Your experience is vastly different from mine, though. While calculators have been banned from every single one of my math classes, they have been *required* for many of my statistics exams. They're also helpful with math-based economics.
That's not a good analogy since the Purevideo decoder is a DVD decoder. It's an extra piece of software that takes advantage of the card's features, but it's not an added feature of nVidia graphics cards. Their graphics cards still have complete functionality without it. It's similar to software in general and an OS. Why should I pay extra for Photoshop or Autodesk when I've already bought the OS!?
The easy, and simple way to avoid all of these problems with gaming on Linux is to just dual-boot into Windows for gaming. It may be a bit inconvenient, but certainly less so than being banned from your favorite game(s) and the pain of non-native performance and compatibility issues.
You make a good point. AllofMP3 simply offers the best service out there. No DRM and multiple formats and quality options. It also has a huge selection compared to all the other services.
This is exactly the problem with the political system in the US today. The neoconservatives who have kidnapped the GOP are actually former Democrats. The Republican party is full of statists now. The main difference between them and the Democrats is that they're more pro-war, but they're certainly both increasing the size of government and moving steadily toward 1984. Hopefully there will be a viable, truely conservative, candidate in 2008 and not just a bleeding-heart liberal versus a neocon hawk. Perhaps the Libertarian Party can get its act together.
However, if the patent was irrelevant then why did *Apple* initiate litigation against Burst? It seems to me that if Apple truly believed that they had nothing to fear from Burst they wouldn't have initiated litigation which means they're going to have to pay their lawyers that much more. Why not just let Burst sue them?
Microsoft settled so there's no ruling to reverse. They can't get that money back. No way, no how. They bought a permanent "license" to use it for that $60mil they settled for. Sounds to me like they got off cheap.
Burst's patents date back to 1988 and they're not FIFO's at all. The patents are for creating a local cache of the content that is being watched so that there is no skipping. The cache is filled at the full rate of the connection speed even though the video is not using all that speed. I believe that coming up with this idea in 1988 would have been revolutionary and patent-worthy. If you tried to patent it today, you'd of course fail. However, Burst didn't immediately have to go after Apple and others on patent infringement. They can sue whenever they feel like it.
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"Hey, let's play some pussy-bitch!" It just sounds so wrong...
Of course it does. Pussy-bitch.
Your experience is vastly different from mine, though. While calculators have been banned from every single one of my math classes, they have been *required* for many of my statistics exams. They're also helpful with math-based economics.
That's not a good analogy since the Purevideo decoder is a DVD decoder. It's an extra piece of software that takes advantage of the card's features, but it's not an added feature of nVidia graphics cards. Their graphics cards still have complete functionality without it. It's similar to software in general and an OS. Why should I pay extra for Photoshop or Autodesk when I've already bought the OS!?
However, Microsoft has also said that it will be compatible before Vista comes out for consumers. I don't see the big deal here.
The easy, and simple way to avoid all of these problems with gaming on Linux is to just dual-boot into Windows for gaming. It may be a bit inconvenient, but certainly less so than being banned from your favorite game(s) and the pain of non-native performance and compatibility issues.
I said that it would be good if Yahoo keeps it up and *expands* the program, not as it is. RTFC before you make an ass of yourself.
If Yahoo keeps it up and expands the program it'll be great for us consumers. Hopefully other mainstream companies will follow suit.
You make a good point. AllofMP3 simply offers the best service out there. No DRM and multiple formats and quality options. It also has a huge selection compared to all the other services.
This is exactly the problem with the political system in the US today. The neoconservatives who have kidnapped the GOP are actually former Democrats. The Republican party is full of statists now. The main difference between them and the Democrats is that they're more pro-war, but they're certainly both increasing the size of government and moving steadily toward 1984. Hopefully there will be a viable, truely conservative, candidate in 2008 and not just a bleeding-heart liberal versus a neocon hawk. Perhaps the Libertarian Party can get its act together.
Yes, Apple's #1 competitive advantage is the iPod/iTMS duo. Computers, and their OS are secondary and are benefitting from the success of the iPod.
However, if the patent was irrelevant then why did *Apple* initiate litigation against Burst? It seems to me that if Apple truly believed that they had nothing to fear from Burst they wouldn't have initiated litigation which means they're going to have to pay their lawyers that much more. Why not just let Burst sue them?
Microsoft settled so there's no ruling to reverse. They can't get that money back. No way, no how. They bought a permanent "license" to use it for that $60mil they settled for. Sounds to me like they got off cheap.
Burst's patents date back to 1988 and they're not FIFO's at all. The patents are for creating a local cache of the content that is being watched so that there is no skipping. The cache is filled at the full rate of the connection speed even though the video is not using all that speed. I believe that coming up with this idea in 1988 would have been revolutionary and patent-worthy. If you tried to patent it today, you'd of course fail. However, Burst didn't immediately have to go after Apple and others on patent infringement. They can sue whenever they feel like it.