User: reporter

Extortion: Responsibility of SCOX Shareholders

On: SCO Invoices For Unix Licenses Get Closer

At SCO, the managers all the way up to CEO Darl McBride appear to be unscrupulous folks who do not understand how code in the operating-system (OS) works. Any copyright-infringing code in the OS can be easily re-written by a competent computer-science (CS) student at Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU). The attempt by SCO to thwart the growth of Linux will not succeed.

Since we live in the West, the biggest issue is the unethical behavior of SCO and its managers. We have justifiably criticized them for trying to extort money via these ridiculous invoices. However, we need to go beyond criticizing only them. They actually work for someone: the shareholders.

Yes. The SCO shareholders own SCO and ultimately decide whether McBride keeps his job. The shareholders are the most guilty party in these pump-and-dump and extortion schemes hatched by SCO managers since the shareholders have the power to terminate the employment of McBride. The list at LionShares indicates the 15 financial institutions holding the largest number of shares of the SCO Group. Together, they hold 15% of the total outstanding shares. These financial institutions must immediately hold a special session of shareholders in order to terminate the employment of the managers (like McBride) at SCO group.

We, Slashdotters, should check our mutual funds immediately. If they own any shares of the SCO Group, then we should transfer the money out of those funds. Furthermore, there are several socially responsible mutual funds (SRMFs). We must bring the unethical behavior of the SCO group to the attention of the SRMF managers. They are bound, by the terms of their SRMFs, to sell all shares of the SCO Group.

... from the desk of the reporter

Face-Recognition System & Visa Application to

On: Facial Recognition Fails in Boston, Too

The tests conducted thus far on the face-recognition system shows that it cannot identify a particular face within a crowd of faces. However, this failure does not mean that the system has no useful application.

The system can be used to recognize a particular face when it is standing alone. Consider, for example, a photo of a face sent along with an visa application to the American embassy. Please read "World: Asia-Pacific China backs embassy protests". In 1999, Serbians committed gross human-rights violations against the Kosovars in Kosovo; the Chinese fully supported the Serbians in their campaign of terror. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) under American command attempted to stop the slaughter by knocking out Serbian military units. NATO deliberately attempted to avoid hitting civilian targets in Serbia, but some bombs accidentally hit the Chinese embassy.

Shortly thereafter, the Chinese in both China and outside China erupted into ugly, violent protests. The Chinese throw stones and other projectiles at the American embassy in China. The Chinese also attacked some Americans. " The residence of the US Consul General in the south-western city of Chengdu was stormed and partially burned ."

How could the Americans in China have responded to this nonsensical violence? The Americans should have done the following.

1. Pull out cameras and take pictures of all the protestors.
2. Scan the photos into a computer and transmit them to Washington.
3. Henceforth, when a Chinese submits an application for a visa to travel to the USA, use the face-recognition system to determine whether the photo of the applicant matches any of the protestors. If there is a match, then the application will not be approved.
4. At the American embassy, grab a megaphone and loudly announce, "Attention protesters. We are using a face-recognition system. Any protestor applying for a visa to the USA will be denied entry into the USA. We are taking pictures right now. "

After about 10 clicks of the shutter of the camera, all the protestors would have disappeared. Henceforce, we should use this face-recognition system in conjunction with photographic equipment at all embassies and consulates run by Western nations within China (which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong).

... from the desk of the reporter

Another article about another asteroid

On: Armageddon... in 2014. Almost.

Please read the news article "Asteroid Might Hit Earth in 2880, Unless it is Painted" about another asteroid that might hit earth. The article suggests that painting the asteroid would deflect it from its course.

Overblown Paranoid Fear of Asteroid Collision

On: Armageddon... in 2014. Almost.

The fear of an asteroid collision is completely overblown although it makes good reading in newspapers. The asteroid traveling on a trajectory colliding with earth can be easily deflected from its path by a small nuclear explosion when the asteroid is far away. Just plop a nuclear warhead on top of a huge rocket; shoot the rocket at the asteroid so that collision occurs somewhere outside of our galaxy. The impact and accompanying explosion should deflect the asteroid by a couple of millimeters from its trajectory. Those millimeters translate into millions of miles when the asteroid finally enters our solar system.

Good News for the ENVIRONMENT!

