/. is a US-Centric site.
The Reg. is a UK-Centric site.
If either of them makes revisionist statements it is wrong.
In my experience the worst revisionists are not individuals, but US marketing and governmental departments, who want everything to be A) Home-grown, and B) the biggest/bestest/fastest.
If you want to argue that the US has exploited lots of inventions more effectively than the rest of the world, you'll get no argument from me, but please understand that a lot of these 'US' innovations actually came from other countries/cultures. (Ok, I might also debate the meaning of 'exploited' a bit, since not every exploit is for the benefit of humanity).
Please expand your horizons a bit more, and learn the difference between truth, and marketing.
I imagine quite a few have bloomed in their original habitat too..;)
Now, to ensure genetic diversity, and continuation of the species a signifigent number will need to do this at the same time. Imagine the smell as you wander about the forest.
Clever set up. First he complains that people don't respect Intellectual property enough and need reminding. Then he whinges about his (totally false) lie that open source makes all other software open source due to Intellectual property issues.
Nice example of telling a bare faced lie for spin purposes though, pretending that he does not understand there are -different- types of open source licence. Almost makes me believe he realli -is- stupid.
What, when it comes to it, is the difference between a Library, and a complete executable called from within another application. Does the GPL make a clear distinction?
I ask since the product I do support for uses perl and gzip as part of it operation. We ship -unmodified- copies of these in binary form and supply the source (simply a copy of the relevent release's source from the Gnu sites) on demand. We call gzip from within some of our code to compress data 'on the fly', and we use perl everywhere, from install scripts through to cron jobs, and a whole bunch of perl utilities we ship that complement the primary product.
My understanding (both from our legal bods, and from stuff I have seen in slashdot discussions) is this is quite legal, and the GPL actually is written to accomodate this sort of use (we use the GNU stuff in it's entirity, without extending it's functionality).
But I fail to see a real difference between calling these utilities as standalone executable, and calling something within a library, surely the net effect is the same?
Not a big issue, most linksys/netgear/whoever addons these days use a seperate power supply, so you can simply find one thyat is appropriate (I love it when manuals tell you never to use any other power supply, 12vDC is 12vDC right.. sheesh, safety Nazi's to blame I think).
But last couple of products I brought while visiting US came with uiniversal power adaptors anyway, just needed a cheap converter plug and was off and going. Seems that cost of these universal adaptors is now so low that it is cheaper to use them then have two separate specifications for Europe/US.
Did once get caught out with a CD player that, even after I re-linked the PSU (had links on PCB to different transformer taps for 110/240) blew up (big smelly smoke). Turned out that the PSU was also frequency sensitive (60Hz vs 50Hz) and I should have replaced the capacitors too.
EZ
This will piss off the orgs who want to kill GPL
on
GeForce3 and Linux
·
· Score: 1
I was thinking about this last night.. Microsoft is having a 'GPL is evil' crack at the moment, I expect to see their cronies, other companies who rely on restricting information flow and use, to follow suit.
Having good quality drivers for advanced hardware is critical to keeping Linux as an acceptable choice for many home users. Linux already suffers from this, poor or non-existent support for some 'killer' hardware, especially USB devices. This does not affect the server space, but probably has a huge impact in the home.
Nvidia have a close relationship with Microsoft (Xbox). How long before we see large companies what want to crush the concept of open source/open standards/open information applying pressure on their partners to ensure that the support for the latest hardware is not provided.
While the antitrust suit was ongoing this might of been suicide, but now, especially with George Jr in place, they might decide they can get away with it.
Actually I was bracing myself for Nvidia to announce no decent drivers for Open-Source OS's, saying 'we won't encourage un-american (their definition, not mine) activities as they turn round and bend over to Microsoft and it's ilk. I thought that mundies crap was in preparation for this, and I still worry that they may try this in the future.
So congrats Nvidia, you just reduced my paranoia by a bit.
Well they clearly say slash is designed for a million hits a day. Not really for use when co-hosted with other apps, It swallows all system resources, just like the best games, in order to give itself best advantage when the going gets tough.. Quite valid thing to do.
Sounds to me like you're trying to squeeze a square peg in a round hole.
The 'Total loon' comment reflects how the 'interested public' would percieve Stallmans (and RMS's!) comments on this sort of issue.
Mundie was not speaking to us (people who are experienced in a technical sense), he was speaking to investors, legislators, CEO's etc.. not stupid, but lacking full exposure to all the arguments.
