You think this is new? Look at GM in 1960 to GM in 2008 (before bankruptcy anyway). Planned obsolescence is the American way of driving new sales and innovation.
I think this is pretty smart, but based on recent experience with a backup drive failing after some critical item was accidentally deleted from the original drive, I would recommend that you supplement this with an on-line backup solution as well (I recently tried out spideroak.com and it seems nice enough). This would let you have site redundancy at a pretty reasonable cost, while keeping the ease of access that you get with your second hard drive.
My "rarely on" 500gb backup usb drive (Maxtor II) just failed. And of course it just failed the day after I deleted I file that I would like to get back, but can't. The file is probably worth $200 to me, and the backup companies want $2000 to restore it, so I'll spend the $200 on consolation beer.
Zed's point (IMO) is that by using the GPL he forces many businesses to transact with him for a different license. Many businesses don't want GPL code in their product line, and for those companies Zed will sell them a differently licensed copy of his software. That means he'll be doing business with those companies, and therefore getting the recognition and/or compensation he feels like he wasn't getting with his MIT licensed stuff.
I'm just saying that's what I think his argument is.
This technology will not work with inflight wi-fi. The latency on over the air (non-hardwire) internet is far too great, and the bandwidth is too low. Given the speed of light issues related to sat links, airplanes will probably never have low enough latency (50ms) to make gaming feasible in this manner.
The payments are for scores on standardized tests, not teacher grades. So kickbacks would have to be for teachers who can help kids learn to earn the money -- kind of like Kaplan/Princeton etc.
FTFA: "About two-thirds of the 59 high-poverty schools in the Sparks program -- which pays seventh-graders up to $500 and fourth-graders as much as $250 for their performance on a total of 10 assessments -- improved their scores since last year's state tests by margins above the citywide average.
The gains at some schools approached 40 percentage points. "
Health laws for restaurants are applied across the board to all of a certain type of business. Not just corporations. Sole proprietorships, partnerships, llc and corporations.
Beyond that, health laws aren't micromanaging any one particular business, but managing the behavior of a class of businesses. Which was my point. Laws/regs of corps or business = gov't's main avenue for management.
Gov't mandating the specific behavior of a single business/corp. = micromanagement (it's done but not nearly as often)
2) The laws and regulations that permit corporate charters are (ostensibly) designed to benefit you and your fellow citizens.
Therefore: The gov't (as operator of the laws/regs) isn't responsible for micromanaging corporations (though it does this every once in a blue moon anyway). The gov't is primarly responsible for adjusting the corporate charter and operating laws/regs (e.g. Sarbanes Oxley), when it doesn't like the way the corporations are behaving.
Are you arguing that between the time that AT&T was broken up in the 80's and the time that it essentially reformed as a unified National telecom corporation, there wasn't much innovation and price competitiveness in the US telecom market? Seems like that period of time worked out pretty well in terms of lower prices and new services for commercial and residential customers.
I had a similar experience, but while Ubuntu booted with video working and wireless working, I experienced the following:
"Advanced" graphics, which involves dual monitors with different resolutions wouldn't work in Ubuntu (at least not with my level of expertise).
Bluetooth headset wouldn't work, though there were some 3 page CLI instructions that I tried.
I also have to fiddle with this stuff in Windows, but I'm back to Windows now b/c this stuff doesn't work (plus I haven't found a calendar replacement I'm comfortable with).
I don't think this is an issue of Repubs/Dems, this is an issue of "in power/in opposition."
The Republicans are definitely very good at being in the minority - they can clamor for lower spending, less government, etc, but put them in power and they act just like Democrats: that tells me that the people in power exert power and spend money. That's not a Repub/Dem thing, since they both do it whenever possible.
For the last eight years many Dems have been griping about too much spending, but put them in power and now see what they do.
And look at history: put Regan in power, what does he do? Spends up a storm. Republicans aren't anti-spending, they're anti-Democrat-spending.
Well said. I met with Chopra after he was nominated for this job, and my perception is that he's very in-tune with how government policy is impacted by technology, and how technology creates jobs in the private sector.