On: The End of Physical Media

If all music were downloaded from a web site instead of purchased via compact disc (CD), then we would signficantly reduce the amount of environmental pollution contributed by the non-biodegradable CD. Clearly, the Internet is creating a future where all music is downloaded and, in the process, is saving the environment. However, the Internet is helping the environment in a more significant way. The Internet is faciliting the move from all physical media to soft media.

When desktop publishing become popular, pundits predicted that it would reduce the demand for paper since what you publish would be saved in soft form -- i. e. a digital file on a computer disk. The pundits said that, in the bad old days before personal computers, you were forced to type or write everything on paper, and of course, producing paper contaminates the environment and increases the rate of destroying trees. Unfortunately, the predictions about reducing paper consumption were wrong because people tended to print everything that they developed in their latest incarnation of Microsoft Word. Consumption of paper actually increased significantly after personal computers and desktop publishing came into vogue.

The problem was distribution. There really was no convenient way to distribute the digital file. When person A transferred a digital file to person B, a floppy disk containing the digital file is also transferred. If you transferred a floppy disk, you would think, "I might as well just print the document. It does not have many pages."

Then, came the Internet. It provides a convenient way to transfer the digital file. The transmission mechanism is also soft -- i. e. digital. The floppy disk is physical: you can touch it and feel it. In short, personal computers alone provide only the means to create soft media. Personal computers plus the Internet provide an end-to-end solution in which the creation and delivery of media is 100% soft -- i. e. 100% digital.

... from the desk of the reporter

CD's are not Biodegradable.

On: Sunday Newspapers, Now With CDs

Unlike newspapers, compact discs (CDs) are not biodegradable and will contribute to the mountains of trash that Western societies already generate. Surely, Westerners can tolerate a bit of lag in an Internet connection to "The Times" newspaper in order to save the environment.

Forget the CD. The environment comes first.

... from the desk of the reporter

Foreign Sedan: Japanese Precursor to Space Plane

On: More on the Orbital Space Plane

The Japanese government has been conducting research on a space plane but has no plans to actually build one at the moment. Please read "Operation Status of High Speed Flight Demonstration (HSFD) Program" to see some color pictures of a scaled-down model of a future space plane. The Japanese space agency, NASDA, has been using this model to conduct flight tests.

... from the desk of the reporter

Shuttle is OK; Problem is Quality Engineering

On: Russian Ship Resupplies Space Station

The aim of the space shuttle was to provide a re-usable space-entry vehicle. One of its uses is to repair satellites. For that particular mission, the space shuttle has been a tremendous success. Please read "Hubble Space Telescope put into hibernation after critical system failure". It describes the latest mission to repair the Hubble Telescope. Indeed, when the Hubble Telescope was first launched, it had a defective lens. If the space shuttle had not sent a crew into low-earth orbit to repair the lens, we would still be seeing blurry images from the outer regions of space.

The problem is not the shuttle per se. The problem is quality engineering at NASA. Note that the Hubble Telescope and several later NASA projects have been plagued with quality-control problems. Please read about a horrendous engineering mistake in "Metric mishap caused loss of NASA orbiter".

The only way to fix the quality problem is to (1) increase funding to NASA projects so that American engineers are not overworked and (2) increase competition for NASA. One way to increase funding for NASA is to rescind the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and to shut down the American Institute in Taiwan , saving about $17,000,000. This money can then be earmarked for NASA. In short, there is simply much wasted money in Washington. If we can recover the wasted money, then we can set it aside for NASA.

As for increasing competition, we could encourage Japan to spend heavily on its own space shuttle. Over the last 10 years, the Japanese government has wasted billions of dollars on useless public works projects that do little prop up the economy. A far better use for that money is researching and building re-usable space-entry vehicles. The resulting competition with NASA would significantly improve the quality of engineering at NASA. (Note that the last 15 years of competition with Toyota has signficantly improved the quality of automobiles produced by General Motors.)

... from the desk of the reporter

Linux already supports the Japanese language.

On: Japan, China & South Korea May Develop OS

Linux already has Japanese language support. Emacs under the "Multilingual Environment" (MULE) already supports the Japanese language. "kterm" can already display Japanese characters. Furthermore, you can build any new Japanese-language application on top of Linux. Specifically, the Red Hat distribution of Linux already has the full set of Japanese character fonts.

