Not really. It's perfectly natural to many of us for someone to change things to work in the way they want them to.
Yes this is often done when the product is intended for controlled content (content created by the same authors as the program itself) Example the ID game engens.
But when the product is created for a standards base content (content from a source the authors don't control or have any say in) standards support is absolutly nessisary.
What most programmers do is create a "standards plus" system. They support the full standard and slip in some commands the author thinks should have been included in the first place.
This style sheet is needed becouse IE was designed as if for Microsoft controlled content.
A while back someone was selling blank game boy cartrages. Just insert into a specal cable and load the game boy rom images into them. The old game shark for the NES (if I remember correctly) copied the game cartrage into a RAM cartrage and the codes you entered would alter the ram copy. (Being ram the copy was gone the instant you turnned the NES off)
As I remember the NES cartrage was basicly off the shelf roms and some additional chips. Presumably the locking was in those chips. Once your able to replicate (or fake) the locking chips you can make full cartrages and the game shark proves it can be done.
In the photo in the article, it sorta looks like it's waving a giant flaming sword in a menacing manner... if you squint kinda hard and close one eye. And then poke that eye out....
Some of us in the software industry called this "bate and switch" in the 1980s and 1990s.
You offer the software for free for a while then when they are good and addicted you discontinue the free version.
BBSes would archive older versions of software just in case. There'd typicly be a time bomb in the last free version. Once you use Microsoft products your stuck in a complusry upgrade cycle. You can't use the older versions after so long.
Here have some free software that won't be free 6 months from now when they become obsolete.
But the good news is no time bomb. You could continue to use it... if your not working for the government I mean.
MS is the best way to do it. I'm Aircrew in the Air Force on the C-17 Globemaster. We have pilots who are in charge of a 320 million dollar airframe but can't figure out Outlook. I can't figure out Microsoft products eather. Thats why I use Linux almost exclusivly.
This has been my gripe for a long time. People can't figure out Windows somehow come to the conclusion Windows is the os they should be using. Sounds like an eppisode of the Twilight Zone.
With Linux you can automate almost any task. So yes on one side it takes quite a bit of skill to know how to use it on the other end you can reduce the procedure for burnning a CD to "Wait for CD to burn, when CD ejects remove and replace with blank".
For the times when interaction is nessisary use MacOs.
... seeks an undetermined amount of damages and an order requiring Major League Baseball to honor its Feb. 8 agreement with RealNetworks. No trial date has been set.
In short Real Media just wants them to folow the contract. A stright forward breach of contract lawsute. Or maybe it isn't.
MLB is free to use Microsoft's Windows Media format if it wants, he said, but under the Feb. 8 agreement, it also must use RealNetworks' RealMedia format to provide live coverage of the entire baseball season, including spring training, he said.
Real Media says they are free to do so but maybe they aren't. What about the terms of the agreement from Microsofts side? Anybody? Historicly Microsoft seeks a (legally questionable) exclusive agreement. In other words "brodcast by Microsoft media exclusivly or not at all".
While Real Media dosen't reqire any such exclusive contract if Microsoft dose that leaves MLB in a bind.
Thies contractral obligations are an absolute mess. People would do well to stay away from them entirely and instead of letting Real Networks bind you into a contract that says you must always use Real or Microsoft bind you into a contract forbidding other formats consider using open standards.
They may not be as pritty or high quality but... What happends when Microsoft Windows dosn't hold 90% marketshare anymore? Do you just dump contract and latch on the latest os? Now think about this: What is there isn't one os that replaces Windows. Instead the industry is an even split. 25% Linux, 25% MacOs, 25% Windows, 25% other. Then what do you do? What if your contract requires you to use RealMedia and RealMedia jams ohh Quicktime?
Are you listening programmers? Yes. I understand. Obveously we have to go out of our way to make sure the user can't disable the alarm by compleatly restricting the computer in every way.
What? Did someone say "Make it not obnoxous" No I couldn't have heard that. Nobody would suggest that. Naaah. *Fingers in ears* Na na na na I can't hear you.
