So, if SCO is right, we'll never know what code to remove from Linux?
That's like saying, "You have a bunch of my secret stuff at your house. You have to pay me to use it. What's my secret stuff? I can't tell you, but you still have to pay me, the courts said so."
For instance, if someone (say, Fyodor or Kevin Mitnick) hacked into your box and deleted all of your home video files, you could easily apply the *AA's mathematics and calculate your "loss of sales" into the quadrillions! Because after all, you were going to sell those home video files.
The concerns of the thousands of Americans whose livelihoods depend on intellectual property protection are not being fully debated or addressed
Tell that to people getting laid off because their jobs are going overseas. "We're doing this because intellectual property isn't properly protected."
I totally agree with you on the savings standpoint. Open Source software helps people develop software at lower overhead than with closed source. Especially when you get a software contract and have $0 capital to work with. Apparently I'm a threat to America's security because I'm using open source. LOCK ME UP!
Now I must go continue to set up this FreeBSD server sitting next to me.
By the way the article reads, and the attitude of a lot of non-geeks, it seems that everyone things that Open Source software cannot innovate. No innovations rise out of open source software. None, all Open Source software is a direct copy of Closed source and has only one intent of stealing sales of closed source software.
If you write software, or develop an algorithm, or whatever, and release it to the public without some sort of gain, then you are obviously a bad person. Imagine if a scientist worked very long and very hard on a cure for cancer, and found it. Then he released his findings to the world, with the stipulation that no one can profit off of it, not even the scientist himself. Pharmaceutical companies would be up in ARMS about this, and probably would form a lynch mob.
There are some people who just don't understand that some people do things for the betterment of everyone, not just the betterment of their bottom line.
The police keep a copy of all stops they make, in case it's needed to be used in court. No matter what kind of stop, I'd be foolhardy for them to just throw out tapes.
Imagine a routine traffic stop, where the person gets a warning. If the tape wasn't saved, the person stopped could come back and say all kinds of nasty stuff. The state wouldn't have any proof otherwise.
I recently had jury duty, and had the wonderful pleasure of sitting on a jury for a contested speeding ticket. They played the video twice.
Oh, I just re-read the 2nd sentence of the parent post. I think the parent meant "If you are then set loose, they won't keep recording as it serves no value." Never mind! I'll go back to work now.
SCO gave up their IP when they released their code GPL'd. If they read the GPL, they would have known this (assuming they read it). If they had not read it, then it's their own damn fault for giving up their IP
People are specualting that others will turn the Rule around, and make people believe that Linux is nothing but an IP thief, when those who are informed know better.
SCO's not getting their way, so they're going to try to do as much damage as possible before dying.
(Wizards First Rule - by Terry Goodkind. A fantasy novel, that has some subtle lessons)
Exactly. These guys are going to forego the nastygram and show up, guys in badges in tow, with a court order. The parent just lost their servers and data. Bye bye, hope it was worth it.
I think you started the first quesiton out backwards. We assume that other planets with the same properties of earth will support life.
Scientists are starting out the easy way: with what we know. We know that we exist because of carbon and water (and other things). So why not look for evidence of those two things elsewhere?
I'm sure scientists have the question, "What else can support life" burning in the back of their minds, but it would be more productive to search for properties that we know support life.
Aaah, educational PC's. I remember learning to type and program on apple IIe's. The setup was amazing, they were all networked to a macintosh which shared a printer.
I recently learned a consultant had convinced my school district to spend a lot of money moving to microsoft.net stuff. I thought, "that money could be well spent elsewhere - educators!" But I digress, I'm not a highly paid consultant.
Bitter? I share your sentiments. My girlfriend is looking for a teaching position, but there's no funding, wonder why (see above)....
Re:Swift, merciless, brutal death is required
on
Prince of Pop-ups
·
· Score: 1
That and stop by every few minutes and place a large billboard ad in his front yard.
I graduated about 6 months before the.com bubble popped. I had a job in a specialized sector of the computing world, but even they got hit, and I got cut.
Now I have a job, while interesting, pays just enough to cover the bills and allows me to eat. The work isn't easy, but I enjoy it immensely. Easy money in the computing, I'd like to see it.
To set yourself apart from others, you need to broaden your skill set. I wish I had taken some accounting classes in college, but German studies were just too darn interesting. Take some more classes that will give you more practical knowledge. Also, flaunt those undocumented skills. I have a degree in Computer Science, but I can do everything else too. My boss found that out, and it's saved him lots of money in consulting fees, because I can do networking and server stuff. He was looking for a programmer, and got a geek.
