Since Microsoft is the one that committed the changes, it would be pretty hard to say that ADOdb intentionally violated a patent.
If Microsoft attempted to sue ADOdb, more than likely ADOdb would have a better counter-suit case.
And the second a lawsuit pops up, ADOdb can very easily just revert the patch.
Not to mention, you apparently missed the article a few days back where it looks like the Patent Office may not be recognizing "process" (such as software) patents anymore.
It isn't just KDE 4 or 4.1, but any XRender effects are horribly slow, and other QT 4 apps have the same issue with Nvidia drivers. And apparently the QT devs have been reporting it to Nvidia for ages.
Often a story runs across Slashdot about company documents leaked because a laptop was lost. Ideally all laptop HDDs would be encrypted from here on out, but we have a company policy that we replace laptops in the 5-6 year range. New laptops today we encrypt HDDs, but it will be 5-6 years before all are encrypted.
So first off, don't have needlessly secure, sensitive data on a company laptop away from the office.
Next, there is zero excuse to have that data on your home computer. It breaches the contracts you sign with our company.
Finally, people's individual passwords should never be accessible by you.
If you have my employees passwords on your home computer, yes I would file charges against you in a heartbeat.
Test me. Unlike you, I'm not posting AC, and yes that was a real challenge. Feel free to try and take me up on it. I know my security, and I will prosecute.
I've been told by Xorg guys that Intel does, but they just really seem to love that the Intel driver is fully open. Intel is on-board, so really the choice is ATI I guess if you want serious 3D performance.
We're not talking about that here. And regardless, I'd encrypt even that.
Each user had a unique password in this system, even though it had to be used in addition to another component.
Our base VPN login requires a username, a unique password and a keyfob. After you pass that, we run a host checker to make sure you're connecting from company equipment. We then require domain credentials.
Every step of that is encrypted, and never should anyone in the IT department know anyone's passwords.
Our IS department is seperate, and their job is to ensure everyone is following security procedures. One day I get a call from one of our IS gals who needs access to her email, but didn't bring her laptop home. She asked if I could bring up her mailbox. I said we disabled that feature, and I could not bring up her exchange box. (I believe our exchange admin could still do this, but we told everyone that no one could).
Next she proceeds to offer me her domain credentials so I can log into her account and pull up her email.
I immediately stop her and tell her I don't want her password. She insists I log in as her because she immediately needs her email.
I reset her account, pick a password of my choosing, and read her email to her over the phone at her insistence, and then immediately reset her password again. I told her that she can then pick a new password at her next login, but NEVER should I know her password.
I wasn't sure if she was possibly testing me, or if the supposed security expert didn't even follow good security practices.
Kevin Mitnick had it right. The biggest security hole is people.
No a real SysAdmin doesn't violate good security practices by installing password crackers and checking people's passwords. Those SysAdmins should be instantly fired.
A good SysAdmin has password rules in place to make people select good passwords to begin with.
Our standard policy is 3 character types, 8 characters or more, and can't repeat last 12 passwords.
"I don't know a sysadmin alive that doesn't have that kind of work material on their home computers."
If their was a SysAdmin working for me that had password lists of my users on his home computer, not only would I fire him, I'd press charges.
The fact that the passwords could be harvested in the first place is problematic. I'm a SysAdmin and I should never have access to anyone else's passwords.
Passwords should be encrypted and non-visible. This is standard practice.
"You ABSOLUTELY CANNOT join this project whatsoever' would be my response."
A response like that doesn't encourage them to release more. That is precisely the overt, childish behavior I was talking about. I understand being skeptical. But when they open code, says "thanks, hopefully we'll see more of that!"
"They really are that scared of breaking backward compatibility ABIs (even though they broke many with Vista)."
2000 broke ABIs. XP broke ABIs. Vista broke ABIs. And Microsoft has said Windows 7 will likely completely break ABIs. Backwards compatibility will no longer be handled the way Vista does (several revisions of the same DLL in memory at once and such).
"Microsoft does not have to change their business model entirely and start making all their software GPL or LGPL."
They likely won't, yet later in your post you basically say them releasing LGPL code doesn't count unless they release a lot of it.
This is a positive step for them. A couple years ago they'd never do something like this. So today, you say they'd never go further, but who knows?
Each day they move a little closer to being an open, decent company. I hope the direction continues.
And then you reset their password and make then pick a new one.
