Why buy a $299 console to play a game that's available for PC?
Microsoft could release Windows LH operating system for the PC, charge $300 per seat, and encourage developers to take advantage of Windows LH's new gaming features.
Better yet, Microsoft could release a VMware-like product that virtualizes your CPU and GeForce 4, creating "Windows XB" with a built-in Xbox "emulator."
Sorry, Microsoft is just playing the game in this case:
There are some specific games that Microsoft is not allowed to play under United States law. Microsoft has been convicted of using a monopoly to create another. Leveraging its Title 17 monopoly on Windows software into a monopoly on the broader market for x86 PC operating systems is one thing; leveraging that monopoly into new areas (XboxOS is based on Windows 2000 Embedded) is another. Bill Gates III does not like to talk to the judge.
There are two laws both called the DMCA. One DMCA consists of 17 USC chapter 12, which prohibits cracking 8-bit XOR encryption used as an access control device. The other DMCA consists of a takedown procedure (17 USC 512) that ISPs can follow to maintain a safe harbor. There are also several riders on the DMCA that reverse MAI v. Peak, protect vessel hulls, and affect some operations of the U.S. Copyright Office. See this
PDF for more information.
It is simply copyright infringment. Plain, old fashioned copyright infringment. Its illegal, period.
Now that Microsoft has discontinued Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition in favor of NT-based XP, it's no longer licensing MS-DOS for use on new mass-market PCs. All operating systems that are sold on new desktop machines include a shell that uses IE components and the Microsoft IE DOM.
Linux doesn't require KDE to run. Many KDE apps require konqueror components to run.
Most graphical apps on *BSD and *Linux don't need Konqueror because most X11 apps aren't KDE apps. On the other hand, Explorer is the only desktop environment on Win32 with any market share. Remember, when Microsoft gained a desktop OS monopoly, it had to start playing by different rules.
Many Win98 apps require IE to run.
Most of them don't really require Microsoft® brand IE but just an ActiveX control that exposes the IE API. Such controls include this Mozilla control, which implements everything in IE but document.all, VBScript, and security holes.
IE is an ActiveX control. Microsoft has already released IE's API; otherwise, no app would be able to embed the IE control. Look through the MSDN library for more information.
then a 3rd party could implement the interface.
Done. Here's a drop-in replacement for IE that uses Mozilla's Gecko rendering engine. However, it's missing a few IE proprietary features such as document.all and the VBScript language.
That would create the possibility of non-microsoft providers of mshtml.dll.
The Mozilla control page links to a tool that patches mshtml.dll apps (even IExplore itself) to use the Mozilla control instead.
If I read a story I don't want to see the inaccurate copy of yesterday, I want the up to date and full story.
But I don't want a significant news detail downplayed just because it happened in the morning. That seems to be what happened to this story: a highly significant hesitation on the part of a Microsoft witness was written through with the rest of the day's news.
People turn to [the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post] for certain information and turn away from them [toward other outlets] for other information.
Except the average Post reader doesn't know that the other outlets exist, therefore the other information doesn't exist, therefore popular SF doesn't exist.
The trick in life is to find people whos opinions you respect and share recommendations.
And it remains tricky, even in the age of the internet, to locate coverage of alternative viewpoints.
But it's this exact role that makes me hope these outlets carry both types of lists. One that is biased only by actual sales figures and another that is biased by their editorial bent... both are valuable to me, and side-by-side they are more valuable together.
I agree completely. (By "unbiased" I think I actually meant "biased by only straightforward objective statistics.") I just wonder how the average consumer can discover sources of information with different editorial bents.
If you ask me for information, make no promises about what you're going to do with it, and I willingly give it to you
What if the entity that asks for information does make promises, but buries them in a ten-page document at a college (commonly called 'legalese') reading level rather than in a one-page privacy policy at an eighth-grade (newspaper) reading level?
If you want to know about science fiction, do you go to WSJ? Huh, didn't think so. Consumers expect the editorial bent of the paper to affect their content.
