I used to be all "kill amazon.com" and "patents are stupid" until i read Jeff Beezos' answer to all the patent gunk going around.
Jeff explained how the amazon.com patent was not just "one click shopping", but rather it was a patent of the whole look and feel of amazon's website (which i have to admit, B&N was copying rather closely).
In addition, Jeff did say that he felt internet patents should carry different weight than "regular" patents - and be of much shorter length - he sugested 1-2 years, if i remember correctly, which is enough time for a company to establish themselves as the sole user of this software and to get their name associated with whatever it is they patent. And then considering the growth of the internet (3000% on the www from 92-96) 1-2 years is plenty of time for the patent, when it runs out, its fair game. Jeff noted that this fair game scenario is what has kept the internet growth what it is.
Jeff also (much to my delight) endorsed the cluetrain manifesto, which is something all business should get a hold of and read.
All this is to say that this USC thing is a move in the right direction, and probably has the support of the "enemy" in the case - amazon.com.
Completely unrelated - sign up with W.A.V.E. america and get a free mail.waveamerica.com email address - here and sorry - i already took trenchcoatmafia@waveamerica.com ~zero God what a stupid login name - i should get a new one, but it'll be 6 months till I moderate again.
http://www.waveamerica.com/scripts/signup/TeenSign up.asp yep that's it right there, go and grab your very own @waveamerica.com email addy I hate to dissapoint you, but i already took trenchcoatmafia@waveamerica.com solly! God what a stupid login name - i should get a new one, but it'll be 6 months till I moderate again.
If I keep bringing up undernet, its cause I spend so much time on there than I should but.. The case for Napster is so similar to IRC that it could be the same case. The legal issues faq explains all, but in short the idea is this:
The undernet cannot be sued for people transfering kiddie porn in the same way that napster cannot be sued for transfering illegal mp3's.
The files never actually go across napster equipment, in the same way that IRC uses DCC, or direct client to client sends, using ctcp, client to client protocol. Its a straight IP to IP connection - and there is a legal precident for it. Napster wins.
I don't advocate illegal MP3's, but I think people should be aware of facts, and while this seems like a "loophole", This quote seems to sum it up: I send a letter to a friend over postal mail. In the mail, i say "I have a package for you. I'll send it via fedex". I then send him a kiddie porn video. Is the postal office criminally negligent for allowing the transmission of child pornography? Or say for example, criminal activity occurs on Greyhound bus lines, without their knowledge. Would the bus company and the driver be responsible (or said to "support" such activity)? How much more then can an irc network or administrator be liable? -from undernet legal issue faq.
Heh, i work at best buy, and our CD's are very competatively priced. I know for a fact that we only make $1 on average on a CD. And that's nothing... That means for every CD that gets stolen from our store, we have to sell 12 before we even _break even_! The money is there, it all goes to the reccord companys, the stores see jack.
I am sorry, but this is a pet peeve: People that start out a conversation by saying, "And now, the man that needs no introduction" ... and then they introduce him. ah well ~zero Get your copy of DeCSS at my site - just don't tell the government where you got it.
Seriously, someone hire some new moderators.
I browse at +1 threshold, and I recently had the pleasure of seeing a post about a "donkey punch" which I had no interest in or desire to see. I also noticed that said comment was marked as "Interesting". Not to me, buddy. Also the natalie.portman@home comment is "interesting". Someone needs to seriously look at the moderators, and that would help alot of the problems on/. Until then, I'll just browse at 4.
Go ahead and moderate me down, and off topic... it would be fitting. ~Zero
The point was *not* that it decreased the performance, insomuch is it was that someone put it on public university use computers. To use a computer that is not yours (and I seriously doubt that the University asked for it to be run on 400 of their computers) in order to accomplish a task that is meant to be run in *your* spare cycles, to me, seems wrong. There was not much performance decrease. The issue is that someone put it there without asking a higher up admin, and it is against the "Acceptable Computer Use Policy". And it bugs me. Call me wierd or paranoid. Plus, running their processors ar 99% 24/7 is going to burn the already taxed processors. I think most of the computers are old, but at least a few are new. Over heating the processor dosen't seem like the best of ideas. And to be even more anal, your tax dollars plus my tuition pay for these computers. ~zero
I agree - i have run it on mine, and it dosen't suck enough power to really bunch my shorts up, but the computer lab is running 166 workstations with 16 meg of ram. And they have 29 (you read that right, 29) processes running in NT, counting RC5 and seti. I remember on the NT server i set up, i had it down to 8 processes; this is a workstation. just throwing more of my 2 cents worth in. ~zero
However... The other day, i was in a computer lab at the college where i attend, and in the (ctl-alt-del) task manager in NT, i noticed one of the process was RC-5 and another was seti@home. I can't kill the process, not in five minutes anyway, without admin access and on a guest account... meaning someone with admin access put it on, its using 90% of my processor cycles, and i don't want it on my computer lab station. I move to a different station. Its there too. Well. This is sure legal. Some bright kid with SysAdmin access put the programs on there. There are like 400 Computers in this room.
