I started using last.fm only a few months ago; I configured amarok to scrobble the music I listen, then once in a while I use last.fm streams to discover new music with my neighbors' radio. I would'nt pay the admittedly low fee of 3$/month only for this, so I will simply stop using it. I guess the vast majority of users will do the same.
It may be interesting to know that in Italian it's the "hidden face" of the moon (la faccia nascosta della luna) - personally I have always been confused by the English terminology.
I'd love to know the terminology used by other languages...
Well, the "entertainment industry", of course, does it for the money. But the director does it as a challenge. I, as a fan, see it as a chance to have a few millions more read the comic book, after or before the movie. I know the movie will *never* be as good as the book, by far; but if you avoid reading the book in the three months before seeing the movie, you may be not too disappointed (it surely worked for me with "V for Vendetta").
*** SPOILER *** (weeell, you never know who reads a thread...)
As many suspected, you *surely* didn't see the trailer: there is a scene with Ozymandias "alien creature" in New York, and I think I had a glimpse of Rorschach's death (BTW, I am not sure he died, but this is a separate trhead...)
I agree that Spanish is not much spoken in Europe outside Spain; still, it's the SECOND most-spoken language by native speakers (cfr. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language), it has LOTS of non-native speakers and it is certainly much easier than Mandarin Chinese . Last but not least, it opens you the doors to other neolatin languages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_languages); after Spanish, learning Portuguese, French and Italian is a breeze (at the risk of confusing them a bit...)
In many C based programs, your gold would overflow and drop to (-2^31+1), -2147483647, since the C programming language doesn't offer the programmer any exception handling mechanism for overflow detection
(overflows are silently allowed to happen), and game developers don't necessarily anticipate such extremes.
Try dynamically typed languages or numeric classes for better luck - but one should think about what he's doing anyway, since things may get a bit slower...
Then it's true, like another poster said, that it's like a religion - either you believe in privacy, or you don't. I amusingly idientified myself with the guy. I wouldn't care a bit to post every move of mine on the web - well, it may be a little boring, since I don't travel that much, but I don't care a bit if somebody sees where I was, what I bought, what I ate, and what I am doing right now. Maybe this should be a poll?:)
I understand of course that other people may feel differently about their privacy, so I understand, for example, the rather paranoid law on privacy we have here in Italy.
Oh. That's how a poster convinces people to RTFA - by inserting a random TLA (or FLA, in this case) from TFA. I shall use this technique at soon as I have a chance!
Now, if that just worked to get mod up...
Right. It also means that you are patenting the device, not the program; so, if you patent an innovative device, which uses an innovative program, the program itself is not patented.
In theory, at least.
Well, that's the beauty of Wikipedia: I read the section of the article you quoted, and in this case I don't trust the author. Here is the text of the cited Article 52 (http://www.european-patent-office.org/legal/epc/e /ar52.html):
Article 52
Patentable inventions
(1) European patents shall be granted for any inventions which are susceptible of industrial application, which are new and which involve an inventive step.
(2) The following in particular shall not be regarded as inventions within the meaning of paragraph 1:
(a) discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;
(b) aesthetic creations;
(c) schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers;
(d) presentations of information.
(3) The provisions of paragraph 2 shall exclude patentability of the subject-matter or activities referred to in that provision only to the extent to which a European patent application or European patent relates to such subject-matter or activities as such.
(4) Methods for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practised on the human or animal body shall not be regarded as inventions which are susceptible of industrial application within the meaning of paragraph 1. This provision shall not apply to products, in particular substances or compositions, for use in any of these methods.
So, "programs for computers" (and algorithms, mind you) are not patentable, period. IF you use a program for computers in a LARGER system, the system as a whole is (maybe) patentable. The point is not whether you solve a "technical problem" with the program; what else could you be doing, turning the computer's fingers?...
No, all software patents should be shot down. Patents should only be given to inventions which operate in the physical world — mechanical devices, tools, electronic equipment, and so on. Patenting software is (more or less) patenting algorithms, and therefore to patenting mathematics; on the other hand, research works much better if information is shared freely.
Also, software is already covered by copyright, so protecting it with patents also is overkill.
Also... well, there are many reasons why software patents are a terrible idea. Everybody with an interest more than casual in the subject whould get familiar with the arguments given in http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/.
Slashdot Mirror
I started using last.fm only a few months ago; I configured amarok to scrobble the music I listen, then once in a while I use last.fm streams to discover new music with my neighbors' radio. I would'nt pay the admittedly low fee of 3$/month only for this, so I will simply stop using it. I guess the vast majority of users will do the same.
... thinking that Facebok earned money with ads. Heh.
