It's definitely not a Michael Moore film. No DVD sales, advertising kickbacks, big studio deals, etc.
It's good to see a real documentary produced for informational purposes instead of for the reason of making money via political statements.
3) If you pick up on an idea someone else has patended, don't write software that infringes or you will, being an average OS developer, lose your house.
You mention the patent holder as a patent troll. That could be, but what if its not? What if its a legitimate company wanted to protect it's intellectual property? Maybe it has something new no one has implemented yet? The patent they hold will allow them, for a certain period of time to put their software to work and establish themselves in the market.
Lets say the legitimate company then has to begin competing against a group of OS developers who "picked up on the idea". The OS developers are absolutely infringing on the patent and giving away the hard work of the patent holder for free.
If alcohol was illegal and marijuana was legal, you probably wouldnt need any bouncers at the bars. Youd just need more couches and a very large snack bar.
It does, however, creative a gigantic, violent black market.
I agree with you there. However, from a different point of view what would happen if they were actually legalized. Do you think these same people would try to buy them legally? Do you think robberies and burglaries of the merchants that sold it would go up to the point business wouldn't even want to sell it?
I know in my area, Walgreens has pretty much stopped selling oxycontin and other pain killers due to the increase in robberies - people robbing the pharmacy department during store hours to attain these LEGAL, controlled drugs.
And it didn't really fix anything did it? They pay for everything there, healthcare, housing, etc. Sure, taxes are like 75% but the government covers most of what you need to get started in life.
However, while I worked there the train stations around Rotterdam and Amsterdam are still packed with homeless people begging for money to get their next fix. Now, you would think with everything paid for that there wouldn't be any homeless. Maybe the legalization perpetuates the problem even though money is flowing from the government coffers? Person buys marijuana legally. Becomes heavy user. Gateways over to a heavier substance. Becomes addicted. Ends up homeless, begs for money to buy drugs from the government. Nice little roundabout way of bringing in the same money you're handing out.
Someone I went to high school with passed away due to a drug addiction. He was in his early 30's. I didn't know him all that well but he was a good friend of a relative of mine. Apparently he had been fighting this addiction for many years.
I already see a lot of posts of people shouting "legalize them!" and I have to disagree. Is it fairly easy to get them even though they are illegal? Yes, I guess but it depends on who you know. I don't associate with anyone who takes illegal drugs so I wouldn't know where to start and it would be fairly difficult for me to attain them. Now, if they were legal and I could walk into a store any time I want to purchase them removes some hoops I'd have to jump through making them even more attainable. So, are they just as attainable now than if they were legal? Not necessarily.
Many people who champion the cause of legalization attribute it to recreational use and people should have dominion over what they put into their own bodies. Yes and no. How many recreation alcohol consumers kill children, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters each year? Did the right to dominion over their own bodies also include a right over someone else's?
The problems go much deeper than whether or not legalize. Drugs are glamourized in a sense and this would be the case whether they were legal or not. Music, movies, television all play a part in it. Same goes for alcohol. However, most people are not hooked on alcohol as quickly as they are with crack and meth. If they were, I'd think it would be reasonable to outlaw alcohol again.
Personally, I don't want to be around these drugs. I made that choice in my life and I feel I am better for it. Legalize them and you shove them in my face and make them even more attainable so kids who might have never done it think hey, its legal maybe I should try it. Has anyone thought that having them outlawed may actually deter some people? I guess that doesn't matter though because if you want them legalized you see no problem with people trying to have fun by distorting their thought processes or covering up problems by blocking them with a "high". And before anyone starts in with "what about alcohol, its a drug!" or "what about cigarettes!" trying to turn my opinions around...ban them all. There are too many adverse effects to using any of them.
For the person who loves to sing in the shower, attach your iPod to the new iShower shower head. By switching from stream to massage you can control your iPod and listen to music through the mono 6 inch waterproof speaker embedded in the shower head. Includes ziploc bag for iPod storage during showering. Don't wait, order today!
Seriously, as many times as DRM is discussed on/., the arguments are always the same. This whole story is redundant and so will most of the posts commenting on it.
Actually, most of Wyoming is on fiber optic and wireless networks. One of the first broadband offerings in Gillette, Wyoming was from a company called Visionary Communications. They placed towers all around town for their wi-fi subscribers (no, its not open).
