You're right; such a donation wouldn't necessarily make things completely right. (After all, some of EV1Servers' money would still be going to fund SCO's vendetta against Linux.) But it would show that his heart's in the right place.
Breaking the contract and demanding his money back, though, would be an unambiguous statement. Of course, the instant he did that, SCO would probably sue. But who's to say that, somewhere down the line, they won't sue anyway?
It was merely intended as a bit of wordplay on the English spelling of those words. As another poster pointed out, I didn't invent it; it was used by Spider Robinson in one of the stories in Callahan's Crosstime Saloon.
But the wordplay does illustrate an important point; Marsh is expressing "regret" over his decision to deal with SCO, but he hasn't (so far) done anything to try and mitigate the damage he's done to his reputation. Why should Linux users fall all over themselves to forgive him based on one comment? To use another timeworn phrase: "Talk is cheap."
It may be a solution for everyone else, but it's no solution for him. His company's still supporting SCO, and Linux enthusiasts are still justified in boycotting his company, and/or migrating existing sites away.
I doubt, when he made his "I regret" statements, he was intending to say "It's too late for us; save yourselves!" But I suppose it's possible. Maybe I'm making an unwarranted assumption: that he doesn't want to run his business into the ground.
Suing SCO for fraud or extortion might be nice, but probably too expensive. With MS backing them SCO can afford a *lot* more lawyers than a lowly webhost can.
I dunno about this. With the IBM and Novell cases still up in the air, there's probably enough leverage to stay the outcome of any other lawsuit until those get decided, and I doubt that even a platoon of fancy-pants lawyers powered by Microsoft money could change that.
OTOH, if everyone who got one of SCO's "pay us or we sue you" letters sued them for extortion it'd force SCO to hemorage a lot of money on the legal defense.
I'm also thinking that the MS money well has probably dried up for SCO; now that the Baystar deal has been blown sky-high, MS really ought to think twice before pouring more money into SCO. The damage to their reputation would just keep mounting every time another connection was "outed"...and it would get outed; Groklaw and others have done a good job of putting SCO under a microscope.
So then, does Mr. Marsh expect absolution from the Linux community?
Well, that word "absolution" contains another word that's equally important: "solution." What's he doing to try and actually solve this problem?
Mr. Marsh: A very good solution would be to (a) demand your money back for that high-priced toilet paper that SCO calls "IP licenses," and (b) sue them for fraud and/or extortion. If you want some background to show that what SCO is doing to you is indeed fraud and/or extortion, this is a good place to start.
Until then, no amount of whining you do about how you "regret" the deal will convince anyone to grant you absolution. That's not to say that absolution is impossible; you just have to do the right thing first.
Don't forget the open-source implementation of Liberty...SourceID, written by my former coworker (and sponsored by a company founded by my former boss!).
Yea, SourceID, they are really doing it, where can I buy SourceID stock?
SourceID is sponsored by the Ping Identity Corporation. They don't sell stock yet, at least not that I've heard. But they will help you set up an identity federation.
Disclaimer: I used to work for Andre Durand, who founded PingID. I also worked with Bryan Field-Elliot, who wrote SourceID.
Well, guess I'm screwed then...wonder if they'll let us come up with our own cadences?
"Linux users are the best!" "Linux users are the best!"
"Microsoft don't pass the test!" "Microsoft don't pass the test!"
"Sound off!" "One! Two!"
"Sound off!" "Three! Four!"
"Bring it on down!" "One, two, three, four, one, two, THREE-FOUR!"
My father told me he'd met the guy that actually inspired that scene in the movie...the guy was a Navy officer who sang "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" to this woman sitting at the bar, right out of the blue.
Oh, and in the real-life version, she wound up marrying him.
Titanic - I found the idea of recreating a historic ocean liner on film (especially with all the CGI) quite geek-appealing.
Star Wars, Episode {1,4} - Well, duh!
E.T. - Ditto.
Spider-Man - Comic-book movies have built-in geek appeal. See also X-Men 1, 2.
LOTR:FOTR/TT/ROTK - Tolkien can be some hardcore geek meat...which makes Jackson's achievement all the more impressive, in that he managed to satisfy so many of those geeks. (See David Lynch's Dune for an example of how easy it is for a director to fall on his face trying to do that very thing.)
