The rule for damage "FROM" falling objects is 1d6 per 10ft fallen to a maximum of 20d6.
I seem to recall an explanatory note that was published outside of the references --I think it must have been Dragon magazine. It said that the rule was actually "1d6 per ten feet for every ten feet fallen", but this was either misunderstood or it got edited out as redundant.
What the damage should be is: if you fall 100 feet (say), then you would sustain 1d6 damage from the first 10' fallen, 2d6 from the next 10', 3d6 from the next 10', and so forth. The last ten feet would account for 10d6 damage, so for that 100-foot fall you would take 55d6 damage (which we all know is exactly 192.5 damage since the standard deviation from 55 die rolls is next to nothing).
So, the intent of the rule is that number of d6's to roll:= (fall_distance**2 + fall_distance)/200, which would get rid of that thing about 13th-level fighter falling 100 feet and then getting up and walking away. I seem to recall that this came from Gary Gygax (or an interview with him or something).
I hope they don't restrict babies just because they assume all babies cry.
My kid is not yet 2 years old. At the age of 3 months, he flew from North America to Asia, a 15-hour direct flight. He didn't cry the whole flight, except for 2 minutes after the plane had landed while everyone was getting ready to get off, because we couldn't give him the milk bottle fast enough (everyone else was getting their luggage out, too). At that moment it must have been very annoying for the passengers for 120 seconds of continuous crying, but I'll bet you most of them hadn't even known that there was a baby sitting behind them all flight long.
At the age of 4 months, he flew back to North America. 15 hours. Zero crying.
At 5 months, 2 hour domestic flight there, and again on the return flight. Zero crying.
8 months old: again trans-Pacific flight, 15 hours each way. Cried a bit on the way there because the stupid airline didn't assign him a bassinet, saying that all six available bassinets had been taken by other babies. Turned out there were only 2 other babies on the flight. We yelled at the airline, and on the way back got a bassinet. Guess what? No crying. Duhhh... (By the way, he didn't really need a bassinet; he just needed the extra space available in the seats that have been assigned to bassinet, for those 15- hour flights. He had no bassinet on the 2-hour flight, with no problems.)
15 months old: again 15 hour flight. A bit fussier this time, but more like he was babbling loudly. (Other flights he never did this.)
17 months old: crossed the US/Canada border both ways on a 5-hour flight there and 5-hour flight back. No crying that lasted beyond 10 seconds (more like whining, a few times when he wasn't allowed to grab my full cup of water).
So, I know that there are flights where the screaming babies are just really annoying. But I'll bet you there have been flights where you didn't even know there was a baby.
Ok, wait, this looks suspiciously like Microsoft coming in late to duplicate effort and have things done the One Microsoft Way.
Q: Why should I care?... What kinds of things do you foresee doing that will actually facilitate growth or change for the better in the open source community?
A: Sam: The three specific things that the CodePlex Foundation can do are:
1) Establish a standard process and set of licenses for contribution to open source projects. No such standard currently exists, which results in duplication of effort across projects and new foundations, and increases anxiety for corporate contributors.
Excuuuse me? Isn't this what the Open Source Initiative does already? Of course, not all of the licenses and processes are standardized, because there will always be someone who doesn't agree and wants to do his/her own thing, but what makes Microsoft think they can come in here and be successful in standardizing everything?
2) Provide a legal entity for ownership of copyright for specific projects. Many projects have disorganized copyright ownership, which prevents them from relicensing and commercialization.
Doesn't the EFF ask you to transfer ownership/copyrights to them so they can take care of copyright issues?
3) Popularize a set of best practices established in the industry for sustained corporate contribution to community open source projects. Many corporations are interested in contribution and in open source licensing but lack a codified approach to doing so.
I shudder when Microsoft tries to: a) "standardize" something, and b) "popularize" it.
Incidentally, it's a pity how the CodePlex Foundation just happened to have the same name as Microsoft's forge. I mean, it's not like Microsoft has teams of lawyers just waiting to pounce on a remote name resemblance so they can sue for trademark issues. It's not like there are any corporate resources to do a name search just to see if, you know, "<your organization name>.com" has already been taken, where <your organization name> = "codeplex". I mean, being a small poor non-profit with no big corporate sponsorships from a software giant, they probably used up their meagre funds doing a domain name search for codeplex.org, codeplex.net, codeplex.tv, codeplex.mobi, codeplex.IGotMyOwnTLD, etc. Maybe they used Bing for the search.
So, I do get that CodePlex Foundation is more for corporate than homebrew projects. But I can't help but think that this is more of Microsoft throwing more money at a problem that they are culturally incapable of understanding, hoping that they can grasp and master that market.
I had previously suggested that RIAA was just a disguise, a mask used by the Big4 companies behind RIAA, and suggested that we actually refer to them by name: Warner, EMI, Sony, and Universal. Together they form the acronym WESU, as in "We sue! Yes, we do!"
Now this CRIA organization is suing. Hmm... let's see who the big members are. From TFA: "The defendants in the case are Warner Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada, the four primary members of the Canadian Recording Industry Association."
Sound familiar???? Good thing we unmasked the Big4 companies as WESU!
The N900 is about to be launched. Come on over to http://www.maemo.org/ You will be welcome, and no one will tell you what you can, or cannot do.
