while not going after companies that use pirated software
You're kidding, right? The BSA activelygoes after companies that use pirated software. Canada has CAAST who is alsoactively pursuing companies that use pirates software.
So where did you dig up the fact that the software industry is only going after college students and not companies again?
I agree with most of what you said. However, the OSS DB's don't offer higher end options such as clustering, distributed transactions, etc... While there are companies that really don't need clustering and simple data redundancy, a much larger actually do for disaster recovery, failover, etc.. Add in the cheaper cost of finding (and likely employing) an MS SQL Server expert over a PostgreSQL expert, and companies with vast data farms probably save money over the long haul going with a SQL Server or Oracle.
Other than the obvious mySQL and PostgreSQL, I have tried two others... CA's Ingres and IBM's Cloudscape (which is an embedded DB).
Ingres was originally intended to compete with the likes of Oracle and MS SQL Server, but never had the power or client base. OpenSourcing Ingres looks like CA's attempt to beef up both in one shot. It's not a GPL license, just a chance to peek at the source and maybe help out. The interface that ships is very much like Oracle's.
Cloudscape is nice, but not even as powerful as PostgreSQL.
I think there is a huge market still untapped for open source DB's... especially RDBMS, but alas, large companies are (of course) slow to adopt.
Strange. I just painted with a brush with a width of 100, and had no problems whatsoever. I'm on a 2.8GHz box with 512MB of DDR. All the while I'm running SQL Server 2000 and IIS as well.
I'm a programmer too, and there are two ways I make a living. One (sadly) is I work for a municipality on salary. The other is I have my own (small) company. I used to try to package and sell products with licenses, but found it way too difficult to enforce the licenses. Because of that model, I was left with two choices, quit, or change the model. I now work for a rate, and the client owns the source. It's much more expensive for them, but too many losers that tried to circumvent licensing caused that.
Not true. Their modus operandi is based on the number of units sold. For each person that wanted a copy of the cd/dvd, that's one unit in public hands that no money was recieved for. They may not know about the transaction, but each copy is a hit to the pocketbook of the label and, eventually the artist and songwriter.
Why don't you try to make a living off of something that can be "copied" but not "stolen" and see how your revenue flows...
Specifically, I was thinking of the squallor that the typical Soviet living conditions. Or maybe the conditions of Cuban nationals, or perhaps the average Chinese citizen.
Back to the Soviets specifically, the reason for the fear of the "communist boogie man" was that the USSR seemed hell bent on taking over any country it touched through military force (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, etc...) or political puppetry (China, Korea, Cuba). That would pose a threat to national security eventually. Hence, the fear of the "communist boogie man."
The problem with that description is you're leaving out the person who loses in the deal... the songwriter (and the label who produced it). Your comparison describes what happens when Joe Neighbor lets Bob Theotherneighbor copy his cd. Joe loses nothing, and still has his original copy when it's all said and done. However, the record label just "gave away" a copy of a cd, which is not what they're in business to do. What Bob has done, essentially, was to "steal", not copy, that cd from the record label, and "steal", not copy, the songwriters revenue from that lost sale.
You can argue all you want that Bob would never have purchased a copy of that cd from the store, but then again, he never would have attained a copy of the cd himself either, if not for his underhanded neighbor.
That would never work in my line of work... programming. As a matter of fact, all I would like is some amount of time longer than 15 minutes to devote to even thinking about one (and only one) project.
Houston, after much debate, added a light rail. It really doesn't go anywhere useful (from downtown to the medical center.. doesn't relieve any commuter traffic) as far as eliminating traffic is concerned.
At the time it was being discussed, I and many other people suggested commuter rail, as the bulk of Houston traffic is found on the arteries that lead to suburbs. Alas, lightrail became real, and of course, the city (after spending over $2BB on it) is losing money on it.
Flashback in time, there was a rail track along I-10 heading west. For those who don't know, I-10, where it intersects I-610 west, is the second most congested intersection in the country. A commuter rail could have eliminted at least a portion of that traffic. Living north of Houston, I use a park-and-ride bus 4-5 times a week (sometimes I need my car during the day... not often). I think most people would use a commuter system a few times a week given a chance to.
But no... the rail was ripped up so they could expand the freeway. One additional free lane each way, and 4 lanes of tollroad in the middle. Why? Tollroads make quite a bit more money than rails do, plus the revenue from gasoline taxes, vehicle registrations, etc... would not drop.
The point of the novel above is to agree with your post. There was a greener, more efficient alternative, but the MTA (not elected members, by the way) spend large sums of money to make sure it didn't happen.
Erm... I'm not sure I understand your post. Are you suggesting that Best Buy and your phone company supply you with the service, and take a loss because their fees are higher than the markup on the price of the item/service?
At the very least it could be an attempt to find people that might be adept at pattern recognition. While pattern recognition isn't a key in moden cypher, it could be thought to aid it.
