The important thing here are the ideas and goals, and not so much the tools created to acheive the goals
Ideas are valuable all of a sudden? Then why is "Imaginary Property" always decried? No... the real value is in the implementation, and that began with Stallman's Compiler [gcc] and has grown from it. So yes, the tools are important. If there had been nobody capable or willing to write GCC or Apache for free, the technological world would not be what it is today.
That being said... the idea of Freedom is still king. And there is this quote from one of America's founding documents that brings that home better than anything else.
Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and security.
The scary part is that we need to fight so hard against corporations and governments to maintain the freedom and security that they are there to protect.
Off Topic: The link in your Sig to "bangamovie.com" seems to point to a Domain Squatter.
On topic:
Word of caution: Making a film is hard work, but you probably know that from the low budget film you are producing. I have personally put together a "movie" of an experience I had last summer. This came together over the course of 2 weeks of filming and 3-4 months of editing. Mind you, I didn't have to any of the things that you'll have to do such as (a) research, (b) write a script, (c) edit the script to create a compelling story, or (d) contact people to do interviews with.
I guess my point is: You would really need the right set of creative and technical people to accomplish what you are suggesting.
That said, it sounds like a great idea. If I could help with research or scripting or anything needed based in the Boston area... try to get in contact (link to a site that has an e-mail address for me is in my signature).
Number 2 rule of self-promotion, explain why I should care. In the case of iRate, you should probably say something like:
iRate is a Legal Mp3 aggregation tool that finds highly rated, copyleft music that matches a users preferences and automagically downloads it into the user's library.
Number 3 rule... get it posted on the message board mainpage when it is ready for general consumption. Because people are less likely to check it out if it is only posted in a comment.
similarities between the RIAA's public handling of these cases and the SCO ordeal
Also, SCO got upset at PJ on GrokLaw, just as RIAA is getting upset at NYCL on his site. I forget the specifics, but I recall that SCO tried to defame PJ's character for reporting truthfully in regards to their case.
Even if the Corporate slobs in AMD and Intel relent to the pressure of DRM, there is enough money in University endowments to assemble enough staying power to produce enough standard microchips to appease the "niche". And with a new hardware source that doesn't run Windows... I think world would become segmented until the other proprietary system dies.
But the key is having musicians, filmmakers, hackers, and artists who embrace free culture so that there is content available on the standard systems that is worth looking at and listening to and learning from.
In any case, many of my non-technical but highly computer literate (does that make sense? think: 20-something history majors) friends know what DRM is, and if you told them there was DRM in the microprocessor to stop them from doing some task that they might want to do... they would choose an alternative option.
Note that the fucktards at the FTC refer to people as "consumers," despite the fact that a person is probably registering on the Do Not Call list because they aren't consumers.
Are you denying the fact that you consume? Perhaps you are a producer who has evolved beyond the point of needing to consume anything?
I, for one welcome, our new over-production overlord, WK2. May his DNA defeat my own consumer DNA in the evolutionary battle for galactic supremacy.
The Betamax/VHS analogy to standard/DRM'd processors is interesting, but the argument fails because of user perseption. Most users of Betamax/VHS didn't see the difference in quality of one format over the other, however standard end-users see the difference between a computer that won't play media content that isn't downloaded through "approved" channels and one that will.
And if they DON'T see the difference, burn them an infringing copy of a movie and bring it over to their house. Watch it fail to play. Say, "Oh, shoot. You got a Corporation Locked Down computer. Hell, that's too bad." And then show them how not to make the same mistake again, by teaching them that marketing baloney like "Plays for Sure" needs to be avoided. Give them the phone number to call Intel/AMD to complain. Have them call Dell and demand to exchange it for a "standard" system.
Believe it or not, most people will know the difference between standard and DRM'd processors, once they see it with their own eyes and decide that they don't like it.
