A little company with a lot to protect in the PC market. 20 Mil is such a paltry sum though, they probably don't even remember making the donation. Ding! That 'lil company in Washington has already abandoned SCO. It got what it wanted: FUD. Now its out making more FUD, claiming that Linux infringes 235 patents. They've used their FUD tactics and kickbacks and by planting their operatives to kill ODF in the standards community with OOXML.
SCO may have lost the battle, but it was already a victory for Microsoft no matter what happened. The war is far from over, but we'll win it by keeping on churning out our best software and leaving the FUD battles to the evangelists like Perens, ESR, RMS and others.
Here's the fact: Microsoft's actions prove that Linux and Free/Open Source Software scares it shitless!
Actually, the point everyone is missing is this, FTFA:
Another key feature is the capability to use human blood or sweat to help power the battery. Three uses for this, right off the bat:
Ultra-small/portable blood glucose meters. I don't know how many of you are diabetic, but my wife is and I can tell you that carrying around a blood glucose meter is a real PITA. Anything that has the potential to make these things smaller and more portable is a real plus.
E-ink/e-paper. Imagine having the thing turn on as soon as you grab it. Cool!
Low footprint biometric systems. Let's face it, having a biometric identification system is more practical if you can get a device that fits where you need it.
Orson Scott Card, has been stirring things up recently, and makes some damning statements regarding global warming, saying it is time for scientist to abandon the faked data of the "Church of Global Warming". Let's um, consider the source, shall we? OSC writes crap like this. Exactly what qualifies him as any sort of expert on global warming?
Secondly, this only seems to be a way around Vista's requirement of using signed drivers, Which is the mechanism Microsoft designed to defeat the installation of malicious drivers, right?
Or maybe you have a vested interest in everyone being subject to cable/satellite corporate monopolies... I don't own a single share of any cable or satellite stock. But, FWIW, in most of the densely populated areas of the country there is now competition among cable and satellite providers. I think in my area (Tampa Bay) I have the choice between Bright House, Verizon, and WOW for cable, and pretty much any of the satellite providers. So if you don't have satellite/cable because you fear monopolies, it's probably time to start looking around.
Yeah, I know. I've been using Linux really since the very early days of Slackware (just not as a primary OS), so I remember before there were such things as kernel modules.;)
I think this is the first time I've seen someone on slashdot advocating the elimination of the FREE option and requiring people to pay money for something. Most cable companies have subsidized 'lifeline' cable where you can get just broadcast channels and a few basic cable stations for under $20 a month. And some even offer free service for the truly economically challenged as a community service.
Why can't these bozos come up with One Good Standard (tm), implement it and go with it? Because as technology advances, we come up with better and better ways to do stuff. Each standard gets faster and faster, and cheaper and cheaper. You might as well ask 'why can't these bozos come up with One Good CPU design, implement it and go with it?', it's about the same thing.
It is being blocked for interference prevention, not because broadcasters fear it, but because it could not reliably detect unused TV spectrum, and could also cause interference..
Heck, many TVs can't reliably detect unused TV spectrum as can be witnessed by tuning your TV into the airwaves (instead of your cable/satellite) and watching the screen turn blue on stations that come in fine, but have a slightly weak signal. (like say, Windsor, Ontario's Channel 9 in Detroit).
Anyway, I say the whole broadcast TV thing needs to just die anyway. Seriously, how many people do you know personally who don't have satellite or cable? I know of one person, but that's it.
That's not so bad. It's the urge to take over the world that really causes problems. Oh, I thought it was the strange obsession with finding the question that belongs with the answer to life, the universe and everything, which is 42.
ou do have a point about the drivers, though. While closed, nVidia's Linux module hasn't provided nearly as much heartache as ATi's... abomination.
I take you never had an Athlon XP with an AGP nVidia card, huh? Not that it's nVidia's or the driver's fault, it was really AMD's fault, but still...I'm just sayin...
