Yes, they are two different things, but it's not that simple.
Let's say, for the sake of argument, that said employee was working for Unisys on some LZW code. He now comes to work for a new company that wants a GIF encoder.
This guy can certainly use his knowledge of how to implement LZW compression for GIF, but the resulting product would infringe on Unisys' patent.
However, main point ("ideas can not be patented") still stands. Idea needs to be developed to patentable things (which includes processes, arts and methods).
You are really muddying the waters here. Ideas certainly can be and have been patented. It is only "abstract ideas" that can't be patented.
A patent cannot be obtained upon a mere idea or suggestion. The patent is granted upon the new machine, manufacture, etc., as has been said, and not upon the idea or suggestion of the new machine. A complete description of the actual machine or other subject matter for which a patent is sought is required.
Note the key phrase "complete description". You simply need to provide sufficient detail describing the idea. It is clearly not the case that "ideas can not be patented". In fact, I would state that "every patent describes an idea".
As an example from the software patent side, I can't just patent the abstract idea of "unbreakable encryption", but if I have an idea for a particular algorithm, and I can explain it sufficiently, then I certainly can apply for a patent. Note that the algorithm doesn't have to be practical with today's technology, and I don't have to provide an implementation, just a complete description.
The same goes for other patents. There are thousands of patents on devices that have never been built and proceses that have never been implemented. I would suspect the same is true of software patents.
For what it's worth, I'm against most software patents simply because they don't pass my interpretation of what's "obvious to a skilled practitioner in the field". I also believe quite strongly in the idea that "knowledge should be free".
I absolutely agree about the NTFS support. That's my number one disappointment with RH.
RH is not the friendliest "Desktop Replacement" Linux distro, but I like it so far. Having not tried SuSe or Mandrake though, maybe I just don't know what I'm missing.
(I am an RHL user, but I'll be the first to admit that RHL is about as exciting as a glass of water these days).
I think that's the point. A business OS isn't supposed to be "exciting". It's supposed to get work done. I think RedHat does that very well.
I'm planning on deploying a 500+ server farm with RedHat.
WORA Worked For My App!
on
Bitter Java
·
· Score: 1
I have written a complete PDF viewer in Java 1.4 with a very customized Swing user interface. The development was all done under Windows 2000.
I just installed it under Red Hat 7.3 the other day, and every feature worked the same as it did on Windows. All the graphics were drawn the properly, font rendering was correct. File IO, parsing, search logic, internet connections, custom Swing components, etc. all worked.
I know that's how it's supposed to work, but I was still blown away that it all ran the very first time.
I agree with the second part of your summary, but not the first.
I can only speak for the MS Natural keyboard. It changed my work life. I couldn't do a single push-up at the end of a day because my wrists we so thrashed. After a month on the MS Natural keyboard though I was basically normal again.
Since I didn't (consciously) change any other factors I have to assume the the keyboard is responsible.
I looked into many of the "high-end" RSI keyboards, but their cost was ridiculous. The MS keyboard was cheap and did the job perfectly for me.
Obiously these keyboard won't work for everyone, but they aren't all "worthless" either.
I don't understand the problem with this. Qui-Gon explains that they have a screening program that presumably recruits kids from no specific background to become Jedi. So membership in the Jedi order isn't hereditary at all. That one must possess special qualities to be a jedi isn't a problem either. You can't program computers if you aren't good at technical stuff, but that doesn't make us a Royal Swiss Guard.
Or perhaps, to keep the analogy genetic, observe that taller people get recruited to play basketball. I wonder if technical competence is a genetically-acquired ability. My experience with my parents would tend to discredit that theory.
So although the Jedi do pass down their "midi-chlorian genetics", they are by no means limited to a single ruling family, or even a single race for that matter.
You are right. The BSA isn't a government agency or anything. They're just an industry-backed organization. They can't just come in an audit you. You must request it.
That said, however, companies like Microsoft could potentially decide to only sell you licenses if you undergo a BSA audit. It's not happening now (that we know of), but it's wouldn't be much of a stretch.
Close. The bit says, "Please don't embed me." Outright copying can still be done to the font file, which means that you can still violate the copyright. The bit is read by a program such as Acrobat. If a user attempts to embed a font that's not licensed for embedding, then Acrobat will honor the request and not embed the font.
Actually, I prefer this to some elaborate copy protection scheme that wastes file storage, memory storage, and takes extra processor time to handle.
If I wanted to violate the copyright, I would find a way. The copy protection just causes grief for the people using the font legitimately.
As long as your subclass doesn't add any member data that requires destruction, the "delete s;" won't cause a problem (i.e., if the destructor for the base class and subclass are the same, then it doesn't matter which one gets called).
Extending a string class in this way allows you to have access to the extended functionality where you need it. Furthermore, it allows you to pass instances of your new string subclass anywhere that a string instance is expected.
