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Thursday, September 02, 2004 13:02 // SUCON'04, Technopark, Zurich, Switzerland // href
by Robert Griessmer
For the technical Information, read my earlier entry about Urs Hoelzels talk.
About cheep hardware: If one writes his software under the assumption that hardware is going to fail anyway. This makes lots of problems much simpler. If the number of machines grows really high, you can employ people who spend their days swapping broken ones.
These days Google designs their own bare-bone boards with only the necessary components for the stuff, the machines are required to-do.
Google Philosophy
Make the worlds information search able.
Do things that matter, and do them algorithmically so that they are scalable.
Every engineer has a free day per week to work on his own fun projects.
Google Tricks
Spell checking happens statistically. Google does not know what is right, but what is most popular.
Google provides an API for programmers.
Experimental projects (labs.google.com ...)
Google Zurich Office
Right in the city center. Entire range of software development. Meant to attract European engineering talent. Tight integration with the Mountain View offices.
Jobs: (www.google.ch ...)
User Questions
Q: What is your crawling bandwidth
A: Well about this (shows with hands) Size.
...
A: oh and ... no comment ... I can't really talk about this.
Thursday, September 02, 2004 17:03 // SUCON'04, Technopark, Zurich, Switzerland // href
by David Rosenthal
Open Source in Government
Could government require that only Open Source software be submitted for a new text processing system to be procured? Yes, but only if the fact of it being Open Source was directly tied to the core functionality of the software and requirements in this area. This point may be difficult to make, depending on the nature of the software.
If GPL software is modified by one branche of the governemnt and passed on to a different branch. This is a sort of publication. Accordning to the GPL license the second branche gets a license with the code which allows it to redristribute the modified version without restrictions, takeing it effectively out of the control of the first party.
Copyright
Every program of an "individual nature" is protected by copyright law. "Individual" means, that the code is potentially recognizable as being written by that particular author. This right does not have to be registered or patented or anything. Every author has it.
In Swiss law this means that I as an Author have the exclusive right to decide whether and how my product is used. I can give all or some of my rights up to a third party .. aka grant a license. GPL or any of the other Open Source licenses operate on this principle.
GPL can be enforced. 19.5.2004 the Munich District upheld the GPL in a case of netfilter team vs firewall vendor.
Contract Law
If I modify an Open Source product for a third party (contract) I can become liable for any problems with the whole product if I do not exclude this in the contract. This is not special for Open Source products but it may easily go under the radar. Becareful when drafting your contracts.
Warranty and liability can be limited, but only to the extent allowed in the law. Swiss Law: Any limitation of liability for gross negligence or willful intent is void.
Do not trust in disclaimers. Be open about the limitations of your product. Reduce the expectations in your product.
Software Patents
European patent law is fundamentally different from US patent law. In the US "everything under the sun, made by man" can be patented. In Europe patent are strictly limited to technoligical inventions. And even there. Patents have to be new, not obvious to someone skilled in the 'art' and there must be no prior art. This is not going to change in the next 10 to 20 years at least.
Patents are granted easily, but they may not be valid. In the first 9 Months after publication they are very simple to kill. Greenpeace does this all the time in the biotech area.
The likely hood of a big player (aka MS) going against a small one are slim as the PR damage would be huge, not to speak of all the anti-trust issues.
Conclusion
Open Source doesn't have particular legal problems. But make sure you read the fine print of the licenses.
Legal issues with OSS are very similar to commercial software.
Worrying about patents is of no use.
Thursday, September 02, 2004 18:10 // SUCON'04, Technopark, Zurich, Switzerland // href
by Poul-Henning Kamp
Compters are now 50 years old. Unix is 30 years old.
We write code on the screen and not on paper. but thats about it.
Unix has blown more chances at being a big success than any other operating system. It's about making the same mistakes again.
The problem
Programming happens in the brain and not in the computer. Throw your thinking at problems not more hardware. Programmers should have slow machines.
Instead of baking a bigger cake. Unix companies fight about the same piece.
The state today
Uncountable Linux distros, a handfull of BSDs, IBM AIX - IBM the Unix way, Sun Solaris - Unix the Sun Way, HP-UX - Unix cul de sac, Mac OS X - yea, its Unix, but don't worry about it.
Unix Standards
Very weak, Incomplete, Ambigous,
POSIX. Everybody made sure that their product was covered by it. Its not a standard but rather a panorama of things to-do. MVS is POSIX compliant, and so is Windows.
The one good standard is the "POSIX 1E" security extension. Which was never formally adopted, but everybody sticks to it religiously.
The Linux Standards Base will fail because it defines what we have today. It repeats the mistakes of POSIX. Its not about how Unix should be.
Should we save Unix
_No_
Architectural mess.
No significant invention in the last 20 years
Everybody thinks in his box.
_Yes_
You get the source
The only alternative is LongHorn
Can Unix be saved - No
no market model
no cooperation to generate a market
too much politics
Can Unix be saved - Yes
Start thinking outside your box
Stop bickering about irrelevant details (BSD/Linux, Gnome/KDE)
Work on the real problems. Fight for open data. Fight the software patent mafia.
Invent things! Plan9 (namespaces), Sun (Java), Apple (User Interfaces), Your Name could be here,
Find the next Web.
Quotes
The only thing Unix has invented is Unix.
The KDE people sit in the KDE box. They have a little hole in their box to see the GNOME people.
I don't care about your license as long I get your source. I even wrote a license for it.
Content © by Tobias Oetiker