There is an interesting line of thought in the (thank goodness overruled) patenting of natural DNA (taken from this article):
"The isolated DNA molecules before us are not found in nature," Judge Alan D. Lourie wrote. "They are obtained in the laboratory and are man-made, the product of human ingenuity."
Sounds reasonable? Until you realize that DNA is just a chain of information blocks. Then it reads: "While these words do occur in sentences in nature, they do not appear by themselves. Therefore they are man-made, therefore patentable." Off course, once the patent has been granted, it is used to attack all other sentences that contain that word. As long as patent judges utter those patently stupid verdicts, no patent system in the world can ever do good.
As far as I know the Invisible Hand theory is as follows: Each "actor" (people in economics are by no means human) should strive for self interest: if a producer, ask the highest price possible, if a consumer, demand the lowest price possible. This will "magically" tend to an equilibrium of "right" prices, and therefore overall wellbeing is maximized. So if all people (I do believe in humans) are as greedy as possible, they are equally greedy (!) and things cancel out nicely. Mind you, "overall wellbeing" is defined here as "maximum trade". This is off course total nonsense.
Or, as the fictional character Gordon Gekko stated (shamelessly copied from Wikipedia):
Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A.
The unbelievable thing is that Adam Smith appeared to be a religious man, and clearly thought that self-interest (greed) was a divine thing, not one of the seven sins.
When combined it means locking out potential users of your web service because their geographical location conflicts with licensing and copyright agreements.
But usually in combination with money. Heck, money is its own religion nowadays. Most of those winning religious people believe more in the "invisible hand" than in the ten commandments.
Not necessarily tax payers dollars. In fact, the patents already force people to pay hidden taxes on products. You could charge the patent trolls more for their patents, have a "flood-penalty" for entities holding more than a few patents, etc. It would be extremely unfair to make the tax payers bleed for being ripped off. Punish the wrongdoers, not the victims.
Solar and wind are useful supplements but too unreliable to stand alone
I don't know how it is at your side of the planet, but here you can set your watch at the time the sun gets up. The sun has never let us down so far. I sincerely cannot see why we should have power 24/7 * 3, given the fact that we literally are burning an unsustainably large part of our planet as we speak. But especially with solar energy, there is more than enough room if we all put our sunboilers and solar panels on our houses and just share the excess. The main problem here is off course that the electricity companies have to give up their monopoly. But you can so much with the sun it is almost a crime not to use it.
There are also many things you can do with wind. Many high-power jobs do not need to be done 24/7, so you could build an "unreliable" grid that only gives power when there is wind. You'd be surprised what you can do with it!
You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it. Right now, the patent offices (on both sides of the Pond) are the problem. If prior art does not stop patent attacks, nothing will. Funding the enemy is the worst solution possible.
Agreed. Allowing 3rd party cookies is just a security bug. It is just like all other cross-site attacks: sensitive data can be leaked to sites that the user did NOT want to visit or leak his info to. Thank goodness there are extensions to work around this bug.
Given the fact that microsecond trading data centres are mostly anonymous (you will have a hard time finding out who they belong to, who is doing such trading and those firms want to keep it that way), this must be a tip of a snowflake, not even a minor iceberg. While this is an insane amount of money, the real richest people probably own a Godzillion more, but have "structured it away" to keep it secret.
By not disclosing X, you gain a competitive advantage Y.
So you can screw {h where h in World}. Like the poster said, that is quite unethical. I never understand how people can confuse "free market" with "free people", as they are usually opposites.
Slashdot Mirror
There is an interesting line of thought in the (thank goodness overruled) patenting of natural DNA (taken from this article):
"The isolated DNA molecules before us are not found in nature," Judge Alan D. Lourie wrote. "They are obtained in the laboratory and are man-made, the product of human ingenuity."
Sounds reasonable? Until you realize that DNA is just a chain of information blocks. Then it reads: "While these words do occur in sentences in nature, they do not appear by themselves. Therefore they are man-made, therefore patentable." Off course, once the patent has been granted, it is used to attack all other sentences that contain that word. As long as patent judges utter those patently stupid verdicts, no patent system in the world can ever do good.
