I implanted my swiss army knife in the side of my finger one time. Right through to the bone. It wasn't one of those USB knives though so I guess that doesn't quite count..
Re:the recommended changes require MORE laws?
on
The Patent Epidemic
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· Score: 1
Since you mentioned it first..
Copyrights and patents are OPTIONAL.. "congress _may_.." grant a limited monopoly, the constitution doesn't say they have to.
More important however, is the phrase "To promote the sciences and useful arts..". This is the only reason given in the constitution that justifies the existence of copyright, patent and trademark protection. Any law that fails "to promote the sciences and useful arts", and certainly any law that can be shown to hold back the sciences and useful arts is completely unconstitutional and should be overturned immediately.
The current patent system is borderline. Patents in software are clearly unconstitutional. The DMCA is completely unconstitutional. And apparently nobody cares any more.
More like how most compilers (eg GCC) are developed;
First you write the compiler in it's own language, then you compile it using someone else's already-working compiler. With luck you'll then have a working compiler which can compile a fresh copy of itself.
Only a total masochist would try and hand-build the code themselves.
Google can't handle it either; your application/xml+html pages will get treated the same as other 'non-html' documents like application/pdf by google, which really sucks.
If you want some fun serve your pages as text/xml - it's still valid according to the w3c but it makes IE display the pages in the most awesomely broken way!
The local student radio station used to broadcast shareware games and stuff a couple of hours every night from 3am to 5am. This was way back even before BBSes were popular (and way, way before the net!!)
Open Source; It's a smorgasboard of over 15,000 different dishes, all free. But you have to bring your own cutlery, and some of the dishes are not very well prepaired. If you're not happy you could pop into the kitchen and suggest improvements or cook it your own way (assuming you know how to cook). Or you can hire a few talented chiefs and have them improve any dishes you think particularly need improving. The only restriction is that everyone else gets to try your improved meal too.
Microsoft; For $200 you get a smorgasboard of about 15 dishes, all entrees and nothing substantial. You can only fill your plate once and you're not allowed to share it with anyone. Some of the dishes are badly prepared, and every time you complain you get told they'll be better next week. They never are. For another $600 you can have the steak meal but the steak is always well done, they claim nobody has ever asked for it any other way. If you ask for your steak rare, the chefs will taunt you and spread nasty rumours about you behind your back.
As near as I can tell, Microsoft is paying for a filter that will let Microsoft office read OpenOffice documents.
- Read, not write.
- OpenOffice documents (as used in OpenOffice 1.x) not Open Document Format
The project everyone keeps pointing to is unquestionally only an input filter, it won't help you save documents in whatever format it reads, and in the project description it only mentions "OpenOffice format". OpenOffice format isn't ODF, and Open Document Format is not mentioned one single time anywhere in the sf.net project description. Anywhere.
I was thinking, shortly after I first heard about that Open Source Gurana-enhanced beer, that it would be really funny to mess with the idea and highlight the brokenness of the patent system by taking out a patent on "Enhancement of Beer by Brewing With Naturally Occuring Stimulants"
Now I really, _really_ wish I'd gone through with an application!!
There is a difference between Bill Gates and God.... God doesn't think he's Bill Gates.
How about EULA licence-violations?
on
Open-Source Insurance
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· Score: 5, Insightful
What businesses REALLY need is insurance against Microsoft (and other BSA member companies) licence violations.
SERIOUSLY
Because for any reasonable-sized organisation it is very expensive to do a license audit, and almost impossible to be sure that you're completely in compliance. Many businesses have found that it's easier and cheaper to just buy a completely new set of licenses than try and figure out if the ones they already have cover everything they're running.
And because if you're not in compliance, even by just a little bit, you _will_ get hit with substantial fines which cost a LOT of money to fight that in court.
Note that Sony don't tell you how to get a GOOD mp3 copy (rip the CDDA tracks using cdex)
They tell you to burn a CD in media player which I expect would taken from the protected WMA files, then use media player to convert it to MP3 which introduces even more quality loss. Not to mention that Windows Media's MP3 encoder is really, really shitty (Intentionally so, because they want to make WMA look good in comparison)
The only reason Sony published this advice is the hope that people will find their advice first, and are less likely to stumble on _better_ advice such as using cdex..
