It isn't an admission of prior art---instead, it is designed to allow projects that are currently working to continue their work. What they've done is pledge to allow other people to do what Blackboard is doing. This doesn't mean that Blackboard has admitted that someone else was doing it first.
The gist of the situation is that Blackboard is making a pledge, but (i) apparently the constraints of the pledge are incompatible with the GPL (so it does GPL'd projects little good) and (ii) they're reserving the right to revoke the "license" from anyone that sues Blackboard for patent infringement.
Of course, the real question here is whether they have a legitimate patent in the first place; if they don't, then the issues above go away.
[Note: I'm not a legal expert, I'm not privvy to the relevant docs, and I've not been consulted by any parties involved. As a result, I'm not saying that the allegations are correct; I'm just telling the author of the parent post what has been alleged.]
I'm a bit of a bibliophile, so I'm totally sympathetic here. However, if you don't have access to a (real, physical!) library AND you have a computer with network access, then you have access to a *ton* of books electronically---many of which are available for free.
I don't live in the third world, just a ruralish part of SW Pennsylvania , and having the access to electronic texts means that my access to texts far outstrips my university's ability to store such documents (especially academic journals). I prefer to read them on paper, for sure, but if the choice is between no access and only electronic access, I vote for electronic access.
I should add that I can carry more electronic texts with me on a laptop than I can in my bag. Heck, an electronic copy of Unix Power Tols is lighter than the print copy---and that includes the weight of my laptop!;)
1) You don't have to read every article that shows up on slashdot! (See the headline, look for the word Vista, make sure it isn't referring to a view, and skip the article. Easy-peasy.)
2) There are some good reasons for people to be pissing and moaning about Vista repeatedly here on Slashdot:
(a) Many people on Slashdot work where upgrades to Vista are looming large.
(b) Many of THOSE people will be in charge of having to run the migration.
(c) Other slashdot users buy computers, and frequently these computers have Microsoft OSes installed on them; if they plan on buying a computer in the next few years (esp. a laptop), then it will likely have Vista on it. Even if they wipe the drive and install OpenBSD, they'll likely be on the hook for free support for their family and friends.
(d) There's not much going on with SCO or Jack Thompson right now; the Wii vs. PS3 vs XBOX360 battle has cooled; and OMG Ponies!!! isn't for another 4 months.
3) Just so you don't think I'm being a total jerk: yeah, I agree, there is only so much one can read about how Vista is teh sux0rs. Perhaps slashdot should pose an ask slashdot of the "What is the best car analogy for Vista?" and call it a day.
I think, for the most part, you're right---if someone gets the right records (i.e. those that correlate SSN with ID#s), there's not much you can do.
However, having non-SSN ID#s means that your SSN appears (or at least needs to appear) in fewer places in your records and on campus in general. The problem is that students use (or can at many places use) their IDs at the library, as a debit card, and the like, and having ID=SSN means having that information out there in a LOT of places.
To take one example people (faculty and students) don't often think of: class rosters. All of the class rosters I've used as a professor have had student ID#s on them. Me? I'm pretty careful about security, so I try to shred any document that has this sort of information on it. But many of my colleagues don't---they'll just drop the sheets in the trash or recycling bin. If the IDs on there are SSNs, it wouldn't take much 1337 h4x0ring skills to grab the roster from the bin. Granted, you can't get 800,000 this way very quickly, and you can of course wreak havoc with student ID numbers, but having student ID numbers other than SSNs does shrink this security hole some.
FWIW: I lived in Dallas for 2 years, and I've been an ATT wireless/Cingular customer for something close to 8 years. I always had great customer service from ATTWS/Cingular (though that may just make me the luckiest boy in the world), and my reception in the Dallas area was great. I don't think I had any dropped calls.
However, I lived in downtown as well as in uptown, and most of my time was spent between 30 (to the south), 35 (to the west), Buckner Ave to the east, and 635 to the north---so I don't have the broadest sampling of reception.
Well, I think the problem here is that you're not picking a target. Let me.
