I was at the Microsoft Research Intern BBQ at Gates' house this summer. Part of the time, a bunch of us were standing in a big nerd horde, with Gates in the middle, having a Q&A session.
I asked him something like "What is your position on software patents? Specifically, do you think Microsoft would be better or worse off if software patents did not exist?"
He went off on a 3-5 minute ranting monologue about how capitalism has been proven a better idea than communism, and that not having software patents is something that belongs in soviet russia, not in the U.S.
I think it'll be a long time before Microsoft changes its position.
*Look, fella, I get to wisecrack about nuclear power to my own email list if I feel like it. I didn't post that thing on Slashdot, and not everything that flies off my keyboard into cyberspace is gonna be solemn, Asperger-style argumentation intended intended to convince a bunch of Linux freaks.
* If you can't take a joke, take a hike! And if you can take a joke, then read the friggin' list and get a clue as to what's been going on there for the past six years, before you send email to novelists and get all teary-eyed about your disillusionment.
http://www.viridiandesign.org
bruces
On May 31, 2004, at 9:35 PM, Jakob Eriksson wrote:
Hi Bruce,
I stumbled upon your comments on Lovelock's nuclear power article today. I'd previously read your book "Distraction", and enjoyed it. In particular, I liked your portrayal of the nomads and the political power struggles.
Because I enjoyed your writing, and thus respected you as an author. I was hoping to read a creative and possibly convincing argument against the use of nuclear power. Instead, to my dismay, I was confronted with a series of immature comments, often with very little basis in fact, far from either creative or convincing.
Due to my respect for you as an SF author, I was prepared to take your advice to heart, and to give up the hope of nuclear power, had you shown good arguments for your case. Instead, I'm afraid you've spent all your whuffie (see Cory Doctorow's "Down and Out") on this childish flamebait. Given the comments on/., it would seem I am not alone in feeling this.
I'm surprised to see no-one has mentioned the Fix & Continue in Apple's ProjectBuilder IDE. I use it all the time, and it's saving me weeks of debugging. You really have to try it to understand how convenient it is, but here's an attempt to describe it.
You run your program in the debugger. Let's say you try to click some button, and it doesn't do what you expected it to do. With the program still running, you change the handler code, click Fix in the debugger, and try your button again. Voila, problem solved! No need to recompile and then try to get back to the state you were in when stuff didn't work.
Those of you who haven't used languages like LISP or Smalltalk (or Forth?) wouldn't believe how convenient it is to be able to change code run-time! I often add statements like
if(this) printf(that);
on the fly. Conditional breakpoints almost lose their relevancy when you can just add whatever conditional you like in the code, and put a breakpoint there. =)
Works with many changes to the code, as long as the program counter isn't in the code block you're editing (in which case you get a warning and can retry later). Works with C/C++ and Objective-C just the same. Some things, like adding member fields to classes are not accepted, or changing the number of local variables for functions that are on the stack.
Ah, yes, that would be the catch, wouldn't it? =) Sorry about that, I never tried to put an m4p on her player, and of course, I don't expect it to be able to play it.
My fiancee has a Yepp-30S mp3 player which I plug into my Mac from time to time. There's a plugin for iTunes that makes it work just like with an iPod, no extra steps.
I'm an avid PC user since 13 years back, have tried numerous times to switch to Linux, only to give up a few months later because using Windows was just so much easier. Now don't get me wrong, I know how to get around in unices, but in Windows stuff just worked. On the other hand, there was a lot you couldn't do, etc. etc.
I just recently got a $3000 PowerBook with MacOS 10.1 and I've never had such a good time with a computer. The hardware is beautiful, the OS is great and the applications are amazing. I have everything I want except a videoconferencing program, and I mean everything. For some reason, MacOS applications seem to be much _better_ than Linux/Windows equivalents. Has anybody seen Proteus for example? Best IM clone I ever saw. I'm not going back, and you can't make me!
