As posted here before, there should be some form of "just cause" before searching through emails or web traffic. I wouldn't sit around on a Tuesday afternoon and browse the web logs looking for suspicious sites. Instead, if there is a legitimate complaint (for example, some has a bunch of porn on their screen) then it would be permissible to investigate the logs.
The same idea hold for emails too. Unless someone tells management that they're being harassed or threatened, there isn't any reason to read through them.
I would also suggest some statue of limitations (nothing after 60 days, for example). This prevents the situation where someone gets mad because somebody else got the promotion and suddenly decides that the off-color joke they sent last year was harassment.
I agree that the plantiffs did not endure anything to deserve $5 billion.
The other side of the coin, however, is (assuming there is racism at Microsoft) the penalty must be enough to hurt Microsoft and keep them from doing it again. While the people probably deserve something on the order of $100,000 (or whatever they lost in not getting promoted, etc), Microsoft wouldn't even blink at damages like that.
Of course, I'm still not convinced their case has any merit.
I don't know whether or not there is racism at Microsoft, but one statement from the lawyers doesn't seem right.
The lawyers cite statistics showing that just
2.6 percent of Microsoft's approximately
22,000 employees, and just 1.6 percent of its
5,155 managers, are black. "The numbers
illustrate that Microsoft is guilty of some of
the most egregious discrimination in corporate
America," Hoffler said.
How can that be used to claim racism? I'd be willing to bet that only 2.6% of computer science graduates are black. I've seen very few black students in my classes, while asians (mostly Chinese) and Indians are well represented (especially when you consider what a small percentage of the general population they are in the midwest).
Nerd 7, Jocks 0?? I don't get it. What's the big obsession on Slashdot with perpetuating silly stereotypes? It's like people here actually believe that they are B-movie nerds, waging an eternal war against jocks.
My friends and I played role-playing games in high school, we liked to mess with the computers. A wild Saturday night was some Pepsi, pizza, and a game of Starfleet Battles.
We also played varsity football, basketball, and track. We were in the weight room three days a week.
People who thought they were "nerds" thought we were "jocks". The people who thought they were "jocks" thought we were "nerds". I had a lot of fun playing sports and a lot of fun in other activities. You only hurt yourself by letting someone label you.
Flightgear (www.flightgear.org) runs nicely under XF4.0. I work with the main author (actually, I drink and play video games while he works, but I digress...). We had it running on some new P3 850 MHz machines with GeForce2 cards. One was running Debian and the other was running Win95.
Here's my theory on the whole deal with the Force being caused by miticlorians.
First, since Star Wars draws heavily from mythology, Lucas put in the "virgin birth" of Anakin. Newsflash for the masses- Christianity isn't the only, and not nearly the first, religon/myth to use a virgin birth. It's a strong story element and it also keeps everyone from asking about Anakin's father (who also should have been a powerful Jedi, if he existed).
At some point (test screenings?) Lucas realized that his primary audience (the US) has, for the most part, a Christian background. Not only that, but they don't realize that there are other myths to use a virgin birth. Everytime I saw the movie I heard someone near me exclaim, "He's Jesus!"
To avoid all nonsense that would result from having millions think he's trying to equate Anakin with Jesus, Lucas decided to throw in the miticlorians. That way, there's a nice scientific explanation for the whole thing.
Until the growth of graphics and processor technology slows way down, I don't think an open-standards console will ever exist. As soon as you created your standard, someone would come up with a new piece of hardware that was better.
In addition, who would build such a thing? Sony/Sega/Nintendo lose money, in general, on their hardware. They make it up by licensing the software.
The Gertrude is basically a sonar phone effective over short ranges (a couple miles, max). It can send voice or morse code and is used by a submerged submarine to communicate with other subs and surface ships.
Currently, the only communications submarines send while underwater is the Gertude, a sonar phone of limited range and quality. Otherwise, subs must surface and use their radio.
Crews of ballistic missile subs receive "family grams" periodically. They are electronic letters, submitted by their family to the Navy, compressed, and downloaded from satellites. Nearly all submarine communications are pre-recorded and compressed for short transmissions.
The US does currently send information to underwater subs using extremely low frequencies (ELF). These are generated via massive cables buried somewhere in the midwest (Wisconsin, I think).
An underwater datalink would, like the Gertrude, be of limited military use. A submarine's only asset is its stealth. While the data link may have an effective range of a few miles, a sub using it could be detected at a range over ten times that.
holding a weapon while playing games. Considering the damage my PlayStation controllers have to endure after a bad loss, someone better look into making armored monitors.
I believe that he does have a point about the quantity of MP3 piracy.
Obviously copying music from CD to tape is piracy just as CD to MP3, but how many illegal tapes can you make and distribute in one hour? How many copies of a MP3 could you distribute in one hour?
I find it ironic that the same people who argue that the internet is a new medium with new rules try to claim networked file sharing of digital music is the same as trading analog tapes.
