After giving SCO information, the informant would just be issued a summons to appear in a civil proceeding, alleging that he infringed upon SCO's intellectual property.
SCO will claim that they used "information" when putting out the request for information, and therefore hold the copyright on "information." Since the guy gave them "information", he's guilty of copyright infringement.
Microsoft will step in and patent "information" and claim that they were using it long before SCO was.
The open source community will get pissed and say that information is public domain and freely available to everyone. The government will disagree and say that it controls all information.
Then, a creature will destroy the Spirit rover and the discovery of life on Mars will make everyone forget about information altogether.
I formed a software company, and through lies and deception (among hard work and sweat) built it up to a corporate powerhouse at the forefront of American capitalism.
The company has only recently produced a workable operating system, but its other products are full of security holes and OS-compromising exploits.
I give a few hundred thousand to charities here and there just to keep critics off my back. It's a tax write-off anyway; could THAT be why I'm doing it? To offset my taxes? NAH!
Recently, we were approached by an army recruiter asking us if we had spare computers, network hardware, and space we would be willing to "donate" for free to him. He wanted to attract kids to the army by setting up a free network gaming environment.
While the game might be fun, this is quite frankly evil. The army recruiter was, in fact, under orders "from above" to find a place and acquire free equipment and time in order to use the game to attract otherwise uninterested people to the army.
My viewpoint is simple; if you want to join the military, join it. If you don't want to join, there's probably a reason for that. You don't want to die, you don't like being told to do things you don't agree with, you don't like being yelled at and fed crap... any number of reasons. Using a game to make it look glamorous is just another way of lying to kids in order to get them to join the military under false pretenses. This is nothing new; don't get me wrong. It's just slimy.
I worked for a fortune-100 company as a UNIX admin/general systems geek.
We noticed that one of the filesystems that held the log files for an Oracle Application Server (two machines, shared storage) was filling up.
At this company, the security wannabees gave no one root access, but gave sudo privs to all UNIX admins. No big deal, huh? Well, they gave permission to everything in/usr/bin and/usr/sbin, save su to the admins. You can do things like 'sudo chown' and 'sudo rm'. Psssht.
Anyhow, my boss asked me to clear out the rotated logs in an attempt to free up some space.
I logged on to one of the two boxes and went to the directory in question. I typed "rm *.*"... Permission denied. Bummer. I guess I'll have to use sudo.
I typed in 'sudo chown [myid].' and then the previous command. After some time, I got my prompt back. I did a quick 'df -k.' to check my work and noticed that the filesystem was WELL within acceptable limits. I was so pleased with myself (and shocked by the tens of gigs of rotated logs) that I went to tell my boss that it was taken care of and to state my amazement at the amount of space that was being taken up.
I got my 'attaboy' and continued working.
After about an hour, we went to lunch (boss went to lunch with me almost daily.) He gets a call on his cell from the PHB (although, to be fair, 'balding head boss' would be more appropriate.) He said that the OAS cluster for the largest app we supported was down.
After about 30 minutes of investigation and head-scratching on the part of my teammates still at the office, my boss got another call. One of my teammates asked him "who is [my id here]?"
My boss asked me if I knew, and my heart nearly exploded. I told him it was me.
I didn't even think to mention the change I made as a possible cause because so much crap happened every day that I forgot about one project about 5 minutes after completing it. I always fess up immediately when I make a mistake, so my boss knew I wasn't trying to hide anything...
Apparently, the server crashed when it had to rotate the log file (too large) and couldn't write to the directory. It wouldn't come back up again (with a completely non-descript error message, of course) after the crash for the same reason.
I'd left the directory permissions set to my user id. D'oh!
What makes this funny (in that sick kinda way) is that this app server crashed constantly, and the higher-ups tried to make themselves look good by being concerned (even though no business loss was actually incurred.) They always wanted a root cause analysis for every crash, and they were all the same - "unknown. vendor support not available because software is past end of life."
The higher-up jumped on this opportunity to make a freaking "oh my God, this guy is so dangerous" case out of it because it gave him something concrete to go to his higher-ups with, after so much "idunno" action.
I was given a written warning (my boss was forced to do so.) He smiled and laughed with me over the stupidity of it.
Not the issue. If some idiot non-techie purchases it, they don't do so with the understanding they're going to have to crack it open and fiddle with it themselves (that, or send it to the manufacturer for a repair, at a preemium to themself). Society (and the legal system) is geared towards the lowest common denominator (the least intelligent/capable), not the creame of the crop, so to speak. You really have issues with anger, man. Chill.
