Is that supposed to be a peace sign? Looks like a rocket to me... why is the part that's pointing up longer? Those marketing guys always have to fuck up something...
If all else fails, call them up and have your account terminated.
That's exactly the *wrong* thing to do! That won't make them stop spamming, they will "just" lose a customer. Yes, you could tell the person on the phone it's because of the spam, but I doubt that this message will reach anybody who could do anything about the spam.
So I think Ellen did the exact right thing, and let's hope this scares a few companies so that they think twice before doing something similar.
Re:So where does the information come from?
on
A Map to Nowhere?
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· Score: 1
Exactly! We need the whole documentation, program comments, etc! It must be *somewhere*, why can this Church organization not provide it if they're so smart? Or did somebody do a sloppy job and hack it together in a one-nighter?
All this reverse-engineering is fun for some time, but when you want to do serious work, you really need the docs.
Oh, and besides: Wouldn't the genome project be illegal under the DMCA?
I'd rather pay for the site than buy what is advertised... Because paying the people who run the site is much more direct (and noticeable - how do they know the impact of online ads on sales, anyway?), and might keep the site completely free of ads, which I would really like for some of the more interesting sites.
Donations are a good idea, especially for relatively small communities, I think. I know a BBS (on the internet, not dial-up) here that is run on donations. They don't just ask for money, they also throw parties every now and then, where the users get a chance to meet the people they have been talking to in real life. They make some money with these parties (even though the drinks are cheap and you don't pay for entrance), which is enough for them to keep going.
So yes, donations can work, depending on how you do it, and how your userbase is structured.
Yes, that is a *big* problem. I often try to find the authors' home pages and look for the paper there. But that doesn't always help, because many people still only have lists of their publications online, but not the actual articles. This really needs to change, there are so many journals and conferences now that no library can have them all - so we need decent access to them online.
Exactly! Now people will buy soundcards with SP/DIF in, and there they go... it takes longer than ripping a CD the old-fashioned way, but I know people will do everything just to spite the RIAA...
But directly copying a CD isn't such a big problem for them, I guess. It's far more damaging if somebody rips the songs and posts them to a newsgroup or puts them on Napster. It's just called "copy-protection" so they don't have to explain so much.
Oh, and besides... maybe they put in errors at a very low level that the CD player can ignore by just interpolating between the samples on either side, but that a CDROM cannot, because it has to read the data to copy it.
Wrong! The next one would have to be OS/420! You see, the last version was OS/390, the one before OS/360... 30 difference, so... 420! (insert obvious HHGTTG-Quote here).
And BTW, I think it's "the OS", as pronounced by a German: "ze OS"... "I am going to run ze OS on ze mainframe";-) (yea, so sue me, I'm a native german speaker myself)
As soon as you compare x to true or false, its value is known, so you will never get to the "WTF" part. Your third state isn't a logical state, it's just the state of the variable before it is examined.
Is it too much to ask for a ground breaking idea in nine short years?
I hope you're not serious... otherwise: Yes, it is! If you're not satisfied with innovation, go and develop something great and new yourself! What have you done in the last nine years?
But what I actually wanted to say, is: There probably have been some great innovations in the last ten years or so, they just haven't made it to the market yet, or we haven't seen their impact. If you ask again in, say, five years, what innovations there were in the 1990s, we will be able to answer. But it's too early now, I think.
Oh, and BTW: I would consider cloning quite an innovation. And the proof of Fermat's theorem. And cell phones - the ones we have now, not the fridge-sized things from the 80s;-)
Re:It's not for gaming but for disabled ppl!
on
Head-Mounted Mouse
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· Score: 1
You are right, but that is quite a common problem in that area. Devices that are developed and made for disabled people are expensive simply because the market is pretty small. And often, these devices need much more testing and require higher standards for software usability etc. And the companies can't use the normal distribution channels for their stuff, which also adds to the costs.
So yes, it's stupid that these devices are so expensive, but it's not just that those companies want to make a quick buck. They simply can't produce these things at mass-market prices.
It's not for gaming but for disabled ppl!
on
Head-Mounted Mouse
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· Score: 3
This mouse is as useful for playing Q3 as a wheelchair. That's not what it was made for. So please stop bitching about bad control, this isn't meant for playing!
This mouse can be used by people with disabilities that can't control their hands accurately enough (or at all) to operate a normal mouse. So this is certainly very useful for a rather small group of people. And that group is *not* Q3 players...
So let's suppose the Slashdot poll box would count as prior art. How do you prove that that system actually existed before April 22nd, 1998? I mean you can easily fake the information in the database, so would Cliff's word count? I have my doubts...
And generally: How do you prove prior art with software? You could have just written that the previous night to bust the patent? Can anybody shed some light here?
I don't know about tremendous growth, but they certainly exist and aren't doing too bad. I love my MD player, it's small and the quality is great. And I prefer taking a bunch of MDs with me than having to decide what songs to upload to my MP3 player (granted, it only has 128MB, but still... MDs are cheap).
