"Work done under commission is implicitly the property of the employer, not the employee."
I don't think this is totally the case. I can be paid to develope software and still own the rights to it. Think the term is "work for hire". But that doesn't apply if I'm an employee of the employer and it can get muddled if I write the software on their computers.
But I agree with your conclusion, don't see any way a beta tester could claim IP on something you wrote.
I don't think so. You'd certainly have an explosion of that at first, but people would grow tired of it and want something different.
Plus many channels would specifically go for the nitch market. Maybe only 3% of the TV watching population likes sci-fi shows, but if the sci-fi channel can lock that 3% onto their channel, they've got it made.
Because as a company they've done a good job of acting in good faith with their community. They've complied with the GPL in their kernel modifications, they've also been very tolerant of the hacking of their devices.
They provide a good product and have a record of dealing openly and honestly with their customers. So yes, I'd like for them to succeed.
It doesn't make sense, but Tivos do let you watch more TV in less time.
Reasons why are:
1> You decide when you watch it.
This means TV works around my schedule. I may not be home in time every Wed night for Enterprise, but I'll have 40 mins free sooner or later to watch it.
2> You can skip the commercials.
An hour long show will only burn up 40 mins of your time, not 60.
But I think most people aren't really watching "TV" so much as watching shows. Even when you sit and channel surf you're tuning into the types of shows you like, whether's that Star Trek or a Friends re-run.
What a Tivo does is "surf" for you and grab the shows you like, or even shows it thinks you'll like. So when you are feeling lazy and just plop down in front of the TV you can not only channel surf, but you'll also have 20 pre-recorded shows that either you've told it you want or it thought you might like.
My Tivo records Buffy, Smallville, Angel, Southpark, Stargate SG-1, Earth Final Conflict, Andromeda, Futurama and several other shows whenever a new episode comes on. I simply told it to "record any new eposide of Buffy" and it handles all the details, the time slot, the channel and I can watch it whenever I want to plop down in front of the tube.
Heh, a Tivo isn't an archiver it's a timeshifter on steriods.
Basically you tell it 3 or 4 shows you like, maybe review a few more that sound good but you've never seen before and you watch them.
Like tonight I'll go home, preview what's on this weekend(using my Tivo to do this), set my unit to record a few promising things and then start watching stuff I've record over the last week.
Then over the weekend I'll watch the stuff the Tivo records for me. It'll even record shows it thinks I'll like based on past viewing habits.
I own a VCR. I've never used my VCR to record a show before, ever. I couldn't live without my Tivo.
Tivos aren't a VCR replacement, they change the way you watch TV.
I also watch Buffy, but I don't sit down every Tuesday night to watch it. Instead I've told my Tivo I want to watch Buffy and it records it for me to watch whenever I want.
Remember the Buffy musical that went 10 minutes long? My Tivo automatically knew about the extra length and it recorded the whole show.
You know that Buffy is syndicated on other networks? I can ask my Tivo to show me ALL the upcoming episodes of Buffy on any network and pick and choose any old episides I want to see.
But where the Tivo really shines it I can also tell it to show me any shows that say, a star from Buffy is in. I can bring up a list of anything on in the next 2 week staring Seth Green and review/set to record any of them.
Or I can bring up any future show or movie having to do with vampires, review them and tell Tivo to record any that sound good.
There are thousands of shows playing on your television each week. Tivos aren't simply a way to record those shows, they're an interface for filtering through all of the content and watching the ones that appeal to you on your own terms.
Function isn't everything. Swatches didn't dominate the wrist watch market in the 80's because they were so functional, it was the style.
My dodge Neon gets me to work just fine, but that doesn't mean I don't want a Porsche.
Jobs knows what he's doing, he's creating a brand not just a computer. Function is important, but don't think for a second that image doesn't count.
I am not required to own credit cards.
I am not required to have a social security number.
I am not required to have a drivers license or any kind of ID.
I am not required to have a bank or checking account.
It's an important point, because even though I do have all the above it was a choice. A government didn't tag me like some animal when I was born or doesn't require me to stay tagged.
A big part of freedom is being able to choose how free or not you are.
Read the article, they're just talking about linking the state databases and adding other ID cues that can't be faked. So a cop in CA can pull my record up like a cop in FL can and both will know for sure I'm the guy really linked to the license.
