I agree with you, I think that patent's should NOT apply to soft...
Many years ago, Apple tried to sue Microsoft for copyright infringement over their user-interface. Had they (ab)used the patent system instead, they might have won, and there would be no Windows.
A good friend of mine had pointed out that the music industry doesn't really understand why they make money. Radio, borrowed tapes, MP3s... there are many ways to get the music, but it's not quite the same as owning the CD.
When the music industry realizes that people are buying media, not music, we'll all be better off. To make it more attractive, we would probably see better quality album inserts and other items that make buying the CD worth the money.
Therefore, I argue that (music at least) DOES have this sort of media 'problem' - CD liners and other gimmiks included with the album can be *way* better than an ID3 tag or a web site.
what kind of person is going to believe that the miracle cure for cancer is sitting on some shady website and not in the hospitals?
Well, how about:
What kind of person is going to believe that there is a better OS than Windows and it's free?
or a closer analogy:
What kind of person is going to believe that there is a better OS than Windows sitting on some shady website somewhere and Microsoft isn't selling it?
I thought that Slashdot would be one of the last places where it would be assumed that the best solution (medical/technical) available is automatically mainstream. Don't assume that because it hasn't been accepted means it doesn't work. If I found out that by gargling vinegar my cancer went away, and I tell all my friends and they all gargle vinegar and all their cancers go away, would the Amercian Cancer Society declare me a hero?? What about all that money (is it billions of dollars?) that go EVERY YEAR into cancer cures? No one can patent vinegar, no one can make money off of it. Sure, a doctor who has taken an oath to make you well would LOVE to see you better, but drug companies have taken no such oath. They are out to make money. The American Cancer Society (ACS) has recently been chided by Congress to look at alternative therapies and to stop squashing competing research - sound familiar?
I could go on - my father died from cancer 3 years ago, and I did a huge amount of research to try and help him - the ONLY thing that did was so-called alternative treatments - but because we tried them after mainstream medicine chewed him up and spat him out (uncurable - would you like some morphine with that? Oops, looks like your lungs are collapsing - wow, he woke up after you fed him that tea, must be a fluke - oh well, tea didn't fix the damage we did, it was inevitable anyway).
OK... gotta stop ranting and get back to work. If you want to e-mail me I'm at ian at epperson dot com.
Having dabbled with my cars and done lots of work with serial ports, I think I got this one figured.
When your car is running, the on-board processor (or, if you've got an older model, the points) is firing off a 12 volt signal 4 times per engine revolution (for a 4 cyl). The trigger tells the coil to fire it's juice to the spark plugs. (OK, actually, it causes a field collapse, but that's not important now!) That 12 volt trigger is what a tach normally reads. 1000 RPM = 4000 12 volt triggers per second. 8000 RPM (XOxide's tach max) is 32k triggers per second - closing on as fast as older com ports can go.
OK, now wire up that trigger connector on the tach to the CTS (or was it RTS?) on a com port. Now a small background process that reads the stat you wanna display then opens the com port the appropriate amount of times per second should do it.
I think I've got an old tach laying around somewhere...
I seem to remember near the beginning of the first edition DM's guide it clearly stating that any rule that makes the game less playable should be thrown out at the DM's discretion.
Speaking of which, didja ever read all the way through that book? Several of the 'rules' were mere suggestions on how to handle situations. At several points the DMG devolves into more of a discussion on what makes a good game rather than hard and fast rules. Very interesting reading.
Maybe you haven't heard, but Cisco is the company that stands to make tons of money when bandwidth requirements go up.
This is where VC funds come from. For companies like Cisco to have a future, they have to create their market. They do this by supporting (or creating) technologies that will *require* more bandwidth. More bandwidth = more stress on service provider's backbone = switch/router upgrades = $$ for Cisco.
I know a couple of people involved with VC money. Got an idea that requires a faster processor? Intel might float you some dough. Oh, you say that your solution runs fine on a 486? nevermind...
Well, that's an interesting article, but I take exception to it.
