Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Playstation, CueCat, Games
Maybe a bad day at the factory? An anonymous reader submits: "I'm not sure where the other fellow got his WAP11, but mine don't show the dirty output his does." See this diagram for a much more desireable outcome, if you care to play with (a little bit of) fire.
First application should be a GPL'd AIBO obedience school. gonz writes: "An update to the previous reported linux on ps2 kit has been submitted by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) to the people previously registering interest on their technology sites. The update consist of that it will be released in May on both SCEA (us) and SCEE (pal areas, including Europe and Australia) territories. A website has been set up at this place. On a side note, registering for notification when pre-ordering can apparently be done too: 'Finally, although sales haven't yet started, if you send an e-mail with the message "subscribe" to ps2linux-request@technology.scee.net we'll let you know when pre-ordering starts.'"
Lessons in obviousness. John Kozubik writes: "I have written an article describing, in a manner I have not yet seen, why the court decision by the U.S. appeals court in SF that claimed in-line linking was not fair use was inherently flawed. It is a short piece written for both the technical and the non-technical, and I think it raises a strong point concerning the arbitrary nature of browser behavior."
If they'd launch some pigs, perhaps global phones would be affordable. Guppy06 writes: "Many of you may be surprised to learn that Iridium (famous for trying to compete with cell phones and failing miserably) is still throwing up satellites (I sure was). The article on CNN tells of the technical woes of getting this particular Delta II off the pad in Vandenberg as Iridium tries to put five more spares into orbit."
Couldn't they have spayed or neutered them instead? Speaking of old hardware, Anonymous Radio Shack Employee writes: "RadioShack has sent a notice to all of its employees to destroy all CueCats (preferably with a hammer). Apparently the CueCat is among a couple of dozen items that RadioShack has given up on, and wants destroyed. The memo says that store employee's can not benefit from the items on the list. Which sucks because my store has over a hundred of these things just sitting in the back room." This week's Linux Weekly News has a great, detailed followup to the recent flap over relative OS security sparked by a post in Windows Informant.
why not just give them away, or throw away?
*destroy* seems like overkill, explain please
i will have the first webserver running on a cue cat.
Alright! I'm deffinately ready for the "101 ways to destroy a Cuecat" video craze. :)
I dance a jig on their grave. See where empty-headed threats and intellectual property rhetoric lead?
Another proud carrier of the $rtbl flag
Somebody call the humane society!
Oh... they're not *real*?
Or better yet, how? Where did all the cash for those birds come from? Was it a pre-payed deal? Did the NSA decide they REALLY wanted them up there, or are they part of our new Missle Defense prog? (J/k!)
Use the Preview Button! Check those URLs! Don't forget the http://!
Why did RadioShack continue supporting CueCats for so long? I was there fairly recently and saw that they were selling things like CueCat holders for your desk... I don't know about other places, but Dallas stopped putting CueCat barcodes in the newspaper quite a while ago.
Cue::Cats are only to be destroyed with the special Cue::Hammer.
The Cue::Hammer, when connected to your computer's serial port, will digitally scan any object it is used upon and automatically take you to a website featuring...
oh, never mind.
Wow! Something from Radio Scrap that actually needs help in falling apart! :]
Having to post this anonymously (as a Former Radio Shack Employee Who Does Not Wish To Cause Trouble Even Though His Boss Has No Idea What Slashdot Is) - I was working for RS when the memo came out that all Cats were to be given away IMMEDAITELY. Our boss made us push them on every customer, showing us the memo that said that each store would be charged $0.05 for each Cat remaining in the store past X date. I don't know who submitted the article, but perhaps his boss doesn't read his memos. Anyway, we dumped our stock shortly thereafter in a matter of a few days. Also, the bit about "employees not benefitting from these items" or whatever is somewhat bogus - it's not like RS corporate makes you send them pictures of numbered piles of destroyed Cats. If his/her boss has half a heart he'd let his employees take home whatever.
Well, I won't be using Radio Shack ever again. I don't see any reason to patronize a business that would rather destroy an item it no longer wants or can sell, especially something they were just handing out for free in the first place... rather than give the items away to those who need/want them. It's a waste of resources that could have been better used instead of destroyed. It's this sort of action that defines what the deepest, darkest depths that greed and ignorance can reach.
