Maybe not the defendants named in the case, but it sure as hell harms RedHat Software, SuSE, VA Linux Systems and the like. How can they compete against Windows on the desktop if Linux is missing critical applications such as software DVD?
Yes, it's an option. I'm going to stay out of the discussion on 2.5D vs. 3D, but Quake is a far more advanced engine. 3D acceleration and an extremely expandable design are the primary reasons, in addition to true 3D models vs sprites for other objects. And if you look at some of the projects that have sprung up to improve the Q1 source code, it's not as far away from Q2/Q3 as you might think.
Check out http://www.planetquake.com/qer/ - In a very short amount of time, two guys have done a good job of taking a lot of the technology from Quake2 and Quake3 and putting it into the Q1 engine. (Topaz has done a lot of work on colored lighting, and Phoenix has been implementing Q3-style "shaders" - Another guy has been looking into high-res textures, and released an amazing screenshot.) Topaz and Phoenix will be merging their code within the week, and hopefully soon they can be convinced to merge with Quakeforge, at least to some degree. (QF and QER have somewhat divergent goals...)
Yeah. With XFree 4.0/DRI, which NVidia explicitly mentions in their driver README as being the solution to their current driver's performance problems.
Some people have said that this current SGI/NVidia/VA effort won't be open-source. From what I've seen, nearly all of SGI's Linux efforts have been open-source, NVidia was the first to release GPL drivers for their cards, and I don't think VA ever releases anything that isn't open source. I expect that this current effort is EXTREMELY closely tied in with Precision Insight's DRI effort.
NVidia was the first vendor to release an open-source driver for their cards. While Matrox can be applauded for their spec release, they hid core portions of their specs (Their geometry setup hardware specs) and they took nearly 9 months beyond their promised release date. (Originally September '98, then by Christmas '98, and finally the specs just appeared after no news in mid '99)
Someone else commented that NVidia was a "johnny-come-lately" - More like 3Dfx and ATI are. While 3Dfx had the closed-source Glide long before anyone else, they screwed people over right and left with their NDAs. Darryl Strauss apparently had a working version of Glide for the Alpha at one time - 3Dfx forbade him from releasing it for really stupid marketing/legal reasons. (I don't remember the exact reasons they gave.)
Face it, 3Dfx and ATI wouldn't have become open if they hadn't been forced into it by NVidia. Yes, specs are nice, but full open-source drivers are even nicer.
Someone also mentioned that Nvidia's current drivers were slow because NVidia hadn't released some information. As someone else said, the reason the drivers are slow is because of limitations in the current XFree86 architecture. GLX is wonderful in many ways, but performance-wise it sucks. NVidia even explains this in their driver README files. XFree 4.0 will solve the GLX performance bottlenecks with DRI.
Hah, you've got to be kidding, that's got to be one of the worst support sites I've ever seen. It has yet to give me the solution to any of my problems that I've had.
Free phone call? Um, since when did MS have free tech support. Last time I checked, you got one or two free phone calls, and after that it was something like $50-70 per incident!
As far as naming Linux a "window manager" - He did nothing of the sort. "Window Manager" is just a meaningless catchy name for a column in a Windows magazine that has NOTHING to do with the Unix concept of window managers.
He could have a specific application that requires him to use Windows.
I can name a few:
Photoshop (Yes, there's the gimp, but the gimp is still lacking in one or two areas, mainly that of dealing with printed media because colormatching algorithms are patented all to hell. He could use MacOS, but that would require new hardware.)
Very specific niche-market programs such as CAD and EDA tools. While some companies are beginning to offer Linux versions of their products, a lot of companies are not. Altera MaxPlus Student Edition was my main reason for using Windows at all last semester.
Hopefully, the above issues will work themselves out.
I've got one of the original WinCast boards. Works great, don't let the Win fool you.:)
One of the labs I'm working in at school uses Hauppauge boards exclusively.
On that regard, look for even more Bt848 fun in the videoconferencing arena. Hopefully by the end of the semester, it depends on whether or not we can release the code without needing to jump off a bridge from embarassment at revealing it.:)
This year, Telergy (a combo ISP + local telco + LD company in upstate NY) started offering DSL in Ithaca. They've been cleaning house up here, due to superior pricing and reliability, and the fact that once Linux support for PPPoE improves (need 2.3 for decent performance), Telergy doesn't ban IP Masq.
This year, I get both my cable TV and 'net access from TWN. Next year, it's Dish Networks + Telergy.
