It's not like my car, where it degrades over time.
Apparently Pionar has never actually *USED* windows 98-- if you leave it running longer than about a week at a time, I think you'll change your tune:-/
YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE. CEASE AND DESIST
on
FreeBSD 5.1 Released
·
· Score: 3, Funny
Dear Free Software Zealot,
WE the undersigned have reason to believe that the software referred to as *BSD contains source code ("Code") that is the Intellectual Property ("Stuff") of the SCO Group, Inc. Or maybe the SCO Group Stuff contains Code that is the property of *BSD, we're not really sure. But we want your money, either way.
Please stop using *BSD until our lawyers are able to send you an invoice for the Code you are using. If it is easier for you, you can just mail us a check in advance and we'll subtract it from your balance.
Best regards,
D. Boies Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe Attorneys for the SCO Group, Inc
I was looking for this comment to mod up, but nobody's made it yet.
I have 2 basic questions. The first is for the cell providers: why do you encourage your customers to switch providers by offering aggressive discounts on handsets ONLY to new subscribers? Why not reward your existing customer base with even deeper discounts on handsets? The way I see it, AT&T seems to think that my number is worth at least $600 to me. They're wrong.
The second question is: Will number portability force the providers to behave the way I think they should, by offering discounts on handsets to existing customers to encourage loyalty rather than restricting discounts to new activations, to entice customers away from competitors' plans?
I'm in Oakland, CA. Part of my job is to negotiate wireless contracts for healthcare providers, and as a part of making sure we do a good job, we have a satisfaction survey we give to all our customers. This survey asks people how happy they are with their cell service/handset/calling features/customer service from the wireless provider. And the results we have consistently seen for the past 9 months are: as long as you can get service in the places you need it (home, grocery, work, airport, freeway between...) then the providers are basically interchangeable. The pricing and available minutes are very very very close to identical (the one standout is that sprint is still offering "unlimited" data service, while everyone else has data plans that bill by the kb- but it's CDMA2k instead of GPRS, and you can't send SMS messages yet via CDMA2k, so... it's basically unlimited crap).
In the bay area, in LA, in Seattle, in Portland, nobody gives a tinker's damn whether they're on cingular or T-mobile or AT&T or verizon or Sprint. The % of complaints about poor service are very similar, and the locations of "black holes" (like inside a concrete box building full of rebar in the walls) are also surprisingly similar.
all anyone cares about is the handset- people choose providers based on how cool the phones are, and how much of a rebate they can get from the provider for that handset in the market they're in. Now, this makes sense to me, because I really want a Treo 270 or 300, but i want to keep my AT&T number. Right now, my options are
1) keep my AT&T number, buy the Treo 270 direct from Handspring, for $700.00 USD (!!!) with no rebates, because I'm not activating new service, buy a SIM from AT&T, don't tell them what phone I'm going to use it in (because AT&T doesn't support the treo yet) and increase my usage plan to pay for the GPRS data connection.
2) give up the AT&T number, in favor of one from Cingular or T-Moblie, and buy the Treo 270 with GPRS from Amazon for $500 less, or
3) give up the AT&T number, in favor of one from Sprint, and buy the Treo 300 from Amazon for $550 less than I would have to pay for the same functionality on AT&T.
Really, this is ON-topic... just not till the last point i guess:-/ This filter suggestion you have:
Beef up your filters and accept it.
is good. Your logic about the marketers needing 30 days is also reasonable. But since this is a board for nerds, I think it warrants something more involved... you want maintain control over your mailing addresses, and whether or not you recieve mail sent to them. The solutions are out there- you just need to take a few minutes to put the pieces together.
I just started using a new account for my main email address, and I'm taking this opportunity to try to break the chain of spam that I developed over 6 or 7 years of using my last address at a.edu domain. What steps am I taking? (note- of course, this is a linux-centric view. If you're using hotmail/outlook/AOL, and you're really concerned about the spam you get, my only suggestion is "find something else.")
1. Set up Procmail. If you're root, it's a little more involved... if you're not root, odds are procmail is already running somewhere on your system. "man procmail", "man.procmailrc", "man procmailex" should be enough to get you going.
2. Use Spamassassin. Once again, if you're the only user on your domain, it's more work because you have to dl/install/configure the SA program. Lucky for me, i don't have root on my mail domain, and my friendly new sysadmin had it running already- so all I had to do was set up a new procmail recipe like this one. In fact, i think i used that one, exactly.
3. Use sneakemail to generate new email addresses for any public post/contact information. Point the sneakemail account you set up to your real address. Don't ever list your actual REAL address ANYWEHRE that a bot can pick it up off the web. Don't give it out to anyone on the phone. Don't use it to send email to anyone at hotmail. Don't list it in the text on your resume or write it out in your.signature. Don't fill it in on warranty registration postecards.
