To to growing interest in opposing MS they will introduce MS Anti-MS with every copy of windows. This would point to MS-sponsered Anti-MS sites hosted on MSN thereby removing competition in that market as well!
After all, most of the "communist Dictators" get their software from US companies.
The govt may pass laws to monitor everything electronic, but it's still a free society--if enough techs refuse to work on such projects then maybe they won't happen...or at least be so screwed up they won't work.
Maybe CmdrTaco could devote a part of the YRO dept to blacklisting programmers that work on projects that are against our civil rights! Then the Open source groups could refuse patches from them, employers could refuse employment, girls could refuse to date them, etc.
The trademark may be SCO's but the actual work has always been done by the big guys. I have a sneaking suspision that IBM has more unix-related patents than SCO!
The real point of SCO having Unix was to prevent monoploy. After all, look at the other players: IBM, SUN, HP, SGI, etc..a who's who of mainframe computing. Imagine the hurt caused if any one of them had full claim to Unix--the AT lawsuits would fly! So they let a small, little guy have it instead of buying it from NEC/digital. Most of these company's Unices look nothing like SCO anymore. These companies have dumped 20+ years of their own research into Unix--and that work is theirs to place where ever they choose. Who's to say they can't take their own work and port it to something else!
That's clearly IBM's stand. From the stuff I've seen, they're not suing for outright patent or copyright infringement, but "license misapproperiation" type claims. In other words IBM learned stuff--not necessarily patented- and took it outside the family.
Wasn't SCO once the bad kid for porting Unix down to x86 so many years ago. Bought out by Caldera--who made their money developing Linux to beat SCO.
Both the pot and the kettle are black--get over it!
The best example of a money-making game rigt now is the sims! Yeah I know, this is/. but it's a model ID and Epic have missed. They never release levels, or updates anymore-most you can get is one or two expansions out of anyone.
I'm all for the serious sam type- where they release a smaller, higher-tech game more often, yet centered around the same story. A massive game like Doom 3 is really cool, but they could have knocked out 2-3 smaller games that used better tech than Q3 by now.
Also, the true PC game companies are ignoring large groups of players. There's a lot out there besides FPS. Even better games to be made using FPS engines--they are way under utilized.
Again, the problem with the mega-corps is that they are always after the big score [20% more growth than last years 50%] rather than smaller, but steady reliable stream of income. Doesn't always make a lot of money, but it keeps food on the table.
Yep! Re:Are they technological-age hippies?
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World of Ends
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· Score: 1
yep! The college kids and profs of the 60's and 70's scoffed at Ma Bell's near bullet-proof monopoly [at the time]. They also had DARPA money to design an always reliable Military network--one where as long as a single wire remained between two points there was communication.
Look at the results of what they created. Contrast that with the 80 year-old telcos. Why didn't the telcos inovate this stuff first? Because they didn't have to! And if they didn't want to, they kept anyone else from innovation too! So yeah, they were techno-hippies just like those other guys in the late 1700's [Tomas, george, ben, john, etc were equally if not more "hippie" at the time. Look what they created!] Free markets mean just that. Most capitalist believe in free markets right up until they expect the Govt. to step in and protect their lucrative monoploies!
First, you and who's money is going to get that! Even the DOJ didn't get full access, only certian "specialists"! The point of disclosure, innovation if you will, is to get around the patent. Software is also copyrighted and DMCA'd. Without documents [even laid out specifications of operation], reverse engineering, or packet sniffing you won't get far legally! The most famous case of this type was the Xerox/Cannon Photocopier battles of the 80's. Xerox tried to patent all Photocoping. Cannon was able to look at the prints, schematics, machines and engineer a coppier that did not infringe. Xerox took them to court and lost the case because the judge was able to rule that the physical devices were different enough not to infringe. Software patents do not have that option.
My point is that the particulars are not disclosed in the patent before it is granted.
Here's an example of a "software-style" patent:
Patent for a material transport device.
This device will transport a number of pieces or quantity of material beween two points in physical space.
The device or devices will consist of a number of wheels and/or other means of reducing of easing the motion of the device
The device or devices will consist of a container or containers of a various number of shapes and/or sizes in which to hold material.
The device would include attachments to one or more methods of powerment. This may include any combination of persons, animals, motors, or other material transport devices.
