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Comments · 48

  1. Re:Patent approach not surprising on DVDCCA Claims Patent on CSS · · Score: 1

    >I'd argue that an encryption system which was
    >already broken half a decade ago by a teenager is >NOT useful.

    >If CSS really were useful it would have been
    >unbreakable - and then they wouldn't need all
    >these lawsuits to prevent DVD copying - since
    >their technical control would be enough.

    Patent utility is not considered with 20/20 hindsight like that. Was it useful at the time the patent was filed?

    And it still takes some effort to get in, even if it's now relatively trivial. Just like the lock on your front door - it's not useless. "Unbreakability" would be a ridiculous standard to apply.

  2. Re:3 words: HIRE A LAWYER. on Modifying Employment Agreements? · · Score: 1

    Are you still in your first year? I've been researching adhesion contracts and unconscionability clauses in contract formation for a prof since last year, and you're correct as far as the slim chance of reforming a contract on those grounds (procedural, substantive unconscionability, blah blah blah ...) But statutory limitations as to contract content are a different kettle of feesh.

    ex: you and your employer sign a contract where you agree to be a slave for 5 years. Try to find a court that will enforce it. You don't need to argue it's unconscionable, either.

    If state law says the term is outside the realm of permissible contracts, and you consult a local knowledgable lawyer who says it's good law in your jurisdiction, I'd tend to believe him.

  3. Re:Tamper tape on Maryland Electronic Voting Systems Found Vulnerable · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Indeed. Even as they mentioned this on NPR I commented to my wife "great, now operatives for one side can ruin the votes of people in districts that overwhelmingly vote for the 'wrong' guy"

    However, tamper tape need not invalidate the votes; it could merely mean the machine is subject to an extensive review of the logs. Increasing time/cost/unreliability, but not necessarily resulting in total disenfranchisement.

  4. Snail Mail Your Senatah! on FBI Can Inspect Bank Records w/o Court Orders · · Score: 1

    Take the text of your email, print it out, affix a stamp, and use the USPS. Congresscritters pay a lot more attention to real [snail] mail. I've heard ballpark estimates of an order of magnitude.

    $0.34 and 2 additional minutes of time is a small price to pay for actually getting bumped up in the priority stack.

  5. Re:So much for the rule of law. on FBI Can Inspect Bank Records w/o Court Orders · · Score: 1

    Time to come out of the /. closet: I'm a law student.

    It's actually kind of hard to convey just how fluid the word "unreasonable" really is. It all comes down to a balancing act. Contrast that to the First Amd, which starts with "Congress shall make no law respecting ..." and has no weasel word like "unreasonable."

    I'll get back to you in 23 years when I may actually know something concrete ... unfortunately, in 4th amendment jurisprudence, there isn't anything that's really concrete. And don't expect that to change; if the People are truly afraid, the media can probably convince them that cavity searches for jay-walking are "reasonable."

  6. Re:If he had used spammer techniques.. on Feds Thwart Extortion Plot Against Best Buy · · Score: 1

    Where the social engineering is "Okay, $2.5mil it is. What's your bank account number, sir?"

    Classic problem for kidnappers, too: how to get hands on physical money in a truely anonymous fashion. For this guy to actually get paid, how did he expect to remain clothed in shadow?

  7. Re:To help clarify the situation... on ISS May Have A Leak · · Score: 1

    From the AP:
    As of Monday, the pressure had declined a total of nine millimeters over five days. That is equivalent to about one-fifth of a pound per square inch, Hartsfield said. Normal pressure inside the space station is 14.7 pounds per square inch, the same as at sea level.

  8. Regexp may be nice, but there are other methods on Better Search Results Than Google? · · Score: 2, Interesting

    as a law student, I've been doing a lot of searches on westlaw and lexis. Some of the handiest search improvements over basic google:

    word1 /s word2 - search for word1 and word2 in the same sentence
    word1 /p word2 - search for word1 and word2 in the same paragraph
    word1 /4 word2 - search for word1 and word2 within 4 words of each other

    word can be replaced with quoted strings. It's amazing how this will enable one to focus a complex search. Moreover, it's simple, easy to understand, and relatively simple computationally.

  9. Re:No next, please. on Who Wants to be the Next Dell? · · Score: 2, Insightful
    We lost money dealing with Dell, but we did it to keep them from going to our competitor. No one wanted to handle the Dell account. They are cold and single minded.
    So why didn't you make a strategic decision to let your competition take it in the shorts?

    Electronics suppliers that I've bought from were quite upfront about a sliding scale for more units, lower price. If the bid says 1 widget at $10/ea, 100 widgets at $1/ea, no one expects to get one widget for $1.

    There's probably more complexity to this scenario, since I'm unclear on what stage of the bid/offer/accept stage of writing a contract you're talking about. But it seems like some more effort in negotiating might help the manufacturers, since Dell is clearly employing good/ruthless ones.

  10. Re:Funny fact of the day on Heads-Up Displays for Motorcyclists · · Score: 1

    Congrats on living!

    Accidents can be weird in how your body flies around. A roomie once got hit head-on by someone hydroplaning over the double-yellow line; he went up, over, did a complete rotation and landed on one leg [got a greenstick fracture, walked away]. Though he was wearing a helmet, it was completely superfluous.

    He described the entire thing as being "in slow-motion."

    I helped recover what was left of his bike. His knees had bent the handlebars and rotated them 180deg; the front wheel was under the oil pan. Yikes!

