Jeff Bates is a co-founder of Slashdot.org, and executive editor of Slashdot.com
No, really! Right here!
In related news, Battleship Potemkin will be screened tomorrow in 10-250 (I be damned if I know what that means, a hall number?). A classic movie, must see, no copyright, DVD, DeCSS, you get the picture. --
They don't want their intellectual property to be reverse engineered. Of course there's no legal backing of this desire of theirs, but can't you show minimal respect for the mentally challenged (taking into account actual amount of intellect involved)? --
Linux? Picky? Linux is an OS. It is not some animated object with its own free will. It's a string of bits. It can't be picky. Some people are picky, but commercial closed-source software vendors have every right to disregard these people. And guess what? They do. --
So the MPAA is cutting out part of linux's marketshare. What a fscking stupid argument.
But MPAA does cut out part of Linux's marketshare. Why is this a fscking stupid argument?
Perhaps if linux would get it's act together and get binary compatability sorted so we could run non-opensourced (shock horror) code on
it, then things like this would be more likely to exist.
But why does Linux need a non-opensourced solution when there's a perfectly good open-sourced one? Because one FSCKING STUPID CORRUPT AMERICAN JUDGE says so? --
It's is not, it isn't ain't, and it's it's, not its, if you mean it
is. If you don't, it's its. Then too, it's hers. It isn't her's. It
isn't our's either. It's ours, and likewise yours and theirs.
If you did, you'd quickly find out that all such schemes in development have an ASCII-only fallback mechanism. It is the requirement. Otherwise older programs will fail miserably. Quoth the doc:
The ASCII Compatible Encoding (ACE) is used to support older software
expecting only ASCII and to support downgrading from 8-bit to 7-bit
ASCII in other protocols (like SMTP). It is a transition mechanism
and will no longer be supported at some future time when it is so
decided.
All software following this specification MUST recognise ACE and
decode them into their true name when doing matching and handling. A
DNS server must recognise ACE in a query.
AFAIK Chinese didn't use movable type. They engraved entire pages and printed from those.
But I grant you an option to use Chinese in your printed matter anyway, regardless of the printing method. If you write something by hand, don't forget to use Phoenician! --
A fingerprint is an inherent property of a file, much like your own fingerprints are inherent properties of your fingers. Both kind of fingerprints are used to identify things. A cryptographic hash is a kind of fingerprint. If two files have the same hash they are likely to be identical.
A watermark is a piece of information artificially added to a file. They are akin of watermarks on dollar bills. There is one difference though.
Digital watermarks are designed for difficulty of removal, while watermarks on money are designed for difficulty of reproduction. Watermarks are used to certify autenticity of things. A cryptographic signature is a kind of watermark. It can certify that I, not somebody else, signed some file. --
On a somewhat related note, Apache takeover has
practically finished in Ghana. --
Re:Has Anybody Used the Mindstorms Before?
on
Lego + Linux HOWTO
·
· Score: 3
Yes it's limited. Some people like to push things to their limits, and Mindstorms provides plenty of opportunities.
A lot of people make homebrew sensors for Mindstorms. If you also build a port expander, and use LegOS, the RCX brick suddenly becomes not so awfully limited compared to HandyBoard. (Disclaimer: I didn't try any of these things -- yet.)
HandyBoard is ridiculously expensive. $200? Come on. If you can find one for less than $100 I'm willing to reconsider.
If replacement costs are specified, it's a contract, and contracts ought to be respected. If, however, you try and pass a law that forces me to continue sales...yeah, right. --
Yes, exception specs are problematic. As for resuming exceptions I think it was a deliberate decision not to include them. I forgot exactly why. If you need them badly you can emulate them anyway so it's less of a problem.
Sec. 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or
phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including
multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in
any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include -
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether
such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit
educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in
relation to the copyrighted work as a whole;
and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or
value of the copyrighted work. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon
consideration of all the above factors.