Ever since starting with the doom series, and moving up to Unreal Tournament, I've found that it's incredibly easy for me to visualize anything spatial. Like walking around a room in the dark, if I see it once, I can navigate it w/o serious injury. It's kinda neat actually.
But there was the time when I was having my wisdom teeth out, and while I was under, I was chasing a floating tooth through the warehouse level in quake 2 (q2dm8).
Aaaah, yes. I agree. I think the best time was when I was playing in the dark, with headphones, on a large screen TV. It was all quiet for a while, then one of those flaming flying skulls screamed and flew at me.
Think the opposite though, lets say you didn't withold, and tax time came around. "Hrmm, I owe $5000. Uh oh, my account only has $4000 in it, how'd that happen?" Suddenly the IRS hits you with crazy mad fees and interest.
The interest you gain by not withholding and saving, wouldn't be worth the potential hassle of comming up short at tax time.
As far as interest the IRS makes, it probably doesn't make any. The money's too busy funding the government and all its exploits to collect interest.
That's the main problem with RAID-only backup. When we build servers for our clients (small database servers) we always push RAID and tape backup, because of the "Server falls into a hole in the space-time continuum" factor. If the server does catch fire, fall over and sink into the swamp; you'll always have a tape of your data for the 4th server, the strongest server in the land.
For such a large backup solution, I think this system was probably a good idea. Is it the best? No, there never is a best backup plan, only good ones.
That and this one is just too fricking neat for words.
It's like this with a lot of government funding issues. Government provides funding to someone/something/somenation and the recipient heralds them as wonderful. The money comes in for a while, then goes away because the goverment has a change of ideas. Then the recipient is up in arms because of the lack of funds they've become accustomed to.
The govnernment spends a lot in foriegn aid. Being good samaritans, we help out the poor countries, and they're grateful. Soon they feel they are entitled to it, which is why we continue to pay so much in foriegn aid, because it would give us a political black eye if we quit.
The government controls what it does with tax money. Unless a law gets passed that says, "Give $x to y this year," there's no guarentee that you'll get government money. You MIGHT, but don't count on it.
I think it sucks that Open got their funding cut, and it's even worse they used the terrah'ism as an excuse.
Anyone can fall over backwards dodging bullets, it takes hollywood to make it look cool! I mean sitting in front of a computer posting on/. would look cool if hollywood did it.......
You raise a very interesting point. Recording. With the chip designed to be external, there is definitely the ability to have your memories recorded onto chips. Or even more interesting, have people upload their memories to a computer, to where you can download them and store them in your head.
This could be a boon for training. Imagine being able to pull down a file from the net, jacking into a usb port, and after a while, being able to speak chinese. Or have an intimate knowlege of physics. Wow.
On the other hand, it would make the term "knowledge transfer" more insidious. Law enforcement would love this. Suspicious spouses too. Having an interface like this would end the last private place in your existence: your own head.
But this is only just come out of it's conceptual stage. It'll be interesting to see where the technology takes it.
No, they are a good idea because if you make something new, and don't obtain a patent, it WILL bite you hard in the ass later.
Imagine this: You develop the HTMLDoohickey, but don't patent it, because you want it to be free. It's been around for a while, people are using it. Now another company develops and patents the HTMLThingiee, which functions a lot like your HTMLDoohickey. The other company sends you a bill for lots of royalty fees. "Wait a minute, your patent is invalid, I have prior art!" you say. Now you have to spend lots of money proving it in court, or settle with them. If you settle, not only will you be paying lots of royalties, but so will the users. Now users of HTMLDoohickey are pissed off because it's no longer free, and you no longer can claim you invented it. Or you can fight it in court, invalidate their patent, and file for bankruptcy because you spent all your money and more fighting it.
Switch situations. You patent HTMLDoohickey, but don't charge royalties for it. Lots of people are using it. HTMLThingee comes along, and starts harassing you, because they've filed for a patent on it. Now you can wave your patent in their face. If they still pursue it, any lawyer who has 3 brain cells will realize it's a losing battle, and you'll be left alone.
Patents can also be used to protect things you don't want a company to exploit. Since the USPTO is handing out patents to anyone who can pay the fees, it is often cheaper to patent, rather than fight.
