Dell could make a deal with a company that offers support for their Distro, like Red Hat for example.
- Dell sells Windows on their PCs. For Windows support, you call Dell or Microsoft.
- Dell makes a deal with Red Hat to supply Linux as well as service contracts to Dell customers. (Red Hat already provides support, so it's nothing new to them).
- Dell then sells the PC or laptop with either Windows or Linux, both of which include customer support.
Dell could even make similar deals with multiple Linux distributors. Dell gets to sell more computers, Linux distros get to sell more support contracts (and make more money off the Free OS), M$ still gets to sell their OS on Dell's as always, Dell customers have a choice, Dell gains more business by opening up to more customers. Everyone wins. If M$ puts the screws to Dell because of the new competition, then (if I were Dell) I'd let it be known to the world loud and clear.
2. If prior art is found during the grant process or after the patent is granted, fine companies for not performing a reasonable prior-art search. Make the fine large enough to make them think twice about not performing the search in the first place.
3. Require peer review, especially for prior art.
4. Reduce the incentive for the USPTO to grant nearly every patent by reducing the fee charged by the USPTO. Find another way to fund them and reduce the stupid government costs associated with the department.
5. In cases where a company is found to be infringing upon a patent, make them pay twice the attorney's fees of the other party in addition to whatever additional monetary damages the court may determine are due.
6. When a suite is filed claiming infringment, impose a mandatory injunction upon the patent, item, etc. in question so that the infringing company can not make any additional money from the product while the suite is being decided.
7. Require extensive prior-art searches by the USPTO.
8. Deny patents with statements similar to "Anything resembling this system is assumed to fall under this patent." I've seen these types of statements by large corporations whose aim is to create a monopoly.
9. Require utility patents to be more specific.
10. Eliminate all naturally occuring gene patents. Why the hell should anyone have the right to patent something that nature created!?
11. Update the USPTO computer systems and shitcan the seemingly endless paperwork involved (it's not the 19th century any longer!)
California is an at-will employment state meaning your employer can (and often will - because that's how employers are) release you at any time without notice. As an employee, you can leave at any time without notice as well (though it's not considered professional and word *will* get around). As long as you did not sign anything - including forms stating you received an Employee Handbook - which may have some sort of employment agreement in it - the employer can do nothing to you. I have worked for employers that use this sort of thing as a scare tactic. One thing I've heard often from lawyers is "They [the person you are having trouble with] can do anything they want [legally] until you catch them."
I've had former employers try to screw me in various ways that they knew were outside the law. As soon as I called their bluff and stated I would sue them for all they were worth (and it's very effective when you can quote the pertinent law backing your claims), it's amazing how fast they backpedal.
I can't say how the law in your particular state might read.
IANAL, but I have been through the legal system more times than I'd like.
Their answer to my e-mail was not real convincing and hinted of heavy PR. Mention the children and I suppose we should all just roll over and waive our rights and/or all contractual obligations. The Director of Network Abuse at GoDaddy contacted me and said that they attempted to contact the owner of the site. They could not, so they removed the site in the interest of protecting the personal information of the MySpace users. Once the owner talked to GoDaddy and they were assured that the user names and passwords were removed, the site was restored within an hour.
Maybe taking the site down was justified (I didn't see the offending content, I can't judge on the merit of it), but according to the story, it took Fyodor some 7 hours to find out from GoDaddy what had happened. What else did the story say - logs showing the site was shut down less than a minute after they notified him? This to me is completely unacceptible. The second thing that is unacceptible is the policy of shutting down any site for any reason without notification. When I pay for a service, I expect some amount of responsibility by the contractor to protect my investment. Part of that responsibility extends to providing clear reasons for termination of a contract and ample notification of the pending termination.
The Federal law doesn't technically force states to implement the ID stuff, it just says that if they don't, they won't get their federal highway money.
Which is what our form of government and the Constitution is meant to protect against: The ability (or power) of the Federal Government to force its will upon the States and the People. Unfortunately the States (and the People) have allowed the feds. to gain too much power over the many years since the country was founded. Now the feds have way too much power and the States are beholden to them for nearly everything.
The terms "wiretapping," "assault rifle," and "t-shirt" do not appear in the Constitution, nor could they have existed in Common Law, obviously. It would be sophistry to claim that "wiretapping" == "searching a house without a warrant", that "assault rifle" == "18th century musket", or that "t-shirt" == "mouth" (or "paper").
An "assault rifle" is one type of many "arms" as defined by Common Law when the Constitution was written. The word "arms" means any weapon that an infantryman would carry. The specific reason for the wording was so that the People (defined as every person in every State of the United States) could defend themselves against the federal government or any invading entity. As an aside, the term "assault rifle" is really meaningless as currently defined considering any rifle used to assault a person is, by it's very use, and assault rifle. Taking this a step further, the musket was designed to kill people faster and more efficiently than the sword or pistol before them, therefore it is an assult rifle.
