This guy's ideas would be way more useful if he could think outside the stereotypical structure of today's Linux apps.
Ditch the concept of spreading pieces of your app all around the FHS. This is organizationally similar to Microsoft's registry. It becomes a maintenance nightmare. Yes, RPM keeps track of some pesky details that let us get away with a messier install. Yes, the FHS does impose a common structure on what is an otherwise unstructured mess. But programmers are human beings, subject to the whims of ego, ignorance, and yes, even creativity and sheer brilliance. We're going to deviate from the suggested standards if given the opportunity, for one reason or another.
Give me one main point of access to everything the application does. If you need to use config files, give me the option of manipulating them through the application itself, preferably in the context of my current task. Give me one place to go looking for all the bits and pieces of the app. No, the FHS isn't simple enough. Give me context-sensitive documentation so I don't have to wander outside the app to get my job done. Don't make me wade through a spaghetti-code config file, with the documentation propped open on a separate screen to keep from getting lost.
Programmers are lazy. I should know, I am one. The last thing I want to do when I'm getting ready to release a program to non-techie users is tie up all the loose ends that seem ok to me, but not to the non-techie user. I'd rather document how to get a tricky task done than write the code that automates the tricky parts. I'd rather tell the user how to go tweak the flaky data in the database by hand than add another error-correcting routine. And it's more work to give the user one simple, full-featured point of entry to each piece of a complex application. But that additional work will make the application more usable, for the expert and the novice alike.
Subject: Re: Snowhite and the Seven
Dwarfs - The REAL story! To: Hahaha <hahaha@sexyfun.net> From:
Jonathan Land <jland@incomplete.net> Date: 05/11/2001
From:
Hahaha Subject: Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs - The REAL
story!
Today, Snowhite was turning 18. The 7 Dwarfs always
where very educated and polite with Snowhite. When they go out work at mornign,
they promissed a *huge* surprise. Snowhite was anxious. Suddlently, the door
open, and the Seven Dwarfs enter...
Dear Alleged Parodist,
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Disney, and that
planet's tightly orbiting moon, the Wonderful World of Litigation. I was
forwarded the above electronic copy of an early draft of your manuscript. I'm
officially letting you know that you should cease and desist the continued
writing of this story immediately. It's never going to press. Not only has a
legal precedent been set by an Atlanta judge's stopping of the publication of
Alice Randall's "Gone With The Wind" sequel "The Wind Done Gone" (thus giving us
at the Disney Corporation the legal go-ahead to take action against you), but
your spelling is atrocious, your grammar is vile, and your prose style is
reminiscent of a remedial English as a Second Language class in a rural
Mississippi prison.
While there is nothing to be done about your "child
left behind" educational status, we here at Disney realize that you evidently
have the rudimentary skills to operate a home computer, and therefore are a
potential nuisance. You'll be doing us a big favor by jettisoning all further
thoughts about this project of yours right out of your head. Don't even bother
correcting your plethora of typos, unless you can learn from your mistakes. You
will be doing yourself an even bigger favor by not bringing the money, the
manpower, and the wrath of Disney (soon to be Disney/AOL/Time-Warner, but you
didn't hear it from me) upon you. If this work appears ANYWHERE, even on the
literary black market, you will be hit with a lawsuit faster than you can toss
one of the dwarves in your cheap knock-off. Are we understanding each other yet?
Mess with us and you'll be lucky to get any
children's entertainment besides third-generation bootleg copies of our
fifth-rate straight-to-video sequels. You'll be clamoring to access the internet
through whatever bandwidth you can get off of two tin cans and a taught string.
You will be ecstatic beyond words to be projecting shadow puppets from a fire
onto the wall of your cave in lieu of cable. Yes, Mr. Hahaha, we can make your
life very difficult in ways a brilliant mind that can manipulate the characters
from previously copyrighted material couldn't even conceive of in his wildest
dreams.
By the way, don't you even try to convince me that
this manuscript was solicited by us. Did you know that it's illegal to
impersonate a Disney employee? We are THAT POWERFUL.
