that would be the POWER5 processor used in IBM big iron. They sell boxes scaled to 64 procs right now...unfortunately, those are multi-million dollar boxes already.
I'd agree that we need supercomputers, but that's not quite the same way the "industry" does. Let's face it, there are very few everyday uses for supercomputers anymore. It would be fun to see a new round of "supercomputers" but frankly all of them put together don't have the technology resources to beat companies like Intel & AMD...let's not forget that both companies have recently built 2 BILLION dollar fabrication plants that are only slated to be state-of-the-art for 3-5 years tops... The dollar expenditure to build top end chips is large it's not profitable unless you can sell millions to get back your money. I'd like to see makers like AMD release "cell" motherboards that unchain the chips from arbitrary restrictions of chipsets and allow end users to connect chips like Opterons in more "novel" maners...considering an "average" Opteron server board can support 4 processors and 16+ GB of ram, the issue isn't a technology lead, but rather getting "lego-like" processing components into the hands of truely creative people again...
The novelty of structure is what made Cray so fast, not necessarily the individual components...the "supercomputer" industry lost touch with that ideal segment a long time ago.
OS400 native FS is still the neatest model for DB-FS integration out there. It's unique because the File system is written to allow file-member-record-field access directly from a command line call... It's similar to what was posted above with Reiser4 and having plugins. The key to AS400 success is that the "file system driver" is pushed down into hardware controller roms so the DB like access is nearly fool-proof. Stuff like queries and SQL are just "plugins" on top of that model. The only thing I see preventing linux from adopting such a scheme is that it would require an entire dedicated HDD/partition to do properly because you need complete control of the disk structure to the FS driver...and where AS400 has very few native file types it deals in, linux would need to litteraly create a file model "plugin" for every type of Mime type..otherwise you still have a bunch of meaningless BLOBS to parse. OSS/Linux is uniquely qualified to write this because they have the "keys" to everything, but it would take enormous cooperation to implement it correctly!
you almost get my point...look how many people download shockwave, flash, google toobar, Gator, and the constant stream of patches that Ms puts out. We need to somehow get more people to just download Firebird [call it a great new super free plug-in that makes your member(s) bigger & and solves world peace] after all.9 is under 6 megs! many people download more spyware than that a day.
It's time to "pull people up" rather than dumb the internet down to their level!
Theora has patents! They have been offically signed over by the owners to the open source project...all legal like. It's actually a Big Deal & the point of the whole OGG excercize!
look up all the horror stories they had getting installing and video to work on linux! Mostly because the people they licensed the codex from blew them off and wouldn't support them...I bet their next projects will all be Ogg!
Video game designers care because they've already been burned by patented codecs that the manufacturer refuses to port to another platform...like mac OSX or linux. Bioware got bit several ways with Neverwinter nights...the installer people refused to let them even access the cab files without paying TWICE for the privilage. The Blink video people didn't want to waste time with porting their software either...So Bioware has "their" part of neverwinter ported to Linux quite nicely...except that you can't install it from the CD..or watch the movies on Linux because those rights holders don't want to be "hassled" [and here we thought they were out to sell something?]
Several others have learned from that experience [it's widely published] so they're all supporting the format that ALREADY works on any platform they might want to have their game run on! Nothing pushed people to OSS faster than the stuck-up A$$ hats who's idea of customer service & support is "Cash or charge"!
Another case where copyright shouldn't apply. The shows were broadcast, but not distributed in an end-user form...they weren't PUBLISHED. That would be a great case to try out if you could actually find somebody with a VCR tape of an episode...even better than the posted case. That would set a wicked precedent for all of the DRM'd crap that the media is pushing...because if it is locked up so tight it can't be produced, it was broadcast...but never really published in the first place because it can't EVER be copied.
