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Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> __/ [ Mark Kent ] on Wednesday 26 July 2006 17:50 \__
>
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>> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>> __/ [ Mark Kent ] on Tuesday 25 July 2006 23:08 \__
>>>
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>>>> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
>>>>> Here's the very lastest among the projects. More appear at the top pane.
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.pegasushabproject.org.uk/pegasus3.html
>>>>
>>>> Excellent - some real science, done with real open information models,
>>>> as proper science should be.
>>>
>>> I do all research with free open source software with the
>>> exception of MATLAB for Linux, which is proprietary. I was
>>> once told that it had been written in C, but it is 'look,
>>> but do not touch' (or redistribute), which is counter to the
>>> aim of science and exploration.
>>
>> When I first read the GPL, it just read like the philosophy of science
>> to me.
>
> Stallman came from the MIT research labs, but I remain wondering if he was a
> researcher, or s SysAdmin, or a programmers. From what I can recall he was
> frustrated with the waste (lack of re-use), as well as the way in which
> programs were written (in isolation, exclusive competition). All of this is
> a very misinformed statement from various bits that I can recall.
>
> Speaking of "philosophy of science", imagine yourself a viva where the
> candidate refuses to disclose what data was used and what methods /exactly/
> were used. Some authors still try to obscure some technical details in their
> publications. Such key details are hidden to hinder reproducibility by
> competing academic groups. Greed, greed, gredd.
>
This is a result of the "knowledge economy" which everyone is so firmly
convinced we're moving to. All the debates around "intellectual property"
(what an awful term it is too) are really spun from the same start-point.
The basic idea is that if we can have an idea /first/, and then lock it
down, we can be richer than everyone else. The best way to guarantee
that would seem to be to employ the largest number of people thinking of
things, and then the largest number of patent/legal people.
I've nothing against capitalism, but I'm not happy about slowing
development using these methods.
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
"A child is a person who can't understand why someone would give away a
perfectly good kitten."
-- Doug Larson
|
|