Jurassic Park - CGI dinosaurs are quite geeky. See also the little girl's line: "It's a Unix system! I know this!"
Finding Nemo - Pixar movies have tons of geek-appeal.
Forrest Gump - Forrest is kind of a pseudo-geek himself. Plus the technology of inserting him into historical footage appeals to geeks.
But it's rare that a "geek movie" gets the kind of widespread appreciation that is reflected in winning any Oscars at all, let alone a record-tying eleven. Okay, Titanic did that, but that movie had nowhere near the geek-level of any of the three installments of LOTR.
That was my thought, too...that the Academy was waiting until the whole story was complete before showering LotR with the honors it so richly deserved. The whole trilogy will stand forever as the first successful attempt to translate one of the greatest works of fantasy literature in history into film, one that caused so many of us (including me) to sit back and say, "Yes...that's what it's supposed to look like."
And here are the two things I had to say when RotK completed its sweep:
"GEEK MOVIES RULE THE UNIVERSE!"
"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and with the Oscars bind them!"
Everyone went through a great deal of character development on B5. Londo started out as a buffoon, but grew into this almost-reluctant figurehead of evil, and, by the end, was a high tragic figure. G'Kar looked belligerent at first, but eventually revealed himself to be a man of peace and a philosopher at heart. Delenn transformed both physically and emotionally, and the man who had been most demonized among her people (Sheridan) wound up becoming her one true love. Franklin started as a bright young physician, but descended into drug addiction and fought his way out. And so on and so forth.
I've speculated that J. Michael Straczynski might be the one person who could really rescue Star Trek. A Star Trek series planned and executed like Babylon 5 would be high art indeed.
When TV Guide ran its poll on "how to save Star Trek," that was my first suggestion:
Fire Rick Berman and Brannon Braga and never let them have anything to do with Star Trek ever again.
After that, bring in some decent writers that really give a crap about Star Trek to do some innovative scripts. One of the things that made the Original Series shine was the writing, much of it by experienced science-fiction writers (Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, David Gerrold, Norman Spinrad, Harlan Ellison, etc.) that knew the genre conventions and could produce good, watchable stories. Roddenberry supplied the unifying vision and elements, but the writers were the ones who fleshed it out into what we think of as Star Trek today. Like they say, "If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage."
As for who'd run the show if B&B got canned...I keep wondering what J. Michael Straczynski would do with the Star Trek franchise. We know he already knows how to run a successful SF series; why not give him the chance to rescue Star Trek?
Of course, at this point, maybe what Star Trek needs is a decade or so back in cryostasis...so, when somebody revives it again, in 2015 or thereabouts, it'll be fresh again, and it'll be something people will want to watch. And maybe they won't make the same mistakes as they made this time.
For my part, I suppose, just playing games is a "guilty pleasure." See, my wife doesn't like computer games, and she wishes I wouldn't play them...but I do it anyway. Usually, though, she insists I wear headphones while doing so, as some games' sound effects are so bass-heavy, especially through a subwoofer-equipped speaker system, she complains of "feeling" them.
That's kind of like what I tell anyone trying to post commercial spam on Electric Minds: "Yes, there may be free speech...but there is no free lunch. You want to advertise your product, you can hire your own server; we paid for this one, and we don't want your crap here."
In actual practice, we haven't gotten that much in the way of trouble. Aside from commercials, we're fairly tolerant about post subject matter.
Yes, this thread seems to be full of groundhogs and proxmires. I feel sorry for them, in a way; they're so concerned with the dust on their shoes, they can't lift their eyes to look to the heavens.
Fact of the matter is, as far as we know right now, there's nobody else out there to populate all that space; either we do it, or it won't get done. If we turn our backs, the rest of the Universe may very well be forever lifeless. Maybe the Universe should have bet on the dolphins instead...but, for better or worse, we are the ones carrying the torch of Life, and we cannot just leave it in the muck.
I look forward to the time, far in the future though it may be, when our descendants will look up to the sky and know that, out there, among the stars, others are working, living, and carrying on the dream, and that, no matter what happens, Life will endure. In those days, we may revise God's commandment to Adam and Eve in Genesis: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the Universe, and all the infinite airs and the infinite earths beneath them."
