...of elections. Put all the candidates on slot machine wheels. Voters pull the handle and whoever pops up, that's who gets their vote. Completely random.
How much worse off could we be? Definitely better than letting the Supreme Court pick the winner.
to go OSS, not that many here needed any more encouragement. Imagine if companies could buy support for NT 4 or Win98 for five bucks a machine after next month? There would be some companies still using them ten years from now. Well, some probably will anyway.
That gives me a twitch. Makes it sound like writing good code is on the same level as making good french fries at McDonalds. Besides, where are these wonderous work places that have project managers and architects? Here the programmer frequently is the project manager,architect, head chef and dishwasher. I don't think there's anything particularly high-skill about talking to the customer and translating their business process into a flow diagram and database schema. You mean people get paid just to do that?! And that's considered a high skill job? HAHAHAHAHA!
If there are people making good money doing that then I'm definitely on the wrong end of the business.
Anything you put a finger on that produces anything, regardless how deep the encryption, is a compromise waiting to happen. Maybe not this year, maybe not next year, but put out a black box and give the opposition enough computing power and it's only a matter of when, not if. Every time I see the phrase "can't be spoofed" I look at the Sharpie on my desk and think about Sony's last disc encryption system.
I don't care if it's fingerprints, voice print, retinal scan, or even DNA. What technology gives with one hand it takes away with the other. Before "big" ID systems are even fully deployed you can bet there's going to be a bit weenie somewhere thinking, "I wonder if...." Enough of them doing that and one of them will think of something you didn't.
One of these days we'll wake up to the fact there is no magic technology we'll ever be able to trust. But we always seem to want push-button solutions.
Yes, I'm thinking that this is finally the beginning of the end of all this non-sense.
I'm not a lawyer but I know a couple federal judges pretty well. They're fairly patient, up to the point they think someone is not being entirely forthcoming. For some reason they get a real chip on their shoulder about that. If the judges I know are any guide, this was a really stern warning. Made all the more ominous by the time factor. 30 days in a case of this scope is a message in itself.
If the intent is to stall, the SCO team should have planned to have something to turn in that will take time to analyze. Because if they don't have something pretty compelling ready in 30 days, they're in some deep shit. I wouldn't want to gamble on getting more time, either. Smart people would fold right here, so there's no fear of SCO doing that.
Regardless, there is a better way to get Tom DeLay and King George out of office. Get so many voters to the polls to vote against them that it does not matter how they try to rig the vote, they fail.
Do you really see that happening? I'm not sure with the country as viciously polarized as it is that either side would be able to come up enough voters to really change anything. The next question is would it matter? The dems are just as dirty in my book, one of the reasons the Democratic candidates are strangely quiet about corruption in elected government.
It's constantly surprising how many people back Bush, people who aren't in the top 25% income bracket. Maybe Bush and the neo-cons (sounds like a rock band) are what this country really deserves. When our political process is little more than two scorpions in a bottle, does it really matter which one is on top?
Anybody here ever lived in New Zealand? What's it like?
Shucks, the KIM-1 used the 6502 instruction set, didn't it?
Exactly right!
Remember the 8008? The S100 bus?
That was the one you programmed by setting a series of dip switches, right? It was just a box with switches and lights on the front panel. Hey, at least KIM had a real keypad! lol. Man, that brings back memories...a lot of them bad.
You haven't lived until you loaded your program over a teletype on a long roll of yellow punch tape, which you had to do at a certain time of day so you could have your precious 0.0003 seconds of main frame time. Only to have the tape break half-way through loading. Cassettes were a vast improvement. You know you've been in the business a long time if your first computer kit was named KIM I.
...that SCO never had a real case. They were just trying to kick up legal dust in hopes of someone giving them money to shut up and go away. This is little more than further confirmation of what the rest of us already knew.
SCO's case was never based on fact, they were using litigation as a business tool. A republican behavior becoming all too popular these days. And what's the downside? DirecTV sues the innocent along with the guilty and who's stopping them? And don't get me started on RIAA. And when it comes to fraud look at Enron, WorldCom and Putman. Millions of people bilked out of billions of dollars and how many have gone to jail? Three or four? McBride's playing the odds that even if the ploy doesn't work...and it's safe to say it's probably not going like they hoped...the company was dead anyway and their chances of facing any serious prison time were slim to none. When government is in the pocket of big business lobbyists, this is the reality. Welcome to Bush World.
