And remember, it's the HOBBYISTS who've done more to advance computing than anything Microsoft has done to advance the state of software development in the world. (Linus Torvalds anyone?)
"A Microsoft spokesman has described their DRM licensing scheme as a system for reducing the number of device vendors to a manageable number, so that the company doesn't have to oversee too many developers."
Ballmer: Developers! Developers! Developers!
Yeah, uh huh... right... sounds more like THIS discussion...
Dr. Walter Gibbs: User requests are what computers are for! Ed Dillinger: DOING OUR BUSINESS is what computers are for.
(pain from joysticks hitting my head from my "friends", pain from hitting my head against the wall, popped blood vessels after fighting Azaroth the boss from level 15 for the 27gazillionth time and still losing because the game cheats...)
It's a great idea in concept, but in practice it doesn't quite work...
They had this system at Ameritech in Indianapolis many years ago (now SBC, now AT&T, but I digress...) which was being used for prototype testing (so Ameritech got a discount on their elevator service)
Instead of a touch panel they had number pad and LCD display but the functionality was the same.
Every morning there'd be a crowd of 20 people at Elevator A, 5 at Elevator B and 1 at Elevator C.
This led to users "hacking" the system by reentering in the same floor multiple times. This resulted in the system adding in more people to the elevator until you got an overflow and then another elevator would be assigned.
It's ONE thing to say that piracy causes the RIAA/MPAA to have "lost revenues". That's at least an arguable point.
It's ANOTHER to say that piracy has more INCOME than the drug trade.
Now, pirated items "sold" over the internet like actual goods, yeah, that's revenue. But I highly doubt that number has overtaken the drug revenue number. But you KNOW they're including all the free traders on the p2p services in those numbers just so they can scare people into tighter legislation.
"No country is immune from cybercrime, which includes corporate espionage, child pornography, stock manipulation, extortion and piracy, said Valerie McNiven, who advises the U.S. Treasury on cybercrime."
So "child porn" and "piracy" makes more money than the drug trade? I don't think so...
Then it moves on to what countries get which websites because y'know China gets ticked off that their people can see that free speech type stuff and the US gets ticked that people can see boobies.
Then it becomes a controlling system...y'know to "protect" us from spam and worms and horrible criminal violations like sharing that intellectual property, but not missiles and weapons type intellectual property (because governments are free to do that...) just stuff like movies and tv shows.
Then you begin restricting what you can be POSTED onto the internet... because we certainly can't have hate speech in cyberspace!
Want a good model? Look at the game ratings sysstem.
The government demanded it (under threat of making one themselves and imposing it by law) while at the same time saying they didn't want to restrict purchases or violate free speech rights. They just wanted to give parents a *choice*.
10 years later and now if you sell an M rated game to a minor you can go to jail.
Since this is a "world" resource, time should no longer be managed by the UK, but by the UN standards body. Surely this will be a much more equitable and fair solution than hogging all of the world's time by one nation.
(Near as I can tell, it's either a tit for tat for the internet thing, or Verizon and SBC have ponied up some big lobbyist dollars to save themselves a few seconds of headache every few years (ha) )
Ergo... If I have a physical copy of a CD, I'm allowed to alter it and/or its encryption, as I wish, to still hear my music so long as I'm not using it for any other purpose.
Microsoft continues to follow the IE strategy I see...
And, again, I don't understand why they're leaking this now. Who wants to pay $400 for an XBox 360 now when they can wait about 6 months and get it for half price?
(Although I don't think it'll be half price that fast.. probably within 3 or 4 years as is the normal degradation... unless they get into a price war early on)
"Sperm makes this change by swapping the type of 'packing material, known as histone proteins, it contains.
The result is called the male pronucleus, which can then combine with the female pronucleus.
The process is controlled by the HIRA gene. "
In other words:
The female downloads the executable to her ovum and attempts to insert it into the Egg OS... the HIRA (VM) runs the male code and translates it into the local Egg OS opcodes so the egg can run it...
Insert whiney geek laughter here followed by obligatory monty python quote... (Okay that's not QUITE right, but then it wouldn't be funny... But it does strike me as pretty close to the mechanism that's going on there...)
Slashdot Mirror
And remember, it's the HOBBYISTS who've done more to advance computing than anything Microsoft has done to advance the state of software development in the world. (Linus Torvalds anyone?)
"A Microsoft spokesman has described their DRM licensing scheme as a system for reducing the number of device vendors to a manageable number, so that the company doesn't have to oversee too many developers."
Ballmer: Developers! Developers! Developers!
Yeah, uh huh... right... sounds more like THIS discussion...
Dr. Walter Gibbs: User requests are what computers are for!
Ed Dillinger: DOING OUR BUSINESS is what computers are for.
You mean like it has bouncing pixellated boobies?
That might actually help its sales...
(ba-dum - rimshot)
Games CAUSE much pain...
(pain from joysticks hitting my head from my "friends", pain from hitting my head against the wall, popped blood vessels after fighting Azaroth the boss from level 15 for the 27gazillionth time and still losing because the game cheats...)