I'm sorry, I need to backtrack for a minute here and
return to the content of your story again. I was going to sign off, but your
crippled words have left me colder than my boss's cryogenically frozen carcass.
Disney on Ice, indeed. You could have at least told the story from the dwarves'
perspective, and no, the "dwarves' perspective" isn't simply looking up Snow
White's skirt at what I'd imagine to be her big frilly bloomers. Of course,
we'll never know what was up Snow White's skirt, because that was never
described to us in the original work, and unless a copyright holder chooses to
provide us with this information, it simply cannot exist.
At least in the "Wind Done Gone" case, the literary
piracy was of marginal creative merit. It was hip, it was focused through a
multi-cultural lens, and it was a noble attempt at dragging a dated work kicking
and screaming from the back of the rusty pickup known as "the Old South" into
the spotlight of today's civil, humanitarian society. I can only imagine the
base pornography that your "Snowhite" story would quickly deteriorate into given
your blatant age-dropping of "18". That's the only mark of intelligence that
your writing shows. If it weren't for that, this would wind up being a novel
only Roman Polanski could love and purchase the film rights to. Thankfully the
law has decreed that it shall never come to that.
Thank you for your time.
I hope we understand each other here,
Jonathan Land, Esq.
Pitbull Attorney With Mouse
Ears, The Disney Corporation
P.S. We've shut down every last fan fiction site on
the net... We're THAT POWERFUL.
Large sterilizer for sale - $9,875
on
He Writes Back
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Subject: Re: Large sterilizer for sale - $9,875 To:
pemed@wperfect.com From: Joan Land <joan@incomplete.net> Date:
11/14/2001
Amsco model "Full VAC" large steam and vacuum sterilizer for sale,
$9,875.
Features:
24 x 36 x 48" chamber single door circular strip chart
recorder new in 1977, under full maintenance until removal automatic
operation self contained high volume vacuum pump
Hi, I have 2 questions about your sterilizer.
1). Is it permanent? 2). What are the side effects? I really
want to have my husband sterilized but I still want to use him for my
non-reproductive womanly needs. I love the big lummox, but if the man had
children branded with his dna, it would be like littering. Once I asked him to
get a vasectomy. He asked me why, and I told him it was because the thought of
him reproducing made me fear for humanity. Then he assured me that the process
of him copying his cds onto mp3 wasn't contributing to the decline of modern
civilization, except he stated it as "Yo, I ain't hurtin' no one!"
Do you see what I mean? He's not going to go peacefully, so I
figured I can throw a pie into the middle of your machine as a trap, wait until
he wanders in, close the door behind him, and then do the ol' zap zap.
God I hope this'll work,
Joan Land
For full information. please see our website
http://www.pemed.com
and look under the "autoclave" section.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Mark Zirinsky Production Engineering - Medical Equipment
Division Denver, Colorado USA 1-303-393-7800 1-303-393-1482
(fax) markz@pemed.com http://www.pemed.com
If you don't want our email, please let us know.
The more this turns over in my little head, the more I wonder if this wasn't a carefully planned move on Google's part to attract media attention to the ill effects of the DMCA. Obviously hurtful compliance with the DMCA could possibly speed its demise more than ignoring it outright.
On further reading of Google's removal policy, it looks like this case is being handled similarly to requests for removal of images from servers you don't have access to. Note the DMCA in the email address, dmca-images@google.com.
Option 2: If you do not have any access to
the server that hosts your image
To have an image removed from our image search service, you must provide a
written communication (email or regular mail) that sets forth the items
specified below. Please note that you may be liable for damages (including costs
and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that you own an image when
you in fact do not. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether you have the right
to request removal from our image search service, we suggest that you first
contact an attorney.
To expedite our ability to process your request,
please use the following format (including section numbers):
For each image you wish to have removed from our image search service, (a)
provide the exact URL for the image, and (2) indicate whether that URL is owned
or operated by you.
For example: http://www.google.com/press/art.gif,
yes http://www.google.com/images/toolbar_about.gi f, no
Provide information reasonably sufficient for Google to contact you (email
address is preferred).
