File sharing is "illegitimate" because of the files, not the sharing.
If you're a small garage band trying to advertize yourself, there's nothing wrong with throwing mp3s of your performances on kazaa. Anything else that you created yourself is legitimate, too. Same with uncopyrighted works (like the complete works of Shakespeare, for example).
The only real problem with file sharing is that nobody wants that stuff, they all want the copyrighted stuff:)
Oh, and I downloaded Mandrake, RedHat, and Knoppix ISOs from BitTorrent. Those were totally legit uses.
Do you want to be the virus target by virtue of numbers?
The answer is most definitely YES!
If Linux was the de facto virus target (as Windows currently is), then what you'd see is an increased scrutiny in the code, more patches, and an overall better system. What I'm trying to get at here is that increased visibility basically equates to increased quality.
Or, "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger" --> the more we're attacked, the better our systems become.
The safety monitoring computer for a power system should be accessible only by floppy disk through a terminal in a locked room with pressure sensitive floors, a sound monitor, body heat detectors *AND* laser trip wires on all the ventilation grates.
Sadly, that still wasn't enough to stop Tom Cruise from stealing the secret files.
It would be far better to have a self sustaining economy away from Earth, one that could help rebuild our planet if BAD THINGS were to happen to it.
Lol, planetary backup!
I can just picture a meteor wiping out half the population of earth, and then some aliens come along and say "What's the big deal? Just restore your backups. You did have backups, didn't you?"
Well, a lot of people are complaining that the new design is ugly, wastes screen space, etc. Mostly, I agree. But I did notice one thing that was actually a useful innovation!
On the volume control dialog, they have per-application volume settings. I think I would find that amazingly useful; I know when I'm watching a movie in mplayer, it seems like the audio is quiet (just the way it was recorded), so I turn up the volume, and then the sound effects in gaim become uber-loud during the movie. Yeah, bad example, I can mute gaim so it doesn't interrupt the movie, but my point still stands. If you don't like that one app is being too loud relative to another, you can control their volumes independantly. That's cool! I wonder how long it'll take OSS to implement this:)
Lol, speaking of multiple sclerosis, there's a great billboard in the subway tunnels in my city. It says something like "Every penny counts in the fight to stop MS." I know they obviously mean multiple sclerosis, but it's kinda funny to think that there's an organization taking donations whose sole purpose is to destroy Microsoft.
Anyway, it's possible for acronyms to have multiple expansions. Take ATM, for example: Adobe Type Manager, Automatic Teller Machine, and I'm sure there's a few hundred more. Just like how MS is Microsoft, and Multiple Sclerosis. Get over it.
Anyway my point was Gaim is a cross platform application that runs on Windows as well as Linux.
Well, yeah. A lot of open source apps run on windows. Microsoft won't see that as a redeeming feature; I use gaim to talk to my MSN buddies every day, and I'm sure it bothers MS that I'm using their servers and their network without having paid for a copy of windows.
I don't know why I'm explaining myself to an AC, but here goes, just for fun:
He hasn't done anything with his account that would warrant me putting him in my friends list, but he is the lucky user who got the 700,000 UID. Note his name -- seven00kay, or 700k. I rather suspect it's a junk account, somebody who just wanted the 700,000 UID as a novelty, but won't actually do anything with the account. In that case, it's kind of a waste, so he's on my foes list for now.
Unless you're him, posting anonymously. In that case, SCREW YOU! Make your account worth it, biatch!
now its either MSN or AOL not both and guess who has more users
Ironically enough, I have *way* more MSN contacts than AIM contacts on my gaim list. The reason for this is because when I started university, all my new friends were using Windows XP, which came preinstalled on the computers that they bought for university, which came with MSN, which they all got accounts for. So I had to get an Passport account so I could chat with my friends.
On the other hand, I have only two AIM contacts: One is a trillian user who I also have MSN and ICQ contacts for, and the other one is a mac user who has a ton of AIM contacts and doesn't want to switch to anything else:)
Gaim's position in this matter is reasonable (M$ can view the source if it feels like it), then there is at least a chance they will allow Gaim to keep compatibility.
First of all: Using the term M$ makes you look childish at best.
Secondly, Microsoft is the same company that called the GPL viral, and communist (in case you hadn't noticed). The chances of them turning around on this issue are slim to none.
