There seems to be a lot of posts that go something like, "this looks like a good patent for XXXXXX to try to fight." While the work these groups do is noble and all, they can't be expected to challenge more than a handful of patents a year. It's not easy work. Not to mention the lawyers hired by Kodak, Sun, MS, etc... are among the best in the world.
What we need is more of the people right here to step up and do it themselves. How?
Or here: http://www.law.berkeley.edu/cenpro/programs /tech.h tml
Then take this: http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/m pep.htm
The only way to fix the problems is to have the smartest people doing work the way "should" be done. Go work for the USPTO, and refuse to grant patents that aren't novel. Or work for a firm that challenges existing patents. Do something.
If you need incentive, while you're complaining about Programmers and Engineers not being hired, IP is the single fastest growing area of the law, and highest paid. If you pass the Patent Bar, you WILL get a job...a good job.
I found that this happens when you download a lot of stuff, and do so over a long period of time. Periodically, I would come back and my PC (1.5GHz) would be maxed. Closing and restarting Shareaza would do the trick. So I'm guessing it's more than an isolated incident.
With all the penny pinching within NASA, this could set a bad precident. From now on, return capsules will simply be allowed to ram into Earth. This'll save us millions of dollers in parachute costs.
Call me crazy, but wouldn't it have been usefull to have listed the time zone the assigned time is for? You think that might come in handy for something like this.
I believe in giving alternatives to MS products a chance, however I've yet to find anything to replace Word.
For me, I gave up on AbiWord because of the Bullet-list/Outline or whatever you want to call it. Two problems: Shift-Tab doesn't move my heading to the left, and the default lists are trash, and I would need to create a custom one every time I start a new one.
I'm in law school, so basically, typing outlines is 50% of everything I do. I'd love to dump Word, but at this point, I can't.
How is (and how will) the constant bickering between differing sides of the more controversial issues (abortion, religion, etc...) be addressed? Do you expect any changes to the current system, in which it seems the same pages get edited by the same people back and forth every day?
Just a thought. Perhaps the attempt to prove Christians and other religious types wrong is good business? Maybe the phrase "attempting to support evolution" is a buzzword that results in funding bumps?
It's actually not all that uncommon for a company to do this. I've actually competed in a programming competition sponsored by Digikey (http://www.digikey.com/). When you think about it, the money they spend on crappy prizes a day of showing the geeks around is pretty smart. Basically, they bring the best students at schools from the area, and then figure out who the best amongst them are...and offer them jobs. Pretty smart idea, really.
I agree, and most others do as well, but there's a major roadblock from the copyright terms EVER being reduced. We're commited to treaties with countries throughout the world. Many of these countries adopted extremely long terms for copyright holders. As a result, we essentially had to match those terms to join the treaties. Hence, life + 70 years.
I like to pretend that dozens of college women I've fixed the computers of will eventually "repay" me, but it never happens. Worse, when they do call again, the converstation usually looks like:
"Hello"
"Hi, Matthew, this is ______, remember me."
"Um yeah, what's wrong with your computer?"
"Well, I can't seem to get it to...."
I call these girls "Annies", after the young lady who calls once a month like clockwork for computer assistance.
I wouldn't exactly say "no matter what." I fully admit to being a sound-quality-elitist, but I certainly feel that 128 has its uses.
At home, I listen to mostly hard rock, blues, and classical...and I listen using speakers and electronics of amazing quality. In this situation, I CAN hear the difference between 128/192/lossless quite easlily. As a result, I rip my classical at 250+ (or in FLAC), blues at ~224, and rock somewhere above 192, depending on the artist.
In the car, I don't usually cruise around jamming to Mozart. I listen to a lot of punk, and some hip-hop in the car. On top of this, I'm still on my factory speakers. In this situation, 128 is just fine. The type of music doesn't sound any better at higher bitrates, and even if it did, I wouldn't really hear the difference on those speakers anyways. So why waste file size?
