I kinda disagree - Why go down against a larger stronger opponent? Morpheus was bigger and concievably stronger. He also knew more about the matrix, than Neo at that point. Against that the best tactic is still keep him away from you, and look for an out. Morpheus should've put Neo on the ground except he was trying to teach him to use the matrix, not proper fighting techniques. As for the fight with Smith, well the same argument kinda holds, Smith is supposed to be stronger. But my I thought (but might have forgotten) Neo was still looking for a way out at that point. In that case you don't want to get stuck on the ground, cuz then you are stuck there till one of you wins. And you're really screwed if any others show up. True what they showed you in the movie was not the "best" fighting techniques (not that there really is any one best), but more of a pretty picture, that almost can be seen to have a reason, that kinda helps the story/prettiness of the movie, if you suspend your disbelief. Errr something like that. -cpd
OK just as a background check I've worked on some haptic stuff. Haptic being a magic word that means force feedback for lack of a better definition. I worked specifically on two projects, which had much better hardware than this thing. With those it was possible, to feel things but not perfectly. Generally (although this was 1-2 years ago) minute details were lost. Things like textures were difficult to feel. Best example I can relate was you hand running quickly over a keyboard type texture. Friction and drag were possible but not very accurate or reliable. That stuff was all done on the PHANTOM. Stuff for this device has gotten better but still if you want realistic feeling you need a lot of computer power behind it. Typically it can be used for medical imaging with SGIs. The other device I worked with was based on magnetics. Its here. It had better precision in the feelings, but less of a range (err at least the prototype did its been about 1-2years since I was there). Basically you could feel things very precisely but only over about 1". The PHANTOM allowed you to feel things kinda sloppily over a much larger range (walls were a little spongy).
The point of all that blathering - I doubt that could get an acurate feeling in these mouse type devices. The input an computation you would need is pretty large. More likely it is what was stated in the article here - a rumble pack in a mouse. So I doubt you could tell the difference between a tennis raquet, a can of soda, or an adult site.
As for any benefits to the blind, I believe there are beter products that do braille type output to a wrist rest type thing that sits below your keyboard. This probably can't do braille due to lack of exactness. -cpd
Ummm ok I don't have any proof per se. Really I've never poked through all the source code, or done performance tests myself, however here's how I got to my conclusions -
Most people say FreeBSD has a faster TCP-IP stack. I've seen (no I can't cite anyone) posts saying this and generally I'll believe it. A few technical posts have convinced me.
FreeBSD faster on static-html, and mod_perl routines. Linux faster (by a small margin) on cgi stuff. What's different between these methods? Well the cgi stuff involves creating a new process. The others don't. Thus I think FreeBSD is slower to create a new proccess than linux.
This is how I got to my conclusions. I will admit to a slight error, or confusion. I said "linux is faster". Editorially that should probably have been hacked off or worded to something like "linux is faster once the TCP/IP stack benefits run out for FreeBSD". Again though that might not be the right phrase. I mean that in this case linux is faster for forked proccesses. Err something. Now I might just be confusing myself. -cpd
OK my understanding is that any cgi program when run is actually a new program, and that mod_perl is run from within the web server. My simple translation - cgi's fork mod_prel & static don't fork. From the numbers FreeBSD seems faster at anything that the web server can do. Outside of that FreeBSD slows down, despite having a faster TCP/IP stack, linux is faster. Most websites use some form of database stuff, therefore it makes more sense to use linux for those sites (or so it does to me). Anyways just my thoughts. -cpd
