To get back to the original remark... "Live by the sword, die by the sword". Microsoft has taken up the cause of spreading software patents throughout the world, it's poetic justice to see software patents bite them in the ass. Whether or not Gates believed he was doing something evil by creating a patent warchest isn't really relevant ( In 1990, Microsoft had 3 patents; today they have over 6000 ).
Bill Gate's quote on the subject: "If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today. I feel certain that some large company will patent some obvious thing related to interface, object orientation, algorithm, application extension or other crucial technique. If we assume this company has no need of any of our patents then they have a 17-year right to take as much of our profits as they want. The solution to this is patent exchanges with large companies and patenting as much as we can. "
Gates knows software patents are bad for the industry, but Microsoft still lobbys for software patent laws in many countries. They will win in the EU soon...
I have a nearly identical setup, and can verify that it works amazingly well. My Mac Mini runs MythFrontend and streams TV from my Linux backend. After a wall or two the Apple keyboard/mouse become unusable... but it's way more range than you need.
I normally have my laptop in front of me while watching TV, so I've started using Teleport, which is also great. I've used Synergy, but it's not nearly as slick as Teleport.
Wow! that's a great idea... I can't find a microwave that actually does this, I only found some patents about it. Just don't sniff your microwave popcorn
These classes are basically certificate courses... no real learning goes on in them.
In my experience, these computer literacy classes are a waste of time for 95% of the people taking them. I proctored a couple of these classes and had a hard time staying awake and would have skipped the classes if it had been an option. "Teaching" these classes is very hard (I'm not even sure it's possible). These classes cover such exciting things as "opening files" and then finish with advanced topics like "Excel functions". Freshmen think it will be an easy "A" and don't bother testing out of it, then don't bother attending the classes and fail it.
I think these "literacy" courses should not count towards your GPA, this would motivate people to test out of them and clear enough of the chaff to allow the classes to be taught to the 5% who couldn't figure this stuff out on their own and need to be taught. Anyhoo... the bureaucracy in most universities makes it nearly impossible to encourage people to NOT take a class.
This also leads to a possible way for Apple's to shut down sites that help with jailbreaking...
The jailbreaking sites definitely discourage pirating. If Apple tries to pull DMCA anti-circumvention crap, it will be interesting. I really hope Apple tries it; the U.S. has started handing out jail time for installing mod-chips(without any piracy involved) and this could create a tipping point to bring the law back into balance.
I think the best use-case for a modded console is provided by XBMC. It let your XBox1 play movies of almost any format. The XBox1 have 1080i component output and TOS link sound, it doesn't handle H264 movies well, but is an awesome player of SD content with a nice upscaler. The XBox1 v1 and v2 could be completely soft-modded(no soldering or extra components). The XBox Media kit was far less functional and cost $50.
Another good use-case is making the PSP more usable. The spinning UMD optical drive was a poor design decision. Modified PSPs can run games off memory sticks which makes the hand-held much more robust and cuts load times to a fraction of what they were.
The law is far from clear... The kid didn't violate any copyrights or steal anything, he provided services to disable locks on a game console for money.
There are good reasons to want to disable the @#$@# locks on your own hardware, such as:
playing imported games that the console maker either:
doesn't offer in your language in your country
charges WAY more for in your country
doesn't offer at all in your country
playing homebrew games
XBMC!!!, which was probably the best media front-end before high-def content became the norm.
Wanting to tinker
developing home-brew games(there is still a vibrant PS2/PSP and DS homebrew community)
Porting BSD to it... I don't know why
just for fun
Make is run better
modified XBox1s can have the game CDs coppied to their built-in hard-drives which eliminated the random Disk-Read errors in the middle of games and sped up load-times TREMENDOUSLY!... The DVD drive in most XBoxs was a POS
Copy PSP games to memory sticks to do the same as the XBox... why did they go with spinning optical media in the PSP?
While it may be a driver issue; it is still something Microsoft needs to address. Switching to and from multiple screen mode for remote-desktop should be tested and supported on normal hardware. We aren't talking about off-the-wall hardware here.
Maybe Microsoft needs to take ownership of accelerated drivers for the major graphics chips like Apple does for OSX. Or they could provide a well documented API for dual-screen support like X11/RandR/Xinerama. I know they work closely with the major graphics vendors(DirectX being an example), but they obviously need to work harder on the basics.
