Without regulations on it, would it not be (significantly) more difficult for them to make it mandatory? Even if they were only making them mandatory for a select group of individuals, e.g. sex offenders, the fact that they specifically refuse to regulate them seems to indicate that they just don't want to have to mess with them.
i mean seriously, is another september 11th even possible in today's climate? what group of airplane passengers would stay in their seats for a repeat occurence? september 11th seems like a one-time deal to me.
As for planes crashing into buildings, that won't happen again. Even the UAL flight that crashed in Pennsylvania is an example of this; if passengers know that they are doomed, they won't go down without a fight. Unfortunately, though, we now have to start looking out for other things, like WMDs.
Of course, knowing the limitless bounds of greed, people are still going to try to find someone to sue. "I want a bazillion dollars because the contractor didn't design the building to resist the destructive impact of a 767 and a plane-load of burning fuel!" Sheesh.
You're aware that people are suing both United and American for failing to adequately protect the passengers on the four doomed flights, aren't you? Like you said, "limitless bounds of greed."
Note also at the bottom, that you will be marked YES for 'By US Mail' and 'By Phone' as well.
This should be pretty damn obvious, but you shouldn't give them your real US mail address and phone number anyway when you sign up. I almost never give those out, and guess what? I get maybe one telemarketing call a month (neener neener neener!) And when I do get them, I tell them to go f--k themselves, which usually deters them from calling back. Perhaps that's actually what they're doing?:D
Basically, what it comes down to is that if you want your privacy protected, you have to really take steps to guard it yourself. You can't just give your information out to anybody that asks for it and expect them to respect your privacy.
From a EE's perspective, I don't even consider them to be "modems" at all. They are just PCI cards that convert data to a signal on the phone line and back. Nothing more. They don't have the DSPs that real modems have (the DSPing being done in software, of course).
Do you believe Red Hat Linux 7.2 is over twice as advanced as the (not yet released) Debian Linux 3.0? - Given RootHat's reputation for security, Debian is easily more advanced.
Which has better acceleration, an 800-cc touring bike or a 600-cc racing bike? - Depends on what kind of shape the riders of each are in.
Which Ethernet card is faster, a 3Com 905C or a Realtek 8139? - Seeing how I have a 3C905B, 3Com cards are probably faster.
How about PC266 DDR-SDRAM versus PC600 RDRAM? - I'd answer this, but Rambus would sue me.
Do you believe a 15-inch CRT is bigger than a 14-inch LCD - If you're talking in terms of volume, any CRT is "bigger" than any LCD.
If you see a bunch of CPUs on a shelf, labeled "1400", "1500", "1900" - why does it matter if those are GHz or some other rating system determined by the manufacturer?
Because customers assume that all manufacturers use the same system (which, for clarity, they should). They assume AMD uses the commonplace MHz rating scheme, but AMD instead uses a misleading PR scheme.
In practice though, AMD bumps up 66Mhz and adds 100 PR points every time
In other words, they lie.
This is why I absolutely hate PR rating schemes. They are arbitrarily set by the chip's manufacturer. Although they usually set them to what they deem a "fair" rating, they often bump the ratings up like this.
I'm a junior studying electrical engineering, and I'm taking a processor architecture class this semester. So I know about the design issues that lead to the perceived need for PR ratings. But that doesn't bypass the fact that PR ratings sell processors as things that they are not. No, AMD isn't marketing their Athlon 2000+ as a 2000 MHz chip, but many computer stores do sell them that way (I have seen this personally, so yes it does happen). You don't help your customers by lying to them.
Why is it not reasonable to *gasp* expect consumers to have enough smarts to realize that processors made by one company will not perform the same as those made by another company? Just sell the XP2000+ processors as 1600 MHz chips (or whatever the hell they run at), and say that they are "roughly equivalent to 2000 MHz Pentium 3." Heck, this way, customers would start to realize on their own that AMD processors are better. But using misleading PR ratings isn't going to help AMD one bit.
Lest you think I'm just bashing AMD, let me repeat my point that AMD processors are indeed better. My current system is a 1.2 GHz Thunderbird (sold as 1.2 GHz, not some stupid bloated PR number) overclocked to 1.4 GHz. According to SiSoft Sandra, its PR is 1875. But I would have been very pissed if I was being sold a 1.9 GHz processor and found out that it only ran at 1.4 GHz.