The orignial terms of copyright required you to fill out a form & pay the fee for every work you wished to have protected. It wasn't till 1976 when much of the mass media took off that the library of congress shrunk under the load of processing all those petty requests. You also had to reapply after the initial 14 year period... That had the effect of progressively "pushing" stuff into the public domain. What happened in 1976 is the cause of much of our problems lately. Works aren't registered, so there's not authority of what is a work and what isn't...also that change changed things from being "communication was in the public domain UNLESS REGISTERED" to being "communication protected Until it ran out..even if not registered" [i.e. forever] which wasn't done before.
any work done on your part to transfer would constitute a new work on your part. Therefore you would also have "onerous" leverage because you paid for the conversion!
pretty soon there'll be no little kids who KNOW "Happy Birthday" to continue our pattern of infringement. Nobody will be singing it...nobody will infringe...nobody will care..oops!
Off the cuff, 1/3 the length is only about 1/27 the volume...and volume it the important thing. Also, they are using Helium which doesn't have quite the lifting power. Oh, and they want this to be SAFE by 2004 standards! It's just a start anyway. They gotta get money from somewhere to justify building bigger ships. Actually, given today's materials they could probably build one bigger with more cargo capacity than the largest zepplins of the golden age.
If they could demonstrate good saftey and decent operating costs they could start to displace airplanes. After all, airplanes are all about moving lots of people in a hurry...not really very FUN anymore. In the US the train system in in disarray and many people are tired of the rush of the airlines...it doesn't make much of a vacation to fly...note how many people elect to take boat cruises. Also, the newer model of airships are much safer for the public! They're not loaded up with tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel, they don't go very fast, and if they do loose power they're harder to crash and do a lot of damage to anything solid. Add to that the fact that they won't require huge airstrips to take off and land so they can visit many existing small airports that normal airlines would never think to service!
Use something else! Like Opera, firebird, Mozilla, ect. My point is that there are alternitives to using IE that already work better. A company as large as Google could make a huge difference. After all, they already have a Google toolbar that people download to "fix" some of the bugs in IE! Google's time and money would be better spent using open standards and pointing out all the other good browsers that will work properly with their new layout.
The first step to dethroning MS is to get another large company to come out and say "they're wrong!" and offer up a solution to fix it.
Why help MS? They've got $50billion in the bank...they don't fix IE because they don't WANT to fix it! IE7 means nothing...other than some poor sap customer is trying to appologize for Bills stuckupance. We need somebody like Google to put the screws to MS and call them out to make them follow open standards...which directly conficts with their business plans to wreck the net too!
That would seem like a good investment for valve...but the free work was done BEFORE any offers were made...without expectation for any offers. Point is that hiring the modders is a good business decision for valve because those people have experience with their game, but it's purely a bonus for valve...it keeps those guys from starting ANOTHER company...the community doesn't OWE valve anything past the first $50. They want more...sell more!
Why should I pay to USE software...doesn't matter what valve wants. From other posters, they changed the license after the fact [well after the game was released]...that's not cool. Valve is pulling a very dangerous move here and they need to be beat down hard!
There's these places called hardware stores. They sell tools for building houses!!!! But I only PAY for the tool once per worker. Often if it breaks they give me another for FREE!!
They must be doing something wrong because they don't charge for usage per house you build....
you buy something people want to use and they borrow it for a sum smaller than what it would cost for the whole thing. People do it with power tools, DVDs, tables and chairs, and those little kid bouncing gyms. making money off of buying a product is what business is all about!
The real question is wether this it really enforceable or not? After all they are not infringing on copyright, they are just getting extra milage from a product they already legally bought. This is becomming a huge problem lately. in the movie space the courts ruled that it was OK to rent videos out....and this guy isn't even distributing so there's no chance of copying illegally...he's just allowing other people to play his copiee on his computers...how is that different than any other business use?
Frankly valve needs to be boycotted now or be hacked again! This is a very dangerous prececent to set...even MS isn't this LOW!!! What would the backlash be if MS told businesses they MUST pay every year for their pre-installed copies from Dell? this is exactly the same thing. If valve wants to make more money, RELEASE A F#$ING NEW product!!! Stop crying because people "don't use it how you say". That's childish.
note that there are few IP fights because the govt pays for IP seperately from manufacturing. That way if you screw up or need becomes peril they can start somebody else moving NOW.... Software has managed to get the money, but hide from the ugly details.
a fun experiment would be for the shiny new AGIS ships [loaded with NT servers!] to crash during combat [perhaps take casualties] and the govt demand the source to windows to fix it!!! There is a very real danger of the feds doing that particularly during war time. MS is just a little too cocky...and crappy customer service could get them in a world of hurt!!!