One of the interesting things about Wyoming is that within the boundaries of the towns, subdivisions and neighborhoods are closely packed in together. Sure there are the folks that live out on their own ranches but the trend is to live closer to town.
I agree - I believe 9 and 10 are most relevent. As with the prior posts regarding the projects asking "Please do not port to Windows" - in a sense they are undermining the spirit of OSS.
If someone wrote an OSS app for Windows and stated "Please do not port to Linux",/. readers would be all over it about how Windows/Microsoft is trying to edge out Linux and OSS as it was not true OSS.
Maybe the child isn't the one accessing it via the library and it's the pedophile. Using a public terminal, wouldn't it make it harder for someone to track him? Any number of people could be on a specific computer in a library during the course of a day or week.
So in turn are you not locking them in to using Linux with your application by denying the porting to Windows? The same argument many people use for hating Microsoft? Seems a little hypocritcal to me.
Shouldn't TRUE open source software allow you to port and run it on any OS?
I told you my story. I wasn't comparing it to other gamers. If you don't have a problem, that's great! However, many people do and to look the other way and say that they don't because you are fine is negligent.
One thing I do find hard to believe is how you can declare my life a falacy. By stating that the 6 years of my life I spent gaming is a falacy, you are calling me an outright liar - which I guess is fine because you don't make a difference in my life regarding anything but I did live those 6 years and I know that I wish I could have those 6 years back.
Hello, you've just met one. I stopped gaming about 18 months ago. I started with dangerous levels in 1999 with the release of Everquest. One of your final arguments I want to speak to first...yes, some people use gaming to fill a void in their life causing the gaming to be a problem. However, I want to point at that when I started with gaming "too much" I was perfectly happy. I had started a new job, moved back to an area near a lot of my friends and my salary had just increased about 4x what I had been making.
So, if I was happy...how did it start? Well, Everquest was something different. It really sucked you in and played on your imagination. The first couple of weeks in game I spent exploring and I was just in awe.
Fast forward to 6 months later. I was tired all day from staying up too late. I was gaining weight because I kept ordering pizza almost every night of the week. At one point I had 32 boxes of pizza stacked up inside because I could not be bothered to take the trash out. At work I was surfing gaming web sites all day and trying to find ways I could "work from home".
1 year later my friends mention I never talk to them any more. I take a break from gaming to move into a new house I just bought. Work is going well but I'm still tired and my biological clock is constantly screwed up. Insomnia is still pretty bad. Still though, the break is nice and but I fall back into gaming.
3 years into gaming...I quit Everquest. This is due to work related issues. I cannot spend as much time gaming because I am traveling for my job now. However, I tried. Many a night I logged in from hotel rooms. I logged in from hotels while traveling in Europe. I'd take my install discs so I could install the game on my parents computer when I went to visit. My friends are almost all married...I'm still single. I think back to all of the times they asked me to go out and I said "No, I have something to do". So about this time I start to wonder where I'd be if I hadn't spent the last 3 years glued to EQ. I realize I had been in denial. I would spend 12 hours or more gaming on a nice, sunny Saturday and Sunday. Spending time outside was considered a setback thoug because I wasn't in a raid getting points for that uber loot.
3 years, 6 months...
I relapse, SWG looks fun. at first, I handled it ok within a short time I was back to the same behavior.
Between March 1999 and January 2005 I lost so many hours of my life it hurts to think about it. I would always convince myself "I don't have anything better to do" or I'd use the excuse, "I'd just be watching tv - this is more productive." Fact of the matter is I can shut off the tv any time I want. Gaming, that isn't so. Did I have anything better to do? No, gaming replaced all of the things I loved to do. Many of those things I can't really do any more because I am now overweight from spending so much time in front of a computer gaming. I'm still single at the age of 32. Most of my friends passed me by living their lives while I lived my digital life in a game. I lied to friends and family about how much I gamed. I'd take off from work to game. I'd go home during lunch and play or sleep during lunch to catch up from being on so late the night before.
