If we are going to campaign, let's educate people in Hollings' state, and see if proponents like him still want to put forward crazy plans when it is clear that the net result is they will be voted out of office.
C'mon its not realistic to equate AOL to Microsoft for a moment. Microsoft for a while seemed a viable PC operating system monopoly. The DoJ's punishments won't really change this perception greatly, but the trial has shattered the perception of Microsoft as a business supplier and partner. This is good. These are locations where Linux and the BSD's are most heavily used. Ease of use doesn't matter in the back office of a skilled organisation. Numbers was never the Linux game. Let's not make it that. Its about what we want and what we use it for. The clueless masses can still pay through the nose for Windows, and sometimes for proprietary software, if they can live with the price (not dollars, flexibility and reusability and versatility mostly) Numbers shouldn't be game with the web either. Does it matter if most clueless newbies use AOL and Time Warner? Not really, I would say AOL is very early in the life cycle of a net user - they'll move on to a raw ISP as soon as/if they no longer need the handholding, and it to this audience that sites like Slashdot cater for. If AOL suffocates choice its main victim will be the quality of its own products - and inevitably itself. Newbies themselves will, eventually, be in decline, as the net works its way into our life, so that eventually AOLs hand-holding will be almost redundant. C'est la vie. The real battle is to create an artistic platform using Free Software. Artists crave free software - its the last link in the MP3 supply chain, or do you think they all buy that Windoze software - Cubase, plugins, synths etc??? They need an intuitive and configurable platform - they are hackers but not code hackers. So an artist might record and tweak a macro, but shy away from scripting it in PERL. Lets get them making stuff on free software, distributing it on free software, and testing it on the standards compliant viewers and browsers shipped with the free software distro. Then, free software will set the standards, instead of playing catch-up...
This has also happened in the UK also. Particularly during John Major's last term (before Tony Blair) when a series of bielections whittled away the Conservative majority.
One of the significant problems is that on domestic issues there is very little difference between the Conservatives and Labour in Britain who are both now essentially centre right parties,a s are our third party the Liberal democrats which leaves little scope for proper democratic process IMHO.
I think this proabbly relates to the post about lack of faith in politicians.
In related news, I ehre the Home Office in the UK wants to erode the right to trial by jury now, so don't start thinking all is well with our parliamentary process.
And of course under devolution it would seem we are moving towards PR politics.
Whilst its a while since I studied or read Shakespeare, I definitely remember that whilst Shakespeare wrote many original words, a huge slice of his stuff was been pretty much directly plagiarised. often wholesale scenes and longer sequences (but not entire plays).
This wasn't unusual for Renaissance writers. But then they didn't have the notion of copyright. The work was still original because as a whole it was new.
Today of course, it would have been considered a derivative of these source works and under copyright.
The GPL essentially confers the rights Shakespeare took for granted, whilst preventing direct plagiarism. But only, at the cost of destroying the replication of those same rights by any other route: we can't go back to the ways of the Renaissance (think of it as lost innocence).:-)
I think Eric may only want the source to be free, whereas he does not consider it so important that the source is available equally to anyone who wants it.
Or something like that. I can't quite put my finger on it, but that was the point of my post higher up.
BTW Bruce, what are you doing now since you left OSI? It would be nice to see LSB remodelling itself (or at least a part of it) along IETF lines I think, if you are still involved.
from http://www.amazing.com/internet/faq-6.0.html [The Old Internet Access FAQ - last updated on 22 September 1998 ]
'BSDI users are ferociously loyal to their system. Karl Denninger, probably the most successful provider on the Inet-Access mailing list, uses modified BSDI systems with, if my memory serves, 64MB of RAM and a 1.0GB hard disk on each. (Karl has not corrected my memory, and I'm sure he's seen a copy or two of this FAQ). Each one can service approximately 64 users when a terminal server is used. He has told the world that the system is very solid and technical support is superb - a rarity among operating systems, or any other software for that matter.
