"Good for him, he had a reasonable chat with the detectives and they dropped it. I just cant stand the rhetoric about "rights" and "academic freedoms"... If the police visited him at home, because of his use of tor on his own connection that he paid for - then you got a story. But this guys a guest on someone elses network."
You clearly have a weak understanding of "academic freedom". It is the principal cornerstone of how our universities our structured, and how professors do their work.
This guy is NOT a "guest on someone elses network". It is HIS network (as a professor). Everything about the university is structured around providing the capacity for an academic to do his or her research. The Prime Directive of college life is that professors run the show, and everyone else is there to support them and disseminate their findings. It's not the other way around (although you may be trained to think the opposite in the context of modern workplaces).
"In the case of DRM, theres one very strong way to fight it - with your wallet."
I disagree; that is a fool's errand. You must organize. The established way to organize in our society is through legislation. Get reasonable laws passed for reasonable IP regimes, and prohibit DRM.
Similarly, don't think that you're going to change a workplace by quitting one job. You must organize and form a union. Anything else simply cedes the issue to the centralized power.
"That sort of "dazzle factor" is never going to be seen again from effects... There's no way that the grown-up fans are ever going to be satisfied the way they were when they were 11 years old."
I disagree. I got the exact same amazing rush, for the same kinds of reasons, from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies. George Lucas should look at those movies and feel utterly ashamed.
"I could go on and on. But long story short, anybody claiming that American culture doesn't exist is exhibiting an unfortunate ignorance which ironically is a common stereotype of how unworldly Americans are these days."
Asserting that ~200 years of American culture (using the Wild West and slavery as examples) is equatable to thousands of years of European civilization, is itself pretty much proof of how unworldly Americans are, right there.
I totally agree. I bet they'll report an even bigger jump in December... it seems like a week ago my spam received doubled one day, and again the next day, and again the next. For me it's reached a critical mass where I can't find the actual mail messages anymore (just in the last few weeks).
"IANAL, but go pick up any of the Nolo self-help books (recomemnded by lawyer friends) and they make it clear: The LLC and corp status is a bit more paperwork to upkeep, but offers MUCH better protection for the business owners."
I'll take you up on that, since I just happen to have Nolo's "Music Law: How to Run Your Band's Business (4th Ed.)", right here on my desk. On page 2/2 I find this:
"By default, most bands qualify as partnerships - an informal business entity that's easy to form and manage. Since your band is likely to be a partnership, most of this chapter is geared towards creating a band partnership agreement (a 'BPA')."
"Seriously though, did you *really* think that a sample size of just over 1000 purchases on credit cards obtained through a back channel source is a reliable sample size for the number of iTunes purchases?... Thats just high school statistics by the way..."
I'm a college professor of statistics. I don't think you can actually quote a high school statistics book which says that sample size is too small. In general, a sample size of 1,000 gives 95% confidence that your result is within +/-3% of the actual result. This is *regardless* of population size - that's how statisatics work, due to the Central Limit Theorem.
Now, the first thing that pops into my head is why only credit-card purchases? And even more fundamentally, why would the same people need to buy music, after they just went on a music-buying spree? I would think the opposite. That was the thing that made me skeptical of the report yesterday in the first place.
Yeah, I think the tactic that occured to me would be something like: - Let's say the rate was 2 cents/KB, what would my charge be? 2x35893 = 71786 *cents*. - Let's say the rate was 0.2 cents/KB, what would my charge be? 0.2x35893 = 7178.6 *cents*. - Let's say the rate was 0.002 cents/KB, what would my charge be? 0.002x35893 = 71.786 *cents*.
But of course as was pointed out at 16 minutes, once you get to three decimal places they magically no longer see a difference between dollars and cents, so it would probably be futile anyway.
As an aside, I seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack sitting here, listening to that whole call. (I teach college math and this kind of thing is like my worst nightmare. I think my gums may be bleeding at this point.)
George: Do you recognize there is a difference between one dollar and one cent? Andrea: Definitely. George: Do you recognize there is a difference between half a dollar and half a cent? Andrea: Definitely. George: Do you therefore recognize there is a difference between.002 dollars and.002 cents? Andrea: No... There's no.002 dollars. George: Of course there is.
Goddam funny that the federal government gets concerned with this just as Democrats are poised to take power in Washington, after several election cycles where it apparently didn't give a damn.
Consider the list of features, especially those bulleted below:
"Let idScan increase productivity and reduce human error by automating the archiving process. The bus-powered USB device is powerful yet simple to use. Together, with its versatility, idScan offers the perfect, comprehensive scanning solution.