Amen, brother. This matches with everything I've been saying for awhile now...the human race has to get off this rock eventually, and a journey of a thousand light-years must begin with a single step sometime.
I like the idea that we could establish a permanent base on the moon; I still get teary-eyed when I hear the final line of Apollo 13:
"I look up at the moon, and I wonder: When will we be going back? And who will that be?"
Maybe, just maybe, we'll finally get an answer to that question.
You won't hear any of it from me on this subject. I'd love to find an XBox under my tree...particularly if there were, alongside it, a copy of Toe Jam & Earl III: Mission to Earth. (I loved the original TJ&E on the Genesis, and I understand they've preserved a lot of the "feel" of the original in the new game.)
Besides TJ&E3, the only games that would pique my interest right now would be NHL 2004 (Hockey! Yeah!) and the new Intellivision Lives! (turn your XBox into an Intellivision with 60 carts, for only $20!). Oh, and perhaps I could also get hold of Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix with the floor pad, so my wife could use it to do some aerobic exercise...
Anyway, it's all a pipe dream, because not only don't I have the money for something like that, I think my wife would throw a shit-fit if I brought a game console in the house. (DDR Ultramix notwithstanding.)
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Breaking the contract and demanding his money back, though, would be an unambiguous statement. Of course, the instant he did that, SCO would probably sue. But who's to say that, somewhere down the line, they won't sue anyway?
But the wordplay does illustrate an important point; Marsh is expressing "regret" over his decision to deal with SCO, but he hasn't (so far) done anything to try and mitigate the damage he's done to his reputation. Why should Linux users fall all over themselves to forgive him based on one comment? To use another timeworn phrase: "Talk is cheap."
I doubt, when he made his "I regret" statements, he was intending to say "It's too late for us; save yourselves!" But I suppose it's possible. Maybe I'm making an unwarranted assumption: that he doesn't want to run his business into the ground.
Well, that word "absolution" contains another word that's equally important: "solution." What's he doing to try and actually solve this problem?
Mr. Marsh: A very good solution would be to (a) demand your money back for that high-priced toilet paper that SCO calls "IP licenses," and (b) sue them for fraud and/or extortion. If you want some background to show that what SCO is doing to you is indeed fraud and/or extortion, this is a good place to start.
Until then, no amount of whining you do about how you "regret" the deal will convince anyone to grant you absolution. That's not to say that absolution is impossible; you just have to do the right thing first.
Don't forget the open-source implementation of Liberty...SourceID, written by my former coworker (and sponsored by a company founded by my former boss!).
Disclaimer: I used to work for Andre Durand, who founded PingID. I also worked with Bryan Field-Elliot, who wrote SourceID.
"Join the Mobile (Computer) Infantry today! Service guarantees citizenship! Would you like to know more?"
Better to learn the finer points of still construction...
(heading off, whistling "Suicide Is Painless")
"Linux users are the best!"
"Linux users are the best!"
"Microsoft don't pass the test!"
"Microsoft don't pass the test!"
"Sound off!"
"One! Two!"
"Sound off!"
"Three! Four!"
"Bring it on down!"
"One, two, three, four, one, two, THREE-FOUR!"
That's if we don't just decide to start singing "Do-Wah-Diddy-Diddy"...
Oh, and in the real-life version, she wound up marrying him.
Titanic - I found the idea of recreating a historic ocean liner on film (especially with all the CGI) quite geek-appealing.
Star Wars, Episode {1,4} - Well, duh!
E.T. - Ditto.
Spider-Man - Comic-book movies have built-in geek appeal. See also X-Men 1, 2.
LOTR:FOTR/TT/ROTK - Tolkien can be some hardcore geek meat...which makes Jackson's achievement all the more impressive, in that he managed to satisfy so many of those geeks. (See David Lynch's Dune for an example of how easy it is for a director to fall on his face trying to do that very thing.)
Jurassic Park - CGI dinosaurs are quite geeky. See also the little girl's line: "It's a Unix system! I know this!"
Finding Nemo - Pixar movies have tons of geek-appeal.
