I found reference's to Sigma Designs alleged GPL infringment on the web sigma infringement
That article is relating to a file called "khwl.o" not sure what it does, but after looking at an ascii dump of the KiSS kernel I found references to it.
I started looking through the Ascii dumps of these files. Someone more qualified than me ought to take a closer look because Im seeing stuff that looks like code from a bunch of different sources in their, Maybe some of it is on different licenses but I am seeing possible stuff from things like NXClient, Microwindows and a bunch of other interesting looking stuff.
The initial thought was that Sigma designs (they seem to make Multimedia Chips & Hardware etc) maybe supplied KiSS with drivers for their chips and this got merged into the code without them knowing. That might mean that Sigma are mainly at fault here.
from the interview transcription by Peter Wilmar Christensen. (Kiss).
"Microsoft Media Player is the application used to display movies."
Hmmm... I never knew there was a Linux implementation of Microsoft media player.
Having read many of the comments by Peter Wilmar Christensen it is quite clear that he has no idea what he is talking about, and obviously no idea what is going on behind the scenes as development at Kiss.
This is really quite a shame, I was previously considering getting one of the Kiss machines. After this news I will be having second thoughts about doing it. At the end of the day they are making their money on the hardware they are selling. It really makes no difference whether the source code is open or closed for something like this (I know this is open to debate!)
At the end of the day, regardless of license GPL or not, it is plain unfair to steal someone elses code and pass it off as your own.
Maybe the soil in the area of the rover was once mud (before it was frozen) and the bouncy air bags were so f**king hot when they bounced on the ground that it melted the mud and left funny patterns?
Of course... by now though, it'll be frozen again.
This is true, but the search for Water, or evidence of it is to discover whether the water was liquid once flowing. Evidence of flowing water on mars , ie, not ice ! would suggest that mars once had a climate warm enough to have conditions capable of supporting life.
Although there are many examples of situations where life on earth exists in very extreme conditions. EG , very hot deep sea thermal vents, or in very cold conditions in the earths Ice caps. If we can find flowing water , or evidence therof. That might also open up the possibilites of sedimentary processes and thus increase the possibilities of finding fossilised remains.
I think many scientists beleive that water once flowed on Mars, although the evidence is already pointing in that direction the current mars mission aims to prove it once and for all and turn hypothesis into fact.
Whether mars still has regions that are still capable of supporting primitive life are conjecture. Maybe the ice caps hold the clue, or maybe beneath the surface where it is warmer? who knows. During mars summer months surface temperatures can sometimes raise to above freezing ? about 12-15degrees farehnheit. Which, although cold might just be enough to support some crazy organism !
... I thought flamebait was a bit harsh dude, I thought it was funny !.. The obvious answer is... google...
Obviously there is / has been a lack of interesting submissions on slashdot today.
You pose an interesting dilemma. My personal solution is kellogs cornflakes with a splash of fresh semi-skimmed milk (half fat) and a liberal sprinkling of sugar. I am sure other slashdotters may have a different preference. I hear Cheerio's or Chex are quite popular stateside.
Im not sure whether you were being sarcastic their or not. But FYI that is exactly what I meant, They sell hardware and consulting off the back of linux, like a lot of companies this is the best way to make money out of linux. Since the OS is free Linux companies make money by selling it as a service.
Increasingly IBM is being mooted as a Linux company. Although I am not aware of an IBM specific distribution. Linux is probably one of IBM's highest sources of revenue.It only makes sense for them to use it internally, it looks better for them if they are using their own products etc.
I wouldnt be surprised if the reason they are not making a big deal about this is due to the impact this may have on their Microsoft revenue stream. Its surely must be a blow to Microsoft that one of the largest tech companies(IBM) is publically ditching microsoft on their internal desktops. My guess is they dont want to harm their non-linux revenue streams , and at the same time avoid any rumbles with redmond.
This also has to be a good thing for the maturing of Linux as a desktop OS. A company such as IBM is going to be able not only to see what problem areas exist with linux as a desktop machine, but due to its commitment to the os will actually be able to input and contributions actually fix some of the issues its internal users will discover.
This is a sound move and one that shows just how strong Linux is becoming, and shows without a doubt that you dont need Microsoft to run your business no matter how large or small.
