I know it's helped my game... AND it is not limited to gaming. I use one for my text editor (Ultra Edit) and one for playing Half-Life
+++++++++++++++++++++
Frankly, I'm disgusted... not with Mr Pool, but with the Patent office.
I mean, hey, credit where credit is due, if I coud patent breathing oxygen and then manage to sue/intimidate every living thing on this planet (except for certain bacterias and of course plant life) into paying royalties, you bet I'd do it...
IF someone actualy LET ME GET AWAY WITH THAT, they should be tarred and feathered.
I agree with others who have said that these Business method patents are getting rediculous. Wasn't it just a few weeks ago I read about British Telcom trying to claim they patented Hyperlinks??
(still trying to decide whether to laugh or cry)
Others have mentioned that NSI may be technically guilty of cybersquatting, but how about the fact that it is entirely possible that by auctioning off a domain name that is someone's trademark means the name could go to anybody... this has the potential to ENCOURAGE more cybersquatting.
Of course, it needs to be said that if someone registers a name and then looses it because they didn't pay for it, maybe they deserve someone squatting it on them.
These people need to get a serious kick in the pants.
Spam pisses me off more than just about any other form of junk-advertising. I will take the commercials on TV and radio, I will ignore banners on web sites and display ads in newspapers, I even have fun harassing telemarketers, but SPAM pisses me off for some reason.
In 400-something posts, someone's probably already said it, but:
I think the precident is interesting... how about someone suing Anonomyzer.com for proxying, or manufacturers of proxy servers in general - they don't translate, but they do request, process and pass along someone elses content at the end user request, and what about the Babelfish and other translation sites??? They DO request, translate, and pass on other's copyrighted content, and they also make no attempt to claim ownership of the content or hide its origins... I only wish that the owners of translation sites would see the danger and jump in on the side of dialectizer...
The Hitchhikers' Guide series started out as a radio drama, but the books expanded the story well past the original series. I'm a really big fan of ZBS radio drama, and I was wondering if you've ever considered having your more recent works produced for radio or as CDs?
Books on tape are great, but there's nothing quite like having a full cast of actors, proper sound effects, and a great soundtrack to bring it to life.
... Thank you for whapping me up-side the head with bitter reality wrapped in a slice of lemon. I look forward to whatever your next project will be.
As a felon who is not yet through with the probation and other terms of his sentence, (even though we all know that he only pled guilty to stop the circus) he legally could not leave the country without very specific permissions from all sorts of authorities. Essentially, he has to "do his time" and the only remedy is to make a legal challenge to the "cruel and unusual" punnishment - I think that his sentence qualifies as both:
Cruel - If the only marketable skills he has are technology dependant, he essentially is barred from the vast majority of ways to make a living. The sentencing is in effect preventing him from making any kind of positive contribution to society.
Unusual - There are no specific sentencing laws that state this is the penalty for the crimes he pled guilty to. The restrictions were handed down solely at the discression of the judge, and some could even make the case that the guidelines are arbitrary and capricious - certainly, restrictions that prevent someone from earning a livable wage are unusual.
The article mentions Mattel lawyers saying that the authors would be "in big trouble" if it turned out that they did not have the right to sign away all rights. I see the issue as you said, "In good Faith".
If these guys didn't realize that GPLing it would mean that they could not assign all rights because they no longer owned all rights, then they made the deal in GOOD FAITH, and Mattel may have indeed given them nothing.
Kevin Mitnick is not relevant to the issue because there, the accusation (and potential criminal consiquences) had to do with defrauding and/or misusing the cellular service. If the hackers here were modifying the "NetPliance" to use the ISP portion of the service without paying, then it could be compared to cloning cell phones. "Maybe there's no Free Lunch, but if you hit the bar at Happy Hour, you may be able to get some free munchies..." I think the Cell phone model is a business plan that would solve theiissue here - just as others have said... Offer the product for $99 with a 1 year or 2 year contract for the $21 per month, make the CONTRACT specify that an early termination fee of $XXX (Cost of the hardware plus a reasonable margin) will be assessed if you cancel. That way, they could also specify a "Buy the thing without ISP contract" plan for a fair price. If it is worth it, we hacker-types will continue to buy, if not, we will buy something else.
Just please don't MAC-ize Linux. Any time anyone starts holding the MAC UI up as something to emulate, I get these horrible visions of owning a car whit the hood welded shut.
The reason for Linux's appeal to me is that it is open. Maybe I will never even LOOK at the Linux source code, but there is something about the idea that I COULD if I wanted to...
You know, it's kind of sad to admit this, but I agree.
I find that I like the UI and functionality of IE much better than Netscape or Opera. If IE and three or four other applications I depend upon were available on Linux, I could finally abandon Windows. The one thing that makes me feel a little better about the whole situation is that the APPS I depend upon (with the exception of IE) are not M$ products.
Probably the only way we will ever see any big Microsoft products for Linux is if the DOJ breaks them up. Then, the Office division would be free to port their apps over... the only thing I think is stopping MS from doing that now is the fear that releasing Office for Linux would make it a much easier for a lot of us fence-sitters to give the Windows platform the final heave-ho.
Slashdot Mirror
Gods, that was stupid...
