You are seriously handicapped with black & white vision. You see Slashdotters as wanting no IP where you want things unchanged. You see no one wanted to pulish without conventional IP protection where, really, that's what a lot of Slashdotters do already.
The problem with copyright law is that the copyright term extensions have allowed the copyrights to go from 7 years to around 100 years -- all in the name of corporate profits. It's not that we can do away with IP protection, because, like you said, a lot of people wouldn't want to do their work if they couldn't reap rewards from it.
But even today there are some cases where people have had to invert copyright law to prevent the reaping of rewards from their work. Just look at the GNU Public Licenses and it's offspring. The big thing it does is prevent people from reaping rewards, at least monetary ones, from anything with the GPL stamped on it. Now, that of course still allows room for bragging rights rewards!
Perhaps you are a computer and can't see anything other than a zero or a one?
OK, so now we know Carbon Nanotubules can conduct heat, have enormous tensile and compression strength for their weight and volume, and can open portals to unseen worlds.
If they're so great, when are we going to start seeing stuff made out of it? I'm still waiting for my first carbon-nanotubule-fiber-based pair of underwear. Mine tend to get holes quickly.
The sad part about the whole suit is that MP3.com was the closest thing to legal digital music distribution yet. The labels could've bought MP3.com, swallowed their technoology, chew it up a little, and spit it back out in a way that would ensure their profits for decades to come.
Instead, they keep squashing the good ideas leaving room for a mixture of good and bad ideas to to come. Face it, nature abhors a vaccum, and without MP3.com filling the vaccuum with a controlled way of digitizing music for the masses, Napster clones are all-the-more-likely to increase in numbers and proliferation.
The record labels should've just picked the lesser of the evils and taken control of it. Instead, they are attacking everything and offering nothing themselves.
As weston posted elsewhere in this thread, the compensatory damages are not fair even in the case you pointed out. Where did the $118M come from? is that lost sales? Couldn't be. Is it the revenue MP3.com made from advertising? If so, I need to copy their advertising model so I can retire tomorrow.
To me, the $118M sounds like a punishment. A harsh punishment at that. Besides, I don't think MP3.com had any bad intent in doing the whole thing. I guess the judge did?
Using LEP (Light-Emitting-Polymers rather than polymeric circuits for LCD), Espon has been able to mass-produce material by adapting its inkjet technology.
Have you looked into FullCharge? It's a rechargable battery pack witha modified battery door that lets you recharge the batteries in the device. The charging connector is such that you can even sit it in your cradle while its charging. They also have a car adapter available.
As a Visor owner, I must wait for them to release it for my PDA, but Palm PDAs can use it now!
Here is another article talking about Palm's interests in these new chips. I must say that I, a PalmOS PDA owner, am very interested in the possibility of jumping from a 16MHz dragonball to a 1GHz StrongARM!
If the cops want in my house bad enough, they don't need a key -- they can break my door down.
If the cops want in my e-mail bad enough, they don't need a key -- they can break my encryption.
I apologize for my comment. It was meant to be sarcasticly funny. Too many people are taking it seriously.
My whole point was that cops can enter a building, if necessary, without a key. What the government and law enforcement agencies are saying by asking for key escrow is that they just don't have enough brute force to break the encyrption as easily as they can break a door down.
I think the analogy is a good one because encryption and doors and both things we used to keep people out of things we want. The differnece is in how hard they are to break. Should the government just force us to use weaker encyrption rather than key escrow (i.e. a normal door instead of giving them a key to your house).
What would they do if I had a hardened concrete and steel bunker instead of a house? What if that started proliferating and became the defacto standard. Do you think law enforcement agencies would stand for that? Would they make you build weaker buildings or give them a key?
[SARCASM]Perhaps you are right. I shall now keep another window open to the main thread as I'm typing my comment. I will refresh it every second and check for newer comments that my superscede the need for mine. How could I have been so dumb?[/SARCASM]
Microsoft already did port Internet Explorer to Unix. I remember running it on Solaris a few years ago. It was actually more stable in thatbeta version than the production version of Netscape the rest of my co-workers used. It even set up it's own pseudo-registry. Ultimately, I saw the IE 4.01 port for Solaris and HP/UX. They're still available here. I also think I saw an Outlook Express Beta, but I can't be sure.
So, once they've gotten that far, it's just a minor step to port it to Linux, right? And heck, if you can port something like IE, you already have to have widgets, a registry, a lot of Win32 stuff, etc. With that base set of requirements already taking care of, shouldn't that make porting the rest of Microsoft's app that much easier?
