It's mostly unintelligible, but I think there might be a point in there somewhere. A couple of weeks ago I had my son (2 yrs old) in my office. He was happily (and quietly!) playing on the floor near my desk. When I glanced over he was sitting on the floor with a copy of "Understanding the Linux Kernel" open in front of him. Curious, I took a closer look. He had it open to a page with a diagram of how interrupts are handled in an SMP kernel.... hey! Maybe my son is the SCO spy... uh, oh.
has to share a cell phone? I was kind of with you when you talked about tech people, but a company where a VP has to share a phone is... well, let's just hope your check clears next week.
It takes work to write software. That's true. But it doesn't take any work to copy it.
Argh! Goddamnit, if I see that argument one more time I think my head will explode. That argument only holds up if the company in question could charge $1 million for the software to the first purchaser. Of course, said first purchaser will be mightily *pissed off* when everyone else gets it for free.
I get paid by the hour. Anything else means I'm getting paid for work I didn't do.
That works great for creating a website, or some other one-off piece of software. It does not bode well with software written for the consumer market. Also, I am curious as to what sort of super-altruistic being you are that you don't believe that you should be paid for "work" not tangibly performed?
Taking your argument to its logical extreme... do you believe that a book author should not be paid for the copies of his/her book sold to the public? Are you saying they should get one up-front check (in your theory, I imagine they would only be paid for the amount of hours spent actually writing the book) and then nothing?
Our world economy simply does not work that way. People get paid as much as the market will bear. There are most definitely people who, in my opinion, make much more money than they are worth, but that is very subjective. Obviously others think that Britney Spears is worth hundreds of millions. Really, who the hell am I to complain about that?
...and nobody should be paid for not doing work. think about it.
I *am* thinking about it, and it is making my head explode. When you are referring to software companies making money from selling copies of their software, you are not taking into account the time, effort, and expense it took to reach the stage where they *could* distribute copies. Because of that time, effort, and expense, the company is well within its rights (moral and otherwise) to charge an amount for said copy that gives them a profit. Hell, even a gigantic profit! If the purchasing public is willing to pay it... then, what is the problem?
Hm... I had a project quite some time ago called PyFuck that translated Brainfuck into obsfucated Python. There were a few extensions such as a mechanism for importing Python modules. I should dig it out and write a web server in it. Or, I could not. I think I won't. 10 screens of +++>---+ would give me boils.
I've been sitting here at my freelance gig in front of a BSD box (a PIII 800 w/512 Megs of RAM) for about 20 minutes now while it attempts to copy a 17 Meg file from one folder on the hard drive to another folder. 20 minutes.
Are SoftUpdates turned on? That vastly increases file write time. Are you copying between partitions? That will really slow things down. What flavor and version of *BSD are you running? Some versions/flavors are better than others. For what it's worth, in a very unscientific poll, I find NetBSD 1.6 to be the fastest on large file copies. What are the blocksizes like on the partition you are copying to? If they are too small that will also slow you down. Finally, I assume you are charging by the hour, and with that, you are fired.;-)
There will always be a percentage of the population that assumes anyone accused of a crime is guilty.
Actually there are certain accusations that almost certainly produce a "they're guilty" reaction from the public. Any crime involving children (porn, molestation, physical abuse, etc...) and wives being murdered (the husband "always did it") pretty much ruin the accused's life. Forever. That's powerful stuff... and damn scary. Simply by naming a suspect you can ruin their life.
Perhaps more interesting, there are frequent rumors that their developers use lots of internal tools written in Perl.
Absolutely true. There are also quite a few Python components around campus due to the purchase of eShop several years back. Also, don't forget that ActiveState worked closely with (but not for) MS to bring perl and python functionality to Visual Studio.
There are is also a healthy FreeBSD contingent at MS, due to projects like Rotor.
Hi there... really like your sig. I just wanted to point out a minor spelling error: "Howard" is spelled wrong, it should be "Wesley". Also, you somehow managed to mispell "Dean"... it should be "Clark". Other than that, great sig!
With a young son, sure, I want him to be safe tomorrow, but I also want him not to have to deal with the crap that we're storing up today.
My son just turned 2 and it seems really sad to me that he recognizes, with very little encouragement from me, brand names like The Gap, Disney, McDonald's, etc, etc. He doesn't watch TV (except for a couple of shows on Nick), but somehow he knows these things.
