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Is Microsoft opening itself to defending thousands of lawsuits against their customers?"

I'd say it's more likely that by a remarkable coincidence, a rogue company, with no discernible ties to Microsoft, will begin suing Open Source end-users for IP infringement, effectively underscoring the significance of Microsoft's indemnification. Remind you of something?

--

I write stuff, but not that often and not that well...

There are people on Wikipedia who remind me of you. Back in the early days (I wasn't there then; I just remember reading some talk pages from that era), there were complaints of the nature, "We have articles about Bart Simpson but not the Amazon Rainforest! Clearly, we need to delete Bart Simpson to show where our priorities are!".

This idea misunderstands the nature of the internet. It's not like a book. There's not a limited amount of space. (Well, there is. But it's not limited enough to matter if you're just talking about text.) And it's not accessed by reading front to back. One does not "flip through" the internet and say, "Damn it! There's too much about Bart Simpson on here! Where's the Amazon Rainforest?" No, one googles "amazon rainforest" and gets the results. Simple, huh?

Now, blogging has its own benefits. Besides the amateur porn (how I love it so), I can keep tabs on how my friends are doing, catch up on an acquaintance I haven't seen in months, or publish a rant that I think really says something worthwhile. (Doesn't mean anyone has to agree, but it's up there, and that makes me feel better.)

And it's such a better alternative to forwarding email. Now, when someone I know has an annoying chain-letter to spread, they can just paste it on their blog, and I can ignore it. People only email me if they actually have something to say. Isn't that innovative?

I do agree, however, that "blog" is a stupid fucking word, used by stupid fucking people. Ugh. Like those twits who said "cyberspace" and "information superhighway" in the nineties.

--grendel drago

Voting irregularities happen all the time. When dealing with so many from so many places.. it's hard to do the job right. New systems, old systems, operator error, etc... these all go into effect. What purpose is posting an article like this with so little information about WHERE the votes were cast, or which votes were suppressed? It means NOTHING! Suppose all votes suppressed were for kerry, and all "extra" votes were for bush? Ok then you'd have an article! As it is you've got nothing more than sensationalist CRAP to stir up impressionable people that don't have the time to do the research on their own. Posting such drivel is highly irresponsible.

Did anyone here the call for unity by John Kerry? How about the one from Bush?

Kerry was a big man conceding as early as he did, he didn't have to, but he chose to make a difference in the best way he could... trying to help unify the nation after such a bitter election.

Apparently no one listened.

Stop B****ing and Make a Difference

In the Democratic Primary in NH, early exit polls showed Howard Dean and John Kerry in a dead heat. Yet when the votes were actually counted, Kerry won by a wide margin.

1. Exit polls (as we all remember) showed a dead heat
2. Actual results showed Kerry winning by a wide margin
3. The exit polls were retroactively adjusted to match the actuals (just like last tuesday).
4. Some people noticed that Kerry's lead over Dean was highly correlated with how the votes were counted:

   VotingTech......Margin
   Diebold..........58.1%
   ES&S.............35.0%
   Hand..............4.7%

5. When the dust settled Kerry won by (IIRC) 1.5%--close to the exit poll's "dead heat", but by then he'd been spiked by a microphone and no one cared.

-- Markus

For examples of how much Meijer is loved by its employees, please refer to the following URL:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/meijerfresh/

The management tends to not treat the employees well at all, as can be expected from a "buy everything here" class of store.

Employees are regularly held hours past their scheduled time, and are also typically held for an extra half hour if they stop to take a lunch break during an 8 hour shift.

I nominate the parent post for a new copy-patentrademaright karma-whoring/trolling template!

Just copy and paste comment #10731571 onto any discussion reguarding your copy-patentrademarights online.

Thanks to k4 pacific for the wonderful text!

The technique they are trying to patent is called "collaborative filtering" and existed well before they introduced it. I think University Of Minnesota have GroupLense project doing this. Some more info about it here:

http://notbrainsurgery.livejournal.com/7586.html

Then again, I'm not a Justice.

