According to go2mac, the guy is Juan Gutierrez. Somehow I doubt there's more than one at Apple. More likely they don't want anyone rallying support around a martyr, and that's harder to do if you don't know your martyr's name.
They don't want to embarass any employees with the same name, so they're not releasing it? Fat lot of good that does John Doe! His name has been dragged through the mud enough already! He's been sued several thousand times, got amnesia more times than he cna remember, but nobody ever keeps John's name out of the press to protect his feelings!
On one hand URLs aren't property, thus can't be stolen. (US court)
On the other hand, URLs can be forcibly reassigned from one party to another. (ICANN)
URLs aren't like software licenses. They aren't fungible assets, they're unique. Can a court rule that your phone number will be taken away just because it's 225-5288 (CALL-ATT)? Can they decide to transfer that number to AT&T in every area code that contains an AT&T office?
Now, if it's a trademark issue, then a legal ruling entity should be able to order the cease and desist of the use of a specific domain name, but shouldn't be able to order the transfer to another party. The trademark namespace is not exclusive. Just because there's a Ford Motor Company doesn't stop there from being a Ford Bookstore. It only stops there from being a Ford something-or-other in the auto industry. The Internet in not an industry that umbrellas over all trademark namespaces. A good case in point is Nissan Computers. They're being sued by Nissan Motors because they want the domain. This is clearly not a case of trademark infringement, as both companies have the registered trademark "Nissan". What right does Nissan Motors have over the domain?
So when would trademarks apply, and how should it be dealt with? If, for example, I had the domain name ford.com and started a car company I would get sued for trademark violation, and rightly so. After I received a judgement forcing me to abandon the name ford in conjunction with my car company, I should be free to market the domain name ford.com to anyone who can legally use it, not just the one who was fastest to sue. Ford Books should have just as much right to purchase it as Ford Motors. It's unlikely that they would, because in an open market Ford Motors would pay me more, but this is an economic issue, not a legal one.
Just one more hypothetical: Say 'Orange' is a small organic farm in Idaho, been in business for decades. Orange.com is registered by someone else and they set up shop as an organic farm on the net. Say the original Orange goes to ICANN and asks for the domain, because of a trademark violation. The company wins and Orange.com is now in the first person's name. then Orange Computers, a multi-billion-dollar company comes along to ICANN and says Orange.com needs to go to them because they have a stronger tie to the name in the internet space. Shopuld it just get passed up the chain? Is this right?
Property is what this is all about. We have far more laws over property and posession than we do over 'name assignments'. The telephone number analogy is full of crap. My 'net telephone number' is my P address and you can do whatever you want with it, I don't care. When you choose a domain name from a mutually exclusive 100+ character namespace you're creating a brand, an identity, and not just a choice between THE-KING (845-5464) or THE-BING (845-2464). When is one of these cases going to make its way up the chain of appeals?
I swear, whoever moderated the parent of this message as a "Troll" must have done it so that it had one of each. It's been modded as Interesting, Insightful, Informative, Funny, Overrated, and now Troll.
Can someone do me a favor and mod it Flamebait and Redundant as well so I can have a full house?
All kidding aside (just for this post), just think of how handy this would be if it were in the hands of people other than censors and advertisers.
I would love if information specific to me was able to be incorporated into my everyday sensorium. I'd really like it if, for example:
Instead of seeing a wendy's ad behind home plate, I saw an infographic of how many messages were in my inbox
When someone opens their fridge on tv, I see what's in my fridge (ooh, I need more jolt!)
When watching Tiger drive a ball down the fairway, I see text messages from friends trimmed into the green instead of the Nike Swoosh
My portfolio scrolls at the bottom of the screen instead of whatever random stocks CNNfn highlights
Of course, this is just the beginning. Soon, commercials and then sitcoms would be prepared in VXML (video-extensible-markup-language) so that you could choose whatever theme you want and personalize the show to you.
For example:
UPN Tuesday Theme: All black, all the time
UPN Wednesday Theme: All sci-fi, all the time
Simpson Animation Theme (animated La Femme Nikita with Lisa's spiky hair?)
NBC YuppieVision
You get the picture...
but of course we won't see this, because the dollars are driven by the ads.
I worked for a week in the PacBell offices in San Ramon, CA. Of distinction, this was the place Scott Adams worked when he started Dilbert, it houses the second largest cafeteria in North America, after the Pentagon, interoffice mail was picked up and delivered by robot, and (at least, 6 years ago, when I worked there) everything, including lights, blinds, and robot pickup, was handled by an automated phone system.
With the right codes, you could close all the blinds and turn off all the lights from anywhere in the world.
In the grid of cube-forests and offices, there are mini-stores, like you'd find in an airport, between sections. I got lost in there on the first day, and walked past three, that all looked alike, selling drinks, prepackaged sandwiches, candy, and other stimulants.
Quokka's a company that was largely built on the promise of the 2000 games on the web.
