Messages

301

Living Room / Re: Do universities have a claim on students' IP?

« on: January 24, 2011, 04:17 PM »

I do understand that, but I'm just musing on the possibility of the university saying it had an active part in developing the idea and so has a valid claim to it.

302

Living Room / Re: Do universities have a claim on students' IP?

« on: January 24, 2011, 03:14 PM »

Yeah you have to be careful. Since they came up with the idea in class then I don't see it as much different to an employer having the right to patent inventions from their employees. Ideas are more regarded than the actual work it seems these days (patent madness?) so that the professor didn't help them develop the application seems of little consequence. Yes I know students pay the university, not like an employer pays their employees, but it'd still be hard to claim the idea didn't have any contributions from the professor/course work.

I've recently finished my thesis, one of the optional forms I could submit was a request to delay the publication of the universities library and digital copies by 18 months. The idea there being to give the researcher a chance to cash in on their discoveries.

My understanding is that (in Ireland), at postgraduate level, the university does not have any rights to your research, but if you are being funded (internally/externally) then the funding body could possibly contractually insist on rights. I'm pretty sure also that your supervisor, involved as they would be in your research, would have a right to the work. I imagine it'd be quite a legal challenge to dispute that.

303

General Software Discussion / Re: Android virus in the wild

« on: January 23, 2011, 11:13 AM »

I suppose these sorts of things are inevitable. It's unfortunate nonetheless.

I wonder has the Malware managed to subvert the permissions screen or do you know when you're installing the application just how much access it's being given?

304

Living Room / Re: Sony v. Hotz: Sony Sends a Dangerous Message to Researchers -- and Its Customers

« on: January 21, 2011, 09:20 PM »

I sure hope laws like that never make it here to europe.

305

Developer's Corner / Re: Rock physics math-thing [PHP]

« on: January 20, 2011, 10:03 AM »

Also the forum bbcode supports sup and sub, so things can be made look more mathsey

s = -5t² + 20t   

306

General Software Discussion / Re: Unlocker punishes you for not installing toolbar.

« on: January 19, 2011, 08:53 PM »

Yeah, perhaps a bit cynical.

But also come on, developer makes an app in his free time and includes the bing toolbar in the hopes of getting some revenue. Then you get angry when he asks you to wait 30 seconds after opting not to support him. There is a definite hint of the "entitled" generation here

307

Developer's Corner / Re: Rock physics math-thing [PHP]

« on: January 19, 2011, 07:41 PM »

It's the -t^2 bit that causes the rock to eventually fall back to earth. Looking at height as a function of t, i.e h(t) then the derivative h'(t) is

-10*t +20

At it's max/min h'(t) = 0 => -10*t + 20 = 0 => t = 2

So the rock should reach it's peak height at t = 2 seconds.

I'm pretty positive mouser is right in assuming it should be t^2, the typo looks to me like a classic copy and paste error. Something that is extremely careless given it's coming from a teacher.

308

Announce Your Software/Service/Product / Re: dot Net complaints

« on: January 17, 2011, 07:45 AM »

The WiX - Windows Installer Xml Toolkit can also handle installing the .Net frameworks on demand.

Personally I love WiX for installers.

309

Living Room / Re: 8 stupid amazon products with impressively sarcastic reviews

« on: January 16, 2011, 12:47 PM »

Those were very funny.

For more such reviews check out David Hasselhoffs, Best of on Amazon. Seems people love giving it over the top reviews about how it changed their life.

310

Living Room / Re: What Do You Think About ANONYMOUS?

« on: January 15, 2011, 03:36 PM »

Expect they don't, because he's wrong... and well joking too.

Normally I'm not one for caring when one group subverts a name and claims it as their own. But it'd help in this case to at least know the immaturity, racism, bigotry and general hatred that Anonymous first stood, and stills stands for, before they claim to be a part of it.

To carefully quote encyclopedia dramatica - "Moralf**s are *chan posters: newf**s, who want to harness the power of Anonymous towards good works in place of lulz and the continuous accumulation of Japanese pornography."

This above videos would be considered to be the work of such a Moralf** were they serious.

311

Living Room / Re: What Do You Think About ANONYMOUS?

« on: January 15, 2011, 02:41 PM »

I not sure it was intended to spread beyond that. The name for example is just an in joke, it was coined by Fox News during the ludicrously sensationalized special report on cyber bullying, and was adopted for ironic humor. Fox News got it from the fact that people's username defaults to Anonymous on the various image boards.

You'll also see plenty of people online claiming Anonymous has lost it's way specifically because it is being used a a moniker by people who don't knows its roots, or its motivations.

In all honesty, Why We Protest isn't Anonymous, perhaps the best summary can by found on the Encyclopedia Dramatica article, but I'll refrain from posting the link given this sites extreme NSFW rating and it being a general source of hatred and bigotry. Nonetheless this picture from it sums up Anonymous pretty darn well -

312

Developer's Corner / Re: Please Test this Wordpress Themes

« on: January 15, 2011, 01:59 PM »

Tested it there on my site, seemed to work well. I liked it, of course I'm a minimalist too

313

Living Room / Re: What Do You Think About ANONYMOUS?

