Other than for big ticket items like a mortgage or a car loan, don't use credit or debit cards
I dunno, I've had excellent credit for years and my credit limit is still far short of being able to put a mortgage or car loan on plastic. Big-ticket items ought to be financed by signing a contract with a financing agency, not by paying down 12% to a credit card company.
the cashless society also makes tracking all your habits much easier for the IRS, the FBI, CIA, DARPA, or any other acronym you choose.
Having a paper trail can also prove your innocence. Accused of a murder? Sorry, you were on vacation three states away at the time -- and you have the credit card receipt from the gas station to prove it.
If this is true, how come musicians routinely sign contracts with record companies in which it is stipulated that they assign the copyright for their music over to the record company?
Copyright law does allow the creator of a work to assign copyright to another party, but couldn't artists argue that a contract that compelled them to do so is unlawful?
Given the choices that have been made in recent years, one could argue that there currently is no justice system.
Only if one's only sources for news about what's happening in the judicial system are Slashdot and cable news stations.
Justice IS actually served, a thousand times over every day, in courtrooms everywhere. You don't hear about those cases though because it's only news when justice IS NOT served.
The system mostly works, and error conditions are normally trapped when they do occur.
Don't worry, the media doesn't care (outside of Wired and TechTV, at least).
Worst: A bad result might make thousands of talented people loose faith in justice.
And spelling!
The actual evil has been done in the last several decades in the slow, generalised erosion of morals... final defeat would be ugly, even the civil disobedience struggle itself would be honourable but containing scenes of unthinkable ugliness, stupidity and cruelty.
I don't know what you're talking about. People and governments have always been as mean and evil as they are today. We're not heading towards End Times, and even if we were the final omen would not be the courts striking down the GPL.
Are you by any chance wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt right now?
If that's true, there's going to be a mob of SCO shareholders with torches and pitchforks and personal lawyers, out for SCO executives' blood. Intentionally losing a multi-million dollar lawsuit is not exactly in the corporation's best interest.
It doesn't matter that it's not true -- it'll look true enough to people.
It'll only look true to people who have no idea who SCO is, and therefore wouldn't feel sorry for SCO if they fell to the Open Source Movement.
By tracking click thru data and calculating how long a user stayed at a clicked result before hitting the back button or otherwise returning to google... good insights can be learned.
True, but remember this: hitting the back button on a browser often doesn't generate a new HTTP request for the page you're returning to--normally the browser will just re-draw the cached version of the document that it already retrieved.
Thus, to the Google session tracker, it will look like you followed the link and never came back to the search results -- therefore, the link was a good result.
but at least here/.ers will die by the hundreds to defend you.
No they won't. They'll post messages of support to Slashdot, encourage each other to donate to the EFF on your behalf but not donate themselves, and eventually the thread will devolve into a flamewar about the nature of intellectual property.
Haven't I read all these comments before? Oh, that's right, it was on every other Slashdot story about patents.
It amazes me that John Q. Slashdot believes he knows more about whether a patent is legitimate, non-obvious, applicable, etc. than professional Patent Examiners. How many of you have actually ever read the relevant U.S. Codes?
Assembly
on
Assembly '03
·
· Score: 3, Informative
The Assembly convo may not be the biggest LAN party, or the best, but it's certainly one of the most historically significant. The IBM demoscene didn't really reach maturity until Future Crew released "Unreal" at ASM'92.
Has it really been ten years since Second Reality? Oy, I got old somehow.
The problem with this is that people are already paying for the content; they pay for net access
Not the same thing. Unless a website is run by the same company that runs the ISP, the content provider doesn't see a cent from the user.
Users eventually will accept having to pay for access and content separately, just as your cable bill gets you 50 channels but HBO and pay-per-view still cost extra.
The trick will be to use micropayments and other strategies so that the transition from 'free' to "costs a little" to "costs just enough to cover content providers' expenses" to "costs enough to turn a profit" is virtually seamless.
Of course, you'll know all too well, when the CIA goons come crashing through the front door....which can't happen because the CIA doesn't have "goons".
Probable view: If they show the code, it would be out of the kernel in 4 hours, and re-written in a day, their case would collapse.
