There are a large number of blatant inaccuracies in the summary postedon slashdot - makes me wonder if anyone even bothered reading the TOS before whinging?
(1) There is NOTHING in the TOS to stop you using anon email - you may not impersonate OTHERS, but it does not stop you using anoon email.
(2) "Sprint can access your house at any time"?? No, Sprint,like almost every other provider of services (inc phone, gas, electricity, etc) have the right to access your premisis DURINGNORMAL WORKING HOURS in order to install, remove, upgrade or repair the equipoment - certainly not, as some paranoid posters would have you believe, to spy on you! What they aresaying is that you have to let them in, you can't tell them to piss off if they come to remove the equipment, nor can you tell them to go away if they come to install, for example. Nope, nothing there about them having the right to breakin, though. More paranoia from those not reading the post.
(3) Their list of stuff you can't send, if you READ IT PROPERLY, explains that wehat they are saying is that you can't do anything illegal. They even SAY THAT. How hard is that to understand, hmm? Doesn't sound too unreasonable to me - if they DIDN'T say you can't do that, then they have no legal means to kick you off if you break the law.
I REALLY wish people woudl read posts before flaming away - a good 50% of the posts so far are rendered irrelevant if you read the original TOS!!!
Can you post a URL to any other site which uses galleries to show the ACTUAL objects for which you are bidding in an online auction in the manner which EBay does, then, please?
Note, the site must use galleries of the ACTUAL objects up for auction, not pictures of "similar" or "representative" objects, but the ACTUAL object (which can be very important for collectible items, for example, enabling you to see the actual condition).
After all, you say this is in wide use over the internet, so you won't have any difficulty, right?
No, a URL to just any old site with a gallery will not suffice. It must be a site which already implements the SEPCIFICS of the patent applied for (and no, you can't point to ebay 'cos that's cheating;-) ).
I strongly suspect you can not come up with such a URL, and that the patent application is not "in wide use over the internet", therefore your point (b) is incorrect, afaict.
As for your point (a), that is NOT a relevant criteria for any patent - just 'cos it is obvious doesn't mean you can't patent it - hell, almost everything is "obvious" once someone has done it for the first time!
Please note that I make no comments as to whether or not the patent ought to be granted. I am just trying to point out that ebay are not trying to patent as wide a claim as many kneejerkers round here would have us believe.
How about you go and read up about the patent eBay has applied for THEN come back - you see, the patent is SPECIFIC to online auctions (in fact, not even THAT general!), so your pr0n galleries are irrelevant to the patent.
I just LOVE the way so many people round here these days post without acquainting thenselves with the basic facts on the subject first:(
JRR was Catholic to the core and highly judgemental? Sorry, but the two are mutually exclusive.
Whatever happened to "Judge not lest ye be judged" and other such instruction from the bible, hmm?
As for the LOTR saga "promoting Catholicism and the Ten Commandments", then how do you explain that a pretty large part of the story is based upon the Good Guys STEALING, hmm (Thou shalt not steal)?
Then what about all the bloodshed and killing (Thou shalt not kill)?
Nope, sorry, you need to try harder if you are going to make a convincing troll, I'm afraid.
Call this Off Topic if you like, but reading about yaqub0r's setup made me smile to myself - 3 gfx cards?! Just to run different screens in different resolutions?
Hell, the Amiga has offered multiple screens at different resolutions and bit-depths for the last 15 years, folks!
Sure, you need to flip between the screens (simple mouseclick or keypress), but to be totally honest, I do not believe that anyone can productivly USE 3 monitors simultaneously to do different things - you will be concentrating on one of the 3 at any one time.
Just my 2p-worth - interesting to see how technology in the year 2000 goes into overkill to simulate what some of use were doing since the 1980s
": It means that planets in the "habitable" zone do exist"
Speaking assomeone who is currently on Earth, aplanet very much in the "habitable" zone, all I can say is "well, duh!":)
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Actually, if you bothered to read the article, then you would have realised that you can still buy the $50 version which does not have adverts, so you have no reason to complain...
(At least that WAS the case a few years ago - thanksfully the UK had less severe restrictions so one of our radio stations was able to tell us this:) )
Oh dear, poor little AC - feeling all insecure, are we?
Did the nasty man make you think there was something outside your US? There there...
You are right - the "whole silicon industry" is based in the US (well, apart from the large portion of it which is based outside the US, but don't you worry your pretty little head about that part - if you keep your head under the covers, maybe it'll go away?).
However, the WHOLE silicon industry (including the fraction which IS US-based) is completely metric and has been for goodness-knows how long.
So what was the point of your little tantrum, oh insecure one?
