other companies have been doing this for years, and TiVo waits until now until to sue? It seems to me that Tivo (obviously) knew about this competitor product, and was just sitting around waiting until the competitor's product reached critical mass (with all of the promotions Dish is running, they have been distribution a very large number of these infringing DVRs). Waiting until the competition is firmly committed in their distrobution gives Tivo the largest advantage (READ: Amount of money).
Or you could look at it from the opposite perspective. EchoStar was looking to get into a market where they knew TiVo would be their biggest competitor. It shouldn't be too difficult to do a patent search on any patents owned by TiVo. Either their legal department was too incompetent to uncover these patents, or they uncovered them but decided to ignore them. I'm assuming their legal department isn't THAT incompetent, so I figure they knew about the patents but decided to enter the field anyway without any plan for licensing or working around the existing patents. In that case, I'd say they fully deserve to have their money and marketing efforts wasted or to be saddled with licensing fees. I'd also say TiVo has no responsibility to save EchoStar from their own stupidity.
Another real but underreported problem is police officers stopping women just to rape them; this device would make it a lot easier for them to do it.
Exactly. Or any type of police assault, for that matter. I've always been told that if you are concerned for your safety when being stopped, just put on your hazards to acknowledge the officer, then slowly drive to a well lit, public location. Good luck doing that.
Don't get me started about them linking the same button to both run and pick up an item.
I imagine your complaint is that you try to run but accidentally pick up an item. If so, you can use the L and R shoulder buttons to run without danger of picking anything.
Perhaps they are a bit more busy now with the number portability calls, but I've called them 3 times in the last 4 months to modify my service and never waited more than 5 minutes each time.
Using your analogy though, in this case we're feeding a huge business that doesn't like sodomy And since we are talking about the RIAA, then clearly this was a bad analogy.
Did you even bother to read my post? For crying out loud, read it again, and THE WHOLE THING this time. See that comment at the bottom? The one where I mentioned viruses imitating the AV software? Do you really think a virus writer is going to buy a license for each copy of the virus? And preumably, if the virus software is installed on the machine, it's probably running and will detect the virus before it runs, so the virus would be unable to kill the AV process, grab it's stored license key, and spoof the AV software.
Boy, and how long until a virus can make the response "yup, I'm secure"...
I suspect these companies wouldn't be so foolish to make it that simple (but you never know). Off the top of my head, I was thinking they could do something like:
1)When a first request is received from a computer, the router sends a random challenge text to the computer on the port where the AV should be listening. 2)AV software forwards this challenge text on to the AV company's website (here the router would have to be able to identify this communication and let it pass through even though the user hasn't yet been certified as "protected") 3)AV company's software digitally signs the challenge text and sends the signature back to the client. 4)Client sends the signature to the router 5)The router verifies the signature and approves or denies the client, and caches the result for future packets.
A few issues. First in order to keep a virus from imitating AV software, you'd probably have to rely upon something like product activation (pass your license code to the server, and the server makes sure the code is valid and not in use by too many machines). Seems like a good way to force product activation down people's throats.
Second, you'd need some way to work around this for existing NATs. I'm sure something could be worked out (possibly using triggered ports), but if not, I'm sure ISPs could say NATs were never officially supported so you'll have to upgrade if yours doesn't work.
I'm sure there are other issues, but like I said, this is off the top of my head.
RTFA: "The system under development will allow a computer network to check the safety of incoming traffic. Any device trying to connect to the network will be checked to see whether it has security measures already in place. Those that don't can be denied access, shunted off into a quarantined segment of the network or forced to download a security program. "
Wow! Someone else who knows this trick. You think it would be so freakin' obvious, but almost nobody seems to get it.
When I was in high school, it was great because a friend of mine knew this trick. There would always be 5 or 6 of us in the van, and he'd happily be doing 15-20 over on the expressway. Then suddenly he'd hit the brakes and slow down to the speed limit, and then about a 1/2 mile up we'd pass a cop. He had everyone else convinced that he had a 6th sense for police cars. They were always amazed...we were always amused.