Best portable *Compressed music file* player I have seen is easily the Rio Karma. Features include
* Platform independant Software * Ethernet Socket (in addition to usual connectors) * Smaller footprint than iPod * Supports non DRM file formats including ogg, and flac.
Only minor gripe is that it doesnt look as nice as the iPod. (Although there is nothing inherently ulgy with the way it looks)
Id have to agree, despite having a crappy name and questionable linux distribution. What they are doing, or trying to do is a good thing. Its not my choice of Distro, but in terms of getting linux out there on hardware and software bundles. Its a sterling job.
I respect them for what they are trying to do , even if there are a number of things about the distro im not keen on.
I'll asume that wasnt a troll ! But that is just plain wrong. You just read too much slashdot. Actually there are plenty of linux people out there who arent concerned with reacting to microsoft, and pursueing anti-microsoft ideals. Hey, and guess what There are a lot of MacOS users out there who are also bitching about the boys from Redmond.
Microsoft are the king of stealing other peoples idea's. The thing with Open Source (note I say Open Source and not Linux!) is that it is built on the concept of sharing, openness and freedom. Open Source tends to build on good idea's wherever they may come from, but one thing you certainly cant accuse Open Source of is lack of innovation. I wonder why M$ created DirectX instead of using the crossplatform OpenGL? hmmm.. but I could go on.
In anycase, everything we have today is built on something that came before. Music, Art, Films, and Books, All these things are inspired on things that have been done before. Its natural for humans to compare something new to something else that came before. Every innovation you will ever find has been built on the basis of another.
Open Source is a powerful movement, its a driving force, Im proud to support it in anyway that I can. I think people have the right to make stuff that is free.
Funnily enough I just watched Highlander,
The Quickening has begun... Prepare for the Gathering... There can be only one...
>I run Gentoo on my g3 powermac, not for the >optimizations, but because I just love portage. >I haven't tried YDL in a while, but last time I >did, I couldn't stand it. It had show stopping >bugs in the INSTALLER... sheesh. (I couldn't ?choose 'custom install' or it would crash, iirc)
Fair enough. I used to use YDL on a blue 333mhz g3 at work. The first version I ever tried was a little ropey. But I found V3 and the previous version to be very very stable, and performance wise it seemed so much faster than a colleagues same spec G3 running OS9. Cant say I ever had any gripes with it at all.
I'd sure like to see gentoo running on one of those lovely new G5's though !;)
Never tried gentoo on Mac hardware before. In all honesty though i dont see that there is a huge point to it. Macs have very predictable hardware configurations, I doubt that the performance benefits of a custom build would be worth it. Even so there are other benefits to using Gentoo than performance. The ease of updating / upgrading via portage is one.
What hardware are you running your gentoo on? I cant say I've ever had to wait 18hrs to build KDE. (2xAthlon MP 1400).
I've been wanting a really small laptop for sometime now and finding one that looks sexy and has some punch at a reasonable price is not that easy. But when you realise that you can purchase a G4 12in ibook for just over a grand and an 11in G4 powerbook for just over 1.5 grand. This sony laptop starts to look decidedly expensive all for a couple of millimeters here and there.
Aside from the math, Id rather give Apple some of my hard earned dosh , than redmond. I'd bet Yellow Dog Linux would run a beauty on those *book's too. I just need a job... After a while one needs a gadget buying fix, and I've been yearning for the tiny powerbook for too long now!
>>>mp3 in it`s current form sounds rubbish compared to atrac.
You are probably right, but you should be aware that atrac uses a compression ratio of roughly 5 to 1, mp3 files generally somewhere between 10 and 14 to 1. Im sure an mp3 file encoded at a bitrate that averaged out at 5 to 1 compression would sound pretty good. Its also very important to have a good compressor I have found Lame to have excellent sound quality, again though you need decent dsp's for playback.
mp3 is useful if (like me) you tend to leave stuff lying around. I used to have a minidisc player and used to get annoyed sifting through stuff in my bag to try and find disc's covered in crumbs. I like the fact that I can carry my entire CD collection around on a device that fits in my hand.
Minidisc is, however a nice format with many real world uses such as making live recordings etc. I always thought sony were stupid for not making the system more open. They could have made a great low cost solution for removable storage media. This new 1gb minidisc format may be a viable solution. Only time will tell.
