Both are on the verge of collapse, and trying to survive by extorting cash from a vastly more powerful entity (IBM, USA). Both are making increasingly belligerent statements after being deliberately ignored. The world would be much better off if both were to spontaneously combust.
I'd say the SCO execs have already won. They have successfully managed to steal millions of dollars from the people who bought SCO stock on news of the IBM lawsuit
True. If/when it's revealed that SCO has no case, I hope the SEC gets well acquainted with those individuals.
I don't think the SCO folks would have started this if they weren't reasonably sure of success.
Define "success". The guys who instigated the lawsuit have had their shares go up by an order of magnitude. They don't need to win, or even have any chance of winning; they just need to make their adversaries believe that they would suffer intolerable damage in a fight. It's oddly similar to the North Korea situation. Unfortunately for both megalomanaics, neither IBM nor the US is biting.
This is a case where the letter of the law deviates so far from the popular understanding of morality that it is simply being ignored.
That's exactly right. The best analogy I can think of is speed limits. People routinely exceed posted speed limits and don't think themselves criminals for doing so. The reason is that while speed limits in principle are a good idea, in practice they are set unreasonably low, for the purpose of revenue generation rather than safety. Likewise, while the stated goal of copyright laws are valid (encouraging innovation), in practice today they're used to reward special interests without concern for the harm they do to the public.
Most people aren't anarchists, they just have an intuitive understanding that laws in some areas have gone way too far. Just about everybody would agree that driving 80mph in a residential zone should be punished, as should duplicating thousands of music CDs and selling them on a street corner. But 3 years is prison for sharing an MP3 on Kazaa is preposterous.
But doesn't the paradox also apply to Achilles and the rock? Doesn't it apply to all pairs of objects?
Yes. Zeno's arrow paradox is the generalized case and "proves" that motion doesn't exist. The problem is that velocity is delta(x)/delta(t), and Zeno only considers the numerator. He slices time into an infinite number of segments, and argues that at each segment the arrow is stationary because it's delta(x) is zero. That's true, but delta(t) is also zero for each segment, so you end up with a velocity of 0/0 which is meaningless. Calculus and limits resolve the paradox easily, without needing to consider relativity or Planck length.
.NET has really solved this problem, but making it strongly typed, but every typed is derived from 'object', which has a pure virtual 'ToString' which allows you to easily convert anything to a string suitable for printing.
Java solved that problem many years ago, and Smalltalk solved it many years before that.
Apple can easily covert their system to Linux than writing for Windows from the ground up.
No they can't. OS X and Linux are both Unix, but UI development is completely different. To easily port apps you'd have to use a cross-platform toolkit like wxWindows, which Apple won't do because they want the unique features of OS X; or use Cocoa and GNUstep, although GNUstep doesn't support all the features of OS X, and iTunes is Carbon anyway.
If anything, the port to Windows is probably easier than it would be to Linux, because QuickTime for Windows already contains large parts of the Carbon API.
What you can't do is stream them over the internet anymore because some a$$hole hacker decided it would be cute to hack the system so the music could be copied instead of streamed. Fortunately, for him, he's smart enough to remain anonymous, or I and most other honest Apple users would go and beat the crap out of him.
The "hack" was recognizing that iTunes was making a standard HTTP request to stream the music. And it's always been possible to copy streamed music, using tools like Audio Hijack or Wiretap. Even without the "asshole", I seriously doubt the feature would have remained. (And you did keep a non-updated copy of iTunes around, right?)
To those who bristle at the notion of an "economic transaction," I say, get over it. As it stands, depending on donors allows thousands of people to die each year. Are these deaths under such a "noble system" preferable to a market in organs? I say it's just the opposite.
Well said. If everyone were selfless and altruistic, perhaps this wouldn't be a problem. But in the real world, capitalism almost always beats socialism.
Burn them to a normal CD, then rip them back to mp3 or Ogg. That's what I'm gonna do.
Better yet, import the AACs into iMovie and export them as AIFF, or capture the audio using Wiretap. (Unless you actually want a CD). I've done that for all my songs from iTMS, and if Apple ever prevents that I'll stop buying.
At present they are only suing IBM for breach of contract.
Suppose someone in your town decided to sue everyone who shopped at Grocery A. Even if you were convinced that their case was baseless, wouldn't you think about shopping at Grocery B until the issue was resolved??
The end users most certainly are bound by copyright law, and are thus not permitted by default to download (ie. 'copy'), much less use the software in question unless they adhere to the GPL.
Minor nitpick: you don't have to agree to the GPL in order to simply use a piece of software. It only comes into play if you copy the software in a manner normally prohibited by copyright law. (17 USC 117 says that "copying" to RAM in order to run software is specifically not infringement). However, by redistributing Linux, SCO has implicitly accepted the GPL, as without it they would be in violation of copyright law.
once this stock bubble collapses there is a very real liklihood that most of their leadership will be in court, quite possibly followed by prison
Anyway, you don't buy the software. You buy the installation media and a license to run it
Well, that's what publishers may claim, but whether it's actually true is a different matter (see Softman v. Adobe). But this is getting off topic, so I'll save further EULA rants for a more appropriate thread.