Steve's Computer Service, Hobbs, NM
I walked into Radio Shack a couple of months ago to pick up some thin wire for a project. Not to be found. Then I noticed the cuecats and those nice, looooooooong serial cable tails.
I took a few home and SNIP!
Guess I'll do something with the cuecat guts sooner or later.
- James
Has anyone been able to get their Cue:Cat to scan something they've printed with a bar code font? My cat will scan every UPC bar code I've found, but if I try to make my own, it almost never works.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
you know Rat-shack has ALWAYS done stupid things like this. I remember seeing some Tandy 100's destroyed because noone would buy them at $150.00 each.. and the store manager was too stupid to understand that lowering the price further was a better idea. (a rat-shack manager... wow what a glorius position eh?)
It's moronic moves like this instead of just throwing them away or how about dumping them on a electronic junk wherehouse for a few cents?
Most places like EIO will pay for shipping.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Iridium was bought by a company no one had ever heard of, for a bargain price -- after "securing" a long term contract from the US Government that basically pays for their operating costs. Any additional commercial subscribers is just gravy.
Common speculation is that this company is really a front for one or more of the many three-letter agencies in Washington that saw an opportunity to establish a secure means of global communication.
From a local RadioShack guy, "If your Cue:Cat begins to foam at the mouth, smash it with a hammer. Your kids will understand. If possible, get another before they notice..."
What is even more interesting is the fact that Digital Convergence is still alive!
It looks like they changed their business plan (of course) and are now *selling* the CueCat reader and books (this last one is a ROFL site. Look at the titles: Online Weight Loss Assistant, WAR ON TERROR (PHASE ONE: AFGHANISTAN & USAMA BIN LADIN), and so on...)
Now that would be cool.
The instrument used was a spectrum analyzer. An oscilloscope looks at signals in the time domain and a spectrum analyzer looks at them in the frequency domain. Spectrum analyzers are much more complicated and much pricier than oscilloscopes.
I'll post this as AC because no self respecting slashdotter would ever admit to working at RadioShack.
Whenever an item is written off at RadioShack...say for example, you give replace someone's radio under a service plan...you are supposed to destroy the item. This is done for a couple reasons that I can think of. As an employee, you could take the item, send it to get serviced on the store's tab (Radioshack...We Service What We Sell), resell it, and the void / backout the transaction and pocket the cash while avoiding discrepencies in the inventory. Also, prevents you from other such mischief... sending it to get repaired, and keeping it for yourself.
Since they're being written off, the procedure is therefore the procedure of all written off goods -- destruction by the almighty hammer.
I still can't see how people would profit off them, except maybe selling them as some sort of bizarre techno-geek sex toy / butt plug. I think if you use it to scan your butt, it automatically brings up a link to goatse.
That means you have to whois opensrs's whois database revealing:
Registrant:
Sony Computer Entertainment America
919 East Hillsdale Blvd.
2nd Floor
Foster City, CA 94404
US
Domain Name: PLAYSTATION2-LINUX.COM
Administrative Contact:
Department, Legal domainadmin@scea.com
919 East Hillsdale Blvd.
2nd Floor
Foster City, CA 94404
US
650 655 8000
Technical Contact:
Hostmaster, SCEA hostmaster@scea.com
10075 Barnes Canyon Rd.
San Diego, CA 92121
US
858-824-5500
Billing Contact:
Department, Legal domainadmin@scea.com
919 East Hillsdale Blvd.
2nd Floor
Foster City, CA 94404
US
650 655 8000
Registration Service Provider:
The Discount Domain Registry - Register your domain for only $14.99!, support@discountdomainregistry.com
(801) 991-5540
http://DiscountDomainRegistry.com
Record last updated on 11-Feb-2002.
Record expires on 17-Dec-2002.
Record Created on 17-Dec-2001.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.SCEA.COM 208.236.12.69
NS2.SCEA.COM 208.236.12.67
Bye!
I saw some cheap used oscilloscopes in a local electronics surplus store at the weekend. If I got my hands on one, how would I go about measuring the frequencies like those guys did with their Linksys? Does one have to buy an antenna, or can it be made? Do all oscilloscopes have the necessary inputs for this. Are there any other considerations? Is this directional (depending on antenna, I guess)?
