Using Excell, yes. Their parsing is pathetic and would have required lots of manual editing.
Then don't use Excel. If you need to restructure data and Excel can't do it (or you don't know how to get Excel to do it), then use another tool. I dropped the Excel data into BBEdit, opened up the grep help page (because I haven't bothered to learn how to use grep yet) and put together this sequence in a few minutes:
Find: \s+\r Replace with: \r
Find: \((\d+)\)\r Replace with: \t\1\r
Then I fixed the column header and dropped it into Excel. If you want 1s where no number is indicated, you can sort in Excel and drag a column of 1s in the appropriate spot, or you could alter the find and replace sequence (the last line of the file either needs a carriage return after it before the sequence is run or it can be dealt with manually):
Find: \s+\r Replace with: \r
Find: \((\d+)\)\r Replace with: \t\1\t\r
Find: (\S)\r Replace with: \1\t1\r
Find: \s+\r Replace with: \r
There may be an easier way to do this, but I've only dealt with grep when I've needed to do specific things, so I'm no expert. This is just one example of a way to solve this problem in about as much time as it takes to post to slashdot.
Get a slow charger, and more batteries if you need them often.
Better yet, get a good charger like the Maha C401FS. It can charge fast or slow and won't overcharge your batteries. Good fast chargers do exist, and Maha has had a reputation for the best fast chargers for many years.
The people who were quoted in this article seem more like stereotypes than actual people. I mean, just take a look at this quote:
[Bob Barnes] said he used the Internet to download hard-to-find recordings of European artists because he was unsatisfied with modern American artists and grew tired of buying CDs without the chance to listen to them first.
"If you don't like it, you can't take it back," said Barnes, who runs a small video production company with his wife from their three-bedroom home. "You have all your little blonde, blue-eyed clones. There's no originality."
So there's your halo-wearing "I only wanted to preview songs or download songs I couldn't buy" downloader, which, if some people around here are to be believed, accounts for roughly 100% of the music downloaders on the internet.
On the other end of the spectrum is Gordon Pate, who seems to be reading from a script provided by Jack Valenti and Hilary Rosen:
Pate was wavering whether to call the RIAA to negotiate a settlement. "Should I call a lawyer?" he wondered.
Pate said that he never personally downloaded music and that he so zealously respects copyrights that he does not videotape movies off cable television channels.
Is this guy for real? And just what does denying yourself your fair use rights have to do with respecting copyrights?
In addition to the "honest downloader" and "Valenti's bitch," we are also shown a model of the RIAA's ideal downloader:
"This scares me so bad I never want to download anything again," said Boggs, who turned 22 on Thursday. "I never thought this would happen. There are millions of people out there doing this."
The only thing missing was the disenfranchised ex-customer, which would look something like this:
"This blows. It's bad enough that most music these days is crap, but now you can get your ass sued for listening to it. That's it, I'm not just going to stop buying music, I'm not listening to it anymore either. Screw those jerks at the record companies, it's comic books for me from here on out."
Get four second-rate washed-up stand-up comics to act out the parts and you'll have a mediocre bit on Tough Crowd with Colin "I used to be funny, really!" Quinn. Add two more and you'll have next week's "What Do You Think?" in The Onion. I sincerely hope the people in that article aren't for real...
How can you miss a place that has been producing engineers for two centuries? Plus you get great scenery, lots of history, interesting architecture, and if you time it right, you might be able to catch a show at Ike Hall.
Some other places to consider would be the Johnson Space Center, the Boston Museum of Science, the Las Vegas strip, and, to see what our lives will be like in the future (minus a few decades...), Epcot Center. Those are just a few places I can think of that I've been to that would be of interest (other than what has already been mentioned several times).
I hate to rain on your parade, but this is someone who is only doing their job.
Right, they were only following orders...
Yes, they interrupt you at inconvenient times, but that doesn't give you the right to harass them.
Correct again, that right comes from Amendment I, U.S. Constitution. Well, technically that only protects the right, but you get the idea.
I get phone calls from banks, local newspapers and various other companies trying to sell me things and I am unfailingly polite to the other person.
That is your choice - there is no requirement for anyone to be polite to people who intrude on them in the privacy of their homes, whether they knock on the door, call on the phone, or send invitations to check out their webcams in an instant message.
Annoying or not, people still have to make a living.
You have the right to try to make a living, but there's no guarantee that you'll succeed, despite what some large corporations might think. If your chosen profession is a street performer, ridicule, insults, and indifference are things you have to be able to deal with. Telemarketing is no different. If you don't like it, pick a new profession.
You can't go down to McDonalds and start harassing the cashiers there, so why should telemarketers be any different.
