... "but that isn't an important feature, so I can infringe on it without paying"...
Yeah - don't they know that's a copyright violators argument: "I'd have never paid for this crappy album so it's ok that I downloaded it." They really need to get their faulty IP defense straight if they want to screw it up in the standard model.
Now a decent argument would be that MS is trying to enforce patent claims outside the scope of the original approved claim. Often this will be done by badgering someone with the general patent preamble without getting into the "bulleted" specific claims of the invention's innovation (which is where the enforcement really matters).
The systematic "license or litigate" strategy as applied to inventions beyond the scope of one's patents could then be viewed as monopolistic competition stifling behavior subject to anti-trust enforcement.
Without any sort of spoiler, how many people do you suppose actually independently discovered how to properly complete the invocation? Nicking the amulet, ascending, and sacrificing it are all reasonably obvious steps. But learning the steps to [spoiler alert]open the vibrating square[/spoiler alert] even in wizard or explore mode is not even close to trivial.
I don't remember the list of what hints are from fortune cookies and the oracle, but I have a feeling you'd go through a lot of cookies even if the ritual is spelled out.
Personally, I think learning how to cheat is part of the fun. Sure there's ways of completely spoiling the game but "spoiling" is a relative term - for example: I suppose some people might enjoy a dungeon crawl while being invincible and wielding an unlimited number of death wands or extinction scrolls, but I would not (well, the novelty would wear off quickly anyway). If I decide to play a round with some cheating, I mostly am just looking for a little edge - consulting the wiki, perhaps an early wish, or a restored "save" from a RNG generated YAAD (but not a YASD - you earn those) just enough of something to change the game from frustrating to fun. I bet some people would consider playing the tiled version to be cheating even:) While playing Nethack, I've died a lot, cheated a little, and only ascended once - but I had plenty of fun.
Oh, you mean like Baen. And they only charge less for some books - others they give you for free and have found that it increases their sales for related books. Oh and on some of their newer hardcover books they've been including a CD with DRM free share-with-your-friends-requested ebooks of all the previous books in the series (i.e. Cryoburn of Bujold's Vorkosigan adventures).
Ultimately it'll be the market which decides how this plays out, but I know where I'm going to vote with my dollars.
Good news is that you'll still be able to play these single player games when the authentication servers go down for you're AAA versions. I hear you on the time thing though...
Quite right. This is clearly an thinly veiled advertisement for a bundle of DRM free games of which one has the onus of setting one's own price down to the developer/distributor split as well as charitable contributions to organizations that bring joy to children or stand as champions of free speech online.
Hmm... put that way I think I could handle a few more "advertisements." Although, when I think about: successful social/business experiment, an embrace of DRM free media by the groups most likely to be harmed by piracy (indie devs), helping kids in a nerdy way, and crowd sourcing the legal protection of internet freedom - I think I'd call this "news" although possibly just of interest "for nerds," but definitely "stuff that matters" in my opinion.
I just connect the shop-vac hose to the outlet. Sure it doesn't have the instantaneous velocity of canned air, but the shear (pun intended) continuous volume is quite moving (play on words also intended).
Not necessarily. An guy can sit down and draft something up (including mathematical and theoretical demonstrations), but he should still be able to patent even if he can't afford to build his own foundry, get the payload into orbit, or you know... buy enough palladium for his ARC reactor;) (Not everyone has Tony Stark's financial superpowers).
That's also why an inventor has a year to file after public disclosure. Where the strategy changes is whether public disclosure to gather capital is wise if you're working in a field with competing inventors (i.e. you might give them the clue which gets their stuff working and then they might file before you). That's where NDA's and non-competes can help, but chances are the big company isn't about to sign those forms for the little guy in a garage without some pretty darn impressive examples of the work and it's ability to clear existing patents. It can be a real tricky thing to get someone to agree to not compete in your field (and likely their own) before you're allowed to tell them exactly why it's worth their while not to compete...
