Please do not encourage the amateur lawyers to voice their uninformed opinions. If you want timely (and good) legal advice, might I suggest an interview rather than "Ask Slashdot"? History has shown that we mostly don't really know what we're talking about. Those who do have a clue are drowned out by the rest of us.
Yes, this is offtopic. But where else can I voice a legitimate concern? I doubt "Ask Slashdot: What's Wrong with Slashdot?" would get posted. So please wait a little while before moderating down.
So when we grumble about possible backdoors in commercial software, it's paranoia. When the DOD does it, it's what? Justifiable, or just well-funded paranoia?
My info may be a bit dated, but IIRC AMD plans on better x86 support in Sledgehammer than Intel in their Itanium. I suspect we'll see piss-poor x86 performance and great 64-bit performance on Itanium, but pretty good performance in both categories in the Sledgehammer.
For both chips, you'll need to recompile for maximum effect, but it will be less urgent to do so for Sledgehammer.
So AMD would have the advantage of better supporting existing software without a recompile/rewrite, and Intel would have the advantage of raw horsepower for those who can go to the trouble to make it work right.
Does this mean we can all drink more?? Who cares if they die... they'll grow back!!!
Erm, not exactly. The new cells, once they've converted from marrow, would probably not retain lost memories or abilities. I think at best it would offer a chance to re-learn what you lost, whether it is your own name or how to control your bowels. But exactly how that stuff is encoded in the first place is pretty mysterious, so it's hard to say.
Plus, I would imagine that the marrow would have to come from yourself or (2nd best option) a close relative. Donating marrow is, or at least used to be, an extremely painful procedure. If you really want to go through that in order to attain new levels of drunkeness, go right ahead.
I don't think that's the Republican's style. More likely they would construct a convoluted system in which you could pay with stock options and deduct the fine from your taxes as a business expense.
Nothing in the article says anything about being the only royalty collection mechanism in the whole world. The fact that it is being aproved only by the U.S. postal system sort of implies that its legal reach will end at the U.S. border, although you can be sure the RIAA will sue anybody they can to extend their reach.
Nor does the article say anything about ending file-swapping services like the payment-based Napster, IM file transfers, or FTP. They will still exist; RIAA's attempts to sue them into oblivion are a separate issue.
Basically, this isn't a world conspiracy, its just a new mechanism that many of us will dislike simply because it won't facilitate getting free music. A mechanism in addition to what we already have, with the support of the copyright office for handling royalties.
Oh, and are copyrights established in the Constitution? I thought it was a legislative action, or at least that the details (such as "fair use") were.
I used to mock Intel because I disliked their pushiness. But now there's real competitition in the desktop processor market, and I just want good hardware. It's unfortunate that Intel pushed their product out too soon due to their marketing department's deadlines; the P4 might be pretty good if they could just finish it before selling it.
I wish they would have tested their chips in those boxy, claustrophobic proprietary cases before shipping. Intel knew the P4 ran hot, and apparently they pushed their luck too far.
Intel bit the bullet and gave some of their customers RDRAM as a bugfix, maybe they'll buy everybody a peltier cooler.
The differences between what they do and straight
IP addresses:
With IP, you often end up having to specify a path too, as in http://123.123.123.123/~foo if you're lucky. With this "service", 555-1234 can be an alias for that whole mess.
It's pretty hard to get an IP and keep it indefinately; if you switch providers or (depending on how good your tech is) add servers, you change IP addresses. This can be redirected as needed.
You can convince your dimmer-witted customers that its a long-distance call, then get them to send you a check to cover the charge.
I hardly think it merits a patent, but it does offer advantages over "http://123.123.123" and looks cleaner than "http://www.555-1234.com".
.biz will just be a source of revenue for registrars anyway. Anybody with a.com will sue anybody who registers the twin.biz domain. Do you really think you can get "amazon.biz" if you can just register fast enough? Maybe for a few days, while their lawyers work up a good hunger.
Maybe the same will happen with the holders of "alternative".biz domains. They'll just sue to prevent anybody from getting the "legit" version. After all, it's their name, and they have something invested in it.
I did a lot of TOS shopping before I settled on a host for my crappity site; to me, a fair TOS agreement was more important than bandwidth, space, or cost. If you don't shop around (and read the agreements!) you kind of lose the right to be surprised when you get screwed over.
Fortunately, I ended up with a good deal (from Nethosters). Kind of limited space, and the total available bandwidth isn't that impressive, but it's cheap, reliable and adequate for my needs. There are restrictions in the TOS, but they're fair and explicit. When the sysadmin edited one of my perl scripts to avoid crashing the server, he was nice enough to leave a copy of the original:)
Yes and no. On one hand, I have more faith in the security of a (properly configured) linux box, so I would be somewhat less worried about outsiders accessing the information gathered. Of course, the security of the actual Carnivore code is still unknown.
On the other hand, I'm pretty amused that the FBI is please with its two-day uptime. In addition to being funny, it means that, for maybe five minutes every other day, I'm safe from them.
