2. Merchanitability is not liability. As far as I can see, this already covers software, correct?
Nope. From GNU GPL:
EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
And most other EULAs say the same thing (or something similar). I'd give an example from MS, but I'm not within arms reach of one.
Now, the GPL says there's no warranty because you didn't pay for this stuff. I don't remember what legal rigamarole MS uses. Can we fall back to arguing that most EULAs aren't legal instead?
Or you could just set the maximum damages that can be claimed equal to some multiple of the cost of the software (possible based on the serverity of the bug). Bug in a $X000 database package that causes massive data corruption? Big suit. Bug in $30 shareware game that makes your computer freeze up every-other month? Small suite. Bug in free (as in beer) software? 0 * anything is zero.
(Should also have some provision to sue for damages from someone who you're paying to service your free software I supose...)
There is no right to privacy, not in the constitution at least.
It might be a good idea though, so why not write your representatives about making it an amendment. It might give all the opposition to these kinds of laws something to stand on.
Re:Another article
on
Google Juice
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· Score: 2, Funny
You can't blame Google for accurately finding crap.
I just want you to know, that this line is going in my quotes file.
Something I'd like to see, and something that may actually be possible if broadband gets more mainstream, is to have these sorts of services running on your home computer. Just like what yahoo and msn do now, only w/o the ads. (I keep my schedule and to-do list in my space on the universities computers, and can get to it anywhere that has a telnet or ssh client, for example.)
"I think a LOT of people would be nervous if their source code was automatically made available once their 'copyright' was over, this is a MUCH more serious step than just loosing your copyright."
I can see arguments both ways: one, since source-code for many projects is never published, it isn't copyrighted (I guess it's a trade secret... not sure.) On the other hand, if it IS published, then when the copyright is over, it rises to public domain, and everyone does have the right to do whatever they want with it.
In the hypothetical case of a federal software association requiring that all source code be regitered with it... does that count as publishing? It probably would have to. So it would have to, eventually, become public domain. But what's so wrong with that?
Copyright is implicit the moment something is created, you aren't required to register for it (although it is recommended, and stands up much better in court), so the blueprints are likely covered by copyright.
And why are you concerned about source code to abandoned programs being released? I can't think of a single reason, so please share. (Okay, one: if id folded and the Quake 3 source code were abandoned, you would see a lot more cheats, but Quake doesn't have much in the way of security and safety.)
Finally... what 'risks'? The FAA requires aircraft blueprints (I assume) to check them for safety. Unsafe software can be almost as dangerous as an unsafe airplane, so it may not be a bad idea to have a Federal Software Security Association. What "freedom" would this take away from developers? The freedom to make insecure software?
So, does anyone see anything in there about the length of copyright? I don't. Please tell me I'm just blind.
Secondly, when the say "computer programs are copyrightable works," do they mean binaries, or source code? I don't know, and I'm not certain they're sure what they meant when they wrote it.
Yes, but those cost a whole lot more than the CD burner you can buy today. And if the SSCA passes, then you won't be able to buy the kind of burner you have now; you'll have to buy what the content-owners use. Which will probably also require paying some multi-thousand dollar fee to be a liscensed content-creator. In other words, they will create a HUGE barrier to entry; i.e. screw the little guys.
What do you mean "backwards compatibility"? The McKinley uses Intel's new IA-64 ISA, not x86. (Instead, it has a small chunk of real-estate devoted to translate x86 internally. Which means the chip is not optimized for x86.) IA-64 is much much cleaner than x86, and contains no reverse compatibility.
The big question is wether the compilers for IA-64 will be any good or not... that's what caused Intel's last attempt to divorce from x86 to fail, and their back-up plan (the 386, the 32-bit extension of the 16-bit x86 ISA) to succeed and become the most popular desktop microprocessor ever.
This time around, Intel doesn't have a backup plan , and AMD is the one doing the extension of a tried and true system.
Conclusion? I put my money on AMD, but if Intel can pull of the compiler, they dramatically increase their chances.
Standards don't drive [development efforts], because what happens, you wind [up] in a situation where standards may turn around and inhibit the ability to innovate...
Classic Microsoft... standards bad, embrace and extend good... we do it for security reasons, not because we're trying to leverage our monopoly power into yet-another market. I can almost understand the "don't tell anyone about the exploit until we have a chance to fix it" stance, but this makes me sick to my stomache.
I would be in favor of government standards of security. And not just because it would force more open standards, but because it's a good idea. Yes, it will probably not be easy to implement, and it might force MS to ship a product or two late, but at least it will enforce some needed checks from a company who's concept of security is identifying problems after product release.
Heat is proportional to power consumed, and power is proportional to voltage squared and frequency. The problem isn't heat though, exactly, it's heat density. A hot-plate makes about 10watts/cm^2. A P-III makes about 30. If current trends continue (faster switching speeds, smaller transistors, with only slight decreases in voltage diffential), then a 15nm process will produce more heat/area then a jet engine.
