I work at EMC, where we seem to have similar stock plans to what is mentioned above in regards to Microsoft, so I thought I would explain a bit about how they work.
The most talked about stock deal is the "Incentive Stock Option." Depending on your performance, the company may decide to offer these to you. When they do, they'll give you options for a certain number of shares, priced at the current value as of the day they offer them to you. You can't excercise the options until they vest, though, and that takes time. At EMC, options vest at 20% per year, so they don't fully vest until after 5 years. Other companies vest at different rates. It's important to note that stock options are given out on a case by case basis, so people who don't get them, be they employees or temps, can't sue for them.
What they're talking about here is different. It's something like our Employee Stock Purchase Program. The deal is that you can have a given portion of your paycheck (at EMC, upto 10% or $10,000) withheld, and at the end of each half, they buy stock with that money. Now what makes this such a great deal is the price at which they buy the stock. They take the price as of the first trading day of the half and the last trading day of the half. They then toss out the higher of the two prices. They then lop 15% off that price. They then buy stock for you at that price with all the money that you've had withheld. This can be very profitable--at least a 15% profit, even if the stock is crashing and you sell immediately. The important thing here is that this is a standard benefit for all employees, but not for temps, so the temps are saying that they should be considered employees, so they should have received this benefit. It's easy to calculate the exact cash value that they would have received had they participated in the program and sold immediately, so it's easy for them to say what the dammages should be.
Now back to the issue of whether they're employees or temps.
Doesn't the fact that Linux calls the HALT instruction in its idle loop make dropping the processor speed irrelevant? That should save as much power and heat as possible without compromising performance.
I believe that this is the reason that the heat-sensitive fan on my laptop stays off when running Linux, but goes on with Windows.
They should have included the confusion over whether the century and millineum are zero- or one-origin.
I know I'm pedantic, but I find all these xxx of the century/milleneum lists to be a year early. However, xxx of the 1900s/1990s lists are right on time. Maybe everyone will agree with me once they recover from this weekend's parties.
When Phantom Menace came out, it was released in two theatres with digital projectors. I happened to be near the Paramus, NJ theatre doing so, and we went to see it. Before the show, there was a THX guy who came out with a microphone to talk about the technology. I think they said it was on a 350G raid array, though maybe it was 700G. Anyway, the technology was very similar to watching a DVD on a projection TV--you could look back and see the separate red, green, and blue lights. Of course, it was in far higher resolution than you would get with DVD--the image was perfect. Normally with film, the film wears and you get a scratch here and there on the screen, or the audio will have hiss if the print is old. With digital, it is like always having a perfect print.
Sure, the technology is expensive now, but the quality is there. So in a few years when the next highly-anticipated movie comes out, instead of just putting restrictions on the sound systems, they may require digital projectors.
I, for one, give all my thumbs up to digital projection in theatres.
I should be noted that The Open Group's X.org needs the help of XFree, not the other way around.
Remember back in early 1998 when they changed the licensing on X? The idea was to generate more revenue to fund The Open Group's X development efforts. Well, The Open Group dumped X development that summer (along with most of their other development efforts), and was nice enough to change back the licensing.
So now the only organization doing public development of X is XFree. Hence, anything that goes into XFree becomes the defacto standard. By making XFree an honorary member, it makes it easier to keep the defacto standard and the paper standard in sync. Since The Open Group only exists for standards and branding anymore, they desperately need to retain control.
DISCLAIMER: I am a former employee of The Open Group, but was not involved with X.
X.org was registered before that restriction came into being.
On a side note, I wonder how long it will be before one of the new registrars decides to go ahead and issue one-letter.com domains for, say, a million dollars apiece?
So why are they doing this with CDROM technology? Why not do the same thing with DVD? Instead of 650M/layer, you would have 4.3G/layer.
Of course, it isn't as simple as that, because DVD uses a tigher wavelength to squeeze the data closer together. Still, in theory, the idea is sound.
