No, patents used to be 17 years, now they are 20 years + various legal tricks (repatent w/minor mods, lawsuits...)
But the problem is that patents have always been too long for software, the proof being that patents are supposed to spur innovation, but for this particular problem domain, innovation seem to occur irregardless of patents. Most software innovations are never patented at all.
I agree that this is the situation, my problem with it is that it is not very egalitarian. If this were two big corporations fighting, it would probably just go the normal route of discovery with the judge compelling the parties to produce whatever either side needs.
I'm just saying the bar should be a lot higher... just because you have an individual here, and not a corporation (with rules/regs/procedures) there's no reason to assume he won't comply with a judge's orders unless the evidence presented for the warrant is extremely compelling. In this case it doesn't even appear that your average judge could understand the issue involved, how could he be convinced?
Can't know what really happened, but on its face, anyway, I hope the pumpking gets a good lawyer and pushes this as far as it can go and makes them pay for abusing the system...
At the larger scope, there needs to be some experts made available to the judges to get these extreme results from occuring at all.
Based on the evidence at hand there was no probable cause for the search.
If he didn't keep any of the company's information, they likely have no case.
Crossing your fingers for summary judgment, a directed verdict:-) or a nice juicy settlement favoring the plaintiff.
Pretty scary though that the judge would authorize grabbing all your equipment with no genuine evidence of theft/misappropriation of trade secrets. There ought to be a high bar set for the kind of disruption that causes. There's no reason discovery couldn't have been allowed to proceed in a less violent manner unless he wasn't cooperating.
For myself, I make decisions about when to correct other people. If you learn it from nothing else, you'll learn this general concept from being married.
Sometimes it's just not worth the grief.
If an adult cannot write well, you nagging them really isn't going to change anything. It's either so serious that you would be teaching them a class (do you really have the time for this?), or it's so trivial that you might as well not bother, or the person knows the mistake when they see it, and you're needling them.
Also, ask yourself why you feel a need to correct others. Is it for you to be above than everyone else (your problem), or perhaps you think you can make the world perfect (not possible)...
When you're correcting something client-facing, failing to make the kind of corrections you suggest is not defensible. But just nagging folks for things that don't matter or won't change anything is a waste of energy.
Further, languages do change over time based on actual usage. If nobody can mangage it's vs its or loose vs lose (common/.'er problems) eventually those distinctions will go away. Language isn't here to give each other a hard time. It's here to allow us to talk to each other.
For sufficiently large values of temporary, good things temporarily are still good.
As to "stability", that certainly does not exist in the IT professional market. So it's not worth chasing after. You go after what you can get and if unions and legislation can get you what you need, you do it. It would be insane not to get what you can.
I'll add that 8-bit portable computers are an increasingly popular way to get into retro computing. These machines won't take up so much space as to upset your wife, you can easily get them out and put them away, and you generally don't have a bunch of stuff connected (expansion device, disk controllers, monitors, wall cubes...)
Parallel port would probably be the easiest way. If not that, serial port. If you can find an ISA ethernet card, more power to you.
Then you need software: probably KA9Q or one of the proprietary stacks.
In any event, I'd say this is a solved problem, you should check into the Tandy 1000 Yahoo group, or the usenet tandy group.
And no, a P233 is not 'retro' by any stretch of the imagination. Heck, on the retro computing lists I'm on, a Tandy 1000 is not considered retro yet... (though I would consider it to be).
No, the GPL "governs" redistribution and copying not "acceptable use." You can use the software for whatever you want, since the GPL makes no limitations, not because it makes specific allowances. The GPL grants you a substantial ability to copy and redistribute the software as long as you are willing to live with its requirements regarding releasing your own changes.
I'd be more interested to hear what your legal staff says about it than what/.ers think.
That would be news.
Personally I think a) it would be fair use unless some other contract you have formed is more restrictive than copyright and b) the GPL doesn't have anything to do with it. The GPL is only relevant in the copying of software code and executable binaries not side effects unless those side effects are program code or executable binaries.
