I mean, don't they still teach Assembly, COBOL and basic tube processor design in the good schools even though we've gone way past these "quaint" technologies?
A good school will still teach older technologies if and only if they're still used. I had two semesters of Assembly (Intel x86 from the CS department and Mototola 68HC11 as part of an intro ECE class) and a one credit hour Fortran class (because the professor still used it in his modeling research), but no Cobol (I think someone taught it as a one credit hour class, but it wasn't required for a CS degree), and certainly nothing about vacuum tube systems other than as a historical note.
It's not really what I'd call a "debate". Only one side is reading and countering the other side's claims with rational arguments; the other side is simply parroting long-discredited talking points ad nauseam.
The funny thing? Both sides will agree with the above statement, but will disagree on its interpretation.
Nah, I'll disagree. Neither said is reading and countering the other side's claims with rational arguments, and both sides are simply parroting their talking points ad nauseum.
The RSS measured planetary temperature has been falling sharply for the last six months. In June the anomaly was 75, and in Jan it was 322.. Meanwhile, the CO2 actually climbs still. How long do you have measurements of the temperature going down, before scientists say that it is actually going down?
Yeah, would you mind shutting up now? You're making those of us interested in truly rigorous science instead of dogmatic allegiance (of which both "sides" have more than enough already) look really bad.
What exactly is the difference between a laptop and a desktop running Windows, except for form factor?
Well, the presence of a Wi-Fi interface for one.
Yeah, because nobody makes PCI wireless cards...
Not supporting any operating systems besides Windows makes them evil. Claiming to not support "desktop PC's" just makes them retarded.
If this is about Net Neutrality, than what service does AT&T provide or partner with that competes with 4chan? The point of Net Neutrality is that ISP's can't favor their own services or the services of some paying partner over a competing service. Messages like this, written by allegedly knowledgeable people, are what confuse laymen about Net Neutrality.
Pray tell, where are these? I went into a verizon store to replace the two phones my kids lost, and *after* all the discounts and what not, I walked out abut $120.00 poorer.
Did you sign a new 2-year contract for those phones? If not, then of course you'll pay regular retail price. That's kinda the whole point of this discussion.
There's nothing wrong with PHP. Actually it has an advantage, in that so many open source Web toolkits are written in PHP. Which is great for a young programmer, in that they can get into the code, find something they want to change or improve, type a couple of lines and hit "Refresh". They've just done something, in seconds.
Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff out there that's written in PHP was written by idiots (yes, phpBB and phpnuke, I'm looking at you), and you definitely don't want new programmers picking up habits from some of them. Those are the fault of the programmer, though, and not the language, so you just have to be sure to pick out code that doesn't suck.
That's one of the things that I've always found amusing about Catholicism in particular. For a monotheistic religion, they sure pray to an awful lot of different beings.
For instance, Deuteronomy judges king Manasseh of Judah (reign 687-642 BC) harshly because among other things he set up an Asherah pole in Solomon's Temple and overturned his father Hezekiah's pro-monotheistic reforms.
You might want to do a name check there. Deuteronomy is pretty much entirely the final speeches of Moses, centuries before any kings of Israel. By the time you get the the 6th and 7th centuries B.C.E., you're well into the Books of Kings.
Fortunately, I've only gotten the Funny mods I was going for. You do have a good point about copyright for software, though. Technology changes quite rapidly, whereas art and music frequently remains popular and important for decades, or in rare cases even centuries. I'm not sure if there would ever be separate copyright terms for different types of work, but I think a "readily available" rule would be a great help. If you can't walk into a local store and buy a new CD, or even download a song from the publisher or some other online service, the copyright holder obviously isn't making money from the work anymore, and it should immediately pass into the public domain. Software may be a bit trickier, since you could have new versions of a program still using code from a 20-year-old version, or maybe a new version that doesn't use any of the code from the previous version, but a similar "readily available" rule could still be created for software.
Personally - I would suggest that copyright protection would be acceptable for "twice as long as it took you to create it, all told" - if you spent 3 years from concept/analysis to final product, then you get 6 years of profit protection for your effort. If it only took you 2 months to come up with, you only get 4 months protection.
I'm not a fan of popular what-passes-for-music either, but even I'm willing to give them more than two weeks of copyright protection.
There needs to be tougher (and by tougher I mean "some") penalties to stop patent nonsense like this.
