, perhaps it will be the GoreBush dynasty running things, with Rupert Steven Murdoch-Case III as press secretary. Either way, I'm sure all the news will be much better-organized than it is now, and all the reporters will have good teeth, blow-dried hair, and will wear makeup whenever you see them, as will everyone they are allowed to interview:)
Lars' words were published verbatim by prior agreement. It would have been a lot easier for us (especially timothy!) if we'd gotten neatly-typed answers. But the band and their publicists wanted to make sure you knew that you were getting honest, unfiltered opinions from Lars himself, not a bunch of stock lines cooked up by lawyers.
Timothy and I both know how to edit and "clean up" an interview transcript. If this was CNN's Web site, we would have. But this is Slashdot, where we figure most of the readers like the unvarnished truth better than the laundered version.
And, if this was CNN's Web site, we would have written the questions ourselves instead of doing the "Slashdot thing" and asking questions that were written by readers and chosen (through moderation) by other readers.
Slashdot is often accused of not being the New York Times, or ABC News, or whatever other medium you happen to favor.
Timothy taped the interview and transcribed Lars' answers verbatim. No lawyers, no PR people. Just Lars, speaking off the cuff to Tim on the phone, totally unscripted, without "soundbite" time limits, in a forum where Lars knew he was allowed to say "fuck" if he wanted.
I'll call Thomas Edwards at thesync.com (where Geeks in Space is hosted) and see if he wants to digitize the "Slashdot Lars Interview" and put it up. If he does, Timothy and I only live about 15 minutes away from thesync, and can run the tapes over there sometime this weekend.
Let's see... I've used commercial, pay-for Applix on Linux and found it generally satisfactory, but I now use StarOffice as my primary means of dealing with Microsoft documents, spreadsheets, etc. because SO's file import process is somewhat easier/faster than Applix's.
AbiWord is good for.doc imports, but doesn't do Excel spreadsheets. And Gnumeric, as nice an idea as it is, and much as I like Miguel, simply doesn't give me enough functionality and an easy enough file import/export path to be as useful as StarOffice. Maybe someday it will, but I need to read (and sometimes modify or add notes to) Excel-generated spreadsheets *now* if I am going to communicate with Windows-using accountants to make sure all our freelancers get paid.
I'm experimenting with GNUCash for my personal bookkeeping; it's good enough for my simple needs, but it's certainly not adequate to handle the bookkeeping and accounting for any business much more complicated than my one-horse limo company, and it does not interface directly with my bank's software, as does QuickBooks. I would find a commercial QuickBooks-equivalent accounting package for Linux awfully tempting if it offered $50 or $100 (or whatever it cost) more functionality than GNUCash.
If, indeed, KDE2 or a future version of Gnome turns out to have a better, more stable browser than Netscape, Mozilla or Opera, full support for MS file formats, and the other basic office functions I need in my work, then I'll use nothing else, and I'll be very, very, happy.
Remember, I am a *writer and editor* who also has a lot of administrative tasks to handle, not a programmer. I am a software user, not a developer, and my primary concerns are program stability, usability, and compatibility. Sure, I can and do use Nedit (the simplest and most stable text editor I've found for Linux so far) for 90% of my actual writing, but what about dealing with book publishers like, say, MacMillan? They have whole huge systems built around MS Word, and they aren't going to change them just because I don't want to use Windows or a Mac. The best compromise right now, when dealing with Windows-locked companies, is StarOffice.
I tried WordPerfect, but it had installation "issues" with my home network, and even when I finally got it going, it crashed more than a few times on me during my first day of use (which was also my last). This level of (non)stability is unacceptable for someone who is trying to turn out a novel in his (scant) spare time; when my head is full of characters, plot, scenes, dialogue, and other writerly things, there is no room left in it for worrying about applications that crash. Right now, as far as I'm concerned, WordPerfect is for computer hobbyists, not for people who are trying to use their computers as productivity tools.
The problem with cutting yourself off from all commercial software -- even "free beer" commercial software -- is that this position not only imposes severe limits not only on what you, yourself, can do with your computer, but also cuts you off from many collaborative projects.