SCO doesn't need to prove that the kernel CURRENTLY contains infringing code, they just need to prove that the kernel DID contain infringing code at one time. I'd bet with 100% certainty SCO's lawyers had a few copies of the kernel code grabbed out of CVS for posterity before filing suit...
With Photoshop working on Linux there is little reason for a lot of people to stay with windows.
A few years ago, this argument was "With Photoshop working on Windows there is little reason for a lot of people to stay with Mac," and yet Apple's been pretty steady at their 3% market share or whatever it is they have.
Average Person does not think "I wish I could switch to a different OS, if only I could do exactly what I'm doing now." People tend to stick with what they're familiar with, unless there's a MAJOR incentive to switch.
[The author] happens to belong to one of the less reputable media outles (aka the plagarized and false stories coming from the ny times).
Um, what.
Though the Jayson Blair and related scandals gave the Old Gray Lady a black eye, it's absurd to claim that the New York Times is now "one of the less reputable media outle[t]s." There are only a handful of newspapers in the WORLD with the deserved reputation for excellence that the Times has.
Slashdot Mirror
Other than for big ticket items like a mortgage or a car loan, don't use credit or debit cards
I dunno, I've had excellent credit for years and my credit limit is still far short of being able to put a mortgage or car loan on plastic. Big-ticket items ought to be financed by signing a contract with a financing agency, not by paying down 12% to a credit card company.
the cashless society also makes tracking all your habits much easier for the IRS, the FBI, CIA, DARPA, or any other acronym you choose.
Having a paper trail can also prove your innocence. Accused of a murder? Sorry, you were on vacation three states away at the time -- and you have the credit card receipt from the gas station to prove it.
You had the criminal's home adress from the get-go (that he used it at all suggests he really was stupid or on drugs).
Tell me again why you and Mr. Shotgun didn't take a little roadtrip over there to have a chat with him?
I'm not saying you should have killed him, just threatened him. You said it yourself, the police and postal inspectors weren't getting the job done.
Patents on the simple idea of plug-ins and applets?
Well, sure, any patented idea seems obvious when you oversimplify it!
The Hindsight Effect often also applies.
Can there really be any doubt in where the decisions made in our justice system come from? Big corporations, the RIAA, Disney, Oil Companies.
Why do you say that?
I don't mean "what incidents suggest to you this might be the case", but rather "what proof do you have that this IS the case".
Copyright is stronger than any contract in US law
If this is true, how come musicians routinely sign contracts with record companies in which it is stipulated that they assign the copyright for their music over to the record company?
Copyright law does allow the creator of a work to assign copyright to another party, but couldn't artists argue that a contract that compelled them to do so is unlawful?
Given the choices that have been made in recent years, one could argue that there currently is no justice system.
Only if one's only sources for news about what's happening in the judicial system are Slashdot and cable news stations.
Justice IS actually served, a thousand times over every day, in courtrooms everywhere. You don't hear about those cases though because it's only news when justice IS NOT served.
The system mostly works, and error conditions are normally trapped when they do occur.
Bad:
Media circus. 'nough said.
Don't worry, the media doesn't care (outside of Wired and TechTV, at least).
Worst:
A bad result might make thousands of talented people loose faith in justice.
And spelling!
The actual evil has been done in the last several decades in the slow, generalised erosion of morals... final defeat would be ugly, even the civil disobedience struggle itself would be honourable but containing scenes of unthinkable ugliness, stupidity and cruelty.
I don't know what you're talking about. People and governments have always been as mean and evil as they are today. We're not heading towards End Times, and even if we were the final omen would not be the courts striking down the GPL.
Are you by any chance wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt right now?
the whole idea is for SCO to lose.
If that's true, there's going to be a mob of SCO shareholders with torches and pitchforks and personal lawyers, out for SCO executives' blood. Intentionally losing a multi-million dollar lawsuit is not exactly in the corporation's best interest.
It doesn't matter that it's not true -- it'll look true enough to people.
It'll only look true to people who have no idea who SCO is, and therefore wouldn't feel sorry for SCO if they fell to the Open Source Movement.
Even Farkers know that SCO is the bad guy here.
By tracking click thru data and calculating how long a user stayed at a clicked result before hitting the back button or otherwise returning to google... good insights can be learned.
