The US government is on record as opposing Open Source internationally. They Department of Commerce and the State Department have both explicitly and openly supported proprietary software (read: Microsoft) in international fora. In Japan, recently, the US was the only country in the Asia/Pacific region to object to a communique expressing a desire to look into Open Source solutions for governmental computing needs. This was not an isolated example.
The United States, today, is following a unilateral and self-interested path. Where computing is concerned it is about promoting Microsoft's monopoly and doing what they can to extend and maintain it.
No one should building more nuke reactors until they work out what to do with the waste......and they haven't worked that out yet.
There are a lot of other wasys to make power that won't poison untold generations.
In New Zealand, where speed cameras are liberally used, the toll of dead and injured on the highways has been dropping more or less steadily ever since they were introduced. People do drive more slowly....and more of the arrive alive at their destinations.
On a recent trip to Canada I was in a van where the driver was doing 140kph in the fast lane (on the 401 through southern Ontario ), putting a bandage on his strained knee....and drinking a beer.
The camera wouldn't have done much about the bandage or the beer.....but at least he would have been driving slower......after the first 4 or 5 tickets anyway.
FWIW....I agree.
If they (Bush, Blair and the other serial liars) make people afraid of the Internet, then they can pass any law they want to in order to "secure" it.
I'm happy that "intelligent design" and creationism be taught in religious study classes at public schools.
Of course they would also have to teach a wide variety of such creation myths - as defined by each major religion and its source culture.
I like the Polynesian creation myth: the earth and sky locked in eternal embrace and we are all the children of that union.
It's a good a creation myth as any other.
These studies always seem to have some military application.....and that should be a concern to any of us who don't want to find ourselves in a cell in some far-away "gulag" with elctrodes attached to our heads as they try to extract what they want us to say.
That may sound paranoid and far-fetched - but who 5 years ago would have thought the United States would be operating a global network of depots for the "disappeared".....who may have done nothing more than drive their taxi past the wrong pplace at the wrong time?
Of-topic? I don't think so. The less the criminals in the White House and the Pentagon know about our brains operate, the safer we ALL will be.
Those downloadable, HDTV quality episodes of shows that may not be shown in your country (whichever) for YEARS......is the market talking back to the folks who think they are in control.:-)
"You dictate my culture.....and claim to also own my culture? We'll see about that.":-)
No doubt we will find extracts from the recorded scans appearing on the Internet.
"See Britney Spears *N00d3* in an airport scanning machine!!"....or whomever.
Isn't it illegal for MS to Sell Windows to Cuba?
I know that any other country can deal with Cuba, no problems.....but aren't American companies still prohibited?
Hoesty and integrity do tend to come from individuals, while corporations remain the primary engine driving corruption.
Sys-con is no different to any corporation that has forgotten the reason any job needs doing or any product needed making......and instead sees these as as a way to generate revenue and profit.
I make my own beer, bake my own bread and grow al ot of my own food now because I no longer trust the folks who make these things to do it properly, safely and to a high standard. They have proven that if they can make more money by derading the product just *little*....they will do it.
Over time, those little degradations add up...and the product is no longer worth buying. Over a bit more time, all their competitors do the same thig and NO ONE is selling anyting worth buying...at which point you either drop your own standards - or make it yourself.
I have chosen the latter for many staple items. It works for me and I know the thing will be as good as I can make.
Prostitution is legal in Australia and New Zealand.
The world didn't end. In fact, in New Zealand, the 'sex workers' now have legal rights with respect to their employers (brothel owners) and can take such matters to the Employment Court like any other contractor or employee. The downside for them, I guess, is that now they have to pay income tax.
Legalising prostitution recognised what was going on all day every day anyway....and gave the people at the centre of the industry legal rights they had never had before. Win / win for all concerned. Including the clients, from what I hear.
He saw the potential of the "Information Superhighway" when most of the HAHA GORE INVETED THE INTERNET LOL kids where still shitting their pants.
Absolutely! I remember tiny news about this happening back in the late 1980s and those reports were what made me find out what the Internet was. When I first used the Internet, it WAS still funded by the US Government and commerical activity was illegal. There was no Web - and wouldn't be for another 5-6 years.