Okay, this is somewhat off-topic, but I want to take issue with this statement in the write-up: "Of course its an intermediate step before we simply stream all audio from the net" - no, I don't think it is.
Storing all your data "on the net", getting all your music "from the net" - that has been promised for quite some time. Oh, and there was "the network is the computer", too.
Now I don't think networks will ever replace storage media. Of course, everything has to be stored somewhere, but that's not what I mean. When I copy a CD to MiniDisc, for example, it is available to me, and I can take it with me. I don't depend on the infrastructure I would need to download the music. Yes, I know, eventually, every place on earth will have wireless access at 5 bazillion terabytes per nanosecond, but we are far from that now. And then, why should I pay for streaming the music? And even if I paid a flat fee, why should I waste resources (frequencies) to do that, if I can have the data in my pocket, easily?
Another point is access speed. No network can ever be as fast as locally existing media. I can easily and very quickly browse the stuff on my harddrive and find everything at once. That is not the same with the net, which takes much, much longer. And the network is certainly not as reliable as my harddrive. Yes, it gets better, and there are few problems now. But still, there are many more things that can go wrong, so it's much more likely to be a problem.
And last, but not least: Despite all the talk about leasing music and selling services, there is something very deep inside us that simply wants to own things. I own my CDs, I can take them in my hands and be sure I got something real for my money. Yes, it's stupid, but I think it's something very basic. And it doesn't matter what the media look like that we buy, but we will want to buy things in the future, too, not just some abstract data streams.
Phew, that's a bit more than I thought I would write;-) Any opinions?
I'm not sure shit and data share the same kind of transport media;-)
But regarding maintenance: They have robots for that, too. Actually, I think the same robot that lays the fiber can also cut it and remove it from the pipe, and then lay a new one. Maintenance isn't worse than laying the fiber in the first place, which isn't a lot of fun. But it's a very clever idea and creates a lot less problems than digging through half the city...
But it's not exactly a very new thing, I've seen documentaries on this over here in Europe at least a year ago.
I already signed up for Nupedia, and I got an email from Jimmy Wales taking advantage of my guilty feelings;-) and encouraging me to contribute to Wikipedia. So this time, I am definitely going to contribute by writing articles and translating stuff, maybe also reviewing.
Me too... seriously. We really need people like Hart and Wales to get a break from all that money-making, and just be able to access knowledge. These are great projects, and reading this article made me ashamed I haven't contributed anything to them. I really have to do something.
Slashdot Mirror
Oooops, you're right! ahem ... now everybody knows I'm not a real hippie ;-)
Is that supposed to be a peace sign? Looks like a rocket to me ... why is the part that's pointing up longer? Those marketing guys always have to fuck up something ...
That's exactly the *wrong* thing to do! That won't make them stop spamming, they will "just" lose a customer. Yes, you could tell the person on the phone it's because of the spam, but I doubt that this message will reach anybody who could do anything about the spam.
So I think Ellen did the exact right thing, and let's hope this scares a few companies so that they think twice before doing something similar.
Exactly! We need the whole documentation, program comments, etc! It must be *somewhere*, why can this Church organization not provide it if they're so smart? Or did somebody do a sloppy job and hack it together in a one-nighter?
All this reverse-engineering is fun for some time, but when you want to do serious work, you really need the docs.
Oh, and besides: Wouldn't the genome project be illegal under the DMCA?
I'd rather pay for the site than buy what is advertised ... Because paying the people who run the site is much more direct (and noticeable - how do they know the impact of online ads on sales, anyway?), and might keep the site completely free of ads, which I would really like for some of the more interesting sites.
Donations are a good idea, especially for relatively small communities, I think. I know a BBS (on the internet, not dial-up) here that is run on donations. They don't just ask for money, they also throw parties every now and then, where the users get a chance to meet the people they have been talking to in real life. They make some money with these parties (even though the drinks are cheap and you don't pay for entrance), which is enough for them to keep going.
So yes, donations can work, depending on how you do it, and how your userbase is structured.
Yes, that is a *big* problem. I often try to find the authors' home pages and look for the paper there. But that doesn't always help, because many people still only have lists of their publications online, but not the actual articles. This really needs to change, there are so many journals and conferences now that no library can have them all - so we need decent access to them online.
Exactly! Now people will buy soundcards with SP/DIF in, and there they go ... it takes longer than ripping a CD the old-fashioned way, but I know people will do everything just to spite the RIAA ...
But directly copying a CD isn't such a big problem for them, I guess. It's far more damaging if somebody rips the songs and posts them to a newsgroup or puts them on Napster. It's just called "copy-protection" so they don't have to explain so much.
... maybe they put in errors at a very low level that the CD player can ignore by just interpolating between the samples on either side, but that a CDROM cannot, because it has to read the data to copy it.
Oh, and besides
Wrong! The next one would have to be OS/420! You see, the last version was OS/390, the one before OS/360 ... 30 difference, so ... 420! (insert obvious HHGTTG-Quote here).