Also, as far as Intel/AMD switching... get real. AMD would get such a hard-on if Intel decided only to produce DRM'd hardware. The CEO of AMD would say, "You mean, we don't have to try anymore? We get to raise prices and serve a new niche of users who demand exactly what we are already making?" If this actually happened, AMD would literally be the corporate version of a wet dream.
function isBusinessPartnerOrCustomer(user as variant) as variant on error goto microsoft if isBusinessPartner(user) = true then return TRUE end if if (isCustomer(user) and accountSize(customer) > TenMillion) ' Thin the herd return TRUE end if return FALSE microsoft: inputbox('Please enter your serial number to continue', 'activation required') end function
Did you intentionally mess up the line breaks? Because if I had mod points you would have gotten +1 Funny for incomprehensible code and +1 insightful for the real crux of your joke.
I just want to move to Costa Rica or Belize and relax with tequila and whores.
Quit your job. Marry a trophy wife. Let her go to work to support you. Girls these days have good careers with affirmative action. They are smart and perky and idealistic and independent and they've been through college during a time that embraces sex and pornography (because of the widespread use of the internet).
Plus, you'll get a tax write-off for being married, and you'll join that glorious 15% bracket.
I made $170,000 last year, but I should be just fine keeping $1,700, right? [...] What the current Left wants to do raise the brackets back without any deductions or protections. [...] As it is, I probably paid more in taxes than a lot of folks here even grossed only to see it squandered on war and waste and endless bullshit.
Before continuing the argument, can we state that neither of us is that concerned about money on a month to month basis? I am not. You make more than twice as me, so you should not be either. My arguments mainly apply to those makings half of what I make or less. These people are, I believe, overtaxed.
No, you should be paying $50k per year and be happy with your scarce budget of $10k per month. There are A LOT of people who have to survive on less than that much per quarter, but the stories about CEOs, professional athletes, businessmen, and actors were earn $20-100 Million per year are who I would stick with the highest taxes. Your paltry 33% range of $160k to $350k is comfortable, but I would progress it up a bit (40%?). I would stick a bracket in the $350k to 2.5M range and hit them with 50% (the budget of $15k to 100k per month is fair). I would add a bracket from $2.5M to 20M for 60% (a paltry 83k to 666k budget per month). Then 70% for everyone above $20M.
A real PROGRESSIVE tax and not a tax that jumps from 15% for somebody at the poverty level to 25% for most professionals to 35% for the insanely rich.
I mean, this is *my* own idiot ramblings, and doesn't reflect any specific campaign promises by Obama or Clinton... but I think you will find that their numbers (if they even have numbers that are published) are going to be more agreeable to you than you think.
Remember, the goal of the government is security... and that includes guaranteeing the all citizens will have enough resources to live comfortably so that they are not driven to crime. Part of reducing crime, is reducing taxes on the poor OR funding social welfare programs.
But, I agree with you on one thing. We shouldn't be paying (or going into debt for) the war we are currently in. An administration that saves us that expense would be a boon.
Let me clarify... I implied that *special* malice should be directed towards the RIAA. *Regular* malice should be directed towards Sony BMG and their ilk.
I personally direct my malice towards them by not buying any music from the RIAA member companies, and by advocating alternatives.
Did you miss where I quoted his sarcastic comment and rationalized it? Or did you simply feel the need to re-rationalize my own point? Well, you are correct. Nobody earning more than $100 Billion dollars per year would be compelled to continue earning if his take home pay were on $1 Billion.
That being said, anybody earning that much is cheating the system somehow...
What's more to the point, how can you compare a progressive tax in a capitalist economy to communism? If somebody DID earn $100 Billion and he had to give 99% of it up to benefit the rest of us.... and then we all made within 1% of $1 Billion as our annual income (i.e. between $990 Million and $1.1 Billion) then I would agree with you. But *most* people earn 0.005% of $1 Billion, and that hardly meshes with the communist economic ideal that everybody is entitled to the same amount of resources. Thus, you are 99.995% wrong with your analysis.
Unfortunately, he'll tax me at a 99% rate to pay for it.
Do you earn $100 Billion dollars a year? I think you could probably get by with only $1 Billion of those dollars.
