Seriously, I'd love to use Safari, but it just can't handle what I need out of a WebBrowser, so it's Firefox all the way on my Macs. As for the UI - sure it's not as "maclike" as it could be, but neither is half the stuff I run on my Mac such as NeoOffice (lightyears ahead of OpenOffice from a GUI perspective at least), Citrix ICA (obviously) and so on.
Yep... absolutely, point releases are free - just like the completely free upgrade from NT5 to NT5.1... oh, wait...
Seriously, I always have to laugh when people talk about Apple charging for "point releases" that really aren't when Microsoft charged for a "point release" that REALLY WAS!
They have ALWAYS charged for point release updates which are essentially comparable to Windows' Service Packs... I'm no Mac fanboy, but I've always hated this argument, it's just silly. MacOSX "point releases" are not comparable to Windows Service Packs. "point point" releases are. So 10.4.0 to 10.4.1 is like a service pack, but 10.4 to 10.5 is a major version upgrade.
If you don't believe me, compare 10.0 to 10.4 side by side and tell me it feels even remotely like the same OS - they're further apart in feel and features than 98 to XP.
It doesn't use any platform's native graphical toolkit NeoOffice (OpenOffice port for MacOS X) uses Aqua and looks great - no need for X like the main OpenOffice.org. OpenOffice.org itself will be supporting Aqua in the not too distant future as well.
You're right about OpenOffice looking a bit "off" due to the toolkit if you're looking at Windows though - I'd like to see this improved in future versions somehow.
Honestly, I think that Abiword is orders of magnitude better -- not just in the obvious areas of size and memory footprint, but also in terms of the UI. The main problem with AbiWord is that it IS a very lightweight program and as such doesn't have too many features. As has been discussed elsewhere, this generally isn't a problem, but when it rears its head, it rears it pretty badly. This will happen a LOT more often with AbiWord than OpenOffice.org.
What about a fairly simple, mostly text document that needs to be printed? HTML is a bad choice because you can't guarantee the printed output matches the document, and your other two options are bad because they're too complex. Word Processors definitely do have a place.
Can I ask where you work? I might know you (I'm Ben from PTSC in BAU). Drop me an email if you don't want to reply here:)
To answer your post though - yes, our security stuff is nice:) You missed the HDD encryption and erasure though. That said, like a sibling post stated, you can't be too overconfident - I've got a list of outstanding security holes (ranging from minor to "comprise the network") that I'll be talking to Japan about once I have some demo code to show them how to exploit the holes. Suffice to say, none of them are exploitable without thorough knowledge of how things work in our machines, but I'm actively working on getting them patched anyway.
(and for anyone else, no, I won't give you a list of the holes OR explain how to exploit them. Ask me after we've issued official patches for them)
Most large boxes (over 50ppm generally, but can be smaller) with EFI Fiery print controllers. The embedded Fierys generally run Linux, but the external boxes are generally Windows XP Embedded. Optional kits for these Fierys include monitor, keyboard and mouse.
If you want a specific example or two: Konica Minolta/Konica 8050 or C500 with S300 (IP-901) Fiery Konica Minolta C6500 with S450 (IC-303) Fiery Any Konica Minolta, Xerox or otherwise with a current Creo print controller. Any Konica Minolta or otherwise with a Micropress system. Minolta CF910 or CF9001 with X4 or Z4 Fiery. Any MANY others.
(note: I work for Konica Minolta, hence the main ones I know off the top of my head being our products)
(note 2: this is not confidential information, I will not get fired - have a nice day)
Hmmm... I work for Konica Minolta and can tell you that two years ago, none of our new equipment was running MSDOS.
The only products we have that run MSDOS are at least 5 years old (and even then, it was only SOME Konica products, and many of those actually just used DOS to bootstrap in to VxWorks). Current products are all either VxWorks, Linux or in some third party products (mostly EFI's Fiery controllers) XP Embedded.
As for the topic of the article - yes, these things are VERY much a security risk if you know what you're doing and the person who set it up didn't... we have a whole host of security features to mitigate risk, but if you don't know they're there or how to use them... well...
