The new improved daleks (returning to the BBC next spring) can now climb stairs - so they may also be equiped with advanced hat-repelling plungers...
Re:you forgot patents!
on
HIV Vaccine
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
The number 1 reason Canada's medicines are cheaper is because of our government or healthcare system. The Canadian government buys them in bulk and controls prices.
Exactly the same in the UK. The NHS negotiates (note *negotiates* - the drug companies are not forced by law to participate) massive discounts this way based on a modest but reasonable profit for the drug companies. This saves us *billions* as a country. The drug companies charge whatever 'local conditions' allow and the US system allows them to charge just about what they like.
Question: Would it be illegal (competition law etc.) in some way for all US health insurance companies to get together and negotitate bulk discounts in a similar way? If not, why don't they do this?
The company is very strict about employee comments - all have to be cleared with the press office on pain of dismissal. Perhaps unwisely, my slashdot id is quite similar to my real name. So the most I can say is that I work for a large (but not one of the very largest) European software consultancy which despite its size, few people seem to have heard of.
Seemed to work impressively until three people showed up at the door, one spied into the iris reader, door opened and the other two just tailgated through.
We're constantly reminded at work how security is our responsibility but they're too mean to install one simple piece of technology that would actually stop people getting in without a swipe card - a one-person-at-a-time turnstile system. Instead we're all supposed to stop people tailgating us and check they have a valid id. Of course, no-one does this since it's quite likely to be some senior manager behind you who thinks ids etc are for 'the little people' and will give you serious trouble if you challenge them. So the tailgating goes on and the thefts continue and they send us another email reminding us how security is *our* responsibility.
Get with the program. SchlumbergerSema no longer exists. This January most of SchlumbergerSema was sold to Atos Origin and the Sema name dissappeared. Schlumberger has gone back to being mainly an oil services company, and Atos Origin has moved closer in size to the big boys like EDS. The good thing about Atos is the fish logo.
Even the evil IBM is talking about Linux on the mainframe. (OK it's only talk, they'll still try to upsell you but that's another story).
It's not 'talk', they have a number of customers running 100's of Linux virtual servers on one zSeries mainframe. Apparently ALL their sales growth for last year was attributable to Linux.
The public sector in the UK is nothing more than unemployment benefit for the middle classes.
In my experience (having worked for both) in terms of inefficieny and stupidity, there's only one thing worse than the British Public sector and that's the British Private sector. My company used to be part of a large public sector concern and was sold off. Since then we seem to spend nearly of our time/money:
Changing company logo and name every 6-12 months Adding a new problem management system which we have to learn every 6 months (we currently have about 5 each of which was supposed to replace all the others). Paying huge bonuses to upper managent. Paying huge car allowances to middle management including those who refuse to drive. Not giving any rises under the so-called performance related pay scheme for 4 years despite meeting profit targets because all the money has gone on the above 2 items. Making skilled people redundant then recruiting at vast expense people with the same skills 2 months later. Making skilled people redundant then reemploying them at twice the pay as contractors for the next 2 years because they're still needed. Repeatedly shuffling kit from datacenter to datacenter around the country at vast expense and disruption to our customers. Ordering expensive buffets for management meetings , 95%+ of which get thrown away. Managers having a schedule involving meetings all over the country which means that they spend about 25 hours out of 40 driving. Managers refusing to use video-conferencing for meetings even in the light of the above.
How many of these things happened when I was in the public sector? Virtually none. We didn't have the money to throw around on such things. We were forced to be efficient.
Also if this private sector company I'm referring to was atypically inefficient, presumably it would do so badly it would collapse or be taken over. So this implies that many private sector companies are like this.
It's very easy to slag off the public sector if you use stereotypes, generalizations and distortions.
One question that arises though is whether if they'd been running non-MS software is it so likely that the machines would have ended up so fucked up that they couldn't boot at all? Because that's what has made this into a real disaster - if the machines had been bootable with network access (even if applications etc were broken) they could apparently have undone the rollout centrally. As it is, it looks like they had to restore each PC manually one at a time.
This is not strictly true; there is an indirect relationship between ability to pay and council tax bills because there is a fairly strong correlation between the value (and thus the council tax banding) of your house and your income. The relationship breaks down in cases where people experience a drop in income (on retirement, unemployment etc.) and that's where the hardship cases come in. I wouldn't be surprised to see some further rebates/reductions in council tax for at least retired people eventually.
