What a bunch of cow manure...the specification for a POSIX compliant operating system existed long before Linux came on the scene - and is the basis of it.
The POSIX standard is an open standard that is the basis of many operating systems or parts of operating systems (in the case of Windoze). It was established to allow interoperability between systems that adhered to the standard.
This 'report' is nothing but slander and lies. Lawyers representing those individuals who were slandered should pin this so-called 'foundation' and its questionable 'fellows' to the wall.
That is what statistics (the mathematical discipline) will catch...anomalies will be factored out via calculations (something computers are quite capable of doing).
Just-in-time supply processes are more common nowadays: you have the store and the manufacturer connected via computer - and the manufacturer automatically knows when levels drop for a particular item - so they can make/ship more to replace the ones leaving the shelves at a variable rate, so shelves remained stocked.
This allows stores to keep less (or no) inventory in storerooms - allowing more retail space, and thus less costs accrewed for storage space.
I know Best Buy must use this model, because if it runs out on the shelves they generally don't have anything in storage as a backup.
Without the free flow of beer there would be no new inventions.
When this vaporware becomes reality, it will mark the dawn of a new Rennaisance - a bold new world where intergalactic keggers are the rule, rather than the exception...
You also have to understand that he is translating not only his language, but his cultural norms into the answers.
What sounds like arrogance to us, may be normal discourse where he is from. Perhaps why we sound so arrogant to people in the Middle East.
Some issues are intractible. However, we can civily agree to disagree and move on with a relationship based on those things we find in common, rather than vowing to kill each other because of religeous extremism - on both sides.
Okay...publish under your real name, Bill...(Gates)
There are no absolutes in this world other than death and taxes. On the one hand you hate the idea of religeon and government being melded together (as in most Islamic countries). On the other hand, you probably like the idea of loosening the rules against the seperation of church and state in our own country (I am assuming you are American - given the tone of your post, Mr. Anonymous (Bill)).
Sounds pretty hypicritical to me.
Ignorance only leads to superstition and blind zelotry. Education leads to understanding and tollerance. Which do you prefer? I prefer a Middle East that is prosperous, educated, and moderate, as opposed to poor, illiterate, and extremist.
You live on fear, Mr. Anonymous. Grow up. Zealotry under any religeon is destructive, and your post, sadly, illustrates this.
"This will compel the workers to face ruin or to abandon the support of the various US National efforts and costs."
This highlights the thought behind your last sentence: why are the baby boomers taking care of themselves at our expense (I am a borderline gen-X/boomer myself).
It really comes down to people choosing to think about themselves before they think about the future generations. My mission, on this planet, is to make the world better when I leave, than when I entered it. Our children must inherit the problems that we create - so we must stop creating problems, and start finding solutions, so they can enjoy the same benefits that the boomers 'demand' - they are no less deserving. I have two children of my own - one who will enter college in a few years; I am deeply concerned about this issue, and don't appreciate having the fruits of my labor stripped to support a bunch of fat cats who drove up the deficit, and polluted my world for their own selfish gain.
Who did the pioneers sue when they fell and broke their legs?
Don't get dependent on technology, take proper precautions when venturing into the wilderness, and finally, take responsibility for your own actions when you screw up.
I am sick of this litigious society. If you want to be perfectly safe, turn off all the electricity, remove all chemicals, and bar the doors and windows of your house - and stay put. Otherwise, take responsibility for your actions, and join the rest of us leading normal lives.
The report is a house of cards held up only by the reader's tacit agreement in the idea of a business's "intangible assets". If it is 'intangible', then how were the percentages in the first paragraph arrived at? Houdini couldn't have devised a better parlour trick. In reality this points to the over inflation of company values through questionable accounting practices, more than any so-called 'IP drain'.
More disturbingly, the article states that "Today, intellectual property is not just patents, copyrights and trademarks, it is processes, techniques, methodology and talent; described by many experts as intellectual capital". The implication here is that processes, techniques and methodology that is not patented, should somehow fall under protections. Even more disturbing is the lumping of 'talent' on top of that list; the last time I checked, 'talent' was 'owned' by each person - not by a business (I certainly didn't spend thousands of dollars going to college, not to mention years before and since developing my personal abilities outside of the workplace [i.e. 'talent'] to have businesses lay claim to that too! I take my talent with me, wherever I go).
The whole paper only serves to attack and devalue the contributions of the individual, while trumpeting a false 'crisis' brought on by the dual evils of outsourcing and open source development - the solution evidently the destruction of the open source movement and further protections against the 'IP' drain...
The reality is that globalization of the economy is happening, and nothing short of byzantine laws and misinformed policy will slow it down. Smart businesses will realize this and focus on what it takes to succeed in such an environment. Rich businesses with lawyers and money to burn will continue to lobby, and generate papers like this - because it is 'better' for them to maintain the status quo and cash those fat dividend checks (this could be applied to the MPAA as well). It seems the larger a company gets, the less in touch it becomes with common decency, common sense, and our real reason for being on this planet: to uplift our communities - rather than prey upon them.
I think it instructive to note that the Gates foundation was started well after the initiation of the Justice Department case. What was Bill doing with all that money until then, and why the change? I think that issue gets to the point - big business does not hold our best interests at heart. More importanty, the question becomes, "what are we going to do about it?"
Damn, and all this time I thought you just use it to open emacs and your terminal sessions.
As an aside, I wan't aware that Gnome had a 'registry' (a la Windoze?)...I always thought you could just edit flat files...another shock for my delicate constitution.
The hardware platform is irrelevant; if you can't access DRM secured content using anything other than Windows, then Microsoft wins. It is as simple as that.
Apple will probably have the wherewithall to pay Microsoft for liscensing the technology, but you are still indirectly paying Microsoft for the right to view material secured via DRM; but what about open source OSs who don't have the resources? If Janus becomes the defacto standard, then we are screwed - plain and simple.
Microsoft's latest DRM offering, 'Janus', is snakeoil. Everyone will end up buying it to solve their problems, and the vast majority of us will suffer as a result.
I am particularly worried about accessing copyrighted material for fair use...if an author otherwise wants you to use their work, but decides to use Janus to control distribution of 'one and only one' copy - then that author just denied access to everyone using open source OSs. Windows becomes the defacto standard - and Linux once again has another reason why its 'not ready for the desktop'.
Microsoft is a monopoly, and will continue to use that power to shut down the little guys.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I am sick of Bill Gates telling me (scratch that - forcing on me) that he knows what is best for me. The really infuriating thing about this is that it is unavoidable, and becoming more so with each passing rollout of Microsoft products; if I want to interact with my non-technical friends - either via sharing documents, playing popular online video games, or sharing music - it gets thrown in my face. I can't blame my friends - they don't have the technical savvy to manage a Linux machine - and are even more less inclined to be satisfied with the encircling noose that is Microsoft.
Perhaps when I get older, and only want to write my memoirs, it won't bother me as much.
/. is not about journalism and breaking stories. Its about/.'ers refining their ideas about these stories - coming to new insights (and as a result rehashing alot of previous drivel in the process).
For each diamond of insight gleaned from slashdot, there are many tons worth of bovine scatology spread.
That is the nature of the beast. Accept it, or not. Its your ulcer...
I thought the correct term was 'perp', as in perpetrator...a nice ambiguous term (to most people) that really means they believe you are guilty of something.
Also, looking into the future (maybe 5 years) - the 'Janus' project (Microsoft's bid to rule the DRM space) - you may not have a choice, if you want to view the vast majority of content on the web.
This is the most dangerous aspect of all of this - vendor lock-in. If Janus becomes the defacto DRM standard - it will hobble linux on the desktop, and could also deal a death blow to the linux server space, as businesses 'keep up with the Joneses' to maintain interoperability.
There is only two things that would ameliorate this problem:
1. Someone reverse engineers Janus to either bypass, or enable access to Janus resources under Linux.
2. The vast number of 'consumers' avoid companies that use Janus - thus putting pressure on the marketplace to avoid Janus.