You can still patent and publish at the nearly the same times. Have your press release written, journal articles through the in-house review, etc..., and as soon as you've got that postmark or electronic submission time stamp you flip the switch to punch the others out too. If you screw up and get your PR out there a little early there's still very little chance someone else can write up and submit the patent before you've got yours in (although I wouldn't want to be in that position), especially in a "this work is mine" convincing manner.
Not entirely. There's also going to be an open window where third parties may submit documents relevant to the patent - which include demonstrations of prior art. The key piece is that you have to be paying attention to what other people are patenting because if you miss the window to file, you (and the public) will be out of luck. Oh, you also better be able to show some sort of time stamp too.
An interesting question would be where the line is crossed between public information and illegal electronic surveillance. Many states have very restrictive wire-tapping laws that don't even allow sympathy for the "I did it to protect my baby" defense.
If it's done electronically, without your express consent, it's probably illegal - if you're an individual. Make that a corporation and it seems you're forgiven...
On the whimsical side, perhaps we could get a class action thing going - we're looking at $10,000 per cookie here. Sure, the lawyer will get the lion's share, but even if we only made $10 per cookie;)
Lately doesn't seem to be any better than historically... there's a trail of tears leading just about everywhere. But with our constitution we can at least expect history to look back and say: "that thing there, that was wrong," or "I'm sure glad someone like Ed. Murrow had the guts to take on the witch hunters."
I doubt it, in my experience most libraries fill far more than just the role of book repository. My local public library has live readings, local authors, numerous child programs (including some for infants and families), internet and computer access, study rooms, conference rooms, inter-library loan for those hard to get (and very much non-electronic) books, tutoring programs, etc... They fill both social and personal flesh-space needs centering around knowledge, information sharing, and learning.
And don't forget the almost-mystic power of a good librarian. Perhaps they could perform in a telework model if libraries do go the way of Blockbuster, but they'll still be needed as both public and private servants.
I really liked Jade Empire and it's mesh of styles. And at only $5 or $10 on steam these days, it gives you some time for the new releases to calm down in their initial pricing (or package up with the DLC).
...this initial version of Wallaby offers no support for conversion of ActionScript, Movies and Sound.
Personally, the main utility that I could use would be a (free) method of converting.swf into just about any other video format so I can watch my online lecture courses outside of the browser (and at 1.25 fractional speed). I understand the technical benefits for using a shockwave video (e.g. file size), but there's something to be said for avoiding closed sources in an academic setting. Sorry, sideline rant there.
Editors don't do typesetting (possibly more important with variable displays), promotion, market analysis, advance payments (especially important for a new author taking the risk to go full time or invest in research (it's possible a gov't grant system might be able to do something similar)), arrange anthologies, introduce compatible authors for collaboration, and possibly the most valuable service - sift through the mountains of amature work that isn't yet worth the general public's time.
There may be non traditional ways of meeting these services, but take note that none of the above have anything to do with black pigment or dead trees. Publishers still earn their keep; although the smart author should keep up with electronic book trends and use that knowledge when they negotiate the splitting of royalties.
ADG - The same people who did the KQ3 remake here have already done a Quest for Glory 2 remake. You can even import your character from the Sierra remake of 1 and export for the Sierra remake of 3.
You can improve the system by meta-moderating. You can do that every day. It helps determine whom should get moderator points, how often they should get those points, and identifies the best moderators for extra points. Please do meta-moderate today to improve the system.
I personally appreciate the government being a theoretical neutral third party in civil disputes. Particularly those that involve civil law - which should be best served by the entity which wrote those laws defining boundaries of civil relationships.
Furthermore, it's entirely possible that the raid was due to criminal charges rather than civil ones. The article doesn't say, but reverse engineering and in particular circumventing embedded software is a very gray area which often crosses the border between civil and criminal law.
Besides, how exactly do you expect one private entity to enter the premises of another and acquire un-tampered evidence relating to a civil dispute with the authority of a search warrant (or subpoena) and bearing arms without causing even more trouble?
Slashdot Mirror
... "but that isn't an important feature, so I can infringe on it without paying"...
Yeah - don't they know that's a copyright violators argument: "I'd have never paid for this crappy album so it's ok that I downloaded it." They really need to get their faulty IP defense straight if they want to screw it up in the standard model.
