Not a PR stunt for SSH, a PR stunt for ISS. First the apache thing, and now this. Hell, there's even a plug in the advisory for their auditing software. Well, there's the cost of the increasing market penetration of Unix variants. The predatory, FUD-filled tactics of MS, virus protection makers, etc. are beginning to filter into our "perfect" little world.
There are two cases where an idea may infringe on another's IP: patents and trade secrets. Copyrights would cover the actual code. Even if the code is the same, if you can prove that you re-implemented it instead of copying it, you will win in court. If you're really doing a back box reimplmentation, you are not infringing on copyright. The other class of IP is trademarks, which are even more specific. Trademarks cover symbols, likenesses, etc. Ideas and code cannot be trademarked.
Now, back to trade secrets and patents. Patents cover abstract ways of doing things. If the idea your engineer came up with is patented, you are infringing. However, patents are in the public record. You can search for existing patents on the PTO's web site. I don't know if these are up to the minute or not. If you have reason to belive that an idea is patented, it's probably best to pay your lawyers to look for you. They're probably better at it than you and have better sources of information.
Trade secrets are a bit murky. Trade secrets are quite broad. The only restriction is that they are secret. Things that can be neither copywritten, trademarked, or pantented may be trade secrets. As far as I know, if someone reveals a trade secret to you, you can use it. It is the act of revealing the secret that is illegal. So, if you ask the engineer if he may reveal the solution to you, and he says yes, your company should be covered. (I think that if your company asks him to reveal trade secrets, then your company is at fault and is open to prosecution.)
Note that IANAL, and my knowledge of trade secrets is a tad on the sketchy side. As with all legal matters, the person to ask is a lawyer, etc.
Daytime for the satellite, silly. From the obit of the other AO satellites (from j-track 3d), I suspect AO-7 is in a low orbit, so it's day-night cycle is quite short.
Where do you get this? You thing just putting up a web site counts as promotion? You think just putting au a geocities site will cause your song to be heard my millions of people all around the country? That's just silly. first of all, you have to make people want to listen to your song. Second, you have to pay the bandwidth costs to send the music to those eager masses. How did this before free?
Satellite is, if anything, worse. Instead of being one major player with a few minor ones and thousands of stations, there are 2 companies and like a hundred stations. Satellite is super-scary in that respect. If it seriously displaced terrestrial radio, the amount of control would make today's situation look like anarchy/a free market.
I went to Poland last summer. It was pretty interesting, and fairly enjoyable. I'd recommend that anyone who wishes to travel there speak a least a little Polish, English isn't that widely spoken.
From the article, it looks like this law is a stinker. Extremest speech is defined as (among other things) anything that threatens the "safety" of Russia. Penalties are not strictly limited. This thing looks lie a total mess. At least they removed the provision that required foreigners to comply with the law. (Now wouldn't *that* make you reconsider your vacation to Russia?)
The purpose of this study was not to test the effects of weightlessness, but to test the relative efficacy of 2 methods of dealing with the effects. There were three groups: control, exercise, and drugs. I suspect that they really were just interested in the results of the drug group WRT the exercise group.
Currently, the ISS crew spends 1 hr/person/day exercising, and even this doesn't prevent significant bone/muscle loss. If they could use drugs to ward off the worst effects of weightlessness, they could have astronauts be more productive and not exercise, or still exercise and have longer-duration flights. Both of these are good, and $20K + nursing staff + hospital space is peanuts compared to the cost of impinging on an ISS astronauts's time.
Re:Ultra wideband to transmit 100 mbs wirelessly
on
New Wireless Technologies
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
10 feet isn't that bad because it's not a limit of the technology, it's a limit of the FCC. If there's not interference at 10 feet, they'll up the allowable range. Also, the 10 foot range is presumably using omnidirectional antennas. You could presumably get better range using smart antennas, as long as your total emissions weren't high.
The Tanzanian currency makes higher-denomination bills bigger. Back in the 80's when they let their currency float, inflation got pretty bad and they had to introduce new, bigger bills. It got so bad that they had to reset and introduce a new bill (1000 shillingi, as I recall) that was smaller than all the smaller bills. The 500 shillingi bill wouldn't properly fit in standard wallets.
Also not that if you got triple damages, and legal fees were the same, you'd get 150*3-145 = $305 in said case. Of course, you'd probably get more like $150*3 - $145*3 = $15, but hey, you're still just sending in a form.
Meant? The first one and the last one. In practice? The last two. You sue for damages, the layer(s) take most of the willings, the sued company finds themselves out lots of cash. You get a $5 check.
If you can *prove* that the defendant in a civil case acted with malice (i.e. was intentionally illegally screwing you over), you can sue for damages *and* fees, in which case it would be all three. Proving that a corporation was trying to act illegally is neigh impossible, though.
