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User: yerricde

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  1. Netscape vs. Netscape on What's Keeping You On Windows? · · Score: 1

    Netscape isn't stable

    Do you mean "Netscape isn't stable" or just "Netscape 4 isn't stable"? If the former, are there specific problems you've had with Netscape 7?

  2. Annual minimum royalty on Congress Passes SWSA · · Score: 2, Interesting

    IS this settlement good or bad for the webcasters?

    There is an annual minimum royalty of $500, which means that the smallest of small webcasters may not be able to afford it.

  3. Coming soon: standalone Mozilla mail on Mozilla Adding Spam Filters · · Score: 2

    Is it possible to install Mozilla Mail (and the address book) without installing the browser?

    It will be when the Mail component is branched off into its own project, soon after the release of Phoenix 0.5.

    Is it possible to install Outlook Express without installing Microsoft Internet Explorer?

  4. So what would Rare do in that situation? on Microsoft Loses $177m on Xbox in Three Months · · Score: 1

    MS wouldn't suddenly de-value their prize company.

    And selling Rare back to Nintendo and creating a competitor would devalue Rare in Microsoft's eyes just as much, no? What would Rare do if Microsoft were to discontinue the Xbox and not introduce an Xbox 2?

  5. Rare may go to WinXP, not GCN on Microsoft Loses $177m on Xbox in Three Months · · Score: 1

    So when/if the X-box goes away, maybe Rare will start putting out quality shooters on the GC again.

    What makes you think Rare will crawl back to Nintendo? If the Xbox fails, Microsoft could just make Rare develop games for Windows XP.

  6. Dee-Emm-See-Ay! on EMI Promises Downloadable Music · · Score: 1

    Next month he can down load "YMCA" legally!

    Either that or some parody that goes "It's fun to violate the D-M-C-A".

  7. Does forgent have a case? on W3C Policy To Favor Royalty-Free Patents Only · · Score: 2, Informative

    What does this imply for the now patented and non-royalty-free JPG and GIF?

    The current thinking on the patent status of still JPEG 1 is that Forgent doesn't have a case.

    The patent on GIF's compression (U.S. Patent 4,558,302, owned by Unisys) is due to expire at the end of June. Patents that were once licensed royalty-free are quite hard to "evergreen".

  8. Look for "irrevocable" on W3C Policy To Favor Royalty-Free Patents Only · · Score: 1

    While they're royalty free now, what is to say they're royalty free next week?

    That's why you look for "irrevocable" in the patent licence.

  9. They are making it illegal on FTC Sues Six in Spam E-Mail Round-Up · · Score: 1

    Now if they could make [unsolicited bulk e-mail] illegal, that would be better.

    They are making it illegal, by enforcing the laws against fraud with respect to the list of people who have opted out.

  10. Outlook is part of the IE Package on Mozilla Adding Spam Filters · · Score: 4, Informative

    E-mail is Outlook's domain. Not IE.

    It's possible to net-install Mozilla without installing Mozilla Mail, but the default setting includes both. It's possible to net-install IE without installing Outlook Express, but the default setting includes both. Thus, it is a fair comparison.

    100. Bugzilla - OK, lots of people use this, but Bugzilla != Mozilla. So it's not like Mozilla has built-in Bugzilla features... This is unrelated to the list.

    I think the point of that entry was that unlike IE's bug database, which only Microsoft employees see, Mozilla's bug database is 99% open to the public (the other 1% primarily covers unfixed security vulnerabilities).

  11. Offer must come before consideration on MAME To Become GPL? · · Score: 2

    Nintendo could claim their cartridge format is an encrypter, even if it doesn't use any sort of encryption software.

    The GBA cart edge interface is somewhat of a cross between Intellivision's interleaved address and data bus and IDE's seek-and-read architecture. It uses no "scrambling of data" which is one of the DMCA's requirements for an "access control measure". It uses primarily a checksum validation on a header that contains some basic info about the cartridge and a 156-byte block of constant data. Claiming copyright on constant data in a header isn't a valid method of console monopoly protection (Sega v. Accolade). That ruling allows homebrew software like this to exist.

    I think if they could prove the EULA came with the package and you saw it, they would win in court

    I saw it, and I looked at it, but I don't think it's exactly a binding contract in most U.S. states. A binding contract comes from an offer that is accepted with a "consideration" (that is, an exchange of things of value). Because the consideration was performed (credit card to Best Buy cashier) before I opened the box and saw the offer, the offer is not a valid offer, and there is no binding contract.

  12. Snail mail has anthrax on EFF Urges Support for Rep. Boucher's DMCRA · · Score: 2

    Spend the $.37 and the little bit of toner and print the letter and mail it. It WILL get read by someone

    Or be discarded as an anthrax spore delivery vehicle.

