For some reason, you were affraid to post it with your real/. ID. Might it be because your are a hopeless Sony fanboy that will apologise for stupid mistakes of the company, no matter what?
If you ask me, console vendors are all behaving like prescool kids, but the only people behaving less mature than them are vendor fanboys.
Grow the fscking up. There's no value in consoles other than what you really can do with them. Really, there's no value in software other than what you can do with it. It doesn't matten if you talk about Windows Longhorn/Vista, PS3 or anything. There's only the product and it's competition.
...execs boasting about superiority and features of non-existing products? "Our product will be 31% nicer and 73.6% more cool; it will be so cool, that software for our product couldn't even run on competition's product!"
Geez... Like kids in kindergarten. Just release the frelling product and we'll see for ourselves.
At the time I was running docs repo we used CVS. There are multitude of graphical clients for all platforms. People responsible for documentation's correctness just had to review recent changes (via graphical tools comparing versions side-by-side, with changes highlited), correct Engrish and check in new version.
LaTeX [...] has one drawback in comparision to reStructuredText -- it cannot easily output different formats, basically just DVI
LaTeX can be converted to HTML, PDF, PS, ASCII, RTF and there are also a variety of converters for WordPerfect etc
Yeah, sure... First, I did write, that you can generate PS and PDF from LaTeX, you've just cut it. And second: go, convert to HTML, RTF, WordPerfect any decent LaTeX document with custom macros, styles etc.
You see, I do use LaTeX daily, did manage huge documentation repository with LaTeX documents and know all those tools and their limitations. If you wan't to translate the output of Kylix, or some other LaTeX document without any custom macros/styles, they are almost fine. Other than that, they're useless.
One thing that came to my mind after some decent sleep is M4 preprocessor.
I recommended LaTeX earlier, but it has one drawback in comparision to reStructuredText -- it cannot easily output different formats, basically just DVI (later convertible to PS) and PDF. rST on the other hand, while able to produce HTML, SGML, PDF, even LaTeX and other file formats, lacks any macro/language extension capabilities.
But you can process rST documents, like any other text files, with generic preprocessor like M4 to achieve that goal. Couple it with make and you have consistent, extensible documentation system without a learning curve;)
If you used reStructuredText and liked it, but found it lacking in some features, why don't you try LaTeX? I used to manage a rather large documentation for middle size (~50 people) company in LaTeX and found it being plaintext-based a blessing -- all the developers could use all the free revision control systems for documentation as well, without a problem.
I worked in some or other (more or less) Linux shops ever since and now and then, when we buy some product/solution we can clearly see, that some people are still using LaTeX, CVS and similar tools. And I can still see that the documentation looks better and cleaner that the crappy Word "paintings" distilled to PDF we receive with some other software. Sure, you can get the same effects with word processors, if you know them well enough, but I just like my documentation system doing things for me, it's bad enough that I have to write it;)
It's good to have such a powerful ally in fight against software patents.
After couple of court loses like this, I don't think there's anyone in MS who still believes that their huge patent portfolio will help them. It used to be that you simply amassed patents and when your competition sued you for patent infrigment, you sued them back, finally settled outside of court and signed mututal patent exchange with them.
Now, there are companies that don't do anything, just sue left and right, so you have no possibility to sue them back for patent infrigment[1]. You might even bankrupt them by prolonged court proceedings, but they are like hydra: those same people, will resurface in some other company and continue to extort money.
Robert
[1] unless you own a patent on a business method,,don't do anything, just sue'';)
You gotta love vendor fanboys. They're gonna defend the bastard child of a processor architecture even after the vendor aborts it and restarts development from >10 year old architecture again, trying to forget this mutant child on a side...
When I start it with default config after some thinking it tells me upload too large. try disabling some components and trying again. When I uncheck all the options (i.e. don't save anything) after some thinking it tells me settings change did not complete. please try again later.