It may be interesting to know that in Italian it's the "hidden face" of the moon (la faccia nascosta della luna) - personally I have always been confused by the English terminology.
I'd love to know the terminology used by other languages...
Well, the "entertainment industry", of course, does it for the money. But the director does it as a challenge. I, as a fan, see it as a chance to have a few millions more read the comic book, after or before the movie. I know the movie will *never* be as good as the book, by far; but if you avoid reading the book in the three months before seeing the movie, you may be not too disappointed (it surely worked for me with "V for Vendetta").
*** SPOILER *** (weeell, you never know who reads a thread...)
As many suspected, you *surely* didn't see the trailer: there is a scene with Ozymandias "alien creature" in New York, and I think I had a glimpse of Rorschach's death (BTW, I am not sure he died, but this is a separate trhead...)
I live in Korea, where every computer runs Windows, no matter how minimal the need. [...]
Even yours? (It's a serious question...)
I agree that Spanish is not much spoken in Europe outside Spain; still, it's the SECOND most-spoken language by native speakers (cfr. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language), it has LOTS of non-native speakers and it is certainly much easier than Mandarin Chinese . Last but not least, it opens you the doors to other neolatin languages (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_languages); after Spanish, learning Portuguese, French and Italian is a breeze (at the risk of confusing them a bit...)
In many C based programs, your gold would overflow and drop to (-2^31+1), -2147483647, since the C programming language doesn't offer the programmer any exception handling mechanism for overflow detection (overflows are silently allowed to happen), and game developers don't necessarily anticipate such extremes.
Overflows (and underflows) are silently allowed to happen in most languages who use the underlying integer arithmetic on the processor. Yes, there is an overflow flag, but it is widely unused (see e.g. http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4466549/). For example, even Java regularly overflows operations on integer types (http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/typesValues.html#9194/). Therefore the problem is not a C (or Assembler) limitation, and sometimes is even considered a feature.
Try dynamically typed languages or numeric classes for better luck - but one should think about what he's doing anyway, since things may get a bit slower...
Then it's true, like another poster said, that it's like a religion - either you believe in privacy, or you don't. I amusingly idientified myself with the guy. I wouldn't care a bit to post every move of mine on the web - well, it may be a little boring, since I don't travel that much, but I don't care a bit if somebody sees where I was, what I bought, what I ate, and what I am doing right now. Maybe this should be a poll? :)
I understand of course that other people may feel differently about their privacy, so I understand, for example, the rather paranoid law on privacy we have here in Italy.
Oh. That's how a poster convinces people to RTFA - by inserting a random TLA (or FLA, in this case) from TFA. I shall use this technique at soon as I have a chance!
Now, if that just worked to get mod up...
Right. It also means that you are patenting the device, not the program; so, if you patent an innovative device, which uses an innovative program, the program itself is not patented.
In theory, at least.
Well, that's the beauty of Wikipedia: I read the section of the article you quoted, and in this case I don't trust the author. Here is the text of the cited Article 52 (http://www.european-patent-office.org/legal/epc/e /ar52.html):
Article 52
Patentable inventions
(1) European patents shall be granted for any inventions which are susceptible of industrial application, which are new and which involve an inventive step.
(2) The following in particular shall not be regarded as inventions within the meaning of paragraph 1:
(a) discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods;
(b) aesthetic creations;
(c) schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers;
(d) presentations of information.
(3) The provisions of paragraph 2 shall exclude patentability of the subject-matter or activities referred to in that provision only to the extent to which a European patent application or European patent relates to such subject-matter or activities as such.
(4) Methods for treatment of the human or animal body by surgery or therapy and diagnostic methods practised on the human or animal body shall not be regarded as inventions which are susceptible of industrial application within the meaning of paragraph 1. This provision shall not apply to products, in particular substances or compositions, for use in any of these methods.
So, "programs for computers" (and algorithms, mind you) are not patentable, period. IF you use a program for computers in a LARGER system, the system as a whole is (maybe) patentable. The point is not whether you solve a "technical problem" with the program; what else could you be doing, turning the computer's fingers?...
No, all software patents should be shot down. Patents should only be given to inventions which operate in the physical world — mechanical devices, tools, electronic equipment, and so on. Patenting software is (more or less) patenting algorithms, and therefore to patenting mathematics; on the other hand, research works much better if information is shared freely. Also, software is already covered by copyright, so protecting it with patents also is overkill. Also... well, there are many reasons why software patents are a terrible idea. Everybody with an interest more than casual in the subject whould get familiar with the arguments given in http://www.nosoftwarepatents.com/.
As an Italian, I'd love to see Bill Gates President of the USA. So we'd no longer have to be ashamed of Silvio Berlusconi.