Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Oklahoma Spyware, FSF DRM, Lenovo Linux
Oklahoma's Spyware Bill dies a quiet death. enforcer999 writes to tell us that the Oklahoma Computer Spyware Protection Act has been pretty much dismantled by the Senate review committee. From the article: "Sen. Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, the Senate author of the legislation, said revisions he had made to the bill were well received by those who had originally opposed it, but that after making the changes, the companies backing the measure -- which had included Microsoft and Symantec Corp. -- opposed it."
Lenovo denies ditching Linux. btornado writes "According to News.com, Lenovo has denied ditching Linux on their notebook computers. Lenovo actually plans to support Linux on its ThinkPads starting in the third quarter, in partnership with Novell. From the article: 'Customers of the recently introduced Lenovo 3000 units still won't have a preloaded option, however, because the small and midsize business customers that are the targets for those units have many different requirements, he said.'"
Mars rover escapes again. An anonymous reader writes "New Scientist is reporting that NASA's Mars Opportunity rover has freed itself from the sandy soil that ensnared it for more than a week. This is the second time the rover has gotten bogged down in a Martian sand trap. Both times, the rover has managed to escape to solid bedrock by churning its wheels in reverse."
RIM CEO speaks out against unlimited wireless. frdmfghtr writes "The president and co-CEO of Research in Motion seems to think that wireless data services providing unlimited data traffic for a flat monthly rate will have a 'devastating effect on wireless innovation.' From the article: '"No matter how you slice it, bandwidth is not free," he said. "If we don't set up economic incentives now, research and innovation for new networks won't happen for the future. We want companies to be encouraged to make efficient use of the network, so we don't cross over and use up all the capacity of the networks." Counters Jeff Pulver, the founder of Pulver Media, saying that (FTA) "unlimited bandwidth use in the wireless world is needed because access to the network is what spurs innovation."'"
Microsoft LiveMail gets ads. Blahbooboo3 writes to tell us BetaNews is reporting that Microsoft will be embedding advertising in their new e-mail client software, Windows Live Mail Desktop. Similar to Google's Gmail, it will serve ads based on the text of your mail messages. Microsoft's Active Search feature, being tested within Windows Live Mail Desktop, scans users' emails and displays potential search terms related to that email as well as text-based contextual ads. The effort is an example of the Windows Live ad-supported software initiative. Contextually relevant ads served by Microsoft-partner Kanoodle will be displayed next to each email message. Also, paid search links will be served by Microsoft adCenter when users conduct searches via a search box that's built into the mail interface.
FSF anti-DRM campaign expands. nanday writes "According to an article on Newsforge (Also owned by VA), the Free Software Foundation's Defective by Design campaign against Digital Rights Management expanded on Saturday, targeting Apple Stores in eight American cities. However, unlike the event outside WinHEC 2006 two weeks ago, this time the police and security guards were waiting when campaign volunteers arrived to demonstrate."
AT&:T calls Wired to task over leaked documents. John Young writes to tell us that AT&T is standing in opposition [PDF] to Wired's recent intervention and the unsealing of documents. AT&T stated that "Wired argues that it has a 'unique perspective in this case.' If that is anything other than hot air, it is a reference to the fact that Wired has leaked eight pages of what it claims are AT&T Proprietary documents--and did so despite actual knowledge that AT&T claims its documents contain trade secrets and the Court had ordered that such documents remain under seal. A 'unique perspective' indeed--that of the scofflaw. [...] Wired maintains that the Klein and Marcus Declarations should be unsealed in their entirety because "the course of events has overtaken the sealing order." The "course of events" to which Wired refers is, of course, its own leaking of subsets of the information that the Court ordered remain under seal. Wired's argument appears to be that because it has openly chosen to disregard the Court's order (not to mention AT&T's rights) the Court should reverse that order. Talk about chutzpah."
And it will stifle innovation? Oh yeah, just like internet innovation was severely stifled as most of the pay-per-bit billing schemes fell over the last 10 years
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
They can work out law that classifies video games as harmful to minors, but they can't work out a law to protect their citizens from spyware.
Glad to know they have their priorities straight.
AT&:T ????
Dooh! Damn shift key.
-- Brought to you by Carl's JR
The president and co-CEO of Research in Motion seems to think that wireless data services providing unlimited data traffic for a flat monthly rate will have a 'devastating effect on wireless innovation.' From the article: '"No matter how you slice it, bandwidth is not free," he said. "If we don't set up economic incentives now, research and innovation for new networks won't happen for the future. We want companies to be encouraged to make efficient use of the network, so we don't cross over and use up all the capacity of the networks." Counters Jeff Pulver, the founder of Pulver Media, saying that (FTA) "unlimited bandwidth use in the wireless world is needed because access to the network is what spurs innovation."'"
I went with T-mobile for two reasons. 1) They are the only carrier that has a viable portable device for Internet connectivity and 2) They have an unlimited data plan at a flat rate $20.00 with T-mobile mobile phone service or $29.99 without.
To claim that this somehow creates problems with innovation is insane! Hell, I certainly would NOT be paying per MB charges and I'm sure that many others would agree. People in the US are too used to "unlimited" connections (from the dialup days through today). Per MB/GB transfer charges would fall flat on their faces in areas with competition. Luckily, in the mobile market, there's plenty of that.
NASA should really change Opportunity's name the T-1000.
Could one reason behind the slow government action against spyware and spam be that those voting on and lobbying for/against the issue just don't spend enough time with a standard home internet connection to see what life on the net is like with these two annoyances?
We should be able to surf the net without risk of being hijacked and we should be able to run websites and forums without copping spam each and every day. If you run a web-based business or a bunch of websites, dealing with spam can quickly become a significant headache that chews valuable time.
For how long have spam and spyware been real issues for real internet users without strong action from those who could be increasing penalties and tracking these scum down?
'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
Here's a helpful translation tip, you can just mentally substitute the second phrase for the first whenever you encounter a corporate talking head saying it:
"would stifle innovation" ---> "would impact our bottom line"
Hope that helps.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
IANAL, but even so, the summary talks of "chutzpah" on Wired's behalf when that's ridiculous.
...
You see, a trade secret must be actually secret. The fact that Wired has made it non-secret means that it is no longer eligible for that protection. Now, AT&T is free to sue Wired if it thinks it has some grounds on which to do so, but it really doesn't matter who leaked it, you can't have a trade secret without a *secret*
Then again, I don't know how well that deters courts. CSS descramblers were supposedly secret at one point, but every geek and their dog has a copy of them now. They're all over the internet. 2600 may not be able to link to one, but it doesn't really matter any more. That's probably why some of these companies are so frustrated by the internet: half the time, it's too damn late and the law is powerless to stop the flow of widely disseminated information.
Of course, the problem with this battle is that the Court will be ruling on what evidence is admissible for the case, so it actually can have more legal effect than it otherwise would (i.e. the Court can stick its head in the sand and pretend that evidence doesn't exist while throwing out the case those papers provide evidence in favor of).
But I know one thing: due to their behavior, Wired has at least one more subscriber, and AT&T has one more person who dislikes them.
I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.
Jack Valenti, Home Recording of Copyrighted Works, Committee on the Judiciary, United States House of Representatives, April 12, 1982
Now look at all the money lost by the Hollywood studios in the 90's. Video recorders cleaned them out, I tell you. And the DVD nailed their coffin shut. All this is the reason we have no Movie/Recording industry in the US today.
There is a reason RIM states that there shouldn't be unlimited bandwidth plans... the idea is simple, there is limited bandwidth. In the wired world, you can always add more wires. This doesn't apply to wireless, if everyone in an area is using huge amounts of bandwidth, everyone's performance goes down. There is a limited amount of frequencies to operate on. Allowing people to create things that are bandwidth hogs ultimately puts everyone's use of wireless at risk. Whereas, putting a price on bandwidth encourages innovation in the area of value/bandwidth.
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/feat
I try to tell them all they need is to put some backspin on it to avoid thoose sand traps, but do they listen ?
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Translation: My corporate masters are not pleased.
The Blackberry is text based. It is a very efficient way to communicate bandwidth wise. Naturally, RIM thinks limited bandwidth is a good thing. It's sort of like the rat catcher badmouthing cats, innit?
I thought that Wired DIDN'T violate the court ordered seal on the documents because the court order only prevented parties to the case from releasing the documents available to them by means of the case, and couldn't possibly apply to third-party sources that have the documents and aren't part of the case.
Inconceivable!
Seriously, a member of the media taking such a bold stand against government and corporations these days? I thought the Cubs would win the World Series first.
Did you ever notice that *nix doesn't even cover Linux?
Emphasis mine, of course.
So, in corporate retardo-speak, "many different requirements" now means you should reduce the number of options?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
as it shows adverts from unknown third parties (kanoodle) who will share your personal information with other unknown companies ("partners")
Kanoodle are the scumbags who clog up Google with their link farms
and from the article they are quite open that they will share your personal data with others and offer no promises (though for those in the EU, privacy laws will probably stop that)
so heres looking forward to adding live.com to our firewalls and flagging their software as hostile as well as expecting our security vendors to flag it as adware/Trojan_downloader and offer removal facilities
RIM wouldn't want unlimited networking available to just anyone.
They prefer to negotiate with the carriers so their users can have unlimited network access, while everyone else pays through the nose.
A little self-interest in limited access to the wireless network. No surprise.
and Symantec and McCafy and and the like have loads to gain from spy/virus ware being a wild west lawless wnciornment.
Personally, I think DBD should continue to target Apple, rather than moving on to movie studios, since the media companies (with the exception of Sony) couldn't impose DRM without the cooperation of companies like Apple.
Lessons learned from the protest:
Three words: Direct Marketing Association.
It costs more to make and keep more SKUs in a warehouse. If a particular market segment requires so many different SKUs that serving the segment is unprofitable, then not serving the segment maximizes return to shareholders.
spyware is a crime. they are hiding things and forcing them onto our personal property. the government should not be the only protection but it should make these crimes prosecutable.
Actually, let us look at a parallel here.
The internet started as dialup, and took too different paths in separate parts of the world.
In North America, local calls are free, and dialing a local number for internet access was one reason why the net became so popular and successful, and why lots of innovation happens in the USA as far as the net is concerned.
In most of the rest of the world, local phone calls are not free, and therefore the internet is metered. People using dialup have to be aware of the time they spend on the net, lest they run up the bill (think BBS's in another area code that you call long distance).
So, did unlimited dialup access spur innovation? I think so. Would the same be true for wireless? You bet!
Look at how cell phones are doing in North America vs. the world. The world has GSM where you are not tied to a provider you buy the handset from, and you do not pay for received calls. The contrary is true in North America.
Greed is the barrier to innovation.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
(The closest I've ever seen to a pay-per-packet scheme was the old Packet Switch Stream service from British Telecom, which charged per connection to the X.25 exchange AND per minute of connection AND per K of data sent AND per unit of time you spent on the phone line to use their bloody server in the first place. Sure, there's a per-K in there, but it was so small as to be a negliagible fraction of the total cost. And that WAS to end-users, so even there the claim is incorrect.)
Peer-to-Peer backbone routing is usually at a nominal cost, as the whole idea of peering is that each network accesses the other networks equally in all directions with no bias or preference. Of course, if the preferential service system goes into effect, the entire backbone will collapse. It's impossible to have preferential service in a totally peer-based network.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
The full description of the speeds and characteristics of the lines can be found on any number of technical websites. I cribbed the speeds from Made IT. CompTech have a nice intro/overview as well.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Just my $0.02 worth. Not meant as a troll, just me calling it as I see it.
Oklahoma's Spyware Bill dies a quiet death.
What do you expect from a bunch of dumb Okies? I'll look on the bright side: When their computers are so infected with malware as to be unusable, they won't be able to go to Republican hate sites.
Lenovo denies ditching Linux . . . 'Customers of the recently introduced Lenovo 3000 units still won't have a preloaded option, however, because the small and midsize business customers that are the targets for those units have many different requirements, he said.'"
More like, "because Lenovo would rather not pay full retail for XP."
Mars rover escapes again.
Isn't it interesting how the lion's share of the cool space-related stuff is unmanned? Even more reason to kill the Shuttle program.
RIM CEO speaks out against unlimited wireless . . . "unlimited bandwidth use in the wireless world is needed because access to the network is what spurs innovation."'"
Access to the network is what spurs people's Crackberry habits. I'd really like a toke off of whatever he's smoking.
Microsoft LiveMail gets ads. . . . Similar to Google's Gmail
Next, they'll lobby Congress to make it illegal to use anything but LiveMail. Don't forget, Google hates America and Linux supports terrorism.
FSF anti-DRM campaign expands.
I'm sure it will be least as successful, if not timely, as the GNU HURD project.
10 years ago we had no hybrid vehicles on the market (major manufacturers). None of the domestic big three thought there would ever be a market for them, they sold zero...today? Fastest growing market segment. While they waited around and just kept building the same old things with some new shiny different looking sheetmetal and gas hog engines, toyota came in and grabbed early lead-and they are a profitable company, as opposed to the domestic big three which are bleeding red ink daily and just recently starting to offer some half baked hybrids.
Stuff changes and the computer industry changes much faster than cars=big vendors who are ignoring linux are doing so at their own peril. It may not be profitable this quarter or next quarter, but eventually it will be a considerable chunk of market share.
Here's another one none of the big boys are looking at, the hundred buck (whatever) laptop. That thing is going to run linux. Not windows, not osx, linux. Think eventually hundreds of millions of units all over the planet and..linux.
Once it is introduced that *flavor* of linux will be the most installed distro on the planet within short order (it will certainly top any of the current top ten by vast numbers would be my guess, maybe even combined...). All those millions of kids are going to be cutting their teeth on linux and open source, and a lot will rub off, and they are in where the world will be growing the fastest and where the new emerging markets will be. Yes, this is some years, but..it's going to happen.
Stockholders who only look at this quarters financials are *nuts*, IMO.. It's a part, sure, but to think it is even the most important part is sorta economically naieve. Companies that succeed look to the long haul, even if it means supporting some "new thing" isn't all that profitable right off the bat. The trick is to spot trends, and it is safe to say trend-wise that linux isn't going away anytime soon and ignoring it will not be a smooth move by the big guys, because some *won't* ignore it and those are the ones that will be getting the business down the road. A lot of business.
The FSF which has been threatening for years to modify the GPL so that anyone who OFFERS A SERVICE (e.g. an ASP) that uses GPLed software must abide by all sorts of special rules and restrictions. What is this but "pay per use" -- exactly what DRM does?
Fractional T3 (except for NxT1) isn't a realistic concept either, because there aren't standards for it that are comparable to Fractional T1. Again, some carriers do things with muxes to derive NxT1 from a T3, but that's not really fractional T3, or they do Frame Relay or ATM to get intermediate speeds.
A very common pricing structure _is_ usage-dependent, defining usage by speed, though not by bytes transferred. Carriers measure bandwidth usage at some interval, typically 5 minutes, and charge based on the 95th percentile of bandwidth usage. It's fairly common for speeds above T1 - either you pay for straight 95th percentile usage, or you commit to N Mbits at some price, and pay extra if your 95th percentile is above that.
But yes, measured pricing resembling Blackberry's is totally unrealistic for data users - the amounts of data we need are different, and the quantities of data we need don't fit well into any pricing structure that also includes Blackberry-mail, because either one end is too high to be economically usable, or the other end is too low to make money so why bother.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Perhaps NASA should nickname the rover Houdini?
If "disco" means "I learn" in Latin, does "discothèque" mean "I learn technology"?
> wireless data services providing unlimited data traffic for a flat monthly rate will have a 'devastating effect on wireless innovation.'
Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
Over the past 10 years, the flat monthly rate of cable-modem and DSL service has had a devastating effect on innovation.
Sadly, the fierce competition between cable-modem and DSL has brought us no innovation.
Also, experience has shown us again and again that the best course of action is to forbid flexibility in pricing models.
</sarcasm>
...fails to see the difference. Well, not fails, really, but simply once again chooses to misrepresent the FSF and GPL in is long running anti-GPL campaign.
Brett, of course, knows this, but just in case anyone else is confused: Asking that people who take GPL software, modify it, and use it to externally to make money, to then also redsitribute those changes, is nothing at all like DRM. Nobody is asking ASPs to pay money for the software, or for using the software. Nobody is trying to restrict their use of the software. The ASPs are just being asked to follow the spirit of the GPL (sharing), rathing than using an unforseen loophole in the definition of "distribute".
Brett disagrees with the basic goal of the GPL, which is fine, but rather than just saying that, and getting on with his life, he somehow feels obliged to make it his life's work to rid the world of the scourge of the GPL, limiting other people's choices about how they choose to license and distribute code they wrote. Hey, that sounds kinda like DRM...
No it isn't. Please read the DMCA.
We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode. -Capt. Mal Reynolds