While we're at it, let's abolish all copyrights, patents and trademarks. And any other method of protecting intellectual property.
I have no sympathy for people trying to extort money for trademarks that have already been registered. But in this case a person realized the name "Musicweb" would have some value. Three years later someone else agreed and gave their company that name. Rather than buying that piece of intellectual propery, they went through a quasi-judicial process to seize it.
Why should I empathize with someone stupid enough to register a service mark before confirming that the.com domain was available? Why should he have a right to a name that someone else identified as valuable before him?
Certainly, place limits on the length of time a domain may be held without being used. But arbitrary seizure is a dangerous precedent for 'net law.
How so? A domain was registered in 1995. In 1998, an individual did inadequate research and registered a service mark by the same name. The latecomer has successfully seized the prior registration.
By the same logic, E-Toys should be able to shut down E-Toy.
First come, first serve. Musicweb did a grossly inadequate background check; it's their problem, it should not be a problem for the person with the foresight to realize that Musicweb would later be a valuable piece of intellectual property.
But isn't Amazon's conduct ultimately damaging for a retail e-commerce firm? Amazon's agressive use of its patent portfolio ensures that no one standard will be adopted - we'll have Amazon's methods, we'll have B&N's method, we'll have the Pets.com method... and the users will scratch their heads and ask why it alll has to be so complex.
If Amazon is truly intersted in growing the market and facilitating retail e-commerce, they should encourage the adoption of a standard client interface. The easier it is to shop online the more people will shop online. Creating barriers and obstacles to customers runs against Amazon's long-term interests.
Last Starfighter leaked out the back door of Atari, but was never officially released until Star Raiders II came out. SR II did make some changes to the gameplay. I still remember downloading Last Starfighter on a 300 baud modem.
Star Raiders II _DID_ ship for the atari 800, they just renamed it The Last Starfighter after the movie. I have a copy. It sucks.
Actually, it was the other way around: Atari took the code for Last Starfighter and converted it to Star Raiders II.
This does raise an interesting point - look back at the original Star Raiders. It required a 10K OS, 8K program, and 8K data, including screen display. Could anyone put together a neat hack like that today in 26k?
Spoiler quote: To "rescue" the kids, the helicopter massacres hundreds of people, under the pretext that they "didn't really have lives", and were "only" Norms. In short, the murder of something different was justified -solely- because it was different. Sure, there was more compassion from the New Zealanders, but not so much that they spared any life that did not conform to their notion of the ideal.
This Darwinistic approach was common throughout Wyndham's writing. The Midwich Cuckoos shows the other side of it, with the "others" annihilated in a bomb blast, and Web, perhaps his least optimistic title, sees the heroic explorers all but wiped out - and ends with the scourge that killed them spreading forth.
Wyndham was a bit of a one trick pony in his major works, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You know what to expect going in; the surprises will be in the plot, not in the world-view or approach to writing.
Anyone looking for a good place to meet after sessions? Go to the Celtic Cross,on Bank Street just north of Somerset. Wonderful Irish pub. And, as an added bonus, Murphy's Irish Stout on tap.
Let's not be hypocritical here - is Linux entirely free from (ahem) undocumented features?
Given the size of the installed userbase for Windows, and the thousands (if not millions) of programs, any rewriting will break some apps that made unfair assumptions in their code.
Yes, this is a strong argument for opening source - to fix the app that was misbehaving, or fix the OS that isn't working right. But we shouldn't get self-righteous about this.
Anything that catches the public's eye and encourages research is a Good Thijng.
Too often, R&D is considered a necessary evil - something to be reduced in times when money is tight. Spiffy events that draw public attention help foster a culture where science is perceived as fun and interesting, and not as Evil and Threatening.
Spread the word! Get kids interested! Help make science fun!
Can't you just picture Peter Jennings (or pick your favorite hair) reading this story and saying to himself, "Nahhh... this'll never catch on! I'm too important to the well-being of America. I do more than read the news: I represent the trust in the 4th branch of government!"
Peter Jennings is more of a sixth column than a 4th branch - like so many other well-known Americans, he's Canadian.
It's no real surprise that Jackie V would go ballistic - he tries to run Hollywood like a private fiefdom. This is entirely in character for him - he nearly blew a head gasket when a Canadian government attempted to put in place legislation that would have made Canada a seperate market for film.
Jack, chill. And maybe you should get a clue before going over the top.
What, then, is the Slashdot community? Are the various forums and communities that exist all over the Internet totally devoid of intelligentsia?
Interesting idea. But how high do you set your filters? 1? 2? 3? Certainly, there are members of the/. community who reliably post interesting, well-thought out ideas and are more than willing to enter into intelligent debates.
But there are also many "f1r5t p05t3r5", open source and Linux fascists (as unnerving as Bill and his bunch, in their own ways) and other trolls lurking within this site. Intelligentsia implies a willingness to discuss, debate, and (gasp!) change your mind based on new information. Far too much of/. is mindless dreck from self-righteous buffoons.
Besides, I'm always leery of any group of self-proclaimed intelligentsia. The truth will come out on its own, eventually; if you have to tell people how smart you are then perhaps you are not.
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Just what I wanted for Christmas
on
Quake 1 GPL'ed
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· Score: 1
Thanks Santa! Many kudos to all at ID for this generous contribution.
