So basically, when you use GPLed code, you have to agree to anything that gets put in there or risk losing the right to use that code? What if the code is deeply integrated into your system and then a new version of GPL comes along with stipulations you do not agree to?
No, no one would use F/OSS software (e.g. version 4 of GPL says all profits from sales/use of the code must be donated to SaveTheRainforest or somesuch) if that was the case. When GPL3 (or GPL[X>2]) comes out, the individual companies who have encorporated the code into their codebase get to choose which version of the GPL to use. So MS can be bound by version 2, or (at their option) any later version.
However, the latest versions of the code they are using might be GPL3, meaning that they cannot merge in changes from the trunk onto their fork.
No, claim 75 is a dependent claim. So basically what they are saying is "even if you think our S3 system itself isn't patentable, we want to patent the idea of using SOAP in it." So it's more analogous to patenting the double-linked list (where's that link), and in addition, patenting the use of a double-linked list in C++.
So, do you favor passing the costs of pollution on to those same over the road trucking companies, minimizing the externalities and causing them to realize the entire cost of their operation? Because, unless you do, how can the free market make a decision in this case?
And as an added plus, if you read "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman," you'll learn how he patented all three examples in your point c: "c) We'll have nuclear power in everything from planes and ships to cars.", and then sold the patents for a dollar apiece. Which, considering it only took him ~10 seconds a piece to patent, was a good salary in the 1940's.
That's why the video card has a seperate procesor (actually, many parrellized ones). The CPU cost is probably less than before because instead of the CPU filling pixels (like in WinXP), it tells the graphics card to do so.
I believe that in a few years to come, Sony's product will be superior in hardware, making it extremely difficult for developers to produce 'up to date' graphics on other systems. From a developers point of view, knowing that every console has a 60 gig hard drive at your disposal, makes it hard to turn away. You will slowly notice a gap in functionality with the systems and the one that's more versatile shall conquer.
If true, it just means Sony's PS3 will remain an expensive 360 alternative. No one is going to write two engines, so there is an incredible 1st mover advantage. Because, by making the 360 crowd impossible to ignore, MS has guaranteed that all games will be written to work on both, which means taking no advantage of the 5 cores (yes there are 7 (the 8th was cut for cost reasons), but two are reserved), because it needs to run on teh three core 360 as well. Which is why I'm glad I banked on a 360 and a Wii
I read the whole post before replying. Before writing this, I read it again.
The first point you make is just wrong. Speed of development is an important consideration. If you could write with Notepad and get only a slight userbase advantage, it's not worth it. Never underestimate what businesses are willing to sacrifice as far as features/market in a shortsighted effort to cut costs.
The last point you made is that it is harder to deploy to Windows because Java is the only cross-platform language. Three things. First, Windows is very easy to deploy to. All you have to do is write the software natively. The problem is when you try to port it to *nix. Second, you left Flash out. I've produced some desktop applications in Flash, and it runs very well, even though the code is extremely hard to read/maintain. Third is that I question the non-development costs associated with Java on Windows. I don't think I've ever seen a Java program where a superior version wasn't compiled as a Windows binary. For some reason, the GUI just feels more responsive.
This is a part of the issue, but keep in mind that most commercial software houses are going to target the biggest userbase they can. Even if they have to use Notepad to write the software.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's not how businesses work. If the cost of writing software that works on Linux/OSX is higher than the possible profit, no one will do it. Because, userbase is nothing, dollars are everthing. But more specifically, if I can write 5 programs that target 85%(?) of users in the same time you can write 4 programs that target 100% of users, I win (assuming all programs are bought by the same % of users.)
All my development work is Windows-only because I don't have the time to learn another way of doing things, and being locked into Windows/DirectX makes it too damn convinent to change.
If one credit card is a normal credit card, and the other is "uber-safe for online purchases", which one do you think the average person is going to use, and run up huge debts, with?
Thank you sir. I had been hoping for both +5 Funny and someone to point me in the direction of a good PDF reader. I suppose getting 1/2 of what you want is good enough.
The person is NewYorkCountryLawyer. Therefore, I think he expects people who think the RIAA's tactics are horrible to give him technical arguements he may use.
Now, given the prevaling sttitude on slashdot about the compensation accorded all intellectual property, I don't think I'm alone in saying my technical expertise is for sale only. Please paypal $$ to my account for me to comment on this story.
Someone grab a dynamo, cause Ford is spinning in his grave.
One of the primary reasons Ford pardoned Nixon is because the president can only pardon the guilty. Nixon accepting the pardon was an admission of guilt. It was Ford's ineptitude in explaining this point that his popularity dropped from the 70's/80's and he lost.
