The problem is that some journal subscriptions are getting so highly-priced that even institutions cannot afford to carry a full complement of the published literature. (Have you noticed the trend where there is an "institutional" price and a "personal" price for subscriptions? The first might be US$1000/year and the second might be US$600/year.)
This is certainly a problem for me. A month or two ago I was looking for a journal article from the mid-1970's (no online PDF that I could print out) and my institutional library did not have a hardcopy or microfilm. I had to make a formal request, that was time-consuming for me and the librarians involved in obtaining a copy of the article from a different library that had that particular journal.
It's scientists like me (and my work) that is impeded by the high subscription prices for scientific journals.
[Having served as a reviewer, gratis, I can tell you that the subscription money is not going directly into the peer-review process that helps to keep the journal quality high.]
At some point the inertia in the paper-driven scientific archival journals will start giving way to more online offerings where the search capabilities are superior anyway.
What could happen is the FBI/NSA randomly sniffs internet traffic. Anything they can't read, they track down the sender and check if he's approved for crypto- if not, then off to jail.
That'll catch the stupid terrorists, anyway.
The smart ones will use stego to put the encrypted data into high order bits on pictures of Aunt Tilly's cat.
As another poster so aptly put it: wiretapping was only an accidental byproduct of the old analog circuit-based phone system. Eavesdropping on voice communications was not such a convenient tool, nor should we expect such convenient tools to fall out of future technologies, any more than we expect political leaders of technologically advanced nuclear-armed countries to be paragons of wisdom.
Trying to force fit such a capability onto new technology is a stupid and futile exercise that will make life miserable for the 99.99% of the law abiding public while not impacting the 0.01% super bad guys they intend to thwart.
Believe me, if an economical and practical flying car were invented tomorrow, they'd insist there be an equivalent means for the police to stop such cars as the spiked belt provides for wheeled vehicles. Probably legislate that flying cars by equipped with automatic controls that limit elevation, can be remotely controlled by the police, whatever.
Linux will be ready for the desktop when it is as easy to install, run, and care for as carelessly as Windows users demand.
Since even Windows is not as easy to install, run and care for as carelessly as Windows users demand (how many happy camper careless Windows users do you know?), this would suggest strongly that Linux will never be ready for the desktop.
I think Linux is almost to the point where it will satisfy and frustrate computer users just about as well as Windows.
Linux desktop advocates need to aim higher than Windows - something along the lines of the Mac-like "just works" philosophy is a more admirable goal.
Trying to be fair-minded about updates and what we'll call minor rev level releases to the OS (remember all the waiting for Godot that occurred for Linux 2.4.0 and 2.6.0), I think it is a good thing if MS doesn't release SP2 until it feels comfortable that it's ready and secure.
The key difference, of course, is that knowledgeable and concerned XP sysadmins might want to expedite patches to their systems faster than MS would like and be willing to suffer other problems and risks that MS doesn't feel would be good for the general sysadmin population to experience.
Now, if the Windows source tree and nightly builds were available, then those admins would be free to update at their own risk, an option they don't have because the OS source must remain under proprietary lock and key.
No computer vendor in their right mind ought to hold much inventory in new computers with the expedited rate of depreciation that applies to them - I think it's gotta be even worse than cars or mobile homes.
Somewhere I recall a figure of 1.5% per week, but I"m not positive about that. But neither would I be surprised.
I had avoided fluffy classes in high school such as driver's ed, basket weaving and, yes, typing.
Then, as I started university I discovered that typing away on a terminal would really be more efficient if I had some QWERTY skills.
So I specifically enrolled in a typing class just long enough to get up to about 35 wpm before stopping (and technically failing the course).
But I got what I wanted. I needed to learn how to do keyboarding so that computer programming and creating documents on the computer was tolerable. I've hardly ever touched the IBM Selectric since the class.
Fortunately, I've never had quite the frequent need arise to learn how to 10-key, but I've been impressed by the people who do know this skill.
