If that were true then they could just issue a firmware update to support different frequencies in different regions and carriers, yet this never happens even on handsets not sold via a carrier.
If your handset works on HSPA+ (AT&T and T-Mobile's "4G") using the European bands, you can get full 3.5G service on both Softbank and NTT Docomo in Japan. I bet you can in Korea as well.
Suffice it to say, the US is virtually alone in being the fractured mobile backwater, as even in those Asian countries you can get good service.
All other Motorola devices, including the Milestone, have a hardware-protected bootloader that checks to see if the kernel being run was signed by Motorola.
Basically, it permanently prevents you from actually upgrading Android at your leisure, and ensures that when Motorola is tired of supporting your phone they can ensure it will eventually become obsolete software-wise and force you to upgrade for newer features.
Everything you are doing now, you cannot do on systems with this lock.
I think the point was about the needless division of the country into 50Hz and 60Hz zones, thus inhibiting the growth of an efficient nation-wide power grid.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." (actually that is a popular misquote, properly attributed to Evelyn Beatrice Hall). Our society in general, and academe in particular, could benefit from living up to that ideal.
Academics do defend ideas they disapprove of. So in the end, idiots can keep blathering on about ID all they want.
However, anti-scientific concepts have no business in science classes, nor do the people who promote them deserve protection when they are soundly bashed for pushing utterly broken concepts. They also deserve to be dismissed from roles where pushing concepts like ID is fundamentally incompatible with that role.
Glass degrades by the same process as stone. It will, over time, be worn down. More importantly, it is chemically neutral in nature and not easily mistaken for food.
Whereas plastic just stays in the same form constantly and is mistaken for food, or left out in the ocean will break down into smaller and smaller pieces and be mistaken for plankton, killing the animals that try to eat it.
Rather, she's looking for an excuse OR someone knows/guessed her extremely insecure password.
The article says it may have been done by Anonymous
OH NO, NOT ANONYMOUS.
and 270,000 people you don't know with a 16-year-old girl's home address is a Bad Thing.
More like, the vast majority of people don't give a shit and thought the huge number was amusing. Oh and I suggest taking your number out of the phone book, if people you don't know having your address is a bad thing.
It has some level of relevance to the/. audience as we all have an opinion about Anonymous, and we all have an opinion about privacy.
It's a garbage post of something that's happened quite a few times before. Someone creates an event, and shockingly their account security is at the default "everyone can see everything I do and post" resulting in the RSVP being visible to everyone on the fucking site. Some twit in the UK did it and ended up with 20K people RSVPing to a party. Not interesting.
getting a fully-open solution working which is compatible with the dominant platform
The problem is that there is nothing existing in the open source world that is compatible with Android... except Android. It was never meant to be compatible, it was meant to be proprietary.
It is happening much faster than everyone expected, and I'm very happy about it
I know. It's so awesome that a (previously proprietary) platform is killing FOSS platforms. It'll be awesome to just burn the last decade worth of effort for a new (and totally controlled by Google, hardware vendors, and telecom carriers) platform incompatible with everything that exists.
Android knows what the user want
Actually, I think Apple has a better idea of what the user wants. People generally take what works well enough, and Android is extremely simplified.
they are not a bunch of mental masturbators
Ah, the ad-hominem. How wonderful.
who spend their time with flamewars and continuous rewrites of everything.
Instead, they don't communicate with the community except after the AOSP is released to the second class open source community, and there aren't any rewrites because no one else has the authority to push new things, good or bad.
I really hope Android extends some day their APIs to allow desktop apps and not just touch stuff, so that we can forget this old G/K stuff.
I'd care about Android being on desktops if they put control of the platform into a 3rd party's hands, rather than entirely in the hands of a corporation who could take future versions proprietary at a moment's notice. Oh and if they went back and scrubbed all the garbage like/system and/data that are left over from Android's early closed source days.
So, anyone can sign up to be an iOS developer for $99 a year, and then test their modified version to their heart's content. They can then do ad hoc distribution to 100 others. That's iOS development in a nutshell.