Include the following statement: "I swear, under penalty of perjury, that
the information in the notification is accurate and that, for each of the images
identified above, I am (or am authorized to act on behalf of) the copyright
owner or an exclusive licensee."
Sign the written communication (digitally or in ink).
Send the written communication to either of the following addresses:
Andreas, xenu.net's owner announced all this on the usenet group alt.religion.scientology.
Check out that thread... it tells about them scheming to get the story onto Slashdot.
> I also posted the story to Slashdot. They love this kind of
> stuff. Keep your eyes on Slashdot and lets see if they print
> it. If they do, prepare to get hit. I referenced your site
> twice, and scientology's site not at all.;-)
Good luck, I've submitted the story three times already, Two
out of three has been rejected so far. The last one includes
the bit about DMCA though,that should set things off, I hope..:)
Check out Google's removal policy for a little more perspective (bold text is their doing, not mine):
"Google views the quality of its search results as an extremely important priority. Therefore, Google stops indexing the pages on your site only at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for those pages. This policy is necessary to ensure that pages are not inappropriately removed from our index.
"Since Google is committed to providing thorough and unbiased search results for our users, we cannot participate in the practice of censoring information on the world wide web."
Wow... I'm very surprised. Google is usually very good at practicing what they preach.
It seems like a great deal of effort has been used in getting Java on these platforms, but nothing's really utilizing it.
Hey, this is no time to wimp out because nobody else has pitched in with a worthwhile product yet... you've got the first mover advantage as the dot-bomb people called it, similar to First Post here on Slashdot. Sure, you might get modded down, but it's exhilarating while it lasts, eh?
"On the.NET Platform, if you want to install an application, all you have to do is XCopy all the program files to a directory on the clients computer. Similarly if you want to un-install the application just delete the directory containing the application and your application is un-installed, no more stray registry entries or libraries!
"One more obvious but silent reason for Microsoft removing the dependence on the registry is the fact that Microsoft is planning to make applications on the.NET Platform, Platform independent and the Windows Registry is not supported on any other platform."
For an even quicker thrill, try putting marshmallows in the microwave.
For those too lazy to actually get up, find marshmallows and find microwave, use this applet to cook them virtually, or check out this time lapse video.
Why is the dividing line the form of media used? What if the software creators only published in assembly language form, in a book? Do you tax the book? Ok, what about magazine articles that contain code snippets? Do you just wait around until someone presses that code to CD and then tax them? Do you tax the CD creator or the code creator?
Once you allow flawed, uninformed logic like this into the legal system, it has all sorts of unintended consequences. If Seattle really wants to share in software creators' profits, they need to work a little harder to come up with a reasonable taxation method that demonstrates they "get" the nature of software. Not just this hand-waving "Hey! You with the pocket protectors! Gimme your lunch money!"
Try being a Mac-using Slashdotter. You'll start noticing that almost all submissions relating to your platform contain a snide remark.
Not to be painfully redundant here, but try being a Windows-using Slashdotter! I recently submitted a Microsoft-related story, and I firmly believe it would have been rejected if I hadn't added a sarcastic little hook at the end, as reverse psychology (I'm pro-Microsoft). If a Microsoft article is non-controversial, chances are it won't make it to the front page. That's probably the case for most other non-Linux OS's.
The result of my argument if taken farther than it will perhaps ever go would be that proprietary software development might dry up.
If I understand your proposed system for supporting software development, software will eventually be created solely as a free byproduct of business (every business that is, except for software-only business, which will be driven out of business by the availability of open source).
This scenario won't happen, for the very reason you stated: software for business is a make-or-buy decision. You seem to imply that businesses will choose "make" far more often than they will choose "buy". I would argue that the opposite is true, especially for smaller businesses. Custom software development (which you unfairly equate with proprietary software development) will continue to thrive, as businesses continue to choose "buy" rather than "make", even with all the open source in the world available to them.
For one thing, we will never reach the point where all your individual needs can be met by pre-existing software (open source or proprietary). Someone will have to develop it. And whoever develops it, if it is for a business, will need to be paid for their efforts. Open-source their work if you want to, but you're still paying for their work at least once.