For anyone that doesn't mind the travel or lives locally enough, I'll be giving an indepth presentation on this exact topic at the next Ruxcon here in Sydney, Australia.
Aesthetic, perhaps... but I still agree with him on this point. It's not really baseless aesthetics either, as we can reason that since everything prior we'd ever dealt with in science was deterministic, it would take a VERY convincing argument to say that there is a scientific theory that conveys non-deterministic behaviour. While some fairly strong ideas have been put forward about how and why the fundamental nature of things is non-deterministic, I don't personally find them convincing enough to steer me away from Einstein's statement (yet).
While I generally find myself reading your posts and agreeing, this is a standpoint that I can't agree on I'm afraid. You (and most others from my point of view) seem to consider that it is possible to have an accurate model that is different to reality. I've always been of the opinion that the more accurate your model, the closer to reality you are. If it were possible to get a "perfectly accurate model" (I won't debate whether it is or is not possible here!), then you would in fact have a "perfect" picture of how the universe really is.
I can't imagine a model that's accurate without being at least a shade of how things really are - and the more accurate the model, the closer to truth it MUST be.
I noticed the same... but I still turned down the $20000 payrise to move to the Marketing department when I was offered it (and the $15000 payrise to move to the Sales department doing pre-sales stuff). I'm technical and technical is where I'll stay.
My G4 Mac Mini runs OSX beautifully - not slow in the slightest. However my G4 eMac at work runs like a complete dog. They both have similar apps installed (including Adobe CS1), however the eMac at work gets hammered by constant installation and uninstallation of print drivers (I work for a printer manufacturer) and this is the only thing I've been able to account for the incredible difference in speed.
I've been meaning to do some real testing, but haven't quite got around to it yet - I think MAYBE there's something slightly broken in OSX 10.4 with regards to the print system...
So you are saying that 500g is easier to deal with than 1lb? Not really - about equally as easy...
It may be easier than 454 grams, but not easier than 1lb. One is a pretty nice number to deal with, and 1lb can be stated in 2 syllables, where as 500g is 4 syllables. All for no gain. 454 grams is 6 or 7 syllables, depending on how you phrase it. That seems like a fairly silly reason to me (no offence intended). And besides "half a kilo" is only 4 syllables and that's how I'd normally say it.
Also, all of that in mind, how often do you deal with things that are "1 pound" anyway? I can imagine you'd probably buy butter, some fruit and some vegetables in 1 pound units, but beyond that, I don't know of a single time I'd deal in 500g units - most large bags of flour, sugar etc etc are 1kg (I assume it'd be a 2lb bag there).
Same goes for the measurements in "stones" (which I have never used, being a fat American). One syllable. Easier than saying kilograms or kilos. Besides, you act as if we should switch just to make someone else happy. Actually, in some ways yes... if there was something which the rest of the world did pretty much as a rule and we didn't here in Australia, I'd be pushing to match the rest of the world. But in other ways, it's not just to keep the rest of the world happy - there's many other reasons (shortened time to learn basic mathematics in school since no time wasted with memorising conversion tables, easier international trade (which is very important these days no matter how big you are), Easier on everyone who travels internationally (I'm sure it's just as much a pain when you come here and drive a car as it is when I go there and drive one), and so on).
Other than the argument that it just "feels more natural" (which is a weak argument anyway to anyone that's grown up with metric, which feels more natural to us), I've never heard a single good argument for use of the imperial system.
Maybe we should switch to the Euro while we are at it, that way we won't have to convert currencies back and forth. That would make your life easier. I would LOVE one world currency, but there are too many reasons why that's not feasible. And besides, we don't use the Euro here in Australia either...
