I'm fairly comfortable that we've got a long way to go to screw up the earths core temperature and/or magnetism (that's not based on any scientific knowledge, btw). It seems, however, that we could much more quickly screw up ocean currents by changing the thermal gradients that exist (again, not based on hard science numbers). Since much of our weather patterns are based on those ocean currents, I would venture that a real effort to convert to using ocean thermals to satify a larger portion of humaities need for energy could very well alter the global weather in just a few generations. Maybe the numbers don't support my gut feeling, but I would need to be convinved otherwise before I considered using ocean gradients for power.
(and yes - using the gradients means reducing said gradients - it's that whole "laws of thermodynamics" thing Homer keeps reminding Lisa about)
So you have to buy one at double the price ($400 Ultimate version retail purchase required, OEM doesn't qualify), then you get the $200 version for half price ($100) on the rest of the families computers. Oooooh, what a bargain.
Seriously, how many people are being "sold" a piece of software which is really only supposed to be the interface between your hardware and your applicaitons, and judging it based on a zillion other criteria?
I don't do any "work" in the OS. It doesn't make me money. It doesn't (shouldn't) add anything. It is - and I'm going to get pedantic here - an Operating System. Can we just get over the whole OS as an application thing? Okay, I suppose in the era of GUIs, it's a windows manager, too. We, the "consumers" have apparently been duped in to thinking that the system that runs the basic computer system should also get us coffee and a handy when we're in the mood.
I read part of the article, and it's talking about constency and feel, and pretty gui widgets. I'm less and less impressed with how efficient these things might make us, to the point that I think much of the OS is actually getting in the way of getting work done. Heck, it's almost as bad has having/. in term of productivity loss - sure it's fun, but when you get down to it, it's really just a waste of time.
Who knows, maybe I'm a slackware guy after all. Or maybe I'd do better with OS-X. But in reality, the programs I run happen to run on x86 architure and rely on Windows componenets, so there isn't much choice. I'd just like to get back to the basics. For a windowed environment, I guess that's NT3.5(1). Man, I just feel old today.
it sounds like a patent application is in order. Everything lines up - no working model, no practical experience, no real plan to market - yup, I'd say that's a patent in the making. Who cares if it takes someone else another decade to get it done, that leaves 17 years of extortion.
Not quite "everywhere", but Virginia Tech has it in most places on campus (~30k students over a pretty big area). It's pretty fast, even in well-populated areas. Interestingly, the hardwired, general access 10bT ports are no faster than the wireless, as I found out one day when I figured I might get a speed boost while d/l a new knoppix image off a (known) very fast server. Still peaked at 3Mb - really no better than my DSL at the office. Go figure.
Yes, and since TI owns much of the patent base for micromirror stuff, we can half half the effective pixels for the same price, and glacially slow advancement, just like we get from them for projectors. WooHoo!
Should be be genuinely concerned about stingers, I would highly recommend you go buy a lottery ticket this week. Based on the odds, you're far more likely to win enough money off of a single ticket that you can buy your own plane (and pilot), and dispense with the whole commercial-airline-travel-as-an-inviting-target model you so fear.
You're confusing artists with copyright holders. Most of the former must sell all their rights to someone else to get their "big break," and so the actual owners of this IP are the members of the RIAA. Of course, I didn't RTFA, but I suspect that someone acting on behalf of an RIAA member instigated the raid. Hence, the copyright owners were complaining. The original artist, of course, has no say in the matter.
A couple hundred americans? It is estimated that 1180 americans die every day from smoking-related complications, but you don't see smoking outlawed, do you?
It's not about American deaths, it's about the theater surrounding politics.
The main reason why family is considered a liability in IT is because IT is an industry where sweatshop labour is considered the holy grail.
You clearly have never worked at an architecture, marketing, or any other firm that is driven by the need to have brain-hours to make money. They all flog their people to be caffine-overdosing, red-eyed drones. It's everywhere. The only way to get to the top is to stand on top of others. The only way to stay at the top is to keep the others down. There are exceptions of course - but they usually rely on graft or extortion (ex: AutoDesk - great working environment because they can extort $1000/seat out of all of their customers every year. Don't like maintenance? Every three years the format changes to be incompatible with previous releases, and the upgrade charge is *suprise* the same price as 3 years of maintenance!).
I've watched my wife do it. It is exhausting work and worst of all it is tedious. The routine offers no intellectual stimulation. Staying at home is HARD WORK and it's selfless. Don't demean it.
True, but not necessarily universal.
