At least there was a warning rather than 43 unannounced patches next Tuesday, I'll say that much for them. Its a shame that there is no patch yet though. Without saying how detrimental this will be for MS, I'm thinking that now I can't tell people that OOo is just like MS Office but free... now I have to tell them that its probably safer too. Ugggh, the people that want OOo and F/OSS software to be as good as MS Office and OS products really bug me, and this story is exactly why.
Ya, sure, MS is the biggest target, so gets more hacker attention. Just the same, being king of the hill is not easy, and F/OSS software makers should do their best to simply keep doing things well, rather than doing them 'just like MS does' as its not working out so good for Redmond today.
Do everything that 80+% of users want, do it very well, and let the Excel gurus and desktop publishing companies do the things for those other 12% or so. That's the biggest bang for buck right there. That 12% might be the biggest spenders, but they also don't care about the cost, or don't want to retrain or convert etc. ad nauseum.
No, I cannot say with confidence that I can perform a tracheotomy. I can however say that I can perform many other tasks which are not currently either a hobby or a vocation. This is what I have gained from learning during my life. Its sad to say, but your attitude, or the one you present, is exactly (at least a huge part of) what makes western societies into 'throw away' societies.
The trouble with not learning to work with the systems and machines that we use is that it leads to dependence on others to do simple things. You may well say that its not worth your time to learn how to do a medical procedure, but it might be that this very procedure might save your spouse some day. It is pure and simple ignorance that leads you to say such a thing. If only Galileo or others had taken your attitude toward learning... sigh
School is about learning, and if teachers cannot answer questions and give guidance, then there is no learning, the inquisitive children are stifled in their quest to learn. If adults consider everything to be 'throw away' quality, or something you hire someone else to do, learning is stifled, and society as a whole suffers.
You may well think you are smart to use your time wisely, but I think you unwise in how you choose to spend your time. Not that I'm advocating that you run out and do something vastly costly like learn about tracheotomies or anything:
I'm just saying that is a poor comparison. Do you know how to change your vehicle's oil? Do you know how to change the air filters in your house? Do you know how to turn off the water to your house? Do you know how to rescue a drowning swimmer? Do you know how to make safe drinking water? Do you know what to do if a tornado is headed your way? Do you know.... the list goes on. There are millions of things that we "SHOULD" know in western society, yet many don't. The more that our society relies on computers, the more that each of us should know about them...
But... as long as you are ready to 'throw away' your loved ones when they need you to know something, carry on... I know that is not quite the same as knowing about computers, but it does illustrate the point I'm trying to make.
It appears that most of the/. community doesn't really remember desktop computing before, say about Windows95? All the derisive comments about Linux used to apply to Windows... for a very long time. One of the good things about that problem is that it taught many of us to work with computers, rather than simply use applications. Learning to use Excel or Word is not learning to use a computer. Figuring out how to run Doom on a pc is not learning about computers.
Linux is a GOOD way to learn about computers... Things like network configurations and why you need them, what is HAL anyway? What are all those programs in the 'running processes' list? Why do I need to block ports?
I would have thought that here on/. such things would be important... guess not
This sentiment, my friend, is exactly what you should be doing. The RIAA thinks file sharing is evil. Wait till we all start sharing our CD's amongst our friends. They absolutely cannot afford to stop us, investigate us, or prosecute us. Say you have 15 friends, and you each buy a CD, then share the cost by letting your friends 'borrow' the CD you bought. So, for the cost of blank media (say 50 cents each) and a CD (say $15) you end up getting 16 CDs for a cost of $22.50. If there are an average of 12 songs on each CD, that is a whopping 11.7 cents per song. I think we can all afford that price. Better yet???? NO DRM if you copy it right.
So now, all you need is 15 friends... viola! it works if you only have 8 or 10 friends too. Lets see the RIAA try to bust up 470,000 'file sharing rings' in North America alone! When it becomes too costly, they will stop. The Internet and P2P just made it too easy to not prosecute.
If they really want to make this music thing tough, fight back, get offline with the sharing part. Downloading stats will fall, and CD sales will fall. No municipality, state or federal agency can afford to start sniffing out little Jennifer down the street for sharing her CDs with friends.
So downloading is illegal... meh... so what! I still don't pay huge money for music!!
Its not the value of human life that makes such tech prohibitively expensive, its the cost of litigation. Should such life saving technology fail, there are those that would just as soon litigate against the auto manufacturer than say "oh well, that is how life goes sometimes" because whenever possible, people will blame their bad driving on someone else.
