Slashdot Mirror

01/09/27/22:11
This evening, I went to visit /., and found myself on the front page of /.. There were mix feelings about my Aqua projects. I only wanted a browser that works well under Mac OS X, and looks like Aqua. Too bad, I am unable to share that joy anymore. I did not expect to get paid for fixing cocoa, but I felt bad that I helped Apple to write a interface library. Then I was denied to use this interface unless I used their library. In essence, why should I bother to help them with the interface when I am denied to use the interface. I just begin to enjoy working with Apple software, but Apple isn't making it easy for their developers. Anyways, I only hope that Apple would write cocoa UI for Mozilla, then I will not need this project. (OmniWeb is not good enough, yet)

Want some cheese to go with that whine? Didn't this guy steal all the widgets from Omniweb?

How much helping of writing a library did you do? Bug-fixes shouldn't count. I think Apple is great with developers in OS X, short of bringing out Steve Ballmer to chant it. I wouldn't expect Apple to lend a hand with Mozilla, they have not a lot of interest in it.

As for Mozilla with an Aqua UI - it's a great idea - check out http://sourceforge.net/projects/qbati2/

who profitted most from the wtc bombings? Gary Condit?

Last time we had both a sex scandal and a war at the same time (i.e. lewinsky + kosovo), Congress managed to slip two bad laws onto the books: the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This time, disney and the rest of MPAA are shooting for getting the pro-obsecurity SSSCA passed. To make it look less like an IP bill, MPAA has added anti-cracking riders.

who profitted most from the wtc bombings? Gary Condit?

Last time we had both a sex scandal and a war at the same time (i.e. lewinsky + kosovo), Congress managed to slip two bad laws onto the books: the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This time, disney and the rest of MPAA are shooting for getting the pro-obsecurity SSSCA passed. To make it look less like an IP bill, MPAA has added anti-cracking riders.

If you're dissatisfied with the Game Boy Advance... Why did you buy one?

Because nintendo has a 95-year monopoly on games produced by Miyamoto's team, Rare, etc., and exclusive contracts with some publishers. By the time the games fall into the public domain, not only will the lifetime of the system have expired, but so will 99+ percent of the players.

Even ignoring the game design issue and assuming clones like Blizzard's Dia-blow and some freeware game are as good as Zelda(tm), the other portable systems available in stores located in the United States of America (Palm, WinCE, etc.) have input devices that don't work for games and must be tethered to a $1000 PC that 13-year-olds can't afford with paper route income and that their parents think is THE DEVIL!

(thing) by JGalt (print) ? Mon Mar 19 2001 at 00:56:17 UTC


As of DirectX 8 I'd have to question D3D's inferiority to OpenGL. We find in complex medical simulations that we get significantly better performance from D3D, as well as a range of features not available in OpenGL. Examples of such features are vertex and pixel (geometry and surface) shader programming systems, support for skinning and vertex blending through matrix math, and a bunch of other stuff.

TWAJS

MD uses lossy compression. Is there no MP3 quality setting that compares? There must be.

Early MD devices used ATRAC, with encoding algorithms as powerful as MP2's, at 256 kbps. Recent MD devices use newer ATRAC encoders that match MP3's quality at anywhere from 64 kbps to 256 kbps. But the ATRAC decoder apparently hasn't changed.

I do not have a CD-R based MP3 player so I can't comment, but my geek intuition tells me that since both kinds of devices have spinning media, decoding hardware and audio hardware they will probably have similar battery life.

MPEG audio layer 3 on ISO9660 uses larger discs than the MD system uses. Larger discs have more rotational inertia and require more power to spin. However, a 2 MB anti-skip buffer means that the double-speed CD mechanism needs to spin up the CD only about once a minute or so to pull 1.5 MB of 192 kbps[1] MP3 audio off the disc and keep the buffer at least a quarter full, saving battery power.

[1] 192 kbps average rate MPEG layer 3 audio encoded with LAME sounds transparent compared to stereo 16-bit linear PCM, i.e. most double-blind listeners can't tell which is the CD and which is the MP3. See R3mix for more info.

It's $30 for the official RAM expansion

When I saw them at that price, they were on sale. I was assuming that players aren't waiting for a sale.

forget about the $50 for a Game Boy Camera because that option got taken out at the last minute.

Noted in my E2 writeup.

Oh, and I believe everyone has a TV.

Four-player Goldeneye or PD on the 13" TV a typical college student buys is not very fun. Note that I said "big enough to hold a four-player view," which implies at least 25 inches, preferably 31.

Actually, if you can get the Transfer Pak alone for $20

As I said in my previous post, not in any store I've seen, and shipping is a bitch.