"he brought up the point of how you can use serial numbers like 777-77777 or 000-00000 in lots of the Microsoft software, surely a company of this size couldn't make this mistake by accident.. "
The way that M$ software checks to see if a serial number is valid is to do an extremely simplistic calculation based on each digit in the number you enter.
What this means is that there are, for each product, 1,000,000 possible valid serial numbers (1 in 10 of all possible combinations, basically).
It's just that the common one most people know is 1111111.
Incidentally, 1111111 and similar will no longer work on the '2000 range, because M$ have changed their checking system.
I guess the closest example to look at is that of China, where it is well known that you can get most things counterfeited, be it clothes, watches or software or CDs or DVDs etc.
Companies complain about the piracy, and from time to time there are token raids to shut them down, but they just move on and start up elsewhere.
No government has decided to make anything formal or make any diplomatic protests about it.
However, this is probably still sufficiently different from the examples being raised by the poster, because in the new examples, access to said data is much much easier (OK, I can get a CD stuffed full of pirate software for $10 in Hong Kong, but it costs a lot to get there!).
Personally, I would expect that M$ et al would go after those whom they suspectedof downloading the pirate software etc, rather than the servers themselves in those cases?
Now, how they could work out exactly WHO was downloading is a different question, of course!
(Surely M$ wouldn't stoop to organising sustained DDoS attacks on such servers, would they?)
Well, whilst it is a rather excessive solution, it could stop your users from receiving spam from unscrupulous ISPs - you just block all email from said ISPs:)
Slashdot Mirror
wtf?
Seattle isn't that far from Sri Lanka?!?!
Have you ever actually SEEN a map of the world?
Sri Lanka is nearly half way round the globe from Seattle!!!
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Yes, paranoid.
Yes, they have access even after you terminate your agreement, SO THEY CAN COME AND REMOVE THEIR EQUIPMENT.
Duh!!!
There are a large number of blatant inaccuracies in the summary postedon slashdot - makes me wonder if anyone even bothered reading the TOS before whinging?
(1) There is NOTHING in the TOS to stop you using anon email - you may not impersonate OTHERS, but it does not stop you using anoon email.
(2) "Sprint can access your house at any time"?? No, Sprint,like almost every other provider of services (inc phone, gas, electricity, etc) have the right to access your premisis DURINGNORMAL WORKING HOURS in order to install, remove, upgrade or repair the equipoment - certainly not, as some paranoid posters would have you believe, to spy on you! What they aresaying is that you have to let them in, you can't tell them to piss off if they come to remove the equipment, nor can you tell them to go away if they come to install, for example. Nope, nothing there about them having the right to breakin, though. More paranoia from those not reading the post.
(3) Their list of stuff you can't send, if you READ IT PROPERLY, explains that wehat they are saying is that you can't do anything illegal. They even SAY THAT. How hard is that to understand, hmm? Doesn't sound too unreasonable to me - if they DIDN'T say you can't do that, then they have no legal means to kick you off if you break the law.
I REALLY wish people woudl read posts before flaming away - a good 50% of the posts so far are rendered irrelevant if you read the original TOS!!!
--
Can you post a URL to any other site which uses galleries to show the ACTUAL objects for which you are bidding in an online auction in the manner which EBay does, then, please?
;-) ).
Note, the site must use galleries of the ACTUAL objects up for auction, not pictures of "similar" or "representative" objects, but the ACTUAL object (which can be very important for collectible items, for example, enabling you to see the actual condition).
After all, you say this is in wide use over the internet, so you won't have any difficulty, right?
No, a URL to just any old site with a gallery will not suffice. It must be a site which already implements the SEPCIFICS of the patent applied for (and no, you can't point to ebay 'cos that's cheating
I strongly suspect you can not come up with such a URL, and that the patent application is not "in wide use over the internet", therefore your point (b) is incorrect, afaict.
As for your point (a), that is NOT a relevant criteria for any patent - just 'cos it is obvious doesn't mean you can't patent it - hell, almost everything is "obvious" once someone has done it for the first time!
Please note that I make no comments as to whether or not the patent ought to be granted. I am just trying to point out that ebay are not trying to patent as wide a claim as many kneejerkers round here would have us believe.
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Uh-hu.
:(
How about you go and read up about the patent eBay has applied for THEN come back - you see, the patent is SPECIFIC to online auctions (in fact, not even THAT general!), so your pr0n galleries are irrelevant to the patent.
I just LOVE the way so many people round here these days post without acquainting thenselves with the basic facts on the subject first
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What? Not a single 19th century CD? How dare they! Just because there is no such thing doesn't mean they should not be counted! ;-)
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JRR was Catholic to the core and highly judgemental? Sorry, but the two are mutually exclusive.
