Why bother compressing data? Face it, 99% of all web pages out there consist of the following:
Text - the easiest to compress, but for most sites it's the quickest element to load..
Graphics - already in compressed (.GIF,.JPG,.PNG) format, so gzip won't (shouldn't be able to) compress them any further - and these are usually the bulk of most page downloads...
I would also think that there is some sort of level of traffic you would have to have before the improvement in bandwidth would compensate for the extra load placed on the server having to gzip everything dynamically.
Of course, for high-text, heavy traffic sites (for example, right here on/.), this may make some sense. But for the majority of sites, it doesn't seem to make sense to me.
On the other hand, I might just be a grumpy old man who can't understand all these new-fangled things...:=] ________________________
Hey, great idea, posting the cuecat decoding routine on Slashdot. Now, someone point DC to/., wait for DC's lawyer letter, and we'll have Andover/VA/whoeverthehellownsthisplacenow be able to show DC just how far removed from reality they truly are...
I mean, what good is corporate sponsorship if they can't fight a few of your battles for you? I mean, they didn't back down to M$ over the whole Kerberos extension fiasco (at least, not that I've heard - anyone able to confirm that?), so they should be able to put DC in their place... ________________________
The result? Very few organizations in Canada have.CA domains, and they are in the process of changing the rules to allow better utilization of.CA. The one nice thing about.CA domains was cost - if you knew the right people, it cost nothing to register (gotta love a volunteer-run TLD). Alas, that will be changing too... ________________________
Re:Feeble egalitarian "equal but different" logic.
on
Video Games and ADD
·
· Score: 1
...laborers are obsolete...
...says the Anonymous Coward, posting from his computer assembled from components by laborers, in a building most likely created by laborers, connected via miles of telephone or cable wiring laid down and installed by (you guessed it!) laborers, who drives down streets that were paved by (say it with me!) laborers in a car produced by (who??) laborers, eating food most likely produced by (again! imagine that!) laborers, wearing clothes produced by (3rd world underpaid) laborers...
...who, without the work of laborers, would most likely be either (a) naked, homeless, connectionless, transportationless, and damn hungry or (b) forced to work for himself.
Now, as for your statment that "Athletes are useless", I find myself in pretty much full agreement.
<rant>
I'm just disgusted with the amount of money professional athletes make these days - it's downright obscene. Look at the health care system. Look at how much money is being spent on education (as in, not enough). And these athletes are making millions of dollars per year just for being really, really good at throwing a ball. How many teachers could you hire on one superstar's salary?
</rant>
OK, taking a deep breath now... ________________________
...you could use some restricted set of sign symbols with a very restricted "grammar"...
And I think we all know exactly what "sign symbol" should be used for the reboot command, no?
On second thought, I'm not decided on that - either "the finger" or "banging head on keyboard", depending on the circumstances of the reboot...:=] ________________________
I believe that MAME was never directly attacked - they couldn't prove that MAME in and of itself was illegal (a la Sony vs. Bleem), so their lawyers got very busy sending "cease and desist" notices to every site hosting ROMs for MAME.
A few games have been liberated - the original copyright holders have given permission for the ROMs to be distributed. However, I've never heard of these games before, and I suspect that the majority of people get their ROMs from so-called "underground" sites.
The main source I had used for ROMs gave a 10-day warning before removing them from their server - more than enough time to mirror their entire collection to my hard drive... And no, I'm not going to set up a mirror site, so please don't ask.:=] ________________________
Remind anyone of jamie's story about age restriction on Soldier of Fortune in British Columbia?
Hmmm... no completely off topic rant about animal rights and vegetarianism... nope, doesn't remind me of jamie's story at all...;-) ________________________
Not that a vector based format for photos would work, though. There are too many things that can not be accurately described by vectors, and even if they could be, the amount of data required to describe them would be enormous... exponentially more than a similarly detailed pixel format
Anyhow, on a vector-based system, a fractal-based system for traditional "bitmap" images would still be able to take advantage of the higher PPI, wouldn't it?
It's also occured to me that on a vector/fractal GUI, that the actual monitor/video card resolution will become less meaningful in terms of productivity, and will start to be more like dot-pitch - related only to the clarity of the screen. Layout, etc. for applications in this type of system could be strictly relative to either the window size or the screen size - instead of specifying a line from (5, 5) to (1004, 750) you would specify it as (0.5, 0.5) to (99.5, 99.5). The system would allow for arbitrary precision - instead of 0.5, you could specify 0.4977263881 if you felt that more accurately reflected what the co-ordinate should be.
My mind is racing with other ideas - thinking about how this could simplify web site design (no more worrying about what resolution people are running), how this could improve computing for visually impaired (but not legally blind) users, stuff like that... but I should really get back to work. *@#%$!! slashdot...:=] ________________________
Huh? Sorry, but the GPL and BSD licenses (the original "Open Source" licenses) have been around longer than Debian, RedHat and VALinux. The licenses were originally created by the developers, not the distributors. And the developers have chosen to make their work available under these licenses, usually out of idealism, not necessarily to make big money, and not by pressure from the distributors.
Not at all like the music industry, where the artists are pretty much forced to play by the label's rules if they want any hope of so-called "success".
I agree with your point about confusing licenses, but I think you're way off on the rest of it. ________________________
From the Yahoo article: A casting team is also searching for pint-sized preschoolers needed to fill some extra shoes in Episode II--Ewoks or Jawas, anyone?
I wouldn't be placing any bets on Ewoks or Jawas, actually. According to this article on StarWars.com, they're looking for kids that look alike, twins, triplets, etc...
Now, they say it's to overcome the limited hours that children can work. I, however, have a different reading on it. Say it with me now, people... clones. ________________________
ahh... but Neo is only all-powerful when he is in the Matrix. In the "Real World", he's just another schlep.
My pet theory is that the next two Matrix movies are going to be about the downfall of Neo - sort of a Anakin -> Vader thing (there, a Star Wars reference - no longer off-topic). I think they'll finally defeat the AI, but then Neo isn't going to want to dismantle the Matrix - after all, if you had a world where you had unlimited god-like power, it would take a very strong person to voluntarily give that up... ________________________
...considering UNIX has been known as DOS on steroids...
Actually, I think it would be more accurate to say that DOS is like UNIX after a horrendous automobile accident - multiple amputations, brain dead, in an iron lung... ________________________
Some days I get frightened by this world, and how it's starting to converge with the world of F.451...
...every time I see "America's Most Wanted", I think of the scene where the TV tells everyone to go out to the street to watch for Montag...
...in the clutter of banner ads, billboards, infomercials, and sponsorship logos, I hear "Denham's Dentifrice"...
...when my friend buys a big-screen TV, I think of Montag's wife in her "parlour"...
...when I hear about WAVE and profiling, I think of the young girl who moved in next door to Montag...
I could probably think of more, but it's been a couple years since I've read it... definitely will be pulling this one from the bookshelf again tonight. ________________________
If memory serves me correctly, Beta was technically superior to VHS, but Sony's high licensing fees (compared to VHS) and poor marketing is what killed it off in the consumer market.
I believe Beta is still very strong in the TV industry, though. Anyone in the TV industry care to expand on or dispute this? (C'mon, how many of us were in the "A/V" club in high school? Some of us must have gone on to do it for a living!) ________________________
How do you find out about these new albums that you want to buy? Heard a tune on the radio? Saw their video on MTV? Saw them in concert? Borrowed a CD from a friend? Ad in a magazine?
The fact is, unless you listen exclusively to independent artists and have an extensive network of friends in the independent music scene, you have heard about this band and/or album through some form of marketing - either directly through advertising, or indirectly through "hype" marketing (how else can you explain Spice Girls?). Who pays for marketing? The "moronic dinosaurs" known as the record labels.
<grumpy_old_man>Now, my personal opinion is that 99% of the so-called "popular" music out there these days is pure crap, and I'm sick and tired of marketing BS.</grumpy_old_man> But the fact is, the record company has invested in marketing and promoting - are you saying they don't deserve to reap some rewards from that investment?
Things are changing - with independent artists distributing MP3s, having their own web sites, and not having a label. But for the time being, if you want to "make it big" in the music business, you gotta play the labels' game. They provide a service (distribution and marketing), and shouldn't they be able to make a profit at that?
My solution: support local, independent artists. Go to your local clubs, see some of these up-and-coming bands (if you're in Saskatoon, SK go see Old Guard Road). Buy one of their CDs if you like them. If you don't like them, hey, you're in a club - keep drinking until the music sounds better.:-) Don't buy major label CDs, turn the radio off (or at least change to a community or college station). Change is coming, slowly but surely. ________________________
Re:This laptop will self-destruct.....
on
Laptop Lojack?
·
· Score: 1
And what are the chances of being able to take this laptop onto an airliner?