"wiretapping" falls under freedom of speach considering that when speaking into any electonic device that transmits your voice you have a reasonable expectation that you can say what you want without fear of repercussions from the government. The point of the right to free speach and the right to unlawful searches and siezures was specifically to prevent government from stifling the spoken or written word in any form. This is simple to see from the many writings and discussions from the time, not to mention from a basic study of the history leading up to the Revolution and the Constitution. My spoken word is my spoken word, no matter what method is used to transmit it.
Writing on a t-shirt is writing just as writing on paper is writing. Whether I speak it or write it or transmit it in any form I am protected under the Constitution.
The Constitution was written in a very precise way. There is nothing ambiguous about it. Everything is well defined. All one has to do to interpret it in the proper manner is use the Common Law from the time that it was written.
There are three possible meanings to everything in a legal document: 1) It is defined within the document, 2) it is defined within other legal documents to which the parent document refers or draws from, 3) it is defined within the context of the common language of the time that the document was written.
In the case of the Constitution, there were numerous discussions at the time of the writing of the Bill of Rights (for example). These discussions between the writers and States defined the final meaning of every clause. In addition, words like "arms", "people", "militia" were defined within the Common Law of the time the Constitution was written and their meanings are clear.
Those that attempt to say that the meanings of certain words and phrases in the Constitution have changed over the years have a single agenda: to bend it to their way of thinking, whatever that may be (and it's usually not in the public good).
The Constitution does not need to be re-written and in fact can not under the law without going through much legal wrangling throughout the States. It is in plain English and the meaning of some terms that we may not use today can easily be found within many other documents from the same time period. As for the interpretation, the Supreme Court has always had that power. The States have always had the power to question the Supreme Court, but they have lost their will to do so.
You must understand, our (the US) government doesn't give a damn about the rights of anyone, the laws of any other country, morality, or justice if it contradicts their agenda. Their attitude is basically to hell with the rest of the world, we'll just stomp on you if you give us any grief, take away foreign aid, etc.
You can thank the uninformed, stupid, voters and the even more uniformed, and even more stupid people that don't vote.
MySQL is at version 5.0.27 with 5.1 in Beta now. The article is terribly old as far as features of the two DBMS's is concerned, especially references to views, transactions, and sub-queries (all of which were lacking in MySQL 4.1, but all of which are present in 5.0.27 and 5.1). In fact, your statement about MySQL is errant as well.
Using InnoDB, transactions, foreign keys with constraints, triggers, etc. in MySQL 5.x gives plenty of referential integrity. It also provides ACID compliance.
We won't even talk about comparing MySQL MaxDB (SAP/R3 Certified) and Postgres.
...just look at what the State actually does and open your eyes to the fact that the government is a far greater threat to your life and liberty than any numnber of terrorists.
In fact it is because of government and their actions that we have so many terroists and other threats.
To understand the Second Amendment, one must have read and understand the Common Law from the time it was written, and the many, many debates leading up to the final wording of the amendment itself. It was not originally written in the form that it took in the final draft. It went through at least three revisions. There were many debates by the States and the framers until the wording we have was finally agreed upon. The words "people", "militia", and "arms" have very clear and precise definitions. There is absolutely no ambiguity at all. In addition, the Bill of Rights was put in place to protect the States and the people therein from the Federal Government because they had seen what a national government with too much power would do.
Arms are any weapon that would be carried by an infantryman in the national military.
People refers to the citizens of the United States, each and every one, not as a group.
Militia refers to those men (remember, women had few rights) who were citizens who were able to shoot a gun and owned one. They were also not paid by the State or US Government, but could and should be ready to defend the State if called upon to do so. Once the State called upon the militia, it was up to the State to provide proper training, food, etc. for them. Today, because rights have since been given to women that were once only afforded by men, women are also considered to be part of the militia as defined.
In California - where I live - the militia is incorrectly defined as the National Guard and any other form of militia is illegal under state law. Even though the sate can prohibit the possession of a gun on state owned property (e.g. - a government building, park, etc.), it has no right to make laws against my purchasing and ownership of any arms as defined by the Constitution and the Common Law of the day.
The Second Amendment also states that the rights mentioned in the amendment "...shall not be infringed." This is pretty damned clear to anyone with 1/4 of a brain. It means that every citizen has a right to own an "arm" and government can make no law removing that right. There are clear reasons for the right, as explained at length in the many writings and discussions leading up the the approval of the amendment. Anti-gun and government folks clearly ignore this in order to see their own agenda through (whatever that may be), and count on the general ignorance of the people to make these laws stick.