As for the other thing, this McCarthyism that is sweeping the US, that's another matter. No matter how upset I get about our current situation, I try to not let him know that I am upset. I can only hope that by the time he is old enough to be aware of how things are, they won't be so fucked up.
<Pitch>
On a related note, I encourage all slashdotters to try and get Wesley Clark to run for President. He has a good amount of geek appeal, having a triple masters in Philosophy, Economics, and Politics from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Oh, and he is also a licensed Investment Banker and was the NATA Supreme Commander in Europe. He also doesn't fit nicely into either the Democratic or Republican parties, although chances are he would run as a Democrat. Another great benefit is that he can actually pronounce words like "American", "Nuclear", etc, etc, etc...(Note to Bushophiles: several candidates seem to have speaking problems, I am not explicitely picking on him, but Bush is certainly on the top of the bad verbiage list). I am working on putting together a grassroots movement called "Geeks for Clark" (although that name is certainly not finalized. Interested parties should Contact Me.
</Pitch>
Holy crap! If those modifications made it into the GPL I don't think any software company would even consider using it. Think about it... not only would they have to release their code (IP), but create detailed documents about build environments, in-house tools, etc, etc... Why not just close up shop? You would be giving your competitors a detailed blueprint for creating a product from which your company is trying to make a profit.
No thanks, the GPL is hard enough to sell as it is. Remember that fracas about using GPL'd Java packages? Holy shit! People were claiming that since technically the GPL'd Java code was linked at *runtime* that maybe the entire project would have to be GPL'd. Wow.
Give me a BSD or Apache license any day... licenses should not, in my opinion, have an almost religious ideology behind them.
You also said: By using a tool not generally available to build the source, the distributor has made it difficult for end users to enhance the software.
GPLers throw around that phrase a lot, "end users". The assumption is that an end user even knows what a compiler is. Most of them do not. For a true end user the GPL doesn't do or mean shit. I mean, come on, they have the "right" to modify their software... and most of them don't even know what a commandline is. That's very useful.
To the *developer*, the GPL is potentially another story. It's great to have access to code, to make changes, etc. But, let's keep that straight... the GPL is for the developer crowd and not the end user. It is not liberating the end user from anything at all.
Microsoft pay $6b for R&D every year, but Linux has none.
Bullshit. The Linux kernel people (not to mention all of the user-space stuff like Gnome, KDE, X, etc, etc...) probably spends more than 6 billion a year on R&D. The difference is that the Linux people work for free... but their time has an inherent value. MS spends approximately 6 billion dollars in *cash* each year. At a salary of 100k/year, 60,000 people working on OSS projects would reach 6 billion. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that weren't the case.
I knew somebody would take issue with my numbers!;-)
And BTW, if you're paying $2500/month I hope your kitchen is large than a toaster;-)
Actually it was 2k for a "1 bedroom" on 77th and Columbus. And it was for my wife and I. The apartment, um, what's the appropriate phrase? Oh, yes, sucked ass. But the location was excellent and had a nice view of the park. I would never move into that apartment again (over my wife's dead body, in fact) but it served its purpose.:-) Oh, and I included the anal raping of the "broker" in that 30k. Yes, I was an idiot and paid a brokerage fee that was way too high.
As for the eating out, bagles, coffee and bottled water alone tend to add up to 10-15/day.;-) Besides who wouldn't want to have a filet mignon delivered to a fourth floor walkup if they could? Not that we did it often...
You are certainly right, though... I was living well above my means and had the credit card bills to prove it. One learns, I guess.
Ah... all this talk is making me want to return to NYC... but with a two-year old now I shudder to think of the costs...;-)
When I first moved to NYC I took a job at 90k. 90k quickly becomes about 55k after the city, state and federal take their cuts. Drop another 30k for rent (Upper West Side) and that leaves 25k a year to live in Manhattan. Like to eat out (or have to because your kitchen is the size of a toaster)? Add a grand a month, easy. Now we have about 13k in which to pay bills, entertain yourself, etc... Needless to say, when I took my next job I asked for (and got) a hell of a lot more.
That being said, I knew people who seemed to live okay on the island for 40-50k/year. Usually with a couple of roommates in either the Lower (lower, lower) East Side or in Harlem or the Bronx.
I think you would have been much sorrier (and perhaps perplexed) to see 4AD at the bottom of the list, since it is alphabetical and all.
