Tablet PCs are sort of like a large pda... At least that's where I see their usefulness. Ipaqs are cool, but the screen is too small to be useful, IMO.
A tablet PC, especially the kind that can unfold to into a laptop, is what I've been wanting for a very long time.
But the price is just crazy, $2600? I'd consider paying $1000. $2600 Could by a pretty slick laptop that cleans the floor with a typical tablet pc.
Perhaps the idea of bitTorrent can be applied to web browsing. It might be somewhat problematic for dynamic pages (work around with a timeout I guess), but it would be an interesting experiment.
hmmm. I guess I don't follow your steering wheel example. You lost me with the link between physical elevation and protocol abstraction.
anyway, have a look at this:
Utility patent covers new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or compositions of matter (such as chemical compositions and compounds), or any subsequent new and useful improvement.
So if you had an e-mail client, or server I guess, that did pretty much exactly what blockspam's or whomever's client or server does, before 1997, then I'd say you had prior art.
It's at a totally different level than the protocol, at least TCP, and serves a different purpose. Yes, they're both about authentication, but that arguement is like saying there is no difference between a security guard and a lawyer.
If you had a scheme that defeated spam using challenge & reply/response at the SMTP protocol level, and it wasn't patented yet, go get it. Blockmail's patent won't cover that, and you could do the world a service by getting a patent and freeing the covered items to the world at large.
"Challenge-Response is the fundamental security mechanism for TCP"
I think what we are talking about it is a utility patent. Basically it is patenting a unique use of pre-existing technology/items.
For example, whomever came up with the pringle can antenna could patent that idea, even though both pringle cans and antennae have been around for a long time.
"So basically they're claiming that IBM's license to the original Bell Labs code gives SCO ownership of all the improvements IBM made."
Sounds like a GPL type license to me. If I make "improvements" to a GPL'd piece of code, my understanding is if I want to distribute a binary, I have to make the source available too, and under GPL.
I don't know anything about the deal between SCO and IBM, but I'm just trying to point out that it's not so far fetched that this could be the case--that SCO does own AIX.
"You forgot another important reason, which is that the circle has the most area for a given diameter, and therefore uses the least amount of material (steel, I assume) to cover a hole with a given area."
Granted, I haven't heard or read a lot of stupid things today, but your statement is the most remarkably stupid item I've come across in the last 24 hours, and likely the last month or so.
Imagine, somebody builds a phone with features you don't like. Gee, what a horrible atrocity.
Re:A (hopefully) unbiased opinion on Perl v. Pytho
on
Python in a Nutshell
·
· Score: -1, Offtopic
This comment will probably make it obvious, but I'm not a programmer (not by profession at least). Anyway, here's my question: Why would someone want to implement Python in itself?
"Respectfully, I disagree. Not because I am guessing as to this happening, but because I remember hearing it described that the computer did EXACTLY that."
I believe the problem the original poster is referring to is that the computer wouldn't necessarily know that it was missing half of it's control surfaces that it would use to correct the flight path anomaly.
And even if it did know, the software probably doesn't have aerodynamic models that include missing wing scenarios
I think I'd say Neuromancer did it for me. I'm not so sure if it was my natural geek tendencies that allowed me to enjoy that book so much, or if it affected to any great extent the course my life was to take.
I was in 5th or 6th grade when I read neuromancer. I believe it had been out in paperback four a couple years at the time. I had an apple, but I mostly played games with it, or used applelink (payed about $180 for that 1200 baud modem). After reading neuromancer I started getting into programming... while the book was/is great, it was Nueromancer the game that turned on my serious geek mode. It was the first game I "hacked" with a hex editor to get all the skill chips and super high level "microsofts" like Drill 7.0 and BlowTorch, etc...
I recently loaded neuromancer up in an emulator for nostalgia. It brought a tear to my eye, mostly from those awful graphics, and the sound made my ears bleed. But what a great game!
Well, I suppose I'm splitting hairs here, but it is not illegal to modify your own hardware. It's not illegal to own mod chips (as far as I know). It's illegal to sell them (and I'm not even sure that's true).
If you could cook up your own mod chip, for your own use, you'd be all set.
"Add a $50 FPGA to do the interfacing to the PCI bus"
PCI interfaces aren't exactly simple. It could take a very long time to write your own pci interface from scratch. I haven't been to opencores in a while, but it looks like their PCI core is done. Has anyone tried to use it?
" That's actually my point, that it entered our collective consciousness and very quickly the origin of that re-entry became obscured, such that many people were/are able to view it as an original name without ever even thinking of the matrix."
Slashdot Mirror
Tablet PCs are sort of like a large pda... At least that's where I see their usefulness. Ipaqs are cool, but the screen is too small to be useful, IMO.
A tablet PC, especially the kind that can unfold to into a laptop, is what I've been wanting for a very long time.
But the price is just crazy, $2600? I'd consider paying $1000. $2600 Could by a pretty slick laptop that cleans the floor with a typical tablet pc.
