Slashdot Mirror

The entire patent system really needs an overhaul for the 21st. century.

Of course, I doubt we'll get it.

Oh, we'll get it. Just like we 'got' copyright reform in the form of the 'Digital Millennium Copyright Act'. Of course, it wont be what's "right" or what's "best". But it will certainly be in the best interests of those organizations that have lots of money...

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

It's not just commissions, it's commissions on the internet man.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

I really liked O'reilly's metaphor of the net as an ecosystem, one, that like the nascent PC industry stagnated under corporate control. He really makes an interesting point, one that I think is pretty much true. We all remember how cool the Internet used to be, and how much it sucks now... An advertising network awash in pop-up windows, Spam, and "push media". Where "portal players" compete for "eyeballs". The term, of course is from the television industry, where it actually makes some sense. But the fact that they borrow metaphors from the that industry really tells us what they think of there customer base, and where they want to take the Internet (Just look at iwon.com shudder)

Well, I'm never one to pass up a chance to bash the current state of the Internet, but O'reilly's statement really got me thinking. Could the 'ecosystem' idea be applied to the Open Source movement? The Free Software Movement has been around for a long time, helping people get good, quality software programmed mostly for fun. But, Ironically, there's money to be made in it. ESR came around and renamed the movement, and made himself quite a bit of money. And now the corporations are all over it. Some, such as IBM (witch has really always been about hardware and support) see it for what it is, a way to get good software. But others, most notably VA and RedHat depend on it for their livelihood.

We are already seeing the results of the corpiritzation of open source, and I wonder what will happen when it is completely commercialized... (or even if that will really happen)

it's 2AM, there's some marginal spell checking, but other then that...

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

History isn't over, neither is economics. In 1900, many intellectuals forsaw a future of peace and leisure, where everyone would be rich. It didn't happen for them, and it won't happen for us.

But don't you see, it has happend for us. At least in the US, someone would be considered 'poor' by our standards would be considered rich or at least middle class by their standards.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

Well, that's a loaded statement; I'll ignore the elitism, but the fact is, most of the farming areas of the U.S. are now being chewed up by enormous corporations who care much more about profit and yield today, than any long term land management.

That's such bullshit. One of the side effects of living in Iowa is that I know what's actually happening in the Ag industry, and what you described isn't it. Farms, for the most part, are still owned by individual farmers, and the system is optimized to serve there needs. And also, these farmers plan to be working their land for the rest of their lives. They take conservation very seriously.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

Wow, the whole time from when I saw this story on slashdot, until the time I actually loaded the link, I thought it was talking about Bruce Perns. I really read slashdot to much, I think....

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

Oh, you mean like that 6 year old kid, at that elementary school? Or the guy that got killed in that recent shooting spree? Not to mention the very large number of "disappearances" that happen in the US, every year.

I think Hineric Hemler would have loved that statement. Well, maybe not Hemler, but whatever member of the Nazi party was in charge of propaganda. I can't tell one damn Nazi from another these days.

Linking true statements to conjecture " Not to mention the very large number of "disappearances" that happen in the US, every year.". What are you talking about? By large numbers, do you mean 10? Or maybe 100? This is out of 280 million people. Large numbers of people do not just "Disappear" in the US each year. As for a few isolated incidents, those happen everywhere. I seem to recal a couple of UK kids stoning a little girl to death after seeing an episode of Power Rangers a few years back. What does this say about the UK? Nothing. The US is not a "dangerous place to live" And certainly not anywhere near the level of Anarchic, war torn, states like Chechnya and "that place in Africa"

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

From the article:

Trans Union indicated it had expected the decision. "We regret the commissioners did not agree with our legal opinion, but we are not surprised," said Oscar Marquis, Trans Union's vice president and general counsel, in a statement.

So, they knew what they were doing was wrong, at least in the abstract sense of 'against the law' and yet, they did it anyway. They should throw these fuckers in jail if you ask me. I guess big corps get to break whatever laws they want if they think they can legally worm there way out. (What would be really nice is if we got that $2,500 that they would have been fined for each instance)

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

Apple just hyped the fact that the G4's fell under obsolite 20 year old guidelines for what was a supercomputer. The laws were actualy updated a few months before the computers came to market, IIRC. So, what you saw on just more Apple BS.

BTW, PSX2's are way, way more powerfull then a G4 mac.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

The article just says it's illegal to transport the psx2. But they don't say who's laws it would be a violation of. Although US encryption laws are pretty fucked up, they haven't tried to stop Americans from using, and importing, whatever encryption they want. The same with supercomputers (although, the article doesn't say that that's what this is about).

If this actually is the case, and not just someone's third hand misinterpretation of the "No exporting supercomputer" law like I think it is, it could really only be a violation of Japanese law. American people aren't beholden to Japanese laws, so we would be free to import it. Of course, the person you would be buying it from would be breaking the law... but you would be in the clear.

If you ask me, this is ether a misinterpretation of the US's supercomputer export laws (witch say nothing about importing), or a cheap scam to raise the price of Japanese PSX2's in the US initially.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

"Beaver all girls collage" eh... damn, I think the President or whatever has the right Idea. The joke is just waiting to be made...

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

You'll notice that that was post #104 on slashdot today. You should really read post 105 where I clarified my position....

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

What, so black male teenagers need to dress up in suits and faggoty nation of islam bowties all the time?

Whatever. People shouldn't be singled out for dressing the way they dress just beacuse a small persentage of them are gang-banging dope dealers.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

that was ment to be an annonoymously posted troll. Please moderate it down as such (I don't really think that way :P)

There are a lot of parallels between this and the Diallo shooting if you think about it, although that situation is much, much worse. I mean, do you really need to shoot someone 19 times to stop them? I think those cops should be fired at least.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

I understand that a lot of you probably feel that what was done to Steve Jackson games was unwarranted. But, for a monument, put yourself in the position of Law enforcement. They can't be expected to know everything about the computer world. These guys were selling and distributing documents that clearly laid out plans for hacking computer systems. Yes, these were fictional systems (although, the techniques described could easily be applied to real systems running at the time), but how could we expect the FBI to know that?

If you were distributing a filer that said "How to make LSD in your basement, for fun and profit", wouldn't you expect the cops to come and arrest you? Even if the document didn't really tell people how to make the stuff, and you were doing it as a joke. No, they should arrest you, and then let you go if it was discovered that you really didn't commit a crime. No one was permanently arrested here (in fact, no one was actually arrested. They just had their toys taken away).

Law enforcement has a responsibility to uphold the law, mistakes are sometimes made. Better safe then sorry. (and don't get me started about this whole Diallo shooting thing)

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

http://pangaea.dhs.org/tux.gif

You can also get the TIFF file if you really want to see it in 24 bpp color.

---
chahast at pangaea dot dhs dot org

http://pangaea.dhs.org/tux.gif

You can also get the TIFF file if you really want to see it in 24 bpp color.

---
chahast at pangaea dot dhs dot org

From the mozilla crypto FAQ, it says "We know of at least two efforts which may produce PGP support for Mozilla." I don't know what they are.
However, I do know of the PGP Plugin for Netscape which replaces the spell checker with a PGP encrypter. The source is available, so such a beast (having the add-on you sugguested available as a module) could be easily implemented.

slashdot links to fatbrain.com, not Amazon. You should really try to have some clue before spouting off. They still link to Amazon for videos, but the books point to fatbrain, as they have since soon after RMS's call for a boycot.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

Wrong. If he decided that O'Reilly (the company) would no longer ship through Amazon, his company loses money. He is not the company, and other people have an interest in that money. Can you say shareholder lawsuit?

Is O'Reilly a publicly traded company? Are you sure? I don't know, but I don't think it is. In that case, there would be no shareholders to sue.

Even if it were, if Amazon were to get a monopoly on bookselling, it could be damaging for the company in the end. So he could always claim that he was doing this for the good of the company. He has to do what's best for the company, but he gets to decide what the best thing for the company is

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

I hope you apreciate the irony of your position.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

wget -r http://amulon.dhs.org/usb_dev/

Someone did that to me once. I lost 5 karma points in the space of a few hours. It really pissed me off. Slashdot is going strait to hell...