That said, I know - personally - two women who wanted to get pregnant specifically so that tthey could leave the workforce and have someone else deal with the drugery of commuting and the 8-5 grind. One was my wife. Turns out she just really hated he job. Once we found her a better job, and she started to excel at it, she no longer wanted to leave the workforce, and continued working even after our daughter was born (there was an 8 year gap between wanting a baby to get "out", and actually having a baby, btw). The other woman found a prospect, got her MRS degree, had the kid, then ended up getting split up (something about her "best friend" having his baby just 6 months after hers was born bothered her). She found her real wallet man later, which allowed her to quit her job, stay at home (with the child in school), and watch soaps all day. Of course, she kept his cleaning service, which also did his laundry, mended his clothes, changed the linens, etc.
You see, the smart woman who wants "out" will get the baby, then convince the hubby that the kids need daycare for learning and socialization. Then it's just an hour or two in the morning and evening that she has to "work". Oh, she'll be busy. Errands here and there. Pet projects (crafting and baking and scrapbooking, oh, my!) will fill the rest of the time so she's tired enough to need help from DH most nights to put the kids to bed.
Now, this is not the norm. But it does exist. I've seen it almost happen with my wife, and I see it in her friend - in spades - and these are two otherwise normal women from college educated households with professional parents (well, fathers, at least).
Staying home with multiple young children and doing all the housework is a lot of work, and is mind-numbing to boot. Just remember that it actually slacks off quite a bit if the kids are all in school (or daycare), and with enough money it can be quite the easy life. Don't underesimate the drive for a less-stessful life through staying at home - most people (not just women) don't expect raising a family single handed to be quite the task it is.
Then how come Epson hasn't found a cure for cancer, solved world hunger, and figured out how to bring peace to the world? God knows they charge enough for ink to do all of that in a fiscal year (well, at least 2 out of 3, and the last one probably involves nuking from orbit, just to be sure).
I learned english in school in the US northeast, but I live the south now, and can converse easily and fluently with the natives. That's got to count for something.
"you can quit at any time if you feel bad" wasn't much of a disclaimer
I don't know much about it, but I would suspect that by the time you feel bad (i.e. - not just have to take the mother of all leaks), it may be too late.
It is my understanding, incorrect as it may be, that this was cracked using a software reader, not sniffing a hardware (stand-alone) player. You can just download the update. It will be a cat and mouse game, but an irrelevant one. You see, there are far more people who will have to buy a second copy - for whatever reason - than there will be pirates that lose them money. Slashdotters are so myopic on this point - most of the worlds computer users couldn't rip a DVD in a day if their life depended on it. Seriously. And it would take more than a casual hacker to get the information from a hardware player.
Besides, I'm certian the consortium would tell any hardware player mfr who has had their box cracked that they better pony up the fixes for free and do a better job of protecting the IP the next time.
For the record - I don't have either HD format player, and don't intend to get one for some time. I'd love to have HD, and I have an HD set to view it on (albeit fairly small at 51"). I do not support what they are doing, and I hope they fail miserably, but don't be suprised when it's "our" fault things get screwed up.
No, I'm not, I'm trying to look at the case without geek prejudice.
On the surface, it seems pretty simple.
Company A buys company which produces the RealWidget. Company A registers the trademark. Company A supports said xWidget and reaffirms trademark, and affirmation is accepted. Company B has rumors of a widget coming to market Company B has a fantasically popular RealGidget in production Company A comes out with new xWidget product last month - they'll call it the updated version of the old RealWidget. Company B annouces their new product, the RealWidget, to be released in 5 months.
Now there is some question as to whether support of the old RealWidget product by Company A conforms to the requirement that they be using their registered trademark.
Based on that timeline, and ignoring the actual players in the market, there doesn't seem much chance that Company B gets to use the trademark. The use of Real in front of a product name has already been tested in court, and Company B has no basic right to the prefix. Even if Company A happens to lose the trademark battle, they should still retain the common-law trademark.
It is only in light of the fact that Company B is a wildly popular consumer electronics company with a higher advertising profile that there is any real (ha ha) question about the trademark status.
Everyone seems to be missing the point. Existing titles are chump change. Just make the next pressing with the new key. The flurry seems to center around release dates anyway, so no future discs will decode on the compromised player. They don't want to make it impossible, they simply want to make it difficult. Having to keep a key database updated is a pain in the ass. I'd go as far as to say that they don't care about an isolated crack - they'll "fix" it and go on, with updates from time to time. This is a s/w player, not a hardware player, correct? Just require an update.