Devices may optionally be attached in a number of configurations including: Linear attachment and horizontal and/or vertical stacking.
anyway, you get the idea. These claims are the only thing attached to the patent! You can't see what I'm actually patenting to figure out how to get around it! My actual designs are protected by trade secret & copyright, so I don't have to submitt them. If you haven't figured it out, I just patented pretty much every moving vehicle that carries stuff! wheelbarowws, wagons, ricshaw, dumptruck, train, pickup, ox drawn cart, etc... You have no recourse to prevent this from happening. You can't call up the PTO and tell 'um to stop. Once it's granted you cannot challange it or clarify it without paying huge court costs--quite often your own when I sue you! Common sense doesn't rule--the PTO refuses to take back poorly chosen patents, and the courts won't make them.
Yes this is ridiculous! but this is exactly what software patents are!
They are creating another Join-us-or-die, borg-style monopoly under our noses! Do you think rare will do another mario game for Nintendo-Ha!
While they weren't the most aclaimed games to PC gamers, Rare's games have always been excellently executed, and targeted toward non-teen-video-junkie audiences. That is forever taken away from us.
Between Sony, EA, Sega, and Microsoft the days of the independent game studio are numbered [1000 to be exact] Id, Epic, Blizzard, etc may survive, but they each only make one type of game, and that game doesn't have a very large audience. Notice the dwindeling variety of PC games... As MS improves Xbox, I'm sure they'll start pulling in their standards from PC [flight sim, age of ??, etc] to be xbox only.
But ATI has been Top Dog & had it's A%% handed back by the little guy. They only stayed in business this long because they worked to take care of the customers they had trying not to lose them to NVidia.
As long as they start taking care of end-user issues better - drivers/support they should do OK.
Just will some one release real Linux/*nix support already. There's a huge market for it. Besides MS is going to pick only one for their next X-Box. The other will go hungry as MS destroys PC gaming to further xbox!
I know most Slashdotters wouldn't notice this.. but there is a growing trend in resturant/entertainment places starting up. Dave & Buster style places are really cool. They cater mostly to young adults, 18-35-ish. They usually have Skeeball, darts and other games, but there is a lack of arcade games--there jsut aren't any cool ones out there.
The problem is that no one has put arcade games, internet games, and rpgs together. The best example I can think of is Pokemon.
It was very nicely tiered across their line of products. You could take your handheld characters and use them to battle in 3D on the console! If you know anything about Pokemon, you'll understand what's next... It would have been the perfect arcade game! They attempted something like it with snap? but it was too low key. As an arcade game, they could have had big screen Poke-battles at the arcade, and connect them with the internet to other arcades. Then you could have standings, and lots of other stuff. And of course, you would take your original cart home and train up your monster after you lost horribily.
I think Id or EA could pull something like this off using PCs instead. Quake isn't really a general public style game--it's too violent. Something like Warcraft or Diablo would work. The key is to involve the spectators as well as the players! Lots of PC games would be cool to watch if you could see the big picture [a whole Quake, Warcraft, Diablo level at once] They would see things the players wouldn't notice.
And of course you could use massive plasma screens with high-powered video cards. [32-way GeforceFX anybody]
ambiguity is the problem! Re:it's a design patent
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Another Garbage Patent
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· Score: 5, Insightful
In meatspace, patents are black and white. Judges interput physical patent very strictly. Even slight modifications can get around someone's patent. Best part is, you have access to the patented parts of the design. They are included in the grant.
The problem with software patents is lack of code disclosure. If the patent judges could compare line-by-line a MS.asp page feature with a php/apache page, they would laugh most of this stuff out of court. Unfortunately, they can't force them to include the patented code, because code is also protected under copyright and trade secret. The patent office is allowing a "black box" style patent--without even proof of a working system. They used to require detailed specs and proof of actual working devices. Now companies like Rambus can draw some pretty pictures and then prosecute the people who actually spend time and resources building the thing. This goes aginst 200 years of precedent!
That alone should be enough to get these thrown out, but patents don't work that way. They are assumed to be sacred, holy, creative genius by the courts until someone spends the time and money to strike each one down. Our wonderfull legal system doesn't allow the courts to "see" what goes on in the real world, only what comes into court--they can't even overturn bad Laws until someone's hanged for breaking it!
How many kids will get a hold of this on their own. I mean, my 4 year old understands windows enough to run the autorun-setup program!
parental keys only work after it's installed. I just don't like the idea of kids randomly getting ahold of this.
My wife is horrible about gambling! I have a stuffed dog from the fair that cost $50! We just kept on playin' until she won something and in the end we ended up owing the guy like $30 cause we weren't payin' before each shot. Since then, I don't let her out of my sight at the fair, or at least hand her a budget and cut her off! the dog serves as a visual reminder! If she ever walked in a casino, I'd be bankrupt!
