In the Disinformation book a year or two ago, there was an interesting essay penned by Patrick Moore, one of the original founds of Greenpeace. As he put it, he left the organization just as they started to offer a 401k plan. One of his big topics is trees. He was talking about how all these groups complain about when "old growth" forests are cut down. Now he's the first to admit that the slash and burn of Rain Forest isn't a good idea, but at least in North America, the amount forested land is increasing and that we should be using more trees for things like heating, etc.. Why? Because trees grow back. They are a renewable resource.
Military policy, and things like battlefield simulations and stuff, is along the lines of my graduate research work in political science. In the past two years I've interviewed a number of retired military officers, NCO's, and grunts. (By far the NCO's have been the most helpful, and interesting) At any rate, during the first Gulf war, the folks I talked to who were in SIGINT have all remarked that they were surprised at the Iraqi's level of sophistication.
Just about anytime they fired up a laptop in the field, incoming enemy fire (i.e. artillery shells) would start raining down on their location within 15 - 20 minutes. Others who served in the Kosovo Campaign relayed similar stories only about US forces zeroing in on an enemy's position using similar SIGINT techniques. I remember interviewing one former translator who just remarked, "It's eeiry to be listening to a radio conversation between two parties and then hear the bomb go off in the background followed by static a second later."
I had lunch with an Army Major and a Captain two weeks ago about working with the local Gaurd depot on a project. We got off on the topic of wargames, simulations, and the like when they started discussing a series of wargames they participated in a few years ago where their were Opfor and abandoned their technology for 18th century methods of communications (i.e. couriers, flags, etc.) They were both laughing that how they didn't win, they proved to be far more effective than what any of the "Spreadsheet" simulations projected. (I've heard this story before from another NCO's or at least a similar story.)
Not to defend all the writers, but usually it goes something like this: Writer creates an outline, perhaps a first draft. Outline/Draft then goes to director and ultimately the producers for comment/suggestions/etc.. Generally it's at this stage where what the writer intended to write and what the producers want to see start to diverge.
I remember seeing a lecture by Kevin Smith once talking about how he was contracted to write a superhero movie (An early incarnation of what was eventually Superman Returns IIRC) where the producer wanted to see Superman battling giant robot spiders. Kevin Smith basically said, "Um, Superman doesn't do that." and eventually the project fell apart and was shelved for a few more years.
I don't remember the time frame, but a few months/years later the film Wild Wild West came out and had (drumroll please) tada, giant robotic spiders. (Guess who produced it)
So not all the crap can be blamed on the writers. Sometimes it's "You will write what I (the producer) tell you if you want to get paid!".
Seriously, why do we really need a new format when there are existing formats that already work? Funny thing is there are a lot of specs for things like HTML and CSS too. Then why is it when I design a page, sometimes it will look different in Safari vs. FF vs. IE vs. Opera Vs. KDE? Just because there is some open spec doesn't mean everything is going to be coded to the spec.
A lot of the Unix programmers out there are Unix programmers because the platforms that drive big business were developed and deployed on Big Iron & Unix before Microsoft was even founded. It has more to do with "Our original (INSERT ACCOUNTING/HR/ERP) package was developed for Sun/IBM/DEC back in the 1970's/1980's. Since then we've deployed newer versions on newer hardware, but it remains Unix Based." than with M$ being an evil corporation. Generally these folks are also well paid. Helps with motivation.
Unix had a 15 year head start on business mainframes before Microsoft jumped in the game. And that game hasn't changed much other than instead of proprietary Unix, the data centers are now are choosing Linux. Linux killed proprietary Unix. Still doesn't pose much of a threat to Windows.
think you missed the point of the grand parent post. A law saying that "You must use (INSERT FORMAT HERE)" is a problem period. It does matter if (INSERT FORMAT HERE) is open and free or closed. It still forces me to use (INSERT FORMAT HERE). Right now I like having the choice to save in.doc or.txt or.rtf or whatever format I fucking choose.
