Recently I watched both the original star wars trilogy (no special scenes) and prequals in an effort to understand why IV,V, and VI (to a degree) kick ass and I and II suck ass. I mean, you have Jedi,lighsabers, and bad acting in both movies but something is lacking from I and II. I don't know what it is, I can't figure it out. Maybe its too politically correct or too rehearsed. They are missing the soul that made the originals so great.
The patent office doesn't think it needs to reform. I'm from Arlington, I know two lawyers who work at the patent office and both of them specialize in software patents.
First, they believe they are doing our country a service by protecting the 'inventors' of the software. You can't tell them otherwise. Bringing up things like prior art just pisses them off. According to them, prior art is not their responsibility, its the responsibility of the person filing the patent to show any prior art. They don't have 'time' to be hunting around the for this so called 'prior art'. If they grant an invalid patent, let the courts sort it out. Its the courts job to validate and rule on prior art.
Second, they don't need to have software development experience to approve software patents because all they do is look through an internal database see if key things are already patented. If it is not, boom, granted.
So, I don't think we're going to see patent reform any time soon, especially when they don't want to be reformed.
The do inform and let them know how long they have before the code will be relased. Usually, an update already exists once the exploit code is out. The threat of relasing the code forces them to relaease a patch that would probably not be released otherwise.
I'm a scripter (php, python, perl, java etc) and I work with other scripters. I notice a big difference in code depending on the age of the programmer and what programming language they started with.
My technique is pretty much opposite from anyone elses where I worl, although, I don't know of this is a good thing or not.
I start off with making tons of functions. I go crazy with functions and usually put them into related objects/packages with static methods just for organization purposes....so I quickly know where to look when I want to edit the behavior. I always maintain the PerlDOC/PHPDoc/JavaDOC comments even when I first start out because my IDE reads and pops up nice little hints when I forget arguments but other than that I don't comment too much unless I'm doing something dicey. Once I've coded enough, I start to see the places where I can refactor and abstract a lot of the functions away and weed out any inconsistancies really quick.
Others tend to make one gigantic script with little or any functions and tons of global structures and arrays then refactor it to a more sane style later on.
Their moto is "first get it working, then get it working right". My reply is "that doesn't mean you throw good programming practice out the window.";
1. Contests like this make Linux more secure. 2. If your looking to find a job in the security industry, this a is a nice bullet on the resume.
You don't see MS having break in challenges do you? If they did and 17 unknown holes were found and fixed that would have gone unpatched otherwise, would Windows be more secure or less secure?
I played Max Payne 2 all the way through at 1280x1024 with almost all detail options on and it ran like a dream. Not a single crash, the FPS was great, and it felt native. In fact if I didn't know and saw someone playing it, I would have guessed it was native. I usually prefer native games but if WineX can deliever even a few top notch games that will never be ported to Linux (political/busines reasons), then I'd call it a success. I mean, if they can get 10 games to run like that on Linux, thats like a 100% increase in recent high quality games from the platform. (not counting old Loki stuff, its way to out of date)
I'm a gamer and I've used Linux exclusively for work since 1997 and have always booted into my Winetendo partition for games. Not having to do that to play a game as good as Max Payne 2 is great.
Those of you clamoring "native or nothing", good luck. There has been no significant rise in native ports for years. We get 1 or 2 big titles thats it. So, if WineX can deliver 1 or 2 more a year, thats fine with me.
You would think the EU has more important legislation to deal with but this thing somehow keeps popping back up, over and over and over again. Obviously are friends in Europe are just as controlled my multinational corps as the US is or are the citizens of the EU marching in the streets demanding software patents?
They greeted this security update better than Microsoft usually does...but not much better.
Yeah...they actually had it fixed before the problems were announced. I'd say thats 1000x better than someone else finding them, MS denying it,a viral outbreak occurs bringing down 1/2 the internet, then they get fixed 2 weeks later.
I see lots of people complaining that each time Windows is updated they have to relearn the GUI..
Those people are baffoons. How do you relearn: read screen , point at something with mouse, click on it?
Don't be surprised about open source programs rapidly changing. To a lot of people, their project is an educational tool. Interfaces and APIs are constantly being honed and retooled. Even the Linux kernel will trash APIs used for years and release totally new ones maintaing no backward compatability in the middle of a stable kernel release.(SATA,USB for example) KDE is going to use the latest techniques and abilities provided by Qt and KDE libs. Thats how those libs get tested and improved and ALL programs using those libs benefit from this.
In open source land, we don't have to hang on to old broken APIs and libraries. The best code *almost* always gets put into use and every project utilizing that code benefits, even if they have to make some changes to use it.
As a user, do you have to upgrade to this new whiz bang version? No. Is this policy the best for all projects, No. But,the end result in most cases is that developers of open source code are able to use the majority of their time creating (which is what we like doing) and less time 'maitaining' old stuff they might not find as interesting and hardly anyone uses anyway.
If the two methods of development, open source and closed source, were equal in all ways except for the fact open source developers had the freedom to trash old interfaces and closed source had to keep them around, who would end up with faster,tigher code?
Problem is that your taught in school that you have to grab the consumers attention, that pretained mostly to TV ads because people are sitting there vegetating on the couch, you need to shake them out of their stupor.
Slashdot Mirror
Recently I watched both the original star wars trilogy (no special scenes) and prequals in an effort to understand why IV,V, and VI (to a degree) kick ass and I and II suck ass. I mean, you have Jedi,lighsabers, and bad acting in both movies but something is lacking from I and II. I don't know what it is, I can't figure it out. Maybe its too politically correct or too rehearsed. They are missing the soul that made the originals so great.
the site was slashdoted so quick I was reminded of the kessel run and 12 parsects.
