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Stories and comments across the archive that link to boston.com.

Comments · 1,409

  1. I wouldn't have a problem by bahwi · · Score: 4, Funny · on Taxing Text Messages?

    I wouldn't have a problem with it here in the U.S. if it was, as someone said, 1/10th of a cent!

    Of course, looking back to reality, it would go to causes
    I differ on.

    Sigh, when I was younger, you could do a search on "Bush" and come up with, um, things, other than politics.

  2. Re:time to collect... or not. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on AOL Wins Anti-Spam Case

    Christianity does not approve of the molestation of little children, or of anybody for that manner. The Catholic denomination does not support it, nor does any other legitimate denomination.

    Oh, really? You sure about that?

  3. Re:Well, duh. by jonbrewer · · Score: 2 · on Whither America's Technological Edge?

    California public schools spent $9,267.00 per student for the education of its kindergarten through high school. That's a LOT of money per kid (you can send your kid to a top flight private school for about half)

    Half? Like $4600/year? In a church-funded private school, maybe. In a "top-flight private school," no, I don't think so.

    A "top-flight private school" will have classes of 20 students each with a reasonably well-paid teacher. Such teachers command incomes of $60k/year. (By the way, that's the average [mean] salary for a public school teacher in the city of Boston, where I live) Benefits per teacher raise expenditures another $30k/year.

    Suddenly you've just spent $4500 a year just to pay for the teachers. Now buy/rent/maintain a building, get some administrative staff, a nurse, a principal, buy some books ($300/student/year minimum), some computers, and while you're at it, someone to maintain the computers.

    I think $9200/year per student is cheap. I certainly wouldn't send my child to a school that spent any less. And if that means I have to pay high property taxes to support education, it's fine by me. The better educated our children are, the less we'll spend on social services for them in the future.

  4. Re:The FBI doesn't want to find Bulger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on FBI To Use Ad Banners to Find Criminals

    More than that, most of his friends and close "business associates" seemed to get killed during the period while he was protected as an informant. Police investigations leading to him kept getting stonewalled.

    Try this: the search for whitey bulger

    Oh, and did you know his brother was speaker of the Massachusetts Senate at the time?

  5. Hmm. I saw this in a movie once. by teamhasnoi · · Score: 3, Insightful · on Canadian Government Subsidizes DRM
    Canada should perhaps worry about becoming the 51st state instead of some BS laws that will largely be ignored.

    Interesting how the country that looks to be close to decriminalizing/legalizing weed is becoming the bitch of copyright nazis.

  6. Re:Weeeelllll... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Cancer Mouse Not Patentable in Canada

    will there be money to develop new mice if money can't be made from them?

    Oh yeah... Harvard's really hurting for money. They could go out of business at any time!

    Maybe the lost potential income from this mouse will come out of those fifteen million dollar bonuses the endowment managers get for sitting on Harvard's huge wad of "non-profit" cash.

  7. Re:you could ... by Yokaze · · Score: 2 · on Actual Costs for the Space Station

    More something like half a gulf war, at least according The Boston Globe.

  8. Pitch for equal giving to FSF and EFF by bkuhn · · Score: 3, Insightful · on Lessig's Challenge: Are You Up To It?
    I hope that you will choose to give to FSF and EFF equally. The very evening that Lessig made his challenge at the conference, he also spoke at an FSF fund-raiser, so I know that he supports the mission of both organizations.

    I strongly believe that the battles that are coming will require that FSF (where I work) and EFF both be as strong as possible. I pay $107.40 annually for my home Internet service (a cheap 56K dialup). I am today renewing my annual donation to EFF, increasing my usual amount from $65 to $107.40. I just yesterday pledged $120 to FSF for 2003. (Eben Moglen, BTW, recently gave substantially more than that). I hope that you will choose to support both organizations at the same level as your ISP charges (or split the amount of your annual ISP charges equally between FSF and EFF).

