Fractal compression is a cool idea, and it can achieve incredible compression rates. Unfortunately it hasn't quite panned out in the real world.
One main problem has been that no one has found an efficient way to create the PIFS functions for an arbitrary image. So fractal compression can take a long time and is non-deterministic (i.e. you can't tell ahead of time how long it will take).
Another problem is that Barnsley et al. hold patents on many of the techniques used. Until its performance makes it a clear winner, why pay royalties.
It's been a couple of years since I paid close attention fo fractal compression, but I haven't heard of anything that changes the above problems.
No mention in the review of the fact that the hero of Mogadishu (character name changed, played by Ewan MacGregor) is now in Leavenworth. Read [nypost.com] about his heroism in raping and molesting children.
John Stebbins is now serving 30 years in Leavenworth and well he should, but on that day he was a hero.
Elsewhere [montclair.edu] one can read about how, not suprisingly, our current mideast conflict has as much connection with oil as any in the past.
Well lets see...the U.S. defeated Japan and Germany in WWII for their vast oil fields, we then attacked North Korea for their vast oil reserves, later we invaded South Vietnam for their fabled oil reserves. Don't forget Grenada and its miles of oil rigs. Next came the invasion of Iraq, a well known oil producer, and then Somalia with its vast undiscovered oil reserves. Later there would be Haiti, with its famous Port-Au-Prince oil works, and most recently Afghanistan, with its huge but unknown oil reserves. hmmm....
With the exception of Iraq (which is not allowed to sell its oil anyway due to UN sanctions), do any of these countries actually produce oil in other than small token amounts?
If the U.S. is always ready to fight for oil, why has it picked such unproductive and out of the way countries to attack? Surely we can't be that dumb, when right next door we have one of the largest producers of oil with a long undefended border. Yes, I'm speaking of Mexico.
Yes, yes we could easily brush aside their border defenses (which consist mainly of chicklet-peddling children and taxi drivers/tour guides) and completely take over their oil production. It'll be great. All your Pemex stations are belong to us!!
Actually come to think of it, I have seen a lot of gringo-types hanging out in the Cancun-gulf coast area, and they were even applying oil! to their bodies(sure, it's coconut oil, but how do we really know since the Big Media lies) being brought in from offshore on 'cruise ships'. Oh those diabolical and sneaky military-oil-complex conglomerates! I guess it really is all about oil after all.
I am sure that the pledge of joining the Waffen SS was just as heroic. And I am sure that Mohammad Atta also considered himself "morally straight". It is unfortunately quite possible to be "morally straight", honest, and loyal to one's friends while serving the interests of the dishonest, greedy, and evil.
Yes, and it's quite possible to be "morally straight", honest, and loyal to one's friends while serving the interests of the hungry, needy, and helpless. Which interest you're serving depends on the political context.
most of the kids who join these operations do not have the tools to tell right from wrong in international politics.
And it's not their place to do so, nor of their generals. That's the domain of elected politicians. If you don't like the policy, blame the politicians - not the soldiers whose job it is to carry it out.
Firstly the fact that Tom Sizemore is doing the exact same role he did in Saving Private Ryan is tiring-> Standing around while bullets hit around his feet, apparently as some sort of magically protected superhero.
Well, I do agree that Sizemore does essentially replay his role as Sgt. Horvath in SPR. However, in the book the McKnight character is described as basically fitting that description, so it's no surprise that Sizemore would be chosen to play that role.
As to the 'bullet immunity', apparently this is not uncommon in combat as has been described in several books (see 'About Face' by David Hackworth for one example). It's likely due to the fact that most soldiers in combat are partially deafened by the noise and may not be able to hear the cracks of passing bullets. Also many soldiers describe themselves as having a tunnel vision in combat and not really being aware of anything except what they're focusing on.
Secondly, this movie exemplified that classic Hollywood fantasy that a million people shooting guns and no one was hit...[snip]...Nope, it's another magical situation where American soldiers hit everytime they fire, but 1000 enemies can't hit anything.
Remember, this really happened. Yes, there definitely was an inbalance in firing effectiveness. For the Somalis this was mostly due to the fact that they were using AK47s on full auto (not the most accurate weapon in the world), were not marksmen by any means, and many were just shooting in the general direction of the Americans just to avoid losing face in front of their fellow clan members. Meanwhile the Americans had a lot of firing range practice, were mainly firing single shots, and were fighting for their lives.
