Sound practice, that. If the customer says, "No, I'm not pirating anything, I'm putting Linux on that machine," the retailer has done their part.
No, the retailer has done Microsoft's part. The retailers part is to make money selling computers, and that would be better served by selling the bloody computer, naked if that is what the customer wants.
Besides, if all "naked" Pc-buyers are pirates by default, who are supposed to buy the boxed Windows sets?
Americans may enjoy some legal protection against FBI (or others) abusing the carnivore system. WHat legal or moral protection exists to people who are not blessed with an U.S. citizenship? Are we fair game when ever our communications happen to be routed via USA?
they take the example of the U.S. Government, and ask a respectable university to do a proper audit on the scheme? This way they could be absolutely certain that the code is unbreakable, and has no ill side effects...
1) Average moderation
Any (non-AC) reader may moderate any article to anywhere between -1 and +5. The article gets a basic rating as the average of the moderations.
A poster gets his karma as the average of his postings. To avoid giving unnecessary high importance to the first few moderators, a post starts with 10 moderation votes at the karma level of the poster.
2) individual reading
Any reader may choose how his articles are to be filtered:
* By the average moderation done to them (default), or
* By the karma of the poster, or
* By a weighed average of the moderations, where the weights are calculated from how well the tastes of each moderator match the tastes of the reader, as expressed in their earlier moderation histories.
I know the last proposal sounds heavy to implement, but I believe there exist various statistical shortcuts for this sort of grouping and cross-correlation
IANAL, nor American, but I seem to recall it to be the other way around. If you start policing, they may hold you responsible of everything on the board, whereas if you claim it all is the posters responsibility, you are more like a common carrier, and the offended party will have to sue the poster, not the site. Remember Microsoft vs. Slashdot earlier this year?
Could some respectable universities please audit this thing very quickly, and publish the results. Just to show that they can be professional and co-operative, when allowed to see what they are reviewing...
The benefits of one-click shopping are not available the first time you shop, then you have to use many more clicks to register. Amazon may expect their customers to come back and buy more books quite often, but honestly, how many Apple customers are expected to come back and buy another Mac within any foreseeable future?
Ok, IANAL, nor do I have any clear understanding of law in general, and even less of the law as applied in the U.S. of A.
That said, I'd recommend you read your contract very carefully. Maybe all your obligations would be satisified with a letter stating that as by your contract you will assign any rights to this "invention" to the company, but as you find it distasteful to apply for a patent on it, you do not see yourslelf as being obliged to assist them anyt further in the process. Further waste of your time will have to be compensated at $1000.000 an hour. But *do* check with your lawyer, and let him write this letter for you.
but what does this fo to the International Red Cross, Amnesty International, Boy Scouts, Sports, Politics, Churches?
And what about students? Asking clever (or not) questions is sort of voluntary work, helping to improve the course.
What if I tell the time to a stranger? What if I "volunteer" to repair my own car, or install Linux on my PC? Should I not pay myself? And isn't that taxable income?
What if I "volunteer" to post on./
Better stop now, and find a good lawyer. Am I allowed to look for one?
Shameless plug: We at Index Data provide lots of tools you can use for this.
- Zebra information server. Eats Marc (UsMarc, other local variants) as well as XML, mails, newsgroups, etc. You can add more input filters. Talks Z39.50
- Yaz Z39.50 toolkit for client and server side
- Zap web gateway and a PHP module for building easy search gateways to anything that understands Z39.50, for example our own Zebra
- and more. Even more to come later...
I am of course biased, but these tools are designed for library applications.
All open source, at Index Data.
Don't some modems support acting as the "other end" of a phone line? So, connect your Tivo (or whatever) directly to the jack of such a modem, which sits in your Linux, and fake the rest with a few scripts.
Of course then you may not be able to use the services bundled with the device, but a few scripts more, and you should have your own services up and running. Pay those $9.95 to yourself!
Could some telecom-guru explain why this modem trick does not work, or what it would take to make it work? And someone else explain how hard the scripting can be? I've never seen such a device...
Actually not that uncommon here in Denmark. In one larger company they had three drink wending machines in the canteen: 1 cola and 2 for beer. In the smaller ones it has usually been beer in the fridge, use at your discretion. Usually only domestic, though. At least Danish domestic, like Carlsberg and Tuborg, in a few variants...
Some of the blocks that have hit me hard have been due to not quite knowing what to do. Afterwards I can see that I've had a lot of subconcious processes going on all the time, eating away a lot of energy, trying to understand the project.
This suggests two ways to approach the problem: Improve your understanding: Read a lot, design, plan, talk it over with a colleague (or a friend, or a cat), etc.; Or leave more processing power for the background task: take a walk, play games, write documentation, tidy your desk. Sooner or later the Eureka experience will hit you, and the coding itself will turn out to be surprisingly easy.
It takes lot of confidence (also/especially from your boss) to spend a day "doing nothing" when there are only so many days until the deadline. And it doesn't work every time. But for me it seems to be one of the more effective ways around a block.
If someone offered you music in a system that would - stop working when someone declares a mysterious "phase 2" start - have built-in chain-letter marketing mechanisms - require "protected" players and wires to transfer would you even consider using it? No music can be that good!
... review system needs to be implemented on an independent site, complete with their form of karma (the "Top 1000 reviewers"), and accessibility to all.
Here is a business idea free for the taking. Just add the management of all the micro-payments. Charge a few % of the money-flow through the site to cover the expenses, and a meager profit.
Is this where Amazon is trying to get, by running the deal for King? Will they try to patent it? Fatbrain, take over, quick!
Why should gamma rays and a hard vacuum be any more difficult to survive if it is in space? Because of the combination with EUV and low gravity, perhaps?
Although I agree that it is Deja's own system, and that they may do quite much with it, this seems to go over the line. When they quote others, as they do all the time, they have at least a moral, probably also a legal obligation to do so undistorted.
If I write that I am using an Acme widget, I do not want to be quoted as I am using an Acme widget which you can buy at a great price from DiscountAcme! Nor do I want anyone to add links in my text, if in the text I promise that I have personally checked all links mentioned in this post!
If they put the links in the margins or before/after the text, that'd be their own business.
And I don't buy the "just add this X-header" argument either. Am I, as an usenet user, supposed to be aware of the quirks of all news-referring services. Next thing they want me to add a header if I will not want to purchase the products they think I would like, or what? Deja does not own the usenet!
P.S. Doesn't the press ethic (and law in most countries) dictate a clear separation between text and advertisments, so that the readers can know what is what?
I have yet to see any strong advocacy movement on slashdot to allow children of all ages to see XXX porno freely.
This may not count as strong advocacy, although I wouldn't see anything wrong with it. Then again, I live in Denmark, where pornography has been free since 1970, and pornographic magazines (at least of the cheaper quality) are easily available at every station, shop, or newsstand. Whole generation of kids have grown up with this, and no ill effects are to be seen. No increase in sex crime, mental disease, or blindness.
So, instead of radiating your brain you keep the phone on your belt, radiating your reproductive organs. Guess what a little bit of damage will do there?
Slashdot Mirror
Do you suffer from
* Depression
* Anxiety
* Stress
* Burn-out
* None of above
* All of above
* I don't suffer, I enjoy them
No, the retailer has done Microsoft's part. The retailers part is to make money selling computers, and that would be better served by selling the bloody computer, naked if that is what the customer wants.
Besides, if all "naked" Pc-buyers are pirates by default, who are supposed to buy the boxed Windows sets?
What do they take me for? I want to build a relationship with a slim blonde, not a piece of electronics, product name, or a marketing company!
Shouldn't everybody know by know that Everest is a mere hill, the only *mountain* is K2
Americans may enjoy some legal protection against FBI (or others) abusing the carnivore system. WHat legal or moral protection exists to people who are not blessed with an U.S. citizenship? Are we fair game when ever our communications happen to be routed via USA?
they take the example of the U.S. Government, and ask a respectable university to do a proper audit on the scheme? This way they could be absolutely certain that the code is unbreakable, and has no ill side effects...
1) Average moderation
Any (non-AC) reader may moderate any article to anywhere between -1 and +5. The article gets a basic rating as the average of the moderations. A poster gets his karma as the average of his postings. To avoid giving unnecessary high importance to the first few moderators, a post starts with 10 moderation votes at the karma level of the poster.
2) individual reading
Any reader may choose how his articles are to be filtered:
* By the average moderation done to them (default), or
* By the karma of the poster, or
* By a weighed average of the moderations, where the weights are calculated from how well the tastes of each moderator match the tastes of the reader, as expressed in their earlier moderation histories.
