Do you have a link to the source of that, I'm very happy to go back to her and debate the topic.
I was rather suspect of her claims, hence my quoting it in here knowing that it'd be ripped to shreds by people with far more knowledge of the situation than I.
"Thank you for your letter, which I read with interest, and the points you made. The Labour MEPs' position on software patents is reflected in the amendments we tabled and voted for in the Parliament's report on the Commission proposal on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions. In short, the position remains:
* No US-style patenting of software.
* Software as such, must not be patented. No patenting of business methods or "general ideas"
* Opensource software must be allowed to flourish and the Commission must ensure that this Directive does not have any adverse effect on opensource software and small software developers.
* Patents and the threat of litigation must not be used as an anti-competitive weapon to squeeze out small companies.
The Member States and European Commission will negotiate with Parliament on our amendments and we hope we can achieve an outcome which will limit and restrict the patentability of computer-implemented inventions.
As you are aware the European Patent Office has already handed down some 40,000 software patents and without an EU directive we could end up drifting towards extending patentability to business methods, algorithms or mathematical methods, as is the case in the US.
Labour MEPs are not voting to introduce software patents but to limit patents."
Very true... but on vonage.co.uk it would cost me 4p per minute to call Sweden where my girlfriend lives.
On Skype the same call costs less than 1p per minute.
Less than quarter of the cost.
Vonage might be for those who just want to make calls, but for those of us who make several hours of international phone calls a day Vonage is still extravagantly expensive.
Besides... I don't use a headset... my little computer is silent and always on, and I have a regular telephone plugged into a USB dongle. I pick up the phone, I dial, I talk, I hang up, I pay a quarter of the price of Vonage.
The only disadvantage I suffer is that I cannot receive calls via Skype. Not much of an issue, I receive on my mobile. Skype In via a Google network solves this though and offers a network to Skype, and a new advertising market to Google.
Happy Happy Joy Joy to all shareholders I should think.
Without that last bit there is no incentive for someone to make a move to VOIP on a permanent basis for all of their calls.
Why? Because you still have to keep a landline or mobile to be able to receive calls from regular phones... and because the cost of making a call to a mobile is prohibitive, it's likely that you keep a bundled (with TV package) landline.
If the weight Google helps to make this a feature that is developed, then we may start to see a willingness to switch in large numbers a reality.
As it stands at the moment... my (red neck equiv') mother was impressed, but she just sees it as one more way to do things, and she's very lazy and is still more likely to pick up and dial a regular phone. Show her she doesn't need the landline (by receiving calls, thus 100% functionality) and then there'll be something impressive.
What has all this to do with Google? Well Skype In as I'll call it... it requires a network, something has to receive calls and store messages for you whilst your computer is off... who's to say context related sound adverts wouldn't be appended to the answer phone service... how would that differ from Gmail advertising?
You couldn't say them? Or think them? Or look at something and have the brainwaves converted into words applicable to that which you're looking at (or have bound to that image).
The command line will only be around as long as there is a keyboard... and the keyboard won't live forever.
This was one of two features that stopped me from buying an iPod... the other being that the iRiver is just a USB mass storage device and that the music is stored in a vanilla file system... no database to update if you choose not to use it (meaning no software required to use it (meaning that your use of the hardware isn't limited to the software))
I have this year installed a number of Linux distros (Red Hat, Gentoo, Mepis, Debian, Mandrake) and am yet to find one that recognises all of my hardware (my RME-DigiPST sound card proving impossible to get working) or fulfils all of my software requirements (a contact manager that can sync with both an Ericsson and Motorola phone for example).
I am still finding that each time I look at Linux that I lack things... be it something that replaces ID3-TagIt, or rips and encodes similar to EAC and LAME.
I've knocked together this Wiki page for the forum I run as several of us want to migrate. As you can see... it's not been updated in a while and the few unanswered questions are still unanswered.