    Sincerely,
    Bradley M. Kuhn, Executive Director, Free Software Foundation

  9. Re:not in this world... by rlwhite · · Score: 2 · on Microsoft Profit and Loss by Business Area

    No, I've never run a business, but that doesn't mean that I don't know what I'm talking about. (My interest doesn't go beyond watching the stock market.) For one thing, I said MOST businesses, not all. My experience has been that manufacturing-oriented businesses tend to have lower profit margins than service-oriented ones.

    If you do a quick Google search for profit margins, you'll find results like the highest profit margins in Houston and the top businesses in Massachusetts. Funny, 20% gets you in or near the top 20 in those localities. I suppose all the businesses there are dying quickly.

  10. I THOUGHT I lived in the US by Hero+Zzyzzx · · Score: 2, Funny · on New Movie Download Pay Service

    I tried going to Movielink to check it out. Apparently, Massachusetts (or maybe just my hometown of Lynn) has seceded from the union, because it's telling me I don't live in the US.

    I've GOT to start paying attention to the Globe!

  11. Charlie Greco's ego is to blame... by clmensch · · Score: 1 · on Apple Won't Be At Macworld Boston
    One thing that I remember from when we first heard talk of the move is that the head of IDG World Expo, Charlie Greco, said his goal was to bring MacWorld back to his hometown...as in he wants the "Local Man Makes Good" glory by bringing some $$$ to Beantown:

    - MacWorld likely to return to Hub
    - IDG World Expo's Charlie Greco Appointed to Massachusetts Lodging Association's Stamas Commission
    - Shows wait for Hub move

    These are just a few articles that mention Greco's hometown-boy status. Particularly interesting is his appointment to the Stamas Commission. That seems like a pretty obvious ploy to get in with the political/tourism wonks of the city...and is probably not something he could have done had he been considered an "outsider".

    This whole thing sounds to me like he didn't ask for Apple's opinion on the matter, or ignored Apple if/when they told him they would prefer the show stay in NYC. Personally, I hope the jerk gets burned by his own egotistical needs, rather than doing what's truly best for the Macintosh community...keeping MacWorld in the the financial and media capital of the States for at least a few more years.

  12. Charlie Greco's Ego is to blame by clmensch · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Apple Macworld Snub a "negotiating tactic"
    One thing that I remember from when we first heard talk of the move is that the head of IDG World Expo, Charlie Greco, said his goal was to bring MacWorld back to his hometown...as in he wants the "Local Man Makes Good" glory by bringing some $$$ to Beantown:

    - MacWorld likely to return to Hub
    - IDG World Expo's Charlie Greco Appointed to Massachusetts Lodging Association's Stamas Commission
    - Shows wait for Hub move

    These are just a few articles that mention Greco's hometown-boy status. Particularly interesting is his appointment to the Stamas Commission. That seems like a pretty obvious ploy to get in with the political/tourism wonks of the city...and is probably not something he could have done had he been considered an "outsider".

    This whole thing sounds to me like he didn't ask for Apple's opinion on the matter, or ignored Apple if/when they told him they would prefer the show stay in NYC. Personally, I hope the jerk gets burned by his own egotistical needs, rather than doing what's truly best for the Macintosh community...keeping MacWorld in the the financial and media capital of the States for at least a few more years.

  13. Re:What the hell? by dubiousmike · · Score: 3, Informative · on Apple Won't Be At Macworld Boston

    The cost to stay in the Boston area is considerably less than that of NY.

    From comments made in a similar article on Boston.com, it seems that perhaps Apple wants to keep money rolling into NY.

    Personally, I think that much of Apple's marketing efforts are targeted towards newbies and tradeshows aren't attended heavily by newbies.

  14. Can they afford to do this? by guidobot · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Apple Won't Be At Macworld Boston

    It's not like Apple is doing so well that they can afford to play the role of protester. Don't they think that if they stay away from the east coast trade show because "IGN is no longer investing in New York", there might be a significant number of people on the east coast who decide not to invest in Apple? Especially after Boston lobbied hard to bring the trade show back, this is definitely a slap in the face. Apple deciding to take their ball and go home just doesn't make any sense.

