It's true that there are good and bad connotations to muckraking. The bad connotation is often called "mudslinging" in the political arena. I'd rather hear too much of the truth about some group or company than hear too little, even if the truth hurts. What I don't want to hear is baseless accusations or outright falsities; but if you can prove your accusations then I think the public has a right to be aware of whatever dirty deeds a company has been up to.
As I pointed out in some other post, if you believe that "business is war", then it's perfectly OK. However, then I don't see how you can have any objections to Microsoft's business tactics.
I don't think they're equivalent, because what Oracle did was legal (assuming that the private investigators acted legally, which isn't known to be true yet AFAIK), whereas a judge has determined that some of what Microsoft did was illegal. I condone legal business practices, but not illegal ones.
I believe Oracle has reached the top, not through being the best, but through marketing hype. Does this sound like another company we know?
There's a difference between succeeding on hype and marketing (these are legal) and using your monopoly power to shut down competitors and make new monopolies in other markest (those are illegal). Just being hyped doesn't prevent a competitor from eating your lunch; threatening OEMs so that they don't ship your competitor's product is an effective (again illegal) way to protect your company from any competition and any incentive to improve your product.
Vigilanteism implies that a crime has been committed. Microsoft supporting an astroturfing group on the side probably isn't a crime, so Oracle investigating that link isn't really vigilanteism. As long as the investigations were done within the law, then I don't see how this reflects badly on Oracle. It is a company's duty to do everything within the law to make a profit, and if that involves pointing out some skeletons in a competitor's closet, then so be it.
Note that "within the law" doesn't include using your monopoly to drive out competition or create new monopolies in other markets. So you really can't say that both Oracle and Microsoft have sunk to the same level in terms of their tactics.
Maybe I had a different history class in school, but I seem to remember muckraking was a term mostly used by big business against journalists that pointed out major problems with those businesses, like health and safety concerns. Muckraking is a good thing as long as it is carried out by legal means, and I think it's reasonable for Oracle to investigate the ties between a group of "industry professionals" that support Microsoft and MS itself. Journalists investigate ties between lobbying groups and politicians all the time and we encourage that, right?
Eliminating consideration would seem to put the GPL on better terms, though. Some legal experts think the GPL has no force as a license/contract because there is no consideration. If consideration is no longer required for a valid contract, then that's one more way that the GPL is a solid license. Or am I completely misinterpreting this?
The anonymous writer pretty much admits that it isn't effective since napster names aren't returned to it and gnutella ip's can be faked.
I got a totally different impression from reading that section - it sounded like the author was saying that he specifically wrote his program to not return Napster names/gnutella IPs, so that the program will remain an anti-piracy tool (presumably as opposed to being used for piracy).
I think about 90% of the problems like this could be prevented if browser writers would include two configuration options: allow the user to choose whether the browser can open up new windows and whether the browser will follow redirects. Or at least pop up a yes/no box every time the browser wants to do so.
Is this the same as the "Alien and Sedition Act"? Because I thought that act was ruled unconstitutional due to the limits it places on free speech. Or so I recall from history class, but it's been a while.
Everybody here likes text files, the point is that XML is overhyped because most marketing/PHB types don't realize that XML is a text file with some very high-level grammar and syntax rules. There's no magic XML wand that will organize your data, you still have to design a good DTD, get others to adopt it, etc. XML is great, text is great, but neither are silver bullets.
It just so happens now that Rambus holds all the alternatives. This is called cornering the market and is illegal.
Um, no - it's not illegal. Assuming that the SDRAM patent is valid (a big assumption) it isn't illegal for anyone to have multiple patents in any field as long as they came by them legally. Competitors are free to invent new kinds of memory and patent those. If the Rambus technology is so attactive that everyone wants to use it, then that's perfectly legal - they are in effect elected a monopoly by popular demand.
Anti-trust law is more concerned with monopolies that aren't acquired legally - for example, if you undercut all of your competitors to get the monopoly and then jacked up your prices. Another example would be Microsoft - use your (possibly legally) acquired monopoly in one market to forcibly create a monopoly in another market.