Now, the point of this post is this... each time I have looked at Linux to date I find it is not quite ready, but that it is closer to being ready. Each time I find it easier to jump into, and easier to get started on and with fewer outstanding questions.
However... each time it has still failed to do everything I do with my computer. So I stay on Windows and think "maybe tomorrow"... and then get lazy.
When I'm lazy I stick to Windows, because it does work.
Then I read articles like this, which are preaching to the philosophically converted. Articles such as this remind me that I've yet to switch, remind me that I'm being lazy... they remind me that I had some unanaswered questions and that I should ask them again.
I personally think there is a lot of value in this. It's already put it back on my desk as a fun thing to do this afternoon (give Gentoo another try!).
It seems that with the rapid pace of new technology and the slow pace of legislation, that this will be largely ineffective.
Already it's easy to see how existing technologies could be used to effortlessly circumvent the proposals.
"Telephone calls", does this cover Skype? Does it cover VOIP in general which is just data passing over the network and could always be wrappered, encrypted, or routed via several points (to ensure no single intermediary could capture the whole conversation).
It's great that our politicians can find ever increasing ways to enforce a climate of fear whilst wasting the monies that could help alleviate problems fced by the citizens that they represent.
Damn! Now I've posted what do I do with these mod points!?
I have done research, and see that if you use it as a firewire drive and view hidden folders then you can see the 10 folders in which it stores mp3's, but that you still have to use third party software to update the iPod database.
What I want is simple... no required software, drag 'n' drop music onto it and it instantly appears.
That way I can use my iPod with my work computers (which are of course locked down) as well as my home computers.
It means I can use it to carry my music as well as play it. And yes it would permit piracy, but that's not what I want to do... I have a legitimate use in that I want to carry the music I have purchased and own back and forth and listen to it inbetween.
Can you use Postgres instead of MySQL in LAMP, without extreme pain?
Yes, but then it would be LAPP, and that doesn't sound as good in meetings... you can't use puns about the light coming on, illumination, brilliance, etc then... or dazzle the CEO with tech-babble along the lines of "LAMP outperforms J2EE because it has more Lumens".
They are there to prevent trolls from stretching the width of the page by inserting silly long strings of text that lack breaks.
Slash code adds spaces, and that enables the text to wrap, meaning you don't get an ugly and ill-behaving website.
The point is... Add the tag or make it HTML formatted to make Slash know that it is a URL and to not only hyperlink it, but not to break it either in the hyperlink (but still in the render as we still don't want wide pages).
This is spot on, it's not like we gamers could rip out the graphics card and slot in the SLI nVidia cards.
Their default hardware is overpriced and underspec'd for gaming.
Sure I can see that there may be some of you for whom gaming is a distraction and you would like to use your Macs for gaming... but for gamers who take things pretty seriously we just want as much bang for the buck as is possible... Mac hardware hardly provides bang for buck.
That's not Mac bashing, it's just how it is.
With PC peripherals I can look at many suppliers in different countries, but the hardware I want at the lowest price and have my machine roar along.
With Mac's the prices are pretty much fixed by Mac, good profit margins are in there and you only get that which they release... you're not benefiting from competition in that segment, you're not getting value for money.
Dell and Novell Expand Partnership to Provide Customers Certified SUSE LINUX Platforms and Services
SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 on Select Dell PowerEdge Servers Extends Customer Choice and ValueRound Rock, Texas and Waltham, Massachusetts, October 27, 2004
Dell and Novell
today announced an agreement to offer Novell SUSE LINUX Enterprise
Server 9 certified on select Dell PowerEdge servers worldwide.
This
announcement provides Dell and Novell customers with more choice for
fully-supported Linux platform deployments, and at the best value in
the industry. Dell provides a single point of contact for customers'
support needs; Dell Services will also assist customers throughout the
lifecycle of their deployments.
