LAAAAG! laaaaag! The great thing is - bringing users to linux... pause a game... switch to X... and have the characters jump out and blast each other...
spawn-kill processes...
My idea of a computer is an optical device that projects a virtual desktop any chape and size... projects it into your mind as if it is on the side of a building, the newspaper you are looking at... a particularly sexy ass on the subway...
also a virtual keyboard you can type on... just don't type when chekcing out a lasses chest... the funny finger movements aimed her way might be misinterpreted... the next thing you know our slapd.
and then take a screenshot of a bittorrent client in 3d, and then post it to the java.net guys and say 'thanks for saving my upstream, and the upstream of 100,000 others, PS: I hope your network cables cool down soon.'
As a linux user (that is user, not developer) I am pained when I find it very hard to google up why my keyboard input it pausing every 1 second for a split second, eating a key. It i enogh t rendr m txt unradble.
I am psyched about trying the 3d desktop, I am downloading it, I am happy that they did it. I am just sad they had to!
I went into a couple #linux places and I got some great advice, but the overwhelming advice was, have you tried slack? debian? red hat? do you get this problem in puppy linux? slax? vector? dsl? ubuntu? Wait, I am writing a script for you now... you need ruby installed though... (ruby to basically do rename S* K*... GNU people, please write a rn command! (or 'rename'));-) mv just doesn't do it for me!
Or the great: run GentOo!!11 reply, as if magically architecture optimised builds are going to magically fix whatever mod conflict is causing this.
Anyway, I realise that this is great, but also that even programmers like me have an issue where the redundancy of thier machines and time isn't always enough to stretch to trying new things on linux, and when something breaks a new distro isn't always the answer.
Strips must be a minimum of two panels, however, artists may produce one single panel strip per every 10 strips.
No posting of sketches.
Yeah ok, so I mspaint a strip with two squares in it (how do you define panel? stupid!) They do not make a subjective metric on what is a 'submission'.
I could just relentlessly post a shit strip every day, not ovetly shit, just, subjectively, spend 5 mins on a 'quirky' strip.
use a standard 2 stripe bmp template in mspaint... cron job it to load in gimp at 8am every day...
draw two stick men, colour them in...
Submit the drawing that produces as a two page 'not sketch' (how do you define sketch?)
if you are not overtly crap, and quote Larson on 'you don't get paid for the ink' people will have to let you slide.
Then those with integrity to loose will realise you are unbeatable and they will slowly relent one day when they realise they are keeping too much going against you, and you will NEVER quit.
one might keep going just to spite you, but then you say ok pal, you win, whats your address, ill mailyou the cheque, and then...
Honestly, they must be pre-approved... you wouldn't kill your readership...but I bet if someone isn't doing a daily then their creativity must suffer if they are 'forced' to do so. I see this going forever. I mean, it is easy to pump one out if you are aiming for that, and are not worried about it making too much sense.
A lot of comics don't make too much sense!
The art is only part of it.
Penny arcade should become a daily. I mean, you hit it daily to see if it updates... they should go daily to be more appealing. Don't they do it full time?
They don't have a standard 'show' they regularly cut around into diff formats. Exploitation-now was a very cool comic, full of utter random quick thinking but worked.
I was about to say the same thing. Although he already quit.
I know people who stayed at a job when it went from M$ to Java, never learnt java, and spent 12 months sitting motionless in front of thier monitors, or steadily and noisily consuming painstakingly prepared (not ordered in like the rest of us actually doing work) toasts and other foods, while idly distracting us with chat.
You start off thinking ok lucky them getting paid to learn to program a new language... then you think oh poor guys, might loose thier job, then you hate htem for being leeches... until the lighter of justice burns them off the golden skin on the company.
You can then play 'stationary rush' where you steal all thier hoarded stationary, that stapler they always ask you to put back, (wtf?) and they usually have that extra side desk thing, even though they need it less.
My advice: work somewhere while it is fun to work, when it becomes less fun, start looking at what YOU WANT TO DO. see what it will take to get there.
