What the article really means, as far as I can tell, is AMD have relocked the FSB multiplier or something. They are still just as overclockable as an equivilent Intel chip, and some say they perform better from the box.
If all chips were rated on the number of Floating Point Operations (FLOPs), I could give a better post, but they don't so I can't.
Hopefully one day parent in our 'post-columbine' society will learn that they've got to start taking responsibilty for themselves, and their children.
Sure, we could, but that would require us to give our children attention and 'quality time', and to present ourselves as role models, instead of shoving the kids in front of the TV while we hold down full-time jobs. It would be far easier to just declare they have Attention Defecit Disorder, stuff them with drugs and let them look after themselves, then we can take the money from our two parents working full time and spend it on things we want, like big-screen TVs and cars.
(That was a rant. It wasn't supposed to be reasonable.)
What I'd like to see is something akin to the phonecards - go into any supermarket/corner shop, hand over the moolah (in cash) and get a card worth the same amount.
What I'd like to see is something akin to money - go into any supermarket/corner shop, pick up what you want, hand over the moolah (in cash) and get a box of groceries worth the same amount. Plus you wouldn't have to wait for delivery, like you would online.
If that sounded sarcastic sorry, it wasn't meant to be.
If it was me doing it (It isn't... obviously), I'd have it basically set up as a normal credit card, then (If the person checked a box saying they wanted disposable numbers) every time I sent someone a replacement card (Or they used all thier disposable numbers) I would send a sheet of paper with, say, 10 fresh disposable numbers for them to use as they please. It could work like a big relational database; Every customer has a standard number mapped to thier account, and 10 disposable numbers. Each time a disposable number is used, it is unmapped and put in a big number pool for reuse (It would have to be reused with a different expiry date though). It would be like having a normal credit card, just as easy and convenient, just secure.
You don't recieve things that you have sent to a false address. Surely anonymity (sp?) is only availiable when purchasing goods that can be delivered online, i.e. downloaded/viewed. One would think this wouldn't be much help: Credit card companies would keep track of numbers and users for billing and fraud detection, so you're basically exchanging one anonymous-looking multi-digit number for another. Better security? Yes. Better anonymity? Not that I can see.
This tax basically makes the assumption that people who are buying CD-R drives are criminals, who are going to make illigal copies of songs. By taxing CD-R drives, we assume that all buyers are guilty of this and hence must be punished. Does this mean that:
a) People MUST give TAX to big companies to buy certain products, and in return for this they get NOTHING. I think we agree this would be a bad precedent. As a person who once sold drinks for charity, I would like 100% tax for every gallon of water brought by consumers in America, so I can recoup my losses.
or
b) The tax paid to music companies is there to let them recoup expenses from piracy, therefore piracy is OK, as long as you paid tax on your CD-R drive.
Neither situation exactly sounds like a win-win scenario for buisness and consumer, does it?
You don't pull a microwave apart and put it back together then complain when you get radiation poisoning do you ?
I heard of a case in the US when a burglar climed in someone's skylight, slipped, and impaled himself on a knife left on a kitchen work surface. He sued the house owner. And won.
I would think it would fall under a similar category to a competition. They could say 'The first person to send a good device driver for item X to drivercomp@aol.com wins a 1Ghz Pentium III computer'.
Oh no... But imagine all the money companies like amazon.com would loose if thier patents were abolished. They would loose... um... absolutely nothing. I mean... what are they loosing, really? I don't think many people base thier buying decision on whether they have to click once or twice, or even more times. People decide based on price, delivery time and other such variables. Not on how many clicks they need to make.
In any discussion of plagiarism, people should wonder who is being hurt by the "theft" of the idea, in this case the layout (and, apparently, the icons - I couldn't verify that because the hobbes site was/.'ed). My answer is that no one was hurt.
I think it's more of an ethical issue. I've put some of the work I've done online, both for my easy access from other locations and in the hope that it can be of some help to other people having to do similar work. I wouldn't have a problem with someone reading my work and learning, then writing something on the same topic. I wouldn't even mind if someone read through my work, typing it in thier own words as they go (but I'd like a bit of credit). But if someone copy-and-pasted my work into 'Microsoft Word' and just changed a few words, I would be annoyed. Sure, I havn't lost anything, but that isn't the point: This person will appear to have skills in the involved discipline (in this case graphics) when in fact he doesn't.
