Obviously, eliminating bad patents in the first place is contrary to the interests of both the patent office and the lawyers. Eliminate the bad patents, and there are fewer filings and fewer fees. The patent office is a government agency that actually makes money for the government; possibly the only agency that does that.
So, add in a challenge process and you can probably collect more fees, but nevermind that. This is yet another case of lawyers writing laws that will create more demand for lawyers who write laws who...
I expected some rebuttals. Actually, I'm a bit disappointed there aren't more. Wow! How you extrapolate from what I said to a thin-client or "network computer" model isn't readily apparent to me. Perhaps you missed my point, which is that we'll reach a point where the software is so "fully cooked" that there is no need for any kind of an update. If you don't need updates, you don't need a subscription.
I have in fact, stated on many occasions that Network computers and subscription based software services are bad for the very reasons you cite, namely dependance on 3rd parties and subscription fees.
Your point about new apps being developed however, is a valid one. OTOH, there is precedent for what I'm talking about. Ever see an electric typewriter with word-processing built in? They sure enough built 'em. It made sense when there was a large customer base of electric typewriter users and few people were interesteed in what computers had to offer on their klunky little screens back then.
Now we are still in the golden age where general purpose computing dominates the market; but the pendulum might swing back towards hard-coded functionality.
OK, a bit of hyperbole here, but not by far. If you cherry-pick the killer apps, and market the devices properly, only geeks will care about the fact that the underlying machine is a general-purpose computer.
If these consumer devices have an office suite, web browser and media player, most users aren't going to stray from those applications. The afformentioned apps are all commoditized by OS/FS to some degree. Once they are fully commoditized, nobody will care about the operating system or the applications, as long as the *data* can be exchanged with all other systems.
This is neither bad nor good for OS/FS. It's bad for people who develop the software because it means their job is done and they need to find a new one. Only maintenance programmers will be needed, and fewer and fewer of them.
In the end, it will be like arguments over FM vs. AM and what kind of amplifier circuit your radio uses. All those questions are answered, and you don't see too many ads for "analog radio engineer" do you? In other words, all the battles over software that seem so important now will be nothing more than academic when theh software is fully commoditized. Whether or not its proprietary won't matter, because software will all be the same anyway.
I stego my passwords on a small card that I keep with me. Someone can get the card and they don't know what the password is for, and even if they did, they don't know what's the password and what's just a "junk character".
That's because Nomad is perfect. I am Nomad. I have the perfect ammount of space. These robots are not perfect. They must be sterilized. Steeerrrrriiiillllized!
Well, you sent me Google where people have previously discussed this and it's not so simple; but I'll give that you're probably closer to being right than I am.
Point taken about the Hummer; but if you're buying one of those it's not like you care about fuel efficiency or aerodynamics. So, I guess there is still some room for style... if you want to call that style.
And that fits well with theory. Air resistance is proportional to the cube of the velocity. That's why they spend so much time making the cars aerodynamic. It's why we've lost a lot of style. Aerodynamic considerations have forced most cars to conform to the same basic shape, with only subtle variations.
Too many people are still on dial-up. Updates can take a significant ammount of time while tying up your connection on dialup. Now that I've got broadband, and I see the little thing that says "updates are available" I don't hesisitate. When I had dialup I would have had to set aside time late at night to let the computer do its thing.
How much do you want to bet that the worms are finding their way from a (low bandwidth)*(lots of machines) to (high bandwidth)*(fewer machines)?
Of course, if MS didn't give you a way to disable updates,/. ers would find fault with that too (they're forcing people to do things, tin-foil hat time, etc...).
Nevermind ordinary users. Let's see if we can get the same "network admins" who used to install Red Hat with loose defaults to keep up with patches. As always, it's a battle between convenience and security, and for now convenience is apparently still valued more in the market that MS is in.
Funny how none of the ads supporting them (I live near DC so I actually get to see ads supporting the fillibuster!) mention what a fillibuster actually is. In case you don't know, it's people just holding the floor, spouting rhetorical nonsense just for the sake of holding the floor so they can trump the majority. It's just a total waste of time that keeps the government from doing anything... and... ummm... oh, as I was saying. Don't let the fillibuster die. We need it.
