I agree it's out of line to remove the links. But if, under DMCA, links to illegally-copied material are ruled illegal, then are links to links to illegally-copied material illegal?
In other words, suppose someone places a copy on a server in Lilliput, out of the reach of DMCA (and perhaps a rogue nation that doesn't acknowledge intellectual property rights at all). In this hypothetical, a webpage in the US with a link to that copy in Lilliput would be illegal. But now suppose there's a webpage in Shangrila, also out of reach of DMCA, that has a link to the page in Lilliput. Would it be illegal for a webpage in the US to have a link to the page in Shangrila?
Those of us who were using GPS when the Gulf War started saw all our units fail. The Feds basically turned civilian reception off for a few days.
Hmm. I'm not going to contradict you, since I have no firsthand knowledge; however, this is pretty much the opposite of the story I'd been told. As explained to me, there were not yet enough GPS receivers with the military-grade signal decryption available for use in the Gulf War, so DoD purchased a bunch of commercial-grade receivers and turned off Selective Availability so the ground forces could get military-grade resolution and pull off the "left hook".
Christopher A. Bohn
Re:Um... this is a computer virus?
on
Sim Plague
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· Score: 2
You're correct. More properly, this is a trojan horse. But in the "common usage" that equates hacker & cracker, this would be a virus. Christopher A. Bohn
No, I'm afraid I don't have any links handy... this is off the top of my head. As to whether a consumer would care about the 400-500 Intel-equivalent-MHz performance, consider that affordable laptops (roughly defined as costing less than $2.5K) don't have Intel or AMD processors running faster than 500MHz. Christopher A. Bohn
Sounds like a lot of speed loss but the benchmarks will prove the point
Transmeta has already said that a 700MHz Crusoe will perform comparably to 400MHz Pentium II, but that the average user won't notice (and I tend to agree).
Of more intrest, lower voltage means lower heat.
Which means laptops without fans -- another (tiny) reduction in the power demands.
The egcs man page mentions architecture-specific optimization is available up to the i486 (and, by extention, the am486). The man page being somewhat dated, I checked the egcs info page and found architecture-specific optimization listed for the i586 ("pentium") and for the i686 ("pentiumpro"). But I saw nothing for the K5, K6*, or K7/Athlon. Am I blind, is the documentation lacking, or does the compiler not include architecture-specific optimizations for post-486 AMD processors? Christopher A. Bohn
As I understand it, to protest the script kiddies' use of DDoS, the site admins are going to deny service themselves? Sounds kinda like chopping off your ear to protest someone chopping off your other ear. Christopher A. Bohn
In the sense that Sledgehammer is supposed to be a 64-bit extension to IA32 (similar to the 386's extension to the 16-bit instruction set in the 286), the existing gcc will compile code that would execute on Sledgehammer (just as code compiled for the 286 would execute on the 386 -- heck, I've got code compiled for my old 8088 executing on a Pentium). It won't be the most efficient use of processor or memory, but it'll execute. I'd also expect that 1) a 64-bit extension to the IA32 will quickly find its way into gcc even without AMD's help, and 2) AMD will help -- it'd be the smart business decision. Christopher A. Bohn
We're seeing a true fork in the development road, and I wouldn't expect an application compiled for a 64-bit AMD processor to execute at all on a 64-bit Intel processor. And an app compiled for a 64-bit Intel processor certainly will not execute on a 64-bit AMD processor.
Intel (& HP) started with a fresh instruction set architecture for IA64 -- which means they don't need to worry about dedicating transistors or limiting design considerations to supporting decisions made 25 years ago (though I understand Itanium will have an IA32 emulation mode). Further, IA64 is using an advanced form of VLIW. AMD is creating a 64-bit extension to IA32 -- superscalar, not VLIW. Which is why they will be mutually incompatible. Sledgehammer will be to the today's AMD & Intel processors what the 386 was to the 286. Itanium will be to today's AMD & Intel processors what the 68K was to the x86.
