So, the only justification for restrictions on software, or the creation of an artificial scarcity of it (or anything else, for that matter: information in general) is the need to compensate for a natural scarcity -- if I write code for free, I can't earn a traditional living, and so can't affort scarce goods, like food. Writing free code costs me, in other words, and that cost needs to be mitigated.
So, the justification for artificial scarcity is a compensation for natural scarcity: if one can produce something in abundance for themselves, but limit its availability to others, one can avoid seeking other scarce things, through a mechanism of trade.
Allow me to disagree. As far as I understand the difference between what you refer to as Natural Scarcity and Artificial Scarcity is in the cost of reproduction, the former being relatively hard to reproduce and the latter relatively easy. Centuries ago, when most everything was "relatively hard" to reproduce nobody would have thought of Artificial Scarcity as it exists today. Several reasons would have contributed to this including slow development, no advanced production technologies, limited flow of information, etc. Moreover, there was almost no way to define, introduce, and enforce any restriction that would resemble anything like the regulations that create "Artificial Scarcity" today.
With the advance of technology, and improvements in production and information flow two critical things happened: (1) the cost of reproduction went down immeasurably, and (2) it became possible to gain more control of how products being produced are distributed. In many cases the cost of reproduction is less than the cost of producing the original product. The laws and regulations introduced to maintain the balance of the past was to give the producer of the original product more incentive to innovate and produce with the promise that said producer would also have control of the distribution and any reproduction of the product for a limited period of time. The ones that come under scrutiny on/. are Patent and Copyright laws. These laws were introduced with the purpose to contribute to "public good", and were solely enacted as a response to (1) above.
Heh, yeah right!! It is my opinion that these regulations were (1) applied as a short term fix, (2) not properly thought out and were only reactions to advancement and development, and (3) definitely not considered as basis for undesired effects in the future. In a not-so-sugarcoded version, and more related to how these regulations advanced and mutated into today's life, these laws were introduced to ease the creation of a control-and-profit structure placing too much power in the hands of the controller (not even creator or original producer). These laws, when introduced, assumed that any type of production covered by them would be substantially more expensive than the reproduction of the same; so much that it would discourage inventors to pursue their inventions as not profitable. And, in response to this, give 10, 100, or 1000 times more power to the inventor or controller to control all reproduction and distribution of the product. Given this power, and the system that allows more powerful to have more effect on the system, the patent and copyright laws cover a very broad range of production and activities, and, the idea of the power being limited in time is not so "limited" anymore. One can apply for a patent term of 20 (or whatever the ridiculous number) or years and extend it several times. And the "limited" in copyright? Copyright is virtually unlimited in time today.
This, combined with exponential advancement in technology, and such a broad coverage of these regulations not only deems them unreasonable but also unnecessary and hindering. It seems like the lower the cost of reproduction, the more power is awarded to the controllers. Let's see - the cost of reproduction of digital content is extremely low, close to 0. What was done to correct this? Software licensing. As you understand, licensing is overly more restrictive than simple copyright, we all know - anything short of taking away the first born son can be put into license agreement. Since now music, movies, and other similar content is entering the digital content what is done to grant more power to the powerful? DMCA and future laws "advancing" this idea (wait till DRM catches on). It has come to a point today that these laws and regulations are not only protecting the producer of the original product, but giving way too much power to the controllers to control and regulate their products for virtually unlimited period of time for the sole purpose of keeping the profit stream. In effect, now these controllers are in charge of innovation and advancement. And, herein lies the problem with this system as first introduced.
As you suggest, limiting the time and applying a short-term fix to this trend is not a solution to what's fundamentally flawed and will become more unusable, put more "innovation" into these powerful controllers' hands, and have negative effect on the "public good". If you were designing the system from scratch to balance the power you wouldn't go with this system knowing what you know today. But then again, what to do now? I don't know - pay me and I'll think about it! I just use GPLed and free software for now.
Re:Integrating protheses in the neural loop
on
Think And Click
·
· Score: 1
It's not the ability to send email that is important here. It's the possibility of having protheses and artificial capacities integrated in the neural feedback loop. Prothesic legs that 1) you can contol by thought instead of having to provide commands, and 2) send back balance information, now that would be a revolution.
I am not very scientific in this but I think this could have a very far-reaching effect. If I have an artificial leg and I just thought of kicking yer ass, will the leg kick you? If yes, could I defend myself from pushing you into a moving car by arguing that I didn't really want to do it, I just thought about it, and I can't control my thoughts like my actions?
Maybe the system should provide a Javascript pop-up to OK/Cancel the thought, or even better a mandatory preview button to estimate the result before posting it. Wait a minute... what was I talking about?
Interested in this new "development" I tried the following method to accept or reject the theory:
1. I unplugged a lamp from my desk and put it on top of the dishwasher;
2. Opened the dishwasher, left part of the lamp power cable hanging down;
3. Ran couple of short wires from 2 new Duracell 9V batteries to inside of the dishwasher;
4. Closed and locked the dishwasher making sure all 3 wires/cables got in while the lamp and batteries stayed out;
5. Put the lamp switch on the ON position;
6. Ran the dishwasher on a short wash setting.
The expected result (if the Jasker theory were true) was that
dishwasher cycle would complete
the lamp would be lit during the dishwasher operation
the batteries wouldn't lose any power.
Actual resutls from the test:
dishwasher cycle ran as expected
light bulb in the lamp remained off
batteries didn't lose any power
From these results I conclude that perpetual motion is possible as demonstrated by my dishwasher; however, it doesn't generate excess power/electricity.
Do you really need an open-source license or you just want your book to be free?
You can either completely give up your copyright as the writer of the work (why would you do that?) or use what GNU recommends - free documentation license FDL to make sure you get proper credit, retain some rights, give others rights to modify, redistribute, etc., etc.
It has nothing to do with the internet, or geeks, or nerds, or whatever you choose to call yourself. It has everything to do with a rise in the number of cafes in a bad area, and the consequential rise in gang activity at those cafes.
So Instead of controlling the crime which is already a problem in these areas (not only Internet cafes), let's impose restrictions on legitimate business activities. Also, the article only mentions parking lots of these establishments and somehow tries to incorporate that with juveniles playing violent games on the Internet.
From the article:
The City Council... placed a 45-day moratorium Tuesday on the opening of any more of the establishments [cyber cafes]... The ordinance called for the issue to be reviewed again in 45 days, after which time the council could extend the moratorium for the rest of the year.
No more new cyber cafe businesses in 2002!
The council also tightened rules aimed at keeping juveniles out of the cafes on school nights... One of the new restrictions will be that minors not accompanied by a parent or legal guardian may only stay at the cafes until 8 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays. Fridays and Saturdays they can stay unaccompanied until 10 p.m., city spokeswoman Kathy Moore said.
In other words - kids! Be polite, rest during weekdays, do your killings on weekends please.
The [cyber] cafes are a fast-growing phenomenon in Southern California's suburbs... "The problem is, these places were going into operation faster than we could get a handle on them," City Manager George Tindall has said.
We have a new approach - instead of controlling crime (something we haven't done in a long while) we can control and suppress the business development in the city.
Yeah, that's a great way guys - since when has restricting businesses has helped the crime numbers in this way? It is my belief and many others' that business development and new jobs are more likely to reduce crime than this kind of regulation.
4. Flexible variable bitrate encoding.
5. Bitrate management - great for streaming + quality.
6. Flexible design for future improvements.
7. Headers that can actually store some info; I learn to hate ID3 tags.
Disadvantages so far:
1. No 1.0 version yet, RC3.
2. No hardware support; need to have an Ogg Player.
On a different note, some commercial game makers were interested in Vorbis, no idea where that stands.
However, if commercial CDs suddenly become a big pain in the arse, you can bet your booty that alternatives will spring up.