That's a far cry from "Driver's Licenses to Become National ID Cards".
Sometimes I feel like Slashdot has turned into a cheap tabloid.
The problem with the stand-alone unit having two tuners is that they may only have 1 data stream to record from.
I have digital cable. So I get a digital stream from my cable provider to their box, which then goes through my Tivo to my TV. The Tivo can't record 2 shows at once because my cable box will only stream 1 show to the Tivo box.
Maybe with analog cable Tivo could record 2 shows at once if it had two tuners, but analog cable is probably a dying technology anyway: the cable providers are pushing digital.
What I'd LOVE to see is an integrated digital cable box + Tivo unit, like what they did with Direct TV. That way they could pop 2 tuners in the box and record 2 shows at once. The compressing onto the tivo storage might even be better because they wouldn't be going digital -> analog -> digital like they do now.
I don't think an extra kernel source tree will really add much confusion. We'll always have the stable base 2.4 and the seat of your pants 2.5. MJC and AC will be something in between.
And MJC will live and die by how well it's mantained.
I've played EQ since before it game out in March of 1999. Started in Beta around November of 98, so I have a little insight on the game's evolution.
EQ uses their own engine which was built with the voodoo 1 card in mind. This has been the same engine they've used up to the latest expansion.
EQ has 3 expansions today:
Ruins of Kunark
Scars of Velious
Shadows of Luclin
EQ does not require any expansion for you to play. No expansion requires a previous expansion to play. Together they make a huge game. In 2 years of play, I'd say I've really explored about half of the game(and that doesn't include SOL in that figure).
Since the game engine up to SOL was written back in 98, with a voodoo 1 as the target, there were HUGE limitations on where they could take the game.
SOL changed that. They redid all the textures in the old expansions with SOL, 3 cds worth, and upgraded their engine to use the new Direct X 8.1 API and incorporated a whole new bunch of core game mechanic changes they can use to enhance gameplay.
If you don't upgrade to SOL you don't get the new textures and graphics, but they have to force the new engine on you so they can give you the new features.
Problem: Microsoft is dropped Win95 off their supported list, so the new Direct X's won't support it.
So EQ no longer supports windows 95 as well. There's no real way around that. But barring windows 95 you can continue to play EQ on your old slow system without SOL.
And for SOL's "stability"... the release night hammered the patch servers. By day two the hammering stopped and everything was smooth again.
Should they have increased their bandwidth for that 1 night and added XXX more servers? Some think so, I don't. It would've been a waste of resources to handle that 1 time surge of traffic.
And the game itself? It's been decently stable. There are lots of bugs, but most haven't affected gameplay any. The bugs that are affecting gameplay they're hammering out in daily fixes.
I've played EQ off and on for 2 years and see enough to want to play for years more. Not many games can do that.
There was a literary movement in the mid to late 80's called The Mirrorshades Movement that included authors such as William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan, Walter Jon Williams that had a heavy influence.
They coined many of the terms used today, cyber, net, matrix, and even "predicted" a lot of things before they came to pass(a worldwide internet, rise of global corporation power, urbanization, etc). They even spun off their own genre of Hollywood television B-class shows and their share of movies.
If you've ever heard the word Cyberpunk, these are some of the authors that spawned the genre.
1> Learn the material. Tinker with it constantly, it's the only real way to learn.
2> Get a job in the biz, ANY job in the biz(help desk, gopher, whatever). You'll learn more about real admining doing this than you ever will at home.
3> Constantly look for opportunities to apply your home built skills.
4> Know when to move on. Once you build up some solid work time for your resume, don't be afraid to leave your current job for something more inline with what you want to do with your career.
Eh, sorry dude. Been admining Linux internet servers for about 3 years and couldn't answer one of those questions.
Doesn't make me "unqualified" in the least. One of my babies has been running over a year without me even working at that job site any more.
If I was interviewing a candidate I'd worry less about his book knowledge and more about his methodology. I don't need someone who can recite what X file does, I need someone who can tackle a problem he DOESN'T fully understand.
To me, that's Unix. A bunch of drek one man can never fully understand, but there's a graceful logic to it. Grok that and you're set.
