Does it occur to anyone else that we (/.'ers) routinely and nonchalantly post comments (including this one) here that would trigger one or more rules in Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit?
I went to graduate school at GaTech; for me, it was great. Undergraduates seem to have a hard time at GaTech; they just don't get any respect. For example, when I needed to get into the CS labs after hours, I checked out a key for a $5 deposit --no questions asked. The undergrads had to block the door open so they could get in or out after hours. A certain block of the (very limited) parking is reserved for graduate students to sign up at their leisure; undergrads have to sign up as early as possible for parking areas that are always over sold. A friend from high school went to Tech as an undergraduate. When he got there, he went to a huge class in an auditorium where he was told, "Look to your left; look to your right. Only one of you will graduate." He was also a member of a large, informal campus club: The D Minus (D-) Club. During one short-lived experimental term, no core physics classes were offered in class with an instructor: all of the classes were online by recorded video. A few students complained, as I'm sure you can imagine. My humble advice: take as many core undergraduate classes as you can outside of GaTech, then finish up at Tech. The core classes outside of Tech will be cheaper, smaller, easier, and you'll graduate with a higher overall GPA.
You know, I don't watch that much TV anymore, anyway. I home in on a few favorites, and I don't even watch those regularly. I watch no broadcast news or sports at all (okay, except for the Olympics). I know my viewing habits may not be typical, but they are getting more common. David Rudolph, head of TBS, says that lots of stations are concerned about the level of viewership out there in TV land. HDTV won't improve content, nor will it prevent declining TV viewing. Indeed, if HDTV standardization costs a little more and makes viewing/recording more trouble, this HDTV pact may aggravate the problem.
So, is there a Project Gutenberg for music? I can find sheet music on Mutopia, but where are the public domain recordings? The Recording Academy has a preservation project to preserve all kinds of recorded music, but no word on whether they plan to make the public domain works available. The RA turned over part of its materials to the US Library of Congress, which does maintain a collection of recordings, but again there is no clear provision for obtaining public domain recordings for pleasure. There is a system for obtaining certain recordings online or as a copy, for academic or research purposes. So, where is our our public domain recorded music archive?
So, is "windows" a generic term, or not? Fair question. In 1968, Douglas Engelbart certainly thought of the desktop environment as windows. He created a "a windowed GUI" with a mouse and everything. In the early 70's (same link), Alan Kay gave us Dynabook and Smalltalk, which used overlapping "windows." In 1981, Xerox introduced the Star computer, which featured overlapping, resizable windows. Xeroc PARC called Star's interface a "WIMP" interface, for windows, icons, menus, and pointers. In 1982, Microsoft started introducing a windowed desktop, though it wasn't called "Windows" until November 1983. In the same time period, universities developed the "W Windows" system, which was quickly replaced with a new version called the "X Window" system (W to X. See where they went with that?) in 1984. The survey that MS introduced says that people think of MS Windows when you ask them what "windows" on a desktop means. Another fair survey question could be: given any GUI/WIMP interface, how many people would call it a "windows" interface? If most people generically identify any GUI/WIMP interface as "windows", then Microsoft's trademark term "Windows" is just as meaningless as Ford introducing and marketing a new vehicle called the new "Ford Car" (Yes, yes; we all remember the Renault Le Car).
Generic terms always risk loss of trademark
on
Lindows Legal Challenge
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Microsoft may be in trouble on two fronts here. First of all, "windows" seems to be a word that was used for GUI's before MS marketed their product as Windows. Second, every GUI-paned desktop environment looks like windows in a building (or on a desk, I suppose), so "windows" has become a generic term, even if it wasn't one before. If everyone thinks of GUI desktops as "windows", then MS doesn't have a right to retain a trademark on it. Worse, it's a common word in the language, which makes use of it even more risky. Remember "cellphane, "aspirin", and "escalator"? They all used to be trademarked terms for products. Microsoft's choice of terms isn't even as good as those.
Maybe Boeing is just going to concentrate on turning the Pelican into a commercial aircraft. The Pelican is twice the size of the 747 (you could play a game of arena football inside it) and is designed to fly cheap, slow, and low --just above sea level. Right now, it's in development for the military, but there are obvious commercial airliner possibilities.
Friends-Find application on Novell covered this
on
AOL Patents IM
·
· Score: 1
In 1986-1989 timeframe, at the University of Central Florida, a student/employee there wrote an application called "friends". It would compare a list of your friends' Novell logins to logged-in users and list them. You could send a message to anyone on your friends list, which would appear on their screen. They could respond to you in kind. I believe there was some kind of two-way chat capability available, as well. I'm pretty sure this is not the only program of this type from the Novell networking days. I believe the "friends" program is prior art that relates directly to the claims in AOL's patent. If someone with more knowledge of old Novell apps could find more concrete evidence, perhaps MSN, Yahoo, and others could use that evidence to mount a challenge to AOL's patent.
