In fairness, I think all of us have accidentally dropped a consumer device in water or let it sit on a dashboard on a hot day. While this technology may not initially be useful for regular devices, eventually we may come to benefit from it.
In fairness, liquid nitrogen and water share very few properties. Nor is the convection of boiling water and radiation of solar energy affecting a solid the same way. Extreme conditions make for good press releases and irritating slashdot summaries. Simulating 200+ years of real decay is neither provable or disprovable. A "forever" product only needs to last as long as it's remembered. I can remember reading about three "archival" optical/magnetic/whatever media products on/. in the past. I can't tell you what they are called, and you probably haven't heard of them either.
Of course I might be working for the crystalline holographic storage lobby.
Fair point, and one I've been a part of many times. But to some extent we also should attempt to understand the nature of regional business, and why we have to find these workarounds, and justify to ourselves that it's "not bad". Despite our globalized 21st century world, the 19th-20th century nature of licensing (be it patents, copyright, or contract law) makes it very apparent that companies simply are not permitted to sell their product everywhere and to everyone. That's not our fault as consumers, and it's not as if companies want their inventory unsold on shelves when there is a global market waiting to be tapped. But to appease those licensees and export regulations, there are barriers to trade (ie. Amazon checking against Shipping addresses) and barriers to technology (ie. region locks on hardware), which affect us the potential customers in visible and frustrating ways. There are invisible ways as well.
It is simply a sad fact of commercialism that the means of bypassing those restrictions are no more "legitimate" just because we paid full price and feel good about it. And the easiest ways of bypassing also enable "free samples", hence why we're lumped in with the career pirates.
Despite what you believe your rights and local laws allow you to do, there is always a specific reason a company will not sell you something, even if it's simply a matter of losing more money than they expect to make. Someone somewhere has explicitly or implicitly decided that you can not have it. Which as any parent or teenager reading this will realize, only makes us want it more.
What ever happened to being blunt and frank, like when the Cleveland Stadium Corp responded to a complaint with a reply on company letterhead that read:
I think it's only fair to point out that the example you're referring to is one smartass lawyer responding to another smartass lawyer. I sincerely doubt such a response would have been forthcoming if the letter had been from a schoolteacher, or the response from the team manager.
In times where people get grabbed at airports, wiretaps are done at almost random, why would the NSA NOT use and abuse google?
More to the point, from the OP:
EPIC is worried the 'NSA is developing technical standards that would enable greater surveillance of Internet users.
Worried? I would think that was precisely something that is in the NSA's job description. Imagine if wiretapping was technically impossible. They would have to come up with an alternative.
Yet the fact that there are typically more than two parties on a ballot, which the majority of voters believe will never win and don't want to "waste" their vote, is exactly why politics continues to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can't have change, because you're not shuffling the deck.
This isn't really newsworthy... except to alert us there's one less swill-spitting high-pitched teenager playing Modern Warfare. I bet those Irish boys know a few words.
Uh, what? Sorry it's not Canada's fault the U.S. Postal System is so paranoid about anthrax that they make it difficult for small businesses to ship internationally. And no Canada Customs is not serious at all about claiming duty on packages that are worth (declared) at less than $50. There are many reasons why U.S. merchants choose not to ship to Canada but customs and duty has nothing to do with it, except when customers complain LOUDLY that United Parcel Service wants to charge them a $30 brokerage (basically an expedited-processing) fee. Once in a while I will get a letter from UPS evaluating a parcel I've already received and please pay $12 or somesuch. I usually forget about them until the 3rd or 4th notice.
I have been cross-border ordering for about 20+ years now, and I can assure you that the About.com article you linked to is merely a letter-of-the-law overview, and hardly reflects reality for the average consumer. If the value of a package says $25, and Canada Customs chooses to assess (not even open and inspect) it, the consumer pays a $5 fee and taxes on the $25 before the parcel is delivered. I cannot even remember the last time I ordered something that was assessed actual Duty. But then I rarely buy luxury goods, or things over $500. The average Amazon.com parcel shows up without a problem, and the average eBay seller knows how to fill out a declaration slip, honestly or "generously".
Sadly we can't get fresh eels this far inland. Also, the margins on the grocery business are insanely low, especially in produce. If you can't make it up on volume you can't make it. I speak from five years of reading "shrink" reports and competing with other stores to have the highest profitability. For which you're lucky to get a pat on the back, and I know of people that were literally hospitalized from job stress.
I'm interested in seeing how the fed handles this.
Erm, probably much the same as when they used to get phreaked back in the 80s? I don't have my issues of 2600 anymore, but I'm sure you can dig up some articles.
Actually I was surprised NVU wasn't mentioned specifically by the OP. Since the only "real" release of NVU is still version 1.0 from 2005, it fits perfectly with the dilemma described. Unofficial patches to renamed abandonware shouldn't be what open source is about. Take the code and make it work for yourself by all means, but it's not a solution for anyone that needs to get a job done.
I appreciate your point, but do realize that comments telling the/. editors how to correct submission grammar also get modded +4 Insightful. (#36403418) Grammar nazis are nerds too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vf8N6GpdM
I think news blogs are generally the #1 place I see videos "likely to get a takedown notice" so yes it will be interesting to see the Streisand effect at work here.
Whilst copyright infringement is, in some circumstances, a crime, this legislation would increase those circumstances to an act which is not, in itself, an infringement, but which enables an infringement.
It's an intriguing development to be sure. Realistically though, it's illegal to tap into other people's cable TV wires (or allow yours to be shared) even if you don't bother to watch the signal. Which logically extends to pirating wireless TV signals meant for decoding by a paying customer. Which on the internet is merely "paywalled" behind a login and password. Just because the data is flowing right past you doesn't give you the right to splice into it or split it back out, regardless of means.
Same type of deal with Steam and Xbox LIVE only allowing one account login at a time. If you have two 360s with one Gold account you cannot watch Netflix on both of them at the same time, not due to Netflix's restriction, but LIVE's. (The argument of paying for a Gold account to access Netflix is an entirely separate thing.:P ) My memory of the answer is fuzzy, but I do know Major Nelson's podcast answered this exact question in regards to the use of family accounts versus sharing one Gamertag between multiple consoles.
Slashdot Mirror
=b ArundelCastle and 4 other people like this.
In fairness, I think all of us have accidentally dropped a consumer device in water or let it sit on a dashboard on a hot day. While this technology may not initially be useful for regular devices, eventually we may come to benefit from it.
In fairness, liquid nitrogen and water share very few properties. Nor is the convection of boiling water and radiation of solar energy affecting a solid the same way. /. in the past. I can't tell you what they are called, and you probably haven't heard of them either.
Extreme conditions make for good press releases and irritating slashdot summaries. Simulating 200+ years of real decay is neither provable or disprovable. A "forever" product only needs to last as long as it's remembered. I can remember reading about three "archival" optical/magnetic/whatever media products on
Of course I might be working for the crystalline holographic storage lobby.
But can they see to plaid?
Fair point, and one I've been a part of many times.
But to some extent we also should attempt to understand the nature of regional business, and why we have to find these workarounds, and justify to ourselves that it's "not bad". Despite our globalized 21st century world, the 19th-20th century nature of licensing (be it patents, copyright, or contract law) makes it very apparent that companies simply are not permitted to sell their product everywhere and to everyone. That's not our fault as consumers, and it's not as if companies want their inventory unsold on shelves when there is a global market waiting to be tapped. But to appease those licensees and export regulations, there are barriers to trade (ie. Amazon checking against Shipping addresses) and barriers to technology (ie. region locks on hardware), which affect us the potential customers in visible and frustrating ways. There are invisible ways as well.
It is simply a sad fact of commercialism that the means of bypassing those restrictions are no more "legitimate" just because we paid full price and feel good about it. And the easiest ways of bypassing also enable "free samples", hence why we're lumped in with the career pirates.
Despite what you believe your rights and local laws allow you to do, there is always a specific reason a company will not sell you something, even if it's simply a matter of losing more money than they expect to make. Someone somewhere has explicitly or implicitly decided that you can not have it. Which as any parent or teenager reading this will realize, only makes us want it more.
It's funny because it's tlue.
What ever happened to being blunt and frank, like when the Cleveland Stadium Corp responded to a complaint with a reply on company letterhead that read:
I think it's only fair to point out that the example you're referring to is one smartass lawyer responding to another smartass lawyer. I sincerely doubt such a response would have been forthcoming if the letter had been from a schoolteacher, or the response from the team manager.
In times where people get grabbed at airports, wiretaps are done at almost random, why would the NSA NOT use and abuse google?
More to the point, from the OP:
EPIC is worried the 'NSA is developing technical standards that would enable greater surveillance of Internet users.
Worried? I would think that was precisely something that is in the NSA's job description. Imagine if wiretapping was technically impossible. They would have to come up with an alternative.
It's a two party system.
