In that case, Intel could insert some obfuscated code to detect AMD CPUs into its compilers' output and then run delay loops on AMD CPUs to create a phony lack of benchmark performance.
Why should anyone care if Microsoft requires you to use their products when you use their ISP?
Because Microsoft is in monopolistic bed with the spammers, and you can't read hotspam if you're using a POP3 or IMAP MUA with good filters (which Outhouse Express lacks).
Because Microsoft products don't run on anything but i686 architecture machines, and if you don't already have an i686, prepare to fork over $1,000 for a new computer. (I'm not sure if Outhouse Express for the Mac supports the brand-new protocol.)
Its very simple: if you want MSN, you must use Outlook Express or a web-based interface.
Both choices make it prohibitively difficult or impossible to filter spam.
1) Buy a Dell
Like Gateway is any better <cough>AOL</cough>.
2) Choose Windows on that Dell rather than Linux
A Dell box with Linux actually costs more (MS tax per box Dell ships whether or not Windows is installed, plus Linux media and printed manual costs), and the kids will eat you alive if you don't get them a new game machine, which Linux isn't at this writing.
3) Choose to use the included MSN
When the only other online provider in your area is America Online?
Real Os defined to be one not written or sold by Microsoft.
Poor definition:
Once "Microsoft Corporation" spins its operating system unit off as a separate company (under USDOJ order), Windows will no longer be "written or sold by Microsoft."
If Microsoft starts writing BIOS programs (as it has started to do with XBox and Easy PC), it may be IMPOSSIBLE to find a good store-bought computer that can be easily made MS-free.
I consider Windows 2000 to be in nearly the same league as the Solaris system on 1- to 4-CPU machines. The biggest thing wrong with it is buggy video drivers (the primary cause for an estimated 50%+ of BSODs), but that applies mainly if you're using it with beta drivers as a game machine, in which case you should be waiting for Super Smash Bros. 2 on Nintendo GAMECUBE instead. "Warning: incoming game!"
All you'd have to do is record at a different bitrate
Easily thwarted. The algorithm probably only keeps a "telephone/AM quality" (about 24/32 kbps mono) of the audio in question.
or normalize the song differently
Any difference in volume or dynamics processing would be accounted for by the "compress volume" stage of the algorithm. This would be pretty much necessary to account for analog rips.
or change pitches slightly
A large portion of Napster content is rips from vinyl, and the algorithm probably takes slightly varying turntable speeds into account by using a low-pass filter and then autocorrelation to find the bass and beat and then resample based on those frequencies.
Not to mention they'd have to scan the entire song, because of differing file lengths, they couldn't simply grep out a specific "time-slice" of info.
Unless (as with the hash that Napster used to use to find duplicate files) it only scans the first 20 seconds.
f*ckedcompany is blocked as an "inappropriate use of resources" from my job
I presume you're falling victim to URI-based content filtering. It probably won't block www.f, three dashes, edcompany.com. @nonymouse works even better (unless it's blocked too).
If you're referring to the decentralized nature of gnutellanet or winmx, you can fix this by running a client on several boxen with a shload of bandwidth and then get them listed in the various trackers, so that what you are trying to serve is only a few hops away from users. If you're really serious about publishing content on gnutella, you can colo the boxen, ftp the files in, and kill -HUP the gnutella server to make it update its share list.
Anything they had done would be convered by patents, which, thankfully, expire after a relatively short period of time.
Not if the Big Faceless GGM Corporations Who Are Above Any Single Country's Law have their way like Disney did with its extension of copyright from 56 years tops to 95 and beyond.
And yes, I am writing my representative letters. "I vote. And so do thousands of librarians who want the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act repealed."
Many people treat an operating system as a tool, and use what works.
QuickTime runs only on Mac OS and Windows. Mac OS runs only on PowerPC architecture machines. Windows runs only on x86 architecture machines. Sun workstation owners are in the cold.
Besides, even if you have an Intel box, QuickTime for Intel costs US$350: $30 for QuickTime Pro, and $320 for Windows.
More like "Why does everyone use DVDs?! I can't watch DVDs on my VCR!"
Actually, it would be more like "I can't watch DVDs on my TV!" If you have QuickTime, you have Sorenson. But if all you have is an UltraSPARC or Alpha box, you don't have a computer that can run QuickTime in real time.
