all this writer does is spout vitriol and spread fear, uncertainty and doubt all in an apparent attempt to garner page views
As do many article summaries posted here these days. Not that that makes it right in this case, of course, just pointing out that slashdot can no longer claim quite such a moral high ground on this.
Show me where in copyright law, I can before expiration, remove my copyright.
You know how on a lot of things there's a line that says "All rights reserved"? You just do the opposite - you publicly waive all rights and considerations concerning the thing you want to release into the public domain. For example, "I hereby release this comment (the one you are now reading) into the public domain, and renounce all claims to copyright upon it" should work (IANAL, etc).
Copyright law confers rights upon you; if you want to give up those rights, just say so.
The reason Stallman doesn't is the same as the reason why he doesn't use the BSD licence - because then others could build upon his work and not release the source back to the community.
This means it will be a lot easier to switch to other operating systems
Only if IE is the most compelling reason to remain on Windows, which I suspect is not the case for most people.
Why else do you think they are always making their own version of standards?
There are plenty of possible reasons:
* It's easier * It lets you do stuff that you consider useful/necessary/cool but that isn't in the spec * Not Invented Here syndrome * As you suggest, lock-in * They're arrogant enough to think they know best and big enough to get away with it
Netscape was a program that was superior to IE, because you could Compose as well for free.
Disclaimer: Since moving over to a Windows PC, I have only ever used Netscape, then Mozilla, then FF as my main browser. I have never and probably will never use IE.
That said, Netscape 3 was better than IE 3. Netscape 4 was better than IE 3. Netscape 4 was worse than IE4, and wasn't even in the same league as IE 5. NN4 was slow, bloated, and crashed at the drop of a hat. IE4 was faster and much more stable, and IE 5 was better again. There were browser torture tests released during Mozilla development that IE 5 had no trouble with that utterly choked Netscape. Hell, you couldn't even resize Netscape's window without it having to re-request the page from the server!
Don't get me wrong, I used NN4 right up until around about the time that Mozilla M8 or M9 was released, but to say that NN was superior to IE because of Composer is one hell of a stretch, given that Navigator was barely usable.
And yes, spoof your email address just like all good spammers.
But unlike "all good spammers", don't use a valid domain; some of us are tired of getting 1500+ emails per day because some idiot decided to use our domain in their spoofed addresses.
I clicked on the "contact us" link. ANd what's the first thing it did? They wanted my EMAIL address.
Well, yeah; presumably they think you want to contact them so as to set up a dialogue with them, not a monologue. They may be stupid, no good lowlife spamming shits, but expecting an email address as part of a contact form is perfectly reasonable. (Not that I'd give them mine, of course, but that's beside the point)
Well, they can contact me at dream-freaking@on.com
This was one of my biggest pet hates a couple of years ago - people using syntactically-legal addresses on real domains that are nothing to do with them. Same goes for the guy who used an address at yeahright.com, which is also a registered domain.
What if that's an actual, valid email address and you've just condemned some poor schmuck to even more spam? If you wouldn't trust a site with your own email address, don't trust it with a potentially valid one either; use a "fake but possible" tld (such as.tld,.ab.cd, etc) instead.
That only substantiates the trial in Yeovil; it in no way substantiates the claim that it's going to be rolled-out nationwide. I'd say the OP's objection stands.
Everyone giving up freedom for miniscule gain because 3000 people died
No, the idea is for everyone to give up some freedom because the tabloids are whipping up a frenzy about the UK's "out of control culture binge drinking and alcohol-fuelled violent crime". The WTC has nothing to do with this (for a change).
Maybe alcohol causes enough trouble that oversight is overall a benefit to society.
Ditto cars, knives, guns, sharp sticks, bad words, unkind thoughts, forgetting birthdays and anniversaries, etc.
scan for the IF... Of course as long as you don't watch the TV
Are you referring to the myth that TV detector vans could pick up signals from working TVs? They can't; that was a lie to try to scare people into complying. The antennae on the vans were purely for show.
Of course, these days when you buy a TV you have to give your name and address (no idea what happens if you refuse), so they automatically know who owns a TV and don't need any of that silliness.
Have you been out in a British town on a Saturday night?
Yes, but I can only think that I've managed to find the only town in England (London) that doesn't turn into a battleground, as in 12 years of doing so I've seen exactly one fight, that was between just two people, and the antagonist legged it before anything even slightly serious happened.