Nothing is inherently bad or evil, it's all intent. Patents can be used for good, or evil, just like everything else in the world.
There's two ways patents can be used: as a sword, and as a shield.
IBM holds many interesting patents. One that caused a former employer of mine to take notice is one that covered anything that used templates to generate HTML files. This patent basically covers almost all WYSIWYG HTML creation tools (we were in the middle of creating one when it was issued). I haven't seen any breaking stories on how IBM is beating down small companies with it, and our company didn't get served a C&D order because of it.
It appears that IBM is using the patent as a shield, to protect themselves against another company saying, "I invented that, give me money." It will protect them from being the target of an infringement suit.
Other companies, such as BT, and Amazon, and others, are using their patents as a sword to exthort money out of companies. This is what I disagree with, because most often they target small companies first. They never seem to go after companies with resources, because they know their sword is not as sharp or strong as it could be.
I'm not patents as an idea, but patents of some tech innovations have been abused. The side-swinging patent, that guy will never try to enforce his patent, because it was for fun. But just like anything else, patents can be abused to the detriment of everyone.
Google's patent can be used in two ways. Let's see how they use it.
I think the biggest push that Amazon has for this is the "item" must be offered for sale. Check down in the claims section.
Seriously though, I agree with your stance on the USPTO. They either: a) Must have patent apps up the wazoo and suddenly are getting bonuses based on number of patents accepted, or b) have hired dolts. "Electronic discussion, oh like bulletin boards. Those have been around for... wait. About something for sale. That's new! *sound of approved stamp hitting paper*"
I wonder if it's possible to proactively challenge the validity of these patents. I wonder if it's worth it. (time/money wise).
Actually, from what I read, they've effectively made backup copies illegal.
From the law:
(a) CRIMINAL INFRINGEMENT- Any person who infringes a copyright willfully either--
(2) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000
Sure you can make backup copies of your software/music/copyrighted works, as long as it's not $1001+ worth over 3 months.
Did anyone see the little dot in the lower left hand corner of the above page? It's a link to some "eXTReMe Tracking" page. That page is labeled "Google Confesses". I wonder what that's all about...
Slashdot Mirror
So, if SCO is right, we'll never know what code to remove from Linux?
That's like saying, "You have a bunch of my secret stuff at your house. You have to pay me to use it. What's my secret stuff? I can't tell you, but you still have to pay me, the courts said so."
I guess we'll never know....
For instance, if someone (say, Fyodor or Kevin Mitnick) hacked into your box and deleted all of your home video files, you could easily apply the *AA's mathematics and calculate your "loss of sales" into the quadrillions! Because after all, you were going to sell those home video files.
The concerns of the thousands of Americans whose livelihoods depend on intellectual property protection are not being fully debated or addressed
Tell that to people getting laid off because their jobs are going overseas. "We're doing this because intellectual property isn't properly protected."
I totally agree with you on the savings standpoint. Open Source software helps people develop software at lower overhead than with closed source. Especially when you get a software contract and have $0 capital to work with. Apparently I'm a threat to America's security because I'm using open source. LOCK ME UP!
Now I must go continue to set up this FreeBSD server sitting next to me.
By the way the article reads, and the attitude of a lot of non-geeks, it seems that everyone things that Open Source software cannot innovate. No innovations rise out of open source software. None, all Open Source software is a direct copy of Closed source and has only one intent of stealing sales of closed source software.
If you write software, or develop an algorithm, or whatever, and release it to the public without some sort of gain, then you are obviously a bad person. Imagine if a scientist worked very long and very hard on a cure for cancer, and found it. Then he released his findings to the world, with the stipulation that no one can profit off of it, not even the scientist himself. Pharmaceutical companies would be up in ARMS about this, and probably would form a lynch mob.
There are some people who just don't understand that some people do things for the betterment of everyone, not just the betterment of their bottom line.
The police keep a copy of all stops they make, in case it's needed to be used in court. No matter what kind of stop, I'd be foolhardy for them to just throw out tapes.
Imagine a routine traffic stop, where the person gets a warning. If the tape wasn't saved, the person stopped could come back and say all kinds of nasty stuff. The state wouldn't have any proof otherwise.
I recently had jury duty, and had the wonderful pleasure of sitting on a jury for a contested speeding ticket. They played the video twice.