I wonder if someone will abuse this. If its GPL'd then I can take it, modify it, and resell it. Actually I don't even need to modify it. Any publisher can now sell this book. And get into a price war with the real publsihers esp cuz they won't need to pay any royalties. Or I could just download it burn it onto a CD and sell it on cheap bytes. Again no royalties. I am not suggesting this is a good idea, or that someone should do this. Merely that they can. On the flip side I can now take this book and modify it so it fits with what I actually have at my site. So say I put files in X instead of Y I can change it to reflect this. I can also add documentation about other things I have installed. And remove things that I don't, instead of telling users to "Oh just ignore that seection". Translation - Good idea, I just hope nobody abuses it. -cpd
What if Bob slipped a back door in his software? By your reasoning any code can have a back door. Much of it may even. But at least with Open Source type stuff you get the code and can check if there are backdoors. Hey you could even use those same backdoors. Anybody could do it. Apple, M$, Amiga, SGI, Red Hat, Debian, any distributor could. If you buy the disk and run it straight from the box then you are implicitly trusting them not to have put an undocumented hole in your system. Or at least trusting them not to use that hole. Actually its possible that any software you install has this implicit hole. Well at least if you have to install it as root or the equivelevnt. If you are that paranoid then write your own OS or read all of the source. Otherwise you aren't truly paranoid:). -cpd
So - asusming I post something on my site on geocites. And I've agreed to that statement. They have said they can 'sublicence' any 'dirivateve works', and 'modify' it. Therefore they could then say "From the web page of schporto 'I really like my M$ windows.'" Even though what's on my page is "I run linux". scary isn't it. They even have the right to change my web page to reflect that so they aren't actually lying. Does this cover their email service too? That's scary. Now you can't trust anything from a yahoo address cuz even if you know who the sender is yahoo now can claim the right to forge email basically. I don't think they nessecarily will, nor am I saying that they have. But they do have the right to do it if you agree to that. Yeesh. -cpd
Damn that's ugly. Makes anybody using linux look like a poiled kid who just got his ice cream taken away. Jeez.
But, that's probably the response they were looking for. I know there were some clear, well thought out, clean repsonses. Funny I don't see those posted there. Really this looks like Mondcraft saying 'Wahhhh we got flamed and don't like it.' Mind you I think the letters they got were pretty stupid and generally useless. They won't change anyones mind. -cpd
I do wonder how the Religous Right will react to this. I mean on one hand cloning is against God's way (or so I've heard said). And abortion is evil also. But what about aborting a clone (which they kinda did)? Is that bad? Oh well I guess they won't need any special effects for 'Multiplicity' anymore. -cpd
Actually I would think Brin was refering to other LRH books. When I read Battlefield Earth I really didn't see the hero as that much of a demigod figure. Well no more that the hero in the Postman. However it didn't fit in real well with his 'ask an interesting question' part of scifi. But it was an interesting set of dilemas. Some of LRH other books (ummm what was that dekology thing called?) had larger than life characters. -cpd
I'm actually currently working on a project that this could be great for. Mass storage of lots o' data. Like every manual for every piece of equipment this company has ever owned. Trust me its a lot. We actually figure possibbly around 100-200GB. With this we could have nice mirroring etc. Instead we're looking at arrays of 10 18GB disks. Personally I'd rather have a couple of the biggies in an array cuz I know we'll get more manuals. So no the average user doesn't nessecarily 'need' it. But businesses can definately use it. -cpd