"Which versions of Windows?" - something you wrote for Windows XP is probably not going to run in 98 or ME, quite likely won't run in Vista, and may run badly in in 2k or 2k3. Hell, even something you wrote for XP sp1 might stop running in XP sp2.
Almost every other operating system is UNIX-like. The majority of OSS software these days it written to be reasonably portable. Something written specifically for Linux should compile in any Linux distro already, but with only moderate effort and some clever config work you can get the same code to compile in Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and OSX. Basically every OS other than Windows.
Another factor at work (at least for Open Source software) is that if your software is good and useful the distro maintainers will do most of this work for you, compiling and repackaging your code so that it can be easily installed and blends nicely with their distro. Someone might even port it to Windows too.
Please show me exactly where anyone (the editor of TFA or Bart himself) suggests using BartPE in this way. I for one can't find it.
Is there any other situation where you would want Windows installed on a USB stick or CDR? What practical uses does this have except for being able to move your install from one machine to another?
I don't think there's anything particularly -wrong- with BartPE, I just don't trust Microsoft to be fair and reasonable about it. If you were using BartPE as one of your tech-support system recovery tools and Microsoft decided to audit your business, I have no doubt at all that they would count this as a licence violation.
And as it's able to generate the CD using only what's in BartPE (1 exe and a few text files) and the windows CD where could the infringing files come from?
"from violating the EULA"
Microsoft's EULA says you're allowed to install Windows XP on a single computer. Installing Windows XP onto a CD or bootable USB device is not the same as installing it on a single computer, and is in violation of the precise wording of the EULA.
Doing the above specifically for the purpose of easily moving it from one computer to another is a pretty clear violation of the intent of the EULA.
As for Bart, there's some crap in the EULA about reverse-engineering that I think he might have infringed a bit.
The EULA says you can install and use Windows XP on a single COMPUTER. It doesn't say you can 'install' (which is effectively what bartPE is doing) windows XP on anything else such as a CDR or portable USB drive.
And The Entire Point of making a PE-style install on a portable device would be so that you can take your Windows XP install and more easily use it on something other than just the one computer you have at home, which has got to be a huge violation of the 'single computer' part of the EULA. And don't even look at an OEM lives-and-dies-with-the-machine licence!!
Why I am your worse nightmare! I said that in a very famous online flame war!
It was an elevator. What's amusing is that at the time RMS had NO IDEA who Craig Mundie even was, he only knew that he worked for Microsoft because his nametag said so.
The original idea of copyright and/or patent law (as envisioned by the founders of the USA at least) was that inventors and artists would have some incentive to publish their work rather than keeping it to themselves. For about 14 years they'd have deliberately limited control over who could copy the work so they could make some money from their own good ideas, and then it would fall into the public domain where it belongs!!
It's all written down in some obscure old document that nobody ever reads..
LMI only have rights to the word "Linux". One word, that's all. Tux the Penguin is copyright to Larry Ewing.
There are no "figaroos" or "plushies" involved.
Further examples;
Red Hat / Fedora Core - Doesn't contain the word Linux as part of the product name. "Red Enterprise Linux" does, they pay fees for that. They also sell it for up to $2500 so they damn well _should_ be paying fees.
White Box - Same product as above but doesn't include the word Linux, RedHat, or any of RedHat's trademark images, so don't owe anyone any fees.
IBM - mentions Linux is various product names, and pays for the privilidge.
Debian - Name doesn't contain the word Linux as part of the 'product name' so not a problem.
Ubuntu - Doesn't contain the word Linux
Canonical - Provides Linux support but aren't using Linux as part of the company name.
Mandrake - Doesn't contain the word Linux
knoppix - Doesn't contain the word Linux
kanotix - Doesn't contain the word Linux
SCO "Linux Kernel Personality" - make these bastards pay!
Slashdot Mirror
I implanted my swiss army knife in the side of my finger one time. Right through to the bone. It wasn't one of those USB knives though so I guess that doesn't quite count..
Since you mentioned it first..
.." grant a limited monopoly, the constitution doesn't say they have to.