Seti is a great Idea. unfortunately, things like it and RC-5 always make a following that they don't need and that no one wants. If you want to make your processor run hot, go ahead. Don't put it near me.
What do you mean, I can't initialize things in an assert?" ~zero
Well, if Napster is taking up 5% of the bandwidth, lets outlaw it. (5 days later) You know, come to think of it, internet explorer and netscape navigator are taking up 80% of bandwidth - lets ban them too, that way, we can save more money, and **never** upgrade our single T-1 connection. That's all these 22,000 college students need, right?
Given napster's makeup, couldn't you just write another one, or use this one, and switch the port? I mean if napster is on port X, then switch to pory 90, 73, 371298.... I support musicians, and i buy CD's, but jeez! one, you can't ban it, cause it will mutatetwo, it is perfectly legal (so far)upgrade your network - i go to virginia tech, most wired small town in the US, we have an OC-3, dual t3's, 3 sets of dual t1's for backup. why is it i only get 15-20 K/s?
from what i understand, most of ID's stuff runs nicely on voodoo cards. I have a voodoo3 3000, and i really enjoy it. there seem to be voodoo drivers on id's website before most others, and they tend to be stable. The lokisoft version of Q3A is supposed to shipp with voodoo 2|3 drivers for sure and some other ones, those i am not familiar with. But i can say, once finding drivers on freshmeat.net, my XFree looks great: 32 bit color, 24 bit depth, 1024X768 and i am an ametur linux user, more or less a wannabe (hey, you gotta start somewhere, im learnin'). My vote is for voodoo. its always made me happy.
From Metallica Guitar player James Hetfied's AOL interview, April 97: MetalKaryn: What qualities do you look for in a girlfriend? JAYMS: A volume knob. ~zero
Let me tell you something about hippies: I am 18 years old. Im not a hippie. i don't buy in to the BS about the romanticism of the 60's. I know i wasn't there, my mom wasn't even there, but this whole idea of "hippies" in the 90's is really stupid. This is a stupid idea. A DOS attack is illegal. Ask anyone in #zt. And these people aren't hippies. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll! Tell me where internet fits into that. This is just advertisement by name association. Put the word "hippie" here and people will think its "cute" and "retro" Hippies to me seem the kind of people who go backpacking and pick flowers, not write java web pages to do DOS attacks for their own personal benifit.
As for real hippies, sex drugs and rock and roll is now safe sex, no drugs, and hell, rock is as commercial as it gets now. These people went from free love to abstenince and from "do your own thing" to "just say no!". They've sold out. So don't clutter up my screen with 60's romanticism and internet in the same sentance. So, if you want to be a hippie, go hug a tree, and if you want to attack the WTO, bomb the building, but get out of the way of us who have grown up. Even if we are younger. ~Zero
Myself, I am only 18, was born in [gasp] the 80s and still get choked up when i read one of those cheezy "children of the 80's emails... and I remember a few things... [cue flashback]
I remember when the popular memphis BBS "the mongoose's shadow" (later "shadowscape") was about the only one in town with >1 node, so you could talk to ppl online, which was the coolest thing since sliced bread.
update: i recently heard a rumor that said BBS was run by
901.org, the local "hacker" community... hmmm...
I remember BBS's that were optimized to be seen on my Apple IIgs, with a 2400 modem. I'm sure some of the old fogies reading this will say "In my day, 2400 was lightining!" but remember, hell, when the 2400 was the thing, i was about 11!
I remember "modem speed wars", when the BBS would log the transfer rate and you would try to compete for the fastest transfer rate at a speed, say 14,400, and you could mess with different ADTD &blahblahblah codes or try X,Y,Z modem protocols to try to get fastest rate.
I remember LORD!!!! I'm sorry, but that was like the definitave door for me. Legends of the red dragon. I was playing that before Dragon Warrior hit for the NES. Yep. Remember you could take the chick (read: prostitute) in the bar "upstairs" if you charmed her for days in a row? Yeah, that was fun.
