Nowadays, users are so pussified, that if you tell them there's a virus called "*.*", and it's in the windows folder, they will happily check which files are infected - just tell them to type "dir *.*" at a command prompt, and then believe you when you tell them that to remove the virus, all they have to do is type "del *.*"
Whilst I wholly disagree with patenting such an obvious idea, I can understand the mindset that is leading to these patents, and it's one that I can't see changing soon. As a developer it's too easy to simply copy someone's idea, just by looking at screenshots, demo applications and other freely available information about a program.
Because you're not actually copying source code, no-one can accuse you of IP theft, although you are essentially doing the same thing. All developers are guilty of this, including Microsoft and a whole myriad of open-source software 'clones' of commercial products.
The only protection one has is to patent every single obvious idea in the hope that it discourages others from cloning your software, and saving heaps of time and money by borrowing your screen-layouts, feature-set and functionality.
The solution has to be an all-or-nothing approach. Either _everything_ needs to be patented, or nothing at all. I personally think it would be better to disallow all software patents, and simply rely on IP laws to protect source code. Microsoft obviously takes the other view. In my opinion, the life-cycle of software is just too short to allow these patents to stand for 3, 5 or 10 years. Perhaps a patent scheme where software ideas are protected for 3, 6 or 12 months would be more appropriate.
Absolutely, though I'm still working on the remote:)
Also load on some board games, like monopoly, chess, etc. for even more all-in-one entertainment goodness.
I have a hard time swallowing the marketing spin about the customer benefits of this service-oriented approach to software sales.
This model is simply a steady revenue stream for software vendors, who will then no longer have to justify to people the advantages of upgrading to the latest version of their software - they simply switch off the software if discontinue payments.
As a software developer, I admit this is a deal is fantastic, there's basically no downside, just an upside.
As a customer, I much prefer the service oriented approach of the commercial open-source establishment - get the software free, and pay for training and support.
Vertical market software developers have been coming up with these schemes for years. There's simply no way a vertical market software developer can survice if they sell software only, as their customer base is much narrower than off-the-shelf software.
"People" may go for online delivery, but "collectors" assuredly will not. I don't download music or movies, even though I know where to get them for free. The _only_ reason for this is that I like the packaging and artwork that goes into producing a quality CD/DVD, and I like to see it sitting on a shelf next to my DVD player. I don't have cable TV, and have never subscribed to a music site.. hell, I don't even hire movies at the video store.
In general, if you're writing a 'unique' program, or solving a problem that can't be solved using current software, then your solutions is probably required yesterday, and a few bugs likely won't cause too many problems for you.
Perhaps there should be a disclaimer in the program stating "this is a quick and dirty solution to a problem, and should not be viewed as a final product" or something similar.
However, it's up to you to then make time and rewrite or improve the program to make it 'correct and proper'. Either that, or shelve it altogether.
I tend to agree that Linux name may be somewhat tarnished by its bundling with bargain bin hardware.
real PC from Dell or Gateway with the "good" OS
Regardless, if people buy the product, this is a good thing, as the quality will improve with time.
Compare this with the changing views on Japanse electronics 20-30 years ago, for example. A bit later, non-american cars in the US.
I'm sure there are other and better examples of this type of 'evolution' of brand names.
I don't think Neo would be a great candidate for the job, maybe Agent Smith could do it better?
"Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability."
The only way I can see out of the conundrum you've proposed is to grant a broad patent to "Mother Nature Inc". Perhaps granting a perpetual patent on all biological living species would be a good idea - companies would have to 'license' the use of genetic engineering by agreeing to use their innovations in an ethical and responsible manner.
I fail to see how this will make the Gameboy Advance into a PDA.. Although I'd love this to happen, coz then I could claim a gameboy as a legitimate Tax Deduction =)
One thing that it lacks is a proper input device. To enter addresses and send emails etc. you need, above all, a quick and accurate way to enter text into this beastie
As far as I know, most, if not all, of the Cable/DSL providers here in the land of OZ mirror things like Linux distro's (and tucows, downloads.com etc. etc.) Thus they can provide all these downloads at blazing speed, and without counting toward your "qutoa"
I've been involved in many web-application software projects, and they have mostly used OSS, a generous slathering of perl, and usually run on some version Linux.
