What's gonna happen when Council decides to ignore JURI recomendation for returning this directive to first reading? Honestly, I don't know...
I parted/. to do some cooking for tomorrow party and some serious thinking about politics of EU, and I think I've got an answer to this question. (I think) PJ on Groklaw said, that EU came out stronger from every previous clash with other (non-democratic) European institutions.
Anyone reading transcript from JURI meeting regarding returning swpat to first reading had to notice that MEPs were infurriated by blatant disregard to democratic procedures by Council and Presidency. Implemented technics included (but were not limited to) such tricks like moving directive as an A-item to Agriculture and Fishery commision, in last weeks of the year when all professionals went home for Christmas, and permanent representatives who were supposed to do actual voting were even personally blackmailed to not oppose last-minute addition of an A-item. All this at the time were eyes and attention of Europe were turned to Ukraine and its Orange Revolution.
So, if Council disregards JURI recommendation, European Parliament may be infurriated enough to secure 75% majority to ammend the swpat directive in second reading. After all, no one likes to be made irrelevant, especially elected officials...;)
Robert
PS This isn't even bringing the directive through the backdoor anymore. This is fucking planting by the policeman in owner's presence and disregarding video footage of said planting by the judge.
I was just thinking along these lines after moving from/. to cooking for tomorrow party;)
Basically problems with swpat arise from lack of accountability of some high-ranking EU bodies. They are not accountable because they answer to no constituency.
I remember some eurosceptics and xenophobes before Access Referendum scaring people with United States of Europe, European Superstate (as opposed to superstate structure of independant states), but I think I'd prefer federal structure with directly elected and accountable government much more.
The article is misleading, the Dutch won't be voting against the patent directive, because there will be no voting.
Basically, the whole patent directive is one big swindle:
Council erased all ammendments made by the only democraticly elected EU body -- the European Parliament -- and passed the directive as "compromise proposition" which in reality is even harsher than original proposition: it allows patenting of data structures (say "hello" to patents for file formats, internet protocols etc)
Countries were counted as voting "for" where in reality they abstained (e.g. Poland)
Ministers lied to their Parliaments about what the shape of the directive really is and what does it do (e.g. Dutch).
After some countries voiced their protest to the procedure and their parliaments obligated their governments to vote against the final text of the directive, and the voting weights changed from Nicean to new system, presidency (first Dutch, against its own parliament, then Luxemburgish) decided to pass it to Agricultural Commission (obviously the relevant for Patents on Computer Implemented Inventions) without a vote, as an A-item. The A-item is for matters without any controversy, which all countries agree upon. It is the case for a directive for which several countries wrote papers in opposition longer than the directive itself, isn't it? And when Poland stroke this directive from the order of council twice it is still going to be reinstated as an "uncontroviersial" A-item again...
The only thing that Dutch government can do is to strike this A-item again from the order of council. What's gonna happen when Council decides to ignore JURI recomendation for returning this directive to first reading? Honestly, I don't know...
Yeah, I was just going to write about it, along with my issues with it.
In theory it is great language, parsable, non-ambiguos etc. In practice it has some problems of its own.
Basically, the sentence in Lojban is constructed as SVOOO(...) with S and O[1] replaceable by another "sentence". But in case of verbs like "go" the phrase "SUBJECT goes on OBJECT1 using OBJECT2" looks "S V O1 O2" -- the meaning of the objects is defined by their positions.
So it's like V(S, O1, O2, O3) -- in case of every possible verb one has to memorise meaning of O1, O2...O5. Some people in CS noticed oddity of such constructs and started to use arguments by name, as in html <img src="uri" alt="alternative text" border="0">. Similarly in human languages you usually use prepositions to distinguish objects (on road, with car), but not in Lojban/Loglan:(
Other than that Lojban seems fun, but somehow I couldn't force myself to learn hundreds of "functions" with mandated order of "arguments" -- I don't remember most of the libc functions on Linux and tend to look them up whenever I want to use them...
Robert
[1] it's not really a verb, since it can be e.g. "green" in which case sentence means Subject "is-green" like-Object.
No cellphone will cost $25. They will be free or $1 with 1-2 year contract, and $199+ without a contract, just as today's shitty phones.
What I'd like is honest cell phone and services market without fucking lock-in, simlocks and phones sold exclusivelly via GSM operators with artificially inflated "official" end user prices and operators "sponsoring" said phones.
Anything that is reacheable from our universe is, by definition, part of the universe
webserver is [...] in this universe, unreachable. If your definition is [...] correct, that server is not part of this universe.
