I was part of a start-up that managed to avoid VC by having a founder who was smart enough to know why it should be avoided. This was a very good article, I thought.
However, there's a big missing piece here. The reality is that the money goes to those that risk the most, not those that work the hardest (or have the best ideas or IP, etc.). That's just the way it works.
Yes, the engineering is a critical element to success, and it would be nice if the engineers got a bigger share. But start-ups are extremely risky (look at the failure rates), and the initial investors are putting up a huge amount of money and rolling the dice. Most engineers will lose a whole lot less than the investors if the company goes under.
Imagine a world where ISPs, to avoid liability, install "indemnity boxes" on their connections. These detect and block P2P file transfers
And will encrypted connections also be outlawed? (e.g.: SSL-protected HTTP connections; also: Freenet) If so, how will secure e-commerce continue? If not, how will they be able to detect P2P?
Unfortunately not... the leak is in the rhnsd daemon which is installed and running by default after installation. Even people who never start the update agent will get bitten by this, unless they disabled the daemon after installation.
Did you catch how he said "buy the games that are out there"? Anyone who sends correspondence to Blizzard should be sure to mention how many of their previous (Windows) games they've bought... this is basic "vote with your wallet". They're saying up front that they care about existing customers more than Linux ranters that haven't spent a dime.
I think that winding up in the CREDITS files for work on device drivers was a lot more well rewarded than participating in the mailing list with bug reports - it is questionable whether the last category was rewarded at all.
I thought it important to refute this. I got to participate in the RedHat IPO, and the only possible way they could have gotten my name was through the bug reports I sent. (I don't have any published open-source code.)
Linux version works fine; I installed it and went through a stack of CD's with repetitions of the command beamit -e userid -p mypass ; eject It's a lot easier than ripping a stack of CD's, that's for sure.
It also appears to have a -b flag (batch mode) that will do the eject for you, and wait for the next CD insertion. You wouldn't have to type anything; just keep inserting CDs.
Unfortunately I can't get the client to work with my SCSI CD-ROM... anyone that's gotten it working care to explain the -g flag, or show me the command-line you used to launch it? Thanks!
It could be argued that a license prevented the work from being viewed in this fashion, but that doesn't seem to be the case (and such a license would have to be up-front and before the sale as per the UCC). In other words, I can't sell you a book and then tell you that it can only be read under certain conditions - unless I obtain your agreement to abide by such conditions before the sale.
Agreed, but yet again, that's not what they're being sued for.
The DMCA specifically allows reverse-engineering for purposes of interoperability, BTW, which is clearly the case as DeCSS was a necessary first step toward making DVDs viewable under Linux.
The judge specifically ruled against the defense's claim that the reverse-engineering exception was applicable to DeCSS, on the basis that they weren't trying to be interoperable with another piece of software, they were trying to strip the protection off a copyrighted work (i.e., a chunk of data). Interesting development.
They're being sued for distributing software which de-encrypts DVDs. It isn't clear that this even falls under the DMCA, as CSS doesn't protect the copyrighted work from being copied
Right; it protects them from being viewed by an unauthorized player. However, combined with the other provisions of DVD technology (like writable media with the key block made unwritable), their clear intent is to deter piracy (i.e., the creation and distribution of illegal copies). I think the DMCA applies; clearly the judge thinks so.
but rather the profits of the people who produce decoders
Effectively, this is what it boils down to: you have to pay big bucks and license their technology if you're going to decrypt it legally. Odious, but that's the law as it stands.
My big question is: is the DeCSS source code (stripped of its comments) a "device", or is it "speech"? A lot hangs on that question. What if I took the source code (with comments) and published it in a book? I bet the court would figure it out real quickly... like they did with the Bernstein case.
But what exactly does the decoder ring feature protect?
Nothing.
Not so. Essentially it protects a copyrighted work from being viewed.
It doesn't prevent me from making a copy. It doesn't even prevent me from giving those copies away to my friends who have their own decoder rings.
Correct; however, copyright infringement isn't what the New York defendants were being sued for. Again, it's very enlightening to read the transcript.
All it does is require anyone who wants to read it to [...]possess a decoder ring.
Exactly. But if you make the ring yourself, and give it to your friends, then you've broken the law (DMCA); that's what the New York lawsuit was about.
I could sell you a book, but I've written it in code. I'll sell you a secret decoder ring as well.
If you can read the book *without* buying the secret decoder ring I can't stop you.
But look at the DMCA again. If I figure out a way to build my own secret decoder ring, and I make it available to the public, I've broken the law (the DMCA). I've provided to the public a device whose primary purpose is to defeat the technological protection of a copyrighted work.
Everyone should go read the transcript of the New York injunction hearing. I found it very enlightening... and it made me realize just what the DMCA is going to look like in practice. What I consider "fair use", and what the law now allows, are diverging.
As a firm believer in open APIs, it's very telling to compare his words about the closed, proprietary TRS-80 ROM interfaces that they were trying to protect... and today's Win32 API interfaces. [My comments bold; quotes in italics.]
G: Well, if there's a problem with Level II ROM, people can work with Radio Shack. They have their own support team.
G: The Level II ROM operates as documented in the manual, and they're perfectly willing to talk about that.
B-K: I'm talking about the software specifically.
G: Why is that an area of such interest? Why don't they demand that the circuit diagrams for the Z-80 chip be included then? All that stuff be documented? I mean, they bought the box for one function, and the price was set to support them.
B-K: Maybe they didn't buy the box for one function.
G: Well, if they got it to get the source code of the ROM, then somebody misled them.
B-K: Don't misapprehend my question. [...] I myself have had the difficulty of wanting to perform a certain transparent function that I could use all the time for my particular orientation, which is as a composer, and I need some special activities which I would like to patch into place. It's taken me an extraordinary amount of time to find how those patch points operated, the timings of them, etc., for my own use.
From the MS developers I've talked to, even the multi-thousand-dollar MSDN subscriptions don't give you all the documentation for many "hidden" Win32 API calls that you need to get the job done.
G: Through Radio Shack. They tell you where, they tell you certain things about the entry points and what the device parameters are. Beyond that, do you know what kind of support burden you create by trying to explain to everybody what's in that ROM? Not to mention the fact that that ROM, the source code that's in there is what keeps us in business.
'...His habits as a consumer have changed substantially. "I haven't bought a music CD in four years," he said. "I get all the latest songs off the Net." Like thousands of students, Checketts learned about MP3 in the dorms. [...] The practice often violates copyright laws but, to the chagrin of the music industry, it has proliferated wildly.'
If you read the article, they are careful to use words like "often" and "usually", but still: here's another article that discusses MP3s-as-piracy and MP3s-instead-of-buying-CDs without talking about legitimate uses of the format. It's hard to convince people that the MP3 *format* isn't the problem.
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Re:Here is a full explanation of how it works - co
on
Live or Memorex?
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· Score: 1
Excellent, thanks!
I guess this explains why a few games early in the season didn't have it and others did... you need the model of each stadium to make it work.
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First Down Line by Princeton Video Image
on
Live or Memorex?
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· Score: 3
The electronic first-down line used in this year's NFL games is done by Princeton Video Image. The web site says they're expanding the technology to do things like a 20-yard red zone at each end of the field, "virtual strike zone" for baseball, etc. They're also starting to do logo insertion (e.g., VISA).
Their web site doesn't say anything about how the first-down line technology works; I've been wondering how they place the line, and whether any technology is needed on the field to make it work. Anyone have more details?
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Too late to discuss Andover.net's impending IPO.
on
VA Reprices Again
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· Score: 1
By the time you had posted, the Wednesday market was closed; the Andover.net IPO is a done deal.
You can already do NFS over the serial port using p3nfs. I use it all the time with my series 5mx, for easy backups and access to data like that *snaps fingers*.:-) Now, this is with the Psion as the NFS server; you can't go the other way around, which is perhaps what you meant.
I love Linux, but EPOC32 is already a very solid, responsive OS for a palmtop. I don't see the need for my Psion to run Linux.
Chad Miller (founder of the "RIVA Enlightenment Project") has a "linux-nvidia" mailing list; details on this page.
There have been a lot of posts so far on whether nVidia's code is open-source. nVidia created a hardware-enabled GLX driver that integrates with XFree86 3.3.x, and source is available (you can compile it yourself). However, the source is obfuscated to protect what they consider proprietary details about their cards.
XFree86 4 will be the thing to watch for GLX with integrated 3D hardware support; it looks to me like this is where nVidia is putting a lot of effort. Should be sweet! --
Yes! Glad you pointed to NCP, I'd forgotten that one.
EPOC files (Word, Spreadsheet, Data) are in a proprietary, closed, non-published format. Symbian requires you to use their "engines" (shared library interfaces, essentially) for all access to the files. Now, this wouldn't be the worst strategy... but the engine code is proprietary, and they've only ported it to Windows and EPOC! So you're stuck; Windows is the only real option.
We hear rumblings of Linux SDKs, etc. being explored, but who knows how long it may be before it happens.
(The data app. can also import from CSV files; that's something, I guess, but not as efficient as direct access.) --
Someone else already pointed out p3nfs that makes the Psion an NFS server, across the serial link to your Linux box. I use it for backups, and it works great. You can also move text and HTML files to the Psion, which can read them with no conversion.
Conversion of the Psion file formats, and synchronization to off-palmtop applications, is the sticky point. Psion supports this only through PsiWin under Windows; the list of apps it works with is impressive, but it's only Windows (not even Mac).
