I didn't read clear to the end here, so it may have come up, but I would like to hear from citizens of Canada, the UK, and others about how they feel their countrys' health care systems are doing. I don't want to pre-suppose their answers, but I seem to remember that at least some Canadians and Brits aren't exactly happy with wait times and quality of care with socialized medicine.
Gee, something must be wrong. Surely those earlier slashdot reports letting us all know Vista was a failure couldn't have been wrong. Reminds me of Millennial Fever. The world is going to end in 2000, really! Oops, slight miscalculation. It will be May 5, 2005, really! Oops, slight misclaculation. The new date of destruction is 2012. Yes, that's it! 2012!
Thanks for the psychological profile. Now let's talk about violence in Europe. We'll start with 8 million dead Jews at the hands of Germany in a wholesale slaughter including women and children. And, No, I'm not just blaming Germans. When Germany invaded Poland the local townspeople asked if it would be okay if they went and killed the Jews now that Germany was in control. It's not just a German problem. Then there's 10 million dead Russians at the hands of the "revolution" for "worker's rights." Then let's talk about ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Eastern Europe when the majority of Europe stood around and wrung their hands and suggested maybe they could get the Americans to come on over and take care of this little problem. In the last thousand years the history of Europe is one of near constant bloodshed of one EU member attacking another, killing civilians, and destroying property. It's not exactly an enviable record and makes the total dead in America a pittance in comparison. The passage of years does not erase the fact that the soil of Europe is soaked in the blood of innocents. BS on this "only in America" crap. You are not superior; in fact, you've had a lot more practice.
Lot of outrage and grandstanding here about this issue. It's all justified, of course. Not that you don't know this, but there's an unwritten rule. When a whore was asked if she ever experienced sexual pleasure with a John, she said, "Do cops get tickets?"
My brother in law was a cop. He got fired for speeding, kind of, a long story. If a cop out of uniform is pulled over by a patrol car, there's only one thing he has to do. Be polite and show his badge. No ticket. End of story. That's the way it is.
Note: In case of monopolized areas, none of this applies.
Every contract I have ever had with a cell phone provider or internet provider or cable provider had a set expected length of contract AND a set date when that contract would be terminated. I may be mis-remembering, but I'm pretty sure NONE of them have been over two years. In EACH case there was some sort of incentive to get a lower price and some sort of incentive to switch carriers. Many times the switch incentive is enough to pay for the termination fees, if any.
It seems to me that if you sign a contract with a company for a couple of years, you were paid to do it with a lower price. If you want to cut and run, you pay and should. This is not anti-consumer, this is stupid-consumer who didn't read the contract and now wants to bail ahead of time.
It's the same with 'bundled' services. They are always trying to get you to 'bundle' everything with one carrier. You take them up on it at your peril. If you never bundle services you keep your versatility intact. yeah, it may cost you more, but are you sheep and go ga ga eyed every time they offer you ten bucks?
Don't get me wrong. My Starband sucked so bad I dumped it the month my contract was up. My Dish Network was so bad and the customer service so God-awful I fired them on the spot and threw the dishes in the dump. But I'll tell ya, my DSL is so reliable and fast that it's worth my while to sign a contract. Absolutely no problems.
I really, really hate to play the paranoid card, but I'm beginning to feel that no proffered solution will be deemed correct unless it is walking. And if we walk, we're a whole lot easier to track. I surely do hope I am wrong, but the environmental movement often acts like a puritanical cult which will do ANYTHING to get its way, including suppressing facts and spouting disinformation. It reminds me of the Puritans who were against bear baiting not because it hurt the bear, but because it brought pleasure to the onlookers.
I went to Turkey a couple of years ago. This was a month before the Iraq invasion. I was told: "Don't criticize the army, the flag, or Ataturk and you'll be fine." I found a nation full of friendly people, friendly specifically to Americans, not Germans, for sure. It has a more advanced infrastructure than Greece; it's Muslim, but secular. There are statues of Ataturk on every street corner. There's been some internal criticism of him recently. He had a mistress and he drank a lot. Oh, dear. My guide's grandfather had a harem.