Besides, even if you have an Intel box, QuickTime for Intel costs US$350: $30 for QuickTime Pro, and $320 for Windows.
PNG defeated GIF because it performed better at GIF's purpose: losslessly compressing still images with large solid colors or repetitive fill patterns. PNG packs tighter, supports alpha transparency and true color, and doesn't have a big ugly patent hanging over its head. JPEG complements PNG and GIF by providing lossy compression of images with smoothly varying tones (such as photos). GIF is losing its status as the Web animation format to Flash and MNG+SVG+SMIL.
I wonder if this could be considered "Prior Art" against the Transmeta code morphing patents.
Dynamic recompilation has been used for a long time (see also Connectix Virtual PC, Speed Doubler, and Virtual Game Station). Transmeta's claimed innovation (I consider myself quite skilled for an IANAL at figuring out what patents say) is branch prediction using commit/rollback semantics (remember your SQL?) for the CPU registers. The prior art is something similar that was implemented in the Zilog Z80 processor (not the game boy's Sharp z80clone).
Quite a difference between improving something
and totally rewriting it, even if in the end no
original code remains.
Like LAME? Like GNU itself? The GNU system is a piecewise reimplementation of the UNIX® system. Until the free Linux kernel came around, the GNU system (gcc, Emacs, bash, etc.) ran on top of proprietary UNIX systems (and free BSD systems). Even Richard Stallman supports using proprietary software and semi-free software "temporarily for the specific purpose of writing a free replacement for that very program."
Dance Dance Revolution looks like it could have been done well way back when NES was popular. And it has; it doesn't appear to be that much more than an updated Nintendo Dance Aerobics, or Parappa on a Power Pad.
If you see a ROM "East Germany (PD).nes" appear in the pirate scene, blame me. It'll be a clone of DDR (get it? DDR? Deutsche Democratic Republic?) for NES, using Controller or Power Pad.
As video game systems and computers became more advanced they could run every game that was in arcades and more.
What was wrong with arcade first-person shooters (from Duck Hunt to Virtua Cop and Area 51) was that you never (or very seldom) got to choose the direction you moved. Being able to step off the mine cart, hide behind obstacles, and surprise your foes would have added a ton of depth.
But wait, I just described Doom, Goldeneye, and Hlf-Life.
See the point? Players realized that computer and console gameplay was much deeper than anything available in the arcades, as the emphasis is on immersion and not pressure in the game (such as cheap hits) to move the cattle through the queue.
wouldn't it be refreshing if Midway took a clear stance on OK'ing the use of its ROM images for MAME and other emulators?
It would eat into Midway's ability to sell classic games and future games starring the characters. For example, if you can play Mortal Kombat 3 on a common emulator (MK3's board was essentially a PSX, and pixel-perfect Ultimate MK3 was released for N64 as MK Trilogy), why buy Mortal Kombat 6? It's the same reason console makers don't free their software.
Fighting and driving games both offer muliplayer potential and the ability to show of your skills in public.
Translation: DSL multiplayer gaming killed them.
Shooters have hardware that's generally not in living rooms. They give the player something unavailable at home.
Simply get a light gun that emulates a mouse, hook it up to Quake 3 with an arcade-style joystick bound to ESDF, and you nearly have the arcade experience. (Too bad the VGA dropped the EGA's light pen interface, or we'd have more light guns.)
The code is already out there and licensed such that all can use it and extend it. That *cannot* be undone.
Except by deprecating the hardware on which the software runs (think VHS => DVD or NTSC => HDTV) or by embracing and extending the protocols that the software speaks. It would have been better titled "When not to use LGPL" rather than "Why not to use LGPL".
RMS's essay advocates using viral GPL only for libraries that have no proprietary equivalent. A more permissive license (e.g. Lesser GPL or even the New BSD license) is indicated in highly competitive fields (e.g. C libraries; graphics infrastructure; audio compression).
Some couple hundred years ago it was agreed that artists, authors, inventors, and others that used intellectual efforts to create works for the public good should be rewarded for that effort.
Rewarded yes. But is a government-granted monopoly the only way to reward creation of works of authorship? I'd say the future belongs to services and sponsorships. Instead of making money selling records, a would-be Britney Spears could be making money performing, or putting slick ads into her songs (though less flagrantly than "The Joy of Pepsi").
