Question: Do you believe that, if what Wikipedia itself currently says about the subject is correct, various MP3 patents ought to persist into at least 2012 and possibly as late as 2017? If not, when do you believe all patents covering its design and implementation should expire or have expired?
I think that if we are to allow patents on algorithms, not only should obviousness standards be rigorously enforced (including the appropriate appropriations from Congress to make it happen), but that we should be talking about terms of no more than 5-7 years. And even then, I would like there to be less time than that.
My own view is that Christianity began as a synthetic religion between somewhat Hellenized Jewish sects and Hellenistic mystery cults. I think the Gospels bear the same relationship to Christianity as the Asinus Aureus (as Augustine called it) bore to the Cult of Isis.
No, I think he knows who Anon is. It's just that he doesn't think that threatening the things they feed upon will get them riled up enough to leave the basement.
I'm not sure what to think. I love the idea of not needing to install Flash, but I also like being able to block annoying animations by not installing Flash.
And this is why we have things such as AdBlock (and variants) and NoScript. Presumably, if and when SVG and the HTML5 media tags start being used much more, there will be browser controls for whether the media should be run or ignored.
Meanwhile, those of us who actually don't care to be treated to the kind of shit Activision pulls not only don't buy the game but aren't even interested in most of this new-fangled crap from big studios to begin with.
Really, from here on out, I don't expect to buy games from too many large companies anymore. I might put money forward when Valve gets off their ass and finishes their next HL "episode", but everything else is more likely to be bought from a small company or downloaded as free (legally) or played from my existing library. So I guess I fall into the "curmudgeon" stereotype. Whatever. I am happy with my present gaming experiences.
It's apparent to me that you haven't got a clue, or you are trolling, or perhaps both.
The only thing there is on the Northshore is a clusterfuck of suburban sprawl surrounding a few core small cities and towns. Most of Baton Rouge is a similar kind of sprawl, and the place is already a traffic nightmare.
There's been a bridge across the Lake since the 1950s; it was never damaged during any recent storm.
Your assertion that "New Orleans is simply a ghetto for the poor" is not only untrue, it is highly offensive. There might be a kernel of truth in that there are poor areas which are still run down, but the same is true of very many cities of any size.
Whatever. My righteous indignation is now expended. The fact of the matter is that we'll be "wasting" your money until the bitter end, and nothing you can say can refute or will change this. DIAF.:)
Most obviously, how does a new artist get started this way, when he doesn't have any fans yet? Are consumers expected to start pledging to random people on the off-chance that they produce a good result? There is nothing to stop someone adopting this approach today. How many artists have successfully started a career by doing so?
You don't start off a career that way. You start by loving your art and marketing yourself for free. Then you might want to consider doing some commission work. Only then do you start considering the kind of contract that the GP proposes here (and I have from time to time proposed for years).
I've seen artists rise through the ranks this way (only that currently, the artists use more traditional business models at the top). It happens often enough in the community in which I observe that I think it scalable to other communities of artists which are geographically scattered.
We may be disagreeing over the meaning of the phrase "giving them a seat at the table".
There's no need for some kind of interactive debate against something that is the scientific equivalent of trolling (intentional or otherwise); as far as I'm concerned, allowing Velikovsky to present his hypothesis in a special forum is "giving [him] a seat at the table", after which his hypothesis can be systematically dismantled. There also seems to be a lot less room for interpretation in celestial mechanics.
Then again, there's also a lot less directly at stake in human affairs over the origin of the planet Venus as opposed to anthropogenic change of the Earth's climate.
I'm going with Sagan on this one: "The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge and there is no place for it in the endeavor of science."
Not enough people in charge of public policy will be convinced as long as the appearance of secrecy and misconduct are present. If we do not listen to the criticism of skeptics, politicians will, and they already do, and this sets back the efforts of the scientific community to contribute to proper, well-reasoned decisions of public policy. The rush to stop the damage being done to the environment which has supported us is, ironically, the very thing slowing us down.
Re:Android WILL take over.
on
Less Than Free
·
· Score: 1
A couple of years ago, your statement would have ended with "less than 1% market share".