Minidisc players have somewhat declined in popularity over the years, its all MP3's everywhere you look. The sheer portability of the fileformat is the reason for that. If i were sony i'd capitalise on this and push the system as a file storage system. Fixed media systems,(tapes, cd's and vinyl) have all had their day file storage is where its at.
Looking at the operating system they are using (Various Win32 platforms) it should be trivial for any Al Qaeida script kiddie to hack in and change the details. Id be very dubious of placing Airport security in the hands of such Security Moguls as microsoft.
I think most users (with insufficient hardware) , regardless of Os will have problems viewing regardless of OS, the uncompressed file is nearly 50megs... (Imagine the size of the full panorama in 3d !). It killed my X server (i was running other apps), but it loads just fine now I've freed up some memory , I have a dual Athlon 1.5ghz but due to a faulty SIMM im running on only 256mb at the moment.
Sure its all Fud, but which body , if there is one.. can produce counter fud "Reports" saying the opposite about linux. Reports such as these Mean nothing.
A) because they are funded by the company selling the OS in question.
B) They are not presented side by side to anyone elses report.
People are tired of Microsoft now, so it'l be largely ignored. The only thing this report shows is how shit scared Redmond are and how seriously they see the threat Linux is.
It may be negative towards linux in its statements. But as a whole the report is basically saying. "We know linux exists, Its a significant threat to our revenue stream, and we are scared"
I was thinking about something along those lines myself last night. I also think a $99 price is doable, especially if you used something like uClinux as its OS, basically you want one of these squashed down a bit more.
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds like a great job for a company we can trust.
see my other post , i did an ascii dump and found sigma code in there. Maybe KiSS are not aware of Sigma's violations...
here
How would this pan out if SCO sued KiSS for Linux Infringement ? heh ...
What is Sigma Designs relationship with Kiss?
.
...
I found reference's to Sigma Designs alleged GPL infringment on the web sigma infringement
That article is relating to a file called "khwl.o" not sure what it does, but after looking at an ascii dump of the KiSS kernel I found references to it
khwl.o
Sigma
I started looking through the Ascii dumps of these files. Someone more qualified than me ought to take a closer look because Im seeing stuff that looks like code from a bunch of different sources in their, Maybe some of it is on different licenses but I am seeing possible stuff from things like NXClient, Microwindows and a bunch of other interesting looking stuff.
The initial thought was that Sigma designs (they seem to make Multimedia Chips & Hardware etc) maybe supplied KiSS with drivers for their chips and this got merged into the code without them knowing. That might mean that Sigma are mainly at fault here.
nick
from the interview transcription by Peter Wilmar Christensen. (Kiss).
"Microsoft Media Player is the application used to display movies."
Hmmm... I never knew there was a Linux implementation of Microsoft media player.
Having read many of the comments by Peter Wilmar Christensen it is quite clear that he has no idea what he is talking about, and obviously no idea what is going on behind the scenes as development at Kiss.
This is really quite a shame, I was previously considering getting one of the Kiss machines. After this news I will be having second thoughts about doing it. At the end of the day they are making their money on the hardware they are selling. It really makes no difference whether the source code is open or closed for something like this (I know this is open to debate!)
At the end of the day, regardless of license GPL or not, it is plain unfair to steal someone elses code and pass it off as your own.
Maybe the soil in the area of the rover was once mud (before it was frozen) and the bouncy air bags were so f**king hot when they bounced on the ground that it melted the mud and left funny patterns?
Of course... by now though, it'll be frozen again.
This is true, but the search for Water, or evidence of it is to discover whether the water was liquid once flowing. Evidence of flowing water on mars , ie, not ice ! would suggest that mars once had a climate warm enough to have conditions capable of supporting life.
Although there are many examples of situations where life on earth exists in very extreme conditions. EG , very hot deep sea thermal vents, or in very cold conditions in the earths Ice caps. If we can find flowing water , or evidence therof. That might also open up the possibilites of sedimentary processes and thus increase the possibilities of finding fossilised remains.
I think many scientists beleive that water once flowed on Mars, although the evidence is already pointing in that direction the current mars mission aims to prove it once and for all and turn hypothesis into fact.