In any event the risk is low. Perhaps your legal staff is probably just bored because they don't have anyone to sue today.
Debian is the universal free software distribution.
If they killed off the architectures that you happen not to care about, it wouldn't be universal, so it wouldn't be Debian. It's not a waste of time, it's what the project is all about.
Frankly, apt works great on a day-to-day basis. And apt-get dist-upgrade appeared to work fine for my Woody web server.
If you want a slick x86 only distribution, look elsewhere. I'm sticking with Debian because they do things right. And where there are problems, I'm convinced they will fix them in a way that is ultimately scalable.
On the contrary, CrossOver office might well be a good solution. I've seen apps that I could install and run under CrossOver quite easily, that I couldn't coax to run under Wine. And this is aside from the supported apps.
Well I mean stable in the user's sense: the popular apps are not buggy and are usable. Unstable to a user means breakage. In the years I've been using Debian, I haven't seen much of that.
Debian has a lot of packages. The least used ones are often crappy, but no matter how old and crufty a version you use of such a package, it's still going to be crappy. So stable/unstable is irrelevant there.
But having the distribution that you should probably use on the desktop being called "unstable" gives users the wrong impression.
As far as the definition of "stable" meaning that you have a fixed, unchanging set of packages that you just get bugfix releases for, is of very little interest to joe user.
The usual criticism of Debian is that it is old. Well, it's only old for the people that value a, well, old (but maintained) version (the stable one). For everyone else the exact set of packages that are in Debian at any time is of very little importance. What's important to them is that maintained versions of the apps they use be available to them. The popular ones are available in Sid and prepackaged with all dependencies correct.
False comparison... if you want to compare apples to apples, you should really be comparing Fedora to Sid (Debian Unstable).
Contrary to popular opinion, Debian Unstable is very, very stable. I'd like stable to release more often, but look at what we get in return: more packages, more architectures, and more freedom.
I say the same thing about my favorite "true portable" laptops... model 100, 102, 200.
I think what we need are two things:
Standardization on batteries: either use off-the-shelf batteries, or highly standardize li-ion batteries. 3 or 4 AA batteries, or a couple of 9V should be enough for most things.
Right-size the firmware to what actually needs to be done. Neither Linux nor Windows really belong in instant-on commodity embedded systems (yet).
No moving parts. You'll get better reliability that way too.
Hmm, I think you need to turn your humor down a little lower. His response was a combination of humor (Natalie Portman missing pants would be noticed) and burn (get a life, I'm a move critic not a SW geek, I don't care about continuity that much which is why I'm not giving you a serious answer).
The "desktop" metaphor sucks and deserves to die. Hell, I can't find anything on my *real* desktop why would anyone organize a WM that way? Surely there's something better by now.
There is... tabs should be a feature of the window manager, not the application (unless it's a tabbed dialog).
On my desktop I use Ion WM, a tabbed window manager. Apps open full-screen or within a subdivision of the main window, providing tabs for navigation.
Ion WM works with some applications better than others. It would be nice to see some support built in to X and X applications. Not sure what that means, but basically tab-aware applications would be a good way to go versus trying to make every application implement tabs in its own non-standard way.
Reading the article (!) it seems the FBI was going after those initialling sharing the content in several raids, and probably going after elitetorrents to get evidence against the sharers.
I think that's the right thing, as opposed to attacking the network itself. Shutting down elitetorrents was probably just a side effect of gathering evidence.
Yeah every once in a while I have to launch my copy of Windows 98 or 2000 that I have confined to a VmWare session in one of my virtual desktops.
I sneak in there to enter a transaction in quackbooks (this summer I am switching to SQL Ledger though) or to print an invoice. Also I occasionally need to OCR a scan (generated by xsane). Oh yeah, and to get on the corporate VPN connection. For running MS Office (when OOo won't format something right), I use it directly under CrossOver office.
Most of the time spent in each vmware session is downloading fixes from windows update though...