Just in case HotBot catches on again, I submitted a search config file for everyone's favorite (isn't it?) open source search toolbar: Dave's Quick Search Deskbar. The HotBot search lets you specify which engine to use with a command line switch.
I can't find the original report on IDC's site. You're welcome to try for yourself: http://www.idc.com/ IDC seems to be reporting what key people at these 104 companies believe about the TCO of Linux and Windows. Perhaps the respondents were asked to harken back to NT, or peer into the future of Win2K and Linux, or both. It seems to me like a haphazard way to determine relative TCO.
'scuse me...
pardon me...
sorry, sorry...
got stuck in traffic, don't you know...
Now, ummm..., how EXACTLY did these miscreants manage to "uncap" their modems? So, I can --you know-- make sure that I am not accidentally uncapping my modem...
or something.
When Grady Booch and Dick Bolz were developing the first Ada programming class, somebody heard how much time they had to do and told them, "That's impossible." Dick Bolz says Grady Booch's reply was, "If it happens, it's possible."
Perhaps time travel just needs a little more, well, time.
In some ways, a database rollback or crash is like a natural disaster in a virtual community. In real life, we cope with natural disasters by insuring life, property, or income. For an online identity that has acquired or developed sufficient material goods or status, perhaps it would be worthwhile to insure the identity and online possessions against loss. The insurance could compensate the policy holder in the event of loss of online community property, status, or "life". Perhaps a system of insurance could help pay for the cost of running an online community.
If every email client had encryption software (such as PGP or GPG) built-in or plugged-in, it would be easy to encrypt all email. The console-based email users are smart enough to figure this out on their own, but the GUI users just don't seem to be jumping on the bandwagon. So, what we need here is a really good virus: A virus that automatically fetches, installs, and activates email encryption on every GUI-based email client it touches. For good measure, the 'patch' for blocking this virus should be --you guessed it!-- an email encryption plug-in. In no time at all, the whole world could be using point to point encryption.
Slashdot Mirror
Does it occur to anyone else that we (/.'ers) routinely and nonchalantly post comments (including this one) here that would trigger one or more rules in Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit?
could now turn into a high speed chase?
The Speed of the Sound of Loneliness? Huh? Well?
Guess this will be added to the product line at the Fearmonger's Shop.
I went to graduate school at GaTech; for me, it was great. Undergraduates seem to have a hard time at GaTech; they just don't get any respect. For example, when I needed to get into the CS labs after hours, I checked out a key for a $5 deposit --no questions asked. The undergrads had to block the door open so they could get in or out after hours. A certain block of the (very limited) parking is reserved for graduate students to sign up at their leisure; undergrads have to sign up as early as possible for parking areas that are always over sold. A friend from high school went to Tech as an undergraduate. When he got there, he went to a huge class in an auditorium where he was told, "Look to your left; look to your right. Only one of you will graduate." He was also a member of a large, informal campus club: The D Minus (D-) Club. During one short-lived experimental term, no core physics classes were offered in class with an instructor: all of the classes were online by recorded video. A few students complained, as I'm sure you can imagine. My humble advice: take as many core undergraduate classes as you can outside of GaTech, then finish up at Tech. The core classes outside of Tech will be cheaper, smaller, easier, and you'll graduate with a higher overall GPA.
You know, I don't watch that much TV anymore, anyway. I home in on a few favorites, and I don't even watch those regularly. I watch no broadcast news or sports at all (okay, except for the Olympics). I know my viewing habits may not be typical, but they are getting more common. David Rudolph, head of TBS, says that lots of stations are concerned about the level of viewership out there in TV land. HDTV won't improve content, nor will it prevent declining TV viewing. Indeed, if HDTV standardization costs a little more and makes viewing/recording more trouble, this HDTV pact may aggravate the problem.
So, is there a Project Gutenberg for music? I can find sheet music on Mutopia, but where are the public domain recordings? The Recording Academy has a preservation project to preserve all kinds of recorded music, but no word on whether they plan to make the public domain works available. The RA turned over part of its materials to the US Library of Congress, which does maintain a collection of recordings, but again there is no clear provision for obtaining public domain recordings for pleasure. There is a system for obtaining certain recordings online or as a copy, for academic or research purposes. So, where is our our public domain recorded music archive?
So, is "windows" a generic term, or not? Fair question. In 1968, Douglas Engelbart certainly thought of the desktop environment as windows. He created a "a windowed GUI" with a mouse and everything. In the early 70's (same link), Alan Kay gave us Dynabook and Smalltalk, which used overlapping "windows." In 1981, Xerox introduced the Star computer, which featured overlapping, resizable windows. Xeroc PARC called Star's interface a "WIMP" interface, for windows, icons, menus, and pointers. In 1982, Microsoft started introducing a windowed desktop, though it wasn't called "Windows" until November 1983. In the same time period, universities developed the "W Windows" system, which was quickly replaced with a new version called the "X Window" system (W to X. See where they went with that?) in 1984. The survey that MS introduced says that people think of MS Windows when you ask them what "windows" on a desktop means. Another fair survey question could be: given any GUI/WIMP interface, how many people would call it a "windows" interface? If most people generically identify any GUI/WIMP interface as "windows", then Microsoft's trademark term "Windows" is just as meaningless as Ford introducing and marketing a new vehicle called the new "Ford Car" (Yes, yes; we all remember the Renault Le Car).
