Patents suck, but it is slightly amusing to note that Apple is being stung here. The article states that Apple had been asked to licence, they then pulled the item from the USA, and then a year later came back with something similar. Obviously the lawyers thought at the time that the "Utah couple" first offered to licence, that the patent was the real deal, otherwise they would have just ignored them.
Anyway I hope Apple get done, it does appear (if the article is correct) that they knew that the card system infringed on a patent, and yet went used it anyway.
(It isn't that I hate Apple or support patents, it is just that I hate capitalism. Can't you see the connection?)
Of course AMD will survive.
on
Is AMD Dead Yet?
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
They have shown that they can make Intel jump to their tune (64 bit CPUs anyone?), they just bought ATI and are thus in a position to better integrate CPUs and GPUs (for better performance), which is something that I'm sure a few hard core gamers might be interested in. They still have a strong research arm. And if nothing else, they can always go back to building cheaper Intel knock-offs which is (I believe) where they started.
Small cars that use little fuel are great. And in cities (where most people drive), it doesn't matter if it only gets a few hundred kilometres (did someone say miles? what are they?), as that is more then enough to get you home again.
As for speed, again, if you are driving in a city, there is no need to drive more then ~60 kilometres an hour (~30 miles an hour I think).
(Of course, I still prefer my (push) bike, bikes are a heck of a lot safer then cars, imagine if everyone had a bike instead of a petrol guzzling car. There would be a lot fewer accidents. Of course, sometimes you need to carry more stuff or more people, simple, just ring up your local car sharing co-op!)
The answer is obvious, and the answer is the same whenever this sort of question comes up.
It is the same for Bittorrent, it is the same for multi-player games, it is the same for email.
The only thing about this that is different is that you see a website which potentially has millions of users (how big is the UK again?) all of whom are downloading large amounts. (Actually, seeing as this is the BBC, I guess the UK TV subscribers are going to be paying, along with the UK tax-payer.)
OK, I'm interested in technology, I know what IPv4 and IPv6 are, I know that there are many more advantages to IPv6 then to IPv4 etc. Yet I'm failing to see why I should care whether IPv4 addresses are running out or not.
But more to the point, what can I (as an individual who isn't part of the technocratic elite) do about it if I did care?
I don't code network stacks, nor kernel drivers, most of my software is written by someone else, and is automatically updated to fix problems and include new features.
I assume that by the time everyone else is using IPv6 I shall be too (simply by virtue of my software being updated).
So, why should I care? And what should I do if I did care?
Can I be the first to say haha?
on
Has Ron Paul Quit?
·
· Score: -1, Troll
Ron Paul is a fuck-nut racist evolution denying fool. He doesn't vote for things, just against them.
Considering that you have sites like ScumFront running threads on how great it would be if Ron Paul were president (because he would keep all those nasty immigrants out etc.), if nothing else he is tainted by association.
The fact is though, he never stood a chance. The Greens were getting supporters to vote for him in the Primaries 'cause they wanted a fool candidate for the Republicans, thus meaning more people voting "left" (thought the Democrats are hardly left of the Republicans in most meaningful senses of the word).
Personally, wireless drivers was what made me use Ubuntu rather then Debian. I don't think I could have coped with using MS Windows to access the Internet at every turn. (Now it is just when I want to use dial-up.)
If your attacker can install software on the machine (e.g. keylogger), then they can just install a screen recorder and set it to run whenever certain software is run (such as your rotating keypad program). (That would be to limit the amount of crap that has to be saved).
mylid.net - lets you get a free OpenID and LID thingy. http://siege.org/projects/phpMyID/ - PHP script so that you can run your own ID thingy. Under your control.
And yeh, I now have access to two OpenID's from Yahoo, but personally, I think I'll be doing one of the above two whenever this OpenID thing becomes more popular.
In Windows at least (not sure with the other versions), you can set it to dismount mounted volumes whenever certain ACPI events (lid closing, suspend or hibernate etc.) happen.
This forces you to re-enter your password to access the volume.
Of course, you should have an option in your OS to ask you for your login password whenever you close and then open your lid as well.
Actually, I've been having trouble accessing the site all day.
I've been looking forward to the Linux GUI since I read about it, checking back, checking back etc.
Then today, suddenly the entire site is virtually inaccessible.
On the actual release, I think it is going to be good. After all, we see a new MacOS version, a Linux GUI and a few other nice little tools which most people might not even notice.