#3 is the really important one- which is why i brought it up in an earlier post in this thread. You probably have another account that is getting a lot of spam right now, which is why you've read this far. So you.forward that address to your new address, where everything that comes in gets run thru procmail and SA just like any new mail. Procmail lets you set up separate delivery folders for mailing lists, so if you use Sneakemail every time you join a new mailing list, or give your address to another company online, you can direct mail coming to that address into its own folder, because sneakemail tags the "From:" headers with information as to which address someone is sending mail to. SO- to take this particular case in point, you make an "audiogalaxy" sneakemail address, and when you get spam from Sprint on the audiogalaxy address, you know that audiogalaxy sold you out. So you call them up, complain, AND THEN YOU LOG INTO SNEAKEMAIL AND TURN THEM OFF.
Unless you use sneakemail. Whenever I encounter a webform where it seems like I need to provide a valid email address, e.g. to recieve a tracking number or an initial PIN code or some such thing, I just pull up sneakemail, create a new address, label it with the date and the party who is getting the initial address (March 14 03, audiogalaxy).
That way, if audiogalaxy sells that address to someone else, not only do I know where that someone else got my address from and (approximately) when it must have happened, but (and this is the important part)
I CAN CUT THEM OFF
Sprint can send as many emails as they want to the address from audiogalaxy... that address is no longer valid, because sneakemail let me kill it.
yes, i'm a paying subscriber, and i've been using it for about 2 years now.
Not to be a total ass, but what makes you think that folding@home is altruistic? Sure, I can help scientists learn how proteins fold with spare cycles. Do they pay me? No. If my cycles find something significant, do i get rewarded? No. If they win the Nobel for the research done on my equipment, do I get any thanks? No. When they license their discoveries to AmGen, do I get a cut? No.
fuck Stanford and their never-ending supply of MBA-wannabees. They can buy their own lab equipment. I'd rather waste electricity looking for aliens.
Ha. That's the beauty- she's seeking class status in California. Which means that, if you live in Califoria at least, you can join the class, it won't cost you (or her) a dime, and if the class wins or even if the companies settle, you can make a buck or two. Unless you're one of the lawyers (for either side) in which case you'll make $$$shitloads.
recap: 1. buy software with EULA, open software, reject EULA, attempt to return to point of purchase 2. Join class-action lawsuit 3. Profit!!!!
There doesn't seem to be any shortage of those on the roads, and this picture is an example of what happens when you bump into someone while driving your big fiberglass manhood-enhancer.
a bad attitude like the one in the article would get you replaced. Living is all about how you deal with change. Gone are the days that you can get thru 40 years in the same job without learning any new skills. If you resent that, and dream of spending the rest of your life growing old doing exactly the same meaningless thing, then 1. go work for the US government, 2. Go work in Accounts Payable for Kaiser Permanente, 3. retire already or 4. just fucking die and stop wasting the air the rest of us need to breathe.
I agree that there is poorly designed software available. I will stipulate that I have no knowledge of the particular software system that Mr. Fisher has been required to use. But his "oh poor me, I can't learn to use this tool" plea for sympathy falls on deaf ears (blind foveae?). If Marc (he's probably french, which explains his sissy whine) resents the actual design or the functionality of the software he has to use, he could have gotten involved with the team at his company that either designs requirements or selects a particular system after one of the PREVIOUS FOUR TIMES this has happened. But no, he has been content to sit on his fat cheese-eating ass and gripe about it after the fact.
If I were on the other side of this relationship, I, too, would find enormous joy in seeing the arrogant reduced to carping simpletons.
I think this puts his attitude into perspective- this isn't about the software, it's about power. Marc resents that someone, somewhere, had the power to shake his tiny world a little bit without asking his permission first. And _that_ is a very very American attitude.
I want to see mandatory drug testing for congress, with printed pass/fail results, personally.
me too! And I want to see mandatory daily blood alcohol level tests for all elected officials too- at , say, 4PM local time wherever they are. And I want legislation that will automatically eject any person from elected office that fails either kind of test- no appeals, no remorse, no due process- just a boot in the ass.
sigh. but I think that the chances of that actually happening in my lifetime are nil- we'll have a bunch of hypocrites telling us how we should be living for the rest of my forseeable future.
OK, i understant that EW isn't willing to bring the Mafia into the light. But who can ignore the genius of #02F12, the episode where homer goes to clown college? The sequence of Homer's attempts to ride the minibike through the loop-de-loop is the funniest bit of slapstick that's been on TV in years. Krusty bets AGAINST the harlem globetrotters, Fat Tony tries to collect, and it ends with "Speak Softly Love" from "The Godfather..." it brings tears to my eyes.