Somebody needs to show them how shadows work
on
How Lightsabers Work
·
· Score: 1
A glowing object doesn't cast a shadow that's brighter than the surroundings. The stuff that's doing the glowing always blocks some of the photons from the other side, so a glowing object casts a regular shadow, although if it's translucent (like a pale blue flame) it will be a very faint shadow, but a shadow nevertheless.
Hacking up your own version of stdint.h for the MS compiler is a trivial exercise of course. Then when you want to port to 64-bit you just edit that one file. The only really irritating thing was that for a while they didn't support casting from uint64_t to double. You had to cast it to int64_t and make sure you were never going to set the highest bit. So, I have this ugly macro that wraps those casts, but otherwise it was no big deal.
Excuse me, but was that supposed to mean something?
Asking that question in a discussion of programming methodologies has been futile for at least 10 years. I've never cracked a book on any of these methodologies. Object Oriented was the last one that came anywhere near making sense, and only to the extent that it built on and clarified structured programming.
Whenever I hear (blah)-oriented in the context of programming, I just tune it out because I know it will only lead to a symposium on synergistic paradigms. I do quite well with this approach.
Plus, nothing beats the satisfaction of all those muffled pop! ping! sounds you get when you use a metal pan with a lid. We use stainless steel Revere Ware; I have to admit it's been a long time since we've popped any. The sound and smell brings back fond memories of childhood, unlike the smell of cheap, overly buttered uWave office corn; which just makes me want to vomit.
This reminds me of back in the day when everybody bragged on Linux uptime vs. Windows. The *NIX snobs still don't get the desktop after all this time. As long as a desktop stays up all day, that's all that matters because desktop users treat their PCs like TVs. Yes, 1990s Windows desktops often failed that test, but Linux users back then were comparing CLIs to desktops and bragging on uptimes.
This root flap is the same sort of deal. Yeah, root can kill all the users on a box. Guess what? Granny is the only user on the box. If user Granny's files are dead, the whole box is dead as far as she's concerned, and if her kernel has been replaced by KERNEL.i0wn3du, she is just going to run the restore CD.
That's not to say that I agree whole-heartedly with the "root is safe" assertiong; but I understand where the guy is coming from. In a way the *NIXs are perhaps a victim of their own success in writing apps that are (usually) secure enough so that you can get away with running as root.
This isn't a problem with CLIs. The GUI analogy is the Windows pop-up that asks you if you're sure you want to delete a file. Raise your hand if you use Windows and you've gotten into the habit of smaking your enter-key, sometimes before that dialog even displays.
The problem is that people want to do things quickly, so you've got people training themselves to use -f because they're in the habit of recursivily deleteing files on a regular basis and they don't feel like interupting the flow responding to a prompt. This works really well until they don't mean to do it. The Windows recycling bin is not a bad solution to this problem; there is no widely adopted *NIX equivalent.
According to waxy.org he got over $3000 worth of stuff from people who donated online out of sympathy. At least he didn't spend much time or money doing what he did. I just finished watching revelations and it totally sucked. My torrent is still sharing, but I now question if that's a service to the community or not.:)
So, the planet will end up being run by miners, because they will be the only ones to survive, unless these bursts last longer than a shift. For the long term benefit of humanit, we need more female mine workers! Also, more females at deep underground military sites. You know they must still be running those things.
No. It could be much worse. They could let the air out of the center of the earth, and it might pop. Even worse, it could jet around the solar system in wild arcs, making farting noises while all the other planets laugh and throw half-eaten cupcakes at eachother.
Slashdot Mirror
Obviously, eliminating bad patents in the first place is contrary to the interests of both the patent office and the lawyers. Eliminate the bad patents, and there are fewer filings and fewer fees. The patent office is a government agency that actually makes money for the government; possibly the only agency that does that.
So, add in a challenge process and you can probably collect more fees, but nevermind that. This is yet another case of lawyers writing laws that will create more demand for lawyers who write laws who...
