This would be telemarketting with NONE of the regulations.... Or maybe ALL of the regulations. It all depends on how the corts see it when someone desides to sue over it.
Spammers have said "Spam is just like other forms of marketting" putting on some fake eco-friendly face on spam with domain names like "SaveTrees" etc. But Spam was never regulated and the other forms of "direct marketting" are.
Voice over IP or Telephony is basicly the Internet answer to the telephone but there are some major diffrences.
Here we have one... Voice over IP Telemarketting isn't regulated. There are rules and regulations as to whom you can call with telemarketting and how you may obtain a phone number. VoIP has no such rules.
There are rules for when you can call (no calling someone while they are sleeping)... VoIP has no such rules.
So there you have it.... VoIP... Telemarketting free to do all the criminal scams of the past.
Reminds me of the day when I receaved a bill for $100 for a mag subscription to a sports mag I never wanted. (Not a sports fan)
They identified themselfs and I contacted a laywer who was apparently handling a class action lawsute against thies people (not the dept colection agentcy but the people they were colecting for) for fraud.
Dept colection agentcys should not be alowed to hide who they are (or who they work for) for this reason.
This sort of thing is why I'm prepetually amazed that ANYONE would use anything that locks you in.
Open or closed source the application should always have some sort of escape hatch. Some way out. This should be achived eather by means of a commen format or by means of publishing the format used. Preferably both.
Microsoft Office (as I understand it)*1 dosen't provide a useful escape hatch. Microsoft dosen't publish the file formats and the codec they use are patented *2.
In closing yeah I'm not against closed source so long as the software folows the KISS princaple and maybe no bigger than 64k. It's when things get big and/or complex that you are likely to have bug frenzy.
After a certen point you need to realise that leaving bug fixes in the hands of a single entity (In this case Microsoft) may be a disaster waiting to happen.
There are several ways to fix a bug. 1. Remove a feature you don't need. 2. Change the way something works (breaking all preveous applications) 3. Dumb luck. 4. Keep trying.
Microsoft uses 4. Linux uses all of the above and more. I think Sun Microsystems uses something I didn't mention becouse they appear to have a good track record. But then I avoid Solarus every bit as much as I avoid Microsoft office so I have no idea...
1: Yeah yeah Ok I don't use office I can only go on second hand storys ok? Gezzz
2: As are just about everyone else.. for such I'm wondering how internet video every got past CU-SeeMe.
Forgive me if I'm off my mark, IANAGIE* *I am not a game industry expert
Did thies guys put out a game? Did they put out a game engen?
What DID they put out?
Software patents aside, We have wave after wave of companys filing patents while not actually creating anything. Patents are a way to protect inventions. IANAL but I think if you ask your local patent lawyer he'd agree. But people aren't producing inventions they are patenting ideas. "Genus is 1% insperation 99% persperation" reguardless of the fact that the person who said this also killed cows to FUD Teslas AC it's the truth. Ideas are great but untill you do something with them they are worthless. Still we have a system where companys may bate and switch.
If once the patent is filed the socalled inventer dosen't produce an invention in a given piriod of time his patent should become void.
And then there is the whole issue of the fact that software patents are patents on logic.
Maybe I should patent my thought processes and then sue every conservitive minded individual in the United States.
At best he continued funding for a military project that had already been underway.
As far as forsight, it's quite possable Al Gore did forsee all the Internet is today. Much of it already existed as BBSes, E-mail, message boards, online stores, file trading. What was missing was the sharing of information between computers. While FidoNet did this to some extent it wasn't as detailed as ArpaNet and to postdated ArpaNet. However so did Al Gores supposed "creating the Internet".
Maybe he didn't intend to be taken for clamming to be the inventer but he didn't take any congressional hand in the project eather. It fell under the heading "military projects". While it would be itemised as "Creating a method of sharing information between military bases" Al Gore didn't do anything specal. He signed off on an existing project and he wasn't the first as it was ongoing.
Fact being a lot of sentors signed off on the same project at the same time. It was probably the smallest item on the budget. During a time when people snuck million dollar toliets into the military budget I've no doupt this project slipped past them on both clost and obfuscation...
Hells bells Al Gore may have had no more information than "Information resources" Would any sain person cut the military budget on THAT?
The diffrence between free software and researching prior art is that free software results in some limited fame prior art research dosen't.
Legal teams will do work for free "pro bono" for the poor and get noticed.
Also working on free software is basicly the same as working on commertal software. It gives you experence and it says to the world "this is how good I am today" a practical resume.
Prior art research (IANAL) suggests to those of us who aren't lawyers (I am a business man who occasionally needs legal council) that your not very good in the cort room (else you wouldn't be spending your time on research).
It's thankless work. (IMAO)
Bill Gates wasn't wrong when he said nobody would write code if they didn't make money.. not entirely anyway. His mistake was assuming that money was the only possable byproduct of writing code. The only payment that could be had. The author of Xmodem just wanted a way to trade files. He didn't care what happend to his code so long as he could trade files with his friends. I suspect he'd love gnutella and bittorrents. Linus just wanted a Unix like os on his desktop. RMS wants nothing more than to never again be strapped with a liccens that dictactes how he can use his computer.
Me? I want people to visit my website.... Sorry the code there is currently obsolete. (Internet access cut to bare minumum for the majority of the past year)
Minor correction, the only power supply change has been AT to ATX If you ignore the fact that the AT powersupply uses more of the plug than the XT counterpart.
Some AT motherboards don't use that so they will work with an XT powersupply but I didn't have such a monster.
Also I guess you missed the part where I said I started with a PC powersupply (not an XT powersupply)
An XT power Supply should work if it has sufficient power(140W I believe) to power your components...
However a PC powersupply shouldn't work as it is a 65W powersupply. (And there is a very good reason why XT powersupplys are typicly 150W at the very least but I've been able to surive on 65W)
GNU software has been shipped with commertal software for a very long time and is still done today. What you can't do is use open source code in a product that will be shipped binary only.
