I find this story hilarious. Just a bunch of rich, stupid, assholes chasing each other with dollar signs in their eyes, only to be fooled by a fast-talking hillbilly. More power to him. He should move out of the country while he's still got their money.
No, all they'd have to do is have the key checking done with code that is not open source. Or the open source software could query a server run by Blizzard. Blizzard needn't expose all the valid keys to accomplish this.
It is an interesting idea. I have never used antivirus software, nor have I ever had a virus. I certainly believe they (McAfee, et al) overhype the utility of their products.
What's really annoying is that often that crap comes on the computer as OEM software, so you're paying a MS-like tax again.
Didn't the bnetd team offer to do key checking if Blizzard would cooperate and give access to their database?
It seems a little silly to refuse to allow bnetd to do key checking and then sue because bnetd does not do key checking.
Besides, this whole notion of passive circumvention -- that you can circumvent a control mechanism by not emulating it -- sounds like a huge stretch to me. Then they might as well sue the ISPs.
Microsoft loathes the idea that they cannot sell a piece of software and keep control of it. This impossibility is why they hate the GPL so much that they have resorted to lying (although that's their forte) about it by claiming that GPL licensed software cannot be commercialized.
Microsoft does not understand that the point of software -- the point of any technology, really -- is not to make money off of it but to bring it into people's lives to better our standards of living.
The question I have is, if they are going to correlate file swapping's popularity with the decline in sales, why not attribute the positive sales figures from a couple years ago to Napster? It has been around for a long time and before last year, the RIAA reported that sales had gone up a tremendous amount. Slashdot even ran that story.
Yeah, but the gotcha is that it influences someone who's already unstable. By that logic, you could blame anything for setting off a kid like that.
The point is that stable, well-adjusted kids won't shoot their classmates because of video games. As for the unstable kids, what we should do is look into how they got that way.
First of all, goto wasn't removed from any of C, C++, or Java. Secondly, who the hell moves around and uses everyone else's machines all the time? That's what we have multiuser OSs for.
Third, I have a problem with this idiotic "logic": (paraphrased from the interview)
"one time, I set some guy's font color to red and his background to red. He couldn't see anything. Therefore, all interface customization is bad."
That's like saying that because I can paint a fake door onto someone's wall and cause confusion, paint should not be manufactured.
Give me numbers about how many buyers respond divided by how many emails were sent on any particular product offering, and I'll bet that "effective" looks like less than 1 percent. The problem is, it costs essentially $0 to blanket people with email, so spammers ask themselves, "why not do it?"
You have neglected to mention the one great thing Java has going for it: hype! But seriously, I'll try to answer your questions.
You can learn the C++ classes, but there is only one standard class library: the STL. Not to mention the fact that much of the high-level functionality that exists in Java (e.g. networking) you'd have to implement yourself or get from a third party if you used C++.
Why reinvent the wheel? Not everyone has the time to go write a garbage collector. Java gives you one. Also, you will never be able to avoid using pointers if you need to use third party class libraries.
#ifdefs are extremely inelegant and make code maintenance a pain in the ass. Why not just use a language with the knowledge that it will run elsewhere? No more wondering how many bits are in an int on xxx platform.
I haven't ever used GTK or QT, but why not use the graphical components that are developed and tested by the same people who wrote the language?
Java the language is quite easy to learn. However, learning the class libraries it has will take some time because there are so many.
I agree with you here.
The real-world merits are that your development time will be shortened because you won't be buried in syntax, or have to chase pointers around, or have to worry about memory management as much, and much of the higher-level functionality has been thoroughly tested and used by countless others before you because it's part of the standard classes.
Now, Java isn't a panacea (games programmers will probably stick with C++ for a while), but I think the reasons I outlined above make it more appealing than C++ for many, many purposes.
Think of just about any application that you might write and imagine the steps toward completing it. At each step consider how long it would take to accomplish that step in Java vs. C++. I think you'd find that C++ would have you finishing it several months after you'd finish it with Java. Not everything is a performance issue.
I didn't say he expressed anger about people making money off software.
Sure you did: "He gets mad someone would dare charge money for their software so he goes and makes his own versions to play with."
Stallman whines about Microsoft owning a format yet in his own diatribes he advocates free software replacing non free software.
He does this because it is a burden to continually have to guess at the format every time a new version of Word comes out. If the format were an open format, this wouldn't be an issue. That is his complaint.
Did you read the article at all before putting your foot in your mouth? First of all, he has never expressed any anger about people charging money for software. Look up his definition of free. Second, he explained in the article mentioned that MS owns the Word format; they are free to change it and they do so in order to thwart the efforts of free software and any other non-MS software producers.
It makes one wonder if Microsoft's contracts with board & chip manufacturers stipulate that if they make drivers for Windows, they cannot make them for Linux.
I remember being at work once when I wanted to check up on the progress of LyX for KDE. Too lazy to go to google, I entered (what I thought might be the URL) http://www.klyx.org.
I don't know if it's still what it used to be, but, needless to say, I am not checking it while I am here at work!
Slashdot Mirror
I find this story hilarious. Just a bunch of rich, stupid, assholes chasing each other with dollar signs in their eyes, only to be fooled by a fast-talking hillbilly. More power to him. He should move out of the country while he's still got their money.
