So they take the open source code, and redistribute it as an executable only. Of course completely legal under the BSD license, but wouldn't a privacy nut wonder why they give away the application for free but not the source code?
Development of SchoolTool, an open source school administration system, is done in such a way.
The driving force behind it is the Shuttleworth Foundation, but they have hired different people and teams of people, for different parts of the project.
In my experience it's this kind of set up is quite common in the open source business world. The reason there is many of the companies aren't large enough to handle really large projects, but they are if they form networks.
The company I work for has benefited from this, by passing work we had no capacity for along to others and vice versa. I think this kind of thing will only work if you know and trust the other party, so it's worth investing in long term relationships with other companies, much more than getting it done as cheaply/quickly as possible.
AFAIK you *cannot* patent game mechanics in the US. So changing the name (to get rid of trademark issues.) and the rules slightly (to make sure no copyright is violated) should be enough...
At least not when you register for an account using Pymusique. It does not require you to click to agree to the EULA.
So in addition to getting the DRM free tracks, that the itunes store actually sells (which the itunes client then DRMs) you don't sign anything that would make this fair use illegal.
Of course Apple will be working very hard to block this client...
As far as security goes, I would risk saying that is is much harder to dabble in fingerprinting than other forms of identity theft. If credit cards could be swiped and then authenticated with a fingerprint scan, I think we would have much less trouble with theft in that area as the technology to duplicate fingerprints doesn't seem to be widely available (how many people do you know who can do it?).
In that case: have a look at the Rio Karma.
1. It's cheaper
2. It plays Ogg
3. It has a better screen resolution
4. It has cross platform support (a java client that uses an ethernet connection to download/upload music from/to it)
As I understood from your talk at Europython 2004, one of the goals for what since then has turned out to be Ubuntu, was a Python layer, that would allow novice programmers to easily script large parts of the OS. Is this already there, or is this planned for a future release?
Hmm, it looks nice, at least in theory, but I haven't gotten it to play anything yet. Every time I add my music directory, it slowly builds up to 100% CPU and then seems to crash. I have only 5000 or so files in that directory (and 3000 on another partition, but I haven't gotten the chance to try to add them yet.) That's not an absurd amount for a normal playlist to handle IMO.
Also it took me a while to see how to add a directory. You have to take te file-browser inside the directory to add it. Kind of counter intuitive.
Shame I can't get it to work, because it's a good idea. Especially if an Audioscrobbler plugin could be written. I'm kind of addicted to having my music listening stats at hand and being able to compare them with others.
Most of these problems are so easy, in fact, that we hardly even consider them to be problems at all. For example, multiplying two numbers together is a P problem: the solution can be found in polynomial time.
so stupid, that even if there was *any* news in the rest of the article, I'd question its veracity.
Multiplying two numbers together is a Linear problem. (Linear problems may be considered P, but noone who knew what he was talking about would use muliplication as an example of P.)
Not necessarily (from the MSDN Article):
"What does Internet Explorer consider a pop-up window?
Internet Explorer will attempt to block any window opened automatically from script, with the exception of createPopup(). Some common functions that are affected are window.open(), showModelessDialog(), showModalDialog(), and showHelp()."
(emphasis mine)
This actually had me in tears! So now you can't create new windows, except by using the non-standard IE-only Javascript method createPopup(), because apparently, Internet Explorer does not think that that creates a popup.
I haven't seen much Andromeda, but I can't say I'm surprised to see Mutant X cancelled. All it was, really, was a very cheap ripoff of the X-Men (Scientist provides place for young and confused mutants and together they fight crime.), and it didn't even seem to want to hide that fact. Good riddance.
If they only preyed on the intellectually challenged I'd have a big problem with it, as I don't think lack of intellegence should be a punishable offence, nor do I think being smart is in itself praiseworthy.
Luckily these schemes all take advantage of people's greed at least as much as their stupidity, and so mr. Sessions deserves all he got (or lost in this case.)
Slashdot Mirror
The coin is a Dutch euro, but Stani himself is Belgian, even though he currently lives in the Netherlands.
Ah indeed, my bad...