Now a decent argument would be that MS is trying to enforce patent claims outside the scope of the original approved claim. Often this will be done by badgering someone with the general patent preamble without getting into the "bulleted" specific claims of the invention's innovation (which is where the enforcement really matters).
The systematic "license or litigate" strategy as applied to inventions beyond the scope of one's patents could then be viewed as monopolistic competition stifling behavior subject to anti-trust enforcement.
PS - I really like my Nook Color
Without any sort of spoiler, how many people do you suppose actually independently discovered how to properly complete the invocation? Nicking the amulet, ascending, and sacrificing it are all reasonably obvious steps. But learning the steps to [spoiler alert]open the vibrating square[/spoiler alert] even in wizard or explore mode is not even close to trivial.
I don't remember the list of what hints are from fortune cookies and the oracle, but I have a feeling you'd go through a lot of cookies even if the ritual is spelled out.
Personally, I think learning how to cheat is part of the fun. Sure there's ways of completely spoiling the game but "spoiling" is a relative term - for example: I suppose some people might enjoy a dungeon crawl while being invincible and wielding an unlimited number of death wands or extinction scrolls, but I would not (well, the novelty would wear off quickly anyway). If I decide to play a round with some cheating, I mostly am just looking for a little edge - consulting the wiki, perhaps an early wish, or a restored "save" from a RNG generated YAAD (but not a YASD - you earn those) just enough of something to change the game from frustrating to fun. I bet some people would consider playing the tiled version to be cheating even :) While playing Nethack, I've died a lot, cheated a little, and only ascended once - but I had plenty of fun.
Why? You just eat it and let your autonomic nervous system handle the rest.
Oh, you mean like Baen. And they only charge less for some books - others they give you for free and have found that it increases their sales for related books. Oh and on some of their newer hardcover books they've been including a CD with DRM free share-with-your-friends-requested ebooks of all the previous books in the series (i.e. Cryoburn of Bujold's Vorkosigan adventures).
Ultimately it'll be the market which decides how this plays out, but I know where I'm going to vote with my dollars.
Good news is that you'll still be able to play these single player games when the authentication servers go down for you're AAA versions. I hear you on the time thing though...
Quite right. This is clearly an thinly veiled advertisement for a bundle of DRM free games of which one has the onus of setting one's own price down to the developer/distributor split as well as charitable contributions to organizations that bring joy to children or stand as champions of free speech online.
Hmm... put that way I think I could handle a few more "advertisements." Although, when I think about: successful social/business experiment, an embrace of DRM free media by the groups most likely to be harmed by piracy (indie devs), helping kids in a nerdy way, and crowd sourcing the legal protection of internet freedom - I think I'd call this "news" although possibly just of interest "for nerds," but definitely "stuff that matters" in my opinion.
Glad I heard the announcement.
Here's a recipe if you want to try it yourself
Which 5? "asdfh"?
Avoiding the G-Man: you're doing it wrong
;)
I just connect the shop-vac hose to the outlet. Sure it doesn't have the instantaneous velocity of canned air, but the shear (pun intended) continuous volume is quite moving (play on words also intended).
Not necessarily. An guy can sit down and draft something up (including mathematical and theoretical demonstrations), but he should still be able to patent even if he can't afford to build his own foundry, get the payload into orbit, or you know... buy enough palladium for his ARC reactor ;) (Not everyone has Tony Stark's financial superpowers).
That's also why an inventor has a year to file after public disclosure. Where the strategy changes is whether public disclosure to gather capital is wise if you're working in a field with competing inventors (i.e. you might give them the clue which gets their stuff working and then they might file before you). That's where NDA's and non-competes can help, but chances are the big company isn't about to sign those forms for the little guy in a garage without some pretty darn impressive examples of the work and it's ability to clear existing patents. It can be a real tricky thing to get someone to agree to not compete in your field (and likely their own) before you're allowed to tell them exactly why it's worth their while not to compete...
Franklin would still have prior art.
