I was thinking the same thing. I especially cringed when I read the part about him keeping his fingers into everything, long after he should have stopped.
I mean, really....KNOW what your company is doing, but trust the damn people you hire to do a good job. You don't need a manager hanging over your shoulder for every decision. Geesh
Re:GPL the best bet
on
OSI vs SCO
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I think SCO stop distributing Linux as soon as they realized they wouldn't be able to go after other companies using their IP, when they were giving their IP away.
re: the GPL and IP thing. They're doing just that. There was a story about it on/. a couple of days ago. Who *cares* if Microsoft tries to use their FUD about all this? They're going to do it no matter what happens anyway. They're doing whatever they can to make sure that Linux gets a good ol' screwdriver right in the chest, and they're trying to help twist it.
Bottom line: The lawyers (or whoever) that are in charge of IP at SCO screwed up, and they screwed up big time. They never should have released the code under GPL if they wanted to protect it later on down the line.
Going back and trying to reassert what ever rights they think they have isn't going to work. This is like putting code out in the public domain and then trying to turn around and stop everyone from using it. Too late. Too bad.
GPL the best bet
on
OSI vs SCO
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
The best bet for this whole thing is that SCO did their own Linux and released it. Since they did it under GPL, the cat's out of the bag....At least from this point on...or rather, the point they released it on. They've pulled their Linux since then.
Question is, can they sue for release of software BEFORE they released the now GPL-ed SCO code in their Linux distro?
Grid computing has been the "next big thing" for the last (at least) five years.
First it was Globus... now companies have latched on that whole idea, hoping it'll be "the thing".
And you know what? It's not.
There are two points to all this:
The people who are already involved with this have already declared victory, and are going to work towards this, no matter if it's going to work or not. After five years of pushing it, you'd think they'd get the idea that people just aren't buying into it... at least not to the scale they think people will. Five years from now, we'll be getting posts from some group of poor/.-ers that are forced to maintain all this stuff, while everyone else has already moved on long ago.
The second point is, don't believe anyone that says "it's the next big thing". The "next big thing" is going to be something that just sneaks up on everyone, the way Mosaic and Netscape did back in the mid-90s. It wasn't "the next big thing" until it was ALREADY "the big thing".
What you really want to do here is check the negated values of things, and act on those. Instead of code crawling across the page to the right, you can handle the != parts right there on the spot, and exit the routine...then you can do the next "if".
Doesn't always work, but when it doesn't it's probably time to do multiple function/method calls anyway.
Plus, it makes the code one helluva lot more readable.
So wether you are young or old, don't pigeon hole yourself into a single technology or language. Investigate the new ones that look promising
This is so true. I've seen many people that refused to learn new stuff, and eventually got laid off from jobs they had for 20 years. Freshly out into the marketplace, they're basically not able to be hired.
I'll tell you, it's one of the things about this industry that scares the hell out of me, and it should scare the hell out of anyone that does programming. Lose touch with where the industry is headed, and you'll get screwed.
Depends what you mean by "authority issues". If you're refering to "no adult supervision needed", from your title, I agree.
If you're talking about just about anything else, I'd disagree. Older workers tend to think for themselves more, and don't just eat everything that their bosses try to feed them. That's a lot of the reason a lot of places hire tons of fresh-outs from college, run them into the ground, rinse, lather and repeat. They don't want to put up with older workers who have realized there's more to life than just working.
Unless they already have the people in mind that they're going to hire, there's no freakin way they'll get these positions filled. I mean, someone who has a Secret Clearance, UNIX/C, does assembly, has crypto in 3 years? Unless you started out doing that stuff, you couldn't get all that with decent experience in that short of a time freame. The "is a plus" part is laughable too....3 to 5 years with all the above AND that stuff? Ha!
Anyway, what sort of support does Red Hat give? Is that a route this guy can go: Buy Red Hat, get the support contract, and voila, the support management demands?
Having used this stuff quite a bit myself over the years, I'd say at least some of the problems have to do with the wiring in the house. The lamp modules always worked well for me, as did the motion sensor, and wall switches.