I don't know about the others, but Palm has three different, mutually incompatible, docking stations with which to synchronize different Pilot models with PCs. Which becomes a problem when you've got people using different Pilot models and sharing a PC. Christopher A. Bohn
Re:What defines a big rock/asteroid vs a moon?
on
Earth's Second Moon
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· Score: 3
There's also good reason (IMO better reason) to suspect that Charon was originally part of Pluto, or that they were formed at the same time as the result of a collision.
Pluto's low mass would make it difficult for it to capture an independent Charon.
Charon has a very high mass relative to its parent body
In fact, Charon and Pluto revolve about their relative center of mass about halfway between the center of Pluto and Pluto's surface
An interesting note (that would be I would be hard-pressed to claim as evidence supporting or countering my claim that Charon was not captured by Pluto) is that during Pluto's summer, its atmosphere encompasses Charon. It's so thin, though, that it doesn't affect Charon's orbit. During Pluto's autumn, the atmosphere "snows-out", and it won't have any atmosphere during winter. This is one of the reasons why launching a Pluto Fast Flyby was such a hot item a few years back -- they wanted to be able to study the atmosphere before it snowed-out. Now, it's not likely a probe will be able to do the flyby in time, but we can always hope & vote. Christopher A. Bohn
Slickness points for the haiku (that I won't attempt to match).
But, regarding the content, a license is how you give people permission to use copyrighted material. That is, the copyright is the claim of ownership, and the license is the set of conditions under which you're willing to share the use of the material you own.
I cannot imagine the FSF would sanction a license (at least I'm assuming you would want DGPL to be sanctioned by the FSF, based on the suggested name) that would require advertisement. Although, in the web-context, I suppose advertisements are the closest thing to a common currency. I still think that'd be the real sticking point, though. Christopher A. Bohn
They could always follow the path taken by AT&T (SVR4 = System 5 Release 4) and Apple (starting with the next release, it's Mac OS-X). Until the years get unwieldy, they could go by year, still (Windows MMMII), or they could recognize the aversion to minor-number releases (MSIE 5.0 really should be MSIE 4.5; Solaris 2.7 became Solaris 7.0; despite six updates to NT 4.0, there was no NT 4.1-4.9; similarly for the updates to Office), and make the next release Windows VI. MS Office, of course, would be Office IX (I think). Christopher A. Bohn
My employer shut down all its websites (at least at my location) not so much to prevent mischief, but rather to rule it out should any problems arise. Like the deductive principle so-often attributed to (but never explicitly uttered by) Sherlock Holmes, once you rule out the impossible (crackers getting into a system isolated from the rest of the world -- no modems, no internet, etc), then whatever's left (Y2K, loitering malicious code, etc) must be possible. Christopher A. Bohn
In response to the responses to my original post, I propose an alternative analogy. A refrigerator. If the refrigerator has a flaw such that, if abused, the door would fail to seal, then the manufacturer would really tick off a lot of people and could cause a lot of companies to lose money (especially in the food service industry). Yet, we could come up with a scenario in which this could threaten life or limb, such as if the refrigerator is used as temporary storage of blood in a surgical ward. Or if someone failed to notice that the refrigerator was no longer cold and then failed to properly cook the food inside. Or when someone opened the freezer, all the melted ice spilled out and that someone slipped on the floor. Or someone who cannot travel outside the home and must rely on someone else to bring the groceries, and the new groceries aren't due for another week.
But by its nature, by its obvious intended purpose, such a flaw is an inconvenience and a cause of lost money, but is not a direct threat to life or limb (unlike a 1000kg collection of steel, aluminum, and plastic travelling at 100kph).
And that last bit really is the crux of this discussion -- the suitability for any particular purpose. And that's been discussed sufficently elsewhere in this article.
