I agree. If the Mono project folds that code into mod-mono for Apache then ASP.NET might finally begin to give Ruby on Rails and PHP a real run for their money. Perhaps that is what Microsoft intended all along. I have used the pre-releases of MVC in a few experimental for-fun projects and it is actually quite good albeit not completely original (borrowing heavily from mono-rail, Ruby on Rails, and other previous implementations of RESTful MVC web frameworks). The GP might want to give it a whirl before writing it off completely.
It doesn't even require you to open your own code under the same license
In fact that is the only area where one might make a reasonable objection, the lack of duty to redistribute source code, but the GP doesn't even take that road and criticizes the entire license simply because it was written by Microsoft. Not every OSI license is like the GPL and requires redistribution of modification source code, that doesn't mean that the license is "out to get you" it just means that you are free to license your modifications how you please without additional duties or encumbrances. Now, some open source zealots don't agree with that (which is a legitimate position, albeit one that I do not share) but the "blame Microsoft, source of all evil" argument is getting really stale, even by Slashdot standards.
I really don't see why the parent was modded insightful. I realize that this is Slashdot, but shouldn't we at least RTFL (Read the Fraking License) before we say that it was somehow slipped in under the collective noses of the OSI? The text of the license is actually quite simple (it is less than one page). It basically says that you are granted permission under Copyright to distribute the contributions of others (i.e. the Software) OR yours (or not) for any purpose whatsoever and that if you have patents covering your contribution you agree to license them too (at least insofar as they relate to the contribution) free or charge. The license is all or nothing (i.e. you agree completely or you cannot use the software and enjoy none of the benefits of the license) and includes a basic "as-is" disclaimer on suitability, merchantability, warranties, etc as permitted by law (i.e. use at your own risk). The difference between this license and other OSI licenses, such as GPL, appears to be in the "duty to make source code available" department; so theoretically one could take the source code, add to or modify it, and re-distribute the results without having any duty to make the original source directly available (although one would have to include the terms of the license, thereby signaling to anyone whose head does more than hold up their hat that the original source is available elsewhere). If you believe that a grant of freedom to use a contribution that is not also tied to a duty to redistribute the source of the original AND the modifications is a violation of free software (a position that even Richard Stallman compromised on with the LGPL) then OK, but IMHO I find the license to be straightforward, simple, and fair.
What I cannot understand, though is why, in these cash-strapped times, they did not auction the name off? Could have raised some much-needed funds.
Perhaps, but that might be only marginally better than having an Internet naming contest with write-in votes. An auction like that would almost certainly attract people like Larry Flint, Golden Palace Casino (famous for ther unusual publicity auction bids), pron kingpins and other wealthy pranksters looking to pull a publicity stunt. Really, the only logical choice was to do as we do here on Slashdot with the polls, limited choices and no write-ins (although CowboyNeal would probably win the vote if they included him in the choices).
The relative insanity of our legal system seems to be directly proportional to the stupidity of our average citizens. Unfortunately, both are growing every year so if we keep going on like this then Idiocracy cannot be too far off. Its too bad really, our Constitution and system of government really are fine ideas in principle, but as it turns out the perpetuation of an educated and informed citizenry is too difficult to sustain over the long run.
As I recall a similar issue came up in the Duke Lacross false accusation of rape case where it was pointed out that unless a prosecutor is convicted of misconduct (as Mike Nifong was in that case) he or she enjoys broad legal immunity from civil lawsuits arising out of their official actions as prosecutor.
I would like to believe that you are merely joking, but after the DMCA (complete with numerous subsequent abuses) and know with Joe Biden and the RIAA lawyers in the driver seat over at the Department of Justice I definitely wouln't put that past them. I don't like Biden, I don't like his RIAA friends, and I don't trust any of them. IMHO, Obama was wrong to approve the RIAA all-star team for the Department of Justice and that decision could cost him big time in the next election with the young tech savvy crowd. The future of America is in a high tech economy, not Britney Spears and American Idol; anything which gets in the way of that endangers our collective economic future.
At the turn of the last century, if you wanted a science or engineering degree, you had to learn German, as all the best journals were printed in that language.
The allied victory in WWII basically sealed the fate of German as the academic and technical lingua franca. The British/American development of the first stored-program computers, based in part upon the previous work of Charles Babbage and later Alan Turing (who worked at Bletchley Park on the Colossus among other things), further sealed the deal in the decades following WWII (especially with the Soviets walling themselves off behind the Iron Curtain).