Perhaps I'm just lucky, as I have certainly heard stories, seen the "police eye view" TV shows, etc, but based on my own experience there simply isn't a problem. YMMV, and clearly does.
But what if what you're doing today is fine, is ok tomorrow, is a little bit suspect the next day, is declared wrong the day after and lands you in gaol the day after that?
What if you happen to be wearing similar clothes and be of a similar build as the real criminal, and you can't convince people that it's not you in that grainy CCTV shot?
What if the fingerprint software is buggy, and you get tagged as a trouble maker and banned or fined because of it?
When technology is infallible and people uncorruptible and perfectly wise, benevolent and logical then I'll stop worrying about future abuses. Until then, I am a tax payer and citizen of the UK and I say that this is going too far and that it is not being done in *my* name (for all the good that'll do). Today's democratic government may just be making life easier for tomorrow's hardline (but democratic) government to turn into a future dictatorship, complete with police state.
Look, when I start to implement this sort of shit, then you can accuse me of hypocrisy. Until then, understand that when we call "you" out on this sort of thing, we're talking about your elected officials, not you personally (unless you voted for them and/or agree with the policies).
The pot and the kettle don't even know of slashdot's existence, let alone quote 1984 at each other on it.
There's quite a difference between denying a blanket request for data on lawful activities, and complying with a more targetted request for data on unlawful ones.
Sony and Lik Sang are both trying to sell exactly the same damn thing
From TFA:
In his ruling yesterday, Judge Michael Fysh found that Lik-Sang - which offered Japanese PSPs to European consumers via its website - was in breach of intellectual property rights.
Are the European and Japanese PSPs "exactly the same damn thing"? Right down to power adaptor, etc? (Honest question, I have zero interest in the PSP so I don't know) If not, then they're not the same thing, and it's possible that they may not meet the same regulations.
That said, I fail to see how what Lik Sang is doing breaches IP rights - in fact, imho, that's utter bullshit.
Businesses fear Open Source like the plague because they're afraid of govenments "buying" software then declaring it "Open Source" they don't have to pay.
How the hell is that supposed to work? If you contract me to produce some software for you, and I use open source, you still have to pay me the agreed amount or see me in court. That's no different to me using bespoke code, COTS products or magicing it all up out of fairy dust.
Any business that's truly afraid of what you suggest needs to fire the idiots it has in charge and/or hire a lawyer.
Then there is Oracle...gads..when Microsoft finally gets SQLServer up to speed (and they will...they have a 20 year history of turning crap into gold)...Oracle is going to be standing out in the weeds wondering what the hell happened
What exactly does MS SQL Server and Oracle's RDBMS have to do with J2EE 5 and Oracle's Application server? You may or may not be right about SQL Server eventually supplanting Oracle as the big name RDBMS, but regardless, that's not what's being discussed here. The application server is completely separate from the DB server.
but having to trust IBM and Oracle to keep up is a major problem, without them showing REAL plans: I am left with Sun driving the bus ?
Hardly; JBoss and BEA (producers of WebLogic) have already released compliant servers. Given that I've only heard bad things about WebSphere (or indeed much of IBM's technology stack), I'm really not too concerned.
well we all know what can happen when you let geeks (and I am one) run free, then don't execute on what they make
What tends to happen in my experience is that they get it more or less good enough for their own use, then move on to the next thing that captures their imagination. That's all well and good, but someone needs to put in the remaining, tedious 80% of the effort to do all the boring tidying up, polishing, documentation, possibly accreditation, etc.
Does that mean, that on Earth the "big elements" are actually from big OLD stars from Long Long ago..almost at the time of big Bang??
Yes. Every element heavier than helium was created primarily either in the core of a star (up to iron), during a nova (almost everything else) or as a decay product of the radioactive decay of a heavier element (which was created during a nova or similar event).
The big bang created hydrogen and a little helium; we have stars to thank for everything else.
Slashdot Mirror
all this writer does is spout vitriol and spread fear, uncertainty and doubt all in an apparent attempt to garner page views
As do many article summaries posted here these days. Not that that makes it right in this case, of course, just pointing out that slashdot can no longer claim quite such a moral high ground on this.
Show me where in copyright law, I can before expiration, remove my copyright.
You know how on a lot of things there's a line that says "All rights reserved"? You just do the opposite - you publicly waive all rights and considerations concerning the thing you want to release into the public domain. For example, "I hereby release this comment (the one you are now reading) into the public domain, and renounce all claims to copyright upon it" should work (IANAL, etc).
