"Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it that in order for a file format to be accepted as an ISO standard there has to be at least a couple of independent working implementations?"
It's RFCs and Internet Standards which need to have multiple implementations. See RFC 2026 for the meta-standard (explanation of what standards an RFC needs to meet)
Internet standards are also required have been tested in real-world scenarios for long periods, plus they should be as simple as possible to implement, plus all discussion needs to be in public, which might explain their popularity compared to ISO computing standards.
Interestingly, if there's a patent needed in an RFC, then the two reference implmentations even need to have used "separate exercises of the licensing process"
"RMS is a zealot. He believes that his path to the goal is the only path."
The goal being freedom to use and modify software? The alternative paths are rather lacking it seems, either allowing people to take the code and make it non-free (BSD) or allowing hardware manufacturers to stop you running free code (Tivoisation) or allowing patents to stop you running free code (GPL2) or never pretended to give you the freedom to start with (shared source) or don't care about freedom anyway (open source)
Are there alternative paths to free software that are better than RMS'?
Or by alternative paths, do you just mean "One Microsoft Way"?
"RMS can say what he wants, but he is a very lucky in that Linus T. decided to hook up with GNU. I have no doubt that, without that, we would still be waiting for the GNU kernel"
You do realise the reason development [mostly] stopped on GNU-HURD was that linux made it unnecessary?
Seeing as it was on the TODO list of someone who outpaced entire companies when writing software on his own, it seems a little unlikely to assume we'd still be waiting for HURD if it was actually required.
Bitkeeper sounds really great from your description. But I read just today about another aspect of using Bitkeeper
It's an email from one of the developers on Mercurial:
As I mentioned the other day, I will not be contributing to Mercurial development for a while. Several people have asked me why.
At my workplace, we use a commercial SCM tool called BitKeeper to manage a number of source trees. Last week, Larry McVoy (the CEO of BitMover, which produces BitKeeper) contacted my company's management.
Larry expressed concern that I might be moving BitKeeper technology into Mercurial. In a phone conversation that followed, I told Larry that of course I hadn't done so.
However, Larry conveyed his very legitimate worry that a fast, stable open source project such as Mercurial poses a threat to his business, and that he considered it "unacceptable" that an employee of a customer should work on a free project that he sees as competing.
To avoid any possible perception of conflict, I have volunteered to Larry that as long as I continue to use the commercial version of BitKeeper, I will not contribute to the development of Mercurial.
As such, Mercurial can stand entirely on its own merits in comparison to BitKeeper. This, I am sure, is a situation that we would all prefer.
So not only was this proprietary software forced onto anyone who wanted to view Linux revision history, not only was Linus' license revoked because the guy in charge of BitKeeper decided he didn't like one of Linus' colleagues, but as we see here, he's even applying pressure to his customers to make sure nobody is allowed to work on a competing product.
However, for anyone about to do this, do consider using something like Mondo to backup your PC (and don't forget to verify the backups!!) That way, restoring your system *after* repair is as easy as shoving the disc in and playing tetris for a few hours:)
Surely that would indicate you've accepted the Vista license agreement, which is the last thing you want to do (no refund for the unused OS)
"It is likely that Novell will get more than 50% of the money."
Is the number allowed to be some percentage? I thought that SCO had claimed it was "100% theirs or nothing", hence Novell being rather happy they could prove it wasn't 100% (and asking for "no new theories of apportionment to be conjured-up at the last minute, please")
No flash-blocking, no blocking animated images, no blocking blink tags, no filtering of javascript, no blocking background music, no blocking videos...
it's like browsing with internet explorer -- okay for trusted sites, but not something you'd want to explore the web with (unless you really like flashing animated advertisements)
Even with 2GB of memory my system still feels sluggish, because everyone in the world thinks their software needs to run as a service or have some persistent background process eating up memory.
For fun, try using a brand new Dell computer. It comes preloaded with about a thousand types of program who paid to be on the default install, and every one of them has its own little "update" program connecting to the net and popping-up messages to tell you that it wants to install stuff.
So Java, Acrobat Reader, Roxio CD creator, InstallShield, the various drivers, and a load of "me too" programs each have completely separate update mechanisms. (of course, this is in addition to the 35 types of balloon-popup that Windows displays at every opportunity...)
"By introducing, or FUDing a secret limit, Comcast users are now in fear that they could be cut off at any time. While some are likely to switch ISP, most will try to slow down a bit "just in case". Overall less data will be used."
I'm just waiting for backbone providers to introduce secret monthly limits on comcast's upstream...
Yes, making a UAV is not trivial, but neither is it incredibly difficult. There are plenty of cheap parts out there that, with a little programming, could tie together a small GPS module and aircraft control servos.
"Because there are good projects like the iPhone already here."
STFU - iPhone represents the most proprietary item you can obtain, with a hardware supplier who's not letting anyone but them write software, a software supplier who's famous for not running on any hardware other than that which they created (software supplier and hardware supplier being the same company, for anyone interested in vendor lock-in), and doing an exclusive deal with a monopoly telephone provider, just to put the monopilistic cherry on the proprietary icing.
How the fuck can you compare *that* with OpenMoko, a completely Free phone with a Free firmware, Free Operating System, Free applications, and community of Free Software guys prepared to spend $450 each just to debug the hardware for the benefit of humanity, so that for the first time ever, you can buy a phone that does whatever you want
i.e. if demand for a full-price version of some music is the same (in their model) as demand for a zero-price version of the music, then they're modelling the demand as being the same no matter what the price.
If that were so (and the wiki pages on economics suggest it's not possible) then it would suggest that you could sell music CDs for $10K each (recognise this theory from anyone's legal filings?;)) and the demand wouldn't change because they've already published papers claiming that people downloading free music instead of paying were not doing it because of any price considerations.
"you also have to take some personal responsibility when dealing online. Your birthday or dogs name is not a 'secure' password."
All banks in the UK (I've dealt with several) use your birthday as one of the "secrets" for authenticating when you telephone them. They also use your mother's maiden name and place of birth, both of which are a matter of public record.
Oh, and for the extra-secure part of their password, most places prompt you to use a "memorable name" or "memorable date", so no prizes for guessing how many of those are secure.
In the U.S., I believe lots of companies use the social security number (e.g. in the HP fraud case) where the employer has access to that number, but the telephone company uses it as your password
"While I'm not certain this is part of an overarching strategy by Microsoft, it's articles like these that make it hard to take them seriously when they claim to want to standardize"
Their lack of support for ODF didn't make that clear?
"allowing an interpretation of a micro-expression to be used to select people for further investigation basically gives the airport staff the option of pulling over anyone, any time under this pretext."
a bit like 'encouraging' sniffer dogs to act interested in someone you want to search?
"The problem is why should UK taxpayers pay for people in other countries to have free media that they didn't pay for?"
As someone paying the BBC's licensing fee:
Giving away content to other countries is way, way more preferable than being locked-out of the BBC content just because the BBC would prefer that I use Windows Media Player 10 on "The BBC recommends Windows Vista Media Centre Professional Edition"
When we're looking at (a) not being able to watch TV on computers not blessed by Microsoft, and (b) the BBC becoming a force against freedom, the idea of worrying that foreigners might watch our telly is just absurd.
the comparison you want is probably: asimov's robots vs. the robots from any other author
i.e. you have a choice in developing robotics
(a) Asimov's idea: use the 3 laws, you have robots designed to prevent conflict, rescue humans, etc.
(b) Non 3-law robots, e.g. the "terminator" series of books, or the matrix. Massive wars laying waste to the planet
No prizes for guessing which direction the U.S. military is taking the field of robotics. (hint: in 20 years time, their robots won't be the ones restraining someone who tries to hurt you without any thought as to your race or politics or wealth. in fact, they'll probably be the ones threatening to shoot you if you express a political opinion in D.C.)
So Asimov is laying out the decision for us, by developing the effects of choice (a) in his books. For information about where the non-3-law path will lead, read some of the fiction created by other people where military robots are permitted.
(The UK RIP operates this way too, assuming that you're guilty of *something* until you can prove your innocence by revealing secrets. However, they phrase it in such a way that keeping a secret from the government is itself the crime)
When websites use a similar font to xterm (20 rows of 80 bold characters filling the screen) then maybe they'll be comparable.
Gaming websites however, tend to choose "8pt medium retro-futurist_alpha-experiment" which doesn't work so well with a dark background.
Always keen to improve their usability, most such sites have now changed to the standard "light grey on slightly lighter grey" colour scheme... thank goodness for "remove stylesheet", "ignore website fonts", and "minimum font size" options on firefox.
Slashdot Mirror
"Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it that in order for a file format to be accepted as an ISO standard there has to be at least a couple of independent working implementations?"
It's RFCs and Internet Standards which need to have multiple implementations. See RFC 2026 for the meta-standard (explanation of what standards an RFC needs to meet)
Internet standards are also required have been tested in real-world scenarios for long periods, plus they should be as simple as possible to implement, plus all discussion needs to be in public, which might explain their popularity compared to ISO computing standards.
Interestingly, if there's a patent needed in an RFC, then the two reference implmentations even need to have used "separate exercises of the licensing process"
"RMS is a zealot. He believes that his path to the goal is the only path."
The goal being freedom to use and modify software? The alternative paths are rather lacking it seems, either allowing people to take the code and make it non-free (BSD) or allowing hardware manufacturers to stop you running free code (Tivoisation) or allowing patents to stop you running free code (GPL2) or never pretended to give you the freedom to start with (shared source) or don't care about freedom anyway (open source)
Are there alternative paths to free software that are better than RMS'?
Or by alternative paths, do you just mean "One Microsoft Way"?
"RMS can say what he wants, but he is a very lucky in that Linus T. decided to hook up with GNU. I have no doubt that, without that, we would still be waiting for the GNU kernel"
You do realise the reason development [mostly] stopped on GNU-HURD was that linux made it unnecessary?
Seeing as it was on the TODO list of someone who outpaced entire companies when writing software on his own, it seems a little unlikely to assume we'd still be waiting for HURD if it was actually required.
It's an email from one of the developers on Mercurial:
(source, linked from article)
So not only was this proprietary software forced onto anyone who wanted to view Linux revision history, not only was Linus' license revoked because the guy in charge of BitKeeper decided he didn't like one of Linus' colleagues, but as we see here, he's even applying pressure to his customers to make sure nobody is allowed to work on a competing product.
However, for anyone about to do this, do consider using something like Mondo to backup your PC (and don't forget to verify the backups!!) That way, restoring your system *after* repair is as easy as shoving the disc in and playing tetris for a few hours :)
Surely that would indicate you've accepted the Vista license agreement, which is the last thing you want to do (no refund for the unused OS)
"Don't you look like a fool now."
Just a slow reader -- finally got to that part of the court's PDF.
"It is likely that Novell will get more than 50% of the money."
Is the number allowed to be some percentage? I thought that SCO had claimed it was "100% theirs or nothing", hence Novell being rather happy they could prove it wasn't 100% (and asking for "no new theories of apportionment to be conjured-up at the last minute, please")
"Konqueror"
No flash-blocking, no blocking animated images, no blocking blink tags, no filtering of javascript, no blocking background music, no blocking videos...
it's like browsing with internet explorer -- okay for trusted sites, but not something you'd want to explore the web with (unless you really like flashing animated advertisements)
"It's not quite an "application" but: WindowMaker. Unbloated in every sense."
And WindowMaker's clock, which makes just the right use of screen space - a mystery why no other desktops have used that layout.
Even with 2GB of memory my system still feels sluggish, because everyone in the world thinks their software needs to run as a service or have some persistent background process eating up memory.
For fun, try using a brand new Dell computer. It comes preloaded with about a thousand types of program who paid to be on the default install, and every one of them has its own little "update" program connecting to the net and popping-up messages to tell you that it wants to install stuff.
So Java, Acrobat Reader, Roxio CD creator, InstallShield, the various drivers, and a load of "me too" programs each have completely separate update mechanisms. (of course, this is in addition to the 35 types of balloon-popup that Windows displays at every opportunity...)
for example, how do you burn a playlist to CD as MP3 files? itunes seems to insist on burning an audio CD
being able to export the playlist to a directory would be a good start...
GQView is pretty fast too (e.g. pre-loading the next image), and it's even available on Windows now.
"By introducing, or FUDing a secret limit, Comcast users are now in fear that they could be cut off at any time. While some are likely to switch ISP, most will try to slow down a bit "just in case". Overall less data will be used."
I'm just waiting for backbone providers to introduce secret monthly limits on comcast's upstream...
Yes, making a UAV is not trivial, but neither is it incredibly difficult. There are plenty of cheap parts out there that, with a little programming, could tie together a small GPS module and aircraft control servos.
More info at http://diydrones.com/
"Because there are good projects like the iPhone already here."