I'm interested in knowing more about this. Do N900 applications need to be ported or can we just grab stuff from, say, Ubuntu and have it work on the N900? I understand that I'll probably have to recompile it, but do I need to modify the source code to get it to work?
The reason I ask is, of course, because applications are key to a computer like the N900 or the iPhone surviving and thriving; even Apple says "There's an App for that." If the N900 can take advantage of the multitude of FOSS already out there for Linux, that would slingshot its power out beyond anything the iPhone can provide.
On a semi-related topic: Is the N900 shipping yet? I keep hearing stories about how it will be Real Soon Now. I ordered mine on Amazon for the reduced price of $582, but it's now on sale for $550 or so. Should I cancel my $582 order and re-preorder it at $550? I even hear rumours of a $50 rebate on top of the $550, making the effective price $500 or so. Anyone able to comment on this?
I think what you and the others that hate toolbars want is a nice little thing called Ninite. Dozens of programs including Foxit to choose from (and you can suggest more) and NO TOOLBARS. I just installed the latest Foxit in both WinXP and Win7, zero toolbars. it also makes it butt simple when you are building or repairing a PC which of the major programs you want installed without having to play "installer monkey".
Just pick the programs you want from the list, download the installer, and away you go. Has all the biggies like Chrome, Songbird, Aimp, Foxit, OO.o, Pidgen, Irfanview, etc. Really easy peasy and nice, so enjoy!
Wow, it's so easy to use! It's almost like having Synaptic for MS Windows programs!
"You don't want to be held by the GPL? Then don't use GPLed code. Is it really that difficult?"
Yes, sometimes. Here's a concrete example. I library that I wrote uses libavcodec. My library is MIT licensed, and someone who uses my library also uses an Apache licensed library (I can't remember it's name; something for parsing MPEG-4 atoms) and released his code under the BSD license. Libavcodec is normally LGPL, so this is fine. Unfortunately, there are half a dozen or so optional files in libavcodec (e.g. some MMX optimisations) that are GPL'd. Some distributions include these in their binary versions. They then can't distribute this application as well without violating the GPL (because the Apache license is not compatible with GPLv2).
No, that doesn't make sense. You're still assuming the same sense of entitlement found in people who protest that they should be able to use GPL'd code without cost.
If someone uses GPL'd code, s/he there is a price to pay. It may be seen as a lot, or a little, but with your benefit comes an obligation. You are not forced to choose that obligation; you can always choose not to use the GPL'd code. But there is equally no responsibility for the creator to let you use the code free of obligation.
Similarly, you get to use libavcodec. Someone decided that it would be licensed under LGPL, which seems to work for you. It looks like other optional files in libavcodec are GPL'd, and apparently you wish they are LGPL or other more permissive license. But there is no responsibility for the creator to let you use those GPL'd optional files.
I think it's a matter of expectation. Just as someone new to FLOSS might have the overoptimistic expectation that Free software means s/he can freeload, you might look at libAVcodec and decide, "Hey, it got good reviews on all the web sites and has all the features I want" and not realize that those optional features are GPL. But that's reality, and you (or others distributing your work) will have to decide between the cost and benefit of the GPL.
If I'm going to get a netbook the things I'm going to look at are A) Price B) Specs C) Portability and D) Drivers for non-default OSes.
agree. Even Dell is having a hard time competing on that, at least with me: I was given some leeway for a business expense purchase, so I decided to get myself a little netbook of my own. Decided on Ubuntu, checked out the Dell Mini 10 (for $350), and then started configuring. Hmm... worth upgrading the hard drive from 160GB to 250GB (you hear that, Litl? 160GB!). Also worth upgrading the battery from 3-cell to 6-cell. Before long, I had the 3year warranty, HD-resolution screen, and 2GB RAM. It weighed in at $643.
I figured I should check out a physical model, so I went to the local Compu-Frys-Buy. Well, there was an Acer Aspire One with 250GB hd and 6-cell battery, for $350. Now, granted it did not have the 3yr warranty, 2GB RAM, or HD-resolution screen... but at that price the Dellbuntu Mini 10 had 160GB hd and 3-cell battery.
I thought really hard about ordering Linux from Dell and being counted as an official Linux user, versus getting the bigger hard drive and battery from Acer with a copy of Windows 7 to wipe and replace with UNR. In the end I figured, "What the hell. I already bought an Ubuntu laptop from Dell two years ago. I'll just go save myself some money now."
So, Dell got undercut for $350. I could buy a second one and still undercut the Litl.
So: Litl, you're not quite there yet. Keep working on it.
Kubuntu developers are volunteers and have the unenviable task of setting QA vice feature development priorities given their resource constraints.
To clarify, I should emphasize my appreciation for the existence of Kubuntu and the Kubuntu maintainers.
I guess the main thing I'm griping about is not the actual work they've put into KDE 4, but the decision of management of Kubuntu to drop support for KDE 3. Things that worked before no longer do (networkmanager is one but not the only one). In fact, if they put NO changes into each succeeding version of (the KDE 3 version of) Kubuntu from 8.04 onward, but still released an updated KDE 3 version each time, it would still be helpful (we'd benefit from non-backported packages to Ubuntu in general). This would relieve the Kubuntu maintainers of the pressure of scrambling to fix KDE 4 software issues, and give them more time to work on things that the adventurous can try, while the rest of us have a KDE 3 distribution that is staid and "just works" at the expense of not being the newest flashiest thing.
