What no one seems to mention is WHY did this happen now, just after the release of Skype 5.0. Skype mentions some vague problem with "Some versions" of Skype, but clearly all versions of Skype have been running a long time with no such problems except for the December 14 release of Skype 5.
I suspect some major pooch-screwing, one that messed up key features of their peer-to-peer routing technology, requiring them to rush the so called supermodes into existance rather than relying on the peering.
Like a downturn in the economy, networks that depend on peering crumble fast as people exit looking for other solutions.
And then you have the cheap bastards and/or business without money. Time and materials are often needed to perform preventive maintenance. So, I'd say were seeing a lot more reactive vs proactive support as a result.
Preventative maintenance on server farms has pretty much been proven a losing proposition.
Nothing is usually done on a routine basis in medium to large server farms until some automated reporting software indicates a significant malfunction.
With today's fail over technology, even that is often easier to deal with AFTER a blade fails and its work load is instantly migrated to a hot spare.
There is just not that much preventative work you can do these days. Its all AFTER the fact replacement.
I just have to show prior art for the portion of the claim they alleged as being infringed.
That they chose to include a claim for which there is ample prior art speaks to the sloppiness of their patent preparation, and in many cases proof of prior art on a single claim is enough to topple the entire patent.
Why do you think enabling technology is contemptible?
Please post back when you have actually lived a day as a blind person you Luddite fool. In the mean time STFU before a blind person actually hears you dissing technology they have been waiting for their entire life.
Simply sequencing a gene is a far cry from matching.
If anything this leads to a whole raft of kitchen table scientists making ridiculous claims of paternity or crimes based on the assumption that because there exists a fast cheep tool to do part of the job, suddenly everyone is Horatio Cane.
If you RTFM you'll know that the summary is misleading. A quote from TFA best explains the claims: "The patents Kodak holds are incredibly broad, effectively covering images that are stored centrally and can be ordered online,"
I did RTFA.
But online centrally located storage of p0rn on a bbs that you had to subscribe to (with real money) existed well before Kodak patented their "incredibly broad" crapware.
On line photos which could be downloaded for a fee (or free) were incorporated on the net before there even was a net.
Which is long before Kodak even wised up to the fact that their world was coming to an end.
From the earliest on line p0rn BBS sites right up to the current sync your phone to online photo sites, the prior art is there in huge steaming, jiggling piles.
I don't leave passwords or important work on my phone. Ever.
Well you will. So get used to it.
Probably they will be in an encrypted password vault, dozens of which are available for Android or iPhone.
Your credit cards will be moving to the phone. Tap to pay terminals are springing up everywhere. Near Field Communication chips are being introduced into cell phones. They are already HUGE in Japan.
You will still need to password enable payment, but you won't be carrying a wallet full of risky credit cards in the future.
And those digital car keys? The rush to push button ignition is just to prep you for that being triggered by the presence of your phone as well.
Its all going into the phone, my friend, so get use to it.
The Amish won't use Electricity. Don't be that guy.
This. Anytime you spot the formula "Will 'x' be the Year of 'y'" - particularly on slashdot - the answer is ALWAYS no. I think it has to do with that particular phrasing. Nobody ever seems to ask 'Will 2011 be the Year of 365 days' or something similar. It's always outlandish...
Another tell is any time you spot reference to Gartner, you can pretty much stop reading.
Its a race between Gartner and JD Power and Asshats to see who can provide the best cooked analysis and micro-category awards that money can buy.
Only if you insist on walking right smack down the middle of the drive lane.
You over state your case. People driving in parking lots expect idiots to pop out from between any two random cars, and drive accordingly.
Those who don't give a care if they run over a pedestrian were often as not the very same ones that pushed their cart right down the middle of the drive lane talking on their cell phones.
Sorry, but using a physical world analogy for a virtual world concept = FAIL.
Go back and think about it, and you will see that as soon as you are dealing with a easily replicated key (such as a combination lock) the number of key holders increases over time, making lock replacement necessary.
