'twould be a sad state of affairs if gaming journo's didn't get some of the perks other industry reporters do! All the free toys and trips do is mean that when a games is crap, the reviewers choose their words very carefully.
Having just spent a few hours installing ipcop I can say it rocks. We had a problem that it wasn't detecting the USB properly, but this was solved by not having the usb modem plugged in. The real difficulty was that the usb claimed to be "Unset" rather than either of the two options, but when my friend emailed them he got a quick response saying that the installed was being changed to make it more clear.
Once you get the thing working it's a dream, uploaded the file and had USB ADSL (to BTOpenWorld) going in no time at all. Possibly it's just wishful thinking, but response times and pings in general seem better (though it's bto, so they're still pretty crap), and it is just brilliantly easy to admin. Even the non-linuxy guys in the house are loving the new setup (for the record it's a student place with about 8 machines so we fit into the home/small office category).
I used to use moz on windows (2k as it happens) as a kind of token bit of browser resistance, now I use it beacause it's just good, especially the tabs. Great work from the whole mozilla team.
I think if microsoft had used a slashdotters music, this would probably have caused it to be heard by a very large audience, and probably been a generally very positive thing.
"The music ms used to launch their os was created on linux/by a long term linux user/etc."
To take another example, if someone used a underground punky bands music on an advert for something distinctly unpunk (like quilted toilet roll or something:) that would again give the creators a lot of exposure, but also allow anyone who wanted to make parody's of that song that would remind people of the ad. OK, so you can't really play the song at your gigs any more, but the sheer amount of attention you could grab with a bit of media bothering would probably make up for it.
It's a fair point that if you want to make money directly it's not a good license. However:
1. Not everyone wants to make money.
2. This is a good bit of publicity.
Famous artist releases song under OAL, song can be fiddled with, downloaded freely etc. Song becomes successful, artist sells albums.
As someone else mentioned, if you happen to be a road band that's not too hot in the studio, this is a good way of getting recordings and songwriting out there too.
The main thrust of OAL was so that people who wanted to share music could. Not everyone does, or wants to to the same extent, which is why there are a multitude of software licenses.
A lot of recordings are owned by record companies, while the actual songs are owned by the artist. By releasing seperate recordings under the OAL, you minimise the chance of your music getting completely locked down by your former record co.
If you don't want to, don't! Don't ridicule something others want to do though, it's a generous license for people that want to contribute in that way. However, I'm sure rolling stone wont withhold you the cover just because you didn't OAL your platinum selling masterpiece.
IANAL, but the issue here is slightly confused. Firstly, you don't lose your copyright over the song, you are only licensing that individual recording. Any thing based on that recording has to be OAL.
The bit that sounds like giving away the song regards derivative works, but this is intentional, and doesn't look like a flaw.
If RATM release a teaser mp3 of the middle 2 minutes of bombtrack under the OAL for example, then people would be able to make cover versions and so on, but they would also have to accept the terms of the OAL. If someone covered the whole 4 minute song, including that distinctive intro, then their work would quite clearly (as in easy to convince a court of) be a derivative of the album or some other version of the song, which is *not* licensed under the OAL, and hence would be a breach of their copyright.
Similarly, if a dj wanted to sample bombtrack, he could take it from the teaser mp3. However, his track would have to be released under the OAL, otherwise he'd need to obtain another license to sample a non OAL version of the song.
When I first started using linux, the thing that suprised me the most was the howto's. I was trying to get my modem to work, and finding the howto's was just amazing. I can think of very few cases when I've read *any* computer handbook that's been quite as helpful.
I know that back then though, rather than have someone try to explain it to me, I'd much rather have a page to read or print out. When you are good at something, dealing with someone who's new at it, however ernestly you many want to help them, is going to be annoying, and hence make the newbie feel stupid. Text files can be patronising, but they rarely make you feel stupid.
I don't think the key is understanding the system but trusting it. The important bit is that is as simple as use to possible, and makes at is as easy as possible for anyone who want to vote to vote. As long as people that the public trust understand it, and the informations on it's working is available for those inclined to look deeper, that would be good.
I personally think there is an inherent problem in not representing those who feel that none of the choices represent them enough they would rather vote for no-one, but that's a different issue, though adding a box saying I don't want any of the above would at least yield some interesting figures.
At Sussex university in the UK (where I is at:), java is the main language they use for the computer science and AI courses, so I pretty much got used to it.
OTOH, possibly because of the kind of things I write, I find that I'll either code in Java or Perl, I tend not to use C or C++ unless it's modifying someone elses stuff.
One thing that I have not seen, and I hope never to, is any geek attempt to press his/her views on anyone else. One common trend seems to be, these are my beliefs, I will discuss them, but not try and convert people. Most people have the intelligence to choose there own way, and there seems to be a respect for that. (this does not apply to window managers)
I have also noticed that even with hackers and geeks that follow "mainstream" beliefs there is often a tendancy to reject the organised structures of thats belief, which in most religions is not against the word of the god(s), but can be against specific branchs of that religion (there are some obvious exceptions).
Yes, now the space shuttle is running windows, why aren't you. Houston we have a GPF.:)
Even so, if they can structure it so that basically the business's don't have too much control it should be could. However, all you have seen species 2 (yes, you remember, five star entertainment. maybe), will know that the ship they used to get to mars was covered in advertising. I could see that happening (after NASA build some natty littel thing to take pictures of the outside with) The movies slowly merge with reality.
Slashdot Mirror
'twould be a sad state of affairs if gaming journo's didn't get some of the perks other industry reporters do! All the free toys and trips do is mean that when a games is crap, the reviewers choose their words very carefully.
