> However, most of what is interesting in the world is subjective. Is this a nice GUI? Subjective. > Is this art good? Subjective. Is this food yummy? Subjective. Is this food good for me? Most > likely subjective, unless it contains things that are poisonous to all humans, or contains no nutrients. > I thrive on a vegetarian diet, and my wife is allergic to tofu (well, soy). Ultimately, food will kill you.
However, ``taste" (if I may use that word) is not as subjective as it appears. The philosopher Wittgenstein considered the problem (which is rooted in epistomology & the issue of solipism), & offers an intreguing argument that we can discuss these matters.
On a more pragmatic level, the novelist John Gardner reports a study where a number of professional African musicians were exposed to Western Classical music, & their opinions about which works were better than others tended to confirm what the Classical music buffs thought. Or as T.S. Eliot once stated, one is not born with good taste, one is acquired through education.
Thus, if one is skilled in reasoning & logic, & takes the time to learn the strengths & weaknesses of one given craft or genre, that skill can be applied to other skills or genres.
BTW, years ago when I wanted to write the Great American Novel, & attended a number of creative writing classes & workshops, the general opinion serious literary writers had of Deconstructionism was not as nice as this engineer. I'd say it was equivalent to how a Linux or BSD hacker values the opinion of the average Microsoft salesman.
> I expect it will revolve around two words: > > Goverment Intervention
Exactly. If lock-in strategies like low-level proprietary changes to the BIOS don't work, MS will follow the lead of the US Steel & Auto industries.
All they have to do is repeat enough times the phrase "Good-paying US programming jobs are being taken away by Linux programmers in India, China & the Philippines!" Although MS is already replacing its own US employees with employees from those countries.
> Actually, the patent is not for the DOS-style fat, but for the vfat extensions, namely the way long file names are stored.
IANAL, but from a quick glance at the abstracts of the claims for these patents it appears that MS has acquired a dodgy title to techniques that have either already been in the public domain, or have escaped into it due to lack of MS's enforcement:
#5,579,517 - Common name space for long & short file names, patent issued in 1996. Didn't MS already do this with Windows 95, which was available in beta from at least as early as 1994?
#5,745,902 - Multiple names for a single file, patent issued 1998. This has been a feature of UNIX (man or info ln) for years -- if not a couple of decades -- prior to the award of this patent.
#5,758,352 - Another patent covering common name space for long & short file names, patent issued in 1998. Again, consider that MS already did this with Windows 95, which was available in beta from at least as early as 1994?
#6,286,013 - Allowing short & long names for the same file, patent issued in 2001. Again, consider that MS already did this with Windows 95, which was available in beta from at least as early as 1994?
Undoubtedly I need to examine the patents in far more detail, but I find it odd that everyone is focussing on the ``MS is patenting FAT16/FAT32" angle, rather than the consequences of the actual claims of these patents. These four patents give MS a license to sue alleged infringers, who could be any number of Linux/UNIX development companies. And even if these patents get thrown out of court upon review, there is still the cost of fighting them -- which appears to me would be far more than $250,000.
I was working for this company that soon became a synonym for a hightech sweatshop: Stream. And one of their clients was called Netscape. Yes, _that_ Netscape.
I joined the team supporting Netscape about a month before they released NS 1.2 -- the one you could buy in the stores bundled with Eudora, some crummy 3rd-party TCPIP stack, & the Shiva dialer. Talk about going from the light into darkness with one step: one week, almost every other call I handle is from someone who knows more about computers than I did -- calls from Sandia Labs, Hewlett Packard (back when they knew technology), the NASA Jet Propulsion Labs in California, a sysadmin from InfoWorld, &c. -- the next week, I'm talking to people who don't know their backspace key from the left arrow. Jeez, I still think I could hear the IQ of our customers fall in the days between those events.
You know, sometimes I hate the fact that I earned a paycheck helping these jerks onto the Internet. Probably almost as much as Stream's current employees who have to support computer software & hardware that was broken when designed.