The media has ocne again proven it doesn't "get it". I just readn an AP story on MSNBC highlighting the decision.
The story states such things as "software that descrambles the code meant to prevent DVDs from being copied" and "The software, developed by hackers, has helped make it possible for computer users to copy full-length feature films from digital versatile discs onto their hard drives or other recordable media".
Isn't DeCSS a content-scramling system for playback control, not copy control? And isn't the purpose of DeCSS to enable playback, not permit copying? After all, one could do bit-by-bit copying of a scrambled source without DeCSS.
I've contacted AP to see if there is any recourse for such invalid facts. After all, the AP's Code of Ethics clearly states they aim for the truth.
I think this is a very important question to ask these guys. If this story were hoenstly protrayed to the public with how it affects them, I think the decision would certainly favor DeCSS.
But we must first explain how this affects the public. Some reasons ahave already been given, but a true legal perspective from the horse's mouth would be helpful.
I sense a bit of bias in Judge Kaplan's conclusion. He seems to think the defendants simply want to set information free like so many caged birds. While there are some extremists out there who believe that, I think the bulk of the public concern was with fair use.
Did the defendents really spin it with such an extreme view, or is Kaplan simply looking for something controversial to form his ready-made decision on?
Just reading the conclusion quoted at the beginning of this story, I've determined that Judge Kaplan is a backwards wimp.
Kaplan claims that In our society, however, clashes of competing interests like this are resolved by Congress.HELLO?!? I thought the Legislative branch made laws and the Judicial branch interpreted the laws. Here, Kaplan is saying that the Legislative branch get's to make and interpret the laws.
Now that J2ME is available for PalmOS, you should look into using Java to write your PalmOS spread-sheet. With tools like kAWT, there are plenty of widgets available.
So why develop a Linux PDA? My not just port Linux to existing PDAs? Well, it is being done for some PocketPC devices, I understand, but what about for PalmOS?
Somehow I doubt PalmOS hardware could run Linux since it is slow. Linux is designed for a system with an always-on CPU, right?
The one tidbit of information I couldn't find is the expected battery life. My Handspring Visor, with the energy conserving PalmOS, lasts for weeks on end on two AAAs. I know that beasts with bigger processors, conventional OS's, etc. tend to suck up power more quickly. This seems to fall into this latter category.
Quntum computers aren't terribly new, in the technolgoy timeline anyways. There's beena lot fo development on them, both theoretical and real, in the past 20 years.
For quite some time, it was just a mind game. That was until real algorithms were discovered/invented to take advantage of these curiosities. With powerfully fast algorithms for factoring large integers (the source of encryption's security), searching, etc. they stand poised to change the face of computing. Imagine things such as cracking 1024-bit encyrtption or searching the entire phone-book in one operation.
Of course, the tricky part is to build one. Since they rely on quantum properties, they are easily bumped into a real state. But this is the source of their power too. If one particle can be in two states, then a string of particles can represent every n-bit binary number combination possible!
There are several different ways to go about quantum computing. Some use lasers to cool individual atoms to an energy-level where theyt can be controlled reliably. Others use the bulk-effect of quantum states dtected with nuclear magnetic resonance (ironaically, the caffeine molecule prooves to be particulary useful in this setup).
As of yet, they've been able to do some pretty simple arithmetic with only a few bits of information.
As for how it will change computing and programming, the best guess I've heard is that there might be quantum coprocessors someday (much like the old math-coprocessors). You see, quantum computers are thus far very good at certain kind of operations and not so good at others. This is very similar to traditional CPUs (which suck at factoring numbers in a reasonable amount of time). The two compliment each other.
I knew that information I gleaned while writing that college paper on Quantum Computing would come in handy!
On a similar note, Quantum Encryption is a related field where quantum-entanglement is used to transmit information securely. If someone were to try and eaves-drop on the system the system would collapse into a real state and the information would not be intercepted.
They need to release a Codec for Windows Media Player. If they want to get mainstream, they need mainstream sites to publish in their format. And mainstreams sites won't publish in their format unless the mainstream can use it.
So make a WMP codec. And for that codec, and all of the plugins readily available, make very very good installation instructions, or better yet, automatic installation procedures, so that even the shy-est users can do it.
I'm not to terirbly interested in the baby steps C# provides. It's as if C# is nothing but a metling poit of programming languages.
Boxing and unboxing are simple features and could speed up programming a bit. But that's hardly earth-shattering.
Their IL is nothing new as you could actually compile any language to Java byte-codes if someone took the time to write the compiler.
Compiling to native code isn't new either -- in fact, wasn't Microsoft the first with the JIT stuff for Java?