Dell customers will
be able to purchase Novell SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 with their
single-and dual-processor PowerEdge servers. The agreement reinforces
Dell and Novell's longstanding collaboration to provide customers with
superior standards-based computing platforms, and extends this value
and expertise to customers deploying SUSE LINUX for their business
applications.
"Today's announcement marks an
important expansion of Dell and Novell's longstanding industry
relationship," said Al Gillen, research director, System Software, at
IDC. "It provides Dell Linux customers more platform choice for fully
supported operating systems, and gives Novell customers a new option
for deploying Linux in their IT infrastructure."
Linda
York, vice president of global alliances marketing in Dell's Product
Group, said that SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 on Dell PowerEdge
servers provides customers another robust and scalable enterprise
platform to replace costly proprietary UNIX-based systems or to deploy
Linux for the first time.
"This is another great
example of Dell and Novell's ability to work together to move
standards-based computing further into the data center," said York.
Increased Customer Choice, Industry-leading Value
For
$175 per single-CPU server annual maintenance subscription and $269 for
a dual CPU subscription, Dell and Novell offer Linux customers
additional choice on Dell's award-winning PowerEdge 1850, 2800 and 2850
servers. SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 is the first enterprise-class
Linux server to leverage the performance, scalability and security
features of the new Linux 2.6 kernel. This new platform is ideal for
customers deploying Web farms, IT infrastructures and custom
applications. The operating system will be bundled with the server at
the time of purchase. A joint service agreement between the two
companies provides customers with the same levels of award-winning
support for SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 as all other operating
systems.
Novell's acquisition of SUSE LINUX in
January 2004 set the stage for this logical next step in the
longstanding Dell and Novell relationship. "Dell's decision to
collaborate with Novell on Linux is a vote of confidence in our Linux
strategy and is great news for customers around the world,"" said David
Patrick, vice president, Linux, Open Source and Platform Services at
Novell. "Existing Novell customers get new options for their future
hardware platform needs, while new customers gain a top-notch
enterprise Linux offering on one of the most robust server platforms in
the world, backed by Novell's global ecosystem of enterprise-level
Linux services."
Global Services
Novell
SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 will be supported by Dell Services
(www.dell.com/services), through a collaborative support agreement with
Novell technical support that provides customers a single point of
contact for all issues. This helps customers realize a more efficient,
effective, scalable and productive enterprise environment. Customized
Dell offerings streamline and integrate activities across the entire
product lifecycle, such as system planning and design, implementation
and training and support and disposal.
SUSE LINUX
Enterprise Server 9 will be available with Dell Po
The same reason that every other OS aside from Windows is a Windows competitor... Apple holds the majority of the portable HDD audio market, if anyone else wants to gain significant market share then it's Apple that they need to beat.
It's no point making a device like this (incurring all of the R&D costs... though not it appears in this case) and then only wanting to take out a 2% market share holder.
Seriously, the amount that MS want WMP to be the defacto should not be underestimated at all.
Of course MSN are going to suggest that a format lacking DRM is going to be in decline, and of course AAC is all the rage with iPod users.
However, I still rip and encode in MP3 because quite simply, I can guarantee that every appliance I have can play it... from my car, my CD player, my walkman, my computer, a friends computer, etc, etc.
Slashdot Mirror
Fantastic... I knew I could rely on slashdot :)
Do you have a link to the source of that, I'm very happy to go back to her and debate the topic.
I was rather suspect of her claims, hence my quoting it in here knowing that it'd be ripped to shreds by people with far more knowledge of the situation than I.
"Thank you for your letter, which I read with interest, and the points
you made. The Labour MEPs' position on software patents is reflected in
the amendments we tabled and voted for in the Parliament's report on the
Commission proposal on the patentability of computer-implemented
inventions. In short, the position remains:
* No US-style patenting of software.
* Software as such, must not be patented. No patenting of
business methods or "general ideas"
* Opensource software must be allowed to flourish and the
Commission must ensure that this Directive does not have any adverse
effect on opensource software and small software developers.