The point is that they will make this about Piracy, and that its the Pirate's fault that you have to go download an update to get your machine to work. Not their fault (Say "Not my fault" in David Spade's voice an you'll get the idea). Most consumers will believe the newsvertisement they see on ther local station that blames those evil pirates for their suffering. If it weren't for the pirates, their stuff would work. Which can easily be spun at truth - pirates cracked the system, system must be safe or poor artists children will starve, so we had to change the system - all pirates fault. Your mother would fall for that, and you know it.
Right and wrong is irrelevant - it's who takes the blame for the mess that matters, and the industry has a lot of PR money to make sure the finger points at someone else.
I predict that any backlash against key revokation will be addressed by very polished newsvertisements which state that the key revocation is the result of "hacking" by the "pirates" and despite the sincere regret of the problems caused, there is nothing they can do at this point.
Cisco files Delcaration of Use, with "under penalty of perjury" affidavit stating they are using the name.
Now it sounds like everything will hinge on the following: AT a former FA: 2001 - 2006: Cisco continues servicing and providing technical support for the iPhone
So internal documentation may/probably shows continuous use of iPhone in regards to the support of an existing product.
Either
(A) the trademark is shown to be valid, as internal documents support the continued use of the trademark for support purposes OR (B) they don't have the documentation, or it is deemed invalid, in which case whomever signed the extension is clearly guilty of perjury and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
In my opinion, you can't have it both ways - the tradmark is valid and the signer is ok, or the trademark is invalid and the signer goes to jail. There is no middle ground.
Now, in other thoughts on the matter:
(1) If the trademark is up for grabs, and Cisco has an iPhone product on the market which pre-dates the Apple cellular product, don't they still have "dibs" on the name? Can't they re-file for the trademark, and presumably be first in line because of an actual shipping product?
(2) Can Chevy come out with their new "Fairlane" model next year, since Ford clearly is not producing a Fairlane and haven't for more than 7 years? If Ford claims to keep it by offering parts and service for the Fairlane, wouldn't that bolster the case For Cisco, which has supported "their" iPhone product with (at least) service for the last 6 years?
Slashdot Mirror
I'm fairly comfortable that we've got a long way to go to screw up the earths core temperature and/or magnetism (that's not based on any scientific knowledge, btw). It seems, however, that we could much more quickly screw up ocean currents by changing the thermal gradients that exist (again, not based on hard science numbers). Since much of our weather patterns are based on those ocean currents, I would venture that a real effort to convert to using ocean thermals to satify a larger portion of humaities need for energy could very well alter the global weather in just a few generations. Maybe the numbers don't support my gut feeling, but I would need to be convinved otherwise before I considered using ocean gradients for power.
(and yes - using the gradients means reducing said gradients - it's that whole "laws of thermodynamics" thing Homer keeps reminding Lisa about)
So you have to buy one at double the price ($400 Ultimate version retail purchase required, OEM doesn't qualify), then you get the $200 version for half price ($100) on the rest of the families computers. Oooooh, what a bargain.
Seriously, how many people are being "sold" a piece of software which is really only supposed to be the interface between your hardware and your applicaitons, and judging it based on a zillion other criteria?
/. in term of productivity loss - sure it's fun, but when you get down to it, it's really just a waste of time.
I don't do any "work" in the OS. It doesn't make me money. It doesn't (shouldn't) add anything. It is - and I'm going to get pedantic here - an Operating System. Can we just get over the whole OS as an application thing? Okay, I suppose in the era of GUIs, it's a windows manager, too. We, the "consumers" have apparently been duped in to thinking that the system that runs the basic computer system should also get us coffee and a handy when we're in the mood.
I read part of the article, and it's talking about constency and feel, and pretty gui widgets. I'm less and less impressed with how efficient these things might make us, to the point that I think much of the OS is actually getting in the way of getting work done. Heck, it's almost as bad has having
Who knows, maybe I'm a slackware guy after all. Or maybe I'd do better with OS-X. But in reality, the programs I run happen to run on x86 architure and rely on Windows componenets, so there isn't much choice. I'd just like to get back to the basics. For a windowed environment, I guess that's NT3.5(1). Man, I just feel old today.
it sounds like a patent application is in order. Everything lines up - no working model, no practical experience, no real plan to market - yup, I'd say that's a patent in the making. Who cares if it takes someone else another decade to get it done, that leaves 17 years of extortion.
Not quite "everywhere", but Virginia Tech has it in most places on campus (~30k students over a pretty big area). It's pretty fast, even in well-populated areas. Interestingly, the hardwired, general access 10bT ports are no faster than the wireless, as I found out one day when I figured I might get a speed boost while d/l a new knoppix image off a (known) very fast server. Still peaked at 3Mb - really no better than my DSL at the office. Go figure.
