This is not necessarily the 40th Mersenne Prime, just the 40th that we've found. We still need to prove many ones in between to be composite before we can mark its place as 40th.
Why? Because of 'market realities.' Which ones? The 12-year-old girl? The 15-year-old girl? Or the 66-year-old Grandma with a Mac?
What? This antitrust exemption seems like pure shit to me, but, last time I checked, 12 year-olds are not exempt from the law, nor 66-year olds (NOT that old). I don't understand why the RIAA suing young or old people is some sort of condemnation.
What's so unrealistic about random battles? I don't get it!
For me, the main problem with random battles is the damn start-up and time. I don't know if it's gotten any better since I stopped playing console RPGs, but when I was walking around and had to sit through a screen fade, battle start music, then a single-hit victory, then victory music, then stats update screen---well, that sucked. It really wouldn't be that bad if when gnats attacked you, the battle happened without interruption, maybe at the bottom of the screen, maybe automatically. Compare with, say, the Castlevania platform/RPG series (Symphony of the Night, etc.): You still get attacked by bats and zombies when you go back to the beginning of the castle, but everyone is one hit, and you can just run and dash your way through. Speed!
The notice isn't short, mp3.com has been going down the shitter for over two years now. The last straw for me was when they limited non-paid artists to three songs, making the site totally unusable for the dozens of album-a-day projects that had been posted there. It would definitely be nice to have an internet music system that cared about free, underground music, though. I am of the opinion that there is plenty of bandwidth there, if it is used in creative ways (ie, peer-to-peer).
Please don't "enhance" your web pages with this! It's a fine feature for those who want it in their browsers, and who can turn it off, but I do all these shortcuts with the "cumbersome" keyboard keys, and so would like my mouse function to remain the same.
(I do appreciate this for its hack value, though; good job!)
"Monzy" has a bunch of good games that can be played (see bottom) when the members of a movie audience have laser pointers. Just make sure you get them back before the movie starts.;)
The article offers up this question: might there be other metrics that might be important to supercomputing, rather than relying solely on processing speed?
For example the fact that the vast majority of 536 solutions are bilaterally symmetric suggests
But the bilateral symmetry also explains its own frequency: each solution for the left half forms a complete solution when paired with any solution for the right half (assuming they use disjoint sets of pieces, if I understand the rules of the game properly).
Don't law schools often require or subsidise the purchase of a specific supported laptop, for precisely this kind of reason? If the students don't have windows laptops, or laptops at all, how can they be expected to take tests at all?
Why is this news? A windows fan claims Longhorn is/will be better than Panther. Will we run a follow-up story when Apple fans claim in this slashdot story that Panther is in fact better than Longhorn?
By the way, Longhorn does exist, inasmuch as leaked builds can be found on the Internet.
Well, that sounds pretty dumb, since one of the prerequisites for getting a sourceforge project approved is that it will be released under an approved free/open source license. They even make you choose the license (with explanations) at the time you sign up.
Anyway, this now goes from cool project to lame prima-donna shit, in my book.
Sorry--when I say technological measure, I mean it to abbreviate "technological measure that effectively controls access to a work," since that is the only context in which technological measures are relevant in the DMCA.
Software is technological, and if part of it prevents you from using another part of it, then it 'effectively controls access'. I don't see how you can claim otherwise.
Here's how I claim otherwise. Let's look at the definition again:
(DMCA) a technological measure ''effectively controls access to a work'' if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.
Forget the words "controls access to a work," because the condition is defined immediately afterwards. You can't use those words as a basis for arguing that software is a technological measure (... TECATAW). Instead, the software must require, in the ordinary course of its operation, the application of information, a process or a treatment in order to gain access to the work.
First, as I've said before, the copyrighted work is the bits of the program. Those bits do not require anything to happen in order for them to be accessed. It's true that in order to execute certain bits on the computer in a useful way, you need to change the branch instruction or trick the program in some other way. But executing is different from accessing, and the DMCA only talks about access.
Second, there is no application of information, process or treatment. I can't even fathom how you think this fits. The DMCA was designed with scrambled television signals in mind, in which case the process is the descrambling or decoding, and the information is the encryption key. The copyrighted work is obfuscated and inaccessible without the descrambling. But the computer program in our example is entirely accessible, and needs no process, treatment, or application information to be accessed.
Of course, this doesn't even consider the fact that a network-drive-as-physical driver would have substantial non-infringing use, certainly exempting it (if not acts of circumvention) as a circumvention device.
Again, in case anybody is jumping in on this discussion late: I am entirely opposed to the DMCA; I think it's a bad law that should be repealed. I have even had my own run-in. But believing that the law somehow applies to every instance of using a computer in a way that somebody else doesn't like is just foolish, and worse, it may lead to a culture where we instantly fold as soon as the DMCA card is drawn. I don't want to live in that culture, so let's not encourage this!