They say people should stop themselves, but I'll tell you that certian personalities just can't stop hoping for the big score! Putting this in any form where kids can get it unattended is just wrong and should be stopped! The people planning this should be booted from office or fired, whichever applies! If your Legislative critters get ideas like this--boot 'um!
I found nothing wrong with the article! He gave published facts. I recognized about half from shashdot postings in the past.
He needs to spend some time editing it--it sounds like a rant. An outside opinion is good for raising the awareness of what MS is actually like.
The biggest problem with bosses it that Bill Gates is so rich. They can't understand how he could be doing something wrong! This article clearly states what MS has done in the past--Why would they change tunes in the future. Those were the facts. This would convice most bosses that MS is after them
That said it needs to be edited to lead the reader to his conclusions rather than interjecting his opinions too soon. This is something I could show to my boss if it was cleaned up a little!
He better be afraid, very afraid. MS is buying up the best and brightest game studios out there: Bungie [Oni, halo], Rare [mario!, donkey kong junior, perfect dark?], looks like they've been pineing for Blizzard, and they buy up every new star before they get the first game out [Gas Powered Games]! Soon Id and Epic won't matter to MS. They need to develop their own platform to survive!
MS wants his lunch, nothing personal it's just business [sounds like something from Godfather].
Knoppix is close, but you need a faster boot device/local storage setup.
personally, I'd go with a PCI card with 4-16 mb flash ram + CF card?(and maybe a little custom circutry to make the Execs happy) that looks like an IDE adapter. [The flash ram would hold over reboots, and the CF card would store a little more stuff. Flash is expensive, but CF doesn't like to R/W too many times] It would hold the core kernel, driver, and game saves. You could also use a USB drive, but that wouldn't keep the hardware config and [any foibles] onboard your system. This setup would not need a hard drive! Just lots of ram, 512 would be OK and cheaper than a HD, with the proper game optimizations.
I know people don't like to reboot, but Knoppix does really well and dosen't mess up your HD! This would work great for games because they could be optimized for best operation, yet the system card could provide compatibility info! And this would work on every system level bypassing MS rules, because the boot control is in hardware!
I was privately hoping that X-Box would turn into a PC OS. It could have been cool-the ability to play cutting edge games, yet switch instantly back to windows. Oh well, their loss. Now maybe Linux could try this.
Id would be foolish to pass this up! MS wants their lunch. The beast never gets enough! (See the future of MS article.) No tech is safe--It's not if MS will screw you, it's now when will MS screw you! Get out while there's time!!
Most people upgrading to the new OS will do so with new machines; they may be forced to. i.e. most companies -mine included, purchase Office with every new computer. The cost otherwise is too expensive "not" to do it.
Anyone Upgrading from 9x to XP still has to update most of their software. The older stuff may work, but the compaies (Roxio, et al) have had no plan to patch older versions to XP--I see no reason for this to change with Longhorn.
How many people actualy buy software other than games? Most people (i.e. non-slashdotters) don't buy that much software. They "borrow" from friends or get what they can for free online--so they won't really notice any more change than from 9x to XP! And remember, you're supposed to be playing your games on XBox. DirectX was just a market test/ engineering sample to help MS create XBox.
IF MS adds all the product activation, and convinces other companies to do the same then people will cry out...or Linux might grab a huge amount of share in hurry. All those "outdated" PCs that Longhorn won't run on should be the next target! CrossOver and Transgamming should start gearin' up! All they really have to support is 9x to get a lot of share in a hurry.
First, the problem with the Bells is greed. There have been numerous posts here over the last several years about the Bells' behvior. They have had better than 5 years to prepare for DSL. Many Bells still choose to buy and install non-DSL equipment while the customers are begging for DSL! True, the line sharing cuts into profits, but almost every Bell has spent millions trying to wipe out the cell-phone industry, a plan that is blatant misapproperation of funds an order of magnitude bigger than DSL! Also, they have tried getting into everything electronic except providing better phone lines.
