Google cracked down on Android Lost a little while ago, which I find rather annoying. I have my own phones lo-jacked in case they get stolen, but now the app gets disabled by default. I'm sure this will be even worse now...
I originally thought much as you do, that it was an attempt to bring Git in line with the old centralized server concept, but then I researched it a little more. Git, as it currently stands, is incredibly slow on very large repos. You might argue that the problem is that the repo is too large, but the solution to that problem frequently requires a Tardis.
In most large cities, bicycles are becoming a larger and larger percentage of the traffic flow. Even New York is doing it. The wave of the future isn't smarter cars, it is no cars...
Those Jacquard Looms are REALLY impressive pieces of machinery. Some of my customers still use them. They tend to have a paper tape that is probably 30cm across (I suspect exactly a foot, in primitive units...) and the machine reads the tape mechanically with a set of metal fingers to detect the holes in the tape. I have seen some of these equipped with a slightly more modern computer interface where the machine has a hardware device fitted which emulates the paper tape, but is connected to a computer.
More modern industrial embroidery machines have a standard 1" paper tape, although even those are getting hard to find. Most embroidery machines now caught up to double-density 3.5" floppy disks. The files on the disk are usually just a byte-dump of the contents of one of the paper tapes, though.
It happens that my job is writing software for controlling these machines, and for making the designs, as well. Unfortunately for your purposes, I am mostly familiar with the industrial versions of the machines, which don't use the same file formats as the home machines.
The first thing you need to know is that the process of converting from an image file to an embroidery file is a lot more complicated than you would think, and requires a human being to do a lot of it if you want anything like a good result. Most conversion programs you will find will convert between the embroidery formats, but are fairly useless for conversions to and from image files.
Ann The Gran is a site that is oriented at the home market you seem to be in, and it has a fair amount of useful information and programs you can buy. Amazing Designs Also has software that may be of use to you, including auto-digitizing software, which sounds like the feature you need. There are other sites as well, I just mentioned these because they sell some of the software I work on, so I don't really have an unbiased opinion of them.
If you are serious about trying to generate your own files, Wotsit has a partial description of the format for PES files, which is what you mentioned you have. That description is not sufficient for you to do anything with, but if you look further up the page to the description of Melco files, which is one of the industrial formats I am more familiar with, is somewhat more useful. The Melco description is also incomplete, but does contain enough information to create a complete functional embroidery design, and there are certainly programs available which will allow you to convert from melco to PES and back.
I don't really recommend this approach, because it is a LOT harder than it looks, and even after you understand how the files work, you have not even begun to understand the best way to actually generate a design to sew on the machine. I've been working full time on this type of software for over ten years and have only learned the rudiments of 'punching', which is the term for creating embroidery designs. On the other hand, I've never really been that interested in punching, either. Creating software which allows others to 'punch' has kept me busy enougn...
The term 'punching', by the way, is a leftover from the days when the embroidery machines read their stitch data directly from a paper tape, and the designs were created by punching the holes directly on the paper tape. I'm one of the few people I know who can read the tapes by eye... It's not a particularly useful skill now.
The problem with this, of course, is that they now have many intersections where the light NEVER changes unless a car is detected. Bikes (both motorcycles and bicycles) tend not to be detected. I would much rather have electric-eyes.
One thing that I haven't seen mentioned regarding this whole filtering mess is that Napster is using some very broad rules for filtering songs. For example, any file that has the word 'Four' in it's name is being filtered. That would include track four of every CD listed... I guess this was an attempt to deal with the Beatles/Fab Four issue. Among other things, this aggressive filtering is severely affecting my room-mates ability to distribute his own music on Napster.
There are a lot of pages of instructions for what to do if you want to add a song to the filtered list, but for some reason Napster supplies NO information on what to do if a song that you hold a valid copyright on is being blocked for no reason.
Should this type of thing be brought to the attention of the judge?
You missed the part where the GNU GPL is a license extending rights to you over and above those you have already, not restricting your rights. Assuming that the GPL does not apply to you, then under copyright law, you do not have the right to use the code beyond 'fair use', which has already been defined in earlier threads. It is only by accepting the GPL that you gain the right to use the code.
There doesn't need to be any copyright violation. The DMCA forces the ISP to take the site down if there is an ACCUSATION of copyright violation. It is a very different thing...
I really need to pay attention to the world. I missed this little security hole. Ah, well, all patched up now. At least ssh, while not being free in all the good ways, has source code available which is heavily reviewed. I guess that would be Visible Source software. Should I trademark that name, do you think?:-)
It doesn't matter how good their crypto code is, if they have software decoders, it can be reverse-engineered. There is no way to get around the fact that to play the DVD, the player has to have a key for decrypting the data. If the player is in software, then a dedicated individual with a debugger will be able to get that key. Even if it is in hardware it is possible that it might be reverse engineered, although MUCH less likely.
If I had to guess, I would think that the contest must be offered in French to be legal in Quebec. That's a guess, though. The reason is certainly because of legal restrictions on contests in Quebec.
This patent is no more bogus than any other software patent. That's the problem, I think. I do believe that Unisys is doing more than any other entity to bring about the end of software patents...
Slashdot Mirror
Google cracked down on Android Lost a little while ago, which I find rather annoying. I have my own phones lo-jacked in case they get stolen, but now the app gets disabled by default. I'm sure this will be even worse now...
I liked ClearCase, until I had to manage the server. It became a little less fun then...
