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User: soulsteal

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Comments · 496

  1. Re:Well.. on 2.5 Years in Jail for Planting 'Logic Bomb' · · Score: 4, Funny

    I am a post office system administrator. Double power!

    More like quad damage!

  2. New plan for border agents... on US Courts Consider Legality of Laptop Inspection · · Score: 4, Funny

    Folder on desktop named "Kiddie pics?" Check.

    Thousands of JPGs within? Check.

    All JPGs are hello.jpg? Checkmate.

  3. Re:A fine theory on the imaginations of rats on Dreams Actually Virtual Reality Threat Simulation? · · Score: 1

    [W]hat is going on in my human head when I dream of dead loved ones? What does that prepare me for?

    Surely you've seen enough zombie movies to know what you're trying to tell yourself....

  4. But wait! on 30 Years of LucasFilm Staff Christmas Cards · · Score: 3, Funny

    Knowing George Lucas, he'll be remailing the same Christmas cards 20 years later after they've been reworked to show his original vision....

  5. Re:That's nothing. on What's New in Blade Runner - The Final Cut? · · Score: 2, Funny

    You blasphemous motherfucker, take it back!

    Best. Porn title. Ever.

  6. Re:If you want a good laugh, go into repair on Unusual Data Disaster Horror Stories · · Score: 2, Funny

    They didn't happen to have the story about a moose biting my sister's hard drive did they? Moose bites can be pretty nasty....

  7. Re:Ahem, from the terms of use: on The New Facebook Ads - Another Privacy Debacle? · · Score: 1

    According to what you pasted you could sue them if they continued to use your image after you pulled it from Facebook. They reserve the right to keep archives, but the license granted by making the image available expirse as soon as the user removes it.

    This could get hairy if the ads are kept statically somewhere.

  8. Re:God bless the summaries... on Samsung Unveils 64-Gbit Flash Memory Chip · · Score: 1

    Maybe they're going with the scene-standard 2CD release size of 1400MB.

  9. Re:He compares it to a phone call.... on Comcast Admits Delaying, Not Blocking, P2P Traffic · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    What is this "gym?" Could you please phrase this in a car analogy, preferably one involving pizza?

  10. Re:Google News question on FBI Coerced Confession Deemed "Classified" · · Score: 1

    They had to re-adjust the tinfoil lining around the story.

  11. Re:What Happened To Michael? on History of Slashdot Part 3- Going Corporate · · Score: 4, Informative

    He fell victim to a hybrid petrified-Natalie-Portman/grits avalanche set off by the flapping wings of a solitary penis bird halfway around the globe.

    Thanks chaos theory!

  12. Re:I have CTS on Does Computer Use Actually Cause Carpal Tunnel? · · Score: 2, Funny

    CTS is typically caused by being predisposed to it in the first place.

    I agree whole-heartedly. It has always been my line of thinking that your chances of having Carpal Tunnel Syndrome are greatly increased by having Carpal Tunnels.

  13. Re:If they get through with this .... on Canadian Mint Claims Rights To Words "One Cent" · · Score: 1

    Perhaps they can make micropayments of approximately $0.26

  14. Re:Truecrypt on UK Government Can Demand You Hand Over Encryption Keys · · Score: 2, Funny

    Of course, if you admit or in other ways make it provable that there exist an inner volume then all bets are off ;-)

    My God, it's brilliant. A matryoshka-doll-like layered encryption scheme full of porn!

  15. Re:It is important to our cause to give publicity on Jack Thompson Sets His Sights On Halo 3 · · Score: 1

    Shenanigans...

  16. Re:Pennies on Judge Says, Record DNA of Everyone In the UK · · Score: 4, Funny

    I keep my penis in circulation for the precise reason of DNA recording, otherwise- oh wait, you said pennies. PENNIES. Ah, nevermind.

  17. Re:Hmm... on Australian ISPs Reject Calls To Police Their Users · · Score: 3, Funny

    The dubbing wasn't the delay. Rewriting the script so that all the guys are named Bruce? That takes FOREVER!