-Extract both data and images -Automatic state detection -- all 50 states! -Automatic card detection and scanning -Use the three technologies for verification of ID cards authenticity . -Capture a full image of the license, or face & signature image only. ***Scan cards directly into sales automation applications or contact management applications. ***Scan driver licenses directly into Kiosk Leads capture programs, and other similar data gathering or surveying applications. ***Fully automated scanning process - Allows users to focus on chain-feeding media into the scanner, while image processing and data extraction take place automatically in the background. -Automatic page-feed detection - Launches the scan job immediately upon the insertion of a document into the scanner. ***Documents image and data are stored locally or exported automatically. ***!!!Extensive export capabilities: export to any other application, email, FTP and the web -Image auto alignment - Automatically corrects incorrect card insertion. -Capable of scanning any photo media including paper photos, ID cards, checks and even rigid plastic credit cards. -Data is automatically extracted into appropriate text fields"
It could be that students in private school are just nicer and richer (explaining why teachers want to work there, and why students are more successful later).
Multiple studies have shown that there is almost no difference in education outcomes between public & private schools - public schools do slightly better in math, private schools do slightly better in reading (2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2006 Department of Education Report).
Quote: "Anyhow, in the end history will judge this presidency. It is impossible to judge it whilst we are in the middle of it."
Bullshit. That's a Bushie cop-out equivalent to "Duh, I have no idea if these poker cards are good until the hand is done." Intelligent people can weigh evidence and come to a likely conclusion. In this case the existing evidence is overwhelming.
In other news, the last winning Powerball jackpot numbers had only 1 in 146 million chance of coming up the way they did! So did the time before that. So will the next one. Etc.
I haven't heard either of them called "a commie terrorist traitor that wants americans to die."
Here's Kerry being called a communist by "Vietnam Veterans against John Kerry":...a much-celebrated organizer for Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), one of America's most radical pro-communist groups.http://www.usvetdsp.com/jf_kerry.htm
I've brought this up (copying music, from P2P sources really) to my community college students an an introductory computer science course.
Did they know that copying music is illegal? Usually, 1 or 2 out of a class of 30 is informed on the issue and knows it's illegal.
Of the rest, the response will quickly become: But can I really get prosecuted for this? And the answer is of course "no", there are no police searching for you making one copy for your friends. Which is actually a pretty sensible response. Why the fuck do we have these laws that everybody in the entire country is breaking? (See also: marijuana laws.) Beats the hell out of me, although I suppose it's handy to a police state to know you there's always something you can arrest anyone for.
I have an M.A. in Mathematics. I've read some of the "Rational Trigonometry" online before, and yes, it is pretty oddball and has its weakness and can be criticized.
But this review is borederline psychotic. It is poorly written, full of ad hominem attacks, lots of made-up grammar and word usage, wierd random abbreviations... it's scatterbrained, repetitive, and unnecessarily hostile.
There is a critical review to be written about "Rational Trigonometry", but this isn't it. I may not like our current government, but I'm still not going to listen to some incoherent homeless guy raving about it on the street.
"when i use my calculator, it doesn't give rounded off numbers."
Not true.
In the math class I teach, I do the following: have everyone take a calculator and do "2/3". Half of the calculators say this: "0.666666666" (rounded down). Half of the calculators say this: "0.666666667" (rounded up).
In truth, an exact answer requires an infinite sequence of "6"'s. The calculator (or any computer) must decide whether to round up or down to fit it into its display space (or memory). You always have some round-off error -- and the more calculations you do, the more the round-off error builds up and up and up....
Wasn't a free market and capitalism supposed to drive innovation and technology?
I think that's old-school thinking. It's what I heard when I was growing up, but I haven't heard industry spokespeople argue that in many years.
Nowadays the reasoning seems to be that "free market" indicates an intrinsic right to do whatever you can to make money, period, good or bad. They don't even bother with a how-it-helps-society argument anymore. As a citizen, you're supposed to just suck it down and shut up.
Don't worry, this is all fixed now, and can't possibly happen again. We recommend that you not dwell on past history, and move forward into the future. Your private information is completely safe with the government, we've learned our lesson.
Slashdot Mirror
"Good for him, he had a reasonable chat with the detectives and they dropped it. I just cant stand the rhetoric about "rights" and "academic freedoms"... If the police visited him at home, because of his use of tor on his own connection that he paid for - then you got a story. But this guys a guest on someone elses network."
You clearly have a weak understanding of "academic freedom". It is the principal cornerstone of how our universities our structured, and how professors do their work.
This guy is NOT a "guest on someone elses network". It is HIS network (as a professor). Everything about the university is structured around providing the capacity for an academic to do his or her research. The Prime Directive of college life is that professors run the show, and everyone else is there to support them and disseminate their findings. It's not the other way around (although you may be trained to think the opposite in the context of modern workplaces).
