Slashback: Mud, Expansion, Patentability

If you want to get muddy without paying huge corporations for the privilege, you may be interested in an Open Source MUD Engine some whippernappers have put together. If the idea of a WAP browser for the VIC20 is just a bit too obscure (and you don't have an spare PC to use as a proxy for it), have no fear. More on "enterprise level" features (take 2 buzzwords and call me in the morning), and how DigitalConvergence is being beaten with a Cue stick. All this and more, below.

More information to slip anonymously under Big Boss' door. digitaleopard writes: "Hey, the last posted story doesn't tell the whole scoop on the NWFusion articles. They are actually a group of stories in their 'technology Insider' banner, including pieces on the new enterprise level features in the latest kernels and their testing of these versions The main link page for all the stories is here."

Clearer thinking requires MUDdy vision. Sony / Verant may not like you to use servers other than the ones they provide for their multi-user games. Not everyone feels that way, so you can choose if you'd like to use a Free game in the first place. captaint writes: "The Open Source Graphical MUD Dusk has just gone into version 1.5. For those who haven't seen it yet, which should be just about everyone, it's just what it says it is. It's a fully functional OS G-MUD, which is open to anyone who wants to play, contribute, or start their own world."

In the 15 countries which have signed the Schengen agreement. An informant too shy to be named writes:"I saw a story on Slashdot about electronic ID cards in Hong Kong, so I wanted to let you know (if you didn't know yet) that there are already electronic ID cards in use in Finland. I don't yet know much about what you can do with one, but the official page explains: official page explains.=)"

And yes, it's short, but in English;)

Anyone else addicted to "Aztec" as a child? OK, ok, so a VIC20 as a WAP browser is of limited usefulness. These guys have some more important, utilitarian things to do, like ... browse the Web on a C64.

Gaelyne writes: "A story about the WAVE was posted at heise online earlier this year, but since then the software has had it's first public release and is Open Source - a direct result of the author having been influenced by Linux and other open source projects. Screen shots of the Web browser are also available."

And never one to give up hope, an unnamed correspondent writes:"Further to the news that Wine runs Excel and Word 2000, I'd like to report that OS/2 can run Photoshop 5.0. Seen here at http://os2.ru/soft/odin/gallery.phtml are the screenshots of the some of the programs that OS/2 now runs with Odin, the Win32 binary 'converter'. Functionality and reliability of Photoshop will increase as work continues. Odin has really begun to move forward in recent months, with the number of apps you can run increasing as more of the Wine code is brought in. Other apps such as Lotus Notes and RealPlayer 7 having been working for ages..."

Your host this evening will be Mr. Alan Cox. Paul Maragakis writes: "The European Commission has launched consultations via the Internet on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions. As is mentioned in this announcement, enterprises favouring the "open source community" have raised concerns about software patents. You can all contribute until December 15 to help them reach a rational decision on what and why software concepts should or should not be patentable."

Someone is laughing all the way to the bank ... An anonymous reader writes: "http://www.paperclick.com/press/oct1900.htm Digital Convergence has agreed to pay NeoMedia $100 million (including $8 million in cash the first year) to license their patent, which basically covers using a printed ID to link back to content on the Web (sounds suspiciously like using a printed URL to reference a Web page, but oh well)."

This being a press-release, the tone is downright cheery, and this is described as a "win=win" situation for all involved. Can you imagine the boardroom conversations this must have inspired, though? "Y'know, Bob, I think it would be a real win to pay another company one hundred million dollars, don't you?" "You're right, Pete -- that sounds great to me."

Comments

Oh my dear god

[mwalker]

They ARE actually using smartcards to access both public and private services in Finland.

The electronic identification card is safe to use because it is based on high-security, microchip technology. (Just like Tickle-Me and Country Elmo!) As with other smart cards, every cardholder has a Personal Identification Number (PIN). In the event that the card is lost or that unauthorized access to the PIN codes is gained, there is a round-the-clock revocation service that revokes the card immediately.

The electronic identification card must be handled and protected just like other similar cards or documents, such as credit cards, driving licences, or passports. PINs should never be kept in the same place as the electronic ID card. The card and the related PIN may only be used by the holder to whom the card is issued.

If the card is lost or obtained by a third party, or if the PIN comes to the attention of such party, this must immediately be reported to the certificate revocation list on 0800-162 622. For hearing-impaired people, a text telephone service is available on 0100-2288. The cardholder's responsibility for the card ceases when the card is reported as lost or stolen and the card is entered in the certificate revocation list.