Sure, I wish StarOffice was GPLed, and I wish there were a dozen better, less bloated, truly free alternatives available. Someday I'm sure there will be. I long for that day. But right now, my pragmatic choice is between using non-free applications on a truly free operating system, and using non-free applications on a non-free proprietary operating system.
My choice is to use the free operating system exclusively and to "bend" on the applications. At least for now.:)
I *have* a StrongArm laptop - a NetBook from Psion. (www.psion.com). Still very rare in the U.S., but the coolest portable computer I have ever owned. Instant-on symbian OS, cute little browser, enough pre-loaded software to do some *real work* with the thing, touchscreen instead of touchpad, and a keyboard *just* big enough for real typing.
Everyone who's seen my NetBook wants it. And no, you can't have it. It's MINE!!!
Slashdot Mirror
Both fair use and the ease of copying DVDs without decryption certainly were mentioned. I have read all the trial transcripts as they have become available. Boring as hell, but part of my job.
/. comments about the case.
An interesting note is that Slashdot was mentioned over and over again as a primary source of information by both the plaintiffs and the defendants. Even Judge Kaplan seemed to have read many of the
His decision is going to be interesting. I look forward to reading it.
- Robin
Will Rogers.
- Robin
Yup. Finding and fixing structural problems is more complex and less dramatic than blaming everything negative on some sort of personified evil. Look at the number of novels and movies (and religious works) where the fate of the world (or a galaxy or the entire universe) hinges on the actions of one Hero fighting one Villain.
:)
It's like a corruption case in the Maryland Legislature that is currently playing out in the local news media. An "evil" lobbyist was convicted of ripping off his clients by colluding with a legislator to imply that bills would be introduced that would harm their businesses if they didn't cough up big campaign bucks.
This conviction won't change the overall cultural problem in the legislature: that dollar-wielding corporate lobbyists have become an integral part of the system. to the point where they can "buy" passage of bills opposed by the majority of those who attend hearings or otherwise make their voices known. UCITA is a prime example. Although it passed in a watered-down form, the chairman of the legislative subcommittee through which it passed on its way to the house floor told me bluntly, before any hearings were held, that UCITA was going to pass. Period.
Taking MS or a lobbyist to court makes for compelling news coverage, but does little to change the underlying conditions that allowed them to do their dirty deeds.
I have no good solutions to any of these problems. Perhaps there aren't any.
- Robin
Mind you, I still don't buy Microsoft products. I spent part of this morning on the phone to Dell, trying to buy an Inspiron 3800 laptop without Win98 on it.
You can buy a $3000 laptop from Dell with Red Hat on it, but not the lower-cost model (about $1700) that is all I really need. It's a quandary. I like the screen and the keyboard, but am I willing to go through all the crap to get the Windows refund from Dell after I buy one of the things?
Yes, I can buy from Tuxtops, and perhaps I will in the end. It depends on how their new models look and how they are priced, and how their keyboards feel.
I suppose CmdrTaco and some of the other Slashdot krewe must have similar thoughts when they buy or rent a movie on DVD (which I never do).
If we stopped dealing with all "evil" corporations we'd severely reduce our quality of life. There are no easy answers these days, just hard questions, I suppose.
I don't write these editorials because I have all the answers, but so that I can read the responses to them, many of which are (in my opinion) more worthwhile than my own thoughts that spurred them.
- Robin
...and offers of more. Most of it is for Windows software I don't need or want, and that I'm not going to review.
:)
I happen to like Mandrake. It is my favorite Linux distribution. I just installed it on a laptop today, glitch-free. And I *bought* the copy I installed out of my own pocket because I wanted to have the actual boxed set, with the books, just once.
Usually, like any other person competent enough to write a Linux software or distribution review, I download what I need.
News has been slow this summer. But this slow?
- Robin
PS - the opinions in this post are mine alone. Slashdot and Andover/VA editors are individuals and do not always think alike.
(sigh) It's not just Silicon Valley. I grew up mostly in Orange, California, back when the biggest industry in Orange County was citrus growing and packing. My parents had an Eichler house (they're common in SV too) they bought for something like $25,000.
I heard that "our" old house recently resold for over $500,000.
