Just read/. for a couple of weeks and you will see the deluge (courtesy of US law firms) of bogus patent claims in software that are either clearly trivial or for which plenty of prior art exists (but the US patent office could not be arsed to find out about).
And why is this? Because software is not an invention in the same sense a physical device is. Software is form of speech plain and simple. Let me explain, in a computer language you have the following:
a=b+2
you can explain that in plain English (or any other language). Amuse yourself googling for the DeCSS algorythm for a clear example of this.
There already exists (a quite draconian) way to protect written speech. It is called copyright. That would mean that people could not copy your implemeentation of a software algorithm but they could come with their own.
Software is speech, speech is not patentable.
Simple, I don't see why politicians just can't get it.
If going mainstream means unnecessary bloat (like an intrusive, unsecure search utility most akin to a database), then yeah, cut me frm the mainstream.
Goverments and IT heads should be thinking about this. Otherewise the burden in future generations (your children and their children) to access information would make the Y2K scenario like a picnic.
Shortermism may be all the rage in business and politics but little by littel people will wake up and realize that longer term views are needed if we are to spare future generations of unnecessary pain.
What would we do nowadays without it?. I am sitting in London, UK, having a nice apple juice to finish my breakfast, in my office overlooking the Thames river:
... if that is the worst you have to say about OO,org (that a fscking button is not were you want it) then I thing you have "MSoffice-itis", in which the patient thinks that user usability equates putting all the buttons in the same place where MS has choosen to do so.
That this is the gravest problem you have to talk about shows tha OO.org is a mature application ready for use.
In the Netherlands they decided that a populist, unexperienced "party" was a good choice while many sane people in th rest of Europe were rolling their eyes in disbelief.
Well, now you have the consequences.
Goverments had never governed (and they should not, IMHO) based on demonstrations or opinion polls. Goverments are suppossed to have a plan and they should try to implement it.
How from a clueless goverment elected by, pardon the battering, clueless people, you jump to your tirade about corruption, is baffling.
To say that corruption is swept under the carpet in Europe is ludicrous. Berlusconi in Italy just was half aquited on corruption charges, a close ally was sentenced to 9 years for mafia links. In Germany people close to Helmut Khol were sentenced for all kind of muddy dealings, in the UK politicians that fail to live to expections regularly have to resing and in some cases even go to jail.
Your ascertion is completely untrue and clueless, corruption is fought all around Europe.
Compare that with Ronald Reagan and his mob, breaking the law, and living to be hailed as heroes for doing so.
You have 25 GB of music you have never heard "because you want to try new things".
You are tying nothing, you will never hear most of it. The same applies to movies, DVDs, CDs, etc.
Consumerist mentality. Do you really want to hear new music? Well, listen to it, don;t archive it. And once you are done, the stuff that did not touched you, trhow it away. And dump even more once or twice a year.
The amount of entertainment that you can consume is tremendously limited. Terabytes and terabytes of disk space don;t make it more available, they just make you feel better about how big your hadr one (the disk that is ) is.
Common folks, wakeup. Hoarding gigabytes and gigabytes of rubish does not make you a collectionist, they make you a rubish collector.
Have you watched those interviews of very erudite people whose offices are cover from floor to ceiling with books?
Lets asume they have read all of them. How many are they going to ever re-read? Not many, they have to make a living and get a life.
So why do they have the books? Posturing. Showing off. There is no other reason.
Same with LP, VHS, CD or DVD grabbers. Or digital media grabbers. Simple "my collection is bigger than yours" pride. No practical use at all.
There is not enough time in your life for that!
on
Digital Packrats
·
· Score: 1
Honestly, if you want to get any movie any time, well, go to Amazon and but it, hit your favorite p2p network or when the movie companies get a clue, download on demand.
It is completely pointless to archive oogles of data in the odd cnahce you will ever need one or two pieces of data.
It is absolutely insane.
Data consumerism....
on
Digital Packrats
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
What exactly is the point of accumulate data you are never going to use?
Lets also say that the average sane person listens to one or maximum 2 hours music a day.
So most people will not repeat the same CD for the best part of a year.
If somebody can demonstrate we have any real use for massive music players I am ready to be educated.
I think a more sensible course of action is to have s relatively small player (thus cheaper) with 3 or 4 GB, buy 1 or 2 CDs a week, resell the ones one does not like, keep in the music player the ones that one likes.
Did you miss something? buy it again, second hand perhaps.
500 CD collections for normal people are an aboslute waste of space and time.
If that is what it takes for Software companies and goverments to realize that software should not be patentable, so be it.
The only way things will get fixed is when the big boys are beaten and goverments realize patenting of software is killing innovation by the small guy.
