I'm not certain, but I think the two main points are that 1. Filing lawsuits against spammers has great profit potential 2. Some judges are stupid and you will go to jail because of it
I believe that is pretty much the conclusion. It also highlights the issues with bulk directed e-mail as not being considered spam, since they are being addressed to the actual recipient in the 'to:' field, even if the rest of the e-mail is generic. It also shows that some spammers continue spamming because they know the loop-holes and there are plenty of judges acting on the word of the law, rather than the intent of the law.
Make no mistake, the Japanese -are- pissed because as far as they're concerned, fansubs devalue their product.
They are and they aren't. In Japan fan-based Manga is not usually squashed, on the condition that print volumes are small and they aren't trying to make money off them. The attitude is that companies won't go after these creators, if these creators keep things small. Japanese Manga companies realise that much of the future talent is going to be found in these fan-based comics. This is the sort of thing that companies in the USA haven't understood yet, but then again when you consider the readership in Japan of Manga you will realise how important it is to modern Japanese pop culture.
The latest issue of Wired has a good article on this:
The issue is we are dealing with sensitive data, so I can see the reasoning behind the need to punish. On the other hand its not always easy to make the difference between incompetence and malice. If the computers they are using are their professional PCs, then the computers they use should:
- have encrypted file systems
- password access for logging into the computer, after power-up, wake-up and screen-saver deactivate
If they are their own computers then either they should not be allowed this data there or they should have to follow the same policies as work computers.
At the end of the day it should be both and management policy and IT policy to ensure this is done.
All that said, does anyone know how to have encrypted storage for user accounts under Windows?
Truth is, while holding off Vista might be an idea, what guarantee is there that Windows 7 will be any better. In many ways Vista seems to be a symptom of a failed development process, bad priorities and not understanding their users. When you have five years to developer a product and this is what you get, something is wrong.
Vista is not a total failure, but its not a success either.
Why just limit yourself to shaking, when you could use:
Simpler solutions include a simple IR transmission, since they would have to be line of sight. Truth is there are many technologically simpler solutions that can use existing and are less expensive to implement.
For a while now I have gotten the feeling that the united states is less of a democracy of the masses and more democracy of the rich. Laws such as these further help create an underclass serving the needs to of those with the money an influence. It also helps to further decimate an already fragile and poorly funded education system. Its hardly surprising that there are so many immigrant researchers, since with the education system with they way it is from K12 to university we don't have much better to offer. More money is channeled into the symptoms of the a badly run education system and society, that into what cause the problem.
Blu Ray never gained momentum, for that matter, neither did HD DVD.
Truth be told, I don't have an HD TV, so I doubt I'd really appreciate what either has to offer, in terms of video. On the other hand Blu-Ray, with its advertised storage capacity of 25GB, appeals to me for making back ups of my computer. With these drives approach a price point of $500, this is really tempting:
Maybe this is where some sort of general treaty needs to be defined for situations where sovereignty is ambiguous. The way I would see it:
- any discovery performed in a situation in ambiguous territory should be defined as an international discovery
- if a situation occurs that is considered beyond petty, then diplomatic channels should be used
You would be amazed at the details that architects overlook.
This is the scary thing. In Quebec, where we get a lot of snow in the winter, you will be amazed at how many town houses have flat roofs, or an inappropriate slope for the amount of snow we get. I am sure this sort of stupidity is not relegated to Quebec.
Don't get me wrong, I love some of the experimental architecture out there, but I think there should be a sign off indicating that it has taken into account the climate in which it is going to spend its life.
Another thing that is worth noting is that some older architecture is far more effective than some of the modern architecture for the environment it was built. For example:
- In the middle-east you have tall ceilings and wide areas which help move the warmer air to the top
- Also in the middle-east of I have seen buildings with special chimneys that are designed to catch the slow moving air and drag the warmer air out of the building
- Houses on stilts, which help reduce ground moisture in the building and help provide a cooling space underneath.
- Sloping roofs, which help drain rain water and snow effectively
The US justice and social system needs some serious work. If you have 1 in 142 US residents in jail you have a problem. This equates to just under 2 million inmates and this is only based on 2002 figures, so I'd hate to see the current status.
I am not saying what these people did isn't wrong, but the crime sounds more like revenge that punishment. This kids will be in debt and slaves to the system by the time the get out. Any time they would have had to think about what they did will be marred by the excessiveness of the punishment. Maybe the American society is just looking to continue slavery, but using other means to do it?
It's ironic that so many countries have learned lessons from us so well, lessons that we ourselves still haven't picked up on. While they're learning from our mistakes, we just keep right on making them.
