I recall Bush saying that he would essentially drop the charges if elected.
Bush has no such powers. If it were a criminal case, he could pardon the offender, but it's a civil matter. The moron Bush can go blow, President or not.
For some strange reason, a large majority of the public favors Microsoft.
That's why we don't put legal authority into the hands of the drooling sheeple. We have judges who presumably (at least sometimes) have clues. Otherwise you get mob rule as the majority decides to do crazy stuff like kill all the Jews or execute anyone caught with a joint.
A parliamentary democracy sucks, but it's better than what a "pure" democracy would be, which is insanity.
Interesting to note that the entire appeals cout will hear the case instead of the usual three judge panel. Does anyone have more info on why, or how unusual this migth be?
The circuit court is probably doing this en banc because regardless of the decision, the first appeal by whatever party is likely to be a request to rehear it en banc.
So by doing it that way in the first place, they avoid the waste of time of the inevitable rehearing.
I just found a link that works for the "Bermuda Statement." It's here.
The idea is essentially to "open source" the Human Genome. This is why Celera's stock has dropped to a third of its highest value and it's being massively sued by shareholders.
Main gist:
Primary Genomic Sequence Should be in the Public Domain It was agreed that all human genomic sequence information, generated by centres funded for large-scale human sequencing, should be freely available and in the public domain in order to encourage research and development and to maximise its benefit to society.
I am ready, Celera. I am ready, HGP. Modify, enhance, and augment me. Hell, exploit me. I am ready!
Incidentally, I'd go for augmentation in a heartbeat, especially if it was something mondo-cool like cat eyes, night vision, or enhanced intelligence. However. ..I'd just as soon let other people try it while it's in beta;-()
But I wouldn't trust Celera to do this. What do they want to do?
Instead, Celera would turn a profit by selling subscriptions to a database of information about genes -- much the way Lexis-Nexis sells information about law.
I'm surprised I haven't seen any mention of this here yet. I submitted it as a story a bit ago but it got rejected (it's only marginally on-topic anyway).
Here's the gist: Celera is getting massively sued in at least three class-action suits. Shareholders claim that Celera has a bogus business plan and which "is dependent upon its ability to protect its database [of genomic] information through patent protection."
These upcoming lawsuits look ugly, and apparently the shareholders don't appear to think Celera is on the up-and-up with their claims of IP protection for the human genome.
Now dig this. The reason why the class-action litigants feel that Celera's business plan is flawed is that the Human Genome Project has already "open sourced" significant parts of the human genome.
Netscape had an effective monopoly over the browser market by virtue of being the dominant browser before IE.
Not to mention that at the time, they were also the best browser. ..even if it was just rehashed Mosaic at that point.
Netscape attempted to leverage this monopoly to render the desktop irrelevant by encouraging developers to write against its APIs, bundling mail software, news readers, etc. as part of the browser.
And it didn't work. Hence there'd be no point in going after them for an antitrust violation that didn't exist. It also never really rose to the level of violating the Sherman Act.
This case begins to sound more and more like a baby getting beaten at a game he was playing and wanting mommy to go beat up the big bad people who defeated him.
I have to admit, as much as I hate Microsoft, that Netscape's attempt to intervene in the case at this point is pretty pathetic whining. They have no standing to be demanding changes in the remedies and should STFU and FOAD and let the court get on with it.
If I'm ordering anything through the Netscape shop! icon, it's a vomit bag.
Which is too bad. I thought Netscape was fine up until about 4.2. Then it turned into hideous bloatware, it was as if Netscape got into a war with Microsoft to see who could add more completely useless non-standard "features" and create the most bloated crap.
And frankly, 4.7 up are just hideous, the most fucking ugly software I've ever seen. The buttons look like shit, the browser looks like shit, it takes forever to boot and is then sluggish as hell. There's no real competition. IE 5.01 is just the better browser. Netscape 4.73 blows dead goats, or rather it WOULD blow dead goats if it didn't crash in the middle of trying to blow dead goats.