I thought we were sheep.
Yes, and since TI owns much of the patent base for micromirror stuff, we can half half the effective pixels for the same price, and glacially slow advancement, just like we get from them for projectors. WooHoo!
Which races are you considering purchasing, and what will be their function in your organization?
/.!
C'mon - you've got to start with the basics! We can't do everything for you here on
Should be be genuinely concerned about stingers, I would highly recommend you go buy a lottery ticket this week. Based on the odds, you're far more likely to win enough money off of a single ticket that you can buy your own plane (and pilot), and dispense with the whole commercial-airline-travel-as-an-inviting-target model you so fear.
PS - ever hear of second hand smoke?
without going faster than light.
It's no wonder you humans never seem to get anywhere. Sublightspeed travel is so, well, primitive.
You're confusing artists with copyright holders. Most of the former must sell all their rights to someone else to get their "big break," and so the actual owners of this IP are the members of the RIAA. Of course, I didn't RTFA, but I suspect that someone acting on behalf of an RIAA member instigated the raid. Hence, the copyright owners were complaining. The original artist, of course, has no say in the matter.
A couple hundred americans? It is estimated that 1180 americans die every day from smoking-related complications, but you don't see smoking outlawed, do you?
It's not about American deaths, it's about the theater surrounding politics.
The main reason why family is considered a liability in IT is because IT is an industry where sweatshop labour is considered the holy grail.
You clearly have never worked at an architecture, marketing, or any other firm that is driven by the need to have brain-hours to make money. They all flog their people to be caffine-overdosing, red-eyed drones. It's everywhere. The only way to get to the top is to stand on top of others. The only way to stay at the top is to keep the others down. There are exceptions of course - but they usually rely on graft or extortion (ex: AutoDesk - great working environment because they can extort $1000/seat out of all of their customers every year. Don't like maintenance? Every three years the format changes to be incompatible with previous releases, and the upgrade charge is *suprise* the same price as 3 years of maintenance!).
I've watched my wife do it. It is exhausting work and worst of all it is tedious. The routine offers no intellectual stimulation. Staying at home is HARD WORK and it's selfless. Don't demean it.
True, but not necessarily universal.
That said, I know - personally - two women who wanted to get pregnant specifically so that tthey could leave the workforce and have someone else deal with the drugery of commuting and the 8-5 grind. One was my wife. Turns out she just really hated he job. Once we found her a better job, and she started to excel at it, she no longer wanted to leave the workforce, and continued working even after our daughter was born (there was an 8 year gap between wanting a baby to get "out", and actually having a baby, btw). The other woman found a prospect, got her MRS degree, had the kid, then ended up getting split up (something about her "best friend" having his baby just 6 months after hers was born bothered her). She found her real wallet man later, which allowed her to quit her job, stay at home (with the child in school), and watch soaps all day. Of course, she kept his cleaning service, which also did his laundry, mended his clothes, changed the linens, etc.
You see, the smart woman who wants "out" will get the baby, then convince the hubby that the kids need daycare for learning and socialization. Then it's just an hour or two in the morning and evening that she has to "work". Oh, she'll be busy. Errands here and there. Pet projects (crafting and baking and scrapbooking, oh, my!) will fill the rest of the time so she's tired enough to need help from DH most nights to put the kids to bed.
Now, this is not the norm. But it does exist. I've seen it almost happen with my wife, and I see it in her friend - in spades - and these are two otherwise normal women from college educated households with professional parents (well, fathers, at least).
Staying home with multiple young children and doing all the housework is a lot of work, and is mind-numbing to boot. Just remember that it actually slacks off quite a bit if the kids are all in school (or daycare), and with enough money it can be quite the easy life. Don't underesimate the drive for a less-stessful life through staying at home - most people (not just women) don't expect raising a family single handed to be quite the task it is.
Then how come Epson hasn't found a cure for cancer, solved world hunger, and figured out how to bring peace to the world? God knows they charge enough for ink to do all of that in a fiscal year (well, at least 2 out of 3, and the last one probably involves nuking from orbit, just to be sure).
I learned english in school in the US northeast, but I live the south now, and can converse easily and fluently with the natives. That's got to count for something.
"you can quit at any time if you feel bad" wasn't much of a disclaimer
I don't know much about it, but I would suspect that by the time you feel bad (i.e. - not just have to take the mother of all leaks), it may be too late.