I am not so sure that this will be the case. Keep in mind that these CDs will play on most CD players and most computers. Most people who can't play the copy-protected CDs may end up blaming their hardware and software; "since my PC doesn't play this, and my neighbor's Windows box does, my PC is outdated and sucks big time", or "my CD player is not completely compatible, since Joey-boy's CD player plays it just fine."
A lot of people have more than one CD player. If it doesn't play in one, it will most likely play in the other, again supporting the thought that it must be their crappy hardware that needs changing, or for that matter software that "sucks".
Even most people that actually investigate and find out it is because of the copy-protection that the CD doesn't play aren't likely to return the CD either, just use a compatible CD player or get a new one to make sure it plays all future copy-protected CDs.
I am guessing only very small percentage of people will actually return the CD or try to find a crack for ripping. And, I think that's what UMG expects too judging from the the content on the site.
My thought is it's easier to put a cell phone on a game boy rather than game boy on a cell phone.
The problem before the masses adopt such a gaming system, as I see it, will stay as long as the architectures and protocols used remain proprietary.
On top of that the (gaming) network should be open between all providers. Imagine if you couldn't play a multiplayer game with your friend because you have a Verizon DSL and he has Cox cable.
"Hey, Qrlkustn... dude look what I got - some alien pr0n!"
On another note, it was recently discovered that when Hilary Rosen found out about this message, she sent one from RIAA soon thereafter. The message contained a complete copy of the DMCA and a legal warning that any attempt to "crack" the message would be in violation of the law and would be strictly prosecuted. Tomorrow, Ms Rosen plans to argue in front of the House judiciary committee that such attempts to send hidden messages to aliens are outside of RIAA's direct control and, could therefore potentially be used as tools for illegal activities such as transferring copyrighted content to aliens.
I'm so tired of having to decide which featureset I want to use today. For C++ development I use Kdevelop, because of the nice C++ features like picklists for virtual functions. However I can't stand KDE's tendency to map its' own colors onto my X applications, nor can I take it desktop switching mode, so for casual web browsing I restart in Gnome.... The problem with choice is that it requires you to gain knowledge in order to make an informed decision. To gain knowledge you have to spend time learning. When I pick up a lab instrument I don't want to spend time learning how to use it's desktop; I don't freaking care how it works. I want to use the instrument.
I agree, I, for one, am confused and pissed off with all these car models that are available on the market. I like Honda Accord's panel setup, but I prefer Audi engine over Honda's; but then again, when I want a comfortable seat nothing beats Lexus. But when I go to the beach I feel like having a convertible Boxster. So I bought all of the above cars and am extremely tired by having to decide which featureset I want today. Besides, I had to learn how to operate and adjust seat and other configurations in each car. I wish they just got rid of all the cars and just left one model.
I just don't believe this post got a 5 insightful.
They're paying you the money they've made on previous products. And yes, me pirating M$ software today will affect the job prospect of M$ programmers in the near future.
Actually, they are paying you based on how much value they think you will add to the product or service they provide. How much they pay you is determined by the market rate for your job and your qualifications. This has little to do with software piracy. The way that software piracy affects the industry in general is through profitability. Obviously, the more profitable they are, the more people they employ, the more markets they penetrate, the more bonuses they pay to top management and please shareholders.
Just because they are more profitable doesn't necessarily mean that you, the programmer, will get paid more; you will only get paid more if the demand and supply in your area of qualifications changes in such way that the market rate for it goes up.
One more good feature of Konqueror is that it allows you to configure the browser to use Javascript on selected sites, just like cookie management in Netscape 6 and Konqueror.
Imagine, releasing their 7.0 a week before KDE2 final.
SuSE 7 was made available on July 31. And today is what - October 23? I'd shoot for more than one week, let's say... oh a little under 3 months?
You realize what the problem is, don't you? All the desktop users who aren't UNIX gurus (you know, the guys still running the stock kernel) will be using RC1 (or whatever KDE2 Suse comes with) for the rest of their lives. I don't care what all the blowhard UNIX gurus say, KDE is too hard to install.