So its against their rules (and possibly the law by their statements) to have a link to a defamatory article. Its also wrong to provide that link in any way. What about a description of that article? By mentioning the defamation aren't you doing more than providing a link? So now its against the rules (laws?) to talk about defamation. Does that mean the Anti-Defamation league 9as an example) is illegal? (Yeah I know that's in the US and this law is in the UK but it still may apply) And what if in my sig I provided a link the the Anti-defamation league (www.adl.org) from which you can get a list of 'hate sites'. Does that make it illegal to provide that information? This could get out of hand. Not to mention any flaws with me being responsible for what you say. Completely seperate issue that is even more idiotic. -cpd
Just to follow up - Sun Tzu's Art of War. Sun Tzu lived circa 400-320BC Buddha was ~6th century BC. Not sure of any influences Buddha had on SunTzu. -cpd
So does anybody know of a reason why the north pole is so low and the south is so high? My only explanation is that plate tectonics at work. It kinda looks like what the earth did a long time ago (pangea?) and will eventually look like just ummm crushed on the other side. Maybe Mars had the same think but instead of an east west movement Mars has a North South one. I dunno I just found it strange. -cpd
Although I have nothing against making more money I'd rather be doing interesting things. Personally I'd be willing to take pay cuts if it meant working on things I really liked. I'd rather be making less money working in robotics in linux (what I find nifty), than making more programming budgeting apps on windows. -cpd
OK its not that old but a friend is still using a Apple II for some engineering calcs. Course he probably doesn't want to enter this. They'd take away his computer. I think he'd be really annoyed its the only computer that program works on. And I don't know where the code is. -cpd
This seems great. Not getting into the licencing part, cross functionality between Gnome and KDE is good. I have both. Personally I tend to use gnome more, but only cuz I think KDE is _too_ slick. My only question is - Is Gnome gonna be able to do the same thing? I mean can I use KOffice in Gnome? I'm happy I can use my Gnome apps in KDE but I wanna be able to go the other way. I don't want to be 'required' to use KDE to run something. That bothers me. Just my opinion. -cpd
I may be wrong but isn't he in the process/or just did move? Move your computer. Add a pet to a new environment. Watch how soon the power cord gets ripped out of socket. That takes down any computer mighty fast. Course I'm guessing and may be completely off base. But really even if it was down for a little bit there are hundereds of reasons this could've happened that are far more likely than the OS crashing - in my opinion. -cpd
If you look at the numbers and not just the graphs, aren't these numbers just a little ridiculous? I'm not real sure exactly what is meant by these numbers, but here's my reading of them. I mean at 60 clients linux has 2000 requests per sec, solaris has 5000, and NT has 4000. That means each client is requesting ~30 items/sec for linux, ~83 items/sec for solaris, and ~66 for NT. That's either really quick clicking, or really complicated pages. Then there's the other test, which is more understandable, throughput vs client load. Even so its not bad. Look 300 Mb/sec vs 200 Mb/sec for 60 clients is not bad. Really each client gets about 5Mb/sec or 3Mb/sec. For most uses this is probably fine. I expext that multi-Mb document to take a while to open. Even from my own hard drive. Bandwidth is more of a concern I'd imagine at this point.
That said let's actually look at the graph for a minute. On the WebBench test 60 clients is about the point it seems that NT levels off, can't really tell they cut the graph off. Yet the quote below has you believing different "Solaris and NT had plenty of CPU cycles to spare." And linux wasn't exactly losing any ground at that point - ok a little lower but not much. It seemed to hit a stable point. What about more clients? And then there's the Netbench graph. I mean look at NT plumet. Linux hits 16 clients and levels off at 200 Mbps. Nt hits 48 clients with 350Mbps then falls down to 300Mbps by adding 12 clients. Linux added 44 cleints and lost maybe 50Mbps. To me this looks like linux acts like a marathon runner, getting to a distance then setting cruise and holding steady. NT on the other hand is like s sprinter, burning itself out and working hard quickly but won't last real long. Yeah the sprinter will beat the marathoner in a 1 - 2 mile race, but look out for that 5 - 10 - 26.2 mile race.
