Not necessarily. Simply by changing their focus in the case from "1-Click is crap" to "All software patents are crap therefore 1-Click is crap" they could set a precedent (if they did, in fact, win) against software patents. It wouldn't be then end-all, but it's a start. Anyway, I'm not even close to being a lawyer (simple software engineer) so I can't honestly say that I know what the heck I'm saying.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Brings up an interesting issue: Would B&N rather lose this battle or other patents they might hold? Better question: Does B&N even hold any other software patents? I'll bet, if they do, it's not many. So, in that case, they're really the perfect body to go to the courts saying, "Hey, all software patents are crap" because, while they have a vested interest in getting rid of this one in particular, they don't have a lot to lose in the long-run.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
If I remember correctly, that infamous quote was incorrectly attributed to Bill Gates. It get's used all the time, but it's just one a tech-industry urban legend. Of course, I could be wrong.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
I'm not sure what you're referring to by that. My score? It's karma-related, but controllable. I suppose that post wasn't really deserving, but I forgot to disable the +1
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Well even that is useful. Not that there was anything wrong with the way they had it before, but screens look much nicer to to eye (and are therefore easier to read) when they're in color, mostly for contrast reasons. This is especially true if these colors are customizable.
I wonder if we could port E to the Pilot?:)
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
You make a good point - there's a lot of things that color really is unnecessary for with a PalmPilot. However, it is good to know that color is available should it be needed. The PalmVNC project could definitely benefit from color and I'm sure there'll be some palm-games out there that use it. I guess the real question is "Why not?" As long as I don't have to pay extra for it, I'm not against color. It certainly can't hurt.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
I know that this whole story is going to get bogged down with crap. Already there's a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Post and Pretty soon people will be saying "Hey, this is posted twice d00d!!!" Makes me sad...:(
Anyway, this is also sort of offtopic, but I've been playing around with OpenBSD and I was wondering if any of the FreeBSD gurus out there could point out some advantages I might have in switching over. I'm not really concerned about security, so that's not a staying point. Any advice would be appreciated, because I just keep hearing people say how much better FreeBSD is, but I'm not getting any hard arguments for it.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Well take a step back and look at what you're describing from outside the Open Source community. People have been doing free software for a long time (just like in the book). The open source movement doesn't just look like that -- it is that; people never stopped sharing their source.
Now, yes, there's been a lot more free software available lately, but if you look at it in the larger picture, most companies are still closed source. There are only a handful of companies that even consider free software and there are still a large percentage that probably don't even see it on their radar. They know what Linux is, of course, but the concept as a whole isn't something they even care about.
So "hacking" and the free software movement really isn't much different now than it was back then - it's just a different environment. The "next cycle"? Hell, it might be that everyone jumps on the OpenSource bandwagon, but I doubt it. It's just not worth it to most companies and whether you like it or not, programmers would make less money.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
You're missing the point. This isn't to defeat Echelon's ability to understand what we're saying. Well, it is, but moreover, it's more like an excercise in our right to fsck with the system. Just a little fun. A little poking of fun at a system that is, undoubtedly, screwing some of us over:)
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
That is SUCH a good idea! I love it! Even if it's mostly just a bunch of paranoia, it's really funny. I wonder if we'll see anything come of it? Like, sideeffects of bogging down our friends the NSA's information (read: spying) network?
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Well why does it have to be looked at as "playing god"? I'm a creationist, but I don't see any reason to be exclusive in my thoughts. Just because God has created life, doesn't mean that we can't do the same. There are a number of things that occur in nature than man has succeed in duplicating. I don't consider generating electricity to be "Playing God".
In other words - why not?
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Didn't we already have a story about this? Maybe I'm just having a serious case of Deja-Vu.
Anyway, I think this is ultra-cool. To use an elephant to give birth to a mammoth is kind of an interesting idea. I don't think any animal has ever given birth to a child of a different species before. The whole idea is amazing.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
A good laptop can cost you four thousand dollars; I don't think the palm-devices go over $500. Assuming you're buying brand-name batteries, you'd have to get about one thousand battery replacements before they cost the same.