Yes - you can build your own computer now and in the future. The only problem is, will you be able to access resources with it in the future? And I am not even talking about pay-per-view, this will also encompass copyrighted information that while the author may want to allow you 'fair use' of one copy - uses Janus to enforce the use of one and only one copy...without Janus you don't even get that. If Janus is widely accepted by authors, then 'fair use' in the context of a non-Janus linux machine will be lost.
My company won't let us telecommute. In fact, those who have been telecommuting as an experiment, have been notified that they will have office space made available within the next few years.
Here are the issues they give for nixing telecommuting:
1. The company wants to be able to find you when they need to (of course, the pager they force me to wear, and my cell phone don't count...)
2. The company doesn't want to have to equip your home office, and lose administrative control over your work machine (which is funny because they require me to VPN into the network - which I do using my linux box - outside of normal business hours when things break down...they aren't worrying about it then when they are begging me to fix the problem).
3. The productivity of the whole group will be improved due to being able to meet with your peers at the job (riiiight! I am most productive when I come in early or leave late, or VPN in - those hours when no one is here to interrupt me. Additionally, 99% of my business communication takes place via email and instant messaging. The rest of the so-called 'communication' is BS and gossip that drags productivity down).
It is really a matter of trust. Does your company trust you to do the right thing when you are out of their sight, or only when in the unblinking view of the security cameras?
This is precisely why everyone should go out and have their DNA sequenced, and subsequently patented, copyrighted, and whatever other protections are available under the law.
That way - we would have prior art on our side... lol
Slashdot Mirror
What a bunch of cow manure...the specification for a POSIX compliant operating system existed long before Linux came on the scene - and is the basis of it.
The POSIX standard is an open standard that is the basis of many operating systems or parts of operating systems (in the case of Windoze). It was established to allow interoperability between systems that adhered to the standard.
This 'report' is nothing but slander and lies. Lawyers representing those individuals who were slandered should pin this so-called 'foundation' and its questionable 'fellows' to the wall.
FUD...
That is what statistics (the mathematical discipline) will catch...anomalies will be factored out via calculations (something computers are quite capable of doing).
Just give me my Mr. Fusion and a power adapter cable, and I will be cooking with gas...
Just-in-time supply processes are more common nowadays: you have the store and the manufacturer connected via computer - and the manufacturer automatically knows when levels drop for a particular item - so they can make/ship more to replace the ones leaving the shelves at a variable rate, so shelves remained stocked.
This allows stores to keep less (or no) inventory in storerooms - allowing more retail space, and thus less costs accrewed for storage space.
I know Best Buy must use this model, because if it runs out on the shelves they generally don't have anything in storage as a backup.
Hopefully some of these people will grow up before becoming adults and taking on the responsibilities of life.
Sadly, the police intervened before they could do much damage. How do you protect someone from their own stupidity?
Without the free flow of beer there would be no new inventions.
When this vaporware becomes reality, it will mark the dawn of a new Rennaisance - a bold new world where intergalactic keggers are the rule, rather than the exception...
Long live the electric keg cooling blanket!
You also have to understand that he is translating not only his language, but his cultural norms into the answers.
What sounds like arrogance to us, may be normal discourse where he is from. Perhaps why we sound so arrogant to people in the Middle East.
Some issues are intractible. However, we can civily agree to disagree and move on with a relationship based on those things we find in common, rather than vowing to kill each other because of religeous extremism - on both sides.
Okay...publish under your real name, Bill...(Gates)
There are no absolutes in this world other than death and taxes. On the one hand you hate the idea of religeon and government being melded together (as in most Islamic countries). On the other hand, you probably like the idea of loosening the rules against the seperation of church and state in our own country (I am assuming you are American - given the tone of your post, Mr. Anonymous (Bill)).
Sounds pretty hypicritical to me.
Ignorance only leads to superstition and blind zelotry. Education leads to understanding and tollerance. Which do you prefer? I prefer a Middle East that is prosperous, educated, and moderate, as opposed to poor, illiterate, and extremist.
You live on fear, Mr. Anonymous. Grow up. Zealotry under any religeon is destructive, and your post, sadly, illustrates this.
