While we're on the topic of RSS. I've been thinking that it would be cool if one were able to subscribe to individual threads here on Slashdot and be notified of any changes.
I might just try hacking together something real quick this weekend.
Ignoring the rest of your post.
but in the end the spreadsheet was based off of lotus 123 older than both. Lotus 1-2-3 was a successor of VisiCalc which itself was originally released in 1979, 4 years before Lotus 1-2-3. But even Dan Bricklin (co-creator of VisiCalc) states "The special thing about VisiCalc was not that it was the first row/column tabulation program. There were many such programs of various sorts prior to VisiCalc." and concluding "It was the combination of many things including its "programming by example" user interface and its influence on others that made VisiCalc special."
I don't yet use Firefox 3, but does this help? For pretty much anything in Firefox you can think up of there's usually some kind of configuration option available through about:config.
I personally agree with the sentiment expressed by the grandparent, the term 'open source' (Open Source?) is basically reserved for describing software licensed under a license that complies with the Open Source Definition by the OSI. Allowing the term to be applied to software of which you are only able to 'view' the source code (and not modify, distribute etc.) would be quite a setback. A term such as 'Open Source Definition Compliant Licensed Software' just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Concerning your statement that "the term 'open source' has been around for much, much longer than the OSI has even existed" the following discussion and statement by Bruce Perens right here on Slashdot might be of interest:
Before the Open Source Initiative was founded and the Open Source Definition was published, the term "open source" was commonly used to refer to a form of military intelligence, and that meaning still survives. There are a few references - not a ton - before that date to "open source code" to refer to published source code, but with no rights connected with it. The campaign started in February 1998 and "Open Source" gained a specific meaning at that time.
That depends on if you own all the source code. If someone else owns it, then you can't charge any more than reasonable costs for the media and postage. Sorry but no it does not.. The words "reasonable cost" in the license only apply the so called Corresponding Source and only after conveying the related object code. See Section 6 (b), Conveying Non-Source Forms. You can charge as much as you'd like for the initial distribution.
While writing this reply I eventually found myself leaning towards your opinion, but I've come to the conclusion that one cannot really define "anything that really really sets it apart". I certainly think there are features in each version that set it apart from its prequels.
San Andreas for example was absolutely fantastic, if only because of the sheer size. But the more incremental tweaks certainly helped it a lot, such as the vehicles (especially the bikes) actually handling significantly better; or the weapon system (skills-based); the fact you could take over territory and recruit gang members; or... The list goes on and on and on.
Also the whole mini-game-esque functionality that was introduced, and little things such as people on the street talking to you, really helped in terms of immersion. Definitely improved replayability too.
And contrary to the FIFA series (or NBA Live for that matter), next to incremental improvements there's an actual story that's entirely new. That's a big difference.
Only requirement is you have to pay licensing. I see no problem. First of all, definitions, definitions, definitions. It all depends on what definitions you use for "open standard" and "open source" (and "free software").
For open source one should be using the definition from the Open Source Initiative (OSI) since it's a term used to indicate software that has been released under a software license compatible with the definition from the OSI. Note the very first criteria from the definition, "The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.".
The same goes for "free sofware" which uses the definition from the Free Software Foundation. On that page it is explicitly stated that, "Thus, you should be free to redistribute copies, either with or without modifications, either gratis or charging a fee for distribution, to anyone anywhere. Being free to do these things means (among other things) that you do not have to ask or pay for permission."
For "open standard" one could look to the definition by the European Commission (IDABC programme), which most importantly includes: "The standard has been published and the standard specification document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a nominal fee.".
It should be clear now why the bit about "licensing fees" (or royalties or whatever) is exactly the problem and would prohibit such software from being referred to as either open source or free software. Once I receive software or a specifications document I should be able to distribute it without asking or paying anyone for permission.
Note the difference between paying a one-time fee for receiving and paying fees on distribution. See also the article "Selling Free Software".
I did a keyword search through this thread for dupe and checked the tags, nothing came up.
But isn't this clearly a dupe of BBC and ISPs Clash over iPlayer posted the 9th? It links to the exact same article. The only difference I can spot is that this is more of an "Ask Slashdot" type story.
If anything the "BBC and ISPs Clash over iPlayer" story should have been linked under "Related stories" should it not?
what i find funnier is how these european countries like to brag about their broadband penetration, but then crumble when people actually start to use it, b/c they never really had the infrastructure necessary. Please don't throw all of us Europeans together. This article is focused on the Brits (note the reference "the whole UK broadband industry"), who from what I can tell have always tended to lag behind somewhat. The ones you're most likely referring to would be the Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
I wouldn't call it flamebait and it doesn't really matter anyways. It resulted in some of the funniest comments I've read in a while and that makes it all worth it.
