IIRC, the Chernobyl virus that went around a while back did something like flash your BIOS, so it wasn't even possible to reboot the machine. A nice idea, but it had the unfortunate timing of coming immediately after the Melissa virus, when people were still paranoid. It didn't make it very far.
I, and you'll never see this coming, am not a lawyer. In other words, I have no idea what I'm talking about:) That said: In this case, I think you're fine. You only are required to give away source if you distribute your application. Since PHP does all it's work on the server-side, and all the user sees are the results, you're probably okay in this respect. Now, if you want to redistribute your work, but don't want to send back the exact files for whatever reason (i.e. database passwords in the.php3 file that you don't want to give out), you could separate site-specific parts out into a configuration file, let people know the file format (perhaps with an example file) and distribute that. I'm planning to write an application this way in the future, so hopefully it works in practice:)
You know, I'd been thinking a lot about the bogus e-mails that the spambots pick up, and I keep thinking "wouldn't it be fun to put someone's e-mail that I don't like in my message, to get them spammed to oblivion?" Of course, it probably wouldn't be moral to do that. So who would be a valid target for this kind of treatment? In my opinion, a company that does nothing to stop spammers is fair game (since it's their fault most spam gets out here). And since I'd love the irony of them recieving spam from their own servers, I'm seriously considering changing my.signature to: help@uu.net root@uu.net postmaster@uu.net abuse@uu.net I can just see them now! "Where the hell is all this spam coming from?" "Um... it look like it's coming from us!" Serves 'em right!
Ha! I can copy it easy - I've got a tool that even the 1337 hax0rs don't know about! I'll let you in on it: It seems there's this company - they invented the GUI, the mouse, tons of stuff... well, they've been working on a machine that'll let you copy anything! You just put whatever you want copied on a little glass partition and push a button. Then, this green light goes over it, and bam! Instant copy comes right out of the paper chute! There's even an underground chain of stores called "kinko's" that'll help you out for only 5 cents or so! Just ask one of the 'assistants' for a machine. If you're not a cop, they'll hook you up. Remember - keep this under your hat. I've got to get out of here, the minute B. Dalton finds out what I've told you guys, I'm in trouble.
While we're talking about open source and games, here is a piece by Shawn Hargreaves (maker of the allegro gaming library) on open source and gaming. It's an interesting read, even if you don't quite agree with what he has to say.
Actually, I stopped using KDevelop for a reason like this. Don't get me wrong - I loved KDevelop (and still do) and wrote a great many programs with it. But I discovered that when I went back to these programs, I had to load up the IDE every time, and then use the IDE's controls to find the functions I'd written (whereas normally I put functions in alphabetical order). KDevelop works fine for me as long as I'm writing a project for myself, but if I plan on releasing it to others, I can't use it. My code isn't as clean, and I don't have as much control over automake/autoconf as I do working by hand. (Looking at the automake/autoconf stuff that KDevelop created was, however, instrumental in helping me learn it) Of course, since it is open source, I could always contribute code to the KDevelop crew....:)
I haven't tried it myself (I really am going to learn python one of these days, really), but I've heard good things about PySDL - which gives you python bindings to the SDL library (same library Loki uses to make their games). This can at least start you up on graphics:)
I can tell you one thing for certain: If I had a program that could go through the web and find pages that are almost certainly pornographic content, I wouldn't be censoring them;) Porn search engine, anyone?
