"If you are a doctor, you can override the Q-Zone feature on your cellphone," said Mary Beth Griffin, BlueLinx executive vice president.
So basically, this only works if people dont set up their phones to exclude it. Wonderful. This will help out all of the fogetful people, who accidentally leave their phones on in movie theaters. Both of them.
But for the other trolls who think that the next call is too important to miss, they will turn off the feature anyway.
Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but whenever this comes about, I don't forsee it changing things too much.
What I kept asking myself as I read the article was, what makes the two main commenters experts?
Oh, my mistake. They are called 'true believers', not experts. This entire article is basically comments by two people arguing against another OS they obviously have little or no knowledge of.
The OS9 zealot keeps talking about how Linux doesn't support hardware, and is so difficult to use. These arguments were valid two years ago, maybe even one year ago. But with the barrage of new configuration GUI's available, and with new hardware being supported on a daily basis, this is simply not true.
If messages saying these things were posted here, they would instantly be marked as flame, troll, etc. and almost no-one would read them...
The comments by the Linux zealot are just as bad...but in the oposite direction. This was not a head to head of the OSes. This was a head to head of the flame spit back and forth between the two OSes. With some conclusion paragraph at the end by someone who supposedly knows the strength and weaknesses of both.
I am not complaining because Linux lost. I don't care. I am complaining because people reading the article will get the wrong impression of both OSes. Next time, maybe the moderator should just write up the whole article, and leave the flame to forums like/.
Hrmmm.... I work for a company which produces a product that is the result of research done (mainly) by 2 scientists at a state university. Which would mean that federal money, and probably state money, was used to create the technology.
The company, which is a spin off of that research group, owns patents on not only the product, but the technology used to create that product.
Now, unless something has changed in the last few years, (quite possible, I don't try to follow anything as stupid as the law..), it would seem that this type of technology can be patented. (I certainly hope so, since I like my job =)
Without notifying the targeted users, and without assessing the validity of the legal claims underlying the subpoenas, Yahoo! systematically discloses identifying information such as users' names, e-mail addresses and Internet protocol addresses. Yahoo! is unique among major online companies in its refusal to notify its users of such subpoenas and provide them with an opportunity to challenge the information requests.
The reason they are suing Yahoo is that Yahoo aparently does not give the anonymous person the chance to fight the subpoena, and remain anonymous. (Which can be done, I would think, since the fighting would go through a lawyer.)
I understand the point, but having no knowledge of legal matters in general, and not wanting to read ALL the user aggreaments yahoo has, I don't have a clue how this will turn out.
It all boils down to what is in those user aggrements. If Yahoo is only doing what it said it would when the user signed up, they are probably fine. (And should be too, since responsability should be placed on the user to find out such policies before posting. If you don't like it, go somewhere else to post. Caveat emptor.)
Of course that's just my opinion, which is worth exactly the paper it's printed on.
Actually, I'm gonna sue the entire music industry. Why? 3 reasons:
1. They have lots of money 2. They keep coming up with new 'data formats', (i.e. records, 8-tracks, cassets, cd's, dvs, minidisks, etc), so that I have to buy the same music over and over. They are scamming me into buying the same product multiple times. 3. They have lots of money.
Seriously, I don't think individual napster users will have much to fear from Dre or his lawyer. If there is one thing lawyers are good at it is knowing where the money is. Most end users of napster are not rich, and therefore the court costs outweigh the expected return. There may be a few 'token' cases, but this will result in little more that sabre-rattling on the part of the music industry, and their lawyers.
The personal opinion of this journalist is that the judge has made an extremely appropriate decision.
You gotta love objective journalism.
Anyway, I believe that this is not as bad as it seemed when I read the blurb on/. The person here was making software that allowed people to view pornographic material. This was done by removing the masking done on web-sites to censor out the explicit part of images.
This is clearly software designed against the 'spirit' of the anti-pornography laws Japan seems to have. This person is a citizen of Japan, and is therefore subject to their laws. He is also making money (it was shareware, which means you have to register, at a cost). IANAL, but if I were a judge in this case, I would find him guilty of SOMETHING for so doing things which so clearly violate the spirit of the laws Japan has made. (whether those laws are good or not is a seperate debate...)
I am not saying that this decision, or indeed these laws are not something to get concerned about. This also does set legal precident that most of us would shudder over. However, this was a direct link, to an illegal site, by a person who was doing pseudo-legal activity himself. The various posts of 'now the whole net is illegal!' are extremely over-reactionary in this case.
This link is important. Do not read this, and get mad, then leave it at that. Forward this link to whomever your representative is in your government. If you are in the US, forward it to both state and federal government representatives. This article shows, in plain english, what can happen to legislation with good intentions being used to restrict speech in any way.
And for those of you thinking, "It can't happen here, we have laws protecting our speech", remember that the internet, especially to those who don't understand it, is a new and sometimes frightning media. (remember how much press the Columbine H.S. kids website got?) Many people want the govt to step in and do something, and without specifying what to do. Govt officials need to hear opposing opinions, like this article, before action is taken.
I am getting rather sick of this. From the article:
Krasnikov accepts that testing his claims by building a wormhole is far beyond present technology.
RANT So, if I may be so blunt, what is the point? And why is this even called science?!?! Scientific method, I was taught when I was in school, involved coming up with a theory, then working to prove or disprove that theory by scientific research/experiment. The scientist here says flat out that there is no way to test this. So unless they changed the scientific method, I would file this under science fiction rather than science. But I guess it doesn't matter. Because the pseudo-scientist now has his paper published, and people are talking about it, which basically means he will probably recieve a grant from some organisation to continue his research. If you truly want to help humanity reach the stars, please support realistic endevors, which actually help get us there. /RANT
ummmm...where to begin.... Given the GUI nature of Windows I'd assume that C++ is out of the question Excuse me? There are multiple c++ libraries that allow for cross-platform development. Qt, wxWindows, gtk, just to name a few.
Java - well it's cross platform, but for a real application it's not really all it cracked up to be is it? Yes, it is. Quite simply, Java is MORE object oriented than c++, (or more exclusively so). Object orientation allows large projects to be arranged and managed in a logical manner. Java is a wonderful choice for cross platform development. There are performance issues, however. But using Java for a front-end, and c++ for the back-end can result in a quick application, with cross-platform, consistant UI.
As for your argument against scripting languages...Well, your best bet would probably be TCL for the front-end of an app. It has a nice toolkit, and works on just about all major platforms. Scripting languages being what they are, performance is an issue, so writing an entire app in it doesn't seem too efficient.
But the bigger point here is that linux/unix users SHOULD strive to write cross-platform code, whenever possible. When you write applications this way, you meet you PHB's requirement that it work under windows. The application can be sold, the company can make money. More importantly to the linux/unix community, however, the application can be re-compiled, re-tested, then released for other platforms. PHB's love this because they can make more money, and the community loves this because more applications are now available for their non-windows OS.
Also, I understand the desire to develop under Linux. I develop at work mostly under Solaris, and love it. When I have to develop under Windows, I spend long, frustrating days where mis-handling of a pointer causes BSOD, not a core dump.
I would check out WxWindows if you haven't already. I have had a good bit of luck developing software under it. It allows you to write once, then re-compile for each platform. The resulting programs use graphics native to the system (gtk/motif for unixes), and so seem to fit nicely with the other applications on the system.
The distribution comes with a bunch of examples, so learning the classes isn't terribly difficult. The only downside I have seen is that I haven't found a nice IDE that uses it...But since I like emacs and vi, it doesn't much matter to me. =)
Re:Shipped on two 3 1/2" disks
on
Lego CAD
·
· Score: 2
True, but did you look at the distributor list? In the USA, there are a whopping 8 people you can get those 3 disks from. I really don't understand that decision. I know it's supposed to be for kids, as an educational tool and all that, but with a little repackaging, they could have it on the shelves at every best-buy(tm), Wal-Mart(tm), etc. Every person who walked by who remembered playing with legos as a kid would be tempted...and more than a few would buy.
OK...this is off topic, I know. Moderate it down if you want to. Probably a good idea anyway... Maybe it's cause it's late and I'm still at work, or maybe it was just one too many of these 'slashdot isn't posting what I consider news for nerds' posts, but either way.. here goes.
Jon, Your ceaseless barrage of non "news for nerds" and non "stuff that matters" articles are driving me up the wall!@#! Jon Katz must go!
Firstly, not that it really matters, but Jon Kats didn't post this article. If you want to yell at someone, at least pick the right person.
Secondly, (and more importantly), no-one is making you read/. If you don't like the articles, don't visit the page! What stupid sick pleasure do you get out of writing 'this posting sucks'? You not only took the time to read the story, but more time to write your useless comments on a subject that you supposedly don't care about. Here's a thought...If you don't like the stories, don't come back. Or come back less often. If the people in charge of slashdot see the number of hits dropping, they will get the idea that a number of people don't like what they have been posting lately. Alternatively, you could form a well crafted letter stating why you feel that a certain story or type of story does not belong on slashdot. Send that letter as an email to Mr Kats, or whoever you feel is appropriate, and try to effect real change.