My point is you get fine, predictable preformance, regardless of the amount of work asked of linux. Meanwhile NT seems fine for small amounts but the more you ask the less likely you are to get it. I want to see the benchmarks with higher numbers. I'd expect linux to hold around its same mark, and NT to fall steadily. Why 60? Why not 100? 100 is even (ish), why not 50? 60 just seems like an odd number. -cpd
I don't like it but the above was correct. Currently there isn't ethnic cleansing in the US. There is in Kosovo. However the US has done this in the past. As any Native American. The trail of tears was pretty damn nasty affair. However, some of the leaders of the Native American community have come forward to say they are in favor of this bombing. Because they don't want what happened to them at the hands of the US gov't to happen to others. -cpd
My argument was that there is nothing better than RSA now. Therefore it is still state of the art. A wheel is trivial but still state of the art because nothing does the job (of a wheel) better than a wheel. My arguement (looking back) was more along the lines that a patent should be granted for X years, or until the idea patented is no longer state of the art. In this model RSA would still be patented unless you can prove something is signifigantly better. The streaming audio patent though would have been forgotten by now. Determining X such that it is fair is rather difficult though and I do think that 17(?) years is too long esp for software. What is fair, I don't know. State of the art does not nessecarily mean complicated beyond human comprehension. It mearly means the best implementation for something. -cpd
I am against IP in some cases. In software there is little in sense in have patents and copyrights for as long as they exist. In most cases these patents expire well after the art has become trivial. For example a while back there was a discussion about someone claiming a patent on downloading and paying for audio over the internet. The patent was filed in '88 (I think). Ok in '88 the patent was probable semi original. Paying for things over the internet especially sounds was a rather new concept. Now though the patent is still in effect and the concept is trivial. Much too long a patent. RSA on the otherhand is still (by my limited understanding) state of the art crypto. And still covered under a patent. A good thing in my opinion. In other areas patents are even more applicable. Pharmaceuticals - drugs rarely make it to market before they have only a few years left on patents. Therefore they have a little time to recoup a large outlay of cash (in research). In this sense it almost seems that the patents are too short. I think that there should be varying patent lengths. Or the patents get a short reexamination upon the annual renewal.
On a side note I wonder if patents should be rewarded more. Yeah I said that right. Consider this intelectual Darwinism. Currently money runs the world. As a game imagine a changing of the rules. Companies can no longer own patents. Only people can. And they last longer. Therefore the better a patent you come up with the more money you make. I also tend to think that the smarter you are the more willing you may be to share the information with more people/companies. Of course I make the assumption that more smart people develop patents. Suddenly smart people become like sports stars. snicker I could almost see the headline now "Transmeta signs Linus for $15mil over 5 years."
Slashdot Mirror
I kinda disagree -
Why go down against a larger stronger opponent? Morpheus was bigger and concievably stronger. He also knew more about the matrix, than Neo at that point. Against that the best tactic is still keep him away from you, and look for an out. Morpheus should've put Neo on the ground except he was trying to teach him to use the matrix, not proper fighting techniques.
As for the fight with Smith, well the same argument kinda holds, Smith is supposed to be stronger. But my I thought (but might have forgotten) Neo was still looking for a way out at that point. In that case you don't want to get stuck on the ground, cuz then you are stuck there till one of you wins. And you're really screwed if any others show up.
True what they showed you in the movie was not the "best" fighting techniques (not that there really is any one best), but more of a pretty picture, that almost can be seen to have a reason, that kinda helps the story/prettiness of the movie, if you suspend your disbelief. Errr something like that.
-cpd
OK just as a background check I've worked on some haptic stuff. Haptic being a magic word that means force feedback for lack of a better definition. I worked specifically on two projects, which had much better hardware than this thing. With those it was possible, to feel things but not perfectly. Generally (although this was 1-2 years ago) minute details were lost. Things like textures were difficult to feel. Best example I can relate was you hand running quickly over a keyboard type texture. Friction and drag were possible but not very accurate or reliable. That stuff was all done on the PHANTOM. Stuff for this device has gotten better but still if you want realistic feeling you need a lot of computer power behind it. Typically it can be used for medical imaging with SGIs. The other device I worked with was based on magnetics. Its here. It had better precision in the feelings, but less of a range (err at least the prototype did its been about 1-2years since I was there). Basically you could feel things very precisely but only over about 1". The PHANTOM allowed you to feel things kinda sloppily over a much larger range (walls were a little spongy).
The point of all that blathering - I doubt that could get an acurate feeling in these mouse type devices. The input an computation you would need is pretty large. More likely it is what was stated in the article here - a rumble pack in a mouse. So I doubt you could tell the difference between a tennis raquet, a can of soda, or an adult site.
As for any benefits to the blind, I believe there are beter products that do braille type output to a wrist rest type thing that sits below your keyboard. This probably can't do braille due to lack of exactness.