When to leave? I handed in my notice 2 days after I signed for almost double my (already above market average) salary. I told them I was unhappy, and I was going to look for another job, they gradually offered me a 50% (50%!) rise, all the time thinking I had no other job... but I said no money could keep me there... dropped some names as to why... then left.
Ultimate damage:-) (esp since if they feel you are going because you have too, they don't pressure you to do all those annoying things like document where you have kept backups for the last 54 months.:-):-) (and other eratta like server passwords, cvs setups, which disk is which, what is that new raid you installed? where is the key to the server room? how do I turn on the coffee machine or refill it when empty?)
Also if the only hot piece of ass is leaving, you might as well leave too. If you are male or female, single or not... if you don't work with a hot piece of unpretentious ass, life is just dull.
Library card applications have gone through the roof!
I think it is a good idea... because as an adult I do not feel particularly good about reading a novel... I know I am wasting my time, there is nothing more noble about reading a Pratchett or seeing a movie, or playing a computer game.
Plus it'll cut the cost for kids, and let them choose more. I say good.
When it was announced last year that Gates was to be knighted, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw paid tribute to him.
"(Gates) is one of the most important business leaders of his age," he said. "Microsoft technology has transformed business practices and his company has had a profound impact on the British economy."
Yes, at last count in 2004 it cost the UK economy BILLIONS (a rather round figure) of pounds.
As for changing business practices.. well Microsoft haven't yet forced thier patent strategy onto us, so right now we are not all suckling from thier fetid teat.
Numbers you can get charged to call? For voice services?
Many *cough* numbers in some magazines terminate in S.American countries... If everyone gets used to 'net based comms, free data exchange etc, how will these sex lines survive?
At least ISP support lines would still work;-) [unless we have a redundant network layer for VoIP...]
I have the word VoIP... just call it streaming audio.
This technology is really invisibility in the sense that it stops light scattering, but for visible light would only work for microscopic items...
Which must be working because right now I so not see many single microscopic items anyway...
It can't be used to conceal guns from Xrays, which use 0.1nm-20nm wavelegths.
Hiding missiles from radio based radar? Possible?
So shielding from visible light would be possible only for microscopic objects; larger ones could be hidden only to long-wavelength radiation such as microwaves. This means that the technology could not be used to hide people or vehicles from human vision.
Also the 'inventiveness' of the invisibility cloak is much less than its engineering feat.
We all have our own ideas about projecting the view behind your onto the front... from all angles... technically how to do it flexible, and stop illumination / shadow is very hard.
Not impossible, with some very clever technology that can 'feel' its own shape, and sense light conditions, can absorb almost all light (be dark even in bright light, if a shadow is behind you), and shine as bright as the sun on a rock (if you are in the shade, but a bright rock is behind you, and you cannot use the sun on the material to compensate)
This would require some l33t processing skills to handle the data.
1) They tried to 'dirty' open source, and still do, calling it viral, commie... dirty words in the US/IT dictionary.
2) Open source is a big buzz word, something each IT manager is worrying his job over.
3) Open source is seen as growing competition against M$, they want to remove any unique selling points
4) pressure from gov's looking to switch to open source
IBM have opensourced a DB, sun have/are about to.
So Microsoft invent shared source... I thin they were forced to do this... so they went along... it is pathetic at least.
Now they are trying to us thier 'shared source' to confuse the unwashed masses that microsoft has the benefits of open source... the best of both worlds... pathetic shit like that.
Where is the press release on thier website? How come WHen the assholes announce something they include it on thier own hosting site, but when they screw over something that is providing compatibility in the name of 'anti-piracy' (I knew the US gov would help M$ through all this anti-monopoly stuff) they just nod and wink to zdnet?
Post a full damn page and explanation on your site you fscking whoring bitches.
Programmers deal in logic. Logic has an undeniable complexity. You can only simplify and describe behaviours in certain ways. If you try and re-write it in a way that doesn't reflect the true nature of the system you will certianly introduce bugs later on.
I believe most systems are programmable in one way, the core system, when you add frills and ui, it explodes into possibilities, but the logic of the system, at key points, it tied to your plan.
if you plan says that if Y == A, then X *must* == B, then there is a finite way you can code this.
Compilers on the other hand have to write the best code fo rhtis, again if the compiler is too clever then the window for compiler bugs increases.
