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ISO Could Withdraw JPEG Standard
McSpew writes "According to The Register, the ISO is prepared to withdraw JPEG as a standard if Forgent Networks continues to assert its patent claims over JPEG's compression algorithm." I'm sure the JPEG committee would still be happy to hear of prior art.
Natalie Portman's panties in the moonlight
Smooth, silky panties
Panties oh so tight
Natalie Portman's furburger
Is oh so right!
Peas out...
Happy Troll Tuesday!
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- posted by poopbot: who doesn't like scat?
TYx46jGZwI Post #491
No more JPEGs - ISO to withdraw image standard
By Andrew Orlowski in London
Posted: 07/23/2002 at 11:38 EST
The ISO standards body will take the unprecedented step of withdrawing the JPEG image format as a formal standard if Forgent Networks, a small Texan company, continues to demand royalties on a seventeen-year old patent.
The Register has spoken to representatives of both the JPEG committee and Forgent Networks this week.
According to Richard Clark, JPEG committee member and JPEG.org webmaster, Forgent's royalty grab - coming after two decades of royalty-free use - means that ISO is obliged to withdraw the specification.
"Under ISO terms, formally you can only have a standard you can implement on free or RAND terms. "Reasonable and non discriminatory (RAND) terms are typically published, and the same for everyone. It's clear that Forgent's claims are not RAND. $15 million doesn't sound like free to me, and Forgent is not publishing the terms of their licensing.
"ISO will withdraw the standard: JPEG will be no more," he told us. However, ISO itself cannot formally take a stance on the patent, he added.
"JPEG have traditionally tried to make it available for free; there is no JPEG LA, like the MPEG LA," he pointed out.
"Our current assumption is that the patent is not valid," said Clark. However Clark says that since the patent becomes invalid in 2004 (under the old rules, seventeen years after filing, rather than twenty years after a grant) there is little incentive for manufacturers to bow to Forgent's terms.
A spokesperson for Forgent declined to rule out litigating against manufacturers who decline to pay Forgent royalties on the claim.
License grabbers
Clark blamed the collapse of the "new economy" for unleashing speculative claims such as Forgent's on long-established free standards. Forgent acquired the patent in 1997.
"Typically cross-licensing has kept things in check - the holder was a manufacturer and not just a license grabber. But with the demise of the dot coms the only things left in the locker are bits of paper. And people are pursuing it fairly vigorously," he said.
Forgent's PR manager Hedy Baker told The Register that the company was in talks with a number of manufacturers. She declined to name the company which paid $15 million for rights to use "patent 672".
"It covers a specific method that's used in part of the process in a JPEG," she said.
"This is a licensing program: we have a legitimate patent," she told us.
But it's a very widely established standard and no one has tried to collect royalties from the transmission of JPEGs before?
"They only started delving into it a year and half ago when the new management team came in. We're speaking with device manufacturers."
But it also includes web browsers?
"Yes, it could right."
And everyone who's writing client side software that receives a JPEG?
"It applies to anyone who uses a specific algorithm. We are contacting device manufacturers," she said.
Would you litigate against companies who refuse to license JPEG?
"I really don't have information on that."
Was Forgent confident it could handle claims of prior art which invalidate the claim?
"We have the rights to this specific technology. There's nothing I can tell you about the licensing program beyond what I've stated.
But the patent expires pretty soon - in, 2004 in fact - so there's very little incentive for a manufacturer to enter into an agreement when two or three years down the line it's going to become invalid, isn't it?
Ms Baker declined to provide more detail.
No safe haven
Clark says he hopes the furore will help restrain European agencies from aping US patent law.
"It's becoming impossible to set standards in multimedia; huge numbers of patents are granted. In Japan there are 4,000 patents on image and wavelet technology alone. It's followed the US model, where for many, many years, the US has allowed patents on very small changes to very detailed technical terms and where the benefits are few," said Clark.
He advocates shifting the burden of proof onto the patent holder.
"Originally patents were a bargain to protect a little man with a brilliant invention. Now they're held by big corporates, and often extended beyond the lifetime of the product. He would like to see what clauses of a standard a claim applies to within six months of the standard being published; and for patent claimants to publish details of their licensing.
He would also like to see international agreement: "...but that would mean running it through ISO, WIPO and national governments, and I can't see it happening with any kind of finite timescale.
And there aren't any safe havens, he warns.
"You can't create a standard that doesn't infringe patents - PNG or Ogg Vorbis could equally be challenged. So it's no good saying something is patent free." ®
Just think of all the Pr0N I'll have to pay royalties on!
Woof.
Woof.
BLING BLING.
Am I the only one who thinks the ISO should stand up and fight the good fight?
Maybe this would be a way to stop this patent / Intellectual Property nightmare once and for all.
What about patents not applying if the implementation is open source and not-for-profit?
Well, I guess I can keep on dreaming... =(
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Carrie Fisher's panties in the moonlight Smooth, silky, embroidered panties A perfect fit, and perfectly tight Carrie Fisher's furburger Is very, very much right
So? I could care less about JPEG anyway. PNG is a lot better. Better compression and better image quality. If JPEG wants to get itself into legal shit then it's its' own business. My wallpapers and my website images are all PNG and thats the way it will stay.
w00t - go tr011ax0r!
If they bow, it lends credence to this silly claim... I say silly because they sat on the patent (knowingly it seems) and only tried to assert it during the zero hour. I doubt it holds up in court, but ISO is known not to reverse itself so JPeG will die. Damn shame... PNG sucks, GIF is obviously not a good substitute.
This just sucks...
Then we can finally make this a non-issue.
I'm not trolling here; but PNG is superior in every way. Forgent Networks can cry and whine all they want, it's not going to have any adverse affect on anything enar me.. as it's all PNG :).
Its about time that a precedent be set in the patent-crap(tm) going on these days. If a company is going to assert its patents and charge people for it after so long, it is more than justified to play hardball and in essence say "we'll pull your patent-laden bullsh*t off the list of standards". Okay sure, the alternatives are there but disk-space/image-quality/browser support must be there before anything will work. Before anyone says that PNG works as a replacement, I would have to say that the size increase alone prohibits their use especially on high-traffic sites where bandwidth counts.
OFF the MAN!
how many more times are we going to hear about everyone's p0rn rolayties surpassing the federal deficit?
It'll be a new way for webmasters of the sex trade to make money:
"Our women are 100% patent-free!"
-Matt
--- Need web hosting?
Applaud ISO if they're prepared to take this kind of step. It shows that they're willing to say 'ok, stop' if people are going to abuse their patents on standardized things...though, to tell you the truth, I personally prefer PNG. ...Just wish that something like this had been done with GIF...
Just my $0.02
Since every image format known to man seems to be under the control of some kind of patent, I propose that the ONLY supported graphic format for all our web applications should be ASCII art, that way we should avoid all the patent mess, also ASCII art is probably the most widely available format and already has a module for gimp.
Je t'aime Stéphanie
Jpeg is a STANDARD, doesnt matter about the patents it has. It has been STANDARDIZED through the test of time, I will grow to despise the new legislature. My digital camera can take either Jpeg or TIFF (tiffs too big) so i really dont have THAT Much of a choice. Image conversion is a pain in the ass.
no text, just a big ol' finger to the forgent.
I want 2D games back.
As strange as it sounds, this is actually a good move. We do NOT want jpeg on the list of standards if an entity can maintain patented control over it. Granted we will all still use jpeg, however ISO is definatly trying to make a point here - "you cant exclusively own it, and have it be an open standard" we should be happy that ISO is standing up for this!
So far as I can tell, this is what the ISO certainly should do, according to the letter and spirit of their policies. But I doubt it will have any effect on the situation except as a feel-good measure for those against the patent claim. I can't see how it will put any pressure on the dicks trying to claim patent rights; even if the ISO withdraws official standing, it will remain a de facto standard.
The ISO exists to promote formats and protocols as standards. It is basically a cheerleading group, which has its purpose, but not here. There is no way you can enforce true standardization. Nor can you pass a resolution that takes away a format's status as a standard.
HTML 4.0 only became a true standard when Microsoft supported it in Internet Explorer. Likewise, GIFs are still standard, despite the huge campaign for PNGs. And SMB is a standard for filesharing, while DOC is a standard for word processing.
JPEG is a standard because every graphics program and web browser supports it, not because of some gold star from the ISO. If the ISO wants to remain relevant, it needs to stop making these self-righteous and ineffectual proclaimations and start working on something that matters.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
If anything like this happens, it would obviously wreak havoc on the internet. We'd be forced to use clunky, bloated, Microsoft bitmaps. So, would owning your JPEGs now be akin to downloading Metallica MP3s, or cracking a program? This is worse than trying to copyright nothingness, or pop-unders, as X10 tried. -"Hey, you guys wanna buy some JPEGs?" --"If you get caught using that..." -"I know, I know, I made the original myself." I'm not really worried, mostly because of the last lines in the article, but in America, we do have stricter laws. But I've never seen anythink like this before.
We're Doomed
slack fuckers
ISO is a standardization body, it does nobody any good for them to get in the middle of a stupid dispute like this.
Putting moderation advice in your
The fact that they got the patent anyway is bad enough. How could it be that those who came up with the standard don't have the patent? All they need to do it stand-up and show some little evidence of prior use that would not be that hard to find.
http://www.maximum-cars.com - My little hobbie.
It's also about every device that captures JPEG (digicams) and renders JPEG (web browsers) that is big enough for Forgent to demand money from. Personal decisions to move to PNG are fine and dandy and probably will win you some personal satisfaction, but in the greater scheme of things, JPEG is more entrenched in computing than a simple "OK, let's just whip up a script to batch everything over to PNG."
does any one else think that this may be a bit premature? after all, they have merely said that they may have patants on parts of the algorithm. As far as we know -- an obviously we dont know everything -- they have not proved it yet.
In addition, what is the point of doing it now? AFIK there were legal limits on enforcing your patent after you let people adopt it.
Personally, i have nothing against patents but this does seem rather silly.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Well now... if they are successful in doing this (with so little to really gain considering if the patent ends in 2004, that leaves them 2 years to try to clean up) then what is to stop Microsoft from trying to do the same thing with CIFS (SMB)?
I mean, they are already trying to put limitations and restrictions on the use of the CIFS protocol even as it's being reviewed by the standards boards.
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
It's clear that Forgent is going after companies that develop browsers, sell image editing tools, etc., but on your typical Unix/Linux platform these tools often are "just" linked to libjpeg where the real encoding and decoding is done. In this case might they try to go after anyone whose name appears in the libjpeg sources? Ack!
...that it is time for jpeg2000.
Too bad this patent covers the whole spectrum of compressing images by removing redundant data.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
Microsoft to enforce ".exe" patent. Bill Gates quoted, "All your program are belong to us."
:)
If we don't fight for ourselves no one will.
I want this patent invalidated, then the companies that paid money to go after them for fraud.
Fight Spammers!
I own a cute little Canon Digital Elph that happens to save images in the formerly-standard JPEG format.
Exactly what happens if the patent is upheld? Am I personally liable? In theory, could Forgent come after me for royalties?
What happens if you buy and use a product that later on turns out to infringe on someone's patent?
Offhand I don't recall any language in any fine print anywhere that says I'm held harmless, it's all the vendor's fault.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
If it was patented in, what, 1987, won't it expire shortly anyway, like the RSA patent, in, what, 17 years? 2004?
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
Anyway, the issue at stake here is not just about whether or not JPGs can or cannot be used; if Forgent gets away with this, the door is open for all other companies to get away with submerging their patents and then springing royalties onto us. GIFs have been taken from us, and now it looks as if JPGs will be taken from us as well, and I don't think that it's a good idea to rely on just one picture format. I'd rather have choice, thanks very much.
Note to M1-ers: a curt but otherwise insightful message is not "Flamebait" or "Troll".
Again, speaking as an expert, Forgent Networks patent has NOTHING to do with JPEG. It is quite hard to find prior art for a patent claim that doesn't apply.
One would hope they'd just fight this nusance lawsuit in court.
Ludicrous claim, yes. There's no way it'll kill off the JPeG format. The files are too well entrenched into everything we do and litigation against companies with embedded decoders would go way past the 2 years left on their patent.
Though by all means I'd love to see someone try to sue Microsoft because of Internet Explorer. Just like smokers trying to sue the tobacco industry: wait the plaintiff out until he/she pases on from the cause of the lawsuit. 15 million is way more than the 2-3mil corporate lawyers would make off the case.
-Matt
--- Need web hosting?
Shouldn't the MP3 standard get the same treatment for the same reasons?
- Preferences: Solaris 10 (servers), Ubuntu (desktops), Solaris 11 (personal servers) -
Am I the only one who thinks the ISO should stand up and fight the good fight?
The problem is the whole patent system. You don't fight that by overturning a single patent claim: You do it by rigorously applying the existing scheme. If that leads to unacceptable results, that will demonstrate the problem.
Nope, no sig
Some say it's all just a misunderstanding. But after I foiled his death-plot, the old guy said something to me that made his intentions all too clear. "Get off my property! And put some fuckin' clothes on!" he said. Chilling words. A cryptic phrase that will not tell me where, how, or when he will try to kill me...just that he will try. Well played, old timer, well played.
img src="images/front_page/logo_ForgentNetworks.gif"
Hmmm.... Wonder why they aren't using thier own technology?
Remember your heros!
"If you are on fire you can just stop, drop, and roll. If you fall into Lava you are just dead." - my 5yr old daughter
OK, it's pretty childish, but if they say they own the rights to JPEG, why don't we send them all the JPEGs we can find? How many copies of http://goatse.cx/hello.jpg can their mail server handle?
According to this document utility patents last 20 years and design patents last 15. If as the article indicates this letigation is after two decades of usage in JPEG, then either JPEG existed before the patent or the patent is about to expire, if it hasn't yet done so.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Can you answer this?
If a patent doesn't specifically mention a process in the list of claims, but the process is described in the patent, does the patent cover that process?
The "JPEG patent" doesn't list the JPEG method, nor does it list a technical description of the method in the list of claims. It does describe the JPEG algorithm in the body of the patent. Does the patent cover the JPEG algorithm?
It has come to my attention that the entire Linux community is a hotbed of so called 'alternative sexuality,' which includes anything from hedonistic orgies to homosexuality to pedophilia.
