How much does DeCSS have to be modified before it's not DeCSS? Change the name? Change the code just slightly? Break the code (as in no longer works or compiles)? Where does the reach of this decision end? Obviously discussion of code breaking in general isn't illegal (yet). Is discussion of the CSS encryption scheme illegal without mentioning DeCSS? Would a DeCSS toolkit be illegal ie something designed to make a DeCSS type program? How close to the original DeCSS do you have to be before you're seen as violating the DMCA?
If the answer is "not very close" then this is good in the sense that the decision will not likely stand on appeal. That or it will likely get much more attention and get "fixed" by congress (overly optomistic?). If the answer is "real close" then the concept of renaming, slightly modifying, etc. will work well. It could be compared to designer drugs or food addatives. They fly under the radar for a period of time before they are discovered and labeled as bad. Then a slightly different version emerges and survives until it's "discovered". Is it time for UnCSS?
It seems to me that newer isn't always better, in the job market that is. Look at what a Cobol or RPG programmer makes today and what a C++ programmer makes today. The new stuff is in the news - the old stuff is what gets things done. Plus there are thousands of kids right out of school willing to work all day and all night on the new stuff for nothing while the old stuff is in great demand. I should have stayed with RPG on AS/400...
I did a bit of research on Star Wars (the Regan version not the Speilberg version) back in '87 for of all things a college english research paper. What I found was that:
1 - It's very difficult to make a good anti-missle missle (or device - remember the plan for the giant accelerator in Texas?) since the Soviets could easily make missles that are tough, reflective and travel in erratic paths.
2 - Any SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) device that actually worked after a couple rounds of Soviet improvements i.e. reactions to US SDI devices would be much better offensive weapons than defensive missile killers.
Many speculate that this is why the Soviets were willing to agree to a treaty. Regan had a perfect situation - plenty of money for "defense" and a population mostly in support of _this_ defense program.
I don't happen to think that the tests that are going on right now are nearly as significant as what went on in the '80s but I do think that most of these devices easily play a dual role. They happen to be very fast, powerful and precise weapons and the general public doesn't mind testing them or spending money on them. This is what pisses off the Russians.
Who should be the second party to the START treaties now that there is no USSR? The Russian Moffia? They are more organized than anyone else...
Has anyone attempted to migrate to PNG? What did it take? I would like to create a PHP script to detect the browser and deliver a PNG or a GIF based upon browser support for the format. Has anyone done anything like this? Is there sufficient support for PNG in _any_ browser to even make this useful? True alpha channel support would be very nice but not if.001% of my visitors can experience it.
Read a little further than the title please. This is wireless in the sense that the camera isn't wired to the display. See this.
Actually this is a great way to go. Borrowing this link from below, you can switch video input into a capture card. Any combination of coax wired and wireless (I'm not sure if you can use more than 1 X10 device in a building.) cameras should work. You can even use 2 capture cards and use both output streams if you need more speed. I think your server should be able to compress and write the images fast enough.
It's inexpensive, fast and flexible. Hmmm this may be able to help me solve the mystery of which of my 2 dogs is eating my remote controls...
You may be able to use cheap video cameras and a video capture board. An example would be this or the camera offered by WalMart that was mentioned a couple days ago. I don't know what video capture capabilities BSD has and I don't know exactly how to switch from one camera to the next but I suspect that it's possible. If so then you could cycle through the cameras, saving a frame from each with each cycle.
1. Not every designer can or wants to understand HTML. This is why the WYSIWIG HTML tool market is so big. This has it's problems but it's also good because many of the people that I know who are GREAT coders are also crappy designers;-)
2. If you really want to get serious about a site then you must understand HTML and browsers and more than likely Perl or PHP or ASP, etc plus some sort of database. This doesn't mean that others can't contribute who must rely on a WYSIWIG editor.
3. The Web is for everyone. Publishing a web page should be something anyone can do. The Web was invented out of a desire to make communication easier. Like it or not the Web is not a place for geeks alone. Every day it becomes more and more mainstream. So if I want to use Word to publish my thoughts then that's OK. I happen to prefer XEmacs though.;-)
?. Has anyone found a good tool for managing a simple site using Linux? What I want is an IDE that lets me use XEmacs as an editor but helps me visualize the entire site. I know what some of you will say, "That's what ls, find and cd are for." but I think that an IDE might be a good place for a GUI when it comes to web development. This is true at least for prototyping, anyway. Then again an integtated system that makes managing HTML and code easier would be great. It could also incorporate those scripts that scan the site for dead links, timestamp changes, etc. A "thinking man's Frontpage".
I am neither an accountant nor a tax lawyer so all the usual disclaimers apply.
As long as you can prove that the time spent on an open source project is a real business expense then it can be written off. As for personal time donated to OSS I doubt it can be written off. That is unless you can also write off time donated to a soup kitchen or other charity. If there is no income from an activity then there is no write off.