I've said it before, so here we go again, when all vehicles are able to drive themselves, and not before, will it be safe to have autopilot driven vehicles and vehicles that can compensate for the ever changing and moody unpredictability of human vehicle operators.
Not only would IR lasers not be sufficient in many cases, but could lead to false positive identifications, and thus cause an accident in which poor aunt Rita died, and now automaker such n such is no longer in business. Where life and limb are at risk, it is (so far) way safer to trust the human brain than a computer, even if said computer was comparable to Cray computers. This is why NASA still sends humans into space. The technology is still not sufficient to replace the human brain and senses.
That is not to say that things are not getting better, just not yet good enough to replace the human. The vehicle that will parallel park itself is doing so in a limited domain. The same sensors and computer would not be sufficient to handle highway driving, not even as an early warning system of sorts.
It seems simple enough for MySpace to simply rack up points for video views. If content copyright holders identify their works, and agree to a 1 or 2 cents per view price, MySpace account holders can be charged points for each pay for view video, and then pay their account by PayPal or other online payment system. The resulting profits would be funneled directly to the artist, bypassing the RIAA and other greedy middlemen. Nice and simple, easy and works for everyone by the **AA's of the world.
If each video is vetted prior to display, it gets even tighter. If artists release videos with digital watermarking in them for such activity, its even easier for MySpace and YouTube to charge and process royalty fees.
Lets face it, 2 cents is about tops for the MySpace quality of videos...
but hasn't Google been successful enough at holding litigation at bay for copyright infringements? I'm pretty certain that they have a plan that falls in line with 'organizing the world's information' as a slogan.
If Google comes out with a copyright holder protection scheme for YouTube that works, then they have all that they need to continue on until 'all the world's information is organized' by Google. That's not exactly a monopoly, but it certainly makes a big dent in the competition. I'd certainly be trying to do this if I was Google. Its smart, even if it might cause some short term pain.
Perhaps you are blissfully unaware of how little the full function/feature list of MS products are actually used. Most users simply want applications that open easy, run well, and do the three or four things that most users know how to do. I am able to sell Linux to many people for that reason. Linux does work, and to most users, 'trusted computing' is some magic black art phrase that falls low on the list of things that they want to learn about or even care about.
If Google seriously works at selling their web based applications service, and shows people how to use them to do the things that most users want to do, it will become a near coup de grace against MS because its free, it works good, and for all that most people know, Google is safer to trust your data with than MS because MS WGA and other programs are always checking to see if you have licensed programs and "who knows what else they check".
Perception is everything (most of the time) and if Google pushes a perception well, MS will have a hard time selling their expensive applications.
This article, part one even, outright dismisses Linux. Not even Oracle is doing that... not much more I need to read in that article even if they do have a valid point or two. Google doesn't even have to release its own OS, all it has to do is begin favoring Linux distributions strongly and MS loses that section of the market, how ever big that might be or might not be.
The point is that anyone that outright dismisses Linux is missing the point altogether... anyone can use it and in using it, it is not like starting your own OS to compete with MS.
There are only three logically possible ways to argue that P2P sharing is not a copyright violation. The first and best would be to argue that P2P downloading is not a copyright violation at all, but somehow falls under the heading of fair use.
A minor question here: Isn't the RIAA arguing that an MP3 copy (not lossless) is the same as a CD quality (lossless) copy of the music involved in the infringement. If so, this puts recordings off the radio in the same category as MP3 file sharers? Doesn't it? If the music industry says that copying any music from any source without license is illegal, don't they step all over fair use precedents?
MP3 audio is not all that great, despite being 'good enough' for the masses. Is it not possible to argue that an MP3 quality copy of a song is not the same as the artist produced, and therefore not an infringement of copyrights? In example, buying a knock off copy of an iPod is not the same as stealing one, even though a law may have been broken. I think that MP3 formatted songs are, in fact, just a knock off copy, not the original, and therefore the intent, blame, and assignment of illegal activity belongs to the person making the knock off with intent to distribute rather than any of the downline users of that knockoff.
Further example: If I get a fake $20 bill in change at the bank, am I doing something illegal when I use it to pay for dinner later in the day? I'm fairly certain that the law enforcement authorities will try only to catch the forger rather than all who have used the fake $20 bill.
The trouble is that if there was a assured way to implement it, it would already have been implemented. Metadata and tags are simply the 'killer app' for web 2.0
Despite all that has been said in the comments and elsewhere, there simply is no good implementation of metadata for the Internet that applies to all types of data and all instances of data sharing.