At some point I might try to become proficient with the Handi-Key chorded input; it seems like a great way for one-handed input, especially for small devices, in meetings, riding in cars, etc.
Most patents end up in the hands of large corporations that milk them for revenue streams as IBM learned how to do and as Microsoft is now trying to do.
It typically costs too much for little guys to file patents.
It typically costs too much for little guys to defend patents.
The public takes it in the shorts because of the lengthy period of time that the protection exists. What was appropriate for the 18th century with textile mill secrets is not appropriate in the 21st century. Building improvements upon an existing invention gets entangled in licensing issues, something the little inventor is ill-equipped to afford.
Most little guys are happy with some money and some fame. They create because they feel compelled to follow through on a great idea and it is good for society to encourage this. But the idea the current patent legislation protects small time inventors that hit it big is as quaint as the idea that agricultural subsidies protect small farmers. It's the big corporations that receive the greatest largesse from such interventions in the free market.
IMHO patent protections should be cut back from 17 years to something more like 17 months.
Re:Can arrow key history be like Matlab's?
on
Bash 3.0 Released
·
· Score: 1
Speaking of history:
Does anyone have a good solution for how to handle multiple different histories for different terminal windows running bash at the same time?
However, a receipt that was an encoding of the vote record encrypted with the voting machine's secret key
Exactly.
A one-way hash that uniquely expresses the vote profile, the time, place and machine used to cast the vote.
The printed receipt will only offer superficial evidence that the possessor voted, but not for whom they voted.
There is no need to enable anyone and everyone to reverse the process to determine the candidates that the voter selected.
Only that it should be possible for recounts to occur, with optical scanning (just like lottery tickets!) to verify that a particular transaction took place at a particular place and time and machine, but without identifying the name of the voter.
Only if the voter shows up with his printed receipt at the official recount location should it be possible to reveal the vote selection he made.
But then, I love that autoconf users have already built up a library of m4 macros for the typical kludges and different behaviors so that I don't have to do it again myself.
Yes, autoconf sucks, but I haven't seen a better system that doesn't sacrifice portability.
Now an autoconf that might check/etc/config.cache.xml or ~/.config.cache.xml might be an interesting improvement...
That's the magic of it all... it's not a bluff. If Microsoft doesn't actually cough up the serious discounts, the Linux card gets played.
Errr, it's only Not A Bluff if the user is willing to play the game to the end.
That means, especially now that this tactic is receiving publicity, that users will have to show that they are serious about Linux deployment. That means investing some effort into really testing out Linux in their environment.
The only way the Linux card gets played is if the player is willing to play it.
Otherwise, it's like showing up at the box office hoping that saying "Fandango!" will give you an instant discount.
How about "and the engineers who built and understand it more than anyone else in the world."
Sun can't own Linux, but owning SuSE and having all those employees would give them more credibility as a Linux vendor.
The weird part is that for years Sun has squandered its Unix expertise in the enterprise, shoving all its resources into Java and SPARC hardware instead.
But then, Sun has a culture and mindset for high-end quality that makes it hard for them to transition from "UNIX that costs more than Windows" to "UNIX that costs less than Windows".
He won a Fields medal, which is like the mathematical equivalent of a Nobel Prize.
As an old math prof liked to point out, the reason there is no Nobel Prize in mathematics was that Alfred Nobel was irate at a mathematician for stealing his mistress.
In most employment situations, doing what you want to do instead of what you've been instructed to do is a terminable offense.
Yep, very dangerous.
Worse, too, is that even the Insightful Programmer that automagically anticipates What Will Delight the Customer and implements the best solution, the right thing, in contraindication to directions, may well not be discovered and rewarded in time!
Many is the time you find yourself using great stuff produced by people who left the organization long before the greatness of their work was discovered because they felt unappreciated.
Not that they will fail to detect a foreign planted bug in some fighterjet, but that OUR planted bugs will be found by China/India/Pakastan/Iran/etc... This would also seem to explain our government's looking the other way with regard to the Microsoft settlement.