If the commertal parts of SFU contain open source code then Microsoft can't ship.
However this begs the question why did Microsoft use GCC and not Microsoft C++? Hmmm?
Maybe it has something to do with the commertal product being absolut garbage.
Just to have fun and be diffrent I thought I'd suggest a compleatly diffrent conspericy theroy than the "inventer found dead" conspericys (Very much standard operating procedure for the CIA)
Problem: Need body guard against harrasing girlfriend. Can't afford it. Solution: "Hay everyone I'm building a cruse missle". Now mistereous MiBs are around every corner. Stay away from metal shops and electronics stores.
The main deal is he needs someone to help and I think he'll reject all offers.
I mean this one has "Watch me please" writen all over it. The problem is that the CIA may just go with standard operating procedure rather than watch this guy. OPS
My first PC was a PC-1. Obsolete by the time I got it. It was ok. It was cheap. Then I took it apart keeped a mental note of where everything belongs (Rule 1. Keep paper notes not mental notes you forgetful twit) After successfuly guessing where everything belonged I got my hands on an XT motherboard. (Rule 2. Just becouse it's the same type of computer don't expect a motherboard upgrade to fit in the same old box) I was VERY nervous about using a woden box for the case. A hack job at best but it worked out ok when I made sure the motherboard didn't touch anything metal. (Rule 3. Paranoia is a good thing) I got my hands on a nice XT flip top case and remebered how the old PC case was laied out. (Rule 4. Keep notes handy.) (Adendum: Keeping notes in your head is bad unless your memory is REALLY good. I got lucky) Then comes the AT motherboard. (Rule 5. Avoid dangerous hacks and don't puch your luck. Just becouse it worked once dosen't mean you should try it again) After getting my hands on an AT case I transfered parts to the AT. Knowing the AT won't work on an XT powersupply prevented me from trying the woden box case a second time. (Rule 6. Notes be dammed remember the important stuff ok? Notes are backup memory not primary memory) Later I upgraded to a 386. (Rule 7. You did it once you can do it again) Then I added a VGA card but had no VGA monitor so I hacked my RGB monitor to turn it into a VGA.. kinda. (Rule 8. Only insain morons overdrive monitors) When it died a year later I got a real VGA. (Rule 9. Actually get real hardware. Some hacks aren't worth the effort) Then I started over from scratch and built a Pentium MMX 200 (this was when the fastest Intel chip was the Pentium MMX 233) Actually no.. I got a clone chip.. Forget who made it. (Rule 10. Research before buying.) After buying a motherboard and Intel brand name Pentium MMX 200 to replace the now fried CPU I had kinda damaged my 20 meg hard disk. (Rule 11. Back up everything. Always. You know this already right?) I managed to use 15 megs of the 16 megs of ram as a ram drive and restored my backups to it. Then I got fanatical about backups. After all up to then I've been using Dos and restricted to 640k (except on the PC-1 where it was 512k)
(Rule 12. What can do more can do less) Then I got a 1 gig hard disk downloaded Linux put em on floppys and installed from floppys. (Rule 13. A bucket of used floppys is not as great as you might think) After 2 or 3 reinstalls (due to bad floppys) I was happy and had my Linux box.
Side note: Originally the PC-1 was just a terminal for my AT&T 3b2 but the 3B2 died so I embarked on this quest to build a Linux box. I fully intended to take it a step at a time so I didn't overwhelm myself and that worked out. The 386 was originally planned to BE the Linux box but at the last second I changed my mind and desided if I was to build a Linux box I'd build something current. I wasn't too thrilled with having only 3 ISA slots on my P5 but later came to be more annoyed with having only 4 PCI as I upgraded all my ISA cards.
That system has served me well but I've already obtained a new ATX case and shopping for a new AMD processor and mothrrboard. And a video card.. And ram...
1. 13 years from now someone other than the UN will get feed up and actually address the problem pissing off the rest of the world who apparently started taking kick backs from spammers.
Slashdotters seam to think this is the outcome however it appears this only happens when the UN takes on it's ACTUAL mission of world peace and not more trivial matters. (I know spam is a big deal but compaired to world hunger (ignore the obveous joke here) disease and war I'd say spam is kinda the same as a cop ignoring a murder to chase after a speeder)
2. Draconian laws that permit the UN to deside what is or isn't acceptable in e-mail. With some lobbying and bribes spammers get to continue to operate BUT other things don't. Spam hunter efforts, Linux dev e-mail lists, Slashdot (all of it), Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern.
The merrits and diffrences between the cenesorship of Limbaugh and censorship of Stern aside the United Nations was founded to premote world peace (hunger and disease intersect this as nations will go to war over the resorces needed to resolve thies issues).
However as of late the United Nations has abandoned it's cause of world peace in favor of it's own form of world domnation.
Take a look at the issues the UN has taken on as of late: IP law, Hate Speach and now Spam. Each of thies issues can be used to craft laws that control what people can say.
IP law: Copyright law is itself a big buggabo. It's not so much the control of what is said but WHO may say it. Copyright law has already been used to control political speach. The "I have a dream" speach should be public domain. It was a public speach and shapes public policy to this very day. However the famaly of the man who originally uttered those words now clame ownership over all his words making political debate on those issues cumbersom or in some cases impossable. IMAO that is the only value to a copyright on public speach.
Hate Speach: Today political organsiations clame all opposing ideology as "hate speach" (much as Microsoft clames Linux is unamerican) as a means of sillencing opponents.
Spam: Spam isn't very well defined and it's pritty easy to use the terminology to pick and chouse what is or isn't spam. This could easly be used to sillence political speach. I also believe the UN is picking this one up becouse certen political parties are using spam for fundrasing. Obveously even lagit antiSpam laws would have some effect on the political front however thats not really anybodys fault but the spammer politicians themselfs.
How is this any easier than shipping the parts and computer to a central location?
The parts are already AT a central location. They always have been and always will be.