There is no good engineering reason to build an independent operating system (OS) -- i. e. one which is independent of Linux. However, there seem to be political reasons.

... from the desk of the reporter

FRAGEMENTING THE OPEN-SOURCE MOVEMENT

On: Japan, China & South Korea May Develop OS

The most important issue is that creating yet another open-source operating system defeats one of the key value propositions of Linux. Namely, there is only one dominant open-source operating system: it is Linux. It can run on almost any platform. If you write an application for Linux, you can practically run it anywhere with, at worst, a quick re-compile.

By contrast, UNIX failed to gain significant marketshare against the onslaught of Windows because there were simply too many incompatible operating systems called UNIX.

If this Japan-China-Korea operating system (JCKOS) gains any significant share in Asia, then we will have 2 incompatiable operating systems: JCKOS and Linux. JCKOS will be similar to Linux but incompatible with it.

What could be the motivation for this stupidity? Japanese society, as a whole, is a Western society, and Japan has slowly been moving from a 2nd-rate Western nation to a 1st-rate Western nation like the United States of America (USA). Unfortunately, due to Japan's proximity to Asian countries like the brutal totalitarian regime called China, there has always been a tension between (1) Japanese bureaucrats who lean towards Asia and (2) Japanese bureucrats who lean towards the USA and the rest of the West. The Western Japanese have usually prevailed over the Asian Japanese. A key example is the USA-Japan defense treaty.

Unfortunately, occasionally, the Asian Japanese prevail in certain matters. We, Slashdotters, should send an e-mail to the Japanese embassy in our Western nations and tell them that this idea for an independent JCKOS is hurtful and harmful to the open-source movement. Also, do the Japanese really want to work with a brutal totalitarian regime like the Chinese, who have routinely beat and kill Tibetan nuns? (reference: Amnesty International and Tibet Online).

... from the desk of the reporter

Typo in "Ask the ACLU to Defend ..." (Sorry)

On: Google Removes Links in Response to DMCA Complaint

Sorry. I found a type in my article. The sentence "However, in this case, 'facilitation' does constitute violation of the law." should be "However, in this case, 'facilitation' does NOT constitute violation of the law."

... from the desk of the reporter

Ask the ACLU to Defend the Search-Engine Company

On: Google Removes Links in Response to DMCA Complaint

The scenario that we have is the following.

1. Material violating the copyright laws exists on the web.
2. A search engine provides a hypertext link to the infringing material.

Is the search engine technically violating copyright law? No. Is the search engine facilitating people who wish to violate copyright law? Yes.

Does "facilitation" constitute violation of the law? To look at that question. Let us look at another analogy.

1. Consider a hypothetical company, "Martian Software". It deliberately and illegally copies software and sells them to customers.
2. The Yellow Pages carries an advertisement for "Martian Software". The advertisment includes a phone number, an address, and a map explaining how to go to the address of "Martian Software".

The Yellow Pages is not violating copyright law but is facilitating people who wish to violate copyright law. However, in this case, "facilitation" does constitute violation of the law.

By analog, the search engine in the original example is not violating the law by merely providing a link to the infringing material. We, Slashdotters, should petition the ACLU to defend the search-engine company.

... from the desk of the reporter

Supercomputer Research is Vital

On: Virginia Tech to Build Top 5 Supercomputer?

Supercomputer research is an important area of research that fits well within the academic environment. Indeed, a generation of American (not foreign) computer engineers were trained at universities like Virginia Tech by doing research on a large-scale supercomputer project. Please read "American Supremacy in Supercomputers".

American Supremacy in Supercomputers

On: Virginia Tech to Build Top 5 Supercomputer?

After the introduction of the supercomputer called "Earth Simulator" by NEC, many Americans went into paranoid mode. They feared that the Japanese "once again" had taken the lead in a crucial technology.

American fears are unfounded. Numerous universities like Virginia Tech have trained a generation of American (not foreign) students in building the finest supercomputers. MIT, Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and Virginia Tech (to name just a few) have launched large-scale research projects staffed by top American graduate students. Their work became the foundation of several generations of multiprocessors.