The BBC spends far too much of its money 'embracing' new technologies like Digital TV which too few people use at the moment not too little.
There are now about 5 million homes with Freeview boxes and they're flying off the shelves for Christmas now they're as cheap as £30. I believe with cable and satellite about 13 million households now have access to the BBC digital channels, probably accounting for around half the population. I don't think this is 'too few people'...
Then, when they finish DRMing every last bit and byte of it, they can go to other people and ask if they want to join.
No, when they finish DRMing every last bit and byte of it, they go to their pet congress-critters and get a law enacted to force all traffic to be migrated to Internet3 and "1 & 2" to be shut down once this is complete.
I wonder if Google could come up with a way to see if anyone is violating any patents. It would be an extremely useful tool, and a lot of corporations would buy such a tool.
So many of the patents are vague, wide ranging, overlapping and untested in court (and quite likely invalid) that any substantial software development would quite likely appear to violate a number of them. As others have pointed out, given that it's virtually impossible to avoid a *potential* patent violation in these circumstances, it's actually much better *not* to attempt to check for these possible violations, since the penalties for wilful patent violation are apparently much higher than for unknowing violation.
I believe IBM recently made a statement to the effect that it would use its *vast* patent portfolio to defend Linux if necessary. So bring it on, Steve!
Well, you could do what I do - get a nectar card and only use it for food shopping at Sainsbury's. Then it's not really any worse than any other scheme like Tesco's or the Co-op.
Yes, 99% of these 'moral panics' in the UK last for about a week (if that) and then disappear without a trace. Compare that with the massive fines and clampdown in the US after the 'Janet Jackson Tit incident'...
Damn good thing they dropped 'Phoenix'. That would have just confused too many idiots^Wpeople. (How do you spell it? Phoenix? Pheonix? Phenix? Feenix? Feenicks? How's it pronounced? Oh sod it, I'll just stick with Internet Explorer..)
Don't have it available for download (RHEL anyone?)
Well, in fact RHEL *is* effectively available for free download in binary (and source) format. Whitebox Linux http://www.whiteboxlinux.org/ is RHEL with the logos, trademarks etc. of Red Hat stripped out.
The problem in question here, and I tend to agree, is with the idea that you don't use software which isn't GPL even if you don't need to modify the code, know how to modify the code, or really care much about modifying the code. The problem is in essence zealotry.
Not necessarily true. Considering the open source aspect specifically along with the right to modify this source: You might not *currently* need to, care about or know how to modify the code. But knowing that the source is freely available and having a copy gives you an insurance policy. If, at some future date, the software company goes out of business, stops developing the product (possibly to try to 'force' you onto a more expensive/less suitable product), or stops supporting the hardware or O/S you need supported, having the source ensures that you at least have a chance to carry on using the product indefinitely, even if you have to pay someone to fix it or whatever. In the equivalent case with closed source, you could well be completely stuffed. Source escrow can solve part of the closed source problem (company backruptcy or possibly breach of contract) but not the other cases I cited. That's not to say that closed source is never the best option in any case; but its very nature does constitute a business risk if you are relying on it, so I would say that for this reason alone when all else is equal between two products, the open source option is safer.
Could this make some sort of defense in court? You run the program, see what files it detects, slightly tweak all the names/lengths/hashes whatever until it detects nothing. Carefully erase all traces of your 'tweaking'. Then in court you could say "I was worried my (kid/cat/spouse/friend) might have been downloading illegally on my PC so I ran your program and it came up clean..."
He simply would not tell me the selling price was until I'd heard his entire sales pitch. I walked.
Don't you just hate that? I wondered about how much it cost years ago, and so now I've finally looked it up and found this site http://www.manifest-tech.com/society/magweb.htm mentioning $1,250 for the full 32-volume printed set.
Slashdot Mirror
The new improved daleks (returning to the BBC next spring) can now climb stairs - so they may also be equiped with advanced hat-repelling plungers...
The number 1 reason Canada's medicines are cheaper is because of our government or healthcare system. The Canadian government buys them in bulk and controls prices.