On the actual software, I love TrueCrypt, I use it both in Windows (where it, simply, is so easy to use), and in Linux (command-line, mehs all around, plus you have to go and delete history if you don't want to save the fact that your using it (or perhaps the fact that a specific file/partition is a container)).
The hidden-partition feature is the bees knees, especially for those extra secret documents, just hide them behind some porn, financial data or something else which you access and make changes to regularly (to hide if you are making changes to the hidden volume).
The ability to back-up headers makes this software great for businesses or governments (can restore a password if a user loses it), and this new encrypt the entire system thing, simply swell (though it doesn't work on Linux/MacOS I don't think).
I currently only use Yahoo for email (two accounts since 1998/1999). I currently mainly use Google for search (no email though).
In the event of Microsoft actually buying Yahoo, I'm going to take advantage of that POP3 offer for my email, sort it properly and delete all my emails from my two accounts. I'll continue to use them, but only because there are no real alternatives that I know of (that are free...).
I don't consider Hotmail an alternative, and haven't done since I first examined it back in 1998. As for GMail, I had an account at one stage, didn't use it and now have forgotten the password. I've since used it for a corporate email that I currently, and I dislike it.
Yeh, so if you don't have POP3, I don't know why, but I know that both the.com.au and.co.uk yahoo addresses have it available. (I'm not sure if you have to sign up to receive "special Yahoo emails" (read ads) or not, but I have signed up for these things, and have received about 6 pieces of email from Yahoo in relation to this, in the past 5 years (or more...). It is worth it.)
You know, there are now four results. Two of them from this very website (I believe the GP).
Google says that they were added "9 minutes" and "35 minutes" ago.
As for the other two, why would anyone actually want to download Harry Sticking Potter books anyway? They aren't worth the electronic bits they are printed on.
I've seen and heard a number of really good arguments along this line.
Basically, I use my computer (or paper, or whatever) to memorise or calculate things, so that I don't need to. I can focus on things that are actually important, or that I need more quickly.
I use my bike to get around faster etc.
All machinery is basically an extension of our body, that is how we can use it. What is a cyborg? A person with machinery that is part of their body. (Like pace-makers, or hearing-aids. Those old people...)
I wonder if any of the items on my Gedit wish list are going to be looked at?
I use Gedit for my IDE of choice. However, I have wishes to make it better.
The big two are simple, when working on an indented line and press enter, the next line is indented the same distance.
When the cursor is next to a bracket (brace, etc.) {([ ])}, or even quotes ' " " ', it highlights one that matches it.
The other items were fixed between 2.18 and 2.20, so no worries there...
As for Epiphany, someone asked if anyone actually uses it... I do. But not actually for web browsing, just web development. It loads faster then Firefox (esp. with all the extensions required to make Firefox usable...), and it has tabs. That's all I really need.
As for the other items, I'm not sure how many of them are actually going to affect me. There are other things that would be nice, like a better system for power management, but really GNOME is so much better then it was just a few years ago.
What the fuck? Why shouldn't it have a shit load of warning labels? I can understand you complaining about an extension cord (though seriously, some people are stupid enough to need them), but a light that can burn shit?
It is fucking dangerous! Maybe you think that chainsaws shouldn't have warning labels as well? "Mummy what happens if I do this? Ahhhhhhhhhhhh" (though actually, all the chainsaws I've handled recently have quite good safety features).
OK, I can understand having rather bright spotlights (for example, to go shooting), but I cannot understand what use this sort of light has for civilian usage.
It is far to dangerous to do many of the things that you often do with bright lights (for example, to go shooting), and so why?
Perhaps it says something in the article? Not that I can see... (Though it does say, 15 minute battery life! WTF is the point of it then?)
"public, televised floggings for anyone convicted of fraud or petty theft."
Sure, allow the rich fuckers to get away with it, white collar criminals, corporate executives etc.
But as soon as a poor kid steals a chocolate bar, public floggings!
Because, remember, we live in a society where there is only one law, but it is written to punish, not the rich, but only the poor. Any law isn't going to punish anyone who steals millions of dollars, only those who steal hundreds or less.
Diddums. The fact is that governments around the world neglect to renew broadcast licences for TV and radio stations all the time for a variety of reasons.
We don't hear about how the government (whichever one) is censoring these stations do we?