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

and just so you know, Yu Suzuki is a guy. He's a game designer for Sega of japan, and the guy behind There A&M2 development team, who made daytona USA, among others. He may have had a hand in the creation of sonic the hedge hog, but I'm not sure.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

for one thing, Neuromancer was not his first story.

And secondly, how the hell is All Tomorrows Parties like Neromancer? I mean there obviously some parallels, but they are hardly the same story at all.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

Gibson most certanly does own a computer. I know this for a fact. He didn't own one in 1984, when he wrote Neromancer, but he does now.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

Even more than that though, a lot of times, people can say more in a -1 post than a +2 post. They don't say it in a straightforward way, but there's this huge spin of sarcasm and irony there. Look at parent post. True, most of the comments are kind of cliched, but he said them in a damn funny way.

Oh, BTW, this doesn't even come close to the "I love monkeys" short story troll. Now *that* was funny. I about messed myself when I read it. Here's
a link, not a link to porn, but a link to the story if you're curious about that I love monkey story.

Reall, you can get anything you could ever want on IRC, and freenet really dosn't solve the problem of finding information... so whats the point?

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

Look, would you rather have 512 Megs of slow ram, or 16 Megs of core speed ram. The reason ram is so slow now is because its so cheap, Less then a dollar a Meg. When the pIII came out, it had about a half Meg, of half speed cache, and that cost almost as much as the processor die itself. I'm sure it would be possible to make SDRAM run at 800mhz, without changing anything, but why would you want to? Look at just the price difference between an Athlon 800 and an Athlon 500. Now imagine the price of RAM chips when going from 100mhz to 800. The CPU spends hardly any time whatsoever accessing memory outside the cache, speeding up main memory to core speeds wouldn't speed the computer up very much at all. Like I said, go into your BIOS and try disabling L1, and L2 cache. There's an order of magnitude difference in performance when you do that, because the CPU never really uses Main memory other then for loading and unloading once.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

What's the point of trying to speed up memory allocations? Why not just make the hardware faster?

Um, that's what there doing, basically. These 'specialized machines' could be included in the next intel/amd chipset.

'd rather see research into fabricating memory that ran at core processor speeds. That would speed up every memory access, not just the malloc()s and free()s.

Well, I'm sure we'll have 800mhz ram in a few years, of course CPU speeds will be around 3 gigHz. The only way to get (cheap) ram speeds that fast is by stopping CPU development. Anyway it doesn't really matter, because almost all Memory access come from out of the CPU catch. (If you have a PC, try disabling the l1 and l2 catches in the BIOS, see how fast your system is without them). Speeding up raw main memory won't get you that much of an increase. And what would you rather pay for, a $25 chip that speeds up a few routines, or $10,000 worth of ultra high-speed ram?

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

Why is having this 'software flexibility' important? I mean, most of the programmers I know just use the OS's memory management stuff. (and, if they really want to they can even do there own memory management). So it's not like the application programmers really lose any of there flexibility anyway. Its kind of like 3d hardware, some of the really crazy demoscene demos might not be possible with hardware acceleration, but anyone just using a standard API being rendered in hardware would notice an enormous improvement in speed.

But it seems like, unlike games and demos, most programmers are using "APIs" for there memory management. So I don't think switching to hardware would do anything but speed things up. It could also allow for system types that we haven't seen before, with much, much, more use of dynamic memory.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

Why don't you just register a new nic, that way you'd start out at +1 instaid of +0.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

Actually, I usually call C "Straight C", I may have to start calling it "Old C" though, just so I can be as insulting as I can. Perhaps "backwards-thinking C" (Or C--) :P

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

I was looking for some reference to "I wish I had done that better" or something. Even Gosling has his regrets...

Well, maybe he does Think C++ is perfect. I mean, if there was anything he didn't like, he could simply take it out. Stuff has been removed from C++ you know (such as reassigning the this pointer). Do you think its impossible for someone to spend 20 years working on something, and in the end, not think it was perfect? He said that there were things that still wanted to implement, but chiding someone for not having humility for humility's sake is kind of silly.