Then we could make sure that everyone spells color "colour" and civilization can only be spelled "civilisation". Hell, why don't we all switch to Esperanto. Then there would be no language barrier. Don't bother continuing to try to document Indian languages. Our forefathers were right to make them all use English in school. While I personally find American spelling (and even pronunciation sometimes) to be quite painful and grating, it's not a barrier to effective communication, so that's hardly a big problem. One world language would also be nice in some ways, but again there's too many things which would stop it's adoption. The main thing with languages is that languages are often well suited to cultures and if there was one world language it would have to be VERY complex to take all of the different ways of thinking in to account, so something like Esperanto (despite being "logical" and "simple") would be a VERY bad choice (my perfect example is that I always feel hampered by a lack of the word "gezellig" in English - I never would have felt hampered by a lack of it until I learned Dutch and know what it means, but now that I do, not being able to express that same thing in one word in English is just annoying).
In fact, why don't we just form one happy little commune, where we can all live in peace. We can distribute things to each person according to their need. And they will work in the position that will best help society as a whole. Great Idea(tm). I think you should start a revolution based on these principles. Just make sure those "intellectuals" are taken care of. They tend to cause trouble. Now you're just being silly. Pushing the few remaining imperial system using countries to switch to metric has nothing to do with communism. I don't see how you can make such a comparison.
How many centimeters in a third of a meter? 33.3333333333333333333333333333333333333333333... I'd just say "33 and a third"... (metric doesn't mean you can't use fractions!)
I'm actually a little shocked about this... I thought EVERYONE was already completely familiar with 24hr time. I know it's more common some places than others, but I just assumed at least everyone was completely comfortable with it. Every digital clock in my house reads with 24hr time. The interesting thing is though that if I'm speaking a European language other than English I'll say the time in 24hr time, but if I'm speaking English I'll "read" 23:00 and say "11pm". That's probably just because I live in Australia though, and people are a little weird here - it's starting to rub off on me:S
Actually, I'd really like to know more about this... it seems every country I go to has a different measurement system for clothes (especially shoe sizes!). However most places I've been can do a quick conversion from "cm sizes" to whatever system they use and supply me with the right sized garments. Maybe I'm just lucky living somewhere where every article of clothing I have is measured in cm (except my shoes... I don't know WHAT that system is (or systems as the case may be... my sports shoes are size 9, my business shoes are size 12.5, but they both fit perfectly and are only about 15mm different heel to toe)).
I'd kill for an 84cm waist... mine's 102cm... (which i'm reminded of every time I buy pants, because we don't have some esoteric sizing system, I just walk up to the shelf and buy a pair of "102 medium" (the "medium" is the leg length, which is either short, medium or long - I REALLY feel sorry for people who buy 102 short!)).
And the real reason them furriners like the metric system is because of their girly man little barbie doll cars! They can go ZOMG, I was going 100 KPH!
OBVIOUSLY someone who's never been out on the Autobahn in Germany... last time I was over that way, my little Peugeot rental car was having trouble pushing over about 170 (although I did hit 190 at one point), and the big Mercs and so on were ZOOMING past me like I was nothing...
There is a widespread misbelief that everybody needs to go metric in their everyday lives because it is "more scientific" and therefore "better". I honestly think anyone arguing this is just silly. I use metric, but not because it's more scientific. I use it because it's what I grew up with and can't imagine using anything else. The reason I think the USA (and others - which includes the UK in their halfhearted attempts) needs to switch to metric is just to make everyone's lives easier. It's a pain in the proverbial when someone tells me "oh my god, it's 115 degrees today!"... I have NO idea how to relate that to anything I know without pulling up Google calculator or similar (and no, I'm not going to learn the entire imperial system just to better understand people from a very select few countries!).
To use the old example, ordering "three pints of beer and two shots of vodka please" is much a more usable phrase than "three by five hundred millilitres of beer and two by fifty millilitres of vodka please" -- it is both shorter and harder for a bartender to misunderstand. (assuming they adjust the serving sizes during metricisation; it'd be even worse with the exact metric conversions). Oh come on, that's just silly and you know it. No-one does that in metric countries. In most of Europe one would ask for half-litres of beer (here in Sydney, Australia, I'd ask for "schooners" which are 425ml). And a "shot" isn't an imperial unit any more than a metric one. A shotglass in some metric countries is 25ml, some it's 30ml and in some rare places it's 35ml.