Wrong.
The condition "everything reachable from our universe is inside it" does not imply that reverse is true. You know, "every square is a rectangle" sort of thing.
[removed question about true multitasking and memory protection]
Amiga OS had both those in 1985, IIRC.
No, you don't remember it correctly. Amiga OS had true, preemptive multitasking in 1985, but it doesn't have memory protection to this day. Nor does it have virtual memory, or makes any other use of MMU present in every modern processor.
Yes, you could install Enforcer notifying you about writes to system memory, or VMM permitting swapping to disk in case the real memory is exhausted. But both these programs weren't part of system and lost of programs crashed when they were present and running. I remember having exceptions list in VMM longer than... certain body parts of pr0n stars;)
Other than that, Amiga OS was quite remarkable piece of software at that time with certain solutions still not duplicated in today's operating systems.
The only place this technology has any applicability is in the hands of police if they feel they may lose their firearm to a suspect and have it used against them. And you don't hear about that happening to often because police have training.
Wrong.
I heard that significant percentage (I don't remember, but certainly more than 10%) of law enforcement officers shot on duty die from their own weapon either by accident or when someone uses it against them.
I'm tired of this. I process video. Lots of it. I need as fast processor as I can get. If possible, it should have lots of RAM, but I still need fast processor(s).
No, for me processor speed (as opposed to GHz) is not overrated.
There's this Polish saying that I believe is present in many other cultures: It's hard to be a prophet in your own country. While he may be recognised around the world as a great thinker, philosopher, he is almost universally despised in his native USA.
I second that, especially since OpenVPN uses tried and true cryptographic infrastructure that SSL/TLS is.
I mean, there are countless problems with homebrew crypto solutions because many people think that just using crypto will solve all the problems. And all the time those new, "unorthodox" implementations make horrendous mistakes that often nullify all the security that crypto could give. This kind of problems keep popping up in VTUN, PPTP and WEP protocols.
And when you (wisely) use tested infrastructure like SSL/TLS you are virtually free from those problems. IPSEC is as good or better, but some network hardware/software has problems with routing IPSEC traffic. SSL/TLS tunnels on the other hand are plain and simple TCP connections.
How is this any different from the Windows registry, one of it's most hated "features"?
Registry, as an idea isn't bad. Like most things in windows, this idea is very good and implementation is horrible.
Elektra:
isn't service that can stop responding, it's a library;
it has no external dependencies other than libc, so it will work well in single mode/rescue situation, when most resources are not available
it's not "one huge file that gets corrupted"; AFAIR either it's every level (folder, directory?) with its own file or every key with own file. If something gets corrupted, rest is still OK
Posted by michael on 2004.12.24 18:30
The recently discovered asteroid 2004 MN4 is currently listed as having a 1/233 chance of hitting the Earth. [...] It is also the only asteroid that currently has a Torino scale value of 2." [...] Update: 2004.12.24 22:14 GMT by M: The rock is now rated a 4 on the Torino scale, or a 1-in-62 chance of impact.
Am I the only one that finds this amusingly similar to "Lucifer's Hammer" by Niven? The odds growing day by day? Go read the book.
Robert
PS In the book odds were growing day by day, up to one, and impact. And then it was starting to get interesting.
Well, I hear that the hacks with mentioned games don't work with new 1.6 XBox. Besides, I've just checked on Polish auction site: Duo modchip runs 56pln (that's below $20) and it doesn't need any preloading hacks.
Buy XBox, install modchip and use xbox media player (XBMP). It has ethernet, perfect video out, enough power to play mpeg2/mpeg4 with postprocessing and runs $100 used, with modchip, or $150 new without modchip.
And it can also run Linux, if you really want to type your mplayer commandline, but I'd advice against it -- XBMP is really cute-iful;)
Similar machine in either ATX or ITX form would cost you at least twice more. With AV-gear type case, another 100% more.
Partitioning is quite old indeed and has been running on some big iron for a while, but this particular details are somewhat different that VMWare/QEMU.
They plan to add partitioning support on the chip level, so there will be no performance penalty (like in VMWare) or need to recompile OS (like in QEMU IIRC).
I liked Farscape, I like SG1 and I've seen "Prometheus Unbound" SG1 episode with Claudia Black today.
