A dual layered DVD holds ~8 GB(?) of data. Assuming it takes half an hour to drive to the store, buy one, and return, that's ~4.5MB/second. If I buy more than one DVD, the rate is even better. Cable TV delivers more varied content, but little of it is on-demand and the quality doesn't approach DVD. Pay-per-view content hasn't taken off in the 10 years I've had it available, and doesn't look like it's going to anytime soon.
My guess is that broadcasted (cable/airwave) media and physical media will always coexist to fit different niches in the marketplace to fulfill different needs.
It might not be already, depending on where you live. But DeCSS has little to do with the Linux kernel itself; it's quite possible for some DVD-licensed company to use official DVD decryption software running on Linux without requiring the release of any source code. And DVD recording hardware (as mentioned in the article) won't need to use DVD encryption for that task at all.
Not only is the english too good, but the conversation actually features a Dell tech support droid who comprehends an operating system other than Windows running on Dell computers and any ramifications that might have. In the real world, that conversation goes like:
Me: Smoke is billowing from my Dell computer. I need a new power supply. Dell Support: Okay, sir. Please run the Windows diagnostics tools from the start menu. Me: I'm running Linux. Support: (Confused at response not listed on script) Okay, close "Linux" from the file menu and run the diagnostics. Me: But I'm... Er... It's not a software... Oh nevermind. *click*
Just bought a house. Got a sweet deal with the builder where I sign a waiver (if you kill yourself it's not our fault), and I'm able to go in and put network cable in the walls. This will probably happen in a month or so (they just poured the foundation two weeks ago).
We were able to have the builder do the cat5e ethernet installation for us. It's not a common procedure and took a little explanation, but all the right wires wound up in all the right places in all the right rooms. I figured as long as we're paying them to build the house, we'll pay them for that too.
I don't understand the whole line of research that believes computers need to be more "clever". Perhaps the assumption is that the user is an idiot, won't be getting any smarter, ever, and could use a bit of patronizing hand-holding in order to get anything done. But my thinking is that if such a "clever" system is necessary, the computer system hasn't been designed correctly to begin with.
I want my computers to present me with clear and unambiguous output. In return, I will give them as much unambiguous input needed to get the job done. Save the "clever" AI for Doom 3 and let me get back to work.
I mean, c'mon. For 25 years RPGs have always been about the books, the manuals, the spellbooks, the monster compendiums. If my RPG didn't come with a book, I'd be a little worried. In fact, when I purchased a used Wizardry 8 without the manual, I nearly lost it.
Why must a computer RPG require a large manual? While memorizing the importance of "tiltowait" from a book might be nice and satisfying, why can't I simply ask the game for this information? And if a game has a complicated battle system, why not include a basic tutorial so the player can experience how things work and why. Even relatively complicated console titles like "Advance Wars" have these sorts of features, so I don't see why a modern computer game shouldn't.
Are you sure? Perhaps you want something more complicated than a pure shoot-em-up, but I'd wager there's a large number of gamers that do want something simple to get into, which is the whole point of the article.
We all know you can indeed charge for GPL software. However isn't it a little late for wanting to charge for it after you've released it?
I was just hoping a little inaccuracy could save a lot of explanation. Of course we know one can charge for a kernel, but requiring one to tithe to SCO for its use is not compatible with the GPL's terms, which violates the license everyone has contributed their code under, which means SCO either has to stop distributing the kernel or comply with the license.
But this whole "some of our code is in there, therefore you have to pay us" line is a bunch of bull.
The main thrust is that he's betting on the fact that Copyright law trumps whatever provisions are in the GPL, so IBM's GPL defense doesn't hold water; and also that just because Caldera released kernel source under that license does not mean that the whole codebase (not just what was republished) should also be GPL'd.
The GPL is just a license for the use and redistribution of copyrighted code, so of course copyright "trumps" it, if you will. Without full copyright protection, the GPL would be worthless as a license.
