Let's see: When the current is on, the window is clear. But flip a switch to turn the current off and the glass goes opaque, allowing it to be used as a projection screen for watching television or DVDs.
A low tech work around has been available for years. Just don't get the scratch resistant coating on your lenses, treat them like crap and they'll soon be scratched enough to be opaque. After that it's simply a matter of pointing a projection system at them.
When was the last time you NEEDED four-wheel drive?
The last time I went to work, you insensitive clod. Luckily, there are plenty of cars with AWD. I only know 3 people who actually need the trucks they own, and I let the rest of them know it all the time.
...or weave in an out of traffic at 95 mph in 6 ft of snow because they think their 4-wheel drive suv will save them from physics?
I'm not an SUV idiot, but you're a part of the problem here. Some people may think I weave in traffic. I don't: all of my lane changes are properly signaled. Changes of more than one lane are done with pauses in each lane, making them a series of changes. The assholes that make the road dangerous are the ones who fail to grasp "keep right except to pass."
You know them, they're the inconsiderate slobs doing 60 in the left lane on their phones. On their way to the theater, where they'll no doubt continue the conversation.
The claim is that by 'rebooting' the garage system and then using guest:guest instead of dealing with the standard password system, skylink is circumventing their protection to a copyrighted work.
I'll claim that for my house, with the door opener I bought and the remote that I bought to operate it, no circumventing is taking place. Any circumventing of my garage door opener isn't going to be met by a manufacturer's DMCA charge, but by a magnum charge.
This used to be an interesting page about the barcode scanner door entry system I built with Python and Linux. I posted this page because I'd like to share my project with others. I've answered emails giving people circuit diagrams, and I've had various online discussions about my design decisions.
Now MC68040 and michael@slashdot.org decide that it's time for me to go down. They didn't ask me if they could link; they didn't ask if I'd like to put up a mirror somewhere else. Of the two of them, at least michael-the-slashdot-editor should have seen that I'd be down in minutes if he made a link.
I'd love to put this page back up, and maybe in several days I'll remember to do so. If you're interested in interfacing Linux with serial devices or electric door strikes, drop me an email at drewp@bigasterisk.com.
"I posted this page because I'd like to share my project with others."
"They didn't ask me if they could link; they didn't ask if I'd like to put up a mirror somewhere else."
Now, I've got a lot of respect for people who come up with new ideas and actually make them happen. I appreciate it when they tell the world how to do it. I think it kicks ass when Linux is their tool of choice. But what the hell is this guy thinking? "Stop looking at the information I want you to see!" It's pathetic when some stupid company wants to restrict linking, but it's inexplicable when a hacker does it.
You've tied all but one of my complaints into the neatest package I've seen. The last problem has to do with Big Brother. You don't control your TiVo, Tivo does. It even phones home to report what you see. Sure, it's only aggregate now, but how long until the FBI approaches your PVR company to get a terrorist viewing profile? I want the box I buy to be mine, thank you very much.
I'm no RCA proponent, however, I tend to think that one shouldn't overlook the fact that a company can change.
My dad had an Audi once. He hated it- it was a piece of crap. He won't even look twice at one today. Maybe it was a lemon, maybe it was just a bad car. It was also the 70s. Any company will have changed in that time. Nanite specifically mentioned DVD players, though. How long have they been around? Hell- how long have they been sold en masse by Radio Shack? The shoddiness that Nanite saw was essentially today in the consumer goods market.
Past performance is not an indicator or future results...
Except that the people who designed, built and maintained the car my father bought 25 years ago aren't the ones designing, building and maintaining them today. The folks bringing us this new RCAVo are pretty much the same crew who sent those DVD players to Radio Shack. If they've had enough turnover to not be the same people, then I really don't want to buy something of theirs.
If I had the money, I'd just buy the car with the most potential, which (I'm pretty sure) isn't a Civic.
What do you think a 350Z looks like from behind a radar gun?
Cops don't even see my little, dark blue nondescript-mobile even though I'm passing people. How much top end speed is realistic, anyway? Is a 180 mph car actually faster than a 120 mph one? Performance below 100 is what matters. Taking corners, accelerating out of them and accomplishing passes don't happen over 100. I'll let you drive the radar magnet, pal.
I thought Nascar was far cooler back in the day when they still used real cars, albeit heavily modified.
