I doubt they will buy Corel but it makes me think of a good thing coming from all of the Red Hoopla lately. Perhaps one of the bast ways to get lots of GPL code is simply to buy it. I know that perhaps WP isn't the best code in the world but i am sure that someone could benefit from at least seeing it. If you view code writing to be largely like a tree growing (code branching and such), then a GPL lisence takes over that whole branch. A purchase of code and a release under the GPL effectively makes the whole branch GPL. I tend to view the coding world as more linear than your average tree (rope-like perhaps) with new strands of code being woven in and out of the application. But, GPL code can't be woven in without a GPL lisence.
Now I wonder, what if a large linux driven company could purchase/write a lot of code and GPL it. What would the computer industry look like/how would it work in an all/mostly GPL world. would there be more computer jobs available? less?
I have my ideas but I would like to know what the rest of/. thinks too.
perhaps it would start another "red" scare in the traditional business world;)
I've seen them at the Internet Expo in NYC. Their booth was packed! They were showing off their 4 modules and had several 3rd party module manufacturers there.
About the waiting... They apparently have had 4x the orders they expected. Now their e-commerce site is up and they are probably rolling in more orders, even faster. Remided me of the G4 mac shortage;) I ordered 5 about a month ago and they said it would be at least 4-6 weeks before they shipped. I asked when I could buy ~10,000 and they said volume sales won't be available until early 2000. Everyone is waiting for these things.
Soft/Hardware: The OS is PalmOS so everything is compatable. They added some nice new features to the standard apps, and the USB option is there to win over the Mac crowd. When you drop in a springboard module, it suspends the OS and runs a rom in the module. This allows the module to be always on and interrrupt the palm. It can theoreticaly turn the visor on and sound an alarm or whatever, whenever it wants. The visor has a microphone built in to it so that it can be turned into a cell phone at a later date. Pager modules, gps modules are all coming. Also, don't worry about compatability, the guys who started and run Handspring also invented the palm pilot.
I know someone who worked for a large chemical company and had an idea of how the company could expand their business. He brought it to the attention of the company and they looked into the feasability of the project. After careful consideration they decided that they could only make a couple million on the project.
The guy simply quit his job and started his own company to do it instead. Now he heads up a multimillion dollar corporation.
Sounds like a real fairy tale right? The moral is that a million bucks means more to an individual that a large corporation. These big companies have to throw a lot of cash into a project to get it going because they have more overhead, and they often don't make enough profit to make it worthwile.
A while back (~3 months?) I read an article linked to by/. about bloated apps. The author was stating that users ask for and want bloated software. I see this argument time and time again in the press, newsgroups and so on...
Well, I think the point is really:
Does an app need to be bloated to have features?
Obviously, 90% of the people who read this will exclaim "NO!". So the quesion remains "why is software bloated?" This is the thing that is addressed in the Programmer's Stone as well as many books. Everyone on this site should read The UNIX Philosophy for a dissussion of the stages of software development as well as lots of discussion on why unix has developed into what it is. Only in the second growth stage of development does software become bloated. This is due to the addition of all of the requests for more features being implemented. They all are added withought thought until the software becomes too big and the app just about breaks. The UNIX Philosophy of code reuse and small applications still allow features to be added. An example would be the ability to pipe information from one app to another to gain more functionality. This same philosophy of code reuse still holds true in today's GUI world and is why I find KDE so interesting.
The problem comes when code has to be churned out on a deadline without planning or thought. This is usually driven by coporations and Marketing/management. Without artificial deadlines Open Source/*n*x apps can stay small and elegant.
They can also be trimmed back and restructured by anyone. As a community it is important to always grow as fast as possible by adding features but to also look back and take out the features that only benefit a small group of users. That part might hurt a little, but is very important to get the software into the 3rd stage of life. So look back thorough your code and rewrite some stuff every now and then. It makes your code smaller and you will be able to work faster. You get a net gain in the end.
Electron spins would be a decent place to store bits...