Ever since I left Stream, my experience of the Internet has consisted of finding one more neat use or idea that eventually gets destroyed because the great mass of the unwashed decides to make it their personal urinal.
And if you should ever meet a guy by the name of C. P. Thompson who worked for Netscape, kick him in the nuts for me. He was a PHB before Scott Adams was ever cool.
> Unlike many biographies, Softwar doesn't start with Ellison's poverty-ridden childhood in a > poor Russian-immigrant family, where he was an adopted kid.
I'm not sure if the reviewer was being tongue-in-check when he wrote that, or was honestly bamboozled by Ellison's PR machine. I am sure that when I read that, I remembered the comment his older step-sister once made on Ellison & his background: ``Every time I read about my adopted brother, the old neighborhood seemed to drop another notch on the socioeconomic scale."
According to Gary Rivlin, who wrote in his _The Plot to Get Bill Gates_, Ellison ``had grown up in a tidy community, home to its share of judges, doctors, and univeristy professors. His stepfather had known failure, but by the time his nephew came along, the senior Ellison was working respectably if dully as a bean counter for the local public housing agency. Their two-bedroom apartment was small and money may have been tight, but it was hardly the fough-and-tumble world that Ellison conjured up later in life."
> WTF is "Mebbe"? Is that a new drug you kids are all hooked on?
It's a colloquial variation on "maybe". I've seen it used on Usenet & in email for quite a few years, with the intent to avoid the ironic/sarcastic connotation that typing ``Maybe" as a one-word sentence fragment might convey.
BTW, I chuckled when I saw that you included me in your off-handed catagorization of ``you kids". I'll be 47 next month. And I don't feel as young as I must read.
> Supposedly the companies do this so they can say they could not fill the position and off-shore it.
Mebbe. However, following the principle that one should first look to stupidity before one claims that there is conspiracy, I'd say that requirements like our example arises when a manager tells the job shop, ``I need someone with 6 years of experience with Windows. You know -- NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP." And the recruiter then decides to simplify the requirements by stating that the position requires ``6 years of experience with Windows XP."
And six months later, the recruiter can't understand why he isn't making his quota.
Just remember: the lawyers in this case are nothing more than mercenaries. They are equally happy fighting for either side, as long as they keep getting paid, & have a guarranteed safe route home after the fighting is over.
But I figure the execs over at TSG will not be enjoying the good life after this. The climate is turning less hospitable towards hijinks like pump-n-dump. (For example, look at the current investigations into mismanagement in the Mutual Funds industry.) I expect that when this lawsuit at last blows up, there will be lawyers eager to earn their stripes from the SEC or the states who will indicting MacBride & the rest. Between the Internet & the results of IBM's discovery, all of the hard work of proving their case will be done for them.
> If it were me, I would sue Darly McB individually, in his personal capacity, as well as SCO.
IANAL, but from reading some threads in another forum about suing a CEO, let me point out the following facts:
* Most corporations carry liability insurance for their executives, which cover their legal fees & awards up to a certain amount, say $5 million. * I'm sure some ``hot-shot'' legal firm will sue McBride at the end of this affair anyway, rerpresenting a class-action lawsuit, looking for a chunk of that liability insurance. Expect them to settle for their costs & a coupon for everyone good for $25 towards your next purchase of SCO UNIX.
It would be fair nicer if a class-action suit went against MacBride & his cronies, & used the proceeds to benefit everyone in the Open Source/FSF community: say a donation to the OSDL, Linux Fund, FSF, or a combination of these. But I doubt the landsharks who will appear would think of something this useful.
> First, it should be clear by now that you should not take investment advice from/. just as you shouldn't take medical > or juridical advice.
You mean some guy asked the folks on/. a question like the following: ``I just had my day in court, & the judge gave me 3-5 in a minimum security jail. (Never mind the reason why, it's not computer related.) I mean, I have excellent karma, know the difference between a bubble sort and a quick sort, & can get Windows NT running on an Itanium computer. And I had to help him operate the cheap laptop he had on before him. Do I really have to listen to this bozo & go to prison?"