MSN Messenger is one of Windows' main selling points...:rolleyes:
There's a reason that there's no linux port for the official MSN Messenger client. Hint: It's the same reason there's no linux port of Internet Explorer, Outlook, or Office, either. You're right, people don't buy Windows just for MSN Messenger, but it's an added value thing: MS has nothing to gain by allowing people who don't use windows to use Messenger. If it was only possible to use MSN on Windows, Gates would be a happy, happy man. It would be just one more reason for people not to switch away from Windows. It's all about proprietary lock-in.
Well I happen to use Gaim with Windows at work, because I like it better than MSN Messenger.
And I happen to use Gaim with Linux at home, because I like it better than any other IM client I've tried. What's your point?
Frankly, I'm just hoping for a time when there is only one IM protocol, and that IM clients can compete on features/usability, not protocols (much like email clients or web browsers). Preferably the Jabber protocol could fill this role.
That's why transports were created in the first place: so you could continue to harass your friends until they made "the switch".
My experience with jabber transports has been less than stellar. For me, it's tons easier to just use Gaim and have Jabber, MSN, AIM, and ICQ users on my contact list. I advocate the use of Jabber when the topic comes up, but I don't shove it down everybody's throat at every opportunity, honest...:)
The code to GAIM is freely availeable for Microsoft to audit, so theres at least a small chance they will certify it as not being a "security risk".
No offense, but are you smoking crack?
MS will never, ever endorse gaim. You see, Microsoft is something of a Monopoly, and they have demonstrated many times over that if they are given a choice, they will always try to tie things into their own OS and screw over the users of other OS's.
What I'm getting at here is that gaim is a product that allows you to use MSN messaging without having to pay for Windows. Therefore, Microsoft hates gaim. MS has tried in the past to constantly break their IM protocol so that gaim (and other third party IM users) would be SOL. I think they've mostly given up on that tactic lately, as it has been largely futile (the open source developers have been able to reverse engineer it too quickly for it to be worth the bother).
Frankly, I'd be glad if MS prevented me from having MSN on my gaim list. All it means is one less ugly, proprietary messaging protocol on my contact list. I'll just tell all my friends to use Jabber if they really want to contact me (or email for that matter).
Now I just need to convince that one guy that uses AIM to get Jabber, and I'll be able to take AIM off my contact list too:)
I have read several previous interviews with Linus Torvalds on various topics and he almost never says something like this.
Well, how would you respond to somebody who is basically claiming that your entire life's work is a fraud? I'd be pretty peeved.
Torvalds: "Hey everybody, look at the results of all my hard work! Freedom for computer users everywhere!" SCO: "Shut up you dirty thief! You stole our code!" Torvalds: "WTF? Stop smoking crack."
Ha ha! How pathetic, it automatically downloads patches when configured to do so! A REAL OS would rely on the Patch Fairy!
Got the warning again today, but I read it more carefully just for you.
The gist of the message was that it wanted us to reboot to complete the update, otherwise the system might be unstable. Yes, we'll just reboot the computer, that'll work. No, downtime is not an option (except at nighttime, when we're closed).
I don't trust any OS that will just go and make itself crashy without any warning whatsoever, when 100% uptime is an absolute must.
Holy shit, your gas station is running Windows and is connected to the internet??
I don't know much about the setup. It's not like I can just minimize the POS system window and start browsing slashdot when there's a line of customers out the door, waiting to pay for their gas. All I know is that it popped up saying it installed updates, I don't know anything about the network setup there at all. I'm just a clerk, after all.
I work at a gas station, and the computer that controls the gas pumps runs on windows. IOW, if windows crashes, nobody can pump gas, and nobody who has pumped gas already can pay for their gas. It hasn't crashed on us yet (AFAIK -- I've only worked there for a month, and the station has been in service for 2 years).
But, we have had some problems with it. One day, it kept popping up a stupid dialog saying that the computer is too hot and that if we don't cool it down fast then we'll have to shut it off. Yeah, like we're just going to turn off all our gas pumps in the middle of rush hour (the busiest time of day).