Here is the transcript: http://www.spscriptorium.com/Season7/ E709script.ht m
Detective: This is the home of Lars Ulrich, the drummer for Metallica. [they approach a bush] Look. There's Lars now, sitting by his pool. [he's seen sitting on the edge of a chaise longue, his face in his hands, softly sobbing] Kyle: What's the matter with him? Detective: This month he was hoping to have a gold-plated shark tank bar installed right next to the pool, but thanks to people downloading his music for free, he must now wait a few months before he can afford it. [a close-up of Lars sobbing] Come. There's more. [leads them away. Next seen is a small airport at night] Here's Britney Spears' private jet. Notice anything? [a shot of Britney boarding a plane, then stopping to look at it before entering] Britney used to have a Gulfstream IV. Now she's had to sell it and get a Gulfstream III because people like you chose to download her music for free. [Britney gives a heavy sigh and goes inside.] The Gulfstream III doesn't even have a remote control for its surround-sound DVD system. Still think downloading music for free is no big deal? Kyle: We... didn't realize what we were doing, eh... Detective: That is the folly of man. Now look in this window. [they are at another mansion, and they look inside a picture window] Here you see the loving family of Master P. [He's shown tossing a basketball to his wife while his kid tries to catch it] Next week is his son's birthday and, all he's ever wanted was an island in French Polynesia. [his mom lowers the ball and gives it to the boy, who smiles, picks it up and drops it. It rolls away and he goes after it] Kyle: So, he's gonna get it, right? Detective: I see an island without an owner. If things keep going the way they are, the child will not get his tropical paradise. Stan: [apologetically] We're sorry! We'll, we'll never download music for free again! Detective: [somberly, dramatically] Man must learn to think of these horrible outcomes before he acts selfishly or else... I fear... recording artists will be forever doomed to a life of only semi-luxury.
That's why Consumer Reports buy their stuff off the shelf to use in reviews. Otherwise companies will send the cherries to reviewers
They are even more careful than that. I saw a show once on how CR runs their tests. Purchases are made by secret shoppers from random locations all across the country. They are SO secretive about how they do the buying, they wouldn't even show one of the buyers faces on the show for fear that a manufacturer or retailer would recognize the person and then have someone there to slip them a special version of a product next time they went shopping.
That's according to Schmeiser's story. I was a bit disturbed about the whole story for a long time, until I read a couple of third party accounts of the whole situation. According to the articles I read, although Percy didn't actually introduce the patented seeds into his crops (it was accidental contamination...probably seeds blown in by the wind from nearby crops), after it happened he knew full well what he had on his hands. He knew it was Round-Up Ready, and he took advantage of that fact. He harvested seeds from the crops so he could continue to benefit from it, knowing that what he was doing was in violation of the patent, but believing that if he were caught he could just claim ignorance.
I'm certainly no Monsanto fan (it's one of the few companies I actually actively boycott), and I'm sure that any evidence they present on the case is only going to be the evidence that proves their case (and according to what I've seen, they've even distorted evidence and exaggerated the facts). However, I also realize that Schmeiser is looking at serious repercussions for what he did, and his website is probably only going to present evidence that makes him look good (and makes him look like the little guy being picked on buy the big bully).
I wish I could remember where those articles I read came from, as they appeared to me to be the most unbiased reports I had read. If anybody has links to them, I'd appreciate if you could post them.
It seems that X10 has assets of $1-10M, and debts of $10-50M
And now I have a guess as to why they are in such bad shape. Perhaps I'm just naive of how the business world operates, but it seems to me that if you can only estimate your worth within an order of magnitude, and your debts within half an order of magnitude, you really must not have a clue what's going on in your company.
If I told a financial planner I wasn't sure if my bank account balance was $5000 or $50000, and I can't remember if I owe $100,000 or $500,000 on my house, I imagine I'd be laughed out of his office (if not out of town).
In the last few months, the calls have gotten much more frequent...I guess it's a last ditch effort before the DNC list goes into effect.
That's what I was expecting to happen too, but to my surprise my number of telemarketing calls has decreased significantly in the last 3-4 weeks. I used to come home at lunch time to find 3-4 "Out of Area" calls on the caller ID. Now, most days the caller ID is empty when I get home. I guess some of the telemarketers must be implementing things early to make sure they are totally in compliance by Oct 1.
Slashdot Mirror
other companies have been doing this for years, and TiVo waits until now until to sue? It seems to me that Tivo (obviously) knew about this competitor product, and was just sitting around waiting until the competitor's product reached critical mass (with all of the promotions Dish is running, they have been distribution a very large number of these infringing DVRs). Waiting until the competition is firmly committed in their distrobution gives Tivo the largest advantage (READ: Amount of money).
Or you could look at it from the opposite perspective. EchoStar was looking to get into a market where they knew TiVo would be their biggest competitor. It shouldn't be too difficult to do a patent search on any patents owned by TiVo. Either their legal department was too incompetent to uncover these patents, or they uncovered them but decided to ignore them. I'm assuming their legal department isn't THAT incompetent, so I figure they knew about the patents but decided to enter the field anyway without any plan for licensing or working around the existing patents. In that case, I'd say they fully deserve to have their money and marketing efforts wasted or to be saddled with licensing fees. I'd also say TiVo has no responsibility to save EchoStar from their own stupidity.
Another real but underreported problem is police officers stopping women just to rape them; this device would make it a lot easier for them to do it.
Exactly. Or any type of police assault, for that matter. I've always been told that if you are concerned for your safety when being stopped, just put on your hazards to acknowledge the officer, then slowly drive to a well lit, public location. Good luck doing that.
Don't get me started about them linking the same button to both run and pick up an item.
I imagine your complaint is that you try to run but accidentally pick up an item. If so, you can use the L and R shoulder buttons to run without danger of picking anything.
>Duct tape and WD-40...What else do you need?
A girlfriend?
What for? He's already got lubricant.
Saying that it's not possible to protect digital content is just like saying "it's not possible to protect your home."
Funny that you should use that example, because Jobs already provided a quote:
"You only have to pick one lock to open every door."
Perhaps they are a bit more busy now with the number portability calls, but I've called them 3 times in the last 4 months to modify my service and never waited more than 5 minutes each time.
Using your analogy though, in this case we're feeding a huge business that doesn't like sodomy
And since we are talking about the RIAA, then clearly this was a bad analogy.
I have had quite a few cards and I can not recall one asking me what I wanted as a limit.
My credit union asked me what I wanted as my credit limit. I said $500, so they gave me $1000. Go figure.
Or possibly you are thinking of 419
Did you even bother to read my post? For crying out loud, read it again, and THE WHOLE THING this time. See that comment at the bottom? The one where I mentioned viruses imitating the AV software? Do you really think a virus writer is going to buy a license for each copy of the virus? And preumably, if the virus software is installed on the machine, it's probably running and will detect the virus before it runs, so the virus would be unable to kill the AV process, grab it's stored license key, and spoof the AV software.
Read my post here for a way to prevent this:= 7519587
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=86514&cid
Read my post here for a way to prevent this:= 7519587
http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=86514&cid
Boy, and how long until a virus can make the response "yup, I'm secure"...
I suspect these companies wouldn't be so foolish to make it that simple (but you never know). Off the top of my head, I was thinking they could do something like:
1)When a first request is received from a computer, the router sends a random challenge text to the computer on the port where the AV should be listening.
2)AV software forwards this challenge text on to the AV company's website (here the router would have to be able to identify this communication and let it pass through even though the user hasn't yet been certified as "protected")
3)AV company's software digitally signs the challenge text and sends the signature back to the client.
4)Client sends the signature to the router
5)The router verifies the signature and approves or denies the client, and caches the result for future packets.
A few issues. First in order to keep a virus from imitating AV software, you'd probably have to rely upon something like product activation (pass your license code to the server, and the server makes sure the code is valid and not in use by too many machines). Seems like a good way to force product activation down people's throats.
Second, you'd need some way to work around this for existing NATs. I'm sure something could be worked out (possibly using triggered ports), but if not, I'm sure ISPs could say NATs were never officially supported so you'll have to upgrade if yours doesn't work.
I'm sure there are other issues, but like I said, this is off the top of my head.
RTFA:
"The system under development will allow a computer network to check the safety of incoming traffic. Any device trying to connect to the network will be checked to see whether it has security measures already in place. Those that don't can be denied access, shunted off into a quarantined segment of the network or forced to download a security program. "
Wow! Someone else who knows this trick. You think it would be so freakin' obvious, but almost nobody seems to get it.
When I was in high school, it was great because a friend of mine knew this trick. There would always be 5 or 6 of us in the van, and he'd happily be doing 15-20 over on the expressway. Then suddenly he'd hit the brakes and slow down to the speed limit, and then about a 1/2 mile up we'd pass a cop. He had everyone else convinced that he had a 6th sense for police cars. They were always amazed...we were always amused.
Some of the coolest ideas for pumpkins I've seen yet:
m l
http://www.extremepumpkins.com/pumpkinphotos.ht
Here is the transcript:/ E709script.ht m
http://www.spscriptorium.com/Season7
Detective: This is the home of Lars Ulrich, the drummer for Metallica. [they approach a bush] Look. There's Lars now, sitting by his pool. [he's seen sitting on the edge of a chaise longue, his face in his hands, softly sobbing]
Kyle: What's the matter with him?
