The DVD case going on in New York is putting the DCMA to the test. We've already lost round one--the preliminary injuction was granted as all of you read.
This case has more significant ramifications than the California case that I'm involved with.
Flamers... please skip the rest of this message. We don't want your help.
The federal government is accepting comments via email at 1201@loc.gov. Use reason to argue why reverse engineering must be allowed for the purposes of interoperability.
The most obvious reason is that it promotes competition. It also empowers consumers.
Here's a summary of exactly what they are accepting comments on...
SUMMARY: The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress is preparing to conduct proceedings to make recommendations in accordance with section 1201(a)(1) of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 1201(a)(1), which was added by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and which provides that the Librarian of Congress may exempt certain classes of works from the prohibition against circumventing a technological measure that controls access to a copyrighted work. The purpose of this rulemaking proceeding is to determine whether there are classes of works as to which users are, or are likely to be, adversely affected in their ability to make noninfringing uses if they are prohibited from circumventing such technological measures. This notice requests written comments from all interested parties, including representatives of copyright owners, educational institutions, libraries and archives, scholars, researchers and members of the public, in order to elicit information and views on whether noninfringing uses of certain classes of works are, or are likely to be, adversely affected by such prohibition.
The DMCA is self-contradictory in this way. It's not OK to distribute something that decrypts a copyrighted work, but it is OK to write something that decrypts a copyrighted work if it's for the purpose of interoperability. Eh?
In talking with Robin Gross about this bill she told me that it's pretty typical of Congress and the President to pass unconstitutional legislation and then leave it to the courts to decide.
Slashdot poster 'kinesis' has said he will no longer allow the import of any Intel products into his apartment and that he will sue any and all parties necessary to enforce the import ban.
In a prepared statement, kinesis said, "Those guys suck!"
An approximately 960 square foot area of Northern California is affected by the ban.
I placed my first order with bn.com a few weeks ago. Since then, they've had all my Christmas business.
I'll go back to Amazon when the drop the suit. I wrote Amazon and told them as much. Maybe enough customer-hemorrhaging and they'll come to their senses.
For Chrissake, my company's own has the back-end to do "one-click" ordering. Are cookies and databases that advanced? Most would agree that they are not.
My latest round of book shopping was done at Barnes and Noble for exactly this reason. I won't be back at Amazon unless they drop this absurdity.
You and I aren't alone here. I think a lot of software developers (not just/.ers) feel this is in bad taste. Check out Brian Hook's(of iD Software and now Verant) take on the situation at http://www.voodooextreme.com/ask/rant.html#oct2599
In my day we didn't have any of these fancy "punch cards". We pulled giant levers and watched big iron gears grind tediously away. It took days to do a simple multipication and the answer was usually wrong. That's the way it was, and we liked it! We loved it!
Why I remember getting my arm stuck in an adding machine. Crushed every bone in my hand. That's how real men compute! You can have your advanced "vacuum tubes" and "elec-tricty".
Bah-humbug, I say! Any computer that doesn't need to be oiled is a devil-machine!
Now they tell me they've got fancy games you can play on these computers. When I was your age, the engineers played "touch the red-hot spinning metal disc". And we liked it! We loved it!
I think your ADSL is interferring with your brain waves.
And, lest there be any confustion, NPR kicks ass. It's the least biased of any broadcast media news source. Plus I like Chinwag Theater on Sundays at 6pm:)
I just bought a GDM-F500 from onsale.com (retail = $1700, mine = $1100... you bet I'm proud). If you can aford to, buy a more expensive model, but get a refurbished unit. If it's messed up (mine was) they'll fix it or send you a new one (they gave me a choice! I asked for a new one... duh)
The GDM series kicks more ass than should be allowed. It's so flat, it's almost concave. My other monitor looks like a fish bowl in comparison.
Why are you looking to companies like ATI and 3dfx to build accelerators for realtime simulations? These companies build cards for people who want to play computer games. Duh.