Seriously, I think there is a line to be drawn here, but a 340 meg harddrive could be really useful in a palm-top. Ethernet is kind of stupid, because it's rarely portable (Airport?) and a full-sized keyboard is just plain ridiculous.
I don't think Linux has a place on the palm, yet. At least not in the CLI sense. Maybe if someone developed a decent GUI that could be useful at such low resolutions and would work with pen-input. That would be neat.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
If Palm-stuff keeps coming out at the rate it has for the last week, pretty soon we'll be seing PalmPilots (and clones) that are *better* than laptops. Seriously though, it seems like there's been a Palm-explosion as of late. I was thinking about getting one, but now I'm worried that it'll be outdated and incompatible with new stuff before long. Any thoughts?
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
There's a lot of confusion about Ipv6. It'd be nice if we could get a good explanation of how this will be implemented. I know that Linux has support for it, but how does it get worked into the world of IPv4? Something along the lines of that last piece on patents would be wonderful. Most of the current information on IPv6 is very technical, and I know that for most people, it's just not a priority to look into right now.
Anybody in the know want to write a decent How-To?
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
This sort of thing becomes very very (did I say very?) important when we start getting into high-speed wireless networking. I remember reading about a city in the mid-west (Tucson?) that already had available 1.5 mbit wireless (two-way) networking coverage. I think pretty soon -- hopefully -- more cities will get this sort of thing, and mobile connectivity will become viable. GSM connections just aren't fast enough for anything useful right now.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
I wonder if they'll be incorporating NetBeans into their "web-based" StarOffice. Actually, I wonder if we'll ever see their "web-based" StarOffice. Sun's got a lot of cool stuff going for them right now, and I for one can't wait to see what they'll do with it.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
I think in a lot of cases you are right. However in your subject mention of Gates you're pretty far off. Gates is much more than a cheerleader to MS. Cheerleaders don't make any decisions, they just provide support when other people do. BillG may not be our favorite person, but the truth is that he's led Microsoft to where they are today. Of course, take that for what it's worth.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
If Cowpland was sent to jail, Corel wouldn't want anything to do with him. The analogy to Al Capone is a bad one - Al Capone's "empire" was based around him and his criminal genius (such as it was). Corel is a corporation; more like a ship. The CEO steers it and, unless he's really really good, can be replaced.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Slashdot Mirror
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
I wonder if we could port E to the Pilot? :)
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
don't hurt me
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Anyway, this is also sort of offtopic, but I've been playing around with OpenBSD and I was wondering if any of the FreeBSD gurus out there could point out some advantages I might have in switching over. I'm not really concerned about security, so that's not a staying point. Any advice would be appreciated, because I just keep hearing people say how much better FreeBSD is, but I'm not getting any hard arguments for it.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Now, yes, there's been a lot more free software available lately, but if you look at it in the larger picture, most companies are still closed source. There are only a handful of companies that even consider free software and there are still a large percentage that probably don't even see it on their radar. They know what Linux is, of course, but the concept as a whole isn't something they even care about.
So "hacking" and the free software movement really isn't much different now than it was back then - it's just a different environment. The "next cycle"? Hell, it might be that everyone jumps on the OpenSource bandwagon, but I doubt it. It's just not worth it to most companies and whether you like it or not, programmers would make less money.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
In other words - why not?
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Anyway, I think this is ultra-cool. To use an elephant to give birth to a mammoth is kind of an interesting idea. I don't think any animal has ever given birth to a child of a different species before. The whole idea is amazing.
-----------
"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Seriously, I think there is a line to be drawn here, but a 340 meg harddrive could be really useful in a palm-top. Ethernet is kind of stupid, because it's rarely portable (Airport?) and a full-sized keyboard is just plain ridiculous.
I don't think Linux has a place on the palm, yet. At least not in the CLI sense. Maybe if someone developed a decent GUI that could be useful at such low resolutions and would work with pen-input. That would be neat.
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
Anybody in the know want to write a decent How-To?
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."
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"You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding."