IBM's original Unix contract has an ammended clarification that clearly states that any code IBM adds to it's own Unix belongs solely to IBM. The other Unix licensees have the same or similar license (sans the ammended clarification, which I'm not certain but I believe was just that, a clarification, not a change in the contract), and have been doing as they see fit with their own code for the entire life of their Unix contracts.
This whole case revolving around IBM's code being added to Linux is laughable on the face of it, and asking $5b should be grounds for serious libel, defamation, fraud, extortion, conspiracy, securities fraud, and etc. suits.
Justice would be Darl getting impaled on a giant penguin's beak.
To really see the threads performance improvements, you will need to recompile glibc with support for it. From what I understand, this will break a number of programs and cause some programs to not compile, so it's not really considered stable yet by most people.
OTOH, even without rebuilding glibc to take advantage of the new kernel-based pthread support, I have found really nice interactivity improvements on the desktop. It's really quite nice, I wouldn't want to go back to 2.4.
Hey, good to see a kernel developer here on our beloved/.! Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for all the joystick driver support over the years, it's been really excellent for my home set-top-box, among other things. So thanks for filling that niche.
And thanks for personally helping me customize one of the joystick drivers once-upon-a-time many moons ago.
This is total horsedung. Isn't it being extremely nitpicky to complain that a game rated "T" contains the use of tobacco or alcohol? And what passes as "sexual content" with these obsessively sheltering freaks?
And violence in "E" rated games? Are we talking "Mario"-esque violence, or something that really deserves mention?
Deductions, "loopholes" (as you call them) etc lower your taxable income. You don't pay taxes on gross revenue.
I did not intend to imply that I consider deductions in general to be loopholes. I know how deductions work. The point is, large corporations pay lawyers millions to exploit loopholes in our tax code to reduce their overall taxable income to nill. You can even substitue "rich people" for "corporations" in many cases. Granted, rich people, as the rest of us, are largely over-taxed considering how little social benefit we generally get for our tax dollars.
Really? Because supporting their products has made me ALOT of money over the years, even if I don't use their stuff personally.
Wow, how nice for you, but supporting another companies flawed products isn't necessarily a good business model. Have fun when/if they ever get their shit together.
Publishers sell books on their products. People pay schools large sums of money to be certified on their products. Testing centers get paid to administer certification tests on their products. Countless software comanies get paid to write software for the Windows platform. *I* get paid to support their stuff (the buggier the better, I say). The list is endless. How can anyone seriously say they don't help the economy? The entire IT industry thrives (right or wrong) on their existence.
Un-fucking-believable... That demonstrates very clearly the limited scope your understanding is of the IT industry.
First, I thought McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform was supposed to fix this (snicker).
Snicker? Snicker? So you think it's funny that our political system is so royally fucked? Brilliant!
Second, I'm at a loss here: What (and how much) did Microsoft contribute, specifically?
I don't recall offhand, but it was a large sum of money for a political contribution.
I was basing my figures on my last reading of MS figures I bother looking into several years ago. Apparently, if the replies to my post are to be taken at face value, MS employes roughly 36k employees(all in the U.S.?), and paid 4b in taxes last year(before or after their deductions for stocks, loopholes, etc.).
My point still fucking stands, MS is not a big contribution to the U.S. economy, and neither is any big corporation hording so much cash. Going gentle on MS was not a consideration for the U.S. economy, it was a goddam gift to BillG for his political contributions and support. Our rich, upper-class leaders want the richest people in the country on their side.
MS got what it wanted from the Bush administration, guess which party they're going to contribute to in the upcoming election?
Gaming is a medium like any other: movies, books, music, etc. Your tastes will vary with time, and if you ever really enjoyed gaming, chances are there's still something in the "gaming scene" to interest you.
I presumed you are somewhat illiterate, seeing that you are having serious problems with your reading comprehension.
WTF is your problem? Illiteracy I presumed at first, but since you imply otherwise, I don't know what to assume. Do you even know what "graphic novels" are like? Did you not notice that I read all kinds of books? Did you have a problem understanding that I have never even read a graphic novel? I only said some newer graphic novels look interesting, and they are targeted at adults.
FYI -- in what is probably a vain attempt to placate your grotesque ignorance of the subject -- many graphic novels targeted at adults are comprised of roughly equal parts text and artwork, ie. they are most certainly not what one would consider "comic books." There is nothing inherently immature about the format, on the contrary, some writing can greatly benefit from accompanying artistic imagery. If you believe there is something inherently immature about a mix of text and artwork to convey a story, please enlighten me with some logical arguments.
