Slashback: :CueCat, Exercise, Wormage

Slashback tonight brings you updates on the current doings (and name) of J. Jovan Philyaw, the man behind the :CueCat, the alleged worldwide infestation of file-trading computers with an RIAA-sponsored worm (not true, they say), the privacy implications of GeoURL markup, and more. Read on for the details.

When pranksters float your trial balloons for you. ninenet writes "A follow-up on the story posted earlier on Slashdot ... The RIAA has now officially stated that the claims of an elaborate P2P worm are 'a complete hoax.' A story on eWeek quotes an RIAA spokesman as saying, "Someone forwarded the message to us and that was the first we heard or read about it.""

<Location>,<location>,<location > A few days ago, we mentioned the interesting geographic lookup / markup system of GeoURL. Joshua Schachter, the fellow who runs GeoURL (and editor of memepool, to boot), writes with "some responses of mine to comments posted:

Q: "Why not use the WHOIS database for address information?"

A: GeoURL is geographic content markup. Nobody cares where your server is - where are YOU? That said, I'm waiting for someone to hook their GPS into their web page and keep GeoURL updated.

This way different URLs can have different coordinates, as well.

Q: "Blah blah blah blah privacy."

A: If you want privacy, don't put your location on your web page.

Q: "You're evil and you're going to steal this information and go private, just like CDDB did."

A: The content is marked up on the pages and not entered into my database. Anyone could easily write a similar service (and I hope they do.)

I plan to create a page containing lessons learned and useful code snippets for other people who would like to implement similar stuff."

Most importantly, I hope this helps the development of distributed speed-trap logging and mapping!

Making this up would be too easy. An anonymous reader writes "Egomaniacal former Dot.Bomb 'entrepreneur' J. Jovan Philyaw has escaped the asylum and is back with even bigger delusions of grandeur. When last we saw him, J.J. was trying to shove the misbegotten :CueCat/:CRQ combination on unsuspecting users. Now, he's apparently writing a couple of books, selling his 'power crystals' that adorned the offices of Digital:Convergence, and changing his name: his sites refer to him now as J. Hutton Pulitzer. Apparently the utter and complete failure of Digital:Convergence (loss of at least $185M) hasn't dented his ego one bit. In his bio, he actually compares himself to Thomas Edison. A hilarious must-read for those who followed the :CueCat debacle (and for those of us who worked there)."

I hope all these things can be adapted for recumbents. Jamie Briant writes: "Saw your update to the slashdot story on games for exercise bikes. I'm a developer for exertris.com that makes a bike with LCD screen built in, which we sell primarily to gyms, but you can buy in the UK at Harrods. We write and tune the games specifically to motivate you to exercise."

Comments

haiku

[bobtheprophet]

So, no more lawsuits
but instead there will be worms
From bad to evil.

Re:haiku

[blibbleblobble]

"So, no more lawsuits [slashdot.org]
but instead there will be worms
From bad to evil."

So no more worms
for those who write them
go to prison

Now we're screwed....

[reaper20]

"Someone forwarded the message to us and that was the first we heard or read about it."

"Thanks for the idea though!"

Re:Now we're screwed....

[chimpo13]

So, the RIAA is finding out about stuff p2p? I hope their lawyers sue them.

Heaven forbid, I check out a band I haven't heard before I buy their CD.

Actually, comparing himself to Thomas Edison

[Anonymous Coward]

Might be apt if you're not a fan of his (and many of us aren't). He did have a way of stealing ideas and claiming them as his own. He was just a really good marketer.

What's up with the name change?

[rgarcia]

"J. Jovan Philyaw ... his sites refer to him now as J. Hutton Pulitzer.

Might as well have changed it to Max Power ;)

Re:What's up with the name change?

[Smidge204]

If he could push the idea of the CueCat as far as it got, blow $185 mil and not lose any sleep over it... maybe he's thinking of becoming a lawyer for the RIAA!

"Kids, as of this moment, Lionel Hutz no longer exists. Say hello to Miguel Sanchez!"

Seriously, though. I've got a few of those CueCats. A father of a friend runs a soup kitchen, and I helped hack together a barcoded ID card system to keep track of who visited and how often. Cuecats were perfect because they were free and really easy to write software for!

Still in service, as far as I know. :)
=Smidge=

Re:What's up with the name change?

[SomeGuyFromCA]

Judge: Hmm. "Hercules Rockefeller". "Rembrandt Q. Einstein".
"Handsome B. Wonderful". Huh, I'm going to give you the only
name you spelt correctly. From this day forward, your name
shall be ...
[cut to a shot of Lisa, reading from a sheet of paper on the
Simpsons' couch]
Lisa: "Max Power"?

Source: http://www.snpp.com/episodes/AABF09. Hope that helped.

Re:What's up with the name change?

[sessamoid]

Might as well have changed it to Max Power ;)

Doesn't beat the guy I met yesterday who changed his name to "Big Daddy." No lie.

Re:What's up with the name change?

[Idarubicin]

A father of a friend runs a soup kitchen, and I helped hack together a barcoded ID card system to keep track of who visited and how often.

Cool--it's like a library card for food!

Actually, the first time I read the post, I missed the phrase "barcoded ID card"--I wondered whether you had to have someone hold the homeless folks down while you tattooed them with a barcode, or if you just slipped a tranquilizer into their soup.

Re:What's up with the name change?

[Theaetetus]

Doesn't beat the guy I met yesterday who changed his name to "Big Daddy." No lie.

But nothing beats this guy.
Love-22 is a street performer in Key West, who legally changed his name, and prints up his own 22-dollar bills, which have been used (mostly at backwoods convenience stores and gas stations) for currency more than 500 times in the past 22 years.

I met this guy once... Looooooooooopy!

-T

Re:What's up with the name change?

[Dolly_Llama]

I had a substitute teacher in 8th grade whose name was "Everlasting Omnipotent Peace" E.O. Peace. The drugs in the 70s must have been damn good...

Re:What's up with the name change?

[Grab]

Tell you what, if I changed my name, I'd pick a first name I wanted to use! ;-) You can imagine the scene:-

Bridgekeeper: "What is your name?"

JHP: "Er, Jerkoff Hutton Pulitzer. No! wait! "

Grab.

(PS. Apologies to non-Monty Python fans.

Re:What's up with the name change?

[FuegoFuerte]

Ok... Big Daddy... big whoop...

My own story: I work retail. So, one day this guy comes in and buys a few things. Pulls out his credit card to pay. I have him sign the slip, and when I look at the signature, it looks for all the world like a smiling mushroom. I do a double-take and ask for his ID. He shows me his driver's license, with the name "mushroom [last name redacted]" on it, and again, the smiling mushroom for the signature. I had no reason to do otherwise at that point, so I accepted it. Turned out it was legit... never came back bad, and he came in a couple more times in the following months. I was truly amazed.

the bio

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Don't bother clicking, y'all. This bozo doesn't deserve the notoriety that a good Slashdotting would bring. Here's the funniest part, smart quotes endumbened but all typos left intact. Just look upon his works, ye mighty, and despair:

Who Is J. Hutton Pulitzer?

J. Hutton Pulitzer is one of the most prolific independent Inventors of modern times and of the new millennium. His obvious "Invention and Passion Gene" seems to date back to his Royal German Ancestry as early as 1492 in the development of what is now modern Germany. Known for being "ahead of his time" in vision, thought and product development. J. Hutton has created many "first". One notable being the first syndicated television program in the world to combine simultaneous broadcast via Television, Radio and the Internet. His highly rated, award winning and acclaimed program, Net Talk Live!, which broadcast a record 245 original episodes, created a network of over 700 TV stations (ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, WB and many Independent stations) and 200 radio stations-- Coast To Coast! In a format that is now copied by all the major networks, J. Hutton's show was broadcast to over 1.5 million TV homes worldwide on cable and broadcast television. His creation paved the way to the integration of various broadcast mediums around one syndicated theme. A sought after public speaker and industry trade writer, J. Hutton Pulitzer has presented his teachings to audiences as large as 45,000 and he has been guest lecturer and featured speaker/panelist at such prestigious educational institutions as Harvard Business School, Stanford University, The Cato Institute, University of Michigan, University of Texas, The C.E.O.'s Roundtable and corporations such as American Airlines, Radio Shack, Microsoft, NBC, Merrill Lynch, Bear Stearns and many others.

I weep for the Republic.

Re:the bio

[Otter]

Hey, if you're going to quote and tell people not to read, you've got to include:

His inventions have won numerous industry awards and accolades, chiefly due to the fact that J. Hutton Pulitzer's inventions and ideas were adopted by the American consumer at a rate that outpaced the combined first year growth of cell phones, pagers, personal computers, hand held computers and total Internet users in just the first 90 days of its heralded release.

And here I thought all the whackjobs were Tesla fans. (Tesla the inventor, I mean, not the Canadian hair metal band.)

