Interesting Links for 13-06-2012

[andrewducker]

• If you fire a missle containing GPL'd code at someone, do you have to make the source available too?
  (tags: war military source code gpl software licensing funny )
• Smart sensors are being trialled all over Glasgow to allow querying of city status. Definitely future-tech time.
  (tags: thefuture glasgow sensors technology cities )
• Falkland Islands to hold referendum on sovereignty
  (tags: falklands referendum politics )
• Very nice visualisation of basketball scoring broken down by location.
  (tags: basketball sports visualisation )
• Rejection by either parent can cause insecurity throughout life (Some people always blame the mothers. Idiots)
  (tags: parenting life abandoned )
• The only honest revenue based sites out there are porn.
  (tags: internet business pornography )
• Men Probably Too Hormonal and Moody to be Trusted with Important Financial Decisions
  (tags: finance viaSupergee hormones men )
• Melting Arctic blooms with algae
  (tags: OhForFucksSake algae arctic )
• Cultural Imperialism, now with bingo!
  (tags: writing society culture )
• The game of Civilization II that's been going on for almost 10 years.
  (tags: EpicStalemate games civilization )
• Amusing Ourselves To Death: Brave New World vs 1984
  (tags: thefuture BraveNewWorld 1984 AldousHuxley GeorgeOrwell )
• Game of Thrones Director Explains All the Rampant Nudity
  (tags: nudity tv GameOfThones )
• Prometheus in Fifteen Minutes
  (tags: funny prometheus )
• What effects do the incredibly successful projects have on Kickstarter?
  (tags: network kickstarter )
• Dear The Internet, This Is Why You Can't Have Anything Nice
  (tags: feminism troll internet )
• Great example of how fake real life "documentaries" can be.
  (tags: documentary fake tv )

Comments

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

On the back of the "Dear The Internet..." article, this one slipped through mostly under the radar a week or two back on the BBC pages and the World Service:

Sexual harassment in the world of video gaming
World Service "Assignment" podcast
Related BBC News article

[naath.livejournal.com]

Civ II> that made the Today program this morning.

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

That was the most terrifying story of them all today :-o

Smart sensors are being trialled all over Glasgow to allow querying of city status.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, cool. I'm sure if the data's there people will find applications for it, that's awesome.

Although now I'm mildly reminded of a Niven or Asimov story about early teleport booths, where one of the side effects was that whenever there was a crowd, people would flash in from all over the world to join in.

Re: Smart sensors are being trialled all over Glasgow to allow querying of city status.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

I think that might be Ringworld?

Re: Smart sensors are being trialled all over Glasgow to allow querying of city status.

[andrewducker]

It's mentioned in Ringworld, but fully explored in the novella "Flash Crowd":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Crowd

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

It sounds like shooting a missile at someone may be similar to them accessing your webserver -- I thought the GPL was updated at some point to only cover the person actually running the program and owning the computer, not everyone getting the benefit of it, but I don't really follow all of the cases.

[andrewducker]

If you hand them a computer running the software then you've distributed the software.

The question is whether "Firing a missile at someone" is the same as "handing someone a computer".

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

If they can get the computer missile to boot up, or at least be able to access the software after delivery then I would say yes.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Are you sure the "distribute" clause is as broad as that? If I set up a public information kiosk running windows/linux, does that count as giving someone a copy of the executable code of windows/linux? If my bus runs windows/linux, does that count as distributing the object code to everyone who rides on the bus?

If I hit someone over the head with my windows/linux computer, does that count as distributing it to them?

I think the US are definitely not GIVING the targets the missile, I think they want to retain ownership. They're at best giving them a one-time use of one specific function of it.

I agree the GPL could say this, maybe, but I didn't find it obvious that it did.

[andrewducker]

They'd have to actually have a copy of the software that they could themselves copy:

"To 'convey' a work means any kind of propagation that enables other parties to make or receive copies. Mere interaction with a user through a computer network, with no transfer of a copy, is not conveying."

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That sounds like a missile definitely doesn't count, then? (I mean, presumably the army would maintain that even if the targets were ABLE to deconstruct it somehow, they weren't given permission to do so.)

[andrewducker]

I would be absolutely shocked if a missile did count.

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

The smart sensors thing sounds ace... provided the code is open, the data is anonymized, the APIs are public, yada yada yada :)

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

For some reason it makes me think of 24.

[andrewducker]

Or "Enemy of The State".

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. Their amazing cameras and processing power that could sharpen any blurry image and find a person from footage from thousands of cameras in a few seconds! What's the computer equivalent of unobtainium??

[andrewducker]

Computronium.

From which we shall create The Singularity!

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

Should it ever develop sentience and take over the world, we can disable it very easily: it's unable to make toast.

Or you can just accidentally trip over the power cable.

[bracknellexile.livejournal.com]

It may be unable to make toast but it will invent Talkie Toaster to take care of all your bread-related needs. As an alternative though, we could ask it to make a cup of tea. That should bring it grinding to a halt :)

[usmu.livejournal.com]

You win the internets!

[spacelem.livejournal.com]

That's missile with two i's. (sorry)

[simont]

If you fire a missle containing GPL'd code at someone, do you have to make the source available too?

Aha, I think I've just worked out the answer to this. If you maintain that firing a missile at somebody containing executable code constitutes distribution (for GPL purposes) of that executable code and thus incurs an obligation on the firer to provide the target with a copy of the source, then surely you must also accept that the same distribution method is also a legitimate way to convey that copy of the source code.

So if anyone sues me for the source after I fire the first missile at them, I stick the source code somewhere inside missile #2, and just incidentally try to aim it a bit better than I did #1.

(Bonus: per GPLv2 clause 3(b) or GPLv3 6(b), I can charge them my delivery cost. So I not only get to shoot them with missile #2, but they have to pay me for it as well!)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

LOL. Good point. I guess you could even include the source code in the missile, it's not like it would make a _lot_ of difference.

Or I guess you could just wait to be sued by the free software people and rebut (a) I have missiles and (b) everyone who I shot the missiles at is dead, so there aren't any damages be awarded since they wouldn't have got any benefit from the source code :)

[usmu.livejournal.com]

Back in the day Terry Moore (almost automatically typed Pratchett there) was negotiating an animated series of the Strangers in Paradise comic with HBO. One of the reasons it fell through was the fact they kept pushing for more nudity, like character walking into the kitchen in the nude instead of their underwear. So yeah...

[andrewducker]

Oh dear. I am quite glad that it didn't get made, much though I loved SiP.

[usmu.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with you. Even though I would have loved an animated series I was glad it fell through. With Rome, etc. (haven't seen Game of Thrones, don't think I will) you can kind of justify it. With SiP it would just be so awkard and out of place.