What better way of demonstrating this than by looking at the hidden messages contained within the names of some of Linux's most outspoken advocates:
I'm sure that Eric S. Raymond, composer of the satanic homosexual propaganda diatribe The Cathedral and the Bizarre, is probably an anagram of something queer, but we don't need to look that far as we know he's always shoving a gun up some poor little boy's rectum. Update: Eric S. Raymond is actually an anagram for secondary rim and cord in my arse. It just goes to show you that he is indeed queer.
Update the Second: It is also documented that Evil Sicko Gaymond is responsible for a nauseating piece of code called Fetchmail, which is obviously sinister sodomite slang for 'Felch Male' -- a disgusting practise. For those not in the know, 'felching' is the act performed by two perverts wherein one sucks their own post-coital ejaculate out of the other's rectum. In fact, it appears that the dirty Linux faggots set out to undermine the good Republican institution of e-mail, turning it into 'e-male.'
As far as Richard 'Master' Stallman goes, that filthy fudge-packer was actually quoted on leftist commie propaganda site Salon.com as saying the following: 'I've been resistant to the pressure to conform in any circumstance,' he says. 'It's about being able to question conventional wisdom,' he asserts. 'I believe in love, but not monogamy,' he says plainly.
And this isn't a made up troll bullshit either! He actually stated this tripe, which makes it obvious that he is trying to politely say that he's a flaming homo slut!
Speaking about 'flaming,' who better to point out as a filthy chutney ferret than Slashdot's very own self-confessed pederast Jon Katz. Although an obvious deviant anagram cannot be found from his name, he has already confessed, nay boasted of the homosexual perversion of corrupting the innocence of young children. To quote from the article linked:
'I've got a rare kidney disease,' I told her. 'I have to go to the bathroom a lot. You can come with me if you want, but it takes a while. Is that okay with you? Do you want a note from my doctor?'
Is this why you were touching your penis in the cinema, Jon? And letting the other boys touch it too?
We should also point out that Jon Katz refers to himself as 'Slashdot's resident Gasbag.' Is there any more doubt? For those fortunate few who aren't aware of the list of homosexual terminology found inside the Linux 'Sauce Code,' a 'Gasbag' is a pervert who gains sexual gratification from having a thin straw inserted into his urethra (or to use the common parlance, 'piss-pipe'), then his homosexual lover blows firmly down the straw to inflate his scrotum. This is, of course, when he's not busy violating the dignity and copyright of posters to Slashdot by gathering together their postings and publishing them en masse to further his twisted and manipulative journalistic agenda.
Sick, disgusting antichristian perverts, the lot of them.
In addition, many of the Linux distributions (a 'distribution' is the most common way to spread the faggots' wares) are run by faggot groups. The Slackware distro is named after the 'Slack-wear' fags wear to allow easy access to the anus for sexual purposes. Furthermore, Slackware is a close anagram of claw arse, a reference to the homosexual practise of anal fisting. The Mandrake product is run by a group of French faggot satanists, and is named after the faggot nickname for the vibrator. It was also chosen because it is an anagram for dark amen and ram naked, which is what they do.
Another 'distro,' (abbrieviated as such because it sounds a bit like 'Disco,' which is where homosexuals preyed on young boys in the 1970s), is Debian, an anagram of in a bed, which could be considered innocent enough (after all, a bed is both where we sleep and pray), until we realise what other names Debian uses to describe their foul wares. 'Woody' is obvious enough, being a term for the erect male penis, glistening with pre-cum. But far sicker is the phrase 'Frozen Potato' that they use. This filthy term, again found in the secret homosexual 'Sauce Code,' refers to the solo homosexual practice of defecating into a clear polythene bag, shaping the turd into a crude approximation of the male phallus, then leaving it in the freezer overnight until it becomes solid. The practitioner then proceeds to push the frozen 'potato' up his own rectum, squeezing it in and out until his tight young balls erupt in a screaming orgasm.
And Red Hat is secret homo slang for the tip of a penis that is soaked in blood from a freshly violated underage ringpiece.
The fags have even invented special tools to aid their faggotry! For example, the 'supermount' tool was devised to allow deeper penetration, which is good for fags because it gives more pressure on the prostate gland. 'Automount' is used, on the other hand, because Linux users are all fat and gay, and need to mount each other automatically.
The depths of their depravity can be seen in their use of 'mount points.' These are, plainly speaking, the different points of penetration. The main one is obviously
More evidence is in the fact that Linux users say how much they love `man`, even going so far as to say that all new Linux users (who are in fact just innocent heterosexuals indoctrinated by the gay propaganda) should try out `man`. In no other system do users boast of their frequent recourse to a man.
Other areas of the system also show Linux's inherit gayness. For example, people are often told of the 'FAQ,' but how many innocent heterosexual Windows users know what this actually means. The answer is shocking: Faggot Anal Quest: the voyage of discovery for newly converted fags!
Even the title 'Slashdot' originally referred to a homosexual practice. Slashdot of course refers to the popular gay practice of blood-letting. The Slashbots, of course are those super-zealous homosexuals who take this perversion to its extreme by ripping open their anuses, as seen on the site most popular with Slashdot users, the depraved work of Satan, http://www.eff.org/.
The editors of Slashdot also have homosexual names: 'Hemos' is obvious in itself, being one vowel away from 'Homos.' But even more sickening is 'Commander Taco' which sounds a bit like 'Commode in Taco,' filthy gay slang for a pair of spreadeagled buttocks that are caked with excrement. (The best form of lubrication, they insist.) Sometimes, these 'Taco Commodes' have special 'Salsa Sauce' (blood from a ruptured rectum) and 'Cheese' (rancid flakes of penis discharge) toppings. And to make it even worse, Slashdot runs on Apache!
The Apache server, whose use among fags is as prevalent as AIDS, is named after homosexual activity -- as everyone knows, popular faggot band, the Village People, featured an Apache Indian, and it is for him that this gay program is named.
And that's not forgetting the use of patches in the Linux fag world -- patches are used to make the anus accessible for repeated anal sex even after its rupture by a session of fisting.
To summarise: Linux is gay. 'Slash -- Dot' is the graphical description of the space between a young boy's scrotum and anus. And BeOS is for hermaphrodites and disabled 'stumpers.'
FEEDBACK
Well, the only reason I know all about this is because I had the misfortune to read the Linux 'Sauce code' once. Although publicised as the computer code needed to get Linux up and running on a computer (and haven't you always been worried about the phrase 'Monolithic Kernel'?), this foul document is actually a detailed and graphic description of every conceivable degrading perversion known to the human race, as well as a few of the major animal species. It has shocked and disturbed me, to the point of needing to shock and disturb the common man to warn them of the impending homo-calypse which threatens to engulf our planet.
Doesn't it give you a hard-on to imagine your thick strong poker ramming it's way up my most sacred of sphincters? You're beyond help, my friend, as the only thing you can imagine is the foul penetrative violation of another man. Are you sure you're not Eric Raymond? The government, being populated by limp-wristed liberals, could never stem the sickening tide of homosexual child molesting Linux advocacy. Hell, they've given NAMBLA free reign for years!
Thank you for your kind words of support. However, this document shall only ever be posted anonymously. This is because the 'Open Sauce' movement is a sham, proposing homoerotic cults of hero worshipping in the name of freedom. I speak for the common man. For any man who prefers the warm, enveloping velvet folds of a woman's vagina to the tight puckered ringpiece of a child. These men, being common, decent folk, don't have a say in the political hypocrisy that is Slashdot culture. I am the unknown liberator.
We shouldn't hate them, we should pity them for the misguided fools they are... Fanatical Linux zeal-outs need to be herded into camps for re-education and subsequent rehabilitation into normal heterosexual society. This re-education shall be achieved by forcing them to watch repeats of Baywatch until the very mention of Pamela Anderson causes them to fill their pants with healthy heterosexual jism.
Well, it just goes to show that even the holy Linux 'sauce code' is riddled with bugs that need fixing. (The irony of Jon Katz not even being able to inflate his scrotum correctly has not been lost on me.) The Linux pervert elite already acknowledge this, with their queer slogan: 'Given enough arms, all rectums are shallow.' And anyway, the PS2 sucks major cock and isn't worth the money. Intellivision forever!
For one thing, whilst Linux is a cavalcade of queer propaganda masquerading as the future of computing, NT is used by people who think nothing better of encasing their genitals in quick setting plaster then going to see a really dirty porno film, enjoying the restriction enforced onto them. Remember, a wasted arousal is a sin in the eyes of the Catholic church. Clearly, the only god-fearing Christian operating system in existence is CP/M -- The Christian Program Monitor. All computer users should immediately ask their local pastor to install this fine OS onto their systems. It is the only route to salvation.
Secondly, this message is for every man. Computers know no colour. Not only that, but one of the finest websites in the world is maintained by a Black Man . Now fuck off you racist donkey felcher.
Although there is nothing unholy about the fine heterosexual act of ejaculating between a woman's breasts, squirting one's load up towards her neck and chin area, it should be noted that Perl (standing for Pansies Entering Rectums Locally) is also close to 'Pearl Monocle,' 'Pearl Nosering,' and the ubiquitous 'Pearl Enema.'
One scary thing about Perl is that it contains hidden homosexual messages. Take the following code: LWP::Simple -- It looks innocuous enough, doesn't it? But look at the line closely: There are two colons next to each other! As Larry 'Balls to the' Wall would openly admit in the Perl Documentation, Perl was designed from the ground up to indoctrinate it's programmers into performing unnatural sexual acts -- having two colons so closely together is clearly a reference to the perverse sickening act of 'colon kissing,' whereby two homosexual queers spread their buttocks wide, pressing their filthy torn sphincters together. They then share small round objects like marbles or golfballs by passing them from one rectum to another using muscle contraction alone. This is also referred to in programming 'circles' as 'Parameter Passing.'
And PHP stands for Perverted Homosexual Penetration. Didn't you know?
Well, I don't know about terraforming Mars, but I do know that homosexual Linux Advocates have been probing Uranus for years.
*sniff* That brings a tear to my eye. Thank you once more for your kind support. I have taken faith in the knowledge that I am doing the Good Lord's work, but it is encouraging to know that I am helping out the common man here.
However, I should be cautious about revealing your name 'Cerberus' on such a filthy den of depravity as Slashdot. It is a well known fact that the 'Kerberos' documentation from Microsoft is a detailed manual describing, in intimate, exacting detail, how to sexually penetrate a variety of unwilling canine animals; be they domesticated, wild, or mythical. Slashdot posters have taken great pleasure in illegally spreading this documentation far and wide, treating it as an 'extension' to the Linux 'Sauce Code,' for the sake of 'interoperability.' (The slang term they use for nonconsensual intercourse -- their favourite kind.)
In fact, sick twisted Linux deviants are known to have LAN parties, (Love of Anal Naughtiness, needless to say.), wherein they entice a stray dog, known as the 'Samba Mount,' into their homes. Up to four of these filth-sodden blasphemers against nature take turns to plunge their erect, throbbing, uncircumcised members, conkers-deep, into the rectum, mouth, and other fleshy orifices of the poor animal. Eventually, the 'Samba Mount' collapses due to 'overload,' and needs to be 'rebooted.' (i.e., kicked out into the street, and left to fend for itself.) Many Linux users boast about their 'uptime' in such situations.
If only indeed. You can help our brave cause by moderating this message up as often as possible. I recommend '+1, Underrated,' as that will protect your precious Karma in Metamoderation. Only then can we break through the glass ceiling of Homosexual Slashdot Culture. Is it any wonder that the new version of Slashcode has been christened 'Bender'???
If we can get just one of these postings up to at least '+1,' then it will be archived forever! Others will learn of our struggle, and join with us in our battle for freedom!
I am compelled to document the foulness and carnal depravity that is Linux, in order that we may prepare ourselves for the great holy war that is to follow. It is my solemn duty to peel back the foreskin of ignorance and apply the wire brush of enlightenment.
I could make an arrogant, childish comment along the lines of 'Every time someone asks for 2.0, I won't release it for another 24 hours,' but the truth of the matter is that I'm quite nervous of releasing a 'number two,' as I can guarantee some filthy shit-slurping Linux pervert would want to suck it straight out of my anus before I've even had chance to wipe.
I sincerely hope you're Natalie Portman.
What the fuck?
Well bugger me!
Fuck right off!
IMPORTANT: This message needs to be heard (Not HURD, which is an acronym for 'Huge Unclean Rectal Dilator') across the whole community, so it has been released into the Public Domain. You know, that licence that we all had before those homoerotic crypto-fascists came out with the GPL (Gay Penetration License) that is no more than an excuse to see who's got the biggest feces-encrusted cock. I would have put this up on Freshmeat, but that name is known to be a euphemism for the tight rump of a young boy.
Come to think of it, the whole concept of 'Source Control' unnerves me, because it sounds a bit like 'Sauce Control,' which is a description of the homosexual practice of holding the base of the cock shaft tightly upon the point of ejaculation, thus causing a build up of semenal fluid that is only released upon entry into an incision made into the base of the receiver's scrotum. And 'Open Sauce' is the act of ejaculating into another mans face or perhaps a biscuit to be shared later. Obviously, 'Closed Sauce' is the only Christian thing to do, as evidenced by the fact that it is what Cathedrals are all about.
Contributors: (although not to the eternal game of 'soggy biscuit' that open 'sauce' development has become) Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, phee, Anonymous Coward, mighty jebus, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, double_h, Anonymous Coward, Eimernase, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward, Anonymous Coward. Further contributions are welcome.
Current changes: This version sent to FreeWIPO by 'Bring BackATV' as plain text. Reformatted everything, added all links back in (that we could match from the previous version), many new ones (Slashbot bait links). Even more spelling fixed. Who wrote this thing, CmdrTaco himself?
Previous changes: Yet more changes added. Spelling fixed. Feedback added. Explanation of 'distro' system. 'Mount Point' syntax described. More filth regarding `man` and Slashdot. Yet more fucking spelling fixed. 'Fetchmail' uncovered further. More Slashbot baiting. Apache exposed. Distribution licence at foot of document.
