Is there a market for this product? We've seen companies' rosy estimates of their product's market potential... who, really, would want to wear their dad in a ring? And would want to pay for the privlege?
This makes me wonder why the code in question isn't modularized to the point where such changes -don't- have this kind of effect. Maybe it's my poor programming, but if you modularize to -very- tiny levels, you may be able to reduce these kinds of effects. Global variables bad.
There are some sad facts that technogeeks either need to grok and live with, or grok and change. And we can't change all of them. Here are some of these facts:
1) They have more money than we do. In Washington, money buys access, and money buys influence. Unless Bill Gates suddenly sees the light on the issues that are important to the average/. geek, this will continue to be the case. The new campaign finance law will not change this fundamental truth of Washington.
2) Geeks and hackers are Bad, and there are no White Hats. Technologically savvy people have been demonized in the press and in the political system as "hackers." While we would apply the term "cracker" to the people our politicans are really talking about, the average American isn't capable of understanding the difference between a "hacker" and a "cracker." Until Joe Average is able to tell the difference, we will remain outsiders.
3) People like Shawn Fanning, Kevin Mitnick, and the publishers of 2600 give us a bad name. It doesn't matter that Fanning or Mitnick or 2600 have or haven't broken the law. As an old math teacher once told me on a totally unrelated issue, "It is not only impropriety we must avoid, but also the appearance of impropriety." Fanning and Mitnick look, to Joe Average, like criminals. See Fact #2.
4) They are better organized than we are. This is closely related to Fact #1, because money brings organization. The EFF, as well as we respect it here on/., doesn't have the organization to be an effective grass roots organization (Christian Coalition) or enough money to be a monied interest (RIAA). That won't change until enough people get interested enough to either do the grass roots education or spend the money. I for one do't have the time to do the former, or the money to do the latter. I'm sure I'm not alone.
5) Joe Average doesn't care about civil liberties. Joe Average cares about a fuel-loaded MD-11 flying into [insert large building he works in here]. Joe Average sees in his little mind, and is frightened of, millions of towelheads screaming "Allah akbar!" and shooting their Kalashnikov's and Uzi's into the air. He agrees with Trent Lott that questioning the government is unpatriotic; he believes that by giving up his freedom, the government can catch all the towelheads before they fly those planes. He also believes that "hackers" (see Fact #2) are at least partly responsible for the government's failures, and that restricting their ability to hack things is essential to stopping the towelheads. Since it's not him secretly locked up with the towelheads without access to an attorney or a court, he doesn't care. [Editorial comment: "... And when they came for me, there was no one left to complain."]
6) Joe Average wouldn't know what to do with the ability to copy something if it jumped up and bit him. He sees no need to copy CDs, and wouldn't understand what to do with a ripped DVD if someone told him. He doesn't understand the point of backing up software, and doesn't reinstall his operating system or upgrade his machine (if he even owns one) frequently, so antipiracy codes like the one in WinXP doesn't make any difference to him. He's not blind, so using a screen reader on an Acrobat file is something that would never enter his mind. DRM technology isn't even a buzzword for him; entering that screen of data to get the program to work is just like filling out a form at the local bank -- you do it because they won't do their thing if you don't. "Fair use" is a foreign concept, and since he's so busy trying to hang onto his job, pay for his kids' education and food, keep a roof over his and his family's head, make the car payment, and worrying about the towelheads, he doesn't care to be educated about fair use and why it's good for him. He also doesn't care who looks up his library records because he doesn't even have a library card and hasn't been to a library since he was in grade school.
These are the facts. Whining on/. about it will not change it. We here on/. are not normal people. We are above Joe Average in intelligence and education on these kinds of issues, because we pay attention to them and they are important to us. They are not important to Joe Average, and they will not become important to Joe Average until he can see them directly affecting his pocketbook or his job. And we can not change that, at least not now.
It may in fact be that the only way we can change the law and influence the system is to obsolete it. It sure wouldn't be the first time that's happened.
The raid on Steve Jackson Games was for the GURPS Cyberpunk supplement, written by Lloyd Blankenship (and a first-printing autographed copy sits proudly in my collection). It is now out of print.
A number of posters have asked about the finances and feasability of your decision to move to Linux and StarOffice, and I'm eager to see your answers. Others have asked about dealing with publishers who are not used to accepting documents in Something Other Than Word. Some have asked about your motivation, too.
My question is slightly different. On your web site and in your books, you devote some attention to the efforts of previously unpublished authors to break into the market with that all-important first novel.
Is the reason you were able to successfully make this transition and get your publishers to go along because you are Piers Anthony and not [insert nobody here]?
