I once heard a prominent scientist say, of global warming, that he didn't realize how much he would have to learn about politics. I just read an excellent article in DDJ about the Jacobsen verus Katzer case. When in university, I didn't know how much I would have to learn about the law. It seems to me that a big hole in the classic com...
A lot of Computer Science courses seem to be running Law modules as standard, in order to teach students about things like The Data Protection Act, Copyright, etc. Realistically, is Law an important subject for Computer Scientists or Programmers? Did you take Law or take a Law class whilst studying for a CS related degree? If you did, d...
I am working on a project at work and see an opportunity to extract and abstract some functionality that is part of the project and release it as open source. I have a hard time accepting the idea that this functionality should remain propietary and believe the open source community would get a major benefit from it. Would this be un...
A bit of background: Earlier today I downloaded an EDI library in Java that is licensed under the GPL. The GPL is no good to me, as I need to sell the application I'm working on (I like eating and having a house :) ), so I can't use this library as I can't open source my entire application. However, I like what the guy who wrote it has ...
What non-programming-specific formulas do you use the most whilst working as a programmer? I'm thinking of non-trivial formulas/theorems from the field of mathematics, logic or science that you constantly put in to practice. The type of formulas they would make you rote learn at uni and that appear in bold in textbooks, rather than leng...
We all know the common laws that (seem to) rule computing like Moore's law, etc. But there are the funky ones : Murphy's law : Something that can go wrong, will. That's why your if you cover 99 % of your code with unit tests, the 1% breaks during the marketting presentation, the day your mother in law comes for diner while you have a h...
This question was originally posted with a similar title to this but was changed as the subject was not a moral issue. However it was a good topic for a wiki question. There are times when you are asked to implement features which you are not comfortable with, perhaps some mass emailing program, or something which access data on a PC w...
Emphasis on structure: Code layout/interfaces Physical file layout etc. Naming of files and classes etc. My understanding is that if the implementation is completly different then your ok to use the layout as that can't really be 'copyrighted'? For example if a solution has X, Y, Z projects with classes arranged in certain fol...
I am currently modifying a framework which was released to the public domain. Is it ok for me to then release a new framework based on some code from the public domain sourcetree as licensed under Apache ? ...
My Googling results in a huge amount of unnecessary results with C. My hope is to get the best C manuals local. I find the reference useful here. I would like to make my own notes and removal to the manual. Can I manage it somehow like a local manual? Feedback to the repliers worried about the law Please, read this post about so...
I've heard that Japan has a law that stipulates that all pages that contain forms with personal information must be SSL-encrypted. For example, under this law, a simple contact form with a "name" and "email address" fields would need to be encrypted. Is this true? Does anyone have a link to the details of this law (japanese language...
I'm trying to build an iPhone application that gathers content from real estate websites to display it in a mashed-up and structured manner (mapping, price averages...etc) I've stumbled upon many sites whose "Terms and Conditions" only allow downloading/re-using the data for personal purposes but not commercial ones. My intent is to hav...
We have Amdahl's law that basically states that if your program is 10% sequential you can get a maximum 10x performance boost by parallelizing your application. Another one is Wadler's law which states that In any language design, the total time spent discussing a feature in this list is proportional to two raised to the ...
Suppose an actor A has the site of an actor B in iFrames. There is no difference in the sites except the url. Urls are totally different. Should the actor A ask a permission of the actor B for using B's site? Is there any law that forbid placing other site on a site in iFrames? ...
I've seen code from time to time that has a clause in the license or at the top of the code that mentions that the author is not liable and does not guarantee that the code is fit for production, or something to that effect. I'm no expert in legality and licensing, I'm just wondering why this is done. Have there actually been cases wher...
Hi there, I've been programming for several years now. I also am skilled in english and enjoy the subject of law. I recognize its high pay and job security. If i were to study software engineering and then law: 1) is this an unusual combination? 2) do companies need individuals with this kind of qualification? 3) what kind of tasks ...
I have been reading C++ and writing small programs in it for more than a year. Recently I came across Law of The Big Three. I never knew about this law. Accidentally, I found it here: Rule of Three. May I know any other such laws in C++? ...
I'm using a BSD API to build my own API and I'm wondering if there is any restriction when I will release my own API in term of license choice, packaging, distribution ... I'm also curious about what do you guys think is the better way to pay homage to the API that we use : documentation citation, code source citation ... To summarise...
I want to write a tigase (a xmpp/jabber server) plugin and tigase is published under GPL3. My plugin would use xmpp extensions to add needed functionalities. The plugin would be load at runtime. ...
Hi all. Some time ago I read on the Net something like "you learn a thing only when you really need it" (e.g., learning a new programming language). If memory serves me well that was a sort of "law" or "principle", ironic or not, and I cannot remember its author's name. Any help in identifying the correct phrase and its author? Thanks...