Except that most public library systems make a point of destroying records of what individual patrons check out, for this very reason.
The ClevNET consortium, in the Cleveland, Ohio area, where I work, for instance, does not retain any personally identifiable information after you return your books, provided that they are returned on time. If they are overdue, your name is kept associated with the book till you pay the fines. And if you have books checked out, that is also recorded.
The library does keep records of which books are checked out, from which libraries, and how often. The public libraries are really the least your worries - we're on the same side in this craziness.
I'm not exactly the biggest fan of digital books, so perhaps a grain of salt or two is in order, but, um, what's so great about this, as compared to the print version?
The book is in print at $45, and probably available used for considerably less. 1200-odd pages of New Kind of Science, even printed at $.03 a page is still a $36 printout. And it's not bound.
I am not a electrical engineer but I have to imagine that physically smaller computers would mean shorter cables, lower latency, and an overall somewhat faster computer.
The terms of the rebate aren't all that good, and the only ones who really win are the lawyers who filed the suit. Still, the terms are better than the Gateway 2000 class action suit over defective monitors, a few years back. You could get $6 towards the cost of a new Gateway monitor, or $12 towards the cost of a new Gateway computer. The lawyers got somewhere around a million dollars. In comparison to the GW2k class action, the Iomega one looks pretty good.
Hmmmm.... Maybe if I used my Zip drive to monitor the pressure in the tires on an SUV, I could get them to replace it instead of giving me a rebate on more junk I don't need.
For those individuals troubled by the low quality of fake mir fragments, things that look like strange sculptures or are bolts, I offer an alternative.
I offer two fake Mir fragments, a smaller one and a larger one. Although these are fakes, they are of the highest quality, having been made with parts from a toaster oven and a computer of about the same vintage as Mir.
Well, it seems that Ebay has removed the big chunk of Mir listed on the main/. page.
It seems that at least one other person claims to have a piece of Mir, a control panel
Personally, I am waiting for a piece of Mir on Ebay that includes an actual photograph.
Like many others, I have found floppy disks to be extremely unreliable. They seem to have become even more unreliable in recent years. (The 5.25s I have from 10 years ago have much less corruption than the the 3.5s from 5 years ago.)
My solution - a decent file server and a cheap CDR. MacOS 8.0 and higher, as well as Win95 and higher make it very easy to run a file server on your desktop pc. I run a private server on my computer, for which only I have the password. If I need to access or save a file, anywhere in the world connected to the internet, I can do this. If someone else needs a file, I can create a directory on the server for the file, and give the person access to that directory.
Once a week, I use a CDR drive to make a backup of all the important documents. The cost of this is very low ($120 for the drive, $0.20 per disc.) If someone needs something on a floppy disc, virtually all the time, they have a CDROM drive anyway, so I just burn them a disc. Much more reliable than floppies, and much more data, too.
I am not advocating the following action - it just struck me as slightly funny, and something that might work. However, I am not certain of the legal implications. Therefore, I cannot advocate it.
Turn in everyone IF you are in a town that institutes such a system, go to your local library and get the yearbook for the high school (the local libraries almost always have them) and then call the number and turn in every student. At the time that 95+ percent of the students in the school had been turned in, they might realize that something was wrong with the system.
Some people seem to be so surprised that doubleclick is changing because of negative feedback, rather than because they feel some moral need to behave in the most just manner. Am I the only one who sees this as rather normal? Almost all companies exist for the sake of making a profit, and those that really care about their customers tend to remain smaller. It is not just doubleclick that will do anything for money, it is virtually any company.
People ask what is so special about 1 Ghz? Simple - it sounds cool. Sort of like nano.
Gigahertz is not necessarily better than megahertz, but it has a certain mystique that makes it great to market. Mega was already a common prefix before it came into common usage in reference to processors or other computer things. Thus when using the term mega in marketing, it had certain implications from prior usage.
Giga is different. Giga is not in common usage for things other than computers or electronics. So the companies that make giga products can create whatever meaning they want for it. As a result, giga tends to be marketed as new and better, because, for most people, it is new. Example: a certain cordless phone is toted as having "gigarange". For most people, this has little meaning, other than a new, better cordless phone. In reference to phones, more gigahertz is not necessarily any better - they are just different bands.
For some reason, giga has a certain appeal. My guess is that it is for the same reason we like other things that involve the rolling over of zeroes, like the transition from 1999 to 2000. For reasons I do not understand, people, at this point in time, like this sort of change. I am almost certain people will behave in a similar manner as tera comes into more common usage.
Many people have stated that the actions of the FTC in this case are "too little too late". I disagree.
If the FTC had fined Trans Union an appropriate amount for what they have done, it would put Trans Union out of business. The purpose of the FTC is not to put companies out of business (I think, please correct me if I am wrong), but to cause them, by reasonable means, to behave in a just manner.
