Note that these are Australian Dollars: A$35,000 is only about US$27,000 at current exchange rates.
OTOH, you need somewhere to put the house. Assuming you are in a poor inner-city, this is probably an intractible issue. Certainly, you are not going to be allowed to set this up in the local park. Would office blocks allow these on their roofs?
Seems like the article itself is hard to beat as a troll. However, one can but try...
As a SCO supporter, let me point out that (by incorporating this new interface) the Integrity operating system has become a derived work of Linux (itself a derivation of IBM's AIX and, through it, of SYSV Unix). As such, the system is now owned by The SCO Group. We are, however, offering customers of Integrity a special deal. If they immediately buy a binary license for Integrity from The SCO Group (US$10,000 per processor o.n.o.) we guarantee that we shall not sue them for Green Hill Software's misappropriation of our Intellectual Property.
As someone with absolutely no connection with Microsoft (though they may have paid a few million dollars for a study by the organisation I work for) I would like to point out several major concerns for potential Integrity customers. First, they should be aware of the huge costs of converting from proprietary systems based on Outlook, ActiveX controls and Access databases to a solution based on open standards. This can amount to millions of dollars. Secondly, there are great security risks in using programs whose code is available to every security expert in the world to examine -- our totally unbiased study shows the folly of this with huge numbers of critical bugs allowing complete system compromise and taking years for resolution. You would be much safer with Microsoft and our security by obfuscation. Lastly, be aware that by using GPLed software, you will become obliged to make the source code of all your applications publicly available, together with all the data those applications ever process and all of your employee credit card numbers. This is consequence of the GPL's viral nature.
I doubt many companies in Asia are concerned about litigation against open source over patents. If the BSA gains any support from Asian governments, however, that could have a major impact. Most small and some larger companies (varies how much by country) use mainly pirated Windows software. If the risk of using pirated software becomes unacceptable, I think open source will gain a huge slice of the market.
Many years ago, I had a mysterious infection that knocked me flat. I would periodically develop a fever of 104-105 degrees (fahrenheit). After a few hours, this would subside and, apart from feeling extremely weak, I would be fine for a few days. It was not malaria. The original doctor I saw ran all kinds of tests, but was clearly out of his depth with my problem.
Fortunately, I was living in Bangkok Thailand where it is easy to find specialists in most medical disciplines cheaply and at short notice. I ended up seeing Dr Mattana Hanvanich (a fellow of John Hopkins) at the Bamrungrad Hospital. She is an outstanding doctor. The key, though, is that she had time to thoroughly investigate the problem.
One method she used might well be appropriate in your case. She asked me to keep a detailed diary of everything related to my condition. She asked me to record my temperature every two hours, note everything I ate, record when I slept, any symptoms. She read all that in conjunction with all the test results and eventually figured it out. The point though is that a single ten minute appointment by the best doctor in the world will probably not be sufficient if your case is unusual.
Whatever it costs, find a top specialist who can devote enough time to your case. If insurance will not cover it, maybe you should consider a flight to Bangkok. Dr Mattana's fees are ridiculously cheap by US standards (probably less than 10%). The Bumrungrad Hospital has an international reputation -- you can check them out on the Internet. If necessary, hospitalisation here will not break you financially either.
Just tried the beta of the new MSN Search
on
Google Index Doubles
·
· Score: 3, Funny
I received this response:
This site is temporarily unavailable, please check back soon.
Didn't get the results you expected? Help us improve.
It is not clear to me how I can help them improve. Suggest they switch their servers to Linux?
Are you trolling? If not, can you please explain to me why you cannot resolve your problem, with Google and other mainstream search engines, with a two-line robots.txt file.
What Google has going for them is that they combine technical know how with marketing smarts. I still use Google as my primary search engine because it produces better results. Google understands though that, in the market at large, they need to play the numbers game. Fine they say. Within hours of the Microsoft announcement, out comes this.
Frankly, I love it any time someone can best Microsoft. The next big thing may well be consumers putting their data on servers provided by the likes of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo -- running their applications there and having PCs that are little more than very easy to use display devices. If so,I would not mind seeing Google with the dominant market share. I trust them with that kind of power a lot more than Microsoft.
Well, I can see the convenience in this. At least 99% of the mail you are blocking is no doubt spam. However, there are reasons for having contact information available publicly and (painful though it is) I would spend 5 minutes a week deleting the spam, or filter with Spam Assassin, rather than take the risk of losing legitimate emails.
Firstly, I can cite many cases where menus (of various kinds) were employed on computers prior to 1996. Secondly, the use of multiple languages and multiple currencies in international commerce predated the application for this patent.
When I visited a currency exchange at a major airport in the early 1990s, the teller had a computer where he selected, through a menu, the currency to be bought or sold.
Around 1993, I provided, via a menu option, a means by which a user could select which language to use to display menus, error messages, field labels and the like in application software a customer was selling at the time. It would not have occurred to me to claim a patent for this, even if I was not pretty sure someone had done it before.
