The only thing that bothers me about WAP is the freeness-factor. I just tried to read www.wapforum.org, but found only marketing there.
So, how free is it? Apparently you can get the specs and start making WML pages for free. But can you make a stack to run their protocols in Linux and GPL that?
The way I see it, it's fair that members make the spec, but if using the spec to implement a server requires you to buy into their 'fair priced essential IP' it's not something I'd call 'free'. Or even semi-free for that matter.
Could one start a not-for-profit organisation to fight down stupid patents?
The organisation could fund itself by demanding money from patent owners to compensate for harm to society. Or something.
A while ago I read here (the best source for accurate info:) ) that a patent applicant has to offer all the prior art to the patent office. Now we all know this is impossible so why not sue them for breaking the rules?
I would happily give a few dollars to start a fund that would use the money to simply sue anyone with a stupid patent, and with any luck the org could soon continue on the winnings of round 1!
> In war, brutality already reigns supreme. A set of rules for it is silly and pointless.
Well, that is simply not so. Even in the WWII examply there were a lot of rules that were followed: nobody used battle gases, nobody infected enemy cities with diseases.
OTOH that didn't stop some horrible things from happening.
In our Uni we have special depositories for old exam papers - sometimes with correct answers. It's great for two reasons:
- it makes those exams questions change, so the situation you had won't arise as all the staff know we have the previous papers. - some professors have this insidious habit of giving lectures of one subject and an exam on something that you can never know by attending lectures - this system gives them out.
Not to say I haven't passed some courses rather easily because the prof was lazy making new exams. But generally that won't work so memorising isn't really worth while.
Infact the more I think of his answer the better it seems.. let's see:
Think of a microkernel os like NT (couldn't help myself:-) ). The kernel really doesn't do that much without the userland device drivers.
So I wouldn't call a microkernel kernel an os. But there definately are microkernel os:s around so it seems an os is not completely is kernelspace.
Therefore I think that X could be considered a part of 'the Linux os', but I wouldn't go as far as to include qt or gtk - just as I wouldn't include bash.
The idea is that when you have written virii and sent them out to get all the innocent WIN9X users the governament will only have to prove you wrote them - not necessarily that you lauched them. Or if you have a group and one member is only writing code for the virii he can be prosecuted too.
Executive Summary: No-one will be behind your door to examine your hard disk without some other evidence against you.
I've really been impressed with things like DRI on Linux. I'd Like to start developing OpenGL applicaions for Linux, but articles like this one are often just a bit too vague fot that sort of thing.
So how should I proceed to get some fundamental OpenGL-knowledge?
Are there any good book, anything Linux specific perhaps? Or is www the best resource for this kind of thing? -- Pirkka
Considering that I still cannot buy one here in Finland, and the resaler says they've been 'delayed' for the second month in a row, I would guess they've sold pretty well:-) (or at least above expectations..)
I wouldn't be so sure. As far as I know EU doesn't have any special computer or software custom and both RH and SuSe have to pay taxes.
As far as shipping goes I have bought carrots that came from brazil - a mere 5000 mile away. And they were cheap. While mail ordering pizza from US costs like hell ordering a whole shipload isn't that expensive..
So while I too believe SuSe gets a little cheaper I don't think the difference is that big. -- Pirkka
Powerlines do cause cancer. Or at least it's not clear whether they do.
There was a study comparing people living beneath powerlines and people living away from power lines and the first group had more cancer. A little more (like 1%) but more still.
So what happened because of this? Nothing! Smoking is still a lot more dangerous and living in a city with smog is more dangerous..
If they opened up the source to, say WP, they'd have to come up with a licence that allows source distribution between paying customers, unless they'd like to give it away for free. And what good would that be. At least they would still get the same amount of flames...
I'm _very_ glad Corel is not giving everything they have away for free. I like seeing Corel alive instead of belly up.
Maybe some day they will OS WP, but right now I like to see them making some money from us. That's right - I like it that a company can make money making Linux products! -- Pirkka
Here in Finland phone calls (esp. cellular) aren't that expensive, so it's not strictly US vs. EU.
What pushed our prices down was a healthy competition that started about a decade ago.
But still it's hard to get non-metered calls here. That's simply because there has been no demand for that kind of service until recently (and telcos are sloooow).
The interesting thing is that not long ago US had the most powerful telco monopoly on this planet (the System, among friends) and boy did they suffer because of that. -- Pirkka
The economical abundance of the industrialized countries, and the concommitant techonological advances, like it or not have been built on the exploitation and pauperization of the third world.
Well I'm ready to concede that during imperialism the 3rd world got screwd, but what about today?
I'd say most of the third world is up to their neck in trouble, but it's not because of exploitation or pauperization. Overpopulation, instability of governament and tradition in civil war are much more severe causes for poverty.
To get a little closer the original idea: I think the wealth of this planet will stay unevenly distributed, there is no way to lift a country to higher a higher standard of living from outside.
OTOH this doesn't mean it's not our duty to try to help and at least not knowingly rob other countries.
My tuition fee is around $100, dental plan included. I get $2 dinners at school. I'm paid approximately $400 each month (for housing and food) for the first 55 months of my studies.
I will graduate on black, but I pay around 25% taxes from my summer jobs and probably around 40% to 50% when I graduate.
It was like this when Pentium came, it was like this when PII came, why would it be any different now? In a few months Intel will provide faster PIII's and then all the powermad will buy them.
What I never could understand is how the last 10% is worth doubling the price for so many..
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So, how free is it? Apparently you can get the specs and start making WML pages for free. But can you make a stack to run their protocols in Linux and GPL that?