Thirdly, most of the combatants didn't really have a fear of death, and it seemed largely irrelevant.
In the book most of the Rangers were afraid. However through training and the realization that if they didn't fight, they would surely die, almost all overcame this. The movie just hints at this though.
The one point where a death actually seemed to matter (though he didn't die) was when a gentleman pulled out a picture of his family.
Guess Cpl. Smith's prolonged death due to a severed artery didn't affect you.
This movie does not have impact as a war movie, except in saying that foolish combat (i.e. being in HMMVs in narrow streets with snipers on all the rooftops) is dumb and probably shouldn't be done.
Yes, it's 'dumb'. But how else were they supposed to get back to their base? Remember APCs weren't an option due to decisions made in Washington.
I truly believe that this movie would have been panned as a sad wannabe in a field of great war movies, but in the current patriotic environment instead it gets kudos.
I disagree, but the only way to really know is to see how its reputation holds up 10 years from now.
I believe the legal reasoning goes something like this: Because DirecTV is not licensed by the Canadian government to broadcast within Canada, they cannot sell their services there even though it's possible to receive their signals. Since no Canadian can legally purchase DirecTV and these signals are 'unauthorized', it's not a crime (or at least not a crime that the courts will take action over) to decrypt them on your own. However if you hack a domestically available satellite service, you will be busted by the Canadian authorities.
Now that I'm back at my office, I checked and actually I'm using GE Chroma 50 (AKA GE Sunshine) bulbs (CRI 91, 5000 Deg.). You can get more information at the GE FAQ. Also there's a nice comparison of different light sources here.
I put full spectrum bulbs in my office several months ago, and so far I've been very happy with them. I have a private office, but unfortunately without any windows so the only light sources are fluorescent lights. I got the full spectrum lights from Home Depot for only about $6 (GE I think). There are some other specialized manufacturers that charge $40+ for their bulbs, but as far as I can tell, they're essentially the same as the ones i got at Home Depot.
The difference is quite amazing - I never realized how sickly yellow the old lights were. The new lights have much more blue in them, and really do seem more like natural sunlight. Now I feel like I have skylights in the ceiling.
I can't tell if changing the lighting improved my performance, but it did make feel more comfortable and alert in my office. My co-workers like to keep their office dim except for their monitors - not me, I find that a dark room strains my eyes and makes me sleepy. I may be an exception since a lot of programmers like a dim room setup, and in our main office the engineering wing has no fluorescent lights on at all. Still I find that I do my best work in a naturally lighted environment. Without windows, full spectrums lights are as close as I can get.
The truth is, 99% of people won't be able to hear a difference between a well-encoded 128kbp MP3 and the original CD. Of the remaining 1%, 99% won't be able to tell the difference anymore if the MP3 is encoded at or above 256kbps.
A slight quibble: according to r3mix.net, c't magazine did a study and found that 90% of people could tell the difference between an mp3 @ 128kbit/s. However at 256 kbits/s, they were indistinguishable, so your overall point is still valid.
I've listened to a couple of songs on both vinyl and on CD's and often the vinyl did *sound* better. However I'm willing to bet that the CD version was a more faithful representation of the performance being recorded - the record only sounded better because it was distorted (either from its mixing and/or from the needle/vinyl interface) in a way that's pleasant to the human ear.
a non-american citizen in his own country can't break an american law, whatever the laws in his country.
Actually we can conclude the following:
a non-american citizen in his own country can't break an american law, whatever the laws in his country without facing the risk of arrest when he physically travels to the U.S..
This has been true for many, many years - that's nothing new about it.
I got really sick of fixing the same problems, becuase they didn't learn not to do something the first time.
Why not write up the solutions to the most frequent problems and let them administrate the simple stuff for themselves. If they're really software engineers, they should be capable of this or else you have deeper problems than you think.
1) You stuff is too expensive, so I don't want it
2) Most of your stuff is crap
3) Therefore, since I don't want to buy what you are offering, and its no good anyway, I'm going to steal it, since its more convienent.
Therefore, the music business should come up with new infrastructure, marketing plans, etc... to gain someone who likely won't be a customer anyway. I mean, even if music is available for sale, people will still steal, becuase its free.