Gaming addiction is real. Many of these games use mechanisms based in psychology to get you to play more and more. They replace your social structure. They replace your reward structure. They remove exercise and fitness from your life and they take away the one thing that we can never get back - time. You lose it. It's gone - poof. Personally, right now I had rather have memories of things I had done FOR REAL instead of memories of a day sitting in front of the computer hitting the A button and then cycling through keys 1, 6, 3 , 4.
It causes problems many people don't even think about when they are addicted. In groups of mine in EQ, it was not uncommon to have a mother that had played for 8-9 hours straight say in
My dislike with how SOE treated this game (I'm a former subscriber from Beta 2 forward until the NGE was announced) prompted me to reevaluate Sony as a whole. This year I decided to make a new camcorder purchase. Sony wasn't even an option. Proprietary memory sticks, SOE, Sony Music and root kits....NO WAY was I going to buy anything that Sony made and probably never will again.
I'm waiting for the IPod two way camera phone with integrated PSP and 8 track casette attachment.
Oh, almost forgot..it needs to have GPS tracking giving me directions via a sexy female voice.
A lot of people dislike it simply because it is made by Microsoft. Not very rational but a fact none the less.
This is true but in my opinion is a very biggot like attitude.
I haven't kept up to date on MSIE security issues but ActiveX used to be a source of security risks. That may have been fixed but even if it has, the stigma has stuck.
ActiveX was initially a problem due, in my opinion, to the signing technology used to allow users to make an "informed" decision on the publisher of the control. Most users had no idea who the software they were installing came from. Now, ActiveX was more secured in that IE made more checks and prompted when a web page requested it. Many of the IE security problems were not related to ActiveX but more to other vulnerabilities that allowed the download and install malicious applications behind the scenes to the user. No pop up requests, nothing.
ActiveX is only available with MSIE which only runs on Windows so it is widely seen as an attempt to achieve vendor lock. MSIE can be made to run on Linux and soon on OS.X via WINE but that happens without Microsofts blessing and I am not at all sure how well ActiveX works with a WINE'd MSIE install on Linux.
True, MSIE did have a version that ran on the Mac OS (not OS X) but still it was released for the Mac OS. I believe I remember a long time ago a Netscape plugin which allowed Netscape to run ActiveX controls as well. However, the benefit of ActiveX is tht is does integrate well with the Win32 runtime. For a website, this is not very beneficial but for an intranet application it works very well. ActiveX in IE was a way to integrate different applications and to allow for more functional web sites in a time before DHTML - it was MS's answer to Java applets. Many open source projects available right now are only available in Linux. Eventually, someone does port it over to another OS but since its only available on Linux - does that not also represent a type of vendor lock?
Because of the Windows only nature of ActiveX any website that is based on it but offers content that has appeal to more people than just Windows users ActiveX kind of sucks since they can't use those websites. Where I used to work half the development department used Linux laptops for work related resons and they had to jump through flaming hoops to access the corporate web app used to track trouble reports etc. which was based on ActiveX and certified for MSIE only. Many companies tend to prefer Java based webapps or Microsoft solutions to keep their options open on switching to browsers other than MSIE or even OS'es other than Windows.
Again, the usefulness of ActiveX is not really with a public web site. It's usefulness is in the enterprise where IT has control of the desktops. Most companies I have worked for or consulted for designate a corporate standard of what OS will be used. If you chose to go against the corporate directives, that is your perogative but you cannot expect the same level of integration. Since you used your Linux laptop for work related reasons, the fault does not fall on Microsoft but on the developers of the web application you refer to for not competently gathering requirements for their web application and designing a solution that fit the company's needs better. Most companies I have worked with choose to forego Java in a web app for a faster running solution.
It is my opinion the choice of software/technology a corporation or web site runs is not Microsoft's responsibility. Microsoft offers the possibility to do something. If a corporation, website or dev team decide to use it-that's their choice. If the choice does not fully meet requirements and they have users that are in a situation where their browser is neglected it is not Microsoft's evil empire taking over. It is some stupid developer who thought it would be "cool" to use ActiveX in a place where it may not be totally appropriate.
I would think they would make their money through customized development solutions and support. Sell the solution, not the software - the software is free. Simliar to how Rob Howard started up Telligent and sells "add ons" for the free Community Server.