Great example and here's how it works: [note I used to work for a contractor so here's the basics]
When the govt wants HARDWARE they typically put out a request to submit projects. [at this point the ideas are still held by their respective submitters] Once the proposal are in, the govt contracts 2-3 to research & develop the project at the govts expense. At that point all of the money spent on research tools, development, and any copyrights or patents issued become property of the govt upon the project's completion.
With something like the F22 there was the YF22 adn YF23 developed by two different companies at the govts expense. Once the two prototypes were completed those projects were "closed" and technically all material went back to the govt. The govt then decided which plane they thought meet their needs more and picked that to manufacture. At that point the govt rebids the work out again and typically all of the companies subbmiting research get to bid on the finished product even if their's wasn't the winner...although the research winner generally gets the largest share of the contract due to their "pre-paid" costs and experience.
As far as getting prints of the F-22 you'd need to wait 50 years for them to be non-classified!
the problem is that the commercial interests are telling the govt they can't assist GPL'd projects and that they MUST redevelop or buy proprietary!
Many posters are correct in that generally the govt releases only public-domain software. In practice however most of the time they just buy stuff...note that IBM and MS both make a killing off selling the govt software...even making custom changes but doing it in a manner that keeps the product in house so it's not public domain. In practice much of the software work done for the govt never sees the light of day. It's done by small developers that then dump the code when the project is done. The developer keeps a copy to use for whatever, but the govt department files it away never to be seen again. Chances are if you ask for software..provided you'd know what to ask for in the first place...you'd be told by the deparment manager it was "confidential" to the department...that manager would typially have no access to the source to even help you out. It's a neat scam where the commercial interest develop software but it's never REALLY the government's so it fits thru a loophole.
What this is REALLY about is getting the govt to turn to something like sourceforge first rather than their "old boys" contacts. Right now there's not equal footing. There's much precedent for the govt supporting the "underdog"...corperate "affermative action" is rampant still. The govt deals with a great deal of money in their contracts..enough to build a good sized business from scratch in many cases!!! You'll notice that MS biggest customer is the US Govt! why haven't WE the people got anything from that deal? Where's the Public Domain Windows code that the govt paid for? What MS is deathly afraid of is that the govt will start spending money on "buying" OSS projects much like they buy MS software. All things being equal, there's no difference in donating money to an OSS project to improve it and buying thousands of coppies of windows and demanding specific features! the commercial companies are just trying to keep the OSS projects from benifiting from govt spending in the same way THEY are. After all, even a fraction of the money the govt spends on closed-source software would feed OSS projects for YEARS!!! Not to mention the mindshare of OSS being "standard" to talk to the govt.
Arrested for a felony does not mean that you will even be tried neccessaraly convicted. At this point, police can "arrest" you for darn dear anything, lock you up for up to 72 hours, then say "oops!" "we know there's no possible way you committed the crime" but it's "our bad" and let you go* Therefore, they could legally "arrest" everyone for suspision of *something* and DNA test them. They do much the same thing with protestors now... they "arrest" them for something like "disorderly conduct" [i.e. marching in the street] so they can put their fingerprints in the Database wether or not they committed a crime. [or rather *protesting* was the crime and now you're marked]
* all rights reserved to arrest you again for this matter if we want!!
when I was at McD's I could swear they ran SCO unix on all their in-store stations. I believe they switched some over to windows, but not enough to matter on a corperate scale.
OF course this is HUGE. That means Lots of Linux geeks can get promotions because they understand the business software!!! For me personally this is hillarious because I'm dying to workwith Linux and one of my last employers is still heavily novell...I could end up back working for the clown.
As for SCO, I'd be worried... after all, McDs can get you...They've got all that dangerous hot coffee to use on McBride...not to mention suing "McBride" for use of the "McName"...their lawyers are THAT GOOD. This should be fun!!