So you shouldn't obfuscate a program to streamline it, as you will no doubt end up loosing this performance later on when you have to work around your constrictive programming.
practical advice?
Code predictively, do what the compiler expects. Very eay to do in Java. and of course, always let the compiler optimise.
Any optimisation of our 'program code' may well actually not translate into optmized object code... as high level languages might allow us to make 'optomized' code lines, but they translate into leg work at lower levels, leg work that reflects the convienience of the higher level of abtraction in your 'optimized code'.
A new kilogram with equal an old kilogram. This will only make a difference to the history books and those who actually want to make thier own 'kilogram'.
I can imagine how many 'net savvy drug runners are looking at this and thinking, 'shit, I have snorted too much coke, does this affect my business? whats a planck? oh man, Avocado constant? [sic]
I say since the kilogram was an arbitrary measurement (in any definition) then why try and make it more formalised? I realised that celcius fit nicely with pure water at sea level freezing and boiling, and other measures have thier own basis (has the definitions have changed). Take my friend the meter. I always use the old skool definitions for rules of thumb.
Year Definition 1793 1 / 10 000 000 of the distance from the pole to the equator. 1795 Provisional meter bar constructed in brass. 1799 Definitive prototype meter bars constructed in platinum. 1889 International prototype meter bar in platinum-iridium, cross-section X. 1906 1 000 000 / 0.643 846 96 wavelengths in air of the red line of the cadmium spectrum. 1960 1 650 763.73 wavelengths in vacuum of the radiation corresponding to the transition between levels 2p10 and 5d5 of the krypton-86 atom. 1983 Length traveled by light in vacuum during 1 / 299 792 458 of a second.
So you see, a meter was the same in all these cases, but they just wanted to act clever.
The thing is, after world war 3, which measure will be easiest to revert to for a meter? trying to find scientist who can measure "Length traveled by light in vacuum during 1 / 299 792 458 of a second." or just comparing a brass stick with a length of wood while trying to build something using pre-existing specs (that you are relying on to build a post WW3 bridge).;-)
A blog is something you expect people to read a published article, a comment on slashdot is written under time pressure because IRL I am 10% keeping my head above water with recent events, 90% working. For a 10 hour day that works out.
So if you want to bitch and moan about my writing style in the context of a/. comment post, do so, but if you want to say the same standard applies to what the word 'blog' has come to denote, then get yourself a pineapple and a tube of KY and have a great fucking time. Same for your child post.
From the 'oh look at me Farquad, my English is so superior' department.
Thought of the day - pressure sensitive optical mouse... shaped like a pen... pressure sensitive optical pen. Less precise than a tablet pen? of course the whole 'trace' or relative aspects are diminished. still a handy portable input device. Wireless of course. Bluetooth perhaps.
Well web logs (hey I don't use 'blogs or blogs anymore) are for that, but they are not used for that, they are used for hordes of people to 'ultra-link' to one source of information and then 'gossip' about it, each one eeking out thier own little errors, that that whisper game.
I don't mind reading web logs about pseudo-intellectual 19 year old whining that they are two skinny and that they are sad they have to rely on thier parents cash to buy themselves icecream (true web log I read when I was looking into how utterly fucking demented web logs are).
But when that same girl starts uber-linking to other web logs and stories and adding:
ZOMG!!!11111 EVAR!!!11 aaaaaargh!!11 amifat? commentary that ends up on googles bot, then I just feel that the IQ quotient inherent in the googlebot has just dropped closer to the lowest common demominator (aforementioned 19yo/ice-cream-complex/bulemic/(black fingernails?)
Just remember, googlebot is like slashdot, it is an omelette of peoples ideas, a big mixing jug of all the creative effluent of society.
Web logs just dilute (or condense, depending on your angle on my rapidly crumbling metaphore) this big mixing jug, and also are an embarrassment if some alien race is googling out there right now, excreting thier own choice of liquids into thier pants as they laugh heartily (or splutter without the use of any blood pumping device) at our mindless focus on belly button piercings, teen angst, or pimping our web logs on google.
ok, apart from the wierd metaphore quite a good post methinks.
