"Over the last few months we've been working to enable Silverlight support on Linux, and today we are announcing a formal partnership with Novell to provide a great Silverlight implementation for Linux. Microsoft will be delivering Silverlight Media Codecs for Linux, and Novell will be building a 100% compatible Silverlight runtime implementation called "Moonlight".
Moonlight will run on all Linux distributions, and support FireFox, Konqueror, and Opera browsers. Moonlight will support both the JavaScript programming model available in Silverlight 1.0, as well as the full.NET programming model we will enable in Silverlight 1.1.
I know the plural of "anecdote" isn't "data," but I still have a 64C (the "newer" model) in working condition. At least, it was when I last checked -- and that includes the disk drive. And most importantly, Ghostbusters! (OWEN / LIST FTW)
Whenever anyone ever comes up with a fantastic, patentable idea, they should check if someone else patented it first. That's just common sense!
Don't confuse common sense with legal reality. It is typically discouraged for inventors to do their own prior art searches, because that could expose the company to be sued later for willful patent infringement with accompanying higher damages.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. However, I am a patent holder, so I've been down this road before...
It's interesting that most comments here are along the lines of "I saw LOGO when I was 7" through "I played with LOGO for an hour in middle school." I tinkered with a couple of LOGO variants as a kid, but my real LOGO experience ended up being... in college.
In my school's Computer Science department, the class that weeded out (or at least delayed) the majority of students was our Discrete Structures course. The theoretical part of the course focused on typical discrete logic, discrete math, sets, predicate calculus, etc topics. But the unusual part was that the professor was determined to break us out of the C++ mold that the introductory programming courses began. Therefore, he picked LOGO as the language for the course. Sure, interpreted LOGO wasn't the most blindingly-fast choice, but the list-based nature of the class made it very much a "LISP Light" that we could quickly work with for solving problems. Surprisingly, it was extremely flexible for the kinds of logic problems we were working with. By the end of the year, I really had to rethink my initial concept of "oh no, turtle graphics." Plus, we got exposed to a bunch of quite interesting offshoots, such as StarLogo, a massively-parallel-turtle variation of LOGO.
If you've never had to write a parser for an arbitrary boolean arithmetic expression in LOGO, then you've never really lived... (Er...)
I imagine Parker and Stone or their agents had negotiated machinima permission, as Blizzard actively collaborated with South Park on the "Make Love, not Warcraft" episode.
as well as potentially "infringing" images like the Penny Arcade comic a while back.
Why the quotation marks (indicating that the work wasn't infringing)? I love PA (and that particular comic) as much as the next guy, but even they had to admit (after receiving genuine legal advice from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund or some similarly-named organization) that this WAS an infringing image. You can satirize a subject, and that's fair use; I can freely create a spoof of, say, Pirate Master (Arr, the Pirate Bay Image Master! Which image be cut adrift this week?) and that's OK under fair use. But I can't create a spoof of South Park, in which they satirize Pirate Master, because South Park isn't the subject of the satire. In the same way, PA was not allowed to use American Greetings' characters to satirize American McGee's work. They could have fictionalized or parodied and existing game (as they clearly seemed to be taking aim at Alice, for instance) -- but not by leveraging someone else's characters/art/etc, only spoofing American McGee.
>Many LOTRO deeds result in useable skills and stat bonuses
There are called 'Accolades' in CoH, and can be gained by collecting multiple "themed" Badges.
Since the parent is anonymous, I wanted to make sure this comment was seen. "Accolade" badges often required extensive work (multiple Badges including Exploration, History, killing multiple mobs of certain types, and often completing Task Forces comprised of 2-6 hours of missions in one story arc). Accolades can give unique powers, titles, and passive traits (such as, say, 10% more Endurance).
I like your reasoning. It certainly worries me that a case like this could introduce a precedent that a company could ban me from executing software I purchased what should be a perpetual license to run.
Your point (and reference) is good, and the creation of a RAM copy for purposes of executing licensed software is well-established as noninfringing... EXCEPT that I think the issue Blizzard is really going to be trying is whether or not the RAM copy is infringing once you violate the ToS/EULA (and thereby void your license).
At risk of being repetitive here, the issue at hand is not that accessing WoW in RAM is a violation of copyright. The argument Blizzard is presenting is that:
- Loading WoW into RAM is creation of a copy. - Your right as a user to create this RAM copy is pursuant to the ToS and EULA. - Using cheating software violates the ToS/EULA. - Therefore, a user no longer has the right to create the RAM copy of WoW while running WoWGlider.