What was wrong with multi-monitor support on Linux? To me Linux's multi-monitor support has always been the most useful/powerful since I can tie any monitors together into separate X sessions. My latest encounters with Vista dual-screen have left me wondering if Microsoft is doing enough dual-screen testing. None of Microsoft's apps use their standard widgets anymore, which means they have to do a LOT more testing to make sure this stuff works correctly.
My multi-monitor history:
2000 - dual headed Win98 w/ 2x S3 Virge
Worked surprisingly well, but no frills(didn't have real 3D yet and everything loaded on the first monitor).
TV card completely failed to work in 2 head mode (an ISA overlay-only card)
2000-2003 - dual headed PowerMac 6500 with a Rage2 and Voodoo5
Supported dragging opengl windows between cards, even if the frame-rate on the ATI was 1/1000th the 3dfx.
PowerMac's built-in TV did overlay when on ATI card, but when the TV window was dragged to voodoo5 it went into a blitting-mode which made the colors look a bit washed out and ate my CPU(still pretty seamless considering it worked).
2003-2007 - three headed 1.7Ghz Linux Box with an S3 Virge and a dual-headed Geforce4MX
Not quite as seemless(if the S3 was combined in Xinerama to the Geforce, then accelerated OpenGL only worked on the first screen...
Kept S3 in it's own X session and dual-screened the Geforce4MX monitors with Xinerama
BT878 TV card that could either be put into overlay mode and work on first monitor, or blitting-mode and work on both and eat my CPU(not as seamless as Mac, but still decent)
2007-2009 - Macbook w/ GMA950 (occasionally with extra monitor)
OpenGL works on both monitors...
TV now runs through a HD-Homerunner and MythTV(from my old Linux desktop). MythFrontend on MacOS works on both screens nicely...
2008-2009 - Stock Dell, Vista w/ dual-headed Radeon(work computer)
For some reason Office 2007 doesn't play nicely with dual-monitors on this computer. Any application with the ribbon interface scrambles the toolbar if I remote-desktoped into this computer.
The screens would randomly trade places on restart... sometimes the left would be #1 and sometimes it was #2...
I don't know how you can justify "civil contempt" being an offense where you automatically lose your personal freedoms. If anything, these judgments that seem to come from parallel worlds force people to seek self-help to resolve their legal problems. If the guy had just killed his wife he would have likely gotten out sooner.
"They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B.F.
The defendant isn't going to show in UK court(unless he's an idiot), and they can't enforce any judgment against him in the US. The user didn't break any laws that he was bound by. The NPG is trying to use UK copyright law where it doesn't apply; only international and US copyright law apply unless the user makes a trip to the UK.
There is ZERO chance that this lawsuit will get these public domain pictures pulled from a US server.
In the US, the paintings and the copies are in the public domain. Under US law, a copy of a work gets the same rights as the original. These pictures are purely copies, they have nothing new added to them which would qualify them as copyrightable works in the US.
Everything happened within the US:
The user is a US citizen
The Wikipedia servers are in the US
The NPG galleries were accessed from the US
It would be nearly impossible for the NPG to drag the user to the UK to charge him under UK copyright law and the Wikipedia Foundation hasn't broken any laws at all.
This letter was an empty threat, unless the user wants to travel within the UK.
To me it doesn't sound reasonable, they are wasting a LOT of money on a lawsuit that they know can't go anywhere. Launching frivolous lawsuits using tax payer funds is repugnant. The user was within his rights as an US citizen to ignore the UK law prohibiting him from downloading the images.
If the NPG didn't want the images to be used under US copyright law, then they shouldn't have put them in the internet. If they didn't realize what they were doing, then it's their fault.
For OSX, just you would want to use netatalk for Time-Machine. You have to have a build of netatalk with SSL support. Netatalk relies on libSSL, which isn't GPL, so binary versions of netatalk with SSL are not redistributable... There are excellent instructions on getting Ubuntu working as a time-machine server at http://www.kremalicious.com/2008/06/ubuntu-as-mac-file-server-and-time-machine-volume/ I've used them, and it works very well.
Time-machine has an incredibly slick interface, and allows you to block certain directories from getting backed up. I have it backup just my home-folder, minus my Downloads folder. Time-machine backups are just disk-images with the files that have changed, so you don't have to use a special program to go through them.
You probably want different backup clients for each platform. Backups should be seamless, and cross-platform apps often aren't.