The States knew that without all the privately own arms in the colonies, the war would have been lost. They knew that government would, if left un-checked, eventually exert its power over the people once again as the king had. The Bill of Rights, and especially the Second Amendment was written as a safeguard against that. Many of the framers also knew that it is still only a piece of paper, and that piece of paper is useless and meaningless if the people don't stand up and make sure it is followed and enforced.
The Second Amendment affords both an individual right (keep and bear arms) and a community right (a militia). The argument that "times have change" is only given by the ignorant or those that have some underlying agenda. Times have not really changed at all. In fact, governments of all countries, especially our own, have become even more dangerous and we should be even more diligent than ever before in our watching them and keeping them in check.
Microsoft has the best virtual machine with.NET, the best development tool with Visual Studio...
This is a rather subjective statement, and as far as.NET being the best VM, I say BS..NET is proprietary and only works on M$ platforms. Relying upon a proprietary standard with regards to computer and network systems in business is a costly mistake. Mono folks need not chime in as they are taking a huge risk and I don't even want to go there. As a developer, I don't like either one (.NET or VS). I used to develop using VS and liked it, but have since found better tools that support multiple platforms as well as the real stanadards (as compared to the standards that M$ has decided upon. I also no longer have to deal with M$ platform bugs, quirks, and security problems.
If linux had any dev environment that was ANYWHERE NEAR as good as VC++, maybe I wouldn't despise working on it.
As for a decent IDE for Linux, there are several. I like Code Forge as it supports a wide range of languages, editiors, debuggers, compilers, assemblers, and source control. For the past year, I've been using Sun's IDEs for Java and C/C++. The UML modeling capability in Sun Java(r) Studio Enterprise 11 is great - make a UML model of your application and tell the IDE can generate the code from it (or do it the other way around: create the model from existing code). For getting a quick handle on how an application - or the Linux kernel - works, what all the functions, methods, opjects, etc. are, nothing beats Understand for C++ and Understand for Java. The Sun IDEs are cross-platform and free for registered SDN developers (free registration). Understand tools are not free, but well worth the money, and are also cross-platform. Code Forge is UNIX only.
The bottom line is: Saying Linux has no good IDEs or other development tools is not true and one only needs to look and select the one that they like the most. I've found I can develop applications on Linux, with Linux tools, far faster, easier, and cheaper than I ever have on Windows. That includes developing Windows applications (I simply do the GUI portion on a Windows box, if I need to).
IANAL, but IIRC, under patent law, if it's in the public domain for a year or more, then infringement can't be claimed. If they sat on it all this time, and did nothing, then how can they have any case in the US against anyone? Any patent lawyers out there?
On the other hand, if indeed they could do nothing legally until recently - whenever the US-Australian FTA was signed - other than write letters, complain, etc., then maybe that is enough grounds in court for pursuing infringment. If they can show a paper trail that over the years they've complained about their patent being used by , then I'd say they may have a right to be paid now.
On the other hand, maybe the best solution for the common good, is to allow them to license their technology going forward, but not allow them to charge retroactively.
Something other than the crap that the labels are promoting these days. Enough with the bee-bop, teen-age "artists" singing whatever the label tells them to. Enough with the inexperinced "artists" singing about love when they're barely out of puberty.
There's going to be some fighting before this power-grab by the Authoritarian Right who have masked themselves as "Conservatives" will end.
You are quick to put all the blame on the "Conservatives". The blame belongs to three groups: 1) The Democrats who long for and grab power when they can, 2) The Republicans who long for and grab power when they can, 3) The American Public who let it happen and are too clueless to make it stop.
You all (Reps. and Dems. alike) let it happen by continuing to vote for either of two sides of the same rotten coin. (Then there are those that don't vote at all.)
It's because people don't care that they can't afford to care. By wanting something cheap, at any cost (and cost does NOT just apply to monetary cost), we (in the US) have begun a downward spiral for ourselves. We require cheap goods, so companies go off-shore to get them. In turn, the job market here decreases, making cheap goods no longer a want, but a need. The cycle continues, eventually sending our economy as a whole down the toilet. All this perpetuated by the "I don't care" attitude.
What once was an industrial might, is now an industrial bug to be squashed in an instant. We are fast becoming a service oriented economy, and we will not survive, but people just don't care. People only care when it directly effects them, and then they bitch, moan, and complain about it and wonder how things got so bad. They never think to look at where things are going before they get there (which is the major difference between American corporations and, for example, Japanese corporations - that Japanese are looking to the future, the Americans are looking at today's profits).
Those who think parents are not responsible for their children are sending a very bad message. In fact, that's a major reason why the children in this country (US) are getting pregnant earlier, killing each other, committing more crimes, etc., etc. and on, and on. People do not want to take responsibility for their own actions let alone any one elses, be it their own kids or not. "I didn't do it. It's not my fault. Let the government or the courts deal with it. I'm too busy with my own little world, career, country club, work, and friends to bother watching my own kids."