Personally I don't think much about the Venezuelan government (what with being an anarchist and all...), but I do like to make sure that everyone has the facts and can make up their own minds.
I know that this is a troll. But just to educate people, the TV station was not shut down. The government merely neglected to renew the licence for them to broadcast over the airwaves.
They can still broadcast over cable or satellite etc.
Of course, one of the reasons the government did this was because of the support, by this TV station, for the armed overthrow of the government. Which in the US, I imagine, would get you locked up.
There is a good reason for under-developed countries like India not to invest in cabling. It is the same reason why such countries have so many mobile phones as compared to landlines.
Mobile phone towers are a lot cheaper to put up then running cables everywhere, they are a lot easier to upgrade, etc. (One reason why Japan and (West) Germany were able to do so well economically after WW2 was all the new equipment, all the old stuff having been bombed. Yes the money helped, but France got that money too...)
Their core job is not to make and sell laptops to individuals. What would be great here (and if the free market really actually worked...), would be for a dedicated company to step in and sell the things directly to people in over-developed countries. That way the project can get on with developing and distributing to governments, and someone else can distribute to individuals.
Of course, they might cost slightly more because of the profit motive, but heck, most of them are seemingly being bought by geeks who already have 3 computers and can afford an extra $50 or so.
Should mention that this was the project that began the "Open Source" concept (as compared to Free Software), when a certain gun nut took the Debian guidelines for "free" and worked with Netscape and eventually created the Open Source Initiative.
Personally, I prefer the term Free Software...:P
Anyway, I'm using Firefox now, have done for a while. But my mother is still on Mozilla (a version that is getting on now, I can't remember which one though). One thing I've taught her, Firewall, no MSIE and much less problems (she also has a virus checker that does some small good, not sure if it outweighs the bad though...).
I remember something nasty happening to IE years ago and having to download Netscape, and then slowly learning about this Free Software idea and eventually installing Mozilla.
Slashdot Mirror
Patents suck, but it is slightly amusing to note that Apple is being stung here. The article states that Apple had been asked to licence, they then pulled the item from the USA, and then a year later came back with something similar. Obviously the lawyers thought at the time that the "Utah couple" first offered to licence, that the patent was the real deal, otherwise they would have just ignored them.
Anyway I hope Apple get done, it does appear (if the article is correct) that they knew that the card system infringed on a patent, and yet went used it anyway.
(It isn't that I hate Apple or support patents, it is just that I hate capitalism. Can't you see the connection?)
They have shown that they can make Intel jump to their tune (64 bit CPUs anyone?), they just bought ATI and are thus in a position to better integrate CPUs and GPUs (for better performance), which is something that I'm sure a few hard core gamers might be interested in. They still have a strong research arm. And if nothing else, they can always go back to building cheaper Intel knock-offs which is (I believe) where they started.
Small cars that use little fuel are great. And in cities (where most people drive), it doesn't matter if it only gets a few hundred kilometres (did someone say miles? what are they?), as that is more then enough to get you home again.
As for speed, again, if you are driving in a city, there is no need to drive more then ~60 kilometres an hour (~30 miles an hour I think).
(Of course, I still prefer my (push) bike, bikes are a heck of a lot safer then cars, imagine if everyone had a bike instead of a petrol guzzling car. There would be a lot fewer accidents. Of course, sometimes you need to carry more stuff or more people, simple, just ring up your local car sharing co-op!)
This.
The answer is obvious, and the answer is the same whenever this sort of question comes up.
It is the same for Bittorrent, it is the same for multi-player games, it is the same for email.
The only thing about this that is different is that you see a website which potentially has millions of users (how big is the UK again?) all of whom are downloading large amounts. (Actually, seeing as this is the BBC, I guess the UK TV subscribers are going to be paying, along with the UK tax-payer.)
OK, I'm interested in technology, I know what IPv4 and IPv6 are, I know that there are many more advantages to IPv6 then to IPv4 etc. Yet I'm failing to see why I should care whether IPv4 addresses are running out or not.
But more to the point, what can I (as an individual who isn't part of the technocratic elite) do about it if I did care?
I don't code network stacks, nor kernel drivers, most of my software is written by someone else, and is automatically updated to fix problems and include new features.
I assume that by the time everyone else is using IPv6 I shall be too (simply by virtue of my software being updated).
So, why should I care? And what should I do if I did care?
Ron Paul is a fuck-nut racist evolution denying fool.
