Wikipedia is an outstanding source for research. There have been countless slashdot stories on scientific articles in so called primary research sources that promised faster-than-light travel, antigravity or non-conservation of impulse. Yet, vandalized wikipedia articles are corrected in a matter of days and locked until the controversy subsides. You are far more likely to get duped reading a textbook or a scientific magazine than wikipedia, and a quick look on top ten matches on Google will guard against these rare cases. Face it, Internet is the king for getting up to date, accurate information as long as you have common sense research skills.
Suppose your input format supports compression without a preset maximum ratio. In this case, its trivial for a small input file to consume all available RAM. When you detect it, you attempt to free document's data structures. But in order to do that, you need to instantiate classes that decode type information for different nodes. In order to do that, you need memory. Oops!
Lack of control over your own stuff has consequences far worse than targeted advertisement. Most people dislike living in communes, having only public transportation or not being able to access their data on their own terms. Then again, it's perfect for some people, or for specific circumstances.
It's a matter of defensive programming. By the time you detected malformed data, it could have already disrupted your program's state. If you display a message box and continue, this inconsistency could alter your program's behavior and possibly even cause it to do malicious actions. All of us have seen programs weird out after displaying a mysterious message box, and let's not get started on aftereffects of Java or Objective C exceptions thrown and ignored by a message loop. If uptime of your program is not critical, its better to bail out right away. I assume Word has some way to recover edits in other documents modified at crash time.
On the other hand, not providing a simple menu bar as an option in Office 2007 is brain damage. As if we have nothing to do besides learning proprietary UI controls of 50 different applications installed on the computer.
iTunes store already has R-rated movies. It does however require a credit card to open an account and features parental controls in iTunes preferences. What exactly is the problem?
Why do you spend so much time in Finder? It's not so bad if you just double click on applications or documents that you want to open. If you want to make systematic changes to many files, perhaps the right solution is an Automator action or a shell script rather than a general-purpose directory browser.
System 9 lacked basic features like memory protection and multitasking. As a result, it crashed and hung all the time, problems largely fixed in Windows 95. By contrast, Tiger is not really lacking anything we expect from today's OS and Vista doesn't have one killer feature over it. In such a situation, delay of a few months is much less dangerous for Apple than screwing up their first entry into a new market.
There are plenty of entertainment options. You can watch regular TV, videos on YouTube or just take a walk in the park. Why go out of the way to patronize people who are not willing to serve content the way you like it?
We have been hearing about digital convergence forever, but most people want a separate computer from cellphone or TV. Processors from Intel itself still have completely separate sets of instructions for integers and for floating point. In the same vein, even if Intel's architecture is possible, it will be less upgradable, more difficult to program for and have less backward compatibility overtime than a set of components with well defined functions.
In this case, lets hand over licensing inventions to USPTO that will decide how an invention benefits society and turn over licensing proceeds to the author. Because with current system, it's noone else's business on what the inventor does with his brainchild. Perhaps some inventions (tax evasion schemes for example) are the most beneficial if you keep everyone from using them.
I am just asking for fairness. If someone currently has a patent that covers work done by that Russian dude, and they are allowed to keep it, I should be able to do the same if I independently re-invent some technology developed by a big company. I don't see why their contribution to the society - commercial development, should somehow give them a higher status than an open source author who enables, among other things, commercial development by anyone.
There is no reason an inventor has to make his inventions available to anyone. Weather it's a desired attribute of society or not, current system allows one to refuse license or demand outrageous royalties. Personally, I would prefer inventors to only publish end result their invention and make full text available when someone agrees to license the work or use it only for exempt purposes such as research. This way, if I don't think your invention is valuable enough to license on your terms, I have an option of doing the work myself. Sure, there will be some cheating, but the current system allows fraud on much bigger scale. While it's in place, I would like big companies to suffer from its flaws as much as open source developers or small shops threatened by Microsoft or IBM. Hopefully they will start advocating reform.
Why exactly single out commercial development as valuable to society and discount the value of releasing work to public domain?
I didn't read any of the MP3 patents, but I see that they are not making their work available to the important open source community. So, I am going to invite a bunch of people to compare uncompressed vs compressed music and independently develop an algorithm to strip off waveforms that don't seem to matter as much as others. This algorithm may or may not share some concepts with MP3. But, according to you, I should get a patent for it anyway. After all, I made a very important contribution to the world through my own work, a contribution that wouldn't have happened from the work of the earlier inventor.
How about a 1 month jail sentence? It will not be that much on a heavy side, but will keep an average geek from doing it again and scare away others.
As for corporations, current laws are screwed. Anyone with a few K in the pocket can start their own personal corporation to evade responsibility for their actions against hundreds of laws. If a corporation commits a crime, everyone responsible should be charged according to degree of their responsibility. Rank and file will probably avoid imprisonment by ratting out the boss. In addition, corporations that repeatedly break laws should be banned as criminal gangs and foreclosed.
I know those probably expired already, but any currently active patents claiming any part of that invention should be promptly invalidates. Fair is fair - nobody should be getting royalties for something they didn't invent.
Slashdot Mirror
Wikipedia is an outstanding source for research. There have been countless slashdot stories on scientific articles in so called primary research sources that promised faster-than-light travel, antigravity or non-conservation of impulse. Yet, vandalized wikipedia articles are corrected in a matter of days and locked until the controversy subsides. You are far more likely to get duped reading a textbook or a scientific magazine than wikipedia, and a quick look on top ten matches on Google will guard against these rare cases. Face it, Internet is the king for getting up to date, accurate information as long as you have common sense research skills.
