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Pretty much. It's the same reasoning protecting trade secrets that protects copyrights for private companies. Unless the public is at risk (E.g. company dumping toxic wastes in a daycare center), there is no constitutional reason to allow people to disclose trade secrets like that. Journalistic protection against governments is because the people have the right to know what their leaders are doing. Customers and other companies don't have those rights.

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Free iPod? Try a free Mac Mini
Or a free Nintendo DS, GC, PS2, Xbox
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Look at their privacy policy.

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Free iPod? Try a free Mac Mini
Or a free Nintendo DS, GC, PS2, Xbox
Wired article as proof

Also, good to see Google isn't doing an eternal beta on this product like its Google News offering (the whole beta thing gets annoying after 2 continuous years!)

That's a legal issue. If Google starts making money from other news sites without actually paying them, then they risk legal action for use of copyrighted material. Right now, they have no ads because this (in theory) puts them in the fair use section

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Free iPod? Try a free Mac Mini
Or a free Nintendo DS, GC, PS2, Xbox
Wired article as proof

Maybe they could jump ship and try for one of the proposed manned space programs in other countries. The pilots and engineers shouldn't have a problem finding jobs in the private sector as it begins to take off (no pun intended) since there will be a need for people who know how to get a hunk of metal moving at 7km/s on the ground in once piece. The scientists and other mission personal would have trouble finding spots in the private sector unless it becomes profitable. This would require something like feasible zero-gee engineering that NASA has always been looking at. Maybe one of the big biotech or chemical companies would pay for a science team to spend some time in orbit to do some material engineering research. However, it would be harder to get private science crews into space who can't show short term profits. This would probably require a government for funding.

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Free iPod? Try a free Mac Mini
Or a free Nintendo DS, GC, PS2, Xbox
Wired article as proof

When you use a mouse, do you have your forearm at an angle to the mouse with your index finger on the left button (assuming right-handedness), your middle finger on the right button, and your ring finger on the "forward" button on 5-button mice? I've found that having my forearm parallel to the mouse with my middle finger on the scroll, my ring finger on the right mouse button, and my pinky on the forward button reduces the stress on my wrist since my wrist is no longer twisted at an odd angle. I was wondering if anyone else did this too.

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Free iPod? Try a free Mac Mini
Or a free Nintendo DS
Wired article as proof

The editors should just link to mirrordot in each story. Story Picture

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Free iPod? Try a free Mac Mini
Or a free Nintendo DS
Wired article as proof

The last time the FCC tried to do this, they were struck down by the SCotUS who agreed with a lower court which ruled that the FCC can't censor cable broadcasts the way they wanted to. This is seperate from the airwaves since cable TV isn't a public right like access to the EM spectrum. This ruling pretty much said that cable operators can do whatever they want with regards to content since the customer always has the option of not subscribing to the cable network. Most channels still self-censor, but they are under no legal requirement to do so. In fact, MTV sometimes airs uncensored videos at odd hours of the night and there is nothing the right wing can do about it but complain to the advertisers.

I also believe that cable TV will pretty much die out once we have enough bandwith that the majority of people can legally order shows in real time over their Internet connection. It's just going to take a while for the big dinosaurs to realize that they have to adapt or die.

BTW, the original case of US v. Playboy: http://www.fcc.gov/ogc/documents/opinions/2000/98- 1682.html

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Free iPod? Try a free Mac Mini
Or a free Nintendo DS
Wired article as proof

The last time the FCC tried to do this, they were struck down by the SCotUS who agreed with a lower court which ruled that the FCC can't censor cable broadcasts the way they wanted to. This is seperate from the airwaves since cable TV isn't a public right like access to the EM spectrum. This ruling pretty much said that cable operators can do whatever they want with regards to content since the customer always has the option of not subscribing to the cable network. Most channels still self-censor, but they are under no legal requirement to do so. In fact, MTV sometimes airs uncensored videos at odd hours of the night and there is nothing the right wing can do about it but complain to the advertisers.

I also believe that cable TV will pretty much die out once we have enough bandwith that the majority of people can legally order shows in real time over their Internet connection. It's just going to take a while for the big dinosaurs to realize that they have to adapt or die.