Ironically, while we don't have our own house in order, we still insist on evangelising other countries to our way of life. Whether this is because of corporations or politicians, it is happening. Right next door we have Canada, who seem to treat their people to a better a way of life, but they have to put up with higher taxes, so maybe this is where the compromise lies. As to Mexico I am never sure how much is down to their own issues or whether we as the USA are doing something to screw them over?
Unless a real good reason can be shown for creating yet another programming or scripting language, then we should stick with what we have. If new functionality is needed, then why not add some new standardised object type.
I should note that I am always sceptical when Microsoft says we need a new scripting language, because they usually try to keep control of it and make it another reason to stay with Windows. This is not to say other companies have not tried to control the programming languages they have created, but the reason Microsoft's approach usually annoys me is because of their lack luster cross-platform support.
All this said and done, a few things could be improved in Javascript, including
- ability to have typed methods
- ability to have multiple methods with the same name, but different signature
One thing that needs to be noted in all this is that Javascript is a scripting language and not an excuse to shove the whole web site logic onto the client side.
Well crappy performance from something that's crappy and used in a huge number of unsuitable situations is to be expected regardless of platform.
Ah someone who has the same beliefs as me:) Not to mention how much they can kill available CPU when some stupid site decides to have pop-unders appear every 10 minutes with Flash content - yuck. Truth is, too many gee-wiz marketing divisions mis-understand the difference between movie and informational web sites.
One thing that you failed to note is that in countries where they can't afford game at said US price, then they often can't afford a PC to start with. What usually happens in these countries is that you have numerous game & internet centers, where people can hop on-line and play a game. These game centers will usually be playing a special version to start with or have considered the price of the game as the price of doing business.
The other thing to note is that a number of people find themselves working overseas, in countries which aren't their own. What is the person to do if they wish to buy the game and then continue playing the game when they come back home. Are they to be screwed just because they decided to move countries? You can argue that DVDs have this sort of limitation, as do game console games, and while this is true getting round this doesn't not invalidate your purchase. DVDs can be played on a region-free player and game consoles simply require you to take the console with you.
I understand what you're saying, but why is it fair for companies to get cheap labor from other countries when it isn't fair for us to get cheap video games from other countries?
Because companies have pushed to be able to have this privilege, while end-buyers (aka consumers) have not banded together to get law changed in their favour.
Buying what you want, where you want, when you want at the lowest price you can find is for corporations. Why do users keep thinking globalization should benefit them. It's really silly. <sarcasm> Silly you. People don't travel, only pirates and cheap-asses do. </sarcasm>
Seriously, I am no longer going to buy HL2 (I have a legal version of HL1), because I am currently working in France for the moment and fear that if I buy a copy they will lock me out as soon as I get back to the states. Steam is a fine idea, but this is turning into abuse.
Just curious to know whether there are any case studies that validate that theory stands up in practice. Don't get me wrong, I am all for new technology, but it is an easier sell if there is real evidence of this making a drastic improvement.
So anyone that really does sue them may just find out that Comcast is holding a little card that says the local US Attorney's office said "better block, just to be safe".
That's an interesting argument, which certainly sounds plausible. The scary thing, is this is the same argument that ISPs and search engines in China are using to enforce the great firewall of China.
don't know, I am honestly worried about where that court ruling could take us. Technically speaking they are not "breaking" anything. They are simply crafting and sending out packets. Do we really want a world where our packets can become illegal weapons?
I believe the issue here is that they are interfering with communications, rather than facilitating it. For me this is analogous to phoning a friend and purposely having the phone hang up by a third-party, even if the third-party runs part of the infrastructure which I am communicating through. The fear is that if they are allowed to do this, what's next. With illegal wire-tapping, by AT&T, and now Comcast interfering with communication, you have to ask yourself what could happen next, if they aren't given a warning shot.
At the same time I do believe that Comcast, like many ISPs, are in their right to prevent abuse of their networks. The problem here is that they are indiscriminately doing this, whether it is to legitimate P2P users or heavy file sharers. I am not sure what options they have, but the most common is throttling for heavy usage.
One thing that I would like to see all ISPs encouraged, or even forced, to do is provide a FAQ that puts into layman terms, what the legalise in the contracts is trying to say. These contacts should also be available, for verification, prior to sign-up. Also any 'updated' contracts should hilite what has changed since the previous version - this I believe should be the case for both service agreements and software EULAs.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not certain, but I think the two main points are that
1. Filing lawsuits against spammers has great profit potential
2. Some judges are stupid and you will go to jail because of it
I believe that is pretty much the conclusion. It also highlights the issues with bulk directed e-mail as not being considered spam, since they are being addressed to the actual recipient in the 'to:' field, even if the rest of the e-mail is generic. It also shows that some spammers continue spamming because they know the loop-holes and there are plenty of judges acting on the word of the law, rather than the intent of the law.
Make no mistake, the Japanese -are- pissed because as far as they're concerned, fansubs devalue their product.
