IMHO, that is a much better idea. Having whatever is being viewed clearly visible to others is often quite a deterrent, especially when it comes to pr0n sites and the like. Especially when it comes to Junior High males, who will probably be held in mortal fear by the thought that the girl they've got a crush on could find out if they started viewing bad sites.
Could this possibly be why they're doing this? Since they can (concievably) bind an artist by contract so that they effectively (if not in fact) own all rights to his/her music, and this then effectively gives them a longer copyright period...? Is that possible? Or legal?
Then again, given the historically artificially shortened lifetime of music stars, life+70 may indeed wind up to be less than 95 years...
So their next project is going to be the AOL Instant Newsreader. And the Linux port will be the Linux Aol Instant Newsreader, and will be the forfront of their attempt to defeat the god of the Wired and take over the communications network, while confusing viewers everywhere? Sounds good to me.;-)
Note: If you didn't get this, you don't watch enough anime. Go watch more. Or you don't turn everything into an acronym to look for something funny. Read it again.
I'm not sure. From what I've read of the DMCA and see in this trail, it probably would. Since that mathematical algorithm is effectively a component of a device that can be used to effectively circumvent access protection imposed by the owner of a copywritten work. And, if I recall correctly from my readings of summaries of the DMCA, such a component is effectively illegal.
Yes, but since there is no way you would be reasonably able to read that licence agreement before you broke the shrinkwrap, and for a bunch of other reasons, this would be post-sale disclosure of terms. Which is illegal. Not that that matters to the MPAA or the software industry, since they can just by a politician through campaign donations and get whatever they want, but its nice to know that if things worked right they wouldn't be allowed to do that.
The idea has to be so obvious that some random guy (optionally with a university education) working from his garage can think it up. At that point, it has to be so obvious its not worth a patent. Whereas, if a highly-paid team of opportun^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H corporate researchers can come up with it, then it must be worth a patent!
Yeesh... You Americans!;-)
(Note: The only serious thing in this post is this paragraph.)
Yes, it is, as a matter of fact. They did that to Quicktime and a couple of other multimedia/gaming applications. And they got seriously nailed for it. It wasn't actually something in a new release of the OS, even. IIRC, an update to a Microsoft utility altered some of the functionality of the OS in a way that broke these other programs to some degree or another.
Oh, and Jon, backwards-compatible means it does everything the previous version did as well as or better than the previous version. For an operating system, this means running all the software that didn't rely on a bug in the previous version.
Something like this had crossed my mind... Why would the box be hooked into the ISP's network? Wouldn't tapping the connection between the user and the ISP be much more efficient and legal? After all, then you ONLY have traffic going to or from the user, so you don't have to worry about filtering at all. And I'm sure that for pretty much any means of connecting to the internet, there's a way to monitor it by tapping the line between it and whats on the other end. Right?
Actually, given that the people paying for the bandwidth (you or the ISP) don't know that the incoming data is spam until they've actually received it, a better analogy might be: junk mail that has arrived "postage due." But the payment is automatically added to your bill the moment you see the envelope.
Although McDonalds probably does go with Coke because a good number of their competitors have some kind of business relationship with Pepsi. They don't want to be dependant on a company that has close ties with the place down the block.
I must say that Tetris is one of the most addictive games ever created. I start playing it on the infinity mode, and then an hour later I blink as my stack goes off the top of the screen and wonder how I got that many points.;-)
Yes, almost every single game published by Looking Glass Studios has been incredible. I doubt you'd be able to find many people who'd played their games and not liked them. Unfortunately, they went under because Eidos spent too much money on Ion Storm and Daikatana to help them out during a brief spot of trouble.
Another (fairly) recent game that is quite new and interesting is Independence War by Particle Systems. -RickHunter
Exactly. Right now, since the W2K machines are only handling 5-10% of the load, your chances of getting one are fairly small. And it'd be impossible to evaluate anyway unless you knew how many users (or whatever) a W2K machine was expected to serve.