He's not an open source advocate per se, but he definitely understands the principles of openness which can change the game in terms of how markets operate. So, I think we can rely on him to make honest assessments of where open source makes sense and deploying it (or advocating that others do so).
My impression is that he's not a blind supporter of anything technological, but has a reasonable understanding of the relationships between policy and technology.
As far as I can tell, he doesn't have any staff - at least not yet. His role appears to be advisory. He's a direct report to the president, so he can cruise around Washington meeting with Gov't depts and trying to help them get their tech plans rolling (or whatever). If they don't like his help, they can know that he might sandbag them with POTUS. So he's going to have a lot of influence in Washington, but not a lot of "line authority." At least that's the best as I can figure it.
Mod parent up. This is completely true in my experience.
I treat TSA staff like they're doing an important and valuable service, and recognize their hard work, and they just do a cursory search of my bags even when they are randomly pulled for inspection.
It doesn't breed any confidence in their process, but as parent says, the process is theatrical anyway. Until that gets changed, all you can do at the airport is make your trip through it as painless as possible.
Seems to me that there are big problems in store for TLD's that start issuing email like:
me@google
Many web-based email validations are based on a regex like:.*@.*\..*
Requiring a TLD and a "sub-domain" - so the above example will be denied in many, many web applications even though it will now be a valid and potentially common email address. Just one example, but I'd bet there are numerous other web form validations that will fail for new sites. For example will you be allowed to give your pingback blog as:
While I totally agree with your points in regards to the current markets and technologies for digital media, Microsoft and others are busily working to replace many computers with "drm enabled" devices such as the XBox 360. This device and its progeny are like the other three walls around the free standing wall/door that you mention. Though exploits exist for some 360's, most are pretty well locked down - radically different from the situation with the original xbox. And you can bet the next hardware version will be even tighter. These devices are clearly designed to eventually replace Windows-based home computers entirely, making DRM something much, much harder to get around (on that device). If users buy Xbox 720's like they buy DVD and home entertainment products now, they won't have knowledge/access to Linux or other DRM-free products, nor will they own hardware capable of running Linux.
This scares me, but I fear is the future for your average consumer and the bulk of the market. Of course regular PC's will still be able to run Linux, but most people won't own them down the road.. Don't get me started on iPhones and all that mess.:)
Many if not most paper coupons have "limit 2 per customer" or other usage limitations on them. And they have expiration dates generally. Creators of paper coupons take a different approach for sure than the issues in this article - saying "limit 2 per customer" doesn't prohibit you from making a copy of the coupon and using that instead of the original. Something else does, however:
Keep in mind that in the US, in general, there is an "implicit copyright" on most printed material. So that even if you don't put "(c) Me 2007" on something - if you printed/created it, you have a copyright on it. Registering copyright with the Feds only documents your copyright, it doesn't establish it. Same for the (c) mark.
So any store who prints coupons does have a copyright on that format + content. And if you copy it, they could lodge a copyright violation complaint. But they might not want you to present a 1000 coupons all at once, even if they were legitimate, so they put "limit 2 per customer" on the coupon. If they were to forget to put such a limitation, then AFAIK there is nothing to prevent you from collecting thousands of legitimate coupons from wherever you can and using them all.
I think there are some infamous torts cases where people saw a coupon for $100 off a new car, but with no limitation on # of coupons which could be used - collected together 100 of them, sued and got a $10,000 car for free. I'm not so sure those loopholes in the law haven't been patched though (IANAL).
Slashdot Mirror
lol (really). I couldn't agree more.
You think this is new? Look at GM in 1960 to GM in 2008 (before bankruptcy anyway). Planned obsolescence is the American way of driving new sales and innovation.
Mod parent up. This is funny but also true. Well said.
I think this is pretty smart, but based on recent experience with a backup drive failing after some critical item was accidentally deleted from the original drive, I would recommend that you supplement this with an on-line backup solution as well (I recently tried out spideroak.com and it seems nice enough). This would let you have site redundancy at a pretty reasonable cost, while keeping the ease of access that you get with your second hard drive.