I'm too lazy to RTFA (hey, this is/.;), but isn't the price cut the same I've read couple of days ago, which basically boiled down to cleaning up inventory of crappy Netburst processors (a.k.a. Pentium D) in order to focus on PentiumPro-derived Core architecture? Yeah, go buy yourself dual core netburst processor. With both cores communicating via external, shared FSB...
Gawd, I was afraid that Intel would never put to sleep this monstrosity...
As for worrying about his lifetime, I try not to even think about it -- the world as a whole is going nowhere, fast. What happens everywhere is easily visible, on my own turf on the other hand the new government coalition consists of three parties: socialist-christian-populist, socialist-populist and national-socialist. Of course all of them deny being socialist, they even managed to fool the press, local and abroad. And they try their best to hammer us all back into Middle Ages. With a slant of slavery, perhaps.
I, personally, am seriously ashamed about the world we're going leave to our children, I don't even know if it is in better or worse condition than when we took it.
But you see... European data protection laws explicitelly state, that consent to give away data protection cannot be condition to any contract and items of contracts containing such provisions are void.
This is a big difference between US and EU laws. In both organisms state reserves the oversight of contracts between private citizens and corporations. But while in US government backs away from such oversight in any matter that any wacko might label "anti-business", in EU there are lots of laws, that state that some provisions in them cannot be discarded by contracts, and items of contracts contradicting such provisions are illegal and void.
I actually like my state protecting me from monopolies/cartels.
The airlines will add a clause to the ticketing agreement such that the passenger has unambiguously given his consent to the data transfer, and all will continue as currently. This is the same arrangement that allows airport security to search you - they have no *right* to do so, but conversely they have no *obligation* to let you into their airport. You can either be searched, or not get on the plane - the choice is yours.
This won't fly in Europe, the phrasing you cite is read by European Court of Justice in such a way, that such agreement cannot be condition of any contract. Never. Ever. And if any entity in Europe tries it, you can sue them to ECoJ and win. It takes couple of months/years, but you have a guaranteed win and couple keur.
You see, European Court of Justice (for now) is about justice, not about being pro-business, pro-government or pro-anything. I hope it will stay this way, at least in my lifetime...
Others have already pointed out that this case has nothing to do with patents, but I'll answer this question anyway:
since when does china care about patent law?
Since about the same time as US.
As long as the international balance on Copyrights, Patents etc disfavoured US, it had blissfully ignored them. But as soon as it looked that the trend is reversing usians started to cry foul and became the biggest proponent of the Intelectual Property in the world.
We have this stupid saying in Poland: "Kali steal cow, good did, cow steal from Kali, bad did"[1].
Robert
[1] grammar intentionally bad, as in Polish original, since it comes from novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz and was supposed to emulate African speaking broken Polish
I keep hearing that PL is the most expensive telecommunication-wise country in EU, and now I read this. Dedicated data unlimited plan for GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/WiFi[1] is 60-120pln/m in Poland, depending on GSM operator. That's roughly 15-30eur for 1-2GB/m with full speed of available connection. The speed drops considerably after you cross the limit, but it's still free, enough for email, IM etc.
Robert
[1] All Polish GSMs operate WiFi AP in large malls, hotels etc, and those unlimited data plans allow you to access them with no extra charge.
The only thing you said that I really disagree with is this:
Authors of the works getting slavery wages while all benefits are ripped by someone who didn't labour. And said parasites ordering the authors to pay for packaging and breakage of electronic copies of the works, as confirmed by courts in many jurisdictions.
I think the fact that the author had the right to sell their copyright is legitimate. The fact that they felt they had a better chance of making money with a parasitic label is regrettable, but I think it is their choice to make.
Well, I don't agree with your disagreement;)
The state has the right to intervene in contracts and their framing. And it uses (sometimes even abuses) it in regards to labour laws, monopoly/trusts etc.
In my country Copyright Act[1] says that one is allowed to reverse engineer, decompile, debug software to achieve interoperability. And couple of paragraphs down, there is a beautiful phrase: items of contracts contradicting paragraphs [here list, among items provisions for interoperability] are void.