Sadly the latter is slow as a dog, and you can't just ditch the hideous Aqua WM and run everything inside something decent like WindowMaker yet
Sure you can. The "hideous Aqua WM" is just/usr/X11R6/bin/quartz-wm; you can use another if you like. I don't know if WindowMaker builds and runs, but I've used GNOME with Sawfish and it worked fine.
I'm all for paranoia in the airline industry. It's what makes the flight safer than the drive to the airport.
That ceases to be a benefit at the point where the paranoia imposes enough inconvenience so that some percentage of flyers choose to drive instead, thereby exposing themselves to much greater risk.
Every app I write would fall into the second category, and there is one universal truth: Web applications take longer to develop.
That depends greatly on the development environment you're using. Perhaps it's true for PHP or J2EE, but I've found that WebObjects makes it a snap to build web apps for database interaction.
By a whopping 0.4%, and with one of the G5's processors disabled. You can spin it any way you want, but the clear fact is that with the G5 Macs are competitive in CPU performance again. I don't see why this disturbs you so; competition is good.
However, if you decide not to accept the GPL, the position on your rights to the software "falls back" to the default position, which is that you can't do anything with the software without breaching the copyright.
Not entirely correct; you can still run it. See 17 USC 117 it is not a copyright violation to simply use software you have legally acquired. (This also means that most commercial EULAs are lying when they say you must agree to their terms in order to use the software).
Remember when using API's you are creating a derivative piece of work from a legal point of view.
IANAL, but I'm almost certain this is not correct. Is every Windows app a derivative work of Windows? I've written a program that builds and runs on Mac OS X and GNUstep. Is it a derivative work of both?
Even Google figured this out, 90% of the stuff I search for ends up being.pdf now days
Yeah, and I *hate* that. 90+% of the PDF documents I come across could have been done just as well in HTML, where the user has control over font size and the text isn't artifically constrained to a "page" view which makes no sense whatsoever when reading on a monitor.
So should companies and rich people be the only ones who are allowed into space?
There was a time when only companies and rich people were "allowed" to own telephones, fax machines, televisions, and computers. As a result of funding by early adopters, costs are eventually reduced to the point where ordinary people can easily afford them. There's no reason space should be any different.
It makes me sick that NASA is willing to mortgage the future of space for 30 years because they're not daring enough to do something big right now. I'll be 65 in 2030. People don't live that long.
I agree completely. Of course space is dangerous; new frontiers always are, until they're colonized. That's why we need brave/foolish individuals willing to take their chances and pave the way for the rest of us. I hope to take a vacation to the moon during my lifetime; that will not happen if NASA keeps their monopoly on space.
Rather than all of us benfitting from space research I predict that any and all discoveries will be kept to the wealthy playboys themselves leaving the rest of us out in the cold.
In order for the rich guys to profit from their discoveries, they'll need to make them available to the rest of us. NASA has no vested interest in making space accessible to the ordinary person, but an enteprenuer building an orbital hotel would.
Let's not forget that Columbus didn't sail on his donated dimes for curiousity alone, he did it for wealth.
A fine example of the profit motive encouraging exploration. And there are no Indians on Mars.
Slashdot Mirror
Both are on the verge of collapse, and trying to survive by extorting cash from a vastly more powerful entity (IBM, USA). Both are making increasingly belligerent statements after being deliberately ignored. The world would be much better off if both were to spontaneously combust.
True. If/when it's revealed that SCO has no case, I hope the SEC gets well acquainted with those individuals.
Define "success". The guys who instigated the lawsuit have had their shares go up by an order of magnitude. They don't need to win, or even have any chance of winning; they just need to make their adversaries believe that they would suffer intolerable damage in a fight. It's oddly similar to the North Korea situation. Unfortunately for both megalomanaics, neither IBM nor the US is biting.
That's exactly right. The best analogy I can think of is speed limits. People routinely exceed posted speed limits and don't think themselves criminals for doing so. The reason is that while speed limits in principle are a good idea, in practice they are set unreasonably low, for the purpose of revenue generation rather than safety. Likewise, while the stated goal of copyright laws are valid (encouraging innovation), in practice today they're used to reward special interests without concern for the harm they do to the public.
Most people aren't anarchists, they just have an intuitive understanding that laws in some areas have gone way too far. Just about everybody would agree that driving 80mph in a residential zone should be punished, as should duplicating thousands of music CDs and selling them on a street corner. But 3 years is prison for sharing an MP3 on Kazaa is preposterous.