:)
The instrument used to make those screen shots is a spectrum analyzer, not an oscilloscope. Both instruments display amplitude on a vertical scale, but an oscilloscope displays amplitude versus time while a spectrum analyzer displays amplitude versus frequency. They are very different tools, and any serious RF hacker will own both.
In general, an analyzer is much more sensitive (they normally display RF signal power on a log10 scale, so their dynamic range in voltage terms can exceed 100,000,000:1.) If you had a fast-enough/fancy-enough oscilloscope, you could run an FFT on its display and get the same basic information, but the SA is still the tool of choice for most RF work above 500 MHz. The insanely-fast scopes that can do microwave FFT analysis come with Ferrari-size price tags (literally), and they still don't have the dynamic range of a $3,000 spectrum analyzer. Different horses for different courses.
Sorry for the rather basic questions, but I'm not an EE, and I've only used an oscilloscope very briefly about 12 years ago. I really want to find out where the interference for my 2.4GHz phone is coming from, and how moving the base station helps. I also want to put an FM transmitter on my sound card, and so I want to see how that works too.
For both of those purposes, a spectrum analyzer would be the right way to go. An analyzer capable of 2.4 GHz coverage can be had for under $2K on eBay, but not much less. Some 802.11 hardware can give you reasonably-decent pictures of the 2.4 GHz spectrum, so I'd investigate that possibility first.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
Talk to anyone that works in a bagel or donut shop and they will tell you that they throw away hundreds/thousands of units a week. Basically what isn't purchased is discarded. Surely we can think to give the units to the homeless/hungry/needy-cause, but there is apparently a legal reason not to do so. Perhaps fear of a lawsuit or maybe fear of propagating freeloading?
that every product is a liability forever. This was/is a big problem for small aircraft manufacturers...their planes easily last 50 years or more. 60 years later, the 8th owner crashes it because the fuel filter got clogged, and guess who get's sued?
And did you ever see the Simpsons episode where Homer bought the trampoline?
No lawyer would ever advise a company to give away overstock when they could be destroyed instead.
Evil is the money of root.
I fully agree that any material placed on publically accessible web servers should be referencable under the "fair use" doctrine. However, I think the court's descision is correct in light of this. Mr. Kozubik's main complaint seems to be that the behavior of browsers as regards linking are entirely arbitrary. He is correct. However, fair use is by its very nature a doctrine which will be interpreted on a case by case basis, respecting precedent.
Rather than fearing, as he does, that the court will constantly have to "revise" the decision as technology changes, I think courts will be able to read the intent and wisely apply it to many other decisions. After all, a court decision is not a law, defined by the precise wordings, but rather a carefully considered opinion on the burden of evidence. Future courts should be able to apply the same fundamental distinction--linking that is designed to automatically reproduce the work vs linking that is designed only to show the location of the work--irregardless of the precise technology involved.
The picture of the modulated signal from the WAP11 on the HP8565a should be rated PG due to explicit content :-)
I mean, what does the 1st one look like to you?
Follow me
They weren't using an oscilloscope; they were using a spectrum analyser. Think winamp/xmms. One display shows you sound waves going by, like an oscilloscope. Another puts that data through an FFT and shows you the frequency domain (bass on the left, treble on the right), like a spectrum analyser.
Paranoid
Bwaahahahahaa.
My friend works at blockbuster, and he says that periodically they'll be told to destroy videos or games that are no longer being sold.
It's worth mentioning that not one thing is ever *actually* destroyed-- that's one of the few perks of a minimum wage behind-the-counter job.
My guess on why this happens is that the original distributer (who sold the videos to Blockbuster or CueCat's to Radio Shack) made Blockbuster or Radio Shack sign a contract saying explicitly that they couldn't give extras of these items to their employees. If Radio Shack is in effect giving away CueCats to all their employees, then none of the employees are going to go out and buy new CueCats. The decision isn't in the hands of Radio Shack's management at all, but in the contract with Radio Shack's distributor.
In other words, Radio Shack doesn't care if they're destroyed or not, but they tell the employees to destroy them in order to avoid legal trouble.
Hope that helps
I think everyone needs to check their numbers. While many of these updates are being labeled Linux vulnerablities, most of them are vulnerabilites in software that comes with Linux.
Take a look at the LWN article again. It includes mailman (a mailing list manager), openssh (secure access to the box), proftpd (an ftp server), (l|m)icq, sendmail (a mail server), and an IMAP/POP server, just to name a few. When is the last time you saw Windows (including NT) come with utilities like those?
Let's reduce this down to a common denominator: if you only include the packages that would be required to "duplicate" windows functionality, we have:
1) the kernel
2) KDE (for "network transparent" FTP browsing, etc [FYI no bias against gnome, just picking examples])
3) XWindows for the GUI
4)Apache (if we are talking NT with IIS, or 9x with PWS, which has security issues of its own
5) a dhcp client, most likely
6) Maybe a few others
Now how many vulnerabilities do you have? Granted, Linux servers run other things, like POP/IMAP, FTP, etc, but if we're going to compare apples to apples, then let's include the security problems in POP/IMAP servers on Windows, and FTP, and DNS, and, and, and. The comparison is not fair in the least, as Linux is taking a hit for all the problems generated by auxillury packeges. On the other hand, Microsoft is only having to update (and only getting hit) for problems in Windows proper, and not for all the extra programs that you need to make Windows a fully functioning server!
Joshua J. Kugler
Grr... I wanted to use it with ReaderWare! I mean how cool is that software?
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
A Beowulf Cluster of these!
It is common in most large businesses to destroy extra stock. I used to work summers doing a parts inventory at a few auto dealerships and they destroyed all kinds of hardware then reported the numbers back to the manufacturer for credit.
Just to add a couple of points to your very good post:
1) This guy's spectrum analyzer output looks too perfect, which makes me think that it's not very sensitive at all. This guy also needs to do some serious calibration on it, as the line is way too "thick"
2) Back in school, we had spectrum analyzers that used regular oscilloscopes for display. They're a cheap, but very good alternative. I forget exactly who made ours, but they were based out of Quebec
It made sense to destroy the Tandy 100s rather than sell them below wholesale. Someone who bought one of those Tandy 100s might have otherwise bought something at a regular price thereby "cheating" the store of the sale of a profitable item.
Even the "electronic junk warehouse" doesn't make a lot of sense for a manager who gets paid the same in any case. Dealing with the warehouse would require all kinds of extra effort to get the stuff packaged, shipped and actually paid for. The company obviously has the necessary paperwork for when inventory is destroyed but they probably don't for when inventory is resold. That's probably not a decision they want to leave in the hands of a mere store manager. "Now that there are P4s out, we'll never sell these PIIIs, I guess I'll make room by unloading them at the junk warehouse for 75% cost."
When stuff is imported via cargo ship from Japan, a certain number of damaged units are expected, and so they ship extra ones in order to make up for this. On paper, it all works out in the insurance, and so everybody is happy.
However, when a shipment arrives with no damage, these 'extra' items must now be paid for by the receiver. Since some of these items are sometimes worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, when you suddenly have to pay for more than you bargained for, it hurts the balance sheet.
A friend of mine described how a government tax agent and several company officers had to witness the destruction of a perfectly working, hand-crafted, grand piano. Warehouse workers raised and dropped the two ton monster fifteen times from a forklift before it was destroyed to the point where the tax agent would allow it to be written off.
Spend a month hand crafting a top of the line musical instrument, ship it overseas, and then have it destroyed. All just to satisfy the red tape. This is so Muggle/Douglas Adams, it makes my head spin!
I almost look forward to the day when society is decimated by a comet!
-Fantastic Lad
Mine is still providing a nice warm red night-light via the PS/2 power... I'm not selling!
Anyway, though I'd like to believe it, I don't think it's the IP tactics that did them in. The simple fact was that they had an absolutely retarded business plan. Nobody wants to scan barcodes from a magazine. It wasn't even fun for the novelty value.
If only I had known!
Ah well, I'll just look in the dumpster behind one of the radio shacks near me. I hope the employees at it are too lazy or don't have enough aggression to smash them.
This makes *far* more sense than what you have described your Radioshack does.