Simply posting a flame message saying Jon Kats must go! is about as intellegent as selling winblows at a Linux conference, and is likely to be about as well recieved.
I seem to be tragically uninformed about this RDS technology. Before I read this article, I had never before heard about RDS, so this may be a knee-jerk reaction here but.... This technology seems to be one of the worst ideas I have ever heard of. From the article:
"When a local traffic announcement is being broadcast, a signal is sent and the car radio switches to it."
On the surface, this technology seems to be harmless. In the event of an emergency, it can be used to quickly inform the public of important information. The problem here is that it does not seem to be optional. (correct me if I am wrong, as I said, my knowledge level on this is VERY limited.) If this 'switching' is not optional, it can very easily be used to control what information is allowed on the radio. If there are any 'incorrect viewpoints' being expressed, well, simply tune all radios to a special frequency that is broadcasting a recording saying that radio services are temporarily unavailable. Then track down whoever is making the unacceptable broadcast. No wonder the government is so upset about this break of their (non) security...Imagine, someone other than the govt telling people what it is ok to think!
And the clear intent of the agreement was that you have MSN service for three years...
Actually, this is not true. The California an Oregon versions of the contract specifically had all references to time removed. It simply stated that if you signed up for MSN, you get the $400. Period. This means that the contract signed by persons in that state, (which is probably the only version of that contract they ever read), did NOT imply a 3-year commitment.
If your argument is that the people went into the contract with no intent to use MSN, or even to keep it at all, this is also completely justified. By the wording of the contract, this is a completely acceptable thing to do.
Now I know what you are saying...'Yes it is LEGAL, but that still doesn't make it RIGHT'. Well, in that case I've got some bad news for you. For the past several decades, it seems that the only way anyone in this country can prove that they are RIGHT is in a court of law. (That may be a sad commentary on our society in general, but it also happens to be true.) And since what these people are doing would stand up in court, that makes it right, by every yardstick that counts anymore. (If you don't like that, then work to change it. Society would probably be better off because of the change.)
Slashdot Mirror
From the article:
"If you are a doctor, you can override the Q-Zone feature on your cellphone," said Mary Beth Griffin, BlueLinx executive vice president.
So basically, this only works if people dont set up their phones to exclude it. Wonderful. This will help out all of the fogetful people, who accidentally leave their phones on in movie theaters. Both of them.
But for the other trolls who think that the next call is too important to miss, they will turn off the feature anyway.
Maybe I'm being pessimistic, but whenever this comes about, I don't forsee it changing things too much.
I knew I'd seen this before =) http://slashdot.org/articles/99/12/08/1 36255.shtml Should be interesting to see new comments, now that they have been out for a while.
What I kept asking myself as I read the article was, what makes the two main commenters experts?
/.
Oh, my mistake. They are called 'true believers', not experts. This entire article is basically comments by two people arguing against another OS they obviously have little or no knowledge of.
The OS9 zealot keeps talking about how Linux doesn't support hardware, and is so difficult to use. These arguments were valid two years ago, maybe even one year ago. But with the barrage of new configuration GUI's available, and with new hardware being supported on a daily basis, this is simply not true.
If messages saying these things were posted here, they would instantly be marked as flame, troll, etc. and almost no-one would read them...
The comments by the Linux zealot are just as bad...but in the oposite direction. This was not a head to head of the OSes. This was a head to head of the flame spit back and forth between the two OSes. With some conclusion paragraph at the end by someone who supposedly knows the strength and weaknesses of both.
I am not complaining because Linux lost. I don't care. I am complaining because people reading the article will get the wrong impression of both OSes. Next time, maybe the moderator should just write up the whole article, and leave the flame to forums like
Hrmmm.... I work for a company which produces a product that is the result of research done (mainly) by 2 scientists at a state university. Which would mean that federal money, and probably state money, was used to create the technology.
The company, which is a spin off of that research group, owns patents on not only the product, but the technology used to create that product.
Now, unless something has changed in the last few years, (quite possible, I don't try to follow anything as stupid as the law..), it would seem that this type of technology can be patented. (I certainly hope so, since I like my job =)
This post purposefully obfuscated.
From the link:
Without notifying the targeted users, and without assessing the validity of the legal claims underlying the subpoenas, Yahoo! systematically discloses identifying information such as users' names, e-mail addresses and Internet protocol addresses. Yahoo! is unique among major online companies in its refusal to notify its users of such subpoenas and provide them with an opportunity to challenge the information requests.
