Use of any robot, spider, other automatic device, or manual process to monitor or copy our Web pages or the content contained herein is strictly forbidden.
The funny thing is that you could interpret this policy as forbidding anyone to so much as look at their website.
An idea just popped into my head: go double major - ME and something more liberal arts, like PoliSci or Languages. Here's the catch: do all the ME stuff first, get it done in 8 semesters, then go for the mind expanders, with a couple graduate classes interspersed. This way, if you can't fund the liberal arts stuff, you can still apply to graduate with a BSME, but if you do, then you can get 2 bachelor's degrees in 6 years with most of a master's thrown in. Of course, this depends on how cool your college is with non-standard schedules.
That is what they say, but it does not explain why dvds of movies made in the seventies, say Cheech and Chong go to Mexico, are released with region encoding. That thing went through the theatres 30 years ago, yet they still region encode them.
Perhaps so that they can sell at different price points? The same move may cost $40 in Japan, #25 in the US, and $8 in India. Without region coding, the distributors might just buy a lot of retail stock from Hyderabad for sale in Tokyo.
Here's one you may have missed - since the NDA would assign ownership of the code to the company you were contracting for, they could default on the contract and keep the product.
so what you're saying here is: Not only does the company own the very thoughts in your head; now, you don't even have to agree to it?
No, it implies that, should your idea relate directly to the company's work, it is probably heavily influenced by what you were paid for and could be viewed as a minor extension of it.
Of course "it matters" if you sign the contract. Otherwise why they insist that you do?
Can't hurt, and it's something to hold over your head.
elling software without the source code is like selling someone a car with the hood locked shut so that you have to go to the manufacturer for maintainence. I wouldn't buy a car like that, would you?
You probably did. If you develop a problem that isn't immediately obvious, only the dealer has the right software to talk to the car's computer and find out what's wrong.
I have a hard time thinking of a computing task that really, honestly needs hundreds of millions of operations a second.
Okay, I'll give you one. The previous poster said he was an engineer at a chip company. Suppose that his job involves building chips with stuff like Spice. Last time i checked, a Spice could take 12 hours for a full simulation of a simple chip, and much longer if it's complex. If he's a software guy, then the disk on his is likely to slow as shit, so compiles will take forever.
The latest piece of crap was that unless everyone got eye tests at their own expense* they would have 1/3 of their wages docked for that month.
From perusing the laws in my state (VA), it's illegal to just take money out of somebody's paycheck, and the company is liable for triple damages. Even sweeter, the state will prosecute on its own.
if Coke & Pepsi can make exclusive contracts, then MS can argue that they can as well.
Not even close. This would only be true if soda sales was so cutthroat that anyone who didn't sign an exclusive deal faced certain bankruptcy. It's this sort of leverage that allows MS to keep everyone else out of the mass PC market.
Oracle partitions are not readable by DB2, Postgress, etc products; it is proprietary to Oracle.
You can dump an oracle database and load it into DB2. You may need a perl script to munge the specifics, but the data is available.
You can't import a quake map into a Quake-like game because there is only Quake. Half-life is different, and there's little in the way of straightforward translation where the differences occurs. It's a non-trivial problem with no interested parties. Oh, and you can the the source to Quake and possible Quake 2 if you want it.
On a more general note, I was addressing the worst part of the Office monopoly - network effects. It is because of the requirement for full compatibility that an Office competitor is very nearly impossible.
This law only stifles my choices and panders to a few idealists, who obviously don't have to make real, true, business decisions about what works best.
So, what we really need is to limit its scope to areas where it's a matter of data interchange without leaving a gaping hole for MS to abuse. Perhaps something like requiring these restrictions for anything that has as its main purpose document generation, with specific exemptions for unencoded stuff like logfiles.
Oracle does not make document interchange software. The data in an Oracle database is accessible in a standard format.
Veritas is proprietary
Veritas makes backup software. The only data interop consideration is whether you can get your data back in the event of a crash, and I believe that Veritas allows you to restore without a license for 30 days.
VMWare is proprietary
Quake is proprietary
Neither Quake nor VMWare have any data interop issues.
With this legislation, all old TVs will be (a) illegal to manufacture, and (b) unusable.
Not true. It will be illegal to broadcast analog after the spectrum is reclaimed, but that's because nobody will be licensed for it. You can still make analog sets and you can hook them up to analog cable or vcrs or whatever.
Slashdot Mirror
Use of any robot, spider, other automatic device, or manual process to monitor or copy our Web pages or the content contained herein is strictly forbidden.
The funny thing is that you could interpret this policy as forbidding anyone to so much as look at their website.
An idea just popped into my head: go double major - ME and something more liberal arts, like PoliSci or Languages. Here's the catch: do all the ME stuff first, get it done in 8 semesters, then go for the mind expanders, with a couple graduate classes interspersed. This way, if you can't fund the liberal arts stuff, you can still apply to graduate with a BSME, but if you do, then you can get 2 bachelor's degrees in 6 years with most of a master's thrown in. Of course, this depends on how cool your college is with non-standard schedules.