I would argue that if anything, open source will drive the proprietary (aka shrink-wrapped) software development companies to become time-and-materials custom software development companies. They'll have to work harder, since they won't be able to subsidize new work on the proceeds from resellable software, but they'll still exist, and be very good at what they do, which will tend to increase the buy/make ratio in their favor.
One final note... proprietary software companies see what you see: the end of the resellable software business model. They're already positioning themselves for a new business model: software as a service. That's what "web services" is all about, with buy-in from everyone from Microsoft to IBM to Sun to Open Source. Subversive as it may be, it's a new lease on life for proprietary software development. Oh, and it just happens to make life easier for custom software development and open source too.
Several years ago when I was an intern in a state govt agency, I was given administrator duties on their Windows NT domain. I immediately sought out command-line tools for all my administrative needs (the NT reskit) and proceeded to create batch file scripts for everything from scanning machine configs to pushing out updates, turning services on and off, etc. It greatly simplified standardizing everyone's configs. I was even able to use it to automate the creation of a machine config database, including hardware! Sure, it took a few weeks to really get to power-user level with batch files, but it was well worth it, and amazing what could be accomplished without buying fancy third-party admin tools.
take a look at.NET. A *very* clear rip-off of the whole Java concept and implementation, from VM to language to security model to class libraries.
Take a look at the origins of.NET before writing it off as a clear rip-off:
The origin of this new runtime environment lay in the little-noticed acquisition by Microsoft of Colusa Software in 1996. Co-founded by Steven Lucco, Colusa had released a product in 1995 called OmniVM based on research carried out by Lucco at Carnegie Mellon University. OmniVM was a virtual machine environment that offered two distinct advantages over early versions of Java. Firstly, by avoiding interpretation and using a virtual RISC architecture it provided near-native code execution performance. Secondly, it implemented robust 'application' isolation via a virtual memory manager. This made it a very safe environment for running 'legacy' and 'mobile' code. What caught Microsoft's eye was that, partly in order to support the porting of legacy code to the virtual environment, Colusa had produced both C/C++ and Visual Basic development environments.
Sun may be implying that the new CLR (MS's Common Language Runtime) is based on the MS Java VM
As similar as they may seem, they have completely different origins. Read more here:
The origin of this new runtime environment lay in the little-noticed acquisition by Microsoft of Colusa Software in 1996. Co-founded by Steven Lucco, Colusa had released a product in 1995 called OmniVM based on research carried out by Lucco at Carnegie Mellon University. OmniVM was a virtual machine environment that offered two distinct advantages over early versions of Java. Firstly, by avoiding interpretation and using a virtual RISC architecture it provided near-native code execution performance. Secondly, it implemented robust 'application' isolation via a virtual memory manager. This made it a very safe environment for running 'legacy' and 'mobile' code. What caught Microsoft's eye was that, partly in order to support the porting of legacy code to the virtual environment, Colusa had produced both C/C++ and Visual Basic development environments.
On March 12th of 1996, Microsoft bought Colusa Software, the maker of Omniware and OmniVM. For several years, Microsoft has been quietly developing Colusa's universal virtual machine and waiting for the right time to deploy it.
Microsoft Research is developing a virtual machine, which it calls CVM, based on technology it acquired a couple of years back when it bought Colusa Software Inc. Colusa originally was building a run-time language similar to Visual Basic. But CVM goes beyond this; it will act as a virtual machine running on multiple platforms that can run programs written in C++, Visual Basic, Java and other languages.