Just imagine - you're on a long cross-country flight, hacking away on your latest and greatest code ever (or just dealing with some BS your manager wants done "pronto"). You get up to stretch your legs ('cause you're in economy), go to the bathroom. Your seatmate (who has been downing one martini after another) wakes up from his drunken stupor, sees your laptop, decides that he really wants to play a game of Solitaire...
Next thing you know, masks are dropping from the cabin ceiling, smoke is filling the cabin, the pilot starts looking for the nearest landing strip, and you're glad you were already sitting on the toilet when this all started, 'cause you lost control of your bodily functions when the smoke alarms went off... ________________________
Team Apache cracks the code and the Apache Software Foundation gets the cash...
Apache (or some variant thereof) runs on over 50% of Internet-connected web servers...
When was the last time you took a peek in the Apache source code to make sure they weren't sneaking some sort of distributed processing client into the web server? Very suspicious indeed... maybe that's why my server's processor usage has been higher than normal!:=] ________________________
I believe that the internet installer is the only one available from MS. However, you can get IEAK (IE Admin. Kit) "free" (as in beer, of course) - lets you create your own internet-based installer (aimed at ISPs), single-directory installation (for LANs) or a CD-ROM based installation. AFAIK, there is no "single-file" installer available for IE5. ________________________
I would argue that a single entity (person, business, whatever), can only register up to 3 domains without question. After the 3rd, additional domains are registered based on a case-by-case business.
And you thought Network Solutions was slow already? It would take a significant amount of time to do an effective investigation of the legitimacy of a domain application - imagine a one-month waiting period for a domain application! If you think I'm exaggerating, you haven't tried applying for a secure server certificate from VeriSign - and all they're doing is validating that you are actually who you say you are, not that you have a legitimate reason for applying. If you try to do it any quicker, you're looking at (a)ineffective investigation (which pretty much invalidates the whole point of doing it) and/or (b)higher domain prices to cover the extra personnel required by this policy.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that the current system works, but in this case, the cure you are suggesting would be worse than the disease. ________________________
They say that they're working on an upgraded version including 64MB and an LCD display... I might be convinced to shell out for the 64MB version (would be nice to be able to play my tunes in my car). ________________________
I think one of the arguments used by the networks was that iCraveTV's security (authentication, really) was insufficient at restricting the viewership to Canadians only. But what could they have done?
There is no certain way to reliably determine the general (let alone precise) geographic area of a given computer connected to the Internet. Reverse DNS lookups can give you some idea as to where the person is coming from, but it's pretty much useless when RDNS resolves to AOL.com or some other such monolithic ISP. Proxy servers, dial-up lines, etc. also cloud the picture.
I'm not saying this is a bad thing - a degree of anonymity is a very nice thing to have - but, since I don't have cable (I'm in rural Canada - cable is expensive, don't get many channels, not worth it usually) it sure would have been nice to be able to watch iCraveTV... damn, and I'm not even getting enough of a tax refund this year to buy a dish...
<DireStraits>I want my... I want my... I want iCraveTV...</DireStraits> ________________________
Can't remember where I heard this from, so no guarantee on the authenticity of this information.
I heard an interview with some computer graphics guru (in Vancouver? I'm fuzzy on this) who has been working for Lucasfilm lately. If memory serves me correctly, he said he was working on Obi-Wan Kenobi's death scene in Episode 4 for a future re-re-release of the classic trilogy. Guess that could count as "something special" for George...
But, like I say, I'm fuzzy on where I heard this. Anyone else hear this, or am I just suffering from sleep-deprivation-induced delusions? ________________________
Wait a few months - according to the FAQ you referenced, RSA's patent expires in September 2000, and then it sounds like there will be a much better chance of having a full implementation of the encryption code in Mozilla.
I won't make any comments on whether there will be a "release" quality version of Mozilla by September... ________________________
If memory serves me correctly (not always), the logo was chosen through an open submission / voting system - artists/graphics geeks submitted ideas for Mozilla logos, people voted, most popular was selected.
I believe the voting was anonymous, so good luck on getting the name of the person who decided. And don't get so hung up on the "communist" aspect of it - think "revolutionary" instead. ________________________
Slashdot Mirror
Why bother compressing data? Face it, 99% of all web pages out there consist of the following:
- Text - the easiest to compress, but for most sites it's the quickest element to load..
- Graphics - already in compressed (.GIF,
.JPG, .PNG) format, so gzip won't (shouldn't be able to) compress them any further - and these are usually the bulk of most page downloads...
