How to do you view IP violations of commercial companies who are abusing the GPL and other Open Source licenses (eg. bundling binary only software that incorporates Open Source in violation of the license)? Would these be investigated to the same extend as violations of similar scope that involved proprietary code?
I'm asking this because Federal prosecutions often have monetary thresholds attached to them, but this is hard to define in the case of Open Source...
I'm using Sprint's PCSvision system right now (for this post in fact). It gets somewhere between 144 to 230 kbps (similar to ISDN) and is available right now. I have the unlimited service, which is $110/month-to-month. Pretty resonable, I use it on the road for business.
The only thing that's been kinda sucky so far is the slow upload speeds and it really sucks battery life out of a notebook...
Other than that, it works as advertised. Setup is a bit of a pain, but it's only been out for a month or so, so perhaps the next release of the software will fix that.
I'm currently working on a TCO study for the US Navy around Linux and we have 4 other clients with studies in progress. We've actually built a TCO model for Linux and other Open Source software, one that takes into account intangibles like reduction in trainning costs due to homogenity of platforms, better ROI with Linux/x86, etc.
Obviously you can't do research and should not be in the business of recommending software.
If you had done your research, you would have found SAP DB, a high-end GPL database that SAP was built on, that is supported by SAP, runs on WinXX AND has an Oracle emulation layer.
Oh, and it also has nice GUI tools ala MS SQL...
As others have said, if you want Postgres to run on WinXX, either contribute code or $$$.
Actually, the one thing that will prevent StarOffice from being adopted is Outlook, specifically the scheduling and calendering features.
It's not Visio. Kivio is almost as good as Visio for all but the most fanatic Visio power users. And Visio user usually make up a tiny minority of corporate users. Outlook is the one thing that everyone uses and the only way to get it is to buy Office....
My laptop, an Acer 611Txi, has a Smart Card slot. It won't boot without a valid smart card, which I usually take out when I'm not using it. You have to send the machine back to Acer to get the BIOS unlocked without the right smart card....
In fall of 1995, I was one of the developers for a US Gov't website that provided online statistical analysis to the general public.
We wrote a system that emailed the user both a summary of the results and a unique link to the stored results. This was done because the analysis was too computing intensive to do in real time and we couldn't hold the browser connection open for more than a minute or two...
We did both of the things that are in the claim, and a couple of things that aren't. Anonymous logins to websites, which are similar to anon. logins for FTP sites, and we generated, on the fly, a unique piece of software to compute the dataset (which saved the results in a temp. dir).
So, BTDT and I can prove it. If anyone cares, they can find me at the URL in the.sig.
I saw it at Linuxworld in San Francisco. It apperently runs linux on 'encrypted' hardware. The guy demo-ing it pretty much challenged anyone to crack it.
You can only play media files with DMR controls on this box, it won't play MP3's...
'course, what they fail to mention is that the hosting facility has floor to ceiling *normal* double paned windows *in the colo*.
<P>
At least, that's the way it is in Santa Clara... All that physical security is a joke, it's just to make the executives of client companies feel better.
<P>
They waste money in other interesting ways too, like with LCD windows that become transparent at the push of a button to reveal.... the colo....
<P>
That said, I hope they don't go bust, that would be a big, big problem.
I talked to the HP guy. What he said about the appliance was pretty worrysome, actually.
I asked specifically if the machine was hackable ala Tivo.
He said NO, but he'd like to see anyone try. Evidently, the hardware encrypts everything, and all the hardware serial numbers are tied together so that you can't replace any part of the hardware, including the hard drive without HP's permission.
It was a cool device, but, as I told him, I'm never buying one since I already built one of these (and it looks much the same...) and there's is not open.
I don't doubt that large chunks of the code will be available, but most of it is likely to be proprietary.
KeyGhost II Professional Special Edition: This model stores up to 2,000,000 keystrokes with 128-bit encryption. It is recommended for long-term monitoring and computer security control. This model is designed for government agencies, such as the police or drug enforcement, which are engaged in long-term computer investigations. A 'Turbo Download Adaptor' is highly recommended when using this model, as using 'Ghosting' to retrieve the keystrokes may take several days. Retail Price: $US 349.00
A while ago (mid 80's, I think), it was discovered that typewriters had been bugged by the Russians at the American Embassy in Moscow. Apparently, the KGB had managed to stick a low powered transmission device under each key of the typewriter. This allowed them to 'see' what the person using the machine wrote....