However, I forgot to mention that there are "NP Exclusive" codes printed in the pages of Nintendo Power, so add $100 for back issues.

the total is really $270

$270 only covers N64 ($100), the expansion pak ($30), PD64 ($50), and the controllers ($90). It does not cover the GBC, PD/GBC, Transfer Pak, and NP back issues needed to unlock all cheats. Heck, I didn't even mention Rumble Paks, but I didn't include those, as I assume nothing in the game absolutely requires vibration feedback (as it would in a fishing game).

Cute. For those of you who are math challenged, it's a joke.

-- MarkusQ

What if they are the copyright owner of the source?

Then they have every right to re-license, as FSF does for the GNUPro toolkit. However, in this case, they're definitely not.

What if they got permission from the copyright owner of the source?

GNU GPL section 10 (alternate licensing from the copyright owner) covers the issue.

What if the copyright is expired?

Expired? Huh? Thanks in part to the actions of the late Sonny Bono, copyrights don't expire anymore.

Well, it's not like Joseph Heller's would be suing you, what with him being dead and all that.

If a work was first published on or after January 1, 1923, the estate can sue you into the ground for infringing copyright. And nothing created on or after that date will ever expire into the public domain thanks in part to the actions of the late Sonny Bono.

On the other hand, a short phrase like "Catch-22" cannot be copyrighted; it can, however, be trademarked (as restaurants, as board games, as computer games, as knit sweaters, as other clothing, etc).

They also must provide the code on a physical medium on request for no more than the cost of media and shipping; simply putting it up on ftp is not sufficient.

RMS wrote in GNU GPL v2:

Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code, to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange.

IANAL so I don't know how this would hold up in court.

Another GPL loophole: you may be able to get any and all proprietary shared libraries classified as "the operating system".

Heck, I'm 18 years old and I'm gonna check these guys out.

You only want them because they talk about nodes. (A "node" is an entry in E2, and anotherone is one of the E2 editors.)

Context menus don't appear until you lift the right mouse button, because of the gesture feature, which is great for power users but not very useful for most users.

In IE 5.5, context menus don't appear until you lift the right mouse button, and you can exploit this to get around JavaScript right-click traps. In Mozilla build 2001091403 (the nightly trunk build released right after the 0.9.4 milestone), context menus don't appear until you lift the right mouse button. Your point?

It originated at Z Magazine, but they appear to be having trouble.

Do they have the rights to this? Or is U One Public Domain?

Was it created before 1923? If not, it's under de facto perpetual copyright, as Congress has an unwritten agreement with Disney Enterprises to pass a bill every 20 years that extends the term of all subsisting copyrights by 20 more years.

Wassily Kandinsky was one of the pioneers of the abstract art. He made some very coloured paintings.

travel.state.gov visa instructions

I got this link from
Everything2

Your comment violated the postercomment compression filter. Comment aborted (THANK YOU CMDR failed-information-theory-class TACO )

geez, you should check those links.

This is the Everything link that he meant:

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=81664

Even the link into everything2 is wrong. `Kadinsky' is apparently some dope smoking coffee house in Amsterdam. Maybe they paint there, maybe not. everything2 is silent on the matter.

Wassily Kandinsky was a painter. Check him out over at Thinker.org, this link ought to get you some of his works. Thinker will probably die under the load. You should also look at This guy's kandinsky page.

...and eating can be like a Kadinsky painting!

Just a nitpick:
Im pretty sure you meant Kandinsky.
Kadinsky is a coffee shop in Amsterdam (according to the original link).

Kandinsky [?]... heh.

As in Wassily Kandinsky, the painter... not Kadinsky... some coffeeshop in Amsterdam.

--

nutate on e2...

Copyright does not make you an owner, it makes you the beneficiary of a temporary exclusive right to copy the work. You can't own software.

Right. In that vein, many people have dropped the term "IP" entirely and taken up calling such rights "government-granted monopolies," or GGMs. ( Read More... | )

I too thought that the dubbing would not bring justice to the original seiyuu*, but I am thoroughly impressed with the quality of Spike and Faye's 'Engrish' voice acting. Bandai cast those two roles well IMHO. After comparing both last week's ep.4 in both languages, I must concede that the English version is better than the original Japanese in this particular series.

(the only other show I would consider debating sub-vs-dub would be Ranma ½)

Doom, blah, have you EVER heard of wolfenstein?

Wolfenstein 3D was a clone of Midi-Maze aka Faceball 2000.

Mario Kart (racing games with weapons) is a clone of Pole Position (racing games). (Did you know that NBA Jam used Pole Position's floor-rendering algorithm?)

Doom, blah, have you EVER heard of wolfenstein?