Sure you can, and I'm sure many people do, most notably environmentalist, anarchist, and anti-globalism activists. This can cause them to get kicked out (and arrested if their actions are severe enough to warrant it), just like if some low-life telemarketer scum calls me to tell me how much better DSL is than cable because of their direct connection to the central office, I can debate the issue with the ignorant bastard and hang up on him, even telling him to go to hell and stick his DSL connection where the sun don't shine, if I so desire (and the company can be fined if they violate do not call laws).
Now, if I were to threaten said bastard with bodily harm, this could result in an arrest, just like a McDonald's cashier who shoots a nut-job dancing around shouting "Meat is murder!" and throwing fake blood all over the place would probably face criminal charges.
Household cleaners (could be used as chemical weapons)
Toothbrushes (for making shivs)
Mops (lethal when in the hands of Jackie Chan)
Surgical gowns (the bad guys always use these as disguises to evade the police)
Clearly, we need to outlaw all health and cleanliness items for the good of the people. After all, I saw these things used for all kinds of evil purposes in movies, and never for anything positive...
The Zip was MUCH better, it had a larger capacity (100 MB vs 44 or 88,) it was a quarter of the size and the disks were cheap compared to dropping $100 on a 44 meg SyQuest disk.
I think your memory is a bit scrambled. 44MB SyQuest disks were available for about $1/MB in the early 90s, and the first line of 3.5" SyQuests were available in 105MB and 270MB sizes before Zip drives ever existed. By the time Zip drives caught on, 230MB MO disks were down to about $10 each, easily beating Zips on price. Zip disks were usually the most expensive and the least reliable, but the drives were cheap and everyone bought one because everyone else had one.
The parallels to DVD-R/-RW/+R/+RW don't really fit here because the media format is the same in all cases. You can't fit a 105MB SyQuest disk into a 100MB Zip drive (at least not easily), but it is common for a DVD player to play both DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW. The typical/. reader will be aware of things like burn speeds, media prices, and compatibility issues, but the typical CompUSA or Best Buy customer just wants to put a blank disc into the drive and get something out that will play in a DVD player. The +/- thing isn't an issue until it comes time to buy more discs, and even then they can just have a store employee direct them to whatever will work in the drive they bought. Maybe a better parallel would be sugar cane vs. high fructose corn syrup...
1. Do you think the present copyright terms is too short, too long, or just right
Protection of intellectual property is an important issue in the digital age. We must continue to allow people to reap the benefits of their creations if we are to remain a fertile environment for intellectual advancement.
2. Copyright and patent are in the Constitution to "advance the progress of the arts and sciences". Is present policy the best we can do? If not, how should the rules be changed to do better?
Our copyright and patent systems give creative Americans the tools they need to do great things and substantially improve the quality of life of all Americans. The effectiveness of our policies is a proven fact and we continue to lead the rest of the world into a brighter digital future.
3. What's the maximum amount of time "limited terms" can last when it comes to patents and copyrights before terms are essentially permanent and the Constitution is violated?
While the exact terms of patents and copyrights in this country have evolved over its long and rich history, we have always abided by the Constitution's guidance to measure the duration of protection given under the law in finite quantities of time. Our founding fathers saw the danger in an open-ended system, and we have not lost sight of this crucial element of intellectual property law.
More specifically, the access control only covers the use of the original file - it allows you to burn audio CDs, which in turn can be converted to any format you want. Therefore, the access control mechanism only effectively controls the ability to play the file downloaded from Apple; it does not control the ability to convert the file to another format and access it in that format.
Now, if you were to burn to CD and rip to AAC, that might be a different story. In that case, you are (in the end) not changing formats, only removing the DRM. This gets you closer to something that simply strips the DRM without changing formats, which would clearly violate the DMCA.
If the police cannot determine if a wiretap is running on the router, then what is to stop a malicious party from running one there without administrative knowledge?
I think a more interesting topic is whether the mechanism that hides other wiretaps could be exploited to hide a communication that the wiretaps are trying to monitor. If every packet was treated as a wiretap, the whole system would break down. Unless of course there's a super-secret Ashcroft-only wiretap mode that could monitor all other wiretaps. Or an ultra-super-secret monitoring mode used for debugging that someone forgot to take out before shipping the product.
I realize that this might not even be possible depending on the actual implementation, but since those details aren't being revealed, there's always the possibility. Imagine if a a viral exploit were able to cause all electronic wiretaps using this mechanism to go silent... Hold on a second, a black helicopter just landed outsi
Taking a look at my paperback copy of Applied Cryptography, it's listed at $55, so I hardly consider that any more expensive.
Of course, if you compare it to Secrets and Lies, which was sent in duplicate for free to anyone who wanted it, $50-70 (or even $30 for the paperback at Bookpool) is a lot more expensive. But I guess mailing out tons of free books isn't a very good business model these days...
