All of those court proceedings were based on the fact that the patent office thought it was patent worthy. I would be pretty sure that the courts would have taken a different side had the patent office said "we really don't think this is a valid patent."
Umm, the link in the original/. article said that McDonalds would only pay for songs that were redeemed, and that they estimated it would cost them around $300 million.
Is there some kind of maximum renewal length on these domains? It's not like Microsoft doesn't have the money to pay for 20 years (or longer) of the domain, and not worry about it expiring.
The microsoft.com domain expires in May of 2012, hotmail.com in March of 2010, so why aren't they purchasing all of their domains for long periods?
My question is this: There seems to be many, many people who are very passionate about this issue. Why can't someone produce a talented team to produce a free, open source alternative to Diebold's system and then pitch it to concerned governments?
Apple has iTunes, Napster trying to compete there would be a waste of money. Windows 2000/XP saturation in the client marketplace is very high, and it seems to me that more tech savvy people are going to be the ones using this service, meaning they are probably not running Windows 95/98/ME, NT, and probably not Microsoft Bob either.
You titled your post "Rock solid start," sarcastically, but I don't really see the problem with the percentage of the marketplace they can reach.
this has a sister product, you know
on
Microsoft's new CLI
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Along with MONAD, Microsoft is also developing MENIS, the Microsoft Enhanced Networking Interface Solution. MENIS and MONAD products will be tightly integrated.
I got a Lexmark printer for "free" when I purchased my laptop (laptop manufacturers, the major ones, all seem to have some set of special deals that rotate weekly). When its black ink cartridge ran out of ink, I checked the price of cartridges (~$25-$30). My next step was to order a brand new Canon printer for $50, which prints text just fine (all that I use printers for), which includes a black ink tank and the color one as well.
That means I'm still down about $20 on the purchase, assuming the ink tank in the Canon lasts as long as a new Lexmark cartridge would. I went ahead and purchased 6 new, 3rd party, ink cartridges online for a little under $18 (that's with the shipping added already). At the rate I ran out of ink on the Lexmark, by the second tank I will have already paid for the difference in the printer costs, and anything after that is pure savings.
Canon ink tanks are considerably cheaper than the ink cartridges of HP/Lexmark because the head for the printer is a seperate component that is reused as each tank is replaced. The only problem I've heard with this is if you are low on ink and not using the printer- the ink can dry up on the heads, at which point the printer is trash. But...even if that does happen, odds are the printer will have already paid for itself.
A nice concept, "internet driving license," but all it will do is: a) discourage new users b) make people afraid to try new things online c) create some kind of institution with an incredible amount of unwarranted power
Another game that can be used to treat another phobia: the fear of using a badly made product.
Controlled exposure to Daikatana (this has to be carefully regulated) should lower people's expectations of what they use, and thus feel better when being forced to use something poorly made.
I fail to see how this is non-obvious once someone creates the idea of any type of personalized content online. The idea of the consumer internet is to provide them with information; if there was any system where one could stick in a ZIP code or even have a login with user information on them, it seems to be a short step to save information that the user would have formerly inputted. I guess this is the same sort of reaction to most of these patent stories on slashdot, but it does seem as though the patent system is broken.
I thought Big Brother, in general, referred to your government tracking your movements/actions. Bars tracking who comes and goes to prevent underage/disruptive individuals hardly sounds the same as having your everyday movements tracked to create a profile.
I don't really see any point in putting it in DVDs. DVDs are mass produced, there are so many copies out there that making each one unique would be a complete waste of time. Even if you could track it down to the store that the person bought it at, it would still be impossible to actually find that one person.
"Maybe it wasn't leaked, maybe it really was freed..."
That is really just plain absurd. What I do find very intriguing about this whole thing is how Valve kept the game completely hidden from the public for four years, and months after its announcement the source has gotten into the public.
The bottom line is, Valve is a company with many ex-Microsoft employees. They fully embrace DirectX 9. In fact, the reason that the Mac port that was almost completely finished was cancelled was because (I believe) they wouldn't be able to get them to network together due to DirectX concerns.
Valve has made steps to ensure that Half-Life works under WINE, but the reality is, they will continue to use DirectX, as they feel that is how they can make the best possible game. The money that would go into creating a Linux box would be prohibitively expensive, not to mention perhaps impossible because of patents/copyrights on DirectX technology.
It would be great if it worked under Linux, but the bottom line is it doesn't make economic sense.
Slashdot Mirror
All of those court proceedings were based on the fact that the patent office thought it was patent worthy. I would be pretty sure that the courts would have taken a different side had the patent office said "we really don't think this is a valid patent."
Umm, the link in the original /. article said that McDonalds would only pay for songs that were redeemed, and that they estimated it would cost them around $300 million.
Is there some kind of maximum renewal length on these domains? It's not like Microsoft doesn't have the money to pay for 20 years (or longer) of the domain, and not worry about it expiring.
The microsoft.com domain expires in May of 2012, hotmail.com in March of 2010, so why aren't they purchasing all of their domains for long periods?