Copyrights and patents are OPTIONAL.. "congress _may_
More important however, is the phrase "To promote the sciences and useful arts..". This is the only reason given in the constitution that justifies the existence of copyright, patent and trademark protection. Any law that fails "to promote the sciences and useful arts", and certainly any law that can be shown to hold back the sciences and useful arts is completely unconstitutional and should be overturned immediately.
The current patent system is borderline. Patents in software are clearly unconstitutional. The DMCA is completely unconstitutional. And apparently nobody cares any more.
ask monsanto?
More like how most compilers (eg GCC) are developed;
First you write the compiler in it's own language, then you compile it using someone else's already-working compiler. With luck you'll then have a working compiler which can compile a fresh copy of itself.
Only a total masochist would try and hand-build the code themselves.
Google can't handle it either; your application/xml+html pages will get treated the same as other 'non-html' documents like application/pdf by google, which really sucks.
If you want some fun serve your pages as text/xml - it's still valid according to the w3c but it makes IE display the pages in the most awesomely broken way!
The local student radio station used to broadcast shareware games and stuff a couple of hours every night from 3am to 5am. This was way back even before BBSes were popular (and way, way before the net!!)
Step 1: Write better content.
Step 2: ?????
Step 3: Profit!
Ohh, this is a nice analogy;
Open Source; It's a smorgasboard of over 15,000 different dishes, all free. But you have to bring your own cutlery, and some of the dishes are not very well prepaired. If you're not happy you could pop into the kitchen and suggest improvements or cook it your own way (assuming you know how to cook). Or you can hire a few talented chiefs and have them improve any dishes you think particularly need improving. The only restriction is that everyone else gets to try your improved meal too.
Microsoft; For $200 you get a smorgasboard of about 15 dishes, all entrees and nothing substantial. You can only fill your plate once and you're not allowed to share it with anyone. Some of the dishes are badly prepared, and every time you complain you get told they'll be better next week. They never are. For another $600 you can have the steak meal but the steak is always well done, they claim nobody has ever asked for it any other way. If you ask for your steak rare, the chefs will taunt you and spread nasty rumours about you behind your back.
Did I miss anything?
As near as I can tell, Microsoft is paying for a filter that will let Microsoft office read OpenOffice documents.
- Read, not write.
- OpenOffice documents (as used in OpenOffice 1.x) not Open Document Format
The project everyone keeps pointing to is unquestionally only an input filter, it won't help you save documents in whatever format it reads, and in the project description it only mentions "OpenOffice format". OpenOffice format isn't ODF, and Open Document Format is not mentioned one single time anywhere in the sf.net project description. Anywhere.
This is Microsoft's idea of "supporting ODF" ?
I thought WinFS was one of the features they were dropping..?
I have a ten-year old video capture card here. You think I can even find drivers for it?
Go ahead and store all the capture cards you like, in another ten years they won't be worth shit.
I was thinking, shortly after I first heard about that Open Source Gurana-enhanced beer, that it would be really funny to mess with the idea and highlight the brokenness of the patent system by taking out a patent on "Enhancement of Beer by Brewing With Naturally Occuring Stimulants"
Now I really, _really_ wish I'd gone through with an application!!
There is a difference between Bill Gates and God.. .. God doesn't think he's Bill Gates.
What businesses REALLY need is insurance against Microsoft (and other BSA member companies) licence violations.
SERIOUSLY
Because for any reasonable-sized organisation it is very expensive to do a license audit, and almost impossible to be sure that you're completely in compliance. Many businesses have found that it's easier and cheaper to just buy a completely new set of licenses than try and figure out if the ones they already have cover everything they're running.
And because if you're not in compliance, even by just a little bit, you _will_ get hit with substantial fines which cost a LOT of money to fight that in court.
Note that Sony don't tell you how to get a GOOD mp3 copy (rip the CDDA tracks using cdex)
They tell you to burn a CD in media player which I expect would taken from the protected WMA files, then use media player to convert it to MP3 which introduces even more quality loss. Not to mention that Windows Media's MP3 encoder is really, really shitty (Intentionally so, because they want to make WMA look good in comparison)
The only reason Sony published this advice is the hope that people will find their advice first, and are less likely to stumble on _better_ advice such as using cdex..
a couple of observations;
"Which versions of Windows?" - something you wrote for Windows XP is probably not going to run in 98 or ME, quite likely won't run in Vista, and may run badly in in 2k or 2k3. Hell, even something you wrote for XP sp1 might stop running in XP sp2.