Yes, but the French are well know for their obstinate defense of their language and culture; frequently refusing to adopt foreign words, technologies, and culture until a french equivalent is re-created from scratch. This has occasionally resulted in some unfortunate side effects, such as the delayed distribution of HIV testing kits due to the originals not being French enough. English on the other hand is much more promiscuous, readily borrowing words, concepts, and ideas from foreign cultures and incorporating them into our own. So to say that France is different is sort of like cherry picking the most xenophobic element and accepting it as the norm.
The writing has been on the wall for some time now with regard to physical distribution of games. This has been proven time and again with services like Valve's Steam, Stardock's Central/Impulse, and XBox 360 Live Arcade. This has been one area where the US game studios and Microsoft are ahead of the Japanese console makers (having gotten into the market first, especially Valve with their Steam platform). With the cost of physical retail rising and retailers like Walmart demanding price cuts, which further squeeze margins, and even putting their nose into the content of the game itself (i.e. cutt this or your game won't be sold in our stores), is it any wonder that game publishers are pushing online distribution?
The UN itself is a joke. If a fourth-rate power like Sudan can tell the UN to pound sand and get away with it then what is the point? It is ironic that the muslim countries like Pakistan, being themselves consistently among the worst human rights abusers on the planet, would chose the UN Human Rights council of all places to criticize the democracies of this world. They should take the board out of their own eye before they reach for the splinter in ours. There is a reason why Pakistan, Sudan, Iran and the rest are underdeveloped, backwards, and inferior to the western democracies in just about every respect and it has a lot to do with freedom of speach, freedom of religion (something obviously lacking in places like Pakistan), and freedom of women to participate in public life.
I would say this is a huge joke, but at $30 a disc, it isn't funny.
So don't be a facilitator of their greed. Refuse to buy the discs until they relent on the DRM. If enough of us say, "I don't need that, I won't buy that" then the copyright cartels will be forced to listen.
DRM = You can only use content if you agree to give up certain rights you otherwise had and agree to allow the company selling the content to place technological locks in place on your property to ensure your compliance.
No thanks, I am happier with my money in my pocket. So really DRM == NO SALE (at least for me).
And some how, magically, you gain all of that knowledge on your 18th birthday?
No, but there is a lesson to be learned from all of this and that is that nobody else, and especially not the government, can be trusted to protect your privacy. Privacy is a privilege enjoyed by those who have knowledge of encryption, security procedures, and spycraft; so if you want privacy learn about these things and use them, otherwise assume that you have no privacy and operate accordingly.
While it is true that not all of us choose to specialize in or make a career as commercial compiler or OS developers when we get out of school with our CS degrees I can still distinctly remember taking the required compiler courses (using yacc and doing the labs, writing a tokenizer, lexer, and virtual assembly code generator) and the OS theory courses (I also took the optional upper division project course in OS and wrote a disc controller, process and resource scheduler, and a memory manager). That was seven years ago now and I have never used or further developed the specialty skills needed to advance a career in those niches. Instead I chose a more generalized software engineering career and I have worked on many different things from graphics drawing surfaces to, ORMs, Web Services, databases, protocol message processing frameworks, and many other things; a bit of just about everything except, you guessed it, compilers, OS kernels, and device drivers. Just because I choose not to seek out work in niche areas doesn't mean that I know nothing about them or haven't ever worked on them before, it just means that I prefer working on more generalized and abstract software rather than space-optimized micro code for embedded engine controllers. Some of us might even work on, gasp, accounting software because that is what the people with the money want to pay us to write. That doesn't make us less worthy or our CS degree less valuable.
If you are looking for the theory of everything in the writings of any one individual then you are likely to be disappointed. Ayn Rand had some good things to say about overbearing governments, among other things, that were relevant in her time and are still relevant (perhaps even more so) today; especially with the resurgence of people who believe in the "power" of President Obama to get them a job, pay their bills, and generally be their own personal messiah. I find it interesting that here on Slashdot, if one expresses admiration for the writings or works of a particular author then others automatically assume that you agree with absolutely everything ever written or said by that author.
I would LOVE to see a freespace database ported to Solaris, personally. We'd use it heavily.:-)
Sounds like a great open source project so why not start working on that? If you want it badly and would use it heavily and yet you cannot be bothered to do the work of porting one, writing one, or paying someone else to do it then why bother complaining about it?
Why shouldn't I get paid the big bucks like those guys? The fact is, they aren't worth what they get paid. There is some sort of flaw in that logic.
The world is frequently NOT a logical place because it is populated by many more stupid people making illogical decisions than smart people making intelligent and rational ones. This results in much of the available capital being concentrated, for various reasons having little to do with relative IQ, in the hands of people who are ambitious, corrupt, and ruthless but not necessarily smart. However, it is simplistic to say that because engineers are not the most wealthy members of society Ayn Rand was absolutely wrong.
Then I realized that it's not really cluttering anything, just that I am not used to the looks.
IMHO, it was never so much a problem of "clutter" with the Windows XP "Luna" aka Fischer Price interface so much as it was inefficient use of space. The buttons, borders, title bars, etc...were all just a tad bigger than they really needed to be. While there may be some users who enjoy the "big buttons" look I and many other users were never really fans. Microsoft would do well to learn a bit more about their different classes of user (and there were more than just "classic" OR "luna" users with XP) and offer some more logical choices for different user interface designs. Personally, I use the Stardock WindowBlinds software (which plugs into the theme APIs provided in Windows XP and above) with the "soft crystal" theme (a modified copy of a KDE style interface) as my UI of choice because it is space efficient, unobtrusive, and substantially less 90s than "windows classic".
It is too late for that, since he is no longer anonymous. If you want the benefits of anonymity then you have to submit to wikileaks (and only wikileaks) first (preferably from a free public wireless access point) and then never connect your real identity in any way to the leak (which means keeping your mouth shut IRL).
In defense of the Libertarians, I think that you guys are misunderstanding our position(s) again. In the case of pollution and other instances of what economists call negative externalities most Libertarians acknowledge and accept role of the government and specifically the courts in addressing the question of harm to third parties who are not involved in a transaction. Indeed that is a necessary and appropriate function of government. Libertarianism is not about extremism or an ideology of "no government" it is about preservation of individual freedom(s) to live as we chose and not be interfered with so long as we afford the same negative rights to live and let live to others as we would have them afford to us. Libertarians want many of the same things that other good people want, but we disagree about the means that some choose to employ when providing those good things to others; namely the use of force (which is by definition what governments do) to take from one group and give to another regardless of intention or outcome. We Libertarians reject the notion that some good can come from or begin with an act of evil (i.e. the confiscation of property at the point of the sword).
Slashdot Mirror
And maybe I'm paranoid.
It is actually part of an evil conspiracy by aliens (Steve Ballmer is actually one of them) to melt your brain and take over the world.
I agree. If the Mono project folds that code into mod-mono for Apache then ASP.NET might finally begin to give Ruby on Rails and PHP a real run for their money. Perhaps that is what Microsoft intended all along. I have used the pre-releases of MVC in a few experimental for-fun projects and it is actually quite good albeit not completely original (borrowing heavily from mono-rail, Ruby on Rails, and other previous implementations of RESTful MVC web frameworks). The GP might want to give it a whirl before writing it off completely.
It doesn't even require you to open your own code under the same license
In fact that is the only area where one might make a reasonable objection, the lack of duty to redistribute source code, but the GP doesn't even take that road and criticizes the entire license simply because it was written by Microsoft. Not every OSI license is like the GPL and requires redistribution of modification source code, that doesn't mean that the license is "out to get you" it just means that you are free to license your modifications how you please without additional duties or encumbrances. Now, some open source zealots don't agree with that (which is a legitimate position, albeit one that I do not share) but the "blame Microsoft, source of all evil" argument is getting really stale, even by Slashdot standards.
I really don't see why the parent was modded insightful. I realize that this is Slashdot, but shouldn't we at least RTFL (Read the Fraking License) before we say that it was somehow slipped in under the collective noses of the OSI? The text of the license is actually quite simple (it is less than one page). It basically says that you are granted permission under Copyright to distribute the contributions of others (i.e. the Software) OR yours (or not) for any purpose whatsoever and that if you have patents covering your contribution you agree to license them too (at least insofar as they relate to the contribution) free or charge. The license is all or nothing (i.e. you agree completely or you cannot use the software and enjoy none of the benefits of the license) and includes a basic "as-is" disclaimer on suitability, merchantability, warranties, etc as permitted by law (i.e. use at your own risk). The difference between this license and other OSI licenses, such as GPL, appears to be in the "duty to make source code available" department; so theoretically one could take the source code, add to or modify it, and re-distribute the results without having any duty to make the original source directly available (although one would have to include the terms of the license, thereby signaling to anyone whose head does more than hold up their hat that the original source is available elsewhere). If you believe that a grant of freedom to use a contribution that is not also tied to a duty to redistribute the source of the original AND the modifications is a violation of free software (a position that even Richard Stallman compromised on with the LGPL) then OK, but IMHO I find the license to be straightforward, simple, and fair.
What I cannot understand, though is why, in these cash-strapped times, they did not auction the name off? Could have raised some much-needed funds.
Perhaps, but that might be only marginally better than having an Internet naming contest with write-in votes. An auction like that would almost certainly attract people like Larry Flint, Golden Palace Casino (famous for ther unusual publicity auction bids), pron kingpins and other wealthy pranksters looking to pull a publicity stunt. Really, the only logical choice was to do as we do here on Slashdot with the polls, limited choices and no write-ins (although CowboyNeal would probably win the vote if they included him in the choices).
The relative insanity of our legal system seems to be directly proportional to the stupidity of our average citizens. Unfortunately, both are growing every year so if we keep going on like this then Idiocracy cannot be too far off. Its too bad really, our Constitution and system of government really are fine ideas in principle, but as it turns out the perpetuation of an educated and informed citizenry is too difficult to sustain over the long run.
As I recall a similar issue came up in the Duke Lacross false accusation of rape case where it was pointed out that unless a prosecutor is convicted of misconduct (as Mike Nifong was in that case) he or she enjoys broad legal immunity from civil lawsuits arising out of their official actions as prosecutor.
I would like to believe that you are merely joking, but after the DMCA (complete with numerous subsequent abuses) and know with Joe Biden and the RIAA lawyers in the driver seat over at the Department of Justice I definitely wouln't put that past them. I don't like Biden, I don't like his RIAA friends, and I don't trust any of them. IMHO, Obama was wrong to approve the RIAA all-star team for the Department of Justice and that decision could cost him big time in the next election with the young tech savvy crowd. The future of America is in a high tech economy, not Britney Spears and American Idol; anything which gets in the way of that endangers our collective economic future.
At the turn of the last century, if you wanted a science or engineering degree, you had to learn German, as all the best journals were printed in that language.
The allied victory in WWII basically sealed the fate of German as the academic and technical lingua franca. The British/American development of the first stored-program computers, based in part upon the previous work of Charles Babbage and later Alan Turing (who worked at Bletchley Park on the Colossus among other things), further sealed the deal in the decades following WWII (especially with the Soviets walling themselves off behind the Iron Curtain).
Yes, but the French are well know for their obstinate defense of their language and culture; frequently refusing to adopt foreign words, technologies, and culture until a french equivalent is re-created from scratch. This has occasionally resulted in some unfortunate side effects, such as the delayed distribution of HIV testing kits due to the originals not being French enough. English on the other hand is much more promiscuous, readily borrowing words, concepts, and ideas from foreign cultures and incorporating them into our own. So to say that France is different is sort of like cherry picking the most xenophobic element and accepting it as the norm.
The writing has been on the wall for some time now with regard to physical distribution of games. This has been proven time and again with services like Valve's Steam, Stardock's Central/Impulse, and XBox 360 Live Arcade. This has been one area where the US game studios and Microsoft are ahead of the Japanese console makers (having gotten into the market first, especially Valve with their Steam platform). With the cost of physical retail rising and retailers like Walmart demanding price cuts, which further squeeze margins, and even putting their nose into the content of the game itself (i.e. cutt this or your game won't be sold in our stores), is it any wonder that game publishers are pushing online distribution?
The UN itself is a joke. If a fourth-rate power like Sudan can tell the UN to pound sand and get away with it then what is the point? It is ironic that the muslim countries like Pakistan, being themselves consistently among the worst human rights abusers on the planet, would chose the UN Human Rights council of all places to criticize the democracies of this world. They should take the board out of their own eye before they reach for the splinter in ours. There is a reason why Pakistan, Sudan, Iran and the rest are underdeveloped, backwards, and inferior to the western democracies in just about every respect and it has a lot to do with freedom of speach, freedom of religion (something obviously lacking in places like Pakistan), and freedom of women to participate in public life.
I would say this is a huge joke, but at $30 a disc, it isn't funny.
So don't be a facilitator of their greed. Refuse to buy the discs until they relent on the DRM. If enough of us say, "I don't need that, I won't buy that" then the copyright cartels will be forced to listen.
DRM = You can only use content if you agree to give up certain rights you otherwise had and agree to allow the company selling the content to place technological locks in place on your property to ensure your compliance.
No thanks, I am happier with my money in my pocket. So really DRM == NO SALE (at least for me).
And some how, magically, you gain all of that knowledge on your 18th birthday?
No, but there is a lesson to be learned from all of this and that is that nobody else, and especially not the government, can be trusted to protect your privacy. Privacy is a privilege enjoyed by those who have knowledge of encryption, security procedures, and spycraft; so if you want privacy learn about these things and use them, otherwise assume that you have no privacy and operate accordingly.