Gore DID transform that network into the modern Internet by sponsiring the legislation that made it possible.
Well, I say, it's time to stop. Not just stop pirating mainstream movies, but stop watching them altogether.
Way ahead of you.....if only because I'm 46 years old and 90% of what comes out of Hollywood isn't targeting my demographic. Saves me money and time. Thanks, Hollywood! Luv ya!
I guess the level of compatability is then critical.
Putting files in different places doesn't make a distro a "fork" in my view.....as that can be fixed fairly easily.
But if a binary won't run on it no matter how the system is otherwise configed - that would be a fork....again, in my view....
It would come down to kernels being incompatible...and staying that way permanently.
As long as the main line of kernel code continues to come from one source.....and "forking" of config organisation can be undone.
If need be, such a distro - is open sourced AND desireable - would find itself competing with a re-worked "mirror" from others sources who would "correct" the deviation.....and "fix" the introduced incompatibility. I offer Knoppix as an example of what is possible. The original has inspired many other versions from other sources......each highlighting some feature or function the creator considers desirable.....
That would make it very hard for any one company to compell the market - in large chucks - to abandon the underlying commonality of the Linux platform via the kernel.
All my opinions.....worth what you paid for them.:-)
However, fragmentation / forking with an Open Source OS is less likely or possible than with a proprietary one....
I say that because the users of the OS themselves are awake to the issue and will - so far anyway - make choices that mean any definite fork will have limited appeal - and support.
I wouldn't use a Linux that had forked in a way that prevented most programs I wanted to use from being compiled/run. I could be wrong......but I think most folks would follow the same path to the same conclusion. Backing a fork would not be in their long term interest......even if it was their present OS. The next (forked) version would be a natural departure point to return to - or remain - in the middle of the open source herd where OS compatibility is concerned.
Which is a valid point. Even if it turns out that people are willing to pay for all the work that has to go into it and the system works, it's a perfectly valid logistics concern. It just so happens he doesn't have faith that it will work.
I live in a city where 15 years ago the council decided to wire up the place up with fibre because the telcos weren't going to do it - "no demand".
Well, once the city council's fibre was installed, there was PLENTY of demand.....and users were asked to pay a modest charge for what was then (1991) VERY fast net access (10mbps).
The council maintains it the way they maintain water, roads and all other municipal infrastructure - a mixture of taxes and user charges.
It DOES work...and eventually it was taking so much business away from the telcos they were forced to invest in a similar infrastructure in order to retain thier customers.
Contrast this with a nearby city - 4 times larger - that STILL does not have anything like a similar network infrastructure......because THEY waited for the private telecoms operators to build it.
They never did.....and still haven't.
In countries like Canada, broadband is laid out because of governmental mandate. I.e. broadband access is provided to as many Canadians as possible no matter the cost. It's subsidised by our taxes. So remote locations get it even if it'll never be profitable for the corporations.
This is true of many things in Canada right from the start: railways, radio, telecoms, television, roads - all provided by the government in the first instance....or picked up by the Government after private companies fell over and left everything hanging - like the railways right in the middle of WW I.
The US model of ONLY private everything has never worked for Canada and Canadians have had the good sense to do what works and not be trapped by ideology into dead ends and empty excuses.
No problem!
I view of Linux as a platform os coloured by my having used it more or less exclusively as my desktop since 1999. The first couple of years had some challenges, but the last couple of years have seen the most advanced Linux distros become as easy - or better - to install than the sole copy of WinXP Home I keep on my eldest daughter's PC.
My youngest daughter has used Linux daily since she was 4 years old (games at first - then e-mail, IM and web browsing).
If a user is presented with Linux first....then Windows has no real advantage.....or attraction, provided the user is able to do what they want to do on Linux....and these days the answer to that is YES for many users.
"...then how come you need to recompile software depending on your distro...."
You do? Hardware - as in base architecture - maybe....
But not normally the distro. Binaries in RPM or DEB format will run happily on most platforms.
I use Xandros 3.0 and the Xandros Networks app happily handles RPMs and DEBs.....and I have yet to have on fail to install and work.
Mind you....I haven't needed to install vast amounts of additional software as the system also had pretty much everything I needed already installed.