NBC is a major partner, and they teamed up to make NBC Olympics site. Realtime stats and progress of sporting events is what Quokka's all about. Are they supposed to abandon the games? Doesn't NBC's agreement cover this?
If not, they got royally rooked because they've poured millions and millions into a web presence and information dissemination point for the games, and paid the IOC a huge sum for the exclusive rights.
The whole spirit of linux and unix are tools that are more powerful because they can easily be used by and with other programs.
The problem when big companies step in with major 'solutions' is that the solution could just as well be layered over any OS. If Nautilus isn't based in X, and is another layer, then there doesn't seem to be a compelling reason why it couldn't have been done on MacOS, Windows, or BeOS, except that only open source solutions provide a platform they wouldn't have to pay exhorbitant license fees to augment.
I haven't seen enough to say for sure, but so far it looks like 'bringing Linux to the masses' is just a marketing spin to make sense of creating an experimental interface system on top of a minority OS.
I'm surprised that in neither of the MySQL vs Postgres SQL stories has anyone commented on the near release of MaxSQL.
MaxSQL, made by the mySQL folks, will have transaction support, long the last line of defense in postgresSQL's "we're better because" flamewar.
Frankly, the next year is going to be very interesting for the open source SQL market, and not so good for the big players. (I hear Informix had to lay off hundreds on the peninsula last week).
Slashdot Mirror
Put DeCSS on it!
Then again, they wouldn't have DVDs, and we're not sending any...
Maybe that's why, because they wouldn't have a player that could decode it and we're not allowed to include DeCSS!
(yes, I know the differences between DVD-video encryption and a DVD-ROM. It's a joke, roll with it.)
Kevin Fox
According to go2mac, the guy is Juan Gutierrez. Somehow I doubt there's more than one at Apple. More likely they don't want anyone rallying support around a martyr, and that's harder to do if you don't know your martyr's name.
"Free Juan!"
Kevin Fox
He's my cube-mate, John Jacob Jingle-Heimer Schmitt. I tell ya, whenever he goes out there's confusion and shouting...
Kevin Fox
They don't want to embarass any employees with the same name, so they're not releasing it? Fat lot of good that does John Doe! His name has been dragged through the mud enough already! He's been sued several thousand times, got amnesia more times than he cna remember, but nobody ever keeps John's name out of the press to protect his feelings!
Kevin Fox
On one hand URLs aren't property, thus can't be stolen. (US court)
On the other hand, URLs can be forcibly reassigned from one party to another. (ICANN)
URLs aren't like software licenses. They aren't fungible assets, they're unique. Can a court rule that your phone number will be taken away just because it's 225-5288 (CALL-ATT)? Can they decide to transfer that number to AT&T in every area code that contains an AT&T office?
Now, if it's a trademark issue, then a legal ruling entity should be able to order the cease and desist of the use of a specific domain name, but shouldn't be able to order the transfer to another party. The trademark namespace is not exclusive. Just because there's a Ford Motor Company doesn't stop there from being a Ford Bookstore. It only stops there from being a Ford something-or-other in the auto industry. The Internet in not an industry that umbrellas over all trademark namespaces. A good case in point is Nissan Computers. They're being sued by Nissan Motors because they want the domain. This is clearly not a case of trademark infringement, as both companies have the registered trademark "Nissan". What right does Nissan Motors have over the domain?
So when would trademarks apply, and how should it be dealt with? If, for example, I had the domain name ford.com and started a car company I would get sued for trademark violation, and rightly so. After I received a judgement forcing me to abandon the name ford in conjunction with my car company, I should be free to market the domain name ford.com to anyone who can legally use it, not just the one who was fastest to sue. Ford Books should have just as much right to purchase it as Ford Motors. It's unlikely that they would, because in an open market Ford Motors would pay me more, but this is an economic issue, not a legal one.
Just one more hypothetical: Say 'Orange' is a small organic farm in Idaho, been in business for decades. Orange.com is registered by someone else and they set up shop as an organic farm on the net. Say the original Orange goes to ICANN and asks for the domain, because of a trademark violation. The company wins and Orange.com is now in the first person's name. then Orange Computers, a multi-billion-dollar company comes along to ICANN and says Orange.com needs to go to them because they have a stronger tie to the name in the internet space. Shopuld it just get passed up the chain? Is this right?
Property is what this is all about. We have far more laws over property and posession than we do over 'name assignments'. The telephone number analogy is full of crap. My 'net telephone number' is my P address and you can do whatever you want with it, I don't care. When you choose a domain name from a mutually exclusive 100+ character namespace you're creating a brand, an identity, and not just a choice between THE-KING (845-5464) or THE-BING (845-2464). When is one of these cases going to make its way up the chain of appeals?
Kevin Fox
There's a quote? I remember this back from 3rd grade (way pre-simpsons)...
Kevin Fox
"Your epidermis is showing!"
"No it's not!!!"
Kevin Fox
Stephenson->Crypto->PGP (pretty good privacy)
Batman->Nonlethat weapons->PGP (pump-action paintball gun)
Laugh, it's funny. It's a pun. Relax.