I am trying to work out what the innovation is here. Is it the idea of allowing a web site to be accessed internationally? Is it the idea that people buying goods might want to pay in their own currency? Is it the idea that you could offer a choice of currencies by means of a menu? [As stated, the general concept of menus as applied to computer applications definitely predates the patent.] Is it the idea that the customer might want to see the catalog in his own language? Again, it is the idea that the customer might select this language via a menu?
Would a refinement such as "provide tax juristiction via a menu and calculate relevant taxes" merit a new patent?
I just want to fully understand how a patent like this could possibly occur.
The way softare patents work, you may patent ideas that you have never implemented and have no intention of implementing. If this is done quietly, it can be very profitable. The patent holder can wait for someone else to do the hard work of implementation (after independently coming up with the obvious idea) and go after them for royalties. Yes, software patents suck.
Slight correction: *third amended complaint* which means the fourth overall.
IIRC the normal deadline for amending their complaint passed last February. They were allowed to make their second amended complaint after that deadline, but there is no guarantee that the court will permit this latest amendment.
Was Margeret O'Gara in the court for the October 19 hearing? How does she know what was on the screen that "only Magistrate Wells could see"? For that matter, how does she know what is in SCO's requested *sealed* third amended complaint?
Hasn't he read any of the independent studies? Surely he must realize that the TCO would be 60% less if he used MS Windows, not to mention the vastly improved security that would give him.
Most important subjects are too complex to be covered properly by general blogs. To really understand an issue, you need to read a range of blogs by people who are really concerned about the issue and have throroughly researched it. I do this when I really care about a particular subject.
To take an example, when I really wanted to understand what was happening in Iraq, I did not bother with mainstream media or general blogs. I specifically searched out blogs by ordinary Iraqis who had been present before and after the invasion. (My favorite, because it is very well written, is River Bend blog but I read many others.)
On subjects I regard as less important, I just accept that I am the victim of sound bites and do not delude myself that I really know the truth.
Actually, they may be trying the same gambit they used in DOJ v Microsoft. That is to irritate the judge to the degree that he reacts and can be presented as biased against their client.
They then go to the appeals court and try to claim that they were prevented from carrying out essential discovery and see if they can tie the case up in discovery for the next five years.
In the end, DOJ decided to more or less drop the case. Sure, there was a paper agreement. It imposed no real penalties on Microsoft, and (based on experience since) there was never any intention of enforcing anti monopolistic provisions in the agreement.
I have heard two reasonable explanations for this. The first is simply that, after the 2000 election, the administration became monopoly friendly (partly as a thnk you for campaign contributions). The second, widely believed by foreign governments, is that a deal was struck to waive penalties in return for a backdoor in Windows for the NSA.
Slashdot Mirror
OTOH, you need somewhere to put the house. Assuming you are in a poor inner-city, this is probably an intractible issue. Certainly, you are not going to be allowed to set this up in the local park. Would office blocks allow these on their roofs?
As a SCO supporter, let me point out that (by incorporating this new interface) the Integrity operating system has become a derived work of Linux (itself a derivation of IBM's AIX and, through it, of SYSV Unix). As such, the system is now owned by The SCO Group. We are, however, offering customers of Integrity a special deal. If they immediately buy a binary license for Integrity from The SCO Group (US$10,000 per processor o.n.o.) we guarantee that we shall not sue them for Green Hill Software's misappropriation of our Intellectual Property.
As someone with absolutely no connection with Microsoft (though they may have paid a few million dollars for a study by the organisation I work for) I would like to point out several major concerns for potential Integrity customers. First, they should be aware of the huge costs of converting from proprietary systems based on Outlook, ActiveX controls and Access databases to a solution based on open standards. This can amount to millions of dollars. Secondly, there are great security risks in using programs whose code is available to every security expert in the world to examine -- our totally unbiased study shows the folly of this with huge numbers of critical bugs allowing complete system compromise and taking years for resolution. You would be much safer with Microsoft and our security by obfuscation. Lastly, be aware that by using GPLed software, you will become obliged to make the source code of all your applications publicly available, together with all the data those applications ever process and all of your employee credit card numbers. This is consequence of the GPL's viral nature.
I doubt many companies in Asia are concerned about litigation against open source over patents. If the BSA gains any support from Asian governments, however, that could have a major impact. Most small and some larger companies (varies how much by country) use mainly pirated Windows software. If the risk of using pirated software becomes unacceptable, I think open source will gain a huge slice of the market.
Unfortunately, the bandwidth was inadequate to deal with a slashdotting!
Many years ago, I had a mysterious infection that knocked me flat. I would periodically develop a fever of 104-105 degrees (fahrenheit). After a few hours, this would subside and, apart from feeling extremely weak, I would be fine for a few days. It was not malaria. The original doctor I saw ran all kinds of tests, but was clearly out of his depth with my problem.