Heh. Reminds me of the time I had to explain to my wife (back when she heard that some guy named "Dale Engleheart" had finally tried a right turn) that the picture next to the term "stock car" in a dictionary has no relation to the picture you'll see next to the same term on TV.
That, more so than it being a crappy sport (more a redneck soap opera than anything else) is why I hate NASCAR: bad grammar, or "marketing lies," as I like to call it. Sure, call it a Chevy. It's not a Monte Carlo, though. It doesn't have so much as a stock rear view mirror, damn it! What kind of a racing series changes its rules on race weekend? "Dodge isn't doing well in qualifying, so we'll change their restrictor plate for tomorrow's race." Right, guys. Have I even mentioned that banking is for pussies who can't turn?
Obviously, you haven't heard of the national "Do Not Laugh" list that I'm on. I have already reported you, and Ashcroft's people are on their way to pick you up.
Those people cannot get paid what they are due. This is what closed source did.
Okay, just how much money does Microsoft have in the bank? That goes beyond rewarding developers and moves into being a leech.
"Ah let the other person take care of that".
Those are end users. Any company that can be counted in ant way at all wants its own problems solved in the way it wants. Not the way best for someone else or the problems someone else has. Neither open nor proprietary software is going to help them unless they decide to get their own problem solved somehow. What the open solution does is give the coders- er, consultants a better starting point. They can see farther by standing on the shoulders of those before them, you know?
A friend of mine writes for his company. He can't code worth a damn, but he can download lines of Perl. He puts together usable tools for his company. They don't sell the software, they use it. They have their own coder on staff. Not bad for a company with only eight or so people, having one guy writing for them. Sure, he's not a full time developer, but it's a small enough company that they all wear more than one hat- even the owner. You need to look at employment models for coders beyond the usual "write one app, sell it 10 million times" that Microsoft gave us. Except that they bought their first product, so I guess they don't even count as coders.
So if the story advocates that there might be a God, thats bad.
If a story advocates that there is a powerfull being that is destroying peoples lives, thats good?
No, if a story is a thinly veiled retelling of christian mythology with the aim of recruiting children, it's bad. If a story advocates that there might be a God, that's a part of the story. As the Top Ten Reasons Beer Is Better Than Jesus list says, "it's illegal to push beer on children that are too young to think for themselves."
Here is an idea, treat them like fiction, and raise your daughter to think for herself.
Fiction with an axe to grind is the worst thing for kids to read. They're better off reading the Bible as the Bible, and childrens books that aren't about indoctrination.
You might be able to argue that his act doesn't fit the letter of the law, but it certainly does the spirit.
I didn't pick up anything about this being aimed at 19 year old interns trying to be 1337. It seems to be aimed at people operating as agents for competing companies or foreign countries. I'll argue the spirit, too.
This law, like so many other current ones, isn't here to solve a problem that society recognises. It's here to solve a problem that a rich corporate lobby recognises. Note that it makes things illegal that are already covered by current laws. Take note of that- everything the kid did was actionable in some way, so why do we need an extra law, one so powerful that until March 2002 only the most senior Justice Department officials in Washington could authorize prosecutors to wield it? Redundant laws like this are bad and yes, this is a bad law.
When someone says to "Google it," they personally may mean "use Google.com" but in common practice the saying is generalized to mean "look that information up on the web."
Actually, when they say "Google harder" they mean to use other search engines. "Web search easier" means to look something up on Google.
Police have the legal right to search trash without a warrant.
Okay, here is an exerpt from the article:
...(Mayor Katz's office)issued a prepared statement. "I consider Willamette Week's actions in this matter to be potentially illegal and absolutely unscrupulous and reprehensible," it read. "I will consider all my legal options in response to their actions."
This from the mayor in charge of doing it. The local judge also ruled it illegal, and the DA is going to fight it. It will work its way up through the courts, and the law may change. Remember that the states can be more restrictive than the feds. The US constitution may allow that sort of police behavior, but right now they can't do it in Oregon. I'm sure Mayor Katz's statement will be used in the court fights. Funny how she doesn't like invasions of her own privacy, just ours.
It bugs us here, too. I've got a bomb in my steering wheel and another in the dash. Bombs that kill the small and the old in order to save folks that don't want saving. Let Darwin do his magic- after a few generations, the non seatbelt wearing gene will be gone.
What we also resent is those stupid daytime running lights that Canada gave us. At least my wife's Nissan doesn't have the damn things.