In fact the only thing a pardon is useful for is avoiding legal consequences, officially that is. It can also be used socially/politically to indicate that the President feels someone's conviction was unfair.
All prices in a free-market are the result of a compromise between producer and consumer, neither side gets free-reign to set the price.
I call bull. In the case of a monopoly or cartel, the price is solely set by the producer(s) at the profit maximizing point. Granted, the demand will determine this point, but there is no compromise to speak of.
In the case of a monopsony, there is a single consumer that likewise sets the price, take it or leave it.
How was parent modded Informative? Read the wikipedia article he references. The bank has a stack of IOUs (from borrowers to it) a stack of IOUs (from it to depositors) and a stack of singles. Notice how the IOUs from the borrowers plus the stack of singles always equals (in this example) the stack of IOUs that the bank owes? This is because their assets (IOUs from the creditors and I'm folding cash in as well) balance their liabilities.
They are forced to have a certain percentage of the money they owe in their pocket so to speak, that is, as a cash reserve. This percentage is the reserve ratio.
So in other words, the banks take money from me, and instead of just putting it in the vault and then giving me more money later, they loan it to someone else (and charge them interest). They do this for many many people. So while we cannot all get our money at the same time (the proverbial "run on the bank") we can get our money back.
If you watch "It's a Wonderful Life" they have this scene where a banker has to explain this to someone.
And now, in a shameless appeal to authority, I've got to put on my 21st hat and deal with my company's books.
This is what happens as projects get bigger. It's not that they lose the "will to code", it's that they spend all their time as managers of other coders. There's more to developing a large codebase than writing the code after all.
Yes, sarcasm aside, the author listed anything where Microsoft could harvest your IP address due to connecting over the Internet. He's not shy about it either (FTFA): "... all they really need is your IP address."
Slashdot Mirror
No, no one would use F/OSS software (e.g. version 4 of GPL says all profits from sales/use of the code must be donated to SaveTheRainforest or somesuch) if that was the case. When GPL3 (or GPL[X>2]) comes out, the individual companies who have encorporated the code into their codebase get to choose which version of the GPL to use. So MS can be bound by version 2, or (at their option) any later version.
However, the latest versions of the code they are using might be GPL3, meaning that they cannot merge in changes from the trunk onto their fork.
No, claim 75 is a dependent claim. So basically what they are saying is "even if you think our S3 system itself isn't patentable, we want to patent the idea of using SOAP in it." So it's more analogous to patenting the double-linked list (where's that link), and in addition, patenting the use of a double-linked list in C++.
Yes, but the police are only allowed to send the tapes that don't feature BSDM to their buddies over the internet.
Actually, a British soap opera unbalances a balanced mind. Hence the concern for triggering minds once they are unbalanced.
How cool is it that in Britain, pornography related offenses have a fine of XXX (30) pounds?
So, do you favor passing the costs of pollution on to those same over the road trucking companies, minimizing the externalities and causing them to realize the entire cost of their operation? Because, unless you do, how can the free market make a decision in this case?
And as an added plus, if you read "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman," you'll learn how he patented all three examples in your point c: "c) We'll have nuclear power in everything from planes and ships to cars.", and then sold the patents for a dollar apiece. Which, considering it only took him ~10 seconds a piece to patent, was a good salary in the 1940's.
If you are a dual national you can indeed lose your American citizenship.
Ummm... how?
Also, to grandparent, great-grandparent seems to mean "kicked out of the program" not "deported from the US".
That's why the video card has a seperate procesor (actually, many parrellized ones). The CPU cost is probably less than before because instead of the CPU filling pixels (like in WinXP), it tells the graphics card to do so.
Much like the USPS, the patent office is a money-maker for the federal government. Their fees more than offset their expenses.
I can tell you that it also searches foreign patents, from personal experience.
Q: How do you know if a southern woman is a virgin?
A: Can she outrun her brothers?
I believe that in a few years to come, Sony's product will be superior in hardware, making it extremely difficult for developers to produce 'up to date' graphics on other systems. From a developers point of view, knowing that every console has a 60 gig hard drive at your disposal, makes it hard to turn away. You will slowly notice a gap in functionality with the systems and the one that's more versatile shall conquer.
If true, it just means Sony's PS3 will remain an expensive 360 alternative. No one is going to write two engines, so there is an incredible 1st mover advantage. Because, by making the 360 crowd impossible to ignore, MS has guaranteed that all games will be written to work on both, which means taking no advantage of the 5 cores (yes there are 7 (the 8th was cut for cost reasons), but two are reserved), because it needs to run on teh three core 360 as well. Which is why I'm glad I banked on a 360 and a Wii
I read the whole post before replying. Before writing this, I read it again.
The first point you make is just wrong. Speed of development is an important consideration. If you could write with Notepad and get only a slight userbase advantage, it's not worth it. Never underestimate what businesses are willing to sacrifice as far as features/market in a shortsighted effort to cut costs.
The last point you made is that it is harder to deploy to Windows because Java is the only cross-platform language. Three things. First, Windows is very easy to deploy to. All you have to do is write the software natively. The problem is when you try to port it to *nix. Second, you left Flash out. I've produced some desktop applications in Flash, and it runs very well, even though the code is extremely hard to read/maintain. Third is that I question the non-development costs associated with Java on Windows. I don't think I've ever seen a Java program where a superior version wasn't compiled as a Windows binary. For some reason, the GUI just feels more responsive.
This is a part of the issue, but keep in mind that most commercial software houses are going to target the biggest userbase they can. Even if they have to use Notepad to write the software.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's not how businesses work. If the cost of writing software that works on Linux/OSX is higher than the possible profit, no one will do it. Because, userbase is nothing, dollars are everthing. But more specifically, if I can write 5 programs that target 85%(?) of users in the same time you can write 4 programs that target 100% of users, I win (assuming all programs are bought by the same % of users.)
All my development work is Windows-only because I don't have the time to learn another way of doing things, and being locked into Windows/DirectX makes it too damn convinent to change.
If one credit card is a normal credit card, and the other is "uber-safe for online purchases", which one do you think the average person is going to use, and run up huge debts, with?
You should be surprised that even after downscaling to DVD resolution the HD-DVD images are still obviously better.
DVD compression (MPEG2) uses 16-pixel blocks. So, I would expect HD-DVD's to be about 4 or 16 times higher resolution.
Thank you sir. I had been hoping for both +5 Funny and someone to point me in the direction of a good PDF reader. I suppose getting 1/2 of what you want is good enough.
PDFs ruined the web. They eat up 800% of my system resources, and my machine can even run Vista without a problem!
The person is NewYorkCountryLawyer. Therefore, I think he expects people who think the RIAA's tactics are horrible to give him technical arguements he may use.
Now, given the prevaling sttitude on slashdot about the compensation accorded all intellectual property, I don't think I'm alone in saying my technical expertise is for sale only. Please paypal $$ to my account for me to comment on this story.
Someone grab a dynamo, cause Ford is spinning in his grave.
One of the primary reasons Ford pardoned Nixon is because the president can only pardon the guilty. Nixon accepting the pardon was an admission of guilt. It was Ford's ineptitude in explaining this point that his popularity dropped from the 70's/80's and he lost.
In fact the only thing a pardon is useful for is avoiding legal consequences, officially that is. It can also be used socially/politically to indicate that the President feels someone's conviction was unfair.
All prices in a free-market are the result of a compromise between producer and consumer, neither side gets free-reign to set the price.
I call bull. In the case of a monopoly or cartel, the price is solely set by the producer(s) at the profit maximizing point. Granted, the demand will determine this point, but there is no compromise to speak of.
In the case of a monopsony, there is a single consumer that likewise sets the price, take it or leave it.
Now, when it comes to used cars, that's true.
How was parent modded Informative? Read the wikipedia article he references. The bank has a stack of IOUs (from borrowers to it) a stack of IOUs (from it to depositors) and a stack of singles. Notice how the IOUs from the borrowers plus the stack of singles always equals (in this example) the stack of IOUs that the bank owes? This is because their assets (IOUs from the creditors and I'm folding cash in as well) balance their liabilities.
They are forced to have a certain percentage of the money they owe in their pocket so to speak, that is, as a cash reserve. This percentage is the reserve ratio.
So in other words, the banks take money from me, and instead of just putting it in the vault and then giving me more money later, they loan it to someone else (and charge them interest). They do this for many many people. So while we cannot all get our money at the same time (the proverbial "run on the bank") we can get our money back.
If you watch "It's a Wonderful Life" they have this scene where a banker has to explain this to someone.
And now, in a shameless appeal to authority, I've got to put on my 21st hat and deal with my company's books.
This is what happens as projects get bigger. It's not that they lose the "will to code", it's that they spend all their time as managers of other coders. There's more to developing a large codebase than writing the code after all.
Yes, sarcasm aside, the author listed anything where Microsoft could harvest your IP address due to connecting over the Internet. He's not shy about it either (FTFA): "... all they really need is your IP address."