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What's really funny is not that AOL has 146 million people spread across it's 2 services, but that it has triple the number users of the rest of the market combined!

You'd be interested to know that CMGI and others are in Washington, DC lobbying against the AOL merger until they open their services. (which they claim to keep closed to protect member security and privacy. uuhhh... then why's the government so easily able to monitor it, huh?)

kick some CAD

Uhh... 25% huh, that seems mighty high. Let's see, what could you do with all that lead... make bullets?

<POLITICIAN_SPEAK>I submit that American Electronics Association is right in trying to stop the production of more ammunition and guns buy the recycling of used monitors. I have a dream, a dream that one day all this violence will be stopped. Let's stop drugs and gang violence, stop the recycling of used monitors!</POLITICIAN_SPEAK>

... make love, not lobbyists ...

kick some CAD

I see the dilemma, if fuckedcompany were to sell fuckedcompany, they would have to list themselves as being fucked! I guess they tried to become unfuckedcompany.com. &*)

kick some CAD

well, if they can sue Napster, why the hell aren't they suing everybody who's ever created a device for making a duplicate of something. I find it fascinating that during the Industrial Revolution the ability to duplicate things was considered progress, and today it is considered a danger.

kick some CAD

There's a book about policies you can implement to protect your company... "e-policy"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obido s/ASIN/0814479960/

kick some CAD

Okay... so now we can pretend to find out who is causing those DOS attacks! ;)

Actually this is kind of scary, since most students who have any smarts should be using rsh, and pgp. I wonder if the school would have some sort of policy against those programs on their network if they were pushed to it.

kick some CAD

sounds like the riddler decided to take over the USPTO. ;)

pretty interesting read of a patent, Aug. 1, 2000 / July 25, 1933... so when does it expire?
kick some CAD

Ah... correct that Ford can't patent the car. And if the patent office would stop smoking crack Amazon wouldn't be able to patent half the shit they have. However, Ford can patent the shape of the Thunderbird!! Ford can patent their pull-out cup holders!! Ford should and can patent those things that differentiate their car from another car! Imagine if every car just copied off everyone else, then all cars would look the same and you'd have the same problem of lack of competition. Design is patentable, and though Apple may not have a patent over a cube shaped design, then may have a patent over their dinky mouse, and their funky monitor. So, either way, it is bad practice for a company to leak out their designs and other information before hand.

kick some CAD

frivilous?! If your company has internal people leaking info, you want to send a message to them. Will this stop consumer product info leakage. Probably not, but it will send a clear message that Apple wants to protect proprietary information. Design patents are important, and you don't want anything to get in the way of your patents. Especially not things getting into the public domain before they are supposed to. It could potentially be dangerous if, say a, compaq got ahold of the design well in advance and release and patented a similar product before Apple.

kick some CAD

Uhh... Freedom of Information Act?! You can request info from the CIA now, and maybe you'll get a letter back from them 10 years from now. There aren't any requirements on a time frame in which they have to resond is there?

kick some CAD

"I see this as having a chilling effect on my ability as a computer scientist to express myself," Professor Touretzky said. He was referring to the court's preliminary injunction that barred a Web site from posting the underlying, or source, code for the cracking program. "If the court upholds this injunction, what would happen is that certain uses of computer language -- my preferred means of expression -- would be illegal."

Wow... now that it is a very cool argument for freedom of expression! I must say that is clever indeed. C as a preferred means of expression. I see one flaw in this argument, not all expression is protected by the first amendment! I can not say certain words and broadcast them over the television. Granted, posted to a web site is not the same as broadcasting, but it's getting awfully close (esp. with the ongoing convergence)

kick some CAD

well, seeing how many developers it took to architect and implement windows, don't you think this might be a tad misdirected. I mean, if you think the ms version of windows returns a lot of gpfs, what about an open source version that is hacked together. Without a very disciplined team developing the code, you'll have pointers flying all over the place. I had a hard enough time trying to keep nachos in check... Good Luck.

kick some CAD

track all data traffic passing through their computers and route it to the Government Technical Assistance Center (GTAC).

that does sound rather intrusive. does anybody know how encryption laws work in the UK? can somebody get a pgp-net going and still maintain some kind of protection at least internally on their network? I suppose there must be some kind laws about strong grade encrpytion.

kick some CAD

I know I might get flamed for this, but who cares about targeting? I mean you go to Ralphs and flash your card, they know who you are, where you live, and what you buy! They then send ads to you based on that info. Does this mean that they need to follow the dame rules? It just seems to me like the is whole privacy issue is just targeting the 'net! Why are the online providers such a huge target instead of the old-school people who have been using the same tactics for a very, very long time?

kick some CAD

great... attach a 5km tether to that puppy and lets drag it around like a motorhome. ;)

First AutoCAD Virus Found!

uhh... well. if the US did kill a main portion of the net, a few things will happen.

the net will become very slow for the remaining nodes as a large portion of the backbones will go out.
also, the name servers will probably take a beating causing domain names to be useless.
the 'net will probably still move on, though. that is unless useless packets are spewn over the lines causing almost a global denial of service from packet-collisions, line saturation, etc.

kick some CAD

there was an interesting commentary on Apple's design here on zdnet. It goes through the history of Apple's design changes, and critiques the reasoning vs. the craze. some more commentary.

let's not forget that netscape was under the gun from Micro$oft. It is a traumatic experience to become a target and have to be purchased. Alot of times it takes a company a while to adjust to a new corporate structure and get back some of the talent that jumped ship through the whole thing.

kick some CAD

"While this does create an impression of confusion that is appropriate to the central themes of the book, it is also distracting at points in the story."