In this particular case, SCO/Caldera *released and is continuing to release* the Linux kernel and all the code in it under the GPL, but that's not stopping them from trying to charge protection money for the use of it - including most (all?) of the code that isn't theirs to charge for and would be in violation of the license the copyright holders have released their code in.
Next thing you know, the Dept. of Homeland Sec. will issue a regulation requiring the use of Palladium or similar tech. on all computers. After all it is for our 'safety.'
And we'll be required to wrap them in plastic and seal them with duct tape. They say it'll keep the computer viruses from spreading...
Actually by using this code which is released under the GPL, the SCO OS becomes tainted by the GPL. In english, if it is proven that the SCO OS contains GPL code, SCO is REQUIRED to release their OS under the GPL! Even if they remove the offending code from their OS they are required to provide anyone who bought their OS with the source code to the OS during the period that they were tainted.It is the possible to seek an injunction of ALL sales of SCO OS until they comply.
That's not quite right either. If GPLed code winds up in a proprietary system, the copyright holder of the GPLed code is entitled to damages no matter what. And, as a remedy, the proprietary owner can either excise the offending, non-licensed GPLed code or make the entire system GPLed to fit in line with the license. The option rests with the owner of the proprietary code.
This is the inverse of what's happening in Linux kernel land. If (and this is a pretty big "if") SCO's proprietary code is in the Linux kernel, either all the kernel copyright holders have to agree to make it proprietary to fit with SCO's license (not likely) or the offending code must be removed from the GPLed system. The latter would be certain, if SCO would bother telling what the *real* offending code is.
You make a very naieve assumption in thinking that an injunction will not be ordered until the end of multiple trials. What is more likely is that SCO will file a brief asking the court for injunctive relief by claiming that each day that the contested code is in use costs them revenue (and by setting a licencing price they've established the value of that revenue).
SCO can't possibly order an injunction against the entire kernel because most (all?) of it isn't copyrighted by them. SCO could probably order an injunction against certain bits of contested code, but it would have to tell what they are in order for that to be granted. And besides, stopping the shipment of a Linux kernel would hurt SCO's FUD-based revenue stream and injure their long-term prospects even more.
Face it. There is stolen code in Linux. How much and how severe the value of the theft is to be determined but that there was theft is almost certain.
Stolen? Stolen from where? Showing two identical blocks of code in two different OSes proves nothing. SCO has to prove that it is the rightful copyright holder of that code *and* it has to somehow weasel out of its release of that code in the Linux kernel under the GPL. If that code originated in Linux first, SCO is out of luck. If that code originated from a third party and was taked by both Linux and SCO, SCO is out of luck.
But once we see what code is in question, finding the original, rightful copyright holder is the easy part. And if the holder isn't SCO, SCO is out of luck. That's why SCO has been so afraid to show it in public.
Guys, it's not leetspeak: it's a font with serifs.
The "l" is the only serif font, so it's probably meant both as an "l" and as a "1". See? It's got "1" and "one" in the logo! It's wacky! It's marketing!
To be fair, it's not Amazon that's doing the actual selling, per-se. The "new and used" link points to external shops that are selling bootlegs of the very much out-of-print boxed set. Such shops are common on Yahoo as well. However, blaming Amazon is like blaming eBay because someone puts a bootleg up for bid. But it's easy to spot such items by price. If someone is selling an entire series, new, on three DVDs for $30, or if someone is selling an anime soundtrack CD for $9.95, you can be sure you're getting a bootleg.
Reputable shops like Amazon, CDJapan, AnimeNation and so forth will never sell you a bootleg straight from their stores.
If I were a GPU manufacturer, I'd rather have my widgets in 50-60 million PS2 units rather than 8 million GC or XBox units. Anyone know the story on this one?
Sony is big on proprietary anything. The PS2's CPU and GPU are both proprietary, as I recall, and the PS3 is likely to be the same. That only leaves the other players for PC graphics card manufacturers to bid for.
A GUI browser, I can understand completely. Ditto word processor, spreadsheets, etc. But for a filemanager? If you're going to insist on a GUI for that, please don't complain about bloat.
There's nothing inherently wrong with managing files graphically. The ROX-Filer does an excellent job of combining shell-like globbing with click-and-drag ease and is particularly handy for managing images. ROX-Filer is small, doesn't eat up gobs of memory, runs fast and does one job (file managing) well. Nautilus might be prettier, but it needs a lot of improvement in both bloat and actual file managing before I'd use it full-time.
Of course, for any serious heavy-duty data management (e.g. take all the PNGs in directory A, shrink them by 50%, despeckle, convert to JPEGs and move to directory B) a shell will always beat a graphical pointy clicky tool. But I see no reason not to use both and do so on a regular basis.
Meh, the Elves will just reappear in Valinor. Remember, the life force of the Elves and Dwarves is bound to Arda (the world), and remains there. That of Men, however, is not, and goes who-knows-where. So Elves can't really die, no matter what.
The elves are tied to Arda and endure only so long as it endures. The End of the World will mean the end of elves and their souls. The Gift of Men is that they die, their souls leave the Circles of the World and they are promised something beyond it.
But in the short run, although men envy elves because they do not die from age or sickness, elves envy men because men *do* die and are not burdened by age after age of nostalgia and regret.
I'd rather not use the term "hobbyist". AT&T was bound by anti-trust regulations to supply their inventions to universities. Scientists took it the way they like the best - with emphasis on peer review and free circulation of information (free as in beer and as in speech). I think that "scientific" or "academic" is a better description. After all, they weren't amateurs.
The people involved certainly weren't amateurs, but the project itself started as an attempt to get the "Space Travel" game working on a PDP-7 and eventually crept into use through the "back door" of the company as Unix become more and more feature-rich. It took over minicomputer land, eventually, but started out as a small OS with small goals but with lots of portability behind it - quite similar to Linux. AT&T eventually supplied Unix to scientists (thanks to anti-trust requirements) and universities, but only after its worth had been established.
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Sorry, but nobody should have to play Spy Hunter 2 It's pretty awful.
Naturally, which makes it Windows-free by default :) Ahh, the good old days...
Since 1977, actually.
My guess is that broadcasted (cable/airwave) media and physical media will always coexist to fit different niches in the marketplace to fulfill different needs.
It might not be already, depending on where you live. But DeCSS has little to do with the Linux kernel itself; it's quite possible for some DVD-licensed company to use official DVD decryption software running on Linux without requiring the release of any source code. And DVD recording hardware (as mentioned in the article) won't need to use DVD encryption for that task at all.
Me: Smoke is billowing from my Dell computer. I need a new power supply.
Dell Support: Okay, sir. Please run the Windows diagnostics tools from the start menu.
Me: I'm running Linux.
Support: (Confused at response not listed on script) Okay, close "Linux" from the file menu and run the diagnostics.
Me: But I'm... Er... It's not a software... Oh nevermind. *click*
According to this report, the teen was from Minnesota and will be making a court appearance in St. Paul today.
We were able to have the builder do the cat5e ethernet installation for us. It's not a common procedure and took a little explanation, but all the right wires wound up in all the right places in all the right rooms. I figured as long as we're paying them to build the house, we'll pay them for that too.
I want my computers to present me with clear and unambiguous output. In return, I will give them as much unambiguous input needed to get the job done. Save the "clever" AI for Doom 3 and let me get back to work.
Why must a computer RPG require a large manual? While memorizing the importance of "tiltowait" from a book might be nice and satisfying, why can't I simply ask the game for this information? And if a game has a complicated battle system, why not include a basic tutorial so the player can experience how things work and why. Even relatively complicated console titles like "Advance Wars" have these sorts of features, so I don't see why a modern computer game shouldn't.
Are you sure? Perhaps you want something more complicated than a pure shoot-em-up, but I'd wager there's a large number of gamers that do want something simple to get into, which is the whole point of the article.
I was just hoping a little inaccuracy could save a lot of explanation. Of course we know one can charge for a kernel, but requiring one to tithe to SCO for its use is not compatible with the GPL's terms, which violates the license everyone has contributed their code under, which means SCO either has to stop distributing the kernel or comply with the license.