I guess it's a lot like manufacturing hard drives. You can add space by increasing the density on a platter, and you can add space by increasing the number of platters.
Layering is an old and proven technology. DVD uses two layers. There's no logical reason why two should be the limit.
The tricky part is cost. A laser that is tunable to many wavelengths is likely to be more expensive than one that only does one or two. Creating the media is also going to be more expensive.
This is just result of the common decimal notation. If we use hexadecimal notation, then all of this changes.
Personally, I find all these people talking about the new millenium in 2000 to be complete idiots. The new millenium doesn't start until the end of 2048.
Why do they need some special law for this? If they own the CDs, they should be able to repackage the data anyway they want, as long as they're only using it the way they would use the original media.
In the United States, a DJ can already do this, and he won't have to pay any special licensing fees. It's only illegal if he distributes copies, or if he doesn't retain the originals.
If I understand this correctly, you want to use public key cryptography to encrypt a stream of data, instead of the more traditional method of using public key cryptography for secure transmission of a session key.
In order to use public key cryptography for a stream of data, you have to worry about two things.
First, public key cryptography is slow. If you want a secure bit length, you'll need a fairly slow stream or very fast hardware.
Second, public key cryptography works with relatively large blocks of data at a time. You either have to encrypt on a packet-basis (I suspect your packet size will need to be a multiple of the key bit-length, though independent of the network packet size), or you have to pad out the data.
You can't do something funny with using previous data and still have the encrypted steam the same size as the input stream. The problem with that is the encrypted output for a block is based on the entire block--to reconstruct a single bit of the plaintext, you need the entire cyphertext. You can't pick a few bits of the cypertext, even if you know most of the bits of the plaintext.
For reference, the Linux "emulation" under FreeBSD isn't an instruction-level emulation; it's an API-level emulation. That means it can be just as fast or faster than running under Linux--any noticable performance difference will be the result of FreeBSD doing its stuff differently.
In that sense, it's a lot like Wine "eumlating" Windows. The programs run their instructions natively, but any attempt to access libraries or OS services is handled by Wine. That's why Wine only runs on x86.
How is this different from other applications under BSD? You can run any Linux application under FreeBSD, thanks to the Linux emulation. What's so special about Java that it requires a native port?
The other thing I noted in the story was that it's patchable if you go to the microsoft site. This places the onus on users to make sure they're not infected; Microsoft can say 'look, it's available; it's not our fault if you don't download it.
Uhm, isn't that exactly what all the Linux distributions do when a security issue is found? I remember one of those "hack this box" PR things where everyone complained that they hadn't gone to the Red Hat site and installed the security-related updates.
Find out who other Internet companies use for their patents. I'm not sure if the name of the lawyer goes on the patent anywhere--if so, it would be easy to see what sort of work each lawyer does before you hire one. If not, you could call other Internet firms in the area and ask them.
Either way, I would ask any prospective lawyer to give you a sample of patents that the lawyer has filed and have been approved. Anyone who has been in the business two years or longer should have something that was approved that you could look at.
So the FCC has a petition from half the US television stations to reconsider the digitial broadcasting standard; what can we do to encourage the FCC to act? Sure, we can send email, phone them, or even use postal mail, but which methods will they listen to, and which will just annoy them?
At least this one will most likely be decided by the FCC before consumers have to deal with it. Unfortunately, I don't trust the FCC to make the best decision.
Even if the two standards are equal, I hope the one from Europe wins. That will result in more standard world-wide consumer electronics, which is a good thing. With any luck, they can use this as a chance to eliminate the stupid PAL vs. NTSC vs. SECAM television incompatibility mess.
This is not the first time software has been released under this model. My understanding is that this is how RT Linux was released.
[The idea of RT Linux is to put a small real time kernel underneath Linux. This kernel handles the real time tasks, and schedules Linux when a real time task doesn't require it. It also provides a communication mechanism between Linux processes and real time tasks.]
So the RT linux kernel could, in theory, be used without Linux (perhaps with another OS instead) to provide real time services. The author has carefully retained the copyright to his code, so he can sell it under a non-GPL license if someone wishes to incorporate it into a commercial project.
