But there IS a good reason for/. to have posted this story. Look at the massive pile of potential prior art references generated; this makes it VERY much easier for the victim to file a challenge with the USPTO with a good chance of success, and improves his chances if he decides to go to court. In fact, just a response letter to the (temporary?) patentholders citing this prior art and warning them that "if you sue, we'll fight, and these references demonstrate that you'll lose; get lost!" may now be a viable strategy for the victims...
I agree with you, and the above poster. There IS some larger story arc, (alas, I didn't follow DS9, so I lack that comparison point), and the way time travel and the Vulcans are handled are VERY interesting. I would even go so far as to say that yes, ST:E has *more* larger-plot than the earlier ST series I've seen, although never as well as some other SF series have. It just started going downhill and degenerating into single-episode units without any larger structure. (And let's face it, there are only so many times you can pull off the "alien bug makes crew act bizzare" trick...)
Nope. Heatpipes use a fluid and working pressure such that the fluid is almost-boiling at the optimum operating temperature. Heat one end, and the fluid boils, vapor diffuses rapidly to the other end, condenses giving up heat of vaporization, and is absorbed into the wick that runs through the pipe. It then goes back to the other end by capillary action.
That said, it IS more efficient if the bottom end is the "hot" end, 'cause the rising warm fluid vapor and the down-flowing condensed fluid are both assisted by gravity. However, gravity is NOT an essential part of the process (some satellite instruments use heatpipes to keep-em cool in free-fall, for example).
A friend of mine does heat pipes as a business: koolpipes.com
Yeah, they're gonna move us out of this old building into a cube farm sometime soon. We're thinking of putting in a rail line on the tops of the cube walls for fun (IR remote control, wireless train-cam, automatic drawbridges at the cube doors, that sort of thing;-)
With the Radeon fan so closew to the case wall, why not turn a debit into a credit and perforate the case wall so the fan breathes fresh air or exhausts direct outside? Done carefully, it'll look aesthetically acceptable, and improve the cooling.
My Shuttle XPC has only a PCI slot, so its video card isn't anything extraordinary, but it seems Ok with the factory cooling.
Another thought: Put another fan on the OUTSIDE of the back panel in tandem with the internal heatsink fan (use longer screws and possibly rubber grommets for vibe isolation) to move more air. Ugly, but out of sight...
Alas, the computer industry seems somewhat shy on upgradability. I cannot buy memory for my PII-350 any more (yeah, I know, it's a dinosaur, but it runs CS well), 'cause PC133 SDRAM won't run on its older Intel mobo. Umm, wait a minute, FAST memory won't work in a SLOW mobo? This should NOT be a problem...
I'm afraid that maintainability is another casualty of the cutthroat commodification of PCs, in favor of disposability. Gotta shop the flea markets...
I grant that this is a valid "What if?" question, but the probability that the ruling will ultimately go their way is so remote it'll take the Hubble Space Telescope to read the first nonzero digit after the decimal point. Their case is really that bad.
I enjoyed the first few episodes, well, yes, the whole first season, of ST:E, but when I noticed the reappearance of plot devices that were overused in the original series, and that there was basically no story arc beyond an individual episode (cf. Babylon 5, which had season-long plots that were worth keeping up with), I ditched it. Yes, Virginia, you CAN lose money underestimating the attention span of your audience.
(or for that matter, ME...) I suggest you (politely but firmly) insist on logging everything they take out of your place on a yellow legal pad as it goes out the door, don't take "no" for an answer on this matter, and make the agent in charge counter-sign the list at the end. Also, protest ANYTHING that doesn't match what the warrant still in your hot little hand specifies; if it ain't on the warrant, they aren't entitled to seize it. (Commercially-pressed music CDs, for example.) You ARE within your rights to do this, and you can probably even embarrass them into not seizing obviously unrelated stuff, and you *will* get an accurate inventory.
You can also kiss it all goodbye on the way out, 'cause the legal system purely sucks on your rights wrt return of seized property in its original condition.
