Some of the flaws that you point out seem to be something of a strangth when looked at from another perspective. From my perspective as someone that does consulting for a living the idea of putting out GNU code that anyone can copy and then have to give those modifications out is a kind of power that I(As an individual and not some faceless corporation with a CEO) can have over an entire industry.
The GNU from my perspective is about control and power. If I programed a tool that was useful... but didn't have anything really patentable in it my chances of compeating with the industry at all would be doomed. If I were to release it under the GNU my possibile market share is 100%. It also means that the next company down the line would have to compeat in a 0 sum game.
As an individual and as the original author I can sell training classes in how to use the software and can charge quiet well for the service.
When I was a teen ager I thought that it would be fun to start keeping a list of places that I couldn't shot at' use' or ever buy anything at again sense I was loosing track. The list is rather long now... but maybe someday it will have an effect. (If the business was a local store and not some national chain it mostly closes after a year or two after making my list.) I think the best part was listing 'why' I as boycotting them for life.
Classic big names on my list. Burger King. Pizza Hut. Circuit City. Nike. Rebock. ect.
That wouldn't be.
I remember reading Slashdot many years back when linus first started to work for Transmeta... one of the things talked about was that Transmeta wanted him to work for them but they would make no claim at all to his work with linux et all.
Kind of like intel spacificaly told a friend of mine that no... they don't want to take credit for his erotic gay porn. At all... never... and wrote that into his employment contract.
Ta!
Sure they do.... there are many exaples of the US government arriving at your doorstep and 'effectively' killing you cause you say someething that they don't like. Theie meathod is just downright nasty though.. Court orders... labling you a terrorist first....
Why should old versions of some bit of software die off? I don't see any reason for it in many cases. My mom uses her computer for e-mail and typing letters. She has win98/office97/excel. The system works wonders for her and keeps on working today and probable for years to come.
Some examples. A friend of mine still running linux 1.2. It works fine on an old 486... they like to play on MU*s and still log onto them with that old computer. I don't see why he needs to upgrate or why the software or hardware would be considered 'dead' for what he uses it for.
My P75 dos system. yes yes... War Craft III is out. I still play War Craft II now and then though. Along with other classic video games. ect ect for all old software.
I have always found the quest to 'upgrade' to be rather silly myself. (I still use an old apple newton and have a perfectly fine working rotory phone with nothing but machanical guts.)
The most classical example I can think of. A broom.. sometimes nothing else will do.
No sales tax right now but if I remember right they keep putting it back on the ballot over and over again... every five years or so.
The lastest tactic was to try and get the legislator to install a sales tax and 'not' ask the people about it again.
Then again the Oreagon Citizans alliance... (For the most part religious nuts) Would happily get a petision in by the next ellection to overturn such a rule and toss anyone that voted for it into the clink.
Anyway, here is for keeping Oregon Sales Tax free.
(My own personal view on sales tax is that in the end it is a flawed form of taxation.)
Also of note in Washington would be to try and see the white house. If they still have those nice little dayly tours.
I might suggest if your looking for american geekness that you might try out the Air and Space Museum in McMinville OR, not only do they they have the goose (Think very big wooden plane) They now have a fully flight worthy SR-71. It is along some major hiking trails in the west and is like $7 for students to get in. (Might I suggest 'biking' on the west coast. Well worth walking around and seeing if just once.
You have never worked for a government contracter have you? We still had critical systems running on C64s as of two years ago. I think they still do actually.
This isn't all that much of a problem. Your not thinking of the power system like a network. Many ways to get power all put into one big network. All you would need would be maybe 8 collectors nears the pole's of the moon and then lines running from them to maybe two transmitter sites on the side of the moon that always faces the earth. YOu also don't try to aim for the earth... but at Sat's around the earth. They can they bounce the power from one to the other to distribute the power to anywhere in the world. The best way of doing this would be to put the transeiver on top of some silly mountian and then connect it up to the network that is already in place.
I have seen a lot of people on here pointing to Hienlien and Arthur C Clarke as well as Azimov. They all have done well with predictions on future technology and such. So to get a little more fun in your study though, you might like to read the more 'near' furture stories that come out.
An interesting one might be Earth by David Brin. There are some others. Just do a search for such books and read over the ones that are about 20 to 10 years old. 80s and 70s... most of the 60s stuff was to heavy into peace love and drugs.
You might also like to look at some of the more fantastic fiction. Like EE Doc Smith... he has laser weapons in his writings. Though he didn't call them that. Light beam guns. 1920s or somewhere in there.
Another writer that did some interesting things was H Beam Piper. The Cosmic computer and other such things.
You get some really interesting ideas out of some of Simak's (sp?) work. City, and the cities in flight books.
Thare are probable a ton more that I can't remember off the top of my head just yet.
Oh... The Postman by David Brin... not really the tech... but the leftover tech after a war that happened in the 'near' future. Forget the movie... that sucked megadonkey...