Anyway, just the musings of some punk lamer kid that has been in the scene since jr high.
~zero From the "brings-back-memories-of-a-time-long-gone" dept
Posted as anonymous coward right above this comment was:
>>>> Another loser attempt to justify stealing. Theft is a crime no matter what lame face you try to put on it. You think you're justified in stealing the game simply because the Linux version will be released later? What a great example you're setting for the Linux community and a great message for manufacturers "give me what I want or I'll steal it". >>>>
This is rediculous. This is from the same group of people who don't read online newspapers when they could buy them because "its immoral".
First, how many of us honestly haven't borrowed a game from a friend to see if we like it? I did this with warcraft1,2 quake1,2 mechwarrior2,3, and mercenaries, half life, and i now own legit copies of all these games. Seccond, if I borrow my friend's copy of WinQuake3 and burn it, yet in three weeks go out and buy my own copy of LinuxQuake3, what has anyone lost? id has lost nothing - they still got my money, I lost a CD-R, seeing as how I will never use it again, my friend lost a few hours of having his game while I burn a copy. This isn't saying "give me what I want or i'll steal it", its saying hey, I'm going to improvise until the version I want comes out, because, hey I would rather support linux than Billy G., but until then, I'm going to chill with my friend's copy. Every one wins in this situation. id has lost nothing, retailers have lost nothing, linux users have to boot in windows (arrgh) for a few hours, but have lost no time when they weren't on the top of the "Latest in gaming software". Everyone's happy. And your outcry won't make a difference, cause this is what's going to happen anyway. So chill and go with the flow, don't get so uptight. ~Zero
I think that one thing they could do to judge the size of the linux base would be to and I know this is crazy, put the linux distro out for download. Look at what they would get... 1. the only people to download it would be a. linux users b. people with a fast internet connection I can remember downloading the Q3 test at college a month or two ago, and it still took about 10 min, even with my share of an OC-3, so it would take forever to download from the home on a 56K id Soft wouldn't lose much money, cause there wouldn't be that many downloads, but they could judge the size of the linux base
of course, if they put it on the shelf as a linux distro and a Win 98/2k distro, im buying the linux, that's for sure. but to make the two releases would be costly. ~Zero
an interesting point...... How popular was doom2?? Could it be because it was easily pirateable? Same with quake, and most of ID's games. Is ID software broke, because there are about a billion copies of quake 2 floating around that haven't been paid for? Nope, they're the most respected and in my opinion the best game makers out there today! and all their games don't require a CD in to be able to play. Isn't that great? Piracy makes games more popular. quake has about a million unlicenced copies, but about 6 million registered (of which i own 2 - i bought one and lost it, and a replacement was only $10) ~zero
IRC does indeed have useful software for trade, etc, but how many IRC servers are there? They're going to go after ATT/Undernet? OK. Then there's Dalnet #movie-central. Each transaction on that channel is a $10,000 fine. OK, then there's EFnet... there is just WAY too much to do anything. My roommate's an ircOP and he pirates software like there's no tomorrow. I know people that have not paid for software in years, and that don't intend to start now. They're not scared. At most, they're amused. Long Live Silent Bob and 901United ~zero
Slashdot Mirror
I used to be all "kill amazon.com" and "patents are stupid" until i read Jeff Beezos' answer to all the patent gunk going around.
Jeff explained how the amazon.com patent was not just "one click shopping", but rather it was a patent of the whole look and feel of amazon's website (which i have to admit, B&N was copying rather closely).
In addition, Jeff did say that he felt internet patents should carry different weight than "regular" patents - and be of much shorter length - he sugested 1-2 years, if i remember correctly, which is enough time for a company to establish themselves as the sole user of this software and to get their name associated with whatever it is they patent. And then considering the growth of the internet (3000% on the www from 92-96) 1-2 years is plenty of time for the patent, when it runs out, its fair game. Jeff noted that this fair game scenario is what has kept the internet growth what it is.
Jeff also (much to my delight) endorsed the cluetrain manifesto, which is something all business should get a hold of and read.
All this is to say that this USC thing is a move in the right direction, and probably has the support of the "enemy" in the case - amazon.com.
Completely unrelated - sign up with W.A.V.E. america and get a free mail.waveamerica.com email address - here
and sorry - i already took trenchcoatmafia@waveamerica.com
~zero
God what a stupid login name - i should get a new one, but it'll be 6 months till I moderate again.
http://www.waveamerica.com/scripts/signup/TeenSign up.asp
yep that's it right there, go and grab your very own @waveamerica.com email addy
I hate to dissapoint you, but i already took
trenchcoatmafia@waveamerica.com
solly!
