You read the parenthetical wrong. The subject is the Xbox 360, not the PS3. Split into two sentances, it would be:
one of the biggest annoyances out of the gate was the lack of pixel-perfect compatibility, despite being one of Sony's most touted features over Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 has to software emulate each game in its back catalog.
... bully the little-guy patent holder by suing even while paying license-fees. Little-guy can't get an injunction because fees are being paid, so it costs the big-corp nothing except their staff lawyers time.
Little-guy then either has to pay to defend the patent out-of-pocket, or lose their patent (and any future license fees).
Of course, this situation only plays out if the little-guy is a patent-troll and can't be counter-sued for patent infringement.
And of course, in the end, the lawyers win.
Personally, I think "pretexting" is a much more accurate and better term for this than "social engineering".
The definition of pretext already includes the connotations of falseness and misleading. Social engineering is a complete misnomer, being, if anything, antisocial, and hardly a "skillful or artful contrivance."
And since "pretexting" is actually gaining traction in the popular media, and not "social engineering", I think you're going to have to deal.
If there are truly such systematic problems with SIGGRAPH, then there are probably sufficient other researchers interested in a new, improved computer graphics conference.
Sebastian Thrun and a few others were fed up with the quality of ICRA and IROS, so they started a wholey new conference last year, Robotics Science and Systems. It was successful, and IEEE is now even helping to organize future sessions.
Also, this kind of competition works. ICRA was noticeably better this year, as conferences will make changes in order to stay relevant.
If they don't properly affix the sticker that seals the flap, the USPS sorting machines can mangle them pretty good.
In fact, just today I received only the address flap in the mail. It must've been ripped off from the envelope (who knows what happened to the dvd), and those persistant bastards at the post office delivered just a red flap.
I've also received a disk that had the flap partially torn off. It took two days longer than normal, and the USPS had placed it in a "Sorry we damaged your mail" envelope.
So not quite the perfect solution, but still pretty good.
Because this one pushes over trees. 30 foot tall trees with 6" diameter trunks. It can basically deforest an entire area if the operator isn't careful.
They greatly improved the front-end structure in moving from Spinner v1.1 to Crusher (Spinner 2.0). Since the first vehicle was near impossible to flip over, the inversion mechanism was eliminated (they had to use a crane top flip the vehicle over, to test the inversion system period). The result is a much more durable and capable vehicle.
$50 is a bit much for a radio, especially since just about every other mp3 player out there comes with an FM tuner. But now that they've finally caved on adding that feature, I think it's safe to say the 6G iPod will have a FM tuner when it comes along in 6 months.
It's not so much an issue of adding penalty time, but subtracting pause time.
Both Stanford and Sandstorm have been paused several times to prevent them from running into the back of H1ghlander. It seems the roads are too narrow in most places to allow passing to occur, hence they stop the rear robot to allow a safe following distance to accumulate. The time the robot is in pause state does not seem to be taken into account in the unofficial results on the grandchallenge.org site.
All of these software updates are driving me nuts.
Under Debian it's fine, just "apt-get upgrade" and things happen fairly seamlessly.
But on my windows box, updating requires downloading a new installer for each program, in some cases uninstalling the new version, and then running each new installer. These window installers all require multiple steps, and so it's just a big hassle to stay current.
Why can't more programs these days have automatic updates? Firefox does in theory. It'll check for new updates, then download the new version and start the installer for you and then break your install. Not the updating experience I'm looking for.
Why can't software updates operate more like Eclipse's update tool? Or Sun's Java update? Or Adobe reader's? Or dare I say it, Microsofts Windows update?
And yes, I'm lazy. This is supposed to be one of the menial tasks where computers replace people.
Team DAD's vehicle was street legal last year.
It created a pretty funny situation. They brought it to the raceway the first day and were told they had to impound the vehicle for the duration of the QED.
They asked "How are we going to get back to the hotel?"
DARPA rented them a car.
1. about:config -> keyword.URL set to http://www.google.com/search?oe=UTF-8&q= instead of the default (not very intiutive no), which causes Firefox to search on Google with anything entered that doesn't look like an URL, which is anything that hasn't got a dot embedded in the first word I think(?).
Finding this trick is what finally let me switch from Mozilla to Firefox. Unlike the grandfather, I found pressing "up" to google search too much a hassle, and, dare I say it, almost a reason to prefer IE over Mozilla.