Linus was speaking to exactly the same audience, in language and concepts they understand and are familiar with. He made a bloody good job of it too.
I severely doubt if either ESR or RMS could have written anything so accessible to the same audience
Speaking as a tech support engineer (and coming from a background of 10 yrs as a developer and sysadmin)..
The stupidity of some people in our industry (and I am talking about IT professionals here.. I support a large CM product) is incredible.
The people who really suffer are the clever ones, who have read the manual, checked the FAQ, understand the product in the first place, and only call when they have a -real- problem. By the time I get to them I am generally fried from saying RTMF 25 times and the speed and completeness of my response to them suffers as a result. Plus you have the disconnect between what marketing/sales will sell, vs. the actual capabilities of the product, guess who is expected to sort that one out (hint, it's not the salesman, he already has his comission).
I'm getting out of support and going back to sysadmin, at least I can call someone an idiot and then justify it face-to-face with their manager.
The slashdot article doesn't even credit The Register for this, although they had it up hours ago.
Then again, slashdot barely seems to ever mention them, sour grapes? distrust? your guess is as good as mine since I read -both- religously.
But, you did mention them, you had this all pre-written and in your clipboard, didn't you.. (sorry, couldn't resist that, of course, I've never done the same myself! that was a lie by the way.)
This BBC article lists some april fools from around the world.
It includes a excellent Russioan one where a news program reported that the government was to make April the 1st a National holiday to reduce inefficiences resulting from dealing with April Fools jokes. The story was, of course, a Joke.
I did read and understand, being pragmatic I often take the same attitude and approach.
It's just that I getting more and more pissed off with buggy software. The more users accept bugs in released products, the more suppliers seem to do it.
Seriously, they release with known bugs and say 'we'll only fix the ones we get the most complaints about..' they then move engineers who should be fixing bugs into developing the next wizz-bang release, which will be released -with the same bugs in it-.
Plus there's a load of hassle involved in obtaining fixes, some of which are half the size of the original product (or full replacements in IE's case). If all you have is dial up (I live in the arse end of nowhere regarding broadband) this takes a day or two of continuous download for me.. not practical (yeah, OK, so I download once and burn SP's to CD, but still sucks).
Actually, a billion is a thousand million, not a million million.
When I was a kid, a billion was a million million. But these days it seems that the definition of it as a thousand million is almost ubiquitous (I don't agree, but I go with the flow).
I think this is because it a politician and advertisers billion, looks impressive, everybody goes "wow! look at how many Billions! BillyG has!", and "look how our kind leaders are pumping Billions! into promoting thermonuclear destruction..", "Microsoft is great, Billions! of people buy Windows!!!!!!!"
I'm too cynical for this shit. 10^9 is quicker to type.
Bugs in an installation media don't really bother me.
They should, the vendor has your purchase now, what guarantee do you have they will fix the bugs?
I work for the Technical Support division of a major (multi-platform) vendor. We do this shit all the time, release stuff to satisfy a marketing schedule, then decide to drop fixes that -really, really- should have been in the released product.
All the time we (as customers) accept buggy products with a promise to 'fix it in a service pack', companies will not improve the fundamental reliability of their products and release practices.
It's all about scale.. both spamming, and slapping display total contempt for others.
Why should causing a minor irritation for millions, and a major one for the hijacked mail relays admins, owners and customers, not attract a severe punishment? I'd accept that life, or capitol punishment would be waay too strong (probably;),but a minor act affecting millions (and there's little point spamming unless you do it by the million) should be treated as seriously as a major act affecting only a very few.
Software portability is of vital importance for upgrades and applications enhancement. Portability among UNIX flavors can be done quickly, preserving expandability and keeping manpower costs down. This is not true for other non-UNIX operating systems.
A 'certain other company' ahem.. has spent years ensuring incompatibility between products to tie you into theirs, then make you upgrade regularly. It's very nice to see this policy backfiring on them in a high-visibility market space I'm sure they'd like to 'own' too.
The days of the so-called Digerati are numbered (they will not be missed) as poorer, working-class Americans thunder online in amazing numbers.
This is no bad thing, but there is a mistake in thinking they are 'computer literate' instead of just 'net literate'. These new users will hinder, not help, attempts to fight DMCA etc.. because they will be the first to accept, and unquestioningly use, copyright friendly content viewers/players. And are very succeptable to the suggestion that anyone who deviates from this path must be a 'evil nerd/hacker' to be despised, bullied and then called a coward by lame presidents when they finally snap.
