You know, like the ones for turning on certain "licensed" features of freetype, using decss (keep it on topic, folks), gif libraries, and patching your kernel for crypto.
Basically: "Here is the code. Here is what it does. If it's illegal for you do do that where you live, then don't break the law."
Why should a developer be denied the right to publish code that "could be used to do something that may be illegal under certain circumstances". Hey, I know--I'll build a security system to protect against 19th century threats, and then sic my lawyers on anybody who invents a technology that might circumvent my security.
I have a pair of bolt-cutters in my garage. Ace hardware was happy to sell it to me. I don't think the hardware store owner should bow to pressure from the U-Stor-It down the street who might say: "Hey, people use those things to break into our storage facilities."
OTOH, if this actually gets to court and holds up, then I will create a website and copyright some work on that site. Perhaps an scan of an artistic display of one of my fingers. The license will say "You may not view any material on this website"
Then I will tell anyone who produces tools that allow this sort of copyright violation (web browsers) to take place that they must stop!
Works great if you can directly access the internet. Does your company use a proxy server? It keeps logs. Whatever comes through the server can be recorded before it ever gets to your box. And your requests are caught on the way out.
Running a properly configured GNU/Linux system to solve that problem is like buying steel doors, deadbolts, window bars, and $3,000 security system for your house. Now, do you still have the UPS man leave your packages on the sill of the front door?
Maybe you're spoofing your box's identity when you connect to the company's internet onramp? Swiped someone else's IP address, didja? That'd help, but there's still other things you'd have to consider.
Technical Implications:
In any number of filtering proxies (and in Opera itself!!), you can set the useragent to be whatever you want it to be. Proxomitron's default is SpaceBison;). Seriously folks, this is a problem only for the completely ignorant.
Social Impliciations:
What about the social problem of M$'s behaviour in the community. If M$ was a guy in a dormitory or apartment building, I think everybody living there would pretty much agree that that guy was a jerk. I don't like jerks. Their presence, however, is reassuring. When nobody has the right to be a jerk, we'll be living in the dystopian dreams of the dominant culture in "Demolition Man". IMHO, that would suck.
Legal Implications:
IANAL, so I can't speak to this. I would like to hear someone competent to do so make a case that M$ is engaging in anticompetitive practices (or whateve the trust-busters call it) when they pick on poor lil' ol' Opera.
Legal Precedent (maybe):
Is this in any way similar to Pilsbury refusing to sell Haagen-Dazs to any store that carried Ben & Jerry's? Remember the bumper stickers several years ago "Who's the Doughby Afraid Of...Ben&Jerry's"
Shameless Plug:
Oh, yeah--Opera absolutely kicks ass. Been using it since about Opera3. Wonderful browser. Way better than anything else I've ever used. Too many advantages to mention. Maybe that's why M$ is scared.
Maybe. I read a SF story when I was a teen about a group of engineers what were all cloned from the same cell. Seems they sent work teams like this to do jobs because they worked well together. They were called a "tenclone". Some were male; some female (easy enough to modify that one chromosome).
The tenclone had one name and regarded hirself as a single entity; one member who got separated from the tenclone had a hard time dealing with life. The tenclone slept together like a big pile of puppies, and sometimes screwed each other (themself?), too. The author seemed to have a hard time labeling this sort of sex--fucking? masturbation? incest?
It's interesting to note that the author was comfortable talking about masturbation, incest, group marriage, and cloning. But he needed to produce differently sexed clones for some reason. Clearly they were not needed for reproductive purposes!
The article discusses the gyrations the industry is going through in order to prop up itself, but does not sufficiently emphasize the basic economics of the situation:
What do they contribute to the process today?
At one time, it was very difficult to record and distribute music. Letting the listeners know the music was available was a problem, too. All of this costa lotta dollah! An industry was born, they provided those services, and they charged a fee. I don't forget that industry has abused and defrauded both the artists and the listeners; I'm keeping this basic, here.
Anyhow, the services are simply not as precious as they once were. The most difficult part of getting a recorded piece of music onto media is to create the art itself. Today, anybody with a few grand can put together a decent recording studio. More and more, when the band's in the studio the most expensive collection of hardware in the room is their instruments.
Editing and mixing a decent track from the audio your engineer has just captured? Again, the limiting factor is talent, not capital.
Marketing and Distribution? I don't think we need help with that.
The RIAA is doomed because they have no product. They may hang onto some "talent" through old contracts, but I can't forsee the majority of new artists waiting to be "discovered" when they can do it themselves.