He doesn't vote for things, just against them.
Considering that you have sites like ScumFront running threads on how great it would be if Ron Paul were president (because he would keep all those nasty immigrants out etc.), if nothing else he is tainted by association.
The fact is though, he never stood a chance. The Greens were getting supporters to vote for him in the Primaries 'cause they wanted a fool candidate for the Republicans, thus meaning more people voting "left" (thought the Democrats are hardly left of the Republicans in most meaningful senses of the word).
Anyway, haha.
Personally, wireless drivers was what made me use Ubuntu rather then Debian. I don't think I could have coped with using MS Windows to access the Internet at every turn. (Now it is just when I want to use dial-up.)
Screen recorder.
If your attacker can install software on the machine (e.g. keylogger), then they can just install a screen recorder and set it to run whenever certain software is run (such as your rotating keypad program). (That would be to limit the amount of crap that has to be saved).
Oh well.
mylid.net - lets you get a free OpenID and LID thingy.
http://siege.org/projects/phpMyID/ - PHP script so that you can run your own ID thingy. Under your control.
And yeh, I now have access to two OpenID's from Yahoo, but personally, I think I'll be doing one of the above two whenever this OpenID thing becomes more popular.
In Windows at least (not sure with the other versions), you can set it to dismount mounted volumes whenever certain ACPI events (lid closing, suspend or hibernate etc.) happen.
This forces you to re-enter your password to access the volume.
Of course, you should have an option in your OS to ask you for your login password whenever you close and then open your lid as well.
Actually, I've been having trouble accessing the site all day.
I've been looking forward to the Linux GUI since I read about it, checking back, checking back etc.
Then today, suddenly the entire site is virtually inaccessible.
On the actual release, I think it is going to be good. After all, we see a new MacOS version, a Linux GUI and a few other nice little tools which most people might not even notice.
On the actual software, I love TrueCrypt, I use it both in Windows (where it, simply, is so easy to use), and in Linux (command-line, mehs all around, plus you have to go and delete history if you don't want to save the fact that your using it (or perhaps the fact that a specific file/partition is a container)).
The hidden-partition feature is the bees knees, especially for those extra secret documents, just hide them behind some porn, financial data or something else which you access and make changes to regularly (to hide if you are making changes to the hidden volume).
The ability to back-up headers makes this software great for businesses or governments (can restore a password if a user loses it), and this new encrypt the entire system thing, simply swell (though it doesn't work on Linux/MacOS I don't think).
Anyway, as always, check out the Wikipedia article for more info. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueCrypt
I currently only use Yahoo for email (two accounts since 1998/1999). I currently mainly use Google for search (no email though).
.com.au and .co.uk yahoo addresses have it available. (I'm not sure if you have to sign up to receive "special Yahoo emails" (read ads) or not, but I have signed up for these things, and have received about 6 pieces of email from Yahoo in relation to this, in the past 5 years (or more...). It is worth it.)
In the event of Microsoft actually buying Yahoo, I'm going to take advantage of that POP3 offer for my email, sort it properly and delete all my emails from my two accounts. I'll continue to use them, but only because there are no real alternatives that I know of (that are free...).
I don't consider Hotmail an alternative, and haven't done since I first examined it back in 1998. As for GMail, I had an account at one stage, didn't use it and now have forgotten the password. I've since used it for a corporate email that I currently, and I dislike it.
Yeh, so if you don't have POP3, I don't know why, but I know that both the
You know, there are now four results. Two of them from this very website (I believe the GP).
Google says that they were added "9 minutes" and "35 minutes" ago.
As for the other two, why would anyone actually want to download Harry Sticking Potter books anyway? They aren't worth the electronic bits they are printed on.
Indeed. We are all cyborgs now.
I've seen and heard a number of really good arguments along this line.
Basically, I use my computer (or paper, or whatever) to memorise or calculate things, so that I don't need to. I can focus on things that are actually important, or that I need more quickly.
I use my bike to get around faster etc.
All machinery is basically an extension of our body, that is how we can use it. What is a cyborg? A person with machinery that is part of their body. (Like pace-makers, or hearing-aids. Those old people...)
Bloody hell. I was just thinking, I bet someone is going to point me to a plugin that does just that... No... It is built right into the editor!
Thanks! This will make my job easier, that is for sure.
(Just goes to show, looking around in the options is a good idea...)