Tony: I am afraid the time has come for you to pay us.
Krusty: Look, I'm cleaned out. Just take the Clown College. Tony: We have already taken it.
[at the college] Man: Kids have a lot of money these days. So after you finish your performance, you might consider robbing them. Krusty: Look, what did I tell you? You can't get blood from a turnip. You want to kill me? Go ahead and kill me. [someone starts firing at him] Oh! Hey! Hey, all right, OK, already! [firing stops] Look, we can talk this over. Tony: No more talk. It is time for us to take you for a ride. Krusty: Oh, no...mind if I go to the bathroom first? Tony: I see no harm in that.
[Krusty runs off, slams the bathroom door]
[a window slides open; a car speeds away; a plane flies overhead] Legs: When he's done in there, I gotta go.
OK, play lawyer with me for a little bit. What do these licenses actually say? here's one. Seems a little arbitrary, but they're small fry. let's go bigger: here's another. I think this bit applies to the question at hand (emphasis is mine):
3(b) SBC Yahoo! DSL. Your SBC Yahoo! DSL Member Account allows for one DSL connection and one other simultaneous network connection (such as a dial-up line) for a total of two (2) simultaneous network connections to the Internet. SBC reserves the right to prohibit any additional simultaneous network connections.
This policy does not prohibit multiple DSL users from connecting to the Internet over the same DSL network connection using customer premise equipment such as a router or home networking equipment.
How does this imply that you can't share a DSL connection? OTOH, it explicitly says that sharing a connection is OK. however, if we look to AT&T DSL TOS, they are somewhat more restrictive:
8a. Improper Use. You agree to comply with the "ABC's of AT&T Worldnetiquette," which are described in Section 10. You cannot create a network (whether inside or outside of your residence) with AT&T DSL Service using any type of device, equipment, or multiple computers unless AT&T has granted you permission to do so and you use equipment and standards acceptable to AT&T. AT&T may cancel, restrict, or suspend the Services and this Agreement under Section 11 below for violating these provisions.
A little tougher, but it doesn't actually rule out connection-sharing entirely- just requires that AT&T grant you permission, right? So they must have a process for granting the approval, and a list of approved equipment.
Since I'm bored today, I called them up. I pointed the nice lady at their TOS, section 8(a), and asked if she could provide me with a list of AT&T approved equipment, and/or the approval process for home networking. She put me on hold for a bit. When she came back, she told me that AT&T DSL is not the same as AT&T WORLDnet DSL, and i had the wrong phone number- but WORLDnet doesn't allow any kind of connection sharing- and she'd happily transfer me to the REAL AT&T. The second phone monkey had no idea what I was talking about- ditto the 3rd. Neither of them could understand why I would want to ask questions about their TOS if they couldn't even deliver service to my residence. The fourth phone monkey told me that they don't support any kind of multiple connection, and that the "grant you permission" line is in the contract for things like automated security systems that call the police department when someone breaks into your house.
So. Score: SBC +1 (but -1 for their stupid 'frames' patent), AT&T 0. Interesting article, but since I'm on SBC, i won't be changing my NAT settings...
(let's forego the whole argument about Disney and never-expiring copyrights -- that's a different topic).
Nice try, Mr. Eisner. Unfortunately, this is exactly the topic. The fact is that businesses which benefit from copyrights that don't expire are co-opting the legal processes in the USA, which is what the original post is about. This law is just an expression of a more general malaise.
If you violate my copyright, then I want you punished. If you think this is unfair of me, then fart in my general direction and don't use my work. I will certainly understand and not be offended in the slightest.
That's nice that you own a copyrighted work. I have the right to incorporate your work when making a parody, whether or not you are offended by it-- I think Mattel proved that today. But that's not the point. The point is that I used to have a second option- I could wait for you to die. Once you were dead, there was a proscribed period during which I could not use your original work- but if I was lucky enough to live 100 years after you, well after world+dog had forgotten your name and what you used to be famous for, I could take your idea and breathe life into it and bring it new relevance in my new time so that people could enjoy it again. And if I had a proper sense of humility, I could even give you credit for inspiring me.
As it stands now, I can do all of that- but I have to pay Disney, or BMG, or SONY for the priveledge of trying to make a house on the foundation that you built, so some random fuck that neither you nor I have ever met (you've been dead for 50 years, remember?) can keep making the payments on his goddamn X5 beemer.