The abuses are top secret for reaons of national security?
I didn't know Microsoft Software had serious security vulnerabilities. This is news to me.
What a clueless bitch.
The patent office doesn't think it needs to reform. I'm from Arlington, I know two lawyers who work at the patent office and both of them specialize in software patents.
First, they believe they are doing our country a service by protecting the 'inventors' of the software. You can't tell them otherwise. Bringing up things like prior art just pisses them off. According to them, prior art is not their responsibility, its the responsibility of the person filing the patent to show any prior art. They don't have 'time' to be hunting around the for this so called 'prior art'. If they grant an invalid patent, let the courts sort it out. Its the courts job to validate and rule on prior art.
Second, they don't need to have software development experience to approve software patents because all they do is look through an internal database see if key things are already patented. If it is not, boom, granted.
So, I don't think we're going to see patent reform any time soon, especially when they don't want to be reformed.
The do inform and let them know how long they have before the code will be relased. Usually, an update already exists once the exploit code is out. The threat of relasing the code forces them to relaease a patch that would probably not be released otherwise.
Keep those funny mods coming, the flamebaits are catching up!
still with only 1 good application! Evolution!
Gnome 2.1, now more like KDE!
I'm a scripter (php, python, perl, java etc) and I work with other scripters. I notice a big difference in code depending on the age of the programmer and what programming language they started with.
My technique is pretty much opposite from anyone elses where I worl, although, I don't know of this is a good thing or not.
I start off with making tons of functions. I go crazy with functions and usually put them into related objects/packages with static methods just for organization purposes....so I quickly know where to look when I want to edit the behavior. I always maintain the PerlDOC/PHPDoc/JavaDOC comments even when I first start out because my IDE reads and pops up nice little hints when I forget arguments but other than that I don't comment too much unless I'm doing something dicey. Once I've coded enough, I start to see the places where I can refactor and abstract a lot of the functions away and weed out any inconsistancies really quick.
Others tend to make one gigantic script with little or any functions and tons of global structures and arrays then refactor it to a more sane style later on.
Their moto is "first get it working, then get it working right". My reply is "that doesn't mean you throw good programming practice out the window.";
Actually, they would. For a couple reasons.
1. Contests like this make Linux more secure.
2. If your looking to find a job in the security industry, this a is a nice bullet on the resume.
You don't see MS having break in challenges do you? If they did and 17 unknown holes were found and fixed that would have gone unpatched otherwise, would Windows be more secure or less secure?
Thats why Linux growth is skyrocketing and Windows is stagnating.
SCO has not made a single patent claim against IBM. They are suing for breach of contract.
Nforce2 Amd 2500+ 1 gig ram GeForce 5900XT (the xt is the slow 5900)
I played Max Payne 2 all the way through at 1280x1024 with almost all detail options on and it ran like a dream. Not a single crash, the FPS was great, and it felt native. In fact if I didn't know and saw someone playing it, I would have guessed it was native. I usually prefer native games but if WineX can deliever even a few top notch games that will never be ported to Linux (political/busines reasons), then I'd call it a success. I mean, if they can get 10 games to run like that on Linux, thats like a 100% increase in recent high quality games from the platform. (not counting old Loki stuff, its way to out of date)
I'm a gamer and I've used Linux exclusively for work since 1997 and have always booted into my Winetendo partition for games. Not having to do that to play a game as good as Max Payne 2 is great.
Those of you clamoring "native or nothing", good luck. There has been no significant rise in native ports for years. We get 1 or 2 big titles thats it. So, if WineX can deliver 1 or 2 more a year, thats fine with me.
Without a technology like hyper transport, Intel is always going to be behind.
You would think the EU has more important legislation to deal with but this thing somehow keeps popping back up, over and over and over again.
Obviously are friends in Europe are just as controlled my multinational corps as the US is or are the citizens of the EU marching in the streets demanding software patents?
Since the competition is basically going to get sued ,they don't have to to write and release as many viruses as they did before to keep sales up.
OMG WTG BBQ!!! Another open source database, thats just what we needed!!!
Yeah...they actually had it fixed before the problems were announced. I'd say thats 1000x better than someone else finding them, MS denying it,a viral outbreak occurs bringing down 1/2 the internet, then they get fixed 2 weeks later.
No thanks!!!!
Those people are baffoons. How do you relearn: read screen , point at something with mouse, click on it?
Don't be surprised about open source programs rapidly changing. To a lot of people, their project is an educational tool. Interfaces and APIs are constantly being honed and retooled. Even the Linux kernel will trash APIs used for years and release totally new ones maintaing no backward compatability in the middle of a stable kernel release.(SATA,USB for example) KDE is going to use the latest techniques and abilities provided by Qt and KDE libs. Thats how those libs get tested and improved and ALL programs using those libs benefit from this.
In open source land, we don't have to hang on to old broken APIs and libraries. The best code *almost* always gets put into use and every project utilizing that code benefits, even if they have to make some changes to use it.
As a user, do you have to upgrade to this new whiz bang version? No. Is this policy the best for all projects, No. But,the end result in most cases is that developers of open source code are able to use the majority of their time creating (which is what we like doing) and less time 'maitaining' old stuff they might not find as interesting and hardly anyone uses anyway.
If the two methods of development, open source and closed source, were equal in all ways except for the fact open source developers had the freedom to trash old interfaces and closed source had to keep them around, who would end up with faster,tigher code?
Problem is that your taught in school that you have to grab the consumers attention, that pretained mostly to TV ads because people are sitting there vegetating on the couch, you need to shake them out of their stupor.
The shill bidding is bad enough on Ebay as it is without Ebay doing it on their own.