Well, how do you know that the javascript code will ever terminate (or not do something ELSE bad), or even just behave differently than when run in an actual browser (perhaps yielding a different set of active content)?
You can't... this starts to involve all kinds of fun intractable things like the Halting Problem.
Basically, this patent bs has just pushed active content filtering (except for simply disallowing all active content and javascript altogether) completely into the realm of the non-computable.
Well, the thing there is that if the webmaster does implements the JS workaround, it's THEIR code most directly infringing the patent, not Microsoft's.
Oog... it's been a while. I believe it was in an interview with the brothers that was linked to from the/. page a long time ago (like, pre-Matrix Reloaded), but beyond that I couldn't say.
I always thought wouldn't it have been cooler if the machines were imprisoning humans and using their brains in a sort of massive computing grid?
Sadly, that was the original idea of the Brothers W. However, the studio people nixed it and suggested an idea the public could understand, like... well, batteries.
Verisign is the root domain authority. This is them overstepping bounds and trying to get into the search engine game, something which is 'forbidden' by ICANN.
Somehow I doubt ICANN really cares that much. I really wonder why more people haven't mentioned OpenNIC (an alternate root authority) yet...
I've been using OpenNIC for a long time, and I would have been completely oblivious to this Verisign silliness if I hadn't read about it on/.
I think the only downside to OpenNIC at this point is that they have different.biz domains (they had them before ICANN created them, and the members voted to keep their own rather than adopting ICANN's -- yes, OpenNIC is a democracy, too).
Well, two problems with using DNA as a secret for identification purposes:
A. DNA is not unique -- consider identical twins, for example
B. DNA is not secret either; certainly no more secret than fingerprints. You leave piles of copies in the form of hair and shed skin cells whereever you go.
It's from the stage play "A Man for All Seasons", which is about Sir Thomas More, a lawyer and intellectual of the 15th-16th centuries.
There have also been several movies made of it, including the Oscar-winning classic (recommended), and also a reasonably good TV movie starring Charlton Heston.
I'm not really sure I'd call Open Source strictly volunteer, anyway. Personally speaking, about 40% or so of the OSS hacking I do is fixing bugs that I personally need fixed.
Granted, the other 60% is probably making new bugs for other people to fix (I like to think of it as "adding features")... but somehow we still seem to come out ahead in the end. ^_-
The point was that the file simply shouldn't have existed that early (if at all). If the original creation time was even earlier, that still doesn't look good..
But the One Ring isn't technology, it's a force of nature, and thus magic.
Tolkein's thesis (insofar as he even had one) was that the One Ring was a sort of technology, inasmuch as it was most definitely not a force of nature -- it was specifically a work of Sauron's artifice.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes they will, and you'll be forced to click through a pop-up dialog with no cancel button for each one, too.
Well, how do you know that the javascript code will ever terminate (or not do something ELSE bad), or even just behave differently than when run in an actual browser (perhaps yielding a different set of active content)?
... this starts to involve all kinds of fun intractable things like the Halting Problem.
You can't
Basically, this patent bs has just pushed active content filtering (except for simply disallowing all active content and javascript altogether) completely into the realm of the non-computable.
Well, in the case of Flash, at least, if you inlined a very minimal base64ed "loader shell" .swf that loaded the real movie in-place...
Well, the thing there is that if the webmaster does implements the JS workaround, it's THEIR code most directly infringing the patent, not Microsoft's.
Tron-era Disney > Modern Disney.
Oog... it's been a while. I believe it was in an interview with the brothers that was linked to from the /. page a long time ago (like, pre-Matrix Reloaded), but beyond that I couldn't say.
But, yeah, take it with a grain of salt.
Sadly, that was the original idea of the Brothers W. However, the studio people nixed it and suggested an idea the public could understand, like ... well, batteries.
Is everyone really this completely unaware of OpenNIC!?!
> Not an alternative .com or .net authority, though. ...you know, you're right.
Weird. I don't know why I'm not affected by this then...
Somehow I doubt ICANN really cares that much. I really wonder why more people haven't mentioned OpenNIC (an alternate root authority) yet...
I've been using OpenNIC for a long time, and I would have been completely oblivious to this Verisign silliness if I hadn't read about it on /.
I think the only downside to OpenNIC at this point is that they have different .biz domains (they had them before ICANN created them, and the members voted to keep their own rather than adopting ICANN's -- yes, OpenNIC is a democracy, too).
Exceptionally well, so long as the tracker holds up.
Well, two problems with using DNA as a secret for identification purposes:
A. DNA is not unique -- consider identical twins, for example
B. DNA is not secret either; certainly no more secret than fingerprints. You leave piles of copies in the form of hair and shed skin cells whereever you go.
It's from the stage play "A Man for All Seasons", which is about Sir Thomas More, a lawyer and intellectual of the 15th-16th centuries.
There have also been several movies made of it, including the Oscar-winning classic (recommended), and also a reasonably good TV movie starring Charlton Heston.
The patent is broad enough to potentially cover all plugins, no matter how they are implemented.
Well, how about these janitors, for example?
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
I'm not really sure I'd call Open Source strictly volunteer, anyway. Personally speaking, about 40% or so of the OSS hacking I do is fixing bugs that I personally need fixed.
Granted, the other 60% is probably making new bugs for other people to fix (I like to think of it as "adding features")... but somehow we still seem to come out ahead in the end. ^_-
Generally speaking, such copying would be illegal for the general populace to perform for ~95 years.
Unfortunately, most copyright holders don't consider it economically advantageous to preserve data for that long.
This is already a huge problem with film archives -- HUGE portions of our filmic history are now being lost for precisely this reason.
In essence, the only way most of the art and literature of our time could survive would be outlaw "librarians".
In the case of punched cards, you could probably just use a scanner and do the rest in software...
You've just described label-based MAC, by the way.
According to my Economics textbook, innovation was "successfully bringing a product to market."
I switched majors very soon after that.
Because a president, legislator, or other elected official (good or bad) is much less fickle (and potentially more compassionate) than a mob.
see file(1). magic works.
The point was that the file simply shouldn't have existed that early (if at all). If the original creation time was even earlier, that still doesn't look good..
For what it's worth, I didn't feel necessary to make that tie-in myself since it's already done in the article.
Tolkein's thesis (insofar as he even had one) was that the One Ring was a sort of technology, inasmuch as it was most definitely not a force of nature -- it was specifically a work of Sauron's artifice.
This is well-supported in his writings; I also ran across an essay on the subject recently.
...and then Microsoft buys the smoking remains at fire-sale prices and enforces the patent they just bought for cheap.