Heaven forbid we expect anyone to actually take some responsibility and teach their kids not to be assholes. Heaven forbid we take any responsibility for not teaching our kids. Heaven forbid we take any responsibility for our children's mis-deeds because they didn't know any better, but we (supposedly) do.
Heaven forbid we actuall continue to live in a somewhat civilized world.
Akamai does not use it on 99.9% of their servers. Good thing for us Internet users too. If they used M$ on the tens of thousands of servers they have, the services they provide would cost a LOT more. Those costs would be passed on to you and me by thier many customers.
Quake Global (my company) is switching to Linux.
Burlington Coat Factory made the switch some years ago.
Do a little browsing and you can name your own thirty-three.
The prevailing attitude is that you must use Windows, regardless of how painful it is. Everyone else uses Windows, and the business of business is business. CTOs and CIOs don't want to hear about OpenOffice or Samba, etc, because it just muddies the waters they're paid to keep clear.
Be very careful when making such blanket statements. The prevailing attitude in IT departments is to use whatever best suites the job. IT courses teach up-and-coming IT professionals to use whatever best does the job and to ignore price until it is the deciding factor between tools. Any executive worth a damn will trust the IT department - the experts they hired - to provide the best solution for the task and company. CEOs don't want to hear about the details. CIOs and CTOs know the details or know that their departments can make the right choices. The prevailing attitude in my company is to move away from Windows as much as possible because it's too expensive and unreliable. Executives, lower-level employees, IT, all are tired of the M$ BS and expense. Many companies are making the switch - all you have to do is read a little to see the evidence of it.
There's plenty of games out there that run on Linux. There are several that run under VMs and emulators in Linux. I will add that I don't consider playing games an important use for a PC.
- Use Photoshop (don't say Gimp)
I will say The Gimp, and I'll tell you not to say Photoshop (just as valid for me to say that as it was for you to mention The Gimp). There's nothing I need Photoshop for that The Gimp can't do. I use The Gimp where others I have worked with use Photoshop for the same purpose. They each have the same capabilities. Why would you have to use Photoshop?
- Use 3D Studio Max (yes, there are some alternatives, but 3ds Max is an industry standard)
Blender. I find it more intuitive. I've used both for modeling for FPS games (used The Gimp as well) and found Blender easier.
- Etc
I've found just about nothing missing in Linux as far as applications. The only things I need Windows for are proprietary Windows only applications for some niche use (which is very rare), and for Outlook at work because our admin can't seem to give me the right information for connecting my Linux mail programs to the POS Exchange server. All my development work (embedded software, web applications, schematics) can be done on Linux. All my graphics (web, game textures, modeling, publishing) can be done on Linux. All my game fetishes are covered (Doom, Quake, SoF, Descent, SMAC, Serious Sam, NWN, America's Army, a slew of arcade type games that are included with Linux, the list goes on and on) and every multi-platform game I have ever played runs faster and more reliable on Linux (NOTE: I am a registered NVIDIA developer and have been around the game block a few times). I will add that since I do not do game programming for money any longer, and have no time for it as a hobby, if I can't play a game in Linux I'm certainly not going to be heartbroken about it. So, what "Etc" are you referring to?
The biggest problem with Linux is that it severely lacks blanket support by large software and hardware developers (including solid driver support for many things). This is what happens when you have a desktop market share that many companies truly consider irrelevant. Yes, Linux has a lot to offer on the desktop, but as of yet it is not on equal footing to Windows (or even Apple in most cases [such as graphics design, drivers, etc]).
I have yet to find a piece of hardware that would not work in Linux aside from the obscure POS (e.g. - I had a USBserial device that wouldn't work in Windows worth a damn, and there was no Linux driver for it). I'm not saying there are things that Linux doesn't support, but then there are things Windows doesn't support either. At least with Linux you have the option of making it support what you need if you're really in a bind.
The real problem with Linux for the average user is ease of application installation and upgrading. It is simply not user friendly when it comes to installing most applications, drivers, etc. Upgrading can be a real PITA. There is an up side to this though. It forces the average Linux user to become more computer and system savvy than the average Windows user. Users that can manage their own systems is a Very Good Thing.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, right, it's always been a good thing to screw with nature. Mankind has always been successful at that, we're such masters of our environment.
PGA
Dell could make a deal with a company that offers support for their Distro, like Red Hat for example.
- Dell sells Windows on their PCs. For Windows support, you call Dell or Microsoft.
- Dell makes a deal with Red Hat to supply Linux as well as service contracts to Dell customers. (Red Hat already provides support, so it's nothing new to them).
- Dell then sells the PC or laptop with either Windows or Linux, both of which include customer support.