This guy is though

Didn't I just answer this on
And the poster next to mine is half correct. Sometimes OS X specific CD's ship with macs, but the the machine specific part is only in the OS loader for the cd ie, if you run the installer's off the cd through the installer app instead of booting of the cd, you're fine.

As I always say, people get the government that they deserve. We don't deserve any better than bush, in fact, he is too good for us. When all that matters to a nation is beer, jesus, and football, great leaders are neither earned nor expected. I just feel bad that the rest of the world will have to suffer from our mistake.

I had trouble voting this morning too, in Alameda County, CA, which uses Diebold voting machines. My problem wasn't related to the voting machines, but it looks like there are problems with how non-electronic votes are being handled (not to mention that Alameda country election workers were instructed not to tell people about their right to vote on paper).

Despite the fact that I called the Alameda Country Registrar of Voters last week and confirmed that my GF and I had been registered, our names weren't on the list this morning. All we could do was fill out provisional ballots in the hope that it would be sorted out.

While we were there, a woman came in and requested a paper ballot, the way we were going to if we had been allowed to vote normally. The poll worker responded by giving her a provisional ballot too, saying that those are the only paper ballots they have. So that's how Alameda county is handling people who don't trust the electronic voting machines: they throw them in with the people who may or may not even be allowed to vote. That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that these votes will actually be counted (as I understand provisional ballots often aren't).

Registration problems seemed to be a recurring theme this morning. While we were there we saw more people taking provisional ballots than using the machines. Unfortunately, it wasn't because people were requesting them, but because the rolls were so screwed up. To top it off, the poll location only had three (3) pens to fill them out with. Nice planning guys.

We spoke to the guy in charge afterward and registered our complaints about the registration problems, the way non-electronic votes were being handled, and the utter lack of organization and knowledge on the part of the poll workers, this guy included. He actually said that we seemed to know more about it than he did. This is not what I want to hear from the people in charge of collecting votes.

I called the registrar of voters afterward and confirmed again that we are registered and that we did in fact go the right polling location. The only explanation they could give me was that late registrations were sent to the voting locations separately and that maybe they weren't checking both lists. The woman I spoke to took down my complaint about this and the general incompetence we experienced and admitted that this doesn't come as a big shock to her. This last bit makes it even worse. If they are aware of the problems with the people running these things, why haven't they done something about it?

This is my I Voted sticker.

(mostly reposted from my LiveJournal)

There's also community photoblogs on sites such as LiveJournal such as the Photography Community and the Photojournal Community.

There's also community photoblogs on sites such as LiveJournal such as the Photography Community and the Photojournal Community.

or has BSD been getting a heck of a lot of stories on the main page lately

It's like they haven't been listening to the trolls at all

--

I write stuff, but not that well and not that often...

From The Boomer Bible, by R.F. Laird.

The Book of Yanks, Chapter 107, verses 5-16

5. After all, it hasn't ever been a good idea to make the Yanks mad,
6. Like with the Alamo,
7. And the Maine,
8. And the Lusitania,
9. Which should have tipped off the Nips that if they did something to the Yanks,
10. Something unspeakable like Pearl Harbor, for example,
11. The Yanks would remember it,
12. Forever,
13. And find a way to get even,
14. No matter how much it cost,
15. And now that you mention it,
16. Remember the Lusitania?

Did anyone actually read the comments of the story? I'm not a big fan of the administration, but it does seem as if someone got taken for a ride.

If this was the only thing convincing you not to vote for Bush, what the hell have you guys been doing?

Bloggers: 43 Folders, Kris Dresden, Diane Duane, Paul Ford, Neil Gaiman, Michael Hanscom, Jason Kottke, Anne Murphy, Jessamyn North, Alia Phibes, Quentin Tarantino, and Wil Wheaton.

Linklogs: Anil Dash, Best of Craigslist, Boing Boing, CoolGov, Daze Reader, Fazed, Kottke Remainders, LinkMachineGo, MetaJournal, Michael Hanscom's Linklog, Museum of Hoaxes, NewYorkish, Paul Ford's Linklog, Snopes: New, SubText, and UFies.org.

Chicago: Chicagoist, jamas.org, CHICAGO.Metroblogging, Chicago Snapshot, CTA Tattler, Gapers' Block, and L or El.