I have not met one. If you do, my phone number is Just about every girl I meet in high school and collage fit this catagory.
Now that I'm in my 30's most of thies girls are married to smart guys.
In my youth getting girl friends was never the problem. KEEPING them was. Obsessive compulsive programming addicted young business person.
Friends don't need as much attention as girlfriends do. I learnned this from experence. Ignore girlfriends for a few days and your single again. Ignore friends for a few days and they don't even notice your gone.
If I had it to do over I'd teach Angle to write code and help me run my business. Then she'd be as obessive complusive as I am.
Could it be he is just not socalising with his class mates? I've had classes filled with dickheads. I try to be friendly but there are just some people.
Dose he socalise outside of class? Maybe his dedication to the subject matter precludes socalising DURING class.
Maybe he has nothing in commen with his class mates. It happends.
Maybe he's just had some major emotional thing happen. Just before entering HS I was dumpped by my girl friend. I didn't let that effect my friendships but I spooked off anyone who showed any romantic intrest.
Talk with him find out why he hasn't any friends.
He may be a deeply trubbled psycopath or a kid who thinks his fellow students are morons.
First a bit of explenation on how "telepathy" works. Don't jump this is a scientific thing trust me. Basicly it's just reading body language. If you study the subject long enough a good precentage of the time you can tell what a person is thinking (or get remarkably close) just by the way they fidget. Strong emotions are the easiest.
Ok now that you understand I'm not using some mystic nonsense but body language...
When I went to a dentist to have some teath pulled he was bothered about the fact that I am nervous around medical profesionals. (Well I am ok?) He asked a string of questions before he'd even accept me as a patent. I thought it was for medical reasons. That he had only certen kinds of experence and didn't want to accept patents he couldn't help. It's when I asked that he pull the tooth (and not save it) that he got very conserned. I asked him why and he mentioned something about lawsutes.
His body language was shaky. He'd been sued recently for a large sum of money for frivilous reasons and wasn't intrested in pulling my tooth when it could be saved becouse I might sue him later for not saving the tooth.
I ended up going to annother dentist who was only slightly less bothered. He pulled the tooth as requested but still thinks I shouldn't have done that.
But it took me a while to find the second dentist.
And I didn't sue for the loss of my tooth. Thats stupid. But I know there are people out there that actually would do that.
It's easier to sell companys, government agentcys and cable modem users on using reasonable security precautions with half a million children running around with viruses and such looking to screw with anyone who gives them half a chance than it is to sell them on the notion that the 6 big bad nasty terrorist black hatters will crush them like a grape if they make the sligtest mistake.
People will assume they are safe from the big time terrorist dude becouse "I'm not a sereous target". DDoS attacks against major targets use hacked cable modem users desktops. Spammers use Worms to establish a spamming network. ID theft resulting from the simplist of mistakes.
That stuff happening today.
When telling people how important security is: With out script kiddies "Why would anyone attack me?" "Your system can be used as a launching point for all sorts of attacks" "Yeah right." It's hard for a person to picture how "they alone" could be be a target and they'd be right becouse they aren't alone. But the details sound like SiFi to most people and they tune you out.
With script kiddies. "Why would anyone want to attack me?" "Becouse your an easy target. Script kiddies need no other reason"
Are people looking for some Gibson-esque secret cabal of script kiddies, who are building operating systems at age 8, can speak in hex, and have secret h4X0r access to everywhere?
It's an annoying habbit of people to add an artifical quality control to socital consepts.
Religions are dismissed as "Not a religion" becouse the religion is diffrent from the one they believe.
This being a bit far from (but related too) the querk of establishing a quality standard on products most people don't agree to. For example whimpy hot sause will be called "Catsup" by most people who enjoy spicy foods.
Same thing with culture. Junk culture is still a culture. We are familure with the rich indepth cultures of the world. By those standards the United States has no culture at all. However cultures of the anchent past will set the bar much higer.
Just becouse the culture is nothing but teens trying to impress each other dosen't change the fact that it is a culture. Just not as enlightend or functional as the cultures your familure with.