My "rarely on" 500gb backup usb drive (Maxtor II) just failed. And of course it just failed the day after I deleted I file that I would like to get back, but can't. The file is probably worth $200 to me, and the backup companies want $2000 to restore it, so I'll spend the $200 on consolation beer.
Zed's point (IMO) is that by using the GPL he forces many businesses to transact with him for a different license. Many businesses don't want GPL code in their product line, and for those companies Zed will sell them a differently licensed copy of his software. That means he'll be doing business with those companies, and therefore getting the recognition and/or compensation he feels like he wasn't getting with his MIT licensed stuff.
I'm just saying that's what I think his argument is.
This technology will not work with inflight wi-fi. The latency on over the air (non-hardwire) internet is far too great, and the bandwidth is too low. Given the speed of light issues related to sat links, airplanes will probably never have low enough latency (50ms) to make gaming feasible in this manner.
That said, TFA sounds like someone with a space elevator fetish ordered a custom realdoll.
Good one.
The payments are for scores on standardized tests, not teacher grades. So kickbacks would have to be for teachers who can help kids learn to earn the money -- kind of like Kaplan/Princeton etc.
FTFA: "About two-thirds of the 59 high-poverty schools in the Sparks program -- which pays seventh-graders up to $500 and fourth-graders as much as $250 for their performance on a total of 10 assessments -- improved their scores since last year's state tests by margins above the citywide average.
The gains at some schools approached 40 percentage points. "
Perhaps this is getting pedantic but:
Health laws for restaurants are applied across the board to all of a certain type of business. Not just corporations. Sole proprietorships, partnerships, llc and corporations.
Beyond that, health laws aren't micromanaging any one particular business, but managing the behavior of a class of businesses. Which was my point. Laws/regs of corps or business = gov't's main avenue for management.
Gov't mandating the specific behavior of a single business/corp. = micromanagement (it's done but not nearly as often)
Probably we're just in violent agreement on this.
This might seem like a minor quibble, but:
1) Corporations exist to serve their shareholders
2) The laws and regulations that permit corporate charters are (ostensibly) designed to benefit you and your fellow citizens.
Therefore: The gov't (as operator of the laws/regs) isn't responsible for micromanaging corporations (though it does this every once in a blue moon anyway). The gov't is primarly responsible for adjusting the corporate charter and operating laws/regs (e.g. Sarbanes Oxley), when it doesn't like the way the corporations are behaving.
Are you arguing that between the time that AT&T was broken up in the 80's and the time that it essentially reformed as a unified National telecom corporation, there wasn't much innovation and price competitiveness in the US telecom market? Seems like that period of time worked out pretty well in terms of lower prices and new services for commercial and residential customers.
Mod parent up: insightful.
Apple is definitely the new Microsoft.
I tried to use Ubuntu but backed off it b/c:
Dual monitor support (for monitors of different resoutions was not functional in my environment)
My very standard bluetooth headset would not work in Ubunut (it detected it but wouldn't function)
The video situation was especially depressing. If that had been functional, I probably would have lasted longer than I did.
I had a similar experience, but while Ubuntu booted with video working and wireless working, I experienced the following:
"Advanced" graphics, which involves dual monitors with different resolutions wouldn't work in Ubuntu (at least not with my level of expertise).
Bluetooth headset wouldn't work, though there were some 3 page CLI instructions that I tried.
I also have to fiddle with this stuff in Windows, but I'm back to Windows now b/c this stuff doesn't work (plus I haven't found a calendar replacement I'm comfortable with).
I don't think this is an issue of Repubs/Dems, this is an issue of "in power/in opposition."
The Republicans are definitely very good at being in the minority - they can clamor for lower spending, less government, etc, but put them in power and they act just like Democrats: that tells me that the people in power exert power and spend money. That's not a Repub/Dem thing, since they both do it whenever possible.
For the last eight years many Dems have been griping about too much spending, but put them in power and now see what they do.
