Part of the problem, at last least as I see it, is that parents think that trying to completely eliminate something from the sphere of perception is more noble than actually educating their kids on what's out there, and why they think it should be avoided. That's where *real* values come from- not the fake "let's all bury our heads in the sand and pretend it doesn't exist" stuff that seems to be more common than not.
That "most people" may not include stockholders. I think it will be quite interesting to see how investors and any board members take to the fact that not *everything* associated with the company's business plan is slated to produce revenue.
It is my opinion that modern-day patents, particularly software patents, go out of their way to reveal a generalized and overly-broad description of what's being patented. They cover the what but avoid discussing as much of the how as possible, and the reason they do this is obvious - more detail offers more opportunity for innovation when people can make incremental improvements. More incremental improvements means more competition- but why endure competitive forces if you can simply scare anyone away from even trying?
Open WiFi networks represent a potential maelstrom of scum and villainy, according to some people. SCO chairman Ralph Yarro recently told the Utah legislature that the state should regulate WiFi networks, even to the point of banning free and unintentionally open networks.
Their defence mechanism is the fact that they have a huge legal department that is consulted during the development stages of new ideas.
New ideas? This is Microsoft. The standard m.o. seems to focus on taking ideas that are readily available, modifying them in insignificant ways, and calling it "innovation," and then patenting it. This isn't unique to Microsoft, but it's sure a large part of their approach to R&D.
Ah, the ongoing saga of how to sustain a failing business model. Accuse everyone of stealing and demand a cut of the sales of other products that you *insist* are cutting into your profits. It's brilliant in a way - you never really have to be accountable for the quality of the stuff that you claim people are stealing. I wonder if the downward slide (that they claim exists anyway) might be due to the fact that it's very easy for people to gauge the quality of what's being offered *before* actually forking over their money.
>>I think the last paragraph is disconnected with reality, but the second paragraph makes a good point or two.
That's the one paragraph that I'm most tempted to dismiss...it's not the Internet's fault that Windows is such a crappy operating system. Windows is after all, the reason that many of these problems exist.
Re:Vista: the cowtow starts now
on
AMD's New DRM
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· Score: 2, Interesting
MS didn't HAVE to do this. IT was a choice. Do you think it would have mattered even the slightest if MS told the media companies to get bent, and that it was THEIR responsibility to protect their oh-so-precious content?
Mitt Romney is running for president, and he has a video over on YouTube asking, "What do you think is America's greatest challenge?" Toddle on over and tell him what you think (I'd venture to say that it will work best if you keep it diplomatic in tone).
The capitalistic douche bags that will do anything to keep a new technology (a threat to their entrenched interests) from entering the market, no matter how good it is.
Truth be told, I'm not sure he "earned" anything. He merely supplied the conduit through which Halliburton was able to secure a significant increase in government contracts. If I remember, I've seen questions asking why A large company such as Halliburton would want to hire, as their CEO no less, someone with no prior relevant business experience. Well, here's your answer.
I was thinking about this just the other day, and here's what I came up with - it's not pretty, but I think it does at least partly explain the attitude that American have about their government. The reason there is so much apathy is simple: you can't order a fix at McDonald's. It will be a long, painful process, and I think people generally just want to live their lives without having to babysit the likes of Dubya and his neo-con cronies. This doesn't make it right, but I think it does explain it a little.
Reading should be MANDATORY - how it ever got to this point were reading (and hence, understanding) the laws that are passed, is beyond me. I'd go so far as to call it political malpractice. And it should be actionable.
Another poster mentioned this link . Interestingly the article was written back in 2003. The fact that we've lost so many soldiers with little means for a substantive response, suggests that this effort was an utter failure- at least for any military application. Used against a civilian population (which is probably the ultimate intent), may yield something more positive (but that depends on which side of the fence you happen to be standing).
This Republican influence started a while ago - Aspartame also faced opposition - by, if I remember, the FDA's own staff. But it was still approved. And guess who was behind that one...none other than Rummy himself.
I agree - it's clearly beyond the scope of what the current administration can offer. Besides, they only have two years to get it done- in the next election, I foresee even more Republicans getting their walking papers. Ain't gonna happen. And if it does, it's time for recalls. Congress STILL controls the funding.
But at any rate, kids shouldn't be expected to work they butts off like adults do.
Why not? This country survived its formative years not because some special interest group was pursuing every opportunity to coddle different classes of people people for various reasons, but because people realized - it was quite literally, do or die. Kids were every bit as much a part of this as the adults - everyone had their share of the work that had to be done. Ironically, school was often a luxury- it was viable only when it didn't interfere with other activities, like bringing in the harvest. *This* was work.
Contrast that with today...kids have "social lives," they go to school, sit on their butts for six hours, "socialize," worrying about what new article of clothing so-and-so just bought, and then whine about homework. What a rough life they must have.