Perhaps this is because of OS integration, but perhaps it's just because the latest Netscape browser is just bad, and horribly, evilly wrong in so many ways, from its appearance to its performance, that it can't be said not to suck with a straight face. It is the "Battlefield: Earth" of web browsers.
A partially succesful attack on machine A (non-root access) or even an attempted attack causes machine A may cause the machine to close the port
I still don't see how this helps against DDoS. After all, suppose your purpose *is* to close the port?
One thing the source article seemed to hint at but didn't quite say was that it somehow rerouted the traffic dynamically. Another nice touch is the idea of a network learning what "normal" traffic is, but then suppose you're a weirdo and constantly do bizarre stuff with your network?
It would be really annoying to be attacked by your own bots every time you tried doing something new.
I stopped reading it at around the phrase "interplanetary robot swarm" because it just started to seem like a tremendous crock of shit at that point.
This deals with such a wide array of computer sabotage that its utterly amazing. Everything from breakins to virii to DDOS's can be successfully combated by this. Its exactly what the net needs.
How does it deal with a DDOS? If a DDOS sucks up all the bandwidth a site has, how does this program help anything?
It seems, if anything, that it could add an additional weakness--if the attacker knew anything about the bots, he could deliberately do things that send them into a frenzy, rendering the security bots themselves a menace to the system.
It seems that to be of any use, these self-replicating 'bots must have high levels of access to the system.
If there are "backdoors" or special security exceptions made for the bots, then one would hope there is some means of recognizing rogue 'bots.
The most obvious attack on a system with security like this is to duke in a rogue 'bot faking inheritance of the security privileges given to the real ones, and then use that to mount the attack.
I read one argument that stated that virus has no plaural because in latin (where it comes from, obviously) it had a very similar sense as "air".
The problem seems to be that we took the word virus, which meant "slime" (among other things) and then used it to describe something countable, in English.
Then, of course, pseudo-pedantic fucks came along a couple hundred years later and tried to retrofit it back into its classical form. I say "pseudo"-pedantic because they weren't pedantic enough to realize there wasn't one.
Since if there was a plural, it would probably be also "virus" and that sounds really dippy, may as well stick with the perfectly fine "viruses." Now back off, slimes! (For some reason I love totally nitpicky, absolutely pointless arguments like this.)
It's a really, really, weird noun, fairly rare, and, in fact, has never been seen in the plural form in classic texts.
Sure threw me for a loop. I started looking into it on this site about the plural of virus that someone posted earlier, which explained why I was having trouble with it--I took Latin for four years in high school so I was getting embarrassed.
Anyway, it appears there's fairly wild disagreement on what precisely it is, with some even claiming it's fourth declension. (I like the fourth declension explanation and am inclined to accept it more out of contrariness than anything.)
In any case, if it were fourth, the plural of virus would also be virus. Considering that the word meant "slime" there would be no purpose in a plural form, as in English the similar word is a collective noun without a plural. You do not speak of "slimes" (at least not unless you play D&D and fight green slimes).
Stock price was $107 at the time... called that one right, I must say;)
Heh. It's just as well not to end up a Microserf, but if I have any spare money lying around and the breakup goes through, I may just pick up a few shares of MSFT at the way-undervalued price it's sure to be at during the panic.
I bet splitup or no, the price will eventually rebound from that, making it worthwhile. In any case, it's not likely to drop much more after that.
INAL, what I've read from legal scholars is that the finding of fact and the ruling were all structured to stand up during the expected appeals process. If you know so many ways that it can be overturned, start listing them.
IANAL, but I imagine the appeals will be based on procedural grounds rather than on the merits of the case. This may force the case to be relitigated, probably in Jackson's court. AFAICT the Findings of Fact are unassailable, and I fail to see how anyone can accept the Findings of Fact without accepting that MSFT violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
Jackson might lose points on the rather hasty remedies phase, when it was fairly clear he was impatient with the case and with MSFT and had already made up his mind. I think this will depend on whether it goes to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals or straight to the Supremes.