But this whole "some of our code is in there, therefore you have to pay us" line is a bunch of bull.
The GPL is just a license for the use and redistribution of copyrighted code, so of course copyright "trumps" it, if you will. Without full copyright protection, the GPL would be worthless as a license.
In this particular case, SCO/Caldera *released and is continuing to release* the Linux kernel and all the code in it under the GPL, but that's not stopping them from trying to charge protection money for the use of it - including most (all?) of the code that isn't theirs to charge for and would be in violation of the license the copyright holders have released their code in.
Been there, done that. The possibility of mecha-elderly gone awry is a scary thing.
And we'll be required to wrap them in plastic and seal them with duct tape. They say it'll keep the computer viruses from spreading...
So it's like "The Soul of a New Machine", except it's about Doom. And it's not very good.
That's not quite right either. If GPLed code winds up in a proprietary system, the copyright holder of the GPLed code is entitled to damages no matter what. And, as a remedy, the proprietary owner can either excise the offending, non-licensed GPLed code or make the entire system GPLed to fit in line with the license. The option rests with the owner of the proprietary code.
This is the inverse of what's happening in Linux kernel land. If (and this is a pretty big "if") SCO's proprietary code is in the Linux kernel, either all the kernel copyright holders have to agree to make it proprietary to fit with SCO's license (not likely) or the offending code must be removed from the GPLed system. The latter would be certain, if SCO would bother telling what the *real* offending code is.
SCO can't possibly order an injunction against the entire kernel because most (all?) of it isn't copyrighted by them. SCO could probably order an injunction against certain bits of contested code, but it would have to tell what they are in order for that to be granted. And besides, stopping the shipment of a Linux kernel would hurt SCO's FUD-based revenue stream and injure their long-term prospects even more.
Stolen? Stolen from where? Showing two identical blocks of code in two different OSes proves nothing. SCO has to prove that it is the rightful copyright holder of that code *and* it has to somehow weasel out of its release of that code in the Linux kernel under the GPL. If that code originated in Linux first, SCO is out of luck. If that code originated from a third party and was taked by both Linux and SCO, SCO is out of luck.
But once we see what code is in question, finding the original, rightful copyright holder is the easy part. And if the holder isn't SCO, SCO is out of luck. That's why SCO has been so afraid to show it in public.
Reputable shops like Amazon, CDJapan, AnimeNation and so forth will never sell you a bootleg straight from their stores.
Sony is big on proprietary anything. The PS2's CPU and GPU are both proprietary, as I recall, and the PS3 is likely to be the same. That only leaves the other players for PC graphics card manufacturers to bid for.
There's nothing inherently wrong with managing files graphically. The ROX-Filer does an excellent job of combining shell-like globbing with click-and-drag ease and is particularly handy for managing images. ROX-Filer is small, doesn't eat up gobs of memory, runs fast and does one job (file managing) well. Nautilus might be prettier, but it needs a lot of improvement in both bloat and actual file managing before I'd use it full-time.
Of course, for any serious heavy-duty data management (e.g. take all the PNGs in directory A, shrink them by 50%, despeckle, convert to JPEGs and move to directory B) a shell will always beat a graphical pointy clicky tool. But I see no reason not to use both and do so on a regular basis.
The elves are tied to Arda and endure only so long as it endures. The End of the World will mean the end of elves and their souls. The Gift of Men is that they die, their souls leave the Circles of the World and they are promised something beyond it.
But in the short run, although men envy elves because they do not die from age or sickness, elves envy men because men *do* die and are not burdened by age after age of nostalgia and regret.
The people involved certainly weren't amateurs, but the project itself started as an attempt to get the "Space Travel" game working on a PDP-7 and eventually crept into use through the "back door" of the company as Unix become more and more feature-rich. It took over minicomputer land, eventually, but started out as a small OS with small goals but with lots of portability behind it - quite similar to Linux. AT&T eventually supplied Unix to scientists (thanks to anti-trust requirements) and universities, but only after its worth had been established.