Comment Re:Oh Noes! (Score 1) 921
iand for extra speed use vi.:w:q
US PTO Gives Microsoft Credit For Lotus's Homework 172
theodp writes "On Tuesday, the USPTO granted Microsoft a patent for 'Email Emotiflags' despite ample evidence of a circa-1996 Lotus Notes precedent called Mood Stamps — sender-chosen emoticons that appear next to inbox messages. Among those seemingly aware of the existence of Mood Stamps is Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, who appears to have fielded questions about the feature while at Lotus. While simply Googling for 'Email Emotiflags' would have turned up evidence of this prior art (including a Slashdot discussion), the USPTO came up empty after instead going with the more-upscale Google Scholar and patent databases for its search effort. Think we can count on Ozzie to do the right thing and give the USPTO a heads-up?"
Comment Re:The C definition, same token on both sides. (Score 1) 252
Would the same principle apply then to electronic hardware? Transistor radios, Xeon processors, flat screen TV sets? They're just taking voltages of certain characteristics and transforming them into voltages with other characteristics. Sure, we hook up the transistor radio to a speaker, but that's not the core of the patented design.
yes but that wouldn't be math then but rather electricity. I think , then, being a physical device, would be classified as a machine and perfectly patentable. Math is an abstract formal system.Electrons are quite concrete.
Goldman Sachs Trading Source Code In the Wild? 324
Hangtime writes "The world's most valuable source code could be in the wild. According to a report by Reuters, a Russian immigrant and former Goldman Sachs developer named Sergey Aleynikov was picked up at Newark Airport on July 4th by the FBI on charges of industrial espionage. According to the complaint, Sergey, prior to his early June exit from Goldman, copied, encrypted and uploaded source code inferred to be the code used by Goldman Sachs to process in real-time (micro-seconds) trades between multiple equity and commodity platforms. While trying to cover his tracks, the system backed up a series of bash commands so he was unable to erase his history, which would later give him away to Goldman and the authorities. So the question is: where are the 32MB of encrypted files that Sergey uploaded to a German server?
Journal Journal: "intellectual property" name alternative
I hereby propose that the phrase intellectual property should be dropped. As others have pointed out, information really shares very few common properties with actual property. Therefore it should be called what it really is witch is tradmark, copyright, and patent. This can be abbreviated to TCP, which as you see , is in style with the just obsoleted aforementioned phrase.
I realize it will take time for everyone to catch on, so until everyones on the same page, it would be helpful if the enl
Study Deconstructs Canadian Copyright Lobby Deception 84
An anonymous reader writes "A new Canadian study deconstructs how copyright lobby groups manipulate public opinion by laundering proposals through seemingly independent groups. The study started after the Conference Board of Canada was shown to have plagiarized several of its IP reports and now shows the connections that all lead through the MPAA and RIAA. Michael Geist writes, 'It is not just that these reports all receive financial support from the same organizations and say largely the same thing. It is also that the reports each build on one another, creating the false impression of growing momentum and consensus on the state of Canadian law and the need for specific reforms.'"
Comment Windows dosn't 'just work' (Score 1) 1365
Where does this assumption , Windows Just Works, come from? I switch to linux because Linux Just Works. I was tired of unexplainable crash, lack of useful tools (such as gcc,bash etc.), insane slow downs caused by malware and resource leach cause by anti-malware. Yes linux has problems, more hardware support would be nice, but remember, hardware support is not something that M$ engineers built into windows, it comes from 3rd parties. It takes time to build a user base and market share that will convince hardware venders to release drives/specs/code for their products. That being said Linux still supports far more hardware then windows.
Somethings stated in that article aren't even desirable or available on windows:
A cross the board GUI configuration. Windows doesn't have this.A lot of stuff must be done in the windows registery etc. Could you imagine the size of this GUI would be, what with all the features and options of a text file or cmdline program. What is unfortunate about Windows is the lack of alternative.In ,say Ubuntu, I can configure the network in a GUI or drop to a console and enter a few lines in a text file or enter a few commands to accomplish the same. This is exactly what I find so intriguing about Linux.
I'm not going to try explain all the problems I had with windows and all the benefits I found with linux.
Microsoft Brings Back DRM 414
Barence writes "Microsoft yesterday unveiled its MSN Mobile Music service — and a surprise return to digital rights management (DRM). While companies such as Apple and Amazon have finally moved to music download services free of copy protection, MSN Mobile locks tracks to the mobile handset they are downloaded to. It also charges more than the other services per track, and offers no way to transfer your tracks to your new phone when you upgrade. The company's Head of Mobile UK spoke to PC Pro about the launch, but his answers are almost as baffling as the service itself. Best quote: Q: 'If I buy these songs on your service — and they're locked to my phone — what happens when I upgrade my phone in six months' time?' A: 'Well, I think you know the answer to that.'"
