In fact I think it is very good to let kids think about these issues.
And while the goal is to infiltrate/brainwash them with perverse and immoral ideas, namely that the concept of intellectual property is natural, I am convinced that the mere considering of such issues by young people will lead to the opposite. Anyone who is not yet spoilt and can think freely, must come to the conclusion that such concepts have to be rejected.
The earlier people have to think about such things the better.
If they really have those patent portfolios for defensive reasons, then they should have no gain from patents but only potential harm (which they cover by having defensive patents).
In that case, they should oppose (software) patents in general, since they have nothing to gain but only to loose through those.
Also you cannot have it both ways: if you want to defend your so called intellectual property then there is no room for exceptions, unless you don't really want to defend it but want to use it as a pretext to kill some competitor.
So in any case, if IBM is not hypocritical, they should publicly oppose against software patents and lobby worldwide to have them prevented or abolishded.
Instead, they are among the companies that lobby in favour of software patents, arguing they are a necessity to foster innovation. How can this be reconciled with the idea that it is for defensive reasons only? Maybe at this time, but how about next year?!?
What a dissapointment. Why not add a radio, for the occasion that you want to hear some news.
Anyone knows a good MP3 player that has both a radio and audiobook tempo adjustment? I would buy an Iriver player, but they don't have tempo adjustment. It seems I'll have to wait another year for the ultimate player (as replacement for my old pjbox).
I just tried to subscribe to some groups, read some threads and have google groups keep track of it. I'd say it is 10 times as slow as using a good usenet client. IMO the main advantage of usenet over webforumes etc. is the availability of efficient clients, filters, scoring systems, kill-files etc. that allow you to scan through a large number of groups/threads in minimal time. No web interface will ever come close to that.
I used to do system programming on a VAX/VMS before I knew UNIX. I didn't know better at the time (15 years ago), but once I learned UNIX, I knew what horror VMS is: extremely inelegant, brute force, heavy, awful. I still have bad dreams when thinking about the irregular, bulky and ugly structure of that OS. Good to read that it finally dies. Just a pity that it lives on a little bit in WinNT, which by the way is just as inelegant and ugly as VMS.
Not entirely true: UBS in Switzerland uses a modified version of quicken 98 for its online banking (for those who need something more convenient than the web interface).
Hmm, we always use business data as primary key. I don't see the point of using artificial keys except for very few cases (to optimize away a composite key that would get too many elements and be too cumbersome to use).
I have never understood the use of extra indirection and indirectness by using artificial and not understandable numbers to identify records.
An AC mentioned that any app that does this is guaranteed to break, but yet our 800 tables application (it is a very large app) has been running and continuously extended for many years without any problems. B.t.w. I did performance measuerements (on oracle) many times comparing access times via short artificial keys as compared to longer composite keys. The performance difference was hardly measurable.
Just look at the version numbers and you see that it has the latest official release of almost anything, and usually a newer version than other current distributions.
There used to be a time, some years ago, that Slackware was stable but conservative w.r.t. package versions. Nowadays, it is stable and still has the latest and greatest.
Apparently the current US patent system does not want to spend the time/money to carefully check new patents. Now the EFF and volunteers are doing the USPTO's work for free.
It might remove the most harmful and obviously insane patents, thus making the idiocy of the current system less visible.
No the latest pop hit indeed isn't that important, but the principle is. Historically until well into the 20th century "art" (whatever that may be nowadays) never was protected; every composer could "borrow" parts from others, which in fact is how most synphonies and other great works came to be. With "intellectual property", instead of extra motivation, no symphonies of beethoven, brahms and dvorak would have existed.
All famous painters copied one another, refining styles and experimenting with new variations. Yes, most painter or other artists were not rich (most were dead poor) but they did not do it for the money but for the love for art.
Compare that with todays works of "art" and ask yourself what this "motivation" by protection has brought to mankind: not much but a pile of trash.
Btw I'm a capitalist as well. I just believe that ideas, whether great science or art, or plain lowly amusement, must be free in every meaning of the word free. This is not an anti-capitalist thought at all. Capitalism does not equate to greed and destructive commercialisation. Only enemies of capitalism would hold such views.