The reason they are suing Yahoo is that Yahoo aparently does not give the anonymous person the chance to fight the subpoena, and remain anonymous. (Which can be done, I would think, since the fighting would go through a lawyer.)
I understand the point, but having no knowledge of legal matters in general, and not wanting to read ALL the user aggreaments yahoo has, I don't have a clue how this will turn out.
It all boils down to what is in those user aggrements. If Yahoo is only doing what it said it would when the user signed up, they are probably fine. (And should be too, since responsability should be placed on the user to find out such policies before posting. If you don't like it, go somewhere else to post. Caveat emptor.)
Of course that's just my opinion, which is worth exactly the paper it's printed on.
Actually, I'm gonna sue the entire music industry. Why? 3 reasons:
1. They have lots of money
2. They keep coming up with new 'data formats', (i.e. records, 8-tracks, cassets, cd's, dvs, minidisks, etc), so that I have to buy the same music over and over. They are scamming me into buying the same product multiple times.
3. They have lots of money.
Seriously, I don't think individual napster users will have much to fear from Dre or his lawyer. If there is one thing lawyers are good at it is knowing where the money is. Most end users of napster are not rich, and therefore the court costs outweigh the expected return. There may be a few 'token' cases, but this will result in little more that sabre-rattling on the part of the music industry, and their lawyers.
Firstly,
/. The person here was making software that allowed people to view pornographic material. This was done by removing the masking done on web-sites to censor out the explicit part of images.
The personal opinion of this journalist is that the judge has made an extremely appropriate decision.
You gotta love objective journalism.
Anyway, I believe that this is not as bad as it seemed when I read the blurb on
This is clearly software designed against the 'spirit' of the anti-pornography laws Japan seems to have. This person is a citizen of Japan, and is therefore subject to their laws. He is also making money (it was shareware, which means you have to register, at a cost). IANAL, but if I were a judge in this case, I would find him guilty of SOMETHING for so doing things which so clearly violate the spirit of the laws Japan has made. (whether those laws are good or not is a seperate debate...)
I am not saying that this decision, or indeed these laws are not something to get concerned about. This also does set legal precident that most of us would shudder over. However, this was a direct link, to an illegal site, by a person who was doing pseudo-legal activity himself. The various posts of 'now the whole net is illegal!' are extremely over-reactionary in this case.
This link is important. Do not read this, and get mad, then leave it at that. Forward this link to whomever your representative is in your government. If you are in the US, forward it to both state and federal government representatives. This article shows, in plain english, what can happen to legislation with good intentions being used to restrict speech in any way.
And for those of you thinking, "It can't happen here, we have laws protecting our speech", remember that the internet, especially to those who don't understand it, is a new and sometimes frightning media. (remember how much press the Columbine H.S. kids website got?) Many people want the govt to step in and do something, and without specifying what to do. Govt officials need to hear opposing opinions, like this article, before action is taken.
I am getting rather sick of this. From the article:
Krasnikov accepts that testing his claims by building a wormhole is far beyond present technology.
RANT
So, if I may be so blunt, what is the point? And why is this even called science?!?! Scientific method, I was taught when I was in school, involved coming up with a theory, then working to prove or disprove that theory by scientific research/experiment. The scientist here says flat out that there is no way to test this. So unless they changed the scientific method, I would file this under science fiction rather than science. But I guess it doesn't matter. Because the pseudo-scientist now has his paper published, and people are talking about it, which basically means he will probably recieve a grant from some organisation to continue his research. If you truly want to help humanity reach the stars, please support realistic endevors, which actually help get us there.
/RANT
ummmm...where to begin....
Given the GUI nature of Windows I'd assume that C++ is out of the question
Excuse me? There are multiple c++ libraries that allow for cross-platform development. Qt, wxWindows, gtk, just to name a few.
Java - well it's cross platform, but for a real application it's not really all it cracked up to be is it?
Yes, it is. Quite simply, Java is MORE object oriented than c++, (or more exclusively so). Object orientation allows large projects to be arranged and managed in a logical manner. Java is a wonderful choice for cross platform development. There are performance issues, however. But using Java for a front-end, and c++ for the back-end can result in a quick application, with cross-platform, consistant UI.
As for your argument against scripting languages...Well, your best bet would probably be TCL for the front-end of an app. It has a nice toolkit, and works on just about all major platforms. Scripting languages being what they are, performance is an issue, so writing an entire app in it doesn't seem too efficient.