You cannot expect every artist to put their works into the public domain or license them for free distribution.
nooo-ooo, but I can expect that the Constitution of the United States should mean more than the wishes of Disney, Inc. to the lawmakers in this country. After all, that's the oath they swore to when they took office. Right now, my expectations are not being met. Since I don't have the financial power to impact(read: buy the vote of) 95% of the lawmakers, especially the oneswhobenefit the most from 'donations' made by the content industry, I'd rather exercise my power of civil disobedience against the companies who pay for their re-election campaigns. Make 'em feel it in the pocket, dontchaknow. And I don't think that Rosa Parks intended to make a scene, I think she was just fed up by the bullshit she had to go through every day. People aren't stupid- if they learn of a better way to get to what they want, they'll take it. Right now, the record industry doesn't need more laws protecting copyright- they need someone to build a better mousetrap.
I'd be thrilled if someone would press charges- I'd go to jail (or guantanamo) first. File sharing cases would overwhelm the courts, and the laws would be changed. I don't see change happening that way, but I guess anything is possible.
Let's make a test case. Why don't you put your money where your mouth is? I'm not the Devil, testing your faith... Michael Eisner is the only man who can currently claim that distinction and I no longer think you're him. Send me some of this 'content' you claim to have, via Kazaa. Call it "Mr_Icon.MP3" or whatever you want. I'll download it, and then re-publish it, and you can sue me for copyright violation and charge me for criminal violation of the NET act. I'll be waiting for your reply...
When I started my job after greduation this past May, I tried to get a new clause inserted into the agreement, basically saying that if I worked on something on my own time, with my own resources, that didn't relate to something my company or their clients did, I would own it, not the company.
This is one of those issues that is pretty important, and that gets handled differently depending on the state where you live, whether the contract stipluates local governing law, and how much of a stickler for details you really want to be.
For instance, in California the courts seem to recognize that work you do at home, on your own time, and with your own assets (paper, pens, PC, telephone line) is your own, regardless of the contract you sign with your employer-- as long as you keep the two sets of activities separate. So, if you happen to have an idea while you're away from work, on your own time, don't talk to anyone about it while you're at work, and don't use any company resources to develop the idea.
For a counterexample, Texas seems to accept any employment contract you can dream up at face value; I guess the idea is that if you're careless enough to agree to unfavorable terms, you deserve whatever treatment you get. So if you're in Dallas, and you sign something that says "All my base are belong to you," everything you think of really _DOES_ belong to your employer, whether you're on call 24-7 or not.
I accepted a job in California about 5 months ago, and I was presented with the Texas version of my new employer's boilerplate language. I read some stuff from old/. and findlaw.org, read some more stuff on lawmeme, and finally called a couple of attorneys out of the phone book. Here's a thread from that time on ask/. and this is my comment from that time.
I finally decided that several of the clauses, specifically the disclosure of inventions and the work for hire clause didn't apply to me --while they were perfectly legal, if draconian, under Texas law, they were unenforceable in California, where the work in question would be performed-- so I struck those lines from the contract before I signed it.
Apparently Lexmark have two types of toner cartridge, one for users to keep and one "recyclable" that's "owned by Lexmark" that's cheaper.
well, that's not strictly correct. Lexmark has one type of toner cartridge, and two types of toner PRICING. The one you purchased is priced with a "pre-bate" which is an upfront discount based on your agreement to return the cartridge, so that they can recycle the housing or refill the cart with toner and sell it again in some 3rd world country.
And as far as auditing your compliance with your shrink-wrap contract, maybe you're not a big enough fish to fry. But imagine that you're say Wal-Mart and you buy, say, a million toner cartridges a year for various Lexmark printers, and you pay the pre-bate price rather than the list price, thus "saving" your company tens of millions of dollars. You can bet your sweet ass that Lexmark will make sure that they're getting at least 80% of those pre-bate cartridges back, or they're going to send you a bill for the balance you owe them as a result of breach of contract.
Oh and FYI, that first toner cart is ususally light, i.e. not as full as the one you will buy when it runs out. It's like crack- the first taste is free. You may be replacing it sooner than you think:-).
Marketing is what you do to generate demand when nobody wants to buy what you're selling. If people already want what you're making, why fuck it up by calling it "New and Improved- NOW WITH 30% MORE!"
Not my concern if your manufacturing methods are not optimal. Seems to me the last step in manufacturing a computer is to copy the software on. If it costs you more to not put software on a computer, there is something wrong with your company!
I agree with your point about cost, but I don't think you have the assembly procedure right. I bet that Dell burns software onto a blank hard disk BEFORE it is assembled into a complete PC- it's called "Imaging." Did you think they put the whole thing together, plug it in, turn it on, and then put the Windows install CD into the cupholder?