If a patent is applied for and prior art exists there should be criminal convictions (huge, EU-like fines) as a result. Then companies would have to do their homework before they file for a patent, instead of the current situation where they use an idea that was used 10+ years ago and either the patent is rejected or the USPTO misses it and they get the patent.
There's a pretty easy way to implement such a suggestion. As part of the patent application, add a paragraph about "to the best of my knowledge, I've done everything I'm supposed to do, and everything I've said is accurate" and get the applicant's signature below it. If you then discover that the applicant left out prior art that they knew about, you nail them with perjury charges. Lying to government agencies (the police, the IRS, and the courts come to mind pretty quickly) is usually not appreciated, and there's no reason to leave the patent office out of the group of agencies that you shouldn't lie to.
"...anybody else who wants to use similar technology would have a rock-solid legal defense"
Since anyone challenging the patent could show prior art, the legal defence is on very shaky ground....
You misread that. The defense side would be whoever is using the technology. The "rock-solid legal defense" would be in a case where the patent holder is suing the user of the technology, not where the user is suing or challenging to have the patent invalidated.
Re:Works like a charm... and is available earlier.
on
Gaming On Windows 7
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· Score: 2, Funny
I remember people saying the same thing about Windows XP and Windows 2000. Personally I hated the Windows XP theme. Currently I am using Windows XP at work in Windows Classic mode.
The Windows XP window decoration style isn't all that bad, it's just the default color scheme that makes it look like a cartoon. One of the first things I always did was switch to the silver color scheme, which is a relatively decent scheme.
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I mean, don't they still teach Assembly, COBOL and basic tube processor design in the good schools even though we've gone way past these "quaint" technologies?
A good school will still teach older technologies if and only if they're still used. I had two semesters of Assembly (Intel x86 from the CS department and Mototola 68HC11 as part of an intro ECE class) and a one credit hour Fortran class (because the professor still used it in his modeling research), but no Cobol (I think someone taught it as a one credit hour class, but it wasn't required for a CS degree), and certainly nothing about vacuum tube systems other than as a historical note.
"That was no laser blast..."
Yeah, Laser Blast wasn't nearly as bad as the Star Wars prequels.
It's not really what I'd call a "debate". Only one side is reading and countering the other side's claims with rational arguments; the other side is simply parroting long-discredited talking points ad nauseam.
The funny thing? Both sides will agree with the above statement, but will disagree on its interpretation.
Nah, I'll disagree. Neither said is reading and countering the other side's claims with rational arguments, and both sides are simply parroting their talking points ad nauseum.
What won't mankind destroy?
Stupidity. We know, we've tried.
The RSS measured planetary temperature has been falling sharply for the last six months. In June the anomaly was 75, and in Jan it was 322.. Meanwhile, the CO2 actually climbs still. How long do you have measurements of the temperature going down, before scientists say that it is actually going down?
Yeah, would you mind shutting up now? You're making those of us interested in truly rigorous science instead of dogmatic allegiance (of which both "sides" have more than enough already) look really bad.
What exactly is the difference between a laptop and a desktop running Windows, except for form factor? Well, the presence of a Wi-Fi interface for one.
Yeah, because nobody makes PCI wireless cards...
Not supporting any operating systems besides Windows makes them evil. Claiming to not support "desktop PC's" just makes them retarded.
There's levels of BS on there that scientists haven't yet been able to measure.
How many Courics would that be?
If this is about Net Neutrality, than what service does AT&T provide or partner with that competes with 4chan? The point of Net Neutrality is that ISP's can't favor their own services or the services of some paying partner over a competing service. Messages like this, written by allegedly knowledgeable people, are what confuse laymen about Net Neutrality.
/. really should check snopes/company blogs before posting summaries like this... :-/
What is this "/." of which you speak? You're obviously not talking about the site where we're posting right now.
If you hate anything so much that you injure yourself or your cause in the process of avoiding it, then yes, you have a disease.
Actually, using and developing Linux is more like trying to stand up to MS's dominance. So, your assertion should really read:
If you hate anything so much that you injure yourself or your cause in the process of standing up to it, then yes, you have a disease.
So, everyone who fought against the Nazis in WW2 had a disease, then?
The irony of Godwin is simply overwhelming.
Is it outlandish to think Microsoft makes contributions to OSS for subversion?
Of course it is. Everyone knows that Microsoft is still using CVS.
I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist.
"cell phones being "free" or 20-60 dollars"
Pray tell, where are these? I went into a verizon store to replace the two phones my kids lost, and *after* all the discounts and what not, I walked out abut $120.00 poorer.