Actually, I've heard that IPv6 is not popular because none of the current backbone equipment will switch it and no one wants to be responsible for conversion from v6 to legacy IP...
If MS's implementation is buggy/not compatible, then it probably won't work through any switches or routers, and they will have to change it. IPv6 does have some provisions for vendor specific fields, ala Kerberos, but that'll go over about as well as MS's TNF email format (read 'not at all'), esp. in such a wide open environment as the 'net.
After all, it's not called the INTERnet for nothing. However, I don't doubt that they will be able to push their proprietary extensions into corporate environments, but they really already have done that (SMB & MAPI).
The reality is that TCP/IP is really too low level for MS to worry about. There is no added value to controlling packets, only the payload, which is why they are pushing.net...
We already have a replacement for IP that does many of these things. It's already supported under Linux, and probably a couple of other OSs I don't know about.
It's called IPv6, and it has QOS, guarenteed delivery, traceablity, and a whole host of other goodies. C'mon, do you really thing Cisco would let MS take away their bread and butter? IPv6 has been in the works for years and was designed specifically to solve all of the issues he mentions. I guess he thinks that only MS is smart enough to develop a new protocol...
This whole article is a red herring, and Cringley's about a technically literate as a door knob.
After seeing the story about ESR's Zork/Adventure like configuration interface, I decided to see if I could find a Zork or Adventure server.
After a quick Google search, I located a link to a Zork server at University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. The link was on an official university page about computing history.
I tried connecting to it, but, not surprisingly, it failed. I tried from another machine, still no luck. End of story.
Or so I thought. A few days later, I get a notice from my ISP warning me for trying to crack a machine, the machine I was telnetting to at UWEC... Luckly for me, my ISP is geek friendly, and my connection was not terminated on the spot.
I was pretty pissed, so I tracked down the email of the stupid a#$%!, incompetent and amateur admin responsible for notifying my ISP. I sent him a long, formal rebuke of his position that I was attempting 'unauthorized entry' and vaguelly threatened legal action if he did not retract his email. Needless to say he did.
However, how many other people, less internet savvy than me, would innocently click on some link found in a search, triggering a termination of their internet connection for no good reason? For me, loosing my internet connection would me a loss of tens of thousands of dollars that I earn doing remote development. Not to mention the damage to my professional reputation that would occur if I were thought of as a 'cracker'. Given that a large chunk of my consulting work involves security, that would be very hard to overcome.
I think that people who are admins need to be realistic. If you put a machine on the net, you will get people connecting to it in ways you don't expect (ports 139 and 53 come to mind...). If you react like the admin did at UWEC to harmless and random connections, then you will eventually do damage to either someone's business or reputation (or both). And that could very well lead to a lawsuit.
My servers get portscan about 2-3 times a day from various random IPs worldwide, I'm sure most of them have fairly hostile intents. The fact is that the net has become MUCH more hostile in the last five years and has MANY more clueless users. If you can't accept that, can't build procedures and systems that can handle that, then you are in the wrong business.
Quit now.
--
CKM
internet systems architect - scalability - commerce
This is idiotic. The article states that there will be at least 1/2 million servers in the data center. Even if they had a farm of OS/390 machines, they would still need a large quantity of SysAdmins... Any benefit gained by this location (availability of natural gas, cold) would be immediately lost in paying experienced sysadmins hugh amounts to live near the facility.
If they need lots of gas, why not locate near a gas pipeline, and for cooling, near a river or other large body of water? Nuclear power plants use rivers/lakes/ocean for cooling, why not data centers?
Never mind the fact that there seems to be only one (!!) fiber optic cable connecting them to the internet.... Let's talk about the cost of laying another cable going through another location.
Sounds like a stupid idea thought up by some marketing idiots. --
CKM
internet systems architect - scalability - commerce
I can't for the life of me think of any software licensed under the GPL which is anything more than adequate.
Er, the Linux Kernel? I would think that it's slightly more than adequate...
If you want an actual application, take a look at either KDE (http://www.kde.org), Typo3 (http://www.typo3.com) or Roxen (http://download.roxen.com).
PHP is also licensed under GPL(http://www.php.net).
The point is, there are a lot of great projects you could point to that are licensed under GPL. Yes, this causes headaches at corporations, they would rather be able to control everything.
Contrary to what many believe, it often comes down to legal liability, not intellectual property. Most companies do not want to be liable for modifications they made to a piece of GPL code. I think that the GPL would benefit from including explicit language that made it really difficult to even begin a lawsuit...