Yes, heat is a problem:)
Expect airconditioning to be a standard feature on new computers soon.
Except that feature size is linear while area is square. Naively then (assuming components/area is nearly exactly proportional to square of feature size), to double the components, feature size has to decrease by a factor of square-root of 2. Assuming 4 'doublings' in 8 years, that gives a feature size around 30nm or so. (5 gives about 24nm.) So 15 is a little ahead of the curve by that measurement. Of course, component count _isn't_ exactly proportional to the square of the feature size, so they'll probably be right around par.
And who said two wrongs don't make a right?
Re:though the suggestions might be usefull...
on
Homepage Usability
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· Score: 2
But, most of the big sites _don't_ use frames anymore. The usability provided by frames is often better served by a menu bar within the page. Frames (often needlessly) consumed part of the window space that can be used for better things. Example: would frames help/. ? The width of the scroll bar on the left side alone is a total waste. And I certainly don't want a frame along the top with the icons.
Frames have their place, yes, but they ended up being used in a million places that they sholdn't have been.
How does sacrificing usability for "fun" increase sales? I'm really curious. Can you point me to one page that is poor on usability but is "fun", and is making a lot of money? (I'm not bashing you on this, I'm generally curious to know who you're talking about.)
I thought that, when the annoucement was made that he could present the research, that Felton (or his lawyers or someone) came out and said that it was specifically to form a precedent, so that other researchers couldn't be bullied/hassled/hampered by similar attacks.
I can imagine it now. "Your plan provides 2 "anytime" GBs, and 10 "off-peak" GBs per month. Additional "anytime" GBs will be $5/ea. Peak hours are 3pm to 3am, M-F, and all day Sat and Sun."
Actually... that might be nice. Warez d00ds can d/l there ISOs while I'm asleep, and I'll have enough bandwidth to check my email when I get home at night.
Neuromancer had the first use many now-cutting edge techs. Reading it now, it sounds _so_ incredibly cliched... until you remember that they weren't cliches until after this book was written.
The chronological limitation of a physical notebook is what I hate the most about them! I always find myself wanting to take part of this page and part of that and move it into another section where etc. etc. Being able to do that is what I like about my computer.
Furthurmore, this document-less interface... how do I go back to a previousd docu^D^D^D^D separator? I key some reverse-search command and type... what? A file name? How is that different?
No one's telling you that you can't watch the original. And I agree with you; I wouldn't want to watch one of these edited films. But there are people who wouldn't mind toning an R down to PG-13 and watching it with their child, or younger sibling, or what have you. I think this is a MUCH better approach then caveing in to the "save the children" advocates and only producing edited movies.
Is there anyone out there who managed to beat Wiz7 w/o the help of the hint book? That game is so unbelievably complicated to beat! One of my housemates, with the book open the entire time, still took 4 months to play through.
I think this would be a much better product if they allowed you to set levels for each of language, sex, violence, etc. Although, it does seem that you can make your own "masks", so I guess a third party could do that.
Slashdot Mirror
Nope. From GNU GPL:
And most other EULAs say the same thing (or something similar). I'd give an example from MS, but I'm not within arms reach of one.Now, the GPL says there's no warranty because you didn't pay for this stuff. I don't remember what legal rigamarole MS uses. Can we fall back to arguing that most EULAs aren't legal instead?
(Should also have some provision to sue for damages from someone who you're paying to service your free software I supose...)
It might be a good idea though, so why not write your representatives about making it an amendment. It might give all the opposition to these kinds of laws something to stand on.
I just want you to know, that this line is going in my quotes file.
Something I'd like to see, and something that may actually be possible if broadband gets more mainstream, is to have these sorts of services running on your home computer. Just like what yahoo and msn do now, only w/o the ads. (I keep my schedule and to-do list in my space on the universities computers, and can get to it anywhere that has a telnet or ssh client, for example.)
I can see arguments both ways: one, since source-code for many projects is never published, it isn't copyrighted (I guess it's a trade secret... not sure.) On the other hand, if it IS published, then when the copyright is over, it rises to public domain, and everyone does have the right to do whatever they want with it.
In the hypothetical case of a federal software association requiring that all source code be regitered with it... does that count as publishing? It probably would have to. So it would have to, eventually, become public domain. But what's so wrong with that?
Copyright is implicit the moment something is created, you aren't required to register for it (although it is recommended, and stands up much better in court), so the blueprints are likely covered by copyright.
And why are you concerned about source code to abandoned programs being released? I can't think of a single reason, so please share. (Okay, one: if id folded and the Quake 3 source code were abandoned, you would see a lot more cheats, but Quake doesn't have much in the way of security and safety.)
Finally... what 'risks'? The FAA requires aircraft blueprints (I assume) to check them for safety. Unsafe software can be almost as dangerous as an unsafe airplane, so it may not be a bad idea to have a Federal Software Security Association. What "freedom" would this take away from developers? The freedom to make insecure software?