And, yes, I realize a different flaw in a refrigerator could cause it to topple over, but that isn't my point... I chose a refrigerator because it was easier to come up with a flaw with similar results to a flaw in Microsoft's OLE than if I were to suggest a flaw in a book (besides something so obvious as misprinting) that could, in certain scenarios, threaten life or limb.
To repeat myself, desktop and server software does not put life & limb at risk. Embedded software might.
Further, unless and until life or limb is endangered, then there's nothing to hold Microsoft accountable for. Consider the voluntary recalls many, many companies issue to correct design flaws that they discover before anyone is injured. Similarly, if Microsoft were to issue a Service Pack and notify all registered users of that software before anyone is injured, then there'd be nothing to hold them accountable for. Christopher A. Bohn
Comparing a design by Microsoft (or any other desktop/server software company) that has a flaw in it to a design by an automobile company that has a flaw is a poor analogy, in that a flawed automotive design has the potential to cause loss of life or limb. Desktop and server software doesn't put the customer at the same risk. Christopher A. Bohn
*Very* smart business decision
on
Quake 1 GPL'ed
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· Score: 2
I suppose you could say this is building good-will within the free software community without costing them anymore revenue, and that would be completely true, but this decision is even smarter than just that.
The way to get hired by a computer gaming company is to "show them the source" -- in particular, demonstrate that you can write cool games. By GPL'ing Quake I, id Software is increasing their pool of potential employees to include those who can develop a good 3D game if only they had a good 3D engine that's less than four years old.
As an author, he wanted to avoid the "Frankenstein" syndrome of man's creations out-of-control. The Three Laws were his way of making sure he'd never stoop to that level.
As an author, it gave him a lot to write about.
The Three Laws were the USRMM's way of trying to reduce the public's fear of the robots. It didn't entirely work.
First off, I liked the movie. That said, the ending unarguably has a First Law violation. I counted three (maybe four) violations of the Three Laws:
One of Asimov's robots would have a nervous breakdown if it were in the presence of a human when it died -- Andrew was present for at least two deaths. I'm quibbling here, so I'm not sure if this should count as a violation.
Andrew violated the Third Law when he arranged for his own death. But, the Good Doctor wrote this into the original story, so we can conclude the decision was sufficiently separated from the results that the positronic potentials were below Third-Law threshold.
Gallitea violated the 2d Law when she deliberately dropped a box of delicate equipment she was told to handle carefullly.
Gallitea violated the 1st Law when she took deliberate action to end a human life.
Slashdot Mirror
I agree it's out of line to remove the links. But if, under DMCA, links to illegally-copied material are ruled illegal, then are links to links to illegally-copied material illegal?
In other words, suppose someone places a copy on a server in Lilliput, out of the reach of DMCA (and perhaps a rogue nation that doesn't acknowledge intellectual property rights at all). In this hypothetical, a webpage in the US with a link to that copy in Lilliput would be illegal. But now suppose there's a webpage in Shangrila, also out of reach of DMCA, that has a link to the page in Lilliput. Would it be illegal for a webpage in the US to have a link to the page in Shangrila?
Does the "illegal link" propagate?
Christopher A. Bohn
Hmm. I'm not going to contradict you, since I have no firsthand knowledge; however, this is pretty much the opposite of the story I'd been told. As explained to me, there were not yet enough GPS receivers with the military-grade signal decryption available for use in the Gulf War, so DoD purchased a bunch of commercial-grade receivers and turned off Selective Availability so the ground forces could get military-grade resolution and pull off the "left hook".
Christopher A. Bohn
You're correct. More properly, this is a trojan horse. But in the "common usage" that equates hacker & cracker, this would be a virus.
Christopher A. Bohn
No, I'm afraid I don't have any links handy ... this is off the top of my head. As to whether a consumer would care about the 400-500 Intel-equivalent-MHz performance, consider that affordable laptops (roughly defined as costing less than $2.5K) don't have Intel or AMD processors running faster than 500MHz.