It's not really outsorcing though. It's not like India has independantly built a grid-widget factory using Indian capital and research, staffed by Indian workers and run by India managers. It's not a native company that is competing to sell goods in the US that happens to score a better deal on a particular contract.
The current outsorcing situation is about US companies taking US money from profits of US sales to US customers for labor from US workers over seas...taking engineers, research, AND incidentally JOBS to save a few bucks. It's about YOUR bosses wanting to save a buck, it's never been about US workers not being competitive...Realize that most large US manufacturing companies have had record productivity gains over the last decade! It's not high wages or insurance premiums! it's pure simple greed.
Henry Ford hit on this early on when he started his company. He paid above average wages which shocked the industry at the time. But he did it so HIS workers could afford to buy HIS cars...he realized that he had to grow his own market or he would always be a niche product. The current recession is directly in line with that assumption! It's never been a recession, it just a market correction...sometimes called DEFLATION! Simply put, my employer pays me less in real dollars each year [as is the case for most americans right now!] My standard bills for power and taxes still go up by the average rate of inflation meaning I have less and less money each year to spend on fun stuff. Notice how Walmart and such are always having sales...they can't make money to save their lives! Pertually having stuff "on sale" is deflation.
Actually deflation is fine for you and me...just not for people with lots of money. Depression is runaway INFLATION where the haves charge more and more trying to keep what they got... Deflation is the "graceful" approach but the rich people loose because no matter how good a deal they get they can't ever actually make money...there are other desperate rich people also trying to make money!!! In the meantime it's fun for us because stuff is really cheap!!
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I'd agree that we need supercomputers, but that's not quite the same way the "industry" does. Let's face it, there are very few everyday uses for supercomputers anymore. It would be fun to see a new round of "supercomputers" but frankly all of them put together don't have the technology resources to beat companies like Intel & AMD...let's not forget that both companies have recently built 2 BILLION dollar fabrication plants that are only slated to be state-of-the-art for 3-5 years tops... The dollar expenditure to build top end chips is large it's not profitable unless you can sell millions to get back your money. I'd like to see makers like AMD release "cell" motherboards that unchain the chips from arbitrary restrictions of chipsets and allow end users to connect chips like Opterons in more "novel" maners...considering an "average" Opteron server board can support 4 processors and 16+ GB of ram, the issue isn't a technology lead, but rather getting "lego-like" processing components into the hands of truely creative people again...
The novelty of structure is what made Cray so fast, not necessarily the individual components...the "supercomputer" industry lost touch with that ideal segment a long time ago.
OS400 native FS is still the neatest model for DB-FS integration out there. It's unique because the File system is written to allow file-member-record-field access directly from a command line call... It's similar to what was posted above with Reiser4 and having plugins. The key to AS400 success is that the "file system driver" is pushed down into hardware controller roms so the DB like access is nearly fool-proof. Stuff like queries and SQL are just "plugins" on top of that model. The only thing I see preventing linux from adopting such a scheme is that it would require an entire dedicated HDD/partition to do properly because you need complete control of the disk structure to the FS driver...and where AS400 has very few native file types it deals in, linux would need to litteraly create a file model "plugin" for every type of Mime type..otherwise you still have a bunch of meaningless BLOBS to parse. OSS/Linux is uniquely qualified to write this because they have the "keys" to everything, but it would take enormous cooperation to implement it correctly!
Maybe that's why the
It's time to "pull people up" rather than dumb the internet down to their level!
Theora has patents! They have been offically signed over by the owners to the open source project...all legal like. It's actually a Big Deal & the point of the whole OGG excercize!
look up all the horror stories they had getting installing and video to work on linux! Mostly because the people they licensed the codex from blew them off and wouldn't support them...I bet their next projects will all be Ogg!
Several others have learned from that experience [it's widely published] so they're all supporting the format that ALREADY works on any platform they might want to have their game run on! Nothing pushed people to OSS faster than the stuck-up A$$ hats who's idea of customer service & support is "Cash or charge"!
