Let's also note that Sean Fanning (Mr. Napster) walked out wearing a Metallica T-shirt.
His words, when Carson Daly commented on it, were: "Yeah, a friend of mine shared it with me, but I'm thinking about buying my own soon."
They switched to a shot of Lars, who had this look of, "yeah, yeah, real f***in' funny" on his face. But the people around him looked amused.
(Hey, I just watched it in reruns after hearing about Christina Aguilera and Fred Durst on stage together - and may I say that it was, indeed, most cool to see Fred doing 'Break Stuff' with Christina and her dancers in the back picking up the backing vocals.) ----
I think this decision is yet another case of someone who has his head so thoroughly up his ass as to have blipped into an entirely new intestinally-based reality and desperately needs to get a wider frame of reference. ----
I want to see his application. I want to read it. I want the date and time he 'invented' this. I want the way that his method is an overarching method for any and all possible ways of doing what he claims.
I want to see his 'prior art' search.
I'll take some time and see if I can come up with some OTHER examples.
I want this one busted completely.
One of the comments from the MSNBC article:
Critics say many of these patents should never have been granted because they either cover obvious processes or are simply electronic forms of traditional activities. Henry B. Gutman, a prominent patent litigator for Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York, blames an overburdened patent office that has been "forced to make judgments regarding entire areas of experience they haven't previously had to deal with."
The article also states that he contracted with a company to develop a computer system that did that. The SYSTEM is patentable, the software may be copyrightable. But the 'business process' patents are going to screw over a lot of people. They're wrong. And here's yet another example of why. ----
The local news in NYC is about the same. There's even one news show that shows WHEN they're going to have various stories.
Let's add in 'odd human interest stories' to that mix, though, just so the point that they have more than violence and money on the news gets through.
You know, stories like the lawn gnome that was stolen, pictures of it sent to the owner from all over the world, and then its arrival back where it started by limo. Amusing, but... this is NEWS? No, this is someone's prank.
And I think it's scary that Katz has a point. I DID learn more about the conventions from the Daily Show than I did from the actual coverage (most of which replaced my Nytol for sleep inducement). ----
If MP3Board LOSES this case... then there's a legal precedent set about what's allowed and not allowed as far as the liability of the writer of a piece of software. And it's got a very large company involved in it, which means the company has an interest in making sure other jurisdictions know about it. While it's not a binding precedent nationwide, it WILL become a referenceable case for other suits about the responsibility of a software author for the software they right and how it gets used.
And that... that's where it goes. In New York District Court. Where the DeCSS trial was held. We could see this suit turn around the other one's presumptions. It could lay down completely opposite precedents in the same court district.
IANAL, but I think that's the sort of thing that makes Appellate courts go crazy. It may very well be the thing that makes them toss the DeCSS verdict out.
Unfortunately, if this backfires, it's going to be very, very ugly... ----
Dissertation authors retain all rights to their dissertations. All sales will be tracked for royalty payments. All contracted royalties will be paid,
per the agreement. (emphasis mine)
So... the question is, if you didn't sign some kind of agreement at some point (our original poster apparently didn't, so he didn't know about this before), what kind of royalties are you getting?
To use the Inevitable Comparison: Napster doesn't say a thing about royalties. This site just says, "we'll pay royalties" but doesn't say to WHO... ----
I managed to get this signed and put into my file as part of my contract:
I am hired because I know what I am doing, not because I will do whatever I am told is a good idea. This might cost me bonuses, raises, promotions, and may even label me as "undesirable" by places I don't want to work at anyway, but I don't care. I will not compromise my own principles and judgement without putting up a fight. Of course, I won't always win, and I will sometimes be forced to do things I don't agree with, but if I am my objections will be known, and if I am shown to be right and problems later develop, I will shout "I told you so!" repeatedly, laugh hysterically, and do a small dance or jig as appropriate to my heritage.
