One time I went to a doctor who used voice recognition. He was entering my details from a form into his computer. I thought he was talking to me and was yessing and nodding until he removed his microphone.
On the issue of pharmaceutical patents, there is a debate in Australia about the practise of making trivial patents and evergreening patents (a technique that pharmaceutical giants use to artificially extend the life of their patents and thereby monopolise an idea however trivial indefinitely).
I don't know about your company, but a very very large company tried to imitate my (small) company's product for free bundled distribution and failed dismally.
Imitation isn't as easy as you think. They usually result in inferior products, which when backed with aggressive marketing rather than legal protection represents the real threat.
Isn't Car insurance and Patent insurance a little different? I mean. If there is a car accident, one car is involved. The insurance company can afford to pay for that. But if there is a patent infringement, how many affected Linux installations are there out there? Can the insurance company survive if even one patent is validated?
Open source insurance can help enterprises reduce their exposure to the risks of using open source software thereby encouraging the adoption of open source software.
One the other hand insurance companies have the conflict of interest in that exaggerating the risks of open source software has a positive effect on their bottom line thereby discouraging the adoption of open source software.
a black hole has an event horizon, but nothing ever actually crosses it.
Curiously, does that include the stuff that formed the black hole in the first place? I seems very wierd picturing the core of a star in a supernova moving out of the way of the event horizon to stay out.
What I want to know is: After ditching Mozilla in favor of Internet Explorer in a settlement with Microsoft, is AOL now going to ditch Internet Explorer in favor of Mozilla or Firebird due to the recently discovered security flaw?
Sun's move is actually a very smart move because Java's value is not in the language or the VM, but the libraries. Not just the libraries that come with the JDK, but the huge number of libraries "out there". This move allows them to make all libraries 100% backward compatible.
Once the greater majority of libraries have been rewritten to fully utilise genericity, it would be time to think about integrating generics into the VM.
At what point does the software manufacturer get to say "Hey, we did our part. The rest is up to you."
When the software manufacturer has a long line of history of such negligence.
When the software manufacturer elects to choose a produce something that is faulty by design.
When the software manufacturer is not upfront with the risks using its software entails.
When the software manufacturer makes interoperability near impossible so that we don't get to choose a safer product.
When the software manufacturer fails to mention that a safer product is available for free and continues to give the impression that their product is the only way to do the given task.
When the software manufacturer uses its monopoly power to do these things.
If I'm playing a competitive game of UT2k4 and the mouse driver cuts out, can I sue Logitech for loss of potential profits?
By the time someone plays a competitive game of UT2k4 mouse driver problems would already have been well known among gamers - choose another mouse!
If I'm writing my thesis and the power cuts out, can I sue the Utilities Company for my lost tuition?
Tell me, if you told your University that what would they think? Something along the lines of "you didn't take necessary precautions like making backups" perhaps? Fact is, if the University doesn't accept your excuse, it is probably negligence on your part to start with.
If I'm using a statistical package and, due to some bug, I determine that shooting myself in the face with a loaded shotgun has a -0.314159 probability of death, can my mourning relatives sue the company?
That's a pathetic example - it doesn't even pass the test of common sense.
In summary, Microsoft has denied the market real choice, designed faults into their product, have not been honest about the safety of its products, have not been honest about the alternatives available.
This is negligence vs overwhelming negligence to such an extent that it affects nearly every computer user out there - not the odd thesis here and there. Try levelling that at another company.
I think it was just a way of saying "no thanks to Microsoft".
In any case, GNU applications on Windows are just second class citizens. Try creating services, or MMC plugins, or drivers using gcc. Also consider that if I write an application using gcc and distribute it - users will still need to install the cygwin environment in addition to my application.
The freely available VC++ compiler only supports static linking. Because of that, it also means it is not legal to distribute binaries containing GPLed code. So no - this is not one compiler you can use to make and distribute anything you want.
gcc on the other hand lets you write proprietrary applications and distribute the binaries.
Can you tell me if Lisp gives sane error messages, spurts out twisted abominations when compilation fails, or fails silently?
One of C++'s strengths is that it catches many (but not all) typical programming errors (with type checking) while putting emphasis on extending the library rather than the language.
On the other hand one of its main problems is that its error messages are difficult to understand. It's partly a symptom of putting more functionality and less into the library so that the compiler doesn't really have enough information and know how to give a good error message. In fact, it is one reason why there is pressure to move some C++ library features into the C++ language.
Would that make Microsoft's "Get the facts" campaign a "Crusade"?
Seriously though, all of this legal uncertainty affects innovation in proprietrary and open source software. We really need to drive home that small fry proprietrary software developers benefit from open source both by being able to use it in development and as a counter balance against abusive monopolists. If open source can survive this legal minefield, it'll come out stronger and the world will be better for it.
"We haven't worked out how to open-source Java -- but at some point it will happen," Srinivas said. However, he noted "it might be today, tomorrow or two years down the road"
Instead of waiting two years, do it now when it counts most. If Sun feels some degree of uncertainty, then test the waters by open sourcing selective parts of the JDK - especially the parts of the Java libraries that are widely perceived to be neglected.
I usually find you can just pick up the url by selecting it, then middle button drop it into the browser.
Ha! You think that's a solution?
I am a chronic tab browser and I open all my links with the middle button. Occasionally due to my complete lack of coordination my click misses the link entirely and the browser tries to open whatever is in the clipboard at the moment.