Obama (and Clinton and Edwards) actually have been vocal about fairer taxes for the middle class ($40-90k per year). Check the taxes for the years between 1930 and 1980 and notice the trend that has become of the "Top Bracket"). To think that the average person pays 2 hours out of every 8 hours of his or her workday (25%) to the federal government is kind of sad. Make it 1/8th for the average person and let people who have money for $3 Million houses and luxury yachts make up the difference.
Excellent points! Simple and straightforward pricing would let customers make informed choices. Keep in mind, though, that most customers are not knowledgeable enough to make informed choices. According to the statistic that 5% of users use 90% of the bandwidth... I would guess that 95% of users do NOT know how to make an informed choice, and I doubt Comcast/TimeWarner has set a high priority to try to save *them* money of each monthly bill.
Also, wouldn't it be nice if they set prices based on what it costs them to run their business, rather then through some market-directed, arbitrary number that is colluded with based on the rest of service providers? Their business essentially powers and maintain the connections between racks of routers spread in data centers throughout the country. There are probably tens of thousands of routers within the infrastructure, but you only need 2 or 3 people at each site to make sure they stay up. Tack the expense of a customer service business into the mix, and they could probably remain profitable by charging $5-10 per customer per month. That is what they should be charging.
The RIAA is a trade group, and it wouldn't surprise me if they had some kind of power/influence written into all the contracts they administer to control where royalties are paid.
They do have some goals, which are not *all* related to litigation.
(this one is litigation) to protect intellectual property rights worldwide and the First Amendment rights of artists;
(this one is self-preservation) to perform research about the music industry;
(this one is lobbying the nation) to monitor and review relevant laws, regulations and policies.
So you see, they do lots of things besides sue their customers.
The RIAA represents the big four and many smaller record companies. You shouldn't direct any special malice against Sony BMG... but identify songs by RIAA artists and then use your own judgment.
The last major release of the kernel was 18-Dec-2003. Linus has said that he doesn't expect to ever roll a 2.8 version. As far as major changes go, the kernel is solid.
I am not going to check, but I think you'll find something similar if you check apache. I am betting that the famous webserver is solid enough where they don't update much.
Firefox/OpenOffice/Gimp on the other hand all need to keep adding features and improving themselves to provide users with enjoyable experiences. If you are interested, you can look through Mozillas Issue Tracker and find bugs to discuss. The guys behind that site are great... and I got help from them while I was setting up a Mozilla Tinderbox installation to use on a company project years ago. Definitely still Bazaar-style.
In between 10 or 20 years, all the productivity software will be so stable that it will virtually never change. In your words, it will be like a Cathedral... but it won't be because every Community College in the country will be able to teach a course on Monolithic Kernels and dig into the Linux code as an example. The nature of the Cathedral does not embrace the sharing of secrets in this manner. Information is safeguarded so that power can be preserved. The Bazaar, on the other hand, has no secrets to the way they operate (only things that they haven't gotten around to writing adequate documentation for, yet).
The GPP could just be an anti-Roy Schestowitz zealot... but in general the posts (like his) which highlight particular individuals who have agendas to push are good. I like posts that have drawn this sort of attention to Twitter, to the point where "Twitter" is a tag associated with any story that he has submitted. This doesn't mean that Twitter's opinion is bad, it just means that there is a very specific Pro-Mac, Anti-Microsoft bias.
On the other hand, there are certain individuals who have opinions that have great power. Usually this comes from people who are influential and only share their opinions when it is important. I am thinking of people like Gates, Jobs, Linus, Lessig, and Woz. When these people talk, there is going to be an article. Then there are people who post here (on Slashdot) who have great opinions... I can think of John Carmack and Wil Wheaton off the top of my head.
So yes, knowing the bias of where a message comes from (and the money that paid for it) is an important part to understanding how to interpret the message.
Why should unlicensed software authors be any different from unlicensed doctors? Both can cause harm; in the former case, potentially more harm.