They are and they aren't. In Japan fan-based Manga is not usually squashed, on the condition that print volumes are small and they aren't trying to make money off them. The attitude is that companies won't go after these creators, if these creators keep things small. Japanese Manga companies realise that much of the future talent is going to be found in these fan-based comics. This is the sort of thing that companies in the USA haven't understood yet, but then again when you consider the readership in Japan of Manga you will realise how important it is to modern Japanese pop culture.
The latest issue of Wired has a good article on this:
http://www.wired.com/wired/issue/15-11
with an online version being here:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-11/ff_manga
The issue is we are dealing with sensitive data, so I can see the reasoning behind the need to punish. On the other hand its not always easy to make the difference between incompetence and malice. If the computers they are using are their professional PCs, then the computers they use should:
- have encrypted file systems
- password access for logging into the computer, after power-up, wake-up and screen-saver deactivate
If they are their own computers then either they should not be allowed this data there or they should have to follow the same policies as work computers.
At the end of the day it should be both and management policy and IT policy to ensure this is done.
All that said, does anyone know how to have encrypted storage for user accounts under Windows?
Truth is, while holding off Vista might be an idea, what guarantee is there that Windows 7 will be any better. In many ways Vista seems to be a symptom of a failed development process, bad priorities and not understanding their users. When you have five years to developer a product and this is what you get, something is wrong.
Vista is not a total failure, but its not a success either.
Why just limit yourself to shaking, when you could use:
Simpler solutions include a simple IR transmission, since they would have to be line of sight. Truth is there are many technologically simpler solutions that can use existing and are less expensive to implement.
How about focusing on being the king of software before going for the whole pie? And since when have games not been software anyway?
If they decide to make media in the same way the make the software, then we are looking at a very dark future.
I don't have an iPHone so I don't know. But maybe the backspace is in a awkward place so people can't be bothered to change mistakes?
Maybe you are using one of those Sun keyboards which places the backspace in a non-standard position?
For a while now I have gotten the feeling that the united states is less of a democracy of the masses and more democracy of the rich. Laws such as these further help create an underclass serving the needs to of those with the money an influence. It also helps to further decimate an already fragile and poorly funded education system. Its hardly surprising that there are so many immigrant researchers, since with the education system with they way it is from K12 to university we don't have much better to offer. More money is channeled into the symptoms of the a badly run education system and society, that into what cause the problem.
Blu Ray never gained momentum, for that matter, neither did HD DVD.
Truth be told, I don't have an HD TV, so I doubt I'd really appreciate what either has to offer, in terms of video. On the other hand Blu-Ray, with its advertised storage capacity of 25GB, appeals to me for making back ups of my computer. With these drives approach a price point of $500, this is really tempting:
- http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2139001,00.asp
- http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1980095,00.asp
I wonder whether they take the opportunity to sign the binary, so that it plays nicely with MacOS X 10.5?
For more info on the issue: http://homepage.mac.com/simx/technonova/C488455530/E20071107233441/
Maybe this is where some sort of general treaty needs to be defined for situations where sovereignty is ambiguous. The way I would see it:
- any discovery performed in a situation in ambiguous territory should be defined as an international discovery
- if a situation occurs that is considered beyond petty, then diplomatic channels should be used
You would be amazed at the details that architects overlook.
This is the scary thing. In Quebec, where we get a lot of snow in the winter, you will be amazed at how many town houses have flat roofs, or an inappropriate slope for the amount of snow we get. I am sure this sort of stupidity is not relegated to Quebec.
Don't get me wrong, I love some of the experimental architecture out there, but I think there should be a sign off indicating that it has taken into account the climate in which it is going to spend its life.
Another thing that is worth noting is that some older architecture is far more effective than some of the modern architecture for the environment it was built. For example:
- In the middle-east you have tall ceilings and wide areas which help move the warmer air to the top
- Also in the middle-east of I have seen buildings with special chimneys that are designed to catch the slow moving air and drag the warmer air out of the building
- Houses on stilts, which help reduce ground moisture in the building and help provide a cooling space underneath.
- Sloping roofs, which help drain rain water and snow effectively
The US justice and social system needs some serious work. If you have 1 in 142 US residents in jail you have a problem. This equates to just under 2 million inmates and this is only based on 2002 figures, so I'd hate to see the current status.
This inmate population is enough to populate any of the 13 least populated states in the USA.
I am not saying what these people did isn't wrong, but the crime sounds more like revenge that punishment. This kids will be in debt and slaves to the system by the time the get out. Any time they would have had to think about what they did will be marred by the excessiveness of the punishment. Maybe the American society is just looking to continue slavery, but using other means to do it?
It's ironic that so many countries have learned lessons from us so well, lessons that we ourselves still haven't picked up on. While they're learning from our mistakes, we just keep right on making them.