I can only shudder at the kind of advice he might get.
> I've called 1-800-726-8649 twice, leaving my name and number saying they would "call me back". I havn't heard from them.
Of course. Outside of the legal department, payroll, & the executive suites, everyone at The SCO Group knows whatever they do has no effect on the future of the company, so they're busy with more important duties . . . Like looking for another job, surfing the web, or playing solitaire.
> Would any reputable company now risk involvement with SCO on any level?
I saw that The SCO Group (TSG) has awarded Eckerd Drugs as their customer of the year. Which inspired an idea that I leave the rest of you to discuss:
Why don't we organize a boycott of TSG's remaining customers, beginning with Eckerd? (This is known as a secondary boycott, which was used quite effectively by unionists in the early 20th century.) As various corporations discover that their sales are declining because they patronize one vendor who misuses the legal system, TSG's few remaining customers fall away.
Okay, so it won't decisively kill off TSG, but think of it as pissing on their grave while IBM's soulless, ruthless lawyers putthem into a coffin & put them into it.
The other day someone posted to/. that the SCO Group told him they were no longer selling licenses to use Linux.
It was quickly repeated on other Linux news sites, & made The Inquirer. The SCO Group had to spend time fighting that false report.
(For the record, I suspect what happened was that the original poster accidentally dialed the wrong number, had not been the first to misdial that number, & the person who answered had decided to play a prank.)
> So as an experienced person in the feild, what does happen when a tech support employee's computer eats dirt [...]?
From what I've heard & experienced either one of two things:
1) You turn off the phone & take the time to fix it; or 2) You & your supervisor trade your dead box for the nearest one whose user has the day off.
While solution #2 is the rule these days, there are still the occasional shop where the phone tech is expected to employ solution #1. Oddly enough, where solution #1 is the rule, turn-over is much lower.
> "I definitely wouldn't "ask Slashdot" when I've been caught with 40g of cocaine and a 12 year old prostitute in my car."
> When or if? Is there something we should know?
Did you miss that discussion on Slashdot? Dude, it was the best topic of the dot-bomb era. Unfortunately, the successful answer (``offer everyone involved stock in the IPO") isn't very useful anymore.":-/
Last time anyone at Powell's was keeping count (IIRC, this was in the early 1990's), they stated that they were *possibly* second only to the Strand in New York City.
A number of out-of-town folks at OSCON remarked that they were impressed by it as a place to go browsing -- although if you are looking for a specific book, the Internet is your best bet.
BTW, if you do come to Portland, definitely check out one or more of the local brewpubs. Portland Linux/UNIX Group gathers after their monthly meeting at the Lucky Lab, but Portland Brewing, Bridgeport, & Widmer all are good bets. If you can only visit one, don't pick a McMenniman's. (Not that there's anything wrong with one of the McM's chain, but going to the Northwest to sample a local brew & settling for a McMenniman is like going to Australia & having a Foster's.)
> Uhm, you either have never lived in Oregon or UK, or both. They are NOTHING alike in terms of climate.
I'm a Portland native; I'm very acquainted with the wet northern European style winters & the warm mediterranean style summers.
As for my experience with UK weather, I spent 6 weeks in 1984, in a loop from London to Bristol. My memory is that the weather was surprisingly similar to the weather around Portland.
On the other hand, you do have a point: I doubt Bend, OR & Yorkshire are at all alike.
> I will never ever move to a place where I can't drive a convertible.
Interesting. The country I most closely associate with convertibles is . . . the United Kingdom, which is not known for warm weather. If the weather is too warm, you have to keep the top up so the AC will work; if it's too cold, you keep the top up because of wind chill.
FWIW, I live in Oregon, more than a little to the north of where Linus lives (& very close to the UK in terms of climate). And where -- according to the grapevine -- he has clearly stated he will never live. Although I have driven in a convertible with the top down every month of the year.
> In some respects, going after IBM first is unwise.
Then again, going after IBM first could be a smart thing to do. Or so a patent law attorney pointed out to me over the weekend: if the SCO Group wins its case against IBM, then every other corporation quickly falls in line, & settles up with a negligible fuss.
