In the beginning of the article, Nic quotes Novell:
Novell makes no admission that its Linux and open source offerings infringe on any other parties' patents.
And than a few lines later claims:
Wait. Didn't we just read that no such infringements exist?
Sorry, but I do not read such a claim from Novell. They refuse to admit infringements, but in my understanding, this is not the same. Novell's statement is standard comment to protect them against false claims, such as that there are no patent infringements in their code. (Claiming to be fully patant infringement free is, as we all know, impossible to demonstrate.)
With all due respect for Nicholas Petreley, this article starts off with the wrong premise. The rest is a personal opinion, but not related to its stated reasons.
It started as a natural phenomeneon. The dunes along the coast created a natural defence against the sea for the land behind it. As the sea could no longer flood the planes behind it, it dried up and became land, which attracted the first inhabitants more than 2000 years ago. I believe Bangladesh is in a similar situation.
A few big lakes remained and in some regions flooding occured regularly. Only later the dykes were built to protect against extreme conditions. The emptying of the lakes to claim the land (so-called polders) came only in the 16th century or so (I might be a century off). Technical progress created the system we have today, but the basic situtation remains - a natural situation to have land below the sea level.
um how about the US has literally 10 times the number of people to deal with? New York state alone has some 22 million people and could field an army as large as Canada's.
Who modded this guy insightful?
Here in Europe we have European elections for the parlament in Strassbourg. Voting is on the same day in most countries, no electronic magical boxes and it seems to be doing ok. As most of the reactions to this are: get 10 times more people to count. It's a highly parallalizable system.
> Linux *is* underground for all intents and purposes.
> Ask a bloke on the street if they've heard of Linux.
> If they're not in IT, web
> design, or a related field chances are they have not.
I used to agree, but now here (Switzerland) the biggest national employer, Migros (initially a supermarket chain, but now selling everything from groceries to banking) is offering courses in Linux and even use it for advertising their learning centre, When this happens, it is definitely no longer mainstream.
Disclaimer: I am not familiar with the actual geographical situation at NOLA.
> The seawalls and levees themselves are not
> fault-tolerant. They're static, brittle, and
> take the whole city with them when they break.
Please mod this up, that is one of the more insightful remarks so far. The Dutch system of dikes is designed do be (using an aerospace engineering term) fail-safe, i.e. some can fail without causing such havoc. The rivers are controlled using a so-called summer- and winter-dike. The latter is placed outside the inner dike and substantially higher. The inner (summer) dike contains the river in normal situations. In case of high water (usually occurring once or twice a year) the inner dykes overflow with the outer dykes keeping the water out. This also substantially increases the width of the river (double or more), increasing its volume and flow and reducing the speed of the water.
The advantage of the outer dike is that is is not continuously loaded with water pressure, also allowing easy regular inspection.
> Or we can just put the Dutch in charge of the
> city. Then they'll do all those things I
> mentioned, and probably something with
> windmills. Amsterdam and New Orleans have a
> lot more in common (...)
I think Rotterdam is more like it. Windmills have been replaced by modern pumps, though.. But the above would fit the bill.
I'm terrible sorry to inform you about this from the other side of the Atlantic, but they did do it on purpose. This was big news 4 years ago, discovered by the BBC. By an American journalist btw.
or: Fahr immer am Tag
(always drive during the day)
Why? Because the garages are closed at night. But now
you can have 24-hour MS "support". How would that
go?
(MS-Sup) "Hello, MS/FIAT support, how can I help you?"
(You) "Hi, I'm stuck on the motorway and my engine does not start anymore!"
(MS) "Did you try turning the key?"
etc. Well, you get the idea... Better stick to my Volvo I guess.
The main reasonable objection I've heard is that, because you're splicing genes from wherever you please, you can no longer tell by inspection whether or not you'll be allergic to any given food.
A case in point: people allergic to peanuts. This is already problematic, as they are used in many sorts of food. By introducing their genes into other types of food, it can cause the GM food to trigger the allergy, with potential deadly concequences.
I think the most interesting (and overlooked in the discussion) aspect is the following:
city officials were concerned about the unpredictable long-run cost of Microsoft upgrades, says Munich council member Christine Strobl, who championed the switch to Linux. And the more Microsoft discounted, the more it underscored the notion that as a sole supplier, Microsoft could -- and has been -- naming its own price, she says.
That says it all. A nice change to see these people thinking further ahead beyond the next election.
As someone working in the aerospace industry I cannot help but
wonder: how do these guy expect to develop such a plane in such
a very short time? Unless it is heavily based on an existing design. Usually it takes up to 10 years to bring a plane up to production.
I also hear that in Europe, if the plaintiff in a suit loses, they foot the bill. I think it's high time the US adopted such a plan.