Not everyone agrees, and are free to lobby to change the law of our society
Lobbying is currently defined as donating millions of dollars to a politician's campaign. Who, outside of big faceless corporations with an interest in preserving their monopolies, has the money for that? Most people are so dazzled by marketing that they actively reject the truth about the way the system works (perpetual copyright terms, copyrights that act like patents, region price discrimination coding).
those that don't, can find other contries with a society that agrees with them in this area... Maybe by being invited to move to someplace they think is better.
Who has $500,000 to spend to move a family and a career, including the cost of learning a new language and culture?
have yet to learn about the value of that compromise.
You call 125-year American copyrights (life + 70 years) a compromise? Take off a century and I'd agree. Bottom line: Write your representatives.
The number of people who use closed source implementations who would even have the know-how to compile a program from source is nil.
That is, unless GCC is included on the CD, and the setup program (launched from Autorun) compiles, links, and installs the software; the AOLer in front of the monitor barely has to lift a finger.
Just because it's an MP3 doesn't mean it's copyrighted. (Likewise, just because it's a DivX stream doesn't mean it's copyrighted.)
Correct, but who's to say Fraunhofer (inventor of MP3) Thomson (U.S. licensing agent for MP3 patents) aren't in bed with the record labels? And who's to say that MPEG LA (licensing agent for MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 patents) isn't in bed with the studios? They could have DMCA'd Excite@home (no connection to SETI@home) with added language: "If you do not take down these groups, you are liable not only for contributory copyright infringement but also for contributory infringement on the MPEG patents."
Slashdot Mirror
AMD uses Intel compilers for their SPEC scores
In that case, Intel could insert some obfuscated code to detect AMD CPUs into its compilers' output and then run delay loops on AMD CPUs to create a phony lack of benchmark performance.
Why should anyone care if Microsoft requires you to use their products when you use their ISP?
Because Microsoft is in monopolistic bed with the spammers, and you can't read hotspam if you're using a POP3 or IMAP MUA with good filters (which Outhouse Express lacks).
Because Microsoft products don't run on anything but i686 architecture machines, and if you don't already have an i686, prepare to fork over $1,000 for a new computer. (I'm not sure if Outhouse Express for the Mac supports the brand-new protocol.)
Its very simple: if you want MSN, you must use Outlook Express or a web-based interface.
Both choices make it prohibitively difficult or impossible to filter spam.
1) Buy a Dell
Like Gateway is any better <cough>AOL</cough>.
2) Choose Windows on that Dell rather than Linux
A Dell box with Linux actually costs more (MS tax per box Dell ships whether or not Windows is installed, plus Linux media and printed manual costs), and the kids will eat you alive if you don't get them a new game machine, which Linux isn't at this writing.
3) Choose to use the included MSN
When the only other online provider in your area is America Online?
So move.
Give me a break.
4) Choose to use MSN e-mail instead of a thirty-party mail sever
The affordable POP3 and IMAP mail providers don't advertise much; how are the consumers to blame for not knowing that they even exist?
5) Chosoe to continue to use MSN even after learning it was non-compatible.
Again, the only other choice whose modem is not a pay-per-minute long-distance call (i.e. America Online) is even worse.
dont' buy products from them indirectly (ala Dell)
Name one company selling x86 architecture workstations to the home market who is not subject to the Microsoft tax.
Slashdot.org today announced their latest Internet portal EverythingSlashdot.org which will focus on answering the legalities of everything digitial.
The strange thing about your comment is that everything.slashdot.org actually exists. It's an online information database written and edited by the world. And yes, it has a good writeup about DMCA and the politics of copy protection.
But be warned: The quality standards on Everything are MUCH higher than on Slashdot. In fact, E2 and Slashdot could hardly be more different.
I am looking for a word processor. It must be able to understand WordPerfect, as I have several important documents in older WP formats.
wp2x will convert WordPerfect 5 documents to HTML, TeX, etc. From there, you can use StarOffice.
I expect in 15-20 years we will all be running an OS designed and programmed in China.
You mean like Red Flag Linux (no, really)?
Once "Microsoft Corporation" spins its operating system unit off as a separate company (under USDOJ order)
[/me refreshes Slashdot and finds this]
Sorry; please ignore. Durn lag.
Real Os defined to be one not written or sold by Microsoft.