I have used them in environments with lousy wiring, and some modules exhibited what you're talking about.
While this might keep the RIAA off of Apples back, there's no way that this will stop some people from copying CDs. As long as there's some charge for the song, there are people that will copy it so they don't have to spend their own money.
Sad, but true.
For the rest of us, it's a good thing. I'll probably buy an iPod now.
Gargoyles were supposed to be protectors, at least according to www.eb.com, and OED.com. There are other websites that talk about your definition though, but don't cite any references to where they came up with that.
Gargoyle does derive from the French word for spout, I believe.
I bring all this up because I want to incorporate, set up checking accounts, and all that. I order to incorporate, I have to list a business address, and right now it's looking like that'll be my home. That's why I'm asking the zoning question. I want to get this right.
The last freaking thing I need in my life is to get this wrong, and have some bozo at the IRS (or wherever) taking all my personal assets, which is my main reason for wanting to incoporate in the first place.
It applies because in order to incorporate (and protect your personal assets), you have to file with the state. In order to file with the state, you have to give a business address, which would be my home. The city requires that all businesses be registered. My home isn't in a commercial area; it's in a residential area.
Getting your project out into the world....
on
Free as in Marketable?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I've been in this situation before, on several different projects. Getting something through the intellectual property office, or whatever your version of it is called, is a complete nightmare. Since the internet boom, universities have been looking at software with an eye towards making money from about anything they could. I avoid that office until I absolutely can't.
Anyway....
First, is this something related to what you're doing at work? Did you come up with it, and work on it at work? If you didn't, they shouldn't be able to touch it. (insert standard "I'm not a lawyer, check with one of you're worried" disclaimer here).
If you did work on it at work, I seriously doubt this is something you can win, since you did use their resources to create it. I was never able to. The best I came up with was copyright by the university, free for non-commercial use. If someone uses it commercially, they have to obtain a license from the university.
A couple of tips:
1) First, hound the lawyers. I don't mean daily, but I do mean at least once every couple of weeks. If you don't, your release form will go to the bottom of the pile and you'll wait months and months. That's because there are many other people trying to get their patents, licenses, etc. approved. Be nice, friendly, but persistent. You'll need a good contact there in case someone actually does ask for the commerical license.
2) Don't expect to actually sell a commerical license. I've had many requests for commercial licenses, and none of them panned out. We charge about $3000 for the code (which is very cheap, if you compare it to the commerical world), and no further fees, but no one touched it.
3) If you accept changes from the outside to the code base you're maintaining, make it clear that it's under this license. The license should probably state something like that. This will make the lawyers feel better.
4) If at ALL possible, see if you can get a general license approved, that you can use to send out stuff that you'll come up with later. You'll still have to run it by the lawyers, but it'll take much less time.
5) If you're aware of any other software project that's gone through this before, find those folks, and ask them about all this. They might have something you can use to make the lawyers feel better. You might end up being this person if you're the one blazing the trail at your University. I know our license ended up being used by other projects after people consulted with me.
6) If you have no idea what to put in a license like this, look around at other universities that have released code like this, run it by the lawyers and see what they say.
7) This isn't really related to the license, but worth doing. Set up something to count the number of downloads you get on your software. Set up a mailing list too. If someone tries to axe the project because "no one uses it", you'll have ammo for that argument.
Good luck with all this. It's a real pain, but if you get a community behind your project to support you, it's worth it.
Slashdot Mirror
I was thinking the same thing. I especially cringed when I read the part about him keeping his fingers into everything, long after he should have stopped.
I mean, really....KNOW what your company is doing, but trust the damn people you hire to do a good job. You don't need a manager hanging over your shoulder for every decision. Geesh
I think SCO stop distributing Linux as soon as they realized they wouldn't be able to go after other companies using their IP, when they were giving their IP away.
