Because of my work schedule, I never watch live TV, I record everything I want to watch using two TIVOs and a VCR. If this passes and I can no longer record the shows I want to watch, then my cable TV subscription will become usless to me and I will simply call up Time Warner and have it disconnected. It won't take more than a few months for me to recover the money I lost on my TIVOs throught the saving from not paying a cable bill. In the end, I have more money in my pocket and since a fair amount of TV shows are now being put out on DVD, I will eventually get to see the shows anyway. I win, they loose, simple as that.
"It's the one problem with the open-source community - there's no-one to pay me to pay my staff for the lost man-hours caused by this. "
And this is different from Closed Source how ?
Doesn't the money come from the money you`ve saved by not having to pay for any software? What did your business plan mention about this? Just a blank page, right? Try it out and see what happens? Well, it's your money!
Same place it will come from if you use Closed Source software, using Open Source products does not mean zero cost IT, it means lower cost IT. If your company did plan for these things, then it will make no difference what products you are using.
Is it just me, or does anyone else think it's overkill to give a spot on the front page to every article that expresses an opinion on how good/ bad free software is?
No more overkill than FoxNews running stories about the War on Terrorism every hour on the hour. Typicly, this subject tends to recieve alot of comments. Slashdot is simply providing stories on a subject its readers want.
It's not like someone is trying to outlaw the writing of Free software, or suppress the Free software movement
You might be wrong about this. The Senate currently considering a bill which would require all personal computers to have DRM built in and Microsoft holds the patent on DRM Operating Systems. If Microsoft refuses to license this to any other companies or prices the license out of reach, this would effectivly outlaw Linux and any other OSS/Free project that either doesn't have access to the license or can't afford the license.
He makes a valid argument against Microsofts track record of producing software that does not work as promised, while you have trouble spelling simple words, HMM who am I going listen to.
BTW, it is spelled STUPID
Re:Need to do more than complain
on
CFP 2002 Wrapup
·
· Score: 2
But the difference this time is that hackers and users are demanding the right to copy these things for free and pass them on to whomever (see RMS's comments on MP3s in the O'Reilly Free as in freedom).
This is not true, most of us are not advocating the elimination of copyright law. What we want is "Fair Use", there is a difference, although niether the RIAA nor MPAA seem to know it.
Who is going to make Star Wars if it is legal and moral for one person to buy the DVD and rip it and distribute it to all their friends?
This is exactly the argument made against radio, audio tapes and the VCR. None of that gloom and doom came true. Sure a few people did make copies of albums/movies and gave them to friends, but most people didn't. Most people legally bought and rented the content. Most people are honest and do the right thing.
Oh, and by the way, if you were going hungry you'd pretty soon revise your view on what constituted freedom...
This is a silly statement, if I were going hungry, I would not re-evaluate my definition of freedom, I'd get a job.
Re:Need to do more than complain
on
CFP 2002 Wrapup
·
· Score: 2
For them, freedom from want and hunger is pretty important
This argument is Red Herring. Everytime some new technology comes out which allows consumers to duplicate content (radio, cassette tape, VCR) the content providers cry to the courts that this new technology will destroy thier business. The providers lost thier battles, and in fact the opposite happened, they made billions more dollars in the new markets. I don't see how it would be any different today.
Cops kill more criminals than vice versa. Does that mean the criminals are the good guys and the cops are engaged in "slaughter"?
There is a big difference between fighting crime in the streets and an occupation force attempting to suppress ressistance to an oppressive government.
Europeans are throwing a tempertantrum that Israel is defending itself.
Up until 18 months ago the kill ratio of Palistine to Israel was 20 to 1, it has only recently come down to 3 to 1. This is not self defense, it is slaughter.
Europe is joining the fray by attacking Jews in their own country.
Judging Europe based on the actions of a few idiots, is like judging the US based on the actions of Ted Kaczynski and Timothy McVeigh.
