Posts by Martin Owens
431 posts • joined Friday 11th August 2006 14:06 GMT
The Trolls
Rah! I love patents, they tasty! Watch as I jump up from under a bridge to ask you for money on my 'not a monomoply at all patent monopoly grant'.
So a troll foreman convinced a jury to vote in favour of a troll company and a troll hack at El Register wrote a trolling bait piece about it in order to get more enraged groklaw geeks sending him bits of straw through the post. Only 3 more articles and he can make a whole man out of it!
Patents are bad, overly brought tosh that no civilised society should accept. There was no real argument (let alone proof) in this article that we should think any different, just bare faced assertions. So I don't see why I should try any harder really in my comment.
Re: The food in France is wonderful!
Just like in Paris, if you go into a cheeky tourist trap in London, you're going to get the tourist food imaginable.
But I've worked in several cities and they all have the same rule: know what you want and find the smallest place with the largest number of locals (locals here means people who live there, not people who sound like they're from there. So Chinese people in a London restaurant probably means your near Leicester Sq)
As for British food... it's gotten a LOT better in the past 30 years, I remember when SPAM was the hight of cooking. But now? I think that if you don't like British food it's because your tastes aren't developed enough in those areas, and not just because the food is actually bad.
Re: re: Performance of open source drivers
There is a logical and rational reason to want open source drivers for your video card. But if we're talking about blinkered, lets talk about all the practicalists who care nothing for the computer they'll have tomorrow and only for the computer they have today. It's clearly short sighted when development efficiency depends on openess of the complexity of software today.
Now economically speaking, the linux nouvou driver is a bloody miracle. Not only do we have drivers for nvidia cards based on the work of very few developers, but their skills are rare, expensive and complex. The linux project has to compete for these rare skills against the development of all sorts of proprietary dead ends. All in all, they've been hacking at nouvou for only a few years and already the increased efficiency of development is evident.
Eye Roll
The price-fixed game of monopoly is over, now we just have to dig the law back out of the crazy.
Musician whines about inability to earn money for nothing, dog bites man, more at eleven.
Re: Exactly the course the new gov.uk beta site is following
Depends if UK gov is using wordpress code (open source) or hooking into wordpress.com services.
I wouldn't beat on the Gov, they don't have any technical people. not a single competent CTO, no technologists in leadership positions or civil service positions. And certainly no MPs or council men. Is it any wonder they treat computers like imported magic? Pay the funny man with the magic beans enough money and you too could have a fully functioning IT system with no need to ever talk to any geeks.
Re: A ban based on a design patent??
I wish they'd do that with apples and fried rice.
Re: @dogged
Did some FOSS programmer kill your cat or something? I mean I know you know that half of what you wrote about 'Linux' is an outright lie, so I wonder why you would post it at all.
Ah yes, the debian package system is such a 'bold on after thought' that the entire operating system requires it for even the most simple NAS installations. *roll eyes*
Posted in US Navy buys Linux to guide drone fleet
It's Free as in Freedom, not Free as in cost. Once again it must be slowly explained to the hard of reading:
Time costs money
Asking for something to be made will cost you money or time
Thus if the DoD was taking standard Ubuntu and sticking it on a single netbook, they would have burned hardly any money at all. On the other hand, developing a oll-your-own distro with all the bells and whistles that one's military hardware may want... that takes a "bit" more money than that.
Again: The problem with proprietary is not that they charge money, it's that they restrict freedom. They do this in order to sell the exact same work they've already been paid to do, over and over. Regurgitated software for every mark who walks in the door.
Re: Wonder how much it would cost
Oh no, storing energy is expensive!
Be reasonable, we have 3 sources of energy: geothermal, nuclear and solar. Everything else is storage. I understand why you don't think it's sensible to install solar (certainly not the current generation), but everything else about your comment reeks of arrogant assumption.
Local generation with local storage can not only help smooth out the grid, but also I think make people more aware of just how much energy their wasting. Solar, wind, bio-digetion or just granny on a peddle bike, it's certainly more poignant than some big project to burn shale trapped plankton farts.
Re: Best Judge quote ever in a hacking case
Since I believe its completely immoral to allow a collection of cells to form into a concious human which will have a hideous life. I can NOT condone anti-abortion. Any life is not good enough. Quality of life, safety and protection from suffering are far more important than mere aliveness.
I can't condone the hacking and the boy is clearly two bob short of a funny farm, but I can't stand the moral righteousness of people who are actually utterly wrong morally.
Re: And here come the OSX and Linux users...
Nevar!