Source code license is $ 995.00; binary is $ 545. Once you buy either initial license, a license for each additional machine costs $ 250. Second-day Fedex shipping is included at these prices. I believe they are willing to negotiate a site license for very large numbers of machines. Karl Denninger will probably tell you you need the source; he's modified it extensively. In addition, Eric Raymond said, "Pay the $ 995. it's worth every penny", and Mark E Mallett says, "I agree with the support for the system." You can find out more about BSDI by mailing to info@bsdi.com. The ability to use a BSDI system as a router may make BSDI the system of choice for many providers; this could save you about $1,300 or more, depending on configuration. So you could buy a BSDI license for the money saved from the router alone. However, you should read our section on Routers below before making that decision. '
I Can't work out if this is controversial or not, or what it says about ESR and free software.
Yeah I agree. I developed last year a license that allowed a royalty to be charged only for commercial software developed off free software using said license. It was fairly complex to administer and I was going to slap it on the web/usenet/whatever for feedback... but it didn't meet the open source definition or debian free software guidelines.
In fact all the said organisations + FSF explicity forbid this sort of approach to free software.
Oddly, I'm starting to think that might be a good thing, and find myself agreeing more and more with RMS.
"I heard from a friend at a major bio company that they have a remedy for altsymus (definitely spelt wrong - too lazy to correct it). They haven't brought it to market because they want to develop an alternative treatment that needs to be taken monthly, instead of just once."
Now that just seems wrong.
This is in inverted commas because you got to realise that whilst I believe this statement to be true, no one, including me (because my friend works at this place) is going to substantiate this statement. So don't ask me to, though I'm sure you can believe it.
And yes, he has made my world - and many others - who appreciated his works - a better place.
Define "Better" (Long Post)
on
Wired on RMS
·
· Score: 1
Yeah Geoff I agree. I think that finding what better is, is a part of life.
Don't ask me to define better in a sentence. Its a lot of stuff. I'll try and shed some light on what I think in this post, but don't expect an answer.:-(
I like free software. I like music. I like art. I like the freedom to learn and better myself.
Hey Geoff. You can't elucidate better in a word, its something we all have to find.
And for most of us its different.
I guess one of the defining aspects of better is realising you can disagree with other people and learn from it.
That's something that most of the people in this forum haven't realised I think.
I like the GPL, it seems to incrementally encourage free software. I don't mind people choosing not to use it now - but I think one day they will because of the ever growing incremental benefits of doing so.
I believe Economics will kill proprietary software in time, that is why the suits are jumping on board.
I think the result will be a better world - economics based on openness. And this isn't communism, because we are still talking about competing. I guess my grandparents meant this when they talked about being a "gentleman" something most people don't do.
That is why I also find privacy important for example. Sure, I value transparency, honesty and something of my own morality (which you probably start to glean from this post) but I think you should have the choice whether to be transparent.
Why should the spooks snoop on communications just meant for friends and lovers? Especially when criminals will always use the strongest encryption, and with key escrow will just hide their encrypted communications in other files - like GIFS or MPEGs for example.
Mostly I want my kids to have the freedom to find what is right, and the chance to find a maturity and depth of thought that they value. This freedom needs a rich cultural background (art, music, film, theatre, literature, you name it) and the chance to paricipate and create themselves (and is this not what free software gives them).
And if this is what RMS is devoting his time - to a culture of sharing, and gift, but with the freedom to use or ignore it - I don't think anyone can slate him. I recently saw ESR speak in London, and I value his words, but he is telling it only one way. RMS's ideas are another, and I think I understand and respect both.
You said "opportunity for what?". That is the point, opportunity is not the opportunity without the choice, so I am not going to state here. I think they just need the opportunity to tread the path they should: a parents role is to lead by example, by giving pointers to the lessons they have learned, not by instruction.
Shakespeare was a genius, because he could illustrate the views of many convincingly. He knew they all had value of their own: that paradigms are just that. Equally, RMS and ESR both have their slant. Both matter. They keep us on their toes as someone said.
Now lets create some stuff goddammit.