Your world view is very narrow and only serves the purpose of spreading fear, uncertainy and doubt. This is the exact response Bin Laden is looking for. He wants us to live in fear, he wants us to distrust our nieghbors, he wants us to overeact so our nieghbors will distrust us, we have done exactly that and you are perfect example.
Finally someone has said it, mod the parent post up. The EFF is screwing things up, even when they win they loose. I am not sure though if the 4th Amendment would be the correct.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The 4th Amendments speaks more to search and seizures than the absolute right as a free citizen to do this with his own property as he sees fit. Since I am not a lawyer I can't speak to this absolutly.
There is absolutly no way anyone is going to get me to put one of these things inside my body. This is a product which is ripe for abuse and I'm not having any of it. Hopefully no one will get the bright idea to make it mandatory, otherwise I will have to go live in the mountains of Montana.
I see great potential for fun here. Think about it, They rent out your hard drive to someone, who uses it host advertisment, or demoware or music. You, being the wiley Hacker guy, replace the content porno or pirated music/software and let the fun begin. Optionaly you can sue them for using your hardware and bandwidth for morally objectionable purposes.
Maybe if a few of the top PC-maker execs had some sort of backbone
That sounds good in theory, but do you really think Dell or Gateway is going to get some "Backbone" when it would cost them millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars a year. If they don't comply they are effectively giving thier competition a cost advantage. The Exective who successfully implements this, would be fired and the stockholder would probably sue the CEO for not maximizing profits. Oddly, only the smallest niche market players can afford to blow Microsoft off, because thier products cost more anyway.
is the clause that will prohibit MS to make any "Windows only PC" deals with manufacturers. Look, it's pretty simple:
Better yet, force Microsoft to sell retail and OEM versions of all its software at the same price and ban them from giving "Friend of Microsoft" discounts and rebates.
Windows will also be less likely to break, and
easier to fix when it does.
Doesn't MS say this about all the new versions
of thier products ? Not that Windows hasn't
improved, it certainly has, but they also never
seem to live up to the hype.
KDE != Linux. KDE can stand on its own, can Linux? I used to think so, but so many people beg to differ that I'm not sure any more.
I tend to think so, although KDE is an excellent choice for a windows manager, it is not the only game in town, beyond even Gnome. I do not use either KDE or Gnome as my desktop, I use ROX, so I could uninstall both and 90% of my apps would work fine. The issue is not now technical nor has it ever been. Instead it is an issue of user preferance. Certainly loosing either KDE or Gnome would be a hard blow, but I think Linux could survive loosing both. Though I think the chance of loosing even one is nonexistent let alone both.
Rather than form a federation with Microsoft and work with what we had already created, there was this notion that the world should be offered an alternative," Mundie said.
My question of course, is wht didn't Microsoft form a Federation with Sun and work with what they had ALREADY created ? Maybe because Sun saw all the corpses of Silicon Valley companies who formed federations with Microsoft, or that IBM got bit by the Gorrilla while within a Federation with Microsoft, and said "No Thanks!". Had Sun played in Microsofts sandbox, they would be dead today.
You are correct, but it would be easy enough to filter uploads or not allow uploads at all. Lets face it though, this would be a merely "OK" alternative medium for communications, but would truly suck for file sharing.
But back when I ran a small BBS I didn't have a 'files' section anyway. It was all about communications, not geeks trading bad porn and warez.
I agree, it should be about communication, right after e-mail, Usenet was the Killer App for the internet. Both email and Usenet could easily be provided by a loose knit group of dial-in BBS's, with larger centrally located BBS's acting as hubs for surrounding smaller boards. It might take a day for you to email someone and recieve an answer, but slow is better than none. Even if I did put up a 'Files' section, if I restricted file size to what would fit on a floppy, it wouldn't be bad. Many Linux applications are this small, heck there are Linux distributions this small.
