My god. That is beyond belief. Well with the current state for hollywood movies being that there is nothing new under the sun, patents on plot could shut them down for good.
If they actually get their patent on story plots, everyone at the patent office should be fired.
And let's try comparing the number of patent lawsuits filed against Microsoft to the number of patent lawsuits filed by Microsoft. How does this translate to Microsoft abusing the system?
This is exactly why I want Microsoft to lose one of these patent suits and lose BIG. I mean to the tune of billions of dollars. My opinion is that the only thing that will make the government stop the maddness will be when one of the big companies gets taken out behind the woodshed for a frivilous patent.
I don't myself understand how anyone could even believe that software is really patentable. All modern computer languages are context free grammars, which is a subset of all grammars, and hence all language. Patenting the written software program for what is does it exactly like patenting the plot of a book, or a certain type of story. And while the written word is copyrightable of course, I've yet to see a patent on fantasy stories set in alternate versions of Earth, or stories involving wizards, or aliend.
Software patents are absolutely wrong and the customer and market hostile american company today absolutely loves them because they eliminate the requirement to offer a quality product (or any product at all!).
That's the thing I like about open source. People don't demand help, or don't demand to have thier software used. The people creating open source software allow others to work on it, it doesn't matter if anyone else does anything with it or not. Its altruistic in what is given to all, it is not judgemental either, in that you can use it or not.
Thats why the communsim argument doesn't stick to open source. Sure the giving out of source is giving to the community, but the taking and use of open source software most often directly serves the very capitalistic viewpoint of enlightened self interest.
Open source garners the best of both worlds because it doesn't demand anything from either philosophy.
You have to hover over the cryptic arrows in the middle of the page. Apparently they are for the view from the diretion the arrow is pointing. A copule of those pics show the display.
Well said! I think you are correct about the attempt to destroy the middle class. But the saddest thing is that the elite class will be brought down as well. What they (the super greedy elite) don't realize is that we (the middle class) buy all the stuff their companies make! Currently it is like each industry in the US is hammering its workers which happen to be the customers for every other industry. I fear that when things really get rolling we'll be facing a gigantic depression that will be incredibly difficult to get out of.
What I'd like to see done is to have the US implement a Maximum Wage for publically traded companies. The CEO would only be able to bring home X dollars for their services more than the lowest paid worker at their company. Maybe a factor could be added that for years with massive job cuts their pay should be factored by being a certain percentage of their expected salary in relation to how many jobs they cut. Oh and before anyone says, what about their stock options. I say ethier give them no options or make tnem a full part of their compensation figured at full face value. CEOs have proven that they can't control their greed themselves. As much as I dislike government intervention, its time for them to step in and stop this. But of course they won't, they'll just raise the Minimum Wage, which only makes things worse as the CEOs will scramble to do more layoffs and more outsourcing.
Thats what really gets me fired up about these kind of statements. Its simple supply and demand. The basic gist of all the outsourcing hoopla in the industry is "There is no demand for IT workers." Now Gates and others bitch about how few people are going into CS. Of course nobody is going into CS, everyone has been told and even better SHOWN that there is no future in it.
Modern coporations are cutting off their nose to spite their face. Someday they will be crying in their beer about not being able to find any workers. Well they made their own bed now they've got to sleep in it.
(Sorry once I got rolling on the cliches I couldn't stop myself)
It's like they're trying to get into a small chunk of the PDA market, and a bit of the video game handheld market, but without the majority of their bonus features.
PDAs are crappy at playing (and really crappy at storing) video. I'm not sure about the lifedrive, as its straying from the traditional for PDAs, but evey PDA I've had is just poor for playing video.
What I really want is something I can watch shows recorded in Myth on by using either wireless or syncing to a good sized hard drive on the unit. Oh and no I don't want to spend $700 on it either. Maybe the video iPod will get there, or maybe it a device along the path to get there. I sure hope the price is south of $700.
On another thread it was stated that the archos video player had this problem. No one knows about the iPod. The marketability of this product goes waaay up if you can plug it into the tv (even if its limited to svideo output).
Output to a TV could spell the difference between this being a successful product and a total flop.
While I would agree that divx is processor intensive. iPods do have enough storage handle quite a few mpeg2 files.
My PVR 250 card with a fairly high bitrate takes about 2 gig per hour. You could fit 10 hours of content on a video iPod at that rate and adjusting the bitrate could get you down to 1 gig per hour pretty easily.
But the neat thing about BSG is that in "Hand of God" Appolo actually used his coutnermeasures to destroy the fuel depot. I had to rewind and watch the scene again to be sure.
You mean like one that will do miniseries of the first three DUNE novels? While I agree that alot of scifi's movies are not very good, I just don't think they can completely fill the schedule with stuff as good as BSG or the DUNE miniseries, so I'll cut them a little slack.
Sad thing is that commercial for BSG was waayyyy better then the one that followed it for NBC's new monday show ("Surface" it think?). The commercial for that show looked like it was just a series version of one of scifi's weekend monster movies.