And while we're on the use of different codecs, I think each has its uses at well, so I do care about which sounds best at each level of compression. When I'm not living in the law school, I DJ on occassion. The best DJ software (PCDJ) is not compatible with ogg vorbis, but some of the less-functional software is (TPLayer). I'm working with limited hard drive space, and in public 128 quality of virtually anything is just fine. I use TPlayer quite often, so knowing that ogg sounds better than mp3 at the same file size, OR that it will sound the same at lower file size is useful to me.
Bottom line, ogg/mp3/others each have their uses, as do different compression rates. The more a concernded user knows about each of them, the better.
Well, the first one simply would not charge without the stars, sun, and moon being lined up. Typically, it would charge 5 minutes or so at a time. So #1 went back for that reason.
The second one was a broken scroll wheel resulting from a fall of about 2 feet on to carpet. Yeah, I suppose it's my own fault for letting it fall, but when my friends are dropping their iPods on cement while jogging, I think a spill from desk chair to carpet floor is more than reasonable.
As far as the scratched screens, that's a fairly common problem actually. I literally had scratches in #1's screen simply from putting it in the felt bag and carrying it to school. I've read numerous similiar accounts. The best solution is to cut a PDA protector down to size. www.riovolution.com has templates if you wish.
No drive problems for me though. I was reading up and it seems like there was a bad batch that is resulting in the drive failures, and unless one was unlucky enough to get one of those, you should be fine.
I love the Karma's that work. However, I'm on my 3rd since Christmas. Good thing I sprung for the extended warranty....but I'm regretting only going for 1 year instead of 3.
The Karma sounds great, the interface is easy to use, the battery is decent, it plays ogg/flac, and it's pretty damn small.
On the other hand, the screen scratch terribly, the scroll wheels break off, they often forget to recharge when placed on the dock, and most importantly, iPod:Karma = concrete:glass.
I love my latest Karma, but I'm not sure I would buy it again.
Well, if you want to get technical, Amazon.com have MADE money off books, videos, and games for exactly 1 quarter in their entire existence. And if you want to get even more technical, they don't actually make money off of those (or other products), but instead from passing along increased shipping costs and taking 10% from every used item purchase. Oh, they LOVE used books, they don't have to do anything and they still make 10% plus about $1 in extra not-passed-along shipping charges.
Haven't you heard, it's cool to joke about anything once 22.3 years have passed.
(Sorry, there's no Simpsons reference, so South Park will have to do.)
And within 8 to 10 years, this could actually go into effect. Granted, European courts aren't my expertise, MS will certainly appeal. I pretty much expect them to get enforcment enjoined until appeals are done, which will take years. This is another case where I'll believe the punishment once it's all said and done.
I'm going anonymous today, to avoid getting others in trouble. Lockheed has worked on this for roughly 10 years now. My dad worked on the project, which they had eventually chaulked up as useless. Originally, the goal for cross-county transit.
Got a truck that needs to go from LA to NY? Drive it up to the balloon, park it inside along with the 200 other trucks, and it arrives in NY in a couple days.
The practically proved too far fetched to continue in the end, but at least the concept has been around for a great while.
I was supposedly one of those "gifted students", although Law School makes me wonder. Anyways, I didn't have in terms of social skills until I started playing music seriously. I spent about 3 years playing in various bands, and it helped me a great deal in that department. Nothing quite forces a person to accept social situations faster than sticking him up on a stage to perform with 3 other guys in front of 100+ people.
Between dealing with seedy bar managers, fending off groupies (optional), and convincing dozens of drunk 30-40 year-olds that you really can't play Metallica covers ALL night...he will figure it out pretty fast.
I've said for years that the death of pinball was raising the price from a single quarter. It's not that 50 cents is a ton of money, but the whole mental aspect of a 100% raise in price was too much for me.
By trying to raise profits, they shot themselves in the foot by eliminating a greater percentage of business that would would have been made back on the price. Rather than making 4 million people paying $0.25, they got 1 million paying $0.50. Sound like advise from the recording industry.