I would also think that there is some sort of level of traffic you would have to have before the improvement in bandwidth would compensate for the extra load placed on the server having to gzip everything dynamically.Of course, for high-text, heavy traffic sites (for example, right here on /.), this may make some sense. But for the majority of sites, it doesn't seem to make sense to me.
On the other hand, I might just be a grumpy old man who can't understand all these new-fangled things... :=]
________________________
Hey, great idea, posting the cuecat decoding routine on Slashdot. Now, someone point DC to /., wait for DC's lawyer letter, and we'll have Andover/VA/whoeverthehellownsthisplacenow be able to show DC just how far removed from reality they truly are...
I mean, what good is corporate sponsorship if they can't fight a few of your battles for you? I mean, they didn't back down to M$ over the whole Kerberos extension fiasco (at least, not that I've heard - anyone able to confirm that?), so they should be able to put DC in their place...
________________________
Funny, us Canadians have been doing it this way for a long time, with only one domain per person or organization:
- For
.ca:- must be federally incorporated
- must have offices in multiple provinces, or
- have the domain based on a federally registered trademark
- For
.sk.ca (Saskatchewan, Canada):- must be provincially incorporated
- must have offices in multiple cities
- Everyone else can only get cityname.sk.ca - even city/town councils (see city.saskatoon.ca or town.outlook.sk.ca
The result? Very few organizations in Canada have________________________
...says the Anonymous Coward, posting from his computer assembled from components by laborers, in a building most likely created by laborers, connected via miles of telephone or cable wiring laid down and installed by (you guessed it!) laborers, who drives down streets that were paved by (say it with me!) laborers in a car produced by (who??) laborers, eating food most likely produced by (again! imagine that!) laborers, wearing clothes produced by (3rd world underpaid) laborers...
...who, without the work of laborers, would most likely be either (a) naked, homeless, connectionless, transportationless, and damn hungry or (b) forced to work for himself.
Now, as for your statment that "Athletes are useless", I find myself in pretty much full agreement. <rant> I'm just disgusted with the amount of money professional athletes make these days - it's downright obscene. Look at the health care system. Look at how much money is being spent on education (as in, not enough). And these athletes are making millions of dollars per year just for being really, really good at throwing a ball. How many teachers could you hire on one superstar's salary? </rant>
OK, taking a deep breath now...
________________________
And I think we all know exactly what "sign symbol" should be used for the reboot command, no?
On second thought, I'm not decided on that - either "the finger" or "banging head on keyboard", depending on the circumstances of the reboot... :=]
________________________
I guarantee you some MBA from Namco is going to file suit against MAME in the next few weeks
That's a pretty safe bet, considering that it already happened over two years ago:
Anti-Piracy Forces Target Arcade Classics, TechWeb, April 22, 1998
I believe that MAME was never directly attacked - they couldn't prove that MAME in and of itself was illegal (a la Sony vs. Bleem), so their lawyers got very busy sending "cease and desist" notices to every site hosting ROMs for MAME.
A few games have been liberated - the original copyright holders have given permission for the ROMs to be distributed. However, I've never heard of these games before, and I suspect that the majority of people get their ROMs from so-called "underground" sites.
The main source I had used for ROMs gave a 10-day warning before removing them from their server - more than enough time to mirror their entire collection to my hard drive... And no, I'm not going to set up a mirror site, so please don't ask. :=]
________________________
Remind anyone of jamie's story about age restriction on Soldier of Fortune in British Columbia?
Hmmm... no completely off topic rant about animal rights and vegetarianism... nope, doesn't remind me of jamie's story at all... ;-)
________________________
Not that a vector based format for photos would work, though. There are too many things that can not be accurately described by vectors, and even if they could be, the amount of data required to describe them would be enormous... exponentially more than a similarly detailed pixel format
Hasn't there been some work with fractal compression algorithms for photographic images? I seem to recall a few years ago a Windows demo of fractal image compression (I think it was Iterated Systems, but they don't seem to be doing it anymore) - you could zoom in, zoom out, and still get quite good quality as you zoomed in - less pixellation and artifacting.
Anyhow, on a vector-based system, a fractal-based system for traditional "bitmap" images would still be able to take advantage of the higher PPI, wouldn't it?