The AvantGo module is going to be a wireless modem, with the AvantGo software wired into its ROM. You'll be able to pull things down directly, just like... oh... say... the Palm VII WebClipping? Hmmm? ----
Re:Handspring needs to learn how to run a business
on
The new Palm VIIx
·
· Score: 1
If Handspring doesn't get to my support inquiry soon, I'll just go Pilot. At least 3com has color PDAs.
Weird. I mailed them a question at 11 PM and had an answer the next evening, around 7. Which is faster than when I mailed my ISP for assistance... ----
I have a Visor Deluxe I got last week and frankly, I'm wondering why it took me so long to get one. I'm extremely pleased with it. I'm waiting for some more Springboard modules to come out so that I can get something I really want (like the Geode or the MP3 player or, perhaps, the TV Remote Control).
I've already updated the OS - nice feature, that, contrary to some reports you CAN do that. It's not a Flash Upgrade, it's kept in the RAM, but it does run as an upgrade to the PalmOS.
My sole problem with it was the initial timezone setting - it was set for Pacific and I'm in the Eastern, but Handspring support answered that question for me quickly. I checked web pages and their internal help and couldn't find anything (James Hromadka, that should go in the FAQ). (In case you're interested, go into CityTime, click the pulldown and go to Select Home City.)
Downsides overall: The battery life is not as long as it's claimed to be, and the cradle doesn't recharge it. The case they provide isn't the greatest, and the hard cover isn't a flip-type, you have to remove it and put it on the back. (I bought a separate case for it when I got the Visor.)
All told, I'm very pleased with my Visor Deluxe, and as soon as I see the Killer Springboard Module, I think I'll be even more pleased. ----
Information on that time period has been covered by Dark Horse Comics in their 'Tales of the Jedi' comic book series. That's about all we have from that period to work with. (Yes, I am a Star Wars geek.) ----
In the US, it varies from state to state. And from the state government to the feds.
For example, the Internal Revenue Service has all their stuff available online for your use (in PDF AND SGML), and a printed-out 1040 form is considered legal for the use of mailing in your taxes. Come the end of January and all my W-2 forms, I hit fedworld.gov and snag me my tax forms, and usually have the Federal stuff done by, oh, February 5 or so.
The state of New Jersey, conversely, has LAST year's stuff available online. Not this year's. And the tax forms have a big 'NOT FOR USE' on them. According to the Department of Taxation, it's 'to make sure the proper fill-ins are in the right places'. (It's a fill-in-the-dots form for a lot of it, you see.)
There is no such thing as a 'good day' when you go to the NJ DMV. All of them are in out-of-the-way locations, so that if your car has been, say, impounded for an unpaid parking ticket (and yes, NJ does do this), you have to travel to middle-of-nowhere to get it. (This has recently changed slightly, as one or two have opened in places that don't require a three mile hike from a bus stop.)
Then you get to wait for, on average, two hours, to SUBMIT your forms. If there's an error, you may get to fix it there, or you may have to wait through the line again, depending on the person you deal with.
Then you wait again for them to process it.
I had to get a picture ID (No car, no driver's license) a few months ago. It took all day in a DMV office to get it. This was for a second time, because they don't say on the information line what counts as 'valid ID' and apparently a still-valid out-of-state picture ID doesn't count. (A W-2 does; a birth certificate does. Go figure. ) This is how I know this. ----
Gatchaman 94 - If you remember the original 'Battle of the Planets' back in the 1970s, or even the trashed version that Turner set on us - 'G-Force', or even 'Eagle Riders' - you will flip for this. Baddies die, cities explode, martial arts-ish stuff. THere's a place in the second OAV where I suddenly turned six years old again. Lotsa fun.
Vision of Escaflowne - Magic, Mecha, War, catgirls, and...Isaac Newton? This one's got it all, including the single coolest mecha transformation I can think of. Fox Kids will be showing this soon, so get the subbed version now - DVD of the subs out in August with extra footage not even shown in Japan yet.
Going out on a limb here.... The Sailor Moon R Movie. Yeah, I know, you're saying 'but... it's Sailor Moon!'. This is kick-ass primo stuff here, kids. Rocking and rolling. Saving the world with no cut scenes. Chibi-Usa (Rini to the US types) having a clue. Tuxedo Mask and his... boyfriend? What the? All sorts of interesting stuff.