I'm not aware of any non-GPL licenses for RT Linux, but the model is there.
The main thing that helps make this model work is that the copyright holder controls the distribution. That means that in order to get your changes into the official releases, you have to resolve any copyright issues. It only breaks down if there is a significant dispute and someone is willing to go to the effort to start a separate distribution. Of course, if they get the file system into the main Linux distribution, that action will trigger a fork in development.
Re:Sounds like the YA Sci Fi book
on
RoboFly
·
· Score: 2
Exactly!
I read that book many years ago and loved it. Unfortunately, Amazon.com lists it as being out of print.
For those who aren't familiar with the story, the basic plot was that Danny (ick, I hate how books targeted for young readers have to have young characters) has a scientist friend who has created a robotic dragonfly. Danny gets to play around with it, and there's some sort of adventure plot line. It is controled through some virtual reality environment that includes tactile feedback. There's one scene where the dragonfly gets stuck in honey, and Danny feels all sticky.
Essentailly, it's a really cool idea. It has massive privacy issues, but the technology is just a matter of time.
So how do we insure a secret ballot with Internet voting? What stops a union from pressuring its members to vote the party line at work while others look on? That may be a bit far fetched, but I am certain there would be numerous cases of husbands making sure their wives voted the same way they did. Sure it would be illegal, but I suspect that domestic vote watching would be quite common.
I would not be surprised if Internet voting were ruled unconstitutional based on the above problem.
I also agree with others that have commented that it is important to make voting slightly awkward so that people take it seriously and only vote if they believe that the outcome matters.
Slashdot Mirror
Seriously, I wish Linus would ask everyone using the name "Linux" to ask his permission--I'm worried that the trademark will lose any legal value.
I work at EMC, where we seem to have similar stock plans to what is mentioned above in regards to Microsoft, so I thought I would explain a bit about how they work.
The most talked about stock deal is the "Incentive Stock Option." Depending on your performance, the company may decide to offer these to you. When they do, they'll give you options for a certain number of shares, priced at the current value as of the day they offer them to you. You can't excercise the options until they vest, though, and that takes time. At EMC, options vest at 20% per year, so they don't fully vest until after 5 years. Other companies vest at different rates. It's important to note that stock options are given out on a case by case basis, so people who don't get them, be they employees or temps, can't sue for them.
What they're talking about here is different. It's something like our Employee Stock Purchase Program. The deal is that you can have a given portion of your paycheck (at EMC, upto 10% or $10,000) withheld, and at the end of each half, they buy stock with that money. Now what makes this such a great deal is the price at which they buy the stock. They take the price as of the first trading day of the half and the last trading day of the half. They then toss out the higher of the two prices. They then lop 15% off that price. They then buy stock for you at that price with all the money that you've had withheld. This can be very profitable--at least a 15% profit, even if the stock is crashing and you sell immediately. The important thing here is that this is a standard benefit for all employees, but not for temps, so the temps are saying that they should be considered employees, so they should have received this benefit. It's easy to calculate the exact cash value that they would have received had they participated in the program and sold immediately, so it's easy for them to say what the dammages should be.
Now back to the issue of whether they're employees or temps.
I know that most laptops these days have built-in modems, and most of them are Winmodems. Is Dell any exception?
We'll know Dell is serious about doing more than give lip service to Linux when they make sure that the modems are supported by Linux.
(And of course, there's the whole DVD mess for the high-end laptops.)
http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd.ht ml
Doesn't the fact that Linux calls the HALT instruction in its idle loop make dropping the processor speed irrelevant? That should save as much power and heat as possible without compromising performance.
I believe that this is the reason that the heat-sensitive fan on my laptop stays off when running Linux, but goes on with Windows.
They should have included the confusion over whether the century and millineum are zero- or one-origin.