By contrast, very few (if any) Japanese universities conduct large-scale research projects to build high-performance supercomputers. The Japanese government has tended to avoid funding this kind of research. Worse, there is little collaboration between industry and academia in Japan. Yet, precisely this kind of collaboration is needed for such large-scale projects: e.g. Virginia Tech is enlisting the help of Apple computer.

American companies lead by scientists trained at MIT and CMU could easily design a computer that outperforms the Earth Simulator. These companies simply have chosen to not do so because there is far more profits to be garnered by building commercial supercomputers geared for database transactions. In fact, the highest-performance commercial supercomputers nearly all come from the United States of America (IBM).

The 21st century remains Pax Americana, not Pax Asia. The hordes of immigrants trying to get the hell out of Asia and into the USA underscores this fact.

... from the desk of the reporter

Linux's Share of Server Market grew by 40%

On: InfoWorld on Switching to Linux

The key quote in the Inforworld article is the following.

The benefit of replacing expensive RISC processor-based Unix hardware with commodity Intel boxes is one of the biggest factors driving Linux adoption

Linux servers and workstations have rapidly increased their share of the market at the expense of Sun Microsystems. According to "IBM steals server sales from Sun", the sales of Sun servers running Solaris dropped by a whopping 19% from 2nd quarter of 2002 to 2nd quarter of 2003. Yet, the sales of Linux servers increased by a sizeable 40%.

The bell tolls. It tolls ominously for Sun.

... from the desk of the reporter

Silver Lining around the Dark Cloud

On: The Unstoppable Shift of IT Jobs Overseas

The migration of information-technology (IT) jobs to places like India and Taiwan has a positive end-result. Consider the following two scenarios.

1. IT jobs remain in the United States of America (USA). American companies and especially small companies funded by Taiwanese money demand that H-1B workers be allowed to come to the USA in droves in order to fill a supposed shortage of workers.
2. IT jobs are exported to places like India and Taiwan. The H-1B visa program is shut down.

In both scenarios, native Americans are denied jobs that they deserve; however scenario #2 is actually better than scenario #1. Scenario #1 has fostered the growth of large ethnic communities that refuse to assimilate into American society. They consist largely of people who believe that Western culture is only for "white" people and who teach their kids that they should identify with their "ethnic" culture and people. These large ethnic communities also produce most of the spies who steal Western technology to give to Beijing. The two spies mentioned in "Two Men Arrested for Planning to Smuggle High-Tech Encryption Devices to China" grew up in Taiwan and came to the USA.

Scenario #2 will result in a reduction of those ethnic communities. This reduction does not mean that, for example, Chinese will not want to come to the USA. On the contrary, Indians, Chinese, Taiwanese, etc. will still demand to be allowed into the USA in huge numbers even though there will be plenty of IT jobs in India, China, Taiwan, etc. Why? Our Western way of life is superior to what exists in Indian, China, Taiwan, etc. Please read "Hospitals see mass resignations" and "SARS doctors' ethics put to the test" to sample the quality (or lack thereof) of life in Taiwan. Instead of treating SARS victims, the doctors prefer to hide the information about the illness or to resign.

As Slashdotters, let us work together as a community and lobby Congress to terminate the H-1B program and to reduce the combined immigration quota of China (which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan) from 60000 to 2000. Let us encourage companies like Intel to pursue scenario #2 instead of scenario #1. Intel has frequently lied about the need for H-1Bs. In the future, if Intel needs H-1Bs, Intel should set up a plant in India.

... from the desk of the reporter

Better scores on Apple's G5

On: IBM Releases Compiler for Power4 and G5

According to "Apple issues G5 benchmarks", the SPEC results generated by GCC for the G5 do not give it a significant performance advantage over Pentium-based workstations. The G5 scores 840 and 800 on SPECfp and SPECint, respectively, and the Pentium machine scores 693 and 836.

The new IBM compiler should rectify the situation. Apple will not need to manipulate the SPEC scores by hiding behind the GCC compiler. In the past, Apple stuck with the GCC compiler because it causes the Pentium to perform much worse than it would perform on code compiled with an Intel-provided compiler.

Of course, both the Power4 (and derivatives like the PowerPC 970) and the Pentium IV crush the UltraSPARC in performance. The new IBM compiler is yet in another nail in the coffin of the UltraSPARC.

Noise Margin

On: Beyond Binary Computing?