Poor definition:I consider Windows 2000 to be in nearly the same league as the Solaris system on 1- to 4-CPU machines. The biggest thing wrong with it is buggy video drivers (the primary cause for an estimated 50%+ of BSODs), but that applies mainly if you're using it with beta drivers as a game machine, in which case you should be waiting for Super Smash Bros. 2 on Nintendo GAMECUBE instead. "Warning: incoming game!"
All you'd have to do is record at a different bitrate
Easily thwarted. The algorithm probably only keeps a "telephone/AM quality" (about 24/32 kbps mono) of the audio in question.
or normalize the song differently
Any difference in volume or dynamics processing would be accounted for by the "compress volume" stage of the algorithm. This would be pretty much necessary to account for analog rips.
or change pitches slightly
A large portion of Napster content is rips from vinyl, and the algorithm probably takes slightly varying turntable speeds into account by using a low-pass filter and then autocorrelation to find the bass and beat and then resample based on those frequencies.
Not to mention they'd have to scan the entire song, because of differing file lengths, they couldn't simply grep out a specific "time-slice" of info.
Unless (as with the hash that Napster used to use to find duplicate files) it only scans the first 20 seconds.
f*ckedcompany is blocked as an "inappropriate use of resources" from my job
I presume you're falling victim to URI-based content filtering. It probably won't block www.f, three dashes, edcompany.com. @nonymouse works even better (unless it's blocked too).
How can you upload anything to a gnutella server?
If you're referring to the decentralized nature of gnutellanet or winmx, you can fix this by running a client on several boxen with a shload of bandwidth and then get them listed in the various trackers, so that what you are trying to serve is only a few hops away from users. If you're really serious about publishing content on gnutella, you can colo the boxen, ftp the files in, and kill -HUP the gnutella server to make it update its share list.
Anything they had done would be convered by patents, which, thankfully, expire after a relatively short period of time.
Not if the Big Faceless GGM Corporations Who Are Above Any Single Country's Law have their way like Disney did with its extension of copyright from 56 years tops to 95 and beyond.
And yes, I am writing my representative letters. "I vote. And so do thousands of librarians who want the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act repealed."
Many people treat an operating system as a tool, and use what works.
QuickTime runs only on Mac OS and Windows. Mac OS runs only on PowerPC architecture machines. Windows runs only on x86 architecture machines. Sun workstation owners are in the cold.
Besides, even if you have an Intel box, QuickTime for Intel costs US$350: $30 for QuickTime Pro, and $320 for Windows.
More like "Why does everyone use DVDs?! I can't watch DVDs on my VCR!"
Actually, it would be more like "I can't watch DVDs on my TV!" If you have QuickTime, you have Sorenson. But if all you have is an UltraSPARC or Alpha box, you don't have a computer that can run QuickTime in real time.
Besides, even if you have an Intel box, QuickTime for Intel costs US$350: $30 for QuickTime Pro, and $320 for Windows.
PNG defeated GIF because it performed better at GIF's purpose: losslessly compressing still images with large solid colors or repetitive fill patterns. PNG packs tighter, supports alpha transparency and true color, and doesn't have a big ugly patent hanging over its head. JPEG complements PNG and GIF by providing lossy compression of images with smoothly varying tones (such as photos). GIF is losing its status as the Web animation format to Flash and MNG+SVG+SMIL.
I wonder if this could be considered "Prior Art" against the Transmeta code morphing patents.
Dynamic recompilation has been used for a long time (see also Connectix Virtual PC, Speed Doubler, and Virtual Game Station). Transmeta's claimed innovation (I consider myself quite skilled for an IANAL at figuring out what patents say) is branch prediction using commit/rollback semantics (remember your SQL?) for the CPU registers. The prior art is something similar that was implemented in the Zilog Z80 processor (not the game boy's Sharp z80clone).
Quite a difference between improving something and totally rewriting it, even if in the end no original code remains.
Like LAME? Like GNU itself? The GNU system is a piecewise reimplementation of the UNIX® system. Until the free Linux kernel came around, the GNU system (gcc, Emacs, bash, etc.) ran on top of proprietary UNIX systems (and free BSD systems). Even Richard Stallman supports using proprietary software and semi-free software "temporarily for the specific purpose of writing a free replacement for that very program."