Penthouse and Larry Flynt have a long history of fighting free speech battles. It's no big surprise that they're handling the case well (going after the poster instead of suing ISPs to block a whole bunch of stuff).
The DoD has a big push for COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) technology. Not too long ago, the DoD had everything custom built, even if there was a cheap and effective alternative already available. Because of procurement reforms as part of an effort to lower defense spending, the DoD is under pressure to use commerical products whenever possible. From the description of the system, it seems obvious that they were under pressure to use as much COTS technology as possible. As the article stated, however, this is experimental. It's not like they've order 100,000 of these things and will start handing them out tomorrow.
Slashdot Mirror
Lots of snowplows and salt. Actually, most Canadians live south of Minneapolis (most of Canada's population is in southern Ontario and Quebec).
The same idea hold for emails too. Unless someone tells management that they're being harassed or threatened, there isn't any reason to read through them.
I would also suggest some statue of limitations (nothing after 60 days, for example). This prevents the situation where someone gets mad because somebody else got the promotion and suddenly decides that the off-color joke they sent last year was harassment.
The other side of the coin, however, is (assuming there is racism at Microsoft) the penalty must be enough to hurt Microsoft and keep them from doing it again. While the people probably deserve something on the order of $100,000 (or whatever they lost in not getting promoted, etc), Microsoft wouldn't even blink at damages like that.
Of course, I'm still not convinced their case has any merit.
My friends and I played role-playing games in high school, we liked to mess with the computers. A wild Saturday night was some Pepsi, pizza, and a game of Starfleet Battles.
We also played varsity football, basketball, and track. We were in the weight room three days a week.
People who thought they were "nerds" thought we were "jocks". The people who thought they were "jocks" thought we were "nerds". I had a lot of fun playing sports and a lot of fun in other activities. You only hurt yourself by letting someone label you.
Flightgear is also running on one of the old flight simulators here at work. Someone else has Flightgear running on a motion chair that was at Linux World Expo (link here - it's the third image down).
First, since Star Wars draws heavily from mythology, Lucas put in the "virgin birth" of Anakin. Newsflash for the masses- Christianity isn't the only, and not nearly the first, religon/myth to use a virgin birth. It's a strong story element and it also keeps everyone from asking about Anakin's father (who also should have been a powerful Jedi, if he existed).
At some point (test screenings?) Lucas realized that his primary audience (the US) has, for the most part, a Christian background. Not only that, but they don't realize that there are other myths to use a virgin birth. Everytime I saw the movie I heard someone near me exclaim, "He's Jesus!"
To avoid all nonsense that would result from having millions think he's trying to equate Anakin with Jesus, Lucas decided to throw in the miticlorians. That way, there's a nice scientific explanation for the whole thing.
Getting the appeals court to hear the case allows MS to request a stay, keeping it from being broken up until the appeal is resolved.
Until the growth of graphics and processor technology slows way down, I don't think an open-standards console will ever exist. As soon as you created your standard, someone would come up with a new piece of hardware that was better.
In addition, who would build such a thing? Sony/Sega/Nintendo lose money, in general, on their hardware. They make it up by licensing the software.
The Gertrude is basically a sonar phone effective over short ranges (a couple miles, max). It can send voice or morse code and is used by a submerged submarine to communicate with other subs and surface ships.
Crews of ballistic missile subs receive "family grams" periodically. They are electronic letters, submitted by their family to the Navy, compressed, and downloaded from satellites. Nearly all submarine communications are pre-recorded and compressed for short transmissions.
The US does currently send information to underwater subs using extremely low frequencies (ELF). These are generated via massive cables buried somewhere in the midwest (Wisconsin, I think).
An underwater datalink would, like the Gertrude, be of limited military use. A submarine's only asset is its stealth. While the data link may have an effective range of a few miles, a sub using it could be detected at a range over ten times that.
holding a weapon while playing games. Considering the damage my PlayStation controllers have to endure after a bad loss, someone better look into making armored monitors.
Obviously copying music from CD to tape is piracy just as CD to MP3, but how many illegal tapes can you make and distribute in one hour? How many copies of a MP3 could you distribute in one hour?
I find it ironic that the same people who argue that the internet is a new medium with new rules try to claim networked file sharing of digital music is the same as trading analog tapes.
Penthouse and Larry Flynt have a long history of fighting free speech battles. It's no big surprise that they're handling the case well (going after the poster instead of suing ISPs to block a whole bunch of stuff).
The DoD has a big push for COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) technology. Not too long ago, the DoD had everything custom built, even if there was a cheap and effective alternative already available. Because of procurement reforms as part of an effort to lower defense spending, the DoD is under pressure to use commerical products whenever possible. From the description of the system, it seems obvious that they were under pressure to use as much COTS technology as possible. As the article stated, however, this is experimental. It's not like they've order 100,000 of these things and will start handing them out tomorrow.