The only REAL way to prevent software from being copied/cracked is to include a hardware dongle. A simple USB device that has some hardcoded information included that must be plugged into the machine that is running the software. This has been done for years by high-end vendors. Nortel did it. AutoCAD did it.
There are also ways to circumvent dongles. They are much more difficult to implement, however, and as such your software should be safer. If you are making a product that has such a high retail value the additional cost of a dongle (and the associated code) could easily be built in to the purchase price.
Things like that make me happy to live in Canada! When I was in High School it was normal to take a lunch at a local pub. There was even one microbrewery that was popular among the school kids. Of course, we couldn't (legally) order beer, so we stuck to the menu and ignored the drinks. Pubs usually have great food, and they are often relatively inexpensive since they make their money off of drinks.
That being said, the original point was regarding sporting events. I would also gladly pay to view live sporting events. I purchase the MLB GameDay audio package every year to listen to baseball, and I have considered paying for hockey broadcasts as well. Fortunately here in Canada we can see hockey on broadcast television (still an analog signal too) every Saturday night anywhere in the country. Of course, if you aren't a fan of the locally broadcast team you might be in a bit of a pickle, but I'm a Leafs fan and they always get the most airtime since they have the largest fanbase in the country.
You are forgetting the fact that in order to display the ads in the first place the third party application must access the facebook/google API to retrieve content. By adding a line in the TOS for the API that reads something like this:
...access to this API used in conjunction with any third party advertising network or advertisers is strictly prohibited...
Then the owner of the API can go after the maker of the infringing software in court and easily win.
Google and Facebook simply have to add some terms of service to their API. By changing the TOS to include a restriction on ads they will have the legal right to force these companies out of business for violating the terms of using their APIs. I believe that we will see this change happen very quickly!
Unfortunately this is usually handled by the State Government (assuming you're in the US - I'm in Canada). It can be done through petitions and lobbying. The trick to get around the 19-to-enter laws here is to serve food. As long as you are serving food (even something as easy as french fries - anyone can operate a fryer!) you can allow anyone in. They just can't buy alcohol.
Most pubs in my neck of the woods will allow minors to come in with their parents (or legal guardians or whatever) and not purchase alcoholic beverages. That means kids can come, should they choose. They just can't drink all the booze.
The very fundamental principle of using television as a revenue generator is broken. I would gladly pay for a service that allowed me to watch whatever shows I wanted, when I wanted, with no commercial interruption. I am not willing to pay for a service that forces me to watch three minutes out of ten of commercials, and I certainly don't like to adjust my viewing schedule to accomodate the shows I want to watch! It is much easier for me to download shows and watch them later than it is for me to be in front of my television while they are being broadcast. If I want to watch a live event, such as a sports game, I can always head to the local pub and watch it there.
I currently have basic cable and I pay ten dollars a month for it. The only reason I have that is that I purchase my internet through the cable company and, even paying $120 for the whole year, I was able to save a bunch of money on my Internet services ($300 off over three months, plus a 5% discount on my total bill, that amounts to a savings of $240 over the course of a year). I rarely turn it on. Not even for sporting events.
Fix the delivery system and make it more accessible. Charge based on what you watch, rather than what channels you watch. If I was charged $0.25-0.50 per show I watched I would be inclined to watch more. But paying a monthly fee for a bunch of stuff I will never watch? Not worth the money.
The telegraph: one- and two-way messaging. It was first invented by Baron Schilling von Canstatt in 1832. I'm fairly certain that this predates the 2005 patent application.
The intersection does not have street lights. There are stop signs in three directions, but one of the directions is exempt if you are turning right, and the opposite facing traffic can turn left at the same time, resulting in both parties turning onto the same street at the same time - with only 200' of two-lane before it turns back into a single lane road! This is all compounded by the Tim Horton's that is right on the corner. It is a very dangerous intersection, I've seen many accidents caused by people who don't understand the flow of traffic. I can't help but think that a roundabout would lessen the danger in using this particular intersection.
I personally love roundabouts. As long as people signal and drive carefully (read: Properly) they are quite safe. Also they can help avoid clusterf*cks like http://wikimapia.org/1698209/Simms-Corner which is one of the most dangerous intersections I've ever had the pleasure of driving through.
I think that most people are missing the point of what Google is trying to do. They are not so much removing the Caps Lock key as they are adding a Search key. On a PC that is designed around web browsing (not coding, drafting, etc.) this makes quite a bit of sense. I for one never use the Caps Lock key but my wife uses it constantly. I believe that removing it would force her to learn to type correctly and therefore increase her overall typing speed. Having a search button, on the other hand, will make it very easy to pull up a search box when you're in a hurry to find out what the latest buzz is on your favorite topic.
Perhaps the question you should be asking is, cost aside, which would better suit your needs? Sure FOSS is great but if there is a better fit for your needs and someone else is going to foot the bill, who are you to say that management is looking in the wrong direction?
