One presumes that evidence of cheating would be for example getting achievements whilst not logged into the game. Provided Microsoft can back up their claims that there was hard evidence of cheating as opposed to he was just doing well, then their action is fully justified.
Autism is an overused trendy diagnosis for children, especially as ADHD is so passe nowadays.
The original source of the story seems to have accepted that MS had reasonable grounds for the 'cheater' label
It's a prototype or technology testbed. I wouldn't be surprised to see the J-21 (or whatever they decide to call the next prototype) feature Chinese designed vector thrust engines with more power when they can get them figured out and to improve dramatically on its stealth capabilities.
The aircraft is quite big, so I'm not sure its truly a fighter as some sort of attack aircraft. In that role it can be argued that provided the front stealth technology is good it doesn't matter how bad the RCS is when it is leaving the combat zone.
Whilst I'm sure there may be an element of truth in the claims that the Chinese and Russians wanted bits of the F-117, its hardly news. The US has repeatedly used stuff from Russian aircraft that have landed in the West(or Japan) when their pilots wanted to defect, so there's hardly anything surprising about the Chinese wanting to analyse fragments of the downed US aircraft.
I don't think that they used much of the F-117 tech in the J-20 though - it looks like a sort of Eurofighter combined with an F-22.
What also surprises me is why everyone seems to think the Chinese aren't capable of doing this on their own - thousands of engineers who were taught in western Univercities have graduated, returned to China, and some are no doubt applying their skills in the military avionics fields. I also would not be surprised if leading Chinese universities produce graduates and phd students equal to the best the west can offer
From the limited facts reported, the case against him looks a little shaky. It looks as though the money he got from it would only pay the mortgage on his home for 7 months. It looks as though he retired from Northrop in 1986, and relocated to Maui in 1999, so it seems hard to see how he used anything except his commercially available skills to work with the Chinese.
I note they claim its not "cold fusion" but a Low Energy Nuclear Reaction device
Whilst sceptical, I do however ask myself if it is a fraud, why are they doing it? They're fully aware that any claims of producing energy from such a system will be subject to intense examination and a high degree of scepticism.
Pons and Fleischmann remain a laughing stock nearly 2 decades after their cold fusion announcement, so to make a claim in this field definitely requires Balls of Steel and a willingness to stake their reputation on the outcome.
As long as they take action with respect to protecting their trademarks, they are defending it; it was perfectly within their remit to open talks on a less formal basis before the heavy handed approach.
I can see that Blizzard may have some concerns about the title of the project, but this seems a shitty way of opening negotiations.
It would have been easier to contact the developers saying that you have such concerns, and can you discuss them before the legal department sends out the nastygrams.
I find it hard to read or even remember what I read on a Kindle type display, because the black on greyish contrast is offputting. I find myself distracted by the display and not focusing on the text.
I understand that Ms Meyer has a B.A in Literature, which should more than qualify her to write. Sci Fi and fantasy authors generally seem to be better qualified to write fiction than their 'normal' compatriots. If you truly want atrocious writing, I recommend James Patterson.
In terms of style I don't think that the Twilight series is that bad, and may even be a cut above many novels in that regard. Stephen Kings opinions notwithstanding, the Twilight series is well written and has atmosphere; it wouldn't hook its audience if it didn't. My main problem with it is that for some reason I got involved in the characterisation in an adverse way, in the sense I was praying that someone would kill the sanctimonious Edward and rip out the the heart of the passive female moose posing as the heroine.
Under the terms of a European Arrest Warrant, he can be transferred from the arresting country (UK) to the country issuing the Warrant (Sweden), but he cannot be transferred from there to any other country; he must be sent back to the UK in the event the arrest is cancelled/ charges are dropped/ he's declared innocent.
Under the European Arrest Warrant system, the offence should be an offence both in the UK and in Sweden, unless a prison sentence in excess of 3 years is likely. The only allegation which would meet these criteria is a genuine charge of rape, which Assange is clearly not guilty of.
I was gonna say this but you global emoted it first.!!
I went to the University of Essex in 1982 and spent all my mainframe time allocation playing MUD. if it wasn't for the fact I could do most of my coursework on my BBC Micro I wouldn't have a degree
Thanks for the reply. (If I had mod points I would be rating +1 Informative)
I'm not going diving into the earlier patent, but it seems that the prior art cited in other comments would directly address the claims of this patent, whilst beating the 2000 and 1995 dates.
MUD Essex University 1978-1987ish - kept a record of your level (thus a database), being rewarded with increased abilities every level until you got to Witch/Wizard level, and allowed remote play.
Obviously it depends on exactly how the claims of the patent are phrased, but from the abstract it would appear that this constitutes substantial prior art nearly 20 years before the 2001 filing date.
A quick look at some of the claims show it would probably be prior art against some of them. The game stored level and sex, (claims 1-2), it was a game of skill (claim 3). Claims 8,9,10 appear to be fairly generic method of interacting with any remote game, leaving only the association of payment with the game. I'm sure online games needing payment were present in the 80's too
In summary, the patent appears to have been awarded for something that is obvious and where prior art already exists
UK law is quite flexible on civil matters, but does not allow intrusion of religion and customs into criminal law.
You can have any civil case in the UK arbitrated and decided by any court you mutually agree on; you are only forced to use a "normal" court if you cannot agree on venue. The Jewish court for this is called the Beth Din, and it has powers to settle divorce and other civil matters in accordance with religious law. If both parties agree on a court upholding Sharia law, then the decisions of such a court will be binding on both parties.
Further, even in normal courts, where the parties involved are Jewish or Muslim, a judge will often go some way into taking advice for a means of giving his decision in a manner compatible with the culture of the parties involved. Its often the same decision, but how a decision is phrased often guarentees that it will be respected and upheld.
Slashdot Mirror
One presumes that evidence of cheating would be for example getting achievements whilst not logged into the game. Provided Microsoft can back up their claims that there was hard evidence of cheating as opposed to he was just doing well, then their action is fully justified.
Autism is an overused trendy diagnosis for children, especially as ADHD is so passe nowadays.
The original source of the story seems to have accepted that MS had reasonable grounds for the 'cheater' label
Yes but is his aorta corset simply preventing excessive expansion, and thus performing a degree of normalisation on the blood flow?
Since the aorta won't be able to expand as much, surely it won't be able to act as a reservoir and push more downstream either.
It's a prototype or technology testbed. I wouldn't be surprised to see the J-21 (or whatever they decide to call the next prototype) feature Chinese designed vector thrust engines with more power when they can get them figured out and to improve dramatically on its stealth capabilities.
The aircraft is quite big, so I'm not sure its truly a fighter as some sort of attack aircraft. In that role it can be argued that provided the front stealth technology is good it doesn't matter how bad the RCS is when it is leaving the combat zone.
Whilst I'm sure there may be an element of truth in the claims that the Chinese and Russians wanted bits of the F-117, its hardly news. The US has repeatedly used stuff from Russian aircraft that have landed in the West(or Japan) when their pilots wanted to defect, so there's hardly anything surprising about the Chinese wanting to analyse fragments of the downed US aircraft.
I don't think that they used much of the F-117 tech in the J-20 though - it looks like a sort of Eurofighter combined with an F-22.
What also surprises me is why everyone seems to think the Chinese aren't capable of doing this on their own - thousands of engineers who were taught in western Univercities have graduated, returned to China, and some are no doubt applying their skills in the military avionics fields. I also would not be surprised if leading Chinese universities produce graduates and phd students equal to the best the west can offer
From the limited facts reported, the case against him looks a little shaky.
It looks as though the money he got from it would only pay the mortgage on his home for 7 months. It looks as though he retired from Northrop in 1986, and relocated to Maui in 1999, so it seems hard to see how he used anything except his commercially available skills to work with the Chinese.
I note they claim its not "cold fusion" but a Low Energy Nuclear Reaction device
Whilst sceptical, I do however ask myself if it is a fraud, why are they doing it? They're fully aware that any claims of producing energy from such a system will be subject to intense examination and a high degree of scepticism.
Pons and Fleischmann remain a laughing stock nearly 2 decades after their cold fusion announcement, so to make a claim in this field definitely requires Balls of Steel and a willingness to stake their reputation on the outcome.
If they get copper as a product then its not a chemical reaction, so not a battery in the traditional sense of the word
They're not legally required to act in this way.
As long as they take action with respect to protecting their trademarks, they are defending it; it was perfectly within their remit to open talks on a less formal basis before the heavy handed approach.
I will be happy to light a large bonfire for half of the £400k quoted.
I can see that Blizzard may have some concerns about the title of the project, but this seems a shitty way of opening negotiations.
