Domain: nwsource.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to nwsource.com.
Comments · 1,621
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Re:who's suing who?
We spend $7 billion a year on R&D, our shareholders expect us to protect or license or get economic benefit from our patented innovations. So how do we somehow get the appropriate economic return for our patented innovation
This isn't a mere statement of "fact". It's a threat. Or how do you construe this? -
A phone that takes both hands?
The last thing we need is a phone that takes both hands to operate.
In California, using a non-hands-free phone while driving becomes a moving violation in mid-2008. Washington State is doing this too. (That was enacted right after a 5-car collision caused by a Blackberry user.) I've had my truck rear-ended twice by people on cell phones. One said to the cop, afterwards, "I was just finishing my call". Had a near miss two weeks ago; someone pulling out of a parking space on a busy street was using a phone, so they couldn't turn the wheel fast enough and drove across two lanes of traffic before straightening out.
Remember the iDrive, from BMW? That was a disaster, hated by many owners. Too much "head down" time, looking at the display instead of the road.
The future is hands-free, not two-handed.
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Re:I tried to WTFA
RTFA?
.. or WTFA..
They bought the seadragon or w/e technology and then built this app.
"Photosynth, for example, makes use of "photo tourism" software developed by University of Washington and Microsoft researchers"
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstech nology/2003213606_livelabs21.html -
Patents?According to THIS story, patents are not involved.
Unlike the Novell deal, Microsoft isn't licensing any patent rights from New York-based Xandros, according to the company. Nor does the Xandros deal focus on virtualization
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I'm not surprised
When I saw the name "Michael Laine", I didn't really think anything - it's a plain and potentially common enough name. Then I read the linked PDF and saw the adress, and realised that I know this particular "Michael Laine" personally.
He's been floating around the Bremerton business scene for around fifteen years involved in/shilling for one dubious business idea after another. Back in the .com era he spent quite a while trying to get people (including me) to invest in a variety of web based businesses without so much as formal business plan. The accomplishements of TEKnology-Laine largely exist in Michael's vivid imagination. (Even back then it struck me that his main source of income was business grants and investors - with little in the way of actual customers.)
I'm not surprised he's finally fallen afoul of the law. He's been in a bit of trouble off and on because the building he bought back in the 90's was partially paid for by a grant based on his claims to already have a viable technology business and his promises to expand it and bring jobs to the city. A promise not entirely broken - but also one on which he's not expended much actual energy on fulfilling.
Let's see what a little Googling brings to light about his recent career.
Hmm... Here's a fascinating little piece, it seems he is not repaying a loan advanced for the purpose of building a nanotube factory. In this article he admits to the failure of a business prominently mentioned in many articles about Liftport. (As well as admitting he didn't actually graduate from college as he implies in his bio.) Here we find that Liftport actually went belly up nearly two months ago. (Mostly because the investors couldn't - or wouldn't come up with the money to pay for the building he owns, but occupies less than 25% of.) This article from nine months ago shows a familiar pattern from his TEKnology-Laine days, with one scheme starting to unravel - he's off shilling for another. -
not to be pessimistic
But this reminds me of the database file system, not mention the 11th hour reduction in the virtual server specs.
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Other Articles
This is actually quite interesting technology. It has been conceived before - but only that - conceived. This is one time Microsoft gets kudos.
Not quite. Even tho Microsoft was the first to market with something in the $10,000 range for places like Vegas. I wonder what the Blue Screens look like?
More info the MS product here, here and here.
I imagine that Jeff Han's own Fascinating multi-touch system just might not use Windows as a fundamental foundation. Don't forget about the 16 foot long interactive wall So I can imagine several patent fights coming out of this, even though the research lines are likely independent. Microsoft might even get accused of stealing somebody else's research, regardless of the facts.
Of course, this happens a little while after Apple revealed their own multitouch interface. Microsoft must hate that. After all, Microsoft can't get a patent on the use of fingers, even tho they can try. -
Re:Your Rights Online?Wow, it's an interesting case and definitely a question of online rights. A follow-up article has been posted to the SeatlePI. However, from the first article: Requa says he didn't produce the video, but acknowledges that he, among others at the school, posted a link to the video on his MySpace page. So this student received a 40-day suspension for linking to the video. The student did not record the video, nor was he in it. The follow-up article confirms this: Two other students, one who shot the video and another who danced behind Mong, also were suspended for 40 days. The sad thing is that this video was brought to light by a local news investigation into videos posted on YouTube that are critical of teachers. The teacher is currently retired. I couldn't find the date that the video was made. However, given the retired status of the teacher, it doesn't seem to be from the current school year.
