I don't face restrictions like this with OSS. The license terms of most OSS software are simple and not subject to tightening. I *never* have to ask myself if Alan Cox, Linus, etc. will mess with my datacenter plans by saying a future version of Linux may not run on a virtualized system.
Saying that "TV delays" drive piracy ignores the Australian citizens' free will in the matter. TV delays may whet their apatites to the point where the Aussies are willing to break the law, but the delays certainly don't force them to.
An alternate headline could have been: "Australians chose to break the law rather than patiently await delayed entertainment."
The person(s) within Microsoft that decided to make this appeal might very well not be too popular with Ballmer right now (that is if he wasn't involved in taking the decision himself).
Agreed. If he's smart, he'd get a patent, pronto, on chair throwing as a business method.
OK, so now Stephen J. Vaughan-Nichols will get subpoenaed:)
But on a more serious note: Does anyone understand why SCO actually claims to have a need to talk to Pamela Jones? Do they *need* a pretense in order to subpoena someone for a civil case?
I believe that even RPM on linux runs the install scripts with admin access...
Yes, but at least in the RPM case, a regular unprivileged user cannot cause an untrusted program to run with kernel-level permissions. In Linux, that user would have to enter a privileged password (for sudo or root login). On Vista, a regular user who has no admin rights can choose to execute an installer program with kernel privileges.
Does this permit the practical use of any truly breakthrough apps?
Does it suddenly make previously crappy technologies worthwhile? I.e., does image recognition or untrained speech recognition become a mainstream technology with this new processing power?
1) Every consumer "needs" to replace their computer every 2-3 years. They won't delay a computer purchase more than 6 months in order to get the next OS.
I don't think this is true. 5+ years ago, I would have agreed. But now I'm content with the same computer for at least 4 years, maybe more. Maybe I've changed, maybe the market has:
Now that I'm married with kids, I don't have as much time for computer gaming any more. Realistically, Firefox, OpenOffice.org, YouTube, RealPlayer, getting images off the digital camera, etc. just don't need a hardware upgrade. The only piece of software that lots of people use and that taxes modern hardware is Vista, and Vista is on almost no one's "must have" list.
Another consequence of getting older and having kids is that you have more demanding things for your money: saving for retirement, college, mortgage, etc. So even on days when I'm jonesing for a new computer, I just learn to suck it up a little bit and accept the current one.
After 10+ years of playing the twitchy, graphics-intensive games like FPS's, I'm bored. The only games that keep my interest are things like Civilization and Astral Masters, which have fairly low-end requirements.
5+ years ago, there was a very discernible improvement in performance every two years. Now? Not so much unless you're using things like FPS games which really tax the computer. In fact, I'd probably say that as the years go by, the fraction of apps that people want to use and that really tax the CPU is going down.
Shouldn't that depend on how long MS has known about the problem? What would you have posted as a./ comment if the story was, "MS just found out about the problem 15 hours ago, and doesn't know why the keys fail, but has promised a solution in two days." ?
Is there anything in the law that prevents me and my brother from collaborating to make a test case? For instance, I make a piece of software ("Hello, World!") with an unreasonable shrink-wrap EULA, then sue him (who's in cahoots with me) for breaching it. Can we more or less lead a judge to make a ruling on the issue?
My brother has Vista on his ThinkPad. Imagine how disappointed we were when iTMS couldn't properly play his purchased music. It turns out you need to run iTMS in an XP compatibility mode, and it takes a little digging to find that out.
So basically, when we think North Korea or Iran is about to launch a nuke, we have every commercial airliner in the region go in for a landing near the launch site. NOOOWWWW... we don't need a Missle Defense Shield. BRILLIANT!
The Open Graphics Project http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-gr aphics is an attempt to make an open-source-hardware graphics card, so that we don't have to wrestle with companies like nVidia (ok, Intel) or ATI (ok, AMD) to get decent open-source drivers.
The OGP cards use FPGAs, which is the technology that HP's work (hopefully) innovates. I wonder if this advance will make OGP's cards much more competitive with nVidia/ATI cards? Heck, maybe HP would even consider showcasing its technology using the OGP project.
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I don't face restrictions like this with OSS. The license terms of most OSS software are simple and not subject to tightening. I *never* have to ask myself if Alan Cox, Linus, etc. will mess with my datacenter plans by saying a future version of Linux may not run on a virtualized system.
Saying that "TV delays" drive piracy ignores the Australian citizens' free will in the matter. TV delays may whet their apatites to the point where the Aussies are willing to break the law, but the delays certainly don't force them to.
An alternate headline could have been: "Australians chose to break the law rather than patiently await delayed entertainment."