Look, I'm sorry for all you poor bastards who can't afford a Mac. If you can't afford a proper meal, you'll have to make do with instant noodles. I'm sure linux is great for third world/low income people, but for the rest of us, Mac rocks!
Although I do appreciate the superior availability of music over the net as compared to discs distributed by store chains, I would prefer paying a fee for good service and exhaustive content to the current unreliable chaos of gnutella/Kazaa.
My issue, in this particular case, was not with copyright, but with patents. Patents are obviously pure evil, see the current discussion on software patents. That doesn't mean I support copyright, however. It is futile to use laws and regulations to bend reality. For illustrations on this, see "war on drugs", "prostitution", "prohibition". Classical information, by its very nature, can be copied at low cost and without loss. It is therefore in the nature of information to be free.
As further evidence, consider how the reduction or removal of IP laws would affect our politicians, lawyers etc: less money to make, less power to grub. Since most lawyers, all high-level politicians, along with all stock analysts and management consultants by their nature constitute the money grubbing and power hungry Scum of the Earth, this is without question a good thing.
While most people seem to rejoice over the court's decision, I must disagree. The decision was made over some sorry nitpicking over details: links in a separate block vs. embedded links, one central computer vs lots of central computers. Barring prior art, BT clearly has a legitimate claim on hyperlinks.
I am sorry to see such an important case squandered by a short-sighted judge. He managed to turn them down this time, but the fight is not over. A decision in favor of BT would have been more fortunate in the long run: then the absurtidy of patents, and software patents in general would get some intense scrutiny. Seeing BT sue every hyperlink author, hyperlink user, web server operator and all their respective mothers for billions of pounds in damages would surely make one or two people think twice before defending the righteousness of intellectual property law.
As far as I can see, and the law goes, BT was right, the judge was wrong. What this all comes down to is the fundamental truth: Intellectual property is a flawed concept.
Slashdot Mirror
I was at the Microsoft Research Intern BBQ at Gates' house this summer. Part of the time, a bunch of us were standing in a big nerd horde, with Gates in the middle, having a Q&A session.
I asked him something like "What is your position on software patents? Specifically, do you think Microsoft would be better or worse off if software patents did not exist?"
He went off on a 3-5 minute ranting monologue about how capitalism has been proven a better idea than communism, and that not having software patents is something that belongs in soviet russia, not in the U.S.
I think it'll be a long time before Microsoft changes its position.
Always the same with you Americans! :-D
Sweden != Switzerland. Sweden may be famous for its socialist government, ABBA, and Ericsson, but certainly not chocolate.
What's more insulting: getting a box of chocolates, or getting confused with an entirely different country?
*Look, fella, I get to wisecrack about nuclear power
/., it would seem I am not alone in feeling this.
to my own email list if I feel like it. I didn't post that thing on Slashdot,
and not everything that flies off my keyboard into cyberspace
is gonna be solemn, Asperger-style argumentation intended
intended to convince a bunch of Linux freaks.
* If you can't take a joke, take a hike! And if you can
take a joke, then read the friggin' list and get a clue
as to what's been going on there for the past six years,
before you send email to novelists and get
all teary-eyed about your disillusionment.
http://www.viridiandesign.org
bruces
On May 31, 2004, at 9:35 PM, Jakob Eriksson wrote:
Hi Bruce,
I stumbled upon your comments on Lovelock's nuclear power article today. I'd previously read your book "Distraction", and enjoyed it. In particular, I liked your portrayal of the nomads and the political power struggles.
Because I enjoyed your writing, and thus respected you as an author. I was hoping to read a creative and possibly convincing argument against the use of nuclear power. Instead, to my dismay, I was confronted with a series of immature comments, often with very little basis in fact, far from either creative or convincing.
Due to my respect for you as an SF author, I was prepared to take your advice to heart, and to give up the hope of nuclear power, had you shown good arguments for your case. Instead, I'm afraid you've spent all your whuffie (see Cory Doctorow's "Down and Out") on this childish flamebait. Given the comments on
You just lost a faithful reader.