Having said that, I am looking into trying to get a quick and easy "DBus-tool" command-line util (probably Python-based) running, to replace that easy-to-use, powerful and versatile "dcop" command that was for KDE 3. That would be my contribution to KDE 4, but having about 1 hour of free time per week to devote to this doesn't help, and probably someone else will write the util before me.
But I can't use KDE 4 until I figure this out (too many of my scripts rely on "dcop klipper klipper GetClipboard" or whatever the command is for retrieving text), so I need to figure DBus out before moving on, and if I work on this, might as well get a bunch of people to benefit from it. See? I *do* want to use KDE 4, but it has to "just work" like my KDE 3 setup.
Kubuntu fans can check the release notes here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KarmicKoala/RC/Kubuntu Browsing through them, I got the feeling of tired, haggard Kubuntu maintainers congratulating themselves for surviving, but not excelling in, the production of this version which still has many issues. If you read between the lines, you see that there are still quite a number of issues. "The NetworkManager applet has received some loving from its creators, and offers a more robust networking experience than it did in Kubuntu 9.04."
I went to the Feedback page https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KarmicKoala/RC/Kubuntu/Feedback to see how KDE would do in this version. This is where you get the honest criticism that tells you what problems you might encounter. Generally people are offering encouragement but the fact is that this version of Kubuntu is still not cutting it. Comments usually start with "Great release! However... " and then a list of bugs. These are bugs from before. One person says: "all bugs I noticed are still there: broken knetworkmanager, no sending via bluetooth, preview file in dolphin's context menu not working. I tried 9.10 in hope they were corrected, but they weren't."
I myself have been staying with 8.04 since that is the last version that officially supported KDE 3. (I hear that you can now get KDE 3 versions of 8.10 or 9.04, but I don't think those are official.) If I'm going to retrain myself on KDE 4, I might as well wait an extra half year and get the 10.04 Long-Term Support edition --if ever Kubuntu gets around to doing one. (8.04 was LTS for GNOME Ubuntu only, not for Kubuntu.)
I think the Kubuntu developers need to be strongly encouraged to fix existing bugs instead of putting in new features.
As an aside, regarding the "Known Issues" list for standard GNOME Ubuntu: Release notes http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910 Does anyone else think that there are more and more bugs now, and that Ubuntu simply is not the "install and use defaults" user-friendly distro that it used to be?
I get to buy a phone/PDA device with before-tax money, which effectively gives me a 40% discount on the device. The catch is, I have to pay for it before mid-November to qualify.
I am in love with the N900 and will definitely get it. Unfortunately, when I tried to pre-order it for the nice $580 price tag on Amazon, Amazon said they wouldn't charge me until the unit was ready to ship... which may not be before the mid-November deadline. (I can always buy it next year under this arrangement, but this year's opportunity to use before-tax money would be wasted.)
This illustrates one drawback of the N900: it doesn't exist yet. "Soon" might not be soon enough for me.
So I have to look elsewhere. I'm using a Treo 650 because it's most compatible with the Dellbuntu laptop I have, and a netbook doesn't really count as a "PDA-like device". I'm looking for something portable with networking capability, a rich software library (preferably open), and versatile.
My question for you is: if I want to take advantage of this arrangement to buy a PDA-like device this week, what should I get? Should I get a N810 tablet until the N900 comes out?
"The flu shot is not about preventing you from dying. It's to avoid you from getting sick and infecting other people who may have weaker immune systems and have higher risk of dying if they get sick."... Even if I'm immunized, can't I be a carrier?
Correct: you CANNOT be a carrier if you are immune.
Note that the immunization, where we (try to) render you immune, may not be successful (I think it's a 1% failure rate for the flu vaccine or something), so in that sense you might still be a carrier even if you've been immunized, if the immunization failed. But if you are immune, you will not be a carrier.
A fellow poster replied saying something like, you can't be a carrier and not get sick. This is not right; you certainly can be a carrier, and not feel sick. The virus is still in your body and you are still infectious. Now, if this falls within your definition of "sick", then it's true that "you can't be a carrier and not get sick" because, as a carrier, you'd be by (this) definition sick. But you certainly can be a carrier and not have any symptoms. But then you're not immune, and the point is that some 98-99% of people who get vaccinated for flu successfully become immune to the influenza virus (at least, those strains in the vaccine). Takes about 2 weeks to take full effect.
Anyway, this herd immunity effect is certainly beneficial, although I wouldn't say that it's the only reason we ask young healthy "I never get the flu" type people to get the flu shot; there's also the fact that flu can lay you low pretty significantly. You may not die from it, but you might have to take a week off work or something. Wouldn't you rather be playing WOW or reading Slashdot or something?
Your sig describes probably the world's second shortest chess game, but there is an even shorter game: 1. f3 e5 2. g4 Qh4++ shit! (For the net-censors out there: "shit!" comes from the old Arabic "shah-mat!" which means "the king is dead!". Yeah, that's it.)
I cant load subtitles in [VLC] unless I decompress and they have the same filename.