- posted by poopbot: who doesn't like scat?
jZ41Zsl1Ib Post #497
(photo of revolver up against dog's head) If You Don't Buy This Magazine, We'll Kill This Dog!
314-15-9265
But they can only seek royalties or a set percentage of the profit's obtained by the use of libjpeg. So if you dont charge for the library or any product which uses said library, their cut of $0.00 would be, hmm $0.00
what if ISO threw a party and nobody came?
For line-art, vectors, and indexed-color graphics, png, gif [bleh], or svg should already be used, but JPEG is in wide use, and there isn't a replacement for lossy compression.
Slashdot poll time: Will people(companies) 1) pay attention to ISO 2) develop a new format 3) be a conscientous objector 4) move with CowbowNeal to a country without software patents?
Ironically, our saving grace may come from Microsoft, as they have the employees and the browser to implement any standard they want. They could develop a royalty-free lossy compression format, submit it to ISO/ECMA for certification, and put it in the next IE patch/upgrade within half a year.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
My question is: How exactly do they expect to get this enforced? If this is the "Patentsharking" move I think it might be, than the ISO only supports the case by pulling the standard.
JPEG has been "known" to be open for years - why shouldn't the ISO continue with business as usual, and place the burden of proof on the claimant, in this case? Could they be held liable, in the event of an unfavorable decision? IANAL, but I don't see how, as they're not USING the technology, they're just recommending it.
Or does the stupidity of archaic U.S. patent law cover that, too?
If they are really worried about it, why don't they get the pr0n industry to help with the fight. They have the cash, and most likely the most to loose.
Try to tell the fiends that they will have to go back to long image downloads after years of speedy downloads. I bet more people will get off their ass for this than an election.
Will somebody in their area please go blow up Forgent? Sheesh!
-F-
Did someone say an image format covered by the GPL?
Note to M1-ers: a curt but otherwise insightful message is not "Flamebait" or "Troll".
Just fuck em.
They're claims are worthless, due to the fact that: (1) they had nothing what-so-ever to do with JPEG; (2) There is prior art.
Aside from that, litigation takes a while. In 2004, these patents expire. Odds are, there's no way in hell they are going to be able to go after a significant number of entities in this 2-year period and win cases. Cases alone can take 2-years.
This is just a desperate money-grabbing attempt. Besides, what court is going to grant them a patent on JPEG? That'd mean that the entire US government -- including the judicial branch -- would have been infringing on this JPEG patents and would owe billions of dollars to this shitless company.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
Many posters seem to be missing the point. No matter what your religious view of other formats like PNG or GIF, the fact remains that there are plenty of devices out there right now, like digital cameras, (and so obviously will be for the next six months or so tas well) that produce JPG files. Personally I would like to see JPG replaced with a lossless format, or a least an option to select a format without loss and visual artifacts, but for quite a while there is going to be a need for software tools that manipulate JPG files. If this bogus claim is allowed to stand the effect will be that as software is updated it will often no longet support JPG files (remember how fast GIMP dropped GIF support?) It strikes me as pretty intolerable to have to revert to old software to use a camera or a clipart CD. This issue does matter, even if your personal belief is that there are other and better formats.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Forgent has no clue. They didn't invent jpeg.
I think this should be settled in court.
JPEG.ORG should win as a prior art and the Royalty
that was filed should be discarded.
A new version of Mandrake Linux was released today, much to the celebration of the unprofessional amateur cocksmokers for whom Linux is an excuse to avoid real work. This distribution includes more of the latest hacked-together, half-functional drivers that are the hallmark of Linux, but luckily enough of the current generation of hardware is unsupported that Linux users still have plenty of excuses not to get any work done. 'At first, I was worried that my new Dell computer would work right of the box,' says Harry Twinkfucher, a longtime Mandrake fan. 'Luckily, my video card and SCSI card were just as broken as GCC 3.1, so it'll be at least another three months before my employer discovers that I am unskilled, unintelligent, and unemployable.'
.NET framework that its architechture was stolen from. Mono promises to set the Linux community back even further, perhaps even acheiving the Linux goal of creating a truly broken system on which it is impossible to do any real work."
"Linux, an operating system so backward that just getting it installed is a challenge for many, has been one of the homosexual world's most popular time-wasters ever since Linus Torvalds decided to make an obsolete copy of the popular UNIX system for his 386 PC in 1991. Today, thousands of wannabes are successfully using Linux to hide their inadequacies.
"But what's next for Linux? Many think that Linux's many Windows-ripoff window managers will be the focus of the next wave of uneducated keyboard-banging. Miguel de Icazza, a wetback trained in the art of Visual Basic, is already hard at work on Mono, a revolutionary development framework that is both incompatible with existing Open-Source software and decades behind the
Wow, Linux truly is a bad of rancid shite!
Does anyone else have any other links to confirm or (more likely) deny this?
They're kinda like the Weekly World News of technology. You know, the people who brought us BatBoy?
+5:offtopic,but anti-American
I think this is another case that points to the need for (yuck) more legislation. There needs to be a new law, one that takes the concept of public knowledge and applies it to existing patents. IE, this case, where JPEG has become public knowledge, to the extent it has an ISO standard, yet just now someone comes up saying they have the rights to it because of patent X. As I understand it, you can't gain a patent on something if it's already public knowledge. They need to extend that to say if you have a patent and you make it public knowledge, you can't then claim the rights to the resulting use.
Basically, this is like someone patenting a water powered car, then letting everyone build there own because they don't have the money to have a manufacturing facility, and then 5 years later when everyone and their brother is driving a water powered car, you come out and say "ok, now you all owe me 10%". It's ridiculous, and criminal.
~ now you know
what a bunch of cheap jews! holy shit talk about money grubbing ass bastard bitch whores. What a bunch of jews!
LOVELY SNOT! WONDERFUL SNOT! By J. Wipo Troll, Esq., $Revision: 1.4 $
CmdrTaco: You sit here, dear.
CowboiKneel: All right.
CmdrTaco (to Waitress): Morning!
Waitress: Morning!
CmdrTaco: Well, whatve you got?
Waitress: Well, theres egg and bacon; egg, sausage and bacon; egg and snot; egg, bacon and snot; egg, bacon, sausage, and snot; snot, bacon, sausage, and snot; snot, egg, snot, snot, bacon, and snot; snot, sausage, snot, snot, bacon, snot, tomato, and snot;
Slashdot Crew (starting to chant): Snot, snot, snot, snot
Waitress: Snot, snot, snot, egg, and snot; snot, snot, snot, snot, snot, snot, baked beans, snot, snot, snot
Slashdot Crew (singing): Snot! Lovely snot! Lovely snot!
Waitress: or Lobster Thermidor au Crevette with a Mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and snot.
CowboiKneel: Have you got anything without snot?
Waitress: Well, theres snot, egg, sausage, and snot, thats not got much snot in it.
CowboiKneel: I dont want any snot!
CmdrTaco: Why cant he have egg, bacon, snot, and sausage?
CowboiKneel: Thats got snot in it!
CmdrTaco: Hasnt got as much snot in it as snot, egg, sausage, and snot, has it?
Slashdot Crew: Snot, snot, snot, snot! (crescendo through next few lines)
CowboiKneel: Could you do the egg, bacon, snot, and sausage without the snot then?
Waitress: Urgghh!
CowboiKneel: What do you mean Urgghh? I dont like snot!
Slashdot Crew: Lovely snot! Wonderful snot!
Waitress: Shut up!
Slashdot Crew: Lovely snot! Wonderful snot!
Waitress: Shut up! (Slashdot Crew stops) Bloody Slashdot fags! You cant have egg, bacon, snot and sausage without the snot.
CowboiKneel (shrieks): I dont like snot!
CmdrTaco: Sshh, dear, dont cause a fuss. Ill have your snot. I love it. Im having snot, snot, snot, snot, snot, snot, snot, beaked beans, snot, snot, snot, and snot!
Slashdot Crew (singing): Snot, snot, snot, snot. Lovely snot! Wonderful snot!
Waitress: Shut up!! Baked beans are off.
CmdrTaco: Well could I have his snot instead of the baked beans then?
Waitress: You mean snot, snot, snot, snot, snot, snot
Slashdot Crew (singing elaborately): Snot, snot, snot, snot. Lovely snot! Wonderful snot! Snot, sno-o-o-o-o-ot, snot, sno-o-o-o-o-ot snot. Lovely snot! Lovely snot! Lovely snot! Lovely snot! Lovely snot! Snot, snot, snot, snot!
- posted by poopbot: crapflooding since 7/8/02
U26e7isajB Post #499
NOT!
The old rules were 17 years from the grant. The new rules are 20 years from filing. Why is the press so brain-dead when it comes to understanding the most simple aspects of patent law? You can't effectively fight something that you don't understand.
3 of the last 4 articles on Slashdot were lifted directly from The Register. If I want to read The Register (and I do), I'll read The Register, I won't come looking for The Register articles on Slashdot.
Come on guys, how about finding your own news for a change?
(And don't tell me to find my own and submit it - I've submitted about 5 articles in the past to have them rejected, only to see the exact same link in an article the next day. I can take a hint.)
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
Do you have absolutely any clue about what you're saying?
Happy Troll Tuesday!
/etc/fstab file so that it always automounted when plugged in. I was very impressed.
/dev/null, once I find where that actually is.
A Linux user goes back.
By Tony âoekNIGitsâ Collins.
Introduction...
In much of today's online news, we hear of how many people are migrating to GNU/Linux. What we don't seem to hear much of, is users going back to their old operating systems. The reason for this article is to say that I've done just that.
Yes, I've gone back. After three and a half years of trying to make GNU/Linux work on the desktop, I've decided that it's simply too hard for the average home user. Before I go into my reasons for going back, let me outline what I believe an 'average' home user is. Mr Joe Average is someone who wants to install their OS, boot it up, and it works. He wants to be able to upgrade his PC , and have the hardware work in a few short minutes. He wants to read email, browse the web, talk to his mates online, and play some games. Feel free to disagree with me, this is merely how I see myself. Note: I'm not referring to Grandma using Linux, or even my mum using it. I'm referring to average users who know a little about their computer.
Three and a half years; that's how long I've been trying to make Linux work on my desktop computer. Right about now, I'm sure that you are now screaming that I didn't try hard enough, or that I'm just plain stupid. Let me assure you that this is not the case. Stupid users don't doggedly stick at something for three and a half years, trying distribution after distribution in the hope of finding the holy grail of Linux desktops. They give up in less than a few hours of trying to (unsuccessfully) install RedHat Linux. Hear now my sad tale of why Linux isn't suitable for my desktop.
Some background...
The year is 1998. I've had my Windows '95 computer for around six months. Frustrated with the constant crashes, I desperately asked an online mate for help. Even though he was a windows user, he calmly suggested that I try something I'd never come across before...
âoeLinux, eh? Never heard of it.â
âoeOh, it's a free OS that you can download. Apparently it doesn't crash much. Just do an online search for it.â
Armed with this meagre knowledge, I set out on my quest for the ultimate stable operating system. I searched online, and found places where you could even buy copies of Linux! So, I left the comfort of my warm study, and returned forty minutes later with my first Linux boxed set â" RedHat Linux 5.2. After initially balking at the very basic installer (and few false starts), I had it up and running on my lovely AMD K6-233. I even got X working in no time at all. Then the system booted up for the first time.... and it was dead ugly. I had a very stable new OS, but I didn't even want to look at it. I was happy that I had several installed interfaces to choose from, but none of them appealed to me whatsoever. Wanting to download a nicer interface led me to my next problem.
I had absolutely no idea how to even get this nice, stable OS onto the internet! After reinstalling windows and RedHat in a dual-boot configuration, I got the help I needed by using Windows and USENET. Strangely enough, I can still remember the name of the long-suffering person who helped me get RedHat online, but that's another story. After looking around online, I discovered KDE. Only up to version one, it was the closest thing I had to a completely useable Linux system. I downloaded all the KDE packages for RedHat 5.2, only to discover another distro called Mandrake, that came with KDE preinstalled and configured. Back to my local distributor, and I was set.
Mandrake with KDE was exactly what I needed at that stage in my Linux using life, and I stuck with it for over a year and a half. Always seeking the 'perfect' desktop OS, I followed releases from version 5.3 all the way through to 7.0. Eventually I became dissatisfied with Mandrake, and briefly tried a number of other distros until I finally settled on Debian. I was impressed by the simple power, configurability, and the ease of upgrade that is apt-get. I felt good about being among the uber-elite Debian user community. Needless to say, I learned a lot about how to configure hardware under Linux during my time with Debian. I learned to sift through the old HOWTOs on Linux Doc until I found something suitable and accurate, I learned to utilize the power of USENET and IRC. Life was good.
Right now you must be wondering; âoeWhere is this leading? This guy seemed quite happy with Linux!â. True, I was. After a while, I decided I didn't want to have fine-grained control. I wanted something simple. I was getting tired of the 'stable' Debian release being so out of date, and the 'unstable' distribution being so... well... unstable. I got tired of having to recompile my kernel every time I got new hardware. I got tired of using command line to talk to my PC. It was time for a change. I had good experiences years ago with Mandrake, so I figured I'd try it again. As good as Mandrake 8.1 was, it wasn't what I was after. SuSE Linux 8.0 Professional (boxed set) was installed onto my PC instead.
I have to stop at this point, and say that SuSE Linux 8.0 (Pro) is the best Linux distribution that I've ever used. It has an easy installer, reasonable hardware support, and comes with the very good KDE 3.0. The box contains seven CDROMS, one DVD and three decent books that would help even the most inexperienced user get up and going. YaST2 is a decent graphical system configuration tool. When (not if) I go back to Linux, I'll definitely try SuSE again. However, there are quite a number of things that have improve (or change completely) before I'll consider going back. Read on for my brief list of things that must must get better before I'll switch back from the Microsoft camp.
Where GNU/Linux needs to improve...
X11
The X Window System is an awesomely powerful, network transparent graphical subsystem. It's perfectly suited to running applications from remote servers. However, this is NOT what a home user needs. My experience with X is that it's too big, bloated, slow and unstable to be any good to the home user. Most crashes that I ever experienced with Linux have been X's fault. My servers don't run X, and they never crash.