That's just putting up an arbitrary wall to accessing the platform, and the ad-hoc distributions are time limited.
I'm trying to see how Apple could relax those restrictions without iOS being slammed with malware.
By making the ability to load unsigned packages a touch more difficult to enable by default? By requiring it be done from PC, or on bootup via a keypress and prompt? Justifying lock down in the name of "preventing malware" just screams "I want them to lock down my PC too!"
If anyone other than Apple can sign an app for general use, iOS will be slammed.
Not if you make users jump through a couple hoops.
If you can sign an app for only your account, it's hardly better than the current situation.
And you still have Apple placing restrictions on the end-user of the software. The only thing they can do is provide a way for users to say "GTFO" but they won't, because they want you in their store. So you're left with jailbreaking and EULA violations.
Make no mistake, Apple and Microsoft are doing this because they see the mobile space as the next big area of computing, and don't want to repeat the "mistake" of having computers open to everyone again. They want the mobile realm to be owned, end to end, by them, and to force anyone that wants in to play their games. Rest assured, FOSS is totally unwelcome in their worlds.
Apple have locked down their devices, and for (IMO) good reasons.
Two things:
1) They have locked down their user's devices, not their devices. 2) They do so for the sole reason of forcing you under their control and services under their control. It provides no security whatsoever.
The first way is jailbreaking; but lets ignore that for the moment.
Yes, lets. Because it forces you to violate an EULA you agree to when you start using the device. You shouldn't be forced to violate a contract (of any kind) to be free to do as you wish.
The second way is compiling and installing yourself. Which is something you would be able to do with the developer tools, which you would need anyway once you get access to the source.
The developer tools themselves do not allow you to load them. You must pay the yearly $99 fee to load them on your phone, and even then it is a limited "beta" signature that will eventually expire (90 days, I believe.) So even then Apple is placing restrictions on your use of the software.
Anyone who can make use of the source can also get a build onto the device, in two different but equally effective ways.
I hardly call forcing people to violate an EULA, and forcing them to pay $99 to load software they compile themselves on a device they own "effective" or even remotely reasonable.
If the source were included (or included as an option) in the download, would that resolve the issue?
Inclusion of the source code would not resolve the issue, because it still places restrictions on how the App can be used. Not that it would help, since the user can't rebuild/load it anyway without violating the Apple EULA.
Why would FOSS developers care whether users who buy into company A's platform can use the software?
Because Company A is making the arbitrary decision that users should not be allowed to use FOSS, and banking on them not caring because they don't know.
he question really is why does Apple force a ToS that prohibit the use of GPL code.
It's a side effect of their desire to lay terms and conditions on the users of the App Store. The Apple philosophy seems to be control, regardless of what side-effects it has.
This feeds into the desire for a solid experience, but I think it's become a ridiculous and punitive obsession.
The second question is if the benefit of GPL and other free code is strong enough to make these closed platforms uncompetative.
People are trying, of course. But no vendor seems to have the wherewithal to create a truly good experience, or try and generate the hype necessary to counter Apple. And Apple could undermine that by allowing end-users to load software freely without the App Store.
And I don't at all count Google as the savior here, since going with them basically means you're throwing the existing world of open source and Free Software on a bonfire (which is expected, when you're conforming to design decisions made for what was supposed to be closed source software.)
Oh and Slashdot should remove the <ul> and <li> tags from the list of permitted HTMl if they're going to strip the bullets. Yet another hole in Slashdot 2.0.
First, this article is a pitch for OpenLogic's software.
The problem has a limited number of causes:
Apple's App Store forces users to agree to a ToS that applies extra restrictions on the software delivered that is explicitly prohibited by the GPL.
The devices provide no means whatsoever for a user to load software on the device without going through the App Store.
Were the second case not true, this wouldn't be an issue. If the first case were not true, this would probably not be an issue either. Both cases being true make Open Source (or rather, Free Software) unwelcome on both Microsoft and Apple's mobile platforms, which is exactly how they want it.