And as a direct result of that raid and its aftermath, SJG published the classic card-based games "Hacker" and "Hacker II" as a thumbed nose at the cluelessness of that organization (I sure hope they've STARTED to wise up). Though they're out of print, they're GREAT games, and I am glad to have Ebayed a copy of Hacker.
"...all nodes on the network." Haven't we seen a plethora of P2P protocols developed precisely because someone we don't trust controls the older protocol? The reality check on this clearly bounces. Even if Microsoft, er, someone did manage to grab a monopoly on the US network's P2P population, which is VERY unlikely, the REST of the world would definitely not play along with those American imperialists. Scheme fails, game over.
Is it possible/practical to automate the comparison of source IP address vs stated source ID and detect forged headers? It seems to me that including a workable forged-source-address detection system into a mail transfer agent would be a useful thing to do, assuming it can be done so as not to break legitimate mailings.
I'm not very familiar with the relevant RFPs, and don't think researching the issue on my own is a good investment of limited time. Perhaps someone here does know...
Alas, I also got frustrated with the hardware limitations. There's only so much one can do with three sensor/actuator channels, and I was never able to come up with a decent method of I/O expansion. An I/O expansion unit or expansion connector would have made more I/O's possible, vastly expanding the RCX's capabilities and potential market (the geeks with $ and their kids). Processor power was certainly not the limiting factor on the RCX.
That said, NQC and LegOS really rock. Many thanks to you who developed and maintained them!
...if the offending code is immediately removed upon legal notification that it is infringing, SCO will have a hard time collecting any damages. Absent a patent issue, the OSS community can rewrite this smallish chunk of code from scratch in little time. SCO understands this, which is why it tried so hard to keep from identifying specific infringing code.
But this situation makes it clear that SCO can recover NO significant damages from such alleged copyright infringement, and delay won't change that. Failing to identify the infringement doesn't increase SCO's redress, it just delays the start of the "collect damages starting from this point" clock. The net period and payout, in the unlikely event, are still minimal.
I still subscribe to the "they're smoking crack" theory.
Brush-in beard dye -- nut brown, a color that does not match ANYBODY in the department who has a beard. In fact it doesn't match anyone's hair color at all. Rather comical, I find...
by several posts in this thread to the effect that "My boss switched us"; assuming that RH could get any of the folks to provide documentation, the case is established.
that SCO is doing a Titanic-on-the-icberg number. I suspect Novell are savvy enough to realize that they COULD pull the same stunt, with essentially the same results... Fortunately they appear to recognize the value to be gained from working with Open Source rather than trying to squeeze it for ransom.
Meaning it comes by twice per day, at 13:30 and 01:30 (time for crossing the equator, I think). 'Twill be moving rather fast, and atmospheric attenuation will mean it's harmless in any case at the altitudes where birds fly. Well, mostly harmless (So long, Douglas, and thanks for all the Babelfish;-)
The odds of a mutation creating all parts simultaneously are astronomical, and consequently, the only accepted theory that can sanely describe such a thing is intelligent design, which has been hinted at in many different real-life examples as well as probabistically explained by Pascal's Wager.
Alas, the Intelligent Design theory is based on an intuitive misunderstanding of how long a few hundred million years is, and how much mutation can occur in that time. Hundreds of million years is unimaginably long in terms of a human lifetime, and is EASILY long enough to lead to so-called "irreducably complex" systems like the modern eye through a series of successive approximations and evolutionary refinements, many of them taking place in parallel. Given an astronomically long period of time, the astronomically unlikely will happen.
This is a clear case of reverse-engineering for compatibility, which is a DMCA exception big enough to drive a truckload of cheap digital cameras through... Asice from the little detail that there's NO copyrighted work being protected here.
Think it through, friends and neighbors... (Gee, "think it through" rhymes with "Get a clue" but is ever so much more polite...)
Well, a number of years ago I got $50 from an ATM in California that *never* got debited from my account, and despite the existence of a paper record that I'd done so, the bank utterly refused to believe this had happened. (That bank has since gone under; funny coincidence, that.)
ATMs are generally "secure" primarily because they operate on a fully-closed network, there's massive cross-checking, and interaction with users is very strictly limited. And they're still only "generally" secure...
