M$ is famous for their legalistic outlook on everything. I would bet beans to bullets some bright light in Redmond saw an opportunity to get a tax-writeoff if they framed this rebate differently. Their forms show they knew they were at risk in CA and OR. So they knew exactly what could happen; they must have assumed there was some advantage to trying a different kind of rebate from everyone else.
In other words, they were trying to drive their usual truck thru some legal loophole, and hoping they could get away with it.
Too bad for them that the net found a bigger truck, in the form of smart consumers out for a bargain.
I have no sympathy for M$ here. The law has no morals. M$ was out to screw the system thru a loophole and got out-screwed. Too bad, so sad.
I find that showing comments highest score first improves the S/N ration dramatically. I only see the grits posts when there are few comments, and it is easy enough to ignore them.
It's gotten to the point that I can actually rley on useful comments and get info from them.
It would be interesting to see the results of others meta moderating my moderations; hopefully all comments ("2 fairs and 3 unfairs"), but at least the aggregate stats. Certainly NOT to include who did the meta moderating to me:-)
It's been written about in several books. There was no advance knowledge of Coventry being bombed. Do a web search, find the refutations. This should be common knowledge by now, it's been refuted so often.
Banks ran into this a long time ago, to print out mortgage payment tables. Credit card expiration dates past 12/1999 caused many a hurried upgrade several years ago. I'm sure insurance companies, pension plans, etc, all had their little moments of enlightenment.
This repeats a story from last week I think. The British trial was abandoned for turning street lights into antennas. This idea relies on magnetic effects. But no clues yet as to how good it really is.
There was the article recently on Slashdot about Tim Berners-Lee's sidekick who wanted to license all internet surfers. Now if this guy, supposedly on the side of good, can advocate banning anonymity, imagine what the idiots in the NSA and FBI must be wanting.
The supreme court has in fact ruled that it is an essential part of liberty to be able to distribute anonymous flyers.
I wish I had a reference for you. but I am absolutely positive about this. I remember well the day I saw the article, and rejoiced that there was still some sanity left in this world.
But I'm pleased to say that when we unveiled the name last month at an all-company meeting, a thousand employees stood up and gave the name a standing ovation
I've been thru these. Could it be they were simply relieved at getting it over with?
but to grow Linux so that it can truly compete with MS and others
The major reason Linux specifically and free source software in general is more robust and useful than proprietary software is because the authors WANTED to write it, and WANT to work on it, and it's written in public where everyone can see it. Now if RedHat or Corel wants to pay someone to write free source software, that's fine, but it doesn't have the same motivation.
Quality will suffer. Innovation will suffer.
Linux needs to take off its training wheels and go play with the big boys
Common M$ FUD here. Linux got to where it is with your so-called "training wheels" and doesn't need to take anything off to keep on going. Success with Linux is measured in how well it works, not in inflated market capitalizations.
I use it as a reference when I don't remember the details, say something I seldom use, and a man page is a little too bare bones.
I used to use it as a quick tutorial for things I had never done. The examples start out as simple as possible and expand through the chapter. It would be great for learning socket programming, for example, but once you've mastered it, better get Stevens and keep on learning -- it definitely won't cover the real nitty gritty.
I really appreciate that even tho the examples are dead simple, the authors don't talk down to you as those 24 hour books do.
I am going to buy two copies of this 2nd edition; one for me, and one for a friend's 16 year old who is learning C and Perl on Linux.
Lockheed and another company are working on similar products. I believe they are competitors, and the other company took the low budget route, relying on the interference of civilian (AM? FM?) radio stations - a bunch of low tech antennas listening in on the disruptions ("shadows") as planes went around. This was in Aviation Leak several months ago, and I think even hit Slashdot.
Also, apparently the low tech low resolution long wavelength radars still in service by Russia and their customers, who can't afford the snazzy new short wavelength radars in use by NATO, are better at detecting stealth planes than those snazzy new radars. I gather the US tried to downplay this, out of embarrassment and cover-your-ass syndrome.
And another tack is mumble-mumble radar, where the transmitter and receiver are far apart. Stealth planes are stealthy not just from absorbing the radar energy, but also from directing radar energy away from the straight return path. Those non-normal directions get more than their share of the reflection -- put a transmitter ahead of the plane and separate receivers on the side, and the side receivers get a better return from the stealth plane than forward receivers get from a non-stealth plane. Or something like that.
(My comments apply to my recent experiences in California.)
Teacher unions and school boards fear vouchers, charter schools, home schooling, and anything not controlled by the local school board because they have less influence there. They have also backed themselves into a corner over the paradox of other countries having better test scores, yet more students per teacher. The unions want more teachers paying more dues, and the school boards want to post christian morality commandments and expel 5 year olds for bringing plastic knives or aspirin to school and teenagers for writing disparaging web sites about their schools and teachers.
These two bureaucracies -- unions and school boards -- are united only in fearing loss of control.
Because of that, US schools have to "serve" everybody, so parents want schools run their way. They want certain books banned, prayers said, creationism taught, etc. If alternatives were available, parents wouldn't have to tussle over the only piece of pie available; they could find their own.
Most parents would quickly find the best educational institutions. The parents who choose schools for other than educational reasons would have second thoughts in a year or two when their kids' test scores plummet.
As for the unfortunate kids of those parents, certainly there would be a few whose parents would never wake up, but it doesn't take much investigation to discover that there are a lot of kids who went the opposite of their parents when they got a chance; the route might be more twisty than some, but they will get to the same end place.
There's a book, possibly now out of print, which I might still have my copy of, which details some great MIT and CalTech hacks. My favorite, for elegance and simplicity, was someone who visited the football field regularly in the off-season with birdseed and a whistoe. He'd blow the whistle and toss out birdseed.
The birds became conditioned to expect good food, and lots of it, whenever they heard the whistle.
Now along comes the first football game of the season. And the first referee blows the first whistle...
Yep, got a Kensington expert. I have sent them email several times and only got response like "We don't support Linux." Good to hear they are maybe thinking instead of jerking their knees.
I use a trackball myself, ITAC (who I think has gone to pot) and Kensington. I like the big trackballs as opposed to those dinky Logitech ones.
I hadn't thought about holding my arm up so much. I mostly move the arrow into an xterm and leave it there for a while, sometimes click while testing web pages. But I agree now that I think of it. Thanks for the feedback:-)
Ya know how your hand hurts from clenching a mouse too much? Think how it will be to hold a pen all day.
Touch screen would be a lot better. I don't know why they aren't more popular. You could use your finger for most things, like menus, resizing, moving windows. You would probably need a little pointer gizmo on a ring on the end of your finger for cut and paste, but it would be so easy to use, you'd forget you had it on.
--
Not their first space shot by any means
on
China Enters Space
·
· Score: 2
China has been launching satellites for a while now. This is only the first launch of their manned spacecraft, but without an occupant. I am surprised no one else has noted this error.
It is amusing, people who scream "guvmint stay out" when a big greedy corporation defrauds millions of people, yet scream just as loud when a petty thief innovates his way into their house to steal a TV. The fact is, M$ has been a persistent monopoly abuser, they have broken the law, and they deserve to be slapped around as much as possible.
Similar amusing are those who say "Look how much M$ has given us, leave them alone". Gee, if Henry Ford had driven General Motors out of business, would they be proudly proclaiming how great he was for giving us black model Ts? The point is, M$ has stomped all over true innovation. We would be much further along if not held back by M$ crap and the pointless upgrade shuffle to boost their revenues.
1. As Scott McNealy says, no buying other companies, technology, etc.
2. All sales of any and every kind must be done to a published schedule, and all sales published.
3. All software which is sold as an OS must function as a standalone OS, and must be simultaneously released as source code. M$ retains the copyright, but it must be available for media cost, or free download. No one else can sell executables based on it, or modified copies.
