Let me see here... (scrolling down)... "This HTML or network document customization is capable or providing each user who accesses a network address with an HTML document that is matched to that user's preferences. This customization adds to the strength of linked information provided by HTML documents by providing each user with the information, or links to information, that the user actually wants."
That's from the description, which translates claims 1-20 into real English. It sure looks to me like they're basically patenting My Yahoo! and every other site that ever used a customized home page.
This isn't a complaint about Microsoft; if my sister was issued this patent I'd be equally astonished. This sort of thing has been going on ever since CGI and cookies, when Microsoft was still deciding whether the Internet was worth their while. How it could ever get issued is utterly beyond me.
Yeah, yeah, IP boundaries and all that but is it that hard to set up an international online music store?
Technically, no. Legally, yes. The only reason iTMS wasn't available outside the US when it launched was because the record labels have different distribution arrangements in different countries. The same laws that require region coding on DVDs and that force you to wait a month or two for a new CD or pay triple the price to import it, are the laws that keep US-based Apple from selling music in other countries.
Yes, it sucks. No, they can't do anything about it except what they're already hard at work doing: negotiating with each label and distributor to get rights to sell their libraries outside the USA.
Sigh....seems the youth of today truly do not know what a good sound system is...all they know is the off the shelf mass marketed stuff at CC or BB..Stuff like that is really only one level above a good boom box.
That's because they're young, don't make much money, and can't afford to spend $2000 on speakers when their younger brother or drunk roommate might spill their snack foods all over it at any second.
If you're going to get all stuffy and pretentious, at least be stuffy and pretentious over what the youth of today listen to instead of what they listen on.
All iPods ship with a pair of earbud-type headphones with 18mm neodymium-powered drivers. These have surprisingly good sound--at least compared to the phones included with most portable players. A pair of low-impedance Etymotic ER-4Ps ($330) offered much better sound and isolation from environmental noise, but that's a subject for another review.
While reviewing the iPod, he just couldn't resist pointing out that another pair of headphones which costs as much as the iPod itself would be the perfect accessory to complete the gadget.
Money is no object. Then again, this adequately describes most of my fellow Mac afficianados as well....
I'm reminded of all the promises we heard for the Transmeta chip, only a fraction of which are being realized. And they have an actual product to demonstrate, mind you.
Yeah, it sounds like wishful thinking. I have little faith in processors from unknown companies that claim to do what Intel, AMD and IBM combined haven't yet been able to achieve.
I would love to use mac osx, but i'm not big on the quarterly/yearly 130.00 upgrades. Sorry apple.
No one says you have to upgrade every year -- there's added functionality in 10.2 that many apps take advantage of, but very few apps that began their life before 10.2 require you to have it, although free apps from Apple are the notable exception.
If you want to skip a year, feel free. You're missing less than you think.
I just can't understand the insistance of so many online music retailers to go with WMA instead of a more popular and widespread format like MP3.
Because the DRM is what the music industry wants, not what the music store wants. If they could sell you unlicensed MP3s, they probably would. But the copyright holders want control over the files THEY offer the music stores, so some DRM is implanted to give it. It's not flawless, but it's better than nothing.
With the iTunes Music Store about to come to Windows, and the iPod already working well there, I'd say Apple has already successfully entered the Windows market by doing an end run around Microsoft. They've found a way to make money from Windows users -- first with hardware (iPod), then software (iTunes) -- without taking any Windows marketshare at all.
Replacing Windows with OS X is a big change for any computer user. Adding an iPod and iTunes to Windows is much, much easier. They don't have to beat Microsoft to make money.
Did you finish reading the whole Linux-to-WinXP "review"? By the time you got to the section where he was astonished at this strange, new Internet Explorer browser that 90% of web surfers used, it should have been obvious that it was satire.
Michael's only oversight was failing to add the "It's funny. Laugh." icon to the story.
Thanks for clearing that up; I was worried what would happen if they tried flying these things through a cloud bank. (Isn't a microwave laser more succinctly known as a maser?)
I've seen that information about the history of the US dollar elsewhere; I just used the e2 writeup because it was most convenient. Here's info from The Straight Dope if you want something more credible.
Round coins, besides the simple convenience of comfort in one's cloth pockets, are easier to use in vending machines. I'd hate to have a polygonal one no matter what it replaced.
