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Comment Re:Yawn, another fork (Score 1) 219

Picture this:
You throw a Python script that uses BDB on your server, which happens to use a source-based distro.
You update BDB, and this requires a small patch.

Now, you are obligated to distribute source to BDB and Python.
No, I'm not kidding: that's how I read the AGPL.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html:

A secondary benefit of defending all users' freedom is that improvements made in alternate versions of the program, if they receive widespread use, become available for other developers to incorporate. Many developers of free software are heartened and encouraged by the resulting cooperation. However, in the case of software used on network servers, this result may fail to come about. The GNU General Public License permits making a modified version and letting the public access it on a server without ever releasing its source code to the public.

The GNU Affero General Public License is designed specifically to ensure that, in such cases, the modified source code becomes available to the community. It requires the operator of a network server to provide the source code of the modified version running there to the users of that server. Therefore, public use of a modified version, on a publicly accessible server, gives the public access to the source code of the modified version.

Comment Re:already done by someone else better (Score 1) 40

From the fine article:

The micromachines don't cost much to make, Bishop says. The scientists order the polysilicon plates from a commercial foundry at low cost and then use a focused ion beam to pierce the nanosized holes in the plates. The micromachines are so cheap, Bishop says, that the team can experiment with one, throw it out, and "go get another clean one--for a dollar or two."

Also news is that it can draw shapes with holes.

Comment Missing the point! (Score 1) 1103

Well, duh. Of course the union isn't the employer. They're a group whose purpose is to represent, and negotiate on behalf of, the *EMPLOYEES*. So, why shouldn't the employees be allowed to negotiate certain aspects of others employment agreements through a group founded for that very purpose?

There, FTFY.

A contract about the terms of hiring workers is NOT negotiated by the one hired, if it's negotiated by a union. So why should I be bound by a contract that I had no say in to participate in an organization even if it promotes positions that I disagree with?

Freedom of association is an important right, and it's a good reason to allow unions. Similarly, the right of petition is important.
But does that mean that a union should be able to effectively block the right of all employees to be unassociated (without which freedom of association is meaningless), or to force them to petition in favor of a cause which they don't support?

And don't say "You're free to go work elsewhere, so your freedoms aren't infringed."
Would you say that if someone were fired or not hired for being an atheist? What the immediate cause was that the other employees didn't like that attribute?

Comment Re:why? (Score 2) 778

These days, NoScript can handle blocking Flash.

Some websites have a way of using crappy javascript that takes several minutes to load and pegs the processor on an Atom N270-based netbook.

As far as Adblock goes... I'll just edit /etc/hosts.

Comment Re:Nvidia drivers (Score 1) 157

Agreed.
HD3200 works splendid with Mesa 7.11 or later (GL 3.1 currently), and that's a few years old. Anything new enough before "GCN" (the new architecture that the upper-end HD7000 chips use) has GL 3.1, though GCN is still at 2.1 plus GLSL 1.3 (the version for GL 3.0).
HD5xxx up through HD8xxx currently have hardware VDPAU via UVD on Mesa.
HD4xxx and up to GCN have better OpenCL support via clover than any other FOSS driver.
Power management just got added, and it works.
Fedora 19 has good enough support to use six monitors with an HD7970, and WebGL works.

To the parent of the parent, the Naughts called--they want their drivers back.

Comment Thoughts on Alpha? (Score 1) 26

I'm wondering what you think looking back at the whole Alpha scene.
-were there any major failings?
-what were the nicest features?
-while the hardware is now abandoned and slow, do you think it could have remained competetive?
-favorite stor(y|ies) related to Alpha or Linux/Alpha?
-are you still interested in Alpha, or have you moved on?

Comment Re:Sony Hackstation (Score 2) 457

But why? When the PS3's came out with its cell processor, it was very unique and unlike any other processor available. The AMD processor in the Playstation 3 (and XBox One) is just a garden-variety commodity part.

You just answered yourself. If you already have an AMD system, why not run Orbis on it, getting access to the games written for the PS4? Some might prefer to not get a second computer potentially with less but faster RAM.

Comment Re:Thou hast angered thy King (Score 1) 260

If you read your link, you would see he did more than report it: he spent a year running a website that made more of an issue of it than the government saw fit, and encouraged others to consider the government compensation inadequate.

Arbitrary, yes; but it wasn't for reporting the contamination. It was for publicising it.

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