Password policies shouldn't be draconian. For instance, changing them frequently isn't likely to help much. I'd rather people have a secure password that they don't write on paper, and keep for a year, rather than force them to change their password every two months and encourage users to write their password down so they remember it.
To the mod who just modded me off-topic, the summary above specifically mentions a GPL release of Vista. I was responding directly to the text of the article.
It is bad enough that people don't RTFA, but at least read the summary, especially if you're spending mod points.
I'm fine with that. Saying, "okay, we're fine with you using Apache and PHP instead of IIS and ASP, but try them on Windows!" is a win-win.
The end users have choice. Linux shouldn't be the only choice, in the same way that Windows shouldn't be the only choice.
Competition is good. Interoperability is good. Choice is good.
Microsoft once believed they had to force and bully people into locked solutions. To an extent, portions of Microsoft still operate that way. But other portions of Microsoft realize they have market share, loads of wealth, and a huge staff. Why not just try to put out a good product and compete? Let the market decide.
The ATI drivers work fine with XRender. The Intel drivers work fine with XRender. There are people with low end systems, and basic on-board Intel video reporting great performance with KDE 4, where as there are people with high-end systems with top-notch Nvidia cards reporting unbearable performance.
I think you have a reasonable question, as to whether or not XRender is just bad, but every one seems to utilize it without a problem.
I think Microsoft will own the Desktop OS for at least another 5-10 years at the minimum. There are too many Windows apps. Apple might grow to Firefox-type market share in a few years (20%) but that is still a bit a stretch.
Microsoft is also very diversified. And as bad as ME was, Microsoft followed it up with 2000 and XP. They can bounce back from Vista.
I'm glad to see competition, but Microsoft isn't going away.
#ifdef MEDIA_INDUSTRY_PAYS_US
#include <drm.h> #endif #ifdef BALLMER_NEEDS_NEW_CHAIR
#include <bsod.h> #endif// Forgive us, we're lowly captive coders. We// like penguins. Everyone likes penguins. They're// cute and cuddly. When my shackles chafe, I like// to imagine that I had a penguin to hug.....
Yet even in the wake of tampering with ISO, one Microsoft employee from the Office group recently had a quote saying that Microsoft knew they have lost the document standard war, and that was why they were adding support for ODF in SP2.
Mark my words. Duke Nukem Forever will ship within the next calendar year. Prey went from vaporware to shipping. People have recently seen and played Duke Nukem Forever. 3D Realms is actually going to ship it.
However, we can always mock the Phantom Console, which will never ship.
Apple will never use Intel processors. Dell will never ship AMD processors. Dell will never ship Linux.
These things happen. People can change their minds. Microsoft is still doing evil and illegal things on a regular basis (like last year, offering illegal bribes to get Nigeria to drop Mandriva) but not every single employee at Microsoft is evil. Not every department is necessarily evil.
Microsoft has been doing a number of reasonably good things for a while now, and everyone keeps suggesting they are part of some scheme and conspiracy. People shouldn't be completely shocked by this act.
I think it is just a continuation of a new trend towards being slightly less evil. Every time Microsoft opens more protocols, releases more code, and tries to work with the OSS community, instead of acting like children and calling names, I think the community should encourage Microsoft to continue the trend of migrating to a more open company.
QT 4 and thusly KDE 4 use XRender quite a bit, and Nvidia's driver has horrible XRender support. You could go to the OSS Nvidia driver, and lose 3D acceleration, or stick with KDE 3.
Ideally, I'd like to see the Slashdot effect channeled. This site has tons of users. We bring down sites accidentally with our massive numbers, but I've never seen the Slashdot Effect channeled for good.
Can you imagine CmdTaco posting a story tomorrow asking every to pepper Nvidia with petitions all on the same day, demanding an improved driver?
Slashdot Mirror
Since Microsoft is the one that committed the changes, it would be pretty hard to say that ADOdb intentionally violated a patent.
If Microsoft attempted to sue ADOdb, more than likely ADOdb would have a better counter-suit case.
And the second a lawsuit pops up, ADOdb can very easily just revert the patch.
Not to mention, you apparently missed the article a few days back where it looks like the Patent Office may not be recognizing "process" (such as software) patents anymore.
It isn't just KDE 4 or 4.1, but any XRender effects are horribly slow, and other QT 4 apps have the same issue with Nvidia drivers. And apparently the QT devs have been reporting it to Nvidia for ages.