On the other hand, if the FTC had given Trans Union some petty symbolic fine, it would set a precedent that would be difficult to change if Trans Union continued this behavior. With this sort of fine, Trans Union might continue their present behavior and see future fines merely as a cost of staying in business.
I would like to think that there might be a better solution, but I am unable to come up with one. In this light, I think that the decision of the FTC is reasonably good, as it will force Trans Union to stop behaing in the current manner, but still allow them to exist. Because as much as I do not like Trans Union (or any credit record companies), they provide a valuable service, one that makes it easier to do business.
I an not a scientist, so I do not claim to understand the specific problems involved with this situation. I leave the control of this spacecraft in the hands of those who actually understand the situation.
As for the cost, yes, $1.5 billion is a lot of money. But divided equally amoung the population of the USA, it comes out to about $5 per person (figuring 300 million people). This project has already done quite a bit. I think it has been worth my $5.
The problem with names is that any name, no matter how well intentioned, will be made fun of, eventually. Especially if people want to.
Ever been in a group of people where someone decides that it is fun to find and make fun of the sexual connotation in whatever anyone else says? Ever notice how s/he is able to do this with virtually every sententence? It will always be true.
Even if, at the extreme, a mascot or team was replaced with something so arbitrary as a number, people would find ways to make fun of it. 69, anyone?
My point is that unless the name or mascot is offensive and dated, like the Cleveland Indians Chief Wahoo, it should not be changed, as whatever new thing that is created will be at least as easy, if not easier than what was there before. And some filters block the term "beaver"? It makes the blocking of "soccer" seem almost... not completely insane?
I do not think that the ablility for states to charge sales tax on internet purchases would make that much of a difference on internet commerce. Most of the stores I buy from on the internet charge sales tax already, either because they have physical retail stores in my state, or for other reasons unbeknownst to me. Even with these taxes, the purchases I make at these stores are a really good deal to me.
As a college student without a car, it is difficult for me to get into cities that have some of the basic things I need, like art supplies. Although Utrecht an art supply store, has a physical store in Cleveland, about 50 minutes drive (virtually everything takes at least an hour to get to) , I make most of my purchases from their internet store. It is cheaper than the physical store, and they do not charge shipping. So for all this, to have to pay state sales tax is not so bad.
The only question I feel the need to ask is which state will be able to collect the sales tax, the one where the seller is, or the one where the buyer is?
I hate to be a bit off topic, but it seems that to say what is next, I must be. So be it.
Would all the people who "hate Jon Katz" please refrain from posting messages stating this unless you have something constructive to add. (i.e. "I hate Jon Katz because he didn't write this story, but instead stole this one from me, altering the facts and messing up all that was good in it.")
If nothing else, Katz's articles provide much food for though, material to provoke discussion. So it is best if the articles are used for intelligent discussion, rather than flamewars. If you don't like the articles, don't read them. Or if you have a problem with the ideas stated in the article, show why they are wrong. But say something constructive.
ebay, please help. I wanted to bid, followed the link, and was told that item 116072115 was no longer in the database. But I was not looking for 116072115, but 5789731987123 - please tell me where I can find it.
Sounds fair enough, but there is a lot of cheaper porn available (on ebay, even!) and most of it tends to look more like real people. (nothing against art that is not realistic, but people tend to like realism in pornography)
Also, who has a $50 million credit limit? Or even $1 million? Or even $100,000? Not many people.
It seems reasonable that Sothebeys would want to have some sort of internet connection, especially noting the success of eWolfs. Wolfs the premier auction house in Cleveland. A few months ago, they started holding auctions on the web. Items were available for viewing before the auction at their auction house, but virtually all of the bids were done over the internet. As a result, the proceeds from the auction were about double of what was expected. People who did not have the time to spend the entire day at the auction house to bid on an item or two were able to bid.
This has been, as I understand it, rather big news in the professional auction community. Based on this, it is understandable that other auction houses would want to do internet auctions. It makes sense to team up with ebay, rather than trying to reinvent the technology ebay had already developed.
If what people are suggesting is true, that as more music is pirated, more money will be made by the people who sell the music, this could change commerce as we know it.
Cars, for instance. People would copy cars (using 3d scanners and AutoCatalyst) and post them on ftp sites. Users would get most of the value of the car, without all the space that they normally take up. Along with solving parking problems in many major cities, this would also cause car sales and profit per car to rise.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, Gutenberg does have On The Origin Of Species.
Except that most public library systems make a point of destroying records of what individual patrons check out, for this very reason.
The ClevNET consortium, in the Cleveland, Ohio area, where I work, for instance, does not retain any personally identifiable information after you return your books, provided that they are returned on time. If they are overdue, your name is kept associated with the book till you pay the fines. And if you have books checked out, that is also recorded.
