Big companies seem to think that consumers have an endless supply of money to spend on anything and everything they want... no concept of a consumer has $100 to spend on games this year. If titles are $50 each, then only two get sold. If titles are $50, but they can resell each for $25 then three games get sold.
All they want is that $100. Selling you less games to get it doesn't worry them in the slightest*.
[*] In fact it's better for them - it means they can control the release schedules and screw over the game developers for an even bigger cut. Every console maker knows how Nintendo used to do things and dreams of being able to do the same.
It won't be. It'll be $20 for SONY... plus another $20 for the person who originally paid $50... that's dangerously close the price of a new copy.
And the original buyer *will* want $20. If he's only getting $5 or $10 for his used games then he'll probably hang onto them instead of selling them to you.
(Notes how the article conveniently forgets to mention the cost of the tape robot in their price comparison. Nobody's going to manage a lot of tapes by hand...)
It may not be 100% secure but it's enough that even the NSA hasn't got the power to do mass snooping. They'll have to pick and choose who they can afford to dedicate computing time to....and it's unlikely that it will be DES these days. AES is no harder for a programmer to implement.
In Europe most of us have flat-rate data for like, $10 a month. Some companies drop the speed after X megabytes but essentially there's no limits.
Using VOIP we can talk 24/7 for the entire month for only $10. This makes it very popular, especially among foreigners who call home a lot.
It's also very understandable that it makes the phone companies unhappy. They just gave you an Android smartphone for signing up, you're using their networks to make calls and they're only making $120 per year out of it.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
So...how many Christians do you know who follow all the Old Testament laws? Your new mission in life is to learn a few and point them out at every possible occasion. Ask them why they aren't out stoning children to death, etc., as stipulated in their laws.
Also... next time you see a Christian with an iPhone or a car you need to remind them that they're supposed to sell all their worldly goods and give to the poor. God will provide, it's harder for a rich person to enter heaven than to pass a camel through the eye of a needle.
Don't feel bad about doing it, their immortal souls are on the line...
The text of the patent basically says that hardware is now fast enough to do what couldn't be done before
It's not even about speed, it's about being able to get enough transistors on the die.
Transistor size shrinks, that's a given. Transistor budget increases as a direct consequence and adding floating point is the obvious evolutionary path for graphics.
When most graphics programmers saw the first floating point frame buffer I imagine there was much more "Finally!!" than "Whoah, dude, I never saw that coming!". This is what makes it unworthy of a patent, not that nobody ever did it before because they were limited by technology.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it would appear this is a continuation on other patents, with the original being filed in 1993.
So tell me, twenty years ago was this obvious to any of the users here? Or is it obvious now only because they "invented" it?
I wrote assembly code for working with 16-bit floats on the Atari ST back in the 1980s. I don't remember the exact number of bits in mantissa/exponent but it's just a case of picking something that works for for whatever it is you're doing.
For use in frame buffers? It's pretty damn obvious IMHO...everybody in the entire graphics industry has always known that 8 bits is only just good enough to represent color for the human eye. Many workstations had more bits and you even used to be able to buy PC graphics cards with 10-bit color (Matrox Parhelia range).
So yes, it's obvious to anybody in the trade. The only reason for not doing it since day one was price.
It won't make much difference, people will just type "www.theporitebay.org/xxxxxx" instead. Like all other MSN 'blocking' it will be just another Windows annoyance rather than an impediment.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not an "audiophile" but I object to any claim you can get five (or six) decent speakers and an amplifier for under $500.
Big companies seem to think that consumers have an endless supply of money to spend on anything and everything they want... no concept of a consumer has $100 to spend on games this year. If titles are $50 each, then only two get sold. If titles are $50, but they can resell each for $25 then three games get sold.
All they want is that $100. Selling you less games to get it doesn't worry them in the slightest*.
[*] In fact it's better for them - it means they can control the release schedules and screw over the game developers for an even bigger cut. Every console maker knows how Nintendo used to do things and dreams of being able to do the same.
It won't be. It'll be $20 for SONY ... plus another $20 for the person who originally paid $50 ... that's dangerously close the price of a new copy.
And the original buyer *will* want $20. If he's only getting $5 or $10 for his used games then he'll probably hang onto them instead of selling them to you.
You also do realize it is impossible to have a genetic epidemic right?
I'm pretty sure this is more of a diagnosis epidemic. Kid acts a bit weird, diagnose autism, profit!
