I tried to submit a similar story yesterday. My favorite radio station, WFNX in Boston, has had numerous DJs say that they've been sent with Cease-and-Desist orders by the NFL's lawyers, for having used the term "Super Bowl" and other related "trademarks".
Funny thing is, it was not in any way related to a contest, promotion, or anything else. It was simply in the context of speaking freely about their opinions on the teams, their predicted outcome, and the like. In other words, fair use in the course of reporting the news.
So, since when is it illegal for me to refer to "Kleenex" or "Band-Aid", simply because it's trademarked? Would I have to say "a medical bandage produced by the company sounding like Ronson & Ronson"? That's ridiculous.
I won't name names in the negative sense here, lest this be tagged flamebait, troll, or otherwise... But I have to agree 100% - conditionally.
I've seen many producers/publishers release, time and time again, absolute crap. I've also seen, time and time again, a few great major TV/movie franchises have their likeness placed in absolute crap.
I will name names on the positive side.
Rockstar: At the time, GTA's graphics, sound, gameplay, and everything else was not only great, pushing the system's limits, but also revolutionaly.
Microsoft: What they've done for a gaming system, and online gaming, is what I've asked for for a decade, and I must give them credit for doing it superbly. Almost every one of the games that comes out of their studios is great, as well. Halo. Crimson Skies. Project Gotham. MechAssault.
Nintendo: For a tiny box grossly underpowered versus the XBox, I'm shocked at how many beautiful FPS it pumps out. F-Zero is a true honor to its predecessor (for SNES - there was none for N64, I don't care what you say!). Zelda: Windwaker, though it may scare you at first, is also a great game, honoring the original. Shigeru, if you're out there, we all love you.
You_Tell_Me: Since I don't actually play games (I'm a software developer, I work allllllllllll day long like the rest of you <g>), I really don't know of many others...
So, for the sake of saving one gamer's soul (I was almost lost forever myself when Playstation was the only option... ), throw a couple good plugs out there so Kris can maybe enjoy a game for once!
Give it time. Ten years ago we were waiting for some sort of "virtual reality" - we still are (though I must admit an XBox on a plasma HDTV is damn close). Let's also not forget the prospect of 3D and/or holographic displays. And once we get that down, it's only a matter of time before we shift focus to something more like a holodeck. Some LaserTag arenas were a pretty suitable virtual reality experience years ago. We won't be running out anytime soon.
The logical move for them would have been to go with the original story - create a whole NEW filesystem - preferrably taking in as many enhancements from ext3 and Reiser - keeping as much of NTFS as possible - and adding some incredible new "WinFS" features. This would have been totally acceptable in my book. Indexing services and filesystem add-ons, no way. I learned my lesson with DoubleSpace/DriveSpace years ago.
Myself and all my friends have an original run Motion Computing tablet (M1200, 800mhz, 1gb ram). The tablets themselves are the greatest things in every way other than their screens. The backlight is horrible and makes the colors washed out and hard to see at an angle even in low light conditions. In sunlight, forget about using it at all.
This is easy to do in Win2000/XP. Right click the taskbar and choose Toolbars > Address. It'll let you execute any command in your system path, open a folder or file by typing its full name, or load your browser of choice by tying a URL.
I've been a shopper of Stop & Shop, a local but rather large and conglomorate supermarket. They're very cool though, they have everything (including a Dunkin Donuts and a bank built in) and have automated checkouts.
The people there are great. I've met the managers at all of the local stores and they are very nice people, and have helped my grandmother on many occasions.
Their receipts always tell me how much I've saved this visit, and year-to-date. They've printed out customized coupons numerous times that I've actually used, wheras I throw out all others. They've also sent me (and I presume thousands of others) customized mailers, some with bonuses based on my shopping. I've never had a problem with this. In fact, I find it an incredible demonstration of how technology makes things good. I've never received a plain-old weekly flyer from them, they know I don't want it. Instead, I only get what I do want.