Surely he'd be better off staying within NAI and fighting to ensure that the code remains free from backdoors?
Well, that may be best for us (the community), but Phil is entitled to a rewarding life of his own. Maybe he just felt he was pissing into the wind at NAI, and that he'd be happier and more productive elsewhere.
It is after all -his- life, not ours;)
EZ 'The truth is out there.. but the lies are all in your mind.'
Quick point, the latest (4.1) clearcase release has just stated shipping for Linux with the filesystem (MVFS) component. There are conditions (mainly limited choice of vendor and kernel versions it will run on) but it is ther now, and the range of compatible Linux environments for it should improve over time.
Disclaimer: I work as a ClearCase support Engineer for Rational, I may be seriously biased in anything I post in this thread!
EZ 'The truth is out there.. but the lies are all in your mind.'
A month ago I got granted new options (1600) at $48. Stock price now $40, despite posting record profits last month.
Because I'm in the Netherlands I will be taxed as the shares vest, even if I have not excercised them (tax regime here sucks.) Based on the highest price they have reached in previous 3 months (over $70), and my tax bracket here is 48%, rising to 51% Jan 1st. I get taxed a -second- time when I excercise them...
Not fun. A strong recovery will mitigate this a lot, but no recovery, and I loose money. Pretty depressing.
mp3, pron, are by far the two biggest search catagories out there, if the shlock-horror headlines in most rags is true.
"Dear Mrs search engine owner, please may we install something on your search engine servers to cut out a sizeable proportion of your customer base?"
What a great business model? it will -require- a law change to work, unless they think UCITA/DMCA can already be used to imtimidate big players like altaVista.
Slashdot Mirror
/. is a US-Centric site.
The Reg. is a UK-Centric site.
If either of them makes revisionist statements it is wrong.
In my experience the worst revisionists are not individuals, but US marketing and governmental departments, who want everything to be A) Home-grown, and B) the biggest/bestest/fastest.
If you want to argue that the US has exploited lots of inventions more effectively than the rest of the world, you'll get no argument from me, but please understand that a lot of these 'US' innovations actually came from other countries/cultures. (Ok, I might also debate the meaning of 'exploited' a bit, since not every exploit is for the benefit of humanity).
Please expand your horizons a bit more, and learn the difference between truth, and marketing.
EZ
I imagine quite a few have bloomed in their original habitat too.. ;)
Now, to ensure genetic diversity, and continuation of the species a signifigent number will need to do this at the same time. Imagine the smell as you wander about the forest.
EZ
Clever set up. First he complains that people don't respect Intellectual property enough and need reminding. Then he whinges about his (totally false) lie that open source makes all other software open source due to Intellectual property issues.
Nice example of telling a bare faced lie for spin purposes though, pretending that he does not understand there are -different- types of open source licence. Almost makes me believe he realli -is- stupid.
EZ
That's fast! Seems I just read The Truth a few weeks ago...
Well, brace yourself since there are going to be a number of discworld releases in short-order, including the first Discworld childrens novel.
Think PTerry has finally got back to the 6 month release schedule he used to maintain.
EZ
What, when it comes to it, is the difference between a Library, and a complete executable called from within another application. Does the GPL make a clear distinction?
I ask since the product I do support for uses perl and gzip as part of it operation. We ship -unmodified- copies of these in binary form and supply the source (simply a copy of the relevent release's source from the Gnu sites) on demand. We call gzip from within some of our code to compress data 'on the fly', and we use perl everywhere, from install scripts through to cron jobs, and a whole bunch of perl utilities we ship that complement the primary product.
My understanding (both from our legal bods, and from stuff I have seen in slashdot discussions) is this is quite legal, and the GPL actually is written to accomodate this sort of use (we use the GNU stuff in it's entirity, without extending it's functionality).
But I fail to see a real difference between calling these utilities as standalone executable, and calling something within a library, surely the net effect is the same?
EZ
Not a big issue, most linksys/netgear/whoever addons these days use a seperate power supply, so you can simply find one thyat is appropriate (I love it when manuals tell you never to use any other power supply, 12vDC is 12vDC right.. sheesh, safety Nazi's to blame I think).