Not exactly - here's what he was really saying:
1) Your stuff is too expensive, so I don't want it at the current price.
2) Most of your stuff is crap so why not let me buy just the parts I like.
3) If you can fix 1) and 2), put it in a form that I can use everywhere, and make it easy to purchase, I'd love to buy your product.
JP Aerospace "America's OTHER Space Program" is doing this very thing. They used balloons to carry a launch platform and rocket to 26,000 ft where they launched the rocket. Now they're currently working up to being able to launch from 100,000 ft.
If you don't have the original box, jewel case, and receipt, you very probably DON'T have a legal copy to sell.
Even if 99% of software in this form (which mine wasn't) is pirated, it still should not give Microsoft the right to have my auction of non-pirated software pulled. To do this, they had to swear to EBay that they believed my item for auction was infringing on their IP rights. In actual fact, they had no idea whether it was or not, and were just having it yanked as a matter of course. And yes I do believe demanding to see receipts is out of line.
This is just Microsoft's way of stamping out the secondary market of their products.
The reason MS stopped those auctions is because most of them are pirated software. Or it is software licensed to OEM (you cannot separate the software bundled with the hardware) at a much lower price. If it is a shrink wrap package, I don't think you have a problem reselling.
Just because the shrink wrap packaging has been removed doesn't mean that it's pirated. I tried to sell an old personal copy of Office 97 on Ebay, and Microsoft had the auction stopped. And my copy of Office was not a pirated copy - I bought it directly from a store. There is an appeals process where you can get Microsoft to allow the auction to be reinstated. Unfortunately Microsoft wanted me to show them the original receipt (which I don't have anymore). They also demand that when you sell Microsofot software, you must include *all* the original packaging including the box. Basically they stop all non-shrinkwrapped auctions of Microsoft software, and make the seller prove it's legit. Bastard jerks. They deserve all the piracy they get after this.
If you have probable cause that I'm committing some crime (like I bought 5000 bags of fertilizer and 2000 gallons of diesel and 1000 pounds of aluminum powder and 500 pounds of pink dye plus a case of blasting caps)
Ok, I can see why you'd want the fertilizer and diesel (an ANFO bomb) and maybe the aluminum (catalyst?), but why do you need the pink dye?
In normal times the opinion of these 2 avowed members of the ultra conservative christian right would be ridiculed, but at this moment in time they will get wide support in some areas.
I'd hardly call Chuck Schumer an ultra conservative christian right winger. This is really a case of bipartisan stupidity. And frankly, I'm more disappointed in Orrin Hatch as he seemed like one of the more clueful senators when it came to digital issues.
If you ever read first-hand accounts of the Marines fighting in the Pacific during WWII, you'll find that they fought under horrendous and appalling conditions and took amazing casualties while still intact as a fighting force. This was only possible because they were mostly volunteers and had an esprit that other units didn't have. While patriotic, most marines were fighting because they wanted to protect their buddies and because they hated the Japanese.
There's no doubt that Afghanistan is a difficult place to fight, and that the Afghanis can be a dangerous foe. However, just as the military is accused of fighting the last war, the media experts are often guilty of analyzing the last war. Vietnam happened almost 30 years ago, and many of the lessons learned have been absorbed by the military long ago. Most of the upper level officers today were lieutenants and captains in Vietnam. I doubt they going to fight the same way using the same tactics as they were ordered to back then.
Furthermore the Afghanis (and especially the Taliban) are not supermen. The Soviets had nearly wiped out or suppressed the Mujahadeen by 1985, when the U.S. and others began providing them stinger missiles and modern arms. Deprived of their air cover, the Soviets were eventually worn down until they were glad to leave the country. By contrast, the Taliban are a relatively new group that came out of Pakistani religious schools and do not completely control the country. They are unpopular in sections of the country, and also relatively untested in battle. In short, these are not your father's mujahadeen.
Back in 1991 right before the ground war began I remember the network experts (including some retired military officers) solemnly declaring that the Gulf War would cost the U.S. thousands in casualties and last for ten years. However, less than 100 hours later the allied forces had achieved a decisive victory with almost no one being injured or killed. Needless to say, I have a great deal of skepticism when it comes to media predictions about a war.
