This article would have been true when I first came to Linux but since then KDE and Gnome have come a long way towards providing good consistent GUI interfaces.
KDE has a GUI which is not that different to that provided to a Win'9x user and should not be that intimidating as such. In KDE [which I use more than GNOME] it can be said that KDE apps much more consistent in terms of style application and operation than almost any other GUI, including Windows. KDE is _perhaps_ less innovative than Gnome in terms of presentation, but this is in many ways an advantage - users who prefer more exciting interfaces can go for Gnome whilst users who prefer consistency [and stability;-) ] can go for KDE.
Open interfaces can be quite radical in the sense that arguments can be put forward for changes in direction when it is obvious that things don't work as they are; whilst in Windows older bad designs are often supported, sometimes to the detriment of newer ideas.
Normally a license agreement is subservient to the jurisdiction i.e the law overrides the license. However some licenses (e.g. GPL) get round this saying you cannot use the software where all provisions of the license do not hold.
I don't think one would have to go so far as to invent an esoteric method for performing DeCSS.
Whilst the inner workings of CSS are covered by a licensing agreement, the basic interface specifications may not be; in addition, if it can be proved that keys and decryption algorithm may be obtained without use of Xing and one can document the whole procedure, with only reference to those documents and possibly access to any DVD drive, then AFAIK this would probably qualify as a clean development in a similar way to how early BIOSs were cloned for PCs.
I haven't read the Xing license agreement, but unless the license is very carefully worded, the "click license" agreement is between the manufacturers of Xing and the person who licensed the software. Do the MPA have a right to sue for breach of copyright when they are not a party to the license agreement ?
A lot of the legal case seems to hang on the fact that Xing was reverse engineered. What I would like to know is if it is possible to reverse engineer DVD operation using "publically" available documents i.e. is it possible to create a "clean room" DeCSS ??
If it could be proved that it is possible to create a program such as DeCSS without reference to Xing or any other player involving a license agreement, then AFAIK all the MPA arguments involving copyright and trade secrets become almost totally irrelevant,especially if one can write a paper plus code detailing how it was done.
..to quote Einstein apropos Quantum Theory:
"God doesn't play dice with the Universe".
Now we know that not only does God play, he uses loaded dice !!
All new theories have to face a battle to be accepted, and that is as it should be, for without rigorous checking it is almost impossible to determine the true from the ridiculous. Anyway even "true" theories are not necessarily correct, but often just a more accurate model for what is really going on. e.g Newtonian physics works very well for normal velocities and motion etc, its only when you get significant speed, distance and/ or mass that the effects of relativity start to affect your calculations.
..whats the point of building and launching these colonies from the moon when it is simpler and more energy efficient to build them on the moon in the first place ?....
Also, as regards shielding, I suspect the 1970s designs didn't take into account the amount of kinetic engery in a meteorite strike - its been shown that standard metal protection is not sufficient to stop even small meteorites over any length of time and that more innovative (carbon-based) materials are required to prevent effects such as spalling. IIRC, the ISS habitation module uses layers of nylon-related material and foam to dissipate impacts.
..if you wrote a letter asking Fox to support Linux/Unix browsing remember to write and say thank you. Even if you didn't I suggest you do so to try and show the depth of suupport there is for Linux out there
Outline of plan to get Leonardo Finance lost in search engine clutter:
1) Set up a web page with lots of references to Leonardo and his influence on finance, don't forget to add Leonardo and Finance into the meta tags/ descriptions, then submit the web page to every search engine you know about!
I think a new website should be opened (lets call it http://www.priorart.com) where all computing patent applications get posted SlashDot style so that people in the computing world can clue up the guys in the Patent office..
We could add comments like: "I was doing that 5 years ago at company x" "This method is in the Linux kernel dated 1994"
If you have access to DNS, you can deny/restrict access to etoys.com perfectly legitimately, by simply putting an alias entry in/etc/hosts and getting your DNS to look there first.
Link it to somewhere useful, like an etoy.com protest site.
If you own/manage a network support etoy by doing this.
I find it interesting that Microsoft admitted that Linux supports more than forty partition types, including Microsoft partitions, while Windows recognises only a few.