If your a repair shop you order the parts from the warehouse. This approch is more shipping the computer to the warehouse (or a repair shop connected to the warehouse). This is not a new approch eather. Typicly when your computer or PDA is shipped back to the manufacter and you get a replacement they disect it and find whats wrong then they fix it and resell it as a "referbished" unit (not new). PS. Nothing really diffrent between referbished and new. Just that the referb was used before and went through more testing before arriving in your hands and for all that you pay less. If you havn't guessed yes I'm a fan of referb hardware.
I believe the diffrence is intent, design and quantity.
Intent: ISPs: Music files? Whats that? Napster: It's not clear if the RIAA made this argument or not. On one side Napster did originally say you'll be able to download your favoret artsist. But it seams to me they expected the artsist to sign on the idea rather than to actually premote piracy. However it dosen't look that way to the corts (or many Napster users)
Design: ISP: Download music? Well if you want to know how do a search on the Internet the information is there somewhere. Napster: Download music, Thats all we do.
Quantity: ISP: Let me check, Web searches on Google for porn, Bunch of Slashdotters, AIM clinets, Oh here. a Napster user.. I think. Napster: Ok now just how do I find ubplublished freely available artwork amoung the Brittny Spears soungs?
Just going from memory that infected a system as soon as the packet hit the system. It used a flaw in the BSD kernel not in an e-mail client.
This way when the worm hit firewalls it would infect same and keep going. It's more like blaster in that all it takes to be reinfected is to plug the box back into the Internet. So searching for a bugfix was futile. But it was VERY effective. If you cleanned a blaster infected machine you might be able to download the patch before getting infected again. The Morris worm however would hit you right away giving you no hope of getting help leaving you to fend for yourself as best you can.
Also the Windows blaster could be thwarted by turnning off Decom services in BSD there wasn't an eqivlent service to shut off. Your just screwed.
The only thing you can really say about this that sounds positive twords Unix is that even with being cut off everyone was able to get down and fix it themselfs where as with Blaster nobody actually had to do that.
Evil right wing conspericy conservitive pagan here:)
I have a theroy as to why so many Slashdotters are Democrats and folow blindly.
1. The democratic party tends to have this "We are experts do as we say or else" addatude. 2. The alterntive (the republican party) has this whole bent of "Well Microsoft is a company and people can choise to not buy Microsofts product".
Of that I can only say: 1. Why support a political party who is usually in support of censorship and other agendas where Slashdot is usually on the other side. 2. Yeah right I chouse to buy Microsoft Windows when I buy my PC to install Linux. Yep. Becouse I can see all those OsLess and Linux PCs at the computer store and wow look at all those PCs with out Windows preinstalled.
Last time I went to the store I think I saw ONE Macintosh and it was hidden away from the rows on rows of PCs the salemen always take people when they ask about getting a new computer. "No sir thats all we have".
Actually there IS 1 other reason... The CDA drafted and crafted by the democratic party actually won strong and vocal support from the REPUBLICAN party. (The CDA for those with short attention spans was the law to censor the Internet of "objectionable" matreal).
The democrats knew most people would misunderstand what "objectionable" would mean in law. Sadly the entire republican party were amoung those people. However Slashdotters were not.
Back at home like about 20 years ago the city building code inspection and enforcement team was visiting the house like once every 6 months.
Long story short it was during finals and when someone would get on the roof to fix it. Once the requests got petty (Example: Repaint the house) she went to the city to get a complete copy of the building code. They had nothing but excuses. "It's too expensive, too hard, Can't be done". So she got ahold of one of a city counclemen and he informs her they had the book behind the desk to give to anyone who asked.
That was 20 years ago. A few years later once he's out of office he mentions realistate fraud in the city offices. Today it's not a problem. It's all on the city website.
I think this time ALL the DB venders could get together to deminstrate how it's not a problem with the products THEY sell. High time someone challanged them on the "the computer can't handle it" excuses.
Ok, Gee I'm glad I use Eudora on PlamOs. (I know Eudora is e-mail but in order to support HTML e-mail on the palm Eudora is also a web browser on that platform and one of the better ones for the palm)
Ok ok... Gee I'm glad I use Opra on the Zaurus... (a Linux PDA).
Actaully... Gee I'm glad I use two feet and bank teller for all my banking needs. Sorry people but I'll start being conserned about client side security once I'm certen server side security is at least as good as my own desktop.
(PS: My mother dose online banking from Palm Os much to the amazement and confusion of the bank who makes the website IE only)
I don't think this is about compleating with Linux in the PDA market but in the imbeded hardware market. I have a Linux PDA and Palm is a greater threat to Microsoft than Linux when it comes to PDAs. But WinCE is also for imbeded devices and while WinCE for PDAs will generally work "out of the box" when your building a cable box or PVR (for example) your adding on new features that serve no purpous outside this one application.
It's ironic really. Microsoft has the desktops Linux takes the servers. Microsoft gets the PDAs Linux gets the imbeded market.
The reality is that Microsoft has less chance on the imbeded market than Linux has on the desktop.
Companys use Linux becouse it's available on a wide range of processors has a broud range of features and really slashes costs and develupment time.
Now let's say Microsoft chouses to FUD Linux. Thats not a big deal. Microsoft can chance imbeded develupers away from Linux all day long. There is a large number of operating systems imbeded systems manufacters would prefer to use before ever considering all the hastle that results from working with Microsoft.
In most cases I imagin before they'd fork over money to Microsoft the would develup there own operating system. Often cheaper and more effective that going with Microsoft. Many still do this today when Linux isn't the best option.
Alterntively many companys and inventers will willingly DUMP products rather than use WinCE.
In the long run if you DO need the sort of freedom given by this new tweek to Microsofts liccens then I recemend looking at BSD as it is better for imbeded devices than WinCE.
When looking over Manga titles I saw a very intresting Batman manga. What did they do for cultral translation? Absolutly nothing. This was the American Batman in Hong Kong hunting down a hong kong villen. I didn't get to read it but the discription leads me to believe Batman dosn't just have to deal with the criminal but that his detective skills don't work so well in an unfamilure culture.
