PieterH

13 ms·

121.
by PieterH 10y ago
It's more a question of when than whether , isn't it... $1000 for a CPU today means $50 in six years, if there is real competition, which there is here.
122.
by PieterH 10y ago
It's always porn and games.
123.
by PieterH 10y ago
Thanks for correcting me.
124.
by PieterH 10y ago
Patents are another issue. Doesn't specifically affect this project. And clean-room implementations have no effect on patent violations or claims. None at all. It is entirely a copyright issue. And the issue here is that the same per
125.
by PieterH 10y ago
I made a quite clear explanation of the argument a lawyer would use. This open source client is in effect a pirate copy of the closed source client. I expect it will disappear from Github rather soon.
126.
by PieterH 10y ago
What are you saying here, that you are good at skirting the law without breaking it, that all takedown claims are bogus, or that your lawyer is so good one letter can chase away even determined legal action by deep pocketed firms? Only the
127.
by PieterH 10y ago
Two teams in the same firm, as gruez says below. The key is that the second team does not look at the internals of the product, and that the two teams communicate only by specifications of interfaces (physical, software, electronic, etc.) a
128.
by PieterH 10y ago
Disassembly by a team that results in new code written by the same team is not legal in any country that enforces copyrights. That includes the EU. Possibly excludes Russia and probably excludes China unless the owner is a large Chinese c
129.
by PieterH 10y ago
Yes, clean-room reimplementations are legal everywhere. The problem with this code is it's not clean room. This leaves commercial users open to serious accusations of copyright infringement (as in, criminal prosecution.) See my comment
130.
by PieterH 10y ago
It's plausible in the sense of believable. I did not say it was solid or well-argued. You raise excellent counter arguments. However the point of my comment was there is no need to even go that far, the whole notion of civilizations be
131.
by PieterH 10y ago
If I used this in a commercial product, it would be trivial (absolutely trivial) for the owner of the original product to take me to court for illegal distribution of their copyrighted works, based on the argument that the code I was distri
132.
by PieterH 10y ago
One team documents the protocol as a spec. A second team takes the spec and writes implementations. The advantage of this for open source is that when the protocol changes, it's relatively simple for that first team to update the spec,
133.
by PieterH 10y ago
As I said, people use copyright law to take other people to court, and then get money from them. Your "fuck copyright" statement is bold, and one I'd generally agree with, unfortunately it has zero relevance to the legal risk
134.
by PieterH 10y ago
Lawyers are paid to make cases. Here, it's quite simple. The author of this code saw the Skype code, indeed he admits it. Then he wrote new code. Same person. Your honor, it is unreasonable for him to claim that his new code was not he
135.
by PieterH 10y ago
My guess at the origins of this project... Firm somewhere far away where Microsoft's lawyers cannot reach (China?) wanted Skype capability in their product and paid this smart Russian guy to reverse-engineer the Skype client. Smart guy
136.
by PieterH 10y ago
Yes, navigable water has always been the crucible of trade. Hence the economy and culture of the Mediterranean even from the early bronze age. And coastal trade is compelling, you don't need sea-faring ships, just dinghies capable of s
137.
by PieterH 10y ago
Remarkable how rapidly politics comes into the discussion of Chinese history. Putting that aside, the theory is interesting and plausible for a few reasons, yet probably wrong. I like it because of the weird connections, like the ancient or
138.
by PieterH 10y ago
I've used both daily for some years. They are different. Reddit is far larger and often more fun. Yet it can rapidly become silly, and in some cases quite violent. HN is always poilte, fresher, and serious. I come here to get discussio
139.
by PieterH 10y ago
This is what a sales tax, like VAT, is.
140.
by PieterH 10y ago
My area of Brussels has been slowly pulling itself out of dilapidation for decades. The signs are e. g. new bars and shops that don't close after six months, and of course the inevitable loftification of older buildings. There is no si
141.
by PieterH 10y ago
Sadly kindness and tolerance only works with the 96% of people who are socially motivated (and not psychopaths). For the antisocial minority you must use force of one form or another, otherwise they create real damage.
142.
by PieterH 10y ago
I didn't, sorry. :( Poor excuse, it was 4am and I was half awake.
143.
by PieterH 10y ago
tl;dr in the name of fairness, US campuses are run under a regime of fear in which men have lost many basic rights. It is an object lesson for the software industry, where we see Codes of Conduct being pushed on projects and events. The US
144.
by PieterH 10y ago
Sigh. People seem to always forget that we're a social species and a lot of our emotions have social roles. Smiling as such does not make us feel happier. That is trivially proven, just as pretending to cry does nit make us sadder. Thi
145.
by PieterH 10y ago
What's missing in regexps IMO is composability so you can build larger patterns out of smaller ones, giving each a clear name. Replacing '[0-9]' with 'digit' doesn't really help much.
146.
by PieterH 10y ago
Looks like the COBOL of pattern matching, and frankly I like it.
147.
by PieterH 10y ago
Since it comes down to "is this CEO a psychopath", most of the classic red flags can be seen quite soon. E.g. charm, lack of history, quick rage.
148.
by PieterH 10y ago
It's not wise to do drive-by analyses yet this guy sounds like a classic psychopath building a cult. I bet he never accepts any responsibility for what happened.
149.
by PieterH 10y ago
Oh there are lots of ways to give up. I could refuse palliative chemotherapy, stop eating, overdose on opiates, drink a large glass of scotch together with my drugs, and so on. Yet when people say "you must fight" they don't
150.
by PieterH 10y ago
I've no specific distrust of marijuana as a pain killer and appetite booster during chemo. If oil/butter was readily available I'd be using it rather than opiates. I'm not going to smoke marijuana because it's hard

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