The FCC, the government organization that deals with radio transmissions, gives us the same right you have, that it shall not be made illegal to recieve a radio transmission.
Sorry, but this is absolutely not true and hasn't been since at least 1934. From:
Section 605 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, which states that no one may receive, or assist in receiving, any radio communication to which they are not entitled and use that information for their own benefit. In addition, 18 U.S.C. Sections 2510 through 2521 prohibit the manufacture, assembly, possession, and sale of any device primarily useful for the surreptitious interception of such radio transmissions.
This is just one of the first in the long list of things you are not allowed to receive if they are provided to you.
But this is exactly the behaviour you would want. You want to keep a seperate ID for books between editions and different editors, remember that a lot of books go through changes in these processes, so the texts are probably not the same.
It's one thing to note printing histories and differences in editions, but it sounds like you're talking about creating a different entry for each edition. This would increase the sheer number of entries from tremendous to ludicrous. Doing this would be like having the IMDb create a separate entry for each theatrical release, DVD release, VHS release, laserdisc release, airline version, television version, foreign version (again, theatrical releases, DVD/VHS/etc. for each country), etc. of a movie. Noting different versions is fine as an added feature (this alone would be a huge amount of data that most likely would not be obtainable by any one person for any one book, requiring much more data correlation than the basic entries), but these variations should not drive the organizational structure. If this is your approach, then the ISBN as a unique identifier idea falls apart - any book that has been in print for at least 40 or 50 years will have accumulated numerous editions that do not have ISBNs, many without any uniquely identifying information, some without even a printing date.
You would also want to keep that difference in a book database, otherwise the information would not be complete.
It will never be complete. This is not the sort of thing you start so you can finish it - the goal here is to get enough information together to make it useful. From this perspective, basic information is far more important than the fine details. If the goal is to create a book equivalent of the IMDb, then the basic structural element should be the title (as in written work, not the literal title), not the edition.
The easies boundry would be anything with an ISBN.
That limits you to books that have been printed in the last 30 years or so. Even then, many book club-only printings do not have ISBNs.
There you quickly have a unique ID for each book as well.
Actually, you will have many unique IDs for each book. For public domain material, there is no limit to the number of different publishers that could print a book. Even for recent publications, books can change publishers (and publishers can change names, merge, etc.), resulting in considerable variation in the ISBN. Add in ISBN changes for different editions of a book, and the best you can do is keep a unique set of ISBNs for a particular book. But then you have anthologies, so do they count as single books or multiple books? If multiple, what about anthologies of short stories, poetry, essays, or mixtures of long and short works? ISBNs really don't provide you with anything unique beyond the link between the number and a specific published work.
For another, $12 is the exception, not the rule, for pricing--if you can find everything you want on CD at Target, more power to you. I can't. Best Buy charges $13-16 for CDs, generally, and they have about the best price to selection ratio of any place that I've found.
Here's where I've found a large selection of CDs in the $10-12 range:
MyMusic.com - lots around $10, but shipping adds another dollar or two, depending on how many you buy
Barnes & Noble - prices and free shipping deals vary, but there are lots of good deals around the holidays
Of course, the special limited edition releases will cost more - the ones I've gotten were in the $12-15 range. Those are the only CDs I've spent more than $12 on in several years, although they tend to be either two CDs or a CD and a DVD.
It amazes me how much people are willing to spend on CDs sometimes. I had one CD that I bought (for about $10 or so) as a gift but never used, then sold on eBay two years later for over $15, with shipping and insurance (buyer requested) bringing it up to almost $20. Even after subtracting my expenses, I made a decent profit (and I didn't think I would break even).
CNN has an interesting article (considering they are Time/Warner) about the fact that these 2 albums were made hits by word of mouth instead of by radio play.
I'm not buying the whole "Norah Jones became popular through word of mouth and not radio play" thing. That may have been the case (on a much smaller scale) six months ago, but Norah Jones songs have been playing frequently on the four radio stations I switch between during my commute (a half hour each way) for several months. Between the four stations, I'll usually hear Norah Jones at least once every day, once per commute isn't uncommon, and on two stations at the same time happens every once in a while.
The CNN article lists Vanessa Carlton, Eminem, Nickelback, and Nelly as the other record of the year nominees. Of these four, the only one I've heard more frequently than Norah Jones is Vanessa Carlton, who has more songs playing on the stations I listen to and has been playing on these stations longer than Norah Jones, but her first few months were about the same.
I realize that my analysis only covers one type of station in one market, but in this day and age of identical playlists (and these four stations have virtually identical playlists, especially when it comes to recent music), I find it hard to believe that similar stations in other markets that have the same owners as the stations I listen to would exclude an artist with such solid popularity. I'm sure her music wasn't playing on the hard rock, oldies (although she wouldn't be out of place on the easy listening oldies stations, so they might have made an exception), classical, or cookie-cutter-flavor-of-the-month-prefabricated-bl and-generic-no-talent-crap stations, and the country stations probably would have passed as well, but the non-specific stations are another matter.