What home users need is something small and fast, so they can run local applications efficiently. I would like to see the X Window System dumped in favour of a hardware accelerated framebuffer, running something like directFB or Qtopia. Home users need a small, fast graphical subsystem, with built in 3d support. BeOS seemed to be on the right track before they went under.
Fonts are truly awful under X. Most distributions ship with appalling fonts, and there is no standard way to add additional (nicer) fonts to the system. Even after extra fonts have eventually been added, many applications (eg Abiword, Staroffice) refuse to use the new fonts anyway. Perhaps the framebuffer-based graphical subsystem I suggested could incorporate decent font support, and use a readable naming scheme as well.
Drivers
While having access to the latest version of the kernel is a good thing for developers, for home users it can be a nightmare. Got RedHat Linux 7.3? Perhaps you run SuSE 7.3 or Debian 2.2. You'll have to download a binary package specific to your distro. (I'm assuming that home users won't change their default kernel, but if they did, that binary package wouldn't even work!) Hardware manufacturers should be able to provide one single driver that works on all minor versions of a major kernel release. This way it would work will all current distros, instead of having to provide multiple binaries or source code. Hardware manufacturers don't want to give out the source, as this often gives away trade secrets about how their hardware is designed.
The solution seems to be to make binary drivers work on a variety of kernel versions. I'm not sure if this is even possible with the way the kernel is designed (I'm no kernel hacker), but it would go a long way toward making Linux more accessible to the home user. Even if the kernel needs to be redesigned to support this, then in my opinion, it should be done. Linux users are always clamouring for drivers... perhaps if the kernel had something like this, it might one day become a reality.
Hardware setup
While SuSE Linux 8.0 gave me some good experiences with hardware detection (such as automatic download of NVIDIA drivers), it also let me down as in this area.
The good: I recently borrowed a digital camera from a mate at work, to take photos of my case mod. Imagine how happy I was when I plugged it into my nearest USB port, and it was automatically configured (as a SCSI device) and mounted! SuSE even added it to my
The bad: Along came my new IDE CDRW drive. At AU$99, I couldn't pass up the purchase. Plugging it in gave me no joy. I was very disappointed that a device so common couldn't be detected and automatically configured under a modern operating system. The instructions on the SuSE support site said to add lines to lilo.conf and reboot. While this is a perfectly acceptable way to get hardware working for a geek familiar with *NIX, I believe that a home user shouldn't have to do more than plug it in. It's an IDE device, it's not that complicated!
The ugly: Once the hardware was finally working (as a pseudo-scsi drive), the next hurdle was to find decent graphical tools to burn and copy CDs. I finally settled on CDBakeOven, an above average KDE application. It burned CDs from data on the hard drive, but for some reason cdrecord (the command line backend) refused to allow me to copy a cd directly. Yes, it was installed SUID root. CD copying is such a basic function nowadays, why is it so hard to do under GNU/Linux?
Software distribution
I'll put this simply. I'm a home user, not a programmer. Why on earth should I have to compile the software I want to use? I know that having the source available is a good thing, but I'll say it again: I'm no programmer. I just want to install software and run it.
This leads to another point. Although having package databases (such as the rpm and deb systems use) is great, there should definitely be seperation between system packages and additionally installed software. There needs to be a standard installer and database for user-installed applications such as word processors, email clients and games, and it should be seperate from the rpm or deb databases used for system software such as lilo, init and cron. This will make it much easier for home users to know what applications they have installed on their PC, and to easily uninstall them if necessary, without knowing some arcane commands and weird package names.
Support
There is a huge wealth of knowledge among the thousands (millions?) of people that run GNU/Linux around the world. If you have a problem, odds are that someone out there can help you, often for free. This is one of the linux platform's greatest strengths. However, Linux users are also its greatest weakness. This may not apply to most of the community, but there is a very vocal minority that gives Linux a bad name. To every Linux user that has ever helped a newbie, I thank you. I have been helped by many a guru, often when I've been asking the simplest of questions. It's the remainder that are a problem.
I once heard a song by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie called Every OS Sucks, where Linux users were described as 'elitist nerdy shmucks'. Sadly this is true for much of the 'community'. Too many consider themselves better than the rest of the world because they run Linux. Can you believe that? It's just a computer operating system, but somehow they think that it makes them better than those people who run systems such as Microsoft Windows! Elitism drives people away, as does saying âoeRTFMâ or belittling people who choose a different distro from yourself.
'Nuff said about that.
So what now?
Well, I decided to go back to a Microsoft platform. Initially being paranoid after reading things about DRM and spyware, I bit the bullet and installed Microsoft Windows XP. Like every OS, it has good and bad points; most of which you can learn about from online reviewers. I'll just point out several things that make me want to keep using it instead of GNU/Linux.
Fast graphical subsystem: Windows has lighting quick graphics, both 2d and 3d. There's no denying it. When I move a window, it refreshes so fast that I don't miss X11 at all. While not quite as nice as some other operating systems, font support is outstanding compared to XFree86.
Drivers: Point and click to install (as a superuser, of course). Windows warns you if the driver isn't likely to work properly, and can roll back to working drivers if you deliberately choose to install one that hoses your system.
Hardware setup: My CDRW worked right away, without a hitch. I am able to drag and drop files from the Explorer file manager to the CDRW icon and they get added to the list of things to burn. A quick install of Nero Burning Rom, and I was able to make a backup copy of my game CDs. (I don't like taking originals to LANs where they can get destroyed or stolen).
Software distribution: All windows software comes in binaries, either with an installer or in a zip file. I hope to never compile an application ever again. Software designed for a different version of windows is 99% guaranteed to run, but if not, there is always 'compatibility mode'. One thing to note, however: Applications designed for single user versions of windows usually only run properly as a superuser, and this includes 3d games. I expect this to be rectified as the rest of the Windows world catches up to a multi-user environment.
I can't comment on the Windows using community yet. I've not yet had a problem that a simple point and click couldn't fix. However, I will say that my original concern with Windows '95 has been addressed in Windows XP. The stability is finally there.
Final Notes
In conclusion, I'd just like to make it known that I haven't completely abandoned the Linux community. My home server still runs Mandrake, and IPCop on my gateway/firewall. There is no way I'd ever put any form of Windows on my server, nor would I ever connect a Windows PC directly to the internet without a *NIX gateway in between. Microsoft has a history of poor security, so I protect myself the only way I know how; using Linux. I will continue to advocate the use of GNU/Linux in the server arena. This is where its strength lies at the moment.
Because of their history of spreading virii, I don't use the applications that Microsoft has provided with Windows XP. My wife and I use Mozilla for web browsing and email, OpenOffice.org for word processing, and Psi (Jabber client) for instant messaging. All of these are true multi-user win32 programs, and are perfectly interoperable with their Linux counterparts.
I expect that the Linux community will have something to say about this article; I welcome comments and constructive criticism. Flames will be automatically sent to the Windows equivalent of
By Tony âoekNIGitsâ Collins
- posted by poopbot: for the crapflooder in all of us
JlXfCF1Fu3 Post #500
It's quite a good idea, actually. If JPEG is no longer a standard, then a NEW standard will be created to replace it.
Unlike the GIF/PNG fiasco, this one will carry weight simply because of the "official seal of approval" from a standards group.
It's just a real damn pity that Sony caved in and gave legitimacy to this idiotic patent. I'll remember that the next time I go shopping.
Look at what happened to GIF format.. you would have thought somone would have brought that up before they decided to press the patent and run jpg out of existance.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Do you have absolutely any clue about what you're asking?
What's so bad about shinny leather? Try to take away my shinny patent leather pants, and I'll slap you silly!
Together, we'll beat the Forgent Friggers!
Note to M1-ers: a curt but otherwise insightful message is not "Flamebait" or "Troll".
Just a simple question - do you have the slightest idea how much a patent case costs?
Happy Troll Tuesday!
It seems that the Janitors, in their infinite wisdom, have banned people who have low/negative karma from posting more than twice per day. Personally I find this completely stupid.
All the trolls will simply post AC as I am doing now. Proxies can be used to get around any ipid bans that result from AC trolls.
Surely it is better to let the trolls post at -1 where it is out of most peoples way rather than have them all post at 0 and suck up mod points and time from "legit" users?
I have tried to communicate my thoughts to the slashcode team but alas, to no avail. They are probably all sittin on their starwars bed sheets watching anime hentai tentacle rape pr0n.
Here is my proposal: All trolls that cannot post using their account post as AC. Use proxies if need be (www.antiproxy.com is a good source). I suspect this will show them how useless this idea is. Will blocking troll uid's stop trolls? NO! will ipid bans stop trolls? NO!
I seriously fail to see the point of this and consider it a stupid move by the janitors.
They want us to troll and crapflood at 0 rather than -1? Fine! So be it! No longer will we post at -1 where few people dare to visit, now we will post at 0 where we will be more visible and waste peoples time, energy and mod points! Hoorah!
The next thing you know, posting AC will be banned! Then what will you do? No more posting interesting insider tidbits! Groupthink all the way baby! oh yeah!
So logout, post shit, use proxies and above all have fun!
Let the games begin! -- on by
- posted by poopbot: news for turds, stuff that splatters
DLu7RbyMvm Post #501
If you made software which did any work with jpegs, however, then yes... you would be.
The amount of software out there that does this is STAGGGERING... Personally, I just think we should ignore it, tell Forgent to go F*** themselves, and by the time they get around to really suing anybody the patent will have expired. Meanwhile, the big boys that Forgent did manage to get into court can countersue Forgent for fraud, for attempting to enforce patent royalties after over 17 years of it being royalty free.
If they had wanted their money so badly, they should have started enforcing it when they first patented it, not almost 2 decades later. What Forgent is pulling here is bullsh**, and even _they_ probably know it. Ignore it, and it will go away.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Since this patent will expire in 2004, why not hire a good team of lawyers and have them fight it in court for the next year or two. By the time the verdict is reached it will be moot, except for some patent breaching fines that would be retro active to '97 or '02. They already priced themselves out at $15 mil. All the manufactures can pay that if the patent is upheld.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This patent was filed under the old rules, which still apply to old patents. 17 years after filing is correct.
Lots of technical and environmental problems are solved by the application of vast amounts of nuclear power
What's with the GIF on the bottom left of the page?
.jsp :)
http://www.jpeg.org/newsrel1.htm
You would thing they'd all be JPEGS on the JPEG home page, no? Kinda like seeing a Microsoft page ending with
Happy Troll Tuesday!
Credits: dmg
Yet again the Linux so-called elite, backed up by their pseudo intellectual cohorts of the w3c conspire to ruin Linux's chances in the marketplace by sowing confusion and complexity. As someone with years of experience in the marketing world, I am constantly amazed at the willingness of the W3C and other bodies to pollute the acronym space with their content free "TLAs".
Basic marketing 101 (and an undergrad course in psychology) would tell them that the normal person is only capable of remembering approximately 7 items of data in their short-term memory, but now we have to remember HTTP, HTML, XML, XSL, DTD, PHP, SSL, DSL, ADSL, ISDN, Perl, etc etc etc
This is a text book example of the tail wagging the dog from a marketing perspective.
I have been following the standardisation of the web for many many months now, but one thing has become clear, E-commerce will NEVER become popular so long as there are so many confusing acronyms involved. The guys in charge of marketing Linux absolutely MUST work to reduce the number of acronyms. One possible solution would be to merge those protocols which are not all that different. For example, why not merge XML with SGML ? (they could call it XSGML or SXGML or perhaps XMSGML), they seem to address the same problems. Or would that be too simplistic a solution for their pampered elitist ivy-league minds to comprehend ?
If something is not done URGENTLY, and I mean URGENTLY, Linux (and other more experimental derivatives such as FreeBSD) can never hope to be taken seriously as an e-commerce platform by the people who count - the accountants.
The miracle of Linux is that anyone actually runs it at all, considering one seems to require a masters in computer science to install it! (contrast this with NT4 which was so easy to install, we let our receptionist upgrade her own machine).
As usual my "open source" advice is free. Hopefully this time my valuable advice will be taken into account the next time the w3c smell an acronym brewing.
Finally, in conclusion, as an American, I am saddened that the Internet seems to have been commandeered by a European based protocol. Was America so short of talent we had to buy the HTML protocol from Tom Berners-Lee at CERN ?
Think of the security implications of the worlds strongest economy, running an e-commerce protocol developed by a foreigner from Socialist Europe. Remember the wall has not been down for that long. Who knows what kind of trojans might be lurking within the depths of these complicated protocols.
I am afraid I am behind Al Gore on this point, how can this be necessary in the home of smart corporations such as Microsoft and Intel ? The answer is the vast subsidies given by European socialist governments to fund development of the HTML specification.
The solution is clear. The federal government should mandate and strongly subsidise the use of Microsoft software for all US corporations involved in e-commerce. Only with a US-developed set of protocols can we be assured of the security of our transactions.
- posted by poopbot: crapflooding since 7/8/02
PpgFTFtZmg Post #502
You don't actually have to be successful at stoping them, you can even just put up a sign that says "no trespassing" and that will maintain your right to introduce more stringent enforcement later.
A similar law but badly implemented law (at least i presume the same law doesn't cover both cases) is what results in authors habitually telling fans "no" when they ask about doing fanfiction, even if the author doesn't mind that particular person writing that particular fanfic. Allowing some fans to write fanfiction can (stupidly) cause them to lose some legal control over their work.
The ideal behind both being that you should not be able to "fool" the public (either intentionally or unintentionally) into believing they have free right to something, and then suddenly start restricting or charging them once the object in question has been taken for granted/come into standard use/whatever is appropriate for the object in question.
I would think that this is exactly the situation such laws were trying to prevent, and i wonder if any of them apply.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
The prior owner of this patent clearly did not defend it, did not raise the issue during the very public ISO process and IMHO effectively let it lapse. You can't buy up something that is effectively in the public domain, it doesn't really matter if the patent is valid or not. The prior owner screwed up and Forgent bought a worthless piece of paper. Now if corporate idiots would stop validating the worthless piece of paper and put up a smidgen of a fight so a judge can tell us what we all already know.
Happy Troll Tuesday!
Credits: onby
1. Introduction
As everyone knows, Open Source software is the wave of the future. With the market share of GNU/Linux and *BSD increasing every day, interest in Open Source Software is at an all time high.