I think you missed the point of the grand parent post. A law saying that "You must use >" is a problem period. It does matter if > is open and free or closed. It still forces me to use >. Right now I like having the choice to save in.doc or.txt or.rtf or whatever format I fucking choose.
It's not uncommon. Anyone who's used Mac's since OS 10.2 should have come to expect such things. Hell, it's just like the beta or "Techology Preview" release of Xgrid that had the nice fancy GUI interface. Made deploying with software like Blender3D or Pov-Ray easy and painless.
Now, when it was actually released with OS 10.4, where did the fancy GUI's go? (And the one in the Xcode example isn't quite the same thing.)
You haven't used FreeBSD recently have you? Again, if you are running the most bleeding edge video card and wanting to play video games....well you aren't probably looking at *iux anyway.
When you are developing an specialized distro to work with a specialized set of hardware, then it's not as hard as you might think. I've done some custom driver writing for an embedded hardware maker that started offering some of their networking equipment with OpenBSD. Soon Linux was out of the shop and all their hardware now ships with *BSD based systems.
I think it took me a grand total of about 3 weeks to write the needed drivers for OpenBSD at the grand total cost of about US$6,500 to them including some optimizations and customizations they were wanting.
This more a case of politics makes strange bed fellows. All those groups have one thing in common: opposition to the current government and the direction Russia is heading. Take that common cause away, and I doubt many of these groups would have much to do with each other.
So saying Kasperov is guilty by association in this context isn't exactly fair.
On the minuteman ICBM's, one of the last launch procedures up until the late 1970's was to set the PAL's to 00000000.
I've spoken to former Silo men and they've confirmed at this was the case and the reasoning behind it was to make sure that people did not forget the codes (al la in the heat of the moment they freeze and forget) or to prevent some beurcractic mix up and SILO 123 got SILO 456's PAL codes, etc..
And apparently this was done on the quiet. Not that it was a big secret as much as they just didn't talk about it.
If projects like phpBB choose this licenses, I forsee a lot of project forks on the horizon.
I do a lot of work developing modifications for clients including custom plug-in development for systems such as Joomla, Drupal, and other systems. Some are under GPL, others BSD, but more often than not the client is paying good money for something that isn't available. If they suddenly they had to pay to create a custom solution to problem XYZ and be forced to release it to the public at no cost, do you think they are going to pay the development costs for everyone? I doubt it.
If a project like phpBB chose to go with this, I would foresee a major fork occurring for those who like the current structure. It's really no different than the Mambo/Joomla split a few years ago. I forget the specifics, but the Mambo parent group changed terms and so Joomla was born via forking the GPLed code so it could remain GPLed.
After GPL3, a lot of the folks I do business with have had some concerns. It's led one smaller company I do work with to drop Linux from their embedded devices in favor of xBSD. (Mini and OpenBSD specifically). (Actually this had more to do with the Linksys case than anything, but the legal report from their law firm on GPL V3 was the straw that broke the camels back)
I've never been an overly huge fan of the GPL. Mainly because I always thought that once people began taking code and developing for internal use without releasing code back that the GPL community would cry foul and start down this path. And it's the main reason why I cut my teeth on Linux for a year before going to the BSD's for server deployments back in 2000.
And that was out in the open. Tapping lines of communications has been around since....well I'm not a historian, but a really, really long time. (Intercepting couriers to read the messages your enemies were sending al la Benedict Arnold).
Anyway, if someone else has the lines, it's not like they still won't be tapped. Only difference is if someone else controls them, then the NSA no longer has to worry about any pesky warrents since it's covered under their charter as "foreign espionage".
So don't be naive. The US and every other country with a decent signals intelligence group does it. Hell, the DGSE (French Intel) has a mandate to commit corporate espionage. So smile and wave to our friends at Ft. Meade and GCHQ! Hi!