Unfortunately, the student's suspension will not be lifted. The student didn't stand up for his rights soon enough. The school used common scare tactics to elicit a confession of involvement in the production of the video. The article doesn't say what the level of involvement was. However, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that it was merely knowing of its existence and linking to it. -
Judge won't end suspension, saying it's punishment
There is an update to this story. The judge ruled that the video wasn't protected speech. "The First Amendment does not extend its coverage to disruptive, in-class activity of this nature." In the end, the judge wrote, Requa "failed to establish or raise serious questions that his punishment is for his protected free speech and not for the classroom conduct of which he is accused." He got a 40 day suspension along with two others who were involved in the caper. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/316793_kentri
d ge23.html -
Kentridge
The same reactionary school that handcuffs its students uppity 11-year-old black kids for "rowdy behavior."
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Update : Judge rules video is NOT protected speech
Refer to URL http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/316793_kentri
d ge23.html . The Federal Judge upheld the 40 day suspension. -
RTFA, it's worse than the summary
Hmm. They suspended a student for 40 days for disrupting class, in an incident that wasn't even noticed by anyone in authority until it was posted on YouTube and later reported on the news. But that's not all. The kicker? The suspended student wasn't even there!
Suspension? Detention? Expulsion? Yeah, maybe for the administrators involved. For the student? Nada.
The judge, of course, accepted the school district's sophistry and let the suspension stand.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/316793_kentrid ge23.html -
Re:WiFi is microwaves
It is pretty quick. You'd absorb radiation mainly at the surface, and in hot spots. Check this out, a baby needed skin grafts after 10-20 seconds on "cook."
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Re:Horrid overhead wires
A lot of it has to do with costs. According to an article by the Seattle Times (see below), it costs between 10 to 15 times as much to bury a powerline than to restring above ground. That cost goes down for new construction because it is easier to do so (easier right of ways, equipment on site, current surveys, etc...). Furthermore, I believe that there is a federal law in the US that requires new construction use underground lines. http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin
/ texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=underground09e&d ate=20070109 -
Re:Somewhere in Redmond...
That prayer already came true:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/motorsports/3010AP_C AR_IRL_Indy_500_Crash.html -
Re:13 Year old CEO?
But there are other kids as well:
12-year old Nigerian is a certified Java Programmer
12 year old programmer creates web browser
Pakistan's youngest certified Microsoft programmer - 9 years old
Covered in slashdot before -
Why doctors' insurance premiums are so high
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Don't Seattle's buses have free wifi?
here is a story on it and I remember when I was there seeing an add about it on the side of the bus(didn't have any internet equipped devices to test it out). So instead of a paper from a fixed source, couldn't you just as easily bust out your pda/psp/ds/iPhone/whatever on the bus and choose your source of news? These devices also let you do a lot of other things if you don't see any articles that are worthwhile.
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I'll Bite1) So why aren't their shares skyrocketing then? Oh yes, try reading this: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/309852_sof
t ware02.html2) More PCs sold. How many copies of XP were sold last year. Extrapolate it to this period, and see if it's more. If not, Microsoft aren't "getting better". They're standing still or losing out whilst Linux and Mac are catching up on them.
Seriously, how many people do you know that have bought a copy of Vista? Either an off-the-shelf copy, or a new PC because they really wanted Vista? I know 1 person running Vista, and he likes it. Everyone else I know that's seen it running is sticking to XP.
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just perjury and obstruction of justice
> It is not playing in the US media because no law was broken when those attorneys were fired.