I know you have a significant financial stake in Xlibris, which you discuss in detail on your web site, and you've talked about using that influence at times to get Xlibris management to make life easier for their customer-authors. You also have the selling power for a traditional publisher of someone like King, Grisham, Steele, or Grafton, in your genre.
Would [insert nobody here] be able to successfully sell a first novel to a major publishing house because of the formatting issues? Would [insert nobody here] be able to entice an agent into even looking at it? All else being equal, why would a publishing house bother with someone new who wanted to do something strange?
There is a new release of Live at Leeds available at your local CD shop. "The Who - Live At Leeds - Deluxe Edition" is a two CD set. The first set is the original CD (set list below); the second was recorded at the same concert but, except for two tracks, hasn't been released until now. The second CD is the OTHER live performance of Tommy (the first being Live at the Isle of Whight).
Live at Leeds is widely considered to be the finest live Who concert ever.
CD 1: Heaven and Hell I Can't Explain Fortune Teller Tattoo Young Man Blues Substitute Happy Jack I'm A Boy A Quick One While He's Away Summertime Blues Shakin' All Over My Generation Magic Bus (without a doubt, the finest rendition of this song ever)
CD 2: Overture It's A Boy 1921 Amazing Journey Sparks Eyesight To the Blind (The Hawker) Christmas The Acid Queen Pinball Wizard Do You Think It's Alright? Fiddle About Tommy Can You Hear Me? There's A Doctor Go To The Mirror Smash The Mirror Miracle Cure Sally Simpson I'm Free Tommy's Holiday Camp We're Not Gonna Take It
Kids have been stealing credit card numbers for years. Fraud investigations on stolen credit cards have ended when the CC company gets the money back. Story time.
Someone at my place of employment either stole a Visa debit card from my personal posessions or from my wife's purse, or I left it in an ATM machine, or something. They wiped my checking account clean of well over $3000 plus my overdraft protection, buying beer, shoes, gasoline, and in general living it up and having a good time.
When I discovered what was going on (because checks started coming back), I reported the card compromised, closed the account, did a police report, the whole bit.
If it had been stolen from the ATM machine, the security camera might have snapped a shot of the person who took it. In any case, the establishments that took the card might have had security cameras picking up someone committing fraud with my card to the tune of three grand.
The police took the report and filed it under "Theft Under $100" (because the cash value of the card is less than a dollar), and that's the end of it. My employer didn't care either, because it didn't cost them any money. My bank closed the account after charging back the merchants who took the money.
The only people who lost here were those merchants. Nobody cares. Write it off as a cost of business.
The only thing that makes this different is that it happened to two people in the same office. They could have bought rocket launchers, and it wouldn't matter.
As for the privacy policy... well, that's CCBill's problem. Someday they'll get slapped with a subpoena they can't fulfill because they don't keep records for the length of time they should, and then they'll be a huge Congresscritter investigation about privacy on the Internet with people storming that there shouldn't be any, and then the EFF and CDT will have to get all worked up and lobby some more. Until then... business as usual.
He calls upon developers to refuse to allow their work to be used by such a distribution.
But he wants people to licence software under the GPL, which allows what Caldera et al are proposing. As long as they supply the source code...
It really offends me when people like RMS seem to work to defeat companies like Caldera and SuSE, who have done a great deal for the Linux community, by taking away their revenue stream. By providing me with a Linux distribution, they provide me a valuable service. Yes, I can roll my own if I want to, but the time and effort that a packaged distribution saves me is worth some money to me!
As long as UnitedLinux complies with the licences of its component parts, neither I nor RMS have any right to bitch about how much the distribution costs.
The comparison to Microsoft is invalid because there are competing distributions of various prices, from Slackware and Debian on the $0 end to RedHat and Mandrake on the pay end, whereas there is no competition to Windows. If the distribution is done right and works well, market competition will take care of "fair pricing."
And now the fun part ...
on
Disconnecting
·
· Score: 2
... Making sure that the billing actually stops. Keep checking your credit card bills. And if (when) they DO charge you again, going through your credit card company is a painful, but effective, way of fixing the problem.
One of Microsoft's complaints about a modular version of Windows for consumers, of course, is the idea that it'll be impossible to support.
Except that Microsoft doesn't support OEM versions of Windows anyway. Support of Windows is done by the manufacturer, not by Microsoft. It's been that way for as long as I've been involved in the computer industry (Win3.0 days).
Others have pointed out the problems of differing versions of dynamically linked DLLs, and the problems with statically linking them (and producing 20 copies of mfc40.dll). I would suggest that isn't necessarily a Bad Thing. I have spent many, many hours tracking down and killing every version of WINSOCK.DLL to get somebody's DUN working.