The ultimate reeally should be not storing bits. Seriously, whatever happened to fuzzy logic. I know that all conventional logic still holds true under the fuzzy rule sets so all software could be emulated.
For example:: -Analog music sounds better than sampled music -People don't really use 1 bit logic in everyday life. -fuzzy machines perform much better in real world tasks than traditional logic
Where are the attempts at hardware fuzzy logic? I know all of the obsticles in voltage regulation are staggering but.... you would think that there would be more research. The main reason we use the binary number system is to emulate a switch. I would like to see how fast a variable switch processor would be.
This also at least goes to show that they are watching how the community reacts to them. If people were making a lot of noise over it and nothing happens, then all you have is one way communication. It is nice to see that Creative does listen even if it (*might*) be for the wrong reasons. Perhaps they are reading this thread too. Try to show them a community that welcomes their attempts. I know I welcome them; there is still time for them to figure this out the rest of the way. I think the community has to get brave and stop shying away from companies that don't commit %100 to the OpenSource ideals.
Remember: we all know how Open Source can benefit our personal/productivity lives. The way to make Open Source work for a company is still largely experimental.
examples include genetic engineered plants affecting bees, and killing the monarch butterfly.
Try to remember that we do not live on this planet alone and despite what corporations would like you to think, we have not tested a lot of technologies fully. Money is the only rule for them and they will not stop until you do something.
(The following is reprinted from Unisis without permission;-)
A Billboard Web site
1.is fully open to the general public without cost or other consideration (that is, no restricted access or user cost of any kind or form) 2.does not display any third-party advertising 3.does not require any membership, access code, password or business relationship with the user for access to any portion of the Web site 4.does not provide for the online ordering or purchase of goods or services via the Web site
My question is.... What does #2 mean? If you display 3rd party ads then your site is not a "billboard" site and desn't have to worry about a liscence? Seems like they wouldn't want to have one banner ad nullify an entire site from their liscence but that's the way I read it.
Do you think that a newer release of X will be sufficient to carry linux for a few more years or do you think a project like berlin (or some other windowing system) deserves more programming weight put behind it? Is X11 fit to carry all of the linux graphical weight or is it becoming a dinosaur?
When people talk about bandwidth, they often refer to Gigabits of information. Everyone's chins drop to the floor because they just heard the word Giga and they picture their 4 Gigabyte drive squeezing through a network line in seconds...
Gibi/kibi/mibi bits??? It's bad enough already. Plus those words do suck to pronounce.
I like the sig. I just saw a bumper sticker on a pickup truck last week that said:
One Country, One flag, One Language
next to a picture of an american flag. Really makes you wonder what kind of people worry about a symbol being burned as well as other people in the country only knowing a non-english language. And worrying enough to put a bumber sticker on their truck over it!
The person isn't evil, isn't a tool, and really believes in the goal, is convinced of the sincerity of those he/she works with...
This person is a tool of a larger organization, although in this case more or less ignorant of his/her involvment. My point is that you cannot stop this kind of invasion of privacy by appealing to the techies who write code for the FBI.
I personally believe that there is a lack of people who hold their own beliefs and convictions above money in their own pocket. We can only hope to educate and pursuade those who don't have these convictions, but how many of the remaining ones who believe that this is wrong will turn down that high paying offer from a government agency because they know it is wrong?
I know I would, and I suppose you would too. You give me faith that there are others as well. They are not bastards who need to be shunned, or made fun of, or ridiculed. I believe there is more to life than money and I hope these people will believe that as well.
There will always be people to code whatever you need to be coded.
There are people who live for money because money is power in our world. It brings them their worth and they would sell their souls for it, and even that assumes that they aren't control freaks who think government spying is a good thing.
The thing that I am getting from the article is the idea that BSD users started on Linux so they have the experience of using Linux. The already know what Linux does well when they start to develop for BSD.
My Suggestion: Linux users should drag that old 486 out of the closet and put BSD on it. Play around with it for a while and see if BSD really does have some advantages. (I'm sure it has to be better at *some* things right?)
