Home TV? TIVO is a computer, that happens to output to a TV screen, and has a unique input method. Outputting data to a TV is not trivial, but it's not exactly a meaningful distinction what sort of display you're using (though obviously the images will be layed out differently.)
It sounds like the really original stuff is some hardware patents that sound fairly legit. And I'd say TIVO probably deserves the money, getting rammed out of the market the second after becoming a household name.
Well, the circa would be more with regards to the content than to the date. It isn't exactly the results you would've had, but sort of a best guess given this index they had lying around (which may or may not be complete.)
And since they gave the index from specifically January 2001, it is entirely plausible that something from 2000 may have slipped in there (especially if you consider that things would have been spidered in 2001 in one time zone, while in another time zone it remained 2000.)
You're claiming that because someone proposes a terrible outcome on a planetary scale, such a thing is possible. It's completely out of proportion to the amount of energy expended. This bullshit gloom and doom about the LHC is more analogous to claiming that if a car goes faster than 50 miles per hour, it will spontaneously cause a nuclear explosion.
They've probably covered their asses by paying Sun for the proprietary version. If they haven't, I think this is one instance in which the FSF should go for a little more than compliance. (I would really love to see GMU sue Reuters on behalf of the FSF for a cash settlement.)
Patents have almost nothing to do with piracy. Pirates run afoul of basic copyright. Programmers run afoul of patent law.
So although GP was amusing, he was incorrect. Pirates may talk like this (should) but there are plenty of non-piracy uses that run afoul of patent law. (Example: xine codecs I'm using to listen to my mp3 music collection right now.) Of course, I'm fairly well in the clear on those too, on account of the legal copy of Windows XP I hardly ever use on my other partition.
The point is so we can still say "ssh 192.168.0.1" or somesuch, and not need a DNS entry for every machine we own (with a small domain name.) Only with base 32 it would be even easier. It's not even really an implementation thing so much as just a display/input thing for human users.
95% of the software I'm using on this computer has no patents on it. That which does is entirely the result of my music collection... Slashcode is GPL written in Perl... so not a patent in sight. And the computer itself is not software, so not covered by a day against software patents.
Also, though I do own patented implementations of the codecs used to play mp3's (on my other partition) those are not the codecs I'm currently using, so technically I'm still in the spirit of the day, by ignoring software patents and using FOSS anyway.
Why go with the nonsensical 50% == somewhere between 1% and 50% ?
All they have to do is rework the grading scale to look more like IB or AP, where 10%-30% is a D, 30-60% is a C, and so on. I think it would also let teachers grade a lot more honestly, since my experience was that they tended to 'pad' grades with crap like homework to make up for the fact that half the students got 60-70% on so many of their tests.
Yes, in Linux where everything is plaintext that works fine, but I think Windows is actively arranged to make what you're suggesting a massive pain in the ass.
Not, of course, because they want to have crap like this happen, but because if they made this sort of thing straightforward, it would be equally straightforward to pirate Windows.
To be fair, Wikipedia is trying to avoid the appearance of anglocentrism or any sort of demographic skew in the articles. Yes, as we all know it was mostly written by white men sitting in their basements. Unlike Slashdot, we prefer if it's not immediately obvious, since the audience has grown considerably larger.
Nonsense. You're honestly arguing that because someone, somewhere, spent the 10 seconds to 10 minutes required to put up a half-baked paragraph or two on wikipedia, it must be factual?
We all place entirely too much faith in Wikipedia's accuracy. And that, in a word, is what deleting half-baked articles gains Wikipedia. Accuracy.
Not that it could ever truly be accurate, but still, if there wasn't a focus on deletion of Wikipedia articles, Wikipedia would be about as informative as a straight text dump of every post on Slashdot with moderation info removed. (Actually, Slashdot might win out.)
If Moodle or another Course Management System isn't fostering debate, that's not the fault of the software... they provide exactly the same functionality as PHPBB, and then some.
If you're lacking out of class internet debate, it's because the class didn't buy into the concept. (This happened in a class I took several years ago where we tried to use a PHPBB board, and it flopped.) I think the problem is that bulletin boards are not particularly conducive to collaborative learning.
You misunderstand the functionality. The device interprets the activity in the speech center of the brain, and translates it into speech. The only 'training' you need is the ability to speak. This isn't some sort of obtuse mindspeak.
It's similar to other research that noted minuscule vibrations in people's vocal chords while they type, vibrations that correspond to the words they were typing.
I've always found typing java classname into the url bar in Firefox brings you directly to the requisite page. (Which is basically what you said, as it uses a Google "I'm feeling lucky" search, but it's more elegant to type it in and get an answer instantly.
Of course, it's not quite as elegant as pydoc and perldoc.
It's more like a Linux admin spending his spare time working on something like Wubi ( which makes it less scary for Windows users to dual boot Ubuntu. )
Then he gets flamed in the forums by trolls accusing him of helping people use Windows, because they can use Linux without risking their Windows install.
Slashdot Mirror
Don't you mean ' Robert'); SELECT * FROM idle WHERE LIKE 'xkcd' INSERT INTO technology; DROP TABLE idle;-- '
Home TV? TIVO is a computer, that happens to output to a TV screen, and has a unique input method. Outputting data to a TV is not trivial, but it's not exactly a meaningful distinction what sort of display you're using (though obviously the images will be layed out differently.)
It sounds like the really original stuff is some hardware patents that sound fairly legit. And I'd say TIVO probably deserves the money, getting rammed out of the market the second after becoming a household name.