All of this started with the automatic transmission, you know. They make it easy as hell for anyone who refuses to learn how to operate the machine to hop right in and operate the machine. I know it looks like I'm trying to be a grumpy old man or something, but I'm serious. I don't compile my own kernel or anything, but I do decide what gear I need to be in and when I need what lights on. I also wear my seatbelt, for that matter.
Not being able to understand source code does not equal ignorance. A Chemical Engineer may be able to tell you some very interesting things you can do with household chemicals, does that make you a dumbass because you didn't know that too?
No, but your first sentance makes you a dumbass. Ignorance is not stupidity- it is a gap in knowledge.
The great cop out for open source programmers...
... is that most of them are giving you their work for free. They owe you nothing. They don't owe you ease of use or even quality software. If you want that, go spend hundreds of dollars on XP and Office. Yeah, you still won't get anything worth a damn, but you'll be participating in a business model you seem to like. If MS were giving its efforts away for free, Office would be an amazing piece of software.
If anything is owed here, it is a debt of gratitude from you to the geek who gave of his time and talent asking nothing in return. What can he possibly owe you? He'll sell you a book or even as much of his time as it takes to make you proficient with his app. It sounds fair to me.
Funny - I always thought the whole idea was to share source code.
Well, that's just your idea, Mr. Smarty Pants. It might be, but I don't want to read through the source to find things out. Open source means someone holds my hand and does all of my work for me for free. Only evil people like MS want to make a living off of computers.
I wonder if anyone has considered using all of these potatos for any other purposes... like maybe feeding hungry people?
They might even do it with the potatoes.
Seriously, I think that everyone would be better served if you just took the money you were going to waste on a ticket to the movie with fake snow and donate it to the hungry.
Waste is in the eye of the beholder, pal. Think of the man hours or energy or time on the set. Would you rather the producers spend more money on those instead?
Why is it that people treat the job with such chagrin?
Like being in the army, it's a good thing only after it's long over. Being in it sucks and you spend most of your time wanting to be out. On the other hand, even the OJ jury didn't have to put in their full 20 years- why couldn't I have done jury duty instead?
I would think that you have a perfectly reasonable basis to demand a DNA sample of the suspect to see if they compare.
How do police demand something? They get a court order. You're not going to get a judge to grant an order based on evidence that he won't allow to be presented in his court. The inadmissability of evidence doesn't change based on what you want the court to let you do.
Of course, it is a legitimate lead. They can interview the hell out of anyone willing to be interviewed. Until the cops come up with something real, however, you got nothin'!
Actually, I believe the apostrophe is ok here because it is pluralizing an abbreviation.
That's what the S is for. For example, you can have one CD or several CDs. That jewel case, however, is my CD's. What the coffee bean person was doing was using an apostrophe to notify the reader that there was an S approaching at the end of the word.
The patent is more then just sending a text message to another user.
How about this, then?
Specifically, any technology that provides "a network that allows multiple users to see when other users are present and then to communicate with them" is covered.
There. It's the who/rusers part of who/rusers/talk that makes this patent sillier than most.
Re:I hear that Microsoft ...
on
AOL Patents IM
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· Score: 2
Instant Messaging is certainly an improvement on any messaging system that everyone is bitching about predating IM's.
If you were to read the story posted at the top of this page, you might feel stupid: Specifically, any technology that provides "a network that allows multiple users to see when other users are present and then to communicate with them" is covered.
I'm not even going mention your apostrophe, as that would be too easy.
Slashdot Mirror
Let's see:
When the current is on, the window is clear. But flip a switch to turn the current off and the glass goes opaque, allowing it to be used as a projection screen for watching television or DVDs.
A low tech work around has been available for years. Just don't get the scratch resistant coating on your lenses, treat them like crap and they'll soon be scratched enough to be opaque. After that it's simply a matter of pointing a projection system at them.
An LCD window/monitor... now that would kick ass.
The last time I went to work, you insensitive clod. Luckily, there are plenty of cars with AWD. I only know 3 people who actually need the trucks they own, and I let the rest of them know it all the time.
I'm not an SUV idiot, but you're a part of the problem here. Some people may think I weave in traffic. I don't: all of my lane changes are properly signaled. Changes of more than one lane are done with pauses in each lane, making them a series of changes. The assholes that make the road dangerous are the ones who fail to grasp "keep right except to pass."