The phone companies want what the Cable Co has--complete power over connection and content! That power was taken for a reason and the FCC seems to forget why. Look at AT&T. They are a telco-they have no business in content, let alone cable! I still will maintain that the FCC should let the Bells buy up the Cable Co....and then hold them to the common-carrier class and forbid media-houses from controlling them. Remember the cable guys are double speaking too. Each town's cable is a seperate company on the books--the big owners use that "poor little guy" image to get relaxed laws (much like the entertainment industry) The game isn't about profit--it's about control, total absolute control, pure and simple! It's about creating monopolies while distracting Govt. and then hiding behind the investors and "property" rights at every pointed finger. The worst part is that investors belive this stuff! These companies business plans are to create monopoly and investors are paying big bucks for essentially a mail-order racket. Now that the market is down, everyone is using the fake stock prices as leverage over the Govt to get what they want. The consumer is just a pawn!
Why don't the *AA's and the Universities get together? Universities are the one place where internet-based media would work and be extremely profitable! They're the one type of group that it could actually work at. You have the network, the computers, the users, and most importantly the ability to work with lots of payment options as the group is also physically close together. Universities already provide phone and cable services. They have lots of ways to get the $$$ from the students-cash, check, or charge...
I'm sure the schools would be more responsive if they stopped threatening and gave some real options! They might be more willing to help and let you use their network for a cut of the take of course!
When will the Far Right people realize that the religous zelotry is just as bad for America as the push for accepting immorality from Far Left!
Far Righters believe in their rights to spank their kids, live off their land, and own their own protection, mostly to keep the govenment off their land. Far Lefters believe in the right to Love anyone, Consume anything they want, and posess their own bodies, again without the goverment's intervention.
There would be no Far Left without the hundred years of abuse of the Far Right... See Prohibition, Segregation Laws, Drug laws, and Abortion laws. Prior to 1900 most of these things were considered immoral, but "overlooked" by the government at large because it wasn't their business. The Right tried to push its morality on the country. Then the Left came back to fight aginst this stuff, but of course once you have publicly humiliated a group they demand to be publicly acknowlaged! The Left got power from the Right's abuses, and didn't stop at Civil Rights, but extended to Environment, Gun Laws, and Welfare!
Get a clue People! You both want the same thing. To be left alone!!! Work together and realize that using the government to further your own goals is just as wrong on both sides.
White elephant gifts are the biggest insult.
In every company I have worked at has had year-end bonuses or incentives. Every company has made that a big part of why I should work for them. Evrey company had reduced/eliminated said things while I worked there. It looks like this one is no different. In a lot of cases bonuses are what they tell you makes up for the long hours or you won't get thim if this project dosen't work out. Yet, at the end of the year they can't just objectively tell you the truth about where bonuses stand--that's the rub. Holding it over you head all year then essentially cheating you out of it. Many companies promise it--willingly when they want extra out of the employees. If they don't plan to do it, don't promise it! If they have to do less, honestly explain it and have upper management be consistant!
Managers don't want to keep up with IT. They want to pay $$$$ and then not deal with it anymore. They like geeks--geeks go in the corner and make everything work. The only problem is most geeks by nature are "DO-ers" not negotiators. Most companies are either:
a. Every department gets their own pet software and expects IT to make it work. or
b. All the computer decisons are left up to IT. You're left trying to make accounting decisions at the spurr of the moment.
The main failure is to work with IT as a part of the team. Managers have been managing by throwing money at the problem for so long that they have stopped planning for IT problems. Worst yet, the probems have become so complex most managers don't want to do the homework to understand the issues.
I tried several times to get the Bosses to look at MS licensing 6.0 with no luck. They didn't want to have to deal with or understand the problem--
"This is too much information. We need one or two sentences about what we should do."
quote from manager.
IT is no longer a simple thing--Just throwing money at the problem is no longer profitable. Unfortunately, Bosses haven't learned what IT does, how it works, and will simply expect to throw buzzwords around to "fix" those Lazy IT people.
Realize, you could use this as an awsome web server! Adding a second NIC would make a fast cheap router. This is basicly the config for all those expensive cisco routers out there!
The real purpose is all the legacy apps that use older now-exotic hardware. Arm has been around for many years also here in the states, and is used in many machine controllers. Most of the companies that created the stuff have gone out of business, but the machines are perfectly functional--except they use 8" floppies (with the jap spec) and RS-232 (not c) & RS-488 for conections. But like the vererable C64, they are workhorses that have been ticking for 20+ years with lots of luv. There are 50 yr old guys out there that do this every day and don't want to gut an entire $250,000 machine just to use a $399 PC and throw out all the work they have done.
Also, this is cool because it works--this is mostly the same specs as an Ipac or Zarus. Linux can be installed, so along with the PPC board from the other day this is a good thing indeed.
Just like using Linux--It's all about choices!!! Linux allows people to have more cool choices again and here is proof!!
use IBM AS400!
If you can program all those spreadsheet cells, you can set up an IBM iseries database. Old Style RPG is good enough and you can access it thru all your excell sheets.
They are very pricy though. But you own all the software with no CAL fees. (they do use artifical CUP limits though, but it's not the same as MS by a mile)
1. Half of the users will "reply all" back that you are stupid for leaving it off just like here.
2. You will then reply and attach the entire corrected report to everyone.
3. Each of the people will respond again ("reply all")
you have now generated 3-4 copies of the report in 20-50 email boxes plus another 100-200 witty retorts.
Being as all this is replicated each time, it makes Slashdot look small!
Slashdoters not = programmers
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Immobile Robots
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The huge number of posts that this is stupid proves that most Slashdoters are posers rather than real programmers!
While the naming of immobots is rather silly, the concept is truly profoud and is another small step on the road to AI. Imagine if PC systems had the same abilities. They would be less buggy, more reliable. Programming would become training the AI rather than debugging pages of code.
I like it when the moderators post stuff like this--otherwise I would never find it.
Thanks!
Slashdot Mirror
To to growing interest in opposing MS they will introduce MS Anti-MS with every copy of windows. This would point to MS-sponsered Anti-MS sites hosted on MSN thereby removing competition in that market as well!
After all, most of the "communist Dictators" get their software from US companies.
The govt may pass laws to monitor everything electronic, but it's still a free society--if enough techs refuse to work on such projects then maybe they won't happen...or at least be so screwed up they won't work.
Maybe CmdrTaco could devote a part of the YRO dept to blacklisting programmers that work on projects that are against our civil rights! Then the Open source groups could refuse patches from them, employers could refuse employment, girls could refuse to date them, etc.
The trademark may be SCO's but the actual work has always been done by the big guys. I have a sneaking suspision that IBM has more unix-related patents than SCO!
The real point of SCO having Unix was to prevent monoploy. After all, look at the other players: IBM, SUN, HP, SGI, etc..a who's who of mainframe computing. Imagine the hurt caused if any one of them had full claim to Unix--the AT lawsuits would fly! So they let a small, little guy have it instead of buying it from NEC/digital. Most of these company's Unices look nothing like SCO anymore. These companies have dumped 20+ years of their own research into Unix--and that work is theirs to place where ever they choose. Who's to say they can't take their own work and port it to something else!
That's clearly IBM's stand. From the stuff I've seen, they're not suing for outright patent or copyright infringement, but "license misapproperiation" type claims. In other words IBM learned stuff--not necessarily patented- and took it outside the family.
Wasn't SCO once the bad kid for porting Unix down to x86 so many years ago. Bought out by Caldera--who made their money developing Linux to beat SCO.
Both the pot and the kettle are black--get over it!
The best example of a money-making game rigt now is the sims! Yeah I know, this is /. but it's a model ID and Epic have missed. They never release levels, or updates anymore-most you can get is one or two expansions out of anyone.
I'm all for the serious sam type- where they release a smaller, higher-tech game more often, yet centered around the same story. A massive game like Doom 3 is really cool, but they could have knocked out 2-3 smaller games that used better tech than Q3 by now.
Also, the true PC game companies are ignoring large groups of players. There's a lot out there besides FPS. Even better games to be made using FPS engines--they are way under utilized.
Again, the problem with the mega-corps is that they are always after the big score [20% more growth than last years 50%] rather than smaller, but steady reliable stream of income. Doesn't always make a lot of money, but it keeps food on the table.
The college kids and profs of the 60's and 70's scoffed at Ma Bell's near bullet-proof monopoly [at the time]. They also had DARPA money to design an always reliable Military network--one where as long as a single wire remained between two points there was communication.
Look at the results of what they created. Contrast that with the 80 year-old telcos. Why didn't the telcos inovate this stuff first? Because they didn't have to! And if they didn't want to, they kept anyone else from innovation too! So yeah, they were techno-hippies just like those other guys in the late 1700's [Tomas, george, ben, john, etc were equally if not more "hippie" at the time. Look what they created!] Free markets mean just that. Most capitalist believe in free markets right up until they expect the Govt. to step in and protect their lucrative monoploies!
My point is that the particulars are not disclosed in the patent before it is granted.
Here's an example of a "software-style" patent:
Patent for a material transport device.
This device will transport a number of pieces or quantity of material beween two points in physical space.
