On the flip side of the coin, IBM is pro-OSS at this moment, and I'm glad that IBM has so many patents.
"Sure, they out-number us, have far better weapons and lots of them, and have demonstrated an ability and willingness to use them to great effect, but so what? They're on our side at the moment, we've nothing to worry about!"
So what happens if IBM decide that while OSS can help make them money, their own proprietary software will make them even more money? (Not saying it would, mind you, just that IBM might suddenly come to that conclusion) They have a metric truckload of patents and the lawyers to wield them; what chance would any given OSS project or company stand if they decided to turn against us?
I'm not saying that they will, and I'm not saying that IBM isn't a powerful ally at the moment, I'm just not as comfortable with the situation as you seem to be. Powerful allies can become powerful enemies when it suits them...
Cute, and I see your point, but that's not what IBM are alleging at all. IBM has said "Hey, we invented those technologies and patented them - cough up!". Whether or not that's true doesn't change the nature of the allegation one bit. If I say the sky is green, the fact that it isn't doesn't change my allegation at all; it just makes me obviously wrong.
I'm not entirely sure; I think you were talking about how utterly evil and despised IBM used to be, how there's no guarantee that this isn't the first sign of a return to form, and that they are the world's most prolific software patentors, but you seem to have been distracted by an utterly irrelevant swipe at MS.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all that IBM has been doing lately, but understand this - they're not doing it because they're nice guys, they're doing it because it makes them money. If that were to change, so would their tactics. They're nice to us *now*; we cna only hope that they continue being nice.
Too many choices is a bad thing, and will confuse users (especially novice users). However, my PC does not do a better job of power management than I do; it's noisy and in my bedroom. When I switch it off, I want it off, not suspended to disk but still ticking over, all the fans still whirring away, keeping me awake. Also, if I'm opening the case up, I'll shut it down and switch it off at the mains and leave it plugged in. That way it's still earthed...
I'm at a loss to understand why he's counting the special key combinations on a laptop (put there by the manufacturer) then blaming MS for giving the user too much choice. For once, that's not their fault.
Finally, when you're teaching someone how to use a system, you really don't need to tell them about all of the different ways to do something - teach them one, and let them find the others for themselves. Just because the system is complicated doesn't mean you have to throw that complication in their face. For example, my parents' PC was running slow. I took a look at it, saw that it was woefully short of RAM, told them that and roughly how much it would cost to upgrade, went with them to buy it, and fitted it. I could have explained the difference between the hard drive and RAM, the various different types of RAM available, touched on memory management and paging, etc, but really, what would the point have been? They don't need to know - they just need to know that this thing here in my hand costs £50 and will fix their problem. Same with this - so there are 19 ways to end your session. Teach him two - how to put it in to standby and how to switch it off.
he points out that the public as a whole (at least in the U.S.) prefers automatics to standards by a margin of at least 9:1.
And here in the UK, I don't think I've ever been in an automatic, nor heard of anyone who owns one; manual vehicles are by far the most common. In fact, I don't think you can even buy automatics, except by special order.
I really don't think that manual vs automatic is a matter of preference, so much as it is a matter of what you're used to and what's available.
Editing about:config is nearly as fast, but finding out that there is a value to edit, what it's called and what to set it to is a damn sight slower...
But in reality, he fell limp, an obvious sign of non-violent protest. The cops could've tasered him, then two cops could've cuffed him (he was wearing cuffs but i don't know when they were put on), picked him up and carried him out. Wouldn't that've been the correct response?
No, not really. If he's not violent and they have no reason to believe that he's armed and/or dangerous, then they shouldn't taser him at all.
I don't care why he did what he did; if he wasn't a danger to himself or others, then the use of a weapon was not justified, full stop.
Now you come to mention it, I have a feeling I've not been a regular at k5 for longer than 1.5 years... I hadn't really thought about it, but it must be longer than that. Wow.
He's agreeing with you, he's just arguing that taking immediate action as you propose in a situation like that is only going to escalate it, quite possibly ending with someone badly hurt or dead.