I wonder if any of the items on my Gedit wish list are going to be looked at?
I use Gedit for my IDE of choice. However, I have wishes to make it better.
The big two are simple,
when working on an indented line and press enter, the next line is indented the same distance.
When the cursor is next to a bracket (brace, etc.) {([ ])}, or even quotes ' " " ', it highlights one that matches it.
The other items were fixed between 2.18 and 2.20, so no worries there...
As for Epiphany, someone asked if anyone actually uses it... I do. But not actually for web browsing, just web development. It loads faster then Firefox (esp. with all the extensions required to make Firefox usable...), and it has tabs. That's all I really need.
As for the other items, I'm not sure how many of them are actually going to affect me. There are other things that would be nice, like a better system for power management, but really GNOME is so much better then it was just a few years ago.
What the fuck? Why shouldn't it have a shit load of warning labels? I can understand you complaining about an extension cord (though seriously, some people are stupid enough to need them), but a light that can burn shit?
It is fucking dangerous! Maybe you think that chainsaws shouldn't have warning labels as well? "Mummy what happens if I do this? Ahhhhhhhhhhhh" (though actually, all the chainsaws I've handled recently have quite good safety features).
OK, I can understand having rather bright spotlights (for example, to go shooting), but I cannot understand what use this sort of light has for civilian usage.
It is far to dangerous to do many of the things that you often do with bright lights (for example, to go shooting), and so why?
Perhaps it says something in the article? Not that I can see... (Though it does say, 15 minute battery life! WTF is the point of it then?)
"public, televised floggings for anyone convicted of fraud or petty theft."
Sure, allow the rich fuckers to get away with it, white collar criminals, corporate executives etc.
But as soon as a poor kid steals a chocolate bar, public floggings!
Because, remember, we live in a society where there is only one law, but it is written to punish, not the rich, but only the poor. Any law isn't going to punish anyone who steals millions of dollars, only those who steal hundreds or less.
Diddums. The fact is that governments around the world neglect to renew broadcast licences for TV and radio stations all the time for a variety of reasons.
We don't hear about how the government (whichever one) is censoring these stations do we?
Personally I don't think much about the Venezuelan government (what with being an anarchist and all...), but I do like to make sure that everyone has the facts and can make up their own minds.
I know that this is a troll. But just to educate people, the TV station was not shut down. The government merely neglected to renew the licence for them to broadcast over the airwaves.
They can still broadcast over cable or satellite etc.
Of course, one of the reasons the government did this was because of the support, by this TV station, for the armed overthrow of the government. Which in the US, I imagine, would get you locked up.
There is a good reason for under-developed countries like India not to invest in cabling. It is the same reason why such countries have so many mobile phones as compared to landlines.
Mobile phone towers are a lot cheaper to put up then running cables everywhere, they are a lot easier to upgrade, etc. (One reason why Japan and (West) Germany were able to do so well economically after WW2 was all the new equipment, all the old stuff having been bombed. Yes the money helped, but France got that money too...)
Anyway, good oh.
Exactly. OLPC project is not a fucking business.
Their core job is not to make and sell laptops to individuals. What would be great here (and if the free market really actually worked...), would be for a dedicated company to step in and sell the things directly to people in over-developed countries. That way the project can get on with developing and distributing to governments, and someone else can distribute to individuals.
Of course, they might cost slightly more because of the profit motive, but heck, most of them are seemingly being bought by geeks who already have 3 computers and can afford an extra $50 or so.
Meh, but I'm younger then you are. I can't remember 1989...
I really got into GNOME/X/GNU/Linux around 2001/2002. I always did like GNOME more then KDE...
Anyway, I'm starting to feel old myself... (and I know I'm not), this reminiscing has to stop! (Goes and codes some PHP.)
Should mention that this was the project that began the "Open Source" concept (as compared to Free Software), when a certain gun nut took the Debian guidelines for "free" and worked with Netscape and eventually created the Open Source Initiative.
:P
Personally, I prefer the term Free Software...
Anyway, I'm using Firefox now, have done for a while. But my mother is still on Mozilla (a version that is getting on now, I can't remember which one though). One thing I've taught her, Firewall, no MSIE and much less problems (she also has a virus checker that does some small good, not sure if it outweighs the bad though...).
I remember something nasty happening to IE years ago and having to download Netscape, and then slowly learning about this Free Software idea and eventually installing Mozilla.
Ah, the memories.