"The point of "free" software is that it is open for perusal, poking, sharing, etc. not that it's gratis so you don't have to pay for it."
Actually "Open Source Software" (OSS) is what you're talking about. "Free Software" (capital F) is what the Free Software Foundation is all about. The GPL almost requires the option of free as in beer in order to make sure the software stays free as in speech. GPL is the best license to make sure the code stays free, as no other options are available under it.
You also said "sharing". How is that possible if it isn't free as in beer? Or did you mean sharing changes back to the core developers (i.e. working for free)?
In my town, digital cable costs extra. Certain channels are only available on "Digital". It's all a scam to make people pay extra for stuff they want. Now the government is going to "force" them to do this? I think the cable companies want this so their new competitors can't offer more for the same price or something. Actually I'm glad, with all the channels available on HDTV I'd prefer the good shows migrate to broadcast and I can drop cable again - heck, I only got if for the net access anyway (TV was $15 more).
"if they're having trouble finding them they aren't looking".
In my experience, a lot of the people doing the hiring are not qualified to evaluate the people coming in. The people above them are clearly not qualified (often business people), which is how they end up in this situation. At this moment, I haven't considered a way for a company to get out of this cycle.
If you're doing tech support because you like the tech stuff, but didn't realize you'd have to deal with people then of course you're not going to be happy. If your "customers" keep doing the same stupid stuff over and over, it's because you failed to teach them correct behavior. Again, if you think your job is just to deal with the machines you're mistaken. Perhaps this is a common mistake, and explains the higher percentage of unhappy workers.
Yes, I do realize that Slashdot useses cookies. Do you realize that aside from not having to log in every time I check the site, Slashdot could be designed to work fine without cookies? They used them because they are available and work well. So if I was really paranoid about cookies I couldn't turn them off and still read Slashdot. Thanks for pointing out the perfect example.
Why is this enabled by default? I doubt most people realize that sites can see where you're coming from. They also may not appreciate it. This seems like something that needs to stop before it starts getting abused. Cookies were neat until sites started requiring them in order to function properly. This "feature" doesn't even offer me anything that I can see as benefit.
While we're at it, why tell them what browser you're using? All that does is allow them to "fix" things that aren't supported correctly by different browsers. It's a patch that allows browser writers to remain incompatible, while telling something to sites that need not concern them. There's no (really good) reason to require any information from a browser except which page you want.
"Fortunately, individuals still have certain protections in the US. Illegal is still illegal -- no matter who you are...regardless of how powerless you may feel."
Ya, Spybot search and destroy. That's how the people protect themselves from spyware which in many many cases is illegal. Slip one of those data gathering goodies onto a corporate PC and sneak a few packets to your home. You'll go to jail for something corporations do to individuals on a daily basis.
"They could license it under a modified GPL which doesn't allow commercial distribution but"
Actually you can't modify the GPL. The FSF was smart enough to see confusion like this, so the GPL itself is copyrighted - thou shant make derivative licenses. Different license with similar terms? Sure. Modified GPL - not.
Should read "YaST to become Free Software". Whenever I see something like this, I always want to check which license they're using so I can determine just what that means.
"The EFF says the vigilantes may be committing a crime."
They should have formed a corporation for this activity, then there would be no danger of imprisonment. As it stands they may be alright because they are doing it in the name of copyright protection. No one (in power) would want to prosecute someone for such practices.
As much as everyone knows the technology center of the U.S. is in California, they don't seem to know the proper place for robotics is Detroit. We have some high-tech companies here, along with some good schools including U of M and OU which hosts the IGVC every year, and we've got a far lower cost of living. For electromechanical goodies, this is the place to be. When Mr. Kamen wanted to build his mechatronic stuff he didn't go to CA? No, he went to Michigan. Yes, I'm off topic. Yes, this is a blatant plug for my home state. BTW, didn't/. start here?
"This is why I stick with one of the 'minimalist' window managers. Sure, I'm missing out on a lot of things, and Joe user probably needs KDE/GNOME and all their associated parts, but I don't."
Joe needs the following:
1) A web browser icon
2) an email icon
3) a new document (open office) icon
4) a file browser (my docs?) icon
5) an icon for any other specific apps he want(GAim).
5) a menu not full of crap
Joe user isn't different from you. He IS you and ME. I write (embedded) software for a living and the only "desktop integration" I really care about is having the correct application open a file I double click on - something windows is actually rather BAD at.