The library does keep records of which books are checked out, from which libraries, and how often. The public libraries are really the least your worries - we're on the same side in this craziness.
I'm not exactly the biggest fan of digital books, so perhaps a grain of salt or two is in order, but, um, what's so great about this, as compared to the print version?
The book is in print at $45, and probably available used for considerably less. 1200-odd pages of New Kind of Science, even printed at $.03 a page is still a $36 printout. And it's not bound.
Why not just get the print book?
Last I checked, users don't spend too much time in server rooms, so this shouldn't be much of an issue.
I am not a electrical engineer but I have to imagine that physically smaller computers would mean shorter cables, lower latency, and an overall somewhat faster computer.
Can't wait to see the looks on the faces of the people at Virginia Tech when they see the xServe G5
I'll bet this was the person selling all those iTunes gift certificates on ebay.
Just a hunch.
The terms of the rebate aren't all that good, and the only ones who really win are the lawyers who filed the suit. Still, the terms are better than the Gateway 2000 class action suit over defective monitors, a few years back. You could get $6 towards the cost of a new Gateway monitor, or $12 towards the cost of a new Gateway computer. The lawyers got somewhere around a million dollars. In comparison to the GW2k class action, the Iomega one looks pretty good.
Hmmmm.... Maybe if I used my Zip drive to monitor the pressure in the tires on an SUV, I could get them to replace it instead of giving me a rebate on more junk I don't need.
For those individuals troubled by the low quality of fake mir fragments, things that look like strange sculptures or are bolts, I offer an alternative.
I offer two fake Mir fragments, a smaller one and a larger one. Although these are fakes, they are of the highest quality, having been made with parts from a toaster oven and a computer of about the same vintage as Mir.
Well, it seems that Ebay has removed the big chunk of Mir listed on the main /. page.
It seems that at least one other person claims to have a piece of Mir, a control panel
Personally, I am waiting for a piece of Mir on Ebay that includes an actual photograph.
Sigh.
Now I'll need to find some other way to keep the post office from mangling my magazines when they stuff them into my P.O. Box.
What? There was data on those discs?
Like many others, I have found floppy disks to be extremely unreliable. They seem to have become even more unreliable in recent years. (The 5.25s I have from 10 years ago have much less corruption than the the 3.5s from 5 years ago.)
My solution - a decent file server and a cheap CDR. MacOS 8.0 and higher, as well as Win95 and higher make it very easy to run a file server on your desktop pc. I run a private server on my computer, for which only I have the password. If I need to access or save a file, anywhere in the world connected to the internet, I can do this. If someone else needs a file, I can create a directory on the server for the file, and give the person access to that directory.
Once a week, I use a CDR drive to make a backup of all the important documents. The cost of this is very low ($120 for the drive, $0.20 per disc.) If someone needs something on a floppy disc, virtually all the time, they have a CDROM drive anyway, so I just burn them a disc. Much more reliable than floppies, and much more data, too.
Fair enough. The intent of the disclaimer is better represented by the statement "I advocate this only to the extent that it is legal."
I am not advocating the following action - it just struck me as slightly funny, and something that might work. However, I am not certain of the legal implications. Therefore, I cannot advocate it.
Turn in everyone
IF you are in a town that institutes such a system, go to your local library and get the yearbook for the high school (the local libraries almost always have them) and then call the number and turn in every student. At the time that 95+ percent of the students in the school had been turned in, they might realize that something was wrong with the system.
Some people seem to be so surprised that doubleclick is changing because of negative feedback, rather than because they feel some moral need to behave in the most just manner. Am I the only one who sees this as rather normal? Almost all companies exist for the sake of making a profit, and those that really care about their customers tend to remain smaller. It is not just doubleclick that will do anything for money, it is virtually any company.
People ask what is so special about 1 Ghz? Simple - it sounds cool. Sort of like nano.
Gigahertz is not necessarily better than megahertz, but it has a certain mystique that makes it great to market. Mega was already a common prefix before it came into common usage in reference to processors or other computer things. Thus when using the term mega in marketing, it had certain implications from prior usage.
Giga is different. Giga is not in common usage for things other than computers or electronics. So the companies that make giga products can create whatever meaning they want for it. As a result, giga tends to be marketed as new and better, because, for most people, it is new. Example: a certain cordless phone is toted as having "gigarange". For most people, this has little meaning, other than a new, better cordless phone. In reference to phones, more gigahertz is not necessarily any better - they are just different bands.
For some reason, giga has a certain appeal. My guess is that it is for the same reason we like other things that involve the rolling over of zeroes, like the transition from 1999 to 2000. For reasons I do not understand, people, at this point in time, like this sort of change. I am almost certain people will behave in a similar manner as tera comes into more common usage.