When I read this comment, I almost laughed my head off. I think I'm beginning to see this Napster trial in a new light. Its being publicized as anti-authoritarian net users fighting the big bad corporate giant, or pirates stealing from the poor starving artists or whatever. But its really the software industry versus the music industry. And either side winning is a good thing. If the RIAA wins, it means that Napster's "click-wrap" licence was illegal and not binding, as the clause (effectively) saying Napster was not responsible did not apply. Which (IIRC) can then be used in any future case as an argument against the validity of a "click-wrap" licence. And if Napster wins, it will (hopefully) cause some serious review of the "extensions" to copyright law and attacks on fair use.
Although both also have their respective downsides...
I think that what he's saying is that maybe Mozilla should aim for something a little less ambitious for a first release. I agree that it does need a mail/news client for Communicator users (although I never use those myself, I know people who couldn't live without them). However, they should probably focus on solidifying the browser aspect of things now, and work on the platform bit later.
Note that this is just my thoughts based on what I've read, and I don't have much involvement with Mozilla development at all. Aside from about 2001 Win98 Talkback submissions.
Oh, please. That wait time could've been anything from high network traffic in your region to something intensive happening on one of the servers between you and Slashdot to system load on your own machine lagging your web browser. I know that mine seems a lot faster than that (Mozilla claims that my edit window opened in 3.02 seconds!). If you can find out how long Slashdot thinks it took to deliver your page and compare it with a W2K server delivering the same page, then you might have something.
Oh! Sorry if I wasn't clear. My point was that its a good thing to support EMusic, which does support the artist (if I remember the text of the post I was replying to correctly) because, in addition to that, they also support projects like FreeAmp.
Plus, IIRC, EMusic sponsors projects like FreeAmp, which is actually one of the best MP3 players I've ever used. The playlist interface is quite different from WinAmp, but nice when you get used to it. Try it out, you'll be surprised. And they're gradually adding features, too. I think the newest beta can do CD audio. And, just looking at the page, they're working on building Ogg Vorbis support in.
And that practice is technically illegal. Its something called (IIRC) post-sale disclosure. I'm doing this from memory, so someone corret me if I'm wrong.
Ok, you walk into a store and pick up a box of cereal. You head over to the counter and pay the clerk money. You head home with your cereal, which is now your property. Now replace "cereal" with "DVD player." According to the law, since consumers expect to actually be buying property not a licence, its illegal to claim that it was only a licence without clearly saying so. And putting it in small print on the side doesn't count.
Actually, I think it again comes down to individuals. I've heard quite a bit about judges who strike down legislation because it goes against the Bill of Rights. Not nearly as much as I've heard about judges that have enforced "illegal laws," but that just shows the kind of corruption you get, eh?
And even the ability to spread things over regions is already a moot point. How many DVD players are sold with big huge stickers on them saying "region coding disabled!"? And what percentage of DVD players sold are these, especially outside of America? I seem to recall seeing a mention somewhere that region coding is even illegal by international treaty or some such. (Can anyone confirm or deny this?)
Exactly! All the choices is one of the things I have liked when I've used Linux. Often, I don't really like the way one tool or another does things, so I can usually find one that I do like without too much trouble. While I've seen a lot of posts here criticizing the X idea of window managers, I actually like having that much control over my GUI.
Of course, not everyone does or is willing to take the time, which is why KDE is such a good thing. I didn't like KDE1.x a lot, but I'm going to try 2.x sometime soon, as I've heard some very good things about it.
IIRC, the mail & news part of Mozilla was donated, mostly complete, by a coder. Their time wasn't wasted spent writing it, it was wasted trying to turn a browser into a "cross-platform environment" of some kind. Which was just plain silly.
I do use Mozilla daily. On both this machine (600mhz & 128 megs RAM) and my older one (166mhz & 32 megs RAM). The older one has to run Aphrodite, but with that it runs just fine. Seriously, Aphrodite fixes a lot of the problems with Mozilla. And its a package, not a skin (IIRC), so it doesn't inherit a lot of the problems of the current interface.
Slashdot Mirror
IMHO, that is a much better idea. Having whatever is being viewed clearly visible to others is often quite a deterrent, especially when it comes to pr0n sites and the like. Especially when it comes to Junior High males, who will probably be held in mortal fear by the thought that the girl they've got a crush on could find out if they started viewing bad sites.