Apparently and sadly, you have already been reprogrammed:(. The mere concept of copyright is evil, unnatural and inhuman. The proponents of "intellectual property" in any form are as evil as mass murderes, since they violate basic human, yes even duty, to share what can be freely reproduced. Whether be it ideas, inventions (the progress of civilisation and technology) or art, it is a severe crime to try to stop that.
Why do I sense so much hatred and ungrattitude against SUN? It has been one of the pillars of UNIX, has given away many technologies that today define UNIX/Linux. Without SUN UNIX would have been irrelevant long ago, and with it Linux would have been just as irrelevant.
Why don't people see the strategic importance of the UNIX world (which includes Linux) holding together and fight against the real enemy?
I do have my concenrs regarding Suns recent "peace" with the enemy, maybe we can no longer rely on SUN, but at least one must acknowledge what SUN has done for the UNIX community.
The lack of historical perspective and irrationalism of many of the SUN haters is shocking to me. It almost makes me think that the enemy has sent inflitrators on slashdot with the purpose to spread division and internal struggle inside the UNIX world.
Why? Just create the package on one of your FBSD boxes (including downloading source manually etc), then pkg_install the resulting package on all of your FBSD boxes.
Hmm, at first I thought the date of the sql:2003 std. paper was april 1st, but it is march 1st. It is quite amusing: partly it consists of stuff already in oracle for years, partly it is actually useful (the multiset and casting types, also already possible in oracle by the way) and the rest is crap (the create table 'like' for example).
Hard to believe that this is an official sql standard.
Just think how much more it would be if Mao hadn't killed 30-60 million of his own people during "The Great Leap Forward" (plus another million or so during the "Cultural Revolution"), and if the current regime didn't perform forced abortions for population control.
It would be 1.29-1.33 billion instead of 1.25 billion.
I used to like the plugin system, but since I have "discovered" bookmarklets. I am not so sure anymore:
Almost all things plugins can accomplish, bookmarklets can do as well. And, bookmarklets do not need to be installed in every browser, just put them in your bookmarks. Most of them work in any browser (Mozilla, IE, Opera). The plugins often only work even with specific versions only.
I know a large swiss bank using w2k for windows server (all real servers are solaris or mainframe) and still NT4 for desktop. It is being replaced by win-XP over the next 3 months, because support for NT4 has been terminated. Another reason is increased use of laptops. The laptops currently use W2K (since NT & laptops don't mix well) and they want to move to a single client operating system.
OK ok, so its not a competitor but a competing product, and the companies such as RH, suse selling it and providing support are the competitors. What is the practical difference?
But this time, for the EP, I shall vote far left, if only because of this issue. Grrrrr.
As a conservative, not because of money or bribes or self-interest, but because of principle, I must say I am almost ashamed for many "fellow" conservatives who indeed only seem to be interested in bribes and self interests, not in just and fair politics.
Only if you want to sell in the US you would be affected.
If you are a small or middle sized european company, the software patents regime would have you locked out of all markets. If at least europe rejects them, you can operate freely on the european market, which is better than nothing.
In the longer run, this will lead to more room for innovation on the european market, and europe might surpass the US in software innovation. Do not forget that the european market is already double the number of citizens as the US, add more freedom to innovate and all those weird restrictions on the US market might become quite insignificant over time.
In fact Apple is the company "we" have always had problems with. The FSF, for a long time, has boycotted Apple because of their "look & feel" lawsuits.
One might say Apple has invented the concept of software patents, and thus has been one of the few companies to have been boycotted by the free software community; this in contrast to MSFT, of which one may say many bad things but not (yet) that they have been using patents in evil ways.
Even though the boycott ended in 1995, I have always remained very suspicious w.r.t. Apple, and once more they affirm their "culture".
Slashdot Mirror
In fact I think it is very good to let kids think about these issues.