God what a stupid login name - i should get a new one, but it'll be 6 months till I moderate again.
The case for Napster is so similar to IRC that it could be the same case. The legal issues faq explains all, but in short the idea is this:
I don't advocate illegal MP3's, but I think people should be aware of facts, and while this seems like a "loophole", This quote seems to sum it up:
I send a letter to a friend over postal mail. In the mail, i say "I have a package for you. I'll send it via fedex". I then send him a kiddie porn video. Is the postal office criminally negligent for allowing the transmission of child pornography? Or say for example, criminal activity occurs on Greyhound bus lines, without their knowledge. Would the bus company and the driver be responsible (or said to "support" such activity)? How much more then can an irc network or administrator be liable?
-from undernet legal issue faq.
~zero`
Heh, i work at best buy, and our CD's are very competatively priced. I know for a fact that we only make $1 on average on a CD. And that's nothing... That means for every CD that gets stolen from our store, we have to sell 12 before we even _break even_! The money is there, it all goes to the reccord companys, the stores see jack.
I am sorry, but this is a pet peeve:
People that start out a conversation by saying, "And now, the man that needs no introduction"
... and then they introduce him.
ah well
~zero
Get your copy of DeCSS at my site - just don't tell the government where you got it.
Bam, created the mirror in 5 minutes...
DeCss, for your pleasure
Go ahead and moderate me down, and off topic... it would be fitting.
~Zero
The point was *not* that it decreased the performance, insomuch is it was that someone put it on public university use computers. To use a computer that is not yours (and I seriously doubt that the University asked for it to be run on 400 of their computers) in order to accomplish a task that is meant to be run in *your* spare cycles, to me, seems wrong. There was not much performance decrease. The issue is that someone put it there without asking a higher up admin, and it is against the "Acceptable Computer Use Policy". And it bugs me. Call me wierd or paranoid.
Plus, running their processors ar 99% 24/7 is going to burn the already taxed processors. I think most of the computers are old, but at least a few are new. Over heating the processor dosen't seem like the best of ideas.
And to be even more anal, your tax dollars plus my tuition pay for these computers.
~zero
I agree - i have run it on mine, and it dosen't suck enough power to really bunch my shorts up, but the computer lab is running 166 workstations with 16 meg of ram. And they have 29 (you read that right, 29) processes running in NT, counting RC5 and seti. I remember on the NT server i set up, i had it down to 8 processes; this is a workstation.
just throwing more of my 2 cents worth in.
~zero
However... The other day, i was in a computer lab at the college where i attend, and in the (ctl-alt-del) task manager in NT, i noticed one of the process was RC-5 and another was seti@home. I can't kill the process, not in five minutes anyway, without admin access and on a guest account... meaning someone with admin access put it on, its using 90% of my processor cycles, and i don't want it on my computer lab station.
I move to a different station.
Its there too. Well. This is sure legal.
Some bright kid with SysAdmin access put the programs on there. There are like 400 Computers in this room.
What do you mean, I can't initialize things in an assert?"
~zero
Given napster's makeup, couldn't you just write another one, or use this one, and switch the port? I mean if napster is on port X, then switch to pory 90, 73, 371298.... I support musicians, and i buy CD's, but jeez!
one, you can't ban it, cause it will mutate two, it is perfectly legal (so far) upgrade your network - i go to virginia tech, most wired small town in the US, we have an OC-3, dual t3's, 3 sets of dual t1's for backup. why is it i only get 15-20 K/s?
~zero
this is absolutely gay.
People like this are the reason i (usually) browse at threshold 1 or 2.
come on, some one moderate this down.
from what i understand, most of ID's stuff runs nicely on voodoo cards. I have a voodoo3 3000, and i really enjoy it. there seem to be voodoo drivers on id's website before most others, and they tend to be stable. The lokisoft version of Q3A is supposed to shipp with voodoo 2|3 drivers for sure and some other ones, those i am not familiar with.
But i can say, once finding drivers on freshmeat.net, my XFree looks great: 32 bit color, 24 bit depth, 1024X768 and i am an ametur linux user, more or less a wannabe (hey, you gotta start somewhere, im learnin').
My vote is for voodoo. its always made me happy.
From Metallica Guitar player James Hetfied's AOL interview, April 97:
MetalKaryn: What qualities do you look for in a girlfriend?