IMO it's going to end up with the Supremes anyway so it may as well be now rather than then.
If we allow a company that repeatedly broke the law to carry on with business as usual, just for the sole purpose of not damaging our precious economy, then we're entering a very dangerous situation.
I agree with that. And it's that sort of arrogant contempt for the law that brought this on them in the first place. The Judge, after already having been lied to, was not amused when MSFT continued their conduct.
But he said he's convinced that the software giant continues even now to engage in the actions that brought it to trial. He cited as an example new evidence -- an e-mail from last year by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates that was introduced by the government late last month. In the e-mail, Gates suggested altering some of his dominant software in a way that would disadvantage users of the Palm line of handheld devices, which are made by a competitor.
The judge also said:
"Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus," he says, citing a Latin aphorism meaning, "Untrue in one thing, untrue in everything."
This was a clear reference to the blatant lying the MSFT witnesses engaged in. At the outset of the case Jackson had practically stated an intention of not being very harsh even if he did find MSFT had broken the law, but months and months of total lying and contempt for the authority of his court wore on him.
Even now Jackson appears willing to accept a reasonable settlement if the DoJ and MSFT come together on it, but he is pretty dismissive of the bogus "offers" MSFT has come up with so far.
In any case, I don't expect them to get off so easy this time, especially if the Supreme Court hears the case and they skip the DC Circuit Court. (4 out of 9 Supreme Court Justices have to agree for that to take effect, if Jackson agrees to it, which he certainly will.)
A breakup is, indeed, a "corporate death penalty." If M$ didn't want this, they could have complied with previous court orders, or obeyed the consent decree they signed agreeing not to do what they went out and did.
They broke the law, got caught, got ordered to stop, kept doing it. They signed an agreement to stop doing it, then kept doing it. Then when caught again, they lied in court, acted in blatant contempt for civil authority, and kept doing it.
Nothing short of a breakup will stop their illegal conduct, as they have made clear.
Here's crossing my fingers on that motion to expedite right to the Supremes so it can be over one way or the other.
(My guess--"affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded")
according to cern the goverment is in fact going and using the expiditing act.
Whether or not that works, it's some clever maneuvering on the part of the DoJ. I bet the judge accepts it, since he also knows the DC Circuit Court is likely to reverse him at least partially.
Boy, this is entertaining! Boies is a smart, devious fucker!
The ashes didn't do anything either except clog my needle.
That's because you got the FREEBASE version of Cryptonomicon. You're supposed to SMOKE that, dumbass!
You need to get the "black tar" version of Cryptonomicon, but it's only available from Tijuana dealers and is such a total copyright infringement that it's a felony even to know it exists.
I'm enjoying "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Cliff Stoll right now..
Cliff Stoll is EVIL.
But I don't imagine a lot of TeleTubbies fans would dig it..
They might like a video of Cliff Stoll having gay sex with TeleTubbies in John Markoff's apartment.
ObStephenson: I liked reading Cryptonomicon partly because people on the "Secret Admirers" list reminded me of actual cypherpunks and assorted nuts. I can't even remember the name of that nut lawyer who goes berserk at the end with a bow and arrow, but he reminds me of L. Detweiler with his "pseodospoofing" conspiracy rants.
Slashdot Mirror
I recall Bush saying that he would essentially drop the charges if elected.
Bush has no such powers. If it were a criminal case, he could pardon the offender, but it's a civil matter. The moron Bush can go blow, President or not.
For some strange reason, a large majority of the public favors Microsoft.
That's why we don't put legal authority into the hands of the drooling sheeple. We have judges who presumably (at least sometimes) have clues. Otherwise you get mob rule as the majority decides to do crazy stuff like kill all the Jews or execute anyone caught with a joint.
A parliamentary democracy sucks, but it's better than what a "pure" democracy would be, which is insanity.
When the administrations switch, Mr. Bush will doubtlessly stop the Justice Department from pursuing this whole thing.
The President has no such authority.
In any case, the pathetic weakling George W. Bush can't even shut down a website. I doubt he can shut down the Department of Justice.