If all Rambus has done is file legitimate patents for memory technologies, it isn't their fault that everyone wants to use their technology. I personally don't think it's likely that they have a valid patent on SDRAM, but as long as no one challenges them on it they appear to be acting within the law.
What's really disgusting is the states who claim to care about the health of their citizens, but don't spend the money on healthcare. I'm not sure that the cases against the tobacco companies are groundless (it definitely seems that they tried to hide the facts on how dangerous their products were) but I'm ashamed that the state of Illinois isn't spending all of the money on providing healthcare for smokers who are now living without full lung function, have various cancers, etc. Nope, most of the money's going into the legislature's pork barrels, as usual.
According to the article, Caterpillar needs a solution that cuts nitric oxide emissions in half by 2002. So you may see this innovation sooner than you would expect.
Overrated was probably accurate after four people moderated this up as Funny, but on the other hand it is the funniest post I've seen all day. Right after the first paragraph you should have said "Do not adjust your browser.". Even as it was I almost fell out of my chair.
As a tribute to the gedankenexperiment that I'm replying to, I'm also willing to burn karma by posting at +2. Remember: offtopic, not overrated.
There's a difference between harming the company and harming the trademark. Harming the trademark would be providing goods or services that trade on the good name of the trademark holder but aren't provided by the trademark holder. PETA.org wasn't doing this. They might have been trying to harm PETA the organization by hosting a parody/anti-PETA site, but they weren't misappropriating PETA's trademark to do so. That is, no reasonable person could believe that PETA.org was really operated by the ethical PETA. Use of a trademark in a parody is fair use, remember?
...you wouldn't be getting threating letters from NSI. Do you complain about the electrical company when it disconnects you for not paying your bills? NSI is far from perfect, but they're entirely within their rights on this one - you agreed to pay them for services, you didn't pay them, and now they're turning off the service.
The only thing that makes this more interesting than a normal utility is that the service is distinctive - if you had bobsdomain.com and NSI transfers it, you can't just start paying the bill again to get service back. You'll never be able to get that service again, unless the new owner doesn't want it anymore.
MS Java's incompatibilities weren't mistakes at all. They were part of the normal embrace, extend, extinguish strategy that they rely on. The only flaw in their plan was that Sun stopped MS before they could completely extend Java. At this point it's probably easier for MS to invent a new language than to find more ways to tear down Java.
There's a similar blank for use taxes on the Indiana tax forms. Of course, Indiana also expects you to pay IN state taxes on cars, boats, and farm equipment that you bought in another state even if you already paid sales tax in that state. If it weren't for basketball and not having to change your clocks twice a year, there wouldn't be anything good about living in Indiana. Sigh... I miss it.
Illinois has a write-in blank for use tax but doesn't list the Internet yet. They do list buying over the phone, so maybe if you had an analog modem you're still liable, but not cable modem subscribers. Of course, none of the directions in the state tax forms tell you to fill out that page and/or add it to your total (the use tax page is at the back, away from the other tax forms) so I'm not sure if you're really required to fill it out or not.
Re:Hacking these boxes is important
on
Hacking The Tivo
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· Score: 1
That didn't make any sense. TV networks don't want you to skip the commercials, but TiVo already lets you do that, doesn't it? That's not something these hackers have just added. The TV networks are already being hurt by TiVo, hacking the box doesn't really add to that. The question is whether TiVo is going to assume an open stance towards these folks, or whether they're going to pull an i-opener and make it more difficult to mod.
I'd also like to point out that if the Linux kernel wasn't GPL'd or if TiVo had used a BSD instead, they wouldn't have had to publish the source to the changes they made for their filesystem and the TiVo box would be a lot more difficult to hack. Kudos to RMS and Linux on that account.
How can Congress stop the trial? The Supreme Court regularly overrules Congress and the President, the only check that Congress has on the Court is the confirmation of nominees to the bench and possibly their funding. You can bet Congress isn't stupid enough to cut funding for the courts. If the Court wants to hear the case, no one in the country can legally stop them short of a settlement before they hear it.
Hmmm... although they did pass the DMCA, so I suppose they must be fairly stupid already.