Another case where copyright shouldn't apply. The shows were broadcast, but not distributed in an end-user form...they weren't PUBLISHED. That would be a great case to try out if you could actually find somebody with a VCR tape of an episode...even better than the posted case. That would set a wicked precedent for all of the DRM'd crap that the media is pushing...because if it is locked up so tight it can't be produced, it was broadcast...but never really published in the first place because it can't EVER be copied.
The orignial terms of copyright required you to fill out a form & pay the fee for every work you wished to have protected. It wasn't till 1976 when much of the mass media took off that the library of congress shrunk under the load of processing all those petty requests. You also had to reapply after the initial 14 year period... That had the effect of progressively "pushing" stuff into the public domain. What happened in 1976 is the cause of much of our problems lately. Works aren't registered, so there's not authority of what is a work and what isn't...also that change changed things from being "communication was in the public domain UNLESS REGISTERED" to being "communication protected Until it ran out..even if not registered" [i.e. forever] which wasn't done before.
any work done on your part to transfer would constitute a new work on your part. Therefore you would also have "onerous" leverage because you paid for the conversion!
pretty soon there'll be no little kids who KNOW "Happy Birthday" to continue our pattern of infringement. Nobody will be singing it...nobody will infringe...nobody will care..oops!
If they could demonstrate good saftey and decent operating costs they could start to displace airplanes. After all, airplanes are all about moving lots of people in a hurry...not really very FUN anymore. In the US the train system in in disarray and many people are tired of the rush of the airlines...it doesn't make much of a vacation to fly...note how many people elect to take boat cruises. Also, the newer model of airships are much safer for the public! They're not loaded up with tens of thousands of gallons of jet fuel, they don't go very fast, and if they do loose power they're harder to crash and do a lot of damage to anything solid. Add to that the fact that they won't require huge airstrips to take off and land so they can visit many existing small airports that normal airlines would never think to service!
The first step to dethroning MS is to get another large company to come out and say "they're wrong!" and offer up a solution to fix it.
Why help MS? They've got $50billion in the bank...they don't fix IE because they don't WANT to fix it! IE7 means nothing...other than some poor sap customer is trying to appologize for Bills stuckupance. We need somebody like Google to put the screws to MS and call them out to make them follow open standards...which directly conficts with their business plans to wreck the net too!
That would seem like a good investment for valve...but the free work was done BEFORE any offers were made...without expectation for any offers. Point is that hiring the modders is a good business decision for valve because those people have experience with their game, but it's purely a bonus for valve...it keeps those guys from starting ANOTHER company...the community doesn't OWE valve anything past the first $50. They want more...sell more!
Why should I pay to USE software...doesn't matter what valve wants. From other posters, they changed the license after the fact [well after the game was released]...that's not cool. Valve is pulling a very dangerous move here and they need to be beat down hard!
They must be doing something wrong because they don't charge for usage per house you build....
I call Bullshit!!!
nuf said!
you buy something people want to use and they borrow it for a sum smaller than what it would cost for the whole thing. People do it with power tools, DVDs, tables and chairs, and those little kid bouncing gyms. making money off of buying a product is what business is all about!
The real question is wether this it really enforceable or not? After all they are not infringing on copyright, they are just getting extra milage from a product they already legally bought. This is becomming a huge problem lately. in the movie space the courts ruled that it was OK to rent videos out....and this guy isn't even distributing so there's no chance of copying illegally...he's just allowing other people to play his copiee on his computers...how is that different than any other business use?
Frankly valve needs to be boycotted now or be hacked again! This is a very dangerous prececent to set...even MS isn't this LOW!!! What would the backlash be if MS told businesses they MUST pay every year for their pre-installed copies from Dell? this is exactly the same thing. If valve wants to make more money, RELEASE A F#$ING NEW product!!! Stop crying because people "don't use it how you say". That's childish.
a fun experiment would be for the shiny new AGIS ships [loaded with NT servers!] to crash during combat [perhaps take casualties] and the govt demand the source to windows to fix it!!! There is a very real danger of the feds doing that particularly during war time. MS is just a little too cocky...and crappy customer service could get them in a world of hurt!!!
When the govt wants HARDWARE they typically put out a request to submit projects. [at this point the ideas are still held by their respective submitters] Once the proposal are in, the govt contracts 2-3 to research & develop the project at the govts expense. At that point all of the money spent on research tools, development, and any copyrights or patents issued become property of the govt upon the project's completion.