What Programming Language For Linux Development? 997
k33l0r writes "Recently I've been thinking about developing (or learning to develop) for Linux. I'm an IT university student but my degree program focuses almost exclusively on Microsoft tools (Visual Studio, C#, ASP.NET, etc.) which is why I would like to expand my repertoire on my own. Personally I'm quite comfortable in a Linux environment, but have never programmed for it. Over the years I've developed a healthy fear of everything Java and I'm not too sure of what I think of Python's use of indentation to delimit blocks. The question that remains is: what language and tools should I be using?"
Diet of Fast Food and Candy May Cause Alzheimer's 224
lurking_giant sends along a Reuters report on research out of Sweden indicating that a diet rich in fat, sugar, and cholesterol could increase the risk of Alzheimer's, at least in mice. "'On examining the brains of these mice, we found a chemical change not unlike that found in the Alzheimer brain,' [said] Susanne Akterin, a researcher at the Karolinska Institutet's Alzheimer's Disease Research Center... 'We now suspect that a high intake of fat and cholesterol in combination with genetic factors... can adversely affect several brain substances, which can be a contributory factor in the development of Alzheimer's.' ... These mice showed chemical changes in their brains, indicating an abnormal build-up of the protein tau as well as signs that cholesterol in food reduced levels of another protein called Arc involved in memory storage."
Comment Re:Charitable appeal? (Score 1) 168
I agree,I became disillusioned when Negreponte agreed to offer a modified versions of xp on it.The way I see it,it's only a matter of time before M$ lobbies countries into choosing their os.It's to bad,I was really hoping this would a project of much use in the developing word and even domestically,and a project the FOSS community could throw their weight behind.Plus it would've really boosted the adoption of linux.
How To Encourage a Young Teen To Learn Programming? 1095
Anonymous Hacker writes "I'm in a bit of a bind. My young teenage son is starting to get curious about computers, and in particular, programming. Now, I'm a long time kernel hacker (Linux, BSD and UNIX). I have no trouble handling some of the more obscure things in the
kernel. But teaching is not something that I'm good at, by any means. Heck, I can't even write useful documentation for non-techies. So my question is: what's the best way to encourage his curiosity and enable him to learn? Now, I know there are folks out there with far better experience in this area than myself. I'd really appreciate any wisdom you can offer. I'd also be especially interested in what younger people think, in particular those who are currently in college or high school. I've shown my son some of the basics of the shell, the filesystem, and even how to do a 'Hello World' program in C. Yet, I have to wonder if this is the really the right approach. This was great when I was first learning things. And it still is for kernel hacking, and other things. But I'm concerned whether this will bore him, now that there's so much more available and much of this world is oriented towards point-n-click. What's the best way to for a young teen to get started in exploring this wonderful world of computers and learning how to program? In a *NIX environment, preferably."
Whether or not you have suggestions for generating interest or teaching methods, there was probably something that first piqued your curiosity. It seems like a lot of people get into programming by just wondering how something works or what they can make it do. So, what caught your eye?
Mass Effect DRM Still Causing Issues 593
An anonymous reader writes "There was some discussion last month about the proposed DRM for Mass Effect and Spore that required the game to phone home every ten days. They backed down from that, but have left in that a user is only allowed 3 activations per license key. A license key is burned up when the O/S is reinstalled, when certain hardware is upgraded (EA refuses to disclose specifics of what), and possibly when a new user is set up in Windows. Only in its first month, some users are already locked out of their games from trying troubleshooting techniques to get the game running."
Half a Million Microsoft-Powered Sites Hit With SQL Injection 222
Titus Germanicus writes to tell us that a recent attack has compromised somewhere in the neighborhood of 500,000 pages with a SQL injection attack. The vulnerability seems to be limited to Microsoft's IIS webserver and is easily defeated by the end user with Firefox and "NoScript." "The automated attack takes advantage to the fact that Microsoft's IIS servers allow generic commands that don't require specific table-level arguments. However, the vulnerability is the result of poor data handling by the sites' creators, rather than a specific Microsoft flaw. In other words, there's no patch that's going to fix the issue, the problem is with the developers who failed follow well-established security practices for handling database input. The attack itself injects some malicious JavaScript code into every text field in your database, the Javascript then loads an external script that can compromise a user's PC." Ignoring corporate spin-doctoring, there seems to be plenty of blame to go around.
Is the Dell XPS One Better than the Apple iMac? 627
An anonymous reader writes "The Apple iMac is probably the standard all-in-one desktop computer. Great operating system, built-in software and design around solid, but pretty normal, hardware guts. According to Walter Mossberg, there's a new kid in town that not only matches it but is 'sightly ahead': the Dell XPS One. His latest review is already causing the usual suspects to weigh in. Mossberg says it is a better machine, but Vista and its built-in software make it inferior than Apple iMac's Leopard and iLife suite. Would you choose the better hardware of the Dell XPS One -which is more expensive- or the elegant design and software of the Apple iMac?"