I must not be a real techie then, as I prefer to have lots of light in my office. When I'm not coding, I'm usually reading and editing printed documents, and here low light does not cut it. I find that being in a dim environment not only strains my eyes, but makes me feel a little sleepy and isolated from the outside.
Since I have no windows in my office, I recently added full-spectrum fluorescent lights so I can have a 'skylight' effect, and my office now feels much more open and friendly. Also I haven't noticed any glare problems. Some other guys in the group like to code almost in the dark, and apparently it seems to work for them.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to name a piece of software with a smiley should be strapped to a chair and forced to watch sitcoms for the rest of their life.
A smiley may be a bit much for ordinary writing where there is enough context to make clear what the writer's tone is, but for emails or short internet postings it can help misunderstandings. I've seen whole flame wars break out just because someone misinterpreted someone else's "obviously humorous" comment.
even though I hate microsoft bashers, thats an interesting point. when you build a bridge, you generally support it (no pun), and when it falls it is the designer of the bridges fault, not the car driving over it.
Actually I believe that before construction even begins on a project, a PE (Professional Engineer) has to sign off on the design (thus making himself legally liable in the case of a design failure). Because of this most PEs tend to be conservative in their designs and carry liability insurance just in case.
With software according to the EULA, you're buying the right to use whatever's in the box which may not work at all, may not do what you want, and may even harm your computer. Of course off-the-shelf software is also relatively cheap. There's no way you're going to get someone to accept legal liability for software for just a few hundred dollars.
The US is interested in itself. Nothing more. Why do you think our TV industry (VHS/NTSC) isn't compatible with the rest of the world (PAL) ? Whe6y do you think regional encoding came to be ?
Umm, if you want to bash the U.S., go ahead but get your facts straight. The following countries use NTSC: BAHAMAS, BARBADOS, BERMUDA, BOLIVIA, BURMA, CAMBODIA, CANADA, CHILE, COLOMBIA, COSTA RICA, CUBA, DOMINICAN REP, ECUADOR, EL SALVADOR, GREENLAND, GUAM, GUATEMALA, HONDURAS, JAMAICA, JAPAN, KOREA SOUTH, MEXICO, NETH ANTILLES, NICARAGUA, PANAMA, PERU, PHILIPPINES, PUERTO RICO, ST KITTS, SAMOA, SURINAM, TAIWAN, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO, USA, VENEZUELA
I'd say that includes a lot of the rest of the world. NTSC was developed in the 30's for B&W display. The next version of NTSC was designed for color the early 50's and was constrained by the need to be backwards comaptible with existing NTSC B&W televisions. Meanwhile Europe, with a smaller installed base of B&W TVs, was free to design better (and incompatible) color standards.
So TV standards are really other countries deciding to incompatible with the U.S., not the other way around.
Like so many technologies, the first implementation is not always the best, and the U.S. tends to be one of the first countries to roll out a new technology. This plus the fact that the FCC tends to strongly support backward compatibility in new technologies with older standards, often makes the U.S. appear technologically backwards. On the other hand, in how many other countries would you still be able to use a 50 year old TV set or a 16 year old cell phone?
The DMCA does not have force of law where they are, and the ISP personnel will be glad to tell them to shove up their lawyer's letter.
Apparently they're located in NY, so the DMCA would definately apply. Furthermore, what ISP in their right mind would continue their service (and risk liability) when they are already known to be spammers.
How the hell can Elcomsoft be indicted for breaking a U.S. copyright law when that firm is in RUSSIA!?
Ahh, but if they accept payments from and ship products directly to customers in the U.S., they're doing business in the U.S. and that puts them under the jurisdiction of U.S. copyright laws. Even if they're found guilty, as long as they have no assets here and no employees ever enter the country, it's not clear what the DOJ could ever do about it.
The only reason the NSA and the CIA didn't create carnivore, is because the FBI beat them to it.
Beat them to it?!? Nah, the NSA's had their own version of carnivore for years, and there's no way they're going give away one of their proprietary jewels to the clowns at the FBI. (Technically, any domestic monitoring was probably done by the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), but since they share information with the NSA, there's little difference.)
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Fractal compression is a cool idea, and it can achieve incredible compression rates. Unfortunately it hasn't quite panned out in the real world.