Can't any OSS vendor sue Microsoft for Slander of Title to force Balmer to "show us the code"?
Agreed. If he's smart, he'd get a patent, pronto, on chair throwing as a business method.
Doesn't Stephen J. Vaughan-Nichols know that the first rule of Pamela Jones is, "DON'T TALK ABOUT PAMELA JONES"???
OK, so now Stephen J. Vaughan-Nichols will get subpoenaed :)
But on a more serious note: Does anyone understand why SCO actually claims to have a need to talk to Pamela Jones? Do they *need* a pretense in order to subpoena someone for a civil case?
I think we're safe. Vista will never have the required drivers. ;)
I read somewhere that if you want to defeat this scheme, you just need to microwave the person for like, 2 minutes tops.
Yes, but at least in the RPM case, a regular unprivileged user cannot cause an untrusted program to run with kernel-level permissions. In Linux, that user would have to enter a privileged password (for sudo or root login). On Vista, a regular user who has no admin rights can choose to execute an installer program with kernel privileges.
Clippy?
"It looks like you're writing a five-page essay on the role of the Judicial branch during periods of famine in the late 1850's."
Does this permit the practical use of any truly breakthrough apps?
Does it suddenly make previously crappy technologies worthwhile? I.e., does image recognition or untrained speech recognition become a mainstream technology with this new processing power?
Holy crap, did M$ actually make a pledge to do only evil?
I get it. Things like clean air, habeus corpus, and logging-free federal forests aren't worthwhile. I was wondering why they were passing away...
I don't think this is true. 5+ years ago, I would have agreed. But now I'm content with the same computer for at least 4 years, maybe more. Maybe I've changed, maybe the market has:
Now that I'm married with kids, I don't have as much time for computer gaming any more. Realistically, Firefox, OpenOffice.org, YouTube, RealPlayer, getting images off the digital camera, etc. just don't need a hardware upgrade. The only piece of software that lots of people use and that taxes modern hardware is Vista, and Vista is on almost no one's "must have" list.
Another consequence of getting older and having kids is that you have more demanding things for your money: saving for retirement, college, mortgage, etc. So even on days when I'm jonesing for a new computer, I just learn to suck it up a little bit and accept the current one.
After 10+ years of playing the twitchy, graphics-intensive games like FPS's, I'm bored. The only games that keep my interest are things like Civilization and Astral Masters, which have fairly low-end requirements.
5+ years ago, there was a very discernible improvement in performance every two years. Now? Not so much unless you're using things like FPS games which really tax the computer. In fact, I'd probably say that as the years go by, the fraction of apps that people want to use and that really tax the CPU is going down.
Is there a legal distinction between the terms "intentionally" and "willfully", or were two equivalent terms just used used for the sake of emphasis?
"Shut up brain or I'll poke you again with a Q-tip!!!"
(H. J. Simpson)
The DMCA is finally being used for something constructive!
Now if I can only finagle patent law to somehow get me out of going to weddings in the first place...
It was posted somewhere that the lawsuit could potentially run through 2005, and I thought, "Holy crap, that's slow justice."
Is there anything in the law that prevents me and my brother from collaborating to make a test case? For instance, I make a piece of software ("Hello, World!") with an unreasonable shrink-wrap EULA, then sue him (who's in cahoots with me) for breaching it. Can we more or less lead a judge to make a ruling on the issue?
My brother has Vista on his ThinkPad. Imagine how disappointed we were when iTMS couldn't properly play his purchased music. It turns out you need to run iTMS in an XP compatibility mode, and it takes a little digging to find that out.
Nice.
Awesome! I can see it now. Popeye eating some spinach and tying an octopus' legs around three unshaven guys with eye patches. Brilliant!
Oh, wait... did the OP mean copyright infringement? Then why did the OP use a term that means armed taking of actual property?
So basically, when we think North Korea or Iran is about to launch a nuke, we have every commercial airliner in the region go in for a landing near the launch site. NOOOWWWW... we don't need a Missle Defense Shield. BRILLIANT!
The Open Graphics Project http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-gr aphics is an attempt to make an open-source-hardware graphics card, so that we don't have to wrestle with companies like nVidia (ok, Intel) or ATI (ok, AMD) to get decent open-source drivers.
The OGP cards use FPGAs, which is the technology that HP's work (hopefully) innovates. I wonder if this advance will make OGP's cards much more competitive with nVidia/ATI cards? Heck, maybe HP would even consider showcasing its technology using the OGP project.
I've seen some truly awful EULAs in my day. So far in this one I don't see anything shockingly bad. (See http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/2006/05/15_a 400.html#a400)
So granted, this software isn't free as in speech, but it's also nothing that makes me too worried about installing on my box.