Perhaps the idea of bitTorrent can be applied to web browsing. It might be somewhat problematic for dynamic pages (work around with a timeout I guess), but it would be an interesting experiment.
anyway, have a look at this:
That's from findlaw.com
So if you had an e-mail client, or server I guess, that did pretty much exactly what blockspam's or whomever's client or server does, before 1997, then I'd say you had prior art.
It's at a totally different level than the protocol, at least TCP, and serves a different purpose. Yes, they're both about authentication, but that arguement is like saying there is no difference between a security guard and a lawyer.
If you had a scheme that defeated spam using challenge & reply/response at the SMTP protocol level, and it wasn't patented yet, go get it. Blockmail's patent won't cover that, and you could do the world a service by getting a patent and freeing the covered items to the world at large.
"Challenge-Response is the fundamental security mechanism for TCP"
I think what we are talking about it is a utility patent. Basically it is patenting a unique use of pre-existing technology/items.
For example, whomever came up with the pringle can antenna could patent that idea, even though both pringle cans and antennae have been around for a long time.
"C'mon guys, can maybe we get a bit verbose about what you choose to put up on /.?"
It's the typo reduction system. It left out the misspelled words.
That's what reconfigurable computing is all about. reconfigure to suit your current needs...
link
I suppose the only solution then is not to keep said records.
"So basically they're claiming that IBM's license to the original Bell Labs code gives SCO ownership of all the improvements IBM made."
Sounds like a GPL type license to me. If I make "improvements" to a GPL'd piece of code, my understanding is if I want to distribute a binary, I have to make the source available too, and under GPL.
I don't know anything about the deal between SCO and IBM, but I'm just trying to point out that it's not so far fetched that this could be the case--that SCO does own AIX.
"You forgot another important reason, which is that the circle has the most area for a given diameter, and therefore uses the least amount of material (steel, I assume) to cover a hole with a given area."
Granted, I haven't heard or read a lot of stupid things today, but your statement is the most remarkably stupid item I've come across in the last 24 hours, and likely the last month or so.
Imagine, somebody builds a phone with features you don't like. Gee, what a horrible atrocity.
This comment will probably make it obvious, but I'm not a programmer (not by profession at least). Anyway, here's my question: Why would someone want to implement Python in itself?
I think for it to be recursive it would have to be TINAA Is Not An Apple.
You can call the EIT extremely long, and difficult, but at the same time I've never heard of anyone not "passing" this test.
"Respectfully, I disagree. Not because I am guessing as to this happening, but because I remember hearing it described that the computer did EXACTLY that."
I believe the problem the original poster is referring to is that the computer wouldn't necessarily know that it was missing half of it's control surfaces that it would use to correct the flight path anomaly.
And even if it did know, the software probably doesn't have aerodynamic models that include missing wing scenarios
I think it's more an issue of figuring out where the viewer is in 3d space, and correctly rendering the image for them to see.
Whether you care or not, here's my take: If a thing was created to express an idea or feeling, for the idea's sake, or the feeling's sake, it's art.
"Well, that means about 99.9% of slashdotters will never be successful entrapreneurs. Hell, I can't even spell it"
He confused Successful Salesman with Entrepreneur.
I think I'd say Neuromancer did it for me. I'm not so sure if it was my natural geek tendencies that allowed me to enjoy that book so much, or if it affected to any great extent the course my life was to take.
I was in 5th or 6th grade when I read neuromancer. I believe it had been out in paperback four a couple years at the time. I had an apple, but I mostly played games with it, or used applelink (payed about $180 for that 1200 baud modem). After reading neuromancer I started getting into programming... while the book was/is great, it was Nueromancer the game that turned on my serious geek mode. It was the first game I "hacked" with a hex editor to get all the skill chips and super high level "microsofts" like Drill 7.0 and BlowTorch, etc...
I recently loaded neuromancer up in an emulator for nostalgia. It brought a tear to my eye, mostly from those awful graphics, and the sound made my ears bleed. But what a great game!
"OLEDs are Organic LEDs"
but they aren't diodes right? maybe the D is for display.
Well, I suppose I'm splitting hairs here, but it is not illegal to modify your own hardware. It's not illegal to own mod chips (as far as I know). It's illegal to sell them (and I'm not even sure that's true).
If you could cook up your own mod chip, for your own use, you'd be all set.
"Add a $50 FPGA to do the interfacing to the PCI bus"
PCI interfaces aren't exactly simple. It could take a very long time to write your own pci interface from scratch. I haven't been to opencores in a while, but it looks like their PCI core is done. Has anyone tried to use it?
"Hell, if we wanna generalize engineers, most of us are too damn fat to fit in a Civic"
I think we should have a slashdot poll with choices being various percentages of how over weight we are.
Where I work, there aren't many fat engineers. maybe 5%. I get the feeling that the % of fat slashdotters is higher than that.
Apparently some nerds aren't quite smart enough to outwit the mostly stupid football team. I had no trouble at all.
" That's actually my point, that it entered our collective consciousness and very quickly the origin of that re-entry became obscured, such that many people were/are able to view it as an original name without ever even thinking of the matrix."
Is that an example of a "meme" ?
Slashdot is a MMORPG.