Does the 6600GT use the legacy driver, or the new driver? I can't remember. I thought that was around the cut-off.
"Har, har. Press charges? For what?"
Often a story runs across Slashdot about company documents leaked because a laptop was lost. Ideally all laptop HDDs would be encrypted from here on out, but we have a company policy that we replace laptops in the 5-6 year range. New laptops today we encrypt HDDs, but it will be 5-6 years before all are encrypted.
So first off, don't have needlessly secure, sensitive data on a company laptop away from the office.
Next, there is zero excuse to have that data on your home computer. It breaches the contracts you sign with our company.
Finally, people's individual passwords should never be accessible by you.
If you have my employees passwords on your home computer, yes I would file charges against you in a heartbeat.
Test me. Unlike you, I'm not posting AC, and yes that was a real challenge. Feel free to try and take me up on it. I know my security, and I will prosecute.
I loved all the old Apogee games. Bring Apogee on. I'm all for it.
Our password rules allow dictionary words, but username variations aren't allowed.
Mozilla just spent the past two years focusing heavily on Gecko 1.9, and I don't see why they'd suddenly drop it.
I've been told by Xorg guys that Intel does, but they just really seem to love that the Intel driver is fully open. Intel is on-board, so really the choice is ATI I guess if you want serious 3D performance.
And ATI is moving to a mostly open driver.
I have a 7600GT and I can see the screen drawing on KDE 4.
We're not talking about that here. And regardless, I'd encrypt even that.
Each user had a unique password in this system, even though it had to be used in addition to another component.
Our base VPN login requires a username, a unique password and a keyfob. After you pass that, we run a host checker to make sure you're connecting from company equipment. We then require domain credentials.
Every step of that is encrypted, and never should anyone in the IT department know anyone's passwords.
Our IS department is seperate, and their job is to ensure everyone is following security procedures. One day I get a call from one of our IS gals who needs access to her email, but didn't bring her laptop home. She asked if I could bring up her mailbox. I said we disabled that feature, and I could not bring up her exchange box. (I believe our exchange admin could still do this, but we told everyone that no one could).
Next she proceeds to offer me her domain credentials so I can log into her account and pull up her email.
I immediately stop her and tell her I don't want her password. She insists I log in as her because she immediately needs her email.
I reset her account, pick a password of my choosing, and read her email to her over the phone at her insistence, and then immediately reset her password again. I told her that she can then pick a new password at her next login, but NEVER should I know her password.
I wasn't sure if she was possibly testing me, or if the supposed security expert didn't even follow good security practices.
Kevin Mitnick had it right. The biggest security hole is people.
No a real SysAdmin doesn't violate good security practices by installing password crackers and checking people's passwords. Those SysAdmins should be instantly fired.
A good SysAdmin has password rules in place to make people select good passwords to begin with.
Our standard policy is 3 character types, 8 characters or more, and can't repeat last 12 passwords.
"I don't know a sysadmin alive that doesn't have that kind of work material on their home computers."
If their was a SysAdmin working for me that had password lists of my users on his home computer, not only would I fire him, I'd press charges.
The fact that the passwords could be harvested in the first place is problematic. I'm a SysAdmin and I should never have access to anyone else's passwords.
Passwords should be encrypted and non-visible. This is standard practice.
"You ABSOLUTELY CANNOT join this project whatsoever' would be my response."
A response like that doesn't encourage them to release more. That is precisely the overt, childish behavior I was talking about. I understand being skeptical. But when they open code, says "thanks, hopefully we'll see more of that!"
"They really are that scared of breaking backward compatibility ABIs (even though they broke many with Vista)."
2000 broke ABIs. XP broke ABIs. Vista broke ABIs. And Microsoft has said Windows 7 will likely completely break ABIs. Backwards compatibility will no longer be handled the way Vista does (several revisions of the same DLL in memory at once and such).
"Microsoft does not have to change their business model entirely and start making all their software GPL or LGPL."
They likely won't, yet later in your post you basically say them releasing LGPL code doesn't count unless they release a lot of it.
This is a positive step for them. A couple years ago they'd never do something like this. So today, you say they'd never go further, but who knows?
Each day they move a little closer to being an open, decent company. I hope the direction continues.
And then you reset their password and make then pick a new one.