Go forth and watch stuffage. And find 'My Dear Marie', which is far too nice to be nasty. ----
I remember playing games like Zaxxon and Wizardry and Skyfox on my Apple II. THose were classic games. Lots of fun. You could do all sorts of things with them. And considering the relative limitations (compared to what we have now), some of them looked damned good. Do you remember SkyFox? First-person combat flight game. Amazingly cool. I still have my Apple ][+, and I sometimes hook it up to play Skyfox.
And Costikyan knows it, and so do other people. How many great games of the past are lost? Who remembers Choplifter? Who remembers the original Lode Runner? When the point was simplicity and not 'hey, what graphics board can we overexploit today?'.
If Dr. Jenkins is right, if gaming is ever to be understood as an art form that is worthy of study and has valuable things to offer, critics and academics and gamers must come to appreciate the history and development of the form. That appreciation can be created and sustained only if they have access to the games of the past.
Places like the Obsolete Computer Museum are keeping it alive. But looking at some things... I'm not sure people care. Look at the news: Diablo II! Quake 3! Warcraft 3! (with the fifth race!) Yeah, everyone wants the next big thing.
But no one wants the last big thing. Come back, Roadblasters... come back. ----
Does anyone out there understand what they're saying?
No, they don't. All they need is a group of people screaming about how BAD it is, people that have enough money to get heard, and who have enough money to insure that the opposition doesn't. Chuck D has always been anti-establishment, and you can't get much more establishment than the RIAA and Congress. (Full disclosure: I'm white and found out about Public Enemy from listening to Anthrax.)
The PPI probably has very few tech wonks on their list of 'people we consult', and therefore doesn't understand how the concepts behind Napster are just the concepts of the Web taken a step further. If everyone has a small web server (Apache, MS Personal Web Server, Xitami, whatever), and someone runs a dynamic web page we can register on so people can run searches on our personal web pages... All Napster does it streamline the process.
Of course, you all know that. I'm just tossing thoughts together, so bear with me.
I hope - correction, I expect that Chuck D will have the kind of mind required to research the tech implications as well as the social ones. He's an intelligent man, and we could do a lot worse than him helping the fight. (come to think of it, we already HAVE had worse than him...) ----
If you're using Internet Explorer 4 or Higher, there's the security settings which allow you to set zones. You can then assign websites into zones.
Put *.flycast.com and *.doubleclick.net into the 'high' security zone and watch the problems go away.
And if sites won't let you in 'cause the banner won't load... did you really need them ANYWAY?
I don't know if Netscape 6 has anything like that - I never use alphas on my machine, I like the idea of vague stability. No matter how much of an illusion it may be. ----
Mr. Robins, I salute you. I don't know if anyone gave him any of the posts we've seen here concerning this issue, but it does appear he took the best concerns. This reads almost like something you'd toss at someone as part of the discovery process for a lawsuit.
And there's always use for something like that. Again, bravo.
(I admit, though, I'd love to see things in the US work more like the UK House of Commons, where people say things like "My respected fellow is an ass!" and things of that nature. That would make some of the legal papers we see really fun.) ----
As a former employee of IDT, I wouldn't get this. In general, they run scams. A few years back, all their top admins quit rather than have a certain person get made manager. Since then the Internet service has gone downhill, the news server degraded severely, and account started disappearing at random. They also run Net2Phone, the company that sucked the life from the helpdesk by making the helpdesk do Internet AND Net2Phone support, and keeping the same 'service measurements'.
Sounds like another scam, like their 'we'll have the system read email to you if you use Net2Phone and call in using it!' service that never got off the ground. ----
Slashdot Mirror
Let's also note that Sean Fanning (Mr. Napster) walked out wearing a Metallica T-shirt.
His words, when Carson Daly commented on it, were: "Yeah, a friend of mine shared it with me, but I'm thinking about buying my own soon."
They switched to a shot of Lars, who had this look of, "yeah, yeah, real f***in' funny" on his face. But the people around him looked amused.