* Patents and the threat of litigation must not be used as an
anti-competitive weapon to squeeze out small companies.
The Member States and European Commission will negotiate with Parliament
on our amendments and we hope we can achieve an outcome which will limit
and restrict the patentability of computer-implemented inventions.
As you are aware the European Patent Office has already handed down some
40,000 software patents and without an EU directive we could end up
drifting towards extending patentability to business methods, algorithms
or mathematical methods, as is the case in the US.
Labour MEPs are not voting to introduce software patents but to limit
patents."
Very true... but on vonage.co.uk it would cost me 4p per minute to call Sweden where my girlfriend lives.
On Skype the same call costs less than 1p per minute.
Less than quarter of the cost.
Vonage might be for those who just want to make calls, but for those of us who make several hours of international phone calls a day Vonage is still extravagantly expensive.
Besides... I don't use a headset... my little computer is silent and always on, and I have a regular telephone plugged into a USB dongle. I pick up the phone, I dial, I talk, I hang up, I pay a quarter of the price of Vonage.
The only disadvantage I suffer is that I cannot receive calls via Skype. Not much of an issue, I receive on my mobile. Skype In via a Google network solves this though and offers a network to Skype, and a new advertising market to Google.
Happy Happy Joy Joy to all shareholders I should think.
Skype to Skype... fine, cool, fantastic.
:)
Skype to Phone... fine, cool, fantastic.
Phone to Skype... missing link.
Without that last bit there is no incentive for someone to make a move to VOIP on a permanent basis for all of their calls.
Why? Because you still have to keep a landline or mobile to be able to receive calls from regular phones... and because the cost of making a call to a mobile is prohibitive, it's likely that you keep a bundled (with TV package) landline.
If the weight Google helps to make this a feature that is developed, then we may start to see a willingness to switch in large numbers a reality.
As it stands at the moment... my (red neck equiv') mother was impressed, but she just sees it as one more way to do things, and she's very lazy and is still more likely to pick up and dial a regular phone. Show her she doesn't need the landline (by receiving calls, thus 100% functionality) and then there'll be something impressive.
What has all this to do with Google? Well Skype In as I'll call it... it requires a network, something has to receive calls and store messages for you whilst your computer is off... who's to say context related sound adverts wouldn't be appended to the answer phone service... how would that differ from Gmail advertising?
Things to think about
Where's my soundbite!?
It's not as if anyone else is allowed to produce a cheap Mac to compete with Apple (thus beating them to it), as Apple hold all the cards for that.
Cheap PC's already exist... so where is the competition that they are afriad of? Who can take advantage of this "trade secret"?
As far as I can see (not far having not RTFA) this is just good journalistic work, and good promotion for Apple.
You couldn't say them?
Or think them?
Or look at something and have the brainwaves converted into words applicable to that which you're looking at (or have bound to that image).
The command line will only be around as long as there is a keyboard... and the keyboard won't live forever.
And it works very well :)
This was one of two features that stopped me from buying an iPod... the other being that the iRiver is just a USB mass storage device and that the music is stored in a vanilla file system... no database to update if you choose not to use it (meaning no software required to use it (meaning that your use of the hardware isn't limited to the software))
Thank you :)
:D
The ALSA link alone helps more than you can know
Not true.
I'm converted by philosophy, but not in practice.
I have this year installed a number of Linux distros (Red Hat, Gentoo, Mepis, Debian, Mandrake) and am yet to find one that recognises all of my hardware (my RME-DigiPST sound card proving impossible to get working) or fulfils all of my software requirements (a contact manager that can sync with both an Ericsson and Motorola phone for example).
I am still finding that each time I look at Linux that I lack things... be it something that replaces ID3-TagIt, or rips and encodes similar to EAC and LAME.
I've knocked together this Wiki page for the forum I run as several of us want to migrate. As you can see... it's not been updated in a while and the few unanswered questions are still unanswered.