It's also occured to me that on a vector/fractal GUI, that the actual monitor/video card resolution will become less meaningful in terms of productivity, and will start to be more like dot-pitch - related only to the clarity of the screen. Layout, etc. for applications in this type of system could be strictly relative to either the window size or the screen size - instead of specifying a line from (5, 5) to (1004, 750) you would specify it as (0.5, 0.5) to (99.5, 99.5). The system would allow for arbitrary precision - instead of 0.5, you could specify 0.4977263881 if you felt that more accurately reflected what the co-ordinate should be.
My mind is racing with other ideas - thinking about how this could simplify web site design (no more worrying about what resolution people are running), how this could improve computing for visually impaired (but not legally blind) users, stuff like that... but I should really get back to work. *@#%$!! slashdot... :=]
________________________
Huh? Sorry, but the GPL and BSD licenses (the original "Open Source" licenses) have been around longer than Debian, RedHat and VALinux. The licenses were originally created by the developers, not the distributors. And the developers have chosen to make their work available under these licenses, usually out of idealism, not necessarily to make big money, and not by pressure from the distributors.
Not at all like the music industry, where the artists are pretty much forced to play by the label's rules if they want any hope of so-called "success".
I agree with your point about confusing licenses, but I think you're way off on the rest of it.
________________________
From the Yahoo article:
A casting team is also searching for pint-sized preschoolers needed to fill some extra shoes in Episode II--Ewoks or Jawas, anyone?
I wouldn't be placing any bets on Ewoks or Jawas, actually. According to this article on StarWars.com, they're looking for kids that look alike, twins, triplets, etc...
Now, they say it's to overcome the limited hours that children can work. I, however, have a different reading on it. Say it with me now, people... clones.
________________________
ahh... but Neo is only all-powerful when he is in the Matrix. In the "Real World", he's just another schlep.
My pet theory is that the next two Matrix movies are going to be about the downfall of Neo - sort of a Anakin -> Vader thing (there, a Star Wars reference - no longer off-topic). I think they'll finally defeat the AI, but then Neo isn't going to want to dismantle the Matrix - after all, if you had a world where you had unlimited god-like power, it would take a very strong person to voluntarily give that up...
________________________
Actually, I think it would be more accurate to say that DOS is like UNIX after a horrendous automobile accident - multiple amputations, brain dead, in an iron lung...
________________________
Some days I get frightened by this world, and how it's starting to converge with the world of F.451...
...every time I see "America's Most Wanted", I think of the scene where the TV tells everyone to go out to the street to watch for Montag...
...in the clutter of banner ads, billboards, infomercials, and sponsorship logos, I hear "Denham's Dentifrice"...
...when my friend buys a big-screen TV, I think of Montag's wife in her "parlour"...
...when I hear about WAVE and profiling, I think of the young girl who moved in next door to Montag...
I could probably think of more, but it's been a couple years since I've read it... definitely will be pulling this one from the bookshelf again tonight.
________________________
If memory serves me correctly, Beta was technically superior to VHS, but Sony's high licensing fees (compared to VHS) and poor marketing is what killed it off in the consumer market.
I believe Beta is still very strong in the TV industry, though. Anyone in the TV industry care to expand on or dispute this? (C'mon, how many of us were in the "A/V" club in high school? Some of us must have gone on to do it for a living!)
________________________
Just playing the devil's advocate here...
How do you find out about these new albums that you want to buy? Heard a tune on the radio? Saw their video on MTV? Saw them in concert? Borrowed a CD from a friend? Ad in a magazine?
The fact is, unless you listen exclusively to independent artists and have an extensive network of friends in the independent music scene, you have heard about this band and/or album through some form of marketing - either directly through advertising, or indirectly through "hype" marketing (how else can you explain Spice Girls?). Who pays for marketing? The "moronic dinosaurs" known as the record labels.
<grumpy_old_man>Now, my personal opinion is that 99% of the so-called "popular" music out there these days is pure crap, and I'm sick and tired of marketing BS.</grumpy_old_man> But the fact is, the record company has invested in marketing and promoting - are you saying they don't deserve to reap some rewards from that investment?
Things are changing - with independent artists distributing MP3s, having their own web sites, and not having a label. But for the time being, if you want to "make it big" in the music business, you gotta play the labels' game. They provide a service (distribution and marketing), and shouldn't they be able to make a profit at that?
My solution: support local, independent artists. Go to your local clubs, see some of these up-and-coming bands (if you're in Saskatoon, SK go see Old Guard Road). Buy one of their CDs if you like them. If you don't like them, hey, you're in a club - keep drinking until the music sounds better. :-) Don't buy major label CDs, turn the radio off (or at least change to a community or college station). Change is coming, slowly but surely.
