Actually it does. Or can you merge GPL code and non-GPL code in a single codebase? This is a restriction of how you can use the code you obtained through the GPL license.
That is not a restriction that GPL adds: you never were allowed to do that in the first place. Suppose the code is not under any license, then standard copyright law applies. And copyright law does not let you copy that code to your code AT ALL.
Google Checkout is no good alternative for Paypal. It doesn't even support European and Asian merchants and buyers. Any US-only payment website is useless to me.
What I did is writing my own Whirlpool Perl module, which is included in the main program. The XS file is here. It depends on whirlpool-*.[ch] as available in my Ruby Whirlpool library.
Never a mention of potential problems (which we all know exist)
That's not true. I regularly receive questions from potential customers who ask whether my program is 100% bug free (which is impossible). Average users don't know what it's not possible to create 100% bug free software. In fact, they even think that 100% bug free software exist (in the form of commercial software)!
Not only average users, but even Slashdotters are vulnerable to this. Whenever a Firefox exploit is found, everybody screams "MWAHAH, you see, Firefox is not secure!!11 TAKE THAT YOU ANTI-MS ZEALOTS!!!111oneoneelevent", never mind the fact that not a single browser on this planet can be 100% bug free.
In fact, if you look closely, you'll see that people generally complain more about problems in open source software than in closed source software, based on the number of *known* bugs. Many, many, many people, including Slashdotters, regularly say that commercial software is superior and have less bugs because they can point out the x number of bugs that are reported on the Bugzilla for $SOME_OSS_PROGRAM. I'm even starting to think that it may be a good thing to hide problems from the community, just to make less people complain.
limit the session to the IP-address of the visiting user.
Is this really a good idea? I've heard stories from people on mailing lists who claim that many people are behind routers/proxies that cause IP changes very often, and that's restricting a session to an IP causes more problems than it's worth.
Wanting to help people is good and all. In general, I still want to help my users. But after 3 years, things get tired quickly when you read the same question for the 84235823th time (despite massive efforts to redesign the website to make the answer to that question easy to find). Take a look at help desks. Have you ever seen a help desk operator who likes his job? I've never seen one, or even heard of one. Take a look at the administrators/moderators of some major forums where non-technical people go to. Almost all of them (the admins/mods) eventually burn out. I've seen the nicest people turning into frustrated jerks after having to deal with 'n00bs' on forums for more than 2 years.
99% of the people who tried to adopt the "user is never wrong" mentality eventually burn out, and fail. What do you think that means? a) Those people are all wrong and the user is never wrong. b) Incompetent users exist. In the ideal world, I'd believe in a, but after 3 years it's becoming increasingly hard to not believe in b.
What if even the users themselves complain about incompetent users? Would you still say that there is no such thing as incompetent users?
This is not a hypothetical situation: people on my forum complain all the time about idiotic posts on the forum, despite all the hundreds of man hours I spent into organizing the information in easy to find ways and redesigning the website.
(FYI, I'm not talking about the Autopackage website)
You know that they have trouble finding your download link, yet you're stubborn enough not to try to improve your site? That's pretty closed-minded.
Why do you think I don't try to improve my site? I do it all the time.
A few points: 1. I've already redesigned the website twice, and people still ask at the forum where they can download it. 2. When I ask those people why they can't find it, they never give an answer! How am I supposed to know what they think when they don't even reply? 3. I asked a lot of other people who *do* reply, but all of them think that the download link is easy to find, and think that the people who can't find the download link are idiots. 4. The download link is on the left of the forum link! How is it even possible that one cannot see it? 5. Even on the forum pages, there are all kinds of links that link back to the download page. When a user enters the forum, he's presented with a huge, orange box that tells the user where he can find the download page. This box is much larger than the "Continue to the forums" link.
(And FYI, I'm not talking about the Autopackage website.)
Given all of the above points, what else can you conclude other than that there are indeed incompetent users? Heck, even the users themselves think that incompetent users exist.
On my website, there are a few links, among which are: - Download - Forums The Download and Forums links are next to each other, and highly visible (48x48 icons with labels). But people go to the forum to ask where they can download my program! When I ask them why they didn't click on the Download link, they don't give an answer.
If that isn't user incompetence, then what is it? And yes, this happened for real. In fact, it happens all the time, so it's not just 1 or 2 people.
Slashdot Mirror
No. I went to China in December 2005 and Slashdot is *not* blocked.
That is not a restriction that GPL adds: you never were allowed to do that in the first place. Suppose the code is not under any license, then standard copyright law applies. And copyright law does not let you copy that code to your code AT ALL.
Google Checkout is no good alternative for Paypal. It doesn't even support European and Asian merchants and buyers. Any US-only payment website is useless to me.
You may, but the question is: does the average user think that too?