The device or devices will consist of a number of wheels and/or other means of reducing of easing the motion of the device
The device or devices will consist of a container or containers of a various number of shapes and/or sizes in which to hold material.
The device would include attachments to one or more methods of powerment. This may include any combination of persons, animals, motors, or other material transport devices.
Devices may optionally be attached in a number of configurations including: Linear attachment and horizontal and/or vertical stacking.
anyway, you get the idea. These claims are the only thing attached to the patent! You can't see what I'm actually patenting to figure out how to get around it! My actual designs are protected by trade secret & copyright, so I don't have to submitt them.
If you haven't figured it out, I just patented pretty much every moving vehicle that carries stuff! wheelbarowws, wagons, ricshaw, dumptruck, train, pickup, ox drawn cart, etc... You have no recourse to prevent this from happening. You can't call up the PTO and tell 'um to stop. Once it's granted you cannot challange it or clarify it without paying huge court costs--quite often your own when I sue you! Common sense doesn't rule--the PTO refuses to take back poorly chosen patents, and the courts won't make them.
Yes this is ridiculous! but this is exactly what software patents are!
While they weren't the most aclaimed games to PC gamers, Rare's games have always been excellently executed, and targeted toward non-teen-video-junkie audiences. That is forever taken away from us.
Between Sony, EA, Sega, and Microsoft the days of the independent game studio are numbered [1000 to be exact] Id, Epic, Blizzard, etc may survive, but they each only make one type of game, and that game doesn't have a very large audience. Notice the dwindeling variety of PC games... As MS improves Xbox, I'm sure they'll start pulling in their standards from PC [flight sim, age of ??, etc] to be xbox only.
As long as they start taking care of end-user issues better - drivers/support they should do OK.
Just will some one release real Linux/*nix support already. There's a huge market for it. Besides MS is going to pick only one for their next X-Box. The other will go hungry as MS destroys PC gaming to further xbox!
The problem is that no one has put arcade games, internet games, and rpgs together. The best example I can think of is Pokemon.
It was very nicely tiered across their line of products. You could take your handheld characters and use them to battle in 3D on the console! If you know anything about Pokemon, you'll understand what's next... It would have been the perfect arcade game! They attempted something like it with snap? but it was too low key. As an arcade game, they could have had big screen Poke-battles at the arcade, and connect them with the internet to other arcades. Then you could have standings, and lots of other stuff. And of course, you would take your original cart home and train up your monster after you lost horribily.
I think Id or EA could pull something like this off using PCs instead. Quake isn't really a general public style game--it's too violent. Something like Warcraft or Diablo would work. The key is to involve the spectators as well as the players! Lots of PC games would be cool to watch if you could see the big picture [a whole Quake, Warcraft, Diablo level at once] They would see things the players wouldn't notice.
And of course you could use massive plasma screens with high-powered video cards. [32-way GeforceFX anybody]
The problem with software patents is lack of code disclosure. If the patent judges could compare line-by-line a MS .asp page feature with a php/apache page, they would laugh most of this stuff out of court. Unfortunately, they can't force them to include the patented code, because code is also protected under copyright and trade secret. The patent office is allowing a "black box" style patent--without even proof of a working system. They used to require detailed specs and proof of actual working devices. Now companies like Rambus can draw some pretty pictures and then prosecute the people who actually spend time and resources building the thing. This goes aginst 200 years of precedent!
That alone should be enough to get these thrown out, but patents don't work that way. They are assumed to be sacred, holy, creative genius by the courts until someone spends the time and money to strike each one down. Our wonderfull legal system doesn't allow the courts to "see" what goes on in the real world, only what comes into court--they can't even overturn bad Laws until someone's hanged for breaking it!
parental keys only work after it's installed. I just don't like the idea of kids randomly getting ahold of this.
My wife is horrible about gambling! I have a stuffed dog from the fair that cost $50! We just kept on playin' until she won something and in the end we ended up owing the guy like $30 cause we weren't payin' before each shot. Since then, I don't let her out of my sight at the fair, or at least hand her a budget and cut her off! the dog serves as a visual reminder! If she ever walked in a casino, I'd be bankrupt!
They say people should stop themselves, but I'll tell you that certian personalities just can't stop hoping for the big score! Putting this in any form where kids can get it unattended is just wrong and should be stopped! The people planning this should be booted from office or fired, whichever applies! If your Legislative critters get ideas like this--boot 'um!
He needs to spend some time editing it--it sounds like a rant. An outside opinion is good for raising the awareness of what MS is actually like.