That does not meet the definition of "technological measure." Software is not a technological measure?
The definition is in the relevant section of the law, which you can read for yourself. Although the DMCA is vague, it is not that vague.
Sorry, but software does qualify as "a process."
Does the branch instruction require the application of a process in order to grant access to a copyrighted work? Does that even make any sense? It doesn't matter if the software itself is "a process."
The program code is already accessible. No, not if it doesn't run it isn't.
??!? The copyrighted work is the program code, which you can read right off the disk, not the 'running program', whatever that would mean.
What's the technological measure that controls that access? A conditional statement that checks if the program is running from a network drive, and exits if it is.
That does not meet the definition of "technological measure."... requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment... They are talking about decoding/decryption, not a branch instruction.
What's the copyrighted work that's being accessed? The program itself (specifically, all of the code located after the conditional statement).
They aren't lawsuits, they're cease and desist letters, which are hardly even "legal threats," because if they threaten to sue you and don't, then that is illegal.
Might such software be seen as a 'circumvention device' as specified by the DMCA?
Uh, no?
The DMCA outlaws the trafficking in and use of circumvention devices, which circumvent a technological measure used to control access to a copyrighted work. All of these terms are defined; you can even read the law to learn more. What's the copyrighted work that's being accessed? What's the technological measure that controls that access? In what sense is this circumvention? None of the pieces of the puzzle are there, so I say, categorically no, this is not a DMCA violation.
The DMCA is a bad law, but it does not outlaw "hacking" or "doing things with computers" in general.
If he runs a bash script to tie up game servers he's just an asshole, not a martyr.
What evidence do we have that he's doing that? The DMCA threats are about posting the information and software, not about actually attacking them himself.
Also, he's from Italy, so I dunno, maybe there is a culture clash over stuff like "BYEZ".
Slashdot Mirror
This is not necessarily the 40th Mersenne Prime, just the 40th that we've found. We still need to prove many ones in between to be composite before we can mark its place as 40th.
You act as if C and Visual Basic are the only two programming languages!
Why? Because of 'market realities.' Which ones? The 12-year-old girl? The 15-year-old girl? Or the 66-year-old Grandma with a Mac?
What? This antitrust exemption seems like pure shit to me, but, last time I checked, 12 year-olds are not exempt from the law, nor 66-year olds (NOT that old). I don't understand why the RIAA suing young or old people is some sort of condemnation.
What's so unrealistic about random battles? I don't get it!
For me, the main problem with random battles is the damn start-up and time. I don't know if it's gotten any better since I stopped playing console RPGs, but when I was walking around and had to sit through a screen fade, battle start music, then a single-hit victory, then victory music, then stats update screen---well, that sucked. It really wouldn't be that bad if when
gnats attacked you, the battle happened without interruption, maybe at the bottom of the screen, maybe automatically. Compare with, say, the Castlevania platform/RPG series (Symphony of the Night, etc.): You still get attacked by bats and zombies when you go back to the beginning of the castle, but everyone is one hit, and you can just run and dash your way through. Speed!
Next time tell us how successful your product will be before it goes to market, and then we'll see how good your predictive powers are!
Oh, wait, every company does this with every product.
I liked Space Channel Five for the dreamcast. It is worth $15 for PS2!
The notice isn't short, mp3.com has been going down the shitter for over two years now. The last straw for me was when they limited non-paid artists to three songs, making the site totally unusable for the dozens of album-a-day projects that had been posted there. It would definitely be nice to have an internet music system that cared about free, underground music, though. I am of the opinion that there is plenty of bandwidth there, if it is used in creative ways (ie, peer-to-peer).
And you use windows 3.1 because it fits on 4 floppies?
Well, you should also consider the possibility that different people have different propensity for the injury!
I do agree that mousing and, especially, mouse gestures, are bad for RSI.
Please don't "enhance" your web pages with this! It's a fine feature for those who want it in their browsers, and who can turn it off, but I do all these shortcuts with the "cumbersome" keyboard keys, and so would like my mouse function to remain the same.
(I do appreciate this for its hack value, though; good job!)
There are over 17000 signatures right now.
Given that the movie will be released Dec 17, I don't think so!
"Monzy" has a bunch of good games that can be played (see bottom) when the members of a movie audience have laser pointers. Just make sure you get them back before the movie starts. ;)
The article offers up this question: might there be other metrics that might be important to supercomputing, rather than relying solely on processing speed?
Um, yes?
Since this characteristic of the photon is able to take on an infinite number of values,
Not really though, right? Such values are discretized in the sense that the Planck length discretizes distance, right?