It's a freakin' $600 audio player, not some $20 cheapie-ass CD player. I don't HAVE to keep my smart-'mass' to myself. I have the right to speak in this forum as much as you do, and you have the right to disagree with me. We disagree. Big deal. You really shouldn't let it bother you so much.
How are you supposed to know about the shortcomings in the design if you haven't purchased the product already, and if it hasn't been on the market long enough for you to hear stories from other users?
There's a reason that trials by jury are done with a jury of one's peers. It's because not everyone in the world is as smart as you and I. People are idiots. That doesn't mean that companies have the right to take advantage of them. I'm hardly going to say I blame Apple (stupidity is the largest profit point), but when the consumers are smart or pissed enough to take a stand, Apple will ultimately have to answer for their decisions.
As the proud owner of a Dell laptop, I can assure the entire Slashdot readership that it requires a degree in mechanical engineering and computer science to slide that ergonomic, triangular-shaped "release" level 3mm to the right in order to remove the battery. It requires the strength of ten people to insert the new one into the slot that became available from the process akin to brain surgery by which the first under-performing battery was removed.
Okay.. warranty issues aside.. forget it, warranty is key here.
A warranty is a guarantee from a manufacturer that their product will function properly for a certain period of time, and if it does not, it will be replaced (repaired, etc) free of charge.
If the warranty expires and things start to go wrong, that's a sign that the company didn't produce a decent product. That's not a consideration here.
The problem lies in the understanding that when you purchase a product, it's supposed to work. If a company produces faulty products and sells them, then refuses to refund the money of consumers who fell victim to the crappy product, they're seen as (and are) a predatory company. The government will step in and punish them for taking advantage of consumers. At very least, people will learn of the issues and no one new will buy the product.
What the consumers in this case are concerned about is the fact that they spent a LOT of money (not just a $50 piece of electronic gadgetry), and that product has become worthless in a short amount of time. That money is wasted unless they keep pumping money into that product to fix the problem (again and again).
The consumers want Apple punished for a.) taking advantage of them and failing to rectify the problem once and for all) and b.) selling a product that is proprietary in nature that becomes too expensive to use or worthless.
If a customer of some other product (say, a regular MP3 player) become dissatisfied with the product they bought, they can simply purchase a competitor's product. You can't do that with an iPod. The music you purchased isn't transferrable to another product. Apple has locked consumers in to their product, which is faulty and prone to high maintenance costs, and is not taking steps to fix the issue.
There's nothing to say that this isn't part of Apple's business model for this product. Sell it, warranty it against defect for a year (which is the amount of time it takes to BECOME defective), and tell consumers that their product is no longer under warranty... but HEY.. we can sell you what you need to fix the problem.
The equivalent would be Microsoft selling Windows to consumers, offering updates for a year, and then forcing them to pay for updates after that.
Sure, from a legal standpoint, consumers understand that if they read the fine print, they have purchased a product that can only be guaranteed to function for a year. Beyond that, they're on their own. That's not the issue. The issue is whether or not that kind of practice is fair because it's prone to so much corruption.
I'm not even going to get into the issue of "selling" extended warranties. That's the biggest line of crap and the biggest scam (almost) known to Humankind.
The case law from this one should be interesting. I have a feeling Apple will come out on top, and it will open the "evil eyes" of companies that have tried to do business ethically. During a downturned economy, companies are exponentially more likely to engage in shady business practices in order to maintain their bottom line (and the pensions of their execs). Having case law on file that it's okay to make a crappy product that requires maintenance in order to function (at the consumer's expense) will ultimately encourage that kind of behavior.
I'm done, lest I start quoting literature and writing my book right here.
Poster, it seems in asking your question that you've already considered the pros and cons of all of the options and answered it for yourself. With each company, try to call first. It you wait for more than 5 minutes or get an incompetent tech, hang up and try chat/email/web forms.
If they're offering it for free, BEWARE. IT'S A TRICK. There's some hidden patent they're going to decide to enforce once the entire world adopts the architecture. *waves hands ominously*
Slashdot Mirror
After giving SCO information, the informant would just be issued a summons to appear in a civil proceeding, alleging that he infringed upon SCO's intellectual property.
SCO will claim that they used "information" when putting out the request for information, and therefore hold the copyright on "information." Since the guy gave them "information", he's guilty of copyright infringement.
Microsoft will step in and patent "information" and claim that they were using it long before SCO was.
The open source community will get pissed and say that information is public domain and freely available to everyone. The government will disagree and say that it controls all information.
Then, a creature will destroy the Spirit rover and the discovery of life on Mars will make everyone forget about information altogether.