The Sacajawea has a smooth edge, the quarter a ribbed one. Plus the quarter's noticably thinner. I'm fully sighted, but I can tell the difference by touch every single time.
I love the dollar coins, but like you said, I think the mints should've phased out the dollar bills by now if they expected us to take it seriously.
The crazy thing is, CSS support is the least of IE's complaints. The security holes are a bigger one. Lack of native popup blocking. No tabs (which I've really gotten used to). And I really like Mozilla's integrated bookmark bar and search bar.
IE is simple (mostly), but there's LOTS of room for improvement. It's no longer the best browser by any measure. Monopolies suck, plain and simple.
Try Avant Browser if you must use IE. It adds a shell around the browser for tab integration, popup blocking, and all those other goodies you like best about Opera and Mozilla.
Sadly, it can't do anything for IE's HTML or CSS support....
Gee, imagine that... counterfeiters actually keeping up with changes in the most desirable currency on the planet.
In all honesty, the Mint has known for years that the "greenbacks" we use are easy to confuse and counterfeit. It'd be nice to have all our bills instantly be different sizes, colors and textures, but that would be way too much adjustment. So they're introducing changes gradually -- first redesigning the bills, then adding some color. Probably in another five years they'll add even more color and (if we're very, very lucky) phase out the $1 bill entirely in favor of the coin.
Actually, the American "dollar" borrows it's name from Spanish currency, not Austrian. Bumming from naked_ape's accurate writeup at everything2.com:
The origin of the word dollar comes from the coins that Spanish emperor Carlos I ordered to coin at the beginnings of the XVIth century. They were of silver, (read Webster's wu for more precise information) and they had the same value as the German thaler.
A century later, when the spanish thalers began to circulate in North America, they were called spanish dollars, as someone wrote "dollars" instead of "thalers".
When the U.S.A. became a nation, the dollar acquired the category of national currency. In those coins were engraved the Columns of Hercules, the symbol for the Spanish Empire, that ultimately were converted into the sign that epitomizes dollars and money everywhere: $
Slashdot Mirror
Every OS X release has been rather half-baked
Yeah, because neither Microsoft nor Linux has ever released a major version that didn't have odd bugs to fix afterward.
Let me see here... (scrolling down)... "This HTML or network document customization is capable or providing each user who accesses a network address with an HTML document that is matched to that user's preferences. This customization adds to the strength of linked information provided by HTML documents by providing each user with the information, or links to information, that the user actually wants."
That's from the description, which translates claims 1-20 into real English. It sure looks to me like they're basically patenting My Yahoo! and every other site that ever used a customized home page.
This isn't a complaint about Microsoft; if my sister was issued this patent I'd be equally astonished. This sort of thing has been going on ever since CGI and cookies, when Microsoft was still deciding whether the Internet was worth their while. How it could ever get issued is utterly beyond me.
Yeah, yeah, IP boundaries and all that but is it that hard to set up an international online music store?
Technically, no. Legally, yes. The only reason iTMS wasn't available outside the US when it launched was because the record labels have different distribution arrangements in different countries. The same laws that require region coding on DVDs and that force you to wait a month or two for a new CD or pay triple the price to import it, are the laws that keep US-based Apple from selling music in other countries.
Yes, it sucks. No, they can't do anything about it except what they're already hard at work doing: negotiating with each label and distributor to get rights to sell their libraries outside the USA.
Sigh....seems the youth of today truly do not know what a good sound system is...all they know is the off the shelf mass marketed stuff at CC or BB..Stuff like that is really only one level above a good boom box.
That's because they're young, don't make much money, and can't afford to spend $2000 on speakers when their younger brother or drunk roommate might spill their snack foods all over it at any second.
If you're going to get all stuffy and pretentious, at least be stuffy and pretentious over what the youth of today listen to instead of what they listen on.
This is just classic, really:
All iPods ship with a pair of earbud-type headphones with 18mm neodymium-powered drivers. These have surprisingly good sound--at least compared to the phones included with most portable players. A pair of low-impedance Etymotic ER-4Ps ($330) offered much better sound and isolation from environmental noise, but that's a subject for another review.
While reviewing the iPod, he just couldn't resist pointing out that another pair of headphones which costs as much as the iPod itself would be the perfect accessory to complete the gadget.
Money is no object. Then again, this adequately describes most of my fellow Mac afficianados as well....