1. pete domenici (r-nm) tried to force attorney generals to indict democrats for voter-fraud
2. alberto gonzales (ag) almost certainly lied under oath
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/19/opinion/19mon4.h tml?ex=1331956800&en=dfab854c91a51b4b&ei=5088&part ner=rssnyt&emc=rss
http://www.gregpalast.com/investigative-journalist -greg-palast-reports-on-the-firing-of-new-mexico-a ttorney-david-iglesias/
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002677.php
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-kleiman/the-fal l-of-pete-domenici_b_43006.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/20 03699882_webmckayforum09m.html?syndication=rss/ -
Re:Please...from the Seattle Times
Microsoft says Linux, open source violate patents
By Bloomberg News
Microsoft said the Linux operating system and other freely distributed programs violate 235 of its patents and it wants makers of such software to pay royalties.
The Redmond software company would rather license its technology than litigate, Microsoft said Monday in an e-mailed statement.
Microsoft had earlier said, without detailing claims, that Linux and so-called open-source software violate its patents.
Last year it struck a deal with Novell, the second-largest seller of Linux, in which both agreed not to sue each other's customers. Two weeks later, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said Linux "uses our patented intellectual property."
Some of the patents relate to the Linux graphical design, e-mail, operating-system core and Open Office word-processing and spreadsheet programs that compete with Microsoft Office.
The agreement with Novell eased a longstanding rivalry. At the same time, it came under fire from open-source advocates such as the Free Software Foundation, which develops the General Public License, a popular open-source license used for the core of the Linux operating system.
The group's proposed version 3 of the license terms would prevent future deals of the kind struck between Microsoft and Novell, which also involved the companies agreeing to make their software interoperable.
Microsoft criticized the new version in its statement Monday, saying it "attempts to tear down the bridge between proprietary and open-source software that Microsoft has worked to build with the industry and customers."
Microsoft and Novell's partnership has won customers such as Wal-Mart Stores and Credit Suisse Group.
Emphasis mine.
I find that slant to be very telling and worrysome. . . -
Re:E-MAIL?????
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ACTORS have no standing in a Court of Law.without prejudice,
M. Gregory Thomas(tm), Network Redundancy Administrator;
Mundt Administration of Network Redundancy:
You want a bunch of men in their municipal-police and societal Clothing to act like saboteurs and assasins to affront and corrupt these young Students of the law that are clearly not prepared or not studied to defend from such act of legal pederasty? If so, then I'll be the first to the local high-school with my Whip and intent to correct those debilitated men of presumed Actorship from their teachers. They can learn to act like they are crying and do it well, just for the unknown day they may need to act for the police to act like terrorists -- until the terrorists act like police and reciprocate the Actorship to act like terrorists once again. The same people that advocate to be mindfully prepared, competant, and independant by such Actors, are the ones that demand submittance to the services when they prevail from what little support society pretended to offer to assist in such quick situations. I'm surprised the URL in the Slashdot article, Chicago Tribute has not disappeared or cleared yet. When things like this happens, the brave journalists are the ones to Sound the alarm by their post in the morning; but whomever waits to read it, will find the articles are destroyed or removed elsewhere by the same corruptors they spoke against.
Seatle Post-Intelligencer carried an article on Actors preying on children in the same way, scars for life, and the Article is gone (but I'll quote it {"A school safety drill that included police officers in riot gear with weapons has caused concern among some parents who say it was too realistic and frightened some students."
"Students, who were unaware police were conducting a drill, were taken from the classroom into the halls, patted down by officers and asked what they had in their pockets, the newspaper said."
"Some of these kids were so scared, they just about wet their pants," said Marge Bradshaw, a parent with four children in Godfrey-Lee Schools. "I think it's pure wrong that the students and parents were not informed of this."} Even All Headline News hosted a report of the same contemptuous assault and battery of children, and now even their Article is gone.
Sure, they could be helping to *stimulate* those young minds into submittance, but they are also corrupting the public record of these events; the assault of the presumed-Actors moving to the commercial Scribes and non-commercial editors and their Book-keepers to CORRUPT the complete accounts and Rolls of those events. I find it stimulating that the only branches of society that could store, recollect, and preserve such evidence of terrorism are the same that are accused to be "schizzophrenic", "crazies", and "conspiracy theorists" yet they are not causing any tort or tresspass by their conservatorship over said records; StopTheDrugWar is one such persevered embalmer of these record of non-pretend raids on schools, having no difference between that of Actors and the 'tended drug raids. Even as far back as 2003 there was a video that gets posted with an article of same subjective pretended Raids and non-pretended Actors, but eventually is deleted. It makes its way around, here it is again of Stratford High School at Goose Creek. I have a couple more to reference of the same feet of non-pretend Actors, like this horrible creature, and yet another -
Re:The big problem is that...