Funny thing though. While people are apethetic about DRM and its impact they are also apethetic to copyright which is why so many illegally download mp3 s and video.
Both the problem and its draconian solutions depend on apathy.
Picture this. China becomes a member of the committee to "control" the internet. They show up to the first meeting with a list of addresses they want removed from the root servers for having "illegal" (read anti Chinese Communist) content and demand that the addresses be removed.
I do not doubt that if the UN gets oversite control of the root servers this WILL happen. I'm not saying that these sites will be eliminated, but the organization would definately go from oversight of the internet to giant political fights to control content really quickly.
You've pretty succinctly explained why this shouldn't be done.
This kind of turf war is likely to happen with a UN controlled internet.
For example, what happens when countries like China, North Korea, and many more. Demand that the UN aid them in "filtering" the internet for their citizens.
The root servers are pretty stable and things are working fine right now. Theres no need for a change to a venue where politics will rule the technology (I know there are politics already, but were talking orders of magnitude difference here).
Your post made me think of something. Why does everything in school have to have a point? Isn't learning, expanding your horizions, and experiencing life something worthwhile too?
Do our kids just need to learn how to be a good worker bee in corporate America? Is that all that's required? If thats the case they're spending too much time in school by far. School should be about sampling many different disciplines and determining what you want to do in life and also what you want to know. Learning makes well rounded individuals, if you want good workers, the thing your looking for isn't learning, its training.
You have a right to demand that your schools don't cave to the latest trends, fads, and edu-babble. Authentic assessment, alternative learning styles, etc., are ruining basic instruction.
You've got that right, currently my wife and I are fighting the School Board, along with many other parents, to stop them from bringing "Grade Alike" to our local elementary schools. Apart from being so much easier to administer, we can't see any good reason to do this. But its a tough fight. Proponents of "Grade Alike" on the School Board are not happy with the opposition they are facing on this issue, they would prefer that the parents stop showing up a their meetings.
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My god. That is beyond belief. Well with the current state for hollywood movies being that there is nothing new under the sun, patents on plot could shut them down for good.
If they actually get their patent on story plots, everyone at the patent office should be fired.
And let's try comparing the number of patent lawsuits filed against Microsoft to the number of patent lawsuits filed by Microsoft. How does this translate to Microsoft abusing the system?
This is exactly why I want Microsoft to lose one of these patent suits and lose BIG. I mean to the tune of billions of dollars. My opinion is that the only thing that will make the government stop the maddness will be when one of the big companies gets taken out behind the woodshed for a frivilous patent.
I don't myself understand how anyone could even believe that software is really patentable. All modern computer languages are context free grammars, which is a subset of all grammars, and hence all language. Patenting the written software program for what is does it exactly like patenting the plot of a book, or a certain type of story. And while the written word is copyrightable of course, I've yet to see a patent on fantasy stories set in alternate versions of Earth, or stories involving wizards, or aliend.
Software patents are absolutely wrong and the customer and market hostile american company today absolutely loves them because they eliminate the requirement to offer a quality product (or any product at all!).
No information could still be secret (unreleased).
Information format and standards would need to be mandated (ie. use XML, not some basterdized version of it for office documents).
Again, no one would be forced to participate, but participation would have benefits.
The lack of privacy is the forced mandate by communism that as I said before, open source doesn't need to adhere to.
You could still choose to give up some of your privacy for recognition and gain. And that happens alot too, look at all the blogs out there!!
You know thinking about your post...
That's the thing I like about open source. People don't demand help, or don't demand to have thier software used. The people creating open source software allow others to work on it, it doesn't matter if anyone else does anything with it or not. Its altruistic in what is given to all, it is not judgemental either, in that you can use it or not.
Thats why the communsim argument doesn't stick to open source. Sure the giving out of source is giving to the community, but the taking and use of open source software most often directly serves the very capitalistic viewpoint of enlightened self interest.
Open source garners the best of both worlds because it doesn't demand anything from either philosophy.
You have to hover over the cryptic arrows in the middle of the page. Apparently they are for the view from the diretion the arrow is pointing. A copule of those pics show the display.
C'mon the answers out there. Just google for google useage report. Oh, wait....
Well said! I think you are correct about the attempt to destroy the middle class. But the saddest thing is that the elite class will be brought down as well. What they (the super greedy elite) don't realize is that we (the middle class) buy all the stuff their companies make! Currently it is like each industry in the US is hammering its workers which happen to be the customers for every other industry. I fear that when things really get rolling we'll be facing a gigantic depression that will be incredibly difficult to get out of.
What I'd like to see done is to have the US implement a Maximum Wage for publically traded companies. The CEO would only be able to bring home X dollars for their services more than the lowest paid worker at their company. Maybe a factor could be added that for years with massive job cuts their pay should be factored by being a certain percentage of their expected salary in relation to how many jobs they cut. Oh and before anyone says, what about their stock options. I say ethier give them no options or make tnem a full part of their compensation figured at full face value. CEOs have proven that they can't control their greed themselves. As much as I dislike government intervention, its time for them to step in and stop this. But of course they won't, they'll just raise the Minimum Wage, which only makes things worse as the CEOs will scramble to do more layoffs and more outsourcing.