Yet the fact that there are typically more than two parties on a ballot, which the majority of voters believe will never win and don't want to "waste" their vote, is exactly why politics continues to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can't have change, because you're not shuffling the deck.
Sure, in both cases you will have a bit of spunk on your lips, but one situation makes you feel a lot better than the other.
With the handle BJ_Covert_Action I think we can guess which situation earned you your stripes. ;)
This isn't really newsworthy... except to alert us there's one less swill-spitting high-pitched teenager playing Modern Warfare.
I bet those Irish boys know a few words.
Could you please link to OSX versions of these tools?
Can't be too careful, I say.
My brother's quote has always been "nothing can be made foolproof, because fools are so ingenious."
Too soon.
Besides, it would be Tsoooooonami.
Uh, what? Sorry it's not Canada's fault the U.S. Postal System is so paranoid about anthrax that they make it difficult for small businesses to ship internationally. And no Canada Customs is not serious at all about claiming duty on packages that are worth (declared) at less than $50. There are many reasons why U.S. merchants choose not to ship to Canada but customs and duty has nothing to do with it, except when customers complain LOUDLY that United Parcel Service wants to charge them a $30 brokerage (basically an expedited-processing) fee. Once in a while I will get a letter from UPS evaluating a parcel I've already received and please pay $12 or somesuch. I usually forget about them until the 3rd or 4th notice.
I have been cross-border ordering for about 20+ years now, and I can assure you that the About.com article you linked to is merely a letter-of-the-law overview, and hardly reflects reality for the average consumer. If the value of a package says $25, and Canada Customs chooses to assess (not even open and inspect) it, the consumer pays a $5 fee and taxes on the $25 before the parcel is delivered. I cannot even remember the last time I ordered something that was assessed actual Duty. But then I rarely buy luxury goods, or things over $500. The average Amazon.com parcel shows up without a problem, and the average eBay seller knows how to fill out a declaration slip, honestly or "generously".
I appreciate your post. Particularly because it gives me a great idea to finish my screenplay of Caddyshack III: Spaceballs 2.
Sadly we can't get fresh eels this far inland.
Also, the margins on the grocery business are insanely low, especially in produce. If you can't make it up on volume you can't make it. I speak from five years of reading "shrink" reports and competing with other stores to have the highest profitability. For which you're lucky to get a pat on the back, and I know of people that were literally hospitalized from job stress.
I'm interested in seeing how the fed handles this.
Erm, probably much the same as when they used to get phreaked back in the 80s?
I don't have my issues of 2600 anymore, but I'm sure you can dig up some articles.
and it's open source so it can't ever fully die
Actually I was surprised NVU wasn't mentioned specifically by the OP. Since the only "real" release of NVU is still version 1.0 from 2005, it fits perfectly with the dilemma described. Unofficial patches to renamed abandonware shouldn't be what open source is about. Take the code and make it work for yourself by all means, but it's not a solution for anyone that needs to get a job done.
It's not a government lie.
It's the tourism lobby.
Get your conspiracies straight. You're embarrassing us.
I appreciate your point, but do realize that comments telling the /. editors how to correct submission grammar also get modded +4 Insightful. (#36403418)
Grammar nazis are nerds too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4vf8N6GpdM
I guarantee Google chiefs and executives care where their data is when they get served DOJ subpoenas.
I think news blogs are generally the #1 place I see videos "likely to get a takedown notice" so yes it will be interesting to see the Streisand effect at work here.
Timely Babylon 5 comments always make me wish I had mod points.
I see you've mastered the non-apology apology.
Whilst copyright infringement is, in some circumstances, a crime, this legislation would increase those circumstances to an act which is not, in itself, an infringement, but which enables an infringement.
It's an intriguing development to be sure.
Realistically though, it's illegal to tap into other people's cable TV wires (or allow yours to be shared) even if you don't bother to watch the signal. Which logically extends to pirating wireless TV signals meant for decoding by a paying customer. Which on the internet is merely "paywalled" behind a login and password. Just because the data is flowing right past you doesn't give you the right to splice into it or split it back out, regardless of means.
Same type of deal with Steam and Xbox LIVE only allowing one account login at a time. If you have two 360s with one Gold account you cannot watch Netflix on both of them at the same time, not due to Netflix's restriction, but LIVE's. (The argument of paying for a Gold account to access Netflix is an entirely separate thing. :P ) My memory of the answer is fuzzy, but I do know Major Nelson's podcast answered this exact question in regards to the use of family accounts versus sharing one Gamertag between multiple consoles.