One main problem has been that no one has found an efficient way to create the PIFS functions for an arbitrary image. So fractal compression can take a long time and is non-deterministic (i.e. you can't tell ahead of time how long it will take).
Another problem is that Barnsley et al. hold patents on many of the techniques used. Until its performance makes it a clear winner, why pay royalties.
It's been a couple of years since I paid close attention fo fractal compression, but I haven't heard of anything that changes the above problems.
No mention in the review of the fact that the hero of Mogadishu (character name changed, played by Ewan MacGregor) is now in Leavenworth. Read [nypost.com] about his heroism in raping and molesting children.
John Stebbins is now serving 30 years in Leavenworth and well he should, but on that day he was a hero.
Elsewhere [montclair.edu] one can read about how, not suprisingly, our current mideast conflict has as much connection with oil as any in the past.
Well lets see...the U.S. defeated Japan and Germany in WWII for their vast oil fields, we then attacked North Korea for their vast oil reserves, later we invaded South Vietnam for their fabled oil reserves. Don't forget Grenada and its miles of oil rigs. Next came the invasion of Iraq, a well known oil producer, and then Somalia with its vast undiscovered oil reserves. Later there would be Haiti, with its famous Port-Au-Prince oil works, and most recently Afghanistan, with its huge but unknown oil reserves. hmmm....
With the exception of Iraq (which is not allowed to sell its oil anyway due to UN sanctions), do any of these countries actually produce oil in other than small token amounts?
If the U.S. is always ready to fight for oil, why has it picked such unproductive and out of the way countries to attack? Surely we can't be that dumb, when right next door we have one of the largest producers of oil with a long undefended border. Yes, I'm speaking of Mexico.
Yes, yes we could easily brush aside their border defenses (which consist mainly of chicklet-peddling children and taxi drivers/tour guides) and completely take over their oil production. It'll be great. All your Pemex stations are belong to us!!
Actually come to think of it, I have seen a lot of gringo-types hanging out in the Cancun-gulf coast area, and they were even applying oil! to their bodies(sure, it's coconut oil, but how do we really know since the Big Media lies) being brought in from offshore on 'cruise ships'. Oh those diabolical and sneaky military-oil-complex conglomerates! I guess it really is all about oil after all.
I am sure that the pledge of joining the Waffen SS was just as heroic. And I am sure that Mohammad Atta also considered himself "morally straight". It is unfortunately quite possible to be "morally straight", honest, and loyal to one's friends while serving the interests of the dishonest, greedy, and evil.
Yes, and it's quite possible to be "morally straight", honest, and loyal to one's friends while serving the interests of the hungry, needy, and helpless. Which interest you're serving depends on the political context.
most of the kids who join these operations do not have the tools to tell right from wrong in international politics.
And it's not their place to do so, nor of their generals. That's the domain of elected politicians. If you don't like the policy, blame the politicians - not the soldiers whose job it is to carry it out.
A few quibbles:
Firstly the fact that Tom Sizemore is doing the exact same role he did in Saving Private Ryan is tiring-> Standing around while bullets hit around his feet, apparently as some sort of magically protected superhero.
Well, I do agree that Sizemore does essentially replay his role as Sgt. Horvath in SPR. However, in the book the McKnight character is described as basically fitting that description, so it's no surprise that Sizemore would be chosen to play that role.
As to the 'bullet immunity', apparently this is not uncommon in combat as has been described in several books (see 'About Face' by David Hackworth for one example). It's likely due to the fact that most soldiers in combat are partially deafened by the noise and may not be able to hear the cracks of passing bullets. Also many soldiers describe themselves as having a tunnel vision in combat and not really being aware of anything except what they're focusing on.
Secondly, this movie exemplified that classic Hollywood fantasy that a million people shooting guns and no one was hit...[snip]...Nope, it's another magical situation where American soldiers hit everytime they fire, but 1000 enemies can't hit anything.
Remember, this really happened. Yes, there definitely was an inbalance in firing effectiveness. For the Somalis this was mostly due to the fact that they were using AK47s on full auto (not the most accurate weapon in the world), were not marksmen by any means, and many were just shooting in the general direction of the Americans just to avoid losing face in front of their fellow clan members. Meanwhile the Americans had a lot of firing range practice, were mainly firing single shots, and were fighting for their lives.
