...that some people actually gives a rat's ass on what the current kilogram is based upon. It's 1000 grams. Take the weight of whatever base item they're are using, and multiply it by a thousand.
And what's wrong with using the present scales available on the market... don't tell me that the manufacturers actually brought their designers to this place and actually weigh it on their prototypes!
a video of myself doing some Neo-esque bullet-dodging kunf-fu moves... maybe I'll get an iPod too.
All joking aside, from the interview, Ghyslain (the starwars kid) acted quite mature for someone his age... aware that his not-meant-for-public-viewing is now world famous he chose not to be bitter or overly proud of this. He seems to just let it pass as a page in his life story.
Anyway, he did make me laugh, and what a way to start what is anticipated to be a loooong busy day.
IANAL, in fact I didn't even read the article (and proud of it too), but spam is unsolicited commercial email. To keep it simple if your email is...
1) Sent in bulk to people who did not specifically ask to be contacted via email. 2) Is selling some form of product or service.... then it is spam. If you're just mass mailing rants and raves about non-commercial stuff, it's just chain e-mails (to me at least, not that I love them any more than spam).
... and all, but the problem is not with the system itself, but means to enforce the rights of the patent holder.
eg. Let's say someone from Ghana created some cool gadget which has no predecessors or anything even remotely similar already available in the market. How soon would someone from the US inventing a similar gadget would know that there is already such thing patented a few days ago?
Another scenario, assuming that local authorities are given the power to enforce this global patent protection law... would they be able to do it without bias? I mean if someone could build a pet robot dog that is just as intelligent and fun as the Aibo but is priced at 50% of the original Aibo, would the local authorities feel obliged to arrest this guy for patent infringement?
And while we're at the subject of infringement, who decides whether an infringement has occured? And where will these records be stored? This might be one of the most massive database ever created (if this is feasible in the first place)!
MS might be gauging the popularity of WM formats on non-MS platforms. Since Linux is undoubtedly one of the more popular OS platform, perhaps that is why it is chosen as the first platform to be ported to.
Benefits? It never was meant to benefit anyone but MS. Why should they bother in the first place if it wasn't beneficial for them? What other OSs are embedded on devices with comparable popularity to embedded Windows (CE, XP, choose your poison)? PalmOS perhaps... however media en/decoding is more mature on the Linux platform (correct me if I'm wrong).
Conclusion: MS couldn't give a rat's ass on what principles the OS is built upon... as long as it can benefit them in one way or another.
It is just too restrictive for a business entity. How many companies that you know of that can claim to have profitted from GPL-based software? Redhat (please, they're virtually unheard of outside of the OS markets), IBM (they've been a gigantic conglomerate long before Linux became mainstream).
Windows on the other hand, like it or not, is a catalyst of profitable software firms. Where would Adobe, Veritas, heck even Electronic Arts be without MS? Sure the OS is buggy, and fixes aren't released lightning fast... But who can say that without Windows, these company would be just as successful today?
Microsoft sure does a lot of wrong things when it comes to Windows... but one thing it got right from the beginning was how to drive the market to complement their invention, and without opening up their source code at that. In some cases, the related SDK will do just fine.
When viewing from a pro-Open Source perspective, yes you can argue that MySQL is maturing well enough and hopefully can challenge the bigwigs in a few version revision. This argument is not only targetted at MySQL, but other open source DBs such as PostgreSQL, SAP DB, etc.
This is because in out typical Slashdot environment, people are supportive of the Open Source movement. But companies (suprise, suprise!), do not follow our line of thought.
We see it as free, they see it as if they are giving it away for free, then there must be a problem with it. Or more precisely I'm not gonna use it because there won't be anyone who's available 24-7 so that I can ask support about something which is already in the docs but I'm too lazy to go through it.
Some may laugh, but if you are working in a technical field... you'll start to wonder "Why the hell did I spend 3 days working on this documentation when the lusers won't be reading them anyway!".
And guess what, the big corporations know this! They'll say that with their product, all you need to worry about is what to use it for. Installation, servicing, patching will be covered by the company. Furthermore, they'll bundle application design apps, etc., to make your life easier. With an open source DB, you'll have to code one yourself, or use another that's already available.
We have to think as lusers instead of coders, to see why this bigwigs are getting paid a whole lot more for releasing something which is already available (to a certain extent) for free.
about Liberty Alliance as something like it's some sort of individual tagging system? I thought it was some sort of alternative cross-site authentication system to challenge Microsoft's Passport technology?
From the Article: FEDERAL police have executed search warrants on Telstra and internet company Eftel in one of Australia's largest investigations into alleged music piracy, which could be worth up to $60 million.
Wow... $60 million!
Assuming the price of a CD is $20, it means that the pirate has an MP3 collection of equivalent to 3,000,000 CDs!
Assuming each CD has 10 songs on it, then the pirate has 30 million MP3s!
Assuming each MP3 is about 5 megs... then the amount of storage required is 150TB!
Did they raid Kazaa's ISP literally... or is this just one journalist's idea of sprucing up what should have been a normal IP-infringement case?