Steve Wozniak comes across as having a high opinion of himself in writing as well, but no one could argue that he doesn't deserve it...

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

They were using serverside HTML on apache, as that the standard error message. I know that wasn't really the point of your post... but...

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

JWZ's website looks bad anyway. Well, not bad-bad, but not exactly super-wonderfull ether. the only links on his page are images as well... he could at least provide some [font color=black] links at the bottom of his page for lynx users (GFX users wouldn't even see them). and the tooltips are only there when you move the mouse over them does his 'super-artistic' site need to look perfict 100% of the time?

And what about blind people? There never going to see his 'beautiful' layout anyway. Wanker.

[ c h a d &nbsp o k e r e ]

TollTroll (who defaults to -1) wrote:

make posting they don't like or agree with. as long as you say something that everyone agrees with (like "what a complete fucken dickhead") then nobody cares. however, if you were to say "john carmack is a complete fucken dickhead" you would get your karma eaten alive like nobody's business...

thanks (hope you browse at -1 'cuz the karma fairy smacked me around)


I support the United Coalition of Trolls for the Abolition of Moderation!

[ c h a d o k e r e ]

I can almost guarantee you that some dumbass idiots are going to email you, thinking that you are slade (you're email address appears right after the word '--slade' in the comment...

[ c h a d o k e r e ]

Now, what if you click "I dissagree", then reverse-enginer the installer to not ask you? Since you never agreed to the eula, you should still have all your rights, correct?

[ c h a d o k e r e ]

I couldn't even modify it to take out the nag box

Why didn't you just give away the full version?

[ c h a d o k e r e ]

The above link was to show that people were fixing the software, and that slade was wrong.

[ c h a d o k e r e ]

The GPL specifies that machine-readable copies of the source must be made available.

Optical Character Recognition.

(you havn't lived untill you've read a pirated version of neromancer :P)



[ c h a d o k e r e ]

Well, if anyone finds out that you have that code there, the viral GPL automatically makes all your code GPL.

Well, we can't force them to sell there software as GPL, or anything else. The only thing we can do is not allow them to sell the software... at all. The company would have two choices, stop selling (and posibly pay damages/royalties) to the author, or sell under GPL.

[ c h a d o k e r e ]

Moderation Totals:Flamebait=1, Funny=4, Overrated=2, Total=7.

Its good to see (some) of the moderators here still have a sense of humor. It seems like there a deing breed though :(

[ c h a d o k e r e ]

Actualy, a lot of female gamers like toomraider. Ones I know anyway. They identify with the 'strong female lead'. I'm sure she was made to appeal to guys though...

[ c h a d o k e r e ]

The are from colorado. In fact, they took there ACT's or something in the Colombine highschool Cafiteria. There's a real city called south park in Colorado as well.

[ c h a d o k e r e ]

. Nobody is stoppping anyone from doing anything - the library is choosing what they want to provide.

Read the CNN story, the Library DOES NOT WANT Censorship software. They've gone so far as to say that they would rather lose funding then install blocking software.

[ c h a d o k e r e ]

- Hong Kong is (was?) the world's third largest movie-producing country (city?) after the US & Hollywood.

Huh? Hollywood is in the US.

[ c h a d o k e r e ]

Uh, dude, calm down.

I'd rather stream videos (if they are high-enough quality) then shlep all the way to block-buster.

Anyway, its not like Yahoo really had a choice in all of this, it's not like they can just stream any movie they want, only ones that are made by this one production company. Perhaps in the future, they can make more deals, but untill then, you really can't bitch.

[ c h a d o k e r e ]

God, I don't want to install that POS RealPlayer on my computer. I don't 'enjoy' having all of my file association taken away, only to find out that realplayer reassociates itself, even after you remove them, every time you reboot, or log off your computer.

Not to mention the interface sucks ass (no rewind? wtf?)

God, I hope real dies. what's the matter with streaming MPEG?

We should push for a non-propritary streaming format (mpeg, or mpeg4 like windows media player), as opposed to begging apple and real to port there propritary s*** to linux

[ c h a d o k e r e ]