Posts by Nikolai Kuzmin

Oracle sues Google over Java in Android

oracle is right on this one

What Google is doing is subverting and fragmenting the platform. They work outside of JCP, they implement something that is neither a subset nor a superset of any standart Java platform - it has stuff that is not part of SE and misses mandatory bits of ME - replacing them with custom functonality. Google did not write their VM from scratch - they borrowed from Apache Harmony project (which does strive to build a fully compliant implementation of Java) and threw out enough bits to make it incompatible with any other Java VM and not subject to JCP, i.e. controlled by Google only.

Why Google did not use Java ME (or SE - the hardware is good enough)? They did want android to look open and attract developers, but they did not want it to be really open because that might have scared network operators. So, when faced with choice - go fully open (and use opensource JCE-compliant VM) or go fully closed (and license a JCE-compliant VM like other phone makers do) they choose to cut a new path. We'll see where it leads.

One thing is certain, though. Oracle is no SCO, they have much much more money, and if Google does not come back into the fold of JCP soon more lawers will become very very rich.

Console modders attempt to bypass Xbox Live ban

piracy vs stealing

No need to blur the lines on this one.

To steal is simply to take someones item without their permission, while the heinous crime of piracy is to exercise certain right, such as to plunder sea trade or to sell overpriced games/movies/etc without writ from the power in which this right is vested. Thus piracy was always punished much more severely than mere theft.

DHS deploys undercar Kraken tentacle-bombs

Heat activated second stage...

What about cars with rear-mounted engines e.g. Porshe or ZAZ?

US Air Force outlines combat raygun safety

Re: Only 32 pages

It's one of them natural bureaucracy laws - simple tools need longer instructions because they have to be detailed down to very basic operations. On the other hand a complex tool will have more logic built-in and therefore need only a few high-level hints to work. Thus, an infinitely complex tool would not need any instruction manual at all, while an infinitely long instruction manual will get the job done without any tool.

Microsoft Silverlight: 10 reasons to love it, 10 reasons to hate it

Solution looking for a problem

that's what IMO Silverlight is. I have had flash blocked in my browser for a few years now and never missed it. So, why does the world need something even fatter and less secure? Application in browser? WTF? For enterprise class remote application access look no further than Citrix et al. SOHO should be happy with RDP (or X) over some kind of VPN. SL does not add anything that ActiveX or .Net or flash or Java doesn't already do, yet it does open whole new ground for advert spammers and browser hackers. My rules regarding 'rich content' are very simple: if the website can't do its thing in html + JS they do not want my business.

Huge VAT fraud tab eclipses EU's age-old scams

Easy solution

Abolish VAT. No VAT -> no VAT fraud.

Veggies a 'perversion of nature': Official

B12 in marmite...

is made by yeast, so this stuff is full of dead animals.

Recording industry puts stake in ground with Jammie Thomas case

stealing CD is different

When you steal a CD, it is the shop that gets hurt - they have invested money and labour into their stock. Once you steal it the shop no longer has it. The publisher of the CD is not hurt by the theft - they've got their money from the shop already.

When you copy friend's CD - your friend still has the original. The publisher has not invested anything into making this copy (and has probably got some money from the blank media tax). The only problem is that you have made this copy without their blessing. This illegal activity is properly termed 'piracy' as in 'engaging in high-sea robbery without letter of marque' to the detriment of law-abiding citizens who have taken care (and expense) of obtaining said letter/blessing. Now if we translate the situation into proper terms the position of media companies is that all the available plunder is theirs by right and any takings by unlicensed ships are their direct losses.

Har.

Plan for 20mph urban speed-cam zones touted

The simple solution

Just ban cars with more than 5hp:

- carbon emissions go down,

- road deaths go down,

- cheaper cars,

- etc.

Hugo Chavez rails against teen Bulgarian airbags

They are not done growing yet at 15!

Even when done on an adult woman implants usually end up looking ugly. Now, at 15 the breast is still growing and the result is totally unpredictible, exept that it is going to be even uglier than with adults.

Russia plans 2025 Moonbase, 2035 Mars shot

Nothing was actually said about vodka,

Then what do you think he was referring to in

"involve huge challenges in terms of storage space and stress on the crew"