What you need is to rent time in one of The Caves.
What hardware is required? I imagine i need a sound card w/ optical out, but your site says nothing about how your technology interfaces with the computer or portable player.
Can I record saved MP3 files from my hard disk onto an MD player with your software?
What Mini-Disc players are "Voquette Enabled"?
What does it mean to be "Voquette Enabled"... is it merely a company endorsement or is there some kind of special firmware required to be present on the portable device for you to be able to record onto it?
Also, your feedback form is broken. It complains that "all fields must be filled in" even when they already are.
The majority response, was that if they had to choose, they'd pick a card with accelerated geometry processing and a mediocre fill rate over a card with an insane fill rate and no geometry acceleration.
What does that tell you about the direction the game developers want to go? They want to build games with higher-polygon engines/content. My guess is that's what we're gonna see.
The other reason why smaller isn't really better is that if you put your components in a huge enclosure (like the Supermicro SC801-A ) you've got oodles of room for fans, elaborate vapor-phase cooling devices, PCI cards, drives and alien technology.
more power efficient is better
I agree with the original poster. I didn't realize how much it was costing me to leave The Beast powered up at night. Answer: Enough to make me turn it off before I go to bed.
The other reason why it's good to be power efficient is that it's easier to overclock a processor with low-voltage requirements than a processor with high-voltage requirements. (At least I think that's right...)
If your CGI follows a Parse-Calculate-Print pattern as opposed to a Parse-Fetch-Print pattern, you can use Perl where it makes sense to (ie the "parse" and "print" parts) and C where speed is important (ie the "calculate" part)
This is how many of the most useful CPAN modules are written. The "high level", perl code calls your C routines to do the heavy lifting.
Plus this approach forces you to componentize your software in a smart way, making it easier to give back to the community by publishing your work on CPAN:-)
Goodwill is more important than companies seem to realize, though.
No it's not. People won't pick a slower chip over a faster one when they are comparably priced. Fuck good will. It's about benchmarks, cost and availability.
Allow me to illustrate my point with an outrageously obtuse analogy. Let's say you're buying a new car and looking at the Porsche Boxter and a Tie Fighter. For the sake of argument, they are the same price. The Tie Fighter is manufactured by The Empire--the same people who blew up Aldaron. The Boxster is made by a German company that supports Linux (let's just say...)
I want the Tie Fighter. It can fly and has lasers. I would find a way to rationalize the purchase.
Saying "Our distribution will rock your socks on the Athlon" is certainly cool, but I don't think it will help AMD as much as if they were able to produce large volumes of chips and have compatable mother boards on the market!
Slashdot Mirror
He ultimately refused to negotiate and therefore, a lawsuit seems to be the only way to resolve this.
Translation: He refused to do things our way.
http://www.sharedlib.org/DMCA_RFC.txt
The DVD case going on in New York is putting the DCMA to the test. We've already lost round one--the preliminary injuction was granted as all of you read.
This case has more significant ramifications than the California case that I'm involved with.
Please read the OpenDVD advocacy how-to at http://www.opendvd.org/advocacy.html
Flamers... please skip the rest of this message. We don't want your help.
The federal government is accepting comments via email at 1201@loc.gov. Use reason to argue why reverse engineering must be allowed for the purposes of interoperability.
The most obvious reason is that it promotes competition. It also empowers consumers.
Here's a summary of exactly what they are accepting comments on...
SUMMARY: The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress is preparing
to conduct proceedings to make recommendations in accordance with
section 1201(a)(1) of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 1201(a)(1), which
was added by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and which provides
that the Librarian of Congress may exempt certain classes of works from
the prohibition against circumventing a technological measure that
controls access to a copyrighted work. The purpose of this rulemaking
proceeding is to determine whether there are classes of works as to
which users are, or are likely to be, adversely affected in their
ability to make noninfringing uses if they are prohibited from
circumventing such technological measures. This notice requests written
comments from all interested parties, including representatives of
copyright owners, educational institutions, libraries and archives,
scholars, researchers and members of the public, in order to elicit
information and views on whether noninfringing uses of certain classes
of works are, or are likely to be, adversely affected by such
prohibition.
