Yes, in theory they have probably broken several laws. In practice, it is VERY difficult to prove that they weren't just trying to maximize shareholder value and make the most of their interpretation of the intellectual property they think they own. Unfortunately, being stupid and being wrong aren't themselves crimes, and showing that they knowingly and intentionally violated securities regulations (a la pump and dump), or purgered themselves in court or something that could lead to federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison is very difficult. Witness the Enron case - only by securing cooperation and testimony from some mid- to high- level poeple are they able to make a case that the top level folks were anything other than tremendously stupid and misled.
That being said, our high standards of evidence are something we should be proud of. I just think that the stupidity/ignorance defense should be done away with at a corporate executive/director level. We need the equivalent of Sarbannes-Oxley for ALL corporate behavior, not just the financials, since there are other kinds of corporate fraud damaging the economy and the public trust in America, beyond misleading 10K submissions.
You fucking bastard. I spent three weeks getting that out of my brain the last time. I can only hope that eventually the badger will just disappear from memespace.
I think they are fairly legit. I and several friends have signed up, and none of us have seen any fraudulent charges (yet). Quite a few others out there on the net have testified to this fact as well, so I think you're relatively safe on that front.
Also, the Hungry Programmers used to be the guys behind the Japhar clean-room Java JVM, the LessTif LGPL Motif-clone and other stuff. These days, I dunno what they are up to, perhaps not much as a group anymore.
It doesn't really seem like the type of group that would be into breaking into coporate networks and stealing source code for games. I think the FBI/Secret Service get into their mind some sort of crazy "hacker collective" schtick straight outta an IBM commercial and go to town with it. It definitely reeks of a personal vendetta informant kind of deal - you know, "yeah, it was these guys, the 'Hungry Programmers', they are all hackers, and Chris Toshok is behind the whole thing". Drop liberally on IRC #2600 and other known Fed hangouts, and in a few weeks, presto, probable cause and search warrants.
IANAL either, but I spend enough time around them to have enough clue to say this case is complicated enough to require one. And I think you've identified the key issue here. The fact is he is a W-2 employee of a contracting agency. This makes the agency subject to the terms of the ADA with respect to their employee, even if he does all his work at another company's site and has no day-to-day interaction with his true employer.
Now the tricky question is do they violate the ADA when they ALLOW their client to bench their employee, and cease paying him any billables for discriminatory reasons under the ADA? My guess is that a good lawyer could convince a judge that your W-2 employer of record is responsible under the ADA for making up for your lost billables.
If nothing else, a good lawyer would likely convince your employer that they owe you compensation if they want to keep things out of court. Of course, if you think your relationship with your employer is worth more than the lost revenue, you might want to try the "nice approach" first of discussing with them the hardship this has created given your illness. If you have zero relationship with them and they were truly just an employer of record, then by all means, find a sympathetic employment lawyer in your area who comes well recommmended, who can do some work for this on the cheap or on the free.
And best luck to Midwestern gadget freak with the issues that really matter, like getting well soon.
Good point. "/usr" and "C:\Program Files" have basically become the "stick everything here" locations. Why no use at all of the concept of hierarchical organization inherent to all modern filesystems? This is what makes me doubt the "filesystem as database with metadata" concept. We can't even use a simple hierarchy to do modest organization, we end up using a more-or-less flat structure for everything.
It gets very hard to find things in both Linux and Windows quite rapidly when you have a lot of software installed. In Mandrake I usually end up using rpm -q to figure out where shit is installed. In Windows, I generally end up visually searching the bazillion subdirectories I have under Program Files.
Yes, there are crazy fundamentalists in America. The difference is that their words don't have the backing of law, and generally, if they try to act on them, they will go to jail.
Every Frenchman claims that they, their parents or their grandparents were in Le Resistance. If there were really that many people in the Resistance, they would have kicked the Germans out in a couple of weeks. Sorry, but the "meme" of the French folding in WWII is absolutely true.
I don't necessarily think the meme of the French sucking in combat is true - at various points in time, they have had a formidable fighting force, and all joking aside, they have won many other historical engagements. But there is no argument that in World War II, many of the French didn't really have the spirit to resist the Germans, and saw the Germans as brothers. Frankly, many French didn't really disagree with much of what the Nazi party stood for either.
And though there were quite a few brave Resistance fighters, they were a tiny, tiny fraction of the population of France.
3. Just about any license agreement from any small company would be the equivalent to an Iraqi or Italian dictatorship (think Musolini, absolutely pathetic compared to Hitler, but still a complete control freak).