How to fuck a Finnish smartcard holder in 3 easy steps:

1) Kidnap them and beat the pincode out of them.
2) Use their credentials to transfer the contents of their bank account to somewhere in Switzerland. Bank of Bermuda is also good for this.
3) Let them go.

They then report the card stolen, but it's too late, everything that happened is their responsibility.

I don't even have to go into the nightmare of employers and governments both having executeable access to the chip on your smartcard... tracking viruses for fired employees, using the shared credentials to track web sites used by employees in their personal time.... making "citizenship" and smartcard ownership the same, requiring citizenship/smartcard to buy food, denying citizenship/smartcard to political dissidents...

dear god. got to go take some soma.

wave browser

[linux_penguin]

Most of you are probably sitting there snickering at the idea of a C64/128 web browser. Let me clue you in :)

WAVE wasnt the first, I believe FairligHTML was, but didnt support frames etc. FYI, people still connect to the net with a c64, it's not hard to do. Most of you will remember a beige box with a clunky 1541 hanging off the side (or even just a tape drive if you're british). But the C64 has come a long way baby, and you can expand the system up all the way, to the point where:

it runs at 20Mhz (SuperCPU). Doesnt sound like much, but remember that the 6502 (6510 or 16 bit variants used in the supercpus) are like RISC chips, they dont do much but they do it real fast! :) A 20 Mhz C64 is comparable to a pentium 100 Id reckon, considering that usually you are bashing the chips directly on a c64 :)
You can have upwards of 16M of RAM. True this is normally used as a RAMDrive and is not immediately addressable, but hot-damn it's quick.
Gigs of Harddrive space (CMD Stuff) - Dunno WHY you would ever want a gig considering the programs are usually no more than about 170k in entirety, but you can do it :)
FD-2000 and variants - high speed 3.5" floppies which are 1.72M (from memory?). These things are also very cool...

Connecting to the net is simple, just grab a swiftlink and suddenly you can use your new superfast modem. Grab Novaterm and jump on in character mode, or maybe try ACE or LUNIX (working from memory here) if you need PPP...

Basically you can expand a c64 to your heart's content, if you are so inclined. People still use C64s daily. There are still games and demos published for it.

Why would anyone use a c64 when you can get a PC for chips? People are attracted to the c64 due to its simplicity... It does what it does and it does it well. There arent continuous layers of software between you and the hardware. It boots up in under a second. Its fun. The hardware is full of exploitable bugs which are fun to exploit (demo makers have a great time doing this). And last, but no least, it is CHEAP. You can pick up a c64 for nothing. Games are nothing (or very cheap). The games are some of the best ever, and thank god for that because if I had to live in a world full of UT and Quake3's I would go mad! :)

I truly believe that a course in c64 assembler should be a prerequisite for comp sci degrees. NOTHING teaches you tight coding than making a 1Mhz 8 bit chip jump thru hoops (and boy, do some of the demo coders like CREST make it jump thru hoops, their demos are worth the bother of setting up an old c64 alone).

I think there is still a place for this technology. Apart from Eastern Block countries (not everyone has millions of dollars and live in a geek compound :) I think that the c64 is a perfect machine for a kid. I remember first using one and instantly wanting to know what made it tick. The c64 is the reason Im in IT today. However, today's kids are taught on high-end PCs, and just want to know where to double-click to play quake...

Quite sad really.... I miss the thrill of the old days... The c64 in its heyday was like the linux crowd on speed, it was simply *the* most exciting time in computing ever...


Simon

umm.....

[romco]

FROM: romco@virtualpn.com
TO: Digital:Convergence
ATT: IP Department
Dear Sir(s),
Congradulations on your agreement with NeoMedia Technologies. Now that you have right to use PaperClick(TM). I want to make you aware of another opportunity your company will be interested in.

VirtualPaperClick(TM)

Our technology allows your clients to have the paper and virtual world become one.

Here is how it works:

Magazines are shipped with our patented CircularDatabase(TM). A customer simply inserts the CircularDatabase(TM) into a Windows* computer and like magic your catalog is automaticly displayed with our patented VirtualPaperClick(TM) technology. Your Virtual catalog looks nearly identical to your paper only better. The text is automaticly formated to the computer screen and our VirtualPaperClick(TM)allows your customer easy 2Clik:Shopping(TM).

We would like to offer you an exclusive contract to use our IP for only $10,000,000.