So did they compile a list of each subjects vocabulary? So, everytime I see the word "THE" I could potentially have a feeling of something familiar right? The words in my vocabulary I have seen and used before so therefore I should have a feeling of seeing them right? How do they know what words the test subjects were not familiar?
scientist: Hi test subject x, are you familiar with the word polymorphish?
subject: "No, never heard of it before"
*scientist scribbles on a pad*
3 days later...
Scientist: "So how does the word polymorphism make you feel?"
Subject: Hmm...I've heard that word before and it feels very familiar with you asking me about it.
Whether the contract is disgusting or not doesn't matter. It matters whether or not it is binding. If it is binding, he could lose his job and wind up in a law suit. I agree with you that contributing code anonymously actually admits that you have knowledge your actions are a breach of contract - which just adds to a lawsuit being viable.
If he is contributing something, technically based on his contract all of his contributions are owned by his employer. GPL based or not, that company could possibly stake claim to the project (at least the part he wrote) or ask the code to be removed. It doesn't matter if it is copyrighted, it doesn't matter if they have it patented...what matters is anything he codes THEY own. If he does consulting work through the company, there are normally contracts in place to state that the client maintains the rights to the work.
Generally though, most companies could care less UNLESS you are working on a competing product at the time of being employed by them using knowledge and resources gained during your employment. Lets say I am writing a specific financial application for a corporation. Along side, I go home every night and work on my own based on the mistakes, features, design of the one I work on during the day. I then beat them to market with it and attempt to sell it. A contract like this protects the company from me doing something like this as anything I'd attempt to release would be theirs.
Timetable
on
Prey Review
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
From the summary: They are a combination table-top gaming and computer gaming studio, and their completion of Prey some nine years after it was first shown to the gaming press is nothing short of extraordinary.
SWG was developed in that time frame...granted, it sucked - but still, it was a persistent, complex MMORPG. It takes 9 years to develop a first person shooter? Really??
Slashdot Mirror
It's definitely not a Michael Moore film. No DVD sales, advertising kickbacks, big studio deals, etc. It's good to see a real documentary produced for informational purposes instead of for the reason of making money via political statements.
3) If you pick up on an idea someone else has patended, don't write software that infringes or you will, being an average OS developer, lose your house.
You mention the patent holder as a patent troll. That could be, but what if its not? What if its a legitimate company wanted to protect it's intellectual property? Maybe it has something new no one has implemented yet? The patent they hold will allow them, for a certain period of time to put their software to work and establish themselves in the market.
Lets say the legitimate company then has to begin competing against a group of OS developers who "picked up on the idea". The OS developers are absolutely infringing on the patent and giving away the hard work of the patent holder for free.
Please, do not anger the Great One. He is always watching and always has a slide show ready.
If alcohol was illegal and marijuana was legal, you probably wouldnt need any bouncers at the bars. Youd just need more couches and a very large snack bar.
You can't smoke in bars any more around here.
It does, however, creative a gigantic, violent black market.
I agree with you there. However, from a different point of view what would happen if they were actually legalized. Do you think these same people would try to buy them legally? Do you think robberies and burglaries of the merchants that sold it would go up to the point business wouldn't even want to sell it?
I know in my area, Walgreens has pretty much stopped selling oxycontin and other pain killers due to the increase in robberies - people robbing the pharmacy department during store hours to attain these LEGAL, controlled drugs.
And it didn't really fix anything did it? They pay for everything there, healthcare, housing, etc. Sure, taxes are like 75% but the government covers most of what you need to get started in life.
However, while I worked there the train stations around Rotterdam and Amsterdam are still packed with homeless people begging for money to get their next fix. Now, you would think with everything paid for that there wouldn't be any homeless. Maybe the legalization perpetuates the problem even though money is flowing from the government coffers? Person buys marijuana legally. Becomes heavy user. Gateways over to a heavier substance. Becomes addicted. Ends up homeless, begs for money to buy drugs from the government. Nice little roundabout way of bringing in the same money you're handing out.
Someone I went to high school with passed away due to a drug addiction. He was in his early 30's. I didn't know him all that well but he was a good friend of a relative of mine. Apparently he had been fighting this addiction for many years.