Are you worried about a *nix-raised child being unable to handle a Windows desktop because the office uses only Word/Excel/Powerpoint?
Maybe you mean that someone raised to administer a *nix machine/system wouldn't be capable of understanding how to use a sophisticated OS like Windows?
Maybe you are concerned that someone who is raised in a *nix environment will be incapable of writing software for the Windows platform?
I can't speak about the third---I don't write code---but sweet enola gay son those first two suggestions are obvious moose-kaka. I mean, are you really suggesting that someone who understands how to use Open Office couldn't figure out MS Word? (Or OMG they use firefox on BOTH platforms.) Or that someone who knows how to use the zsh shell will be incapable of getting up to speed with an ugly-ass GUI?
Do you not see how ridiculous that sounds? If the computer-illiterates around me can figure out Windows and get their work done (and they do!), then I'm pretty sure that someone who understands how to use *nix should be able to get up to speed.
Apparently you're not quite familiar with how time operates. See, things can be true in 1998 but not in 2003. So, for example, Saddam might have had WMDs in 1998 and not in 2002. And then the quotes you've got here from the 1990's aren't really helpful---though they do make your post seem to have some gravitas because it is just so full of words.
Moreover, you're also not so clear on how context works. For example, people can say "Saddam Hussein shouldn't be allowed to further develop the weapons we gave him when the Reagan administration supported him" and still not mean that we should wage an immoral war on the thinnest of pretexts. Perhaps one might say that exact sentence and be arguing for sustained international diplomatic and police efforts.
But other than that, you're right; some Democrats supported this immoral war. They, like the Republicans they supported, are all war criminals; I'm happy to start a bipartisan effort to send them all to the Hague for trial.
Actually, questions about "god" are *NOT* central to philosophy---at least, not in the last 100 years or so, and at least in the mainstream anglo-american tradition. (I offer this tidbit since I am a professor of philosophy.) With few exceptions, any such discussions are limited to professors covering classical arguments for the existence of god in a intro class or to some discussion of "philosophy of religion".
Moreover, it is a pretty invidious distinction to say "well, the god question is old, and so real, but the FSM is new and just parody." I mean, the Jesus hypothesis was pretty new at one point . . . .
The price of academic journals is a real problem, to be sure---but don't German universities have Interlibrary Loan? (I'm not asking rhetorically, I am curious.) Here in the US, at least, if I need a journal article from a journal my university doesn't have, the librarians will request the material from a peer institution. (If it is an article, I usually get a photocopy; if I need a book, I usually get to check out the book like I normally do.)
Academic philosophers have begun, slowly, to try to fix the situation by creating a high-quality, peer reviewed online journal called Philosopher's Imprint. The Mission and Rationale can be found here:
I probably won't buy one of these things until the attached cell phone works better. I mean, yeah, the pictures totally rock, but I can't exactly call anyone with them.
First, ignore the jackasses who think this is a terrible idea because their family and friends wouldn't like it---because, um, you're not giving it to THEIR family and friends. After all, my family wouldn't like these Christmas gifts since we're Jewish . . . .
Second, I think that some of your offer to help install/administer their linux boxes should include spending time with them and finding out how they use their computer, what features they find essential, and the like. It would be worth it to burn a few live cds (at least Ubuntu AND Kubuntu, if we're only choosing between Gnome and KDE) and bring them over; sit with each family member (or at least primary computer user) as they play with each interface and ask them which they prefer. (Or just install both, if the HD is large enough and there's broadband bandwidth to spare.) It'll take longer---perhaps a lot longer---but if this is a gift for THEM then you should take the time to help them. (My experience on this front is that either people have very strong preferences right away or they're completely indifferent---but it is worth taking the time to find out.)
Third, (as others have said) the easyubuntu and automatix downloads will help them get up to speed with proprietary multimedia codecs quickly and painlessly. Other needs will crop up, but the more time you put in at the beginning making sure that THEIR basics get on the machine at install time means less administering stuff later on.
Fourth, be sure to spend time teaching them to use Synaptic or Adept---so that they feel comfortable adding and removing software.