Chris.
--
CKM
internet systems architect - scalability - commerce
Well, your experience is rare. I have a friend who ordered PacBell DSL and, after six-months of promises and lies, only got it after he wrote an article about how bad their service was (at http://www.time.com/time/personal/article/0,9171,5 5729,00.html).
OTOH, I had Flashcom for 2 years, and only had one unplanned outage for about 24 hrs (and that was because someone had unscrewed the outside connection). The connection was perfect, fast and very, very stable. I now have Speakeasy and it's roughly the same. I know at least 10 people who have or have had PacBell. Most of those have gone through something worse than hell dealing with their terrible customer service.
We also had PacBell at one of my previous employers. It wasn't unusual to have 3000ms ping time (!!!!). I immediately order another line through a Covad Business SDSL provider and cancelled PacBell.
Anyway, I hope your line never goes down. You might have to spend the rest of your week on the phone trying to locate someone who can actually help you. It's no coincidence that Dilbert was written by a former PacBell employee...
I was in the same shoes as you, not wanting to leave because of personal relationships. In the end, I did, mostly because it was good for ME.
My advice would be:
1. Talk to your staff one-on-one to explain the decision
2. Don't leave loose ends
3. Take some time off
4. Make sure your ex-staff understands that they can call you anytime, for anything.
5. Don't look back
Like you said, good opportunities don't come often, and they are a rarer in the current economic climate. Keep in mind that you (and only you) have to live with your decisions and that regret is hard to overcome.
Chances are, if the company is at this point, everyone is better off getting the pain over with...
Slashdot Mirror
How to do you view IP violations of commercial companies who are abusing the GPL and other Open Source licenses (eg. bundling binary only software that incorporates Open Source in violation of the license)? Would these be investigated to the same extend as violations of similar scope that involved proprietary code?
I'm asking this because Federal prosecutions often have monetary thresholds attached to them, but this is hard to define in the case of Open Source...
Thx.
Chris.
Their slimp3 and server already does this, over ethernet...
Save yourself the hassle.
I have had one since the first production run, and it's the best audio device I've ever bought.
Best of all, both the server and firmware are Open Source.
Chris.
... consulting services back to your employer at 3x the rate....
That's what CEO's do when they 'retire'.
Chris.
I'm using Sprint's PCSvision system right now (for this post in fact). It gets somewhere between 144 to 230 kbps (similar to ISDN) and is available right now. I have the unlimited service, which is $110/month-to-month. Pretty resonable, I use it on the road for business.
The only thing that's been kinda sucky so far is the slow upload speeds and it really sucks battery life out of a notebook...
Other than that, it works as advertised. Setup is a bit of a pain, but it's only been out for a month or so, so perhaps the next release of the software will fix that.
I'm giving a talk at the Boston Enterprise Linux conference that will cover some TCO and ROI issues. It's something we do on a fairly regular basis for our clients. You can check us out at http://www.olliancegroup.com/.
Chris.
Obviously you can't do research and should not be in the business of recommending software.
If you had done your research, you would have found SAP DB, a high-end GPL database that SAP was built on, that is supported by SAP, runs on WinXX AND has an Oracle emulation layer.
Oh, and it also has nice GUI tools ala MS SQL...
As others have said, if you want Postgres to run on WinXX, either contribute code or $$$.
Chris.
It's made by Fujitsu, and runs on Linux, Solaris and NT. It has a really good web client, and fat (desktop resident) clients for WinX.
It does calendering, email, forums, file sharing and syncs across multiple sites. Directory services use X400/LDAP.
It's really cheap compared to Exchange and you can talk to it via IMAP, NNTP and, in version 6.0, webdav.
Check it out at www.teamware.com.
Chris.
Shoulda sent him a bill for your time @ $100/hr...
Chris.
Actually, the one thing that will prevent StarOffice from being adopted is Outlook, specifically the scheduling and calendering features.
It's not Visio. Kivio is almost as good as Visio for all but the most fanatic Visio power users. And Visio user usually make up a tiny minority of corporate users. Outlook is the one thing that everyone uses and the only way to get it is to buy Office....
Chris.
My laptop, an Acer 611Txi, has a Smart Card slot. It won't boot without a valid smart card, which I usually take out when I'm not using it. You have to send the machine back to Acer to get the BIOS unlocked without the right smart card....
Chris.
In fall of 1995, I was one of the developers for a US Gov't website that provided online statistical analysis to the general public.