I dunno about these things wiping out microdrives. Current optical disks are slow and use lots of power, two things you really don't want in your digital camera. Of course, no real info in the article, I guess we'll see.
I don't know. If somebody knows it isn't, they aren't saying.
The problem is this, there are certain mathematical problems that are known to be Hard. Traveling Salesman, Knapsack, etc. There are no shortcuts to solving these problems. Many mathematical problems can be proven to be in this class of problems. Nobody has, to date, publicly, shown that factoring numbers is Hard, and nobody has shown that it isn't.
Of course, nobody has proven the security any of the symmetric cryptosystems (with the exception of one-time pads), so any practical system is already victim to this uncertainty.
In particular, we show that 1024-bit RSA keys are as secure as many belived them to be.
And:
However, the theoretical analysis shows that the cost of the relation collection step cannot be significantly reduced, regardless of the cost of the matrix step. We thi=us conclude that the practical security of RSA for commonly used modulus sizes is not significantly affected by [1].
If i recall correctly, the original device was impractical, as the speed increases gained by the parallelism were negated by the cost of collection/sifting through the results. Apparently, this weakness still holds.
Dealing with the city of Pittsburgh parking shit and most likely not having a driveway
Dude, why would you own a car in downtown Pittsburgh? Since my co-worker Joe made a sane bus schedule site, you can conveniently look up the bus schedule (on your laptop on the sidewalk, no less). Hell, if you need to, park your car somewhere along the 61c and have 24 hr access.
This page on the Lawrence Berkely Natn'l Lab site claims efficiencies of 150lumens/watt for the RF lighting - and that's for daylightish white light. In contrast, according to The New Environmentalist, the best you're going to get for ghastly fluorescent is like 100lumens/watt, and about 60lumnes/watt for a cool white fluorescent. Combine this with the fact that bulbs last essentially forever (11.4 years if run continuously, with no loss of light output), and you've for a pretty good bulb for large-scale lighting.
Look, the main point is not that Linux is overtaking MacOS, it's that Linux is breaking up the MS hegemony in the OS market. MacOS does not provide a dramatically enough better product to overcome platform network effects and lock in. In the server market, Linux does provide a dramatically better product than Windows, so the network and lock in effects are broken.
What effect does this have? Firstly, the people who administer those machines are clearly going to run Linux on their desktops (Linux's own network effect). This means that the sysadmins know how to use Linux as a desktop OS. This makes it viable for engineers to run Linux on their desktop, so now their machine doesn't crash as much (better product + network effects). (It's viable because there's organisational precedent for desktop Linux, that matters in larger companies.) These effects cause Linux's market share on the desktop to grow.
There are other effects, though, that are more interesting. Since most people in the world run Windows, the sysadmins have to install Samba on their Linux servers (thus weakening Windows lock-in). Well, hell, if you're doing that, why not install netatalk? It's easy. Suddenly, Mac users have a vaible fire sharing system with the server. (Other solutions, such as Dave or WinNT-based AppleTalk, frankly are not good. Netatalk is.) Furthemore, the organisation is now more open to the idea of multiple OS's. Thus, those people who want to run MacOS, can run MacOS. Net result, MacOS market share grows.
If Linux and MacOS competed, then Linux's growth would be detrimental to MacOS. However, Linux and MacOS occupy the ends of a spectrum, with Windows in the midde. MacOS has a wonderfully well-crafted interface. Thought has been put into the details. However, it is inflexable, and quite unstable. The Windows interface is tolerable (YMMV), as are its stability and flexability (again, YMMV). Linux is a triumph of stability and flexability (possibly not the best, but far better than Windows, compare bash scripting with.bat files), however the interface is simply not crafted. The lack of a strong central authority and the distributed, geek-centric development model make this unlikely to change.
One poster claimed that Linux was fighting a war on two fronts - against MacOS and Windows. In fact, it is Windows that is being squeezed, and every advance by any non-Windoes OS makes the fight easier for all the others.
My housemate and I originally signed up with Bell Atlantic in Pittsburgh. The service was horrendus. Tech support, as has been noted, was nearly non-existant. Worse, connectivity was terrible. The connection refused to stay up for more than 24 hours, and was down for over 24 hours several times during the month that we had their service. In disgust, we switched to a local ISP (telerama). We have not had a modem connectivity problem since. The only network downtime was due to a DDoS attack on their shell box once. Support is quick and knowledgeable. We have a static IP address (actually two, but you gotta pay for more than one), and none of this PPPOE crap. Network latency is slightly higher, but at least we can always get through. If you're in Pittsburgh, I advise strongly against using Bell Atlantic as your ISP. Furthermore, given what I've experienced, I would be very careful about using Bell Atlantic anywhere else.