-RickHunter
Could this possibly be why they're doing this? Since they can (concievably) bind an artist by contract so that they effectively (if not in fact) own all rights to his/her music, and this then effectively gives them a longer copyright period...? Is that possible? Or legal?
Then again, given the historically artificially shortened lifetime of music stars, life+70 may indeed wind up to be less than 95 years...
-RickHunter
Hmm... LAIM...
So their next project is going to be the AOL Instant Newsreader. And the Linux port will be the Linux Aol Instant Newsreader, and will be the forfront of their attempt to defeat the god of the Wired and take over the communications network, while confusing viewers everywhere? Sounds good to me. ;-)
Note: If you didn't get this, you don't watch enough anime. Go watch more. Or you don't turn everything into an acronym to look for something funny. Read it again.
-RickHunter
I'm not sure. From what I've read of the DMCA and see in this trail, it probably would. Since that mathematical algorithm is effectively a component of a device that can be used to effectively circumvent access protection imposed by the owner of a copywritten work. And, if I recall correctly from my readings of summaries of the DMCA, such a component is effectively illegal.
-RickHunter
Yes, but since there is no way you would be reasonably able to read that licence agreement before you broke the shrinkwrap, and for a bunch of other reasons, this would be post-sale disclosure of terms. Which is illegal. Not that that matters to the MPAA or the software industry, since they can just by a politician through campaign donations and get whatever they want, but its nice to know that if things worked right they wouldn't be allowed to do that.
-RickHunter
Yes! A better title for this article would've been: "Lets Make Unix GUIs Not Suck."
-RickHunter
The idea has to be so obvious that some random guy (optionally with a university education) working from his garage can think it up. At that point, it has to be so obvious its not worth a patent. Whereas, if a highly-paid team of opportun^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H corporate researchers can come up with it, then it must be worth a patent!
Yeesh... You Americans! ;-)
(Note: The only serious thing in this post is this paragraph.)
-RickHunter
Yes, it is, as a matter of fact. They did that to Quicktime and a couple of other multimedia/gaming applications. And they got seriously nailed for it. It wasn't actually something in a new release of the OS, even. IIRC, an update to a Microsoft utility altered some of the functionality of the OS in a way that broke these other programs to some degree or another.
Oh, and Jon, backwards-compatible means it does everything the previous version did as well as or better than the previous version. For an operating system, this means running all the software that didn't rely on a bug in the previous version.
-RickHunter
Something like this had crossed my mind... Why would the box be hooked into the ISP's network? Wouldn't tapping the connection between the user and the ISP be much more efficient and legal? After all, then you ONLY have traffic going to or from the user, so you don't have to worry about filtering at all. And I'm sure that for pretty much any means of connecting to the internet, there's a way to monitor it by tapping the line between it and whats on the other end. Right?
-RickHunter
Actually, given that the people paying for the bandwidth (you or the ISP) don't know that the incoming data is spam until they've actually received it, a better analogy might be: junk mail that has arrived "postage due." But the payment is automatically added to your bill the moment you see the envelope.
-RickHunter
Although McDonalds probably does go with Coke because a good number of their competitors have some kind of business relationship with Pepsi. They don't want to be dependant on a company that has close ties with the place down the block.
-RickHunter
I must say that Tetris is one of the most addictive games ever created. I start playing it on the infinity mode, and then an hour later I blink as my stack goes off the top of the screen and wonder how I got that many points. ;-)
-RickHunter
Yes, almost every single game published by Looking Glass Studios has been incredible. I doubt you'd be able to find many people who'd played their games and not liked them. Unfortunately, they went under because Eidos spent too much money on Ion Storm and Daikatana to help them out during a brief spot of trouble.
Another (fairly) recent game that is quite new and interesting is Independence War by Particle Systems.
-RickHunter
Exactly. Right now, since the W2K machines are only handling 5-10% of the load, your chances of getting one are fairly small. And it'd be impossible to evaluate anyway unless you knew how many users (or whatever) a W2K machine was expected to serve.
