kevin lyda wrote:
>http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/01/31/johansen.interview.idg/index.html
although the whole developement area is something with which ATM I have
minimal involvment, I'd imagine the reverse engineering aspect is being
"tagged" by virtue of the fact that the open source community actually
admits to doing it, whereas in a closed src environment nobody except
those directly involved have half a clue as to _exactly_ how much
(reverse engineering) is going on, despite the licence for pratically
every piece of software sold declaring that it is illegal to
decompile/reverse engineer said product. The fact that a Norweigan 16 yr
old was the one targetted could be as a result this chap being seen as
an easy target who is unlikely to be able to put up an expensive lawyer
intensive fight and/or not get much compassionate media coverage in the
States as the main focus will be outside the US. In short I believe that
he's going to be bullied into submission & then used for "corpse in a
gibblet cage at city gates" type example of what happens to "hackers" or
computer criminals who "damage the computer industry & as a result cost
jobs".
considering also that it relates to corporate
> rights vs. individual rights, the usa's ability to inflict it's laws on
> other parts of the world, and general ideas regarding freedom, one
> wonders where the irish media's coverage on this story is.
I'd imagine pretty non-existant outside of technically aware & vested
interest Groups, such as everybody reading this mail either directly via
the list/digest or from the web-archive.
Generally speaking in Ireland you're not going to hear about anything of
a combined techincal & legal nature unless it's likely to #1 create or
destroy employment, #2 is directed by or at a high profile Paddy.
Face it We're Parochial beings.
As an example. how much Irish media coverage went into the
Communications decency act or whatever it was called when that was the
discussion rage across the net? From what I can remember there was none
except what you might find on these moronic tv programs about basic home
Computing which would cite sending fancy 50MB e-mails & listening to
Thai popular music via real-audio as some of the wonderful things which
beginners could/should use the internet for, & even then they only would
touch on the Alarmist Child pornography aspect while completely ignoring
the rest of what was covered.
> along those lines i'm currently trying to hire linux developers and
> admins. i'm also specing out support options. somehow i doubt i'm the
> only one in ireland doing this, but i'm forced to look at us and uk
> publications and web sites to find any reports on such things. (well,
> that and redhat's web site and the ilug list) i'm also a consumer of
> irish media, what percentage of the market must linux take before
> there's any level of decent coverage?
I think that a lot of the lack of coverage is due to FUD, something
which from my own personal experience does actually have quite an effect
even in the face of conflicting technical evidence. As an example from
my own workplace. I use linux here ( on quite modest HW I must add) to
provide everything except Primary windows file & print services which NT
handles. If a perspective client submits an operational questionaire
here, there will be mention of unix but only as an ftp/web server & the
word Linux will be unlikely to appear. The reason for this is that
Linux still has quite a lot of the old bedroom hacker aura surrounding
it, despite the fact that it, from a viable platform POV, has most
definately outgrown it, These clients especially those of the big
variety & in particular ones who have made a corporate decision to
standardise on Exchange quite often like to look down on a humble little
pentium with 32MB ram & 1GB ide disk which operates at a 100%
reliability rate on the basis that their system is sooooooooooo much
more powerful & less likely to fail ( C|N>K ). I can provide some gems
(off-list) to anybody who wants about dealings with Project managers &
IT directors in other companies who have had, shall we say "issues" with
a Linux + sendmail mail server on my end :)
basically I don't think that it's going to change much until upper
managment in your small to medium sized companies have it put in their
faces that linux isn't just an alternative for providing certain
services but in fact a better all round option (cost of support
definately included [0]) and then decide to tell the world about it, or
some quite high profile organisations in Ireland decide to Ditch the
"Mainstream" systems which they posess in favour of something small,
fast & reliable (hopeful gaze towards 4th floor Ballast Hse).
> just curious...
me too
enuf meanderings for now!
Vector :) ...
[0] ilug at linux.ie has provided me with far better (accuracy & speed)
tech support for free than any guranteed 4 hour NT response which I've
paid through the nose for & ended up not using by virtue of the
invariable suggestion to "re-Load" the OS & the 6am finish which that
will usually involve.
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