Most developers don't have a problem with opposing things such as the DMCA and the abuse of patents that runs rampant. That won't be an issue. It was also said in the article that, in March, the page was blacked out for a time in protest of the war against Iraq. I know the war is something that most Slashbots were quite opposed to. While it may not have been the right thing, there are some good things to come from it. One of which is millions of Iraqis now have freedoms they never enjoyed under Saddam Hussein. For the sake of the Iraqi people, hopefully the war will be a success and Iraqis will enjoy the freedoms that much of the world already enjoys. And hopefully the standard of living will rise in Iraq, too. My point is that some issues don't have a clear cut right and wrong. Taking a side, one way or the other, risks fragmenting the community, alienating developers, and just causing a big mess.
I'd like to think the editorial was right when it stated that the community hopes to pressure SCO into changing its ways, much like the effect they probably had on Apple. Unfortunately, the problem is here that SCO doesn't give a damn about the community. SCO is all about profit, pleasing investors, and making a quick buck.
Even if Diebold wins, the documents that were linked to might well end up as part of the public record, and won't be censorable, then. When the documents surfaced, the genie was already out of the bottle. Diebold's efforts to stop the spread of the documents has only resulted in more people taking notice of what's going on.
There's no telling how a judge will rule in this case. The U.S. judicial system is a mess and has next to no consistency. It's entirely possible that Diebold will win. But in the process, the truth is already out there.
You can't censor the public record. They've made what was a little mess into a big mess.
Forgive me if I'm being moronic about this, but if it's based off the G5, it has a completely different instruction set. Does this mean that the modified Windows 2000 kernel used with the current XBox will be upgraded and ported to G5, or that we might see a completely different and new kernel?
I say this is great because if AT&T gets fined, it shows that nobody's above the rules and will send a message to all the smaller telemarketers who might be tempted to ignore the DNC. It's nice to know that nobody, no matter how big or small, is above the rules.
On the other hand, as we all know, the DNC is hotly contested in court as possible free speech violations, among other things. I don't think the courts really care about the small telemarketer and their rights, but someone with the size, lobbying ability, and lawyer teams that AT&T has really could put up a good fight to the law.
It's a nice precedent to see AT&T fined for this, but I hope it doesn't backfire.
I was mostly comparing the KDE apps to the comparable Windows apps. I'd say, for example, it's a safe bet that Konqueror is much more secure than Internet Explorer.
As much as I like KDE - and I do, I use KDE - there's plenty of times I find myself needing to use non-KDE apps such as Openoffice, Mozilla, and others to do the things I need to do. The interface for KDE is easy enough to use and powerful enough, after many years of development, that instead of adding eye candy, it would be more worthwhile to improve the included applications. I like KDE, but there's still room for improvement. Unfortunately, I don't think the KDE developers are as much concentrating their efforts on the areas that need it.
Note that I think KDE is also already more useful than Microsoft Windows, because it looks better, it's more secure, and the included apps are far better than what you get with a Windows installation - unless you want to pay a few hundred dollars for MS Office and the other apps you'll want.
The problem, then, is verifying the integrity of a paper trail. If someone is going to rig an election by tampering with electronic voting machines, they're also more than capable of forging the paper trail. There's also stories from the last presidential election about ballots being lost and destroyed. Even the paper trail is subject to tampering. The only certain way of making a voting process accurate and not subject to fraud is if you do away with the secret ballot. And I don't think that's worth it.
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Most developers don't have a problem with opposing things such as the DMCA and the abuse of patents that runs rampant. That won't be an issue. It was also said in the article that, in March, the page was blacked out for a time in protest of the war against Iraq. I know the war is something that most Slashbots were quite opposed to. While it may not have been the right thing, there are some good things to come from it. One of which is millions of Iraqis now have freedoms they never enjoyed under Saddam Hussein. For the sake of the Iraqi people, hopefully the war will be a success and Iraqis will enjoy the freedoms that much of the world already enjoys. And hopefully the standard of living will rise in Iraq, too. My point is that some issues don't have a clear cut right and wrong. Taking a side, one way or the other, risks fragmenting the community, alienating developers, and just causing a big mess.
I'd like to think the editorial was right when it stated that the community hopes to pressure SCO into changing its ways, much like the effect they probably had on Apple. Unfortunately, the problem is here that SCO doesn't give a damn about the community. SCO is all about profit, pleasing investors, and making a quick buck.
Even if Diebold wins, the documents that were linked to might well end up as part of the public record, and won't be censorable, then. When the documents surfaced, the genie was already out of the bottle. Diebold's efforts to stop the spread of the documents has only resulted in more people taking notice of what's going on. There's no telling how a judge will rule in this case. The U.S. judicial system is a mess and has next to no consistency. It's entirely possible that Diebold will win. But in the process, the truth is already out there. You can't censor the public record. They've made what was a little mess into a big mess.
Forgive me if I'm being moronic about this, but if it's based off the G5, it has a completely different instruction set. Does this mean that the modified Windows 2000 kernel used with the current XBox will be upgraded and ported to G5, or that we might see a completely different and new kernel?
I say this is great because if AT&T gets fined, it shows that nobody's above the rules and will send a message to all the smaller telemarketers who might be tempted to ignore the DNC. It's nice to know that nobody, no matter how big or small, is above the rules.
On the other hand, as we all know, the DNC is hotly contested in court as possible free speech violations, among other things. I don't think the courts really care about the small telemarketer and their rights, but someone with the size, lobbying ability, and lawyer teams that AT&T has really could put up a good fight to the law.
It's a nice precedent to see AT&T fined for this, but I hope it doesn't backfire.
I was mostly comparing the KDE apps to the comparable Windows apps. I'd say, for example, it's a safe bet that Konqueror is much more secure than Internet Explorer.
As much as I like KDE - and I do, I use KDE - there's plenty of times I find myself needing to use non-KDE apps such as Openoffice, Mozilla, and others to do the things I need to do. The interface for KDE is easy enough to use and powerful enough, after many years of development, that instead of adding eye candy, it would be more worthwhile to improve the included applications. I like KDE, but there's still room for improvement. Unfortunately, I don't think the KDE developers are as much concentrating their efforts on the areas that need it. Note that I think KDE is also already more useful than Microsoft Windows, because it looks better, it's more secure, and the included apps are far better than what you get with a Windows installation - unless you want to pay a few hundred dollars for MS Office and the other apps you'll want.
The problem, then, is verifying the integrity of a paper trail. If someone is going to rig an election by tampering with electronic voting machines, they're also more than capable of forging the paper trail. There's also stories from the last presidential election about ballots being lost and destroyed. Even the paper trail is subject to tampering. The only certain way of making a voting process accurate and not subject to fraud is if you do away with the secret ballot. And I don't think that's worth it.