STFU - iPhone represents the most proprietary item you can obtain, with a hardware supplier who's not letting anyone but them write software, a software supplier who's famous for not running on any hardware other than that which they created (software supplier and hardware supplier being the same company, for anyone interested in vendor lock-in), and doing an exclusive deal with a monopoly telephone provider, just to put the monopilistic cherry on the proprietary icing.
How the fuck can you compare *that* with OpenMoko, a completely Free phone with a Free firmware, Free Operating System, Free applications, and community of Free Software guys prepared to spend $450 each just to debug the hardware for the benefit of humanity, so that for the first time ever, you can buy a phone that does whatever you want
Wouldn't this study require the demand for music to be "perfectly inelastic"?
;)) and the demand wouldn't change because they've already published papers claiming that people downloading free music instead of paying were not doing it because of any price considerations.
i.e. if demand for a full-price version of some music is the same (in their model) as demand for a zero-price version of the music, then they're modelling the demand as being the same no matter what the price.
If that were so (and the wiki pages on economics suggest it's not possible) then it would suggest that you could sell music CDs for $10K each (recognise this theory from anyone's legal filings?
This is since they dropped support for hardware-accelerated soundcards and did everything on your CPU?
"you also have to take some personal responsibility when dealing online. Your birthday or dogs name is not a 'secure' password."
All banks in the UK (I've dealt with several) use your birthday as one of the "secrets" for authenticating when you telephone them. They also use your mother's maiden name and place of birth, both of which are a matter of public record.
Oh, and for the extra-secure part of their password, most places prompt you to use a "memorable name" or "memorable date", so no prizes for guessing how many of those are secure.
In the U.S., I believe lots of companies use the social security number (e.g. in the HP fraud case) where the employer has access to that number, but the telephone company uses it as your password
"While I'm not certain this is part of an overarching strategy by Microsoft, it's articles like these that make it hard to take them seriously when they claim to want to standardize"
Their lack of support for ODF didn't make that clear?
"allowing an interpretation of a micro-expression to be used to select people for further investigation basically gives the airport staff the option of pulling over anyone, any time under this pretext."
a bit like 'encouraging' sniffer dogs to act interested in someone you want to search?
"The problem is why should UK taxpayers pay for people in other countries to have free media that they didn't pay for?"
As someone paying the BBC's licensing fee:
Giving away content to other countries is way, way more preferable than being locked-out of the BBC content just because the BBC would prefer that I use Windows Media Player 10 on "The BBC recommends Windows Vista Media Centre Professional Edition"
When we're looking at (a) not being able to watch TV on computers not blessed by Microsoft, and (b) the BBC becoming a force against freedom, the idea of worrying that foreigners might watch our telly is just absurd.
"I see the increased value put on lives as a good sign that humanity is maturing."
So what's the official U.S. count of Iraqi deaths?
the comparison you want is probably: asimov's robots vs. the robots from any other author
i.e. you have a choice in developing robotics
(a) Asimov's idea: use the 3 laws, you have robots designed to prevent conflict, rescue humans, etc.
(b) Non 3-law robots, e.g. the "terminator" series of books, or the matrix. Massive wars laying waste to the planet
No prizes for guessing which direction the U.S. military is taking the field of robotics. (hint: in 20 years time, their robots won't be the ones restraining someone who tries to hurt you without any thought as to your race or politics or wealth. in fact, they'll probably be the ones threatening to shoot you if you express a political opinion in D.C.)
So Asimov is laying out the decision for us, by developing the effects of choice (a) in his books. For information about where the non-3-law path will lead, read some of the fiction created by other people where military robots are permitted.
"In cases like that you can just give the investigators your key/passphrase, so they can verify your innocence."
As other people have mentioned, it's the wrong burden of proof.
(The UK RIP operates this way too, assuming that you're guilty of *something* until you can prove your innocence by revealing secrets. However, they phrase it in such a way that keeping a secret from the government is itself the crime)
When websites use a similar font to xterm (20 rows of 80 bold characters filling the screen) then maybe they'll be comparable.
Gaming websites however, tend to choose "8pt medium retro-futurist_alpha-experiment" which doesn't work so well with a dark background.
Always keen to improve their usability, most such sites have now changed to the standard "light grey on slightly lighter grey" colour scheme... thank goodness for "remove stylesheet", "ignore website fonts", and "minimum font size" options on firefox.