Slashdot Mirror
Because of my work schedule, I never watch live TV, I record everything I want to watch using two TIVOs and a VCR. If this passes and I can no longer record the shows I want to watch, then my cable TV subscription will become usless to me and I will simply call up Time Warner and have it disconnected. It won't take more than a few months for me to recover the money I lost on my TIVOs throught the saving from not paying a cable bill. In the end, I have more money in my pocket and since a fair amount of TV shows are now being put out on DVD, I will eventually get to see the shows anyway. I win, they loose, simple as that.
"It's the one problem with the open-source community - there's no-one to pay me to pay my staff for the lost man-hours caused by this. "
And this is different from Closed Source how ?
Doesn't the money come from the money you`ve saved by not having to pay for any software? What did your business plan mention about this? Just a blank page, right? Try it out and see what happens? Well, it's your money!
Same place it will come from if you use Closed Source software, using Open Source products does not mean zero cost IT, it means lower cost IT. If your company did plan for these things, then it will make no difference what products you are using.
Sure, if by "fully functional" you mean "will not run those MS apps I installed Wine for in the first place."
No loss there
Is it just me, or does anyone else think it's overkill to give a spot on the front page to every article that expresses an opinion on how good/ bad free software is?
No more overkill than FoxNews running stories about the War on Terrorism every hour on the hour. Typicly, this subject tends to recieve alot of comments. Slashdot is simply providing stories on a subject its readers want.
It's not like someone is trying to outlaw the writing of Free software, or suppress the Free software movement
You might be wrong about this. The Senate currently considering a bill which would require all personal computers to have DRM built in and Microsoft holds the patent on DRM Operating Systems. If Microsoft refuses to license this to any other companies or prices the license out of reach, this would effectivly outlaw Linux and any other OSS/Free project that either doesn't have access to the license or can't afford the license.
He makes a valid argument against Microsofts track record of producing software that does not work as promised, while you have trouble spelling simple words, HMM who am I going listen to.
BTW, it is spelled STUPID
But the difference this time is that hackers and users are demanding the right to copy these things for free and pass them on to whomever (see RMS's comments on MP3s in the O'Reilly Free as in freedom).
This is not true, most of us are not advocating the elimination of copyright law. What we want is "Fair Use", there is a difference, although niether the RIAA nor MPAA seem to know it.
Who is going to make Star Wars if it is legal and moral for one person to buy the DVD and rip it and distribute it to all their friends?
This is exactly the argument made against radio, audio tapes and the VCR. None of that gloom and doom came true. Sure a few people did make copies of albums/movies and gave them to friends, but most people didn't. Most people legally bought and rented the content. Most people are honest and do the right thing.
Oh, and by the way, if you were going hungry you'd pretty soon revise your view on what constituted freedom...
This is a silly statement, if I were going hungry, I would not re-evaluate my definition of freedom, I'd get a job.
For them, freedom from want and hunger is pretty important
This argument is Red Herring. Everytime some new technology comes out which allows consumers to duplicate content (radio, cassette tape, VCR) the content providers cry to the courts that this new technology will destroy thier business. The providers lost thier battles, and in fact the opposite happened, they made billions more dollars in the new markets. I don't see how it would be any different today.
Cops kill more criminals than vice versa. Does that mean the criminals are the good guys and the cops are engaged in "slaughter"?
There is a big difference between fighting crime in the streets and an occupation force attempting to suppress ressistance to an oppressive government.
Europeans are throwing a tempertantrum that Israel is defending itself.
Up until 18 months ago the kill ratio of Palistine to Israel was 20 to 1, it has only recently come down to 3 to 1. This is not self defense, it is slaughter.
Europe is joining the fray by attacking Jews in their own country.
Judging Europe based on the actions of a few idiots, is like judging the US based on the actions of Ted Kaczynski and Timothy McVeigh.
Your world view is very narrow and only serves the purpose of spreading fear, uncertainy and doubt. This is the exact response Bin Laden is looking for. He wants us to live in fear, he wants us to distrust our nieghbors, he wants us to overeact so our nieghbors will distrust us, we have done exactly that and you are perfect example.
