you could just blog since the system is not first to file but first to invent.
Since when has that pesky little thing called 'prior art' stopped the patent office granting patents, and since when has it stopped the legal system upholding those patents when they are used to sue the pants off the original inventor or anyone who is using his invention free of charge?
From the tomes of Slashdot's quote at the bottom of the article on this one:
Your wise men don't know how it feels To be thick as a brick. -- Jethro Tull, "Thick As A Brick"
I thought it was quite accurate.
The recording industry are just a bunch of puffed out suits beating their own chests in response to the threat of something surpassing them. They'll get bored eventually.
Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate: We need some kind of Doomsday device to create an implosion like that. Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Doomsday device? Aha! Now the ball's in Farnsworth's court. [Pulls on a lever; a platform appears with several Doomsday devices] Professor Hubert Farnsworth: I suppose I can part with one and still be feared.
Oh come on, your smart enough to know that caparison isn't even close enough to be valid. Two Anecdotes ? really?
Caparison? Well you're not a liberal arts major then, although I don't think an Engineer would have got it quite that wrong either.
I know artists that put in just as much time as engineering students.
Guess what? all of them have been very successful in their field. Now that work may mean talking to people in an art gallery, but it is still time put in.
Define "success" (and for extra credit, tell me why your definition should apply to me, or society in general). Success comes on many levels and by many standards. I never said that uneducated people couldn't be successful or that well educated ones could.
I said that a great many of the arts students are there for one reason: to booze it up and keep the free government money flowing in just that little bit longer. Make it harder for them to get their free ride (they're not really getting "educated" anyway) and the quality of the education goes up for all those who are trying to learn something.
It's fucking hard to learn with a bunch of deadbeats around you who have no interest in being there. They don't pay attention, they generally mess about in class (when they bother to show up) and they are a huge waste of teacher time and practical resources.
For the wanker
I am sure that 99% of people would find that offensive.
I have to agree with that; what pisses me right off is the fact that engineering and medical degrees are the most expensive to get (mine cost 5x what the same arts degree would have cost over the same amount study units) yet a lot of arts students just bum around on the dole or low income jobs and never earn enough to have to pay back their debts.
Making education more affordable and making people pay up front is a good start. Making the coursework harder in the "arts" degrees might discourage those who just want to continue to get the extra education allowance in their unemployment packet each week.
If I may recall an anecdote from my days studying engineering some 12 years ago (wow I feel old). I recall sitting on a bus waiting for it to depart the uni when two pretty young arts students climbed on and sat directly behind me. They were talking about how hard their course was and how they had to study for all these hours in the week and it was just impossible to find the time. One asked the other what the worst thing was and she said "I have four hours of lectures in a week and need to do about 4 hours of work at home. One day I even have to get here by 11AM.". She was actually baffled how anyone could seriously do 8 hours of work in a week and still fit in the other things like having a life.
Conversely most engineering students do around 30-40 hours at the school. The good ones use the dead time between classes to keep up with the workload but even they probably do another 10 hours out of school to keep up. Most of us had to fit in part time jobs to pay the bills; those engineering books aren't cheap and the library doesn't carry hundreds of copies like they do with a lot of the artsy books. Add into that a partner and some recreation time to keep you sane and you can imagine the workload.
Engineers are supposed to be creative people. Engineering is the point where theoretical science crosses into practical reality. You're meant to be finding new and practical ways to do things. Your uni days lay the groundwork. The reason lecturers seem to be not very helpful is they are trying to teach you the Engineer-think; try now, get a feel for it, ask for help when I know what I need help with. I found surprising help with lecturers when I'd first tried a problem and got some way into it before asking for help. Others would walk in and say "but it's different from the examples in the book" and they would be met with a very agitated professor.
Engineering isn't an easy field to get into. As others have said it's damn boring when you get here unless you are really into it too. Grades are low because the work is hard. Want better grades? Work hard and understand the material! Rote learning doesn't cut it with engineers. We don't like parrots because parrots make a lot of noise without actually contributing anything useful.