Now do I get to meet Bill? I have to admit though he did write some of the "OS" for my favorite computer (Model 100)
BASIC is nice to have for short programs. Power users program in assembly on 8-bit machines;-) . But I am working on a Forth ROM replacement for use with ReMem.
An ISPs job, IMHO is to route my packets. Every packet that you don't route is a failure to do the only service that I am paying the you for.
From that angle, it's not really that complex.
I agree spam, worms, virii are all huge problems, and the solutions aren't going to be easy. I do agree 100% that ISPs should start shutting off their own users that spew spam and virus.
But blocking user's MTAs is just plain wrong.
The worst part of this type of "solution" is that it falls into the trap of a "client server" Internet. The Internet is not client server. It's peer-to-peer, by design. The content industries would love to turn the net into a huge TV-like content distribution network force feeding users their crap.
No! Every computer is a node on the network. If you want to start requiring driving tests for the info superhighway, by all means, I'll take it. Maybe it would just be easier to get rid of people on the first or second or third offense.
But my feeling is that your eventual result is more evil and certainly more insideous than the problem which you are attempting to solve. Route my packets are I'll just switch to another ISP. It's that simple. Don't head down the slippery slope of making the Internet client-server.
I'd say the difference is the input and output requirement.
You need a good keyboard, and you need a good display.
Here's the short list of true-portable laptops to check out:
Tandy WP-2 TRS-80 Model 100 Tandy 102 Tandy 200 Cambridge Z88 Amstrad NC100 or NC200'
All of these are 8-bit CPUs. Last for between 10 and 20 hours on battery (!!!). Available for between $10 and $50 on Ebay. Doesn't get cheaper than that.
Or the Alphasmart Dana which is basically a Palm V with a bigger screen. USB, IR, and memory slot.
Except for Dana, The interface for downloading to PC is serial port. You may need a $10 adapter if you only have USB on your machine.
Fail to route your customers packets at your peril. Period.
I already dropped Adelphia cable and went to Speakeasy when they purposely stopped routing ICMP packets. I made the decision in about 3 seconds once I found out what they had done.
There are no bad ports or protocols, just bad people and programs. You'll have to deal with the problem directly not with bandaids if you want to keep your best customers.
That said, if you are a low end provider you don't really have any "good customers" so do whatever you feel like.
You are so bold as to use a professional athlete in your example... are you saying that a professional athlete does not take a "holistic" view of work, that they are not doing what they love?
Hey, you've got a finite number of hours on this planet. To get by, you sell x number of hours of your time in the marketplace per day, and you get 24-x to spend on leisure time, a normal good.
If you had your druthers you would spend all of your time on leisure time, period.
Is it such a bad idea to try to find work where you are doing what you would be doing in part of your leisure time at work?
Listen, I did the whole "work is just work" thing. You will burn out with that kind of attitude. You have to like it to some degree.
The mercenary attitude, being ready to move on and sell your time to the highest bidder is absolutely right though. None of these companies owe you anything, and you don't owe them anything except for the brief period of time every week where they have accrued a Wages Payable liability to you, or they have accrued a Vacation Wages payable to you. That's pretty much it.
The only real exception to that is DO NOT ditch a customer or employer in mid-stream, i.e. in the middle of a contract or project. Otherwise, your reputation will take a real hit and you're going to have trouble finding future work.
Slashdot Mirror
No, patents used to be 17 years, now they are 20 years + various legal tricks (repatent w/minor mods, lawsuits...)
But the problem is that patents have always been too long for software, the proof being that patents are supposed to spur innovation, but for this particular problem domain, innovation seem to occur irregardless of patents. Most software innovations are never patented at all.
-- John.
I agree that this is the situation, my problem with it is that it is not very egalitarian. If this were two big corporations fighting, it would probably just go the normal route of discovery with the judge compelling the parties to produce whatever either side needs.