Has Turkey "been bad." Sure, there's the Armenian genocide they say never happened, for example. You may say that's horrible. So was American genocide of Native Americans, or the Saxon genocide of Anglos after 1066, particularly in southern England where the countryside was 'evacuated' so the King could hunt in his own private forest without the inconvenience of peasant villages. Every country in the world, including yours, has had some pretty bleak moments.
Ataturk is held in high esteem. What did Ataturk do to deserve this? He transformed a nation, installed a relatively modern secular government, reformed the language to use western letters instead of Arabic script, raised the status of women, and did everything he could to drag Turkey from an outmoded and failed Ottoman monarchy model to a western european-oriented nation.
What has Turkey gotten in return? Derision, mostly from Europeans, though you see it in these posts as well. Germans treat Turks as third class people barely better than slaves. They buy up resort areas and then order the locals around, kind of like Americans in Mexico. The EU keeps pushing 'liberal' reforms on Turkey, but it's like Anericans forcing McDonalds on Europe. To a Turk, it feels like the EU won't be happy until everyone is shooting up Smack in the parks, public nudity is typical, there's a legal brothel on every corner, and sex and rock & roll rule--just like Denmark.
The Turks see the Kurds as waging a war of terrorism on the country, yet the EU says Turkey 'represses' the Kurds. To a Turk, it's doublespeak. It's really too bad that europe treats Turkey in such a dismal fashion. Here's a western-oriented Muslim country with a democratic secular government it imposed on itself. It's friendly to Israel, the only Muslim country that is. It's not run by a military dictator like Saddam or Khadafi. It's not run by Islamic extremists like Iran. It's a working democratic Muslim model. And it's fragile.
No, it's not perfect by western standards, though some of that 'perfection' Turks see as decadent hedonism, but it is the one country that shows how such a model could work. One would hope that the western governments and citizens would treat Turkey more carefully and help ensure its economic survival (inflation has been rampant, the currency devalued), rather than treat it as a pariah. The Turks know the attitude of western counties. To a Turk, there is ample evidence that they've been screwed by the west time and again. Even with this knowledge thay are still trying hard to get into the EU, rebuffed at every turn.
Then there are those who are incensed because Turkey takes a dim view of the kind of free speech people here seem to feel is their right. That's the kind that allows you to call anyone you want an asshole because, by God, you have freeom of speech. The kind where you feel good and self-righteous doing that, instead of feeling ashamed for your vulgar behavior.
Those who care to invest some time in understanding might like "Ataturk; the biography of the founder of modern Turky" by Andrew Mango. Woodstock: Overlook Press, 2000. 666pp. isbn: 1585670111.
Microsoft has ALWAYS had student/academic and non-profit deals out there. Look in any University bookstore at very good prices. You don't even have to do that with a student ID card. You can just declare you're a student and buy it online. This is a particularly good deal, but the fact is, I've never paid over $60.00 for a full office suite ever, because Microsoft sells to schools and libraries at a heavy discount.
I feel your pain. I think they all went to trucks. But even there the hottest accessories are EEPROM burners, like Bully Dog, to flash the engine chips for more torque and hp. Gimme a Duramax and Allison to haul some serious sh*t (On biodiesel, of course, recycled.)
Moding this post flamebait is a perfect example of the misuse of the moderation system. As I understand it, moderation is not there simply so you can push your own politial point of view. The moderation itself is a flame. Hopefully others will mod it back up--NOT for its point of view, but because of the injustice. Or perhaps meta-moderation will ctach it. It's really unfortunate slashdot has become so politically correct that you can't have a reasonable discussion with encountering this nonsense. Just for the record, I hope my state says "No" as well.
Well, I'll tell ya. I worked hard for my CNE. I really did. I studied my ass off. It's nothing without experience, too, but the combination was valuable.
I say "was" because the CNE means absolutely diddly squat today. It's not the same world any more. I should probably not even have it on my resume. All it means is "old fart with old skills." The certs are a treadmill. Whatever is latest and in fashion is the one to tout. MCSE. yeah, OK. Fine. Cisco? Getting warmer. But the point is, what's next year? They are nore of a 'continuing education' upgrade kind of thing.