The biggest problem with bosses it that Bill Gates is so rich. They can't understand how he could be doing something wrong! This article clearly states what MS has done in the past--Why would they change tunes in the future. Those were the facts. This would convice most bosses that MS is after them
That said it needs to be edited to lead the reader to his conclusions rather than interjecting his opinions too soon. This is something I could show to my boss if it was cleaned up a little!
MS wants his lunch, nothing personal it's just business [sounds like something from Godfather].
personally, I'd go with a PCI card with 4-16 mb flash ram + CF card?(and maybe a little custom circutry to make the Execs happy) that looks like an IDE adapter. [The flash ram would hold over reboots, and the CF card would store a little more stuff. Flash is expensive, but CF doesn't like to R/W too many times] It would hold the core kernel, driver, and game saves. You could also use a USB drive, but that wouldn't keep the hardware config and [any foibles] onboard your system. This setup would not need a hard drive! Just lots of ram, 512 would be OK and cheaper than a HD, with the proper game optimizations.
I know people don't like to reboot, but Knoppix does really well and dosen't mess up your HD! This would work great for games because they could be optimized for best operation, yet the system card could provide compatibility info! And this would work on every system level bypassing MS rules, because the boot control is in hardware!
I was privately hoping that X-Box would turn into a PC OS. It could have been cool-the ability to play cutting edge games, yet switch instantly back to windows. Oh well, their loss. Now maybe Linux could try this.
Id would be foolish to pass this up! MS wants their lunch. The beast never gets enough! (See the future of MS article.) No tech is safe--It's not if MS will screw you, it's now when will MS screw you! Get out while there's time!!
but why not?
..or Linux might grab a huge amount of share in hurry. All those "outdated" PCs that Longhorn won't run on should be the next target! CrossOver and Transgamming should start gearin' up! All they really have to support is 9x to get a lot of share in a hurry.
Most people upgrading to the new OS will do so with new machines; they may be forced to. i.e. most companies -mine included, purchase Office with every new computer. The cost otherwise is too expensive "not" to do it.
Anyone Upgrading from 9x to XP still has to update most of their software. The older stuff may work, but the compaies (Roxio, et al) have had no plan to patch older versions to XP--I see no reason for this to change with Longhorn.
How many people actualy buy software other than games? Most people (i.e. non-slashdotters) don't buy that much software. They "borrow" from friends or get what they can for free online--so they won't really notice any more change than from 9x to XP! And remember, you're supposed to be playing your games on XBox. DirectX was just a market test/ engineering sample to help MS create XBox.
IF MS adds all the product activation, and convinces other companies to do the same then people will cry out.
First, the problem with the Bells is greed. There have been numerous posts here over the last several years about the Bells' behvior. They have had better than 5 years to prepare for DSL. Many Bells still choose to buy and install non-DSL equipment while the customers are begging for DSL!
True, the line sharing cuts into profits, but almost every Bell has spent millions trying to wipe out the cell-phone industry, a plan that is blatant misapproperation of funds an order of magnitude bigger than DSL! Also, they have tried getting into everything electronic except providing better phone lines.
The phone companies want what the Cable Co has--complete power over connection and content! That power was taken for a reason and the FCC seems to forget why. Look at AT&T. They are a telco-they have no business in content, let alone cable! I still will maintain that the FCC should let the Bells buy up the Cable Co....and then hold them to the common-carrier class and forbid media-houses from controlling them. Remember the cable guys are double speaking too. Each town's cable is a seperate company on the books--the big owners use that "poor little guy" image to get relaxed laws (much like the entertainment industry)
The game isn't about profit--it's about control, total absolute control, pure and simple! It's about creating monopolies while distracting Govt. and then hiding behind the investors and "property" rights at every pointed finger. The worst part is that investors belive this stuff! These companies business plans are to create monopoly and investors are paying big bucks for essentially a mail-order racket. Now that the market is down, everyone is using the fake stock prices as leverage over the Govt to get what they want.
The consumer is just a pawn!
Why don't the *AA's and the Universities get together? Universities are the one place where internet-based media would work and be extremely profitable! They're the one type of group that it could actually work at. You have the network, the computers, the users, and most importantly the ability to work with lots of payment options as the group is also physically close together. Universities already provide phone and cable services. They have lots of ways to get the $$$ from the students-cash, check, or charge...
I'm sure the schools would be more responsive if they stopped threatening and gave some real options! They might be more willing to help and let you use their network for a cut of the take of course!