Just wanted to let you know that SMplayer lets you load any file as the subtitle file. Of course, Mplayer itself does, too, but some people get intimidated by the command-line. With SMplayer, you go to the Subtitles menu, click on Load, and then pick whichever file you want.
In case anyone doesn't know yet, SMplayer is a user-friendly front-end for the powerful Mplayer program. Mplayer is probably the next best thing to an omnipotent video (and audio) player, but it's a command-line program with a bewildering array of options guaranteed to intimidate the weak of heart. SMplayer is a very well done user interface, just as easy to use as VLC but allows use of most of the features of Mplayer. SMplayer is to Mplayer what Ubuntu is to Debian.
Now, it still doesn't work on zip files. I wish someone had written SMplayer with the KDE toolkit instead of GTK+; then you could use the zip Kpart and just dive right into the Zip file (or even specify the subtitle filename as "fish://mylogin@myhomemachine/mypath/mysubtitlefile" and just pull it off another machine on the SOHO net).
If I want an app through http://maemo.org/ for my soon to be N900 and some one doesn't like it, what then? See OSS and Linux doesn't have this protection that Microsoft and Apple offer.
Funny guy. I guess I'll be stuck with this "problem", too, since I plan to get a N900 this year (hope there's no delay in it coming out or I won't be able to charge it to corporate in time for their mid-November deadline).
I was wondering, though: are there enough 3rd party apps for the N900? (After all, there'd be no need for any kill switch if there aren't even any apps!) I know Maemo is Linux-based, and I should be able to compile my own OpenOffice.org suite on it, but I'm afraid of any idiosyncrasies in the system that would render most apps incompatible, like "Maemo uses NokiaFS which has no symlinks or nested directories" or something. I'm still thinking of my Zaurus SL-5500 which had approximately 2 third-party apps (3 if you install Opie) and which is now gathering dust.
Hopefully N900 users would benefit from a collection of apps built up for the N770, N800 and N810 (are they compatible? Still smarting from the PalmOS 5 switchover). If there are enough apps to warrant a kill switch, we can always do it by the honour system, sort of like the Honour System email virus: "Hi! This virus works on the honour system. Please delete a few essential files on your computer and reformat your own hard drive, then send this email to a few of your friends."
When somebody wants a patent, they give submit their designs. The patent office then publishes a description of the patent. If somebody can develop an alternative within a year (or show prior art) based solely on the description, then the invention is considered trivial, but if nobody does, then it is considered innovative, and given patent protection for 5, or maybe giving different inventions different lengths based on how innovative they are considered. Bias is against giving out the patent.
I agree, since I suggested something similar except I gave a 30-day time limit to re-invent instead of 1 year; we'll save that for another discussion.
Another item in my suggestion was that those alternative designs also get published, and get put in the public domain. After all, the point of these alternative designs is to show that the invention is trivial/obvious, and the very act of submitting them is tantamount to the inventor (of the alternative design) saying, "This should not be patentable since even someone like me can quickly come up with a design."
The advantage is that, even if the patent goes through, the alternative designs are available. Example: suppose you come up with this amazing innovation called "MP3" and submit it for a patent. I say, "That's obvious! Here's my invention, called 'Ogg THEORA'." The patent office says, "That's not the same thing! MP3 is better! Patent granted to MP3!" But someone who needs to use MP3 can now look up the patent and say, "Hey, even though I can't afford to pay the MP3 patent license fees, someone came up with an alternative called Ogg THEORA, so I'll use that instead!"
If your MP3 is significantly better than my Ogg THEORA, then people will pay you to use the patent license, but you wouldn't be able to charge an exorbitant amount since that would just drive more people to use Ogg THEORA. If your MP3 sucks, then you're out of luck: you get the patent but no one will want to pay for the license.
Agree with the rest of your post about greatly shortening the lifetime of the patent.
EMI is one of the big four RIAA member labels, along with Sony, Universal, and Warner.
On a slight tangent: the RIAA is a nice big scapegoat name that people can hate while its member companies dodge the bad press. I've always thought that we should come up with a nice acronym/nickname for the Four Big Labels so that people can keep them in mind when they reference the RIAA, but a suitable acronym only occurred to me just now: "WE SU", because they sue everyone!
So now Warner, EMI, Sony and Universal can have their new slogan: "RIAA: WE SU!"
In doing so, his decision referenced Jason B. Wacha, Taking the Case: Is the GPL Enforceable, an article in SANTA CLARA COMPUTER & HIGH TECH. L.J. [Vol. 21] by the VP and Head Lawyer of MonteVista software. I found that article via Google; it's a step-by-step clear and concise rebuttal of 10 common claims against the GPL's validity. Mr. Wacha references the SCO vs Linux case several times.
By essentially launching a lawsuit against Linux, SCO has mobilized enough of the F/OSS community and legal IT community that enough literature was generated to be acknowledged by a US Federal Judge and to firm up the GPL's defenses and establish its validity. Thanks, SCO! It's nice to see Microsoft dollars make a real contribution to improving our world!
It's not too clear, but I would imagine that he would only check the database to see whether you've been compromised, not to get info from the database. I can imagine that you might, for example, fill in as much or as little of an info form as you want, and check if there's a match. E.g. "Q: is there a James Smith, born March 1979 (no month specified), with social insurance number ending in 378?" "A: Yes, there is a match. We have First Middle Last, birth year/month/day, full social insurance number, and two credit cards ending in 34 and 78." Then you know what you have to cancel.