Was it just me, or was there just a bit of homage to David Brin's 'Uplift' trilogy in this movie? Both seemed to me to be "shameless space opera" (Brin describing his work) but in a fun and enjoyable way. And both had the earthlings as the down-but-not-out race that still has a bunch of things the stodgy old Galactics haven't thought of yet. I swear, I was continually waiting for the Drej to start yelling about "damned wolfling tricks"
My guess as to why the slashdot people don't post the partners link is mainly because the NY Times' lawyers might notice if they did. I'm not sure why the NYT has the partners link set up the way they do, but I'm guessing it's because they're charging other news outlets to be 'partners' so their news can be rebroadcast. They likely wouldn't take too kindly to Slashdot officially sanctioning getting past the registration process. As long as people keep writing comments like yours that give the partners link, I suspect that things will continue swimmingly (As other newspapers would like nothing better than the NY Times to try to censor Slashdot). But if Roblimo or one of the official slashdot crew makes that link, then they could be in big trouble. Granted, NYT could have just made a technological solution to the problem, but lawsuits are what's in style nowadays:)
Same thing happened to me, and to lots of folks. I still read Slashdot, I still like Slashdot, but I've begun to feel that it's drifing away from being the community that folks once saw in it. It's little things like this that get to you after a while. Me, I've started reading another techie type news site, kuro5hin - it doesn't have quite the readership of Slashdot, but it does have interesting conversations, timely stories, and story moderation. Here's hoping to getting a story posted:)
Some games have always been mainstream (at least to game players) - the fighters, the first person shooters, the sports games, etc. And it's these mainstream games that most of the non-videogame audience looks at when they don't take games seriously. What's serious about a sports game, after all? It's just a diversion - a fighter isn't likely to spark creative minds to make new things, it's likely to let someone vent some steam:) Recently, though, other types of games have made it to the forefront. Final Fantasy VII was one of the first RPGs to have its own commercial - suddenly, RPGs were mainstream. It's games like these that the non-videogaming populace could look at and think (possibly) that they're worthwhile. Something with plot, depth, and artistic merit. Something that could spark a creative mind to make new things. I'm not bashing any of the other genres. There's nothing like a good quakefest, after all - but to the folks who aren't really into videogaming, it's the games that seem to have more depth which are leading to greater acceptance of games.
The digital projector alone costs about $100,000, not to mention the added price of a special screen, sound system and computer equipment needed to download and show ``Titan A.E.'' in digital format.
I read this same story from a different paper (I don't recall offhand, otherwise I'd add a link) and one thing that story mentioned was the above quote - and the fact that movie studios were balking at it. Essentially, what this does is shift cost from the movie studios (putting the movie to film and shipping it everywhere) to the ordinary theaters (cost of new projectors, maintainance on fancy new computers). The owners of the aforementioned ordinary theaters were not pleased about this. All said, I think it's a great thing to see distribution go digital, but - unfortunately - there's always a downside.
Slashdot Mirror
IIRC, the Chernobyl virus that went around a while back did something like flash your BIOS, so it wasn't even possible to reboot the machine.
A nice idea, but it had the unfortunate timing of coming immediately after the Melissa virus, when people were still paranoid. It didn't make it very far.
Hey, if we're buying reviews now, does that mean we're as big as Microsoft?
Happy birthday to all the flamewars that came about as a result!
I, and you'll never see this coming, am not a lawyer. In other words, I have no idea what I'm talking about :) That said: .php3 file that you don't want to give out), you could separate site-specific parts out into a configuration file, let people know the file format (perhaps with an example file) and distribute that. I'm planning to write an application this way in the future, so hopefully it works in practice :)
In this case, I think you're fine.
You only are required to give away source if you distribute your application. Since PHP does all it's work on the server-side, and all the user sees are the results, you're probably okay in this respect.
Now, if you want to redistribute your work, but don't want to send back the exact files for whatever reason (i.e. database passwords in the
You know, I'd been thinking a lot about the bogus e-mails that the spambots pick up, and I keep thinking "wouldn't it be fun to put someone's e-mail that I don't like in my message, to get them spammed to oblivion?" .signature to:
Of course, it probably wouldn't be moral to do that. So who would be a valid target for this kind of treatment? In my opinion, a company that does nothing to stop spammers is fair game (since it's their fault most spam gets out here). And since I'd love the irony of them recieving spam from their own servers, I'm seriously considering changing my
help@uu.net root@uu.net postmaster@uu.net abuse@uu.net
I can just see them now! "Where the hell is all this spam coming from?" "Um... it look like it's coming from us!"
Serves 'em right!
Remember - keep this under your hat. I've got to get out of here, the minute B. Dalton finds out what I've told you guys, I'm in trouble.
I mean, if a guy who had been stranded on an island for 20 years told me he'd invented a new CPU, I'd be pretty wary too!
- Apply this technique to turtles
- Teach them martial arts
Then, and only then, can we rid ourselves of the evil Shredder and his minions!Turtle power!
I stand corrected.
Typical slashdot! Wired had this story two years ago!
Let's ask Mr. Owl!
Mr. Owl: One... two... three... **CRUNCH**
Three.
While we're talking about open source and games, here is a piece by Shawn Hargreaves (maker of the allegro gaming library) on open source and gaming. It's an interesting read, even if you don't quite agree with what he has to say.