Such is life. The little quiet low-life nook where I now live, in Marylan,d is suddenly getting filled with cheesy, thrown-up townhouses that sell for $150,000 to $200,000. Traffic is getting worse and drivers are getting ruder. At least there's lots of convenient shopping, so I suppose there's an upside to the development, even if all the new restaurants seem to be chain outlets staffed by teenagers who are strictly at the "put it in the microwave" level of cooking.
I may move. What the hell. I telecommute anyway. Why not Mazatlan? Or Monterrey? (These are both cities in Mexico that have pretty good Internet access.) Or at least one of the U.S. Gulf Coast states?
But since I guess I am (sigh again) now a dot com yuppie myself, except for the "young" part, would I be helping to destroy those areas too?
You can't win.
- Robin
(suffering from a burst of nostalgia over a California childhood that seems idyllic now, but didn't feel all that great at the time.)
Interestingly enough, American drug companies also price their wares by country and region. This is why the exact same prescription medicine, from the exact same factory, can cost something like 1/4 as much in Mexico as it does in the U.S.
It's the same principle as the DVD regions, but it's being applied to products that are, to my mind, just slightly more important than movies.
- Robin
There are already LUGs that meet at UMBC and in Laurel that are within a reasonable drive for you, and a new one is starting in Columbia that'll be meeting right near Rte. 175 and Rte. 108. E-mail me and I'll dig up more info on it for you.
- Robin
I have no intention of spending my life on a cold steel derrick in the North Sea, thank you. Some guys I know are setting up a data haven in a free trade zone in Panama. If I go anywhere, it'll be there. Warm weather (year-round sailing!), low rent, no taxes on offshore corporate income, rum and cigarettes at 1/5 U.S. prices (or less), good nightlife and beaches, quality medical care (I have diabetes, so this is important), lots of international fiber to hook into *plus* sat link as backup.
Now, given a choice between setting up your servers someplace cold and nasty or coming to a nice warm place (especially in winter) to set them up in person (at company expense - or tax-deductible if you're self-employed), which is more attractive?
I'm in the process of getting my passport renewed and a work visa for Panama set up. I'm not saying I'll suddenly start telecommuting from Central America, but I'm not saying I won't, either. *G*
- Robin
The point isn't getting people to go to Kansas. Regional shows should give people in Kansas and surrounding states, or wherever they are held, a chance to attend a Linux gathering without having to go to high-buck places like New York or Silly Valley.
I agree that there are enough big-time shows already, but we need more Linux "gatherings" (or whatever you want to call them) that cost something like $50 ($25 students) to attend. You don't necessarily need a "big name" speaker at something like this, just a chance to share technical expertise and meet other Linux and Open Source enthusiasts.
Keep the whole thing small and simple, something for 200 - 400 people held in a (low cost) hotel instead of a convention center. Make it simple and inexpensive for vendors to attend, especially smaller vendors that can't afford the ever-growing cost and "booth inflation" of the big shows.
I have a major personal preference for small, humble Linux gatherings. They're more in the spirit of the true Linux community than shows that only corporate-backed people can afford to attend.
I believe regional gatherings should be held Friday and Saturday so that they give both the people who can get their employers to give them the day off, and those who are coming on their own time, a chance to be there. This is also an easier schedule for vendors, who can fly in on Thursday night, set up tabletops Friday morning, have a good time until Saturday, then break down their exhibits and fly out either Saturday evening or, because airfare is often a lot less if you stay over for a Saturday night, Sunday morning.
It's a lot more palatable for, say, Red Hat to send one or two people and a tabletop display that can be shipped via UPS to a regional meeting that only promises 300 or 400 attendees than it is for them to send a full-blown "trucked in" display and a dozen people to run it to a show ten times that size.
- Robin
Wow! After reading today's SlashBack I am suddenly inspired to start selling copies of CDs online at very low prices. Example:
*YOUR CHOICE ONLY $2.99*
Copy of MS Office CD
Copy of Red Hat 6.2 CD
Copy of Corel Draw CD
Copy of Metallica's latest CD
Copy of MS Win2000 CD
- hundreds of other popular titles available!
(Plus $5 shipping and handling per order, of course.)
Who wants to partner up with me on this thing? I'll supply the Xerox color copier. You make the Web site. We'll send out millions and millions of emails to lucky "pretargeted" Internet users! We'll get rich!