« on: January 15, 2011, 12:27 PM »

Ah they are a bit more coherent than that though. They organise themselves through the internet, mostly through imageboards like 4chan. Sure lots of activists can call themselves Anonymous, but it's only when large group of a popular imageboards deziens gets behind a cause, can those supporting the cause honestly say they are acting as part of Anonymous.

314

Living Room / Re: What Do You Think About ANONYMOUS?

« on: January 15, 2011, 10:46 AM »

I liked their Scientology protests. Seen them in Dublin and thought it was quite funny. Of course there were never more that 4 or 5 there

All in all though, it's a pretty ill defined group of mostly just bored teenagers, I wouldn't trust them to change the world for the better.

315

Living Room / Re: Should I work for free?

« on: January 14, 2011, 05:12 PM »

Oooh very cool!

316

Developer's Corner / Re: "competitive upgrade" - is it ethical?

« on: January 13, 2011, 02:10 PM »

Commonly misinterpreted by whom, if I may?

-40hz (January 13, 2011, 01:42 PM)

Non-experts who have brought it up in a casual setting. I often heard reference to the case mentioned in passing, and always with the misinterpretation that maximizing shareholders wealth is not just a good idea, it's the law.

But that anecdotal evidence is hardly very convincing, I believe I overspoke  

317

Developer's Corner / Re: "competitive upgrade" - is it ethical?

« on: January 13, 2011, 12:43 PM »

Ethical? Not in my view but then who said business is ethical - the definition and obligations of a US corporation is to be as unethical as it can get away with.

-Carol Haynes (January 13, 2011, 11:31 AM)

Interesting...

I've been operating a US corporation since the mid-80s.

I wasn't aware that "unethical as it can get away with" was both its definition and obligation.

 

-40hz (January 13, 2011, 12:09 PM)

It's a common misinterpretation of the law regarding public companies stemming from this case: Dodge v. Ford Motor Company.

318

Living Room / Re: Aspartame: Sweet Misery - A Poisoned World (Wikipedia Abuse)

« on: January 12, 2011, 08:07 AM »

When I hear something from a reliable source about Aspartame I'll take the information on board. But I don't take health advice from casual sources.

319

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone else here have an unhealthy fascination with progress bars?

« on: January 11, 2011, 06:11 PM »

I've also just remembered one of my favorite DailyWTF's - Meaningless Progression. You don't need to be able to understand the code to get the joke.

320

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone else here have an unhealthy fascination with progress bars?

« on: January 11, 2011, 05:50 PM »

Well here's a guy who really loves progress bars.

I also enjoyed this related article: Progress bar, the lie we all accept

Remember the good old days, when a progress bar in the user interface actually provided an indication of, well, progress? Alas, today the progress bar devolved into little more than a dancing monkey, doing the electric slide back and forth in its tiny box in an attempt to simultaneously communicate to me that something is happening while also trying to distract me from from the fact that I'll be waiting some indeterminate period of time for that thing to finish.

-http://blogs.msdn.com/b/texblog/archive/2007/04/30/progress-bar-the-lie-we-all-accept.aspx

Also, re the blinking lights. This excerpt from Airplane 2 was always one of my favorites

Soldier: Those lights are blinking out of sequence.
Buck Murdock: I see.
Soldier: What should we do?
Buck Murdock: Make them blink in sequence.

-http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Airplane_II:_The_Sequel

321

Developer's Corner / Re: "competitive upgrade" - is it ethical?

« on: January 11, 2011, 04:21 PM »

I agree with JavaJones that companies have to play a psychological game to get customers just to try products, and that in itself isn't unethical. But to me the key point is-

The thing is large companies are often in a better position to offer such upgrades because they can absorb the cost better, so the balance is maybe not fair.

-https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=25191.msg231391#msg231391

Any time a larger company is operating at a loss to force competitors out of a market you no longer have self regulation. An at that stage you are no longer acting ethically.

322

General Software Discussion / Re: Z-Type - Type to shoot

« on: January 11, 2011, 10:16 AM »

Yes very very cool. I'll be bookmarking that!

323

Developer's Corner / Re: Just How Many Programs Have You Written and Never Released?

« on: January 10, 2011, 09:16 AM »

I tend to stop working on programs before they are fit to be released. It's not that I abandon them, but it's just that often a program will reach the stage where it's good enough for my purposes and I don't feel like I personally would benefit from the additional work needed to make it releasable.

I'm kind of that way now with a new utility. I could easily hardcode my specific use case now and be done with it. Or I could add a UI to make it more generally useful, but at the cost of a tonne of extra work.

I'm not sure if that's the type of thing you're talking about?

324

General Software Discussion / Re: Word Processor OS

« on: January 10, 2011, 08:57 AM »

You could probably fake it without leaving windows world. I'm sure you could setup a Windows install which would boot and autologin to a extremely limited user account, one which only has permission to run say, WriteMonkey, and save to a specific folder.

325

Living Room / Re: Can we stop with the diagonal screen length thing?

« on: January 09, 2011, 08:00 AM »

Any HD-ready TVs I ever saw in shops were 1280x720 resolution. That is still a fair bit higher than regular definition, and as Ath points out, it is a HD resolution.