Secondly, when the say "computer programs are copyrightable works," do they mean binaries, or source code? I don't know, and I'm not certain they're sure what they meant when they wrote it.
Yes, but those cost a whole lot more than the CD burner you can buy today. And if the SSCA passes, then you won't be able to buy the kind of burner you have now; you'll have to buy what the content-owners use. Which will probably also require paying some multi-thousand dollar fee to be a liscensed content-creator. In other words, they will create a HUGE barrier to entry; i.e. screw the little guys.
(What high-school physics failures mark these things up as insightful?)
The big question is wether the compilers for IA-64 will be any good or not... that's what caused Intel's last attempt to divorce from x86 to fail, and their back-up plan (the 386, the 32-bit extension of the 16-bit x86 ISA) to succeed and become the most popular desktop microprocessor ever.
This time around, Intel doesn't have a backup plan , and AMD is the one doing the extension of a tried and true system.
Conclusion? I put my money on AMD, but if Intel can pull of the compiler, they dramatically increase their chances.
Classic Microsoft... standards bad, embrace and extend good... we do it for security reasons, not because we're trying to leverage our monopoly power into yet-another market. I can almost understand the "don't tell anyone about the exploit until we have a chance to fix it" stance, but this makes me sick to my stomache.
I would be in favor of government standards of security. And not just because it would force more open standards, but because it's a good idea. Yes, it will probably not be easy to implement, and it might force MS to ship a product or two late, but at least it will enforce some needed checks from a company who's concept of security is identifying problems after product release.
Heat is proportional to power consumed, and power is proportional to voltage squared and frequency. The problem isn't heat though, exactly, it's heat density. A hot-plate makes about 10watts/cm^2. A P-III makes about 30. If current trends continue (faster switching speeds, smaller transistors, with only slight decreases in voltage diffential), then a 15nm process will produce more heat/area then a jet engine.
:)
Yes, heat is a problem
Expect airconditioning to be a standard feature on new computers soon.
Except that feature size is linear while area is square. Naively then (assuming components/area is nearly exactly proportional to square of feature size), to double the components, feature size has to decrease by a factor of square-root of 2. Assuming 4 'doublings' in 8 years, that gives a feature size around 30nm or so. (5 gives about 24nm.) So 15 is a little ahead of the curve by that measurement. Of course, component count _isn't_ exactly proportional to the square of the feature size, so they'll probably be right around par.
And who said two wrongs don't make a right?
But, most of the big sites _don't_ use frames anymore. The usability provided by frames is often better served by a menu bar within the page. Frames (often needlessly) consumed part of the window space that can be used for better things. Example: would frames help /. ? The width of the scroll bar on the left side alone is a total waste. And I certainly don't want a frame along the top with the icons.
Frames have their place, yes, but they ended up being used in a million places that they sholdn't have been.
How does sacrificing usability for "fun" increase sales? I'm really curious. Can you point me to one page that is poor on usability but is "fun", and is making a lot of money? (I'm not bashing you on this, I'm generally curious to know who you're talking about.)
"What do you hope to accomplish further."
I thought that, when the annoucement was made that he could present the research, that Felton (or his lawyers or someone) came out and said that it was specifically to form a precedent, so that other researchers couldn't be bullied/hassled/hampered by similar attacks.
I can imagine it now. "Your plan provides 2 "anytime" GBs, and 10 "off-peak" GBs per month. Additional "anytime" GBs will be $5/ea. Peak hours are 3pm to 3am, M-F, and all day Sat and Sun."
Actually... that might be nice. Warez d00ds can d/l there ISOs while I'm asleep, and I'll have enough bandwidth to check my email when I get home at night.
Neuromancer had the first use many now-cutting edge techs. Reading it now, it sounds _so_ incredibly cliched... until you remember that they weren't cliches until after this book was written.
Does Google even use metadata? I thought their big thing was external linking.
The chronological limitation of a physical notebook is what I hate the most about them! I always find myself wanting to take part of this page and part of that and move it into another section where etc. etc. Being able to do that is what I like about my computer.
Furthurmore, this document-less interface... how do I go back to a previousd docu^D^D^D^D separator? I key some reverse-search command and type... what? A file name? How is that different?
But virtual screens do rule.
No one's telling you that you can't watch the original. And I agree with you; I wouldn't want to watch one of these edited films. But there are people who wouldn't mind toning an R down to PG-13 and watching it with their child, or younger sibling, or what have you. I think this is a MUCH better approach then caveing in to the "save the children" advocates and only producing edited movies.
Is there anyone out there who managed to beat Wiz7 w/o the help of the hint book? That game is so unbelievably complicated to beat! One of my housemates, with the book open the entire time, still took 4 months to play through.
I think this would be a much better product if they allowed you to set levels for each of language, sex, violence, etc. Although, it does seem that you can make your own "masks", so I guess a third party could do that.
Glad to see that story submissions are always un-biased on