________________________
And what are the chances of being able to take this laptop onto an airliner?
Just imagine - you're on a long cross-country flight, hacking away on your latest and greatest code ever (or just dealing with some BS your manager wants done "pronto"). You get up to stretch your legs ('cause you're in economy), go to the bathroom. Your seatmate (who has been downing one martini after another) wakes up from his drunken stupor, sees your laptop, decides that he really wants to play a game of Solitaire...
Next thing you know, masks are dropping from the cabin ceiling, smoke is filling the cabin, the pilot starts looking for the nearest landing strip, and you're glad you were already sitting on the toilet when this all started, 'cause you lost control of your bodily functions when the smoke alarms went off...
________________________
Team Apache cracks the code and the Apache Software Foundation gets the cash...
Apache (or some variant thereof) runs on over 50% of Internet-connected web servers...
When was the last time you took a peek in the Apache source code to make sure they weren't sneaking some sort of distributed processing client into the web server? Very suspicious indeed... maybe that's why my server's processor usage has been higher than normal! :=]
________________________
I believe that the internet installer is the only one available from MS. However, you can get IEAK (IE Admin. Kit) "free" (as in beer, of course) - lets you create your own internet-based installer (aimed at ISPs), single-directory installation (for LANs) or a CD-ROM based installation. AFAIK, there is no "single-file" installer available for IE5.
________________________
I would argue that a single entity (person, business, whatever), can only register up to 3 domains without question. After the 3rd, additional domains are registered based on a case-by-case business.
And you thought Network Solutions was slow already? It would take a significant amount of time to do an effective investigation of the legitimacy of a domain application - imagine a one-month waiting period for a domain application! If you think I'm exaggerating, you haven't tried applying for a secure server certificate from VeriSign - and all they're doing is validating that you are actually who you say you are, not that you have a legitimate reason for applying. If you try to do it any quicker, you're looking at (a)ineffective investigation (which pretty much invalidates the whole point of doing it) and/or (b)higher domain prices to cover the extra personnel required by this policy.
Don't get me wrong - I'm not saying that the current system works, but in this case, the cure you are suggesting would be worse than the disease.
________________________
Manufacturer's web site: http://www.romemp3.com/ - Wired News reviewed it a couple days ago.
They say that they're working on an upgraded version including 64MB and an LCD display... I might be convinced to shell out for the 64MB version (would be nice to be able to play my tunes in my car).
________________________
________________________
I think one of the arguments used by the networks was that iCraveTV's security (authentication, really) was insufficient at restricting the viewership to Canadians only. But what could they have done?
There is no certain way to reliably determine the general (let alone precise) geographic area of a given computer connected to the Internet. Reverse DNS lookups can give you some idea as to where the person is coming from, but it's pretty much useless when RDNS resolves to AOL.com or some other such monolithic ISP. Proxy servers, dial-up lines, etc. also cloud the picture.
I'm not saying this is a bad thing - a degree of anonymity is a very nice thing to have - but, since I don't have cable (I'm in rural Canada - cable is expensive, don't get many channels, not worth it usually) it sure would have been nice to be able to watch iCraveTV... damn, and I'm not even getting enough of a tax refund this year to buy a dish...
<DireStraits>I want my... I want my... I want iCraveTV...</DireStraits>
________________________
Can't remember where I heard this from, so no guarantee on the authenticity of this information.
I heard an interview with some computer graphics guru (in Vancouver? I'm fuzzy on this) who has been working for Lucasfilm lately. If memory serves me correctly, he said he was working on Obi-Wan Kenobi's death scene in Episode 4 for a future re-re-release of the classic trilogy. Guess that could count as "something special" for George...
But, like I say, I'm fuzzy on where I heard this. Anyone else hear this, or am I just suffering from sleep-deprivation-induced delusions?
________________________
Wait a few months - according to the FAQ you referenced, RSA's patent expires in September 2000, and then it sounds like there will be a much better chance of having a full implementation of the encryption code in Mozilla.
I won't make any comments on whether there will be a "release" quality version of Mozilla by September...
________________________
If memory serves me correctly (not always), the logo was chosen through an open submission / voting system - artists/graphics geeks submitted ideas for Mozilla logos, people voted, most popular was selected.
I believe the voting was anonymous, so good luck on getting the name of the person who decided. And don't get so hung up on the "communist" aspect of it - think "revolutionary" instead.
________________________