So where do consumers go if they want a complete lack of bias, or if they want to try something new? Some of them, going on what they have seen with space opera such as Star Trek and Star Wars (ecch, Jar-Jar) may not be aware that good, deep SF exists.
Right now, there's an active field of research in discrete algebra focusing on mathematical constructs called "cwatsets." Cwatsets are not a Welsh obscenity but rather a slight generalization of group theory that has applications in statistics.
calculus
Calculus, especially in the 3xx and 4xx levels where it is called "real analysis", is still an active field of research.
that would make it into most undergraduate classes.
I agree that 1xx-level and 2xx-level material don't change much from year to year, except perhaps in CS where the school changes the language for Introduction to Programming every other year to match market demands. Perhaps I just go to a good school, where many of the mathematical topics covered in most colleges' graduate programs are covered in the senior year.
If you pay full price for it and keep it, the book depreciates on your shelf until the data in it is out of date and worthless.
As you mentioned, a literature textbook does not depreciate. Neither does a history textbook nor a Newtonian mechanics textbook (for Physics I).
With E-Books, you pay for it the time you use it. Presumably at a much cheaper price than what you would pay for the dead tree version.
Except in practice, monopolistic effects ensure that you won't see your "much cheaper price" for electronic textbook rental once dead-tree textbooks are driven off the market. There is an inelastic demand for textbook rental, and basic microeconomic theory predicts that inelastic demand + no significant competition = high prices for students.
I'm also afraid that you'll also see EULAs on such electronic textbooks: "You may not use a Braille terminal to read this book." "You may not allow more than one person to read this book." "You may not read this book off campus." Richard Stallman explains it better than I can.
It's sort of like when "portability" was a big thing, and you saw references to it in the literature for virtually every product, even those that were designed to run on very specific hardware/software setups.
Game Boy Advance games run on very specific hardware (16.8 MHz ARM7TDMI processor with custom sound and graphics chips) and software (GBA BIOS). The runtime environment feels like PC DOS (that is, minimal with direct hardware access). Yet GBA software is still called "portable" because the layman's conception of portability is not "runs on several different brands of CPUs" but closer to "fits in my pocket".
Quake 3? 130 fps? That's AFTER the x86 emulation you'd need to get Quake3 to run on that? Not likely.
You don't need to emulate an Intel x86 architecture microprocessor to run Quake III Arena. If you work for id Software or have a source license from id Software, you can port Q3A natively to the PS2 Linux platform. If they could port q3a to the Dreamcast, surely it must be possible on the PlayStation 2. In fact, EA has done it, packaging it with a substantial single-player mod.
Unfortunately, you can't use your l33t PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse with PS2 Quake III Arena.
I think that the CALs are required for Macs. At least if they are accessing Windows file shares, Inter/intra-net servers, etc.
You don't need a CAL to access a Windows Networking share from a computer running Mac OS X. All you need is SAMBA. Most of Microsoft's other server software runs on standard protocols such as HTTP, FTP, etc.
perhaps, but Pentium is a registered trademark, so unfortunately, Pentiums _is_ the plural in this case.
No. The law (Lanham Act in the USA) treats trademarks as adjectives. In English, adjectives are invariant under plural. Thus, the plural of "Pentium" is "Pentium processors", just as the singular of "Doritos" is "Doritos tortilla chip".
The decapacitation and amputation clause may make sense
Will it be illegal to make a game whose main character is a legless boy? "You see, Your Honor, even though you don't see any legs getting cut off in the game, the fact that he doesn't have any legs most surely implies that there was an amputation somewhere. Ban it!" And watch the bought-and-paid-for judge conveniently ignore the fact that the boy is from a race of people born without lower appendages, as was explained in both the manual and the help file.
TNT (or TNN? I always get the two confused) has been doing this for many years; most of their shows are offset by 5 minutes or so.
Neither. TBS starts programs at:05 and:35. TNN is the one with the black status bar at the bottom, which lets the channel run ads without interrupting the program.
since when is open source about a single platform?
Open Source has never been about a single platform. Free Software isn't either (GNU/*, *BSD, AtheOS, the former OpenBeOS, etc. are all free) but it does have a concept of a "free system" that contains no proprietary software.
