I would be a bit curious, actually, to know whether/.'ers think that meetings can be productive. Perhaps my own experience or preferences are not the norm (or perhaps they are?). A lot of meetings are a complete waste of time, especially ones that are regularly scheduled. But if there are problems then getting around a table to find a way forward is the best way I have found. I've seen political deadlocks that have been bouncing around for months by email be resolved within 30 minutes face-to-face. And a face-to-face project brief at the start of a project is pretty handy, too. So it all depends on the meeting -- don't write them all off, just because most are rubbish.
From past experience I can state that taking care of kids is a full time job - don't know that I could work also... It depends on the age of the kids. By the time mine were about 11 they were happier for me to stay out of their way; I just needed to be around if things went wrong. And in the 2 hours a day I saved on commuting I could actually spend some quality time with them. Of course, during term time it was mainly a matter of taking them to school in the morning or collecting them in the evening, which was a lot more practical 15 minutes from the school instead of 75 minutes.
One other effect I can see this having, is let's say www.bigcompanyhere.com gets tagged as being potentially harmful. Now Google has done them a favor by alerting them to a security problem, which they can then address, and are likely to do so much quicker to try and minimize damage to their image. Address? Surely they'd just insist that the malware was a customer service, and sue Google for defamation?
Most of their customer base is probably using MS Windows machines, too -- probably over 90% (eg, [url:http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os .asp]). Why shouldn't they help their customer base?
This is just like the way the Windscale nuclear reactor was renamed Sellafield after it caught fire and released all that radioactive iodine into the environment, isn't it? And after all, that worked perfectly. Nobody remembers that Sellafield was Windscale, do they? Er...
I still get server overload errors on Last.fm (just had one, in fact), and that's with just audio (plus track listing data, of course). They'll need a big investment in infrastructure to serve up video reliably.
Actually, the stories were implausible even then. Nobody would have bothered recording them unless folks knew that things like that didn't normally happen.
the chip would be activated at the register to make a previously dark area of the DVD clear, and therefore readable I bet they're also working on adapting it so that it darkens again after ten plays or one year, whichever comes sooner...
The moment the DoD gets out of hand with charging, A lot of large corporations are going to get upset.
There campaign dollars will go elsewhere. I would have thought that charging along the lines of "Free to US users, because they pay for it with their tax dollars; charged to everyone else, why should we give them a free ride?" would sell quite well in the USA.
Not sold on the derivative part though, you can't just have original work in it, it 'must be different enough from the original to be regarded as a "new work" or must contain a substantial amount of new material.' And since drivers licenses are 90% the same(only the text changes) I don't think it would hit. I doubt the lawyers would ever let it be so simple. After all, where would it leave Duchamp's "Fountain" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp), in which the "original" work is the act of signing it (with an invented name), the choice to offer it for display, and the choice to reorient it for display -- there is no new material to speak of.
The US DoD could also eliminate any rival GPS satellites pretty easily, so a competing GPS system only really makes sense if you ignore the military aspect of it entirely. Granted -- although I suspect they're not quite alone in that capability, and shooting friendly powers' satellites out of the sky might reduce the size of any coalition they happen to be in. But I think the possibility of monopoly charging is the bigger fear.
I don't think internet control is an issue; the USA can't "turn off" the internet in the same way as it could GPS (the rest of the internet would route around the "damage"), and even if it did then sure, I'd miss it, but it wouldn't be devastating. Telephone and fax would still exist, I could still go about my business. On the other hand, there's considerable commercial pressure to remove "conventional" navigation aids (DME & VOR in the case of aviation), and if that happened GPS withdrawal (or high charges) could be devastating. Of course, the alternative to EGNOS is to keep the conventional navigation aids, which is what seems to be happening.
Well, the advertisers have got the gents' public restrooms under control -- I often find myself staring at a video screen running ads. Unfortunately, at my age I can't get that high up the wall (and I'm not sure what voltages are involved).
Its a very silly argument Well, when the US DoD publicly announced that in a conflict any GPS differential station would be considered to be a valid military target, even if it were on friendly soil, it didn't look so silly. And if GPS gets a virtual monopoly on navigation then the DoD could start charging pretty much whatever they like (even more credible with Block III satellites), which is a little worrying.
Well, there's certainly a disconnect somewhere. The article mentions "pictures" (plural) but then only references one picture. Has anybody looked up her Myspace page? I don't know Myspace well enough to find it.
Well, my wife is Chinese, and it's the experience she describes of her youth. Yes, that was pre-1978.
You did say "has long been a hive culture". The 70s were the Cultural Revolution: a decade-long nightmare. Though the youth of the time may have believed in it, most adults were playacting and reverted to rationality when Mao died and the Red Guards lost power. It wasn't representative of normal Chinese culture. Chinese have always put their families first, despite all the patriotic songs.
Well, ok, but it's the participants in the cultural revolution who are in power now, and have you seen the long queues of worshippers at Mao's tomb in Tiannamen Square (ok, not all are worshippers, but many seem to be). Have you seen the big displays of Mao's "Little Red Book" in the bookshops, even though there's no longer an ideological reason for them to be there? Those ideas are still a significant influence.