Heh. Good point. Comment retracted.
Why is it that the one part of the Patriot Act that is actually meaningful and somewhat beneficial is the one declared unconstitutional?
I really need to find another country to move to.
I formed a software company, and through lies and deception (among hard work and sweat) built it up to a corporate powerhouse at the forefront of American capitalism.
The company has only recently produced a workable operating system, but its other products are full of security holes and OS-compromising exploits.
I give a few hundred thousand to charities here and there just to keep critics off my back. It's a tax write-off anyway; could THAT be why I'm doing it? To offset my taxes? NAH!
I deserve KNIGHTHOOD!!!!
I was going to say that, but I didn't wanna get modded down as a troll ;)
I work at a computer store in Cincinnati, OH.
Recently, we were approached by an army recruiter asking us if we had spare computers, network hardware, and space we would be willing to "donate" for free to him. He wanted to attract kids to the army by setting up a free network gaming environment.
While the game might be fun, this is quite frankly evil. The army recruiter was, in fact, under orders "from above" to find a place and acquire free equipment and time in order to use the game to attract otherwise uninterested people to the army.
My viewpoint is simple; if you want to join the military, join it. If you don't want to join, there's probably a reason for that. You don't want to die, you don't like being told to do things you don't agree with, you don't like being yelled at and fed crap... any number of reasons. Using a game to make it look glamorous is just another way of lying to kids in order to get them to join the military under false pretenses. This is nothing new; don't get me wrong. It's just slimy.
...an SNMP-enabled wireless card, followed by every other brand within 6 months.
slashdot slashdot slashdot!
Now, I either owe you $1.50, or the site will morph into a giant snake and wackiness will ensue.
Why don't I slap my own brand-name sticker on the friggen _neutron_?
;)
You can't. I discovered it first.
...where can I get one of those jackets?
I worked for a fortune-100 company as a UNIX admin/general systems geek.
/usr/bin and /usr/sbin, save su to the admins. You can do things like 'sudo chown' and 'sudo rm'. Psssht.
.' and then the previous command. After some time, I got my prompt back. I did a quick 'df -k .' to check my work and noticed that the filesystem was WELL within acceptable limits. I was so pleased with myself (and shocked by the tens of gigs of rotated logs) that I went to tell my boss that it was taken care of and to state my amazement at the amount of space that was being taken up.
We noticed that one of the filesystems that held the log files for an Oracle Application Server (two machines, shared storage) was filling up.
At this company, the security wannabees gave no one root access, but gave sudo privs to all UNIX admins. No big deal, huh? Well, they gave permission to everything in
Anyhow, my boss asked me to clear out the rotated logs in an attempt to free up some space.
I logged on to one of the two boxes and went to the directory in question. I typed "rm *.*"... Permission denied. Bummer. I guess I'll have to use sudo.
I typed in 'sudo chown [myid]
I got my 'attaboy' and continued working.
After about an hour, we went to lunch (boss went to lunch with me almost daily.) He gets a call on his cell from the PHB (although, to be fair, 'balding head boss' would be more appropriate.) He said that the OAS cluster for the largest app we supported was down.
After about 30 minutes of investigation and head-scratching on the part of my teammates still at the office, my boss got another call. One of my teammates asked him "who is [my id here]?"
My boss asked me if I knew, and my heart nearly exploded. I told him it was me.
I didn't even think to mention the change I made as a possible cause because so much crap happened every day that I forgot about one project about 5 minutes after completing it. I always fess up immediately when I make a mistake, so my boss knew I wasn't trying to hide anything...
Apparently, the server crashed when it had to rotate the log file (too large) and couldn't write to the directory. It wouldn't come back up again (with a completely non-descript error message, of course) after the crash for the same reason.
I'd left the directory permissions set to my user id. D'oh!
What makes this funny (in that sick kinda way) is that this app server crashed constantly, and the higher-ups tried to make themselves look good by being concerned (even though no business loss was actually incurred.) They always wanted a root cause analysis for every crash, and they were all the same - "unknown. vendor support not available because software is past end of life."
The higher-up jumped on this opportunity to make a freaking "oh my God, this guy is so dangerous" case out of it because it gave him something concrete to go to his higher-ups with, after so much "idunno" action.
I was given a written warning (my boss was forced to do so.) He smiled and laughed with me over the stupidity of it.
rm hose... ;)
Sage advice if you don't want to spawn children
I *so* wish I had some mod points right now. Excellent. ;)
Not the issue. If some idiot non-techie purchases it, they don't do so with the understanding they're going to have to crack it open and fiddle with it themselves (that, or send it to the manufacturer for a repair, at a preemium to themself).