Dance Dance Revolution looks like it could have been done well way back when NES was popular. And it has; it doesn't appear to be that much more than an updated Nintendo Dance Aerobics, or Parappa on a Power Pad.
If you see a ROM "East Germany (PD).nes" appear in the pirate scene, blame me. It'll be a clone of DDR (get it? DDR? Deutsche Democratic Republic?) for NES, using Controller or Power Pad.
As video game systems and computers became more advanced they could run every game that was in arcades and more.
What was wrong with arcade first-person shooters (from Duck Hunt to Virtua Cop and Area 51) was that you never (or very seldom) got to choose the direction you moved. Being able to step off the mine cart, hide behind obstacles, and surprise your foes would have added a ton of depth.
But wait, I just described Doom, Goldeneye, and Hlf-Life.
See the point? Players realized that computer and console gameplay was much deeper than anything available in the arcades, as the emphasis is on immersion and not pressure in the game (such as cheap hits) to move the cattle through the queue.
wouldn't it be refreshing if Midway took a clear stance on OK'ing the use of its ROM images for MAME and other emulators?
It would eat into Midway's ability to sell classic games and future games starring the characters. For example, if you can play Mortal Kombat 3 on a common emulator (MK3's board was essentially a PSX, and pixel-perfect Ultimate MK3 was released for N64 as MK Trilogy), why buy Mortal Kombat 6? It's the same reason console makers don't free their software.
Fighting and driving games both offer muliplayer potential and the ability to show of your skills in public.
Translation: DSL multiplayer gaming killed them.
Shooters have hardware that's generally not in living rooms. They give the player something unavailable at home.
Simply get a light gun that emulates a mouse, hook it up to Quake 3 with an arcade-style joystick bound to ESDF, and you nearly have the arcade experience. (Too bad the VGA dropped the EGA's light pen interface, or we'd have more light guns.)
The code is already out there and licensed such that all can use it and extend it. That *cannot* be undone.
Except by deprecating the hardware on which the software runs (think VHS => DVD or NTSC => HDTV) or by embracing and extending the protocols that the software speaks. It would have been better titled "When not to use LGPL" rather than "Why not to use LGPL".
RMS's essay advocates using viral GPL only for libraries that have no proprietary equivalent. A more permissive license (e.g. Lesser GPL or even the New BSD license) is indicated in highly competitive fields (e.g. C libraries; graphics infrastructure; audio compression).
Some couple hundred years ago it was agreed that artists, authors, inventors, and others that used intellectual efforts to create works for the public good should be rewarded for that effort.
Rewarded yes. But is a government-granted monopoly the only way to reward creation of works of authorship? I'd say the future belongs to services and sponsorships. Instead of making money selling records, a would-be Britney Spears could be making money performing, or putting slick ads into her songs (though less flagrantly than "The Joy of Pepsi").
Not everyone agrees, and are free to lobby to change the law of our society
Lobbying is currently defined as donating millions of dollars to a politician's campaign. Who, outside of big faceless corporations with an interest in preserving their monopolies, has the money for that? Most people are so dazzled by marketing that they actively reject the truth about the way the system works (perpetual copyright terms, copyrights that act like patents, region price discrimination coding).
those that don't, can find other contries with a society that agrees with them in this area ... Maybe by being invited to move to someplace they think is better.
Who has $500,000 to spend to move a family and a career, including the cost of learning a new language and culture?
have yet to learn about the value of that compromise.
You call 125-year American copyrights (life + 70 years) a compromise? Take off a century and I'd agree. Bottom line: Write your representatives.
The number of people who use closed source implementations who would even have the know-how to compile a program from source is nil.
That is, unless GCC is included on the CD, and the setup program (launched from Autorun) compiles, links, and installs the software; the AOLer in front of the monitor barely has to lift a finger.
Just because it's an MP3 doesn't mean it's copyrighted. (Likewise, just because it's a DivX stream doesn't mean it's copyrighted.)
Correct, but who's to say Fraunhofer (inventor of MP3) Thomson (U.S. licensing agent for MP3 patents) aren't in bed with the record labels? And who's to say that MPEG LA (licensing agent for MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 patents) isn't in bed with the studios? They could have DMCA'd Excite@home (no connection to SETI@home) with added language: "If you do not take down these groups, you are liable not only for contributory copyright infringement but also for contributory infringement on the MPEG patents."