Sorta like the tactic school teachers back in the day of rural, one-room schoolhouses used to employ of winning a fight with the biggest kid in the classroom to get the other boys to fall in line.
Unfortunately, in playing this role the SCO Group is looking more like Ichabod Crane than the intimidating PE teacher most of us remember from school, & since no one told IBM what their part was going to be, most likely will walk onstage in the role of a US Navy SEAL.
The only reason any of us will think this fight is entertainment is because we badly want to see the SCO Group smashed, & MacBride finding his future career choices limited to minimum wage jobs. This will be an ugly, one-sided fight -- unless IBM decides otherwise.
What it would take is IBM making a motion for a gag order. After all, with MacBride & his ilk blabbing at every loose journalist about their case, it'll be hard for them to find an uninfluenced jury to hear the case when it finally comes to trial.
(What? IBM would be stupid to take this to a jury full of lusers? Well I'm sure they're aware of this in IBM legal, but they also know the benefits of keeping their options open.)
Unfortunately, SCO & IBM have yet to even settle on a jurisdiction, let alone have a judge assigned. So IBM is probably settling for the meoment with attrition on the SCO Group's -- & their master's --- bank accounts.
Slashdot Mirror
> However, most of what is interesting in the world is subjective. Is this a nice GUI? Subjective.
> Is this art good? Subjective. Is this food yummy? Subjective. Is this food good for me? Most
> likely subjective, unless it contains things that are poisonous to all humans, or contains no nutrients.
> I thrive on a vegetarian diet, and my wife is allergic to tofu (well, soy). Ultimately, food will kill you.
However, ``taste" (if I may use that word) is not as subjective as it appears. The philosopher Wittgenstein considered the problem (which is rooted in epistomology & the issue of solipism), & offers an intreguing argument that we can discuss these matters.
On a more pragmatic level, the novelist John Gardner reports a study where a number of professional African musicians were exposed to Western Classical music, & their opinions about which works were better than others tended to confirm what the Classical music buffs thought. Or as T.S. Eliot once stated, one is not born with good taste, one is acquired through education.
Thus, if one is skilled in reasoning & logic, & takes the time to learn the strengths & weaknesses of one given craft or genre, that skill can be applied to other skills or genres.
BTW, years ago when I wanted to write the Great American Novel, & attended a number of creative writing classes & workshops, the general opinion serious literary writers had of Deconstructionism was not as nice as this engineer. I'd say it was equivalent to how a Linux or BSD hacker values the opinion of the average Microsoft salesman.
Geoff
> I expect it will revolve around two words:
>
> Goverment Intervention
Exactly. If lock-in strategies like low-level proprietary changes to the BIOS don't work, MS will follow the lead of the US Steel & Auto industries.
All they have to do is repeat enough times the phrase "Good-paying US programming jobs are being taken away by Linux programmers in India, China & the Philippines!" Although MS is already replacing its own US employees with employees from those countries.
Geoff
> Actually, the patent is not for the DOS-style fat, but for the vfat extensions, namely the way long file names are stored.
IANAL, but from a quick glance at the abstracts of the claims for these patents it appears that MS has acquired a dodgy title to techniques that have either already been in the public domain, or have escaped into it due to lack of MS's enforcement:
#5,579,517 - Common name space for long & short file names, patent issued in 1996. Didn't MS already do this with Windows 95, which was available in beta from at least as early as 1994?
#5,745,902 - Multiple names for a single file, patent issued 1998. This has been a feature of UNIX (man or info ln) for years -- if not a couple of decades -- prior to the award of this patent.
#5,758,352 - Another patent covering common name space for long & short file names, patent issued in 1998. Again, consider that MS already did this with Windows 95, which was available in beta from at least as early as 1994?
#6,286,013 - Allowing short & long names for the same file, patent issued in 2001. Again, consider that MS already did this with Windows 95, which was available in beta from at least as early as 1994?