It wouldn't be hard to design some new graphics, with his own style. If that was too hard, it certainly wouldn't be difficult to put just a little line of text on the front page saying 'This layout was inspired by Linux.com'.
I don't see why he couldn't do this. It wouldn't be hard to do. But he didn't.
Here's a copy of my e-mail to webmaster@net.tamu.edu:
Sir,
Have you noticed how the site being run at http://hobbes.resnet.tamu.edu/ looks almost exactly identical to the one run by the Open Source Development Network (OSDN) at http://www.linux.com/ ?
And have you noticed how OSDNs legal statement says:
11. COPYRIGHTS
OSDN respects the intellectual property of all parties and we ask our users to do the same. If a user or other third party believes that its Content has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, that user or third party should provide OSDN with the following information: (a) an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; (b) a description of the copyrighted work that has been infringed; (c) a description of where the allegedly infringing material is located on the Website; (d) the affected user or third party's address, telephone number and email address; (e) a statement by the affected user or third party that he or she has a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and (f) a statement by the affected user or third party, under penalty of perjury, that the above information is accurate and that such user or third party is the copyright owner or is otherwise authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf. If OSDN receives such a claim, OSDN reserves the right to refuse or delete Content as described under Section 4 hereto, or to terminate a user's account in accordance with Section 7. ?
What's more, have you noticed the tag on the bottom of the linux.com web page that says:
I'm no legal expert, but I think that 'Copyright VA Linux Systems' may be an indication that a page has been copyrighted by VA Linux systems.
It would be unfortunate if VA Linux were to sue you, simply because the website designer did not have the time and/or ability to design his own layout. If I were you, I should encourage the site's maintainer to redesign with his own artwork, or at least give substantial credit to linux.com.
Abstract: A process by which a project, process, action or similar can proceed from a stage that could be described as 'slightly finished', 'partially finished' or 'Just started' to a stage that could be described as 'Mainly finished', 'nearly finished' or 'totally finished' by a route that has specific and obvious merits in terms of time, cost or quality that are not present in other, less obvious routes or actions. Also appliccable to other situations and processes.
What I don't understand is what kind of mentality could result in doing that.
Well, they want Celerons to appeal to the type of market that can't afford PIIIs or whatever, so they have to make them cheaper.
So, they produce some Celeron chips, which they want to sell for, say, 20% less than thier PIIIs. If they perform as well as full PIIIs, everyone will buy celerons (Which are 20% cheaper) and Intel won't make as much money. Result? They need to make Celerons 20% slower than PIIIs, so as many people as possible will buy the more expensive chip.
In our department, we dont have to pay for any software from the Gates boys, it just shows up free when we click 'submit' on a web page. I'm not sure if this is unilateral among schools, but I bet not.
Why give something away free when they can Charge for it???
I don't think Linux versions take any notice of ADKs. In PGPFreeware (Well, in my version (6.5.3))Just go to PGPkeys, then Edit > Options > Advanced and select 'Warn When Encrypting Keys to keys with an ADK'
From the help file (Interestingly, the ONLY reference I can find to ADKs):
Warn When Encrypting Keys to keys with an ADK
Warns you if the key you are encrypting to is also encrypted to an Additional Decryption Key (ADK).
Just check this, and don't write people who have ADKs. Also, you can select View > ADK and if a key has an ADK attatched, the blob thing turns green. Check your keys on the server regularly, and if the blob comes on, revoke your key.
Would you want someone to have a transcript of a meeting if you had them sign a non-disclosure agreement?
Just say "Don't worry... I've signed a little bit of paper that says I won't." then break out laughing uncontrolably for a few minutes. brief your 'lawyer' beforehand on what to do, and have him laugh heartily as well.