Miscellaneous: Ask Slashdot, Citying, Cult of the One-Eyed Cat, Good Plastic Surgery, I Work With Fools, Schmo Blog, TeeVee, This Is Broken, Today In Alternate History, and x-entertainment.

Apple Bloggers: Buzz Andersen, Bill Bumgarner, Todd Dominey, Folklore, Steven Frank, John Gruber, Dave Hyatt, Brent Simmons,

Bloggers: 43 Folders, Kris Dresden, Diane Duane, Paul Ford, Neil Gaiman, Michael Hanscom, Jason Kottke, Anne Murphy, Jessamyn North, Alia Phibes, Quentin Tarantino, and Wil Wheaton.

Linklogs: Anil Dash, Best of Craigslist, Boing Boing, CoolGov, Daze Reader, Fazed, Kottke Remainders, LinkMachineGo, MetaJournal, Michael Hanscom's Linklog, Museum of Hoaxes, NewYorkish, Paul Ford's Linklog, Snopes: New, SubText, and UFies.org.

Chicago: Chicagoist, jamas.org, CHICAGO.Metroblogging, Chicago Snapshot, CTA Tattler, Gapers' Block, and L or El.

Miscellaneous: Ask Slashdot, Citying, Cult of the One-Eyed Cat, Good Plastic Surgery, I Work With Fools, Schmo Blog, TeeVee, This Is Broken, Today In Alternate History, and x-entertainment.

Apple Bloggers: Buzz Andersen, Bill Bumgarner, Todd Dominey, Folklore, Steven Frank, John Gruber, Dave Hyatt, Brent Simmons,

Bloggers: 43 Folders, Kris Dresden, Diane Duane, Paul Ford, Neil Gaiman, Michael Hanscom, Jason Kottke, Anne Murphy, Jessamyn North, Alia Phibes, Quentin Tarantino, and Wil Wheaton.

Linklogs: Anil Dash, Best of Craigslist, Boing Boing, CoolGov, Daze Reader, Fazed, Kottke Remainders, LinkMachineGo, MetaJournal, Michael Hanscom's Linklog, Museum of Hoaxes, NewYorkish, Paul Ford's Linklog, Snopes: New, SubText, and UFies.org.

Chicago: Chicagoist, jamas.org, CHICAGO.Metroblogging, Chicago Snapshot, CTA Tattler, Gapers' Block, and L or El.

Miscellaneous: Ask Slashdot, Citying, Cult of the One-Eyed Cat, Good Plastic Surgery, I Work With Fools, Schmo Blog, TeeVee, This Is Broken, Today In Alternate History, and x-entertainment.

Apple Bloggers: Buzz Andersen, Bill Bumgarner, Todd Dominey, Folklore, Steven Frank, John Gruber, Dave Hyatt, Brent Simmons,

Bloggers: 43 Folders, Kris Dresden, Diane Duane, Paul Ford, Neil Gaiman, Michael Hanscom, Jason Kottke, Anne Murphy, Jessamyn North, Alia Phibes, Quentin Tarantino, and Wil Wheaton.

Linklogs: Anil Dash, Best of Craigslist, Boing Boing, CoolGov, Daze Reader, Fazed, Kottke Remainders, LinkMachineGo, MetaJournal, Michael Hanscom's Linklog, Museum of Hoaxes, NewYorkish, Paul Ford's Linklog, Snopes: New, SubText, and UFies.org.

Chicago: Chicagoist, jamas.org, CHICAGO.Metroblogging, Chicago Snapshot, CTA Tattler, Gapers' Block, and L or El.

Miscellaneous: Ask Slashdot, Citying, Cult of the One-Eyed Cat, Good Plastic Surgery, I Work With Fools, Schmo Blog, TeeVee, This Is Broken, Today In Alternate History, and x-entertainment.

Apple Bloggers: Buzz Andersen, Bill Bumgarner, Todd Dominey, Folklore, Steven Frank, John Gruber, Dave Hyatt, Brent Simmons,

Bloggers: 43 Folders, Kris Dresden, Diane Duane, Paul Ford, Neil Gaiman, Michael Hanscom, Jason Kottke, Anne Murphy, Jessamyn North, Alia Phibes, Quentin Tarantino, and Wil Wheaton.