Finally someone has said it, mod the parent post up. The EFF is screwing things up, even when they win they loose. I am not sure though if the 4th Amendment would be the correct.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The 4th Amendments speaks more to search and seizures than the absolute right as a free citizen to do this with his own property as he sees fit. Since I am not a lawyer I can't speak to this absolutly.
There is absolutly no way anyone is going to get me to put one of these things inside my body. This is a product which is ripe for abuse and I'm not having any of it. Hopefully no one will get the bright idea to make it mandatory, otherwise I will have to go live in the mountains of Montana.
I see great potential for fun here. Think about it, They rent out your hard drive to someone, who uses it host advertisment, or demoware or music. You, being the wiley Hacker guy, replace the content porno or pirated music/software and let the fun begin. Optionaly you can sue them for using your hardware and bandwidth for morally objectionable purposes.
Maybe if a few of the top PC-maker execs had some sort of backbone
That sounds good in theory, but do you really think Dell or Gateway is going to get some "Backbone" when it would cost them millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars a year. If they don't comply they are effectively giving thier competition a cost advantage. The Exective who successfully implements this, would be fired and the stockholder would probably sue the CEO for not maximizing profits. Oddly, only the smallest niche market players can afford to blow Microsoft off, because thier products cost more anyway.
Lets not forget John Brunner's Shockwave Rider, 1975.
is the clause that will prohibit MS to make any "Windows only PC" deals with manufacturers. Look, it's pretty simple:
Better yet, force Microsoft to sell retail and OEM versions of all its software at the same price and ban them from giving "Friend of Microsoft" discounts and rebates.
What DOES Linux still have going for it over MS?
a $200 per seat price tag.
Windows will also be less likely to break, and easier to fix when it does.
Doesn't MS say this about all the new versions of thier products ? Not that Windows hasn't improved, it certainly has, but they also never seem to live up to the hype.
"All web servers will have robot names from Asimov".
The place I use to work named all thier web servers after characters from the spiderman comic.
KDE != Linux. KDE can stand on its own, can Linux? I used to think so, but so many people beg to differ that I'm not sure any more.
I tend to think so, although KDE is an excellent choice for a windows manager, it is not the only game in town, beyond even Gnome. I do not use either KDE or Gnome as my desktop, I use ROX, so I could uninstall both and 90% of my apps would work fine. The issue is not now technical nor has it ever been. Instead it is an issue of user preferance. Certainly loosing either KDE or Gnome would be a hard blow, but I think Linux could survive loosing both. Though I think the chance of loosing even one is nonexistent let alone both.
So our elected representives are not only whores, but cheap whores at that.
No kidding, not only did they get several Senators, a couple of Congressman, a President and by extension, the Attorney General.
March 5, 2003: Ask Slashdot: Does anyone still make games for Windows XP, It seems like all the cool stuff is being made for Linux only.
Rather than form a federation with Microsoft and work with what we had already created, there was this notion that the world should be offered an alternative," Mundie said.
My question of course, is wht didn't Microsoft form a Federation with Sun and work with what they had ALREADY created ? Maybe because Sun saw all the corpses of Silicon Valley companies who formed federations with Microsoft, or that IBM got bit by the Gorrilla while within a Federation with Microsoft, and said "No Thanks!". Had Sun played in Microsofts sandbox, they would be dead today.
You are correct, but it would be easy enough to filter uploads or not allow uploads at all. Lets face it though, this would be a merely "OK" alternative medium for communications, but would truly suck for file sharing.
But back when I ran a small BBS I didn't have a 'files' section anyway. It was all about communications, not geeks trading bad porn and warez.
I agree, it should be about communication, right after e-mail, Usenet was the Killer App for the internet. Both email and Usenet could easily be provided by a loose knit group of dial-in BBS's, with larger centrally located BBS's acting as hubs for surrounding smaller boards. It might take a day for you to email someone and recieve an answer, but slow is better than none. Even if I did put up a 'Files' section, if I restricted file size to what would fit on a floppy, it wouldn't be bad. Many Linux applications are this small, heck there are Linux distributions this small.