How do we know it's not the DOT IT guy's way of saying, "Hey Bill...my palm is wide open - if you grease it with enough of the green stuff, I might just might be able to find a justification to upgrade after all." Isn't that usually how these Microsoft-related moratoriums work?
I found out the other day that my hosting company, DailyRazor.com, pulls a cute little trick - they have these offers that say you get x number of months of free hosting with y number of months pre-paid. So you buy the account thinking that as long as you've paid by the deadline, you're ok. It so happens that if you didn't enter a specific "coupon code" when you signed up, you forfeit the free hosting. At the bottom of their sign up form, it says, "Have a coupone? Enter it here..." - when I think of a "coupon" I think of a piece of paper that I might have received in the mail, or seen in a magazine. I didn't have either of these, so I didn't enter anything. I didn't give it a second thought until I saw that they issued my second invoice two months early. I have been going back and forth with them over this, and as of yet, they have refused to make any concessions. If you need servlet-based hosting, avoid the hassle and look for another company.
I haven't yet made single purchase from Amazon, and that's apparently the way that Mr. Bezos wants it. No skin off my back. I prefer to reward my business to vendors who aren't so caught up in their own, unique little perception of a completely stupid patent. Go for it, Jeff. I hope "one-click" serves you well, but I sure as hell won't be part of it.
I think Stevie's problem is that there's nothing remarkable he can do while at the helm of Microsoft. How much more market saturation could Microsoft hope for? Any further increases will be very small. Of course, Stevie wants everyone to think that he made some kind of historic contribution, but there's no way that's going to happen, he has to create the illusion that he actually matters. And how does he do this? By going all Darl on us.
Steve- let me impart some wisdom on your overpaid corporate ass...you're wasting your time.
Same here. Another thing that worries me is that YT is starting to round up the "talent" and turn it into something that churns out organized "productions". This is completely contrary to what YT is about. I subscribe to people because I like what *they* do - not what they do under the control of influence of some centralized entity. May as well call it YTTV.
YouTube is on its way to becoming a has-been. The problems go far beyond copyright holders wanting to protect their property. Stupid message posting limits, "Recently added" videos that "aren't available" for several hours, and a few, for far longer, and other strange and annoying problems. Some of these have been around for a while, and have yet to be fixed. But still, YouTube expects me to sit and watch a stupid ad? Not even.
Slashdot Mirror
Part of the problem, at last least as I see it, is that parents think that trying to completely eliminate something from the sphere of perception is more noble than actually educating their kids on what's out there, and why they think it should be avoided. That's where *real* values come from- not the fake "let's all bury our heads in the sand and pretend it doesn't exist" stuff that seems to be more common than not.
That "most people" may not include stockholders. I think it will be quite interesting to see how investors and any board members take to the fact that not *everything* associated with the company's business plan is slated to produce revenue.
and in exchange for disclosing the details
It is my opinion that modern-day patents, particularly software patents, go out of their way to reveal a generalized and overly-broad description of what's being patented. They cover the what but avoid discussing as much of the how as possible, and the reason they do this is obvious - more detail offers more opportunity for innovation when people can make incremental improvements. More incremental improvements means more competition- but why endure competitive forces if you can simply scare anyone away from even trying?
You'll notice this funny little bit:
Open WiFi networks represent a potential maelstrom of scum and villainy, according to some people. SCO chairman Ralph Yarro recently told the Utah legislature that the state should regulate WiFi networks, even to the point of banning free and unintentionally open networks.
Who would know better about sco^hum and villainy?
Or getting wise.
Their defence mechanism is the fact that they have a huge legal department that is consulted during the development stages of new ideas.
New ideas? This is Microsoft. The standard m.o. seems to focus on taking ideas that are readily available, modifying them in insignificant ways, and calling it "innovation," and then patenting it. This isn't unique to Microsoft, but it's sure a large part of their approach to R&D.
Do a google search for +accenture +disaster - same old story, different cover.
Ah, the ongoing saga of how to sustain a failing business model. Accuse everyone of stealing and demand a cut of the sales of other products that you *insist* are cutting into your profits. It's brilliant in a way - you never really have to be accountable for the quality of the stuff that you claim people are stealing. I wonder if the downward slide (that they claim exists anyway) might be due to the fact that it's very easy for people to gauge the quality of what's being offered *before* actually forking over their money.
>>I think the last paragraph is disconnected with reality, but the second paragraph makes a good point or two.
That's the one paragraph that I'm most tempted to dismiss...it's not the Internet's fault that Windows is such a crappy operating system. Windows is after all, the reason that many of these problems exist.
MS didn't HAVE to do this. IT was a choice. Do you think it would have mattered even the slightest if MS told the media companies to get bent, and that it was THEIR responsibility to protect their oh-so-precious content?