Password policies shouldn't be draconian. For instance, changing them frequently isn't likely to help much. I'd rather people have a secure password that they don't write on paper, and keep for a year, rather than force them to change their password every two months and encourage users to write their password down so they remember it.
Plenty of companies make a profit while staying within the bounds of the law.
When leading a major corporation, you often have to make decisions in regards to ethics. Some companies care about ethics, and others don't.
There is a difference between winning market share in a competitive market, and destroying competition.
In addition to breaking laws, and destroying competition, Microsoft is also guilty of treating their customers poorly.
Are you going to seriously suggest Microsoft isn't evil?
To the mod who just modded me off-topic, the summary above specifically mentions a GPL release of Vista. I was responding directly to the text of the article.
It is bad enough that people don't RTFA, but at least read the summary, especially if you're spending mod points.
I'm fine with that. Saying, "okay, we're fine with you using Apache and PHP instead of IIS and ASP, but try them on Windows!" is a win-win.
The end users have choice. Linux shouldn't be the only choice, in the same way that Windows shouldn't be the only choice.
Competition is good. Interoperability is good. Choice is good.
Microsoft once believed they had to force and bully people into locked solutions. To an extent, portions of Microsoft still operate that way. But other portions of Microsoft realize they have market share, loads of wealth, and a huge staff. Why not just try to put out a good product and compete? Let the market decide.
The ATI drivers work fine with XRender. The Intel drivers work fine with XRender. There are people with low end systems, and basic on-board Intel video reporting great performance with KDE 4, where as there are people with high-end systems with top-notch Nvidia cards reporting unbearable performance.
I think you have a reasonable question, as to whether or not XRender is just bad, but every one seems to utilize it without a problem.
Desktop OS, or overall OS?
I think Microsoft will own the Desktop OS for at least another 5-10 years at the minimum. There are too many Windows apps. Apple might grow to Firefox-type market share in a few years (20%) but that is still a bit a stretch.
Microsoft is also very diversified. And as bad as ME was, Microsoft followed it up with 2000 and XP. They can bounce back from Vista.
I'm glad to see competition, but Microsoft isn't going away.
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <windowsxp.h>
#include <bloat.h>
#include <shiny.h>
#ifdef MEDIA_INDUSTRY_PAYS_US // Forgive us, we're lowly captive coders. We // like penguins. Everyone likes penguins. They're // cute and cuddly. When my shackles chafe, I like // to imagine that I had a penguin to hug. ....
#include <drm.h>
#endif
#ifdef BALLMER_NEEDS_NEW_CHAIR
#include <bsod.h>
#endif
Yet even in the wake of tampering with ISO, one Microsoft employee from the Office group recently had a quote saying that Microsoft knew they have lost the document standard war, and that was why they were adding support for ODF in SP2.
I thought the interpretation was that 2012 was just the end of era, not necessarily some Armageddon.
Mark my words. Duke Nukem Forever will ship within the next calendar year. Prey went from vaporware to shipping. People have recently seen and played Duke Nukem Forever. 3D Realms is actually going to ship it.
However, we can always mock the Phantom Console, which will never ship.
Apple will never use Intel processors.
Dell will never ship AMD processors.
Dell will never ship Linux.
These things happen. People can change their minds. Microsoft is still doing evil and illegal things on a regular basis (like last year, offering illegal bribes to get Nigeria to drop Mandriva) but not every single employee at Microsoft is evil. Not every department is necessarily evil.
Microsoft has been doing a number of reasonably good things for a while now, and everyone keeps suggesting they are part of some scheme and conspiracy. People shouldn't be completely shocked by this act.
I think it is just a continuation of a new trend towards being slightly less evil. Every time Microsoft opens more protocols, releases more code, and tries to work with the OSS community, instead of acting like children and calling names, I think the community should encourage Microsoft to continue the trend of migrating to a more open company.
QT 4 and thusly KDE 4 use XRender quite a bit, and Nvidia's driver has horrible XRender support. You could go to the OSS Nvidia driver, and lose 3D acceleration, or stick with KDE 3.
Ideally, I'd like to see the Slashdot effect channeled. This site has tons of users. We bring down sites accidentally with our massive numbers, but I've never seen the Slashdot Effect channeled for good.
Can you imagine CmdTaco posting a story tomorrow asking every to pepper Nvidia with petitions all on the same day, demanding an improved driver?