I’ve been thinking about the war lately. So far, we’ve spent $370 billion on the war (including both Afghanistan and Iraq). Enough for one bullet for every man, woman, and child in the Middle East. Enough to pave Iraq into a giant parking lot for Walmart. Enough to screw over the entire world.
You know what we could have done with $370 billion dollars? We could have fed everyone in the world, and given them the medical care they need. We currently spend only $5 billion a year on cancer research, and we could have cured cancer with that money. We could have cured AIDS, which killed 3.1 million people in 2004, and 23 million since 1981.
We could have converted every car in the United States to a fuel efficient engine that doesn’t burn gasoline, and made it easy for all diesel users to switch to biodiesel. We could have finally researched to see if cold fusion exists or not. We could have setup a mining facility on the Moon to mine Helium 3 for a clean power production method. We could have finally stepped foot on Mars, and even made a permanent settlement there.
We could have improved the lives of everyone on Earth, and we didn’t.
I just had an hour discussion with some KDE developers on #kde-devel about TrollTech‘s dual-licensing of Qt on Windows (see the press release) and for Qtopia (press release). This means it uses the GNU Public License (GPL) for free apps, and Pay-for-it Commercial for closed source-apps.
My personal view is that TrollTech did the right thing. It promotes Free and Open Source (FOSS) applications on Windows and PDAs, but it also allows TT to make money. This money in turn allows TT to hire more coders, and generally produce better code. TT serves as an inroad for money in the FOSS community, and it also serves as inroad for commercial developers on Linux (because Qt is a multi-platform framework and UI toolkit).
Now, the GNOME camp is the competitor to the Qt/K Desktop Environment (KDE) camp. GNOME, and the UI toolkit it uses, GTK use the Lesser GNU Public License (LGPL). According to the Free Software Foundation, the GPL is considered “more free” than the LGPL.
The GNOME camp’s biggest gripe against KDE is that it depended on a non-free library, Qt. But thanks to TrollTech, the GNOME camp’s biggest gripe against KDE now is that KDE uses an “even more free” library. (Which puts GNOME in a weird position, since GNOME is the FSF’s poster boy for a free desktop).
Continuing on with my personal view, dual-licensing is the correct way to do things if you’re a business. On one hand, it protects the FOSS community because it is GPL; on the other hand it protects the business model by using the GPL to turn into free source of public relations material and it forces people who actually have money to buy up Qt licenses.
During this discussion, we figured out (within our own opinions, at least), what the most important aspects of the commercial half of the dual-license should be. For our example, lets say Company XYZ owns TheProduct, and Company ABC wants to buy TheProduct. Company ABC is building a closed-source application. Those important aspects go something like this:
1) ABC will have to be restricted from reselling TheProduct, otherwise XYZ doesn’t make money.
2a) ABC will have to be restricted from shipping modified version of TheProduct (seeing as they have the source, they could do this, we just have to license them into a corner so they don’t); restricting them from that prevents them from shipping a botched version of the library, which reflects badly on XYZ. It also prevents ABC from shooting themselves in the foot, which makes them happy, and turns them into a repeat customer.
2b) ABC will be allowed to ship a modified version if they release modifications under the GPL and revert ownership of said changes to XYZ, but also clearly mark said changes to have originated from ABC and not XYZ. XYZ reserves the right to merge said changes, but also reserves the right to not merge said changes.
3) XYZ will provide cryptographically signed binaries of the libraries to ship with the product. Failure to ship product with said binaries is considered a breach of the license. In the event of 2b, XYZ will build and sign new binaries on request.
4) Its probably a good idea to charge ABC by the number of shipped copies.
Now, the reason number 4 is so important is because it prevents large companies (such as Microsoft) from abusing the spirit of the dual-licensing scheme. The more money they stand to make, the more money we stand to make, simple as that.
Lets say Microsoft gets their foot in the door with the FOSS community by releasing Microsoft Word on the Linux desktop. And in this warped reality, they sell millions of copies. That is millions of licenses we’ve sold in addition to Word on Windows and Word on OSX (because TheProduct, as you probably have noticed, is really just a thinly veiled stand-in for Qt). TheProduct would not only be raking in the money, but thanks to Microsoft, it would be used by millions on multiple platforms. Instant inroad for cash into the FOSS community.
Microsoft could, in turn, make a whole desktop out of Qt-based components just from this one application. Your first instinct tells you that this couldn’t happen, but as Bobby Rockers said, “Why not, GNOME made a whole desktop based on an image manipulation program.”
Its funny. Dragonball is sort of the in-joke of the otaku crowd, yet I am actually sad to see it finally finish. With 508 episodes, 17 movies, and 2 TV specials1, it is a very very long series. I saw the entire life of Goku, and I give it 3 out of 5 stars.
Sure, the series is ultimately just about fighting, but after awhile even in such a series, the characters become real, as if the whole weight of the world really was on their shoulders. Goku ultimately wins against the most supreme evil, a culmination of the worst humanity… no, the entire universe has to offer.
Dragonball for 11 years2 has taught anyone who watched it to stand up for what they believe in, and to always protect friends and family. Goku even died for this… several times over. Not once did he regret his actions, for his heart was pure.
I’m just sorry that Dragonball is now hated within the otaku community. It was one of the first major hits in the US, and was both horribly translated (with sucky voice actors) and all the good parts were left on the editing floor (thanks to insane censorship laws).
Due to its popularity, it gave rise to the otaku community’s hatred of mainstream anime, and also gave rise to the influx of action/fighting animes that dominate the American airwaves. However, we can not blame the series for this. We can only blame those who let it be corrupted in the first place.
[1] 153 episodes of Dragonball, 291 episodes of Dragonball Z, 64 episodes of Dragonball GT, 4 Dragonball movies, 13 Dragonball Z movies, and 2 Dragonball Z TV specials.
[2] Dragonball ran February 26, 1986 to April 12, 1989. Dragonball Z ran April 18, 1989 to January 31, 1996. Dragonball GT ran between 1996 and 1997.
Well, as everyone knows, President Bush just wasted $40 million of taxpayer money on his stupid Inauguration. You know what $40 million could do? Feed a small third world country for a year. Provide medical aid for thousands of Americans who are currently without. Hire 800 teachers (at $50k/yr) for one year. Send a scientific satellite into orbit. Any number of things, and Bush chose to spend it instead on tear gassing hundreds of protesters.
President Bush, I am very disappointed with you. I did not vote for you, the majority of Americans did not vote for you. You and I both know you disenfranchised the American people. You are supposed to act in our best interests, and in your four years, you never did this even once. How can you live with yourself?
Why do we explore space? Why do we always look to the skies? Why do we try to understand the universe? Why do we read or write science fiction? Why does our technology always turn out to be like science fiction? Because we can.
Why do we kill others? Why do we blame others for our own shortcomings? Why do we take instead of give? Why do we horde instead of share? Why do we praise Alexander the Great instead of Mahatma Gandhi? Why do we develop weapons of war instead of implements of peace? Why was the Internet created to allow communications after a nuclear war, instead of something to share knowledge with? Because we can.
Why do we kill off life on Earth instead of protect it? Why are we the worst mass extinction event ever to happen? Why are we not spending our energy to go from the cradle of life into the stars above? Because we are ignorant.