While it is true that not all of us choose to specialize in or make a career as commercial compiler or OS developers when we get out of school with our CS degrees I can still distinctly remember taking the required compiler courses (using yacc and doing the labs, writing a tokenizer, lexer, and virtual assembly code generator) and the OS theory courses (I also took the optional upper division project course in OS and wrote a disc controller, process and resource scheduler, and a memory manager). That was seven years ago now and I have never used or further developed the specialty skills needed to advance a career in those niches. Instead I chose a more generalized software engineering career and I have worked on many different things from graphics drawing surfaces to, ORMs, Web Services, databases, protocol message processing frameworks, and many other things; a bit of just about everything except, you guessed it, compilers, OS kernels, and device drivers. Just because I choose not to seek out work in niche areas doesn't mean that I know nothing about them or haven't ever worked on them before, it just means that I prefer working on more generalized and abstract software rather than space-optimized micro code for embedded engine controllers. Some of us might even work on, gasp, accounting software because that is what the people with the money want to pay us to write. That doesn't make us less worthy or our CS degree less valuable.
Getting older and watching fiction become reality is not pleasant...
Look on the bright side, you may finally be able to write "Street Samurai" as your profession on your income tax return...
If you are looking for the theory of everything in the writings of any one individual then you are likely to be disappointed. Ayn Rand had some good things to say about overbearing governments, among other things, that were relevant in her time and are still relevant (perhaps even more so) today; especially with the resurgence of people who believe in the "power" of President Obama to get them a job, pay their bills, and generally be their own personal messiah. I find it interesting that here on Slashdot, if one expresses admiration for the writings or works of a particular author then others automatically assume that you agree with absolutely everything ever written or said by that author.
I would LOVE to see a freespace database ported to Solaris, personally. We'd use it heavily. :-)
Sounds like a great open source project so why not start working on that? If you want it badly and would use it heavily and yet you cannot be bothered to do the work of porting one, writing one, or paying someone else to do it then why bother complaining about it?
Why shouldn't I get paid the big bucks like those guys? The fact is, they aren't worth what they get paid. There is some sort of flaw in that logic.
The world is frequently NOT a logical place because it is populated by many more stupid people making illogical decisions than smart people making intelligent and rational ones. This results in much of the available capital being concentrated, for various reasons having little to do with relative IQ, in the hands of people who are ambitious, corrupt, and ruthless but not necessarily smart. However, it is simplistic to say that because engineers are not the most wealthy members of society Ayn Rand was absolutely wrong.
Then I realized that it's not really cluttering anything, just that I am not used to the looks.
IMHO, it was never so much a problem of "clutter" with the Windows XP "Luna" aka Fischer Price interface so much as it was inefficient use of space. The buttons, borders, title bars, etc...were all just a tad bigger than they really needed to be. While there may be some users who enjoy the "big buttons" look I and many other users were never really fans. Microsoft would do well to learn a bit more about their different classes of user (and there were more than just "classic" OR "luna" users with XP) and offer some more logical choices for different user interface designs. Personally, I use the Stardock WindowBlinds software (which plugs into the theme APIs provided in Windows XP and above) with the "soft crystal" theme (a modified copy of a KDE style interface) as my UI of choice because it is space efficient, unobtrusive, and substantially less 90s than "windows classic".
It is too late for that, since he is no longer anonymous. If you want the benefits of anonymity then you have to submit to wikileaks (and only wikileaks) first (preferably from a free public wireless access point) and then never connect your real identity in any way to the leak (which means keeping your mouth shut IRL).
I must confess that there have been days when I too wanted to give the bleeping server both barrels of my shotgun.
he seems like a real barrel of laughs.
Don't buy from ATI Enemy of your Freedom
In defense of the Libertarians, I think that you guys are misunderstanding our position(s) again. In the case of pollution and other instances of what economists call negative externalities most Libertarians acknowledge and accept role of the government and specifically the courts in addressing the question of harm to third parties who are not involved in a transaction. Indeed that is a necessary and appropriate function of government. Libertarianism is not about extremism or an ideology of "no government" it is about preservation of individual freedom(s) to live as we chose and not be interfered with so long as we afford the same negative rights to live and let live to others as we would have them afford to us. Libertarians want many of the same things that other good people want, but we disagree about the means that some choose to employ when providing those good things to others; namely the use of force (which is by definition what governments do) to take from one group and give to another regardless of intention or outcome. We Libertarians reject the notion that some good can come from or begin with an act of evil (i.e. the confiscation of property at the point of the sword).