Later that same day, it popped up with a stupid message saying that had automatically downloaded and installed updates and patches for us. Seeing that message made me cringe, I was so worried that the patch might have broken something and rendered the entire gas station useless. *shudder*
No, text messaging MUST be the reason why less people are seeing movies! I mean, before text messaging, humans really didn't have any kind of communication that they could use to warn their buddies about crappy movies.
The joke here is that if a professor stays at a Uni long enough, they give him tenure to encourage him to stay, but if a student manages to stay for ten years, then he has achieved tenure:)
With semi-intelligent players I thought this game was pretty much guaranteed to generate a draw?
Yeah, I once had a tic-tac-toe game that was basically programmed with a database of every possible board, and the best possible move in every case. You couldn't win against the thing, you could only draw, or lose.
a Canadian city that won't give a place a liquor license unless they server liquor (they want it so patrons can smoke tobacco).
It seems to me that they should by one bottle of wine, and then have it for sale at about a million dollars. Of course, nobody would ever buy it, but they could at least claim that they sold liquor if anybody asked:)
the number one question on my mind is "what must-play games are here that aren't anywhere else".
TuxRacer not good enough for you, eh?
Seriously though, I don't think you'll see too many high-quality linux-only games; I think the basic trend for programming (anything, not just games), is that if you wrote it on linux using open source tools, it's easier to port to other platforms, but if you wrote it on windows with some proprietary tools, it will be very hard to port to other platforms. This works in favor of MS unfortunately, because pretty much all of the good linux apps also run on windows (think mozilla, gaim, OpenOffice, etc).
There's the Cube engine for Quake-style gameplay... it's a decent rendering engine, but the gameplay is lacking, and what's even worse is that (IIRC) it runs on mac, linux, and windows.
Oh, and another thing I wanted to add -- if a company has a large patent portfolio, then their initial innovation that got them the patents can stagnate, turning them into some royalty collecting agency that has no further incentive to innovate until their patents expire -- but remember, business men are slimy, repulsive creatures who focus on short-term profits at the expense of long-term viability. If it looks like slashing the R&D budget and supplementing the income with patent royalties is the best way to maximize shareholder profits, that's what they will do.
How are software patents a perfect example of the practice not matching the theory?
Well, how long does it take for a piece of software to become obsolete? MS would probably say 3 years or less (Win95 to 98 was 3 years, Win2k was 2 years, etc).
So, in the case of the rapidly evolving software world, what's the point of a patent that lasts 20+ years? If some operating system was competing with another operating system that used patented algorithms, the competing OS would be 20 or more years behind the patented OS, assuming they were honoring the patents. Just to give you some perspective on that -- Unix is 33 years old, GNU is 19, Linux is ~12, and Windows is ~10 (counting from Win3.1 in 1993).
Basically, if you haven't been able to exploit your software patent in the first two years to make money, you don't really deserve the patent anymore, since it's not helping you any, and it's holding others back.
It's the same deal with copyrights. The point of copyrights is to give authors some compensation for their trouble, encouraging them to contribute more works to society, for the greater benefit of mankind. But if works are locked up in copyright for life + 95 years (or whatever ridiculous amount of time it is), then the copyright is essentially permanent, and the work is stolen from humankind. Remember, copyright is the exception, not the rule.
The point I'm trying to argue here is that patents and copyrights are basically good, but their terms are just farcically long in today's fast-paced world.
The other problem with patents, of course, is the apparent corruption (or just plain ignorance) of the patent office granting painfully obvious patents, which brings rise to situations where you've got a small company who patented an obvious idea with no products to show for it suing real companies doing real innovation -- this hurts society as a whole, because some pissant leach of a corporation is stealing money from good companies while simultaneously NOT contributing anything worthwhile to the list of humankind's accomplishments.:)
Is RMS supporting those who find weaknesses in systems and break them? Even his own system? Crazy.
You should watch Revolution OS. He talks about how when he was at MIT, he didn't have a password on his user account, and he was actually against implementing the passwords in the first place.
His argument was "The person sitting at the computer today shouldn't be restricted by the person sitting at the computer yesterday.":)
Slashdot Mirror
File sharing is "illegitimate" because of the files, not the sharing.
:)
If you're a small garage band trying to advertize yourself, there's nothing wrong with throwing mp3s of your performances on kazaa. Anything else that you created yourself is legitimate, too. Same with uncopyrighted works (like the complete works of Shakespeare, for example).