If you want to be a hero, figure this little problem out and the world will beat a path to your door... so to speak.
The parent has a damned good point, and one which I'm sure will be used to bring pressure to not store Gazillions of billions of emails forever or we may well be seeing the last of corporate email servers!
Think of it, if email has to be kept in perpetuity, many corporations may simply stop using email... poof! no more, all gone, we don't do that anymore....
Yes, like that will happen, so something has to give, and it won't be business' ability to function. The law will get clarified before MS exchange server becomes extinct. I have faith in that!
Mod parent up: MySpace is the problem. They are not vetting any user submissions, and that, to me, seems like a real problem. Even email lists let moderators vet submitters content. Its something that is not new to the web, and therefore, MySpace should already have been vetting submissions.
Yeah, its a tough job, but it needs to be done. Maybe they can work out a deal with one of the antivirus companies?
This is but one of many (100s or 1000s) ways in which people will be able to spy, track, and otherwise invade the (previously held) privacy of common citizens. The problem is not simply that there are groups and people more than willing to take advantage of such technologies to accomplish rather nefarious goals, but more importantly, most average citizens will not care, nor believe it possible. This is mostly due to a lack of understanding of the technologies and related enabling technologies. Worse, even understanding or knowledge is available, the "it won't affect me" syndrome will continue to make it a growing threat.
There really don't need to be large groups of 'men in black' if most of the populace simply hands over their rights and privacy.
Those who don't know what tor is should. There are methods for remaining rather anonymous in the world at large. This story is simply the warning sign to let you (yes you, joe public) know that if big brother is not already spying, he will be soon. The patriot act and the DMCA have enabled the nefarious among us to do so..... Whether a gun is used for bad things or not, when you purchase one, you must be aware that it can be. Unfortunately, buying gadgets is a process that is not even touched by such training or awareness... sad sad sad
So you go to Red Lobster (or your restaurant of choice) and order crabs... Its not the restaurant's responsibility to ensure that you are not allergic to them when they serve them to you.
Though I'm always glad to see someone take MS down a peg, I am not sure that it would be a good thing to have them successfully sued for vulnerabilities. If it works out to simply a refund for every valid registered copy of Windows, ok, since that would be a zero sum for F/OSS should it also happen to say Firefox or a version of Linux. There are so many ways to have vulnerabilities, and punitive damages might lead to things worse than the current patent system as far as hindering new technologies and features etc.
Just tell them to wait till the new year to make a decision.... long enough for Microsoft's shiny new baby to show itself just as insecure, or even more so
Even if I liked MS products, and I'm not saying they suck, I still wouldn't entertain the thought of an upgrade project at this time of year. With support being taxed as it is due to holidays, and training not able to fully support an enterprise wide roll-out, it is just stupid to think companies will gleefully jump on the Vista bandwagon and roll out the shiny new MS products.
People debate the cost of rolling out OSS products for these very reasons, and MS lackeys have touted how a MS upgrade costs less in support and training for the upgrade. The simple truth: The upgrade roll-out costs are near the same when there are feature and function changes. Companies also have to think of the COST of new licenses on top of generic roll-out problems and costs. Its just not a good time of year for such activity. I think it was a poor choice of times to launch?
But seriously, does this mean that we'll soon see makeup products that will make women's lips permanently red? Or perhaps some other useful product that all of North America is just dying to have?
That, more often than not, is not so difficult as you might imagine. Take, for instance, the patent suit against RIM by NTP. NTP contends that they have a valid set of patents, but when you look at how email was forwarded to early paging devices, their patent looks blatantly built upon quite obvious technological steps rather than something new and unobvious.
This, no matter what bumps might arise, will help to even out the patent trolls, and stop stupid patents.
The trial that the USPTO is using, not unlike/. itself, may help to make more sense of what is obvious and what is not.
Small problem with your logic; its time constrained. You are right... until they start to feel comfortable with the features they currently have, then they begin to wonder if they can get that MP3 thingy working, or maybe see what all this 'MySpace' brooha is all about... then you have problems, and that is why the Mac is getting the 'older generation' image... Its safer than using windows, and it just works...
Dinosaurs were not killed off in a mass extinction 65 million years ago... many of them survived and are currently employed by the *AA and associated groups.