So this means I can't install one of those nanny-cams in my VCR that records what the baby sitter is doing when she's taking care of my infant son for $10/hr. I can't see if she's doing well, ignoring him, abusing him, or what.
This will be a boon to the package transport industry. Imagine the newest service: TARDIS Express: When it absolutely, positively has to be there before you sent it.
Your senior senator, Phil Gramm (R-TX), is not running for re-election, and his seat is being contested. With your help, we might be able to make this issue part of the race to fill his seat. Express your views to:
Victor Morales (Democratic runoff candidate)
P.O. Box 878789
Mesquite TX 75187
(972) 427-9946
I have been unable to find a web page for Mr. Morales. Also, note that the email address may be incorrect.
Your senior senator, Phil Gramm (R-TX), is not running for re-election, and his seat is being contested. With your help, we might be able to make this issue part of the race to fill his seat. Express your views to:
Victor Morales (Democratic runoff contender)
P.O. Box 878789
Mesquite TX 75187
(972) 427-9946
I have been unable to find a web page for Mr. Morales. Also, note that the email address may be incorrect.
The runoff is April 9, 2002.
John Cornyn (Republican nominee)
P.O. Box 13026
Austin TX 78711
(512) 494-8535
Fax (512) 494-8161
There is also a contact form you can fill out.
It's easy. As the copyright owner, you may issue other licences that are outside the LGPL. How about this:
Company A wants a licence but doesn't want the hassle of the LGPL. Company A pays you $X for the right to use the codec in an embedded system, but you insert a clause in their licence that states that they may not change the codec, and if they do, they must release the changes to the codec (but not the whole of their work), or they must send the changes to you for possible inclusion in the LGPL version, releasing their copyright on those changes in the process.
This would mean:
1) You would get paid for their non-LGPL use of your property.
2) They would get the opportunity to use the codec in a non-free device, if they don't modify the codec.
3) If they modify the codec, the community would get the changes back in a free manner.
4) You could provide a list of licencees in the codec documentation, as in, "These people have the right to use the codec in a non-free way." This eliminates charges of stealing LGPL code (which has popped on on Slashdot in the past), and provides a little good advertising for the company as a good-faith player who went out of their way to do things right. As a proponent of free software, that might make *ME* more likely to buy their product to reward their good behavior.
5) If you don't want the money on some strange principle, you could either donate it to some worthy cause, or just issue the licences for free.
The key here isn't the money, it's the license. Just because you've issued the software under an open license doesn't mean you can't issue the software again under a closed license, because even under the LGPL, YOU remain the copyright holder, and you may use or reuse the copyright in any way you choose.
Any of a number of people have suggested transferring your domain away from NSI, and have suggested replacements. There is one big hiccup to beware of, however:
If you try to transfer your domain away from NSI by letting your domain expire and then reregistering it with another registrar, you may find that NSI is holding it hostage.
A customer of mine let one of her domains expire for lack of funds; when the money came in to pay the $30 registration fee, NSI didn't want $30 or $35 or even $70 to re-up it... they wanted $150 for a year. Calls to customer service to get the mess straight proved totally fruitless. We're still unable to register it with another registrar because NSI won't let it go, and NSI won't reregister it for anything like the usual price.
Also, I moved a domain from NSI to another registrar back in July; in September I started getting bills from NSI for the domains' registration which expires in October, 2005.
All the griping I've read about how "horrible" Episode I was, and Episode II will be, makes me think that people who think that aren't looking at the movies with the right attitude.
"Great cinema" they are not. But these movies aren't intended to be Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan. If you want that kind of movie, go see it. This isn't it, and it isn't intended to be it.
I saw Episode I several times in the theater, and I now own the DVD, and I've enjoyed the use of the money I spent.
I went to see Episode I looking for several things:
- Cool special effects
- A decently entertaining script
- A great light sabre battle at the end
- The first part of a story whose ending I already know
I got every one of those things, and I was very pleased.
I didn't expect Oscar-quality acting, spine-tingling plot lines, statements on the human condition, or exploration of some societal quandry. I didn't get them. Star Wars isn't that kind of movie; it isn't intended as that kind of movie.
Star Wars is a series of movies where you don't have to think real hard about them. Sometimes I want a movie that will challenge me (Schindler's List, Philadelphia). Sometimes it can be fun to just turn your brain off and watch something mindlessly amusing (Something About Mary, Rollerball (the original), A Knight's Tale, Logan's Run). Star Wars is in this second category.
Whether or not you enjoy Star Wars Episode II for what it is, I think, depends a lot on what you expect.