So they take the open source code, and redistribute it as an executable only. Of course completely legal under the BSD license, but wouldn't a privacy nut wonder why they give away the application for free but not the source code?
Development of SchoolTool, an open source school administration system, is done in such a way.
The driving force behind it is the Shuttleworth Foundation, but they have hired different people and teams of people, for different parts of the project.
In my experience it's this kind of set up is quite common in the open source business world. The reason there is many of the companies aren't large enough to handle really large projects, but they are if they form networks.
The company I work for has benefited from this, by passing work we had no capacity for along to others and vice versa. I think this kind of thing will only work if you know and trust the other party, so it's worth investing in long term relationships with other companies, much more than getting it done as cheaply/quickly as possible.
First question that I asked too. The answer is on their site under support:
...
s tallation__amp_Configurati.html# ...
question
Can the OQO model 01 run Linux?
answer
The OQO model 01 is a standard x86 PC and can run Linux. However, you will have to install and support it on your own.
OQO does not currently have any plans to offer a Linux-based product, nor does it provide technical support for a model 01 running Linux.
One recent reviewer has installed Linux, and you might find his writeup (10/13/04) helpful: http://www.handtops.com/show/news/55
Another handtops.com poster has published a through "tutorial" of a Linux install: http://www.handtops.com/forum/752/0//OQO_Linux_In
AFAIK you *cannot* patent game mechanics in the US. So changing the name (to get rid of trademark issues.) and the rules slightly (to make sure no copyright is violated) should be enough...
yeah, but if you never get to read that part, I'm not sure you can be said to have agreed to it...
At least not when you register for an account using Pymusique. It does not require you to click to agree to the EULA. So in addition to getting the DRM free tracks, that the itunes store actually sells (which the itunes client then DRMs) you don't sign anything that would make this fair use illegal. Of course Apple will be working very hard to block this client...
In that case: have a look at the Rio Karma. 1. It's cheaper 2. It plays Ogg 3. It has a better screen resolution 4. It has cross platform support (a java client that uses an ethernet connection to download/upload music from/to it)
As I understood from your talk at Europython 2004, one of the goals for what since then has turned out to be Ubuntu, was a Python layer, that would allow novice programmers to easily script large parts of the OS. Is this already there, or is this planned for a future release?
Hmm, it looks nice, at least in theory, but I haven't gotten it to play anything yet. Every time I add my music directory, it slowly builds up to 100% CPU and then seems to crash. I have only 5000 or so files in that directory (and 3000 on another partition, but I haven't gotten the chance to try to add them yet.) That's not an absurd amount for a normal playlist to handle IMO.
Also it took me a while to see how to add a directory. You have to take te file-browser inside the directory to add it. Kind of counter intuitive.
Shame I can't get it to work, because it's a good idea. Especially if an Audioscrobbler plugin could be written. I'm kind of addicted to having my music listening stats at hand and being able to compare them with others.
What, would you say, sets Ingres apart from existing (more or less) Open Source Database products like PostgreSQL and MySQL?
In other words, why should I, as an open source developer be interested in Ingres?
Not necessarily (from the MSDN Article): "What does Internet Explorer consider a pop-up window? Internet Explorer will attempt to block any window opened automatically from script, with the exception of createPopup(). Some common functions that are affected are window.open(), showModelessDialog(), showModalDialog(), and showHelp()." (emphasis mine) This actually had me in tears! So now you can't create new windows, except by using the non-standard IE-only Javascript method createPopup(), because apparently, Internet Explorer does not think that that creates a popup.
I haven't seen much Andromeda, but I can't say I'm surprised to see Mutant X cancelled. All it was, really, was a very cheap ripoff of the X-Men (Scientist provides place for young and confused mutants and together they fight crime.), and it didn't even seem to want to hide that fact. Good riddance.
If they only preyed on the intellectually challenged I'd have a big problem with it, as I don't think lack of intellegence should be a punishable offence, nor do I think being smart is in itself praiseworthy.
Luckily these schemes all take advantage of people's greed at least as much as their stupidity, and so mr. Sessions deserves all he got (or lost in this case.)
merry kweznuz