Similarly apples are sold in pounds because people are likely to want to buy "a pound of apples", whereas a kilogram of apples is a bit much for most families. So you can't just buy half a kilo of 'em then?
Frankly, most people even order Coca-cola in "cans" rather than caring that there are 330mls in a can Yep, same here! A can is 375ml here in Australia, but I'm familiar with the 330ml (more commonly called 33cl) cans from having lived in Europe. Regardless, it's still a "can of coke" - noone in their right mind would walk in to a shop and ask for "375 millilitres of coca cola please!".
...minced beef and jam, for instance, are sold in 454g packets...or 1lb...
I have always HATED this argument. A switch to metric will not mean you have to deal with obscure numbers like 454g all the time. The manufacturers will just hike the price a little and make it a standard 500g packet (or maybe 450g).
As a note on the topic in general - every time this comes up, people always point at the UK and say "well, they haven't really fully switched to metric". That's true, but quite irrelevant. The UK isn't exactly "the rest of the world" from the US. ALL of mainland Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Middle East, Africa, South America and anywhere else you care to name OTHER than the US, Liberia, Myanmar and a couple of "halfies" like the UK and Canada (although to a lesser extent than the UK) use metric and solely metric.
I wouldn't have a clue how many pounds I weigh, nor how many inches tall I am, nor how many miles from here to the city centre. But I know it and can picture it clearly in kg, cm and km.
Within the coming year, almost every piece of software I've written for work will become open source (the one or two exceptions deal with interfacing to proprietary hardware and are therefore irrelevant anyway since noone has that hardware). They will continue paying me, and I will continue writing it and it will continue to be open source.
Why do I write it? Because they pay me (and because I enjoy it, but MOSTLY because they pay me).
Why do they pay me? Because they need the software.
Why does it get released open source? Because they've already got what they need/want - no reason not to and I suggested that the software could be beneficial to others without hurting us at all.
Note that we aren't a company that creates and sells software - the software we (or "I" to be more precise) create is just stuff that helps achieve a goal with our primary business.
My personal belief is that people who ARE in the business of creating and selling software need to change their structure. Open Source the software, continue to sell it and ensure the customers want to buy it instead of copying it because they get some added intangible benefit such as support (I'm sure you could all name several companies working off this model already)
This is one of the most coherent arguments I've heard in a long time for getting rid of (or at least DRASTICALLY altering) current Intellectual Property laws.
My thoughts on this are that you're doing it backwards. You sell your software, but give your music away?
Both of these are "Intellectual Property" in the eyes of the law, but personally I see a huge difference. Software, given freely, can enhance other software for the benefit of everyone. Music, given freely, can not do this. You need to eat, so you're going to have to make money somehow... but you've got two things which could either be given away or sold and you seem to have chosen the least beneficial method to everyone.
If you're a good enough musician, PLEASE consider switching to selling your music and giving your software away for free.
Really, the work of Akira Kurosawa was far more of an influence on Star Wars than any of these sci-fi authors. It's very true what you say about the individual features being directly taken from classic sci-fi such as this, but as far as overall storyline and major scenes go, they're straight from Kurosawa's work.
Note that it was neither an accident nor covered up at all - it was completely deliberate and in the synopsis for the proposal of the original film (episode IV). I highly recommend anyone who hasn't seen "The Hidden Fortress" to watch it - it makes a great drinking game to spot the (many) relationships between it and Star Wars;)
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When Safari handles XSLT, get back to me...
Seriously, I'd love to use Safari, but it just can't handle what I need out of a WebBrowser, so it's Firefox all the way on my Macs. As for the UI - sure it's not as "maclike" as it could be, but neither is half the stuff I run on my Mac such as NeoOffice (lightyears ahead of OpenOffice from a GUI perspective at least), Citrix ICA (obviously) and so on.
Yep... absolutely, point releases are free - just like the completely free upgrade from NT5 to NT5.1... oh, wait...