Exactly the same in the UK. The NHS negotiates (note *negotiates* - the drug companies are not forced by law to participate) massive discounts this way based on a modest but reasonable profit for the drug companies. This saves us *billions* as a country. The drug companies charge whatever 'local conditions' allow and the US system allows them to charge just about what they like.
Question: Would it be illegal (competition law etc.) in some way for all US health insurance companies to get together and negotitate bulk discounts in a similar way? If not, why don't they do this?
The company is very strict about employee comments - all have to be cleared with the press office on pain of dismissal. Perhaps unwisely, my slashdot id is quite similar to my real name. So the most I can say is that I work for a large (but not one of the very largest) European software consultancy which despite its size, few people seem to have heard of.
Seemed to work impressively until three people showed up at the door, one spied into the iris reader, door opened and the other two just tailgated through.
We're constantly reminded at work how security is our responsibility but they're too mean to install one simple piece of technology that would actually stop people getting in without a swipe card - a one-person-at-a-time turnstile system. Instead we're all supposed to stop people tailgating us and check they have a valid id. Of course, no-one does this since it's quite likely to be some senior manager behind you who thinks ids etc are for 'the little people' and will give you serious trouble if you challenge them. So the tailgating goes on and the thefts continue and they send us another email reminding us how security is *our* responsibility.
Get with the program. SchlumbergerSema no longer exists. This January most of SchlumbergerSema was sold to Atos Origin and the Sema name dissappeared.
Schlumberger has gone back to being mainly an oil services company, and Atos Origin has moved closer in size to the big boys like EDS.
The good thing about Atos is the fish logo.
Question - could this happen with (say) RedHat? Or is there a check that would prevent this?
If it can happen in RedHat etc. as well as Windows, fair enough. If it can't, then MS *do* deserve bashing.
Even the evil IBM is talking about Linux on the mainframe. (OK it's only talk, they'll still try to upsell you but that's another story).
It's not 'talk', they have a number of customers running 100's of Linux virtual servers on one zSeries mainframe. Apparently ALL their sales growth for last year was attributable to Linux.
The public sector in the UK is nothing more than unemployment benefit for the middle classes.
In my experience (having worked for both) in terms of inefficieny and stupidity, there's only one thing worse than the British Public sector and that's the British Private sector.
My company used to be part of a large public sector concern and was sold off. Since then we seem to spend nearly of our time/money:
Changing company logo and name every 6-12 months
Adding a new problem management system which we have to learn every 6 months (we currently have about 5 each of which was supposed to replace all the others).
Paying huge bonuses to upper managent.
Paying huge car allowances to middle management including those who refuse to drive.
Not giving any rises under the so-called performance related pay scheme for 4 years despite meeting profit targets because all the money has gone on the above 2 items.
Making skilled people redundant then recruiting at vast expense people with the same skills 2 months later.
Making skilled people redundant then reemploying them at twice the pay as contractors for the next 2 years because they're still needed.
Repeatedly shuffling kit from datacenter to datacenter around the country at vast expense and disruption to our customers.
Ordering expensive buffets for management meetings , 95%+ of which get thrown away.
Managers having a schedule involving meetings all over the country which means that they spend about 25 hours out of 40 driving.
Managers refusing to use video-conferencing for meetings even in the light of the above.
How many of these things happened when I was in the public sector? Virtually none. We didn't have the money to throw around on such things. We were forced to be efficient.
Also if this private sector company I'm referring to was atypically inefficient, presumably it would do so badly it would collapse or be taken over. So this implies that many private sector companies are like this.
It's very easy to slag off the public sector if you use stereotypes, generalizations and distortions.
One question that arises though is whether if they'd been running non-MS software is it so likely that the machines would have ended up so fucked up that they couldn't boot at all? Because that's what has made this into a real disaster - if the machines had been bootable with network access (even if applications etc were broken) they could apparently have undone the rollout centrally. As it is, it looks like they had to restore each PC manually one at a time.
This is not strictly true; there is an indirect relationship between ability to pay and council tax bills because there is a fairly strong correlation between the value (and thus the council tax banding) of your house and your income. The relationship breaks down in cases where people experience a drop in income (on retirement, unemployment etc.) and that's where the hardship cases come in. I wouldn't be surprised to see some further rebates/reductions in council tax for at least retired people eventually.