For example the fact that the vast majority of 536 solutions are bilaterally symmetric suggests
But the bilateral symmetry also explains its own frequency: each solution for the left half forms a complete solution when paired with any solution for the right half (assuming they use disjoint sets of pieces, if I understand the rules of the game properly).
Don't law schools often require or subsidise the purchase of a specific supported laptop, for precisely this kind of reason? If the students don't have windows laptops, or laptops at all, how can they be expected to take tests at all?
Why is this news? A windows fan claims Longhorn is/will be better than Panther. Will we run a follow-up story when Apple fans claim in this slashdot story that Panther is in fact better than Longhorn?
By the way, Longhorn does exist, inasmuch as leaked builds can be found on the Internet.
Well, that sounds pretty dumb, since one of the prerequisites for getting a sourceforge project approved is that it will be released under an approved free/open source license. They even make you choose the license (with explanations) at the time you sign up.
Anyway, this now goes from cool project to lame prima-donna shit, in my book.
Sorry--when I say technological measure, I mean it to abbreviate "technological measure that effectively controls access to a work," since that is the only context in which technological measures are relevant in the DMCA.
Software is technological, and if part of it prevents you from using another part of it, then it 'effectively controls access'. I don't see how you can claim otherwise.
Here's how I claim otherwise. Let's look at the definition again:
(DMCA)
a technological measure ''effectively controls access to a work'' if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.
Forget the words "controls access to a work," because the condition is defined immediately afterwards. You can't use those words as a basis for arguing that software is a technological measure (... TECATAW). Instead, the software must require, in the ordinary course of its operation, the application of information, a process or a treatment in order to gain access to the work.
First, as I've said before, the copyrighted work is the bits of the program. Those bits do not require anything to happen in order for them to be accessed. It's true that in order to execute certain bits on the computer in a useful way, you need to change the branch instruction or trick the program in some other way. But executing is different from accessing, and the DMCA only talks about access.
Second, there is no application of information, process or treatment. I can't even fathom how you think this fits. The DMCA was designed with scrambled television signals in mind, in which case the process is the descrambling or decoding, and the information is the encryption key. The copyrighted work is obfuscated and inaccessible without the descrambling. But the computer program in our example is entirely accessible, and needs no process, treatment, or application information to be accessed.
Of course, this doesn't even consider the fact that a network-drive-as-physical driver would have substantial non-infringing use, certainly exempting it (if not acts of circumvention) as a circumvention device.
Again, in case anybody is jumping in on this discussion late: I am entirely opposed to the DMCA; I think it's a bad law that should be repealed. I have even had my own run-in. But believing that the law somehow applies to every instance of using a computer in a way that somebody else doesn't like is just foolish, and worse, it may lead to a culture where we instantly fold as soon as the DMCA card is drawn. I don't want to live in that culture, so let's not encourage this!
That does not meet the definition of "technological measure."
Software is not a technological measure?
The definition is in the relevant section of the law, which you can read for yourself. Although the DMCA is vague, it is not that vague.
Sorry, but software does qualify as "a process."
Does the branch instruction require the application of a process in order to grant access to a copyrighted work? Does that even make any sense? It doesn't matter if the software itself is "a process."
The program code is already accessible.
No, not if it doesn't run it isn't.
??!? The copyrighted work is the program code, which you can read right off the disk, not the 'running program', whatever that would mean.
An AC writes,
... requires the application of information, ... They are talking about decoding/decryption, not a branch instruction.
What's the technological measure that controls that access?
A conditional statement that checks if the program is running from a network drive, and exits if it is.
That does not meet the definition of "technological measure."
or a process or a treatment
What's the copyrighted work that's being accessed?
The program itself (specifically, all of the code located after the conditional statement).
The program code is already accessible.
They aren't lawsuits, they're cease and desist letters, which are hardly even "legal threats," because if they threaten to sue you and don't, then that is illegal.
For my part, I fought the C&D letters and they eventually backed down.
It's important to know what the DMCA actually outlaws!
Might such software be seen as a 'circumvention device' as specified by the DMCA?
Uh, no?
The DMCA outlaws the trafficking in and use of circumvention devices, which circumvent a technological measure used to control access to a copyrighted work. All of these terms are defined; you can even read the law to learn more. What's the copyrighted work that's being accessed? What's the technological measure that controls that access? In what sense is this circumvention? None of the pieces of the puzzle are there, so I say, categorically no, this is not a DMCA violation.
The DMCA is a bad law, but it does not outlaw "hacking" or "doing things with computers" in general.
You could try, you know, not using the internet for the time that you're on vacation.
If he runs a bash script to tie up game servers he's just an asshole, not a martyr.
What evidence do we have that he's doing that? The DMCA threats are about posting the information and software, not about actually attacking them himself.
Also, he's from Italy, so I dunno, maybe there is a culture clash over stuff like "BYEZ".