I, for one, believe that there is a place for both commercial and FOSS in the business (and in the home for that matter). Perhaps a cost-benefit analysis needs to be done. Ultimately the decision needs to suit the needs of the business and not the ideals of the employees.
Has anyone found a reliable source for this information? I searched around the Finnish Government web site and found nothing about it at all! I'd like to see some confirmation from, say, a Government office before I really trust that this will be law!
I am also using the Beta of Presto for my wife. She has been so impressed with it! The only shortcoming that I found so far is the lack of support for samba shares. It installs right over Windows XP, so you still have the option (it in fact installs from WITHIN Windows, and uses the Windows boot loader). It was by far the easiest linux install I have ever done.
I would reccomend trying it out. My wife was impressed, maybe your wife would be too!
I have been on both sides of this transaction myself...the last thing I picked up was for nostalgia, a 5 1/2" floppy drive (I have no disks to use with it, but I wanted it anyways). In the past I have picked up a number of gems, including two (yes, someone was tossing two of them) Commodore 64s and one functional C64 monitor (which my brother still uses for his gaming consoles. Someone's trash is almost always someone else's treasure when it comes to electronics.
When I have obsolete hardware I put it in a cardboard box and put it out by the curb...it's gone within an hour or so. Of course, I live in the downtown area of my city, dominated by lower-income residential housing, and there is always someone that wants the hardware. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't go to the dump, it gets picked up by people who want old computer parts. There's a market for everything, even if it's not going to be profitable:)
Re:Opportunity Missed..
on
Happy Pi Day
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I certainly understand your reference, I was simply making the point that, in Atlantic time, it was very close to 3:14 pm on 3/14.
Re:Opportunity Missed..
on
Happy Pi Day
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· Score: 1
Where I live, it was posted pretty darned close to 3:14 pm...
It would be a long drive to get a bag, if someone over in 47 Ursae Majoris actually wants the doritos...I rarely travel more than five minutes for a snack, let alone 42 light years!
The answer to this question is simple. I did a fresh install of Windows XP last night (for a client), and my third round of Windows Updates (after the Windows Installer and the bulk of the updates, including IE7), one of the updates was for Silverlight. To be fair, it was considered an optional update, but the average computer user sees update and thinks "I need that for increased security" or some such. Long and short, it's on Windows Update, and that's why they're getting so many downloads.
Slashdot Mirror
The only REAL way to prevent software from being copied/cracked is to include a hardware dongle. A simple USB device that has some hardcoded information included that must be plugged into the machine that is running the software. This has been done for years by high-end vendors. Nortel did it. AutoCAD did it. There are also ways to circumvent dongles. They are much more difficult to implement, however, and as such your software should be safer. If you are making a product that has such a high retail value the additional cost of a dongle (and the associated code) could easily be built in to the purchase price.
Things like that make me happy to live in Canada! When I was in High School it was normal to take a lunch at a local pub. There was even one microbrewery that was popular among the school kids. Of course, we couldn't (legally) order beer, so we stuck to the menu and ignored the drinks. Pubs usually have great food, and they are often relatively inexpensive since they make their money off of drinks.
That being said, the original point was regarding sporting events. I would also gladly pay to view live sporting events. I purchase the MLB GameDay audio package every year to listen to baseball, and I have considered paying for hockey broadcasts as well. Fortunately here in Canada we can see hockey on broadcast television (still an analog signal too) every Saturday night anywhere in the country. Of course, if you aren't a fan of the locally broadcast team you might be in a bit of a pickle, but I'm a Leafs fan and they always get the most airtime since they have the largest fanbase in the country.
You are forgetting the fact that in order to display the ads in the first place the third party application must access the facebook/google API to retrieve content. By adding a line in the TOS for the API that reads something like this:
...access to this API used in conjunction with any third party advertising network or advertisers is strictly prohibited...
Then the owner of the API can go after the maker of the infringing software in court and easily win.
Google and Facebook simply have to add some terms of service to their API. By changing the TOS to include a restriction on ads they will have the legal right to force these companies out of business for violating the terms of using their APIs. I believe that we will see this change happen very quickly!
Unfortunately this is usually handled by the State Government (assuming you're in the US - I'm in Canada). It can be done through petitions and lobbying. The trick to get around the 19-to-enter laws here is to serve food. As long as you are serving food (even something as easy as french fries - anyone can operate a fryer!) you can allow anyone in. They just can't buy alcohol.
Most pubs in my neck of the woods will allow minors to come in with their parents (or legal guardians or whatever) and not purchase alcoholic beverages. That means kids can come, should they choose. They just can't drink all the booze.