I originally thought much as you do, that it was an attempt to bring Git in line with the old centralized server concept, but then I researched it a little more. Git, as it currently stands, is incredibly slow on very large repos. You might argue that the problem is that the repo is too large, but the solution to that problem frequently requires a Tardis.
Really? When I was doing programming in university, I had already been programming for six years before that. I started very young...
In most large cities, bicycles are becoming a larger and larger percentage of the traffic flow. Even New York is doing it. The wave of the future isn't smarter cars, it is no cars...
wget
BCM43438 wireless âoecomboâ chip.
To the Pi team: Why god why couldnt you have chosen something like an Intel or atheros?
I've had no end of troubles with Atheros WiFi drivers, they seem to have long term stability issues. Intel, on the other hand, are rock solid...
Those Jacquard Looms are REALLY impressive pieces of machinery. Some of my customers still use them. They tend to have a paper tape that is probably 30cm across (I suspect exactly a foot, in primitive units...) and the machine reads the tape mechanically with a set of metal fingers to detect the holes in the tape. I have seen some of these equipped with a slightly more modern computer interface where the machine has a hardware device fitted which emulates the paper tape, but is connected to a computer.
More modern industrial embroidery machines have a standard 1" paper tape, although even those are getting hard to find. Most embroidery machines now caught up to double-density 3.5" floppy disks. The files on the disk are usually just a byte-dump of the contents of one of the paper tapes, though.
It happens that my job is writing software for controlling these machines, and for making the designs, as well. Unfortunately for your purposes, I am mostly familiar with the industrial versions of the machines, which don't use the same file formats as the home machines.
The first thing you need to know is that the process of converting from an image file to an embroidery file is a lot more complicated than you would think, and requires a human being to do a lot of it if you want anything like a good result. Most conversion programs you will find will convert between the embroidery formats, but are fairly useless for conversions to and from image files.
Ann The Gran is a site that is oriented at the home market you seem to be in, and it has a fair amount of useful information and programs you can buy.
Amazing Designs Also has software that may be of use to you, including auto-digitizing software, which sounds like the feature you need. There are other sites as well, I just mentioned these because they sell some of the software I work on, so I don't really have an unbiased opinion of them.
If you are serious about trying to generate your own files, Wotsit has a partial description of the format for PES files, which is what you mentioned you have. That description is not sufficient for you to do anything with, but if you look further up the page to the description of Melco files, which is one of the industrial formats I am more familiar with, is somewhat more useful. The Melco description is also incomplete, but does contain enough information to create a complete functional embroidery design, and there are certainly programs available which will allow you to convert from melco to PES and back.
I don't really recommend this approach, because it is a LOT harder than it looks, and even after you understand how the files work, you have not even begun to understand the best way to actually generate a design to sew on the machine. I've been working full time on this type of software for over ten years and have only learned the rudiments of 'punching', which is the term for creating embroidery designs. On the other hand, I've never really been that interested in punching, either. Creating software which allows others to 'punch' has kept me busy enougn...
The term 'punching', by the way, is a leftover from the days when the embroidery machines read their stitch data directly from a paper tape, and the designs were created by punching the holes directly on the paper tape. I'm one of the few people I know who can read the tapes by eye... It's not a particularly useful skill now.
The problem with this, of course, is that they now have many intersections where the light NEVER changes unless a car is detected. Bikes (both motorcycles and bicycles) tend not to be detected. I would much rather have electric-eyes.
One thing that I haven't seen mentioned regarding this whole filtering mess is that Napster is using some very broad rules for filtering songs. For example, any file that has the word 'Four' in it's name is being filtered. That would include track four of every CD listed... I guess this was an attempt to deal with the Beatles/Fab Four issue. Among other things, this aggressive filtering is severely affecting my room-mates ability to distribute his own music on Napster.
There are a lot of pages of instructions for what to do if you want to add a song to the filtered list, but for some reason Napster supplies NO information on what to do if a song that you hold a valid copyright on is being blocked for no reason.
Should this type of thing be brought to the attention of the judge?
You missed the part where the GNU GPL is a license extending rights to you over and above those you have already, not restricting your rights. Assuming that the GPL does not apply to you, then under copyright law, you do not have the right to use the code beyond 'fair use', which has already been defined in earlier threads. It is only by accepting the GPL that you gain the right to use the code.
There doesn't need to be any copyright violation. The DMCA forces the ISP to take the site down if there is an ACCUSATION of copyright violation. It is a very different thing...
I really need to pay attention to the world. I missed this little security hole. Ah, well, all patched up now. At least ssh, while not being free in all the good ways, has source code available which is heavily reviewed. I guess that would be Visible Source software. Should I trademark that name, do you think? :-)
It doesn't matter how good their crypto code is, if they have software decoders, it can be reverse-engineered. There is no way to get around the fact that to play the DVD, the player has to have a key for decrypting the data. If the player is in software, then a dedicated individual with a debugger will be able to get that key. Even if it is in hardware it is possible that it might be reverse engineered, although MUCH less likely.
If I had to guess, I would think that the contest must be offered in French to be legal in Quebec. That's a guess, though. The reason is certainly because of legal restrictions on contests in Quebec.
You can't beat the cork screw for untying knots. Seems a natural for the Boy Scouts...
This patent is no more bogus than any other software patent. That's the problem, I think. I do believe that Unisys is doing more than any other entity to bring about the end of software patents...
Unixen, actually. I wish I knew why...