What's wrong with covering the keys with your other hand? That's what I do when entering PINs. I really don't care what bystanders may think about that
Well, as I said in my posting,
your other hand might be busy covering up the screen
If the screen shows what you are typing in, then you'll want to cover the screen. This is the case when I pay at a gas station and have to enter my code to use my card: the digits are displayed on the screen for all to see. If you're typing with your right hand, then you only have your left hand to either cover the screen or cover your typing right hand, but not both.
The whole business that Clear is in is basically extorting bribes from travelers.
Agree! This whole thing of adding the TSA stupidity, and then saying, "We're making you this GREAT offer that for only $$ you can go back to the way things should be!" I was one of those who stood in line while others whizzed through the Clear-Prepaid line. I can't say I blame those Clear'd people, though --for some, it might well be worth it to pay to get rid of stupidity, although it doesn't mean that they like or agree with it.
Clear Co. deserved to go out of business. So does TSA, but that'll never happen.:P
Slashdot Mirror
I seem to recall an explanatory note that was published outside of the references --I think it must have been Dragon magazine. It said that the rule was actually "1d6 per ten feet for every ten feet fallen", but this was either misunderstood or it got edited out as redundant.
What the damage should be is: if you fall 100 feet (say), then you would sustain 1d6 damage from the first 10' fallen, 2d6 from the next 10', 3d6 from the next 10', and so forth. The last ten feet would account for 10d6 damage, so for that 100-foot fall you would take 55d6 damage (which we all know is exactly 192.5 damage since the standard deviation from 55 die rolls is next to nothing).
So, the intent of the rule is that number of d6's to roll := (fall_distance**2 + fall_distance)/200, which would get rid of that thing about 13th-level fighter falling 100 feet and then getting up and walking away. I seem to recall that this came from Gary Gygax (or an interview with him or something).
Point taken! It reminds me of this poster we had in our test lab where I first worked:
(in big bold letters)
We're making REAL PROGRESS!
(in much smaller letters underneath)
Things are getting worse at a slower rate.
I hope they don't restrict babies just because they assume all babies cry.
My kid is not yet 2 years old. At the age of 3 months, he flew from North America to Asia, a 15-hour direct flight. He didn't cry the whole flight, except for 2 minutes after the plane had landed while everyone was getting ready to get off, because we couldn't give him the milk bottle fast enough (everyone else was getting their luggage out, too). At that moment it must have been very annoying for the passengers for 120 seconds of continuous crying, but I'll bet you most of them hadn't even known that there was a baby sitting behind them all flight long.
At the age of 4 months, he flew back to North America. 15 hours. Zero crying.
At 5 months, 2 hour domestic flight there, and again on the return flight. Zero crying.
8 months old: again trans-Pacific flight, 15 hours each way. Cried a bit on the way there because the stupid airline didn't assign him a bassinet, saying that all six available bassinets had been taken by other babies. Turned out there were only 2 other babies on the flight. We yelled at the airline, and on the way back got a bassinet. Guess what? No crying. Duhhh... (By the way, he didn't really need a bassinet; he just needed the extra space available in the seats that have been assigned to bassinet, for those 15- hour flights. He had no bassinet on the 2-hour flight, with no problems.)
15 months old: again 15 hour flight. A bit fussier this time, but more like he was babbling loudly. (Other flights he never did this.)
17 months old: crossed the US/Canada border both ways on a 5-hour flight there and 5-hour flight back. No crying that lasted beyond 10 seconds (more like whining, a few times when he wasn't allowed to grab my full cup of water).
So, I know that there are flights where the screaming babies are just really annoying. But I'll bet you there have been flights where you didn't even know there was a baby.
Ok, wait, this looks suspiciously like Microsoft coming in late to duplicate effort and have things done the One Microsoft Way.
Excuuuse me? Isn't this what the Open Source Initiative does already? Of course, not all of the licenses and processes are standardized, because there will always be someone who doesn't agree and wants to do his/her own thing, but what makes Microsoft think they can come in here and be successful in standardizing everything?
Doesn't the EFF ask you to transfer ownership/copyrights to them so they can take care of copyright issues?
I shudder when Microsoft tries to: a) "standardize" something, and b) "popularize" it.
Incidentally, it's a pity how the CodePlex Foundation just happened to have the same name as Microsoft's forge. I mean, it's not like Microsoft has teams of lawyers just waiting to pounce on a remote name resemblance so they can sue for trademark issues. It's not like there are any corporate resources to do a name search just to see if, you know, "<your organization name>.com" has already been taken, where <your organization name> = "codeplex". I mean, being a small poor non-profit with no big corporate sponsorships from a software giant, they probably used up their meagre funds doing a domain name search for codeplex.org, codeplex.net, codeplex.tv, codeplex.mobi, codeplex.IGotMyOwnTLD, etc. Maybe they used Bing for the search.
So, I do get that CodePlex Foundation is more for corporate than homebrew projects. But I can't help but think that this is more of Microsoft throwing more money at a problem that they are culturally incapable of understanding, hoping that they can grasp and master that market.