(1) prevents them threatening to buy an enemy's enemy, and forces them to actually innovate for a change.
(2) prevents those sweetheart bribery deals and co-marketing bribes.
(3) truly opens up the API. No more guessing about secret code. It would be nice to insist on releasing source in advance, but that would lock in bugs which are found during the advance period. It also would slow down innovation drastically, and (1) is meant to force innovation.
(3) also encourages them to stop their fake integration:-)
I realize there is a problem with third party code. Perhaps M$ could be fined enough to cover licensing costs.
I believe this would not amount to a "taking" of their intellectual property, because the code is still owned by them. No one could run modified binaries unless they had a proper license in the firts place. There would be no increase in piracy; pirates want binaries not source.
Cygnus was profitable and growing before being bought, ie, they had no reason to reduce the employee count. There is practically no overlap with RedHat. Why the heck would they want to lay off anybody at all? There might be a bit of managerial overlap, but since both were growing, any duplication of jobs would be temporary. I'd be surprised at more than a handful of bye byes.
Winston Churchill is reputed to have answered, when accused of ending a sentence with a preposition, "That is something up with which I shall not put".
Criminal cases seem to have the goal of punishment; civil cases seem to have the goal of fixing things, although there are also punitive damages. It is not clear to me if this is a civil or criminal case. One common theme is that if M$ drags this out long enough, they can point to all the changes in the industry since the charges were first brought and say that the FoF and everything following is obsolete. That implies this case is only looking for remedies, not punishment. Could you say a bit about punishment vs remedies in anti-trust cases in general, this case in particular, and possibly a bit on the Caldera case? It doesn't seem right to a lot of us that M$ and especially Bill Gates should be rewarded with dismissal of all charges because they further abused the system by dragging the case out so long.
Slashdot Mirror
M$ is famous for their legalistic outlook on everything. I would bet beans to bullets some bright light in Redmond saw an opportunity to get a tax-writeoff if they framed this rebate differently. Their forms show they knew they were at risk in CA and OR. So they knew exactly what could happen; they must have assumed there was some advantage to trying a different kind of rebate from everyone else.
In other words, they were trying to drive their usual truck thru some legal loophole, and hoping they could get away with it.
Too bad for them that the net found a bigger truck, in the form of smart consumers out for a bargain.
I have no sympathy for M$ here. The law has no morals. M$ was out to screw the system thru a loophole and got out-screwed. Too bad, so sad.
--
No ATM charge then.
Deposits are still a real pain. Pay is automatic deposit, but other checks have to be mailed in.
--
I find that showing comments highest score first improves the S/N ration dramatically. I only see the grits posts when there are few comments, and it is easy enough to ignore them.
It's gotten to the point that I can actually rley on useful comments and get info from them.
--
It would be interesting to see the results of others meta moderating my moderations; hopefully all comments ("2 fairs and 3 unfairs"), but at least the aggregate stats. Certainly NOT to include who did the meta moderating to me :-)
--
It's been written about in several books. There was no advance knowledge of Coventry being bombed. Do a web search, find the refutations. This should be common knowledge by now, it's been refuted so often.
--
Banks ran into this a long time ago, to print out mortgage payment tables. Credit card expiration dates past 12/1999 caused many a hurried upgrade several years ago. I'm sure insurance companies, pension plans, etc, all had their little moments of enlightenment.
--
This repeats a story from last week I think. The British trial was abandoned for turning street lights into antennas. This idea relies on magnetic effects. But no clues yet as to how good it really is.
--
There was the article recently on Slashdot about Tim Berners-Lee's sidekick who wanted to license all internet surfers. Now if this guy, supposedly on the side of good, can advocate banning anonymity, imagine what the idiots in the NSA and FBI must be wanting.
--
The supreme court has in fact ruled that it is an essential part of liberty to be able to distribute anonymous flyers.