It would have been easier to contact the developers saying that you have such concerns, and can you discuss them before the legal department sends out the nastygrams.
Copper is more expensive than glass and degrades. A case can be made for fiber being more reliable and (probably) you need less cables.
I should clarify that my comment wasn't so much a direct reply to yours as a response to the others on this thread.
My partner supports the entire vampire novel industry by buying just about every single one. I just read a select few of the ones she's finished.
I find it hard to read or even remember what I read on a Kindle type display, because the black on greyish contrast is offputting. I find myself distracted by the display and not focusing on the text.
I understand that Ms Meyer has a B.A in Literature, which should more than qualify her to write. Sci Fi and fantasy authors generally seem to be better qualified to write fiction than their 'normal' compatriots. If you truly want atrocious writing, I recommend James Patterson.
In terms of style I don't think that the Twilight series is that bad, and may even be a cut above many novels in that regard. Stephen Kings opinions notwithstanding, the Twilight series is well written and has atmosphere; it wouldn't hook its audience if it didn't. My main problem with it is that for some reason I got involved in the characterisation in an adverse way, in the sense I was praying that someone would kill the sanctimonious Edward and rip out the the heart of the passive female moose posing as the heroine.
Under the terms of a European Arrest Warrant, he can be transferred from the arresting country (UK) to the country issuing the Warrant (Sweden), but he cannot be transferred from there to any other country; he must be sent back to the UK in the event the arrest is cancelled/ charges are dropped/ he's declared innocent.
Under the European Arrest Warrant system, the offence should be an offence both in the UK and in Sweden, unless a prison sentence in excess of 3 years is likely. The only allegation which would meet these criteria is a genuine charge of rape, which Assange is clearly not guilty of.
The Evil Buffer Stuffer Strikes Again!
I'd love to be the Evil Buffy Stuffer :-)
I was gonna say this but you global emoted it first.!!
I went to the University of Essex in 1982 and spent all my mainframe time allocation playing MUD. if it wasn't for the fact I could do most of my coursework on my BBC Micro I wouldn't have a degree
Thanks for the reply. (If I had mod points I would be rating +1 Informative)
I'm not going diving into the earlier patent, but it seems that the prior art cited in other comments would directly address the claims of this patent, whilst beating the 2000 and 1995 dates.
The Patent Filing date is Jan 24 2001, meaning useful prior art is pre 2000 (12 months before filing date) - where did you get 1996 from?
As far as MUD is concerned, the original one (from 1978 onwards) is still available
See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD
http://www.mud.co.uk/muse/home.htm
(I'm trying to work out if MUSE are alive - the site is up but seems to have been updated a decade ago)
MUD Essex University 1978-1987ish - kept a record of your level (thus a database), being rewarded with increased abilities every level until you got to Witch/Wizard level, and allowed remote play.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD
http://www.mud.co.uk/richard/ecsjun84.htm
Obviously it depends on exactly how the claims of the patent are phrased, but from the abstract it would appear that this constitutes substantial prior art nearly 20 years before the 2001 filing date.
A quick look at some of the claims show it would probably be prior art against some of them. The game stored level and sex, (claims 1-2), it was a game of skill (claim 3). Claims 8,9,10 appear to be fairly generic method of interacting with any remote game, leaving only the association of payment with the game. I'm sure online games needing payment were present in the 80's too
In summary, the patent appears to have been awarded for something that is obvious and where prior art already exists
No, Peter Davison is a stage name; his real /birth name is Peter Moffett
But that ruins the typical CSI plot where someone phones up the deceased, giving vital information. We can't be having that!
UK law is quite flexible on civil matters, but does not allow intrusion of religion and customs into criminal law.
You can have any civil case in the UK arbitrated and decided by any court you mutually agree on; you are only forced to use a "normal" court if you cannot agree on venue. The Jewish court for this is called the Beth Din, and it has powers to settle divorce and other civil matters in accordance with religious law. If both parties agree on a court upholding Sharia law, then the decisions of such a court will be binding on both parties.
Further, even in normal courts, where the parties involved are Jewish or Muslim, a judge will often go some way into taking advice for a means of giving his decision in a manner compatible with the culture of the parties involved. Its often the same decision, but how a decision is phrased often guarentees that it will be respected and upheld.
I'm sure I have a redundant 100Mhz Pentium system somewhere I can host it on....
Correct, but I think Mr Moore provided one of the sureties, not part of the 200k security
...its a space station!