I for one owe Mr. Levy a tremendous debt of gratitude for his service at BugTraq. It has provided me, my students, and my professional colleagues a tremendous resource for research (via the archives) as well as virtually real-time vulnerability notification. Together with NTBugTraq, it provides a tremendous resource for the white hat community, without the fluff, spam, flames and noise of unmoderated lists and newsgroups.
The hard moditorial work done by Mr. Levy is what makes BugTraq the useful tool that it is.
While I have no doubt that Mr. Ahmad will serve the community in an excellent fashion, Mr. Levy will be a really hard act to follow, and I for one will miss his unseen hand.
> That has _always_ been required (with the specific
> exception of WordPerfect) for all PC software as
> long as I can remember.
Borland's licence used the "like a book" model. You could install the software on as many computers as you wanted, but you could only use one copy at a time, just like a (paper) book can only be read by one person at a time.
It was an interesting system. I run a 100% Microsoft-free system here, so I have no recent Borland products to look at to see if they've changed it in recent years.
The last time Slashdot ran this story, with a link to a WSJ editorial (that, regrettably, I can no longer find), I wrote an email to the author of the WSJ editorial, Judge Kozinski, at the address provided at the bottom of the editorial, which I will not reproduce here. My letter, in its entirety, said:
Judge Kozinski --
I read your WSJ editorial online after it was posted to Slashdot (http://www.slashdot.org, "News for nerds. Stuff that matters."), and while
I must say that I agree with your sentiments about workplace monitoring, your ire is perhaps indicative of why mere mortals see all government
employees, and ones in dark robes especially, as disconnected from the citizenry they serve.
While your points about how inappropriate workplace monitoring is in the federal judiciary are well taken, and while I agree with them in principle, I can only shake my head and say, welcome to the real world, Your Honor.
Workplace monitoring of the sort you decry in your editorial is a fact of life for most Americans, and has been for many years. Some private-sector employers are more fanatical about it than others, but it remains extremely common that an employee checks his rights at the door. Random drug screens (even for employees who do not perform hazardous jobs like driving or operating heavy machinery), keystroke monitoring (how many keys per hour do you punch), email scanning, phone monitoring, and even log-in log-out to track your bathroom usage are common.
Frequently, signing away any rights you might have to protest such treatment is a condition of employment. Especially in light of today's slowing economy (the Dallas Morning News [ed: which requires nasty registration to see anything off the front page] last Sunday reported on a well-qualified computer professional who has taken to holding a sign at the street corner to ask for work), employees typically sign such monsterous documents simply to get a paycheck rolling in.
In addition, courts typically uphold the rights of employers to perform these kinds of searches, especially in states where employee rights are weak, such as Texas, where you can be fired for sneezing too much. (In Texas, employers can even require you to sign away your right to sue over Workman's Compensation claims, as a condition of employment. Many do, and courts uphold these waivers when employees get hurt and employers then do not pony up the money.)
Just as public school students and prisoners check their rights at the door (despite courts' protestations to the contrary in a littany of cases I could cite), employees do as well. It's been a fact of life for many years, and will continue to be so. That it's been so slow in coming to the federal judiciary is not surprising to me, if only because of the public perception that the judicial process is slow, unwieldy, and expensively out of reach of your average citizen.
[Signature omitted. Use Slashdot to contact me.]
His response is reprinted below in its entirety.
Dear Mr. [censored]:
I agree with your entirely. In fact, one of my major concerns in this matter is that if we adopt the most intrusive policy for our employees, we're more likely to approve it for others as well, when the issue arises in cases before us. Check out the attached article, as well as
> Innovative, bleeding-edge music, song, dance, etc
> is not really in danger of being "crushed by
> lawsuits."
No, but it remains in the same danger as Napster. The reason is that without a forum like Napster to distribute this bleeding-edge music, the amount of exposure a new start-up band must get is virtually impossible to get, especially if they can't find a big record label to promote them.
And the chances of an individual band finding a big label to get their stuff out to the folks who might want to listen to it is miniscule, unless you're lil-miss-virgin Brittney Spears. If, instead, you're someone like They Might Be Giants (who I haven't heard on commercial radio or seen in stores in years). And even if you do, the chances of your first album leading to a second are remote. Previous discussions on/. have focused on this.
The fact remains that, unless you're a manufactured piece of crap (Spears, Spice Girls, N'Sync, etc), your chances are small.
Slashdot Mirror
Is there a market for this product? We've seen companies' rosy estimates of their product's market potential ... who, really, would want to wear their dad in a ring? And would want to pay for the privlege?
