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January 2009, #177
It's a battle as old as time: good vs. evil. Fortunately, Linux and FOSS are on our side as we wage the battle against those who try to steal our secrets and invade our systems.
Checking your system's security is best done sooner rather than later. Test the locks with our article on security verification; find out how to use PAM to help secure your systems; use MinorFS and AppArmor to implement discretionary access control; learn more about Samba security in part III of our series; use Darknet to help detect bots and secure your systems; use the Yubikey to increase your site's security; and don't forget to lock the doors, because a cold boot attack could render your security useless if somebody has physical access to your computer.
But, we're not just about sowing the seeds of fear. We also show you how to use memcached in Rails, how to manage multiple servers efficiently, how to deploy applications easily with Capistrano, how to manage your videos with MythVideo, how to mix it up a bit (your audio that is), and even play a few games.
Bolderdash - I disagree!
On January 18th, 2007 BSEE + MSCS (not verified) says:
Dear Editors,
Thank you for the history of patent law wrt software & the internet.
I found this to be one of the best summaries I've ever seen and very useful.
All your logic and arguments make sense, except when you begin to blurr what a scientific truth is versus an algorithm. I don't see it. I'm fairly well educated and do not intend to go back to college - actually I never left. I'm now working on a PhD, part time. Turing and/or others may have shown that not all "problems" (Note: Not algorithms) can be solved in finite time. However, it doesn't follow that all algorithms are physical laws of nature. For example, which law of nature is it that says you can execute/commit an internet purchase with a single mouse click? I'm not arguing that Amazon's one-click patent will hold up in court, nor that it should have been awarded. I would take issue with this portion of this patent based on its simplicity and obviousness. However, as they say, hind-sight is 20-20.
Try to think of patentable software (some not all) as the distillation of a process into an algorithm that is hardware independent. Obviously it must execute on hardware to be useful, but the essence of the process doesn't really care what type of hardware it executes on, or if practical, even if it's done manually. Many processes that can be implemented in specialized hardware, can also be implemented in software on generic hardware, or done manually. I doubt you would have a problem with patenting a process if it were implemented in specialized hardware. So why argue against patenting the underlying process?
My advice to you is that if you don't see this - don't go back to college. Education is not the issue. My guess is that you have an axe to grind and for some reason you are a bit prejudice against software. I've encoutered this sort of attitude many times in my career over the past 30 years, as software and computers (e.g. generic hardware) has moved to the forefront, often displacing specialized hardware skills. I'm curious, are or were you guy ever hardware engineer(s) or just history buffs?
:-)
Best Regards,
BS-EE + MSCS