As a domestic U.S. user of Microsoft software I must say this "friendly fire" has been getting way out of hand!
Western European capitals and observatories have established what we conventionally use as longitudinal merdians.
But I have to wonder if there aren't any natural meridians that would be less politically or culturally oriended.
For example, the peak of Everest/Chomolungma, the center of mass of the land masses, or even an extra-terrestrial marker in star constellations at a specific time?
Skiers I know have sometimes gone heli-skiing, getting the copter to drop them onto otherwise hard-to-access mountains with pristine deep powder.
There's probably some surfers that have Been There-Done That ® on Diamond Head in Hawaii that would pay for a chance to be dropped down onto a 25-meter wave.
If the ESA satellite data can be used to find the waves before they disappear, some dudes could be riding some truly radical waves.
The organizations fear that computer enthusiasts would capture those programs and begin trading them online in the same way that millions of music files are shared daily, which record companies have said has cut into their profit.
But "enthusiasts" haven't done that yet on any widespread basis. Nor has a good case been made that music file trading has cut into profits compared with the situation of no file trading.
The solution is not to hobble the technology (which is what killed DAT in the United States), but to prosecute specific instances of violations of the law (where users assuming the right to distribute copyrighted material to others where they don't own the copyright).
The ability to watch programs outside the home should not be an issue by itself.
Lots of people with RV's bring recorded shows with them on vacation that they've recorded on their VCR's at home. It's natural that they'd want to be able to see those shows somewhere different than where they've recorded it.
Basically, this Digital Bill of Rights summarizes a reasonable view and does not prevent copyright owners from pursuing legal action against individuals that violate their legally-protected rights as copyright owners.
Whether the current laws concerning copyrights and patents are appropriate for society is a separate, larger issue.
Slashdot Mirror
...only the scientific community does.
The problem is that some journal subscriptions are getting so highly-priced that even institutions cannot afford to carry a full complement of the published literature. (Have you noticed the trend where there is an "institutional" price and a "personal" price for subscriptions? The first might be US$1000/year and the second might be US$600/year.)
This is certainly a problem for me. A month or two ago I was looking for a journal article from the mid-1970's (no online PDF that I could print out) and my institutional library did not have a hardcopy or microfilm. I had to make a formal request, that was time-consuming for me and the librarians involved in obtaining a copy of the article from a different library that had that particular journal.
It's scientists like me (and my work) that is impeded by the high subscription prices for scientific journals.
[Having served as a reviewer, gratis, I can tell you that the subscription money is not going directly into the peer-review process that helps to keep the journal quality high.]
At some point the inertia in the paper-driven scientific archival journals will start giving way to more online offerings where the search capabilities are superior anyway.
What could happen is the FBI/NSA randomly sniffs internet traffic. Anything they can't read, they track down the sender and check if he's approved for crypto- if not, then off to jail.
That'll catch the stupid terrorists, anyway.
The smart ones will use stego to put the encrypted data into high order bits on pictures of Aunt Tilly's cat.
As another poster so aptly put it: wiretapping was only an accidental byproduct of the old analog circuit-based phone system. Eavesdropping on voice communications was not such a convenient tool, nor should we expect such convenient tools to fall out of future technologies, any more than we expect political leaders of technologically advanced nuclear-armed countries to be paragons of wisdom.
Trying to force fit such a capability onto new technology is a stupid and futile exercise that will make life miserable for the 99.99% of the law abiding public while not impacting the 0.01% super bad guys they intend to thwart.
Believe me, if an economical and practical flying car were invented tomorrow, they'd insist there be an equivalent means for the police to stop such cars as the spiked belt provides for wheeled vehicles. Probably legislate that flying cars by equipped with automatic controls that limit elevation, can be remotely controlled by the police, whatever.
Linux will be ready for the desktop when it is as easy to install, run, and care for as carelessly as Windows users demand.
Since even Windows is not as easy to install, run and care for as carelessly as Windows users demand (how many happy camper careless Windows users do you know?), this would suggest strongly that Linux will never be ready for the desktop.
