Those who want to use the Net to register and vote ought to be able to do so; those who prefer the current system could keep on using it
So how would this make things better? We'd still have the old '18th-century' systems in place!
Re:Correcting the failure of software copyright
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Embracing Insanity
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· Score: 1
Didn't the KDE and Gnome projects learn how to design a desktop environment from Windows (among other sources)?
Well, they might have learned a thing or two about the UI, but they had to do the internals from scratch. Although the UI is important, there's a bit more to software development than a pretty UI!
"We sent out sample ballots to all registered voters and no one said a word."
It's difficult for a sample (paper) ballot to simulate the voting experience. The sample ballot might look easier on paper than in the booth, there's no pressure with a sample ballot, etc. A simulation is just not the same as the real thing.
I'm willing to spread some of the blame to the voters in Palm Beach county for not looking at the sample ballots and calling if they were confused.
I can certainly believe that many people made a mistake. But from the link given, it looks like the punch for Buchanan was on the line separating Bush and Gore. So one can't justify giving the Buchanan votes to either Bush or Gore.
And yes, I think the person who designed this ballot card did a horrible job.
he comes from a state in which their constitution does not allow atheists to hold office or even be official citizen. Think I'm joking, read the Texas constitution.
IANAL, and I've never read this constitution, but if this provision were ever seriously challenged in court, it would not hold up. It's a clear violation of the 1st and 14th Amendments. I suppose Gov. Bush could have spent his time having this particular provision removed from the constitution, or he could have spent his time on more productive activities. He apparently chose the latter.
No wonder Joseph left town when they took the census 2000 years ago. Maybe he was on to something.
Um, not exactly. Joseph left to go back to his hometown, because that's what the gov't (read: Caesar) required. And the census was really for tax purposes. IANABS (I AM Not A Biblical Scholar), though.
But they're not using the info from the long form anyway. As the articles says,
The records the budget office wants are not themselves from the 2000 Census; they are voluntary responses to monthly surveys, with confidentiality promised.
OK, so they're still probably breaking confidentiality here. This is a Bad Thing. But I wish people would stop complaining about how awful the long form was and read the damn article. Perhaps someone who took one of these monthly surveys could contribute something useful, such as what information is actually collected in these things. I'm as paranoid as the next guy, but there's no reason to go looking out the window for black helicopters quite yet.
it will in fact bring about a stronger economy due to the fact that rather than having money tied in up in charitable foundations, it will be in more liquid forms, mainly equity.
Huh? What do you think charitable foundations do with the money they get? For the most part, they invest it, then spend most of the interest on their charitable work. I don't see how investing of a charitable foundation makes things worse for the economy than investing by somebody else.
I'm no bleeding liberal, but the original author makes a few good points. Having less money go to charitable foundations is a Bad Thing.
Abandoning Open Source would also probably force you into developing your own Unix(like) environment; something your business model couldn't withstand.
RedHat clearly could not abandon Linux. But RedHat does not have to open-source the tools that it created in house (like RPM). Of course, if it didn't open-source them, far fewer people would use RedHat, and the company's business model could not withstand that.
I, for one, think RedHat is doing the open-source movement a favor by releasing the source to the stuff they write in-house.
Re:Conceding your lawsuit is baseless?
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RIAA CEO Speaks
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Are you implying that Napster isn't a search engine? The service provides one person connected to the internet with location and file attributes for a file stored by another person connected to the internet. The technology could just as easily be applied to any form of file transferal...
From the Napster Inc. home page:
Join the largest, most diverse online community of music lovers in
history by downloading and installing Napster. It's fun, simple and
free.
The service by Napster Inc. is clearly targeted towards music, though the technology may be generic.
Re:Conceding your lawsuit is baseless?
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RIAA CEO Speaks
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I think they are going to also start going after people who provide DSL, Cable Modem services, T1, and OC3 lines
I doubt it. There's far too many uses for a DSL line than pirating MP3s. But watching a death match with RIAA lawyers vs AT&T, etc. lawyers would be exciting!
Re:Conceding your lawsuit is baseless?
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RIAA CEO Speaks
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But Napster does profit from trading in copyrighted works (Keep the "it's a search engine" comments to yourselves, please). Napster is a business.