X-keys and Ultra Edit
+++++++++++++++++++++
How about the
I know it's helped my game... AND it is not limited to gaming. I use one for my text editor (Ultra Edit) and one for playing Half-Life
+++++++++++++++++++++
Frankly, I'm disgusted... not with Mr Pool, but with the Patent office. I mean, hey, credit where credit is due, if I coud patent breathing oxygen and then manage to sue/intimidate every living thing on this planet (except for certain bacterias and of course plant life) into paying royalties, you bet I'd do it... IF someone actualy LET ME GET AWAY WITH THAT, they should be tarred and feathered. I agree with others who have said that these Business method patents are getting rediculous. Wasn't it just a few weeks ago I read about British Telcom trying to claim they patented Hyperlinks?? (still trying to decide whether to laugh or cry)
Others have mentioned that NSI may be technically guilty of cybersquatting, but how about the fact that it is entirely possible that by auctioning off a domain name that is someone's trademark means the name could go to anybody... this has the potential to ENCOURAGE more cybersquatting.
Of course, it needs to be said that if someone registers a name and then looses it because they didn't pay for it, maybe they deserve someone squatting it on them.
Could be interesting.
These people need to get a serious kick in the pants.
Spam pisses me off more than just about any other form of junk-advertising. I will take the commercials on TV and radio, I will ignore banners on web sites and display ads in newspapers, I even have fun harassing telemarketers, but SPAM pisses me off for some reason.
In 400-something posts, someone's probably already said it, but:
I think the precident is interesting... how about someone suing Anonomyzer.com for proxying, or manufacturers of proxy servers in general - they don't translate, but they do request, process and pass along someone elses content at the end user request, and what about the Babelfish and other translation sites??? They DO request, translate, and pass on other's copyrighted content, and they also make no attempt to claim ownership of the content or hide its origins... I only wish that the owners of translation sites would see the danger and jump in on the side of dialectizer...
FAT CHANCE! but they should be concerned.
Mr. Adams,
The Hitchhikers' Guide series started out as a radio drama, but the books expanded the story well past the original series. I'm a really big fan of ZBS radio drama, and I was wondering if you've ever considered having your more recent works produced for radio or as CDs?
Books on tape are great, but there's nothing quite like having a full cast of actors, proper sound effects, and a great soundtrack to bring it to life.
An interesting thought except for one thing...
As a felon who is not yet through with the probation and other terms of his sentence, (even though we all know that he only pled guilty to stop the circus) he legally could not leave the country without very specific permissions from all sorts of authorities. Essentially, he has to "do his time" and the only remedy is to make a legal challenge to the "cruel and unusual" punnishment - I think that his sentence qualifies as both:
Cruel - If the only marketable skills he has are technology dependant, he essentially is barred from the vast majority of ways to make a living. The sentencing is in effect preventing him from making any kind of positive contribution to society.
Unusual - There are no specific sentencing laws that state this is the penalty for the crimes he pled guilty to. The restrictions were handed down solely at the discression of the judge, and some could even make the case that the guidelines are arbitrary and capricious - certainly, restrictions that prevent someone from earning a livable wage are unusual.
There's My 2 cents for the day.
I was going to post the same thing, but you beat me to it.
The Puzzle Palace really was an interesting read... Maybe I'll dig it out and re-read it.
a good web source on current news in the crypto world is Cryptome
Hope that helps
The article mentions Mattel lawyers saying that the authors would be "in big trouble" if it turned out that they did not have the right to sign away all rights. I see the issue as you said, "In good Faith".
If these guys didn't realize that GPLing it would mean that they could not assign all rights because they no longer owned all rights, then they made the deal in GOOD FAITH, and Mattel may have indeed given them nothing.
Kinda makes me laugh...
Kevin Mitnick is not relevant to the issue because there, the accusation (and potential criminal consiquences) had to do with defrauding and/or misusing the cellular service. If the hackers here were modifying the "NetPliance" to use the ISP portion of the service without paying, then it could be compared to cloning cell phones. "Maybe there's no Free Lunch, but if you hit the bar at Happy Hour, you may be able to get some free munchies..." I think the Cell phone model is a business plan that would solve theiissue here - just as others have said... Offer the product for $99 with a 1 year or 2 year contract for the $21 per month, make the CONTRACT specify that an early termination fee of $XXX (Cost of the hardware plus a reasonable margin) will be assessed if you cancel. That way, they could also specify a "Buy the thing without ISP contract" plan for a fair price. If it is worth it, we hacker-types will continue to buy, if not, we will buy something else.
Just please don't MAC-ize Linux. Any time anyone starts holding the MAC UI up as something to emulate, I get these horrible visions of owning a car whit the hood welded shut.
The reason for Linux's appeal to me is that it is open. Maybe I will never even LOOK at the Linux source code, but there is something about the idea that I COULD if I wanted to...
You know, it's kind of sad to admit this, but I agree.
I find that I like the UI and functionality of IE much better than Netscape or Opera. If IE and three or four other applications I depend upon were available on Linux, I could finally abandon Windows. The one thing that makes me feel a little better about the whole situation is that the APPS I depend upon (with the exception of IE) are not M$ products.
Probably the only way we will ever see any big Microsoft products for Linux is if the DOJ breaks them up. Then, the Office division would be free to port their apps over... the only thing I think is stopping MS from doing that now is the fear that releasing Office for Linux would make it a much easier for a lot of us fence-sitters to give the Windows platform the final heave-ho.