Wolfenstein 3D was a clone of Midi-Maze aka Faceball 2000.

Mario Kart (racing games with weapons) is a clone of Pole Position (racing games). (Did you know that NBA Jam used Pole Position's floor-rendering algorithm?)

The SNES version had a much better replay value because the game didn't have a "cheap factor." What I mean is that in the SNES version, the speed of the characters and their abilities remained consistent.

That is, if you won the first race of a GP. If you didn't win, the players who beat you in the first round would get extra mushrooms. All SMK CPU players also got unlimited mushrooms to attempt to reclaim the place they finished the first race unlimited feathers to jump over anything you drop or throw, and unlimited of items you can't even get such as poison mushrooms.

Read more about the problems with the Mario Kart series (note: some are valid balance bugs, while others are personal preference).

Noam Chomsky on the Attacks Against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon

Sick.

Both were based on processes found in nature.

Both feature very simplistic mechanisms at their heart which aggregate to exhibit larger behaviors.

Both use random choices at the core to drive it all.

Both feature feedback loops that influence the progress of the evolution.

has anyone heard any release dates, or time frames, for the next mariokart?

Mario Kart 3 is already out for GBA, and Mario Kart 4 is planned for GCN. However, Nintendo has a poor track record with respect to the general bugginess of the details of the Mario Kart play design in 1 and 2.

Is anybody annoyed by the right-click-forbidden feature of these pages?

Yes. Read more about why right-click traps are a Bad Thing.

Anybody know how to make a "Toggle ECMAScript" button on the Mozilla 0.9.x toolbar?

This is just merchandising slapped on top of a game concept that has already been done.

I won't argue that merchandising is involved, but nintendo re-released TETRIS® Attack on N64 and GBC because people were still demanding it after the Super NES had been dead for a while (Frogger was the last Super NES game). Because nintendo no longer had the TETRIS® license, the company just released a Pokemon themed "official clone."

The graphics for the blocks are even the same.

Yes, the tile graphics are the same on GBC and Super NES, but they're somewhat different on N64. The N64 also adds a cylindrical board in addition to the rectangular board.

Copying games you own is illegal because semiconductors don't have the fair use or backup exception for their first 10 years. However, Matthew Leverton made a TA clone for the PC called Who Let The Blocks Out. Unfortunately, every path given to the file is a 404.

This is just merchandising slapped on top of a game concept that has already been done.

I won't argue that merchandising is involved, but nintendo re-released TETRIS® Attack on N64 and GBC because people were still demanding it after the Super NES had been dead for a while (Frogger was the last Super NES game). Because nintendo no longer had the TETRIS® license, the company just released a Pokemon themed "official clone."

The graphics for the blocks are even the same.

Yes, the tile graphics are the same on GBC and Super NES, but they're somewhat different on N64. The N64 also adds a cylindrical board in addition to the rectangular board.

Copying games you own is illegal because semiconductors don't have the fair use or backup exception for their first 10 years. However, Matthew Leverton made a TA clone for the PC called Who Let The Blocks Out. Unfortunately, every path given to the file is a 404.

As a strange coincidence, today is the anniversary of the discovery of the island of manhattan. (1609)

try TuxTyping or Tetris

The Tetris Company has not authorized any TETRIS® brand product that runs on a GNU, BSD, or UNIX® system. However, you can try one of my t*tr*s clones, which may help victims of the War on Some Drugs get off mescaline. (A non-drug version called freepuzzlearena is also available.)

Yes, because we know that nobody buys anything other than computers, Internet access, console games, and Time Magazine. They've got the whole world tied up.

Wait! I forgot about cars.

Oh, and houses.

Oh, and tables and chairs.

Oh, and vases.

Oh, and couches.

Oh, and curtains.

Oh, and girders.

Oh, and mirrors.

Oh, and chemicals.

Oh, and cherry tomatoes.

Oh, and everything minus a handful of products.

Apple sued companies (particularly Franklin Computer Corp.) that violated it's patents. IBM *encouraged* people to hack and clone their BIOS.

No, the lawsuits were not about patents but about copyrights. The Apple II ROM didn't have a syscall interface like PC BIOS did; A2 syscalls were merely jsr instructions to the entry point in ROM of the function. Because this restricted the possible length of each function's binary code, it was almost impossible to make a 100% Apple compatible ROM without making it byte-identical to Apple's.

But the real reason Apple sued is because their contract with Microsoft required them to do so. Microsoft owned the copyright on the Basic interpreter in Apple II Plus and later computers.

Guess which type of computer became the most successful?

The one with the more extensible API. IBM designed its BIOS syscalls around a realization that it would eventually have to change the internal structure of its BIOS in later revisions to the PC (e.g. XT and AT).