Bottom line: word of mouth might lead to enough popularity to get widespread radio play, but widespread popularity without radio play (or a major motion picture) hasn't been shown by these awards (not that the awards are necessarily a good indication, but they were the examples you cited).
Someday some schmuck with an anal retentive mother is going to offer you cash for all those worthless baseball cards and half-broken toys you refuse to get rid of. Do NOT pass up that offer!
I also have a Dell Optiplex in front of me (well, off to the side actually, a G4 PowerBook is in front of me), and in addition to the two USB ports in the front of the case, there are two USB ports in the keyboard. Assuming that you use one for the mouse, that still leaves one port open. If the keyboard is out of reach, then I think USB port accessibility is the least of your problems...
With so many aspects of our society bringing absurdity to new levels, have you ever written a humor article that ran the risk of the label "It would be funny if it weren't true"? Is there a point at which people will become so desensitized to humor through the sheer mass of stupidity and insanity that defines humanity that you could find yourself out of a job?
"I apologize for this message, but I'm calling from Scumbag Travel Associates to let you know that you have been selected to receive a trip to Walt Disney World to help celebrate their 100th anniversary. Just call us at 1-800-555-1234 with confirmation code URL4M3 to claim your vacation package. If you're not sure whether you want this special offer, don't worry, we'll just keep leaving messages on your answering machine every day for all eternity until you pay us to stop. Once again, that number is 1-800-"
As often as possible. However, most upgrades are just component upgrades: hard drives, RAM, video cards, connectivity, peripherals, etc. For full system replacements, I'm probably on a 3 or 4 year cycle. Here's how my primary desktop system has evolved:
1995: Purchased PowerMac 7500/100, added RAM, purchased laser printer. 1996: Added RAM, added hard drive, upgraded processor to 120MHz, purchased scanner. 1997: Added RAM, added hard drive (moved one to external case), upgraded processor to 150MHz, purchased 17" monitor. 1998: Added RAM, added hard drive (moved one to external case), added USB card, upgraded processor to 225MHz, upgraded CD-ROM drive, added video card, purchased 15" monitor. 1999: Added RAM, upgraded processor to 400MHz G3, purchased barebones Umax S900, moved contents of 7500 to S900, purchased CD-RW drive. 2000: Added RAM, added ATA/33 controller card, added hard drive, replaced video card. 2001: Added RAM, added hard drive, added Firewire/USB card, added video card, purchased 19" monitor, purchased photo inkjet printer, purchased Laserwriter 16/600. 2002: Purchased PowerMac G4 Dual 800, added RAM, added hard drive, added ATA/133 controller card, added hard drive, added hard drive.
And that brings us up to today. The 7500 and S900 are both still in use today, though the 7500 is only being used as a TV. The S900 sees about as much use as the G4; the G4 is primarily for video and graphics (and for playing around with Mac OS X), and the S900 is for most internet activities (web browsing, e-mail, etc.) and anything that requires Mac OS 9 or SCSI. I don't play games, so their requirements have not played a part in my upgrade schedule. 2003's upgrades will probably include an 18" LCD to replace the 17" CRT currently connected to the S900 and a TV to replace the 7500/15" monitor. I should be able to go for at least another two or three years without another desktop system, so the new line of PowerMacs doesn't mean much to me.
I'm gonna become a tech journalist. That way I can walk around wearing my Red Hat cap, Microsoft T-shirt, Linux press badge, carrying a bag full of demo CDs. I can also have in my duffel a Rubik's Cube keychain and, to top it all off, a squeezy penguin.
As a self-declared expert in the field of free stuff (see my web site, the writing section in particular, for more information), I must caution against such a lifestyle. Sure, it looks glamorous, but what are you going to do with all the stuff? It won't be long before your closet is full of pens, pencils, highlighters, note pads, refrigerator magnets, keychains, t-shirts, hats, letter openers, stress balls, water bottles, plastic cups, and all sorts of other little things that may or may not be useful at some point in the future. You'll realize that the things you use every day, from your drinking glass to your coasters, your swiss army knife, your eyeglass cleaning cloths, and even your mints, were all free, and you won't know what you would do without them - you might actually have to buy something! Trust me, that's not the kind of life anybody wants...
Slashdot Mirror
Using Excell, yes. Their parsing is pathetic and would have required lots of manual editing.
