Submitted by The Free Software Foundation has released a medium length film which discusses the harms and the origins of software patents in the USA, using the ongoing Bilski case as a backdrop. There are interviews with Dan Bricklin, Timothy B. Lee, Eben Moglen, Richard Stallman, Dan Ravicher, and others. Now this is what the FSF ought to focus on. Great stuff. It explains how software patents came to be: a massive fail by the US justice system.
Is it just me or is the video out of sync with audio? I tried 3 different browsers, downloaded the file and even downloaded the newest mplayer, but that did not resolve the issue.
I watched a few minutes of the “online” video (Firefox 3.6.3) and didn’t notice any a/v sync problems. Not sure about the downloadable versions since I’m still waiting to get at least one of those downloaded.
After watching the HD downloadable version of the video, I noticed that there are plenty of problem parts later on (mostly during the transition periods from the static “information” screens to the next person). I’m not sure that I would quite call it a sync problem (though sometimes it seems like it); it seems to be more like a framerate drop affecting the video only, and at times the video completely stops as the audio keeps going. During these times, the CPU usage seems to drastically lower, but picks up again–you guessed it–when the video catches back up (actually the other way around I’m sure, but you get the point…).
Did most checking in Kaffeine (but mplayer seems to do similar things) in openSUSE 11.2 64-bit on a dual-core 64-bit AMD machine. I do have the Cool’n’Quiet CPU throttling feature in the BIOS on, not sure if that could be it and I’m too tired to mess around any more, but it shouldn’t matter–it should set to the needed speed during the entire duration of the video (or as long as needed).
Worked just fine here in Konqueror 4.4.2, Firefox and VLC Player.
If just I could patent that pythagorean theorem, I would sue the hell out of that school children!
I agree 100%. This is what the FSF must focus on, and show the public and governments how ridiculous software patents really are!
The other campaign FSF have financed is End Software Patents, which has been working on a software patents documentation wiki:
http://en.swpat.org
My ktorrent kept crashing while I downloaded the HD version.