The KHTML case may be a good example. Apple does have the right to use KHTML and incorporate it into their own products, but they do have to play by the rules and obey the license, and the community or the developers are not being unreasonable when they ask for that to happen.
That's precisely the point. There are two sets of "rules" here* -- what the GPL actually requires and what "the community" thinks the rules ought to be. There is no real question that Apple was in full compliance with the licensing terms; that doesn't protect them from a) idiot zealots who think that they're required to backport code to the original base and b) less idiotic zealots who realize that there's no violation but invoke "the spirit of the GPL" anyway.
That's precisely my point -- that obeying the rules is *not* adequate.
* Actually there's a third set of rules consisting of terms asserted by the FSF (like about dynamic linking), the true legal status of which is entirely unclear.
The GPL isn't the problem. It's the mob who enforces "GPL violations" by:
1) Not having the slightest idea what the GPl requires. (See countless "They don't have downloadable source code on their website! GPL violation!!!" stories here.)
2) Declaring violations of "the spirit of the GPL" that pretty much cover anything "the community" decides it deserves and isn't getting.
The recent Safari-KHTML brouhaha indicates why companies face risk from even the most careful use of others' GPL code.
Honest people do not stand a "snowball's in Hell" chance because the corporate game is rigged hopelesly against them, mostly due to the fact that the whole "free market" charade is run by the said hustlers, but also due to the fact that these thieves use the most powerful weapon known to blind and stupify their prey: greed.
Hey, there's a time for this and a time for that!
When it's time for pompous, self-righteous faux-cynicism, your jabbering about "howling wolves" and "shareholders, themselves whipped to a frenzy, lusting for mega-profits" works beautifully. When you're really going to quit your job, distinguishing between someone who hijacks proxies and someone who wears a tie will seem a lot more sensible.
As with a lot of topics, it's unfortunate that all the people who know exactly how to sell games to females don't actually make games. They do, however, write condescending lectures as if they just thought of all this stuff themselves, while trashing on the Barbie developers, who _have_ sold games to females.
BTW, exactly when did male gamers stop being "awkward, snorting nerds"?
1) Past and future Ask Slashdot questioners: when we tell you to document your situation and to see a real lawyer, do it! This is why!
2) Working for obvious scumbags is going to burn you in the end.
(Assuming his version of the story is accurate -- I realize there's another side. I also realize that both of my suggestions are frequently easier said than done.)
I also think it is part of the hacker ethic that content is more important than form. It is more important what you say than how you say it.
I don't want to display Raymondian pretentions about what "hackers" are or are not. But, to my sensibilities, things like presenting your ideas clearly and taking pride in the face you show to the world are part of something!
Content may be more important than form, but it's not a zero-sum game. It's not my impression that people here are doing magnificent things with all the time they save by not using apostrophes correctly.
Is America the only country where the native language is so disappointingly mangled by the vast majority of native citizens?
As a rule, the answer to any question begining with "Is America the only country where..." is "No".
One exception is "Is America the only country whose whinier citizens are convinced that the most common human failings are something with which they're uniquely burdened?"
1) The lobbyist whose activities have gotten Tom DeLay in trouble used to work for a firm in which William Gates Sr. was a founding partner.
2) That same firm does some lobbying for the BSA and has some Microsoft connections.
Pretty thin stuff for three years work, I'd say, especially since if the Tom DeLay stuff hadn't just fallen out it would be even thinner. The biggest thing I can see here is a bit of nepotism on how the BSA chooses its lobbyists; maybe some of you will lose sleep over that.
Anyway, connection to Linux -- zero.
By the way: Why the coyness about referring to Ralph Nader ("a well-known consumer advocate") by name? This Adelstein guy seems like a bit of a nut, so I imagine the reason is nutty, but I can't quite guess what it might be.
Obviously, the last paragraph is a joke. (I'm astonished that that's not the part that made it into the Slashdot blurb..) The rest of it, the part that treats over-the-air and analog as interchangeable terms, is AFAICT for real.
Five years from now, after Apple and Google have taken their shots, the open-source people have copied whichever they decide to copy and Microsoft has wheeled out their metadata/search combo -- we'll be exactly where we are now. Users who know how to use directories will continue to do so; everyone else will be dumping everything into the default documents location and unable to find anything.