  18. Re:I am confussed on Antigua May Be Allowed To Violate US Copyrights · · Score: 1

    Gambling was banned because it is Wrong and Evil.© Oh, and the govt. wasn't making any money either.

  19. Re:Revolution on Security Threat In the New Wiretapping Law · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    -1 Redundant :-P

  20. Re:I'd let her extend MY superfactorial! on Winnie Wrote a Math Book · · Score: 1

    There we were, going at it hard. I was deriving her real good from behind when I slipped out and accidentally divided by zero.

    She was so pissed...

  21. Re:Most inappropriate use of the word "inappropria on SAP Admits to 'Inappropriate' Downloading of Oracle Code · · Score: 1

    And, most importantly, what color are their berets?

    Why, any color you want them to be!

  22. Wrong Article on Jury Rules That H.264 is Not Patented · · Score: 4, Informative

    Article linked is yesterday's announcement that it's going to the Jury. Here's the link and text of the right article:

    Broadcom sees win for 'H.264' industry
    By Kathryn Balint and David Washburn
    UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

    January 27, 2007

    After just six hours of deliberating, a federal jury found yesterday that chip maker Broadcom did not infringe on two patents held by San Diego-based Qualcomm and determined in two advisory votes that Qualcomm had withheld key information from a standards-making body and the patent office.

    Union-Tribune file photo
    San Diego-based Qualcomm lost a round in federal court yesterday against Southern California chip-making rival Broadcom.
    Qualcomm, which accused Irvine-based Broadcom of infringing on two video-compression patents, was seeking $8.3 million in damages for one of the patents. It did not seek any damages for the other patent.

    The San Diego jury's unanimous decision is a win for manufacturers that comply with the same video-compression standard as that used by Broadcom.

    Qualcomm had argued that one of the two patents at issue was incorporated into the H.264 industry standard used in millions of consumer devices, such as high-definition DVD players and Apple video iPods.

    "We're grateful for the jury's verdict - a resounding victory for Broadcom," said David Rosmann, vice president of intellectual property litigation for the company. "This is a victory not just for Broadcom, but for the entire H.264 industry."

    Qualcomm had little to lose in the case but everything to win.

    Advertisement
    If it had prevailed in its patent-infringement claims, it potentially could have asked courts to ban products that used the industry standard or sought royalty payments from their manufacturers.

    Yesterday's decision does not affect Qualcomm's core business of licensing cell phone technology.

    A loss for Broadcom, however, could have resulted in the ban of some of its chips and could have cost the company possibly hundreds of millions of dollars in future royalty payments.

    The U.S. District Court case was just one of seven lawsuits between the two companies scheduled for trial this year.

    "There certainly was a significant upside potential for us, but it was all upside, no downside," said Qualcomm executive vice president and general counsel Lou Lupin. "For Broadcom, it was all downside, no upside. It probably won't have any impact on us one way or the other. It's just the latest round in a series of battles."

    The speed with which the nine-member jury returned the verdict was stunning, particularly for a case that involved more than 40 hours of testimony and evidence akin to a graduate-level college course on video compression.

    Jury foreman David Ingraham, a Carmel Valley resident and retired vice president of finance and planning for McGraw-Hill, said the quick verdict came about because each jury member entered deliberations with a strong understanding of the evidence.

    "I'm not going to say we were all electrical engineers, because we aren't," Ingraham said. "But people listened carefully to the testimony and took good notes - and it came down overwhelmingly on one side."

    The jury did find that the two Qualcomm patents in question in the case were valid, a loss to Broadcom, which had argued otherwise.

    One of the biggest blows to Qualcomm came in the form of advisory votes, sought by the judge, in which the jury questioned Qualcomm's integrity.

    In one advisory vote, the jury found "clear and convincing evidence" that Qualcomm had withheld previous scientific studies on video-compression from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office when applying for one of the patents in question. The jury's advisory vote said that the patent is "unenforceable due to Qualcomm's inequitable conduct in the patent application process."