I wanted to run over pedestrians and push other people off the road WAY before Carmaggeddon came out. Carmageddon has merely allowed me to practice so that when I finally succumb to "road rage" I will run over pedestrians with skill and style.......
MUHAHAHAHA!!!
On a more serious note, psychiatry (sp?) has long recognised that cars represent "defended space" and people are naturally more agressive when "their" space is intruded upon. So these desires to run over pedestrians are perfectly natural, and have little, if anything to do with playing car games. Just don't transpose thought into action!
DVD support is coming along, with support for DVD drives in the CD-ROM drivers. You can install DVD support by using a recent 2.3.x kernel, or add the patches from http://www.kernel.dk A software DVD player is available - although currently it needs P-III/Athlon level performance to run it, the performance requirements should come down, and support for hardware based solutions is coming along, in particular support for the Matrox G200+decoder.
If the man knew that it is illegal for credit to be extended for gambling in California, and he gambled anyway, can he not be charged with being an accessory to the crime ?
[Anyway, even if he didn't know, ignorance of the law is not a legal defence]
As another poster has mentioned, McDonalds did superheat their coffee to above boiling point, so the woman involved had to get skin grafts; in that case I would accept the fact that the injury involved is not related to expected consequences of spilling coffee on oneself.
Incidentally, my father runs a car hire company in the UK, and his insurance company recommended settlement a case where: a) a catering company hired a vehicle b) the caterer in the passenger seat carried an insecure vacuum flask full of coffee... c)..which spilled on going round a roundabout, causing scalding injuries. Admittedly the sum involved was not major, but it seemed silly to me.
AFAIK, when they went for 3.51 security it was not connected to a network; however this _appears_ to be with the system connected to a network:
Server operating as primary domain controller Server operating as backup domain controller Server operating as a member server Server operating as a non-member server Workstation as a domain member Workstation as a non-domain member
Like the previous poster I'd like to know what it would take for Linux to be submitted for evaluation. With encrypted filesystems it may stand a chance of a better rating....
..but whilst there are a few wealthy people in China the average per capita income is extremely low, so it could probably be compared to stealing several million dollars in the US.
You also have to remember that a lot of countries look with repugnance on the US use of the death penalty. For example in Britain, murder has not been a capital offence since the 1960's and AFAIK we've even got rid of hanging for the treason, piracy and arson in HM dockyards, which were the last offences for which there was a capital penalty. Anyway I do believe that, whilst human rights should be an international issue, punishment of felony type crimes should generally be a national issue and up to the government concerned.
I personally don't know whether the death penalty should be used for any crime - on the one hand I think the death penalty should be an option for murder cases, yet on the other I am aware of the potential for mistakes in the judicial system. I think the US has the worst of both worlds, where it allows use of the death penalty, yet takes more legal time and money to execute someone than it would to use life sentencing instead.
The only problem is that the "Slashdot Blackhole List" could be very long and extensive - most companies and people at one time or another would end up on it.
B&N themselves are not averse to seemingly frivolous lawsuits - indeed IIRC they took Amazon to court for claiming to be the worlds largest bookseller...Amazons lawyers must have been itching to return the favour!:-P
The sad fact is that once you have a patent you are obliged to defend it IIRC, i.e once Amazon became aware B&N were using a similar system they were obligated to try and stop B&N, or forfeit the patent.
Who did invent cookies ?.. another poster claims it was Microsoft wot done it [I'm not so sure myself], if so they could turn out to be friends rather than enemies for a change.
I would have thought cookie use covers most general forms of Amazon's patent anyway, whereby a cookie is used to access a database to identify previous transactions on the web and any data held on the user of that browser.
Slashdot Mirror
This article would have been true when I first came to Linux but since then KDE and Gnome have come a long way towards providing good consistent GUI interfaces.
;-) ] can go for KDE.