Give me more Black in SG1, it was the first really good episode in this season. But on the other hand, the best of SG1 are all the tongue-in-cheak, very out-of-character episodes -- "Window of Opportunity", "Wormhole X-Treme" or the one with O'Neil speaking Ancient, for the first time;)
Slashdot Mirror
What's gonna happen when Council decides to ignore JURI recomendation for returning this directive to first reading? Honestly, I don't know...
/. to do some cooking for tomorrow party and some serious thinking about politics of EU, and I think I've got an answer to this question. (I think) PJ on Groklaw said, that EU came out stronger from every previous clash with other (non-democratic) European institutions.
;)
I parted
Anyone reading transcript from JURI meeting regarding returning swpat to first reading had to notice that MEPs were infurriated by blatant disregard to democratic procedures by Council and Presidency. Implemented technics included (but were not limited to) such tricks like moving directive as an A-item to Agriculture and Fishery commision, in last weeks of the year when all professionals went home for Christmas, and permanent representatives who were supposed to do actual voting were even personally blackmailed to not oppose last-minute addition of an A-item. All this at the time were eyes and attention of Europe were turned to Ukraine and its Orange Revolution.
So, if Council disregards JURI recommendation, European Parliament may be infurriated enough to secure 75% majority to ammend the swpat directive in second reading. After all, no one likes to be made irrelevant, especially elected officials...
Robert
PS This isn't even bringing the directive through the backdoor anymore. This is fucking planting by the policeman in owner's presence and disregarding video footage of said planting by the judge.
I was just thinking along these lines after moving from /. to cooking for tomorrow party ;)
Basically problems with swpat arise from lack of accountability of some high-ranking EU bodies. They are not accountable because they answer to no constituency.
I remember some eurosceptics and xenophobes before Access Referendum scaring people with United States of Europe, European Superstate (as opposed to superstate structure of independant states), but I think I'd prefer federal structure with directly elected and accountable government much more.
Robert
He wrote "two house" not "two party". As in "Congress and Senate", not as in "Republicans and Democrats".
In Poland we have multiparty, two house system, same in UK and I'm sure other countries.
Robert
The article is misleading, the Dutch won't be voting against the patent directive, because there will be no voting.
Basically, the whole patent directive is one big swindle:
The only thing that Dutch government can do is to strike this A-item again from the order of council. What's gonna happen when Council decides to ignore JURI recomendation for returning this directive to first reading? Honestly, I don't know...
Robert
Actually, everyone I know that uses Mac bought 2-3 button mouse with a scrollwheel withing 2 weeks of Mac purchase.
Robert
Yeah, I was just going to write about it, along with my issues with it.
:(
In theory it is great language, parsable, non-ambiguos etc. In practice it has some problems of its own.
Basically, the sentence in Lojban is constructed as SVOOO(...) with S and O[1] replaceable by another "sentence". But in case of verbs like "go" the phrase "SUBJECT goes on OBJECT1 using OBJECT2" looks "S V O1 O2" -- the meaning of the objects is defined by their positions.
So it's like V(S, O1, O2, O3) -- in case of every possible verb one has to memorise meaning of O1, O2...O5. Some people in CS noticed oddity of such constructs and started to use arguments by name, as in html <img src="uri" alt="alternative text" border="0">. Similarly in human languages you usually use prepositions to distinguish objects (on road, with car), but not in Lojban/Loglan
Other than that Lojban seems fun, but somehow I couldn't force myself to learn hundreds of "functions" with mandated order of "arguments" -- I don't remember most of the libc functions on Linux and tend to look them up whenever I want to use them...
Robert
[1] it's not really a verb, since it can be e.g. "green" in which case sentence means Subject "is-green" like-Object.
No cellphone will cost $25. They will be free or $1 with 1-2 year contract, and $199+ without a contract, just as today's shitty phones.
What I'd like is honest cell phone and services market without fucking lock-in, simlocks and phones sold exclusivelly via GSM operators with artificially inflated "official" end user prices and operators "sponsoring" said phones.
You know, like in market economy.
Robert
Wrong.
The condition "everything reachable from our universe is inside it" does not imply that reverse is true. You know, "every square is a rectangle" sort of thing.
Robert
consumers will win once the US dollar rises over Euro
Yeah, right after pigs start flying.
Robert
Don't answer him! It's a provocation by some apple zealot!
;)
Robert
PS
[removed question about true multitasking and memory protection]
;)
Amiga OS had both those in 1985, IIRC.
No, you don't remember it correctly. Amiga OS had true, preemptive multitasking in 1985, but it doesn't have memory protection to this day. Nor does it have virtual memory, or makes any other use of MMU present in every modern processor.