Many people have stated that the actions of the FTC in this case are "too little too late". I disagree.
If the FTC had fined Trans Union an appropriate amount for what they have done, it would put Trans Union out of business. The purpose of the FTC is not to put companies out of business (I think, please correct me if I am wrong), but to cause them, by reasonable means, to behave in a just manner.
On the other hand, if the FTC had given Trans Union some petty symbolic fine, it would set a precedent that would be difficult to change if Trans Union continued this behavior. With this sort of fine, Trans Union might continue their present behavior and see future fines merely as a cost of staying in business.
I would like to think that there might be a better solution, but I am unable to come up with one. In this light, I think that the decision of the FTC is reasonably good, as it will force Trans Union to stop behaing in the current manner, but still allow them to exist. Because as much as I do not like Trans Union (or any credit record companies), they provide a valuable service, one that makes it easier to do business.
I an not a scientist, so I do not claim to understand the specific problems involved with this situation. I leave the control of this spacecraft in the hands of those who actually understand the situation.
As for the cost, yes, $1.5 billion is a lot of money. But divided equally amoung the population of the USA, it comes out to about $5 per person (figuring 300 million people). This project has already done quite a bit. I think it has been worth my $5.
The problem with names is that any name, no matter how well intentioned, will be made fun of, eventually. Especially if people want to.
Ever been in a group of people where someone decides that it is fun to find and make fun of the sexual connotation in whatever anyone else says? Ever notice how s/he is able to do this with virtually every sententence? It will always be true.
Even if, at the extreme, a mascot or team was replaced with something so arbitrary as a number, people would find ways to make fun of it. 69, anyone?
My point is that unless the name or mascot is offensive and dated, like the Cleveland Indians Chief Wahoo, it should not be changed, as whatever new thing that is created will be at least as easy, if not easier than what was there before. And some filters block the term "beaver"? It makes the blocking of "soccer" seem almost... not completely insane?
I do not think that the ablility for states to charge sales tax on internet purchases would make that much of a difference on internet commerce. Most of the stores I buy from on the internet charge sales tax already, either because they have physical retail stores in my state, or for other reasons unbeknownst to me. Even with these taxes, the purchases I make at these stores are a really good deal to me.
As a college student without a car, it is difficult for me to get into cities that have some of the basic things I need, like art supplies. Although Utrecht an art supply store, has a physical store in Cleveland, about 50 minutes drive (virtually everything takes at least an hour to get to) , I make most of my purchases from their internet store. It is cheaper than the physical store, and they do not charge shipping. So for all this, to have to pay state sales tax is not so bad.
The only question I feel the need to ask is which state will be able to collect the sales tax, the one where the seller is, or the one where the buyer is?
I hate to be a bit off topic, but it seems that to say what is next, I must be. So be it.
Would all the people who "hate Jon Katz" please refrain from posting messages stating this unless you have something constructive to add. (i.e. "I hate Jon Katz because he didn't write this story, but instead stole this one from me, altering the facts and messing up all that was good in it.")
If nothing else, Katz's articles provide much food for though, material to provoke discussion. So it is best if the articles are used for intelligent discussion, rather than flamewars. If you don't like the articles, don't read them. Or if you have a problem with the ideas stated in the article, show why they are wrong. But say something constructive.
ebay, please help. I wanted to bid, followed the link, and was told that item 116072115 was no longer in the database. But I was not looking for 116072115, but 5789731987123 - please tell me where I can find it.
Sounds fair enough, but there is a lot of cheaper porn available (on ebay, even!) and most of it tends to look more like real people. (nothing against art that is not realistic, but people tend to like realism in pornography)
Also, who has a $50 million credit limit? Or even $1 million? Or even $100,000? Not many people.
It seems reasonable that Sothebeys would want to have some sort of internet connection, especially noting the success of eWolfs. Wolfs the premier auction house in Cleveland. A few months ago, they started holding auctions on the web. Items were available for viewing before the auction at their auction house, but virtually all of the bids were done over the internet. As a result, the proceeds from the auction were about double of what was expected. People who did not have the time to spend the entire day at the auction house to bid on an item or two were able to bid.
This has been, as I understand it, rather big news in the professional auction community. Based on this, it is understandable that other auction houses would want to do internet auctions. It makes sense to team up with ebay, rather than trying to reinvent the technology ebay had already developed.
If what people are suggesting is true, that as more music is pirated, more money will be made by the people who sell the music, this could change commerce as we know it.
Cars, for instance. People would copy cars (using 3d scanners and AutoCatalyst) and post them on ftp sites. Users would get most of the value of the car, without all the space that they normally take up. Along with solving parking problems in many major cities, this would also cause car sales and profit per car to rise.
WinAuto, anyone?