But last couple of products I brought while visiting US came with uiniversal power adaptors anyway, just needed a cheap converter plug and was off and going. Seems that cost of these universal adaptors is now so low that it is cheaper to use them then have two separate specifications for Europe/US.
Did once get caught out with a CD player that, even after I re-linked the PSU (had links on PCB to different transformer taps for 110/240) blew up (big smelly smoke). Turned out that the PSU was also frequency sensitive (60Hz vs 50Hz) and I should have replaced the capacitors too.
EZ
I was thinking about this last night.. Microsoft is having a 'GPL is evil' crack at the moment, I expect to see their cronies, other companies who rely on restricting information flow and use, to follow suit.
Having good quality drivers for advanced hardware is critical to keeping Linux as an acceptable choice for many home users. Linux already suffers from this, poor or non-existent support for some 'killer' hardware, especially USB devices. This does not affect the server space, but probably has a huge impact in the home.
Nvidia have a close relationship with Microsoft (Xbox). How long before we see large companies what want to crush the concept of open source/open standards/open information applying pressure on their partners to ensure that the support for the latest hardware is not provided.
While the antitrust suit was ongoing this might of been suicide, but now, especially with George Jr in place, they might decide they can get away with it.
Actually I was bracing myself for Nvidia to announce no decent drivers for Open-Source OS's, saying 'we won't encourage un-american (their definition, not mine) activities as they turn round and bend over to Microsoft and it's ilk. I thought that mundies crap was in preparation for this, and I still worry that they may try this in the future.
So congrats Nvidia, you just reduced my paranoia by a bit.
EZ
Well they clearly say slash is designed for a million hits a day. Not really for use when co-hosted with other apps, It swallows all system resources, just like the best games, in order to give itself best advantage when the going gets tough.. Quite valid thing to do.
Sounds to me like you're trying to squeeze a square peg in a round hole.
EZ
The 'Total loon' comment reflects how the 'interested public' would percieve Stallmans (and RMS's!) comments on this sort of issue.
Mundie was not speaking to us (people who are experienced in a technical sense), he was speaking to investors, legislators, CEO's etc.. not stupid, but lacking full exposure to all the arguments.
Linus was speaking to exactly the same audience, in language and concepts they understand and are familiar with. He made a bloody good job of it too.
I severely doubt if either ESR or RMS could have written anything so accessible to the same audience
EZ
amen to that...
Worst thing is I have a friend, basically works for home-user front line support (reboot/click -ANY- key etc.. and she earns more than I do. Pathetic.
EZ
Speaking as a tech support engineer (and coming from a background of 10 yrs as a developer and sysadmin)..
The stupidity of some people in our industry (and I am talking about IT professionals here.. I support a large CM product) is incredible.
The people who really suffer are the clever ones, who have read the manual, checked the FAQ, understand the product in the first place, and only call when they have a -real- problem. By the time I get to them I am generally fried from saying RTMF 25 times and the speed and completeness of my response to them suffers as a result. Plus you have the disconnect between what marketing/sales will sell, vs. the actual capabilities of the product, guess who is expected to sort that one out (hint, it's not the salesman, he already has his comission).
I'm getting out of support and going back to sysadmin, at least I can call someone an idiot and then justify it face-to-face with their manager.
EZ
Damn, found out.. I only get religion during office hours..
EZ
The slashdot article doesn't even credit The Register for this, although they had it up hours ago.
Then again, slashdot barely seems to ever mention them, sour grapes? distrust? your guess is as good as mine since I read -both- religously.
But, you did mention them, you had this all pre-written and in your clipboard, didn't you.. (sorry, couldn't resist that, of course, I've never done the same myself! that was a lie by the way.)
EZ
This BBC article lists some april fools from around the world.
It includes a excellent Russioan one where a news program reported that the government was to make April the 1st a National holiday to reduce inefficiences resulting from dealing with April Fools jokes. The story was, of course, a Joke.
EZ
I did read and understand, being pragmatic I often take the same attitude and approach.
It's just that I getting more and more pissed off with buggy software. The more users accept bugs in released products, the more suppliers seem to do it.
Seriously, they release with known bugs and say 'we'll only fix the ones we get the most complaints about..' they then move engineers who should be fixing bugs into developing the next wizz-bang release, which will be released -with the same bugs in it-.
Plus there's a load of hassle involved in obtaining fixes, some of which are half the size of the original product (or full replacements in IE's case). If all you have is dial up (I live in the arse end of nowhere regarding broadband) this takes a day or two of continuous download for me.. not practical (yeah, OK, so I download once and burn SP's to CD, but still sucks).
