Are you kidding? The renaming will be top secret! If you hear about it, you can be sure that Dick Cheney will be personally trying to track down the leaker. Probably after the leaker has been caught, in his private game reserve at Cheyenne (er, Cheney) Mountain.
You're going to have to fight Dick Cheney for it. Word is that he's already moved his undisclosed location there, and he'll shoot any trespassers in the face.
How does running Mac OS X on commodity x86 hardware qualify as using a windows machine? Seems to me that you're still running a non-windows OS. I'm just saying.
Finally, I'm leaving this stinking company for another where I might have a chance to actually use my expertise, instead of flying all over creation putting on dog-and-pony shows and doing damage control! I feel like a rat fleeing a sinking ship, but if the Chief Rat has scurried off, why should I feel any remorse? Besides, I was almost hit by a chair two weeks ago. Enough is enough!
Excuse me if I'm mistaken, but isn't a Star Chamber a secret tribunal used for attacking political enemies of the state? If this is correct, somehow I don't think that Lego used a Star Chamber of fans to design the new Mindstorms.
It didn't make me feel sad, but neither was it that funny. Just the typical off-the-wall questions we've all come to expect. No real gems in the bunch.
OK, I'll buy that analogy for a dollar. It works, and most importantly, includes automobiles.
Your point about the Z-axis is interesting, even considering low riders, stunt drivers, etc., i.e., people who tweak or push their z-axis limited equipment beyond its intended purpose (which is still different than using an airplane to drive down the street to the supermarket, or whatever).
Whatever's left after the symbolic framework has been removed is only worth the paper it's printed on. Put another way, you cannot divorce money from knowledge.
Perhaps someone will develop a GPL 2.5 fork to better handle the patent issues. If they want anti-DRM licensing and anti-TPM licensing, they should have a completely separate license that developers can opt in. (There would be nothing stopping people from releasing under a multi-licnese.) As it stands, this is no longer about freedom for developers. It's about RMS's vision of a social revolution. If that's what you want, fine. Just don't be sneaky about it and try to back door us with it.
My guess is that most developers (as opposed to FS ideological firebrands) are not going to adopt GPLv3 once they understand it. If the people actually creating software fail to embrace GPLv3, it will wither in obscurity.
I haven't gotten to that story yet, but I agree with you. While TPM can certainly be used for Evil, it can also be used for good. I fear that the GPL is becoming a form of DRM, trying to control which devices on which software can be run. Ironic, isn't it?
While I disagree with your overall assessment, you bring up some good points regarding free v. proprietary. Free software does have pitfalls, as you discovered. Many many OSS projects fail. There is a huge amount of redundancy and possibly wasted effort.
The main thing that proprietary software offers over free software is the financial carrot as a lure. (This is not to say that one cannot make money or benefit financially from creating OSS. One can, but it's not so clear cut.) Now, in the case of your failed project, you could have hired people to work on it with you, but obviously that would have been a losing proposition for you. So how can you motivate people without cold hard cash?
I think it comes down to three things.
1) You need itchy people. If your project has the potential to scratch many people's itches, you are more likely to find other people willing to devote time to developing your project. Maybe your game client software just didn't have a big enough audience.
2) You need management skills. Especially important if you are not paying people! You need to jolly them along to get them to do what you want. This applies to both paid and unpaid work, but is absolutely essential for unpaid work. If you don't have the leadership skills, or failing that, aren't good at conning and manipulation, expect your road to be lonely.
3) You need to make it as easy as possible for users to do your QA work for you. This is often cited as one of the failures of OSS, but improvements can help a great deal. Does your app have a built in bug reporting feature? What other avenues of easy bug reporting do you use? What feedback to you provide (if any) to bug reporting users? What support (if any) do you provide to your users?
The bottom line is that if one wants their OSS project to be a success in the community, one needs to gain traction in the community. Source Forge is littered with projects that never gained traction. (Yet the efforts aren't entirely lost! Theoretically, someone could pick up where a project left off at any time.)
Thank you. The FSF is overreaching. While not wanting hardware makers to lock in software is a fine sentiment, it hasn't any business in the GPL, just as forcing non-distributing users to release changes under a tortured re-definition of distribution has no business there. Why not require or force hardware manufacturers to release their hardware designs if they want to use GPL code? Where does it end?
Many people here on slashdot point out the evils of DRM incrementalism (to coin a phrase). Which version of the GPL will require that documents and files created by GPLed applications must be released under the GPL?
Hasn't money just become another form of information? Specifically, information about (economic) power? I said, "become", but even when based on gold or seashells, money has always inherently been a symbol.
That's pretty extreme. Shock collars with an electronic perimeter make more sense, and enable children to participate in educational and character-building yard work activities. You can't coddle children them forever. =)
Slashdot Mirror
Are you kidding? The renaming will be top secret! If you hear about it, you can be sure that Dick Cheney will be personally trying to track down the leaker. Probably after the leaker has been caught, in his private game reserve at Cheyenne (er, Cheney) Mountain.
You're going to have to fight Dick Cheney for it. Word is that he's already moved his undisclosed location there, and he'll shoot any trespassers in the face.
It's just a joke at Zonk's expense, and last I heard, he has a sense of humor and can take a joke.