I don't know about other areas, but in upstate NY, Time Warner is going to get the sh*t kicked out of them by the digital satellite companies unless they charge LESS for DTV.
Why?
Because the satellite systems are already digital, and are much cheaper than even analog cable service. Dish Network is $30/month for 100 channels plus 40 music channels and amazing quality. Time Warner in upstate NY is $40/month for 63 ugly-looking channels.
Admittedly, the satellite vendors have one disadvantage - while the new small-dish systems have dropped the price quite a bit, you're looking at a minimum of $150 for a basic 1-TV setup, and $300 for a 2-TV setup, with $100 for each additional TV.
BTW, when I refer to "satellite", I'm speaking of the new guys like Dish and DirecTV, not the "old-skool" big-dish systems.
Time Warner is *afraid* of satellite, their only way to battle it is an all-out FUD war, which they've begun in Ithaca already.
Not that I believe any of it. In my new apartment next year, we're going to Dish. (My uncle has it and loves it.)
URLS: http://www.directv.com/ and http://www.dishtv.com/ - I personally get a better impression of Dish than DirecTV
Color TVs can recieve B/W signals and B/W TVs understand color signals.
Not true for digital/analog...
I don't think the FCC is requiring digital HDTVs, etc yet. I think the current solution is box+analog TV. (Which is what current digital cable solutions and all digital satellite solutions are.)
Just a note: I believe Lucent's hit in stock prices was due to a few things, but the primary thing was that the Optical Networking got nailed.
And it wasn't due to lack of demand. (Well, sort of) For one, they couldn't keep up with demand, and couldn't deliver. Second, they're apparently releasing a lot of new technologies this quarter that a lot of buyers have been holding off on their purchases to wait for.
It depends on your cable company. Some companies are stupid (TKR cable, which got bought by Cablevision I believe, equally stupid), and others are smart (Comcast in NJ and Time Warner in NY)
BA doesn't have DSL yet in my parents area, and I'm wary of them anyway.
Up at college, we have both RoadRunner from Time Warner and Light.Speed DSL from Telergy. (Ithaca, NY is Telergy's first market for DSL.)
Mainly, Adrian Carmack isn't John's brother. Just a coincidence that they have the same last name.
I think Brian Hook does deserve a bit more credit than you give him for the netcode and (I believe) some of the GL miniport. But it still can't be denied that JC has done a LOT for the gaming industry, and has recently been contributing quite a bit to Linux. (He's an active contributor to the driver project for Matrox boards, and probably contributes to a number of other GL drivers.)
The gaming industry (Well, at least FPS games) wouldn't be where it is without John Carmack. No one has been able to touch ID software in terms of their programming skills. (I will admit that Epic had some great ideas with UT - but their engine gets torched by Q3's. The mod coders won't take long to fix Q3's deficiencies. No mod coder can fix UT's network code.)
The squirt gun requires contact with calcium to glow. The other two products, including H2O Glow, do NOT. Note their claims of the ability to make "glowing tap water". (Actually, I think some tap water does have calcium.)
Look on their safety page. The squirtgun (calcium-activated) and other products use different substances. (Specifically, the squirtgun uses NanoFlash+NanoFuel while all the others use NanoGlow+NanoFuel) So it IS most likely possible to create glowing drinks, etc.
Note that ProLume's page has a link to an article that mentions bioluminescent champagne.
While I believe Woz has some influence at Apple still, it's nowhere near that of Jobs. We'll be VERY lucky to see the non-BSD layers. Even if Woz is fanatically committed to Open-Source, I don't think he has enough influence in the current Apple (esp. with Jobs solidifying his dictator-for-life power) to make the changes you propose.
Yeah... Back a long time ago, there were a bunch of reviews discussing the Game Boy vs. Lynx and Game Gear.
Basically, the GB won out for two reasons, despite being the only one with a monochrome screen. Battery life (The big plus of having a mono screen), and size. The Sega Game Gear and the Atari Lynx were just a bit to big... The Game Boy fit in your pocket, even the original one. (Although you had to have a reasonably large pocket.)
The other systems would only have been able to fit in the pockets of pants like those that a friend of mine wears. He can put an entire N64 in his pocket.:) Said ultra-baggy pants didn't exist at the time of the GameBoy vs. All wars.