It has been said here quite a few times, but for anyone not willing to spend upwards of $10K:
Raid for performance
Raid for bigger drives
Raid for less downtime
Raid for fun
DON'T Raid for reliability
Raid-1 is almost never the answer
The poster seems to be stuck on raid, when he really wants a backup solution.
Apple has really hit it out of the ballpark with usability on their backup solution... but you need Apple hardware to use it.
I'm using a Airport Extreme with an external hard drive and couldn't be happier. It is very easy to go back and find old versions of documents, preview them, and restore them.
That would only be true if the CFL bulb corrected for the harmonics of its SMPS. The real power-factor problem from a CFL(or anything that uses a SMPS) is the extreme harmonics that they cause. If passive PF correction is used in the bulb, then you will see a normal capacitive load. This is one of the selling points of HPF CFLs. It's too bad that HPF CFLs are specialty items that you won't find locally.
But don't expect things like facts to convince the people who irrationally love CFLs, you cannot reason people out of a position they have not reasoned themselves into. Incandescent bulbs are set to be banned in 2010, and the replacement bulbs on store shelves currently suck...
Slashdot Mirror
I believe you are talking about the SCO case... and yes, Microsoft did at least indirectly help fund the litigation. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-139743.html
To get back to the original remark... "Live by the sword, die by the sword". Microsoft has taken up the cause of spreading software patents throughout the world, it's poetic justice to see software patents bite them in the ass. Whether or not Gates believed he was doing something evil by creating a patent warchest isn't really relevant ( In 1990, Microsoft had 3 patents; today they have over 6000 ).
I do stand by the quote as being very relevant since it gives a window into the mind of the leader of Microsoft as the company plunged into the software patent era. http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2007/03/analysis-microsofts-software-patent-flip-flop.ars
Bill Gate's quote on the subject:
"If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today's ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today. I feel certain that some large company will patent some obvious thing related to interface, object orientation, algorithm, application extension or other crucial technique. If we assume this company has no need of any of our patents then they have a 17-year right to take as much of our profits as they want. The solution to this is patent exchanges with large companies and patenting as much as we can. "
taken from the 1991 memo at http://www.std.com/obi/Bill.Gates/Challenges.and.Strategy
Gates knows software patents are bad for the industry, but Microsoft still lobbys for software patent laws in many countries. They will win in the EU soon...
I think he was talking about Microsoft's embrace of software patents http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2007/03/analysis-microsofts-software-patent-flip-flop.ars
Microsoft has been pro-software-patent since the mid 1990s...
I have a nearly identical setup, and can verify that it works amazingly well. My Mac Mini runs MythFrontend and streams TV from my Linux backend. After a wall or two the Apple keyboard/mouse become unusable... but it's way more range than you need.
I normally have my laptop in front of me while watching TV, so I've started using Teleport, which is also great. I've used Synergy, but it's not nearly as slick as Teleport.
Wow! that's a great idea... I can't find a microwave that actually does this, I only found some patents about it. Just don't sniff your microwave popcorn
Personally I perfer air-popped popcorn.
These classes are basically certificate courses... no real learning goes on in them.
In my experience, these computer literacy classes are a waste of time for 95% of the people taking them. I proctored a couple of these classes and had a hard time staying awake and would have skipped the classes if it had been an option. "Teaching" these classes is very hard (I'm not even sure it's possible). These classes cover such exciting things as "opening files" and then finish with advanced topics like "Excel functions". Freshmen think it will be an easy "A" and don't bother testing out of it, then don't bother attending the classes and fail it.
I think these "literacy" courses should not count towards your GPA, this would motivate people to test out of them and clear enough of the chaff to allow the classes to be taught to the 5% who couldn't figure this stuff out on their own and need to be taught. Anyhoo... the bureaucracy in most universities makes it nearly impossible to encourage people to NOT take a class.
I agree... which is why I have such a problem with Tesla Motors.
Tesla Motors lives off government money and makes toys. Funding research to make toys is one thing, but now we are funding manufacturers.
This also leads to a possible way for Apple's to shut down sites that help with jailbreaking...
The jailbreaking sites definitely discourage pirating. If Apple tries to pull DMCA anti-circumvention crap, it will be interesting. I really hope Apple tries it; the U.S. has started handing out jail time for installing mod-chips(without any piracy involved) and this could create a tipping point to bring the law back into balance.
I think the best use-case for a modded console is provided by XBMC. It let your XBox1 play movies of almost any format. The XBox1 have 1080i component output and TOS link sound, it doesn't handle H264 movies well, but is an awesome player of SD content with a nice upscaler. The XBox1 v1 and v2 could be completely soft-modded(no soldering or extra components). The XBox Media kit was far less functional and cost $50.