Your grammar frightens and confuses me.
Caveman Zonk edit headline bad.
How does running Mac OS X on commodity x86 hardware qualify as using a windows machine? Seems to me that you're still running a non-windows OS. I'm just saying.
Old data. MS sold their Apple stake quite awhile ago.
Good news for you! There is a quick and low cost case mod you can do to get that aluminum-y goodness on a non-pro macbook.
Dear Diary,
Finally, I'm leaving this stinking company for another where I might have a chance to actually use my expertise, instead of flying all over creation putting on dog-and-pony shows and doing damage control! I feel like a rat fleeing a sinking ship, but if the Chief Rat has scurried off, why should I feel any remorse? Besides, I was almost hit by a chair two weeks ago. Enough is enough!
Yours truly,
Jesper
Excuse me if I'm mistaken, but isn't a Star Chamber a secret tribunal used for attacking political enemies of the state? If this is correct, somehow I don't think that Lego used a Star Chamber of fans to design the new Mindstorms.
it's the tubes. They have to buy new tubes so they can send you an internet. Trucks just won't do. They're expensive and highly inefficient.
It didn't make me feel sad, but neither was it that funny. Just the typical off-the-wall questions we've all come to expect. No real gems in the bunch.
OK, I'll buy that analogy for a dollar. It works, and most importantly, includes automobiles.
Your point about the Z-axis is interesting, even considering low riders, stunt drivers, etc., i.e., people who tweak or push their z-axis limited equipment beyond its intended purpose (which is still different than using an airplane to drive down the street to the supermarket, or whatever).
=) Does he or she know that you refer to them as that? =)
Whatever's left after the symbolic framework has been removed is only worth the paper it's printed on. Put another way, you cannot divorce money from knowledge.
Perhaps someone will develop a GPL 2.5 fork to better handle the patent issues. If they want anti-DRM licensing and anti-TPM licensing, they should have a completely separate license that developers can opt in. (There would be nothing stopping people from releasing under a multi-licnese.) As it stands, this is no longer about freedom for developers. It's about RMS's vision of a social revolution. If that's what you want, fine. Just don't be sneaky about it and try to back door us with it.
My guess is that most developers (as opposed to FS ideological firebrands) are not going to adopt GPLv3 once they understand it. If the people actually creating software fail to embrace GPLv3, it will wither in obscurity.
I haven't gotten to that story yet, but I agree with you. While TPM can certainly be used for Evil, it can also be used for good. I fear that the GPL is becoming a form of DRM, trying to control which devices on which software can be run. Ironic, isn't it?
While I disagree with your overall assessment, you bring up some good points regarding free v. proprietary. Free software does have pitfalls, as you discovered. Many many OSS projects fail. There is a huge amount of redundancy and possibly wasted effort.
The main thing that proprietary software offers over free software is the financial carrot as a lure. (This is not to say that one cannot make money or benefit financially from creating OSS. One can, but it's not so clear cut.) Now, in the case of your failed project, you could have hired people to work on it with you, but obviously that would have been a losing proposition for you. So how can you motivate people without cold hard cash?
I think it comes down to three things.
1) You need itchy people. If your project has the potential to scratch many people's itches, you are more likely to find other people willing to devote time to developing your project. Maybe your game client software just didn't have a big enough audience.
2) You need management skills. Especially important if you are not paying people! You need to jolly them along to get them to do what you want. This applies to both paid and unpaid work, but is absolutely essential for unpaid work. If you don't have the leadership skills, or failing that, aren't good at conning and manipulation, expect your road to be lonely.
3) You need to make it as easy as possible for users to do your QA work for you. This is often cited as one of the failures of OSS, but improvements can help a great deal. Does your app have a built in bug reporting feature? What other avenues of easy bug reporting do you use? What feedback to you provide (if any) to bug reporting users? What support (if any) do you provide to your users?
The bottom line is that if one wants their OSS project to be a success in the community, one needs to gain traction in the community. Source Forge is littered with projects that never gained traction. (Yet the efforts aren't entirely lost! Theoretically, someone could pick up where a project left off at any time.)
Thank you. The FSF is overreaching. While not wanting hardware makers to lock in software is a fine sentiment, it hasn't any business in the GPL, just as forcing non-distributing users to release changes under a tortured re-definition of distribution has no business there. Why not require or force hardware manufacturers to release their hardware designs if they want to use GPL code? Where does it end?
Many people here on slashdot point out the evils of DRM incrementalism (to coin a phrase). Which version of the GPL will require that documents and files created by GPLed applications must be released under the GPL?
Still, I don't think it's right that they're going in odd directions. It would be far better if they went in even directions.
May I suggest that you're wearing your shock collar improperly? It's supposed to go around your neck, not your head. =)
Hasn't money just become another form of information? Specifically, information about (economic) power? I said, "become", but even when based on gold or seashells, money has always inherently been a symbol.
Oh, I don't know. I'd think I was pretty special if I could blast things with my tool. =)
However, I don't think I'd be interested in a Bukakke MMPORG.
Who was it that said, "Any sufficiently high level magic is indistinguishable from magic."?
That's pretty extreme. Shock collars with an electronic perimeter make more sense, and enable children to participate in educational and character-building yard work activities. You can't coddle children them forever. =)