I had previously suggested that RIAA was just a disguise, a mask used by the Big4 companies behind RIAA, and suggested that we actually refer to them by name: Warner, EMI, Sony, and Universal. Together they form the acronym WESU, as in "We sue! Yes, we do!"
Now this CRIA organization is suing. Hmm... let's see who the big members are. From TFA:
"The defendants in the case are Warner Music Canada, EMI Music Canada, Sony BMG Music Canada, and Universal Music Canada, the four primary members of the Canadian Recording Industry Association."
Sound familiar???? Good thing we unmasked the Big4 companies as WESU!
I'm interested in knowing more about this. Do N900 applications need to be ported or can we just grab stuff from, say, Ubuntu and have it work on the N900? I understand that I'll probably have to recompile it, but do I need to modify the source code to get it to work?
The reason I ask is, of course, because applications are key to a computer like the N900 or the iPhone surviving and thriving; even Apple says "There's an App for that." If the N900 can take advantage of the multitude of FOSS already out there for Linux, that would slingshot its power out beyond anything the iPhone can provide.
On a semi-related topic: Is the N900 shipping yet? I keep hearing stories about how it will be Real Soon Now. I ordered mine on Amazon for the reduced price of $582, but it's now on sale for $550 or so. Should I cancel my $582 order and re-preorder it at $550? I even hear rumours of a $50 rebate on top of the $550, making the effective price $500 or so. Anyone able to comment on this?
Wow, it's so easy to use! It's almost like having Synaptic for MS Windows programs!
Mod parent INFORMATIVE: Dell says no Ubuntu yet
No, that doesn't make sense. You're still assuming the same sense of entitlement found in people who protest that they should be able to use GPL'd code without cost.
If someone uses GPL'd code, s/he there is a price to pay. It may be seen as a lot, or a little, but with your benefit comes an obligation. You are not forced to choose that obligation; you can always choose not to use the GPL'd code. But there is equally no responsibility for the creator to let you use the code free of obligation.
Similarly, you get to use libavcodec. Someone decided that it would be licensed under LGPL, which seems to work for you. It looks like other optional files in libavcodec are GPL'd, and apparently you wish they are LGPL or other more permissive license. But there is no responsibility for the creator to let you use those GPL'd optional files.
I think it's a matter of expectation. Just as someone new to FLOSS might have the overoptimistic expectation that Free software means s/he can freeload, you might look at libAVcodec and decide, "Hey, it got good reviews on all the web sites and has all the features I want" and not realize that those optional features are GPL. But that's reality, and you (or others distributing your work) will have to decide between the cost and benefit of the GPL.
agree. Even Dell is having a hard time competing on that, at least with me: I was given some leeway for a business expense purchase, so I decided to get myself a little netbook of my own. Decided on Ubuntu, checked out the Dell Mini 10 (for $350), and then started configuring. Hmm... worth upgrading the hard drive from 160GB to 250GB (you hear that, Litl? 160GB!). Also worth upgrading the battery from 3-cell to 6-cell. Before long, I had the 3year warranty, HD-resolution screen, and 2GB RAM. It weighed in at $643.
I figured I should check out a physical model, so I went to the local Compu-Frys-Buy. Well, there was an Acer Aspire One with 250GB hd and 6-cell battery, for $350. Now, granted it did not have the 3yr warranty, 2GB RAM, or HD-resolution screen ... but at that price the Dellbuntu Mini 10 had 160GB hd and 3-cell battery.
I thought really hard about ordering Linux from Dell and being counted as an official Linux user, versus getting the bigger hard drive and battery from Acer with a copy of Windows 7 to wipe and replace with UNR. In the end I figured, "What the hell. I already bought an Ubuntu laptop from Dell two years ago. I'll just go save myself some money now."
So, Dell got undercut for $350. I could buy a second one and still undercut the Litl.
So: Litl, you're not quite there yet. Keep working on it.
To clarify, I should emphasize my appreciation for the existence of Kubuntu and the Kubuntu maintainers.
I guess the main thing I'm griping about is not the actual work they've put into KDE 4, but the decision of management of Kubuntu to drop support for KDE 3. Things that worked before no longer do (networkmanager is one but not the only one). In fact, if they put NO changes into each succeeding version of (the KDE 3 version of) Kubuntu from 8.04 onward, but still released an updated KDE 3 version each time, it would still be helpful (we'd benefit from non-backported packages to Ubuntu in general). This would relieve the Kubuntu maintainers of the pressure of scrambling to fix KDE 4 software issues, and give them more time to work on things that the adventurous can try, while the rest of us have a KDE 3 distribution that is staid and "just works" at the expense of not being the newest flashiest thing.
Having said that, I am looking into trying to get a quick and easy "DBus-tool" command-line util (probably Python-based) running, to replace that easy-to-use, powerful and versatile "dcop" command that was for KDE 3. That would be my contribution to KDE 4, but having about 1 hour of free time per week to devote to this doesn't help, and probably someone else will write the util before me.
But I can't use KDE 4 until I figure this out (too many of my scripts rely on "dcop klipper klipper GetClipboard" or whatever the command is for retrieving text), so I need to figure DBus out before moving on, and if I work on this, might as well get a bunch of people to benefit from it. See? I *do* want to use KDE 4, but it has to "just work" like my KDE 3 setup.
