technoir

Yes, I had an awful experience with the stealth also, though it had nothing to do with linux support (managed to get everything working).

Multiple hardware failures and eventually had to return it. They should probably learn basic quality control techniques before spending any energy on better linux support.

If there is an analogue in the standard library you should have a compelling reason to use an alternative. Wish this could be filed under "common" sense. Thanks for articulating and presenting this principle, among others. Great writeup.

It rains all year in Portland-- and it's cold. Artisanal is just another word for amateur. Wages are low. This is bad advice -- do not move here.

It's not about 15-20% for the N workers sponsored.

It drives down wages across the industry by increasing unemployed labor supply. It's a lever to put downward pressure on wages in a macroeconomic sense.

Some seem to believe that software developers are so focused on programming that they were never exposed to basic macroeconomics.

If supply goes up, price goes down.

It may be better for employers, and the economy as a whole depending on how you measure, but it is not in the best economic interest of those already selling their development labor.

Still think it would be an okay patentability requirment to include source code. Yes, it is just one embodiment, but let's see the embodiment.

If there is a different way of implementing it than described in the patent, did the patent owner really invent the other method?

ChuckM, I appreciate your polite tone and sincerity.

To illustrate my point, consider my story. I'm a software developer with entrepreneurial ambition and I'm developing a product I have dreams of marketing and selling. Last week I probably came up with 5 methods of doing some novel data analysis that are patent-able.

How many will I patent? Well considering it would cost about 100-150k to adequately protect that intellectual property and I have only my own boots to my name, ... I'll patent zero of them.

Clearly the system does not work for me.

This is one extreme scenario, but consider the continuum. What about a startup with 500k in seed funding? Should they spend 50% of their capital to protect their intellectual property before they've finished a product and made sales?

Meanwhile large companies spend millions on patent programs which sweep up wide swaths of IP on nebulous grounds of validity. Not only can I not afford to prosecute a patent, I can't even afford to respond to a cease and desist letter based on an invalid patent which came out of the "innovation process" of MegaCorp.

Sorry, but the system is not for the little guy or the start up.

This is a nice story, but not an accurate reflection of reality. Look at the statistics on who are issued patents, who receives royalties. It's not the noble independent inventor, it's old MegaCorp that doesn't blink at underwriting the massive expense of prosecuting a good patent.

The story you describe is a convenient myth to justify a system that benefits established interests.

Too bad they didnt switch to windowlab. Now that is a lightweight window manager. Amiga style window management!

if data storage and data analysis were wholly independent activities, the logical separation would make a lot of sense, e.g. dumb database is good at data storage, utilities are good at specific analytic functions.

Due to resource bottlenecks these two activities are currently closely coupled. As a result there is no clear cut answer one way or the other.

One aspect currently is a trade off between managing complexity and performance. Of course there are many other factors. Case by case basis.