No no no, you must not RTFL. It's far better to just read the inflamatory Slashdot title and ASSUME that the feds are now allowed to anal probe you any time they feel like it.
Know what, I find installing windows to be more of a pain. But that's because my perspective is from 6 years of Linux experience vs "fiddling" around with Windows.
When I got a brand new Vortex ethernet card a few years back it fired right up under Linux, but it took my a solid week to figure out that the Windows98 driver was broken, you had to have Windows98SE to get it to work.
It takes me more time to figure things out on windows than Linux because windows doesn't let me get under the hood and there isn't as good as community support as there is for Linux.
But that doesn't make Windows a bad OS. It's the right OS for a lot of things, just like Linux is.
You know I constantly see how Linux isn't a "viable" alternative, but no one can tell me why.
Most people in businesses use a PC to do very few things:
Read.doc files.
Write documents.
Read/write email.
Browse the net.
Play music.
Fiddle with a spreadsheet program.
Maybe create a presentation.
Work with some accounting software.
Interface with a database or mainframe.
Etc.
Linux does all of the above just fine.
The only thing Linux doesn't do well is play games and you shouldn't be playing games at work anyway.
Been using Linux at work as a desktop OS for over 3 years. Most business would find they really can switch to Linux on the desktop once they take a good look at the apps they use to run their businesses.
Then once they factor in the costs, the increased stability and security, and the knowledge that no one can ever take Abiword, GnuCash, Gnumeric, etc away from them(they will always be free), Linux suddenly becomes a lot more attractive.
Slashdot Mirror
"Work done under commission is implicitly the property of the employer, not the employee."
I don't think this is totally the case. I can be paid to develope software and still own the rights to it. Think the term is "work for hire". But that doesn't apply if I'm an employee of the employer and it can get muddled if I write the software on their computers.
But I agree with your conclusion, don't see any way a beta tester could claim IP on something you wrote.
I don't think so. You'd certainly have an explosion of that at first, but people would grow tired of it and want something different.
Plus many channels would specifically go for the nitch market. Maybe only 3% of the TV watching population likes sci-fi shows, but if the sci-fi channel can lock that 3% onto their channel, they've got it made.
Because as a company they've done a good job of acting in good faith with their community. They've complied with the GPL in their kernel modifications, they've also been very tolerant of the hacking of their devices.
They provide a good product and have a record of dealing openly and honestly with their customers. So yes, I'd like for them to succeed.
It doesn't make sense, but Tivos do let you watch more TV in less time.
Reasons why are:
1> You decide when you watch it.
This means TV works around my schedule. I may not be home in time every Wed night for Enterprise, but I'll have 40 mins free sooner or later to watch it.
2> You can skip the commercials.
An hour long show will only burn up 40 mins of your time, not 60.
I don't think your point is arguementative.
But I think most people aren't really watching "TV" so much as watching shows. Even when you sit and channel surf you're tuning into the types of shows you like, whether's that Star Trek or a Friends re-run.
What a Tivo does is "surf" for you and grab the shows you like, or even shows it thinks you'll like. So when you are feeling lazy and just plop down in front of the TV you can not only channel surf, but you'll also have 20 pre-recorded shows that either you've told it you want or it thought you might like.
My Tivo records Buffy, Smallville, Angel, Southpark, Stargate SG-1, Earth Final Conflict, Andromeda, Futurama and several other shows whenever a new episode comes on. I simply told it to "record any new eposide of Buffy" and it handles all the details, the time slot, the channel and I can watch it whenever I want to plop down in front of the tube.
It don't get any lazier than that.
Heh, a Tivo isn't an archiver it's a timeshifter on steriods.
Basically you tell it 3 or 4 shows you like, maybe review a few more that sound good but you've never seen before and you watch them.
Like tonight I'll go home, preview what's on this weekend(using my Tivo to do this), set my unit to record a few promising things and then start watching stuff I've record over the last week.
Then over the weekend I'll watch the stuff the Tivo records for me. It'll even record shows it thinks I'll like based on past viewing habits.
I own a VCR. I've never used my VCR to record a show before, ever. I couldn't live without my Tivo.
Tivos aren't a VCR replacement, they change the way you watch TV.
I also watch Buffy, but I don't sit down every Tuesday night to watch it. Instead I've told my Tivo I want to watch Buffy and it records it for me to watch whenever I want.
