I think it's wonderful if they have a better process for maintaining there database than there competition. That's the idea.
BUT, you can't 'pout' (read 'sue') because someone chose your competitor.
The ONLY TWO POSSIBLE grounds for lawsuit would be if they truely have a patent on the protocols themselves. Specifically, the retrieval and access interface.
If that's the case, They they will also need to sue FreeDB to shut down their service because the violation is also there. (of course, most likely a new protocol would be developed and FreeDB would be back again.)
Oh, and you don't only have to READ the article. You need to try to UNDERSTAND IT as well.
He's getting closer, but it's still a miss...
on
Mundie Responds
·
· Score: 5
At least now he can distinguish between Open Source and the GPL, although I believe the title of the article is mis-leading.
There is nothing in an open source model that can keep someone from competeting against it. If you can build a significantly better mousetrap, then people will buy it anyway. DEC VAX/VMS was a completely open source operating system that was a SIGNIFICANT player in the late 80's and early 90's. Their OS source code was available for a nominal fee (to pay for the Microfiche it came on).
What Mr. Mundie and Microsoft in general still seems to be wresting with is competing against the GPL. The GPL is a software house that produces code that's free, is of good quality, and can't be bought, incorporated, dismantled, or undersold. All their tried and true techniques of competition don't work.
The only way to compete with the GPL is to be more customer focused, have better quality, and respond to changes quickly. MS's customer base is too big and too divserse to do that, and they lack real cross-platform development abilities.
Perhaps Microsoft is starting to feel a similar pain to what Netscape felt when Microsoft released IE and IIS for free? Netscape couldn't buy it, they couldn't dismantled it, and they couldn't undersell it, and it was good quality (Esp. for Windows platforms), and their last resort was to open-source the browser.
Do you really believe that the administration did something wrong? If so, what are you basing your opinion on?
If the kid had thrown a rock through the school window, the punishment would most likely be the EXACT SAME THING. Suspension, with a comment about the illegality of the act. How much milder should it be? Who's responsiblity is it to discuss the act and the ramifications of it?
Geek and Hacker are not elite status' that kids get awared because they are intelligent. The ONLY thing that makes this a tragedy is that the only solution the kid saw was suicide. But when there's no other indication of suicide, then perhaps no-one is to blame.
Breaking and Entering, Tresspassing, unauthorized use of other peoples computer systems (a/k/a Kevin Mitnick), it doesn't matter. There're all still illegal, and it's up to the company to decide if they want to press charges...
My guess is that since the SPARC HW is so expensive (someone mentioned a 450.. have you PRICED a 450 recently?) that most guys that WOULD develop for it can't. And it's not like Sun is helpin' w/ the port....
And a bad scorpion king to boot. Especially compared to a lot of other special effects...
Instead of muscle-definition, it was a 2-D mapped graphic of muscles... (oh, and facial features, to...) When will these people learn that doing realistic looking humans is TOUGH.
I think it'd be almost impossible to NOT call this art. Let's start with the definition of 'Art' (complements of Dictionary.com):
art1 (ärt)
1.Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature.
2. a) The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
b) The study of these activities.
c) The product of these activities; human works of beauty considered as a group.
3.High quality of conception or execution, as found in works of beauty; aesthetic value.
4.A field or category of art, such as music, ballet, or literature.
5.A nonscientific branch of learning; one of the liberal arts.
6. a) A system of principles and methods employed in the performance of a set of activities: the art of building.
b) A trade or craft that applies such a system of principles and methods: the art of the lexicographer.
7. a) Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation: the art of the baker; the blacksmith's art.
b)Skill arising from the exercise of intuitive faculties: "Self-criticism is an art not many are qualified to practice" (Joyce Carol Oates).
8. a) arts. Artful devices, stratagems, and tricks.
b).Artful contrivance; cunning.
9.Printing. Illustrative material.
I think items 3, 6, and 7 apply quite nicely.
While programmers are typically considered engineers, coding is most emphatically an art-form. There *is* a creative process involved.
To create is take some 'thing' or 'things', and rearrange, modify, and or combine them into something new. With 'classic art', the result is something that is 'asthetically pleasing' (a wonderfully 'nebulous' term).
Well, I know we've all created 'ugly' code, which implies that we have also created 'pleasing' or 'beautiful' code. And, without a creative nature (the mind-set to take a set of rules/definitions/techniques and combine them into something that is unique) coding is neither pleasing, nor easy.
I have an HTML file that is the LINUX Kernel code that when displayed in a web-browser, displays an image of "TUX". How is that not art and code at the same time?
The question seems to resolve around intent. Is Microoft trying to get a list of companies that are, accidently, or intentionally, violating their license agreement,(OK in my book) OR, are they trying to get a general list of all the people with the arrogant thought that if they bought an OS-free PC, they they should have purchased a MS-OS, so they can badger and hound them into buying an OS...