Society (and the legal system) is geared towards the lowest common denominator (the least intelligent/capable), not the creame of the crop, so to speak.
You really have issues with anger, man. Chill.
It's a freakin' $600 audio player, not some $20 cheapie-ass CD player.
I don't HAVE to keep my smart-'mass' to myself. I have the right to speak in this forum as much as you do, and you have the right to disagree with me. We disagree. Big deal. You really shouldn't let it bother you so much.
How are you supposed to know about the shortcomings in the design if you haven't purchased the product already, and if it hasn't been on the market long enough for you to hear stories from other users?
There's a reason that trials by jury are done with a jury of one's peers. It's because not everyone in the world is as smart as you and I. People are idiots. That doesn't mean that companies have the right to take advantage of them. I'm hardly going to say I blame Apple (stupidity is the largest profit point), but when the consumers are smart or pissed enough to take a stand, Apple will ultimately have to answer for their decisions.
Yes, but the battery for the watch is $.99, not $99.
As the proud owner of a Dell laptop, I can assure the entire Slashdot readership that it requires a degree in mechanical engineering and computer science to slide that ergonomic, triangular-shaped "release" level 3mm to the right in order to remove the battery. It requires the strength of ten people to insert the new one into the slot that became available from the process akin to brain surgery by which the first under-performing battery was removed.
Go easy on the guy.
Okay.. warranty issues aside.. forget it, warranty is key here.
A warranty is a guarantee from a manufacturer that their product will function properly for a certain period of time, and if it does not, it will be replaced (repaired, etc) free of charge.
If the warranty expires and things start to go wrong, that's a sign that the company didn't produce a decent product. That's not a consideration here.
The problem lies in the understanding that when you purchase a product, it's supposed to work. If a company produces faulty products and sells them, then refuses to refund the money of consumers who fell victim to the crappy product, they're seen as (and are) a predatory company. The government will step in and punish them for taking advantage of consumers. At very least, people will learn of the issues and no one new will buy the product.
What the consumers in this case are concerned about is the fact that they spent a LOT of money (not just a $50 piece of electronic gadgetry), and that product has become worthless in a short amount of time. That money is wasted unless they keep pumping money into that product to fix the problem (again and again).
The consumers want Apple punished for a.) taking advantage of them and failing to rectify the problem once and for all) and b.) selling a product that is proprietary in nature that becomes too expensive to use or worthless.
If a customer of some other product (say, a regular MP3 player) become dissatisfied with the product they bought, they can simply purchase a competitor's product. You can't do that with an iPod. The music you purchased isn't transferrable to another product. Apple has locked consumers in to their product, which is faulty and prone to high maintenance costs, and is not taking steps to fix the issue.
There's nothing to say that this isn't part of Apple's business model for this product. Sell it, warranty it against defect for a year (which is the amount of time it takes to BECOME defective), and tell consumers that their product is no longer under warranty... but HEY.. we can sell you what you need to fix the problem.
The equivalent would be Microsoft selling Windows to consumers, offering updates for a year, and then forcing them to pay for updates after that.
Sure, from a legal standpoint, consumers understand that if they read the fine print, they have purchased a product that can only be guaranteed to function for a year. Beyond that, they're on their own. That's not the issue. The issue is whether or not that kind of practice is fair because it's prone to so much corruption.
I'm not even going to get into the issue of "selling" extended warranties. That's the biggest line of crap and the biggest scam (almost) known to Humankind.
The case law from this one should be interesting. I have a feeling Apple will come out on top, and it will open the "evil eyes" of companies that have tried to do business ethically. During a downturned economy, companies are exponentially more likely to engage in shady business practices in order to maintain their bottom line (and the pensions of their execs). Having case law on file that it's okay to make a crappy product that requires maintenance in order to function (at the consumer's expense) will ultimately encourage that kind of behavior.
I'm done, lest I start quoting literature and writing my book right here.
Poster, it seems in asking your question that you've already considered the pros and cons of all of the options and answered it for yourself.
With each company, try to call first. It you wait for more than 5 minutes or get an incompetent tech, hang up and try chat/email/web forms.
Powers the unit off and tells you to get a damned life ;)
If they're offering it for free, BEWARE. IT'S A TRICK. There's some hidden patent they're going to decide to enforce once the entire world adopts the architecture.
*waves hands ominously*
Dude, you're gettin' a basic ballpoint pen!
...and it's BILL Lumberg ;)
Thanks for pointing that out. I stand corrected.