THe article points out that the DeCSS trade secret was discovered and disclosed. So why isn't it rendered invalid. To my mind, the DeCSS trade secret was poorly protected if it was breakable by the crackers that accomplished it, and should no longer enjoy trade secret status. ESPECIALLY not since the code to implement the supposed secret is widely published on the internet, as a t-shirt even!
So why does the trade secret still count, after all that. Isn't it no longer secret, ann thus, no longer enjoys special protection under the law?
Just want to say thanks so much for all the hard work you guys have done to make Slashdot the community it is today. Looking forward to using all the new features and speed improvements!
Nobody can compete because the telcos erect artificial barriers to entry. Read horror story reports about the finger pointing that goes on between telco and ISP. Funny how the telco gets its act together when they are the ISP.
As a company, you can only endure that for so long until your customers get pissed and jump ship to the telco for this ISP, because they just work...
That's the real problem, and as long as the telcos control the lines, it will continue to be.
It seems to me that telephone service (and thus internet service that runs over the telephone network) ought to be regarded as a public utility. It is clearly necessary for living in America, and something like 97% or more households have a phone.
So why doesn't the state just force the bells to sell them the lines, and then lease management responsiblity for the lines back to the bells? It would be a zero-sum transaction, but having the state own the lines would force them to play by fair rules. As long as the bells control the lines, they can play all sorts of games to keep others off. If the state controls them, and leases management back to the bells, suddenly the state can effectively police the lines to ensure everyone has a chance.
Has any of these manages to solve the keyword problem yet? That is, if you can't think of the keyword that everyone else uses to describe the topic you are looking for, then you will have a very difficult time looking for that information.
Even with Google, I find that my keywords don't always match what the indexed sites use. Often it takes three or four tries to get the right keywords that will get me useful information.
Teoma sounds promising, since getting one site in a topic group can get you more in that topic group.
Re:Version 3? Don't think so.
on
Code Red III
·
· Score: 2
Read the/. FAQ. Taco speaks directly to your concern about verifying stories.
Essentally, it is something like Taco sees/. as different from other media, in that readers verify and expound on the stories./. merely reports the story, with some sanity checking (like not reporting something without even a link). What happens after that is up to the readers.
Only problem with the Cormen, Leiserson, and Rivest text is the strange pseudocode langauge they chose. The indentation style makes it very difficult for me to read the code, which is odd, because IMO pseudocode is supposed to be so free of syntactic details that it is the most readable code. But I frequently had to thotoughly examine it to understand which if was being closed where, and so on.
Other than the pseudocode, I'd agree, it's a good, comprehensive algorithms book. I think it easily fills 3 dense semesters of intensive study.
I can agree with sentiments that ebooks with copy-control are lame. Thats why I really like Fictionwise (http://www.fictionwise.com). They offer all their etexts at extremely reasonable prices (most are around $1 to purchase). Additionally, and this is the biggest plus for me, all of their texts are downloadable in a ide variety of formats:.PDF,.PDB for Palm Readers, and more. I love the fact that I don't have to limit myself to one lame reader program that only runs on select platforms to read my books. Further, they allow me to download any of the formats at any time from the My Bookshelf section of their web site.
It's a quite convenient way to get some new short stories (my favorite form of fiction) or even something longer. I check back with them once a month or so to find new stories to put on my Visor Prism.
For anyone frustrated with the copy control and invasiveness of ebooks, I'd recommend checking out Fictionwise. Pretty much the only thing I dont like about them is they are mostly science fiction/fantasy. They have some other works on there, but by and large it is sci-fi or fantasy. They do have a lot of great stuff on there though, and they offer a wonderful selection of Hugo/Nebula award winners (including a selection that have won both awards).
I find it incredibly ironic that we try to learn to type fast on the QWERTY layout, one which was specifically designed to SLOW TYPISTS DOWN. In the typewriter days, keys stuck together if one typed too fast, so a new layout that impeded the typist was devised.
We should have switched to a sensible layout (one like Fitaly for Palm comes to mind) long long ago. Now, I fear, it is too late to switch...
I was hoping that the next generation of IE would follow Mozilla's footsteps, and put JDK 1.3 in it, but alas there is no hope for that.
It is quite disappointing to see such wonderful Java 2 features so useless in a browser-based app. Fortunately for all of us, there is much more to Java than browser-based. Sun's new Java WebStart (or whatever it is called) that provides the best of running Java from a browser (no setup/installation issues) with tht best of running from a JRE (quality JDK with full library support) seems quite promising for corporate and specialized app environments. But it is disappointing that simple applets will be all we can ever expect from a web page.