Then don't use Excel. If you need to restructure data and Excel can't do it (or you don't know how to get Excel to do it), then use another tool. I dropped the Excel data into BBEdit, opened up the grep help page (because I haven't bothered to learn how to use grep yet) and put together this sequence in a few minutes:
Then I fixed the column header and dropped it into Excel. If you want 1s where no number is indicated, you can sort in Excel and drag a column of 1s in the appropriate spot, or you could alter the find and replace sequence (the last line of the file either needs a carriage return after it before the sequence is run or it can be dealt with manually):
There may be an easier way to do this, but I've only dealt with grep when I've needed to do specific things, so I'm no expert. This is just one example of a way to solve this problem in about as much time as it takes to post to slashdot.
Get a slow charger, and more batteries if you need them often.
Better yet, get a good charger like the Maha C401FS. It can charge fast or slow and won't overcharge your batteries. Good fast chargers do exist, and Maha has had a reputation for the best fast chargers for many years.
The people who were quoted in this article seem more like stereotypes than actual people. I mean, just take a look at this quote:
[Bob Barnes] said he used the Internet to download hard-to-find recordings of European artists because he was unsatisfied with modern American artists and grew tired of buying CDs without the chance to listen to them first.
"If you don't like it, you can't take it back," said Barnes, who runs a small video production company with his wife from their three-bedroom home. "You have all your little blonde, blue-eyed clones. There's no originality."
So there's your halo-wearing "I only wanted to preview songs or download songs I couldn't buy" downloader, which, if some people around here are to be believed, accounts for roughly 100% of the music downloaders on the internet.
On the other end of the spectrum is Gordon Pate, who seems to be reading from a script provided by Jack Valenti and Hilary Rosen:
Pate was wavering whether to call the RIAA to negotiate a settlement. "Should I call a lawyer?" he wondered.
Pate said that he never personally downloaded music and that he so zealously respects copyrights that he does not videotape movies off cable television channels.
Is this guy for real? And just what does denying yourself your fair use rights have to do with respecting copyrights?
In addition to the "honest downloader" and "Valenti's bitch," we are also shown a model of the RIAA's ideal downloader:
"This scares me so bad I never want to download anything again," said Boggs, who turned 22 on Thursday. "I never thought this would happen. There are millions of people out there doing this."
The only thing missing was the disenfranchised ex-customer, which would look something like this:
"This blows. It's bad enough that most music these days is crap, but now you can get your ass sued for listening to it. That's it, I'm not just going to stop buying music, I'm not listening to it anymore either. Screw those jerks at the record companies, it's comic books for me from here on out."
Get four second-rate washed-up stand-up comics to act out the parts and you'll have a mediocre bit on Tough Crowd with Colin "I used to be funny, really!" Quinn. Add two more and you'll have next week's "What Do You Think?" in The Onion. I sincerely hope the people in that article aren't for real...
United States Military Academy at West Point
How can you miss a place that has been producing engineers for two centuries? Plus you get great scenery, lots of history, interesting architecture, and if you time it right, you might be able to catch a show at Ike Hall.
Some other places to consider would be the Johnson Space Center, the Boston Museum of Science, the Las Vegas strip, and, to see what our lives will be like in the future (minus a few decades...), Epcot Center. Those are just a few places I can think of that I've been to that would be of interest (other than what has already been mentioned several times).
I posted similar tips designed specifically for the stereotypical /. reader a couple months ago:
Tips to stop gaining weight
While part of it is a parody of someone else's advice, I think the main points are the same.
is there such a thing as an 'individual inventor' anymore?
Of course there is, haven't you seen the commercials?
"Cleaning with citrus juice was my little secret, but I never patented it. Boy was that dumb!"
I hate to rain on your parade, but this is someone who is only doing their job.
Right, they were only following orders...
Yes, they interrupt you at inconvenient times, but that doesn't give you the right to harass them.
Correct again, that right comes from Amendment I, U.S. Constitution. Well, technically that only protects the right, but you get the idea.
I get phone calls from banks, local newspapers and various other companies trying to sell me things and I am unfailingly polite to the other person.
That is your choice - there is no requirement for anyone to be polite to people who intrude on them in the privacy of their homes, whether they knock on the door, call on the phone, or send invitations to check out their webcams in an instant message.
Annoying or not, people still have to make a living.
You have the right to try to make a living, but there's no guarantee that you'll succeed, despite what some large corporations might think. If your chosen profession is a street performer, ridicule, insults, and indifference are things you have to be able to deal with. Telemarketing is no different. If you don't like it, pick a new profession.
You can't go down to McDonalds and start harassing the cashiers there, so why should telemarketers be any different.
Sure you can, and I'm sure many people do, most notably environmentalist, anarchist, and anti-globalism activists. This can cause them to get kicked out (and arrested if their actions are severe enough to warrant it), just like if some low-life telemarketer scum calls me to tell me how much better DSL is than cable because of their direct connection to the central office, I can debate the issue with the ignorant bastard and hang up on him, even telling him to go to hell and stick his DSL connection where the sun don't shine, if I so desire (and the company can be fined if they violate do not call laws).