Therefore, the DMCA/copyright slant is: - WoWGlider is a tool that is defeating The Warden access control scheme with the sole use of creating a copy of WoW that infringes upon Blizzard's copyright.
This may or may not be a valid claim; the status of RAM copies of software is not entirely settled, but tends towards "it can be an infringing copy."
All of this would probably not have led to a lawsuit, except for the fact that WoWGlider is sold, for real money. Blizzard is trying to both destroy that particular cheating mechanism, and attach all of the profits made from it -- assuming the behavior is in fact ruled to be infringing.
In that way, it's just like the GPL: "You do not have to follow this license, but nothing else gives you permission to use the software."
GPL refers to distribution, not use.
<pedantic>
I do find Blizzard's argument interesting. I think this is still abuse of a draconian law, but the question of whether an executing copy of a computer program in RAM can be an infringing copy under copyright law is far from a settled issue.
PE refers to a "Professional Engineer," which would be a person who has achieved their professionally-accredited engineering license through their state board. It's a rigorous process involving years of work and multiple (extremely challenging) exams. In the state where I began this process, the allowed disciplines were Electrical, Civil, Chemical, Mechanical, and Industrial engineering. I believe many places have added an Environmental Engineering discipline, as well as expanded Electrical Engineering into Electrical and Computer Engineering.
In general, for those who don't have the enthusiasm to click through, becoming a PE requires achieving a degree from an ABET-accredited university. After this, the Fundamentals of Engineering exam must be taken and passed; this is an 8-hour exam with 4 hours on all the sciences, math, economics, and ethics that this exam usually covers. The second 4 hours is focused in your area of specialty. After passing this exam, you become an EIT (Engineer-in-Training). After working for an amount of time (this can vary, based on what level of degree you hold -- BS, MS, PhD, etc -- and on the state) and being "signed off" by a PE, you are eligible to take the PE (Principles and Practices of Engineering) exam. Upon completing this (and, of course, paying the appropriate fees to your state board), you hold a Professional Engineer license in your area of specialty.
And now that I've said all that, to the best of my knowledge, there is no licensing requirement to name yourself a "Software Engineer," "Network Engineer," "Systems Engineer," or most other strictly computer-related "Engineer" titles.
Depending on the model, you may not even have an expansion slot for a video card. I've had coworkers get burned by this problem with big-name PCs lately...
Sounds like a logical assumption, but it's a bit like claiming a driver went from Point A to Point B, 100 miles apart, in one hour must have been speeding, though there was no witness to the driver actually speeding.
I see where you're going with this, and I agree that Microsoft's assertion is invalid, but your assertion would, in fact, be pretty darned compelling evidence. It's called the Mean Value Theorem.
If correctly implemented, you'd hope that 75% of people would choose the "normal" path and enjoy their travels through the game; if done poorly 75% of the people would grind their way through a hero class hating the game while alienating the 25% of people who just want to have fun.
I've seen this kind of thinking before. (Old Star Wars Galaxies, I'm looking at you.) At the end of the day, time-sinks don't work as deterrents. If the "Hero class" is more powerful, then players WILL schlog through the grind for it. It goes something like...
Player grows normal character. Player sees difference between normal and hero. Player grinds hero. Hero is more powerful. Content is too easy. New content is generated to challenge heroes. Hero is now mandatory.
The idea isn't meritless, though -- it's just tricky to make it work.
I felt the same way, until I also added the Automatic Proofreader program. It would print a CRC or some such 2-digit check code for every line you entered, which helped avoid problems quite a bit. (MLX, the hex code program, included the check code as part of the line you were entering.)
I miss those old BASIC games. My coding career started by figuring out how to default my 3 lives to 255!
The Inmates are Running the Asylum (disclaimer: Amazon link provided as a courtesy and is not a referral link to the best of my knowledge)
This is a good book by the designer of VB that has a nice model of user-oriented design and some pretty interesting case studies -- design of airplane entertainment units, scanner software, and others.
You're not SERIOUSLY saying that hitting the delete key, or any amount of bandwidth, is actually equal in value to a person's life, are you? If so, you may want to re-evaluate your worldview somewhat.
Should there be fiscal and/or technological repercussions to spamming? Sure. But death seems a little bit ridiculous for an act that, at most, costs someone money.
I don't understand why more Americans don't go to the local library. Most of the music on my iPod was taken directly from the CD.