Instead of making the hero match the culture for reader acceptence make him clash for a more intresting story. The readers will accept or reject the character eather way.
Each super hero is created by the culture and situations the character finds themselfs in. Superman was rased on a farm away from big city trubbles. (I object to the "Smallvile" series on the account that it trashes this point) Batman however watched his parrents die at the hands of criminals. The Xmen have a whole big "Evil mutants ick ick" thing going. It completes the character and adds depth. Else you have "Major Glory" (See Dexters Lab). Ok so I find him really funny but try to picture any attept to make a sereous version of that guy.
Just make em american and give all the same problems. Superman might need permission to enter airspace for example. And when a half demon hero trys to enter a cultre rich in spirital history (IE they teach there kids about demons) the story is ripe for possablitys. (Storyfront has a counter demon spell becouse that's the cultral norm... Kid knows how to cast demons out of a building... and of course every culture casts demons as evil so there's no giving him a break)
And for goddess sake PLEASE consult someone who knows the culture. Don't make stupid assumptions.
Something frightening when iRobot starts violating the 3 laws of robotics before it's even built. (Military application would violate "Cause harm" and "alow harm by inaction") (Not exact quotes of course I'm being lazy)
Robot friend? So I finnally get to have a happy chearful elevator that thanks me every time I enter it? Or better yet a paranoid android.
For one thing, most spam I get is claiming to be from a known source (ie someone who knows me has a worm and is spamming from their address book)
For now the term "malware" is probably the best for this topic. Today spammers use malware to send spam so the original source is a victom. I can see people forced to pay for other peoples spam.
Also as much as there are whitelists there will always be someone who will implement this and refuse to put anyone on the whitelist forcing friends and famaly to pay for his own lazyness.
I could even believe some ISPs tech support could "forget" to whitelist costummers (for example paid Linux users) or deside to not whitelist users of a given os for some impossably stupid reason.
This topic came up before and I myself actually did suggest something like this on Slashdot. A number of insightful people pointed out just how bad my idea really was. They continue to be correct.
First Linux store? Actually there has been at least a few preveous. Va Linux systems anyone? A bunch poped up in the 1990s when Linux was still new. But everything that went on at the time eroded that. I remember using an obsolete XT connected to the internet to use lynx to visit a Linux store website and find they'd gone out of business and directed me to Va Linux systems. I don't know if VA ever had a brick but at least one Linux store I knew of did.
Eventually Va bought out Slashdot and found more money in Slashdot than system sales. Everyone else found they couldn't stay alive and the Linux stores were gone.
Years later... Dragonix what was originally offered freely (if you don't masproduce) is now sold commertally. (You get the parts and the scematics so you can modify or rebuild, It's a good deal really I doupt you'd find the parts if you didn't buy em from SwissEmbedded anyway)
Also if you DO have a commertal application just pay em a consulting fee and they'll whip up what ever you need with an appropreate liccens for your intentions (in other words you can masproduce if you get a liccens from them to that effect).
I've considered getting the SwissEmbedded MP3 player built on the Dragonix base system. But I've desided not to. (Going to build my own)
But the Dragonix won't make a decent laptop or a remotely worthly server. And it's just an imbeded company making specalised machines for a consulting fee. Not quite up to snuff with the exposure of a Linux retail in real life.
Now? Now we have a Linux PC shop in real space in the back of a carwash. Yeah ok it's got all the polish of a gass station food cort on the other hand it's there in the public path. Maybe not clean or fancy but thies guys get to pitch Linux to avrage people who may have nothing better to do and more than likely never heard of it before or never heard the Linux side.
And a plus, Unlike a lot of people they are selling desktops for avrage people. When you CAN get Linux from one of the big PC venders it's always a server configuration. What dose the avrage person use a PC for anyway? Browsing the web and reading e-mail. Internet stuff. That's what thies guys are leveraging. Cheap Internet desktops.
And it looks to me like they are making a proffit. Also it's been pointed out the sad details thies guys use Windows for a web server and Frontpage to make the website. That means? They don't eat the dogfood. They are Windows users themselfs. Not Linux advocates. Not geeks. Just avrage jo users who can see the value in selling Linux PCs. They know EXACTLY why people would want to use Windows over Linux becouse THEY DO. Maybe they'll switch when they themselfs need to upgrade. They'll buy a system from themselfs. Untill they they use what they've had already and don't really care to upgrade just yet.
In short it's Linux boxes out there where the avrage user can see it, the way the avrage user wants it, sold by the avrage user. No more "Geek" Os in a geek store sold by geeks. Hell try to find Windows sold by nonGeeks or at least salesmen who aren't pretending to be geeks.
Skin networking research at MIT The diffrence between MITs prior art and Microsofts patent is the power distrabution. But.. DU.. the data is electrical... power distrabution is an implied part of that.
Any time you have a reliable electrical signal you have a power source.
Basicly Microsofts patent is a minnor and obveous modification of an existing patent and as I understand it patenting the obveous is not permitted.
So the only diffrence between Microsofts patent and IBMs PAN is the power distrabution grid? I sort of missed out on all the PAN research myself becouse I was focused on the step power generator created to power wearables. Now how do you suppose they get all that power from the foot to the head? I didn't see any wires leading down the leg in the prototype.
I found the whole talk of power distrabution to be boring so I phased it out. Someone else might know.
Slashdot Mirror
First thing that crosed my mind was irish coffee.
:)
The Original Irish Coffee
The caffeen alters the effect. You can more appreceate being blitzed when your brain stays functional due to caffeen.
"Caffine is life" - What happends when you replace Jemhadars white with foldgers crystals.
(That is just before they go insane and kill everyone)
This would be telemarketting with NONE of the regulations....
Or maybe ALL of the regulations. It all depends on how the corts see it when someone desides to sue over it.
