MS Vista is mostly about implementing what Apple's Tiger system does right now. By 2008, Leopard (Mac OS 10.5) will be out for almost a year, and MS will still be implementing Tiger's features (will the SQL thing finally be included?).
Indeed, even now there wouldn't be many reasons to get Vista (unless you want a new PC with 4GB memory), but in 2008 there will be even less.
I'm sorry you can't patent the letter "T". The German Telekom (who own T-Mobile) has already trademarked (just as good) the magenta-colored letter "T" and sued people who used that color, or who used a big letter T for logos and stuff like that.
What about Pythogoras? He didn't mind having no patents. What about the first developed Polio vaccine? "Who owns my polio vaccine? The people! Could you patent the sun?", according to its inventor.
What counts to the buying world out there is what *product* you deliver. If you don't bother to develop one, it's only fair that the competition will. And if you DO care, you'd probably be a valuable asset to the company who wants to productify your idea. If your research is really cool, I'm sure you'd win some kind of prize, too.
But MANY researchers in world history didn't work for patents, they just worked for knowledge. So the question isn't how to prevent others from "stealing" your ideas. It's the question how to fund research.
Well, there are universities (public and private ones). There are research labs, and they already existed before there were software patents, so it seems that wasn't the needed motivation to research. And last but not least it would make sense for several large corporations to pool resources and create a research joint venture (since ideas would end up being open anyway).
Many research institutions don't just create ideas, they also develop know-how, and can sell consulting services, how to apply their cool research to develop products.
In the end, if a small competitor is more efficient at transforming an idea into an excellent product at the right price, more power to them!
I'd say that copying a book and selling it as your own is plagiarism, that selling a text without license from the creator and without attribution is fraud.
For patents the situation is different from creative art; patents are just ideas. Creative art isn't just an idea, it's a piece of art. Of course even that won't stop piratery...
Well, TCP/IP isn't rocket science, somebody would have developed it sooner or later.
As things go, we've been damn lucky that the code was put into BSD as open source, so that it could spread over the world. Otherwise we might have been stuck with some proprietary network.
OTOH, that TCP is open wasn't due to the government funding it, but rather the little stroke of luck that they used the open BSD as their system. Years later, with the Unix Wars going strong, things might have gone differently.
So instead of buying a laptop, poor people in developing countries should chip in money to fund Malaria research?
No seriously, it's about choice. Helping fight Malaria is cool, and I hope many people donate money there, but offering a laptop that poor people can maybe afford (to get them better education) is, too.
Those people are shooting themselves in the foot by not offering it for sale.
Greater numbers (due to high demand worldwide, not the least from a crowd of blood-lusty Slashdot readers) would work to reduce prices even more (I assume the biggest chunk of manufacturing are fixed costs which can thus be spread over bigger numbers).
If the machine could run some general-purpose Unix (Linux or BSD) I'd buy it for up to $150...
Well, the article is talking about how $100 can buy you a computer. You're talking about how money is being misallocated in the USA and in other places. Sure, most Americans had better find their child a better school, with a roof and good teachers, but if someones wants a cheap computer, that $100 thing is surely cool to have!
I agree though that computer education in school doesn't really teach you things. Hell, I got my first home PC when I was 19, and now I'm a good CS student.
The cool thing about GNUstep and Gorm is the object oriented development environment, and the libraries for Objective C. The e17 libraries are structured in a totally different way, and I think they only use pure C. Maybe one could write ObjC wrappers for the e17 libs and integrate them into Gorm...
Wmaker is cool; I mostly liked its performance, clean looks and the quick workspace switching (alt-1 etc.) though. Curious how e17 will turn out (as it is, it doesn't compile on my Mac)...
Uuuh, no. The stereotypical American beer is rather bad, but with some exceptions (as I mentioned). I suspect Kölsch would be drinkable, like Alster ("real" beer with water) or maybe Krombacher, but I prefer the more spicy ones, like Beck's or even Jever once in a while.