... "I am going to run ze OS on ze mainframe" ;-) (yea, so sue me, I'm a native german speaker myself)
And BTW, I think it's "the OS", as pronounced by a German: "ze OS"
As soon as you compare x to true or false, its value is known, so you will never get to the "WTF" part. Your third state isn't a logical state, it's just the state of the variable before it is examined.
First bombs, now ultraviolence
end?
I hope you're not serious
But what I actually wanted to say, is: There probably have been some great innovations in the last ten years or so, they just haven't made it to the market yet, or we haven't seen their impact. If you ask again in, say, five years, what innovations there were in the 1990s, we will be able to answer. But it's too early now, I think.
Oh, and BTW: I would consider cloning quite an innovation. And the proof of Fermat's theorem. And cell phones - the ones we have now, not the fridge-sized things from the 80s
You are right, but that is quite a common problem in that area. Devices that are developed and made for disabled people are expensive simply because the market is pretty small. And often, these devices need much more testing and require higher standards for software usability etc. And the companies can't use the normal distribution channels for their stuff, which also adds to the costs.
So yes, it's stupid that these devices are so expensive, but it's not just that those companies want to make a quick buck. They simply can't produce these things at mass-market prices.
This mouse is as useful for playing Q3 as a wheelchair. That's not what it was made for. So please stop bitching about bad control, this isn't meant for playing!
...
This mouse can be used by people with disabilities that can't control their hands accurately enough (or at all) to operate a normal mouse. So this is certainly very useful for a rather small group of people. And that group is *not* Q3 players
So let's suppose the Slashdot poll box would count as prior art. How do you prove that that system actually existed before April 22nd, 1998? I mean you can easily fake the information in the database, so would Cliff's word count? I have my doubts ...
And generally: How do you prove prior art with software? You could have just written that the previous night to bust the patent? Can anybody shed some light here?
I don't know about tremendous growth, but they certainly exist and aren't doing too bad. I love my MD player, it's small and the quality is great. And I prefer taking a bunch of MDs with me than having to decide what songs to upload to my MP3 player (granted, it only has 128MB, but still ... MDs are cheap).
Okay, this is somewhat off-topic, but I want to take issue with this statement in the write-up: "Of course its an intermediate step before we simply stream all audio from the net" - no, I don't think it is.
;-) Any opinions?
Storing all your data "on the net", getting all your music "from the net" - that has been promised for quite some time. Oh, and there was "the network is the computer", too.
Now I don't think networks will ever replace storage media. Of course, everything has to be stored somewhere, but that's not what I mean. When I copy a CD to MiniDisc, for example, it is available to me, and I can take it with me. I don't depend on the infrastructure I would need to download the music. Yes, I know, eventually, every place on earth will have wireless access at 5 bazillion terabytes per nanosecond, but we are far from that now. And then, why should I pay for streaming the music? And even if I paid a flat fee, why should I waste resources (frequencies) to do that, if I can have the data in my pocket, easily?
Another point is access speed. No network can ever be as fast as locally existing media. I can easily and very quickly browse the stuff on my harddrive and find everything at once. That is not the same with the net, which takes much, much longer. And the network is certainly not as reliable as my harddrive. Yes, it gets better, and there are few problems now. But still, there are many more things that can go wrong, so it's much more likely to be a problem.
And last, but not least: Despite all the talk about leasing music and selling services, there is something very deep inside us that simply wants to own things. I own my CDs, I can take them in my hands and be sure I got something real for my money. Yes, it's stupid, but I think it's something very basic. And it doesn't matter what the media look like that we buy, but we will want to buy things in the future, too, not just some abstract data streams.
Phew, that's a bit more than I thought I would write
Yes, I understand that. I only wanted to point this out, because there was something about "distributed debugging" in the writeup of this article.
"NDA-ridden disclosure" ... I love legal speak ... ;-)
...
And as far as I know, Microsoft does not allow anyone to modify the source, let alone distribute patches. So much for the debugging
You wouldn't believe it, but there is life outside the US, too! ;-)
Simple wires. It's not like they're going through miles of pipes with that in one session, but from one accessible point to the next. So it's doable.
I'm not sure shit and data share the same kind of transport media ;-)
...
But regarding maintenance: They have robots for that, too. Actually, I think the same robot that lays the fiber can also cut it and remove it from the pipe, and then lay a new one. Maintenance isn't worse than laying the fiber in the first place, which isn't a lot of fun. But it's a very clever idea and creates a lot less problems than digging through half the city
But it's not exactly a very new thing, I've seen documentaries on this over here in Europe at least a year ago.
I already signed up for Nupedia, and I got an email from Jimmy Wales taking advantage of my guilty feelings ;-) and encouraging me to contribute to Wikipedia. So this time, I am definitely going to contribute by writing articles and translating stuff, maybe also reviewing.
Me too ... seriously. We really need people like Hart and Wales to get a break from all that money-making, and just be able to access knowledge. These are great projects, and reading this article made me ashamed I haven't contributed anything to them. I really have to do something.