True, but remember this: hitting the back button on a browser often doesn't generate a new HTTP request for the page you're returning to--normally the browser will just re-draw the cached version of the document that it already retrieved.
Thus, to the Google session tracker, it will look like you followed the link and never came back to the search results -- therefore, the link was a good result.
1. KDE/Gnome aren't similar enough to MS Windows
2. KDE/Gnome are too similar to MS Windows
This is easy. Go to Egypt, and then go down the hole at the far left side of the level. Hiryu will find the Aqua Boots there. ...Sorry, NES flashback.
but at least here /.ers will die by the hundreds to defend you.
No they won't. They'll post messages of support to Slashdot, encourage each other to donate to the EFF on your behalf but not donate themselves, and eventually the thread will devolve into a flamewar about the nature of intellectual property.
Haven't I read all these comments before? Oh, that's right, it was on every other Slashdot story about patents.
It amazes me that John Q. Slashdot believes he knows more about whether a patent is legitimate, non-obvious, applicable, etc. than professional Patent Examiners. How many of you have actually ever read the relevant U.S. Codes?
The Assembly convo may not be the biggest LAN party, or the best, but it's certainly one of the most historically significant. The IBM demoscene didn't really reach maturity until Future Crew released "Unreal" at ASM'92.
Has it really been ten years since Second Reality? Oy, I got old somehow.
And then there's this C64 port of Second Reality. Wow.
The problem with this is that people are already paying for the content; they pay for net access
Not the same thing. Unless a website is run by the same company that runs the ISP, the content provider doesn't see a cent from the user.
Users eventually will accept having to pay for access and content separately, just as your cable bill gets you 50 channels but HBO and pay-per-view still cost extra.
The trick will be to use micropayments and other strategies so that the transition from 'free' to "costs a little" to "costs just enough to cover content providers' expenses" to "costs enough to turn a profit" is virtually seamless.
We have no idea what kind of threats were made against that guy before his "confession" was extracted.
You're proposing that the confession was illicitly obtained under duress?
The Conspiracy Theory sprouts!
Of course, you'll know all too well, when the CIA goons come crashing through the front door. ...which can't happen because the CIA doesn't have "goons".
But thanks anyway for the paranoia.
Probable view: If they show the code, it would be out of the kernel in 4 hours, and re-written in a day, their case would collapse.
SCO doesn't need to prove that the kernel CURRENTLY contains infringing code, they just need to prove that the kernel DID contain infringing code at one time. I'd bet with 100% certainty SCO's lawyers had a few copies of the kernel code grabbed out of CVS for posterity before filing suit...
If SCO is yet to prove it's case, why is it possible for it to keep yelling everyday?
The First Amendment, obviously.
Think about it. If major corporations are forced to switch away from linux, Solaris is the next viable product.
What about *BSD?
Oh, that's right, I think I heard something somewhere about it being dead...
If you take a job at RIM after this ruling, there's no doubt that at the very least you're going to get bent over...
Seeing the days of Corel Wordperfect referred to as "way back", I suddenly feal really REALLY old. And I'm only in my mid-20's!
With Photoshop working on Linux there is little reason for a lot of people to stay with windows.
A few years ago, this argument was "With Photoshop working on Windows there is little reason for a lot of people to stay with Mac," and yet Apple's been pretty steady at their 3% market share or whatever it is they have.
Average Person does not think "I wish I could switch to a different OS, if only I could do exactly what I'm doing now." People tend to stick with what they're familiar with, unless there's a MAJOR incentive to switch.
No[t] to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen.
This particular plural construction probably dates back to before you were born, Anonymous Coward.
http://www.faqs.org/docs/jargon/B/boxen.html
Complaining about parts of the geek culture that existed before you came in brands you as a newbie, and by association, as clueless.
[The author] happens to belong to one of the less reputable media outles (aka the plagarized and false stories coming from the ny times).
Um, what.
Though the Jayson Blair and related scandals gave the Old Gray Lady a black eye, it's absurd to claim that the New York Times is now "one of the less reputable media outle[t]s." There are only a handful of newspapers in the WORLD with the deserved reputation for excellence that the Times has.