I've always been aware of the fact, from day one, that they associate my purchases with my identity. If they want to also warn me of potential health hazards, not knowing I'm highly intelligent and knew about it before them, that's wonderful, and I really hope they do. If not for my sake, for the sake of people like my grandmother, who eat beef pretty much raw.
I also love Microsoft, and develop software with their tools for their platform, and encourage people to stick with it. So you may want to take my opinion with a grain (or ton) of salt.
LALALALALALALALALALALA
STOP SAYING THAT I CANT HEAR YOU!
Seriously, I'm still in denial. Rick Berman's a good guy, right? Sternbach? Okuda? They can save the ship, right? Someone? Really though, you have a point... I for one saw it immediately, but it's pretty painful to admit.
That explains enterprise then! (Providing we overlook an animated series...) TOS sucked, TNG didn't. DS9 sucked, Voyager didn't. Enterprise sucks professionally. That means the next one should be great, right?
I'd love to see an X-Men movie (or even a crossover with other characters) that focuses on some other characters than Wolverine. How about Storm? She's really cool if she's pissed. Or Rogue? I think everyone other than Wolverine was abused (so far as character assassination by non-participation) in the X movies.
Look up the definition of the word in a dictionary, and you'll see it's clearly not so. Years ago, yes, they indeed were. But 85% market share is not 98%.
Unless this gets overturned, we're screwed anyway. This type of blatent misuse of patent law (not to mention doing something that will interfere with millions of people) can't go on or we'll waste money being afraid.
I'm 4 miles outside of Boston, MA, USA in Revere (02151) and have Comcast "Broadband" cable. I got it in 1996 when it first came out with 1.5mbit/512kbit - now I'm reduced to 512kbit/128kbt - yet their commercials keep claiming to have "doubled the speed for free". Hrmph. Anyway, you won't believe this, but our city SUCKS with negotiating - I'm paying $60/mo for the connection plus $10/mo for renting the modem PLUS $15/mo for "home networking" - 2 extra IP addresses (worthless dynamic IPs, I might add). Connection is highly intermittent, has high latency, and clearly is overcrowded with clients as the speed fluctuates wildly (sometimes max. download is as low as 20k/s).
I personally think that whatever "Nielsen//NetRatings" wants to say about the state of the internet holds about as much weight as what SCO has to say about the state of linux these days.
It's a bunch of worthless crap data, relabeled with marketspeak by some PR people who must think they're really cool right about now. Let's not support stupidity like that.
How on earth can one compare Windows Media Player, AOL Instant Messenger, RealPlayer and a WEB BROWSER!?
Granted, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player have limited built-in browser capabilities... but I refuse to accept that 75% of the idiots out there have been permanently trapped into these interfaces. In fact, I know it can not be so.
As far as I'm concerned, this just tells us what people spend most of their time doing - and that that is (unsurprisingly) something other than browsing the web.
I guess it's only right I add in a mention of FIDONet, which is amazingly still alive and kicking.
Any "real" BBS of the time had a connection to FIDOnet. With that, private messages like e-mail could be sent between any two individual users of separate BBS systems. Group message boards could also be tapped into, like the newsgroups of today (perhaps it was actually feeding off usenet and I just didn't know?).
Anyway, FIDONet was awesome too. And free (except for dialup charges).
I used to run "Skynet BBS" in the Boston area, a 2-node 28.8k Wildcat system (originally 1-node 2400bps Renegade system).
Some of the best stuff I can remember from the day were door games - namely LORD (Legend of the Red Dragon) and BRE (Barren Realms Elite). BRE was incredible in that leagues were created by teams of BBS systems sharing user data during off-hours. LORD was just a great text based RPG.
Another thing that was cool was Renegade itself. Although it was freeware, it was better than its commercial competition in many ways. I've always longed for some of its powers to be transplanted to the web.