I've read that the MI6 used word solving problems in the newspaper to find recruits. There's really no reason at all to think this wouldn't be a similar attempt.
Canada != USA. While I know you realize that, I think it's important to remind folks who post laws from one country pertaining to the laws of another.
That being said, I have issue with the point of that Canadian law... the knowledge that you were being recorded diminished a citizen's ability to enjoy the public space.
As is with the freedom of speech (not freedom from speech), we have public areas, but there is no constitutional provision requiring that people are able to enjoy these public spaces.
For instance, I work in downtown Houston. I am constantly harassed by homeless people for change, surrounded by pigeons walking/standing in my way, noise pollution from buses and car alarms, and once in a while I don't care too much for the weather. My government is not responsible for changing any of these for me, but it would be nice if they did make some concessions in my favor. There are some people who could care less about any/all of the above, but might have issue with other elements of walking in public space downtown i.e. construction, trash, building design aesthetics, etc...
The only guarantee with regard to public space in the US is that you are free to travel through it. Often, stopping for more than 30 minutes can be construed as loitering, although that law isn't enforced much.
You nailed it. It's no different from someone using a handgun to kill someone, or a pair of scissors for that matter. It's the person controlling it that is doing the harm, not the tool itself.
The concern would be if, somewhere in the future, the US military tried to program these robots with AI to do the job automatically. Maybe it's just naivety, but I don't ever see that happening.
don't you worry that your work will be used in some future war that you don't approve of?
I did a project some time ago for (I can say it now) Northrup Grumman... maker of war ships, submarines, etc... When posed with the same question a few times, my response was "Hey, if someone can alter my web based reporting tool for evil purposes, they deserve to do whatever they want."
Well put. Having worked for Verizon, I can say I'm sorry they benefit from this. However, we live in a capitalist nation, and this is the way government should run... hands off.
Not just hobbyists, but authors as well. Many a book is published before or right around the ship date of the actual product, and those first releases are all based on the beta version(s).
Slashdot Mirror
while not going after companies that use pirated software
You're kidding, right? The BSA actively goes after companies that use pirated software. Canada has CAAST who is also actively pursuing companies that use pirates software.
So where did you dig up the fact that the software industry is only going after college students and not companies again?
Thanks! I'll check that out when I get home today.
There are still ISAM DB's out there in use, as well as the new Object Oriented Database.
Well, in that case, he's dead on.
Yes, and yes. It's very handy for embedded apps, and is open source.
I agree with most of what you said. However, the OSS DB's don't offer higher end options such as clustering, distributed transactions, etc... While there are companies that really don't need clustering and simple data redundancy, a much larger actually do for disaster recovery, failover, etc.. Add in the cheaper cost of finding (and likely employing) an MS SQL Server expert over a PostgreSQL expert, and companies with vast data farms probably save money over the long haul going with a SQL Server or Oracle.
Other than the obvious mySQL and PostgreSQL, I have tried two others... CA's Ingres and IBM's Cloudscape (which is an embedded DB).
Ingres was originally intended to compete with the likes of Oracle and MS SQL Server, but never had the power or client base. OpenSourcing Ingres looks like CA's attempt to beef up both in one shot. It's not a GPL license, just a chance to peek at the source and maybe help out. The interface that ships is very much like Oracle's.
Cloudscape is nice, but not even as powerful as PostgreSQL.
I think there is a huge market still untapped for open source DB's... especially RDBMS, but alas, large companies are (of course) slow to adopt.
Strange. I just painted with a brush with a width of 100, and had no problems whatsoever. I'm on a 2.8GHz box with 512MB of DDR. All the while I'm running SQL Server 2000 and IIS as well.
I'm a programmer too, and there are two ways I make a living. One (sadly) is I work for a municipality on salary. The other is I have my own (small) company. I used to try to package and sell products with licenses, but found it way too difficult to enforce the licenses. Because of that model, I was left with two choices, quit, or change the model. I now work for a rate, and the client owns the source. It's much more expensive for them, but too many losers that tried to circumvent licensing caused that.
Not true. Their modus operandi is based on the number of units sold. For each person that wanted a copy of the cd/dvd, that's one unit in public hands that no money was recieved for. They may not know about the transaction, but each copy is a hit to the pocketbook of the label and, eventually the artist and songwriter.
Why don't you try to make a living off of something that can be "copied" but not "stolen" and see how your revenue flows...
Specifically, I was thinking of the squallor that the typical Soviet living conditions. Or maybe the conditions of Cuban nationals, or perhaps the average Chinese citizen.
Back to the Soviets specifically, the reason for the fear of the "communist boogie man" was that the USSR seemed hell bent on taking over any country it touched through military force (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, etc...) or political puppetry (China, Korea, Cuba). That would pose a threat to national security eventually. Hence, the fear of the "communist boogie man."