The DMCA is self-contradictory in this way. It's not OK to distribute something that decrypts a copyrighted work, but it is OK to write something that decrypts a copyrighted work if it's for the purpose of interoperability. Eh?
In talking with Robin Gross about this bill she told me that it's pretty typical of Congress and the President to pass unconstitutional legislation and then leave it to the courts to decide.
Slashdot poster 'kinesis' has said he will no longer allow the import of any Intel products into his apartment and that he will sue any and all parties necessary to enforce the import ban.
In a prepared statement, kinesis said, "Those guys suck!"
An approximately 960 square foot area of Northern California is affected by the ban.
The above AC is an anti-Netscape dissenter with a well-articulated view and a high signal-noise ratio. Facts even.
I like what Netscape tried to do but this guy should be moderated up.
Fuck this shit. FREEdom of information.
http://sharedlib.org/zips.zip
Enjoy.
I placed my first order with bn.com a few weeks ago. Since then, they've had all my Christmas business.
I'll go back to Amazon when the drop the suit. I wrote Amazon and told them as much. Maybe enough customer-hemorrhaging and they'll come to their senses.
For Chrissake, my company's own has the back-end to do "one-click" ordering. Are cookies and databases that advanced? Most would agree that they are not.
My latest round of book shopping was done at Barnes and Noble for exactly this reason. I won't be back at Amazon unless they drop this absurdity.
/.ers) feel this is in bad taste. Check out Brian Hook's(of iD Software and now Verant) take on the situation at http://www.voodooextreme.com/ask/rant.html#oct2599
You and I aren't alone here. I think a lot of software developers (not just
A perspective from a grumpy old man...
In my day we didn't have any of these fancy "punch cards". We pulled giant levers and watched big iron gears grind tediously away. It took days to do a simple multipication and the answer was usually wrong. That's the way it was, and we liked it! We loved it!
Why I remember getting my arm stuck in an adding machine. Crushed every bone in my hand. That's how real men compute! You can have your advanced "vacuum tubes" and "elec-tricty".
Bah-humbug, I say! Any computer that doesn't need to be oiled is a devil-machine!
Now they tell me they've got fancy games you can play on these computers. When I was your age, the engineers played "touch the red-hot spinning metal disc". And we liked it! We loved it!
Bah.
I think your ADSL is interferring with your brain waves.
:)
And, lest there be any confustion, NPR kicks ass. It's the least biased of any broadcast media news source. Plus I like Chinwag Theater on Sundays at 6pm
I just bought a GDM-F500 from onsale.com (retail = $1700, mine = $1100... you bet I'm proud). If you can aford to, buy a more expensive model, but get a refurbished unit. If it's messed up (mine was) they'll fix it or send you a new one (they gave me a choice! I asked for a new one... duh)
The GDM series kicks more ass than should be allowed. It's so flat, it's almost concave. My other monitor looks like a fish bowl in comparison.
This is funny.
Why are you looking to companies like ATI and 3dfx to build accelerators for realtime simulations? These companies build cards for people who want to play computer games. Duh.
What you need is to rent time in one of The Caves.
http://www.sharp-usa.com/inte rnetminidisc/create.html
Also, if you look at the image on http://www.sharp-usa.com/inter netminidisc/index.html you see some sort of special black box with the Voquette logo on it. So there's some bundled hardware...
Also, the Voquette softare looks decidedly Win98-ish.
---- begin cut and paste ---
What hardware is required? I imagine i need a sound card w/ optical out, but your site says nothing about how your technology interfaces with the computer or portable player.
Can I record saved MP3 files from my hard disk onto an MD player with your software?