.sig.
We wrote a system that emailed the user both a summary of the results and a unique link to the stored results. This was done because the analysis was too computing intensive to do in real time and we couldn't hold the browser connection open for more than a minute or two...
We did both of the things that are in the claim, and a couple of things that aren't. Anonymous logins to websites, which are similar to anon. logins for FTP sites, and we generated, on the fly, a unique piece of software to compute the dataset (which saved the results in a temp. dir).
So, BTDT and I can prove it. If anyone cares, they can find me at the URL in the
I saw it at Linuxworld in San Francisco. It apperently runs linux on 'encrypted' hardware. The guy demo-ing it pretty much challenged anyone to crack it.
You can only play media files with DMR controls on this box, it won't play MP3's...
Chris.
'course, what they fail to mention is that the hosting facility has floor to ceiling *normal* double paned windows *in the colo*.
<P>
At least, that's the way it is in Santa Clara... All that physical security is a joke, it's just to make the executives of client companies feel better.
<P>
They waste money in other interesting ways too, like with LCD windows that become transparent at the push of a button to reveal.... the colo....
<P>
That said, I hope they don't go bust, that would be a big, big problem.
I talked to the HP guy. What he said about the appliance was pretty worrysome, actually.
I asked specifically if the machine was hackable ala Tivo.
He said NO, but he'd like to see anyone try. Evidently, the hardware encrypts everything, and all the hardware serial numbers are tied together so that you can't replace any part of the hardware, including the hard drive without HP's permission.
It was a cool device, but, as I told him, I'm never buying one since I already built one of these (and it looks much the same...) and there's is not open.
I don't doubt that large chunks of the code will be available, but most of it is likely to be proprietary.
Chris.
Yes, and they even advertise it as such.
From their homepage:
KeyGhost II Professional Special Edition: This model stores up to 2,000,000 keystrokes with 128-bit encryption. It is recommended for long-term monitoring and computer security control. This model is designed for government agencies, such as the police or drug enforcement, which are engaged in long-term computer investigations. A 'Turbo Download Adaptor' is highly recommended when using this model, as using 'Ghosting' to retrieve the keystrokes may take several days. Retail Price: $US 349.00
A while ago (mid 80's, I think), it was discovered that typewriters had been bugged by the Russians at the American Embassy in Moscow. Apparently, the KGB had managed to stick a low powered transmission device under each key of the typewriter. This allowed them to 'see' what the person using the machine wrote....
This is probably just a variation of that.
Chris.
Actually, I've heard that IPv6 is not popular because none of the current backbone equipment will switch it and no one wants to be responsible for conversion from v6 to legacy IP...
If MS's implementation is buggy/not compatible, then it probably won't work through any switches or routers, and they will have to change it. IPv6 does have some provisions for vendor specific fields, ala Kerberos, but that'll go over about as well as MS's TNF email format (read 'not at all'), esp. in such a wide open environment as the 'net.
After all, it's not called the INTERnet for nothing. However, I don't doubt that they will be able to push their proprietary extensions into corporate environments, but they really already have done that (SMB & MAPI).
The reality is that TCP/IP is really too low level for MS to worry about. There is no added value to controlling packets, only the payload, which is why they are pushing
Chris.
We already have a replacement for IP that does many of these things. It's already supported under Linux, and probably a couple of other OSs I don't know about.
It's called IPv6, and it has QOS, guarenteed delivery, traceablity, and a whole host of other goodies. C'mon, do you really thing Cisco would let MS take away their bread and butter? IPv6 has been in the works for years and was designed specifically to solve all of the issues he mentions. I guess he thinks that only MS is smart enough to develop a new protocol...
This whole article is a red herring, and Cringley's about a technically literate as a door knob.
After seeing the story about ESR's Zork/Adventure like configuration interface, I decided to see if I could find a Zork or Adventure server.
After a quick Google search, I located a link to a Zork server at University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. The link was on an official university page about computing history.
I tried connecting to it, but, not surprisingly, it failed. I tried from another machine, still no luck. End of story.
Or so I thought. A few days later, I get a notice from my ISP warning me for trying to crack a machine, the machine I was telnetting to at UWEC... Luckly for me, my ISP is geek friendly, and my connection was not terminated on the spot.
I was pretty pissed, so I tracked down the email of the stupid a#$%!, incompetent and amateur admin responsible for notifying my ISP. I sent him a long, formal rebuke of his position that I was attempting 'unauthorized entry' and vaguelly threatened legal action if he did not retract his email. Needless to say he did.