This seems to be a favored tactic of Clarke. Some of Stanley Kubrik's vagueness must have rubbed off on him. ;)

kick some CAD

"scampbell said that Yamaha Paper Craft has updated their rare-animal paper sculpture collection to include the Yellow-eyed Penguin."

now that's pretty cool. has anyone tried making one of these? I'm pretty sure that this is next thing be sold at any linux conference. almost free, and you can have a cluster of them. :)

Apple's Design Approach

uhhh...

www.us.sony.music
www.jp.sony.music

www.sony.trucks

kick some CAD

the amazing is that cisco didn't buy this out already?! in Santa Barbara there were quite a few companies working on telephony equipment and technologoes. Many of them were bought out by the larger companies looking to get a strangle hold on the telephony market. I think digital sound was aquired by Unisys, and cadence and others were aquired by Cisco. Ericson jumped into the ball game too.

kick some CAD

I didn't flunk biology, but I still can't decipher what they heck they're talking about?! I'm sure others on slashdot may be in the same position. This definately sounds interesting, though.

kick some CAD

Disney has one of the most ruthless marketing departments in the world (personal opinion). Did you see what these guys did when anyone tried to get into their space. For example, Anastasia.

I'm willing to bet that there may have been some other underlying motive. Maybe the competition is getting ready to put something out and they want to swamp the market at that time.

kick some CAD

trade secrets are anything that comes out of a company including drawings and processes. the rendering may very well have been a "concept". just as a concept car, the manufacturers keep tight lipped about them, even if they never intend to release them. "concept" machine designs and moldings are still "trade secrets" and it could be disasterous to let out a design before a design patent is pursued. If Apple chose to pursue this design, however, I would be rather shocked.

on the other hand, it could just be Apple pursuing remedies merely against the concept of a square machine.

kick some CAD

I'm sorry but brand valuations are HIGHLY subjective. It is difficult to truly place a value on the impact of brand. Usually they look at how much money has been put into marketing and protecting that mark. There is a point when there is a serious name recognition, but, is a brand really worth hundreds of millions or a billion dollars?! Really, it would be better to look at what that brand could possibly sell for on the open market. In other words, how much would Ross Perot pay for that brand.

kick some CAD

"The Mac Junkie has mirrors of the pics, and claims that they are frauds along with some good arguments to back it up."

the biggest problem with this story is that AppleInsider has posted alot of stuff conflicts with reports in ZDNet, and other sources (in the past). I wouldn't be surprised if someone just sat around all day fabricating stories to post to rumours sites like them.

The cube they have on the site looks like it is a render (unless it was amazingly shot, there doesn't seem to be any radiosity from the blue apple logo).

kick some CAD

In America all minors (humans under 18 years of age) are considered to be "wards of the state". This does not imply that they have the same privledges as those over 18. Though, there seems to be some consessions such as driving, etc. If you are a ward of the state, then don't worry, big-brother is looking out for your best interest! They will make sure you grow up in a violence free, sex inhibited, non-educational environment. That is unless you go to school and have to deal with the drug, drive-bys, and chicks who want to "do-it".

kick some CAD

"The RADEONTM CHARISMA ENGINETM supports full transformation, clipping and lighting (T&L) at 30 million/second processing capability for a 10 fold improvement in 3D details"

30 million what? 30 millions points/second, or 30 million triangles a second?

I am impressed with the range on 2D and 3D at the same time. What it really needs to identify is if it is OpenGL 1.1 compliant, though? (ie can the pixels scale so you can walk into particle effects like smoke and fire without it looking like crap)

kick some CAD

Isn't that the same driver with Gear Pro? Is that the company that makes Gear? It's actually kind of a pain to use! It's all command line which is nice for little things, but a pain when you want to burn a gig worth of stuff.