The way I see it, it's fair that members make the spec, but if using the spec to implement a server requires you to buy into their 'fair priced essential IP' it's not something I'd call 'free'. Or even semi-free for that matter.
--
Pirkka
The organisation could fund itself by demanding money from patent owners to compensate for harm to society. Or something.
A while ago I read here (the best source for accurate info :) ) that a patent applicant has to offer all the prior art to the patent office. Now we all know this is impossible so why not sue them for breaking the rules?
I would happily give a few dollars to start a fund that would use the money to simply sue anyone with a stupid patent, and with any luck the org could soon continue on the winnings of round 1!
--
Pirkka
Well, that is simply not so. Even in the WWII examply there were a lot of rules that were followed: nobody used battle gases, nobody infected enemy cities with diseases.
OTOH that didn't stop some horrible things from happening.
--
Pirkka
- it makes those exams questions change, so the situation you had won't arise as all the staff know we have the previous papers.
- some professors have this insidious habit of giving lectures of one subject and an exam on something that you can never know by attending lectures - this system gives them out.
Not to say I haven't passed some courses rather easily because the prof was lazy making new exams. But generally that won't work so memorising isn't really worth while.
--
Pirkka
Think of a microkernel os like NT (couldn't help myself :-) ). The kernel really doesn't do that much without the userland device drivers.
So I wouldn't call a microkernel kernel an os. But there definately are microkernel os:s around so it seems an os is not completely is kernelspace.
Therefore I think that X could be considered a part of 'the Linux os', but I wouldn't go as far as to include qt or gtk - just as I wouldn't include bash.
--
Pirkka
Executive Summary: No-one will be behind your door to examine your hard disk without some other evidence against you.
--
Pirkka
So how should I proceed to get some fundamental OpenGL-knowledge?
Are there any good book, anything Linux specific perhaps? Or is www the best resource for this kind of thing?
--
Pirkka
--
Pirkka
--
Pirkka
As far as shipping goes I have bought carrots that came from brazil - a mere 5000 mile away. And they were cheap. While mail ordering pizza from US costs like hell ordering a whole shipload isn't that expensive..
So while I too believe SuSe gets a little cheaper I don't think the difference is that big.
--
Pirkka
There was a study comparing people living beneath powerlines and people living away from power lines and the first group had more cancer. A little more (like 1%) but more still.
So what happened because of this? Nothing! Smoking is still a lot more dangerous and living in a city with smog is more dangerous..
But not everything is "bad science".
BTW. what breast cancer issues?
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Pirkka
So IMHO some software sure makes sence.
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Pirkka Jokela
I've heard of it too many times not to ask...
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Pirkka
There are also reports by people who claim to remember being born (under hypnosis or something) of extreme pain and suffering.
So forgetting about your early experiences would seem to be an important sanity preserving feature.
But also, wouldn't remembering everything pretty soon take away most of the hope you have and sort of turn your life into a self fulfilling prophecy..
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Pirkka
I don't know if it's really huge, but certainly more than 10 years of work has gone to it and it's coming along nicely..
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Pirkka
I'm _very_ glad Corel is not giving everything they have away for free. I like seeing Corel alive instead of belly up.
Maybe some day they will OS WP, but right now I like to see them making some money from us. That's right - I like it that a company can make money making Linux products!
--
Pirkka
What pushed our prices down was a healthy competition that started about a decade ago.
But still it's hard to get non-metered calls here. That's simply because there has been no demand for that kind of service until recently (and telcos are sloooow).
The interesting thing is that not long ago US had the most powerful telco monopoly on this planet (the System, among friends) and boy did they suffer because of that.
--
Pirkka
OTOH I also like the non-metered ADSL-speed internet I have.
The point being that instead of enforcing metering or not-metering there should be an option of both.
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Pirkka
They are completely (well from most angles) invisible to normal RADARs and show only lightly in stronger military RADARs.
The idea is that the whole ship is shaped so that the radarwaves are not reflected back to it, but instead somewhere else.
Round shapes are _bad_ since a round shape always has a part which reflects right back. Corners are bad because they are usually small round shapes.
So what you do is fill all the coners with radarwave eating materials and keep roundness, invard edges and corners to a minimum.
Like all really great stuff, the principle is simple and elegant..
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Pirkka
For a while after signing the agreement I was really worried though..
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Pirkka
Like if someone steels your car and then returns it intact. Losses zero, value of stolen stuff potentially huge.
Bah.. too many stupid comments for one thread.
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Pirkka
Well I'm ready to concede that during imperialism the 3rd world got screwd, but what about today?
I'd say most of the third world is up to their neck in trouble, but it's not because of exploitation or pauperization. Overpopulation, instability of governament and tradition in civil war are much more severe causes for poverty.
To get a little closer the original idea: I think the wealth of this planet will stay unevenly distributed, there is no way to lift a country to higher a higher standard of living from outside.
OTOH this doesn't mean it's not our duty to try to help and at least not knowingly rob other countries.
--
Pirkka
My tuition fee is around $100, dental plan included. I get $2 dinners at school. I'm paid approximately $400 each month (for housing and food) for the first 55 months of my studies.
I will graduate on black, but I pay around 25% taxes from my summer jobs and probably around 40% to 50% when I graduate.
--
Pirkka Jokela
It's a different world..
It was like this when Pentium came, it was like this when PII came, why would it be any different now? In a few months Intel will provide faster PIII's and then all the powermad will buy them.
What I never could understand is how the last 10% is worth doubling the price for so many..
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Pirkka
Not that I know anything of this particular subject but in general it's possible.
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Pirkka