    Send a fax.

  13. Corrupt CDs on Philips & Sony To Purchase Intertrust DRM Tech · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So does this mean that Philips and Sony are now endorsing the production of digital audio discs that partially violate the Red Book standard?

  14. Java isn't too slow for arcade emulation on MAME To Become GPL? · · Score: 1

    Do they make a modern processor that's fast enough to run a Java app that emulates a 1 Mhz Z80 processor?? :)

    Given that even a mediocre JVM runs Java bytecode at 1/6 the speed of native code, and good JVMs run at half speed, a 1 GHz Athlon should do it nicely. In fact, a Java applet emulates a GBA, which includes a 16 MHz ARM7TDMI processor and a graphics chip twice as powerful as the Super NES's. It seems to run at full speed on my 866 MHz PIII.

  15. Make it up in quantity on MAME To Become GPL? · · Score: 1

    Either way ~50/50 is not "pretty reliably".

    Even if it's consistently 51/49, how many hands of blackjack does a typical experienced player play in an hour?

    I ought to write a homebrew blackjack program which doesn't pay anything for the Pac-Man hardware or the Vs. Unisystem hardware to see if MAME team categorizes it as a non-gambling video game.

  16. Vs Unisystem on MAME To Become GPL? · · Score: 1

    Also, the code for the cartridge is much different from the code for the arcade version

    Not if, as in the case of games for the Vs. Unisystem arcade platform and the NES console, the console hardware and the arcade hardware are so close that it isn't funny.

  17. Go Capcom! on MAME To Become GPL? · · Score: 1

    There are also ones that are technically illegal but the manufacturer said they won't enforce the copyright.

    So in other words, some video game publishers put their games under Free Beer License.

    Capcom said if the game is over 3 years old they don't have a big issue about it.

    Do you have any sources for this quote? If so, GO CAPCOM!

  18. (OT) +1 Good Question on MAME To Become GPL? · · Score: 1

    I'd like to see a "+1 Good Question." The three "+1 I.*s" are pretty much the same.

    Generally, Slashdot moderators use Interesting to promote questions that they want answered.

  19. GPL FAQ says no on MAME To Become GPL? · · Score: 1

    Loading a video game ROM into MAME is just like linking

    I wouldn't be so sure. MAME is an interpreter. According to the GPL FAQ, the interpreted program is just data, and loading data into a program usually does not count as linking.

  20. How to do a payout on MAME To Become GPL? · · Score: 1

    gambling isn;t in mame because how would it do the payout? :)

    Hypothetical:
    It would open another game and insert coins automatically. Thus, you earn credits in Virtual Blackjack and spend them in Zero Wing, Pac-Man, etc.

  21. (OT) Spark Notes on Slashback: Mutuality, Transport, Spyware · · Score: 1

    Shouldn't you be reading the book instead of using Sparknotes?

    How about both? That's what study notes are designed for. The notes give an overview of each chapter, so that I don't get lost when reading the summary. After reading the notes, I read the chapter of the book. Then I read the commentary, which gives me a whole bunch of things to disagree with in my book report.

  22. Blackjack is a game of skill. on MAME To Become GPL? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    BTW, if you're curious, what makes the difference between video games and gambling games for us is whether skill can make a difference. In gambling games, all is decided by the return ratio the operator set in the configuration

    Not for blackjack. Blackjack is a balance between skill and chance, just like Tetris (which MAME currently emulates). A player who know what he doing can beat the dealer pretty reliably in four-deck blackjack.

    Outside the realm of coin-op games, is "Casino Kid" a video game?

  23. BOY COTT! on MAME To Become GPL? · · Score: 1

    A couple years ago, a bunch of NeXT cube users offered to pay the full retail price for the current WP8 for a copy WordPerfect for NeXTSTEP, but they were declined. Told that while they still owned the rights, they weren't interested in selling them, and reminded these folks that they couldn't let them give it away either.

    So WordPerfect forcibly removed a work from print and provided no reasonable timescale for the product's reintroduction to print? Let me add WordPerfect to my boycott list. There is no escape from the kind of badwill that such actions bring to a company's name. At least Disney re-releases its old movies every 10 years.

  24. The great patriotic Russian game? on MAME To Become GPL? · · Score: 1

    At least you were not programming the Great Patriotic Game, comrade.

    Would that be TOD for the Game Boy Advance? You know, where tetraminoes fall from the sky, and you have to move and spin them to make 4x4 block squares and complete horizontal lines before you overdose?

  25. Where in the copyright law is "squatters' rights"? on MAME To Become GPL? · · Score: 1

    Try reading the actual USC sometime.

    Does Title 17, United States Code, contain any provision for "squatters' rights" to the redistribution of out-of-print copyrighted works? If so, in what section?