Copying abandonware is not commercial, and has no effect upon the potential market for or
value of the copyrighted work. So that's 2 of 4 points. I think it's not unreasonable to treat such copying as fair use. (Not all 4 points must be satisfied; courts will consider all of them and their relative importance in each particular case.) Granted, this is not scholarship or research or news reporting, but it need not be. For instance, backup and timeshifting are not mentioned here, but they were found to fall under fair use. --
What do you have against exceptions? They are immensely useful. Unfortunately I have yet to see an open source C++ project that even mentions exception safety, and that's a bad thing. In particular, wrappers around callback-based C libraries have almost no chance of being exception safe. And if you use an e-unsafe library in your program, and that library utilizes callback architecture (every OO library does BTW), you can practically forget about using exceptions in your code. Too bad, no freedom of choice:( --
You'd be right if you say "pre-stellar" and "post-stellar". "Solar" generally means "pertaining to Sol", and elements used in fission are not created in Sol, right? --
--
You realize wrongly. This is whoring for (+1, Funny). See the sig.
--
DC gives you free hardware! Evil, evil DC!
--
They don't want their intellectual property to be reverse engineered. Of course there's no legal backing of this desire of theirs, but can't you show minimal respect for the mentally challenged (taking into account actual amount of intellect involved)?
--
Linux? Picky? Linux is an OS. It is not some animated object with its own free will. It's a string of bits. It can't be picky. Some people are picky, but commercial closed-source software vendors have every right to disregard these people. And guess what? They do.
--
But MPAA does cut out part of Linux's marketshare. Why is this a fscking stupid argument?
Perhaps if linux would get it's act together and get binary compatability sorted so we could run non-opensourced (shock horror) code on it, then things like this would be more likely to exist.
But why does Linux need a non-opensourced solution when there's a perfectly good open-sourced one? Because one FSCKING STUPID CORRUPT AMERICAN JUDGE says so?
--
--
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Bad point. What if I'm making a site for Norvegian ex-pats in Thailand?
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But I grant you an option to use Chinese in your printed matter anyway, regardless of the printing method. If you write something by hand, don't forget to use Phoenician!
--
Dude, your .sig rocks :)
--
A fingerprint is an inherent property of a file, much like your own fingerprints are inherent properties of your fingers. Both kind of fingerprints are used to identify things. A cryptographic hash is a kind of fingerprint. If two files have the same hash they are likely to be identical.
A watermark is a piece of information artificially added to a file. They are akin of watermarks on dollar bills. There is one difference though. Digital watermarks are designed for difficulty of removal, while watermarks on money are designed for difficulty of reproduction. Watermarks are used to certify autenticity of things. A cryptographic signature is a kind of watermark. It can certify that I, not somebody else, signed some file.
--
Try Deja News Classic. (Yes moderators, this is -1, Redundant)
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Try deja.com/=dnc/. Works much better.
--
On a somewhat related note, Apache takeover has practically finished in Ghana.
--
--
On many platforms, yes. However compilers tend to improve. Non-exception-safe code tends to stay non-exception-safe.
resembles, almost too closely, the GOTO
No way. It is a preemptable abort().
allows for multiple exit paths
They are fire exits.
exceptions are one great example of a badly used feature.
In my experience exceptions lead to cleaner code. YMMW.
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If replacement costs are specified, it's a contract, and contracts ought to be respected. If, however, you try and pass a law that forces me to continue sales...yeah, right.
--
Where can I download your code? :)
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So I'm obliged to provide a copy to everyone who's willing to pay. Fine. That'll be 1,000,000,000, sir. Sorry, we can only accept cash.
--
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What do you have against exceptions? They are immensely useful. Unfortunately I have yet to see an open source C++ project that even mentions exception safety, and that's a bad thing. In particular, wrappers around callback-based C libraries have almost no chance of being exception safe. And if you use an e-unsafe library in your program, and that library utilizes callback architecture (every OO library does BTW), you can practically forget about using exceptions in your code. Too bad, no freedom of choice :(
--
True. And loops are just glorified gotos when one looks beneath the surface. So? I don't want to look beneath the surface too often.
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'nuff said.
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You'd be right if you say "pre-stellar" and "post-stellar". "Solar" generally means "pertaining to Sol", and elements used in fission are not created in Sol, right?
--