Whether mars still has regions that are still capable of supporting primitive life are conjecture. Maybe the ice caps hold the clue, or maybe beneath the surface where it is warmer? who knows. During mars summer months surface temperatures can sometimes raise to above freezing ? about 12-15degrees farehnheit. Which, although cold might just be enough to support some crazy organism !
... ... google ...
I thought flamebait was a bit harsh dude, I thought it was funny !.. The obvious answer is
Obviously there is / has been a lack of interesting submissions on slashdot today.
You pose an interesting dilemma. My personal solution is kellogs cornflakes with a splash of fresh semi-skimmed milk (half fat) and a liberal sprinkling of sugar. I am sure other slashdotters may have a different preference. I hear Cheerio's or Chex are quite popular stateside.
nick
funnily enough right now, it is ...
Screengrab (in case it changes...
nick ,
Im not sure whether you were being sarcastic their or not.
But FYI that is exactly what I meant, They sell hardware and consulting off the back of linux, like a lot of companies this is the best way to make money out of linux. Since the OS is free Linux companies make money by selling it as a service.
Increasingly IBM is being mooted as a Linux company. Although I am not aware of an IBM specific distribution. Linux is probably one of IBM's highest sources of revenue.It only makes sense for them to use it internally, it looks better for them if they are using their own products etc.
I wouldnt be surprised if the reason they are not making a big deal about this is due to the impact this may have on their Microsoft revenue stream. Its surely must be a blow to Microsoft that one of the largest tech companies(IBM) is publically ditching microsoft on their internal desktops. My guess is they dont want to harm their non-linux revenue streams , and at the same time avoid any rumbles with redmond.
This also has to be a good thing for the maturing of Linux as a desktop OS. A company such as IBM is going to be able not only to see what problem areas exist with linux as a desktop machine, but due to its commitment to the os will actually be able to input and contributions actually fix some of the issues its internal users will discover.
This is a sound move and one that shows just how strong Linux is becoming, and shows without a doubt that you dont need Microsoft to run your business no matter how large or small.
Best portable *Compressed music file* player I have seen is easily the Rio Karma. Features include
* Platform independant Software
* Ethernet Socket (in addition to usual connectors)
* Smaller footprint than iPod
* Supports non DRM file formats including ogg, and flac.
Only minor gripe is that it doesnt look as nice as the iPod. (Although there is nothing inherently ulgy with the way it looks)
Rio Karma
technically speaking its a better player.
I had a quick look at the site...
I couldnt find anywhere telling me which direction I should pass it on.
I just wanted to make sure everyone gets their fair share of hits.
what you mean , like this ?
....
...
1> find annoying or insecure feature in windows.
2> Exploit it
3> sell product that removes annoying or insecure feature of windows.
4> Profit
nick
Id have to agree, despite having a crappy name and questionable linux distribution. What they are doing, or trying to do is a good thing. Its not my choice of Distro, but in terms of getting linux out there on hardware and software bundles. Its a sterling job.
I respect them for what they are trying to do , even if there are a number of things about the distro im not keen on.
I'll asume that wasnt a troll !
.. but I could go on.
...
...
But that is just plain wrong. You just read too much slashdot. Actually there are plenty of linux people out there who arent concerned with reacting to microsoft, and pursueing anti-microsoft ideals. Hey, and guess what There are a lot of MacOS users out there who are also bitching about the boys from Redmond.
Microsoft are the king of stealing other peoples idea's. The thing with Open Source (note I say Open Source and not Linux!) is that it is built on the concept of sharing, openness and freedom. Open Source tends to build on good idea's wherever they may come from, but one thing you certainly cant accuse Open Source of is lack of innovation. I wonder why M$ created DirectX instead of using the crossplatform OpenGL? hmmm
In anycase, everything we have today is built on something that came before. Music, Art, Films, and Books, All these things are inspired on things that have been done before. Its natural for humans to compare something new to something else that came before. Every innovation you will ever find has been built on the basis of another.
Open Source is a powerful movement, its a driving force, Im proud to support it in anyway that I can. I think people have the right to make stuff that is free.
Funnily enough I just watched Highlander,
The Quickening has begun...
Prepare for the Gathering...