I know I'm pedantic, but I find all these xxx of the century/milleneum lists to be a year early. However, xxx of the 1900s/1990s lists are right on time. Maybe everyone will agree with me once they recover from this weekend's parties.
When Phantom Menace came out, it was released in two theatres with digital projectors. I happened to be near the Paramus, NJ theatre doing so, and we went to see it. Before the show, there was a THX guy who came out with a microphone to talk about the technology. I think they said it was on a 350G raid array, though maybe it was 700G. Anyway, the technology was very similar to watching a DVD on a projection TV--you could look back and see the separate red, green, and blue lights. Of course, it was in far higher resolution than you would get with DVD--the image was perfect. Normally with film, the film wears and you get a scratch here and there on the screen, or the audio will have hiss if the print is old. With digital, it is like always having a perfect print.
Sure, the technology is expensive now, but the quality is there. So in a few years when the next highly-anticipated movie comes out, instead of just putting restrictions on the sound systems, they may require digital projectors.
I, for one, give all my thumbs up to digital projection in theatres.
I should be noted that The Open Group's X.org needs the help of XFree, not the other way around.
Remember back in early 1998 when they changed the licensing on X? The idea was to generate more revenue to fund The Open Group's X development efforts. Well, The Open Group dumped X development that summer (along with most of their other development efforts), and was nice enough to change back the licensing.
So now the only organization doing public development of X is XFree. Hence, anything that goes into XFree becomes the defacto standard. By making XFree an honorary member, it makes it easier to keep the defacto standard and the paper standard in sync. Since The Open Group only exists for standards and branding anymore, they desperately need to retain control.
DISCLAIMER: I am a former employee of The Open Group, but was not involved with X.
X.org was registered before that restriction came into being.
.com domains for, say, a million dollars apiece?
On a side note, I wonder how long it will be before one of the new registrars decides to go ahead and issue one-letter
So why are they doing this with CDROM technology? Why not do the same thing with DVD? Instead of 650M/layer, you would have 4.3G/layer.
Of course, it isn't as simple as that, because DVD uses a tigher wavelength to squeeze the data closer together. Still, in theory, the idea is sound.
I guess it's a lot like manufacturing hard drives. You can add space by increasing the density on a platter, and you can add space by increasing the number of platters.
Layering is an old and proven technology. DVD uses two layers. There's no logical reason why two should be the limit.
The tricky part is cost. A laser that is tunable to many wavelengths is likely to be more expensive than one that only does one or two. Creating the media is also going to be more expensive.
This is just result of the common decimal notation. If we use hexadecimal notation, then all of this changes.
Personally, I find all these people talking about the new millenium in 2000 to be complete idiots. The new millenium doesn't start until the end of 2048.
Uck.
Why do they need some special law for this? If they own the CDs, they should be able to repackage the data anyway they want, as long as they're only using it the way they would use the original media.
In the United States, a DJ can already do this, and he won't have to pay any special licensing fees. It's only illegal if he distributes copies, or if he doesn't retain the originals.
If I understand this correctly, you want to use public key cryptography to encrypt a stream of data, instead of the more traditional method of using public key cryptography for secure transmission of a session key.
In order to use public key cryptography for a stream of data, you have to worry about two things.
First, public key cryptography is slow. If you want a secure bit length, you'll need a fairly slow stream or very fast hardware.
Second, public key cryptography works with relatively large blocks of data at a time. You either have to encrypt on a packet-basis (I suspect your packet size will need to be a multiple of the key bit-length, though independent of the network packet size), or you have to pad out the data.
You can't do something funny with using previous data and still have the encrypted steam the same size as the input stream. The problem with that is the encrypted output for a block is based on the entire block--to reconstruct a single bit of the plaintext, you need the entire cyphertext. You can't pick a few bits of the cypertext, even if you know most of the bits of the plaintext.
PGP uses public key cryptography only to exchange private keys when establishing the connection. I don't think that's what he's asking for.
For reference, the Linux "emulation" under FreeBSD isn't an instruction-level emulation; it's an API-level emulation. That means it can be just as fast or faster than running under Linux--any noticable performance difference will be the result of FreeBSD doing its stuff differently.
