Actually, thanks to the wonders of corrupt capitalism, if you live in a country that's too poor to buy the patented drugs from the company that did the R&D, you probably live somewhere where IP laws aren't particularly well enforced because local companies/people will lobby aggressively against them. As the country gets richer, companies will start to worry about their own IP and lobby to get enforcement tightened.
Even though the WTO was presumably supposed to stop poor countries doing this, there's still a clause in the rules that allow countries to force compulsory licensing if there's a national emergency, like here in Brazil.
Of course, most really poor countries tend to be run by a small kleptocratic clique that can be paid off to not allow this sort of thing, even though it's in the national interest, but it's that clique which is the problem, not drug patents per se.
So it seems that the optimal system is democratic enough that the pressure to enforce foreign patents from outside is balanced by domestic pressure to not enforce them, but I think also helps to have domestic drug companies who lack patents of their own.
For those who haven't read it yet, David Airlied's LCA 2007 talk is a really good and entertaining piece: http://www.skynet.ie/~airlied/talks/lca07/nouveau. odp (yes, server's mime-type is probably wrong, you have to save it first)
If you don't have Open Office, you can convert it here
That is what is wrong with them. Even on windows. how do you know which part really breaks? is it the crappy third party drivers, or is it MSFT's interface? Both sides blame each other if you ask them. All you can do is throw out the card or wait for an update. At least with linux if you have the mind to you can do the work yourself.
Or you can get Windbg, find the non Microsoft module in the stacktrace and either upgrade or uninstall it.
Interestingly, on Win XP, the machine uploads a dump to Online Crash Analysis which tries to find the faulty driver. I've seen this on a laptop with an Intel graphics chip - the machine would freeze for a few seconds, then Windows switched back to the default VGA driver at 640*480*16 colors and said that the device driver had got stuck in a loop and prompted me to save my work while it rebooted. After the reboot, OCA run and told me to install a new version of the graphics driver from the Intel site. Very, very impressive.
You can see that the GDI has some kind of watchdog to detect infinite loops in graphics drivers. It also knows how to reinitialize itself from 1024*768*64K colors to 640*480*16, and run in that crippled mode until the user has saved his documents. And OCA can presumably spot patterns in stacktraces submitted by the developers who found the original bug.
So it's possible to have systems based on untrusted kernel mode code which can heal themselves without needing any human input by talking to a server, with a bit of organisation.
Fourth of all, all of this is theoretical so far since we haven't done it. Maybe our models are all wrong and this will in fact create a black hole capable of consuming everything around it and eventually the Earth and solar system. Probably not, but you can't really rule anything out completely.
This is not scientific thinking, and it shouldn't be granted any credence. You need to get some evidence to support your views. Your cautionary assertion is on par with the following: never write the letters "CKGJSHDFKLNJNSDFH" on a piece of paper -we don't know what would happen since it has never been done, and it might end life on earth (you can't rule it out completely). Both claims are just about equally substantiated.
Or believing that catastrophic (in the mass extinction sense, fuelled by some kind of positive feedback) global warming will occur unless we cut down on C02 emissions;-) Before you mod me down, I can accept that the world will get warmer in the next 100 years by the same amount it did in the last 100.
With the black holes, I think I'm convinced by the cosmic ray argument, personally - the idea is that a tiny percentage of cosmic rays have an energy far higher than any conceivable accelerator can produce. And since the upper atmosphere has been bombarded with these for billions of years without the earth being swallowed, either micro black holes can't be produced this way, or they can't grow.
Apple's software license for OS X says that you can only run it on Apple hardware.
Actually, looking here http://www.apple.com/legal/sla/, the phrase is "This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time."
So it sounds like if you write "Apple" on a Post It and stick to your PC, you can virtualize away.
DVD-Video still has digital restrictions management in the form of CSS and region coding
Yeah, but once it's been ripped the CSS and region coding are gone. Ok, I'll change my rule. Don't by DRM media unless you know you can crack the DRM and export the content to an open format.