I realise that. But if the users didn't pay for it again the government would lose that revenue, which would either mean raising taxes somewhere else (under the present administration) or cuts in services I consider important (under the most likely alternative administration -- historically they never seem to cut spending on the things I don't like). Neither of those seems any better than the present situation, and they risk being worse.
I'm worried we might be straying off topic, but I suppose we are still on IPR, licensing and royalty [sic] collection!
. ISTM that China has long been a "hive" culture, where everyone is expected to work for the good of all.
That's never been true, despite propaganda (Chinese and foreign).
Well, my wife is Chinese, and it's the experience she describes of her youth. Yes, that was pre-1978.
Now China is more like 19th C industrial revolution England, complete with "satanic mills", exploited workers and nouveau riche capitalists. now it is, yes. As I said, though, they're new to capitalism, and its mechanisms are not so culturally ingrained.
Um, no. Why do you imagine that copyright law would change if we got rid of the monarchy? Because at the moment the copyright vests in "The Crown". If we got rid of the monarchy there would no longer be a "Crown" to hold the copyright, so something would have to change! My suggestion of 80 years after becoming a republic was a tongue-in-cheek suggestion based on a period post mortem auctoris, regarding The Crown rather than any particular monarch as the auctoris. The 80 was somewhat arbitrary -- I can't remember the UK copyright term, but it's something like that, isn't it?
Slashdot Mirror
Is the next story here is going to be "US Military Opens /. Account"?
Most of their customer base is probably using MS Windows machines, too -- probably over 90% (eg, [url:http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os .asp]). Why shouldn't they help their customer base?
This is just like the way the Windscale nuclear reactor was renamed Sellafield after it caught fire and released all that radioactive iodine into the environment, isn't it? And after all, that worked perfectly. Nobody remembers that Sellafield was Windscale, do they? Er...
It's giving me overload messages when I try to load my home page, never mind when I try to stream.
I still get server overload errors on Last.fm (just had one, in fact), and that's with just audio (plus track listing data, of course). They'll need a big investment in infrastructure to serve up video reliably.
Actually, the stories were implausible even then. Nobody would have bothered recording them unless folks knew that things like that didn't normally happen.
"These are not the movies you are looking for."
Executives should work on the grand scheme in vast halls, whilst their drones work out the detail in low-ceilinged cubicle farms.
Boy, those researches sure knew who decides their research grants!
There campaign dollars will go elsewhere. I would have thought that charging along the lines of "Free to US users, because they pay for it with their tax dollars; charged to everyone else, why should we give them a free ride?" would sell quite well in the USA.
I don't think internet control is an issue; the USA can't "turn off" the internet in the same way as it could GPS (the rest of the internet would route around the "damage"), and even if it did then sure, I'd miss it, but it wouldn't be devastating. Telephone and fax would still exist, I could still go about my business. On the other hand, there's considerable commercial pressure to remove "conventional" navigation aids (DME & VOR in the case of aviation), and if that happened GPS withdrawal (or high charges) could be devastating. Of course, the alternative to EGNOS is to keep the conventional navigation aids, which is what seems to be happening.
Well, the advertisers have got the gents' public restrooms under control -- I often find myself staring at a video screen running ads. Unfortunately, at my age I can't get that high up the wall (and I'm not sure what voltages are involved).
Well, there's certainly a disconnect somewhere. The article mentions "pictures" (plural) but then only references one picture. Has anybody looked up her Myspace page? I don't know Myspace well enough to find it.
Because otherwise it fails to meet the minimum character count requirement of the TLA standard?
Or maybe because "SC" has already been claimed by "Secure Computing" (not to mention "South Carolina").
You did say "has long been a hive culture". The 70s were the Cultural Revolution: a decade-long nightmare. Though the youth of the time may have believed in it, most adults were playacting and reverted to rationality when Mao died and the Red Guards lost power. It wasn't representative of normal Chinese culture. Chinese have always put their families first, despite all the patriotic songs.
Well, ok, but it's the participants in the cultural revolution who are in power now, and have you seen the long queues of worshippers at Mao's tomb in Tiannamen Square (ok, not all are worshippers, but many seem to be). Have you seen the big displays of Mao's "Little Red Book" in the bookshops, even though there's no longer an ideological reason for them to be there? Those ideas are still a significant influence.I realise that. But if the users didn't pay for it again the government would lose that revenue, which would either mean raising taxes somewhere else (under the present administration) or cuts in services I consider important (under the most likely alternative administration -- historically they never seem to cut spending on the things I don't like). Neither of those seems any better than the present situation, and they risk being worse.
I'm worried we might be straying off topic, but I suppose we are still on IPR, licensing and royalty [sic] collection!
Interesting, but if they didn't get the revenue that way they'd get it another way, which would probably be worse.
That's never been true, despite propaganda (Chinese and foreign).
Well, my wife is Chinese, and it's the experience she describes of her youth. Yes, that was pre-1978. Now China is more like 19th C industrial revolution England, complete with "satanic mills", exploited workers and nouveau riche capitalists. now it is, yes. As I said, though, they're new to capitalism, and its mechanisms are not so culturally ingrained.