Christopher A. Bohn
Transmeta has already said that a 700MHz Crusoe will perform comparably to 400MHz Pentium II, but that the average user won't notice (and I tend to agree).
Which means laptops without fans -- another (tiny) reduction in the power demands.
Christopher A. Bohn
The egcs man page mentions architecture-specific optimization is available up to the i486 (and, by extention, the am486). The man page being somewhat dated, I checked the egcs info page and found architecture-specific optimization listed for the i586 ("pentium") and for the i686 ("pentiumpro"). But I saw nothing for the K5, K6*, or K7/Athlon. Am I blind, is the documentation lacking, or does the compiler not include architecture-specific optimizations for post-486 AMD processors?
Christopher A. Bohn
As I understand it, to protest the script kiddies' use of DDoS, the site admins are going to deny service themselves? Sounds kinda like chopping off your ear to protest someone chopping off your other ear.
Christopher A. Bohn
They're calling it "Orange Linux", after the "Orange Book" that describes the requirements.
Christopher A. Bohn
In the sense that Sledgehammer is supposed to be a 64-bit extension to IA32 (similar to the 386's extension to the 16-bit instruction set in the 286), the existing gcc will compile code that would execute on Sledgehammer (just as code compiled for the 286 would execute on the 386 -- heck, I've got code compiled for my old 8088 executing on a Pentium). It won't be the most efficient use of processor or memory, but it'll execute. I'd also expect that 1) a 64-bit extension to the IA32 will quickly find its way into gcc even without AMD's help, and 2) AMD will help -- it'd be the smart business decision.
Christopher A. Bohn
We're seeing a true fork in the development road, and I wouldn't expect an application compiled for a 64-bit AMD processor to execute at all on a 64-bit Intel processor. And an app compiled for a 64-bit Intel processor certainly will not execute on a 64-bit AMD processor.
Intel (& HP) started with a fresh instruction set architecture for IA64 -- which means they don't need to worry about dedicating transistors or limiting design considerations to supporting decisions made 25 years ago (though I understand Itanium will have an IA32 emulation mode). Further, IA64 is using an advanced form of VLIW. AMD is creating a 64-bit extension to IA32 -- superscalar, not VLIW. Which is why they will be mutually incompatible. Sledgehammer will be to the today's AMD & Intel processors what the 386 was to the 286. Itanium will be to today's AMD & Intel processors what the 68K was to the x86.
Christopher A. Bohn
I don't know about the others, but Palm has three different, mutually incompatible, docking stations with which to synchronize different Pilot models with PCs. Which becomes a problem when you've got people using different Pilot models and sharing a PC.
Christopher A. Bohn
- Pluto's low mass would make it difficult for it to capture an independent Charon.
- Charon has a very high mass relative to its parent body
- In fact, Charon and Pluto revolve about their relative center of mass about halfway between the center of Pluto and Pluto's surface
An interesting note (that would be I would be hard-pressed to claim as evidence supporting or countering my claim that Charon was not captured by Pluto) is that during Pluto's summer, its atmosphere encompasses Charon. It's so thin, though, that it doesn't affect Charon's orbit. During Pluto's autumn, the atmosphere "snows-out", and it won't have any atmosphere during winter. This is one of the reasons why launching a Pluto Fast Flyby was such a hot item a few years back -- they wanted to be able to study the atmosphere before it snowed-out. Now, it's not likely a probe will be able to do the flyby in time, but we can always hope & vote.Christopher A. Bohn
Slickness points for the haiku (that I won't attempt to match).
But, regarding the content, a license is how you give people permission to use copyrighted material. That is, the copyright is the claim of ownership, and the license is the set of conditions under which you're willing to share the use of the material you own.
Christopher A. Bohn
The distinction to bear in mind is between the database itself and the data entered into the database.
Christopher A. Bohn
I cannot imagine the FSF would sanction a license (at least I'm assuming you would want DGPL to be sanctioned by the FSF, based on the suggested name) that would require advertisement. Although, in the web-context, I suppose advertisements are the closest thing to a common currency. I still think that'd be the real sticking point, though.