...Make us download the files from the same place as the unwashed masses? Man, go back to linking to rough and ready nightly CVS snapshots ok!:-);-)
Congrats FF peeps, I hope the popup blocking works now... will install at work, fusk that pute first, then try at home.:D heheh:D have a good day everyone.
But in 99.999% of the patents, 'inventing' the wheel, 'developing' it from scratch, and 'copying' the idea all the exactly the same effort.
Lets examine a great rundown of patent law from golds.co.uk (thanks Fred_A)
In order to gain a patent the process must be:
* New
* Involve an Inventive step (i.e. not be obvious)
* Must have an application - this is in an industrial sense so it must be exploitable and possible.
* It must also not belong to an excluded class of subjects which include discoveries, methods, artworks, or processes. As a quick and dirty guide, you cannot patent an idea but you can patent something which uses the idea. It is also important to recognise that there are differences between UK and, for example, USA law in this area. The most obvious is that computer software and business methods are not, generally, patentable here. They are in the USA. For more detail see the UK Patent Office at www.patent.gov.uk.
What companies with larger bank balances are doing is an aggressive first into market approach, where market is a well established known area waiting to be developed - they then play 'closing the garden gate'. As they go through they entirely aritrary approach to programming for this area, they are able to post patents for not only the 'software method blah blah' but in doing so stop anyone else who is actually working to develop something the same.
I write a word processor (using an old paradigm deliberately) but a big company gets there first and sandbags all development (which flows thorugh natural course).
That way they 1) give themselves armour against crop. B who has closed the garden path on a diff tech 2) stop startsups making something better and leveraging the internet to get a foothold and grow into non-startups, and depriving the mother corp. of a nice extra pot to store thier fat fingers.
What ensues costs the industry a lot, is not good for the consumer, and most of the time kills off little guys.
The important point here is that thier patents are just like the land rush of the states.
There are hundreds of programs I want to write, and could, but I am one guy, with enough venture capital we could rush in and mark off lots of land, and build business on this new idea space that is opening up every day with new innovations (wireless apps, standards etc) that give rise to new software oopourtunities by thier very nature (i.e. the solutions is defined by something else).
But big corps are goingin and placing patent landmines in the land, to stop others getting anything running.
They usually put out something mediocre (to get the patents) and then wait for another company either to get established, and then flurry more development, hit them with patents, and knock them out, and then wait for the next challenger.
Never investing more in development than they need. msnsearch is a good example. albeit stupidly executed on the part of the bad guy.
Microsoft have given up on being a monopoly, they are letting the USPTO do it for them
Do you ahve any evidence that MS are suing anyone for patent violation? I know they're filing for a lot of patents, but so are IBM, etc.
No suing is far to petty for them. They just email thier corps and gets nice new headlines saying 'XYZ project infringes patent'. Patents are like guns in a knife fight. You don't really have to fire them to win the fight.
Mircosoft own IP in opengl, I am sure some whoresome games developers (EA?) are thinking about not doing linux stuff (gl only) because of this.
Basically, the sandbag theory is you artificially inflate the cost of entry to market with patents, and also hang big 'beware of the monopolies' sign up for new comers with ideas of rebellion.
Where would google be if M$ had been more proactive of the net all those years ago (where would the net be?) (I dropped the 'net - just net know)
keep exporting your fast food and k3wl choons!
Actually, if it was up to me, they could keep them too; I don't eat burgers or listen to very much American music. That's just me though:-)
Slashdot Mirror
LAAAAG! laaaaag! The great thing is - bringing users to linux... pause a game... switch to X... and have the characters jump out and blast each other...
spawn-kill processes...
My idea of a computer is an optical device that projects a virtual desktop any chape and size... projects it into your mind as if it is on the side of a building, the newspaper you are looking at... a particularly sexy ass on the subway...
also a virtual keyboard you can type on... just don't type when chekcing out a lasses chest... the funny finger movements aimed her way might be misinterpreted... the next thing you know our slapd.
and then take a screenshot of a bittorrent client in 3d, and then post it to the java.net guys and say 'thanks for saving my upstream, and the upstream of 100,000 others, PS: I hope your network cables cool down soon.'