Copyright law confers rights upon you; if you want to give up those rights, just say so.
The reason Stallman doesn't is the same as the reason why he doesn't use the BSD licence - because then others could build upon his work and not release the source back to the community.
Its Sunday after all right now, so why not pray for FireFox?
Sorry - I'm too busy praying for Mojo...
I've use it but it's a memory hog and slows the browser down. ...use your router to block ads.
My desktop PC is just a touch more powerful than my router, even ignoring all the other reasons I'd want to block ads from within the browser.
This means it will be a lot easier to switch to other operating systems
Only if IE is the most compelling reason to remain on Windows, which I suspect is not the case for most people.
Why else do you think they are always making their own version of standards?
There are plenty of possible reasons:
* It's easier
* It lets you do stuff that you consider useful/necessary/cool but that isn't in the spec
* Not Invented Here syndrome
* As you suggest, lock-in
* They're arrogant enough to think they know best and big enough to get away with it
You just assumed he's an idiot
Well, it is CmdrTaco...
(I am so going to slashdot hell for that)
Netscape was a program that was superior to IE, because you could Compose as well for free.
Disclaimer: Since moving over to a Windows PC, I have only ever used Netscape, then Mozilla, then FF as my main browser. I have never and probably will never use IE.
That said, Netscape 3 was better than IE 3. Netscape 4 was better than IE 3. Netscape 4 was worse than IE4, and wasn't even in the same league as IE 5. NN4 was slow, bloated, and crashed at the drop of a hat. IE4 was faster and much more stable, and IE 5 was better again. There were browser torture tests released during Mozilla development that IE 5 had no trouble with that utterly choked Netscape. Hell, you couldn't even resize Netscape's window without it having to re-request the page from the server!
Don't get me wrong, I used NN4 right up until around about the time that Mozilla M8 or M9 was released, but to say that NN was superior to IE because of Composer is one hell of a stretch, given that Navigator was barely usable.
Perhaps some even worse games have been released since, if it's that old...
For those that think I'm trolling, look at my slashdot ID number, I've been around a long time.
Newbie.
And yes, spoof your email address just like all good spammers.
But unlike "all good spammers", don't use a valid domain; some of us are tired of getting 1500+ emails per day because some idiot decided to use our domain in their spoofed addresses.
I clicked on the "contact us" link. ANd what's the first thing it did? They wanted my EMAIL address.
.tld, .ab.cd, etc) instead.
Well, yeah; presumably they think you want to contact them so as to set up a dialogue with them, not a monologue. They may be stupid, no good lowlife spamming shits, but expecting an email address as part of a contact form is perfectly reasonable. (Not that I'd give them mine, of course, but that's beside the point)
Well, they can contact me at dream-freaking@on.com
This was one of my biggest pet hates a couple of years ago - people using syntactically-legal addresses on real domains that are nothing to do with them. Same goes for the guy who used an address at yeahright.com, which is also a registered domain.
What if that's an actual, valid email address and you've just condemned some poor schmuck to even more spam? If you wouldn't trust a site with your own email address, don't trust it with a potentially valid one either; use a "fake but possible" tld (such as
That only substantiates the trial in Yeovil; it in no way substantiates the claim that it's going to be rolled-out nationwide. I'd say the OP's objection stands.
Everyone giving up freedom for miniscule gain because 3000 people died
No, the idea is for everyone to give up some freedom because the tabloids are whipping up a frenzy about the UK's "out of control culture binge drinking and alcohol-fuelled violent crime". The WTC has nothing to do with this (for a change).
Maybe alcohol causes enough trouble that oversight is overall a benefit to society.
Ditto cars, knives, guns, sharp sticks, bad words, unkind thoughts, forgetting birthdays and anniversaries, etc.
scan for the IF... Of course as long as you don't watch the TV
Are you referring to the myth that TV detector vans could pick up signals from working TVs? They can't; that was a lie to try to scare people into complying. The antennae on the vans were purely for show.
Of course, these days when you buy a TV you have to give your name and address (no idea what happens if you refuse), so they automatically know who owns a TV and don't need any of that silliness.
Have you been out in a British town on a Saturday night?
Yes, but I can only think that I've managed to find the only town in England (London) that doesn't turn into a battleground, as in 12 years of doing so I've seen exactly one fight, that was between just two people, and the antagonist legged it before anything even slightly serious happened.