Actually, YaST lets you update any packages that are made available on SuSE's FTP site, including KDE. Now, I am sure there will be a delay between when KDE2 final is released and the update made available on SuSE's FTP site but nobody will be stuck with RC1 for the rest of their lives as you claim.
The central point of a journaling file system is that in exhange for a small hit in performance, file integrity is assured by an ingenious mechanism...
I hope this was not meant to imply that ReiserFS is slower than Ext2fs. Here are the ReiserFS benchmarks showing how it beats Ext2fs in virtually every category tested, a lot of times pretty convincingly. Also, I found Hans Reiser's Future Vision a pretty interesting read too.
How about if I make DC sign an EULA that says "if you lose positive control of this information (last name, first name, address) then you owe me $10K for every piece of junk mail I get as a result"
No, you don't have to make them sign it, agree to it, or even let them know that such terms exist. As with their EULA, you can just print out your own terms, make sure you have it in your pocket when you get the scanner, and then assume that since they gave you the scanner, they automatically agreed to those terms.
As a second option, if you already have a scanner but forgot to define your terms at the time of transaction, you can just e-mail them a link to a downloadable version. Also, make sure they are in a linux executable all in binary format. Let them figure out how they want to run it, whether to accept it, etc.
IANAL, but aparently that's all it takes to make an agreement nowadays.
2. Your logic has a flaw. Posting bomb making instructions, credit card numbers, etc. is illegal; most will agree on that. But many will argue that such distribution of songs is not. At least it hasn't been proven yet. There are legal, fair uses to copyrighted material, and other laws that will be tried in court. You are assuming that this case has already been decided against Napster and equating it with other criminal offenses.
- will Outlook (or WinMe) come with this "innovative" JIT compiler?
- will it be within the same "security" model as VBScript and WSH?
- what are the C# file extensions again?
Slashdot Mirror
So, the only justification for restrictions on software, or the creation of an artificial scarcity of it (or anything else, for that matter: information in general) is the need to compensate for a natural scarcity -- if I write code for free, I can't earn a traditional living, and so can't affort scarce goods, like food. Writing free code costs me, in other words, and that cost needs to be mitigated.
/. are Patent and Copyright laws. These laws were introduced with the purpose to contribute to "public good", and were solely enacted as a response to (1) above.
So, the justification for artificial scarcity is a compensation for natural scarcity: if one can produce something in abundance for themselves, but limit its availability to others, one can avoid seeking other scarce things, through a mechanism of trade.
Allow me to disagree. As far as I understand the difference between what you refer to as Natural Scarcity and Artificial Scarcity is in the cost of reproduction, the former being relatively hard to reproduce and the latter relatively easy. Centuries ago, when most everything was "relatively hard" to reproduce nobody would have thought of Artificial Scarcity as it exists today. Several reasons would have contributed to this including slow development, no advanced production technologies, limited flow of information, etc. Moreover, there was almost no way to define, introduce, and enforce any restriction that would resemble anything like the regulations that create "Artificial Scarcity" today.
With the advance of technology, and improvements in production and information flow two critical things happened: (1) the cost of reproduction went down immeasurably, and (2) it became possible to gain more control of how products being produced are distributed. In many cases the cost of reproduction is less than the cost of producing the original product. The laws and regulations introduced to maintain the balance of the past was to give the producer of the original product more incentive to innovate and produce with the promise that said producer would also have control of the distribution and any reproduction of the product for a limited period of time. The ones that come under scrutiny on
Heh, yeah right!! It is my opinion that these regulations were (1) applied as a short term fix, (2) not properly thought out and were only reactions to advancement and development, and (3) definitely not considered as basis for undesired effects in the future. In a not-so-sugarcoded version, and more related to how these regulations advanced and mutated into today's life, these laws were introduced to ease the creation of a control-and-profit structure placing too much power in the hands of the controller (not even creator or original producer). These laws, when introduced, assumed that any type of production covered by them would be substantially more expensive than the reproduction of the same; so much that it would discourage inventors to pursue their inventions as not profitable. And, in response to this, give 10, 100, or 1000 times more power to the inventor or controller to control all reproduction and distribution of the product. Given this power, and the system that allows more powerful to have more effect on the system, the patent and copyright laws cover a very broad range of production and activities, and, the idea of the power being limited in time is not so "limited" anymore. One can apply for a patent term of 20 (or whatever the ridiculous number) or years and extend it several times. And the "limited" in copyright? Copyright is virtually unlimited in time today.