Developing software within the Open Source model benefits everyone. People can take your code, improve it and then release it back to the community. This cycle continues and leads to the creation of far more stable software than the 'Closed Source' shops can ever hope to create.
So you're itching to create that Doom 3 killer but don't know where to start? Read on!
2. First Steps
The most important thing that any Open Source project needs is a Sourceforge page. There are tens of thousands of successful Open Source projects on Sourceforge; the support you receive here will be invaluable.
OK, so you've registered your Sourceforge project and set the status to '0: Pre-Thinking About It', what's next?
3. Don't Waste Time!
Now you need to set up your SourceForge homepage. Keep it plain and simple - don't use too many HTML tags, just knock something up in VI. Website editors like FrontPage and DreamWeaver just create bloated eye-candy - you need to get your message to the masses!
4. Ask For Help
Since you probably can't program at all you'll need to try and find some people who think they can. If your project is a game you'll probably need an artist too. Ask for help on your new Sourceforge pages. Here is an example to get you started:
"Hi there! Welcom to my SorceForge page! I am planing to create a Fisrt Person Shooter game for Linux that is going to kick Doom 3's ass! I have loads of awesome ideas, like giant robotic spiders! I need some help thouh as I cant program or draw. If you can program or draw the tekstures please get in touch! K thx bye!"
Thousands of talented programmers and artists hang out at Sourceforge ready to devote their time to projects so you should get a team together in no time!
5. The A-Team
So now you have your team together you are ready to change your projects status to '1: Pre-Bickering'. You will need to discuss your ideas with your team mates and see what value they can add to the project. You could use an Instant Messaging program like MSN for this, but since you run Linux you'll have to stick to e-mail.
Don't forget that YOU are in charge! If your team doesn't like the idea of giant robotic spiders just delete them from the project and move on. Someone else can fill their place and this is the beauty of Open Source development. The code might end up a bit messy and the graphics inconsistant - but it's still 'Free as in Speech'!
6. Getting Down To It
Now that you've found a team of right thinking people you're ready to start development. Be prepared for some delays though. Programming is a craft and can take years to learn. Your programmer may be a bit rusty but will probably be writing "hello world" programs after school in no time.
Closed Source games like Doom 3 use the graphics card to do all the hard stuff anyhow, so your programmer will just have to get the NVidia 'API' and it will be plain sailing! Giant robot spiders, here we come!
7. The Outcome
So it's been a few years, you still have no files released or in CVS. Your programmer can't get enough time on the PC because his mother won't let him use it after 8pm. Your artist has run off with a Thai She-Male. Your project is still at '1: Pre-Bickering'...
Congratulations! You now have a successful Open Source project on Sourceforge! Pat yourself on the back, think up another idea and do it all again! See how simple it is?
- posted by poopbot: for all your crapflooding needs
mG6xjxchbU Post #503
lets see what the dictionary says a royalty is:
Royalty: A share of the profit or product reserved by the grantor, especially of an oil or mining lease.
Also called override.
A share of the profit, hmm, share better look that one up... (cant wait til elementary school starts back up so I dont have to humor you like this)...
Share: A part or portion belonging to, distributed to, contributed by, or owed by a person or group.
So you must believe that they are coming forward with their patent after all this time because their feelings are hurt that they aren't being given the credit they deserve...
Bullshit Stymie... they are out to make a profit, you actually think they give a shit if you or I look at a jpeg image, wont stop you from using libjpeg however there may be no products which use that compression anymore...
If ISO takes JPEG off as the standerd then what will replace it? GIF's? What? I really don't know to much of the patent business but JPEG is use worldly and if it stops being the standerd then what will replace it with the same type of art format? I think that there are too many patent issuses going around and it is cutting off major business from doing there work.
Happy Troll Tuesday!
THE TROLL POLKA (ARSCHFICKEN MIT ZIEGEN)
By Serial Troller, 2002-06-25
Is das nicht ein early post? Ja! Das ist mein early post!
Is das nicht ein Goatse ghost? Ja! Das ist mein Goatse ghost!
Early post, Goatse ghost,
Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Slashdot sucks!
Is das post at minus one? Ja! Das ist at minus one!
Is das trolling so much fun? Ja! Das trolling is so fun!
Minus one, trolling fun, Early post, Goatse ghost,
Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Slashdot sucks!
Is das nicht ein big crapflood? Ja! Das ist mein big crapflood!
Is it worthless Linux FUD? Ja! Das ist mein Linux FUD!
Big crapflood, Linux FUD, Minus one, trolling fun, Early post, Goatse ghost,
Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Slashdot sucks!
Is das nicht der CowBoiKneel? Ja! Das ist der CowBoiKneel!
Is dis nicht his manchode meal? Ja! Das ist his manchode meal!
CowBoiKneel, manchode meal, Big crapflood, Linux FUD,
Minus one, trolling fun, Early post, Goatse ghost,
Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Slashdot sucks!
Is das nicht ein WIPO Troll? Ja! Das ist der WIPO Troll!
Is das nicht ein Goatse hole? Ja! Das ist der Goatse hole!
WIPO Troll, Goatse hole, CowBoiKneel, manchode meal,
Big crapflood, Linux FUD, Minus one, trolling fun, Early post, Goatse ghost,
Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Slashdot sucks!
Is das nicht Jon Katz' slave boys? Ja! Das ist Jon Katz' slave boys!
Und are they not Taco's sex toys? Ja! They are Taco's sex toys!
Katz' slave boys, Rob's sex toys, WIPO Troll, Goatse hole,
CowBoiKneel, manchode meal, Big crapflood, Linux FUD,
Minus one, trolling fun, Early post, Goatse ghost,
Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Slashdot sucks!
Is das nicht ein trolltalk thread? Ja! Das ist ein trolltalk thread!
Is it nicht now FUCKING DEAD? Ja! Is really FUCKING DEAD!
Trolltalk thread, FUCKING DEAD! Katz' slave boys, Rob's sex toys,
WIPO Troll, Goatse hole, CowBoiKneel, manchode meal,
Big crapflood, Linux FUD, Minus one, trolling fun,
Early post, Goatse ghost,
Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene, Oh, du schoene,
Slashdot sucks!
____________________
Change Log:
* Subtle changes to most verses. It sounded really gay before.
* Removed all references to Taco's pud. May have been high at time. Will investigate further.
* Finally think I have goat sex written correctly in German. I think. Arschficken?
(C) 2002 Serial Troller. Permission to reproduce this document is granted provided that you send all the bukkake porn you can find to serialtroller@hotmail.com.
- posted by poopbot: lovely snot! wonderful snot!
rqr78LNAld Post #504
Coding system for reducing patent redundancy
Abstract
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for processing patents to remove redundant information thereby making the patents more suitable for transfer and storage through a limited-bandwidth medium. The present invention specifically relates to methods and apparatus useful in intellectual property systems. Typically, the system determines differences between the current input patents and the previous input patents using mean-square difference of the patents. These mean-square of the patents are processed and compared with one or more thresholds of redundency for determining one of several modes of operation. After processing in some mode, the sucessfully processed patents are in the form of digital numbers and these digital numbers are coded, using ordered redundancy coding, and stored in the database.
SD
âoeWho knew something as harmless as willful ignorance could end up having real consequences?â
JPEG is a "de facto" standard, like the others you mention.. Which is to say it's in use, and will be used (probably) in the future.
On the other hand, it's ALSO currently a "de jure" standard, which is to say it has the "seal of approval" of a standards body, in this case, ISO.
There is a difference, and it has a lot to do with how standards bodies work and how governments relate to them.
The logo on the JPEG homepage is actually a gif.
Happy Troll Tuesday!
OPEN SOURCE MISCONCEPTIONS
By Serial Troller
Myth: Open Source is written by heterosexuals.
Fact: All Open Source development is done by raging homosexuals. The more flaming examples include Anal Cox, Linus Turdballs, Eric Ass-Reaming Raymond, and the entire Slashdot crew. The ringleader of the slashdotters, a man named CmdrTaco, engages in a practice known as Taco-snotting, along with his faggot-buddies Jeff Homos Bates and CowBoiKneel.
Myth: Open Source is written for heterosexuals.
Fact: Using Open Source software can cause suppressed homosexual fantasies to surface, leading to all out flaming faggotry within 6-8 weeks. Anecdotes of otherwise hetero men turning queer are far too numerous to count, but a few examples stand out. In one case, a man was arrested loitering outside an elementary school and making sexual overtures to several children: he quickly confessed that shortly after installing the Mozilla browser on his computer, he began to have uncontrollable urges to, to put it simply, have his cock sucked off by little boys. He soon met several other like-minded men through discussions on the Bugger Zilla mailing list (all already homosexuals), who together kidnapped a total of seven children whom they brought back to their apartment and sodomized. The other two men are still at large and believed to still be using Mozilla.
Myth: Open Source is multicultural.
Fact: Open Source is openly racist.
Myth: Open Source is democratic.
Fact: Open Source is controlled by a few narrow-minded zealots (mentioned throughout this post), most of whom are either Communists, Stalinists, Nazis, or Fascists. Additionally, Open Source supports terrorism.
Myth: Open Source is tolerant of religious preferences.
Fact: Open Source developers regularly engage in holy wars over the superiority of various Open Source projects, such as the Emacs program (preferred by Christians) versus vi (used mostly by neo-pagans and Satanists); or the KDE desktop (a favorite among Muslims) versus the GNOME project (particularly favored by Jews). Posts initiating crusades or jihads against other developers can be found regularly throughout the newsgroups and mailing lists.
Myth: Open Source is tolerant of sexual preference.
Fact: See above. Either you are a homo, you become a homo, or you never visit Richard Stallman alone in his office and hope to God you never meet him on the street at night.
Myth: Open Source is tolerant of political differences.
Fact: Open Source is an anarcho-communist philosophy bent on the destruction of capitalism. The very same Richard Stallman, a man whose name is disturbingly reminiscent of Stalin, has stated several times in public that his vision includes the subjugation of all who own intellectual properties under the jackboot of the GPL. The GPL is a pernicious piece of literature lifted straight from Karl Marxs Communist Manifesto, and is fortunately banned in many democratic nations.
* * * * * UPDATE * * * * *
Myth: Open Source programming is a harlmess, healthy activity.
Fact: Open Source programming has been known to lead to massive obesity, violent tendencies with an obsession with handguns, paranoid-delusional ranting, and in severe cases, complete insanity. If anyone you know is thinking about going Open Source, stop them before its too late!
* * * * * UPDATE * * * * *
____________________
2002 Serial Troller. Permission to reproduce this document is granted provided that you send all the bukkake porn you can find to serialtroller@hotmail.com.
- posted by poopbot: information likes to be narrow
0eqZ6j88gb Post #505
...that 10 months after Gordon Matthews is desginated to "mine" the company's patent portfolio, finds the JPEG patenent and then he turns up dead?
Hmmm?
Gordon Matthews dies
I think Forgent better be very careful about trying to enforce its so-called patents on the JPEG compression standard.
They run the risk of running afoul of US antitrust laws. In the famous US v. United Shoe Manufacturing Company case (1941), the courts ruled that patents cannot be used to stifle competition--of which the Forgent patent may just do. This is the same issue that resulted in Rambus running afoul of the law because Rambus was using its patents on DDR-SDRAM to stifle DDR-SDRAM in favor of RDRAM technology.
The End of FreeBSD
[ed. note: in the following text, former FreeBSD developer Mike Smith gives his reasons for abandoning FreeBSD]
When I stood for election to the FreeBSD core team nearly two years ago, many of you will recall that it was after a long series of debates during which I maintained that too much organisation, too many rules and too much formality would be a bad thing for the project.
Today, as I read the latest discussions on the future of the FreeBSD project, I see the same problem; a few new faces and many of the old going over the same tired arguments and suggesting variations on the same worthless schemes. Frankly I'm sick of it.
FreeBSD used to be fun. It used to be about doing things the right way. It used to be something that you could sink your teeth into when the mundane chores of programming for a living got you down. It was something cool and exciting; a way to spend your spare time on an endeavour you loved that was at the same time wholesome and worthwhile.
It's not anymore. It's about bylaws and committees and reports and milestones, telling others what to do and doing what you're told. It's about who can rant the longest or shout the loudest or mislead the most people into a bloc in order to legitimise doing what they think is best. Individuals notwithstanding, the project as a whole has lost track of where it's going, and has instead become obsessed with process and mechanics.
So I'm leaving core. I don't want to feel like I should be "doing something" about a project that has lost interest in having something done for it. I don't have the energy to fight what has clearly become a losing battle; I have a life to live and a job to keep, and I won't achieve any of the goals I personally consider worthwhile if I remain obligated to care for the project.
Discussion
I'm sure that I've offended some people already; I'm sure that by the time I'm done here, I'll have offended more. If you feel a need to play to the crowd in your replies rather than make a sincere effort to address the problems I'm discussing here, please do us the courtesy of playing your politics openly.
From a technical perspective, the project faces a set of challenges that significantly outstrips our ability to deliver. Some of the resources that we need to address these challenges are tied up in the fruitless metadiscussions that have raged since we made the mistake of electing officers. Others have left in disgust, or been driven out by the culture of abuse and distraction that has grown up since then. More may well remain available to recruitment, but while the project is busy infighting our chances for successful outreach are sorely diminished.
There's no simple solution to this. For the project to move forward, one or the other of the warring philosophies must win out; either the project returns to its laid-back roots and gets on with the work, or it transforms into a super-organised engineering project and executes a brilliant plan to deliver what, ultimately, we all know we want.
Whatever path is chosen, whatever balance is struck, the choosing and the striking are the important parts. The current indecision and endless conflict are incompatible with any sort of progress.
Trying to dissect the above is far beyond the scope of any parting shot, no matter how distended. All I can really ask of you all is to let go of the minutiae for a moment and take a look at the big picture. What is the ultimate goal here? How can we get there with as little overhead as possible? How would you like to be treated by your fellow travellers?
Shouts
To the Slashdot "BSD is dying" crowd - big deal. Death is part of the cycle; take a look at your soft, pallid bodies and consider that right this very moment, parts of you are dying. See? It's not so bad.
To the bulk of the FreeBSD committerbase and the developer community at large - keep your eyes on the real goals. It's when you get distracted by the politickers that they sideline you. The tireless work that you perform keeping the system clean and building is what provides the platform for the obsessives and the prima donnas to have their moments in the sun. In the end, we need you all; in order to go forwards we must first avoid going backwards.
To the paranoid conspiracy theorists - yes, I work for Apple too. No, my resignation wasn't on Steve's direct orders, or in any way related to work I'm doing, may do, may not do, or indeed what was in the tea I had at lunchtime today. It's about real problems that the project faces, real problems that the project has brought upon itself. You can't escape them by inventing excuses about outside influence, the problem stems from within.
To the politically obsessed - give it a break, if you can. No, the project isn't a lemonade stand anymore, but it's not a world-spanning corporate juggernaut either and some of the more grandiose visions going around are in need of a solid dose of reality. Keep it simple, stupid.
To the grandstanders, the prima donnas, and anyone that thinks that they can hold the project to ransom for their own agenda - give it a break, if you can. When the current core were elected, we took a conscious stand against vigorous sanctions, and some of you have exploited that. A new core is going to have to decide whether to repeat this mistake or get tough. I hope they learn from our errors.
Future
I started work on FreeBSD because it was fun. If I'm going to continue, it has to be fun again. There are things I still feel obligated to do, and with any luck I'll find the time to meet those obligations.
However I don't feel an obligation to get involved in the political mess the project is in right now. I tried, I burnt out. I don't feel that my efforts were worthwhile. So I won't be standing for election, I won't be shouting from the sidelines, and I probably won't vote in the next round of ballots.
You could say I'm packing up my toys. I'm not going home just yet, but I'm not going to play unless you can work out how to make the project somewhere fun to be again.
= Mike
--
- posted by poopbot: crapflooding since 7/8/02
E24Nism7lT Post #506
Forgent won't, from what I've read, disclose who paid money for a "license". I am thinking, and perhaps I am wrong, that those who paid have their *own* patents and fear that if they fight this one, their own patents might be fought.
Just a thought...
Patent != Trademark
GET IT STRAIGHT
"The market alone cannot provide sufficient constraints on corporation's penchant to cause harm." -- Joel Bakan
To: pr@forgent.com
subject: Important information regarding the matter at hand
Dear Sir stroke Madam,
I am writing to you to express my utmost contempt for your company. Your
attempt to put the squeeze on users of the FREE AND ISO STANDARD jpeg
format makes me sick. The fact that Sony gave you $15 million when I
can't even afford to pay my mortgage makes me sick.
Your company did not invent the jpeg image format. That was done by
people who actually work for a living instead of litigating.
All you have is a patent, which DOESN'T EVEN APPLY TO JPEG AT ALL, and
now you are ruthlessly attempting to enforce it.
Well I am going to use the jpeg format a lot more from now on. I am
going to release some commercial software that allows users to batch
filter jpeg images.
If you don't like it you can get frelled.
graspee
The date is July 11th 1992. The GNU people are once again safe from patent law... gzip has saved the LZW-hampered compress from kneeing the GNU project in the other groin.
...
... minion ... here, will pose as a new board member. After the deed is done, he will fake his own death, and in the resulting chaos, all blame will be passed on to him.
RMS is still not relaxed however. He knows the Achilles heel of his plan to free the hearts and minds of all thinking beings in the world is patents. Restlessly, he searches for an answer, but as yet, it has eluded him. Later that day, one of his minions shows up and senses something is on his master's mind.
Minion0: What is wrong, master? Has someone threatened freedom again?
RMS: Rest easy young minion. Today, at least the battle has been won, but I fear the war may still be lost.
Minion0: You can't mean...
RMS: No, no, my facade as a badly-dressed over-zealous hippie will not be breeched. Be assured that it is inconcievable for anyone to see past my BO.
Minion0: Phew. But yet, I sense something's amiss.
RMS: Patents may yet be our downfall. The dark forces has threatened us before with them, and soon they will again.
Minion0: But, cannot we impress upon the minds of our leaders the importance of this?
RMS: Alas, in that respect our actions will be in vain. Our only chance lies with being more wise than them.
Minion0: I was worried there for a moment... here, let me get the champagne!
RMS: Perhaps it is good that we rejoice in our small victory. But the lull will not last and yet...
Minion0: And yet?
RMS: The time is not yet ripe. Rest assured, this patent war, we shall win!
And so, after a brief victory celebration, the GNU people return to their secret identities of coders who are brilliant, yet in need of basic hygiene.
Yet RMS continues to plan, in the dark and twisting corners of his mind.
We rejoin RMS on April 1 2001, in the boardroom of a relatively unknown company named VTEL. The board members of this struggling company wonder what the darkly dressed stranger has to say.
RMS: My plan is nearly complete. One this is done, you will not only have saved freedom from certain doom, but have struck a terrible blow at the very heart of the dark forces opposing us.
Boardmember0: But, would this not cause us to become unpopular and even shunned by our families?
Boardmember1: And what if there are complications?
RMS: All of the above has been taken care off... My
Minion0: Naturally, you will never see me or RMS again after this meeting.
RMS: And so, we have prepared new identities in any country of your choice for you and your loved ones. We chose your company because it would make the least impact on your social lives.
Boardmember0: But this name change? Would it not raise questions to the observer?
RMS: Only to those who are free from the dark influences. Fortunately for us, our counterparts are oft blinded by the smell of money...
And so, we reach our present day. The dominoes of fate are all in place, and we can only hope that freedom will prevail!
Maybe you need a better dictionary because a royalty can be a fixed charge per copy instead of just a portion of the profits.
Happy Troll Tuesday!
Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered trolling community when recently Slashdot confirmed that, after several changes were made to production Slashcode, wide posts account for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all Slashdot posts. Coming on the heels of the latest verions of IE which make page-widening more difficult, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. the wide posts that we love are collapsing into the narrow posts that we are used to, as further exemplified by the lack of Slashbots complaining about difficulty reading Slashdot's articles.
You don't need to be a Klerck to predict PWP's future. The hand writing is on the wall: PWP faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for PWP because PWP is dying. Things are looking very bad for PWP. As many of us are already aware, PWP continues to be defeated by users with thresholds of 1 or higher. Mod points flow like a river of blood. Klerck's PWP-bot posts are the most endangered of them all, having been filtered early on because of their uniformity.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
PWP leader Klerck states that there are 7 wide posts in the average Slashdot article. How many non-wide crapflood posts are there? Let's see. The number of crapflood versus wide posts on Slahdot is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7*5 = 35 non-wide crapflood posts in every Slashdot article. Tacosnotting posts on Slashdot are about half of the volume of crapflood posts. Therefore there are about 17 tacosnotting posts per article. A recent article put Goatse.cx trolls at about 80 percent of total troll posts. Therefore there are a hell of a lot of homosexual trolls. This is consistent with the number of Goatse.cx Slashdot posts.
But Slashdot is only part of the picture. Due to the troubles at Slashdot, negative revenue and so on, the site will soon go out of business and many users will flock to alternative weblogs, where PWP is almost completely unknown. Trollaxor.com, the popular troll hangout, is also dying, its corpse sodomized in yet another Greek bath house.
All major surveys show that PWP has steadily declined in the scope of all troll posts. PWP is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If PWP is to survive at all it will be among Blog faggot using outdated versions of Slashcode. PWP continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, PWP is dead.
- posted by poopbot: for the crapflooder in all of us
5MbcREnOX3 Post #507
We seriously need US NO Patent and Trademark office. The objective of this office is to grant "no patent" status to certain technology. Thus if you are trying to use a new technology and are not sure if this technology is restricted by some creepy patents, then you can file "no patent" application. Once filed, the "no patent" will be published and if any patent holder has any objetion, then they should file a claim withina reasonable time (say a year) and must declare specific patent that may be getting violated. At this point, the filer of "no patent" must fight successfully to prove that the said patent are not-applicable or withdraws the application. If nobody objects, or all objections are thrown out, then the technology gets "no-patent" status. Once done, no patent holder can claim any patent on this technology.
...).
... should start this initiative.
This would be a strong boost to free software developers, standard organization and even many enterprises who don't want to find themselves surprised by some late patent claims (e.g. JPEG, GIF, SDRAM,
I guess Amazon, FSF,
Happy Troll Tuesday!
Credits: on by
Trolling your way on the web today
Takes everything you've got;
Having a Bot to post your comments
Sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to join the frey?
Sometimes you want to go
And get a First Post in your name,
So much goatse that you came;
We know it's hard to get Eff Pee,
Our troubles are all the same;
Get that FP and everyone'll know your name.
- posted by poopbot: for all your crapflooding needs
37yRmCEu9i Post #508
If nobody gives in to their frivolous lawsuits then the patent is likely to be less defensible than if somebody does give in. Similar things happened for windowing in Y2K as well as many algorithms of wrapping around the century and finding dates in code. The bad news is that if a bunch of people pay these folks to go away then it helps validate their position and everybody could have to pay. Just my .02 worth...
This jpeg patent deal is like a storm. Sure it makes a hell of a mess but, when it's over, the world is fresh and new.
All you open-source types should realize the value of Forgent doing this!
This will pave the way for more mainstream people saying, "Hey! Wait a minute! I'm not going to get caught with my pants down again! You know, 'Fool me once...' So I'M switching to open-source software with appropriate licensing to guarantee that these scoundrels can't screw me again!"
In other words, situations like this and with Microsoft claiming patent rights on OpenGL will only encourage people to stay away from propriety, corporate-sponsored software and move to open, community-sponsored software that much faster!
Hip hip hooray for Forgent! They're scheming slimy dirtballs but sometimes those people, in their greed and lust for power and money, accidentally do something that'll just screw their own kind in the long run.
Is this just patented within the US or also in
other countries or International patent?
ISO should scrutinise all standard proposals by way of a declaration of patents held, then they wouldnt be in this pickle. It is their own fault if they dont check for patents.
Sony paid them so their hardware market is not interrupted by legal issues. Too late, it is already interrupted as buyers will find software for their wonderful devices refuse to support it.
GIF has patents, how much of the software out there doesnt have a license for it? we still use GIF today regardless of the patent.
End users/home brew software devs dont care, corps do.
----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
Happy Troll Tuesday!
USian Pie
A long, long time ago I can still remember How the trollers used to make me smile And I knew if I had to boast That I could try to get first post And maybe I'd be happy for a while But moderators made me shiver With every minus they'd deliver DoS scripts couldn't stop it They scored them all "Offtopic" I know that it's cheap crack they smoke And meta-moderation's broke At first I thought it was a joke The day that trolltalk died
-- Chorus --
Bye, bye, MEEPTy, OOG, and Grits guy Drove the Cruiser like some loser who starts posts with a *sigh*
Those Steve Woston posts that we all knew were a lie Wonder what became of girls petrified? What became of girls petrified?
--
Did you write a bunch of Perl? And did it make you want to hurl Feces at the Wall? Can you believe these lame-ass polls? Do you post big stretched-out assholes? Can you make the goatse.cx link not show? Well I know you think that Siggy sucked Will the real Bruce Perens please stand up? The bots don't have a clue. Man, I dig those trolls from Shoe! I was a rabid Free Speech advocate With a Red Hat T-shirt and a Free Beer gut
Bought my Sony laptop working Pizza Hut The day that trolltalk died
-- Chorus --
It's been two years since the IPO And LNUX sinks to all-time lows But that's not how it used to be When Spiral showed how it was done Trolling as Jon Erikson Who worked for NPO Technologies Oh and while they tried to filter posts Somebody rooted Slashdot's host "Crack Slashdot? That's absurd!" Better go change your password While JonKatz wrote a Hellmouth book By using posts he simply took And we flamed him till he was cooked The day that trolltalk died And we were singin....
-- Chorus --
10 grams. Inchfan. Didn't log out. Goddamn The mods will find the sid real soon, man
You can't hide if you aren't AC Your bud (George here) tried BSD A dead Streetlawyer's tips were free And WIPO helped letsriot turn Nazi 70 made his percents up While 80md warned "liberals suck" The moon does not exist It's just a liberal myth Oh and as Taco tried to take a nap We forced him to invoke bitchslaps Do you recall the flood of crap The day that trolltalk died? We started singin....
-- Chorus --
Oh and then we were wearing out "All your base" And started posting monospace
The better for our penis birds So come on, be a zealot, be a dick You don't think Anne Marie's a chick? Because lying's all we do about HURD So go and push for BSD And say GPL isn't free Slow down, cowboy! The limit Is one post every minute Now tell the right wing facist slime Infringing on Your Rights Online That they can't censor all the time The day that trolltalk died
-- Chorus --
I met a troll they called The Rev And asked him if CD BREAK HEAD He said, "That's old. Get over it." And with all the courage I could muster "Imagine what a Beowulf cluster...." But it wasn't worth the trouble to submit The karma caps are just plain jive And everyone's moved to K5 The steelcage has grown rusted And Geekizoid is busted
The three sites I don't see for weeks Segfault, kernel, Comp-u-geek Code is not art. This ain't Freshmeat The day that trolltalk died
-- Chorus --
- posted by poopbot: because even your grandmother can use lunix
4YydVWeIoa Post #509
just heard some sad news on talk radio - the distinguished author and scholar whose works revealed Orthodox Jewish life to readers around the world Chaim Potok was found dead at home outside Philadelphia this morning. There weren't any more details. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his work, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon.6 38&ncid=762&e=1&u=/nm/20020723/en_nm/people_potok_ dc_5
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=
This must be Thursday, I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Someone else may have published this but this would force people towards a better overall standard.
Also isn't there an open JPEG2000 standard coming out soon?
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
The laches defense, applicable where the patent holder didn't defend against a known infringer, only applies to specific infringers that can prove that the patent holder knew about their specific case of infringement. It doesn't help other infringers that can't prove that the patent holder knew about them. Also, the patent holder has 6 years to take action against an infringer that they know about, before laches takes effect.
why do you applaud them? they aren't taking a stand on anything; they are just following their own rules.
If a standard is encumbered by patents, unless they are available on RAND terms, then it cannot be an official standard.
This is not them speaking out against anything, they are simply stating what they must do.
Subject line says it all...
Unisys will sue Forgent for not paying any royalties on the software used to generate the 42 gif images on their webpage.