That being said, there are some surprises on there (Tim Kerr?). However, membership in the RIAA doesn't necessarily mean that the labels are *pro* the latest RIAA moves.
Slashdot Mirror
It's mostly unintelligible, but I think there might be a point in there somewhere. A couple of weeks ago I had my son (2 yrs old) in my office. He was happily (and quietly!) playing on the floor near my desk. When I glanced over he was sitting on the floor with a copy of "Understanding the Linux Kernel" open in front of him. Curious, I took a closer look. He had it open to a page with a diagram of how interrupts are handled in an SMP kernel.... hey! Maybe my son is the SCO spy... uh, oh.
What part of tongue-in-cheek funny don't *you* understand? ;-)
has to share a cell phone? I was kind of with you when you talked about tech people, but a company where a VP has to share a phone is... well, let's just hope your check clears next week.
All right... your argument makes sense for software built *on-demand*. It does not hold up for software written for the mass market.
Argh! Goddamnit, if I see that argument one more time I think my head will explode. That argument only holds up if the company in question could charge $1 million for the software to the first purchaser. Of course, said first purchaser will be mightily *pissed off* when everyone else gets it for free.
I get paid by the hour. Anything else means I'm getting paid for work I didn't do.
That works great for creating a website, or some other one-off piece of software. It does not bode well with software written for the consumer market. Also, I am curious as to what sort of super-altruistic being you are that you don't believe that you should be paid for "work" not tangibly performed?
Taking your argument to its logical extreme... do you believe that a book author should not be paid for the copies of his/her book sold to the public? Are you saying they should get one up-front check (in your theory, I imagine they would only be paid for the amount of hours spent actually writing the book) and then nothing?
Our world economy simply does not work that way. People get paid as much as the market will bear. There are most definitely people who, in my opinion, make much more money than they are worth, but that is very subjective. Obviously others think that Britney Spears is worth hundreds of millions. Really, who the hell am I to complain about that?
I *am* thinking about it, and it is making my head explode. When you are referring to software companies making money from selling copies of their software, you are not taking into account the time, effort, and expense it took to reach the stage where they *could* distribute copies. Because of that time, effort, and expense, the company is well within its rights (moral and otherwise) to charge an amount for said copy that gives them a profit. Hell, even a gigantic profit! If the purchasing public is willing to pay it... then, what is the problem?
I don't think that is a phrase anyone would like to hear. ;-)
Difficult and surly? ;-)
Hm... I had a project quite some time ago called PyFuck that translated Brainfuck into obsfucated Python. There were a few extensions such as a mechanism for importing Python modules. I should dig it out and write a web server in it. Or, I could not. I think I won't. 10 screens of +++>---+ would give me boils.
Are SoftUpdates turned on? That vastly increases file write time. Are you copying between partitions? That will really slow things down. What flavor and version of *BSD are you running? Some versions/flavors are better than others. For what it's worth, in a very unscientific poll, I find NetBSD 1.6 to be the fastest on large file copies. What are the blocksizes like on the partition you are copying to? If they are too small that will also slow you down. Finally, I assume you are charging by the hour, and with that, you are fired. ;-)
Actually there are certain accusations that almost certainly produce a "they're guilty" reaction from the public. Any crime involving children (porn, molestation, physical abuse, etc...) and wives being murdered (the husband "always did it") pretty much ruin the accused's life. Forever. That's powerful stuff... and damn scary. Simply by naming a suspect you can ruin their life.
Cool! Now I can finally release that JCL version of Wolfenstein I have been working on!
Absolutely true. There are also quite a few Python components around campus due to the purchase of eShop several years back. Also, don't forget that ActiveState worked closely with (but not for) MS to bring perl and python functionality to Visual Studio.
There are is also a healthy FreeBSD contingent at MS, due to projects like Rotor.
Damn, Damn, Damn, Damn! Misspell.
Hi there... really like your sig. I just wanted to point out a minor spelling error: "Howard" is spelled wrong, it should be "Wesley". Also, you somehow managed to mispell "Dean"... it should be "Clark". Other than that, great sig!
My son just turned 2 and it seems really sad to me that he recognizes, with very little encouragement from me, brand names like The Gap, Disney, McDonald's, etc, etc. He doesn't watch TV (except for a couple of shows on Nick), but somehow he knows these things.