:-)
TORRENT IT NEXT TIME!!
verbatim quote, I kid you not:
is the interference of single electrons in a Young's double slit.
Yeah, 'interference'... Young's double 'slit'.... where do I sign up? Some of the curves on the graph were not work safe!
Is this porn for those who never see the light of day?
As a linux user (that is user, not developer) I am pained when I find it very hard to google up why my keyboard input it pausing every 1 second for a split second, eating a key. It i enogh t rendr m txt unradble.
;-) mv just doesn't do it for me!
:-)
I am psyched about trying the 3d desktop, I am downloading it, I am happy that they did it. I am just sad they had to!
I went into a couple #linux places and I got some great advice, but the overwhelming advice was, have you tried slack? debian? red hat? do you get this problem in puppy linux? slax? vector? dsl? ubuntu? Wait, I am writing a script for you now... you need ruby installed though... (ruby to basically do rename S* K*... GNU people, please write a rn command! (or 'rename'))
Or the great: run GentOo!!11 reply, as if magically architecture optimised builds are going to magically fix whatever mod conflict is causing this.
Anyway, I realise that this is great, but also that even programmers like me have an issue where the redundancy of thier machines and time isn't always enough to stretch to trying new things on linux, and when something breaks a new distro isn't always the answer.
Enough about that, give me my 3d desktop!!!!
Strips must be a minimum of two panels, however, artists may produce one single panel strip per every 10 strips.
No posting of sketches.
Yeah ok, so I mspaint a strip with two squares in it (how do you define panel? stupid!) They do not make a subjective metric on what is a 'submission'.
I could just relentlessly post a shit strip every day, not ovetly shit, just, subjectively, spend 5 mins on a 'quirky' strip.
use a standard 2 stripe bmp template in mspaint... cron job it to load in gimp at 8am every day...
draw two stick men, colour them in...
Submit the drawing that produces as a two page 'not sketch' (how do you define sketch?)
if you are not overtly crap, and quote Larson on 'you don't get paid for the ink' people will have to let you slide.
Then those with integrity to loose will realise you are unbeatable and they will slowly relent one day when they realise they are keeping too much going against you, and you will NEVER quit.
one might keep going just to spite you, but then you say ok pal, you win, whats your address, ill mailyou the cheque, and then...
YOU KILL HIM! muahahhahaah
Honestly, they must be pre-approved... you wouldn't kill your readership...but I bet if someone isn't doing a daily then their creativity must suffer if they are 'forced' to do so. I see this going forever. I mean, it is easy to pump one out if you are aiming for that, and are not worried about it making too much sense.
:-(
A lot of comics don't make too much sense!
The art is only part of it.
Penny arcade should become a daily. I mean, you hit it daily to see if it updates... they should go daily to be more appealing. Don't they do it full time?
They don't have a standard 'show' they regularly cut around into diff formats. Exploitation-now was a very cool comic, full of utter random quick thinking but worked.
then it stopped
I was about to say the same thing. Although he already quit.
:-) (esp since if they feel you are going because you have too, they don't pressure you to do all those annoying things like document where you have kept backups for the last 54 months. :-) :-) (and other eratta like server passwords, cvs setups, which disk is which, what is that new raid you installed? where is the key to the server room? how do I turn on the coffee machine or refill it when empty?)
I know people who stayed at a job when it went from M$ to Java, never learnt java, and spent 12 months sitting motionless in front of thier monitors, or steadily and noisily consuming painstakingly prepared (not ordered in like the rest of us actually doing work) toasts and other foods, while idly distracting us with chat.
You start off thinking ok lucky them getting paid to learn to program a new language... then you think oh poor guys, might loose thier job, then you hate htem for being leeches... until the lighter of justice burns them off the golden skin on the company.
You can then play 'stationary rush' where you steal all thier hoarded stationary, that stapler they always ask you to put back, (wtf?) and they usually have that extra side desk thing, even though they need it less.
My advice: work somewhere while it is fun to work, when it becomes less fun, start looking at what YOU WANT TO DO. see what it will take to get there.