Re: Over to Linux for me
I don't think open sorcerers are ever going to stop telling you that you're weird for using Microsoft software.
It just looks odd, like your computer has been plugged into... the Twilight Zone!
Posted in Ubuntu penguins build Linux TV challenge
But
It's amusing to see the comments Alan. Worth it just for those.
Posted in Ubuntu penguins build Linux TV challenge
Which
The copyright assignment doesn't exist anymore. It's now a more FSF happy duel licensing agreement.
If there is
a desktop in 10 years time, it'll be an FDO of some kind.
And...
there are people who would rather eat lit TNT sticks than buy into an Apple monopoly.
Cost of Creation
The way open source software is created, deployed and maintained is subtly different from proprietary methods.
Simply the cost of creation is higher, deployment is comparable and maintenance is lower. Open Source tends towards the long haul and if your project only requires you use the software for one weekend, it's not too important what exactly the method of production was.
But if you're doing some kind of crazy, integrated system which includes lots of government data and plan to be in use for a few years. You might want to consider placing more emphasis on maintenance costs.
It sounds like to me that they understand there is a bias for proprietary, and that it should be fixed. But they're not exactly understanding why open source appears more expensive on their calculations yet. Point being that their calculations are not accounting for factors that make proprietary expensive over long periods.
Or one of the blokes bought the guy a really nice lunch at a fancy restaurant, either way. ;-)
That Number
Is probably very conservative estimate based on the number of unique IP addresses that contact the central apt server.
Of course this computer lab full of Ubuntu computers (which installs many laptops and desktops with Ubuntu) is not only one ip address for many computers, but also sets the apt mirror to MIT or Berkeley and not to the central canonical UK servers.
I do sometimes get the feeling though that Canonical are deliberately understating their numbers for some unfathomable reason.
No comment on the cloud thing, I don't think many people know what they're doing there.
Community Salute
The Ubuntu community salutes you sir for choosing to stay with a Free Desktop operating system. Which one you choose is quite the irrelevance to fixing Bug #1. If Ubuntu is the gateway for a mass migration to Fedora, then we've done our job right and we care not a jot.
Unless you get one of the fan boys who really love their computer's software brand so much, that they constantly troll fail on anyone who uses anything different.
In Business
You mean to say that every other competitor was driven INTO business, right? Apple Mac competes against HP, Dell, Toshiba, and so on. If the IBM-compatibles market (i.e. PC) didn't exist, we'd not have any of those businesses in any sort of business.
Unless you're attempting to make a trite and ignorant comparison between Apple's OSX and Microsoft's Windows. In which case Mac didn't survive at all, and had to go 'borrow' open source to get a working and compatible system.
Linux?
started out using "Linux", - You keep on using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.
Clones
And the reward is to hold the entire of society to ransom for ideas which are now well and truly obvious. How long must we continue to reward fat cats who took hardly any risk at all with their mountains of cash.
The law is an ass and it rewards the biggest bully and finds it impossible to defend true innovators on the ground floor. Patents are nothing but large clubs for large companies to beat society as a whole into a bloody pulp and then poor the meat into a blender and drink on it's fine juices. Huzzah.
Reformed
You're worse than a reformed alcoholic. Sucking the fun out of the world and convincing it that it doesn't need or want passion.
Did you get slippers and a pipe when your turned raving conservative Matt?
Corupt
You appear to be as corrupted as the people who you so magnificently call scum. Have you been reading too much Daily Mail?
The sooner morality and sensible economic policies can be put in place, the sooner we can pay for the shipping container for all Daily Mail readers and send them to some island where they can shout scum at the top of their lungs at each other. *roll eyes* It really is clichéd.
Posted in Apple sued over Mac OS X 'quick boot'
No.
>> A properly applied patent system works.
Assumption.
Dishonestly
I thought it was the company motto, now you can be fired for being too dishonest at Microsoft, whatever next.
Seconded
Send someone with a shovel.
Oh wait... we can't be bothered.
Install
I've made the old ubuntu netbook interface available for maverick and natty so if you want a desktop full of icons, just install that.
All my students at the community centre seem to think it's the bees-knees.
https://launchpad.net/~doctormo/+archive/netbook-launcher
Erm
You mean arse, not ass. Unless you use a donkey to hold your P45.
.git .bzr
Would be nice to have TLD for repositories.
Content Theft!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeTybKL1pM4
Hmm
Being honest about your loved-one is important. If you're just going to be uncritical then no one is really going to be interested in what you have to say.
I use Ubuntu, but I have an entire bag of issues we have, some being worked on, others being ignored. But I might be able to get into the details of the Ubuntu community because it's all done out in the open, unlike Microsoft where you would have no idea what's happening except from the press releases. Which might be a little biased.
And
Doesn't that worry you?
Perhaps I'm just being daft, but you sound like you care more about a company and it's products than society as a whole.
Sometimes I despair, I think the world has created a better kind of social idiot and they post randomly on El Reg.
Linux
The L word never had a problem running on ARM, anything from Android to a super computer. I don't think it's a problem of getting code from x86 to ARM and thinking smaller, it's just that all these companies write proprietary code that probably looks like barf with bits corrected in crayon.
Myths
Just because you've got a betrayal narrative doesn't always mean that it's a myth. Causation and all that.
Attempt to sound reasonable without rationality -1
Interesing
Seriously: I'm happy you've made your work public domain (it's not a license, but what ever) but you shouldn't try and promote your ideology of unaccountable anarchy to other software developers who are simply not interested in your world view.
Especially since it has known flaws.
Taxes
I like paying taxes... so long as I get to vote.
But we're not all excusing ourselves of our social obligations and responsibilities with half-clever moral myths about self-interest.
Heh
Yes, and replaced him with an Ex-Microsoft pod-person. But I think you mean the ODF scandal.
The only state I know looking into Linux is ____ and I don't want to say because walls have ears and people get fired surprisingly easily for trying to advance their states computer technology.
Pride
Pride follows with a Fall.
And, that you are getting a warm feeling from the spread of Apple's ball and chains is perhaps some form of mental illness possibly linked to a deformed tribal gene.
Seriously if you want to support something with all your heart, at least make sure that you actually get to own what it is your throwing your pride into it. Apple doesn't make anything you actually get to own, so it's junk as far as social progress goes.
When they make it all open source, we'll talk about supporting them...
Automatic DMCA
Ain't the modern world lovely.
Wake me up when they issue automatic hugs.
Not quite
Their personal copyright or anything weakly licensed can be kept closed. Anything GPL though will have to be released in source format as per section 2(b), unless they own the entire copyright on the GPL piece... and last I checked, google don't own the linux kernel; so that at least should be available.
Everything else though, will probably have to be rewritten from scratch with a proper license.
Posted in Beyond $1bn: Why Red Hat is a one off
Anomalous Capitalism
You gotta love naive capitalists. Tell us Matt, why are Billion dollar companies a good sign? You'd think that since free and open source represents a more distributed model of development and choice in support, that you'd naturally have a more distributed market place.
This is perhaps more interesting then journalists who have been spending way too much time speaking to CEOs and economists and much less time speaking to small businesses.
Posted in Mac OS X daddy quits Apple
Ah Science
Let's be honest, there's more science on a Friday afternoon in a key stage 2 classroom than in any proprietary software company. The very definition of peer review is the preserve of open source; which I believe Apple aren't so hot on. No peer review, no openness, no transparency, no science. QED
Dear god no!
As much as I would like very much for all Android apps to be free and open source, I think everyone should understand with crystal clarity what it is they're gettinginto and who they owe their business sucess to.
The header removal isn't just offensive, it's impetulant. Google, stop it before something bad happens.
Yes
We do.
Posted in EA dubs Nintendo Wii a 'legacy platform'
Well...
I own a Wii and not a PS2 or XBox. I figured the Wii was more like two game cubes zapped together by magic.
And the Wii really is magic, I'm amazed at what it can do... once you've rooted it. Although it does struggle with HD, can't even decode HD video, let alone display it. I'll be waiting to see if the WiiII has rootability before I buy one though.
Are they?
I thought companies were allowed to be owned and operated for share-holder profit in order to provide services to the public on their demand _and_ having a widely distributed share-holding with which to enrich shrewd long term investors in modest ways.
I can't imagine any capitalist is seriously thinking that owning all the money in the world is a _good_ idea. Unless "Capitalist" now means holistic naivety.
Er
How many people have billions of dollars more than they could ever spend in a hundred lifetimes?
"I would wonder sire, how such people come by such property in the first place"
Wubi
Wubi is like one of those sickly sweets you get when you're 8 and you think it's so awesome that you just have to have 20 in one sitting. Then, later, you realise it was a really bad idea now that're sick all over the carpet and your mums gone berserk at you for eating the Christmas box.
Advice: Use Wubi for testing, using a proper install for actually using the thing. Personally I think we should disable upgrades and have a giant red background saying 'WARNING YOUR DATA ISN'tT SAFE' instead of the default light theme.