It is my understanding, incorrect as it may be, that this was cracked using a software reader, not sniffing a hardware (stand-alone) player. You can just download the update. It will be a cat and mouse game, but an irrelevant one. You see, there are far more people who will have to buy a second copy - for whatever reason - than there will be pirates that lose them money. Slashdotters are so myopic on this point - most of the worlds computer users couldn't rip a DVD in a day if their life depended on it. Seriously. And it would take more than a casual hacker to get the information from a hardware player.
Besides, I'm certian the consortium would tell any hardware player mfr who has had their box cracked that they better pony up the fixes for free and do a better job of protecting the IP the next time.
For the record - I don't have either HD format player, and don't intend to get one for some time. I'd love to have HD, and I have an HD set to view it on (albeit fairly small at 51"). I do not support what they are doing, and I hope they fail miserably, but don't be suprised when it's "our" fault things get screwed up.
No, I'm not, I'm trying to look at the case without geek prejudice.
On the surface, it seems pretty simple.
Company A buys company which produces the RealWidget.
Company A registers the trademark.
Company A supports said xWidget and reaffirms trademark, and affirmation is accepted.
Company B has rumors of a widget coming to market
Company B has a fantasically popular RealGidget in production
Company A comes out with new xWidget product last month - they'll call it the updated version of the old RealWidget.
Company B annouces their new product, the RealWidget, to be released in 5 months.
Now there is some question as to whether support of the old RealWidget product by Company A conforms to the requirement that they be using their registered trademark.
Based on that timeline, and ignoring the actual players in the market, there doesn't seem much chance that Company B gets to use the trademark. The use of Real in front of a product name has already been tested in court, and Company B has no basic right to the prefix. Even if Company A happens to lose the trademark battle, they should still retain the common-law trademark.
It is only in light of the fact that Company B is a wildly popular consumer electronics company with a higher advertising profile that there is any real (ha ha) question about the trademark status.
Everyone seems to be missing the point. Existing titles are chump change. Just make the next pressing with the new key. The flurry seems to center around release dates anyway, so no future discs will decode on the compromised player. They don't want to make it impossible, they simply want to make it difficult. Having to keep a key database updated is a pain in the ass. I'd go as far as to say that they don't care about an isolated crack - they'll "fix" it and go on, with updates from time to time. This is a s/w player, not a hardware player, correct? Just require an update.
The point is that they will make this about Piracy, and that its the Pirate's fault that you have to go download an update to get your machine to work. Not their fault (Say "Not my fault" in David Spade's voice an you'll get the idea). Most consumers will believe the newsvertisement they see on ther local station that blames those evil pirates for their suffering. If it weren't for the pirates, their stuff would work. Which can easily be spun at truth - pirates cracked the system, system must be safe or poor artists children will starve, so we had to change the system - all pirates fault. Your mother would fall for that, and you know it.
Right and wrong is irrelevant - it's who takes the blame for the mess that matters, and the industry has a lot of PR money to make sure the finger points at someone else.
Revoke the key. It will happen each time.
I predict that any backlash against key revokation will be addressed by very polished newsvertisements which state that the key revocation is the result of "hacking" by the "pirates" and despite the sincere regret of the problems caused, there is nothing they can do at this point.
Couldn't we just send all the Christians' kids to go fight the President's wars?
(oh, I'm gonna rot in hell for that one!)
Excellent, never though to search portable apps for Firefox.
So why not make this the default install?
Cisco regiters trademark.
Cisco files Delcaration of Use, with "under penalty of perjury" affidavit stating they are using the name.
Now it sounds like everything will hinge on the following:
AT a former FA:
2001 - 2006: Cisco continues servicing and providing technical support for the iPhone
So internal documentation may/probably shows continuous use of iPhone in regards to the support of an existing product.
Either
(A) the trademark is shown to be valid, as internal documents support the continued use of the trademark for support purposes OR
(B) they don't have the documentation, or it is deemed invalid, in which case whomever signed the extension is clearly guilty of perjury and should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
In my opinion, you can't have it both ways - the tradmark is valid and the signer is ok, or the trademark is invalid and the signer goes to jail. There is no middle ground.
Now, in other thoughts on the matter:
(1) If the trademark is up for grabs, and Cisco has an iPhone product on the market which pre-dates the Apple cellular product, don't they still have "dibs" on the name? Can't they re-file for the trademark, and presumably be first in line because of an actual shipping product?
(2) Can Chevy come out with their new "Fairlane" model next year, since Ford clearly is not producing a Fairlane and haven't for more than 7 years? If Ford claims to keep it by offering parts and service for the Fairlane, wouldn't that bolster the case For Cisco, which has supported "their" iPhone product with (at least) service for the last 6 years?
I'll wait for the ][e version - I'm going to need 64k to run all the apps I want.