Here's an exerpt from this article (I like the "effectively ending the pope's monopoly" part):
The next famous story concerning the Miserere involves the 12-year-old Mozart. On December 13, 1769, Leopold and Wolfgang left Salzburg and set out for a 15-month tour of Italy where, among other things, Leopold hoped that Wolfgang would have the chance to study with Padre Martini in Bologna, who had also taught Johann Christian Bach several years before. On their circuitous route to Bologna, they passed through Innsbruck, Verona, Milan, and arrived in Rome on April 11, 1770, just in time for Easter. As with any tourist, they visited St. Peter's to celebrate the Wednesday Tenebrae and to hear the famous Miserere sung at the Sistine Chapel. Upon arriving at their lodging that evening, Mozart sat down and wrote out from memory the entire piece. On Good Friday, he returned, with his manuscript rolled up in his hat, to hear the piece again and make a few minor corrections. Leopold told of Wolfgang's accomplishment in a letter to his wife dated April 14, 1770 (Rome):
"...You have often heard of the famous Miserere in Rome, which is so greatly prized that the performers are forbidden on pain of excommunication to take away a single part of it, copy it or to give it to anyone. *But we have it already*. Wolfgang has written it down and we would have sent it to Salzburg in this letter, if it were not necessary for us to be there to perform it. But the manner of performance contributes more to its effect than the composition itself. Moreover, as it is one of the secrets of Rome, we do not wish to let it fall into other hands...."
Wolfgang and his father then traveled on to Naples for a short stay, returning to Rome a few weeks later to attend a papal audience where Wolfgang was made a Knight of the Golden Spur. They left Rome a couple of weeks later to spend the rest of the summer in Bologna, where Wolfgang studied with Padre Martini.
The story does not end here, however. As the Mozarts were sightseeing and traveling back to Rome, the noted biographer and music historian, Dr. Charles Burney, set out from London on a tour of France and Italy to gather material for a book on the state of music in those countries. By August, he arrived in Bologna to meet with Padre Martini. There he also met Mozart. Though little is known about what transpired between Mozart and Burney at this meeting, some facts surrounding the incident lead to interesting conjecture. For one, Mozart's transcription of Allegri's Miserere, important in that it would presumably also reflect the improvised passages performed in 1770 and thus document the style of improvisation employed by the papal choir, has never been found. The second fact is that Burney, upon returning to England near the end of 1771, published an account of his tour as well as a collection of music for the celebration of Holy Week in the Sistine Chapel. This volume included music by Palestrina, Bai, and, for the first time, Allegri's famous Miserere. Subsequently, the Miserere was reprinted many times in England, Leipzig, Paris and Rome, effectively ending the pope's monopoly on the work.
the US's second-rate cell technology, which is what they want to use the weather balloons for.
Doh, I didn't read the article carefully enough.
Space Data wants to operate as a "carrier's carrier," serving wireless companies that in turn provide cell phone service and other wireless communication, such as paging, to consumers.
So the balloon folks are also planning on offering "broadband" services too, and they won't actually be the ones responsible for implementing CDMA cellular. Also, CDMA may be better suited for rural locations than GSM.
Check out NASA's Helios which uses solar power and a fuel cell concept. They expect it to fly above 50,000 ft for 96 hours. ZDNet has a story about using it for broadband internet connections.
I realize both the weather balloons and Helios are just means to an end, but using these things for broadband internet would be way cooler than the US's second-rate cell technology, which is what they want to use the weather balloons for.
Slashdot Mirror
Ditch the concept of spreading pieces of your app all around the FHS. This is organizationally similar to Microsoft's registry. It becomes a maintenance nightmare. Yes, RPM keeps track of some pesky details that let us get away with a messier install. Yes, the FHS does impose a common structure on what is an otherwise unstructured mess. But programmers are human beings, subject to the whims of ego, ignorance, and yes, even creativity and sheer brilliance. We're going to deviate from the suggested standards if given the opportunity, for one reason or another.
Give me one main point of access to everything the application does. If you need to use config files, give me the option of manipulating them through the application itself, preferably in the context of my current task. Give me one place to go looking for all the bits and pieces of the app. No, the FHS isn't simple enough. Give me context-sensitive documentation so I don't have to wander outside the app to get my job done. Don't make me wade through a spaghetti-code config file, with the documentation propped open on a separate screen to keep from getting lost.
Programmers are lazy. I should know, I am one. The last thing I want to do when I'm getting ready to release a program to non-techie users is tie up all the loose ends that seem ok to me, but not to the non-techie user. I'd rather document how to get a tricky task done than write the code that automates the tricky parts. I'd rather tell the user how to go tweak the flaky data in the database by hand than add another error-correcting routine. And it's more work to give the user one simple, full-featured point of entry to each piece of a complex application. But that additional work will make the application more usable, for the expert and the novice alike.