The only real problem with file sharing is that nobody wants that stuff, they all want the copyrighted stuff
Oh, and I downloaded Mandrake, RedHat, and Knoppix ISOs from BitTorrent. Those were totally legit uses.
Do you want to be the virus target by virtue of numbers?
:)
The answer is most definitely YES!
If Linux was the de facto virus target (as Windows currently is), then what you'd see is an increased scrutiny in the code, more patches, and an overall better system. What I'm trying to get at here is that increased visibility basically equates to increased quality.
Or, "what doesn't kill me makes me stronger" --> the more we're attacked, the better our systems become.
Bring it on!
What innovation? BeOS had that a long time ago.
:)
Ooops, my mistake -- I've never used BeOS
The safety monitoring computer for a power system should be accessible only by floppy disk through a terminal in a locked room with pressure sensitive floors, a sound monitor, body heat detectors *AND* laser trip wires on all the ventilation grates.
Sadly, that still wasn't enough to stop Tom Cruise from stealing the secret files.
It would be far better to have a self sustaining economy away from Earth, one that could help rebuild our planet if BAD THINGS were to happen to it.
Lol, planetary backup!
I can just picture a meteor wiping out half the population of earth, and then some aliens come along and say "What's the big deal? Just restore your backups. You did have backups, didn't you?"
Well, a lot of people are complaining that the new design is ugly, wastes screen space, etc. Mostly, I agree. But I did notice one thing that was actually a useful innovation!
:)
On the volume control dialog, they have per-application volume settings. I think I would find that amazingly useful; I know when I'm watching a movie in mplayer, it seems like the audio is quiet (just the way it was recorded), so I turn up the volume, and then the sound effects in gaim become uber-loud during the movie. Yeah, bad example, I can mute gaim so it doesn't interrupt the movie, but my point still stands. If you don't like that one app is being too loud relative to another, you can control their volumes independantly. That's cool! I wonder how long it'll take OSS to implement this
(MS is reserved for multiple sclerosis)
Lol, speaking of multiple sclerosis, there's a great billboard in the subway tunnels in my city. It says something like "Every penny counts in the fight to stop MS." I know they obviously mean multiple sclerosis, but it's kinda funny to think that there's an organization taking donations whose sole purpose is to destroy Microsoft.
Anyway, it's possible for acronyms to have multiple expansions. Take ATM, for example: Adobe Type Manager, Automatic Teller Machine, and I'm sure there's a few hundred more. Just like how MS is Microsoft, and Multiple Sclerosis. Get over it.
Anyway my point was Gaim is a cross platform application that runs on Windows as well as Linux.
Well, yeah. A lot of open source apps run on windows. Microsoft won't see that as a redeeming feature; I use gaim to talk to my MSN buddies every day, and I'm sure it bothers MS that I'm using their servers and their network without having paid for a copy of windows.
I don't know why I'm explaining myself to an AC, but here goes, just for fun:
He hasn't done anything with his account that would warrant me putting him in my friends list, but he is the lucky user who got the 700,000 UID. Note his name -- seven00kay, or 700k. I rather suspect it's a junk account, somebody who just wanted the 700,000 UID as a novelty, but won't actually do anything with the account. In that case, it's kind of a waste, so he's on my foes list for now.
Unless you're him, posting anonymously. In that case, SCREW YOU! Make your account worth it, biatch!
now its either MSN or AOL not both and guess who has more users
:)
Ironically enough, I have *way* more MSN contacts than AIM contacts on my gaim list. The reason for this is because when I started university, all my new friends were using Windows XP, which came preinstalled on the computers that they bought for university, which came with MSN, which they all got accounts for. So I had to get an Passport account so I could chat with my friends.
On the other hand, I have only two AIM contacts: One is a trillian user who I also have MSN and ICQ contacts for, and the other one is a mac user who has a ton of AIM contacts and doesn't want to switch to anything else
Gaim's position in this matter is reasonable (M$ can view the source if it feels like it), then there is at least a chance they will allow Gaim to keep compatibility.
:rolleyes:
First of all: Using the term M$ makes you look childish at best.
Secondly, Microsoft is the same company that called the GPL viral, and communist (in case you hadn't noticed). The chances of them turning around on this issue are slim to none.