I think it is inaccurate to describe Java as a moving target at this point.
3+ years ago, when the language was undergoing MAJOR revisions with each release ala the switch from old event model to new event model, and switch from AWT to Swing, that was true.
However, since Java 2 has been released, things have settled down quite a lot. The language is stable. Sure new features are added, but they aren't the kind that make you go back and redesign lots and lots of code. They are more of the "wow, that is a nice enhancement that will save me lots of time" type.
Sun has also spent a lot of effort in speeding up Java in the past 18 months. However, most apps don't need to worry about this. They can just take advantage of the increased speed with no extra effort expended bu the developer.
It seems that today, the largest advances in Java by far occure in the class libraries. However, even here we see that many of the changes are just improvements in the way things worked before. Take JDBC. JDBC code I wrote 2 years ago still works now in JDBC 2. Sure, JDBC 2 added lots of useful things (like built-in connection pooling and data sources), but my code doesn't have to use them to work. JDBC 3 is now in development, and will add more useful things (like statement pools) but once again, my existing code should work just fine. So it is true that Java evolves quickly, but these days developers aren't stranded anymore.
IMO it is to Sun's credit that they push the envelope of Java so much in such a short time. Without the aggressive release schedules, Java wouldn't have a chance. Keeping the platform evolving so quickly allows Java to stay on the leading edge. Look at the XML RPC stuff - this stuff was out there from the start of all this "web services" buzz, long before.NET was announced. Without the leadership of Sun, IBM, and the like to push the platform forward, it would simply die from stagnation.
Read my entire argument. I chose MP3 because everything uses it - the same reason most consumers will also choose MP3.
I made a decision to stay away from WMA primarily because it isn't useful to me, and second because I dislike Microsoft's policies and behavior with regards to Windows and the like. I never said Frauenhofer was a saint; rather, I have a particular dislike for many of Microsoft's practices, and thus I try to avoid them when possible.
All these formats have a tough road ahead of them..MP3 is so FIRMLY entrenched in the market that it could take years before people give it up, if ever:
1) hardware: lots of people are selling hardware MP3 players for PDAs, Cars, pants pockets, and home stereos. Anyone who thinks consumers will throw these away so soon is foolish. Lots of people I know buy players that only play MP3. Many of these are not upgradeable. They will be around for a long time, and MP3 will be too.
2) software: lots of software already exists for ripping CDs into MP3s. iTunes has done wonders for introducing some of the less technical folk to digital music. Lots of people I know use musicmatch and realjukebox. These programs aren't going to magically stop working, and the MP3 files they produce won't either. Winamp, Musicmatch, iTunes, RealJukebox and their brethren will be around for a long time...
3) habit: people are used to.MP3. They know that all their software works with it, they know what to do with it, they are aware of its limitations, and they know how to work around them. Expecting people to jump ship to a new format, just because it is available, especially when it offers DECREASED flexibility is also foolish. Consumers seem more than happy with the compression and sound quality of MP3 - it would take something truly amazing to come along to convince them to change. WMA and its 1/2 file size (supposedly at the same quality *) doesn't seem to be doing it.
In conclusion, I don't see any reason people would leave MP3 for a new format any time soon. This i especially true for new formats with confusing DRM that restricts people from playing music whereever they go. Consumers don't want the hassle of backing up license keys to their music. They already bought it. Why do they need to license it?
(* Does WMA actually deliver on this promise of 1/2 filze size with superior sound? I've never messed with.WMA becase 1) Mirosoft is evil and I don't want them controlling my media and 2) MP3 is fine for me).
An often ignored concept (that George Broussard from 3D Realms seems to have understood) is that most pirated copies would NOT have been purchased anyways. There are lots of users that will not use the software unless they can get it for free. So in effect, they can either not pay for the software and use it, or not use it at all. Note that such users dont give ANYTHING to the company anyway; it is just a question of whether or not they will use the sotrware. In this case, the software company enjoys a larger installed base.
This is most of the reason why I see the Y Company lost $X to piracy as a BS argument. I've always noticed that lots of people won't pay for software at all; if they had to pay they would do without. IN that case, the Y Company is losing $X in potential sales because their price is too high/marketing not good enough/etc... How different is that from any other company in the tangible good and services industries that loses sales because consumers dont want to pay that much for the product? Why, then, should we treat software companies any differently from those that have poor sales policies?
