what does Amazon's patents have anything to do with their 10 year anniversary?
Nothing at all. It has to do with the "Although Bezos has drawn some ire from his collection of patents, there's no arguing that his company is one of the most successful online sites today" part. If anything, it goes to show that even with a group of relatively vocal opponents, Amazon has had no trouble becoming the giant that it is right now. Also, patent discussions are commonplace on Slashdot, which has an apporiate audience for such matters. You may not like talking about copyright and patents, but others do.
Can't you have left that out of the story?
Yes. Boy, that was an easy one.
Re:Looks like they've got their focus...
on
Longhorn Preview
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· Score: 1
The only thing stopping everyone doing this now is poorly written applications.
That's not true at all. My default WinXP installation CD prompts me for a user account, and by default, makes it an administrator. Without subtly forcing the users to create a non-admin account, there's nothing preventing Joe Average from running as an administrator all of the time.
In this case, it's the operating system.
I personally have been running NT with a restricted account for nearly a decade now.
Yes, but you probably a) know better, and b) took the time to create that second account. Remember: "I" != "average", especially on Slashdot.
Re:Looks like they've got their focus...
on
Longhorn Preview
·
· Score: 1
Given the vast bulk of security problems lie with applications and users, what else did you expect?
I don't know. Maybe the "new type of restricted user account" to start? Just an idea. I'm fully aware that anyone determined enough to run as "root" will still be able to do so.
Looks like they've got their focus...
on
Longhorn Preview
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
And in spite of announced planned enhancements such as monitoring of outbound data,... protection against malware, a new type of restricted user account, and a secure startup scheme to ensure that a PC hasn't been tampered with, Longhorn so far has the same minimal security toolbox as Windows XP with Service Pack 2.
Though security remains an unresolved issue, build 5048 brings Longhorn's graphical user interface into sharper focus.
Soooooo, little development with respect to security, but more colourful icons. Super.
I can't figure out why someone would do that unless they intended to profit from it in some way.
Indirect profit: putting someone out of business, pushing services, etc. Or simply being lazy and using the code in your own project that is subsequently released. The latter is more of an "accidental" or "non-malicious" violation.
you can pretty much only violate the GPL for profit
1) You can profit from GPL creations.
2) You can violate the GPL without profiting, ie. by using GPL'd code in your free-as-in-beer application and not releasing the source.
Promotion of science/arts
on
P2P and TV
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· Score: 1
The choice of what to do with it is in the hands of the creator, not what the masses want.
<devil's adovcate>
If the oil companies hired somebody to create for them a vehicle that would get obscene gas mileage, leak near-zero emissions, and cost only a few hundred dollars, and they prevented it from seeing the light of day, would the argument be the same?
I can spread kerosene puddles all over the house, but be blameless, while the idiot who comes in with a lit cigarette is at fault.
Would you rather have it so that you were liable as well? If someone broke into your house and stabbed your family with your kitchen knives, would your family be liable for owning them and keeping them out in a block on the counter?
My wife likes the sparkle, especially under standard indoor lighting. It really is more colourful and brighter than a diamond, but only costs a fraction of the price. Maybe one third the price, around here.
Of course, if your gal is one of those "but it's not a DIAAAAAMOND!" girls, you're SOL.
Could be. I'm sure that there have been numerous improvements to reduce energy consumption during idle time.
I was just commenting on the fact that lots of people see a high CPU usage while a program is running and think "that's really bad" without considering that, if you weren't using the CPU cycles for anything else anyway, then why not dedicate them to that particular program?
Everytime I try to download ten things firefox goes up to 300 megs of memory usage and 99% cpu usage.
I'm always fascinated when people get upset that a particular application uses a large amount of memory or CPU cycles. It really doesn't do you any good when your computer is in an idle state -- you're eating energy and doing nothing. If I was never supposed to use 300M of RAM, then why did I buy a 512M stick? What good is my fancy whizz-bang processor if it's looping through no-ops 99% of the time?
Of course, if this 99% CPU usage / 300M memory consumption is causing your system to slow down while you're working on something else, then I guess it's a problem. But normally, when I'm surfing around clicking on multiple things to download, I'm generally doing only one task -- surfing. And when I am working on something else, I generally try to split things up so that I'm not downloading 10 things in the background. Maybe do 5 first, then do the other 5 later.
Myth 5. The 'spirit of innovation' works best when there is a free market of ideas, and consumers are better off if video games are not patented.
A classic argument among those who feel that the entire patent system should be abolished. You might want to make that argument to your representative in Congress, because unless the Constitution is amended to do away with patents, they're here to stay. In drafting the Constitution, our founding fathers recognized that the best way to promote progress in the 'useful arts' was to reward inventors who come forward and share their inventions with the public by granting them a limited period of exclusivity in which they can exploit the fruits of their labor. In other words, discouraging slavish copying encourages innovation.