But the Chinese can't float the Yuan as that would price a lot of goods made by American companies in China off the shelves of US stores.
I worked for a large telco and spent a lot of time bidding for network business in Asia. I'm talking about the largest 1,000 corporates on the planet. If they manufacture, then they wanted 10, 20 - 50 - 100 city networks built in China to serviuce the factories they have been busy building over the past year.....and right now.
If you think a lot of jobs have already gone to China....wait for the NEXT wave....as it will be underway now and in the nyear or two ahead.
The US government CAN'T force the Chinese to float the yuan because the Chinese government is a huge buyer of US$s.....thus helping to keep the federal Reserve solvent. US corporates also won't want the yuan floated due to the negative pricing impact it would have on the US market.....and the BAD effects on US shareholders......
Folks.....the era of the US is over...and the era of China has begun. It just isn't obvious yet.
But that is how the Internet works......
He paid for his access. He used it.
If there is a problem with his use, it should be dealt with by the provider of his connection.....or there can be no problem.
He was put in jail, but his Net provider had NO PROBLEM with his net use?
Something wrong there....when an appareently satisfactory, legal and mutually beneficial business arrangement can be made a crime - yet the transaction itself was perfectly legal.
"States can drag outsiders into their courts because they passed a law 2 seconds ago making you a criminal?"....and the "crime" was non-violent, no one was threatened or abused, the means to commit the crime (net connections and servers) all legal and paid for...and no property was stolen or damaged.
I don't like spam, either......but I dislike stupid law even more.
For him to end up in jail.....there would have been at least THREE stupid, ignorant people involved: the cashier, the floor supervisor at the store, the 'arresting" officer....and whoever else was involved.
Total lack of perspective shown by that sentence.
Nine years is an outrageously long sentence for sending unsolicited e-mail.
Assuming he paid for his Net access (and therefore his traffic).....this sentence for his non-violent crime resulting in no direct financial loss to the intended recipient is extreme.
I hate spam, too.....but I like justice, too...and this wasn't justice as I understand it.
Slashdot Mirror
The US government is on record as opposing Open Source internationally. They Department of Commerce and the State Department have both explicitly and openly supported proprietary software (read: Microsoft) in international fora. In Japan, recently, the US was the only country in the Asia/Pacific region to object to a communique expressing a desire to look into Open Source solutions for governmental computing needs. This was not an isolated example. The United States, today, is following a unilateral and self-interested path. Where computing is concerned it is about promoting Microsoft's monopoly and doing what they can to extend and maintain it.
No one should building more nuke reactors until they work out what to do with the waste......and they haven't worked that out yet. There are a lot of other wasys to make power that won't poison untold generations.
In New Zealand, where speed cameras are liberally used, the toll of dead and injured on the highways has been dropping more or less steadily ever since they were introduced. People do drive more slowly....and more of the arrive alive at their destinations. On a recent trip to Canada I was in a van where the driver was doing 140kph in the fast lane (on the 401 through southern Ontario ), putting a bandage on his strained knee....and drinking a beer. The camera wouldn't have done much about the bandage or the beer.....but at least he would have been driving slower......after the first 4 or 5 tickets anyway.
FWIW....I agree. If they (Bush, Blair and the other serial liars) make people afraid of the Internet, then they can pass any law they want to in order to "secure" it.
I'm happy that "intelligent design" and creationism be taught in religious study classes at public schools. Of course they would also have to teach a wide variety of such creation myths - as defined by each major religion and its source culture. I like the Polynesian creation myth: the earth and sky locked in eternal embrace and we are all the children of that union. It's a good a creation myth as any other.
At a work seminar you have people teaching religious* poetry? Wow.....if that happened where I worked, I'd be disturbed and surprised.
These studies always seem to have some military application.....and that should be a concern to any of us who don't want to find ourselves in a cell in some far-away "gulag" with elctrodes attached to our heads as they try to extract what they want us to say. That may sound paranoid and far-fetched - but who 5 years ago would have thought the United States would be operating a global network of depots for the "disappeared".....who may have done nothing more than drive their taxi past the wrong pplace at the wrong time? Of-topic? I don't think so. The less the criminals in the White House and the Pentagon know about our brains operate, the safer we ALL will be.
You won't be alone.
:-)
:-)
Those downloadable, HDTV quality episodes of shows that may not be shown in your country (whichever) for YEARS......is the market talking back to the folks who think they are in control.
"You dictate my culture.....and claim to also own my culture? We'll see about that."
No doubt we will find extracts from the recorded scans appearing on the Internet. "See Britney Spears *N00d3* in an airport scanning machine!!" ....or whomever.
Isn't it illegal for MS to Sell Windows to Cuba? I know that any other country can deal with Cuba, no problems.....but aren't American companies still prohibited?
Hoesty and integrity do tend to come from individuals, while corporations remain the primary engine driving corruption. Sys-con is no different to any corporation that has forgotten the reason any job needs doing or any product needed making......and instead sees these as as a way to generate revenue and profit. I make my own beer, bake my own bread and grow al ot of my own food now because I no longer trust the folks who make these things to do it properly, safely and to a high standard. They have proven that if they can make more money by derading the product just *little*....they will do it. Over time, those little degradations add up...and the product is no longer worth buying. Over a bit more time, all their competitors do the same thig and NO ONE is selling anyting worth buying...at which point you either drop your own standards - or make it yourself. I have chosen the latter for many staple items. It works for me and I know the thing will be as good as I can make.
Prostitution is legal in Australia and New Zealand.
The world didn't end. In fact, in New Zealand, the 'sex workers' now have legal rights with respect to their employers (brothel owners) and can take such matters to the Employment Court like any other contractor or employee. The downside for them, I guess, is that now they have to pay income tax.
Legalising prostitution recognised what was going on all day every day anyway....and gave the people at the centre of the industry legal rights they had never had before. Win / win for all concerned. Including the clients, from what I hear.
He saw the potential of the "Information Superhighway" when most of the HAHA GORE INVETED THE INTERNET LOL kids where still shitting their pants.
Absolutely! I remember tiny news about this happening back in the late 1980s and those reports were what made me find out what the Internet was. When I first used the Internet, it WAS still funded by the US Government and commerical activity was illegal. There was no Web - and wouldn't be for another 5-6 years. Gore DID transform that network into the modern Internet by sponsiring the legislation that made it possible.
Way ahead of you.....if only because I'm 46 years old and 90% of what comes out of Hollywood isn't targeting my demographic. Saves me money and time. Thanks, Hollywood! Luv ya!
I guess the level of compatability is then critical. Putting files in different places doesn't make a distro a "fork" in my view.....as that can be fixed fairly easily. But if a binary won't run on it no matter how the system is otherwise configed - that would be a fork....again, in my view.... It would come down to kernels being incompatible...and staying that way permanently. As long as the main line of kernel code continues to come from one source.....and "forking" of config organisation can be undone. If need be, such a distro - is open sourced AND desireable - would find itself competing with a re-worked "mirror" from others sources who would "correct" the deviation.....and "fix" the introduced incompatibility. I offer Knoppix as an example of what is possible. The original has inspired many other versions from other sources......each highlighting some feature or function the creator considers desirable..... That would make it very hard for any one company to compell the market - in large chucks - to abandon the underlying commonality of the Linux platform via the kernel. All my opinions.....worth what you paid for them. :-)
I agree with you, too! :-)
However, fragmentation / forking with an Open Source OS is less likely or possible than with a proprietary one....
I say that because the users of the OS themselves are awake to the issue and will - so far anyway - make choices that mean any definite fork will have limited appeal - and support.
I wouldn't use a Linux that had forked in a way that prevented most programs I wanted to use from being compiled/run. I could be wrong......but I think most folks would follow the same path to the same conclusion. Backing a fork would not be in their long term interest......even if it was their present OS. The next (forked) version would be a natural departure point to return to - or remain - in the middle of the open source herd where OS compatibility is concerned.
But I could be wrong. Wouldn't be the first time!
Which is a valid point. Even if it turns out that people are willing to pay for all the work that has to go into it and the system works, it's a perfectly valid logistics concern. It just so happens he doesn't have faith that it will work.