What Mini-Disc players are "Voquette Enabled"?
What does it mean to be "Voquette Enabled"... is it merely a company endorsement or is there some kind of special firmware required to be present on the portable device for you to be able to record onto it?
Also, your feedback form is broken. It complains that "all fields must be filled in" even when they already are.
--- end cut and paste ---
I'll let everyone know if they reply...
Billy "Wicked" Wilson of Voodoo Extreme asked a bunch of high-profile devs exactly this question.
The majority response, was that if they had to choose, they'd pick a card with accelerated geometry processing and a mediocre fill rate over a card with an insane fill rate and no geometry acceleration.
What does that tell you about the direction the game developers want to go? They want to build games with higher-polygon engines/content. My guess is that's what we're gonna see.
Two comments.
smaller is better
The other reason why smaller isn't really better is that if you put your components in a huge enclosure (like the Supermicro SC801-A ) you've got oodles of room for fans, elaborate vapor-phase cooling devices, PCI cards, drives and alien technology.
more power efficient is better
I agree with the original poster. I didn't realize how much it was costing me to leave The Beast powered up at night. Answer: Enough to make me turn it off before I go to bed.
The other reason why it's good to be power efficient is that it's easier to overclock a processor with low-voltage requirements than a processor with high-voltage requirements. (At least I think that's right...)
This is all wrong. It has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt, that it is all about ... the pentiums .
The esteemed Mr. Yankovic has already established this in his own FoF.
Binary http://sharedlib.org/decss.zip
Source http://sharedlib.org/cssdvd.zip
Who do these lawyers think they're kidding?
First, if you haven't played with the BeOS, free up a partition and install that bad boy. It'll only take a few minutes and you'll impresssed.
On to my point...
Having a supported JDK on Be is a great thing for developers, but for it to be really useful, there needs to be a good IDE available.
Text editors and makefiles are cool, but big projects want IDEs. I wonder if Metrowerks will step up?
The next thing the lawyers will go after is the CVS repository. Grab the source while you still can.
n et:/cvs/livid cvs -z3 co -r Ver-0_9 css-auth
CVSROOT=:pserver:anonymous@cvs.on.openprojects.
If your CGI follows a Parse-Calculate-Print pattern as opposed to a Parse-Fetch-Print pattern, you can use Perl where it makes sense to (ie the "parse" and "print" parts) and C where speed is important (ie the "calculate" part)
:-)
Herein lies the beauty of XSUBs.
http://www.perl.com/pub/ doc/manual/html/pod/perlxstut.html
This is how many of the most useful CPAN modules are written. The "high level", perl code calls your C routines to do the heavy lifting.
Plus this approach forces you to componentize your software in a smart way, making it easier to give back to the community by publishing your work on CPAN
...that makes a strong case for the argument that this company is for real.
Disclaimer: At the time of this posting, their site was up and lightning fast... if it goes down in the next hour or so, well, nevermind.
I c-c-can f-f-feelmymemory improving already-ready!!
super-super-humandosesof p-p-pure brainjuice! Ifitake just a a a littlebit m-more i think illhavetelekinetic p-p-powers!!
L-l-lookout!!
Goodwill is more important than companies seem to realize, though.
No it's not. People won't pick a slower chip over a faster one when they are comparably priced. Fuck good will. It's about benchmarks, cost and availability.
Allow me to illustrate my point with an outrageously obtuse analogy. Let's say you're buying a new car and looking at the Porsche Boxter and a Tie Fighter. For the sake of argument, they are the same price. The Tie Fighter is manufactured by The Empire--the same people who blew up Aldaron. The Boxster is made by a German company that supports Linux (let's just say...)
I want the Tie Fighter. It can fly and has lasers. I would find a way to rationalize the purchase.
Saying "Our distribution will rock your socks on the Athlon" is certainly cool, but I don't think it will help AMD as much as if they were able to produce large volumes of chips and have compatable mother boards on the market!