-Romco
CEO vitualpn.com


*note: Our products are only licenced for use on Microsoft Windows computers. After though testing we found that Mac users just stare at the shiny (un-Branded) side of the CircularDatabase(TM) while 'nix users can't stop laughing.

king of the useless devices

[datazone]

Has anyone seen DigitalConvergence's cuecat commercials? Well, it cant be called a commercial, more like an infomercial, or a "brainwashing program." One of the parts that makes me just laugh is where the dumb guy can't believe that the cuecat will replace all the pieces of paper he has around his computer with web address on it! Okay, what sort of a moron keeps urls on paper?!? who need bookmarks when you have paper! "now you can stop recording your urls on paper and use the cuecat to access your sites..."

Now, for the real shit about the cuecat that just pisses me off (besides a certain person who works at DC) lets say, i want to look up information on quantum theory? what do i do? let me guess, do i use the cue cat to scan a light particle that has a barcod eon it? i think not. This thing is so fucking useless that its not even funny. over 90% of the time that anyone i know is lokking for information on the internet, they are not looking for a single product specific thing (not including drivers/manuals/software for hardware). I mean, why would you want to go to pepsi's web site? The only valid uses i can see for cue cats, is in magazines and newspaper. Why? so that you can access information about the person who wrote the article, to see what else they have written, or for a digital copy of the article, or even for other articles from past issues relating to this article. sort of like an embeded hyperlink system for printed media. In books it would be cool also if author is discussing a topic and wants to provide references to online information.

Its really a conspiracy

[dattaway]

Here's my conspiracy theory:

Sounds like that suing relationship may even be done on purpose. Sound crazy? Note that DC gave it up so easily without even a fight and shelled out massive amounts of money for the right to use this "invention?"

This sounds suspiciously like a partner strategy designed for bullying up on competitors. Another company that has bought the patent rights sues DC. No problem, they have friendly talks and work out a win-win situation. You see, DC has been having some problems with giving away its scanner and it being put to other uses. NeoMedia, may find DC a willing partner and help out for a modest fee of $100,000,000 that includes all legal expenses. NeoMedia will now be the legal agressor and go after all the "unauthorized" uses of cuecats in the privacy of people's homes. NeoMedia has to protect its new patent, you know! NeoMedia wins, DC wins.

But that's not all. If and when a case ever does make it to court over those stupid cuecats, DC can claim they have paid $100,000,000 for the right to use this technology and they are fighting a "thief" who is stealing that large sum of money by using a the very useful XOR 8-bit flipping instruction on the CPU to decode. This puts $100,000,000 worth of pressure on the judge to break the arms and legs of any freedom the victim may have. So much for living in a free country, eh?

This conspiracy theory was brought to you free of charge. Distribute and mangle freely.

digital convergence

[anotherone]

I'm taking bets on how long digital convergence stays in business. I doubt they make to the end of the year. They paid $100 MILLION for the rights to print a bar code, which most companies have been doing free for years. What kind of idiots are these people?
-------

Fuzzball 6 (MU*) is Free Software.

[Christopher Thomas]

Revar decided to GPL Fuzzball 6 and put it up on SourceForge: https://sourceforge.net/projects/fbmuck/

Fuzzball is a variant of TinyMUCK that, among other things, hosts FurryMUCK's 8000+ registered users (though FurryMUCK is still using version 5.x).

Unix for C64

[DVega]

And we also have Lunix. The Little Unix for C64 (Or should I say GNU/Lunix ?). Here are some screenshots.

Slashdot in Color (Offtopic?)

[Jason W]

Since there are hardly any stories about Slashdot, I thought I'd post it in a Slashback. Just FYI:

Slashdot in Black! (or any set of colors you want).

Yes, anyone who has admined a Slash site should know this, but for those of you who haven't, there it is (including one of those annoying spaces probably).

is it april fools?

[Dr. Awktagon]

You know, if 5 years ago you had shown me that Digital Convergence press release, I would've laughed my ass off and congratulated you on your excellent use of fake buzzwords and your sarcastic take on corporate America.

"..the international leader in print-to-Internet enabling technology.."

"..cooperative efforts to assure that the consumer experience in this emerging space is positive.."

"PaperClick works by using .. numeric strings which are embedded in the print media."

"Entering a PaperClick code .. routes readers directly to relevant Web information."

And they're even having a PRESS CONFERENCE call about it. Hey, didja notice that they're using those fancy "paper-to-phone" technologies that link consumers DIRECTLY to a interactive telephone experience? Now that's an exciting and emerging space, and I'm glad they're enabling it!

Anyway, now when I see this press release I laugh for about 3 seconds then choke and go silent when I realize this is TOTALLY SERIOUS and these guys have LAWYERS..