The very fundamental principle of using television as a revenue generator is broken. I would gladly pay for a service that allowed me to watch whatever shows I wanted, when I wanted, with no commercial interruption. I am not willing to pay for a service that forces me to watch three minutes out of ten of commercials, and I certainly don't like to adjust my viewing schedule to accomodate the shows I want to watch! It is much easier for me to download shows and watch them later than it is for me to be in front of my television while they are being broadcast. If I want to watch a live event, such as a sports game, I can always head to the local pub and watch it there. I currently have basic cable and I pay ten dollars a month for it. The only reason I have that is that I purchase my internet through the cable company and, even paying $120 for the whole year, I was able to save a bunch of money on my Internet services ($300 off over three months, plus a 5% discount on my total bill, that amounts to a savings of $240 over the course of a year). I rarely turn it on. Not even for sporting events. Fix the delivery system and make it more accessible. Charge based on what you watch, rather than what channels you watch. If I was charged $0.25-0.50 per show I watched I would be inclined to watch more. But paying a monthly fee for a bunch of stuff I will never watch? Not worth the money.
The telegraph: one- and two-way messaging. It was first invented by Baron Schilling von Canstatt in 1832. I'm fairly certain that this predates the 2005 patent application.
The intersection does not have street lights. There are stop signs in three directions, but one of the directions is exempt if you are turning right, and the opposite facing traffic can turn left at the same time, resulting in both parties turning onto the same street at the same time - with only 200' of two-lane before it turns back into a single lane road! This is all compounded by the Tim Horton's that is right on the corner. It is a very dangerous intersection, I've seen many accidents caused by people who don't understand the flow of traffic. I can't help but think that a roundabout would lessen the danger in using this particular intersection.
I personally love roundabouts. As long as people signal and drive carefully (read: Properly) they are quite safe. Also they can help avoid clusterf*cks like http://wikimapia.org/1698209/Simms-Corner which is one of the most dangerous intersections I've ever had the pleasure of driving through.
I think that most people are missing the point of what Google is trying to do. They are not so much removing the Caps Lock key as they are adding a Search key. On a PC that is designed around web browsing (not coding, drafting, etc.) this makes quite a bit of sense. I for one never use the Caps Lock key but my wife uses it constantly. I believe that removing it would force her to learn to type correctly and therefore increase her overall typing speed. Having a search button, on the other hand, will make it very easy to pull up a search box when you're in a hurry to find out what the latest buzz is on your favorite topic.
Perhaps the question you should be asking is, cost aside, which would better suit your needs? Sure FOSS is great but if there is a better fit for your needs and someone else is going to foot the bill, who are you to say that management is looking in the wrong direction? I, for one, believe that there is a place for both commercial and FOSS in the business (and in the home for that matter). Perhaps a cost-benefit analysis needs to be done. Ultimately the decision needs to suit the needs of the business and not the ideals of the employees.
It seems that the web site is now experiencing issues. Google cached copy: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fDtM1ZPbO5kJ:insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/index.php/Kellogg/article/why_broadband_prices_havent_decreased+http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/index.php/Kellogg/article/why_broadband_prices_havent_decreased&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca
You could keep them on a 5.25" floppy disk...not very many people would bother with that!
Has anyone found a reliable source for this information? I searched around the Finnish Government web site and found nothing about it at all! I'd like to see some confirmation from, say, a Government office before I really trust that this will be law!
Can someone explain to me why this isn't a WTO issue and why these kinds of taxes...
Quite simple, really. The WTO collects royalties on the use of MoneyGrab(tm).
I am also using the Beta of Presto for my wife. She has been so impressed with it! The only shortcoming that I found so far is the lack of support for samba shares. It installs right over Windows XP, so you still have the option (it in fact installs from WITHIN Windows, and uses the Windows boot loader). It was by far the easiest linux install I have ever done. I would reccomend trying it out. My wife was impressed, maybe your wife would be too!
I have been on both sides of this transaction myself...the last thing I picked up was for nostalgia, a 5 1/2" floppy drive (I have no disks to use with it, but I wanted it anyways). In the past I have picked up a number of gems, including two (yes, someone was tossing two of them) Commodore 64s and one functional C64 monitor (which my brother still uses for his gaming consoles. Someone's trash is almost always someone else's treasure when it comes to electronics.
When I have obsolete hardware I put it in a cardboard box and put it out by the curb...it's gone within an hour or so. Of course, I live in the downtown area of my city, dominated by lower-income residential housing, and there is always someone that wants the hardware. Don't get me wrong, it doesn't go to the dump, it gets picked up by people who want old computer parts. There's a market for everything, even if it's not going to be profitable :)
I certainly understand your reference, I was simply making the point that, in Atlantic time, it was very close to 3:14 pm on 3/14.
Where I live, it was posted pretty darned close to 3:14 pm...
lol well, the computer WAS for someone else, although I do dual-boot myself.
It would be a long drive to get a bag, if someone over in 47 Ursae Majoris actually wants the doritos...I rarely travel more than five minutes for a snack, let alone 42 light years!
The British guy got in his First Post, but was modded -1 Offtopic by three American moderators.
The answer to this question is simple. I did a fresh install of Windows XP last night (for a client), and my third round of Windows Updates (after the Windows Installer and the bulk of the updates, including IE7), one of the updates was for Silverlight. To be fair, it was considered an optional update, but the average computer user sees update and thinks "I need that for increased security" or some such. Long and short, it's on Windows Update, and that's why they're getting so many downloads.