The STAC case shows if anything that established players can ride over the patent system when it suits them to maintain market dominance. They also use patents to raise barriers to entry for smaller players.
I'm glad I'm not he only one who feels a sense of unease about the whole PayPal concept. Even Amazon, probably the most widely trusted brand for online payments has made big mistakes in how it reassures its customers and deals with their transactions.
I can't see micropayments ever working better than a subscription model for serial long term opt in, and if there's a free site/list I like I'm going to be a lot happier occasionally buying a tshirt, piece of software, a mug, CD, picture or book to show my appreciation.
My collection of MP3s never had any data beyond a vague [Artist - Title.mp3] file naming convention, but with ID tags, CDDB & iTunes decent gui to store and catalog them, I'm gradually getting there, and while I don't have to see the file I can always get to them if needs be. I shudder to recall some of the dodgy alternatives like RealJukebox. So my requirements would be:
A standard crossplatform way to transfer metadata. (With XML becoming the default data format, this could be either held in a file or findable/queriable in a standard way from the source site/email/Server.)
An intelligent ui which stops maintenance becoming a chore.
I've never read any Thoreau before today, but he's right - we should understand the wider consequences of our actions and work towards something higher than a quick buck - is highly relevant.
The intellectual closure continues and are in a battle to carve out a space for free expression.
It may be a bit long for a sig but I think it's a good point to remember so knock yourself out. It'd be nice to think of a t-shirt suitable short form:
linux: communist as mom's apple pie
Re:Free Lunch!
on
SCO Roundup
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· Score: 3, Insightful
OSS is only communistic in the same way that barn raising was communistic, or Adam Smith was a comunist for wanting a free market.
Calling linux communistic is like Sara Lee calling the local church ladies communist for holding a bake sale.
Re:For what it's worth...
on
SCO Roundup
·
· Score: 1
A tried to find out about the SCOsource licensing scheme, after 4 days their qmail bounced the email they created from the enquiry form on their website back to me via MAILER-DAEMON@mail.ut.caldera.com saying it couldn't deliver to webmaster@caldera.com.
Well it's rather vague and definitely boilerplate, I got exactly the same thing from John Bowis MEP (another Conservative.)
From Glenys Kinnock (Labour) I got a paraphrased version of one of the directive's author Arlene McCarthy's own (self-praising) letters which is already posted on seveeral mailing lists. (I doubt Glenys uses Google much, or she'd be a little more careful what she sends out.)
After receiving these two, I got seriously annoyed that this vague and partial directive would pass due to a mixture of horse trading, lobbying special interests and the old pals act, so I'm glad to hear it looks like it's going back to the committee stage.
On a brighter note, Conservative Richard Balfe sent a thoughtful reply saying we should 'move carefully' and that he would 'take on board' my points when voting.
Jean Lambert sent me the most positive response I've had, which shows the Greens are very strongly onside, and noting that "The influence of the Business Software Alliance (whose main members are Microsoft and IBM) behind the project has been widely condemned."
At least these people actually bothered to answer, other MEPs haven't so far.
The point about backgrounds is agood one - a friend of mine is a designer on a weekly women's magazine with an ageing readership, and she told me they have a strict rule not to use more than a 20% background colour because they get complaints about the readability. Even I sometimes find Wired difficult to read, even if it does look good...
I sent an email to SCO recently, they are using qconfirm which basically sends you an email asking you to confirm your email address before it will deliver your enquiry. Now, SCO probably has its reasons to use a system like that right now, but a singificant percentage of leads will probably just ignore the confirmation message, especially if they're wary of fakes like the paypal ones that are going around.
Anyway two days later and SCO still haven't bothered to reply to me so either the system doesn't work or they're too busy to be interested in my business...
I read some research recently that said a widening of opinion on a stock will generally drive up the price, because the price is set by the people who are prepared to pay a premium because they think it's worth it. So maybe the SCO faithful are buying in post SCO forum.
It's also unusual for shorting to have much of an effect, because it's usually too small a volume.
As an aside, SCO's market cap is currently about $200M, so if they were to win $1B against IBM, wrange Red Hat into a deal and get SCOsource off the ground, say their market cap went up to $2B - doesn't that mean the market thinks they've got about a 10% chance of winning that much.
Sounds overpriced to me, I'd give them a 1-3% chance of winning against IBM. If the stock goes much above 15$, I'd definitely consider a punt.
One major visible *business* success and the house of cards will tumble. The speed with which business latches onto a differentiator can be amazing, and less than 1% difference in gross costs will soon be noticed when times get tough.
I expect the starting point will be competitive transactional applications where the infrastructure is a high factor in transaction cost.
Banking/insurance/telecoms look like prime candidates to me.
Marth was told by her insider pal that the shares were going down the can, so she sold off hers. When people investigated this, she claimed that the shares were sold under an automatic limit trade. Unfortunately her broker's assistant wouldn't go along with the deception and told the investigators she had specifically asked that the shares be sold.
M$ is clearly manouvering to set up a monopoly of media distribution through the use of Palladium, WMP is just the eye candy loss leader.
While it woluld be *interesting* to see EMI, BMG & Chrysalis squirm at the licensing fees, M$ should not be able to put this kind of lock on yet another part of the tech market.
Yes, probaby because Paul Darrow's beeen saying this is going to happen for about 3 years now. I'll be first in the queue when they get it going though!
Maybe the advertisers will pay for it as a service. Sky TV in the UK have something called Sky+ which is a digital satellite receiver/PVR and they were planning to try and sell 'premium' ads which people couldn't skip.
Just one reason I don't have Sky, but I do wonder how many people would actually stop buying your product after that kind of intrusion.
It wouldn't be too difficult to implement general and specialised indexes, aggregators and object caching within this schema, and I would hazard that for most transactional databases more than 99% of records never get used apart from for historical reporting.
I can think of plenty of use cases (like doing real-time analytics without the requerying overhead) and advantages for this kind of method.
Slashdot Mirror
There's lots of information on the ffii website backing up the idea that software patents don't foster innovation.
The STAC case shows if anything that established players can ride over the patent system when it suits them to maintain market dominance. They also use patents to raise barriers to entry for smaller players.
I'm glad I'm not he only one who feels a sense of unease about the whole PayPal concept. Even Amazon, probably the most widely trusted brand for online payments has made big mistakes in how it reassures its customers and deals with their transactions.
I can't see micropayments ever working better than a subscription model for serial long term opt in, and if there's a free site/list I like I'm going to be a lot happier occasionally buying a tshirt, piece of software, a mug, CD, picture or book to show my appreciation.
My collection of MP3s never had any data beyond a vague [Artist - Title.mp3] file naming convention, but with ID tags, CDDB & iTunes decent gui to store and catalog them, I'm gradually getting there, and while I don't have to see the file I can always get to them if needs be. I shudder to recall some of the dodgy alternatives like RealJukebox. So my requirements would be:
A standard crossplatform way to transfer metadata.
(With XML becoming the default data format, this could be either held in a file or findable/queriable in a standard way from the source site/email/Server.)
An intelligent ui which stops maintenance becoming a chore.
The ad seems deliberately disturbing in an AI/Village of the Damned stylee. Wonder who's going to be getting nightmares...
I've never read any Thoreau before today, but he's right - we should understand the wider consequences of our actions and work towards something higher than a quick buck - is highly relevant.
The intellectual closure continues and are in a battle to carve out a space for free expression.
It may be a bit long for a sig but I think it's a good point to remember so knock yourself out. It'd be nice to think of a t-shirt suitable short form:
linux: communist as mom's apple pie
OSS is only communistic in the same way that barn raising was communistic, or Adam Smith was a comunist for wanting a free market.
Calling linux communistic is like Sara Lee calling the local church ladies communist for holding a bake sale.
A tried to find out about the SCOsource licensing scheme, after 4 days their qmail bounced the email they created from the enquiry form on their website back to me via MAILER-DAEMON@mail.ut.caldera.com saying it couldn't deliver to webmaster@caldera.com.
Obviously they're too busy to want my business...
Well it's rather vague and definitely boilerplate, I got exactly the same thing from John Bowis MEP (another Conservative.)
From Glenys Kinnock (Labour) I got a paraphrased version of one of the directive's author Arlene McCarthy's own (self-praising) letters which is already posted on seveeral mailing lists. (I doubt Glenys uses Google much, or she'd be a little more careful what she sends out.)
After receiving these two, I got seriously annoyed that this vague and partial directive would pass due to a mixture of horse trading, lobbying special interests and the old pals act, so I'm glad to hear it looks like it's going back to the committee stage.