Now, the point of this post is this... each time I have looked at Linux to date I find it is not quite ready, but that it is closer to being ready. Each time I find it easier to jump into, and easier to get started on and with fewer outstanding questions.
However... each time it has still failed to do everything I do with my computer. So I stay on Windows and think "maybe tomorrow"... and then get lazy.
When I'm lazy I stick to Windows, because it does work.
Then I read articles like this, which are preaching to the philosophically converted. Articles such as this remind me that I've yet to switch, remind me that I'm being lazy... they remind me that I had some unanaswered questions and that I should ask them again.
I personally think there is a lot of value in this. It's already put it back on my desk as a fun thing to do this afternoon (give Gentoo another try!).
It seems that with the rapid pace of new technology and the slow pace of legislation, that this will be largely ineffective.
Already it's easy to see how existing technologies could be used to effortlessly circumvent the proposals.
"Telephone calls", does this cover Skype? Does it cover VOIP in general which is just data passing over the network and could always be wrappered, encrypted, or routed via several points (to ensure no single intermediary could capture the whole conversation).
It's great that our politicians can find ever increasing ways to enforce a climate of fear whilst wasting the monies that could help alleviate problems fced by the citizens that they represent.
Damn! Now I've posted what do I do with these mod points!?
I have done research, and see that if you use it as a firewire drive and view hidden folders then you can see the 10 folders in which it stores mp3's, but that you still have to use third party software to update the iPod database.
What I want is simple... no required software, drag 'n' drop music onto it and it instantly appears.
That way I can use my iPod with my work computers (which are of course locked down) as well as my home computers.
It means I can use it to carry my music as well as play it. And yes it would permit piracy, but that's not what I want to do... I have a legitimate use in that I want to carry the music I have purchased and own back and forth and listen to it inbetween.
iRiver does this, iPod does not.
That's the killer feature I'm waiting for.
:)
If the iPod just appeared as an external hard drive I would buy one today.
Some hardware should not be reliant on software (think cameras, phones, etc, etc).
This is where the iRiver comes into play
Since when did you want to pause pr0n?
You must be doing it wrong... you are masturbating at the same time right?
... i always wanted to be part of a botnet
Scenario... innocent dumb user has their computer hijacked and made part of a spam botnet.
Did they just spam? Are they now off to jail?
Yes, but then it would be LAPP, and that doesn't sound as good in meetings... you can't use puns about the light coming on, illumination, brilliance, etc then... or dazzle the CEO with tech-babble along the lines of "LAMP outperforms J2EE because it has more Lumens".
The spaces aren't spurious.
They are there to prevent trolls from stretching the width of the page by inserting silly long strings of text that lack breaks.
Slash code adds spaces, and that enables the text to wrap, meaning you don't get an ugly and ill-behaving website.
The point is... Add the tag or make it HTML formatted to make Slash know that it is a URL and to not only hyperlink it, but not to break it either in the hyperlink (but still in the render as we still don't want wide pages).
i'm going to patent main() and then deny use to anyone and everyone... that will deal with it!
conflict of interests... cellphones are subsidised by the phone companies, wi-fi would allow us to email rather than SMS and VOIP rather than phone.
why would a company subsidise a cell that would cut into their profits?
This is spot on, it's not like we gamers could rip out the graphics card and slot in the SLI nVidia cards.
;)
Their default hardware is overpriced and underspec'd for gaming.
Sure I can see that there may be some of you for whom gaming is a distraction and you would like to use your Macs for gaming... but for gamers who take things pretty seriously we just want as much bang for the buck as is possible... Mac hardware hardly provides bang for buck.
That's not Mac bashing, it's just how it is.
With PC peripherals I can look at many suppliers in different countries, but the hardware I want at the lowest price and have my machine roar along.
With Mac's the prices are pretty much fixed by Mac, good profit margins are in there and you only get that which they release... you're not benefiting from competition in that segment, you're not getting value for money.
