The best legal advice I ever recieved was from my father. It was, simply "I don't need a lawyer. I'm right." It's a philosophy that's been working for him for decades as a small business owner. It's worked equally well for me, also as a small business owner, for six years.
If someone plagarizes your work, sue them. The only information the judge is going to need is a copy of their source, and yours. Are they the same? Judgement for plaintiff.
Finding a couple of pro-bono expert witnesses in this case should be a snap, if that's even necessary. Hell, ask Stallman, he's always looking for a pulpit.
Over the years, I've had three or four clients who didn't want to pay for work I had performed. A couple of them even said "We're ready to be the 800 pound gorilla on this matter." (That's a direct quote from one, BTW).
Ok, you be an 800 pound gorilla. I have all my notes, all the specifications, all the correspondence related to the project ready to go. I have notes on every phone call, every meeting, every conversation. It costs me $40 to file, and all I have is time. If you want to tie up your $150 an hour lawyers for six months fighting an angry badger about a $20K project, go right ahead.
Funny, the check always shows up after that.
Don't let people push you around because you're a small operation, or because they think having more money guarantees them victory through intimidation.
Had Jones chosen direct mail, radio or TV, that communication would have been equally ``unsolicited,'' as defined in the e-mail world. Few voters would have ``opted in'' to receive campaign information from Jones through any of those channels.
- For all of these methods, the advertiser pays the cost of delivering the message.
- Radio and television users 'opt-in' by turning on said radio or television.
No one likes commercial spam. It is irrelevant and untargeted and can be highly intrusive and even offensive. But as a sophisticated society, it's time to differentiate commercial spam from very different unsolicited e-mail sent by political candidates to voters.
Why? Is it any less expensive - with respect to time, money, or bandwidth - for the recipient of an unwanted political message versus the recipient of an unwanted commercial message?
A simple link in good e-mail campaigns allows recipients to opt out of future mailings.
And where do I click to be reimbursed for my time and resources, which you just wasted?
Direct mail takes at least a phone call or stamp to be taken off a list,
Or, I can throw it in the trash on the way in the door, and you've just wasted your postage.
and viewers must repeatedly endure TV ads.
No, Skippy. Not 'must'. 'Can'. If I don't want to see the ads, I can turn the television off.
That choice should belong to the voter -- not to anti-spam advocates whose efforts are better focused on commercial e-mail.
Commercial email is email that's trying to sell me something. You're trying to sell me a candidate. How is your product any different than a penis enlarger or a hot teen?
You're selling something. I'm not buying. Go away.
Not with LCDs of course, but with similarly delicate instruments and electronics. Search Google for 'ATA approved cases', and you'll see what I'm talking about.
If you're moderately handy, you can build a case yourself that, while heavy, will protect the screen just fine. The parts, such as handles and corner railings are all available if you look around.
Build it out of 3/4" plywood covered in laminate, and use corner and edge protectors and beefy latches. Line it with impact absorbant foam, and you'll be good to go.
A case like this can be knocked out in an afternoon, and would only cost a couple hundred dollars.
It has come to our attention that you have incorporated the "GOD" portion of our client's GODZILLA marks in the name of your "GOD" diety name. Please be advised that your use of the GODZILLA mark constitutes a trademark infringement and confuses consumers and the public into believing that your "GOD" character originates from Toho, which it does not. Moreover, your use of the "GOD" formative is likely to cause the users of your site to believe that the GOD diety is either associated with, authorized by, or sponsored by our client, and demonstrates an attempt by you to trade on the goodwill built up by our client. As such, we request that you remove the objectionable imagery and reference to GODZILLA from your religion to eliminate any likelihood of confusion and posibility of an inaccurate affiliation with Toho and GODZILLA.
We look forward to receiving your prompt reply, with a statement of your intentions, no later than August 16, 2002. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.
"Since I spend 3+ hours a day on the computer working and playing..."
Less than four hours in front of your computer per day and you need a fancy chair? When I was your age, we sat on rocks (hard, pointy ones) in seven feet of snow, for 32 hours a day (days were longer then, you know), and we were THANKFUL!
What's up with the other 20 hours in your day? I certainly hope you're not out getting fresh air or talking to girls instead.
Of course, they're all just paraphrasing - er, popifying - Alexander the Great, who said, "I would rather live a short life of glory than a long one of obscurity"
Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, these DTDs are not subject to copyright protection and are in the public domain. ... These DTDs can be redistributed and/or modified freely provided that any derivative works bear some notice that they are derived from it, and any modified versions bear some notice that they have been modified.