Linklogs: Anil Dash, Best of Craigslist, Boing Boing, CoolGov, Daze Reader, Fazed, Kottke Remainders, LinkMachineGo, MetaJournal, Michael Hanscom's Linklog, Museum of Hoaxes, NewYorkish, Paul Ford's Linklog, Snopes: New, SubText, and UFies.org.

Chicago: Chicagoist, jamas.org, CHICAGO.Metroblogging, Chicago Snapshot, CTA Tattler, Gapers' Block, and L or El.

Miscellaneous: Ask Slashdot, Citying, Cult of the One-Eyed Cat, Good Plastic Surgery, I Work With Fools, Schmo Blog, TeeVee, This Is Broken, Today In Alternate History, and x-entertainment.

Apple Bloggers: Buzz Andersen, Bill Bumgarner, Todd Dominey, Folklore, Steven Frank, John Gruber, Dave Hyatt, Brent Simmons,

Actually, the models do have to sign a contract giving up their image to Suicide Girls. You should see it as no one in their right mind would sign such a thing! They're also allowed not to shoot with any other porn site. Although there are 2 that they allowed, but the rest are restricted exclusively to SuicideGirls. They also have to be active on the site in order to have their photos up, even though they only get $300 for a photoshoot and nothing else for still being hooter type waitresses at a porn site.

You should read the horror stories about that site and other things concerning the owner at:

http://www.livejournal.com/community/sgirls/

Their contract is there too if you search for it.

I agree with you that it is a fake in order to generate more traffic and a lot of information about how Sean Suhl operates can be found at:

http://www.livejournal.com/community/sgirls/

Yeah I see your point. It was posted to generate traffic to that porn site.

I also found this link which talks a lot about owner's, Sean Suhl, business practices. He really is a prick once you read all the background information about him and his ethics

http://www.livejournal.com/community/sgirls/

Another non-American here thanking god he doesn't live in the so-called 'Land of the free'. Don't things like this scare the hell out of you?

A couple of weeks ago, following the last presidential debate, I said some rather inflammatory things about George W. Bush in a public post in my LJ, done in a satirical style. We laughed, we ranted, we all said some things. I thought it was a fairly harmless (and rather obvious) attempt at humor in the face of annoyance, and while a couple of people were offended, as is typical behavior from me, I saw something shiny and forgot about it, thinking that the whole thing was over and done and nothing else would come of what I said.

I was wrong.

At 9:45 last night, the Secret Service showed up on my mother's front door to talk to me about what I said about the President

Eh, no matter. I've already updated my LJ with the appropriate disclaimer...

No, it's not the only way. Redundancy works, too.

United Kingdom. We can say what we want (within the bounds of profanity laws and so long as we're prepared to stand by them if we get sued for defamation), can go anywhere (within the bounds of privacy/trepassing laws and security requirements) without getting shot at and don't get branded terrorists based simply on the color of our skin (although DWB still rears it's head periodically). I've frequently protested various things I disagreed with but have never been arrested (those that do get arrested tend to be doing things other than protesting that breach laws on assault and theft). I frequently write things about various political groups in my blog but have never had a visit from the Secret Services. Based on what friends who live in the US have told me I've come to believe that we're more free here in the UK than those in the US.

Stephen

Murdoch was born Australian but left there for the UK where he started News International and aquired 'The Sun', amongst other newspapers. He later moved to the US where he gained US citzenship to get around certain restrictions on non-US citizens or corporations owning media companies.

The nearest to a free press these days is the blogosphere, but even that is under threat.

Stephen

Really?

This is all just a publicity stunt fabricated by Sean Suhl.

Before you even decide to join, have a read here:

http://www.livejournal.com/community/sgirls/

It discusses Sean's business ethics, his right wing political views, his racist remarks, and a whole lot of other things that should be questioned from this business person making money off something he is not part of.

How many times has Sean (the straight male who started and runs the site, while pretending that it's a queer-friendly, woman run enterprise) from Suicidegirls crudely exploited Slashdot for free advertising? This is a pattern that has been happening time and time again, and it's ridiculous that the moderators here haven't realized it.