Of all the beers I've ever tried, Warsteiner must have been the worst ever, the best being Beck's (from my hometown!), Bass Ale (British), and New Glarus Spotted Cow & Native Ale (Wisconsin).
Even today Linux suffers from lack of drivers. Sure, it's possible to write them, but they seem quite intertwined with the kernel and are infected by the kernel's GPL license, even though the driver's purpose is simply to add another hardware interface, not to hijack the kernel's functionality!
A clean, minimalist kernel interface has its advantages, and I'll be looking into Minix. Maybe Minix isn't too useful as it is, but at least it's got clean fundament/architecture on top of which to build the rest.
Wait a minute. WotC didn't even exist 15 years ago, while D&D is like the forefather of all role playing.
Back in '95-98 I remember playing a lot of WotC's Magic card game, and except for two other card games (Jyhad/Vampire and Netrunner) that was the only thing they made. Did they happen to buy everybody else along the way?
I'm not sure, but I wouldn't expect NASA people to be a bunch of STD carriers. But if it makes your drooling easier, I'll consider it, should the situation arise.
Well, in Germany we too pay lots of taxes, but all DSL here is done by privately owned companies. Sorry to dispel your myth that the magical state somehow manages to lay out lots of wires just because people pay taxes;) (all that money could be paid to some company to build DSL infrastructure just as well)
Someone else wrote that in the US those companies are monopolies, maybe that's why they have no interest to invest anything...
Slashdot Mirror
MS Vista is mostly about implementing what Apple's Tiger system does right now. By 2008, Leopard (Mac OS 10.5) will be out for almost a year, and MS will still be implementing Tiger's features (will the SQL thing finally be included?).
Indeed, even now there wouldn't be many reasons to get Vista (unless you want a new PC with 4GB memory), but in 2008 there will be even less.
I'm sorry you can't patent the letter "T". The German Telekom (who own T-Mobile) has already trademarked (just as good) the magenta-colored letter "T" and sued people who used that color, or who used a big letter T for logos and stuff like that.
What about Pythogoras? He didn't mind having no patents. What about the first developed Polio vaccine? "Who owns my polio vaccine? The people! Could you patent the sun?", according to its inventor.
What counts to the buying world out there is what *product* you deliver. If you don't bother to develop one, it's only fair that the competition will. And if you DO care, you'd probably be a valuable asset to the company who wants to productify your idea. If your research is really cool, I'm sure you'd win some kind of prize, too.
But MANY researchers in world history didn't work for patents, they just worked for knowledge. So the question isn't how to prevent others from "stealing" your ideas. It's the question how to fund research.
Well, there are universities (public and private ones). There are research labs, and they already existed before there were software patents, so it seems that wasn't the needed motivation to research. And last but not least it would make sense for several large corporations to pool resources and create a research joint venture (since ideas would end up being open anyway).
Many research institutions don't just create ideas, they also develop know-how, and can sell consulting services, how to apply their cool research to develop products.
In the end, if a small competitor is more efficient at transforming an idea into an excellent product at the right price, more power to them!
I'd say that copying a book and selling it as your own is plagiarism, that selling a text without license from the creator and without attribution is fraud.
For patents the situation is different from creative art; patents are just ideas. Creative art isn't just an idea, it's a piece of art. Of course even that won't stop piratery...
Well, TCP/IP isn't rocket science, somebody would have developed it sooner or later.
As things go, we've been damn lucky that the code was put into BSD as open source, so that it could spread over the world. Otherwise we might have been stuck with some proprietary network.
OTOH, that TCP is open wasn't due to the government funding it, but rather the little stroke of luck that they used the open BSD as their system. Years later, with the Unix Wars going strong, things might have gone differently.
Open Source developers take on YOU!
So instead of buying a laptop, poor people in developing countries should chip in money to fund Malaria research?
No seriously, it's about choice. Helping fight Malaria is cool, and I hope many people donate money there, but offering a laptop that poor people can maybe afford (to get them better education) is, too.
Not everything is an either-or question!
Those people are shooting themselves in the foot by not offering it for sale.