I know the last proposal sounds heavy to implement, but I believe there exist various statistical shortcuts for this sort of grouping and cross-correlation
Still, talking to a lawyer might a good idea
Could some respectable universities please audit this thing very quickly, and publish the results. Just to show that they can be professional and co-operative, when allowed to see what they are reviewing...
That said, I'd recommend you read your contract very carefully. Maybe all your obligations would be satisified with a letter stating that as by your contract you will assign any rights to this "invention" to the company, but as you find it distasteful to apply for a patent on it, you do not see yourslelf as being obliged to assist them anyt further in the process. Further waste of your time will have to be compensated at $1000.000 an hour. But *do* check with your lawyer, and let him write this letter for you.
And what about students? Asking clever (or not) questions is sort of voluntary work, helping to improve the course.
What if I tell the time to a stranger? What if I "volunteer" to repair my own car, or install Linux on my PC? Should I not pay myself? And isn't that taxable income?
What if I "volunteer" to post on ./
Better stop now, and find a good lawyer. Am I allowed to look for one?
That's the problem. Us Europeans have Marks, Pounds, Franks, Guilders, Krones, but no dollars!
Keep writing it on the net as long as contributions keep rolling in.
- Zebra information server. Eats Marc (UsMarc, other local variants) as well as XML, mails, newsgroups, etc. You can add more input filters. Talks Z39.50
- Yaz Z39.50 toolkit for client and server side
- Zap web gateway and a PHP module for building easy search gateways to anything that understands Z39.50, for example our own Zebra
- and more. Even more to come later...
I am of course biased, but these tools are designed for library applications. All open source, at Index Data.
Of course then you may not be able to use the services bundled with the device, but a few scripts more, and you should have your own services up and running. Pay those $9.95 to yourself!
Could some telecom-guru explain why this modem trick does not work, or what it would take to make it work? And someone else explain how hard the scripting can be? I've never seen such a device...
According to the Annals of Improbable Research (or what ever JIR is now called), the official compromise is that milennium started 1-July-2000.
Actually not that uncommon here in Denmark. In one larger company they had three drink wending machines in the canteen: 1 cola and 2 for beer. In the smaller ones it has usually been beer in the fridge, use at your discretion. Usually only domestic, though. At least Danish domestic, like Carlsberg and Tuborg, in a few variants...
This suggests two ways to approach the problem: Improve your understanding: Read a lot, design, plan, talk it over with a colleague (or a friend, or a cat), etc.; Or leave more processing power for the background task: take a walk, play games, write documentation, tidy your desk. Sooner or later the Eureka experience will hit you, and the coding itself will turn out to be surprisingly easy.
It takes lot of confidence (also/especially from your boss) to spend a day "doing nothing" when there are only so many days until the deadline. And it doesn't work every time. But for me it seems to be one of the more effective ways around a block.
If someone offered you music in a system that would
- stop working when someone declares a mysterious "phase 2" start
- have built-in chain-letter marketing mechanisms
- require "protected" players and wires to transfer
would you even consider using it? No music can be that good!
Here is a business idea free for the taking. Just add the management of all the micro-payments. Charge a few % of the money-flow through the site to cover the expenses, and a meager profit.
Is this where Amazon is trying to get, by running the deal for King? Will they try to patent it? Fatbrain, take over, quick!
Why should gamma rays and a hard vacuum be any more difficult to survive if it is in space? Because of the combination with EUV and low gravity, perhaps?
If I write that I am using an Acme widget, I do not want to be quoted as I am using an Acme widget which you can buy at a great price from DiscountAcme! Nor do I want anyone to add links in my text, if in the text I promise that I have personally checked all links mentioned in this post!
If they put the links in the margins or before/after the text, that'd be their own business.
And I don't buy the "just add this X-header" argument either. Am I, as an usenet user, supposed to be aware of the quirks of all news-referring services. Next thing they want me to add a header if I will not want to purchase the products they think I would like, or what? Deja does not own the usenet!
P.S. Doesn't the press ethic (and law in most countries) dictate a clear separation between text and advertisments, so that the readers can know what is what?
This may not count as strong advocacy, although I wouldn't see anything wrong with it. Then again, I live in Denmark, where pornography has been free since 1970, and pornographic magazines (at least of the cheaper quality) are easily available at every station, shop, or newsstand. Whole generation of kids have grown up with this, and no ill effects are to be seen. No increase in sex crime, mental disease, or blindness.
So, instead of radiating your brain you keep the phone on your belt, radiating your reproductive organs. Guess what a little bit of damage will do there?