  15. Slashdot sleuths... by mjpsj · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft PR Rep is the Switcher
    Is that what we are? Amateur sleuths? From the Boston Globe:

    Trouble erupted after amateur sleuths at a popular technology Web site, Slashdot.org, noticed that a photograph showing the woman with a cup of coffee was a stock image available for purchase elsewhere on the Internet.

    I thought I was just a geek. Cool.

  16. Maps and Pictures by Grip3n · · Score: 2 · on Boston's Big Dig Delayed Because of Programmers?

    If you're not familiar with what the Boston Big Dig is, you can visit:

    http://www.boston.com/beyond_bigdig/ (Warning: Flash) for extensive information

    or the 'official' web site at:

    http://www.bigdig.com/ for more information

  17. One from the Boston Globe by hondo77 · · Score: 2 · on Red Hat 8.0 Reviewed

    Hiawatha Bray, writing for The Boston Globe, has posted his review. It starts off as a comparison to OS X and touches a bit on Linux's problems in the desktop market.

  18. Another write-up... by decesare · · Score: 3, Informative · on Red Hat 8.0 Reviewed

    ... here. Don't be misled by the title of the article ("Mac poses as much of challenge to Linux and Windows"). Most of the article discusses the new RedHat release, with comparisons to M$ and MacOS X.

  19. Re:Fear the Parrot! by daoine · · Score: 3, Informative · on Musicians vs. RIAA At USA Today

    I think this is just about the coolest thing ever -- the Boston Globe recently ran an article about this too, which has some of Buffett's comments about the label. I really like the point that he makes: artists are responsible for their own careers. Mailboat isn't going to spend any money on promotion or touring, that's all up to the artist. It takes the risk out of the running the label -- they aren't going to front any money to help you succeed, they're just going to print the CDs. For anyone with a following, this is clearly the way to go -- I'll be interested to see if no-name bands can succeed as well though, because the label won't play games with the radio.

  20. Be cool with techno gear!! by McFly69 · · Score: 2, Funny · on Clothing Yourself In Technology

    With my ectoplasmic backpack, I can catch any ghost. With this rod I can open any sports car. With my third forhead eye, I can see through walls and clothing. With the blue gun in my pocket, I can conquier any nintendo game. With all this, I still cant get any booty!!

  21. Scene from his next Good Will Hunting Part 2 by McFly69 · · Score: 1 · on De Niro Seeks Science-Oriented Film Scripts

    Here is a scene from his new computer engineer position UCLA. He trys to deal with he pondering computing issues and yet make a living.

  22. Where the bandwidth goes, you can go too!! by McFly69 · · Score: 1 · on Where The Bandwidth Goes

    Just follow it!

  23. Who cares? by FreeUser · · Score: 2 · on HP Labs Creates Densest Memory Chips To Date

    Who really cares if they've made chips a thousand times smaller than current chips, with a thousand times the capicty? With palladium coming its not like you're going to be free to do anything worthwhile with them.

  24. Fair Use and TIVOs by crath · · Score: 3, Insightful · on Clean Flicks' Preemptive Strike For the Right To Edit

    Before anyone objects to your assertion that Clean Flicks is engaged in "fair use", they should check out how Clean Flicks runs its operation: About Edited Movies. I agree with you, it's fair use.

    If Clean Flicks' editing procedure isn't fair use, then a TIVO's ad-skipping feature is also not fair use. The broadcasters have released their video stream, and any automated editing of that video stream by the TIVO is not too dissimilar to what Clean Flicks is doing: Clean Flicks is simply inserting another mechanical method in place of what the TIVO does in one's home.

    It is also worth checking out this Boston Globe article, which provides background on a number of Clean Flicks' competitors---some of which work solely through the distribution of edit lists that you use on your PC or through a controller to a standard DVD player: ClearPlay and Family Shield Technologies.

    To reiterate, their current business model is fair use.

  25. I remember when I first got the internet.... by McFly69 · · Score: 1 · on Going Back To The Past of the Internet

    back when I was younger. Here is my portable setup.