Now, if I were to threaten said bastard with bodily harm, this could result in an arrest, just like a McDonald's cashier who shoots a nut-job dancing around shouting "Meat is murder!" and throwing fake blood all over the place would probably face criminal charges.
- Soap (for making impressions of keys)
- Household cleaners (could be used as chemical weapons)
- Toothbrushes (for making shivs)
- Mops (lethal when in the hands of Jackie Chan)
- Surgical gowns (the bad guys always use these as disguises to evade the police)
Clearly, we need to outlaw all health and cleanliness items for the good of the people. After all, I saw these things used for all kinds of evil purposes in movies, and never for anything positive...The Zip was MUCH better, it had a larger capacity (100 MB vs 44 or 88,) it was a quarter of the size and the disks were cheap compared to dropping $100 on a 44 meg SyQuest disk.
I think your memory is a bit scrambled. 44MB SyQuest disks were available for about $1/MB in the early 90s, and the first line of 3.5" SyQuests were available in 105MB and 270MB sizes before Zip drives ever existed. By the time Zip drives caught on, 230MB MO disks were down to about $10 each, easily beating Zips on price. Zip disks were usually the most expensive and the least reliable, but the drives were cheap and everyone bought one because everyone else had one.
The parallels to DVD-R/-RW/+R/+RW don't really fit here because the media format is the same in all cases. You can't fit a 105MB SyQuest disk into a 100MB Zip drive (at least not easily), but it is common for a DVD player to play both DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW. The typical /. reader will be aware of things like burn speeds, media prices, and compatibility issues, but the typical CompUSA or Best Buy customer just wants to put a blank disc into the drive and get something out that will play in a DVD player. The +/- thing isn't an issue until it comes time to buy more discs, and even then they can just have a store employee direct them to whatever will work in the drive they bought. Maybe a better parallel would be sugar cane vs. high fructose corn syrup...
These are easy. Here's what the answers will be:
1. Do you think the present copyright terms is too short, too long, or just right
Protection of intellectual property is an important issue in the digital age. We must continue to allow people to reap the benefits of their creations if we are to remain a fertile environment for intellectual advancement.
2. Copyright and patent are in the Constitution to "advance the progress of the arts and sciences". Is present policy the best we can do? If not, how should the rules be changed to do better?
Our copyright and patent systems give creative Americans the tools they need to do great things and substantially improve the quality of life of all Americans. The effectiveness of our policies is a proven fact and we continue to lead the rest of the world into a brighter digital future.
3. What's the maximum amount of time "limited terms" can last when it comes to patents and copyrights before terms are essentially permanent and the Constitution is violated?
While the exact terms of patents and copyrights in this country have evolved over its long and rich history, we have always abided by the Constitution's guidance to measure the duration of protection given under the law in finite quantities of time. Our founding fathers saw the danger in an open-ended system, and we have not lost sight of this crucial element of intellectual property law.
More specifically, the access control only covers the use of the original file - it allows you to burn audio CDs, which in turn can be converted to any format you want. Therefore, the access control mechanism only effectively controls the ability to play the file downloaded from Apple; it does not control the ability to convert the file to another format and access it in that format.
Now, if you were to burn to CD and rip to AAC, that might be a different story. In that case, you are (in the end) not changing formats, only removing the DRM. This gets you closer to something that simply strips the DRM without changing formats, which would clearly violate the DMCA.
If the police cannot determine if a wiretap is running on the router, then what is to stop a malicious party from running one there without administrative knowledge?
I think a more interesting topic is whether the mechanism that hides other wiretaps could be exploited to hide a communication that the wiretaps are trying to monitor. If every packet was treated as a wiretap, the whole system would break down. Unless of course there's a super-secret Ashcroft-only wiretap mode that could monitor all other wiretaps. Or an ultra-super-secret monitoring mode used for debugging that someone forgot to take out before shipping the product.
I realize that this might not even be possible depending on the actual implementation, but since those details aren't being revealed, there's always the possibility. Imagine if a a viral exploit were able to cause all electronic wiretaps using this mechanism to go silent... Hold on a second, a black helicopter just landed outsi
Taking a look at my paperback copy of Applied Cryptography, it's listed at $55, so I hardly consider that any more expensive.
Of course, if you compare it to Secrets and Lies, which was sent in duplicate for free to anyone who wanted it, $50-70 (or even $30 for the paperback at Bookpool) is a lot more expensive. But I guess mailing out tons of free books isn't a very good business model these days...