When to leave? I handed in my notice 2 days after I signed for almost double my (already above market average) salary. I told them I was unhappy, and I was going to look for another job, they gradually offered me a 50% (50%!) rise, all the time thinking I had no other job... but I said no money could keep me there... dropped some names as to why... then left.
Ultimate damage
Also if the only hot piece of ass is leaving, you might as well leave too. If you are male or female, single or not... if you don't work with a hot piece of unpretentious ass, life is just dull.
We are not all star wars nerds you insensitive clod!
Library card applications have gone through the roof!
I think it is a good idea... because as an adult I do not feel particularly good about reading a novel... I know I am wasting my time, there is nothing more noble about reading a Pratchett or seeing a movie, or playing a computer game.
Plus it'll cut the cost for kids, and let them choose more. I say good.
When it was announced last year that Gates was to be knighted, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw paid tribute to him.
"(Gates) is one of the most important business leaders of his age," he said. "Microsoft technology has transformed business practices and his company has had a profound impact on the British economy."
Yes, at last count in 2004 it cost the UK economy BILLIONS (a rather round figure) of pounds.
As for changing business practices.. well Microsoft haven't yet forced thier patent strategy onto us, so right now we are not all suckling from thier fetid teat.
Gates will kneel in front of the sovereign, who will gently tap him on the shoulder with a sword
I think this is a mockery of the title. Not that I am for titles, but this is a mockery of it!
I say take a swing!
Queen: "Blue screen of death? ill give you blue screen of death!"
Then we would just have a fork that kept up with main branch releases, and removed the bollocks we didn't want.
that is all.
Numbers you can get charged to call? For voice services?
;-) [unless we have a redundant network layer for VoIP...]
Many *cough* numbers in some magazines terminate in S.American countries... If everyone gets used to 'net based comms, free data exchange etc, how will these sex lines survive?
At least ISP support lines would still work
I have the word VoIP... just call it streaming audio.
ok.
This technology is really invisibility in the sense that it stops light scattering, but for visible light would only work for microscopic items...
Which must be working because right now I so not see many single microscopic items anyway...
It can't be used to conceal guns from Xrays, which use 0.1nm-20nm wavelegths.
Hiding missiles from radio based radar? Possible?
So shielding from visible light would be possible only for microscopic objects; larger ones could be hidden only to long-wavelength radiation such as microwaves. This means that the technology could not be used to hide people or vehicles from human vision.
Also the 'inventiveness' of the invisibility cloak is much less than its engineering feat.
We all have our own ideas about projecting the view behind your onto the front... from all angles... technically how to do it flexible, and stop illumination / shadow is very hard.
Not impossible, with some very clever technology that can 'feel' its own shape, and sense light conditions, can absorb almost all light (be dark even in bright light, if a shadow is behind you), and shine as bright as the sun on a rock (if you are in the shade, but a bright rock is behind you, and you cannot use the sun on the material to compensate)
This would require some l33t processing skills to handle the data.
1) They tried to 'dirty' open source, and still do, calling it viral, commie... dirty words in the US/IT dictionary.
2) Open source is a big buzz word, something each IT manager is worrying his job over.
3) Open source is seen as growing competition against M$, they want to remove any unique selling points
4) pressure from gov's looking to switch to open source
IBM have opensourced a DB, sun have/are about to.
So Microsoft invent shared source... I thin they were forced to do this... so they went along... it is pathetic at least.
Now they are trying to us thier 'shared source' to confuse the unwashed masses that microsoft has the benefits of open source... the best of both worlds... pathetic shit like that.
still, doesn't work on me.
Where is the press release on thier website? How come WHen the assholes announce something they include it on thier own hosting site, but when they screw over something that is providing compatibility in the name of 'anti-piracy' (I knew the US gov would help M$ through all this anti-monopoly stuff) they just nod and wink to zdnet?
Post a full damn page and explanation on your site you fscking whoring bitches.
Programmers deal in logic. Logic has an undeniable complexity. You can only simplify and describe behaviours in certain ways. If you try and re-write it in a way that doesn't reflect the true nature of the system you will certianly introduce bugs later on.