I see adults cross the street without looking while on the phone and not even notice me beeping at them.
Well its entirely possible they thought they had as much right to walk across that street as you did to drive down it.
There are starting to be a rather vocal and militant group that insist the North American traffic laws are simply wrong headed when it comes residential streets and shopping areas, and one citizen's right to cross a street should not be subordinate to another citizens right to drive down that street. There is a perception (somewhat based in law) that the pedestrian always has the right of way.
Clearly this is a recipe for traffic gridlock.
But it has been brought on by total disregard for pedestrian deaths over the years. In 2008, 69,000 pedestrians were injured in motor vehicle crashes in the United States, and 4,378 pedestrians were killed. Pedestrians comprise about 12 percent of motor vehicle crash deaths each year.
The accident rate is actually falling in recent years.
Not wanting to start a flame war here, this is not necessarily my viewpoint, just reporting one possible reason people don't automatically yield to motor vehicles.
WPA2 with AES usually has an AES encryption engine built into hardware. Its so much faster that way.
I'm not absolutely positive that there are no software drivers to do the encrypting, but every reference I've seen says its done in hardware.
Nobody writes drivers for those older cards.
For 8-15 bucks you can swap those wifi cards out of most lap tops. They are simple drop in replacements in most cases. Drivers freely found on the web.
Instead of taking the advent of electric vehicles as an opportunity to quiet our cities, requiring them to make more noise seems counter productive.
Make them all quiet enough and you will be able to hear the tire noise.
Cover that noise with a louder noise and pretty soon all you know is its noisy and you can't hear the cars because they disappear into the noise.
Ok, Won't somebody please think of the Blind!!?? Yeah. Why not equip the blind with the sensors that they need to detect large/fast moving objects instead of equipping all large moving objects with noise makers to be drowner out by other noise makers.
Relying on everything that might hurt you to carry a warning is just counter-productive and costly. Hear nothing, step off the curb and get hit by a bike messenger, or a car with a defective noise maker.
Of course that gave those same operators the ability to pull up any customer's credit card information just by typing their name. A
What happened since then is that standards of financial responsibility have fallen dramatically in the rush to make a quick buck in ecommerce.
Actually the opposite has happened.
Storing credit card numbers in your database has so many Visa/Mastercard requirements and restrictions these days that many companies simply choose not to do it at all, and ask for a cc each time you need to purchase.
Unless your software encrypts the data, forget it. Some small businesses lie and do it anyway, but its very foolish and dangerous.
Move away from WEP (its been known for 5 years to be easily hacked).
WPA2 is where you want to be. I had a laptop with a mini-pci network adapter built in that was old enough that it didn't support anything but WEP. 8 bucks got me a replacement card from Amazon, which did WPA2.
Computers are easy to upgrade. Some stuff is harder.
Slashdot Mirror
What no one seems to mention is WHY did this happen now, just after the release of Skype 5.0.
Skype mentions some vague problem with "Some versions" of Skype, but clearly all versions of Skype have been running a long time with no such problems except for the December 14 release of Skype 5.
I suspect some major pooch-screwing, one that messed up key features of their peer-to-peer routing technology, requiring them to rush the so called supermodes into existance rather than relying on the peering.
Like a downturn in the economy, networks that depend on peering crumble fast as people exit looking for other solutions.
Same accelerator concept though. Maybe what they have built is flexible enough to handle both roles.
Linear induction motor that's capable of accelerating a 100,000 pound aircraft to 240 miles per hour in the space of 300 feet.
One wonders how is that any easier on the airframe?
Anyone know how you calculate G-forces in this kind of acceleration?
What does this have to do with them shutting down image sharing sites which existed in BBS form even before there was an internet?
So quick to defend. Do you work for Kodak?
And then you have the cheap bastards and/or business without money. Time and materials are often needed to perform preventive maintenance. So, I'd say were seeing a lot more reactive vs proactive support as a result.