When will the Far Right people realize that the religous zelotry is just as bad for America as the push for accepting immorality from Far Left! Far Righters believe in their rights to spank their kids, live off their land, and own their own protection, mostly to keep the govenment off their land. Far Lefters believe in the right to Love anyone, Consume anything they want, and posess their own bodies, again without the goverment's intervention. There would be no Far Left without the hundred years of abuse of the Far Right... See Prohibition, Segregation Laws, Drug laws, and Abortion laws. Prior to 1900 most of these things were considered immoral, but "overlooked" by the government at large because it wasn't their business. The Right tried to push its morality on the country. Then the Left came back to fight aginst this stuff, but of course once you have publicly humiliated a group they demand to be publicly acknowlaged! The Left got power from the Right's abuses, and didn't stop at Civil Rights, but extended to Environment, Gun Laws, and Welfare! Get a clue People! You both want the same thing. To be left alone!!! Work together and realize that using the government to further your own goals is just as wrong on both sides.
But Intel is paying them to use their patents as well as being a part owner!
White elephant gifts are the biggest insult. In every company I have worked at has had year-end bonuses or incentives. Every company has made that a big part of why I should work for them. Evrey company had reduced/eliminated said things while I worked there. It looks like this one is no different. In a lot of cases bonuses are what they tell you makes up for the long hours or you won't get thim if this project dosen't work out. Yet, at the end of the year they can't just objectively tell you the truth about where bonuses stand--that's the rub. Holding it over you head all year then essentially cheating you out of it. Many companies promise it--willingly when they want extra out of the employees. If they don't plan to do it, don't promise it! If they have to do less, honestly explain it and have upper management be consistant!
Managers don't want to keep up with IT. They want to pay $$$$ and then not deal with it anymore. They like geeks--geeks go in the corner and make everything work. The only problem is most geeks by nature are "DO-ers" not negotiators. Most companies are either: a. Every department gets their own pet software and expects IT to make it work. or b. All the computer decisons are left up to IT. You're left trying to make accounting decisions at the spurr of the moment. The main failure is to work with IT as a part of the team. Managers have been managing by throwing money at the problem for so long that they have stopped planning for IT problems. Worst yet, the probems have become so complex most managers don't want to do the homework to understand the issues. I tried several times to get the Bosses to look at MS licensing 6.0 with no luck. They didn't want to have to deal with or understand the problem-- "This is too much information. We need one or two sentences about what we should do." quote from manager. IT is no longer a simple thing--Just throwing money at the problem is no longer profitable. Unfortunately, Bosses haven't learned what IT does, how it works, and will simply expect to throw buzzwords around to "fix" those Lazy IT people.
Realize, you could use this as an awsome web server! Adding a second NIC would make a fast cheap router. This is basicly the config for all those expensive cisco routers out there! The real purpose is all the legacy apps that use older now-exotic hardware. Arm has been around for many years also here in the states, and is used in many machine controllers. Most of the companies that created the stuff have gone out of business, but the machines are perfectly functional--except they use 8" floppies (with the jap spec) and RS-232 (not c) & RS-488 for conections. But like the vererable C64, they are workhorses that have been ticking for 20+ years with lots of luv. There are 50 yr old guys out there that do this every day and don't want to gut an entire $250,000 machine just to use a $399 PC and throw out all the work they have done. Also, this is cool because it works--this is mostly the same specs as an Ipac or Zarus. Linux can be installed, so along with the PPC board from the other day this is a good thing indeed. Just like using Linux--It's all about choices!!! Linux allows people to have more cool choices again and here is proof!!
use IBM AS400! If you can program all those spreadsheet cells, you can set up an IBM iseries database. Old Style RPG is good enough and you can access it thru all your excell sheets. They are very pricy though. But you own all the software with no CAL fees. (they do use artifical CUP limits though, but it's not the same as MS by a mile)
1. Half of the users will "reply all" back that you are stupid for leaving it off just like here. 2. You will then reply and attach the entire corrected report to everyone. 3. Each of the people will respond again ("reply all") you have now generated 3-4 copies of the report in 20-50 email boxes plus another 100-200 witty retorts. Being as all this is replicated each time, it makes Slashdot look small!
The huge number of posts that this is stupid proves that most Slashdoters are posers rather than real programmers! While the naming of immobots is rather silly, the concept is truly profoud and is another small step on the road to AI. Imagine if PC systems had the same abilities. They would be less buggy, more reliable. Programming would become training the AI rather than debugging pages of code. I like it when the moderators post stuff like this--otherwise I would never find it. Thanks!