Desktop search is the voice recognition of the new century. It will sort of work, but never well enough to make it worth relying upon.
In the late stages of development, testers look for bugs and the developers try to fix them. When they're done, they make CDs, package them and send them to retailers. On trucks.
They should build these plants in less populated areas, like Africa.
The job market for physicists is tough, but even so, I imagine they'd have trouble attracting top-notch people to the Sahara or other sparsely inhabited (or AIDS-decimated) parts of Africa.
Two headed rhinos and elephants would be cool, though.
I've seen those Gentoo forum discussions -- while trying to solve the fact that an upgrade to gcc has somehow hosed my X setup (?!?). Yeah, Linux is definitely ready for the desktop...
well the core of X hasn't changed substantially in.. over a decade.
The X Consortium shut down in 1996, after declaring X11R6.3. At this point, it's not clear how an accepted X12 standard could be generated, even if people wanted to do so.
I must be living in a different reality where only a small number of people build their own PCs...This just seems odd to me as I know exactly 1 person (my mom) who didn't build their own PC.
1) No laptops are homebuilt.
2) Virtually no business computers are homebuilt. (Yes, I know there are exceptions -- please, you don't have to tell me about yours.)
3) Even if we're limiting the discussion to consumer desktops, I would be astonished if homebuilts exceed 1%, your friends notwithstanding.
I liked the Archos CEO's comment: "I do not share the opinion that Apple's design for the iPod is any good. That's because I define great design in terms of fantastic machinery. And if you look inside the iPod's technology, it's quite common and unimpressive. It isn't anything special."
Like Archos' players are powered by dilithium crystals! The one company (besides Apple) that does do something technologically novel in their MP3 players, although it's not to my taste, is Neuros.
Except for the one year term (which you have decreed to be optimal without providing a shred of evidence as to why), what you said is precisely how patents work.
Heh, I knew someone was going to bring up Shakespeare...
There's a rather large difference between drawing on someone else's ideas and simply trading on the recognition of their works and characters. Shakespeare wrote The Two Gentleman of Verona, not Management Secrets From The Seven Books of the Diana.
The original story's Obligatory Stupid and Inflammatory Tagline, "Perhaps the EU's actions were unnecessary?" was insufficiently stupid. Fortunately, today's "Could this open some eyes and increase interest in alternative (Linux, Mac) offerings?" is entirely up to par.
In any case, there's also Windows XP *with* WMP, available for the same price. I don't think the submitter realizes that, but his notion that people will switch operating systems (or hardware platforms!) rather than download a media player underscores why no consumer with an ounce of sanity would buy Windows XP N.
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That's precisely the point. There are two sets of "rules" here* -- what the GPL actually requires and what "the community" thinks the rules ought to be. There is no real question that Apple was in full compliance with the licensing terms; that doesn't protect them from a) idiot zealots who think that they're required to backport code to the original base and b) less idiotic zealots who realize that there's no violation but invoke "the spirit of the GPL" anyway.
That's precisely my point -- that obeying the rules is *not* adequate.
* Actually there's a third set of rules consisting of terms asserted by the FSF (like about dynamic linking), the true legal status of which is entirely unclear.
The GPL isn't the problem. It's the mob who enforces "GPL violations" by:
1) Not having the slightest idea what the GPl requires. (See countless "They don't have downloadable source code on their website! GPL violation!!!" stories here.)
2) Declaring violations of "the spirit of the GPL" that pretty much cover anything "the community" decides it deserves and isn't getting.
The recent Safari-KHTML brouhaha indicates why companies face risk from even the most careful use of others' GPL code.
Hey, there's a time for this and a time for that!
When it's time for pompous, self-righteous faux-cynicism, your jabbering about "howling wolves" and "shareholders, themselves whipped to a frenzy, lusting for mega-profits" works beautifully. When you're really going to quit your job, distinguishing between someone who hijacks proxies and someone who wears a tie will seem a lot more sensible.
BTW, exactly when did male gamers stop being "awkward, snorting nerds"?
2) Working for obvious scumbags is going to burn you in the end.