Spammers have said "Spam is just like other forms of marketting" putting on some fake eco-friendly face on spam with domain names like "SaveTrees" etc.
But Spam was never regulated and the other forms of "direct marketting" are.
Voice over IP or Telephony is basicly the Internet answer to the telephone but there are some major diffrences.
Here we have one... Voice over IP Telemarketting isn't regulated.
There are rules and regulations as to whom you can call with telemarketting and how you may obtain a phone number. VoIP has no such rules.
There are rules for when you can call (no calling someone while they are sleeping)...
VoIP has no such rules.
So there you have it....
VoIP... Telemarketting free to do all the criminal scams of the past.
Reminds me of the day when I receaved a bill for $100 for a mag subscription to a sports mag I never wanted.
(Not a sports fan)
They identified themselfs and I contacted a laywer who was apparently handling a class action lawsute against thies people (not the dept colection agentcy but the people they were colecting for) for fraud.
Dept colection agentcys should not be alowed to hide who they are (or who they work for) for this reason.
This sort of thing is why I'm prepetually amazed that ANYONE would use anything that locks you in.
Open or closed source the application should always have some sort of escape hatch. Some way out.
This should be achived eather by means of a commen format or by means of publishing the format used. Preferably both.
Microsoft Office (as I understand it)*1 dosen't provide a useful escape hatch. Microsoft dosen't publish the file formats and the codec they use are patented *2.
In closing yeah I'm not against closed source so long as the software folows the KISS princaple and maybe no bigger than 64k.
It's when things get big and/or complex that you are likely to have bug frenzy.
After a certen point you need to realise that leaving bug fixes in the hands of a single entity (In this case Microsoft) may be a disaster waiting to happen.
There are several ways to fix a bug.
1. Remove a feature you don't need.
2. Change the way something works (breaking all preveous applications)
3. Dumb luck.
4. Keep trying.
Microsoft uses 4. Linux uses all of the above and more.
I think Sun Microsystems uses something I didn't mention becouse they appear to have a good track record.
But then I avoid Solarus every bit as much as I avoid Microsoft office so I have no idea...
1: Yeah yeah Ok I don't use office I can only go on second hand storys ok? Gezzz
2: As are just about everyone else.. for such I'm wondering how internet video every got past CU-SeeMe.
Forgive me if I'm off my mark, IANAGIE*
*I am not a game industry expert
Did thies guys put out a game?
Did they put out a game engen?
What DID they put out?
Software patents aside, We have wave after wave of companys filing patents while not actually creating anything.
Patents are a way to protect inventions. IANAL but I think if you ask your local patent lawyer he'd agree.
But people aren't producing inventions they are patenting ideas.
"Genus is 1% insperation 99% persperation" reguardless of the fact that the person who said this also killed cows to FUD Teslas AC it's the truth.
Ideas are great but untill you do something with them they are worthless.
Still we have a system where companys may bate and switch.
If once the patent is filed the socalled inventer dosen't produce an invention in a given piriod of time his patent should become void.
And then there is the whole issue of the fact that software patents are patents on logic.
Maybe I should patent my thought processes and then sue every conservitive minded individual in the United States.
Yes however he didn't.
At best he continued funding for a military project that had already been underway.
As far as forsight, it's quite possable Al Gore did forsee all the Internet is today.
Much of it already existed as BBSes,
E-mail, message boards, online stores, file trading. What was missing was the sharing of information between computers. While FidoNet did this to some extent it wasn't as detailed as ArpaNet and to postdated ArpaNet.
However so did Al Gores supposed "creating the Internet".
Maybe he didn't intend to be taken for clamming to be the inventer but he didn't take any congressional hand in the project eather.
It fell under the heading "military projects".
While it would be itemised as "Creating a method of sharing information between military bases" Al Gore didn't do anything specal. He signed off on an existing project and he wasn't the first as it was ongoing.
Fact being a lot of sentors signed off on the same project at the same time. It was probably the smallest item on the budget.
During a time when people snuck million dollar toliets into the military budget I've no doupt this project slipped past them on both clost and obfuscation...
Hells bells Al Gore may have had no more information than
"Information resources"
Would any sain person cut the military budget on THAT?
The diffrence between free software and researching prior art is that free software results in some limited fame prior art research dosen't.
Legal teams will do work for free "pro bono" for the poor and get noticed.
Also working on free software is basicly the same as working on commertal software. It gives you experence and it says to the world "this is how good I am today" a practical resume.
Prior art research (IANAL) suggests to those of us who aren't lawyers (I am a business man who occasionally needs legal council) that your not very good in the cort room (else you wouldn't be spending your time on research).
It's thankless work. (IMAO)
Bill Gates wasn't wrong when he said nobody would write code if they didn't make money.. not entirely anyway.
His mistake was assuming that money was the only possable byproduct of writing code. The only payment that could be had.
The author of Xmodem just wanted a way to trade files. He didn't care what happend to his code so long as he could trade files with his friends. I suspect he'd love gnutella and bittorrents.
Linus just wanted a Unix like os on his desktop. RMS wants nothing more than to never again be strapped with a liccens that dictactes how he can use his computer.
Me? I want people to visit my website....
Sorry the code there is currently obsolete.
(Internet access cut to bare minumum for the majority of the past year)
Minor correction, the only power supply change has been AT to ATX
If you ignore the fact that the AT powersupply uses more of the plug than the XT counterpart.
Some AT motherboards don't use that so they will work with an XT powersupply but I didn't have such a monster.
Also I guess you missed the part where I said I started with a PC powersupply (not an XT powersupply)
An XT power Supply should work if it has sufficient power(140W I believe) to power your components...
However a PC powersupply shouldn't work as it is a 65W powersupply.
(And there is a very good reason why XT powersupplys are typicly 150W at the very least but I've been able to surive on 65W)
Wow so Microsoft actually believes it's own BS.
GNU software has been shipped with commertal software for a very long time and is still done today.
What you can't do is use open source code in a product that will be shipped binary only.