-cpd
Ummm ok I don't have any proof per se. Really I've never poked through all the source code, or done performance tests myself, however here's how I got to my conclusions -
Most people say FreeBSD has a faster TCP-IP stack. I've seen (no I can't cite anyone) posts saying this and generally I'll believe it. A few technical posts have convinced me.
FreeBSD faster on static-html, and mod_perl routines. Linux faster (by a small margin) on cgi stuff. What's different between these methods? Well the cgi stuff involves creating a new process. The others don't. Thus I think FreeBSD is slower to create a new proccess than linux.
This is how I got to my conclusions. I will admit to a slight error, or confusion. I said "linux is faster". Editorially that should probably have been hacked off or worded to something like "linux is faster once the TCP/IP stack benefits run out for FreeBSD". Again though that might not be the right phrase. I mean that in this case linux is faster for forked proccesses. Err something. Now I might just be confusing myself.
-cpd
OK my understanding is that any cgi program when run is actually a new program, and that mod_perl is run from within the web server. My simple translation - cgi's fork mod_prel & static don't fork. From the numbers FreeBSD seems faster at anything that the web server can do. Outside of that FreeBSD slows down, despite having a faster TCP/IP stack, linux is faster. Most websites use some form of database stuff, therefore it makes more sense to use linux for those sites (or so it does to me).
Anyways just my thoughts.
-cpd
I wonder if someone will abuse this. If its GPL'd then I can take it, modify it, and resell it. Actually I don't even need to modify it. Any publisher can now sell this book. And get into a price war with the real publsihers esp cuz they won't need to pay any royalties. Or I could just download it burn it onto a CD and sell it on cheap bytes. Again no royalties.
I am not suggesting this is a good idea, or that someone should do this. Merely that they can.
On the flip side I can now take this book and modify it so it fits with what I actually have at my site. So say I put files in X instead of Y I can change it to reflect this. I can also add documentation about other things I have installed. And remove things that I don't, instead of telling users to "Oh just ignore that seection".
Translation - Good idea, I just hope nobody abuses it.
-cpd
What if Bob slipped a back door in his software? :).
By your reasoning any code can have a back door. Much of it may even. But at least with Open Source type stuff you get the code and can check if there are backdoors. Hey you could even use those same backdoors. Anybody could do it. Apple, M$, Amiga, SGI, Red Hat, Debian, any distributor could. If you buy the disk and run it straight from the box then you are implicitly trusting them not to have put an undocumented hole in your system. Or at least trusting them not to use that hole. Actually its possible that any software you install has this implicit hole. Well at least if you have to install it as root or the equivelevnt.
If you are that paranoid then write your own OS or read all of the source. Otherwise you aren't truly paranoid
-cpd
So - asusming I post something on my site on geocites. And I've agreed to that statement. They have said they can 'sublicence' any 'dirivateve works', and 'modify' it. Therefore they could then say "From the web page of schporto 'I really like my M$ windows.'" Even though what's on my page is "I run linux". scary isn't it. They even have the right to change my web page to reflect that so they aren't actually lying.
Does this cover their email service too? That's scary. Now you can't trust anything from a yahoo address cuz even if you know who the sender is yahoo now can claim the right to forge email basically. I don't think they nessecarily will, nor am I saying that they have. But they do have the right to do it if you agree to that. Yeesh.
-cpd
And what do you store your code in?
Lemme guess - bitmap?
Damn that's ugly. Makes anybody using linux look like a poiled kid who just got his ice cream taken away. Jeez.
But, that's probably the response they were looking for. I know there were some clear, well thought out, clean repsonses. Funny I don't see those posted there. Really this looks like Mondcraft saying 'Wahhhh we got flamed and don't like it.' Mind you I think the letters they got were pretty stupid and generally useless. They won't change anyones mind.
-cpd
I do wonder how the Religous Right will react to this. I mean on one hand cloning is against God's way (or so I've heard said). And abortion is evil also. But what about aborting a clone (which they kinda did)? Is that bad? Oh well I guess they won't need any special effects for 'Multiplicity' anymore.