I'm just saying the bar should be a lot higher... just because you have an individual here, and not a corporation (with rules/regs/procedures) there's no reason to assume he won't comply with a judge's orders unless the evidence presented for the warrant is extremely compelling. In this case it doesn't even appear that your average judge could understand the issue involved, how could he be convinced?
Can't know what really happened, but on its face, anyway, I hope the pumpking gets a good lawyer and pushes this as far as it can go and makes them pay for abusing the system...
At the larger scope, there needs to be some experts made available to the judges to get these extreme results from occuring at all.
-- John.
Based on the evidence at hand there was no probable cause for the search.
:-) or a nice juicy settlement favoring the plaintiff.
If he didn't keep any of the company's information, they likely have no case.
Crossing your fingers for summary judgment, a directed verdict
Pretty scary though that the judge would authorize grabbing all your equipment with no genuine evidence of theft/misappropriation of trade secrets. There ought to be a high bar set for the kind of disruption that causes. There's no reason discovery couldn't have been allowed to proceed in a less violent manner unless he wasn't cooperating.
For myself, I make decisions about when to correct other people. If you learn it from nothing else, you'll learn this general concept from being married.
/.'er problems) eventually those distinctions will go away. Language isn't here to give each other a hard time. It's here to allow us to talk to each other.
Sometimes it's just not worth the grief.
If an adult cannot write well, you nagging them really isn't going to change anything. It's either so serious that you would be teaching them a class (do you really have the time for this?), or it's so trivial that you might as well not bother, or the person knows the mistake when they see it, and you're needling them.
Also, ask yourself why you feel a need to correct others. Is it for you to be above than everyone else (your problem), or perhaps you think you can make the world perfect (not possible)...
When you're correcting something client-facing, failing to make the kind of corrections you suggest is not defensible. But just nagging folks for things that don't matter or won't change anything is a waste of energy.
Further, languages do change over time based on actual usage. If nobody can mangage it's vs its or loose vs lose (common
"Unions can create temporary bubbles"
The future does not exist.
For sufficiently large values of temporary, good things temporarily are still good.
As to "stability", that certainly does not exist in the IT professional market. So it's not worth chasing after. You go after what you can get and if unions and legislation can get you what you need, you do it. It would be insane not to get what you can.
I'll add that 8-bit portable computers are an increasingly popular way to get into retro computing. These machines won't take up so much space as to upset your wife, you can easily get them out and put them away, and you generally don't have a bunch of stuff connected (expansion device, disk controllers, monitors, wall cubes...)
Model T (100/102/200), WP-2, Z88, NC100/200, etc.
http://bitchin100.com/
hrm... how to hook a tandy 1000 to 'net:
Parallel port would probably be the easiest way. If not that, serial port. If you can find an ISA ethernet card, more power to you.
Then you need software: probably KA9Q or one of the proprietary stacks.
In any event, I'd say this is a solved problem, you should check into the Tandy 1000 Yahoo group, or the usenet tandy group.
And no, a P233 is not 'retro' by any stretch of the imagination. Heck, on the retro computing lists I'm on, a Tandy 1000 is not considered retro yet... (though I would consider it to be).
-- John.
No, the GPL "governs" redistribution and copying not "acceptable use." You can use the software for whatever you want, since the GPL makes no limitations, not because it makes specific allowances. The GPL grants you a substantial ability to copy and redistribute the software as long as you are willing to live with its requirements regarding releasing your own changes.
I'd be more interested to hear what your legal staff says about it than what /.ers think.
That would be news.
Personally I think a) it would be fair use unless some other contract you have formed is more restrictive than copyright and b) the GPL doesn't have anything to do with it. The GPL is only relevant in the copying of software code and executable binaries not side effects unless those side effects are program code or executable binaries.
In any event the risk is low. Perhaps your legal staff is probably just bored because they don't have anyone to sue today.
But who cares what I think. IANAL.
-- John.
Debian is the universal free software distribution.
If they killed off the architectures that you happen not to care about, it wouldn't be universal, so it wouldn't be Debian. It's not a waste of time, it's what the project is all about.