From what I learned of contract law when I was under 18 (3-5 years ago), here's the way I *think* it would work. By permitting the copy-protected "CD"s to be sold to those under 18, Universal is effectively agreeing to follow the contract with them. Of course, the under 18s aren't legally bound by the contract, but here's where it gets interesting.
According to the law in most states...or maybe it's federal law, I don't remember...people who are under 18 can disavow contracts they have entered into. What this essentially means is that if someone enters into a contract with an IU18 (individual under 18, I refuse to use the term 'minor'), it still becomes legally binding, but not on the IU18. The other party, though, is still bound by the terms of the contract. What this means for IU18s buying copy-protected CDs is that as long as they are permitted to purchase them, which they will be, they can pretty much ignore whatever licensing restrictions Universal throws at them.
Gonna play the 'legally binding contract' game with your customers, Universal? Guess what...two can play this game.
How can you be a CS GRAD student and not know how to use gcc/g++/make?!?!? Honestly!
CS graduate students and even "professors" for lower-level programming classes often don't know what the hell they are doing anyway. My professors for both Java 1 and Java 2 were like this, and it's not like I go to a small university (I go to Oklahoma State).
A *bit* dodgy? It's like lying to your customer's face about how fast the computer is. Don't give me any of this B.S. about "the P4 and Athlon XP are so different that..."; the processors are being sold as things that they are NOT. Period.
Slashdot Mirror
Whoa, I didn't know that it's that absurd... 220 years is really quite a lot ;)
That's the problem though. If Disney^H^H^H^H^H^HCongress keeps passing these B.S. copyright extensions, copyrights will be protected for 220 years.
CPBTA or whateverTF its called now= a sure sign that our gov likes to be anally raped. :(
s/anally raped/bribed/
Without regulations on it, would it not be (significantly) more difficult for them to make it mandatory? Even if they were only making them mandatory for a select group of individuals, e.g. sex offenders, the fact that they specifically refuse to regulate them seems to indicate that they just don't want to have to mess with them.
Didn't Loki say the same thing after they filed for Chapter 11? Look how that turned out...
NaN is Matlab-speak for "not a number." Are you suggesting that NaN has NaNs in their financial records?
Ironically, a large number of the websites were defaced shortly thereafter."
Of course, because IIS stands for "It Isn't Secure."
i mean seriously, is another september 11th even possible in today's climate? what group of airplane passengers would stay in their seats for a repeat occurence? september 11th seems like a one-time deal to me.
As for planes crashing into buildings, that won't happen again. Even the UAL flight that crashed in Pennsylvania is an example of this; if passengers know that they are doomed, they won't go down without a fight. Unfortunately, though, we now have to start looking out for other things, like WMDs.
Of course, knowing the limitless bounds of greed, people are still going to try to find someone to sue. "I want a bazillion dollars because the contractor didn't design the building to resist the destructive impact of a 767 and a plane-load of burning fuel!" Sheesh.
You're aware that people are suing both United and American for failing to adequately protect the passengers on the four doomed flights, aren't you? Like you said, "limitless bounds of greed."
Not under Windows it doesn't. OO seems a lot faster under Windows.
WordPerfect import ability would really help.
Note also at the bottom, that you will be marked YES for 'By US Mail' and 'By Phone' as well.
:D
This should be pretty damn obvious, but you shouldn't give them your real US mail address and phone number anyway when you sign up. I almost never give those out, and guess what? I get maybe one telemarketing call a month (neener neener neener!) And when I do get them, I tell them to go f--k themselves, which usually deters them from calling back. Perhaps that's actually what they're doing?
Basically, what it comes down to is that if you want your privacy protected, you have to really take steps to guard it yourself. You can't just give your information out to anybody that asks for it and expect them to respect your privacy.
Software modems blow chunks
From a EE's perspective, I don't even consider them to be "modems" at all. They are just PCI cards that convert data to a signal on the phone line and back. Nothing more. They don't have the DSPs that real modems have (the DSPing being done in software, of course).
But nimda wasn't a problem for anyone who had IIS set up correctly in the first place (except for the bandwidth and resource waste).
IIS = It Isn't Secure
Do you believe Red Hat Linux 7.2 is over twice as advanced as the (not yet released) Debian Linux 3.0? - Given RootHat's reputation for security, Debian is easily more advanced.
Which has better acceleration, an 800-cc touring bike or a 600-cc racing bike? - Depends on what kind of shape the riders of each are in.