"Public interest" is sprinkled through just about all the points. How can anyone possibly base a code of ethics on something that can't possibly be defined?
Apparently, you missed the following in grandparent:
Without the aspirations, the details can become legalistic and tedious; without the details, the aspirations can become high sounding but empty; together, the aspirations and the details form a cohesive code.
Grandparent left out the details because they don't fit into the 4,096 character limit before Slashdot cuts out the rest with "Read the rest of this comment..."
I mean, isn't it obvious that, if it's $400 for one person, it will be $800 for a couple?
It's not as obvious as you might think. In the travel business, there's often a substantial discount on per-person rates for double occupancy, meaning that if it costs $X for one person, it'll cost less than $2*X for a couple.
And what the heck is wrong with employing third world labor? You mean they should go without jobs?
No, I think third world laborers should go without having to work in the disgusting conditions they work in. I think they should go without breathing filthy air. I think they should work ten (not 14) hour days. I think they should get at least their country's minimum wage so that they can begin to take care of their own health.
I think you should read this story if you haven't already.
It's when the company is about to be delisted, not bankruptcy that gets the Q appended.
No. According to this page, if a company's Nasdaq stock symbol ends in Q, then the company is in bankruptcy proceedings. C is for "may be delisted soon."
Like CD's, something else that costs a lot more than it used to relative to how much people make.
Compact discs have been $15-$20 in the USA since they first came out. Compared to the Consumer Price Index (the most popular measure of inflation in the USA), the price of a CD has dropped, but thanks to improved recording, mixing, and mastering techniques, the fidelity of the audio has increased. (I speak only of the quality of the reproduction, not the quality of the underlying compositions and performances.)
Slashdot Mirror
Why buy a $299 console to play a game that's available for PC?
Microsoft could release Windows LH operating system for the PC, charge $300 per seat, and encourage developers to take advantage of Windows LH's new gaming features.
Better yet, Microsoft could release a VMware-like product that virtualizes your CPU and GeForce 4, creating "Windows XB" with a built-in Xbox "emulator."
Sorry, Microsoft is just playing the game in this case:
There are some specific games that Microsoft is not allowed to play under United States law. Microsoft has been convicted of using a monopoly to create another. Leveraging its Title 17 monopoly on Windows software into a monopoly on the broader market for x86 PC operating systems is one thing; leveraging that monopoly into new areas (XboxOS is based on Windows 2000 Embedded) is another. Bill Gates III does not like to talk to the judge.
The DMCA is not the solution here.
The DMCA is not the "DMCA".
There are two laws both called the DMCA. One DMCA consists of 17 USC chapter 12, which prohibits cracking 8-bit XOR encryption used as an access control device. The other DMCA consists of a takedown procedure (17 USC 512) that ISPs can follow to maintain a safe harbor. There are also several riders on the DMCA that reverse MAI v. Peak, protect vessel hulls, and affect some operations of the U.S. Copyright Office. See this PDF for more information.
It is simply copyright infringment. Plain, old fashioned copyright infringment. Its illegal, period.
I agree 100%.
DOS doesn't require IE to run.
Now that Microsoft has discontinued Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition in favor of NT-based XP, it's no longer licensing MS-DOS for use on new mass-market PCs. All operating systems that are sold on new desktop machines include a shell that uses IE components and the Microsoft IE DOM.
Linux doesn't require KDE to run. Many KDE apps require konqueror components to run.
Most graphical apps on *BSD and *Linux don't need Konqueror because most X11 apps aren't KDE apps. On the other hand, Explorer is the only desktop environment on Win32 with any market share. Remember, when Microsoft gained a desktop OS monopoly, it had to start playing by different rules.
Many Win98 apps require IE to run.
Most of them don't really require Microsoft® brand IE but just an ActiveX control that exposes the IE API. Such controls include this Mozilla control, which implements everything in IE but document.all, VBScript, and security holes.