If the commertal parts of SFU contain open source code then Microsoft can't ship.
However this begs the question why did Microsoft use GCC and not Microsoft C++?
Hmmm?
Maybe it has something to do with the commertal product being absolut garbage.
Just to have fun and be diffrent I thought I'd suggest a compleatly diffrent conspericy theroy than the "inventer found dead" conspericys (Very much standard operating procedure for the CIA)
Problem: Need body guard against harrasing girlfriend. Can't afford it.
Solution: "Hay everyone I'm building a cruse missle". Now mistereous MiBs are around every corner. Stay away from metal shops and electronics stores.
The main deal is he needs someone to help and I think he'll reject all offers.
I mean this one has "Watch me please" writen all over it.
The problem is that the CIA may just go with standard operating procedure rather than watch this guy.
OPS
My first PC was a PC-1. Obsolete by the time I got it. It was ok. It was cheap.
Then I took it apart keeped a mental note of where everything belongs
(Rule 1. Keep paper notes not mental notes you forgetful twit)
After successfuly guessing where everything belonged I got my hands on an XT motherboard.
(Rule 2. Just becouse it's the same type of computer don't expect a motherboard upgrade to fit in the same old box)
I was VERY nervous about using a woden box for the case. A hack job at best but it worked out ok when I made sure the motherboard didn't touch anything metal.
(Rule 3. Paranoia is a good thing)
I got my hands on a nice XT flip top case and remebered how the old PC case was laied out.
(Rule 4. Keep notes handy.)
(Adendum: Keeping notes in your head is bad unless your memory is REALLY good.
I got lucky)
Then comes the AT motherboard.
(Rule 5. Avoid dangerous hacks and don't puch your luck. Just becouse it worked once dosen't mean you should try it again)
After getting my hands on an AT case I transfered parts to the AT.
Knowing the AT won't work on an XT powersupply prevented me from trying the woden box case a second time.
(Rule 6. Notes be dammed remember the important stuff ok? Notes are backup memory not primary memory)
Later I upgraded to a 386.
(Rule 7. You did it once you can do it again)
Then I added a VGA card but had no VGA monitor so I hacked my RGB monitor to turn it into a VGA.. kinda.
(Rule 8. Only insain morons overdrive monitors)
When it died a year later I got a real VGA.
(Rule 9. Actually get real hardware. Some hacks aren't worth the effort)
Then I started over from scratch and built a Pentium MMX 200 (this was when the fastest Intel chip was the Pentium MMX 233)
Actually no.. I got a clone chip.. Forget who made it.
(Rule 10. Research before buying.)
After buying a motherboard and Intel brand name Pentium MMX 200 to replace the now fried CPU I had kinda damaged my 20 meg hard disk.
(Rule 11. Back up everything. Always. You know this already right?)
I managed to use 15 megs of the 16 megs of ram as a ram drive and restored my backups to it.
Then I got fanatical about backups.
After all up to then I've been using Dos and restricted to 640k (except on the PC-1 where it was 512k)
(Rule 12. What can do more can do less)
Then I got a 1 gig hard disk downloaded Linux put em on floppys and installed from floppys.
(Rule 13. A bucket of used floppys is not as great as you might think)
After 2 or 3 reinstalls (due to bad floppys) I was happy and had my Linux box.
Side note: Originally the PC-1 was just a terminal for my AT&T 3b2 but the 3B2 died so I embarked on this quest to build a Linux box.
I fully intended to take it a step at a time so I didn't overwhelm myself and that worked out.
The 386 was originally planned to BE the Linux box but at the last second I changed my mind and desided if I was to build a Linux box I'd build something current.
I wasn't too thrilled with having only 3 ISA slots on my P5 but later came to be more annoyed with having only 4 PCI as I upgraded all my ISA cards.
That system has served me well but I've already obtained a new ATX case and shopping for a new AMD processor and mothrrboard.
And a video card..
And ram...
I've already replaced the hard disk.
Two possable outcomes.
1. 13 years from now someone other than the UN will get feed up and actually address the problem pissing off the rest of the world who apparently started taking kick backs from spammers.
Slashdotters seam to think this is the outcome however it appears this only happens when the UN takes on it's ACTUAL mission of world peace and not more trivial matters.
(I know spam is a big deal but compaired to world hunger (ignore the obveous joke here) disease and war I'd say spam is kinda the same as a cop ignoring a murder to chase after a speeder)
2. Draconian laws that permit the UN to deside what is or isn't acceptable in e-mail.
With some lobbying and bribes spammers get to continue to operate BUT other things don't.
Spam hunter efforts, Linux dev e-mail lists, Slashdot (all of it), Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern.
The merrits and diffrences between the cenesorship of Limbaugh and censorship of Stern aside the United Nations was founded to premote world peace (hunger and disease intersect this as nations will go to war over the resorces needed to resolve thies issues).
However as of late the United Nations has abandoned it's cause of world peace in favor of it's own form of world domnation.
Take a look at the issues the UN has taken on as of late:
IP law, Hate Speach and now Spam.
Each of thies issues can be used to craft laws that control what people can say.
IP law: Copyright law is itself a big buggabo. It's not so much the control of what is said but WHO may say it. Copyright law has already been used to control political speach.
The "I have a dream" speach should be public domain. It was a public speach and shapes public policy to this very day. However the famaly of the man who originally uttered those words now clame ownership over all his words making political debate on those issues cumbersom or in some cases impossable. IMAO that is the only value to a copyright on public speach.
Hate Speach: Today political organsiations clame all opposing ideology as "hate speach" (much as Microsoft clames Linux is unamerican) as a means of sillencing opponents.
Spam: Spam isn't very well defined and it's pritty easy to use the terminology to pick and chouse what is or isn't spam. This could easly be used to sillence political speach.
I also believe the UN is picking this one up becouse certen political parties are using spam for fundrasing. Obveously even lagit antiSpam laws would have some effect on the political front however thats not really anybodys fault but the spammer politicians themselfs.