To: Hahaha <hahaha@sexyfun.net>
From: Jonathan Land <jland@incomplete.net>
Date: 05/11/2001
From: Hahaha
Subject: Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs - The REAL story!
Today, Snowhite was turning 18. The 7 Dwarfs always where very educated and polite with Snowhite. When they go out work at mornign, they promissed a *huge* surprise. Snowhite was anxious. Suddlently, the door open, and the Seven Dwarfs enter...
To: pemed@wperfect.com
From: Joan Land <joan@incomplete.net>
Date: 11/14/2001
Amsco model "Full VAC" large steam and vacuum sterilizer for sale, $9,875. Features: 24 x 36 x 48" chamber
single door
circular strip chart recorder
new in 1977, under full maintenance until removal
automatic operation
self contained high volume vacuum pump
For full information. please see our website http://www.pemed.com and look under the "autoclave" section. Thank you for your time and attention. Mark Zirinsky
Production Engineering - Medical Equipment Division
Denver, Colorado USA
1-303-393-7800
1-303-393-1482 (fax)
markz@pemed.com
http://www.pemed.com
If you don't want our email, please let us know.
You can browse within the cache at archive.org... Try this.
Yep... it's amazing isn't it, how an otherwise mediocre story can get accepted if you know what buttons to push. Done it myself...
The more this turns over in my little head, the more I wonder if this wasn't a carefully planned move on Google's part to attract media attention to the ill effects of the DMCA. Obviously hurtful compliance with the DMCA could possibly speed its demise more than ignoring it outright.
Option 2: If you do not have any access to the server that hosts your image
To have an image removed from our image search service, you must provide a written communication (email or regular mail) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that you may be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys' fees) if you materially misrepresent that you own an image when you in fact do not. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether you have the right to request removal from our image search service, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.
To expedite our ability to process your request, please use the following format (including section numbers):
Check out that thread... it tells about them scheming to get the story onto Slashdot.
"Google views the quality of its search results as an extremely important priority. Therefore, Google stops indexing the pages on your site only at the request of the webmaster who is responsible for those pages. This policy is necessary to ensure that pages are not inappropriately removed from our index.
"Since Google is committed to providing thorough and unbiased search results for our users, we cannot participate in the practice of censoring information on the world wide web."
Wow... I'm very surprised. Google is usually very good at practicing what they preach.
Love the image on their search engine link to Booble (er, Google...)
No joke! Q-tips have a warning that says:
"If used to clean ears, stroke swab gently around the outer surface of the ear, without entering the ear canal."
Isn't the number 1 use of Q-tips to clean out ear canals???
Hey, this is no time to wimp out because nobody else has pitched in with a worthwhile product yet... you've got the first mover advantage as the dot-bomb people called it, similar to First Post here on Slashdot. Sure, you might get modded down, but it's exhilarating while it lasts, eh?
note: irony intended
Microsoft's .NET has exactly this. Quote:
"On the .NET Platform, if you want to install an application, all you have to do is XCopy all the program files to a directory on the clients computer. Similarly if you want to un-install the application just delete the directory containing the application and your application is un-installed, no more stray registry entries or libraries!
"One more obvious but silent reason for Microsoft removing the dependence on the registry is the fact that Microsoft is planning to make applications on the .NET Platform, Platform independent and the Windows Registry is not supported on any other platform."
For those too lazy to actually get up, find marshmallows and find microwave, use this applet to cook them virtually, or check out this time lapse video.
For those craving more of an intellectual thrill, find the speed of light with marshmallows using a microwave.
Why is the dividing line the form of media used? What if the software creators only published in assembly language form, in a book? Do you tax the book? Ok, what about magazine articles that contain code snippets? Do you just wait around until someone presses that code to CD and then tax them? Do you tax the CD creator or the code creator?