I tend to agree with him; as long as the guy's not apparently in danger of being seriously harmed or killed, let it go and gather as much evidence as possible, then see that they're prosecuted.
Much like Kuroshin before it, the sign of the end for Digg is when they start begging slashdot's community to come over for fresher news.
Well for me, the sign of the end for kuro5hin was when it was clear that not only was it overrun with trolls, but that Rusty wasn't going to do anything meaningful about it, instead putting all his faith in the rating system. Given how many trolls were trusted users though, that was never going to work. I'd left by the time he flipped out and went completely the other way, but from what I understand when he finally took action, it was too much, far too late.
I wasn't aware of k5 ever begging for/. users to come over; given the attitude most people there had to this site when I was a regular, I'd be surprised (and rather amused) if it happened...
The second and third definitions just record the fact that geeks started to misuse the word as a plural of box, it doesn't make it any less made-up. You do know what the word "fanciful" means, don't you?
Yes, language changes, but changes that are for the worse should be resisted. That's a highly subjective measure of course, but I know where "boxen" falls by my measure.
More than half the summary is taken up by him talking about selling his PS3 on eBay, and there's a link to the auction in the description next to the video (click the "more" link).
Yes it would be, but then you run the risk of the keyboard and the app getting out of sync. Not a huge bother, of course, but inelegant; I much prefer things to just work, even if it means that getting them to that state takes more effort.
I may not have heard about it if it was only in Ipswich, although I'd have expected it to be on the BBC at least, and someone would surely have mentioned it on one of the blogs I read. Still, it's certainly not impossible that I'd not have heard.
But Kensington? No chance - I simply can't believe that I wouldn't have heard about it. I've lived in London for about 13 years now, and the two main topics of conversation of the average Londoner are the weather and transport. A change of that magnitude would not go unremarked - it'd almost certainly be front page on the Metro for a start.
I'm willing to be proved wrong of course, but proof is what I'm lacking...
A google search for "Ipswich road signs" turns up nothing about the town doing away with road signs; a relevant page on Suffolk county council's website says nothing about what would necessarily be headline news. The same is true of a similar search for Kensington. Not only that, but as I live and work in London, I think I'd have heard about it, yet I've heard nothing at all.
Without corroboration, I'm going to have to consider this bullshit.
While you're right, the answer is increased education, he clearly doesn't think that that's going to work:
and almost never can be skilled enough.
Now I don't accept that (although that's based on personal prejudice without reference to any facts), but taken in context, his solution (import the skills) makes sense.
No, patents are supposed to encourage investment in research and development by granting a limited-time monopoly, thus aiding the patentor in recouping their investment and making a profit. They are also supposed to ensure that knowledge becomes public, as the patent is supposed to go into enough detail that a skilled practitioner in the relevant field could reproduce the subject of the patent.
Preventing others from using the subject of the patent in their own products/processes is a consequence of the implementation of the first aim; it is not the sole aim of patents.
Agreed. The project I'm currently on involves a database of information protectively marked as RESTRICTED (the lowest protective marking, but still legally protected by the UK's Official Secrets Acts), and we don't even get to see it. We're not even allowed to use a randomly scrambled version of the real data for performance testing, let alone functional testing.
I can understand, though, how some smaller companies may not have the resources to do things like this properly
Rubbish. Even if they have to develop against the live database (an absolute no-no), they should be using a separate schema with representative data and have no access to the real tables. There is no excuse for using real, live data of that sort of sensitivity for development purposes. The only time I would consider it acceptable would be in investigating a problem that only manifests when the live dataset is used, and then it should be handled with extreme care.
Slashdot Mirror
On the flip side of the coin, IBM is pro-OSS at this moment, and I'm glad that IBM has so many patents.
"Sure, they out-number us, have far better weapons and lots of them, and have demonstrated an ability and willingness to use them to great effect, but so what? They're on our side at the moment, we've nothing to worry about!"
So what happens if IBM decide that while OSS can help make them money, their own proprietary software will make them even more money? (Not saying it would, mind you, just that IBM might suddenly come to that conclusion) They have a metric truckload of patents and the lawyers to wield them; what chance would any given OSS project or company stand if they decided to turn against us?
I'm not saying that they will, and I'm not saying that IBM isn't a powerful ally at the moment, I'm just not as comfortable with the situation as you seem to be. Powerful allies can become powerful enemies when it suits them...
Cute, and I see your point, but that's not what IBM are alleging at all. IBM has said "Hey, we invented those technologies and patented them - cough up!". Whether or not that's true doesn't change the nature of the allegation one bit. If I say the sky is green, the fact that it isn't doesn't change my allegation at all; it just makes me obviously wrong.
What was I talking about again?
I'm not entirely sure; I think you were talking about how utterly evil and despised IBM used to be, how there's no guarantee that this isn't the first sign of a return to form, and that they are the world's most prolific software patentors, but you seem to have been distracted by an utterly irrelevant swipe at MS.
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all that IBM has been doing lately, but understand this - they're not doing it because they're nice guys, they're doing it because it makes them money. If that were to change, so would their tactics. They're nice to us *now*; we cna only hope that they continue being nice.
Too many choices is a bad thing, and will confuse users (especially novice users). However, my PC does not do a better job of power management than I do; it's noisy and in my bedroom. When I switch it off, I want it off, not suspended to disk but still ticking over, all the fans still whirring away, keeping me awake. Also, if I'm opening the case up, I'll shut it down and switch it off at the mains and leave it plugged in. That way it's still earthed...
I'm at a loss to understand why he's counting the special key combinations on a laptop (put there by the manufacturer) then blaming MS for giving the user too much choice. For once, that's not their fault.
Finally, when you're teaching someone how to use a system, you really don't need to tell them about all of the different ways to do something - teach them one, and let them find the others for themselves. Just because the system is complicated doesn't mean you have to throw that complication in their face. For example, my parents' PC was running slow. I took a look at it, saw that it was woefully short of RAM, told them that and roughly how much it would cost to upgrade, went with them to buy it, and fitted it. I could have explained the difference between the hard drive and RAM, the various different types of RAM available, touched on memory management and paging, etc, but really, what would the point have been? They don't need to know - they just need to know that this thing here in my hand costs £50 and will fix their problem. Same with this - so there are 19 ways to end your session. Teach him two - how to put it in to standby and how to switch it off.
he points out that the public as a whole (at least in the U.S.) prefers automatics to standards by a margin of at least 9:1.
And here in the UK, I don't think I've ever been in an automatic, nor heard of anyone who owns one; manual vehicles are by far the most common. In fact, I don't think you can even buy automatics, except by special order.
I really don't think that manual vs automatic is a matter of preference, so much as it is a matter of what you're used to and what's available.
they will be waiting for you at home to give you a ticket for DIU
If that's the best objection to this that you can come up with you're going to have to try a hell of a lot harder.
but editing in about:config is nearly as fast
Editing about:config is nearly as fast, but finding out that there is a value to edit, what it's called and what to set it to is a damn sight slower...
But in reality, he fell limp, an obvious sign of non-violent protest. The cops could've tasered him, then two cops could've cuffed him (he was wearing cuffs but i don't know when they were put on), picked him up and carried him out. Wouldn't that've been the correct response?
No, not really. If he's not violent and they have no reason to believe that he's armed and/or dangerous, then they shouldn't taser him at all.
I don't care why he did what he did; if he wasn't a danger to himself or others, then the use of a weapon was not justified, full stop.
Now you come to mention it, I have a feeling I've not been a regular at k5 for longer than 1.5 years... I hadn't really thought about it, but it must be longer than that. Wow.
He's agreeing with you, he's just arguing that taking immediate action as you propose in a situation like that is only going to escalate it, quite possibly ending with someone badly hurt or dead.
I tend to agree with him; as long as the guy's not apparently in danger of being seriously harmed or killed, let it go and gather as much evidence as possible, then see that they're prosecuted.
Much like Kuroshin before it, the sign of the end for Digg is when they start begging slashdot's community to come over for fresher news.
/. users to come over; given the attitude most people there had to this site when I was a regular, I'd be surprised (and rather amused) if it happened...