I see the plan, post four links to Princeton servers and watch them suffer. Make them pay for their insolence!
My question is this:
There seems to be many, many people who are very passionate about this issue. Why can't someone produce a talented team to produce a free, open source alternative to Diebold's system and then pitch it to concerned governments?
"Daddy, this burger tastes like grandma!"
Apple has iTunes, Napster trying to compete there would be a waste of money. Windows 2000/XP saturation in the client marketplace is very high, and it seems to me that more tech savvy people are going to be the ones using this service, meaning they are probably not running Windows 95/98/ME, NT, and probably not Microsoft Bob either.
You titled your post "Rock solid start," sarcastically, but I don't really see the problem with the percentage of the marketplace they can reach.
Along with MONAD, Microsoft is also developing MENIS, the Microsoft Enhanced Networking Interface Solution. MENIS and MONAD products will be tightly integrated.
I got a Lexmark printer for "free" when I purchased my laptop (laptop manufacturers, the major ones, all seem to have some set of special deals that rotate weekly). When its black ink cartridge ran out of ink, I checked the price of cartridges (~$25-$30). My next step was to order a brand new Canon printer for $50, which prints text just fine (all that I use printers for), which includes a black ink tank and the color one as well.
That means I'm still down about $20 on the purchase, assuming the ink tank in the Canon lasts as long as a new Lexmark cartridge would. I went ahead and purchased 6 new, 3rd party, ink cartridges online for a little under $18 (that's with the shipping added already). At the rate I ran out of ink on the Lexmark, by the second tank I will have already paid for the difference in the printer costs, and anything after that is pure savings.
Canon ink tanks are considerably cheaper than the ink cartridges of HP/Lexmark because the head for the printer is a seperate component that is reused as each tank is replaced. The only problem I've heard with this is if you are low on ink and not using the printer- the ink can dry up on the heads, at which point the printer is trash. But...even if that does happen, odds are the printer will have already paid for itself.
A nice concept, "internet driving license," but all it will do is:
a) discourage new users
b) make people afraid to try new things online
c) create some kind of institution with an incredible amount of unwarranted power
Let's see, you can get CD-Rs free most anywhere after rebate, so, let's do the math:
$0 x 3 = $0
$0 x 1.2 = $0
Obviously we don't need to wait for the price to drop, if they are already 3 times the cost of free CDs.
Insert obligatory HAL 9000 joke here.
Half-Life 2 will soon be used to cure the fear of products whose source code is completely out in the open.
Another game that can be used to treat another phobia: the fear of using a badly made product.
Controlled exposure to Daikatana (this has to be carefully regulated) should lower people's expectations of what they use, and thus feel better when being forced to use something poorly made.
Ah, yes, just with a moderate amount of knowledge.
But what about liberals with liberal knowledge? Surely we must be worried about them.
I fail to see how this is non-obvious once someone creates the idea of any type of personalized content online. The idea of the consumer internet is to provide them with information; if there was any system where one could stick in a ZIP code or even have a login with user information on them, it seems to be a short step to save information that the user would have formerly inputted. I guess this is the same sort of reaction to most of these patent stories on slashdot, but it does seem as though the patent system is broken.
Microsoft has announced a new, limited version of MSN called "Internet Explorer." It will cost $9.95/month.
A possible bundling of the service with Windows XP is being discussed.
There is no reason to have a 1x1 pixel image except to track usage. Whether this is shady or not is up for debate; AT&T is contracted to run the site.
I thought Big Brother, in general, referred to your government tracking your movements/actions. Bars tracking who comes and goes to prevent underage/disruptive individuals hardly sounds the same as having your everyday movements tracked to create a profile.
I don't really see any point in putting it in DVDs. DVDs are mass produced, there are so many copies out there that making each one unique would be a complete waste of time. Even if you could track it down to the store that the person bought it at, it would still be impossible to actually find that one person.
Funnily, starting out a comment with the word that you want to be modded up with seems to actually get it modded with that label.
"Maybe it wasn't leaked, maybe it really was freed..."
That is really just plain absurd. What I do find very intriguing about this whole thing is how Valve kept the game completely hidden from the public for four years, and months after its announcement the source has gotten into the public.
Must we bring his weight into this discussion?
The bottom line is, Valve is a company with many ex-Microsoft employees. They fully embrace DirectX 9. In fact, the reason that the Mac port that was almost completely finished was cancelled was because (I believe) they wouldn't be able to get them to network together due to DirectX concerns.
Valve has made steps to ensure that Half-Life works under WINE, but the reality is, they will continue to use DirectX, as they feel that is how they can make the best possible game. The money that would go into creating a Linux box would be prohibitively expensive, not to mention perhaps impossible because of patents/copyrights on DirectX technology.
It would be great if it worked under Linux, but the bottom line is it doesn't make economic sense.
He doesn't even deserve to be called a moron (50-69) or an imbecile (20-49).
He is clearly an idiot.