This, combined with exponential advancement in technology, and such a broad coverage of these regulations not only deems them unreasonable but also unnecessary and hindering. It seems like the lower the cost of reproduction, the more power is awarded to the controllers. Let's see - the cost of reproduction of digital content is extremely low, close to 0. What was done to correct this? Software licensing. As you understand, licensing is overly more restrictive than simple copyright, we all know - anything short of taking away the first born son can be put into license agreement. Since now music, movies, and other similar content is entering the digital content what is done to grant more power to the powerful? DMCA and future laws "advancing" this idea (wait till DRM catches on). It has come to a point today that these laws and regulations are not only protecting the producer of the original product, but giving way too much power to the controllers to control and regulate their products for virtually unlimited period of time for the sole purpose of keeping the profit stream. In effect, now these controllers are in charge of innovation and advancement. And, herein lies the problem with this system as first introduced.
As you suggest, limiting the time and applying a short-term fix to this trend is not a solution to what's fundamentally flawed and will become more unusable, put more "innovation" into these powerful controllers' hands, and have negative effect on the "public good". If you were designing the system from scratch to balance the power you wouldn't go with this system knowing what you know today. But then again, what to do now? I don't know - pay me and I'll think about it! I just use GPLed and free software for now.
It's not the ability to send email that is important here. It's the possibility of having protheses and artificial capacities integrated in the neural feedback loop. Prothesic legs that 1) you can contol by thought instead of having to provide commands, and 2) send back balance information, now that would be a revolution.
I am not very scientific in this but I think this could have a very far-reaching effect. If I have an artificial leg and I just thought of kicking yer ass, will the leg kick you? If yes, could I defend myself from pushing you into a moving car by arguing that I didn't really want to do it, I just thought about it, and I can't control my thoughts like my actions?
Maybe the system should provide a Javascript pop-up to OK/Cancel the thought, or even better a mandatory preview button to estimate the result before posting it. Wait a minute... what was I talking about?
The FTC invites consumers to forward any deceptive e-mail they receive to: uce@ftc.gov
Does this mean we can stop using bgates@microsoft.com as a fake e-mail address?
1. I unplugged a lamp from my desk and put it on top of the dishwasher;
2. Opened the dishwasher, left part of the lamp power cable hanging down;
3. Ran couple of short wires from 2 new Duracell 9V batteries to inside of the dishwasher;
4. Closed and locked the dishwasher making sure all 3 wires/cables got in while the lamp and batteries stayed out;
5. Put the lamp switch on the ON position;
6. Ran the dishwasher on a short wash setting.
The expected result (if the Jasker theory were true) was that
Actual resutls from the test:
From these results I conclude that perpetual motion is possible as demonstrated by my dishwasher; however, it doesn't generate excess power/electricity.
Do you really need an open-source license or you just want your book to be free?
You can either completely give up your copyright as the writer of the work (why would you do that?) or use what GNU recommends - free documentation license FDL to make sure you get proper credit, retain some rights, give others rights to modify, redistribute, etc., etc.
It has nothing to do with the internet, or geeks, or nerds, or whatever you choose to call yourself. It has everything to do with a rise in the number of cafes in a bad area, and the consequential rise in gang activity at those cafes.
So Instead of controlling the crime which is already a problem in these areas (not only Internet cafes), let's impose restrictions on legitimate business activities. Also, the article only mentions parking lots of these establishments and somehow tries to incorporate that with juveniles playing violent games on the Internet.