Exactly! Evolution put a lot of effort (so to speak) into evolving seeds that refuse to germinate unless the conditions are just right. Germinating only when conditions are right maximises the chance of survival for the plant.
I had a packet of cactus seeds with instructions to soak them in very hot water for one minute, plant them immediately afterwards in moist sandy soil and leave them in the dark for a week or so. Even so, mine didn't germinate until three weeks later. Fussy little buggers they are.
Slashdot Mirror
One time I went to a doctor who used voice recognition. He was entering my details from a form into his computer. I thought he was talking to me and was yessing and nodding until he removed his microphone.
It's characters per second. Or are you trying to hide the fact you haven't yet mastered numbers and symbols?
Microsoft can cross license. Linux can't.
US company accused of exploiting loophole in patent laws
Evergreening cost grows to millions
Imitation isn't as easy as you think. They usually result in inferior products, which when backed with aggressive marketing rather than legal protection represents the real threat.
Isn't Car insurance and Patent insurance a little different? I mean. If there is a car accident, one car is involved. The insurance company can afford to pay for that. But if there is a patent infringement, how many affected Linux installations are there out there? Can the insurance company survive if even one patent is validated?
One the other hand insurance companies have the conflict of interest in that exaggerating the risks of open source software has a positive effect on their bottom line thereby discouraging the adoption of open source software.
Curiously, does that include the stuff that formed the black hole in the first place? I seems very wierd picturing the core of a star in a supernova moving out of the way of the event horizon to stay out.
What about Wine? Has anyone managed to get wine running of Fedora Core 2? All I get are segmentation faults.
What I want to know is: After ditching Mozilla in favor of Internet Explorer in a settlement with Microsoft, is AOL now going to ditch Internet Explorer in favor of Mozilla or Firebird due to the recently discovered security flaw?
Once the greater majority of libraries have been rewritten to fully utilise genericity, it would be time to think about integrating generics into the VM.
If I'm playing a competitive game of UT2k4 and the mouse driver cuts out, can I sue Logitech for loss of potential profits?
By the time someone plays a competitive game of UT2k4 mouse driver problems would already have been well known among gamers - choose another mouse!
If I'm writing my thesis and the power cuts out, can I sue the Utilities Company for my lost tuition?
Tell me, if you told your University that what would they think? Something along the lines of "you didn't take necessary precautions like making backups" perhaps? Fact is, if the University doesn't accept your excuse, it is probably negligence on your part to start with.
If I'm using a statistical package and, due to some bug, I determine that shooting myself in the face with a loaded shotgun has a -0.314159 probability of death, can my mourning relatives sue the company?
That's a pathetic example - it doesn't even pass the test of common sense.
In summary, Microsoft has denied the market real choice, designed faults into their product, have not been honest about the safety of its products, have not been honest about the alternatives available.
This is negligence vs overwhelming negligence to such an extent that it affects nearly every computer user out there - not the odd thesis here and there. Try levelling that at another company.
BTW, slippery slope is a logical fallacy after all.
In any case, GNU applications on Windows are just second class citizens. Try creating services, or MMC plugins, or drivers using gcc. Also consider that if I write an application using gcc and distribute it - users will still need to install the cygwin environment in addition to my application.
gcc on the other hand lets you write proprietrary applications and distribute the binaries.
One of C++'s strengths is that it catches many (but not all) typical programming errors (with type checking) while putting emphasis on extending the library rather than the language.
On the other hand one of its main problems is that its error messages are difficult to understand. It's partly a symptom of putting more functionality and less into the library so that the compiler doesn't really have enough information and know how to give a good error message. In fact, it is one reason why there is pressure to move some C++ library features into the C++ language.
I think Thunderbird should be renamed Rainbowbird.
Seriously though, all of this legal uncertainty affects innovation in proprietrary and open source software. We really need to drive home that small fry proprietrary software developers benefit from open source both by being able to use it in development and as a counter balance against abusive monopolists. If open source can survive this legal minefield, it'll come out stronger and the world will be better for it.
That might take some time, considering.
ESR has something to say about free hardware.
Instead of waiting two years, do it now when it counts most. If Sun feels some degree of uncertainty, then test the waters by open sourcing selective parts of the JDK - especially the parts of the Java libraries that are widely perceived to be neglected.
Ha! You think that's a solution?
I am a chronic tab browser and I open all my links with the middle button. Occasionally due to my complete lack of coordination my click misses the link entirely and the browser tries to open whatever is in the clipboard at the moment.
At least now I know why.
= assignment, Bi,R 15 := run-time binding, Bi,R 15 ::= compile-time binding, assignment, Bi,R 15
Have led them to conjecture the existance of the high level operators such as:
design-time binding, Bi,R 15before-time binding, Bi,R 15
Other sought after operators include:
infinite range, Po,L 4bitwise err, Bi,L 11
infinitesimal, Qt
anon. string
and so forth.
Exactly! Evolution put a lot of effort (so to speak) into evolving seeds that refuse to germinate unless the conditions are just right. Germinating only when conditions are right maximises the chance of survival for the plant.
I had a packet of cactus seeds with instructions to soak them in very hot water for one minute, plant them immediately afterwards in moist sandy soil and leave them in the dark for a week or so. Even so, mine didn't germinate until three weeks later. Fussy little buggers they are.
Google:
5,220 for consensuses.
1,890 for consenses.
53 for consensii.
Therefore I vote for consensii.
But "the scientific community would appear to have consensus on both issues" sounds good.
I imagine they will finally know what it is like to have peace. The Dark Side of Natural Resources