I believe most systems are programmable in one way, the core system, when you add frills and ui, it explodes into possibilities, but the logic of the system, at key points, it tied to your plan.
if you plan says that if Y == A, then X *must* == B, then there is a finite way you can code this.
Compilers on the other hand have to write the best code fo rhtis, again if the compiler is too clever then the window for compiler bugs increases.
So you shouldn't obfuscate a program to streamline it, as you will no doubt end up loosing this performance later on when you have to work around your constrictive programming.
practical advice?
Code predictively, do what the compiler expects. Very eay to do in Java. and of course, always let the compiler optimise.
Any optimisation of our 'program code' may well actually not translate into optmized object code... as high level languages might allow us to make 'optomized' code lines, but they translate into leg work at lower levels, leg work that reflects the convienience of the higher level of abtraction in your 'optimized code'.
mmm
They are cleaning the definition, not the value.
;-)
A new kilogram with equal an old kilogram. This will only make a difference to the history books and those who actually want to make thier own 'kilogram'.
I can imagine how many 'net savvy drug runners are looking at this and thinking, 'shit, I have snorted too much coke, does this affect my business? whats a planck? oh man, Avocado constant? [sic]
I say since the kilogram was an arbitrary measurement (in any definition) then why try and make it more formalised? I realised that celcius fit nicely with pure water at sea level freezing and boiling, and other measures have thier own basis (has the definitions have changed). Take my friend the meter. I always use the old skool definitions for rules of thumb.
Year Definition
1793 1 / 10 000 000 of the distance from the pole to the equator.
1795 Provisional meter bar constructed in brass.
1799 Definitive prototype meter bars constructed in platinum.
1889 International prototype meter bar in platinum-iridium, cross-section X.
1906 1 000 000 / 0.643 846 96 wavelengths in air of the red line of the cadmium spectrum.
1960 1 650 763.73 wavelengths in vacuum of the radiation corresponding to the transition between levels 2p10 and 5d5 of the krypton-86 atom.
1983 Length traveled by light in vacuum during 1 / 299 792 458 of a second.
So you see, a meter was the same in all these cases, but they just wanted to act clever.
The thing is, after world war 3, which measure will be easiest to revert to for a meter? trying to find scientist who can measure "Length traveled by light in vacuum during 1 / 299 792 458 of a second." or just comparing a brass stick with a length of wood while trying to build something using pre-existing specs (that you are relying on to build a post WW3 bridge).
A blog is something you expect people to read a published article, a comment on slashdot is written under time pressure because IRL I am 10% keeping my head above water with recent events, 90% working. For a 10 hour day that works out.
/. comment post, do so, but if you want to say the same standard applies to what the word 'blog' has come to denote, then get yourself a pineapple and a tube of KY and have a great fucking time. Same for your child post.
So if you want to bitch and moan about my writing style in the context of a
From the 'oh look at me Farquad, my English is so superior' department.
Thought of the day - pressure sensitive optical mouse... shaped like a pen... pressure sensitive optical pen. Less precise than a tablet pen? of course the whole 'trace' or relative aspects are diminished. still a handy portable input device. Wireless of course. Bluetooth perhaps.
Well web logs (hey I don't use 'blogs or blogs anymore) are for that, but they are not used for that, they are used for hordes of people to 'ultra-link' to one source of information and then 'gossip' about it, each one eeking out thier own little errors, that that whisper game.
I don't mind reading web logs about pseudo-intellectual 19 year old whining that they are two skinny and that they are sad they have to rely on thier parents cash to buy themselves icecream (true web log I read when I was looking into how utterly fucking demented web logs are).
But when that same girl starts uber-linking to other web logs and stories and adding:
ZOMG!!!11111 EVAR!!!11 aaaaaargh!!11 amifat? commentary that ends up on googles bot, then I just feel that the IQ quotient inherent in the googlebot has just dropped closer to the lowest common demominator (aforementioned 19yo/ice-cream-complex/bulemic/(black fingernails?)
Just remember, googlebot is like slashdot, it is an omelette of peoples ideas, a big mixing jug of all the creative effluent of society.
Web logs just dilute (or condense, depending on your angle on my rapidly crumbling metaphore) this big mixing jug, and also are an embarrassment if some alien race is googling out there right now, excreting thier own choice of liquids into thier pants as they laugh heartily (or splutter without the use of any blood pumping device) at our mindless focus on belly button piercings, teen angst, or pimping our web logs on google.
ok, apart from the wierd metaphore quite a good post methinks.
...Make us download the files from the same place as the unwashed masses? Man, go back to linking to rough and ready nightly CVS snapshots ok! :-) ;-)
:D heheh :D have a good day everyone.
Congrats FF peeps, I hope the popup blocking works now... will install at work, fusk that pute first, then try at home.
But in 99.999% of the patents, 'inventing' the wheel, 'developing' it from scratch, and 'copying' the idea all the exactly the same effort.
Lets examine a great rundown of patent law from golds.co.uk (thanks Fred_A)
In order to gain a patent the process must be:
* New
* Involve an Inventive step (i.e. not be obvious)
* Must have an application - this is in an industrial sense so it must be exploitable and possible.
* It must also not belong to an excluded class of subjects which include discoveries, methods, artworks, or processes. As a quick and dirty guide, you cannot patent an idea but you can patent something which uses the idea. It is also important to recognise that there are differences between UK and, for example, USA law in this area. The most obvious is that computer software and business methods are not, generally, patentable here. They are in the USA. For more detail see the UK Patent Office at www.patent.gov.uk.
What companies with larger bank balances are doing is an aggressive first into market approach, where market is a well established known area waiting to be developed - they then play 'closing the garden gate'. As they go through they entirely aritrary approach to programming for this area, they are able to post patents for not only the 'software method blah blah' but in doing so stop anyone else who is actually working to develop something the same.
I write a word processor (using an old paradigm deliberately) but a big company gets there first and sandbags all development (which flows thorugh natural course).
That way they 1) give themselves armour against crop. B who has closed the garden path on a diff tech 2) stop startsups making something better and leveraging the internet to get a foothold and grow into non-startups, and depriving the mother corp. of a nice extra pot to store thier fat fingers.
What ensues costs the industry a lot, is not good for the consumer, and most of the time kills off little guys.
The important point here is that thier patents are just like the land rush of the states.
There are hundreds of programs I want to write, and could, but I am one guy, with enough venture capital we could rush in and mark off lots of land, and build business on this new idea space that is opening up every day with new innovations (wireless apps, standards etc) that give rise to new software oopourtunities by thier very nature (i.e. the solutions is defined by something else).
But big corps are goingin and placing patent landmines in the land, to stop others getting anything running.
They usually put out something mediocre (to get the patents) and then wait for another company either to get established, and then flurry more development, hit them with patents, and knock them out, and then wait for the next challenger.
Never investing more in development than they need. msnsearch is a good example. albeit stupidly executed on the part of the bad guy.
read penny arcade, decent discussion on tv show downloading, versus dvd sales.
if you can tape it or time shift it, you can download it. stop fuckering about.
I read the comments so not to be redundant:
s/dollars/shrapnel
Otherwise I agree, why waste my taxes on a redundant service.
Why not force BBC to have EDUCATIONAL programs on computer security for mr and mrs everyday.
Microsoft have given up on being a monopoly, they are letting the USPTO do it for them
:-)
;-)
Do you ahve any evidence that MS are suing anyone for patent violation? I know they're filing for a lot of patents, but so are IBM, etc.
No suing is far to petty for them. They just email thier corps and gets nice new headlines saying 'XYZ project infringes patent'. Patents are like guns in a knife fight. You don't really have to fire them to win the fight.
Mircosoft own IP in opengl, I am sure some whoresome games developers (EA?) are thinking about not doing linux stuff (gl only) because of this.
Basically, the sandbag theory is you artificially inflate the cost of entry to market with patents, and also hang big 'beware of the monopolies' sign up for new comers with ideas of rebellion.
Where would google be if M$ had been more proactive of the net all those years ago (where would the net be?) (I dropped the 'net - just net know)
keep exporting your fast food and k3wl choons!
Actually, if it was up to me, they could keep them too; I don't eat burgers or listen to very much American music. That's just me though
I thought brits were up on sarcasm.