Social power has a tendency to concentrate itself. While concentrated power is not necessarily evil, a good analogy is that of a steamroller. It doesn't care about the ant. But if the ant gets in its way it'll get squashed.
Let's assume an entity with little or no power which does not wish to become part of the local powerful entity. Non-Windows OSs, users, vendors, etc make good examples.
Most have become part of the Microsoft Collective. They have the Collective's lawyers vigorously defending their rights to use licensed installations of the Collective's product on their machines. Those outside of the Collective do not.
What can those outside do to protect their rights--from the Collective as well as from marauding elements outside of the Collective? Some possibilities:
Not be noticed.
Join the collective.
Remain outside of the Collective, but bind their interests to its interests.
It appears that SCO has chosen the last option for us--in that they are suing *everybody*.
IANAL, so I don't know if these patents actually affect *nix et. al. It's unlikely that SCO will find a much profit in pursuing anyone but the Collective for infringement--blood from a stone and all that. If this happens, then the users of those OSs can continue to "not be noticed".
However, if it turns out that we are all using SCO-infringing patents (M$, and the rest of us), we need to present our use--in a legal context--as similar to that of M$. Co-defendants.
M$ will fight the battle for us. Hee Hee.
Unfortunately, that's not really what's going to happen. If SCO proves a crucial and defensible patent, the Collective will buy it up with their big ol' sack of money. Then their lawyers will come after those who are not "of the body".
Other OSs may have excellent code and design, but the Collective has excellent lawyers and politicians. We will find ourselves in the position of a poor man in a lawless country who finds a chest of gold. Sure, it's his. But can he hold onto it?
Let's assume for the sake of discussion that they're really doing this. Why? They don't have the muscle to pursue *all* the violators. And if they did, there would be serious impact to infrastructure. Aren't there one or two or more "CPUs" critical to the internet running GNU/Linux?
So, we also have to assume that SCO doesn't care about the potential impact to the community (not the "Linux community"; the community). And we also have to assume that they don't care about the logistical nightmare of effectively enforcing their alleged patent.
Maybe they're hoping some big organization that has an ideological problem with Linux will buy SCO (and the alleged patent), and enforce it?
If we assume all that, then we can conclude that SCO is ready to throw in the towel. What has happened when the sort of company that might buy this alleged patent for the purposes above actually does so? You can reasonably expect that company act like a wolverine that's found a cache of food.
You can use chips to emulate a disk to emulate chips.
Or you can just put 1G of ECC SDRAM in your machine and don't configure a swap partition at all. Been doin that for months. Those apps that really think they need a temp dir just use one. I've never seen my memory usage get anywhere near to full. The cached usage eventually gets full & stays that way, but you want that.
Yeah, I think Jake Stonebender had one in his bar. Got it from Mike Callahan. They moved the bar after it got shut down by some a**hole in NY. Last I heard, it was in Key West. But it mostly made many wonderful permutations of irish coffee.
Those are the hardest words for many people to say. For many (a majority, I believe) of, the place where "I Don't Know" is kept is a very scary place. Most people will grasp any idea that comes along just so they can cram it into that empty place.
Witness the common "Well, do you have a better explanation?" argument. Amazingly, this argument is convincing to many otherwise reasonable people!
"I Don't Know". Cherish it. Consider your understanding of your world a project. "I Don't Know" is your TODO list.
Here's a couple of my favorites. The first is from Indiana Jones The Last Crusade. I don't know where the second is from:
Indy:... the search for fact. Not truth.
If it's truth you're interested
in, Doctor Tyree's Philosophy
class is right down the hall.
The man who knows and knows he knows is wise. Follow him.
The man who knows not and knows he knows not is ignorant. Teach him.
The man who knows not and knows not he knows not is a fool. Shun him.
Re:Why are we stuck on #4?!
on
Real DRM
·
· Score: 1
Ummm... It's not "native" support. Just hooks into the respective windows dlls. Same for QT.
Kodachrome will last 100 years if stored correctly.
'Course most scanners are set up to scan E6, so Kodachrome requires some color correction after a scan.
Slashdot Mirror
Basically: "Here is the code. Here is what it does. If it's illegal for you do do that where you live, then don't break the law."
Why should a developer be denied the right to publish code that "could be used to do something that may be illegal under certain circumstances". Hey, I know--I'll build a security system to protect against 19th century threats, and then sic my lawyers on anybody who invents a technology that might circumvent my security.
I have a pair of bolt-cutters in my garage. Ace hardware was happy to sell it to me. I don't think the hardware store owner should bow to pressure from the U-Stor-It down the street who might say: "Hey, people use those things to break into our storage facilities."