Yes. Zeno's arrow paradox is the generalized case and "proves" that motion doesn't exist. The problem is that velocity is delta(x)/delta(t), and Zeno only considers the numerator. He slices time into an infinite number of segments, and argues that at each segment the arrow is stationary because it's delta(x) is zero. That's true, but delta(t) is also zero for each segment, so you end up with a velocity of 0/0 which is meaningless. Calculus and limits resolve the paradox easily, without needing to consider relativity or Planck length.
Java solved that problem many years ago, and Smalltalk solved it many years before that.
No they can't. OS X and Linux are both Unix, but UI development is completely different. To easily port apps you'd have to use a cross-platform toolkit like wxWindows, which Apple won't do because they want the unique features of OS X; or use Cocoa and GNUstep, although GNUstep doesn't support all the features of OS X, and iTunes is Carbon anyway.
If anything, the port to Windows is probably easier than it would be to Linux, because QuickTime for Windows already contains large parts of the Carbon API.
The "hack" was recognizing that iTunes was making a standard HTTP request to stream the music. And it's always been possible to copy streamed music, using tools like Audio Hijack or Wiretap. Even without the "asshole", I seriously doubt the feature would have remained. (And you did keep a non-updated copy of iTunes around, right?)
Well said. If everyone were selfless and altruistic, perhaps this wouldn't be a problem. But in the real world, capitalism almost always beats socialism.
Better yet, import the AACs into iMovie and export them as AIFF, or capture the audio using Wiretap. (Unless you actually want a CD). I've done that for all my songs from iTMS, and if Apple ever prevents that I'll stop buying.
At present they are only suing IBM for breach of contract.
Suppose someone in your town decided to sue everyone who shopped at Grocery A. Even if you were convinced that their case was baseless, wouldn't you think about shopping at Grocery B until the issue was resolved??
No. Extortionists should be rewarded.
Minor nitpick: you don't have to agree to the GPL in order to simply use a piece of software. It only comes into play if you copy the software in a manner normally prohibited by copyright law. (17 USC 117 says that "copying" to RAM in order to run software is specifically not infringement). However, by redistributing Linux, SCO has implicitly accepted the GPL, as without it they would be in violation of copyright law.
once this stock bubble collapses there is a very real liklihood that most of their leadership will be in court, quite possibly followed by prison
One can only hope.
Well, that's what publishers may claim, but whether it's actually true is a different matter (see Softman v. Adobe). But this is getting off topic, so I'll save further EULA rants for a more appropriate thread.
You don't need a license to run software that you buy. See 17 USC 117.
Sure you can. The "hideous Aqua WM" is just
That ceases to be a benefit at the point where the paranoia imposes enough inconvenience so that some percentage of flyers choose to drive instead, thereby exposing themselves to much greater risk.
That depends greatly on the development environment you're using. Perhaps it's true for PHP or J2EE, but I've found that WebObjects makes it a snap to build web apps for database interaction.
No, it just means you agree with both of them about the same percentage of the time, but on different issues.
(In case you care, the 100% match for me was "Libertarian candidate")
Weird. I got the same 100% Libertarian match, but Bush 2nd at 82% and Dean 8th at 38%. (I'm somewhat proud that I got a 0% match for Lyndon LaRouche).
By a whopping 0.4%, and with one of the G5's processors disabled. You can spin it any way you want, but the clear fact is that with the G5 Macs are competitive in CPU performance again. I don't see why this disturbs you so; competition is good.
Not entirely correct; you can still run it. See 17 USC 117 it is not a copyright violation to simply use software you have legally acquired. (This also means that most commercial EULAs are lying when they say you must agree to their terms in order to use the software).
IANAL, but I'm almost certain this is not correct. Is every Windows app a derivative work of Windows? I've written a program that builds and runs on Mac OS X and GNUstep. Is it a derivative work of both?
Yeah, and I *hate* that. 90+% of the PDF documents I come across could have been done just as well in HTML, where the user has control over font size and the text isn't artifically constrained to a "page" view which makes no sense whatsoever when reading on a monitor.
There was a time when only companies and rich people were "allowed" to own telephones, fax machines, televisions, and computers. As a result of funding by early adopters, costs are eventually reduced to the point where ordinary people can easily afford them. There's no reason space should be any different.
I agree completely. Of course space is dangerous; new frontiers always are, until they're colonized. That's why we need brave/foolish individuals willing to take their chances and pave the way for the rest of us. I hope to take a vacation to the moon during my lifetime; that will not happen if NASA keeps their monopoly on space.
In order for the rich guys to profit from their discoveries, they'll need to make them available to the rest of us. NASA has no vested interest in making space accessible to the ordinary person, but an enteprenuer building an orbital hotel would.
Let's not forget that Columbus didn't sail on his donated dimes for curiousity alone, he did it for wealth.
A fine example of the profit motive encouraging exploration. And there are no Indians on Mars.