Dell could even make similar deals with multiple Linux distributors. Dell gets to sell more computers, Linux distros get to sell more support contracts (and make more money off the Free OS), M$ still gets to sell their OS on Dell's as always, Dell customers have a choice, Dell gains more business by opening up to more customers. Everyone wins. If M$ puts the screws to Dell because of the new competition, then (if I were Dell) I'd let it be known to the world loud and clear.
Paul G. "I don't do Windows" Allen
Darn WGA and Automatic Updates bit us again! ;)
PGA
1. Eliminate software patents completely.
2. If prior art is found during the grant process or after the patent is granted, fine companies for not performing a reasonable prior-art search. Make the fine large enough to make them think twice about not performing the search in the first place.
3. Require peer review, especially for prior art.
4. Reduce the incentive for the USPTO to grant nearly every patent by reducing the fee charged by the USPTO. Find another way to fund them and reduce the stupid government costs associated with the department.
5. In cases where a company is found to be infringing upon a patent, make them pay twice the attorney's fees of the other party in addition to whatever additional monetary damages the court may determine are due.
6. When a suite is filed claiming infringment, impose a mandatory injunction upon the patent, item, etc. in question so that the infringing company can not make any additional money from the product while the suite is being decided.
7. Require extensive prior-art searches by the USPTO.
8. Deny patents with statements similar to "Anything resembling this system is assumed to fall under this patent." I've seen these types of statements by large corporations whose aim is to create a monopoly.
9. Require utility patents to be more specific.
10. Eliminate all naturally occuring gene patents. Why the hell should anyone have the right to patent something that nature created!?
11. Update the USPTO computer systems and shitcan the seemingly endless paperwork involved (it's not the 19th century any longer!)
PGA
California is an at-will employment state meaning your employer can (and often will - because that's how employers are) release you at any time without notice. As an employee, you can leave at any time without notice as well (though it's not considered professional and word *will* get around). As long as you did not sign anything - including forms stating you received an Employee Handbook - which may have some sort of employment agreement in it - the employer can do nothing to you. I have worked for employers that use this sort of thing as a scare tactic. One thing I've heard often from lawyers is "They [the person you are having trouble with] can do anything they want [legally] until you catch them."
I've had former employers try to screw me in various ways that they knew were outside the law. As soon as I called their bluff and stated I would sue them for all they were worth (and it's very effective when you can quote the pertinent law backing your claims), it's amazing how fast they backpedal.
I can't say how the law in your particular state might read.
IANAL, but I have been through the legal system more times than I'd like.
PGA
Their answer to my e-mail was not real convincing and hinted of heavy PR. Mention the children and I suppose we should all just roll over and waive our rights and/or all contractual obligations. The Director of Network Abuse at GoDaddy contacted me and said that they attempted to contact the owner of the site. They could not, so they removed the site in the interest of protecting the personal information of the MySpace users. Once the owner talked to GoDaddy and they were assured that the user names and passwords were removed, the site was restored within an hour.
Maybe taking the site down was justified (I didn't see the offending content, I can't judge on the merit of it), but according to the story, it took Fyodor some 7 hours to find out from GoDaddy what had happened. What else did the story say - logs showing the site was shut down less than a minute after they notified him? This to me is completely unacceptible. The second thing that is unacceptible is the policy of shutting down any site for any reason without notification. When I pay for a service, I expect some amount of responsibility by the contractor to protect my investment. Part of that responsibility extends to providing clear reasons for termination of a contract and ample notification of the pending termination.
PGA
The name of the organization is: ISO - International Organization for Standardization. I have no idea why it's "ISO" when clearly it should be "IOS".
PGA
I am currently looking to transfer my 14 domain names from GoDaddy because of this action by them. I have e-mailed them and informed them of this.
PGA www.randomlogic.com
The Federal law doesn't technically force states to implement the ID stuff, it just says that if they don't, they won't get their federal highway money.
Which is what our form of government and the Constitution is meant to protect against: The ability (or power) of the Federal Government to force its will upon the States and the People. Unfortunately the States (and the People) have allowed the feds. to gain too much power over the many years since the country was founded. Now the feds have way too much power and the States are beholden to them for nearly everything.
Just as the feds like it.
I will never carry a RF ID.
PGA
The terms "wiretapping," "assault rifle," and "t-shirt" do not appear in the Constitution, nor could they have existed in Common Law, obviously. It would be sophistry to claim that "wiretapping" == "searching a house without a warrant", that "assault rifle" == "18th century musket", or that "t-shirt" == "mouth" (or "paper").
An "assault rifle" is one type of many "arms" as defined by Common Law when the Constitution was written. The word "arms" means any weapon that an infantryman would carry. The specific reason for the wording was so that the People (defined as every person in every State of the United States) could defend themselves against the federal government or any invading entity. As an aside, the term "assault rifle" is really meaningless as currently defined considering any rifle used to assault a person is, by it's very use, and assault rifle. Taking this a step further, the musket was designed to kill people faster and more efficiently than the sword or pistol before them, therefore it is an assult rifle.