Remember the Buffy musical that went 10 minutes long? My Tivo automatically knew about the extra length and it recorded the whole show.
You know that Buffy is syndicated on other networks? I can ask my Tivo to show me ALL the upcoming episodes of Buffy on any network and pick and choose any old episides I want to see.
But where the Tivo really shines it I can also tell it to show me any shows that say, a star from Buffy is in. I can bring up a list of anything on in the next 2 week staring Seth Green and review/set to record any of them.
Or I can bring up any future show or movie having to do with vampires, review them and tell Tivo to record any that sound good.
There are thousands of shows playing on your television each week. Tivos aren't simply a way to record those shows, they're an interface for filtering through all of the content and watching the ones that appeal to you on your own terms.
Function isn't everything. Swatches didn't dominate the wrist watch market in the 80's because they were so functional, it was the style.
My dodge Neon gets me to work just fine, but that doesn't mean I don't want a Porsche.
Jobs knows what he's doing, he's creating a brand not just a computer. Function is important, but don't think for a second that image doesn't count.
I am not required to own credit cards.
I am not required to have a social security number.
I am not required to have a drivers license or any kind of ID.
I am not required to have a bank or checking account.
It's an important point, because even though I do have all the above it was a choice. A government didn't tag me like some animal when I was born or doesn't require me to stay tagged.
A big part of freedom is being able to choose how free or not you are.
Read the article, they're just talking about linking the state databases and adding other ID cues that can't be faked. So a cop in CA can pull my record up like a cop in FL can and both will know for sure I'm the guy really linked to the license.
That's a far cry from "Driver's Licenses to Become National ID Cards".
Sometimes I feel like Slashdot has turned into a cheap tabloid.
The problem with the stand-alone unit having two tuners is that they may only have 1 data stream to record from.
I have digital cable. So I get a digital stream from my cable provider to their box, which then goes through my Tivo to my TV. The Tivo can't record 2 shows at once because my cable box will only stream 1 show to the Tivo box.
Maybe with analog cable Tivo could record 2 shows at once if it had two tuners, but analog cable is probably a dying technology anyway: the cable providers are pushing digital.
What I'd LOVE to see is an integrated digital cable box + Tivo unit, like what they did with Direct TV. That way they could pop 2 tuners in the box and record 2 shows at once. The compressing onto the tivo storage might even be better because they wouldn't be going digital -> analog -> digital like they do now.
I don't think an extra kernel source tree will really add much confusion. We'll always have the stable base 2.4 and the seat of your pants 2.5. MJC and AC will be something in between.
And MJC will live and die by how well it's mantained.
Would have to agree with this.
CDRs are cheap, easy to store and last a long time. Plus the media on them is extremely portable, they'll run anywhere you have a cdrom drive.
I've played EQ since before it game out in March of 1999. Started in Beta around November of 98, so I have a little insight on the game's evolution.
EQ uses their own engine which was built with the voodoo 1 card in mind. This has been the same engine they've used up to the latest expansion.
EQ has 3 expansions today:
Ruins of Kunark
Scars of Velious
Shadows of Luclin
EQ does not require any expansion for you to play. No expansion requires a previous expansion to play. Together they make a huge game. In 2 years of play, I'd say I've really explored about half of the game(and that doesn't include SOL in that figure).
Since the game engine up to SOL was written back in 98, with a voodoo 1 as the target, there were HUGE limitations on where they could take the game.
SOL changed that. They redid all the textures in the old expansions with SOL, 3 cds worth, and upgraded their engine to use the new Direct X 8.1 API and incorporated a whole new bunch of core game mechanic changes they can use to enhance gameplay.
If you don't upgrade to SOL you don't get the new textures and graphics, but they have to force the new engine on you so they can give you the new features.
Problem: Microsoft is dropped Win95 off their supported list, so the new Direct X's won't support it.
So EQ no longer supports windows 95 as well. There's no real way around that. But barring windows 95 you can continue to play EQ on your old slow system without SOL.
And for SOL's "stability"... the release night hammered the patch servers. By day two the hammering stopped and everything was smooth again.
Should they have increased their bandwidth for that 1 night and added XXX more servers? Some think so, I don't. It would've been a waste of resources to handle that 1 time surge of traffic.