I thought the discussion was about mainstream adoption of open source software.
It's about wondering why people don't work on problems that don't interest them. So unless you're giving them a reason to be interested, they'll probably ignore it.
OSS will continue to be marvelous for geeks and ignored by end users if you believe you're building the software solely for yourself. It's perfectly valid to build software for yourself and for those like you, but you can't expect that people unlike you will start using OSS.
That's fine. It's silly to waste time battling against Microsoft's monopoly on the desktop when there's far more interesting spaces to win. But obviously if this realm is of huge interest, then surely someone would be willing to start a project and fund developers in the creation of these "easy to use" interfaces.
No, all I hear are people bitching that others don't give their free time to solve problems they don't care about.
Slashdot Mirror
So is your opinion of anyone who uses Linux and has access to the root account that they are a "1337 script kiddy"?
Or does the fact that the device fits in your pocket and can take phone calls somehow magically change everything?
If that were true then they could just issue a firmware update to support different frequencies in different regions and carriers, yet this never happens even on handsets not sold via a carrier.
YAY FIVE MINUTE DELAY, GO SLASHDOT!
If your handset works on HSPA+ (AT&T and T-Mobile's "4G") using the European bands, you can get full 3.5G service on both Softbank and NTT Docomo in Japan. I bet you can in Korea as well.
Suffice it to say, the US is virtually alone in being the fractured mobile backwater, as even in those Asian countries you can get good service.
The Droid OG doesn't have a signed kernel.
All other Motorola devices, including the Milestone, have a hardware-protected bootloader that checks to see if the kernel being run was signed by Motorola.
Basically, it permanently prevents you from actually upgrading Android at your leisure, and ensures that when Motorola is tired of supporting your phone they can ensure it will eventually become obsolete software-wise and force you to upgrade for newer features.
Everything you are doing now, you cannot do on systems with this lock.
Of course they could. But they don't want to do that, they want T-Mobile's subscriber base.
You've said this twice already, can you link to a document leaked by them that shows this?
What crimes might those be?
I think the point was about the needless division of the country into 50Hz and 60Hz zones, thus inhibiting the growth of an efficient nation-wide power grid.
Academics do defend ideas they disapprove of. So in the end, idiots can keep blathering on about ID all they want.
However, anti-scientific concepts have no business in science classes, nor do the people who promote them deserve protection when they are soundly bashed for pushing utterly broken concepts. They also deserve to be dismissed from roles where pushing concepts like ID is fundamentally incompatible with that role.
Glass degrades by the same process as stone. It will, over time, be worn down. More importantly, it is chemically neutral in nature and not easily mistaken for food.
Whereas plastic just stays in the same form constantly and is mistaken for food, or left out in the ocean will break down into smaller and smaller pieces and be mistaken for plankton, killing the animals that try to eat it.
Rather, she's looking for an excuse OR someone knows/guessed her extremely insecure password.
OH NO, NOT ANONYMOUS.
More like, the vast majority of people don't give a shit and thought the huge number was amusing. Oh and I suggest taking your number out of the phone book, if people you don't know having your address is a bad thing.
It's a garbage post of something that's happened quite a few times before. Someone creates an event, and shockingly their account security is at the default "everyone can see everything I do and post" resulting in the RSVP being visible to everyone on the fucking site. Some twit in the UK did it and ended up with 20K people RSVPing to a party. Not interesting.
Because, of course, billions make you right.
The problem is that there is nothing existing in the open source world that is compatible with Android... except Android. It was never meant to be compatible, it was meant to be proprietary.
I know. It's so awesome that a (previously proprietary) platform is killing FOSS platforms. It'll be awesome to just burn the last decade worth of effort for a new (and totally controlled by Google, hardware vendors, and telecom carriers) platform incompatible with everything that exists.
Actually, I think Apple has a better idea of what the user wants. People generally take what works well enough, and Android is extremely simplified.
Ah, the ad-hominem. How wonderful.