(Hey, I just watched it in reruns after hearing about Christina Aguilera and Fred Durst on stage together - and may I say that it was, indeed, most cool to see Fred doing 'Break Stuff' with Christina and her dancers in the back picking up the backing vocals.)
----
I think this decision is yet another case of someone who has his head so thoroughly up his ass as to have blipped into an entirely new intestinally-based reality and desperately needs to get a wider frame of reference.
----
I want to see his application. I want to read it. I want the date and time he 'invented' this. I want the way that his method is an overarching method for any and all possible ways of doing what he claims.
I want to see his 'prior art' search.
I'll take some time and see if I can come up with some OTHER examples.
I want this one busted completely.
One of the comments from the MSNBC article:
The article also states that he contracted with a company to develop a computer system that did that. The SYSTEM is patentable, the software may be copyrightable. But the 'business process' patents are going to screw over a lot of people. They're wrong. And here's yet another example of why.
----
The local news in NYC is about the same. There's even one news show that shows WHEN they're going to have various stories.
Let's add in 'odd human interest stories' to that mix, though, just so the point that they have more than violence and money on the news gets through.
You know, stories like the lawn gnome that was stolen, pictures of it sent to the owner from all over the world, and then its arrival back where it started by limo. Amusing, but... this is NEWS? No, this is someone's prank.
And I think it's scary that Katz has a point. I DID learn more about the conventions from the Daily Show than I did from the actual coverage (most of which replaced my Nytol for sleep inducement).
----
No, really. Think about it.
If MP3Board LOSES this case... then there's a legal precedent set about what's allowed and not allowed as far as the liability of the writer of a piece of software. And it's got a very large company involved in it, which means the company has an interest in making sure other jurisdictions know about it. While it's not a binding precedent nationwide, it WILL become a referenceable case for other suits about the responsibility of a software author for the software they right and how it gets used.
And that... that's where it goes. In New York District Court. Where the DeCSS trial was held. We could see this suit turn around the other one's presumptions. It could lay down completely opposite precedents in the same court district.
IANAL, but I think that's the sort of thing that makes Appellate courts go crazy. It may very well be the thing that makes them toss the DeCSS verdict out.
Unfortunately, if this backfires, it's going to be very, very ugly...
----
Do you feel that the judge in the case was biased in any way, or had some personal agenda he felt that ruling in this manner would advance?
If so, can you point out any indicators (without the risk of damaging the appeal) that would show your feelings on this matter?
----
Here's my big question on this:
So... the question is, if you didn't sign some kind of agreement at some point (our original poster apparently didn't, so he didn't know about this before), what kind of royalties are you getting?
To use the Inevitable Comparison: Napster doesn't say a thing about royalties. This site just says, "we'll pay royalties" but doesn't say to WHO...
----
I managed to get this signed and put into my file as part of my contract:
I am hired because I know what I am doing, not because I will do whatever I am told is a good idea. This might cost me bonuses, raises, promotions, and may even label me as "undesirable" by places I don't want to work at anyway, but I don't care. I will not compromise my own principles and judgement without putting up a fight. Of course, I won't always win, and I will sometimes be forced to do things I don't agree with, but if I am my objections will be known, and if I am shown to be right and problems later develop, I will shout "I told you so!" repeatedly, laugh hysterically, and do a small dance or jig as appropriate to my heritage.
So far I've been able to dance twice...
----
The AvantGo module is going to be a wireless modem, with the AvantGo software wired into its ROM. You'll be able to pull things down directly, just like... oh... say... the Palm VII WebClipping? Hmmm?
----
If Handspring doesn't get to my support inquiry soon, I'll just go Pilot. At least 3com has color PDAs.
Weird. I mailed them a question at 11 PM and had an answer the next evening, around 7. Which is faster than when I mailed my ISP for assistance...
----
I have a Visor Deluxe I got last week and frankly, I'm wondering why it took me so long to get one. I'm extremely pleased with it. I'm waiting for some more Springboard modules to come out so that I can get something I really want (like the Geode or the MP3 player or, perhaps, the TV Remote Control).