I wish I had a reference for you. but I am absolutely positive about this. I remember well the day I saw the article, and rejoiced that there was still some sanity left in this world.
--
But I'm pleased to say that when we unveiled the name last month at an all-company
meeting, a thousand employees stood up and gave the name a standing ovation
I've been thru these. Could it be they were simply relieved at getting it over with?
--
but to grow Linux so that it can truly compete with MS and others
The major reason Linux specifically and free source software in general is more robust and useful than proprietary software is because the authors WANTED to write it, and WANT to work on it, and it's written in public where everyone can see it. Now if RedHat or Corel wants to pay someone to write free source software, that's fine, but it doesn't have the same motivation.
Quality will suffer. Innovation will suffer.
Linux needs to take off its training wheels and go play with the big boys
Common M$ FUD here. Linux got to where it is with your so-called "training wheels" and doesn't need to take anything off to keep on going. Success with Linux is measured in how well it works, not in inflated market capitalizations.
--
I use it as a reference when I don't remember the details, say something I seldom use, and a man page is a little too bare bones.
I used to use it as a quick tutorial for things I had never done. The examples start out as simple as possible and expand through the chapter. It would be great for learning socket programming, for example, but once you've mastered it, better get Stevens and keep on learning -- it definitely won't cover the real nitty gritty.
I really appreciate that even tho the examples are dead simple, the authors don't talk down to you as those 24 hour books do.
I am going to buy two copies of this 2nd edition; one for me, and one for a friend's 16 year old who is learning C and Perl on Linux.
--
Lockheed and another company are working on similar products. I believe they are competitors, and the other company took the low budget route, relying on the interference of civilian (AM? FM?) radio stations - a bunch of low tech antennas listening in on the disruptions ("shadows") as planes went around. This was in Aviation Leak several months ago, and I think even hit Slashdot.
Also, apparently the low tech low resolution long wavelength radars still in service by Russia and their customers, who can't afford the snazzy new short wavelength radars in use by NATO, are better at detecting stealth planes than those snazzy new radars. I gather the US tried to downplay this, out of embarrassment and cover-your-ass syndrome.
And another tack is mumble-mumble radar, where the transmitter and receiver are far apart. Stealth planes are stealthy not just from absorbing the radar energy, but also from directing radar energy away from the straight return path. Those non-normal directions get more than their share of the reflection -- put a transmitter ahead of the plane and separate receivers on the side, and the side receivers get a better return from the stealth plane than forward receivers get from a non-stealth plane. Or something like that.
--
(My comments apply to my recent experiences in California.)
Teacher unions and school boards fear vouchers, charter schools, home schooling, and anything not controlled by the local school board because they have less influence there. They have also backed themselves into a corner over the paradox of other countries having better test scores, yet more students per teacher. The unions want more teachers paying more dues, and the school boards want to post christian morality commandments and expel 5 year olds for bringing plastic knives or aspirin to school and teenagers for writing disparaging web sites about their schools and teachers.
These two bureaucracies -- unions and school boards -- are united only in fearing loss of control.
Because of that, US schools have to "serve" everybody, so parents want schools run their way. They want certain books banned, prayers said, creationism taught, etc. If alternatives were available, parents wouldn't have to tussle over the only piece of pie available; they could find their own.
Most parents would quickly find the best educational institutions. The parents who choose schools for other than educational reasons would have second thoughts in a year or two when their kids' test scores plummet.
As for the unfortunate kids of those parents, certainly there would be a few whose parents would never wake up, but it doesn't take much investigation to discover that there are a lot of kids who went the opposite of their parents when they got a chance; the route might be more twisty than some, but they will get to the same end place.
--
There's a book, possibly now out of print, which I might still have my copy of, which details some great MIT and CalTech hacks. My favorite, for elegance and simplicity, was someone who visited the football field regularly in the off-season with birdseed and a whistoe. He'd blow the whistle and toss out birdseed.
The birds became conditioned to expect good food, and lots of it, whenever they heard the whistle.
