This issue is exactly the reason that I am no longer an IEEE member. I wrote a paper that was accepted into one of their journals, which I thought was great (it was my first journal-published paper). I didn't think it was great when they sent me a copyright assignment form. That's right, they wanted the copyright to the work, not just permission to publish it. I would no longer have the freedom to even photocopy my own paper or put a copy on my web site. I declined to publish it in the journal and have not been an IEEE member ever since.
I have published a few papers in restrictive journals since that time, but that's because I was not the primary author and the major authors had different priorities than I -- academic careers, for example!
It's sad to see these organizations stray from their mission for furthering the art and science and instead becoming a business. Don't get me wrong, businesses are great for some kinds of human and economic activities, but federations of scientists should not be profit-oriented because the profit motive conflicts with the mission of science that they allegedly embrace.
The paper is on my LibStroke web site. It's admittedly not one of the most significant works of scientific literature of the past century, but I felt that it was useful enough to people interested in LibStroke that it shouldn't rot on dead tree or be available to IEEE union members only.
Current status is that it is fully integrated into FVWM2, gEDA, and a number of other apps. It has also been ported to several languages including tcl, Python, Java, and the original C.
In my, uh, copious spare time, I am working on releasing the newest version which, thanks to the hard work of fellow hackers, is the GNOME-aware version.
The development philosophy is to keep LibStroke a small library that can be built upon to add stroke regcognition to apps.
Alternative interfaces are something that interests me. When total bandwidth is limited by disease or trauma, I think it's a good strategy to look at the axes of motion or expression that still have full bandwidth. Certainly, speech is one route. Another is fine motor control and timing, which can be used a'la morse code key. I wrote one interface that can be used to do a limited amount of command interpretation for someone with a 2-degree plane of mobility. (Mouse, or finger on a touchpad, or pointer on screen.)
This looks really cool! Now if you had an interface that allowed the use of a paddle keyer -- maybe going into the sound card -- that would really fly.
This is actually something I've thought about a lot. I'm involved in an Open Source security company (www.Protectix.com) and we produce network security appliances. It turns out that in this business, the licenses and warrantees specifically say that the company is not liable for basically *anything*. Obviously, that's suboptimal for the consumer, but in today's litigious society it seems that everyone specifically disclaims all "fitness for purpose", etc implied warrantees. There are insurance companies that are getting into the intrusion and loss insuring business, but their number crunchers are having a hard time coming up with a reasonable model for loss probabilities and amounts due to lack for actuarial data on this sort of thing. I think that some day you may see security companies offering an insurance policy along with their service, underwritten by the big insurance houses. That is likely some years away and will initially be quite pricy, IMHO.
This is not to say that companies don't care about the customer's security! The security business is reputation-dependant and companies will do everything they can to make sure the customer (and their reputation) is defended.
I couldn't agree more! I have been using a similar setup for many years. It was a trick I learned from the sysadmins at Intel who had to manage multiple version of packages on multiple platforms for the whole site (thousands of engineers). Stow scales.
Personally, I think that encouraging binary packages is a Bad Idea for the Free Software community.
FWIW, here's the simple script that I have used for years:
The way to fix this problem, quite simply, is to never store the credit card numbers on a public server, or for that matter, any machine that is connected to the net. Before anyone whines that this is too hard to do, let me tell you -- I do things this way.
There are a number of other bonehead things that many e-commerce sites to that are IMHO grossly negligent. The big ones:
home page is unnecessarily on a machine that has scripts or cgi enabled -- strip down Apache or use 'publicfile', a secure static content server
web server does double duty as FTP server, email server, name server, godknowswhatelse
Jeopardizing our future by alienating a corporation? Get real. Free Software doesn't need corporate sponsorship to be a success. It already is a success! Break out of your feudal mentality.
There is one way to solve this. Start your own university. Oxford was started 800+ years ago by two kids who got kicked out of a Paris Uni. It's time to start an Internet University. No fees, no registration, no entrance requirements, no BS, and no corporate university restrictions on knowledge. Mark
I dunno if they mentioned this in their lame subscription-required 'zine, but the first disk array that Google! ran offa was built half out of legos. It was a work of mad genius.
