Nope - the license has no influence whatsoever over what laws apply to either of the parties.
I could sign a contract with you that requires me to supply you with a gallon of virgins blood every year, but unless virgin blood-letting has recently been legalised over here, that clause ain't gonna fly.
The issue has nothing to do with any percieved contract between Microsoft and its users, in any case. It's simple - Microsoft has been accused of breaking EU competition law, and if found guilty will be fined very heavily indeed.
There is an appeal route to the ECJ (European Court of Justice), where the fines are usually reduced, or on occasion struck out completely.
I'm not a fan of religion in any walk of life, least of all in government - but just bear in mind that the Baathist regime was avowedly secular, before singing the praises of secularism.
Given that the story is inviting questions to the representative of Iraq's LUG, and given that Microsoft are probably aiming to take most of the budget for IT reconstruction work, it's probably not a troll, Mr Coward.
It is a pertinent question - should the Iraqi people have to pay for software that does an inferior job to software that they can get for free, or should they spend the money saved by going with Open Source on better infrastructure?
It doen't have to be IT infrastructure, either - every dollar less in Bill Gates' pocket is a dollar more for water treatment, childrens medicine, marsh restoration - I'll wager an Iraqi could think of around 25 million cases more deserving of that dollar than that Redmond robber-baron.
Even though you're an AC, I'll allow you the chance to rant at my response to your little whinge.
My point about 'risking its own staff' was that unlike the people who will actually lay the cable, fix the pipelines, rebuild the roads and bridges, etc. etc., Microsoft can profit enormously merely by selling overpriced, underperforming software, knowing that EDS or another bunch of sharks will employ some monkeys to install and configure the systems.
I was going to lump Halliburton and Bechtel in there as well, but they actually need people on the ground to oversee the physical reconstruction work, so I didn't think it fair to lump them in with MS.
And yes - if Linus were to go to Iraq to try to persuade them to see the economic sense of OSS, I would be singing his praises.
If Bill Gates gets his arse out there (or better still, sends Monkey-boy Ballmer - boy, the Iraqis would love him!), I'd not begrudge him turning a buck on the deal, but let's face it, we're not likely to see any Microsoft staff presence in-country for many a year yet.
You could try responding to the meat of my point - with crooks like Chalabi parachuted in by the US, what hope does Iraq have of a system without endemic corruption and theft?
I was going to ask the Microsoft question - I know that they have been reported as sponsoring meetings at which the rebuilding of Iraq is being discussed.
I also fear that given the past history of Chalabi and his ilk it is likely that under the table payments will be crucial in getting any contracts from the appointed provisional authority - Chalabi faces a twenty stretch if the Jordanians ever get their hands on him, following his looting of the Petra Bank. Obviously a fit person for the US to select to serve on the provisional authority, I don't think.
Problem is, with those awarding contracts expecting presents in their hot little Swiss bank accounts, Open Source solutions are likely to be way down the list, however much they may save.
It looks to me like the real looting is yet to start - all that oil money is too tempting for Microsoft, or any for-profit enterprise that can milk the country without having to actually risk its own staff, to ignore.
The cocaine for up your nose and in your vein is actually the hydrochloride salt - it's soluble and freely absorbed in this form.
Crack is the free base (and freebasing was the term used before the media decided to launch 'crack' as a 'new' phenomenon), and although you could crush it and snort it, it is mildly caustic and would screw your nasal membranes up even more than cocaine hydrochloride does.
Both are a mugs game, unlike marijuana (which is just plain good fun, however many 'Reefer Madness' propaganda films are made).
Finally maybe, because the backend costs of nuclear reactors make nuclear power (after over 45 years of commercial use) more expensive [asahi.com] as conventional power-plants.
I used to think the same, until I looked at the amount of heavy metals dispersed by a coal fuelled power plant (and by oil fuelled plants, unless the oil is low in contaminants to start with). These pollutants should be added in to the true costs of burning fossil fuels - I wouldn't be surprised to see coal/oil coming out more expensive than fission plants if the same standards of emissions were required.
Remember - coal power is cheap because thousands of tons of cadmium are thrown into the atmosphere every year, landing on the fields that grow your food, or the grasslands that produce your beef, or the reservoirs that provide your water.
Since they've fucked up most of the coal mines, you'd have to find a cheap natural source of phenol for your Bakelite, anyway.
Since I'm currently making cardboard boxes for a living (half a living?), I'm inclined towards the old-fashioned brown paper bag for wrapping your goods, anyway.
Besides, I like Bakelite - it's easy to make, and even I can understand the chemistry;-)
Then there's the 'nudge' method of parking, best attempted only with an old vehicle with steel bumpers (fenders).
Simply enlarge the space by slowly shunting the offending vehicles out of the way.