I picture Dell's assembly line like this: one by one, empty cases come down the conveyor. At each stage of the line, at tech (or a robot) pulls a part from a bin and snaps it into the case. So right now they have a bin full of 20 GB HD's with win 2K already loaded, and right next to that is a bin full of 20 GB HD's with win XP already loaded, and it's somebody's job to make sure each box gets one or the other snapped into the right place. So we're talking about having a 3rd bin of 20GB HD's with -nothing- installed, which shouldn't represent any increase in incremental cost of assembly, unless they were total dumbasses when they designed the assembley line and don't have enough space in the facility for one or two more bins of parts.
of course, at the end of the line, they have an intern to say something dumb for the TV cameras...
Anyway, I hope I didn't push him too hard. he left me, eventually, but I don't think it was over the computer.
you should do yourself a favor and wear a big sign on your forehead that says "BAD NEWS: NARROW-MINDED AND HIGH-STRUNG." That way, other people won't waste your valuable time by trying to have meaningful relationships with you.
wrong question. The right one is, "Who is making money from the pay phones?" I don't know NY/Jersey very well, but I bet it's Sprint/AT&T. As long as they can charge you 50 cents for 2 minutes on a local call, you're goddamn right your cell phone won't work in JFK.
Slashdot Mirror
Apparently Pionar has never actually *USED* windows 98-- if you leave it running longer than about a week at a time, I think you'll change your tune
Dear Free Software Zealot,
WE the undersigned have reason to believe that the software referred to as *BSD contains source code ("Code") that is the Intellectual Property ("Stuff") of the SCO Group, Inc. Or maybe the SCO Group Stuff contains Code that is the property of *BSD, we're not really sure. But we want your money, either way.
Please stop using *BSD until our lawyers are able to send you an invoice for the Code you are using. If it is easier for you, you can just mail us a check in advance and we'll subtract it from your balance.
Best regards,
D. Boies
Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe
Attorneys for the SCO Group, Inc
I was looking for this comment to mod up, but nobody's made it yet.
I have 2 basic questions. The first is for the cell providers: why do you encourage your customers to switch providers by offering aggressive discounts on handsets ONLY to new subscribers? Why not reward your existing customer base with even deeper discounts on handsets? The way I see it, AT&T seems to think that my number is worth at least $600 to me. They're wrong.
The second question is: Will number portability force the providers to behave the way I think they should, by offering discounts on handsets to existing customers to encourage loyalty rather than restricting discounts to new activations, to entice customers away from competitors' plans?
I'm in Oakland, CA. Part of my job is to negotiate wireless contracts for healthcare providers, and as a part of making sure we do a good job, we have a satisfaction survey we give to all our customers. This survey asks people how happy they are with their cell service/handset/calling features/customer service from the wireless provider. And the results we have consistently seen for the past 9 months are: as long as you can get service in the places you need it (home, grocery, work, airport, freeway between...) then the providers are basically interchangeable. The pricing and available minutes are very very very close to identical (the one standout is that sprint is still offering "unlimited" data service, while everyone else has data plans that bill by the kb- but it's CDMA2k instead of GPRS, and you can't send SMS messages yet via CDMA2k, so... it's basically unlimited crap).
In the bay area, in LA, in Seattle, in Portland, nobody gives a tinker's damn whether they're on cingular or T-mobile or AT&T or verizon or Sprint. The % of complaints about poor service are very similar, and the locations of "black holes" (like inside a concrete box building full of rebar in the walls) are also surprisingly similar.
all anyone cares about is the handset- people choose providers based on how cool the phones are, and how much of a rebate they can get from the provider for that handset in the market they're in. Now, this makes sense to me, because I really want a Treo 270 or 300, but i want to keep my AT&T number. Right now, my options are
1) keep my AT&T number, buy the Treo 270 direct from Handspring, for $700.00 USD (!!!) with no rebates, because I'm not activating new service, buy a SIM from AT&T, don't tell them what phone I'm going to use it in (because AT&T doesn't support the treo yet) and increase my usage plan to pay for the GPRS data connection.
2) give up the AT&T number, in favor of one from Cingular or T-Moblie, and buy the Treo 270 with GPRS from Amazon for $500 less, or
3) give up the AT&T number, in favor of one from Sprint, and buy the Treo 300 from Amazon for $550 less than I would have to pay for the same functionality on AT&T.
Really, this is ON-topic... just not till the last point i guess :-/ This filter suggestion you have:
.edu domain. What steps am I taking? (note- of course, this is a linux-centric view. If you're using hotmail/outlook/AOL, and you're really concerned about the spam you get, my only suggestion is "find something else.")