I see no problem here.
I do. The whole point of research is to find out new things and then share them. By making the sharing illegal, you render the research moot.
Butter knives can be USED to intimidate people. That doesn't mean that butter knives are bad.
Using a butter knife to intimidate someone is most certainly illegal.
That is what they say, but it does not explain why dvds of movies made in the seventies, say Cheech and Chong go to Mexico, are released with region encoding. That thing went through the theatres 30 years ago, yet they still region encode them.
Perhaps so that they can sell at different price points? The same move may cost $40 in Japan, #25 in the US, and $8 in India. Without region coding, the distributors might just buy a lot of retail stock from Hyderabad for sale in Tokyo.
Of course, it's pretty easy to get so drunk that you fly into the ground.
Pilot: Could a Mr. Smith please stop thinking about our stewardess'. It's frightening them.
Smith: Sure, you're cuter anyway.
Pretty easy. Only problem is that it's currently a felony.
Here's one you may have missed - since the NDA would assign ownership of the code to the company you were contracting for, they could default on the contract and keep the product.
On the other hand, undergrads usually don't sign such agreements.
so what you're saying here is: Not only does the company own the very thoughts in your head; now, you don't even have to agree to it?
No, it implies that, should your idea relate directly to the company's work, it is probably heavily influenced by what you were paid for and could be viewed as a minor extension of it.
Of course "it matters" if you sign the contract. Otherwise why they insist that you do?
Can't hurt, and it's something to hold over your head.
elling software without the source code is like selling someone a car with the hood locked shut so that you have to go to the manufacturer for maintainence. I wouldn't buy a car like that, would you?
You probably did. If you develop a problem that isn't immediately obvious, only the dealer has the right software to talk to the car's computer and find out what's wrong.
It masy have logic to detect the bitness of the slot and behave accordignly. u160 requires 64-bit PCI or else the bus is the bottleneck.
Some people (my CS self included) view EE and hardware as more rigorous than straight CS
I have a hard time thinking of a computing task that really, honestly needs hundreds of millions of operations a second.
Okay, I'll give you one. The previous poster said he was an engineer at a chip company. Suppose that his job involves building chips with stuff like Spice. Last time i checked, a Spice could take 12 hours for a full simulation of a simple chip, and much longer if it's complex. If he's a software guy, then the disk on his is likely to slow as shit, so compiles will take forever.
Go get a Supermicro board - they sell p3 boards with 64-bit PCI. Barring that, go get a G4 powermac
Many people are willing to act for free, how can Linux compete with free?
Isn't it illegal to pay less than scale in Hollywood?
The latest piece of crap was that unless everyone got eye tests at their own expense* they would have 1/3 of their wages docked for that month.
From perusing the laws in my state (VA), it's illegal to just take money out of somebody's paycheck, and the company is liable for triple damages. Even sweeter, the state will prosecute on its own.
Dude! Everybody knows that vinyl beats digital every time.
if Coke & Pepsi can make exclusive contracts, then MS can argue that they can as well.
Not even close. This would only be true if soda sales was so cutthroat that anyone who didn't sign an exclusive deal faced certain bankruptcy. It's this sort of leverage that allows MS to keep everyone else out of the mass PC market.
Oracle partitions are not readable by DB2, Postgress, etc products; it is proprietary to Oracle.
You can dump an oracle database and load it into DB2. You may need a perl script to munge the specifics, but the data is available.
You can't import a quake map into a Quake-like game because there is only Quake. Half-life is different, and there's little in the way of straightforward translation where the differences occurs. It's a non-trivial problem with no interested parties. Oh, and you can the the source to Quake and possible Quake 2 if you want it.
On a more general note, I was addressing the worst part of the Office monopoly - network effects. It is because of the requirement for full compatibility that an Office competitor is very nearly impossible.
This law only stifles my choices and panders to a few idealists, who obviously don't have to make real, true, business decisions about what works best.
So, what we really need is to limit its scope to areas where it's a matter of data interchange without leaving a gaping hole for MS to abuse. Perhaps something like requiring these restrictions for anything that has as its main purpose document generation, with specific exemptions for unencoded stuff like logfiles.
Oracle is proprietary
Oracle does not make document interchange software. The data in an Oracle database is accessible in a standard format.
Veritas is proprietary
Veritas makes backup software. The only data interop consideration is whether you can get your data back in the event of a crash, and I believe that Veritas allows you to restore without a license for 30 days.
VMWare is proprietary
Quake is proprietary
Neither Quake nor VMWare have any data interop issues.
And why do they even put the FBI warning on zone 4 DVD's anyway?
Cheaper than mastering another disk?
With this legislation, all old TVs will be (a) illegal to manufacture, and (b) unusable.
Not true. It will be illegal to broadcast analog after the spectrum is reclaimed, but that's because nobody will be licensed for it. You can still make analog sets and you can hook them up to analog cable or vcrs or whatever.
My first thought after reading the headline was that, instead of firing workers in a downturn, some conpanies would freeze them instead.