Linux would be ready for the average joe's desktop if someone would just pull all the extras out. Even Knoppix (which I like) tries to pile in a lot of stuff that most people don't want. Where is a distro that has just the subset that everyone wants?
I liked the part where it explained that GRUB lables the partitions differently than Linux. Just fix GRUB (the smaller of the 2) so they are the same. Doesn't it seem silly to put text out there to explain that the programmers were lazy? Or if they must remain different for some compelling technical reason, provide automatic translation and hide the difference from the user - at least during the installation.
If you pay for proprietary TLDs then it's no different than just dropping them entirely, but then we couldn't differentiate.org.edu type domains. I think the registrars just want more money. This whole.m thing reminds me of when some company paid Tuvalu (sp?) a boatload of money and was planning to sell.tv domains to broadcasters. Didn't work - not even a little bit.
Mozilla is anything but free software. Yes, you can get the source code, but their license is NOT GPL. In fact, I think they require source code to all derivatives be submitted back to them (they may or may not incorporate it). All these other (non-GPL) licenses are just people trying to retain some form of central control over their project. Without such restrictions forks can happen, but only the most popular ones will survive. Non-GPL OSS licenses are to protect peoples egos or profits, nothing more. In this case, they're starting to show it. Are there any good GPLed web browsers? Mozilla and Firefox don't render/. correctly for me anyway without lots of reloads.
"why can't people just fork the old version of MySQL and use any license they want?"
You can't just take software under a GPL license and change to "any license you want". The GPL does not permit that, nor does the LGPL (which does allow you to change to GPL). They changed license to GPL because people were abusing the LGPL. The only people who were legitimately upset were other open source (not free) software projects. MySQL now offers them a specific OK to use their product. I don't see any reason to call this "atrocious" and I don't understand how this gets modded up to 5.
We have a guy here who smokes and always uses his cell phone for the calculator function. I thought he could really use a lighter integrated into the phone too.
I downloaded a utility FDformat that did this back in 1993 or so. It gave you 1.72Meg on a 1.44Meg floppy. I know it worked because I had a zip file that wouldn't fit on a disk until I used this program. The file was transfered and successfully unzipped on another machine. Some of the Gateway computers at the university could also read these by default, but didn't format that way.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually "Open Source Software" (OSS) is what you're talking about. "Free Software" (capital F) is what the Free Software Foundation is all about. The GPL almost requires the option of free as in beer in order to make sure the software stays free as in speech. GPL is the best license to make sure the code stays free, as no other options are available under it.
You also said "sharing". How is that possible if it isn't free as in beer? Or did you mean sharing changes back to the core developers (i.e. working for free)?
In my town, digital cable costs extra. Certain channels are only available on "Digital". It's all a scam to make people pay extra for stuff they want. Now the government is going to "force" them to do this? I think the cable companies want this so their new competitors can't offer more for the same price or something. Actually I'm glad, with all the channels available on HDTV I'd prefer the good shows migrate to broadcast and I can drop cable again - heck, I only got if for the net access anyway (TV was $15 more).
In my experience, a lot of the people doing the hiring are not qualified to evaluate the people coming in. The people above them are clearly not qualified (often business people), which is how they end up in this situation. At this moment, I haven't considered a way for a company to get out of this cycle.
Wouldn't "XP Refactored" be the comming release of Windows for europe?
If you're doing tech support because you like the tech stuff, but didn't realize you'd have to deal with people then of course you're not going to be happy. If your "customers" keep doing the same stupid stuff over and over, it's because you failed to teach them correct behavior. Again, if you think your job is just to deal with the machines you're mistaken. Perhaps this is a common mistake, and explains the higher percentage of unhappy workers.
Yes, I do realize that Slashdot useses cookies. Do you realize that aside from not having to log in every time I check the site, Slashdot could be designed to work fine without cookies? They used them because they are available and work well. So if I was really paranoid about cookies I couldn't turn them off and still read Slashdot. Thanks for pointing out the perfect example.
The last company I knew that pushed the "Play to win" line down on all the employees was Kmart...
While we're at it, why tell them what browser you're using? All that does is allow them to "fix" things that aren't supported correctly by different browsers. It's a patch that allows browser writers to remain incompatible, while telling something to sites that need not concern them. There's no (really good) reason to require any information from a browser except which page you want.