$30 billion sounds like a lot of money until you consider their burn rate: "$29 billion on hand at last count was less than half the cash and short-term investments held by Microsoft about two years ago." It takes money to pump earnings reports, "Microsoft achieved record breaking earnings during the Vista launch quarter by taking money out of its assets, not through amazing sales of Vista and Office."
So I would suggest that you are right with one small edit: MS's cash "has absolutely" *everything* "to do with Microsoft's share price, or with future business." -
Re:Real hardball
With the World's Best Goalie, of course. Have you seen the Micro$oft team? Their bark is worse than their bite. They got no game!
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Re:Its actually disturbing
I haven't RTFA and I probably won't as I live in WA and have heard and read everything I want to ever know about that law. It is stupid that it's needed. Here is one of the reasons why this law was put into place: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/294861_crash0
6 .html
I drive on the freeways around the Seattle area 2-3 hours every day and it's absolutely insane how stupid people are. I saw a lady reading a map or directions and talking on her cell phone. No, she wasn't using a headset for her phone. Boy did I lay my horn into her.
It's amazing driving around this area. You'll see people in the far left lane on the freeway driving 5-10MPH under the speed limit and there are no cars in front of them. People behind that car will just stick behind that car and pass when they get a chance. Not, honk, not flash their lights, just pass. Either they don't to hurt someone's feelings or they are afraid of how that person will react. People in the Western WA area are afraid and overly politically correct to the point of pussification. Use your fucking horn and let people know how fucking stupid they are.
I'm one of maybe 100,000 people in all of Western WA who know what a blinker is and one of maybe 100 who know what a horn is. You can drive around here in the city or on the freeways and not hear a horn for years.
Yes, the law is needed, it's sad that it is, but yes it is needed. Just like the seatbelt law, when enacted, law enforcement couldn't pull you over for not wearing it. Over the years the law was changed so that if a police officer saw you were not wearing a seat belt they could pull you over. The same will happen to this law, it may take 5, 10 or even 15 years, but it will happen.
Next; ban putting on makeup, reading books, maps, newspaper or using your fucking laptop all while driving. -
Whether we caused it seems a bit academic.
Your attitude is fairly typical, but contains a very troubling assumption -- namely that if the global warming phenomenon currently ongoing is not anthropogenic, that somehow we don't need to worry about it.
I think this is completely false, and quite dangerous. Furthermore, I think that the debate over what has caused global warming, has really just become a distraction to the real issue, which is quite simply "what the hell are we going to do about it?"
It doesn't really matter whether the cause of the warming is anthropogenic or not; unless you're going to debate that the planet is not getting warmer -- and it doesn't seem like you are -- we still have a serious problem on our hands. It's a little academic to most people whether it's caused by power production, or automobiles, or cow farts, or energy fluctuations in the Sun, or a lack of pirates.
Telling people in Bangladesh who are up to their knees in seawater that "hey, we're just coming out of a geological cold phase!" isn't particularly useful. Or when the power grid and water supplies in the whole Eastern half of the U.S. fail because the average summer temperature is up in the mid-to-high 90s (or higher), saying "it was a lot worse a few million years ago" isn't getting us any closer to a solution.
The causes of the warming phenomenon are only interesting insofar as they give us possible solutions for dealing with the problem -- because it's not CO2 that's the problem, it's the warming that's the problem. If you don't think it's anthropogenic CO2 that's the cause of the warming, fine, but that doesn't mean that the actual problem just goes away because we didn't cause it, which seems to be the attitude taken by many of the anti-anthropogenic-global-warming side. We still have to deal with the same consequences even if the cause isn't anthropogenic. (And if it's not anthropogenic, then we're probably screwed even further, because it's probably a lot more difficult to reverse the process.) -
Re:Please post the URL,
If a program crashes, it asks you if you want to send an error report to Microsoft. Press 'send' to send one. If it's a known problem, it'll tell you.