What's been great lately, private companies are making use of open-source Win32 libraries, and are actively contributing to the pool of Win32 open source applications.
The main reason, in my mind at least, is that the MPL (Mozilla Public License) has opened up new ways of ensuring intellectual property remains secure, while allowing companies to make use of and develop open software as well.
I've used a mixture of Delphi, Kylix, HTML and PERL on a few projects. It's cross-platform, as long as you only need Linux / Windows, and the basic version of Kylix is Open Source as well as free as in beer. You can also choose to code in C++ or Object Pascal.
The article fails to mention how these tags will be read.
I would buy these in an instant, if it came with a portable reciever, at reasonable cost, of course. Ideally, it would be conntected to a pressure sensor, allowing me to instantly read current tyre pressure. Even knowing the recommended PSI and date of manufacture, as stated in the article, would be useful information to have.
If the only people able to easily read these tags are the manufacturer and the government, then I'm not really interested.
One innovation that buyers would really go for, manufacturers say, is a true self-cleaning window -- covered with a protective surface similar to a car wax. Moisture would bead, rinse away and take the dirt with it. Although the technology is there, it hasn't been perfected, said Simpson of Pella.
I'd much rather have one of these than what is basically a huge LCD display. Clean windows - a thing most geeks probably haven't seen for a while.
Or combine it with the Multimedia Windowpane, and have a self cleaning, 100" monitor! Sweet!
Slashdot Mirror
Nowadays, users are so pussified, that if you tell them there's a virus called "*.*", and it's in the windows folder, they will happily check which files are infected - just tell them to type "dir *.*" at a command prompt, and then believe you when you tell them that to remove the virus, all they have to do is type "del *.*"
Whilst I wholly disagree with patenting such an obvious idea, I can understand the mindset that is leading to these patents, and it's one that I can't see changing soon. As a developer it's too easy to simply copy someone's idea, just by looking at screenshots, demo applications and other freely available information about a program. Because you're not actually copying source code, no-one can accuse you of IP theft, although you are essentially doing the same thing. All developers are guilty of this, including Microsoft and a whole myriad of open-source software 'clones' of commercial products. The only protection one has is to patent every single obvious idea in the hope that it discourages others from cloning your software, and saving heaps of time and money by borrowing your screen-layouts, feature-set and functionality. The solution has to be an all-or-nothing approach. Either _everything_ needs to be patented, or nothing at all. I personally think it would be better to disallow all software patents, and simply rely on IP laws to protect source code. Microsoft obviously takes the other view. In my opinion, the life-cycle of software is just too short to allow these patents to stand for 3, 5 or 10 years. Perhaps a patent scheme where software ideas are protected for 3, 6 or 12 months would be more appropriate.
Most people who use IRC just sit there idling for days on end. Now if he meant to say 99.9% of DCC is illegal.. then I couldn't agree more.
Absolutely, though I'm still working on the remote :)
Also load on some board games, like monopoly, chess, etc. for even more all-in-one entertainment goodness.
I have a hard time swallowing the marketing spin about the customer benefits of this service-oriented approach to software sales. This model is simply a steady revenue stream for software vendors, who will then no longer have to justify to people the advantages of upgrading to the latest version of their software - they simply switch off the software if discontinue payments. As a software developer, I admit this is a deal is fantastic, there's basically no downside, just an upside. As a customer, I much prefer the service oriented approach of the commercial open-source establishment - get the software free, and pay for training and support. Vertical market software developers have been coming up with these schemes for years. There's simply no way a vertical market software developer can survice if they sell software only, as their customer base is much narrower than off-the-shelf software.