It's a typo. And the stupid thing is, I previewed the message twice. :)
Actually, I stopped using KDevelop for a reason like this. :)
Don't get me wrong - I loved KDevelop (and still do) and wrote a great many programs with it. But I discovered that when I went back to these programs, I had to load up the IDE every time, and then use the IDE's controls to find the functions I'd written (whereas normally I put functions in alphabetical order).
KDevelop works fine for me as long as I'm writing a project for myself, but if I plan on releasing it to others, I can't use it. My code isn't as clean, and I don't have as much control over automake/autoconf as I do working by hand. (Looking at the automake/autoconf stuff that KDevelop created was, however, instrumental in helping me learn it)
Of course, since it is open source, I could always contribute code to the KDevelop crew....
I believe Microsoft holds the trademark for their own Infernal OS. This company's just looking to get themselves sued!
Wait, Inferno?
I haven't tried it myself (I really am going to learn python one of these days, really), but I've heard good things about PySDL - which gives you python bindings to the SDL library (same library Loki uses to make their games). This can at least start you up on graphics :)
I can tell you one thing for certain: If I had a program that could go through the web and find pages that are almost certainly pornographic content, I wouldn't be censoring them ;)
Porn search engine, anyone?
Was it just me, or was there just a bit of homage to David Brin's 'Uplift' trilogy in this movie? Both seemed to me to be "shameless space opera" (Brin describing his work) but in a fun and enjoyable way. And both had the earthlings as the down-but-not-out race that still has a bunch of things the stodgy old Galactics haven't thought of yet.
I swear, I was continually waiting for the Drej to start yelling about "damned wolfling tricks"
because those illogical volumes are really a bitch to manage. Like herding cats....
My guess as to why the slashdot people don't post the partners link is mainly because the NY Times' lawyers might notice if they did. I'm not sure why the NYT has the partners link set up the way they do, but I'm guessing it's because they're charging other news outlets to be 'partners' so their news can be rebroadcast. They likely wouldn't take too kindly to Slashdot officially sanctioning getting past the registration process. :)
As long as people keep writing comments like yours that give the partners link, I suspect that things will continue swimmingly (As other newspapers would like nothing better than the NY Times to try to censor Slashdot). But if Roblimo or one of the official slashdot crew makes that link, then they could be in big trouble.
Granted, NYT could have just made a technological solution to the problem, but lawsuits are what's in style nowadays
Same thing happened to me, and to lots of folks. I still read Slashdot, I still like Slashdot, but I've begun to feel that it's drifing away from being the community that folks once saw in it. It's little things like this that get to you after a while.
Me, I've started reading another techie type news site, kuro5hin - it doesn't have quite the readership of Slashdot, but it does have interesting conversations, timely stories, and story moderation.
Here's hoping to getting a story posted
Some games have always been mainstream (at least to game players) - the fighters, the first person shooters, the sports games, etc. And it's these mainstream games that most of the non-videogame audience looks at when they don't take games seriously. What's serious about a sports game, after all? It's just a diversion - a fighter isn't likely to spark creative minds to make new things, it's likely to let someone vent some steam :)
:)
Recently, though, other types of games have made it to the forefront. Final Fantasy VII was one of the first RPGs to have its own commercial - suddenly, RPGs were mainstream. It's games like these that the non-videogaming populace could look at and think (possibly) that they're worthwhile. Something with plot, depth, and artistic merit. Something that could spark a creative mind to make new things.
I'm not bashing any of the other genres. There's nothing like a good quakefest, after all - but to the folks who aren't really into videogaming, it's the games that seem to have more depth which are leading to greater acceptance of games.
Now, if I could only convince my parents
Just what we need, more letters ordering Slashdot to remove copyrighted content.
First our comments, then our polls!
I read this same story from a different paper (I don't recall offhand, otherwise I'd add a link) and one thing that story mentioned was the above quote - and the fact that movie studios were balking at it.
Essentially, what this does is shift cost from the movie studios (putting the movie to film and shipping it everywhere) to the ordinary theaters (cost of new projectors, maintainance on fancy new computers). The owners of the aforementioned ordinary theaters were not pleased about this.
All said, I think it's a great thing to see distribution go digital, but - unfortunately - there's always a downside.