(BTW--I've been using Linux as my primary OS since 1996, so no I'm not Linux bashing)
Well, one thing to consider is this -- how different are other OSes like Linux? With Linux, a root exploit in a kernel module gains you access to the whole system as well, especially when you consider that it uses a monolithic kernel. IOW, kernel modules directly patch the Linux kernel, live, in memory. Now consider that the ATI drivers for Linux are based at least in part on the ATI drivers for Windows.
Mind you that some things like SELinux might help to mitigate some of this in some scenarios, but not in all.
To Microsoft, an 'open standard' is one in which they get to hide certain details so that only their implementation works properly, of course. In Microsoft-speak 'cross-platform' (which is a term used on the Silverlight MSDN site) means that it runs on Windows XP and on Windows Vista.
Except that Silverlight will likely never have Linux support, where, at least with Flash, Adobe has some motivation to offer Flash on Linux. Silverlight, Microsoft's PDF replacement, and a host of other technologies on Microsoft's horizon are nothing more than attempts to kill desktop Linux. You'll see support for this stuff on Mac OS X, but you'll never see it on Linux. They clearly see desktop Linux as a threat, and they're doing everyting in their power to stop it.
For it's part, Adobe's motivation is that if Linux on the desktop really does give Microsoft a run for their money, they'll need to support the platform since their goal is for their applications (well, their applications' output) to work for as wide an audience as possible.
Well, as I said in this post, not much. The only things I can think of are that it doesn't rely on any external devices and would be directly supported by Dell. It would be a real boon to corporate IT departments using virtualization to consolidate servers, since IT managers are often loathsome to use any such configuration that isn't officially vendor-supported.
Well, even if you knew what the TSP is, it might be, depending on your chosen profession, that you may not recall of the specifics regarding the TSP, such as the formulae used, what sorts of algorithms may be used to solve the problem, etc. Not all of us have jobs where we use our math/computational science/computer science skills on a day-to-day basis.
But pointing to the fact that someone else has told the story before too is not evidence that it DIDN'T happen, it's corroboration that it DID (as if the ARC openly admitting it and trying to defend the practice when they were called on it wasn't evidence enough).
Indeed. Like everything else, I take what people say with a grain of salt, including the guy accusing you of stealing what you said from Ann Landers. If I'm really interested, I'll go through the effort of independently verifying what other people have said. If I can't independently verify, then I assume the person is either lying or has been misled.
That being said, the only support I've ever given the ARC, personally is the purchase of two Tux the Penguin squeezy stress-relieving dolls for $5 a piece. I wasn't that interested in supporting the ARC, I just wanted the Tuxes for my desk.;)
No. GP is accusing you of making up the story by regurgitating information that has been seen in an Ann Landers column, among other places. Apparently, the GP feels that those sources are dubious, at best.
I'll withhold my own personal judgment of your post. Instead, I'll say that I agree with the GP's implication that Ann Landers' column is a dubious source of information, at best. Your more likely to get accurate information from Wikipedia. (Really)
Heh. You're right, I did. As others have pointed, out a break is really the best.
And we're initializing counters for while loops cause he wanted to use a for. You generally need a for when you want to run something n number of times. A while controlled by a counter does the same thing.
And as for whether I write avionics or life support software: hey, look, it's Slashdot, here. I wrote that post in under 30 seconds. What do you expect? But, as it were, I don't write such software...I just write stupid little applets in Python for doing things like controlling printers, but you could probably tell that from my link.;)
Slashdot Mirror
SCO may have lost the battle, but it was already a victory for Microsoft no matter what happened. The war is far from over, but we'll win it by keeping on churning out our best software and leaving the FUD battles to the evangelists like Perens, ESR, RMS and others.
Here's the fact: Microsoft's actions prove that Linux and Free/Open Source Software scares it shitless!
Um, could you repost that please? It seems your original post got corrupted somehow. All I see is gibberish where the code should be.
Yeah, I know. I've been using Linux really since the very early days of Slackware (just not as a primary OS), so I remember before there were such things as kernel modules. ;)
Heck, many TVs can't reliably detect unused TV spectrum as can be witnessed by tuning your TV into the airwaves (instead of your cable/satellite) and watching the screen turn blue on stations that come in fine, but have a slightly weak signal. (like say, Windsor, Ontario's Channel 9 in Detroit).
