AFAIK there's more than one LZW-related patent, with different expiration times. Can't remember the exact details, though.
But yes, I do expect similar moves from Unisys when their LZW patent(s) come close to expiring time. Maybe they'll force their managerial staff to cut out those ridiculous upward-pointing cones of hair from the side of their heads, too.
At last a company with the guts to free up their patents. Long may this continue and long may they reap the rewards from it.
Guts? Gimme a break. The patent would expire two weeks from now, for crying out loud! If anything, they did that to spoil the "RSA Parties" programmed to Sep 20.
Really, that was the lamest of lame PR moves. I say, do NOT incense RSADSI for this. It means nothing except a written admission of assholeness.
Wake me up when Amazon releases 1-Click Shopping into the public domain -- as long as it's at least 5 years before expiration.
OK... So I record a show. Whats the difference when I watch it and why does the MPAA care when I watch it??
They care if there's any money in in your pocket that doesn't go to theirs. Soon we'll be having to pay licenses to speak about a movie with some friends on the sidewalk. Hell, why not save all the trouble and just decree that everybody owes an infinite amount of money to Jack Valenti and his pals?
For "true" GPL code, that would be perfectly alright, but here it "feels" as if Trolltech don't want it to happen, or something.
OK, I confess: I haven't checked out the exact licensing, or anything, but if it says "GPL", then surely it really is GPL, and not "GPL-no-windows-porting-allowed"? Software licensing these days sure is complex...
There's no way anybody can do anything against a Win32 port (or any port for that matter) if you have the option of following the GPL. So go ahead and start replacing X11 calls with GDI calls and be happy. A nice side effect would be the availability of KOffice for Windows.
NO! The product barcode format (EAN if I'm not mistaken) is a public standard! In a sense, every product designed to put barcodes into things generates "barcodes that the cuecat could read".
The US FTP site for the ISOs get me "Permission denied" even though the files are listed (and the sizes seem correct). Trying now the France mirror... Hm, these ones work.
It's simple. Windows has the better GUI, so Gnome & KDE will try to imitate it more. Linux has a better underlying structure, so Windows will try to imitate it more.
I wish I had moderator points left. BTW, the "underlying structure" bit is what makes Linux PERFECT for small ISPs/content-providers. I can tell you that from firsthand experience.
At the ISP I used to work for, all servers were Linux, and all user machines were Win9x (except the techies who dual-booted). With the current state of the art in Gnome and KDE, this might have changed now.
...the system has to be highly redundant. Send each calculation job to, say, 10 random nodes. Grab the 10 outputs. If one of them looks different, discard it.
Repeat offenders would be shut down from the calculation ring and notified that either their piece of code is malfunctioning or has been tampered with.
This way the client software could be open-source'd without any problem. I actually think SETI@Home does something like this.
A company open-minded enough to hire such a guy is a Good Company to work in. A company that gets holier-than-thou and refuses him is a Bad Company to work. Natural selection works both ways, you know. Darwin roolz.
(And if the person in question is actually having a hard time finding a job, s/he should switch states - or countries)
You'll find a Slashdot article which has been flooded by them. As of
now, 21 of the 162 messages (almost 13%!!!!) are unsolicited
advertisement from them. PLEASE do something.
I sent the following message to their upstream provider, managednetworks.com. Actually, I'm going to send them another mail, because I forgot to include a link to this article as an example. Please do the same if you're as annoyed as I am with the little critter.
Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2000 13:13:03 -0300
From: **********
To: info@managednetworks.com
Subject: Abuse from one of your clients
From the output of "traceroute" program, I discovered your company is the upstream provider to www.capalert.com.
People on behalf of the aforementioned site have been repeatedly flooding the message boards of www.slashdot.org (a technology discussions site) with unsolicited advertising to their site (SPAM). I respectfully urge you to take appropriate action.