If it was taken from a CD you borrowed from the library, then it is not a legal copy, so this potential solution to the problem requires some refactoring. You may borrow a CD from the library and listen to it. You may even be able to make a case for form-shifting while you have the CD -- but once you return it, you no longer have the right to maintain a copy. You could probably keep some short excerpts for use in criticism or research, but certainly not wholesale copying.
Otherwise, you'd see a lot more "co-ops" purchasing one copy and "lending" it among members to make copies.
I think where Future Man really stands out in his use of the instrument is in his very distinctive style of playing it (how many Flecktones tracks actually use some sort of a snare-as-ride effect?), and his work in creating his samples. Many of the drum sounds he uses are layered composites of many variants of a drum, and of course he occasionally throws in the entirely non-percussion sound. (The info about the samples is from talking to him -- they're a fantastically approachable band, if you go see them in concert. I don't think I've ever seen them NOT stick around to chat with the audience for at least a few minutes afterward.)
Slashdot Mirror
But then the research gets done, and you make a neat gun, for the people who are Still Alive!
Microsoft is actively working with Mono to make the "Moonlight" Linux port of Silverlight a reality.
Scott Guthrie blog post about this
It beats the original "WPF/E" name.
I know the plural of "anecdote" isn't "data," but I still have a 64C (the "newer" model) in working condition. At least, it was when I last checked -- and that includes the disk drive. And most importantly, Ghostbusters! (OWEN / LIST FTW)
I left that "have someone else do it" part out. That's a good point. Thanks for the correction...
Don't confuse common sense with legal reality. It is typically discouraged for inventors to do their own prior art searches, because that could expose the company to be sued later for willful patent infringement with accompanying higher damages.
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. However, I am a patent holder, so I've been down this road before...
It's interesting that most comments here are along the lines of "I saw LOGO when I was 7" through "I played with LOGO for an hour in middle school." I tinkered with a couple of LOGO variants as a kid, but my real LOGO experience ended up being... in college.
In my school's Computer Science department, the class that weeded out (or at least delayed) the majority of students was our Discrete Structures course. The theoretical part of the course focused on typical discrete logic, discrete math, sets, predicate calculus, etc topics. But the unusual part was that the professor was determined to break us out of the C++ mold that the introductory programming courses began. Therefore, he picked LOGO as the language for the course. Sure, interpreted LOGO wasn't the most blindingly-fast choice, but the list-based nature of the class made it very much a "LISP Light" that we could quickly work with for solving problems. Surprisingly, it was extremely flexible for the kinds of logic problems we were working with. By the end of the year, I really had to rethink my initial concept of "oh no, turtle graphics." Plus, we got exposed to a bunch of quite interesting offshoots, such as StarLogo, a massively-parallel-turtle variation of LOGO.
If you've never had to write a parser for an arbitrary boolean arithmetic expression in LOGO, then you've never really lived... (Er...)
I imagine Parker and Stone or their agents had negotiated machinima permission, as Blizzard actively collaborated with South Park on the "Make Love, not Warcraft" episode.
Is that anything like the Microsoft SPOT Watch?
Why the quotation marks (indicating that the work wasn't infringing)? I love PA (and that particular comic) as much as the next guy, but even they had to admit (after receiving genuine legal advice from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund or some similarly-named organization) that this WAS an infringing image. You can satirize a subject, and that's fair use; I can freely create a spoof of, say, Pirate Master (Arr, the Pirate Bay Image Master! Which image be cut adrift this week?) and that's OK under fair use. But I can't create a spoof of South Park, in which they satirize Pirate Master, because South Park isn't the subject of the satire. In the same way, PA was not allowed to use American Greetings' characters to satirize American McGee's work. They could have fictionalized or parodied and existing game (as they clearly seemed to be taking aim at Alice, for instance) -- but not by leveraging someone else's characters/art/etc, only spoofing American McGee.
Since the parent is anonymous, I wanted to make sure this comment was seen. "Accolade" badges often required extensive work (multiple Badges including Exploration, History, killing multiple mobs of certain types, and often completing Task Forces comprised of 2-6 hours of missions in one story arc). Accolades can give unique powers, titles, and passive traits (such as, say, 10% more Endurance).
I like your reasoning. It certainly worries me that a case like this could introduce a precedent that a company could ban me from executing software I purchased what should be a perpetual license to run.
Your point (and reference) is good, and the creation of a RAM copy for purposes of executing licensed software is well-established as noninfringing... EXCEPT that I think the issue Blizzard is really going to be trying is whether or not the RAM copy is infringing once you violate the ToS/EULA (and thereby void your license).