It doesn't matter what grade a liberal arts student gets. If his/her book/movie/poem is shit, what do I care? If the Civil Engineer that designed some bridge barely passed uni (or had good grades because the work was easy) then all sorts of bad things could happen.
One more thing that bothers me about engineering in general is that there aren't as many (good) jobs as there are course places. Sure, there are places who are looking for an engineer but usually they want shit kickers rather than engineers. A lot of real engineering work is being outsourced to places like India where there are a lot of very talented people (I met a few Indian engineers one time and was surprisingly impressed with their skills) willing to work for practically peanuts.
I'm personally not working in my trained field. I'm an electronic engineer who now spends most of his days writing (mostly embedded) software. I've picked up what I need to through a combination of mentors, classes and generally just doing it and I could have done that without time and costs of a four year degree hanging over me. That bothers me a little because I'd love to be doing my preferred line of work; there's just no money in it because a lot of it is outsourced now except for the defence industry.
Microsoft do exactly this, and they're even more shady about it. Windows update automatically installs new things on your PC that they deem important you you (malicious software tool, even though I don't want it; WGA even though I don't want it, etc). When MS do WGA I have even seen it wind up on my machine as "Internet Explorer Security Update", "Critical Security Update", etc. Good thing I have a virtual machine that I take a snapshot of before every M$ update now.
I hardly think it's fair for some M$ idiot to complain about that Apple is doing when M$ do exactly the same thing and they try their hardest to hide the fact.
You do realise that iTunes needs a browser component for the store. It uses Quicktime as well and they install it as part of the iTunes install. Does anyone complain about that? Perhaps now that they have a full Safari for Windows that is the easiest way to package the webkit (which I'll hazard a guess is what iTunes has always used) component rather than trying to ship it as part of iTunes?
Secondly, iTunes may work with iPod but it doesn't require one so it's hard to say they're leveraging their monopoly using the iPod to get more Apple software installed in Windows. I can think of several reasons to use iTunes over the crap that comes with Windows other than because you have an iPod to sync with.
The whole article goes on to piss and moan about trusting the source and the updates but at the end of the day it's really rich when M$ are guilty of installing updates that break more than they fix and hiding things they want to roll out under misleading names.
"but your honour, it's a simple mathematical identity; the GPL says 1+1=2 and I am here to demonstrate that the content of it holds true".
The GPL exists, therefore it is?
What other kinds of proofs would you like?
There is nothing to prove; the GPL is what it is. It appears to be legal under the copyright laws and conventions of many countries. What remains to be seen is whether the courts of those countries agree with the assertions of the GPL. That will not prove or validate the GPL. It will serve only to set a precedent (that may be overturned on appeal or in subsequent cases) in one country saying the GPL is a good license and you can use it to protect your work.
I'm just thinking this is a real life version of the minority report. Crap though it was..
They want to try and "fit" people to potential crimes then harass/bust their asses for the crime before it's been committed. That kind of doesn't sound fair to me given that the behavior of any one person could be considered suspicious of they deviate from their regular daily activities by even the slightest (ie, if uncle Bill is in from out of town and you catch the train down to the airport to have a grog with him instead of going straight home from work one day).
"He met with a whole group of people who are on our watch list because they met with the same group of suspicious looking people with wearing anoraks and dark 80s glasses"
I know they're using the threat of terror to justify it, but really; is there that much chance of people being blown up? This certainly won't help in any way.
Well, considering Windows patches improve security, not usability, Windows is better or worse (whichever you decide) right out of the box. It's not gonna improve. Furthermore, it's trivial to patch a Windows box to the latest version before it's rooted. It's just not that damn hard, saying otherwise is slinging FUD.
Sure, it _can_ be done, but Joe user isn't smart enough to do it. In fact, the only reason that Joe user even knows that you should update the OS is because Windows now has auto update turned on when you install it. Joe user isn't capable of sourcing offline installers and deciding which updates he actually needs to apply.