"This will compel the workers to face ruin or to abandon the support of the various US National efforts and costs."
This highlights the thought behind your last sentence: why are the baby boomers taking care of themselves at our expense (I am a borderline gen-X/boomer myself).
It really comes down to people choosing to think about themselves before they think about the future generations. My mission, on this planet, is to make the world better when I leave, than when I entered it. Our children must inherit the problems that we create - so we must stop creating problems, and start finding solutions, so they can enjoy the same benefits that the boomers 'demand' - they are no less deserving. I have two children of my own - one who will enter college in a few years; I am deeply concerned about this issue, and don't appreciate having the fruits of my labor stripped to support a bunch of fat cats who drove up the deficit, and polluted my world for their own selfish gain.
Who did the pioneers sue when they fell and broke their legs?
Don't get dependent on technology, take proper precautions when venturing into the wilderness, and finally, take responsibility for your own actions when you screw up.
I am sick of this litigious society. If you want to be perfectly safe, turn off all the electricity, remove all chemicals, and bar the doors and windows of your house - and stay put. Otherwise, take responsibility for your actions, and join the rest of us leading normal lives.
Sounds like you need some 'tough love'...
If the forms are filled out completely, you can be sure to get your patent approved:
Prior art? Who cares? We can make more money by charging for all these patents!
Let the parties work it out among themselves in court... (*sits back and counts patent fee monies*)
Like, what's the big deal? Like, why is a man writing in such a way as to sound like a valley girl? Like, gag me with a spoon!!
I don't blame you if you stop reading after the first 'Like'....I did.
The report is a house of cards held up only by the reader's tacit agreement in the idea of a business's "intangible assets". If it is 'intangible', then how were the percentages in the first paragraph arrived at? Houdini couldn't have devised a better parlour trick. In reality this points to the over inflation of company values through questionable accounting practices, more than any so-called 'IP drain'.
More disturbingly, the article states that "Today, intellectual property is not just patents, copyrights and trademarks, it is processes, techniques, methodology and talent; described by many experts as intellectual capital". The implication here is that processes, techniques and methodology that is not patented, should somehow fall under protections. Even more disturbing is the lumping of 'talent' on top of that list; the last time I checked, 'talent' was 'owned' by each person - not by a business (I certainly didn't spend thousands of dollars going to college, not to mention years before and since developing my personal abilities outside of the workplace [i.e. 'talent'] to have businesses lay claim to that too! I take my talent with me, wherever I go).
The whole paper only serves to attack and devalue the contributions of the individual, while trumpeting a false 'crisis' brought on by the dual evils of outsourcing and open source development - the solution evidently the destruction of the open source movement and further protections against the 'IP' drain...
The reality is that globalization of the economy is happening, and nothing short of byzantine laws and misinformed policy will slow it down. Smart businesses will realize this and focus on what it takes to succeed in such an environment. Rich businesses with lawyers and money to burn will continue to lobby, and generate papers like this - because it is 'better' for them to maintain the status quo and cash those fat dividend checks (this could be applied to the MPAA as well). It seems the larger a company gets, the less in touch it becomes with common decency, common sense, and our real reason for being on this planet: to uplift our communities - rather than prey upon them.
I think it instructive to note that the Gates foundation was started well after the initiation of the Justice Department case. What was Bill doing with all that money until then, and why the change? I think that issue gets to the point - big business does not hold our best interests at heart. More importanty, the question becomes, "what are we going to do about it?"
Damn, and all this time I thought you just use it to open emacs and your terminal sessions.
As an aside, I wan't aware that Gnome had a 'registry' (a la Windoze?)...I always thought you could just edit flat files...another shock for my delicate constitution.
I guess its time to get out those spoons and dust off my old kazoo...
The hardware platform is irrelevant; if you can't access DRM secured content using anything other than Windows, then Microsoft wins. It is as simple as that.