And look at history: put Regan in power, what does he do? Spends up a storm. Republicans aren't anti-spending, they're anti-Democrat-spending.
Well said. I met with Chopra after he was nominated for this job, and my perception is that he's very in-tune with how government policy is impacted by technology, and how technology creates jobs in the private sector.
He's not an open source advocate per se, but he definitely understands the principles of openness which can change the game in terms of how markets operate. So, I think we can rely on him to make honest assessments of where open source makes sense and deploying it (or advocating that others do so).
My impression is that he's not a blind supporter of anything technological, but has a reasonable understanding of the relationships between policy and technology.
As far as I can tell, he doesn't have any staff - at least not yet. His role appears to be advisory. He's a direct report to the president, so he can cruise around Washington meeting with Gov't depts and trying to help them get their tech plans rolling (or whatever). If they don't like his help, they can know that he might sandbag them with POTUS. So he's going to have a lot of influence in Washington, but not a lot of "line authority." At least that's the best as I can figure it.
I'm still running the "classic" UI on XP. What are the odds they'll support that in Win7?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315231
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
DefaultUserName
DefaultPassword
Mod parent up. This is completely true in my experience.
I treat TSA staff like they're doing an important and valuable service, and recognize their hard work, and they just do a cursory search of my bags even when they are randomly pulled for inspection.
It doesn't breed any confidence in their process, but as parent says, the process is theatrical anyway. Until that gets changed, all you can do at the airport is make your trip through it as painless as possible.
Seems to me that there are big problems in store for TLD's that start issuing email like:
me@google
Many web-based email validations are based on a regex like: .*@.*\..*
Requiring a TLD and a "sub-domain" - so the above example will be denied in many, many web applications even though it will now be a valid and potentially common email address. Just one example, but I'd bet there are numerous other web form validations that will fail for new sites. For example will you be allowed to give your pingback blog as:
http://googlepages/
I think not. Not that it's not valid, but much of the web will not accept it.
I think it's actually a *plywood* tank. FWIW.
While I totally agree with your points in regards to the current markets and technologies for digital media, Microsoft and others are busily working to replace many computers with "drm enabled" devices such as the XBox 360. This device and its progeny are like the other three walls around the free standing wall/door that you mention. Though exploits exist for some 360's, most are pretty well locked down - radically different from the situation with the original xbox. And you can bet the next hardware version will be even tighter. These devices are clearly designed to eventually replace Windows-based home computers entirely, making DRM something much, much harder to get around (on that device). If users buy Xbox 720's like they buy DVD and home entertainment products now, they won't have knowledge/access to Linux or other DRM-free products, nor will they own hardware capable of running Linux.
:)
This scares me, but I fear is the future for your average consumer and the bulk of the market. Of course regular PC's will still be able to run Linux, but most people won't own them down the road.. Don't get me started on iPhones and all that mess.
Many if not most paper coupons have "limit 2 per customer" or other usage limitations on them. And they have expiration dates generally. Creators of paper coupons take a different approach for sure than the issues in this article - saying "limit 2 per customer" doesn't prohibit you from making a copy of the coupon and using that instead of the original. Something else does, however:
Keep in mind that in the US, in general, there is an "implicit copyright" on most printed material. So that even if you don't put "(c) Me 2007" on something - if you printed/created it, you have a copyright on it. Registering copyright with the Feds only documents your copyright, it doesn't establish it. Same for the (c) mark.
So any store who prints coupons does have a copyright on that format + content. And if you copy it, they could lodge a copyright violation complaint. But they might not want you to present a 1000 coupons all at once, even if they were legitimate, so they put "limit 2 per customer" on the coupon. If they were to forget to put such a limitation, then AFAIK there is nothing to prevent you from collecting thousands of legitimate coupons from wherever you can and using them all.
I think there are some infamous torts cases where people saw a coupon for $100 off a new car, but with no limitation on # of coupons which could be used - collected together 100 of them, sued and got a $10,000 car for free. I'm not so sure those loopholes in the law haven't been patched though (IANAL).