But the bigger point here is that linux/unix users SHOULD strive to write cross-platform code, whenever possible. When you write applications this way, you meet you PHB's requirement that it work under windows. The application can be sold, the company can make money. More importantly to the linux/unix community, however, the application can be re-compiled, re-tested, then released for other platforms. PHB's love this because they can make more money, and the community loves this because more applications are now available for their non-windows OS.
Also, I understand the desire to develop under Linux. I develop at work mostly under Solaris, and love it. When I have to develop under Windows, I spend long, frustrating days where mis-handling of a pointer causes BSOD, not a core dump.
I would check out WxWindows if you haven't already. I have had a good bit of luck developing software under it. It allows you to write once, then re-compile for each platform. The resulting programs use graphics native to the system (gtk/motif for unixes), and so seem to fit nicely with the other applications on the system.
The distribution comes with a bunch of examples, so learning the classes isn't terribly difficult. The only downside I have seen is that I haven't found a nice IDE that uses it...But since I like emacs and vi, it doesn't much matter to me. =)
True, but did you look at the distributor list? In the USA, there are a whopping 8 people you can get those 3 disks from.
I really don't understand that decision. I know it's supposed to be for kids, as an educational tool and all that, but with a little repackaging, they could have it on the shelves at every best-buy(tm), Wal-Mart(tm), etc. Every person who walked by who remembered playing with legos as a kid would be tempted...and more than a few would buy.
OK...this is off topic, I know. Moderate it down if you want to. Probably a good idea anyway... Maybe it's cause it's late and I'm still at work, or maybe it was just one too many of these 'slashdot isn't posting what I consider news for nerds' posts, but either way.. here goes.
/. If you don't like the articles, don't visit the page! What stupid sick pleasure do you get out of writing 'this posting sucks'? You not only took the time to read the story, but more time to write your useless comments on a subject that you supposedly don't care about. Here's a thought...If you don't like the stories, don't come back. Or come back less often. If the people in charge of slashdot see the number of hits dropping, they will get the idea that a number of people don't like what they have been posting lately.
Jon,
Your ceaseless barrage of non "news for nerds" and non "stuff that matters" articles are driving me up the wall!@#!
Jon Katz must go!
Firstly, not that it really matters, but Jon Kats didn't post this article. If you want to yell at someone, at least pick the right person.
Secondly, (and more importantly), no-one is making you read
Alternatively, you could form a well crafted letter stating why you feel that a certain story or type of story does not belong on slashdot. Send that letter as an email to Mr Kats, or whoever you feel is appropriate, and try to effect real change.
Simply posting a flame message saying Jon Kats must go! is about as intellegent as selling winblows at a Linux conference, and is likely to be about as well recieved.
I seem to be tragically uninformed about this RDS technology. Before I read this article, I had never before heard about RDS, so this may be a knee-jerk reaction here but....
This technology seems to be one of the worst ideas I have ever heard of. From the article:
"When a local traffic announcement is being broadcast, a signal is sent and the car radio switches to it."
On the surface, this technology seems to be harmless. In the event of an emergency, it can be used to quickly inform the public of important information.
The problem here is that it does not seem to be optional. (correct me if I am wrong, as I said, my knowledge level on this is VERY limited.) If this 'switching' is not optional, it can very easily be used to control what information is allowed on the radio. If there are any 'incorrect viewpoints' being expressed, well, simply tune all radios to a special frequency that is broadcasting a recording saying that radio services are temporarily unavailable. Then track down whoever is making the unacceptable broadcast.
No wonder the government is so upset about this break of their (non) security...Imagine, someone other than the govt telling people what it is ok to think!
Actually, this is not true. The California an Oregon versions of the contract specifically had all references to time removed. It simply stated that if you signed up for MSN, you get the $400. Period. This means that the contract signed by persons in that state, (which is probably the only version of that contract they ever read), did NOT imply a 3-year commitment.
If your argument is that the people went into the contract with no intent to use MSN, or even to keep it at all, this is also completely justified. By the wording of the contract, this is a completely acceptable thing to do.
Now I know what you are saying...'Yes it is LEGAL, but that still doesn't make it RIGHT'. Well, in that case I've got some bad news for you. For the past several decades, it seems that the only way anyone in this country can prove that they are RIGHT is in a court of law. (That may be a sad commentary on our society in general, but it also happens to be true.) And since what these people are doing would stand up in court, that makes it right, by every yardstick that counts anymore. (If you don't like that, then work to change it. Society would probably be better off because of the change.)