BJ says: "I don't understand how Napster isn't infringing on the rights of the artists when their music is taken without compensation".
He then steals^H^H^H^H^H^Hquotes the whole text of a Dilbert cartoon. Surely he's taking Scott Adams' work and passing it on to others without recompensing the original author. Bit like Napster users really...
Personally, I find a graphical file manager very useful for simple tasks (dragging and dropping (sometimes multiple) files, etc.), but like a command-line for most other things.
I've often wondered why some-one hasn't combined the two. All it would take (in the simplest case) would be for the file manager to track the shell 'cd' command, and automatically move to that directory and list the files.
Then if the file manager was displayed in a tabbed dialog, a "cache" of recent directory tabs could be maintained. Files could be moved, copied, linked, etc. to any recent directory by dragging them to that directory's tab (personally I prefer the KDE way of doing this - selecting the operation required from a menu - to the windows way). Clicking on one of those recent directory tabs could also "cd" to that directory in the shell (if this behaviour was desired).
It doesn't sound particularly difficult, but it's just another of those "one day I'll..." things.
If the Eazel/Nautilus people provide (hooks for) something like this when they bring out their new thingy, then this really will set them apart from being "just another file manager (TM)".
You think that's bad - HP tried to patent putting computers in boxes. See here for the story.
"But HP said its single-box packaging is a big deal--so big that it has applied for a patent."
"The main purpose of doing it is not the savings," said Sam Szteinbaum, business manager for HP's North America consumer PC unit. "It's really ease of use, simplifying the choice."
Well said (assuming you're answering the first sentence in the post above). This also drives me up the wall when people use different tabstop sizes (especially after you've shown them how to use ^T and ^D).
To whoever moderated this as a troll, please look up how ^T and ^D work. Oh go on then, since I'm here...
Set shiftwidth=4 and leave tabstop=8. In insert mode, ^T will now indent with 4-space tabs, ^D will outdent again, and 0^D will take you to the start of the line. Indents will be done with a mixture of spaces 8-character tabs as required. You get to use 4-space indents (or however many you want to use) and files look consistent on printouts and on editors which only support 8-character tabs.
And Mandrake should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for setting tabstop to 4 by default - it also mucks up editing some of the standard system config files. I thought they were trying to make Linux easy ?
Note that if you live in the US, they explicitly ask "If you have any experience of the US position on patenting software or business methods, how would you assess it ?".
Why the hell do we need.aero ? (Apart from chocolate bars)
Since there appears to be.aero.pro, is.aero just for amateur airlines ?
Why did ICANN go for this, especially when the proposing organisation was SITA, who happen to have a.int TLD (www.sita.int). How many.int TLDs are there for God's sake ?
If the comments on this treaty have made the Council of Europe rethink, anyone who cares about the European position on patents (the EU's plans to introduce American-style patents on computer programs and business methods) should make their views clear. A good starting point is to sign the petition here.
Also make sure to respond to the UK patent office's request for opinions. And they explicitly ask for opinions for people with experience of the US position.
If Europe accepts the American position on patents, how is America ever going to change it ?
Remember, the Reuters report says they were "inundated" with only 400 e-mails.
As I understand it, UCITA allows software companies to remotely disable software (almost) at will. If companies go for this (well they got the law passed for a reason), this could mean that hacking into a company such as M$ would give access to the programs / codes / whatever to shut down any of that company's software on any customer's site (assuming they're connected to the net).
Now that would be scary.
I bet the politicians behind UCITA didn't think of that.
They're not just interested in UK opinions either - they explicitly ask about experience with the US position on patents, and mention the wider european debate.
If you intend to respond (please do) please note the following: "This is a public consultation exercise. As such, your comments will also be made public unless you make clear in responding that you want them to remain confidential".
The UK patent office is in a good position to have a strong influence on the European patent issue, which appears finely-balanced as to whether software patents will be allowed in future (see here). If Europe rejects software patents, then it puts more pressure on the US to change its position. Especially if it makes Europe more competitive as a result (more competition, freer exchange of technology, less need to pay the salaries of "Chief Intellectual Property Officers", etc.).
Great, now we can bump off animals to our hearts content, and recreate them when we forget what they looked like.
Seriously, though, great work by the scientists involved. But I just hope it doesn't make people think we can screw around with the environment, and everything in it, even more than we do now.
From the article: "Colossus is so fast and parallel that a modern PC programmed to do the same code-breaking task takes as long as Colossus to achieve a result!"
If this claim is accurate, then it just goes to show how remarkably good the machine was at solving the problem in hand.
It also makes you wonder about how fast a dedicated code-breaking machine would be nowadays.
i.e. "When you can't compete on technical merit, sue".
Remember they're in business to make money. So this is what they're doing. Easy money for little work.
No, I don't like it. But reading more and more stories like this, I'm actually beginning to feel a little encouraged. A bunch of/. geeks wingeing to themselves on their own little website about how wrong things are isn't going to affect anyone in the outside world. But with big companies being screwed over, maybe they'll decide the current system is broken and in need of reform. And if they do, they won't just winge about it in their own private forums.
(My apologies to anyone who disagrees with the current patent situation and has actually done something about it, in however small a way - like writing to their local politician).
(OK, so that links a little old - it's law now, though possibly with some modifications).
Basically, they are enforcing ISPs to install interception equipment, and I'm not sure it's just for e-mails - it may also be for all traffic (although how they'll do this I'm not sure (I don't know if the government is either) - they might just store e-mails, and accessed URLs / IP addresses and port numbers).
The authorities don't even need a warrant to be signed in order to start monitoring you - I think the word of a senior police officer is enough.
If you encrypt anything, they can force you to decrypt it, or face up to two years in jail. If you've lost the decryption key, it's your responsibility to prove it (er, how, exactly can you do this ?). Bang goes any right not to incriminate yourself. And bang goes the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty.
If you tell anyone they're being monitored, you can face several years in jail, also.
As the article says, if you're a terrorist or paedophile, and you've encrypted your illegal stuff, are you really going to decrypt things on demand, or will you stick with a shorter sentence in jail for not decrypting it ?
Finally, I can see some justification for the police intercepting traffic in this manner (if suitable controls were in place), but with this equipment installed in ISPs, anyone working at that ISP could potentially have access to it. Blackmail, anyone ?
PS: One of the justifications for intercepting traffic is 'in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom'. So I guess even if you're not in the UK, this may be a reason to listen in on any of your traffic which might get routed through the UK. Just out of interest, does much traffic between America and Continental Europe get routed through the UK ?
This RIP Bill may well have sonething to do with the treaty which is the subject of this article.
Agree totally, as long as he gave the banking company in question sufficient opportunity to patch up the holes he found before going public (I assume he did).
I've little sympathy for the company in question, but the customers involved should not be put at even greater risk.
Slashdot Mirror
Sounds like a Geek fairy tale.
He then steals^H^H^H^H^H^Hquotes the whole text of a Dilbert cartoon. Surely he's taking Scott Adams' work and passing it on to others without recompensing the original author. Bit like Napster users really...
Personally, I find a graphical file manager very useful for simple tasks (dragging and dropping (sometimes multiple) files, etc.), but like a command-line for most other things.
I've often wondered why some-one hasn't combined the two. All it would take (in the simplest case) would be for the file manager to track the shell 'cd' command, and automatically move to that directory and list the files.
Then if the file manager was displayed in a tabbed dialog, a "cache" of recent directory tabs could be maintained. Files could be moved, copied, linked, etc. to any recent directory by dragging them to that directory's tab (personally I prefer the KDE way of doing this - selecting the operation required from a menu - to the windows way). Clicking on one of those recent directory tabs could also "cd" to that directory in the shell (if this behaviour was desired).
It doesn't sound particularly difficult, but it's just another of those "one day I'll..." things.
If the Eazel/Nautilus people provide (hooks for) something like this when they bring out their new thingy, then this really will set them apart from being "just another file manager (TM)".
This is so funny. Please mod up.
You know what it's like when travelling outside your country.
"But HP said its single-box packaging is a big deal--so big that it has applied for a patent."
"The main purpose of doing it is not the savings," said Sam Szteinbaum, business manager for HP's North America consumer PC unit. "It's really ease of use, simplifying the choice."
Anyone know what happened to this ?
Americans are masochists anyway.
Just look at their cuisine and literature. And their idea of sports. Please kill me quickly instead of making me watch an american football game.
Anyway...If they want to be like that, and they obviously do, they why should we get all worked up about it ?
Well said (assuming you're answering the first sentence in the post above). This also drives me up the wall when people use different tabstop sizes (especially after you've shown them how to use ^T and ^D).
To whoever moderated this as a troll, please look up how ^T and ^D work. Oh go on then, since I'm here...
Set shiftwidth=4 and leave tabstop=8. In insert mode, ^T will now indent with 4-space tabs, ^D will outdent again, and 0^D will take you to the start of the line. Indents will be done with a mixture of spaces 8-character tabs as required. You get to use 4-space indents (or however many you want to use) and files look consistent on printouts and on editors which only support 8-character tabs.
And Mandrake should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for setting tabstop to 4 by default - it also mucks up editing some of the standard system config files. I thought they were trying to make Linux easy ?
Note that if you live in the US, they explicitly ask "If you have any experience of the US position on patenting software or business methods, how would you assess it ?".
Since there appears to be .aero.pro, is .aero just for amateur airlines ?
Why did ICANN go for this, especially when the proposing organisation was SITA, who happen to have a .int TLD (www.sita.int). How many .int TLDs are there for God's sake ?
Also make sure to respond to the UK patent office's request for opinions. And they explicitly ask for opinions for people with experience of the US position.
If Europe accepts the American position on patents, how is America ever going to change it ?
Remember, the Reuters report says they were "inundated" with only 400 e-mails.
As I understand it, UCITA allows software companies to remotely disable software (almost) at will. If companies go for this (well they got the law passed for a reason), this could mean that hacking into a company such as M$ would give access to the programs / codes / whatever to shut down any of that company's software on any customer's site (assuming they're connected to the net).
Now that would be scary.
I bet the politicians behind UCITA didn't think of that.
See this article for more details.
As long as it's not Microsoft condoms - full of holes, no protection from nasty bugs, and regular General Protection Faults.
From looking at the article, it looks like they're taking a serious look at the issues involved.
They've even set up a newsgroup.
They're not just interested in UK opinions either - they explicitly ask about experience with the US position on patents, and mention the wider european debate.
If you intend to respond (please do) please note the following: "This is a public consultation exercise. As such, your comments will also be made public unless you make clear in responding that you want them to remain confidential".
The UK patent office is in a good position to have a strong influence on the European patent issue, which appears finely-balanced as to whether software patents will be allowed in future (see here). If Europe rejects software patents, then it puts more pressure on the US to change its position. Especially if it makes Europe more competitive as a result (more competition, freer exchange of technology, less need to pay the salaries of "Chief Intellectual Property Officers", etc.).
Yes, the persecution of the rich by the poor has reached shocking levels in today's society.
Those poor, with their big houses and flash cars, and all those friends in high places...
err, hang on...
What exactly about Software For The People, By The People is socialist or communist ?
Great, now we can bump off animals to our hearts content, and recreate them when we forget what they looked like.
Seriously, though, great work by the scientists involved. But I just hope it doesn't make people think we can screw around with the environment, and everything in it, even more than we do now.
From the article: "Colossus is so fast and parallel that a modern PC programmed to do the same code-breaking task takes as long as Colossus to achieve a result!"
If this claim is accurate, then it just goes to show how remarkably good the machine was at solving the problem in hand.
It also makes you wonder about how fast a dedicated code-breaking machine would be nowadays.
Which of course, being a mechanical device, was held back for hundreds of years by YeOldeAmazon.com's one-clunk patent.
Unfortunately, RAMBUS *does* get it.
/. geeks wingeing to themselves on their own little website about how wrong things are isn't going to affect anyone in the outside world. But with big companies being screwed over, maybe they'll decide the current system is broken and in need of reform. And if they do, they won't just winge about it in their own private forums.
i.e. "When you can't compete on technical merit, sue".
Remember they're in business to make money. So this is what they're doing. Easy money for little work.
No, I don't like it. But reading more and more stories like this, I'm actually beginning to feel a little encouraged. A bunch of
(My apologies to anyone who disagrees with the current patent situation and has actually done something about it, in however small a way - like writing to their local politician).
Should have stuck with just the morale improvement. Even for a CEO, claiming productivity improvement was pushing it a bit too far.
Unless of course, that gorgeous assistant started writing better code than the rest of you.
... is here. I'm not sure if it's the latest draft though, it's dated 27th April 2000.
(OK, so that links a little old - it's law now, though possibly with some modifications).
Basically, they are enforcing ISPs to install interception equipment, and I'm not sure it's just for e-mails - it may also be for all traffic (although how they'll do this I'm not sure (I don't know if the government is either) - they might just store e-mails, and accessed URLs / IP addresses and port numbers).
The authorities don't even need a warrant to be signed in order to start monitoring you - I think the word of a senior police officer is enough.
If you encrypt anything, they can force you to decrypt it, or face up to two years in jail. If you've lost the decryption key, it's your responsibility to prove it (er, how, exactly can you do this ?). Bang goes any right not to incriminate yourself. And bang goes the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty.
If you tell anyone they're being monitored, you can face several years in jail, also.
As the article says, if you're a terrorist or paedophile, and you've encrypted your illegal stuff, are you really going to decrypt things on demand, or will you stick with a shorter sentence in jail for not decrypting it ?
Finally, I can see some justification for the police intercepting traffic in this manner (if suitable controls were in place), but with this equipment installed in ISPs, anyone working at that ISP could potentially have access to it. Blackmail, anyone ?
PS: One of the justifications for intercepting traffic is 'in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom'. So I guess even if you're not in the UK, this may be a reason to listen in on any of your traffic which might get routed through the UK. Just out of interest, does much traffic between America and Continental Europe get routed through the UK ?
This RIP Bill may well have sonething to do with the treaty which is the subject of this article.
Coming soon to a country near you ?
Agree totally, as long as he gave the banking company in question sufficient opportunity to patch up the holes he found before going public (I assume he did).
I've little sympathy for the company in question, but the customers involved should not be put at even greater risk.