PC's are damn ugly though, that I'll concede
Dell and Novell Expand Partnership to Provide Customers Certified SUSE LINUX Platforms and Services
SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 on Select Dell PowerEdge Servers Extends Customer Choice and ValueRound Rock, Texas and Waltham, Massachusetts, October 27, 2004
Dell and Novell today announced an agreement to offer Novell SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 certified on select Dell PowerEdge servers worldwide.
This announcement provides Dell and Novell customers with more choice for fully-supported Linux platform deployments, and at the best value in the industry. Dell provides a single point of contact for customers' support needs; Dell Services will also assist customers throughout the lifecycle of their deployments.
Dell customers will be able to purchase Novell SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 with their single-and dual-processor PowerEdge servers. The agreement reinforces Dell and Novell's longstanding collaboration to provide customers with superior standards-based computing platforms, and extends this value and expertise to customers deploying SUSE LINUX for their business applications.
"Today's announcement marks an important expansion of Dell and Novell's longstanding industry relationship," said Al Gillen, research director, System Software, at IDC. "It provides Dell Linux customers more platform choice for fully supported operating systems, and gives Novell customers a new option for deploying Linux in their IT infrastructure."
Linda York, vice president of global alliances marketing in Dell's Product Group, said that SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 on Dell PowerEdge servers provides customers another robust and scalable enterprise platform to replace costly proprietary UNIX-based systems or to deploy Linux for the first time.
"This is another great example of Dell and Novell's ability to work together to move standards-based computing further into the data center," said York.
Increased Customer Choice, Industry-leading Value
For $175 per single-CPU server annual maintenance subscription and $269 for a dual CPU subscription, Dell and Novell offer Linux customers additional choice on Dell's award-winning PowerEdge 1850, 2800 and 2850 servers. SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 is the first enterprise-class Linux server to leverage the performance, scalability and security features of the new Linux 2.6 kernel. This new platform is ideal for customers deploying Web farms, IT infrastructures and custom applications. The operating system will be bundled with the server at the time of purchase. A joint service agreement between the two companies provides customers with the same levels of award-winning support for SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 as all other operating systems.
Novell's acquisition of SUSE LINUX in January 2004 set the stage for this logical next step in the longstanding Dell and Novell relationship. "Dell's decision to collaborate with Novell on Linux is a vote of confidence in our Linux strategy and is great news for customers around the world,"" said David Patrick, vice president, Linux, Open Source and Platform Services at Novell. "Existing Novell customers get new options for their future hardware platform needs, while new customers gain a top-notch enterprise Linux offering on one of the most robust server platforms in the world, backed by Novell's global ecosystem of enterprise-level Linux services."
Global Services
Novell SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 will be supported by Dell Services (www.dell.com/services), through a collaborative support agreement with Novell technical support that provides customers a single point of contact for all issues. This helps customers realize a more efficient, effective, scalable and productive enterprise environment. Customized Dell offerings streamline and integrate activities across the entire product lifecycle, such as system planning and design, implementation and training and support and disposal.
SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9 will be available with Dell Po
Don't worry about the text, they merely point here: http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx /corp/pressoffice/en/2004/2004_10_27_rrwa_000
Which is mirrored here: http://mirrordot.org/stories/c6067beb11e039d913a6d cb073ee1d71/index.html
The same reason that every other OS aside from Windows is a Windows competitor... Apple holds the majority of the portable HDD audio market, if anyone else wants to gain significant market share then it's Apple that they need to beat.
It's no point making a device like this (incurring all of the R&D costs... though not it appears in this case) and then only wanting to take out a 2% market share holder.
Seriously, the amount that MS want WMP to be the defacto should not be underestimated at all.
Of course MSN are going to suggest that a format lacking DRM is going to be in decline, and of course AAC is all the rage with iPod users.
However, I still rip and encode in MP3 because quite simply, I can guarantee that every appliance I have can play it... from my car, my CD player, my walkman, my computer, a friends computer, etc, etc.