Greater numbers (due to high demand worldwide, not the least from a crowd of blood-lusty Slashdot readers) would work to reduce prices even more (I assume the biggest chunk of manufacturing are fixed costs which can thus be spread over bigger numbers).
If the machine could run some general-purpose Unix (Linux or BSD) I'd buy it for up to $150...
Well, the article is talking about how $100 can buy you a computer.
You're talking about how money is being misallocated in the USA and in other places.
Sure, most Americans had better find their child a better school, with a roof and good teachers, but if someones wants a cheap computer, that $100 thing is surely cool to have!
I agree though that computer education in school doesn't really teach you things. Hell, I got my first home PC when I was 19, and now I'm a good CS student.
Well, yes, Enlightenment rules :)
The cool thing about GNUstep and Gorm is the object oriented development environment, and the libraries for Objective C. The e17 libraries are structured in a totally different way, and I think they only use pure C. Maybe one could write ObjC wrappers for the e17 libs and integrate them into Gorm...
Wmaker is cool; I mostly liked its performance, clean looks and the quick workspace switching (alt-1 etc.) though. Curious how e17 will turn out (as it is, it doesn't compile on my Mac)...
You made the mistake to judge something by its superficial impression, not its power.
:)
The very same windows as in that screenshot can run just the same on Mac OS X and then they suddenly look cool
Newer pictures of GNUstep I've seen also look quite good, definitely comparable with the ugly Gnome (pre-Clearlooks) or KDE default themes.
Women should be treated just like men from a public view, nothing more or less.
Everything that tries to promote a one-sided view of the world is crap.
Uuuh, no. The stereotypical American beer is rather bad, but with some exceptions (as I mentioned). I suspect Kölsch would be drinkable, like Alster ("real" beer with water) or maybe Krombacher, but I prefer the more spicy ones, like Beck's or even Jever once in a while.
Of all the beers I've ever tried, Warsteiner must have been the worst ever, the best being Beck's (from my hometown!), Bass Ale (British), and New Glarus Spotted Cow & Native Ale (Wisconsin).
I only wonder what beer they are referring to.
Germany has both the best and the worst beers I ever tasted.
U.S. citizens: get Beck's, not Warsteiner... (or just as good, get Wisconsin beers, like Liney's or New Glarus)
As a beautiful and large breasted female
You must be new here...
(I actually wonder why you're still here.)
I read your newest blog entry. Your soul is mine. Muaahahahahaaa.
And with some right.
Even today Linux suffers from lack of drivers. Sure, it's possible to write them, but they seem quite intertwined with the kernel and are infected by the kernel's GPL license, even though the driver's purpose is simply to add another hardware interface, not to hijack the kernel's functionality!
A clean, minimalist kernel interface has its advantages, and I'll be looking into Minix. Maybe Minix isn't too useful as it is, but at least it's got clean fundament/architecture on top of which to build the rest.
Wait a minute. WotC didn't even exist 15 years ago, while D&D is like the forefather of all role playing.
Back in '95-98 I remember playing a lot of WotC's Magic card game, and except for two other card games (Jyhad/Vampire and Netrunner) that was the only thing they made. Did they happen to buy everybody else along the way?
I'm not sure, but I wouldn't expect NASA people to be a bunch of STD carriers. But if it makes your drooling easier, I'll consider it, should the situation arise.
Well, those might keep you happy for a while, but they surely won't keep you from hitting on the hottie next door!
Man, if I could have sex in zero gravity.... Woohooo!
Imagine wearing white pants and having a notebook made of pencil on your lap...
"To some degree," but there's nobody who'd control or limit that degree...
As Reagan said, government isn't the solution, it's the problem. In the USA, as in other countries, that includes both big parties.
Well, in Germany we too pay lots of taxes, but all DSL here is done by privately owned companies. Sorry to dispel your myth that the magical state somehow manages to lay out lots of wires just because people pay taxes ;)
(all that money could be paid to some company to build DSL infrastructure just as well)
Someone else wrote that in the US those companies are monopolies, maybe that's why they have no interest to invest anything...