...you're just itching to roll a Linux distro of your own, ain'tcha? Red Carpet (which in my humble understanding is the Bigger, Longer, Uncut offspring of helix-update and GnoRPM) finally takes control of the entire Linux installation. Yay!
If you want to keep it a secret, you can email the answer to me using this PGP/GPG key. I just hope it doesn't have ADKs!;-P
The problem isn't that people are out there inventing things and then not patenting them. It's that people are out there doing stuff that seems too obvious to patent, and then some idiot company patents it. Who would have antipatented one-click shopping?
Well, now we're a little bit smarter than 5 years ago. I, for example, could think of a few silly software patents myself. Lessee:
- A mechanism to update software packages over the web, offering a list of options (Helixcode, Windows Update)
- The message board mechanism (Slashcode?)
- The division of a desktop into virtual desktops (Sawfish, Enlightenment, some Windows driver implementations)
- The gettext mechanism of internationalization (a neat thing Windows doesn't have -- AND COULD BE PREVENTED FROM HAVING IF IT'S PATENTED)
- Zero-copy sockets
The list goes on and on. I favor the idea. The neat thing is, you don't even have to implement it -- just document it. It would help if the website hosting this had some kind of official auditing so it could stand in court. The EFF seems to be the right entity to pull this. Yo, RMS!
I just checked, and it's still available at the original site
I fired up Gnapster just for the hell of it and you know what? It's there! As of now 11 people offer descramble.mp3 in all its glory. Shame it's mono.
This function is void
And it takes two args...
Say... someone could get Prince to sing it? In its current incarnation it's a Bob-Dylanesque ballad, but I'm sure The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince could get it some groovy treatment. AND it seems he's no big friend of megacorps nowadays.
It isn't... NOW. As Internet connectivity (at least on a daily basis) becomes the norm, pay-per-use becomes more viable. It seems some people will never be content unless everybody owes them an infinite amount of money.
This is all the more reason to support independant musicians and non RIAA affiliated labels (*ahem* http://www.staticengine.com *ahem*).
Okay, let's see. I went to their site (forwards to mp3.com actually) and right now I'm downloading Encrypt/Decrypt. 61% done...
(sits idly waiting for remaining 39%)
(Completed. Plays song...)
(hearing song) Hey it's good! Kinda "Depeche Mode Meets The Matrix". Go for it people. You know, I could get used to acquiring all my new music this way. I knew those Tux CDRs I bought from Copyleft would be useful some day.;-P
"If Event A results in us getting more money than Event B, then Event B is not fair. In fact, it's illegal. Actually, it's piracy/terrorism/murder/torture/genocide..."
Nonsense. While it may be true for MS shite, nothing on my system gets sent to the internet without my explicit involvement. Its just common sense.
DMCA has outlawed common sense. Don't you read the news? Expect this sort of thing to be mandatory, i.e. you are not allowed to fix MS Word or Media Player or WinZip or WinAmp or whatever for not snitching (not even by putting a firewall machine between you and the 'Net), because that'll be a violation of the DMCA.
You have some very good points. Yes, I'm perfectly capable of assembling a computer myself. Not everybody is, though (even among those skilled enough to give a valid try at Linux or *BSD).
There's also the issue of desiring the higher hardware reliability a PC vendor provides (Like Dell or Compaq). These, and not the el cheapo clone or part vendors, are the ones bound by outrageous OEM deals.
I also agree with you it's not just "MS screws John Doe"; there's a subtle chain of screwing going from MS to John Doe through maybe more than one path.
I'm curious about whether it's possible to purchase a brand-name machine sans OS in the USA, and whether it's becoming more or less easy to find. Here in Brazil nearly all home purchases are self-assembled or from el cheapo assemblers. 3rd world income, you know.:-/ (Although top brands are starting to creep in slowly)
BTW, are there other proprietary software being bundled in brand-name machines than MS products? Like SmartSuite for instance? I used to work for a Brazilian OEM who bundled, along with Win95, Corel WordPerfect Office... still 16-bit apps! That was in 1997. Those were the days.;-P
A consistent subject for this suit would be the OEM thing. I bought a PC => Windows came with it => I don't want Windows => They won't let me return it => MS screwed me on ~$100.