On a brighter note, Conservative Richard Balfe sent a thoughtful reply saying we should 'move carefully' and that he would 'take on board' my points when voting.
Jean Lambert sent me the most positive response I've had, which shows the Greens are very strongly onside, and noting that "The influence of the Business Software Alliance (whose main members are Microsoft and IBM) behind the project has been widely condemned."
At least these people actually bothered to answer, other MEPs haven't so far.
The point about backgrounds is agood one - a friend of mine is a designer on a weekly women's magazine with an ageing readership, and she told me they have a strict rule not to use more than a 20% background colour because they get complaints about the readability. Even I sometimes find Wired difficult to read, even if it does look good...
I sent an email to SCO recently, they are using qconfirm which basically sends you an email asking you to confirm your email address before it will deliver your enquiry. Now, SCO probably has its reasons to use a system like that right now, but a singificant percentage of leads will probably just ignore the confirmation message, especially if they're wary of fakes like the paypal ones that are going around.
Anyway two days later and SCO still haven't bothered to reply to me so either the system doesn't work or they're too busy to be interested in my business...
I read some research recently that said a widening of opinion on a stock will generally drive up the price, because the price is set by the people who are prepared to pay a premium because they think it's worth it. So maybe the SCO faithful are buying in post SCO forum.
It's also unusual for shorting to have much of an effect, because it's usually too small a volume.
As an aside, SCO's market cap is currently about $200M, so if they were to win $1B against IBM, wrange Red Hat into a deal and get SCOsource off the ground, say their market cap went up to $2B - doesn't that mean the market thinks they've got about a 10% chance of winning that much.
Sounds overpriced to me, I'd give them a 1-3% chance of winning against IBM. If the stock goes much above 15$, I'd definitely consider a punt.
Yea, SCO
I've been doing some 'patttern matching' of my own, and would point out these examples of lines which duplicate SCO's valuable IP:
for(x=0;x<y;x++)
#include <stdio.h>
std::cout << "Hello, world!\n";
int main(int argc, char **argv)
// aargh this code is terrible
return 0;
/*
}
One major visible *business* success and the house of cards will tumble. The speed with which business latches onto a differentiator can be amazing, and less than 1% difference in gross costs will soon be noticed when times get tough.
I expect the starting point will be competitive transactional applications where the infrastructure is a high factor in transaction cost.
Banking/insurance/telecoms look like prime candidates to me.
The BBC has it...
"The government used to take responsibility for ensuring that each area had enough spare capacity to act as a safeguard in times of difficulty.
"But, since the deregulation of the industry in the 1980s, the rules have been much less strict. "
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3153237.stm
I'm sure there are some economists who'd tell you this just shows how effiicient the grid's being run.
Marth was told by her insider pal that the shares were going down the can, so she sold off hers. When people investigated this, she claimed that the shares were sold under an automatic limit trade. Unfortunately her broker's assistant wouldn't go along with the deception and told the investigators she had specifically asked that the shares be sold.
If that's not fraud I don't know what is...
M$ is clearly manouvering to set up a monopoly of media distribution through the use of Palladium, WMP is just the eye candy loss leader.
While it woluld be *interesting* to see EMI, BMG & Chrysalis squirm at the licensing fees, M$ should not be able to put this kind of lock on yet another part of the tech market.
My local second hand shop always has a few Blackberries piled in the window, I can't believe businesses still fall for RIM's sales pitch.
Yes, probaby because Paul Darrow's beeen saying this is going to happen for about 3 years now. I'll be first in the queue when they get it going though!
There is a thriving perl poetry community.
Maybe the advertisers will pay for it as a service. Sky TV in the UK have something called Sky+ which is a digital satellite receiver/PVR and they were planning to try and sell 'premium' ads which people couldn't skip.
Just one reason I don't have Sky, but I do wonder how many people would actually stop buying your product after that kind of intrusion.
It wouldn't be too difficult to implement general and specialised indexes, aggregators and object caching within this schema, and I would hazard that for most transactional databases more than 99% of records never get used apart from for historical reporting.
I can think of plenty of use cases (like doing real-time analytics without the requerying overhead) and advantages for this kind of method.
Bravo, if this works, it looks like Bluetooth might finally turn the corner to become more than just a way to have a wireless headset...
I don't think you quite got the point...