Re:Wait, what did you say?
on
BSA IDC FUD
·
· Score: 1
Yes, they can use it as they fit. They have the right to download it and install them on all their machines without paying. They even have the right to modify the code and not distribute the modifications, as long as they don't redistribute the modified version they make. The GPL covers redistribution of the code, not the use itself. One of these reasons is that the copyright law itself doesn't impose rules on the use of copyrighted material. The companies that impose rules on the use of their software do so under a contract (most of the time an EULA) that's completely different from copyright (even then some argue that EULA's aren't valid anyway).
Except that what's usually considered piracy is someone just copying software and installing it. The GPL has no restriction whatsoever regarding the use or download of software.
Re:Ummm...
on
BSA IDC FUD
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
No, the point made by the BSA is that reduced piracy==profit. OSS is the best and easiest way to reduce piracy, hence it is good for the inductry. If you look at the OSS world, you'll also see that the countries that contribute the most to OSS are the ones with the biggest IT industry.
(BTW, I'm not saying that seriously, but just pushing the BSA statements a bit further)
So what's the easiest way to dramatically reduce piracy: use open-source software. So if everybody switches to open-source, it'll be good the the industry. So I suggest the BSA starts advocating OSS more. After all, that's good for the industry:)
I'm guessing this too must be illegal in some way. Maybe because it's illegal to use a buffer overflow to break into a machine even if it's your own, or perhaps the DMCA because you bypass a copy protection mechanism...
Speex is asymetric like most other codecs. To give you an idea, at 8 kHz Speex requires 10-20 mflops to encode in real-time, while decoding requires 1 mflops.
Well, Speex is now in openh323, so all we need now is integration work to make it work in NetMeeting (so you can talk between NetMeeting and GnomeMeeting which already uses Speex).
(Speaking as Speex author) Well, you didn't get it because it's outdated and hasn't been replaced yet (e.g. Speex is now BSD). On the patent front, we're now much more confident about our "patent-free" statement. Of course, you can never be 100% sure with patents, no matter what you do.
Yes, but it they had overthrown Saddam 10 years ago, who would they be fighting today. I mean having a well known vilain is always useful when a war is all you can do to make people forget about your stupidity. Yes, this should have been done 10 years ago. It would have made less deaths than with 2 wars. The only reason why they didn't do it is because they were afraid they wouldn't like the replacement (with links with Iran), so they decided that having Saddam there wasnt' too bad.
Aside from point 3 (access to UNIX code), what's the matter with the rest. Yes, there's been a high degree of design coordination. Is that illegal? (if so, close all companies right now) Same holds for access to sophisticated hardware (sue every owner of a super-computer), UNIX architecture (sue every UNIX programmer), and financial investment (again sue every company). This is just plain stupid.
I can see the trial go:
SCO lawyer: Did you do all the things we accuse you of doing? IBM rep.: Yes, what's the problem? SCO lawyer: Euh... judge: Case dismissed!
Actually, there's another way: reducing the moment of inertia. This can be done by making the mass closer to the center of the earth. So if everybody lies down, the earth accelerates.
By sharper but not smaller, I mean that I can make the fonts larger (in pixels) so that the keep the same "real size". That means that there are now more pixels that define each letter, making it sharper.
You realize some geeks are going to use this resolution to view more text on the screen at once and lose their eyesight that much faster, don't you?...or just to have the same amount of text, but much sharper due the the increased resolution.
And when was the last time the US sent a man on the moon? What, more than 3 decades ago? Maybe it's because it still costs way too much, even for the US? My other guess is that the risks are very high and that NASA is no longer willing to take them.
stable!=scalable. If you've used 8" floppies for years and never lost anything, it's a sign that it's probably stable. Of course stable is not everything. The original post refered to ext3 stability, not performance.
EXT3 is a backwards hack and Reiser, while good, is perpetually in the "testing" phase.
Can you explain to me why ext3 being backward compatible with ext2 is a problem? Ext3 is very stable. I've used it for over a year on my laptop and have never lost anything, despite the fact that I experience unexpected shutdowns (out of battery) at least once a week. (won't comment on Reiser since I don't know enough about it)
Journaling file systems used to be a problem under Linux but it's no longer the case. Last thing, you're missing two journaled filesystems: XFS (SGI) and JFS (IBM). XFS has been there for years and is not exactly what I'd call experimental stuff...
For instance, $0.01 per message is unlikely to break the bank for any ordinary net user
That's the problem, if I send a message to the Linux kernel mailing list, it's going to cost me a lot (a hundrer bucks?) if the cost is per recipient. And if it's per send message, then spammers will just setup huge mailing lists, that's all.
Actually, if you're interested in compressing voice, try Speex, another Xiph.org codec. At 16 kHz sampling rate, you can get almost transparent quality around 20-24 kbps and still decent quality in the 12 kbps range. (disclaimer: I'm the Speex author)
Re:I don't think it's in danger
on
More on Columbia
·
· Score: 1
The probability theory involved is way above my head, so anyone is welcome to chime in and correct any misstatements.
The thing is: nobody knows what the probabilities are. I remember reading Richard Feynman's commentary on the Challenger accident when he noted that when asked about probabilities of Shuttle failure, the engineers would have answers in the range of 1/100 while managers would have answers in the range of 1/10,000. While the 1/100 figure seems more correct (two accidents over a bit more than 100 missions), the truth is that nobody knows the exact probabilities (even less so for one particular part of the shuttle), so everything needs to be done to reduce the risks, however small they are.
That way, american corporations can reduce costs and make more profits so that the US can remain a rich country. In a couple years, the US will be the richest country and 99% of its population will be below the poverty threshold.
When I connect to a web site, it asks what page would you like and I answer "NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNXXXXXXXsomething to replace return address here...", it's then all legitimate too, right? Your argument makes writing worms, viruses, trojan, cracking legal too.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, they can use it as they fit. They have the right to download it and install them on all their machines without paying. They even have the right to modify the code and not distribute the modifications, as long as they don't redistribute the modified version they make. The GPL covers redistribution of the code, not the use itself. One of these reasons is that the copyright law itself doesn't impose rules on the use of copyrighted material. The companies that impose rules on the use of their software do so under a contract (most of the time an EULA) that's completely different from copyright (even then some argue that EULA's aren't valid anyway).
Except that what's usually considered piracy is someone just copying software and installing it. The GPL has no restriction whatsoever regarding the use or download of software.
No, the point made by the BSA is that reduced piracy==profit. OSS is the best and easiest way to reduce piracy, hence it is good for the inductry. If you look at the OSS world, you'll also see that the countries that contribute the most to OSS are the ones with the biggest IT industry.
(BTW, I'm not saying that seriously, but just pushing the BSA statements a bit further)
So what's the easiest way to dramatically reduce piracy: use open-source software. So if everybody switches to open-source, it'll be good the the industry. So I suggest the BSA starts advocating OSS more. After all, that's good for the industry :)
I'm guessing this too must be illegal in some way. Maybe because it's illegal to use a buffer overflow to break into a machine even if it's your own, or perhaps the DMCA because you bypass a copy protection mechanism...
Speex is asymetric like most other codecs. To give you an idea, at 8 kHz Speex requires 10-20 mflops to encode in real-time, while decoding requires 1 mflops.
Well, Speex is now in openh323, so all we need now is integration work to make it work in NetMeeting (so you can talk between NetMeeting and GnomeMeeting which already uses Speex).
(Speaking as Speex author) Well, you didn't get it because it's outdated and hasn't been replaced yet (e.g. Speex is now BSD). On the patent front, we're now much more confident about our "patent-free" statement. Of course, you can never be 100% sure with patents, no matter what you do.
Check out Linphone. It's been one of the first to adopt Speex.
Will my 300MHz Linux box be able to compress my voice in real-ish time?
Easily. The minimum requirement for real-time encoding with Speex is around a Pentium 100, so you'll have no problem.
