I believe DVD players are covered by a patent pool. You can't build a DVD player unless you license the patents from the patent pool. To license the patents, you have to agree to follow their rules on DVD player design.
Another technique is trademarks. If you want to manufacture VHS cassettes, you must license the trademark if you want to market them as VHS cassettes and use the VHS logo.
Just a followup. The database is the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), and the report on passenger electronic devices can be read here (PDF file).
I'm not aware of a cell phone, or other electronic device, causing problems on a modern airliner (it'd surprise me with the level of sophistication up there in the cockpit), but I am aware of one chap who wouldn't hang up his cell phone, and was charged with an offense.
If you look at the FAA's anonymous safety problem report database, there are quite a few reports of weird avionics problems that appear to have been caused by passenger electronic devices. The scary thing is the large number of passengers who refuse to turn off their devices after repeated requests from the crew, and who lie about having a device turned on. They should be asked to leave the plane, at cruising altitude.
Some of this reminds me of the civil rights movement, when people who tried to organize resistance to segregation were labeled "outside agitators" and jailed on bogus charges such as "inciting a riot", when their real crime was trying to disturb the status quo and offending the white community.
You do not have a constitutional right to be fat, dumb and happy, protected from anything that might be offensive, embarassing, frightening or unsettling.
The DVD tells the player whether or not to turn on the Macrovision circuit. It costs extra money in licensing fees to produce a DVD that uses Macrovision.
I don't see what is hard about it. The web site listed the names and addresses of doctors who perform abortions. It also expressed the opinion that abortion was a crime against humanity. Nowhere did the web site directly incite violence against the doctors. In my opinion, they were well within their first amendment rights. Like many Americans, the pro-choice people are all in favor of free speech, as long as it only applies to people with acceptable opinions.
People have been copyrighting ROMs for many years, even though they contain machine code. Does anyone have a citation for the court case? Whether or not ROMs could be copyrighted was an early example of the application of copyright law to computer technology.
I've heard of similar things happening at other trade shows when a major exhibitor, such as Apple or Microsoft, threatens to pull out of the show unless their demands are met. It may be sleazy, but as far as I know, it isn't illegal.
I would also be concerned about low temperatures, like when your car sits idle for long periods in the winter. The drive may not spin up if it is too cold.
I was very interested in the language when it was written up in BYTE, many years ago. I even bought several of the books put out by Adele Goldberg and others at Xerox PARC. Unfortunately, someone decided that the way to make money on Smalltalk was to charge Lisp Machine prices for the software. After waiting years for an affordable version of the software, I lost interest in Smalltalk.
I have a ReplayTV box made by Panasonic. It includes a 30 GB hard drive, MPEG encoder/decoder, modem, TV tuner, systems software and a lifetime subscription to the program guide service. I'm not sure what CPU is used or how much RAM is in the box.
Without the program guide service, these boxes sell for about $400. It can be less if you get it on sale or with a rebate. $400 is not going to buy much hardware for a PC.
Much of the usefulness of the box is dependent on the program guide service. Are you going to type in the contents of TV Guide every week?
I don't usually respond to idiots, but in your case, I'll make an exception.
Most system administrators in the government are doing it as an additional duty to their regular job. They have a limited amount of time to spend on system administration, which besides security, includes keeping software updated, doing backups, troubleshooting and fixing network and system problems.
In an ideal world, there would be full-time system administrators and security specialists to keep the systems secure and running smoothly. The reality is that very little money is budgeted for security or anything else that is perceived as not directly contributing to the mission.
The web server doesn't need to retrieve credit card numbers from the database server. It needs to be able to store the information, request an authorization, and submit a charge. I'm assuming that the authorization and charge submission is done on the secure database server. It can report success/failure back to the web server. If you want the user to verify the stored information, you could do what some web sites currently do, X out all but the last 4 digits of the card number.
I would expect the credit card companies to set and enforce security standards for merchants that accept their cards. If you want to accept credit cards, you have to sign a contract with, and be approved by, the card's issuer.
I still don't understand why anyone would store sensitive information in a database on a system that is accessible from the Internet. Put the database on a secure server that provides a restricted set of functions to a predefined list of systems. Even if the web site gets cracked, and it will, the intruders would not get unrestricted access to the database.
1. Pollution we're making this a dirty poisoned planet and we're running out of time to rethink our habits. Not just the obvious ones like spilling oil tankers on to beaches, and dumping acid rain onto Canada, but thermal pollution as well.
All of these things may be important to some people, but are they really at the level where they affect the viability of the human race? The global population of humans currently exceeds 6 billion. Kill all you want, we'll make more.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't try to do something about the problems that you listed, just that they do not have the species killing potential of an asteroid impact.
My gripe about smart menus is that the system is dynamically changing the contents of menu bars. This conflicts with the user's learned memory of the user interface. If you use a program often enough, common actions become automatic, like touch typing. Smart menus disrupt this process by moving, inserting or deleting menu items.
Abusive and inflammatory language will get you moderated down. Whining about alleged karma whores will get you moderated down. Engaging in meta-discussions about moderation, such as this one, will get you moderated down.
The point is that the statistics that say that the median salary for computer programmers is $50K are misleading if a large proportion of the jobs are in areas with high costs of living. Salaries can be substantially lower for computer jobs in areas with an average cost of living.
$50K isn't that great if you have to live in an area with a high cost of living, which happens to be where many of the tech jobs are. I could make substantially more money in New York City or Silicon Valley, but my standard of living would decrease.
That would be a disaster. I am not against immigration, but uncontrolled immigration would cause severe problems and result in a violent backlash against "foreigners". The United States already has enough problems with illegal immigration from Mexico. Not that I blame the Mexicans, the Mexican economy sucks and I would do the same thing if I was a Mexican.