I ran a BBS in 1992, I had 2 DOS based PCs at my house, and I occasionally helped out with 2 more computers at a small office near where I lived. I didn't do any file sharing on my BBS, but I downloaded "scan" anyway and discovered that Michelangelo was on both my PCs as well as most of my floppies. I managed to clean it before I noticed any impact, but neglected to check the ones at the office (I didn't share floppies). They got hit anyway - wiped out both machines' hard drives. I spent that night rebuilding them, kicking myself all the while.
Of my friends who had their own PCs, most of them detected and removed Michelangelo. One friend re-infected his machine a few months later, and triggered the virus one day while playing with his clock settings.
While I won't say that my small sampling constituted "millions of computers", but it was NOT zero:
What kind of havoc did Michelangelo wreak on 6 March 1998? Antivirus experts chimed in with the number of catastrophes their companies confirmed:
Wolfgang Stiller: "zero" incidents confirmed by Stiller Research
Graham Cluley: "a big fat zero" incidents confirmed by Dr. Solomon's Software ("as expected")
David M. Chess: "I believe zero" incidents confirmed by IBM ("I wouldn't be surprised if it stayed zero")
Chenji "Jimmy" Kuo: "zero" incidents confirmed by Network Associates ("and I would be surprised to see even one")
Alex Haddox: "two" incidents confirmed at Symantec
Re:Deep Sea the second to last frontier...
on
New Deep Sea Squid
·
· Score: 1
Sitting in that theater for days on end, tweaking my code so things would run just right, and watching the live video feed coming in off the submersibles. VERY COOL!
One of the days I was up there, I chanced to watch them run into (literally) into this strange critter that looked like a long string of translucent beads - each bead about the size of your fist with a large red nucleus. After a minute or so of looking at it draped across the sub, they backed the sub up, and tried to look over the thing, but it drobbed to the depths before they could see much of it.
Kinda curious, I leaned over to the marine biologist who was troubleshooting our microwave feed and asked him what it was... well, he was already staring at the screen slackjawed and muttered "I, I, I dunno..."
Back when I picked up my copy of Delta Force 2.0, it also had a little sticker on the CD envelope that said "By breaking this seal, you agree to the EULA"...
Funny thing was, the CD had slipped out of the envelope in shipping without breaking the seal.
I work for a small company that designs whole house systems (Audio/ Video/ Network/ Security/ Climate/ Control) for people with way too much money (Our clients don't cringe at throwing $100,000 at a home theater).
Often times, AFTER all the wire is pulled, our clients will decide that they actually want 4 ports out of a wall plate instead of 2, AND they DON'T want a local Hub/Switch that takes up room. This would be a quick, neat and tidy solution for just those situations - IF it works well, we'll probably sell about 1 a month.
No, I'm in favor of being able to get wiretap permission for a person, and then be able to tap cellphone, fax, phone, etc without having to go through more redtape.
OK, scenario for ya: I work in a small office (25 people) and one of them is a subject of an investigation. When you pick up the phone anywhere in our office, the phone system grabs the next free line. That means that the FBI will be listening to ALL CALLS into and out of our office because this person may be using that phone. The legislation does not limit this! There was a Senator (can't remember the name, can't find it on Google) who had wanted to add that the tap was not allowed to be monitored if the suspect was not on the phone at the time, but this got shot down.
Another question is how often does a suspect use a phone before it's wire-tapped? Should we expect all public to be tapped? If I throw a party and a friend-of-a-friend makes a call or two to order a pizza, should I wonder if my phone is now tapped?
Re:Problems with induction - you barbarian!
on
Concept PC 2001
·
· Score: 1
Don't forget the magnetic floppies that are the heart of Zip and LS-120 disks. They'll probably be around for years to come.
Inductive charging could be cool, until you dropped a floppy on your keyboard mat.
I have yet to see a good fixed wireless power solution for a PC that doesn't potentially kill the user or his stuff. Yes, the fuel cells look promising, but recharging your keyboard/ mouse/ monitor(?) with a cartridge every few months may end up being too much hassle.