BTW: I don't program C++ or anything hardcore. I design and consult for business on software or whatever they want. I do write PERL though (whoops I find PERL hardcore enough for me before anyone flames me with PERL is hardcore! - that's not what I mean), and hopefully if I'm allowed (work?) I'll put some cool stuff in public domain later this year. At least my current contract let me suggest how it will benefit them to do this.
Use the idle cycles of all government computers to crack everyone's encryption by using a "distributed" client or something. Then the criminals won't be able to opt out by ignoring the law like they already are.
Or just rely on traditional intelligence, which seems to work well enough most of the time.
Yes I'm shouting. People don't notice after loads of comments otherwise:-)
We all remember/those/ days.
Let's daub the web black again. Not against UK Escrow, not against US Escrow. But to remind people not to forget our privacy - that the legislative threats continue.
Maybe FSF and EFF could get together on this one, so that free software got a bit of publicity in the bargain.
Slashdot Mirror
If we are going to campaign, let's educate people in Hollings' state, and see if proponents like him still want to put forward crazy plans when it is clear that the net result is they will be voted out of office.
Strategy...
C'mon its not realistic to equate AOL to Microsoft for a moment. Microsoft for a while seemed a viable PC operating system monopoly. The DoJ's punishments won't really change this perception greatly, but the trial has shattered the perception of Microsoft as a business supplier and partner. This is good. These are locations where Linux and the BSD's are most heavily used. Ease of use doesn't matter in the back office of a skilled organisation. Numbers was never the Linux game. Let's not make it that. Its about what we want and what we use it for. The clueless masses can still pay through the nose for Windows, and sometimes for proprietary software, if they can live with the price (not dollars, flexibility and reusability and versatility mostly) Numbers shouldn't be game with the web either. Does it matter if most clueless newbies use AOL and Time Warner? Not really, I would say AOL is very early in the life cycle of a net user - they'll move on to a raw ISP as soon as/if they no longer need the handholding, and it to this audience that sites like Slashdot cater for. If AOL suffocates choice its main victim will be the quality of its own products - and inevitably itself. Newbies themselves will, eventually, be in decline, as the net works its way into our life, so that eventually AOLs hand-holding will be almost redundant. C'est la vie. The real battle is to create an artistic platform using Free Software. Artists crave free software - its the last link in the MP3 supply chain, or do you think they all buy that Windoze software - Cubase, plugins, synths etc??? They need an intuitive and configurable platform - they are hackers but not code hackers. So an artist might record and tweak a macro, but shy away from scripting it in PERL. Lets get them making stuff on free software, distributing it on free software, and testing it on the standards compliant viewers and browsers shipped with the free software distro. Then, free software will set the standards, instead of playing catch-up...
Particularly during John Major's last term (before Tony Blair) when a series of bielections whittled away the Conservative majority.
One of the significant problems is that on domestic issues there is very little difference between the Conservatives and Labour in Britain who are both now essentially centre right parties,a s are our third party the Liberal democrats which leaves little scope for proper democratic process IMHO.
I think this proabbly relates to the post about lack of faith in politicians.
In related news, I ehre the Home Office in the UK wants to erode the right to trial by jury now, so don't start thinking all is well with our parliamentary process.
And of course under devolution it would seem we are moving towards PR politics.
Left out the www bit in the URL
Please read my article on the future of artists and MP3 here. Cheers. Feeedback appreciated.
Please read my article on the future of artists and MP3 here. Cheers. Feeedback appreciated.
Whilst its a while since I studied or read Shakespeare, I definitely remember that whilst Shakespeare wrote many original words, a huge slice of his stuff was been pretty much directly plagiarised. often wholesale scenes and longer sequences (but not entire plays).
:-)
This wasn't unusual for Renaissance writers. But then they didn't have the notion of copyright. The work was still original because as a whole it was new.
Today of course, it would have been considered a derivative of these source works and under copyright.