MSN Messenger is one of Windows' main selling points...
There's a reason that there's no linux port for the official MSN Messenger client. Hint: It's the same reason there's no linux port of Internet Explorer, Outlook, or Office, either. You're right, people don't buy Windows just for MSN Messenger, but it's an added value thing: MS has nothing to gain by allowing people who don't use windows to use Messenger. If it was only possible to use MSN on Windows, Gates would be a happy, happy man. It would be just one more reason for people not to switch away from Windows. It's all about proprietary lock-in.
Well I happen to use Gaim with Windows at work, because I like it better than MSN Messenger.
And I happen to use Gaim with Linux at home, because I like it better than any other IM client I've tried. What's your point?
Frankly, I'm just hoping for a time when there is only one IM protocol, and that IM clients can compete on features/usability, not protocols (much like email clients or web browsers). Preferably the Jabber protocol could fill this role.
That's why transports were created in the first place: so you could continue to harass your friends until they made "the switch".
:)
My experience with jabber transports has been less than stellar. For me, it's tons easier to just use Gaim and have Jabber, MSN, AIM, and ICQ users on my contact list. I advocate the use of Jabber when the topic comes up, but I don't shove it down everybody's throat at every opportunity, honest...
The code to GAIM is freely availeable for Microsoft to audit, so theres at least a small chance they will certify it as not being a "security risk".
:)
No offense, but are you smoking crack?
MS will never, ever endorse gaim. You see, Microsoft is something of a Monopoly, and they have demonstrated many times over that if they are given a choice, they will always try to tie things into their own OS and screw over the users of other OS's.
What I'm getting at here is that gaim is a product that allows you to use MSN messaging without having to pay for Windows. Therefore, Microsoft hates gaim. MS has tried in the past to constantly break their IM protocol so that gaim (and other third party IM users) would be SOL. I think they've mostly given up on that tactic lately, as it has been largely futile (the open source developers have been able to reverse engineer it too quickly for it to be worth the bother).
Frankly, I'd be glad if MS prevented me from having MSN on my gaim list. All it means is one less ugly, proprietary messaging protocol on my contact list. I'll just tell all my friends to use Jabber if they really want to contact me (or email for that matter).
Now I just need to convince that one guy that uses AIM to get Jabber, and I'll be able to take AIM off my contact list too
I have read several previous interviews with Linus Torvalds on various topics and he almost never says something like this.
Well, how would you respond to somebody who is basically claiming that your entire life's work is a fraud? I'd be pretty peeved.
Torvalds: "Hey everybody, look at the results of all my hard work! Freedom for computer users everywhere!"
SCO: "Shut up you dirty thief! You stole our code!"
Torvalds: "WTF? Stop smoking crack."
Ha ha! How pathetic, it automatically downloads patches when configured to do so! A REAL OS would rely on the Patch Fairy!
Got the warning again today, but I read it more carefully just for you.
The gist of the message was that it wanted us to reboot to complete the update, otherwise the system might be unstable. Yes, we'll just reboot the computer, that'll work. No, downtime is not an option (except at nighttime, when we're closed).
I don't trust any OS that will just go and make itself crashy without any warning whatsoever, when 100% uptime is an absolute must.
What, would you rather it just packed up shop and died quietly?
The point was, we didn't shut it off, and it didn't die. So the warning was pretty pointless.
Since you're so worried about it, I hope you turned this feature off
Not my business -- I'm not the admin.
Holy shit, your gas station is running Windows and is connected to the internet??
I don't know much about the setup. It's not like I can just minimize the POS system window and start browsing slashdot when there's a line of customers out the door, waiting to pay for their gas. All I know is that it popped up saying it installed updates, I don't know anything about the network setup there at all. I'm just a clerk, after all.
Yeah. It's amazing where you'll find Windows.
I work at a gas station, and the computer that controls the gas pumps runs on windows. IOW, if windows crashes, nobody can pump gas, and nobody who has pumped gas already can pay for their gas. It hasn't crashed on us yet (AFAIK -- I've only worked there for a month, and the station has been in service for 2 years).
But, we have had some problems with it. One day, it kept popping up a stupid dialog saying that the computer is too hot and that if we don't cool it down fast then we'll have to shut it off. Yeah, like we're just going to turn off all our gas pumps in the middle of rush hour (the busiest time of day).