</joke>
This scam-thought is partially inspired by the many nude enounter parlors that dotted San Francisco when I lived there years ago. They all had signs that claimed they offered "Oral Sex." After a hapless tourist bit on the come-on and forked over his cash, he was informed that oral sex meant
- Robin
- Robin
The version of UCITA that passed in Maryland had a clause added that shields free software from liability claims. This extends to all software that has a free *license* even if that software is part of a package that is sold shrink-wrapped in stores.
So relax already. Maryland is the only state where UCITA is actually law (it doesn't go into effect in Virginia until it is "studied" for a year) and most of the worst UCITA clauses were taken out of the version of the bill that actually passed and was signed by Gov. Parris "I hate working people" Glendenning.
The liability shield for free software is similar to the "good samaritan" law we have that frees doctors from the risk of malpractice lawsuits if they render medical aid at crash scenes or in other emergencies, and indeed was modeled on it.
- Robin
We haven't made a formal announcement yet, but it's no secret - we don't really need to have two competing Open Source hosting sites within the same company, and SourceForge was farther along than Server51 when the VA/Andover merger was announced to us troops, so it's going to be the "keeper."
It's sort of sad; scoop put a lot of heart into Server51. But now he and his gang can devote their full energy to freshmeat. I don't know if you've noticed, but freshmeat is now updated 24/7, not just when scoop has time, it has editorials every Saturday, and is generally getting bigger and better a little at a time, week after week.
- Robin
Hmmmm... I haven't seen many submissions of Salon pieces lately. Leonard hasn't been writing much breaking news about Linux and Open Source stuff in Salon lately, which might explain it. (I believe he's working on a book about Open Source, though.)
But I like Andy Leonard just fine, and I think everybody else around Slashdot does too. He's a pretty good guy and a good reporter; spells the names right, is unbiased (which means he shares *our* biases), and all that.
- Robin
Actually, I was Slashdot user #357, and had been reading and posting comments on Slashdot before I heard of Andover, and only started posting on Slashdot as an author with Rob's approval. :)
True but untold story: the plan was for me to do hardly anything but submission bin reading and culling for at least the first month. This is how we started Emmett and Timothy, and it's the right way to bring someone new into Slashdot, with a chance to acclimate and fit into the mold before actually posting stories. I was only supposed to take some of the load off of Rob and Jeff, who had been running this site without a break and hardly even a day off for over two years at that point, not take over the whole thing.
But things got screwed up because the geek compound lost power and phone service the day after the Andover acquisition due to some horrible weather in Holland, and I was the only person around who had an author's login and could reach the server. For the next few days it looked like I (and therefore Andover) had totally taken control of Slashdot. Nobody wanted things to be that way. We all cringed at the way it looked, and I endured a lot of abuse over it, but there was no real choice.
Now we've got Timothy and Emmett going full time and doing a great job, plus Jamie and Cliff and Michael and Nik and Jim and others kicking in as often as they can, so I've settled into my "real" role, which is to spend most of my time making sure Slashdot and freshmeat remain free of editorial influence from marketdroids, advertisers, and PR people (including ours), and to do my best to fend off attacks from the RIAA, MPAA, Microsoft, the courts, and anyone else who comes along and thinks they, not you or Rob Malda or Jeff Bates, have a right to decide what does and does not belong on this site.
- Robin
Timothy Lord, Steve Killen (from freshmeat), and I all live close to one another and have been known to (GASP!) trade copies of books back and forth.
What's worse, we've all been known to patronize dens of print piracy called "used bookstores" and have been spotted skulking around an infamous spot full of books that can be read as freely as commie-style GPL software that we fondly call a "public library."
We are evil!
- Robin
The funny thing is, a while back KDE had a whole bunch of new stuff to announce within a fairly short time and Gnome was comparatively quiet, so Slashdot got slammed for doing more KDE than Gnome coverage.
Right now Gnome has more to say than KDE. Then, at some point, KDE 2 will appear and the balance will swing the other way.
So it goes. I've used both desktops and agree that each one has strengths and weaknesses. And the people who develop both desktops are very nice, helpful, and hard-working and both groups deserve plenty of recognition and praise.
- Robin
Yes, the "numbers stations" are almost certainly using one-time pads, but there are levels of obscurity they may use that go beyond that:
1) There is no reason all the numbers broadcast 24/7 must have any meaning, so a "key" could contain instructions that tell a recipient to listen for the string "24 41 00 65" after 12:32 p.m. and that the numbers between that string and "24 41 00 56" are the message.
2) A one-time pad usually encodes phrases, not letters or single words. A complex one can have multiple phrases available from which one can construct a complete message, ie 48 = "meet me," 47 = "at the courthouse steps," 97 = "at phillip's house," and so on. Both the numbers and the phrases can be chosen arbitrarily, and can be changed every week or even every day.
3) The date/time key can be kept separate from the decode key; that is, which strings to listen to, and when to listen for them, can be kept as a "key book" in an embassy safe, while the number/phrase "code book" can be in the possession of a staff member who does not live or work on the premises. If someone gets hold of the key book it does them no good without the code book, and vice versa.
This is good old-fahioned human stuff. To "decode" a message, you have to both suborn the embassy staff and find the code book. And if the person who has the code book doesn't report in, that code won't be used again, so capturing a code book does not allow you to decode future messages. Key books, too, can be changed if there is any suspicion that one has fallen into wrong hands.
Bill Gates might be able to crack this kind of code - not with computers, but by bribing both embassy staff members and the outside people to whom the actual messages are being sent, assuming the above message-passing method is the one being used, which may not be the case.
Humans are always the weak link. Even with "unbreakable" codes or ciphers, if the person who writes the original message is an enemy agent all the transmission security in the world won't keep it away from the enemy (or commercial competitor).
In light of all this, if I wanted to "prove" I could crack a "number station" code, I'd bribe someone at the transmitting end to send a message with content I already knew, at a predetermined time that I also knew.
This is not a particularly original thought, BTW. It's been used in at least a few spy novels as a way for a turncoat agent to gain a new master's trust.
- Robin
Well, Lars and the other Metallica guys were upset about the criticism they got over their "too slick" answers in the famous Yahoo! chat interview they did. And Yahoo! got heat for the slickness, too.
:)
Now Slashdot gets criticized for running a verbatim transcript of a phone interview that, like it or not, makes it clear (by its roughness) that Lars was speaking for himself and wasn't sitting on a legal or PR puppetmaster's knee.
If accurate interview transcripts are now considered unethical journalism -- especially when the interview subject has agreed to have his or her answers transcribed and published verbatim -- than we need to rethink the concept of ethical journalism.
I'm sorry, but I will continue to believe that accuracy is the essence of good journalism, and I will continue to detest articles that are rewritten press releases, interviews that are laundered to make their subjects sound better than they do in person, and all the other tricks that make news (and newsmakers) look "slick" at the expense of truth.
But don't worry. I'm not young, and all the guys my age will be dead or retired in a decade or two.
The spinmeisters who come after us will do what you want; make everything look all fresh and pretty, because they'll want all subscribers to the one remaining TV/Internet/Print news source (after all the mergers) to be happy, happy, happy with Hereditary President George Bush IV* (who will never make a mistake during an interview, as far you will be allowed to know).
I sure as hell hope I die before this happens!
- Robin
* no partisan insinuation meant; it could just as easily be Hereditary President Gore. Or, since the two families have children of about the same age, perhaps it will be the GoreBush dynasty running things, with Rupert Steven Murdoch-Case III as press secretary. Either way, I'm sure all the news will be much better-organized than it is now, and all the reporters will have good teeth, blow-dried hair, and will wear makeup whenever you see them, as will everyone they are allowed to interview
Lars' words were published verbatim by prior agreement. It would have been a lot easier for us (especially timothy!) if we'd gotten neatly-typed answers. But the band and their publicists wanted to make sure you knew that you were getting honest, unfiltered opinions from Lars himself, not a bunch of stock lines cooked up by lawyers.
:)
Timothy and I both know how to edit and "clean up" an interview transcript. If this was CNN's Web site, we would have. But this is Slashdot, where we figure most of the readers like the unvarnished truth better than the laundered version.
And, if this was CNN's Web site, we would have written the questions ourselves instead of doing the "Slashdot thing" and asking questions that were written by readers and chosen (through moderation) by other readers.
Slashdot is often accused of not being the New York Times, or ABC News, or whatever other medium you happen to favor.
Guess what? It isn't supposed to be!
- Robin
Timothy taped the interview and transcribed Lars' answers verbatim. No lawyers, no PR people. Just Lars, speaking off the cuff to Tim on the phone, totally unscripted, without "soundbite" time limits, in a forum where Lars knew he was allowed to say "fuck" if he wanted.
I'll call Thomas Edwards at thesync.com (where Geeks in Space is hosted) and see if he wants to digitize the "Slashdot Lars Interview" and put it up. If he does, Timothy and I only live about 15 minutes away from thesync, and can run the tapes over there sometime this weekend.
- Robin
Let's see... I've used commercial, pay-for Applix on Linux and found it generally satisfactory, but I now use StarOffice as my primary means of dealing with Microsoft documents, spreadsheets, etc. because SO's file import process is somewhat easier/faster than Applix's.
.doc imports, but doesn't do Excel spreadsheets. And Gnumeric, as nice an idea as it is, and much as I like Miguel, simply doesn't give me enough functionality and an easy enough file import/export path to be as useful as StarOffice. Maybe someday it will, but I need to read (and sometimes modify or add notes to) Excel-generated spreadsheets *now* if I am going to communicate with Windows-using accountants to make sure all our freelancers get paid.
:)
AbiWord is good for
I'm experimenting with GNUCash for my personal bookkeeping; it's good enough for my simple needs, but it's certainly not adequate to handle the bookkeeping and accounting for any business much more complicated than my one-horse limo company, and it does not interface directly with my bank's software, as does QuickBooks. I would find a commercial QuickBooks-equivalent accounting package for Linux awfully tempting if it offered $50 or $100 (or whatever it cost) more functionality than GNUCash.
If, indeed, KDE2 or a future version of Gnome turns out to have a better, more stable browser than Netscape, Mozilla or Opera, full support for MS file formats, and the other basic office functions I need in my work, then I'll use nothing else, and I'll be very, very, happy.
Remember, I am a *writer and editor* who also has a lot of administrative tasks to handle, not a programmer. I am a software user, not a developer, and my primary concerns are program stability, usability, and compatibility. Sure, I can and do use Nedit (the simplest and most stable text editor I've found for Linux so far) for 90% of my actual writing, but what about dealing with book publishers like, say, MacMillan? They have whole huge systems built around MS Word, and they aren't going to change them just because I don't want to use Windows or a Mac. The best compromise right now, when dealing with Windows-locked companies, is StarOffice.
I tried WordPerfect, but it had installation "issues" with my home network, and even when I finally got it going, it crashed more than a few times on me during my first day of use (which was also my last). This level of (non)stability is unacceptable for someone who is trying to turn out a novel in his (scant) spare time; when my head is full of characters, plot, scenes, dialogue, and other writerly things, there is no room left in it for worrying about applications that crash. Right now, as far as I'm concerned, WordPerfect is for computer hobbyists, not for people who are trying to use their computers as productivity tools.
The problem with cutting yourself off from all commercial software -- even "free beer" commercial software -- is that this position not only imposes severe limits not only on what you, yourself, can do with your computer, but also cuts you off from many collaborative projects.
Sure, I wish StarOffice was GPLed, and I wish there were a dozen better, less bloated, truly free alternatives available. Someday I'm sure there will be. I long for that day. But right now, my pragmatic choice is between using non-free applications on a truly free operating system, and using non-free applications on a non-free proprietary operating system.
My choice is to use the free operating system exclusively and to "bend" on the applications. At least for now.
- Robin
I *have* a StrongArm laptop - a NetBook from Psion. (www.psion.com). Still very rare in the U.S., but the coolest portable computer I have ever owned. Instant-on symbian OS, cute little browser, enough pre-loaded software to do some *real work* with the thing, touchscreen instead of touchpad, and a keyboard *just* big enough for real typing.
Everyone who's seen my NetBook wants it. And no, you can't have it. It's MINE!!!
(manical laughter)
- Robin
Thanks. Noted. Fixed.
(I don't see any other discrepancies, at least using NN 4.7X in Linux.)
- Robin