There's no real need for Firewire with USB 2.0. Sure it's a bit faster but 90% of people will use USB anyway. And if people really want Firewire, they can still get a regular iPod.
A 4GB iPod Nano is $224 according to amazon.com. Adding 28GBytes of flash should be $144.2, so the total cost should be $368. Add in a few bucks for a bigger PCB since we're talking about 32 flash chips, and markup since Apple is not a charity, but it could be around $400 retail.
And if you pitch it to Spielberg, you need some aliens in there. E.g. when they reach the seed vault, the aliens arrive deus ex machina style to fix any plot holes. Like curing the plucky heroine of her gunshot wound.
But they won't be any use at the other side of the pipe, since they are per process. If you pass one across a process boundary, it won't mean anything.
I'm going to have a DRM party. We'll listen to encrypted AAC files without the encryption keys on a Zune, then try to watch expired DIVX disks and purchased.asx video clips on a Mac while the server is down. Everyone is invited, including Microsoft and Apple.
5. Lose profit to Rico lawsuit, or local equivalent.
The odd thing is, for all the slashdot conventional wisdom about companies being immoral, they're actually much more vulnerable to being sued if they do something illegal. Especially if they are known to have larger cash reserves than an average individual.
You realise that if you did that, they'd lock you up in a room with some lawyers and policeman threatening you with prison/fines until you gave them the USB key, right?
I don't care what rights you have to withold it legally, they'd find some way to make you give it back to them once they worked out what you'd done to their data.
Careful, making cynical comments like that may negatively affect your career prospects. Don't want to get labled as a whiner, people might think your planning to nuke the servers and fire you. Oh wait.
There was a large gypsy encampment, right next to an airfield. The gypsies put a large sign, that said "Dear Mr Nato. Here live the peaceable Romany peoples. The airport is over there (arrow)"
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, thanks to the wonders of corrupt capitalism, if you live in a country that's too poor to buy the patented drugs from the company that did the R&D, you probably live somewhere where IP laws aren't particularly well enforced because local companies/people will lobby aggressively against them. As the country gets richer, companies will start to worry about their own IP and lobby to get enforcement tightened.
a iland_x.htm
t m
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-01-30-th
Even though the WTO was presumably supposed to stop poor countries doing this, there's still a clause in the rules that allow countries to force compulsory licensing if there's a national emergency, like here in Brazil.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4059147.stm
Even rich places like Taiwan have occasionally done it, based on a potential national emergency.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4366514.s
Of course, most really poor countries tend to be run by a small kleptocratic clique that can be paid off to not allow this sort of thing, even though it's in the national interest, but it's that clique which is the problem, not drug patents per se.
So it seems that the optimal system is democratic enough that the pressure to enforce foreign patents from outside is balanced by domestic pressure to not enforce them, but I think also helps to have domestic drug companies who lack patents of their own.
For those who haven't read it yet, David Airlied's LCA 2007 talk is a really good and entertaining piece: http://www.skynet.ie/~airlied/talks/lca07/nouveau. odp (yes, server's mime-type is probably wrong, you have to save it first)
If you don't have Open Office, you can convert it here
http://media-convert.com/convert/index.php
this link might work
http://www.media-convert.com/convert/?xid=jzkoos
That is what is wrong with them. Even on windows. how do you know which part really breaks? is it the crappy third party drivers, or is it MSFT's interface? Both sides blame each other if you ask them. All you can do is throw out the card or wait for an update. At least with linux if you have the mind to you can do the work yourself.
Or you can get Windbg, find the non Microsoft module in the stacktrace and either upgrade or uninstall it.
Interestingly, on Win XP, the machine uploads a dump to Online Crash Analysis which tries to find the faulty driver. I've seen this on a laptop with an Intel graphics chip - the machine would freeze for a few seconds, then Windows switched back to the default VGA driver at 640*480*16 colors and said that the device driver had got stuck in a loop and prompted me to save my work while it rebooted. After the reboot, OCA run and told me to install a new version of the graphics driver from the Intel site. Very, very impressive.