When the voltage for digital circuits back in 1970 ranged from 0 volt to 5 volts, there was talk about using, say, a base-3 number system. Imagine how this system might be implemented. Digit 0 would be [0, 1.67) volts. Digit 1 would be (1.67, 3.33) volts. Digit 2 would be (3.33, 5.0] volts.

Now, for a binary number system, digit 0 is [0, 2.5) volts, and digit 1 is (2.5, 5] volts. Clearly, the noise margin of the binary number system is much better than the noise margin of the base-3 number system.

Now consider the voltages of modern digital circuits. Consider a voltage range of [0, 1.5] volts. In a base-3 number systm, digit 0 would be [0, 0.5) volt. Digit 1 would be (0.5, 1.0) volt, and digit 2 would be (1.0, 1.5] volts.

For a binary number system, digit 0 is [0, 0.75) volt, and digit 1 is (0.75, 1.0] volt. Again, the noise margin of the binary number system is much better than the noise margin of the base-3 number system.

In fact, the noise margin of the binary number system is consistently 50% better than the noise margin of the base-3 number system. The noise margin of the binary number system is always better than the noise margin of the base-n number system, where n > 2. For this reason, engineers have not built and will not build digital systems with any non-binary number system.

Already have a Windows Workalike: FVWM95

On: Sun Mad Hatter Linux Desktop Revealed

Linux already has something that looks and feels like Windows. It is called "FVWM95", the free virtual window manager. It emulates Windows 95 very well.

Still, FVWM95 has not helped Linux to penetrate the corporate desktop market even though FVWM95 has been available for at least 3 years.

However, there is good news. The vehicle that is helping Linux to penetrate the corporate desktop market is the powerful 80x86 chips by Intel and AMD. Numerous small American companies (like those in Silicon Valley and Boston's Route 128) are moving en masse away from Unix workstations with crappy processors like UltraSPARC to Linux desktops with powerful processors like the Pentium 4, the Athlon, and the PPC 970.

In fact, the CEO of one company developing radio-frequency chips deploys only Linux desktops and servers. The Linux desktops are powered by Pentium 4s. To quote her, "Linux running on an 80x86 chip creates a desktop that gives 3x the performance and 1/3 the cost of a Sun workstation."

The bell tolls. It tolls ominously for Sun.

Space 1999

On: Speculations on a Moon Colony

The writers and producers of the science-fiction classic, "Space 1999", were off the mark by about 25 years. "Space 1999" was broadcast by NBC in 1975 and dealt with the lives of colonists on a moonbase called "Alpha". The series began with an episode where a nuclear explosion hurls the moon out of the earth's orbit. Each succeeding episode of the series descibes the dangers that the colonists face in space.

Finally, a Substantive Claim from SCO

On: SCO Attorney Declares GPL Invalid

Why is SCO claiming that the GPL violates copyright law? IBM poignantly noted, a while ago, that SCO distributed any disputed source code under GPL. Hence, according to IBM, the disputed source code is available for any use allowed by GPL. That is a very strong argument by IBM.

To counter this argument, SCO claims that GPL itself is invalid. Hence, even if SCO did previously distribute the disputed source code under GPL, SCO is still entitled to demand royalties because GPL violates the law.

Finally, SCO has a substantive claim. Apparently, the court case will finally come down to one issue: "Is GPL valid and enforceable?" If the answer is "yes", then SCO does not have a case.

Loser-on: Better Name for Transmeta Chip

On: New Transmeta Chip: "Efficeon"

Transmeta management should have labeled the new chip "Loser-on" instead of "Efficeon". Last quarter, Transmeta lost $22 million dollars on sales of $5.1 million, according to "High stakes for Transmeta's new chip" by CNet. Transmeta does not have the resources to compete against either AMD or Intel. Shortly after Transmeta annouced its first chips, Intel accelerated development of low-power chips and produced Centrino, which significantly reduced Transmeta's marketshare. AMD recently purchased the low-power-embedded-80x86 division of National Semiconductor; AMD is clearly accelerating its own development of low-power chips. Please read "AMD scoops up National Semi unit" by CNet. In summary, Transmeta is heading for bankruptcy, and the managers who lead Transmeta to an IPO are laughing at the stupid investors who drove up its stock in 2000.

