And now you know (if you didn't before) one of the myriad reasons people have been complaining about Treacherous Computing -- because that's what's enabling this kind of bullshit.
At least the vultures can't take open source away from us.
Ah, but they can take the Internet away from Free Software, in exactly the same way they're taking cable TV away via CableCARD. How many people would run Linux if their ISP would prohibit them from connecting to the network with it?
Actually, by testing the cards before taking them to the field, they got married to the test hardware and could no longer be married to the device in the field. Either they needed to divorce the cards (through some deep secret kung fu no customer should ever know how to do) or get new cards that are still bachelors.
What the fuck are you talking about? Any hardware that's designed in such a crippled way should be considered broken!
If people can watch the BBC legally without having to pay for it, or without the BBC being reimbursed in a way that doesn't break their charter, then people will stop paying their TV licenses, which means the BBC will get less funding, which means its quality will suffer.
So make it a flat tax paid by all citizens, instead of a "tv license." If almost everybody's paying it anyway it doesn't actually change anything...
If OFFICE 2007 is a standard MSI, how come you can't do a Group Policy deployment of Office 2007?
All WiX does is provide an XML schema to describe installers (and the tools to compile it). You still have to specify what you want the installer to do yourself.
And yes, I know the disclaimers saying "if one part of this is void, the rest stands". Nu-uh. Sorry, if part of your contract is illegal or "against good customs", the whole contract is void.
For Windows installers, I like WiX. It's open-source (CPL), yet made by Microsoft and used to package Microsoft software (e.g. SQL server, Office 2007). It also compiles to standard.MSI (or MSI-based.EXE) files, instead of relying on all custom code like some installers do.
Then instead of putting COPYING.txt itself in there, they should put the following (or something like it):
This software is licensed under the GPL. You are not required to agree to, or even read, the GPL before using this software, as it is not an EULA. However, we suggest you do so anyway because it grants you additional rights regarding distribution and modification, which it is to your advantage to be aware of.
Lots of goods have zero marginal cost. For example, many places produce hamburgers in batches such that it costs them nothing at the margin to provide you with one
That's not "zero marginal cost." That just means that the marginal cost is the cost per batch divided by the number of burgers per batch. Or alternatively, since the burgers are made in batches, one batch is the margin, not one burger -- the burger only counts as a fraction of an item.
In contrast, the marginal cost of producing a "batch" of songs is zero* no matter what. A "batch" could be 1 song or 1 million songs; it's still zero.
*Give or take electricity etc.; technically I should say "negligible," but "zero" is more dramatic.)
I doubt China will be rushing to destroy theirs in order to make Western IP Barons rich.
No, China will be doing it to implement totalitarianism (which is a secondary goal for most Western governments too).
Re:Does anyone have an actual video of the demo?
on
Photosynth Demo
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· Score: 1
Since you worked on it, would you happen to know where I could find some more detailed technical information about it (e.g. what algorithms were used, how it was implemented, etc.)? I'm a student working on a computer vision project, and I'm very interested in it.
You mean the fact that media companies won't make their products easily available to the public to download at a reasonable price?
Economics 101: price depends on supply and demand. The supply of media on the internet is effectively infinite. Therefore, the only "reasonable price" is zero.
The only way I can see in which DRM can possibly 'work' is by totally crippling all the computers on the planet.
Incidentally, this is exactly what Microsoft (and its allies) intend to do with Treacherous Computing.
Some people might just consider general-purpose computers just a little teeny bit more important than record company profits.
The people who care aren't the ones in charge, unfortunately.
Most college kids don't have the money to spend on something anyway so it doesn't affect the business model much now, but if they keep this attitude as they grow older and replace the people willing to pay, then there will be a problem.
It should be noted that this "problem" only applies to the media distributors. The rest of society would be perfectly fine regardless.
What fails is human nature. We want to be "different" from each other. We want to show off. We want to have a house with 5 bathrooms that we live in alone.
Or we want to live in a particular location (e.g. for me, right next to the university I attend), but so does everybody else (e.g. it's in the middle of a city), so property is scarce. It is not "showing off" or "excess" to want to not have to commute for two hours a day; it's efficiency and common sense. Yet it's incompatible with communism.
So, what digital camera do you have that takes photos in PNG?
Personally, I think the best solution would be to create a standardized raw format, consisting of the raw sensor data and a header with all the information required to interpret it (camera settings, description of format, description of sensor characteristics, and of course the usual metadata). Ideally, this header would be human readable.
First of all, what's the storage density (in bits/ton)?
Second, even that won't help you in the long run -- marble gets dissolved by acid rain, tombstones (made of granite or gneiss) hvae been found to become unreadable due to erosion after only a few hundred years, etc. Granted, these problems can be mitigated by keeping the stuff out of the elements, but not all of us have 1000-year leases on salt domes.
Finally, you need to build and maintain a system to get the bits back off the rock, which is not trivial. Do you build it in the beginning, designing it to last 1000 years too? Does it physically contact the rock (like a needle on a record player), which would wear down the "bits" over time? What do you do about the software needed to interface it with the future computer (you could put the Perl code on the rocks too, but make sure you do it as text, not encoded bits!)?
In order to be able to seriously propose communism, we need to be able to feed, educate, keep healthy and give rich existences to every human being with a lot to spare...