Undoubtedly I need to examine the patents in far more detail, but I find it odd that everyone is focussing on the ``MS is patenting FAT16/FAT32" angle, rather than the consequences of the actual claims of these patents. These four patents give MS a license to sue alleged infringers, who could be any number of Linux/UNIX development companies. And even if these patents get thrown out of court upon review, there is still the cost of fighting them -- which appears to me would be far more than $250,000.
Geoff
Ah, 1995, I remember it well . . .
I was working for this company that soon became a synonym for a hightech sweatshop: Stream. And one of their clients was called Netscape. Yes, _that_ Netscape.
I joined the team supporting Netscape about a month before they released NS 1.2 -- the one you could buy in the stores bundled with Eudora, some crummy 3rd-party TCPIP stack, & the Shiva dialer. Talk about going from the light into darkness with one step: one week, almost every other call I handle is from someone who knows more about computers than I did -- calls from Sandia Labs, Hewlett Packard (back when they knew technology), the NASA Jet Propulsion Labs in California, a sysadmin from InfoWorld, &c. -- the next week, I'm talking to people who don't know their backspace key from the left arrow. Jeez, I still think I could hear the IQ of our customers fall in the days between those events.
You know, sometimes I hate the fact that I earned a paycheck helping these jerks onto the Internet. Probably almost as much as Stream's current employees who have to support computer software & hardware that was broken when designed.
Ever since I left Stream, my experience of the Internet has consisted of finding one more neat use or idea that eventually gets destroyed because the great mass of the unwashed decides to make it their personal urinal.
And if you should ever meet a guy by the name of C. P. Thompson who worked for Netscape, kick him in the nuts for me. He was a PHB before Scott Adams was ever cool.
Geoff
> Unlike many biographies, Softwar doesn't start with Ellison's poverty-ridden childhood in a
> poor Russian-immigrant family, where he was an adopted kid.
I'm not sure if the reviewer was being tongue-in-check when he wrote that, or was honestly bamboozled by Ellison's PR machine. I am sure that when I read that, I remembered the comment his older step-sister once made on Ellison & his background: ``Every time I read about my adopted brother, the old neighborhood seemed to drop another notch on the socioeconomic scale."
According to Gary Rivlin, who wrote in his _The Plot to Get Bill Gates_, Ellison ``had grown up in a tidy community, home to its share of judges, doctors, and univeristy professors. His stepfather had known failure, but by the time his nephew came along, the senior Ellison was working respectably if dully as a bean counter for the local public housing agency. Their two-bedroom apartment was small and money may have been tight, but it was hardly the fough-and-tumble world that Ellison conjured up later in life."
Geoff
> WTF is "Mebbe"? Is that a new drug you kids are all hooked on?
It's a colloquial variation on "maybe". I've seen it used on Usenet & in email for quite a few years, with the intent to avoid the ironic/sarcastic connotation that typing ``Maybe" as a one-word sentence fragment might convey.
BTW, I chuckled when I saw that you included me in your off-handed catagorization of ``you kids". I'll be 47 next month. And I don't feel as young as I must read.
Geoff
> Supposedly the companies do this so they can say they could not fill the position and off-shore it.
Mebbe. However, following the principle that one should first look to stupidity before one claims that there is conspiracy, I'd say that requirements like our example arises when a manager tells the job shop, ``I need someone with 6 years of experience with Windows. You know -- NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP." And the recruiter then decides to simplify the requirements by stating that the position requires ``6 years of experience with Windows XP."
And six months later, the recruiter can't understand why he isn't making his quota.
Geoff
For the sake of arguement, let's say the transcript runs 100 pages.
* 1 page, Richard Stallman providing his name, address, current occupation, other identifying material.
* 18 pages of Stallman explaining what "Free Software" means.
* 18 pages of Stallman explaining the GNU Public License.
* 20 pages of Stallman ``correcting" the interlocutor that they are talking about `GNU/linux'"
* 10 pages of Stallman being shown snippets of Linux kernel code & responding, ``I have no idea; I've never seen this code before."