If you're beta-testing Windows, a quick Google gives http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/sentiments/d efault.mspx as a feedback form. I imagine other beta products have their own feedback ways (e.g. Office 2007 had Send a Smile / Send a Frown).
Otherwise... it seems to vary from product to product. Windows Home Server has a dedicated suggestion forum; and pretty much every product has a developer blog.
If that's not direct enough, I can personally recommend another OS with more direct feedback methods... -
Microsoft Linux Enterprise Server certificate ..
'Microsoft is purchasing and redistributing Suse Linux Enterprise Server certificates under the deal'
So basically certain companies are paying Microsoft to use their own SuSE software. What Novell are doing is legitimizing MS claim to Linix IP rights. A precident of gigantic and enormous consequences. Novell basically gave away their business under vague threats of IP violations. I can see what Microsoft got out of the deal, but I can't for the life of me see what Novell gets out of it.
An analogy, I'm the CIO of Corleone olive oil business and out of the blue the New Jersey Mob phones me up and say I am violating their patented recipe . But they say, lets do a deal, we'll promise not to sue and give you the rights to continue to distribute our patented recipe and in return we'll purchase 'certificates' to distribute Corleone olive oil.
Next thing I know people are ringing me up asking why they should be paying me for New Jersey olive oil. Before ya know it I am out of the olive oil business. The Jersey crew offer to buy out my business at a rock bottom price and to let me stay on as CEO, if I don't go squealing to the the FEDs. Years later people would ask me why I gave away the family business to a shister extortionist - without raising a finger. -
Re:Gently down the slippery slope
Booze is the #1 chemical alteration people use to enjoy life. Would you ban that?
It's already been tried. Hopefully, they'll notice soon that the war on drugs is going almost as well. -
Fitting reward.
Why shouldn't M$ market to dead people? Just look at all the nice things dead people have done for M$. Believe it or not, they have updated things for Zune with less success than they had convincing GWB not to dismantle them. For all the services rendered, dead people will be rewarded with one non refundable, non transferable, surplus Zune. Jokes about "squirting" Uncle Fester here are beneath even my low standards of humor.
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This approach failed with Microsoft
Some MS shareholders tried a similar resolution a little while ago, right after that China blogging scandal, but the initiative didn't get a lot of press. There was an article in the Seattle Times back then that talked about why these things always fail:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoft/20 03289541_microsoftholders05.html
The board of directors and the large investors never go for stuff like this. A company does not exist to make the world a better place, to live ethically, or for any of the other reasons that we attribute to people; it exists to increase shareholder value. -
Why wouldn't Jobs be charged at some point?Well, why would Fred Anderson and Nancy Heinen be charged for hiding options grants that benefited Steve Jobs, and Jobs himself not be charged at some point? The Seattle Post Intelligencer has this quote:
"Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney's Office was still investigating. A spokeswoman for the office declined to comment Tuesday on the status of the case.
Legal experts say the combination of Anderson's new accusations and the pending investigations leaves Jobs' culpability in question.
"That statement and the disposition of the SEC does leave Steve Jobs in legal limbo," said Ralph Ferrara, a former general counsel for the SEC who now works at the New York-based firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae LLP."
Further from the Seattle PI:The grants in question were a February 2001 grant of 4.8 million options to Apple's executive team and a December 2001 grant of 7.5 million options to Jobs.
The SEC alleged Heinen modified documents to backdate the grant to Jobs, to reflect that it had been approved during a meeting in October 2001 that never occurred. The SEC said the executive team's grant was also fraudulently accounted for and that Anderson should have noticed Heinen's efforts to backdate it. The CFO did not take steps to ensure that Apple's financial statements were correct, the SEC said.
Anderson's attorney said "Anderson was reassured by Jobs that the board of directors had given the necessary approvals, and that Anderson concluded that the grant was being properly handled." Well, apparently since the board meeting in question never occurred, Jobs lied to his CFO to cover up the backdating. -
Link that's not blogspam
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Re:Unbiased my arse.
Care to back that up with an actual reference for those of us in the uninformed masses?
Absolutely! The most important reference is the Halloween Documents. Especially interesting (if you don't want to read the actual documents) is the following bit from Microsoft's Official Response to the Halloween documents. I refer specifically to this bit:
"Q: The first document talked about extending standard protocols as a way to "deny OSS projects entry into the market." What does this mean?"