This doesn't have a damn thing to do with the usability of the OS. Gasp and alarm! If there's some piece of software you want to use, under ANY OS, and it doesn't ship with the OS, you have to go and get it (legally or otherwise). This is the same for every OS which ever has been created, and ever will be created. And it's not a function of the OS. The OS' job is not to ship with software, it's to provide a stable platform for your apps to run on.
Actually, it does. Linux is shipped as a distribution of software. Some distros are large, some small. Nearly all of the mainstream ones ship with enough software to get the user online, emailing, playing videos and hammering out documents. Drivers are plenty and most hardware is supported.
There will always be examples of niche software (Autocad, Protel, Xilinx Foundation, Blender, etc) that some users will need to source. The OP (and myself) refer to the "standard" suite of things that Joe user would expect to have on a PC when he's using it. Windows doesn't come with anything.
A whole DVD to install Vista (and a whole CD to install XP) and when you're done you have Minesweeper and Hearts to while away the hours and of course IE and notepad should you ever need to do any productive work. Sounds like bloat to me that it takes a whole CD to ship just that limited amount of stuff. Want a MSN messenger? Sure here's another download. Want a decent media player instead of the classic and buggy one they ship? Sure, just install SP2 and then 100 other updates before it's compatible with your system. Oh now download the media player as well. "Windows has detected you're playing a file, let me download some more crap for you".
As for providing a stable platform.. when was the last time any Windows platform was actually stable? Sure you can get contrived measurements of stability when you don't ask it to do anything but in the real world it crashes every day at least for most people.
Windows isn't perfect, but it's so far ahead of linux on the normal every day desktop experience it just isn't funny.
The fact that you rant on about graphics drivers and MP3 suggests one thing.... Never mind.
All the "major" distros (Ubuntu, Fedora, etc) ship with the X.org drivers for Nvidia and ATI. They are accelerated and work for the majority of users. AFIK both drivers will do dual head and TV out now as well. There's little need for the binary drivers unless you want uber 3D support (and really, at the moment Linux apps don't generally make great use of 3D).
The lack of MP3 is easily fixed in Ubuntu and Fedora. The wiki page for both explains the reasons for not shipping it (so they don't get sued out of existence). They also give the solution (open the GUI tool, add this thing, check that box install mp3 software and binary video drivers if you want them).
It's not a perfect solution, but what do you expect from something you can obtain for free? You're not going to pay the Ubuntu or Fedora projects so why should they pay licensing fees for the few things that you would expect to have in your distro but can't unless someone pays greedy patent holders? They're not stopping you from having them, but they are advising people to consider alternate formats in the interest of sending a message to greedy patent holders.
Windows is certainly far from perfect too. I can't install it on a machine then connect that machine to the Internet to get updates and download the requisite software because within a few minutes the POS operating system has been pwne3d by some worm/botnet/1337 h4x0rz. Oh did I mention that out of the box it's pretty much useless without thousands of dollars of other people's software? IF you are going to use all free software (FF, Thunderbird, OO.o, etc) then why not just use Linux because that's where it's all meant to run anyway.
That doesn't stop the malicious code using the same web interface or same IMAP interface...
IMAP my friend, you can copy mails to the server without ever using SMTP.
There was no way to catch this thing doing its bad thing because you would have fully expected it to be using the gmail web interface or imap to do its thing.
That would depend on who I was. Personally if you threaten to punch me in the face you'll just piss me off but after that it's all water of a duck's back.
Some people are a bit mentally weaker than that. Threatening to punch them in the face would really fuck them up. So, the threat of violence is just as bad as the physical act.
Many consider the threat of violence as just another form of violence. Or so I've heard.
In many places the direct threat of violence can bring you an assault charge even if there was no 'direct' violent act. ie. Telling someone (even without meaning it) that you're going to whomp them with this here big stick because they piss you off could (if the law became involved) net you a court date.