Writing a class that simply "has a" string and provides wrapper methods won't let you do this.
Of course, since there is a danger of this tool being used improperly, you should document your decision to help prevent others from wandering into a trap.
My first was the Atari 600XL, then the 800XL, then Indus GT disk drive. I remember typing in Compute listings too. Good times!
Regarding the TV issue though. I don't think that having your own TV solved the problem. By having your own TV, you didn't have the problem to begin with. It sounds like your Atari wasn't in the living room.
I also had a little TV in my room for my Atari. The TV was just the "monitor" of the times.
Plus, the Atari was actually intended to be used as a computer (limited though they were back then).
I also had an Intellivision in the living room. You can bet your ass though that when my Dad wanted to watch the news I had to quit playing.
Anyway, I just don't see a device with a mouse and keyboard being used in the living room. It's too awkward.
You are right that as a profession, computer programming isn't particularly special in terms of requiring creativity. Many professions do. On the the hand, people in those other professions also have days where they fuck the dog.
Some teachers will have days where they do a nice normal day of teaching. Other days they'll show a useless film to the class if they feel lazy. Every once in a while, they may be motivated by a subject (or maybe they got laid that morning) and they get in the zone and the kids learn twice as much as usual.
It's the same for any profession, including programming. Normally you program at a particular pace. Some days you waste hours reading Slashdot. Other days you never even open you email or web browser because you have turned into a coding machine.
Re:Apple "invented" the beige Personal Computer...
on
Black Is The New Beige
·
· Score: 1
He was referring to the black Apple II, not the NeXT. I believe it came before the Sinclair as well, but I'm not positive.
OK now, cut that out. April 1st was a few weeks ago. I get the feeling, however, that you aren't joking.
These products serve vastly different markets. Putting a keyboard and mouse on an XBox does NOT make it nearly as versatile as a PC. Set top boxes have tried that several times and failed. Why?
Where's my XBox? In the living room.
Where's my PC? In my office.
When I'm surfing the web or writing an email on my XBox, nobody else can watch TV.
I also don't have as much privacy, and I don't have anywhere convenient to put the mouse or keyboard.
There are a few of these already. Most of them are slightly shy of the full graphical splendor of some of the best engines, but a talented person can do some good stuff with them.
Extensions for some of them, such as 3D Game Studio, can be written in an included C-like script language, or as a full-fledged C++ plug-in.
Actually, I thought it was kind of funny. Not hilarious, but certainly not "Decidedly Unfunny". Just because the topic is death or murder doesn't mean you can't see humour in it.
It may be dark humour, but so what. Everyone is entitled to his opinion and his own sense of humour. Besides, for some people, humour is a coping mechanism. Imagine if all we did all day was ruminate on how horrible all the violence and killing in the world is. We absolutely need dark humour to cope with these situations or we'd die of depression.
You have to think of how a lack of dark humour would affect people too. Poor Jay Leno would be out of a job without it!
"How can a particular combination of bits on a CD crash your computer"
Quite easily actually. Computers run software. Software has bugs. If there are bugs in the CD driver, then it can crash your computer if it reads something it isn't expecting.
As for the "cause damage to your computer" part, again, it's not that difficult when you are talking about device drivers that control physically moving parts. Bugs can cause drivers to go haywire and start moving things erratically, potentially causing physical damage.
You may say that the devices should have safeguards to prevent this sort of thing, and you may be right, but that would almost certainly increase their cost, their manufacturing complexity, and their failure rate. Imagine if cars had to have safety mechanisms for every possible way in which you might choose to drive incorrectly. It's just not practical, and may not even be possible. As a driver writer you are just expected to follow the rules.
As for there being no story, the fact of the matter is that the bits on a CD are physically encoded onto the disc, so by encoding against the Redbook standard, Sony is intentionally manufacturing physically flawed products. It's no different than intentionally using damaged parts any other consumer product.
Sony should be sued for this, but, as always, it will take some very deep pockets to attempt this.
I recall reading about this here on Slashdot when this topic last came up. Philips was considering suing companies that continued to use the logo without actually meeting the Redbook requirements. Hopefully they actually step up and do it.
But Will It Control A Digital Cable Box?
on
Is MOXI Toast?
·
· Score: 1
Unless you are also planning on including a digital cable box, or providing a way to control a digital cable box, then don't bother.
Without that capability PVRs are useless piles of steaming dung.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, they are two different things, but it's not that simple.
Let's say, for the sake of argument, that said employee was working for Unisys on some LZW code. He now comes to work for a new company that wants a GIF encoder.
This guy can certainly use his knowledge of how to implement LZW compression for GIF, but the resulting product would infringe on Unisys' patent.
However, main point ("ideas can not be patented") still stands. Idea needs to be developed to patentable things (which includes processes, arts and methods).