.JPG image on their webpage (http://www.unisys.com/corporate/images/home/home/ content/main_photo_homepage.jpg)
While that is going on. Forgent will sue Unisys for not paying any royalties on the
When the lawyers have taken all of their money, both of them will declare bankruptcy and go out of business.
S.E.S.S.D.E.N.E.E.NW from west end of hall of mists
... to explain his views? I'm not trying to pick a fight. It's just been my experience that most Libertarians are interested n the freedom to smoke weed than any thing else. The biggest difference between a libertarian and an anarchist is that libertarians still want the police to arrest the guy who stole their car stereo.
I think what we really need is a statute of limitations on patent suits, or something to that effect. That way, companies would only have a fixed length of time in which to dispute these things.
I also don't think there's any way the companies could win. It's a cache-22. They didn't care about it before, because they didn't realize how much it would be worth in the future. But if they had enforced patents and charged for it way back when, it never would have caught on, as we would have turned to a different free format instead.
"Inflammable means flammable? What a strange country!" -Dr. Nick, The Simpsons
I wonder what image format GNU.ORG will use on it's website, now...
As digital cameras get bigger and better, I've noticed many using .tif as the file format. Sure it is a much larger file size, but is heads and shoulders above the .jpg format when it come to serious photography.
The PNG format might actually be a substitue when it comes to regular photography as file size is much less important when NOT dealing with the web.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
burnalljpegs
Sig ?
You elect representatives with the IQ of a jar of cheezewhiz and this is what you get. For our British readers, that's a non-nutritive cheese flavored milk byproduct used to make all manner of things taste "cheesy." Not connected with the idea of cheesy computers.
Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam rexque futurus.
Do they do anything besides extort for patents?
Does anybody know anybody who has contracts with Forgent? Does anybody have influence over that? If so, they need to be dropped.
The governments are slow to respond. This patent nonsense is ridiculous. What needs to start happening is "takedowns". A company like Forgent comes out of nowhere and demands royalty payments on something which has been in widespread use for a very long time on the assumption it was not so legally encumbered. This company never even contributed to the algorithm in the first place, so the argument that it's "fair recompence for fair work" is obviously bogus; it's nothing more than extortion which is legal under laws that are out of date. That company then needs to get spanked, and hard, and pubically. They need to suffer bigtime for their arrogance and their mistake. Everybody else needs to see them suffer, so that they will think twice before trying the same bullshit trick.
Anybody who is giving money to Forgent now needs to stop. Companies and individuals, or whoever Forgent currently makes money off, needs to boycott them, cancel their contracts. Forgent needs to go out of business, and it needs to be public and messy. We can't sit back and take it every time some piss-ant little technology-wannabe firm (a category in which I'd include Unisys nowadays) comes forward and starts claiming violation of "their" intellectual property. Somebody somehow has got to start putting these people in their place.
These parasites on society create nothing but grief; they do all sorts of damage to the community at large, getting rich themselves. It's no better than the behavior of the execs at Enron, it just happens to be legal. The system needs to be reformed; I wish our government would see their way through to doing that, but I don't have much hope. (Hell, our government is too busy going in the other direction with things like the DMCA, TIPS, and everything else that makes us so happy.).
Once upon a time, GIF was the #1 image format in the world, and it was free (although we all knew it was 'owned' by CServe. But then came Unisys and they pointed out GIF is based on LZW compression and so... GIF was no longer free
i flzw.ht ml
.png images yet, and indeed, what company will be the next to reap the benefits of the use of one of its 'hidden in the basement' patents.
See an intersting article about that here:
http://www.cloanto.com/users/mcb/19950127g
But even today, GIF is still used a lot (maybe only 1% against jpg, but I haven't seen to many
core dumped.
What's t say that some other lawyer isn't going to claim that thay have a patent on one or more of the algorithms used in Jpeg 2000?
The JPEG committee, which is developing the JPEG2000 standard, has issued a call to entities who claim to own patents on technologies necessary to implement JPEG2000 compression to disclose their intellectual property. The companies that have disclosed such patents have agreed to license them to the general public on a royalty-free basis.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I was just looking up the corporate info on Forgent and noticed that the CB/Director/MajorStockholder of the company is Richard Snyder. A quick search brings up several persons of that name, including a VC who started Price-Waterhouse in the '80s and later served as VP and eventually Pres of Gateway. I wonder if that's the same guy? ... Oh, and also the bass player for Captain Beefheart on his final album (Ice Cream for Crow)...but that's probably not him, huh? :-)
Sometimes I don't get our economy. Although I understand that companies want to make money and profit from their products or services, I don't get why some companies are at the public's throat most of the time. Don't the executives get that by making the public angry they're not doing any good to the company's reputation? Do they really expect me to buy anything that involves a JPEG algorithm after a scandal that they put on? If everybody starts pushing for patents and enourmous fees nobody will be willing to do any business, because nobody wants to be sued. I have nothing against patens, they're cool, they can profit an inventor to a reasonable degree and benefit the public at the same time. The companies that hold patents, should be proud of them and open them up to the public, after all that everybody will benefit from whatever they invent and chances are that they're going to make more money than buy suing each other.
How about I compress your kernel into an mp3 or jpg? How'd you like that, fools? Down with lossy compression.
In order for a patent to apply, all of it's claims must be met.
I wouldn't be so sure. A typical patent contains a plurality of independent claims ("A computer with memory and a first image source...") and a plurality of dependent claims ("The invention of claim 2, where in addition..."). If a device matches an independent claim exactly, it infringes the patent. Dependent claims exist so that if the independent claim is found to be obvious or not novel, the patent owner has additional inventions. In this case, any device that matches a nullified independent claim plus one or more non-nullified claims dependent on that claim infringes the patent.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Open source uses copyright to protect intellectual property. Corporations often use patents to protect their intellectual property. In the game of rock, paper, scissors, copyrights are paper to prior patents scissors.
Yes, there is a noticable difference in quality when using "Raw TIFF" as it's referred to in digital photography (yes, the same market that refers to digital file sizes in Megs, as opposed to any type of meaningful resolution). The problem is, that's on a $2K plus SLR body that nobody bothers using without a 1GB IBM Microdrive or better. That constitutes about 1% of all of the digital cameras made. The rest are point and shoot pieces of crap that the average consumer would buy, and they save in .jpg. .png just isn't compressable enough for the 4 MB flash card that comes with that kind of junk.
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
No, that's trademark law. Patents are viable until the prescribed date they become invalid.
That's what I thought until I learned about the "laches" doctrine.
Will I retire or break 10K?
i smell a giant PR stunt
ISO is about setting and cotrrectly enumerating Standard. Those standard are sought to be RAND or whatever it is called. When it becomes proprietary thru the imposition of a patent, then it cease to be "standard" (or has to) and ISO has to jump in. ISO don't have to jump on to decide whether it is ethical or not, they have to jump to protect standard as matching a certain "quality" (in this case RAND agreement).
How would you feel if somebody certified part of the ISO 9001 or 9002 firm quality process, thus asking you money each time you market having "matched" a certain standard ?
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Results 1 - 20 of about 2,070,000....
well, you sure seem to have gotten worked up.
1) Go to Photoshop
2) Make Pixel Marking
3) Save File
4) Change file date to 01-01-1981
Bingo. Prior Art.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/17/124225 7&mode=thread&tid=106
There is a much better approach. We need to lobby our Government bodies to insist on using software that defaults to non-proprietary file standards (I'm going to refer to these as OFS(Open File Standards) from now on) as a first step.
OFS(Open file Standards) are a cause that we can get support from all computer users, as it benefits Linux but also Mac, Solaris and even M$ OS users.
A good argument to use is that the requirements to make information open and publicly available is discriminatory to poor people if the file standards require paying the M$ tax. An amendment to the FOIA(Freedom Of Information Act) at the federal and state levels is what to ask for. When the Feds require open file standards, Linux will become much more competitive. Once the files standards are open, Linux can easily succeed.
Be aware that GIF, JPG, are not open standards. Even PDF cannot be modified to add functionality. If Adobe decides to come out with a super set of PDF and collect royalties they have every right to do so. What we should push for is for the government (particularly the Federal level) to support open standards, free to all, much as the bureau of standards has done for units of measure (let's hope no one claims a patent on the meter).
Furthermore, we need to ask that all the extensions of government web pages be free of proprietary structures so that any browser will be assured of displaying the page content without depending on proprietary plugins.
(hint: read a little, then check out what kind of file they use for the logo at the top left is...
Great. First, laws are passed to limit guns. Now they're being passed to limit GNUs...
There's no wrong way, to eat a Rhesus...
Web Designers: You aren't artists and the media isn't the message. The message is the fucking message.
;)
Yes, I am an artist, I even have an art school diploma that says so
As for the second part, I agree.
This is the kind of thing that needs legislation passed to prevent it from happening. They need to come up with a registar for open standards, similar to the patent office or something. When a group comes up with an open standard for something they file the standard in this registar. If someone has a patent on something in the standard they should have like one year to do something about it and anyone involved in filing the standard should be unable to claim a patent. If the holder of the patent lets something slide through the registar for a year with out noticing they should be unable to get royalties for the patent. This would prevent consumers from getting locked into a standard then a jerk ass company like this from trying to gouge them.
If your not cheating your not trying. If your not trying your not winning and if your not winning why play?
I wonder if the outcome of this will be anything like what Fraunhofer(sp?) did with the mp3 codec?(And the subsequent development of an open standard, ogg vorbis)
In an ideal game of dirty legal pool, with large or unlimited funding, what terrible trauma could someone like IBM (or even the MPAA) legally inflict on Forgent to shut the company down and acquire their patent, assuming that the patent stands?
Debian has a bug filed against libjpeg62. It sounds like libjpeg62 has to go to non-US if the patent holds.
--TK
In principio creauit Linus Linucem.
It won't affect me much, as my systems are all built from sources. And most of the tools that can potentially do jpegs can be built without jpeg support. But it's sad to hear that users of binary Linux distros may be hurt by this.
As digital cameras get bigger and better, I've noticed many using .tif as the file format. Sure it is a much larger file size, but is heads and shoulders above the .jpg format when it come to serious photography.
.jpg is head and shoulders above .tif (as you give a passing nod to in your final statement). By your assessment only pics that make it to large prints can be considered 'serious'. Even serious photographers who print larger images will shoot in .jpg, offload to computer and convert to .tif before editing. Even the higher resolution cameras need to have their files interpolated by GIMP (or photoshop I guess) before printing larger images.
Actually it's only a factor if you're going to be tweaking the files or making larger (than snapshot) prints. For displaying on web pages and other computer applications
--
As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.
Not true. I have a Sony DSC-P1 Cybershot that cost around $500 when I got it (it's disco'd, so it's probably less if you can find it now). It shoots at a max resolution of 2048*1536 and can save as a TIFF. That will print a good-looking 8x10 and an excellent 5x7. Granted, you can't hold more than a couple of photos on anything smaller than a 128 Meg MemoryStick, but the quality (especially black-and-white) is excellent for the price.
First of all every digicam ever made stores pictures on it's media in jpg or tiff format. Web sites use either png or jpg file formats, and since most digicams do not support png people will still end up submitting pictures to ebay using jpg. Basicly this is a case of trying to lock the barn after the cows have run off. I would also liken it as loosing your trademark by not inforcing it for years. In other words its too damn late now to try and collect on this patent since EVERYONE has been using it for too long.
Does this mean my porn won't work anymore? I can't live without my porn, it's more precious to me than air or water.
p.s. You slashdorks can't spell
I just took an 80kb PNG image from mandrake.com, converted it to a bitmap, and zipped the bitmap. The resulting zip file was about 50kb. I also tried the same thing with some PNGs that I had created for my website, and a similar thing happened. Conclusion: ZIP compression is better than PNG?
And let everyone know...
US Patent No. 3686520683635630535675273507357320
Registered by Nr Nemesis, about thirty seconds ago.
This patent is a new form of presenting digital images. Using techniques which you judges won't undestand, this process takes images (as well as all kinds of other data) and makes them smaller (a black-magic process that Mr Nemesis Industries has named "Compression"TM).
Since we now have a patent on the CompressionTM algorithms, we're seeking repayments from every company that utilises our CompressionTM services who have been stealing our IP for so many years.
We also plan to initiate a lawsuit following the recent acquiring of the Acronym CompressionTM standards - a complicated system (which you wouldn't understand) where entire phrases can be reduced to a few capitalised letters.
Our first suit is to be filed against the JPEG and ISO consortiums.
If the patent does hold, the only people that are going to be paynig for the royalties are large companies that integrate this technology into their products. The bottom line is that Forgent is trying to get some return on their investment in the patent they purchased. Yeah, this really is low, but legal. How is this going to affect 99% people on the net? Not much. Companies are going to pay the 15 Mil (at least the ones that use JPEG with their bread and butter products), a small few might be upset enough to switch over their format to something else (PGN, TIFF, whatever..), and the mass will just ignore it. 2 years later it won't matter.
They are trying to squeeze money from industry, not the end user. Even if they wanted to tackle every user out there with a 10gig p0rn collection, it will take more way more than 2 years to enforce it (if ever).
"I bet I'll get blamed for this." --Mayor Quimby
All this prior art stuff... I wonder if I could put together any patentworthy idea I've ever had and put it on the usenet encrypted... So anytime a phony patent claim comes up and I thought about prior art, I could point to my post at the google usenet archive and provide the key.
Would this help? And would it help even more if all of us would do it?
My venerable Canon Powershot A50 (~4yrs old) can save as TIFF, and 128MB CF cards for it are sub-$60
I don't know how that statement makes what I said not true. While I agree that for $500 you can get a point and shoot that will save TIFFs (that comes with what....a 16 MB memory "stick"), being able to print a "good-looking" 8x10 doesn't make anything more than a consumer model point-and shoot.
.TIFF format. The market demands a "good enough" lossy format. And PNG isn't it.
The fact remains that the average point-and-shoot users who has gone digital does not want to pay half the price of their camera to upgrade the memory in it so they can save in
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
Mind-numbing dork alert!
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
How is this a threat to JPEG use? Does anyone believe that people use JPEG because of the ISO? Or do they use it because it's a great and convenient way to store images?