Note that these are two of the main reasons that the Palm Pilot destroyed the Newton. The Newton was too big and chewed up batteries too quickly. Apple just tried to make it TOO powerful. (Palm vs. CE is a different story - WinCE just plain sucks.:)
MacOS X is looking REALLY sweet. It solves one of my two remaining beefs with Apple systems - MacOS blows in terms of reliability (and pre-X versions were sliding downhill. OS9 had a tendency to trash people's systems, a "festure" previously possessed by only Windows. And the Macs in CU's computer labs/campus store crash far more often than even the Win boxes. OS X will fix all of this.
Now if only Apple would fix their greediness. Apple may have some great tech, and a generally better design than x86, but it's not worth the horrendous price premium (1.5x or more for educational prices, 1.7x or more non-edu)... And the fact that you can't upgrade a Mac very much without replacing the entire system.
Dammit, Apple, start selling motherboard/case combos with nothing else!:)
Mics/Video cameras disguised as other objects have perfectly legitimate uses - specifically, for home security. I'm sure banks and other institutions use this to so criminals can't just go disabling all of a bank's surveillance cameras - since some of the cameras would be disguised.
I know I used the word surveillance - but the bank situation IS perfectly legal, otherwise I'd be shocked that illegally obtained evidence (surveillance video) was used on a regular basis in bank robbery cases.
Do you remember the exact specs of these devices? Were they on the commercial bands or the amateur radio bands? If on the higher ham bands (440 MHz or above) TV is perfectly legal. Just because they might be modifiable to commercial bands doesn't mean they're illegal - they do have a very legitimate and legal use.
Rememeber previous discussions about the potential illegality of many shrinkwrap licenses? (Microsoft EULAs come to mind).
A possible way to fight this case is at the root of the problem - see what other clauses are in the EULA, and if any of them are in some way illegal, the entire damn EULA becomes null and void.
Say goodbye to whatever case the CCA had. (Which is actually pretty good. People keep arguing that reverse-engineering of software for interoperability is sanctioned in Norway, but the question is - is it STILL sanctioned if one signs a contract saying that they will not do it?)
Slashdot Mirror
Maybe not the defendants named in the case, but it sure as hell harms RedHat Software, SuSE, VA Linux Systems and the like. How can they compete against Windows on the desktop if Linux is missing critical applications such as software DVD?
sv_noaim 1 - Now you have to aim carefully.
Yes, it's an option. I'm going to stay out of the discussion on 2.5D vs. 3D, but Quake is a far more advanced engine. 3D acceleration and an extremely expandable design are the primary reasons, in addition to true 3D models vs sprites for other objects. And if you look at some of the projects that have sprung up to improve the Q1 source code, it's not as far away from Q2/Q3 as you might think.
In agreement with your comments:
Check out http://www.planetquake.com/qer/ - In a very short amount of time, two guys have done a good job of taking a lot of the technology from Quake2 and Quake3 and putting it into the Q1 engine. (Topaz has done a lot of work on colored lighting, and Phoenix has been implementing Q3-style "shaders" - Another guy has been looking into high-res textures, and released an amazing screenshot.) Topaz and Phoenix will be merging their code within the week, and hopefully soon they can be convinced to merge with Quakeforge, at least to some degree. (QF and QER have somewhat divergent goals...)
Yeah. With XFree 4.0/DRI, which NVidia explicitly mentions in their driver README as being the solution to their current driver's performance problems.
Some people have said that this current SGI/NVidia/VA effort won't be open-source. From what I've seen, nearly all of SGI's Linux efforts have been open-source, NVidia was the first to release GPL drivers for their cards, and I don't think VA ever releases anything that isn't open source. I expect that this current effort is EXTREMELY closely tied in with Precision Insight's DRI effort.
Huh?
NVidia was the first vendor to release an open-source driver for their cards. While Matrox can be applauded for their spec release, they hid core portions of their specs (Their geometry setup hardware specs) and they took nearly 9 months beyond their promised release date. (Originally September '98, then by Christmas '98, and finally the specs just appeared after no news in mid '99)
Someone else commented that NVidia was a "johnny-come-lately" - More like 3Dfx and ATI are. While 3Dfx had the closed-source Glide long before anyone else, they screwed people over right and left with their NDAs. Darryl Strauss apparently had a working version of Glide for the Alpha at one time - 3Dfx forbade him from releasing it for really stupid marketing/legal reasons. (I don't remember the exact reasons they gave.)
Face it, 3Dfx and ATI wouldn't have become open if they hadn't been forced into it by NVidia. Yes, specs are nice, but full open-source drivers are even nicer.