This makes me wonder why the code in question isn't modularized to the point where such changes -don't- have this kind of effect. Maybe it's my poor programming, but if you modularize to -very- tiny levels, you may be able to reduce these kinds of effects. Global variables bad.
1) They have more money than we do. In Washington, money buys access, and money buys influence. Unless Bill Gates suddenly sees the light on the issues that are important to the average /. geek, this will continue to be the case. The new campaign finance law will not change this fundamental truth of Washington.
2) Geeks and hackers are Bad, and there are no White Hats. Technologically savvy people have been demonized in the press and in the political system as "hackers." While we would apply the term "cracker" to the people our politicans are really talking about, the average American isn't capable of understanding the difference between a "hacker" and a "cracker." Until Joe Average is able to tell the difference, we will remain outsiders.
3) People like Shawn Fanning, Kevin Mitnick, and the publishers of 2600 give us a bad name. It doesn't matter that Fanning or Mitnick or 2600 have or haven't broken the law. As an old math teacher once told me on a totally unrelated issue, "It is not only impropriety we must avoid, but also the appearance of impropriety." Fanning and Mitnick look, to Joe Average, like criminals. See Fact #2.
4) They are better organized than we are. This is closely related to Fact #1, because money brings organization. The EFF, as well as we respect it here on /., doesn't have the organization to be an effective grass roots organization (Christian Coalition) or enough money to be a monied interest (RIAA). That won't change until enough people get interested enough to either do the grass roots education or spend the money. I for one do't have the time to do the former, or the money to do the latter. I'm sure I'm not alone.
5) Joe Average doesn't care about civil liberties. Joe Average cares about a fuel-loaded MD-11 flying into [insert large building he works in here]. Joe Average sees in his little mind, and is frightened of, millions of towelheads screaming "Allah akbar!" and shooting their Kalashnikov's and Uzi's into the air. He agrees with Trent Lott that questioning the government is unpatriotic; he believes that by giving up his freedom, the government can catch all the towelheads before they fly those planes. He also believes that "hackers" (see Fact #2) are at least partly responsible for the government's failures, and that restricting their ability to hack things is essential to stopping the towelheads. Since it's not him secretly locked up with the towelheads without access to an attorney or a court, he doesn't care. [Editorial comment: "... And when they came for me, there was no one left to complain."]
6) Joe Average wouldn't know what to do with the ability to copy something if it jumped up and bit him. He sees no need to copy CDs, and wouldn't understand what to do with a ripped DVD if someone told him. He doesn't understand the point of backing up software, and doesn't reinstall his operating system or upgrade his machine (if he even owns one) frequently, so antipiracy codes like the one in WinXP doesn't make any difference to him. He's not blind, so using a screen reader on an Acrobat file is something that would never enter his mind. DRM technology isn't even a buzzword for him; entering that screen of data to get the program to work is just like filling out a form at the local bank -- you do it because they won't do their thing if you don't. "Fair use" is a foreign concept, and since he's so busy trying to hang onto his job, pay for his kids' education and food, keep a roof over his and his family's head, make the car payment, and worrying about the towelheads, he doesn't care to be educated about fair use and why it's good for him. He also doesn't care who looks up his library records because he doesn't even have a library card and hasn't been to a library since he was in grade school.
These are the facts. Whining on /. about it will not change it. We here on /. are not normal people. We are above Joe Average in intelligence and education on these kinds of issues, because we pay attention to them and they are important to us. They are not important to Joe Average, and they will not become important to Joe Average until he can see them directly affecting his pocketbook or his job. And we can not change that, at least not now.
It may in fact be that the only way we can change the law and influence the system is to obsolete it. It sure wouldn't be the first time that's happened.
The raid on Steve Jackson Games was for the GURPS Cyberpunk supplement, written by Lloyd Blankenship (and a first-printing autographed copy sits proudly in my collection). It is now out of print.
Mr. Anthony --
A number of posters have asked about the finances and feasability of your decision to move to Linux and StarOffice, and I'm eager to see your answers. Others have asked about dealing with publishers who are not used to accepting documents in Something Other Than Word. Some have asked about your motivation, too.
My question is slightly different. On your web site and in your books, you devote some attention to the efforts of previously unpublished authors to break into the market with that all-important first novel.
Is the reason you were able to successfully make this transition and get your publishers to go along because you are Piers Anthony and not [insert nobody here]?
I know you have a significant financial stake in Xlibris, which you discuss in detail on your web site, and you've talked about using that influence at times to get Xlibris management to make life easier for their customer-authors. You also have the selling power for a traditional publisher of someone like King, Grisham, Steele, or Grafton, in your genre.
Would [insert nobody here] be able to successfully sell a first novel to a major publishing house because of the formatting issues? Would [insert nobody here] be able to entice an agent into even looking at it? All else being equal, why would a publishing house bother with someone new who wanted to do something strange?
There is a new release of Live at Leeds available at your local CD shop. "The Who - Live At Leeds - Deluxe Edition" is a two CD set. The first set is the original CD (set list below); the second was recorded at the same concert but, except for two tracks, hasn't been released until now. The second CD is the OTHER live performance of Tommy (the first being Live at the Isle of Whight).
Live at Leeds is widely considered to be the finest live Who concert ever.
CD 1:
Heaven and Hell
I Can't Explain
Fortune Teller
Tattoo
Young Man Blues
Substitute
Happy Jack
I'm A Boy
A Quick One While He's Away
Summertime Blues
Shakin' All Over
My Generation
Magic Bus (without a doubt, the finest rendition of this song ever)
CD 2:
Overture
It's A Boy
1921
Amazing Journey
Sparks
Eyesight To the Blind (The Hawker)
Christmas
The Acid Queen
Pinball Wizard
Do You Think It's Alright?
Fiddle About
Tommy Can You Hear Me?
There's A Doctor
Go To The Mirror
Smash The Mirror
Miracle Cure
Sally Simpson
I'm Free
Tommy's Holiday Camp
We're Not Gonna Take It
Kids have been stealing credit card numbers for years. Fraud investigations on stolen credit cards have ended when the CC company gets the money back. Story time.
Someone at my place of employment either stole a Visa debit card from my personal posessions or from my wife's purse, or I left it in an ATM machine, or something. They wiped my checking account clean of well over $3000 plus my overdraft protection, buying beer, shoes, gasoline, and in general living it up and having a good time.
When I discovered what was going on (because checks started coming back), I reported the card compromised, closed the account, did a police report, the whole bit.
If it had been stolen from the ATM machine, the security camera might have snapped a shot of the person who took it. In any case, the establishments that took the card might have had security cameras picking up someone committing fraud with my card to the tune of three grand.
The police took the report and filed it under "Theft Under $100" (because the cash value of the card is less than a dollar), and that's the end of it. My employer didn't care either, because it didn't cost them any money. My bank closed the account after charging back the merchants who took the money.
The only people who lost here were those merchants. Nobody cares. Write it off as a cost of business.
The only thing that makes this different is that it happened to two people in the same office. They could have bought rocket launchers, and it wouldn't matter.
As for the privacy policy ... well, that's CCBill's problem. Someday they'll get slapped with a subpoena they can't fulfill because they don't keep records for the length of time they should, and then they'll be a huge Congresscritter investigation about privacy on the Internet with people storming that there shouldn't be any, and then the EFF and CDT will have to get all worked up and lobby some more. Until then ... business as usual.
But he wants people to licence software under the GPL, which allows what Caldera et al are proposing. As long as they supply the source code ...
It really offends me when people like RMS seem to work to defeat companies like Caldera and SuSE, who have done a great deal for the Linux community, by taking away their revenue stream. By providing me with a Linux distribution, they provide me a valuable service. Yes, I can roll my own if I want to, but the time and effort that a packaged distribution saves me is worth some money to me!
As long as UnitedLinux complies with the licences of its component parts, neither I nor RMS have any right to bitch about how much the distribution costs.
The comparison to Microsoft is invalid because there are competing distributions of various prices, from Slackware and Debian on the $0 end to RedHat and Mandrake on the pay end, whereas there is no competition to Windows. If the distribution is done right and works well, market competition will take care of "fair pricing."
... Making sure that the billing actually stops. Keep checking your credit card bills. And if (when) they DO charge you again, going through your credit card company is a painful, but effective, way of fixing the problem.
One of Microsoft's complaints about a modular version of Windows for consumers, of course, is the idea that it'll be impossible to support.
Except that Microsoft doesn't support OEM versions of Windows anyway. Support of Windows is done by the manufacturer, not by Microsoft. It's been that way for as long as I've been involved in the computer industry (Win3.0 days).
Others have pointed out the problems of differing versions of dynamically linked DLLs, and the problems with statically linking them (and producing 20 copies of mfc40.dll). I would suggest that isn't necessarily a Bad Thing. I have spent many, many hours tracking down and killing every version of WINSOCK.DLL to get somebody's DUN working.
Maybe he's honest. You know, an honest politician is one who, once bought, stays bought.
So this means I can't install one of those nanny-cams in my VCR that records what the baby sitter is doing when she's taking care of my infant son for $10/hr. I can't see if she's doing well, ignoring him, abusing him, or what.
Great.
AVP caught and blocked it. This is with the Apr 8 2002 database.