Kubuntu fans can check the release notes here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KarmicKoala/RC/Kubuntu
Browsing through them, I got the feeling of tired, haggard Kubuntu maintainers congratulating themselves for surviving, but not excelling in, the production of this version which still has many issues. If you read between the lines, you see that there are still quite a number of issues. "The NetworkManager applet has received some loving from its creators, and offers a more robust networking experience than it did in Kubuntu 9.04."
I went to the Feedback page https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KarmicKoala/RC/Kubuntu/Feedback to see how KDE would do in this version. This is where you get the honest criticism that tells you what problems you might encounter. Generally people are offering encouragement but the fact is that this version of Kubuntu is still not cutting it. Comments usually start with "Great release! However ... " and then a list of bugs. These are bugs from before. One person says: "all bugs I noticed are still there: broken knetworkmanager, no sending via bluetooth, preview file in dolphin's context menu not working. I tried 9.10 in hope they were corrected, but they weren't."
I myself have been staying with 8.04 since that is the last version that officially supported KDE 3. (I hear that you can now get KDE 3 versions of 8.10 or 9.04, but I don't think those are official.) If I'm going to retrain myself on KDE 4, I might as well wait an extra half year and get the 10.04 Long-Term Support edition --if ever Kubuntu gets around to doing one. (8.04 was LTS for GNOME Ubuntu only, not for Kubuntu.)
I think the Kubuntu developers need to be strongly encouraged to fix existing bugs instead of putting in new features.
As an aside, regarding the "Known Issues" list for standard GNOME Ubuntu:
Release notes http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/910
Does anyone else think that there are more and more bugs now, and that Ubuntu simply is not the "install and use defaults" user-friendly distro that it used to be?
Here's a question for my fellow Slashdotters:
I get to buy a phone/PDA device with before-tax money, which effectively gives me a 40% discount on the device. The catch is, I have to pay for it before mid-November to qualify.
I am in love with the N900 and will definitely get it. Unfortunately, when I tried to pre-order it for the nice $580 price tag on Amazon, Amazon said they wouldn't charge me until the unit was ready to ship ... which may not be before the mid-November deadline. (I can always buy it next year under this arrangement, but this year's opportunity to use before-tax money would be wasted.)
This illustrates one drawback of the N900: it doesn't exist yet. "Soon" might not be soon enough for me.
So I have to look elsewhere. I'm using a Treo 650 because it's most compatible with the Dellbuntu laptop I have, and a netbook doesn't really count as a "PDA-like device". I'm looking for something portable with networking capability, a rich software library (preferably open), and versatile.
My question for you is: if I want to take advantage of this arrangement to buy a PDA-like device this week, what should I get? Should I get a N810 tablet until the N900 comes out?
Correct: you CANNOT be a carrier if you are immune.
Note that the immunization, where we (try to) render you immune, may not be successful (I think it's a 1% failure rate for the flu vaccine or something), so in that sense you might still be a carrier even if you've been immunized, if the immunization failed. But if you are immune, you will not be a carrier.
A fellow poster replied saying something like, you can't be a carrier and not get sick. This is not right; you certainly can be a carrier, and not feel sick. The virus is still in your body and you are still infectious. Now, if this falls within your definition of "sick", then it's true that "you can't be a carrier and not get sick" because, as a carrier, you'd be by (this) definition sick. But you certainly can be a carrier and not have any symptoms. But then you're not immune, and the point is that some 98-99% of people who get vaccinated for flu successfully become immune to the influenza virus (at least, those strains in the vaccine). Takes about 2 weeks to take full effect.
Anyway, this herd immunity effect is certainly beneficial, although I wouldn't say that it's the only reason we ask young healthy "I never get the flu" type people to get the flu shot; there's also the fact that flu can lay you low pretty significantly. You may not die from it, but you might have to take a week off work or something. Wouldn't you rather be playing WOW or reading Slashdot or something?
Your sig describes probably the world's second shortest chess game, but there is an even shorter game:
1. f3 e5
2. g4 Qh4++ shit!
(For the net-censors out there: "shit!" comes from the old Arabic "shah-mat!" which means "the king is dead!". Yeah, that's it.)
Just wanted to let you know that SMplayer lets you load any file as the subtitle file. Of course, Mplayer itself does, too, but some people get intimidated by the command-line. With SMplayer, you go to the Subtitles menu, click on Load, and then pick whichever file you want.
In case anyone doesn't know yet, SMplayer is a user-friendly front-end for the powerful Mplayer program. Mplayer is probably the next best thing to an omnipotent video (and audio) player, but it's a command-line program with a bewildering array of options guaranteed to intimidate the weak of heart. SMplayer is a very well done user interface, just as easy to use as VLC but allows use of most of the features of Mplayer. SMplayer is to Mplayer what Ubuntu is to Debian.
Now, it still doesn't work on zip files. I wish someone had written SMplayer with the KDE toolkit instead of GTK+; then you could use the zip Kpart and just dive right into the Zip file (or even specify the subtitle filename as "fish://mylogin@myhomemachine/mypath/mysubtitlefile" and just pull it off another machine on the SOHO net).