IANAL, but if I were you, I'd take a lawyer along to the meeting and say "You don't mind if my lawyer sits in on the meeting, do you? I have some attractive offers from your competitors and I wouldn't like them being sued because of this NDA". You don't have to have a proper lawyer. Just a mate wearing a nice suit. If you choose a mate who can type fast, you can ask him to transcript the meeting, then at the end, get the transcript signed by all the executives. Or have him record the meeting on a dictaphone, like a police interview.
Either way, get on record what data they give you. If you're going to be sued, you may as well get the disclosure out of it too.
No space for manuals or other paperwork. This was done to enforce the clear desk policy.
Buy yourself some cheap furniture (Or some crates and plywood... whatever) and put it in your office. Then make some overhead transparencies with top-down photos and diagrams of your cubicle and things. Make the desk big enough that you only need half of it. If challenged by management, get out your transparencies and give them a presentation saying with the small desk, it was 100% covered by the computer and 0% clear, but with your extended desk, your cubicle's desks are only 50% covered, and as such 50% clear!
Do it up with lots of diagrams, entire pages devoted to showing the calculations to work out surface area and things like that.
If they argue with that, coordinate you and your co-workers all to work 10% slower. Don't tell anyone you're doing it deliberately. If confronted, blame lack of deskspace.
IIRC they did, but the Judge shot them down right away, claiming that antitrust laws don't apply here. Which is total bullshit, excuse my French.
That isn't french. This is though:
Si je me rappelle correctement ils , mais le juge les a abattus tout de suite, réclamant que les lois anti-trust ne s'appliquent pas ici. Ce qui est bullshit total.
Slashdot Mirror
If all chips were rated on the number of Floating Point Operations (FLOPs), I could give a better post, but they don't so I can't.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
I wonder what the new name will be? Looking at the current adminastration, it'll probably be called:
The Digital Millenium Child-protection secure scanner for the War on Drugs, TDMCPSSFTWOD for short.
I'm glad they're renaming it. It shows they think people are really, really stupid. Hmm, let's rename it and hope the problem goes away...
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
I thought MPs had to reply to letters sent them by their constituents.
Mine didn't, when I faxed him from www.stand.org.uk. I will not be voting for him again.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
Hopefully one day parent in our 'post-columbine' society will learn that they've got to start taking responsibilty for themselves, and their children.
Sure, we could, but that would require us to give our children attention and 'quality time', and to present ourselves as role models, instead of shoving the kids in front of the TV while we hold down full-time jobs. It would be far easier to just declare they have Attention Defecit Disorder, stuff them with drugs and let them look after themselves, then we can take the money from our two parents working full time and spend it on things we want, like big-screen TVs and cars.
(That was a rant. It wasn't supposed to be reasonable.)
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
What I'd like to see is something akin to the phonecards - go into any supermarket/corner shop, hand over the moolah (in cash) and get a card worth the same amount.
What I'd like to see is something akin to money - go into any supermarket/corner shop, pick up what you want, hand over the moolah (in cash) and get a box of groceries worth the same amount. Plus you wouldn't have to wait for delivery, like you would online.
If that sounded sarcastic sorry, it wasn't meant to be.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
If it was me doing it (It isn't... obviously), I'd have it basically set up as a normal credit card, then (If the person checked a box saying they wanted disposable numbers) every time I sent someone a replacement card (Or they used all thier disposable numbers) I would send a sheet of paper with, say, 10 fresh disposable numbers for them to use as they please. It could work like a big relational database; Every customer has a standard number mapped to thier account, and 10 disposable numbers. Each time a disposable number is used, it is unmapped and put in a big number pool for reuse (It would have to be reused with a different expiry date though). It would be like having a normal credit card, just as easy and convenient, just secure.
I think.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
it might lead to anonymous purchases.