Re:the bio

[Twirlip of the Mists]

Yeah, I saw that, too. I'd like to know who considers giving the damn things away to everybody who subscribes to Wired and-- what was the other one? Fortune? Popular Science? Something or other.

Shit, dude, if I give away my inventions, can I achieve "unprecedented market saturation" too?

Re:the bio

[psamuels]

Here's the funniest part, smart quotes endumbened but all typos left intact.

"Endumbened". I'll have to remember that one. The correct term, I believe, is "demoronised - but I like yours too.

Just look upon his works, ye mighty, and despair:

Heh. There's definitely something pompous about using a first initial and middle name. Particularly if the first initial is J. Odd.

I wonder if J in this case is short for Jabba the.

Re:the bio

[Twirlip of the Mists]

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

-- Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelly

Re:the bio

[erc]

J. who? Did you notice that nowhere on the site does it list *anything* he's done, just lists of "awards" and such. Awards for what? If I had invented the internet or any such thing, I'd be hollering about it to high heaven on my web site ... oh, wait a minute, Al Gore already beat me to it!

Smells like BS to me...

Re:the bio

[Zeinfeld]

J. Hutton Pulitzer is one of the most prolific independent Inventors of modern times and of the new millennium. His obvious "Invention and Passion Gene" seems to date back to his Royal German Ancestry as early as 1492

Hey, my ancestry goes back to 1942, on both sides of my family. So for that matter does anyone's the only difference is whether you know who it was or not. 1492 is not all that far back either, my ancestors fought at the battle of Hastings (both sides) in 1066 but there are folk whose pedigrees go back to whatever date you argue for the Yellow Emperor of China.

Of course it is all bollocks since genealogy tends to follow the male line and in practice it is only the female line whose accuracy can be assured. Adultery is not a modern invention, no matter who you are between 5% and 10% of your ancestors were bastards. If the gap between generations is 25 years that makes 20 generations since 1492, meaning that Pulitzer's chance of being legitimately descended from the royal family at no better than 35% with 12% being a more likely value.

speaker/panelist at such prestigious educational institutions as Harvard Business School, Stanford University, The Cato Institute, University of Michigan, University of Texas,

You have got to be pretty desperate if you end up putting the Cato Institute down on your speaking resume. Bit insensitive to put crank tank financed by rich rightwing crackpots to promote partisan views ahead of Michigan and Texas Universities though.

Re:the bio

[JimmytheGeek]

That's one of my personal freakouts: I mod ANYBODY down who uses a leading-initial name. I also use the first initial in conversation. "Hi, J. How are you?" If you want to use the first name, use it. If you want to go by your middle name, fine (unless I can pin an apt nym on your hairy arse). Initial + middle name == pretentious horseshit.

Also - whassup with middle initial users? I used to tweak a girlfriend by refering to brit actor Richard Grant without his middle name (E). I don't care what author Brett Ellis' middle name is. Piss off!

Re:the bio

[Simon Garlick]

Respect for the Shelley reference :)

on excercising games

[lingqi]

So... besides the tried and true DanceDanceRevolution (and all its spinoffs - the korean versions seems the hardest so far), there are many others nowadays. (and have been)

For those who complains that there is insufficient stuff for your hands to do because "nobody dances like that", there is also ParaParaParadise or somesuch that focuses on the hands. If you follow *exactly* what the person do onscreen, it actually gets pretty fancy.

Moreover, in Japan I have seen some boxing games where you would put on a pair of gloves and hit targets as they come up; at least one of them is themed after "Fist of the Northern Star." Also gives you quite a cardiovascular workout after a while.

Then we have the horse-riding ones... While looking silly, those gets tiring!

Another "all the rage" game is a drumming one. The Playstation version is not so tiring, but in the arcade with big drums and relatively heavy sticks, they can get interesting mighty quick (since for fast tracks you have to accelerate a fairly massy stick to the drum at high frequency).

In ESPN-zone in downtown Chicago, there is also a rock-climbing thingy. Nobody can afford one on their own, but that's probably the most physically engaging "game" I have ever played.

so... no reason to stick just to the bikes, y'all.

Re:on excercising games

[mmol_6453]

I play DDR some (my brother has it), and I can say, it's not "tried and true." It requires way too much coordination for me to be much interested in it, and for people looking for something to get them started on an exercise program, well, the more overweight you are, the more uncomfortable "Have You Never Been Mello" becomes after your third round.

I don't mind anaerobic exercise, which is what you get if you do something for an extended duration, like jog, or ride a bike.

I like the concept of immersing a game into a bike. I'm thinking about putting rotary encoders on my bike's handlebars and pedals, and mounting it to a frame. I should be able to rig up some box that translates the signals into something the Linux kernel joystick drivers can use. Maybe I can set up Need For Speed III under Wine. :P As long as I'm not thinking about the exercise portion, I'd absolutely love it.

Re:on excercising games

[Elwood P Dowd]

Just so you know what's in the US too, I recently went to our local Scandia (crappy arcade franchise).

They've got some super-ultra-whatever DanceDanceRevolution. Dunno where it's from. I don't speak furrin.

They've got ParaParaParadise

They've got some boxing game (not Fist of the Northern Star. I wish.)

No drumming.

And like ten different (lame) alternative-input device games. I guess arcades realized that the only way to make someone pay $1 for a game was to make it something that you couldn't do on your PS2 - which has to be more than just a bigger CPU now... so *everything* is six feet wide, features a chair, and makes you look like a dumbass.

There was some river rafting game where the whole point was to paddle as fast as possible to avoid some whirlpool... then steer to the next whirlpool. Fun to watch fat kids sweat.

There was some motion-capture golf game. No stick. You swing your hands as if you were holding a golf club. Seems like that'd be impossible without tactile feedback.

My favorite will always be the shooters. I try to get my exercise... uh... with my girlfriend.

Re:on excercising games

[Stonent1]

Fun to watch fat kids sweat.

tmi TMI!!!

Re:on excercising games

[Cutriss]

The boxing game you speak of is called Mo-Cap Boxing, and it's produced by Konami, the same company that brings us Dance Dance Revolution, Para Para Paradise, DrumMania and Percussion Freaks (the drumming game you mention), and a wide variety of other motion-sensor and music-based games. Their Bemani division produces all of these (except for Police 911 and Mo-Cap Boxing).

The Korean knock-off is called Pump It Up, and it's produced by Andamiro. It is more difficult, but in my opinion it's not as fun as DDR. The song selection isn't very good. Another Korean knock-off, Techno Motion, basically builds off the Andamiro formula, which says "More arrows *must* mean more fun!" There's also Stepping Selection, by Jaleco, which is the system that is the basis for Britney's Dance Beat. That's a pretty loathsome game there.

Para Para Paradise, for the uninformed, uses five vertically positioned infrared beams placed in a pentagon shape around you. Similarly to DDR, you follow the arrows on the screen and break the light beams at the appropriate time. You don't have to use your feet, unlike DDR - Any body part will do. The orientation of the arrows makes it so that you have to rotate and twist more often, frequently making upper-body motions more efficient and viable. It's named Para Para Paradise because the motions you perform in the game are similar to a type of Japanese karaoke bar dancing called "parapara".

For a good combination of both DDR and Para Para Paradise, try DanceManiax/Dance Freaks. These games have sensors on the front of the machine which you can place your hands/arms/knees/whatever over or under, and foot panels on the bottom similar to DDR.

Bemani makes a lot of other good stuff too (Like Beatmania!), but it's not exercise-oriented, and so I won't mention it here. For anyone interested in Bemani products, take a look at BemaniStyle.com and DDRFreak.

Re:on excercising games

[extra88]

They're both "aerobic exercise." The first might be called "aerobic training" because running all out (or biking) then resting a little, the running again is supposed to make you better at aerobic exercise, more so than running at a steady pace. Exercise equipment like treadmills, stairmasters, and stationary bikes all have a setting to do such a "peaks and valleys" workout.

Re:on excercising games

[extra88]

I think you're mis-remembering. Check out this link which does a decent job of explaining the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise. Here's the most relevant part of the page:

• Anaerobic endurance refers to short term endurance capacity which relies mainly on anaerobic energy pathways.

  • Simplistically, anaerobic endurance is of such a short duration that oxygen from the lungs does not have time to reach the muscles.

  • Anaerobic exercise is essential for strength building & muscle gain.

  • Normally, short, intensive activities lasting less than 60 seconds, might be though of as "anaerobic,"

  • Also, longer activities which are intermittent (i.e., boxing, football, etc.) are also thought of as "anaerobic," since they consist of repeated high-intensity bouts of activity.

• Aerobic endurance, on the other hand, refers to longer-term activities which rely primarily on the oxidative energy pathway.

  • Simplistically, aerobic endurance is of long duration & relies mainly on oxygen from the lungs

  • Aerobic Exercise is essential for weight loss, cardio vascular fitness and body-shaping.

  • Longer, less intensive work is thought of as "aerobic."