I'm reminded of all the promises we heard for the Transmeta chip, only a fraction of which are being realized. And they have an actual product to demonstrate, mind you.
Yeah, it sounds like wishful thinking. I have little faith in processors from unknown companies that claim to do what Intel, AMD and IBM combined haven't yet been able to achieve.
Before I even looked at the pics, I had one thing in mind: a whole new way to play "Virtua Fighter 5".
C'mon, you KNOW that's what they'll do first.
I would love to use mac osx, but i'm not big on the quarterly/yearly 130.00 upgrades. Sorry apple.
No one says you have to upgrade every year -- there's added functionality in 10.2 that many apps take advantage of, but very few apps that began their life before 10.2 require you to have it, although free apps from Apple are the notable exception.
If you want to skip a year, feel free. You're missing less than you think.
The correct joke should be: "Is that a Bananarama in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?"
I just can't understand the insistance of so many online music retailers to go with WMA instead of a more popular and widespread format like MP3.
Because the DRM is what the music industry wants, not what the music store wants. If they could sell you unlicensed MP3s, they probably would. But the copyright holders want control over the files THEY offer the music stores, so some DRM is implanted to give it. It's not flawless, but it's better than nothing.
With the iTunes Music Store about to come to Windows, and the iPod already working well there, I'd say Apple has already successfully entered the Windows market by doing an end run around Microsoft. They've found a way to make money from Windows users -- first with hardware (iPod), then software (iTunes) -- without taking any Windows marketshare at all.
Replacing Windows with OS X is a big change for any computer user. Adding an iPod and iTunes to Windows is much, much easier. They don't have to beat Microsoft to make money.
If you couldn't tell, you obviously need to read a bit more than the first paragraph.
I know, I know, this is Slashdot... but it's funny enough to be worth it.
Did you finish reading the whole Linux-to-WinXP "review"? By the time you got to the section where he was astonished at this strange, new Internet Explorer browser that 90% of web surfers used, it should have been obvious that it was satire.
Michael's only oversight was failing to add the "It's funny. Laugh." icon to the story.
One of the hallmarks of classic science fiction
Not "hallmark", "landmark".
It used microwaves instead of "invisible lasers"
Thanks for clearing that up; I was worried what would happen if they tried flying these things through a cloud bank. (Isn't a microwave laser more succinctly known as a maser?)
Apple wants to make money
Why do you say that like it's somehow a bad thing? I mean, even Mandrake wants to make money....
debugging techniques to report, find, and fix the bugs that drive the most users crazy every day.
Can you do something about these ladybugs that are driving Midwesterners nuts, then?
I've seen that information about the history of the US dollar elsewhere; I just used the e2 writeup because it was most convenient. Here's info from The Straight Dope if you want something more credible.
Round coins, besides the simple convenience of comfort in one's cloth pockets, are easier to use in vending machines. I'd hate to have a polygonal one no matter what it replaced.
The Sacajawea has a smooth edge, the quarter a ribbed one. Plus the quarter's noticably thinner. I'm fully sighted, but I can tell the difference by touch every single time.
I love the dollar coins, but like you said, I think the mints should've phased out the dollar bills by now if they expected us to take it seriously.
The crazy thing is, CSS support is the least of IE's complaints. The security holes are a bigger one. Lack of native popup blocking. No tabs (which I've really gotten used to). And I really like Mozilla's integrated bookmark bar and search bar.
IE is simple (mostly), but there's LOTS of room for improvement. It's no longer the best browser by any measure. Monopolies suck, plain and simple.
Try Avant Browser if you must use IE. It adds a shell around the browser for tab integration, popup blocking, and all those other goodies you like best about Opera and Mozilla.
Sadly, it can't do anything for IE's HTML or CSS support....
Gee, imagine that... counterfeiters actually keeping up with changes in the most desirable currency on the planet.
In all honesty, the Mint has known for years that the "greenbacks" we use are easy to confuse and counterfeit. It'd be nice to have all our bills instantly be different sizes, colors and textures, but that would be way too much adjustment. So they're introducing changes gradually -- first redesigning the bills, then adding some color. Probably in another five years they'll add even more color and (if we're very, very lucky) phase out the $1 bill entirely in favor of the coin.
For now... What happens when a few years down the road, the guy running Eolas decides he wants a new jet or yacht?
Then the Mozilla Foundation or Opera Software or the KDE development team are without a doubt the last people he should ask for spare change.