Slashdot Mirror
At least there was a warning rather than 43 unannounced patches next Tuesday, I'll say that much for them. Its a shame that there is no patch yet though. Without saying how detrimental this will be for MS, I'm thinking that now I can't tell people that OOo is just like MS Office but free... now I have to tell them that its probably safer too. Ugggh, the people that want OOo and F/OSS software to be as good as MS Office and OS products really bug me, and this story is exactly why.
Ya, sure, MS is the biggest target, so gets more hacker attention. Just the same, being king of the hill is not easy, and F/OSS software makers should do their best to simply keep doing things well, rather than doing them 'just like MS does' as its not working out so good for Redmond today.
Do everything that 80+% of users want, do it very well, and let the Excel gurus and desktop publishing companies do the things for those other 12% or so. That's the biggest bang for buck right there. That 12% might be the biggest spenders, but they also don't care about the cost, or don't want to retrain or convert etc. ad nauseum.
No, I cannot say with confidence that I can perform a tracheotomy. I can however say that I can perform many other tasks which are not currently either a hobby or a vocation. This is what I have gained from learning during my life. Its sad to say, but your attitude, or the one you present, is exactly (at least a huge part of) what makes western societies into 'throw away' societies.
c h-and-tracheotomy/
.... the list goes on. There are millions of things that we "SHOULD" know in western society, yet many don't. The more that our society relies on computers, the more that each of us should know about them...
The trouble with not learning to work with the systems and machines that we use is that it leads to dependence on others to do simple things. You may well say that its not worth your time to learn how to do a medical procedure, but it might be that this very procedure might save your spouse some day. It is pure and simple ignorance that leads you to say such a thing. If only Galileo or others had taken your attitude toward learning... sigh
School is about learning, and if teachers cannot answer questions and give guidance, then there is no learning, the inquisitive children are stifled in their quest to learn. If adults consider everything to be 'throw away' quality, or something you hire someone else to do, learning is stifled, and society as a whole suffers.
You may well think you are smart to use your time wisely, but I think you unwise in how you choose to spend your time. Not that I'm advocating that you run out and do something vastly costly like learn about tracheotomies or anything:
http://dorigo.wordpress.com/2006/08/26/cpr-heimli
I'm just saying that is a poor comparison. Do you know how to change your vehicle's oil? Do you know how to change the air filters in your house? Do you know how to turn off the water to your house? Do you know how to rescue a drowning swimmer? Do you know how to make safe drinking water? Do you know what to do if a tornado is headed your way? Do you know
But... as long as you are ready to 'throw away' your loved ones when they need you to know something, carry on... I know that is not quite the same as knowing about computers, but it does illustrate the point I'm trying to make.
It appears that most of the /. community doesn't really remember desktop computing before, say about Windows95?
/. such things would be important... guess not
All the derisive comments about Linux used to apply to Windows... for a very long time. One of the good things
about that problem is that it taught many of us to work with computers, rather than simply use applications.
Learning to use Excel or Word is not learning to use a computer. Figuring out how to run Doom on a pc is not
learning about computers.
Linux is a GOOD way to learn about computers... Things like network configurations and why you need them, what
is HAL anyway? What are all those programs in the 'running processes' list? Why do I need to block ports?
I would have thought that here on
This sentiment, my friend, is exactly what you should be doing. The RIAA thinks file sharing is evil. Wait till we all start sharing our CD's amongst our friends. They absolutely cannot afford to stop us, investigate us, or prosecute us. Say you have 15 friends, and you each buy a CD, then share the cost by letting your friends 'borrow' the CD you bought. So, for the cost of blank media (say 50 cents each) and a CD (say $15) you end up getting 16 CDs for a cost of $22.50. If there are an average of 12 songs on each CD, that is a whopping 11.7 cents per song. I think we can all afford that price. Better yet???? NO DRM if you copy it right.
So now, all you need is 15 friends... viola! it works if you only have 8 or 10 friends too. Lets see the RIAA try to bust up 470,000 'file sharing rings' in North America alone! When it becomes too costly, they will stop. The Internet and P2P just made it too easy to not prosecute.
If they really want to make this music thing tough, fight back, get offline with the sharing part. Downloading stats will fall, and CD sales will fall. No municipality, state or federal agency can afford to start sniffing out little Jennifer down the street for sharing her CDs with friends.
So downloading is illegal... meh... so what! I still don't pay huge money for music!!
Its not the value of human life that makes such tech prohibitively expensive, its the cost of litigation. Should such life saving technology fail, there are those that would just as soon litigate against the auto manufacturer than say "oh well, that is how life goes sometimes" because whenever possible, people will blame their bad driving on someone else.