Two words.. Labor costs. A portable CD player that sells for $50 costs less than that to manufacture. If the laser or spindle motor or such goes out, you have at least an hour troubleshooting, ordering parts, looking up part numbers, keeping inventory of unique parts, replacing the part, aligning and warrenting the repair. You break even with techs at $20 per hour how?? Short answer.. replace it. Very little sold in radio shack sells for over a $100.00. I used to fix VCR's when they were a 600 to 1200 dollar item. Now that they are a 60 dollar item, I found other work.
The truth shall set you free!
Yep, the old Tektronix 7000 scopes had quite a few spectrum analyzer plugins (7L5, 7L12, 7L14, 7L18). There were probably a lot of other manufacturers doing the same thing -- it was a good idea.
Besides using too wide a resolution bandwidth to distinguish the apparently-unwanted sidebands from the information-carrying ones, he might have gotten some blurring due to excess CRT intensity cranked up way high (to make the photos look OK, maybe).
He still gets major points for actually measuring the WLAN hack instead of the usual hand-waving I-got-50-HP-from-my-new-coffee-can-exhaust approach. I think his conclusion is basically valid: the sidebands are undesirable IMD-like artifacts, growing at a faster rate than the main lobe's power is increased, but they're not likely to be strong enough to be a real nuisance to anyone.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
This guy's spectrum analyzer output looks too perfect, which makes me think that it's not very sensitive at all.
Also, that "clean" look is just video filtering in action. Perfectly normal. It looks fine to me, except that I would probably have taken the shot at 100 kHz RBW instead of 1 MHz or 3 MHz like he did.
Dahlmann tightly grips the knife, which he may have no idea how to use, and steps out into the plain.
In the US, food doesn't *have* to be tossed. There's a national organization, Second Harvest, that arranges for surplus food donations. I think their programs vary depending on location, but in Atlanta, they have trucks that come to restaurants and grocery stores to pick up, and regular drop off points. The food goes from the restaurants to soup kitchens and food assistance pantries, where it is used or handed out in an organized fashion. They also do larger scale projects like getting surpus produce from one region in the country to another.
As far as I'm aware, in some places restauranteurs are misinformed about local rules for food donation. Second Harvest and similar organizations work to provide correct information as well as the go-betweens to organize and monitor such donations.
A quick survey on the net for "surpus food" or "food rescue" (a common term for this) turned up several meta-lists of organizations, including this one which has listings for the US and Canada. It seems like there's more a misperception of legal reason that actual restrictions.
It's too late, they already are selling them on eBay!
& item=2002127196
& item=2002287424
& item=2002160653
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem
"I have not failed. I've simply found 10,000 ways that won't work." --Thomas Edison
There used to be a project on SourceForge to allow the cue:cat to be used as a regular scanner in Linux.
Since Radio Shack was just giving the things away they shouldn't complain if the store employees wanted to take a few dozen to their local Linux Users Group and pass them out.
Send me one. I still haven't found anyone who's willing to mail one to Canada. We're deprived up here! Send us your hand-me-down hardware, so that we may grow and learn!
"If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden
"Apparently, in the book trade, tearing the cover off a book and throwing it in the dumpster counts as destroyed."
Actually, it's: the bookstore gets refunded for all returned books, but postage to return them would be ridiculous, so the torn covers are sent instead as proof of non-sale.
Many a publisher has gone under due to returnable policies. Publisher pays for print run in advance, 1 year later gets a bunch o' torn covers plus a refund request for 60% cover price for each. No books and no pay = big loss for publisher.
A.
Since policy states that something no longer useful, serviceable or sellable should be destroyed...
Uh... what does it say in their fine print about a 'retirement plan' again???
You can make your own spectrum analyzer out of:
An oscilloscope with a high-persistence screen and a horizontal sweep output.
A receiver for the desired frequency.
A handfull of components
provided you're willing to hack up the receiver. Here's the basic drill:
Probe the receiver's AGC feedback line to feed the osciloscope's vertical deflection circuitry. (This gives you a roughly logarithmic measure of the signal intensity at the center of the IF passband on the way to the detector.)
Disconnect the AFC circuit and substitute the sweep signal from the oscilloscope - with enough conditioning (such as DC blocking capacitors and attenuating resistors) to sweep the radio rather than fry it.