A group of software authors who write code which will run on a system where there is a danger to human life if there is a failure is treated with as much or more scrutiny than doctors. Each release is reviewed, tested, and certified with formal processes and procedures. There have been failures that have resulted in the lose of life, but this is true of licensed and practicing doctors, too.
Other software authors who code financial systems, video games, and productivity tools are only as rigorous as their industry requires... and that turns into an economic argument. It doesn't make sense for EA Software to subject new developers for the Madden franchise to go through a licensing course that educates them in the rules of football, the structure of the video game code, the architecture of the game, and the processes used for developing the game. And let's face it... a software developer who is qualified to write code for NASA is probably NOT going to be appropriate to start coding next years Madden release.
Which begs the question, doctor's are licensed for specific parts of the body (optometrist, podiatrist, dentist, surgeon, neurologist, etc), so why shouldn't software engineers be licensed for different domains. Well, subtle differences within domains that would make it an industry-wide challenge for standardization. In the field of communications software, there are competing standards and the people who understand it well have been doing it for 20 or 30 years... which is something that can't be taught through a "licensing" class.
Add that to the fact that communications has changed immeasurably from 20 years ago, and you will have a good idea why there are no software licensing exams.
the reality is that small and medium sized business owners should do everything in their power to find the least-regulated economies to operate out of.
Agreed...
when in fact it is jobs, not entitlements, that help the poor.
Based on that logic, Microsoft should take their half a billion dollars and (let's assume employees cost $100,000 each year) hire 5,000 more people to the workforce (which would be a boon for Washington). Or maybe that can give a $14k bonus to each of their 35,000 employees to help them make improvements to their houses and stimulate the Washington economy a bit more.
But honestly... Washington in general and Seattle in specific are not in need of economic stimulation. During a brief visit I made there a year ago... is seemed like public transportation and traffic were disasters... but other than that they were doing fine. The money probably would be better spent revitalizing Nevada (Reno is a mess, and supposedly the suburbs around Las Vegas are a little bit seedy).
That YouTube Hitler video was good. I like when he says, "At least I can still see the Patriots make history with a perfect season."
And in your other reply to me, you said "if the Giants can do the unthinkable." Well... I've been saying for about two months that the Patriots are a one dimension team (that dimension, being "Passing"). Ask Peyton Manning how great it was to have a one dimensional team in 2004. Sure, he got 49 TD passes in the regular season, but none in the second round of the playoffs and the Colts were beaten easily by the Patriots 20-3... to be knocked out of the playoffs.
So yeah... one dimensional teams are beatable.
Then again, hindsight is 20/20 and in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl I wouldn't have run my mouth to badly out of fear of embarrassment of being ultimately proved wrong. But I must say, being proved right is grand!
btw... real Giants fan here.
Of course, I'll probably get modded Flamebait again for talking Football on a "News for Nerds" site... so I will at least point out that I am typing this from a laptop running Ubuntu (you know, to appease the mods).
Re:Why bother with physics when you can just cheat
on
The Physics of Football
·
· Score: -1, Troll
The NFL confiscates a bunch of tapes from the Patriots, then destroys them without any comment. Just how much of an advantage did the Patriots get?
The Patriots had broken a rule that had recently been explicitly laid out by the league. (See article).
Matt Estrella, 26, a Patriots video assistant, was nabbed just before halftime of the Jets' 38-14 loss on opening day. He allegedly videotaped hand signals from the Jets' defensive coaches on the sideline, defying an edict from [NFL Commissioner] Goodell, who warned teams before the season that he wouldn't tolerate cheating. Several teams have suspected the Patriots of stealing signs. So did the Jets, thanks to Mangini.
I hesitate to say that they have used illegal means to obtain signs throughout the season, but getting caught during a single game is enough for me to tack on the Barry-Bonds-style patented asterisk (*) onto their Perfect Season*. And c'mon... did they REALLY need to cheat against the Jets? The 4-12 Jets? You would think that wiser head couches would save their cheating for games against stronger teams.