Frankly, apt works great on a day-to-day basis. And apt-get dist-upgrade appeared to work fine for my Woody web server.
If you want a slick x86 only distribution, look elsewhere. I'm sticking with Debian because they do things right. And where there are problems, I'm convinced they will fix them in a way that is ultimately scalable.
-- John.
W2K is being end-of-lifed.
On the contrary, CrossOver office might well be a good solution. I've seen apps that I could install and run under CrossOver quite easily, that I couldn't coax to run under Wine. And this is aside from the supported apps.
It doesn't cost much to try it out...
-- John.
Well I mean stable in the user's sense: the popular apps are not buggy and are usable. Unstable to a user means breakage. In the years I've been using Debian, I haven't seen much of that.
Debian has a lot of packages. The least used ones are often crappy, but no matter how old and crufty a version you use of such a package, it's still going to be crappy. So stable/unstable is irrelevant there.
But having the distribution that you should probably use on the desktop being called "unstable" gives users the wrong impression.
As far as the definition of "stable" meaning that you have a fixed, unchanging set of packages that you just get bugfix releases for, is of very little interest to joe user.
The usual criticism of Debian is that it is old. Well, it's only old for the people that value a, well, old (but maintained) version (the stable one). For everyone else the exact set of packages that are in Debian at any time is of very little importance. What's important to them is that maintained versions of the apps they use be available to them. The popular ones are available in Sid and prepackaged with all dependencies correct.
-- John.
False comparison... if you want to compare apples to apples, you should really be comparing Fedora to Sid (Debian Unstable).
Contrary to popular opinion, Debian Unstable is very, very stable. I'd like stable to release more often, but look at what we get in return: more packages, more architectures, and more freedom.
-- John.
I say the same thing about my favorite "true portable" laptops... model 100, 102, 200.
I think what we need are two things:
Standardization on batteries: either use off-the-shelf batteries, or highly standardize li-ion batteries. 3 or 4 AA batteries, or a couple of 9V should be enough for most things.
Right-size the firmware to what actually needs to be done. Neither Linux nor Windows really belong in instant-on commodity embedded systems (yet).
No moving parts. You'll get better reliability that way too.
-- John.
I'm curious --
Did the school give you any kind of notice that they were bringing in corporate representatives to brainwash your children?
Did you have any choice in the matter?
One day my kids will be in school, and I'd like to have a checklist to go over with the teachers from time to time...
-- John.
Hmm, I think you need to turn your humor down a little lower. His response was a combination of humor (Natalie Portman missing pants would be noticed) and burn (get a life, I'm a move critic not a SW geek, I don't care about continuity that much which is why I'm not giving you a serious answer).
The "desktop" metaphor sucks and deserves to die. Hell, I can't find anything on my *real* desktop why would anyone organize a WM that way? Surely there's something better by now.
There is... tabs should be a feature of the window manager, not the application (unless it's a tabbed dialog).
On my desktop I use Ion WM, a tabbed window manager. Apps open full-screen or within a subdivision of the main window, providing tabs for navigation.
Ion WM works with some applications better than others. It would be nice to see some support built in to X and X applications. Not sure what that means, but basically tab-aware applications would be a good way to go versus trying to make every application implement tabs in its own non-standard way.
-- John.
Reading the article (!) it seems the FBI was going after those initialling sharing the content in several raids, and probably going after elitetorrents to get evidence against the sharers.
I think that's the right thing, as opposed to attacking the network itself. Shutting down elitetorrents was probably just a side effect of gathering evidence.
Yeah every once in a while I have to launch my copy of Windows 98 or 2000 that I have confined to a VmWare session in one of my virtual desktops.
I sneak in there to enter a transaction in quackbooks (this summer I am switching to SQL Ledger though) or to print an invoice. Also I occasionally need to OCR a scan (generated by xsane). Oh yeah, and to get on the corporate VPN connection. For running MS Office (when OOo won't format something right), I use it directly under CrossOver office.