What I'm waiting for is something truly revolutionary. Something that would make it worth my while to change the syntax I know and the way I think. I've already seen an inkling of such ideas in Tim Sweeny's A Critical Look at Programming Languages.
I actually sent a few e-mails back and forth with Tim Sweeny before I truly understood what Parametric Polymorphism is and the power it could provide. I even went as far as to emulate some of the parametric polymorphism behavior in Java. I can see how it will simplify compilers, empower programmers, greatly improve code re-use and better organize software architecture.
That's the kind of Giant Leaps for man kind I'm looking for, not these one-man Small Steps.
And C# is the first language to incorporate XML comment tags that can be used by the compiler to generate readable documentation directly from source code.
OK, so javadoc isn't XML, but it does the exact same thing he's talking about here. Maybe the next version of javadoc can support XML as well. Or, maybe javadoc shouldn't be revised until XML2.0 comes out. Or maybe we should wait until the next big Marketing Buzzword comes into the now.
Remember, people, XML is useless without agreed upon standards of the XML structure. These are generally being decided by industries as a whole. This same sort of thing could've happened without XML (look at things like vCards, HTTP protocol, BCD, etc. -- all ways of communicating information irregardless of the platform-specific source).
Slashdot Mirror
The problem with copyright law is that the copyright term extensions have allowed the copyrights to go from 7 years to around 100 years -- all in the name of corporate profits. It's not that we can do away with IP protection, because, like you said, a lot of people wouldn't want to do their work if they couldn't reap rewards from it.
But even today there are some cases where people have had to invert copyright law to prevent the reaping of rewards from their work. Just look at the GNU Public Licenses and it's offspring. The big thing it does is prevent people from reaping rewards, at least monetary ones, from anything with the GPL stamped on it. Now, that of course still allows room for bragging rights rewards!
Perhaps you are a computer and can't see anything other than a zero or a one?
If they're so great, when are we going to start seeing stuff made out of it? I'm still waiting for my first carbon-nanotubule-fiber-based pair of underwear. Mine tend to get holes quickly.
Instead, they keep squashing the good ideas leaving room for a mixture of good and bad ideas to to come. Face it, nature abhors a vaccum, and without MP3.com filling the vaccuum with a controlled way of digitizing music for the masses, Napster clones are all-the-more-likely to increase in numbers and proliferation.
The record labels should've just picked the lesser of the evils and taken control of it. Instead, they are attacking everything and offering nothing themselves.
To me, the $118M sounds like a punishment. A harsh punishment at that. Besides, I don't think MP3.com had any bad intent in doing the whole thing. I guess the judge did?
Using LEP (Light-Emitting-Polymers rather than polymeric circuits for LCD), Espon has been able to mass-produce material by adapting its inkjet technology.
As a Visor owner, I must wait for them to release it for my PDA, but Palm PDAs can use it now!
Here is another article talking about Palm's interests in these new chips. I must say that I, a PalmOS PDA owner, am very interested in the possibility of jumping from a 16MHz dragonball to a 1GHz StrongARM!
I apologize for my comment. It was meant to be sarcasticly funny. Too many people are taking it seriously.
My whole point was that cops can enter a building, if necessary, without a key. What the government and law enforcement agencies are saying by asking for key escrow is that they just don't have enough brute force to break the encyrption as easily as they can break a door down.
I think the analogy is a good one because encryption and doors and both things we used to keep people out of things we want. The differnece is in how hard they are to break. Should the government just force us to use weaker encyrption rather than key escrow (i.e. a normal door instead of giving them a key to your house).
What would they do if I had a hardened concrete and steel bunker instead of a house? What if that started proliferating and became the defacto standard. Do you think law enforcement agencies would stand for that? Would they make you build weaker buildings or give them a key?
If the cops want in my e-mail bad enough, they don't need a key -- they can break my encryption.
Of course, as many of those non-beilvers that this dispels, how many more UFO sightings will be reported after seeing the ISS's streak in the sky?
[SARCASM]Perhaps you are right. I shall now keep another window open to the main thread as I'm typing my comment. I will refresh it every second and check for newer comments that my superscede the need for mine. How could I have been so dumb?[/SARCASM]
So, once they've gotten that far, it's just a minor step to port it to Linux, right? And heck, if you can port something like IE, you already have to have widgets, a registry, a lot of Win32 stuff, etc. With that base set of requirements already taking care of, shouldn't that make porting the rest of Microsoft's app that much easier?
Just remember Return of the Jedi was once named Revenge of the Jedi. Even some trailers were made using that vengeful name.