BTW, the original case of US v. Playboy: http://www.fcc.gov/ogc/documents/opinions/2000/98- 1682.html

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Free iPod? Try a free Mac Mini
Or a free Nintendo DS
Wired article as proof

Personal gain, obviously in my context, means not in a way that coerces others. Duh. But I guess you consider my reference coercion?

Law is not just a codification of someone's ethics - it can be more than that - namely a recognition of the objective right and wrong, moral and immoral.

You seem to enjoy this converasation but I do not. I will, however, continue going back and forth for another 5 posts if you take up my offer to help me get a nintendo DS for free. See here.

Heheheh.

Wake me onces TV companies begin to distribute shows (either paid or free w/ commercials) over something like BitTorrent. If they release an "offical" video file onto the web and then attack anyone who distributes a version without commercials, then there won't be that big of a problem with P2P sites since everyone who watches the show will also see the commercials. The only people who would object would be cable TV providers since they no longer have a purpose. This would also get around any FCC problems.

To make sure people watch the commercials, you can use a custom player/P2P app that disable fast forwarding during commercials the first time it is downloaded or some other method to make sure they watch X seconds commercials for every Y minutes of the show.
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Free iPod? Try a free Mac Mini
Or a free Nintendo DS
Wired article as proof

Other than the different managers setting the prices for their groups, does Dell use an automated pricing system that sets the final price based on past sales of an item at a given price and a customer group's willingness to pay a certain price? I'm sure they spend a lot of money researching the price points that result in maximum profits for a given customer and I wouldn't be suprised if their website set an "optimally profitable" price point based on the latest market data.
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Free iPod? Try a free Mac Mini
Or a free Nintendo DS
Wired article as proof

Even on systems with limited resources, the lack of proper thread priorities makes the system seem slower than it should be. When MS Word does it's automatic spell check, there shouldn't be a noticeable drop in UI performance (lag between hitting a key and a seeing letter appear) if the CPU intensive tasks ran in the background. The same applies to how FF lags badly when I open a PDF inline or how Explorer's interface locks and doesn't refresh properly when it's previewing a video file or reading from a slow CD drive. The same should apply to background tasks like virus scanners, but they tend to have the added overhead of using IO which is harder to multitask smoothly.

If the program was designed so that the functional part of the application had the highest priority and the eye candy and fluff ran in the background, the user wouldn't be as annoyed with the high peak performance requirements of certain programs.
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Free iPod? Try a free Mac Mini
Or a free Nintendo DS
Wired article as proof

Aycock acknowledges there is a potential for viruses and other malicious software to spread outside the classroom.

He says that's why there are precautions, such as security cameras and a ban on all outside electronic equipment in the classroom.

Each student signs a legal form that says a breach of the security means an automatic "F" and a potential criminal investigation.

I guess they think that there is a high risk that a person will intentionally wreak havoc with the knowledge he learns in that class. Then again, this might just be a publicity thing for the class. I doubt that it's more dangerous than a class on computer security and virus/malware prevention in terms of the risk of damage being done.

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Free iPod? Try a free Mac Mini
Or a free Nintendo DS
Wired article as proof

If their customers don't get any spam because they have good filtering, then they have nothing to lose (as long as outgoing bandwidth is properly paid for) from hosting spam. As long as MCI can tell their customers that they're fighting spam, they'll keep their customers. At least, until some other ISPs block them out completely.

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Free iPod? Try a free Mac Mini
Or a free Nintendo DS
Wired article as proof

I'm sorry it hurt your feelings and angered you so much that you had to see my referral to get a game system. I really don't see what the big deal is. It's not a scam - I got an Ipod from these guys.

Besides, if you have time to argue so much on /., surely you are in need of $10 for completing an offer.

I get mine for $5 at icdsoft. I just had a client go out and pay $140 for two years with NetworkSolutions. There is a big variation. I can bet that when Google starts letting people register, no one will be paying Network Solutions that much anymore.

Sig: Be one of the 4 to complete an offer to help me get a free console and I paypal you $10. Help me out!