-cpd
Actually I would think Brin was refering to other LRH books. When I read Battlefield Earth I really didn't see the hero as that much of a demigod figure. Well no more that the hero in the Postman. However it didn't fit in real well with his 'ask an interesting question' part of scifi. But it was an interesting set of dilemas. Some of LRH other books (ummm what was that dekology thing called?) had larger than life characters.
-cpd
I'm actually currently working on a project that this could be great for. Mass storage of lots o' data. Like every manual for every piece of equipment this company has ever owned. Trust me its a lot. We actually figure possibbly around 100-200GB. With this we could have nice mirroring etc. Instead we're looking at arrays of 10 18GB disks. Personally I'd rather have a couple of the biggies in an array cuz I know we'll get more manuals.
So no the average user doesn't nessecarily 'need' it. But businesses can definately use it.
-cpd
So its against their rules (and possibly the law by their statements) to have a link to a defamatory article. Its also wrong to provide that link in any way. What about a description of that article? By mentioning the defamation aren't you doing more than providing a link? So now its against the rules (laws?) to talk about defamation. Does that mean the Anti-Defamation league 9as an example) is illegal? (Yeah I know that's in the US and this law is in the UK but it still may apply) And what if in my sig I provided a link the the Anti-defamation league (www.adl.org) from which you can get a list of 'hate sites'. Does that make it illegal to provide that information? This could get out of hand.
Not to mention any flaws with me being responsible for what you say. Completely seperate issue that is even more idiotic.
-cpd
I found pretty clear installation directions in the README (or similar file can't remember) on the CD.
-cpd
Yeah but if you get that new Sony dog then Excel might be able to reprogram and walk your dog for you.
-cpd
Just to follow up -
Sun Tzu's Art of War.
Sun Tzu lived circa 400-320BC
Buddha was ~6th century BC.
Not sure of any influences Buddha had on SunTzu.
-cpd
So does anybody know of a reason why the north pole is so low and the south is so high? My only explanation is that plate tectonics at work. It kinda looks like what the earth did a long time ago (pangea?) and will eventually look like just ummm crushed on the other side. Maybe Mars had the same think but instead of an east west movement Mars has a North South one.
I dunno I just found it strange.
-cpd
Although I have nothing against making more money I'd rather be doing interesting things. Personally I'd be willing to take pay cuts if it meant working on things I really liked. I'd rather be making less money working in robotics in linux (what I find nifty), than making more programming budgeting apps on windows.
-cpd
OK its not that old but a friend is still using a Apple II for some engineering calcs. Course he probably doesn't want to enter this. They'd take away his computer. I think he'd be really annoyed its the only computer that program works on. And I don't know where the code is.
-cpd
This seems great. Not getting into the licencing part, cross functionality between Gnome and KDE is good. I have both. Personally I tend to use gnome more, but only cuz I think KDE is _too_ slick. My only question is - Is Gnome gonna be able to do the same thing? I mean can I use KOffice in Gnome? I'm happy I can use my Gnome apps in KDE but I wanna be able to go the other way. I don't want to be 'required' to use KDE to run something. That bothers me.
Just my opinion.
-cpd
I may be wrong but isn't he in the process/or just did move? Move your computer. Add a pet to a new environment. Watch how soon the power cord gets ripped out of socket. That takes down any computer mighty fast. Course I'm guessing and may be completely off base. But really even if it was down for a little bit there are hundereds of reasons this could've happened that are far more likely than the OS crashing - in my opinion.
-cpd
If you look at the numbers and not just the graphs, aren't these numbers just a little ridiculous? I'm not real sure exactly what is meant by these numbers, but here's my reading of them. I mean at 60 clients linux has 2000 requests per sec, solaris has 5000, and NT has 4000. That means each client is requesting ~30 items/sec for linux, ~83 items/sec for solaris, and ~66 for NT. That's either really quick clicking, or really complicated pages. Then there's the other test, which is more understandable, throughput vs client load. Even so its not bad. Look 300 Mb/sec vs 200 Mb/sec for 60 clients is not bad. Really each client gets about 5Mb/sec or 3Mb/sec. For most uses this is probably fine. I expext that multi-Mb document to take a while to open. Even from my own hard drive. Bandwidth is more of a concern I'd imagine at this point.