The author fails to take into account what the majority of Slashdotters usually echo, which is "patents are for representations of things, copyright is for expression of ideas". Instead, the author tries to stifle the argument that some things might be patent-worthy while others are not, by claiming "but if we patent one thing, we must be able to patent everything." Why is that necessarily true?
As for the other myths? They speak nothing of patent-worthiness and deal with typical "Can I do this...?" questions that can be found in most USPTO application handouts.
I thought I remembered seeing a Slashdot story or post about Namco holding a patent on "displaying a mini-game while the actual game is loading" not too long ago.
What if we want to copy Linux distributions to our friends? Huh, what about that?
Well, I don't think that's much of an issue here. From the article:
Under the new solution, tracks ripped and burned from a copy-protected disc are copied to a blank CD in Microsoft's Windows Media Audio format. The DRM embedded on the discs bars the burned CD from being copied.
So, unless your Linux distro has been distributed as a WMA file, for some unfathomable reason, you're good to go.
Of course, this only raises the question, "what if we use $OTHER_RIPPER to extract the audio as $NON_WMA_FILE to begin with?" Seems pretty easy to defeat.
Yep, only minor tweaks necessary. Certainly only 1 or 2 steps more than fiddling with appropriate permissions and whatnot on XP.
I just migrated to Ubuntu...
Can't help you there. I run SuSE on my main machine at home, mainly because it's what I'm used to. Did a fresh 9.2 install and nearly everything was hunky-dory. When I had a DVD-playback issue, I found a repository of "non-crippled" RPMs for mplayer, kaffeine, etc. Installed, popped the DVD back in, played fine.
But every distro is different. I know I had one hell of a time trying to set up Gentoo a year back.
Yep, games is a big sticking point. But in my example, I don't play a lot of games. And for the government-run computers in Cuba, I suspect they're not playing Doom that much either.
Slashdot Mirror
what does Amazon's patents have anything to do with their 10 year anniversary?
Nothing at all. It has to do with the "Although Bezos has drawn some ire from his collection of patents, there's no arguing that his company is one of the most successful online sites today" part. If anything, it goes to show that even with a group of relatively vocal opponents, Amazon has had no trouble becoming the giant that it is right now. Also, patent discussions are commonplace on Slashdot, which has an apporiate audience for such matters. You may not like talking about copyright and patents, but others do.
Can't you have left that out of the story?
Yes. Boy, that was an easy one.
The only thing stopping everyone doing this now is poorly written applications.
That's not true at all. My default WinXP installation CD prompts me for a user account, and by default, makes it an administrator. Without subtly forcing the users to create a non-admin account, there's nothing preventing Joe Average from running as an administrator all of the time.
In this case, it's the operating system.
I personally have been running NT with a restricted account for nearly a decade now.
Yes, but you probably a) know better, and b) took the time to create that second account. Remember: "I" != "average", especially on Slashdot.
Given the vast bulk of security problems lie with applications and users, what else did you expect?
I don't know. Maybe the "new type of restricted user account" to start? Just an idea. I'm fully aware that anyone determined enough to run as "root" will still be able to do so.
And in spite of announced planned enhancements such as monitoring of outbound data, ... protection against malware, a new type of restricted user account, and a secure startup scheme to ensure that a PC hasn't been tampered with, Longhorn so far has the same minimal security toolbox as Windows XP with Service Pack 2.
Though security remains an unresolved issue, build 5048 brings Longhorn's graphical user interface into sharper focus.
Soooooo, little development with respect to security, but more colourful icons. Super.
I know your post is being facetious, but...
Microsoft's Maps ... It never gives wrong directions. (Becasue it doesn't exist.)
It exists, and it does.
Indirect profit: putting someone out of business, pushing services, etc. Or simply being lazy and using the code in your own project that is subsequently released. The latter is more of an "accidental" or "non-malicious" violation.
In short, if you steal a laptop, you either wipe the hard drive, or bypass the boot process with a CD to snoop around at data.
Or simply disable all network access points by popping out the network/wireless card. Easy as pie.
1) You can profit from GPL creations.
2) You can violate the GPL without profiting, ie. by using GPL'd code in your free-as-in-beer application and not releasing the source.
<devil's adovcate>
If the oil companies hired somebody to create for them a vehicle that would get obscene gas mileage, leak near-zero emissions, and cost only a few hundred dollars, and they prevented it from seeing the light of day, would the argument be the same?
</devil's adovcate>
I can spread kerosene puddles all over the house, but be blameless, while the idiot who comes in with a lit cigarette is at fault.