Sorry, I wasn't aware that they're moving to GPL, last saw, I thought they were just MPL. I'll go hide now.
Ya, Spybot search and destroy. That's how the people protect themselves from spyware which in many many cases is illegal. Slip one of those data gathering goodies onto a corporate PC and sneak a few packets to your home. You'll go to jail for something corporations do to individuals on a daily basis.
I suspect it is, but we should wait for a changing of the guard before someone really challenges it.
Actually you can't modify the GPL. The FSF was smart enough to see confusion like this, so the GPL itself is copyrighted - thou shant make derivative licenses. Different license with similar terms? Sure. Modified GPL - not.
Should read "YaST to become Free Software". Whenever I see something like this, I always want to check which license they're using so I can determine just what that means.
They should have formed a corporation for this activity, then there would be no danger of imprisonment. As it stands they may be alright because they are doing it in the name of copyright protection. No one (in power) would want to prosecute someone for such practices.
As much as everyone knows the technology center of the U.S. is in California, they don't seem to know the proper place for robotics is Detroit. We have some high-tech companies here, along with some good schools including U of M and OU which hosts the IGVC every year, and we've got a far lower cost of living. For electromechanical goodies, this is the place to be. When Mr. Kamen wanted to build his mechatronic stuff he didn't go to CA? No, he went to Michigan. Yes, I'm off topic. Yes, this is a blatant plug for my home state. BTW, didn't /. start here?
Joe needs the following:
1) A web browser icon
2) an email icon
3) a new document (open office) icon
4) a file browser (my docs?) icon
5) an icon for any other specific apps he want(GAim).
5) a menu not full of crap
Joe user isn't different from you. He IS you and ME. I write (embedded) software for a living and the only "desktop integration" I really care about is having the correct application open a file I double click on - something windows is actually rather BAD at.
Linux would be ready for the average joe's desktop if someone would just pull all the extras out. Even Knoppix (which I like) tries to pile in a lot of stuff that most people don't want. Where is a distro that has just the subset that everyone wants?
I liked the part where it explained that GRUB lables the partitions differently than Linux. Just fix GRUB (the smaller of the 2) so they are the same. Doesn't it seem silly to put text out there to explain that the programmers were lazy? Or if they must remain different for some compelling technical reason, provide automatic translation and hide the difference from the user - at least during the installation.
If you pay for proprietary TLDs then it's no different than just dropping them entirely, but then we couldn't differentiate .org .edu type domains. I think the registrars just want more money. This whole .m thing reminds me of when some company paid Tuvalu (sp?) a boatload of money and was planning to sell .tv domains to broadcasters. Didn't work - not even a little bit.
Mozilla is anything but free software. Yes, you can get the source code, but their license is NOT GPL. In fact, I think they require source code to all derivatives be submitted back to them (they may or may not incorporate it). All these other (non-GPL) licenses are just people trying to retain some form of central control over their project. Without such restrictions forks can happen, but only the most popular ones will survive. Non-GPL OSS licenses are to protect peoples egos or profits, nothing more. In this case, they're starting to show it. Are there any good GPLed web browsers? Mozilla and Firefox don't render /. correctly for me anyway without lots of reloads.
That depends entirely on your definition of "people". Apparently there has been a great deal of debate about that...
So why does MS get to keep secrets about the Windows API?
You can't just take software under a GPL license and change to "any license you want". The GPL does not permit that, nor does the LGPL (which does allow you to change to GPL). They changed license to GPL because people were abusing the LGPL. The only people who were legitimately upset were other open source (not free) software projects. MySQL now offers them a specific OK to use their product. I don't see any reason to call this "atrocious" and I don't understand how this gets modded up to 5.
We have a guy here who smokes and always uses his cell phone for the calculator function. I thought he could really use a lighter integrated into the phone too.
I downloaded a utility FDformat that did this back in 1993 or so. It gave you 1.72Meg on a 1.44Meg floppy. I know it worked because I had a zip file that wouldn't fit on a disk until I used this program. The file was transfered and successfully unzipped on another machine. Some of the Gateway computers at the university could also read these by default, but didn't format that way.
Nothing like having all the ISPs think it's OK to monitor every packet you send. It's like TIA in the name of virus prevention.