Let's not take anything away from the outstanding research from Groklaw, though. That's really good work by someone there.
On the label contract side they've reduced their risk to near zero by charging back development and promotional costs to the artist. Even a successful artist ends up getting jack from CD sales. The big media companies have been dicking the principles on both sides of the contract going on 50 years now. Is it really any surprise they fight like hell for survival? None of the big labels want to see that gravy train reach the end of the line. It's easy money. Fat City.
But their efforts in Congress and the courts are useless. They're just breeding smarter file sharers. Especially those in the technology business, people who have maybe worked on projects together over the years. A group of friends who exchange playlists the old fashioned way: ASCII text. They can swap songs and entire CD's in compressed, encrypted formats because we- I mean they -don't make their collections available to the public and know enough about transfer protocols to make detection damn difficult. Or maybe they snail mail CD's, thumb drives or USB hard drives for the really big jobs.
As usual the bullies pick on those least able to defend themselves.
Because I have an idea for an virtual crapper that will cause log grahics to appear in the receive toilet. When I have to stop and think what message I'm sending tossing my keys on the table, that's where I draw the virtual line. If you want to see how someone far away is doing, here's a suggestion: Road trip!
In the same letter. First they say: much of Linux has been built from contributions by numerous unrelated and unknown software developers
Then they say: Many Linux contributors were originally UNIX developers who had access to UNIX source code distributed by AT&T and were subject to confidentiality agreements.
Well, which is it? Unknown software developers or old UNIX developers with access to AT&T source code? Those are pretty specific qualifications but, as usual, SCO doesn't supply a single example.
I think it's a shame on our legal system that a case so obviously contrived is allowed to see the light of day. It's one thing to come up with a bullshit case, but it should at least have to be good bullshit. It should have a shred of credibility. This is so bogus it's an insult to minimal intelligence.
Especially about going out for lunch. The only thing I'd add to that suggestion is go somewhere smaller and intimate. A place with regulars that you can get to know over time. Going to the club at lunch and working out is another good idea. It's not as crowded but there are enough people doing the same thing you'll have an opportunity to interact. And after a year of doing that you'll look like you're chiseled out of granite.
Office space with a shared receptionist is cheap and another advantage is it's usually deductible as a business expense. Deducting a home office can be a little harder.
Another trick I use is taking phone calls on a speaker phone instead of a headset. It's more like talking to someone.
But think of it more like a big battering ram pounding on the gates of castle Redmondore. One of these days the battering ram is going to have enough inertia and the door is going to weaken enough that the penguin makes a breakthrough.
This year's pronouncement may not turn out to be the one, maybe not next year. But it's only a matter of time before the castle falls. The problem with being on the top of the hill is you only have one direction to go.
is going to be tough. As long as I can plug the other end of a headphone jack into my minidisc recorder or sound card and get an acceptable quality analog copy all their DRM crap is useless.
The content providers are trying to get something for nothing. Give me an audio experience that's so good it motivates me to buy the content in a new format, something I can't get from a high quality analog recording. Instead the entertainment industry has taken the path of least resistance. Much easier to pay Congress and the courts to do their dirty work for them than actually invest in a compelling user experience. You can only dick people so long before they get tired of taking it.
From corrupting the results Google returns? How difficult would that be when you own the gateway? Not enough to be really noticable, just a tweak here
and there.
I'm not sure which is more pathetic: That a company would do that, or that M$'s credibility is so low that it wouldn't surprise anyone if they tried it?
What a stupid thing for M$ to say, even a step down from their usual silly comments. Stomping all over the American public so long must've gone to their heads at Castle Redmondore. Sort of reminds me of Bush.
Piss off the Europeans enough and they'd simply do what they did to the drug companies and threaten to bust their patents. Oh, you know there had to be a reason other countries sell the same drugs at a fraction of the price in other countries. We can't win an economic sanction war against the EU.