  26. If there was no P2P.... by McFly69 · · Score: 1 · on Grubb for Congress. By Weblog.

    we would have to get out files like THIS!!! Hmm perhaps we can use that solar power Lazzer to create a portable optical network :)

  27. Dude, Your getting a Donkey!! by McFly69 · · Score: 1 · on Recycling The First World, in the Third

    Is this how they deliever dell's in China? Click here for image or here for the whole story. Compliments to Boston.com :)

  28. Dude, Your getting a Donkey!! by McFly69 · · Score: 1 · on Recycling The First World, in the Third

    Is this how they deliever dell's in China? Click here for image or here for the whole story. Compliments to Boston.com :)

  29. Re:Still Some Roads to Conquer by babbage · · Score: 2 · on MySQL A Threat To The Big Database Vendors?
    But name anyone who makes money running a huge website (Slashdot excluded, they don't make money) with MySQL

    At Boston.com, MySQL and other open source technologies are used extensively, both for our live site and for back end infrastructure. I, for one, am not worried about the company going out of business any time soon. In addition, we run third party software, both open source & proprietary, that is able to effectively use MySQL as a storage mechanism (in addition to Oracle, which we'd rather not shell out that much money for thankyouverymuch). And in the future we'll be making use of Zope -- open source, Python based content management software -- for much or all public web content.

    I mean, you're kinda right to point out that a lot of people like pointy clicky Windows-ness in their software, and that's fine. But there are other ways to go about this, and those other ways can be *much* cheaper and *much* more trustworthy, if not being beholden to vendor control of buggy source code is an issue to you (and it should be). Even paying support contracts to some of the organizations supporting open source software you can still come out way ahead in your business expenses, *and* you have more control over what the software is doing, which itself is priceless.

    You aren't going to install a new database just to run a website when you already have one.

    Well that depends, doesn't it? What if the security risk of exposing your corporate database is a higher cost than you'd rather bear? Wouldn't it make more sense to have a deployment tier of cheap, expendable LAMP [ Linux / Apache / Mysql/PostgreSQL / Perl/Python/PHP ] servers sitting between your safe little intranet and the big, scary world out there? What if your big expensive mainframe database systems were set up a decade or more before it occurred to anyone that this stuff ought to be globally accessible over thw web? Again, wouldn't it be easier & safer to put up a cheap proxy tier that is designed to work well over the web rather than screwing around with the old internal system?

    Again, I don't want to seem like I'm just trying to shoot down your argument. Your concerns are valid -- open source is not a panacea. But at the same time, it can play a very effective role, either as part of the overall picture [putting LAMP machines in front of the big Oracle / mainframe] or, if you're brave enough, as the whole of the overall picture. Such a decision isn't necessarily corporate suicide. If you've got the expertise -- and hey, any interested college or high school kid can start playing around with the professional quality open source stuff for free if they want to, so the pool of experience developers is big & growing fast -- then licensing costs and often-dangerous code obscurity falls out of the picture. It's doubleplus good :)

  30. Depends where you live by jht · · Score: 3, Interesting · on Comparisons of Cellular Service Quality?

    Here in Boston, the Boston Globe did an excellent comparison recently of services and coverage. I wouldn't be surprised if the major papers in other cities did the same.

    As for resources, the letstalk.com and howardchui.com sites mentioned elsewhere are good resources. Consumer Reports magazine has occasionally hit the topic as well. Another thing you can generally do in many states is pick up the phone you expect to sign up for and sign the contract - in MA and many others there's a right to return it for a couple of days if you find that it sucks.

    As for me, I just switched to VoiceStream (soon to be T-Mobile) after about 5 years with Verizon, even though I'm a CDMA bigot. With a newborn, I decided my wife and I should both have cell phones, and I liked their family plan the best. I also have a couple of friends on the VoiceStream network, and calls to/from other VoiceStream customers are free on most of their plans. Coverage has so far been excellent in most places I've been with one exception - I was returning some unused shoes at the local Macy's for my wife and I couldn't get a signal at the counter. With that one exception, I've gotten very good coverage everywhere else, plus they cover the areas where we typically travel.

