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This might help answer your question http://www.thinkgeek.org/stuff/fun-stuff/3629.shtm l

This is so sad...thank god there's a new, robust, inexpensive alternative to Linux:WheatoniX!

ThinkGeek has a nice LOTR set as well. I've seen many more versions, though. Of course the book is decades old, in which case several editions are more justified than planned marketing attempts.

3. Microsoft was in the right here, they enforced their licensing clause. Get over it.

The issue wasn't whether the clause was in Microsoft's license, but whether that clause was legal. I'm betting that the group (not a company, I don't think):

1. Wasn't allowed to see the licenses before they bought the software (post-sale disclosure of terms, this is very illegal)
2. Did, in fact, own the licenses, but lost them or was never given the paperwork.
3. Was the victim of selective contract enforcement. (If a fortune 500 company did this, would Microsoft really risk going after them?)

Most software licenses are in complete and total violation of large amounts of contract and consumer laws, and are virtually unenforceable... Read The Software Conspiracy (available from Thinkgeek) sometime. The author explains it in very clear terms. I suspect you'll have no trouble understanding.

The whole TLD thing has been severely tarnished by people who want to make sure people don't get lost in their sites. (So, the TLD problem is indirectly the fault of stupid people...) Really, though, if people used things the way they were meant to, we wouldn't have this problem. Take, for instance, a proper usage of TLD's that I found. At ThinkGeek (who, by the way, have both .org and .com, and maybe .net), they link to a company offering DSL called SpeakEasy. I looked around for a while, and then left. The next day, I decided to follow-up on it, and sat down and typed in "speakeasy.com", fully intending to come up at SpeakEasy's DSL page. Instead, I arrived at "Speakeasy Computing Corporation", and skimmed their page for "DSL". The huge text reading " (We do NOT provide DSL connections. If you came here looking for help with yours, try contacting Speakeasy.NET) Speakeasy Computing Corporation is a software firm and has no affiliation with speakeasy.net".

I felt kind of stupid, .net should have been the obvious choice for an ISP. But I gave it some thought, and soon realized that the reason I was so "stupid" was the result of "stupid" people. A few people couldn't figure out .com vs. .org vs. .net, so people registered them all. Then I started to (subconsciously, I suppose) realize that it didn't really matter what I typed in -- .com was the most popular, so I might as well just type that in, right?

I've seen a few posts mentioning that we really need to start eliminating TLD's, and they were usually moderated as either "Flamebate" or "Funny". The fact is, the idea isn't too bad. But I have an alternative idea.

ICANN should require justification of why you deserve a domain. Now, everyone's going to flame me for this, but give it some thought. If RedHat wants to register a domain for their business, they could apply for .com. They could also apply for .org and .net to help confused visitors, but these would be rejected as a waste of domains. Then, I could, in theory, register the "RedHat Fan Club" page as redhat.org. Of course, there are problems with this - I could claim to be the RedHat Fan Club but actually be the RedHat Sucks Club, and that would mean lawsuits.

So, essentially, all I'm proposing is that domain name registrars actually do some investigation into them. This would really leave a lot more domains open for legitimate uses. My idea presented here is not perfect, but I think the general concept is at least worth some consideration.

The other thing that I would like to see not given much consideration in the above process is people who register some generic word - take computers as an example. I've never been to computers.com, so let's just assume for a minute... Computers.com is (in our imaginary scenario, remember) a page with links to 10 quadrillion computer-related sites. The page isn't sorted in any manner at all. It's just red text on a blue background, with a banner ad. The site looks like crap; it looks worse than newbie-designed FrontPage creations. (Again, a disclaimer - I don't know what computers.com is, I'm just using it as an example.) They really tick me off, I'd really rather end up at Microsoft's web page then at an index of every single page that is in some way related to computers...

But there are flaws with this. If ICANN refuses to register Loser.com to someone wishing to use it as a link to Al Gore's web page (which it is!), then that person could file lawsuits because they're "favoring Al Gore" or whatever...

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SUWAIN: Slashdot User Without An Interesting Name

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