That is indeed the case, at least in the countries I know of. The most notorious example of this was the case of British Airways vs. Virgin. Branson had to sell his shares in the record company to continue the case, but won and BA was forced to pay it all back.
Slashdot Mirror
In the beginning of the article, Nic quotes Novell:
Novell makes no admission that its Linux and open source offerings infringe on any other parties' patents.
And than a few lines later claims:
Wait. Didn't we just read that no such infringements exist?
Sorry, but I do not read such a claim from Novell. They refuse to admit infringements, but in my understanding, this is not the same. Novell's statement is standard comment to protect them against false claims, such as that there are no patent infringements in their code. (Claiming to be fully patant infringement free is, as we all know, impossible to demonstrate.)
With all due respect for Nicholas Petreley, this article starts off with the wrong premise. The rest is a personal opinion, but not related to its stated reasons.
It started as a natural phenomeneon. The dunes along the coast created a natural defence against the sea for the land behind it. As the sea could no longer flood the planes behind it, it dried up and became land, which attracted the first inhabitants more than 2000 years ago. I believe Bangladesh is in a similar situation.
A few big lakes remained and in some regions flooding occured regularly. Only later the dykes were built to protect against extreme conditions. The emptying of the lakes to claim the land (so-called polders) came only in the 16th century or so (I might be a century off). Technical progress created the system we have today, but the basic situtation remains - a natural situation to have land below the sea level.
um how about the US has literally 10 times the number of people to deal with? New York state alone has some 22 million people and could field an army as large as Canada's.
Who modded this guy insightful?
Here in Europe we have European elections for the parlament in Strassbourg. Voting is on the same day in most countries, no electronic magical boxes and it seems to be doing ok. As most of the reactions to this are: get 10 times more people to count. It's a highly parallalizable system.
> Linux *is* underground for all intents and purposes.
> Ask a bloke on the street if they've heard of Linux.
> If they're not in IT, web
> design, or a related field chances are they have not.
I used to agree, but now here (Switzerland) the biggest national employer, Migros (initially a supermarket chain, but now selling everything from groceries to banking) is offering courses in Linux and even use it for advertising their learning centre, When this happens, it is definitely no longer mainstream.
> The seawalls and levees themselves are not > fault-tolerant. They're static, brittle, and > take the whole city with them when they break.
Please mod this up, that is one of the more insightful remarks so far. The Dutch system of dikes is designed do be (using an aerospace engineering term) fail-safe, i.e. some can fail without causing such havoc. The rivers are controlled using a so-called summer- and winter-dike. The latter is placed outside the inner dike and substantially higher. The inner (summer) dike contains the river in normal situations. In case of high water (usually occurring once or twice a year) the inner dykes overflow with the outer dykes keeping the water out. This also substantially increases the width of the river (double or more), increasing its volume and flow and reducing the speed of the water.
The advantage of the outer dike is that is is not continuously loaded with water pressure, also allowing easy regular inspection.
> Or we can just put the Dutch in charge of the > city. Then they'll do all those things I > mentioned, and probably something with > windmills. Amsterdam and New Orleans have a > lot more in common (...)
I think Rotterdam is more like it. Windmills have been replaced by modern pumps, though.. But the above would fit the bill.
Fortunately, this one still is accessible:
:-)
www.georgewbush.org/
Not to be a history-nazi, but just remember that Hitler was not elected with the majority of the votes...
I let the rest of the reflections about this to the audience
See: www.gregpalast.com
(always drive during the day)
Why? Because the garages are closed at night. But now you can have 24-hour MS "support". How would that go?
(MS-Sup) "Hello, MS/FIAT support, how can I help you?"
(You) "Hi, I'm stuck on the motorway and my engine does not start anymore!"
(MS) "Did you try turning the key?"
etc. Well, you get the idea... Better stick to my Volvo I guess.
A case in point: people allergic to peanuts. This is already problematic, as they are used in many sorts of food. By introducing their genes into other types of food, it can cause the GM food to trigger the allergy, with potential deadly concequences.
Read the EU press release from their own site (in your own language): http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p _action.gettxt=gt&doc=IP/04/382|0|RAPID&lg=EN&disp lay=
That says it all. A nice change to see these people thinking further ahead beyond the next election.
As someone working in the aerospace industry I cannot help but wonder: how do these guy expect to develop such a plane in such a very short time? Unless it is heavily based on an existing design. Usually it takes up to 10 years to bring a plane up to production.
Anybody some information about that?
I also hear that in Europe, if the plaintiff in a suit loses, they foot the bill. I think it's high time the US adopted such a plan.
That is indeed the case, at least in the countries I know of. The most notorious example of this was the case of British Airways vs. Virgin. Branson had to sell his shares in the record company to continue the case, but won and BA was forced to pay it all back.