Forrest Gump - Forrest is kind of a pseudo-geek himself. Plus the technology of inserting him into historical footage appeals to geeks.
But it's rare that a "geek movie" gets the kind of widespread appreciation that is reflected in winning any Oscars at all, let alone a record-tying eleven. Okay, Titanic did that, but that movie had nowhere near the geek-level of any of the three installments of LOTR.
And here are the two things I had to say when RotK completed its sweep:
"GEEK MOVIES RULE THE UNIVERSE!"
"One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and with the Oscars bind them!"
Well, some of those Enterprise episodes might actually benefit from the sarcastic commentary of Joel (or Mike), Tom Servo, and Crow T. Robot...
I've speculated that J. Michael Straczynski might be the one person who could really rescue Star Trek. A Star Trek series planned and executed like Babylon 5 would be high art indeed.
My wife and I love that movie. Her favorite line is Sigourney Weaver's:
"Look, I have one job on this lousy spaceship. It's stupid, but I'm gonna do it, OK?"
Oh, and don't forget Guy Fleegman, the "Crewman #6" extra who's convinced he's gonna die..."Well, maybe you're the...plucky...comic relief!"
Wasn't that Jack Handey that said that?
Fire Rick Berman and Brannon Braga and never let them have anything to do with Star Trek ever again.
After that, bring in some decent writers that really give a crap about Star Trek to do some innovative scripts. One of the things that made the Original Series shine was the writing, much of it by experienced science-fiction writers (Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, David Gerrold, Norman Spinrad, Harlan Ellison, etc.) that knew the genre conventions and could produce good, watchable stories. Roddenberry supplied the unifying vision and elements, but the writers were the ones who fleshed it out into what we think of as Star Trek today. Like they say, "If it ain't on the page, it ain't on the stage."
As for who'd run the show if B&B got canned...I keep wondering what J. Michael Straczynski would do with the Star Trek franchise. We know he already knows how to run a successful SF series; why not give him the chance to rescue Star Trek?
Of course, at this point, maybe what Star Trek needs is a decade or so back in cryostasis...so, when somebody revives it again, in 2015 or thereabouts, it'll be fresh again, and it'll be something people will want to watch. And maybe they won't make the same mistakes as they made this time.
It would make an interesting experiment...if I owned a PS2, which I don't...
For my part, I suppose, just playing games is a "guilty pleasure." See, my wife doesn't like computer games, and she wishes I wouldn't play them...but I do it anyway. Usually, though, she insists I wear headphones while doing so, as some games' sound effects are so bass-heavy, especially through a subwoofer-equipped speaker system, she complains of "feeling" them.
In actual practice, we haven't gotten that much in the way of trouble. Aside from commercials, we're fairly tolerant about post subject matter.
Fact of the matter is, as far as we know right now, there's nobody else out there to populate all that space; either we do it, or it won't get done. If we turn our backs, the rest of the Universe may very well be forever lifeless. Maybe the Universe should have bet on the dolphins instead...but, for better or worse, we are the ones carrying the torch of Life, and we cannot just leave it in the muck.
I look forward to the time, far in the future though it may be, when our descendants will look up to the sky and know that, out there, among the stars, others are working, living, and carrying on the dream, and that, no matter what happens, Life will endure. In those days, we may revise God's commandment to Adam and Eve in Genesis: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the Universe, and all the infinite airs and the infinite earths beneath them."
Isn't that a vision worth working for?
I like the idea that we could establish a permanent base on the moon; I still get teary-eyed when I hear the final line of Apollo 13:
"I look up at the moon, and I wonder: When will we be going back? And who will that be?"
Maybe, just maybe, we'll finally get an answer to that question.
Besides TJ&E3, the only games that would pique my interest right now would be NHL 2004 (Hockey! Yeah!) and the new Intellivision Lives! (turn your XBox into an Intellivision with 60 carts, for only $20!). Oh, and perhaps I could also get hold of Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix with the floor pad, so my wife could use it to do some aerobic exercise...
Anyway, it's all a pipe dream, because not only don't I have the money for something like that, I think my wife would throw a shit-fit if I brought a game console in the house. (DDR Ultramix notwithstanding.)