The Europeans will see this as an opportunity to hit back at M$ and snub the US in one motion. I wouldn't expect them to back down. In fact, M$'s comments were the worst possible thing they could've said. It backs up European fears about being subject to an American monopoly and gives them bad Bush flashbacks. This was sort of the coporate version of the "bring 'em on" comment.
Not only would I be surprised if they back down on sanctions, but I'd expect them to start funding development of a new EuroLinux alternative, ala Airbus.
I can sometimes see why they think we're a bunch of wankers over here when you look at things from their perspective.
That would be the last fraction of the desktop market I'd even think about because it's the most pain in the ass and expensive to manage.
I'd be aiming more for the enterprise and business desktop. Better defined hardware configuration issues, productivity tools for Linux are already out there and it could be bundled with back-end services in a very attractive end-to-end package, both in terms of price and function.
This is really an exciting time in Linux development. It's fun to watch it coming together.
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Obviously you've never been to one of our staff meetings.
How much worse off could we be? Definitely better than letting the Supreme Court pick the winner.
to go OSS, not that many here needed any more encouragement. Imagine if companies could buy support for NT 4 or Win98 for five bucks a machine after next month? There would be some companies still using them ten years from now. Well, some probably will anyway.
That gives me a twitch. Makes it sound like writing good code is on the same level as making good french fries at McDonalds. Besides, where are these wonderous work places that have project managers and architects? Here the programmer frequently is the project manager,architect, head chef and dishwasher. I don't think there's anything particularly high-skill about talking to the customer and translating their business process into a flow diagram and database schema. You mean people get paid just to do that?! And that's considered a high skill job? HAHAHAHAHA!
If there are people making good money doing that then I'm definitely on the wrong end of the business.
I don't care if it's fingerprints, voice print, retinal scan, or even DNA. What technology gives with one hand it takes away with the other. Before "big" ID systems are even fully deployed you can bet there's going to be a bit weenie somewhere thinking, "I wonder if...." Enough of them doing that and one of them will think of something you didn't.
One of these days we'll wake up to the fact there is no magic technology we'll ever be able to trust. But we always seem to want push-button solutions.
I'm not a lawyer but I know a couple federal judges pretty well. They're fairly patient, up to the point they think someone is not being entirely forthcoming. For some reason they get a real chip on their shoulder about that. If the judges I know are any guide, this was a really stern warning. Made all the more ominous by the time factor. 30 days in a case of this scope is a message in itself.
If the intent is to stall, the SCO team should have planned to have something to turn in that will take time to analyze. Because if they don't have something pretty compelling ready in 30 days, they're in some deep shit. I wouldn't want to gamble on getting more time, either. Smart people would fold right here, so there's no fear of SCO doing that.
Do you really see that happening? I'm not sure with the country as viciously polarized as it is that either side would be able to come up enough voters to really change anything. The next question is would it matter? The dems are just as dirty in my book, one of the reasons the Democratic candidates are strangely quiet about corruption in elected government.
It's constantly surprising how many people back Bush, people who aren't in the top 25% income bracket. Maybe Bush and the neo-cons (sounds like a rock band) are what this country really deserves. When our political process is little more than two scorpions in a bottle, does it really matter which one is on top?
Anybody here ever lived in New Zealand? What's it like?
Exactly right!
Remember the 8008? The S100 bus?
That was the one you programmed by setting a series of dip switches, right? It was just a box with switches and lights on the front panel. Hey, at least KIM had a real keypad! lol. Man, that brings back memories...a lot of them bad.
You haven't lived until you loaded your program over a teletype on a long roll of yellow punch tape, which you had to do at a certain time of day so you could have your precious 0.0003 seconds of main frame time. Only to have the tape break half-way through loading. Cassettes were a vast improvement. You know you've been in the business a long time if your first computer kit was named KIM I.
And put Bush on the first one-way rocket headed up there! Finally, a practical use for space technology.