From the article:
The City Council... placed a 45-day moratorium Tuesday on the opening of any more of the establishments [cyber cafes]... The ordinance called for the issue to be reviewed again in 45 days, after which time the council could extend the moratorium for the rest of the year.
No more new cyber cafe businesses in 2002!
The council also tightened rules aimed at keeping juveniles out of the cafes on school nights... One of the new restrictions will be that minors not accompanied by a parent or legal guardian may only stay at the cafes until 8 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays. Fridays and Saturdays they can stay unaccompanied until 10 p.m., city spokeswoman Kathy Moore said.
In other words - kids! Be polite, rest during weekdays, do your killings on weekends please.
The [cyber] cafes are a fast-growing phenomenon in Southern California's suburbs... "The problem is, these places were going into operation faster than we could get a handle on them," City Manager George Tindall has said.
We have a new approach - instead of controlling crime (something we haven't done in a long while) we can control and suppress the business development in the city.
Yeah, that's a great way guys - since when has restricting businesses has helped the crime numbers in this way? It is my belief and many others' that business development and new jobs are more likely to reduce crime than this kind of regulation.
4. Flexible variable bitrate encoding.
5. Bitrate management - great for streaming + quality.
6. Flexible design for future improvements.
7. Headers that can actually store some info; I learn to hate ID3 tags.
Disadvantages so far:
1. No 1.0 version yet, RC3.
2. No hardware support; need to have an Ogg Player.
On a different note, some commercial game makers were interested in Vorbis, no idea where that stands.
However, if commercial CDs suddenly become a big pain in the arse, you can bet your booty that alternatives will spring up.
I am not so sure that this will be the case. Keep in mind that these CDs will play on most CD players and most computers. Most people who can't play the copy-protected CDs may end up blaming their hardware and software; "since my PC doesn't play this, and my neighbor's Windows box does, my PC is outdated and sucks big time", or "my CD player is not completely compatible, since Joey-boy's CD player plays it just fine."
A lot of people have more than one CD player. If it doesn't play in one, it will most likely play in the other, again supporting the thought that it must be their crappy hardware that needs changing, or for that matter software that "sucks".
Even most people that actually investigate and find out it is because of the copy-protection that the CD doesn't play aren't likely to return the CD either, just use a compatible CD player or get a new one to make sure it plays all future copy-protected CDs.
I am guessing only very small percentage of people will actually return the CD or try to find a crack for ripping. And, I think that's what UMG expects too judging from the the content on the site.
My thought is it's easier to put a cell phone on a game boy rather than game boy on a cell phone.
The problem before the masses adopt such a gaming system, as I see it, will stay as long as the architectures and protocols used remain proprietary.
On top of that the (gaming) network should be open between all providers. Imagine if you couldn't play a multiplayer game with your friend because you have a Verizon DSL and he has Cox cable.
"Hey, Qrlkustn... dude look what I got - some alien pr0n!"
On another note, it was recently discovered that when Hilary Rosen found out about this message, she sent one from RIAA soon thereafter. The message contained a complete copy of the DMCA and a legal warning that any attempt to "crack" the message would be in violation of the law and would be strictly prosecuted. Tomorrow, Ms Rosen plans to argue in front of the House judiciary committee that such attempts to send hidden messages to aliens are outside of RIAA's direct control and, could therefore potentially be used as tools for illegal activities such as transferring copyrighted content to aliens.
I'm so tired of having to decide which featureset I want to use today. For C++ development I use Kdevelop, because of the nice C++ features like picklists for virtual functions. However I can't stand KDE's tendency to map its' own colors onto my X applications, nor can I take it desktop switching mode, so for casual web browsing I restart in Gnome. ... The problem with choice is that it requires you to gain knowledge in order to make an informed decision. To gain knowledge you have to spend time learning. When I pick up a lab instrument I don't want to spend time learning how to use it's desktop; I don't freaking care how it works. I want to use the instrument.