KDE has a GUI which is not that different to that provided to a Win'9x user and should not be that intimidating as such. In KDE [which I use more than GNOME] it can be said that KDE apps much more consistent in terms of style application and operation than almost any other GUI, including Windows. KDE is _perhaps_ less innovative than Gnome in terms of presentation, but this is in many ways an advantage - users who prefer more exciting interfaces can go for Gnome whilst users who prefer consistency [and stability
Open interfaces can be quite radical in the sense that arguments can be put forward for changes in direction when it is obvious that things don't work as they are; whilst in Windows older bad designs are often supported, sometimes to the detriment of newer ideas.
Normally a license agreement is subservient to the jurisdiction i.e the law overrides the license. However some licenses (e.g. GPL) get round this saying you cannot use the software where all provisions of the license do not hold.
I don't think one would have to go so far as to invent an esoteric method for performing DeCSS.
Whilst the inner workings of CSS are covered by a licensing agreement, the basic interface specifications may not be; in addition, if it can be proved that keys and decryption algorithm may be obtained without use of Xing and one can document the whole procedure, with only reference to those documents and possibly access to any DVD drive, then AFAIK this would probably qualify as a clean development in a similar way to how early BIOSs were cloned for PCs.
I haven't read the Xing license agreement, but unless the license is very carefully worded, the "click license" agreement is between the manufacturers of Xing and the person who licensed the software. Do the MPA have a right to sue for breach of copyright when they are not a party to the license agreement ?
Regards
Mark Roberts
A lot of the legal case seems to hang on the fact that Xing was reverse engineered. What I would like to know is if it is possible to reverse engineer DVD operation using "publically" available documents i.e. is it possible to create a "clean room" DeCSS ??
If it could be proved that it is possible to create a program such as DeCSS without reference to Xing or any other player involving a license agreement, then AFAIK all the MPA arguments involving copyright and trade secrets become almost totally irrelevant,especially if one can write a paper plus code detailing how it was done.
Yes, the review said that, but it said that he believed the Unabomber would have been located even without such assistance.
..to quote Einstein apropos Quantum Theory:
"God doesn't play dice with the Universe".
Now we know that not only does God play, he uses loaded dice !!
All new theories have to face a battle to be accepted, and that is as it should be, for without rigorous checking it is almost impossible to determine the true from the ridiculous. Anyway even "true" theories are not necessarily correct, but often just a more accurate model for what is really going on. e.g Newtonian physics works very well for normal velocities and motion etc, its only when you get significant speed, distance and/ or mass that the effects of relativity start to affect your calculations.
..whats the point of building and launching these colonies from the moon when it is simpler and more energy efficient to build them on the moon in the first place ?....
Also, as regards shielding, I suspect the 1970s designs didn't take into account the amount of kinetic engery in a meteorite strike - its been shown that standard metal protection is not sufficient to stop even small meteorites over any length of time and that more innovative (carbon-based) materials are required to prevent effects such as spalling. IIRC, the ISS habitation module uses layers of nylon-related material and foam to dissipate impacts.
..if you wrote a letter asking Fox to support Linux/Unix browsing remember to write and say thank you. Even if you didn't I suggest you do so to try and show the depth of suupport there is for Linux out there
Assuming this not to be a hoax.
Outline of plan to get Leonardo Finance lost in search engine clutter:
1) Set up a web page with lots of references to Leonardo and his influence on finance, don't forget to add Leonardo and Finance into the meta tags/ descriptions, then submit the web page to every search engine you know about!
2) Sit back and enjoy the fun!
I think a new website should be opened (lets call it http://www.priorart.com) where all computing patent applications get posted SlashDot style so that people in the computing world can clue up the guys in the Patent office..
We could add comments like:
"I was doing that 5 years ago at company x"
"This method is in the Linux kernel dated 1994"
:-)
If you have access to DNS, you can deny/restrict access to etoys.com perfectly legitimately, by simply putting an alias entry in /etc/hosts and getting your DNS to look there first.
Link it to somewhere useful, like an etoy.com protest site.
If you own/manage a network support etoy by doing this.
I find it interesting that Microsoft admitted that Linux supports more than forty partition types, including Microsoft partitions, while Windows recognises only a few.
