I went to a liberal arts school for my CS and engineering degrees. It was #1 in the nation two years while I was there, and has never been out of the top 3. For whatever US News rankings are worth. Not much in my eyes, but people seem to value it. And I wouldn't change my decision to go there. It has opened a lot of doors for me.
But choice of school depends on what you're looking for. Despite being strongly math/science oriented, I want to take classes in other disciplines. I wanted to be surrounded by smart people (mission accomplished), and, frankly, I wanted to have a top school on my resume.
The advantages of a liberal arts degree are enormous, particularly if you go to a well-regarded school. The most important thing you will learn in college, regardless of your degree, is how to think critically and communicate effectively. And there's not a better place to go to learn that than a liberal arts school. That's what a liberal arts education is.
And if you're concerned about employers looking down their nose at you for not goign to a tech school, don't be. Coming out of college, they know you're not going to have much, if any, experience, regardless of where you go. For entry-level positions, they primarily want someone smart with the appropriate degree. Beyond that, they'll teach you what you need to know to work for them.
If you want a more tech-oriented school, but with a good range of liberal arts opportunities, look at Carnegie Mellon, Harvey Mudd, and other similar schools.
And also consider whether you'll be an engineer your whole career. I think liberal arts is best because it prepares you for a broad range of careers. If you want to specialize, you can do it by choosing the right jobs, or by getting advanced degrees.
But the bottom line is, any school is primarily going to be what you make if it. You can get a great education at a mediocre state school, if you word hard. And you can get a crap education at Harvard, if don't do anything.
Pick the school that fits you best, not what you think other people will want to see on your resume. You have no idea what they want, and you're the one that has to spend 4 years there.
That thread relates to the use of software to display in-game information (e.g. hps, mana, level, etc.) on the LCD screen of the Logitech G15 keyboard, not the use of the keyboard itself.
The Lexmark decision was a nice victory, but the Federal Circuit decided a DMCA case that may well have a bigger impact on the interpretation of the DMCA - The Chamberlain Group v. Skylink Technologies, 381 F.3d 1178 (Fed. Cir. 2004). Opinion on Findlaw
The Federal Circuit basically read into the DMCA an "intent to pirate" requirement - simple circumvention isn't enough to violate the DMCA unless you intend to pirate or facilitate piracy of copyrighted works. What effect the ruling will have isn't clear, but it goes MUCH farther than the Lexmark decision. Lexmark basically said (a) that the code contained in the Lexmark printer cartridges wasn't copyrightable and therefore the DMCA couldn't apply, and (b) that in any event, the code was only protected from one form of access, but was completely unprotected via another - i.e. it was not effectively protected. Meaning the 6th circuit didn't really address the big issue - can the DMCA be used to stifle competition?
To get a quick idea of where the Chamberlain Group decision went, read the relatively short (2 page) concurring opinion in Lexmark by Judge Merritt (cite: 387 F.3d 522) Lexmark Opinion on Findlaw.
You do make a reasonable argument, unfortunately, others have made it and lost in court - courts allow these sorts of arrangements because they are far more efficient (as the article mentioned) than requiring Blizzard (or anyone) to post an employee at Best Buy to sign a contract with everyone who tries to buy a copy of their game.
But because you don't get to read the terms of the contract until you open the box, the law imposes some restrictions on companies using shrink-wrap licenses. For example, the software company must refund your purchase money if you do not agree with the terms of the contract. As someone else mentioned, Blizzard customer support will make those refunds.
As for the use of lay language in the EULA, go read the WoW EULA. It's definitely not in legalese - they use very readable language. In fact, they even did a pretty nice job of formatting the EULA so you can see all the different clauses and conditions.
Lastly, you are the one agreeing to the contract. It's your responsibility to make sure you understand what you're agreeing to. If you don't understand something, you need to find out what it means, or be willing to live with finding out later (like when you're sued or banned). Relying in court on the "i didn't read it" or "i didn't understand it" defense will usually not get you very far.
I've skimmed over the opinion and while I don't like the result, I agree with the court. The court's argument is basically, that the Copyright Clause of the Constitution allows Congress to extend Copyrights for limited periods. The CTEA extends it for 20 years to existing and future works. 20 years is clearly limited, and the court cites reference to the earlier copyright term extensions as a basis for constitutionality.
"The CTEA's baseline term of life plus 70 years, petitioners concede, qualifies as a "limited Time" as applied to future copyrights." Opinion, pg. 25. (no cite available yet) The court goes on to say that 'limited time' only means a definable time period that is confined within certain bounds. Since adding 20 years to the current term meets this requirement, the court held that "there is no cause to suspect that a purpose to evade the "limited Times" prescription prompted Congress to adopt the CTEA." pg.25
You don't have to request payment first, though it will certainly make things easier in the end. You can legally force them to pay you for services rendered. It may be more effort than it's worth though, depending on how much you stand to recover.
maz
Technically, you can submit a bill to them for your hours worked with a reasonable hourly rate and force them to pay it. This is a pretty classic case for restitution and a court would almost certainly find in your favor, if you took it that far.
I worked with one of these on a HCI project in college and while they work very well, it didn't seem sturdy enough to work well for a gamer. If they can make it more resilient to high forces, it would be fantastic.
You're probably not going to find a free software echo canceler. I've been working on audio processing for a cell phone design and AEC (automatic echo cancelation) is budgeted for a lot of time and money. It's a pretty involved signal processing function that is well-suited to optimization on a specialized processor, hence the number of solutions you're seeing for ASICs and DSPs. The bottom line is that I would suspect that you're probably going to have to pay for it.