-RickHunter
When I read this comment, I almost laughed my head off. I think I'm beginning to see this Napster trial in a new light. Its being publicized as anti-authoritarian net users fighting the big bad corporate giant, or pirates stealing from the poor starving artists or whatever. But its really the software industry versus the music industry. And either side winning is a good thing. If the RIAA wins, it means that Napster's "click-wrap" licence was illegal and not binding, as the clause (effectively) saying Napster was not responsible did not apply. Which (IIRC) can then be used in any future case as an argument against the validity of a "click-wrap" licence. And if Napster wins, it will (hopefully) cause some serious review of the "extensions" to copyright law and attacks on fair use.
Although both also have their respective downsides...
Thoughts, comments, criticizms, corrections?
-RickHunter
I think that what he's saying is that maybe Mozilla should aim for something a little less ambitious for a first release. I agree that it does need a mail/news client for Communicator users (although I never use those myself, I know people who couldn't live without them). However, they should probably focus on solidifying the browser aspect of things now, and work on the platform bit later.
Note that this is just my thoughts based on what I've read, and I don't have much involvement with Mozilla development at all. Aside from about 2001 Win98 Talkback submissions.
-RickHunter
Oh, please. That wait time could've been anything from high network traffic in your region to something intensive happening on one of the servers between you and Slashdot to system load on your own machine lagging your web browser. I know that mine seems a lot faster than that (Mozilla claims that my edit window opened in 3.02 seconds!). If you can find out how long Slashdot thinks it took to deliver your page and compare it with a W2K server delivering the same page, then you might have something.
-RickHunter
Oh! Sorry if I wasn't clear. My point was that its a good thing to support EMusic, which does support the artist (if I remember the text of the post I was replying to correctly) because, in addition to that, they also support projects like FreeAmp.
-RickHunter
Plus, IIRC, EMusic sponsors projects like FreeAmp, which is actually one of the best MP3 players I've ever used. The playlist interface is quite different from WinAmp, but nice when you get used to it. Try it out, you'll be surprised. And they're gradually adding features, too. I think the newest beta can do CD audio. And, just looking at the page, they're working on building Ogg Vorbis support in.
-RickHunter
And that practice is technically illegal. Its something called (IIRC) post-sale disclosure. I'm doing this from memory, so someone corret me if I'm wrong.
Ok, you walk into a store and pick up a box of cereal. You head over to the counter and pay the clerk money. You head home with your cereal, which is now your property. Now replace "cereal" with "DVD player." According to the law, since consumers expect to actually be buying property not a licence, its illegal to claim that it was only a licence without clearly saying so. And putting it in small print on the side doesn't count.
-RickHunter
Actually, I think it again comes down to individuals. I've heard quite a bit about judges who strike down legislation because it goes against the Bill of Rights. Not nearly as much as I've heard about judges that have enforced "illegal laws," but that just shows the kind of corruption you get, eh?
-RickHunter
And even the ability to spread things over regions is already a moot point. How many DVD players are sold with big huge stickers on them saying "region coding disabled!"? And what percentage of DVD players sold are these, especially outside of America? I seem to recall seeing a mention somewhere that region coding is even illegal by international treaty or some such. (Can anyone confirm or deny this?)
-RickHunter
Exactly! All the choices is one of the things I have liked when I've used Linux. Often, I don't really like the way one tool or another does things, so I can usually find one that I do like without too much trouble. While I've seen a lot of posts here criticizing the X idea of window managers, I actually like having that much control over my GUI.
Of course, not everyone does or is willing to take the time, which is why KDE is such a good thing. I didn't like KDE1.x a lot, but I'm going to try 2.x sometime soon, as I've heard some very good things about it.
-RickHunter
IIRC, the mail & news part of Mozilla was donated, mostly complete, by a coder. Their time wasn't wasted spent writing it, it was wasted trying to turn a browser into a "cross-platform environment" of some kind. Which was just plain silly.
-RickHunter
I do use Mozilla daily. On both this machine (600mhz & 128 megs RAM) and my older one (166mhz & 32 megs RAM). The older one has to run Aphrodite, but with that it runs just fine. Seriously, Aphrodite fixes a lot of the problems with Mozilla. And its a package, not a skin (IIRC), so it doesn't inherit a lot of the problems of the current interface.
-RickHunter