You don't recieve things that you have sent to a false address. Surely anonymity (sp?) is only availiable when purchasing goods that can be delivered online, i.e. downloaded/viewed. One would think this wouldn't be much help: Credit card companies would keep track of numbers and users for billing and fraud detection, so you're basically exchanging one anonymous-looking multi-digit number for another. Better security? Yes. Better anonymity? Not that I can see.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
This tax basically makes the assumption that people who are buying CD-R drives are criminals, who are going to make illigal copies of songs. By taxing CD-R drives, we assume that all buyers are guilty of this and hence must be punished. Does this mean that:
a) People MUST give TAX to big companies to buy certain products, and in return for this they get NOTHING. I think we agree this would be a bad precedent. As a person who once sold drinks for charity, I would like 100% tax for every gallon of water brought by consumers in America, so I can recoup my losses.
or
b) The tax paid to music companies is there to let them recoup expenses from piracy, therefore piracy is OK, as long as you paid tax on your CD-R drive.
Neither situation exactly sounds like a win-win scenario for buisness and consumer, does it?
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
You don't pull a microwave apart and put it back together then complain when you get radiation poisoning do you ?
I heard of a case in the US when a burglar climed in someone's skylight, slipped, and impaled himself on a knife left on a kitchen work surface. He sued the house owner. And won.
If this is in the US, I'd have to say 'yes'.
Michael Tandy
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
SMS is hardly the only way to lock up your GSM
Indeed not. You can permanantly destroy many GSM mobiles (including the SIM card) just by repeatedly hitting them with a sledgehammer.
Yes, that was a joke.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
I would think it would fall under a similar category to a competition. They could say 'The first person to send a good device driver for item X to drivercomp@aol.com wins a 1Ghz Pentium III computer'.
Unless competitions are now illigal...
Michael Tandy
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
Incompetent fools?
No, there was mac software in there too, not just Windows.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
I don't think this would work. You'd generate a patent-antipatent reaction, destroying the whole Patent Office in the process.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
In any discussion of plagiarism, people should wonder who is being hurt by the "theft" of the idea, in this case the layout (and, apparently, the icons - I couldn't verify that because the hobbes site was /.'ed). My answer is that no one was hurt.
I think it's more of an ethical issue. I've put some of the work I've done online, both for my easy access from other locations and in the hope that it can be of some help to other people having to do similar work. I wouldn't have a problem with someone reading my work and learning, then writing something on the same topic. I wouldn't even mind if someone read through my work, typing it in thier own words as they go (but I'd like a bit of credit). But if someone copy-and-pasted my work into 'Microsoft Word' and just changed a few words, I would be annoyed. Sure, I havn't lost anything, but that isn't the point: This person will appear to have skills in the involved discipline (in this case graphics) when in fact he doesn't.
It wouldn't be hard to design some new graphics, with his own style. If that was too hard, it certainly wouldn't be difficult to put just a little line of text on the front page saying 'This layout was inspired by Linux.com'.
I don't see why he couldn't do this. It wouldn't be hard to do. But he didn't.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
Sir,
Have you noticed how the site being run at http://hobbes.resnet.tamu.edu/ looks almost exactly identical to the one run by the Open Source Development Network (OSDN) at http://www.linux.com/ ?
And have you noticed how OSDNs legal statement says:
11. COPYRIGHTS
OSDN respects the intellectual property of all parties and we ask our users to do the same. If a user or other third party believes that its Content has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, that user or third party should provide OSDN with the following information: (a) an electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest; (b) a description of the copyrighted work that has been infringed; (c) a description of where the allegedly infringing material is located on the Website; (d) the affected user or third party's address, telephone number and email address; (e) a statement by the affected user or third party that he or she has a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and (f) a statement by the affected user or third party, under penalty of perjury, that the above information is accurate and that such user or third party is the copyright owner or is otherwise authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf. If OSDN receives such a claim, OSDN reserves the right to refuse or delete Content as described under Section 4 hereto, or to terminate a user's account in accordance with Section 7. ?
What's more, have you noticed the tag on the bottom of the linux.com web page that says:
Copyright ©1999-2000 VA Linux Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. ?
I'm no legal expert, but I think that 'Copyright VA Linux Systems' may be an indication that a page has been copyrighted by VA Linux systems.
It would be unfortunate if VA Linux were to sue you, simply because the website designer did not have the time and/or ability to design his own layout. If I were you, I should encourage the site's maintainer to redesign with his own artwork, or at least give substantial credit to linux.com.
