Keep dreaming. Do you know how hard it is to collect on a small claim's court judgement? They just ignore the summons, they ignore the judgement and then it's up to the winner to try to collect. You'll spend more than $35 trying to collect.
It's not just eyecandy. It's a vital step to desktop acceptance. I've installed linux for non techies on their machines. I showed them how to use it, shoewed them how it differend from windows, and what's the first thing I hear from them when it starts up? "Oh, I don't know if I can do this... look at all those lines scrolling by...."
Microsoft learned a long time ago that 99% of their users don't understand or care about those lines scrolling by, and in fact it intimidates them. It is generally not considered a good idea to intimidate your users. It just makes them not want to use your system.
Sure, in the perfect world nobody would be intimidated, and everybody would understand implicity that they really don't need to pay attention to most of those messages in most cases. But the world's no perfect, and neither are the people in it.
The goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to
building a peaceful and better world by educating youth
through sport practised without discrimination of any
kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual
understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity
and fair play.
Apparently, discrimination doesn't include websites...
I by a GeekBrand(tm) DVD player. Geekbrand is licensed and approved by the DVD-CCA DVD player. GeekBrand's CEO pisses off the DVD-CCA by failing to call them "your impereal majesties". All future DVD releases don't have the Geekbrand key on them.
This leaves me with a legally purchased DVD player that will not show any new DVD's. I am then forced to either buy a an "approved" player, or circumvent the encryption to view legally obtained movies on my legally obtained player.
I understand perfectly. The explict promise was that NOBODY including other parts of the government would see my answers. Not the INS, not the IRS, not the FBI, not anybody except for the bean counters and statisticians in the Census Bureau who wouldn't release any of the information except in a statistical and anonymous sense.
Of course, if you were lying on your Census form, or on your tax return, then you might have reason to be worried...
Speaking of lying, what about all the promises that Census information was confidential? Are they allowed to simply ignore promises when it's convienent.
A lot of people were really pissed off when etoys.com went under and sold their contact list despite promises to the contrary. Why should the government not have to face such scrutiny?
The fact is if you promise to keep information confidential you should keep it confidential, not change your mind whenever it's convienent.
Can it not still be a "free sample", even if you do ask for it?
It can, but this postal law specifically refers to unsolicited items. It's to keep companies from sending you items then demanding you pay for them or use some service of theirs. It's to keep mail order companies honest.
This doesn't apply to all cuecat readers, only the ones sent to readers of Wired and Forbes. If you went to Rat Shack or their website and asked for one this doesn't apply to you.
The form requires the address of digital Convergence, which can easily be found on their web page -- however if you're lazy it's here too:
9101 N Central Expy.
6th Floor
Dallas, TX 75231-5914
further it asks what this is pertaining to -- one of them is "Harassment (goods ordered without consent)" while this sounds right, this pertains to being charged for a product you didn't order instead of receiving a misleading product.
I believe what you would want to enter in the form is "Misrepresentation of Product / Service"
Trademarks are the only type of IP with this requirement. If they are having issues with the open source drivers saying "cuecat", then they should just SAY SO and I'm sure that we could come up with a brand new name for the drivers that imply no public association with the people who
developed the Radio Shack software.
That's it! That's where that 5 year figure came from! It took 5 years for the MarketDroids to come up with a name!
If you're not using their software, they're not snooping on you.
And that's why they're pissed about unauthorized software. If you aren't using their software, they've essentially just given you a free barcode scanner out of the goodness of their hearts. Big corporations aren't much interested in the "goodness of their hearts" angle. They're pissed that people are writing software that does an end run around their cute little information gathering device. It all boils down to the fact that they don't think you should be allowed to use their hardware without using their software.
My father-in-law gave me his reader (which some magazine helpfully mailed him), and I was going to use it under Linux, but I've changed my mind. If I want a barcode reader, I'll go buy one that's free of this kind of crap.
Ah, but you see yours is free of that kind of crap. According to federal law (which would supercede the "you're just borrowing our hardware, and you're forbidden from reverse engineering our hardware" provision of their license.) any unsolicited item mailed to you may be considered a GIFT. As a gift, it is 100% yours, and you don't have to worry about the provisions that claim the hardware is really theirs.
This however wouldn't apply to the ones picked up from Radio Crack.
Personally I can think of some really fun stuff to do with this information.
Find out someone's unique ID, hack a program to send their unique ID instead of yours and then start scanning *LOTS* of barcodes from really raunchy porn. All of a sudden it looks to all the mass-marketers that the person you got the ID from is a crazed porn addict.
Even better, just hack a program to send a random Identifier. See, their information is only worth anything as long as it is percieved to be accurate. If customers buying the list know that probably half the stuff is bullshit nobody's gonna buy it. Sour the milk so to speak.
A friend of mine pointed out that Cuecats are being sent to various subscribers of Wired and Forbes and possibly other magazines as a promotion.
Now IIRC, federal law states that any unsolicited merchandise received by mail is a gift. This federal law would supercede any click through license agreement. It's no longer theirs, and you're free to do with the hardware as you see fit.