"wiretapping" falls under freedom of speach considering that when speaking into any electonic device that transmits your voice you have a reasonable expectation that you can say what you want without fear of repercussions from the government. The point of the right to free speach and the right to unlawful searches and siezures was specifically to prevent government from stifling the spoken or written word in any form. This is simple to see from the many writings and discussions from the time, not to mention from a basic study of the history leading up to the Revolution and the Constitution. My spoken word is my spoken word, no matter what method is used to transmit it.
Writing on a t-shirt is writing just as writing on paper is writing. Whether I speak it or write it or transmit it in any form I am protected under the Constitution.
PGA
The Constitution was written in a very precise way. There is nothing ambiguous about it. Everything is well defined. All one has to do to interpret it in the proper manner is use the Common Law from the time that it was written.
There are three possible meanings to everything in a legal document: 1) It is defined within the document, 2) it is defined within other legal documents to which the parent document refers or draws from, 3) it is defined within the context of the common language of the time that the document was written.
In the case of the Constitution, there were numerous discussions at the time of the writing of the Bill of Rights (for example). These discussions between the writers and States defined the final meaning of every clause. In addition, words like "arms", "people", "militia" were defined within the Common Law of the time the Constitution was written and their meanings are clear.
Those that attempt to say that the meanings of certain words and phrases in the Constitution have changed over the years have a single agenda: to bend it to their way of thinking, whatever that may be (and it's usually not in the public good).
The Constitution does not need to be re-written and in fact can not under the law without going through much legal wrangling throughout the States. It is in plain English and the meaning of some terms that we may not use today can easily be found within many other documents from the same time period. As for the interpretation, the Supreme Court has always had that power. The States have always had the power to question the Supreme Court, but they have lost their will to do so.
PGA
So, I'm a troll for speaking the truth?
I suppose a politician is the one that moderated me? Maybe someone that doesn't bother to vote?
Just wondering about the logic behind the moderation.
PGA
You must understand, our (the US) government doesn't give a damn about the rights of anyone, the laws of any other country, morality, or justice if it contradicts their agenda. Their attitude is basically to hell with the rest of the world, we'll just stomp on you if you give us any grief, take away foreign aid, etc.
You can thank the uninformed, stupid, voters and the even more uniformed, and even more stupid people that don't vote.
PGA
MySQL is at version 5.0.27 with 5.1 in Beta now. The article is terribly old as far as features of the two DBMS's is concerned, especially references to views, transactions, and sub-queries (all of which were lacking in MySQL 4.1, but all of which are present in 5.0.27 and 5.1). In fact, your statement about MySQL is errant as well.
Using InnoDB, transactions, foreign keys with constraints, triggers, etc. in MySQL 5.x gives plenty of referential integrity. It also provides ACID compliance.
We won't even talk about comparing MySQL MaxDB (SAP/R3 Certified) and Postgres.
PGA
...just look at what the State actually does and open your eyes to the fact that the government is a far greater threat to your life and liberty than any numnber of terrorists.
In fact it is because of government and their actions that we have so many terroists and other threats.
PGA
To understand the Second Amendment, one must have read and understand the Common Law from the time it was written, and the many, many debates leading up to the final wording of the amendment itself. It was not originally written in the form that it took in the final draft. It went through at least three revisions. There were many debates by the States and the framers until the wording we have was finally agreed upon. The words "people", "militia", and "arms" have very clear and precise definitions. There is absolutely no ambiguity at all. In addition, the Bill of Rights was put in place to protect the States and the people therein from the Federal Government because they had seen what a national government with too much power would do.
Arms are any weapon that would be carried by an infantryman in the national military.
People refers to the citizens of the United States, each and every one, not as a group.
Militia refers to those men (remember, women had few rights) who were citizens who were able to shoot a gun and owned one. They were also not paid by the State or US Government, but could and should be ready to defend the State if called upon to do so. Once the State called upon the militia, it was up to the State to provide proper training, food, etc. for them. Today, because rights have since been given to women that were once only afforded by men, women are also considered to be part of the militia as defined.
In California - where I live - the militia is incorrectly defined as the National Guard and any other form of militia is illegal under state law. Even though the sate can prohibit the possession of a gun on state owned property (e.g. - a government building, park, etc.), it has no right to make laws against my purchasing and ownership of any arms as defined by the Constitution and the Common Law of the day.
The Second Amendment also states that the rights mentioned in the amendment "...shall not be infringed." This is pretty damned clear to anyone with 1/4 of a brain. It means that every citizen has a right to own an "arm" and government can make no law removing that right. There are clear reasons for the right, as explained at length in the many writings and discussions leading up the the approval of the amendment. Anti-gun and government folks clearly ignore this in order to see their own agenda through (whatever that may be), and count on the general ignorance of the people to make these laws stick.