"There is madmen in the world and there are terror." --George W. "Zippy" Bush
Interesting to note that the entire appeals cout will hear the case instead of the usual three judge panel. Does anyone have more info on why, or how unusual this migth be?
The circuit court is probably doing this en banc because regardless of the decision, the first appeal by whatever party is likely to be a request to rehear it en banc.
So by doing it that way in the first place, they avoid the waste of time of the inevitable rehearing.
M$ says it will "fight to the death anything that threatens its intellectual property"
To the death?
Hmm. . .That can be arranged.
I just found a link that works for the "Bermuda Statement." It's here.
The idea is essentially to "open source" the Human Genome. This is why Celera's stock has dropped to a third of its highest value and it's being massively sued by shareholders.
Main gist:
It was agreed that all human genomic sequence information, generated by centres funded for large-scale human sequencing, should be freely available and in the public domain in order to encourage research and development and to maximise its benefit to society.
I am ready, Celera. I am ready, HGP. Modify, enhance, and augment me. Hell, exploit me. I am ready!
Incidentally, I'd go for augmentation in a heartbeat, especially if it was something mondo-cool like cat eyes, night vision, or enhanced intelligence. However. . .I'd just as soon let other people try it while it's in beta ;-()
But I wouldn't trust Celera to do this. What do they want to do?
Instead, Celera would turn a profit by selling subscriptions to a database of information about genes -- much the way Lexis-Nexis sells information about law.
Does this give anyone the creeps?
From this article on law.com.
I far prefer the HGP, and their GPL-like Bermuda Statement, which is supposedly at this link, but I'll be damned if I can connect to it right now.
Nifty idea, too bad the only link to it I found on the net is a malformed URL which when corrected attempts to connect to a dead site.
I'm surprised I haven't seen any mention of this here yet. I submitted it as a story a bit ago but it got rejected (it's only marginally on-topic anyway).
Here's the gist: Celera is getting massively sued in at least three class-action suits. Shareholders claim that Celera has a bogus business plan and which "is dependent upon its ability to protect its database [of genomic] information through patent protection."
These upcoming lawsuits look ugly, and apparently the shareholders don't appear to think Celera is on the up-and-up with their claims of IP protection for the human genome.
Now dig this. The reason why the class-action litigants feel that Celera's business plan is flawed is that the Human Genome Project has already "open sourced" significant parts of the human genome.
Here is the full article from law.com.
Netscape had an effective monopoly over the browser market by virtue of being the dominant browser before IE.
Not to mention that at the time, they were also the best browser. . .even if it was just rehashed Mosaic at that point.
Netscape attempted to leverage this monopoly to render the desktop irrelevant by encouraging developers to write against its APIs, bundling mail software, news readers, etc. as part of the browser.
And it didn't work. Hence there'd be no point in going after them for an antitrust violation that didn't exist. It also never really rose to the level of violating the Sherman Act.
This case begins to sound more and more like a baby getting beaten at a game he was playing and wanting mommy to go beat up the big bad people who defeated him.
I have to admit, as much as I hate Microsoft, that Netscape's attempt to intervene in the case at this point is pretty pathetic whining. They have no standing to be demanding changes in the remedies and should STFU and FOAD and let the court get on with it.
If I'm ordering anything through the Netscape shop! icon, it's a vomit bag.
Which is too bad. I thought Netscape was fine up until about 4.2. Then it turned into hideous bloatware, it was as if Netscape got into a war with Microsoft to see who could add more completely useless non-standard "features" and create the most bloated crap.
And frankly, 4.7 up are just hideous, the most fucking ugly software I've ever seen. The buttons look like shit, the browser looks like shit, it takes forever to boot and is then sluggish as hell. There's no real competition. IE 5.01 is just the better browser. Netscape 4.73 blows dead goats, or rather it WOULD blow dead goats if it didn't crash in the middle of trying to blow dead goats.