I'm surprised to see no-one has mentioned the Fix & Continue in Apple's ProjectBuilder IDE. I use it all the time, and it's saving me weeks of debugging. You really have to try it to understand how convenient it is, but here's an attempt to describe it.
You run your program in the debugger. Let's say you try to click some button, and it doesn't do what you expected it to do. With the program still running, you change the handler code, click Fix in the debugger, and try your button again. Voila, problem solved! No need to recompile and then try to get back to the state you were in when stuff didn't work.
Those of you who haven't used languages like LISP or Smalltalk (or Forth?) wouldn't believe how convenient it is to be able to change code run-time! I often add statements like
if(this) printf(that);
on the fly. Conditional breakpoints almost lose their relevancy when you can just add whatever conditional you like in the code, and put a breakpoint there. =)
Works with many changes to the code, as long as the program counter isn't in the code block you're editing (in which case you get a warning and can retry later). Works with C/C++ and Objective-C just the same. Some things, like adding member fields to classes are not accepted, or changing the number of local variables for functions that are on the stack.
Ah, yes, that would be the catch, wouldn't it? =) Sorry about that, I never tried to put an m4p on her player, and of course, I don't expect it to be able to play it.
My fiancee has a Yepp-30S mp3 player which I plug into my Mac from time to time. There's a plugin for iTunes that makes it work just like with an iPod, no extra steps.
Indeed I do disagree. That is nothing but an oblong body of water. A fjord has steep cliffs on either side.
http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/fjord
Now enough of this nonsense.
Ok, since you insist: What's the name of this alleged Finnish fjord, and where do you suggest one might find it? =)
Heh... that's funny. Not funny "ha-ha", but funny ignorant.
You won't find any fjords in Finland. =)
I'm an avid PC user since 13 years back, have tried numerous times to switch to Linux, only to give up a few months later because using Windows was just so much easier. Now don't get me wrong, I know how to get around in unices, but in Windows stuff just worked. On the other hand, there was a lot you couldn't do, etc. etc.
I just recently got a $3000 PowerBook with MacOS 10.1 and I've never had such a good time with a computer. The hardware is beautiful, the OS is great and the applications are amazing. I have everything I want except a videoconferencing program, and I mean everything. For some reason, MacOS applications seem to be much _better_ than Linux/Windows equivalents. Has anybody seen Proteus for example? Best IM clone I ever saw. I'm not going back, and you can't make me!
Look, I'm sorry for all you poor bastards who can't afford a Mac. If you can't afford a proper meal, you'll have to make do with instant noodles. I'm sure linux is great for third world/low income people, but for the rest of us, Mac rocks!
My issue, in this particular case, was not with copyright, but with patents. Patents are obviously pure evil, see the current discussion on software patents. That doesn't mean I support copyright, however. It is futile to use laws and regulations to bend reality. For illustrations on this, see "war on drugs", "prostitution", "prohibition". Classical information, by its very nature, can be copied at low cost and without loss. It is therefore in the nature of information to be free.
As further evidence, consider how the reduction or removal of IP laws would affect our politicians, lawyers etc: less money to make, less power to grub. Since most lawyers, all high-level politicians, along with all stock analysts and management consultants by their nature constitute the money grubbing and power hungry Scum of the Earth, this is without question a good thing.
I am sorry to see such an important case squandered by a short-sighted judge. He managed to turn them down this time, but the fight is not over. A decision in favor of BT would have been more fortunate in the long run: then the absurtidy of patents, and software patents in general would get some intense scrutiny. Seeing BT sue every hyperlink author, hyperlink user, web server operator and all their respective mothers for billions of pounds in damages would surely make one or two people think twice before defending the righteousness of intellectual property law.
As far as I can see, and the law goes, BT was right, the judge was wrong. What this all comes down to is the fundamental truth: Intellectual property is a flawed concept.