* 33 pages of Stallman repeating, ``I don't know; I've never contributed any code to Torvalds' project."
Geoff
Just remember: the lawyers in this case are nothing more than mercenaries. They are equally happy fighting for either side, as long as they keep getting paid, & have a guarranteed safe route home after the fighting is over.
But I figure the execs over at TSG will not be enjoying the good life after this. The climate is turning less hospitable towards hijinks like pump-n-dump. (For example, look at the current investigations into mismanagement in the Mutual Funds industry.) I expect that when this lawsuit at last blows up, there will be lawyers eager to earn their stripes from the SEC or the states who will indicting MacBride & the rest. Between the Internet & the results of IBM's discovery, all of the hard work of proving their case will be done for them.
Geoff
> Unfortunately, there isn't a BBB office in SoCal.
As I understand it, the BBB is funded/helped by various local businesses that are interested in keeping their acts clean.
If I'm correct, then I find it disturbing that there aren't enough ethical businesses in SoCal to have a local office.
Geoff
> If it were me, I would sue Darly McB individually, in his personal capacity, as well as SCO.
IANAL, but from reading some threads in another forum about suing a CEO, let me point out the following facts:
* Most corporations carry liability insurance for their executives, which cover their legal fees & awards up to a certain amount, say $5 million.
* I'm sure some ``hot-shot'' legal firm will sue McBride at the end of this affair anyway, rerpresenting a class-action lawsuit, looking for a chunk of that liability insurance. Expect them to settle for their costs & a coupon for everyone good for $25 towards your next purchase of SCO UNIX.
It would be fair nicer if a class-action suit went against MacBride & his cronies, & used the proceeds to benefit everyone in the Open Source/FSF community: say a donation to the OSDL, Linux Fund, FSF, or a combination of these. But I doubt the landsharks who will appear would think of something this useful.
Geoff
> First, it should be clear by now that you should not take investment advice from /. just as you shouldn't take medical
/. a question like the following: ``I just had my day in court, & the judge gave me 3-5 in a minimum security jail. (Never mind the reason why, it's not computer related.) I mean, I have excellent karma, know the difference between a bubble sort and a quick sort, & can get Windows NT running on an Itanium computer. And I had to help him operate the cheap laptop he had on before him. Do I really have to listen to this bozo & go to prison?"
> or juridical advice.
You mean some guy asked the folks on
I can only shudder at the kind of advice he might get.
Geoff
And after that, did you consider chilling out by heading down to the local bar to having a cold one & find someone to have sexual intercourse with?
Geoff
> I've called 1-800-726-8649 twice, leaving my name and number saying they would "call me back". I havn't heard from them.
Of course. Outside of the legal department, payroll, & the executive suites, everyone at The SCO Group knows whatever they do has no effect on the future of the company, so they're busy with more important duties . . . Like looking for another job, surfing the web, or playing solitaire.
Geoff
> Would any reputable company now risk involvement with SCO on any level?
I saw that The SCO Group (TSG) has awarded Eckerd Drugs as their customer of the year. Which inspired an idea that I leave the rest of you to discuss:
Why don't we organize a boycott of TSG's remaining customers, beginning with Eckerd? (This is known as a secondary boycott, which was used quite effectively by unionists in the early 20th century.) As various corporations discover that their sales are declining because they patronize one vendor who misuses the legal system, TSG's few remaining customers fall away.
Okay, so it won't decisively kill off TSG, but think of it as pissing on their grave while IBM's soulless, ruthless lawyers putthem into a coffin & put them into it.
Geoff
> Why does the wiki link off xouvert.org include the infamous goatse.cx picture?
Because anyone can edit a Wiki in its default configuation.
Geoff
It was quickly repeated on other Linux news sites, & made The Inquirer. The SCO Group had to spend time fighting that false report.
(For the record, I suspect what happened was that the original poster accidentally dialed the wrong number, had not been the first to misdial that number, & the person who answered had decided to play a prank.)
Geoff
> So as an experienced person in the feild, what does happen when a tech support employee's computer eats dirt [...]?