I don't know about you, but I try to keep by database as separated as possible from the application/business logic. The resultant 3-tiered design lets me change any portion of the app independently of the other. Most important, it lets me change the database to another that suits my needs with a minimum of effort. Sticking bunches of code in the database via stored procedures violates this; the result is my app is now tied to the database. That can be quite a pain to upgrade.
Why, then, is it seen as an advantage to perform application logic in the database?
Consumers CLEARLY want Mp3. They have invested hundreds and thousands of dollars in MP3 players, for home, office, car, and to stick in their pockets. They have lots of skins and plugins for PC-based players, and hundreds or thousands of files.
And Microsoft comes along and decides that consumers dont really want MP3; instead, they will want whatever MS decides.
Can anyone else see how twisted and fucked up that is? IT runs completely counter to the idea of a market - consumer demand isn't driving the market with Microsoft at the helm. Rather, corporate greed is.
Frankly, I'm not not surprised something like this happened. MS wants to control our digital media, and this is one way to do it. I just hope something comes along to displace this sad announcement.
You are actually describing something called a Context Free Grammar, which is used to represent a Context Free Language. Regular Languages are a subset of the Context Free Languaes, but they are not the same, since they are only a subset.
To be clear, Perl's regular expressions are actually not regular at all, in the true mathematical sense of the word. Backtracking is one thing that immediately breaks the definition of the world regular. However, the term is catchy, and has since been (incorrectly) applied to any form of pattern matching.
For those interested, I suggest picking up a book on automata theory to learn more about all this, from a theoretical standpoint.
I have Introduction to the theory of Computation by Michael Sipser, ISBN 0-534-94728-X
Slashdot Mirror
That is because the highpoint chips are crap.
I had a HPT366 in my Abit BE6 and have had nothing but problems with it. I won't buy another board that uses a highpoint - they are junk.
THe article points out that the DeCSS trade secret was discovered and disclosed. So why isn't it rendered invalid. To my mind, the DeCSS trade secret was poorly protected if it was breakable by the crackers that accomplished it, and should no longer enjoy trade secret status. ESPECIALLY not since the code to implement the supposed secret is widely published on the internet, as a t-shirt even!
So why does the trade secret still count, after all that. Isn't it no longer secret, ann thus, no longer enjoys special protection under the law?
Just want to say thanks so much for all the hard work you guys have done to make Slashdot the community it is today. Looking forward to using all the new features and speed improvements!
Nobody can compete because the telcos erect artificial barriers to entry. Read horror story reports about the finger pointing that goes on between telco and ISP. Funny how the telco gets its act together when they are the ISP.
As a company, you can only endure that for so long until your customers get pissed and jump ship to the telco for this ISP, because they just work...
That's the real problem, and as long as the telcos control the lines, it will continue to be.
It seems to me that telephone service (and thus internet service that runs over the telephone network) ought to be regarded as a public utility. It is clearly necessary for living in America, and something like 97% or more households have a phone.
So why doesn't the state just force the bells to sell them the lines, and then lease management responsiblity for the lines back to the bells? It would be a zero-sum transaction, but having the state own the lines would force them to play by fair rules. As long as the bells control the lines, they can play all sorts of games to keep others off. If the state controls them, and leases management back to the bells, suddenly the state can effectively police the lines to ensure everyone has a chance.
Why hasn't something like this been done already?
Has any of these manages to solve the keyword problem yet? That is, if you can't think of the keyword that everyone else uses to describe the topic you are looking for, then you will have a very difficult time looking for that information.
Even with Google, I find that my keywords don't always match what the indexed sites use. Often it takes three or four tries to get the right keywords that will get me useful information.
Teoma sounds promising, since getting one site in a topic group can get you more in that topic group.
Read the /. FAQ. Taco speaks directly to your concern about verifying stories.
/. as different from other media, in that readers verify and expound on the stories. /. merely reports the story, with some sanity checking (like not reporting something without even a link). What happens after that is up to the readers.
Essentally, it is something like Taco sees
Only problem with the Cormen, Leiserson, and Rivest text is the strange pseudocode langauge they chose. The indentation style makes it very difficult for me to read the code, which is odd, because IMO pseudocode is supposed to be so free of syntactic details that it is the most readable code. But I frequently had to thotoughly examine it to understand which if was being closed where, and so on.
Other than the pseudocode, I'd agree, it's a good, comprehensive algorithms book. I think it easily fills 3 dense semesters of intensive study.