I've said it before, so here we go again, when all vehicles are able to drive themselves, and not before, will it be safe to have autopilot driven vehicles and vehicles that can compensate for the ever changing and moody unpredictability of human vehicle operators.
Not only would IR lasers not be sufficient in many cases, but could lead to false positive identifications, and thus cause an accident in which poor aunt Rita died, and now automaker such n such is no longer in business. Where life and limb are at risk, it is (so far) way safer to trust the human brain than a computer, even if said computer was comparable to Cray computers. This is why NASA still sends humans into space. The technology is still not sufficient to replace the human brain and senses.
That is not to say that things are not getting better, just not yet good enough to replace the human. The vehicle that will parallel park itself is doing so in a limited domain. The same sensors and computer would not be sufficient to handle highway driving, not even as an early warning system of sorts.
It seems simple enough for MySpace to simply rack up points for video views. If content copyright holders identify their works, and agree to a 1 or 2 cents per view price, MySpace account holders can be charged points for each pay for view video, and then pay their account by PayPal or other online payment system. The resulting profits would be funneled directly to the artist, bypassing the RIAA and other greedy middlemen. Nice and simple, easy and works for everyone by the **AA's of the world.
If each video is vetted prior to display, it gets even tighter. If artists release videos with digital watermarking in them for such activity, its even easier for MySpace and YouTube to charge and process royalty fees.
Lets face it, 2 cents is about tops for the MySpace quality of videos...
but hasn't Google been successful enough at holding litigation at bay for copyright infringements? I'm pretty certain that they have a plan that falls in line with 'organizing the world's information' as a slogan.
If Google comes out with a copyright holder protection scheme for YouTube that works, then they have all that they need to continue on until 'all the world's information is organized' by Google. That's not exactly a monopoly, but it certainly makes a big dent in the competition. I'd certainly be trying to do this if I was Google. Its smart, even if it might cause some short term pain.
or is this not when the Mayan calendar predicts that the world as we know it will end?
Perhaps you are blissfully unaware of how little the full function/feature list of MS products are actually used. Most users simply want applications that open easy, run well, and do the three or four things that most users know how to do. I am able to sell Linux to many people for that reason. Linux does work, and to most users, 'trusted computing' is some magic black art phrase that falls low on the list of things that they want to learn about or even care about.
If Google seriously works at selling their web based applications service, and shows people how to use them to do the things that most users want to do, it will become a near coup de grace against MS because its free, it works good, and for all that most people know, Google is safer to trust your data with than MS because MS WGA and other programs are always checking to see if you have licensed programs and "who knows what else they check".
Perception is everything (most of the time) and if Google pushes a perception well, MS will have a hard time selling their expensive applications.
This article, part one even, outright dismisses Linux. Not even Oracle is doing that... not much more I need to read in that article even if they do have a valid point or two. Google doesn't even have to release its own OS, all it has to do is begin favoring Linux distributions strongly and MS loses that section of the market, how ever big that might be or might not be.
The point is that anyone that outright dismisses Linux is missing the point altogether... anyone can use it and in using it, it is not like starting your own OS to compete with MS.
There are only three logically possible ways to argue that P2P sharing is not a copyright violation. The first and best would be to argue that P2P downloading is not a copyright violation at all, but somehow falls under the heading of fair use.
A minor question here: Isn't the RIAA arguing that an MP3 copy (not lossless) is the same as a CD quality (lossless) copy of the music involved in the infringement. If so, this puts recordings off the radio in the same category as MP3 file sharers? Doesn't it? If the music industry says that copying any music from any source without license is illegal, don't they step all over fair use precedents?
MP3 audio is not all that great, despite being 'good enough' for the masses. Is it not possible to argue that an MP3 quality copy of a song is not the same as the artist produced, and therefore not an infringement of copyrights? In example, buying a knock off copy of an iPod is not the same as stealing one, even though a law may have been broken. I think that MP3 formatted songs are, in fact, just a knock off copy, not the original, and therefore the intent, blame, and assignment of illegal activity belongs to the person making the knock off with intent to distribute rather than any of the downline users of that knockoff.
Further example: If I get a fake $20 bill in change at the bank, am I doing something illegal when I use it to pay for dinner later in the day? I'm fairly certain that the law enforcement authorities will try only to catch the forger rather than all who have used the fake $20 bill.
Just a thought....
The trouble is that if there was a assured way to implement it, it would already have been implemented. Metadata and tags are simply the 'killer app' for web 2.0
Despite all that has been said in the comments and elsewhere, there simply is no good implementation of metadata for the Internet that applies to all types of data and all instances of data sharing.