Re:Not just a full moon
on
All Hallow's Eve
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Appearantly the "Blue Moon" = 2 full moons in a month only came about in the last 20 years.
According to them, it was originally defined as an extra moon within a season - since all 12 full moons within the year have a specific name relative to their season, this extra moon was the blue one.
So, (as has been pointed out) with our more recent definition, every Halloween full moon will be a blue moon, but with the old definition it would would be blue. (blue moons could only be in Feb/March, May/June, Aug/Sept or Nov/Dec - at the end of the season)
Re:Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
on
Tiny Apps
·
· Score: 1
Yes Brain,
but where are we going to get 200 Q-tips and a walrus at this time of night?
Slashdot Mirror
I agree with you, I think that patent's should NOT apply to soft...
Many years ago, Apple tried to sue Microsoft for copyright infringement over their user-interface. Had they (ab)used the patent system instead, they might have won, and there would be no Windows.
...OK, now I'm torn!
Probably not if it were saved in Word format...
Naw, that's not it... remember that their saying that "copying" == "piracy"...
Their search must have been for "GNU"
Such misinformation! Compaq paid no more than 12.4 ba-jillion dollars last year, not even close to a zillion...
When the music industry realizes that people are buying media, not music, we'll all be better off. To make it more attractive, we would probably see better quality album inserts and other items that make buying the CD worth the money.
Therefore, I argue that (music at least) DOES have this sort of media 'problem' - CD liners and other gimmiks included with the album can be *way* better than an ID3 tag or a web site.
Well, how about:
or a closer analogy:
I thought that Slashdot would be one of the last places where it would be assumed that the best solution (medical/technical) available is automatically mainstream. Don't assume that because it hasn't been accepted means it doesn't work. If I found out that by gargling vinegar my cancer went away, and I tell all my friends and they all gargle vinegar and all their cancers go away, would the Amercian Cancer Society declare me a hero?? What about all that money (is it billions of dollars?) that go EVERY YEAR into cancer cures? No one can patent vinegar, no one can make money off of it. Sure, a doctor who has taken an oath to make you well would LOVE to see you better, but drug companies have taken no such oath. They are out to make money. The American Cancer Society (ACS) has recently been chided by Congress to look at alternative therapies and to stop squashing competing research - sound familiar?
I could go on - my father died from cancer 3 years ago, and I did a huge amount of research to try and help him - the ONLY thing that did was so-called alternative treatments - but because we tried them after mainstream medicine chewed him up and spat him out (uncurable - would you like some morphine with that? Oops, looks like your lungs are collapsing - wow, he woke up after you fed him that tea, must be a fluke - oh well, tea didn't fix the damage we did, it was inevitable anyway).
OK... gotta stop ranting and get back to work. If you want to e-mail me I'm at ian at epperson dot com.
Heh... I wonder what website a Morpheus user would find himself at if he clicked here.
When your car is running, the on-board processor (or, if you've got an older model, the points) is firing off a 12 volt signal 4 times per engine revolution (for a 4 cyl). The trigger tells the coil to fire it's juice to the spark plugs. (OK, actually, it causes a field collapse, but that's not important now!) That 12 volt trigger is what a tach normally reads. 1000 RPM = 4000 12 volt triggers per second. 8000 RPM (XOxide's tach max) is 32k triggers per second - closing on as fast as older com ports can go.
OK, now wire up that trigger connector on the tach to the CTS (or was it RTS?) on a com port. Now a small background process that reads the stat you wanna display then opens the com port the appropriate amount of times per second should do it.
I think I've got an old tach laying around somewhere...
Speaking of which, didja ever read all the way through that book? Several of the 'rules' were mere suggestions on how to handle situations. At several points the DMG devolves into more of a discussion on what makes a good game rather than hard and fast rules. Very interesting reading.
Guess that anti- DVD-CCA T-shirt I've been wearing finally paid off...
This is where VC funds come from. For companies like Cisco to have a future, they have to create their market. They do this by supporting (or creating) technologies that will *require* more bandwidth. More bandwidth = more stress on service provider's backbone = switch/router upgrades = $$ for Cisco.