Preventative maintenance on server farms has pretty much been proven a losing proposition.
Nothing is usually done on a routine basis in medium to large server farms until some automated reporting software indicates a significant malfunction.
With today's fail over technology, even that is often easier to deal with AFTER a blade fails and its work load is instantly migrated to a hot spare.
There is just not that much preventative work you can do these days. Its all AFTER the fact replacement.
A BBS still operating in 1997?
I think you must be off by 10 years. You must mean 1987, right?
In 1997 the web was up and running strong, and dial up BBSs were shutting down left and right.
Yeah, that must be it.
If we all try real hard we can sue our way to a balanced budget.
Wrong.
I just have to show prior art for the portion of the claim they alleged as being infringed.
That they chose to include a claim for which there is ample prior art speaks to the sloppiness of their patent preparation, and in many cases proof of prior art on a single claim is enough to topple the entire patent.
Like what? Bionic eyes?
That's a contemptible statement and you ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Yes like Bionic Eyes:
http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/pgs/papers/applied1.pdf
Why not a sensing cane, like this:
http://www.ieeehtn.org/htn/index.php/Electronic_Blind_Mobility_Aid
Why do you think enabling technology is contemptible?
Please post back when you have actually lived a day as a blind person you Luddite fool. In the mean time STFU before a blind person actually hears you dissing technology they have been waiting for their entire life.
Simply sequencing a gene is a far cry from matching.
If anything this leads to a whole raft of kitchen table scientists making ridiculous claims of paternity or crimes based on the assumption that because there exists a fast cheep tool to do part of the job, suddenly everyone is Horatio Cane.
YEEAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
I fail to see how the government benefits when A sues B, and neither A nor B are part of the government.
If you RTFM you'll know that the summary is misleading. A quote from TFA best explains the claims:
"The patents Kodak holds are incredibly broad, effectively covering images that are stored centrally and can be ordered online,"
I did RTFA.
But online centrally located storage of p0rn on a bbs that you had to subscribe to (with real money) existed well before Kodak patented their "incredibly broad" crapware.
The broader the patent, the quicker they fall.
Sorry, this goes nowhere.
On line photos which could be downloaded for a fee (or free) were incorporated on the net before there even was a net.
Which is long before Kodak even wised up to the fact that their world was coming to an end.
From the earliest on line p0rn BBS sites right up to the current sync your phone to online photo sites, the prior art is there in huge steaming, jiggling piles.
Too late Kodak.
I don't leave passwords or important work on my phone. Ever.
Well you will. So get used to it.
Probably they will be in an encrypted password vault, dozens of which are available for Android or iPhone.
Your credit cards will be moving to the phone. Tap to pay terminals are springing up everywhere. Near Field Communication chips are being introduced into cell phones. They are already HUGE in Japan.
You will still need to password enable payment, but you won't be carrying a wallet full of risky credit cards in the future.
And those digital car keys? The rush to push button ignition is just to prep you for that being triggered by the presence of your phone as well.
Its all going into the phone, my friend, so get use to it.
The Amish won't use Electricity. Don't be that guy.
Its not about losing work to a systems crash or phone splash down in the toilet bowl.
Its about content being stolen by malware.
Wrong.
The warning about re-install has nothing to do with an "assured path to perfectly re-install".
It has everything to do with carrier lock downs, and to a lesser extent with manufacturer locked downs.
As for their inability to be patched, that too is FUD. They can and do receive OTA or wifi system upgrades and patches as needed.
Check your zipper. Your Apple Fanboy is showing.
This. Anytime you spot the formula "Will 'x' be the Year of 'y'" - particularly on slashdot - the answer is ALWAYS no. I think it has to do with that particular phrasing. Nobody ever seems to ask 'Will 2011 be the Year of 365 days' or something similar. It's always outlandish...
Another tell is any time you spot reference to Gartner, you can pretty much stop reading.
Its a race between Gartner and JD Power and Asshats to see who can provide the best cooked analysis and micro-category awards that money can buy.