You know them, they're the inconsiderate slobs doing 60 in the left lane on their phones. On their way to the theater, where they'll no doubt continue the conversation.
I'll claim that for my house, with the door opener I bought and the remote that I bought to operate it, no circumventing is taking place. Any circumventing of my garage door opener isn't going to be met by a manufacturer's DMCA charge, but by a magnum charge.
Now MC68040 and michael@slashdot.org decide that it's time for me to go down. They didn't ask me if they could link; they didn't ask if I'd like to put up a mirror somewhere else. Of the two of them, at least michael-the-slashdot-editor should have seen that I'd be down in minutes if he made a link.
I'd love to put this page back up, and maybe in several days I'll remember to do so. If you're interested in interfacing Linux with serial devices or electric door strikes, drop me an email at drewp@bigasterisk.com.
"I posted this page because I'd like to share my project with others."
"They didn't ask me if they could link; they didn't ask if I'd like to put up a mirror somewhere else."
Now, I've got a lot of respect for people who come up with new ideas and actually make them happen. I appreciate it when they tell the world how to do it. I think it kicks ass when Linux is their tool of choice. But what the hell is this guy thinking? "Stop looking at the information I want you to see!" It's pathetic when some stupid company wants to restrict linking, but it's inexplicable when a hacker does it.
You've tied all but one of my complaints into the neatest package I've seen. The last problem has to do with Big Brother. You don't control your TiVo, Tivo does. It even phones home to report what you see. Sure, it's only aggregate now, but how long until the FBI approaches your PVR company to get a terrorist viewing profile? I want the box I buy to be mine, thank you very much.
My dad had an Audi once. He hated it- it was a piece of crap. He won't even look twice at one today. Maybe it was a lemon, maybe it was just a bad car. It was also the 70s. Any company will have changed in that time. Nanite specifically mentioned DVD players, though. How long have they been around? Hell- how long have they been sold en masse by Radio Shack? The shoddiness that Nanite saw was essentially today in the consumer goods market.
Past performance is not an indicator or future results...
Except that the people who designed, built and maintained the car my father bought 25 years ago aren't the ones designing, building and maintaining them today. The folks bringing us this new RCAVo are pretty much the same crew who sent those DVD players to Radio Shack. If they've had enough turnover to not be the same people, then I really don't want to buy something of theirs.
What do you think a 350Z looks like from behind a radar gun?
Cops don't even see my little, dark blue nondescript-mobile even though I'm passing people. How much top end speed is realistic, anyway? Is a 180 mph car actually faster than a 120 mph one? Performance below 100 is what matters. Taking corners, accelerating out of them and accomplishing passes don't happen over 100. I'll let you drive the radar magnet, pal.
Heh. Reminds me of the time I had to explain to my wife (back when she heard that some guy named "Dale Engleheart" had finally tried a right turn) that the picture next to the term "stock car" in a dictionary has no relation to the picture you'll see next to the same term on TV.
That, more so than it being a crappy sport (more a redneck soap opera than anything else) is why I hate NASCAR: bad grammar, or "marketing lies," as I like to call it. Sure, call it a Chevy. It's not a Monte Carlo, though. It doesn't have so much as a stock rear view mirror, damn it! What kind of a racing series changes its rules on race weekend? "Dodge isn't doing well in qualifying, so we'll change their restrictor plate for tomorrow's race." Right, guys. Have I even mentioned that banking is for pussies who can't turn?
Obviously, you haven't heard of the national "Do Not Laugh" list that I'm on. I have already reported you, and Ashcroft's people are on their way to pick you up.
Okay, just how much money does Microsoft have in the bank? That goes beyond rewarding developers and moves into being a leech.
"Ah let the other person take care of that".
Those are end users. Any company that can be counted in ant way at all wants its own problems solved in the way it wants. Not the way best for someone else or the problems someone else has. Neither open nor proprietary software is going to help them unless they decide to get their own problem solved somehow. What the open solution does is give the coders- er, consultants a better starting point. They can see farther by standing on the shoulders of those before them, you know?
A friend of mine writes for his company. He can't code worth a damn, but he can download lines of Perl. He puts together usable tools for his company. They don't sell the software, they use it. They have their own coder on staff. Not bad for a company with only eight or so people, having one guy writing for them. Sure, he's not a full time developer, but it's a small enough company that they all wear more than one hat- even the owner. You need to look at employment models for coders beyond the usual "write one app, sell it 10 million times" that Microsoft gave us. Except that they bought their first product, so I guess they don't even count as coders.