Having just spent a few hours installing ipcop I can say it rocks. We had a problem that it wasn't detecting the USB properly, but this was solved by not having the usb modem plugged in. The real difficulty was that the usb claimed to be "Unset" rather than either of the two options, but when my friend emailed them he got a quick response saying that the installed was being changed to make it more clear.
Once you get the thing working it's a dream, uploaded the file and had USB ADSL (to BTOpenWorld) going in no time at all. Possibly it's just wishful thinking, but response times and pings in general seem better (though it's bto, so they're still pretty crap), and it is just brilliantly easy to admin. Even the non-linuxy guys in the house are loving the new setup (for the record it's a student place with about 8 machines so we fit into the home/small office category).
I used to use moz on windows (2k as it happens) as a kind of token bit of browser resistance, now I use it beacause it's just good, especially the tabs. Great work from the whole mozilla team.
I think if microsoft had used a slashdotters music, this would probably have caused it to be heard by a very large audience, and probably been a generally very positive thing.
:) that would again give the creators a lot of exposure, but also allow anyone who wanted to make parody's of that song that would remind people of the ad. OK, so you can't really play the song at your gigs any more, but the sheer amount of attention you could grab with a bit of media bothering would probably make up for it.
"The music ms used to launch their os was created on linux/by a long term linux user/etc."
To take another example, if someone used a underground punky bands music on an advert for something distinctly unpunk (like quilted toilet roll or something
It's a fair point that if you want to make money directly it's not a good license. However:
1. Not everyone wants to make money.
2. This is a good bit of publicity.
Famous artist releases song under OAL, song can be fiddled with, downloaded freely etc. Song becomes successful, artist sells albums.
As someone else mentioned, if you happen to be a road band that's not too hot in the studio, this is a good way of getting recordings and songwriting out there too.
The main thrust of OAL was so that people who wanted to share music could. Not everyone does, or wants to to the same extent, which is why there are a multitude of software licenses.
A lot of recordings are owned by record companies, while the actual songs are owned by the artist. By releasing seperate recordings under the OAL, you minimise the chance of your music getting completely locked down by your former record co.
If you don't want to, don't! Don't ridicule something others want to do though, it's a generous license for people that want to contribute in that way. However, I'm sure rolling stone wont withhold you the cover just because you didn't OAL your platinum selling masterpiece.
IANAL, but the issue here is slightly confused. Firstly, you don't lose your copyright over the song, you are only licensing that individual recording. Any thing based on that recording has to be OAL.
The bit that sounds like giving away the song regards derivative works, but this is intentional, and doesn't look like a flaw.
If RATM release a teaser mp3 of the middle 2 minutes of bombtrack under the OAL for example, then people would be able to make cover versions and so on, but they would also have to accept the terms of the OAL. If someone covered the whole 4 minute song, including that distinctive intro, then their work would quite clearly (as in easy to convince a court of) be a derivative of the album or some other version of the song, which is *not* licensed under the OAL, and hence would be a breach of their copyright.
Similarly, if a dj wanted to sample bombtrack, he could take it from the teaser mp3. However, his track would have to be released under the OAL, otherwise he'd need to obtain another license to sample a non OAL version of the song.
When I first started using linux, the thing that suprised me the most was the howto's. I was trying to get my modem to work, and finding the howto's was just amazing. I can think of very few cases when I've read *any* computer handbook that's been quite as helpful.
I know that back then though, rather than have someone try to explain it to me, I'd much rather have a page to read or print out. When you are good at something, dealing with someone who's new at it, however ernestly you many want to help them, is going to be annoying, and hence make the newbie feel stupid. Text files can be patronising, but they rarely make you feel stupid.
I don't think the key is understanding the system but trusting it. The important bit is that is as simple as use to possible, and makes at is as easy as possible for anyone who want to vote to vote. As long as people that the public trust understand it, and the informations on it's working is available for those inclined to look deeper, that would be good.
I personally think there is an inherent problem in not representing those who feel that none of the choices represent them enough they would rather vote for no-one, but that's a different issue, though adding a box saying I don't want any of the above would at least yield some interesting figures.
The galaxy quest has a parody fan site that really captured the whole star trek geek kind of site. galaxyquest.com/galaxyquest I think.
At Sussex university in the UK (where I is at :), java is the main language they use for the computer science and AI courses, so I pretty much got used to it.
OTOH, possibly because of the kind of things I write, I find that I'll either code in Java or Perl, I tend not to use C or C++ unless it's modifying someone elses stuff.
There's just something slightly worrying about putting "first in a series". It reminds of that Pokemon: The *first* movie.
One thing that I have not seen, and I hope never to, is any geek attempt to press his/her views on anyone else. One common trend seems to be, these are my beliefs, I will discuss them, but not try and convert people. Most people have the intelligence to choose there own way, and there seems to be a respect for that. (this does not apply to window managers)
I have also noticed that even with hackers and geeks that follow "mainstream" beliefs there is often a tendancy to reject the organised structures of thats belief, which in most religions is not against the word of the god(s), but can be against specific branchs of that religion (there are some obvious exceptions).
Yes, now the space shuttle is running windows, why aren't you. Houston we have a GPF. :)
Even so, if they can structure it so that basically the business's don't have too much control it should be could.
However, all you have seen species 2 (yes, you remember, five star entertainment. maybe), will know that the ship they used to get to mars was covered in advertising. I could see that happening (after NASA build some natty littel thing to take pictures of the outside with)
The movies slowly merge with reality.