How is this any easier than shipping the parts and computer to a central location?
The parts are already AT a central location. They always have been and always will be.
If your a repair shop you order the parts from the warehouse. This approch is more shipping the computer to the warehouse (or a repair shop connected to the warehouse).
This is not a new approch eather. Typicly when your computer or PDA is shipped back to the manufacter and you get a replacement they disect it and find whats wrong then they fix it and resell it as a "referbished" unit (not new).
PS. Nothing really diffrent between referbished and new. Just that the referb was used before and went through more testing before arriving in your hands and for all that you pay less.
If you havn't guessed yes I'm a fan of referb hardware.
I believe the diffrence is intent, design and quantity.
Intent:
ISPs: Music files? Whats that?
Napster: It's not clear if the RIAA made this argument or not.
On one side Napster did originally say you'll be able to download your favoret artsist.
But it seams to me they expected the artsist to sign on the idea rather than to actually premote piracy.
However it dosen't look that way to the corts (or many Napster users)
Design:
ISP: Download music? Well if you want to know how do a search on the Internet the information is there somewhere.
Napster: Download music, Thats all we do.
Quantity:
ISP: Let me check, Web searches on Google for porn, Bunch of Slashdotters, AIM clinets, Oh here. a Napster user.. I think.
Napster: Ok now just how do I find ubplublished freely available artwork amoung the Brittny Spears soungs?
I don't think that was e-mail.
Just going from memory that infected a system as soon as the packet hit the system. It used a flaw in the BSD kernel not in an e-mail client.
This way when the worm hit firewalls it would infect same and keep going. It's more like blaster in that all it takes to be reinfected is to plug the box back into the Internet. So searching for a bugfix was futile.
But it was VERY effective. If you cleanned a blaster infected machine you might be able to download the patch before getting infected again. The Morris worm however would hit you right away giving you no hope of getting help leaving you to fend for yourself as best you can.
Also the Windows blaster could be thwarted by turnning off Decom services in BSD there wasn't an eqivlent service to shut off. Your just screwed.
The only thing you can really say about this that sounds positive twords Unix is that even with being cut off everyone was able to get down and fix it themselfs where as with Blaster nobody actually had to do that.
That and there was never a Morris 2.
"lib-leftie wing-nut, but"
:)
Evil right wing conspericy conservitive pagan here
I have a theroy as to why so many Slashdotters are Democrats and folow blindly.
1. The democratic party tends to have this "We are experts do as we say or else" addatude.
2. The alterntive (the republican party) has this whole bent of "Well Microsoft is a company and people can choise to not buy Microsofts product".
Of that I can only say:
1. Why support a political party who is usually in support of censorship and other agendas where Slashdot is usually on the other side.
2. Yeah right I chouse to buy Microsoft Windows when I buy my PC to install Linux. Yep. Becouse I can see all those OsLess and Linux PCs at the computer store and wow look at all those PCs with out Windows preinstalled.
Last time I went to the store I think I saw ONE Macintosh and it was hidden away from the rows on rows of PCs the salemen always take people when they ask about getting a new computer.
"No sir thats all we have".
Actually there IS 1 other reason...
The CDA drafted and crafted by the democratic party actually won strong and vocal support from the REPUBLICAN party.
(The CDA for those with short attention spans was the law to censor the Internet of "objectionable" matreal).
The democrats knew most people would misunderstand what "objectionable" would mean in law. Sadly the entire republican party were amoung those people. However Slashdotters were not.
Back at home like about 20 years ago the city building code inspection and enforcement team was visiting the house like once every 6 months.
Long story short it was during finals and when someone would get on the roof to fix it.
Once the requests got petty (Example: Repaint the house) she went to the city to get a complete copy of the building code.
They had nothing but excuses. "It's too expensive, too hard, Can't be done".
So she got ahold of one of a city counclemen and he informs her they had the book behind the desk to give to anyone who asked.
That was 20 years ago. A few years later once he's out of office he mentions realistate fraud in the city offices.
Today it's not a problem. It's all on the city website.
I think this time ALL the DB venders could get together to deminstrate how it's not a problem with the products THEY sell.
High time someone challanged them on the "the computer can't handle it" excuses.
Ok,
Gee I'm glad I use Eudora on PlamOs.
(I know Eudora is e-mail but in order to support HTML e-mail on the palm Eudora is also a web browser on that platform and one of the better ones for the palm)
Ok ok...
Gee I'm glad I use Opra on the Zaurus... (a Linux PDA).
Actaully...
Gee I'm glad I use two feet and bank teller for all my banking needs.
Sorry people but I'll start being conserned about client side security once I'm certen server side security is at least as good as my own desktop.
(PS: My mother dose online banking from Palm Os much to the amazement and confusion of the bank who makes the website IE only)
I don't think this is about compleating with Linux in the PDA market but in the imbeded hardware market.
I have a Linux PDA and Palm is a greater threat to Microsoft than Linux when it comes to PDAs.
But WinCE is also for imbeded devices and while WinCE for PDAs will generally work "out of the box" when your building a cable box or PVR (for example) your adding on new features that serve no purpous outside this one application.
It's ironic really. Microsoft has the desktops Linux takes the servers.
Microsoft gets the PDAs Linux gets the imbeded market.
The reality is that Microsoft has less chance on the imbeded market than Linux has on the desktop.
Companys use Linux becouse it's available on a wide range of processors has a broud range of features and really slashes costs and develupment time.
Now let's say Microsoft chouses to FUD Linux. Thats not a big deal. Microsoft can chance imbeded develupers away from Linux all day long.
There is a large number of operating systems imbeded systems manufacters would prefer to use before ever considering all the hastle that results from working with Microsoft.
In most cases I imagin before they'd fork over money to Microsoft the would develup there own operating system. Often cheaper and more effective that going with Microsoft. Many still do this today when Linux isn't the best option.
Alterntively many companys and inventers will willingly DUMP products rather than use WinCE.