If you want to be a hero, figure this little problem out and the world will beat a path to your door... so to speak.
The parent has a damned good point, and one which I'm sure will be used to bring pressure to not store Gazillions of billions of emails forever or we may well be seeing the last of corporate email servers!
Think of it, if email has to be kept in perpetuity, many corporations may simply stop using email... poof! no more, all gone, we don't do that anymore....
Yes, like that will happen, so something has to give, and it won't be business' ability to function. The law will get clarified before MS exchange server becomes extinct. I have faith in that!
Mod parent up: MySpace is the problem. They are not vetting any user submissions, and that, to me, seems like a real problem. Even email lists let moderators vet submitters content. Its something that is not new to the web, and therefore, MySpace should already have been vetting submissions.
Yeah, its a tough job, but it needs to be done. Maybe they can work out a deal with one of the antivirus companies?
This is but one of many (100s or 1000s) ways in which people will be able to spy, track, and otherwise invade the (previously held) privacy of common citizens. The problem is not simply that there are groups and people more than willing to take advantage of such technologies to accomplish rather nefarious goals, but more importantly, most average citizens will not care, nor believe it possible. This is mostly due to a lack of understanding of the technologies and related enabling technologies. Worse, even understanding or knowledge is available, the "it won't affect me" syndrome will continue to make it a growing threat.
.... Whether a gun is used for bad things or not, when you purchase one, you must be aware that it can be. Unfortunately, buying gadgets is a process that is not even touched by such training or awareness... sad sad sad
There really don't need to be large groups of 'men in black' if most of the populace simply hands over their rights and privacy.
Those who don't know what tor is should. There are methods for remaining rather anonymous in the world at large. This story is simply the warning sign to let you (yes you, joe public) know that if big brother is not already spying, he will be soon. The patriot act and the DMCA have enabled the nefarious among us to do so.
So you go to Red Lobster (or your restaurant of choice) and order crabs... Its not the restaurant's responsibility to ensure that you are not allergic to them when they serve them to you.
Though I'm always glad to see someone take MS down a peg, I am not sure that it would be a good thing to have them successfully sued for vulnerabilities. If it works out to simply a refund for every valid registered copy of Windows, ok, since that would be a zero sum for F/OSS should it also happen to say Firefox or a version of Linux. There are so many ways to have vulnerabilities, and punitive damages might lead to things worse than the current patent system as far as hindering new technologies and features etc.
yeah, but on the funny side, this should fix any desalination plant issues they have in Iraq?
Just tell them to wait till the new year to make a decision.... long enough for Microsoft's shiny new baby to show itself just as insecure, or even more so
Even if I liked MS products, and I'm not saying they suck, I still wouldn't entertain the thought of an upgrade project at this time of year. With support being taxed as it is due to holidays, and training not able to fully support an enterprise wide roll-out, it is just stupid to think companies will gleefully jump on the Vista bandwagon and roll out the shiny new MS products.
People debate the cost of rolling out OSS products for these very reasons, and MS lackeys have touted how a MS upgrade costs less in support and training for the upgrade. The simple truth: The upgrade roll-out costs are near the same when there are feature and function changes. Companies also have to think of the COST of new licenses on top of generic roll-out problems and costs. Its just not a good time of year for such activity. I think it was a poor choice of times to launch?
Granny Smith apples in this study?
But seriously, does this mean that we'll soon see makeup products that will make women's lips permanently red? Or perhaps some other useful product that all of North America is just dying to have?
That, more often than not, is not so difficult as you might imagine. Take, for instance, the patent suit against RIM by NTP. NTP contends that they have a valid set of patents, but when you look at how email was forwarded to early paging devices, their patent looks blatantly built upon quite obvious technological steps rather than something new and unobvious.
/. itself, may help to make more sense of what is obvious and what is not.
This, no matter what bumps might arise, will help to even out the patent trolls, and stop stupid patents.
The trial that the USPTO is using, not unlike
Small problem with your logic; its time constrained. You are right... until they start to feel comfortable with the features they currently have, then they begin to wonder if they can get that MP3 thingy working, or maybe see what all this 'MySpace' brooha is all about... then you have problems, and that is why the Mac is getting the 'older generation' image... Its safer than using windows, and it just works...
Dinosaurs were not killed off in a mass extinction 65 million years ago... many of them survived and are currently employed by the *AA and associated groups.
a personal DMCA exemption for every US Citizen.... sigh