I've already updated the OS - nice feature, that, contrary to some reports you CAN do that. It's not a Flash Upgrade, it's kept in the RAM, but it does run as an upgrade to the PalmOS.
My sole problem with it was the initial timezone setting - it was set for Pacific and I'm in the Eastern, but Handspring support answered that question for me quickly. I checked web pages and their internal help and couldn't find anything (James Hromadka, that should go in the FAQ). (In case you're interested, go into CityTime, click the pulldown and go to Select Home City.)
Downsides overall: The battery life is not as long as it's claimed to be, and the cradle doesn't recharge it. The case they provide isn't the greatest, and the hard cover isn't a flip-type, you have to remove it and put it on the back. (I bought a separate case for it when I got the Visor.)
All told, I'm very pleased with my Visor Deluxe, and as soon as I see the Killer Springboard Module, I think I'll be even more pleased.
----
Information on that time period has been covered by Dark Horse Comics in their 'Tales of the Jedi' comic book series. That's about all we have from that period to work with. (Yes, I am a Star Wars geek.)
----
....wait a minute! That's not a Transvestite! THAT WAS MULDER'S SISTER!!!
----
In the US, it varies from state to state. And from the state government to the feds.
For example, the Internal Revenue Service has all their stuff available online for your use (in PDF AND SGML), and a printed-out 1040 form is considered legal for the use of mailing in your taxes. Come the end of January and all my W-2 forms, I hit fedworld.gov and snag me my tax forms, and usually have the Federal stuff done by, oh, February 5 or so.
The state of New Jersey, conversely, has LAST year's stuff available online. Not this year's. And the tax forms have a big 'NOT FOR USE' on them. According to the Department of Taxation, it's 'to make sure the proper fill-ins are in the right places'. (It's a fill-in-the-dots form for a lot of it, you see.)
To summarize: IRS Smart. NJ Tax People Dumb.
----
There is no such thing as a 'good day' when you go to the NJ DMV. All of them are in out-of-the-way locations, so that if your car has been, say, impounded for an unpaid parking ticket (and yes, NJ does do this), you have to travel to middle-of-nowhere to get it. (This has recently changed slightly, as one or two have opened in places that don't require a three mile hike from a bus stop.)
Then you get to wait for, on average, two hours, to SUBMIT your forms. If there's an error, you may get to fix it there, or you may have to wait through the line again, depending on the person you deal with.
Then you wait again for them to process it.
I had to get a picture ID (No car, no driver's license) a few months ago. It took all day in a DMV office to get it. This was for a second time, because they don't say on the information line what counts as 'valid ID' and apparently a still-valid out-of-state picture ID doesn't count. (A W-2 does; a birth certificate does. Go figure. ) This is how I know this.
----
Okay, here's some suggestions:
Gatchaman 94 - If you remember the original 'Battle of the Planets' back in the 1970s, or even the trashed version that Turner set on us - 'G-Force', or even 'Eagle Riders' - you will flip for this. Baddies die, cities explode, martial arts-ish stuff. THere's a place in the second OAV where I suddenly turned six years old again. Lotsa fun.
Vision of Escaflowne - Magic, Mecha, War, catgirls, and ...Isaac Newton? This one's got it all, including the single coolest mecha transformation I can think of. Fox Kids will be showing this soon, so get the subbed version now - DVD of the subs out in August with extra footage not even shown in Japan yet.
Going out on a limb here.... The Sailor Moon R Movie. Yeah, I know, you're saying 'but... it's Sailor Moon!'. This is kick-ass primo stuff here, kids. Rocking and rolling. Saving the world with no cut scenes. Chibi-Usa (Rini to the US types) having a clue. Tuxedo Mask and his... boyfriend? What the? All sorts of interesting stuff.
Go forth and watch stuffage. And find 'My Dear Marie', which is far too nice to be nasty.
----
Granted, it appears that a bunch of it was taken from other places, but it's also the stuff that a lot of people have been saying for some time.