In the long run if you DO need the sort of freedom given by this new tweek to Microsofts liccens then I recemend looking at BSD as it is better for imbeded devices than WinCE.
When looking over Manga titles I saw a very intresting Batman manga.
What did they do for cultral translation? Absolutly nothing. This was the American Batman in Hong Kong hunting down a hong kong villen.
I didn't get to read it but the discription leads me to believe Batman dosn't just have to deal with the criminal but that his detective skills don't work so well in an unfamilure culture.
Instead of making the hero match the culture for reader acceptence make him clash for a more intresting story. The readers will accept or reject the character eather way.
Each super hero is created by the culture and situations the character finds themselfs in. Superman was rased on a farm away from big city trubbles. (I object to the "Smallvile" series on the account that it trashes this point)
Batman however watched his parrents die at the hands of criminals.
The Xmen have a whole big "Evil mutants ick ick" thing going.
It completes the character and adds depth.
Else you have "Major Glory" (See Dexters Lab).
Ok so I find him really funny but try to picture any attept to make a sereous version of that guy.
Just make em american and give all the same problems. Superman might need permission to enter airspace for example.
And when a half demon hero trys to enter a cultre rich in spirital history (IE they teach there kids about demons) the story is ripe for possablitys.
(Storyfront has a counter demon spell becouse that's the cultral norm... Kid knows how to cast demons out of a building... and of course every culture casts demons as evil so there's no giving him a break)
And for goddess sake PLEASE consult someone who knows the culture. Don't make stupid assumptions.
Something frightening when iRobot starts violating the 3 laws of robotics before it's even built.
(Military application would violate "Cause harm" and "alow harm by inaction")
(Not exact quotes of course I'm being lazy)
Robot friend? So I finnally get to have a happy chearful elevator that thanks me every time I enter it? Or better yet a paranoid android.
For one thing, most spam I get is claiming to be from a known source (ie someone who knows me has a worm and is spamming from their address book)
For now the term "malware" is probably the best for this topic.
Today spammers use malware to send spam so the original source is a victom. I can see people forced to pay for other peoples spam.
Also as much as there are whitelists there will always be someone who will implement this and refuse to put anyone on the whitelist forcing friends and famaly to pay for his own lazyness.
I could even believe some ISPs tech support could "forget" to whitelist costummers (for example paid Linux users) or deside to not whitelist users of a given os for some impossably stupid reason.
This topic came up before and I myself actually did suggest something like this on Slashdot.
A number of insightful people pointed out just how bad my idea really was.
They continue to be correct.
First Linux store? Actually there has been at least a few preveous. Va Linux systems anyone?
A bunch poped up in the 1990s when Linux was still new. But everything that went on at the time eroded that.
I remember using an obsolete XT connected to the internet to use lynx to visit a Linux store website and find they'd gone out of business and directed me to Va Linux systems.
I don't know if VA ever had a brick but at least one Linux store I knew of did.
Eventually Va bought out Slashdot and found more money in Slashdot than system sales.
Everyone else found they couldn't stay alive and the Linux stores were gone.
Years later...
Dragonix what was originally offered freely (if you don't masproduce) is now sold commertally. (You get the parts and the scematics so you can modify or rebuild, It's a good deal really I doupt you'd find the parts if you didn't buy em from SwissEmbedded anyway)
Also if you DO have a commertal application just pay em a consulting fee and they'll whip up what ever you need with an appropreate liccens for your intentions (in other words you can masproduce if you get a liccens from them to that effect).
I've considered getting the SwissEmbedded MP3 player built on the Dragonix base system. But I've desided not to.
(Going to build my own)
But the Dragonix won't make a decent laptop or a remotely worthly server.
And it's just an imbeded company making specalised machines for a consulting fee. Not quite up to snuff with the exposure of a Linux retail in real life.
Now?
Now we have a Linux PC shop in real space in the back of a carwash.
Yeah ok it's got all the polish of a gass station food cort on the other hand it's there in the public path. Maybe not clean or fancy but thies guys get to pitch Linux to avrage people who may have nothing better to do and more than likely never heard of it before or never heard the Linux side.
And a plus, Unlike a lot of people they are selling desktops for avrage people. When you CAN get Linux from one of the big PC venders it's always a server configuration.
What dose the avrage person use a PC for anyway? Browsing the web and reading e-mail. Internet stuff. That's what thies guys are leveraging. Cheap Internet desktops.
And it looks to me like they are making a proffit.
Also it's been pointed out the sad details thies guys use Windows for a web server and Frontpage to make the website.
That means? They don't eat the dogfood. They are Windows users themselfs. Not Linux advocates. Not geeks. Just avrage jo users who can see the value in selling Linux PCs. They know EXACTLY why people would want to use Windows over Linux becouse THEY DO.
Maybe they'll switch when they themselfs need to upgrade. They'll buy a system from themselfs. Untill they they use what they've had already and don't really care to upgrade just yet.
In short it's Linux boxes out there where the avrage user can see it, the way the avrage user wants it, sold by the avrage user.
No more "Geek" Os in a geek store sold by geeks. Hell try to find Windows sold by nonGeeks or at least salesmen who aren't pretending to be geeks.
IMAO becouse IANAL some of this may not apply.
Skin networking research at MIT
The diffrence between MITs prior art and Microsofts patent is the power distrabution.
But.. DU.. the data is electrical... power distrabution is an implied part of that.
Any time you have a reliable electrical signal you have a power source.
Basicly Microsofts patent is a minnor and obveous modification of an existing patent and as I understand it patenting the obveous is not permitted.
So the only diffrence between Microsofts patent and IBMs PAN is the power distrabution grid?
I sort of missed out on all the PAN research myself becouse I was focused on the step power generator created to power wearables.
Now how do you suppose they get all that power from the foot to the head? I didn't see any wires leading down the leg in the prototype.
I found the whole talk of power distrabution to be boring so I phased it out. Someone else might know.