Therefore, as far as the law is concerned the treat of violence is also a violent act.
IANL, but I was told that by a copper one time after a pub brawl (no I wasn't involved).
At which point, you have to pull from your own resource pool to find someone who is "good enough" to mostly cobble together your needs. But, is Vinnie (sorry to anyone of Italian descent) really up to speed on the latest stuff? Just how many geeks are involved in wide-scale criminal activities?
The sorts of people running organised crime are also likely to be running a number of 'legitimate' businesses as well. This helps put up a front for the illegal activities but would also make sourcing people easier.
Get a couple of guys working in the legitimate business setting up a good IT infrastructure. Have them set up encryption to protect the legitimate business data, etc, etc. So long as your IT persons don't know the pass phrases for your encryption after it's set up then you have no problem storing in there whatever you want and they are not clued on to your side 'business'.
It seems to me that the US Government and many others are focusing on this new-fangled Internet thing because it's a haven for people who pirate music, share terrorist plans and do all sorts of other nasty stuff (like free exchange of ideas). Do they think about anything else?
When will they realise they can't filter the Internet without removing access to all-but one protocol (port) and even then the filters are doomed to failure. Without blocking all other access people will just sidestep the filter and use open relays, proxies and networks like Tor.
They can't possibly hope to analyse all traffic that flows either. The computation power alone would be unfeasible and the amount of false positives would be too high that there'd be a revolt against it.
*grumbles* Instead of finding new and expensive ways of "fixing" the Internet why don't they just fix the copyright, IP and other laws.
It should never have been patented. I thought the whole idea of getting a patent was to protect an idea that was both novel and also non-obvious.
Isn't the new invention supposed to be something that a reasonable expert in the field would not have thought to do by logical extension? We have gift cards to arbitrary amounts. Let's make them online and make them for specific items. I would have thought of that but I also would have tossed the idea in the trash... the whole idea of a "gift" card is so you don't have to give a specific item.
Anyway, I hope they lose and have their stupid patent thrown out. I don't like the big guys as much as anyone, but I hate patent trolls even more.
neither know or care anything about rising children. I will learn if I ever have any.
I have children and I neither new nor cared about raising them until I had any either. I know too many people who have children and know nothing about raising them. There's a lot of people out there who kids come to by accident. They don't give a shit about them so they do one of two things.
1. They impose draconian rules and limitations that basically mean the kid can't do anything but sit quietly in the corner and make sure not to breathe too loudly for fear of reprisal.
2. Don't give a flying fuck, do the bare minimum to keep this kid alive so that I don't get punished as a neglectful parent. Oh, where is my 3 year old? I have no fucking idea, he's probably walked across the road to play with the local stray dogs but I haven't seen him all day so I wouldn't know.
Yes, I have seen both extremes of parenting and I am sure that most people have probably seen them as well. For the rest of us the grey area of wanting to be good parents but not being sure how is where we sit. There is no written in stone way to raise a child. Each child is different, and if you have more than one you might need to adopt a different approach with each to get the response you want to see.
The US gumbiment (and others) are more interested in protecting big businesses because big businesses pay big taxes and can afford big lobbying. Look at the whole farce that is the DMCA/copyright reform. There is no protection of Joe Public in there. It's all about protecting the media industry profits.
The patent troll in this case could have leveraged considerable royalties from banks where the US has patent jurisdiction from now until the cheque system was abolished. That would have very likely exceeded the $1bn mark.
It is true though, when you start using laws to hurt the people who have the power to lobby the government then said people will lobby the government for a change to the laws. There is a small window there to get in and IMPROVE the law rather than letting the corporations bollocks it to cement their profit for another few years.
Banks abandoned their usual conservative ways and got caught up in the greed of the expanding housing market.
The expanding house market was a good bet for a small number if people. Banks probably believed that they could sustain that level of investment into the market. It's too bad that prices are far in excess of what normal people can afford now.