And while the goal is to infiltrate/brainwash them with perverse and immoral ideas, namely that the concept of intellectual property is natural, I am convinced that the mere considering of such issues by young people will lead to the opposite. Anyone who is not yet spoilt and can think freely, must come to the conclusion that such concepts have to be rejected.
The earlier people have to think about such things the better.
If they really have those patent portfolios for defensive reasons, then they should have no gain from patents but only potential harm (which they cover by having defensive patents).
In that case, they should oppose (software) patents in general, since they have nothing to gain but only to loose through those.
Also you cannot have it both ways: if you want to defend your so called intellectual property then there is no room for exceptions, unless you don't really want to defend it but want to use it as a pretext to kill some competitor.
So in any case, if IBM is not hypocritical, they should publicly oppose against software patents and lobby worldwide to have them prevented or abolishded.
Instead, they are among the companies that lobby in favour of software patents, arguing they are a necessity to foster innovation. How can this be reconciled with the idea that it is for defensive reasons only? Maybe at this time, but how about next year?!?
Why not G?
The current G (Gilette) should make place.
The market cap of Google and G whall be about the same (36 bn versus 39bn), a small rise in Googles share price and it has surpassed Gilette.
He can just copy the patches from one of the bigger distributors. The kernel is GPL for a reason.
What a dissapointment. Why not add a radio, for the occasion that you want to hear some news.
Anyone knows a good MP3 player that has both a radio and audiobook tempo adjustment? I would buy an Iriver player, but they don't have tempo adjustment. It seems I'll have to wait another year for the ultimate player (as replacement for my old pjbox).
I just tried to subscribe to some groups, read some threads and have google groups keep track of it. I'd say it is 10 times as slow as using a good usenet client. IMO the main advantage of usenet over webforumes etc. is the availability of efficient clients, filters, scoring systems, kill-files etc. that allow you to scan through a large number of groups/threads in minimal time. No web interface will ever come close to that.
I used to do system programming on a VAX/VMS before I knew UNIX. I didn't know better at the time (15 years ago), but once I learned UNIX, I knew what horror VMS is: extremely inelegant, brute force, heavy, awful. I still have bad dreams when thinking about the irregular, bulky and ugly structure of that OS. Good to read that it finally dies. Just a pity that it lives on a little bit in WinNT, which by the way is just as inelegant and ugly as VMS.
Not entirely true: UBS in Switzerland uses a modified version of quicken 98 for its online banking (for those who need something more convenient than the web interface).
Then switch to another bank and let them know why.
Hmm, we always use business data as primary key. I don't see the point of using artificial keys except for very few cases (to optimize away a composite key that would get too many elements and be too cumbersome to use).
I have never understood the use of extra indirection and indirectness by using artificial and not understandable numbers to identify records.
An AC mentioned that any app that does this is guaranteed to break, but yet our 800 tables application (it is a very large app) has been running and continuously extended for many years without any problems. B.t.w. I did performance measuerements (on oracle) many times comparing access times via short artificial keys as compared to longer composite keys. The performance difference was hardly measurable.
Just look at the version numbers and you see that it has the latest official release of almost anything, and usually a newer version than other current distributions.
There used to be a time, some years ago, that Slackware was stable but conservative w.r.t. package versions. Nowadays, it is stable and still has the latest and greatest.
JBuilder and Eclipse.
There are numerous other IDE's for other languages for Linux as well.
Apparently the current US patent system does not want to spend the time/money to carefully check new patents. Now the EFF and volunteers are doing the USPTO's work for free.
It might remove the most harmful and obviously insane patents, thus making the idiocy of the current system less visible.
No the latest pop hit indeed isn't that important, but the principle is. Historically until well into the 20th century "art" (whatever that may be nowadays) never was protected; every composer could "borrow" parts from others, which in fact is how most synphonies and other great works came to be. With "intellectual property", instead of extra motivation, no symphonies of beethoven, brahms and dvorak would have existed.
All famous painters copied one another, refining styles and experimenting with new variations. Yes, most painter or other artists were not rich (most were dead poor) but they did not do it for the money but for the love for art.
Compare that with todays works of "art" and ask yourself what this "motivation" by protection has brought to mankind: not much but a pile of trash.