The problem with that description is you're leaving out the person who loses in the deal... the songwriter (and the label who produced it). Your comparison describes what happens when Joe Neighbor lets Bob Theotherneighbor copy his cd. Joe loses nothing, and still has his original copy when it's all said and done. However, the record label just "gave away" a copy of a cd, which is not what they're in business to do. What Bob has done, essentially, was to "steal", not copy, that cd from the record label, and "steal", not copy, the songwriters revenue from that lost sale.
You can argue all you want that Bob would never have purchased a copy of that cd from the store, but then again, he never would have attained a copy of the cd himself either, if not for his underhanded neighbor.
Person of the Week: Kofi Annan... http://www.time.com/time/pow/article/0,8599,165905 ,00.html
Even Adolf Hitler was Time Magazine's man of the year in 1938.
because he was scared of the communist boogieman
That's a funny way of describing the style of government that left millions of people destitute, even before its "fall."
That would never work in my line of work... programming. As a matter of fact, all I would like is some amount of time longer than 15 minutes to devote to even thinking about one (and only one) project.
After reading your comment, I had to post this...
Houston, after much debate, added a light rail. It really doesn't go anywhere useful (from downtown to the medical center.. doesn't relieve any commuter traffic) as far as eliminating traffic is concerned.
At the time it was being discussed, I and many other people suggested commuter rail, as the bulk of Houston traffic is found on the arteries that lead to suburbs. Alas, lightrail became real, and of course, the city (after spending over $2BB on it) is losing money on it.
Flashback in time, there was a rail track along I-10 heading west. For those who don't know, I-10, where it intersects I-610 west, is the second most congested intersection in the country. A commuter rail could have eliminted at least a portion of that traffic. Living north of Houston, I use a park-and-ride bus 4-5 times a week (sometimes I need my car during the day... not often). I think most people would use a commuter system a few times a week given a chance to.
But no... the rail was ripped up so they could expand the freeway. One additional free lane each way, and 4 lanes of tollroad in the middle. Why? Tollroads make quite a bit more money than rails do, plus the revenue from gasoline taxes, vehicle registrations, etc... would not drop.
The point of the novel above is to agree with your post. There was a greener, more efficient alternative, but the MTA (not elected members, by the way) spend large sums of money to make sure it didn't happen.
Erm... I'm not sure I understand your post. Are you suggesting that Best Buy and your phone company supply you with the service, and take a loss because their fees are higher than the markup on the price of the item/service?
At the very least it could be an attempt to find people that might be adept at pattern recognition. While pattern recognition isn't a key in moden cypher, it could be thought to aid it.
I've read that the MI6 used word solving problems in the newspaper to find recruits. There's really no reason at all to think this wouldn't be a similar attempt.
Canada != USA. While I know you realize that, I think it's important to remind folks who post laws from one country pertaining to the laws of another.
That being said, I have issue with the point of that Canadian law... the knowledge that you were being recorded diminished a citizen's ability to enjoy the public space.
As is with the freedom of speech (not freedom from speech), we have public areas, but there is no constitutional provision requiring that people are able to enjoy these public spaces.
For instance, I work in downtown Houston. I am constantly harassed by homeless people for change, surrounded by pigeons walking/standing in my way, noise pollution from buses and car alarms, and once in a while I don't care too much for the weather. My government is not responsible for changing any of these for me, but it would be nice if they did make some concessions in my favor. There are some people who could care less about any/all of the above, but might have issue with other elements of walking in public space downtown i.e. construction, trash, building design aesthetics, etc...
The only guarantee with regard to public space in the US is that you are free to travel through it. Often, stopping for more than 30 minutes can be construed as loitering, although that law isn't enforced much.
Ugh... every time someone want's to bash the US government, the $400 (actually the myth was $600) hammer comes up. It never happened. Never. Here's a link to an enlightening article. Please read it, and never again post information regarding expensive hammers.
You nailed it. It's no different from someone using a handgun to kill someone, or a pair of scissors for that matter. It's the person controlling it that is doing the harm, not the tool itself.
The concern would be if, somewhere in the future, the US military tried to program these robots with AI to do the job automatically. Maybe it's just naivety, but I don't ever see that happening.
don't you worry that your work will be used in some future war that you don't approve of?
I did a project some time ago for (I can say it now) Northrup Grumman... maker of war ships, submarines, etc... When posed with the same question a few times, my response was "Hey, if someone can alter my web based reporting tool for evil purposes, they deserve to do whatever they want."
Well put. Having worked for Verizon, I can say I'm sorry they benefit from this. However, we live in a capitalist nation, and this is the way government should run... hands off.
Your time has come... here it is.
Not just hobbyists, but authors as well. Many a book is published before or right around the ship date of the actual product, and those first releases are all based on the beta version(s).