I already see a lot of posts of people shouting "legalize them!" and I have to disagree. Is it fairly easy to get them even though they are illegal? Yes, I guess but it depends on who you know. I don't associate with anyone who takes illegal drugs so I wouldn't know where to start and it would be fairly difficult for me to attain them. Now, if they were legal and I could walk into a store any time I want to purchase them removes some hoops I'd have to jump through making them even more attainable. So, are they just as attainable now than if they were legal? Not necessarily.
Many people who champion the cause of legalization attribute it to recreational use and people should have dominion over what they put into their own bodies. Yes and no. How many recreation alcohol consumers kill children, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters each year? Did the right to dominion over their own bodies also include a right over someone else's?
The problems go much deeper than whether or not legalize. Drugs are glamourized in a sense and this would be the case whether they were legal or not. Music, movies, television all play a part in it. Same goes for alcohol. However, most people are not hooked on alcohol as quickly as they are with crack and meth. If they were, I'd think it would be reasonable to outlaw alcohol again.
Personally, I don't want to be around these drugs. I made that choice in my life and I feel I am better for it. Legalize them and you shove them in my face and make them even more attainable so kids who might have never done it think hey, its legal maybe I should try it. Has anyone thought that having them outlawed may actually deter some people? I guess that doesn't matter though because if you want them legalized you see no problem with people trying to have fun by distorting their thought processes or covering up problems by blocking them with a "high". And before anyone starts in with "what about alcohol, its a drug!" or "what about cigarettes!" trying to turn my opinions around...ban them all. There are too many adverse effects to using any of them.
Start up Mozilla
Right click on task bar
Select "Task Manager"
Find Mozilla process
Is it using 25% of my RAM?
For the person who loves to sing in the shower, attach your iPod to the new iShower shower head. By switching from stream to massage you can control your iPod and listen to music through the mono 6 inch waterproof speaker embedded in the shower head. Includes ziploc bag for iPod storage during showering. Don't wait, order today!
Seriously, as many times as DRM is discussed on /., the arguments are always the same. This whole story is redundant and so will most of the posts commenting on it.
Actually, most of Wyoming is on fiber optic and wireless networks. One of the first broadband offerings in Gillette, Wyoming was from a company called Visionary Communications. They placed towers all around town for their wi-fi subscribers (no, its not open).
One of the interesting things about Wyoming is that within the boundaries of the towns, subdivisions and neighborhoods are closely packed in together. Sure there are the folks that live out on their own ranches but the trend is to live closer to town.
I agree - I believe 9 and 10 are most relevent. As with the prior posts regarding the projects asking "Please do not port to Windows" - in a sense they are undermining the spirit of OSS.
/. readers would be all over it about how Windows/Microsoft is trying to edge out Linux and OSS as it was not true OSS.
If someone wrote an OSS app for Windows and stated "Please do not port to Linux",
Maybe the child isn't the one accessing it via the library and it's the pedophile. Using a public terminal, wouldn't it make it harder for someone to track him? Any number of people could be on a specific computer in a library during the course of a day or week.
So in turn are you not locking them in to using Linux with your application by denying the porting to Windows? The same argument many people use for hating Microsoft? Seems a little hypocritcal to me.
Shouldn't TRUE open source software allow you to port and run it on any OS?
Psychological addiction can occur with any pleasurable activity; why should games be singled out as abnormal?
They aren't, just the topic of the article dealt with gamers that had a problem. Have you ever visited Online Gamers Anonymous and read the stories there? Everquest Widows? Families Against Everquest?
As far as TV addicts go, sure - people can become addicted to TV - people can become addicted to ANYTHING
I told you my story. I wasn't comparing it to other gamers. If you don't have a problem, that's great! However, many people do and to look the other way and say that they don't because you are fine is negligent.
One thing I do find hard to believe is how you can declare my life a falacy. By stating that the 6 years of my life I spent gaming is a falacy, you are calling me an outright liar - which I guess is fine because you don't make a difference in my life regarding anything but I did live those 6 years and I know that I wish I could have those 6 years back.
Nor have I ever met a gaming addict
Hello, you've just met one. I stopped gaming about 18 months ago. I started with dangerous levels in 1999 with the release of Everquest. One of your final arguments I want to speak to first...yes, some people use gaming to fill a void in their life causing the gaming to be a problem. However, I want to point at that when I started with gaming "too much" I was perfectly happy. I had started a new job, moved back to an area near a lot of my friends and my salary had just increased about 4x what I had been making.