It's either that, or the increase in pinball piracy.
Slashdot Mirror
There seems to be a lot of posts that go something like, "this looks like a good patent for XXXXXX to try to fight." While the work these groups do is noble and all, they can't be expected to challenge more than a handful of patents a year. It's not easy work. Not to mention the lawyers hired by Kodak, Sun, MS, etc... are among the best in the world.
0 184224
s /tech.h tml
m pep.htm
What we need is more of the people right here to step up and do it themselves. How?
Read this:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/157
Or apply here:
http://www.piercelaw.edu/
Or here:
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/cenpro/program
Then take this:
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/pac/mpep/
The only way to fix the problems is to have the smartest people doing work the way "should" be done. Go work for the USPTO, and refuse to grant patents that aren't novel. Or work for a firm that challenges existing patents. Do something.
If you need incentive, while you're complaining about Programmers and Engineers not being hired, IP is the single fastest growing area of the law, and highest paid. If you pass the Patent Bar, you WILL get a job...a good job.
I found that this happens when you download a lot of stuff, and do so over a long period of time. Periodically, I would come back and my PC (1.5GHz) would be maxed. Closing and restarting Shareaza would do the trick. So I'm guessing it's more than an isolated incident.
With all the penny pinching within NASA, this could set a bad precident. From now on, return capsules will simply be allowed to ram into Earth. This'll save us millions of dollers in parachute costs.
Call me crazy, but wouldn't it have been usefull to have listed the time zone the assigned time is for? You think that might come in handy for something like this.
I believe in giving alternatives to MS products a chance, however I've yet to find anything to replace Word.
For me, I gave up on AbiWord because of the Bullet-list/Outline or whatever you want to call it. Two problems: Shift-Tab doesn't move my heading to the left, and the default lists are trash, and I would need to create a custom one every time I start a new one.
I'm in law school, so basically, typing outlines is 50% of everything I do. I'd love to dump Word, but at this point, I can't.
How is (and how will) the constant bickering between differing sides of the more controversial issues (abortion, religion, etc...) be addressed? Do you expect any changes to the current system, in which it seems the same pages get edited by the same people back and forth every day?
Just a thought. Perhaps the attempt to prove Christians and other religious types wrong is good business? Maybe the phrase "attempting to support evolution" is a buzzword that results in funding bumps?
I'm sorry, I forgot to add this. Nothing says "Hey Ladies", quite like "I've actually competed in a programming competition..."
It's actually not all that uncommon for a company to do this. I've actually competed in a programming competition sponsored by Digikey (http://www.digikey.com/). When you think about it, the money they spend on crappy prizes a day of showing the geeks around is pretty smart. Basically, they bring the best students at schools from the area, and then figure out who the best amongst them are...and offer them jobs. Pretty smart idea, really.
I agree, and most others do as well, but there's a major roadblock from the copyright terms EVER being reduced. We're commited to treaties with countries throughout the world. Many of these countries adopted extremely long terms for copyright holders. As a result, we essentially had to match those terms to join the treaties. Hence, life + 70 years.
I like to pretend that dozens of college women I've fixed the computers of will eventually "repay" me, but it never happens. Worse, when they do call again, the converstation usually looks like: "Hello" "Hi, Matthew, this is ______, remember me." "Um yeah, what's wrong with your computer?" "Well, I can't seem to get it to...." I call these girls "Annies", after the young lady who calls once a month like clockwork for computer assistance.