The US had a war of secession, they did no "let it go", but when it comes to China, is seems like the only recognized Chinese goverment (by the UN, by most serious international organizations, and by the immense majority of countries in this planet) have to let it go as well.
Had the outside world let the Chinese in both sides of the divide sort this out, this would have been sorted. It is the foreign support for the goverment in Chinese Taipei (or Taiwan or whatever you want to call it) what has facilitated this impase.
And for those saying poor Taiwanese, they should be granted independence, I say think again. Actually the native Taiwanese are quite resentfull of the mainlanders that fled China and usurpated all spheres of political and economic power in the island.
The guy that went running to the US for help to mantain the defacto independence, General Chian Kai Sek, was a dictator and his "party", the Kuomitang had little to learn from some of the tactics of the Communist party in mainland China.
The only saving grace of the US support is that eventually Taiwan became democratic, and one of the first things they did is to get rid of the Kuomitang, the party that has caused all this mess in the first place.
The less needed stay home. They normally are the best of the best because they don't have the need to migrate.
The ones that migrate are the *less* qualified.
It has always been like that during history with economic migration. If you are USian just ask any Mexican immigrant in which stratum of Mexican society would they belong. The rich, the prepared, the more able, stay on their country of origin. Immigration, specially of the ilegal kind, is normally a sign of depravation (educational as well).
.... you were doing so well until the hottie, sweat stuff.
Brand recognition is exactly that. Somebody says Fluff! and you know what fluff is. You don;t care about the anorexic models portrayed on the ad (if you do, you may have some serious problems to sort out).
I have never met anybody that truly believed a cheap item would make them look cool. That may only apply to luxury or leisure items (like cigarettes), but pretty much that is that.
Slashdot Mirror
Just read /. for a couple of weeks and you will see the deluge (courtesy of US law firms) of bogus patent claims in software that are either clearly trivial or for which plenty of prior art exists (but the US patent office could not be arsed to find out about).
And why is this? Because software is not an invention in the same sense a physical device is. Software is form of speech plain and simple.
Let me explain, in a computer language you have the following:
a=b+2
you can explain that in plain English (or any other language). Amuse yourself googling for the DeCSS algorythm for a clear example of this.
There already exists (a quite draconian) way to protect written speech. It is called copyright. That would mean that people could not copy your implemeentation of a software algorithm but they could come with their own.
Software is speech, speech is not patentable.
Simple, I don't see why politicians just can't get it.
.... can be turned off.
If going mainstream means unnecessary bloat (like an intrusive, unsecure search utility most akin to a database), then yeah, cut me frm the mainstream.
me@machine uname -a /bin/ksh: locate: not found
SunOS machine 5.8 Generic_108528-27 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-5_10
me@machine
locate
Goverments and IT heads should be thinking about this. Otherewise the burden in future generations (your children and their children) to access information would make the Y2K scenario like a picnic.
Shortermism may be all the rage in business and politics but little by littel people will wake up and realize that longer term views are needed if we are to spare future generations of unnecessary pain.
What would we do nowadays without it?. I am sitting in London, UK, having a nice apple juice to finish my breakfast, in my office overlooking the Thames river:
Missoula population statistics
Mexico City's population: ~ 16000000 (give or take, depending who you believe).
London's population: ~ 8000000
Mexico City's Azteca stadium capacity (all comfortably sitted): 110000.
Missoula, Monatana, US: ~57000.
I don't know, but Missoula looks small to me.
... if that is the worst you have to say about OO,org (that a fscking button is not were you want it) then I thing you have "MSoffice-itis", in which the patient thinks that user usability equates putting all the buttons in the same place where MS has choosen to do so.
That this is the gravest problem you have to talk about shows tha OO.org is a mature application ready for use.
Let the market speak. If stability means nothing to you, good.
To me it does, and it will be many individual decissions regarding this waht will shape the market.
You wishes in regards to what should be other people's priorities are frankly childish musings.
... the elctorate get the govemrnet they deserve.
In the Netherlands they decided that a populist, unexperienced "party" was a good choice while many sane people in th rest of Europe were rolling their eyes in disbelief.
Well, now you have the consequences.
Goverments had never governed (and they should not, IMHO) based on demonstrations or opinion polls. Goverments are suppossed to have a plan and they should try to implement it.
How from a clueless goverment elected by, pardon the battering, clueless people, you jump to your tirade about corruption, is baffling.
To say that corruption is swept under the carpet in Europe is ludicrous. Berlusconi in Italy just was half aquited on corruption charges, a close ally was sentenced to 9 years for mafia links. In Germany people close to Helmut Khol were sentenced for all kind of muddy dealings, in the UK politicians that fail to live to expections regularly have to resing and in some cases even go to jail.