Weren't there Windows Refund Day events in California? These can be brought to the Judge's attention. I mean, tied sales are illegal, aren't they?
My first contact was through Slackware Linux Unleashed, in 1997. The company I worked in had bought the book, and one night I took it home to play with an old 486SLC I had. I have to say it did the job. Then again, I was already a techie with 13 years of C programming experience, and I did have fairly good Unix admin skill (Ultrix, UnixWare, SCO, some SysV).
I can't remember what the distribution was labeled, but the kernel was 2.0.27.
Slashdot Mirror
But yes, I do expect similar moves from Unisys when their LZW patent(s) come close to expiring time. Maybe they'll force their managerial staff to cut out those ridiculous upward-pointing cones of hair from the side of their heads, too.
I meant "written admission of assholeness" from RSADSI, not the AC who posted. Sorry.
Guts? Gimme a break. The patent would expire two weeks from now, for crying out loud! If anything, they did that to spoil the "RSA Parties" programmed to Sep 20.
Really, that was the lamest of lame PR moves. I say, do NOT incense RSADSI for this. It means nothing except a written admission of assholeness.
Wake me up when Amazon releases 1-Click Shopping into the public domain -- as long as it's at least 5 years before expiration.
They care if there's any money in in your pocket that doesn't go to theirs. Soon we'll be having to pay licenses to speak about a movie with some friends on the sidewalk. Hell, why not save all the trouble and just decree that everybody owes an infinite amount of money to Jack Valenti and his pals?
OK, I confess: I haven't checked out the exact licensing, or anything, but if it says "GPL", then surely it really is GPL, and not "GPL-no-windows-porting-allowed"? Software licensing these days sure is complex...
There's no way anybody can do anything against a Win32 port (or any port for that matter) if you have the option of following the GPL. So go ahead and start replacing X11 calls with GDI calls and be happy. A nice side effect would be the availability of KOffice for Windows.
NO! The product barcode format (EAN if I'm not mistaken) is a public standard! In a sense, every product designed to put barcodes into things generates "barcodes that the cuecat could read".
The US FTP site for the ISOs get me "Permission denied" even though the files are listed (and the sizes seem correct). Trying now the France mirror... Hm, these ones work.
I wish I had moderator points left. BTW, the "underlying structure" bit is what makes Linux PERFECT for small ISPs/content-providers. I can tell you that from firsthand experience.
At the ISP I used to work for, all servers were Linux, and all user machines were Win9x (except the techies who dual-booted). With the current state of the art in Gnome and KDE, this might have changed now.
Repeat offenders would be shut down from the calculation ring and notified that either their piece of code is malfunctioning or has been tampered with.
This way the client software could be open-source'd without any problem. I actually think SETI@Home does something like this.
(And if the person in question is actually having a hard time finding a job, s/he should switch states - or countries)
Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2000 13:29:45 -0300
2 250&mode=flat
From: ********
To: info@managednetworks.com
Subject: More on the abuse from capalert.com
At
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/09/01/173
You'll find a Slashdot article which has been flooded by them. As of
now, 21 of the 162 messages (almost 13%!!!!) are unsolicited
advertisement from them. PLEASE do something.
Yours,
*********
I sent the following message to their upstream provider, managednetworks.com. Actually, I'm going to send them another mail, because I forgot to include a link to this article as an example. Please do the same if you're as annoyed as I am with the little critter.
Date: Sat, 02 Sep 2000 13:13:03 -0300
From: **********
To: info@managednetworks.com
Subject: Abuse from one of your clients
From the output of "traceroute" program, I discovered your company is the upstream provider to www.capalert.com.
People on behalf of the aforementioned site have been repeatedly flooding the message boards of www.slashdot.org (a technology discussions site) with unsolicited advertising to their site (SPAM). I respectfully urge you to take appropriate action.