I stand corrected; I'll give Timothy the benefit of the doubt and assume he meant to argue that more connections are needed for the good of the whole world, not just Australia.
The damaged cable does not usually handle "Most of the entire continent's bandwidth...." It handle 60% of a particular company's bandwidth, which is very different.
And this event does illustrate the need for more connections. The story also explains that there are more connections, including a new cable with 5x the bandwidth of the one damaged. Unfortunately, that new cable is owned by a different company which is not experience technical difficulties.
If you buy a music CD and make copies to MP3 and hard drive, all you've really done is duplicate. It's the same music, the same product, and the same IP. That pretty easily falls under fair use in American copyright law.
If you buy the record and want the "higher quality" version off CD, is it really the same IP / product? Or is it something different, different enough to be a new product you have to purchase separately? Personally, I don't know. I tend to think it is fair to acquire higher-quality version of what I lawfully bought, but I am biased by being a cheap bastard.
As for software upgrades, it's hard to argue that Win ME is really the same as, say, MS-DOS 3.3. Not so clear with Win98 and Win98 SE, but one could argue that what you really buy is whatever is differences. You're not paying twice for the duplicated parts; you're just getting shafted on the new stuff.
Would you argue that you shouldn't have to pay full price for a book that recaps its prequel? Did you cry foul at paying $18.95 for the Star Wars Special Edition tapes? Or are you just pissed because music and (some) software are too expensive? Well, sometimes capitalism sucks.
And just because you may have a legal right to a copy of something, doesn't mean the publishing company is obliged to provide it. Don't expect to make any progress demanding that Universal Studios release "just the director's commentary" for the Director's Cut version.
From the first page of the images linked to by the post: "ALL INFORMATION HEREIN IS UNCLASSIFIED"
And yet, large chunks of it are blacked out. From such innocuous things like (probably) "Dell", to the performance metrics of the beast, to...well, I can't tell because it's blacked out.
If its unclassified, don't black the stuff out when responding to a FOIA request!
...the joke has already been done, and Perl is such a godawful atrocity of a language that it's practically impossible NOT to write obfuscated Perl.
Would you feel better if we had a contest to see who could convert obfuscated Perl to truly elegant, readable, portable, maintainable Perl? We could use the winners of this contest as the fodder for the "Disobfuscated Perl Contest".
Hmm. I intended this as a joke (a non-flame for your non-flamebait), but I kind of like the idea now.
Even if the computer controlled weapons went apesh*t and fired on each other, they wouldn't be killing friendlies. Friendly fire isn't so bad if nobody dies.
However, I can see being concerned about interaction between computer-controlled aircraft and, say, ground troops. Human soldiers do not act in ways that are easily predictable by computers. Calling in a gunship for air cover might be a little risky if the "gunners" can't tell who's on whose side.
You raise a very practical point. However, let me ask you two questions which just became very important:
Does the woman in your favorite porno look 18 to you?
Does she look 18 to everybody else?
Now, instead of true physical age (which is a pretty concrete absolute thing once determined), we have the appearance of youth (which is very subjective) as the standard by which guilt is determined. Not good.
If I marry a young wife, maybe I should refuse to make love to her until she's old and saggy, just so 3 out of 4 neighbors don't think I'm a pedophile.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, this is offtopic. But where else can I voice a legitimate concern? I doubt "Ask Slashdot: What's Wrong with Slashdot?" would get posted. So please wait a little while before moderating down.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Not everyone would agree.
In the US, we send more non-violent offenders to prison than most other countries.
There, proof that not everyone agrees about what PRISON is for.
Why do we send SOME non-violent criminals to prison and not others?
Because not all non-violent crimes are equivalent. Jay-walking is not equivalent to forgery, just as rape is not equivalent to murder.
The fact that some crimes do not justify prison time does not prove than no crimes justify prison time.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
I know not this "sleep" of which you speak.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
So when we grumble about possible backdoors in commercial software, it's paranoia. When the DOD does it, it's what? Justifiable, or just well-funded paranoia?
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Wow, is there anything duck tape can't do?
My mom is not a Karma whore!
My info may be a bit dated, but IIRC AMD plans on better x86 support in Sledgehammer than Intel in their Itanium. I suspect we'll see piss-poor x86 performance and great 64-bit performance on Itanium, but pretty good performance in both categories in the Sledgehammer.
For both chips, you'll need to recompile for maximum effect, but it will be less urgent to do so for Sledgehammer.
So AMD would have the advantage of better supporting existing software without a recompile/rewrite, and Intel would have the advantage of raw horsepower for those who can go to the trouble to make it work right.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Erm, not exactly. The new cells, once they've converted from marrow, would probably not retain lost memories or abilities. I think at best it would offer a chance to re-learn what you lost, whether it is your own name or how to control your bowels. But exactly how that stuff is encoded in the first place is pretty mysterious, so it's hard to say.