Sorry, cupcakes, that's not how the public domain works. If you release it into the public domain, you no longer have *any* control whatsoever upon the modification, reuse, or redistribution of the work. The required notice clause listed above in invalid.
In 1995, I was fresh out of college with a relatively useless liberal arts degree.
A friend of mine had a little web company, and he was giving me piecemeal work - html, content sorting, stuff like that - after finding out that I was pretty comfortable with computers and learned things quickly.
Still, I was poor. Canned-beans-three-meals-a-day poor.
We (a roomate and I) moved into a new apartment a few months later. Our new phone number apparently belonged to an IT consultant before it came into our possession. We used to get five or six calls a week from headhunters looking to hire him for various jobs.
One day, I started talking to one of the headhunters. Ten minutes later, I had an interview for a $25 an hour job, despite my lackluster qualifications and limited experience. A week later, I was hired.
In the seven years since then, I've learned a lot more, worked a lot of contracting gigs, and eventually started my own consulting company. We're not huge, just a few guys, but we make a decent living and do a vast majority of our work in bath robes.:)
There's another side to that coin: Some contractors are flaming assholes, too.
My wife and I signed a P&S in August of 1999 on a house to be built. Nothing fancy, just a standard raised ranch.
We went for a visit after the house was framed in, and discovered that the contractor had put the wall that seperates the garage and the basement in the wrong place. When I asked him about it, he told me "The plumber was worried about the bathroom pipes freezing if they were over the garage." This was of course a lie, because the pipes were over the garage regardless of the placement of the wall.
I thought about it for a few days, and finally told him that I wanted the wall put in the right place.
He said no, and told me he wasn't going to sell me the house. I explained that we had a contract to buy the house, built to spec, and that I wasn't going to walk away from the deal. He told me I'd be hearing from his attorney.
The real reason he wanted out of the deal was that his realtor priced the house around $30K below market value, and he knew he could sell it for more.
Now, being sued doesn't scare me, because I happen to have a *kick ass* attorney. Besides that, in this case I was right, and I knew it.
Later, after 18 months of watching my attorney mop the floor with his average attorney - the source of no small amusement for us - he settled. He wound up paying all my attorney fees (around $6K), and he had to knock *another* $5K off the price of the house to cover the misplaced wall. During the 18 months, he was also was paying interest on the construction materials, taxes on the land (30+ acres), insurance on the site, and his attorney fees. All told, his beligerance cost him upwards of $25K.
Dumbass. I told him I was going to crush him.
We've lived here for several months now, and it's a great house. No major problems, and I've had three different contractors/inspectors go over it.
He is, of course, fighting with me over the few minor problems. Some people never learn.
Kuroth
Re:Whaaaa? Re:So let me get this straight.
on
Wolframania
·
· Score: 2, Informative
>How many of them actually do know how to >actually make paint? Where would the Renaissance >artists be without the guys who invented oil >paints?
ah, there's nothing like a little uneducated blather.
Most artists made their own paints. Many of them still do today.
The guy credited with inventing modern oil paint was Jan van Eyck, an artist. Others were using oil paints before him, but he's widely credited with developing a stable oil-based varnish for use in them.
There were later improvements by others, such as the addition of lead oxide by Antonello da Messina, da Vinci's addition of beeswax, and Rubens's grinding techniques. All of those guys, in case you're completely clueless, were artists.
I implemented Firefly's technology for a customer of theirs a couple years ago. It was pretty interesting stuff.
Firefly had a great company culture - games, dogs, and a bunch of bright people doing cool things.
I remember hearing about it when Microsoft first noticed them. A project manager at FF told me that they weren't worried about being absorbed, because Microsoft's market studies said that people were wary of Microsoft having personal data on them. I guess he was wrong.
Slashdot Mirror
Try Google
What's next? "Ask Slashdot: Getting Drops Off My Cock After Pissing"?
>The US is a first-to-invent not a first-to-patent country
Wrong, just ask Elisha Gray.
>these assholes who didn't even use the name "Nissan" in the States until well after Uzi
...
>had registerred the domain and used it for his own business.
$ whois nissan.com@whois.networksolutions.com
Record created on 04-May-1994.
My 1990 Nissan says, quite plainly, "Nissan" on the back.
Hey! That's not very patriotic of you! What are you, some kind of pinko Taliban Fascist tree-hugger?
For the last time, King George knows best. He is infallible and his power is absolute! Long live the King!
The angry mob and I will be at your house around eight. Please have your shoes on, we hate to wait.
K.