In the face of trillion dollar 'wars' I guess it's insignificant. What irks me (not that I live in the US) is that $1bn is a good amount of money to inject back into social security or medicine or education. It wouldn't go real far but it would certainly be a glimmer of hope for those who live each day needing those systems.
Slashdot Mirror
Since when has that pesky little thing called 'prior art' stopped the patent office granting patents, and since when has it stopped the legal system upholding those patents when they are used to sue the pants off the original inventor or anyone who is using his invention free of charge?
From the tomes of Slashdot's quote at the bottom of the article on this one:
Your wise men don't know how it feels To be thick as a brick. -- Jethro Tull, "Thick As A Brick"I thought it was quite accurate.
The recording industry are just a bunch of puffed out suits beating their own chests in response to the threat of something surpassing them. They'll get bored eventually.
Why not go see the black holes. You'll finally be able to answer the question of what's on the other side of one!
... tomorrow it's the mad grad student!
Ethan "Bubblegum" Tate: We need some kind of Doomsday device to create an implosion like that.
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: Doomsday device? Aha! Now the ball's in Farnsworth's court.
[Pulls on a lever; a platform appears with several Doomsday devices]
Professor Hubert Farnsworth: I suppose I can part with one and still be feared.
Caparison? Well you're not a liberal arts major then, although I don't think an Engineer would have got it quite that wrong either.
I know artists that put in just as much time as engineering students. Guess what? all of them have been very successful in their field. Now that work may mean talking to people in an art gallery, but it is still time put in.Define "success" (and for extra credit, tell me why your definition should apply to me, or society in general). Success comes on many levels and by many standards. I never said that uneducated people couldn't be successful or that well educated ones could.
I said that a great many of the arts students are there for one reason: to booze it up and keep the free government money flowing in just that little bit longer. Make it harder for them to get their free ride (they're not really getting "educated" anyway) and the quality of the education goes up for all those who are trying to learn something.
It's fucking hard to learn with a bunch of deadbeats around you who have no interest in being there. They don't pay attention, they generally mess about in class (when they bother to show up) and they are a huge waste of teacher time and practical resources.
For the wankerI am sure that 99% of people would find that offensive.
I have to agree with that; what pisses me right off is the fact that engineering and medical degrees are the most expensive to get (mine cost 5x what the same arts degree would have cost over the same amount study units) yet a lot of arts students just bum around on the dole or low income jobs and never earn enough to have to pay back their debts.
Making education more affordable and making people pay up front is a good start. Making the coursework harder in the "arts" degrees might discourage those who just want to continue to get the extra education allowance in their unemployment packet each week.
If I may recall an anecdote from my days studying engineering some 12 years ago (wow I feel old). I recall sitting on a bus waiting for it to depart the uni when two pretty young arts students climbed on and sat directly behind me. They were talking about how hard their course was and how they had to study for all these hours in the week and it was just impossible to find the time. One asked the other what the worst thing was and she said "I have four hours of lectures in a week and need to do about 4 hours of work at home. One day I even have to get here by 11AM.". She was actually baffled how anyone could seriously do 8 hours of work in a week and still fit in the other things like having a life.
Conversely most engineering students do around 30-40 hours at the school. The good ones use the dead time between classes to keep up with the workload but even they probably do another 10 hours out of school to keep up. Most of us had to fit in part time jobs to pay the bills; those engineering books aren't cheap and the library doesn't carry hundreds of copies like they do with a lot of the artsy books. Add into that a partner and some recreation time to keep you sane and you can imagine the workload.
Engineers are supposed to be creative people. Engineering is the point where theoretical science crosses into practical reality. You're meant to be finding new and practical ways to do things. Your uni days lay the groundwork. The reason lecturers seem to be not very helpful is they are trying to teach you the Engineer-think; try now, get a feel for it, ask for help when I know what I need help with. I found surprising help with lecturers when I'd first tried a problem and got some way into it before asking for help. Others would walk in and say "but it's different from the examples in the book" and they would be met with a very agitated professor.