Slashdot Mirror
Some of the flaws that you point out seem to be something of a strangth when looked at from another perspective. From my perspective as someone that does consulting for a living the idea of putting out GNU code that anyone can copy and then have to give those modifications out is a kind of power that I(As an individual and not some faceless corporation with a CEO) can have over an entire industry.
The GNU from my perspective is about control and power. If I programed a tool that was useful... but didn't have anything really patentable in it my chances of compeating with the industry at all would be doomed. If I were to release it under the GNU my possibile market share is 100%. It also means that the next company down the line would have to compeat in a 0 sum game.
As an individual and as the original author I can sell training classes in how to use the software and can charge quiet well for the service.
Anyway... just a couple cents on the idea.
It isn't just you....
When I was a teen ager I thought that it would be fun to start keeping a list of places that I couldn't shot at' use' or ever buy anything at again sense I was loosing track. The list is rather long now... but maybe someday it will have an effect. (If the business was a local store and not some national chain it mostly closes after a year or two after making my list.) I think the best part was listing 'why' I as boycotting them for life.
Classic big names on my list.
Burger King.
Pizza Hut.
Circuit City.
Nike.
Rebock.
ect.
That wouldn't be. I remember reading Slashdot many years back when linus first started to work for Transmeta... one of the things talked about was that Transmeta wanted him to work for them but they would make no claim at all to his work with linux et all. Kind of like intel spacificaly told a friend of mine that no... they don't want to take credit for his erotic gay porn. At all... never... and wrote that into his employment contract. Ta!
Sure they do.... there are many exaples of the US government arriving at your doorstep and 'effectively' killing you cause you say someething that they don't like. Theie meathod is just downright nasty though.. Court orders... labling you a terrorist first....
The list goes on and on...
Why should old versions of some bit of software die off? I don't see any reason for it in many cases. My mom uses her computer for e-mail and typing letters. She has win98/office97/excel. The system works wonders for her and keeps on working today and probable for years to come.
Some examples. A friend of mine still running linux 1.2. It works fine on an old 486... they like to play on MU*s and still log onto them with that old computer. I don't see why he needs to upgrate or why the software or hardware would be considered 'dead' for what he uses it for.
My P75 dos system. yes yes... War Craft III is out. I still play War Craft II now and then though. Along with other classic video games. ect ect for all old software.
I have always found the quest to 'upgrade' to be rather silly myself. (I still use an old apple newton and have a perfectly fine working rotory phone with nothing but machanical guts.)
The most classical example I can think of. A broom.. sometimes nothing else will do.
Zeelan
No sales tax right now but if I remember right they keep putting it back on the ballot over and over again... every five years or so. The lastest tactic was to try and get the legislator to install a sales tax and 'not' ask the people about it again. Then again the Oreagon Citizans alliance... (For the most part religious nuts) Would happily get a petision in by the next ellection to overturn such a rule and toss anyone that voted for it into the clink. Anyway, here is for keeping Oregon Sales Tax free. (My own personal view on sales tax is that in the end it is a flawed form of taxation.)
Also of note in Washington would be to try and see the white house. If they still have those nice little dayly tours.
I might suggest if your looking for american geekness that you might try out the Air and Space Museum in McMinville OR, not only do they they have the goose (Think very big wooden plane) They now have a fully flight worthy SR-71. It is along some major hiking trails in the west and is like $7 for students to get in. (Might I suggest 'biking' on the west coast. Well worth walking around and seeing if just once.
Zeelan
Would be nice if you could have the option of one or the other. So that you can complie it or just install the binary. Ha!
You have never worked for a government contracter have you? We still had critical systems running on C64s as of two years ago. I think they still do actually.
This isn't all that much of a problem. Your not thinking of the power system like a network. Many ways to get power all put into one big network. All you would need would be maybe 8 collectors nears the pole's of the moon and then lines running from them to maybe two transmitter sites on the side of the moon that always faces the earth. YOu also don't try to aim for the earth... but at Sat's around the earth. They can they bounce the power from one to the other to distribute the power to anywhere in the world. The best way of doing this would be to put the transeiver on top of some silly mountian and then connect it up to the network that is already in place.
I have seen a lot of people on here pointing to Hienlien and Arthur C Clarke as well as Azimov. They all have done well with predictions on future technology and such. So to get a little more fun in your study though, you might like to read the more 'near' furture stories that come out.
An interesting one might be Earth by David Brin. There are some others. Just do a search for such books and read over the ones that are about 20 to 10 years old. 80s and 70s... most of the 60s stuff was to heavy into peace love and drugs.
You might also like to look at some of the more fantastic fiction. Like EE Doc Smith... he has laser weapons in his writings. Though he didn't call them that. Light beam guns. 1920s or somewhere in there.
Another writer that did some interesting things was H Beam Piper. The Cosmic computer and other such things.
You get some really interesting ideas out of some of Simak's (sp?) work. City, and the cities in flight books.
Thare are probable a ton more that I can't remember off the top of my head just yet.
Oh... The Postman by David Brin... not really the tech... but the leftover tech after a war that happened in the 'near' future. Forget the movie... that sucked megadonkey...
Anyway...
There you go!