Now that doesn't mean you have to be a BSD developer does it? It simply means you will be a more educated and better Linux developer. I think the most dedicated and successful developers are the ones who are Open Minded (Tm) and are willing to share their data, AS WELL AS to learn from others who are also sharing.
A diuretic causes you to piss because it supresses the level of ADH (anti-diuretic hormone) in your body. The lack of this hormone in the body triggers urine production.
I wish somehow we could stimulate ADH production when drinking. No urine->no dehydration->no hangover!
I wonder what kind of carpel-tunnel syndromes the repetitive tasks of 3D pointer controls will cause.
But anyway...
I don't think a pointer is a 3D thing at all and shouldn't moved into a 3D interface. I think a cross-hair is more appropriate. Currently, We move objects on our desk but our "view" of the desk is fixed. The alternative would be a fixed position pointer (crosshair) where mouse control moves the desktop underneath. (This is like panning across the desktop when you run virtual resolution higher than your physical resolution)
People find this kind of view moving annoying in 2D but are more accepting of it in 3D.
Once better input devices are made, then work on controlling both view changes AND a 3D pointer should be put in.
Electromigration is supposedly one of the damaging factors of running a cpu overclocked. The electromigration will shorten the chip's lifespan by making weak spots in the "wires". Cooling of the chip helps make the aluminium less resistive. Does this also lower the amount of electromigration? I believe it does. Perhaps all chips in the future will have to be built like Kryotech's computers.
It is my opinion that internet/computer users already have associations with the term "freeware" that do not include freely available source code.
If you look at a site like www.winfiles.com they classify software as being commercial, shareware or freeware.
I know that most of that freeware doesn't come with source. A new word would be needed for freeware with source AND a liscence that includes terms of free (as in freedom) source code reuse. This liscence could be picked from a list of compliant liscences (GPL, Netscape, or whatever) that are approved by the owner (org) of the trademark.
The real oversight in this statement is that Windows has grown due to business use. Microsoft made their empire on Win3.1 and Win95/98 not on WinNT.
Windows is based on DOS which I had in my house on a 286 when I was still in elementary school. I learned counter-intuitive DOS commands and filesystem conventions. When I wanted more, I started using the Windows 3.1 GUI to force DOS to (apparently) multitask.
I would imagine that many other windows users started using windows so that they could get more from their existing, (DOS running) hardware. The reason I knew what to do with a DOS prompt and not with a UNIX prompt was because my father bought an IBM compatible PC and not a UNIX workstation.
I was totally lost when I first installed Linux.(root? what the heck is darkstar?) I have seen new windows users just as confused when sitting behind a Win98 box. (where's my file? What's a "C:" drive) You have to start learning to use a computer somewhere, and for most of us that is with Windows. When these users are asked what they would want to adminster in a network, they would want something familiar. Linux is helping more people try UNIX at home. These people will not be afraid to administer UNIX at work too.
Linux gives the next generation of computer users/admins the chance to try out UNIX system administration at home on cheap hardware. They will not be intimidated by Gnome, KDE, the UNIX terminal, or whatever UNIX utilities are yet to come.
A low cost version of UNIX DOES "automatically generate more people capable of managing and configuring these systems." Linux made me into a sysadmin and it will make thousands more.
This is what JP Mogenthal is afraid of; his value as a Windows guru is about to be flushed and he doesn't want to learn a new OS.
Slashdot Mirror
I doubt they will buy Corel but it makes me think of a good thing coming from all of the Red Hoopla lately. Perhaps one of the bast ways to get lots of GPL code is simply to buy it. I know that perhaps WP isn't the best code in the world but i am sure that someone could benefit from at least seeing it. If you view code writing to be largely like a tree growing (code branching and such), then a GPL lisence takes over that whole branch. A purchase of code and a release under the GPL effectively makes the whole branch GPL. I tend to view the coding world as more linear than your average tree (rope-like perhaps) with new strands of code being woven in and out of the application. But, GPL code can't be woven in without a GPL lisence.