The best legal advice I ever recieved was from my father. It was, simply "I don't need a lawyer. I'm right." It's a philosophy that's been working for him for decades as a small business owner. It's worked equally well for me, also as a small business owner, for six years.
If someone plagarizes your work, sue them. The only information the judge is going to need is a copy of their source, and yours. Are they the same? Judgement for plaintiff.
Finding a couple of pro-bono expert witnesses in this case should be a snap, if that's even necessary. Hell, ask Stallman, he's always looking for a pulpit.
Over the years, I've had three or four clients who didn't want to pay for work I had performed. A couple of them even said "We're ready to be the 800 pound gorilla on this matter." (That's a direct quote from one, BTW).
Ok, you be an 800 pound gorilla. I have all my notes, all the specifications, all the correspondence related to the project ready to go. I have notes on every phone call, every meeting, every conversation. It costs me $40 to file, and all I have is time. If you want to tie up your $150 an hour lawyers for six months fighting an angry badger about a $20K project, go right ahead.
Funny, the check always shows up after that.
Don't let people push you around because you're a small operation, or because they think having more money guarantees them victory through intimidation.
K.
Had Jones chosen direct mail, radio or TV, that communication would have been equally ``unsolicited,'' as defined in the e-mail world. Few voters would have ``opted in'' to receive campaign information from Jones through any of those channels.
- For all of these methods, the advertiser pays the cost of delivering the message.
- Radio and television users 'opt-in' by turning on said radio or television.
No one likes commercial spam. It is irrelevant and untargeted and can be highly intrusive and even offensive. But as a sophisticated society, it's time to differentiate commercial spam from very different unsolicited e-mail sent by political candidates to voters.
Why? Is it any less expensive - with respect to time, money, or bandwidth - for the recipient of an unwanted political message versus the recipient of an unwanted commercial message?
A simple link in good e-mail campaigns allows recipients to opt out of future mailings.
And where do I click to be reimbursed for my time and resources, which you just wasted?
Direct mail takes at least a phone call or stamp to be taken off a list,
Or, I can throw it in the trash on the way in the door, and you've just wasted your postage.
and viewers must repeatedly endure TV ads.
No, Skippy. Not 'must'. 'Can'. If I don't want to see the ads, I can turn the television off.
That choice should belong to the voter -- not to anti-spam advocates whose efforts are better focused on commercial e-mail.
Commercial email is email that's trying to sell me something. You're trying to sell me a candidate. How is your product any different than a penis enlarger or a hot teen?
You're selling something. I'm not buying. Go away.
Not with LCDs of course, but with similarly delicate instruments and electronics. Search Google for 'ATA approved cases', and you'll see what I'm talking about.
An example
If you're moderately handy, you can build a case yourself that, while heavy, will protect the screen just fine. The parts, such as handles and corner railings are all available if you look around.
Paradise carries a good selection.
Build it out of 3/4" plywood covered in laminate, and use corner and edge protectors and beefy latches. Line it with impact absorbant foam, and you'll be good to go.
A case like this can be knocked out in an afternoon, and would only cost a couple hundred dollars.
K.
re: DAVEZILLA.COM
Your Excellency:
It has come to our attention that you have incorporated the "GOD" portion of our client's GODZILLA marks in the name of your "GOD" diety name. Please be advised that your use of the GODZILLA mark constitutes a trademark infringement and confuses consumers and the public into believing that your "GOD" character originates from Toho, which it does not. Moreover, your use of the "GOD" formative is likely to cause the users of your site to believe that the GOD diety is either associated with, authorized by, or sponsored by our client, and demonstrates an attempt by you to trade on the goodwill built up by our client. As such, we request that you remove the objectionable imagery and reference to GODZILLA from your religion to eliminate any likelihood of confusion and posibility of an inaccurate affiliation with Toho and GODZILLA.
We look forward to receiving your prompt reply, with a statement of your intentions, no later than August 16, 2002. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.
Very truly yours,
SEYFARTH SHAW
Jill A. Jacobs
"Since I spend 3+ hours a day on the computer working and playing..."
Less than four hours in front of your computer per day and you need a fancy chair? When I was your age, we sat on rocks (hard, pointy ones) in seven feet of snow, for 32 hours a day (days were longer then, you know), and we were THANKFUL!
What's up with the other 20 hours in your day? I certainly hope you're not out getting fresh air or talking to girls instead.
Buckle down, slacker.
...and just before that, Def Leppard's Pyromania.
Of course, they're all just paraphrasing - er, popifying - Alexander the Great, who said, "I would rather live a short life of glory than a long one of obscurity"
From the cited page...
...
Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, these DTDs are not subject to copyright protection and are in the public domain.