Engineering isn't an easy field to get into. As others have said it's damn boring when you get here unless you are really into it too. Grades are low because the work is hard. Want better grades? Work hard and understand the material! Rote learning doesn't cut it with engineers. We don't like parrots because parrots make a lot of noise without actually contributing anything useful.
It doesn't matter what grade a liberal arts student gets. If his/her book/movie/poem is shit, what do I care? If the Civil Engineer that designed some bridge barely passed uni (or had good grades because the work was easy) then all sorts of bad things could happen.
One more thing that bothers me about engineering in general is that there aren't as many (good) jobs as there are course places. Sure, there are places who are looking for an engineer but usually they want shit kickers rather than engineers. A lot of real engineering work is being outsourced to places like India where there are a lot of very talented people (I met a few Indian engineers one time and was surprisingly impressed with their skills) willing to work for practically peanuts.
I'm personally not working in my trained field. I'm an electronic engineer who now spends most of his days writing (mostly embedded) software. I've picked up what I need to through a combination of mentors, classes and generally just doing it and I could have done that without time and costs of a four year degree hanging over me. That bothers me a little because I'd love to be doing my preferred line of work; there's just no money in it because a lot of it is outsourced now except for the defence industry.
Microsoft do exactly this, and they're even more shady about it. Windows update automatically installs new things on your PC that they deem important you you (malicious software tool, even though I don't want it; WGA even though I don't want it, etc). When MS do WGA I have even seen it wind up on my machine as "Internet Explorer Security Update", "Critical Security Update", etc. Good thing I have a virtual machine that I take a snapshot of before every M$ update now.
I hardly think it's fair for some M$ idiot to complain about that Apple is doing when M$ do exactly the same thing and they try their hardest to hide the fact.
You do realise that iTunes needs a browser component for the store. It uses Quicktime as well and they install it as part of the iTunes install. Does anyone complain about that? Perhaps now that they have a full Safari for Windows that is the easiest way to package the webkit (which I'll hazard a guess is what iTunes has always used) component rather than trying to ship it as part of iTunes?
Secondly, iTunes may work with iPod but it doesn't require one so it's hard to say they're leveraging their monopoly using the iPod to get more Apple software installed in Windows. I can think of several reasons to use iTunes over the crap that comes with Windows other than because you have an iPod to sync with.
The whole article goes on to piss and moan about trusting the source and the updates but at the end of the day it's really rich when M$ are guilty of installing updates that break more than they fix and hiding things they want to roll out under misleading names.
"but your honour, it's a simple mathematical identity; the GPL says 1+1=2 and I am here to demonstrate that the content of it holds true".
The GPL exists, therefore it is?
What other kinds of proofs would you like?
There is nothing to prove; the GPL is what it is. It appears to be legal under the copyright laws and conventions of many countries. What remains to be seen is whether the courts of those countries agree with the assertions of the GPL. That will not prove or validate the GPL. It will serve only to set a precedent (that may be overturned on appeal or in subsequent cases) in one country saying the GPL is a good license and you can use it to protect your work.
Justice moves swiftly now they've abolished all lawyers!
I'm just thinking this is a real life version of the minority report. Crap though it was..
They want to try and "fit" people to potential crimes then harass/bust their asses for the crime before it's been committed. That kind of doesn't sound fair to me given that the behavior of any one person could be considered suspicious of they deviate from their regular daily activities by even the slightest (ie, if uncle Bill is in from out of town and you catch the train down to the airport to have a grog with him instead of going straight home from work one day).
"He met with a whole group of people who are on our watch list because they met with the same group of suspicious looking people with wearing anoraks and dark 80s glasses"
I know they're using the threat of terror to justify it, but really; is there that much chance of people being blown up? This certainly won't help in any way.