Someone also mentioned that Nvidia's current drivers were slow because NVidia hadn't released some information. As someone else said, the reason the drivers are slow is because of limitations in the current XFree86 architecture. GLX is wonderful in many ways, but performance-wise it sucks. NVidia even explains this in their driver README files. XFree 4.0 will solve the GLX performance bottlenecks with DRI.
Hah, you've got to be kidding, that's got to be one of the worst support sites I've ever seen. It has yet to give me the solution to any of my problems that I've had.
Free phone call? Um, since when did MS have free tech support. Last time I checked, you got one or two free phone calls, and after that it was something like $50-70 per incident!
As far as naming Linux a "window manager" - He did nothing of the sort. "Window Manager" is just a meaningless catchy name for a column in a Windows magazine that has NOTHING to do with the Unix concept of window managers.
Yeah, that WAS a long rant.
He could have a specific application that requires him to use Windows.
I can name a few:
Photoshop (Yes, there's the gimp, but the gimp is still lacking in one or two areas, mainly that of dealing with printed media because colormatching algorithms are patented all to hell. He could use MacOS, but that would require new hardware.)
Very specific niche-market programs such as CAD and EDA tools. While some companies are beginning to offer Linux versions of their products, a lot of companies are not. Altera MaxPlus Student Edition was my main reason for using Windows at all last semester.
Hopefully, the above issues will work themselves out.
I've got one of the original WinCast boards. Works great, don't let the Win fool you. :)
:)
One of the labs I'm working in at school uses Hauppauge boards exclusively.
On that regard, look for even more Bt848 fun in the videoconferencing arena. Hopefully by the end of the semester, it depends on whether or not we can release the code without needing to jump off a bridge from embarassment at revealing it.
This year, Telergy (a combo ISP + local telco + LD company in upstate NY) started offering DSL in Ithaca. They've been cleaning house up here, due to superior pricing and reliability, and the fact that once Linux support for PPPoE improves (need 2.3 for decent performance), Telergy doesn't ban IP Masq.
This year, I get both my cable TV and 'net access from TWN. Next year, it's Dish Networks + Telergy.
I don't know about other areas, but in upstate NY, Time Warner is going to get the sh*t kicked out of them by the digital satellite companies unless they charge LESS for DTV.
Why?
Because the satellite systems are already digital, and are much cheaper than even analog cable service. Dish Network is $30/month for 100 channels plus 40 music channels and amazing quality. Time Warner in upstate NY is $40/month for 63 ugly-looking channels.
Admittedly, the satellite vendors have one disadvantage - while the new small-dish systems have dropped the price quite a bit, you're looking at a minimum of $150 for a basic 1-TV setup, and $300 for a 2-TV setup, with $100 for each additional TV.
BTW, when I refer to "satellite", I'm speaking of the new guys like Dish and DirecTV, not the "old-skool" big-dish systems.
Time Warner is *afraid* of satellite, their only way to battle it is an all-out FUD war, which they've begun in Ithaca already.
Not that I believe any of it. In my new apartment next year, we're going to Dish. (My uncle has it and loves it.)
URLS: http://www.directv.com/ and http://www.dishtv.com/ - I personally get a better impression of Dish than DirecTV
Color TVs can recieve B/W signals and B/W TVs understand color signals.
Not true for digital/analog...
I don't think the FCC is requiring digital HDTVs, etc yet. I think the current solution is box+analog TV. (Which is what current digital cable solutions and all digital satellite solutions are.)
Just a note: I believe Lucent's hit in stock prices was due to a few things, but the primary thing was that the Optical Networking got nailed.
And it wasn't due to lack of demand. (Well, sort of) For one, they couldn't keep up with demand, and couldn't deliver. Second, they're apparently releasing a lot of new technologies this quarter that a lot of buyers have been holding off on their purchases to wait for.
It depends on your cable company. Some companies are stupid (TKR cable, which got bought by Cablevision I believe, equally stupid), and others are smart (Comcast in NJ and Time Warner in NY)
BA doesn't have DSL yet in my parents area, and I'm wary of them anyway.
Up at college, we have both RoadRunner from Time Warner and Light.Speed DSL from Telergy. (Ithaca, NY is Telergy's first market for DSL.)
I agree...
USR Winmodems sell for around $100, real ones for $120.
Real modems from other mfrs (Zoom, especially) sell real modems for less. ($80-90 or less, and that was 2-3 years ago for a 56K)
Mainly, Adrian Carmack isn't John's brother. Just a coincidence that they have the same last name.