Thats what really gets me fired up about these kind of statements. Its simple supply and demand. The basic gist of all the outsourcing hoopla in the industry is "There is no demand for IT workers." Now Gates and others bitch about how few people are going into CS. Of course nobody is going into CS, everyone has been told and even better SHOWN that there is no future in it.
Modern coporations are cutting off their nose to spite their face. Someday they will be crying in their beer about not being able to find any workers. Well they made their own bed now they've got to sleep in it.
(Sorry once I got rolling on the cliches I couldn't stop myself)
It's like they're trying to get into a small chunk of the PDA market, and a bit of the video game handheld market, but without the majority of their bonus features.
PDAs are crappy at playing (and really crappy at storing) video. I'm not sure about the lifedrive, as its straying from the traditional for PDAs, but evey PDA I've had is just poor for playing video.
What I really want is something I can watch shows recorded in Myth on by using either wireless or syncing to a good sized hard drive on the unit. Oh and no I don't want to spend $700 on it either. Maybe the video iPod will get there, or maybe it a device along the path to get there. I sure hope the price is south of $700.
Yes, but at least (most of the time) when people are watching movies, they aren't YELLING at the same time. ;-)
On another thread it was stated that the archos video player had this problem. No one knows about the iPod. The marketability of this product goes waaay up if you can plug it into the tv (even if its limited to svideo output).
Output to a TV could spell the difference between this being a successful product and a total flop.
While I would agree that divx is processor intensive. iPods do have enough storage handle quite a few mpeg2 files.
My PVR 250 card with a fairly high bitrate takes about 2 gig per hour. You could fit 10 hours of content on a video iPod at that rate and adjusting the bitrate could get you down to 1 gig per hour pretty easily.
But the neat thing about BSG is that in "Hand of God" Appolo actually used his coutnermeasures to destroy the fuel depot. I had to rewind and watch the scene again to be sure.
Where is the thinking man's SciFi channel?
You mean like one that will do miniseries of the first three DUNE novels? While I agree that alot of scifi's movies are not very good, I just don't think they can completely fill the schedule with stuff as good as BSG or the DUNE miniseries, so I'll cut them a little slack.
Sad thing is that commercial for BSG was waayyyy better then the one that followed it for NBC's new monday show ("Surface" it think?). The commercial for that show looked like it was just a series version of one of scifi's weekend monster movies.
Kinda like what "Enterprise" was to "Star Trek".
Yeah, except Dr. Who doesn't suck.
Funny thing though. While people are apethetic about DRM and its impact they are also apethetic to copyright which is why so many illegally download mp3 s and video.
Both the problem and its draconian solutions depend on apathy.
This is going to bite a lot of people. And whos to say they aren't worknig on the same thing for audio content.
What has this got to do with domain names?
Picture this. China becomes a member of the committee to "control" the internet. They show up to the first meeting with a list of addresses they want removed from the root servers for having "illegal" (read anti Chinese Communist) content and demand that the addresses be removed.
I do not doubt that if the UN gets oversite control of the root servers this WILL happen. I'm not saying that these sites will be eliminated, but the organization would definately go from oversight of the internet to giant political fights to control content really quickly.
You've pretty succinctly explained why this shouldn't be done.
This kind of turf war is likely to happen with a UN controlled internet.
For example, what happens when countries like China, North Korea, and many more. Demand that the UN aid them in "filtering" the internet for their citizens.
The root servers are pretty stable and things are working fine right now. Theres no need for a change to a venue where politics will rule the technology (I know there are politics already, but were talking orders of magnitude difference here).
But I was under the impression that authors and publishers could not have any impact on any sales/giveaways after the first sale.
It was a joke..
;-)
But your point about entering expressions is spot on. I loved my 15c and 42s in college. Please no comments from elite peole with 48sxs.
Your post made me think of something. Why does everything in school have to have a point? Isn't learning, expanding your horizions, and experiencing life something worthwhile too?
Do our kids just need to learn how to be a good worker bee in corporate America? Is that all that's required? If thats the case they're spending too much time in school by far. School should be about sampling many different disciplines and determining what you want to do in life and also what you want to know. Learning makes well rounded individuals, if you want good workers, the thing your looking for isn't learning, its training.
You have a right to demand that your schools don't cave to the latest trends, fads, and edu-babble. Authentic assessment, alternative learning styles, etc., are ruining basic instruction.
You've got that right, currently my wife and I are fighting the School Board, along with many other parents, to stop them from bringing "Grade Alike" to our local elementary schools. Apart from being so much easier to administer, we can't see any good reason to do this. But its a tough fight. Proponents of "Grade Alike" on the School Board are not happy with the opposition they are facing on this issue, they would prefer that the parents stop showing up a their meetings.
If using calculators is too easy for kids, then make it harder for them. Force them to use RPN calculators!!!