Perhaps I'm just lucky, as I have certainly heard stories, seen the "police eye view" TV shows, etc, but based on my own experience there simply isn't a problem. YMMV, and clearly does.
But what if what you're doing today is fine, is ok tomorrow, is a little bit suspect the next day, is declared wrong the day after and lands you in gaol the day after that?
What if you happen to be wearing similar clothes and be of a similar build as the real criminal, and you can't convince people that it's not you in that grainy CCTV shot?
What if the fingerprint software is buggy, and you get tagged as a trouble maker and banned or fined because of it?
When technology is infallible and people uncorruptible and perfectly wise, benevolent and logical then I'll stop worrying about future abuses. Until then, I am a tax payer and citizen of the UK and I say that this is going too far and that it is not being done in *my* name (for all the good that'll do). Today's democratic government may just be making life easier for tomorrow's hardline (but democratic) government to turn into a future dictatorship, complete with police state.
Look, when I start to implement this sort of shit, then you can accuse me of hypocrisy. Until then, understand that when we call "you" out on this sort of thing, we're talking about your elected officials, not you personally (unless you voted for them and/or agree with the policies).
The pot and the kettle don't even know of slashdot's existence, let alone quote 1984 at each other on it.
There's quite a difference between denying a blanket request for data on lawful activities, and complying with a more targetted request for data on unlawful ones.
Sony and Lik Sang are both trying to sell exactly the same damn thing
From TFA:
In his ruling yesterday, Judge Michael Fysh found that Lik-Sang - which offered Japanese PSPs to European consumers via its website - was in breach of intellectual property rights.
Are the European and Japanese PSPs "exactly the same damn thing"? Right down to power adaptor, etc? (Honest question, I have zero interest in the PSP so I don't know) If not, then they're not the same thing, and it's possible that they may not meet the same regulations.
That said, I fail to see how what Lik Sang is doing breaches IP rights - in fact, imho, that's utter bullshit.
Is any other kind even possible?
Businesses fear Open Source like the plague because they're afraid of govenments "buying" software then declaring it "Open Source" they don't have to pay.
How the hell is that supposed to work? If you contract me to produce some software for you, and I use open source, you still have to pay me the agreed amount or see me in court. That's no different to me using bespoke code, COTS products or magicing it all up out of fairy dust.
Any business that's truly afraid of what you suggest needs to fire the idiots it has in charge and/or hire a lawyer.
Was somebody at AMD a babylon 5 fan?
I don't get it... "Quad Father" ~= "God Father"...
Then there is Oracle...gads..when Microsoft finally gets SQLServer up to speed (and they will...they have a 20 year history of turning crap into gold)...Oracle is going to be standing out in the weeds wondering what the hell happened
What exactly does MS SQL Server and Oracle's RDBMS have to do with J2EE 5 and Oracle's Application server? You may or may not be right about SQL Server eventually supplanting Oracle as the big name RDBMS, but regardless, that's not what's being discussed here. The application server is completely separate from the DB server.
but having to trust IBM and Oracle to keep up is a major problem, without them showing REAL plans: I am left with Sun driving the bus ?
Hardly; JBoss and BEA (producers of WebLogic) have already released compliant servers. Given that I've only heard bad things about WebSphere (or indeed much of IBM's technology stack), I'm really not too concerned.
well we all know what can happen when you let geeks (and I am one) run free, then don't execute on what they make
What tends to happen in my experience is that they get it more or less good enough for their own use, then move on to the next thing that captures their imagination. That's all well and good, but someone needs to put in the remaining, tedious 80% of the effort to do all the boring tidying up, polishing, documentation, possibly accreditation, etc.
capable of instantly eradicating all life within an 10 km radius,
o wer.shtml/ colmain.html
Do you have a source for that figure?
all of the examples you gave above are cleanable to an extent.
You do realise that coal-fired plants release radioactive waste into the atmosphere during normal operation, right?
Sources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/climate/adaptation/nuclear_p
http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text
http://www.epa.gov/radtown/coal-plant.htm
But feel free to google it for more; they're just the top few results for a search for "coal power station radioactivity".
Does that mean, that on Earth the "big elements" are actually from big OLD stars from Long Long ago..almost at the time of big Bang??
Yes. Every element heavier than helium was created primarily either in the core of a star (up to iron), during a nova (almost everything else) or as a decay product of the radioactive decay of a heavier element (which was created during a nova or similar event).
The big bang created hydrogen and a little helium; we have stars to thank for everything else.