If the receiver doesn't have an AFC, or at least the part that sweeps the receiver, make your own:
Connect one end of a diode to ground near (one of) the local oscilator(s) of the receiver. A variactor (PIN) diode works best, because it's optimized for this service. But essentially any diode will do.
Capacitively couple the hot end to the tuned circuit of the local oscilator (with a small capacitor).
Inductively couple the hot end to a bias and signal network I'm about to describe. The inductor should be large enough to block the RF from the oscilator but small enough to pass the audio-rate scope sweep. At the other end of the inductor connect:
A resistor to ground and another to a handy bypassed power supply connection, providing a voltage that back-biases the diode - say a half-volt - and also providing a load resistance for the incoming sweep signal.
A capacitor-resistor series combination to the wire from the sweep output of the oscilloscope.
Pick your resistors to get maybee a quarter-volt of the sweep to appear at the diode junction. (I'm guessing about these voltages, so play around a bit.)
Set the oscilloscope for a sawtooth timebase, as slow as you can without flickering. Shazam: A low budget spectrum analyzer, at least for the tuning range of the hacked receiver. (Calibrating it is another can of worms, which I leave as an exercise for the reader.)
How it works:
The variable back-bias of the diode (in sync with the horizontal sweep of the 'scope) moves the conduction regions of the two sides of the diode junction closer/farter, making the diode act as a variable capacitor. This is coupled to the tuned circuit of the local oscilator, thus sweeping it in sync with the scope and dragging the receiver's tuning along with it. (Adjust the amount of sweep voltage applied to the diode to adjust the horizontal scale of the display. Don't get too close to conduction or the sweep will get very non-linear.)
The receiver tunes across the signal range you want to observe, and the AGC feedback signal gives you a measure of the strength of the signals that make it through the IF into the detector, which you display on the 'scope's vertical deflection.
To calibrate frequency a small crystal oscilator with a square-wave output will produce a "comb" of frequency markers that show up as little pips on the display. Calbirating amplitude is tougher.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
A friend of mine described how a government tax agent and several company officers had to witness the destruction of a perfectly working, hand-crafted, grand piano. Warehouse workers raised and dropped the two ton monster fifteen times from a forklift before it was destroyed to the point where the tax agent would allow it to be written off.
This makes me sick. I kinda wish I never read your comment because now I'm damn angry! The people who would do such a thing deserve to be shot (preferably with frozen shit) and then pissed on!
You're using her as bait, Master!
THIS is legal? I mean a tax inspector actually watches the destruction of an item before he allows it to written off?
This planet never ceases to surprise me.
+++ath0
It's true they don't perform as well as a Symbol laser scanner. But hey what were you expecting for free?
The truth shall set you free!
Sure, your idea is great - but have you ever tried calling these non-profits or schools and asking if they want your old PC hardware?
I tried it once, when our work got rid of 50 or so older computers (Pentium 100 and 133 class machines). Everyone started giving me lists of requirements "must have this operating system loaded on it, and we need a word processor and spreadsheet on it too", or said "Sure, we'll take them off your hands, if you bring them over here and set them up for us. We don't have anyone who can come get them from you."
Gee... wonder why I ended up throwing them away instead....
An Office Depot worker could cut a wire in a piece of electronic equipment and then take the "defective" item home etc. It's ugly, but it's a cost of business...
That much is true, however, a moment's thought would solve the problem without shameful waste. There are many charities that might be able to salvage the items. Schools might find it worthwhile to have students salvage useful items out of the waste pile.
Also, if the item is so cheap that it costs more to see if it works than to just destroy it, it's way overpriced on the shelf.
As for the example of the steak, I'll bet there are dozens of shelters that could find something worthwhile to do with it.
The corperates should also consider that what goes around comes around. Perhaps their employees and customers wouldn't hold them is such contempt that they don't even think it's 'really' wrong to shoplift or otherwise cheat them if they didn't seem to have complete contempt for any value other than the dollar.