I'm kicking myself for not getting one wefore they were closed up. I'd pay lots more than $100 for one of the original versions.
Really, I don't at all mind assing my own hard drive and ethernet adapter, but I suspect an i-opener that came with such things would sell well, too. A touch screen would also be a nice addition.
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Not a PR stunt for SSH, a PR stunt for ISS. First the apache thing, and now this. Hell, there's even a plug in the advisory for their auditing software. Well, there's the cost of the increasing market penetration of Unix variants. The predatory, FUD-filled tactics of MS, virus protection makers, etc. are beginning to filter into our "perfect" little world.
There are two cases where an idea may infringe on another's IP: patents and trade secrets. Copyrights would cover the actual code. Even if the code is the same, if you can prove that you re-implemented it instead of copying it, you will win in court. If you're really doing a back box reimplmentation, you are not infringing on copyright. The other class of IP is trademarks, which are even more specific. Trademarks cover symbols, likenesses, etc. Ideas and code cannot be trademarked.
Now, back to trade secrets and patents. Patents cover abstract ways of doing things. If the idea your engineer came up with is patented, you are infringing. However, patents are in the public record. You can search for existing patents on the PTO's web site. I don't know if these are up to the minute or not. If you have reason to belive that an idea is patented, it's probably best to pay your lawyers to look for you. They're probably better at it than you and have better sources of information.
Trade secrets are a bit murky. Trade secrets are quite broad. The only restriction is that they are secret. Things that can be neither copywritten, trademarked, or pantented may be trade secrets. As far as I know, if someone reveals a trade secret to you, you can use it. It is the act of revealing the secret that is illegal. So, if you ask the engineer if he may reveal the solution to you, and he says yes, your company should be covered. (I think that if your company asks him to reveal trade secrets, then your company is at fault and is open to prosecution.)
Note that IANAL, and my knowledge of trade secrets is a tad on the sketchy side. As with all legal matters, the person to ask is a lawyer, etc.
This appears to be the version that was shown in theaters on March 29.
Daytime for the satellite, silly. From the obit of the other AO satellites (from j-track 3d), I suspect AO-7 is in a low orbit, so it's day-night cycle is quite short.
Where do you get this? You thing just putting up a web site counts as promotion? You think just putting au a geocities site will cause your song to be heard my millions of people all around the country? That's just silly. first of all, you have to make people want to listen to your song. Second, you have to pay the bandwidth costs to send the music to those eager masses. How did this before free?
Satellite is, if anything, worse. Instead of being one major player with a few minor ones and thousands of stations, there are 2 companies and like a hundred stations. Satellite is super-scary in that respect. If it seriously displaced terrestrial radio, the amount of control would make today's situation look like anarchy/a free market.
Yeah, well :-)
I went to Poland last summer. It was pretty interesting, and fairly enjoyable. I'd recommend that anyone who wishes to travel there speak a least a little Polish, English isn't that widely spoken.
From the article, it looks like this law is a stinker. Extremest speech is defined as (among other things) anything that threatens the "safety" of Russia. Penalties are not strictly limited. This thing looks lie a total mess. At least they removed the provision that required foreigners to comply with the law. (Now wouldn't *that* make you reconsider your vacation to Russia?)
The purpose of this study was not to test the effects of weightlessness, but to test the relative efficacy of 2 methods of dealing with the effects. There were three groups: control, exercise, and drugs. I suspect that they really were just interested in the results of the drug group WRT the exercise group.
Currently, the ISS crew spends 1 hr/person/day exercising, and even this doesn't prevent significant bone/muscle loss. If they could use drugs to ward off the worst effects of weightlessness, they could have astronauts be more productive and not exercise, or still exercise and have longer-duration flights. Both of these are good, and $20K + nursing staff + hospital space is peanuts compared to the cost of impinging on an ISS astronauts's time.
10 feet isn't that bad because it's not a limit of the technology, it's a limit of the FCC. If there's not interference at 10 feet, they'll up the allowable range. Also, the 10 foot range is presumably using omnidirectional antennas. You could presumably get better range using smart antennas, as long as your total emissions weren't high.
The Tanzanian currency makes higher-denomination bills bigger. Back in the 80's when they let their currency float, inflation got pretty bad and they had to introduce new, bigger bills. It got so bad that they had to reset and introduce a new bill (1000 shillingi, as I recall) that was smaller than all the smaller bills. The 500 shillingi bill wouldn't properly fit in standard wallets.
Also not that if you got triple damages, and legal fees were the same, you'd get 150*3-145 = $305 in said case. Of course, you'd probably get more like $150*3 - $145*3 = $15, but hey, you're still just sending in a form.