But a BSEE. That has staying power. The certifications mean you are a technician. The degree means you are an engineer.
The statistic I recall said for Windows, you need one admin for every 30 ~ 40 boxes/users. OS X is more along the lines of one for every +100.
I have been trying to pin this statistic down for years. Last statistic I saw was years ago in PC Week which said 1 admin per 120 boxes. Other stuff is simply anecdotal. Do you have a source for this? Anybody? MUCH appreciated if someone can track this down. Very handy when trying to justify staff.
Several people posting here have made the point that libraries are proof that "making available" does not infringe on copyright. Many here might not know that libraries and publishers have historically had an uneasy relationship, but let's leave that for next. Libraries do not (by and large) "copy" material. They buy a legal copy and distribute it more than once. It's the same copy read by many readers. That's not quite the same thing as making a full copy and winding up with two copies instead of one.
In meat-space, this is not cost effective. Even though you have a copy machine right there, to copy each page of a 300 page book at a dime a copy leaves you with 300 unbound pages which exceed 'fair use' guidelines. It's messy and slow, plus the "copy" is not of the same quality as the original. With digital copies, of course, everything changes.
With periodical articles, the issue is different because a typical article is easily copied for a few cents. In these cases libraries (are supposed to) go through the Copyright Clearance Center which collects a fee to be paid to the publisher for the use of that article. This is part of the Interlibrary Loan process, particularly in academic libraries. In the case of online articles that fee is incorporated into the annual fee libraries pay to aggregators such as Infotrac and Proquest. My library, for example, pays over $100,000 per year in annual access fees to online content. This content is then licensed to the residents of my county for their use. In this model, publishers get paid. Most publishers allow online access, but some of them license their work for "in library use only." Example: Some genealogy material that is also sold directly to the consumer, and car repair manuals.
Now, as to the uneasy relationship, publishers and authors have ALWAYS resented that libraries ae institutionalized enough to avoid royalties on "checking out" material more than once. Every once in awhile someone publishes the circulation statistics to shock authors when they do the math and figure they are owed a royalty for every check out. However, libraries are also responsible for so many sales to publishers that it doesn't make sense for publishers to push the issue. When large libraries buy "a" title, they buy several hundred copies. Libraries alone could put Harry Potter on the bestseller lists just on the copies they buy. Also, it is mostly libraries which are responsible for backlist sales for publishers after the public has forgotten they published the book. (And, incidentally, libraries do get bookstore discounts for most purchases, which hovers near 45% for trade books, maybe 10% at best for academic titles.)
The point has also been made that this copyright stuff is just for the USA. Right, and some places it gets even more interesting. As I understand it, Australia has a scheme known as the "public lending right" (Any Australians who know about this please jump in and clarify if I get it wrong!) There they figure out how many copies of books published in Australia are in libraries, perform some sort of calculation, and the government pays the publishers.
This is just a theory, a possibility. I don't insist upon it. I'm just trying to fit what we know into the framework without idle speculation that Apple paid money to Cisco, which I doubt. Arguments that they did are based on thin air. We do not know.
What if Apple used the Tom Sawyer Gambit?
Apple knows, of course, that Cisco has "the trademark" for iPhone, but it isn't a very good one. Why not? Because Cisco inherited it and did nothing with it. I suspect it was a "TM" trademark, not a "R-circle" trademark. A "TM" trademark is provisional. Once you get it you must demonstrate that you are serious by USING that trademark in INTERSTATE COMMERCE. If you do, then after a certain number of years you get on the coveted "register," (hence "R" with a circle around it.) Once you are on "the register" with your trademark, it's a lot harder to unseat you from owning that mark. But it's a "you use or you lose" proposition. Until you get there, you are vulnerable to losing the mark altogether. Apple knows this, too.
Apple would also like very much to be completely interoperable with Cisco equipment. Why? Because Cisco dominates the corporate market big time, and has a huge segment of the consumer market with LinkSys. But for one reason or another, Cisco isn't really that interested in Apple. Their focus is elsewhere, though VOIP is big, they just aren't thinking Apple is a potential player here. Apple can strut all it wants, but Cisco is looking the other way thinking Apple is just a toy.
Hmm, how to get Cisco's attention? Dangle "iPhone" in front of them like a carrot on a stick. "Hey, guys! I got your iPhone. Come chase me!" Big announcement, slap it up there in lights, and Apple runs like hell, but not too fast.
Bang!
Cisco bites the Apple, just like Eve, and sues. Publicity for both parties, bad or good, just spell my name right. Apple grins, begins negotiations. You'll notice it never got to court. "Hey, Cisco! You didn't use the mark. Your loss is our gain, but hey. We'll cooperate. How bout if we agree to partner up with you to make sure iPhone is compatible with all your, you know, stuff? We're gonna sell a billion of these things. Wanna be part of it? Oh, and you can keep using the mark, of course, if you have a product to stick it on, (snicker)."
So here's Apple, like Tom Sawyer, munching on a Red Delicious while his frie..., er, business partners, paint the fence for him.
A number of posts here are alluding to Apple's payment of large amounts of money to Cisco. They argue that Apple "lost" because of this large payment of money, in one post up to $4 billion. My question is:
What money? How much money? How do you know? Where's the evidence?
Or are you just basing your arguments on idle speculation of what you wish would have happened?
Apple gets caught trying to steal another company's trademark and has to beg to be able to use it and ends up paying big time to do so.
Where is the evidence? How much money? How do you know?
Yeah, 'total victory' for Apple. What a pathetic loser that you put that in bold!
And what a pathetic loser would AC this in the first place and not stand up to it, plus base an argument on air. It's fine to speculate on whether money changed hands, but to castigate a post based on total speculation is not logical.
Given that seti@home runs unattended usually on computers that are on anyway, I suspect the energy and lost productivity wasted on slasdot posts is way higher than the "waste" of seti.
It's not a troll. No one has the "right" to exceed the speed limit. You rights are not being violated if you are prevented from doing seventy in a sixty.
Slashdot Mirror
what happens with this.
I didn't read clear to the end here, so it may have come up, but I would like to hear from citizens of Canada, the UK, and others about how they feel their countrys' health care systems are doing. I don't want to pre-suppose their answers, but I seem to remember that at least some Canadians and Brits aren't exactly happy with wait times and quality of care with socialized medicine.
Gee, something must be wrong. Surely those earlier slashdot reports letting us all know Vista was a failure couldn't have been wrong. Reminds me of Millennial Fever. The world is going to end in 2000, really! Oops, slight miscalculation. It will be May 5, 2005, really! Oops, slight misclaculation. The new date of destruction is 2012. Yes, that's it! 2012!
Thanks for the psychological profile. Now let's talk about violence in Europe. We'll start with 8 million dead Jews at the hands of Germany in a wholesale slaughter including women and children. And, No, I'm not just blaming Germans. When Germany invaded Poland the local townspeople asked if it would be okay if they went and killed the Jews now that Germany was in control. It's not just a German problem. Then there's 10 million dead Russians at the hands of the "revolution" for "worker's rights." Then let's talk about ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Eastern Europe when the majority of Europe stood around and wrung their hands and suggested maybe they could get the Americans to come on over and take care of this little problem. In the last thousand years the history of Europe is one of near constant bloodshed of one EU member attacking another, killing civilians, and destroying property. It's not exactly an enviable record and makes the total dead in America a pittance in comparison. The passage of years does not erase the fact that the soil of Europe is soaked in the blood of innocents. BS on this "only in America" crap. You are not superior; in fact, you've had a lot more practice.
[/yelling and screaming]
Lot of outrage and grandstanding here about this issue. It's all justified, of course. Not that you don't know this, but there's an unwritten rule. When a whore was asked if she ever experienced sexual pleasure with a John, she said, "Do cops get tickets?"
My brother in law was a cop. He got fired for speeding, kind of, a long story. If a cop out of uniform is pulled over by a patrol car, there's only one thing he has to do. Be polite and show his badge. No ticket. End of story. That's the way it is.
[yelling and screaming]
Note: In case of monopolized areas, none of this applies.
Every contract I have ever had with a cell phone provider or internet provider or cable provider had a set expected length of contract AND a set date when that contract would be terminated. I may be mis-remembering, but I'm pretty sure NONE of them have been over two years. In EACH case there was some sort of incentive to get a lower price and some sort of incentive to switch carriers. Many times the switch incentive is enough to pay for the termination fees, if any.
It seems to me that if you sign a contract with a company for a couple of years, you were paid to do it with a lower price. If you want to cut and run, you pay and should. This is not anti-consumer, this is stupid-consumer who didn't read the contract and now wants to bail ahead of time.
It's the same with 'bundled' services. They are always trying to get you to 'bundle' everything with one carrier. You take them up on it at your peril. If you never bundle services you keep your versatility intact. yeah, it may cost you more, but are you sheep and go ga ga eyed every time they offer you ten bucks?
Don't get me wrong. My Starband sucked so bad I dumped it the month my contract was up. My Dish Network was so bad and the customer service so God-awful I fired them on the spot and threw the dishes in the dump. But I'll tell ya, my DSL is so reliable and fast that it's worth my while to sign a contract. Absolutely no problems.
Mod parent up.
I really, really hate to play the paranoid card, but I'm beginning to feel that no proffered solution will be deemed correct unless it is walking. And if we walk, we're a whole lot easier to track. I surely do hope I am wrong, but the environmental movement often acts like a puritanical cult which will do ANYTHING to get its way, including suppressing facts and spouting disinformation. It reminds me of the Puritans who were against bear baiting not because it hurt the bear, but because it brought pleasure to the onlookers.
Falcon is WAY smaller than a Saturn.
You're right. In fact, that is exactly what happened on Flight 93. They knew the score.
I went to Turkey a couple of years ago. This was a month before the Iraq invasion. I was told: "Don't criticize the army, the flag, or Ataturk and you'll be fine." I found a nation full of friendly people, friendly specifically to Americans, not Germans, for sure. It has a more advanced infrastructure than Greece; it's Muslim, but secular. There are statues of Ataturk on every street corner. There's been some internal criticism of him recently. He had a mistress and he drank a lot. Oh, dear. My guide's grandfather had a harem.
Has Turkey "been bad." Sure, there's the Armenian genocide they say never happened, for example. You may say that's horrible. So was American genocide of Native Americans, or the Saxon genocide of Anglos after 1066, particularly in southern England where the countryside was 'evacuated' so the King could hunt in his own private forest without the inconvenience of peasant villages. Every country in the world, including yours, has had some pretty bleak moments.
Ataturk is held in high esteem. What did Ataturk do to deserve this? He transformed a nation, installed a relatively modern secular government, reformed the language to use western letters instead of Arabic script, raised the status of women, and did everything he could to drag Turkey from an outmoded and failed Ottoman monarchy model to a western european-oriented nation.
What has Turkey gotten in return? Derision, mostly from Europeans, though you see it in these posts as well. Germans treat Turks as third class people barely better than slaves. They buy up resort areas and then order the locals around, kind of like Americans in Mexico. The EU keeps pushing 'liberal' reforms on Turkey, but it's like Anericans forcing McDonalds on Europe. To a Turk, it feels like the EU won't be happy until everyone is shooting up Smack in the parks, public nudity is typical, there's a legal brothel on every corner, and sex and rock & roll rule--just like Denmark.
The Turks see the Kurds as waging a war of terrorism on the country, yet the EU says Turkey 'represses' the Kurds. To a Turk, it's doublespeak. It's really too bad that europe treats Turkey in such a dismal fashion. Here's a western-oriented Muslim country with a democratic secular government it imposed on itself. It's friendly to Israel, the only Muslim country that is. It's not run by a military dictator like Saddam or Khadafi. It's not run by Islamic extremists like Iran. It's a working democratic Muslim model. And it's fragile.
No, it's not perfect by western standards, though some of that 'perfection' Turks see as decadent hedonism, but it is the one country that shows how such a model could work. One would hope that the western governments and citizens would treat Turkey more carefully and help ensure its economic survival (inflation has been rampant, the currency devalued), rather than treat it as a pariah. The Turks know the attitude of western counties. To a Turk, there is ample evidence that they've been screwed by the west time and again. Even with this knowledge thay are still trying hard to get into the EU, rebuffed at every turn.