Heh, I've got the inverse problem: I use Slackware and I've had to insert PulseAudio manually for quite some time, although with the upgrade to Slack 13 I just said "Fuck it" and installed GNOME SlackBuild, which has a build of a recent-enough version. Works well enough if you give it high priority and/or real-time capabilities. I've had to patch the source myself to make the damn thing understand file capabilities so that it could obtain that without suid root, PAM, PolicyKit, or dirty hacks using sudo. I'm trying to figure out whether the GSB's installation of PolicyKit will help me this time.
I feel that PulseAudio is too GNOME-centric. The example GUI tools he provides tend to require the latest and greatest version of GTK+2, which inevitably meant that I would end up having to build newer versions of everything down to glib2. I'd love to have something curses-based like alsamixer. (In fact, after adding to the preceding paragraph, I think there are more requirements on GNOME from many pieces of desktop software than there should be.)
The audio server itself taxes the ALSA drivers very much. I've had problems with my card that uses the cs46xx ALSA driver where the DSP (I think) on the card gets stuck and I lose the recording device or have a stuck playback that only goes away after a reboot (and only a cold boot will fix the recording device problem when it happens).
Though I should probably mention the caveat that the machine is overclocked (hey, it saved me hundreds of dollars).
I'm not sure how to reduce the requirement on PulseAudio for the other desktops. Maybe the pulse libraries should be dynamically loaded by every program that needs to do so. Configuring PulseAudio sure is less arcane than the black magic that is (used to be?) configuring ALSA.
Just put a throw-away OS on the hard drive, use it a bit to make it look realistic, boot your real OS from CD-R or DVD-R, and grab your data over SCP/SFTP or other encrypted file transfer method. Nothing they are authorized to detain will do them any good. There is nothing to decrypt either.
I'm sure the intelligence services have bugs that are OS-independent. They'll get you if they really want you.
I'm being compared to Stalin. This is a first. How interesting.
My idea was to queue votes that had not yet been fit. If a user continued to have an excess of some certain rating level, the idea would be to suggest that the user manually normalize his votes and give him appropriate tools to do this (perhaps quasi-random suggestions for the casual user, an entire list for those who want it). People's minds change over time too, so this could encourage updates to old votes.
I realize that this sort of interface feels a lot like the older form of Slashdot meta-moderation, and I have heard it straight from CmdrTaco (as in, in person) that people never meta-moderated enough for it to work, so maybe this idea I propose needs radical changes. But I am tired of people using a rating as if it were a simple approval/disapproval; I even have noticed it in my own behavior, and I hate it. And it just gets worse if it's possible to compare ratings (i.e., top-n lists).
Ratings systems are inaccurate because people tend to cluster their ratings towards the extremes, for a number of reasons. (I would go into what I believe to be those reasons and the conditions under which they are triggered, but it's really late.)
My proposed solution is to require ratings to conform to some probability distributions and fit some criteria: 1. A user's votes should be approximately normal, with some degree of deviation permitted. 2. [Approximately] 90% of everything is crap/crud (the quantized version of Sturgeon's Law) (for some definition of "crap/crud"). And a few more rules based on observations I have made but don't feel like listing (again, because it's late).
The trailer got people talking. But there is such a thing as bad publicity - people are talking about furries.
I am lacking sufficient evidence that you are not a troll, and I have sufficient evidence that you are; nevertheless, I will ask you:
What did we do? There are several other films that, by my reckoning, currently hold the attention of the fandom; the average fur is more interested in the Fantastic Mr. Fox film that is being produced than this. And your mind is weak if you have succumb to the myriad of associations on account of a mere murmur of our name. What is your grievance, and why should I not believe it to be lack of mental fortitude (or, in the alternative, trolling) over some other explanation?
There is medicine here; use it? [ynq] (n) y This makes you feel strong. What would you like to call this medicine?
also
The pitcher throws; it is a curveball. You swing and miss! You are out. But wait... the ball hits the ground and takes a wind bounce away from the catcher! You run to first base. You are safe!
Slashdot Mirror
Question: Do you believe that, if what Wikipedia itself currently says about the subject is correct, various MP3 patents ought to persist into at least 2012 and possibly as late as 2017? If not, when do you believe all patents covering its design and implementation should expire or have expired?
I think that if we are to allow patents on algorithms, not only should obviousness standards be rigorously enforced (including the appropriate appropriations from Congress to make it happen), but that we should be talking about terms of no more than 5-7 years. And even then, I would like there to be less time than that.
Don't think of it as obscurity. Think of it more as diversity.
My own view is that Christianity began as a synthetic religion between somewhat Hellenized Jewish sects and Hellenistic mystery cults. I think the Gospels bear the same relationship to Christianity as the Asinus Aureus (as Augustine called it) bore to the Cult of Isis.
That's a very interesting analogy.
No, I think he knows who Anon is. It's just that he doesn't think that threatening the things they feed upon will get them riled up enough to leave the basement.
This operation has set sail for fail. Not nearly enough time to get enough people involved.
I think it's at least worth a shot, but Feb. 20 is way too soon if you go by the various forums reached by following the links.
[citation needed]
I want to believe you, but I'd like a little bit of evidence.
I'm not sure what to think. I love the idea of not needing to install Flash, but I also like being able to block annoying animations by not installing Flash.
And this is why we have things such as AdBlock (and variants) and NoScript. Presumably, if and when SVG and the HTML5 media tags start being used much more, there will be browser controls for whether the media should be run or ignored.
Cool story bro.
Meanwhile, those of us who actually don't care to be treated to the kind of shit Activision pulls not only don't buy the game but aren't even interested in most of this new-fangled crap from big studios to begin with.
Really, from here on out, I don't expect to buy games from too many large companies anymore. I might put money forward when Valve gets off their ass and finishes their next HL "episode", but everything else is more likely to be bought from a small company or downloaded as free (legally) or played from my existing library. So I guess I fall into the "curmudgeon" stereotype. Whatever. I am happy with my present gaming experiences.
It's apparent to me that you haven't got a clue, or you are trolling, or perhaps both.
The only thing there is on the Northshore is a clusterfuck of suburban sprawl surrounding a few core small cities and towns. Most of Baton Rouge is a similar kind of sprawl, and the place is already a traffic nightmare.
There's been a bridge across the Lake since the 1950s; it was never damaged during any recent storm.
Your assertion that "New Orleans is simply a ghetto for the poor" is not only untrue, it is highly offensive. There might be a kernel of truth in that there are poor areas which are still run down, but the same is true of very many cities of any size.
Whatever. My righteous indignation is now expended. The fact of the matter is that we'll be "wasting" your money until the bitter end, and nothing you can say can refute or will change this. DIAF. :)
Most obviously, how does a new artist get started this way, when he doesn't have any fans yet? Are consumers expected to start pledging to random people on the off-chance that they produce a good result? There is nothing to stop someone adopting this approach today. How many artists have successfully started a career by doing so?
You don't start off a career that way. You start by loving your art and marketing yourself for free. Then you might want to consider doing some commission work. Only then do you start considering the kind of contract that the GP proposes here (and I have from time to time proposed for years).
I've seen artists rise through the ranks this way (only that currently, the artists use more traditional business models at the top). It happens often enough in the community in which I observe that I think it scalable to other communities of artists which are geographically scattered.
We may be disagreeing over the meaning of the phrase "giving them a seat at the table".
There's no need for some kind of interactive debate against something that is the scientific equivalent of trolling (intentional or otherwise); as far as I'm concerned, allowing Velikovsky to present his hypothesis in a special forum is "giving [him] a seat at the table", after which his hypothesis can be systematically dismantled. There also seems to be a lot less room for interpretation in celestial mechanics.
Then again, there's also a lot less directly at stake in human affairs over the origin of the planet Venus as opposed to anthropogenic change of the Earth's climate.
How about no.
I'm going with Sagan on this one: "The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge and there is no place for it in the endeavor of science."
Not enough people in charge of public policy will be convinced as long as the appearance of secrecy and misconduct are present. If we do not listen to the criticism of skeptics, politicians will, and they already do, and this sets back the efforts of the scientific community to contribute to proper, well-reasoned decisions of public policy. The rush to stop the damage being done to the environment which has supported us is, ironically, the very thing slowing us down.
A couple of years ago, your statement would have ended with "less than 1% market share".