Slashdot Mirror
It's true that there are good and bad connotations to muckraking. The bad connotation is often called "mudslinging" in the political arena. I'd rather hear too much of the truth about some group or company than hear too little, even if the truth hurts. What I don't want to hear is baseless accusations or outright falsities; but if you can prove your accusations then I think the public has a right to be aware of whatever dirty deeds a company has been up to.
I don't think they're equivalent, because what Oracle did was legal (assuming that the private investigators acted legally, which isn't known to be true yet AFAIK), whereas a judge has determined that some of what Microsoft did was illegal. I condone legal business practices, but not illegal ones.
There's a difference between succeeding on hype and marketing (these are legal) and using your monopoly power to shut down competitors and make new monopolies in other markest (those are illegal). Just being hyped doesn't prevent a competitor from eating your lunch; threatening OEMs so that they don't ship your competitor's product is an effective (again illegal) way to protect your company from any competition and any incentive to improve your product.
Vigilanteism implies that a crime has been committed. Microsoft supporting an astroturfing group on the side probably isn't a crime, so Oracle investigating that link isn't really vigilanteism. As long as the investigations were done within the law, then I don't see how this reflects badly on Oracle. It is a company's duty to do everything within the law to make a profit, and if that involves pointing out some skeletons in a competitor's closet, then so be it.
Note that "within the law" doesn't include using your monopoly to drive out competition or create new monopolies in other markets. So you really can't say that both Oracle and Microsoft have sunk to the same level in terms of their tactics.
Maybe I had a different history class in school, but I seem to remember muckraking was a term mostly used by big business against journalists that pointed out major problems with those businesses, like health and safety concerns. Muckraking is a good thing as long as it is carried out by legal means, and I think it's reasonable for Oracle to investigate the ties between a group of "industry professionals" that support Microsoft and MS itself. Journalists investigate ties between lobbying groups and politicians all the time and we encourage that, right?
Eliminating consideration would seem to put the GPL on better terms, though. Some legal experts think the GPL has no force as a license/contract because there is no consideration. If consideration is no longer required for a valid contract, then that's one more way that the GPL is a solid license. Or am I completely misinterpreting this?
Sure, WinZip for HP-UX, I use it every day. It's the standard, don't you know.... Although I do seem to have unzip installed.
Great - I will have to give the latest milestone a try tonight. Glad to hear it from the horse's mouth, as it were.
I got a totally different impression from reading that section - it sounded like the author was saying that he specifically wrote his program to not return Napster names/gnutella IPs, so that the program will remain an anti-piracy tool (presumably as opposed to being used for piracy).
I think about 90% of the problems like this could be prevented if browser writers would include two configuration options: allow the user to choose whether the browser can open up new windows and whether the browser will follow redirects. Or at least pop up a yes/no box every time the browser wants to do so.
Is this supported or hackable into mozilla?
Is this the same as the "Alien and Sedition Act"? Because I thought that act was ruled unconstitutional due to the limits it places on free speech. Or so I recall from history class, but it's been a while.
Shouldn't there be a ^M at the end? Also, all the quotes will be replaced with '?'
[grumbles] lousy cross-campus NT development environment...
Everybody here likes text files, the point is that XML is overhyped because most marketing/PHB types don't realize that XML is a text file with some very high-level grammar and syntax rules. There's no magic XML wand that will organize your data, you still have to design a good DTD, get others to adopt it, etc. XML is great, text is great, but neither are silver bullets.
Um, no - it's not illegal. Assuming that the SDRAM patent is valid (a big assumption) it isn't illegal for anyone to have multiple patents in any field as long as they came by them legally. Competitors are free to invent new kinds of memory and patent those. If the Rambus technology is so attactive that everyone wants to use it, then that's perfectly legal - they are in effect elected a monopoly by popular demand.
Anti-trust law is more concerned with monopolies that aren't acquired legally - for example, if you undercut all of your competitors to get the monopoly and then jacked up your prices. Another example would be Microsoft - use your (possibly legally) acquired monopoly in one market to forcibly create a monopoly in another market.
If all Rambus has done is file legitimate patents for memory technologies, it isn't their fault that everyone wants to use their technology. I personally don't think it's likely that they have a valid patent on SDRAM, but as long as no one challenges them on it they appear to be acting within the law.