/. a couple of days ago. Who *cares* if Microsoft tries to use their FUD about all this? They're going to do it no matter what happens anyway. They're doing whatever they can to make sure that Linux gets a good ol' screwdriver right in the chest, and they're trying to help twist it.
re: the GPL and IP thing. They're doing just that. There was a story about it on
Bottom line: The lawyers (or whoever) that are in charge of IP at SCO screwed up, and they screwed up big time. They never should have released the code under GPL if they wanted to protect it later on down the line.
Going back and trying to reassert what ever rights they think they have isn't going to work. This is like putting code out in the public domain and then trying to turn around and stop everyone from using it. Too late. Too bad.
The best bet for this whole thing is that SCO did their own Linux and released it. Since they did it under GPL, the cat's out of the bag. ...At least from this point on...or rather, the point they released it on. They've pulled their Linux since then.
Question is, can they sue for release of software BEFORE they released the now GPL-ed SCO code in their Linux distro?
You know, if enough of us bought SCO stock, we could vote out the damn management of SCO, install our own board, and say the hell with this lawsuit.
Don't think there's any realistic way to make that happen, but it'd be great to send these jokers pounding.
"Oooo! We can't compete with Linux! Therefore we must sue!"
Grid computing has been the "next big thing" for the last (at least) five years.
/.-ers that are forced to maintain all this stuff, while everyone else has already moved on long ago.
First it was Globus... now companies have latched on that whole idea, hoping it'll be "the thing".
And you know what? It's not.
There are two points to all this:
The people who are already involved with this have already declared victory, and are going to work towards this, no matter if it's going to work or not. After five years of pushing it, you'd think they'd get the idea that people just aren't buying into it... at least not to the scale they think people will. Five years from now, we'll be getting posts from some group of poor
The second point is, don't believe anyone that says "it's the next big thing". The "next big thing" is going to be something that just sneaks up on everyone, the way Mosaic and Netscape did back in the mid-90s. It wasn't "the next big thing" until it was ALREADY "the big thing".
Think before posting?
READ before posting. Others have already pointed out that the streams can be copied.
This is the same as software piracy...the people that do it justify it to themselves however they like, but it's STILL STEALING.
What you really want to do here is check the negated values of things, and act on those. Instead of code crawling across the page to the right, you can handle the != parts right there on the spot, and exit the routine...then you can do the next "if".
Doesn't always work, but when it doesn't it's probably time to do multiple function/method calls anyway.
Plus, it makes the code one helluva lot more readable.
Yes, I do all the time. Work, compile and test on Linux, deploy on Windows. Minimizes my Windows exposure.
/shrug
When I do have to work under Windows, I can use the same IDE between that and Linux too: JBuilder.
Works for me.
So wether you are young or old, don't pigeon hole yourself into a single technology or language. Investigate the new ones that look promising
This is so true. I've seen many people that refused to learn new stuff, and eventually got laid off from jobs they had for 20 years. Freshly out into the marketplace, they're basically not able to be hired.
I'll tell you, it's one of the things about this industry that scares the hell out of me, and it should scare the hell out of anyone that does programming. Lose touch with where the industry is headed, and you'll get screwed.
Depends what you mean by "authority issues". If you're refering to "no adult supervision needed", from your title, I agree.
If you're talking about just about anything else, I'd disagree. Older workers tend to think for themselves more, and don't just eat everything that their bosses try to feed them. That's a lot of the reason a lot of places hire tons of fresh-outs from college, run them into the ground, rinse, lather and repeat. They don't want to put up with older workers who have realized there's more to life than just working.
Unless they already have the people in mind that they're going to hire, there's no freakin way they'll get these positions filled. I mean, someone who has a Secret Clearance, UNIX/C, does assembly, has crypto in 3 years? Unless you started out doing that stuff, you couldn't get all that with decent experience in that short of a time freame. The "is a plus" part is laughable too....3 to 5 years with all the above AND that stuff? Ha!
:-)
But then, this is exactly you're point, is it?
Sounds like a company I know about...
Anyway, what sort of support does Red Hat give? Is that a route this guy can go: Buy Red Hat, get the support contract, and voila, the support management demands?