I'm curious about the intersection between paid support/subscriptions and a GPL'ed operating system. After browsing Red Hat's site, I see nothing (except possibly restrictions on the use of RH trademarks and logos) that would prevent third parties from legally distributing, or obtaining and using, copies of Red Hat Enterprise editions (and we know there are always contrarians willing to post ISO images of GPL'ed stuff, so I presume there are RHE ISOs in the wild as well).
Of course, one would (might?) lose out on updates and would certainly get no RH support, making this method of access unattractive to a business customer, but doesn't the involvement of the GPL imply that non-enterprise users will still effectively have access to current Red Hat Enterprise releases via third parties? This would seem to have some bearing on the ecosystem of Red Hat vs Fedora.
Of course, there are reasons NOT to do this, too. Support for one, keeping the Golden Goose fed and healthy for another, also the need to strip non-GPL components out of any redistributed images (making work for the redistributor).
I've worked for good managers and bad, and for the most part (aside from having one's department deliberately nuked by an idiot top-management team I eventually outlasted - true joy!) I've never had to put up with much in the way of dirty politics. Most of my colleagues have been and are good folks, the rest don't last. That said, I think the following rules will serve you well: * Document your work and accomplishments and keep hard copies. * Act so you need not fear your chickens coming home to roost (great stress-reliever, that). * Be straightforward and honest, even when dealing with fools and slimeballs. * If you feel the need to keep a few hidden surprises in reserve, make sure it's not inappropriate to keep'em hidden. Then spring'em with a smile. If all that fails and political crap befalls you, you don't really wanna work there anyway.
IIRC, the language of the DMCA prohibits bypassing a mechanism that "effectively controls access to a copyrighted work". If the control mechanism is so broken that merely turning off Autorun or holding down SHIFT bypasses it, there's a VERY good case to be made that the access control is not "effective" ('cause it clearly won't stop most users), so bypassing it is NOT prohibited by the DMCA, and the whole suit collapses.
Slashdot Mirror
But there IS a good reason for /. to have posted this story. Look at the massive pile of potential prior art references generated; this makes it VERY much easier for the victim to file a challenge with the USPTO with a good chance of success, and improves his chances if he decides to go to court. In fact, just a response letter to the (temporary?) patentholders citing this prior art and warning them that "if you sue, we'll fight, and these references demonstrate that you'll lose; get lost!" may now be a viable strategy for the victims...
I agree with you, and the above poster. There IS some larger story arc, (alas, I didn't follow DS9, so I lack that comparison point), and the way time travel and the Vulcans are handled are VERY interesting. I would even go so far as to say that yes, ST:E has *more* larger-plot than the earlier ST series I've seen, although never as well as some other SF series have. It just started going downhill and degenerating into single-episode units without any larger structure. (And let's face it, there are only so many times you can pull off the "alien bug makes crew act bizzare" trick...)
Nope. Heatpipes use a fluid and working pressure such that the fluid is almost-boiling at the optimum operating temperature. Heat one end, and the fluid boils, vapor diffuses rapidly to the other end, condenses giving up heat of vaporization, and is absorbed into the wick that runs through the pipe. It then goes back to the other end by capillary action.
That said, it IS more efficient if the bottom end is the "hot" end, 'cause the rising warm fluid vapor and the down-flowing condensed fluid are both assisted by gravity. However, gravity is NOT an essential part of the process (some satellite instruments use heatpipes to keep-em cool in free-fall, for example).
A friend of mine does heat pipes as a business: koolpipes.com
Yeah, they're gonna move us out of this old building into a cube farm sometime soon. We're thinking of putting in a rail line on the tops of the cube walls for fun (IR remote control, wireless train-cam, automatic drawbridges at the cube doors, that sort of thing;-)
With the Radeon fan so closew to the case wall, why not turn a debit into a credit and perforate the case wall so the fan breathes fresh air or exhausts direct outside? Done carefully, it'll look aesthetically acceptable, and improve the cooling.
My Shuttle XPC has only a PCI slot, so its video card isn't anything extraordinary, but it seems Ok with the factory cooling.