(Assuming his version of the story is accurate -- I realize there's another side. I also realize that both of my suggestions are frequently easier said than done.)
I don't want to display Raymondian pretentions about what "hackers" are or are not. But, to my sensibilities, things like presenting your ideas clearly and taking pride in the face you show to the world are part of something!
Content may be more important than form, but it's not a zero-sum game. It's not my impression that people here are doing magnificent things with all the time they save by not using apostrophes correctly.
As a rule, the answer to any question begining with "Is America the only country where..." is "No".
One exception is "Is America the only country whose whinier citizens are convinced that the most common human failings are something with which they're uniquely burdened?"
2) That same firm does some lobbying for the BSA and has some Microsoft connections.
Pretty thin stuff for three years work, I'd say, especially since if the Tom DeLay stuff hadn't just fallen out it would be even thinner. The biggest thing I can see here is a bit of nepotism on how the BSA chooses its lobbyists; maybe some of you will lose sleep over that.
Anyway, connection to Linux -- zero.
By the way: Why the coyness about referring to Ralph Nader ("a well-known consumer advocate") by name? This Adelstein guy seems like a bit of a nut, so I imagine the reason is nutty, but I can't quite guess what it might be.
The CEA study is real. The last paragraph of the Home Theater article is a intentional joke -- the rest is just inane.
Obviously, the last paragraph is a joke. (I'm astonished that that's not the part that made it into the Slashdot blurb..) The rest of it, the part that treats over-the-air and analog as interchangeable terms, is AFAICT for real.
Five years from now, after Apple and Google have taken their shots, the open-source people have copied whichever they decide to copy and Microsoft has wheeled out their metadata/search combo -- we'll be exactly where we are now. Users who know how to use directories will continue to do so; everyone else will be dumping everything into the default documents location and unable to find anything.
Desktop search is the voice recognition of the new century. It will sort of work, but never well enough to make it worth relying upon.
In the late stages of development, testers look for bugs and the developers try to fix them. When they're done, they make CDs, package them and send them to retailers. On trucks.
Apple fanboi, my ass! Where's his iPod?
"Candy bar" refers to a non-folding phone design.
The job market for physicists is tough, but even so, I imagine they'd have trouble attracting top-notch people to the Sahara or other sparsely inhabited (or AIDS-decimated) parts of Africa.
Two headed rhinos and elephants would be cool, though.
Well, there were (I assume) versions 1 through 10, and we still got to X11. An updated standard for X is hardly the same as a whole new system.
So, don't ask me -- I'm more screwed than you.
The X Consortium shut down in 1996, after declaring X11R6.3. At this point, it's not clear how an accepted X12 standard could be generated, even if people wanted to do so.
First, this is a civil suit -- there is no need for proof beyond reasonable doubt.
That said, the fact that the legal system requires a level of evidence above that required for Slashbots to "know" something is a good thing.
1) No laptops are homebuilt.
2) Virtually no business computers are homebuilt. (Yes, I know there are exceptions -- please, you don't have to tell me about yours.)
3) Even if we're limiting the discussion to consumer desktops, I would be astonished if homebuilts exceed 1%, your friends notwithstanding.
Like Archos' players are powered by dilithium crystals! The one company (besides Apple) that does do something technologically novel in their MP3 players, although it's not to my taste, is Neuros.
Except for the one year term (which you have decreed to be optimal without providing a shred of evidence as to why), what you said is precisely how patents work.
There's a rather large difference between drawing on someone else's ideas and simply trading on the recognition of their works and characters. Shakespeare wrote The Two Gentleman of Verona, not Management Secrets From The Seven Books of the Diana.
The original story's Obligatory Stupid and Inflammatory Tagline, "Perhaps the EU's actions were unnecessary?" was insufficiently stupid. Fortunately, today's "Could this open some eyes and increase interest in alternative (Linux, Mac) offerings?" is entirely up to par.
In any case, there's also Windows XP *with* WMP, available for the same price. I don't think the submitter realizes that, but his notion that people will switch operating systems (or hardware platforms!) rather than download a media player underscores why no consumer with an ounce of sanity would buy Windows XP N.