Suppose your input format supports compression without a preset maximum ratio. In this case, its trivial for a small input file to consume all available RAM. When you detect it, you attempt to free document's data structures. But in order to do that, you need to instantiate classes that decode type information for different nodes. In order to do that, you need memory. Oops!
Have fun writing the verification code then.
Ever heard of the halting problem?
Do you want other people to read your tax returns?
Are you Ok with losing important e-mails?
Do you want other people to decide which files are "inappropriate", how much space you are allowed to use, which fonts can appear in your document?
Do you want your dual core machine with SLI video card to be only as fast as your grandma's Wallmart PC?
Lack of control over your own stuff has consequences far worse than targeted advertisement. Most people dislike living in communes, having only public transportation or not being able to access their data on their own terms. Then again, it's perfect for some people, or for specific circumstances.
It's a matter of defensive programming. By the time you detected malformed data, it could have already disrupted your program's state. If you display a message box and continue, this inconsistency could alter your program's behavior and possibly even cause it to do malicious actions. All of us have seen programs weird out after displaying a mysterious message box, and let's not get started on aftereffects of Java or Objective C exceptions thrown and ignored by a message loop. If uptime of your program is not critical, its better to bail out right away. I assume Word has some way to recover edits in other documents modified at crash time.
On the other hand, not providing a simple menu bar as an option in Office 2007 is brain damage. As if we have nothing to do besides learning proprietary UI controls of 50 different applications installed on the computer.
Calc.exe had a few artithmetics errors over time. Some were actually mistook for manifestations of pentium FDIV bug.
iTunes store already has R-rated movies. It does however require a credit card to open an account and features parental controls in iTunes preferences. What exactly is the problem?
You can however sign up for a free wireless service using fiber that usually runs away from your home.
Why do you spend so much time in Finder? It's not so bad if you just double click on applications or documents that you want to open. If you want to make systematic changes to many files, perhaps the right solution is an Automator action or a shell script rather than a general-purpose directory browser.
System 9 lacked basic features like memory protection and multitasking. As a result, it crashed and hung all the time, problems largely fixed in Windows 95. By contrast, Tiger is not really lacking anything we expect from today's OS and Vista doesn't have one killer feature over it. In such a situation, delay of a few months is much less dangerous for Apple than screwing up their first entry into a new market.
Actually dilithium would be the most urgent need. What's the use for all the hull materials if you can not go to warp?
Companies should be penalized for making web software when only a native, mostly-offline client would be appropriate for customer's confidentiality.
Why would the filmmakers of said glorious gunfights give up on DRM if everyone agrees to it then?
There are plenty of entertainment options. You can watch regular TV, videos on YouTube or just take a walk in the park. Why go out of the way to patronize people who are not willing to serve content the way you like it?
We have been hearing about digital convergence forever, but most people want a separate computer from cellphone or TV. Processors from Intel itself still have completely separate sets of instructions for integers and for floating point. In the same vein, even if Intel's architecture is possible, it will be less upgradable, more difficult to program for and have less backward compatibility overtime than a set of components with well defined functions.
In this case, lets hand over licensing inventions to USPTO that will decide how an invention benefits society and turn over licensing proceeds to the author. Because with current system, it's noone else's business on what the inventor does with his brainchild. Perhaps some inventions (tax evasion schemes for example) are the most beneficial if you keep everyone from using them.
It's a crime to submit false information to a government agency. Jeff Bezos should spend a couple of years in ... federal penitentiary.
I am just asking for fairness. If someone currently has a patent that covers work done by that Russian dude, and they are allowed to keep it, I should be able to do the same if I independently re-invent some technology developed by a big company. I don't see why their contribution to the society - commercial development, should somehow give them a higher status than an open source author who enables, among other things, commercial development by anyone.
There is no reason an inventor has to make his inventions available to anyone. Weather it's a desired attribute of society or not, current system allows one to refuse license or demand outrageous royalties. Personally, I would prefer inventors to only publish end result their invention and make full text available when someone agrees to license the work or use it only for exempt purposes such as research. This way, if I don't think your invention is valuable enough to license on your terms, I have an option of doing the work myself. Sure, there will be some cheating, but the current system allows fraud on much bigger scale. While it's in place, I would like big companies to suffer from its flaws as much as open source developers or small shops threatened by Microsoft or IBM. Hopefully they will start advocating reform.
Why exactly single out commercial development as valuable to society and discount the value of releasing work to public domain?
Well, I sure shouldn't be able to patent the concept of turning fuel into mechanical energy.
I didn't read any of the MP3 patents, but I see that they are not making their work available to the important open source community. So, I am going to invite a bunch of people to compare uncompressed vs compressed music and independently develop an algorithm to strip off waveforms that don't seem to matter as much as others. This algorithm may or may not share some concepts with MP3. But, according to you, I should get a patent for it anyway. After all, I made a very important contribution to the world through my own work, a contribution that wouldn't have happened from the work of the earlier inventor.
How about a 1 month jail sentence? It will not be that much on a heavy side, but will keep an average geek from doing it again and scare away others.
As for corporations, current laws are screwed. Anyone with a few K in the pocket can start their own personal corporation to evade responsibility for their actions against hundreds of laws. If a corporation commits a crime, everyone responsible should be charged according to degree of their responsibility. Rank and file will probably avoid imprisonment by ratting out the boss. In addition, corporations that repeatedly break laws should be banned as criminal gangs and foreclosed.
In which case, if I can reproduce their scientific work independently, I should be awarded a patent of my own. Ditto for single click, RSA, MP3...
I know those probably expired already, but any currently active patents claiming any part of that invention should be promptly invalidates. Fair is fair - nobody should be getting royalties for something they didn't invent.