I think Brian Hook does deserve a bit more credit than you give him for the netcode and (I believe) some of the GL miniport. But it still can't be denied that JC has done a LOT for the gaming industry, and has recently been contributing quite a bit to Linux. (He's an active contributor to the driver project for Matrox boards, and probably contributes to a number of other GL drivers.)
The gaming industry (Well, at least FPS games) wouldn't be where it is without John Carmack. No one has been able to touch ID software in terms of their programming skills. (I will admit that Epic had some great ideas with UT - but their engine gets torched by Q3's. The mod coders won't take long to fix Q3's deficiencies. No mod coder can fix UT's network code.)
What's that?
High calcium content?
I don't remember that from last time I looked either... Of course, I can't check now because the site has been Slashdotted. :(
:)
Dammit, I want to see the new Page 13!
Here's the impression I get:
The squirt gun requires contact with calcium to glow. The other two products, including H2O Glow, do NOT. Note their claims of the ability to make "glowing tap water". (Actually, I think some tap water does have calcium.)
Look on their safety page. The squirtgun (calcium-activated) and other products use different substances. (Specifically, the squirtgun uses NanoFlash+NanoFuel while all the others use NanoGlow+NanoFuel) So it IS most likely possible to create glowing drinks, etc.
Note that ProLume's page has a link to an article that mentions bioluminescent champagne.
This is Woz, not Jobs, we're talking to.
While I believe Woz has some influence at Apple still, it's nowhere near that of Jobs. We'll be VERY lucky to see the non-BSD layers. Even if Woz is fanatically committed to Open-Source, I don't think he has enough influence in the current Apple (esp. with Jobs solidifying his dictator-for-life power) to make the changes you propose.
More info?
I've never heard of the Neo Geo Pocket.
All I know about Neo Geo is that the main system bombed because it was way too expensive at the time.
Yeah... Back a long time ago, there were a bunch of reviews discussing the Game Boy vs. Lynx and Game Gear.
:) Said ultra-baggy pants didn't exist at the time of the GameBoy vs. All wars.
:)
Basically, the GB won out for two reasons, despite being the only one with a monochrome screen. Battery life (The big plus of having a mono screen), and size. The Sega Game Gear and the Atari Lynx were just a bit to big... The Game Boy fit in your pocket, even the original one. (Although you had to have a reasonably large pocket.)
The other systems would only have been able to fit in the pockets of pants like those that a friend of mine wears. He can put an entire N64 in his pocket.
Note that these are two of the main reasons that the Palm Pilot destroyed the Newton. The Newton was too big and chewed up batteries too quickly. Apple just tried to make it TOO powerful. (Palm vs. CE is a different story - WinCE just plain sucks.
Yeah...
:)
MacOS X is looking REALLY sweet. It solves one of my two remaining beefs with Apple systems - MacOS blows in terms of reliability (and pre-X versions were sliding downhill. OS9 had a tendency to trash people's systems, a "festure" previously possessed by only Windows. And the Macs in CU's computer labs/campus store crash far more often than even the Win boxes. OS X will fix all of this.
Now if only Apple would fix their greediness. Apple may have some great tech, and a generally better design than x86, but it's not worth the horrendous price premium (1.5x or more for educational prices, 1.7x or more non-edu)... And the fact that you can't upgrade a Mac very much without replacing the entire system.
Dammit, Apple, start selling motherboard/case combos with nothing else!
Good point.
Mics/Video cameras disguised as other objects have perfectly legitimate uses - specifically, for home security. I'm sure banks and other institutions use this to so criminals can't just go disabling all of a bank's surveillance cameras - since some of the cameras would be disguised.
I know I used the word surveillance - but the bank situation IS perfectly legal, otherwise I'd be shocked that illegally obtained evidence (surveillance video) was used on a regular basis in bank robbery cases.
Do you remember the exact specs of these devices? Were they on the commercial bands or the amateur radio bands? If on the higher ham bands (440 MHz or above) TV is perfectly legal. Just because they might be modifiable to commercial bands doesn't mean they're illegal - they do have a very legitimate and legal use.
Rememeber previous discussions about the potential illegality of many shrinkwrap licenses? (Microsoft EULAs come to mind).
A possible way to fight this case is at the root of the problem - see what other clauses are in the EULA, and if any of them are in some way illegal, the entire damn EULA becomes null and void.
Say goodbye to whatever case the CCA had. (Which is actually pretty good. People keep arguing that reverse-engineering of software for interoperability is sanctioned in Norway, but the question is - is it STILL sanctioned if one signs a contract saying that they will not do it?)