If the Parasites have lots of money, control all channels of distribution, IMO the state has a moral right to intervene on the behalf of artists. And the copyright industry has such leverage, while it simultaneously tries to destroy alternative methods of distribution, so artists won't have a choice other than sign contracts with them.
And the Parasites do destroy alternative channels of distribution. You didn't think, that their crusade against P2P is to prevent people from exchanging some tracks from top 100? They now best, that people using p2p are the people buying most CDs -- they commisioned those studies. But they also know, that efficient p2p networks could give artists the means to avoid the middleman altogether, and they can't let this happen.
I think that the state could and should intervene in this madness. Unfortunatelly, the State are just people, normal people, usually more greedy than the norm. They're in the pockets of special interest groups for years...
Robert
[1] It's not really a copyright in Poland, the proper name is "Author's and Related Rights Act"
Some would argue that it is. Some would even argue that it goes back to a Judeo-Christian principle that a "laborer is worthy of his wages" and that a government is merely recognizing their responsibility to protect that right.
I could more or less agree with that, but I don't see how you could put into this picture:
People, for generations to come getting benefits from some work of art done by some guy they've never met; us, mere mortals, when we want to secure our heirs, we have to save money; if we want to secure our own future we have to give part of our wages for some kind of social security
Authors of the works getting slavery wages while all benefits are ripped by someone who didn't labour. And said parasites ordering the authors to pay for packaging and breakage of electronic copies of the works, as confirmed by courts in many jurisdictions
Parasites buying rights to lock me behind bars when I want to watch my lawfully bought movies on Linux, or dump said dvds to my harddrive for convenience of watching
Other parasites saying me what I can and can't do with my legally bought gear, like my Xbox, which after modding is used by me almost exclusivelly as media center
No, I don't think it's a natural law, if it takes something that gets closer and closer to police state, to protect.
And believe me, I know how police state looks like, I grew in one.
There's one thing that I don't understand. How can there be "state-sponsored copyright infrigment" if the copyright itself is state-granted?
I know, that this might be shocking for some people, but copyright isn't a natural law. It is the state (mandated by the people) that sets the terms and conditions of copyright and if some author doesn't like it he can take his toys and go home.
The only one I am familiar with (Steve), offered free Mac OS X licenses to this group for all the laptops.
Yeah, helluva donation... OS X is ready, paid for, so giving it away costs him nothing and serves only as a publicity stunt. Or free marketing, whatever you want to call it.
And huge tax writeoff... Just sit one day and do the math: how much some software company makes "donating" their software to schools, government agencies etc. Because, giving away single license for a program that costs $100 while boxed, on the shelf, is a $100 loss. And the bonus is that those people will be already trained to use their software, while making software purchase decissions later...
If he wanted to donate some funds for R&D etc, I bet people from OLPC would accept it gladly. But they don't look like morons to me.
Actually, it's a great solution to real problem. Just not the problem that you might think about...;)
The problem: how to get existing companies to pay us more and more for the same old stuff (i.e. 'net presence).
The solution: let's create new TLDs every now and then, those poor shmocks won't have any choice, they're going to have to buy all those domains again, otherwise e.g. Coca-Cola might find advertisement of Pepsi on cocacola.mobi (.eu etc).
I am assuming you get lots of people just not "getting" your.sig
You know, some people do whois on this IP and seem to be convinced that I am some superadmin from AGH (mining and smelter technical university), some do even weirder things, but suprisingly large number of people don't understand (one way or another) that it is just camouflaged "BOFH"...
Is there any proof I could give you to demonstrate the Theory of Evolution is wrong? Is there anything in the world that would make you change your mind?
You don't get it, do you?
The "trust" in theory of evolution is just this: trust. Not the belief. If you give me an example that organisms don't change in response to enviromental conditions, than you've proved that evolution doesn't exist.
It will be incompetent design, panspermia or whatever. Just give me the frelling proof, not unfalsifiable conjecture.
You know, it used to be that Nintendo then Sega owned the game console market, but it didn't prevent them from losing position when their next interation of console was an overpriced crap.
Don't think for a moment, that it's something completely different with Sony. The attitude they present toward their customers is just ripe for detronisation. And it's a good thing...
Slashdot Mirror
For some reason, you were affraid to post it with your real /. ID. Might it be because your are a hopeless Sony fanboy that will apologise for stupid mistakes of the company, no matter what?
If you ask me, console vendors are all behaving like prescool kids, but the only people behaving less mature than them are vendor fanboys.
Grow the fscking up. There's no value in consoles other than what you really can do with them. Really, there's no value in software other than what you can do with it. It doesn't matten if you talk about Windows Longhorn/Vista, PS3 or anything. There's only the product and it's competition.
Robert
...execs boasting about superiority and features of non-existing products? "Our product will be 31% nicer and 73.6% more cool; it will be so cool, that software for our product couldn't even run on competition's product!"
Geez... Like kids in kindergarten. Just release the frelling product and we'll see for ourselves.
Robert
Oh, the beauty of Revision Control Systems ;)
At the time I was running docs repo we used CVS. There are multitude of graphical clients for all platforms. People responsible for documentation's correctness just had to review recent changes (via graphical tools comparing versions side-by-side, with changes highlited), correct Engrish and check in new version.
Saves lots of time.
Robert
Yeah, sure... First, I did write, that you can generate PS and PDF from LaTeX, you've just cut it. And second: go, convert to HTML, RTF, WordPerfect any decent LaTeX document with custom macros, styles etc.
You see, I do use LaTeX daily, did manage huge documentation repository with LaTeX documents and know all those tools and their limitations. If you wan't to translate the output of Kylix, or some other LaTeX document without any custom macros/styles, they are almost fine. Other than that, they're useless.
Robert
One thing that came to my mind after some decent sleep is M4 preprocessor.
;)
I recommended LaTeX earlier, but it has one drawback in comparision to reStructuredText -- it cannot easily output different formats, basically just DVI (later convertible to PS) and PDF. rST on the other hand, while able to produce HTML, SGML, PDF, even LaTeX and other file formats, lacks any macro/language extension capabilities.
But you can process rST documents, like any other text files, with generic preprocessor like M4 to achieve that goal. Couple it with make and you have consistent, extensible documentation system without a learning curve
Robert
If you used reStructuredText and liked it, but found it lacking in some features, why don't you try LaTeX? I used to manage a rather large documentation for middle size (~50 people) company in LaTeX and found it being plaintext-based a blessing -- all the developers could use all the free revision control systems for documentation as well, without a problem.
;)
I worked in some or other (more or less) Linux shops ever since and now and then, when we buy some product/solution we can clearly see, that some people are still using LaTeX, CVS and similar tools. And I can still see that the documentation looks better and cleaner that the crappy Word "paintings" distilled to PDF we receive with some other software. Sure, you can get the same effects with word processors, if you know them well enough, but I just like my documentation system doing things for me, it's bad enough that I have to write it
Robert
It's good to have such a powerful ally in fight against software patents.
,,don't do anything, just sue'' ;)
After couple of court loses like this, I don't think there's anyone in MS who still believes that their huge patent portfolio will help them. It used to be that you simply amassed patents and when your competition sued you for patent infrigment, you sued them back, finally settled outside of court and signed mututal patent exchange with them.
Now, there are companies that don't do anything, just sue left and right, so you have no possibility to sue them back for patent infrigment[1]. You might even bankrupt them by prolonged court proceedings, but they are like hydra: those same people, will resurface in some other company and continue to extort money.
Robert
[1] unless you own a patent on a business method
If the prices drop sufficiently, it might be worth it.
;)
;)
Not if you pay for energy as much as I pay, not really
BTW, your sig is goofy [...]
There's also such thing as being tired of people inventing new, better ways to do sth with this IP address instead of just doing reverse dns lookup
Robert
You gotta love vendor fanboys. They're gonna defend the bastard child of a processor architecture even after the vendor aborts it and restarts development from >10 year old architecture again, trying to forget this mutant child on a side...