Finall, spend time teaching them to use google effectively, so that they can solve their own problems should any arise. Show them the ubuntuforum and wiki sites, teach them how to ask good questions, etc. If you're installing dapper, odds are good that any problem they'll have will have popped up already---and so these sources will be valuable in case they have a problem before they can get ahold of you.
FSTAB was the source of my biggest problem, too. Switching to the uuid-based system somehow made it impossible for the swap partition to be mounted (automatically at boot OR by command). Since I have a laptop and use hibernate, not having the swap partition was a big deal. I did find that if I went back to the standard fstab format for naming drives (/dev/sda), I had no problem with the swap partition.
Since they have such a tenuous grasp on REALITY, it is no surprise that technology is a problem for them as well (given that technology is a part of reality).
Well, the Hebrew is murder. And there's a HUGE difference between killing and murder; many killings aren't murder (self-defense, for example), and there's a terrible scope problem with a rule that says "Killing is impermissible". In particular, that seems to make vegetarianism compulsory, despite all the rules of Kashrut that say you can kill animals.
But that would be just one more biblical contradiction to add to the list, I guess.
I'm not talking about "problems" as in bugs. I'm not talking about UI effects. I'm talking about missing features. I got a new laptop from work a few weeks back. I rebooted my old laptop into firewire mode, plugged in a cable and turned on the new laptop. It asked me if I wanted to install from the old one and I clicked "yes." Then I walked down to the coffee shop, grabbed a bite and a drink. That was it. All my configurations, settings, files, programs, security certs, user accounts, and everything else was sucked across the firewire cable. With a straight Linux machine it takes me days of configuration to get all those configurations back on new hardware.
Slashdot Mirror
It isn't an admission of prior art---instead, it is designed to allow projects that are currently working to continue their work. What they've done is pledge to allow other people to do what Blackboard is doing. This doesn't mean that Blackboard has admitted that someone else was doing it first.
Newsforge has had a few links this morning; here's a decent one:
http://news.com.com/2100-7344_3-6155469.html
The gist of the situation is that Blackboard is making a pledge, but (i) apparently the constraints of the pledge are incompatible with the GPL (so it does GPL'd projects little good) and (ii) they're reserving the right to revoke the "license" from anyone that sues Blackboard for patent infringement.
Of course, the real question here is whether they have a legitimate patent in the first place; if they don't, then the issues above go away.
[Note: I'm not a legal expert, I'm not privvy to the relevant docs, and I've not been consulted by any parties involved. As a result, I'm not saying that the allegations are correct; I'm just telling the author of the parent post what has been alleged.]
Oh man that sounds SO good right now. That really is the breakfast of champions.
I'm a bit of a bibliophile, so I'm totally sympathetic here. However, if you don't have access to a (real, physical!) library AND you have a computer with network access, then you have access to a *ton* of books electronically---many of which are available for free.
I don't live in the third world, just a ruralish part of SW Pennsylvania , and having the access to electronic texts means that my access to texts far outstrips my university's ability to store such documents (especially academic journals). I prefer to read them on paper, for sure, but if the choice is between no access and only electronic access, I vote for electronic access.
I should add that I can carry more electronic texts with me on a laptop than I can in my bag. Heck, an electronic copy of Unix Power Tols is lighter than the print copy---and that includes the weight of my laptop!
Two comments:
1) You don't have to read every article that shows up on slashdot! (See the headline, look for the word Vista, make sure it isn't referring to a view, and skip the article. Easy-peasy.)
2) There are some good reasons for people to be pissing and moaning about Vista repeatedly here on Slashdot:
(a) Many people on Slashdot work where upgrades to Vista are looming large.
(b) Many of THOSE people will be in charge of having to run the migration.
(c) Other slashdot users buy computers, and frequently these computers have Microsoft OSes installed on them; if they plan on buying a computer in the next few years (esp. a laptop), then it will likely have Vista on it. Even if they wipe the drive and install OpenBSD, they'll likely be on the hook for free support for their family and friends.
