Re:"Free" as in Routers are Purchased by Magic Elv
on
Free Wi-Fi Threatened?
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· Score: 5, Insightful
If it's the latter, have the taxpayers forking over the dough had any opportunity to vote how they wanted their money used, vis-a-vis large metro-area technology installations?
That's the whole point of this. If this law is passed, people will NOT get to vote - it will be banned no matter what. Do you think it should be illegal for public libraries to provide public hotspots?
All of the Mozilla sources that they used is already open and widely available, and Netscape must not had changed the Mozilla sources; therefore, Netscape didn't have to re-release components of the broswer that were borrowed from Mozilla.
Sorry, that doesn't make sense. Whether or not it's already available makes no difference to Netscape's responsibilities. In fact, the license also says about binary distributions:
You may distribute Covered Code in Executable form only if the requirements of Sections 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5 have been met for that Covered Code, and if You include a notice stating that the Source Code version of the Covered Code is available under the terms of this License, including a description of how and where You have fulfilled the obligations of Section 3.2. The notice must be conspicuously included in any notice in an Executable version, related documentation or collateral in which You describe recipients' rights relating to the Covered Code. You may distribute the Executable version of Covered Code or ownership rights under a license of Your choice, which may contain terms different from this License, provided that You are in compliance with the terms of this License and that the license for the Executable version does not attempt to limit or alter the recipient's rights in the Source Code version from the rights set forth in this License.
That means if they distribute it in binary form, the Mozilla parts have to be under the MPL, and the user has to be notified. Also, all those end-user restrictions about decompiling still look like a license violation.
Now, I'm no expert on the Mozilla Public License, but it seems to state pretty unequivocally that if you make modifications you have to release them under the same license (just as with the GPL) including source code. Whereas the Netscape browser license says:
3. RESTRICTIONS. Except as otherwise expressly permitted in this Agreement, you may not: (i) modify or create any derivative works of the Beta Browser or documentation, including customization, translation or localization; (ii) decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code of the Beta Browser, or in any way ascertain, decipher, or obtain the communications protocols for accessing the AIM Service, or the underlying ideas or algorithms of the Beta Browser (e.g. in an effort to develop other applications or services that provide similar or substitute or complimentary functionality to the Beta Browser);
and so on. There is no mention of the Mozilla license and no source code. How is this legal? Did they buy special rights from the Mozilla Foundation or something?
It's called free software for a reason. It's free for anybody to use and modify. If Google wants to use it, more power to them. How would you like it if you couldn't change a single character of your kernel's code without posting it on a website? Should it be illegal to modify GPL code if you don't have an internet connection or other means to publish? Where would you draw the line?
The important thing that OpenOffice really needs in the database area is a good front-end like Access. Like it or not, Access's UI works quite well, even though the database backend is the ultimate in suckiness.
Currently some of this can be done through the OO Writer, but all forms and things have to be stored in separate documents, making organizing a full database application a real pain. Plus, even if you just want to build a quick and dirty single-user system, you still need the overhead of a server like Postgres.
Alternatively, you can think of them as popups that stay contained within your browser window. Just think, the tabbed browsing revolution has finally arrived in the world of popups! Thank you Mozilla!
It would, except it's slower for the CPU to access video RAM than main system memory. It only makes sense to use the video RAM for caching or when there's no other option.
Ajax isn't a program per se. Somebody just looked at all the cool stuff that's being done with Javascript and CSS and retroactively assigned it a collective name... sort of like web services, it doesn't mean anything specific.
No database can guarantee data integrity in the case of a power failure.
Think again. Techniques to do this have been around for years -- it's called stable storage. You just keep redundant copies of data that's changing, and use a neat and simple procedure to ensure that either they both get updated by a transaction, or the original data can be recovered. Certainly the most recent data might be lost, but there's no reason for the database to be corrupted or even in an inconsistent state.
...it's just not deserving of "Next Big Thing" status.
I beg to differ. Technorati currently has over 7 million blogs tracked. 3 million of those have popped up just since last October -- that's one every 3 minutes. no matter what the quality is (and I do tend to agree with you there) blogging is big.
I guess the real appeal is that it's finally an "idiot-friendly" way of publishing content. People are starting to get the desire to make the Web a two-way communication system.
The sad part is that in all likelihood, OSTG (Slashdot's owner) couldn't care less, as long as they keep churning out stories -- the more flamebait, the better. Remember, your ad impressions are paying the editors' salaries. I've been using Adblock on/. for months because I can't subsidize this sort of scam with a clear conscience.