That said let's actually look at the graph for a minute. On the WebBench test 60 clients is about the point it seems that NT levels off, can't really tell they cut the graph off. Yet the quote below has you believing different "Solaris and NT had plenty of CPU cycles to spare." And linux wasn't exactly losing any ground at that point - ok a little lower but not much. It seemed to hit a stable point. What about more clients? And then there's the Netbench graph. I mean look at NT plumet. Linux hits 16 clients and levels off at 200 Mbps. Nt hits 48 clients with 350Mbps then falls down to 300Mbps by adding 12 clients. Linux added 44 cleints and lost maybe 50Mbps. To me this looks like linux acts like a marathon runner, getting to a distance then setting cruise and holding steady. NT on the other hand is like s sprinter, burning itself out and working hard quickly but won't last real long. Yeah the sprinter will beat the marathoner in a 1 - 2 mile race, but look out for that 5 - 10 - 26.2 mile race.
My point is you get fine, predictable preformance, regardless of the amount of work asked of linux. Meanwhile NT seems fine for small amounts but the more you ask the less likely you are to get it. I want to see the benchmarks with higher numbers. I'd expect linux to hold around its same mark, and NT to fall steadily. Why 60? Why not 100? 100 is even (ish), why not 50? 60 just seems like an odd number.
-cpd
I don't like it but the above was correct. Currently there isn't ethnic cleansing in the US. There is in Kosovo. However the US has done this in the past. As any Native American. The trail of tears was pretty damn nasty affair. However, some of the leaders of the Native American community have come forward to say they are in favor of this bombing. Because they don't want what happened to them at the hands of the US gov't to happen to others.
-cpd
My argument was that there is nothing better than RSA now. Therefore it is still state of the art. A wheel is trivial but still state of the art because nothing does the job (of a wheel) better than a wheel. My arguement (looking back) was more along the lines that a patent should be granted for X years, or until the idea patented is no longer state of the art. In this model RSA would still be patented unless you can prove something is signifigantly better. The streaming audio patent though would have been forgotten by now. Determining X such that it is fair is rather difficult though and I do think that 17(?) years is too long esp for software. What is fair, I don't know.
State of the art does not nessecarily mean complicated beyond human comprehension. It mearly means the best implementation for something.
-cpd
I am against IP in some cases. In software there is little in sense in have patents and copyrights for as long as they exist. In most cases these patents expire well after the art has become trivial. For example a while back there was a discussion about someone claiming a patent on downloading and paying for audio over the internet. The patent was filed in '88 (I think). Ok in '88 the patent was probable semi original. Paying for things over the internet especially sounds was a rather new concept. Now though the patent is still in effect and the concept is trivial. Much too long a patent. RSA on the otherhand is still (by my limited understanding) state of the art crypto. And still covered under a patent. A good thing in my opinion. In other areas patents are even more applicable. Pharmaceuticals - drugs rarely make it to market before they have only a few years left on patents. Therefore they have a little time to recoup a large outlay of cash (in research). In this sense it almost seems that the patents are too short. I think that there should be varying patent lengths. Or the patents get a short reexamination upon the annual renewal.
On a side note I wonder if patents should be rewarded more. Yeah I said that right. Consider this intelectual Darwinism. Currently money runs the world. As a game imagine a changing of the rules. Companies can no longer own patents. Only people can. And they last longer. Therefore the better a patent you come up with the more money you make. I also tend to think that the smarter you are the more willing you may be to share the information with more people/companies. Of course I make the assumption that more smart people develop patents. Suddenly smart people become like sports stars. snicker I could almost see the headline now "Transmeta signs Linus for $15mil over 5 years."
-cpd