Thirdly, most of the combatants didn't really have a fear of death, and it seemed largely irrelevant.
In the book most of the Rangers were afraid. However through training and the realization that if they didn't fight, they would surely die, almost all overcame this. The movie just hints at this though.
The one point where a death actually seemed to matter (though he didn't die) was when a gentleman pulled out a picture of his family.
Guess Cpl. Smith's prolonged death due to a severed artery didn't affect you.
This movie does not have impact as a war movie, except in saying that foolish combat (i.e. being in HMMVs in narrow streets with snipers on all the rooftops) is dumb and probably shouldn't be done.
Yes, it's 'dumb'. But how else were they supposed to get back to their base? Remember APCs weren't an option due to decisions made in Washington.
I truly believe that this movie would have been panned as a sad wannabe in a field of great war movies, but in the current patriotic environment instead it gets kudos.
I disagree, but the only way to really know is to see how its reputation holds up 10 years from now.
I believe the legal reasoning goes something like this: Because DirecTV is not licensed by the Canadian government to broadcast within Canada, they cannot sell their services there even though it's possible to receive their signals. Since no Canadian can legally purchase DirecTV and these signals are 'unauthorized', it's not a crime (or at least not a crime that the courts will take action over) to decrypt them on your own. However if you hack a domestically available satellite service, you will be busted by the Canadian authorities.
Now that I'm back at my office, I checked and actually I'm using GE Chroma 50 (AKA GE Sunshine) bulbs (CRI 91, 5000 Deg.). You can get more information at the GE FAQ. Also there's a nice comparison of different light sources here.
I put full spectrum bulbs in my office several months ago, and so far I've been very happy with them. I have a private office, but unfortunately without any windows so the only light sources are fluorescent lights. I got the full spectrum lights from Home Depot for only about $6 (GE I think). There are some other specialized manufacturers that charge $40+ for their bulbs, but as far as I can tell, they're essentially the same as the ones i got at Home Depot.
The difference is quite amazing - I never realized how sickly yellow the old lights were. The new lights have much more blue in them, and really do seem more like natural sunlight. Now I feel like I have skylights in the ceiling.
I can't tell if changing the lighting improved my performance, but it did make feel more comfortable and alert in my office. My co-workers like to keep their office dim except for their monitors - not me, I find that a dark room strains my eyes and makes me sleepy. I may be an exception since a lot of programmers like a dim room setup, and in our main office the engineering wing has no fluorescent lights on at all. Still I find that I do my best work in a naturally lighted environment. Without windows, full spectrums lights are as close as I can get.
The truth is, 99% of people won't be able to hear a difference between a well-encoded 128kbp MP3 and the original CD. Of the remaining 1%, 99% won't be able to tell the difference anymore if the MP3 is encoded at or above 256kbps.
A slight quibble: according to r3mix.net, c't magazine did a study and found that 90% of people could tell the difference between an mp3 @ 128kbit/s. However at 256 kbits/s, they were indistinguishable, so your overall point is still valid.
I've listened to a couple of songs on both vinyl and on CD's and often the vinyl did *sound* better. However I'm willing to bet that the CD version was a more faithful representation of the performance being recorded - the record only sounded better because it was distorted (either from its mixing and/or from the needle/vinyl interface) in a way that's pleasant to the human ear.
...Something about... ROCK CLIMBING!
... endless ... rock ... climbing. And remember, someone had to edit the scene down to only 45 minutes!
Yes,
a non-american citizen in his own country can't break an american law, whatever the laws in his country.
Actually we can conclude the following:
a non-american citizen in his own country can't break an american law, whatever the laws in his country without facing the risk of arrest when he physically travels to the U.S..
This has been true for many, many years - that's nothing new about it.
I got really sick of fixing the same problems, becuase they didn't learn not to do something the first time.
Why not write up the solutions to the most frequent problems and let them administrate the simple stuff for themselves.
If they're really software engineers, they should be capable of this or else you have deeper problems than you think.
This is brillant!
1) You stuff is too expensive, so I don't want it
2) Most of your stuff is crap
3) Therefore, since I don't want to buy what you are offering, and its no good anyway, I'm going to steal it, since its more convienent.