Oh, I just re-read the 2nd sentence of the parent post. I think the parent meant "If you are then set loose, they won't keep recording as it serves no value." Never mind!
I'll go back to work now.
People are stupid.
SCO gave up their IP when they released their code GPL'd. If they read the GPL, they would have known this (assuming they read it). If they had not read it, then it's their own damn fault for giving up their IP
People are specualting that others will turn the Rule around, and make people believe that Linux is nothing but an IP thief, when those who are informed know better.
SCO's not getting their way, so they're going to try to do as much damage as possible before dying.
(Wizards First Rule - by Terry Goodkind. A fantasy novel, that has some subtle lessons)
Exactly. These guys are going to forego the nastygram and show up, guys in badges in tow, with a court order. The parent just lost their servers and data. Bye bye, hope it was worth it.
I think you started the first quesiton out backwards. We assume that other planets with the same properties of earth will support life.
Scientists are starting out the easy way: with what we know. We know that we exist because of carbon and water (and other things). So why not look for evidence of those two things elsewhere?
I'm sure scientists have the question, "What else can support life" burning in the back of their minds, but it would be more productive to search for properties that we know support life.
Aaah, educational PC's. I remember learning to type and program on apple IIe's. The setup was amazing, they were all networked to a macintosh which shared a printer.
.net stuff. I thought, "that money could be well spent elsewhere - educators!" But I digress, I'm not a highly paid consultant.
I recently learned a consultant had convinced my school district to spend a lot of money moving to microsoft
Bitter? I share your sentiments. My girlfriend is looking for a teaching position, but there's no funding, wonder why (see above)....
That and stop by every few minutes and place a large billboard ad in his front yard.
I graduated about 6 months before the .com bubble popped. I had a job in a specialized sector of the computing world, but even they got hit, and I got cut.
Now I have a job, while interesting, pays just enough to cover the bills and allows me to eat. The work isn't easy, but I enjoy it immensely. Easy money in the computing, I'd like to see it.
To set yourself apart from others, you need to broaden your skill set. I wish I had taken some accounting classes in college, but German studies were just too darn interesting. Take some more classes that will give you more practical knowledge. Also, flaunt those undocumented skills. I have a degree in Computer Science, but I can do everything else too. My boss found that out, and it's saved him lots of money in consulting fees, because I can do networking and server stuff. He was looking for a programmer, and got a geek.
Remember, Work smarter, not harder!
Ever since starting with the doom series, and moving up to Unreal Tournament, I've found that it's incredibly easy for me to visualize anything spatial. Like walking around a room in the dark, if I see it once, I can navigate it w/o serious injury. It's kinda neat actually.
But there was the time when I was having my wisdom teeth out, and while I was under, I was chasing a floating tooth through the warehouse level in quake 2 (q2dm8).
Aaaah, yes. I agree. I think the best time was when I was playing in the dark, with headphones, on a large screen TV. It was all quiet for a while, then one of those flaming flying skulls screamed and flew at me.
Mmm, warm.... heh.
Think the opposite though, lets say you didn't withold, and tax time came around. "Hrmm, I owe $5000. Uh oh, my account only has $4000 in it, how'd that happen?" Suddenly the IRS hits you with crazy mad fees and interest.
The interest you gain by not withholding and saving, wouldn't be worth the potential hassle of comming up short at tax time.
As far as interest the IRS makes, it probably doesn't make any. The money's too busy funding the government and all its exploits to collect interest.
That's the main problem with RAID-only backup. When we build servers for our clients (small database servers) we always push RAID and tape backup, because of the "Server falls into a hole in the space-time continuum" factor. If the server does catch fire, fall over and sink into the swamp; you'll always have a tape of your data for the 4th server, the strongest server in the land.
For such a large backup solution, I think this system was probably a good idea. Is it the best? No, there never is a best backup plan, only good ones.
That and this one is just too fricking neat for words.
It's like this with a lot of government funding issues. Government provides funding to someone/something/somenation and the recipient heralds them as wonderful. The money comes in for a while, then goes away because the goverment has a change of ideas. Then the recipient is up in arms because of the lack of funds they've become accustomed to.
The govnernment spends a lot in foriegn aid. Being good samaritans, we help out the poor countries, and they're grateful. Soon they feel they are entitled to it, which is why we continue to pay so much in foriegn aid, because it would give us a political black eye if we quit.