Detective: This month he was hoping to have a gold-plated shark tank bar installed right next to the pool, but thanks to people downloading his music for free, he must now wait a few months before he can afford it. [a close-up of Lars sobbing] Come. There's more. [leads them away. Next seen is a small airport at night] Here's Britney Spears' private jet. Notice anything? [a shot of Britney boarding a plane, then stopping to look at it before entering] Britney used to have a Gulfstream IV. Now she's had to sell it and get a Gulfstream III because people like you chose to download her music for free. [Britney gives a heavy sigh and goes inside.] The Gulfstream III doesn't even have a remote control for its surround-sound DVD system. Still think downloading music for free is no big deal?
Kyle: We... didn't realize what we were doing, eh...
Detective: That is the folly of man. Now look in this window. [they are at another mansion, and they look inside a picture window] Here you see the loving family of Master P. [He's shown tossing a basketball to his wife while his kid tries to catch it] Next week is his son's birthday and, all he's ever wanted was an island in French Polynesia. [his mom lowers the ball and gives it to the boy, who smiles, picks it up and drops it. It rolls away and he goes after it]
Kyle: So, he's gonna get it, right?
Detective: I see an island without an owner. If things keep going the way they are, the child will not get his tropical paradise.
Stan: [apologetically] We're sorry! We'll, we'll never download music for free again!
Detective: [somberly, dramatically] Man must learn to think of these horrible outcomes before he acts selfishly or else... I fear... recording artists will be forever doomed to a life of only semi-luxury.
That's why Consumer Reports buy their stuff off the shelf to use in reviews. Otherwise companies will send the cherries to reviewers
They are even more careful than that. I saw a show once on how CR runs their tests. Purchases are made by secret shoppers from random locations all across the country. They are SO secretive about how they do the buying, they wouldn't even show one of the buyers faces on the show for fear that a manufacturer or retailer would recognize the person and then have someone there to slip them a special version of a product next time they went shopping.
I'm not sure how Schmeiser could violate the patent. He isn't selling the patented seed.
But he is using a patented seed for commercial use. IANA patent attorney, but I would think this would have some bearing on the matter.
That's according to Schmeiser's story. I was a bit disturbed about the whole story for a long time, until I read a couple of third party accounts of the whole situation. According to the articles I read, although Percy didn't actually introduce the patented seeds into his crops (it was accidental contamination...probably seeds blown in by the wind from nearby crops), after it happened he knew full well what he had on his hands. He knew it was Round-Up Ready, and he took advantage of that fact. He harvested seeds from the crops so he could continue to benefit from it, knowing that what he was doing was in violation of the patent, but believing that if he were caught he could just claim ignorance.
I'm certainly no Monsanto fan (it's one of the few companies I actually actively boycott), and I'm sure that any evidence they present on the case is only going to be the evidence that proves their case (and according to what I've seen, they've even distorted evidence and exaggerated the facts). However, I also realize that Schmeiser is looking at serious repercussions for what he did, and his website is probably only going to present evidence that makes him look good (and makes him look like the little guy being picked on buy the big bully).
I wish I could remember where those articles I read came from, as they appeared to me to be the most unbiased reports I had read. If anybody has links to them, I'd appreciate if you could post them.
Great, another middleman between musicians and fans
Yeah, and just take a look at how many people get a cut of that:
1)Paypal
2)Ebay
3)Ebay Vendor
4)Credit card company (credit card was originally used to purchase GC)
5)Apple
6)Record Company
and finally
7)Musician
It seems that X10 has assets of $1-10M, and debts of $10-50M
And now I have a guess as to why they are in such bad shape. Perhaps I'm just naive of how the business world operates, but it seems to me that if you can only estimate your worth within an order of magnitude, and your debts within half an order of magnitude, you really must not have a clue what's going on in your company.
If I told a financial planner I wasn't sure if my bank account balance was $5000 or $50000, and I can't remember if I owe $100,000 or $500,000 on my house, I imagine I'd be laughed out of his office (if not out of town).
So, when will the USA switch to Euro?
Right after our conversion to the metric system.
Mod parent up. This is a bad link. I'm getting the same problem playing it back in Quicktime 6.3
In the last few months, the calls have gotten much more frequent...I guess it's a last ditch effort before the DNC list goes into effect.
That's what I was expecting to happen too, but to my surprise my number of telemarketing calls has decreased significantly in the last 3-4 weeks. I used to come home at lunch time to find 3-4 "Out of Area" calls on the caller ID. Now, most days the caller ID is empty when I get home. I guess some of the telemarketers must be implementing things early to make sure they are totally in compliance by Oct 1.