Great, so the author has just shown that "inline linking" of copyrighted material can be done in many arbitrary ways. So what!? This is not about *linking*. It's about *inline display of material one does not have copyright to in the context of other material (and possibly even without accreditation)*. Sparing the philosophical discussions over whether "intellectual" property should be considered on par with "physical" property, would you really expect it to make a difference to the court if a car thief claimed that he could steal a car through the use of a new technological widget? Or with some special car-theft-device which he only need speak English text into, in order for it to theive the car? NO! Maybe the car theif should write an essay to the judge saying "Hey, judge, it doesn't matter if I stole the car with a crowbar, because in the future there will be tons of new technological devices with which people can steal cars!" It doesn't matter *how* you do it, it is still a crime. The author is not refuting the fact that it was determined to be a crime, but merely the fact that a specific *method* was used to perpetrate the crime. The essay is completely useless.
Personally I don't think "intellectual property" is on par with physical property, or that authors/artists should get some sort of unfair perpetual monopoly on their work. But I *also* don't think that while they *do* have this granted monopoly that people should be able to deprive them of it (for their own profit) simply because they can. What's next? "Hey judge, you can't keep us from beating up old ladies with bats and stealing their money because this can be accomplished in *arbitrary* futuristic ways. Don't you see! Ugh you are so stupid and clueless!" Arriba should have done with Google does: pop up an entire window containing the site which the image originated from, and merely highlight the image (or otherwise make note of it), so there is no ambiguity as to whether Google was the actual copyright owner.
Here's another example. In an essay on, say, jelly beans, you have an image which says "Black ones suck! Die!". Would you really like the KKK to inline link that image, out of context, on some page of theirs? Or maybe you have a picture making fun of the president...do you really want some "terrorist" site inline linking your image? Or maybe you happen to be friends with a certain doctor which performs certain operations that might be considered controversial by certain people, and you have a picture of him nested on a site somewhere...do you really want that showing up on a site which incites people to hunt down and kill the people in the listed photographs? For these sort of reasons (even besides being deprived of profit, or banner ads) I believe content creators should have control on linking in this manner, which for all intents and purposes *is* copying without permission (who the hell cares *HOW* it happens, it still happens). Sure, the law *shouldn't* be against such linking per se (just as there shouldn't be laws against crowbars or hammers), it should just be against inclusion of such copyrighted material without the approval of the author (who still maintains copyright).
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
I worked at RadioShack for 8 years. Back when "Radio Shack" was still two words.
Yes, they pay their salespeople commission. Commission is the difference between RadioShack and Best Buy. Ever tried to get somebody at Best Buy to explain the differences between the various DirecTV receivers they sell? Good luck. How about the benefits of TiVo or UltimateTV? Not likely.
And how often have you gone into a store and bought something, only to get it home and discover you didn't have all the little accessories or other crap you needed to make it all work? At RadioShack, the good salespeople make sure you know about all the accessories before you leave the store.
And because they work on commission, the best RadioShack salespeople show everybody the latest cool toys they're selling. Cellphones? RadioShack was far and away the biggest retailer of cellphones forever. DirecTV? RadioShack again. Digital cellphones/PCS? RadioShack.
And you're damn right they try to sell as much as possible. What's wrong with that? It's good for them and it's good for RadioShack. And if they do it properly, it's good for the customer, too.
Okay, yes. I still have stock in the company. Go buy some shit there!
The last time (and every time prior) an airplane came down the mfg was sued. It's SOP. Boeing was even sued after the 1999 Egypt Airline "Insh'Allah" crash into the Atlantic Ocean.
Every single time a plane crashes the mfg is sued. Every single time -- and wait for one to come this year against Boeing for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the basis that the planes are designed unsafely and are too easy to commandere. There's already a suit against Delta.
Sigh.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
This is exactly the reason why I like Best Buy. Now I know I'm probably not the common customer, but I probably know more about what I'm interested in purchasing than any sales person ever would having done most of my research on the web before stepping foot in the store. I go in Best Buy and don't have to worry about being hassled by people working on commision. They are always polite and offer to help, but I just say I'm just looking and they leave me alone.
Radio Shack used to be a great place when they weren't trying to be a mainstream consumer electronics store. I worked there for 3 years way back when. We used to have a group of electronics freak guys (building, not pluging in) who used to hang out there. They'd bring in projects they were putting together to show off and buy parts for. They even helped a lot of other customers who came in looking for just the right resistor or something. Even though I was doing computer support, I learned a lot about the bits and pieces that the stores sold.
Those were the good times.
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