(d) There's not much going on with SCO or Jack Thompson right now; the Wii vs. PS3 vs XBOX360 battle has cooled; and OMG Ponies!!! isn't for another 4 months.
3) Just so you don't think I'm being a total jerk: yeah, I agree, there is only so much one can read about how Vista is teh sux0rs. Perhaps slashdot should pose an ask slashdot of the "What is the best car analogy for Vista?" and call it a day.
"Telling people what they can think is NEVER correct."
I think it is, now go run along and leave us alone please.
Or are you willing to break your rule in this one case?
I think, for the most part, you're right---if someone gets the right records (i.e. those that correlate SSN with ID#s), there's not much you can do.
However, having non-SSN ID#s means that your SSN appears (or at least needs to appear) in fewer places in your records and on campus in general. The problem is that students use (or can at many places use) their IDs at the library, as a debit card, and the like, and having ID=SSN means having that information out there in a LOT of places.
To take one example people (faculty and students) don't often think of: class rosters. All of the class rosters I've used as a professor have had student ID#s on them. Me? I'm pretty careful about security, so I try to shred any document that has this sort of information on it. But many of my colleagues don't---they'll just drop the sheets in the trash or recycling bin. If the IDs on there are SSNs, it wouldn't take much 1337 h4x0ring skills to grab the roster from the bin. Granted, you can't get 800,000 this way very quickly, and you can of course wreak havoc with student ID numbers, but having student ID numbers other than SSNs does shrink this security hole some.
FWIW: I lived in Dallas for 2 years, and I've been an ATT wireless/Cingular customer for something close to 8 years. I always had great customer service from ATTWS/Cingular (though that may just make me the luckiest boy in the world), and my reception in the Dallas area was great. I don't think I had any dropped calls.
However, I lived in downtown as well as in uptown, and most of my time was spent between 30 (to the south), 35 (to the west), Buckner Ave to the east, and 635 to the north---so I don't have the broadest sampling of reception.
"I think that there are lies told in the pursuit of "peace" that equal or exceed those claimed to have been told in the pursuit of war."
Well, okay, except there's a difference between lies that don't kill anyone and those that result in the deaths of thousands!
Open Car is a misleading expression; what we mean is a Free Car.
In fact, I think it should be exclusively referred to as the GNU/Car.
The bonus is that the bandwidth of my stationwagon goes up dramatically as well!
Well, I think the problem here is that you're not picking a target. Let me.
Are you worried about a *nix-raised child being unable to handle a Windows desktop because the office uses only Word/Excel/Powerpoint?
Maybe you mean that someone raised to administer a *nix machine/system wouldn't be capable of understanding how to use a sophisticated OS like Windows?
Maybe you are concerned that someone who is raised in a *nix environment will be incapable of writing software for the Windows platform?
I can't speak about the third---I don't write code---but sweet enola gay son those first two suggestions are obvious moose-kaka. I mean, are you really suggesting that someone who understands how to use Open Office couldn't figure out MS Word? (Or OMG they use firefox on BOTH platforms.) Or that someone who knows how to use the zsh shell will be incapable of getting up to speed with an ugly-ass GUI?
Do you not see how ridiculous that sounds? If the computer-illiterates around me can figure out Windows and get their work done (and they do!), then I'm pretty sure that someone who understands how to use *nix should be able to get up to speed.
Apparently you're not quite familiar with how time operates. See, things can be true in 1998 but not in 2003. So, for example, Saddam might have had WMDs in 1998 and not in 2002. And then the quotes you've got here from the 1990's aren't really helpful---though they do make your post seem to have some gravitas because it is just so full of words.
Moreover, you're also not so clear on how context works. For example, people can say "Saddam Hussein shouldn't be allowed to further develop the weapons we gave him when the Reagan administration supported him" and still not mean that we should wage an immoral war on the thinnest of pretexts. Perhaps one might say that exact sentence and be arguing for sustained international diplomatic and police efforts.
But other than that, you're right; some Democrats supported this immoral war. They, like the Republicans they supported, are all war criminals; I'm happy to start a bipartisan effort to send them all to the Hague for trial.
