I've heard that the only sane way to install MS Word in a networked environment is to use SMS, and that this is achieved with secret API calls. Can anyone confirm this?
Too many people, and in particular a growing number in the mainstream media, are criticising the FSF because it's perceived as left wing or collectivist. Whether they're doing it because they want to fight collectivism in all its forms, or, like ESR, doing it because they don't want the community to be (in their eyes) tarnished by association with the FSF, it's still damaging.
Listen to what RMS says, not how he says it. Leave translating it into more mainstream acceptable speech to other people if they feel inclined to do it. But don't bash RMS for his non-software political views, and use that to score cheap points.
Remember, this is an international movement, and collectivist and leftwing views are much more prevalent outside the United States, so you'll be alienating the rest of the world if you try to make RMS more acceptable to the States.
Re:Honest questions...
on
RMS Responds
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· Score: 1
Well, I fail to see the relevance of RMS's or the FSF's views on non-intellectual property; it just sounds like you suspect there's something there to use to incriminate RMS in the minds of standard-thinking Americans.
I'd argue that intellectual property is special, because the marginal cost of producing copies of digital information is zero, unlike other types of property. It therefore irks me to have to pay a record company if I want to expend my OWN effort to copy a piece of music.
Why is it that governmental and quasi-governmental organisations, when in conflict about serious issues, are described as "bickering", or "squabbling", etc, even when it may be a serious dispute over an important matter of principle (I'm not saying this current issue is, but it's a worrying trend I notice)
With stats like these, we can use momentum marketing (you should use NT cause everyone is going to use NT) ourselves: people are considering Linux as a safe option to hedge against the trainwreck that will be Win2000.
We have to start talking about providing what suits call an "upgrade path" to get people out of NT4.
Support from Novell is fine, but do directory services really fit in with Unix? They only make sense to me if you can't remotely administer your boxes (e.g., DOS, Windows)
Of course, the anything to beat Active Directory argument is one I also subscribe to. It's not like I have to use NDS.
Surely it only criminalises use of IP masq and friends when the intent of such use is the facilitation of the act of sending mass unsolicited email, and not in other circumstances?
Re:Microsoft, Intel, Network Solutions, AOL...
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DOJ vs NSI
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· Score: 2
Monopolies are not against the law; as you state, NSI has a government-created monopoly. It is abuse of monopoly power which is against the law, just as it should be.
If market forces can no longer act properly, because there is a monopoly, then the economy suffers. It is only right (if you believe free markets are a good thing, a view I suspect is held by the vast majority of/.ers) that there should be some power to redress the balance.
More importantly, this power should not rest with the government, but with the courts, which is the solution the United States has found. Anti-trust law should not be about addressing unjust enrichment, but about protecting the market.
Modern markets are much more complex that those which existed two centuries ago. If I buy an apple from one vendor, I can still buy bananas and food processors from whomsoever I chose. If I purchase a computer, however, I am often causing what should be my choices of an OS, an OE, a Word processing paradigm, etc, to be made for me. It need not and should not be this way.
Imminent meaningless of "port" predicted
on
Gcc for the IA-64.
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· Score: 1
People are using "port" to mean practically anything these days. Porting is modifying software so that it will run on a new architecture. Not just rewriting it or adding new features. Not rewriting it to use a different API. Don't even get me started on the abuse of the preposition "to" in "write to an API".
Of course, porting will need to be done to get gcc to RUN on a new architecture even as a crosscompiler. However, adding support for compiling stuff for that new architecture is NOT porting - you could be writing a cross compiler.
Don't let the MS weenies confuse people with their cunning terminological inexactitude!:)
We should start a "why no widelinks" campaign. Most of the MindCraft misconfigurations could be written off as mistakes. The "widelinks = no" setting, contrary to the better performing default, smacks of actual sabotage.
The only story getting out into the media is that Linux was not optimised. What's really going on is that in some areas it was pessimised.
Those who'll try any pre-alpha, non-standard software EXCEPT compilers, C libraries and kernels have the most cause to rejoice. The better system is now the official, approved one, and that matters a lot to the less hacky.