So, if I was happy...how did it start? Well, Everquest was something different. It really sucked you in and played on your imagination. The first couple of weeks in game I spent exploring and I was just in awe.
Fast forward to 6 months later. I was tired all day from staying up too late. I was gaining weight because I kept ordering pizza almost every night of the week. At one point I had 32 boxes of pizza stacked up inside because I could not be bothered to take the trash out. At work I was surfing gaming web sites all day and trying to find ways I could "work from home".
1 year later my friends mention I never talk to them any more. I take a break from gaming to move into a new house I just bought. Work is going well but I'm still tired and my biological clock is constantly screwed up. Insomnia is still pretty bad. Still though, the break is nice and but I fall back into gaming.
3 years into gaming...I quit Everquest. This is due to work related issues. I cannot spend as much time gaming because I am traveling for my job now. However, I tried. Many a night I logged in from hotel rooms. I logged in from hotels while traveling in Europe. I'd take my install discs so I could install the game on my parents computer when I went to visit. My friends are almost all married...I'm still single. I think back to all of the times they asked me to go out and I said "No, I have something to do". So about this time I start to wonder where I'd be if I hadn't spent the last 3 years glued to EQ. I realize I had been in denial. I would spend 12 hours or more gaming on a nice, sunny Saturday and Sunday. Spending time outside was considered a setback thoug because I wasn't in a raid getting points for that uber loot.
3 years, 6 months...
I relapse, SWG looks fun. at first, I handled it ok within a short time I was back to the same behavior.
Between March 1999 and January 2005 I lost so many hours of my life it hurts to think about it. I would always convince myself "I don't have anything better to do" or I'd use the excuse, "I'd just be watching tv - this is more productive." Fact of the matter is I can shut off the tv any time I want. Gaming, that isn't so. Did I have anything better to do? No, gaming replaced all of the things I loved to do. Many of those things I can't really do any more because I am now overweight from spending so much time in front of a computer gaming. I'm still single at the age of 32. Most of my friends passed me by living their lives while I lived my digital life in a game. I lied to friends and family about how much I gamed. I'd take off from work to game. I'd go home during lunch and play or sleep during lunch to catch up from being on so late the night before.
Gaming addiction is real. Many of these games use mechanisms based in psychology to get you to play more and more. They replace your social structure. They replace your reward structure. They remove exercise and fitness from your life and they take away the one thing that we can never get back - time. You lose it. It's gone - poof. Personally, right now I had rather have memories of things I had done FOR REAL instead of memories of a day sitting in front of the computer hitting the A button and then cycling through keys 1, 6, 3 , 4.
It causes problems many people don't even think about when they are addicted. In groups of mine in EQ, it was not uncommon to have a mother that had played for 8-9 hours straight say in
My dislike with how SOE treated this game (I'm a former subscriber from Beta 2 forward until the NGE was announced) prompted me to reevaluate Sony as a whole. This year I decided to make a new camcorder purchase. Sony wasn't even an option. Proprietary memory sticks, SOE, Sony Music and root kits....NO WAY was I going to buy anything that Sony made and probably never will again.
I'm waiting for the IPod two way camera phone with integrated PSP and 8 track casette attachment. Oh, almost forgot..it needs to have GPS tracking giving me directions via a sexy female voice.
Noooooo not Alec Baldwin and Kim Jong Ill!
A lot of people dislike it simply because it is made by Microsoft. Not very rational but a fact none the less.
This is true but in my opinion is a very biggot like attitude.
I haven't kept up to date on MSIE security issues but ActiveX used to be a source of security risks. That may have been fixed but even if it has, the stigma has stuck.
ActiveX was initially a problem due, in my opinion, to the signing technology used to allow users to make an "informed" decision on the publisher of the control. Most users had no idea who the software they were installing came from. Now, ActiveX was more secured in that IE made more checks and prompted when a web page requested it. Many of the IE security problems were not related to ActiveX but more to other vulnerabilities that allowed the download and install malicious applications behind the scenes to the user. No pop up requests, nothing.