I know a couple of people involved with VC money. Got an idea that requires a faster processor? Intel might float you some dough. Oh, you say that your solution runs fine on a 486? nevermind...
SpamCon (formerly Suespammers.org) has some good articles on this.
It's not the prosecution kit you were hoping for, but does provide step-by-step instructions on how to deal with spammers, all the way to prosecution.
Another good method for touch typists is to use an easy to remember (less-secure) password, but to shift your "homekeys" to the left, up, or both.
simple password like (my last name) "epperson" becomes "r[[rtdpm", "30034w9h" or "4--45e0j".
I ran a BBS in 1992, I had 2 DOS based PCs at my house, and I occasionally helped out with 2 more computers at a small office near where I lived. I didn't do any file sharing on my BBS, but I downloaded "scan" anyway and discovered that Michelangelo was on both my PCs as well as most of my floppies. I managed to clean it before I noticed any impact, but neglected to check the ones at the office (I didn't share floppies). They got hit anyway - wiped out both machines' hard drives. I spent that night rebuilding them, kicking myself all the while.
Of my friends who had their own PCs, most of them detected and removed Michelangelo. One friend re-infected his machine a few months later, and triggered the virus one day while playing with his clock settings.
While I won't say that my small sampling constituted "millions of computers", but it was NOT zero:
I was lucky enough to be the geek to program the control system for Monterey Bay Aquarium's deep link exhibit.
Sitting in that theater for days on end, tweaking my code so things would run just right, and watching the live video feed coming in off the submersibles. VERY COOL!
One of the days I was up there, I chanced to watch them run into (literally) into this strange critter that looked like a long string of translucent beads - each bead about the size of your fist with a large red nucleus. After a minute or so of looking at it draped across the sub, they backed the sub up, and tried to look over the thing, but it drobbed to the depths before they could see much of it.
Kinda curious, I leaned over to the marine biologist who was troubleshooting our microwave feed and asked him what it was... well, he was already staring at the screen slackjawed and muttered "I, I, I dunno..."
workin on it...
That's why we only have filthy rich clients.
Funny thing was, the CD had slipped out of the envelope in shipping without breaking the seal.
Often times, AFTER all the wire is pulled, our clients will decide that they actually want 4 ports out of a wall plate instead of 2, AND they DON'T want a local Hub/Switch that takes up room. This would be a quick, neat and tidy solution for just those situations - IF it works well, we'll probably sell about 1 a month.
OK, scenario for ya: I work in a small office (25 people) and one of them is a subject of an investigation. When you pick up the phone anywhere in our office, the phone system grabs the next free line. That means that the FBI will be listening to ALL CALLS into and out of our office because this person may be using that phone. The legislation does not limit this! There was a Senator (can't remember the name, can't find it on Google) who had wanted to add that the tap was not allowed to be monitored if the suspect was not on the phone at the time, but this got shot down.
Another question is how often does a suspect use a phone before it's wire-tapped? Should we expect all public to be tapped? If I throw a party and a friend-of-a-friend makes a call or two to order a pizza, should I wonder if my phone is now tapped?
Don't forget the magnetic floppies that are the heart of Zip and LS-120 disks. They'll probably be around for years to come.
I have yet to see a good fixed wireless power solution for a PC that doesn't potentially kill the user or his stuff. Yes, the fuel cells look promising, but recharging your keyboard/ mouse/ monitor(?) with a cartridge every few months may end up being too much hassle.
...damn itchy mouse finger...
According to them, it was originally defined as an extra moon within a season - since all 12 full moons within the year have a specific name relative to their season, this extra moon was the blue one.
So, (as has been pointed out) with our more recent definition, every Halloween full moon will be a blue moon, but with the old definition it would would be blue. (blue moons could only be in Feb/March, May/June, Aug/Sept or Nov/Dec - at the end of the season)
but where are we going to get 200 Q-tips and a walrus at this time of night?