Having used this stuff quite a bit myself over the years, I'd say at least some of the problems have to do with the wiring in the house. The lamp modules always worked well for me, as did the motion sensor, and wall switches.
I have used them in environments with lousy wiring, and some modules exhibited what you're talking about.
Well, if was the house that Java built, it'd take out the garbage for you, all automatically! :-D
Try hostingmatters.com.
While this might keep the RIAA off of Apples back, there's no way that this will stop some people from copying CDs. As long as there's some charge for the song, there are people that will copy it so they don't have to spend their own money.
Sad, but true.
For the rest of us, it's a good thing. I'll probably buy an iPod now.
Gargoyles were supposed to be protectors, at least according to www.eb.com, and OED.com. There are other websites that talk about your definition though, but don't cite any references to where they came up with that.
Gargoyle does derive from the French word for spout, I believe.
You can almost hear everyone at the RIAA doing that Scoobie-Doo voice..."Rah-Oh"....
I didn't say it did, but it is interested in the fact that the company will be incorporated.
Bah...that's "in order to incorporate"
I bring all this up because I want to incorporate, set up checking accounts, and all that. I order to incorporate, I have to list a business address, and right now it's looking like that'll be my home. That's why I'm asking the zoning question. I want to get this right.
The last freaking thing I need in my life is to get this wrong, and have some bozo at the IRS (or wherever) taking all my personal assets, which is my main reason for wanting to incoporate in the first place.
It applies because in order to incorporate (and protect your personal assets), you have to file with the state. In order to file with the state, you have to give a business address, which would be my home. The city requires that all businesses be registered. My home isn't in a commercial area; it's in a residential area.
Hence the question.
Fire you.
I've been in this situation before, on several different projects. Getting something through the intellectual property office, or whatever your version of it is called, is a complete nightmare.
Since the internet boom, universities have been looking at software with an eye towards making money from about anything they could. I avoid that office until I absolutely can't.
Anyway....
First, is this something related to what you're doing at work? Did you come up with it, and work on it at work? If you didn't, they shouldn't be able to touch it. (insert standard "I'm not a lawyer, check with one of you're worried" disclaimer here).
If you did work on it at work, I seriously doubt this is something you can win, since you did use their resources to create it. I was never able to. The best I came up with was copyright by the university, free for non-commercial use. If someone uses it commercially, they have to obtain a license from the university.
A couple of tips:
1) First, hound the lawyers. I don't mean daily, but I do mean at least once every couple of weeks. If you don't, your release form will go to the bottom of the pile and you'll wait months and months. That's because there are many other people trying to get their patents, licenses, etc. approved. Be nice, friendly, but persistent. You'll need a good contact there in case someone actually does ask for the commerical license.
2) Don't expect to actually sell a commerical license. I've had many requests for commercial licenses, and none of them panned out. We charge about $3000 for the code (which is very cheap, if you compare it to the commerical world), and no further fees, but no one touched it.
3) If you accept changes from the outside to the code base you're maintaining, make it clear that it's under this license. The license should probably state something like that. This will make the lawyers feel better.
4) If at ALL possible, see if you can get a general license approved, that you can use to send out stuff that you'll come up with later. You'll still have to run it by the lawyers, but it'll take much less time.
5) If you're aware of any other software project that's gone through this before, find those folks, and ask them about all this. They might have something you can use to make the lawyers feel better. You might end up being this person if you're the one blazing the trail at your University. I know our license ended up being used by other projects after people consulted with me.
6) If you have no idea what to put in a license like this, look around at other universities that have released code like this, run it by the lawyers and see what they say.
7) This isn't really related to the license, but worth doing. Set up something to count the number of downloads you get on your software. Set up a mailing list too. If someone tries to axe the project because "no one uses it", you'll have ammo for that argument.
Good luck with all this. It's a real pain, but if you get a community behind your project to support you, it's worth it.
It was ended shortly before Mosaic was cancelled.