Sure, but unlike Maemo/Meego/Sailfish, it was Not Invented Here.
Almost true. It's about resources. Machines get to fight for their own oil, for example. Too bad there are probably humans in the way.
In other words, they're just like any existing western country.
As far as I know the Invisible Hand theory is as follows: Each "actor" (people in economics are by no means human) should strive for self interest: if a producer, ask the highest price possible, if a consumer, demand the lowest price possible. This will "magically" tend to an equilibrium of "right" prices, and therefore overall wellbeing is maximized. So if all people (I do believe in humans) are as greedy as possible, they are equally greedy (!) and things cancel out nicely. Mind you, "overall wellbeing" is defined here as "maximum trade". This is off course total nonsense.
Or, as the fictional character Gordon Gekko stated (shamelessly copied from Wikipedia):
Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures, the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind and greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the U.S.A.
The unbelievable thing is that Adam Smith appeared to be a religious man, and clearly thought that self-interest (greed) was a divine thing, not one of the seven sins.
For those who think "What on earth is geotarding?", http://www.shootingatbubbles.com/archives/geotarding-is-as-useful-as-llama-spit/ has an explanation:
When combined it means locking out potential users of your web service because their geographical location conflicts with licensing and copyright agreements.
That is exactly what they are doing. Oh wait, you were talking about the Amish?
The Amish adapt way better to the real world than financial institutions. It should be our concern.
But usually in combination with money. Heck, money is its own religion nowadays. Most of those winning religious people believe more in the "invisible hand" than in the ten commandments.
They're not Jewish. The Jewish love loopholes.
Defacing the entire economy: Have a grab in the country's wallet!
We DID. There was a referendum and the outcome was NO. That did not stop our corrupt politicians though.
Unless it is done by governments or influential companies, I suppose. On the other hand, no exceptions will be made for investigating journalists.
Not necessarily tax payers dollars. In fact, the patents already force people to pay hidden taxes on products. You could charge the patent trolls more for their patents, have a "flood-penalty" for entities holding more than a few patents, etc. It would be extremely unfair to make the tax payers bleed for being ripped off. Punish the wrongdoers, not the victims.
Solar and wind are useful supplements but too unreliable to stand alone
I don't know how it is at your side of the planet, but here you can set your watch at the time the sun gets up. The sun has never let us down so far. I sincerely cannot see why we should have power 24/7 * 3, given the fact that we literally are burning an unsustainably large part of our planet as we speak. But especially with solar energy, there is more than enough room if we all put our sunboilers and solar panels on our houses and just share the excess. The main problem here is off course that the electricity companies have to give up their monopoly. But you can so much with the sun it is almost a crime not to use it.
There are also many things you can do with wind. Many high-power jobs do not need to be done 24/7, so you could build an "unreliable" grid that only gives power when there is wind. You'd be surprised what you can do with it!
And again personal data is sold without any permission by the victims. Why can this even be legal?
that would somehow figure out if you were a pirate
By definition by the content industry,
return TRUE;
would be enough.
Indeed. For the worse.
Wasn't Berlin the capital of the USA? I clearly recall an American president saying "Eekh been ine Burleener".
Mr. Bush, is that you?
You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it. Right now, the patent offices (on both sides of the Pond) are the problem. If prior art does not stop patent attacks, nothing will. Funding the enemy is the worst solution possible.
Agreed. Allowing 3rd party cookies is just a security bug. It is just like all other cross-site attacks: sensitive data can be leaked to sites that the user did NOT want to visit or leak his info to. Thank goodness there are extensions to work around this bug.
Given the fact that microsecond trading data centres are mostly anonymous (you will have a hard time finding out who they belong to, who is doing such trading and those firms want to keep it that way), this must be a tip of a snowflake, not even a minor iceberg. While this is an insane amount of money, the real richest people probably own a Godzillion more, but have "structured it away" to keep it secret.
By not disclosing X, you gain a competitive advantage Y.
So you can screw {h where h in World}. Like the poster said, that is quite unethical. I never understand how people can confuse "free market" with "free people", as they are usually opposites.
You know, to be able to insert something between two existing lines.