You are really muddying the waters here. Ideas certainly can be and have been patented. It is only "abstract ideas" that can't be patented.
From the USPTO site:
A patent cannot be obtained upon a mere idea or suggestion. The patent is granted upon the new machine, manufacture, etc., as has been said, and not upon the idea or suggestion of the new machine. A complete description of the actual machine or other subject matter for which a patent is sought is required.
Note the key phrase "complete description". You simply need to provide sufficient detail describing the idea. It is clearly not the case that "ideas can not be patented". In fact, I would state that "every patent describes an idea".
As an example from the software patent side, I can't just patent the abstract idea of "unbreakable encryption", but if I have an idea for a particular algorithm, and I can explain it sufficiently, then I certainly can apply for a patent. Note that the algorithm doesn't have to be practical with today's technology, and I don't have to provide an implementation, just a complete description.
The same goes for other patents. There are thousands of patents on devices that have never been built and proceses that have never been implemented . I would suspect the same is true of software patents.
For what it's worth, I'm against most software patents simply because they don't pass my interpretation of what's "obvious to a skilled practitioner in the field". I also believe quite strongly in the idea that "knowledge should be free".
Games DON'T affect kids. If PacMan did, we'd all be eating pills and listening to repeditive music...
You mean like popping Ecstacy at a techno rave?
By the way, the word is "repetitive", not "repeditive".
I absolutely agree about the NTFS support. That's my number one disappointment with RH.
RH is not the friendliest "Desktop Replacement" Linux distro, but I like it so far. Having not tried SuSe or Mandrake though, maybe I just don't know what I'm missing.
(I am an RHL user, but I'll be the first to admit that RHL is about as exciting as a glass of water these days).
I think that's the point. A business OS isn't supposed to be "exciting". It's supposed to get work done. I think RedHat does that very well.
I'm planning on deploying a 500+ server farm with RedHat.
I have written a complete PDF viewer in Java 1.4 with a very customized Swing user interface. The development was all done under Windows 2000.
I just installed it under Red Hat 7.3 the other day, and every feature worked the same as it did on Windows. All the graphics were drawn the properly, font rendering was correct. File IO, parsing, search logic, internet connections, custom Swing components, etc. all worked.
I know that's how it's supposed to work, but I was still blown away that it all ran the very first time.
I agree with the second part of your summary, but not the first.
I can only speak for the MS Natural keyboard. It changed my work life. I couldn't do a single push-up at the end of a day because my wrists we so thrashed. After a month on the MS Natural keyboard though I was basically normal again.
Since I didn't (consciously) change any other factors I have to assume the the keyboard is responsible.
I looked into many of the "high-end" RSI keyboards, but their cost was ridiculous. The MS keyboard was cheap and did the job perfectly for me.
Obiously these keyboard won't work for everyone, but they aren't all "worthless" either.
My first experience with KOffice hasn't been great. I tried opening a fairly simple Powerpoint presentation in KPresenter.
The program just disappeared. Poof you're done!
A similar crash happened bringing in a Word document to KWord.
I like the look and feel of the KOffice apps, but I hope that they can improve the MS Office compatability.
Also, for more mirrors:
http://www.doomworld.com
It's not the 11 minute E3 movie, but it's not the one from a couple of months ago either.
Doom III Movie
His point is that the star changes the type, so the star should, therefore, be placed with type. I absolutely agree with this.
Anyway, if you just declare one variable per line (as any C or C++ coder with even a modicum of experience would) you won't run into a problem.
I don't understand the problem with this. Qui-Gon explains that they have a screening program that presumably recruits kids from no specific background to become Jedi. So membership in the Jedi order isn't hereditary at all. That one must possess special qualities to be a jedi isn't a problem either. You can't program computers if you aren't good at technical stuff, but that doesn't make us a Royal Swiss Guard.
Or perhaps, to keep the analogy genetic, observe that taller people get recruited to play basketball. I wonder if technical competence is a genetically-acquired ability. My experience with my parents would tend to discredit that theory.
So although the Jedi do pass down their "midi-chlorian genetics", they are by no means limited to a single ruling family, or even a single race for that matter.
You are right. The BSA isn't a government agency or anything. They're just an industry-backed organization. They can't just come in an audit you. You must request it.
That said, however, companies like Microsoft could potentially decide to only sell you licenses if you undergo a BSA audit. It's not happening now (that we know of), but it's wouldn't be much of a stretch.
In case you weren't aware, the registration to read the online articles is free.
Who cares about timezones? You can't compute the correct total for the WHOLE COUNTRY until the day is over in the WHOLE COUNTRY.
Someone is doing some extrapolation to get these numbers.
Close. The bit says, "Please don't embed me." Outright copying can still be done to the font file, which means that you can still violate the copyright. The bit is read by a program such as Acrobat. If a user attempts to embed a font that's not licensed for embedding, then Acrobat will honor the request and not embed the font.