Almost every other operating system is UNIX-like. The majority of OSS software these days it written to be reasonably portable. Something written specifically for Linux should compile in any Linux distro already, but with only moderate effort and some clever config work you can get the same code to compile in Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and OSX. Basically every OS other than Windows.
Another factor at work (at least for Open Source software) is that if your software is good and useful the distro maintainers will do most of this work for you, compiling and repackaging your code so that it can be easily installed and blends nicely with their distro. Someone might even port it to Windows too.
"I AM THE LAW"
RFID would have been an improvement over genetic fingerprinting. It would have eliminated the problem of judges with evil clones..
Please show me exactly where anyone (the editor of TFA or Bart himself) suggests using BartPE in this way. I for one can't find it.
Is there any other situation where you would want Windows installed on a USB stick or CDR? What practical uses does this have except for being able to move your install from one machine to another?
I don't think there's anything particularly -wrong- with BartPE, I just don't trust Microsoft to be fair and reasonable about it. If you were using BartPE as one of your tech-support system recovery tools and Microsoft decided to audit your business, I have no doubt at all that they would count this as a licence violation.
And as it's able to generate the CD using only what's in BartPE (1 exe and a few text files) and the windows CD where could the infringing files come from?
"from violating the EULA"
Microsoft's EULA says you're allowed to install Windows XP on a single computer. Installing Windows XP onto a CD or bootable USB device is not the same as installing it on a single computer, and is in violation of the precise wording of the EULA.
Doing the above specifically for the purpose of easily moving it from one computer to another is a pretty clear violation of the intent of the EULA.
As for Bart, there's some crap in the EULA about reverse-engineering that I think he might have infringed a bit.
How the hell do you figure that?
The EULA says you can install and use Windows XP on a single COMPUTER. It doesn't say you can 'install' (which is effectively what bartPE is doing) windows XP on anything else such as a CDR or portable USB drive.
And The Entire Point of making a PE-style install on a portable device would be so that you can take your Windows XP install and more easily use it on something other than just the one computer you have at home, which has got to be a huge violation of the 'single computer' part of the EULA. And don't even look at an OEM lives-and-dies-with-the-machine licence!!
Why I am your worse nightmare! I said that in a very famous online flame war!
It was an elevator. What's amusing is that at the time RMS had NO IDEA who Craig Mundie even was, he only knew that he worked for Microsoft because his nametag said so.
My old vax login was "SCI4501"
Easy answer; just use their Social Security number for a login. It gets used for everything else already!
did you miss the sarcasim?
The original idea of copyright and/or patent law (as envisioned by the founders of the USA at least) was that inventors and artists would have some incentive to publish their work rather than keeping it to themselves. For about 14 years they'd have deliberately limited control over who could copy the work so they could make some money from their own good ideas, and then it would fall into the public domain where it belongs!!
It's all written down in some obscure old document that nobody ever reads..
LMI only have rights to the word "Linux". One word, that's all. Tux the Penguin is copyright to Larry Ewing.
There are no "figaroos" or "plushies" involved.
Further examples;
Red Hat / Fedora Core - Doesn't contain the word Linux as part of the product name. "Red Enterprise Linux" does, they pay fees for that. They also sell it for up to $2500 so they damn well _should_ be paying fees.
White Box - Same product as above but doesn't include the word Linux, RedHat, or any of RedHat's trademark images, so don't owe anyone any fees.
IBM - mentions Linux is various product names, and pays for the privilidge.
Debian - Name doesn't contain the word Linux as part of the 'product name' so not a problem.
Ubuntu - Doesn't contain the word Linux
Canonical - Provides Linux support but aren't using Linux as part of the company name.
Mandrake - Doesn't contain the word Linux
knoppix - Doesn't contain the word Linux
kanotix - Doesn't contain the word Linux
SCO "Linux Kernel Personality" - make these bastards pay!
Foo Linux Users Group - Fair Use (AFAIK)
That balances out all the people who download a new copy each time instead of using the built-in 'upgrade' feature..