Well for me, the sign of the end for kuro5hin was when it was clear that not only was it overrun with trolls, but that Rusty wasn't going to do anything meaningful about it, instead putting all his faith in the rating system. Given how many trolls were trusted users though, that was never going to work. I'd left by the time he flipped out and went completely the other way, but from what I understand when he finally took action, it was too much, far too late.
I wasn't aware of k5 ever begging for
The second and third definitions just record the fact that geeks started to misuse the word as a plural of box, it doesn't make it any less made-up. You do know what the word "fanciful" means, don't you?
Yes, language changes, but changes that are for the worse should be resisted. That's a highly subjective measure of course, but I know where "boxen" falls by my measure.
There's one degree of separation - click on the link to the video and there's a link to the auction in the "more details" bit of the explanation.
Besides, just because I can't buy a coke from the billboard doesn't mean it isn't an advert.
More than half the summary is taken up by him talking about selling his PS3 on eBay, and there's a link to the auction in the description next to the video (click the "more" link).
How was this "Slashvertisement".
Right there, in the slashdot summary, he talks about planning to sell his PS3 on eBay. If that's not a slashvertisement then I don't know what is.
They've ditched OLEDs in favour of LEDs, apparently for cost reasons.
:)
I do like the idea of a "screensaver" for it though...
Yes it would be, but then you run the risk of the keyboard and the app getting out of sync. Not a huge bother, of course, but inelegant; I much prefer things to just work, even if it means that getting them to that state takes more effort.
I may not have heard about it if it was only in Ipswich, although I'd have expected it to be on the BBC at least, and someone would surely have mentioned it on one of the blogs I read. Still, it's certainly not impossible that I'd not have heard.
But Kensington? No chance - I simply can't believe that I wouldn't have heard about it. I've lived in London for about 13 years now, and the two main topics of conversation of the average Londoner are the weather and transport. A change of that magnitude would not go unremarked - it'd almost certainly be front page on the Metro for a start.
I'm willing to be proved wrong of course, but proof is what I'm lacking...
A google search for "Ipswich road signs" turns up nothing about the town doing away with road signs; a relevant page on Suffolk county council's website says nothing about what would necessarily be headline news. The same is true of a similar search for Kensington. Not only that, but as I live and work in London, I think I'd have heard about it, yet I've heard nothing at all.
Without corroboration, I'm going to have to consider this bullshit.
Significant contributions should also be well publicized so that anyone claiming infringment is forced to bring it up soon
How does that force one to complain early? Copyright isn't a trademark, you don't lose it if you're slow to defend it.
Now I don't accept that (although that's based on personal prejudice without reference to any facts), but taken in context, his solution (import the skills) makes sense.
Isn't that the whole point of patents?
No, patents are supposed to encourage investment in research and development by granting a limited-time monopoly, thus aiding the patentor in recouping their investment and making a profit. They are also supposed to ensure that knowledge becomes public, as the patent is supposed to go into enough detail that a skilled practitioner in the relevant field could reproduce the subject of the patent.
Preventing others from using the subject of the patent in their own products/processes is a consequence of the implementation of the first aim; it is not the sole aim of patents.
Since the 'voice modem' was in existance such GUIs were around - certainly as easy as 1995.
Doubtless - but that doesn't change the fact that the submitter
1) incorrectly attributes the patent to MS rather than Intel
2) tries to cite Skype as prior art when it didn't exist at the time of filing
Even for a slashdot summary, that's pretty poor.
"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire.
Agreed. The project I'm currently on involves a database of information protectively marked as RESTRICTED (the lowest protective marking, but still legally protected by the UK's Official Secrets Acts), and we don't even get to see it. We're not even allowed to use a randomly scrambled version of the real data for performance testing, let alone functional testing.
I can understand, though, how some smaller companies may not have the resources to do things like this properly
Rubbish. Even if they have to develop against the live database (an absolute no-no), they should be using a separate schema with representative data and have no access to the real tables. There is no excuse for using real, live data of that sort of sensitivity for development purposes. The only time I would consider it acceptable would be in investigating a problem that only manifests when the live dataset is used, and then it should be handled with extreme care.