True. The advantage of using an open source OS is that your first best option is to fix it. With Solarus your first best option involves liccensing the source.
I doupt many eyes would prevent this sort of bug. It's easy enough to make and even easier to miss.
So I'd say the chances of this happening to Linux is dead even with the chances of this happening to Solarus.
I'll be smug when the issue is cost. When it comes to security I bow to the master.
Anonymous Coward 1234 Anystreet Freecity, USA 31337 (555)555-5555
On that being said. On the subject of shouting someone down: Yes I agree with it. On the subject of insulting: I disagree. On the subject of posting a persons home address etc: Harrasment targeting.
But when your blatently misrepresenting the details yeah I'm all for shouting you down. The rest is totally out of line.
Try: "Looking for xfree86? I deliver, and I'm live right now" This is the text to introduce one of the porn webcams. But when did xFree86 become a porn term? The only use of xfree86 as porn is on this microsoft affiliated website.
The Christian Colition/700 Club has a habbit of rewriting english to get what they want. One populare example is to redefine "Religion" as a synonim for "Christanity" IE "If it's not christianity it's not a religion".
So if xfree86 becomes a sexual refrence there is justification for adult filters to screen it out when kids installing Linux go looking for GUIs.
Well I kinda thought they were hungry for bandwith. In the sense that the fans suck up all the bandwith they have now.
As opposed to some websites who have bandwith to spare... all 56k baud of it. (Before anyone thinks I'm aluding to someone else... the 56k baud website is my home page and yeah it's nothing specal)
Anyone without the IT backround could potentially be fooled by the silver-tongued army of SCO lawyers
SCOs people don't seam to be all that bright. Let's say SCO sues MegaCorp 12 Let's say SCO get's a jurry of druggys.
MegaCorp 12 lawyer explains the case "Let's say you grow some kind bud. Let's call it 'Linux'. Now you give some of your kind bud to your friends. Now some pusher who can't grow to save his life.. Let's call him SCO... Clames the seeds are his. To make matters worse SCO never owned any plants he just sells Mr Novels plants. Novel took over for Ma Bell but not before Ma Bell gave you your seeds. Mr SCO is basicly clamming that becouse the seed came from Ma Bell it's his now even thow Ma Bells property is owned by Novel not Mr SCO.
Annother thought is that it's not ALL IP laws per say but the ones we have today. (Ohh that rymes even)
Patent laws in the past were used pritty much as intended with a few exceptions. Today those laws are being abused left and right and our legeslation hasn't done a thing about it.
IP law was intended to be an evolving thing. It was always known there'd be new kinds of IP and there'd be abuses of IP it was up to congress to address the problems as they came up. For example: Software copyrights. To me it seams quite reasonable but untill the 1980s it wasn't made clear.
Also refinements in IP law made in the 1990s screwed things up instead of making them better. The Regan admin extended patents and copyrights when they needed to be shortened. The Clinton admin changed the laws to sereously break the intent of IP laws. It seams to me Bush jr will only make things worse.
I have my own ideas as to what IP should be like. I don't intend to clame that IP laws should be eliminated.
When IP laws work you have inventers creating all kinds of things. This is the way it was in the 40's and 50's. Indeed patents meant something back then.
Today IP laws keep people from doing anything. Companys and individuals patenting things they did not invent and worse dose not yet exist.
I can't find it now but I remember reading recently how an inventer was denied a patent on the camcorder becouse it wasn't possable to create one yet (in the patent officers opinion) sadly this was shortly before the first camcorders hit the market so it appears the patent officer was wrong.
What this single situation demonstrates is that at one time patents were in fact issued on merit. The patent officer also had to understand how the technology could be applied.
The solution for me seams reasonably simple and that is requiring that a working prototype already exist. This was a requirment once apon a time. This way you could demonstrate the invention under current technology.
Today patents are being used to patent Future technology: Obveous or not companys are getting patents for devices they themselfs do not produce sit on those patents and sue decades later when someone else invents it. (It is known if one person dose not invent someone else will. An invention often passes through at least 5 heads before someone actually bothers to build it. If the first 4 patent it the 5th guy is repaid for his work with lawsutes and the first four are repaid for lazyness with money.)