It's a great idea in concept, but in practice it doesn't quite work...
They had this system at Ameritech in Indianapolis many years ago (now SBC, now AT&T, but I digress...) which was being used for prototype testing (so Ameritech got a discount on their elevator service)
Instead of a touch panel they had number pad and LCD display but the functionality was the same.
Every morning there'd be a crowd of 20 people at Elevator A, 5 at Elevator B and 1 at Elevator C.
This led to users "hacking" the system by reentering in the same floor multiple times. This resulted in the system adding in more people to the elevator until you got an overflow and then another elevator would be assigned.
That's what I'm talking about!
:)
How's somebody in California supposed to keep track of all that!
If your eCommerce business is run in, say California, then it should charge California sales taxes.
It makes no sense for a company in California to try to figure out the sales tax for an order from New Hampshire.
Now THAT'S capitalism!
(Or at least a good demonstration of Ferengi behavior...)
I thought most of us slashdotters were taking care of our home PCs... and mom's... and dad's... and grandma's...
If you put enough elephants in one place, you can shift the rotation of the planet!
(This looks like a job for Mythbusters!)
It's ONE thing to say that piracy causes the RIAA/MPAA to have "lost revenues". That's at least an arguable point.
It's ANOTHER to say that piracy has more INCOME than the drug trade.
Now, pirated items "sold" over the internet like actual goods, yeah, that's revenue. But I highly doubt that number has overtaken the drug revenue number. But you KNOW they're including all the free traders on the p2p services in those numbers just so they can scare people into tighter legislation.
"No country is immune from cybercrime, which includes corporate espionage, child pornography, stock manipulation, extortion and piracy, said Valerie McNiven, who advises the U.S. Treasury on cybercrime."
So "child porn" and "piracy" makes more money than the drug trade? I don't think so...
Obviously the grass didn't adapt well enough if it was inside the belly of the Dinosaur!
Now grass that defends itself! There's an adaptation!
It STARTS with DNS root files.
Then it moves on to what countries get which websites because y'know China gets ticked off that their people can see that free speech type stuff and the US gets ticked that people can see boobies.
Then it becomes a controlling system...y'know to "protect" us from spam and worms and horrible criminal violations like sharing that intellectual property, but not missiles and weapons type intellectual property (because governments are free to do that...) just stuff like movies and tv shows.
Then you begin restricting what you can be POSTED onto the internet... because we certainly can't have hate speech in cyberspace!
Want a good model? Look at the game ratings sysstem.
The government demanded it (under threat of making one themselves and imposing it by law) while at the same time saying they didn't want to restrict purchases or violate free speech rights. They just wanted to give parents a *choice*.
10 years later and now if you sell an M rated game to a minor you can go to jail.
It's NOT a simple administrative matter.
and Space Academy, Jason of Star Command and the old Flash Gordon animated series from Filmation!
And the Jim Henson Hour!
(uh... anyone seen any torrents of these lately?)
Yes it's a joke, but how many old-schoolers really finished the original game, with the proper hack, to know that in the US?
Since this is a "world" resource, time should no longer be managed by the UK, but by the UN standards body. Surely this will be a much more equitable and fair solution than hogging all of the world's time by one nation.
(Near as I can tell, it's either a tit for tat for the internet thing, or Verizon and SBC have ponied up some big lobbyist dollars to save themselves a few seconds of headache every few years (ha) )
Ergo... If I have a physical copy of a CD, I'm allowed to alter it and/or its encryption, as I wish, to still hear my music so long as I'm not using it for any other purpose.
Isn't that an oxymoron?
My credit card company!
Which I used to rent the car, purchase the plane tickets and secure my rental garages.
They also know where I live, my phone # and my mother's maiden name!
Sites like the Daily Kos can now be subject to campaign finance laws. Which means, essentially, their speech can be regulated during election seasons.
Microsoft continues to follow the IE strategy I see...
And, again, I don't understand why they're leaking this now. Who wants to pay $400 for an XBox 360 now when they can wait about 6 months and get it for half price?
(Although I don't think it'll be half price that fast.. probably within 3 or 4 years as is the normal degradation... unless they get into a price war early on)
Not a copyrightable set of rules. (Well it could've been, but it's long been in the public domain).
If they refuse to let Kansas use their standards, Kansas can STILL teach and use science (and they will).
You haven't figured that out yet?
"Sperm makes this change by swapping the type of 'packing material, known as histone proteins, it contains.
The result is called the male pronucleus, which can then combine with the female pronucleus.
The process is controlled by the HIRA gene. "
In other words:
The female downloads the executable to her ovum and attempts to insert it into the Egg OS... the HIRA (VM) runs the male code and translates it into the local Egg OS opcodes so the egg can run it...
Insert whiney geek laughter here followed by obligatory monty python quote...
(Okay that's not QUITE right, but then it wouldn't be funny... But it does strike me as pretty close to the mechanism that's going on there...)