Therefore, the music business should come up with new infrastructure, marketing plans, etc... to gain someone who likely won't be a customer anyway. I mean, even if music is available for sale, people will still steal, becuase its free.
Not exactly - here's what he was really saying:
1) Your stuff is too expensive, so I don't want it at the current price.
2) Most of your stuff is crap so why not let me buy just the parts I like.
3) If you can fix 1) and 2), put it in a form that I can use everywhere, and make it easy to purchase, I'd love to buy your product.
JP Aerospace "America's OTHER Space Program" is doing this very thing. They used balloons to carry a launch platform and rocket to 26,000 ft where they launched the rocket. Now they're currently working up to being able to launch from 100,000 ft.
If you don't have the original box, jewel case, and receipt, you very probably DON'T have a legal copy to sell.
Even if 99% of software in this form (which mine wasn't) is pirated, it still should not give Microsoft the right to have my auction of non-pirated software pulled. To do this, they had to swear to EBay that they believed my item for auction was infringing on their IP rights. In actual fact, they had no idea whether it was or not, and were just having it yanked as a matter of course. And yes I do believe demanding to see receipts is out of line.
This is just Microsoft's way of stamping out the secondary market of their products.
The reason MS stopped those auctions is because most of them are pirated software. Or it is software licensed to OEM (you cannot separate the software bundled with the hardware) at a much lower price. If it is a shrink wrap package, I don't think you have a problem reselling.
Just because the shrink wrap packaging has been removed doesn't mean that it's pirated. I tried to sell an old personal copy of Office 97 on Ebay, and Microsoft had the auction stopped. And my copy of Office was not a pirated copy - I bought it directly from a store. There is an appeals process where you can get Microsoft to allow the auction to be reinstated. Unfortunately Microsoft wanted me to show them the original receipt (which I don't have anymore). They also demand that when you sell Microsofot software, you must include *all* the original packaging including the box. Basically they stop all non-shrinkwrapped auctions of Microsoft software, and make the seller prove it's legit. Bastard jerks. They deserve all the piracy they get after this.
If you have probable cause that I'm committing some crime (like I bought 5000 bags of fertilizer and 2000 gallons of diesel and 1000 pounds of aluminum powder and 500 pounds of pink dye plus a case of blasting caps)
Ok, I can see why you'd want the fertilizer and diesel (an ANFO bomb) and maybe the aluminum (catalyst?), but why do you need the pink dye?
In normal times the opinion of these 2 avowed members of the ultra conservative christian right would be ridiculed, but at this moment in time they will get wide support in some areas.
I'd hardly call Chuck Schumer an ultra conservative christian right winger. This is really a case of bipartisan stupidity. And frankly, I'm more disappointed in Orrin Hatch as he seemed like one of the more clueful senators when it came to digital issues.
Absolutely right.
If you ever read first-hand accounts of the Marines fighting in the Pacific during WWII, you'll find that they fought under horrendous and appalling conditions and took amazing casualties while still intact as a fighting force. This was only possible because they were mostly volunteers and had an esprit that other units didn't have. While patriotic, most marines were fighting because they wanted to protect their buddies and because they hated the Japanese.
There's no doubt that Afghanistan is a difficult place to fight, and that the Afghanis can be a dangerous foe. However, just as the military is accused of fighting the last war, the media experts are often guilty of analyzing the last war. Vietnam happened almost 30 years ago, and many of the lessons learned have been absorbed by the military long ago. Most of the upper level officers today were lieutenants and captains in Vietnam. I doubt they going to fight the same way using the same tactics as they were ordered to back then.
Furthermore the Afghanis (and especially the Taliban) are not supermen. The Soviets had nearly wiped out or suppressed the Mujahadeen by 1985, when the U.S. and others began providing them stinger missiles and modern arms. Deprived of their air cover, the Soviets were eventually worn down until they were glad to leave the country. By contrast, the Taliban are a relatively new group that came out of Pakistani religious schools and do not completely control the country. They are unpopular in sections of the country, and also relatively untested in battle. In short, these are not your father's mujahadeen.
Back in 1991 right before the ground war began I remember the network experts (including some retired military officers) solemnly declaring that the Gulf War would cost the U.S. thousands in casualties and last for ten years. However, less than 100 hours later the allied forces had achieved a decisive victory with almost no one being injured or killed. Needless to say, I have a great deal of skepticism when it comes to media predictions about a war.