This isn't my area of expertise, but from the article you linked (emphasis on the important bit):
Unable to accept Lord Rayleigh's explanation that the color of the sea was just a reflection of the color of the sky, Raman proceeded to outline his thoughts on the matter while still at sea and sent a letter to the editors of the journal Nature when the ship docked in Bombay. A short time later Raman was able to show conclusively that the color of the sea was the result of the scattering of sunlight by the water molecules. Ironically, it was exactly the same argument that Rayleigh had invoked when explaining the color of the sky-the blue was the result of the scattering of sunlight by the molecules in the air.
And from Wikipedia, the repository of all human knowledge comes the following:
Rayleigh scattering of sunlight in clear atmosphere is the main reason why the sky is blue.
Therefor, it is Rayleigh scattering that explains why the sky is blue and it is the Raman Effect that explains why the sea is blue. Methinks...
Los Angeles: You voted for the federal ban on partial-birth abortion. Where in the Constitution does it grant the federal government the power to regulate medical procedures?
Rep. Ron Paul: I think that's a good point, because I don't brag about that vote. People could argue that there's a contradiction there. My only argument was that abortion-on-demand nationally was created by a court order, not Congress, so I was trying to reverse that. I would not argue, though, that it was a perfect way of doing that. If the court had not already ruled and legalized it, I would not have voted that way.
Unfortunately, H.R. 760 takes a different approach, one that is not only constitutionally flawed, but flawed in principle, as well. Though I will vote to ban the horrible partial-birth abortion procedure, I fear that the language used in this bill does not further the pro-life cause, but rather cements fallacious principles into both our culture and legal system.
[...]
Despite its severe flaws, this bill nonetheless has the possibility of saving innocent human life, and I will vote in favor of it. I fear, though, that when the pro-life community uses the arguments of the opposing side to advance its agenda, it does more harm than good.
You're full of shit! I'd venture to say you probably never even had your arm twisted, let alone been subject to intense sleep deprivation or waterboarding.
Not to mention that the murder of Pim Fortuyn had absolutely nothing to do with Islamic fundamentalism, he was murdered by Volkert van der Graaf, just a crazy white guy. I know full well who you actually meant, but this factual error of yours just goes to show you don't have a clue what you're talking about.
IT Conversations: Gary Edwards OpenDocument and the Move to XML Formats http://osc.gigavox.com/audio/download/itconversati ons-1810.mp3 [runtime: 01:14:48, 34.2 mb, recorded 2007-04-30]
OpenDocument expert Gary Edwards believes that adopting OpenXML means lock-in to Microsoft products on an unprecedented scale. In this podcast, Edwards defends OpenDocument's capabilities but also challenges the ODF community to out-innovate Microsoft to provide a competitive alternative to Microsoft's lock-in. He also challenges the open standards community to focus on delivering alternatives to Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint servers. Edwards also describes Open Document Foundation's da Vinci plug-ins for Microsoft Office. Listen to it and see for yourself.
In all the excitement I made a couple of errors in my post (to "capture" web pages, a locally stored cached version), I saved the post in ScrapBook and corrected them but alas it has no use:) May the grammar and spelling Nazis have mercy on me today.
I imagine something like a FireFox plug-in with a 'Remember This' button and some options for category, keywords, annotations, etc., but I'll bet there are more creative approaches, too."
ScrapBook is a Firefox extension created by Gomita (some Japanese fella), it allows you "capture" web pages, creating a locally stored cache and offers the ability to easily remove content from the captured web page, mark sections or add notes. It also has a whole bunch of tools such as full text search and a pretty intuitive interface.
You can find all the features in a nice list at the official homepage with tons of pretty screenshots. There's even a 50 page manual (PDF) created by Andrew Giles-Peters.
Even though development has seemingly halted since December 2005, it's still one of the most well rounded extensions for Firefox I've come across yet.
This discussion reminds me of a news report a saw a few months ago, from the Wikipedia article on telegraphy:
In the Netherlands, telegram operations ceased in 2004. On February 9, 2007, according to the online edition of the Telegraaf newspaper, the Netherlands national telecommunications company KPN pulled the plug on the last Telex machine in the Netherlands after having operated a Telex network since 1933. Citing the fact that they only had 200 customers for its Telex service remaining, it was decided that it was no longer worthwhile to continue to offer Telex within the Netherlands.
Slashdot Mirror
Not only that, but you use the term "window managers", which is just ironic, as only one of the 3 is a window manager.
Actually all of those mentioned are Desktop Environments (DEs). Here's a list of desktop environments and their default window managers:See:
While we're on the topic of RSS. I've been thinking that it would be cool if one were able to subscribe to individual threads here on Slashdot and be notified of any changes.
I might just try hacking together something real quick this weekend.
See Bricklin's Was VisiCalc the "first" spreadsheet?. Here's an account of somebody old enough to actually have used VisiCalc at the time. And while I'm at it be sure to check out the Computer History Museum's Software Industry Special Interest Group's Overview of the History of the Software Industry.
I don't yet use Firefox 3, but does this help? For pretty much anything in Firefox you can think up of there's usually some kind of configuration option available through about:config.