Another thought: Put another fan on the OUTSIDE of the back panel in tandem with the internal heatsink fan (use longer screws and possibly rubber grommets for vibe isolation) to move more air. Ugly, but out of sight...
Alas, the computer industry seems somewhat shy on upgradability. I cannot buy memory for my PII-350 any more (yeah, I know, it's a dinosaur, but it runs CS well), 'cause PC133 SDRAM won't run on its older Intel mobo. Umm, wait a minute, FAST memory won't work in a SLOW mobo? This should NOT be a problem...
I'm afraid that maintainability is another casualty of the cutthroat commodification of PCs, in favor of disposability. Gotta shop the flea markets...
I grant that this is a valid "What if?" question, but the probability that the ruling will ultimately go their way is so remote it'll take the Hubble Space Telescope to read the first nonzero digit after the decimal point. Their case is really that bad.
I enjoyed the first few episodes, well, yes, the whole first season, of ST:E, but when I noticed the reappearance of plot devices that were overused in the original series, and that there was basically no story arc beyond an individual episode (cf. Babylon 5, which had season-long plots that were worth keeping up with), I ditched it. Yes, Virginia, you CAN lose money underestimating the attention span of your audience.
(or for that matter, ME...)
I suggest you (politely but firmly) insist on logging everything they take out of your place on a yellow legal pad as it goes out the door, don't take "no" for an answer on this matter, and make the agent in charge counter-sign the list at the end. Also, protest ANYTHING that doesn't match what the warrant still in your hot little hand specifies; if it ain't on the warrant, they aren't entitled to seize it. (Commercially-pressed music CDs, for example.) You ARE within your rights to do this, and you can probably even embarrass them into not seizing obviously unrelated stuff, and you *will* get an accurate inventory.
You can also kiss it all goodbye on the way out, 'cause the legal system purely sucks on your rights wrt return of seized property in its original condition.
And as a direct result of that raid and its aftermath, SJG published the classic card-based games "Hacker" and "Hacker II" as a thumbed nose at the cluelessness of that organization (I sure hope they've STARTED to wise up). Though they're out of print, they're GREAT games, and I am glad to have Ebayed a copy of Hacker.
"...all nodes on the network."
Haven't we seen a plethora of P2P protocols developed precisely because someone we don't trust controls the older protocol? The reality check on this clearly bounces. Even if Microsoft, er, someone did manage to grab a monopoly on the US network's P2P population, which is VERY unlikely, the REST of the world would definitely not play along with those American imperialists. Scheme fails, game over.
Is it possible/practical to automate the comparison of source IP address vs stated source ID and detect forged headers? It seems to me that including a workable forged-source-address detection system into a mail transfer agent would be a useful thing to do, assuming it can be done so as not to break legitimate mailings.
I'm not very familiar with the relevant RFPs, and don't think researching the issue on my own is a good investment of limited time. Perhaps someone here does know...
Alas, I also got frustrated with the hardware limitations. There's only so much one can do with three sensor/actuator channels, and I was never able to come up with a decent method of I/O expansion. An I/O expansion unit or expansion connector would have made more I/O's possible, vastly expanding the RCX's capabilities and potential market (the geeks with $ and their kids). Processor power was certainly not the limiting factor on the RCX.
That said, NQC and LegOS really rock. Many thanks to you who developed and maintained them!
...if the offending code is immediately removed upon legal notification that it is infringing, SCO will have a hard time collecting any damages. Absent a patent issue, the OSS community can rewrite this smallish chunk of code from scratch in little time. SCO understands this, which is why it tried so hard to keep from identifying specific infringing code.
But this situation makes it clear that SCO can recover NO significant damages from such alleged copyright infringement, and delay won't change that. Failing to identify the infringement doesn't increase SCO's redress, it just delays the start of the "collect damages starting from this point" clock. The net period and payout, in the unlikely event, are still minimal.
I still subscribe to the "they're smoking crack" theory.