I can just imagine what this list would look like at a tech school...
root - D13L4M3rz /.
root - Ph33r4Dmn$
root - I4|\/|1337
root - |30F|-|RULZ
root - root
root - toor
luser - password
alyobase - RBlong2us
billgates - $$$
slashdot -
The FCC, the government organization that deals with radio transmissions, gives us the same right you have, that it shall not be made illegal to recieve a radio transmission.
Sorry, but this is absolutely not true and hasn't been since at least 1934. From:
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/subcarriers/
Section 605 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, which states that no one may receive, or assist in receiving, any radio communication to which they are not entitled and use that information for their own benefit. In addition, 18 U.S.C. Sections 2510 through 2521 prohibit the manufacture, assembly, possession, and sale of any device primarily useful for the surreptitious interception of such radio transmissions.
This is just one of the first in the long list of things you are not allowed to receive if they are provided to you.
But this is exactly the behaviour you would want. You want to keep a seperate ID for books between editions and different editors, remember that a lot of books go through changes in these processes, so the texts are probably not the same.
It's one thing to note printing histories and differences in editions, but it sounds like you're talking about creating a different entry for each edition. This would increase the sheer number of entries from tremendous to ludicrous. Doing this would be like having the IMDb create a separate entry for each theatrical release, DVD release, VHS release, laserdisc release, airline version, television version, foreign version (again, theatrical releases, DVD/VHS/etc. for each country), etc. of a movie. Noting different versions is fine as an added feature (this alone would be a huge amount of data that most likely would not be obtainable by any one person for any one book, requiring much more data correlation than the basic entries), but these variations should not drive the organizational structure. If this is your approach, then the ISBN as a unique identifier idea falls apart - any book that has been in print for at least 40 or 50 years will have accumulated numerous editions that do not have ISBNs, many without any uniquely identifying information, some without even a printing date.
You would also want to keep that difference in a book database, otherwise the information would not be complete.
It will never be complete. This is not the sort of thing you start so you can finish it - the goal here is to get enough information together to make it useful. From this perspective, basic information is far more important than the fine details. If the goal is to create a book equivalent of the IMDb, then the basic structural element should be the title (as in written work, not the literal title), not the edition.
The easies boundry would be anything with an ISBN.
That limits you to books that have been printed in the last 30 years or so. Even then, many book club-only printings do not have ISBNs.
There you quickly have a unique ID for each book as well.
Actually, you will have many unique IDs for each book. For public domain material, there is no limit to the number of different publishers that could print a book. Even for recent publications, books can change publishers (and publishers can change names, merge, etc.), resulting in considerable variation in the ISBN. Add in ISBN changes for different editions of a book, and the best you can do is keep a unique set of ISBNs for a particular book. But then you have anthologies, so do they count as single books or multiple books? If multiple, what about anthologies of short stories, poetry, essays, or mixtures of long and short works? ISBNs really don't provide you with anything unique beyond the link between the number and a specific published work.
See my Book List for examples of the above.
For another, $12 is the exception, not the rule, for pricing--if you can find everything you want on CD at Target, more power to you. I can't. Best Buy charges $13-16 for CDs, generally, and they have about the best price to selection ratio of any place that I've found.
Here's where I've found a large selection of CDs in the $10-12 range:
- MyMusic.com - lots around $10, but shipping adds another dollar or two, depending on how many you buy
- DeepDiscountCD.com - lots around $12, free shipping
- Barnes & Noble - prices and free shipping deals vary, but there are lots of good deals around the holidays
Of course, the special limited edition releases will cost more - the ones I've gotten were in the $12-15 range. Those are the only CDs I've spent more than $12 on in several years, although they tend to be either two CDs or a CD and a DVD.It amazes me how much people are willing to spend on CDs sometimes. I had one CD that I bought (for about $10 or so) as a gift but never used, then sold on eBay two years later for over $15, with shipping and insurance (buyer requested) bringing it up to almost $20. Even after subtracting my expenses, I made a decent profit (and I didn't think I would break even).
CNN has an interesting article (considering they are Time/Warner) about the fact that these 2 albums were made hits by word of mouth instead of by radio play.
I'm not buying the whole "Norah Jones became popular through word of mouth and not radio play" thing. That may have been the case (on a much smaller scale) six months ago, but Norah Jones songs have been playing frequently on the four radio stations I switch between during my commute (a half hour each way) for several months. Between the four stations, I'll usually hear Norah Jones at least once every day, once per commute isn't uncommon, and on two stations at the same time happens every once in a while.
The CNN article lists Vanessa Carlton, Eminem, Nickelback, and Nelly as the other record of the year nominees. Of these four, the only one I've heard more frequently than Norah Jones is Vanessa Carlton, who has more songs playing on the stations I listen to and has been playing on these stations longer than Norah Jones, but her first few months were about the same.