Seriously, I always have to laugh when people talk about Apple charging for "point releases" that really aren't when Microsoft charged for a "point release" that REALLY WAS!
If you don't believe me, compare 10.0 to 10.4 side by side and tell me it feels even remotely like the same OS - they're further apart in feel and features than 98 to XP.
You're right about OpenOffice looking a bit "off" due to the toolkit if you're looking at Windows though - I'd like to see this improved in future versions somehow. Honestly, I think that Abiword is orders of magnitude better -- not just in the obvious areas of size and memory footprint, but also in terms of the UI. The main problem with AbiWord is that it IS a very lightweight program and as such doesn't have too many features. As has been discussed elsewhere, this generally isn't a problem, but when it rears its head, it rears it pretty badly. This will happen a LOT more often with AbiWord than OpenOffice.org.
What about a fairly simple, mostly text document that needs to be printed? HTML is a bad choice because you can't guarantee the printed output matches the document, and your other two options are bad because they're too complex. Word Processors definitely do have a place.
Can I ask where you work? I might know you (I'm Ben from PTSC in BAU). Drop me an email if you don't want to reply here :)
:) You missed the HDD encryption and erasure though.
To answer your post though - yes, our security stuff is nice
That said, like a sibling post stated, you can't be too overconfident - I've got a list of outstanding security holes (ranging from minor to "comprise the network") that I'll be talking to Japan about once I have some demo code to show them how to exploit the holes. Suffice to say, none of them are exploitable without thorough knowledge of how things work in our machines, but I'm actively working on getting them patched anyway.
(and for anyone else, no, I won't give you a list of the holes OR explain how to exploit them. Ask me after we've issued official patches for them)
Most large boxes (over 50ppm generally, but can be smaller) with EFI Fiery print controllers. The embedded Fierys generally run Linux, but the external boxes are generally Windows XP Embedded. Optional kits for these Fierys include monitor, keyboard and mouse.
If you want a specific example or two:
Konica Minolta/Konica 8050 or C500 with S300 (IP-901) Fiery
Konica Minolta C6500 with S450 (IC-303) Fiery
Any Konica Minolta, Xerox or otherwise with a current Creo print controller.
Any Konica Minolta or otherwise with a Micropress system.
Minolta CF910 or CF9001 with X4 or Z4 Fiery.
Any MANY others.
(note: I work for Konica Minolta, hence the main ones I know off the top of my head being our products)
(note 2: this is not confidential information, I will not get fired - have a nice day)
Hmmm... I work for Konica Minolta and can tell you that two years ago, none of our new equipment was running MSDOS.
The only products we have that run MSDOS are at least 5 years old (and even then, it was only SOME Konica products, and many of those actually just used DOS to bootstrap in to VxWorks). Current products are all either VxWorks, Linux or in some third party products (mostly EFI's Fiery controllers) XP Embedded.
As for the topic of the article - yes, these things are VERY much a security risk if you know what you're doing and the person who set it up didn't... we have a whole host of security features to mitigate risk, but if you don't know they're there or how to use them... well...
For anyone that doesn't mind the travel or lives locally enough, I'll be giving an indepth presentation on this exact topic at the next Ruxcon here in Sydney, Australia.
Aesthetic, perhaps... but I still agree with him on this point. It's not really baseless aesthetics either, as we can reason that since everything prior we'd ever dealt with in science was deterministic, it would take a VERY convincing argument to say that there is a scientific theory that conveys non-deterministic behaviour. While some fairly strong ideas have been put forward about how and why the fundamental nature of things is non-deterministic, I don't personally find them convincing enough to steer me away from Einstein's statement (yet).
While I generally find myself reading your posts and agreeing, this is a standpoint that I can't agree on I'm afraid. You (and most others from my point of view) seem to consider that it is possible to have an accurate model that is different to reality. I've always been of the opinion that the more accurate your model, the closer to reality you are. If it were possible to get a "perfectly accurate model" (I won't debate whether it is or is not possible here!), then you would in fact have a "perfect" picture of how the universe really is.