However, google searching from the address bar in Firefox is pretty hit or miss. Periods are one issue, and I've ran into other search terms (although I can't remember specifics) that made me actually type in www.google.com.
So as other posters have pointed out, if you distribute patented technology, you are equally culpable.
However, my question is: If I buy an OEM product from a manufacturer that has licensed the patent to put in my own product (Apple buying a Samsung LCD for their Cinema Displays), why do I have to seperately license the technology?
Shouldn't I be getting some sort of secondary license to the technology by buying the product from the original licensee? It just seems crazy that a company can demand license fees at each link in the manufacturer and distribution chain. What's next, they're gonna start suing retailers?
The poster has forgotten my favorite quasi-legal russian music service, http://www.allofmp3.com/
They have no DRM what so ever, so it's great for you Linux users. Also, it's based in Russia, so it lends itself to those classic Slashdot "In Soviet Russia..." jokes. (In Soviet Russia, Music DRM You!", sorry, the lamest I could come up with)
It also has the most complete catalog (including Beatles), is priced right at $0.01 US per megabyte, and has a multitude of on-the-fly encoding options, including ogg Vorbis, Flac and mp3 up to 384 kbps. (however, I think FLAC and other "premium" encodes runs you $0.05 US per megabyte).
Suposedly it's perfectly legal under Russian copyright law, as long as they compensate the artist directly. Perhaps it's just paying for illegal music downloads that you could otherwise get off Kazaa.
RHex breaks all records for robot speed over extremely rough terrain, and is easily the fastest legged robot over flat terrain.
It also makes for a really fun remote controlled vehicle. You get it going, in a running gait, and there are actually times when it is completely airborne.
I think you're referring to Carnegie Mellon University's NavLab project. (I'd post a link, but a transformer blew up yesterday, so the RI server is down... check http://www.ri.cmu.edu in the next day or so)
The technology for autonomous highway driving is there... it's the liability laws that are going to stop it from being commercially availible for the next couple decades.
Slashdot Mirror
I second the motion for Cerebellums. They are made and sold by Botrics, however they're no longer selling them in small quantities.
The good news is they'll soon be selling an even better micro-controller board.
You read the parenthetical wrong. The subject is the Xbox 360, not the PS3. Split into two sentances, it would be:
one of the biggest annoyances out of the gate was the lack of pixel-perfect compatibility, despite being one of Sony's most touted features over Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 has to software emulate each game in its back catalog.
Mail him a check for $5. I'm sure that's more than he gets from the studios for an HD-DVD sale.
... bully the little-guy patent holder by suing even while paying license-fees. Little-guy can't get an injunction because fees are being paid, so it costs the big-corp nothing except their staff lawyers time. Little-guy then either has to pay to defend the patent out-of-pocket, or lose their patent (and any future license fees). Of course, this situation only plays out if the little-guy is a patent-troll and can't be counter-sued for patent infringement. And of course, in the end, the lawyers win.
Personally, I think "pretexting" is a much more accurate and better term for this than "social engineering".
The definition of pretext already includes the connotations of falseness and misleading. Social engineering is a complete misnomer, being, if anything, antisocial, and hardly a "skillful or artful contrivance."
And since "pretexting" is actually gaining traction in the popular media, and not "social engineering", I think you're going to have to deal.
Where's The Fucking Article? A link to a bunch of links...great.
If there are truly such systematic problems with SIGGRAPH, then there are probably sufficient other researchers interested in a new, improved computer graphics conference.
Sebastian Thrun and a few others were fed up with the quality of ICRA and IROS, so they started a wholey new conference last year, Robotics Science and Systems. It was successful, and IEEE is now even helping to organize future sessions.
Also, this kind of competition works. ICRA was noticeably better this year, as conferences will make changes in order to stay relevant.
If they don't properly affix the sticker that seals the flap, the USPS sorting machines can mangle them pretty good.
In fact, just today I received only the address flap in the mail. It must've been ripped off from the envelope (who knows what happened to the dvd), and those persistant bastards at the post office delivered just a red flap.
I've also received a disk that had the flap partially torn off. It took two days longer than normal, and the USPS had placed it in a "Sorry we damaged your mail" envelope.
So not quite the perfect solution, but still pretty good.
Because this one pushes over trees. 30 foot tall trees with 6" diameter trunks. It can basically deforest an entire area if the operator isn't careful.