Yes, you could install Enforcer notifying you about writes to system memory, or VMM permitting swapping to disk in case the real memory is exhausted. But both these programs weren't part of system and lost of programs crashed when they were present and running. I remember having exceptions list in VMM longer than... certain body parts of pr0n stars
Other than that, Amiga OS was quite remarkable piece of software at that time with certain solutions still not duplicated in today's operating systems.
Robert
The only place this technology has any applicability is in the hands of police if they feel they may lose their firearm to a suspect and have it used against them. And you don't hear about that happening to often because police have training.
Wrong.
I heard that significant percentage (I don't remember, but certainly more than 10%) of law enforcement officers shot on duty die from their own weapon either by accident or when someone uses it against them.
Robert
I'm tired of this. I process video. Lots of it. I need as fast processor as I can get. If possible, it should have lots of RAM, but I still need fast processor(s).
No, for me processor speed (as opposed to GHz) is not overrated.
Robert
Haven't they dropped production of 2" tape, because the volume of sales wasn't big enough to sustain production?
Robert
You're not from the US, are you?
There's this Polish saying that I believe is present in many other cultures: It's hard to be a prophet in your own country. While he may be recognised around the world as a great thinker, philosopher, he is almost universally despised in his native USA.
Robert
I second that, especially since OpenVPN uses tried and true cryptographic infrastructure that SSL/TLS is.
I mean, there are countless problems with homebrew crypto solutions because many people think that just using crypto will solve all the problems. And all the time those new, "unorthodox" implementations make horrendous mistakes that often nullify all the security that crypto could give. This kind of problems keep popping up in VTUN, PPTP and WEP protocols.
And when you (wisely) use tested infrastructure like SSL/TLS you are virtually free from those problems. IPSEC is as good or better, but some network hardware/software has problems with routing IPSEC traffic. SSL/TLS tunnels on the other hand are plain and simple TCP connections.
Robert
How is this any different from the Windows registry, one of it's most hated "features"?
Registry, as an idea isn't bad. Like most things in windows, this idea is very good and implementation is horrible.
Elektra:
Would you kindly go read TFM?
Robert
Posted by michael on 2004.12.24 18:30
The recently discovered asteroid 2004 MN4 is currently listed as having a 1/233 chance of hitting the Earth. [...] It is also the only asteroid that currently has a Torino scale value of 2." [...] Update: 2004.12.24 22:14 GMT by M: The rock is now rated a 4 on the Torino scale, or a 1-in-62 chance of impact.
Am I the only one that finds this amusingly similar to "Lucifer's Hammer" by Niven? The odds growing day by day? Go read the book.
Robert
PS In the book odds were growing day by day, up to one, and impact. And then it was starting to get interesting.
Being able to play Halo when you're not watching films is just a bonus, really.
;)
Nah, being able to play all the MAME, NES, SNES, C64 etc emulators on TV is a real bonus -- I'm 32 and my contact with games ended around late Amiga
Robert
Well, I hear that the hacks with mentioned games don't work with new 1.6 XBox. Besides, I've just checked on Polish auction site: Duo modchip runs 56pln (that's below $20) and it doesn't need any preloading hacks.
Robert
Buy XBox, install modchip and use xbox media player (XBMP). It has ethernet, perfect video out, enough power to play mpeg2/mpeg4 with postprocessing and runs $100 used, with modchip, or $150 new without modchip.
;)
And it can also run Linux, if you really want to type your mplayer commandline, but I'd advice against it -- XBMP is really cute-iful
Similar machine in either ATX or ITX form would cost you at least twice more. With AV-gear type case, another 100% more.
Robert
Partitioning is quite old indeed and has been running on some big iron for a while, but this particular details are somewhat different that VMWare/QEMU.
They plan to add partitioning support on the chip level, so there will be no performance penalty (like in VMWare) or need to recompile OS (like in QEMU IIRC).
Robert
I liked Farscape, I like SG1 and I've seen "Prometheus Unbound" SG1 episode with Claudia Black today.
;)
Give me more Black in SG1, it was the first really good episode in this season. But on the other hand, the best of SG1 are all the tongue-in-cheak, very out-of-character episodes -- "Window of Opportunity", "Wormhole X-Treme" or the one with O'Neil speaking Ancient, for the first time
Robert
and he doesn't care about safety/privacy concerns
Yeah, my parents told the same things, so I've told them to look for paid tech support and disinfection for their computer.
It seems they got quite fond of Firefox, after that.
Robert