I used to own a couple of cars that were suitable for this - old VWs and Volvos are especially good, but modern plastic bumpers deform too readily for this method to be recommended.
You may well jest, but I'm willing to bet that DoubleClick will try to use the DMCA to harrass anyone who works out how to block whatever they have in mind - hell, if broadcasters don't like ad-skipping on DVRs, then the online mitherers won't like pop-up blocking either.
No - as I understand it, SCO claims that their contract with IBM entitles them to rights over IBM's extensions to SVRx, despite Novell's repeated references to IBM's real contract.
Copyright hasn't yet reared its ugly head here, but it will if SCO survives long enough for the inevitable SCO-Novell battle.
So far as IBM code goes, SCO has no rights whatsoever to it, no matter how hard they bleat.
As a Nynex ninja, you're probably just whining at the imminent death of cable;).
This seems to be seriously good technology, with a good marketing plan behind it - sell the broadband access to defray initial costs, then hope for widescale adoption of the in-car technology to start to really rake it in further down the line.
I'm not too keen on the idea of automatic speed limits, or vehicle identification - one of the requirements for any such system should be an easily triggered (via the accelerator pedal?) override to allow the driver to avoid danger by accelerating past it.
But the potential for widespread networking for all is worth a little government traffic monitoring - after all, notification of incidents far enough ahead will save time and frustration.
Maybe there are limits, but where the brain-limb connection is no longer serviceable, this technology could provide a means of controlling intelligent prosthetics, which would be of immense aid to victims of spinal injuries.
Having said that, as a confirmed Luddite, one of my favourite lyrics is:
Watch out for the man with the silicon chip, Hold on to your job with a good firm grip. 'Cause if you don't you'll have had your chips, The same as my old man.
('My old man', Ewan McColl - Britain's answer to Woody Guthrie).
Because the audio has a fixed word size, and truly random data will contain a significant number of short runs (I'm thinking For example, the four most significant bits would be preserved in 1/2^4, or 1/16, of the file - the three MSBs in 1/8 of the file, and so on.
I reckon the human brain, looking as it does for patterns in the world outside, would be able to find what remained of the original pattern in the data.
I'm not the parent, but it seems to me that an XORed file would sound like a noisy copy of the original.
GIMP, being Open Source, is obviously communist software that can steal the precious bodily fluids of Americans, as well as being useful for hippy OSS counterfeiter types.
;-)>
Now that Gimp 2.0 has CMYK separation, I reckon it'll start to make inroads in the professional market - I'm not a graphics pro, but I find the Gimp easy to use and good enough for anything I want to do with it (mainly playing with the enormous number of digital photos I take whenever I go on holiday).
Slashdot Mirror
I could sign a contract with you that requires me to supply you with a gallon of virgins blood every year, but unless virgin blood-letting has recently been legalised over here, that clause ain't gonna fly.
The issue has nothing to do with any percieved contract between Microsoft and its users, in any case. It's simple - Microsoft has been accused of breaking EU competition law, and if found guilty will be fined very heavily indeed.
There is an appeal route to the ECJ (European Court of Justice), where the fines are usually reduced, or on occasion struck out completely.
Isn't that the one wee timorous beasties get?
Note to self - try previewing before making a tit of yourself in public.
What an arse.
Veuillez d'inserter le CD 'Mandat d'UNO pour l'invasion d'Iraq' - ce CD est necessaire pour faire M. Chirac hereux.
It is a pertinent question - should the Iraqi people have to pay for software that does an inferior job to software that they can get for free, or should they spend the money saved by going with Open Source on better infrastructure?
It doen't have to be IT infrastructure, either - every dollar less in Bill Gates' pocket is a dollar more for water treatment, childrens medicine, marsh restoration - I'll wager an Iraqi could think of around 25 million cases more deserving of that dollar than that Redmond robber-baron.
My point about 'risking its own staff' was that unlike the people who will actually lay the cable, fix the pipelines, rebuild the roads and bridges, etc. etc., Microsoft can profit enormously merely by selling overpriced, underperforming software, knowing that EDS or another bunch of sharks will employ some monkeys to install and configure the systems.
I was going to lump Halliburton and Bechtel in there as well, but they actually need people on the ground to oversee the physical reconstruction work, so I didn't think it fair to lump them in with MS.
And yes - if Linus were to go to Iraq to try to persuade them to see the economic sense of OSS, I would be singing his praises.
If Bill Gates gets his arse out there (or better still, sends Monkey-boy Ballmer - boy, the Iraqis would love him!), I'd not begrudge him turning a buck on the deal, but let's face it, we're not likely to see any Microsoft staff presence in-country for many a year yet.
You could try responding to the meat of my point - with crooks like Chalabi parachuted in by the US, what hope does Iraq have of a system without endemic corruption and theft?