No, all they'd have to do is have the key checking done with code that is not open source. Or the open source software could query a server run by Blizzard. Blizzard needn't expose all the valid keys to accomplish this.
What's really annoying is that often that crap comes on the computer as OEM software, so you're paying a MS-like tax again.
Didn't the bnetd team offer to do key checking if Blizzard would cooperate and give access to their database?
It seems a little silly to refuse to allow bnetd to do key checking and then sue because bnetd does not do key checking.
Besides, this whole notion of passive circumvention -- that you can circumvent a control mechanism by not emulating it -- sounds like a huge stretch to me. Then they might as well sue the ISPs.
I have one word for you: "Opeth" and lots of it.
Microsoft loathes the idea that they cannot sell a piece of software and keep control of it. This impossibility is why they hate the GPL so much that they have resorted to lying (although that's their forte) about it by claiming that GPL licensed software cannot be commercialized. Microsoft does not understand that the point of software -- the point of any technology, really -- is not to make money off of it but to bring it into people's lives to better our standards of living.
Next to try out the Microsoft Poop-Chute Enlargement System
The question I have is, if they are going to correlate file swapping's popularity with the decline in sales, why not attribute the positive sales figures from a couple years ago to Napster? It has been around for a long time and before last year, the RIAA reported that sales had gone up a tremendous amount. Slashdot even ran that story.
and ruin my uptime?! no thanks!
You forgot that if digital copyright protection is not implemented in all new hardware then the terrorists will win!
The point is that stable, well-adjusted kids won't shoot their classmates because of video games. As for the unstable kids, what we should do is look into how they got that way.
First of all, goto wasn't removed from any of C, C++, or Java. Secondly, who the hell moves around and uses everyone else's machines all the time? That's what we have multiuser OSs for.
Third, I have a problem with this idiotic "logic":
(paraphrased from the interview)
"one time, I set some guy's font color to red and his background to red. He couldn't see anything. Therefore, all interface customization is bad."
That's like saying that because I can paint a fake door onto someone's wall and cause confusion, paint should not be manufactured.
It must be fun to spend a day with Jef.
if this gets passed into law then the terrorists win!
Give me numbers about how many buyers respond divided by how many emails were sent on any particular product offering, and I'll bet that "effective" looks like less than 1 percent. The problem is, it costs essentially $0 to blanket people with email, so spammers ask themselves, "why not do it?"
...and since so many of the comments were pre-written form letters, they could compress the list with RLE!
You and Alice Cooper!
- You can learn the C++ classes, but there is only one standard class library: the STL. Not to mention the fact that much of the high-level functionality that exists in Java (e.g. networking) you'd have to implement yourself or get from a third party if you used C++.
- Why reinvent the wheel? Not everyone has the time to go write a garbage collector. Java gives you one. Also, you will never be able to avoid using pointers if you need to use third party class libraries.
- #ifdefs are extremely inelegant and make code maintenance a pain in the ass. Why not just use a language with the knowledge that it will run elsewhere? No more wondering how many bits are in an int on xxx platform.
- I haven't ever used GTK or QT, but why not use the graphical components that are developed and tested by the same people who wrote the language?
- Java the language is quite easy to learn. However, learning the class libraries it has will take some time because there are so many.
- I agree with you here.
The real-world merits are that your development time will be shortened because you won't be buried in syntax, or have to chase pointers around, or have to worry about memory management as much, and much of the higher-level functionality has been thoroughly tested and used by countless others before you because it's part of the standard classes.Now, Java isn't a panacea (games programmers will probably stick with C++ for a while), but I think the reasons I outlined above make it more appealing than C++ for many, many purposes.
Think of just about any application that you might write and imagine the steps toward completing it. At each step consider how long it would take to accomplish that step in Java vs. C++. I think you'd find that C++ would have you finishing it several months after you'd finish it with Java. Not everything is a performance issue.
I suppose all of Microsoft's GUI division got fired?
Sure you did: "He gets mad someone would dare charge money for their software so he goes and makes his own versions to play with."
Stallman whines about Microsoft owning a format yet in his own diatribes he advocates free software replacing non free software.
He does this because it is a burden to continually have to guess at the format every time a new version of Word comes out. If the format were an open format, this wouldn't be an issue. That is his complaint.
Did you read the article at all before putting your foot in your mouth? First of all, he has never expressed any anger about people charging money for software. Look up his definition of free. Second, he explained in the article mentioned that MS owns the Word format; they are free to change it and they do so in order to thwart the efforts of free software and any other non-MS software producers.
Most of those features can be had by editing the document with a program like Netscape's Composer.
Note that even if the attachments people send are Wordpad-readable, it doesn't matter because we're talking about people who don't run Windows.
You're absolutely right.
It makes one wonder if Microsoft's contracts with board & chip manufacturers stipulate that if they make drivers for Windows, they cannot make them for Linux.
Don't worry -- we're sending in Animal and Oscar the Grouch to kick some ass.
I remember being at work once when I wanted to check up on the progress of LyX for KDE. Too lazy to go to google, I entered (what I thought might be the URL) http://www.klyx.org.
I don't know if it's still what it used to be, but, needless to say, I am not checking it while I am here at work!