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> At that point it's a them problem.

Except when it becomes a reputational problem for the OEM: Excel sucks at X (i.e., don't use it for that) and Excel sucks can become equivalent in many people's minds.

Sometimes it is actually a problem of people 'holding it wrong' (as the meme/trope goes). And who gets the blame?


I'd say, the reasonable person test, if the mistake sounds like one a reasonable person would make, then fine.

I guess sadly the press will gloss over all the intricacies for a few clicks.

I also feel that dumbing things down probably just exacerbates this problem as "reasonable folk" have no clue how you actually get from a to b.


And it is already present in Safari (and more generally in iOS and macOS, as part of the standard OS graphics library):

* https://developer.apple.com/documentation/avfoundation/avvid...

* https://petapixel.com/2024/09/18/why-apple-uses-jpeg-xl-in-t...


> People keep calling the AV-family codecs “royalty free,” but in practice they increasingly look like a legal and financial gamble.

And the alternative is… ?

For H.265 there are two HEVC licensing pools you have to sign with plus at least two non-pool companies:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Video_Coding#P...

Going with a non-AVx codec is no less complicated and fraught with lawsuit risk AFAICT.


OpenSSH was a 'reaction' to the original SSH(.com) code getting closed source:

> OpenSSH originated in 1999 as a fork of Björn Grönvall's OSSH, which derived from Tatu Ylönen's original SSH 1.2.12 release, the last version distributed under a license permitting open-source redistribution before Ylönen's subsequent software became proprietary under SSH Communications Security.[4]

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSSH

It was probably the second thing with the Open— prefix by this group of developers, OpenBSD itself being the first. They simply ran with the naming convention. OpenBGP/OSPF were developed as alternatives to Quagga (GPL).


Is rsync going closed source? If not, how is that the same thing?

No. The name only means it’s made by the OpenBSD team, nothing more. If they made their own Python port, it’d be called OpenPython, even though the original is FOSS.

So is OpenSUSE made by the BSD team? OpenOffice? OpenShift? OpenCV? OpenAI?

It is not reasonable to claim this prefix unambiguously refers to the OpenBSD team. I do not understand why so many in this thread are pretending this isn't a confusing choice.


Nobody ever claimed that “Open” is a prefix used unambiguously by only one group of people ever.

In fact, your insistence that “Open” can only be used by projects that are replacing proprietary software is itself very odd.

OpenBSD itself has had its name for thirty years, and is not named for being an “open source” implementation of a proprietary OS.


The person I replied to said the "open" prefix means it's made by the OpenBSD team and I am responding to that.

Do not invent arguments that I did not make. I have only said that naming it openrsync when rsync already exists and is "open" in the general sense is confusing.

I find the negative reactions to this observation very confusing, especially yours, but I see that you're an OpenBSD developer so that explains your bias.

Edit: and now these same people are backtracking to agree with me that "open" is ambiguous, this place never ceases to amaze


> The person I replied to said the "open" prefix means it's made by the OpenBSD team and I am responding to that.

What was said is that the OpenBSD operating system folks chose to use the Open— prefix for all their other projects ("They simply ran with the naming convention."). What was not said was that all Open— prefixed projects were from them.


You’re inventing an argument I didn’t make. OpenBSD doesn’t own “open”. Literally no one is saying that. What I did say is that openrsync is named that because the OpenBSD team names their projects that way. The “open” in this project means that it came from OpenBSD, not that that it’s in contrast to rsync being proprietary (which it isn’t).

OpenBSD didn’t get its name from NetBSD going closed source.

Historically speaking, it may have meant open to poorly socialized developers.

> Is rsync going closed source? If not, how is that the same thing?

Not closed source, but with rsync 3.0 it changed its license to GPL3, which a lot of folks don't like: BSD/MIT licenses have zero limitations on use and distribution, GPL2 (rsync 1.x, 2.x) forces one to release code, GPL3 (rsync ≥3.x) adds further restrictions.

Some folks want to distribute code with as few restrictions as possible. Other folks have a great good/goal in mind (e.g., 'all software is open source') and so add 'local restrictions' to hopefully achieve greater non-restrictions.


Under Debian/Ubuntu, when Postfix is installed, part of the standard list of questions that dpkg-reconfigure asks you is how you want mail flow to work: you can give it a central smarthost. So any local mail gets sent on, and on the central mail hub you can tell it to send root@ to someplace useful:

* https://wiki.debian.org/Postfix#Forward_Emails


I.e.,

    NAME
       biff -- be notified if mail arrives and who it is from
    
    […]
    
    HISTORY
       The biff command appeared in 4.0BSD.  It was named  after  the  dog  of
       Heidi Stettner. He died in August 1993, at 15.
* https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=biff

    Eric Cooper, a student contemporary to Foderero and 
    Stettner, reports that the dog would bark at the mail 
    carrier,[4][5] making it a natural choice for the name 
    of a mail notification system. Stettner herself 
    contradicts this.[3][6]
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biff_(Unix)

From the excellent "A Quarter Century of UNIX" (by the late Peter H. Salus):

Heidi would bring her dog with her to class and to her office. He was a very friendly dog, and a lot of the students enjoyed throwing a ball for him down the corridor to fetch. He even had his picture on the bulletin board with the graduate students: the legend read that he was working on his Ph.Dog. John decided to name the program after the dog: Biff. According to Heidi, John and Bill Joy then spent a lot of time trying to compose an explanation for biff - they came up with "Be notified if mail arrived." Biff, who died in August 1993, at 15, once got a B in a compiler class. According to Heidi, the story of Biff barking at the mailman is a scurrilous canard.