Then, of course there were the beautiful ANSI graphics you knew were always hand-crafted. And the fact the entire system was made possible by other local hackers. Message boards were far better than today - there were no trolls, there was no flamebait, and spam was still a food best avoided.
Those were the days..... gone forever, I'm afraid.
Shit, I forgot to mention... I don't know the exact model #s of the ones I've used but the D-link one is a access point/dsl router/print server with modem backup... and the Netgear one is a access point/dsl router/vpn router... but none of them were 802.11g - only 802.11b. I'd assume a newer.11g model would only have more features.
I might have missed it, but it seems nobody has mentioned restricting access to the wireless network by MAC address. Every access point I've used from D-link and Netgear have had this ability. Though it's a pain to add new machines to the network and kills one of the benefits of wireless, it's certainly going to keep people from abusing your network.... spying is a different story altogether. But like everyone else has said, this is not enough. Software firewalling is your best bet.
from the article...
...will include efforts by... the super-sensitive 45-metre dish at Stanford University in California, US.
"The Dish", as Stanford's radio telescope is commonly known, is said, theoretically, to be capable of detecting radio emissions from Beagle 2's central processor microchip.
Could there be any truth to this or is the journalist confused (and myself paranoid)? If so, is it only possible cause they'd be looking out into space where there's less interference, at a known location with (presumably) only one device present? Or could it actually be done here on Earth's surface, with all the interference we have? Does it have anything to do with Beagle's CPU being space-hardened and thus older and slower?
Terrifying thought that they could be monitoring EVERYTHING passively...
Slashdot Mirror
Many reasons - but honestly? Mostly greed, since my paycheck comes from the tech sector :).
I tried to submit a similar story yesterday. My favorite radio station, WFNX in Boston, has had numerous DJs say that they've been sent with Cease-and-Desist orders by the NFL's lawyers, for having used the term "Super Bowl" and other related "trademarks".
Funny thing is, it was not in any way related to a contest, promotion, or anything else. It was simply in the context of speaking freely about their opinions on the teams, their predicted outcome, and the like. In other words, fair use in the course of reporting the news.
So, since when is it illegal for me to refer to "Kleenex" or "Band-Aid", simply because it's trademarked? Would I have to say "a medical bandage produced by the company sounding like Ronson & Ronson"? That's ridiculous.
I won't name names in the negative sense here, lest this be tagged flamebait, troll, or otherwise... But I have to agree 100% - conditionally.
I've seen many producers/publishers release, time and time again, absolute crap. I've also seen, time and time again, a few great major TV/movie franchises have their likeness placed in absolute crap.
I will name names on the positive side.
Rockstar: At the time, GTA's graphics, sound, gameplay, and everything else was not only great, pushing the system's limits, but also revolutionaly.
Microsoft: What they've done for a gaming system, and online gaming, is what I've asked for for a decade, and I must give them credit for doing it superbly. Almost every one of the games that comes out of their studios is great, as well. Halo. Crimson Skies. Project Gotham. MechAssault.
Nintendo: For a tiny box grossly underpowered versus the XBox, I'm shocked at how many beautiful FPS it pumps out. F-Zero is a true honor to its predecessor (for SNES - there was none for N64, I don't care what you say!). Zelda: Windwaker, though it may scare you at first, is also a great game, honoring the original. Shigeru, if you're out there, we all love you.
You_Tell_Me: Since I don't actually play games (I'm a software developer, I work allllllllllll day long like the rest of you <g>), I really don't know of many others...
So, for the sake of saving one gamer's soul (I was almost lost forever myself when Playstation was the only option... ), throw a couple good plugs out there so Kris can maybe enjoy a game for once!
Give it time. Ten years ago we were waiting for some sort of "virtual reality" - we still are (though I must admit an XBox on a plasma HDTV is damn close). Let's also not forget the prospect of 3D and/or holographic displays. And once we get that down, it's only a matter of time before we shift focus to something more like a holodeck. Some LaserTag arenas were a pretty suitable virtual reality experience years ago. We won't be running out anytime soon.
The logical move for them would have been to go with the original story - create a whole NEW filesystem - preferrably taking in as many enhancements from ext3 and Reiser - keeping as much of NTFS as possible - and adding some incredible new "WinFS" features. This would have been totally acceptable in my book. Indexing services and filesystem add-ons, no way. I learned my lesson with DoubleSpace/DriveSpace years ago.
Myself and all my friends have an original run Motion Computing tablet (M1200, 800mhz, 1gb ram). The tablets themselves are the greatest things in every way other than their screens. The backlight is horrible and makes the colors washed out and hard to see at an angle even in low light conditions. In sunlight, forget about using it at all.
I said it before and I'll say it again - they are no longer a monopoly - those who call them one are simply living in the past.
Oh yeah and can we stop asking for things to be removed like Media Player? It's a moot point now that EVERY OS comes with a gazillion tools built in.
This is easy to do in Win2000/XP. Right click the taskbar and choose Toolbars > Address. It'll let you execute any command in your system path, open a folder or file by typing its full name, or load your browser of choice by tying a URL.
lol. I can't seem to avoid replying to myself....
I've been a shopper of Stop & Shop, a local but rather large and conglomorate supermarket. +for many years
I've been a shopper of Stop & Shop, a local but rather large and conglomorate supermarket. They're very cool though, they have everything (including a Dunkin Donuts and a bank built in) and have automated checkouts.
The people there are great. I've met the managers at all of the local stores and they are very nice people, and have helped my grandmother on many occasions.
Their receipts always tell me how much I've saved this visit, and year-to-date. They've printed out customized coupons numerous times that I've actually used, wheras I throw out all others. They've also sent me (and I presume thousands of others) customized mailers, some with bonuses based on my shopping. I've never had a problem with this. In fact, I find it an incredible demonstration of how technology makes things good. I've never received a plain-old weekly flyer from them, they know I don't want it. Instead, I only get what I do want.
I've always been aware of the fact, from day one, that they associate my purchases with my identity. If they want to also warn me of potential health hazards, not knowing I'm highly intelligent and knew about it before them, that's wonderful, and I really hope they do. If not for my sake, for the sake of people like my grandmother, who eat beef pretty much raw.
I also love Microsoft, and develop software with their tools for their platform, and encourage people to stick with it. So you may want to take my opinion with a grain (or ton) of salt.
LALALALALALALALALALALA STOP SAYING THAT I CANT HEAR YOU! Seriously, I'm still in denial. Rick Berman's a good guy, right? Sternbach? Okuda? They can save the ship, right? Someone? Really though, you have a point... I for one saw it immediately, but it's pretty painful to admit.
That explains enterprise then! (Providing we overlook an animated series...) TOS sucked, TNG didn't. DS9 sucked, Voyager didn't. Enterprise sucks professionally. That means the next one should be great, right?
I'd love to see an X-Men movie (or even a crossover with other characters) that focuses on some other characters than Wolverine. How about Storm? She's really cool if she's pissed. Or Rogue? I think everyone other than Wolverine was abused (so far as character assassination by non-participation) in the X movies.
Look up the definition of the word in a dictionary, and you'll see it's clearly not so. Years ago, yes, they indeed were. But 85% market share is not 98%.
Unless this gets overturned, we're screwed anyway. This type of blatent misuse of patent law (not to mention doing something that will interfere with millions of people) can't go on or we'll waste money being afraid.
...and I'm really starting to have trouble remembering which articles are actually dupes here.
I'm 4 miles outside of Boston, MA, USA in Revere (02151) and have Comcast "Broadband" cable. I got it in 1996 when it first came out with 1.5mbit/512kbit - now I'm reduced to 512kbit/128kbt - yet their commercials keep claiming to have "doubled the speed for free". Hrmph. Anyway, you won't believe this, but our city SUCKS with negotiating - I'm paying $60/mo for the connection plus $10/mo for renting the modem PLUS $15/mo for "home networking" - 2 extra IP addresses (worthless dynamic IPs, I might add). Connection is highly intermittent, has high latency, and clearly is overcrowded with clients as the speed fluctuates wildly (sometimes max. download is as low as 20k/s).
I personally think that whatever "Nielsen//NetRatings" wants to say about the state of the internet holds about as much weight as what SCO has to say about the state of linux these days.
It's a bunch of worthless crap data, relabeled with marketspeak by some PR people who must think they're really cool right about now. Let's not support stupidity like that.
How on earth can one compare Windows Media Player, AOL Instant Messenger, RealPlayer and a WEB BROWSER!?
Granted, RealPlayer and Windows Media Player have limited built-in browser capabilities... but I refuse to accept that 75% of the idiots out there have been permanently trapped into these interfaces. In fact, I know it can not be so.
As far as I'm concerned, this just tells us what people spend most of their time doing - and that that is (unsurprisingly) something other than browsing the web.
I guess it's only right I add in a mention of FIDONet, which is amazingly still alive and kicking.
Any "real" BBS of the time had a connection to FIDOnet. With that, private messages like e-mail could be sent between any two individual users of separate BBS systems. Group message boards could also be tapped into, like the newsgroups of today (perhaps it was actually feeding off usenet and I just didn't know?).
Anyway, FIDONet was awesome too. And free (except for dialup charges).
I used to run "Skynet BBS" in the Boston area, a 2-node 28.8k Wildcat system (originally 1-node 2400bps Renegade system).
Some of the best stuff I can remember from the day were door games - namely LORD (Legend of the Red Dragon) and BRE (Barren Realms Elite). BRE was incredible in that leagues were created by teams of BBS systems sharing user data during off-hours. LORD was just a great text based RPG.
Another thing that was cool was Renegade itself. Although it was freeware, it was better than its commercial competition in many ways. I've always longed for some of its powers to be transplanted to the web.
Then, of course there were the beautiful ANSI graphics you knew were always hand-crafted. And the fact the entire system was made possible by other local hackers. Message boards were far better than today - there were no trolls, there was no flamebait, and spam was still a food best avoided.
Those were the days..... gone forever, I'm afraid.
Shit, I forgot to mention... I don't know the exact model #s of the ones I've used but the D-link one is a access point/dsl router/print server with modem backup... and the Netgear one is a access point/dsl router/vpn router ... but none of them were 802.11g - only 802.11b. I'd assume a newer .11g model would only have more features.
I might have missed it, but it seems nobody has mentioned restricting access to the wireless network by MAC address. Every access point I've used from D-link and Netgear have had this ability. Though it's a pain to add new machines to the network and kills one of the benefits of wireless, it's certainly going to keep people from abusing your network.... spying is a different story altogether. But like everyone else has said, this is not enough. Software firewalling is your best bet.
Mars is several light years away? I think you meant minutes :D
First, the facts from the Planetary Society:o ns.html
o rm.html
http://www.planetary.org/learn/missions/marsmissi
I saw this one in a comment the other day to a related article... Not sure I believe it myself but some of the pictures and points raised are interesting nonetheless...
http://yorkshireufoinfo.homestead.com/PhobosPlatf
from the article...
...will include efforts by ... the super-sensitive 45-metre dish at Stanford University in California, US.
"The Dish", as Stanford's radio telescope is commonly known, is said, theoretically, to be capable of detecting radio emissions from Beagle 2's central processor microchip.
Could there be any truth to this or is the journalist confused (and myself paranoid)? If so, is it only possible cause they'd be looking out into space where there's less interference, at a known location with (presumably) only one device present? Or could it actually be done here on Earth's surface, with all the interference we have? Does it have anything to do with Beagle's CPU being space-hardened and thus older and slower?
Terrifying thought that they could be monitoring EVERYTHING passively...