It's simple. They give the software away for free, but you have to register at their website and give them an e-mail address and fill out some demographic information. That way they can make all sorts of fun lists indexed by e-mail address of what products interest you in the Radioshack Catalog, and what other items you are scanning. It's one big demographic information gatherer.
Unauthorized software allows the possibility of an end-run around their demographic gathering. It destroys their poorly thought out business model. They don't gather this information, they don't make money.
I've always been confused by this argument. Just because there's something better, does it mean we stop using the older technology? Now I would imagine any sort of faster than light communication would require huge amounts of energy to implement, so why would a civilization bother using FTL communications on the surface of one of their planets?
I can understand that a truly powerful spacefaring civilization might use FTL communications, but I think it would be stupid of us to assume they'd ONLY use FTL communications.
Most states (Including Florida and Texas where the system is likely located) have Felony Murder statutes. Which state (in essence) that any death that occurs as a result of a commision of any Felony, regardless of whether that death is premeditated, or even intentional can be tried and punished as First Degree Murder.
If you rob a jewlery store and some old guy dies of a heart attack from the shock of the robbery, you're on the hook for First Degree Murder.
I have a feeling that if you're fiddling with systems that monitor an Astronaut's vitals and one of them dies up there you can damn well bet you're going to be tried for Felony Murder.
I'd love to see ads on ALL government websites -- let's see the government cut costs by taking a page out of the book of private industry.
Personally, I think that an ad for condoms (or Cigars?) would go real nicely on the presidential websites at www.whitehouse.gov.
But all joking aside, why not require government websites to have a banner ad on their websites? The extra income could allow for either increased services or lower national debt, whichever the ever-changing mood of Congress desires.
Maybe a bridge removing/anonmysing the user would be better.
Check out Freenet it's a file sharing system that shows some promise in the anonymity area.
It allows for encryption, and implicity hides from the user what server a file is coming from. I could go into more details, but the fellows there can probably do a much better job.
Slashdot Mirror
Keep dreaming. Do you know how hard it is to collect on a small claim's court judgement? They just ignore the summons, they ignore the judgement and then it's up to the winner to try to collect. You'll spend more than $35 trying to collect.
Personally, I can't wait until one of the teams starts watching the live broadcast of the other teams's miked huddle or team conference.
How much strategy can you talk on the field when you know that the other team could be potentially listening to every word you say?
It's not just eyecandy. It's a vital step to desktop acceptance. I've installed linux for non techies on their machines. I showed them how to use it, shoewed them how it differend from windows, and what's the first thing I hear from them when it starts up? "Oh, I don't know if I can do this... look at all those lines scrolling by...."
Microsoft learned a long time ago that 99% of their users don't understand or care about those lines scrolling by, and in fact it intimidates them. It is generally not considered a good idea to intimidate your users. It just makes them not want to use your system.
Sure, in the perfect world nobody would be intimidated, and everybody would understand implicity that they really don't need to pay attention to most of those messages in most cases. But the world's no perfect, and neither are the people in it.
From the Olympic Charter:
The goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to
building a peaceful and better world by educating youth
through sport practised without discrimination of any
kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual
understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity
and fair play.
Apparently, discrimination doesn't include websites...
I by a GeekBrand(tm) DVD player. Geekbrand is licensed and approved by the DVD-CCA DVD player. GeekBrand's CEO pisses off the DVD-CCA by failing to call them "your impereal majesties". All future DVD releases don't have the Geekbrand key on them.
This leaves me with a legally purchased DVD player that will not show any new DVD's. I am then forced to either buy a an "approved" player, or circumvent the encryption to view legally obtained movies on my legally obtained player.
I'm not sure why you'd make up something like this.
For the record he did say CNN, not CNN.com. It may well be that CNN is reporting it and CNN.com hasn't updated yet.
I understand perfectly. The explict promise was that NOBODY including other parts of the government would see my answers. Not the INS, not the IRS, not the FBI, not anybody except for the bean counters and statisticians in the Census Bureau who wouldn't release any of the information except in a statistical and anonymous sense.
Of course, if you were lying on your Census form, or on your tax return, then you might have reason to be worried...
Speaking of lying, what about all the promises that Census information was confidential? Are they allowed to simply ignore promises when it's convienent.
A lot of people were really pissed off when etoys.com went under and sold their contact list despite promises to the contrary. Why should the government not have to face such scrutiny?
The fact is if you promise to keep information confidential you should keep it confidential, not change your mind whenever it's convienent.
"Are you using your cell phone?"
"No, I'm just an idiot -- easy mistake."
To quote the first line of the linked page.
Initial written comments in this rulemaking were due February 17, 2000.
Negatory. It was not part of my order, I had no chance to decline, and I was not given information about it coming at the time of my order.
It is by federal law a free gift, and they may not try to enforce their "you don't own this, it's a loan from digital convergence" bullshit.
Can it not still be a "free sample", even if you do ask for it?