Apple will probably have the wherewithall to pay Microsoft for liscensing the technology, but you are still indirectly paying Microsoft for the right to view material secured via DRM; but what about open source OSs who don't have the resources? If Janus becomes the defacto standard, then we are screwed - plain and simple.
iminplaya - agree 100% with your analysis.
Microsoft's latest DRM offering, 'Janus', is snakeoil. Everyone will end up buying it to solve their problems, and the vast majority of us will suffer as a result.
I am particularly worried about accessing copyrighted material for fair use...if an author otherwise wants you to use their work, but decides to use Janus to control distribution of 'one and only one' copy - then that author just denied access to everyone using open source OSs. Windows becomes the defacto standard - and Linux once again has another reason why its 'not ready for the desktop'.
Microsoft is a monopoly, and will continue to use that power to shut down the little guys.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I am sick of Bill Gates telling me (scratch that - forcing on me) that he knows what is best for me. The really infuriating thing about this is that it is unavoidable, and becoming more so with each passing rollout of Microsoft products; if I want to interact with my non-technical friends - either via sharing documents, playing popular online video games, or sharing music - it gets thrown in my face. I can't blame my friends - they don't have the technical savvy to manage a Linux machine - and are even more less inclined to be satisfied with the encircling noose that is Microsoft.
Perhaps when I get older, and only want to write my memoirs, it won't bother me as much.
ummmm - 'Janus' anyone?
/. is not about journalism and breaking stories. Its about /.'ers refining their ideas about these stories - coming to new insights (and as a result rehashing alot of previous drivel in the process).
For each diamond of insight gleaned from slashdot, there are many tons worth of bovine scatology spread.
That is the nature of the beast. Accept it, or not. Its your ulcer...
I thought the correct term was 'perp', as in perpetrator...a nice ambiguous term (to most people) that really means they believe you are guilty of something.
Ummm - why couldn't you manually download the patch - and run it off your local machine?
Is the issue that the autoupdate site checks the key, or the setup application itself?
Also, looking into the future (maybe 5 years) - the 'Janus' project (Microsoft's bid to rule the DRM space) - you may not have a choice, if you want to view the vast majority of content on the web.
This is the most dangerous aspect of all of this - vendor lock-in. If Janus becomes the defacto DRM standard - it will hobble linux on the desktop, and could also deal a death blow to the linux server space, as businesses 'keep up with the Joneses' to maintain interoperability.
There is only two things that would ameliorate this problem:
1. Someone reverse engineers Janus to either bypass, or enable access to Janus resources under Linux.
2. The vast number of 'consumers' avoid companies that use Janus - thus putting pressure on the marketplace to avoid Janus.
Yes - you can build your own computer now and in the future. The only problem is, will you be able to access resources with it in the future? And I am not even talking about pay-per-view, this will also encompass copyrighted information that while the author may want to allow you 'fair use' of one copy - uses Janus to enforce the use of one and only one copy...without Janus you don't even get that. If Janus is widely accepted by authors, then 'fair use' in the context of a non-Janus linux machine will be lost.
My company won't let us telecommute. In fact, those who have been telecommuting as an experiment, have been notified that they will have office space made available within the next few years.
Here are the issues they give for nixing telecommuting:
1. The company wants to be able to find you when they need to (of course, the pager they force me to wear, and my cell phone don't count...)
2. The company doesn't want to have to equip your home office, and lose administrative control over your work machine (which is funny because they require me to VPN into the network - which I do using my linux box - outside of normal business hours when things break down...they aren't worrying about it then when they are begging me to fix the problem).
3. The productivity of the whole group will be improved due to being able to meet with your peers at the job (riiiight! I am most productive when I come in early or leave late, or VPN in - those hours when no one is here to interrupt me. Additionally, 99% of my business communication takes place via email and instant messaging. The rest of the so-called 'communication' is BS and gossip that drags productivity down).
It is really a matter of trust. Does your company trust you to do the right thing when you are out of their sight, or only when in the unblinking view of the security cameras?
This is precisely why everyone should go out and have their DNA sequenced, and subsequently patented, copyrighted, and whatever other protections are available under the law.
That way - we would have prior art on our side... lol
I think the subject says it all...^^^