DEVO rox. The EZ listening disc, was, IMHO, made for programming. No lyrics, just a backgroundish version of their hits. Anybody know what DEVO is up to these days? I heard they were writing tracks for computer games... Mark
I was present at the PC Week/Mindcraft setup^H^H^H^H^H"rematch", and met Pankaj. Let's just say that we have a difference of opinion when it comes to Linux and Free Software. I think it's a great thing. Pankaj thinks it's wrong to write Free Software. I'm not suprised to find the deck stacked a little unevenly in this 'experiment' as well.
Mark "Young Turk" Willey
BTW, if you're concerned about Linux security and Free Software in general and want to help do something about it, drop me a line. I've decided to dedicate the next part of life to this endeavor.
StarTAC phone (VM calls pager when message left) Pilot w/ alpha pager built in Digital Camera (Don't usually carry it) Schrade ToughTool (like Leatherman) keys to Mailboxes ETC "office space:)" Amateur Radio, 2meter band handheld
Not bad for less than a kilobuck. And essential for one who has a "virtual office"!
And you don't want to know what I keep in my van. Let's just say it's Y2K compliant.;-)
This is what you get when large government-ish organizations filled to the brim with non-technical politicos have the opportunity to pass laws and make policy. Is anyone suprised? I really wasn't aware that there was a problem, anyhow. DNS needs to go anyhow. It should be replaced by strong cooperative protocols, NOT centralized or (even worse) nationalized structures. The people better come up with a solution before the governments do.
Distributing binary-only drivers is like keeping people dependent on welfare. Oopening the source is like helping them get a job. Guess which model makes life better for everyone in the end?
If they release binary-only, the proper thing to do is write your own open source version.
Slashdot Mirror
This issue is exactly the reason that I am no longer an IEEE member. I wrote a paper that was accepted into one of their journals, which I thought was great (it was my first journal-published paper). I didn't think it was great when they sent me a copyright assignment form. That's right, they wanted the copyright to the work, not just permission to publish it. I would no longer have the freedom to even photocopy my own paper or put a copy on my web site. I declined to publish it in the journal and have not been an IEEE member ever since.
I have published a few papers in restrictive journals since that time, but that's because I was not the primary author and the major authors had different priorities than I -- academic careers, for example!
It's sad to see these organizations stray from their mission for furthering the art and science and instead becoming a business. Don't get me wrong, businesses are great for some kinds of human and economic activities, but federations of scientists should not be profit-oriented because the profit motive conflicts with the mission of science that they allegedly embrace.
The paper is on my LibStroke web site. It's admittedly not one of the most significant works of scientific literature of the past century, but I felt that it was useful enough to people interested in LibStroke that it shouldn't rot on dead tree or be available to IEEE union members only.
The guy (formerly) at Purdue would be me. :)
The project is LibStroke.
Current status is that it is fully integrated into FVWM2, gEDA, and a number of other apps. It has also been ported to several languages including tcl, Python, Java, and the original C.
In my, uh, copious spare time, I am working on releasing the newest version which, thanks to the hard work of fellow hackers, is the GNOME-aware version.
The development philosophy is to keep LibStroke a small library that can be built upon to add stroke regcognition to apps.
Alternative interfaces are something that interests me. When total bandwidth is limited by disease or trauma, I think it's a good strategy to look at the axes of motion or expression that still have full bandwidth. Certainly, speech is one route. Another is fine motor control and timing, which can be used a'la morse code key. I wrote one interface that can be used to do a limited amount of command interpretation for someone with a 2-degree plane of mobility. (Mouse, or finger on a touchpad, or pointer on screen.)
LibStroke
This looks really cool! Now if you had an interface that allowed the use of a paddle keyer -- maybe going into the sound card -- that would really fly.
Mark
This is actually something I've thought about a lot. I'm involved in an Open Source security company (www.Protectix.com) and we produce network security appliances. It turns out that in this business, the licenses and warrantees specifically say that the company is not liable for basically *anything*. Obviously, that's suboptimal for the consumer, but in today's litigious society it seems that everyone specifically disclaims all "fitness for purpose", etc implied warrantees. There are insurance companies that are getting into the intrusion and loss insuring business, but their number crunchers are having a hard time coming up with a reasonable model for loss probabilities and amounts due to lack for actuarial data on this sort of thing. I think that some day you may see security companies offering an insurance policy along with their service, underwritten by the big insurance houses. That is likely some years away and will initially be quite pricy, IMHO.