There can be only one
Seems quite appropriate somehow !
nick
>I run Gentoo on my g3 powermac, not for the >optimizations, but because I just love portage. >I haven't tried YDL in a while, but last time I >did, I couldn't stand it. It had show stopping >bugs in the INSTALLER... sheesh. (I couldn't ?choose 'custom install' or it would crash, iirc)
;)
Fair enough. I used to use YDL on a blue 333mhz g3 at work. The first version I ever tried was a little ropey. But I found V3 and the previous version to be very very stable, and performance wise it seemed so much faster than a colleagues same spec G3 running OS9. Cant say I ever had any gripes with it at all.
I'd sure like to see gentoo running on one of those lovely new G5's though !
Never tried gentoo on Mac hardware before. In all honesty though i dont see that there is a huge point to it. Macs have very predictable hardware configurations, I doubt that the performance benefits of a custom build would be worth it. Even so there are other benefits to using Gentoo than performance. The ease of updating / upgrading via portage is one.
What hardware are you running your gentoo on? I cant say I've ever had to wait 18hrs to build KDE. (2xAthlon MP 1400).
Small Laptops ...
I've been wanting a really small laptop for sometime now and finding one that looks sexy and has some punch at a reasonable price is not that easy. But when you realise that you can purchase a G4 12in ibook for just over a grand and an 11in G4 powerbook for just over 1.5 grand. This sony laptop starts to look decidedly expensive all for a couple of millimeters here and there.
Aside from the math, Id rather give Apple some of my hard earned dosh , than redmond. I'd bet Yellow Dog Linux would run a beauty on those *book's too. I just need a job... After a while one needs a gadget buying fix, and I've been yearning for the tiny powerbook for too long now!
>>>mp3 in it`s current form sounds rubbish compared to atrac.
,(tapes, cd's and vinyl) have all had their day file storage is where its at.
You are probably right, but you should be aware that atrac uses a compression ratio of roughly 5 to 1, mp3 files generally somewhere between 10 and 14 to 1. Im sure an mp3 file encoded at a bitrate that averaged out at 5 to 1 compression would sound pretty good. Its also very important to have a good compressor I have found Lame to have excellent sound quality, again though you need decent dsp's for playback.
mp3 is useful if (like me) you tend to leave stuff lying around. I used to have a minidisc player and used to get annoyed sifting through stuff in my bag to try and find disc's covered in crumbs. I like the fact that I can carry my entire CD collection around on a device that fits in my hand.
Minidisc is, however a nice format with many real world uses such as making live recordings etc. I always thought sony were stupid for not making the system more open. They could have made a great low cost solution for removable storage media. This new 1gb minidisc format may be a viable solution. Only time will tell.
Minidisc players have somewhat declined in popularity over the years, its all MP3's everywhere you look. The sheer portability of the fileformat is the reason for that. If i were sony i'd capitalise on this and push the system as a file storage system. Fixed media systems
This is excellent news. The more Microsoft continues to prove itself as market leaders in security the more copies of Windows XP SP2 they can sell.;)
...
nick
Looking at the operating system they are using (Various Win32 platforms) it should be trivial for any Al Qaeida script kiddie to hack in and change the details. Id be very dubious of placing Airport security in the hands of such Security Moguls as microsoft.
I think most users (with insufficient hardware) , regardless of Os will have problems viewing regardless of OS, the uncompressed file is nearly 50megs... (Imagine the size of the full panorama in 3d !).
It killed my X server (i was running other apps), but it loads just fine now I've freed up some memory , I have a dual Athlon 1.5ghz but due to a faulty SIMM im running on only 256mb at the moment.
Sure its all Fud, but which body , if there is one.. can produce counter fud "Reports" saying the opposite about linux. Reports such as these Mean nothing .
A) because they are funded by the company selling the OS in question.
B) They are not presented side by side to anyone elses report.
People are tired of Microsoft now, so it'l be largely ignored.
The only thing this report shows is how shit scared Redmond are and how seriously they see the threat Linux is.
It may be negative towards linux in its statements. But as a whole the report is basically saying. "We know linux exists, Its a significant threat to our revenue stream, and we are scared"
I was thinking about something along those lines myself last night. I also think a $99 price is doable, especially if you used something like uClinux as its OS, basically you want one of these squashed down a bit more.