I pointed out that you didn't need to pay $150 for Office 2007 Home&Student to write letters, they were very open to the idea of trying out OOo.
So, ten years later, the identified threat turns out to be true, albeit moreso in the Office monopoly than on the OS. How quaint.
These documents acknowledged that free software products such as Linux were technologically competitive with some of Microsoft's products, and set out a strategy to combat them. The documents were embarrassing largely because they contradicted Microsoft's public pronouncements on the subject.
I wonder if the "strategy" was DRM and to adopt uncooperative practices. I guess that didn't turn out so well...
Slashdot Mirror
Ideas are valuable all of a sudden? Then why is "Imaginary Property" always decried? No... the real value is in the implementation, and that began with Stallman's Compiler [gcc] and has grown from it. So yes, the tools are important. If there had been nobody capable or willing to write GCC or Apache for free, the technological world would not be what it is today.
That being said... the idea of Freedom is still king. And there is this quote from one of America's founding documents that brings that home better than anything else.
Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and security.The scary part is that we need to fight so hard against corporations and governments to maintain the freedom and security that they are there to protect.
Off Topic: The link in your Sig to "bangamovie.com" seems to point to a Domain Squatter.
On topic:
Word of caution: Making a film is hard work, but you probably know that from the low budget film you are producing. I have personally put together a "movie" of an experience I had last summer. This came together over the course of 2 weeks of filming and 3-4 months of editing. Mind you, I didn't have to any of the things that you'll have to do such as (a) research, (b) write a script, (c) edit the script to create a compelling story, or (d) contact people to do interviews with.
I guess my point is: You would really need the right set of creative and technical people to accomplish what you are suggesting.
That said, it sounds like a great idea. If I could help with research or scripting or anything needed based in the Boston area... try to get in contact (link to a site that has an e-mail address for me is in my signature).
Number 1 rule of message board self-promotion, when you refer to your project ALWAYS provide the link you want people to use.
I found an interview with iRATE Radio Creator Anthony Jones, a SourceForge page, and the Wikipedia article.
Number 2 rule of self-promotion, explain why I should care. In the case of iRate, you should probably say something like:
iRate is a Legal Mp3 aggregation tool that finds highly rated, copyleft music that matches a users preferences and automagically downloads it into the user's library.
Number 3 rule... get it posted on the message board mainpage when it is ready for general consumption. Because people are less likely to check it out if it is only posted in a comment.
Also, SCO got upset at PJ on GrokLaw, just as RIAA is getting upset at NYCL on his site. I forget the specifics, but I recall that SCO tried to defame PJ's character for reporting truthfully in regards to their case.
IANAL, but I have represented myself on numerous occasions against various traffic infractions, so I have much experience on all matters of law.
I can see why you would be confused.
Even if the Corporate slobs in AMD and Intel relent to the pressure of DRM, there is enough money in University endowments to assemble enough staying power to produce enough standard microchips to appease the "niche". And with a new hardware source that doesn't run Windows... I think world would become segmented until the other proprietary system dies.
But the key is having musicians, filmmakers, hackers, and artists who embrace free culture so that there is content available on the standard systems that is worth looking at and listening to and learning from.
In any case, many of my non-technical but highly computer literate (does that make sense? think: 20-something history majors) friends know what DRM is, and if you told them there was DRM in the microprocessor to stop them from doing some task that they might want to do... they would choose an alternative option.
Are you denying the fact that you consume? Perhaps you are a producer who has evolved beyond the point of needing to consume anything?
I, for one welcome, our new over-production overlord, WK2. May his DNA defeat my own consumer DNA in the evolutionary battle for galactic supremacy.
The Betamax/VHS analogy to standard/DRM'd processors is interesting, but the argument fails because of user perseption. Most users of Betamax/VHS didn't see the difference in quality of one format over the other, however standard end-users see the difference between a computer that won't play media content that isn't downloaded through "approved" channels and one that will.