You have a very noticeable factual error near the beginning of that article.
X11 mode doesn't let one full screen a movie, and rather only puts black around the outside edges of the screen. Wrong. Try putting the -zoom option on the MPlayer command line, or turn on the corresponding setting in the configuration file. It's just not enabled by default for some reason.
I agree with almost all of that article you mentioned. The web forum features I had in mind were the ability to delete posts, memberships, restrict member privileges viewing or posting or both, moderation and similar. These features are useful things like paid tech support, closed communities, educational uses etc.
I'll say it again: have you ever used a modern web forum? All the major ones provide all the features you mentioned.
It looks like the author of that article never used a really well-designed web forum like Invision Power Board. Now I can't speak very much from an administrator's perspective, but having used a number of forums based on IPB and its contemporaries (mainly vBulletin and phpBB) most of the issues raised in the article seem to be not only groundless, but in any case very superficial.
On a typical web forum, messages are linearly displayed, as a result different topics are intermingled. It's impossible to be sure who is responding to who. True, most web forums are linear, but that doesn't make it confusing at all. On the contrary, it tends to encourage discussions to stay on track and keeps outdated posts from being brought up over and over again.
There is no way to look at an old thread and only see new messages. Click the "See New Posts" icon.
There is no way to filter out topics and people you're not interested in. Click the "Ignore" button.
Every piece of popular forum software feels the need to replace traditional text smileys like:-) with little yellow graphics. It seems like a good idea, but a screen full of little yellow dots draws your eye away from the text, making reading a page straining. Click the "Disable Emoticons" checkbox.
Users are also typically allowed to include graphics in their posts. While sometimes useful, it's all too often used to include their favorite two or three megabytes of pointless, self-aggrandizing graphics. The administrator can disable images.
Of course, no forum supports actually hosting the graphics themselves... Most of them provide attachment capabilities, if enabled by the administrator.
And the list goes on. Honestly, this is just a pure troll.
Well, in my experience Theora's real strength is low-bitrate encoding. At rates where MPEG would just give up and encode big ugly 8x8 blocks, Theora gives you a very reasonable picture. I once tested and found I could get reasonble quality PDA-sized video at about 160k. Unfortunately, at higher bitrates it seems to really lag behing XviD in quality.
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If it's the latter, have the taxpayers forking over the dough had any opportunity to vote how they wanted their money used, vis-a-vis large metro-area technology installations?
That's the whole point of this. If this law is passed, people will NOT get to vote - it will be banned no matter what. Do you think it should be illegal for public libraries to provide public hotspots?
All of the Mozilla sources that they used is already open and widely available, and Netscape must not had changed the Mozilla sources; therefore, Netscape didn't have to re-release components of the broswer that were borrowed from Mozilla.
Sorry, that doesn't make sense. Whether or not it's already available makes no difference to Netscape's responsibilities. In fact, the license also says about binary distributions:
You may distribute Covered Code in Executable form only if the requirements of Sections 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 and 3.5 have been met for that Covered Code, and if You include a notice stating that the Source Code version of the Covered Code is available under the terms of this License, including a description of how and where You have fulfilled the obligations of Section 3.2. The notice must be conspicuously included in any notice in an Executable version, related documentation or collateral in which You describe recipients' rights relating to the Covered Code. You may distribute the Executable version of Covered Code or ownership rights under a license of Your choice, which may contain terms different from this License, provided that You are in compliance with the terms of this License and that the license for the Executable version does not attempt to limit or alter the recipient's rights in the Source Code version from the rights set forth in this License.
That means if they distribute it in binary form, the Mozilla parts have to be under the MPL, and the user has to be notified. Also, all those end-user restrictions about decompiling still look like a license violation.
Now, I'm no expert on the Mozilla Public License, but it seems to state pretty unequivocally that if you make modifications you have to release them under the same license (just as with the GPL) including source code. Whereas the Netscape browser license says:
3. RESTRICTIONS. Except as otherwise expressly permitted in this Agreement, you may not: (i) modify or create any derivative works of the Beta Browser or documentation, including customization, translation or localization; (ii) decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, or otherwise attempt to derive the source code of the Beta Browser, or in any way ascertain, decipher, or obtain the communications protocols for accessing the AIM Service, or the underlying ideas or algorithms of the Beta Browser (e.g. in an effort to develop other applications or services that provide similar or substitute or complimentary functionality to the Beta Browser);
and so on. There is no mention of the Mozilla license and no source code. How is this legal? Did they buy special rights from the Mozilla Foundation or something?
Jerk.
It's called free software for a reason. It's free for anybody to use and modify. If Google wants to use it, more power to them. How would you like it if you couldn't change a single character of your kernel's code without posting it on a website? Should it be illegal to modify GPL code if you don't have an internet connection or other means to publish? Where would you draw the line?
The important thing that OpenOffice really needs in the database area is a good front-end like Access. Like it or not, Access's UI works quite well, even though the database backend is the ultimate in suckiness.
Currently some of this can be done through the OO Writer, but all forms and things have to be stored in separate documents, making organizing a full database application a real pain. Plus, even if you just want to build a quick and dirty single-user system, you still need the overhead of a server like Postgres.
I prefer this t-shirt.
All your moon are belong to us.
"No entry found for CmdrTaco. Did you mean mydriatic?"
mydriatic (adj.) -- Causing dilatation of the pupils.
Yup, that's how I feel after reading too many of his posts -- my eyes just glaze over.
You CAN'T pick anything from the remote machine in a VLC streaming session - you get to look/listen to what's served.
d 2533499
As a matter of fact you can - it has an HTTP remote control interface, at port 8080 by default. See http://videolan.org/doc/play-howto/en/ch04.html#i
A few of them do think so, yes. Stop making absurd generalizations.
Try using Adblock. It blocks images, iframes and scripts based on your list of filters, and you can use wildcards too.
Alternatively, you can think of them as popups that stay contained within your browser window. Just think, the tabbed browsing revolution has finally arrived in the world of popups! Thank you Mozilla!
It would, except it's slower for the CPU to access video RAM than main system memory. It only makes sense to use the video RAM for caching or when there's no other option.
Ajax isn't a program per se. Somebody just looked at all the cool stuff that's being done with Javascript and CSS and retroactively assigned it a collective name... sort of like web services, it doesn't mean anything specific.
No database can guarantee data integrity in the case of a power failure.
Think again. Techniques to do this have been around for years -- it's called stable storage. You just keep redundant copies of data that's changing, and use a neat and simple procedure to ensure that either they both get updated by a transaction, or the original data can be recovered. Certainly the most recent data might be lost, but there's no reason for the database to be corrupted or even in an inconsistent state.
That's "by myself" in the sense of a single adverb, i.e. alone, without assistance.
...it's just not deserving of "Next Big Thing" status.
I beg to differ. Technorati currently has over 7 million blogs tracked. 3 million of those have popped up just since last October -- that's one every 3 minutes. no matter what the quality is (and I do tend to agree with you there) blogging is big.
I guess the real appeal is that it's finally an "idiot-friendly" way of publishing content. People are starting to get the desire to make the Web a two-way communication system.
The sad part is that in all likelihood, OSTG (Slashdot's owner) couldn't care less, as long as they keep churning out stories -- the more flamebait, the better. Remember, your ad impressions are paying the editors' salaries. I've been using Adblock on /. for months because I can't subsidize this sort of scam with a clear conscience.
The only solution is to force the system to run code you trust - ie boot to a floppy or CD.
I'm probably being paranoid, but how long till we start seeing rootkits that flash your BIOS?
You have a very noticeable factual error near the beginning of that article.
X11 mode doesn't let one full screen a movie, and rather only puts black around the outside edges of the screen. Wrong. Try putting the -zoom option on the MPlayer command line, or turn on the corresponding setting in the configuration file. It's just not enabled by default for some reason.
I agree with almost all of that article you mentioned. The web forum features I had in mind were the ability to delete posts, memberships, restrict member privileges viewing or posting or both, moderation and similar. These features are useful things like paid tech support, closed communities, educational uses etc.
I'll say it again: have you ever used a modern web forum? All the major ones provide all the features you mentioned.
And the list goes on. Honestly, this is just a pure troll.
"Tabbed browsing? That was MY idea! But I never thought to get a patent!"
Well, in my experience Theora's real strength is low-bitrate encoding. At rates where MPEG would just give up and encode big ugly 8x8 blocks, Theora gives you a very reasonable picture. I once tested and found I could get reasonble quality PDA-sized video at about 160k. Unfortunately, at higher bitrates it seems to really lag behing XviD in quality.
Sorry to hear that. You both have my sympathy, and I sincerely hope she recovers.