Another good use-case is making the PSP more usable. The spinning UMD optical drive was a poor design decision. Modified PSPs can run games off memory sticks which makes the hand-held much more robust and cuts load times to a fraction of what they were.
There are good reasons to want to disable the @#$@# locks on your own hardware, such as:
While it may be a driver issue; it is still something Microsoft needs to address. Switching to and from multiple screen mode for remote-desktop should be tested and supported on normal hardware. We aren't talking about off-the-wall hardware here.
Maybe Microsoft needs to take ownership of accelerated drivers for the major graphics chips like Apple does for OSX. Or they could provide a well documented API for dual-screen support like X11/RandR/Xinerama. I know they work closely with the major graphics vendors(DirectX being an example), but they obviously need to work harder on the basics.
It certainly sounds like a software limitation to me... It's a limitation of the software implementation.
also (1280 * 800 ) + ( 1280x1024 ) < ( 2048 * 2048 )
My multi-monitor history:
I hope a thug holds you in contempt for 14 years...
I don't know how you can justify "civil contempt" being an offense where you automatically lose your personal freedoms. If anything, these judgments that seem to come from parallel worlds force people to seek self-help to resolve their legal problems. If the guy had just killed his wife he would have likely gotten out sooner.
"They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B.F.
I can't tell if you are being facetious... I hope so.
The defendant isn't going to show in UK court(unless he's an idiot), and they can't enforce any judgment against him in the US. The user didn't break any laws that he was bound by. The NPG is trying to use UK copyright law where it doesn't apply; only international and US copyright law apply unless the user makes a trip to the UK.
There is ZERO chance that this lawsuit will get these public domain pictures pulled from a US server.
The works are fully attributed, although they don't need to be since they are public domain.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_Edward_Belcher_by_Stephen_Pearce.jpg
Everything happened within the US:
It would be nearly impossible for the NPG to drag the user to the UK to charge him under UK copyright law and the Wikipedia Foundation hasn't broken any laws at all.
This letter was an empty threat, unless the user wants to travel within the UK.
To me it doesn't sound reasonable, they are wasting a LOT of money on a lawsuit that they know can't go anywhere. Launching frivolous lawsuits using tax payer funds is repugnant. The user was within his rights as an US citizen to ignore the UK law prohibiting him from downloading the images.
If the NPG didn't want the images to be used under US copyright law, then they shouldn't have put them in the internet. If they didn't realize what they were doing, then it's their fault.
For OSX, just you would want to use netatalk for Time-Machine. You have to have a build of netatalk with SSL support. Netatalk relies on libSSL, which isn't GPL, so binary versions of netatalk with SSL are not redistributable... There are excellent instructions on getting Ubuntu working as a time-machine server at http://www.kremalicious.com/2008/06/ubuntu-as-mac-file-server-and-time-machine-volume/ I've used them, and it works very well.
Time-machine has an incredibly slick interface, and allows you to block certain directories from getting backed up. I have it backup just my home-folder, minus my Downloads folder. Time-machine backups are just disk-images with the files that have changed, so you don't have to use a special program to go through them.
You probably want different backup clients for each platform. Backups should be seamless, and cross-platform apps often aren't.
The poster seems to be stuck on raid, when he really wants a backup solution.
Apple has really hit it out of the ballpark with usability on their backup solution... but you need Apple hardware to use it.
I'm using a Airport Extreme with an external hard drive and couldn't be happier. It is very easy to go back and find old versions of documents, preview them, and restore them.
I've seen this repeatedly with Microsoft hardware I own... it is painfully obvious they don't do adequate testing.
The real fun comes a couple years into owning it, when Microsoft completely cuts support for Windows, while it still works perfectly everywhere else.
That would only be true if the CFL bulb corrected for the harmonics of its SMPS. The real power-factor problem from a CFL(or anything that uses a SMPS) is the extreme harmonics that they cause. If passive PF correction is used in the bulb, then you will see a normal capacitive load. This is one of the selling points of HPF CFLs. It's too bad that HPF CFLs are specialty items that you won't find locally.
But don't expect things like facts to convince the people who irrationally love CFLs, you cannot reason people out of a position they have not reasoned themselves into. Incandescent bulbs are set to be banned in 2010, and the replacement bulbs on store shelves currently suck...