I'm afraid far more than this is necessary to fix the problem, unfortunately this threat doesn't even amount to a slap on the wrist.
is competition good, or is duplication of effort bad?
the patent claims would invalidate the GPL license :-(
SUV's support terrorism !
Here's facts: .gifs. .gifs. .jpegs.
.png and all other
.zip, .gz, .tar, etc? Well, they are not yet popular enough.
.net... (The only issue is who reveals the card first..)
1) There used to be
2) Someone came up with a bogus patent and asked for money. => and got it.
3) we burned all
4) Then there used to be
5) Someone is coming with a bogus patent => and will get tremendous amount of money.
6) We burn all jpegs.
Guess what happens next?
The same people probably have companies already there for similar patents on
common image standards you can find.
The best thing to do is to stay with jpegs; the patent will expire very soon; they cannot use the same patent-card twice! They will be making HUGE amount of money with that wannabe jpeg patent; nothing can stop that now.
Companies just cannot stop selling their products, so they will happily pay all the license
fees required to use jpegs; whether the patent was valid or not -- it takes some time before companies can switch their code to something else to avoid the patent; but that means millions and millions of dollars for the evil empire.
What they really want us to do is to switch to other image format! They already published the fact that jpeg is patent encumbered LONG time ago, so that we would be ready to switch to another format immediately when they use the patent-card.
And of course png was developed and contributed to us as patent-free image format.
Once we switch to another format, the same thing happens again. Probably within 5 years when pngs are the big thing... The time it takes for them to redo the loop is exactly the same time as it takes us to switch to the next format! If we do it quickly, we're going to see another patent claim on "patent-free" image format sooner than we thought was possible.
They are using us to make money! And they are very good at that.
Are you already waiting for patents on
Are you hoping that stds committee can somehow fix jpegs by finding something that used jpeg technology before their patent? Does not matter, this is just to distract us from the real point and to speed up the loop. Not paying the license fees would be making a suicide, even if prior art exists. Crosslicensing is the only working way, and that will not help at all, if the company making the claim has no valid product on the market _currently_. (they can make the patent
claim if they used to have products on the market..)
(Someone should try patent the microsoft excel format... I bet one could get a pile of money from microsoft with that; Microsoft just cannot affort to stop selling their product while they're fighting against some tiny company in court..)
How about a patent on xml? Might work pretty well against
OK, I'll take the bait, since I'm qualified to respond. I'm credited on the PNG specification as a contributor, and I wrote one of the first (if not the first) commercial implementations of PNG, for a little company called Mastersoft that eventually got acquired by Adobe (via Frame Technologies). Your facts are half-right -- PNG does give better image quality by virtue of supporting up to 16 bits per channel (16 bits each of R, G, B, and optionally A), and by virtue of using lossless compression, but it does not give better compression in the general case.
JPEG is designed to use lossy compression, and as such, it can attain much tighter compression ratios than PNG can. In some cases, PNG can generate a smaller file than JPEG, but this is a corner case where the original image has a limited color space (e.g., uses indexed color with very few unique colors), and where the original image has abrupt transitions (e.g., line art, or art where regions are solidly colored). JPEG is designed to work well on photographic images, where continuous tones are the norm.
If we lose JPEG as an open standard, there isn't anything left to adequately replace it. PNG was supposed to replace GIF to get around the Unisys patent (GIF tax). JPEG2000 is too new, and there are too few software packages supporting it. JPEG2000 also requires the use of wavelets, and a lot of legacy hardware might be severely taxed processing these new images.
They can do whatever they want: you don't have the legal right to produce something if it infringes on patent A. They can charge a percentage, a flat fee, simply refuse to let you use the patent at all...whatever.
May we never see th
This is a good place to mention a project I am working on. I wasn't going to announce it quite yet because it's unfinished, but this JPEG news could change things.
I have modified zlib to support a simple form of lossy compression for images. The Lempel-Ziv compression stage works by looking for repeated strings in the data, and when a string is found just output a reference back to the previous occurrence. But what if this string matching allowed some deviation? More strings would be matched and the output file would be smaller, but there would be some loss of quality.
My implementation tries to do a kind of 'dithering string match' where it finds the longest possibel match where the total pixel difference (sum of squared differences of pixel values) is less than some given threshold. But the error in one pixel is taken into account when matching the next, so that one pattern of dithered pixels has a reasonable chance of matching another.
At present I just have the modified zlib and I am using it to compress 8-bit and 24-bit PNM images lossily. That is, with some reduction in quality I can compress a PNM image down to say 20 kilobytes, while gzip would compress it to 50 kilobytes. By adjusting the threshold you can trade off quality against file size (with threshold=0 you have plain gzip compression). The space saving and quality loss depend on the type of image being compressed. But the results so far are encouraging; with a bit more ingenuity in the matching algorithm it should be possible to do better.
To recap, so far I just have a modified zlib compressing 8-bit and 24-bit PNM images. I am trying to extend libpng to use this lossy zlib, but the trouble is that PNG headers should not be compressed lossily, just the pixel data. Also I need to deal with images that have more than one pixel per byte. (Although the results are still fairly good if you take a paletted image and convert it to 8-bit greyscale before lossy compression.)
I have quickly put together a web page Lossy PNG to demonstrate what has been done so far. I'm going away on holiday soon so I won't be able to make a working release for a while, but perhaps this proof of concept will encourage others to work on the idea.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
ISO doesn't wan't to pay licence fees, yet at the same time they charge us for everything -- i.e. downloading the c++ standard, etc. You figure if it's a standard it should be available for free to everyone who wants to view it.
Firstly, the money paid will presumably be passed on the consumer. Secondly, it means that companies are more likely to start using their own proprietary compression rather than JPEG, which reduces the utility of the devices. It's going to be a pain in the ass if you've gotta convert all your pictures into JPEGs yourself, rather than have the camera do it for you.
Spanked hard pubically, eh?
My, you are kinky.
TIMELINE
1986 - Patent filed, Oct 27, Compression Labs, Inc., San Jose, CA
1987 - Patent granted, Oct 6
1992 - JPEG standardized ITU-T Rec. T.81 (1992)
1994 - JPEG standardized ISO/IEC 10918-1:1994
1994 - GATT ammended ("Ururguay Round"), Dec 9
1995 - GATT changes to U.S. patent law go into effect, Jun 7
1997 - Patent acquired by Forgent Networks
2002 - Patent enforced by Forgent Networks
INFORMATION
People have criticised Forgent Networks for not speaking up about the patent during participation in ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1, Sub Committee 29, Working Group 1. In fact, Forgent did not have the patent at the time.
The patent was granted prior to the GATT-mandated U.S. patent law changes to eliminate submerged patents. Thus the term of the patent is 17 years; therefore the patent expires on Oct 6, 2004, not "in 2006, 20 years from the filing date", as people have been claiming.
It is not the proper role of the ISO to take up a legal battle against patents.
CONCLUSIONS
Forgent was probably unaware of the patent at the time of its participation in the JPEG working group.
Prosecuting the patent after allowing the continued existance for 5 years of an international standard based on the patent is likely a violation of the RICO statutes.
Specifically, USC Title 18, Part I, Chapter 96, Section 1961(1)(A) and 1961(1)(B), "Extortion".
The definition of "Extortion in this case is from USC Title 18, Part I, Chapter 95, Section 1951(b)(2); specifically: (emphasis mine).
It seems pretty clear to me that this falls into the same category as the civil application of RICO to the RAMBUS patents, and to similar recent cases.
So, IMO, rather than expecting the ISO to get into the act, it's more likely time to involve your local Federal prosecutor, instead.
-- Terry
Their newsletter! why not sign up someone @forgent.com or any subsidary. And sign em up for a few other good mailing lists too.
Stallman, time to change that logo!
Just fill out this form. /. partners.
They probably need a few hundred
And maybe signing up for their newsletter might be informative too. Or sign up for some training so you too can be ready for the new era of imaging. Or create a "trouble ticket" and let them know about the problems you are having with their JPEG technology. Or get a quote so you can pay for that JPEG based digital camera you bought. And last but not least... Sign up for a job there... since they will effectively own you and all your jpeg files.
Interactive Visual Medical Dictionary
I agree with you on your point regarding "good enough" picture quality and low-priced cameras. I just thought you came off as a mite disingenuous by grouping cameras into $2,000+ SLR models and "piece-of-crap" consumer models, when there are plenty of "prosumer" cameras in the $500-$1000 range that offer excellent photo quality and color reproduction (albeit without the Microdrive or fine adjustments of a professional camera).
Even better is the Canon Raw (CRW) format that the higher-end Canon cameras use (G1, G2, D30, D60, etc). It just dumps the output from the CCD to a file. It's smaller than a TIFF image since it takes into account the subsampling of red and green. It is also independant of white balance settings, since it's only recording the CCD output and not transforming the color space in the camera and losing information.
My other first post is car post.
Yeah...I'm just snotty like that. ;)
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
Raw format is not an option for many because of two reasons:
1. time. Raw images take a LOT of processing power. Just viewing the damn things on my 1.4GHz Athlon takes 20 seconds. Also, the software from Canon sucks in other ways (UI) and is Windows only. That alone is a deal breaker for many here.
2. space. The jpg's from my D30 are about 1mb each. Raw format files are 4-5mb. I have taken 9000 pictures with my D30. Instead of 9GB of images I'd be looking at 45GB. That is not acceptable to me.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Well, on second thought... :) Dropping JPEG as a standard wouldn't mean anything if there aren't enough viable alternatives. PNG sure is a very viable alternative, but I haven't seen too many PNG-powered websites so far. In fact, I think the sites I built myself are rarities. So dropping the JPEG-standard is one, but convincing ppl to switch to PNG is another... So, what are we going to do to accomplish this? Burn-all-JPEGs or something? :)
Woefdram, l'apprenti sorcier
1. Well, can't say much about the windows only, but I'm sure somebody could write a tool to take a directory of raw images and convert them to the format you want.
2. I've noticed that the jpgs from digital cameres (work and home) aren't very well compressed. I can often chop file size by half or more by recompressing. With no noticable loss of quality. There's nothing wrong with Recompressing images again after downloading them, is there? And there's plenty of automation for that.
The idea is to keep as much resolution as possible until you get a smart compresser to compress it.
I don't read AC A human right
The patent is valide in US, Japan, Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy, as explained here.
:
Patent numbers
US 4698672
EP 0266049
JP 63148789
The patent is 17 years old, and only now is it put in use. Think how many patents are given to software nowadays. According to the article, in Japan there are 4,000 patents on image and wavelet technology alone. Think of what will happen in 15 years, when companies start bringing out all-but-forgotten patents on everyday algorithms from the good ol' dot-com days... The devastation will be much, much larger...
I doubt, therefore I may be.
PING 64.132.236.73 (64.132.236.73): 32 data bytes
..........--- 64.132.236.73 ping statistics ---..................^C
/. effect.
37974 packets transmitted, 36559 packets received, 3% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/std-dev = 79.388/259.890/484.257/41.159 ms
mmm, take my jpeg's away will you? Ha, just doing my part to add to the
I figure every little bit helps, right?
Yeah, tell me how I'm going to "seamlessly and immediately" switch the FIRMWARE of my digital camera from using jpeg to png?
What's that you say? You don't want to write assembly for my camera (since I don't know assembly for that CPU)? You don't want to find the appropriate chip and burn a replacement for me (I don't know what chip it uses, nor if blanks are easily obtainable)? You don't want to physically dissassemble the very tiny mechanisms to install (wave solder?) the new chip in and reassemble it all so the optics path is clean?
You do, but not for less than the cost of the camera?
Well, then... I guess I can't "seamlessly and immediately" switch everything to PNG format, can I?
... and then, in an unholy trinity with .BMP files, they shall once and for all crush any opposition and reign supreme! Muahahahahahaha!
[What about companies] who have decided not to answer the JPEG committee's "call to disclose their intellectual property"?
If JPEG committee members refrain from disclosing their IP, those members are dropped from the JPEG committee (and possibly from all of ISO); just look what happened when Rambus pulled a fast one on JEDEC. If third parties who own patents on JPEG2000 but aren't members of ISO refrain from disclosing their IP, they risk being shut out of the market; just look what happened to Rambus's market share.
Will I retire or break 10K?
1. This page has a bunch of tools for manipulating CRW files in Linux. There is a converter to convert them to 48-bit files. I'm sure you can set up something to batch-convert them.
2. If you spend $2000 on a camera body plus more for accessories, you can spend $100 on an extra 60GB IDE drive for your computer. Anyone who buys that camera wants the highest quality images. Even if you're making pr0n and you will only post the low-resolution JPG's, you will still want the high-resolution raw files for archival purposes.
My other first post is car post.
no comment.
Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam rexque futurus.
This is really how it works.
Whatever prior art the committee collects should only be shared with companies actually defending a lawsuit unless it's absolutely the same in every respect. If Forgent knows about the best prior art, they'll be ready for it.
If they're ready for it, their infringement accusations will take it into account. If they are not ready for it, their infringement accusations have a higher chance of stepping into the territory of the prior art. It always looks bad when a patent holder describes the new stuff in the same terms as the prior art could be described. That's when the defending party stands up, exposes the good prior art, and says "Look, we're the same as what everyone was doing in 1975, and those slimy bastards themselves said so!".
Anyone who actually has to defend this thing hopes to hell that the JPEG committee doesn't publicly expose the prior art before it can be used to advantage.
Specifically, lets assume that *I* am sitting here as a private citizen holding a patent on some process of manipulating data.
Private citizens usually don't have the $$$ to take on a big business in the courtroom, and no lawyer in her right mind will take a software patent holder's case pro bono publico. The best you can hope for is contingency, where the lawyer takes a case on for free in return for a big cut of the settlement if you win.
Am I worried about getting shut out of the market? No, I was never in the market. This gives me a chance to hold the market hostage for millions once it's in wide spread use.
Your signature comes in handy:
I am trafficking in circumvention devices. 5 years jail $5 mill fine.
If it is discovered that you own patents that encumber a widely used standard, the industry will be able to use such trafficking to blackmail you into licensing the patents royalty-free.
Will I retire or break 10K?
The more data the more of a pain it is to backup. My current solution is using DVD+RW's. It's a pain, though.
As for the extra disk suggestion, you're partially right. I don't want to add more disks, because of heat and noise problems I already have.