Actually, I prefer this to some elaborate copy protection scheme that wastes file storage, memory storage, and takes extra processor time to handle.
If I wanted to violate the copyright, I would find a way. The copy protection just causes grief for the people using the font legitimately.
As long as your subclass doesn't add any member data that requires destruction, the "delete s;" won't cause a problem (i.e., if the destructor for the base class and subclass are the same, then it doesn't matter which one gets called).
Extending a string class in this way allows you to have access to the extended functionality where you need it. Furthermore, it allows you to pass instances of your new string subclass anywhere that a string instance is expected.
Writing a class that simply "has a" string and provides wrapper methods won't let you do this.
Of course, since there is a danger of this tool being used improperly, you should document your decision to help prevent others from wandering into a trap.
My first was the Atari 600XL, then the 800XL, then Indus GT disk drive. I remember typing in Compute listings too. Good times!
Regarding the TV issue though. I don't think that having your own TV solved the problem. By having your own TV, you didn't have the problem to begin with. It sounds like your Atari wasn't in the living room.
I also had a little TV in my room for my Atari. The TV was just the "monitor" of the times.
Plus, the Atari was actually intended to be used as a computer (limited though they were back then).
I also had an Intellivision in the living room. You can bet your ass though that when my Dad wanted to watch the news I had to quit playing.
Anyway, I just don't see a device with a mouse and keyboard being used in the living room. It's too awkward.
You are right that as a profession, computer programming isn't particularly special in terms of requiring creativity. Many professions do. On the the hand, people in those other professions also have days where they fuck the dog.
Some teachers will have days where they do a nice normal day of teaching. Other days they'll show a useless film to the class if they feel lazy. Every once in a while, they may be motivated by a subject (or maybe they got laid that morning) and they get in the zone and the kids learn twice as much as usual.
It's the same for any profession, including programming. Normally you program at a particular pace. Some days you waste hours reading Slashdot. Other days you never even open you email or web browser because you have turned into a coding machine.
He was referring to the black Apple II, not the NeXT. I believe it came before the Sinclair as well, but I'm not positive.
OK now, cut that out. April 1st was a few weeks ago. I get the feeling, however, that you aren't joking.
These products serve vastly different markets. Putting a keyboard and mouse on an XBox does NOT make it nearly as versatile as a PC. Set top boxes have tried that several times and failed. Why?
Where's my XBox? In the living room.
Where's my PC? In my office.
When I'm surfing the web or writing an email on my XBox, nobody else can watch TV.
I also don't have as much privacy, and I don't have anywhere convenient to put the mouse or keyboard.
Get it?
There are a few of these already. Most of them are slightly shy of the full graphical splendor of some of the best engines, but a talented person can do some good stuff with them.
Extensions for some of them, such as 3D Game Studio, can be written in an included C-like script language, or as a full-fledged C++ plug-in.
3D Game Studio
DarkBasic
3D Rad
Actually, I thought it was kind of funny. Not hilarious, but certainly not "Decidedly Unfunny". Just because the topic is death or murder doesn't mean you can't see humour in it.
It may be dark humour, but so what. Everyone is entitled to his opinion and his own sense of humour. Besides, for some people, humour is a coping mechanism. Imagine if all we did all day was ruminate on how horrible all the violence and killing in the world is. We absolutely need dark humour to cope with these situations or we'd die of depression.
You have to think of how a lack of dark humour would affect people too. Poor Jay Leno would be out of a job without it!
"How can a particular combination of bits on a CD crash your computer"
Quite easily actually. Computers run software. Software has bugs. If there are bugs in the CD driver, then it can crash your computer if it reads something it isn't expecting.
As for the "cause damage to your computer" part, again, it's not that difficult when you are talking about device drivers that control physically moving parts. Bugs can cause drivers to go haywire and start moving things erratically, potentially causing physical damage.
You may say that the devices should have safeguards to prevent this sort of thing, and you may be right, but that would almost certainly increase their cost, their manufacturing complexity, and their failure rate. Imagine if cars had to have safety mechanisms for every possible way in which you might choose to drive incorrectly. It's just not practical, and may not even be possible. As a driver writer you are just expected to follow the rules.
As for there being no story, the fact of the matter is that the bits on a CD are physically encoded onto the disc, so by encoding against the Redbook standard, Sony is intentionally manufacturing physically flawed products. It's no different than intentionally using damaged parts any other consumer product.
Sony should be sued for this, but, as always, it will take some very deep pockets to attempt this.
I recall reading about this here on Slashdot when this topic last came up. Philips was considering suing companies that continued to use the logo without actually meeting the Redbook requirements. Hopefully they actually step up and do it.
Unless you are also planning on including a digital cable box, or providing a way to control a digital cable box, then don't bother.
Without that capability PVRs are useless piles of steaming dung.