Later that same day, it popped up with a stupid message saying that had automatically downloaded and installed updates and patches for us. Seeing that message made me cringe, I was so worried that the patch might have broken something and rendered the entire gas station useless. *shudder*
No, text messaging MUST be the reason why less people are seeing movies! I mean, before text messaging, humans really didn't have any kind of communication that they could use to warn their buddies about crappy movies.
I'm a "tenured student"
:)
The joke here is that if a professor stays at a Uni long enough, they give him tenure to encourage him to stay, but if a student manages to stay for ten years, then he has achieved tenure
With semi-intelligent players I thought this game was pretty much guaranteed to generate a draw?
Yeah, I once had a tic-tac-toe game that was basically programmed with a database of every possible board, and the best possible move in every case. You couldn't win against the thing, you could only draw, or lose.
a Canadian city that won't give a place a liquor license unless they server liquor (they want it so patrons can smoke tobacco).
:)
It seems to me that they should by one bottle of wine, and then have it for sale at about a million dollars. Of course, nobody would ever buy it, but they could at least claim that they sold liquor if anybody asked
the number one question on my mind is "what must-play games are here that aren't anywhere else".
TuxRacer not good enough for you, eh?
Seriously though, I don't think you'll see too many high-quality linux-only games; I think the basic trend for programming (anything, not just games), is that if you wrote it on linux using open source tools, it's easier to port to other platforms, but if you wrote it on windows with some proprietary tools, it will be very hard to port to other platforms. This works in favor of MS unfortunately, because pretty much all of the good linux apps also run on windows (think mozilla, gaim, OpenOffice, etc).
There's the Cube engine for Quake-style gameplay... it's a decent rendering engine, but the gameplay is lacking, and what's even worse is that (IIRC) it runs on mac, linux, and windows.
Oh, and another thing I wanted to add -- if a company has a large patent portfolio, then their initial innovation that got them the patents can stagnate, turning them into some royalty collecting agency that has no further incentive to innovate until their patents expire -- but remember, business men are slimy, repulsive creatures who focus on short-term profits at the expense of long-term viability. If it looks like slashing the R&D budget and supplementing the income with patent royalties is the best way to maximize shareholder profits, that's what they will do.
How are software patents a perfect example of the practice not matching the theory?
:)
Well, how long does it take for a piece of software to become obsolete? MS would probably say 3 years or less (Win95 to 98 was 3 years, Win2k was 2 years, etc).
So, in the case of the rapidly evolving software world, what's the point of a patent that lasts 20+ years? If some operating system was competing with another operating system that used patented algorithms, the competing OS would be 20 or more years behind the patented OS, assuming they were honoring the patents. Just to give you some perspective on that -- Unix is 33 years old, GNU is 19, Linux is ~12, and Windows is ~10 (counting from Win3.1 in 1993).
Basically, if you haven't been able to exploit your software patent in the first two years to make money, you don't really deserve the patent anymore, since it's not helping you any, and it's holding others back.
It's the same deal with copyrights. The point of copyrights is to give authors some compensation for their trouble, encouraging them to contribute more works to society, for the greater benefit of mankind. But if works are locked up in copyright for life + 95 years (or whatever ridiculous amount of time it is), then the copyright is essentially permanent, and the work is stolen from humankind. Remember, copyright is the exception, not the rule.
The point I'm trying to argue here is that patents and copyrights are basically good, but their terms are just farcically long in today's fast-paced world.
The other problem with patents, of course, is the apparent corruption (or just plain ignorance) of the patent office granting painfully obvious patents, which brings rise to situations where you've got a small company who patented an obvious idea with no products to show for it suing real companies doing real innovation -- this hurts society as a whole, because some pissant leach of a corporation is stealing money from good companies while simultaneously NOT contributing anything worthwhile to the list of humankind's accomplishments.
Is RMS supporting those who find weaknesses in systems and break them? Even his own system? Crazy.
:)
You should watch Revolution OS. He talks about how when he was at MIT, he didn't have a password on his user account, and he was actually against implementing the passwords in the first place.
His argument was "The person sitting at the computer today shouldn't be restricted by the person sitting at the computer yesterday."