Funny guy. I guess I'll be stuck with this "problem", too, since I plan to get a N900 this year (hope there's no delay in it coming out or I won't be able to charge it to corporate in time for their mid-November deadline).
I was wondering, though: are there enough 3rd party apps for the N900? (After all, there'd be no need for any kill switch if there aren't even any apps!) I know Maemo is Linux-based, and I should be able to compile my own OpenOffice.org suite on it, but I'm afraid of any idiosyncrasies in the system that would render most apps incompatible, like "Maemo uses NokiaFS which has no symlinks or nested directories" or something. I'm still thinking of my Zaurus SL-5500 which had approximately 2 third-party apps (3 if you install Opie) and which is now gathering dust.
Hopefully N900 users would benefit from a collection of apps built up for the N770, N800 and N810 (are they compatible? Still smarting from the PalmOS 5 switchover). If there are enough apps to warrant a kill switch, we can always do it by the honour system, sort of like the Honour System email virus: "Hi! This virus works on the honour system. Please delete a few essential files on your computer and reformat your own hard drive, then send this email to a few of your friends."
I agree, since I suggested something similar except I gave a 30-day time limit to re-invent instead of 1 year; we'll save that for another discussion.
Another item in my suggestion was that those alternative designs also get published, and get put in the public domain. After all, the point of these alternative designs is to show that the invention is trivial/obvious, and the very act of submitting them is tantamount to the inventor (of the alternative design) saying, "This should not be patentable since even someone like me can quickly come up with a design."
The advantage is that, even if the patent goes through, the alternative designs are available. Example: suppose you come up with this amazing innovation called "MP3" and submit it for a patent. I say, "That's obvious! Here's my invention, called 'Ogg THEORA'." The patent office says, "That's not the same thing! MP3 is better! Patent granted to MP3!" But someone who needs to use MP3 can now look up the patent and say, "Hey, even though I can't afford to pay the MP3 patent license fees, someone came up with an alternative called Ogg THEORA, so I'll use that instead!"
If your MP3 is significantly better than my Ogg THEORA, then people will pay you to use the patent license, but you wouldn't be able to charge an exorbitant amount since that would just drive more people to use Ogg THEORA. If your MP3 sucks, then you're out of luck: you get the patent but no one will want to pay for the license.
Agree with the rest of your post about greatly shortening the lifetime of the patent.
On a slight tangent: the RIAA is a nice big scapegoat name that people can hate while its member companies dodge the bad press. I've always thought that we should come up with a nice acronym/nickname for the Four Big Labels so that people can keep them in mind when they reference the RIAA, but a suitable acronym only occurred to me just now: "WE SU", because they sue everyone!
So now Warner, EMI, Sony and Universal can have their new slogan: "RIAA: WE SU!"
Thank you for those links. The one to Red Hat leads to: http://www.businessreviewonline.com/os/archives/2006/03/gpl_gets_court.html which pointed to http://www.groklaw.net/pdf/WallaceFSFGrantingDismiss.pdf, in which Judge Daniel Tinder affirmed the validity of the GPL against Daniel Wallace's claim that it was anti-competitive.
In doing so, his decision referenced Jason B. Wacha, Taking the Case: Is the GPL Enforceable, an article in SANTA CLARA COMPUTER & HIGH TECH. L.J. [Vol. 21] by the VP and Head Lawyer of MonteVista software. I found that article via Google; it's a step-by-step clear and concise rebuttal of 10 common claims against the GPL's validity. Mr. Wacha references the SCO vs Linux case several times.
By essentially launching a lawsuit against Linux, SCO has mobilized enough of the F/OSS community and legal IT community that enough literature was generated to be acknowledged by a US Federal Judge and to firm up the GPL's defenses and establish its validity. Thanks, SCO! It's nice to see Microsoft dollars make a real contribution to improving our world!
It's not too clear, but I would imagine that he would only check the database to see whether you've been compromised, not to get info from the database. I can imagine that you might, for example, fill in as much or as little of an info form as you want, and check if there's a match. E.g. "Q: is there a James Smith, born March 1979 (no month specified), with social insurance number ending in 378?" "A: Yes, there is a match. We have First Middle Last, birth year/month/day, full social insurance number, and two credit cards ending in 34 and 78." Then you know what you have to cancel.
You seem to be implying that, because you use Linux, you cannot use TrueCrypt.
I use TrueCrypt on Linux (Ubuntu 8.04). Works great.
Because of the other half of the participants.
Besides, GP never said he'd pretend AC's didn't exist; s/he just said s/he wouldn't respond to AC's.
Well, as I said in my posting,
If the screen shows what you are typing in, then you'll want to cover the screen. This is the case when I pay at a gas station and have to enter my code to use my card: the digits are displayed on the screen for all to see. If you're typing with your right hand, then you only have your left hand to either cover the screen or cover your typing right hand, but not both.
Agree! This whole thing of adding the TSA stupidity, and then saying, "We're making you this GREAT offer that for only $$ you can go back to the way things should be!" I was one of those who stood in line while others whizzed through the Clear-Prepaid line. I can't say I blame those Clear'd people, though --for some, it might well be worth it to pay to get rid of stupidity, although it doesn't mean that they like or agree with it.
Clear Co. deserved to go out of business. So does TSA, but that'll never happen. :P