  31. ( .hj by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic · on Matchbox -- a Small Footprint Window Manager


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  32. Boston Globe has story by dughat · · Score: 1 · on MPAA Requests Immunity to Commit Cyber-Crimes

    I know it's way to late to add to this discussion, but the Boston Globe online site has an article about this. Amusingly, there is also a poll, which when I voted made the vote 261 to 1 that this was going too far.

  33. Boston Globe has story by dughat · · Score: 1 · on MPAA Requests Immunity to Commit Cyber-Crimes

    I know it's way to late to add to this discussion, but the Boston Globe online site has an article about this. Amusingly, there is also a poll, which when I voted made the vote 261 to 1 that this was going too far.

  34. Boston Globe has story by dughat · · Score: 1 · on MPAA Requests Immunity to Commit Cyber-Crimes

    I know it's way to late to add to this discussion, but the Boston Globe online site has an article about this. Amusingly, there is also a poll, which when I voted made the vote 261 to 1 that this was going too far.

  35. Re:Taking responsibility for what you wrote by kavau · · Score: 1 · on NYT Discovers the Panopticon

    Let's say, just for the sake of argument, it's 1930 and the internet has been already invented. You publish an essay on the evils of uncontrolled capitalism on the internet. Now it's twenty years later - 1950 - and McCarthyism is at its height. Suddenly everybody against whom there is the faintest suspicion of sympathizing with communist thinking has to face investigation, repressions, and harassment. Anyone who doesn't consider being a martyr as one of his life goals would seriously think about deleting the old writings in order to stay out of trouble. Now you suddenly find you can't do that anymore, because a copy of the essay by now rests in hundreds of search engine caches on the web.

    Granted, the same thing can happen (and did happen many times, of course) with printed media. But the point is that it's so much easier to have your ideas distributed over the whole world on a single mouseclick. We enjoy freedom of speech nowadays, but "officially" the same was true during the McCarthy era, just not in practice. And it is not entirely unlikely that the government will curb our freedom of speech more severely than today some time in the intermediate future (the Operation TTips is an example that we're already moving in that direction, in my view). Then our careless rantings on slashdot could suddenly have serious consequences.

    And yes, I got the message that it is easy to protect yourself by using aliases, 'robots.txt' files, and the like. Slashdotters know these things, but you cannot necessarily expect the general public to know. Not everybody is a computer geek. And even for a geek it takes time to learn, and by the time somebody became aware of the danger, he might have a few dozen political essays with his signature sitting around in caches around the world already. This is a serious issue, but of course limiting the power of search engines would be a vast overreaction. But the least one can do about it is to bring the issue to public attention.

  36. Washingtonpost.com legal agreement by Old+time+hacker · · Score: 3, Interesting · on Can Newspapers Save Local Music?
    If you read the downloading agreement then you will see that they (Washington Post Legal / boston.com legal) do not really permit you to do with the music what you might like to do.

    For example, you are not allowed to distribute the music over a LAN. This means that I could not use my Rio Receiver to play the music over my hifi system. You are also not allowed to use the music to construct any kind of database. This probably rules out most fancy players that create nice indexes of your music. It may rule out all hardware based players as they will create a (small) database of the music stored internally to the player. It certainly rules out using JReceiver as my music server.

    I understand that they want to restrict the use that people make of the band's music, but it does seem a little over restrictive.

  37. In English by geekculture · · Score: 1 · on Danish Court Rules Deep Linking Illegal

    You can find an English version of the story on boston.com

  38. Re:There's an article in English now. by lskovlund · · Score: 1 · on Danish Court Rules Deep Linking Illegal

    And I of course meant here (and very nearly made the same mistake again).

  39. George Bush's (AWOL) National Guard Service: Cites by Skjellifetti · · Score: 1 · on Falun Gong Hacks Chinese Satellite
    Try these:

  40. Re:OT so mod me down, but I don't care by gilroy · · Score: 2 · on Minority Report
    Blockquoth the poster:

    Mr. al-Muhajir is entitled to a judicial review of the claim that he is a combatant


    Oh, really? To put it mildly, that seems not to be in accord with the facts: Blockquoth the Boston Globe (2002 Jun 25):

    In an unusual telephone conference call with three appellate judges, Deputy Solicitor General Paul Clement reiterated the administration's assertion that the president alone has the power to make a determination - not subject to judicial review - that someone is an enemy combatant and that such people should not have access to lawyers.