Many radio stations are already ripping the 44 kHz PCM from the CD to a RAID system. There is no need to use an MP3 encoder/decoder. If they want to trash the audio, that function is already performed by the Optimod. A RAID system allows the station to get rid of CDs, CD players and tape carts. It also gives fascist program directors total control over the content of the music library.
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Another technique is trademarks. If you want to manufacture VHS cassettes, you must license the trademark if you want to market them as VHS cassettes and use the VHS logo.
Just a followup. The database is the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), and the report on passenger electronic devices can be read here (PDF file).
If you look at the FAA's anonymous safety problem report database, there are quite a few reports of weird avionics problems that appear to have been caused by passenger electronic devices. The scary thing is the large number of passengers who refuse to turn off their devices after repeated requests from the crew, and who lie about having a device turned on. They should be asked to leave the plane, at cruising altitude.
Fly across the country and try to hack your way into the airplane's Internet server. It would be a lot more interesting than watching the lame movie.
I can just see it, "you have been owned, bi-atch", popping up on everyone's web browser.
You do not have a constitutional right to be fat, dumb and happy, protected from anything that might be offensive, embarassing, frightening or unsettling.
The DVD tells the player whether or not to turn on the Macrovision circuit. It costs extra money in licensing fees to produce a DVD that uses Macrovision.
I don't see what is hard about it. The web site listed the names and addresses of doctors who perform abortions. It also expressed the opinion that abortion was a crime against humanity. Nowhere did the web site directly incite violence against the doctors. In my opinion, they were well within their first amendment rights. Like many Americans, the pro-choice people are all in favor of free speech, as long as it only applies to people with acceptable opinions.
People have been copyrighting ROMs for many years, even though they contain machine code. Does anyone have a citation for the court case? Whether or not ROMs could be copyrighted was an early example of the application of copyright law to computer technology.
I've heard of similar things happening at other trade shows when a major exhibitor, such as Apple or Microsoft, threatens to pull out of the show unless their demands are met. It may be sleazy, but as far as I know, it isn't illegal.
I would also be concerned about low temperatures, like when your car sits idle for long periods in the winter. The drive may not spin up if it is too cold.
I was very interested in the language when it was written up in BYTE, many years ago. I even bought several of the books put out by Adele Goldberg and others at Xerox PARC. Unfortunately, someone decided that the way to make money on Smalltalk was to charge Lisp Machine prices for the software. After waiting years for an affordable version of the software, I lost interest in Smalltalk.
I have a ReplayTV box made by Panasonic. It includes a 30 GB hard drive, MPEG encoder/decoder, modem, TV tuner, systems software and a lifetime subscription to the program guide service. I'm not sure what CPU is used or how much RAM is in the box.
Without the program guide service, these boxes sell for about $400. It can be less if you get it on sale or with a rebate. $400 is not going to buy much hardware for a PC.
Much of the usefulness of the box is dependent on the program guide service. Are you going to type in the contents of TV Guide every week?
Most system administrators in the government are doing it as an additional duty to their regular job. They have a limited amount of time to spend on system administration, which besides security, includes keeping software updated, doing backups, troubleshooting and fixing network and system problems.
In an ideal world, there would be full-time system administrators and security specialists to keep the systems secure and running smoothly. The reality is that very little money is budgeted for security or anything else that is perceived as not directly contributing to the mission.
The web server doesn't need to retrieve credit card numbers from the database server. It needs to be able to store the information, request an authorization, and submit a charge. I'm assuming that the authorization and charge submission is done on the secure database server. It can report success/failure back to the web server. If you want the user to verify the stored information, you could do what some web sites currently do, X out all but the last 4 digits of the card number.
I would expect the credit card companies to set and enforce security standards for merchants that accept their cards. If you want to accept credit cards, you have to sign a contract with, and be approved by, the card's issuer.
I still don't understand why anyone would store sensitive information in a database on a system that is accessible from the Internet. Put the database on a secure server that provides a restricted set of functions to a predefined list of systems. Even if the web site gets cracked, and it will, the intruders would not get unrestricted access to the database.
All of these things may be important to some people, but are they really at the level where they affect the viability of the human race? The global population of humans currently exceeds 6 billion. Kill all you want, we'll make more.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't try to do something about the problems that you listed, just that they do not have the species killing potential of an asteroid impact.
My gripe about smart menus is that the system is dynamically changing the contents of menu bars. This conflicts with the user's learned memory of the user interface. If you use a program often enough, common actions become automatic, like touch typing. Smart menus disrupt this process by moving, inserting or deleting menu items.
Abusive and inflammatory language will get you moderated down. Whining about alleged karma whores will get you moderated down. Engaging in meta-discussions about moderation, such as this one, will get you moderated down.
The point is that the statistics that say that the median salary for computer programmers is $50K are misleading if a large proportion of the jobs are in areas with high costs of living. Salaries can be substantially lower for computer jobs in areas with an average cost of living.
$50K isn't that great if you have to live in an area with a high cost of living, which happens to be where many of the tech jobs are. I could make substantially more money in New York City or Silicon Valley, but my standard of living would decrease.
That would be a disaster. I am not against immigration, but uncontrolled immigration would cause severe problems and result in a violent backlash against "foreigners". The United States already has enough problems with illegal immigration from Mexico. Not that I blame the Mexicans, the Mexican economy sucks and I would do the same thing if I was a Mexican.
Public policy should not revolve around making life easier for the police and prosecutor's office, at the expense of everyone else's rights.
Many radio stations are already ripping the 44 kHz PCM from the CD to a RAID system. There is no need to use an MP3 encoder/decoder. If they want to trash the audio, that function is already performed by the Optimod. A RAID system allows the station to get rid of CDs, CD players and tape carts. It also gives fascist program directors total control over the content of the music library.