There is no deffense of public domain today so companys often obtain "defessive" patents of other peoples consepts. As a result todays tech bubble companys may end up suing the original inventors simply becouse the original guy didn't get a patent.
IP laws are the greatest defence against plagerism however todays laws make plagerism easier rather than harder.
I'd use SCO as an example but they are breaking IP laws so badly they are more of an explenation as to why IP laws are broken rather than of how broken they are. People like Darol McBride have had fingers in the laws. If McBride has his way public domain would be illegal.
And then of course there are people who ARE bright and are hired at Microsoft. Its fun to make generalizations isn't it.
He wouldn't know. He is clamming to know actually know people who work for Microsoft where as you can reasonably guess that SOME people who work for a given company are smart. BUT if you don't know anybody who works for Microsoft you couldn't say.
It's not random eather. Your hiring practaces and job environment do effect what kind of employee you end up with.
If your clamming to be one of the top technology companys (Say IBM, Sun Microsystems or Microsoft) you need to hire the best and brightest UNLESS product quality is a non issue.
If you don't make it a practace of hiring the best and brightest then when you DO manage to hire someone who is on the ball he'll quit to get away from the idiots you have working for you.
I however only know some EX-Microsoft employees. They are very smart people.
Slashdot Mirror
Not really. It's perfectly natural to many of us for someone to change things to work in the way they want them to.
Yes this is often done when the product is intended for controlled content
(content created by the same authors as the program itself)
Example the ID game engens.
But when the product is created for a standards base content (content from a source the authors don't control or have any say in) standards support is absolutly nessisary.
What most programmers do is create a "standards plus" system. They support the full standard and slip in some commands the author thinks should have been included in the first place.
This style sheet is needed becouse IE was designed as if for Microsoft controlled content.
A while back someone was selling blank game boy cartrages. Just insert into a specal cable and load the game boy rom images into them.
The old game shark for the NES (if I remember correctly) copied the game cartrage into a RAM cartrage and the codes you entered would alter the ram copy.
(Being ram the copy was gone the instant you turnned the NES off)
As I remember the NES cartrage was basicly off the shelf roms and some additional chips. Presumably the locking was in those chips. Once your able to replicate (or fake) the locking chips you can make full cartrages and the game shark proves it can be done.
I got invoiced for Magazines I never order and of course never receaved.
I tossed it in the trash.
Later a dept collection agentcy shows up.
Now I'm having to go to cort to dispute the bill.
Multi billing is fraud but it's up to the guy signing the checks to catch it.
The terrible secrt of space
IMAO this is a good anolog for what happends when you let people protect you from knowladge.
In the photo in the article, it sorta looks like it's waving a giant flaming sword in a menacing manner... if you squint kinda hard and close one eye.
And then poke that eye out....
Some of us in the software industry called this "bate and switch" in the 1980s and 1990s.
You offer the software for free for a while then when they are good and addicted you discontinue the free version.
BBSes would archive older versions of software just in case. There'd typicly be a time bomb in the last free version.
Once you use Microsoft products your stuck in a complusry upgrade cycle. You can't use the older versions after so long.
Here have some free software that won't be free 6 months from now when they become obsolete.
But the good news is no time bomb. You could continue to use it... if your not working for the government I mean.
MS is the best way to do it. I'm Aircrew in the Air Force on the C-17 Globemaster. We have pilots who are in charge of a 320 million dollar airframe but can't figure out Outlook.
I can't figure out Microsoft products eather.
Thats why I use Linux almost exclusivly.
This has been my gripe for a long time. People can't figure out Windows somehow come to the conclusion Windows is the os they should be using.
Sounds like an eppisode of the Twilight Zone.
With Linux you can automate almost any task. So yes on one side it takes quite a bit of skill to know how to use it on the other end you can reduce the procedure for burnning a CD to "Wait for CD to burn, when CD ejects remove and replace with blank".
For the times when interaction is nessisary use MacOs.