Sure, it reinserts itself, but when it's finished does it take itself out, flip it to the other side, and then reinsert itself again?
Haven't you seen a robotic tape loader?
(Notes how the article conveniently forgets to mention the cost of the tape robot in their price comparison. Nobody's going to manage a lot of tapes by hand...)
Last time I looked US military underwear came in sizes from S to 8XL.
8XL is an 80 inch waist. They have soldiers with 80 inch waists...
Use the ESR version and don't stress about major version changes until November-ish.
Or just run without admin privileges and it'll fail to update itself.
It may not be 100% secure but it's enough that even the NSA hasn't got the power to do mass snooping. They'll have to pick and choose who they can afford to dedicate computing time to. ...and it's unlikely that it will be DES these days. AES is no harder for a programmer to implement.
It's like this:
In Europe most of us have flat-rate data for like, $10 a month. Some companies drop the speed after X megabytes but essentially there's no limits.
Using VOIP we can talk 24/7 for the entire month for only $10. This makes it very popular, especially among foreigners who call home a lot.
It's also very understandable that it makes the phone companies unhappy. They just gave you an Android smartphone for signing up, you're using their networks to make calls and they're only making $120 per year out of it.
Nope. Most A500 machines only had Kickstart 1.2. You needed Kickstart 1.3 to boot from hard disk.
Sure, but the Amiga was dead by then...
Be sure to let us know when you've managed to get your Amiga to boot from a hard disk...
Also "Windows OneCare" (read it in an Inspector Clouseau voice...)
Not to mention Steve Ballmer talking about 'squirting' and those awful Seinfeld ads.
Right-click the offending program folder, select "Take ownership". Job done.
No need to compromise your entire system just for one badly written program.
Direct quote from the man:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:17-20
So...how many Christians do you know who follow all the Old Testament laws? Your new mission in life is to learn a few and point them out at every possible occasion. Ask them why they aren't out stoning children to death, etc., as stipulated in their laws.
Also ... next time you see a Christian with an iPhone or a car you need to remind them that they're supposed to sell all their worldly goods and give to the poor. God will provide, it's harder for a rich person to enter heaven than to pass a camel through the eye of a needle.
Don't feel bad about doing it, their immortal souls are on the line...
The text of the patent basically says that hardware is now fast enough to do what couldn't be done before
It's not even about speed, it's about being able to get enough transistors on the die.
Transistor size shrinks, that's a given. Transistor budget increases as a direct consequence and adding floating point is the obvious evolutionary path for graphics.
When most graphics programmers saw the first floating point frame buffer I imagine there was much more "Finally!!" than "Whoah, dude, I never saw that coming!". This is what makes it unworthy of a patent, not that nobody ever did it before because they were limited by technology.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but it would appear this is a continuation on other patents, with the original being filed in 1993.
So tell me, twenty years ago was this obvious to any of the users here? Or is it obvious now only because they "invented" it?
I wrote assembly code for working with 16-bit floats on the Atari ST back in the 1980s. I don't remember the exact number of bits in mantissa/exponent but it's just a case of picking something that works for for whatever it is you're doing.
For use in frame buffers? It's pretty damn obvious IMHO...everybody in the entire graphics industry has always known that 8 bits is only just good enough to represent color for the human eye. Many workstations had more bits and you even used to be able to buy PC graphics cards with 10-bit color (Matrox Parhelia range).
So yes, it's obvious to anybody in the trade. The only reason for not doing it since day one was price.
It's just floating point with a different size mantissa/exponent. Not creative or novel in any meaningful way. Certainly not worthy of a patent.
So...they've patented a particular combination of mantissa/exponent size for floating point numbers?
Exactly how low can the patent office go?
It's 20+ miles each way to work
So...you can do 35 miles of your commute on electricity for a few cents plus the last five miles using gas.
Your Hyundai probably uses a gallon of gas to do the same thing. You could be paying $3.50 less per day.
Nah, let the taxpayer pick up the bill. Cops have enough problems of their own. Where's the fun in being a cop if they film you?
"After the City spent years in court defending the officers' arrest of Glik..."
I wonder how long they'd have fought if they hadn't had taxpayer money to pay the lawyers.
It won't make much difference, people will just type "www.theporitebay.org/xxxxxx" instead. Like all other MSN 'blocking' it will be just another Windows annoyance rather than an impediment.
This video sums it up nicely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk