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We didn't have to choose between two incompatible video disk formats. We just had to choose between a Panasonic or a Phillips..

Um... what about laserdiscs and CED/Selectavision/Videodiscs?

Granted, they aren't digital, but they are"video disks." So are (s)VCDs, for that matter. I can't remember if VCD came out before DVD, though.

What about RFC 2447? The iCalendar protocol looks to have been developed jointly by Netscape, MS and Lotus. Exchange may support this, and even if it doesn't, this would be a good place to start.

As for the client-side, I think that I fully-featured web mail system can easily replace Outlook on the corporate desktop. They may all have Office, but they've got browsers too!

Don't forget the update to RFC1149: RFC2549

This sounds like a job for RF1149.

No need for antennas, just an open window.

Doesn't Godwin's Law apply here?

There is no standard to use the Web to interact with my toaster

Perhaps you could adapt the Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol to your needs.

Point us to a better ONE - image that is? Here's the FAQ anyway.

Even if they manage to bring you back, chances are that they cannot make you immortal. You will eventually die. Again.

Why would anyone want to relive that?

Are you really alive to make your post only because suicide is too uncomfortable?

The "big deal" w.r.t. national IDs is not that the government uses it for tax and census purposes. The problem is when commercial entities are allowed free and unrestricted use of such numbers for their internal records. Even the government can't require you to provide your SSN, because it wasn't originally designed for authentication purposes. (Check out the SSN faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/privacy/ssn-faq/index.htm l)

If commercial entities can be guaranteed unique identification of every person in the US, and can be virtually guaranteed correlation of that ID to the wealth of free information in the public record, then it will only be months - a few years maybe - before commercial entites can have total access to your entire life and purchase history. Imagine calling up Time Warner to complain about your cable bill, and knowing that the lady on the other end can see every grocery and gas station purchase you've ever made at the press of a button.

A bit extreme, perhaps, but i have no doubt that given the opportunity, corporations will not hesitate to make use of the information if it benefits them in even the slightest way.

Yeah, but that just pushes the problem off, doesn't it? Instead of worrying about 2038, we would then have to worry about 584554531360! What are we going to do 584 billion years from now when 64-bit time runs out?

Instead of following hare-brained schemes like this, I think we should look seriously at implementing RFC 2550.

Both A, J and G roots are in Virginia. A and J is at NSI, and G is at DoD.

The F root is in Palo Alto

The K root is run by RIPE NCC, and is housed in London

The L root is at ISI in California

I cannot remember or find locations for the others :)

Get two big ones, half a dozen small ones, tons of sand, and call it a Zen rock garden. Who could be so callous as to deny your religious freedom?

The Satellite TV FAQ has a whole section on how to get a dish if your neighbors won't let you.

I am not a game programmer, but I have a few suggestions that may help out:

I don't know how much programming experience you have, but from what you said, it seems you only know some Visual Basic. You may want to start with a good high level language then move to C/C++. How about Java? If you learn it properly, it should teach you good object oriented programming techniques--plus it has some similarities to C++. Python may be a good contender as well, however I haven't done much with it, so I can't say. I heard both those languages have OpenGL interfaces. They allow you to link with C, so you can ease your way into C/C++.

You may want to check out Crystal Space, OGRE, and other open source game libraries/engines. They could be a good stepping stone to building your first game.

You may want to learn some assembly language. You probably won't write entire programs in it, however at times you may need to optimize certain parts of your code. In addition, it can help you understand how the compiler/CPU interprets the code and how to make it run faster. I'm not sure of a good book/site to learn assembly--most of my info about it is outdated. Going to the processor manufacturer's sites will give you documentation for the instruction sets at the very least.

When you look at the assembly info, make sure you learn the MMX instructions. They should speed up your game code in some situations. MMX macros for C also exist too--I thought there was one called libMMX. I can't seem to find it now.

Usenet can be a good help too. The comp.graphics.algorithms FAQ has lots of information.

It would also be a good idea to learn as much as you can about math and physics like the other poster said. I recommend Technical Mathematics with Caculus by Paul Calter--it goes from very basic math all the way through caculus. As for physics, I don't have any suggestions, however the Calter book does touch on some physics concepts.

You big goofball, the poster obviously was referring to this nifty ancient decrepit monstrosity that failed miserably.

Hehehe, by the way, I actually do have a few titles on VideoDisc. Need to find a player though :)

The problem with on-line C++ is that many people who claim to write about it don't know their subject, and consequently write superficially correct code that actually sucks. I'm sorry to name names, but the much-recommended-here CPlusPlus.com is one such site; their "Hello, world!" program at the start of their isn't even correct. I'd give sites like that a miss if you're seriously interested in learning C++.