Sure, it _can_ be done, but Joe user isn't smart enough to do it. In fact, the only reason that Joe user even knows that you should update the OS is because Windows now has auto update turned on when you install it. Joe user isn't capable of sourcing offline installers and deciding which updates he actually needs to apply.
This doesn't have a damn thing to do with the usability of the OS. Gasp and alarm! If there's some piece of software you want to use, under ANY OS, and it doesn't ship with the OS, you have to go and get it (legally or otherwise). This is the same for every OS which ever has been created, and ever will be created. And it's not a function of the OS. The OS' job is not to ship with software, it's to provide a stable platform for your apps to run on.Actually, it does. Linux is shipped as a distribution of software. Some distros are large, some small. Nearly all of the mainstream ones ship with enough software to get the user online, emailing, playing videos and hammering out documents. Drivers are plenty and most hardware is supported.
There will always be examples of niche software (Autocad, Protel, Xilinx Foundation, Blender, etc) that some users will need to source. The OP (and myself) refer to the "standard" suite of things that Joe user would expect to have on a PC when he's using it. Windows doesn't come with anything.
A whole DVD to install Vista (and a whole CD to install XP) and when you're done you have Minesweeper and Hearts to while away the hours and of course IE and notepad should you ever need to do any productive work. Sounds like bloat to me that it takes a whole CD to ship just that limited amount of stuff. Want a MSN messenger? Sure here's another download. Want a decent media player instead of the classic and buggy one they ship? Sure, just install SP2 and then 100 other updates before it's compatible with your system. Oh now download the media player as well. "Windows has detected you're playing a file, let me download some more crap for you".
As for providing a stable platform.. when was the last time any Windows platform was actually stable? Sure you can get contrived measurements of stability when you don't ask it to do anything but in the real world it crashes every day at least for most people.
The fact that you rant on about graphics drivers and MP3 suggests one thing.... Never mind.
All the "major" distros (Ubuntu, Fedora, etc) ship with the X.org drivers for Nvidia and ATI. They are accelerated and work for the majority of users. AFIK both drivers will do dual head and TV out now as well. There's little need for the binary drivers unless you want uber 3D support (and really, at the moment Linux apps don't generally make great use of 3D).
The lack of MP3 is easily fixed in Ubuntu and Fedora. The wiki page for both explains the reasons for not shipping it (so they don't get sued out of existence). They also give the solution (open the GUI tool, add this thing, check that box install mp3 software and binary video drivers if you want them).
It's not a perfect solution, but what do you expect from something you can obtain for free? You're not going to pay the Ubuntu or Fedora projects so why should they pay licensing fees for the few things that you would expect to have in your distro but can't unless someone pays greedy patent holders? They're not stopping you from having them, but they are advising people to consider alternate formats in the interest of sending a message to greedy patent holders.
Windows is certainly far from perfect too. I can't install it on a machine then connect that machine to the Internet to get updates and download the requisite software because within a few minutes the POS operating system has been pwne3d by some worm/botnet/1337 h4x0rz. Oh did I mention that out of the box it's pretty much useless without thousands of dollars of other people's software? IF you are going to use all free software (FF, Thunderbird, OO.o, etc) then why not just use Linux because that's where it's all meant to run anyway.
That doesn't stop the malicious code using the same web interface or same IMAP interface...
IMAP my friend, you can copy mails to the server without ever using SMTP.
There was no way to catch this thing doing its bad thing because you would have fully expected it to be using the gmail web interface or imap to do its thing.
...owwwww my sperm!
OH wait.. that was an F-ray!
That would depend on who I was. Personally if you threaten to punch me in the face you'll just piss me off but after that it's all water of a duck's back.
Some people are a bit mentally weaker than that. Threatening to punch them in the face would really fuck them up. So, the threat of violence is just as bad as the physical act.
In many places the direct threat of violence can bring you an assault charge even if there was no 'direct' violent act. ie. Telling someone (even without meaning it) that you're going to whomp them with this here big stick because they piss you off could (if the law became involved) net you a court date.