Plus, I would imagine that the marrow would have to come from yourself or (2nd best option) a close relative. Donating marrow is, or at least used to be, an extremely painful procedure. If you really want to go through that in order to attain new levels of drunkeness, go right ahead.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
I don't think that's the Republican's style. More likely they would construct a convoluted system in which you could pay with stock options and deduct the fine from your taxes as a business expense.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
It sounds promising, but Democrats would adjust the rates so that anybody who makes less than $X / year will actually receive money as a fine.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Ah. Well, I was half right, and yeah I'm lazy for not looking it up myself.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Nor does the article say anything about ending file-swapping services like the payment-based Napster, IM file transfers, or FTP. They will still exist; RIAA's attempts to sue them into oblivion are a separate issue.
Basically, this isn't a world conspiracy, its just a new mechanism that many of us will dislike simply because it won't facilitate getting free music. A mechanism in addition to what we already have, with the support of the copyright office for handling royalties.
Oh, and are copyrights established in the Constitution? I thought it was a legislative action, or at least that the details (such as "fair use") were.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
I wish they would have tested their chips in those boxy, claustrophobic proprietary cases before shipping. Intel knew the P4 ran hot, and apparently they pushed their luck too far.
Intel bit the bullet and gave some of their customers RDRAM as a bugfix, maybe they'll buy everybody a peltier cooler.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
I hardly think it merits a patent, but it does offer advantages over "http://123.123.123" and looks cleaner than "http://www.555-1234.com".
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Maybe the same will happen with the holders of "alternative" .biz domains. They'll just sue to prevent anybody from getting the "legit" version. After all, it's their name, and they have something invested in it.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Fortunately, I ended up with a good deal (from Nethosters). Kind of limited space, and the total available bandwidth isn't that impressive, but it's cheap, reliable and adequate for my needs. There are restrictions in the TOS, but they're fair and explicit. When the sysadmin edited one of my perl scripts to avoid crashing the server, he was nice enough to leave a copy of the original :)
Heck, they even let me host my warez stuff...
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Yes and no. On one hand, I have more faith in the security of a (properly configured) linux box, so I would be somewhat less worried about outsiders accessing the information gathered. Of course, the security of the actual Carnivore code is still unknown.
On the other hand, I'm pretty amused that the FBI is please with its two-day uptime. In addition to being funny, it means that, for maybe five minutes every other day, I'm safe from them.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
But it does prove that, given enough wealth fame and power, a nerd can actually have sex.
Whew!
My mom is not a Karma whore!
He's right, I'm wrong.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Do they carry more than 83% of the traffic? Well, did they, before their cable received an unauthorized vasectomy?
0.83 * 0.60 = 0.498
I'm picky.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
The damaged cable does not usually handle "Most of the entire continent's bandwidth...." It handle 60% of a particular company's bandwidth, which is very different.
And this event does illustrate the need for more connections. The story also explains that there are more connections, including a new cable with 5x the bandwidth of the one damaged. Unfortunately, that new cable is owned by a different company which is not experience technical difficulties.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
If you buy the record and want the "higher quality" version off CD, is it really the same IP / product? Or is it something different, different enough to be a new product you have to purchase separately? Personally, I don't know. I tend to think it is fair to acquire higher-quality version of what I lawfully bought, but I am biased by being a cheap bastard.
As for software upgrades, it's hard to argue that Win ME is really the same as, say, MS-DOS 3.3. Not so clear with Win98 and Win98 SE, but one could argue that what you really buy is whatever is differences. You're not paying twice for the duplicated parts; you're just getting shafted on the new stuff.
Would you argue that you shouldn't have to pay full price for a book that recaps its prequel? Did you cry foul at paying $18.95 for the Star Wars Special Edition tapes? Or are you just pissed because music and (some) software are too expensive? Well, sometimes capitalism sucks.
And just because you may have a legal right to a copy of something, doesn't mean the publishing company is obliged to provide it. Don't expect to make any progress demanding that Universal Studios release "just the director's commentary" for the Director's Cut version.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
And yet, large chunks of it are blacked out. From such innocuous things like (probably) "Dell", to the performance metrics of the beast, to...well, I can't tell because it's blacked out.
If its unclassified, don't black the stuff out when responding to a FOIA request!
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Would you feel better if we had a contest to see who could convert obfuscated Perl to truly elegant, readable, portable, maintainable Perl? We could use the winners of this contest as the fodder for the "Disobfuscated Perl Contest".
Hmm. I intended this as a joke (a non-flame for your non-flamebait), but I kind of like the idea now.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
However, I can see being concerned about interaction between computer-controlled aircraft and, say, ground troops. Human soldiers do not act in ways that are easily predictable by computers. Calling in a gunship for air cover might be a little risky if the "gunners" can't tell who's on whose side.
My mom is not a Karma whore!
Does the woman in your favorite porno look 18 to you?
Does she look 18 to everybody else?
Now, instead of true physical age (which is a pretty concrete absolute thing once determined), we have the appearance of youth (which is very subjective) as the standard by which guilt is determined. Not good.
If I marry a young wife, maybe I should refuse to make love to her until she's old and saggy, just so 3 out of 4 neighbors don't think I'm a pedophile.
My mom is not a Karma whore!