I agree, I, for one, am confused and pissed off with all these car models that are available on the market. I like Honda Accord's panel setup, but I prefer Audi engine over Honda's; but then again, when I want a comfortable seat nothing beats Lexus. But when I go to the beach I feel like having a convertible Boxster. So I bought all of the above cars and am extremely tired by having to decide which featureset I want today. Besides, I had to learn how to operate and adjust seat and other configurations in each car. I wish they just got rid of all the cars and just left one model.
I just don't believe this post got a 5 insightful.
They're paying you the money they've made on previous products. And yes, me pirating M$ software today will affect the job prospect of M$ programmers in the near future.
Actually, they are paying you based on how much value they think you will add to the product or service they provide. How much they pay you is determined by the market rate for your job and your qualifications. This has little to do with software piracy. The way that software piracy affects the industry in general is through profitability. Obviously, the more profitable they are, the more people they employ, the more markets they penetrate, the more bonuses they pay to top management and please shareholders.
Just because they are more profitable doesn't necessarily mean that you, the programmer, will get paid more; you will only get paid more if the demand and supply in your area of qualifications changes in such way that the market rate for it goes up.
One more good feature of Konqueror is that it allows you to configure the browser to use Javascript on selected sites, just like cookie management in Netscape 6 and Konqueror.
You've got to be kidding:
Imagine, releasing their 7.0 a week before KDE2 final.
SuSE 7 was made available on July 31. And today is what - October 23? I'd shoot for more than one week, let's say... oh a little under 3 months?
You realize what the problem is, don't you? All the desktop users who aren't UNIX gurus (you know, the guys still running the stock kernel) will be using RC1 (or whatever KDE2 Suse comes with) for the rest of their lives. I don't care what all the blowhard UNIX gurus say, KDE is too hard to install.
Actually, YaST lets you update any packages that are made available on SuSE's FTP site, including KDE. Now, I am sure there will be a delay between when KDE2 final is released and the update made available on SuSE's FTP site but nobody will be stuck with RC1 for the rest of their lives as you claim.
The central point of a journaling file system is that in exhange for a small hit in performance, file integrity is assured by an ingenious mechanism...
I hope this was not meant to imply that ReiserFS is slower than Ext2fs. Here are the ReiserFS benchmarks showing how it beats Ext2fs in virtually every category tested, a lot of times pretty convincingly. Also, I found Hans Reiser's Future Vision a pretty interesting read too.
How about if I make DC sign an EULA that says "if you lose positive control of this information (last name, first name, address) then you owe me $10K for every piece of junk mail I get as a result"
No, you don't have to make them sign it, agree to it, or even let them know that such terms exist. As with their EULA, you can just print out your own terms, make sure you have it in your pocket when you get the scanner, and then assume that since they gave you the scanner, they automatically agreed to those terms.
As a second option, if you already have a scanner but forgot to define your terms at the time of transaction, you can just e-mail them a link to a downloadable version. Also, make sure they are in a linux executable all in binary format. Let them figure out how they want to run it, whether to accept it, etc.
IANAL, but aparently that's all it takes to make an agreement nowadays.
Why would Microsoft need MainWin? I thought they'd just add the IE code to kernel.
can I play MP3s on one of these things?
One of the commandments of the Web has been violated:
Thou shalt not double-click on submit buttons.
Although in the new testament thy server-side code can trap and resolve this quite easily.
Just couple of points I thought I'd share:
1. Napster is not shut down.
2. Your logic has a flaw. Posting bomb making instructions, credit card numbers, etc. is illegal; most will agree on that. But many will argue that such distribution of songs is not. At least it hasn't been proven yet. There are legal, fair uses to copyrighted material, and other laws that will be tried in court. You are assuming that this case has already been decided against Napster and equating it with other criminal offenses.
Assumptions are your worst enemy.
The questions I would have asked Hejlsberg:
- will Outlook (or WinMe) come with this "innovative" JIT compiler?
- will it be within the same "security" model as VBScript and WSH?
- what are the C# file extensions again?
I hear the next version of the software will have a "sue" button for added convenience.