Therefore, as far as the law is concerned the treat of violence is also a violent act.
IANL, but I was told that by a copper one time after a pub brawl (no I wasn't involved).
Quite frankly, I never found voting to be all that essential to the process.
The sorts of people running organised crime are also likely to be running a number of 'legitimate' businesses as well. This helps put up a front for the illegal activities but would also make sourcing people easier.
Get a couple of guys working in the legitimate business setting up a good IT infrastructure. Have them set up encryption to protect the legitimate business data, etc, etc. So long as your IT persons don't know the pass phrases for your encryption after it's set up then you have no problem storing in there whatever you want and they are not clued on to your side 'business'.
But its example is good for lining ITS coffers. Jeez.
It seems to me that the US Government and many others are focusing on this new-fangled Internet thing because it's a haven for people who pirate music, share terrorist plans and do all sorts of other nasty stuff (like free exchange of ideas). Do they think about anything else?
When will they realise they can't filter the Internet without removing access to all-but one protocol (port) and even then the filters are doomed to failure. Without blocking all other access people will just sidestep the filter and use open relays, proxies and networks like Tor.
They can't possibly hope to analyse all traffic that flows either. The computation power alone would be unfeasible and the amount of false positives would be too high that there'd be a revolt against it.
*grumbles* Instead of finding new and expensive ways of "fixing" the Internet why don't they just fix the copyright, IP and other laws.
It should never have been patented. I thought the whole idea of getting a patent was to protect an idea that was both novel and also non-obvious.
Isn't the new invention supposed to be something that a reasonable expert in the field would not have thought to do by logical extension? We have gift cards to arbitrary amounts. Let's make them online and make them for specific items. I would have thought of that but I also would have tossed the idea in the trash... the whole idea of a "gift" card is so you don't have to give a specific item.
Anyway, I hope they lose and have their stupid patent thrown out. I don't like the big guys as much as anyone, but I hate patent trolls even more.
I have children and I neither new nor cared about raising them until I had any either. I know too many people who have children and know nothing about raising them. There's a lot of people out there who kids come to by accident. They don't give a shit about them so they do one of two things.
1. They impose draconian rules and limitations that basically mean the kid can't do anything but sit quietly in the corner and make sure not to breathe too loudly for fear of reprisal.
2. Don't give a flying fuck, do the bare minimum to keep this kid alive so that I don't get punished as a neglectful parent. Oh, where is my 3 year old? I have no fucking idea, he's probably walked across the road to play with the local stray dogs but I haven't seen him all day so I wouldn't know.
Yes, I have seen both extremes of parenting and I am sure that most people have probably seen them as well. For the rest of us the grey area of wanting to be good parents but not being sure how is where we sit. There is no written in stone way to raise a child. Each child is different, and if you have more than one you might need to adopt a different approach with each to get the response you want to see.
The US gumbiment (and others) are more interested in protecting big businesses because big businesses pay big taxes and can afford big lobbying. Look at the whole farce that is the DMCA/copyright reform. There is no protection of Joe Public in there. It's all about protecting the media industry profits.
The patent troll in this case could have leveraged considerable royalties from banks where the US has patent jurisdiction from now until the cheque system was abolished. That would have very likely exceeded the $1bn mark.
It is true though, when you start using laws to hurt the people who have the power to lobby the government then said people will lobby the government for a change to the laws. There is a small window there to get in and IMPROVE the law rather than letting the corporations bollocks it to cement their profit for another few years.
The expanding house market was a good bet for a small number if people. Banks probably believed that they could sustain that level of investment into the market. It's too bad that prices are far in excess of what normal people can afford now.
In the face of trillion dollar 'wars' I guess it's insignificant. What irks me (not that I live in the US) is that $1bn is a good amount of money to inject back into social security or medicine or education. It wouldn't go real far but it would certainly be a glimmer of hope for those who live each day needing those systems.