Free thinking
Robert Muetzelfeldt's letter (Feedback, February 1) is a prime example of one of the classic misunderstandings about free software, yet it was written in the largest "open source" package in the world - the English language. English is an open standard, owned by no one; and anyone is free to modify it as they wish. Does this make it impossible to make a profit using English? Of course not. Ask Glyn Moody. Gideon Hallett
diogenes@freeuk.com
Doomed
Like Robert Muetzelfeldt, I also liked the sound of Glyn Moody's book, Rebel Code, but did not want to pay £9.99. I have discovered a subversive organisation called a "library" which enables me to read this, and millions of other books, for free. Surely the publishing industry is now doomed. A Royle
admin@ecsoftware.co.uk
Open season
David Harper (Feedback, February 2) is right to sing the praises of open standards such as the internet standards defined in requests for comment (RFCs). They are valuable because they are available to everyone and built on consensus and best practice. However it is not accurate to describe them as "open source". The Open Source movement (see www.opensource.org/osd.html) states that, among other things, software licensed as open source "must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed under the same terms as the license of the original software". In other words, you can take a copy of an open source program, understand, change and improve it, and re-release it (still as open source) to the general benefit of all.
Public standards are definitely not open source, since this rule does not apply. Individuals changing or "improving" standards leads to the sort of chaos we see in the browser world, where each different browser and version has its own annoying quirks and incompatabilities. This cynical attempt to "own" the browser market causes pain to us all. If this approach were applied to TCP/IP or SMTP (mail), then the internet would grind to a halt.
Nick Rozanski
nick@rozanski.com
Write on
I'd like to commend Glyn Moody for such an excellent article about free software and Linux (Online, January 25). As a Linux user and supporter I'm naturally happy to see a positive article on the subject, but I was particularly impressed by how well written the whole thing was, and how well you understood and explained the issues. Lars Jannsen
lars@ukmix.net
Time to split
In Andrew Ward's survey of how to deal with large files (Online, February 1) he could have mentioned a useful utility called FileSplit, which is freeware available at www.partridgesoft.com FileSplit is a utility to split large files into smaller files so that they can be easily copied to floppy disks or transferred via email.
Files can be split directly from Windows Explorer by right-clicking on any file and selecting Split File. I have used it to split all sorts of files without problems.
Mike Cox
oxfordtours@ntlworld.co
Handy iTool
I found Andrew Ward's article about free internet hard drive storage interesting and informative. However, he failed to mention the offering by Apple, iDisk, which is part of the iTools service. The service is available to all Mac users with OS 9. Once you have signed up for iTools you get 20 megabyte of free iDisk space. You can then make an alias of the iDisk on your desktop, which acts like any other hard disk. Double-click on the alias and your computer will automatically dial up your ISP and mount your iDisk space. You can then drag and drop files to and from your folder just like your local hard disk. Although Xdrive has a similar option, iDisk acts like any Mac hard disk and is fully integrated into the Mac OS. You do not have to use a browser and there is no additional software download and use.
Andy Kingsley
andykingsley@hotmail.com
Hack 'n' crack
Online refers to a DoS (Denial of Service) attack as a hack and L0pht as hackers. A DoS attack is actually a crack used on Usenet well before the hordes of marketdroids tried to claim the internet. L0pht are not hackers. They are white hat crackers dedicated to exposing security flaws. There is a fundamental difference between crackers and hackers. Hacker live to create while crackers enjoy breaking into systems. As a hacker in training, I find this annoying, especially as Glyn Moody wrote Rebel Code, a book about the greatest hackers known (ESR, RMS, Linus and Alan Cox). Please try to stop this worrying trend in the media to misuse terms and try to change their meaning. Jamie Dainton
mail@dainton.org.uk
Be cautious
Susan Koomen (Feedback, February 1) should beware of jumping too readily to the conclusion that brain tumours are connected to mobile phone usage. For example, the only people I know who have caught a cold this winter have been alcohol drinkers - does this mean that alcohol causes colds, or simply that I know a lot of alcohol drinkers?
With half the population owning mobile phones, one should expect mobile phone users to have as many illnesses as anyone else. A government panel of UK medical experts sat last year to search specifically for health problems from mobile phone usage. They found absolutely none, but sensibly advised users to be cautious about over-use. After all, no one thinks a torch is dangerous, but would you shine one into your ear for six hours a day?
Dave Neale
dave.neale@btinternet.com