And the game itself? It's been decently stable. There are lots of bugs, but most haven't affected gameplay any. The bugs that are affecting gameplay they're hammering out in daily fixes.
I've played EQ off and on for 2 years and see enough to want to play for years more. Not many games can do that.
There was a literary movement in the mid to late 80's called The Mirrorshades Movement that included authors such as William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan, Walter Jon Williams that had a heavy influence.
They coined many of the terms used today, cyber, net, matrix, and even "predicted" a lot of things before they came to pass(a worldwide internet, rise of global corporation power, urbanization, etc). They even spun off their own genre of Hollywood television B-class shows and their share of movies.
If you've ever heard the word Cyberpunk, these are some of the authors that spawned the genre.
In the small business sector.
Why people work for a faceless corp when they can work for smaller businesses is beyond me.
1> Learn the material. Tinker with it constantly, it's the only real way to learn.
2> Get a job in the biz, ANY job in the biz(help desk, gopher, whatever). You'll learn more about real admining doing this than you ever will at home.
3> Constantly look for opportunities to apply your home built skills.
4> Know when to move on. Once you build up some solid work time for your resume, don't be afraid to leave your current job for something more inline with what you want to do with your career.
Eh, sorry dude. Been admining Linux internet servers for about 3 years and couldn't answer one of those questions.
Doesn't make me "unqualified" in the least. One of my babies has been running over a year without me even working at that job site any more.
If I was interviewing a candidate I'd worry less about his book knowledge and more about his methodology. I don't need someone who can recite what X file does, I need someone who can tackle a problem he DOESN'T fully understand.
To me, that's Unix. A bunch of drek one man can never fully understand, but there's a graceful logic to it. Grok that and you're set.
Sorry, just spent $265.43 on a 1.4Ghz AMB chip + mboard + 512MB ram.
And that includes shipping.
No no no, you must not RTFL. It's far better to just read the inflamatory Slashdot title and ASSUME that the feds are now allowed to anal probe you any time they feel like it.
Know what, I find installing windows to be more of a pain. But that's because my perspective is from 6 years of Linux experience vs "fiddling" around with Windows.
When I got a brand new Vortex ethernet card a few years back it fired right up under Linux, but it took my a solid week to figure out that the Windows98 driver was broken, you had to have Windows98SE to get it to work.
It takes me more time to figure things out on windows than Linux because windows doesn't let me get under the hood and there isn't as good as community support as there is for Linux.
But that doesn't make Windows a bad OS. It's the right OS for a lot of things, just like Linux is.
You know I constantly see how Linux isn't a "viable" alternative, but no one can tell me why.
.doc files.
Most people in businesses use a PC to do very few things:
Read
Write documents.
Read/write email.
Browse the net.
Play music.
Fiddle with a spreadsheet program.
Maybe create a presentation.
Work with some accounting software.
Interface with a database or mainframe.
Etc.
Linux does all of the above just fine.
The only thing Linux doesn't do well is play games and you shouldn't be playing games at work anyway.
Been using Linux at work as a desktop OS for over 3 years. Most business would find they really can switch to Linux on the desktop once they take a good look at the apps they use to run their businesses.
Then once they factor in the costs, the increased stability and security, and the knowledge that no one can ever take Abiword, GnuCash, Gnumeric, etc away from them(they will always be free), Linux suddenly becomes a lot more attractive.
Looks good and the use of Java is interesting.
But since it's proprietary hackers like me can't check out the code and make mods.
Too bad you couldn't GPL the actual Java game engine and just retain proprietary copyright on the game world itself.
That way people like me could download your engine's code, make changes and publish them back up for peer review/respect.
The only thing this copy protection will do is turn your average user into a pirate. Because he can:
A> Buy your protected cd and not be able to play it in certain devices.
or
B> Download the tracks off a P2P share and burn his own cd that he can play anywhere.
I use shares and I also buy cds. If I saw a cd in a store that I wanted but it was "protected", I'd just pass it over and get it off the shares.
I don't pirate to rip people off, I pirate for convienence. Protected cds are going to be inconvienent.
I gotta second this.
I run Debian and do upgrades about twice a month. Keeping your system current is the best preventative medicine out there.