The States knew that without all the privately own arms in the colonies, the war would have been lost. They knew that government would, if left un-checked, eventually exert its power over the people once again as the king had. The Bill of Rights, and especially the Second Amendment was written as a safeguard against that. Many of the framers also knew that it is still only a piece of paper, and that piece of paper is useless and meaningless if the people don't stand up and make sure it is followed and enforced.
The Second Amendment affords both an individual right (keep and bear arms) and a community right (a militia). The argument that "times have change" is only given by the ignorant or those that have some underlying agenda. Times have not really changed at all. In fact, governments of all countries, especially our own, have become even more dangerous and we should be even more diligent than ever before in our watching them and keeping them in check.
PGA
Microsoft has the best virtual machine with .NET, the best development tool with Visual Studio...
.NET being the best VM, I say BS. .NET is proprietary and only works on M$ platforms. Relying upon a proprietary standard with regards to computer and network systems in business is a costly mistake. Mono folks need not chime in as they are taking a huge risk and I don't even want to go there. As a developer, I don't like either one (.NET or VS). I used to develop using VS and liked it, but have since found better tools that support multiple platforms as well as the real stanadards (as compared to the standards that M$ has decided upon. I also no longer have to deal with M$ platform bugs, quirks, and security problems.
This is a rather subjective statement, and as far as
If linux had any dev environment that was ANYWHERE NEAR as good as VC++, maybe I wouldn't despise working on it.
As for a decent IDE for Linux, there are several. I like Code Forge as it supports a wide range of languages, editiors, debuggers, compilers, assemblers, and source control. For the past year, I've been using Sun's IDEs for Java and C/C++. The UML modeling capability in Sun Java(r) Studio Enterprise 11 is great - make a UML model of your application and tell the IDE can generate the code from it (or do it the other way around: create the model from existing code). For getting a quick handle on how an application - or the Linux kernel - works, what all the functions, methods, opjects, etc. are, nothing beats Understand for C++ and Understand for Java. The Sun IDEs are cross-platform and free for registered SDN developers (free registration). Understand tools are not free, but well worth the money, and are also cross-platform. Code Forge is UNIX only.
The bottom line is: Saying Linux has no good IDEs or other development tools is not true and one only needs to look and select the one that they like the most. I've found I can develop applications on Linux, with Linux tools, far faster, easier, and cheaper than I ever have on Windows. That includes developing Windows applications (I simply do the GUI portion on a Windows box, if I need to).
PGA
IANAL, but IIRC, under patent law, if it's in the public domain for a year or more, then infringement can't be claimed. If they sat on it all this time, and did nothing, then how can they have any case in the US against anyone? Any patent lawyers out there?
On the other hand, if indeed they could do nothing legally until recently - whenever the US-Australian FTA was signed - other than write letters, complain, etc., then maybe that is enough grounds in court for pursuing infringment. If they can show a paper trail that over the years they've complained about their patent being used by , then I'd say they may have a right to be paid now.
On the other hand, maybe the best solution for the common good, is to allow them to license their technology going forward, but not allow them to charge retroactively.
PGA
What material would you like to see?
Something other than the crap that the labels are promoting these days. Enough with the bee-bop, teen-age "artists" singing whatever the label tells them to. Enough with the inexperinced "artists" singing about love when they're barely out of puberty.
PGA
There's going to be some fighting before this power-grab by the Authoritarian Right who have masked themselves as "Conservatives" will end.
You are quick to put all the blame on the "Conservatives". The blame belongs to three groups: 1) The Democrats who long for and grab power when they can, 2) The Republicans who long for and grab power when they can, 3) The American Public who let it happen and are too clueless to make it stop.
You all (Reps. and Dems. alike) let it happen by continuing to vote for either of two sides of the same rotten coin. (Then there are those that don't vote at all.)
PGA
It's because people don't care that they can't afford to care. By wanting something cheap, at any cost (and cost does NOT just apply to monetary cost), we (in the US) have begun a downward spiral for ourselves. We require cheap goods, so companies go off-shore to get them. In turn, the job market here decreases, making cheap goods no longer a want, but a need. The cycle continues, eventually sending our economy as a whole down the toilet. All this perpetuated by the "I don't care" attitude.
What once was an industrial might, is now an industrial bug to be squashed in an instant. We are fast becoming a service oriented economy, and we will not survive, but people just don't care. People only care when it directly effects them, and then they bitch, moan, and complain about it and wonder how things got so bad. They never think to look at where things are going before they get there (which is the major difference between American corporations and, for example, Japanese corporations - that Japanese are looking to the future, the Americans are looking at today's profits).
PGA
Format C:. Install any other OS.