One good source of information about C++ (and many other programming-related subjects) on-line is the related Usenet newsgroups, particularly the group specifically for learners if you're just starting out, or the moderated C++ group for more advanced subjects.

Many of these groups also have helpful FAQs, available (as usual) via the Internet FAQ Consortium. Again, for those just starting out, I'd particularly recommend the alt.comp.lang.learn.c-c++ FAQ, which has links to helpful on-line resources, free compilers, etc.

There are a few web sites of which anyone in the C++ field should be aware.

• You can get generally pretty sound book reviews for thousands of books on these and related subjects at the Association of C and C++ Users web site.
• Herb Sutter's web site has lots of informative and thought-provoking C++ articles by one of the guys who's advanced C++ programming technique a lot in recent years.
• Similarly, Scott Meyers' publications page has many worth-reading articles on C++.
• It would be remiss not to mention Boost, a collection of very good general-purpose C++ libraries. If you can't see how to do something with the standard stuff, the answer -- or a useful idea to find it -- may well be here.

There are a few decent on-line references to the standard library:

• Dinkumware make a standard library implementation, which is shipped with Visual C++ amongst other things, and provide some helpful documentation on-line. (NB: The version that shipped with VC++ 6 was flawed in many horrible ways, but that wasn't really Dinkumware's fault given the compiler limitations at the time when they wrote that library; please don't judge them by that alone.)
• SGI's implementation of the "STL" parts of the C++ standard library is excellent, and well-documented on-line.

About the only decent on-line C++ tutorial I know of the electronic version of Bruce Eckel's "Thinking in C++" books. You can find a complete copy of these, and several of his other books, at his books web site. (He also has books on Java, C#, Python amongst other things, and all of his work I've read has been reasonably good.)

Explicit Congestion Notification and Selective Acknowledgment would go a long way in abating this problem. Anyone know if it's supported in Windows XP?

Explicit Congestion Notification and Selective Acknowledgment would go a long way in abating this problem. Anyone know if it's supported in Windows XP?

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong here.

It was my understanding that the original JPEG standard (which is some ISO standard?) contains many technologies (Arithmetic coding?) that are patented, and require licensing fees / royalties for their use.

To actually further adoption of JPEG, the Independent JPEG Group was founded, headed by a man named Tom Lane I believe, who I think is now working with the PostgreSQL group. They specified the JFIF file format (which is at the header of all the images we know as 'JPEGs' today - there's a TIFF and SPIFF version of JPEG that nobody uses), which ONLY INCLUDED the technologies that were free to use without licensing / royalties. I've skimmed the JPEG FAQ about this

...so what's the deal here?? Does this company allege they own a patent that affects JFIF JPEG images, when huge megacorps on the JPEG committee (IBM, AT&T, Mitsubishi) have let this go?

Some standards groups knowingly consider patented technology for otherwise open standards, but wasn't there a standards group a few months ago (I forgot which one, and I can't find a link) where some company pushed patented technology without telling the standards committe? If I recall correctly, the perpetrators got smacked a bit for that one... and that's probably what will happen in this case. (someone find that story for me).

Some standards groups knowingly consider patented technology for otherwise open standards, but wasn't there a standards group a few months ago (I forgot which one, and I can't find a link) where some company pushed patented technology without telling the standards committe? If I recall correctly, the perpetrators got smacked a bit for that one... and that's probably what will happen in this case. (someone find that story for me).

It is rediculious to think that Forgent Corp owns the JPEG data compression technology. Many movements and groups have contributed to improve JPEG compression. For example, the Independent JPEG Group is an independent group that writes and distributes a widely used free library for JPEG image compression. Their website features the source code and some documentation.
More information can be found on the ISO JPEG standards committee webpage.
-Tom

Okay, can someone clear this up for me... according to the JPEG FAQ: "JPEG (pronounced "jay-peg") is a standardized image compression mechanism. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, the original name of the committee that wrote the standard."

The JPE group is a sub-committee of the ISO organization, see here. They claim that: "... a basic version of the many features of this standard, in association with a file format placed into the public domain by C-Cube Microsystems (JFIF) is what most people think of as JPEG."

So if the ISO experts group wrote the standard, how come it could be patented by this company? Is C-Cube somehow a part of or associated with Forgent? Surely placing the algorithm in the public domain is at least prior art that will invalidate this patent?

What am I missing here?

No, and this post illustrates why /. needs a "-1, Author Didn't Do Basic Research" moderation option.

Try this to get started.

So, in the futur, we could see the Googles pigeon ranking system
running on chicken feather CPU, using RFC 1149 in conjunction with the BIRD Internet Routing Daemon for communications...

Now, this could help all those rednecks to enter the new millenium!
Anyway, they are already on the move, learning from all the successfull IT companies out there...

• http://www.ietf.org/html.charters/sip-charter.html
• http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3261.html

I believe that many, if not all, webphones use this IP protocol. I also think that GSM and US telephones(that use IP networks) use this protocol to transfer voice data.

I believe that many, if not all, webphones use this IP protocol. I also think that GSM and US telephones(that use IP networks) use this protocol to transfer voice data.

The Network Voice Protocol (NVP), implemented first in December 1973, and has been in use since then for local and transnet real-time voice communication over the ARPANET at the following sites:
o Information Sciences Institute, for LPC and CVSD, with a
PDP-11/45 and an SPS-41.
o Lincoln Laboratory, for LPC and CVSD, with a TX2 and the
Lincoln FDP, and with a PDP-11/45 and the LDVT.
o Culler-Harrison, Inc., for LPC, with the Culler-Harrison
MP32A and AP-90.
o Stanford Research Institute, for LPC, with a PDP-11/40 and an
SPS-41.

I would assume it's NVP (Network Voice Protocol)

See rfc741

Some links to it:

RFC 741 - Specifications of Network Voice Protocol (from November 1977!)
Protocol Number Assignments

So, only MP3s are currently being bogofied? (And, I would assume, primarily the Windows-only networks?) That's good, actually. Those of us who prefer to share and download Ogg Vorbis files on predominantly Unix-based networks will remain largely unaffected.

I think xtunes is really too similar to iTunes. The deveopers should change the name to somethin else before Apple lawers get after them ...
Does the beast runs on linux PPC ?
This is one thing that bugs me in the inux world , the lack of support for non IA-32 architectures.
Apple used to be more linux friendly (but that was way before they purchased NeXT and got a "modern" unix, do not read A/UX here ...).
On the same scale of things is there any effort to bring a quiktime player for linux ? would people use such software ?

Just so no one is confused, that's Microsoft's XDR, not the real XDR.

You are probably thinking of Godwin's Law. To summarize, Godwin's Law is: "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." According to Godwin's Law, this signifies the end of a thread. See the Godwin's Law FAQ for more information.

Memories from Xinu days make me think that such a name for another OS would upset Dr.Comer.

Or they can steal a little bit of Apple history and go with: Mac OS XIa aIX.

In this case it's IBM who'd get upset. Were you thinking of another Apple OS?

Where in the hell do you think the chlorine from cfc's comes from? The earth, it all the same stuff, other than a hadfull of atoms made in cyclotrons and the few million obliterated in nuclear explosions we have not created/destroyed any elements.

No. Fucking. Duh. However, the vast majority of chlorine used in industry comes from a natural source that is (a) always found as a solid or in aqueous solution, and (b) very inert. This source is NaCl. The commercial process used to create nearly all industrial chlorine is to take NaCl(aq), a.k.a. brine, and electrolyse it into HCl and NaOH, thus releasing it from its inert state and allowing chlorine-containing compounds with higher enthalpy to be produced. Persistent gaseous suspensions of NaCl are unheard of outside the very bottom of the troposphere, since it gets rained out rapidly, and there isn't exactly an abundance of ocean water pouring directly into the stratosphere. Use some freakin' common sense, man.

As I said because of the semi-stable configuration of cfc's they have a larger effect than their numbers would otherwise suggest but they are still dwarfed by naturally occouring phenomena. Oh yes and since the spotlight has moved off the ozone whole over antarctica the whole has healed over 85%.

Your facts are 10 years out of date. You have been mislead. To quote Section 3 of the faqs.org link:

During the years 1978-1987 the hole grew, both in depth (total ozone loss in a column) and in area. This growth was not monotonic but seemed to oscillate with a two-year period (perhaps connected with the "quasibiennial oscillation" of the stratospheric winds.) The hole shrank dramatically in 1988 but in 1989-1991 was as large as in 1987, and in 1992-95 was larger still. In 1987 and 1989-95 it covered the entire Antarctic continent and part of the surrounding ocean.