I think Linux is almost to the point where it will satisfy and frustrate computer users just about as well as Windows.
Linux desktop advocates need to aim higher than Windows - something along the lines of the Mac-like "just works" philosophy is a more admirable goal.
Trying to be fair-minded about updates and what we'll call minor rev level releases to the OS (remember all the waiting for Godot that occurred for Linux 2.4.0 and 2.6.0), I think it is a good thing if MS doesn't release SP2 until it feels comfortable that it's ready and secure.
The key difference, of course, is that knowledgeable and concerned XP sysadmins might want to expedite patches to their systems faster than MS would like and be willing to suffer other problems and risks that MS doesn't feel would be good for the general sysadmin population to experience.
Now, if the Windows source tree and nightly builds were available, then those admins would be free to update at their own risk, an option they don't have because the OS source must remain under proprietary lock and key.
No computer vendor in their right mind ought to hold much inventory in new computers with the expedited rate of depreciation that applies to them - I think it's gotta be even worse than cars or mobile homes.
Somewhere I recall a figure of 1.5% per week, but I"m not positive about that. But neither would I be surprised.
I had avoided fluffy classes in high school such as driver's ed, basket weaving and, yes, typing.
Then, as I started university I discovered that typing away on a terminal would really be more efficient if I had some QWERTY skills.
So I specifically enrolled in a typing class just long enough to get up to about 35 wpm before stopping (and technically failing the course).
But I got what I wanted. I needed to learn how to do keyboarding so that computer programming and creating documents on the computer was tolerable. I've hardly ever touched the IBM Selectric since the class.
Fortunately, I've never had quite the frequent need arise to learn how to 10-key, but I've been impressed by the people who do know this skill.
At some point I might try to become proficient with the Handi-Key chorded input; it seems like a great way for one-handed input, especially for small devices, in meetings, riding in cars, etc.
The problem isn't software patents.
Not in principle, but in practice.
Practically,
IMHO patent protections should be cut back from 17 years to something more like 17 months.
Speaking of history:
However, a receipt that was an encoding of the vote record encrypted with the voting machine's secret key
Exactly.
A one-way hash that uniquely expresses the vote profile, the time, place and machine used to cast the vote.
The printed receipt will only offer superficial evidence that the possessor voted, but not for whom they voted.
There is no need to enable anyone and everyone to reverse the process to determine the candidates that the voter selected.
Only that it should be possible for recounts to occur, with optical scanning (just like lottery tickets!) to verify that a particular transaction took place at a particular place and time and machine, but without identifying the name of the voter.
Only if the voter shows up with his printed receipt at the official recount location should it be possible to reveal the vote selection he made.
reiser4 is the first filesystem where search path can be done through plugins
So, this looks incredible.
But what if I'm scared about the plug-ins failing in a bad way?
Are poorly-written and poorly-tested plug-ins going to be the practical demise of ReiserFS4?
I think everyone can agree that there's been problems with some of the high level work at Microsoft.
I'm looking forward to seeing more global diversity in the MSFT CxO positions ASAP.
Instead I am just building my own detection code
But then, I love that autoconf users have already built up a library of m4 macros for the typical kludges and different behaviors so that I don't have to do it again myself.
Yes, autoconf sucks, but I haven't seen a better system that doesn't sacrifice portability.
Now an autoconf that might check /etc/config.cache.xml or ~/.config.cache.xml might be an interesting improvement...
based on the many eyes who see the check-in comments, someone would complain if they saw their stolen code.
Such an appearance in a public venue would seem to help establish claims of pre-existing prior art if they appeared sufficiently early.
Or, at the very least, such appearance would require owners of the technology to object to its appearance quickly "or forever hold thy peace".
</ianal>
That's the magic of it all
Errr, it's only Not A Bluff if the user is willing to play the game to the end.
That means, especially now that this tactic is receiving publicity, that users will have to show that they are serious about Linux deployment. That means investing some effort into really testing out Linux in their environment.
The only way the Linux card gets played is if the player is willing to play it.