Robert
Great tool. Doesn't work for me at all.
When I start it with default config after some thinking it tells me upload too large. try disabling some components and trying again. When I uncheck all the options (i.e. don't save anything) after some thinking it tells me settings change did not complete. please try again later.
As I said, great tool. Doesn't work.
Robert
I'm too lazy to RTFA (hey, this is /. ;), but isn't the price cut the same I've read couple of days ago, which basically boiled down to cleaning up inventory of crappy Netburst processors (a.k.a. Pentium D) in order to focus on PentiumPro-derived Core architecture? Yeah, go buy yourself dual core netburst processor. With both cores communicating via external, shared FSB...
Gawd, I was afraid that Intel would never put to sleep this monstrosity...
Robert
Why, I do have a son, he's the cutest little person in the world ;)
As for worrying about his lifetime, I try not to even think about it -- the world as a whole is going nowhere, fast. What happens everywhere is easily visible, on my own turf on the other hand the new government coalition consists of three parties: socialist-christian-populist, socialist-populist and national-socialist. Of course all of them deny being socialist, they even managed to fool the press, local and abroad. And they try their best to hammer us all back into Middle Ages. With a slant of slavery, perhaps.
I, personally, am seriously ashamed about the world we're going leave to our children, I don't even know if it is in better or worse condition than when we took it.
Robert
But you see... European data protection laws explicitelly state, that consent to give away data protection cannot be condition to any contract and items of contracts containing such provisions are void.
This is a big difference between US and EU laws. In both organisms state reserves the oversight of contracts between private citizens and corporations. But while in US government backs away from such oversight in any matter that any wacko might label "anti-business", in EU there are lots of laws, that state that some provisions in them cannot be discarded by contracts, and items of contracts contradicting such provisions are illegal and void.
I actually like my state protecting me from monopolies/cartels.
Robert
The airlines will add a clause to the ticketing agreement such that the passenger has unambiguously given his consent to the data transfer, and all will continue as currently. This is the same arrangement that allows airport security to search you - they have no *right* to do so, but conversely they have no *obligation* to let you into their airport. You can either be searched, or not get on the plane - the choice is yours.
This won't fly in Europe, the phrasing you cite is read by European Court of Justice in such a way, that such agreement cannot be condition of any contract. Never. Ever. And if any entity in Europe tries it, you can sue them to ECoJ and win. It takes couple of months/years, but you have a guaranteed win and couple keur.
You see, European Court of Justice (for now) is about justice, not about being pro-business, pro-government or pro-anything. I hope it will stay this way, at least in my lifetime...
Robert
Others have already pointed out that this case has nothing to do with patents, but I'll answer this question anyway:
since when does china care about patent law?
Since about the same time as US.
As long as the international balance on Copyrights, Patents etc disfavoured US, it had blissfully ignored them. But as soon as it looked that the trend is reversing usians started to cry foul and became the biggest proponent of the Intelectual Property in the world.
We have this stupid saying in Poland: "Kali steal cow, good did, cow steal from Kali, bad did"[1].
Robert
[1] grammar intentionally bad, as in Polish original, since it comes from novel by Henryk Sienkiewicz and was supposed to emulate African speaking broken Polish
I keep hearing that PL is the most expensive telecommunication-wise country in EU, and now I read this. Dedicated data unlimited plan for GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/WiFi[1] is 60-120pln/m in Poland, depending on GSM operator. That's roughly 15-30eur for 1-2GB/m with full speed of available connection. The speed drops considerably after you cross the limit, but it's still free, enough for email, IM etc.
Robert
[1] All Polish GSMs operate WiFi AP in large malls, hotels etc, and those unlimited data plans allow you to access them with no extra charge.
I think the fact that the author had the right to sell their copyright is legitimate. The fact that they felt they had a better chance of making money with a parasitic label is regrettable, but I think it is their choice to make.
Well, I don't agree with your disagreement
The state has the right to intervene in contracts and their framing. And it uses (sometimes even abuses) it in regards to labour laws, monopoly/trusts etc.