I can't imagine a model that's accurate without being at least a shade of how things really are - and the more accurate the model, the closer to truth it MUST be.
I do, and I love my job :) (of course, I don't deal directly with end users - my "customers" are internal, which makes it easier)
I noticed the same... but I still turned down the $20000 payrise to move to the Marketing department when I was offered it (and the $15000 payrise to move to the Sales department doing pre-sales stuff). I'm technical and technical is where I'll stay.
My G4 Mac Mini runs OSX beautifully - not slow in the slightest. However my G4 eMac at work runs like a complete dog. They both have similar apps installed (including Adobe CS1), however the eMac at work gets hammered by constant installation and uninstallation of print drivers (I work for a printer manufacturer) and this is the only thing I've been able to account for the incredible difference in speed.
I've been meaning to do some real testing, but haven't quite got around to it yet - I think MAYBE there's something slightly broken in OSX 10.4 with regards to the print system...
Also, all of that in mind, how often do you deal with things that are "1 pound" anyway? I can imagine you'd probably buy butter, some fruit and some vegetables in 1 pound units, but beyond that, I don't know of a single time I'd deal in 500g units - most large bags of flour, sugar etc etc are 1kg (I assume it'd be a 2lb bag there). Same goes for the measurements in "stones" (which I have never used, being a fat American). One syllable. Easier than saying kilograms or kilos. Besides, you act as if we should switch just to make someone else happy. Actually, in some ways yes... if there was something which the rest of the world did pretty much as a rule and we didn't here in Australia, I'd be pushing to match the rest of the world. But in other ways, it's not just to keep the rest of the world happy - there's many other reasons (shortened time to learn basic mathematics in school since no time wasted with memorising conversion tables, easier international trade (which is very important these days no matter how big you are), Easier on everyone who travels internationally (I'm sure it's just as much a pain when you come here and drive a car as it is when I go there and drive one), and so on).
Other than the argument that it just "feels more natural" (which is a weak argument anyway to anyone that's grown up with metric, which feels more natural to us), I've never heard a single good argument for use of the imperial system. Maybe we should switch to the Euro while we are at it, that way we won't have to convert currencies back and forth. That would make your life easier. I would LOVE one world currency, but there are too many reasons why that's not feasible. And besides, we don't use the Euro here in Australia either... Then we could make sure that everyone spells color "colour" and civilization can only be spelled "civilisation". Hell, why don't we all switch to Esperanto. Then there would be no language barrier. Don't bother continuing to try to document Indian languages. Our forefathers were right to make them all use English in school. While I personally find American spelling (and even pronunciation sometimes) to be quite painful and grating, it's not a barrier to effective communication, so that's hardly a big problem. One world language would also be nice in some ways, but again there's too many things which would stop it's adoption. The main thing with languages is that languages are often well suited to cultures and if there was one world language it would have to be VERY complex to take all of the different ways of thinking in to account, so something like Esperanto (despite being "logical" and "simple") would be a VERY bad choice (my perfect example is that I always feel hampered by a lack of the word "gezellig" in English - I never would have felt hampered by a lack of it until I learned Dutch and know what it means, but now that I do, not being able to express that same thing in one word in English is just annoying). In fact, why don't we just form one happy little commune, where we can all live in peace. We can distribute things to each person according to their need. And they will work in the position that will best help society as a whole. Great Idea(tm). I think you should start a revolution based on these principles. Just make sure those "intellectuals" are taken care of. They tend to cause trouble. Now you're just being silly. Pushing the few remaining imperial system using countries to switch to metric has nothing to do with communism. I don't see how you can make such a comparison.