What's really disgusting is the states who claim to care about the health of their citizens, but don't spend the money on healthcare. I'm not sure that the cases against the tobacco companies are groundless (it definitely seems that they tried to hide the facts on how dangerous their products were) but I'm ashamed that the state of Illinois isn't spending all of the money on providing healthcare for smokers who are now living without full lung function, have various cancers, etc. Nope, most of the money's going into the legislature's pork barrels, as usual.
Isn't it interesting that my post was Insightful, even though I only stated what was in the article for folks who hadn't read it?
According to the article, Caterpillar needs a solution that cuts nitric oxide emissions in half by 2002. So you may see this innovation sooner than you would expect.
Wow, there seems to be quite a divergence of opinion here:
Overrated was probably accurate after four people moderated this up as Funny, but on the other hand it is the funniest post I've seen all day. Right after the first paragraph you should have said "Do not adjust your browser.". Even as it was I almost fell out of my chair.
As a tribute to the gedankenexperiment that I'm replying to, I'm also willing to burn karma by posting at +2. Remember: offtopic, not overrated.
And now for something completely different...
The whole point of the Matrix is to turn a human being into this: [points to RH CD].
There's a difference between harming the company and harming the trademark. Harming the trademark would be providing goods or services that trade on the good name of the trademark holder but aren't provided by the trademark holder. PETA.org wasn't doing this. They might have been trying to harm PETA the organization by hosting a parody/anti-PETA site, but they weren't misappropriating PETA's trademark to do so. That is, no reasonable person could believe that PETA.org was really operated by the ethical PETA. Use of a trademark in a parody is fair use, remember?
OK, mea culpa. I guess I should have been more surprised to see NSI come down on the right side of an issue for a change.
In your place I'd be pissed off too.
...you wouldn't be getting threating letters from NSI. Do you complain about the electrical company when it disconnects you for not paying your bills? NSI is far from perfect, but they're entirely within their rights on this one - you agreed to pay them for services, you didn't pay them, and now they're turning off the service.
The only thing that makes this more interesting than a normal utility is that the service is distinctive - if you had bobsdomain.com and NSI transfers it, you can't just start paying the bill again to get service back. You'll never be able to get that service again, unless the new owner doesn't want it anymore.
MS Java's incompatibilities weren't mistakes at all. They were part of the normal embrace, extend, extinguish strategy that they rely on. The only flaw in their plan was that Sun stopped MS before they could completely extend Java. At this point it's probably easier for MS to invent a new language than to find more ways to tear down Java.
There's a similar blank for use taxes on the Indiana tax forms. Of course, Indiana also expects you to pay IN state taxes on cars, boats, and farm equipment that you bought in another state even if you already paid sales tax in that state. If it weren't for basketball and not having to change your clocks twice a year, there wouldn't be anything good about living in Indiana. Sigh... I miss it.
Illinois has a write-in blank for use tax but doesn't list the Internet yet. They do list buying over the phone, so maybe if you had an analog modem you're still liable, but not cable modem subscribers. Of course, none of the directions in the state tax forms tell you to fill out that page and/or add it to your total (the use tax page is at the back, away from the other tax forms) so I'm not sure if you're really required to fill it out or not.
That didn't make any sense. TV networks don't want you to skip the commercials, but TiVo already lets you do that, doesn't it? That's not something these hackers have just added. The TV networks are already being hurt by TiVo, hacking the box doesn't really add to that. The question is whether TiVo is going to assume an open stance towards these folks, or whether they're going to pull an i-opener and make it more difficult to mod.
I'd also like to point out that if the Linux kernel wasn't GPL'd or if TiVo had used a BSD instead, they wouldn't have had to publish the source to the changes they made for their filesystem and the TiVo box would be a lot more difficult to hack. Kudos to RMS and Linux on that account.
How can Congress stop the trial? The Supreme Court regularly overrules Congress and the President, the only check that Congress has on the Court is the confirmation of nominees to the bench and possibly their funding. You can bet Congress isn't stupid enough to cut funding for the courts. If the Court wants to hear the case, no one in the country can legally stop them short of a settlement before they hear it.
Hmmm... although they did pass the DMCA, so I suppose they must be fairly stupid already.