Suicidegirls is not a DIY, woman-run project. "Missy" is their PR point-person, who gives a progressive, friendly face to an otherwise pretty sleazy operation. The site is actually owned and run by a guy named Sean Suhl (public knowledge, not saying anything new here), who is not exactly the most progressive guy on the planet. His politics are solidly right-wing (although he's a neo-conservative, who are more libertarian when it comes to sex... as long as someone can make money from it). Dozens of models have quit or been kicked off the site, many of whom were basically removed for being too "opinionated".

Ultimately, Suicidegirls is the Hot Topic of alternative porn. They took an underground, DIY concept, polished it, and presented it slick and packaged back to the community that created it. You can read more about it in the SGirls community on Livejournal:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/sgirls

As a disclaimer, I'm not anti-porn. I'm a big fan of any porn that is sincere, DIY, and woman-oriented. There's a whole slew of sites, some of whom have been around longer than SG, such as FatalBeauty, ManicJane, VegPorn, along with DIY erotica zines such as State of Nature.

SG is not DIY, they don't challenge patriarchal standards of beauty, and they don't give a crap about the women who pose for the site. This attempt by Sean for cheap publicity is yet another example of the only thing SG really does well: Marketing.

Of course it's a publicity stunt. Sean Suhl, the owner of SG, has been wanting to post a story regarding his site on /. for ages. Now he gets the chance to. Could it be that he created something so stupid and he had to make it stupid in order to grab attention.

More business ethics concerning Suhl and his site can be found at:

http://www.livejournal.com/community/sgirls/

I think you need to visit this page if you want to gather more info about this so called it's not porn, but art(women expressing themselves) website.

http://www.livejournal.com/community/sgirls/

You want to know about Suicide Girl's business ethics, go here:

http://www.livejournal.com/community/sgirls/

You got former models and members who were banned from that site because the owner Sean Suhl doesn't agree with people's politics or does as he pleases. Mind you, being conservative is what he prefers and being a racist is what he is.

I wouldn't be surprised he fabricated something so ridiculous in order to bring more publicity to the site.

Reference please? Or is this just more Bushwacking in a weak disguise?

Here ya go...

http://www.livejournal.com/users/anniesj/331112.ht ml

I think we should start tagging anyone suspicious with a No-Drive act. We should screen everybody much more carefully for a license, set up roadblocks every mile or so where officers can decide whether or not to allow you to keep driving. Additionally, for everybody who has a license, the cops should be able to search zor houses anytime, for any reason. Also, drivers should not be allowed to own cell phones. It should be illegal to have a stereo in your car, and it should be a felony for a car's driver to engage in conversation with a passenger, or through the window to other drivers or anyone outside of the vehicle.

See! It's a good idea I swear
No ulterior motives here
</sarcasm>

I (paul phillips) made three WPT final tables and three WSOP final tables in the last year but I was a programmer until I started playing cards full time a few years ago. Apparently I even still read slashdot from time to time. Finally, a thread where I feel completely qualified to post.

Programmers have a better foundation for poker analysis than most but this is a very incomplete predictor of success. Much more valuable is the ability to play your A-game all the time, and I haven't seen that programmers are any better at this than anyone else.

Poker is as much a test of self-discipline (and many other things) as it is of logic and knowledge. Being a brilliant analyst is of no use is you fail in other areas.

I write a lot about the tournament poker life in my blog.

I'm not sure I compleetly understand your idea, since what it looks to me you are proposing is basicly a matrix of microswitches, which is nice, but I'm not sure this will be a big improvment over the Lemur, for example (lets assume that you find a technical solution that wil make the LCD still visable, maybe very small LED's on each switch). the two dimentional array of switches you get as a result is still an array, though you do get some sort of feed back, I'm not sure that is a big enough change from the current solution.