Now along comes the first football game of the season. And the first referee blows the first whistle...
--
Yep, got a Kensington expert. I have sent them email several times and only got response like "We don't support Linux." Good to hear they are maybe thinking instead of jerking their knees.
--
I use a trackball myself, ITAC (who I think has gone to pot) and Kensington. I like the big trackballs as opposed to those dinky Logitech ones.
:-)
I hadn't thought about holding my arm up so much. I mostly move the arrow into an xterm and leave it there for a while, sometimes click while testing web pages. But I agree now that I think of it. Thanks for the feedback
--
Ya know how your hand hurts from clenching a mouse too much? Think how it will be to hold a pen all day.
Touch screen would be a lot better. I don't know why they aren't more popular. You could use your finger for most things, like menus, resizing, moving windows. You would probably need a little pointer gizmo on a ring on the end of your finger for cut and paste, but it would be so easy to use, you'd forget you had it on.
--
China has been launching satellites for a while now. This is only the first launch of their manned spacecraft, but without an occupant. I am surprised no one else has noted this error.
--
It is amusing, people who scream "guvmint stay out" when a big greedy corporation defrauds millions of people, yet scream just as loud when a petty thief innovates his way into their house to steal a TV. The fact is, M$ has been a persistent monopoly abuser, they have broken the law, and they deserve to be slapped around as much as possible.
Similar amusing are those who say "Look how much M$ has given us, leave them alone". Gee, if Henry Ford had driven General Motors out of business, would they be proudly proclaiming how great he was for giving us black model Ts? The point is, M$ has stomped all over true innovation. We would be much further along if not held back by M$ crap and the pointless upgrade shuffle to boost their revenues.
--
Three steps:
:-)
1. As Scott McNealy says, no buying other companies, technology, etc.
2. All sales of any and every kind must be done to a published schedule, and all sales published.
3. All software which is sold as an OS must function as a standalone OS, and must be simultaneously released as source code. M$ retains the copyright, but it must be available for media cost, or free download. No one else can sell executables based on it, or modified copies.
(1) prevents them threatening to buy an enemy's enemy, and forces them to actually innovate for a change.
(2) prevents those sweetheart bribery deals and co-marketing bribes.
(3) truly opens up the API. No more guessing about secret code. It would be nice to insist on releasing source in advance, but that would lock in bugs which are found during the advance period. It also would slow down innovation drastically, and (1) is meant to force innovation.
(3) also encourages them to stop their fake integration
I realize there is a problem with third party code. Perhaps M$ could be fined enough to cover licensing costs.
I believe this would not amount to a "taking" of their intellectual property, because the code is still owned by them. No one could run modified binaries unless they had a proper license in the firts place. There would be no increase in piracy; pirates want binaries not source.
--
Cuz it's hard to write out a check and mail it otherwise. I'd be much obliged.
--
Cygnus was profitable and growing before being bought, ie, they had no reason to reduce the employee count. There is practically no overlap with RedHat. Why the heck would they want to lay off anybody at all? There might be a bit of managerial overlap, but since both were growing, any duplication of jobs would be temporary. I'd be surprised at more than a handful of bye byes.
--
But funny! so please don't mark this down :-)
Winston Churchill is reputed to have answered, when accused of ending a sentence with a preposition, "That is something up with which I shall not put".
--
Criminal cases seem to have the goal of punishment; civil cases seem to have the goal of fixing things, although there are also punitive damages. It is not clear to me if this is a civil or criminal case. One common theme is that if M$ drags this out long enough, they can point to all the changes in the industry since the charges were first brought and say that the FoF and everything following is obsolete. That implies this case is only looking for remedies, not punishment. Could you say a bit about punishment vs remedies in anti-trust cases in general, this case in particular, and possibly a bit on the Caldera case? It doesn't seem right to a lot of us that M$ and especially Bill Gates should be rewarded with dismissal of all charges because they further abused the system by dragging the case out so long.
--