Heh, I've got the inverse problem: I use Slackware and I've had to insert PulseAudio manually for quite some time, although with the upgrade to Slack 13 I just said "Fuck it" and installed GNOME SlackBuild, which has a build of a recent-enough version. Works well enough if you give it high priority and/or real-time capabilities. I've had to patch the source myself to make the damn thing understand file capabilities so that it could obtain that without suid root, PAM, PolicyKit, or dirty hacks using sudo. I'm trying to figure out whether the GSB's installation of PolicyKit will help me this time.
I feel that PulseAudio is too GNOME-centric. The example GUI tools he provides tend to require the latest and greatest version of GTK+2, which inevitably meant that I would end up having to build newer versions of everything down to glib2. I'd love to have something curses-based like alsamixer. (In fact, after adding to the preceding paragraph, I think there are more requirements on GNOME from many pieces of desktop software than there should be.)
The audio server itself taxes the ALSA drivers very much. I've had problems with my card that uses the cs46xx ALSA driver where the DSP (I think) on the card gets stuck and I lose the recording device or have a stuck playback that only goes away after a reboot (and only a cold boot will fix the recording device problem when it happens).
Though I should probably mention the caveat that the machine is overclocked (hey, it saved me hundreds of dollars).
I'm not sure how to reduce the requirement on PulseAudio for the other desktops. Maybe the pulse libraries should be dynamically loaded by every program that needs to do so. Configuring PulseAudio sure is less arcane than the black magic that is (used to be?) configuring ALSA.
These sound-byte-type pot-shots accomplish nothing.
Just put a throw-away OS on the hard drive, use it a bit to make it look realistic, boot your real OS from CD-R or DVD-R, and grab your data over SCP/SFTP or other encrypted file transfer method. Nothing they are authorized to detain will do them any good. There is nothing to decrypt either.
I'm sure the intelligence services have bugs that are OS-independent. They'll get you if they really want you.
I'm being compared to Stalin. This is a first. How interesting.
My idea was to queue votes that had not yet been fit. If a user continued to have an excess of some certain rating level, the idea would be to suggest that the user manually normalize his votes and give him appropriate tools to do this (perhaps quasi-random suggestions for the casual user, an entire list for those who want it). People's minds change over time too, so this could encourage updates to old votes.
I realize that this sort of interface feels a lot like the older form of Slashdot meta-moderation, and I have heard it straight from CmdrTaco (as in, in person) that people never meta-moderated enough for it to work, so maybe this idea I propose needs radical changes. But I am tired of people using a rating as if it were a simple approval/disapproval; I even have noticed it in my own behavior, and I hate it. And it just gets worse if it's possible to compare ratings (i.e., top-n lists).
Ratings systems are inaccurate because people tend to cluster their ratings towards the extremes, for a number of reasons. (I would go into what I believe to be those reasons and the conditions under which they are triggered, but it's really late.)
My proposed solution is to require ratings to conform to some probability distributions and fit some criteria:
1. A user's votes should be approximately normal, with some degree of deviation permitted.
2. [Approximately] 90% of everything is crap/crud (the quantized version of Sturgeon's Law) (for some definition of "crap/crud").
And a few more rules based on observations I have made but don't feel like listing (again, because it's late).
That way, there's actually something substantive to discuss.
The trailer got people talking.
But there is such a thing as bad publicity - people are talking about furries.
I am lacking sufficient evidence that you are not a troll, and I have sufficient evidence that you are; nevertheless, I will ask you:
What did we do? There are several other films that, by my reckoning, currently hold the attention of the fandom; the average fur is more interested in the Fantastic Mr. Fox film that is being produced than this. And your mind is weak if you have succumb to the myriad of associations on account of a mere murmur of our name. What is your grievance, and why should I not believe it to be lack of mental fortitude (or, in the alternative, trolling) over some other explanation?
Um... cosplay that chick from Farscape? Isn't she supposed to be a plant?
Let the small players have a chance to provide what the big ones won't.
s/wind/wild/
I need sleep.
There is medicine here; use it? [ynq] (n) y
This makes you feel strong. What would you like to call this medicine?
also
The pitcher throws; it is a curveball. You swing and miss! You are out.
But wait... the ball hits the ground and takes a wind bounce away from the catcher!
You run to first base. You are safe!
He didn't accidentally the verb, however. That's an important.