Or maybe it's because Israel is a Western, democratic civilization who occupies the land it acquired through defeating Arab aggression, in order to attempt to control acts of terrorism against its citizenry, that have been carried out for decades.
Israel is located around the same neighbourhood as its Arab neighbours, and yet they are Western? Assuming this is so, is it then absolutely fine for a Western civilization to invade their non-western neighbours?
How many times has Israel attempted to conquer its neighbors?
Last I checked about half of Israel is conquered land.
How many times has it used chemical warfare against foreign or domestic parties?
How the hell would you know? I mean, seriously... While Americans keep a very close watch on Communist and Arab states, they don't give a rat's ass about what Israel are doing. They kill unarmed women, children and old folks just because they happen to live in the same neighbourhood of some wanted terrorists.
Sure the UN is not at war with Israel... the US owns the UN... the US also happens to be good friends with Israel. Israel will be free to do whatever the hell it wants as long as good old Uncle Sam is up there. But as the saying goes, every dog has its day... you just won't know when the day will come.
an IM for Power Users. Something that doesn't use a lot of system resources. Can support broadcasting to multiple clients. I was thinking something along the lines of NET SEND (for Win32 freaks) or WALL (for *nix freaks).
I mean, which management would resist an oppertunity to improve communication dymanics of their staff but without reducing productivity by playing with UI (they came from hell I tell you!) uselessness?!
That's it... I'm patenting this idea and selling it to AOL!
Slashdot Mirror
...that some people actually gives a rat's ass on what the current kilogram is based upon. It's 1000 grams. Take the weight of whatever base item they're are using, and multiply it by a thousand.
And what's wrong with using the present scales available on the market... don't tell me that the manufacturers actually brought their designers to this place and actually weigh it on their prototypes!
Does your mrs work in Transmeta? I'd be going for that blood test ASAP after junior's birth if I were you.
who else read this headline and thought it was some sort of race participated by transvestite models of power tools?
a video of myself doing some Neo-esque bullet-dodging kunf-fu moves... maybe I'll get an iPod too.
All joking aside, from the interview, Ghyslain (the starwars kid) acted quite mature for someone his age... aware that his not-meant-for-public-viewing is now world famous he chose not to be bitter or overly proud of this. He seems to just let it pass as a page in his life story.
Anyway, he did make me laugh, and what a way to start what is anticipated to be a loooong busy day.
Thanks Ghyslain!
IANAL, in fact I didn't even read the article (and proud of it too), but spam is unsolicited commercial email. To keep it simple if your email is...
... then it is spam. If you're just mass mailing rants and raves about non-commercial stuff, it's just chain e-mails (to me at least, not that I love them any more than spam).
1) Sent in bulk to people who did not specifically ask to be contacted via email.
2) Is selling some form of product or service.
God save the Queen...
Yay to the Brits!
...but the internet in general. His fav sites, his thoughts on the blogging phenomenon, even googling, while we're at it.
In fact, the gist of the article is about sites he likes and visits often...
Err, and it's not even an article per se... shouldn't this be categorized under Interviews instead?
including this personal favourite of mine:
;-)
I'm a avid reader of Slashdot, I'm a Linux guru, I'm a BOFH, I'm a geek, Why the hell would I want this f#@#ng software?
Sorry, but I think this is not the project for you. (well, at least geeks like any kind of tech, so if you want to look at the source code..
... and all, but the problem is not with the system itself, but means to enforce the rights of the patent holder.
eg. Let's say someone from Ghana created some cool gadget which has no predecessors or anything even remotely similar already available in the market. How soon would someone from the US inventing a similar gadget would know that there is already such thing patented a few days ago?
Another scenario, assuming that local authorities are given the power to enforce this global patent protection law... would they be able to do it without bias? I mean if someone could build a pet robot dog that is just as intelligent and fun as the Aibo but is priced at 50% of the original Aibo, would the local authorities feel obliged to arrest this guy for patent infringement?
And while we're at the subject of infringement, who decides whether an infringement has occured? And where will these records be stored? This might be one of the most massive database ever created (if this is feasible in the first place)!
Does anyone else see two topic icons on this article? The slashback icon as well as the AMD one.
And it's not some browser specific bug... It's displayed in both Mozilla and IE.
The value of these new processors can only be seen after the next few releases... the prices tend to drop, and thus making it more affordable.
The speed increments nowadays are much less steep than it was in the mid 90s.
So now is actually the time to purchase that 2.5GHz processor that you were drooling over about six months ago.
MS might be gauging the popularity of WM formats on non-MS platforms. Since Linux is undoubtedly one of the more popular OS platform, perhaps that is why it is chosen as the first platform to be ported to.
Benefits? It never was meant to benefit anyone but MS. Why should they bother in the first place if it wasn't beneficial for them? What other OSs are embedded on devices with comparable popularity to embedded Windows (CE, XP, choose your poison)? PalmOS perhaps... however media en/decoding is more mature on the Linux platform (correct me if I'm wrong).