Isn't DeCSS a content-scramling system for playback control, not copy control? And isn't the purpose of DeCSS to enable playback, not permit copying? After all, one could do bit-by-bit copying of a scrambled source without DeCSS.
I've contacted AP to see if there is any recourse for such invalid facts. After all, the AP's Code of Ethics clearly states they aim for the truth.
But we must first explain how this affects the public. Some reasons ahave already been given, but a true legal perspective from the horse's mouth would be helpful.
Did the defendents really spin it with such an extreme view, or is Kaplan simply looking for something controversial to form his ready-made decision on?
Kaplan claims that In our society, however, clashes of competing interests like this are resolved by Congress. HELLO?!? I thought the Legislative branch made laws and the Judicial branch interpreted the laws. Here, Kaplan is saying that the Legislative branch get's to make and interpret the laws.
Now that J2ME is available for PalmOS, you should look into using Java to write your PalmOS spread-sheet. With tools like kAWT, there are plenty of widgets available.
I saw on their product specs that it has 16-greys, so its not quite just black & white:
240x160 pixels monochrome LCD, 16 grey scale, 2¼" x 3¼" viewable area
Somehow I doubt PalmOS hardware could run Linux since it is slow. Linux is designed for a system with an always-on CPU, right?
The one tidbit of information I couldn't find is the expected battery life. My Handspring Visor, with the energy conserving PalmOS, lasts for weeks on end on two AAAs. I know that beasts with bigger processors, conventional OS's, etc. tend to suck up power more quickly. This seems to fall into this latter category.
For quite some time, it was just a mind game. That was until real algorithms were discovered/invented to take advantage of these curiosities. With powerfully fast algorithms for factoring large integers (the source of encryption's security), searching, etc. they stand poised to change the face of computing. Imagine things such as cracking 1024-bit encyrtption or searching the entire phone-book in one operation.
Of course, the tricky part is to build one. Since they rely on quantum properties, they are easily bumped into a real state. But this is the source of their power too. If one particle can be in two states, then a string of particles can represent every n-bit binary number combination possible!
There are several different ways to go about quantum computing. Some use lasers to cool individual atoms to an energy-level where theyt can be controlled reliably. Others use the bulk-effect of quantum states dtected with nuclear magnetic resonance (ironaically, the caffeine molecule prooves to be particulary useful in this setup).
As of yet, they've been able to do some pretty simple arithmetic with only a few bits of information.
As for how it will change computing and programming, the best guess I've heard is that there might be quantum coprocessors someday (much like the old math-coprocessors). You see, quantum computers are thus far very good at certain kind of operations and not so good at others. This is very similar to traditional CPUs (which suck at factoring numbers in a reasonable amount of time). The two compliment each other.
I knew that information I gleaned while writing that college paper on Quantum Computing would come in handy!
On a similar note, Quantum Encryption is a related field where quantum-entanglement is used to transmit information securely. If someone were to try and eaves-drop on the system the system would collapse into a real state and the information would not be intercepted.
So make a WMP codec. And for that codec, and all of the plugins readily available, make very very good installation instructions, or better yet, automatic installation procedures, so that even the shy-est users can do it.
Boxing and unboxing are simple features and could speed up programming a bit. But that's hardly earth-shattering.
Their IL is nothing new as you could actually compile any language to Java byte-codes if someone took the time to write the compiler.
Compiling to native code isn't new either -- in fact, wasn't Microsoft the first with the JIT stuff for Java?
What I'm waiting for is something truly revolutionary. Something that would make it worth my while to change the syntax I know and the way I think. I've already seen an inkling of such ideas in Tim Sweeny's A Critical Look at Programming Languages.
I actually sent a few e-mails back and forth with Tim Sweeny before I truly understood what Parametric Polymorphism is and the power it could provide. I even went as far as to emulate some of the parametric polymorphism behavior in Java. I can see how it will simplify compilers, empower programmers, greatly improve code re-use and better organize software architecture.
That's the kind of Giant Leaps for man kind I'm looking for, not these one-man Small Steps.
OK, so javadoc isn't XML, but it does the exact same thing he's talking about here. Maybe the next version of javadoc can support XML as well. Or, maybe javadoc shouldn't be revised until XML2.0 comes out. Or maybe we should wait until the next big Marketing Buzzword comes into the now.
Remember, people, XML is useless without agreed upon standards of the XML structure. These are generally being decided by industries as a whole. This same sort of thing could've happened without XML (look at things like vCards, HTTP protocol, BCD, etc. -- all ways of communicating information irregardless of the platform-specific source).