Yes, but it they had overthrown Saddam 10 years ago, who would they be fighting today. I mean having a well known vilain is always useful when a war is all you can do to make people forget about your stupidity. Yes, this should have been done 10 years ago. It would have made less deaths than with 2 wars. The only reason why they didn't do it is because they were afraid they wouldn't like the replacement (with links with Iran), so they decided that having Saddam there wasnt' too bad.
Aside from point 3 (access to UNIX code), what's the matter with the rest. Yes, there's been a high degree of design coordination. Is that illegal? (if so, close all companies right now) Same holds for access to sophisticated hardware (sue every owner of a super-computer), UNIX architecture (sue every UNIX programmer), and financial investment (again sue every company). This is just plain stupid.
I can see the trial go:
SCO lawyer: Did you do all the things we accuse you of doing?
IBM rep.: Yes, what's the problem?
SCO lawyer: Euh...
judge: Case dismissed!
Actually, there's another way: reducing the moment of inertia. This can be done by making the mass closer to the center of the earth. So if everybody lies down, the earth accelerates.
By sharper but not smaller, I mean that I can make the fonts larger (in pixels) so that the keep the same "real size". That means that there are now more pixels that define each letter, making it sharper.
You realize some geeks are going to use this resolution to view more text on the screen at once and lose their eyesight that much faster, don't you? ...or just to have the same amount of text, but much sharper due the the increased resolution.
And when was the last time the US sent a man on the moon? What, more than 3 decades ago? Maybe it's because it still costs way too much, even for the US? My other guess is that the risks are very high and that NASA is no longer willing to take them.
stable!=scalable. If you've used 8" floppies for years and never lost anything, it's a sign that it's probably stable. Of course stable is not everything. The original post refered to ext3 stability, not performance.
EXT3 is a backwards hack and Reiser, while good, is perpetually in the "testing" phase.
Can you explain to me why ext3 being backward compatible with ext2 is a problem? Ext3 is very stable. I've used it for over a year on my laptop and have never lost anything, despite the fact that I experience unexpected shutdowns (out of battery) at least once a week. (won't comment on Reiser since I don't know enough about it)
Journaling file systems used to be a problem under Linux but it's no longer the case. Last thing, you're missing two journaled filesystems: XFS (SGI) and JFS (IBM). XFS has been there for years and is not exactly what I'd call experimental stuff...
For instance, $0.01 per message is unlikely to break the bank for any ordinary net user
That's the problem, if I send a message to the Linux kernel mailing list, it's going to cost me a lot (a hundrer bucks?) if the cost is per recipient. And if it's per send message, then spammers will just setup huge mailing lists, that's all.
I guess Arthur C. Clark was right... wonder if Jupiter will turn into a second sun soon.
Actually, if you're interested in compressing voice, try Speex, another Xiph.org codec. At 16 kHz sampling rate, you can get almost transparent quality around 20-24 kbps and still decent quality in the 12 kbps range. (disclaimer: I'm the Speex author)
The probability theory involved is way above my head, so anyone is welcome to chime in and correct any misstatements.
The thing is: nobody knows what the probabilities are. I remember reading Richard Feynman's commentary on the Challenger accident when he noted that when asked about probabilities of Shuttle failure, the engineers would have answers in the range of 1/100 while managers would have answers in the range of 1/10,000. While the 1/100 figure seems more correct (two accidents over a bit more than 100 missions), the truth is that nobody knows the exact probabilities (even less so for one particular part of the shuttle), so everything needs to be done to reduce the risks, however small they are.
No difference, that's the point. If you think it good that it's going that way, who an I to disagree...
That way, american corporations can reduce costs and make more profits so that the US can remain a rich country. In a couple years, the US will be the richest country and 99% of its population will be below the poverty threshold.
When I connect to a web site, it asks what page would you like and I answer "NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNXXXXXXXsomething to replace return address here...", it's then all legitimate too, right? Your argument makes writing worms, viruses, trojan, cracking legal too.