One of my favourite bits of trivia from that excellent book, but hardly anyone I bump into these days knows anything about that kind of multi-user Unix experience/environment these days. I barely caught any of it myself.


Yeah this was before my time. I never did email from a terminal. Which probably explains why I was okay with naming it Biff.

In any case, I've renamed the project to bttf: https://github.com/BurntSushi/bttf/pull/14


Thank you for helping maintain the Unix lore.

I dont think it's part of the unix standard. Biff sounds perfect

My decisions about naming aren't limited or prescribed by what is in a standard or not. :-)



> He has this great quote about when computers came out: "We were told 'computers will save you so much time on work tasks that you won't even know what to do with your free time'. I spent the next 30 years working the same number of hours. "

From about one hundred years ago:

> Now it is true that the needs of human beings may seem to be insatiable. But they fall into two classes --those needs which are absolute in the sense that we feel them whatever the situation of our fellow human beings may be, and those which are relative in the sense that we feel them only if their satisfaction lifts us above, makes us feel superior to, our fellows. Needs of the second class, those which satisfy the desire for superiority, may indeed be insatiable; for the higher the general level, the higher still are they. But this is not so true of the absolute needs-a point may soon be reached, much sooner perhaps than we are all of us aware of, when these needs are satisfied in the sense that we prefer to devote our further energies to non-economic purposes.

[…]

> For many ages to come the old Adam will be so strong in us that everybody will need to do some work if he is to be contented. We shall do more things for ourselves than is usual with the rich to-day, only too glad to have small duties and tasks and routines. But beyond this, we shall endeavour to spread the bread thin on the butter-to make what work there is still to be done to be as widely shared as possible. Three-hour shifts or a fifteen-hour week may put off the problem for a great while. For three hours a day is quite enough to satisfy the old Adam in most of us!

* John Maynard Keynes, "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren" (1930)

* http://www.econ.yale.edu/smith/econ116a/keynes1.pdf

An essay putting forward / hypothesizing four reasons on why the above did not happen (We haven't spread the wealth around enough; People actually love working; There's no limit to human desires; Leisure is expensive):

* https://www.vox.com/2014/11/20/7254877/keynes-work-leisure


In some European countries, you can actually go on welfare and never work again. It takes some tricks because the state doesn’t like it; and maybe you‘ll want to do some undeclared side jobs for 15h a week and you’ll be comfortable.

I don’t know how such people can live with themselves. But apparently, if you’re immune to the second factor, it is possible, nowadays, to work 15h or less, without any wealth, and lead a good life.

The only thing threatening this status quo is corporations and rich people pulling their wealth into other states; and related, being net importers. I don’t understand why the EU is allowing this to happen. They should grow some teeth finally.


Oh sure, you get free stuff indefinitely if you abuse the system. You sound like that tiktok post about the "infinite free money glitch" that is check fraud.

Interestingly, this is how a lot of rich people make their money. They do something bad and then get the state to bail them out. For example, bankers trading recklessly, taking the bonuses and then leaving govt to sort out the mess, effectively back-paying their bonuses.

Another example is privatisation in the UK: scrap all investment, load the company with debt, leave the consumer and govt to sort out the mess.

So the rich do it too, just on a much grander scale.


> The net of law is spread so wide, \ No sinner from its sweep may hide. \ Its meshes are so fine and strong, \ They take in every child of wrong. \ O wondrous web of mystery! \ Big fish alone escape from thee!

-- James Jeffrey Roche (1847 - 1908)


And? Try doing that 200y ago. There was no system to exploit. The system exists because progress has made it possible.

> it is possible, nowadays, to work 15h or less, without any wealth, and lead a good life.

This is possible even without welfare.

Some friends of mine choose to do this: live in a shared flat, no car, no kids, it's easily doable. They live a good live and are happy.

(Let me add that I'm forty)


Which European countries?

"Good" life might be bit questionable. But Finland at least it is possible. Existence will be meagre without other cashflows in cash. Might even be okay if you can make proper amount of cash.

I did mention that some side job is required for a good life. 15h certainly enough. Once AGI is here that might be our future.


Australia no problem. Most liberal welfare in the world

Unemployment (JobSeeker payment) is actually pretty brutal here, we have a thing called ‘mutual obligation requirements’ where you have to go to meetings with (very ineffective but extremely profitable) private job service providers who force you to apply for enough jobs per week (no matter if they’re relevant or not).

Decades ago there was what I have read was an extremely effective Government department called the ’Commonwealth Employment Services’ but that was disbanded and contracts handed to private firms for excuses like “efficiency” that (surprise) didn’t end up panning out.


> Australia no problem. Most liberal welfare in the world

Jobseeker is a maximum of $26k per year, but for most people it's going to be around $21k [1]. What else are you using supplement that because that feels like it would be close to the poverty line.

1: https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/how-much-jobseeker-paym...


It’s not close to the poverty line, it’s well under it (remember this is AUD not USD) and has been for decades!

Live 4 people in a share house and surf all day.

> Can’t we demand a piece of this?

If your company is publicly traded, you can buy its stock.


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