"A: To better serve customers, Microsoft needs to innovate above standard protocols. By innovating above the base protocol, we are able to deliver advanced functionality to users. An example of this is adding transactional support for DTC over HTTP. This would be a value-add and would in no way break the standard or undermine the concept of standards, of which Microsoft is a significant supporter. Yet it would allow us to solve a class of problems in value chain integration for our Web-based customers that are not solved by any public standard today. Microsoft recognizes that customers are not served by implementations that are different without adding value; we therefore support standards as the foundation on which further innovation can be based."You don't see Microsoft own up to Embrace-and-Extend very often (although they did it in marketspeak...)
Also interesting, right from my first wikipedia link, "Document X
An e-mail from consultant Mike Anderer to SCO's Chris Sontag, also known as Halloween X: Follow The Money. Among other points, describes Microsoft's channeling of US$ 86 million to SCO."So right they're they were funding the assault on Linux. Although we all see how that has been working out; it's mostly cost IBM a lot of money and provided a lot of entertainment.
You might also read Ballmer: 'Open source is not free'.
You could go back in time and read a commentary on Ballmer's assertion that Linux is like cancer, although that was just an idiot repeating something someone told him about the GPL once.
And ahhhh, here we go, this is one of the articles I've been looking for all this time. Google really needs to deprecate the blogosphere in pagerank, it makes it quite impossible to find old articles because most bloggers are too stupid to cite properly. Ballmer sees free software as Microsoft's enemy No. 1. And keep in mind that Microsoft signed the Novell deal in order to attack Linux: "Ballmer said in a question and answer session at a technology conference that Microsoft signed the deal because Linux "uses our intellectual property" and it wanted to "get the appropriate economic return for our shareholders from our innovation"."
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Re:If you're seeing conspiracies against opens sou
Todd Bishop of the Seattle P.I. points this out in his blog. On one hand, Microsoft is a company in business to make money, so this makes sense. But it still leaves a foul taste when coupled with all the other cynical things they've done. This has nothing to do with "the children" or the poor, just building the next generation of consumers.
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Re:Beyond words...I mean, it sounds good... the idea that some armed citizen/vigilante would engage in a gunfight with a crazed shooter, but I wonder if it really happens.
Most recently, an off-duty police officer stopped gunman in a Salt Lake City Mall (link).
Mall shootings were a popular terrorist tactict in Israel... until the government required all active military (practicaly all college-aged Israelies) to always be armed (can only find a second hand source, a blog post discussing the SLC shooting in relation to the events in Israel).
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Re:DifferencesSeriously... What the hell does that line mean? Glad you asked. The general connotation is that they are a monopoly that has been convicted for abusing said monopoly status. Google has publically labled Microsoft that way, and Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison called them that back in 2004, so its not like the parent invented the term.
For quick reference United States v Microsoft and European Union Microsoft antitrust case
note that MS has, in fact, been convicted of monopolistic practices more than once. A repeat offender one might say.
People like you need to wake up to the fact their is NO DIFFERENCE between Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc. I think that it is quite unfair to stereotype all corporations based on the wort behaved ones. I agree though, that some media corps have gotten/are getting away with murder. -
Re:Not the UN.The poster I responded to accused US of violating international law -- she/he quoted UN charter.
And you responded with an answer which doesn't make sense. --Your logic, if I interpret it correctly, was that unless a resolution is passed, no crime has been committed? I beg to differ.
That the US law is not broken is rather obvious -- as the original poster in this thread pointed out, America's Congress and Senate have approved the resumption of the anti-Iraq hostilities.
There are such things as unlawful acts of government. Just because nobody has yet condemned the original orchestrators of the war does not make subsequent hostilities based upon the original lies suddenly lawful, any more than subsequent sins make the original sin legal.
Though I do grant that your style of argument might stand up in the courts given the way they've been stacked (or should it be 'de-stacked'?) lately.
???? What else, other than letter of the law, should a rational person be considering, when determining, whether something is illegal or not?
How about the Spirit of the Law? --Oh come on. You must have heard about the "Letter v.s. the Spirit" of the Law. As I note your approval of the great Wiki, I'll offer the relevant entry for your perusal.
