I'm sort of in two minds about ESR's article here. On the one hand as a prominent Open Source evangelist he has a right, duty even, to be concerned about any damage to its image and it doesn't take much imagination to conceive of articles appearing making snide insinuations linking Linux and OS with Communism; after all it's one of the favoured attacks of Linux-bashers particularly in the US where it's considered a dirty word.
OTOH, I'm not sure his political comments are terribly well-placed. Evangelists like ESR tend to leap onto any news item on Open Source and try to fit it to their political agenda which in turn risks tarring us all with the same brush. Most Linux users, myself included, don't have much of a political agenda. I use Linux because I think it's cool and not because of any idealisms, and I think the vast majority of us would agree. Anyone who reads advocacy newsgroups knows just how bad misplaced advocacy can sound.
On the gripping hand (IHNRP, IJLTS "OTGH") if China want to adopt Linux, then good for them. The whole point of Open Source is that it is available to everybody and not just people whom the evangelists happen to like.
I just wonder if the Chinese Government would consider themselves bound by the GPL...
The Netscape summons help! --More-- The Netscape hits! --More-- The Netscape hits! --More-- The Netscape hits! --More-- You feel yourself slowing down. --More-- You kill -9 the csh! --More-- You feel wise. --More-- The sendmail breathes SPAM! --More-- You are hit by a blast of SPAM! --More-- But it reflects from your filter...
... well most of one. No music, no end-of-level coded message display, X11 only and it re-uploads the background on palette changes so don't run it over the network yet. Oh and it busy-waits for frame timing and pegs your load at 1. Game engine is reproduced faithfully as far as I can tell.
I'm not quite sure of the legal angle myself so I've been keeping it under my hat a bit. Logotron (for it was they) apparently still exist but I can't find anything about Xor on their site... the original game binaries are available for download here and there on the Web (I got my info from disassembling the BBC version). The upright thing to do would be to contact Logotron and ask them if they'd consider releasing it into the public domain as they don't seem to be selling it any more. The sneaky thing to do would be to distribute the game engine and let players download binaries themselves.
No, my source isn't downloadable (in fact it's not even with me at the moment) but contact me if you're interested.
I'm interested in how they disqualified the second ballot-stuffing attempt but not the first... doesn't this give the message that protesting against their behaviour is less acceptable than cheating in a public game that they administer?
No, Kasparov should give up winning because the contest was incompetently administered and there's a good chance he would not have won had it been fair. That would be the sporting thing to do. Then he could challenge the world to a rematch if/when the bugs get ironed out.
Hmmm. Then you'd get the situation that they have with computer magazines now where the November issue comes out at the end of September because they don't want to appear out-of-date... basically the version number padding is here to stay however abominable we think it is. (I'm tempted to download Slackware 7, burn it to CD and label the CD "Slackware 5").
Ha! Can you imagine Linux with a personality? You'll be free to hack it and cure its hangups as much as you like... amateur psychoanalysts will have a field day... in fact it will be M-X doctor IN REVERSE!
I get occasional twitches also; sometimes I suppress them and sometimes I don't but nobody seems fazed. I also swear a lot but that might just be because I'm a foul-mouthed bastard 8-). I sometimes like to say that the sound of coders at work is taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptapFUCK! (I've worked in an office which really was exactly like that) so maybe there is something in this Tourette's business...
I read an article in this week's New Scientist which suggests that Tourette's syndrome twitches are "intentional, coordinated movements made in response to some irresistable urge" rather than involuntary muscular spasms as previously thought. The article actually compares Tourette's to OCD and suggests it's an "extreme variant of a normal thing felt by many people". Interesting, no?
I HOPE that some moderator just got his pants in a twist over this one.
An article standing up in defence of free speech and democracy, in a forum championing free speech and democracy, in what you would all have us believe is the home of free speech and democracy, where all critical points of view are squashed? Bad call Slashdot, really bad call.
Ross Anderson and friends at Cambridge[1] have been working on TEMPEST protection in software... the idea is that by using special dither patterns you can get your screen to show one thing but come up with something else on the monitors of the spooks. See Information hiding - the paper (PDF) is quite interesting.