CAD, kicked, good

uhhh... ever heard of software rendering?! Ever heard of the renderman specification? If you don't know anything about distributed rendering technologies, maybe you should read and research before opening your mouth. You might stick your foot in it!

kick some CAD

Hey, how many of you have been to a tradeshow?! I mean if you've worked one you know that when someone from ZDTV comes around, or someone from any press comes around... out comes the press kit and a *free* copy of software/hardware! Why? Free press is the best marketing! So, its sort of a payoff, but there really isn't a guaruntee that the reviewer is going to use, review, or even like your product! This marketing tactic could blow up with a bad review! So, just because something is free doesn't mean that a reviewer is going to write something favorable. These guys get free stuff every booth they walk to. They're inundated with free stuff! (and them writing an unfavorable review is not going to keep the free stuff from coming to their door)

kick some CAD

Have you seen Dextrose for the N64? great place to find assemblers, compilers, and sources for writing stuff for the N64.

kick some CAD

What strikes me as amazing is that I know a couple of guys who ran out of machines and where running out of time during a render for a film production. These little boxes just happened to be a cheap way to get renders kicking! Now, nothing like seeing a render farm of dreamcasts?!

kick some CAD

I don't think the interesting aspect of this is the exploit. It has to be AOL's general policy! If you are going to have a strict policy to make you look good parents, why then isn't it being enforced to fullest. Not to say that censorship is a good thing, but it still says something when you a defined a policy to address complaints and still don't enforce it well. Especially with such a sensitive topic as what "children" are allowed to view. I think parents in every country are concerned to a certain extent with protecting their children.

kick some CAD

Hey, isn't every sci-fi flick about the degraded tech involved future: bladerunner et al. Now if it was an indie sci-fi flick called "How I learned to stop worrying and love the Valley", then I'd be jumping for tickets! ;)

kick some CAD

Hey, this isn't like those people who went to see nuclear testing and now have cancer is it?

I checked out the site, but there were no hard numbers as to the probability of a really disasterous serious sun storm. Anybody have this kind of info?

kick some CAD

Are any reviews really unbiased! The reviews of hardware, for example, are usually done with equipment sent in from the manufacturer. Often systems that don't even cater to the same market are compared to make one system look better than another!

Furthermore, companies buy research from comapnies like Forrester! If you pay for something, don't you think they're going to tell you what you want to hear. Hence, you'll never see a glowing Linux review in a Windows magazine.

The process hass way more problems thatn just the prospect of recieving free software.

kick some CAD

I think it requires you to look at things as generated. If you generated HTML output, then that is a "derivative" work if I'm not mistaken. Since it is derivative, what you do with it is still limited by the original license.

kick some CAD

Well, which company paid off the probation office?

I know that alot of people here are going to put me on the sh*t list, but he was convicted and serving a sentence. Why whould there be a 180-degree reversal. Something just sounds fishy.

still, it is good to see some justice from absurd rulings.

geek = chic, but does CAD = geek

Boy that must have been exciting. Did Orin Hatch have that little vein on his forehead throbing as he said it?!

guess the music industry should be paying more money to the republican party!

kick some CAD

This is great and all, but why not burn regular CDs?!! I mean, it's better quality than an mp3?! This whole mp3 thing is just branding gone awry. Its an opportunity to make your company seem like it's jumping on the internet or new technology band wagon. Up the stock prices, eh boys?

kick some CAD

a network is almost always configured as a figgin' network. of course it will probably work with *nix, you get an ip, or you use dhcp, it is still delivering an address for the os to spew out ip packets with. thus, when they say win98 is all that's "supported" what they mean is that is all their technicians will "support". they don't probably don't want to be responsible for some *nix head who doesn't know how to configure their nic.

kick some CAD

This sounds like they don't get the point of rumour site to me?! If the stories are unconfirmed, and people want to check out "supposed" news, then why the hell waste your time and money stopping them. It's not like your sales department is promising these products, nor that anyone else is saying that these stories are for-sure things. What would tech be without the right to speculate?!

kick some CAD

Okay, those pictures are almost surreal! I feel get this Fritz Lang Metropolis "people-eating machine" look-and-feel. That just looks scary!

Seeing as it's explosive, does this thing give of a massive shockwave, or is the energy many directed vertically?
Oracle announces $199 Linux Net-Boxes!

Well... now that's really blowing your horn!

Oracle announces Net-Devices?!

Okay, so now we can see all the lewd subliminal frames as we flip through the DVD. Scary to think of all the hidden things we might find in Dragon Ball Z. I wonder if the cop-offs like Pokemon do the same thing? ;)

CAD

Well, technically NSI is no longer a monopoly. I think they need to get their head on straight and realize that they can't do whatever they want anymore! I think too many people are frustrated with their ever cryptic policies. Now that other players can give domains to people, this would definately constitute domain hijacking!

CAD, kicked, good

Well, placing the human genome online is great. It doesn't make sense to patent a particular gene sequence... so it makes sense that it would be available. What WILL end up getting patented and licensed is PROCESS and METHODS to retrieve, map, and develop derivative drugs from dna. Some interesting stuff is what Protien Design Labs is doing. They *humanize* rodent therapies. I can imagine there are a slew of drugs that work in other species, yet will not work in humans. The ability to takes these and determine possible differences in geneitic components will aid creators of therapies (gene or otherwise).

UG and GM to hold live Internet Conference

uhhh... Okay then I really didn't say what I said. It wasn't me, I swear! Please don't come after me... mommy... mommy!

But really, Echelon has to be the scariest thing I've heard of, up to now. I just figured they were monitoring the text based stuff, but if they're doing it with phones, etc. that's almost beyond comprehension. I wondered why the government was buying all those cray-linked SGIs? :)

SolidWorks on Linux?