Once you allow flawed, uninformed logic like this into the legal system, it has all sorts of unintended consequences. If Seattle really wants to share in software creators' profits, they need to work a little harder to come up with a reasonable taxation method that demonstrates they "get" the nature of software. Not just this hand-waving "Hey! You with the pocket protectors! Gimme your lunch money!"
Not to be painfully redundant here, but try being a Windows-using Slashdotter! I recently submitted a Microsoft-related story, and I firmly believe it would have been rejected if I hadn't added a sarcastic little hook at the end, as reverse psychology (I'm pro-Microsoft). If a Microsoft article is non-controversial, chances are it won't make it to the front page. That's probably the case for most other non-Linux OS's.
If I understand your proposed system for supporting software development, software will eventually be created solely as a free byproduct of business (every business that is, except for software-only business, which will be driven out of business by the availability of open source).
This scenario won't happen, for the very reason you stated: software for business is a make-or-buy decision. You seem to imply that businesses will choose "make" far more often than they will choose "buy". I would argue that the opposite is true, especially for smaller businesses. Custom software development (which you unfairly equate with proprietary software development) will continue to thrive, as businesses continue to choose "buy" rather than "make", even with all the open source in the world available to them.
For one thing, we will never reach the point where all your individual needs can be met by pre-existing software (open source or proprietary). Someone will have to develop it. And whoever develops it, if it is for a business, will need to be paid for their efforts. Open-source their work if you want to, but you're still paying for their work at least once.
I would argue that if anything, open source will drive the proprietary (aka shrink-wrapped) software development companies to become time-and-materials custom software development companies. They'll have to work harder, since they won't be able to subsidize new work on the proceeds from resellable software, but they'll still exist, and be very good at what they do, which will tend to increase the buy/make ratio in their favor.
One final note... proprietary software companies see what you see: the end of the resellable software business model. They're already positioning themselves for a new business model: software as a service. That's what "web services" is all about, with buy-in from everyone from Microsoft to IBM to Sun to Open Source. Subversive as it may be, it's a new lease on life for proprietary software development. Oh, and it just happens to make life easier for custom software development and open source too.
Several years ago when I was an intern in a state govt agency, I was given administrator duties on their Windows NT domain. I immediately sought out command-line tools for all my administrative needs (the NT reskit) and proceeded to create batch file scripts for everything from scanning machine configs to pushing out updates, turning services on and off, etc. It greatly simplified standardizing everyone's configs. I was even able to use it to automate the creation of a machine config database, including hardware! Sure, it took a few weeks to really get to power-user level with batch files, but it was well worth it, and amazing what could be accomplished without buying fancy third-party admin tools.
Take a look at the origins of .NET before writing it off as a clear rip-off:
The origin of this new runtime environment lay in the little-noticed acquisition by Microsoft of Colusa Software in 1996. Co-founded by Steven Lucco, Colusa had released a product in 1995 called OmniVM based on research carried out by Lucco at Carnegie Mellon University. OmniVM was a virtual machine environment that offered two distinct advantages over early versions of Java. Firstly, by avoiding interpretation and using a virtual RISC architecture it provided near-native code execution performance. Secondly, it implemented robust 'application' isolation via a virtual memory manager. This made it a very safe environment for running 'legacy' and 'mobile' code. What caught Microsoft's eye was that, partly in order to support the porting of legacy code to the virtual environment, Colusa had produced both C/C++ and Visual Basic development environments.
Check out Episode 14's preloader game for some Jar-Jar Binks bashing fun!
As similar as they may seem, they have completely different origins. Read more here:
The origin of this new runtime environment lay in the little-noticed acquisition by Microsoft of Colusa Software in 1996. Co-founded by Steven Lucco, Colusa had released a product in 1995 called OmniVM based on research carried out by Lucco at Carnegie Mellon University. OmniVM was a virtual machine environment that offered two distinct advantages over early versions of Java. Firstly, by avoiding interpretation and using a virtual RISC architecture it provided near-native code execution performance. Secondly, it implemented robust 'application' isolation via a virtual memory manager. This made it a very safe environment for running 'legacy' and 'mobile' code. What caught Microsoft's eye was that, partly in order to support the porting of legacy code to the virtual environment, Colusa had produced both C/C++ and Visual Basic development environments.