And you are entirely incorrect, "goddam" is not spelled incorrectly; both spellings are in common usage today and can be found in the dictionary.
Microsoft does not really contribute to the U.S. economy at all. Microsoft rakes in nearly 20B every year, while paying literally zero dollars in income tax. Microsoft employs less than 10k people, not really that many jobs.
Microsoft is sitting atop tens of billions of $ that isn't is no longer in circulation.
Really, I think the U.S. going easy on Gates is simply our corrupt rich leaders scratching the back of another rick man. I really don't see how it could be taken any other way.
You do realize that the Republican party, before large corporate interests took over, was very supportive of anti-trust law. Some of the most well thought of Republicans were big supporters.
Ummm... No! Paraphrasing, he said, "Grow up and quit whining, games are for kids," while paraphrasing myself, I said, "Life is very dynamic and you're probably bored of the same old stuff."
I didn't tell him to get over himself, and I didn't tell him he would never be interested in gaming again, quite the contrary. The other post you refer to which I shot down was very condescending, and basically implied that gaming isn't suitable for older folk, and he should get over it, and he's pathetic for posting this in the first place.
Perhaps his question made it to the front page because others here are interested in the same? Perhaps gaming isn't really synonymous with playing with matchbox cars?
Don't get me wrong, I understand perfectly well the gist of your post, but I think you are jumping the gun.
There are a lot of hobbies that people "grow out" of, such as playing with matchbox cars. However, there are some hobbies that can have more staying power, such as reading, movies, model trains, etc. People don't look at those things and say, "Grow up!" Gaming happens to be one of those new hobbies that people without prior exposure to don't understand and assume to be a hobby for young people, like comic books. But, apparently that isn't necessarily the case. Sure, there are a lot of *"losers" who still read comics and play games at 40, but with the advent of adult-oriented comics(ie. "graphic novels") and games, many older folk (ie. non-"loser" older folk) are continuing with those childish hobbies.
At 25, I don't read the same comics I did when I was 13(rather, I don't read any comics), but some new graphic novels (mentioned here on/.) have interested me.
YMMV, different strokes, etc. But please, don't be an old pompous scab telling us youthful folk how to live.
Paraphrasing:
People don't stop playing because they grow old, people grow old because they stop playing.
- someone less of a dullard than you
* - are they really "losers," I prefer not to label someone so harshly simply for continuing with something I consider to be somewhat childish. Perhaps they just didn't sell out and murder their inner child in order to be accepted as an adult. Or perhaps they are indeed losers and should be derided as such until their sad, lonely death.
I don't think it's that people lose interest as they get older, I think it's either you specifically are losing interest, or you are bored with the current state of gaming. That you are interested in making games yourself shows that you haven't "grown out" of gaming, unless the games you are interested in making are directed at kids or something.
Another thing that I have noticed now that I've "grown up" is that I simply have not enough time to play all the games I'm interested in. I'm 25 and work full-time and have a house and wife to attend to, family/friend obligations, etc., and I'm lucky if I get to game for 2 hours in as many weeks.
Sometimes I have wondered the same thing as you, "have I lost my interest in gaming," when I have several games I was excited about but I simply don't bother playing. Then I realized that the games I was interested in in the past have started to bore me.
It's the same as anything really. I'm also bored with stupid action flicks, pulp novels, and Star Trek. I'd much rather watch something with substance, action or no, read a long series of classic books(eg. The Foundation series), or non-fiction(eg. The Making of the Atomic Bomb - brilliant book BTW), and as for TV, I really don't care if I miss an episode of one of my favorite show(although I do enjoy 24 and haven't missed an episode, heh).
You get the point. Tastes vary over time. While you may always enjoy a good movie/book/game/etc., you won't want the same thing over and over. And then there's the time and social factors. Don't fret. Things change. Adapt.
Not one of your ignoramouses has mentioned the #1 reason people need MS Access, which is simply quick/easy data entry form building and reporting.
I'm no DBA, but I know enough to design a proper database and write applications that use said database, but what I simply don't have time for is creating data-entry forms, generating reports, etc. Someone else does that. Someone else using MS Access. He's just barely "computer literate," but using Access he creates very nice reports and data-entry forms.
There's a whole book on creating data-entry apps for MySQL, using C/C++ and GTK. Yeah, I have time for that shit. I have 30 other projects that need to be done yesterday; I think I'll continue to let the windows-weenie handle everything but actually designing the databases.
Yeah right, I really can't see this being a "win." If anything, it will be a concession made on the behest of a huge supporter of our current fucked up patent regime.
Frankly, unless we get some real patent reform out of this, this will just go to show that you are totally fucked unless you are a Big Player(R).
Yes, finally someone else knows what he's talking about!
I'm not the original poster, and I know a bit more about modern RDBMS, but I would still appreciate a similar front-end to what he is talking about, for Unix.
Currently, my company uses MS Access for employees to perform data-entry to our Postgres and MySQL databases. We don't plan on keeping our Windows boxes around forever, and we plan to migrate away from Windows and MS Office, so we need a replacement. We've got everything covered, sans MS Access.
I need something that any idiot can use to make forms for data-entry. Does such a beast exist for Unix/Linux/OS X?
That video is absolutely priceless! The look on Gates' face... Goddam, what a fucking asshole! He has absolutely no humour about himself; it's like he expects everyone in the entire industry to be subservient to him.
Vigilanteeism, however, is just malice operating under false pretenses.
I don't buy that. Vigilanteeism[sic] is taking the law into ones' own hands. Malice is not a prerequisite for such a thing, and sometimes, vigilanteism is the only avenue of justice.
Sometimes the law is wrong, sometimes the law fails, and sometimes there is a lack of law. In those cases, vigilanteism is often an acceptable avenue of justice. The Internet was once, and sometimes still is, a modern place where lawlessness runs rampant, and many a system administrator has handed down his own rule of law, ie. engaged in vigilanteism.
However, you are most certainly correct that in this case, the law must be given time to sort things out; doing otherwise right now only damages "our" reputation. It is possible, however remote, that the law may fail us. If it does, would certain acts of vigilanteism be acceptable? I certainly believe so, but not the sort that this discussion is about(ie. not email worms and the like).
So, while I agree that the OP was justifying an excersie in delinquency, perhaps his heart is not in the wrong place, and I wouldn't be so quick to judge him too harshly.
Wow, that's pretty embarrassing for both us Americans and you British. We produced him, and your Queen is stupid enough to "knight" him... What a fucking disgrace...
Really, seriously, this is a sad day. Gates is a goddam fanatical lunatic, bent on dominating every industry he gets into to the exclusion of all others. Other businesses fight for the largest piece they can get, Gates seems to think it's his God-given right to have it all.
Read about what goes on "behind the scenes" at MS; Gates is really weird.
And then you hear about Cubans trying to get to the US on crappy rafts etc.
Maybe some want to leave because they see American TV shows or movies and they think the whole continent is safe, nice, accepting, etc. Maybe if the Cuban govt. let the population see what the rest of the world is really like, they'd be less enthusiastic to leave Cuba.
You know, there's a hell of a lot of Cuban refugees living in America, why don't you ask them for their opinion?
The original Unix contracts signed by IBM et al, have language that is a little bit ambiguous about ownership of code that each party adds to Unix, more specifically, it was really to do with Unix trade-secrets, not actual copyright. IBM didn't like the apparent ambiguity and asserted that they(IBM) own, and can do whatever they please with, any code that they develop, and AT&T signed off on that. I'm not sure if that was an alteration to IBM's contract, or if that was just a clarification of the language used in the contract.
OTOH(!), at this point I think it would be exceptionally difficult to argue that there is anything in SysV that could be considered a trade-secret today anyway. The way it looks to me, SCO owns nothing but a license to SysV and a license to sub-license it, if Novell does still indeed own it as they claim.
SCO is indeed on shaky ground and it looks like they will not survive the counter-suits.
Bullshit. The articles in question regarding SCO are highly insightful and inflamatory, going as far as calling all Linux users hippies and fanatics, and alluding that Linus, et al, are commies and such.
Forbes may have once been a decent rag, but they've fallen off the deep end, in a big way.
Slashdot Mirror
This whole case revolving around IBM's code being added to Linux is laughable on the face of it, and asking $5b should be grounds for serious libel, defamation, fraud, extortion, conspiracy, securities fraud, and etc. suits.
Justice would be Darl getting impaled on a giant penguin's beak.
OTOH, even without rebuilding glibc to take advantage of the new kernel-based pthread support, I have found really nice interactivity improvements on the desktop. It's really quite nice, I wouldn't want to go back to 2.4.