Re:on excercising games

[extra88]

Actually, that is known as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

Yeah, but that's too long to fit on a button ;-)

Re:CUECAT

[cioxx]

I got my :CueCat back in 98 I think; came with the issue of Wired Mag. There were some driver issues and it didn't install, so I just threw it in the closet where it still is.

In fact, here's a picture to prove I was part of the moron revolution.

GEOUrl

[zangdesign]

For all you paranoid types out there, this GEOUrl thing is remarkably easy to defeat

1. don't participate - it ain't mandatory, so you have no reason to bitch.
2. lie - hell, it could even help. make it look like you live someplace glamorous rather than in the basement of your parent's house in Poughkeepsie.

I fail to see a problem here.

Re:GEOUrl

[bahwi]

Wow! CmdrTaco's been hanging out at the Playboy Mansion again!

"impressive"

[xeno]

Shame on you; how can you call him a bozo? Judging by his many "achievements," Mr. Pulitzer deserves the "respect" of the technical and "business" communities alike. His many "inventions" and "first" (such as the supraliminal barcode) have clearly been to the benefit of all humankind. And who could question the genius of a man who has leveraged his "obvious" "Invention and Passion Gene" to record 245 episodes of a show with an ! in the name.

Royal German Ancestry meine Hinterteile.

-J

excercise

[BinaryGrind]

"We write and tune the games specifically to motivate you to exercise." what ever happend to the whip?

Philyaw: wheres the evidence?

[glenebob]

So how exactly do we know that Philyaw is Pulitzer? Nothing I saw jumped out at me as a firm connection. Same with the crystals; where is the connection? They could be for sale by GW for all we know.

The Pulitzer site claims the company has been around since 1988. And the story was posted by an AC. Hmmm. I smell bullshit. Problem is I can't tell where the smell is coming from. Anyone else?

Re:Philyaw: wheres the evidence?

[Anonymous Coward]

From the Digital:Convergence website:

Prior to founding Digital:Convergence, Jovan was host and executive producer of " Net Talk Live!," an international radio and television show broadcast live over the Internet. Begun in 1995 under Jovan's guidance, the show now reaches an audience of millions around the world.

From the J. Hutton website:

J. Hutton has created many "first". One notable being the first syndicated television program in the world to combine simultaneous broadcast via Television, Radio and the Internet. His highly rated, award winning and acclaimed program, Net Talk Live!, which broadcast a record 245 original episodes, created a network of over 700 TV stations

Re:Philyaw: wheres the evidence?

[s20451]

Problem is I can't tell where the smell is coming from.

Damn it Jim, that's my sphincter, not a jelly donut!!!

Problem solved.

Any more still out there?

[SomeoneGotMyNick]

I've got a few of those CueCats

A few? I went into a Radio Shack recently and asked if they still had any cue cats left. I was working on a project idea. They came back with a box of about twenty of them with a requirement that if I want them, I have to take a box of about 30 special TV cables (another DC flop) with them or else it's no deal.

So I loaded up the back seat with the stuff. Now after spaying a few for use on my home PCs, I still got the rest of them in my basement.

hehe.... maybe I ought to hold on to them till they become popular on eBay :)

Re:Any more still out there?

[bergeron76]

Too late:

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl= ht tp%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&krd=1&from=R8&MfcI SAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&SortProperty=MetaEndSor t&query=cuecat

I'm going to hold on to mine, just for the usability factor. I'm sure I'll find _something_ to do with it. Hell, now that Fritz Ganter has released: Batchelor, I'll probably just end up using it to replace my non-existent girlfriend.

Now if only it could cook... :)

Re:Any more still out there?

[SomeoneGotMyNick]

How about this poor soul that appears to have bought an unmodified CueCat on eBay for $26.00

Good marketing job on the part of the seller.

Re:Gobbles

[meringuoid]

Gobbles?

He's the retarded turkey, right? Timmy!

Re:CUECAT

[Salubri]

I can remember when the CueCats were distributed by radio shack. When you got it, it was in a plastic bag with a sealed paper envelope saying not to install the software if you did not agree to the terms, which included not reverse engineering. However if you didn't accept the license agreement, with the way it was packaged, you could still use the device as a standard barcode reader. At least this is what a couple friends did.

Edison was a jerk

[Anonymous Coward]

Go read about your hero... assuming you can read. Edison was a brilliant marketeer, but a piss-poor pseudo-scientist who blundered into most of his "inventions" by sheer dumb luck when he didn't steal them outright. He lived by patents, and had a stable of lawyers file for patents everywhere patents were obtainable. Tesla had gas-discharge lighting in his labs years before Lamb invented incandescent electric lights (two years before Edison). Edison thought alternating current was an abomination (he had no clue how it worked) and tried to push DC generation... ooh, a generator on every city block, great idea. Lucky for all of us that he fired Tesla, and that Tesla hooked up with George Westinghouse. Had Edison been a scientist, he would have done something besides patent the "edison effect" and not left the invention of the vacuum tube to DeForest. And on and on... Edison was a jerk, a joke, and the original abuser of IP patents. What a guy.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[rossifer]

I'm sorry moderators, but the posting calling Edison a jerk is right on the money.

He was on the wrong side of developing just about every technological idea that his name is attached to. He was one of the first to develop the phonograph, but insisted on tubes instead of disks, no matter what the market said. Edison did not invent the incandescent light bulb, he refined the gas and filament for longer life. Etc.

Just because you haven't heard this before or it deflates one of your personal sacred cows doesn't make it flamebait. American history texts in high school are so far off on every other topic, I'm amazed that they spelled Edison's name right.

Edison's real genius was in securing IP and marketing his IP so that others would license it. He was doing that years before that became a high tech business plan for us to discuss on /.

Regards,
Ross

Re:Edison was a jerk

[Trogre]

I don't totally disbelieve what you are saying, but it would help many ill-informed people if you would please state your source for this information.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[Zeinfeld]

Just because you haven't heard this before or it deflates one of your personal sacred cows doesn't make it flamebait. American history texts in high school are so far off on every other topic

Edison did what every other inventor has done, made improvements on other ideas and combined ideas to create new inventions.

The American high school textbook hagiographies of Edison are easily explained by the role of school boards in choosing text books. Better not have anything in there that might upset a board member, no matter how loony. So don't tell the kids that the war of 1812 was about invading Canada and that the US lost, oh no it was about Britain impressing alleged US citizens and ended in a draw. When it comes to the civil war pretend that the South was unjustly attacked by the North, forget about the fact that the war was started by the South and was all about extending slavery to Texas and the Californias.

Just about every country has ludicrously biased school textbooks. The British ones are pretty hilarious, victory after victory against the French until the loss of Calais appears in a footnote. The German textbooks are reasonably accurate - they were written by the Allied powers.

Edison did some amazing stuff. He also did some pretty nasty and spiteful stuff, like opposing AC current and trashing Tessla to promote his own scheme. Edison invented the electric chair as part of his marketting campaign for DC - the chair used AC.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[Anonvmous Coward]

"I'm sorry moderators, but the posting calling Edison a jerk is right on the money."

Somewhere between what one side believes and what the other side believes lies the truth. You're both right and you're both wrong. I sincerely hope nobody's making decisions based on what you guys are saying today until they've gotten some more objective info.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[dcmeserve]

> Edison invented the electric chair as part of his marketting campaign for DC - the chair used AC.

And it really backfired -- the execution went so horribly, disgustingly wrong that people thought "well, if it's *that* hard to kill someone with AC on *purpose*, I guess it doesn't seem so dangerous to have it in my home."

And so AC took off.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[AKnightCowboy]

Well, I know this isn't much help but the History Channel had a nice biography on him. He was a real asshole. If you wanted to work for him you had to sign away all your rights to any patents you develop to him. How do you think he "invented" all that stuff? Hundreds of inventors came to work for him and he ended up patenting THEIR work. Sounds like what the RIAA does today for music artists. He also had a stranglehold on the early motion picture and music industries single handedly. He dictated what could and could not be recorded depending on his personal taste. Oh yea, let's not forget he was almost completely deaf at the time he was doing this. ;-) We see Edison through rose colored glasses as some great inventor the same way kids will see Bill Gates as a great innovator 100 years from now. "Wow, that's the guy who created the computer operating system and made everything friendly right?"

Re:Edison was a jerk

[Derling Whirvish]

I'm sorry moderators, but the posting calling Edison a jerk is right on the money. He was on the wrong side of developing just about every technological idea that his name is attached to. He was one of the first to develop the phonograph, but insisted on tubes instead of disks, no matter what the market said.

In Britain ordinary household lightbulbs have a bayonet attachment. You just shove it in and give it a little twist and it's in. American style bulbs where you have to fiddle with the proper placement to get the screw threads lined up just right, then back off, and try again are called "Edison Style." Yet another item he was on the wrong side of, it's just that in the UK they took the other path whereas we in America are still stuck with the stupid Edison idea.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[Fallen_Knight]

> So don't tell the kids that the war of 1812 was about invading Canada and that the US lost, oh no it was about Britain impressing alleged US citizens and ended in a draw.