I can agree with sentiments that ebooks with copy-control are lame. Thats why I really like Fictionwise (http://www.fictionwise.com). They offer all their etexts at extremely reasonable prices (most are around $1 to purchase). Additionally, and this is the biggest plus for me, all of their texts are downloadable in a ide variety of formats: .PDF, .PDB for Palm Readers, and more. I love the fact that I don't have to limit myself to one lame reader program that only runs on select platforms to read my books. Further, they allow me to download any of the formats at any time from the My Bookshelf section of their web site.
It's a quite convenient way to get some new short stories (my favorite form of fiction) or even something longer. I check back with them once a month or so to find new stories to put on my Visor Prism.
For anyone frustrated with the copy control and invasiveness of ebooks, I'd recommend checking out Fictionwise. Pretty much the only thing I dont like about them is they are mostly science fiction/fantasy. They have some other works on there, but by and large it is sci-fi or fantasy. They do have a lot of great stuff on there though, and they offer a wonderful selection of Hugo/Nebula award winners (including a selection that have won both awards).
What about ISPs and such that modify the TOS or AUP after the sale? I would certainly never agree to a change in my service, but they do it anyway.
If these aren't legal, why isn't more of a fuss raised about them?
Actually I think that case is ugly as sin.
The last episode just wasn't that good IMO, so it is easy to see why its not getting the ratings.
I really enjoyed the porn director story of the first 2 episodes, but #3 just didn't do it for me.
I hope the later episodes of the season improve.
If only keyboards had a sensible layout....
I find it incredibly ironic that we try to learn to type fast on the QWERTY layout, one which was specifically designed to SLOW TYPISTS DOWN. In the typewriter days, keys stuck together if one typed too fast, so a new layout that impeded the typist was devised.
We should have switched to a sensible layout (one like Fitaly for Palm comes to mind) long long ago. Now, I fear, it is too late to switch...
I agree, that is certainly a conundrum.
I was hoping that the next generation of IE would follow Mozilla's footsteps, and put JDK 1.3 in it, but alas there is no hope for that.
It is quite disappointing to see such wonderful Java 2 features so useless in a browser-based app. Fortunately for all of us, there is much more to Java than browser-based. Sun's new Java WebStart (or whatever it is called) that provides the best of running Java from a browser (no setup/installation issues) with tht best of running from a JRE (quality JDK with full library support) seems quite promising for corporate and specialized app environments. But it is disappointing that simple applets will be all we can ever expect from a web page.
I think it is inaccurate to describe Java as a moving target at this point.
.NET was announced. Without the leadership of Sun, IBM, and the like to push the platform forward, it would simply die from stagnation.
3+ years ago, when the language was undergoing MAJOR revisions with each release ala the switch from old event model to new event model, and switch from AWT to Swing, that was true.
However, since Java 2 has been released, things have settled down quite a lot. The language is stable. Sure new features are added, but they aren't the kind that make you go back and redesign lots and lots of code. They are more of the "wow, that is a nice enhancement that will save me lots of time" type.
Sun has also spent a lot of effort in speeding up Java in the past 18 months. However, most apps don't need to worry about this. They can just take advantage of the increased speed with no extra effort expended bu the developer.
It seems that today, the largest advances in Java by far occure in the class libraries. However, even here we see that many of the changes are just improvements in the way things worked before. Take JDBC. JDBC code I wrote 2 years ago still works now in JDBC 2. Sure, JDBC 2 added lots of useful things (like built-in connection pooling and data sources), but my code doesn't have to use them to work. JDBC 3 is now in development, and will add more useful things (like statement pools) but once again, my existing code should work just fine. So it is true that Java evolves quickly, but these days developers aren't stranded anymore.
IMO it is to Sun's credit that they push the envelope of Java so much in such a short time. Without the aggressive release schedules, Java wouldn't have a chance. Keeping the platform evolving so quickly allows Java to stay on the leading edge. Look at the XML RPC stuff - this stuff was out there from the start of all this "web services" buzz, long before
Read my entire argument. I chose MP3 because everything uses it - the same reason most consumers will also choose MP3.
I made a decision to stay away from WMA primarily because it isn't useful to me, and second because I dislike Microsoft's policies and behavior with regards to Windows and the like. I never said Frauenhofer was a saint; rather, I have a particular dislike for many of Microsoft's practices, and thus I try to avoid them when possible.