I realize that my analysis only covers one type of station in one market, but in this day and age of identical playlists (and these four stations have virtually identical playlists, especially when it comes to recent music), I find it hard to believe that similar stations in other markets that have the same owners as the stations I listen to would exclude an artist with such solid popularity. I'm sure her music wasn't playing on the hard rock, oldies (although she wouldn't be out of place on the easy listening oldies stations, so they might have made an exception), classical, or cookie-cutter-flavor-of-the-month-prefabricated-bl and-generic-no-talent-crap stations, and the country stations probably would have passed as well, but the non-specific stations are another matter.
Bottom line: word of mouth might lead to enough popularity to get widespread radio play, but widespread popularity without radio play (or a major motion picture) hasn't been shown by these awards (not that the awards are necessarily a good indication, but they were the examples you cited).
Someday some schmuck with an anal retentive mother is going to offer you cash for all those worthless baseball cards and half-broken toys you refuse to get rid of. Do NOT pass up that offer!
Thanks,
your 24 year old self
I also have a Dell Optiplex in front of me (well, off to the side actually, a G4 PowerBook is in front of me), and in addition to the two USB ports in the front of the case, there are two USB ports in the keyboard. Assuming that you use one for the mouse, that still leaves one port open. If the keyboard is out of reach, then I think USB port accessibility is the least of your problems...
With so many aspects of our society bringing absurdity to new levels, have you ever written a humor article that ran the risk of the label "It would be funny if it weren't true"? Is there a point at which people will become so desensitized to humor through the sheer mass of stupidity and insanity that defines humanity that you could find yourself out of a job?
BEEP
"I apologize for this message, but I'm calling from Scumbag Travel Associates to let you know that you have been selected to receive a trip to Walt Disney World to help celebrate their 100th anniversary. Just call us at 1-800-555-1234 with confirmation code URL4M3 to claim your vacation package. If you're not sure whether you want this special offer, don't worry, we'll just keep leaving messages on your answering machine every day for all eternity until you pay us to stop. Once again, that number is 1-800-"
BEEP
How often do you upgrade your computers?
As often as possible. However, most upgrades are just component upgrades: hard drives, RAM, video cards, connectivity, peripherals, etc. For full system replacements, I'm probably on a 3 or 4 year cycle. Here's how my primary desktop system has evolved:
1995: Purchased PowerMac 7500/100, added RAM, purchased laser printer.
1996: Added RAM, added hard drive, upgraded processor to 120MHz, purchased scanner.
1997: Added RAM, added hard drive (moved one to external case), upgraded processor to 150MHz, purchased 17" monitor.
1998: Added RAM, added hard drive (moved one to external case), added USB card, upgraded processor to 225MHz, upgraded CD-ROM drive, added video card, purchased 15" monitor.
1999: Added RAM, upgraded processor to 400MHz G3, purchased barebones Umax S900, moved contents of 7500 to S900, purchased CD-RW drive.
2000: Added RAM, added ATA/33 controller card, added hard drive, replaced video card.
2001: Added RAM, added hard drive, added Firewire/USB card, added video card, purchased 19" monitor, purchased photo inkjet printer, purchased Laserwriter 16/600.
2002: Purchased PowerMac G4 Dual 800, added RAM, added hard drive, added ATA/133 controller card, added hard drive, added hard drive.
And that brings us up to today. The 7500 and S900 are both still in use today, though the 7500 is only being used as a TV. The S900 sees about as much use as the G4; the G4 is primarily for video and graphics (and for playing around with Mac OS X), and the S900 is for most internet activities (web browsing, e-mail, etc.) and anything that requires Mac OS 9 or SCSI. I don't play games, so their requirements have not played a part in my upgrade schedule. 2003's upgrades will probably include an 18" LCD to replace the 17" CRT currently connected to the S900 and a TV to replace the 7500/15" monitor. I should be able to go for at least another two or three years without another desktop system, so the new line of PowerMacs doesn't mean much to me.
I'm gonna become a tech journalist. That way I can walk around wearing my Red Hat cap, Microsoft T-shirt, Linux press badge, carrying a bag full of demo CDs. I can also have in my duffel a Rubik's Cube keychain and, to top it all off, a squeezy penguin.
As a self-declared expert in the field of free stuff (see my web site, the writing section in particular, for more information), I must caution against such a lifestyle. Sure, it looks glamorous, but what are you going to do with all the stuff? It won't be long before your closet is full of pens, pencils, highlighters, note pads, refrigerator magnets, keychains, t-shirts, hats, letter openers, stress balls, water bottles, plastic cups, and all sorts of other little things that may or may not be useful at some point in the future. You'll realize that the things you use every day, from your drinking glass to your coasters, your swiss army knife, your eyeglass cleaning cloths, and even your mints, were all free, and you won't know what you would do without them - you might actually have to buy something! Trust me, that's not the kind of life anybody wants...