Slashdot Mirror
I went to a liberal arts school for my CS and engineering degrees. It was #1 in the nation two years while I was there, and has never been out of the top 3. For whatever US News rankings are worth. Not much in my eyes, but people seem to value it. And I wouldn't change my decision to go there. It has opened a lot of doors for me.
But choice of school depends on what you're looking for. Despite being strongly math/science oriented, I want to take classes in other disciplines. I wanted to be surrounded by smart people (mission accomplished), and, frankly, I wanted to have a top school on my resume.
The advantages of a liberal arts degree are enormous, particularly if you go to a well-regarded school. The most important thing you will learn in college, regardless of your degree, is how to think critically and communicate effectively. And there's not a better place to go to learn that than a liberal arts school. That's what a liberal arts education is.
And if you're concerned about employers looking down their nose at you for not goign to a tech school, don't be. Coming out of college, they know you're not going to have much, if any, experience, regardless of where you go. For entry-level positions, they primarily want someone smart with the appropriate degree. Beyond that, they'll teach you what you need to know to work for them.
If you want a more tech-oriented school, but with a good range of liberal arts opportunities, look at Carnegie Mellon, Harvey Mudd, and other similar schools.
And also consider whether you'll be an engineer your whole career. I think liberal arts is best because it prepares you for a broad range of careers. If you want to specialize, you can do it by choosing the right jobs, or by getting advanced degrees.
But the bottom line is, any school is primarily going to be what you make if it. You can get a great education at a mediocre state school, if you word hard. And you can get a crap education at Harvard, if don't do anything.
Pick the school that fits you best, not what you think other people will want to see on your resume. You have no idea what they want, and you're the one that has to spend 4 years there.
That thread relates to the use of software to display in-game information (e.g. hps, mana, level, etc.) on the LCD screen of the Logitech G15 keyboard, not the use of the keyboard itself.
The Lexmark decision was a nice victory, but the Federal Circuit decided a DMCA case that may well have a bigger impact on the interpretation of the DMCA - The Chamberlain Group v. Skylink Technologies, 381 F.3d 1178 (Fed. Cir. 2004). Opinion on Findlaw
The Federal Circuit basically read into the DMCA an "intent to pirate" requirement - simple circumvention isn't enough to violate the DMCA unless you intend to pirate or facilitate piracy of copyrighted works. What effect the ruling will have isn't clear, but it goes MUCH farther than the Lexmark decision. Lexmark basically said (a) that the code contained in the Lexmark printer cartridges wasn't copyrightable and therefore the DMCA couldn't apply, and (b) that in any event, the code was only protected from one form of access, but was completely unprotected via another - i.e. it was not effectively protected. Meaning the 6th circuit didn't really address the big issue - can the DMCA be used to stifle competition?
To get a quick idea of where the Chamberlain Group decision went, read the relatively short (2 page) concurring opinion in Lexmark by Judge Merritt (cite: 387 F.3d 522) Lexmark Opinion on Findlaw.
You do make a reasonable argument, unfortunately, others have made it and lost in court - courts allow these sorts of arrangements because they are far more efficient (as the article mentioned) than requiring Blizzard (or anyone) to post an employee at Best Buy to sign a contract with everyone who tries to buy a copy of their game.
But because you don't get to read the terms of the contract until you open the box, the law imposes some restrictions on companies using shrink-wrap licenses. For example, the software company must refund your purchase money if you do not agree with the terms of the contract. As someone else mentioned, Blizzard customer support will make those refunds. As for the use of lay language in the EULA, go read the WoW EULA. It's definitely not in legalese - they use very readable language. In fact, they even did a pretty nice job of formatting the EULA so you can see all the different clauses and conditions.
Lastly, you are the one agreeing to the contract. It's your responsibility to make sure you understand what you're agreeing to. If you don't understand something, you need to find out what it means, or be willing to live with finding out later (like when you're sued or banned). Relying in court on the "i didn't read it" or "i didn't understand it" defense will usually not get you very far.
I've skimmed over the opinion and while I don't like the result, I agree with the court. The court's argument is basically, that the Copyright Clause of the Constitution allows Congress to extend Copyrights for limited periods. The CTEA extends it for 20 years to existing and future works. 20 years is clearly limited, and the court cites reference to the earlier copyright term extensions as a basis for constitutionality.
"The CTEA's baseline term of life plus 70 years, petitioners concede, qualifies as a "limited Time" as applied to future copyrights." Opinion, pg. 25. (no cite available yet) The court goes on to say that 'limited time' only means a definable time period that is confined within certain bounds. Since adding 20 years to the current term meets this requirement, the court held that "there is no cause to suspect that a purpose to evade the "limited Times" prescription prompted Congress to adopt the CTEA." pg.25
You don't have to request payment first, though it will certainly make things easier in the end. You can legally force them to pay you for services rendered. It may be more effort than it's worth though, depending on how much you stand to recover. maz
Technically, you can submit a bill to them for your hours worked with a reasonable hourly rate and force them to pay it. This is a pretty classic case for restitution and a court would almost certainly find in your favor, if you took it that far.
maz
I worked with one of these on a HCI project in college and while they work very well, it didn't seem sturdy enough to work well for a gamer. If they can make it more resilient to high forces, it would be fantastic.
You're probably not going to find a free software echo canceler. I've been working on audio processing for a cell phone design and AEC (automatic echo cancelation) is budgeted for a lot of time and money. It's a pretty involved signal processing function that is well-suited to optimization on a specialized processor, hence the number of solutions you're seeing for ASICs and DSPs. The bottom line is that I would suspect that you're probably going to have to pay for it.