Then there are those who are incensed because Turkey takes a dim view of the kind of free speech people here seem to feel is their right. That's the kind that allows you to call anyone you want an asshole because, by God, you have freeom of speech. The kind where you feel good and self-righteous doing that, instead of feeling ashamed for your vulgar behavior.
Those who care to invest some time in understanding might like "Ataturk; the biography of the founder of modern Turky" by Andrew Mango. Woodstock: Overlook Press, 2000. 666pp. isbn: 1585670111.
> We're being played
Microsoft has ALWAYS had student/academic and non-profit deals out there. Look in any University bookstore at very good prices. You don't even have to do that with a student ID card. You can just declare you're a student and buy it online. This is a particularly good deal, but the fact is, I've never paid over $60.00 for a full office suite ever, because Microsoft sells to schools and libraries at a heavy discount.
I feel your pain. I think they all went to trucks. But even there the hottest accessories are EEPROM burners, like Bully Dog, to flash the engine chips for more torque and hp. Gimme a Duramax and Allison to haul some serious sh*t (On biodiesel, of course, recycled.)
Moding this post flamebait is a perfect example of the misuse of the moderation system. As I understand it, moderation is not there simply so you can push your own politial point of view. The moderation itself is a flame. Hopefully others will mod it back up--NOT for its point of view, but because of the injustice. Or perhaps meta-moderation will ctach it. It's really unfortunate slashdot has become so politically correct that you can't have a reasonable discussion with encountering this nonsense. Just for the record, I hope my state says "No" as well.
Well, I'll tell ya. I worked hard for my CNE. I really did. I studied my ass off. It's nothing without experience, too, but the combination was valuable.
I say "was" because the CNE means absolutely diddly squat today. It's not the same world any more. I should probably not even have it on my resume. All it means is "old fart with old skills." The certs are a treadmill. Whatever is latest and in fashion is the one to tout. MCSE. yeah, OK. Fine. Cisco? Getting warmer. But the point is, what's next year? They are nore of a 'continuing education' upgrade kind of thing.
But a BSEE. That has staying power. The certifications mean you are a technician. The degree means you are an engineer.
The statistic I recall said for Windows, you need one admin for every 30 ~ 40 boxes/users. OS X is more along the lines of one for every +100.
I have been trying to pin this statistic down for years. Last statistic I saw was years ago in PC Week which said 1 admin per 120 boxes. Other stuff is simply anecdotal. Do you have a source for this? Anybody? MUCH appreciated if someone can track this down. Very handy when trying to justify staff.
Several people posting here have made the point that libraries are proof that "making available" does not infringe on copyright. Many here might not know that libraries and publishers have historically had an uneasy relationship, but let's leave that for next. Libraries do not (by and large) "copy" material. They buy a legal copy and distribute it more than once. It's the same copy read by many readers. That's not quite the same thing as making a full copy and winding up with two copies instead of one.
In meat-space, this is not cost effective. Even though you have a copy machine right there, to copy each page of a 300 page book at a dime a copy leaves you with 300 unbound pages which exceed 'fair use' guidelines. It's messy and slow, plus the "copy" is not of the same quality as the original. With digital copies, of course, everything changes.
With periodical articles, the issue is different because a typical article is easily copied for a few cents. In these cases libraries (are supposed to) go through the Copyright Clearance Center which collects a fee to be paid to the publisher for the use of that article. This is part of the Interlibrary Loan process, particularly in academic libraries. In the case of online articles that fee is incorporated into the annual fee libraries pay to aggregators such as Infotrac and Proquest. My library, for example, pays over $100,000 per year in annual access fees to online content. This content is then licensed to the residents of my county for their use. In this model, publishers get paid. Most publishers allow online access, but some of them license their work for "in library use only." Example: Some genealogy material that is also sold directly to the consumer, and car repair manuals.