The GPL essentially confers the rights Shakespeare took for granted, whilst preventing direct plagiarism. But only, at the cost of destroying the replication of those same rights by any other route: we can't go back to the ways of the Renaissance (think of it as lost innocence).
The question is
1)whether the US laws will impact any future trade you may do with the US.
1b) whether such trade is likely
2) Whether Austrian law further restricts your ability to trade with Iran, or adds punitive measures to the US regulations.
I suspect 2 is unlikely and 1 is likely and only you know the answer to 1b.
Check it out, I think they are prevented from using GPL for legal reasons (government, powers that be???).
In this case, handing MOSIX over to another team that can relicense it is the way forward.
I seem to remember reading an article about Sinclair's new PC plans a while ago.
Apparently its going to have a completely new processor design, definitely not x86.
I can't remember the details, but Linux and probably more importantly GCC certainly make this kind of innovation less of a remote possibility.
.. if only Wine didn't need an x86.
Maybe they are waiting for free software production tools to bring it within their reach.
Then many of them won't even need sponsors in this brave new world
:-)
And they are close
I think Eric may only want the source to be free, whereas he does not consider it so important that the source is available equally to anyone who wants it.
Or something like that. I can't quite put my finger on it, but that was the point of my post higher up.
BTW Bruce, what are you doing now since you left OSI? It would be nice to see LSB remodelling itself (or at least a part of it) along IETF lines I think, if you are still involved.
Has anyone proposed this idea?
Chris.
"incompletely understood"
But you aren't a geek bioresearcher working at one of the world's biotech/pharmaceutical conglomerates, doing biochemical research, I presume.
At a company where the full time staff (non-programmers) are paid $150+/hour.
And you would probably know what of their "intellectual property" companies are going to release when it doesn't suit commercial expediency.
Thanks. My spelling is normally pretty reasonable. I was just too lazy to look that up so I had to fudge it..
Refreshing to see Slashdot is crawling out of the flames again. Thankyou :-)
Refreshing to see Slashdot is crawling out of the mire. :-)
I've always had a thought about a physical reality replicator.
Is it too much Iain Banks?
And do you reckon one of those things would be able to replicate a lifeform (gulp)?
from http://www.amazing.com/internet/faq-6.0.html
[The Old Internet Access FAQ - last updated on 22 September 1998 ]
'BSDI users are ferociously loyal to their system. Karl Denninger, probably the most successful provider on the Inet-Access mailing list, uses modified BSDI systems with, if my memory serves, 64MB of RAM and a 1.0GB hard disk on each. (Karl has not corrected my memory, and I'm sure he's seen a copy or two of this FAQ). Each one can service approximately 64 users when a terminal server is used. He has told the world that the system is very solid and technical support is superb - a rarity among operating systems, or any other software for that matter.
Source code license is $ 995.00; binary is $ 545. Once you buy either initial license, a license for each additional machine costs $ 250. Second-day Fedex shipping is included at these prices. I believe they are willing to negotiate a site license for very large numbers of machines. Karl Denninger will probably tell you you need the source; he's modified it extensively. In addition, Eric Raymond said, "Pay the $ 995. it's worth every penny", and Mark E Mallett says, "I agree with the support for the system." You can find out more about BSDI by mailing to info@bsdi.com. The ability to use a BSDI system as a router may make BSDI the system of choice for many providers; this could save you about $1,300 or more, depending on configuration. So you could
buy a BSDI license for the money saved from the router alone. However, you should read our section on Routers below before making that decision. '
I Can't work out if this is controversial or not, or what it says about ESR and free software.
Regards.
Yeah I agree. I developed last year a license that allowed a royalty to be charged only for commercial software developed off free software using said license. It was fairly complex to administer and I was going to slap it on the web/usenet/whatever for feedback... but it didn't meet the open source definition or debian free software guidelines.
In fact all the said organisations + FSF explicity forbid this sort of approach to free software.
Oddly, I'm starting to think that might be a good thing, and find myself agreeing more and more with RMS.