OTOH, if this actually gets to court and holds up, then I will create a website and copyright some work on that site. Perhaps an scan of an artistic display of one of my fingers. The license will say "You may not view any material on this website"
Then I will tell anyone who produces tools that allow this sort of copyright violation (web browsers) to take place that they must stop!
Hmmmm...Who should I start with??" MWAAAHAHAHAHA
Running a properly configured GNU/Linux system to solve that problem is like buying steel doors, deadbolts, window bars, and $3,000 security system for your house. Now, do you still have the UPS man leave your packages on the sill of the front door?
Maybe you're spoofing your box's identity when you connect to the company's internet onramp? Swiped someone else's IP address, didja? That'd help, but there's still other things you'd have to consider.
Try this, too:
https://proxy.magusnet.com/-_-[your url here]
Make sure it's a 1988, though. It took GM until then to get it right, then they quit making it. Mmmm...Engine Fires.
Waah Waah Waah
Technical Implications: In any number of filtering proxies (and in Opera itself!!), you can set the useragent to be whatever you want it to be. Proxomitron's default is SpaceBison ;). Seriously folks, this is a problem only for the completely ignorant.
Social Impliciations: What about the social problem of M$'s behaviour in the community. If M$ was a guy in a dormitory or apartment building, I think everybody living there would pretty much agree that that guy was a jerk. I don't like jerks. Their presence, however, is reassuring. When nobody has the right to be a jerk, we'll be living in the dystopian dreams of the dominant culture in "Demolition Man". IMHO, that would suck.
Legal Implications: IANAL, so I can't speak to this. I would like to hear someone competent to do so make a case that M$ is engaging in anticompetitive practices (or whateve the trust-busters call it) when they pick on poor lil' ol' Opera.
Legal Precedent (maybe): Is this in any way similar to Pilsbury refusing to sell Haagen-Dazs to any store that carried Ben & Jerry's? Remember the bumper stickers several years ago "Who's the Doughby Afraid Of...Ben&Jerry's"
Shameless Plug: Oh, yeah--Opera absolutely kicks ass. Been using it since about Opera3. Wonderful browser. Way better than anything else I've ever used. Too many advantages to mention. Maybe that's why M$ is scared.
It's more of a linear motor, which would be a Gauss-Gun.
A Gauss gun is a more elegant design, but harder to implement.
I don't think it was ever deployed.
So who's got the patent?
Nobody?
Quick, go patent it. In fact, go patent all the things that piss you off. Then sue whoever does those things.
"Method of raising blood pressure in automobile operators" ...
(too many to list)
He's got a pretty good rant^H^H^H^H essay on the subject.
And if it's not scottish...
Maybe. I read a SF story when I was a teen about a group of engineers what were all cloned from the same cell. Seems they sent work teams like this to do jobs because they worked well together. They were called a "tenclone". Some were male; some female (easy enough to modify that one chromosome).
The tenclone had one name and regarded hirself as a single entity; one member who got separated from the tenclone had a hard time dealing with life. The tenclone slept together like a big pile of puppies, and sometimes screwed each other (themself?), too. The author seemed to have a hard time labeling this sort of sex--fucking? masturbation? incest?
It's interesting to note that the author was comfortable talking about masturbation, incest, group marriage, and cloning. But he needed to produce differently sexed clones for some reason. Clearly they were not needed for reproductive purposes!
Also, why don't I find anything when I search for "stereolithography" on this page.
C'mon people!
What do they contribute to the process today?
At one time, it was very difficult to record and distribute music. Letting the listeners know the music was available was a problem, too. All of this costa lotta dollah! An industry was born, they provided those services, and they charged a fee. I don't forget that industry has abused and defrauded both the artists and the listeners; I'm keeping this basic, here.
Anyhow, the services are simply not as precious as they once were. The most difficult part of getting a recorded piece of music onto media is to create the art itself. Today, anybody with a few grand can put together a decent recording studio. More and more, when the band's in the studio the most expensive collection of hardware in the room is their instruments.
Editing and mixing a decent track from the audio your engineer has just captured? Again, the limiting factor is talent, not capital.
Marketing and Distribution? I don't think we need help with that.
The RIAA is doomed because they have no product. They may hang onto some "talent" through old contracts, but I can't forsee the majority of new artists waiting to be "discovered" when they can do it themselves.
Torque, Torque--the Beast needs more Torque.
If your mom said a PB&J is better than nothing.
And nothing is better than God.
Then is a PB&J better than God?
Let's assume an entity with little or no power which does not wish to become part of the local powerful entity. Non-Windows OSs, users, vendors, etc make good examples.