I also fear that given the past history of Chalabi and his ilk it is likely that under the table payments will be crucial in getting any contracts from the appointed provisional authority - Chalabi faces a twenty stretch if the Jordanians ever get their hands on him, following his looting of the Petra Bank. Obviously a fit person for the US to select to serve on the provisional authority, I don't think.
Problem is, with those awarding contracts expecting presents in their hot little Swiss bank accounts, Open Source solutions are likely to be way down the list, however much they may save.
It looks to me like the real looting is yet to start - all that oil money is too tempting for Microsoft, or any for-profit enterprise that can milk the country without having to actually risk its own staff, to ignore.
Try Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights or the BBC's The League of Gentlemen if you prefer laughing to cringing.
Maybe it's just me, but The Office is uncomfortably close to real life - too close to provide the sort of humour that I recognise as funny.
The communists are plotting to impurify our precious bodily fluids - these gloves may be necessary when their plot comes to fruition...
Wayaay, ye bastid!
Ye divvent have no call te come ovver heer with yer fancy Amurican ways, man.
We find yer pasty asses on Bigg Market on a Friday neet, all covered up an that, we'll give yus a dandy kicking.
Crack is the free base (and freebasing was the term used before the media decided to launch 'crack' as a 'new' phenomenon), and although you could crush it and snort it, it is mildly caustic and would screw your nasal membranes up even more than cocaine hydrochloride does.
Both are a mugs game, unlike marijuana (which is just plain good fun, however many 'Reefer Madness' propaganda films are made).
I used to think the same, until I looked at the amount of heavy metals dispersed by a coal fuelled power plant (and by oil fuelled plants, unless the oil is low in contaminants to start with). These pollutants should be added in to the true costs of burning fossil fuels - I wouldn't be surprised to see coal/oil coming out more expensive than fission plants if the same standards of emissions were required.
Remember - coal power is cheap because thousands of tons of cadmium are thrown into the atmosphere every year, landing on the fields that grow your food, or the grasslands that produce your beef, or the reservoirs that provide your water.
Give me wind, wave or solar power anyday.
Since I'm currently making cardboard boxes for a living (half a living?), I'm inclined towards the old-fashioned brown paper bag for wrapping your goods, anyway.
Besides, I like Bakelite - it's easy to make, and even I can understand the chemistry ;-)
Simply enlarge the space by slowly shunting the offending vehicles out of the way.
I used to own a couple of cars that were suitable for this - old VWs and Volvos are especially good, but modern plastic bumpers deform too readily for this method to be recommended.
Copyright hasn't yet reared its ugly head here, but it will if SCO survives long enough for the inevitable SCO-Novell battle.
So far as IBM code goes, SCO has no rights whatsoever to it, no matter how hard they bleat.
This creeping spelling fascism really has to stop - damn it, if I want to misspell stuff, then I damned well ought to be able to.
Next thing you know, they'll ban waving your willy in public.
Bastards.
If you don't believe me, look here for Googles jackbooted response to my exercising my freedom of speach.
This seems to be seriously good technology, with a good marketing plan behind it - sell the broadband access to defray initial costs, then hope for widescale adoption of the in-car technology to start to really rake it in further down the line.
I'm not too keen on the idea of automatic speed limits, or vehicle identification - one of the requirements for any such system should be an easily triggered (via the accelerator pedal?) override to allow the driver to avoid danger by accelerating past it.
But the potential for widespread networking for all is worth a little government traffic monitoring - after all, notification of incidents far enough ahead will save time and frustration.
Having said that, as a confirmed Luddite, one of my favourite lyrics is:
Watch out for the man with the silicon chip,
Hold on to your job with a good firm grip.
'Cause if you don't you'll have had your chips,
The same as my old man.
('My old man', Ewan McColl - Britain's answer to Woody Guthrie).
omnia castris vobis sunt adiunctus nobis!
(some, but not all syntactical errors intended ;))
It's probably been done before, but I reckon some of the /. posters could hide War and Peace in their posts without anyone ever noticing.
And for prison mail, where bad spelling is expected, this system would be ideal.
Because the audio has a fixed word size, and truly random data will contain a significant number of short runs (I'm thinking For example, the four most significant bits would be preserved in 1/2^4, or 1/16, of the file - the three MSBs in 1/8 of the file, and so on.
I reckon the human brain, looking as it does for patterns in the world outside, would be able to find what remained of the original pattern in the data.
I'm not the parent, but it seems to me that an XORed file would sound like a noisy copy of the original.
I may even try it myself and see.
;-)>
Now that Gimp 2.0 has CMYK separation, I reckon it'll start to make inroads in the professional market - I'm not a graphics pro, but I find the Gimp easy to use and good enough for anything I want to do with it (mainly playing with the enormous number of digital photos I take whenever I go on holiday).