    In the second advisory vote, the jury found that Q

  23. Text of TFA - Slashdotted on Vista vs. Cairo - A Microsoft History Lesson · · Score: 3

    1990-1995: Microsoft's Yellow Road to Cairo
    Along with Ashton-Tate and Lotus Development, Microsoft was considered one of the Big Three software developers of the 80s. Apple courted all three to develop software for its new Macintosh.

    Ashton-Tate managed to run itself out of business, and Lotus was eventually bought up by IBM in 1995, leaving Microsoft as one of the largest and most influential developers of desktop applications.

    Microsoft's position as a vendor for both DOS and office applications gave it certain advantages over its rivals, particularly when Windows 95 appeared and obsolesced not just previous versions of DOS and Windows, but also competing developers' existing applications, including DOS standards WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3.

    Rapid advancements in technology created a wildly chaotic market, where simple announcements of future plans could trump real products. Given the prevalence of misinformation wars in the tech industry, it's no surprise that Microsoft applied its vast market power to become one of the most notorious sources of FUD and vaporware.

    Innovations in Vaporware
    Previous articles have considered Microsoft's vaporware attacks on QuickTime and the Newton and PenPoint OS.

    While many companies in the competitive tech field announced products they were ultimately unable to deliver, Microsoft applied an innovative, two handed approach to playing the vaporware game.

    Rather than just bluffing its hand like other companies, Microsoft played the game with a set of cards in one hand, while waving the illusion of another set of cards in the other hand. The fake set of cards were highly distracting because they looked like a much better hand than anyone else could possibly have.

    Standing around the card table were a number of analysts who all expressed how impressed they were by the cards Microsoft waved in the air, and made regular remarks about how foolish it would be for anyone else to stay in the game. The worst part was that many of those analysts could see Microsoft's real hand, and knew the company was bluffing.

    Microsoft's NT Plans Prior to Cairo
    In 1991, Apple was releasing the Mac System 7 and Tim Berners-Lee was using his NeXT to build the world's first web server and browser.

    PCs were still using the character based DOS in a slightly faster version than was released a decade earlier in 1981, although Windows 3.0 was beginning to provide DOS PC users with a rough approximation of Apple's graphical desktop.

    After witnessing sales of Windows 3.0 take off, Microsoft began its schism with IBM over OS/2 3.0 development. Microsoft's new plan involved an entirely new operating system based on its contributions to OS/2; the new OS was referred to as Windows NT.

    Unlike the existing DOS based Windows 3.0, NT aimed at being entirely new and modern in every respect, untied to DOS or to the existing x86 PC architecture.

    Microsoft initially targeted NT to run on the i860, Intel's new 64-bit RISC processor that was supposed to usher in the future. The i860 was a modern design and carried none of the legacy baggage of the standard x86 based PC.

    It included graphics acceleration features similar in principle to the forthcoming PowerPC Altivec and Pentium MMX; those features resulted in the i860 being used by NeXT to power its high end NeXTDimension video card.

    Unfortunately, the i860 didn't work out for Microsoft. All that remained from its efforts to build a new operating system based on the processor was the i860's code name: N10, which is widely repeated to be the meaning of NT. Of course, Microsoft and IBM had also long referred to OS/2 3.0 as "NT," for new technology, so the idea behind the i860 as the source of NT's name might be historical revisionism.

    No Operating System Experience
    Microsoft struggled with the complex reality of building its own operating system without IBM. Up to that point, Microsoft had only been delivering tepid updates to MS-DOS, which it had licensed from a small

  24. Simple, yet Elegant on Better Ways to Handle User Conflicts? · · Score: 2, Funny

    Thunderdome!

  25. Re:New technology for prisons? on BitTorrent Site Admin Sent To Prison · · Score: 1

    I'd hate to be the tracker on that one. :(

    "Hey Butch, I see you're in need of some hashes. I see Bob's got an open port, go talk to him."