Now, as to the uneasy relationship, publishers and authors have ALWAYS resented that libraries ae institutionalized enough to avoid royalties on "checking out" material more than once. Every once in awhile someone publishes the circulation statistics to shock authors when they do the math and figure they are owed a royalty for every check out. However, libraries are also responsible for so many sales to publishers that it doesn't make sense for publishers to push the issue. When large libraries buy "a" title, they buy several hundred copies. Libraries alone could put Harry Potter on the bestseller lists just on the copies they buy. Also, it is mostly libraries which are responsible for backlist sales for publishers after the public has forgotten they published the book. (And, incidentally, libraries do get bookstore discounts for most purchases, which hovers near 45% for trade books, maybe 10% at best for academic titles.)
The point has also been made that this copyright stuff is just for the USA. Right, and some places it gets even more interesting. As I understand it, Australia has a scheme known as the "public lending right" (Any Australians who know about this please jump in and clarify if I get it wrong!) There they figure out how many copies of books published in Australia are in libraries, perform some sort of calculation, and the government pays the publishers.
If it's vaporware you could call them farty, though.
Yup. It's all those SUV's and coal-fired electric plants that have caused the polar icecap on Mars to melt.
This is just a theory, a possibility. I don't insist upon it. I'm just trying to fit what we know into the framework without idle speculation that Apple paid money to Cisco, which I doubt. Arguments that they did are based on thin air. We do not know.
What if Apple used the Tom Sawyer Gambit?
Apple knows, of course, that Cisco has "the trademark" for iPhone, but it isn't a very good one. Why not? Because Cisco inherited it and did nothing with it. I suspect it was a "TM" trademark, not a "R-circle" trademark. A "TM" trademark is provisional. Once you get it you must demonstrate that you are serious by USING that trademark in INTERSTATE COMMERCE. If you do, then after a certain number of years you get on the coveted "register," (hence "R" with a circle around it.) Once you are on "the register" with your trademark, it's a lot harder to unseat you from owning that mark. But it's a "you use or you lose" proposition. Until you get there, you are vulnerable to losing the mark altogether. Apple knows this, too.
Apple would also like very much to be completely interoperable with Cisco equipment. Why? Because Cisco dominates the corporate market big time, and has a huge segment of the consumer market with LinkSys. But for one reason or another, Cisco isn't really that interested in Apple. Their focus is elsewhere, though VOIP is big, they just aren't thinking Apple is a potential player here. Apple can strut all it wants, but Cisco is looking the other way thinking Apple is just a toy.
Hmm, how to get Cisco's attention? Dangle "iPhone" in front of them like a carrot on a stick. "Hey, guys! I got your iPhone. Come chase me!" Big announcement, slap it up there in lights, and Apple runs like hell, but not too fast.
Bang!
Cisco bites the Apple, just like Eve, and sues. Publicity for both parties, bad or good, just spell my name right. Apple grins, begins negotiations. You'll notice it never got to court. "Hey, Cisco! You didn't use the mark. Your loss is our gain, but hey. We'll cooperate. How bout if we agree to partner up with you to make sure iPhone is compatible with all your, you know, stuff? We're gonna sell a billion of these things. Wanna be part of it? Oh, and you can keep using the mark, of course, if you have a product to stick it on, (snicker)."
So here's Apple, like Tom Sawyer, munching on a Red Delicious while his frie..., er, business partners, paint the fence for him.
A number of posts here are alluding to Apple's payment of large amounts of money to Cisco. They argue that Apple "lost" because of this large payment of money, in one post up to $4 billion. My question is:
What money? How much money? How do you know? Where's the evidence?
Or are you just basing your arguments on idle speculation of what you wish would have happened?
into which they can snort iSnot.
Apple gets caught trying to steal another company's trademark and has to beg to be able to use it and ends up paying big time to do so.
Where is the evidence? How much money? How do you know?
Yeah, 'total victory' for Apple. What a pathetic loser that you put that in bold!
And what a pathetic loser would AC this in the first place and not stand up to it, plus base an argument on air. It's fine to speculate on whether money changed hands, but to castigate a post based on total speculation is not logical.
Given that seti@home runs unattended usually on computers that are on anyway, I suspect the energy and lost productivity wasted on slasdot posts is way higher than the "waste" of seti.
Geeks couldn't get laid.
It's not a troll. No one has the "right" to exceed the speed limit. You rights are not being violated if you are prevented from doing seventy in a sixty.