Perhaps this is because of OS integration, but perhaps it's just because the latest Netscape browser is just bad, and horribly, evilly wrong in so many ways, from its appearance to its performance, that it can't be said not to suck with a straight face. It is the "Battlefield: Earth" of web browsers.
A partially succesful attack on machine A (non-root access) or even an attempted attack causes machine A may cause the machine to close the port
I still don't see how this helps against DDoS. After all, suppose your purpose *is* to close the port?
One thing the source article seemed to hint at but didn't quite say was that it somehow rerouted the traffic dynamically. Another nice touch is the idea of a network learning what "normal" traffic is, but then suppose you're a weirdo and constantly do bizarre stuff with your network?
It would be really annoying to be attacked by your own bots every time you tried doing something new.
I stopped reading it at around the phrase "interplanetary robot swarm" because it just started to seem like a tremendous crock of shit at that point.
This deals with such a wide array of computer sabotage that its utterly amazing. Everything from breakins to virii to DDOS's can be successfully combated by this. Its exactly what the net needs.
How does it deal with a DDOS? If a DDOS sucks up all the bandwidth a site has, how does this program help anything?
It seems, if anything, that it could add an additional weakness--if the attacker knew anything about the bots, he could deliberately do things that send them into a frenzy, rendering the security bots themselves a menace to the system.
If there are "backdoors" or special security exceptions made for the bots, then one would hope there is some means of recognizing rogue 'bots.
The most obvious attack on a system with security like this is to duke in a rogue 'bot faking inheritance of the security privileges given to the real ones, and then use that to mount the attack.
How can these so-called "scientists" live with themselves after creating something that is this much of a blasphemy against God and nature?
Never mind that.
How about a Beowulf cluster of these?
(Dodges shower of debris.)
399 B.C.: Socrates is convicted of impiety. Despite the efforts of freesocrates.com, he is forced to kill himself by drinking hemlock.
That wasn't hemlock.
They only told him it was hemlock
to trick him into drinking it.
It was Zima.
I read one argument that stated that virus has no plaural because in latin (where it comes from, obviously) it had a very similar sense as "air".
The problem seems to be that we took the word virus, which meant "slime" (among other things) and then used it to describe something countable, in English.
Then, of course, pseudo-pedantic fucks came along a couple hundred years later and tried to retrofit it back into its classical form. I say "pseudo"-pedantic because they weren't pedantic enough to realize there wasn't one.
Since if there was a plural, it would probably be also "virus" and that sounds really dippy, may as well stick with the perfectly fine "viruses." Now back off, slimes! (For some reason I love totally nitpicky, absolutely pointless arguments like this.)
It's a really, really, weird noun, fairly rare, and, in fact, has never been seen in the plural form in classic texts.
Sure threw me for a loop. I started looking into it on this site about the plural of virus that someone posted earlier, which explained why I was having trouble with it--I took Latin for four years in high school so I was getting embarrassed.
Anyway, it appears there's fairly wild disagreement on what precisely it is, with some even claiming it's fourth declension. (I like the fourth declension explanation and am inclined to accept it more out of contrariness than anything.)
In any case, if it were fourth, the plural of virus would also be virus. Considering that the word meant "slime" there would be no purpose in a plural form, as in English the similar word is a collective noun without a plural. You do not speak of "slimes" (at least not unless you play D&D and fight green slimes).
Stock price was $107 at the time ... called that one right, I must say ;)
Heh. It's just as well not to end up a Microserf, but if I have any spare money lying around and the breakup goes through, I may just pick up a few shares of MSFT at the way-undervalued price it's sure to be at during the panic.
I bet splitup or no, the price will eventually rebound from that, making it worthwhile. In any case, it's not likely to drop much more after that.
IANASB.
INAL, what I've read from legal scholars is that the finding of fact and the ruling were all structured to stand up during the expected appeals process. If you know so many ways that it can be overturned, start listing them.