If a story advocates that there is a powerfull being that is destroying peoples lives, thats good?
No, if a story is a thinly veiled retelling of christian mythology with the aim of recruiting children, it's bad. If a story advocates that there might be a God, that's a part of the story. As the Top Ten Reasons Beer Is Better Than Jesus list says, "it's illegal to push beer on children that are too young to think for themselves."
Here is an idea, treat them like fiction, and raise your daughter to think for herself.
Fiction with an axe to grind is the worst thing for kids to read. They're better off reading the Bible as the Bible, and childrens books that aren't about indoctrination.
I didn't pick up anything about this being aimed at 19 year old interns trying to be 1337. It seems to be aimed at people operating as agents for competing companies or foreign countries. I'll argue the spirit, too.
This law, like so many other current ones, isn't here to solve a problem that society recognises. It's here to solve a problem that a rich corporate lobby recognises. Note that it makes things illegal that are already covered by current laws. Take note of that- everything the kid did was actionable in some way, so why do we need an extra law, one so powerful that until March 2002 only the most senior Justice Department officials in Washington could authorize prosecutors to wield it? Redundant laws like this are bad and yes, this is a bad law.
Actually, when they say "Google harder" they mean to use other search engines. "Web search easier" means to look something up on Google.
Okay, here is an exerpt from the article:
This from the mayor in charge of doing it. The local judge also ruled it illegal, and the DA is going to fight it. It will work its way up through the courts, and the law may change. Remember that the states can be more restrictive than the feds. The US constitution may allow that sort of police behavior, but right now they can't do it in Oregon. I'm sure Mayor Katz's statement will be used in the court fights. Funny how she doesn't like invasions of her own privacy, just ours.
What we also resent is those stupid daytime running lights that Canada gave us. At least my wife's Nissan doesn't have the damn things.
All of this started with the automatic transmission, you know. They make it easy as hell for anyone who refuses to learn how to operate the machine to hop right in and operate the machine. I know it looks like I'm trying to be a grumpy old man or something, but I'm serious. I don't compile my own kernel or anything, but I do decide what gear I need to be in and when I need what lights on. I also wear my seatbelt, for that matter.
No, but your first sentance makes you a dumbass. Ignorance is not stupidity- it is a gap in knowledge.
The great cop out for open source programmers...
If anything is owed here, it is a debt of gratitude from you to the geek who gave of his time and talent asking nothing in return. What can he possibly owe you? He'll sell you a book or even as much of his time as it takes to make you proficient with his app. It sounds fair to me.
Well, that's just your idea, Mr. Smarty Pants. It might be, but I don't want to read through the source to find things out. Open source means someone holds my hand and does all of my work for me for free. Only evil people like MS want to make a living off of computers.
They might even do it with the potatoes.
Seriously, I think that everyone would be better served if you just took the money you were going to waste on a ticket to the movie with fake snow and donate it to the hungry.
Waste is in the eye of the beholder, pal. Think of the man hours or energy or time on the set. Would you rather the producers spend more money on those instead?
Like being in the army, it's a good thing only after it's long over. Being in it sucks and you spend most of your time wanting to be out. On the other hand, even the OJ jury didn't have to put in their full 20 years- why couldn't I have done jury duty instead?
How do police demand something? They get a court order. You're not going to get a judge to grant an order based on evidence that he won't allow to be presented in his court. The inadmissability of evidence doesn't change based on what you want the court to let you do.
Of course, it is a legitimate lead. They can interview the hell out of anyone willing to be interviewed. Until the cops come up with something real, however, you got nothin'!
That's what the S is for. For example, you can have one CD or several CDs. That jewel case, however, is my CD's. What the coffee bean person was doing was using an apostrophe to notify the reader that there was an S approaching at the end of the word.
How about this, then?
Specifically, any technology that provides "a network that allows multiple users to see when other users are present and then to communicate with them" is covered.
There. It's the who/rusers part of who/rusers/talk that makes this patent sillier than most.
If you were to read the story posted at the top of this page, you might feel stupid:
Specifically, any technology that provides "a network that allows multiple users to see when other users are present and then to communicate with them" is covered.
I'm not even going mention your apostrophe, as that would be too easy.