Now if someone can figure out a way to get a tax credit (act of congress) for OSS development then great...
Slashdot Mirror
How much does DeCSS have to be modified before it's not DeCSS? Change the name? Change the code just slightly? Break the code (as in no longer works or compiles)? Where does the reach of this decision end? Obviously discussion of code breaking in general isn't illegal (yet). Is discussion of the CSS encryption scheme illegal without mentioning DeCSS? Would a DeCSS toolkit be illegal ie something designed to make a DeCSS type program? How close to the original DeCSS do you have to be before you're seen as violating the DMCA?
If the answer is "not very close" then this is good in the sense that the decision will not likely stand on appeal. That or it will likely get much more attention and get "fixed" by congress (overly optomistic?). If the answer is "real close" then the concept of renaming, slightly modifying, etc. will work well. It could be compared to designer drugs or food addatives. They fly under the radar for a period of time before they are discovered and labeled as bad. Then a slightly different version emerges and survives until it's "discovered". Is it time for UnCSS?
It seems to me that newer isn't always better, in the job market that is. Look at what a Cobol or RPG programmer makes today and what a C++ programmer makes today. The new stuff is in the news - the old stuff is what gets things done. Plus there are thousands of kids right out of school willing to work all day and all night on the new stuff for nothing while the old stuff is in great demand. I should have stayed with RPG on AS/400...
I did a bit of research on Star Wars (the Regan version not the Speilberg version) back in '87 for of all things a college english research paper. What I found was that:
1 - It's very difficult to make a good anti-missle missle (or device - remember the plan for the giant accelerator in Texas?) since the Soviets could easily make missles that are tough, reflective and travel in erratic paths.
2 - Any SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) device that actually worked after a couple rounds of Soviet improvements i.e. reactions to US SDI devices would be much better offensive weapons than defensive missile killers.
Many speculate that this is why the Soviets were willing to agree to a treaty. Regan had a perfect situation - plenty of money for "defense" and a population mostly in support of _this_ defense program.
I don't happen to think that the tests that are going on right now are nearly as significant as what went on in the '80s but I do think that most of these devices easily play a dual role. They happen to be very fast, powerful and precise weapons and the general public doesn't mind testing them or spending money on them. This is what pisses off the Russians.
Who should be the second party to the START treaties now that there is no USSR? The Russian Moffia? They are more organized than anyone else...
Has anyone attempted to migrate to PNG? What did it take? I would like to create a PHP script to detect the browser and deliver a PNG or a GIF based upon browser support for the format. Has anyone done anything like this? Is there sufficient support for PNG in _any_ browser to even make this useful? True alpha channel support would be very nice but not if .001% of my visitors can experience it.
Actually this is a great way to go. Borrowing this link from below, you can switch video input into a capture card. Any combination of coax wired and wireless (I'm not sure if you can use more than 1 X10 device in a building.) cameras should work. You can even use 2 capture cards and use both output streams if you need more speed. I think your server should be able to compress and write the images fast enough.
It's inexpensive, fast and flexible. Hmmm this may be able to help me solve the mystery of which of my 2 dogs is eating my remote controls...
You may be able to use cheap video cameras and a video capture board. An example would be this or the camera offered by WalMart that was mentioned a couple days ago. I don't know what video capture capabilities BSD has and I don't know exactly how to switch from one camera to the next but I suspect that it's possible. If so then you could cycle through the cameras, saving a frame from each with each cycle.
2. If you really want to get serious about a site then you must understand HTML and browsers and more than likely Perl or PHP or ASP, etc plus some sort of database. This doesn't mean that others can't contribute who must rely on a WYSIWIG editor.
3. The Web is for everyone. Publishing a web page should be something anyone can do. The Web was invented out of a desire to make communication easier. Like it or not the Web is not a place for geeks alone. Every day it becomes more and more mainstream. So if I want to use Word to publish my thoughts then that's OK. I happen to prefer XEmacs though. ;-)
?. Has anyone found a good tool for managing a simple site using Linux? What I want is an IDE that lets me use XEmacs as an editor but helps me visualize the entire site. I know what some of you will say, "That's what ls, find and cd are for." but I think that an IDE might be a good place for a GUI when it comes to web development. This is true at least for prototyping, anyway. Then again an integtated system that makes managing HTML and code easier would be great. It could also incorporate those scripts that scan the site for dead links, timestamp changes, etc. A "thinking man's Frontpage".
Any thoughts?
As long as you can prove that the time spent on an open source project is a real business expense then it can be written off. As for personal time donated to OSS I doubt it can be written off. That is unless you can also write off time donated to a soup kitchen or other charity. If there is no income from an activity then there is no write off.
Now if someone can figure out a way to get a tax credit (act of congress) for OSS development then great...