Anyway, I say the whole broadcast TV thing needs to just die anyway. Seriously, how many people do you know personally who don't have satellite or cable? I know of one person, but that's it.
I take you never had an Athlon XP with an AGP nVidia card, huh? Not that it's nVidia's or the driver's fault, it was really AMD's fault, but still...I'm just sayin...
(BTW--I've been using Linux as my primary OS since 1996, so no I'm not Linux bashing)
Well, one thing to consider is this -- how different are other OSes like Linux? With Linux, a root exploit in a kernel module gains you access to the whole system as well, especially when you consider that it uses a monolithic kernel. IOW, kernel modules directly patch the Linux kernel, live, in memory. Now consider that the ATI drivers for Linux are based at least in part on the ATI drivers for Windows.
Mind you that some things like SELinux might help to mitigate some of this in some scenarios, but not in all.
Citations, please.
To Microsoft, an 'open standard' is one in which they get to hide certain details so that only their implementation works properly, of course. In Microsoft-speak 'cross-platform' (which is a term used on the Silverlight MSDN site) means that it runs on Windows XP and on Windows Vista.
Hey, I'm Don Imus, you insensitive clod!
Except that Silverlight will likely never have Linux support, where, at least with Flash, Adobe has some motivation to offer Flash on Linux. Silverlight, Microsoft's PDF replacement, and a host of other technologies on Microsoft's horizon are nothing more than attempts to kill desktop Linux. You'll see support for this stuff on Mac OS X, but you'll never see it on Linux. They clearly see desktop Linux as a threat, and they're doing everyting in their power to stop it.
For it's part, Adobe's motivation is that if Linux on the desktop really does give Microsoft a run for their money, they'll need to support the platform since their goal is for their applications (well, their applications' output) to work for as wide an audience as possible.
Well, as I said in this post, not much. The only things I can think of are that it doesn't rely on any external devices and would be directly supported by Dell. It would be a real boon to corporate IT departments using virtualization to consolidate servers, since IT managers are often loathsome to use any such configuration that isn't officially vendor-supported.
For that matter, who needs to?
You can get the benefits of this yourself.
1) Download Damn Small Linux.
2) Install on a USB pen drive.
3) Add Xen Source (or VMWare) hypervisor
4) ???
5) Profit! (sorry, couldn't resist)
Well, even if you knew what the TSP is, it might be, depending on your chosen profession, that you may not recall of the specifics regarding the TSP, such as the formulae used, what sorts of algorithms may be used to solve the problem, etc. Not all of us have jobs where we use our math/computational science/computer science skills on a day-to-day basis.
Indeed. Like everything else, I take what people say with a grain of salt, including the guy accusing you of stealing what you said from Ann Landers. If I'm really interested, I'll go through the effort of independently verifying what other people have said. If I can't independently verify, then I assume the person is either lying or has been misled.
That being said, the only support I've ever given the ARC, personally is the purchase of two Tux the Penguin squeezy stress-relieving dolls for $5 a piece. I wasn't that interested in supporting the ARC, I just wanted the Tuxes for my desk.
No. GP is accusing you of making up the story by regurgitating information that has been seen in an Ann Landers column, among other places. Apparently, the GP feels that those sources are dubious, at best.
I'll withhold my own personal judgment of your post. Instead, I'll say that I agree with the GP's implication that Ann Landers' column is a dubious source of information, at best. Your more likely to get accurate information from Wikipedia. (Really)
Any word if any of these vulnerabilities affect Linux or other Unixes as well?
It was as if a million fake celebrity pr0n websites cried and were suddenly silenced...
Heh. You're right, I did. As others have pointed, out a break is really the best.
;)
And we're initializing counters for while loops cause he wanted to use a for. You generally need a for when you want to run something n number of times. A while controlled by a counter does the same thing.
And as for whether I write avionics or life support software: hey, look, it's Slashdot, here. I wrote that post in under 30 seconds. What do you expect? But, as it were, I don't write such software...I just write stupid little applets in Python for doing things like controlling printers, but you could probably tell that from my link.