"People" may go for online delivery, but "collectors" assuredly will not. I don't download music or movies, even though I know where to get them for free. The _only_ reason for this is that I like the packaging and artwork that goes into producing a quality CD/DVD, and I like to see it sitting on a shelf next to my DVD player. I don't have cable TV, and have never subscribed to a music site.. hell, I don't even hire movies at the video store.
Throw away all your DRM-unaware HiFi equipment and replace it with shiny, new non-copyright-infringing gear.
Or download the songs in mp3 format from some anonymous ftp, and listen to it on your PC.
It's your call.
Perhaps there should be a disclaimer in the program stating "this is a quick and dirty solution to a problem, and should not be viewed as a final product" or something similar.
However, it's up to you to then make time and rewrite or improve the program to make it 'correct and proper'. Either that, or shelve it altogether.
real PC from Dell or Gateway with the "good" OS
Regardless, if people buy the product, this is a good thing, as the quality will improve with time.
Compare this with the changing views on Japanse electronics 20-30 years ago, for example. A bit later, non-american cars in the US. I'm sure there are other and better examples of this type of 'evolution' of brand names.
I don't think Neo would be a great candidate for the job, maybe Agent Smith could do it better? "Do you hear that, Mr. Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability."
The only way I can see out of the conundrum you've proposed is to grant a broad patent to "Mother Nature Inc". Perhaps granting a perpetual patent on all biological living species would be a good idea - companies would have to 'license' the use of genetic engineering by agreeing to use their innovations in an ethical and responsible manner.
Will this help me find matching socks?
Pheonix are going to use your HDD to store their shite, so it doesn't really solve any problems if your HDD is pushing up daisies.
To this humble website, welcome you are, ancient and revered Jedi master...
One thing that it lacks is a proper input device. To enter addresses and send emails etc. you need, above all, a quick and accurate way to enter text into this beastie
As far as I know, most, if not all, of the Cable/DSL providers here in the land of OZ mirror things like Linux distro's (and tucows, downloads.com etc. etc.) Thus they can provide all these downloads at blazing speed, and without counting toward your "qutoa"
Microsoft is eagerly awaiting 64 bit processors, as they will "greatly decrease the incidence of Integer overflow exceptions, and memory overwrites"
1.Just had a quick look at my Icewind Dale game box: Requires 800 MB free disk space.
2.Even compressed MPEG2 video streams run to almost 1Gb per hour.. How would I make a VCD (to play on the DVD player) out of my home video?
3.Lastly, Windows XP Pro, installed, takes around 1Gb of space (omg.. that's just ridiculous.. someone shoot me for using XP, I _must_ be a terrorist)
What's been great lately, private companies are making use of open-source Win32 libraries, and are actively contributing to the pool of Win32 open source applications.
For examples, look at Indy and Turbopower . There's hundreds more...The main reason, in my mind at least, is that the MPL (Mozilla Public License) has opened up new ways of ensuring intellectual property remains secure, while allowing companies to make use of and develop open software as well.
Yes, that is true, however, this chip, amongst others, can disable itself and revert to the original BIOS if needed.
Here's the link with more info: Borland Kylix Open Edition
-My Karma ran over your Dogma
I would buy these in an instant, if it came with a portable reciever, at reasonable cost, of course. Ideally, it would be conntected to a pressure sensor, allowing me to instantly read current tyre pressure. Even knowing the recommended PSI and date of manufacture, as stated in the article, would be useful information to have.
If the only people able to easily read these tags are the manufacturer and the government, then I'm not really interested.Other than that, Michelin do make great tyres.
-My Karma ran over your Dogma
One innovation that buyers would really go for, manufacturers say, is a true self-cleaning window -- covered with a protective surface similar to a car wax. Moisture would bead, rinse away and take the dirt with it. Although the technology is there, it hasn't been perfected, said Simpson of Pella.
I'd much rather have one of these than what is basically a huge LCD display. Clean windows - a thing most geeks probably haven't seen for a while. Or combine it with the Multimedia Windowpane, and have a self cleaning, 100" monitor! Sweet!- My Karma ran over your Dogma