Your ascertion is completely untrue and clueless, corruption is fought all around Europe.
Compare that with Ronald Reagan and his mob, breaking the law, and living to be hailed as heroes for doing so.
If the different departments in your firm don't talk to each other and there is no guiding IT central authotiry, well....
Every time you need to change one password, change them all to the same thing....
The "windows replacement" moniker is understood as replacing with something better, not equivalent.
Mindless useless nitpicking is frankly irritating.
You have 25 GB of music you have never heard "because you want to try new things".
You are tying nothing, you will never hear most of it. The same applies to movies, DVDs, CDs, etc.
Consumerist mentality. Do you really want to hear new music? Well, listen to it, don;t archive it. And once you are done, the stuff that did not touched you, trhow it away. And dump even more once or twice a year.
The amount of entertainment that you can consume is tremendously limited. Terabytes and terabytes of disk space don;t make it more available, they just make you feel better about how big your hadr one (the disk that is ) is.
Common folks, wakeup. Hoarding gigabytes and gigabytes of rubish does not make you a collectionist, they make you a rubish collector.
Have you watched those interviews of very erudite people whose offices are cover from floor to ceiling with books?
Lets asume they have read all of them. How many are they going to ever re-read? Not many, they have to make a living and get a life.
So why do they have the books? Posturing. Showing off. There is no other reason.
Same with LP, VHS, CD or DVD grabbers. Or digital media grabbers. Simple "my collection is bigger than yours" pride. No practical use at all.
Honestly, if you want to get any movie any time, well, go to Amazon and but it, hit your favorite p2p network or when the movie companies get a clue, download on demand.
It is completely pointless to archive oogles of data in the odd cnahce you will ever need one or two pieces of data.
It is absolutely insane.
What exactly is the point of accumulate data you are never going to use?
What is the point?
Lets say that is roughly 500 hours of music.
Lets also say that the average sane person listens to one or maximum 2 hours music a day.
So most people will not repeat the same CD for the best part of a year.
If somebody can demonstrate we have any real use for massive music players I am ready to be educated.
I think a more sensible course of action is to have s relatively small player (thus cheaper) with 3 or 4 GB, buy 1 or 2 CDs a week, resell the ones one does not like, keep in the music player the ones that one likes.
Did you miss something? buy it again, second hand perhaps.
500 CD collections for normal people are an aboslute waste of space and time.
If that is what it takes for Software companies and goverments to realize that software should not be patentable, so be it.
The only way things will get fixed is when the big boys are beaten and goverments realize patenting of software is killing innovation by the small guy.
The owner of a patent or copyrght holder can charge whatever they want to different entities.
That is why students get discounts for some software while other people have to pay the full price...
The US had a war of secession, they did no "let it go", but when it comes to China, is seems like the only recognized Chinese goverment (by the UN, by most serious international organizations, and by the immense majority of countries in this planet) have to let it go as well.
Had the outside world let the Chinese in both sides of the divide sort this out, this would have been sorted. It is the foreign support for the goverment in Chinese Taipei (or Taiwan or whatever you want to call it) what has facilitated this impase.
And for those saying poor Taiwanese, they should be granted independence, I say think again. Actually the native Taiwanese are quite resentfull of the mainlanders that fled China and usurpated all spheres of political and economic power in the island.
The guy that went running to the US for help to mantain the defacto independence, General Chian Kai Sek, was a dictator and his "party", the Kuomitang had little to learn from some of the tactics of the Communist party in mainland China.
The only saving grace of the US support is that eventually Taiwan became democratic, and one of the first things they did is to get rid of the Kuomitang, the party that has caused all this mess in the first place.
The less needed stay home. They normally are the best of the best because they don't have the need to migrate.
The ones that migrate are the *less* qualified.
It has always been like that during history with economic migration. If you are USian just ask any Mexican immigrant in which stratum of Mexican society would they belong. The rich, the prepared, the more able, stay on their country of origin. Immigration, specially of the ilegal kind, is normally a sign of depravation (educational as well).
.... you are blissfully unaware of how laws impede free migration of workers between different countries.
The article is about 15 year olds, not college age youngsters...
No company can set shop in different EU countries and then dictate in which one you can buy.
It is that simple.
.... you were doing so well until the hottie, sweat stuff.
Brand recognition is exactly that. Somebody says Fluff! and you know what fluff is. You don;t care about the anorexic models portrayed on the ad (if you do, you may have some serious problems to sort out).
I have never met anybody that truly believed a cheap item would make them look cool. That may only apply to luxury or leisure items (like cigarettes), but pretty much that is that.