The first trolls failed to RTFA
on
Is SETI Worth It?
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· Score: 5, Informative
It's written by Seth Shostak, who has been one of the people involved with SETI for a number of years and is in favor of continuing the research. Last time I checked SETI is now a non-profit that uses donations to fund their research. If that's what people want to donate their money to and think it is worth while, then let it continue.
I know it's Europe where the ideas of freedom of speech are a little different than on this side of the pond, but still every time I hear or read hate speech I shudder. Who gets to define what "hate speech" is?
Other than being anyonous, you have some points, but never under estimate the personal egos of people running the companies. Adobe and Apple both. It's a dynamic that a lot of people for get to take in to account. Humans don't always work on logic.
Own it. Both the original F4 and AF. However, still AF is more or less the redressing of a 6 year old game (when it was released). And I forgot that Microprose is no longer with us either. Still, you are talking about the true flight sims like Falcon aren't being promoted anymore. Whether that has to do with an unpopular war or what...I don't know. They just aren't being made.
Slashdot Mirror
1: Respect other users privacy
2: Think before you type.
It's called the Communications Workers of America. Mostly in the telecom industry, but also cover various IT positions as well.
Just about anytime they fired up a laptop in the field, incoming enemy fire (i.e. artillery shells) would start raining down on their location within 15 - 20 minutes. Others who served in the Kosovo Campaign relayed similar stories only about US forces zeroing in on an enemy's position using similar SIGINT techniques. I remember interviewing one former translator who just remarked, "It's eeiry to be listening to a radio conversation between two parties and then hear the bomb go off in the background followed by static a second later."
I had lunch with an Army Major and a Captain two weeks ago about working with the local Gaurd depot on a project. We got off on the topic of wargames, simulations, and the like when they started discussing a series of wargames they participated in a few years ago where their were Opfor and abandoned their technology for 18th century methods of communications (i.e. couriers, flags, etc.) They were both laughing that how they didn't win, they proved to be far more effective than what any of the "Spreadsheet" simulations projected. (I've heard this story before from another NCO's or at least a similar story.)
Unfortunately, copyright law isn't written by people with common sense.
I remember seeing a lecture by Kevin Smith once talking about how he was contracted to write a superhero movie (An early incarnation of what was eventually Superman Returns IIRC) where the producer wanted to see Superman battling giant robot spiders. Kevin Smith basically said, "Um, Superman doesn't do that." and eventually the project fell apart and was shelved for a few more years.
I don't remember the time frame, but a few months/years later the film Wild Wild West came out and had (drumroll please) tada, giant robotic spiders. (Guess who produced it)
So not all the crap can be blamed on the writers. Sometimes it's "You will write what I (the producer) tell you if you want to get paid!".
Seriously, why do we really need a new format when there are existing formats that already work? Funny thing is there are a lot of specs for things like HTML and CSS too. Then why is it when I design a page, sometimes it will look different in Safari vs. FF vs. IE vs. Opera Vs. KDE? Just because there is some open spec doesn't mean everything is going to be coded to the spec.
Unix had a 15 year head start on business mainframes before Microsoft jumped in the game. And that game hasn't changed much other than instead of proprietary Unix, the data centers are now are choosing Linux. Linux killed proprietary Unix. Still doesn't pose much of a threat to Windows.
think you missed the point of the grand parent post. A law saying that "You must use (INSERT FORMAT HERE)" is a problem period. It does matter if (INSERT FORMAT HERE) is open and free or closed. It still forces me to use (INSERT FORMAT HERE). Right now I like having the choice to save in .doc or .txt or .rtf or whatever format I fucking choose.
I think you missed the point of the grand parent post. A law saying that "You must use >" is a problem period. It does matter if > is open and free or closed. It still forces me to use >. Right now I like having the choice to save in .doc or .txt or .rtf or whatever format I fucking choose.
Now, when it was actually released with OS 10.4, where did the fancy GUI's go? (And the one in the Xcode example isn't quite the same thing.)