Excellent, you managed to invoke Godwin's law in a top level post. Usually you have to get at least 2 or 3 deep in a thread before that happens.
When you say "new", you mean changed. I don't think the kernel was rewritten from scratch, was it? Driver model? I'm under the impression that most Windows 2000 drivers are more-or-less ABI compatible with Windows XP without modification. Apparently the DDKs aren't that different between the two OS's, though there were of course changes (http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=249). There were a substantial number of additions to the network stack (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/evaluate/ne twkxp.asp but not a rewrite that would categorize it as "new" as far as I know.
The point is that all the items you mentioned were changed, but most were not rewritten from scratch, which is what this thread is all about.
It was not a rewrite, and thus is a terrible example. In fact, if you poke around it's referred to in several places internal to the OS as "Windows NT 5.1" to Win 2k's "Windows NT 5.0". That should give you a pretty good clue that it's not a rewrite.
And the fact that somebody thought it was should give you a good clue that Microsoft's marketing machine is quite a powerhouse indeed - they want the average consumer to THINK that XP was some totally new thing. It wasn't. In fact, if you install all the latest DirectX runtimes, patches and so forth into Win 2k, you will basically conclude that the difference between a fully patched up-to-date Win 2k and Win XP is themeability and some graphics geegaws. And that product activation stuff if you are running a non-corporate version of XP.
They should change the logo because it's ugly, complicated and requires too much interpretation and specific historical knowledge to understand (based on the massive misunderstandings evidenced in this thread). Not because the liberation of Europe and Asia in World War II could possibly be offensive to anybody but a tyrant or dictator.
People offended by the concept of freedom are people the world is better without.
I agree it's a bad logo, too large, too complicated. The story submitter and the post I responded to seemed to suggest it was a bad logo for its somehow offensive content, which I reject as inconceivably false.
As a previous poster mentioned, this flew well under the radar for a number of years, but now that we've started "liberating" other countries, there are a lot of people in this world who find images of American supremacy to be offensive. And god damned rightly so.
No, it's just that we used to be recognized for actually liberating other countries. It's pretty much impossible to deny that Japan and Germany ended up (in the case of Germany it took 50 years thanks to the Soviets) far more free than they started out. So there is really nothing offensive about that image at all. The problem is the perception based on the last 2 years of foreign policy that "liberate" is a pseudonym for "invade to take over their oil". I think most rational thinkers would agree this perception is flagrantly wrong. Afghanistan is certainly far more free now than it was under the Taliban. Iraq is the one flagrant example of a questionable, turbulent situation. And many Americans don't really think the war was justified at the time we entered into it.
But to suggest to the millions of American soldiers who gave or risked their lives in World War II that the war they fought was some sort of sham, or that their endeavour to liberate Europe and Asia is offensive to people of the world, is itself extremely offensive, not only to Americans but also to the people of every country that lost lives in World War II.
Those offended by that logo should do us all a favor and remove themselves from this planet. I agree the NetBSD logo sucks for purely aesthetic reasons, but it should not be changed because it's offensive, when the only offensive thing going on is the suggestion that the liberation referenced therein was not genuine.
You are a complete idiot. Those movies are produced under the "Miramax" brand because they are _FOR ADULTS_. Bad Santa is so obviously not a kid's movie, and will so obviously be offensive to people who are uptight about their Santa mythology, that I can't help but think you must be a complete moron if you went to see it and were offended. I figured that out and I never even saw the movie.
Disney is two beasts - it's an entertainment _COMPANY_ and a children's entertainment _BRAND_. You are conflating the two. You can be pretty sure that only a true religious nutcase will be offended by a Disney movie. Other entertainment made by other divisions of the company may or may not offend you. I fail to see why you have to enjoy and approve of every movie made by a company to watch some of their movies and enjoy them.
Okay, so you think it's good because you've heard of it? I appreciate that there are certainly some good, popular, major label bands. But I've found lots of great bands on MagnaTune. I see no reason why Bleep can't do something similar. Non-DRM encumbered music, high quality recordings, and good music are a big draw for me. Being able to preview and play through bands and genres that I might otherwise not hear on the radio is an even bigger draw. Surfing around on MagnaTune is a FUN activity for me - it has brought back some of the joy I used to take in music that has really felt dead to me in recent years.