As for the other thing, this McCarthyism that is sweeping the US, that's another matter. No matter how upset I get about our current situation, I try to not let him know that I am upset. I can only hope that by the time he is old enough to be aware of how things are, they won't be so fucked up.
<Pitch> On a related note, I encourage all slashdotters to try and get Wesley Clark to run for President. He has a good amount of geek appeal, having a triple masters in Philosophy, Economics, and Politics from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Oh, and he is also a licensed Investment Banker and was the NATA Supreme Commander in Europe. He also doesn't fit nicely into either the Democratic or Republican parties, although chances are he would run as a Democrat. Another great benefit is that he can actually pronounce words like "American", "Nuclear", etc, etc, etc...(Note to Bushophiles: several candidates seem to have speaking problems, I am not explicitely picking on him, but Bush is certainly on the top of the bad verbiage list). I am working on putting together a grassroots movement called "Geeks for Clark" (although that name is certainly not finalized. Interested parties should Contact Me. </Pitch>
pathchar! It takes a bit of time to complete, and is not terribly user friendly, but it is pretty precise.
DataDino is nicely done! I just did the webstart and was pretty impressed. Nice job.
Should be: "We are too lazy to put the extra 'o' on 'to':
No thanks, the GPL is hard enough to sell as it is. Remember that fracas about using GPL'd Java packages? Holy shit! People were claiming that since technically the GPL'd Java code was linked at *runtime* that maybe the entire project would have to be GPL'd. Wow.
Give me a BSD or Apache license any day... licenses should not, in my opinion, have an almost religious ideology behind them.
You also said: By using a tool not generally available to build the source, the distributor has made it difficult for end users to enhance the software.
GPLers throw around that phrase a lot, "end users". The assumption is that an end user even knows what a compiler is. Most of them do not. For a true end user the GPL doesn't do or mean shit. I mean, come on, they have the "right" to modify their software... and most of them don't even know what a commandline is. That's very useful.
To the *developer*, the GPL is potentially another story. It's great to have access to code, to make changes, etc. But, let's keep that straight... the GPL is for the developer crowd and not the end user. It is not liberating the end user from anything at all.
I am going to step out on a limb here and guess that that he/she is a HURD developer.
Bullshit. The Linux kernel people (not to mention all of the user-space stuff like Gnome, KDE, X, etc, etc...) probably spends more than 6 billion a year on R&D. The difference is that the Linux people work for free... but their time has an inherent value. MS spends approximately 6 billion dollars in *cash* each year. At a salary of 100k/year, 60,000 people working on OSS projects would reach 6 billion. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that weren't the case.
And BTW, if you're paying $2500/month I hope your kitchen is large than a toaster ;-)
Actually it was 2k for a "1 bedroom" on 77th and Columbus. And it was for my wife and I. The apartment, um, what's the appropriate phrase? Oh, yes, sucked ass. But the location was excellent and had a nice view of the park. I would never move into that apartment again (over my wife's dead body, in fact) but it served its purpose. :-) Oh, and I included the anal raping of the "broker" in that 30k. Yes, I was an idiot and paid a brokerage fee that was way too high.
As for the eating out, bagles, coffee and bottled water alone tend to add up to 10-15/day. ;-) Besides who wouldn't want to have a filet mignon delivered to a fourth floor walkup if they could? Not that we did it often...
You are certainly right, though... I was living well above my means and had the credit card bills to prove it. One learns, I guess.
Ah... all this talk is making me want to return to NYC... but with a two-year old now I shudder to think of the costs... ;-)
When I first moved to NYC I took a job at 90k. 90k quickly becomes about 55k after the city, state and federal take their cuts. Drop another 30k for rent (Upper West Side) and that leaves 25k a year to live in Manhattan. Like to eat out (or have to because your kitchen is the size of a toaster)? Add a grand a month, easy. Now we have about 13k in which to pay bills, entertain yourself, etc... Needless to say, when I took my next job I asked for (and got) a hell of a lot more.
That being said, I knew people who seemed to live okay on the island for 40-50k/year. Usually with a couple of roommates in either the Lower (lower, lower) East Side or in Harlem or the Bronx.
<esc>:set columns=
That being said, there are some surprises on there (Tim Kerr?). However, membership in the RIAA doesn't necessarily mean that the labels are *pro* the latest RIAA moves.