In my country Copyright Act[1] says that one is allowed to reverse engineer, decompile, debug software to achieve interoperability. And couple of paragraphs down, there is a beautiful phrase: items of contracts contradicting paragraphs [here list, among items provisions for interoperability] are void.
If the Parasites have lots of money, control all channels of distribution, IMO the state has a moral right to intervene on the behalf of artists. And the copyright industry has such leverage, while it simultaneously tries to destroy alternative methods of distribution, so artists won't have a choice other than sign contracts with them.
And the Parasites do destroy alternative channels of distribution. You didn't think, that their crusade against P2P is to prevent people from exchanging some tracks from top 100? They now best, that people using p2p are the people buying most CDs -- they commisioned those studies. But they also know, that efficient p2p networks could give artists the means to avoid the middleman altogether, and they can't let this happen.
I think that the state could and should intervene in this madness. Unfortunatelly, the State are just people, normal people, usually more greedy than the norm. They're in the pockets of special interest groups for years...
Robert
[1] It's not really a copyright in Poland, the proper name is "Author's and Related Rights Act"
I could more or less agree with that, but I don't see how you could put into this picture:
No, I don't think it's a natural law, if it takes something that gets closer and closer to police state, to protect.
And believe me, I know how police state looks like, I grew in one.
Robert
There's one thing that I don't understand. How can there be "state-sponsored copyright infrigment" if the copyright itself is state-granted?
I know, that this might be shocking for some people, but copyright isn't a natural law. It is the state (mandated by the people) that sets the terms and conditions of copyright and if some author doesn't like it he can take his toys and go home.
Robert
The only one I am familiar with (Steve), offered free Mac OS X licenses to this group for all the laptops.
Yeah, helluva donation... OS X is ready, paid for, so giving it away costs him nothing and serves only as a publicity stunt. Or free marketing, whatever you want to call it.
And huge tax writeoff... Just sit one day and do the math: how much some software company makes "donating" their software to schools, government agencies etc. Because, giving away single license for a program that costs $100 while boxed, on the shelf, is a $100 loss. And the bonus is that those people will be already trained to use their software, while making software purchase decissions later...
If he wanted to donate some funds for R&D etc, I bet people from OLPC would accept it gladly. But they don't look like morons to me.
Robert
This is a poor solution to a nonexistent problem.
;)
Actually, it's a great solution to real problem. Just not the problem that you might think about...
The problem: how to get existing companies to pay us more and more for the same old stuff (i.e. 'net presence).
The solution: let's create new TLDs every now and then, those poor shmocks won't have any choice, they're going to have to buy all those domains again, otherwise e.g. Coca-Cola might find advertisement of Pepsi on cocacola.mobi (.eu etc).
Great business plan.
Robert
I am assuming you get lots of people just not "getting" your .sig
You know, some people do whois on this IP and seem to be convinced that I am some superadmin from AGH (mining and smelter technical university), some do even weirder things, but suprisingly large number of people don't understand (one way or another) that it is just camouflaged "BOFH"...
They don't make the geeks like they used to...
Robert
You've noticed that too? I didn't rant about it for the fear of starting flamewar, but yeah... I do believe that every religion is not falsifiable.
Robert
Is there any proof I could give you to demonstrate the Theory of Evolution is wrong? Is there anything in the world that would make you change your mind?
You don't get it, do you?
The "trust" in theory of evolution is just this: trust. Not the belief. If you give me an example that organisms don't change in response to enviromental conditions, than you've proved that evolution doesn't exist.
It will be incompetent design, panspermia or whatever. Just give me the frelling proof, not unfalsifiable conjecture.
Robert
You know, it used to be that Nintendo then Sega owned the game console market, but it didn't prevent them from losing position when their next interation of console was an overpriced crap.
Don't think for a moment, that it's something completely different with Sony. The attitude they present toward their customers is just ripe for detronisation. And it's a good thing...
Nothing to see, move along.
Robert