Meant? The first one and the last one. In practice? The last two. You sue for damages, the layer(s) take most of the willings, the sued company finds themselves out lots of cash. You get a $5 check.
If you can *prove* that the defendant in a civil case acted with malice (i.e. was intentionally illegally screwing you over), you can sue for damages *and* fees, in which case it would be all three. Proving that a corporation was trying to act illegally is neigh impossible, though.
I dunno about these things wiping out microdrives. Current optical disks are slow and use lots of power, two things you really don't want in your digital camera. Of course, no real info in the article, I guess we'll see.
Factoring, AFAIK, is not NP-Complete. Traveling salesman is. Here's a list of known NP-Complete problems, if you're interested.
The problem is this, there are certain mathematical problems that are known to be Hard. Traveling Salesman, Knapsack, etc. There are no shortcuts to solving these problems. Many mathematical problems can be proven to be in this class of problems. Nobody has, to date, publicly, shown that factoring numbers is Hard, and nobody has shown that it isn't.
Of course, nobody has proven the security any of the symmetric cryptosystems (with the exception of one-time pads), so any practical system is already victim to this uncertainty.
This page on the Lawrence Berkely Natn'l Lab site claims efficiencies of 150lumens/watt for the RF lighting - and that's for daylightish white light. In contrast, according to The New Environmentalist, the best you're going to get for ghastly fluorescent is like 100lumens/watt, and about 60lumnes/watt for a cool white fluorescent. Combine this with the fact that bulbs last essentially forever (11.4 years if run continuously, with no loss of light output), and you've for a pretty good bulb for large-scale lighting.
Look, the main point is not that Linux is overtaking MacOS, it's that Linux is breaking up the MS hegemony in the OS market. MacOS does not provide a dramatically enough better product to overcome platform network effects and lock in. In the server market, Linux does provide a dramatically better product than Windows, so the network and lock in effects are broken.
.bat files), however the interface is simply not crafted. The lack of a strong central authority and the distributed, geek-centric development model make this unlikely to change.
What effect does this have? Firstly, the people who administer those machines are clearly going to run Linux on their desktops (Linux's own network effect). This means that the sysadmins know how to use Linux as a desktop OS. This makes it viable for engineers to run Linux on their desktop, so now their machine doesn't crash as much (better product + network effects). (It's viable because there's organisational precedent for desktop Linux, that matters in larger companies.) These effects cause Linux's market share on the desktop to grow.
There are other effects, though, that are more interesting. Since most people in the world run Windows, the sysadmins have to install Samba on their Linux servers (thus weakening Windows lock-in). Well, hell, if you're doing that, why not install netatalk? It's easy. Suddenly, Mac users have a vaible fire sharing system with the server. (Other solutions, such as Dave or WinNT-based AppleTalk, frankly are not good. Netatalk is.) Furthemore, the organisation is now more open to the idea of multiple OS's. Thus, those people who want to run MacOS, can run MacOS. Net result, MacOS market share grows.
If Linux and MacOS competed, then Linux's growth would be detrimental to MacOS. However, Linux and MacOS occupy the ends of a spectrum, with Windows in the midde. MacOS has a wonderfully well-crafted interface. Thought has been put into the details. However, it is inflexable, and quite unstable. The Windows interface is tolerable (YMMV), as are its stability and flexability (again, YMMV). Linux is a triumph of stability and flexability (possibly not the best, but far better than Windows, compare bash scripting with
One poster claimed that Linux was fighting a war on two fronts - against MacOS and Windows. In fact, it is Windows that is being squeezed, and every advance by any non-Windoes OS makes the fight easier for all the others.
My housemate and I originally signed up with Bell Atlantic in Pittsburgh. The service was horrendus. Tech support, as has been noted, was nearly non-existant. Worse, connectivity was terrible. The connection refused to stay up for more than 24 hours, and was down for over 24 hours several times during the month that we had their service. In disgust, we switched to a local ISP (telerama). We have not had a modem connectivity problem since. The only network downtime was due to a DDoS attack on their shell box once. Support is quick and knowledgeable. We have a static IP address (actually two, but you gotta pay for more than one), and none of this PPPOE crap. Network latency is slightly higher, but at least we can always get through. If you're in Pittsburgh, I advise strongly against using Bell Atlantic as your ISP. Furthermore, given what I've experienced, I would be very careful about using Bell Atlantic anywhere else.
I'm kicking myself for not getting one wefore they were closed up. I'd pay lots more than $100 for one of the original versions.
Really, I don't at all mind assing my own hard drive and ethernet adapter, but I suspect an i-opener that came with such things would sell well, too. A touch screen would also be a nice addition.