JAYMS: A volume knob.
~zero
Let me tell you something about hippies:
I am 18 years old. Im not a hippie. i don't buy in to the BS about the romanticism of the 60's. I know i wasn't there, my mom wasn't even there, but this whole idea of "hippies" in the 90's is really stupid. This is a stupid idea. A DOS attack is illegal. Ask anyone in #zt. And these people aren't hippies.
Sex, drugs, and rock and roll! Tell me where internet fits into that. This is just advertisement by name association. Put the word "hippie" here and people will think its "cute" and "retro" Hippies to me seem the kind of people who go backpacking and pick flowers, not write java web pages to do DOS attacks for their own personal benifit.
As for real hippies, sex drugs and rock and roll is now safe sex, no drugs, and hell, rock is as commercial as it gets now. These people went from free love to abstenince and from "do your own thing" to "just say no!". They've sold out.
So don't clutter up my screen with 60's romanticism and internet in the same sentance. So, if you want to be a hippie, go hug a tree, and if you want to attack the WTO, bomb the building, but get out of the way of us who have grown up.
Even if we are younger.
~Zero
Ah, those were the days.
Myself, I am only 18, was born in [gasp] the 80s and still get choked up when i read one of those cheezy "children of the 80's emails... and I remember a few things... [cue flashback]
Anyway, just the musings of some punk lamer kid that has been in the scene since jr high.
~zero
From the "brings-back-memories-of-a-time-long-gone" dept
Posted as anonymous coward right above this comment was:
>>>> Another loser attempt to justify stealing. Theft is a crime no matter what lame face you try to put on it. You think you're justified in stealing the game simply because the Linux version will be released later? What a great example you're setting for the Linux community and a great message for manufacturers "give me what I want or I'll steal it". >>>>
This is rediculous. This is from the same group of people who don't read online newspapers when they could buy them because "its immoral".
First, how many of us honestly haven't borrowed a game from a friend to see if we like it? I did this with warcraft1,2 quake1,2 mechwarrior2,3, and mercenaries, half life, and i now own legit copies of all these games.
Seccond, if I borrow my friend's copy of WinQuake3 and burn it, yet in three weeks go out and buy my own copy of LinuxQuake3, what has anyone lost? id has lost nothing - they still got my money, I lost a CD-R, seeing as how I will never use it again, my friend lost a few hours of having his game while I burn a copy.
This isn't saying "give me what I want or i'll steal it", its saying hey, I'm going to improvise until the version I want comes out, because, hey I would rather support linux than Billy G., but until then, I'm going to chill with my friend's copy.
Every one wins in this situation. id has lost nothing, retailers have lost nothing, linux users have to boot in windows (arrgh) for a few hours, but have lost no time when they weren't on the top of the "Latest in gaming software".
Everyone's happy. And your outcry won't make a difference, cause this is what's going to happen anyway. So chill and go with the flow, don't get so uptight.
~Zero
I think that one thing they could do to judge the size of the linux base would be to
and I know this is crazy,
put the linux distro out for download.
Look at what they would get...
1. the only people to download it would be
a. linux users
b. people with a fast internet connection
I can remember downloading the Q3 test at college a month or two ago,
and it still took about 10 min, even with my share of an OC-3, so it would take forever to download from the home on a 56K
id Soft wouldn't lose much money, cause there wouldn't be that many downloads, but they could judge the size of the linux base
of course, if they put it on the shelf as a linux distro and a Win 98/2k distro, im buying the linux,
that's for sure.
but to make the two releases would be costly.
~Zero
an interesting point......
How popular was doom2??
Could it be because it was easily pirateable?
Same with quake, and most of ID's games.
Is ID software broke, because there are about a billion copies of quake 2 floating around that haven't been paid for?
Nope, they're the most respected and in my opinion the best game makers out there today!
and all their games don't require a CD in to be able to play. Isn't that great?
Piracy makes games more popular. quake has about a million unlicenced copies, but about 6 million registered (of which i own 2 - i bought one and lost it, and a replacement was only $10)
~zero
IRC does indeed have useful software for trade, etc, but how many IRC servers are there? They're going to go after ATT/Undernet? OK. Then there's Dalnet #movie-central. Each transaction on that channel is a $10,000 fine. OK, then there's EFnet... there is just WAY too much to do anything. My roommate's an ircOP and he pirates software like there's no tomorrow. I know people that have not paid for software in years, and that don't intend to start now. They're not scared. At most, they're amused. Long Live Silent Bob and 901United ~zero