Btw I'm a capitalist as well. I just believe that ideas, whether great science or art, or plain lowly amusement, must be free in every meaning of the word free. This is not an anti-capitalist thought at all. Capitalism does not equate to greed and destructive commercialisation. Only enemies of capitalism would hold such views.
Apparently and sadly, you have already been reprogrammed :(. The mere concept of copyright is evil, unnatural and inhuman. The proponents of "intellectual property" in any form are as evil as mass murderes, since they violate basic human, yes even duty, to share what can be freely reproduced. Whether be it ideas, inventions (the progress of civilisation and technology) or art, it is a severe crime to try to stop that.
Why do I sense so much hatred and ungrattitude against SUN? It has been one of the pillars of UNIX, has given away many technologies that today define UNIX/Linux. Without SUN UNIX would have been irrelevant long ago, and with it Linux would have been just as irrelevant.
Why don't people see the strategic importance of the UNIX world (which includes Linux) holding together and fight against the real enemy?
I do have my concenrs regarding Suns recent "peace" with the enemy, maybe we can no longer rely on SUN, but at least one must acknowledge what SUN has done for the UNIX community.
The lack of historical perspective and irrationalism of many of the SUN haters is shocking to me. It almost makes me think that the enemy has sent inflitrators on slashdot with the purpose to spread division and internal struggle inside the UNIX world.
Why? Just create the package on one of your FBSD boxes (including downloading source manually etc), then pkg_install the resulting package on all of your FBSD boxes.
Hmm, at first I thought the date of the sql:2003 std. paper was april 1st, but it is march 1st. It is quite amusing: partly it consists of stuff already in oracle for years, partly it is actually useful (the multiset and casting types, also already possible in oracle by the way) and the rest is crap (the create table 'like' for example).
Hard to believe that this is an official sql standard.
Just think how much more it would be if Mao hadn't killed 30-60 million of his own people during "The Great Leap Forward" (plus another million or so during the "Cultural Revolution"), and if the current regime didn't perform forced abortions for population control.
It would be 1.29-1.33 billion instead of 1.25 billion.
I used to like the plugin system, but since I have "discovered" bookmarklets. I am not so sure anymore:
Almost all things plugins can accomplish, bookmarklets can do as well. And, bookmarklets do not need to be installed in every browser, just put them in your bookmarks. Most of them work in any browser (Mozilla, IE, Opera). The plugins often only work even with specific versions only.
I know a large swiss bank using w2k for windows server (all real servers are solaris or mainframe) and still NT4 for desktop. It is being replaced by win-XP over the next 3 months, because support for NT4 has been terminated. Another reason is increased use of laptops. The laptops currently use W2K (since NT & laptops don't mix well) and they want to move to a single client operating system.
OK ok, so its not a competitor but a competing product, and the companies such as RH, suse selling it and providing support are the competitors. What is the practical difference?
But this time, for the EP, I shall vote far left, if only because of this issue. Grrrrr.
As a conservative, not because of money or bribes or self-interest, but because of principle, I must say I am almost ashamed for many "fellow" conservatives who indeed only seem to be interested in bribes and self interests, not in just and fair politics.
Only if you want to sell in the US you would be affected.
If you are a small or middle sized european company, the software patents regime would have you locked out of all markets.
If at least europe rejects them, you can operate freely on the european market, which is better than nothing.
In the longer run, this will lead to more room for innovation on the european market, and europe might surpass the US in software innovation. Do not forget that the european market is already double the number of citizens as the US, add more freedom to innovate and all those weird restrictions on the US market might become quite insignificant over time.
In fact Apple is the company "we" have always had problems with. The FSF, for a long time, has boycotted Apple because of their "look & feel" lawsuits.
One might say Apple has invented the concept of software patents, and thus has been one of the few companies to have been boycotted by the free software community; this in contrast to MSFT, of which one may say many bad things but not (yet) that they have been using patents in evil ways.
Even though the boycott ended in 1995, I have always remained very suspicious w.r.t. Apple, and once more they affirm their "culture".