I suspect that the 60 page index was submitted to the court and thereby to IBM. I believe SCO requested permission to prevent that document from being publicly released sometime back in December, and the judge granted SCO's request. So we're not going to directly see that document, and IBM has to be rather careful what they say to avoid violating a court order.
Hopefully somebody can play some sort of game to get IBM to communicate where the supposed "violations" are without actually pointing to line numbers. Then we can all either feel secure that they aren't violations at all or they can get excised ASAP (of course, I seriously doubt there's anything that will need to be excised).
Actually, there is a load capacitor in an electronic watch that can be used to pull frequency down up to 2% or so (discussed in this thread). Apparently in this case, you'd need a custom crystal too though, or a custom batch of ICs that rejigger the counting mechanism, so you're right in that it's a bit more complicated then I made it sound.
But the point wasn't that it was easier to redesign a digital circuit than to change 2 lines of code in a piece of software (clearly it's not), but that clearly if all they wanted was a clock to run on their computer, they could have that in a few minutes of coding work - and if they want a watch, suggesting they run Linux on their watch is a ridiculous solution compared to making a few tweaks in an existing digital circuit design.
If you want to get your interns to collect dirt on somebody, you are supposed to have them conceal their identity. What the hell good is it to use an intern for this kind of sniffing around unless you tell them to send the email from their college email account and request information "for a paper they are righting on consumer rights organizations"? If they come out and say "Hi, I work for the industry association that you oppose, can you send me your biographical information?" it's not going to get you very far.
Which leads me to believe this (dumb) kid may have been acting on his own. Or his boss is REALLY fucking stupid.
It would be useful to have a copy of the asset purchase agreement in front of you, since these letters mostly refer to it in their arguments. Luckily, it looks like it's been OCRed and put up on Groklaw at here. The letters in isolation don't really make much sense, hard to figure out who's blowing smoke and who's not.
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That being said, our high standards of evidence are something we should be proud of. I just think that the stupidity/ignorance defense should be done away with at a corporate executive/director level. We need the equivalent of Sarbannes-Oxley for ALL corporate behavior, not just the financials, since there are other kinds of corporate fraud damaging the economy and the public trust in America, beyond misleading 10K submissions.
You fucking bastard. I spent three weeks getting that out of my brain the last time. I can only hope that eventually the badger will just disappear from memespace.
You mean like this?
I think they are fairly legit. I and several friends have signed up, and none of us have seen any fraudulent charges (yet). Quite a few others out there on the net have testified to this fact as well, so I think you're relatively safe on that front.
He is trolling, he copied the text of that post from the URL he posted. It's not his actual personal confession of porn addiction. :)
It doesn't really seem like the type of group that would be into breaking into coporate networks and stealing source code for games. I think the FBI/Secret Service get into their mind some sort of crazy "hacker collective" schtick straight outta an IBM commercial and go to town with it. It definitely reeks of a personal vendetta informant kind of deal - you know, "yeah, it was these guys, the 'Hungry Programmers', they are all hackers, and Chris Toshok is behind the whole thing". Drop liberally on IRC #2600 and other known Fed hangouts, and in a few weeks, presto, probable cause and search warrants.
Then they came for the music. And I didn't speak up because I was a leecher and never shared my songs.
Finally, they came for the porn. Nobody touches our porn. And that's when we got REALLY pissed off.
You forgot about Starbucks. No, strike that. Every chunk of rock needs at least TWO Starbuxen.
Now the tricky question is do they violate the ADA when they ALLOW their client to bench their employee, and cease paying him any billables for discriminatory reasons under the ADA? My guess is that a good lawyer could convince a judge that your W-2 employer of record is responsible under the ADA for making up for your lost billables.
If nothing else, a good lawyer would likely convince your employer that they owe you compensation if they want to keep things out of court. Of course, if you think your relationship with your employer is worth more than the lost revenue, you might want to try the "nice approach" first of discussing with them the hardship this has created given your illness. If you have zero relationship with them and they were truly just an employer of record, then by all means, find a sympathetic employment lawyer in your area who comes well recommmended, who can do some work for this on the cheap or on the free.
And best luck to Midwestern gadget freak with the issues that really matter, like getting well soon.
But seriously, the archive sounds like a great idea. There should be more historical material of this sort accessible online.
It gets very hard to find things in both Linux and Windows quite rapidly when you have a lot of software installed. In Mandrake I usually end up using rpm -q to figure out where shit is installed. In Windows, I generally end up visually searching the bazillion subdirectories I have under Program Files.
Yes, there are crazy fundamentalists in America. The difference is that their words don't have the backing of law, and generally, if they try to act on them, they will go to jail.