It can, but this postal law specifically refers to unsolicited items. It's to keep companies from sending you items then demanding you pay for them or use some service of theirs. It's to keep mail order companies honest.
This doesn't apply to all cuecat readers, only the ones sent to readers of Wired and Forbes. If you went to Rat Shack or their website and asked for one this doesn't apply to you.
The form requires the address of digital Convergence, which can easily be found on their web page -- however if you're lazy it's here too:
9101 N Central Expy.
6th Floor
Dallas, TX 75231-5914
further it asks what this is pertaining to -- one of them is "Harassment (goods ordered without consent)" while this sounds right, this pertains to being charged for a product you didn't order instead of receiving a misleading product.
I believe what you would want to enter in the form is "Misrepresentation of Product / Service"
I could swear my clock says September 13th, not April first.
Trademarks are the only type of IP with this requirement. If they are having issues with the open source drivers saying "cuecat", then they should just SAY SO and I'm sure that we could come up with a brand new name for the drivers that imply no public association with the people who
developed the Radio Shack software.
That's it! That's where that 5 year figure came from! It took 5 years for the MarketDroids to come up with a name!
If you're not using their software, they're not snooping on you.
And that's why they're pissed about unauthorized software. If you aren't using their software, they've essentially just given you a free barcode scanner out of the goodness of their hearts. Big corporations aren't much interested in the "goodness of their hearts" angle. They're pissed that people are writing software that does an end run around their cute little information gathering device. It all boils down to the fact that they don't think you should be allowed to use their hardware without using their software.
My father-in-law gave me his reader (which some magazine helpfully mailed him), and I was going to use it under Linux, but I've changed my mind. If I want a barcode reader, I'll go buy one that's free of this kind of crap.
Ah, but you see yours is free of that kind of crap. According to federal law (which would supercede the "you're just borrowing our hardware, and you're forbidden from reverse engineering our hardware" provision of their license.) any unsolicited item mailed to you may be considered a GIFT. As a gift, it is 100% yours, and you don't have to worry about the provisions that claim the hardware is really theirs.
This however wouldn't apply to the ones picked up from Radio Crack.
Personally I can think of some really fun stuff to do with this information.
Find out someone's unique ID, hack a program to send their unique ID instead of yours and then start scanning *LOTS* of barcodes from really raunchy porn. All of a sudden it looks to all the mass-marketers that the person you got the ID from is a crazed porn addict.
Even better, just hack a program to send a random Identifier. See, their information is only worth anything as long as it is percieved to be accurate. If customers buying the list know that probably half the stuff is bullshit nobody's gonna buy it. Sour the milk so to speak.
BIG FAT IANAL
A friend of mine pointed out that Cuecats are being sent to various subscribers of Wired and Forbes and possibly other magazines as a promotion.
Now IIRC, federal law states that any unsolicited merchandise received by mail is a gift. This federal law would supercede any click through license agreement. It's no longer theirs, and you're free to do with the hardware as you see fit.
It's simple. They give the software away for free, but you have to register at their website and give them an e-mail address and fill out some demographic information. That way they can make all sorts of fun lists indexed by e-mail address of what products interest you in the Radioshack Catalog, and what other items you are scanning. It's one big demographic information gatherer.
Unauthorized software allows the possibility of an end-run around their demographic gathering. It destroys their poorly thought out business model. They don't gather this information, they don't make money.
I've always been confused by this argument. Just because there's something better, does it mean we stop using the older technology? Now I would imagine any sort of faster than light communication would require huge amounts of energy to implement, so why would a civilization bother using FTL communications on the surface of one of their planets?
I can understand that a truly powerful spacefaring civilization might use FTL communications, but I think it would be stupid of us to assume they'd ONLY use FTL communications.
Ever tried using a gas-powered engine with no atmosphere? Just won't work.
Say it with me everybody: IANAL.
Most states (Including Florida and Texas where the system is likely located) have Felony Murder statutes. Which state (in essence) that any death that occurs as a result of a commision of any Felony, regardless of whether that death is premeditated, or even intentional can be tried and punished as First Degree Murder.
If you rob a jewlery store and some old guy dies of a heart attack from the shock of the robbery, you're on the hook for First Degree Murder.
I have a feeling that if you're fiddling with systems that monitor an Astronaut's vitals and one of them dies up there you can damn well bet you're going to be tried for Felony Murder.
Who cares?
I'd love to see ads on ALL government websites -- let's see the government cut costs by taking a page out of the book of private industry.
Personally, I think that an ad for condoms (or Cigars?) would go real nicely on the presidential websites at www.whitehouse.gov.
But all joking aside, why not require government websites to have a banner ad on their websites? The extra income could allow for either increased services or lower national debt, whichever the ever-changing mood of Congress desires.
Maybe a bridge removing/anonmysing the user would be better.
Check out Freenet it's a file sharing system that shows some promise in the anonymity area.
It allows for encryption, and implicity hides from the user what server a file is coming from. I could go into more details, but the fellows there can probably do a much better job.