You can see that the GDI has some kind of watchdog to detect infinite loops in graphics drivers. It also knows how to reinitialize itself from 1024*768*64K colors to 640*480*16, and run in that crippled mode until the user has saved his documents. And OCA can presumably spot patterns in stacktraces submitted by the developers who found the original bug.
So it's possible to have systems based on untrusted kernel mode code which can heal themselves without needing any human input by talking to a server, with a bit of organisation.
I heard there were plans to prosecute the bastard.
The crime is life - the sentence is death!
And Timecube!
Put that way, the bill doesn't sound so bad after all.
Or believing that catastrophic (in the mass extinction sense, fuelled by some kind of positive feedback) global warming will occur unless we cut down on C02 emissions
With the black holes, I think I'm convinced by the cosmic ray argument, personally - the idea is that a tiny percentage of cosmic rays have an energy far higher than any conceivable accelerator can produce. And since the upper atmosphere has been bombarded with these for billions of years without the earth being swallowed, either micro black holes can't be produced this way, or they can't grow.
Apple's software license for OS X says that you can only run it on Apple hardware.
Actually, looking here http://www.apple.com/legal/sla/, the phrase is "This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time."
So it sounds like if you write "Apple" on a Post It and stick to your PC, you can virtualize away.
Yeah, but once it's been ripped the CSS and region coding are gone. Ok, I'll change my rule. Don't by DRM media unless you know you can crack the DRM and export the content to an open format.
Technically, wasn't America founded by the Native Americans?
Buy the CD/DVD and rip it to Mp3/Xvid?
There's no real need for Firewire with USB 2.0. Sure it's a bit faster but 90% of people will use USB anyway. And if people really want Firewire, they can still get a regular iPod.
But most people use their iPods to listen to music, and they don't have 400GB of music.
The spot price of NAND an 8Gbit (1Gbyte) chip is $5.15 at the moment
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http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jh
A 4GB iPod Nano is $224 according to amazon.com. Adding 28GBytes of flash should be $144.2, so the total cost should be $368. Add in a few bucks for a bigger PCB since we're talking about 32 flash chips, and markup since Apple is not a charity, but it could be around $400 retail.
This is why you should never use DRM'd formats.
Needs a MacGuffin
And if you pitch it to Spielberg, you need some aliens in there. E.g. when they reach the seed vault, the aliens arrive deus ex machina style to fix any plot holes. Like curing the plucky heroine of her gunshot wound.
Legally, what Jack Bauer does is discomfort enhanced debriefing, not torture.
I've got this cool link to a website with dancing bunnies!
Oh BTW, if it prompts you about security, just press the button.
> You can pass open file descriptors over a pipe.
But they won't be any use at the other side of the pipe, since they are per process. If you pass one across a process boundary, it won't mean anything.
I'm going to have a DRM party. We'll listen to encrypted AAC files without the encryption keys on a Zune, then try to watch expired DIVX disks and purchased .asx video clips on a Mac while the server is down. Everyone is invited, including Microsoft and Apple.
5. Lose profit to Rico lawsuit, or local equivalent.
The odd thing is, for all the slashdot conventional wisdom about companies being immoral, they're actually much more vulnerable to being sued if they do something illegal. Especially if they are known to have larger cash reserves than an average individual.
You realise that if you did that, they'd lock you up in a room with some lawyers and policeman threatening you with prison/fines until you gave them the USB key, right?
I don't care what rights you have to withold it legally, they'd find some way to make you give it back to them once they worked out what you'd done to their data.
Careful, making cynical comments like that may negatively affect your career prospects. Don't want to get labled as a whiner, people might think your planning to nuke the servers and fire you. Oh wait.
In Serbia, I heard about a funny story.
There was a large gypsy encampment, right next to an airfield. The gypsies put a large sign, that said "Dear Mr Nato. Here live the peaceable Romany peoples. The airport is over there (arrow)"
> What do you mean by "a country like India?"
Not a bunch of totalitarian scum like their neighbours I guess.