And thanks for personally helping me customize one of the joystick drivers once-upon-a-time many moons ago.
And violence in "E" rated games? Are we talking "Mario"-esque violence, or something that really deserves mention?
Bah, give me a break!
I did not intend to imply that I consider deductions in general to be loopholes. I know how deductions work. The point is, large corporations pay lawyers millions to exploit loopholes in our tax code to reduce their overall taxable income to nill. You can even substitue "rich people" for "corporations" in many cases. Granted, rich people, as the rest of us, are largely over-taxed considering how little social benefit we generally get for our tax dollars.
Really? Because supporting their products has made me ALOT of money over the years, even if I don't use their stuff personally.
Wow, how nice for you, but supporting another companies flawed products isn't necessarily a good business model. Have fun when/if they ever get their shit together.
Publishers sell books on their products. People pay schools large sums of money to be certified on their products. Testing centers get paid to administer certification tests on their products. Countless software comanies get paid to write software for the Windows platform. *I* get paid to support their stuff (the buggier the better, I say). The list is endless. How can anyone seriously say they don't help the economy? The entire IT industry thrives (right or wrong) on their existence.
Un-fucking-believable... That demonstrates very clearly the limited scope your understanding is of the IT industry.
First, I thought McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform was supposed to fix this (snicker).
Snicker? Snicker? So you think it's funny that our political system is so royally fucked? Brilliant!
Second, I'm at a loss here: What (and how much) did Microsoft contribute, specifically?
I don't recall offhand, but it was a large sum of money for a political contribution.
My point still fucking stands, MS is not a big contribution to the U.S. economy, and neither is any big corporation hording so much cash. Going gentle on MS was not a consideration for the U.S. economy, it was a goddam gift to BillG for his political contributions and support. Our rich, upper-class leaders want the richest people in the country on their side.
MS got what it wanted from the Bush administration, guess which party they're going to contribute to in the upcoming election?
WTF is your problem? Illiteracy I presumed at first, but since you imply otherwise, I don't know what to assume. Do you even know what "graphic novels" are like? Did you not notice that I read all kinds of books? Did you have a problem understanding that I have never even read a graphic novel? I only said some newer graphic novels look interesting, and they are targeted at adults.
FYI -- in what is probably a vain attempt to placate your grotesque ignorance of the subject -- many graphic novels targeted at adults are comprised of roughly equal parts text and artwork, ie. they are most certainly not what one would consider "comic books." There is nothing inherently immature about the format, on the contrary, some writing can greatly benefit from accompanying artistic imagery. If you believe there is something inherently immature about a mix of text and artwork to convey a story, please enlighten me with some logical arguments.
And you are entirely incorrect, "goddam" is not spelled incorrectly; both spellings are in common usage today and can be found in the dictionary.
Microsoft is sitting atop tens of billions of $ that isn't is no longer in circulation.
Really, I think the U.S. going easy on Gates is simply our corrupt rich leaders scratching the back of another rick man. I really don't see how it could be taken any other way.
You do realize that the Republican party, before large corporate interests took over, was very supportive of anti-trust law. Some of the most well thought of Republicans were big supporters.
I didn't tell him to get over himself, and I didn't tell him he would never be interested in gaming again, quite the contrary. The other post you refer to which I shot down was very condescending, and basically implied that gaming isn't suitable for older folk, and he should get over it, and he's pathetic for posting this in the first place.
WTF is your problem? Are you illiterate?
Don't get me wrong, I understand perfectly well the gist of your post, but I think you are jumping the gun.
There are a lot of hobbies that people "grow out" of, such as playing with matchbox cars. However, there are some hobbies that can have more staying power, such as reading, movies, model trains, etc. People don't look at those things and say, "Grow up!" Gaming happens to be one of those new hobbies that people without prior exposure to don't understand and assume to be a hobby for young people, like comic books. But, apparently that isn't necessarily the case. Sure, there are a lot of *"losers" who still read comics and play games at 40, but with the advent of adult-oriented comics(ie. "graphic novels") and games, many older folk (ie. non-"loser" older folk) are continuing with those childish hobbies.
At 25, I don't read the same comics I did when I was 13(rather, I don't read any comics), but some new graphic novels (mentioned here on /.) have interested me.
YMMV, different strokes, etc. But please, don't be an old pompous scab telling us youthful folk how to live.