  11. House Rules on We're Jammin', Hope You Like Jammin' Too · · Score: 2, Funny

    There's a cute little brewpub in Solon Iowa with prominent sign stating that anyone whose cell phone goes off buys a round for the house.

    There's more than one way to deal with inappropriate rings ..

  12. Re:My evil plan for spam. on Spammer DDoS-By-Virus On spamhaus.org · · Score: 1

    tho IANAL, IALS (student).

    There's a process known as "piercing the corporate viel" to get to people who use a corporate entity in this manner. Establishing a corp for the purpose of fraud is one of the things a court will thump you for. Nice try though.

  13. Re:A major hit for "Intellectual Property" on Copyright Office Rules Against Lexmark · · Score: 2, Informative

    >Patent = protection for 17 years.

    17 years is so 20th century. Patents filed after 8Jun95 are given a term of 20yrs from the effective date of filing.

    This was done to normalize patent terms with other countries. One side effect is that it also nixed Lemulson-type "submarine" patents.

  14. Re:time to start educating idiots. on 'Black Box' Readings Help Convict Montreal Driver · · Score: 1

    The insurance co does not "instantly own" your car by declaring it totaled.

    First, the owner has to agree to the offered setlement before it takes legal effect; until that time, the car does not change ownership. Second, every insurance co I've ever dealt with when totaling out a vehicle allows the owner to retain the carcass in exchange for the value of the carcass (typically very low).

    If the former owner wants to keep the car for a rebuild, that's the way it goes. There's quite a market out there for rebuildable cars; why fork over an asset to the InsCo for less than it's worth? I've used my totaled motorcycle for spares; I went and got an identical make/model/year. My father-in-law does vehicle rebuilds; it's included his own trucks a few times. It's a great deal - you get the vehicle value (minus 10-20%), and get to keep it!

  15. Re:Magnetics? on Gravitational Repulsion Effect Claimed · · Score: 3, Insightful
    The abstract does specify the effect is independent of target composition.

    I'd think using a non-ferrous target would be the first thing they'd think of, and the first thing any researcher trying to duplicate the results would do. Stay tuned!

  16. Re:I've always wondered on Just Say No To Reading About Drugs · · Score: 1
    It doesn't, plain and simple.

    There's pretty much no question that Uncle Fester's "Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture" (Loompanics) is published in the US.

  17. Re:Without.. on Just Say No To Reading About Drugs · · Score: 1
    Except .. that it's perfectly legal and proteced byt the first amendment to publish books on how to make compounds that are presently illegal in the US.

    I refer you, for starters, to "Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacture" by "Uncle Fester". Published by Loompanics.

    I encourage one and all to thumb through http://www.erowid.org for accurate and non-hysterical information on drugs of all types - licit and illicit.

  18. Not in the same class... on College Pranks Go Commercial · · Score: 1

    I helped drop fridges, pumpkins, and whatever else
    was handy off MIT's Green Building, 22 stories or
    so tall. Never did a piano, personally. These
    guys want to sell me a mousepad? Feh!

    p.s. - bags of flour make a surprising large gout
    of explosive flame from that height.

  19. Re:Nice, but... on Component DVD/MP3 Player for $170 · · Score: 1

    I'm looking for a portable unit (discman sized)
    that will play either regular CDs or mp3s from an
    ISO CD-R. Portable audio, format independent.

  20. Re:Lucas and Disney on No Star Wars TPM on DVD · · Score: 2

    >60 days only on each DVD Disney animated film. If
    >you're a Disney fan, you've only got a few weeks
    >left to get the first batch... can you say
    >"feeding frenzy"?).

    I don't doubt that Disney has done extensive
    cost/benefit analysis on this one, but let's take
    a step back. What happens when a manufacturer
    generates a scarcity of product (intentionally or not)?

    Piracy. Someone will step in to fill the void; I
    think this approach will actually foster the very
    same DVD piracy that the consortium is so vewy
    vewy scared of, and at both the commercial and
    private level.

  21. Re:Truely Disgusting on The Feds' Ramsey Electronics Raid Blow by Blow · · Score: 1

    >At least electronics manafacturers do not have
    >police in military gear raiding their houses
    >and fireing at anyone who moves too fast.
    >(case a coupla years back police raided a house
    >and killed him - no drugs were found)

    Happens more often than that. One such case in
    Denver about two months ago; a father of nine.

    /. readers interested in the anti-freedom
    crossovers between incidents like this and the
    fallout from the drug war might be intersted in
    the MAPS drug news index at:

    http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/index.htm

    It's basically a news clipping service from around
    the world; some of the stories are truly
    frightening.

  22. Who exactly are they protecting, and from what? on FDA to Regulate Internet Drug Sales · · Score: 1

    The press announcement reads as if it is a "consumer protection" measure, yet never goes into what identifiable harms it supposedly addressed.

    "critics say there is a potential for harm to consumers who do not know the quality of the firm they are dealing with"

    Quality of the firm? How is this any different from most other forms of e-commerce?

    Actually, I can think of a few good reasons why the feds might be interested in regulation; such as ensuring that scripts actually exist before they are filled, that the right meds are dispensed, or that a licensed pharmacist is in the loop somewheres. It's either this sort of measure, or restrict web-based pharmacies to the state they physically reside in. But those are mainly control issues, rather than direct consumer protection issues. I see double-talk in the rationale given to the public.

  23. Re:someone reincarnate Jefferson on Crypto Advocate Under Investigation by FBI · · Score: 1
    It's Benjamin Franklin, another noted hippy radical.

    "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
    --Historical Review of Pennsylvania.

    more good quotes at http://library.advanced.org/22254/frquot.htm