Get with the program. Wine has supported WoW for a long time now.
The real question is, can it play Spore?
I thought all Mac users were clean-cut and straight-edged.
Next thing you'll be telling me Linux users shave and shower.
That doesn't make any sense... the internet has been for porn since at least like 1998.
I think Google has just stopped censoring its search results as overtly.
Well, the circa would be more with regards to the content than to the date. It isn't exactly the results you would've had, but sort of a best guess given this index they had lying around (which may or may not be complete.)
And since they gave the index from specifically January 2001, it is entirely plausible that something from 2000 may have slipped in there (especially if you consider that things would have been spidered in 2001 in one time zone, while in another time zone it remained 2000.)
You're claiming that because someone proposes a terrible outcome on a planetary scale, such a thing is possible. It's completely out of proportion to the amount of energy expended. This bullshit gloom and doom about the LHC is more analogous to claiming that if a car goes faster than 50 miles per hour, it will spontaneously cause a nuclear explosion.
Sort of. The interface is rather remarkable. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refreshable_Braille_display
They've probably covered their asses by paying Sun for the proprietary version. If they haven't, I think this is one instance in which the FSF should go for a little more than compliance. (I would really love to see GMU sue Reuters on behalf of the FSF for a cash settlement.)
But sadly, it won't happen.
Patents have almost nothing to do with piracy. Pirates run afoul of basic copyright. Programmers run afoul of patent law.
So although GP was amusing, he was incorrect. Pirates may talk like this (should) but there are plenty of non-piracy uses that run afoul of patent law. (Example: xine codecs I'm using to listen to my mp3 music collection right now.) Of course, I'm fairly well in the clear on those too, on account of the legal copy of Windows XP I hardly ever use on my other partition.
The point is so we can still say "ssh 192.168.0.1" or somesuch, and not need a DNS entry for every machine we own (with a small domain name.) Only with base 32 it would be even easier. It's not even really an implementation thing so much as just a display/input thing for human users.
95% of the software I'm using on this computer has no patents on it. That which does is entirely the result of my music collection... Slashcode is GPL written in Perl... so not a patent in sight. And the computer itself is not software, so not covered by a day against software patents.
Also, though I do own patented implementations of the codecs used to play mp3's (on my other partition) those are not the codecs I'm currently using, so technically I'm still in the spirit of the day, by ignoring software patents and using FOSS anyway.
Why go with the nonsensical 50% == somewhere between 1% and 50% ?
All they have to do is rework the grading scale to look more like IB or AP, where 10%-30% is a D, 30-60% is a C, and so on. I think it would also let teachers grade a lot more honestly, since my experience was that they tended to 'pad' grades with crap like homework to make up for the fact that half the students got 60-70% on so many of their tests.
Yes, in Linux where everything is plaintext that works fine, but I think Windows is actively arranged to make what you're suggesting a massive pain in the ass.
Not, of course, because they want to have crap like this happen, but because if they made this sort of thing straightforward, it would be equally straightforward to pirate Windows.
To be fair, Wikipedia is trying to avoid the appearance of anglocentrism or any sort of demographic skew in the articles. Yes, as we all know it was mostly written by white men sitting in their basements. Unlike Slashdot, we prefer if it's not immediately obvious, since the audience has grown considerably larger.
No proof?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4530930.stm
Nonsense. You're honestly arguing that because someone, somewhere, spent the 10 seconds to 10 minutes required to put up a half-baked paragraph or two on wikipedia, it must be factual?
We all place entirely too much faith in Wikipedia's accuracy. And that, in a word, is what deleting half-baked articles gains Wikipedia. Accuracy.
Not that it could ever truly be accurate, but still, if there wasn't a focus on deletion of Wikipedia articles, Wikipedia would be about as informative as a straight text dump of every post on Slashdot with moderation info removed. (Actually, Slashdot might win out.)
If Moodle or another Course Management System isn't fostering debate, that's not the fault of the software... they provide exactly the same functionality as PHPBB, and then some.
If you're lacking out of class internet debate, it's because the class didn't buy into the concept. (This happened in a class I took several years ago where we tried to use a PHPBB board, and it flopped.) I think the problem is that bulletin boards are not particularly conducive to collaborative learning.
Fixed that for you.
You misunderstand the functionality. The device interprets the activity in the speech center of the brain, and translates it into speech. The only 'training' you need is the ability to speak. This isn't some sort of obtuse mindspeak.
It's similar to other research that noted minuscule vibrations in people's vocal chords while they type, vibrations that correspond to the words they were typing.
No, I don't think it is. Making fun of the Windows user base is simply obnoxious, and I think MS was right to call Apple out on it.
Besides, if we really want to look at the Mac user base, based on my friends...
4-5 PC guy
3 Mac guy (I'm being generous.)
A lot of women.
Which is just an asinine thing to say, true or not (it's true as far as I can tell.) Also asinine: calling Windows users fat nerds.
I've always found typing java classname into the url bar in Firefox brings you directly to the requisite page. (Which is basically what you said, as it uses a Google "I'm feeling lucky" search, but it's more elegant to type it in and get an answer instantly.
Of course, it's not quite as elegant as pydoc and perldoc.
It's more like a Linux admin spending his spare time working on something like Wubi ( which makes it less scary for Windows users to dual boot Ubuntu. )
Then he gets flamed in the forums by trolls accusing him of helping people use Windows, because they can use Linux without risking their Windows install.
It's only an application, and if it isn't laughed out of the USPTO, we need disband the USPTO.
http://xkcd.com/225/