In that sense, it's a lot like Wine "eumlating" Windows. The programs run their instructions natively, but any attempt to access libraries or OS services is handled by Wine. That's why Wine only runs on x86.
This was in the Yahoo article, and it doesn't seem to be responding very quickly right now, but you can give it a look:
http://www.wackyvoices.com/
How is this different from other applications under BSD? You can run any Linux application under FreeBSD, thanks to the Linux emulation. What's so special about Java that it requires a native port?
The other thing I noted in the story was that it's patchable if you go to the microsoft site. This places the onus on users to make sure they're not infected; Microsoft can say 'look, it's available; it's not our fault if you don't download it.
Uhm, isn't that exactly what all the Linux distributions do when a security issue is found? I remember one of those "hack this box" PR things where everyone complained that they hadn't gone to the Red Hat site and installed the security-related updates.
Find out who other Internet companies use for their patents. I'm not sure if the name of the lawyer goes on the patent anywhere--if so, it would be easy to see what sort of work each lawyer does before you hire one. If not, you could call other Internet firms in the area and ask them.
Either way, I would ask any prospective lawyer to give you a sample of patents that the lawyer has filed and have been approved. Anyone who has been in the business two years or longer should have something that was approved that you could look at.
So the FCC has a petition from half the US television stations to reconsider the digitial broadcasting standard; what can we do to encourage the FCC to act? Sure, we can send email, phone them, or even use postal mail, but which methods will they listen to, and which will just annoy them?
Just what we need, another standards war.
At least this one will most likely be decided by the FCC before consumers have to deal with it. Unfortunately, I don't trust the FCC to make the best decision.
Even if the two standards are equal, I hope the one from Europe wins. That will result in more standard world-wide consumer electronics, which is a good thing. With any luck, they can use this as a chance to eliminate the stupid PAL vs. NTSC vs. SECAM television incompatibility mess.
This is not the first time software has been released under this model. My understanding is that this is how RT Linux was released.
[The idea of RT Linux is to put a small real time kernel underneath Linux. This kernel handles the real time tasks, and schedules Linux when a real time task doesn't require it. It also provides a communication mechanism between Linux processes and real time tasks.]
So the RT linux kernel could, in theory, be used without Linux (perhaps with another OS instead) to provide real time services. The author has carefully retained the copyright to his code, so he can sell it under a non-GPL license if someone wishes to incorporate it into a commercial project.
I'm not aware of any non-GPL licenses for RT Linux, but the model is there.
The main thing that helps make this model work is that the copyright holder controls the distribution. That means that in order to get your changes into the official releases, you have to resolve any copyright issues. It only breaks down if there is a significant dispute and someone is willing to go to the effort to start a separate distribution. Of course, if they get the file system into the main Linux distribution, that action will trigger a fork in development.
Exactly!
I read that book many years ago and loved it. Unfortunately, Amazon.com lists it as being out of print.
For those who aren't familiar with the story, the basic plot was that Danny (ick, I hate how books targeted for young readers have to have young characters) has a scientist friend who has created a robotic dragonfly. Danny gets to play around with it, and there's some sort of adventure plot line. It is controled through some virtual reality environment that includes tactile feedback. There's one scene where the dragonfly gets stuck in honey, and Danny feels all sticky.
Essentailly, it's a really cool idea. It has massive privacy issues, but the technology is just a matter of time.
As usual, science fiction preceeds science fact.
So how do we insure a secret ballot with Internet voting? What stops a union from pressuring its members to vote the party line at work while others look on? That may be a bit far fetched, but I am certain there would be numerous cases of husbands making sure their wives voted the same way they did. Sure it would be illegal, but I suspect that domestic vote watching would be quite common.
I would not be surprised if Internet voting were ruled unconstitutional based on the above problem.
I also agree with others that have commented that it is important to make voting slightly awkward so that people take it seriously and only vote if they believe that the outcome matters.