We killed an awful lot more Chinese and Koreans during the Korean war -- not to mention the millions of enemies we managed to dispatch during WW2. Calling a war "illegal" based on the number of casualties is quite irrational...
WW2? The Korean war? Well shucks, I don't know anything about the Korean war except that Alan Alda plays a good surgeon. But since we're not talking about WW2 or Korea, I would submit that this is hardly relevant and I might ask that you try to stay focused.
"Illegal" means that a law or set of laws has been broken. Mass murder without just cause, (as in bombing and shooting thousands of Iraqi civilians), is not lawful. Nor is it lawful to present falsehoods to the public in order to start a war with a nation which does not actually pose a threat. You'll simply have to pardon me for bringing up the body count. I happen to think it IS relevant to the issue at hand. After all, it is the crime; It is the base detail upon which the spirit of the Law resides. It is what the laws were designed to prevent. To not look at it and to not think about it is an irrationality bordering on the psychopathic.
Murder is a fairly well-defined term, which applies to very few incidents of Iraqis killed by US.
Very well. Let's see what your link to the wonderful world of Wiki offers up. . .
"Murder is the unlawful and intentional killing of a human being by another."
Unlawful. . . Check. Intentional. . ? How much more intentional can you get than aiming a military-grade weapon and pulling its trigger?
These instances are unfortunate and the perpetrators are generally prosecuted.
This isn't true at all. What actually happens is that sometimes the family members are paid off, (when guilt is admitted to), and the killer carries on as before. That's the state of things.
The vast majority of Iraqis killed in Iraq are killed by insurgent terrorists (mostly - fellow Iraqis). Our policies (or failures to execute them properly) may be contributing to the carnage, but it is not us, who is doing the killing...
So the 4 million bullets a day being produced and shipped to U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2003 were being shot at clay pigeons?
The situation today is rife with stories of Iraqi murders at the hands of U.S. troops and military contractors. Further, the civil chaos in Iraq today would not exist were it not for the U.S. having invaded in the first place, allowing some of the nastiest figures from Saddam's old regime to continue in positions of military and police power.
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Those passwords are on the laptops
It is trivial to break in to a laptop when one has unrestricted physical access.
It is usually non-trivial to break into a server that is in a data-center behind firewalls given zero-knowledge.
Fortunately for the bad-guys, laptops have been proven over and over to contain network information, passwords, and raw protected data:
Chicago Public Schools
FBI
Boeing
Starbucks
Towers Perrin
US Commerce Department
US Department of Transportation and Sovereign Bank, et al.
US Navy
US Department of Veteran Affairs
Federal Trade Commission
Equifax
Ernst & Young (many times)
Unless "Get competent administrators" is software that prevents users from putting data on their laptops, this suggestion is meaningless.
"Get competent administrators" is a finger-waving nebulous non-solution from those that have no idea what competent administration looks like.
Competent adminstrators recognize that security problems are not simple and they are only solved by tangible, disciplined, and rigorous solutions, rather than dismissive statements of "be smarter." -
Re:More evidence that people are cruel...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2
0 03654116_housestripped06m.html "Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said an after-hours customer-service representative initially denied Raye's request for information, but after further review "we gathered enough info to be confident that we would be within the law to release the info to the victim herself." The ad was online for only about an hour and a half before enough craigslist users flagged it and it was removed, Buckmaster said." The latest update contradicts what you state. The name of the poster will be revealed and it is up to the police to bring the poster in. Most likely "family" were evicted because they are drug users, Raye is a cruel landlord or some other reason. -
Apparently Microsoft is already responding to this
According to this Seattle Times article, Microsoft is in negotiations with EMI to sell DRM-free music as well.
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Here's the link
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Has the equipment gotten lighter?From TFA:
In all, it will cost about $100,000 to outfit a plane with less than 100 pounds of equipment, and the work can be done overnight by airline maintenance workers, AirCell says.
However, according to the article in this post :
Paradoxically, he said, the change will reduce weight. "We're putting in about 50 pounds of wiring and taking out about 200 pounds of other gear" including wireless antennae, wireless access points and thickened ceiling panels, said Sinnett.