Which Ethernet card is faster, a 3Com 905C or a Realtek 8139? - Seeing how I have a 3C905B, 3Com cards are probably faster.
How about PC266 DDR-SDRAM versus PC600 RDRAM? - I'd answer this, but Rambus would sue me.
Do you believe a 15-inch CRT is bigger than a 14-inch LCD - If you're talking in terms of volume, any CRT is "bigger" than any LCD.
Actually, in this particularly rare case, he *IS* serving the interests of his constituents. One of them, anyways. Disney's HQ is in Burbank.
Disney is not a voting citizen, so Disney is not a constituent of his.
It speaks poorly for that loser that he can be bought out for a measly $19,000. That doesn't even pay an intern!
So that's why interns do what they do (think Monica Lewinsky). They need more money.
The flipside of that coin is if we give $300,005 to hollings, will he drop support for this crap bill?
The entertainment industry would counter with another $300000. They can afford to do this, unfortunately.
If you see a bunch of CPUs on a shelf, labeled "1400", "1500", "1900" - why does it matter if those are GHz or some other rating system determined by the manufacturer?
Because customers assume that all manufacturers use the same system (which, for clarity, they should). They assume AMD uses the commonplace MHz rating scheme, but AMD instead uses a misleading PR scheme.
In practice though, AMD bumps up 66Mhz and adds 100 PR points every time
In other words, they lie.
This is why I absolutely hate PR rating schemes. They are arbitrarily set by the chip's manufacturer. Although they usually set them to what they deem a "fair" rating, they often bump the ratings up like this.
I'm a junior studying electrical engineering, and I'm taking a processor architecture class this semester. So I know about the design issues that lead to the perceived need for PR ratings. But that doesn't bypass the fact that PR ratings sell processors as things that they are not. No, AMD isn't marketing their Athlon 2000+ as a 2000 MHz chip, but many computer stores do sell them that way (I have seen this personally, so yes it does happen). You don't help your customers by lying to them.
Why is it not reasonable to *gasp* expect consumers to have enough smarts to realize that processors made by one company will not perform the same as those made by another company? Just sell the XP2000+ processors as 1600 MHz chips (or whatever the hell they run at), and say that they are "roughly equivalent to 2000 MHz Pentium 3." Heck, this way, customers would start to realize on their own that AMD processors are better. But using misleading PR ratings isn't going to help AMD one bit.
Lest you think I'm just bashing AMD, let me repeat my point that AMD processors are indeed better. My current system is a 1.2 GHz Thunderbird (sold as 1.2 GHz, not some stupid bloated PR number) overclocked to 1.4 GHz. According to SiSoft Sandra, its PR is 1875. But I would have been very pissed if I was being sold a 1.9 GHz processor and found out that it only ran at 1.4 GHz.
What, are ADC chips going to get banned next?
They will be if they don't have copy protection built in.
#include
From what I learned of contract law when I was under 18 (3-5 years ago), here's the way I *think* it would work. By permitting the copy-protected "CD"s to be sold to those under 18, Universal is effectively agreeing to follow the contract with them. Of course, the under 18s aren't legally bound by the contract, but here's where it gets interesting.
According to the law in most states...or maybe it's federal law, I don't remember...people who are under 18 can disavow contracts they have entered into. What this essentially means is that if someone enters into a contract with an IU18 (individual under 18, I refuse to use the term 'minor'), it still becomes legally binding, but not on the IU18. The other party, though, is still bound by the terms of the contract. What this means for IU18s buying copy-protected CDs is that as long as they are permitted to purchase them, which they will be, they can pretty much ignore whatever licensing restrictions Universal throws at them.
Gonna play the 'legally binding contract' game with your customers, Universal? Guess what...two can play this game.
How can you be a CS GRAD student and not know how to use gcc/g++/make?!?!? Honestly!
CS graduate students and even "professors" for lower-level programming classes often don't know what the hell they are doing anyway. My professors for both Java 1 and Java 2 were like this, and it's not like I go to a small university (I go to Oklahoma State).
I don't feel like paying for MS software that I'll never use.
You may not have to. See here.
Does it really make a difference to the politicians when you customize some comments for them
Unfortunately, the only customization that really works is symbolized by $.
When all our base are clearly not belong to you.
While the PR scheme is a bit dodgy
A *bit* dodgy? It's like lying to your customer's face about how fast the computer is. Don't give me any of this B.S. about "the P4 and Athlon XP are so different that..."; the processors are being sold as things that they are NOT. Period.