I don't necessarily think the meme of the French sucking in combat is true - at various points in time, they have had a formidable fighting force, and all joking aside, they have won many other historical engagements. But there is no argument that in World War II, many of the French didn't really have the spirit to resist the Germans, and saw the Germans as brothers. Frankly, many French didn't really disagree with much of what the Nazi party stood for either.
And though there were quite a few brave Resistance fighters, they were a tiny, tiny fraction of the population of France.
3. Just about any license agreement from any small company would be the equivalent to an Iraqi or Italian dictatorship (think Musolini, absolutely pathetic compared to Hitler, but still a complete control freak).
Excellent, you managed to invoke Godwin's law in a top level post. Usually you have to get at least 2 or 3 deep in a thread before that happens.
The point is that all the items you mentioned were changed, but most were not rewritten from scratch, which is what this thread is all about.
And the fact that somebody thought it was should give you a good clue that Microsoft's marketing machine is quite a powerhouse indeed - they want the average consumer to THINK that XP was some totally new thing. It wasn't. In fact, if you install all the latest DirectX runtimes, patches and so forth into Win 2k, you will basically conclude that the difference between a fully patched up-to-date Win 2k and Win XP is themeability and some graphics geegaws. And that product activation stuff if you are running a non-corporate version of XP.
People offended by the concept of freedom are people the world is better without.
I agree it's a bad logo, too large, too complicated. The story submitter and the post I responded to seemed to suggest it was a bad logo for its somehow offensive content, which I reject as inconceivably false.
No, it's just that we used to be recognized for actually liberating other countries. It's pretty much impossible to deny that Japan and Germany ended up (in the case of Germany it took 50 years thanks to the Soviets) far more free than they started out. So there is really nothing offensive about that image at all. The problem is the perception based on the last 2 years of foreign policy that "liberate" is a pseudonym for "invade to take over their oil". I think most rational thinkers would agree this perception is flagrantly wrong. Afghanistan is certainly far more free now than it was under the Taliban. Iraq is the one flagrant example of a questionable, turbulent situation. And many Americans don't really think the war was justified at the time we entered into it.
But to suggest to the millions of American soldiers who gave or risked their lives in World War II that the war they fought was some sort of sham, or that their endeavour to liberate Europe and Asia is offensive to people of the world, is itself extremely offensive, not only to Americans but also to the people of every country that lost lives in World War II.
Those offended by that logo should do us all a favor and remove themselves from this planet. I agree the NetBSD logo sucks for purely aesthetic reasons, but it should not be changed because it's offensive, when the only offensive thing going on is the suggestion that the liberation referenced therein was not genuine.
Disney is two beasts - it's an entertainment _COMPANY_ and a children's entertainment _BRAND_. You are conflating the two. You can be pretty sure that only a true religious nutcase will be offended by a Disney movie. Other entertainment made by other divisions of the company may or may not offend you. I fail to see why you have to enjoy and approve of every movie made by a company to watch some of their movies and enjoy them.
Okay, so you think it's good because you've heard of it? I appreciate that there are certainly some good, popular, major label bands. But I've found lots of great bands on MagnaTune. I see no reason why Bleep can't do something similar. Non-DRM encumbered music, high quality recordings, and good music are a big draw for me. Being able to preview and play through bands and genres that I might otherwise not hear on the radio is an even bigger draw. Surfing around on MagnaTune is a FUN activity for me - it has brought back some of the joy I used to take in music that has really felt dead to me in recent years.
Hopefully somebody can play some sort of game to get IBM to communicate where the supposed "violations" are without actually pointing to line numbers. Then we can all either feel secure that they aren't violations at all or they can get excised ASAP (of course, I seriously doubt there's anything that will need to be excised).
But the point wasn't that it was easier to redesign a digital circuit than to change 2 lines of code in a piece of software (clearly it's not), but that clearly if all they wanted was a clock to run on their computer, they could have that in a few minutes of coding work - and if they want a watch, suggesting they run Linux on their watch is a ridiculous solution compared to making a few tweaks in an existing digital circuit design.
Which leads me to believe this (dumb) kid may have been acting on his own. Or his boss is REALLY fucking stupid.
It would be useful to have a copy of the asset purchase agreement in front of you, since these letters mostly refer to it in their arguments. Luckily, it looks like it's been OCRed and put up on Groklaw at here. The letters in isolation don't really make much sense, hard to figure out who's blowing smoke and who's not.