They greatly improved the front-end structure in moving from Spinner v1.1 to Crusher (Spinner 2.0). Since the first vehicle was near impossible to flip over, the inversion mechanism was eliminated (they had to use a crane top flip the vehicle over, to test the inversion system period). The result is a much more durable and capable vehicle.
...robotic paper folding overlords!
Actually, they announced a Wired Remote/FM Tuner accessory.
$50 is a bit much for a radio, especially since just about every other mp3 player out there comes with an FM tuner. But now that they've finally caved on adding that feature, I think it's safe to say the 6G iPod will have a FM tuner when it comes along in 6 months.
Here's a paper that describes a system at CMU they built for such purposes.
It's not so much an issue of adding penalty time, but subtracting pause time.
Both Stanford and Sandstorm have been paused several times to prevent them from running into the back of H1ghlander. It seems the roads are too narrow in most places to allow passing to occur, hence they stop the rear robot to allow a safe following distance to accumulate. The time the robot is in pause state does not seem to be taken into account in the unofficial results on the grandchallenge.org site.
Maybe someone should edit that entry so they are no longer violating the spirit of a Wiki.
All of these software updates are driving me nuts. Under Debian it's fine, just "apt-get upgrade" and things happen fairly seamlessly. But on my windows box, updating requires downloading a new installer for each program, in some cases uninstalling the new version, and then running each new installer. These window installers all require multiple steps, and so it's just a big hassle to stay current.
Why can't more programs these days have automatic updates? Firefox does in theory. It'll check for new updates, then download the new version and start the installer for you and then break your install. Not the updating experience I'm looking for.
Why can't software updates operate more like Eclipse's update tool? Or Sun's Java update? Or Adobe reader's? Or dare I say it, Microsofts Windows update?
And yes, I'm lazy. This is supposed to be one of the menial tasks where computers replace people.
Team DAD's vehicle was street legal last year. It created a pretty funny situation. They brought it to the raceway the first day and were told they had to impound the vehicle for the duration of the QED. They asked "How are we going to get back to the hotel?" DARPA rented them a car.
We've had a couple of these for the past year or so. They're currently being developed into soccer-playing robots as part of Robocup.
The goal there is to have a team of humans on segways play segway robots in an actual soccer match.
The project's website, which has a movie page with a ton of movies of the thing in action is here.
So as other posters have pointed out, if you distribute patented technology, you are equally culpable.
However, my question is: If I buy an OEM product from a manufacturer that has licensed the patent to put in my own product (Apple buying a Samsung LCD for their Cinema Displays), why do I have to seperately license the technology?
Shouldn't I be getting some sort of secondary license to the technology by buying the product from the original licensee? It just seems crazy that a company can demand license fees at each link in the manufacturer and distribution chain. What's next, they're gonna start suing retailers?
Sorry, but to correct myself:
.wav.
Allofmp3 offers "Online Encoding Exclusive" on certain albums, that allows you to download in lossless formats such as FLAC and even
However, it is at the increased cost of $0.02 US per megabyte.
The poster has forgotten my favorite quasi-legal russian music service, http://www.allofmp3.com/
They have no DRM what so ever, so it's great for you Linux users. Also, it's based in Russia, so it lends itself to those classic Slashdot "In Soviet Russia..." jokes. (In Soviet Russia, Music DRM You!", sorry, the lamest I could come up with)
It also has the most complete catalog (including Beatles), is priced right at $0.01 US per megabyte, and has a multitude of on-the-fly encoding options, including ogg Vorbis, Flac and mp3 up to 384 kbps. (however, I think FLAC and other "premium" encodes runs you $0.05 US per megabyte).
Suposedly it's perfectly legal under Russian copyright law, as long as they compensate the artist directly. Perhaps it's just paying for illegal music downloads that you could otherwise get off Kazaa.
RHex breaks all records for robot speed over extremely rough terrain, and is easily the fastest legged robot over flat terrain. It also makes for a really fun remote controlled vehicle. You get it going, in a running gait, and there are actually times when it is completely airborne.
I don't know, installing it was pretty easy on my Debian box. I just typed "apt-get install mozilla-firefox". Piece of cake really.
I think you're referring to Carnegie Mellon University's NavLab project. (I'd post a link, but a transformer blew up yesterday, so the RI server is down... check http://www.ri.cmu.edu in the next day or so) The technology for autonomous highway driving is there... it's the liability laws that are going to stop it from being commercially availible for the next couple decades.