Unfortunately, I'm fairly sure that most EULAs have some kind of statement to the effect that, should one part prove to be unenforceable or illegal, the rest of the EULA remains binding. So you can't get around the EULA that way. Shame, really.
I thought that was the weak anthropic principle, and the strong anthropic principle is that the universe allows us to exist because we *had* to be here to see it?
I don't suppose the key with which it must be signed is the one for which the Government had an alternative key? Unfortunately I can't think of the link right now, but ISTR that there was a way to change that key to one of your choosing, so get hold of appropriate drivers, sign them with your own key (or one generated for the purpose), and lo! there will be much creation of.wav files.
Ease of use and ease of learning are too analogue to be mutually exclusive. You can have something that's pretty easy to use and not too hard to learn, for example. I think "orthogonal" would be about the right word here.
Second, a Levitron, which you can buy for a couple of bucks. The working principle is rather complicated, though.
I thought the principle was quite simple. If you place a magnet above another magnet, like poles towards each other, then, as a rule, the top magnet will flip over because of the attractive force between the unlike poles, so you can't levitate it that way. As a spinning top, particularly one with a fairly big moment of intertia (as in the Levitron) is very resistant to flipping over, it can't, so it's held up by the repulsive force between the like poles of the magnets.
The movable surface panels are there to correct for deformations due to gravity and thermal effects; for effective observations at high frequencies the surface has to be perfectly shaped to within a ridiculous tolerance.
IIRC, the surface doesn't have to be all that accurate for radio astronomy. The wavelengths are quite long, and the surface only has to be accurate to within one twentienth of the wavelength. Which is why they can use wires instead of needing a solid dish, and still get the same effect. OTOH, with a structure that large, the panels are probably there for exactly that reason.
No company would be foolish enough to try something like that now. Even though they did in the past.
I have a feeling that some defence research people are working on using very small mechanical switches in place of transistors, the idea being that they wouldn't be so susceptible to an EMP.
It depends on the exact wording of the law. You are, after all, making a phone call with the intention of communicating. Does anyone have the relevant information to hand, and care?
Taking your definition of "hacker" as accurate (to save time), you are quite correct. However, they describe themselves as "elite" (or however you want to write that using numbers) hackers, which they certainly aren't.
The planet does not need to be saved! So what if pollution wipes out mankind and life as we know it? Mother Earth will still survive and new forms of life will evolve to replace us.
Unfortunately, we currently have the capacity to cause serious damage to the planet's ecosystem. If we muck up badly enough, it could take a long, long time for any life to replace us. Unless the cockroaches become significantly more intelligent in less time than seems likely ATM. Besides which, what's wrong with self-preservation? It's what everything's bred for, after all.
The best place to put that energy IMO would be a flywheel. I want a flywheel car! (and think just how hard it would be to roll over!:-)
Wouldn't it also be rather hard for someone new to it to steer? I know that in aircraft a rotary system makes some very surprising motion possible, but it takes getting used to, and I'm not sure it would even be possible with just a steering wheel.
Wouldn't it have saved both Microsoft and the taxpayers a ton of money if they could have tried this out in the first place.
Yes, but it didn't happen for the same reason that people don't start talking until after the war. Some of it's human nature, some of it's so you know just how much you can push for.
We could fine them, but how do you financially fine a company that makes 100's of billions a year?
A very heavy fine might do it. This has the added advantage that it would help make up for the hole in public finances made by this case in the first place.
We could break it apart, but they would still be owned by the same people and everyone would go on making their profits, just like before. Hell, 3Com/USR/Palm has shown that it can even be a usefull business strategy.
Well, it would force them to change their strategy a bit, but that is probably going to be little more than an inconvenience. One advantage of this is that any deal between the new companies could be open to investigation. This would mean that either Microsoft Apps will have to pay through the nose for the information they need to make their apps work better with Microsoft OS than the competition, or other apps makers would have such useful information. In theory. In practice, though, you're probably right.
They could force MS to quasi-open source their software but ask Red Hat how terrible that is for business.
I think the idea is that the settlement shouldn't be good for business. Bill Gates, for all his flaws, is really quite a good businessman. He'll probably find a way to adapt, and the result could be better written MS software. Could.
Personally, I think that the Justice Department is just wasting time and money really pursuing this.
Personally, I think any attempt to go through the legal system is a waste of time and money. Such a shame it seems to be the only way in so many cases.
In Britain, AFAIK, a law setting the legal status of electronic signatures is being discussed. Anything good about it will almost certainly be lost in the process, and a lot of restrictions will doubtless be brought in (can we all say "escrow"? How about "compulsory"?)
I have a feeling the keys suggestion died, or was modified, after someone demonstrated the flaws by sending an email to Jack Straw (Home Secretary). It contained an explanation of the flaw, which was followed by a confession to an imaginary crime. The confession had been encrypted using a key which had been registered on several servers as belonging to Jack Straw, but the sender had deleted the private key from his machine. Under the law, I have a feeling the recipient could have faced two years in prison.
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Unfortunately, I'm fairly sure that most EULAs have some kind of statement to the effect that, should one part prove to be unenforceable or illegal, the rest of the EULA remains binding. So you can't get around the EULA that way. Shame, really.
Isn't the Oort cloud where Thread comes from?
Oh no, wait, wrong system... Never mind. We now return you to your scheduled reality.
I thought that was the weak anthropic principle, and the strong anthropic principle is that the universe allows us to exist because we *had* to be here to see it?
Shouldn't that be +1?
I wouldn't count Rimmer as an android, but I certainly would count Kryten.
Actually, you could do with having a pre-reprogramming Kryten in this house. Solves the chores problem, at least.
I don't suppose the key with which it must be signed is the one for which the Government had an alternative key? Unfortunately I can't think of the link right now, but ISTR that there was a way to change that key to one of your choosing, so get hold of appropriate drivers, sign them with your own key (or one generated for the purpose), and lo! there will be much creation of .wav files.
Use it to watch old demos which either won't work, go insanely fast, or get out of synch on any Pentium or higher?
Ease of use and ease of learning are too analogue to be mutually exclusive. You can have something that's pretty easy to use and not too hard to learn, for example. I think "orthogonal" would be about the right word here.
Second, a Levitron, which you can buy for a couple of bucks. The working principle is rather complicated, though.
I thought the principle was quite simple. If you place a magnet above another magnet, like poles towards each other, then, as a rule, the top magnet will flip over because of the attractive force between the unlike poles, so you can't levitate it that way. As a spinning top, particularly one with a fairly big moment of intertia (as in the Levitron) is very resistant to flipping over, it can't, so it's held up by the repulsive force between the like poles of the magnets.
The movable surface panels are there to correct for deformations due to gravity and thermal effects; for effective observations at high frequencies the surface has to be perfectly shaped to within a ridiculous tolerance.
IIRC, the surface doesn't have to be all that accurate for radio astronomy. The wavelengths are quite long, and the surface only has to be accurate to within one twentienth of the wavelength. Which is why they can use wires instead of needing a solid dish, and still get the same effect. OTOH, with a structure that large, the panels are probably there for exactly that reason.
Some philosophers wouldn't like your characterization. Some philosophers speak out AGAINST science.
Many philosophers speak out against other philosophers as well. It doesn't make either party less of a philosopher.
No company would be foolish enough to try something like that now. Even though they did in the past.
I have a feeling that some defence research people are working on using very small mechanical switches in place of transistors, the idea being that they wouldn't be so susceptible to an EMP.
It depends on the exact wording of the law. You are, after all, making a phone call with the intention of communicating. Does anyone have the relevant information to hand, and care?
Taking your definition of "hacker" as accurate (to save time), you are quite correct. However, they describe themselves as "elite" (or however you want to write that using numbers) hackers, which they certainly aren't.
The planet does not need to be saved! So what if pollution wipes out mankind and life as we know it? Mother Earth will still survive and new forms of life will evolve to replace us.
Unfortunately, we currently have the capacity to cause serious damage to the planet's ecosystem. If we muck up badly enough, it could take a long, long time for any life to replace us. Unless the cockroaches become significantly more intelligent in less time than seems likely ATM. Besides which, what's wrong with self-preservation? It's what everything's bred for, after all.
The best place to put that energy IMO would be a flywheel. I want a flywheel car! (and think just how hard it would be to roll over! :-)
Wouldn't it also be rather hard for someone new to it to steer? I know that in aircraft a rotary system makes some very surprising motion possible, but it takes getting used to, and I'm not sure it would even be possible with just a steering wheel.
Wouldn't it have saved both Microsoft and the taxpayers a ton of money if they could have tried this out in the first place.
Yes, but it didn't happen for the same reason that people don't start talking until after the war. Some of it's human nature, some of it's so you know just how much you can push for.
We could fine them, but how do you financially fine a company that makes 100's of billions a year?
A very heavy fine might do it. This has the added advantage that it would help make up for the hole in public finances made by this case in the first place.
We could break it apart, but they would still be owned by the same people and everyone would go on making their profits, just like before. Hell, 3Com/USR/Palm has shown that it can even be a usefull business strategy.
Well, it would force them to change their strategy a bit, but that is probably going to be little more than an inconvenience. One advantage of this is that any deal between the new companies could be open to investigation. This would mean that either Microsoft Apps will have to pay through the nose for the information they need to make their apps work better with Microsoft OS than the competition, or other apps makers would have such useful information. In theory. In practice, though, you're probably right.
They could force MS to quasi-open source their software but ask Red Hat how terrible that is for business.
I think the idea is that the settlement shouldn't be good for business. Bill Gates, for all his flaws, is really quite a good businessman. He'll probably find a way to adapt, and the result could be better written MS software. Could.
Personally, I think that the Justice Department is just wasting time and money really pursuing this.
Personally, I think any attempt to go through the legal system is a waste of time and money. Such a shame it seems to be the only way in so many cases.
No, that's MI6. MI5 is, rather appropriately, a counter-intelligence agency.
In Britain, AFAIK, a law setting the legal status of electronic signatures is being discussed. Anything good about it will almost certainly be lost in the process, and a lot of restrictions will doubtless be brought in (can we all say "escrow"? How about "compulsory"?)
I have a feeling the keys suggestion died, or was modified, after someone demonstrated the flaws by sending an email to Jack Straw (Home Secretary). It contained an explanation of the flaw, which was followed by a confession to an imaginary crime. The confession had been encrypted using a key which had been registered on several servers as belonging to Jack Straw, but the sender had deleted the private key from his machine. Under the law, I have a feeling the recipient could have faced two years in prison.