Microsoft could release the API
IE is an ActiveX control. Microsoft has already released IE's API; otherwise, no app would be able to embed the IE control. Look through the MSDN library for more information.
then a 3rd party could implement the interface.
Done. Here's a drop-in replacement for IE that uses Mozilla's Gecko rendering engine. However, it's missing a few IE proprietary features such as document.all and the VBScript language.
That would create the possibility of non-microsoft providers of mshtml.dll.
The Mozilla control page links to a tool that patches mshtml.dll apps (even IExplore itself) to use the Mozilla control instead.
If the BIOS is encrypted, and the chip that performs the decryption commits Capcom Suicide when tampered with, then you can't hack the computer.
If I read a story I don't want to see the inaccurate copy of yesterday, I want the up to date and full story.
But I don't want a significant news detail downplayed just because it happened in the morning. That seems to be what happened to this story: a highly significant hesitation on the part of a Microsoft witness was written through with the rest of the day's news.
Here's a Newspeak dictionary.
Newspeak may have been inspired by Basic English or Esperanto. Contrary to the opinion of some, Toki Pona was not inspired by Newspeak.
People turn to [the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post] for certain information and turn away from them [toward other outlets] for other information.
Except the average Post reader doesn't know that the other outlets exist, therefore the other information doesn't exist, therefore popular SF doesn't exist.
The trick in life is to find people whos opinions you respect and share recommendations.
And it remains tricky, even in the age of the internet, to locate coverage of alternative viewpoints.
But it's this exact role that makes me hope these outlets carry both types of lists. One that is biased only by actual sales figures and another that is biased by their editorial bent... both are valuable to me, and side-by-side they are more valuable together.
I agree completely. (By "unbiased" I think I actually meant "biased by only straightforward objective statistics.") I just wonder how the average consumer can discover sources of information with different editorial bents.
If you ask me for information, make no promises about what you're going to do with it, and I willingly give it to you
What if the entity that asks for information does make promises, but buries them in a ten-page document at a college (commonly called 'legalese') reading level rather than in a one-page privacy policy at an eighth-grade (newspaper) reading level?
If you want to know about science fiction, do you go to WSJ? Huh, didn't think so. Consumers expect the editorial bent of the paper to affect their content.
So where do consumers go if they want a complete lack of bias, or if they want to try something new? Some of them, going on what they have seen with space opera such as Star Trek and Star Wars (ecch, Jar-Jar) may not be aware that good, deep SF exists.
there haven't been many advances in algebra
Right now, there's an active field of research in discrete algebra focusing on mathematical constructs called "cwatsets." Cwatsets are not a Welsh obscenity but rather a slight generalization of group theory that has applications in statistics.
calculus
Calculus, especially in the 3xx and 4xx levels where it is called "real analysis", is still an active field of research.
that would make it into most undergraduate classes.
I agree that 1xx-level and 2xx-level material don't change much from year to year, except perhaps in CS where the school changes the language for Introduction to Programming every other year to match market demands. Perhaps I just go to a good school, where many of the mathematical topics covered in most colleges' graduate programs are covered in the senior year.
If you pay full price for it and keep it, the book depreciates on your shelf until the data in it is out of date and worthless.
As you mentioned, a literature textbook does not depreciate. Neither does a history textbook nor a Newtonian mechanics textbook (for Physics I).
With E-Books, you pay for it the time you use it. Presumably at a much cheaper price than what you would pay for the dead tree version.
Except in practice, monopolistic effects ensure that you won't see your "much cheaper price" for electronic textbook rental once dead-tree textbooks are driven off the market. There is an inelastic demand for textbook rental, and basic microeconomic theory predicts that inelastic demand + no significant competition = high prices for students.
I'm also afraid that you'll also see EULAs on such electronic textbooks: "You may not use a Braille terminal to read this book." "You may not allow more than one person to read this book." "You may not read this book off campus." Richard Stallman explains it better than I can.
It's sort of like when "portability" was a big thing, and you saw references to it in the literature for virtually every product, even those that were designed to run on very specific hardware/software setups.