I wouldn't exactly say "no matter what." I fully admit to being a sound-quality-elitist, but I certainly feel that 128 has its uses. At home, I listen to mostly hard rock, blues, and classical...and I listen using speakers and electronics of amazing quality. In this situation, I CAN hear the difference between 128/192/lossless quite easlily. As a result, I rip my classical at 250+ (or in FLAC), blues at ~224, and rock somewhere above 192, depending on the artist. In the car, I don't usually cruise around jamming to Mozart. I listen to a lot of punk, and some hip-hop in the car. On top of this, I'm still on my factory speakers. In this situation, 128 is just fine. The type of music doesn't sound any better at higher bitrates, and even if it did, I wouldn't really hear the difference on those speakers anyways. So why waste file size? And while we're on the use of different codecs, I think each has its uses at well, so I do care about which sounds best at each level of compression. When I'm not living in the law school, I DJ on occassion. The best DJ software (PCDJ) is not compatible with ogg vorbis, but some of the less-functional software is (TPLayer). I'm working with limited hard drive space, and in public 128 quality of virtually anything is just fine. I use TPlayer quite often, so knowing that ogg sounds better than mp3 at the same file size, OR that it will sound the same at lower file size is useful to me. Bottom line, ogg/mp3/others each have their uses, as do different compression rates. The more a concernded user knows about each of them, the better.
The second one was a broken scroll wheel resulting from a fall of about 2 feet on to carpet. Yeah, I suppose it's my own fault for letting it fall, but when my friends are dropping their iPods on cement while jogging, I think a spill from desk chair to carpet floor is more than reasonable.
As far as the scratched screens, that's a fairly common problem actually. I literally had scratches in #1's screen simply from putting it in the felt bag and carrying it to school. I've read numerous similiar accounts. The best solution is to cut a PDA protector down to size. www.riovolution.com has templates if you wish.
No drive problems for me though. I was reading up and it seems like there was a bad batch that is resulting in the drive failures, and unless one was unlucky enough to get one of those, you should be fine.
I love the Karma's that work. However, I'm on my 3rd since Christmas. Good thing I sprung for the extended warranty....but I'm regretting only going for 1 year instead of 3. The Karma sounds great, the interface is easy to use, the battery is decent, it plays ogg/flac, and it's pretty damn small. On the other hand, the screen scratch terribly, the scroll wheels break off, they often forget to recharge when placed on the dock, and most importantly, iPod:Karma = concrete:glass. I love my latest Karma, but I'm not sure I would buy it again.
Well, if you want to get technical, Amazon.com have MADE money off books, videos, and games for exactly 1 quarter in their entire existence. And if you want to get even more technical, they don't actually make money off of those (or other products), but instead from passing along increased shipping costs and taking 10% from every used item purchase. Oh, they LOVE used books, they don't have to do anything and they still make 10% plus about $1 in extra not-passed-along shipping charges.
Haven't you heard, it's cool to joke about anything once 22.3 years have passed. (Sorry, there's no Simpsons reference, so South Park will have to do.)
And within 8 to 10 years, this could actually go into effect. Granted, European courts aren't my expertise, MS will certainly appeal. I pretty much expect them to get enforcment enjoined until appeals are done, which will take years. This is another case where I'll believe the punishment once it's all said and done.
I'm going anonymous today, to avoid getting others in trouble. Lockheed has worked on this for roughly 10 years now. My dad worked on the project, which they had eventually chaulked up as useless. Originally, the goal for cross-county transit.
Got a truck that needs to go from LA to NY? Drive it up to the balloon, park it inside along with the 200 other trucks, and it arrives in NY in a couple days.
The practically proved too far fetched to continue in the end, but at least the concept has been around for a great while.
I was supposedly one of those "gifted students", although Law School makes me wonder. Anyways, I didn't have in terms of social skills until I started playing music seriously. I spent about 3 years playing in various bands, and it helped me a great deal in that department. Nothing quite forces a person to accept social situations faster than sticking him up on a stage to perform with 3 other guys in front of 100+ people. Between dealing with seedy bar managers, fending off groupies (optional), and convincing dozens of drunk 30-40 year-olds that you really can't play Metallica covers ALL night...he will figure it out pretty fast.
By trying to raise profits, they shot themselves in the foot by eliminating a greater percentage of business that would would have been made back on the price. Rather than making 4 million people paying $0.25, they got 1 million paying $0.50. Sound like advise from the recording industry.
It's either that, or the increase in pinball piracy.