:-)
Another implicit reason to buy Linux
I wanted to run over pedestrians and push other people off the road WAY before Carmaggeddon came out. Carmageddon has merely allowed me to practice so that when I finally succumb to "road rage" I will run over pedestrians with skill and style.......
MUHAHAHAHA!!!
On a more serious note, psychiatry (sp?) has long recognised that cars represent "defended space" and people are naturally more agressive when "their" space is intruded upon. So these desires to run over pedestrians are perfectly natural, and have little, if anything to do with playing car games. Just don't transpose thought into action!
DVD support is coming along, with support for DVD drives in the CD-ROM drivers. You can install DVD support by using a recent 2.3.x kernel, or add the patches from http://www.kernel.dk A software DVD player is available - although currently it needs P-III /Athlon level performance to run it, the performance requirements should come down, and support for hardware based solutions is coming along, in particular support for the Matrox G200+decoder.
If the man knew that it is illegal for credit to be extended for gambling in California, and he gambled anyway, can he not be charged with being an accessory to the crime ?
[Anyway, even if he didn't know, ignorance of the law is not a legal defence]
As another poster has mentioned, McDonalds did superheat their coffee to above boiling point, so the woman involved had to get skin grafts; in that case I would accept the fact that the injury involved is not related to expected consequences of spilling coffee on oneself.
..which spilled on going round a roundabout, causing scalding injuries.
Incidentally, my father runs a car hire company in the UK, and his insurance company recommended settlement a case where:
a) a catering company hired a vehicle
b) the caterer in the passenger seat carried an insecure vacuum flask full of coffee...
c)
Admittedly the sum involved was not major, but it seemed silly to me.
> but MP3s don't kill...
:-)
..depends at what volume you play them at !
AFAIK, when they went for 3.51 security it was not connected to a network; however this _appears_ to be with the system connected to a network:
Server operating as primary domain controller
Server operating as backup domain controller
Server operating as a member server
Server operating as a non-member server
Workstation as a domain member
Workstation as a non-domain member
Like the previous poster I'd like to know what it would take for Linux to be submitted for evaluation. With encrypted filesystems it may stand a chance of a better rating....
..but whilst there are a few wealthy people in China the average per capita income is extremely low, so it could probably be compared to stealing several million dollars in the US.
You also have to remember that a lot of countries look with repugnance on the US use of the death penalty. For example in Britain, murder has not been a capital offence since the 1960's and AFAIK we've even got rid of hanging for the treason, piracy and arson in HM dockyards, which were the last offences for which there was a capital penalty. Anyway I do believe that, whilst human rights should be an international issue, punishment of felony type crimes should generally be a national issue and up to the government concerned.
I personally don't know whether the death penalty should be used for any crime - on the one hand I think the death penalty should be an option for murder cases, yet on the other I am aware of the potential for mistakes in the judicial system. I think the US has the worst of both worlds, where it allows use of the death penalty, yet takes more legal time and money to execute someone than it would to use life sentencing instead.
If he gets his eye op done he can star in movies:
;-P
Star Trek (as a Borg or a replacement for Jordi Laforge)
Terminator (new cyborg)
..and other suggestions ?
Should shut up really, I'm hoping to have my crappy vision sorted out by LASIK in February
..Tuxaibo or Lego Mindstorm Tux.
The only problem is that the "Slashdot Blackhole List" could be very long and extensive - most companies and people at one time or another would end up on it.
:-P
.. another poster claims it was Microsoft wot done it [I'm not so sure myself], if so they could turn out to be friends rather than enemies for a change.
B&N themselves are not averse to seemingly frivolous lawsuits - indeed IIRC they took Amazon to court for claiming to be the worlds largest bookseller...Amazons lawyers must have been itching to return the favour!
The sad fact is that once you have a patent you are obliged to defend it IIRC, i.e once Amazon became aware B&N were using a similar system they were obligated to try and stop B&N, or forfeit the patent.
Who did invent cookies ?
I would have thought cookie use covers most general forms of Amazon's patent anyway, whereby a cookie is used to access a database to identify previous transactions on the web and any data held on the user of that browser.
..best solution ? ;-P
Amplify "noises" and broadcast over campus