I live in a city where 15 years ago the council decided to wire up the place up with fibre because the telcos weren't going to do it - "no demand". Well, once the city council's fibre was installed, there was PLENTY of demand.....and users were asked to pay a modest charge for what was then (1991) VERY fast net access (10mbps). The council maintains it the way they maintain water, roads and all other municipal infrastructure - a mixture of taxes and user charges. It DOES work...and eventually it was taking so much business away from the telcos they were forced to invest in a similar infrastructure in order to retain thier customers. Contrast this with a nearby city - 4 times larger - that STILL does not have anything like a similar network infrastructure......because THEY waited for the private telecoms operators to build it. They never did.....and still haven't.
In countries like Canada, broadband is laid out because of governmental mandate. I.e. broadband access is provided to as many Canadians as possible no matter the cost. It's subsidised by our taxes. So remote locations get it even if it'll never be profitable for the corporations. This is true of many things in Canada right from the start: railways, radio, telecoms, television, roads - all provided by the government in the first instance....or picked up by the Government after private companies fell over and left everything hanging - like the railways right in the middle of WW I. The US model of ONLY private everything has never worked for Canada and Canadians have had the good sense to do what works and not be trapped by ideology into dead ends and empty excuses.
No problem! I view of Linux as a platform os coloured by my having used it more or less exclusively as my desktop since 1999. The first couple of years had some challenges, but the last couple of years have seen the most advanced Linux distros become as easy - or better - to install than the sole copy of WinXP Home I keep on my eldest daughter's PC. My youngest daughter has used Linux daily since she was 4 years old (games at first - then e-mail, IM and web browsing). If a user is presented with Linux first....then Windows has no real advantage.....or attraction, provided the user is able to do what they want to do on Linux....and these days the answer to that is YES for many users.
"...then how come you need to recompile software depending on your distro...." You do? Hardware - as in base architecture - maybe.... But not normally the distro. Binaries in RPM or DEB format will run happily on most platforms. I use Xandros 3.0 and the Xandros Networks app happily handles RPMs and DEBs.....and I have yet to have on fail to install and work. Mind you....I haven't needed to install vast amounts of additional software as the system also had pretty much everything I needed already installed.
But the Chinese can't float the Yuan as that would price a lot of goods made by American companies in China off the shelves of US stores. I worked for a large telco and spent a lot of time bidding for network business in Asia. I'm talking about the largest 1,000 corporates on the planet. If they manufacture, then they wanted 10, 20 - 50 - 100 city networks built in China to serviuce the factories they have been busy building over the past year.....and right now. If you think a lot of jobs have already gone to China....wait for the NEXT wave....as it will be underway now and in the nyear or two ahead. The US government CAN'T force the Chinese to float the yuan because the Chinese government is a huge buyer of US$s.....thus helping to keep the federal Reserve solvent. US corporates also won't want the yuan floated due to the negative pricing impact it would have on the US market.....and the BAD effects on US shareholders...... Folks.....the era of the US is over...and the era of China has begun. It just isn't obvious yet.
But that is how the Internet works...... He paid for his access. He used it. If there is a problem with his use, it should be dealt with by the provider of his connection.....or there can be no problem. He was put in jail, but his Net provider had NO PROBLEM with his net use? Something wrong there....when an appareently satisfactory, legal and mutually beneficial business arrangement can be made a crime - yet the transaction itself was perfectly legal.
"States can drag outsiders into their courts because they passed a law 2 seconds ago making you a criminal?" ....and the "crime" was non-violent, no one was threatened or abused, the means to commit the crime (net connections and servers) all legal and paid for...and no property was stolen or damaged.
I don't like spam, either......but I dislike stupid law even more.
For him to end up in jail.....there would have been at least THREE stupid, ignorant people involved: the cashier, the floor supervisor at the store, the 'arresting" officer....and whoever else was involved.
Total lack of perspective shown by that sentence. Nine years is an outrageously long sentence for sending unsolicited e-mail. Assuming he paid for his Net access (and therefore his traffic).....this sentence for his non-violent crime resulting in no direct financial loss to the intended recipient is extreme. I hate spam, too.....but I like justice, too...and this wasn't justice as I understand it.