The government controls what it does with tax money. Unless a law gets passed that says, "Give $x to y this year," there's no guarentee that you'll get government money. You MIGHT, but don't count on it.
I think it sucks that Open got their funding cut, and it's even worse they used the terrah'ism as an excuse.
Anyone can fall over backwards dodging bullets, it takes hollywood to make it look cool! I mean sitting in front of a computer posting on /. would look cool if hollywood did it. ... ...
Where's my agent?
You raise a very interesting point. Recording. With the chip designed to be external, there is definitely the ability to have your memories recorded onto chips. Or even more interesting, have people upload their memories to a computer, to where you can download them and store them in your head.
This could be a boon for training. Imagine being able to pull down a file from the net, jacking into a usb port, and after a while, being able to speak chinese. Or have an intimate knowlege of physics. Wow.
On the other hand, it would make the term "knowledge transfer" more insidious. Law enforcement would love this. Suspicious spouses too. Having an interface like this would end the last private place in your existence: your own head.
But this is only just come out of it's conceptual stage. It'll be interesting to see where the technology takes it.
No, they are a good idea because if you make something new, and don't obtain a patent, it WILL bite you hard in the ass later.
Imagine this: You develop the HTMLDoohickey, but don't patent it, because you want it to be free. It's been around for a while, people are using it. Now another company develops and patents the HTMLThingiee, which functions a lot like your HTMLDoohickey. The other company sends you a bill for lots of royalty fees. "Wait a minute, your patent is invalid, I have prior art!" you say. Now you have to spend lots of money proving it in court, or settle with them. If you settle, not only will you be paying lots of royalties, but so will the users. Now users of HTMLDoohickey are pissed off because it's no longer free, and you no longer can claim you invented it. Or you can fight it in court, invalidate their patent, and file for bankruptcy because you spent all your money and more fighting it.
Switch situations. You patent HTMLDoohickey, but don't charge royalties for it. Lots of people are using it. HTMLThingee comes along, and starts harassing you, because they've filed for a patent on it. Now you can wave your patent in their face. If they still pursue it, any lawyer who has 3 brain cells will realize it's a losing battle, and you'll be left alone.
Patents can also be used to protect things you don't want a company to exploit. Since the USPTO is handing out patents to anyone who can pay the fees, it is often cheaper to patent, rather than fight.
Nothing is inherently bad or evil, it's all intent. Patents can be used for good, or evil, just like everything else in the world.
There's two ways patents can be used: as a sword, and as a shield.
IBM holds many interesting patents. One that caused a former employer of mine to take notice is one that covered anything that used templates to generate HTML files. This patent basically covers almost all WYSIWYG HTML creation tools (we were in the middle of creating one when it was issued). I haven't seen any breaking stories on how IBM is beating down small companies with it, and our company didn't get served a C&D order because of it.
It appears that IBM is using the patent as a shield, to protect themselves against another company saying, "I invented that, give me money." It will protect them from being the target of an infringement suit.
Other companies, such as BT, and Amazon, and others, are using their patents as a sword to exthort money out of companies. This is what I disagree with, because most often they target small companies first. They never seem to go after companies with resources, because they know their sword is not as sharp or strong as it could be.
I'm not patents as an idea, but patents of some tech innovations have been abused. The side-swinging patent, that guy will never try to enforce his patent, because it was for fun. But just like anything else, patents can be abused to the detriment of everyone.
Google's patent can be used in two ways. Let's see how they use it.
I think the biggest push that Amazon has for this is the "item" must be offered for sale. Check down in the claims section.
Seriously though, I agree with your stance on the USPTO. They either: a) Must have patent apps up the wazoo and suddenly are getting bonuses based on number of patents accepted, or b) have hired dolts. "Electronic discussion, oh like bulletin boards. Those have been around for... wait. About something for sale. That's new! *sound of approved stamp hitting paper*"
I wonder if it's possible to proactively challenge the validity of these patents. I wonder if it's worth it. (time/money wise).
Actually, from what I read, they've effectively made backup copies illegal.
From the law:
(a) CRIMINAL INFRINGEMENT- Any person who infringes a copyright willfully either--
(2) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000
Sure you can make backup copies of your software/music/copyrighted works, as long as it's not $1001+ worth over 3 months.
Did anyone see the little dot in the lower left hand corner of the above page? It's a link to some "eXTReMe Tracking" page. That page is labeled "Google Confesses". I wonder what that's all about...