I'm actually a little shocked about this... I thought EVERYONE was already completely familiar with 24hr time. I know it's more common some places than others, but I just assumed at least everyone was completely comfortable with it. Every digital clock in my house reads with 24hr time. The interesting thing is though that if I'm speaking a European language other than English I'll say the time in 24hr time, but if I'm speaking English I'll "read" 23:00 and say "11pm". That's probably just because I live in Australia though, and people are a little weird here - it's starting to rub off on me :S
Actually, I'd really like to know more about this... it seems every country I go to has a different measurement system for clothes (especially shoe sizes!). However most places I've been can do a quick conversion from "cm sizes" to whatever system they use and supply me with the right sized garments. Maybe I'm just lucky living somewhere where every article of clothing I have is measured in cm (except my shoes... I don't know WHAT that system is (or systems as the case may be... my sports shoes are size 9, my business shoes are size 12.5, but they both fit perfectly and are only about 15mm different heel to toe)).
I'd kill for an 84cm waist... mine's 102cm... (which i'm reminded of every time I buy pants, because we don't have some esoteric sizing system, I just walk up to the shelf and buy a pair of "102 medium" (the "medium" is the leg length, which is either short, medium or long - I REALLY feel sorry for people who buy 102 short!)).
OBVIOUSLY someone who's never been out on the Autobahn in Germany... last time I was over that way, my little Peugeot rental car was having trouble pushing over about 170 (although I did hit 190 at one point), and the big Mercs and so on were ZOOMING past me like I was nothing...
(for the conversion challenged, 170kph = 105mph)
...minced beef and jam, for instance, are sold in 454g packets...or 1lb...I have always HATED this argument. A switch to metric will not mean you have to deal with obscure numbers like 454g all the time. The manufacturers will just hike the price a little and make it a standard 500g packet (or maybe 450g).
As a note on the topic in general - every time this comes up, people always point at the UK and say "well, they haven't really fully switched to metric". That's true, but quite irrelevant. The UK isn't exactly "the rest of the world" from the US. ALL of mainland Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Middle East, Africa, South America and anywhere else you care to name OTHER than the US, Liberia, Myanmar and a couple of "halfies" like the UK and Canada (although to a lesser extent than the UK) use metric and solely metric.
I wouldn't have a clue how many pounds I weigh, nor how many inches tall I am, nor how many miles from here to the city centre. But I know it and can picture it clearly in kg, cm and km.
Within the coming year, almost every piece of software I've written for work will become open source (the one or two exceptions deal with interfacing to proprietary hardware and are therefore irrelevant anyway since noone has that hardware). They will continue paying me, and I will continue writing it and it will continue to be open source.
Why do I write it? Because they pay me (and because I enjoy it, but MOSTLY because they pay me).
Why do they pay me? Because they need the software.
Why does it get released open source? Because they've already got what they need/want - no reason not to and I suggested that the software could be beneficial to others without hurting us at all.
Note that we aren't a company that creates and sells software - the software we (or "I" to be more precise) create is just stuff that helps achieve a goal with our primary business.
My personal belief is that people who ARE in the business of creating and selling software need to change their structure. Open Source the software, continue to sell it and ensure the customers want to buy it instead of copying it because they get some added intangible benefit such as support (I'm sure you could all name several companies working off this model already)
This is one of the most coherent arguments I've heard in a long time for getting rid of (or at least DRASTICALLY altering) current Intellectual Property laws.
My thoughts on this are that you're doing it backwards. You sell your software, but give your music away?
Both of these are "Intellectual Property" in the eyes of the law, but personally I see a huge difference. Software, given freely, can enhance other software for the benefit of everyone. Music, given freely, can not do this. You need to eat, so you're going to have to make money somehow... but you've got two things which could either be given away or sold and you seem to have chosen the least beneficial method to everyone.
If you're a good enough musician, PLEASE consider switching to selling your music and giving your software away for free.
Really, the work of Akira Kurosawa was far more of an influence on Star Wars than any of these sci-fi authors. It's very true what you say about the individual features being directly taken from classic sci-fi such as this, but as far as overall storyline and major scenes go, they're straight from Kurosawa's work.
;)
Note that it was neither an accident nor covered up at all - it was completely deliberate and in the synopsis for the proposal of the original film (episode IV). I highly recommend anyone who hasn't seen "The Hidden Fortress" to watch it - it makes a great drinking game to spot the (many) relationships between it and Star Wars