Instead, they don't communicate with the community except after the AOSP is released to the second class open source community, and there aren't any rewrites because no one else has the authority to push new things, good or bad.
I'd care about Android being on desktops if they put control of the platform into a 3rd party's hands, rather than entirely in the hands of a corporation who could take future versions proprietary at a moment's notice. Oh and if they went back and scrubbed all the garbage like /system and /data that are left over from Android's early closed source days.
That's just putting up an arbitrary wall to accessing the platform, and the ad-hoc distributions are time limited.
By making the ability to load unsigned packages a touch more difficult to enable by default? By requiring it be done from PC, or on bootup via a keypress and prompt? Justifying lock down in the name of "preventing malware" just screams "I want them to lock down my PC too!"
Not if you make users jump through a couple hoops.
And you still have Apple placing restrictions on the end-user of the software. The only thing they can do is provide a way for users to say "GTFO" but they won't, because they want you in their store. So you're left with jailbreaking and EULA violations.
Make no mistake, Apple and Microsoft are doing this because they see the mobile space as the next big area of computing, and don't want to repeat the "mistake" of having computers open to everyone again. They want the mobile realm to be owned, end to end, by them, and to force anyone that wants in to play their games. Rest assured, FOSS is totally unwelcome in their worlds.
Two things:
1) They have locked down their user's devices, not their devices.
2) They do so for the sole reason of forcing you under their control and services under their control. It provides no security whatsoever.
Yes, lets. Because it forces you to violate an EULA you agree to when you start using the device. You shouldn't be forced to violate a contract (of any kind) to be free to do as you wish.
The developer tools themselves do not allow you to load them. You must pay the yearly $99 fee to load them on your phone, and even then it is a limited "beta" signature that will eventually expire (90 days, I believe.) So even then Apple is placing restrictions on your use of the software.
I hardly call forcing people to violate an EULA, and forcing them to pay $99 to load software they compile themselves on a device they own "effective" or even remotely reasonable.
Inclusion of the source code would not resolve the issue, because it still places restrictions on how the App can be used. Not that it would help, since the user can't rebuild/load it anyway without violating the Apple EULA.
Because Company A is making the arbitrary decision that users should not be allowed to use FOSS, and banking on them not caring because they don't know.
FF4 RC1 on Vista64... odd.
It'll never happen. Apple would have to give up some control over the platform and they'll NEVER let that happen.
It's a side effect of their desire to lay terms and conditions on the users of the App Store. The Apple philosophy seems to be control, regardless of what side-effects it has.
This feeds into the desire for a solid experience, but I think it's become a ridiculous and punitive obsession.
People are trying, of course. But no vendor seems to have the wherewithal to create a truly good experience, or try and generate the hype necessary to counter Apple. And Apple could undermine that by allowing end-users to load software freely without the App Store.
And I don't at all count Google as the savior here, since going with them basically means you're throwing the existing world of open source and Free Software on a bonfire (which is expected, when you're conforming to design decisions made for what was supposed to be closed source software.)
Oh and Slashdot should remove the <ul> and <li> tags from the list of permitted HTMl if they're going to strip the bullets. Yet another hole in Slashdot 2.0.
Oh yay, 5 minute delay. What the fuck, Taco.
First, this article is a pitch for OpenLogic's software.
The problem has a limited number of causes:
Were the second case not true, this wouldn't be an issue. If the first case were not true, this would probably not be an issue either. Both cases being true make Open Source (or rather, Free Software) unwelcome on both Microsoft and Apple's mobile platforms, which is exactly how they want it.
It's about wondering why people don't work on problems that don't interest them. So unless you're giving them a reason to be interested, they'll probably ignore it.
That's fine. It's silly to waste time battling against Microsoft's monopoly on the desktop when there's far more interesting spaces to win. But obviously if this realm is of huge interest, then surely someone would be willing to start a project and fund developers in the creation of these "easy to use" interfaces.
No, all I hear are people bitching that others don't give their free time to solve problems they don't care about.