Going after mis-licensed companies is OK, in my book... going after me 'cuz I wanna run Linux is NOT OK.
I gues it's in the hands of the PC manufacturers to do the right thing...
Ok... appearently, an innocent bystander in the war on drugs was your sense of humor...
I was making a (appearently lame) joke refering to the previous columbine/video game/movie post by Rob.
You can watch all the violence you want, but if you have high regard for life, you're not going to take a life. If you DON'T have a high-regard for life, then taking a life will be easy.
When I was in high school, there was a big witch-hunt on for kids that played Dungeons and Dragons, because a few kids got killed in the tunnels of MSU. I played D&D quite a bit, and never was I compelled to kill someone in a tunnel.
No game or movie will teach you a regard for life, because by the time you are old enough to watch them, values and morals should already have a strong foundation...
Appearently, we need to create a video games and a movies about people NOT taking drugs, and we'll be all set.
Re:I think this is "piss on email" day.
on
Buried in email?
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· Score: 2
this is SO TRUE. I worked as a consultant at a company that used Voice mail like most people use EMAIL. Forwarding Voicemails, the whole nine-yards... some voice mails would be 5 or 10 minutes long! I can scan a long message, looking for the 'key' peices of info, in WAY LESS than 5 minutes.
For me, the only alternative to email would be to communicate less.
Hello? This has been the case for over 10 years. It's called Leased Software, and your license key/dongle/license server has an expiration date that you have to pay to renew each year, and if the company fails, you're SOL.
The model usually applies to high-end packages like CAD/CAM/CAE software that cost $10k/year (or more). Software like ProEngineer(3d-solid CAD), WorkView (2D Schematic Capture), and Ansys (Thermal Modeling?), Saber (Analog Circuit Simulation), and etc. all use a time-bounded networked license scheme (FlexLM) to control the software.
That's why, as part of your software evaluation, you should include a financial report on the company so you will have an idea of what type of risk you are in should they fail.
If they push the format to WMV, then they are DEFINATELY NOT weakening their monopoly. MS has no investment in MP3. They can't control the format, they don't get any revenue from it, and they don't don't own a patent on it.
"Certainly, when Microsoft decides to put something in their operating-system support, it becomes the standard," says Mr. Farber, who testified for the government during the Microsoft antitrust trial. "The average consumer will use what comes on the disc when he buys the machine. They're very effective in that way."
But, of course, they don't have a monopoly, nor nuthin'...
My question is, if something like the MP3 format came about w/out Microsoft, How can Microsoft kill it? I mean, I do understand the digital rights thing, and I don't totally disagree with it... but when MS's WMV format isn't available for platforms other than the ones that Micro$oft wants to support, then it's not a valid replacement for MP3. (At least REAL Audio can be played under Linux.)
It has always been my personal opinion that, since the laws are WRITTEN by lawyers, PROSECUTED by lawyers, DEFENDED by lawyers, and finally offenses are JUDGED by lawyers, that it is in their best interest to make laws that laypeople cannot understand. That way, lawyers are then also needed to INTERPRET/TRANSLATE the laws.
Hell, when a lawyer 'mis-behaves', the 'checks-and-balances system' is STAFFED with lawyers.
Yet, in the computing industry, we get bashed because things are not 'User Friendly' enough, and Linux/UNIX gets bashed because 'you need to know computers to use it'.
The difference is, in computers, you still have to convince people to BUY them. We don't have that option on OBEYING the laws.
that the economic/trade impact of this entire stand-off will probably over-rule anything else. It'll be something stupid like "here's your people, but we blew-up your plane"... now, about the trade agreement.....
It is rapidly appearing that, if you don't own the wire all the way to the end-point, you can't survive. If you own the wire (cable, or copper), you can leverage the cost of that connection over the OTHER service(s) you provide (or you've already bore the burden of that physical media cost, therefore you only need to fund the new service, and not the service and the wire).
In DSL land, the ILECs, CLECs, and ISP's all have to have a markup, AND it has to fit within the 'Yeah,I'll pay that much per month' dollar amount; usually $40-$50/mo. At $13-$16 per user, per month, per service provider, that's not a lot of room for making money.
It's the same for phone-line based ISPs. Most of the mom-and-pop ISPs are toast, cause they can't compete with the AT&T $7/month for unlimited internet access AND $.07/minute long distance. They just don't have the leverage from other ventures.
Slashdot Mirror
I think it's wonderful if they have a better process for maintaining there database than there competition. That's the idea.
BUT, you can't 'pout' (read 'sue') because someone chose your competitor.
The ONLY TWO POSSIBLE grounds for lawsuit would be if they truely have a patent on the protocols themselves. Specifically, the retrieval and access interface.
If that's the case, They they will also need to sue FreeDB to shut down their service because the violation is also there. (of course, most likely a new protocol would be developed and FreeDB would be back again.)