The point that people often miss is that, while the PalmPilot etc. are really designed to extend your PC's data (a PDA), the Psion etc. are really computers in their own right. I do almost everything right on the Psion itself (you can even develop OPL software right on it); so as long as I have a Linux backup solution, I don't really need anything else.
But if conversion/synchronization is a concern, check out psiconv (you can find it on freshmeat) which is an effort to reverse-engineer the file formats to convert them to open formats. Psion Word to HTML has been done already.
I am very happy with my Psion 5. The 5mx is worth checking out; same great palmtop, but 2x faster, 2x the memory (16MB), and has a Java JVM built in. Actually, ANY device (Ericsson, etc.) that runs Symbian's EPOC is worth checking out! It's a very impressive, tight, responsive, multi-threaded operating system. --
Slashdot Mirror
Billy Goat why do you make this possible? Take our money and fix our software!!
However, there's a big missing piece here. The reality is that the money goes to those that risk the most, not those that work the hardest (or have the best ideas or IP, etc.). That's just the way it works.
Yes, the engineering is a critical element to success, and it would be nice if the engineers got a bigger share. But start-ups are extremely risky (look at the failure rates), and the initial investors are putting up a huge amount of money and rolling the dice. Most engineers will lose a whole lot less than the investors if the company goes under.
And will encrypted connections also be outlawed? (e.g.: SSL-protected HTTP connections; also: Freenet) If so, how will secure e-commerce continue? If not, how will they be able to detect P2P?
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Brent J. Nordquist <bjn@visi.com>
Unfortunately not... the leak is in the rhnsd daemon which is installed and running by default after installation. Even people who never start the update agent will get bitten by this, unless they disabled the daemon after installation.
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Brent J. Nordquist <bjn@visi.com>
The PHP4 function _(x) is a synonym for gettext(x), so the code ends up being very readable for the maintainers: _('Permission denied.')
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Specifically, "Pirates of Penzance". :-)
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Did you catch how he said "buy the games that are out there"? Anyone who sends correspondence to Blizzard should be sure to mention how many of their previous (Windows) games they've bought... this is basic "vote with your wallet". They're saying up front that they care about existing customers more than Linux ranters that haven't spent a dime.
--
I thought it important to refute this. I got to participate in the RedHat IPO, and the only possible way they could have gotten my name was through the bug reports I sent. (I don't have any published open-source code.)
--
beamit -e userid -p mypass ; eject
It's a lot easier than ripping a stack of CD's, that's for sure.
It also appears to have a -b flag (batch mode) that will do the eject for you, and wait for the next CD insertion. You wouldn't have to type anything; just keep inserting CDs.
Unfortunately I can't get the client to work with my SCSI CD-ROM... anyone that's gotten it working care to explain the -g flag, or show me the command-line you used to launch it? Thanks!
--
Agreed, but yet again, that's not what they're being sued for.
The DMCA specifically allows reverse-engineering for purposes of interoperability, BTW, which is clearly the case as DeCSS was a necessary first step toward making DVDs viewable under Linux.
The judge specifically ruled against the defense's claim that the reverse-engineering exception was applicable to DeCSS, on the basis that they weren't trying to be interoperable with another piece of software, they were trying to strip the protection off a copyrighted work (i.e., a chunk of data). Interesting development.
They're being sued for distributing software which de-encrypts DVDs. It isn't clear that this even falls under the DMCA, as CSS doesn't protect the copyrighted work from being copied
Right; it protects them from being viewed by an unauthorized player. However, combined with the other provisions of DVD technology (like writable media with the key block made unwritable), their clear intent is to deter piracy (i.e., the creation and distribution of illegal copies). I think the DMCA applies; clearly the judge thinks so.
but rather the profits of the people who produce decoders
Effectively, this is what it boils down to: you have to pay big bucks and license their technology if you're going to decrypt it legally. Odious, but that's the law as it stands.
My big question is: is the DeCSS source code (stripped of its comments) a "device", or is it "speech"? A lot hangs on that question. What if I took the source code (with comments) and published it in a book? I bet the court would figure it out real quickly... like they did with the Bernstein case.
--
Hmmm... the wording makes it sound like they've already executed the IPO; they've just filed for (and announced) it at this point.
--
Nothing.
Not so. Essentially it protects a copyrighted work from being viewed.
It doesn't prevent me from making a copy. It doesn't even prevent me from giving those copies away to my friends who have their own decoder rings.
Correct; however, copyright infringement isn't what the New York defendants were being sued for. Again, it's very enlightening to read the transcript.
All it does is require anyone who wants to read it to [...]possess a decoder ring.
Exactly. But if you make the ring yourself, and give it to your friends, then you've broken the law (DMCA); that's what the New York lawsuit was about.