What I did is writing my own Whirlpool Perl module, which is included in the main program. The XS file is here. It depends on whirlpool-*.[ch] as available in my Ruby Whirlpool library.
Not true. AbiWord CVS has had it for a while now. http://uwog.net/news/?p=29
Why can't the body remove those small quantities?
That's not true. I regularly receive questions from potential customers who ask whether my program is 100% bug free (which is impossible). Average users don't know what it's not possible to create 100% bug free software. In fact, they even think that 100% bug free software exist (in the form of commercial software)!
Not only average users, but even Slashdotters are vulnerable to this. Whenever a Firefox exploit is found, everybody screams "MWAHAH, you see, Firefox is not secure!!11 TAKE THAT YOU ANTI-MS ZEALOTS!!!111oneoneelevent", never mind the fact that not a single browser on this planet can be 100% bug free.
In fact, if you look closely, you'll see that people generally complain more about problems in open source software than in closed source software, based on the number of *known* bugs. Many, many, many people, including Slashdotters, regularly say that commercial software is superior and have less bugs because they can point out the x number of bugs that are reported on the Bugzilla for $SOME_OSS_PROGRAM. I'm even starting to think that it may be a good thing to hide problems from the community, just to make less people complain.
Uhm no. Have you ever heard of commercial open source software? If not, then you have now. Commercial and open source are not mutually exclusive.
Is this really a good idea? I've heard stories from people on mailing lists who claim that many people are behind routers/proxies that cause IP changes very often, and that's restricting a session to an IP causes more problems than it's worth.
Then what about video?
And frankly, using Javascript and SVG to write games is a joke.
Since when does SVG support sound? Can Youtube switch to SVG? Can newground.com be made with SVG?
Why do so many people keep saying SVG is a flash replacement? SVG is a vector graphics format, not a graphics/sound/video/scripting format.
I think that it is not governed by the speed of light because space expansion is not travel.
Your acronym is not complete:
G.I.R.L. = Guy In Real Life
I did read the article.
I believe the original Mario 2 is available outside Japan. It's known as "Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels" and comes with Super Mario All Stars.
Wanting to help people is good and all. In general, I still want to help my users. But after 3 years, things get tired quickly when you read the same question for the 84235823th time (despite massive efforts to redesign the website to make the answer to that question easy to find). Take a look at help desks. Have you ever seen a help desk operator who likes his job? I've never seen one, or even heard of one. Take a look at the administrators/moderators of some major forums where non-technical people go to. Almost all of them (the admins/mods) eventually burn out. I've seen the nicest people turning into frustrated jerks after having to deal with 'n00bs' on forums for more than 2 years.
99% of the people who tried to adopt the "user is never wrong" mentality eventually burn out, and fail. What do you think that means?
a) Those people are all wrong and the user is never wrong.
b) Incompetent users exist.
In the ideal world, I'd believe in a, but after 3 years it's becoming increasingly hard to not believe in b.
No, I'm not referring to the Autopackage website. In fact, Autopackage is not supposed to be downloaded by end users.
"If you're referring to the autopackage [autopackage.org] website I think I know why you're getting those questions."
No, I'm not referring to the Autopackage website. In fact, Autopackage is not supposed to be downloaded by end users.
What if even the users themselves complain about incompetent users? Would you still say that there is no such thing as incompetent users?
This is not a hypothetical situation: people on my forum complain all the time about idiotic posts on the forum, despite all the hundreds of man hours I spent into organizing the information in easy to find ways and redesigning the website.
(FYI, I'm not talking about the Autopackage website)
Take a look at this. It was posted on a support forum. If that isn't an incompetent user then what is it?
Why do you think I don't try to improve my site? I do it all the time.
A few points:
1. I've already redesigned the website twice, and people still ask at the forum where they can download it.
2. When I ask those people why they can't find it, they never give an answer! How am I supposed to know what they think when they don't even reply?
3. I asked a lot of other people who *do* reply, but all of them think that the download link is easy to find, and think that the people who can't find the download link are idiots.
4. The download link is on the left of the forum link! How is it even possible that one cannot see it?
5. Even on the forum pages, there are all kinds of links that link back to the download page. When a user enters the forum, he's presented with a huge, orange box that tells the user where he can find the download page. This box is much larger than the "Continue to the forums" link.
(And FYI, I'm not talking about the Autopackage website.)
Given all of the above points, what else can you conclude other than that there are indeed incompetent users? Heck, even the users themselves think that incompetent users exist.
On my website, there are a few links, among which are:
- Download
- Forums
The Download and Forums links are next to each other, and highly visible (48x48 icons with labels). But people go to the forum to ask where they can download my program! When I ask them why they didn't click on the Download link, they don't give an answer.
If that isn't user incompetence, then what is it? And yes, this happened for real. In fact, it happens all the time, so it's not just 1 or 2 people.
No, there are plenty of blogs out there which don't allow comments.