EZ
Actually, a billion is a thousand million, not a million million.
When I was a kid, a billion was a million million. But these days it seems that the definition of it as a thousand million is almost ubiquitous (I don't agree, but I go with the flow).
I think this is because it a politician and advertisers billion, looks impressive, everybody goes "wow! look at how many Billions! BillyG has!", and "look how our kind leaders are pumping Billions! into promoting thermonuclear destruction..", "Microsoft is great, Billions! of people buy Windows!!!!!!!"
I'm too cynical for this shit. 10^9 is quicker to type.
EZ
Bugs in an installation media don't really bother me.
They should, the vendor has your purchase now, what guarantee do you have they will fix the bugs?
I work for the Technical Support division of a major (multi-platform) vendor. We do this shit all the time, release stuff to satisfy a marketing schedule, then decide to drop fixes that -really, really- should have been in the released product.
All the time we (as customers) accept buggy products with a promise to 'fix it in a service pack', companies will not improve the fundamental reliability of their products and release practices.
EZ
It's all about scale.. both spamming, and slapping display total contempt for others.
;),but a minor act affecting millions (and there's little point spamming unless you do it by the million) should be treated as seriously as a major act affecting only a very few.
Why should causing a minor irritation for millions, and a major one for the hijacked mail relays admins, owners and customers, not attract a severe punishment? I'd accept that life, or capitol punishment would be waay too strong (probably
EZ
From the linux in space page:
Software portability is of vital importance for upgrades and applications enhancement. Portability among UNIX flavors can be done quickly, preserving expandability and keeping manpower costs down. This is not true for other non-UNIX operating systems.
A 'certain other company' ahem.. has spent years ensuring incompatibility between products to tie you into theirs, then make you upgrade regularly. It's very nice to see this policy backfiring on them in a high-visibility market space I'm sure they'd like to 'own' too.
EZ
The days of the so-called Digerati are numbered (they will not be missed) as poorer, working-class Americans thunder online in amazing numbers.
This is no bad thing, but there is a mistake in thinking they are 'computer literate' instead of just 'net literate'. These new users will hinder, not help, attempts to fight DMCA etc.. because they will be the first to accept, and unquestioningly use, copyright friendly content viewers/players. And are very succeptable to the suggestion that anyone who deviates from this path must be a 'evil nerd/hacker' to be despised, bullied and then called a coward by lame presidents when they finally snap.
sorry, bad mood today.
EZ
Funny, I base my scientific beliefs on observable facts, and mathmatic proofs. The only faith I need is that 2+2 does indeed =4.
EZ
Surely he'd be better off staying within NAI and fighting to ensure that the code remains free from backdoors?
;)
Well, that may be best for us (the community), but Phil is entitled to a rewarding life of his own. Maybe he just felt he was pissing into the wind at NAI, and that he'd be happier and more productive elsewhere.
It is after all -his- life, not ours
EZ
'The truth is out there.. but the lies are all in your mind.'
Quick point, the latest (4.1) clearcase release has just stated shipping for Linux with the filesystem (MVFS) component. There are conditions (mainly limited choice of vendor and kernel versions it will run on) but it is ther now, and the range of compatible Linux environments for it should improve over time.
Disclaimer: I work as a ClearCase support Engineer for Rational, I may be seriously biased in anything I post in this thread!
EZ
'The truth is out there.. but the lies are all in your mind.'
A month ago I got granted new options (1600) at $48. Stock price now $40, despite posting record profits last month.
Because I'm in the Netherlands I will be taxed as the shares vest, even if I have not excercised them (tax regime here sucks.) Based on the highest price they have reached in previous 3 months (over $70), and my tax bracket here is 48%, rising to 51% Jan 1st. I get taxed a -second- time when I excercise them...
Not fun. A strong recovery will mitigate this a lot, but no recovery, and I loose money. Pretty depressing.
EZ
-'Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to log on..'
mp3, pron, are by far the two biggest search catagories out there, if the shlock-horror headlines in most rags is true.
"Dear Mrs search engine owner, please may we install something on your search engine servers to cut out a sizeable proportion of your customer base?"
What a great business model? it will -require- a law change to work, unless they think UCITA/DMCA can already be used to imtimidate big players like altaVista.
EZ
-'Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete to log on..'