Mitt Romney is running for president, and he has a video over on YouTube asking, "What do you think is America's greatest challenge?" Toddle on over and tell him what you think (I'd venture to say that it will work best if you keep it diplomatic in tone).
The capitalistic douche bags that will do anything to keep a new technology (a threat to their entrenched interests) from entering the market, no matter how good it is.
Truth be told, I'm not sure he "earned" anything. He merely supplied the conduit through which Halliburton was able to secure a significant increase in government contracts. If I remember, I've seen questions asking why A large company such as Halliburton would want to hire, as their CEO no less, someone with no prior relevant business experience. Well, here's your answer.
I was thinking about this just the other day, and here's what I came up with - it's not pretty, but I think it does at least partly explain the attitude that American have about their government. The reason there is so much apathy is simple: you can't order a fix at McDonald's. It will be a long, painful process, and I think people generally just want to live their lives without having to babysit the likes of Dubya and his neo-con cronies. This doesn't make it right, but I think it does explain it a little.
Reading should be MANDATORY - how it ever got to this point were reading (and hence, understanding) the laws that are passed, is beyond me. I'd go so far as to call it political malpractice. And it should be actionable.
Another poster mentioned this link . Interestingly the article was written back in 2003. The fact that we've lost so many soldiers with little means for a substantive response, suggests that this effort was an utter failure- at least for any military application. Used against a civilian population (which is probably the ultimate intent), may yield something more positive (but that depends on which side of the fence you happen to be standing).
This Republican influence started a while ago - Aspartame also faced opposition - by, if I remember, the FDA's own staff. But it was still approved. And guess who was behind that one...none other than Rummy himself.
I agree - it's clearly beyond the scope of what the current administration can offer. Besides, they only have two years to get it done- in the next election, I foresee even more Republicans getting their walking papers. Ain't gonna happen. And if it does, it's time for recalls. Congress STILL controls the funding.
But at any rate, kids shouldn't be expected to work they butts off like adults do.
Why not? This country survived its formative years not because some special interest group was pursuing every opportunity to coddle different classes of people people for various reasons, but because people realized - it was quite literally, do or die. Kids were every bit as much a part of this as the adults - everyone had their share of the work that had to be done. Ironically, school was often a luxury- it was viable only when it didn't interfere with other activities, like bringing in the harvest. *This* was work.
Contrast that with today...kids have "social lives," they go to school, sit on their butts for six hours, "socialize," worrying about what new article of clothing so-and-so just bought, and then whine about homework. What a rough life they must have.
How do we know it's not the DOT IT guy's way of saying, "Hey Bill...my palm is wide open - if you grease it with enough of the green stuff, I might just might be able to find a justification to upgrade after all." Isn't that usually how these Microsoft-related moratoriums work?
I found out the other day that my hosting company, DailyRazor.com, pulls a cute little trick - they have these offers that say you get x number of months of free hosting with y number of months pre-paid. So you buy the account thinking that as long as you've paid by the deadline, you're ok. It so happens that if you didn't enter a specific "coupon code" when you signed up, you forfeit the free hosting. At the bottom of their sign up form, it says, "Have a coupone? Enter it here..." - when I think of a "coupon" I think of a piece of paper that I might have received in the mail, or seen in a magazine. I didn't have either of these, so I didn't enter anything. I didn't give it a second thought until I saw that they issued my second invoice two months early. I have been going back and forth with them over this, and as of yet, they have refused to make any concessions. If you need servlet-based hosting, avoid the hassle and look for another company.
I haven't yet made single purchase from Amazon, and that's apparently the way that Mr. Bezos wants it. No skin off my back. I prefer to reward my business to vendors who aren't so caught up in their own, unique little perception of a completely stupid patent. Go for it, Jeff. I hope "one-click" serves you well, but I sure as hell won't be part of it.
I think Stevie's problem is that there's nothing remarkable he can do while at the helm of Microsoft. How much more market saturation could Microsoft hope for? Any further increases will be very small. Of course, Stevie wants everyone to think that he made some kind of historic contribution, but there's no way that's going to happen, he has to create the illusion that he actually matters. And how does he do this? By going all Darl on us.
Steve- let me impart some wisdom on your overpaid corporate ass...you're wasting your time.
Same here. Another thing that worries me is that YT is starting to round up the "talent" and turn it into something that churns out organized "productions". This is completely contrary to what YT is about. I subscribe to people because I like what *they* do - not what they do under the control of influence of some centralized entity. May as well call it YTTV.
YouTube is on its way to becoming a has-been. The problems go far beyond copyright holders wanting to protect their property. Stupid message posting limits, "Recently added" videos that "aren't available" for several hours, and a few, for far longer, and other strange and annoying problems. Some of these have been around for a while, and have yet to be fixed. But still, YouTube expects me to sit and watch a stupid ad? Not even.