This will be a boon to the package transport industry. Imagine the newest service: TARDIS Express: When it absolutely, positively has to be there before you sent it.
Ron Kirk (Democratic runoff candidate)
P.O. Box 720160
Dallas TX 75372
(214) 841-1001
Fax (214) 841-1094
Victor Morales (Democratic runoff candidate)
P.O. Box 878789
Mesquite TX 75187
(972) 427-9946
I have been unable to find a web page for Mr. Morales. Also, note that the email address may be incorrect.
The runoff is April 9, 2002.
John Cornyn (Republican nominee) P.O. Box 13026
Austin TX 78711
(512) 494-8535
Fax (512) 494-8161
There is also a contact form you can fill out.
Ron Kirk (Democratic runoff contender)
P.O. Box 720160
Dallas TX 75372
(214) 841-1001
Fax (214) 841-1094
Victor Morales (Democratic runoff contender)
P.O. Box 878789
Mesquite TX 75187
(972) 427-9946
I have been unable to find a web page for Mr. Morales. Also, note that the email address may be incorrect.
The runoff is April 9, 2002.
John Cornyn (Republican nominee)
P.O. Box 13026
Austin TX 78711
(512) 494-8535
Fax (512) 494-8161
There is also a contact form you can fill out.
"Install the patch and be done with it."
Is that why I keep getting probed with NIMDA? Because people just install the patch and are done with it?
It's easy. As the copyright owner, you may issue other licences that are outside the LGPL. How about this:
Company A wants a licence but doesn't want the hassle of the LGPL. Company A pays you $X for the right to use the codec in an embedded system, but you insert a clause in their licence that states that they may not change the codec, and if they do, they must release the changes to the codec (but not the whole of their work), or they must send the changes to you for possible inclusion in the LGPL version, releasing their copyright on those changes in the process.
This would mean:
1) You would get paid for their non-LGPL use of your property.
2) They would get the opportunity to use the codec in a non-free device, if they don't modify the codec.
3) If they modify the codec, the community would get the changes back in a free manner.
4) You could provide a list of licencees in the codec documentation, as in, "These people have the right to use the codec in a non-free way." This eliminates charges of stealing LGPL code (which has popped on on Slashdot in the past), and provides a little good advertising for the company as a good-faith player who went out of their way to do things right. As a proponent of free software, that might make *ME* more likely to buy their product to reward their good behavior.
5) If you don't want the money on some strange principle, you could either donate it to some worthy cause, or just issue the licences for free.
The key here isn't the money, it's the license. Just because you've issued the software under an open license doesn't mean you can't issue the software again under a closed license, because even under the LGPL, YOU remain the copyright holder, and you may use or reuse the copyright in any way you choose.
Any of a number of people have suggested transferring your domain away from NSI, and have suggested replacements. There is one big hiccup to beware of, however:
... they wanted $150 for a year. Calls to customer service to get the mess straight proved totally fruitless. We're still unable to register it with another registrar because NSI won't let it go, and NSI won't reregister it for anything like the usual price.
If you try to transfer your domain away from NSI by letting your domain expire and then reregistering it with another registrar, you may find that NSI is holding it hostage.
A customer of mine let one of her domains expire for lack of funds; when the money came in to pay the $30 registration fee, NSI didn't want $30 or $35 or even $70 to re-up it
Also, I moved a domain from NSI to another registrar back in July; in September I started getting bills from NSI for the domains' registration which expires in October, 2005.
All the griping I've read about how "horrible" Episode I was, and Episode II will be, makes me think that people who think that aren't looking at the movies with the right attitude.
"Great cinema" they are not. But these movies aren't intended to be Schindler's List or Saving Private Ryan. If you want that kind of movie, go see it. This isn't it, and it isn't intended to be it.
I saw Episode I several times in the theater, and I now own the DVD, and I've enjoyed the use of the money I spent.
I went to see Episode I looking for several things:
- Cool special effects
- A decently entertaining script
- A great light sabre battle at the end
- The first part of a story whose ending I already know
I got every one of those things, and I was very pleased.
I didn't expect Oscar-quality acting, spine-tingling plot lines, statements on the human condition, or exploration of some societal quandry. I didn't get them. Star Wars isn't that kind of movie; it isn't intended as that kind of movie.
Star Wars is a series of movies where you don't have to think real hard about them. Sometimes I want a movie that will challenge me (Schindler's List, Philadelphia). Sometimes it can be fun to just turn your brain off and watch something mindlessly amusing (Something About Mary, Rollerball (the original), A Knight's Tale, Logan's Run). Star Wars is in this second category.