All these formats have a tough road ahead of them. .MP3 is so FIRMLY entrenched in the market that it could take years before people give it up, if ever:
.MP3. They know that all their software works with it, they know what to do with it, they are aware of its limitations, and they know how to work around them. Expecting people to jump ship to a new format, just because it is available, especially when it offers DECREASED flexibility is also foolish. Consumers seem more than happy with the compression and sound quality of MP3 - it would take something truly amazing to come along to convince them to change. WMA and its 1/2 file size (supposedly at the same quality *) doesn't seem to be doing it.
.WMA becase 1) Mirosoft is evil and I don't want them controlling my media and 2) MP3 is fine for me).
1) hardware: lots of people are selling hardware MP3 players for PDAs, Cars, pants pockets, and home stereos. Anyone who thinks consumers will throw these away so soon is foolish. Lots of people I know buy players that only play MP3. Many of these are not upgradeable. They will be around for a long time, and MP3 will be too.
2) software: lots of software already exists for ripping CDs into MP3s. iTunes has done wonders for introducing some of the less technical folk to digital music. Lots of people I know use musicmatch and realjukebox. These programs aren't going to magically stop working, and the MP3 files they produce won't either. Winamp, Musicmatch, iTunes, RealJukebox and their brethren will be around for a long time...
3) habit: people are used to
In conclusion, I don't see any reason people would leave MP3 for a new format any time soon. This i especially true for new formats with confusing DRM that restricts people from playing music whereever they go. Consumers don't want the hassle of backing up license keys to their music. They already bought it. Why do they need to license it?
(* Does WMA actually deliver on this promise of 1/2 filze size with superior sound? I've never messed with
for the curious, what is that secret city called? do you have any other references to learn more about it?
i am fascinated.
An often ignored concept (that George Broussard from 3D Realms seems to have understood) is that most pirated copies would NOT have been purchased anyways. There are lots of users that will not use the software unless they can get it for free. So in effect, they can either not pay for the software and use it, or not use it at all. Note that such users dont give ANYTHING to the company anyway; it is just a question of whether or not they will use the sotrware. In this case, the software company enjoys a larger installed base.
This is most of the reason why I see the Y Company lost $X to piracy as a BS argument. I've always noticed that lots of people won't pay for software at all; if they had to pay they would do without. IN that case, the Y Company is losing $X in potential sales because their price is too high/marketing not good enough/etc... How different is that from any other company in the tangible good and services industries that loses sales because consumers dont want to pay that much for the product? Why, then, should we treat software companies any differently from those that have poor sales policies?
Thats why I give them an alias. Pick your favorite character from a book or movie or TV show and go with that. Examples:
Ned Flanders
Carmella Soprano
John boy Walton
What can they say then?
Be sure to use lots of different aliases, otherwise they might be able to track you via the alias through some clever data mining.
how did the A New Hope SPecial Edition change the entire story line and fundamental definition of one of the main characters?
I sure didn't catch that.
of course teens are getting greedy. How else can they pay for the DVDs, CDs, Cell phones, everquest, and dammit, all that McDonald's they eat!?!
I don't know about you, but I try to keep by database as separated as possible from the application/business logic. The resultant 3-tiered design lets me change any portion of the app independently of the other. Most important, it lets me change the database to another that suits my needs with a minimum of effort. Sticking bunches of code in the database via stored procedures violates this; the result is my app is now tied to the database. That can be quite a pain to upgrade.
Why, then, is it seen as an advantage to perform application logic in the database?
Consumers CLEARLY want Mp3. They have invested hundreds and thousands of dollars in MP3 players, for home, office, car, and to stick in their pockets. They have lots of skins and plugins for PC-based players, and hundreds or thousands of files.
And Microsoft comes along and decides that consumers dont really want MP3; instead, they will want whatever MS decides.
Can anyone else see how twisted and fucked up that is? IT runs completely counter to the idea of a market - consumer demand isn't driving the market with Microsoft at the helm. Rather, corporate greed is.
Frankly, I'm not not surprised something like this happened. MS wants to control our digital media, and this is one way to do it. I just hope something comes along to displace this sad announcement.
You are actually describing something called a Context Free Grammar, which is used to represent a Context Free Language. Regular Languages are a subset of the Context Free Languaes, but they are not the same, since they are only a subset.
To be clear, Perl's regular expressions are actually not regular at all, in the true mathematical sense of the word. Backtracking is one thing that immediately breaks the definition of the world regular. However, the term is catchy, and has since been (incorrectly) applied to any form of pattern matching.
For those interested, I suggest picking up a book on automata theory to learn more about all this, from a theoretical standpoint.
I have Introduction to the theory of Computation by Michael Sipser, ISBN 0-534-94728-X