--
If you can read the book *without* buying the secret decoder ring I can't stop you.
But look at the DMCA again. If I figure out a way to build my own secret decoder ring, and I make it available to the public, I've broken the law (the DMCA). I've provided to the public a device whose primary purpose is to defeat the technological protection of a copyrighted work.
Everyone should go read the transcript of the New York injunction hearing. I found it very enlightening... and it made me realize just what the DMCA is going to look like in practice. What I consider "fair use", and what the law now allows, are diverging.
--
G: Well, if there's a problem with Level II ROM, people can work with Radio Shack. They have their own support team.
G: The Level II ROM operates as documented in the manual, and they're perfectly willing to talk about that.
B-K: I'm talking about the software specifically.
G: Why is that an area of such interest? Why don't they demand that the circuit diagrams for the Z-80 chip be included then? All that stuff be documented? I mean, they bought the box for one function, and the price was set to support them.
B-K: Maybe they didn't buy the box for one function.
G: Well, if they got it to get the source code of the ROM, then somebody misled them.
B-K: Don't misapprehend my question. [...] I myself have had the difficulty of wanting to perform a certain transparent function that I could use all the time for my particular orientation, which is as a composer, and I need some special activities which I would like to patch into place. It's taken me an extraordinary amount of time to find how those patch points operated, the timings of them, etc., for my own use.
From the MS developers I've talked to, even the multi-thousand-dollar MSDN subscriptions don't give you all the documentation for many "hidden" Win32 API calls that you need to get the job done.
G: Through Radio Shack. They tell you where, they tell you certain things about the entry points and what the device parameters are. Beyond that, do you know what kind of support burden you create by trying to explain to everybody what's in that ROM? Not to mention the fact that that ROM, the source code that's in there is what keeps us in business.
And there you have it.
--
The Ars article also points out that some of the registers are used by the code-morphing software, too... you couldn't count on having 40 + 24.
--
If you read the article, they are careful to use words like "often" and "usually", but still: here's another article that discusses MP3s-as-piracy and MP3s-instead-of-buying-CDs without talking about legitimate uses of the format. It's hard to convince people that the MP3 *format* isn't the problem.
--
I guess this explains why a few games early in the season didn't have it and others did... you need the model of each stadium to make it work.
--
Their web site doesn't say anything about how the first-down line technology works; I've been wondering how they place the line, and whether any technology is needed on the field to make it work. Anyone have more details?
--
By the time you had posted, the Wednesday market was closed; the Andover.net IPO is a done deal.
You can already do NFS over the serial port using p3nfs. I use it all the time with my series 5mx, for easy backups and access to data like that *snaps fingers*.
I love Linux, but EPOC32 is already a very solid, responsive OS for a palmtop. I don't see the need for my Psion to run Linux.
There have been a lot of posts so far on whether nVidia's code is open-source. nVidia created a hardware-enabled GLX driver that integrates with XFree86 3.3.x, and source is available (you can compile it yourself). However, the source is obfuscated to protect what they consider proprietary details about their cards.
XFree86 4 will be the thing to watch for GLX with integrated 3D hardware support; it looks to me like this is where nVidia is putting a lot of effort. Should be sweet!
--
The Fallacy of Cracking Contests
--
EPOC files (Word, Spreadsheet, Data) are in a proprietary, closed, non-published format. Symbian requires you to use their "engines" (shared library interfaces, essentially) for all access to the files. Now, this wouldn't be the worst strategy... but the engine code is proprietary, and they've only ported it to Windows and EPOC! So you're stuck; Windows is the only real option.
We hear rumblings of Linux SDKs, etc. being explored, but who knows how long it may be before it happens.
(The data app. can also import from CSV files; that's something, I guess, but not as efficient as direct access.)
--
Conversion of the Psion file formats, and synchronization to off-palmtop applications, is the sticky point. Psion supports this only through PsiWin under Windows; the list of apps it works with is impressive, but it's only Windows (not even Mac).
The point that people often miss is that, while the PalmPilot etc. are really designed to extend your PC's data (a PDA), the Psion etc. are really computers in their own right. I do almost everything right on the Psion itself (you can even develop OPL software right on it); so as long as I have a Linux backup solution, I don't really need anything else.
But if conversion/synchronization is a concern, check out psiconv (you can find it on freshmeat) which is an effort to reverse-engineer the file formats to convert them to open formats. Psion Word to HTML has been done already.
I am very happy with my Psion 5. The 5mx is worth checking out; same great palmtop, but 2x faster, 2x the memory (16MB), and has a Java JVM built in. Actually, ANY device (Ericsson, etc.) that runs Symbian's EPOC is worth checking out! It's a very impressive, tight, responsive, multi-threaded operating system.
--
"If you've done six impossible things before breakfast, why not round it off with an attempt to ban all cryptography from the Internet?"
--