Would you rather have it so that you were liable as well? If someone broke into your house and stabbed your family with your kitchen knives, would your family be liable for owning them and keeping them out in a block on the counter?
I guess that is why all the prisons are full of hackers not murderers, rapists, etc.
-1: Unrelated. Murderers and rapists aren't the ones comprimising computer networks.
Perhaps you missed the "costing us billions of dollars a year to secure our systems" bit you quoted?
The iTunes interface seems to be almost a ditto copy of their interface...
What's patented is patented I suppose, but having said that, remember: just because you do something first doesn't mean it's patent-worthy!
Patenting a display of track info? A play button? Please. Where's this "non-obvious" clause that's supposed to be enforced?
So being a rich, well-televised sports figure now makes you a nerd? Interesting.
Moissanite.
My wife likes the sparkle, especially under standard indoor lighting. It really is more colourful and brighter than a diamond, but only costs a fraction of the price. Maybe one third the price, around here.
Of course, if your gal is one of those "but it's not a DIAAAAAMOND!" girls, you're SOL.
Could be. I'm sure that there have been numerous improvements to reduce energy consumption during idle time.
I was just commenting on the fact that lots of people see a high CPU usage while a program is running and think "that's really bad" without considering that, if you weren't using the CPU cycles for anything else anyway, then why not dedicate them to that particular program?
Everytime I try to download ten things firefox goes up to 300 megs of memory usage and 99% cpu usage.
I'm always fascinated when people get upset that a particular application uses a large amount of memory or CPU cycles. It really doesn't do you any good when your computer is in an idle state -- you're eating energy and doing nothing. If I was never supposed to use 300M of RAM, then why did I buy a 512M stick? What good is my fancy whizz-bang processor if it's looping through no-ops 99% of the time?
Of course, if this 99% CPU usage / 300M memory consumption is causing your system to slow down while you're working on something else, then I guess it's a problem. But normally, when I'm surfing around clicking on multiple things to download, I'm generally doing only one task -- surfing. And when I am working on something else, I generally try to split things up so that I'm not downloading 10 things in the background. Maybe do 5 first, then do the other 5 later.
Obviously, YMMV, depending on what you're doing.
Why don't you just change the file association to automagically open in gpdf in the first place? It should be somewhere under Preferences.
As I'm a KDE user, I open all of my PDFs in kpdf by default...
The author fails to take into account what the majority of Slashdotters usually echo, which is "patents are for representations of things, copyright is for expression of ideas". Instead, the author tries to stifle the argument that some things might be patent-worthy while others are not, by claiming "but if we patent one thing, we must be able to patent everything." Why is that necessarily true?
As for the other myths? They speak nothing of patent-worthiness and deal with typical "Can I do this...?" questions that can be found in most USPTO application handouts.
Meh.
I thought I remembered seeing a Slashdot story or post about Namco holding a patent on "displaying a mini-game while the actual game is loading" not too long ago.
What if we want to copy Linux distributions to our friends? Huh, what about that?
Well, I don't think that's much of an issue here. From the article:
So, unless your Linux distro has been distributed as a WMA file, for some unfathomable reason, you're good to go.
Of course, this only raises the question, "what if we use $OTHER_RIPPER to extract the audio as $NON_WMA_FILE to begin with?" Seems pretty easy to defeat.
There are people who are blind what do they do?
Use this for their image?
painless transition?
Yep, only minor tweaks necessary. Certainly only 1 or 2 steps more than fiddling with appropriate permissions and whatnot on XP.
I just migrated to Ubuntu...
Can't help you there. I run SuSE on my main machine at home, mainly because it's what I'm used to. Did a fresh 9.2 install and nearly everything was hunky-dory. When I had a DVD-playback issue, I found a repository of "non-crippled" RPMs for mplayer, kaffeine, etc. Installed, popped the DVD back in, played fine.
But every distro is different. I know I had one hell of a time trying to set up Gentoo a year back.
And, unless you count shouting "@(*$&#@(*&$" at a recalcitrant PC as communicating via speech, he was dead wrong.
Seems like heaven for Perl coders:
"At left-parenthesis asterisk dollar sign ampersand hash at left-parenthesis asterisk ampersand dollar sign."
Yep, games is a big sticking point. But in my example, I don't play a lot of games. And for the government-run computers in Cuba, I suspect they're not playing Doom that much either.
But for 15-35 year old Joe Public, yeah.
I was under the impression that Microsoft CAN'T sell Windows to Cuba
Could be.
So we're actually in a situation where Windows is free, and Linux is free. And the winner is... Linux.
Unless the computers are using wonky apps that only run on Windows. The article gives few details apart from their migration announcement.