Oh, and you don't only have to READ the article. You need to try to UNDERSTAND IT as well.
At least now he can distinguish between Open Source and the GPL, although I believe the title of the article is mis-leading.
There is nothing in an open source model that can keep someone from competeting against it. If you can build a significantly better mousetrap, then people will buy it anyway. DEC VAX/VMS was a completely open source operating system that was a SIGNIFICANT player in the late 80's and early 90's. Their OS source code was available for a nominal fee (to pay for the Microfiche it came on).
What Mr. Mundie and Microsoft in general still seems to be wresting with is competing against the GPL. The GPL is a software house that produces code that's free, is of good quality, and can't be bought, incorporated, dismantled, or undersold. All their tried and true techniques of competition don't work.
The only way to compete with the GPL is to be more customer focused, have better quality, and respond to changes quickly. MS's customer base is too big and too divserse to do that, and they lack real cross-platform development abilities.
Perhaps Microsoft is starting to feel a similar pain to what Netscape felt when Microsoft released IE and IIS for free? Netscape couldn't buy it, they couldn't dismantled it, and they couldn't undersell it, and it was good quality (Esp. for Windows platforms), and their last resort was to open-source the browser.
Do you really believe that the administration did something wrong? If so, what are you basing your opinion on?
If the kid had thrown a rock through the school window, the punishment would most likely be the EXACT SAME THING. Suspension, with a comment about the illegality of the act. How much milder should it be? Who's responsiblity is it to discuss the act and the ramifications of it?
Geek and Hacker are not elite status' that kids get awared because they are intelligent. The ONLY thing that makes this a tragedy is that the only solution the kid saw was suicide. But when there's no other indication of suicide, then perhaps no-one is to blame.
Breaking and Entering, Tresspassing, unauthorized use of other peoples computer systems (a/k/a Kevin Mitnick), it doesn't matter. There're all still illegal, and it's up to the company to decide if they want to press charges...
My guess is that since the SPARC HW is so expensive (someone mentioned a 450.. have you PRICED a 450 recently?) that most guys that WOULD develop for it can't. And it's not like Sun is helpin' w/ the port....
...generated scorpion king at the end.
And a bad scorpion king to boot. Especially compared to a lot of other special effects...
Instead of muscle-definition, it was a 2-D mapped graphic of muscles... (oh, and facial features, to...) When will these people learn that doing realistic looking humans is TOUGH.
Dave
I think it'd be almost impossible to NOT call this art. Let's start with the definition of 'Art' (complements of Dictionary.com):
.Artful contrivance; cunning.
art1 (ärt)
1.Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature.
2. a) The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
b) The study of these activities.
c) The product of these activities; human works of beauty considered as a group.
3.High quality of conception or execution, as found in works of beauty; aesthetic value.
4.A field or category of art, such as music, ballet, or literature.
5.A nonscientific branch of learning; one of the liberal arts.
6. a) A system of principles and methods employed in the performance of a set of activities: the art of building.
b) A trade or craft that applies such a system of principles and methods: the art of the lexicographer.
7. a) Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation: the art of the baker; the blacksmith's art.
b)Skill arising from the exercise of intuitive faculties: "Self-criticism is an art not many are qualified to practice" (Joyce Carol Oates).
8. a) arts. Artful devices, stratagems, and tricks.
b)
9.Printing. Illustrative material.
I think items 3, 6, and 7 apply quite nicely.
While programmers are typically considered engineers, coding is most emphatically an art-form. There *is* a creative process involved.
To create is take some 'thing' or 'things', and rearrange, modify, and or combine them into something new. With 'classic art', the result is something that is 'asthetically pleasing' (a wonderfully 'nebulous' term).
Well, I know we've all created 'ugly' code, which implies that we have also created 'pleasing' or 'beautiful' code. And, without a creative nature (the mind-set to take a set of rules/definitions/techniques and combine them into something that is unique) coding is neither pleasing, nor easy.
I have an HTML file that is the LINUX Kernel code that when displayed in a web-browser, displays an image of "TUX". How is that not art and code at the same time?
The question seems to resolve around intent. Is Microoft trying to get a list of companies that are, accidently, or intentionally, violating their license agreement,(OK in my book) OR, are they trying to get a general list of all the people with the arrogant thought that if they bought an OS-free PC, they they should have purchased a MS-OS, so they can badger and hound them into buying an OS...
Going after mis-licensed companies is OK, in my book... going after me 'cuz I wanna run Linux is NOT OK.
I gues it's in the hands of the PC manufacturers to do the right thing...
...uh-oh.... we're fsck'd.
When Microsoft stops using proprietary formats.
Translation: Never.
Ok... appearently, an innocent bystander in the war on drugs was your sense of humor...