"I heard from a friend at a major bio company that they have a remedy for altsymus (definitely spelt wrong - too lazy to correct it). They haven't brought it to market because they want to develop an alternative treatment that needs to be taken monthly, instead of just once."
Now that just seems wrong.
This is in inverted commas because you got to realise that whilst I believe this statement to be true, no one, including me (because my friend works at this place) is going to substantiate this statement. So don't ask me to, though I'm sure you can believe it.
I believe it to be true.
Hmm. Perhaps documentation with that other write only language is the answer?
He will indeed be missed. What else can be said.
And yes, he has made my world - and many others - who appreciated his works - a better place.
Yeah Geoff I agree. I think that finding what better is, is a part of life.
:-(
Don't ask me to define better in a sentence. Its a lot of stuff. I'll try and shed some light on what I think in this post, but don't expect an answer.
I like free software.
I like music.
I like art.
I like the freedom to learn and better myself.
Hey Geoff. You can't elucidate better in a word, its something we all have to find.
And for most of us its different.
I guess one of the defining aspects of better is realising you can disagree with other people and learn from it.
That's something that most of the people in this forum haven't realised I think.
I like the GPL, it seems to incrementally encourage free software. I don't mind people choosing not to use it now - but I think one day they will because of the ever growing incremental benefits of doing so.
I believe Economics will kill proprietary software in time, that is why the suits are jumping on board.
I think the result will be a better world - economics based on openness. And this isn't communism, because we are still talking about competing. I guess my grandparents meant this when they talked about being a "gentleman" something most people don't do.
That is why I also find privacy important for example. Sure, I value transparency, honesty and something of my own morality (which you probably start to glean from this post) but I think you should have the choice whether to be transparent.
Why should the spooks snoop on communications just meant for friends and lovers? Especially when criminals will always use the strongest encryption, and with key escrow will just hide their encrypted communications in other files - like GIFS or MPEGs for example.
Mostly I want my kids to have the freedom to find what is right, and the chance to find a maturity and depth of thought that they value. This freedom needs a rich cultural background (art, music, film, theatre, literature, you name it) and the chance to paricipate and create themselves (and is this not what free software gives them).
And if this is what RMS is devoting his time - to a culture of sharing, and gift, but with the freedom to use or ignore it - I don't think anyone can slate him. I recently saw ESR speak in London, and I value his words, but he is telling it only one way. RMS's ideas are another, and I think I understand and respect both.
You said "opportunity for what?". That is the point, opportunity is not the opportunity without the choice, so I am not going to state here. I think they just need the opportunity to tread the path they should: a parents role is to lead by example, by giving pointers to the lessons they have learned, not by instruction.
Shakespeare was a genius, because he could illustrate the views of many convincingly. He knew they all had value of their own: that paradigms are just that. Equally, RMS and ESR both have their slant. Both matter. They keep us on their toes as someone said.
Now lets create some stuff goddammit.
BTW: I don't program C++ or anything hardcore. I design and consult for business on software or whatever they want. I do write PERL though (whoops I find PERL hardcore enough for me before anyone flames me with PERL is hardcore! - that's not what I mean), and hopefully if I'm allowed (work?) I'll put some cool stuff in public domain later this year. At least my current contract let me suggest how it will benefit them to do this.
The Graphics wasn't in the kernel to start with because most video drivers are written by the manufacturer not MS.
Then they realised that NT is useless if video doesn't work 95% of the time, so they moved it to the Kernel to eke out a little bit more speed.
Chris.
Use the idle cycles of all government computers to crack everyone's encryption by using a "distributed" client or something. Then the criminals won't be able to opt out by ignoring the law like they already are.
Or just rely on traditional intelligence, which seems to work well enough most of the time.
Yes I'm shouting. People don't notice after loads of comments otherwise :-)
/those/ days.
We all remember
Let's daub the web black again. Not against UK Escrow, not against US Escrow. But to remind people not to forget our privacy - that the legislative threats continue.
Maybe FSF and EFF could get together on this one, so that free software got a bit of publicity in the bargain.
Or maybe someone else has an idea.