From what I've heard & experienced either one of two things:
1) You turn off the phone & take the time to fix it; or
2) You & your supervisor trade your dead box for the nearest one whose user has the day off.
While solution #2 is the rule these days, there are still the occasional shop where the phone tech is expected to employ solution #1. Oddly enough, where solution #1 is the rule, turn-over is much lower.
Geoff
> "I definitely wouldn't "ask Slashdot" when I've been caught with 40g of cocaine and a 12 year old prostitute in my car."
:-/
> When or if? Is there something we should know?
Did you miss that discussion on Slashdot? Dude, it was the best topic of the dot-bomb era. Unfortunately, the successful answer (``offer everyone involved stock in the IPO") isn't very useful anymore."
Geoff
Last time anyone at Powell's was keeping count (IIRC, this was in the early 1990's), they stated that they were *possibly* second only to the Strand in New York City.
A number of out-of-town folks at OSCON remarked that they were impressed by it as a place to go browsing -- although if you are looking for a specific book, the Internet is your best bet.
BTW, if you do come to Portland, definitely check out one or more of the local brewpubs. Portland Linux/UNIX Group gathers after their monthly meeting at the Lucky Lab, but Portland Brewing, Bridgeport, & Widmer all are good bets. If you can only visit one, don't pick a McMenniman's. (Not that there's anything wrong with one of the McM's chain, but going to the Northwest to sample a local brew & settling for a McMenniman is like going to Australia & having a Foster's.)
Geoff
> Uhm, you either have never lived in Oregon or UK, or both. They are NOTHING alike in terms of climate.
I'm a Portland native; I'm very acquainted with the wet northern European style winters & the warm mediterranean style summers.
As for my experience with UK weather, I spent 6 weeks in 1984, in a loop from London to Bristol. My memory is that the weather was surprisingly similar to the weather around Portland.
On the other hand, you do have a point: I doubt Bend, OR & Yorkshire are at all alike.
Geoff
> I will never ever move to a place where I can't drive a convertible.
Interesting. The country I most closely associate with convertibles is . . . the United Kingdom, which is not known for warm weather. If the weather is too warm, you have to keep the top up so the AC will work; if it's too cold, you keep the top up because of wind chill.
FWIW, I live in Oregon, more than a little to the north of where Linus lives (& very close to the UK in terms of climate). And where -- according to the grapevine -- he has clearly stated he will never live. Although I have driven in a convertible with the top down every month of the year.
Geoff
> In some respects, going after IBM first is unwise.
Then again, going after IBM first could be a smart thing to do. Or so a patent law attorney pointed out to me over the weekend: if the SCO Group wins its case against IBM, then every other corporation quickly falls in line, & settles up with a negligible fuss.
Sorta like the tactic school teachers back in the day of rural, one-room schoolhouses used to employ of winning a fight with the biggest kid in the classroom to get the other boys to fall in line.
Unfortunately, in playing this role the SCO Group is looking more like Ichabod Crane than the intimidating PE teacher most of us remember from school, & since no one told IBM what their part was going to be, most likely will walk onstage in the role of a US Navy SEAL.
The only reason any of us will think this fight is entertainment is because we badly want to see the SCO Group smashed, & MacBride finding his future career choices limited to minimum wage jobs. This will be an ugly, one-sided fight -- unless IBM decides otherwise.
Geoff
What it would take is IBM making a motion for a gag order. After all, with MacBride & his ilk blabbing at every loose journalist about their case, it'll be hard for them to find an uninfluenced jury to hear the case when it finally comes to trial.
(What? IBM would be stupid to take this to a jury full of lusers? Well I'm sure they're aware of this in IBM legal, but they also know the benefits of keeping their options open.)
Unfortunately, SCO & IBM have yet to even settle on a jurisdiction, let alone have a judge assigned. So IBM is probably settling for the meoment with attrition on the SCO Group's -- & their master's --- bank accounts.
Geoff
You mean you've never encountered a yapping miniature poodle that you wanted to turn into a fine, red mist?
Geoff