Linux Will Lose Ground in India

On: Linux Gaining Ground In India

Linux has significantly less appeal in India than Linux has in the United States of America. The rate of software piracy in India is about 70%. In otherwords, 70% of all software in India is stolen. So, Windows 2000/XP is essentially free.

The primary appeal of Linux is low cost: $0.00. with Windows being free in India, the typical Indian will not be interested in using Linux. Windows has significantly more applications that run on it than Linux. Off course, those applications are also "free".

Similar comments apply to China. China (which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan) is the software-piracy capital of the world. More then 90% of the software used in China is pirated. Here are some references to solidly support the aforementioned observations.

1. "Software piracy rising again in India, Microsoft official says"
2. "Business Software Alliance"
3. "Grey area: India 16th on global software piracy watch list"

Boycott Notebook Computers Made in Taiwan or China

On: China to Be Laptop Leader

According to a video clip shown at the website for the BBC, the Chinese beat a North Korean women to the ground as she tried to flee to sanctuary in the Japanese consulate. Her crime was trying to escape from starvation in North Korea.

The crime in this discussion forum is that the Taiwanese support mainland China. Please read "Warning Sign: Taiwanese Money and Technology Supports Mainland China". "Made in Taiwan" = "Made in China". If you support human rights, do not buy any notebook computers made in either Taiwan or mainland China.

Warning Sign: Taiwanese Money&Tech. Supports C

On: China to Be Laptop Leader

The article describing how China, via technology from Taiwan, will become the largest manufacturer of notebook computers confirms what we already know. Here is what we already know.

1. The Taiwanese have invested more than $50 billion into more than 50,000 businesses in mainland China. How did the Taiwanese achieve this state of affairs? Shortly after the Tienanmen Square incident in 1990, the American government and American businesses froze or reduced investments in China. The Taiwanese seized this window of opportunity and poured financial and technological investments into mainland China. The Taiwanese completely thwarted American attempts at using economic sanctions to force the Chinese government improve its human-rights record. Afterwards, Taiwanese investments skyrocketed to their current level.
2. The Chinese son of the chairman of a powerful conglomerate in Taiwan has joined with the son of Jiang Zemin, the butcher of Tibet, to build an advanced silicon-wafer factory in Shanghai. (reference: "Sons of prominent Chinese team up on chip venture")
3. Senior Chinese military officials retired from the Taiwanese military have gone to mainland China and given military secrets about the American F-16 fighter jet to the Beijing government. (reference: "Military secrets on sale to China")
4. The Wall Street Journal reports that the majority of American spies who steal sensitive computer and military technology (like microprocessor blueprints) to give to mainland China are actually born and raised in Taiwan. Both spies mentioned in "Two Men Arrested for Planning to Smuggle High-Tech Encryption Devices to China" are born and raised in Taiwan.

We Americans should not kid ourselves. The Taiwanese strongly support mainland China. The Taiwanese give to mainland China any money or technology that we Americans refuse to give.

When we apply economic sanctions against mainland China, we must also apply the same sanctions against Taiwan. In our pursuit of human rights, when we boycott products that are made in China, we must also boycott products that are made in Taiwan. Specifically, when we boycott notebook computers made in China, we must also boycott notebook computers made in Taiwan. As the article notes, computers "made in Taiwan" are really "made in China".

We must immediately stop selling weapons to Taiwan. Taiwan is a very serious security risk to the United States of America (USA). Since 2000 May, the FBI has placed Taiwan on the list of nations that are prone to steal sensitive military and commercial technology from American national laboratories and companies. Please read "Reno calls Taiwan an intelligence threat". See point #4 above.

The aforementioned facts are quite shocking since many folks in the SlashDot community are reading these facts for the first time. It is understandable. The Taiwanese government has annually paid about $2 million to lobbying firms like "Cassidy & Associates" to peddle influence in the American government. (reference: Big Business Comes to Aid of China") Indeed, do you remember Charlie Trie, John Huang, and Johnny Chung? They were the key figures in the financial scandal that rocked the Democratic Party and were accused of bribing American officials. Both John Huang and Johnny Chung were born or raised in Taiwan.

If all these facts and the CNet article about Chinese laptops do not convince you that the Taiwanese support mainland China, then consider this tidbit. The Taiwanese constitution