/. thinks too.
;)
Now I wonder, what if a large linux driven company could purchase/write a lot of code and GPL it. What would the computer industry look like/how would it work in an all/mostly GPL world. would there be more computer jobs available? less?
I have my ideas but I would like to know what the rest of
perhaps it would start another "red" scare in the traditional business world
-pos
The truth is more important than the facts.
I've seen them at the Internet Expo in NYC. Their booth was packed! They were showing off their 4 modules and had several 3rd party module manufacturers there.
;) I ordered 5 about a month ago and they said it would be at least 4-6 weeks before they shipped. I asked when I could buy ~10,000 and they said volume sales won't be available until early 2000. Everyone is waiting for these things.
About the waiting... They apparently have had 4x the orders they expected. Now their e-commerce site is up and they are probably rolling in more orders, even faster. Remided me of the G4 mac shortage
Soft/Hardware: The OS is PalmOS so everything is compatable. They added some nice new features to the standard apps, and the USB option is there to win over the Mac crowd. When you drop in a springboard module, it suspends the OS and runs a rom in the module. This allows the module to be always on and interrrupt the palm. It can theoreticaly turn the visor on and sound an alarm or whatever, whenever it wants. The visor has a microphone built in to it so that it can be turned into a cell phone at a later date. Pager modules, gps modules are all coming. Also, don't worry about compatability, the guys who started and run Handspring also invented the palm pilot.
-pos
The truth is more important than the facts.
I know someone who worked for a large chemical company and had an idea of how the company could expand their business. He brought it to the attention of the company and they looked into the feasability of the project. After careful consideration they decided that they could only make a couple million on the project.
The guy simply quit his job and started his own company to do it instead. Now he heads up a multimillion dollar corporation.
Sounds like a real fairy tale right? The moral is that a million bucks means more to an individual that a large corporation. These big companies have to throw a lot of cash into a project to get it going because they have more overhead, and they often don't make enough profit to make it worthwile.
-pos
The truth is more important than the facts.
A while back (~3 months?) I read an article linked to by /. about bloated apps. The author was stating that users ask for and want bloated software. I see this argument time and time again in the press, newsgroups and so on...
Well, I think the point is really:
Does an app need to be bloated to have features?
Obviously, 90% of the people who read this will exclaim "NO!". So the quesion remains "why is software bloated?" This is the thing that is addressed in the Programmer's Stone as well as many books. Everyone on this site should read The UNIX Philosophy for a dissussion of the stages of software development as well as lots of discussion on why unix has developed into what it is. Only in the second growth stage of development does software become bloated. This is due to the addition of all of the requests for more features being implemented. They all are added withought thought until the software becomes too big and the app just about breaks. The UNIX Philosophy of code reuse and small applications still allow features to be added. An example would be the ability to pipe information from one app to another to gain more functionality. This same philosophy of code reuse still holds true in today's GUI world and is why I find KDE so interesting.
The problem comes when code has to be churned out on a deadline without planning or thought. This is usually driven by coporations and Marketing/management. Without artificial deadlines Open Source/*n*x apps can stay small and elegant.
They can also be trimmed back and restructured by anyone. As a community it is important to always grow as fast as possible by adding features but to also look back and take out the features that only benefit a small group of users. That part might hurt a little, but is very important to get the software into the 3rd stage of life. So look back thorough your code and rewrite some stuff every now and then. It makes your code smaller and you will be able to work faster. You get a net gain in the end.
-pos
The truth is more important than the facts.
Electron spins would be a decent place to store bits...
The ultimate reeally should be not storing bits. Seriously, whatever happened to fuzzy logic. I know that all conventional logic still holds true under the fuzzy rule sets so all software could be emulated.
For example::
-Analog music sounds better than sampled music
-People don't really use 1 bit logic in everyday life.