Concerning your statement that "the term 'open source' has been around for much, much longer than the OSI has even existed" the following discussion and statement by Bruce Perens right here on Slashdot might be of interest: Before the Open Source Initiative was founded and the Open Source Definition was published, the term "open source" was commonly used to refer to a form of military intelligence, and that meaning still survives. There are a few references - not a ton - before that date to "open source code" to refer to published source code, but with no rights connected with it. The campaign started in February 1998 and "Open Source" gained a specific meaning at that time.
Somewhat off-topic but since you referred to Frank Abagnale I thought it might be interesting to share this speech by him I stumbled upon a few weeks ago.
Please don't use "commercial" as a synonym for "non-free.". It is certainly a shame Trolltech itself misuses the term commercial on their website to indicate proprietary software.
While writing this reply I eventually found myself leaning towards your opinion, but I've come to the conclusion that one cannot really define "anything that really really sets it apart". I certainly think there are features in each version that set it apart from its prequels.
... The list goes on and on and on.
San Andreas for example was absolutely fantastic, if only because of the sheer size. But the more incremental tweaks certainly helped it a lot, such as the vehicles (especially the bikes) actually handling significantly better; or the weapon system (skills-based); the fact you could take over territory and recruit gang members; or
Also the whole mini-game-esque functionality that was introduced, and little things such as people on the street talking to you, really helped in terms of immersion. Definitely improved replayability too.
And contrary to the FIFA series (or NBA Live for that matter), next to incremental improvements there's an actual story that's entirely new. That's a big difference.
Sigh, undoing my moderation. I was screwing around with my keyboard and suddenly I moderated your post (the dropdowns autosubmit on selection).
For open source one should be using the definition from the Open Source Initiative (OSI) since it's a term used to indicate software that has been released under a software license compatible with the definition from the OSI. Note the very first criteria from the definition, "The license shall not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software as a component of an aggregate software distribution containing programs from several different sources. The license shall not require a royalty or other fee for such sale.".
The same goes for "free sofware" which uses the definition from the Free Software Foundation. On that page it is explicitly stated that, "Thus, you should be free to redistribute copies, either with or without modifications, either gratis or charging a fee for distribution, to anyone anywhere. Being free to do these things means (among other things) that you do not have to ask or pay for permission."
For "open standard" one could look to the definition by the European Commission (IDABC programme), which most importantly includes: "The standard has been published and the standard specification document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a nominal fee.".
It should be clear now why the bit about "licensing fees" (or royalties or whatever) is exactly the problem and would prohibit such software from being referred to as either open source or free software. Once I receive software or a specifications document I should be able to distribute it without asking or paying anyone for permission.
Note the difference between paying a one-time fee for receiving and paying fees on distribution. See also the article "Selling Free Software".
I did a keyword search through this thread for dupe and checked the tags, nothing came up.
But isn't this clearly a dupe of BBC and ISPs Clash over iPlayer posted the 9th? It links to the exact same article. The only difference I can spot is that this is more of an "Ask Slashdot" type story.
If anything the "BBC and ISPs Clash over iPlayer" story should have been linked under "Related stories" should it not?
I wouldn't call it flamebait and it doesn't really matter anyways. It resulted in some of the funniest comments I've read in a while and that makes it all worth it.
And from his speech in the house dated June 4, 2003 concerning the partial birth abortion ban:
Turns out I actually misread the post, so might as well ignore the entire second paragraph.
You're full of shit! I'd venture to say you probably never even had your arm twisted, let alone been subject to intense sleep deprivation or waterboarding.
Not to mention that the murder of Pim Fortuyn had absolutely nothing to do with Islamic fundamentalism, he was murdered by Volkert van der Graaf, just a crazy white guy. I know full well who you actually meant, but this factual error of yours just goes to show you don't have a clue what you're talking about.
OpenDocument and the Move to XML Formats
http://osc.gigavox.com/audio/download/itconversat
[runtime: 01:14:48, 34.2 mb, recorded 2007-04-30] OpenDocument expert Gary Edwards believes that adopting OpenXML means lock-in to Microsoft products on an unprecedented scale. In this podcast, Edwards defends OpenDocument's capabilities but also challenges the ODF community to out-innovate Microsoft to provide a competitive alternative to Microsoft's lock-in. He also challenges the open standards community to focus on delivering alternatives to Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint servers. Edwards also describes Open Document Foundation's da Vinci plug-ins for Microsoft Office. Listen to it and see for yourself.
In all the excitement I made a couple of errors in my post (to "capture" web pages, a locally stored cached version), I saved the post in ScrapBook and corrected them but alas it has no use :) May the grammar and spelling Nazis have mercy on me today.
Under Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install cups-pdf
/etc/cups/cups-pdf.conf.
That's it, the printer stores the PDF files by default to ~/PDF but you can change this location in
You can find all the features in a nice list at the official homepage with tons of pretty screenshots. There's even a 50 page manual (PDF) created by Andrew Giles-Peters.
Even though development has seemingly halted since December 2005, it's still one of the most well rounded extensions for Firefox I've come across yet.
In "The Second IPR Enforcement Directive -- A Threat to Competition and to Liberty" the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR) describes why they oppose the directive.