I'm thinking about a few solutions, one of them is a lot like the audiopad, only that the pucks are, somehow connected to the surface, another one is close to your idea, since it is an array of "switches" of somesort, but those "switches" also change thier physical properties somhow (go up and down, or L/R), in a manner not totaly dissimilar to pin-cushions - those that you do an imprint of your hand from the bottom. The nice thing about this idea is that if it's done well enough, I won't need an LCD at all. though it is scary from a technical/micromechanic POV, and would be extreemly labur intensive to do..

I should state here that this, tactile HCI technological issue, is not a primery goal of this project, since the aspects that is most important (given the fact that I study design, and not, say, engineering) are the esthetic properties of the object, rather then the technological innovation that said object might have.

I have alwredy started to document this project, on a Wiki, BTW, exactly for these sort of conversations. but the wiki is still in it's infancy, and is yet unorganised. I'll have it orgenized and I'll open it to the public sometime next week. I'll keep the progress of this project on my livejournal blog too.

my article published concerning enhanced search and cross-referencing's ability to promote niche and over throw the media machine. In response to Wired's Niche article and details the social impacts of growing niche markets.

A number of my friends kept journals there a few years ago. I started one so I could keep up with some people who are long-distance from me, and so I'd have an outlet for writing. Those are the main reasons, I suppose. Sure, hitting 'random journal' brings you to unadulterated crap nine times of ten, but there are a few decent writers on there.

Oh, and the 18+ communities, with their gobs, gobs and gobs of amateur porn. (If you LJ, go check out kaizersoze125. It's full of porn.)

--grendel drago

A number of my friends kept journals there a few years ago. I started one so I could keep up with some people who are long-distance from me, and so I'd have an outlet for writing. Those are the main reasons, I suppose. Sure, hitting 'random journal' brings you to unadulterated crap nine times of ten, but there are a few decent writers on there.

Oh, and the 18+ communities, with their gobs, gobs and gobs of amateur porn. (If you LJ, go check out kaizersoze125. It's full of porn.)

--grendel drago

A number of my friends kept journals there a few years ago. I started one so I could keep up with some people who are long-distance from me, and so I'd have an outlet for writing. Those are the main reasons, I suppose. Sure, hitting 'random journal' brings you to unadulterated crap nine times of ten, but there are a few decent writers on there.

Oh, and the 18+ communities, with their gobs, gobs and gobs of amateur porn. (If you LJ, go check out kaizersoze125. It's full of porn.)

--grendel drago

That's not the worst of it. Over at Livejournal, the word "meme" has taken on the definition of "annoyingly colorful randomly-generated crap that you copy and paste into your journal". Every time I see someone calling some memegen crap a "meme", I die a little inside.

(For the lucky uninitiated, these things work by taking some random input, hashing it and picking random elements from sets of answers.)

--grendel drago

...that I was on the Internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world.

Here's a little maths for you:

A 17-inch 1.8GHz iMac is $US1,499, or $AU2,499.
A 1.8GHz Power Mac is $US1,499, or $AU2,699.

So, why the $200?

Er... here in Europe we call that "my phone".

Seriously, though... you guys don't have digital flash-memory video cameras on your cellphones? WTF? Digital still cameras have been standard on cellphones for the last two years, video and flash memory last year. I don't want to start a "diss the yanks" thread, I realise there are plenty of things y'all do better, but... you chaps need to have some serious words with your cellular providers, you're not getting good handset upgrades.

My phone has digital video camera and an MMC card offering up to 1GB of storage. The phone came free with 100 minutes of calls on a monthly £25 (US$50) contract, albeit only with a 32mb MMC card, then I purchased a larger MMC seperately for thirty quid. My missus got one too, free with contract again, here's footage she shot of squirrels in the churchyard.

I didn't even need to change contracts. I just rang them up and said I'd quit my contract after a year unless they upgraded my handset to a video model. It was delivered next day.

Check out this little number

Or the best dry cleaner?

Or whatever...
There's always going to be someone who uses Yelp! 10 times a day and annoys you to no end.

It happens already: go take a look in any live journal community.

Oh please for the love of Pete, NO! I've said this many times on \. already too, but this is LJ post is the only recent one I can find. IRV is a provably flawed system, please stop advocating it! Pushing for voting reform is great, but we need Condorcet voting, not IRV.

And BTW, we need to keep the EC.