-fuzzy machines perform much better in real world tasks than traditional logic
Where are the attempts at hardware fuzzy logic? I know all of the obsticles in voltage regulation are staggering but.... you would think that there would be more research. The main reason we use the binary number system is to emulate a switch. I would like to see how fast a variable switch processor would be.
-Pos
The truth is more important than the facts.
This also at least goes to show that they are watching how the community reacts to them. If people were making a lot of noise over it and nothing happens, then all you have is one way communication. It is nice to see that Creative does listen even if it (*might*) be for the wrong reasons. Perhaps they are reading this thread too. Try to show them a community that welcomes their attempts. I know I welcome them; there is still time for them to figure this out the rest of the way. I think the community has to get brave and stop shying away from companies that don't commit %100 to the OpenSource ideals.
Remember: we all know how Open Source can benefit our personal/productivity lives. The way to make Open Source work for a company is still largely experimental.
-pos
The truth is more important than the facts.
here is a link for all of you (like me) who have the common sence to be scared of how genetic engineering can change our world for the worse...
Gary Null
examples include genetic engineered plants affecting bees, and killing the monarch butterfly.
Try to remember that we do not live on this planet alone and despite what corporations would like you to think, we have not tested a lot of technologies fully. Money is the only rule for them and they will not stop until you do something.
Follow that link and educate yourselves!
-pos
I thought there was DNA in hair.
Can't a DNA test be preformed on a strand of hair? Or perhaps do you mean that a 'good' complete strand of DNA cannot be extracted from hair or nails?
-pos
This is from the Unisys definitions page.
;-)
(The following is reprinted from Unisis without permission
A Billboard Web site
1.is fully open to the general public without cost or other consideration
(that is, no restricted access or user cost of any kind or form)
2.does not display any third-party advertising
3.does not require any membership, access code, password or business
relationship with the user for access to any portion of the Web site
4.does not provide for the online ordering or purchase of goods or
services via the Web site
My question is.... What does #2 mean? If you display 3rd party ads then your site is not a "billboard" site and desn't have to worry about a liscence? Seems like they wouldn't want to have one banner ad nullify an entire site from their liscence but that's the way I read it.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
-pos
Do you think that a newer release of X will be sufficient to carry linux for a few more years or do you think a project like berlin (or some other windowing system) deserves more programming weight put behind it? Is X11 fit to carry all of the linux graphical weight or is it becoming a dinosaur?
-Pos
When people talk about bandwidth, they often refer to Gigabits of information. Everyone's chins drop to the floor because they just heard the word Giga and they picture their 4 Gigabyte drive squeezing through a network line in seconds...
Gibi/kibi/mibi bits??? It's bad enough already. Plus those words do suck to pronounce.
I like the sig.
I just saw a bumper sticker on a pickup truck last week that said:
One Country, One flag, One Language
next to a picture of an american flag. Really makes you wonder what kind of people worry about a symbol being burned as well as other people in the country only knowing a non-english language. And worrying enough to put a bumber sticker on their truck over it!
Agreed...
The person isn't evil, isn't a tool, and really believes in the goal, is convinced of the sincerity of those he/she works with...
This person is a tool of a larger organization, although in this case more or less ignorant of his/her involvment. My point is that you cannot stop this kind of invasion of privacy by appealing to the techies who write code for the FBI.
I personally believe that there is a lack of people who hold their own beliefs and convictions above money in their own pocket. We can only hope to educate and pursuade those who don't have these convictions, but how many of the remaining ones who believe that this is wrong will turn down that high paying offer from a government agency because they know it is wrong?
I know I would, and I suppose you would too. You give me faith that there are others as well. They are not bastards who need to be shunned, or made fun of, or ridiculed. I believe there is more to life than money and I hope these people will believe that as well.
There will always be people to code whatever you need to be coded.
There are people who live for money because money is power in our world. It brings them their worth and they would sell their souls for it, and even that assumes that they aren't control freaks who think government spying is a good thing.
Perspective: I am a Linux user.