SCO's case was never based on fact, they were using litigation as a business tool. A republican behavior becoming all too popular these days. And what's the downside? DirecTV sues the innocent along with the guilty and who's stopping them? And don't get me started on RIAA. And when it comes to fraud look at Enron, WorldCom and Putman. Millions of people bilked out of billions of dollars and how many have gone to jail? Three or four? McBride's playing the odds that even if the ploy doesn't work...and it's safe to say it's probably not going like they hoped...the company was dead anyway and their chances of facing any serious prison time were slim to none. When government is in the pocket of big business lobbyists, this is the reality. Welcome to Bush World.
Let's not take anything away from the outstanding research from Groklaw, though. That's really good work by someone there.
But their efforts in Congress and the courts are useless. They're just breeding smarter file sharers. Especially those in the technology business, people who have maybe worked on projects together over the years. A group of friends who exchange playlists the old fashioned way: ASCII text. They can swap songs and entire CD's in compressed, encrypted formats because we- I mean they -don't make their collections available to the public and know enough about transfer protocols to make detection damn difficult. Or maybe they snail mail CD's, thumb drives or USB hard drives for the really big jobs.
As usual the bullies pick on those least able to defend themselves.
Because I have an idea for an virtual crapper that will cause log grahics to appear in the receive toilet. When I have to stop and think what message I'm sending tossing my keys on the table, that's where I draw the virtual line. If you want to see how someone far away is doing, here's a suggestion: Road trip!
much of Linux has been built from contributions by numerous unrelated and unknown software developers
Then they say:
Many Linux contributors were originally UNIX developers who had access to UNIX source code distributed by AT&T and were subject to confidentiality agreements.
Well, which is it? Unknown software developers or old UNIX developers with access to AT&T source code? Those are pretty specific qualifications but, as usual, SCO doesn't supply a single example.
I think it's a shame on our legal system that a case so obviously contrived is allowed to see the light of day. It's one thing to come up with a bullshit case, but it should at least have to be good bullshit. It should have a shred of credibility. This is so bogus it's an insult to minimal intelligence.
Office space with a shared receptionist is cheap and another advantage is it's usually deductible as a business expense. Deducting a home office can be a little harder.
Another trick I use is taking phone calls on a speaker phone instead of a headset. It's more like talking to someone.
This year's pronouncement may not turn out to be the one, maybe not next year. But it's only a matter of time before the castle falls. The problem with being on the top of the hill is you only have one direction to go.
The content providers are trying to get something for nothing. Give me an audio experience that's so good it motivates me to buy the content in a new format, something I can't get from a high quality analog recording. Instead the entertainment industry has taken the path of least resistance. Much easier to pay Congress and the courts to do their dirty work for them than actually invest in a compelling user experience. You can only dick people so long before they get tired of taking it.
...with camcorders on a cross country trip is not advertising, it's a rolling amateur porn show.
A good start.
I'm not sure which is more pathetic: That a company would do that, or that M$'s credibility is so low that it wouldn't surprise anyone if they tried it?
...they spell it SEQUEL instead of SQL. And you know the hiring authority didn't review the job posting.
I'll be surpirsed if Linus even has to show up for a deposition. The judge has got to be getting pretty tired of SCO's stall-o-rama.
Piss off the Europeans enough and they'd simply do what they did to the drug companies and threaten to bust their patents. Oh, you know there had to be a reason other countries sell the same drugs at a fraction of the price in other countries. We can't win an economic sanction war against the EU.
The Europeans will see this as an opportunity to hit back at M$ and snub the US in one motion. I wouldn't expect them to back down. In fact, M$'s comments were the worst possible thing they could've said. It backs up European fears about being subject to an American monopoly and gives them bad Bush flashbacks. This was sort of the coporate version of the "bring 'em on" comment.
Not only would I be surprised if they back down on sanctions, but I'd expect them to start funding development of a new EuroLinux alternative, ala Airbus.
I can sometimes see why they think we're a bunch of wankers over here when you look at things from their perspective.
I'd be aiming more for the enterprise and business desktop. Better defined hardware configuration issues, productivity tools for Linux are already out there and it could be bundled with back-end services in a very attractive end-to-end package, both in terms of price and function.
This is really an exciting time in Linux development. It's fun to watch it coming together.
Okay, that headline may be a few years off yet. Just practicing.