And she invokes Neal Stephenson as part of her speech. If she's actually read his stuff and isn't just spewing, well, how cool is that?
----
The spice must flow. Yes, the spice must flow...
Hey, maybe we're really Fremen... except I sunburn easily. Oh, well.
----
Full Disclosure: It was the first driving game I was good at.
Besides, what's Vigilante 8, Interstate 76 and Interstate 82 other than updates of Roadblasters, really?
----
Yup, I remember all those. But then, I remember when Costikyan was a 19-yo playtester for SPI.
Wow. And you still have hair on your head? Amazing....
----
I remember playing games like Zaxxon and Wizardry and Skyfox on my Apple II. THose were classic games. Lots of fun. You could do all sorts of things with them. And considering the relative limitations (compared to what we have now), some of them looked damned good. Do you remember SkyFox? First-person combat flight game. Amazingly cool. I still have my Apple ][+, and I sometimes hook it up to play Skyfox.
And Costikyan knows it, and so do other people. How many great games of the past are lost? Who remembers Choplifter? Who remembers the original Lode Runner? When the point was simplicity and not 'hey, what graphics board can we overexploit today?'.
If Dr. Jenkins is right, if gaming is ever to be understood as an art form that is worthy of study and has valuable things to offer, critics and academics and gamers must come to appreciate the history and development of the form. That appreciation can be created and sustained only if they have access to the games of the past.
Places like the Obsolete Computer Museum are keeping it alive. But looking at some things... I'm not sure people care. Look at the news: Diablo II! Quake 3! Warcraft 3! (with the fifth race!) Yeah, everyone wants the next big thing.
But no one wants the last big thing. Come back, Roadblasters... come back.
----
Does anyone out there understand what they're saying?
No, they don't. All they need is a group of people screaming about how BAD it is, people that have enough money to get heard, and who have enough money to insure that the opposition doesn't. Chuck D has always been anti-establishment, and you can't get much more establishment than the RIAA and Congress. (Full disclosure: I'm white and found out about Public Enemy from listening to Anthrax.)
The PPI probably has very few tech wonks on their list of 'people we consult', and therefore doesn't understand how the concepts behind Napster are just the concepts of the Web taken a step further. If everyone has a small web server (Apache, MS Personal Web Server, Xitami, whatever), and someone runs a dynamic web page we can register on so people can run searches on our personal web pages... All Napster does it streamline the process.
Of course, you all know that. I'm just tossing thoughts together, so bear with me.
I hope - correction, I expect that Chuck D will have the kind of mind required to research the tech implications as well as the social ones. He's an intelligent man, and we could do a lot worse than him helping the fight. (come to think of it, we already HAVE had worse than him...)
----
If you're using Internet Explorer 4 or Higher, there's the security settings which allow you to set zones. You can then assign websites into zones.
Put *.flycast.com and *.doubleclick.net into the 'high' security zone and watch the problems go away.
And if sites won't let you in 'cause the banner won't load... did you really need them ANYWAY?
I don't know if Netscape 6 has anything like that - I never use alphas on my machine, I like the idea of vague stability. No matter how much of an illusion it may be.
----
Mr. Robins, I salute you. I don't know if anyone gave him any of the posts we've seen here concerning this issue, but it does appear he took the best concerns. This reads almost like something you'd toss at someone as part of the discovery process for a lawsuit.
And there's always use for something like that. Again, bravo.
(I admit, though, I'd love to see things in the US work more like the UK House of Commons, where people say things like "My respected fellow is an ass!" and things of that nature. That would make some of the legal papers we see really fun.)
----
As a former employee of IDT, I wouldn't get this. In general, they run scams. A few years back, all their top admins quit rather than have a certain person get made manager. Since then the Internet service has gone downhill, the news server degraded severely, and account started disappearing at random. They also run Net2Phone, the company that sucked the life from the helpdesk by making the helpdesk do Internet AND Net2Phone support, and keeping the same 'service measurements'.
Sounds like another scam, like their 'we'll have the system read email to you if you use Net2Phone and call in using it!' service that never got off the ground.
----