These DTDs can be redistributed and/or modified freely provided that any derivative works bear some notice that they are derived from it, and any modified versions bear some notice that they have been modified.
Sorry, cupcakes, that's not how the public domain works. If you release it into the public domain, you no longer have *any* control whatsoever upon the modification, reuse, or redistribution of the work. The required notice clause listed above in invalid.
Cite, cite (#3), cite.
Kuroth
True Story:
:)
In 1995, I was fresh out of college with a relatively useless liberal arts degree.
A friend of mine had a little web company, and he was giving me piecemeal work - html, content sorting, stuff like that - after finding out that I was pretty comfortable with computers and learned things quickly.
Still, I was poor. Canned-beans-three-meals-a-day poor.
We (a roomate and I) moved into a new apartment a few months later. Our new phone number apparently belonged to an IT consultant before it came into our possession. We used to get five or six calls a week from headhunters looking to hire him for various jobs.
One day, I started talking to one of the headhunters. Ten minutes later, I had an interview for a $25 an hour job, despite my lackluster qualifications and limited experience. A week later, I was hired.
In the seven years since then, I've learned a lot more, worked a lot of contracting gigs, and eventually started my own consulting company. We're not huge, just a few guys, but we make a decent living and do a vast majority of our work in bath robes.
See, telemarketers aren't always bad.
Kuroth
I imagine Mathematica is pretty cheap compared to the tools he has on hand. He's got a small fortune in clamps alone.
There's another side to that coin: Some contractors are flaming assholes, too.
My wife and I signed a P&S in August of 1999 on a house to be built. Nothing fancy, just a standard raised ranch.
We went for a visit after the house was framed in, and discovered that the contractor had put the wall that seperates the garage and the basement in the wrong place. When I asked him about it, he told me "The plumber was worried about the bathroom pipes freezing if they were over the garage." This was of course a lie, because the pipes were over the garage regardless of the placement of the wall.
I thought about it for a few days, and finally told him that I wanted the wall put in the right place.
He said no, and told me he wasn't going to sell me the house. I explained that we had a contract to buy the house, built to spec, and that I wasn't going to walk away from the deal. He told me I'd be hearing from his attorney.
The real reason he wanted out of the deal was that his realtor priced the house around $30K below market value, and he knew he could sell it for more.
Now, being sued doesn't scare me, because I happen to have a *kick ass* attorney. Besides that, in this case I was right, and I knew it.
Later, after 18 months of watching my attorney mop the floor with his average attorney - the source of no small amusement for us - he settled. He wound up paying all my attorney fees (around $6K), and he had to knock *another* $5K off the price of the house to cover the misplaced wall. During the 18 months, he was also was paying interest on the construction materials, taxes on the land (30+ acres), insurance on the site, and his attorney fees. All told, his beligerance cost him upwards of $25K.
Dumbass. I told him I was going to crush him.
We've lived here for several months now, and it's a great house. No major problems, and I've had three different contractors/inspectors go over it.
He is, of course, fighting with me over the few minor problems. Some people never learn.
Kuroth
>How many of them actually do know how to
>actually make paint? Where would the Renaissance
>artists be without the guys who invented oil
>paints?
ah, there's nothing like a little uneducated blather.
Most artists made their own paints. Many of them still do today.
The guy credited with inventing modern oil paint was Jan van Eyck, an artist. Others were using oil paints before him, but he's widely credited with developing a stable oil-based varnish for use in them.
There were later improvements by others, such as the addition of lead oxide by Antonello da Messina, da Vinci's addition of beeswax, and Rubens's grinding techniques. All of those guys, in case you're completely clueless, were artists.
Think, then talk. It works better that way.
Kuroth
>>Does Ford get money when I sell my car as used ??
>No...but your car depreciates in value...rapidly.
So do most music collections.
"What's this? Dokken? Oh, you're the guy that bought this. Man, I can't sell this."
Yup, that's the case that established first sale doctrine. 1908.
The case.
Cycorp's home page.
OpenCyc is the open source version of the project, due to be released in July 2002.
The artificial intelligence FAQ mentions this project.
An interview with founder Doug Lenat.
A dissenting view from 12 years ago, by Christopher Locke.
I implemented Firefly's technology for a customer of theirs a couple years ago. It was pretty interesting stuff.
Firefly had a great company culture - games, dogs, and a bunch of bright people doing cool things.
I remember hearing about it when Microsoft first noticed them. A project manager at FF told me that they weren't worried about being absorbed, because Microsoft's market studies said that people were wary of Microsoft having personal data on them. I guess he was wrong.