The BBC spends far too much of its money 'embracing' new technologies like Digital TV which too few people use at the moment not too little.
There are now about 5 million homes with Freeview boxes and they're flying off the shelves for Christmas now they're as cheap as £30. I believe with cable and satellite about 13 million households now have access to the BBC digital channels, probably accounting for around half the population.
I don't think this is 'too few people'...
They shipped (and evidently still ship) a trojan writers dream toolbox and guarded it with kittens.
If you think about the code involved as a big tangled ball of string, those kittens would guard it pretty fiercely...
Then, when they finish DRMing every last bit and byte of it, they can go to other people and ask if they want to join.
No, when they finish DRMing every last bit and byte of it, they go to their pet congress-critters and get a law enacted to force all traffic to be migrated to Internet3 and "1 & 2" to be shut down once this is complete.
I wonder if Google could come up with a way to see if anyone is violating any patents. It would be an extremely useful tool, and a lot of corporations would buy such a tool.
So many of the patents are vague, wide ranging, overlapping and untested in court (and quite likely invalid) that any substantial software development would quite likely appear to violate a number of them. As others have pointed out, given that it's virtually impossible to avoid a *potential* patent violation in these circumstances, it's actually much better *not* to attempt to check for these possible violations, since the penalties for wilful patent violation are apparently much higher than for unknowing violation.
I believe IBM recently made a statement to the effect that it would use its *vast* patent portfolio to defend Linux if necessary. So bring it on, Steve!
Well, you could do what I do - get a nectar card and only use it for food shopping at Sainsbury's. Then it's not really any worse than any other scheme like Tesco's or the Co-op.
Yes, 99% of these 'moral panics' in the UK last for about a week (if that) and then disappear without a trace. Compare that with the massive fines and clampdown in the US after the 'Janet Jackson Tit incident'...
Presumably because the resoltuion would suck when blown up to T-shirt size?
Damn good thing they dropped 'Phoenix'. That would have just confused too many idiots^Wpeople.
(How do you spell it? Phoenix? Pheonix? Phenix? Feenix? Feenicks? How's it pronounced? Oh sod it, I'll just stick with Internet Explorer..)
Netfox? Foxnet? Fox Network!!! Argggh!
Wasn't there some sort of accident with a contraceptive and a time machine involved?
Don't have it available for download (RHEL anyone?)
Well, in fact RHEL *is* effectively available for free download in binary (and source) format. Whitebox Linux http://www.whiteboxlinux.org/ is RHEL with the logos, trademarks etc. of Red Hat stripped out.
The problem in question here, and I tend to agree, is with the idea that you don't use software which isn't GPL even if you don't need to modify the code, know how to modify the code, or really care much about modifying the code. The problem is in essence zealotry.
Not necessarily true. Considering the open source aspect specifically along with the right to modify this source:
You might not *currently* need to, care about or know how to modify the code. But knowing that the source is freely available and having a copy gives you an insurance policy.
If, at some future date, the software company goes out of business, stops developing the product (possibly to try to 'force' you onto a more expensive/less suitable product), or stops supporting the hardware or O/S you need supported, having the source ensures that you at least have a chance to carry on using the product indefinitely, even if you have to pay someone to fix it or whatever. In the equivalent case with closed source, you could well be completely stuffed.
Source escrow can solve part of the closed source problem (company backruptcy or possibly breach of contract) but not the other cases I cited.
That's not to say that closed source is never the best option in any case; but its very nature does constitute a business risk if you are relying on it, so I would say that for this reason alone when all else is equal between two products, the open source option is safer.
Could this make some sort of defense in court? You run the program, see what files it detects, slightly tweak all the names/lengths/hashes whatever until it detects nothing. Carefully erase all traces of your 'tweaking'. Then in court you could say "I was worried my (kid/cat/spouse/friend) might have been downloading illegally on my PC so I ran your program and it came up clean..."
He simply would not tell me the selling price was until I'd heard his entire sales pitch. I walked.
Don't you just hate that?
I wondered about how much it cost years ago, and so now I've finally looked it up and found this site http://www.manifest-tech.com/society/magweb.htm mentioning $1,250 for the full 32-volume printed set.