... seeks an undetermined amount of damages and an order requiring Major League Baseball to honor its Feb. 8 agreement with RealNetworks. No trial date has been set.
In short Real Media just wants them to folow the contract.
A stright forward breach of contract lawsute.
Or maybe it isn't.
MLB is free to use Microsoft's Windows Media format if it wants, he said, but under the Feb. 8 agreement, it also must use RealNetworks' RealMedia format to provide live coverage of the entire baseball season, including spring training, he said.
Real Media says they are free to do so but maybe they aren't. What about the terms of the agreement from Microsofts side? Anybody?
Historicly Microsoft seeks a (legally questionable) exclusive agreement. In other words "brodcast by Microsoft media exclusivly or not at all".
While Real Media dosen't reqire any such exclusive contract if Microsoft dose that leaves MLB in a bind.
Thies contractral obligations are an absolute mess. People would do well to stay away from them entirely and instead of letting Real Networks bind you into a contract that says you must always use Real or Microsoft bind you into a contract forbidding other formats consider using open standards.
They may not be as pritty or high quality but...
What happends when Microsoft Windows dosn't hold 90% marketshare anymore?
Do you just dump contract and latch on the latest os?
Now think about this: What is there isn't one os that replaces Windows. Instead the industry is an even split.
25% Linux, 25% MacOs, 25% Windows, 25% other.
Then what do you do?
What if your contract requires you to use RealMedia and RealMedia jams ohh Quicktime?
Are you listening programmers?
Yes. I understand. Obveously we have to go out of our way to make sure the user can't disable the alarm by compleatly restricting the computer in every way.
What? Did someone say "Make it not obnoxous" No I couldn't have heard that. Nobody would suggest that. Naaah.
*Fingers in ears* Na na na na I can't hear you.
I have not met one. If you do, my phone number is
Just about every girl I meet in high school and collage fit this catagory.
Now that I'm in my 30's most of thies girls are married to smart guys.
In my youth getting girl friends was never the problem. KEEPING them was. Obsessive compulsive programming addicted young business person.
Friends don't need as much attention as girlfriends do. I learnned this from experence. Ignore girlfriends for a few days and your single again. Ignore friends for a few days and they don't even notice your gone.
If I had it to do over I'd teach Angle to write code and help me run my business. Then she'd be as obessive complusive as I am.
Could it be he is just not socalising with his class mates?
I've had classes filled with dickheads. I try to be friendly but there are just some people.
Dose he socalise outside of class? Maybe his dedication to the subject matter precludes socalising DURING class.
Maybe he has nothing in commen with his class mates. It happends.
Maybe he's just had some major emotional thing happen.
Just before entering HS I was dumpped by my girl friend. I didn't let that effect my friendships but I spooked off anyone who showed any romantic intrest.
Talk with him find out why he hasn't any friends.
He may be a deeply trubbled psycopath or a kid who thinks his fellow students are morons.
First a bit of explenation on how "telepathy" works. Don't jump this is a scientific thing trust me.
Basicly it's just reading body language. If you study the subject long enough a good precentage of the time you can tell what a person is thinking (or get remarkably close) just by the way they fidget. Strong emotions are the easiest.
Ok now that you understand I'm not using some mystic nonsense but body language...
When I went to a dentist to have some teath pulled he was bothered about the fact that I am nervous around medical profesionals. (Well I am ok?) He asked a string of questions before he'd even accept me as a patent. I thought it was for medical reasons. That he had only certen kinds of experence and didn't want to accept patents he couldn't help.
It's when I asked that he pull the tooth (and not save it) that he got very conserned. I asked him why and he mentioned something about lawsutes.
His body language was shaky. He'd been sued recently for a large sum of money for frivilous reasons and wasn't intrested in pulling my tooth when it could be saved becouse I might sue him later for not saving the tooth.
I ended up going to annother dentist who was only slightly less bothered. He pulled the tooth as requested but still thinks I shouldn't have done that.
But it took me a while to find the second dentist.
And I didn't sue for the loss of my tooth. Thats stupid. But I know there are people out there that actually would do that.
Bob Vila will get a fat fine and zero jail time so the question is moot.