And if they DON'T see the difference, burn them an infringing copy of a movie and bring it over to their house. Watch it fail to play. Say, "Oh, shoot. You got a Corporation Locked Down computer. Hell, that's too bad." And then show them how not to make the same mistake again, by teaching them that marketing baloney like "Plays for Sure" needs to be avoided. Give them the phone number to call Intel/AMD to complain. Have them call Dell and demand to exchange it for a "standard" system.
Believe it or not, most people will know the difference between standard and DRM'd processors, once they see it with their own eyes and decide that they don't like it.
Also, as far as Intel/AMD switching... get real. AMD would get such a hard-on if Intel decided only to produce DRM'd hardware. The CEO of AMD would say, "You mean, we don't have to try anymore? We get to raise prices and serve a new niche of users who demand exactly what we are already making?" If this actually happened, AMD would literally be the corporate version of a wet dream.
That being said, AMD did do this. :(
Did you intentionally mess up the line breaks? Because if I had mod points you would have gotten +1 Funny for incomprehensible code and +1 insightful for the real crux of your joke.
Quit your job. Marry a trophy wife. Let her go to work to support you. Girls these days have good careers with affirmative action. They are smart and perky and idealistic and independent and they've been through college during a time that embraces sex and pornography (because of the widespread use of the internet).
Plus, you'll get a tax write-off for being married, and you'll join that glorious 15% bracket.
Before continuing the argument, can we state that neither of us is that concerned about money on a month to month basis? I am not. You make more than twice as me, so you should not be either. My arguments mainly apply to those makings half of what I make or less. These people are, I believe, overtaxed.
No, you should be paying $50k per year and be happy with your scarce budget of $10k per month. There are A LOT of people who have to survive on less than that much per quarter, but the stories about CEOs, professional athletes, businessmen, and actors were earn $20-100 Million per year are who I would stick with the highest taxes. Your paltry 33% range of $160k to $350k is comfortable, but I would progress it up a bit (40%?). I would stick a bracket in the $350k to 2.5M range and hit them with 50% (the budget of $15k to 100k per month is fair). I would add a bracket from $2.5M to 20M for 60% (a paltry 83k to 666k budget per month). Then 70% for everyone above $20M.
A real PROGRESSIVE tax and not a tax that jumps from 15% for somebody at the poverty level to 25% for most professionals to 35% for the insanely rich.
I mean, this is *my* own idiot ramblings, and doesn't reflect any specific campaign promises by Obama or Clinton... but I think you will find that their numbers (if they even have numbers that are published) are going to be more agreeable to you than you think.
Remember, the goal of the government is security... and that includes guaranteeing the all citizens will have enough resources to live comfortably so that they are not driven to crime. Part of reducing crime, is reducing taxes on the poor OR funding social welfare programs.
But, I agree with you on one thing. We shouldn't be paying (or going into debt for) the war we are currently in. An administration that saves us that expense would be a boon.
Let me clarify... I implied that *special* malice should be directed towards the RIAA. *Regular* malice should be directed towards Sony BMG and their ilk.
I personally direct my malice towards them by not buying any music from the RIAA member companies, and by advocating alternatives.
Did you miss where I quoted his sarcastic comment and rationalized it? Or did you simply feel the need to re-rationalize my own point? Well, you are correct. Nobody earning more than $100 Billion dollars per year would be compelled to continue earning if his take home pay were on $1 Billion.
That being said, anybody earning that much is cheating the system somehow...
What's more to the point, how can you compare a progressive tax in a capitalist economy to communism? If somebody DID earn $100 Billion and he had to give 99% of it up to benefit the rest of us.... and then we all made within 1% of $1 Billion as our annual income (i.e. between $990 Million and $1.1 Billion) then I would agree with you. But *most* people earn 0.005% of $1 Billion, and that hardly meshes with the communist economic ideal that everybody is entitled to the same amount of resources. Thus, you are 99.995% wrong with your analysis.
Do you earn $100 Billion dollars a year? I think you could probably get by with only $1 Billion of those dollars.
Obama (and Clinton and Edwards) actually have been vocal about fairer taxes for the middle class ($40-90k per year). Check the taxes for the years between 1930 and 1980 and notice the trend that has become of the "Top Bracket"). To think that the average person pays 2 hours out of every 8 hours of his or her workday (25%) to the federal government is kind of sad. Make it 1/8th for the average person and let people who have money for $3 Million houses and luxury yachts make up the difference.
Excellent points! Simple and straightforward pricing would let customers make informed choices. Keep in mind, though, that most customers are not knowledgeable enough to make informed choices. According to the statistic that 5% of users use 90% of the bandwidth... I would guess that 95% of users do NOT know how to make an informed choice, and I doubt Comcast/TimeWarner has set a high priority to try to save *them* money of each monthly bill.
Also, wouldn't it be nice if they set prices based on what it costs them to run their business, rather then through some market-directed, arbitrary number that is colluded with based on the rest of service providers? Their business essentially powers and maintain the connections between racks of routers spread in data centers throughout the country. There are probably tens of thousands of routers within the infrastructure, but you only need 2 or 3 people at each site to make sure they stay up. Tack the expense of a customer service business into the mix, and they could probably remain profitable by charging $5-10 per customer per month. That is what they should be charging.
The RIAA is a trade group, and it wouldn't surprise me if they had some kind of power/influence written into all the contracts they administer to control where royalties are paid.
They do have some goals, which are not *all* related to litigation.
So you see, they do lots of things besides sue their customers.
The RIAA represents the big four and many smaller record companies. You shouldn't direct any special malice against Sony BMG... but identify songs by RIAA artists and then use your own judgment.
I actually prefer searching for songs that are distributed under Creative Commons-style licenses, as these are often pretty high quality and always free-and-clear of all litigation worries.
The last major release of the kernel was 18-Dec-2003. Linus has said that he doesn't expect to ever roll a 2.8 version. As far as major changes go, the kernel is solid.
I am not going to check, but I think you'll find something similar if you check apache. I am betting that the famous webserver is solid enough where they don't update much.
Firefox/OpenOffice/Gimp on the other hand all need to keep adding features and improving themselves to provide users with enjoyable experiences. If you are interested, you can look through Mozillas Issue Tracker and find bugs to discuss. The guys behind that site are great... and I got help from them while I was setting up a Mozilla Tinderbox installation to use on a company project years ago. Definitely still Bazaar-style.
In between 10 or 20 years, all the productivity software will be so stable that it will virtually never change. In your words, it will be like a Cathedral... but it won't be because every Community College in the country will be able to teach a course on Monolithic Kernels and dig into the Linux code as an example. The nature of the Cathedral does not embrace the sharing of secrets in this manner. Information is safeguarded so that power can be preserved. The Bazaar, on the other hand, has no secrets to the way they operate (only things that they haven't gotten around to writing adequate documentation for, yet).
The GPP could just be an anti-Roy Schestowitz zealot... but in general the posts (like his) which highlight particular individuals who have agendas to push are good. I like posts that have drawn this sort of attention to Twitter, to the point where "Twitter" is a tag associated with any story that he has submitted. This doesn't mean that Twitter's opinion is bad, it just means that there is a very specific Pro-Mac, Anti-Microsoft bias.
On the other hand, there are certain individuals who have opinions that have great power. Usually this comes from people who are influential and only share their opinions when it is important. I am thinking of people like Gates, Jobs, Linus, Lessig, and Woz. When these people talk, there is going to be an article. Then there are people who post here (on Slashdot) who have great opinions... I can think of John Carmack and Wil Wheaton off the top of my head.
So yes, knowing the bias of where a message comes from (and the money that paid for it) is an important part to understanding how to interpret the message.
A group of software authors who write code which will run on a system where there is a danger to human life if there is a failure is treated with as much or more scrutiny than doctors. Each release is reviewed, tested, and certified with formal processes and procedures. There have been failures that have resulted in the lose of life, but this is true of licensed and practicing doctors, too.
Other software authors who code financial systems, video games, and productivity tools are only as rigorous as their industry requires... and that turns into an economic argument. It doesn't make sense for EA Software to subject new developers for the Madden franchise to go through a licensing course that educates them in the rules of football, the structure of the video game code, the architecture of the game, and the processes used for developing the game. And let's face it... a software developer who is qualified to write code for NASA is probably NOT going to be appropriate to start coding next years Madden release.
Which begs the question, doctor's are licensed for specific parts of the body (optometrist, podiatrist, dentist, surgeon, neurologist, etc), so why shouldn't software engineers be licensed for different domains. Well, subtle differences within domains that would make it an industry-wide challenge for standardization. In the field of communications software, there are competing standards and the people who understand it well have been doing it for 20 or 30 years... which is something that can't be taught through a "licensing" class.
Add that to the fact that communications has changed immeasurably from 20 years ago, and you will have a good idea why there are no software licensing exams.
Agreed...
when in fact it is jobs, not entitlements, that help the poor.Based on that logic, Microsoft should take their half a billion dollars and (let's assume employees cost $100,000 each year) hire 5,000 more people to the workforce (which would be a boon for Washington). Or maybe that can give a $14k bonus to each of their 35,000 employees to help them make improvements to their houses and stimulate the Washington economy a bit more.
But honestly... Washington in general and Seattle in specific are not in need of economic stimulation. During a brief visit I made there a year ago... is seemed like public transportation and traffic were disasters... but other than that they were doing fine. The money probably would be better spent revitalizing Nevada (Reno is a mess, and supposedly the suburbs around Las Vegas are a little bit seedy).
That YouTube Hitler video was good. I like when he says, "At least I can still see the Patriots make history with a perfect season."
And in your other reply to me, you said "if the Giants can do the unthinkable." Well... I've been saying for about two months that the Patriots are a one dimension team (that dimension, being "Passing"). Ask Peyton Manning how great it was to have a one dimensional team in 2004. Sure, he got 49 TD passes in the regular season, but none in the second round of the playoffs and the Colts were beaten easily by the Patriots 20-3... to be knocked out of the playoffs.
So yeah... one dimensional teams are beatable.
Then again, hindsight is 20/20 and in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl I wouldn't have run my mouth to badly out of fear of embarrassment of being ultimately proved wrong. But I must say, being proved right is grand!
btw... real Giants fan here.
Of course, I'll probably get modded Flamebait again for talking Football on a "News for Nerds" site... so I will at least point out that I am typing this from a laptop running Ubuntu (you know, to appease the mods).
The Patriots had broken a rule that had recently been explicitly laid out by the league. (See article).
Matt Estrella, 26, a Patriots video assistant, was nabbed just before halftime of the Jets' 38-14 loss on opening day. He allegedly videotaped hand signals from the Jets' defensive coaches on the sideline, defying an edict from [NFL Commissioner] Goodell, who warned teams before the season that he wouldn't tolerate cheating. Several teams have suspected the Patriots of stealing signs. So did the Jets, thanks to Mangini.I hesitate to say that they have used illegal means to obtain signs throughout the season, but getting caught during a single game is enough for me to tack on the Barry-Bonds-style patented asterisk (*) onto their Perfect Season*. And c'mon... did they REALLY need to cheat against the Jets? The 4-12 Jets? You would think that wiser head couches would save their cheating for games against stronger teams.
If this is what your foot looks like, sir, then I suggest you seek the help of a professional foot doctor. Your egg-feet will scare the children.
So, ten years later, the identified threat turns out to be true, albeit moreso in the Office monopoly than on the OS. How quaint.
These documents acknowledged that free software products such as Linux were technologically competitive with some of Microsoft's products, and set out a strategy to combat them. The documents were embarrassing largely because they contradicted Microsoft's public pronouncements on the subject.I wonder if the "strategy" was DRM and to adopt uncooperative practices. I guess that didn't turn out so well...