Kevin Fox
"Holy crypto, Batman! He's got a PGP gun!"
Kevin Fox
I swear, whoever moderated the parent of this message as a "Troll" must have done it so that it had one of each. It's been modded as Interesting, Insightful, Informative, Funny, Overrated, and now Troll.
Can someone do me a favor and mod it Flamebait and Redundant as well so I can have a full house?
Thanks!
Kevin Fox
That's funny. I go portscanning entire domains and my ISP gets mad. they do it and they get a post on ./ .
Not to play devil's advocate, but how accurate are these numbers when you consider that firewalls can easily spoof or block portscan attempts?
Kevin Fox
"With new eFog, your point-to-point wireless optical data communications link can be enhanced into a local area network!"
Next quarter, analysts forecast the public release of eClouds which will allow for a wide area network with a range of approximately 7 miles.
Kevin Fox
The perfect example of this was when ABC blacked out the CBS logo (or vice versa) during the 2000 New Years Eve party in Times Square.
How did that finally turn out anyhow?
Kevin Fox
I would love if information specific to me was able to be incorporated into my everyday sensorium. I'd really like it if, for example:
Of course, this is just the beginning. Soon, commercials and then sitcoms would be prepared in VXML (video-extensible-markup-language) so that you could choose whatever theme you want and personalize the show to you.
For example:
You get the picture...
but of course we won't see this, because the dollars are driven by the ads.
Kevin Fox
IKEA 3 surface Effectiv desk: $750
21" Trinitron monitor: $1050
Herman Miller chair: $999
Telecommuting in my underwear from a office bigger and better than my boss's: Priceless.
Kevin Fox
I worked for a week in the PacBell offices in San Ramon, CA. Of distinction, this was the place Scott Adams worked when he started Dilbert, it houses the second largest cafeteria in North America, after the Pentagon, interoffice mail was picked up and delivered by robot, and (at least, 6 years ago, when I worked there) everything, including lights, blinds, and robot pickup, was handled by an automated phone system.
With the right codes, you could close all the blinds and turn off all the lights from anywhere in the world.
In the grid of cube-forests and offices, there are mini-stores, like you'd find in an airport, between sections. I got lost in there on the first day, and walked past three, that all looked alike, selling drinks, prepackaged sandwiches, candy, and other stimulants.
Highly wacky.
Kevin Fox
Technically, you're saying "Slashdot equals not Mac Rumor site"
Considering that this was not actually a mac rumor, but was instead a made up story, your subject fits quite well!
Kevin Fox
Quokka's a company that was largely built on the promise of the 2000 games on the web.
NBC is a major partner, and they teamed up to make NBC Olympics site. Realtime stats and progress of sporting events is what Quokka's all about. Are they supposed to abandon the games? Doesn't NBC's agreement cover this?
If not, they got royally rooked because they've poured millions and millions into a web presence and information dissemination point for the games, and paid the IOC a huge sum for the exclusive rights.
Kevin Fox
Sorry, man. I don't know what I'm talking about. I really should put a lock on my account so I can't post after midnight.
/. Someone earlier mentioned that it existed indepentently of X (and I presumed, of GNOME).
That and I shouldn't believe everything I read on
Have a greay day!
Kevin Fox
The whole spirit of linux and unix are tools that are more powerful because they can easily be used by and with other programs.
The problem when big companies step in with major 'solutions' is that the solution could just as well be layered over any OS. If Nautilus isn't based in X, and is another layer, then there doesn't seem to be a compelling reason why it couldn't have been done on MacOS, Windows, or BeOS, except that only open source solutions provide a platform they wouldn't have to pay exhorbitant license fees to augment.
I haven't seen enough to say for sure, but so far it looks like 'bringing Linux to the masses' is just a marketing spin to make sense of creating an experimental interface system on top of a minority OS.
Kevin Fox
20 megs for a file manager? Get real dude.
But it's okay, because you can cache it in RAM!
Kevin Fox
He must be browsing through his file manager again...
(Why it's not a good idea to have a web server and a robust GUI on the same machine)
(Then again, I bet Quartz and Aqua is no light-weight combination either. I should just go back to full-screen bash.)
Kevin Fox
Defending their 'freedom to innovate' for so long, it's nice to see they're actually doing something innovative.
It'd be nice to have a modern cross-Win/Mac/Unix office software package (and emacs doesn't count).
I'm looking forward to see what atrocities they try to implement in X11 just to get suchandsuch widget performing in exactly the way they want.
Kevin Fox
This would go nicely with the eHolster.
They don't call us webslingers for nothing.
Kevin Fox
I'm surprised that in neither of the MySQL vs Postgres SQL stories has anyone commented on the near release of MaxSQL.
MaxSQL, made by the mySQL folks, will have transaction support, long the last line of defense in postgresSQL's "we're better because" flamewar.
Frankly, the next year is going to be very interesting for the open source SQL market, and not so good for the big players. (I hear Informix had to lay off hundreds on the peninsula last week).
Kevin Fox