Yours,
*********
If you want to keep it a secret, you can email the answer to me using this PGP/GPG key. I just hope it doesn't have ADKs! ;-P
Well, now we're a little bit smarter than 5 years ago. I, for example, could think of a few silly software patents myself. Lessee:
- A mechanism to update software packages over the web, offering a list of options (Helixcode, Windows Update)
- The message board mechanism (Slashcode?)
- The division of a desktop into virtual desktops (Sawfish, Enlightenment, some Windows driver implementations)
- The gettext mechanism of internationalization (a neat thing Windows doesn't have -- AND COULD BE PREVENTED FROM HAVING IF IT'S PATENTED)
- Zero-copy sockets
The list goes on and on. I favor the idea. The neat thing is, you don't even have to implement it -- just document it. It would help if the website hosting this had some kind of official auditing so it could stand in court. The EFF seems to be the right entity to pull this. Yo, RMS!
I fired up Gnapster just for the hell of it and you know what? It's there! As of now 11 people offer descramble.mp3 in all its glory. Shame it's mono.
This function is void
And it takes two args...
Say... someone could get Prince to sing it? In its current incarnation it's a Bob-Dylanesque ballad, but I'm sure The Artist Formerly Known As The Artist Formerly Known As Prince could get it some groovy treatment. AND it seems he's no big friend of megacorps nowadays.
Okay, let's see. I went to their site (forwards to mp3.com actually) and right now I'm downloading Encrypt/Decrypt. 61% done...
(sits idly waiting for remaining 39%)
(Completed. Plays song...)
(hearing song) Hey it's good! Kinda "Depeche Mode Meets The Matrix". Go for it people. You know, I could get used to acquiring all my new music this way. I knew those Tux CDRs I bought from Copyleft would be useful some day. ;-P
"If Event A results in us getting more money than Event B, then Event B is not fair. In fact, it's illegal. Actually, it's piracy/terrorism/murder/torture/genocide..."
DMCA has outlawed common sense. Don't you read the news? Expect this sort of thing to be mandatory, i.e. you are not allowed to fix MS Word or Media Player or WinZip or WinAmp or whatever for not snitching (not even by putting a firewall machine between you and the 'Net), because that'll be a violation of the DMCA.
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0075931
There's also the issue of desiring the higher hardware reliability a PC vendor provides (Like Dell or Compaq). These, and not the el cheapo clone or part vendors, are the ones bound by outrageous OEM deals.
I also agree with you it's not just "MS screws John Doe"; there's a subtle chain of screwing going from MS to John Doe through maybe more than one path.
I'm curious about whether it's possible to purchase a brand-name machine sans OS in the USA, and whether it's becoming more or less easy to find. Here in Brazil nearly all home purchases are self-assembled or from el cheapo assemblers. 3rd world income, you know. :-/ (Although top brands are starting to creep in slowly)
BTW, are there other proprietary software being bundled in brand-name machines than MS products? Like SmartSuite for instance? I used to work for a Brazilian OEM who bundled, along with Win95, Corel WordPerfect Office... still 16-bit apps! That was in 1997. Those were the days. ;-P
Carl Sagan and a bunch of others had the idea before you and it's been done: Pioneer 10
A consistent subject for this suit would be the OEM thing. I bought a PC => Windows came with it => I don't want Windows => They won't let me return it => MS screwed me on ~$100.
Weren't there Windows Refund Day events in California? These can be brought to the Judge's attention. I mean, tied sales are illegal, aren't they?
I can't remember what the distribution was labeled, but the kernel was 2.0.27.
> Employees at Apple and techworkers in general start taking NDAs seriously?
> Employees at Apple and techworkers in general actually start reading the contracts they sign?
> Employees at Apple and techworkers in general actually take responsibility for their actions?
Employees at Apple and techworkers in general learn to cover their asses properly when doing ANYTHING the company won't like.