Anyway they'd never let a prisoner have carpentry tools where as Martha Stewart could create her own tools.
In the first hours of a new Linux users experence with Linux they have set up network services, set passwords and started getting things going.
Thies are Windows users who are perfictly happy with the way Windows works so one could hardly blame them for replicating that behavure in Linux.
And yet:
The thing is, even after my lecure I still had people choosing root passwords like "poopoo" and "iforgotit".
You got them to use a password. That is unheard of on Windows.
As a former BBS Sysop I'd say most of my users used the password of "password".
It's easier to sell companys, government agentcys and cable modem users on using reasonable security precautions with half a million children running around with viruses and such looking to screw with anyone who gives them half a chance than it is to sell them on the notion that the 6 big bad nasty terrorist black hatters will crush them like a grape if they make the sligtest mistake.
People will assume they are safe from the big time terrorist dude becouse "I'm not a sereous target".
DDoS attacks against major targets use hacked cable modem users desktops.
Spammers use Worms to establish a spamming network.
ID theft resulting from the simplist of mistakes.
That stuff happening today.
When telling people how important security is:
With out script kiddies
"Why would anyone attack me?"
"Your system can be used as a launching point for all sorts of attacks"
"Yeah right."
It's hard for a person to picture how "they alone" could be be a target and they'd be right becouse they aren't alone. But the details sound like SiFi to most people and they tune you out.
With script kiddies.
"Why would anyone want to attack me?"
"Becouse your an easy target. Script kiddies need no other reason"
Are people looking for some Gibson-esque secret cabal of script kiddies, who are building operating systems at age 8, can speak in hex, and have secret h4X0r access to everywhere?
It's an annoying habbit of people to add an artifical quality control to socital consepts.
Religions are dismissed as "Not a religion" becouse the religion is diffrent from the one they believe.
This being a bit far from (but related too) the querk of establishing a quality standard on products most people don't agree to.
For example whimpy hot sause will be called "Catsup" by most people who enjoy spicy foods.
Same thing with culture. Junk culture is still a culture. We are familure with the rich indepth cultures of the world. By those standards the United States has no culture at all.
However cultures of the anchent past will set the bar much higer.
Just becouse the culture is nothing but teens trying to impress each other dosen't change the fact that it is a culture. Just not as enlightend or functional as the cultures your familure with.
True. The advantage of using an open source OS is that your first best option is to fix it.
With Solarus your first best option involves liccensing the source.
I doupt many eyes would prevent this sort of bug. It's easy enough to make and even easier to miss.
So I'd say the chances of this happening to Linux is dead even with the chances of this happening to Solarus.
I'll be smug when the issue is cost. When it comes to security I bow to the master.
Anonymous Coward
1234 Anystreet
Freecity, USA
31337
(555)555-5555
On that being said. On the subject of shouting someone down: Yes I agree with it.
On the subject of insulting: I disagree.
On the subject of posting a persons home address etc: Harrasment targeting.
But when your blatently misrepresenting the details yeah I'm all for shouting you down.
The rest is totally out of line.
Try: "Looking for xfree86? I deliver, and I'm live right now"
This is the text to introduce one of the porn webcams.
But when did xFree86 become a porn term?
The only use of xfree86 as porn is on this microsoft affiliated website.
The Christian Colition/700 Club has a habbit of rewriting english to get what they want.
One populare example is to redefine "Religion" as a synonim for "Christanity" IE "If it's not christianity it's not a religion".
So if xfree86 becomes a sexual refrence there is justification for adult filters to screen it out when kids installing Linux go looking for GUIs.
Well I kinda thought they were hungry for bandwith. In the sense that the fans suck up all the bandwith they have now.
As opposed to some websites who have bandwith to spare... all 56k baud of it.
(Before anyone thinks I'm aluding to someone else... the 56k baud website is my home page and yeah it's nothing specal)
Oh no SCO isn't trying to hurt Linux.
They just want to sue people for writing it, selling it and using it.
Sure, I may be a flamebait
Naaa.. SCO is flame bait your just taking the bate.
I don't care who SCO sues so long as SCO gets laughed out of cort.
Anyone without the IT backround could potentially be fooled by the silver-tongued army of SCO lawyers
SCOs people don't seam to be all that bright.
Let's say SCO sues MegaCorp 12
Let's say SCO get's a jurry of druggys.
MegaCorp 12 lawyer explains the case
"Let's say you grow some kind bud. Let's call it 'Linux'. Now you give some of your kind bud to your friends.
Now some pusher who can't grow to save his life.. Let's call him SCO... Clames the seeds are his.
To make matters worse SCO never owned any plants he just sells Mr Novels plants. Novel took over for Ma Bell but not before Ma Bell gave you your seeds.
Mr SCO is basicly clamming that becouse the seed came from Ma Bell it's his now even thow Ma Bells property is owned by Novel not Mr SCO.
In short folks. Mr Sco is on crack."
Annother thought is that it's not ALL IP laws per say but the ones we have today.
(Ohh that rymes even)
Patent laws in the past were used pritty much as intended with a few exceptions. Today those laws are being abused left and right and our legeslation hasn't done a thing about it.
IP law was intended to be an evolving thing. It was always known there'd be new kinds of IP and there'd be abuses of IP it was up to congress to address the problems as they came up.
For example: Software copyrights. To me it seams quite reasonable but untill the 1980s it wasn't made clear.
Also refinements in IP law made in the 1990s screwed things up instead of making them better.
The Regan admin extended patents and copyrights when they needed to be shortened.
The Clinton admin changed the laws to sereously break the intent of IP laws.
It seams to me Bush jr will only make things worse.
I have my own ideas as to what IP should be like. I don't intend to clame that IP laws should be eliminated.
When IP laws work you have inventers creating all kinds of things. This is the way it was in the 40's and 50's. Indeed patents meant something back then.
Today IP laws keep people from doing anything. Companys and individuals patenting things they did not invent and worse dose not yet exist.
I can't find it now but I remember reading recently how an inventer was denied a patent on the camcorder becouse it wasn't possable to create one yet (in the patent officers opinion) sadly this was shortly before the first camcorders hit the market so it appears the patent officer was wrong.
What this single situation demonstrates is that at one time patents were in fact issued on merit. The patent officer also had to understand how the technology could be applied.
The solution for me seams reasonably simple and that is requiring that a working prototype already exist. This was a requirment once apon a time. This way you could demonstrate the invention under current technology.
Today patents are being used to patent
Future technology: Obveous or not companys are getting patents for devices they themselfs do not produce sit on those patents and sue decades later when someone else invents it.
(It is known if one person dose not invent someone else will. An invention often passes through at least 5 heads before someone actually bothers to build it. If the first 4 patent it the 5th guy is repaid for his work with lawsutes and the first four are repaid for lazyness with money.)
There is no deffense of public domain today so companys often obtain "defessive" patents of other peoples consepts. As a result todays tech bubble companys may end up suing the original inventors simply becouse the original guy didn't get a patent.
IP laws are the greatest defence against plagerism however todays laws make plagerism easier rather than harder.
I'd use SCO as an example but they are breaking IP laws so badly they are more of an explenation as to why IP laws are broken rather than of how broken they are.
People like Darol McBride have had fingers in the laws. If McBride has his way public domain would be illegal.
And then of course there are people who ARE bright and are hired at Microsoft. Its fun to make generalizations isn't it.
He wouldn't know.
He is clamming to know actually know people who work for Microsoft where as you can reasonably guess that SOME people who work for a given company are smart.
BUT if you don't know anybody who works for Microsoft you couldn't say.
It's not random eather. Your hiring practaces and job environment do effect what kind of employee you end up with.
If your clamming to be one of the top technology companys (Say IBM, Sun Microsystems or Microsoft) you need to hire the best and brightest UNLESS product quality is a non issue.
If you don't make it a practace of hiring the best and brightest then when you DO manage to hire someone who is on the ball he'll quit to get away from the idiots you have working for you.
I however only know some EX-Microsoft employees. They are very smart people.