At risk of being repetitive here, the issue at hand is not that accessing WoW in RAM is a violation of copyright. The argument Blizzard is presenting is that:
- Loading WoW into RAM is creation of a copy.
- Your right as a user to create this RAM copy is pursuant to the ToS and EULA.
- Using cheating software violates the ToS/EULA.
- Therefore, a user no longer has the right to create the RAM copy of WoW while running WoWGlider.
Therefore, the DMCA/copyright slant is:
- WoWGlider is a tool that is defeating The Warden access control scheme with the sole use of creating a copy of WoW that infringes upon Blizzard's copyright.
This may or may not be a valid claim; the status of RAM copies of software is not entirely settled, but tends towards "it can be an infringing copy."
All of this would probably not have led to a lawsuit, except for the fact that WoWGlider is sold, for real money. Blizzard is trying to both destroy that particular cheating mechanism, and attach all of the profits made from it -- assuming the behavior is in fact ruled to be infringing.
GPL refers to distribution, not use.
<pedantic>
I do find Blizzard's argument interesting. I think this is still abuse of a draconian law, but the question of whether an executing copy of a computer program in RAM can be an infringing copy under copyright law is far from a settled issue.
PE refers to a "Professional Engineer," which would be a person who has achieved their professionally-accredited engineering license through their state board. It's a rigorous process involving years of work and multiple (extremely challenging) exams. In the state where I began this process, the allowed disciplines were Electrical, Civil, Chemical, Mechanical, and Industrial engineering. I believe many places have added an Environmental Engineering discipline, as well as expanded Electrical Engineering into Electrical and Computer Engineering.
In general, for those who don't have the enthusiasm to click through, becoming a PE requires achieving a degree from an ABET-accredited university. After this, the Fundamentals of Engineering exam must be taken and passed; this is an 8-hour exam with 4 hours on all the sciences, math, economics, and ethics that this exam usually covers. The second 4 hours is focused in your area of specialty. After passing this exam, you become an EIT (Engineer-in-Training). After working for an amount of time (this can vary, based on what level of degree you hold -- BS, MS, PhD, etc -- and on the state) and being "signed off" by a PE, you are eligible to take the PE (Principles and Practices of Engineering) exam. Upon completing this (and, of course, paying the appropriate fees to your state board), you hold a Professional Engineer license in your area of specialty.
And now that I've said all that, to the best of my knowledge, there is no licensing requirement to name yourself a "Software Engineer," "Network Engineer," "Systems Engineer," or most other strictly computer-related "Engineer" titles.
Depending on the model, you may not even have an expansion slot for a video card. I've had coworkers get burned by this problem with big-name PCs lately...
Check your boundary conditions. Your code will incorrectly process output for the case where i==1 or i==2.
Player grows normal character. Player sees difference between normal and hero. Player grinds hero. Hero is more powerful. Content is too easy. New content is generated to challenge heroes. Hero is now mandatory.
The idea isn't meritless, though -- it's just tricky to make it work.
I felt the same way, until I also added the Automatic Proofreader program. It would print a CRC or some such 2-digit check code for every line you entered, which helped avoid problems quite a bit. (MLX, the hex code program, included the check code as part of the line you were entering.)
I miss those old BASIC games. My coding career started by figuring out how to default my 3 lives to 255!
This is a good book by the designer of VB that has a nice model of user-oriented design and some pretty interesting case studies -- design of airplane entertainment units, scanner software, and others.
You're not SERIOUSLY saying that hitting the delete key, or any amount of bandwidth, is actually equal in value to a person's life, are you? If so, you may want to re-evaluate your worldview somewhat.
Should there be fiscal and/or technological repercussions to spamming? Sure. But death seems a little bit ridiculous for an act that, at most, costs someone money.
Otherwise, you'd see a lot more "co-ops" purchasing one copy and "lending" it among members to make copies.
I think where Future Man really stands out in his use of the instrument is in his very distinctive style of playing it (how many Flecktones tracks actually use some sort of a snare-as-ride effect?), and his work in creating his samples. Many of the drum sounds he uses are layered composites of many variants of a drum, and of course he occasionally throws in the entirely non-percussion sound. (The info about the samples is from talking to him -- they're a fantastically approachable band, if you go see them in concert. I don't think I've ever seen them NOT stick around to chat with the audience for at least a few minutes afterward.)