.procmailrc", "man procmailex" should be enough to get you going.
.signature. Don't fill it in on warranty registration postecards.
.forward that address to your new address, where everything that comes in gets run thru procmail and SA just like any new mail. Procmail lets you set up separate delivery folders for mailing lists, so if you use Sneakemail every time you join a new mailing list, or give your address to another company online, you can direct mail coming to that address into its own folder, because sneakemail tags the "From:" headers with information as to which address someone is sending mail to. SO- to take this particular case in point, you make an "audiogalaxy" sneakemail address, and when you get spam from Sprint on the audiogalaxy address, you know that audiogalaxy sold you out. So you call them up, complain, AND THEN YOU LOG INTO SNEAKEMAIL AND TURN THEM OFF.
Beef up your filters and accept it.
is good. Your logic about the marketers needing 30 days is also reasonable. But since this is a board for nerds, I think it warrants something more involved... you want maintain control over your mailing addresses, and whether or not you recieve mail sent to them. The solutions are out there- you just need to take a few minutes to put the pieces together.
I just started using a new account for my main email address, and I'm taking this opportunity to try to break the chain of spam that I developed over 6 or 7 years of using my last address at a
1. Set up Procmail. If you're root, it's a little more involved... if you're not root, odds are procmail is already running somewhere on your system. "man procmail", "man
2. Use Spamassassin. Once again, if you're the only user on your domain, it's more work because you have to dl/install/configure the SA program. Lucky for me, i don't have root on my mail domain, and my friendly new sysadmin had it running already- so all I had to do was set up a new procmail recipe like this one. In fact, i think i used that one, exactly.
3. Use sneakemail to generate new email addresses for any public post/contact information. Point the sneakemail account you set up to your real address. Don't ever list your actual REAL address ANYWEHRE that a bot can pick it up off the web. Don't give it out to anyone on the phone. Don't use it to send email to anyone at hotmail. Don't list it in the text on your resume or write it out in your
#3 is the really important one- which is why i brought it up in an earlier post in this thread. You probably have another account that is getting a lot of spam right now, which is why you've read this far. So you
Unless you use sneakemail. Whenever I encounter a webform where it seems like I need to provide a valid email address, e.g. to recieve a tracking number or an initial PIN code or some such thing, I just pull up sneakemail, create a new address, label it with the date and the party who is getting the initial address (March 14 03, audiogalaxy).
That way, if audiogalaxy sells that address to someone else, not only do I know where that someone else got my address from and (approximately) when it must have happened, but (and this is the important part)
I CAN CUT THEM OFF
Sprint can send as many emails as they want to the address from audiogalaxy... that address is no longer valid, because sneakemail let me kill it.
yes, i'm a paying subscriber, and i've been using it for about 2 years now.
Not to be a total ass, but what makes you think that folding@home is altruistic? Sure, I can help scientists learn how proteins fold with spare cycles. Do they pay me? No. If my cycles find something significant, do i get rewarded? No. If they win the Nobel for the research done on my equipment, do I get any thanks? No. When they license their discoveries to AmGen, do I get a cut? No.
fuck Stanford and their never-ending supply of MBA-wannabees. They can buy their own lab equipment. I'd rather waste electricity looking for aliens.
right on. It's not like their salaries come out of the taxes we pay or anything like that.
Ha. That's the beauty- she's seeking class status in California. Which means that, if you live in Califoria at least, you can join the class, it won't cost you (or her) a dime, and if the class wins or even if the companies settle, you can make a buck or two. Unless you're one of the lawyers (for either side) in which case you'll make $$$shitloads.
recap:
1. buy software with EULA, open software, reject EULA, attempt to return to point of purchase
2. Join class-action lawsuit
3. Profit!!!!
one word: corvette.
There doesn't seem to be any shortage of those on the roads, and this picture is an example of what happens when you bump into someone while driving your big fiberglass manhood-enhancer.
from the article...
It takes much longer to turn on your machine in the morning now than it did 20 years ago.
Your bosses let you turn off your computer? How can you do any work with it turned off?
a bad attitude like the one in the article would get you replaced. Living is all about how you deal with change. Gone are the days that you can get thru 40 years in the same job without learning any new skills. If you resent that, and dream of spending the rest of your life growing old doing exactly the same meaningless thing, then 1. go work for the US government, 2. Go work in Accounts Payable for Kaiser Permanente, 3. retire already or 4. just fucking die and stop wasting the air the rest of us need to breathe.