Whether or not you enjoy Star Wars Episode II for what it is, I think, depends a lot on what you expect.
I for one owe Mr. Levy a tremendous debt of gratitude for his service at BugTraq. It has provided me, my students, and my professional colleagues a tremendous resource for research (via the archives) as well as virtually real-time vulnerability notification. Together with NTBugTraq, it provides a tremendous resource for the white hat community, without the fluff, spam, flames and noise of unmoderated lists and newsgroups.
The hard moditorial work done by Mr. Levy is what makes BugTraq the useful tool that it is.
While I have no doubt that Mr. Ahmad will serve the community in an excellent fashion, Mr. Levy will be a really hard act to follow, and I for one will miss his unseen hand.
> That has _always_ been required (with the specific
> exception of WordPerfect) for all PC software as
> long as I can remember.
Borland's licence used the "like a book" model. You could install the software on as many computers as you wanted, but you could only use one copy at a time, just like a (paper) book can only be read by one person at a time.
It was an interesting system. I run a 100% Microsoft-free system here, so I have no recent Borland products to look at to see if they've changed it in recent years.
Judge Kozinski --
I read your WSJ editorial online after it was posted to Slashdot (http://www.slashdot.org, "News for nerds. Stuff that matters."), and while I must say that I agree with your sentiments about workplace monitoring, your ire is perhaps indicative of why mere mortals see all government employees, and ones in dark robes especially, as disconnected from the citizenry they serve.
While your points about how inappropriate workplace monitoring is in the federal judiciary are well taken, and while I agree with them in principle, I can only shake my head and say, welcome to the real world, Your Honor.
Workplace monitoring of the sort you decry in your editorial is a fact of life for most Americans, and has been for many years. Some private-sector employers are more fanatical about it than others, but it remains extremely common that an employee checks his rights at the door. Random drug screens (even for employees who do not perform hazardous jobs like driving or operating heavy machinery), keystroke monitoring (how many keys per hour do you punch), email scanning, phone monitoring, and even log-in log-out to track your bathroom usage are common.
Frequently, signing away any rights you might have to protest such treatment is a condition of employment. Especially in light of today's slowing economy (the Dallas Morning News [ed: which requires nasty registration to see anything off the front page] last Sunday reported on a well-qualified computer professional who has taken to holding a sign at the street corner to ask for work), employees typically sign such monsterous documents simply to get a paycheck rolling in.
In addition, courts typically uphold the rights of employers to perform these kinds of searches, especially in states where employee rights are weak, such as Texas, where you can be fired for sneezing too much. (In Texas, employers can even require you to sign away your right to sue over Workman's Compensation claims, as a condition of employment. Many do, and courts uphold these waivers when employees get hurt and employers then do not pony up the money.)
Just as public school students and prisoners check their rights at the door (despite courts' protestations to the contrary in a littany of cases I could cite), employees do as well. It's been a fact of life for many years, and will continue to be so. That it's been so slow in coming to the federal judiciary is not surprising to me, if only because of the public perception that the judicial process is slow, unwieldy, and expensively out of reach of your average citizen.
[Signature omitted. Use Slashdot to contact me.]
His response is reprinted below in its entirety.
Dear Mr. [censored]:
I agree with your entirely. In fact, one of my major concerns in this matter is that if we adopt the most intrusive policy for our employees, we're more likely to approve it for others as well, when the issue arises in cases before us. Check out the attached article, as well as
http://www.tnr.com/091001/rosen091001.html
If you wish to help in this struggle, please check out
http://www.eff.org/alerts/20010831_eff_judicial_mo nitoring_alert.html [hotlink omitted because Slashdot wouldn't unscrew it.]
Sending a letter as suggested there, and copying in relevant members of congress, would be a big help.
Once again, many thanx.
Ciao. AK
If the BSA and Microsoft are behind these letters, and they're threatening people with no intention of carrying out their threats ...
> Innovative, bleeding-edge music, song, dance, etc > is not really in danger of being "crushed by > lawsuits." No, but it remains in the same danger as Napster. The reason is that without a forum like Napster to distribute this bleeding-edge music, the amount of exposure a new start-up band must get is virtually impossible to get, especially if they can't find a big record label to promote them. And the chances of an individual band finding a big label to get their stuff out to the folks who might want to listen to it is miniscule, unless you're lil-miss-virgin Brittney Spears. If, instead, you're someone like They Might Be Giants (who I haven't heard on commercial radio or seen in stores in years). And even if you do, the chances of your first album leading to a second are remote. Previous discussions on /. have focused on this.
The fact remains that, unless you're a manufactured piece of crap (Spears, Spice Girls, N'Sync, etc), your chances are small.