    [emphasis added]

    I think it's quite clear the President and his henchmen feel that the system of American justice is, at best, a hindrance. Elevating a bit of Vient Nam logic, Bush, Aschcroft and cronies appear to feel that "In order to save democracy, it was necessary to destroy it".
  41. My reply to Dvorak by koranth · · Score: 1 · on Dvorak: Discontinue the Mac
    Isn't it about time John Dvorak's column was simply discontinued--put down like an old dog? Why, exactly, does PC Magazine maintain this irascible naysayer of contrary viewpoints instead hiring someone with fresh ideas? Dvorak has become the Andy Rooney of desktop computing, except for the fact that he's more technologically savvy.

    I'm not writing this essay as a Dvorak basher to get attention, although plenty of people will accuse me of doing that. I recently noticed a lull in the Dvorak buzz, however, and I'm now beginning to see Dvorak as an old commentator that needs to retire.

    Let's look at the recent Dvorak offerings. The columnist's rant against the DMCA, usually a "gimme" topic for tech-industry pundits, garnered and underwhelming 59 posts. He also attempted to lambaste Microsoft's mistakes, and predictably cited opinions that many agree with but no one seems to be able to do anything about. The obvious next iteration of his ratings grab was to smear Apple for no good reason in particular. After that, what is Dvorak going to do?

    Remember that in 1999, Dvorak drew eyeballs the Internet over by accusing the iBook of being too "girly" a computer to survive. This rant was an improvement, but there hasn't been a new idea since.

    There was a moment early in the new millennium when it looked like Dvorak was going to stop taking unfounded pot shots at Apple. This was actually a good idea, but eventually it fell apart, leaving PC Magazine with a neutered opinion column from which it never fully recovered.

    The most interesting aspect with Dvorak is the way he's able to consistently attack everything under the sun with little support beyond his own worldview and not only get away with it, but receive attention and praise for his efforts. Curiously, no other columnist has been able to manage anything like this. Hiawatha Bray is said to have legions of anti-Mac fans in his pockets, but after playing with an iMac DV in late 1999 he changed his mind. Apparently Apple has done the impossible.

    Having said that, why can't Dvorak take his griping to the next level and bring out a completely valid complaint against the Macintosh? Here's the problem. This supposedly creative business of technology journalism has been completely co-opted by Microsoft for over 10 years. All the alternative approaches to computing have been sabotaged, absorbed by Microsoft, or simply wasted, withered, and died in the anticompetitive marketplace. Most of the big alternative computing publications have been closed or cut back. In that environment, unfounded accusations against all things non-Microsoft are the easiest way to collect a paycheck.

    So perhaps I have answered my own question regarding putting down the old dog called Dvorak. PC Magazine has no one it could possibly replace him with. There is no new idea out there short of a Linux desktop for grandma. And the technology for a Linux desktop for grandma is decades away.

    In fact, the old dog will not be shot, but propped up with ads, and patched with reconstructive PR, instead. Dvorak will go in the only direction possible: increased cynicism. In fact this is the only direction for tech industry commentary in general.

  42. Re:Show me the links by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on AP reports on renewed "Browser War"

    How about Boston Globe or USA Today? Maybe San Jose Mercury News? Or heck, even MSNBC a site co-owned by NBS and Microsoft?

    Also, Washington Post ran their own story over the weekend.

    So, yeah, looks like the AP does go out to lots of places besides CNN, huh?

  43. Re:not that expensive yet... by joe52 · · Score: 1 · on Comcast in Court, AT&T Gets Greedy

    And the followup article in which they discuss (with little datail) AT&T's plans for tiered access:

    http://digitalmass.boston.com/news/2002/06/11/att_ t.html

  44. Re:It's just a vehicle for theft by neocon · · Score: 1 · on Napster files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

    Unfortunately, your information is about a decade and a half out of date. Both France and England now have violent-crime rates significantly above that in the US -- indeed that in Paris is now 50% higher than in New York City, and in particular, England as a whole has seen a skyrocketing rate of gun crime since finalizing the ban on all handguns in 1996.