ActiveX is only available with MSIE which only runs on Windows so it is widely seen as an attempt to achieve vendor lock. MSIE can be made to run on Linux and soon on OS.X via WINE but that happens without Microsofts blessing and I am not at all sure how well ActiveX works with a WINE'd MSIE install on Linux. True, MSIE did have a version that ran on the Mac OS (not OS X) but still it was released for the Mac OS. I believe I remember a long time ago a Netscape plugin which allowed Netscape to run ActiveX controls as well. However, the benefit of ActiveX is tht is does integrate well with the Win32 runtime. For a website, this is not very beneficial but for an intranet application it works very well. ActiveX in IE was a way to integrate different applications and to allow for more functional web sites in a time before DHTML - it was MS's answer to Java applets. Many open source projects available right now are only available in Linux. Eventually, someone does port it over to another OS but since its only available on Linux - does that not also represent a type of vendor lock?
Because of the Windows only nature of ActiveX any website that is based on it but offers content that has appeal to more people than just Windows users ActiveX kind of sucks since they can't use those websites. Where I used to work half the development department used Linux laptops for work related resons and they had to jump through flaming hoops to access the corporate web app used to track trouble reports etc. which was based on ActiveX and certified for MSIE only. Many companies tend to prefer Java based webapps or Microsoft solutions to keep their options open on switching to browsers other than MSIE or even OS'es other than Windows. Again, the usefulness of ActiveX is not really with a public web site. It's usefulness is in the enterprise where IT has control of the desktops. Most companies I have worked for or consulted for designate a corporate standard of what OS will be used. If you chose to go against the corporate directives, that is your perogative but you cannot expect the same level of integration. Since you used your Linux laptop for work related reasons, the fault does not fall on Microsoft but on the developers of the web application you refer to for not competently gathering requirements for their web application and designing a solution that fit the company's needs better. Most companies I have worked with choose to forego Java in a web app for a faster running solution.
It is my opinion the choice of software/technology a corporation or web site runs is not Microsoft's responsibility. Microsoft offers the possibility to do something. If a corporation, website or dev team decide to use it-that's their choice. If the choice does not fully meet requirements and they have users that are in a situation where their browser is neglected it is not Microsoft's evil empire taking over. It is some stupid developer who thought it would be "cool" to use ActiveX in a place where it may not be totally appropriate.
I would think they would make their money through customized development solutions and support. Sell the solution, not the software - the software is free. Simliar to how Rob Howard started up Telligent and sells "add ons" for the free Community Server.
So did they compile a list of each subjects vocabulary? So, everytime I see the word "THE" I could potentially have a feeling of something familiar right? The words in my vocabulary I have seen and used before so therefore I should have a feeling of seeing them right? How do they know what words the test subjects were not familiar?
scientist: Hi test subject x, are you familiar with the word polymorphish?
subject: "No, never heard of it before"
*scientist scribbles on a pad*
3 days later...
Scientist: "So how does the word polymorphism make you feel?"
Subject: Hmm...I've heard that word before and it feels very familiar with you asking me about it.
Whether the contract is disgusting or not doesn't matter. It matters whether or not it is binding. If it is binding, he could lose his job and wind up in a law suit. I agree with you that contributing code anonymously actually admits that you have knowledge your actions are a breach of contract - which just adds to a lawsuit being viable.
If he is contributing something, technically based on his contract all of his contributions are owned by his employer. GPL based or not, that company could possibly stake claim to the project (at least the part he wrote) or ask the code to be removed. It doesn't matter if it is copyrighted, it doesn't matter if they have it patented...what matters is anything he codes THEY own. If he does consulting work through the company, there are normally contracts in place to state that the client maintains the rights to the work.
Generally though, most companies could care less UNLESS you are working on a competing product at the time of being employed by them using knowledge and resources gained during your employment. Lets say I am writing a specific financial application for a corporation. Along side, I go home every night and work on my own based on the mistakes, features, design of the one I work on during the day. I then beat them to market with it and attempt to sell it. A contract like this protects the company from me doing something like this as anything I'd attempt to release would be theirs.
From the summary: They are a combination table-top gaming and computer gaming studio, and their completion of Prey some nine years after it was first shown to the gaming press is nothing short of extraordinary.
SWG was developed in that time frame...granted, it sucked - but still, it was a persistent, complex MMORPG. It takes 9 years to develop a first person shooter? Really??