And here:
On March 12th of 1996, Microsoft bought Colusa Software, the maker of Omniware and OmniVM. For several years, Microsoft has been quietly developing Colusa's universal virtual machine and waiting for the right time to deploy it.
And here:
Microsoft Research is developing a virtual machine, which it calls CVM, based on technology it acquired a couple of years back when it bought Colusa Software Inc. Colusa originally was building a run-time language similar to Visual Basic. But CVM goes beyond this; it will act as a virtual machine running on multiple platforms that can run programs written in C++, Visual Basic, Java and other languages.
India's state-run agency for advanced computing plans to build a nationwide grid of supercomputers for mammoth applications.
Mammoth, as in wooly mammoth? I suppose they'll be excavating Cobol programmers to write the code for it...
The next famous story concerning the Miserere involves the 12-year-old Mozart. On December 13, 1769, Leopold and Wolfgang left Salzburg and set out for a 15-month tour of Italy where, among other things, Leopold hoped that Wolfgang would have the chance to study with Padre Martini in Bologna, who had also taught Johann Christian Bach several years before. On their circuitous route to Bologna, they passed through Innsbruck, Verona, Milan, and arrived in Rome on April 11, 1770, just in time for Easter. As with any tourist, they visited St. Peter's to celebrate the Wednesday Tenebrae and to hear the famous Miserere sung at the Sistine Chapel. Upon arriving at their lodging that evening, Mozart sat down and wrote out from memory the entire piece. On Good Friday, he returned, with his manuscript rolled up in his hat, to hear the piece again and make a few minor corrections. Leopold told of Wolfgang's accomplishment in a letter to his wife dated April 14, 1770 (Rome):
"...You have often heard of the famous Miserere in Rome, which is so greatly prized that the performers are forbidden on pain of excommunication to take away a single part of it, copy it or to give it to anyone. *But we have it already*. Wolfgang has written it down and we would have sent it to Salzburg in this letter, if it were not necessary for us to be there to perform it. But the manner of performance contributes more to its effect than the composition itself. Moreover, as it is one of the secrets of Rome, we do not wish to let it fall into other hands...."
Wolfgang and his father then traveled on to Naples for a short stay, returning to Rome a few weeks later to attend a papal audience where Wolfgang was made a Knight of the Golden Spur. They left Rome a couple of weeks later to spend the rest of the summer in Bologna, where Wolfgang studied with Padre Martini.
The story does not end here, however. As the Mozarts were sightseeing and traveling back to Rome, the noted biographer and music historian, Dr. Charles Burney, set out from London on a tour of France and Italy to gather material for a book on the state of music in those countries. By August, he arrived in Bologna to meet with Padre Martini. There he also met Mozart. Though little is known about what transpired between Mozart and Burney at this meeting, some facts surrounding the incident lead to interesting conjecture. For one, Mozart's transcription of Allegri's Miserere, important in that it would presumably also reflect the improvised passages performed in 1770 and thus document the style of improvisation employed by the papal choir, has never been found. The second fact is that Burney, upon returning to England near the end of 1771, published an account of his tour as well as a collection of music for the celebration of Holy Week in the Sistine Chapel. This volume included music by Palestrina, Bai, and, for the first time, Allegri's famous Miserere. Subsequently, the Miserere was reprinted many times in England, Leipzig, Paris and Rome, effectively ending the pope's monopoly on the work.
Doh, I didn't read the article carefully enough.
Space Data wants to operate as a "carrier's carrier," serving wireless companies that in turn provide cell phone service and other wireless communication, such as paging, to consumers.
So the balloon folks are also planning on offering "broadband" services too, and they won't actually be the ones responsible for implementing CDMA cellular. Also, CDMA may be better suited for rural locations than GSM.
I realize both the weather balloons and Helios are just means to an end, but using these things for broadband internet would be way cooler than the US's second-rate cell technology, which is what they want to use the weather balloons for.