Game Boy Advance games run on very specific hardware (16.8 MHz ARM7TDMI processor with custom sound and graphics chips) and software (GBA BIOS). The runtime environment feels like PC DOS (that is, minimal with direct hardware access). Yet GBA software is still called "portable" because the layman's conception of portability is not "runs on several different brands of CPUs" but closer to "fits in my pocket".
Quake 3? 130 fps? That's AFTER the x86 emulation you'd need to get Quake3 to run on that? Not likely.
You don't need to emulate an Intel x86 architecture microprocessor to run Quake III Arena. If you work for id Software or have a source license from id Software, you can port Q3A natively to the PS2 Linux platform. If they could port q3a to the Dreamcast, surely it must be possible on the PlayStation 2. In fact, EA has done it, packaging it with a substantial single-player mod.
Unfortunately, you can't use your l33t PS/2 keyboard and PS/2 mouse with PS2 Quake III Arena.
I think that the CALs are required for Macs. At least if they are accessing Windows file shares, Inter/intra-net servers, etc.
You don't need a CAL to access a Windows Networking share from a computer running Mac OS X. All you need is SAMBA. Most of Microsoft's other server software runs on standard protocols such as HTTP, FTP, etc.
perhaps, but Pentium is a registered trademark, so unfortunately, Pentiums _is_ the plural in this case.
No. The law (Lanham Act in the USA) treats trademarks as adjectives. In English, adjectives are invariant under plural. Thus, the plural of "Pentium" is "Pentium processors", just as the singular of "Doritos" is "Doritos tortilla chip".
The decapacitation and amputation clause may make sense
Will it be illegal to make a game whose main character is a legless boy? "You see, Your Honor, even though you don't see any legs getting cut off in the game, the fact that he doesn't have any legs most surely implies that there was an amputation somewhere. Ban it!" And watch the bought-and-paid-for judge conveniently ignore the fact that the boy is from a race of people born without lower appendages, as was explained in both the manual and the help file.
TNT (or TNN? I always get the two confused) has been doing this for many years; most of their shows are offset by 5 minutes or so.
Neither. TBS starts programs at :05 and :35. TNN is the one with the black status bar at the bottom, which lets the channel run ads without interrupting the program.
since when is open source about a single platform?
Open Source has never been about a single platform. Free Software isn't either (GNU/*, *BSD, AtheOS, the former OpenBeOS, etc. are all free) but it does have a concept of a "free system" that contains no proprietary software.
Parent:
"Public interest" is sprinkled through just about all the points. How can anyone possibly base a code of ethics on something that can't possibly be defined?
Apparently, you missed the following in grandparent:
Without the aspirations, the details can become legalistic and tedious; without the details, the aspirations can become high sounding but empty; together, the aspirations and the details form a cohesive code.
Grandparent left out the details because they don't fit into the 4,096 character limit before Slashdot cuts out the rest with "Read the rest of this comment..."
I mean, isn't it obvious that, if it's $400 for one person, it will be $800 for a couple?
It's not as obvious as you might think. In the travel business, there's often a substantial discount on per-person rates for double occupancy, meaning that if it costs $X for one person, it'll cost less than $2*X for a couple.
And what the heck is wrong with employing third world labor? You mean they should go without jobs?
No, I think third world laborers should go without having to work in the disgusting conditions they work in. I think they should go without breathing filthy air. I think they should work ten (not 14) hour days. I think they should get at least their country's minimum wage so that they can begin to take care of their own health.
I think you should read this story if you haven't already.
It's when the company is about to be delisted, not bankruptcy that gets the Q appended.
No. According to this page, if a company's Nasdaq stock symbol ends in Q, then the company is in bankruptcy proceedings. C is for "may be delisted soon."
Like CD's, something else that costs a lot more than it used to relative to how much people make.
Compact discs have been $15-$20 in the USA since they first came out. Compared to the Consumer Price Index (the most popular measure of inflation in the USA), the price of a CD has dropped, but thanks to improved recording, mixing, and mastering techniques, the fidelity of the audio has increased. (I speak only of the quality of the reproduction, not the quality of the underlying compositions and performances.)