However, how many other people, less internet savvy than me, would innocently click on some link found in a search, triggering a termination of their internet connection for no good reason? For me, loosing my internet connection would me a loss of tens of thousands of dollars that I earn doing remote development. Not to mention the damage to my professional reputation that would occur if I were thought of as a 'cracker'. Given that a large chunk of my consulting work involves security, that would be very hard to overcome.
I think that people who are admins need to be realistic. If you put a machine on the net, you will get people connecting to it in ways you don't expect (ports 139 and 53 come to mind...). If you react like the admin did at UWEC to harmless and random connections, then you will eventually do damage to either someone's business or reputation (or both). And that could very well lead to a lawsuit.
My servers get portscan about 2-3 times a day from various random IPs worldwide, I'm sure most of them have fairly hostile intents. The fact is that the net has become MUCH more hostile in the last five years and has MANY more clueless users. If you can't accept that, can't build procedures and systems that can handle that, then you are in the wrong business.
Quit now.
-- CKM
internet systems architect - scalability - commerce
This is idiotic. The article states that there will be at least 1/2 million servers in the data center. Even if they had a farm of OS/390 machines, they would still need a large quantity of SysAdmins... Any benefit gained by this location (availability of natural gas, cold) would be immediately lost in paying experienced sysadmins hugh amounts to live near the facility.
If they need lots of gas, why not locate near a gas pipeline, and for cooling, near a river or other large body of water? Nuclear power plants use rivers/lakes/ocean for cooling, why not data centers?
Never mind the fact that there seems to be only one (!!) fiber optic cable connecting them to the internet.... Let's talk about the cost of laying another cable going through another location.
Sounds like a stupid idea thought up by some marketing idiots.
-- CKM
internet systems architect - scalability - commerce
I can't for the life of me think of any software licensed under the GPL which is anything more than adequate.
Er, the Linux Kernel? I would think that it's slightly more than adequate...
If you want an actual application, take a look at either KDE (http://www.kde.org), Typo3 (http://www.typo3.com) or Roxen (http://download.roxen.com).
PHP is also licensed under GPL(http://www.php.net).
The point is, there are a lot of great projects you could point to that are licensed under GPL. Yes, this causes headaches at corporations, they would rather be able to control everything.
Contrary to what many believe, it often comes down to legal liability, not intellectual property. Most companies do not want to be liable for modifications they made to a piece of GPL code. I think that the GPL would benefit from including explicit language that made it really difficult to even begin a lawsuit...
Chris.
-- CKM
internet systems architect - scalability - commerce
Roxen, with it's business graphics module, is capable of generating fancy graphs and reports from any arbirary data source, on the fly.
Very cool and easy to use. Roxen is available at http://www.roxen.com
-- CKM
internet systems architect - scalability - commerce
OTOH, I had Flashcom for 2 years, and only had one unplanned outage for about 24 hrs (and that was because someone had unscrewed the outside connection). The connection was perfect, fast and very, very stable. I now have Speakeasy and it's roughly the same. I know at least 10 people who have or have had PacBell. Most of those have gone through something worse than hell dealing with their terrible customer service.
We also had PacBell at one of my previous employers. It wasn't unusual to have 3000ms ping time (!!!!). I immediately order another line through a Covad Business SDSL provider and cancelled PacBell.
Anyway, I hope your line never goes down. You might have to spend the rest of your week on the phone trying to locate someone who can actually help you. It's no coincidence that Dilbert was written by a former PacBell employee...
Chris.
I was in the same shoes as you, not wanting to leave because of personal relationships. In the end, I did, mostly because it was good for ME.
My advice would be:
1. Talk to your staff one-on-one to explain the decision
2. Don't leave loose ends
3. Take some time off
4. Make sure your ex-staff understands that they can call you anytime, for anything.
5. Don't look back
Like you said, good opportunities don't come often, and they are a rarer in the current economic climate. Keep in mind that you (and only you) have to live with your decisions and that regret is hard to overcome.
Chances are, if the company is at this point, everyone is better off getting the pain over with...
HTH,
Chris.
The site www.networkcommerce.com runs Microsoft-IIS/4.0 on NT4/Windows 98
NT4/Windows 98 users include Rainbow Technologies, Gillette and Burger King
Microsoft-IIS is also being used by Intel, Rainbow Technologies and Halcyon Software