The thing that I am getting from the article is the idea that BSD users started on Linux so they have the experience of using Linux. The already know what Linux does well when they start to develop for BSD.
My Suggestion: Linux users should drag that old 486 out of the closet and put BSD on it. Play around with it for a while and see if BSD really does have some advantages. (I'm sure it has to be better at *some* things right?)
Now that doesn't mean you have to be a BSD developer does it? It simply means you will be a more educated and better Linux developer. I think the most dedicated and successful developers are the ones who are Open Minded (Tm) and are willing to share their data, AS WELL AS to learn from others who are also sharing.
Correct me if I'm wrong but:
A diuretic causes you to piss because it supresses the level of ADH (anti-diuretic hormone) in your body. The lack of this hormone in the body triggers urine production.
I wish somehow we could stimulate ADH production when drinking. No urine->no dehydration->no hangover!
Hmmm...
Maybe I could get a few extra fingers.
Perhaps some day having lots of fingers will be in fashion. I can think of lots of good uses for extra fingers.
For example:
I bet I could get 1st post If I could type faster.
I wonder what kind of carpel-tunnel syndromes the repetitive tasks of 3D pointer controls will cause.
But anyway...
I don't think a pointer is a 3D thing at all and shouldn't moved into a 3D interface. I think a cross-hair is more appropriate. Currently, We move objects on our desk but our "view" of the desk is fixed. The alternative would be a fixed position pointer (crosshair) where mouse control moves the desktop underneath. (This is like panning across the desktop when you run virtual resolution higher than your physical resolution)
People find this kind of view moving annoying in 2D but are more accepting of it in 3D.
Once better input devices are made, then work on controlling both view changes AND a 3D pointer should be put in.
Electromigration is supposedly one of the damaging factors of running a cpu overclocked. The electromigration will shorten the chip's lifespan by making weak spots in the "wires". Cooling of the chip helps make the aluminium less resistive. Does this also lower the amount of electromigration? I believe it does. Perhaps all chips in the future will have to be built like Kryotech's computers.
It is my opinion that internet/computer users already have associations with the term "freeware" that do not include freely available source code.
If you look at a site like www.winfiles.com they classify software as being commercial, shareware or freeware.
I know that most of that freeware doesn't come with source. A new word would be needed for freeware with source AND a liscence that includes terms of free (as in freedom) source code reuse. This liscence could be picked from a list of compliant liscences (GPL, Netscape, or whatever) that are approved by the owner (org) of the trademark.
Any ideas for a good trademark?
The real oversight in this statement is that Windows has grown due to business use. Microsoft made their empire on Win3.1 and Win95/98 not on WinNT.
Windows is based on DOS which I had in my house on a 286 when I was still in elementary school. I learned counter-intuitive DOS commands and filesystem conventions. When I wanted more, I started using the Windows 3.1 GUI to force DOS to (apparently) multitask.
I would imagine that many other windows users started using windows so that they could get more from their existing, (DOS running) hardware. The reason I knew what to do with a DOS prompt and not with a UNIX prompt was because my father bought an IBM compatible PC and not a UNIX workstation.
I was totally lost when I first installed Linux.(root? what the heck is darkstar?) I have seen new windows users just as confused when sitting behind a Win98 box. (where's my file? What's a "C:" drive) You have to start learning to use a computer somewhere, and for most of us that is with Windows. When these users are asked what they would want to adminster in a network, they would want something familiar. Linux is helping more people try UNIX at home. These people will not be afraid to administer UNIX at work too.
Linux gives the next generation of computer users/admins the chance to try out UNIX system administration at home on cheap hardware. They will not be intimidated by Gnome, KDE, the UNIX terminal, or whatever UNIX utilities are yet to come.
A low cost version of UNIX DOES "automatically generate more people capable of managing and configuring these systems." Linux made me into a sysadmin and it will make thousands more.
This is what JP Mogenthal is afraid of; his value as a Windows guru is about to be flushed and he doesn't want to learn a new OS.