Godwin's Law states that as any discussion gets longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

Unfortunately, one of the corollaries of Godwin's law is that any discussion where NAZIs are mentioned is effectively over, because (if it hasn't already) it will now degenerate into either namecalling, a flame war over NAZI Germany, or a flame war over Godwin's Law. And it is this corollary that is usually meant when the law is cited.

More here.

Not at all. Godwin's Law merely observes, it doesn't proscribe:

As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.

While the implication is that, once this point has been reached, the discussion has outlived its usefulness, Godwin's Law itself does not say so much. In its accepted form it merely observes that, given enough time, any Usenet discussion will eventually degenerate into Nazi name-calling.

While by way of application of the Law it has become accepted Netiquette in many places that the Nazi comparison ends the conversation (the Nazi reference being the bellweather indicating the discussion had already burst into flames anyway) -- and that the one making the comparison ipso facto loses the discussion -- this is not a requirement of the Law itself, which is not proscriptive at all.

For more information on Godwin's Law, check out The Godwin's Law FAQ.

I remember when Atari was reduced to/ desperate enough to say the jaguar constituted a 64-bit machine. It had two 32 bit processors, and they pawned that off as meaning it was 64 bit.

Yes, I do vaguely recall various jealous naysayers at the time parroting that particular canard -- always carefully avoiding mention of the 64-bit object processor, the 64-bit blitter, the 64-bit system bus, the 64-bit memory interface... You could do a modicum of research before spouting off on things like this, ya know.

how can a regular joe like me prevent [my email address being co-opted by a spammer] from happening in the future

``If they encrypt it, someone will crack it.''

I doubt it. The DMCA will be invoked and that person will wind up getting a first-hand education in today's legal system.

The underground will have to find some other means of communicating. Perhaps the use of the protocol described in RFC1149 will become more common.

Apparently the difference seems to be that volcanic gases never reach the ozone layer, because rain washes the water-soluble gases out of the atmosphere in the troposphere. CFC's aren't particularly water-soluble, so rain can't scrub them out of the atmosphere.

I'd welcome information to the contrary, to serve as a point of debate. I'll go ahead and cite the Ozone Depletion FAQ, specifically the part dealing with halogens in the stratosphere.

I had always been under the impression that .org was actually reserved for non-profits.

You were wrong. As was I, until I read the RFC referenced above.

To wit:

ORG - This domain is intended as the miscellaneous TLD for organizations that didn't fit anywhere else. Some non-government organizations may fit here.

.ORG should be, more accurately, .MISC. But then it wouldn't bet a TLA TLD anymore :).

i believe that to qualify as a supercomputer, a machine must be able to perform a gigaflop (one billion floating point operations in one second of time), which many, many consumer-level machines can do. so yeah, you're right, it's not that super by today's standards; perhaps they should redefine the term "supercomputer".

apple released a bunch of data about their dual-cpu machines claiming they can pump out 15 gigaflops. that's approximately 25% of what this cray is capable of. given current cheap computing performance, i don't see how cray will be able to make this machine appealing to anyone without making it really cheap. $10k? $8k?

It would be one way to make sure that it only goes to fitting organizations.

It is meant for non-profits.[typo corrected]

This domain is intended as the miscellaneous TLD for organizations that didn't fit anywhere else. Some non-government organizations may fit here.

Before Darwin, Apple had a true UNIX® variant known as A/UX A/UX or 'Apple UNIX' is a derivative of AT&T Unix System V.2.2 with some newer code thrown in to make it modern.

A/UX was developed when the Single UNIX® Specification was still being written whereas Darwin was created a couple years after the last revision was completed, so it may very well be that Apple's name is there with respects to A/UX, not Darwin.

5. What should I do if somebody else invokes Godwin's Law?

The obvious response is to call them on it, say "thread's over",
and declare victory. This is also one of the stupidest possible responses,
because it involves believing far too much in the power of a few rules that
don't say exactly what you wish they said anyway. The proper response to
an invocation is probably to simply followup with a message saying "Oh.
I'm a Nazi? Sure. Bye" and leave, and in most cases even that much of a
post is unnecessary.

You stupid fuck. Godwin's Law (check this FAQ) was invented to cork stupid fuckers who think that all your have to do is say 'you're like hitler!' to win an argument. Once you can show that once Hitler said "I like cats," and since the guy you're flaming said "I like cats," too, then he must be like Hitler and Hitler was bad so I win the argument yeah!!!! Mike Godwin works the goddamn eff for christ's sake. So shut your fucking hole, you stupid fuck. You're trying to spread disinformation, just like Hitler did!!!