Only if you insist on walking right smack down the middle of the drive lane.
You over state your case. People driving in parking lots expect idiots to pop out from between any two random cars, and drive accordingly.
Those who don't give a care if they run over a pedestrian were often as not the very same ones that pushed their cart right down the middle of the drive lane talking on their cell phones.
Sorry, but using a physical world analogy for a virtual world concept = FAIL.
Go back and think about it, and you will see that as soon as you are dealing with a easily replicated key (such as a combination lock) the number of key holders increases over time, making lock replacement necessary.
I see adults cross the street without looking while on the phone and not even notice me beeping at them.
Well its entirely possible they thought they had as much right to walk across that street as you did to drive down it.
There are starting to be a rather vocal and militant group that insist the North American traffic laws are simply wrong headed when it comes residential streets and shopping areas, and one citizen's right to cross a street should not be subordinate to another citizens right to drive down that street. There is a perception (somewhat based in law) that the pedestrian always has the right of way.
Clearly this is a recipe for traffic gridlock.
But it has been brought on by total disregard for pedestrian deaths over the years. In 2008, 69,000 pedestrians were injured in motor vehicle crashes in the United States, and 4,378 pedestrians were killed. Pedestrians comprise about 12 percent of motor vehicle crash deaths each year.
The accident rate is actually falling in recent years.
Not wanting to start a flame war here, this is not necessarily my viewpoint, just reporting one possible reason people don't automatically yield to motor vehicles.
Almost ALL of the demand for noise makers on cars comes from the blind lobby.
In a quieter world, the blind would hear the tire noise just fine.
WPA2 with AES usually has an AES encryption engine built into hardware. Its so much faster that way.
I'm not absolutely positive that there are no software drivers to do the encrypting, but every reference I've seen says its done in hardware.
Nobody writes drivers for those older cards.
For 8-15 bucks you can swap those wifi cards out of most lap tops. They are simple drop in replacements in most cases. Drivers freely found on the web.
Even 802.11N cards can be had for about $25.
I disagree.
No cars should make noise. Its an arms race.
Instead of taking the advent of electric vehicles as an opportunity to quiet our cities, requiring them to make more noise seems counter productive.
Make them all quiet enough and you will be able to hear the tire noise.
Cover that noise with a louder noise and pretty soon all you know is its noisy and you can't hear the cars because they disappear into the noise.
Ok, Won't somebody please think of the Blind!!??
Yeah. Why not equip the blind with the sensors that they need to detect large/fast moving objects instead of equipping all large moving objects with noise makers to be drowner out by other noise makers.
Relying on everything that might hurt you to carry a warning is just counter-productive and costly. Hear nothing, step off the curb and get hit by a bike messenger, or a car with a defective noise maker.
Of course that gave those same operators the ability to pull up any customer's credit card information just by typing their name. A
What happened since then is that standards of financial responsibility have fallen dramatically in the rush to make a quick buck in ecommerce.
Actually the opposite has happened.
Storing credit card numbers in your database has so many Visa/Mastercard requirements and restrictions these days that many companies simply choose not to do it at all, and ask for a cc each time you need to purchase.
Unless your software encrypts the data, forget it. Some small businesses lie and do it anyway, but its very foolish and dangerous.
Really? In a Razr?
The only case on record happened in 2003!!!
An there has never been a case reported for recording when the phone was OFF. It never happened. No point in polishing a turd.
Luckily, I tracked this down and secure further the network, but without proper tools, what can a normal user do against these smart asses?
Read Slash Dot occasionally and notice that WEP is insecure.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=WEP+insecure+site%3Aslashdot.org
Move away from WEP (its been known for 5 years to be easily hacked).
WPA2 is where you want to be.
I had a laptop with a mini-pci network adapter built in that was old enough that it didn't support anything but WEP. 8 bucks got me a replacement card from Amazon, which did WPA2.
Computers are easy to upgrade. Some stuff is harder.