Did you sign a new 2-year contract for those phones? If not, then of course you'll pay regular retail price. That's kinda the whole point of this discussion.
What about emacs?
Okay, so there's your operating system, but what are you going to use for writing the code?
There's nothing wrong with PHP. Actually it has an advantage, in that so many open source Web toolkits are written in PHP. Which is great for a young programmer, in that they can get into the code, find something they want to change or improve, type a couple of lines and hit "Refresh". They've just done something, in seconds.
Unfortunately, a lot of the stuff out there that's written in PHP was written by idiots (yes, phpBB and phpnuke, I'm looking at you), and you definitely don't want new programmers picking up habits from some of them. Those are the fault of the programmer, though, and not the language, so you just have to be sure to pick out code that doesn't suck.
The Romans and Greeks had gods who were lecherous alcoholic serial rapists... they're perfect?
Did they ever get arrested for it? No? Then I'd say they were pretty darned good at it.
That's one of the things that I've always found amusing about Catholicism in particular. For a monotheistic religion, they sure pray to an awful lot of different beings.
For instance, Deuteronomy judges king Manasseh of Judah (reign 687-642 BC) harshly because among other things he set up an Asherah pole in Solomon's Temple and overturned his father Hezekiah's pro-monotheistic reforms.
You might want to do a name check there. Deuteronomy is pretty much entirely the final speeches of Moses, centuries before any kings of Israel. By the time you get the the 6th and 7th centuries B.C.E., you're well into the Books of Kings.
How do I start my own BS movement so I can sit there like Ingrid Newkirk and pull in a good salary for being a jerkwad.
Apparently writing a crappy science-fiction book works.
Fortunately, I've only gotten the Funny mods I was going for. You do have a good point about copyright for software, though. Technology changes quite rapidly, whereas art and music frequently remains popular and important for decades, or in rare cases even centuries. I'm not sure if there would ever be separate copyright terms for different types of work, but I think a "readily available" rule would be a great help. If you can't walk into a local store and buy a new CD, or even download a song from the publisher or some other online service, the copyright holder obviously isn't making money from the work anymore, and it should immediately pass into the public domain. Software may be a bit trickier, since you could have new versions of a program still using code from a 20-year-old version, or maybe a new version that doesn't use any of the code from the previous version, but a similar "readily available" rule could still be created for software.
Personally - I would suggest that copyright protection would be acceptable for "twice as long as it took you to create it, all told" - if you spent 3 years from concept/analysis to final product, then you get 6 years of profit protection for your effort. If it only took you 2 months to come up with, you only get 4 months protection.
I'm not a fan of popular what-passes-for-music either, but even I'm willing to give them more than two weeks of copyright protection.
You can even write about dope or hookers or mod points.
In fact, forget the dope and mod points.
There needs to be tougher (and by tougher I mean "some") penalties to stop patent nonsense like this. If a patent is applied for and prior art exists there should be criminal convictions (huge, EU-like fines) as a result. Then companies would have to do their homework before they file for a patent, instead of the current situation where they use an idea that was used 10+ years ago and either the patent is rejected or the USPTO misses it and they get the patent.
There's a pretty easy way to implement such a suggestion. As part of the patent application, add a paragraph about "to the best of my knowledge, I've done everything I'm supposed to do, and everything I've said is accurate" and get the applicant's signature below it. If you then discover that the applicant left out prior art that they knew about, you nail them with perjury charges. Lying to government agencies (the police, the IRS, and the courts come to mind pretty quickly) is usually not appreciated, and there's no reason to leave the patent office out of the group of agencies that you shouldn't lie to.
"...anybody else who wants to use similar technology would have a rock-solid legal defense"
Since anyone challenging the patent could show prior art, the legal defence is on very shaky ground ....
You misread that. The defense side would be whoever is using the technology. The "rock-solid legal defense" would be in a case where the patent holder is suing the user of the technology, not where the user is suing or challenging to have the patent invalidated.
Mod Parent Down, -1 Overuse of Emoticons
Maybe he just has a facial tic?
I remember people saying the same thing about Windows XP and Windows 2000. Personally I hated the Windows XP theme. Currently I am using Windows XP at work in Windows Classic mode.
The Windows XP window decoration style isn't all that bad, it's just the default color scheme that makes it look like a cartoon. One of the first things I always did was switch to the silver color scheme, which is a relatively decent scheme.