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps if we send our convicts to a low-gravity planet this time they won't come back in 200 years and beat us at sports 8-)
the third story on this page, to be precise. The page also details the MIT football-game hack described above.
It's my birthday next week ... Slashdot readers want to chip in? Wouldn't be much each ...
OTOH, I'm not sure his political comments are terribly well-placed. Evangelists like ESR tend to leap onto any news item on Open Source and try to fit it to their political agenda which in turn risks tarring us all with the same brush. Most Linux users, myself included, don't have much of a political agenda. I use Linux because I think it's cool and not because of any idealisms, and I think the vast majority of us would agree. Anyone who reads advocacy newsgroups knows just how bad misplaced advocacy can sound.
On the gripping hand (IHNRP, IJLTS "OTGH") if China want to adopt Linux, then good for them. The whole point of Open Source is that it is available to everybody and not just people whom the evangelists happen to like.
I just wonder if the Chinese Government would consider themselves bound by the GPL ...
What was your username again? *Click-click* *BOOM!*
Sysadmin NetHack!
The Netscape summons help! --More-- ...
The Netscape hits! --More--
The Netscape hits! --More--
The Netscape hits! --More--
You feel yourself slowing down. --More--
You kill -9 the csh! --More--
You feel wise. --More--
The sendmail breathes SPAM! --More--
You are hit by a blast of SPAM! --More--
But it reflects from your filter
Now where's that DevTeam when you need it...?
I'm not quite sure of the legal angle myself so I've been keeping it under my hat a bit. Logotron (for it was they) apparently still exist but I can't find anything about Xor on their site ... the original game binaries are available for download here and there on the Web (I got my info from disassembling the BBC version). The upright thing to do would be to contact Logotron and ask them if they'd consider releasing it into the public domain as they don't seem to be selling it any more. The sneaky thing to do would be to distribute the game engine and let players download binaries themselves.
No, my source isn't downloadable (in fact it's not even with me at the moment) but contact me if you're interested.
I'm interested in how they disqualified the second ballot-stuffing attempt but not the first ... doesn't this give the message that protesting against their behaviour is less acceptable than cheating in a public game that they administer?
No, Kasparov should give up winning because the contest was incompetently administered and there's a good chance he would not have won had it been fair. That would be the sporting thing to do. Then he could challenge the world to a rematch if/when the bugs get ironed out.
Um ... 'amendment' has 2 'm's ...
Hmmm. Then you'd get the situation that they have with computer magazines now where the November issue comes out at the end of September because they don't want to appear out-of-date ... basically the version number padding is here to stay however abominable we think it is. (I'm tempted to download Slackware 7, burn it to CD and label the CD "Slackware 5").
Ha! Can you imagine Linux with a personality? You'll be free to hack it and cure its hangups as much as you like ... amateur psychoanalysts will have a field day ... in fact it will be M-X doctor IN REVERSE!
Honestly, Microsoft gets more like the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation every day ...
Is that what they mean by "the music of the spheres"?
I get occasional twitches also; sometimes I suppress them and sometimes I don't but nobody seems fazed. I also swear a lot but that might just be because I'm a foul-mouthed bastard 8-). I sometimes like to say that the sound of coders at work is taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptapFUCK! (I've worked in an office which really was exactly like that) so maybe there is something in this Tourette's business ...
Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Poison, W.A.S.P. ... 8-)
I read an article in this week's New Scientist which suggests that Tourette's syndrome twitches are "intentional, coordinated movements made in response to some irresistable urge" rather than involuntary muscular spasms as previously thought. The article actually compares Tourette's to OCD and suggests it's an "extreme variant of a normal thing felt by many people". Interesting, no?
First Post Disorder.
I HOPE that some moderator just got his pants in a twist over this one.
An article standing up in defence of free speech and democracy, in a forum championing free speech and democracy, in what you would all have us believe is the home of free speech and democracy, where all critical points of view are squashed? Bad call Slashdot, really bad call.
... but I LOVE the phrase "gentle fascist approach".
... they're actually running SETI@Home ...
[1] UK, not Massachusetts, thank you.
According to ancient tradition, shouldn't that be called "Whebstone"?
PC?
Onna stick?
Looks like it might be time to drag out this old chestnut again...