This is not to say that companies don't care about the customer's security! The security business is reputation-dependant and companies will do everything they can to make sure the customer (and their reputation) is defended.
Mark
I couldn't agree more! I have been using a similar setup for many years. It was a trick I learned from the sysadmins at Intel who had to manage multiple version of packages on multiple platforms for the whole site (thousands of engineers). Stow scales.
Personally, I think that encouraging binary packages is a Bad Idea for the Free Software community.
FWIW, here's the simple script that I have used for years:
#!/bin/bash /usr/local/units/$1 /usr/local/{} \; -exec chmod 755 /usr/local/{} \; /usr/local/units/$1 /usr/local/{} \; -exec ln -s /usr/local/units/$1/{} /usr/local/{} \; /usr/local/{} \; -exec ln -s /usr/local/units/$1/{} /usr/local/{} \;
Scary, eh? I have run it on NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Linux. I'm sure STOW is better and am fetching it now.cd
find . -type d -exec mkdir
cd
find . -type f -exec rm -f
find . -type l -exec rm -f
The way to fix this problem, quite simply, is to never store the credit card numbers on a public server, or for that matter, any machine that is connected to the net. Before anyone whines that this is too hard to do, let me tell you -- I do things this way.
There are a number of other bonehead things that many e-commerce sites to that are IMHO grossly negligent. The big ones:
Security: It's not that hard.
Mark
Check out E-Gold. You can trade in gold, electronically. You can use it, among other places, at the Anonymizer.com.
Mark
Jeopardizing our future by alienating a corporation? Get real. Free Software doesn't need corporate sponsorship to be a success. It already is a success! Break out of your feudal mentality.
Mark
There is one way to solve this. Start your own university. Oxford was started 800+ years ago by two kids who got kicked out of a Paris Uni. It's time to start an Internet University. No fees, no registration, no entrance requirements, no BS, and no corporate university restrictions on knowledge. Mark
I dunno if they mentioned this in their lame subscription-required 'zine, but the first disk array that Google! ran offa was built half out of legos. It was a work of mad genius.
Mark
"Open Source Security -- Demand It."
DEVO rox. The EZ listening disc, was, IMHO, made for programming. No lyrics, just a backgroundish version of their hits. Anybody know what DEVO is up to these days? I heard they were writing tracks for computer games... Mark
I was present at the PC Week/Mindcraft setup^H^H^H^H^H"rematch", and met Pankaj. Let's just say that we have a difference of opinion when it comes to Linux and Free Software. I think it's a great thing. Pankaj thinks it's wrong to write Free Software. I'm not suprised to find the deck stacked a little unevenly in this 'experiment' as well.
Mark "Young Turk" Willey
BTW, if you're concerned about Linux security and Free Software in general and want to help do something about it, drop me a line. I've decided to dedicate the next part of life to this endeavor.
Let's see...
StarTAC phone (VM calls pager when message left) :)"
Pilot w/ alpha pager built in
Digital Camera (Don't usually carry it)
Schrade ToughTool (like Leatherman)
keys to Mailboxes ETC "office space
Amateur Radio, 2meter band handheld
Not bad for less than a kilobuck. And essential for one who has a "virtual office"!
And you don't want to know what I keep in my van. Let's just say it's Y2K compliant. ;-)
Mark
ETLA Technical Services
This is what you get when large government-ish organizations filled to the brim with non-technical politicos have the opportunity to pass laws and make policy. Is anyone suprised? I really wasn't aware that there was a problem, anyhow. DNS needs to go anyhow. It should be replaced by strong cooperative protocols, NOT centralized or (even worse) nationalized structures. The people better come up with a solution before the governments do.
Mark
see article
Distributing binary-only drivers is like keeping
people dependent on welfare. Oopening the source
is like helping them get a job. Guess which model
makes life better for everyone in the end?
If they release binary-only, the proper thing to do is write your own open source version.
Mark
15 Watts. 15 Watts. 15 Watts.
Run it on a battery all day long.
Put it in your car.
15 Watts. 15 Watts. 15 Watts.
Just needs USB, so you can hook all the new cool peripherals to it, and lots of them...
Mark
I'll buy when they release USB for the Netwinder. The *day* they release USB for the Netwinder!
Mark