More on what academic freedom represents:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_freedom
"In the case of DRM, theres one very strong way to fight it - with your wallet."
I disagree; that is a fool's errand. You must organize. The established way to organize in our society is through legislation. Get reasonable laws passed for reasonable IP regimes, and prohibit DRM.
Similarly, don't think that you're going to change a workplace by quitting one job. You must organize and form a union. Anything else simply cedes the issue to the centralized power.
"That sort of "dazzle factor" is never going to be seen again from effects... There's no way that the grown-up fans are ever going to be satisfied the way they were when they were 11 years old."
I disagree. I got the exact same amazing rush, for the same kinds of reasons, from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies. George Lucas should look at those movies and feel utterly ashamed.
"I could go on and on. But long story short, anybody claiming that American culture doesn't exist is exhibiting an unfortunate ignorance which ironically is a common stereotype of how unworldly Americans are these days."
Asserting that ~200 years of American culture (using the Wild West and slavery as examples) is equatable to thousands of years of European civilization, is itself pretty much proof of how unworldly Americans are, right there.
I am a native-born American living in New York.
I totally agree. I bet they'll report an even bigger jump in December... it seems like a week ago my spam received doubled one day, and again the next day, and again the next. For me it's reached a critical mass where I can't find the actual mail messages anymore (just in the last few weeks).
"IANAL, but go pick up any of the Nolo self-help books (recomemnded by lawyer friends) and they make it clear: The LLC and corp status is a bit more paperwork to upkeep, but offers MUCH better protection for the business owners."
I'll take you up on that, since I just happen to have Nolo's "Music Law: How to Run Your Band's Business (4th Ed.)", right here on my desk. On page 2/2 I find this:
"By default, most bands qualify as partnerships - an informal business entity that's easy to form and manage. Since your band is likely to be a partnership, most of this chapter is geared towards creating a band partnership agreement (a 'BPA')."
Huh, how about that.
The freaky thing is that the dodecahedron has been associated since ancient times as representing "the Universe".
l
http://www.kheper.net/topics/cosmology/solids.htm
"Seriously though, did you *really* think that a sample size of just over 1000 purchases on credit cards obtained through a back channel source is a reliable sample size for the number of iTunes purchases?... Thats just high school statistics by the way..."
m
I'm a college professor of statistics. I don't think you can actually quote a high school statistics book which says that sample size is too small. In general, a sample size of 1,000 gives 95% confidence that your result is within +/-3% of the actual result. This is *regardless* of population size - that's how statisatics work, due to the Central Limit Theorem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sample_size
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_limit_theore
Now, the first thing that pops into my head is why only credit-card purchases? And even more fundamentally, why would the same people need to buy music, after they just went on a music-buying spree? I would think the opposite. That was the thing that made me skeptical of the report yesterday in the first place.
Yeah, I think the tactic that occured to me would be something like:
- Let's say the rate was 2 cents/KB, what would my charge be? 2x35893 = 71786 *cents*.
- Let's say the rate was 0.2 cents/KB, what would my charge be? 0.2x35893 = 7178.6 *cents*.
- Let's say the rate was 0.002 cents/KB, what would my charge be? 0.002x35893 = 71.786 *cents*.
But of course as was pointed out at 16 minutes, once you get to three decimal places they magically no longer see a difference between dollars and cents, so it would probably be futile anyway.
"...it would be correct int saying if you had $0.20 in change being returned to you, the cashier gave you 20 cents change."
But how do you say $0.20? It's ".20 dollars" (which is 20 cents).
What's happening here is like the reps are saying ".20 cents" and then charging 20 cents.
As an aside, I seriously thought I was going to have a heart attack sitting here, listening to that whole call. (I teach college math and this kind of thing is like my worst nightmare. I think my gums may be bleeding at this point.)
This is about 16 minutes in:
.002 dollars and .002 cents? .002 dollars.
George: Do you recognize there is a difference between one dollar and one cent?
Andrea: Definitely.
George: Do you recognize there is a difference between half a dollar and half a cent?
Andrea: Definitely.
George: Do you therefore recognize there is a difference between
Andrea: No... There's no
George: Of course there is.
Goddam funny that the federal government gets concerned with this just as Democrats are poised to take power in Washington, after several election cycles where it apparently didn't give a damn.
Whatever, it's the right thing to do, finally.
The IdScan Drivers License Scanning Solution:n se.html?gclid=CIGBr_r62ogCFQN-VAodpWHDpA
http://cadandgraphics.stores.yahoo.net/idscanlice
Consider the list of features, especially those bulleted below:
"Let idScan increase productivity and reduce human error by automating the
archiving process. The bus-powered USB device is powerful yet simple to
use. Together, with its versatility, idScan offers the perfect,
comprehensive scanning solution.