Conclusion: MS couldn't give a rat's ass on what principles the OS is built upon... as long as it can benefit them in one way or another.
I bet there won't ever be a movie released about "The DVD Jon Trials"... At least not on DVD.
I imagine it'd be like the default XP shutdown sound... *doo wee do doooo!*
I get to practice my typing skills...
/j #mp3passion
eg.
Fire up an irc client
Join an irc server
@find $lt;song title>
!SomeNick <song title>
*dum dee dum*
DCC get complete...
Ahh, the sound of music at near CD quality... And no bloody saxophone or whatever instrument that gayish Kenny G thinks he can play next.
Who needs hackers when the Windows can exploit itself over and over again...
I believe it's called self-abuse... for the more techie, it's known as digital-masturbation.
the successful conversion of Blender from proprietary to GPL?
It is just too restrictive for a business entity. How many companies that you know of that can claim to have profitted from GPL-based software? Redhat (please, they're virtually unheard of outside of the OS markets), IBM (they've been a gigantic conglomerate long before Linux became mainstream).
Windows on the other hand, like it or not, is a catalyst of profitable software firms. Where would Adobe, Veritas, heck even Electronic Arts be without MS? Sure the OS is buggy, and fixes aren't released lightning fast... But who can say that without Windows, these company would be just as successful today?
Microsoft sure does a lot of wrong things when it comes to Windows... but one thing it got right from the beginning was how to drive the market to complement their invention, and without opening up their source code at that. In some cases, the related SDK will do just fine.
first post to my name!
When viewing from a pro-Open Source perspective, yes you can argue that MySQL is maturing well enough and hopefully can challenge the bigwigs in a few version revision. This argument is not only targetted at MySQL, but other open source DBs such as PostgreSQL, SAP DB, etc.
This is because in out typical Slashdot environment, people are supportive of the Open Source movement. But companies (suprise, suprise!), do not follow our line of thought.
We see it as free, they see it as if they are giving it away for free, then there must be a problem with it. Or more precisely I'm not gonna use it because there won't be anyone who's available 24-7 so that I can ask support about something which is already in the docs but I'm too lazy to go through it.
Some may laugh, but if you are working in a technical field... you'll start to wonder "Why the hell did I spend 3 days working on this documentation when the lusers won't be reading them anyway!".
And guess what, the big corporations know this! They'll say that with their product, all you need to worry about is what to use it for. Installation, servicing, patching will be covered by the company. Furthermore, they'll bundle application design apps, etc., to make your life easier. With an open source DB, you'll have to code one yourself, or use another that's already available.
We have to think as lusers instead of coders, to see why this bigwigs are getting paid a whole lot more for releasing something which is already available (to a certain extent) for free.
about Liberty Alliance as something like it's some sort of individual tagging system? I thought it was some sort of alternative cross-site authentication system to challenge Microsoft's Passport technology?
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
Did you even read the article? It's the investigation's thats large. [not slamming you, but I've never heard of Eftel either!]
From the Article: FEDERAL police have executed search warrants on Telstra and internet company Eftel in one of Australia's largest investigations into alleged music piracy, which could be worth up to $60 million.
Wow... $60 million!
Assuming the price of a CD is $20, it means that the pirate has an MP3 collection of equivalent to 3,000,000 CDs!
Assuming each CD has 10 songs on it, then the pirate has 30 million MP3s!
Assuming each MP3 is about 5 megs... then the amount of storage required is 150TB!
Did they raid Kazaa's ISP literally... or is this just one journalist's idea of sprucing up what should have been a normal IP-infringement case?
Or maybe it's because Israel is a Western, democratic civilization who occupies the land it acquired through defeating Arab aggression, in order to attempt to control acts of terrorism against its citizenry, that have been carried out for decades.
Israel is located around the same neighbourhood as its Arab neighbours, and yet they are Western? Assuming this is so, is it then absolutely fine for a Western civilization to invade their non-western neighbours?
How many times has Israel attempted to conquer its neighbors?
Last I checked about half of Israel is conquered land.
How many times has it used chemical warfare against foreign or domestic parties?
How the hell would you know? I mean, seriously... While Americans keep a very close watch on Communist and Arab states, they don't give a rat's ass about what Israel are doing. They kill unarmed women, children and old folks just because they happen to live in the same neighbourhood of some wanted terrorists.
Sure the UN is not at war with Israel... the US owns the UN... the US also happens to be good friends with Israel. Israel will be free to do whatever the hell it wants as long as good old Uncle Sam is up there. But as the saying goes, every dog has its day... you just won't know when the day will come.
an IM for Power Users. Something that doesn't use a lot of system resources. Can support broadcasting to multiple clients. I was thinking something along the lines of NET SEND (for Win32 freaks) or WALL (for *nix freaks).
I mean, which management would resist an oppertunity to improve communication dymanics of their staff but without reducing productivity by playing with UI (they came from hell I tell you!) uselessness?!
That's it... I'm patenting this idea and selling it to AOL!