IANAL, but I imagine the appeals will be based on procedural grounds rather than on the merits of the case. This may force the case to be relitigated, probably in Jackson's court. AFAICT the Findings of Fact are unassailable, and I fail to see how anyone can accept the Findings of Fact without accepting that MSFT violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
Jackson might lose points on the rather hasty remedies phase, when it was fairly clear he was impatient with the case and with MSFT and had already made up his mind. I think this will depend on whether it goes to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals or straight to the Supremes.
IMO it's going to end up with the Supremes anyway so it may as well be now rather than then.
If we allow a company that repeatedly broke the law to carry on with business as usual, just for the sole purpose of not damaging our precious economy, then we're entering a very dangerous situation.
I agree with that. And it's that sort of arrogant contempt for the law that brought this on them in the first place. The Judge, after already having been lied to, was not amused when MSFT continued their conduct.
From that interview:
But he said he's convinced that the software giant continues even now to engage in the actions that brought it to trial. He cited as an example new evidence -- an e-mail from last year by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates that was introduced by the government late last month. In the e-mail, Gates suggested altering some of his dominant software in a way that would disadvantage users of the Palm line of handheld devices, which are made by a competitor.
The judge also said:
"Falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus," he says, citing a Latin aphorism meaning, "Untrue in one thing, untrue in everything."
This was a clear reference to the blatant lying the MSFT witnesses engaged in. At the outset of the case Jackson had practically stated an intention of not being very harsh even if he did find MSFT had broken the law, but months and months of total lying and contempt for the authority of his court wore on him.
Even now Jackson appears willing to accept a reasonable settlement if the DoJ and MSFT come together on it, but he is pretty dismissive of the bogus "offers" MSFT has come up with so far.
In any case, I don't expect them to get off so easy this time, especially if the Supreme Court hears the case and they skip the DC Circuit Court. (4 out of 9 Supreme Court Justices have to agree for that to take effect, if Jackson agrees to it, which he certainly will.)
It is like capital punishment:
A breakup is, indeed, a "corporate death penalty." If M$ didn't want this, they could have complied with previous court orders, or obeyed the consent decree they signed agreeing not to do what they went out and did.
They broke the law, got caught, got ordered to stop, kept doing it. They signed an agreement to stop doing it, then kept doing it. Then when caught again, they lied in court, acted in blatant contempt for civil authority, and kept doing it.
Nothing short of a breakup will stop their illegal conduct, as they have made clear.
Here's crossing my fingers on that motion to expedite right to the Supremes so it can be over one way or the other.
(My guess--"affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded")
This time it isn't a oil or steal company buying up many little companies and jacking up prices for its own needs.
Actually it is a "steal" company.
And it most certainly has jacked up prices, and kept them artificially inflated through monopolistic practices.
The appeals court will rule that either Judge Jackson isn't computer literate and therefore not qualified to make this decision.
If you were talking about the DC Circuit Court, maybe. The Supreme Court, less likely.
The DoJ has just moved to expedite it directly to the Supreme Court, to dodge the Microsoft-friendly DC Circuit.
according to cern the goverment is in fact going and using the expiditing act.
Whether or not that works, it's some clever maneuvering on the part of the DoJ. I bet the judge accepts it, since he also knows the DC Circuit Court is likely to reverse him at least partially.
Boy, this is entertaining! Boies is a smart, devious fucker!
The ashes didn't do anything either except clog my needle.
That's because you got the FREEBASE version of Cryptonomicon. You're supposed to SMOKE that, dumbass!
You need to get the "black tar" version of Cryptonomicon, but it's only available from Tijuana dealers and is such a total copyright infringement that it's a felony even to know it exists.
I'm enjoying "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Cliff Stoll right now..
Cliff Stoll is EVIL.
But I don't imagine a lot of TeleTubbies fans would dig it..
They might like a video of Cliff Stoll having gay sex with TeleTubbies in John Markoff's apartment.
ObStephenson: I liked reading Cryptonomicon partly because people on the "Secret Admirers" list reminded me of actual cypherpunks and assorted nuts. I can't even remember the name of that nut lawyer who goes berserk at the end with a bow and arrow, but he reminds me of L. Detweiler with his "pseodospoofing" conspiracy rants.