Paraphrasing:
- someone less of a dullard than you* - are they really "losers," I prefer not to label someone so harshly simply for continuing with something I consider to be somewhat childish. Perhaps they just didn't sell out and murder their inner child in order to be accepted as an adult. Or perhaps they are indeed losers and should be derided as such until their sad, lonely death.
Another thing that I have noticed now that I've "grown up" is that I simply have not enough time to play all the games I'm interested in. I'm 25 and work full-time and have a house and wife to attend to, family/friend obligations, etc., and I'm lucky if I get to game for 2 hours in as many weeks.
Sometimes I have wondered the same thing as you, "have I lost my interest in gaming," when I have several games I was excited about but I simply don't bother playing. Then I realized that the games I was interested in in the past have started to bore me.
It's the same as anything really. I'm also bored with stupid action flicks, pulp novels, and Star Trek. I'd much rather watch something with substance, action or no, read a long series of classic books(eg. The Foundation series), or non-fiction(eg. The Making of the Atomic Bomb - brilliant book BTW), and as for TV, I really don't care if I miss an episode of one of my favorite show(although I do enjoy 24 and haven't missed an episode, heh).
You get the point. Tastes vary over time. While you may always enjoy a good movie/book/game/etc., you won't want the same thing over and over. And then there's the time and social factors. Don't fret. Things change. Adapt.
I'm no DBA, but I know enough to design a proper database and write applications that use said database, but what I simply don't have time for is creating data-entry forms, generating reports, etc. Someone else does that. Someone else using MS Access. He's just barely "computer literate," but using Access he creates very nice reports and data-entry forms.
There's a whole book on creating data-entry apps for MySQL, using C/C++ and GTK. Yeah, I have time for that shit. I have 30 other projects that need to be done yesterday; I think I'll continue to let the windows-weenie handle everything but actually designing the databases.
Frankly, unless we get some real patent reform out of this, this will just go to show that you are totally fucked unless you are a Big Player(R).
Perhaps I'm just cynical these days?
I'm not the original poster, and I know a bit more about modern RDBMS, but I would still appreciate a similar front-end to what he is talking about, for Unix.
Currently, my company uses MS Access for employees to perform data-entry to our Postgres and MySQL databases. We don't plan on keeping our Windows boxes around forever, and we plan to migrate away from Windows and MS Office, so we need a replacement. We've got everything covered, sans MS Access.
I need something that any idiot can use to make forms for data-entry. Does such a beast exist for Unix/Linux/OS X?
Thanks for posting that! :D
I don't buy that. Vigilanteeism[sic] is taking the law into ones' own hands. Malice is not a prerequisite for such a thing, and sometimes, vigilanteism is the only avenue of justice.
Sometimes the law is wrong, sometimes the law fails, and sometimes there is a lack of law. In those cases, vigilanteism is often an acceptable avenue of justice. The Internet was once, and sometimes still is, a modern place where lawlessness runs rampant, and many a system administrator has handed down his own rule of law, ie. engaged in vigilanteism.
However, you are most certainly correct that in this case, the law must be given time to sort things out; doing otherwise right now only damages "our" reputation. It is possible, however remote, that the law may fail us. If it does, would certain acts of vigilanteism be acceptable? I certainly believe so, but not the sort that this discussion is about(ie. not email worms and the like).
So, while I agree that the OP was justifying an excersie in delinquency, perhaps his heart is not in the wrong place, and I wouldn't be so quick to judge him too harshly.
Cheers.
Really, seriously, this is a sad day. Gates is a goddam fanatical lunatic, bent on dominating every industry he gets into to the exclusion of all others. Other businesses fight for the largest piece they can get, Gates seems to think it's his God-given right to have it all.
Read about what goes on "behind the scenes" at MS; Gates is really weird.
Maybe some want to leave because they see American TV shows or movies and they think the whole continent is safe, nice, accepting, etc. Maybe if the Cuban govt. let the population see what the rest of the world is really like, they'd be less enthusiastic to leave Cuba.
You know, there's a hell of a lot of Cuban refugees living in America, why don't you ask them for their opinion?
Heh, cheers.
OTOH(!), at this point I think it would be exceptionally difficult to argue that there is anything in SysV that could be considered a trade-secret today anyway. The way it looks to me, SCO owns nothing but a license to SysV and a license to sub-license it, if Novell does still indeed own it as they claim.
SCO is indeed on shaky ground and it looks like they will not survive the counter-suits.
Good riddance!
Forbes may have once been a decent rag, but they've fallen off the deep end, in a big way.
The whole SCO debacle notwithstanding?