If it was produced on a UNIX-like operating system (probably including Windows 2000/XP) then all rights surely accrue to SCO as it is clearly a derivative work.
Furthermore, by posting links to a site containing SCO's IP (thereby encouraging people to play the midi files) slashdot is taking a serious risk of being SCO's next legal target.
Unfortunately, very unlikely. All available evidence suggests that most people are very uncritical in evaluating what they read. What they believe depends largely on what they read most often. Microsoft has plenty of money to repeatedly tell people that "... the next generation of Windows will solve all the security problems...", "... open source software is inherently insecure...", "... Windows has a lower TCO than Linux..." etc. 1% of the population will be smart enough to know this is rubbish; the other 99% will just accept it at face value, even if devestating rebuttals are readily available.
I am very much an advocate of simple methods. However, I am not sure if the Indian model (or the Diebold machines for that matter) would handle the practicalities involved in a typical US election.
The Indian machine seems to handle voting for a single person for a single elected post. If someone needed to cast votes for many different electoral positions, they would need to move from machine to machine (and presumably would end of with a long of inky fingers in rainbow colours). It is not clear how "propositions" would be handled. It should be noted that many electoral systems require voting for multiple candidates for the same position. Here, the Indian system would clearly not work.
One objection to the Indian system, for use in the U.S., relates to the ink itself. Someone, somewhere would have an allergic reaction to the ink and would sue for about a trillion dollars.
I agree with other posters that an open source solution of some kind is needed. The process needs to be 100% transparent while protecting the secrecy of individual votes. I disagree with those that say it is not difficult: it jolly well IS.
If there is a consensus against the RFID badges, I have no doubt the collected talent at MIT can find a way around using them. IIRC it was at MIT that the practice of lock hacking originated back in the 1960's. Professors with interesting equipment in their rooms, and who locked their doors, would come in to find the lock had been picked and a polite message left to request the door be left open in the future so anyone who wanted could play with the equipment.
I suspect that, while Stallman would have had a lot of support forty years ago, the world view of the current generation of students and faculty is very different.
Of course, with APL such a feature is completely useless unless it gives you the source character as well, no?....
LOL... yes indeed. APL programs that I had problems with were often less than 10 lines of code, but each line of code could contain more functionality than an entire modern java procedure.
In fact, though, the APL debugger did point at the actual APL function that generated the exception.
Honestly, it is the truth. I knew the IBM systems engineer who was involved in the sale. I worked for IBM at their education centre in Sudbury in the 1970s and spent quite a bit of time talking with the guy about the early days of computers in Turkey. Of course, the software for a computer with this little RAM was a challenge. A 2K 1401 had to be programmed totally (and creatively) in assembler. Even a simple RPG program would be too big.
Well, the original large scale use of the Hollerith cards was for the 1890 US census. Does anyone know if any of these cards have been retained anywhere? Logically, it seems as though they might.
Back in the early 1960s, three IBM Turkey employees went out for a major celebration on the basis of the sale of the first IBM computer in Turkey: a 2K (!) 1401. Not sure what the cost was, but I believe close to US$100,000 at the then current prices. Yep, computers have come a long way.
To all those coming down on Clay so hard, I would say this: it is refreshing to see an American who actually cares; almost all Americans, whether those in government, business leaders or the average voter will only act in their own selfish self interest.
I happen to share Clay's distaste for the actions of America in respect of Iraq (over most of the last 30+ years). Even if I did not, my reaction would be the same.
Clay, we cannot stop the military using Linux. Why not accept that everyone can use Linux but avoid personal support for any developments with primarily military applications? Regardless, I admire you for having the guts to stand up and do what you think is right.
Back in the mid 1980s, I was working for a division of a large multinational. Some of the employees had quite a creative sense of humour (including, fortunately as will soon become apparent, the department manager).
At the time, there was a lot of hiring going on. On the manager's birthday, he was conducting job interviews most of the morning. His last applicant of the morning was a plant! You need to understand that, while blessed with a good sense of humour, he was happily married and quite conservative. The "applicant" was an attractive 24 year old redhead, very well endowed, and as sexually dressed as was consistent with a possible job applicant. The interview started normally, but gradually the young lady started making more and more pointed hints that she really wanted the job and would be willing to be very grateful if hired. Eventually, she was draping herself all over our leader who was desperately trying to ease her out of his office and looking as if he was about to suffer a coronary. [We had arranged to catch everything on video tape for checking out later.] When he finally managed to get the young lady across his office and open the door, the whole department was outside ready to wish him Happy Birthday. That was his first intimation that it was a setup!
One thing I have not seen discussed yet acquires greater relevance than ever with the BayStar decision. The bulk of any Unix license fees that SCOG receives is supposed to be handed over to Novell.
I wonder how long they can procrastinate on this before Novell asks for a court order to at least put this money in escrow? This, not the BayStar move, might be what finally makes it impossible for SCOG to maintain its litigation. Please Novell, do not take such action until SCOG's attack on the GPL has been well and truly demolished.
All my porn on one DVD? All my eggs in one basket? Don't think so.