What I thought was interesting was:
According to my memory of 2 1/2 years ago, it was called StarBurst. But it appears to have renamed itself StarDust.com. Perhaps Mars (owners of the StarBurst candy) beat them up for the domain name. Or my memory fails me.
I may be mistaken, but I don't believe the public property -- in this case, the spectrum -- was given away. It was sold.
You are mistaken. The spectrum for the analog and digital TV service was given to the stations, not sold. There are some very minor regulatory fees that must be paid every year, and of course there are lots of other regulations, but the spectrum is basically free.
The FCC does auction off spectrum from time to time, but that's usually for stuff like cell phones, pagers, etc.
>No identifying information at all is in the file
>itself, the serial number isn't there
Um, could they not simply record your telephone number (Caller ID) when the Tivo dials in?
I think the funniest part of this is that they chose to distribute this device through fairly geeky channels (Radio Shack and Wired). Then they're surprised when geeks figure out the trivial protocol they're using.
>What I don't see is how can the free advertising being generated by this company >be harmful? Many people fall into the same trap - pretending that they're eBay, and deciding whether or not eBay should ask BiddersEdge to stop. That's not the point - the point is whether eBay can ask/force BiddersEdge to stop. You and I can't determine what is in eBay's best interests; only eBay can.
US law does not contain specific limits on how much of a copyrighted work can be reproduced. From the copyright office FAQ (emphasis added):
47.How much of someone else's work can I use without getting permission? Under the fair use doctrine of the U.S. copyright statute, it is permissible to use limited portions of a work including quotes, for purposes such as commentary, criticism, news reporting, and scholarly reports.
There are no legal rules permitting the use of a specific number of words, a certain number of musical notes, or percentages of a work. Whether a particular use qualifies as fair use depends on all the circumstances. See Circular 21 and FL 102.
It is perfectly legal and ethical to take information that is in the public domain (such as court records, old books, etc.) and sell it without recompense to the public.
Slashdot Mirror
So how would this make things better? We'd still have the old '18th-century' systems in place!
I'm willing to spread some of the blame to the voters in Palm Beach county for not looking at the sample ballots and calling if they were confused.
And yes, I think the person who designed this ballot card did a horrible job.
Um, not exactly. Joseph left to go back to his hometown, because that's what the gov't (read: Caesar) required. And the census was really for tax purposes. IANABS (I AM Not A Biblical Scholar), though.
But they're not using the info from the long form anyway. As the articles says,
OK, so they're still probably breaking confidentiality here. This is a Bad Thing. But I wish people would stop complaining about how awful the long form was and read the damn article. Perhaps someone who took one of these monthly surveys could contribute something useful, such as what information is actually collected in these things. I'm as paranoid as the next guy, but there's no reason to go looking out the window for black helicopters quite yet.I'm no bleeding liberal, but the original author makes a few good points. Having less money go to charitable foundations is a Bad Thing.
I, for one, think RedHat is doing the open-source movement a favor by releasing the source to the stuff they write in-house.
According to my memory of 2 1/2 years ago, it was called StarBurst. But it appears to have renamed itself StarDust.com. Perhaps Mars (owners of the StarBurst candy) beat them up for the domain name. Or my memory fails me.
You are mistaken. The spectrum for the analog and digital TV service was given to the stations, not sold. There are some very minor regulatory fees that must be paid every year, and of course there are lots of other regulations, but the spectrum is basically free.
The FCC does auction off spectrum from time to time, but that's usually for stuff like cell phones, pagers, etc.
>No identifying information at all is in the file >itself, the serial number isn't there Um, could they not simply record your telephone number (Caller ID) when the Tivo dials in?
I think the funniest part of this is that they chose to distribute this device through fairly geeky channels (Radio Shack and Wired). Then they're surprised when geeks figure out the trivial protocol they're using.
>What I don't see is how can the free advertising being generated by this company
>be harmful?
Many people fall into the same trap - pretending that they're eBay, and deciding whether or not eBay should ask BiddersEdge to stop. That's not the point - the point is whether eBay can ask/force BiddersEdge to stop. You and I can't determine what is in eBay's best interests; only eBay can.
It is perfectly legal and ethical to take information that is in the public domain (such as court records, old books, etc.) and sell it without recompense to the public.