Hehe i remember reading about that in school. I live in canada so they actauly called it a war that the US started to invade canada and lost:)

I'm not surprised that in the US kids arn't told about it. Textbooks in highschool are a joke(at least in canada)

Re:Edison was a jerk

[Paul Komarek]

Even the Simpsons have (indirectly) lampooned Edison's stealing of ideas. In this case, Edison was credited with a fancy leaning chair that Homer made.

-Paul Komarek

Re:Edison was a jerk

[stinky wizzleteats]

This thread is totally on the money on Edison. There's an ironic twist to the Edison story that bears interestingly in this discussion.

It seems that Edison owned several patents on the technology behind filmmaking, and exacted brutal licensing on virtually every aspect of the industry. The pressure was so unreasonable that the burgeoning movie industry of the early 20th century was forced out of what was then the center of filmmaking - the east coast. They needed a place to shoot their pirate criminal outlaw movies that was far away from Edison and his patent police. Also important was that they be close to the Mexican border so that they could take their copyright criminal tools out of the country should Edison's goons show up.

The result? Hollywood, CA. A litle fact I like to remember when they hurl hypocrisy about IP criminals.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[ncc74656]

Try the internet. Google around, it's dead easy to verify this stuff.

"But I read it on the Internet...it must be true!"

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[Planesdragon]

So don't tell the kids that the war of 1812 was about invading Canada and that the US lost, oh no it was about Britain impressing alleged US citizens and ended in a draw.

1812, like most wars, was about a lot of things. Invading canada was no more the "main cause" of the war than outrage over impressed sailors. The real reason, as with most secular wars, was poliitcs and trade. And it was a "draw"--neither side really wanted the war, and the war didn't solve anything. (The US didn't lose land, the US didn't get forced into a treaty, and the US certainly didn't wake up one day and think "lets invade canada." So, they wound up just where they started, with a few less patriots and a few more heros.)

When it comes to the civil war pretend that the South was unjustly attacked by the North, forget about the fact that the war was started by the South and was all about extending slavery to Texas and the Californias.

Every textbook I ever read on the Civil War blames the south for starting the war. The closest I've ever come to seeing a defense of the South was the "states rights" and "economic ruin" arguments.

(The Civil War wasn't about trade, but it was a civil war, and so wound up being fought for just about the same reason all other civl wars are fought: succession of power. The final straw that led to the Confederacy was Lincon getting elected without so much as a single Southern vote.)

As for Edison and Tesla: light bulbs and record players are rather boring, and the specifics of their invention are far less interesting (and important) than the socal changes and alterations they bought about.

'coures, I don't see much wrong in making childhood a safe haven as much as possible; "grown-up" books and news articles seem so hell-bent on making Earth seem like a haven of hypocrites and liars and cheats that some balance can't help but be a good thing.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[blincoln]

it would help many ill-informed people if you would please state your source for this information.

One of the easiest ways to verify his status as a jerk is to read pretty much any biography of Tesla.

Tesla invented a ton of technologies that we use everyday, like AC electricity and flourescent lighting. Because he wasn't the greatest businessperson, many of them were stolen by people like Edison (who he worked for briefly).

Most people think of Edison as a great inventor. I think of him as a thief who was so bent on discrediting Tesla's AC electricity in favour of his own DC that he used it to electrocute a bunch of animals to death on film.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[91degrees]

Hundreds of inventors came to work for him and he ended up patenting THEIR work.

This is pretty much boilerplate for most tech companies. If you work for a company based entirely on innovation, then they need your ideas. You get a good stable salary, and support for development in return for your creativity.

Edison did not have a monopoly on ideas though, which is the main difference between him and the RIAA. They could work for other people, or for themselves, or with private backing.

The rest of your comment, I have no issue with - I totally agree that Edison was a git, and better at marketing than inventing.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[nehril]

additional meaning of "impress" from dictionary.com:

impress
tr.v. impressed, impressing, impresses

1. To compel (a person) to serve in a military force.

2. To seize (property) by force or authority; confiscate.



so "impressing US sailors" in this instance means "capturing US sailors and forcing them into the British Navy."

Re:Edison was a jerk

[IamTheRealMike]

The British ones are pretty hilarious, victory after victory against the French until the loss of Calais appears in a footnote.

Completely off topic, but I really wish that was so. When I did History GCSE it was ALL about the flipping industrial revolution and the poor old farmers. International politics barely got a lookin, let alone wars with the French. It's far more politically correct to study the economics of the weaving industry, or medieval farming methods.

If something interesting happened at some point in British history, you can be guaranteed it will not appear in a reasonably advanced history course.

Edison invented the electric chair as part of his marketting campaign for DC - the chair used AC.

He went around electrocuting elephants as well I think. Well, it just goes to show, in case of FUD vs market economics, the market usually wins.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[arivanov]

When you sod off the high school science and get to the university level one you start seeing how much of the stuff that is attributed to Edison is actually Tesla's.

Otherwise:

1. Cylinders instead of disks on the phonograph - dead on the money. Look at the old pictures from the first advertisements for the new gadget in the history books. See disks there? Nope. Not if Edisons name is mentioned anywhere close.

2. AC vs DC. Dead on the money as well. Dunno about him not understanding it but there is more then enough info about Westighouse out there and Tesla as well to confirm this.

3. Layers - dead on the money as well.

4. Also, as far as I know he was the first to invent the cubicle sweatshop for engineering. There are more then enough historical references that show how work in his labs was organised. He was the first person to hire engineers and designers in quantities instead of going for quality with a small design team the way people like Brunel, Eifel, etc did.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[Mr Guy]

The final straw that led to the Confederacy was Lincon getting elected without so much as a single Southern vote.

I believe, sir, you'll find the final straw in a Souterner's mind was Lincoln shipping troops and weapons to South Carolina.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[crawling_chaos]

I believe you will find that the South Carolina Seccession Congress started meeting before Lincoln's inauguration. The troops and weapons were a direct response to that act. The firing on Fort Sumter was a reaction to an attempt by the US Government to station US Army troops in a US Army fort belonging to the US Government. Of course southerners had problems with it. They had already decided to secede.

I want a Confederate Battle Flag tee-shirt that has the damn thing on fire with a few bullet holes through it. The legend would read as follows:

You lost. Get over it.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[Muad'Dave]

On a completely different subject but related topic, American-made ammunition uses Boxer primers (developed by an Englishman), and British-made ammo uses Berdan primers (developed by an American). Go figure!

For the curious: Boxer primers have a built-in anvil for the percussive mixture to get squished against, whereas Berdan primers rely on bumps made into the cartridge itself for the anvil. Boxer-primed ammo is generally much, much easier to reload than Berdan-primed.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[pogle]

impress (from dictionary.com, defn 2)
1. To compel (a person) to serve in a military force.
2. To seize (property) by force or authority; confiscate.

Check your dictionary next time ;) Sailors on US ships were impressed into service to Britain, meaning they were taken and forced to serve on British ships. Which irritated them, I'm sure.

The second poster was being sarcastic utilizing the more well-known defn of impress, "To affect strongly, often favorably"

Re:Edison was a jerk

[kldavis4]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

Geez, man, this is history, go to the library and read it for yourself. If that is not PROOF enough for you, perhaps you would like to dispute the holocaust or maybe the American Civil War? There is nothing extraordinary about the claims of these other posters in regards to Edison.

Apparently there is a movie in production about Tesla which will hopefully educate those who aren't keen on learning their history. Click on the links to read more about Edison and Tesla.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[Zeinfeld]

(The US didn't lose land, the US didn't get forced into a treaty, and the US certainly didn't wake up one day and think "lets invade canada." So, they wound up just where they started, with a few less patriots and a few more heros.)

Au contraire, the US was forced into a treaty. The only reason why the US did not lose land was that George Canning, the British foreign secretary believed that while the US was in no position to prevent loss of territory it was in the best interests of the UK to forgo it.

The fact was that the US was not particularly important at the time. Britain was far more interested in maintaining control of India and defeating the French. Far better to come to an agreement with the US that would stick than insist on reparations and end up in an ongoing irridentist struggle.

The success of the 1812 treaty was the principal reason that the US and the UK went into Versailles with a much more concilliatory approach than the French who anexed parts of Germany and generally did everything they could to put Hitler in power.

Re:Edison was a jerk

[Zeinfeld]

Completely off topic, but I really wish that was so. When I did History GCSE it was ALL about the flipping industrial revolution and the poor old farmers. International politics barely got a lookin, let alone wars with the French.

Don't worry, after the industrial revolution only war of significance we lost against the perfidious French was the American Revolution. After that things looked up. They lost the battle of the nile, Trafalgar, the peninsular campaign and of course Waterloo. After that they confined their imperial pretensions to the glorious conquest of the Sahara Desert where the locals found that the best tactics were generally to leave the blighters to their own devices until they mostly died of thirst.