PGA
Those who think parents are not responsible for their children are sending a very bad message. In fact, that's a major reason why the children in this country (US) are getting pregnant earlier, killing each other, committing more crimes, etc., etc. and on, and on. People do not want to take responsibility for their own actions let alone any one elses, be it their own kids or not. "I didn't do it. It's not my fault. Let the government or the courts deal with it. I'm too busy with my own little world, career, country club, work, and friends to bother watching my own kids."
Heaven forbid we expect anyone to actually take some responsibility and teach their kids not to be assholes. Heaven forbid we take any responsibility for not teaching our kids. Heaven forbid we take any responsibility for our children's mis-deeds because they didn't know any better, but we (supposedly) do.
Heaven forbid we actuall continue to live in a somewhat civilized world.
PGA
Father of Four
Name three.
Akamai does not use it on 99.9% of their servers. Good thing for us Internet users too. If they used M$ on the tens of thousands of servers they have, the services they provide would cost a LOT more. Those costs would be passed on to you and me by thier many customers.
Quake Global (my company) is switching to Linux.
Burlington Coat Factory made the switch some years ago.
Do a little browsing and you can name your own thirty-three.
The prevailing attitude is that you must use Windows, regardless of how painful it is. Everyone else uses Windows, and the business of business is business. CTOs and CIOs don't want to hear about OpenOffice or Samba, etc, because it just muddies the waters they're paid to keep clear.
Be very careful when making such blanket statements. The prevailing attitude in IT departments is to use whatever best suites the job. IT courses teach up-and-coming IT professionals to use whatever best does the job and to ignore price until it is the deciding factor between tools. Any executive worth a damn will trust the IT department - the experts they hired - to provide the best solution for the task and company. CEOs don't want to hear about the details. CIOs and CTOs know the details or know that their departments can make the right choices. The prevailing attitude in my company is to move away from Windows as much as possible because it's too expensive and unreliable. Executives, lower-level employees, IT, all are tired of the M$ BS and expense. Many companies are making the switch - all you have to do is read a little to see the evidence of it.
PGA
Maybe you don't, but what if I want/need to:
- Play games (Tux Racer doesn't count)
There's plenty of games out there that run on Linux. There are several that run under VMs and emulators in Linux. I will add that I don't consider playing games an important use for a PC.
- Use Photoshop (don't say Gimp)
I will say The Gimp, and I'll tell you not to say Photoshop (just as valid for me to say that as it was for you to mention The Gimp). There's nothing I need Photoshop for that The Gimp can't do. I use The Gimp where others I have worked with use Photoshop for the same purpose. They each have the same capabilities. Why would you have to use Photoshop?
- Use 3D Studio Max (yes, there are some alternatives, but 3ds Max is an industry standard)
Blender. I find it more intuitive. I've used both for modeling for FPS games (used The Gimp as well) and found Blender easier.
- Etc
I've found just about nothing missing in Linux as far as applications. The only things I need Windows for are proprietary Windows only applications for some niche use (which is very rare), and for Outlook at work because our admin can't seem to give me the right information for connecting my Linux mail programs to the POS Exchange server. All my development work (embedded software, web applications, schematics) can be done on Linux. All my graphics (web, game textures, modeling, publishing) can be done on Linux. All my game fetishes are covered (Doom, Quake, SoF, Descent, SMAC, Serious Sam, NWN, America's Army, a slew of arcade type games that are included with Linux, the list goes on and on) and every multi-platform game I have ever played runs faster and more reliable on Linux (NOTE: I am a registered NVIDIA developer and have been around the game block a few times). I will add that since I do not do game programming for money any longer, and have no time for it as a hobby, if I can't play a game in Linux I'm certainly not going to be heartbroken about it. So, what "Etc" are you referring to?
The biggest problem with Linux is that it severely lacks blanket support by large software and hardware developers (including solid driver support for many things). This is what happens when you have a desktop market share that many companies truly consider irrelevant. Yes, Linux has a lot to offer on the desktop, but as of yet it is not on equal footing to Windows (or even Apple in most cases [such as graphics design, drivers, etc]).
I have yet to find a piece of hardware that would not work in Linux aside from the obscure POS (e.g. - I had a USBserial device that wouldn't work in Windows worth a damn, and there was no Linux driver for it). I'm not saying there are things that Linux doesn't support, but then there are things Windows doesn't support either. At least with Linux you have the option of making it support what you need if you're really in a bind.
The real problem with Linux for the average user is ease of application installation and upgrading. It is simply not user friendly when it comes to installing most applications, drivers, etc. Upgrading can be a real PITA. There is an up side to this though. It forces the average Linux user to become more computer and system savvy than the average Windows user. Users that can manage their own systems is a Very Good Thing.
Paul G. "I don't Do Windows" Allen