    For more on this, see here or here. And remember -- criminals will get guns. The only question is whether they will be alone in having them...

  45. Re:Empty promises... by sql*kitten · · Score: 2 · on Steffi Graf Wins Case Vs. Microsoft

    You know, I would be seriously pissed if some guy broke into my house, stole my rifle, used it to shoot and kill a cop, and the police arrested me for owning the murder weapon.

    In 1994, a man in England apprehended two burglars on his property using a toy gun and held them until the police arrived. When they did, they arrested him for using the toy to "put someone in fear".

    When is our judicial system going to get it through their heads that ISPs cannot control the actions of their users, just like I cannot control who might break into my house. I'm sure Microsoft Germany had no intention of putting nude photos on their website, just like I have no intention of killing someone with my rifle, but I cannot guarantee that it won't happen.

    The point is, the law is often nothing to do with what's right. Why did they sue Microsoft and not, say, the phone company whose wires carried the signal, or the PC manufacturer who made the monitor that displayed them? Sounds ridiculous? Any more ridiculous than suing the owner of a wall for something someone spraypainted on it?

    In a way, it's good that it's Microsoft this time, because they have the smartest, most aggressive lawyers in the world, and if they decide to turn around a get the law shot down with precedents, they can.

  46. Re:Forget the rest of the article by nigelc · · Score: 2, Informative · on Sometimes, Microsoft is Right...

    Well, here's a place...
    Tiger Lady

  47. Heres a clickable link by ghoul · · Score: 1 · on Notebook Cooling Strategies

    Icebergs

  48. Re:They will pay off their impending loss by Odinson · · Score: 2 · on Microsoft's $40 Billion On Hand
    Sorry If I oversimplified it a bit. I am really looking at it from a 1 to 1 basis from Microsoft tring to shift their costs around compensate for that loss and bring their profit up again. (which is important to them.) I was not meaning to imply (is this what you meant?) that they could directly report and alocate assets as profit, or even income. I saw the article a few months ago but have not been able to find it again. I think what must have been a five year cumulitive MSFT or annual DOW wide thing. According to a post Greenspan statment on options article, MSFT would go down from 7.3 to 5 billion in profits in 2001. I am really sorry for mistating this.

    Greenspan's Friday anouncment on moving stock options to the business expense coulmn.

    From that article... "The seemingly arcane accounting debate would have a huge impact on U.S. companies. The Fed has estimated that annual corporate earnings growth between 1995 and 2000 was 2.5 percentage points higher for big companies because they did not have to count options as expenses subtracting from their earnings. "

    Also check out this news.com article. It shows that I messed up that loss estimate but there still is a big difference.

    This is defiantly still pertinant, but I do owe people an apology.

  49. Feynman's o-ring experiment by counterfeitfake · · Score: 1 · on The Most Beautiful Experiments in Physics
    I have always thought that Richard Feynman's demonstration of how the space shuttle's o-ring material behaved in cold conditions was beautiful. Beautiful in it's simplicity. From this obituary:

    Frustrated by witnesses' vague answers and by slow bureaucratic procedures, he conducted an impromptu experiment that proved a key point in the investigation: He dunked a piece of the rocket booster's O-ring material into a cup of ice water and quickly showed that it lost all resiliency at low temperatures.

    Beautiful, because it took this theory that was being argued over, and cast it into complete, inarguable certainty that was easily understood by everyone.

  50. Apple *FINALLY* outdoes Intel!! by MissMyNewton · · Score: 0, Flamebait · on Apple Releases New PowerBook and the eMac
    And by quite a margin!

    See this specs on this box - pretty hardcore!

    "and 700 gigahertz G4 processors"

    700 GIGAhertz!!! Holy smoking Itanium, Batman!!!

    http://digitalmass.boston.com/news/2002/04/29/emac . tml