After that it was basically the French fought with us in the next couple of campaigns, Crimea and WWI. We will tactfully refrain from mentioning their performance in WWII.

100 patents? Yeah right.

[Anonymous Coward]

According to Mr. Philyaw's (Pulitzer? Maybe Einstein next?) bio he has 100 patents in his name. Not according to the USPTO. According to them he has 3 or 4.

What a loser.

Re:CUECAT

[pato perez]

Actually it was pretty useful--free barcode reader. I cataloged my entire library with it. I scanned each book and used some software I downloaded that looked up each book's barcode on Amazon, Library of Congress, (or other sites) and added it to a database.

RIAA's Teenybopper Fans

[Baldrson]

I can just imagine all those teenybopper crackers out there who won't get or won't believe the RIAA's denial, deciding they've been issued a challenge by authority and therefore the RIAA's affiliates are fair game. RIAA's denial should be stronger but then since the RIAA's been seeking go-ahead to crack into users' computers it makes it rather difficult for them to deny they've thrown down the gauntlet to the pubescents.

not so much exercise on a bull.

[twitter]

This does not look like much of a work out. Looks more like a nightmare where you fall off the bed.

Re:pretty tame ego ...

[1984]

(Not sure how just how much abuse this'll generate, but let's see...)

So we all hate Bill Gates. Apparently for being ruthlessly successful at exploiting the (fairly) free, capitalist system we all hold dear. We're constantly shocked at the audacity of Microsoft, and Bill is the epitome of the evil that company represents.

This is a guy who (with his wife) is in the process of donating $24 Billion to good causes. Not frat house good causes, not pussyfooting PC good causes. He has set up a well-run foundation (you know, managment and accountability) to see that money put to use combatting aids in India, that sort of thing.

$24 Billion is more than most developed countries in the world will put into that sort of work in our lifetimes.

But we do enjoy banging on that "He tried to squash Netscape!", because that's a) more important and b) surely nothing to do with how we like to run things?

The wrong place to point it out, maybe, but it's fun to sit back and reflect on the irony sometimes.

Gobbles' previous security advisories

[professortomoe]

"The outlandish claims are part of a "security advisory" supposedly written by a group called Gobbles Security. However, the message bears little resemblance to the group's other advisories and also seems to make fun of Gobbles' habit of posting vulnerability information and exploits without notifying affected vendors in advance."
Eh, I don't know what they're reading, but just about every previous Gobbles advisory looks like that. The trademark Theo bashing, poor grammar, and other things. Most likely false, but most likely them.

Is Jovan Anti-AC

[Zapdos]

I wonder if Jovan would electrocute an elephant the way Thomas Edison did in order to show how superior DC is over AC.

Re:Gobbles

[Korgan]

He's the retarded turkey, right?

Actually, Gobbles Security are one of the most active, and largest, exploit groups hanging around the "Security" field at the moment. They have a knack for Pissing off Theo DeRaadt.

You can see the posting to bugtraq from them on the SecurityFocus website.

http://online.securityfocus.com/archive/1/306476

fastest adoption??

[spazoid12]

Hutton Pulitzer's inventions and ideas were adopted by the American consumer at a rate that outpaced the combined first year growth of cell phones, pagers, personal computers, hand held computers and total Internet users in just the first 90 days of its heralded release.

Wow, that sure is something. The free Cuecat alledgedly outpaced a bunch of things that cost alot of money.

I doubt it's true anyhow.

Re:J. Hutton Pulitzer

[Shadow Wrought]

Stands for "Jay". All you have to is move the bush in front of the mural;-)

Boong-Ga Boong-Ga (spank 'em)

[cpeterso]

Don't forget Boong-Ga Boong-Ga (spank 'em) , the Japanese spanking-themed video game.

The CueDil^H^H^HCat

[Anonymous Coward]

The dream was to connect items in the physical world to the Internet,

It's come true, it's come true!

The CueCat wasn't great as a barcode reader, but my girlfriend finds it very pleasurable. Sometimes, we even plug it into the Internet (of course, using an AntiVirus program--you never know).

This ties all the names together

[cosmicpossum]

Based on whois, Digital Convergence and museumcrystals.com share the same address. Museumcrystals is registered to JJ Philyaw.

JJ Phylaw's email address is emailjovan@yahoo.com.

The email for JH Pulitzer is also emailjovan@yahoo.com!

Here are the whois records:

Registrant:
DIGITALCONVERGENCE, INC (DIGITALCONVERGENCE4-DOM)
9101 N CENTRAL EXPY STE 600
DALLAS, TX 75231-5926
US

Domain Name: DIGITALCONVERGENCE.COM

Administrative Contact:
Mathews, Dave (DM205) dmathews@HOTMAIL.COM
DaveMathews.com
213 Missing Way
Dallas, TX 75222
530-684-9988 (FAX) 530-579-7759
Technical Contact:
Network Operations (NO59-ORG) dmathews@HOTMAIL.COM
DigitalConvergence
9101 N Central EXPY STE 600
Dallas, TX 75231
USA
530-684-9988
Fax- 530-579-7759

Domain Name.......... museumcrystals.com
Creation Date........ 2002-02-07
Registration Date.... 2002-02-07
Expiry Date.......... 2003-02-07
Organisation Name.... J. Jovan Philyaw
Organisation Address. 9101 N. Central Expy 6th Floor
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. Dallas
Organisation Address. 75231
Organisation Address. TX
Organisation Address. UNITED STATES

Admin Name........... J. Jovan Philyaw
Admin Address........ 9101 N. Central Expy 6th Floor
Admin Address........
Admin Address........ Dallas
Admin Address........ 75231
Admin Address........ TX
Admin Address........ UNITED STATES
Admin Email.......... emailjovan@yahoo.com
Admin Phone.......... 214-292-6000
Admin Fax............

Registrant:
J. Hutton Pulitzer (JYDPHRZAUD)
5001 Spring Valley Road, 400E
Dallas, TX 75244-3910
US

Domain Name: JHUTTONPULITZER.COM

Administrative Contact:
J. Hutton Pulitzer (CWGSDZSMJO) emailjovan@yahoo.com
J. Hutton Pulitzer
5001 Spring Valley Road, 400E
Dallas, TX 75244-3910
US
972.383.1344 fax: 123 123 1234

Re:pretty tame ego ...

[1984]

You don't understand much about free markets or free societies, do you?

Are you surprised that there's a constant arms race between those seeking to regulate "fairly" and those seeking to preserve their advantage?

If so, why are you surprised?

makes you wonder

[spazoid12]

If this is the book he's writing...kinda makes you wonder what he actually intended for that hand-held CueCat device...

Re:spoken like a true american

[unicron]

You're an idiot, Ritalin and Adderall are the SHIT. Like speed with none of the horrible back-aches. As for this fucker, I'd say he sounds horrifyingly like L. Ron.

radio shack

[radon28]

i specifically went to radio shack begging them to give me one after the 2600 article came out on how to disable the tracking "feature" by cutting one little contact on an ic. then, after all that work, i realized that the cuecat was a piece of hot garbage.

Re:CUECAT

[Dan Crash]

I actually think the CueCat would've been a pretty cool idea if they'd sold the thing for $19.95 with some decent software for cataloguing your CDs and other home items. You'd have a permanent list, perfect for insurance companies, finding out product information, etc. Another natural partnership might have been with Webvan or one of the other grocery-delivery companies -- scan a package when you run out and have it added automatically to your next grocery list.

The idea wasn't stupid, just their marketing and business plan.

ah, you are confused.

[twitter]

you say You don't understand much about free markets or free societies, do you?

Are you surprised that there's a constant arms race between those seeking to regulate "fairly" and those seeking to preserve their advantage?

No, I understand freedom. If it were not for bogus software patents and outrageous copyright abuse, fostered in part by Mr. Gates, M$ would be nothing today. There is no such thing as "fair" regulation, there can only be the prevention of criminal abuse if we are free.

Re:ah, you are confused.

[1984]

So what's "criminal abuse"?

(I realise there's a flippant answer to that, which you can use if you like. But if you give an actual answer, be careful you don't end up appealing to God as the source of all moral truth, unless you intend to.)

Re:ah, you are confused.

[Twirlip of the Mists]

If it were not for bogus software patents and outrageous copyright abuse, fostered in part by Mr. Gates, M$ would be nothing today.

Let us be perfectly clear on this. Microsoft got where they are today by acting like a business, and doing so completely within the rules. It was only when they got to a place where they could push people around that they started... well, pushing people around.

If you don't like a competitive market, that's just fine. You're a grown-up (presumably) who is entitled to his own opinions. But a competitive market is what we have, and companies like Microsoft and Wal-Mart bubble up to the top because they're really good at being competitive.

Is it good that most computers use software by Microsoft, and that most retail sales go through Wal-Mart? No, not really. And yet we let the competitive market system stand. Why? Because it's better than every other type of system that's ever been tried.