I must not be a real techie then, as I prefer to have lots of light in my office. When I'm not coding, I'm usually reading and editing printed documents, and here low light does not cut it. I find that being in a dim environment not only strains my eyes, but makes me feel a little sleepy and isolated from the outside.
Since I have no windows in my office, I recently added full-spectrum fluorescent lights so I can have a 'skylight' effect, and my office now feels much more open and friendly. Also I haven't noticed any glare problems. Some other guys in the group like to code almost in the dark, and apparently it seems to work for them.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to name a piece of software with a smiley should be strapped to a chair and forced to watch sitcoms for the rest of their life.
A smiley may be a bit much for ordinary writing where there is enough context to make clear what the writer's tone is, but for emails or short internet postings it can help misunderstandings. I've seen whole flame wars break out just because someone misinterpreted someone else's "obviously humorous" comment.
even though I hate microsoft bashers, thats an interesting point. when you build a bridge, you generally support it (no pun), and when it falls it is the designer of the bridges fault, not the car driving over it.
Actually I believe that before construction even begins on a project, a PE (Professional Engineer) has to sign off on the design (thus making himself legally liable in the case of a design failure). Because of this most PEs tend to be conservative in their designs and carry liability insurance just in case.
With software according to the EULA, you're buying the right to use whatever's in the box which may not work at all, may not do what you want, and may even harm your computer. Of course off-the-shelf software is also relatively cheap. There's no way you're going to get someone to accept legal liability for software for just a few hundred dollars.
The US is interested in itself. Nothing more. Why do you think our TV industry (VHS/NTSC) isn't compatible with the rest of the world (PAL) ? Whe6y do you think regional encoding came to be ?
Umm, if you want to bash the U.S., go ahead but get your facts straight. The following countries use NTSC: BAHAMAS, BARBADOS, BERMUDA, BOLIVIA, BURMA, CAMBODIA, CANADA, CHILE, COLOMBIA, COSTA RICA, CUBA, DOMINICAN REP, ECUADOR, EL SALVADOR, GREENLAND, GUAM, GUATEMALA, HONDURAS, JAMAICA, JAPAN, KOREA SOUTH, MEXICO, NETH ANTILLES, NICARAGUA, PANAMA, PERU, PHILIPPINES, PUERTO RICO, ST KITTS, SAMOA, SURINAM, TAIWAN, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO, USA, VENEZUELA
I'd say that includes a lot of the rest of the world. NTSC was developed in the 30's for B&W display. The next version of NTSC was designed for color the early 50's and was constrained by the need to be backwards comaptible with existing NTSC B&W televisions. Meanwhile Europe, with a smaller installed base of B&W TVs, was free to design better (and incompatible) color standards.
So TV standards are really other countries deciding to incompatible with the U.S., not the other way around.
Like so many technologies, the first implementation is not always the best, and the U.S. tends to be one of the first countries to roll out a new technology. This plus the fact that the FCC tends to strongly support backward compatibility in new technologies with older standards, often makes the U.S. appear technologically backwards. On the other hand, in how many other countries would you still be able to use a 50 year old TV set or a 16 year old cell phone?
The DMCA does not have force of law where they are, and the ISP personnel will be glad to tell them to shove up their lawyer's letter.
Apparently they're located in NY, so the DMCA would definately apply. Furthermore, what ISP in their right mind would continue their service (and risk liability) when they are already known to be spammers.
How the hell can Elcomsoft be indicted for breaking a U.S. copyright law when that firm is in RUSSIA!?
Ahh, but if they accept payments from and ship products directly to customers in the U.S., they're doing business in the U.S. and that puts them under the jurisdiction of U.S. copyright laws. Even if they're found guilty, as long as they have no assets here and no employees ever enter the country, it's not clear what the DOJ could ever do about it.
The only reason the NSA and the CIA didn't create carnivore, is because the FBI beat them to it.
Beat them to it?!? Nah, the NSA's had their own version of carnivore for years, and there's no way they're going give away one of their proprietary jewels to the clowns at the FBI. (Technically, any domestic monitoring was probably done by the British Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), but since they share information with the NSA, there's little difference.)