In other words, communism works if there is no scarcity. Information (i.e., what idiots call "intellectual property") can be duplicated for zero cost and is therefore not scarce, so communism works in that case. Real, physical property is still scarce, so communism doesn't work in that one.
In my opinion, communism in the case of physical property will become possible only after the invention of Star Trek-style replicators. (Of course, even then it won't necessarily be the only remaining social system -- see the Ferengi, for example.)
This is why you should present evidence, in a form identical to the RIAA's, of the judge himself distributing kiddy porn. If that doesn't demonstrate to him loud and clear that the RIAA's "evidence" is bullshit, nothing will!
Slashdot Mirror
No, that won't happen. You know why? Because serving that market would be ILLEGAL because of the DMCA!
The only ways to stop this are political.
And now you know (if you didn't before) one of the myriad reasons people have been complaining about Treacherous Computing -- because that's what's enabling this kind of bullshit.
Ah, but they can take the Internet away from Free Software, in exactly the same way they're taking cable TV away via CableCARD. How many people would run Linux if their ISP would prohibit them from connecting to the network with it?
What the fuck are you talking about? Any hardware that's designed in such a crippled way should be considered broken!
So make it a flat tax paid by all citizens, instead of a "tv license." If almost everybody's paying it anyway it doesn't actually change anything...
All WiX does is provide an XML schema to describe installers (and the tools to compile it). You still have to specify what you want the installer to do yourself.
FYI, even the GPL says that.
For Windows installers, I like WiX. It's open-source (CPL), yet made by Microsoft and used to package Microsoft software (e.g. SQL server, Office 2007). It also compiles to standard .MSI (or MSI-based .EXE) files, instead of relying on all custom code like some installers do.
Then instead of putting COPYING.txt itself in there, they should put the following (or something like it):
No, average cost is the average over all batches of the product. To produce one more unit (i.e., batch) of product has a non-zero cost.
That's not "zero marginal cost." That just means that the marginal cost is the cost per batch divided by the number of burgers per batch. Or alternatively, since the burgers are made in batches, one batch is the margin, not one burger -- the burger only counts as a fraction of an item.
In contrast, the marginal cost of producing a "batch" of songs is zero* no matter what. A "batch" could be 1 song or 1 million songs; it's still zero.
*Give or take electricity etc.; technically I should say "negligible," but "zero" is more dramatic.)
No, China will be doing it to implement totalitarianism (which is a secondary goal for most Western governments too).
Since you worked on it, would you happen to know where I could find some more detailed technical information about it (e.g. what algorithms were used, how it was implemented, etc.)? I'm a student working on a computer vision project, and I'm very interested in it.
Economics 101: price depends on supply and demand. The supply of media on the internet is effectively infinite. Therefore, the only "reasonable price" is zero.
Incidentally, this is exactly what Microsoft (and its allies) intend to do with Treacherous Computing.
The people who care aren't the ones in charge, unfortunately.
It should be noted that this "problem" only applies to the media distributors. The rest of society would be perfectly fine regardless.
Wow, look: a rant telling me how stupid I am, by a guy who can't even write coherently. Hilarious!
Picasa for Linux uses WINElib. He's on a PPC Mac. Do you see the problem yet?
Or we want to live in a particular location (e.g. for me, right next to the university I attend), but so does everybody else (e.g. it's in the middle of a city), so property is scarce. It is not "showing off" or "excess" to want to not have to commute for two hours a day; it's efficiency and common sense. Yet it's incompatible with communism.
So, what digital camera do you have that takes photos in PNG?
Personally, I think the best solution would be to create a standardized raw format, consisting of the raw sensor data and a header with all the information required to interpret it (camera settings, description of format, description of sensor characteristics, and of course the usual metadata). Ideally, this header would be human readable.
First of all, what's the storage density (in bits/ton)?
Second, even that won't help you in the long run -- marble gets dissolved by acid rain, tombstones (made of granite or gneiss) hvae been found to become unreadable due to erosion after only a few hundred years, etc. Granted, these problems can be mitigated by keeping the stuff out of the elements, but not all of us have 1000-year leases on salt domes.
Finally, you need to build and maintain a system to get the bits back off the rock, which is not trivial. Do you build it in the beginning, designing it to last 1000 years too? Does it physically contact the rock (like a needle on a record player), which would wear down the "bits" over time? What do you do about the software needed to interface it with the future computer (you could put the Perl code on the rocks too, but make sure you do it as text, not encoded bits!)?
That makes me wonder how long color laser prints last, since they use toner instead of ink.
Wow, so NASA regularly conducts shuttle missions to change the film in the Hubble Space Telescope? I didn't know that!
In other words, communism works if there is no scarcity. Information (i.e., what idiots call "intellectual property") can be duplicated for zero cost and is therefore not scarce, so communism works in that case. Real, physical property is still scarce, so communism doesn't work in that one.
In my opinion, communism in the case of physical property will become possible only after the invention of Star Trek-style replicators. (Of course, even then it won't necessarily be the only remaining social system -- see the Ferengi, for example.)
This is why you should present evidence, in a form identical to the RIAA's, of the judge himself distributing kiddy porn. If that doesn't demonstrate to him loud and clear that the RIAA's "evidence" is bullshit, nothing will!
Isn't that what all us Free Software advocates are anyway? Collective ownership of property makes sense when the "property" is imaginary!