However, the LEGO case isn't about patents or copyrights; it's about trademarks, as the name "LegOS" gives a false appearance of a LEGO product. LEGO doesn't want to tech-support third-party software that could potentially damage expensive sensors and motors.

True, but my gripe with that sort of system would be the ridiculous amount of scrolling you'd have to do. Books are nice because you only need to turn the page every 45 seconds or so; scrolling would be a PITA.

Before someone builds a lego von neumann machine?

Think of the possibilities. There could be a lego arena game where the combatant machines attempt to disassemble each other and build analogs of themselves, sort of battle bots meets Core Wars.

Of course this could lead to Earth being taken over by lego-based lifeforms.

Before someone builds a lego von neumann machine?

Think of the possibilities. There could be a lego arena game where the combatant machines attempt to disassemble each other and build analogs of themselves, sort of battle bots meets Core Wars.

Of course this could lead to Earth being taken over by lego-based lifeforms.

i was on a site that tried to protect the images with javascript, i just clicked on image and the toolbar popped up, clicked save picture...

As other users pointed out, right-click traps do not protect images from fair users or pirates. In fact, they hinder usability and accessibility (read more).

Maybe I'm just fucked in the head, but this one was absolutely hilarious!

The World's Funniest Joke
The World's Sickest Joke Ever

Be advised though; that latter one is bad.

The World's Funniest Joke
The World's Sickest Joke Ever

Be advised though; that latter one is bad.

Protesting the DMCA: [play an out-of-region DVD or a protected eBook on a laptop in a public place and distribute the tools]. Protesting the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act: with the same hardware above, [play old Mickey Mouse films and put them on edonkey].

This is the kind of civil disobedience that the Barely Legal Project does.

The entertainment industry appears able to get copyright protection extended as long as they wish ... Is your organization making any efforts to convice congress to return copyright duration to a sane limit, and if so, is there much hope for success?

Or as sorehands put it:

What about rolling back the life of a copyright to 25 years instead of having it be the number of years since the creation of Mickey Mouse?

Good question. I feel that an intellectual monopoly term should last just long enough for the holder to make a return on the intellectual investment. I fail to see many copyrighted works being produced that don't produce the bulk of their revenues within the first 25 years.

For more explanation of Disney's lobbying for repeated copyright term extensions, read my essay about the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. It has some useful links to other information on the topic.

We were quite successful in getting some decent curriculum with this technology hand-me-downs and for a couple of years ran the district's web server, until the ESD decided to take it over since it was too valuable of a resource to leave in the hands of deliquents learning new technologies.

"Huh? Can you give us one example of Email veering out of control and hitting someone?"

it's a metaphorical device

"Or even just veering out of control?"

Spending obcessive ammounts of time on it

"How, exactly, would that work? "

*fade in*
*bevis and butthead are sitting in front of their computer*
Bevis: He he cool! We to to email and stuff
Butthead: dude!

and the like

"A simple communications tool? Jon [isi.edu] wouldn't have taken offense, he wasn't like that, but he should have. "

it's all about the perseptions

"And spam and commercial harassment. Don't forget to list the most frequent uses first. "

frankly I don't think that in the age of procmail and other related products unix users and others who have similar products should keep complaining.

Unless you get a really low rate of email that it needs to have constant levels of spam.

"E-mail is overwhelming Aol Instant Messenger? "

I would have to state that AIM is really anoying. I used AOL probably once in my entire life and never actually got around to turning the damn thing off. All sorts of interjections.

"..using letters, instead of the crude voice signals they had to use eighy years ago. "

80 years ago people didn't have the chance to talk to *anyone* *anywhere* it was just a function of who was on what grid. Try telegraph lines and that's maybe a llittle better. Think of human delivered email.

" take it back, this article just veered out of control. It ran me over. "

it's just a metaphor please reference the definition and then make another comment

metaphor

Find someone who will fight for them pro-bono (as they have a strong case)

There has to be a better term than "pro bono," as the term "pro bono" brings to mind the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, which set a precedent to put everything first published in the U.S. on or after January 1, 1923, under perpetual copyright because Di$neyCo can just lobby for another across-the-board term extension act every 20 years.

According to ancient Chinese legend, they own and/or practically own:

Netscape, CNN, E! Online, Time magazine, Life magazine, Time Life Books, People magazine, Newsweek magazine, Sports Illustrated, Fortune magazine, Money magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Warner Communications, Warner Bros, Warner Music International, Atlantic Records, Elektra Records, HBO, Cinemax, New Line Cinema, TNT, TBS, TCM, Cartoon Network, Time Warner Cable, MTV, and Nullsoft, plus enough congresscritters to earn them a bulk discount.