The hard part seems to be creating a VCD-compliant MPEG. Unfortunately, most of the tools that can be found on the web are home-brew Windows progs with very poor UIs (saying, for example, "Can't open file!" when they really mean "The audio layer is compressed, and I can't deal with that!").
At my department, some guy called his Linux box (the only one back then, 1994 I think) 'heaven', and called his root account 'god'. Keeping the tradition, we now have:
The patent you talked about can be found on IBM's patent server (http://www.patents.ibm.com), for example this one. Although I work in the field (as a Ph.D. student), I had no idea companies were patenting these algorithms... I'm going to think twice about publishing good results in the future:) It does frighten me a bit that companies can take work which was mainly generated by university researchers, polish it up here and there and patent it... Perhaps researchers should put their work under the GPL?
The Golden Rule of buying stuff on the web: never buy anything off a webpage that looks like the HTML equivalent of a Home Shopping Channel ('Mike, I can't see those speakers AT ALL! It's AMAZING!').
Just a thought: everybody seems to be pretty convinced that the figures the companies quote are disproportionate. But how would you value the worth of software?
I expect it should involve something like the expected sales revenues. In that case, most figures seem to be roughly in the ballpark. If Windows 2000 source code was stolen today, how much would it be worth? Hopefully (for Bill:) even more than it cost to develop. The point is that commercial success in software design depends heavily on source code secrecy.
I agree of course that stockholders should have been told. And I wouldn't have a clue about whether the fact that Mitnick did not publish the code makes any legal difference.
I'm from Holland. and although high school by no means was paradise to me, what helps is that we have a progressive school system. That is, there are different levels of high school; there are low-level technical and agricultural ones, medium-level for various non-academic jobs and high-level ones for access to university. Kids get into these schools based on school results at the age of 12, but can switch or stack schools if they want and are able to.
The result? As you progress, you more and more enter a world of similar geeks. Although there are still jocks, they're about as smart as you are, so there's no reason for hostility. For me, it meant that while my glasses were broken about once a month in kindergarden, the rate went considerably down over the years (to once a year in high school, mostly due to sporting accidents:)
Although this might strike people used to a one-school system as strange, it actually has a lot of advantages, of which the educational ones are the most obvious. Is Holland alone in this approach or do other countries have similar systems?
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There's a very good page on that, with links to some utilities you might need: http://www.munich-vision.de/vcd/.
The hard part seems to be creating a VCD-compliant MPEG. Unfortunately, most of the tools that can be found on the web are home-brew Windows progs with very poor UIs (saying, for example, "Can't open file!" when they really mean "The audio layer is compressed, and I can't deal with that!").
Some of us wouldn't recognise irony even if it came in a large, red, blinking font saying "THIS IS IRONIC!", now would we?
And let's not forget the original Holland, Europe. Population approximately 16 million :)
At my department, some guy called his Linux box (the only one back then, 1994 I think) 'heaven', and called his root account 'god'. Keeping the tradition, we now have:
:)
god@heaven
wodan@valhalla
zeus@olympus
and some machines called
asgard
nirvana
hades
chaos
ciel
Problem is, we badly need more religions
The patent you talked about can be found on IBM's patent server (http://www.patents.ibm.com), for example this one. Although I work in the field (as a Ph.D. student), I had no idea companies were patenting these algorithms... I'm going to think twice about publishing good results in the future :) It does frighten me a bit that companies can take work which was mainly generated by university researchers, polish it up here and there and patent it... Perhaps researchers should put their work under the GPL?
The Golden Rule of buying stuff on the web: never buy anything off a webpage that looks like the HTML equivalent of a Home Shopping Channel ('Mike, I can't see those speakers AT ALL! It's AMAZING!').
Just a thought: everybody seems to be pretty convinced that the figures the companies quote are disproportionate. But how would you value the worth of software?
:) even more than it cost to develop. The point is that commercial success in software design depends heavily on source code secrecy.
I expect it should involve something like the expected sales revenues. In that case, most figures seem to be roughly in the ballpark. If Windows 2000 source code was stolen today, how much would it be worth? Hopefully (for Bill
I agree of course that stockholders should have been told. And I wouldn't have a clue about whether the fact that Mitnick did not publish the code makes any legal difference.
I'm from Holland. and although high school by no means was paradise to me, what helps is that we have a progressive school system. That is, there are different levels of high school; there are low-level technical and agricultural ones, medium-level for various non-academic jobs and high-level ones for access to university. Kids get into these schools based on school results at the age of 12, but can switch or stack schools if they want and are able to.
:)
The result? As you progress, you more and more enter a world of similar geeks. Although there are still jocks, they're about as smart as you are, so there's no reason for hostility. For me, it meant that while my glasses were broken about once a month in kindergarden, the rate went considerably down over the years (to once a year in high school, mostly due to sporting accidents
Although this might strike people used to a one-school system as strange, it actually has a lot of advantages, of which the educational ones are the most obvious. Is Holland alone in this approach or do other countries have similar systems?