Otherwise, it's like showing up at the box office hoping that saying "Fandango!" will give you an instant discount.
How about "and the engineers who built and understand it more than anyone else in the world."
Sun can't own Linux, but owning SuSE and having all those employees would give them more credibility as a Linux vendor.
The weird part is that for years Sun has squandered its Unix expertise in the enterprise, shoving all its resources into Java and SPARC hardware instead.
But then, Sun has a culture and mindset for high-end quality that makes it hard for them to transition from "UNIX that costs more than Windows" to "UNIX that costs less than Windows".
You went to the prom??? What are you doing reading Slashdot?
I'm pretty miffed, too, because I didn't get my robotic girlfriend built in time for prom night.
He won a Fields medal, which is like the mathematical equivalent of a Nobel Prize.
As an old math prof liked to point out, the reason there is no Nobel Prize in mathematics was that Alfred Nobel was irate at a mathematician for stealing his mistress.
GNU compliant systems proliferating as they are, they're no longer the rebellious and oppressed minority.
If anything, TOG should start advertising itself as
..UNG - It's not just a noise you emit when slugged in the solar plexus!
In most employment situations, doing what you want to do instead of what you've been instructed to do is a terminable offense.
Yep, very dangerous.
Worse, too, is that even the Insightful Programmer that automagically anticipates What Will Delight the Customer and implements the best solution, the right thing, in contraindication to directions, may well not be discovered and rewarded in time!
Many is the time you find yourself using great stuff produced by people who left the organization long before the greatness of their work was discovered because they felt unappreciated.
A damn shame, but it does happen.
Not that they will fail to detect a foreign planted bug in some fighterjet, but that OUR planted bugs will be found by China/India/Pakastan/Iran/etc... This would also seem to explain our government's looking the other way with regard to the Microsoft settlement.
As a domestic U.S. user of Microsoft software I must say this "friendly fire" has been getting way out of hand!
severe standards of sexual behavior
Seems clear enough to me.
People "screw around" with Linux and are "getting screwed by" Microsoft, so meeting the criterion needed to qualify for the double standard.
Western European capitals and observatories have established what we conventionally use as longitudinal merdians.
But I have to wonder if there aren't any natural meridians that would be less politically or culturally oriended.
For example, the peak of Everest/Chomolungma, the center of mass of the land masses, or even an extra-terrestrial marker in star constellations at a specific time?
Skiers I know have sometimes gone heli-skiing, getting the copter to drop them onto otherwise hard-to-access mountains with pristine deep powder.
There's probably some surfers that have Been There-Done That ® on Diamond Head in Hawaii that would pay for a chance to be dropped down onto a 25-meter wave.
If the ESA satellite data can be used to find the waves before they disappear, some dudes could be riding some truly radical waves.
The organizations fear that computer enthusiasts would capture those programs and begin trading them online in the same way that millions of music files are shared daily, which record companies have said has cut into their profit.
But "enthusiasts" haven't done that yet on any widespread basis. Nor has a good case been made that music file trading has cut into profits compared with the situation of no file trading.
The solution is not to hobble the technology (which is what killed DAT in the United States), but to prosecute specific instances of violations of the law (where users assuming the right to distribute copyrighted material to others where they don't own the copyright).
The ability to watch programs outside the home should not be an issue by itself.
Lots of people with RV's bring recorded shows with them on vacation that they've recorded on their VCR's at home. It's natural that they'd want to be able to see those shows somewhere different than where they've recorded it.
Basically, this Digital Bill of Rights summarizes a reasonable view and does not prevent copyright owners from pursuing legal action against individuals that violate their legally-protected rights as copyright owners.
Whether the current laws concerning copyrights and patents are appropriate for society is a separate, larger issue.
Trippi ended up making a little over $100,000 for his work
Perks! Don't forget the perks!
Free travel on buses throughout New Hampshire and Iowa!
Food from the fine establishments along the road!
And I won't even begin to mention the groupies - the crowds of hotties are almost like being at Slashdot!