Most of the time spent in each vmware session is downloading fixes from windows update though...
Now do I get to meet Bill? I have to admit though he did write some of the "OS" for my favorite computer (Model 100)
There is a vibrant user community for the Model T: club100.org... users can join the list on that page.
;-) . But I am working on a Forth ROM replacement for use with ReMem.
We are also adding more RAM (2Meg + 4 Meg of flash): http://bitchin100.com/remem_project.htm
You can offload files to a Palm with this: http://bitchin100.com/dlpilot
I'm trying to get a magazine/newsletter off the ground for our tight-knit community:
http://bitchin100.com/webad.html
BASIC is nice to have for short programs. Power users program in assembly on 8-bit machines
-- John.
Here's my position, do with it what you will:
An ISPs job, IMHO is to route my packets. Every packet that you don't route is a failure to do the only service that I am paying the you for.
From that angle, it's not really that complex.
I agree spam, worms, virii are all huge problems, and the solutions aren't going to be easy. I do agree 100% that ISPs should start shutting off their own users that spew spam and virus.
But blocking user's MTAs is just plain wrong.
The worst part of this type of "solution" is that it falls into the trap of a "client server" Internet. The Internet is not client server. It's peer-to-peer, by design. The content industries would love to turn the net into a huge TV-like content distribution network force feeding users their crap.
No! Every computer is a node on the network. If you want to start requiring driving tests for the info superhighway, by all means, I'll take it. Maybe it would just be easier to get rid of people on the first or second or third offense.
But my feeling is that your eventual result is more evil and certainly more insideous than the problem which you are attempting to solve. Route my packets are I'll just switch to another ISP. It's that simple. Don't head down the slippery slope of making the Internet client-server.
-- John.
I'd say the difference is the input and output requirement.
You need a good keyboard, and you need a good display.
Here's the short list of true-portable laptops to check out:
Tandy WP-2
TRS-80 Model 100
Tandy 102
Tandy 200
Cambridge Z88
Amstrad NC100 or NC200'
All of these are 8-bit CPUs. Last for between 10 and 20 hours on battery (!!!). Available for between $10 and $50 on Ebay. Doesn't get cheaper than that.
Or the Alphasmart Dana which is basically a Palm V with a bigger screen. USB, IR, and memory slot.
Except for Dana, The interface for downloading to PC is serial port. You may need a $10 adapter if you only have USB on your machine.
-- John.
Let me make this clear to you and any other ISPs:
Fail to route your customers packets at your peril. Period.
I already dropped Adelphia cable and went to Speakeasy when they purposely stopped routing ICMP packets. I made the decision in about 3 seconds once I found out what they had done.
There are no bad ports or protocols, just bad people and programs. You'll have to deal with the problem directly not with bandaids if you want to keep your best customers.
That said, if you are a low end provider you don't really have any "good customers" so do whatever you feel like.
-- John.
You are so bold as to use a professional athlete in your example... are you saying that a professional athlete does not take a "holistic" view of work, that they are not doing what they love?
Hey, you've got a finite number of hours on this planet. To get by, you sell x number of hours of your time in the marketplace per day, and you get 24-x to spend on leisure time, a normal good.
If you had your druthers you would spend all of your time on leisure time, period.
Is it such a bad idea to try to find work where you are doing what you would be doing in part of your leisure time at work?
Listen, I did the whole "work is just work" thing. You will burn out with that kind of attitude. You have to like it to some degree.
The mercenary attitude, being ready to move on and sell your time to the highest bidder is absolutely right though. None of these companies owe you anything, and you don't owe them anything except for the brief period of time every week where they have accrued a Wages Payable liability to you, or they have accrued a Vacation Wages payable to you. That's pretty much it.
The only real exception to that is DO NOT ditch a customer or employer in mid-stream, i.e. in the middle of a contract or project. Otherwise, your reputation will take a real hit and you're going to have trouble finding future work.