My smoking gun post is in response to my own post which makes exactly this point: Linux support is harder to get. I should have put both posts together, sorry.
Actually,/. ought to be publicising this part. The rest of the issues with their survey basically said "Linux support harder to come by" - which is probably true. But this one is dirty business, and that part of the whole affair is not being picked up by the mainstream press.
Slashdot Mirror
It'd be interesting to know how long it took the article to be pulled.
At least, not all of them!
Yes - that's why I was asking!
I've heard that the only sane way to
install MS Word in a networked environment
is to use SMS, and that this is achieved
with secret API calls. Can anyone confirm
this?
Online services industry.
BT charges per minute. This must have cost Britain an entire industry.
Listen to what RMS says, not how he says it. Leave translating it into more mainstream acceptable speech to other people if they feel inclined to do it. But don't bash RMS for his non-software political views, and use that to score cheap points.
Remember, this is an international movement, and collectivist and leftwing views are much more prevalent outside the United States, so you'll be alienating the rest of the world if you try to make RMS more acceptable to the States.
I'd argue that intellectual property is special, because the marginal cost of producing copies of digital information is zero, unlike other types of property. It therefore irks me to have to pay a record company if I want to expend my OWN effort to copy a piece of music.
Why is it that governmental and quasi-governmental
organisations, when in conflict about serious
issues, are described as "bickering", or
"squabbling", etc, even when it may be a serious
dispute over an important matter of principle
(I'm not saying this current issue is, but it's
a worrying trend I notice)
We have to start talking about providing what suits call an "upgrade path" to get people out of NT4.
Not only read the FAQs, read RFC1122, which IIRC
is titled "Requirements for Internet Hosts"
They may have gone public as a reponse to
a detailed article in Fortune magazine this
week (that's the version you can get in the UK).
I wonder how much of this was to do with stand.org.uk and the @dopt an MP thing?
I still don't like the anti-politician bias on slashdot, I must say.
Of course, the anything to beat Active Directory argument is one I also subscribe to. It's not like I have to use NDS.
It doesn't criminalise your anonymiser firewall
unless your anonymiser firewall is primarily
for spam, which presumably it isn't.
Surely it only criminalises use of IP
masq and friends when the intent of such use
is the facilitation of the act of sending
mass unsolicited email, and not in other
circumstances?
If market forces can no longer act properly, because there is a monopoly, then the economy suffers. It is only right (if you believe free markets are a good thing, a view I suspect is held by the vast majority of /.ers) that there should be some power to redress the balance.
More importantly, this power should not rest with the government, but with the courts, which is the solution the United States has found. Anti-trust law should not be about addressing unjust enrichment, but about protecting the market.
Modern markets are much more complex that those which existed two centuries ago. If I buy an apple from one vendor, I can still buy bananas and food processors from whomsoever I chose. If I purchase a computer, however, I am often causing what should be my choices of an OS, an OE, a Word processing paradigm, etc, to be made for me. It need not and should not be this way.
Shurely a warm 1Ghz ;)
Of course, porting will need to be done to get gcc to RUN on a new architecture even as a crosscompiler. However, adding support for compiling stuff for that new architecture is NOT porting - you could be writing a cross compiler.
Don't let the MS weenies confuse people with their cunning terminological inexactitude! :)
The only story getting out into the media is that Linux was not optimised. What's really going on is that in some areas it was pessimised.
Spread the word!
It certainly isn't new. How different is this
from EDS and IBM outsourcing deals?
Why does BoredAtWork [caps?] never post anymore?
He used to post a lot and be really interesting.
Those who'll try any pre-alpha, non-standard software EXCEPT compilers, C libraries and kernels have the most cause to rejoice. The better system is now the official, approved one, and that matters a lot to the less hacky.
My smoking gun post is in response to my own
post which makes exactly this point: Linux
support is harder to get. I should have put both
posts together, sorry.
Actually, /. ought to be publicising this part. The rest of the issues with their survey basically said "Linux support harder to come by" - which is probably true. But this one is dirty business, and that part of the whole affair is not being picked up by the mainstream press.