That's where the real money is.
glad I'm european
Yeah, because nothing really bad has happened there in the past 100 ye... ummm...
You've obviously never heard of the sport-utility boomerang.
I expected some rebuttals. Actually, I'm a bit disappointed there aren't more. Wow! How you extrapolate from what I said to a thin-client or "network computer" model isn't readily apparent to me. Perhaps you missed my point, which is that we'll reach a point where the software is so "fully cooked" that there is no need for any kind of an update. If you don't need updates, you don't need a subscription.
I have in fact, stated on many occasions that Network computers and subscription based software services are bad for the very reasons you cite, namely dependance on 3rd parties and subscription fees.
Your point about new apps being developed however, is a valid one. OTOH, there is precedent for what I'm talking about. Ever see an electric typewriter with word-processing built in? They sure enough built 'em. It made sense when there was a large customer base of electric typewriter users and few people were interesteed in what computers had to offer on their klunky little screens back then.
Now we are still in the golden age where general purpose computing dominates the market; but the pendulum might swing back towards hard-coded functionality.
OK, a bit of hyperbole here, but not by far. If you cherry-pick the killer apps, and market the devices properly, only geeks will care about the fact that the underlying machine is a general-purpose computer.
If these consumer devices have an office suite, web browser and media player, most users aren't going to stray from those applications. The afformentioned apps are all commoditized by OS/FS to some degree. Once they are fully commoditized, nobody will care about the operating system or the applications, as long as the *data* can be exchanged with all other systems.
This is neither bad nor good for OS/FS. It's bad for people who develop the software because it means their job is done and they need to find a new one. Only maintenance programmers will be needed, and fewer and fewer of them.
In the end, it will be like arguments over FM vs. AM and what kind of amplifier circuit your radio uses. All those questions are answered, and you don't see too many ads for "analog radio engineer" do you? In other words, all the battles over software that seem so important now will be nothing more than academic when theh software is fully commoditized. Whether or not its proprietary won't matter, because software will all be the same anyway.
If you really want to cut out all the games and foreplay, why not just give her half your money now?
I stego my passwords on a small card that I keep with me. Someone can get the card and they don't know what the password is for, and even if they did, they don't know what's the password and what's just a "junk character".
I was thinking along the same lines. Sounds like the kind of thing Michael Moore would do if he didn't have bigger fish to fry.
"Captain, I got rid of the Flash developers. Every last one of them."
"Scotty, how did you do it? You didn't... beam them into... space. Scotty, tell me you didn't--"
"No captain. That would be cruel."
"So Scotty, what did you do with them? Come on. Answer me!
"I beamed them to Microsoft headquarters."
less space than a Nomad
That's because Nomad is perfect. I am Nomad. I have the perfect ammount of space. These robots are not perfect. They must be sterilized. Steeerrrrriiiillllized!
The oil will certainly be more difficult on the fans, im not sure if it has any corrosive effect
Well, at least lubrication won't be a problem. :)
Well, you sent me Google where people have previously discussed this and it's not so simple; but I'll give that you're probably closer to being right than I am.
Point taken about the Hummer; but if you're buying one of those it's not like you care about fuel efficiency or aerodynamics. So, I guess there is still some room for style... if you want to call that style.
And that fits well with theory. Air resistance is proportional to the cube of the velocity. That's why they spend so much time making the cars aerodynamic. It's why we've lost a lot of style. Aerodynamic considerations have forced most cars to conform to the same basic shape, with only subtle variations.
Too many people are still on dial-up. Updates can take a significant ammount of time while tying up your connection on dialup. Now that I've got broadband, and I see the little thing that says "updates are available" I don't hesisitate. When I had dialup I would have had to set aside time late at night to let the computer do its thing.
How much do you want to bet that the worms are finding their way from a (low bandwidth)*(lots of machines) to (high bandwidth)*(fewer machines)?
Of course, if MS didn't give you a way to disable updates, /. ers would find fault with that too (they're forcing people to do things, tin-foil hat time, etc...).
Nevermind ordinary users. Let's see if we can get the same "network admins" who used to install Red Hat with loose defaults to keep up with patches. As always, it's a battle between convenience and security, and for now convenience is apparently still valued more in the market that MS is in.
Funny how none of the ads supporting them (I live near DC so I actually get to see ads supporting the fillibuster!) mention what a fillibuster actually is. In case you don't know, it's people just holding the floor, spouting rhetorical nonsense just for the sake of holding the floor so they can trump the majority. It's just a total waste of time that keeps the government from doing anything... and... ummm... oh, as I was saying. Don't let the fillibuster die. We need it.
A glowing object doesn't cast a shadow that's brighter than the surroundings. The stuff that's doing the glowing always blocks some of the photons from the other side, so a glowing object casts a regular shadow, although if it's translucent (like a pale blue flame) it will be a very faint shadow, but a shadow nevertheless.
Kramer was right!
Hacking up your own version of stdint.h for the MS compiler is a trivial exercise of course. Then when you want to port to 64-bit you just edit that one file. The only really irritating thing was that for a while they didn't support casting from uint64_t to double. You had to cast it to int64_t and make sure you were never going to set the highest bit. So, I have this ugly macro that wraps those casts, but otherwise it was no big deal.
Excuse me, but was that supposed to mean something?
Asking that question in a discussion of programming methodologies has been futile for at least 10 years. I've never cracked a book on any of these methodologies. Object Oriented was the last one that came anywhere near making sense, and only to the extent that it built on and clarified structured programming.
Whenever I hear (blah)-oriented in the context of programming, I just tune it out because I know it will only lead to a symposium on synergistic paradigms. I do quite well with this approach.
Plus, nothing beats the satisfaction of all those muffled pop! ping! sounds you get when you use a metal pan with a lid. We use stainless steel Revere Ware; I have to admit it's been a long time since we've popped any. The sound and smell brings back fond memories of childhood, unlike the smell of cheap, overly buttered uWave office corn; which just makes me want to vomit.
This reminds me of back in the day when everybody bragged on Linux uptime vs. Windows. The *NIX snobs still don't get the desktop after all this time. As long as a desktop stays up all day, that's all that matters because desktop users treat their PCs like TVs. Yes, 1990s Windows desktops often failed that test, but Linux users back then were comparing CLIs to desktops and bragging on uptimes.
This root flap is the same sort of deal. Yeah, root can kill all the users on a box. Guess what? Granny is the only user on the box. If user Granny's files are dead, the whole box is dead as far as she's concerned, and if her kernel has been replaced by KERNEL.i0wn3du, she is just going to run the restore CD.
That's not to say that I agree whole-heartedly with the "root is safe" assertiong; but I understand where the guy is coming from. In a way the *NIXs are perhaps a victim of their own success in writing apps that are (usually) secure enough so that you can get away with running as root.
This isn't a problem with CLIs. The GUI analogy is the Windows pop-up that asks you if you're sure you want to delete a file. Raise your hand if you use Windows and you've gotten into the habit of smaking your enter-key, sometimes before that dialog even displays.
The problem is that people want to do things quickly, so you've got people training themselves to use -f because they're in the habit of recursivily deleteing files on a regular basis and they don't feel like interupting the flow responding to a prompt. This works really well until they don't mean to do it. The Windows recycling bin is not a bad solution to this problem; there is no widely adopted *NIX equivalent.
According to waxy.org he got over $3000 worth of stuff from people who donated online out of sympathy. At least he didn't spend much time or money doing what he did. I just finished watching revelations and it totally sucked. My torrent is still sharing, but I now question if that's a service to the community or not. :)
So, the planet will end up being run by miners, because they will be the only ones to survive, unless these bursts last longer than a shift. For the long term benefit of humanit, we need more female mine workers! Also, more females at deep underground military sites. You know they must still be running those things.
No. It could be much worse. They could let the air out of the center of the earth, and it might pop. Even worse, it could jet around the solar system in wild arcs, making farting noises while all the other planets laugh and throw half-eaten cupcakes at eachother.