Microsoft may be in trouble on two fronts here. First of all, "windows" seems to be a word that was used for GUI's before MS marketed their product as Windows. Second, every GUI-paned desktop environment looks like windows in a building (or on a desk, I suppose), so "windows" has become a generic term, even if it wasn't one before. If everyone thinks of GUI desktops as "windows", then MS doesn't have a right to retain a trademark on it. Worse, it's a common word in the language, which makes use of it even more risky. Remember "cellphane, "aspirin", and "escalator"? They all used to be trademarked terms for products. Microsoft's choice of terms isn't even as good as those.
Google news
If the CPU is a diamond, I can just jam it in there with all the force I want!
that he's been /.-ed? I mean, he can't very well look it up himself until January 20, can he?
You're right: it's turboprop-based. It's supposed to save fuel by flying low and building up a "buoyant aerodynamic effect".
More links:
Daily Telegraph UK
FuturePundit.com
Seattle Times
Boeing Frontiers with larger image
Maybe Boeing is just going to concentrate on turning the Pelican into a commercial aircraft. The Pelican is twice the size of the 747 (you could play a game of arena football inside it) and is designed to fly cheap, slow, and low --just above sea level. Right now, it's in development for the military, but there are obvious commercial airliner possibilities.
In 1986-1989 timeframe, at the University of Central Florida, a student/employee there wrote an application called "friends". It would compare a list of your friends' Novell logins to logged-in users and list them. You could send a message to anyone on your friends list, which would appear on their screen. They could respond to you in kind. I believe there was some kind of two-way chat capability available, as well. I'm pretty sure this is not the only program of this type from the Novell networking days.
I believe the "friends" program is prior art that relates directly to the claims in AOL's patent. If someone with more knowledge of old Novell apps could find more concrete evidence, perhaps MSN, Yahoo, and others could use that evidence to mount a challenge to AOL's patent.
Please, post a copy of your letter to Yahoo for posterity. Perhaps someone will get use out of it in the future.
Just in case HotBot catches on again, I submitted a search config file for everyone's favorite (isn't it?) open source search toolbar: Dave's Quick Search Deskbar. The HotBot search lets you specify which engine to use with a command line switch.
Google news found a few more stories (including the Slashdot "story"...) on this topic. Since MS paid for the study, but has not released it to the public, it might be worthwhile to read what little details are available.
Study Finds Windows Cheaper Than Linux
Windows costs less than Linux . A bit . Sometimes - MS study
Infoworld
and more
I can't find the original report on IDC's site. You're welcome to try for yourself:
http://www.idc.com/
IDC seems to be reporting what key people at these 104 companies believe about the TCO of Linux and Windows. Perhaps the respondents were asked to harken back to NT, or peer into the future of Win2K and Linux, or both. It seems to me like a haphazard way to determine relative TCO.
In case the DMCA comes knocking on Anandtech's door:m ?catid= 40&threadid=914420
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cf
Kawaiiiiiiii!
'scuse me...
pardon me...
sorry, sorry...
got stuck in traffic, don't you know...
Now, ummm..., how EXACTLY did these miscreants manage to "uncap" their modems? So, I can --you know-- make sure that I am not accidentally uncapping my modem... or something.
When Grady Booch and Dick Bolz were developing the first Ada programming class, somebody heard how much time they had to do and told them, "That's impossible." Dick Bolz says Grady Booch's reply was, "If it happens, it's possible."
Perhaps time travel just needs a little more, well, time.
In some ways, a database rollback or crash is like a natural disaster in a virtual community. In real life, we cope with natural disasters by insuring life, property, or income. For an online identity that has acquired or developed sufficient material goods or status, perhaps it would be worthwhile to insure the identity and online possessions against loss. The insurance could compensate the policy holder in the event of loss of online community property, status, or "life". Perhaps a system of insurance could help pay for the cost of running an online community.
If every email client had encryption software (such as PGP or GPG) built-in or plugged-in, it would be easy to encrypt all email. The console-based email users are smart enough to figure this out on their own, but the GUI users just don't seem to be jumping on the bandwagon. So, what we need here is a really good virus: A virus that automatically fetches, installs, and activates email encryption on every GUI-based email client it touches. For good measure, the 'patch' for blocking this virus should be --you guessed it!-- an email encryption plug-in. In no time at all, the whole world could be using point to point encryption.