If you can think of a better way to run an economy, by all means say so. If you can't, then kindly shut the fuck up. Okay? Thanks so much.

Re:ah, you are confused.

[dubl-u]

If you don't like a competitive market, that's just fine. You're a grown-up (presumably) who is entitled to his own opinions. But a competitive market is what we have, and companies like Microsoft and Wal-Mart bubble up to the top because they're really good at being competitive.

You're missing two important things here.

One is that once a company has a monopoly, the standards for their behavior change. Things that were legal when they had 10% of the market are not legal when they have 95% of it.

And the other? As you say, the reason that we have a market economy is that it works well. The reason it works well is that strenuous competition forces continuous improvement for the consumer and the society at large. But once a company becomes so large that they need not fear others, then they stop feeling the pressure of competition.

Re:ah, you are confused.

[Twirlip of the Mists]

One is that once a company has a monopoly, the standards for their behavior change.

Yes, but twitter argued that Microsoft got where it is through illegal or unethical behavior. I assert that this isn't true. Microsoft didn't start breaking the rules until they got so big that a different set of rules applied to them, and tactics that they used legally yesterday (metaphorically) became illegal for them today.

But once a company becomes so large that they need not fear others, then they stop feeling the pressure of competition.

All other things being equal, this is true. But a monopoly like Microsoft's is kind of like the Roman empire. It's big and it seems strong from the outside, but there are barbarians at the gate just waiting to get in. I think it's an inaccurate statement to say that Microsoft doesn't feel the pressure of competition. They're trying like hell to stay one step ahead of the competition.

Ironically, Microsoft's biggest competitor is Microsoft. Windows XP has shown a very disappointing uptake rate for no other reason than that Windows 2000 is good enough for most users. In that case, Microsoft has to develop a product that is good enough to beat their own best product from two years ago. That's a competitive pressure of a different sort entirely.

But whatever the situation, the fact remains that we (as a culture) have never come up with a good way to keep companies from getting too big, or to make them small again once they've gotten too big. It doesn't seem right to just say, "Okay, Messers Gates and Balmer and the rest of you Microsoft shareholder, you have enough money now. Dissolve the company and go do something else for a change."

So my point still stands. Until we can come up with a better way to run the economy-- including better ways to enforce existing antitrust laws, should we still think they're good things to have on the books-- whining about Microsoft will get us nowhere.

Re:Gobbles

[Rubik Penguin]

GOBBLES is a team of 17 (at the last count) people. Their advisory makes a very important point that foundstone and microsoft miss. There are already known buffer overflows in winamp, m$ media player, and other players, but the respective advisories talk of receiving a media file either from a web page or email attachment. Most users I suspect get more media files via p2p sharing than from web pages or email.

This is an infection vector that security "experts" are not taking sufficiently seriously.

people who worked for dot.bombs...

[callipygian-showsyst]

A hilarious must-read for those who followed the :CueCat debacle (and for those of us who worked there)."

The people--from the CEOs to the Unix sysadmins--who worked for dot-coms with phony business plans should ALL take responsibility for the current sorry state of the economy.

i-Tee Case mentioned a few days ago..

[o0o]

This comment has nothing to do with the current Slashback articles, but it fits in this forum.. I didn't have a chance to submit it before school this morning.. I don't know if it was worthy enough to make it into Slashback anyway..

I wrote to the I-Tee case manufacturer the other day after reading this article on Slashdot..

A few of the article's commentors mentioned that they hadn't received a response from them after emailing them themselves for prices, distribution, etc.. I guess I got lucky..

Here's there response:

Dear Mr. J. Johansen (I'm not Mr. DeCSS),

Thank you for your e-mail.
At present we don't have distributor in USA.
If you want to be our distributor in USA, we offer our
best competitive price based on F.O.B. Yantian China
as following:
1. i-Tee W/250W ATX P'SU P4 with USB @USD50.00
Delivery: 2 weeks after receiving your L/C
Warranty: one year from shipment.
The above price is based on 20'container / 430pcs.


Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Best regards,

Kenny Tsai

Anyone have $25,150+ lying around?

RIAA, GOBBLES, etc...

[tweakt]

Ok, fair enough, I didn't buy it either, but has anyone tested the exploit posted to BUGTRAQ this morning for mpg123? Aren't there also known exploits for Winamp?

The claims were certainly possible... but not quite plausible.

An excerpt from the book comments page...

[gpinzone]

Author: Garth
Date: 1/14/2003 6:42 pm CST

Dear Mr. Pulitzer/Philyaw,
Being interested in patents in general, I took notice in your bio the fact that you have 100 patents. I went and looked them up and found that according to the USPTO you have what looks like 3 or 4 (didn't bother looking through each one). You might want to point out this oversight to them. It's quite irresponsible of them to lose track of 96 patents.

Or perhaps you filed for them somewhere else, maybe Turkey?

Garth

You fools!

[stinky wizzleteats]

Of course the RIAA would deny it!

I'm off to put tinfoil hats on my mp3 collection.

Seriously, though, if I'm the RIAA, I no comment this one - just for the sheer fun of it.

I keep expecting...

[BitwizeGHC]

I keep expecting this Philyaw/Pulitzer jerk to go off and start his own wacky cult religion that's simultaneously very stylish amongst Hollywood types and very expensive to participate in. 'Cause his grandiose inflated claims sound a lot like Elron's.

Re:pretty tame ego ...

[Dave_bsr]

$24 billion...good tax break, eh?

...bsr...

Virtual exercise bike at Pro Club in Redmond

[virtigex]

The Pro Club in Redmond had a pretty good implementation of an exercise bike linked to one of several "virtual worlds". It was made by Cybex and had a first person (or overhead) display. The worlds were a tropical island, snow scape and an arena with a ball game. Resistance varied depending if you were going up or down hill (or underwater) and there were challenges in the form of races (against AI or linked units) as well as matches for the arena. The arena game had a ball that stuck to the front of your bike and could be fired off with a button into the goal.

It was pretty absorbing and one could get quite a workout without realizing it. Playing against the AI was tough, since it never got fatigued.

The games demoed on the Exertris are all 2d and (strangely) oriented left-to-right. Strange, since according to their web site Bill Gates was showcasing them at CES. Obviously he hadn't turned up at his local gym to do some research.

Now you tell me?!

[tezzery]

Oh great.. now you tell us.. after i deleted all my mp3's!

Re:pretty tame ego ...

[DAldredge]

Please tell me where we have a free market (H1B, OSHA, IRS) or a free society (TIA, TIPS, USA PATRIOT).

Neutered Cat and X Window System....

[wowbagger]

I neutered my 'Cat, but it's usefullness is reduced by the way they work when neutered.

If you scan a barcode that reads "123", what the neutered 'Cat sends is:

Alt down, Numeric 0 down, Numeric 0 up, Numeric 3 down, Numeric 3 up, Numeric 1 down, Numeric 1 up, Alt up.

Alt down, Numeric 0 down, Numeric 0 up, Numeric 3 down, Numeric 3 up, Numeric 2 down, Numeric 2 up, Alt up.

And so forth. In other words, they compose the keystrokes by using the ALT+number pad trick. This makes a bit of sense - that way they can guarantee that you will get the correct ASCII codes, no matter whether your keyboard is in QWERTY or Dvorac.

And this works quite well under a normal text mode console under Linux. Howerver, the X Windows System does not seem to honor the ALT+Numeric code approach, so the neutered 'Cat isn't as useful.

So, in this mini-Ask Slashdot - does anybody know how to get X to do the ALT+code mode?

Re:pretty tame ego ...

[1984]

Well now, there's half your problem. Freedom doesn't beget freedom. It needs to be regulated to be as free as possible. Alas the regulations come from within the same system you need to regulate, so they aren't always going to have best of intentions attached. Less cynically, it's also difficult to strike a good balance, and to forsee the outcome of any particular regulation.

GeoURL for real: APRS

[oaklybonn]

Ham Radio has something called APRS: Automatic Position Reporting System.

This works by sending short bursts of location information over the radio at pre-defined frequencies, including your callsign. These are broadcast and picked up by repeater stations (and anyone can be a repeater.) Eventually, they're picked up and stuck in a database.

You can then query this database to find out where you are - or where your friends are.

It don't get geekier.

Similar name

[fo0bar]

Why does the name J. Hutton Pulitzer make me think of L. Ron Hubbard?

Actually, there are parallels... Their state of sanity, for one...

It ain't HIS money, is it?

[A nonymous Coward]

Convicted monopolist (spare me any whining about the company being convicted, not the man) is passing our money around and you applaud him?

So next time a bank robber throws the money out in the street, or gives it to bums, we should applaud that too?

Re:CUECAT

[delta407]

I cataloged my entire library with it. I scanned each book and used some software I downloaded that looked up each book's barcode on Amazon, Library of Congress, (or other sites) and added it to a database.

Coincidentally, I am currently writing software for a private high school, and the current project is to do exactly that -- make a library system that fetches information from a variety of sources and allows access in a flexible way. (Amazon is used for most info, LoC for LCCN, amazon.co.uk for book cover art -- that's already coded.) Further requirements include complex indexing capabilities (allowing 'sounds like' searching) and lots of other things, most of which are at least partially implemented.

Oh, and guess what? The school made several stops to various Radio Shacks a few years ago and currently has nine CueCats that they plan to use on the library terminals. Nine. They read Code 128 for free, what more could you want?

Re: pretty tame ego ...

[Black Parrot]

> Ah the life, bribing India, ...

Yeah, the media made a big deal out of how much money he donated for AIDS while he was in India, but most neglected to mention that during the same trip his team spent about four times that much on trying to keep India loyal to the Microsoft brand name.

Re:pretty tame ego ...

[The Bungi]

You have to understand you're arguing with someone whose understanding of reality is essentially flawed. A post like this one is classic Slashdot - it doesn't get any better than Mr. Twitter here. I mean, right down to the lame sig, right down to the unfettered use of the sad, tired 'M$' acronym and the arguing over a simplistic out of context point when called on their bullshit.

This could be a discussion about, oh, bio-engineered hamsters or the moons of Neptune, and you'd still get the pathetic Microsoft non-sequitur.

Why? Because someone with mod points will probably think it's funny.

BTW, welcome to Slashdot. Or something.

Re:Philyaw: here's a little more

[glenebob]

OK I'm pretty convinced now. And here is a picture I found with no caption, but I think it's the same guy. For a guy who was on TV, he sure doesn't like to have pictures floating around, I wonder why?

*shudder*

What a sleeze bag.

Pulitzer's building - yeah, right

[Animats]

Pulitzer's site makes a big point of his address - 5001 Spring Valley Road, Suite 400E, Dallas, TX. Big, impressive building. Now look up that address in Google and see what comes up. Quite a few companies seem to share that address. There's a Mac repair shop, a headhunter, an accountant, a consultant, and a "healthcare management" firm.

Hmm.

What all in one exercise units?

[WatertonMan]

Rather than sell bikes with computers they ought to just sell one of those spinners you place your bike on and give it a USB interface. (You know, the front wheel goes on a roller and the back is locked in place) Then sell software. That way you don't get stuck with crappy games or crappy video cards. (The typical bane of these sorts of things)

That would also cut down on the cost of the thing and would let you use your own bike. Hell, I'd get one in a sec.

Of course what I'd really like is a stair climber version of joust. But that's just dreaming.

License?

[Linuxathome]

It would be helpful if you mentioned the type of license your software is under within the first page or the download page. Not all open-source software are equal.

Re:License?

[delta407]

The download page has been updated.

And yes, I am aware that not all OSS licenses are equal, but few school administrators care. ;-)

Re:pretty tame ego ...

[Twirlip of the Mists]

You rock, Bungi. If I hadn't already posted in this thread, I'd mod you up.

Dallas Observer article about Philyaw/Pulitzer guy

[Twirlip of the Mists]

I wish I had remembered this earlier; I would have posted it then. About a year and a half ago, the Dallas Observer (one of those "let's all pretend we're not owned by a giant soulless corporation" alternative weeklys) posted a positively high-larious article about Digital Convergence, the Belo Corporation, and our friend Mr. Philyaw... er, Mr. Pulitzer. Mr. Whatever Person.

It's short, funny, and worth a read. And it mentions uses a Simpsons reference to advance the story, so it's got to be cool.

Because this article will be off the front page soon, meaning nobody is going to see it, I'll post this little tidbit in my journal as well. That way the Teeming Horde (i.e., my fans) will get a chance to read and laugh and live and love!

You must provide proof for us to UNlearn history

[Linuxathome]

I'm sorry, but I don't see why the moderators modded up the two previous posts. Look, we learned what we learned in high school from those textbooks because most historians and educators agreed upon those facts. If these facts are wrong, the only way for us to unlearn them (i.e. to learn the actual truth) then the onus is upon you, the poster, to provide references to back up your claims. By providing references, it allows us, the readers, to formulate our own points of view. Let's move beyond pure conjecture and provide some references people! Even URLs would be helpful. Yes, history is subject to interpretation, but so is science. Put the facts out there and let us decide. And if you make a claim of fact, provide at least one reference for us to determine our own interpretation.

Re: pretty tame ego ...

[Black Parrot]

> Post or retract, asshole. You said, "his team spent about four times that much on trying to keep India loyal to the Microsoft brand name." Post some kind of URL that confirms this accusation or retract your statement. I'm sick and tired of Slashdotters spewing falsehoods whenever they feel an urge to make a point.

> Post, or retract.

I stand corrected. While looking for the relevant news in a search engine (you should learn to do that too) I discovered that my claimed 4:1 ratio was off by more a factor of three. It should actually be 14:1 , since the funding ratio is $421 MM over 3 years vs. $100 MM over 10 years.

I should learn to research my posts a little better.

ps - What exactly do you do at Microsoft?

Re:Virtual exercise bike - Wiki Site

[virtigex]

Sorry - here is the Wiki site for the VR exercise bike. Unfortunately, it was produced bt Tectrix, bought by Cybex and then canned. Oh it also had a fan that would blow in your face as you started going faster.

Reading /. on a gym bike

[billstewart]

A year or two ago, when I joined a gym, the place had about four exercise bikes with touchscreen computer screens on them, fed by some sort of DSL system. You could either use them to access the Internet, or to play music, and they tracked how long you'd been pedaling and gave you points which you could accumulate for fabulous prizes or something if you wanted to give up your privacy.

Unfortunately, you had to keep pedaling at a steady rate or it would interrupt whatever fun stuff you were doing on the computer to nag you about getting your butt in gear and pedaling faster, which meant you couldn't do much typing (typing being a relatively inaccurate and clumsy process when you're bouncing around on a bike.) So this meant that most of what you could do with the computer was try to get it fired up into some news site before it nagged you and then do a lot of pagedowns. Well, there was an obvious site to read while biking, which was Slashdot. It was a bit tedious, since the screen was only 640x480, but it was halfway manageable or at least, as long as you didn't want to write long, insightful, informative articles like this one, anyway....

D'Oh, forgot to finish

[billstewart]

Oh, right. So who were they? Doesn't matter, because they were a dot-bomb, and they're dead now..... Ran out of cash and valuable prizes, unplugged the DSL, and eventually the gym rolled them out of there.

Re:CUECAT

[zurmikopa]

I teamed up with a friend of mine and did (very dim) rave-esque lighting with a bunch of them.

I have pictures... somewhere...

Ahhh, college years...

Re: pretty tame ego ...

[Black Parrot]

> > ps - What exactly do you do at Microsoft?

> I fuck your baby sister's bloody ass all day long. What exactly do you do under RMS's desk all day?

You make such an eloquent argument that I'm tempted to apply for a job at Micorsoft too!

> The Gates Foundation has given out over $5.5 billion since 1994, and over $3 billion of that went to world health. Microsoft's $400 million investment is a fucking pimple compared to those kinds of numbers. When you give five billion dollars in charitable grants, Crack Faggot, you can criticize.

As a percentage of his net worth, that's like someone making $100K/year giving a few hundred dollars per year to charity.

> Until the, wipe RMS's commie jizz off of your chin and get back to work.

I'm unemployed. Microsoft destroyed my company.

ps - My 14:1 ratio of money spent in India still stands. Shouldn't Gates also be lauded for all that money he donated toward the preservation of monopolies?

Re:pretty tame ego ...

[clickety6]

This is a guy who (with his wife) is in the process of donating $24 Billion to good causes.

It would be interesting to kow what percentage of that money came from illegally exploiting his company's power as a monopoly i.e. how much of his generous donation was effectively stolen from you and me and others over the year?

Re:pretty tame ego ...

[SubtleNuance]

for every dollar bill gates has its $1 that a worker (who wrote the software, did the accounting, drove the truck, washed the bathroom etc) doesnt have.

no person can possibly create the billions of dollars Gates has... his 'weatlh' is a result of a distorted and corrupt system.

dont applaud him because he has managed to suck money from so many...

the richer you are, the less moral and honourable you are -- if it was not so, you wouldnt actually *be* rich... meaning, a "good" person would SHARE and not HORDE.

It is "impress"

[Andy Dodd]

Go fig, had mod points yesterday, nothing worth moderating, now I don't have them.

Impress is the correct word. In this case, it means that the British took US sailors off of their ships and forced them to serve the British Navy.

Re:It is "impress"

[Afrosheen]

Ah, now I see. Enlightenment comes at the cost of karma.

Re:It is "impress"

[belroth]

I'm not saying that the Navy didn't 'press some US sailors but there were also a lot of navy deserters who found a home in US ships and the Navy were almost always short-handed. So when they stopped neutral shipping to check for contraband being shipped to France they took the opportunity to look for deserters - and sometimes a few others.

Re:pretty tame ego ...