Michael Tandy
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
Invention: Patently obvious action
Abstract: A process by which a project, process, action or similar can proceed from a stage that could be described as 'slightly finished', 'partially finished' or 'Just started' to a stage that could be described as 'Mainly finished', 'nearly finished' or 'totally finished' by a route that has specific and obvious merits in terms of time, cost or quality that are not present in other, less obvious routes or actions. Also appliccable to other situations and processes.
What do you think? Will I get the patent?
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
What I don't understand is what kind of mentality could result in doing that.
Well, they want Celerons to appeal to the type of market that can't afford PIIIs or whatever, so they have to make them cheaper.
So, they produce some Celeron chips, which they want to sell for, say, 20% less than thier PIIIs. If they perform as well as full PIIIs, everyone will buy celerons (Which are 20% cheaper) and Intel won't make as much money. Result? They need to make Celerons 20% slower than PIIIs, so as many people as possible will buy the more expensive chip.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
In our department, we dont have to pay for any software from the Gates boys, it just shows up free when we click 'submit' on a web page. I'm not sure if this is unilateral among schools, but I bet not.
Why give something away free when they can Charge for it???
Michael Tandy
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
TWarner won't sue itself.
Oh, they won't will they? They'll sue software developers, but when it comes to launching a little lawsuit against themselves, nooooo...
The hypocrites!
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
I don't think Linux versions take any notice of ADKs. In PGPFreeware (Well, in my version (6.5.3))Just go to PGPkeys, then Edit > Options > Advanced and select 'Warn When Encrypting Keys to keys with an ADK'
From the help file (Interestingly, the ONLY reference I can find to ADKs):
Warn When Encrypting Keys to keys with an ADK
Warns you if the key you are encrypting to is also encrypted to an Additional Decryption Key (ADK).
Just check this, and don't write people who have ADKs. Also, you can select View > ADK and if a key has an ADK attatched, the blob thing turns green. Check your keys on the server regularly, and if the blob comes on, revoke your key.
Just my $0.02,
Michael Tandy
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
Would you want someone to have a transcript of a meeting if you had them sign a non-disclosure agreement?
Just say "Don't worry... I've signed a little bit of paper that says I won't." then break out laughing uncontrolably for a few minutes. brief your 'lawyer' beforehand on what to do, and have him laugh heartily as well.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
IANAL, but if I were you, I'd take a lawyer along to the meeting and say "You don't mind if my lawyer sits in on the meeting, do you? I have some attractive offers from your competitors and I wouldn't like them being sued because of this NDA". You don't have to have a proper lawyer. Just a mate wearing a nice suit. If you choose a mate who can type fast, you can ask him to transcript the meeting, then at the end, get the transcript signed by all the executives. Or have him record the meeting on a dictaphone, like a police interview.
Either way, get on record what data they give you. If you're going to be sued, you may as well get the disclosure out of it too.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
No space for manuals or other paperwork. This was done to enforce the clear desk policy.
Buy yourself some cheap furniture (Or some crates and plywood... whatever) and put it in your office. Then make some overhead transparencies with top-down photos and diagrams of your cubicle and things. Make the desk big enough that you only need half of it. If challenged by management, get out your transparencies and give them a presentation saying with the small desk, it was 100% covered by the computer and 0% clear, but with your extended desk, your cubicle's desks are only 50% covered, and as such 50% clear!
Do it up with lots of diagrams, entire pages devoted to showing the calculations to work out surface area and things like that.
If they argue with that, coordinate you and your co-workers all to work 10% slower. Don't tell anyone you're doing it deliberately. If confronted, blame lack of deskspace.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.
IIRC they did, but the Judge shot them down right away, claiming that antitrust laws don't apply here. Which is total bullshit, excuse my French.
That isn't french. This is though:
Si je me rappelle correctement ils , mais le juge les a abattus tout de suite, réclamant que les lois anti-trust ne s'appliquent pas ici. Ce qui est bullshit total.
Michael
...another comment from Michael Tandy.