So, do you use double density or single density diskettes? By my calculations, you would need 35,556 1.44MB diskettes (ignoring space wastage). Hope you have got them well indexed!
This technology is still about 10 years out there (at the very least).
The announcement indicates that they are planning to start commercial shipments almost immediately. Pioneer has been working on this stuff for over 10 years already. You are probably right that this will initially be pretty expensive. Nevertheless, this is an important announcement, indicating that real progress on a key technology has been made.
As an aside, the Iomega Jaz drive was initially a good product. There were two main problems: they cut corners on both the drive and the media in later revisions; and they never owned up to the "clicking" problem, thus causing many people to unnecessarily lose data.
I do not agree with everything in the parent post, but whoever marked this a troll was misguided. It presents an important perspective. We must be able to listen to views like his and consider them objectively if we are to cater to the constituency he represents.
After thinking about this all day, I have come to the conclusion that Google is introducing Gmail (i.e. it is not a joke). However, I am also convinced that the timing and style of the announcement was specifically designed to maximise discussion. Very clever!
I will sign up for 1000 accounts and get a free terabyte storage system.
Many a true word in jest. I do not know exactly how the system will work, but there is enormous potential for abuse. Actually, just personal storage of large amounts of data is probably the least of the concerns. One could imagine a warez or porn distribution system based on small requests to a controlling site that then uses mail fowarding to deliver the content (thus pushing the bulk of the storage and bandwidth costs onto gmail).
I had not read Doc Searls' article before. It is a VERY interesting take on what the suits will want in a Linux laptop, and rather accurate I would say. His point that laptop requirements are totally different from desktop is important. Large scale corporate desktop deployments are quite close now I believe, typically thin client based. Major corporate laptop deployments may be harder because (1) they cannot be thin clients, and (2) unless things just work, suits need a lot of handholding (and they cannot easily get that on the road).
Count me as another KEDIT lover. I still have a copy on my machine and fire it up when I have some complex need not satisfied by another editor. However, for all KEDIT's power, the ten years of neglect have taken their toll. My use of it continues to decline. Modern IDEs typically just provide a more productive way to get the day-to-day work done.
It is easy enough to understand why Mansfield does not open source it: occasionally someone will still send them a check.
I have rarely used REXX in recent years, but have fond memories of it from the late 1970s and the 1980s. In those days, I used to do a lot of development under VM/XA. Anyone who previously had to script in the old EXEC or EXEC2 could not help but see REXX as an unbelievable advance. Later, I used both PC REXX and the (inspired by REXX) KEXX macro language packaged with the KEDIT editor to write some very decent tools. Performance was not stellar, but that was really the only serious drawback (and, even there, it was better than most other interpreted languages of its day).
I doubt whether academics see much to love in the language, but I always found it easy to learn and very effective in getting things done. On the few occasions I have used it in recent years, I have still considered it highly useable (and I speak as someone who has used Perl, Python, Lua and even occasionally Ruby).
In truth, I feel little sympathy for the view that nations should try to be at war with each other, whether economically or otherwise.
Political leaders may be able to succeed in creating rifts between peoples, but I think scientists should try to work to improve the lot of human beings as a whole, not allow themselves to be pawns in global politics.
Will he sue the US Courts for migrating to Linux next? (btw wouldn't that be some sort of chicken-and-egg problem (ergo very likely for SCO to do)?)
This raises a possibly interesting point. Any lawyer here who understands the US legal system? Could TSCOG then claim that the US court system is not qualified to consider the main case because of conflict of interest? This seems nuts, but less nuts than any other legal argument that we have heard from them. Any chance of an appeal based on it?
Slashdot Mirror
Furthermore, by posting links to a site containing SCO's IP (thereby encouraging people to play the midi files) slashdot is taking a serious risk of being SCO's next legal target.
Unfortunately, very unlikely. All available evidence suggests that most people are very uncritical in evaluating what they read. What they believe depends largely on what they read most often. Microsoft has plenty of money to repeatedly tell people that "... the next generation of Windows will solve all the security problems ...", "... open source software is inherently insecure ...", "... Windows has a lower TCO than Linux ..." etc. 1% of the population will be smart enough to know this is rubbish; the other 99% will just accept it at face value, even if devestating rebuttals are readily available.
The Indian machine seems to handle voting for a single person for a single elected post. If someone needed to cast votes for many different electoral positions, they would need to move from machine to machine (and presumably would end of with a long of inky fingers in rainbow colours). It is not clear how "propositions" would be handled. It should be noted that many electoral systems require voting for multiple candidates for the same position. Here, the Indian system would clearly not work.
One objection to the Indian system, for use in the U.S., relates to the ink itself. Someone, somewhere would have an allergic reaction to the ink and would sue for about a trillion dollars.
I agree with other posters that an open source solution of some kind is needed. The process needs to be 100% transparent while protecting the secrecy of individual votes. I disagree with those that say it is not difficult: it jolly well IS.
I suspect that, while Stallman would have had a lot of support forty years ago, the world view of the current generation of students and faculty is very different.
LOL ... yes indeed. APL programs that I had problems with were often less than 10 lines of code, but each line of code could contain more functionality than an entire modern java procedure.
In fact, though, the APL debugger did point at the actual APL function that generated the exception.
Honestly, it is the truth. I knew the IBM systems engineer who was involved in the sale. I worked for IBM at their education centre in Sudbury in the 1970s and spent quite a bit of time talking with the guy about the early days of computers in Turkey. Of course, the software for a computer with this little RAM was a challenge. A 2K 1401 had to be programmed totally (and creatively) in assembler. Even a simple RPG program would be too big.
(At least, not the "IBM" Hollerith cards ...
Well, the original large scale use of the Hollerith cards was for the 1890 US census. Does anyone know if any of these cards have been retained anywhere? Logically, it seems as though they might.
Back in the early 1960s, three IBM Turkey employees went out for a major celebration on the basis of the sale of the first IBM computer in Turkey: a 2K (!) 1401. Not sure what the cost was, but I believe close to US$100,000 at the then current prices. Yep, computers have come a long way.
I happen to share Clay's distaste for the actions of America in respect of Iraq (over most of the last 30+ years). Even if I did not, my reaction would be the same.
Clay, we cannot stop the military using Linux. Why not accept that everyone can use Linux but avoid personal support for any developments with primarily military applications? Regardless, I admire you for having the guts to stand up and do what you think is right.
Back in the mid 1980s, I was working for a division of a large multinational. Some of the employees had quite a creative sense of humour (including, fortunately as will soon become apparent, the department manager).
At the time, there was a lot of hiring going on. On the manager's birthday, he was conducting job interviews most of the morning. His last applicant of the morning was a plant! You need to understand that, while blessed with a good sense of humour, he was happily married and quite conservative. The "applicant" was an attractive 24 year old redhead, very well endowed, and as sexually dressed as was consistent with a possible job applicant. The interview started normally, but gradually the young lady started making more and more pointed hints that she really wanted the job and would be willing to be very grateful if hired. Eventually, she was draping herself all over our leader who was desperately trying to ease her out of his office and looking as if he was about to suffer a coronary. [We had arranged to catch everything on video tape for checking out later.] When he finally managed to get the young lady across his office and open the door, the whole department was outside ready to wish him Happy Birthday. That was his first intimation that it was a setup!
... because it is not written in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS!!!!
I wonder how long they can procrastinate on this before Novell asks for a court order to at least put this money in escrow? This, not the BayStar move, might be what finally makes it impossible for SCOG to maintain its litigation. Please Novell, do not take such action until SCOG's attack on the GPL has been well and truly demolished.
No, it is not an April Fools joke. For details, see http://www.ebicom.net/~rsf1/canneto.htm that has been covering events for 5 weeks already.
So, do you use double density or single density diskettes? By my calculations, you would need 35,556 1.44MB diskettes (ignoring space wastage). Hope you have got them well indexed!
The announcement indicates that they are planning to start commercial shipments almost immediately. Pioneer has been working on this stuff for over 10 years already. You are probably right that this will initially be pretty expensive. Nevertheless, this is an important announcement, indicating that real progress on a key technology has been made.
As an aside, the Iomega Jaz drive was initially a good product. There were two main problems: they cut corners on both the drive and the media in later revisions; and they never owned up to the "clicking" problem, thus causing many people to unnecessarily lose data.
I do not agree with everything in the parent post, but whoever marked this a troll was misguided. It presents an important perspective. We must be able to listen to views like his and consider them objectively if we are to cater to the constituency he represents.
(please don't shoot)
After thinking about this all day, I have come to the conclusion that Google is introducing Gmail (i.e. it is not a joke). However, I am also convinced that the timing and style of the announcement was specifically designed to maximise discussion. Very clever!
Many a true word in jest. I do not know exactly how the system will work, but there is enormous potential for abuse. Actually, just personal storage of large amounts of data is probably the least of the concerns. One could imagine a warez or porn distribution system based on small requests to a controlling site that then uses mail fowarding to deliver the content (thus pushing the bulk of the storage and bandwidth costs onto gmail).
I had not read Doc Searls' article before. It is a VERY interesting take on what the suits will want in a Linux laptop, and rather accurate I would say. His point that laptop requirements are totally different from desktop is important. Large scale corporate desktop deployments are quite close now I believe, typically thin client based. Major corporate laptop deployments may be harder because (1) they cannot be thin clients, and (2) unless things just work, suits need a lot of handholding (and they cannot easily get that on the road).
It is easy enough to understand why Mansfield does not open source it: occasionally someone will still send them a check.
I doubt whether academics see much to love in the language, but I always found it easy to learn and very effective in getting things done. On the few occasions I have used it in recent years, I have still considered it highly useable (and I speak as someone who has used Perl, Python, Lua and even occasionally Ruby).
Political leaders may be able to succeed in creating rifts between peoples, but I think scientists should try to work to improve the lot of human beings as a whole, not allow themselves to be pawns in global politics.
This raises a possibly interesting point. Any lawyer here who understands the US legal system? Could TSCOG then claim that the US court system is not qualified to consider the main case because of conflict of interest? This seems nuts, but less nuts than any other legal argument that we have heard from them. Any chance of an appeal based on it?