I agree that there is poorly designed software available. I will stipulate that I have no knowledge of the particular software system that Mr. Fisher has been required to use. But his "oh poor me, I can't learn to use this tool" plea for sympathy falls on deaf ears (blind foveae?). If Marc (he's probably french, which explains his sissy whine) resents the actual design or the functionality of the software he has to use, he could have gotten involved with the team at his company that either designs requirements or selects a particular system after one of the PREVIOUS FOUR TIMES this has happened. But no, he has been content to sit on his fat cheese-eating ass and gripe about it after the fact.
If I were on the other side of this relationship, I, too, would find enormous joy in seeing the arrogant reduced to carping simpletons.
I think this puts his attitude into perspective- this isn't about the software, it's about power. Marc resents that someone, somewhere, had the power to shake his tiny world a little bit without asking his permission first. And _that_ is a very very American attitude.
I want to see mandatory drug testing for congress, with printed pass/fail results, personally.
me too! And I want to see mandatory daily blood alcohol level tests for all elected officials too- at , say, 4PM local time wherever they are. And I want legislation that will automatically eject any person from elected office that fails either kind of test- no appeals, no remorse, no due process- just a boot in the ass.
sigh. but I think that the chances of that actually happening in my lifetime are nil- we'll have a bunch of hypocrites telling us how we should be living for the rest of my forseeable future.
Krusty bets AGAINST the harlem globetrotters, Fat Tony tries to collect, and it ends with "Speak Softly Love" from "The Godfather..." it brings tears to my eyes.
the bit at the end makes it all worthwhile.
you can read all the dialoghere.
here's one.
Seems a little arbitrary, but they're small fry. let's go bigger:
here's another.
I think this bit applies to the question at hand (emphasis is mine):
How does this imply that you can't share a DSL connection? OTOH, it explicitly says that sharing a connection is OK.
however, if we look to AT&T DSL TOS, they are somewhat more restrictive:
A little tougher, but it doesn't actually rule out connection-sharing entirely- just requires that AT&T grant you permission, right? So they must have a process for granting the approval, and a list of approved equipment.
Since I'm bored today, I called them up. I pointed the nice lady at their TOS, section 8(a), and asked if she could provide me with a list of AT&T approved equipment, and/or the approval process for home networking. She put me on hold for a bit. When she came back, she told me that AT&T DSL is not the same as AT&T WORLDnet DSL, and i had the wrong phone number- but WORLDnet doesn't allow any kind of connection sharing- and she'd happily transfer me to the REAL AT&T. The second phone monkey had no idea what I was talking about- ditto the 3rd. Neither of them could understand why I would want to ask questions about their TOS if they couldn't even deliver service to my residence. The fourth phone monkey told me that they don't support any kind of multiple connection, and that the "grant you permission" line is in the contract for things like automated security systems that call the police department when someone breaks into your house.
So. Score: SBC +1 (but -1 for their stupid 'frames' patent), AT&T 0. Interesting article, but since I'm on SBC, i won't be changing my NAT settings...
Nice try, Mr. Eisner. Unfortunately, this is exactly the topic. The fact is that businesses which benefit from copyrights that don't expire are co-opting the legal processes in the USA, which is what the original post is about. This law is just an expression of a more general malaise.
That's nice that you own a copyrighted work. I have the right to incorporate your work when making a parody, whether or not you are offended by it-- I think Mattel proved that today. But that's not the point. The point is that I used to have a second option- I could wait for you to die. Once you were dead, there was a proscribed period during which I could not use your original work- but if I was lucky enough to live 100 years after you, well after world+dog had forgotten your name and what you used to be famous for, I could take your idea and breathe life into it and bring it new relevance in my new time so that people could enjoy it again. And if I had a proper sense of humility, I could even give you credit for inspiring me.
As it stands now, I can do all of that- but I have to pay Disney, or BMG, or SONY for the priveledge of trying to make a house on the foundation that you built, so some random fuck that neither you nor I have ever met (you've been dead for 50 years, remember?) can keep making the payments on his goddamn X5 beemer.
nooo-ooo, but I can expect that the Constitution of the United States should mean more than the wishes of Disney, Inc. to the lawmakers in this country. After all, that's the oath they swore to when they took office. Right now, my expectations are not being met. Since I don't have the financial power to impact(read: buy the vote of) 95% of the lawmakers, especially the ones who benefit the most from 'donations' made by the content industry, I'd rather exercise my power of civil disobedience against the companies who pay for their re-election campaigns. Make 'em feel it in the pocket, dontchaknow. And I don't think that Rosa Parks intended to make a scene, I think she was just fed up by the bullshit she had to go through every day. People aren't stupid- if they learn of a better way to get to what they want, they'll take it. Right now, the record industry doesn't need more laws protecting copyright- they need someone to build a better mousetrap.