[IamTheRealMike]

So we all hate Bill Gates. Apparently for being ruthlessly successful at exploiting the (fairly) free, capitalist system we all hold dear.

Hey cool! You mean, like Robin Hood? Yeah man, I can see that. He like robbed from the rich to give to the poor!

Robin Hood was an outlaw as well, found guilty by the Evil Sherrif of committing terrible crimes and stealing for poor defenceless rich people.

Despite some evidence that suggests he had a taste for violence, and in fact helped rich people as well, of course everybody loves Robin, don't they.

Anyway, back to the point, Bill made a lot of money out of the markets precisely by so effectively removing that freedom. He should be punished like anybody else who attempts to play the markets, but he hasn't been. Giving away lots of money to charity doesn't make it OK by the way, if that were the case all drug dealers would have to do to get off the books would be to give away some of their personal fortune to good causes.

Considering he basically did steal that money and even got found guilty of it, I don't see why his charitable preferences should override mine. He gave $10 billion to India to fight aids yes? He also gave a lot more than that to fight Linux in the very same country, not a good cause I'd have chosen to donate to (and I do donate to charity by the way).

$24 Billion is more than most developed countries in the world will put into that sort of work in our lifetimes.

Since when? Governments give huge amounts of money away as part of aid initiatives and so on. Britain still pays out large sums of money to help prop up parts of Africa, as well as supporting many charities through grants. Other governments do similar things. Often it has strings attached of course - Bill can give away all his money and see it disappear down the drains through long term corruption and mismanagement but governments who represent the people need to be a bit more careful, which is why such organisations often require governmental reforms to go along with aid.

Oh and finally, don't forget that if him or his company had paid income tax, then a portion of that money would have gone towards such aid, and (at least in theory) the people would have chosen where the aid went or at least had some influence over it.

Bill Gates and future history

[McFly777]

The unfortunate thing is that people (and I mean usually smart people too) already think that Bill Gates is "the guy who brought us the computer." I was having this exact conversation with one who posed the question "Who was the most influencial person of the last century?" He answered his own question with "Bill Gates, he was the one who connected the world!"

I protested, and thought about the question over Christmas dinner. Afterwords, I gave him my answer. "If you want to talk about 'connecting the world' Bill Gates isn't your man. You should be talking about Jon Postal, who authored most of the specifications for the internet." The response... "Bill Gates is the one who brought it to the masses." (The Christmas gathering ended shortly thereafter -- a bit earlier than usual.)

Thinking about it a bit more, a better answer might have been Tim Berners Lee for WWW or, to counter "...the one who brought it to the masses...," I could have responded with Marc Andresen, main author of Mosaic and Netscape, which is what really fueled the internet explosion.

So, It seems that the history of the future has already been rewritten, and Bill Gates invented it all.

ObCrapSlashJoke

[Cally]

Someone forwarded the message to us...

...to have your advice? For great justice? Enquiring minds want to know!

Re:pretty tame ego ...

[NDPTAL85]

That line of reasoning only applies if you are a communist.

Earning a great deal of wealth is moral neutral. It all depends in how you got it. Not sharing is also not something that makes someone less moral.

Personal accountability is something people like you seem to not be very big on. If you stopped worrying about how much money Mr. Gates makes and more about how much you make you might be doing well enough to not worry about the MS CEO anymore.

Re:pretty tame ego ...

[gosand]

This is a guy who (with his wife) is in the process of donating $24 Billion to good causes.

1. Yes, it is a good thing that he is doing with his money.

2. It is a pittance, compared to what he is worth.

3. Are you suggesting we forgive him his transgressions simply because he donates a tiny portion of it to charity?

4. He is, and from what I have read has always been, an unethical businessman. The fact that he has succeeded doesn't make that any less true. Why should his charity be run any more ethically? I am not accusing him of anything, just that he is who he is, and that person is 0-1 in running ethical businesses.

5. I could give a rat's ass how much money he has, money hasn't made him any less of a dufus. There are other people out there who effectively have the same amount of money (more than they could ever spend) yet people don't quote how much they give to charity.

6. It is EASY for him to give away money. Just because he gives away more than I'll ever see in my life doesn't mean I should be impressed. Money means nothing to him. Although the sheer amount of money is impressive, his "charity" is not.

Re:the cuecat

[watchful.babbler]

.. it always seemed so sad to me.. just look at the logo. :{

:)

There's kind of an amusing story behind that logo, and the bizarre use of colons in the Cue:Cat name. The designer was originally asked to create a logo for a product named "Concerto," which was later renamed the "Convergence Cable." The 'C' in the logo was a stylized bass clef, hence the use of ':' as a design element.

The designer had some, er, personality conflicts with Jovan, and left not long afterwards. Evidently there were trademark issues with "Concerto," and the product line had to be renamed. Jovan didn't want to discard the logo, so he created that godawful "Cue:Cat" name, and promptly earned himself a slot in the "worst dot-com names ever" list.

Re:pretty tame ego ...

[ChaosDiscord]

Of which irony do you speak? I fail to see any.

Believe it or not, it's possible for a single human being to do both good things and bad things. It's generally considered acceptable to complain about the bad things someone does while still appreciating the good things.

Second, the "we" you're talking about refers to a thousands of people, each with slightly differing ideas and opinions. If you collect all of those opinions and try to stick it into a single opinion labelled "Slashdot's opinion", you're going to get some confused, conflicting ideas.

Microsoft, while under the control of Bill Gates, repeatedly and intentionally used their market dominance to limit potential competitors access to the market. Netscape just happened to be the straw that broke the camels back. The complaint isn't "He tried to squash Netscape." Every competitor tries to outdo their opponents. The complaint is "Microsoft used its position of market dominance to threaten a wide variety of companies into behaving as Microsoft wanted."

Bill Gates is using his fortune for a great deal of good work. But Bill Gates also lead his company as it tried to stop the free market forces that created it. There is no irony here, just the complexity of humanity.

Re: pretty tame ego ...

[Black Parrot]

> You are an idiot. Bill Gates's net worth is estimated to be $35 billion.

IIRC it was over $100 billion for much of the period you invoked. The drop in his net worth came with the general tech-stock crash of the past couple of years.

Do correct me if I'm wrong on that point.

> Can't you read? Post or retract, bitch!

I elected to post. Don't blame me if you don't like the results!

> No, it doesn't, you idiot. Read the post. $5.5 billion to charity. Yes, most of it was in grants of less than $1 million, but so what? The fact is that Gates has spent $5.5 billion on charity, and $400 million on promoting Microsoft software in India. Coincidentally, that's a ratio of about 14:1 as well.

Ah, but you're comparing his total donations over his entire life vs. his recent MS promotion in India alone.

Don't get me wrong: I'm glad that he's spending a big percentage of his tax-break PR-break money on AIDS research, since AIDS seems to be one of the world's worst problems these days. But don't mistake those outlays as anything other than an integral part of the cost of being an ultra-rich businessman. If you investigate a bit you'll find that they all do the same thing. In fact, one of the previous times this came up on Slashdot someone marshalled the evidence to show that Gates' donations are actually lower than the going rate for this class of individual.

Face it, they are gestures that reveal no more about his character than when a politician serves the first bowl of gruel at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving. If you want to promote him to sainthood, he needs to give until it's inconvenient. I'm happy about where some of his money goes; I just don't buy it as evidence that he isn't a world-class jerk.

ps - How does it feel to realize that you have bought in to a propaganda ploy hook, line, and sinker?

Re:You must provide proof for us to UNlearn histor

[Chris Mattern]

> Look, we learned what we learned in high school
> from those textbooks because most historians and
> educators agreed upon those facts.

No, you learned that because that was the toned-down drivel that the textbook publisher could sell to the largest number of school boards. And as Mark Twain said, "First God made idiots. That was for practice. Then he created school boards."

Chris Mattern

Cool

[mmol_6453]

Forget calling my uncle; this is good news. :)

Anything that makes it easier for me to lose weight. (252 lbs at 5'10")

Re:Cool

[extra88]

I hear you (~250lbs at 5'8"). I'm going to the "Y" pretty regularly now. However I'm more concerned with my volume than my weight :-) and it has improved a bit (1 belt notch, skinnier legs). I rarely weigh myself but when I have, my weight hasn't changed. I guess I'm trading fat for muscle. I haven't really changed my diet (which is not terrible but not good) and that's probably necessary to do serious damage to this gut. I don't have any specific goals, right now I'm just trying to make exercise a regular part of my life. I think that's the most important thing, finding stuff to do that you can stick with.

Re:pretty tame ego ...

[The Bungi]

wrt SOVIET RUSSIA - i like it, it is the same kind of advertising/marketing for the ANTI-troll camp as "natalie portman hot grits" is for trolls themselves - it makes a point, its quick and effective...

who decided you would be allowed to frame the debate and outlaw nit-picking (as "SOVIET RUSSIA" I concede is...) - really, the communication straight *from* trolls is equally shallow and empty... whats good-for-the-goose...

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Get it now?