For all the comments about programming books get outdated so quickly, the Design Patterns book is the exception to that rule. By focusing on logical concepts and problem solving techniques independent of the current programming fad (Ajax anyone?), Design Patterns will not "age," and has just as much benefit 10 years from now. I highly recommend it to any programmer.
This is the same phenomenon that is happening in the world of remembering phone numbers. How many people today remember the phone numbers that they call 2-3 times a week/day? Mostly none because all phone numbers are stored in cell phones. People will lose their cell phone and say things like: "Now . . . what is my parents phone number?"
The same thing is happening with spelling. People are not spending the same brainpower on being knowledgeable regarding spelling and even grammar today (although I despise Grammarcheck - e.g. "Its not a sentence fragment, its freaking poetic license!") because most of the time that is being done for them by their word processor. When people now are writing without the aid of spellcheck/grammarcheck they are much less savvy than before; just like people without their cell phones trying to remember phone numbers.
However, this is not due to a lack of brainpower in today's human race, it is just that we are devoting our mental horsepower to different tasks. While we may be much less grammatically sound without the aid of spellcheck/grammarcheck today, we (as a society) are much more fluent in the language of working with technology and other user interfaces.
I love the new service but . . . if the purpose is to consolidate all of Google's features into one page then they are not there yet. Central to this becoming a dominant web portal would be the integration of Blogger, Picasa, Google Groups, better Maps integration, and finally for commercial people the addition of Adwords and Adsense accounts on the front page.
However, this being only beta I cannot complain too much (even though I do complain about GMail being down, despite it still being in beta). Google hasn't conquered my web portal business . . . yet.
This claim cannot be filed in a state court because as an antitrust claim it is under exclusive federal jurisdiction. It can only be filed in federal court.
Regarding when the "clock" starts ticking for the statute of limitations, it is when the transaction occurs that results in the injury complained of.
well, i graduated in may. And while you and your friends may know those things, that doesn't mean Jim Jock, Fred the Frat Boy and Greta the Goth Chic knows anything about kazaa. Plus the school I went to blocked kazaa and aim file transfers.
While some technically savvy students (read:/.ers) will continue to use other means to get DRM-free mp3's and movies, most college students would be content to listen to their favorite music off the Napster streaming service. Once the administration tells them it is okay and even probably helps them install the software the ease of use trumps everything else for the average college student.
In my opinion, the reasons video games have become more stagnant is that develors use graphics and technology as the centerpiece of the game rather than the affability of the gameplay itself. The reason that games like Mario and Tetris still hold some value today (I actually play Mike Tyson's Punch-Out all the time on my friends NES) is that they were gameplay centric and fun no matter what Mario's head looked like.
Today it seems that game companies are content to have it really look like Luke Skywalker but be truly boring to play after the first time through it drolling at the graphics and the cut scenes. That is why the classics, are the classics and todays games don't have the same staying power as they do. It is always so disappointing when you have games based on immersion, a la Star Wars, that has no value from the gameplay.
This is why games like GTA and the Sims are successfuly because they focus on the gameplay, with graphics only as the medium, and not what the gamer is paying for
Copyright is based on the copyright of expression, not collections of facts. Whether you like it or not a collection of facts is not a creative enough use in order to create a copyright. See Feist v. Rural Telephone, where it was ruled that the white pages listings were not copyrightable.
Also putting copyright into the realm of facts, whether that just be a 'collection' puts a chilling effect on the use of those facts even though they as a whole are only copyrighted. There is no explicit definitions of how much use of the facts contained within a database, another chilling factor.
Defintion from the bill of a database: the term `database' means a collection of a large number of discrete items of information produced for the purpose of bringing such discrete items of information together in one place or through one source so that persons may access them.
The reasons Google could/should launch an email service is the brand that they have created. As all the posts here corroborate, the Google as a brand is respected both in the tech community as well as the main stream, which is one of the reasons it is so successful. So even if it launches a free email service, its own branding power, regardless of features will draw many users there.
Now if Google reigns in its business and marketing departments to keep the mail free of extraneous features and ad-attacks err. advertising, it will be more successful than Yahoo! and/or Hotmail purely by that feature alone. However if it becomes another advertising saturated free email service it will just be another player in the market not a dominant one.
The reason that Yahoo! and MSN have turned into bloated portals is the same reason that Google is drawn create other services (froogle, images, ect.) to keep users in and use the power of their brands to hold users within their marketing umbrella. It's only too easy to add links and 'portal' type features to any popular web page for commercial reasons, which is the trap that Google must not fall into.