Actually, questions about "god" are *NOT* central to philosophy---at least, not in the last 100 years or so, and at least in the mainstream anglo-american tradition. (I offer this tidbit since I am a professor of philosophy.) With few exceptions, any such discussions are limited to professors covering classical arguments for the existence of god in a intro class or to some discussion of "philosophy of religion".
Moreover, it is a pretty invidious distinction to say "well, the god question is old, and so real, but the FSM is new and just parody." I mean, the Jesus hypothesis was pretty new at one point . . . .
"Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that."
--Homer Simpson
The price of academic journals is a real problem, to be sure---but don't German universities have Interlibrary Loan? (I'm not asking rhetorically, I am curious.) Here in the US, at least, if I need a journal article from a journal my university doesn't have, the librarians will request the material from a peer institution. (If it is an article, I usually get a photocopy; if I need a book, I usually get to check out the book like I normally do.)
Academic philosophers have begun, slowly, to try to fix the situation by creating a high-quality, peer reviewed online journal called Philosopher's Imprint. The Mission and Rationale can be found here:
http://webapps.itcs.umich.edu/blogic/about.php
Here ya' go:
http://links.twibright.com/
(But links2 doesn't seem to work with searchmash.com in either graphical or text modes, even though it does have some javascript support.)
I probably won't buy one of these things until the attached cell phone works better. I mean, yeah, the pictures totally rock, but I can't exactly call anyone with them.
First, ignore the jackasses who think this is a terrible idea because their family and friends wouldn't like it---because, um, you're not giving it to THEIR family and friends. After all, my family wouldn't like these Christmas gifts since we're Jewish . . . .
Second, I think that some of your offer to help install/administer their linux boxes should include spending time with them and finding out how they use their computer, what features they find essential, and the like. It would be worth it to burn a few live cds (at least Ubuntu AND Kubuntu, if we're only choosing between Gnome and KDE) and bring them over; sit with each family member (or at least primary computer user) as they play with each interface and ask them which they prefer. (Or just install both, if the HD is large enough and there's broadband bandwidth to spare.) It'll take longer---perhaps a lot longer---but if this is a gift for THEM then you should take the time to help them. (My experience on this front is that either people have very strong preferences right away or they're completely indifferent---but it is worth taking the time to find out.)
Third, (as others have said) the easyubuntu and automatix downloads will help them get up to speed with proprietary multimedia codecs quickly and painlessly. Other needs will crop up, but the more time you put in at the beginning making sure that THEIR basics get on the machine at install time means less administering stuff later on.
Fourth, be sure to spend time teaching them to use Synaptic or Adept---so that they feel comfortable adding and removing software.
Finall, spend time teaching them to use google effectively, so that they can solve their own problems should any arise. Show them the ubuntuforum and wiki sites, teach them how to ask good questions, etc. If you're installing dapper, odds are good that any problem they'll have will have popped up already---and so these sources will be valuable in case they have a problem before they can get ahold of you.
FSTAB was the source of my biggest problem, too. Switching to the uuid-based system somehow made it impossible for the swap partition to be mounted (automatically at boot OR by command). Since I have a laptop and use hibernate, not having the swap partition was a big deal. I did find that if I went back to the standard fstab format for naming drives (/dev/sda), I had no problem with the swap partition.
Since they have such a tenuous grasp on REALITY, it is no surprise that technology is a problem for them as well (given that technology is a part of reality).
Yeah, my initial thought after reading this piece was "Man, am I glad that guy's gonna be in jail! Now we're all totally safe to walk the streets."
Spoken like a true terrorist.
Don't worry everyone, I've contacted the Department of Homeland Security.
Well, the Hebrew is murder. And there's a HUGE difference between killing and murder; many killings aren't murder (self-defense, for example), and there's a terrible scope problem with a rule that says "Killing is impermissible". In particular, that seems to make vegetarianism compulsory, despite all the rules of Kashrut that say you can kill animals.
But that would be just one more biblical contradiction to add to the list, I guess.
man rsync