-Extract both data and images
-Automatic state detection -- all 50 states!
-Automatic card detection and scanning
-Use the three technologies for verification of ID cards authenticity .
-Capture a full image of the license, or face & signature image only.
***Scan cards directly into sales automation applications or contact
management applications.
***Scan driver licenses directly into Kiosk Leads capture programs, and
other similar data gathering or surveying applications.
***Fully automated scanning process - Allows users to focus on
chain-feeding media into the scanner, while image processing and data
extraction take place automatically in the background.
-Automatic page-feed detection - Launches the scan job immediately upon
the insertion of a document into the scanner.
***Documents image and data are stored locally or exported automatically.
***!!!Extensive export capabilities: export to any other application,
email, FTP and the web
-Image auto alignment - Automatically corrects incorrect card insertion.
-Capable of scanning any photo media including paper photos, ID cards,
checks and even rigid plastic credit cards.
-Data is automatically extracted into appropriate text fields"
It could be that students in private school are just nicer and richer (explaining why teachers want to work there, and why students are more successful later).
2 006461.pdf
Multiple studies have shown that there is almost no difference in education outcomes between public & private schools - public schools do slightly better in math, private schools do slightly better in reading (2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2006 Department of Education Report).
See here: http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/studies/
Quote: "Anyhow, in the end history will judge this presidency. It is impossible to judge it whilst we are in the middle of it."
6 1300/the_worst_president_in_history )
Bullshit. That's a Bushie cop-out equivalent to "Duh, I have no idea if these poker cards are good until the hand is done." Intelligent people can weigh evidence and come to a likely conclusion. In this case the existing evidence is overwhelming.
"In early 2004, an informal survey of 415 historians conducted by the nonpartisan History News Network found that eighty-one percent considered the Bush administration a 'failure.'" (Sean Wilentz, Rolling Stone magazine: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/story/99
In other news, the last winning Powerball jackpot numbers had only 1 in 146 million chance of coming up the way they did! So did the time before that. So will the next one. Etc.
Here's Kerry being called a communist by "Vietnam Veterans against John Kerry":
Here's Kerry being called a traitor by the author of the book "Taking America Back": There is only one word in the English language... That word is "traitor." http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ART
Huh, how about that?
Absolutely not. In fact, the 2nd Amendment is the *only* amendment that actually tells you what its own purpose is.
It is this: "A well regulated militia [is] necessary to the security of a free state". That is, we need something like a militia or National Guard.
More Sport than Art. (Former game designer/developer here.)
I've brought this up (copying music, from P2P sources really) to my community college students an an introductory computer science course.
Did they know that copying music is illegal? Usually, 1 or 2 out of a class of 30 is informed on the issue and knows it's illegal.
Of the rest, the response will quickly become: But can I really get prosecuted for this? And the answer is of course "no", there are no police searching for you making one copy for your friends. Which is actually a pretty sensible response. Why the fuck do we have these laws that everybody in the entire country is breaking? (See also: marijuana laws.) Beats the hell out of me, although I suppose it's handy to a police state to know you there's always something you can arrest anyone for.
This review freakin' sucks.
I have an M.A. in Mathematics. I've read some of the "Rational Trigonometry" online before, and yes, it is pretty oddball and has its weakness and can be criticized.
But this review is borederline psychotic. It is poorly written, full of ad hominem attacks, lots of made-up grammar and word usage, wierd random abbreviations... it's scatterbrained, repetitive, and unnecessarily hostile.
There is a critical review to be written about "Rational Trigonometry", but this isn't it. I may not like our current government, but I'm still not going to listen to some incoherent homeless guy raving about it on the street.
"when i use my calculator, it doesn't give rounded off numbers."
Not true.
In the math class I teach, I do the following: have everyone take a calculator and do "2/3".
Half of the calculators say this: "0.666666666" (rounded down).
Half of the calculators say this: "0.666666667" (rounded up).
In truth, an exact answer requires an infinite sequence of "6"'s. The calculator (or any computer) must decide whether to round up or down to fit it into its display space (or memory). You always have some round-off error -- and the more calculations you do, the more the round-off error builds up and up and up....
Wasn't a free market and capitalism supposed to drive innovation and technology?
I think that's old-school thinking. It's what I heard when I was growing up, but I haven't heard industry spokespeople argue that in many years.
Nowadays the reasoning seems to be that "free market" indicates an intrinsic right to do whatever you can to make money, period, good or bad. They don't even bother with a how-it-helps-society argument anymore. As a citizen, you're supposed to just suck it down and shut up.
Don't worry, this is all fixed now, and can't possibly happen again. We recommend that you not dwell on past history, and move forward into the future. Your private information is completely safe with the government, we've learned our lesson.
And that goes double for next time, too.