Slashdot Mirror
For all the comments about programming books get outdated so quickly, the Design Patterns book is the exception to that rule. By focusing on logical concepts and problem solving techniques independent of the current programming fad (Ajax anyone?), Design Patterns will not "age," and has just as much benefit 10 years from now. I highly recommend it to any programmer.
This is the same phenomenon that is happening in the world of remembering phone numbers. How many people today remember the phone numbers that they call 2-3 times a week/day? Mostly none because all phone numbers are stored in cell phones. People will lose their cell phone and say things like: "Now . . . what is my parents phone number?"
The same thing is happening with spelling. People are not spending the same brainpower on being knowledgeable regarding spelling and even grammar today (although I despise Grammarcheck - e.g. "Its not a sentence fragment, its freaking poetic license!") because most of the time that is being done for them by their word processor. When people now are writing without the aid of spellcheck/grammarcheck they are much less savvy than before; just like people without their cell phones trying to remember phone numbers.
However, this is not due to a lack of brainpower in today's human race, it is just that we are devoting our mental horsepower to different tasks. While we may be much less grammatically sound without the aid of spellcheck/grammarcheck today, we (as a society) are much more fluent in the language of working with technology and other user interfaces.
Hmm, as I can see from the next article posted on slashdot, the FBI is working quickly these days.
But I didn't think they were going quite this quickly.
I love the new service but . . . if the purpose is to consolidate all of Google's features into one page then they are not there yet. Central to this becoming a dominant web portal would be the integration of Blogger, Picasa, Google Groups, better Maps integration, and finally for commercial people the addition of Adwords and Adsense accounts on the front page.
However, this being only beta I cannot complain too much (even though I do complain about GMail being down, despite it still being in beta). Google hasn't conquered my web portal business . . . yet.
This claim cannot be filed in a state court because as an antitrust claim it is under exclusive federal jurisdiction. It can only be filed in federal court.
Regarding when the "clock" starts ticking for the statute of limitations, it is when the transaction occurs that results in the injury complained of.
well, i graduated in may. And while you and your friends may know those things, that doesn't mean Jim Jock, Fred the Frat Boy and Greta the Goth Chic knows anything about kazaa. Plus the school I went to blocked kazaa and aim file transfers.
While some technically savvy students (read: /.ers) will continue to use other means to get DRM-free mp3's and movies, most college students would be content to listen to their favorite music off the Napster streaming service. Once the administration tells them it is okay and even probably helps them install the software the ease of use trumps everything else for the average college student.
In my opinion, the reasons video games have become more stagnant is that develors use graphics and technology as the centerpiece of the game rather than the affability of the gameplay itself. The reason that games like Mario and Tetris still hold some value today (I actually play Mike Tyson's Punch-Out all the time on my friends NES) is that they were gameplay centric and fun no matter what Mario's head looked like.
Today it seems that game companies are content to have it really look like Luke Skywalker but be truly boring to play after the first time through it drolling at the graphics and the cut scenes. That is why the classics, are the classics and todays games don't have the same staying power as they do. It is always so disappointing when you have games based on immersion, a la Star Wars, that has no value from the gameplay.
This is why games like GTA and the Sims are successfuly because they focus on the gameplay, with graphics only as the medium, and not what the gamer is paying for
Copyright is based on the copyright of expression, not collections of facts. Whether you like it or not a collection of facts is not a creative enough use in order to create a copyright. See Feist v. Rural Telephone, where it was ruled that the white pages listings were not copyrightable.
Also putting copyright into the realm of facts, whether that just be a 'collection' puts a chilling effect on the use of those facts even though they as a whole are only copyrighted. There is no explicit definitions of how much use of the facts contained within a database, another chilling factor.
Defintion from the bill of a database: the term `database' means a collection of a large number of discrete items of information produced for the purpose of bringing such discrete items of information together in one place or through one source so that persons may access them.
That sounds like a creative work . . . . umm no.
The reasons Google could/should launch an email service is the brand that they have created. As all the posts here corroborate, the Google as a brand is respected both in the tech community as well as the main stream, which is one of the reasons it is so successful. So even if it launches a free email service, its own branding power, regardless of features will draw many users there.
Now if Google reigns in its business and marketing departments to keep the mail free of extraneous features and ad-attacks err. advertising, it will be more successful than Yahoo! and/or Hotmail purely by that feature alone. However if it becomes another advertising saturated free email service it will just be another player in the market not a dominant one.
The reason that Yahoo! and MSN have turned into bloated portals is the same reason that Google is drawn create other services (froogle, images, ect.) to keep users in and use the power of their brands to hold users within their marketing umbrella. It's only too easy to add links and 'portal' type features to any popular web page for commercial reasons, which is the trap that Google must not fall into.