Fortunately, I was living in Bangkok Thailand where it is easy to find specialists in most medical disciplines cheaply and at short notice. I ended up seeing Dr Mattana Hanvanich (a fellow of John Hopkins) at the Bamrungrad Hospital. She is an outstanding doctor. The key, though, is that she had time to thoroughly investigate the problem.
One method she used might well be appropriate in your case. She asked me to keep a detailed diary of everything related to my condition. She asked me to record my temperature every two hours, note everything I ate, record when I slept, any symptoms. She read all that in conjunction with all the test results and eventually figured it out. The point though is that a single ten minute appointment by the best doctor in the world will probably not be sufficient if your case is unusual.
Whatever it costs, find a top specialist who can devote enough time to your case. If insurance will not cover it, maybe you should consider a flight to Bangkok. Dr Mattana's fees are ridiculously cheap by US standards (probably less than 10%). The Bumrungrad Hospital has an international reputation -- you can check them out on the Internet. If necessary, hospitalisation here will not break you financially either.
It is not clear to me how I can help them improve. Suggest they switch their servers to Linux?
Are you trolling? If not, can you please explain to me why you cannot resolve your problem, with Google and other mainstream search engines, with a two-line robots.txt file.
I think it is more that many users of IE just do not twig that their failed page access resulted in an automatic query to MSN.
In reality, most users make occasional deliberate queries to Google and more frequent accidental queries to MSN.
Frankly, I love it any time someone can best Microsoft. The next big thing may well be consumers putting their data on servers provided by the likes of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo -- running their applications there and having PCs that are little more than very easy to use display devices. If so,I would not mind seeing Google with the dominant market share. I trust them with that kind of power a lot more than Microsoft.
Well, I can see the convenience in this. At least 99% of the mail you are blocking is no doubt spam. However, there are reasons for having contact information available publicly and (painful though it is) I would spend 5 minutes a week deleting the spam, or filter with Spam Assassin, rather than take the risk of losing legitimate emails.
You insensitive clod. This kind of review is essental to much of /.'s readership in deciding on their next computer purchase!
When I visited a currency exchange at a major airport in the early 1990s, the teller had a computer where he selected, through a menu, the currency to be bought or sold.
Around 1993, I provided, via a menu option, a means by which a user could select which language to use to display menus, error messages, field labels and the like in application software a customer was selling at the time. It would not have occurred to me to claim a patent for this, even if I was not pretty sure someone had done it before.
I am trying to work out what the innovation is here. Is it the idea of allowing a web site to be accessed internationally? Is it the idea that people buying goods might want to pay in their own currency? Is it the idea that you could offer a choice of currencies by means of a menu? [As stated, the general concept of menus as applied to computer applications definitely predates the patent.] Is it the idea that the customer might want to see the catalog in his own language? Again, it is the idea that the customer might select this language via a menu?
Would a refinement such as "provide tax juristiction via a menu and calculate relevant taxes" merit a new patent?
I just want to fully understand how a patent like this could possibly occur.
Last I checked, programmers were also easily biodegradable, with the exception of a few bones.
I only wish it was so logical
The way softare patents work, you may patent ideas that you have never implemented and have no intention of implementing. If this is done quietly, it can be very profitable. The patent holder can wait for someone else to do the hard work of implementation (after independently coming up with the obvious idea) and go after them for royalties. Yes, software patents suck.
Slight correction: *third amended complaint* which means the fourth overall.
IIRC the normal deadline for amending their complaint passed last February. They were allowed to make their second amended complaint after that deadline, but there is no guarantee that the court will permit this latest amendment.
Was Margeret O'Gara in the court for the October 19 hearing? How does she know what was on the screen that "only Magistrate Wells could see"? For that matter, how does she know what is in SCO's requested *sealed* third amended complaint?
I guess IBM must have mean talking to her.
Hmmm... not sure how practical something like this would be made out of hydrogen atoms.
Hasn't he read any of the independent studies? Surely he must realize that the TCO would be 60% less if he used MS Windows, not to mention the vastly improved security that would give him.
Regretfully, no. CTSS was not written in C. However, we can no doubt fall back on SCO's concept of non-literal copying of CTSS's protected methods.
To take an example, when I really wanted to understand what was happening in Iraq, I did not bother with mainstream media or general blogs. I specifically searched out blogs by ordinary Iraqis who had been present before and after the invasion. (My favorite, because it is very well written, is River Bend blog but I read many others.)
On subjects I regard as less important, I just accept that I am the victim of sound bites and do not delude myself that I really know the truth.
... but you can send me a Gmail invite to timbolshaw+x AT fastmail.fm
I cannot imagine Google complaining, but I doubt scanning the entire test into a blog counts as fair use.
They then go to the appeals court and try to claim that they were prevented from carrying out essential discovery and see if they can tie the case up in discovery for the next five years.
I have heard two reasonable explanations for this. The first is simply that, after the 2000 election, the administration became monopoly friendly (partly as a thnk you for campaign contributions). The second, widely believed by foreign governments, is that a deal was struck to waive penalties in return for a backdoor in Windows for the NSA.