With something like the F22 there was the YF22 adn YF23 developed by two different companies at the govts expense. Once the two prototypes were completed those projects were "closed" and technically all material went back to the govt. The govt then decided which plane they thought meet their needs more and picked that to manufacture. At that point the govt rebids the work out again and typically all of the companies subbmiting research get to bid on the finished product even if their's wasn't the winner...although the research winner generally gets the largest share of the contract due to their "pre-paid" costs and experience.
As far as getting prints of the F-22 you'd need to wait 50 years for them to be non-classified!
Many posters are correct in that generally the govt releases only public-domain software. In practice however most of the time they just buy stuff...note that IBM and MS both make a killing off selling the govt software...even making custom changes but doing it in a manner that keeps the product in house so it's not public domain. In practice much of the software work done for the govt never sees the light of day. It's done by small developers that then dump the code when the project is done. The developer keeps a copy to use for whatever, but the govt department files it away never to be seen again. Chances are if you ask for software..provided you'd know what to ask for in the first place...you'd be told by the deparment manager it was "confidential" to the department...that manager would typially have no access to the source to even help you out. It's a neat scam where the commercial interest develop software but it's never REALLY the government's so it fits thru a loophole.
What this is REALLY about is getting the govt to turn to something like sourceforge first rather than their "old boys" contacts. Right now there's not equal footing. There's much precedent for the govt supporting the "underdog" ...corperate "affermative action" is rampant still. The govt deals with a great deal of money in their contracts..enough to build a good sized business from scratch in many cases!!! You'll notice that MS biggest customer is the US Govt! why haven't WE the people got anything from that deal? Where's the Public Domain Windows code that the govt paid for? What MS is deathly afraid of is that the govt will start spending money on "buying" OSS projects much like they buy MS software. All things being equal, there's no difference in donating money to an OSS project to improve it and buying thousands of coppies of windows and demanding specific features! the commercial companies are just trying to keep the OSS projects from benifiting from govt spending in the same way THEY are. After all, even a fraction of the money the govt spends on closed-source software would feed OSS projects for YEARS!!! Not to mention the mindshare of OSS being "standard" to talk to the govt.
* all rights reserved to arrest you again for this matter if we want!!
OF course this is HUGE. That means Lots of Linux geeks can get promotions because they understand the business software!!! For me personally this is hillarious because I'm dying to workwith Linux and one of my last employers is still heavily novell...I could end up back working for the clown.
As for SCO, I'd be worried... after all, McDs can get you...They've got all that dangerous hot coffee to use on McBride...not to mention suing "McBride" for use of the "McName"...their lawyers are THAT GOOD. This should be fun!!
The current outsorcing situation is about US companies taking US money from profits of US sales to US customers for labor from US workers over seas...taking engineers, research, AND incidentally JOBS to save a few bucks. It's about YOUR bosses wanting to save a buck, it's never been about US workers not being competitive...Realize that most large US manufacturing companies have had record productivity gains over the last decade! It's not high wages or insurance premiums! it's pure simple greed.
Henry Ford hit on this early on when he started his company. He paid above average wages which shocked the industry at the time. But he did it so HIS workers could afford to buy HIS cars...he realized that he had to grow his own market or he would always be a niche product. The current recession is directly in line with that assumption! It's never been a recession, it just a market correction...sometimes called DEFLATION! Simply put, my employer pays me less in real dollars each year [as is the case for most americans right now!] My standard bills for power and taxes still go up by the average rate of inflation meaning I have less and less money each year to spend on fun stuff. Notice how Walmart and such are always having sales...they can't make money to save their lives! Pertually having stuff "on sale" is deflation.
Actually deflation is fine for you and me...just not for people with lots of money. Depression is runaway INFLATION where the haves charge more and more trying to keep what they got... Deflation is the "graceful" approach but the rich people loose because no matter how good a deal they get they can't ever actually make money...there are other desperate rich people also trying to make money!!! In the meantime it's fun for us because stuff is really cheap!!