So I'm wondering, what's changed? Are there key details being left out? Or is this just yet another tease of connectivity on a long flight without all the "what if's" being considered? -
Dude this prick stold the idea from Miyamoto
You see, Miyamoto's Mario 64 level 'Desert's Hill' pictures a pyramid that contains a spiral ramp which leads to the top of the pyramid revealing a small opening where the workers would place the top rocks of the pyramid precisely on top. Which proves my theory on the conspiracy of Video Game Giants trying to force their beliefs unto us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fc/N64_ Super_Mario_64_shifting_sand_land.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fc/N64_ Super_Mario_64_shifting_sand_land.jpg
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7dMHvZXegVU
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZsgMWdJQyi4
here's the actual story and image:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501ap_fran ce_pyramid_theory.html?source=mypi
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/aponline/6047 .095FRANCE-GREAT-PYRAMID.sff.jpg -
Dude this prick stold the idea from Miyamoto
You see, Miyamoto's Mario 64 level 'Desert's Hill' pictures a pyramid that contains a spiral ramp which leads to the top of the pyramid revealing a small opening where the workers would place the top rocks of the pyramid precisely on top. Which proves my theory on the conspiracy of Video Game Giants trying to force their beliefs unto us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fc/N64_ Super_Mario_64_shifting_sand_land.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fc/N64_ Super_Mario_64_shifting_sand_land.jpg
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7dMHvZXegVU
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZsgMWdJQyi4
here's the actual story and image:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501ap_fran ce_pyramid_theory.html?source=mypi
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/aponline/6047 .095FRANCE-GREAT-PYRAMID.sff.jpg -
Re:Sugar Cane fuel is the current answer
There are several smaller producers out there who use cane sugar. Jones Soda is switching over.
Here's the froogle results for cane sugar sodas.
They are available if you look. -
Re:Rich man's GED
A lot of his older articles can be navigated to through this cleverly constructed tag cloud.
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/tags/
If you can't read, which seems rather plausible at this point, you can ask for a friend or relative to help you find the article a few days back on slashdot where Bill Gates gives a University address in 1989. It includes audio. You can use your sleuthing skills to draw context clues from it on Gates' technical background.
It's not a straw man- it just seemed like a waste of time to google around for articles for people who have a selective understanding of the history of the personal computing market. Nobody just 'sits around and takes all the credit' in a tiny 2-person software operation.
I'll go ahead and create a more slashdot-friendly timeline:
1971: Steve Jobs invents the computer. Wozniak helps.
1975: Microsoft sucks d00d, lol.
1983: Richard Stallman creates GNU and they write the best tools because free things are always better than things that cost money.
1990: GNU creates HURD. Although it's better than windows, further down the timeline they eventually gave up on it because of how sweet Linux was.
1991: Linus Torvalds creates Linux. Within hours of its creation, it becomes the best operating system ever.
c. 1997: music becomes free. the internet rejoices.
2000: The government takes away everyones right to free music. Legions rise against the new corporate Nazi regime but are defeated with the help of Microsoft.
*Apple cures hunger by ripping off Mach and BSD in order to recreate NeXT, thus revitalizing the computing industry. Apple Computers proceed to make people more creative.
2006: Microsoft creates the Zune, but they're wrong.
2007: Microsoft tries to destroy the world by creating Vista. Linux is better than it. Nobody buys it. Linux wins.
*Steve Jobs offers to get rid of DRM, but pesky music execs make up a lie about how Apple perpetuated proprietary DRM with total vendor lock-in. Slashdot knows better. This obviously wasn't a marketing stunt following the consumer rejection of Vista's DRM system.
*Bill Gates given honorary Harvard degree- Slashdot users cleverly point out that he doesn't deserve it, since he's just a rich guy that people gave money to because he's evil.
I guess you're right now. -
Re:Costco...
Microsoft reports strong Vista sales in first month - Seattle Times 3/26/07
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstech nology/2003636731_webvista26.html
It doesn't appear that Microsoft is having a hard time moving Vista, contrary to many of the posts on this topic. Does this mean that the posts are wrong or that this article is wrong?
Richard T. Moore
Seattle, WA -
Re:What's going on with my state?
Washington State also made it a felony to play online poker since 6/6/06 (what a dubious date).