Brush-in beard dye -- nut brown, a color that does not match ANYBODY in the department who has a beard. In fact it doesn't match anyone's hair color at all. Rather comical, I find...
by several posts in this thread to the effect that "My boss switched us"; assuming that RH could get any of the folks to provide documentation, the case is established.
;-)
No worries, mate
that SCO is doing a Titanic-on-the-icberg number. I suspect Novell are savvy enough to realize that they COULD pull the same stunt, with essentially the same results... Fortunately they appear to recognize the value to be gained from working with Open Source rather than trying to squeeze it for ransom.
Meaning it comes by twice per day, at 13:30 and 01:30 (time for crossing the equator, I think). 'Twill be moving rather fast, and atmospheric attenuation will mean it's harmless in any case at the altitudes where birds fly. Well, mostly harmless (So long, Douglas, and thanks for all the Babelfish ;-)
The odds of a mutation creating all parts simultaneously are astronomical, and consequently, the only accepted theory that can sanely describe such a thing is intelligent design, which has been hinted at in many different real-life examples as well as probabistically explained by Pascal's Wager.
Alas, the Intelligent Design theory is based on an intuitive misunderstanding of how long a few hundred million years is, and how much mutation can occur in that time. Hundreds of million years is unimaginably long in terms of a human lifetime, and is EASILY long enough to lead to so-called "irreducably complex" systems like the modern eye through a series of successive approximations and evolutionary refinements, many of them taking place in parallel. Given an astronomically long period of time, the astronomically unlikely will happen.
This is a clear case of reverse-engineering for compatibility, which is a DMCA exception big enough to drive a truckload of cheap digital cameras through... Asice from the little detail that there's NO copyrighted work being protected here.
Think it through, friends and neighbors... (Gee, "think it through" rhymes with "Get a clue" but is ever so much more polite...)
I did a HOWTO on the cable. I demand a C&D!
Well, a number of years ago I got $50 from an ATM in California that *never* got debited from my account, and despite the existence of a paper record that I'd done so, the bank utterly refused to believe this had happened. (That bank has since gone under; funny coincidence, that.)
ATMs are generally "secure" primarily because they operate on a fully-closed network, there's massive cross-checking, and interaction with users is very strictly limited. And they're still only "generally" secure...
I'm curious about the intersection between paid support/subscriptions and a GPL'ed operating system. After browsing Red Hat's site, I see nothing (except possibly restrictions on the use of RH trademarks and logos) that would prevent third parties from legally distributing, or obtaining and using, copies of Red Hat Enterprise editions (and we know there are always contrarians willing to post ISO images of GPL'ed stuff, so I presume there are RHE ISOs in the wild as well).
Of course, one would (might?) lose out on updates and would certainly get no RH support, making this method of access unattractive to a business customer, but doesn't the involvement of the GPL imply that non-enterprise users will still effectively have access to current Red Hat Enterprise releases via third parties? This would seem to have some bearing on the ecosystem of Red Hat vs Fedora.
Of course, there are reasons NOT to do this, too. Support for one, keeping the Golden Goose fed and healthy for another, also the need to strip non-GPL components out of any redistributed images (making work for the redistributor).
I've worked for good managers and bad, and for the most part (aside from having one's department deliberately nuked by an idiot top-management team I eventually outlasted - true joy!) I've never had to put up with much in the way of dirty politics. Most of my colleagues have been and are good folks, the rest don't last. That said, I think the following rules will serve you well:
* Document your work and accomplishments and keep hard copies.
* Act so you need not fear your chickens coming home to roost (great stress-reliever, that).
* Be straightforward and honest, even when dealing with fools and slimeballs.
* If you feel the need to keep a few hidden surprises in reserve, make sure it's not inappropriate to keep'em hidden. Then spring'em with a smile.
If all that fails and political crap befalls you, you don't really wanna work there anyway.
IIRC, the language of the DMCA prohibits bypassing a mechanism that "effectively controls access to a copyrighted work". If the control mechanism is so broken that merely turning off Autorun or holding down SHIFT bypasses it, there's a VERY good case to be made that the access control is not "effective" ('cause it clearly won't stop most users), so bypassing it is NOT prohibited by the DMCA, and the whole suit collapses.