When you are developing an specialized distro to work with a specialized set of hardware, then it's not as hard as you might think. I've done some custom driver writing for an embedded hardware maker that started offering some of their networking equipment with OpenBSD. Soon Linux was out of the shop and all their hardware now ships with *BSD based systems.
I think it took me a grand total of about 3 weeks to write the needed drivers for OpenBSD at the grand total cost of about US$6,500 to them including some optimizations and customizations they were wanting.
So do I get to say that Linux is a great advertisement for BSD the next time a company gets sued for violating the GPL?
Or use BSD.
Claim prior art on this one?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Civil_Front
Which is part of a larger organization:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Other_Russia
This more a case of politics makes strange bed fellows. All those groups have one thing in common: opposition to the current government and the direction Russia is heading. Take that common cause away, and I doubt many of these groups would have much to do with each other.
So saying Kasperov is guilty by association in this context isn't exactly fair.
I've spoken to former Silo men and they've confirmed at this was the case and the reasoning behind it was to make sure that people did not forget the codes (al la in the heat of the moment they freeze and forget) or to prevent some beurcractic mix up and SILO 123 got SILO 456's PAL codes, etc..
And apparently this was done on the quiet. Not that it was a big secret as much as they just didn't talk about it.
I do a lot of work developing modifications for clients including custom plug-in development for systems such as Joomla, Drupal, and other systems. Some are under GPL, others BSD, but more often than not the client is paying good money for something that isn't available. If they suddenly they had to pay to create a custom solution to problem XYZ and be forced to release it to the public at no cost, do you think they are going to pay the development costs for everyone? I doubt it.
If a project like phpBB chose to go with this, I would foresee a major fork occurring for those who like the current structure. It's really no different than the Mambo/Joomla split a few years ago. I forget the specifics, but the Mambo parent group changed terms and so Joomla was born via forking the GPLed code so it could remain GPLed.
After GPL3, a lot of the folks I do business with have had some concerns. It's led one smaller company I do work with to drop Linux from their embedded devices in favor of xBSD. (Mini and OpenBSD specifically). (Actually this had more to do with the Linksys case than anything, but the legal report from their law firm on GPL V3 was the straw that broke the camels back)
I've never been an overly huge fan of the GPL. Mainly because I always thought that once people began taking code and developing for internal use without releasing code back that the GPL community would cry foul and start down this path. And it's the main reason why I cut my teeth on Linux for a year before going to the BSD's for server deployments back in 2000.
http://news.netcraft.com/
I'd say they've not only shored up the towers, but have mounted a counter-attack.
Now a lot of arguments have been made about production sites vs. domain parked sites on Apache vs. IIS, but none the less.
Anyway, if someone else has the lines, it's not like they still won't be tapped. Only difference is if someone else controls them, then the NSA no longer has to worry about any pesky warrents since it's covered under their charter as "foreign espionage".
I mean we did it to the soviets:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ivy_Bells
So don't be naive. The US and every other country with a decent signals intelligence group does it. Hell, the DGSE (French Intel) has a mandate to commit corporate espionage. So smile and wave to our friends at Ft. Meade and GCHQ! Hi!
I know it's Europe where the ideas of freedom of speech are a little different than on this side of the pond, but still every time I hear or read hate speech I shudder. Who gets to define what "hate speech" is?
So who wants to take the over/under on this one....personally I'm going under...
Other than being anyonous, you have some points, but never under estimate the personal egos of people running the companies. Adobe and Apple both. It's a dynamic that a lot of people for get to take in to account. Humans don't always work on logic.
Own it. Both the original F4 and AF. However, still AF is more or less the redressing of a 6 year old game (when it was released). And I forgot that Microprose is no longer with us either. Still, you are talking about the true flight sims like Falcon aren't being promoted anymore. Whether that has to do with an unpopular war or what...I don't know. They just aren't being made.