Most have become part of the Microsoft Collective. They have the Collective's lawyers vigorously defending their rights to use licensed installations of the Collective's product on their machines. Those outside of the Collective do not.
What can those outside do to protect their rights--from the Collective as well as from marauding elements outside of the Collective? Some possibilities:
Not be noticed.
Join the collective.
Remain outside of the Collective, but bind their interests to its interests.
It appears that SCO has chosen the last option for us--in that they are suing *everybody*.
IANAL, so I don't know if these patents actually affect *nix et. al. It's unlikely that SCO will find a much profit in pursuing anyone but the Collective for infringement--blood from a stone and all that. If this happens, then the users of those OSs can continue to "not be noticed".
However, if it turns out that we are all using SCO-infringing patents (M$, and the rest of us), we need to present our use--in a legal context--as similar to that of M$. Co-defendants.
M$ will fight the battle for us. Hee Hee.
Unfortunately, that's not really what's going to happen. If SCO proves a crucial and defensible patent, the Collective will buy it up with their big ol' sack of money. Then their lawyers will come after those who are not "of the body".
Other OSs may have excellent code and design, but the Collective has excellent lawyers and politicians. We will find ourselves in the position of a poor man in a lawless country who finds a chest of gold. Sure, it's his. But can he hold onto it?
I meant position, not precision.
I'm doing propogation of errors in analog I/O modules and have "precision" on my mind right now.
And you could use GPS to detect precision.
Then you could use a very fast wireless link to connect to a collection of high resolution earth images.
So, if you held the device in front of you and looked at it, you could see exactly what you'd see if your hand was empty.
PHBs should be able to buy this "empty-hand" device for $2500.00 in two years; the rest of will get it for $99.99 at Wal-Mart in five.
See http://slashdot.org/askslashdot/01/02/21/1752256.s html
Do you plan to sell the drives on ebay?
Search completed items on ebay for SCSI ADAPTER produces 11 pages of adapters and cables for under $10.00!!
If the drives are not worth $10.00+shipping, bust 'em open and stick the platters in the microwave.
Or use 'em for target practice.
Go Team Banzai!! Go Blue Blazers!!
Hmmm... that's real reliable.
Let's assume for the sake of discussion that they're really doing this. Why? They don't have the muscle to pursue *all* the violators. And if they did, there would be serious impact to infrastructure. Aren't there one or two or more "CPUs" critical to the internet running GNU/Linux?
So, we also have to assume that SCO doesn't care about the potential impact to the community (not the "Linux community"; the community). And we also have to assume that they don't care about the logistical nightmare of effectively enforcing their alleged patent.
Maybe they're hoping some big organization that has an ideological problem with Linux will buy SCO (and the alleged patent), and enforce it?
If we assume all that, then we can conclude that SCO is ready to throw in the towel. What has happened when the sort of company that might buy this alleged patent for the purposes above actually does so? You can reasonably expect that company act like a wolverine that's found a cache of food.
C'est la guerre.
Or you can just put 1G of ECC SDRAM in your machine and don't configure a swap partition at all. Been doin that for months. Those apps that really think they need a temp dir just use one. I've never seen my memory usage get anywhere near to full. The cached usage eventually gets full & stays that way, but you want that.
Yeah, I think Jake Stonebender had one in his bar. Got it from Mike Callahan. They moved the bar after it got shut down by some a**hole in NY. Last I heard, it was in Key West. But it mostly made many wonderful permutations of irish coffee.
Those are the hardest words for many people to say. For many (a majority, I believe) of, the place where "I Don't Know" is kept is a very scary place. Most people will grasp any idea that comes along just so they can cram it into that empty place.
Witness the common "Well, do you have a better explanation?" argument. Amazingly, this argument is convincing to many otherwise reasonable people!
"I Don't Know". Cherish it. Consider your understanding of your world a project. "I Don't Know" is your TODO list.
Here's a couple of my favorites. The first is from Indiana Jones The Last Crusade. I don't know where the second is from:
Indy: ... the search for fact. Not truth.
If it's truth you're interested
in, Doctor Tyree's Philosophy
class is right down the hall.
The man who knows and knows he knows is wise. Follow him.
The man who knows not and knows he knows not is ignorant. Teach him.
The man who knows not and knows not he knows not is a fool. Shun him.
Ummm... It's not "native" support. Just hooks into the respective windows dlls. Same for QT.
Kodachrome will last 100 years if stored correctly. 'Course most scanners are set up to scan E6, so Kodachrome requires some color correction after a scan.