You can still patent and publish at the nearly the same times. Have your press release written, journal articles through the in-house review, etc..., and as soon as you've got that postmark or electronic submission time stamp you flip the switch to punch the others out too. If you screw up and get your PR out there a little early there's still very little chance someone else can write up and submit the patent before you've got yours in (although I wouldn't want to be in that position), especially in a "this work is mine" convincing manner.
Not entirely. There's also going to be an open window where third parties may submit documents relevant to the patent - which include demonstrations of prior art. The key piece is that you have to be paying attention to what other people are patenting because if you miss the window to file, you (and the public) will be out of luck. Oh, you also better be able to show some sort of time stamp too.
The EFF has a decent summary in their deeplinks, but I'm not sure if it's the house or senate version they are talked about.
An interesting question would be where the line is crossed between public information and illegal electronic surveillance. Many states have very restrictive wire-tapping laws that don't even allow sympathy for the "I did it to protect my baby" defense.
If it's done electronically, without your express consent, it's probably illegal - if you're an individual. Make that a corporation and it seems you're forgiven...
On the whimsical side, perhaps we could get a class action thing going - we're looking at $10,000 per cookie here. Sure, the lawyer will get the lion's share, but even if we only made $10 per cookie ;)
Lately doesn't seem to be any better than historically... there's a trail of tears leading just about everywhere. But with our constitution we can at least expect history to look back and say: "that thing there, that was wrong," or "I'm sure glad someone like Ed. Murrow had the guts to take on the witch hunters."
But the library probably got off tax free... ;)
I doubt it, in my experience most libraries fill far more than just the role of book repository. My local public library has live readings, local authors, numerous child programs (including some for infants and families), internet and computer access, study rooms, conference rooms, inter-library loan for those hard to get (and very much non-electronic) books, tutoring programs, etc... They fill both social and personal flesh-space needs centering around knowledge, information sharing, and learning.
And don't forget the almost-mystic power of a good librarian. Perhaps they could perform in a telework model if libraries do go the way of Blockbuster, but they'll still be needed as both public and private servants.
Or perhaps they heard that education is the sure way to bolster and sustain the economy in the long term within a world market.
I really liked Jade Empire and it's mesh of styles. And at only $5 or $10 on steam these days, it gives you some time for the new releases to calm down in their initial pricing (or package up with the DLC).
Especially as:
Personally, the main utility that I could use would be a (free) method of converting .swf into just about any other video format so I can watch my online lecture courses outside of the browser (and at 1.25 fractional speed). I understand the technical benefits for using a shockwave video (e.g. file size), but there's something to be said for avoiding closed sources in an academic setting. Sorry, sideline rant there.
Don't you mean: "Git off my lawn!" ?
Editors don't do typesetting (possibly more important with variable displays), promotion, market analysis, advance payments (especially important for a new author taking the risk to go full time or invest in research (it's possible a gov't grant system might be able to do something similar)), arrange anthologies, introduce compatible authors for collaboration, and possibly the most valuable service - sift through the mountains of amature work that isn't yet worth the general public's time. There may be non traditional ways of meeting these services, but take note that none of the above have anything to do with black pigment or dead trees. Publishers still earn their keep; although the smart author should keep up with electronic book trends and use that knowledge when they negotiate the splitting of royalties.
ADG - The same people who did the KQ3 remake here have already done a Quest for Glory 2 remake. You can even import your character from the Sierra remake of 1 and export for the Sierra remake of 3.
You can improve the system by meta-moderating. You can do that every day. It helps determine whom should get moderator points, how often they should get those points, and identifies the best moderators for extra points. Please do meta-moderate today to improve the system.
I personally appreciate the government being a theoretical neutral third party in civil disputes. Particularly those that involve civil law - which should be best served by the entity which wrote those laws defining boundaries of civil relationships.
Furthermore, it's entirely possible that the raid was due to criminal charges rather than civil ones. The article doesn't say, but reverse engineering and in particular circumventing embedded software is a very gray area which often crosses the border between civil and criminal law.
Besides, how exactly do you expect one private entity to enter the premises of another and acquire un-tampered evidence relating to a civil dispute with the authority of a search warrant (or subpoena) and bearing arms without causing even more trouble?