Ironically, while we don't have our own house in order, we still insist on evangelising other countries to our way of life. Whether this is because of corporations or politicians, it is happening. Right next door we have Canada, who seem to treat their people to a better a way of life, but they have to put up with higher taxes, so maybe this is where the compromise lies. As to Mexico I am never sure how much is down to their own issues or whether we as the USA are doing something to screw them over?
Unless a real good reason can be shown for creating yet another programming or scripting language, then we should stick with what we have. If new functionality is needed, then why not add some new standardised object type.
I should note that I am always sceptical when Microsoft says we need a new scripting language, because they usually try to keep control of it and make it another reason to stay with Windows. This is not to say other companies have not tried to control the programming languages they have created, but the reason Microsoft's approach usually annoys me is because of their lack luster cross-platform support.
All this said and done, a few things could be improved in Javascript, including
- ability to have typed methods
- ability to have multiple methods with the same name, but different signature
One thing that needs to be noted in all this is that Javascript is a scripting language and not an excuse to shove the whole web site logic onto the client side.
Other reasons for not wanting to see this happen:
- Apple needs some sort decent competition in this arena
- What does it really do for Apple?
NOW! Witness the power of this fully operational supermagnet!
:)
How to create your own Bermuda triangle in one easy step
It really IS catching up with Vista!
;-)
Yeah, but Vista doesn't represent SMB shares with an icon showing a monitor with a BSOD.
Well crappy performance from something that's crappy and used in a huge number of unsuitable situations is to be expected regardless of platform.
:) Not to mention how much they can kill available CPU when some stupid site decides to have pop-unders appear every 10 minutes with Flash content - yuck. Truth is, too many gee-wiz marketing divisions mis-understand the difference between movie and informational web sites.
Ah someone who has the same beliefs as me
One thing that you failed to note is that in countries where they can't afford game at said US price, then they often can't afford a PC to start with. What usually happens in these countries is that you have numerous game & internet centers, where people can hop on-line and play a game. These game centers will usually be playing a special version to start with or have considered the price of the game as the price of doing business.
The other thing to note is that a number of people find themselves working overseas, in countries which aren't their own. What is the person to do if they wish to buy the game and then continue playing the game when they come back home. Are they to be screwed just because they decided to move countries? You can argue that DVDs have this sort of limitation, as do game console games, and while this is true getting round this doesn't not invalidate your purchase. DVDs can be played on a region-free player and game consoles simply require you to take the console with you.
I understand what you're saying, but why is it fair for companies to get cheap labor from other countries when it isn't fair for us to get cheap video games from other countries?
Because companies have pushed to be able to have this privilege, while end-buyers (aka consumers) have not banded together to get law changed in their favour.
Buying what you want, where you want, when you want at the lowest price you can find is for corporations. Why do users keep thinking globalization should benefit them. It's really silly.
<sarcasm>
Silly you. People don't travel, only pirates and cheap-asses do.
</sarcasm>
Seriously, I am no longer going to buy HL2 (I have a legal version of HL1), because I am currently working in France for the moment and fear that if I buy a copy they will lock me out as soon as I get back to the states. Steam is a fine idea, but this is turning into abuse.
Just curious to know whether there are any case studies that validate that theory stands up in practice. Don't get me wrong, I am all for new technology, but it is an easier sell if there is real evidence of this making a drastic improvement.
So anyone that really does sue them may just find out that Comcast is holding a little card that says the local US Attorney's office said "better block, just to be safe".
That's an interesting argument, which certainly sounds plausible. The scary thing, is this is the same argument that ISPs and search engines in China are using to enforce the great firewall of China.
don't know, I am honestly worried about where that court ruling could take us. Technically speaking they are not "breaking" anything. They are simply crafting and sending out packets. Do we really want a world where our packets can become illegal weapons?
I believe the issue here is that they are interfering with communications, rather than facilitating it. For me this is analogous to phoning a friend and purposely having the phone hang up by a third-party, even if the third-party runs part of the infrastructure which I am communicating through. The fear is that if they are allowed to do this, what's next. With illegal wire-tapping, by AT&T, and now Comcast interfering with communication, you have to ask yourself what could happen next, if they aren't given a warning shot.
At the same time I do believe that Comcast, like many ISPs, are in their right to prevent abuse of their networks. The problem here is that they are indiscriminately doing this, whether it is to legitimate P2P users or heavy file sharers. I am not sure what options they have, but the most common is throttling for heavy usage.
One thing that I would like to see all ISPs encouraged, or even forced, to do is provide a FAQ that puts into layman terms, what the legalise in the contracts is trying to say. These contacts should also be available, for verification, prior to sign-up. Also any 'updated' contracts should hilite what has changed since the previous version - this I believe should be the case for both service agreements and software EULAs.