I was making a (appearently lame) joke refering to the previous columbine/video game/movie post by Rob.
You can watch all the violence you want, but if you have high regard for life, you're not going to take a life. If you DON'T have a high-regard for life, then taking a life will be easy.
When I was in high school, there was a big witch-hunt on for kids that played Dungeons and Dragons, because a few kids got killed in the tunnels of MSU. I played D&D quite a bit, and never was I compelled to kill someone in a tunnel.
No game or movie will teach you a regard for life, because by the time you are old enough to watch them, values and morals should already have a strong foundation...
Appearently, we need to create a video games and a movies about people NOT taking drugs, and we'll be all set.
this is SO TRUE. I worked as a consultant at a company that used Voice mail like most people use EMAIL. Forwarding Voicemails, the whole nine-yards... some voice mails would be 5 or 10 minutes long! I can scan a long message, looking for the 'key' peices of info, in WAY LESS than 5 minutes.
For me, the only alternative to email would be to communicate less.
and now paper speakers...
Plus, there's not mention of frequency response, wattage, impedience, nuthin'.
I doubt it's real (or if it is, it's real stupid, or real bad).
I may still get to acutally become the 6-million dollar man.....
Hello? This has been the case for over 10 years. It's called Leased Software, and your license key/dongle/license server has an expiration date that you have to pay to renew each year, and if the company fails, you're SOL.
The model usually applies to high-end packages like CAD/CAM/CAE software that cost $10k/year (or more). Software like ProEngineer(3d-solid CAD), WorkView (2D Schematic Capture), and Ansys (Thermal Modeling?), Saber (Analog Circuit Simulation), and etc. all use a time-bounded networked license scheme (FlexLM) to control the software.
That's why, as part of your software evaluation, you should include a financial report on the company so you will have an idea of what type of risk you are in should they fail.
This is no different.
If they push the format to WMV, then they are DEFINATELY NOT weakening their monopoly. MS has no investment in MP3. They can't control the format, they don't get any revenue from it, and they don't don't own a patent on it.
"Certainly, when Microsoft decides to put something in their operating-system support, it becomes the standard," says Mr. Farber, who testified for the government during the Microsoft antitrust trial. "The average consumer will use what comes on the disc when he buys the machine. They're very effective in that way."
But, of course, they don't have a monopoly, nor nuthin'...
My question is, if something like the MP3 format came about w/out Microsoft, How can Microsoft kill it? I mean, I do understand the digital rights thing, and I don't totally disagree with it... but when MS's WMV format isn't available for platforms other than the ones that Micro$oft wants to support, then it's not a valid replacement for MP3. (At least REAL Audio can be played under Linux.)
Um... yeah...
CueCat Scanners.
It has always been my personal opinion that, since the laws are WRITTEN by lawyers, PROSECUTED by lawyers, DEFENDED by lawyers, and finally offenses are JUDGED by lawyers, that it is in their best interest to make laws that laypeople cannot understand. That way, lawyers are then also needed to INTERPRET/TRANSLATE the laws.
Hell, when a lawyer 'mis-behaves', the 'checks-and-balances system' is STAFFED with lawyers.
Yet, in the computing industry, we get bashed because things are not 'User Friendly' enough, and Linux/UNIX gets bashed because 'you need to know computers to use it'.
The difference is, in computers, you still have to convince people to BUY them. We don't have that option on OBEYING the laws.
that the economic/trade impact of this entire stand-off will probably over-rule anything else. It'll be something stupid like "here's your people, but we blew-up your plane"... now, about the trade agreement.....
It's not going to suceed until it's built into all the browsers, 'cuz writing code for non-existent interpretars is a waste of money..
Likewise, the browser companys aren't going to build in support for an un-used language, because it's a waste of money....
Open Source to the rescue?!?!?
I doubt it would appeal to Linux Geeks... the sync software only runs on Windows....
with their embrace and extend philosophy, it'd become the National Kilogram 'and a half'...
(Hmmm... I smell an off-topic mod coming...)
It is rapidly appearing that, if you don't own the wire all the way to the end-point, you can't survive. If you own the wire (cable, or copper), you can leverage the cost of that connection over the OTHER service(s) you provide (or you've already bore the burden of that physical media cost, therefore you only need to fund the new service, and not the service and the wire).
In DSL land, the ILECs, CLECs, and ISP's all have to have a markup, AND it has to fit within the 'Yeah,I'll pay that much per month' dollar amount; usually $40-$50/mo. At $13-$16 per user, per month, per service provider, that's not a lot of room for making money.
It's the same for phone-line based ISPs. Most of the mom-and-pop ISPs are toast, cause they can't compete with the AT&T $7/month for unlimited internet access AND $.07/minute long distance. They just don't have the leverage from other ventures.
It did. It's in the form of MS IE 5.01 SP2. The security bulletin noted that that version was not victim to the exploit.