There is an error in the title here though: it's only the source that's been GPL'd. The artwork and such are still the intellectual property of ID
On another note, Mr Claus, if you know who's been naughty and who's been nice, could you give me a copy of the list of naughty girls? Many thanks.
Slashdot Mirror
Thousands of kids get fed up with their access being blocked...
so thousands of kids start hacking to beat the system.
There is NOTHING as appealing to a teenager as something stamped "forbidden".
There is an ongoing project to put together a usable PPP connection on the Atari 8-bit; it's located here.
The program is so simple it could even run on an 8k Atari 400 (remember those?)
Later models (the 600xl, 800xl and 130xe) had a parallel bus - I'm sure they could handle higher throughput.
Hmm... a minimally featured webserver on the Atari 8-bit. Hasn't anyone ported Apache there yet?
"We'll release the source code to Windows 3.1"
I have no sympathy for people trying to extort money for trademarks that have already been registered. But in this case a person realized the name "Musicweb" would have some value. Three years later someone else agreed and gave their company that name. Rather than buying that piece of intellectual propery, they went through a quasi-judicial process to seize it.
Why should I empathize with someone stupid enough to register a service mark before confirming that the .com domain was available? Why should he have a right to a name that someone else identified as valuable before him?
Certainly, place limits on the length of time a domain may be held without being used. But arbitrary seizure is a dangerous precedent for 'net law.
How so? A domain was registered in 1995. In 1998, an individual did inadequate research and registered a service mark by the same name. The latecomer has successfully seized the prior registration.
By the same logic, E-Toys should be able to shut down E-Toy.
First come, first serve. Musicweb did a grossly inadequate background check; it's their problem, it should not be a problem for the person with the foresight to realize that Musicweb would later be a valuable piece of intellectual property.
If Amazon is truly intersted in growing the market and facilitating retail e-commerce, they should encourage the adoption of a standard client interface. The easier it is to shop online the more people will shop online. Creating barriers and obstacles to customers runs against Amazon's long-term interests.
What century are you living in?
I'm living in the 20th century, and really looking forward to the turn of the millenium on 31 December 2000!
Last Starfighter leaked out the back door of Atari, but was never officially released until Star Raiders II came out. SR II did make some changes to the gameplay. I still remember downloading Last Starfighter on a 300 baud modem.
Actually, it was the other way around: Atari took the code for Last Starfighter and converted it to Star Raiders II.
This does raise an interesting point - look back at the original Star Raiders. It required a 10K OS, 8K program, and 8K data, including screen display. Could anyone put together a neat hack like that today in 26k?
And Eric Idle, of course, was the doctor who put the implant into Cartman.
This Darwinistic approach was common throughout Wyndham's writing. The Midwich Cuckoos shows the other side of it, with the "others" annihilated in a bomb blast, and Web, perhaps his least optimistic title, sees the heroic explorers all but wiped out - and ends with the scourge that killed them spreading forth.
Wyndham was a bit of a one trick pony in his major works, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. You know what to expect going in; the surprises will be in the plot, not in the world-view or approach to writing.
How can you go wrong?
Given the size of the installed userbase for Windows, and the thousands (if not millions) of programs, any rewriting will break some apps that made unfair assumptions in their code.
Yes, this is a strong argument for opening source - to fix the app that was misbehaving, or fix the OS that isn't working right. But we shouldn't get self-righteous about this.
And where DO you go to find an intelligent chicken, anyways?
Who wouldn't want to Grok their computer?
This is great! Please, moderate the parent up - or start reading at -1. Believe me it's worth it!
Note to bigots everywhere: MARS is the Red Planet, not the Moon.
Hmm, guess that's another person who'll get to try Lego instead of the SATs...
Too often, R&D is considered a necessary evil - something to be reduced in times when money is tight. Spiffy events that draw public attention help foster a culture where science is perceived as fun and interesting, and not as Evil and Threatening.
Spread the word! Get kids interested! Help make science fun!
Peter Jennings is more of a sixth column than a 4th branch - like so many other well-known Americans, he's Canadian.
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Jack, chill. And maybe you should get a clue before going over the top.
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Interesting idea. But how high do you set your filters? 1? 2? 3? Certainly, there are members of the /. community who reliably post interesting, well-thought out ideas and are more than willing to enter into intelligent debates.
But there are also many "f1r5t p05t3r5", open source and Linux fascists (as unnerving as Bill and his bunch, in their own ways) and other trolls lurking within this site. Intelligentsia implies a willingness to discuss, debate, and (gasp!) change your mind based on new information. Far too much of /. is mindless dreck from self-righteous buffoons.
Besides, I'm always leery of any group of self-proclaimed intelligentsia. The truth will come out on its own, eventually; if you have to tell people how smart you are then perhaps you are not.
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There is an error in the title here though: it's only the source that's been GPL'd. The artwork and such are still the intellectual property of ID
On another note, Mr Claus, if you know who's been naughty and who's been nice, could you give me a copy of the list of naughty girls? Many thanks.
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This sort of patent stupidity will just drive jobs and investment out. Amazon appears somewhat lacking in the clue department.
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See, there's this country just north of the USA that's already able to use the 128 bit versions, no problem.
Remember, Americans, you're not the only North Americans.
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All we need to do is fire up a 98 box and do a domain log-on.
What's even more frightening: a "computer scientist" who uses Win 98!
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