Christopher A. Bohn
If it works (I have no experience with it), FreeMWare is, well, free. The webpage says it's still unstable & for developers only.
Christopher A. Bohn
They could always follow the path taken by AT&T (SVR4 = System 5 Release 4) and Apple (starting with the next release, it's Mac OS-X). Until the years get unwieldy, they could go by year, still (Windows MMMII), or they could recognize the aversion to minor-number releases (MSIE 5.0 really should be MSIE 4.5; Solaris 2.7 became Solaris 7.0; despite six updates to NT 4.0, there was no NT 4.1-4.9; similarly for the updates to Office), and make the next release Windows VI. MS Office, of course, would be Office IX (I think).
Christopher A. Bohn
My employer shut down all its websites (at least at my location) not so much to prevent mischief, but rather to rule it out should any problems arise. Like the deductive principle so-often attributed to (but never explicitly uttered by) Sherlock Holmes, once you rule out the impossible (crackers getting into a system isolated from the rest of the world -- no modems, no internet, etc), then whatever's left (Y2K, loitering malicious code, etc) must be possible.
Christopher A. Bohn
In response to the responses to my original post, I propose an alternative analogy. A refrigerator. If the refrigerator has a flaw such that, if abused, the door would fail to seal, then the manufacturer would really tick off a lot of people and could cause a lot of companies to lose money (especially in the food service industry). Yet, we could come up with a scenario in which this could threaten life or limb, such as if the refrigerator is used as temporary storage of blood in a surgical ward. Or if someone failed to notice that the refrigerator was no longer cold and then failed to properly cook the food inside. Or when someone opened the freezer, all the melted ice spilled out and that someone slipped on the floor. Or someone who cannot travel outside the home and must rely on someone else to bring the groceries, and the new groceries aren't due for another week.
But by its nature, by its obvious intended purpose, such a flaw is an inconvenience and a cause of lost money, but is not a direct threat to life or limb (unlike a 1000kg collection of steel, aluminum, and plastic travelling at 100kph).
And that last bit really is the crux of this discussion -- the suitability for any particular purpose. And that's been discussed sufficently elsewhere in this article.
And, yes, I realize a different flaw in a refrigerator could cause it to topple over, but that isn't my point ... I chose a refrigerator because it was easier to come up with a flaw with similar results to a flaw in Microsoft's OLE than if I were to suggest a flaw in a book (besides something so obvious as misprinting) that could, in certain scenarios, threaten life or limb.
Christopher A. Bohn
To repeat myself, desktop and server software does not put life & limb at risk. Embedded software might.
Further, unless and until life or limb is endangered, then there's nothing to hold Microsoft accountable for. Consider the voluntary recalls many, many companies issue to correct design flaws that they discover before anyone is injured. Similarly, if Microsoft were to issue a Service Pack and notify all registered users of that software before anyone is injured, then there'd be nothing to hold them accountable for.
Christopher A. Bohn
Comparing a design by Microsoft (or any other desktop/server software company) that has a flaw in it to a design by an automobile company that has a flaw is a poor analogy, in that a flawed automotive design has the potential to cause loss of life or limb. Desktop and server software doesn't put the customer at the same risk.
Christopher A. Bohn
I suppose you could say this is building good-will within the free software community without costing them anymore revenue, and that would be completely true, but this decision is even smarter than just that.
The way to get hired by a computer gaming company is to "show them the source" -- in particular, demonstrate that you can write cool games. By GPL'ing Quake I, id Software is increasing their pool of potential employees to include those who can develop a good 3D game if only they had a good 3D engine that's less than four years old.
Christopher A. Bohn
Christopher A. Bohn
For those interested, "Bicentennial Man" is available in the short-story collection Robot Visions.
Christopher A. Bohn
I counted three (maybe four) violations of the Three Laws:
Christopher A. Bohn