Anyone using a BN to mail here?

[Gregory Nowak]

Hi Again Sabahattin and all.

On Mon, Jun 09, 2003 at 10:43:42AM +0100, Sabahattin Gucukoglu wrote:
> On that note, should I dig out the debate I had with a Mr. Whatsisname on 
> BN/Linux from the PDI list of old, forward it here, and let the lava rain?
> 

Sure, why not? It would be nice to see some lively discussion under way here, given the current list traffic.

> BTW, got the OS/2 bed ready, so when I get home and assuming I'm not 
> bothered by loads of other stuff I have to do I'll dig out those KSA synth 
> codes.  We're on our way, folks...
> 

Sounds good. I believe Frank who is on this list mentioned to me privately once that he had been working on a cross-compiler for the bn, perhaps he could expand on where that's at right now, and if we get an effort going, it might be finished up.
I think the next major obstacle is hardware. PDI isn't naturally willing to provide us with test units to work with (they've been asked before), and since the braille note unit I have now is owned by the state of Illinois, I'm not exactly at liberty to crack it open, and start replacing rom chips.
I'm thinking about getting my own voice note, but finances are an issue.

> One thing of interest that cropped up is that such an action is illegal.  
> I want to point out that here again our niche market puts us in great 
> danger.  By niche market, I mean that the people who profit from access 
> technology do so with considerable impunity.  How many people who sniff 
> out USB commands for a videocamera get sent to court?  It is possible that 
> such an action constitutes a penal offense.  Woops.   I bring this up 
> because the recent discussion on Slashdot about the violation of the SFS's 
> copyrighted code distributed under the GPL, exploited by a TV company, 
> which may result in a court case, could go under if the GPL is found to 
> encourage illegal practices.  I truely hope all goes well for them.
> 

All you say is true. After all, it's pretty clear that we aren't going about this with PDI's blessing.
On the other hand, Microsoft likes to think that gnu/linux and the gpl are illegal, so ...

Regards,
Greg