I'd be thrilled if someone would press charges- I'd go to jail (or guantanamo) first. File sharing cases would overwhelm the courts, and the laws would be changed. I don't see change happening that way, but I guess anything is possible.
Let's make a test case. Why don't you put your money where your mouth is? I'm not the Devil, testing your faith... Michael Eisner is the only man who can currently claim that distinction and I no longer think you're him. Send me some of this 'content' you claim to have, via Kazaa. Call it "Mr_Icon.MP3" or whatever you want. I'll download it, and then re-publish it, and you can sue me for copyright violation and charge me for criminal violation of the NET act. I'll be waiting for your reply...
This is one of those issues that is pretty important, and that gets handled differently depending on the state where you live, whether the contract stipluates local governing law, and how much of a stickler for details you really want to be.
For instance, in California the courts seem to recognize that work you do at home, on your own time, and with your own assets (paper, pens, PC, telephone line) is your own, regardless of the contract you sign with your employer-- as long as you keep the two sets of activities separate. So, if you happen to have an idea while you're away from work, on your own time, don't talk to anyone about it while you're at work, and don't use any company resources to develop the idea.
For a counterexample, Texas seems to accept any employment contract you can dream up at face value; I guess the idea is that if you're careless enough to agree to unfavorable terms, you deserve whatever treatment you get. So if you're in Dallas, and you sign something that says "All my base are belong to you," everything you think of really _DOES_ belong to your employer, whether you're on call 24-7 or not.
I accepted a job in California about 5 months ago, and I was presented with the Texas version of my new employer's boilerplate language. I read some stuff from old
I finally decided that several of the clauses, specifically the disclosure of inventions and the work for hire clause didn't apply to me --while they were perfectly legal, if draconian, under Texas law, they were unenforceable in California, where the work in question would be performed-- so I struck those lines from the contract before I signed it.
Something simple, like ALIENS FROM ANOTHER WORLD!
well, that's not strictly correct. Lexmark has one type of toner cartridge, and two types of toner PRICING. The one you purchased is priced with a "pre-bate" which is an upfront discount based on your agreement to return the cartridge, so that they can recycle the housing or refill the cart with toner and sell it again in some 3rd world country.
And as far as auditing your compliance with your shrink-wrap contract, maybe you're not a big enough fish to fry. But imagine that you're say Wal-Mart and you buy, say, a million toner cartridges a year for various Lexmark printers, and you pay the pre-bate price rather than the list price, thus "saving" your company tens of millions of dollars. You can bet your sweet ass that Lexmark will make sure that they're getting at least 80% of those pre-bate cartridges back, or they're going to send you a bill for the balance you owe them as a result of breach of contract.
Oh and FYI, that first toner cart is ususally light, i.e. not as full as the one you will buy when it runs out. It's like crack- the first taste is free. You may be replacing it sooner than you think
Keep a stiff upper lip, old chap. Don't use their website.
And if you're really feeling nasty, go set their offices on fire.
Marketing is what you do to generate demand when nobody wants to buy what you're selling. If people already want what you're making, why fuck it up by calling it "New and Improved- NOW WITH 30% MORE!"
I agree with your point about cost, but I don't think you have the assembly procedure right. I bet that Dell burns software onto a blank hard disk BEFORE it is assembled into a complete PC- it's called "Imaging." Did you think they put the whole thing together, plug it in, turn it on, and then put the Windows install CD into the cupholder?
I picture Dell's assembly line like this: one by one, empty cases come down the conveyor. At each stage of the line, at tech (or a robot) pulls a part from a bin and snaps it into the case. So right now they have a bin full of 20 GB HD's with win 2K already loaded, and right next to that is a bin full of 20 GB HD's with win XP already loaded, and it's somebody's job to make sure each box gets one or the other snapped into the right place. So we're talking about having a 3rd bin of 20GB HD's with -nothing- installed, which shouldn't represent any increase in incremental cost of assembly, unless they were total dumbasses when they designed the assembley line and don't have enough space in the facility for one or two more bins of parts.
of course, at the end of the line, they have an intern to say something dumb for the TV cameras...
And how nice would it be if they all came with a similar warning :-)
you should do yourself a favor and wear a big sign on your forehead that says "BAD NEWS: NARROW-MINDED AND HIGH-STRUNG." That way, other people won't waste your valuable time by trying to have meaningful relationships with you.
just make sure it's not fujitsu.
Call that progress?
wrong question. The right one is, "Who is making money from the pay phones?" I don't know NY/Jersey very well, but I bet it's Sprint/AT&T. As long as they can charge you 50 cents for 2 minutes on a local call, you're goddamn right your cell phone won't work in JFK.