Whatever happened to "Judge not lest ye be judged" and other such instruction from the bible, hmm?
As for the LOTR saga "promoting Catholicism and the Ten Commandments", then how do you explain that a pretty large part of the story is based upon the Good Guys STEALING, hmm (Thou shalt not steal)?
Then what about all the bloodshed and killing (Thou shalt not kill)?
Nope, sorry, you need to try harder if you are going to make a convincing troll, I'm afraid.
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Call this Off Topic if you like, but reading about yaqub0r's setup made me smile to myself - 3 gfx cards?! Just to run different screens in different resolutions?
Hell, the Amiga has offered multiple screens at different resolutions and bit-depths for the last 15 years, folks!
Sure, you need to flip between the screens (simple mouseclick or keypress), but to be totally honest, I do not believe that anyone can productivly USE 3 monitors simultaneously to do different things - you will be concentrating on one of the 3 at any one time.
Just my 2p-worth - interesting to see how technology in the year 2000 goes into overkill to simulate what some of use were doing since the 1980s
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Informative?
Looks like a certain moderator needs to check the links before moderating!
": It means that planets in the "habitable" zone do exist" :)
Speaking assomeone who is currently on Earth, aplanet very much in the "habitable" zone, all I can say is "well, duh!"
--
Actually, if you bothered to read the article, then you would have realised that you can still buy the $50 version which does not have adverts, so you have no reason to complain...
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Erm, there won't be any Olympics in 2010.
2008 and 2012, yes, but not 2010...
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Insightful?!?!
He compares one AVERAGE with another EXTREME and extrapolates a completely invalid conclusion and you call this INSIGHTFUL?!?!
...the book will be available for free download. After all, information wants to be free, right?
Erm, smeg IS a word anyway, even before Red Dwarf came along.
:)
Certainly, it was a term we used to use in University back in 1984, for example...
It is a contraction of "smegma", which refers to that white secretion which builds up under the foreskin.
It is also, rather amusingly, a Brand Name for a manufacturer of fridges, dishwashers and other kitchen appliances! Seriously
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They are -
:) )
shit
piss
balls
wank
fuck
cunt
tits
(At least that WAS the case a few years ago - thanksfully the UK had less severe restrictions so one of our radio stations was able to tell us this
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Oh dear, poor little AC - feeling all insecure, are we?
Did the nasty man make you think there was something outside your US? There there...
You are right - the "whole silicon industry" is based in the US (well, apart from the large portion of it which is based outside the US, but don't you worry your pretty little head about that part - if you keep your head under the covers, maybe it'll go away?).
However, the WHOLE silicon industry (including the fraction which IS US-based) is completely metric and has been for goodness-knows how long.
So what was the point of your little tantrum, oh insecure one?
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Goodness knows what the censorware software woul dmake of any websites for the UK town of sCUNThorpe, then...
Escuse me - how is this any more off-topic than the 3 higher levels of posts in this thread (including the one given a score or +3)?!
*sigh*
The way that M$ software checks to see if a serial number is valid is to do an extremely simplistic calculation based on each digit in the number you enter.
What this means is that there are, for each product, 1,000,000 possible valid serial numbers (1 in 10 of all possible combinations, basically).
It's just that the common one most people know is 1111111.
Incidentally, 1111111 and similar will no longer work on the '2000 range, because M$ have changed their checking system.
*cough*1111112*cough*
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Difficult one to say, really.
I guess the closest example to look at is that of China, where it is well known that you can get most things counterfeited, be it clothes, watches or software or CDs or DVDs etc.
Companies complain about the piracy, and from time to time there are token raids to shut them down, but they just move on and start up elsewhere.
No government has decided to make anything formal or make any diplomatic protests about it.
However, this is probably still sufficiently different from the examples being raised by the poster, because in the new examples, access to said data is much much easier (OK, I can get a CD stuffed full of pirate software for $10 in Hong Kong, but it costs a lot to get there!).
Personally, I would expect that M$ et al would go after those whom they suspectedof downloading the pirate software etc, rather than the servers themselves in those cases?
Now, how they could work out exactly WHO was downloading is a different question, of course!
(Surely M$ wouldn't stoop to organising sustained DDoS attacks on such servers, would they?)
Anyway, just MHO, do with it as you will!
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All this proves is that some voters are too stupid to even be able to use a clearly-markedform.
:(
How the hell are they supposed to be able to select a suitable president if they can't use a simple form?
(And yes, I've seenthe form - simple enough to follow if you have an ounce of intelligence, imnsho).
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Why?
Just because they decided for themselves whom they felt best to vote for, rather than voting for who YOU wanted them to vote for?
Interesting...
Hint - the USA is supposedly a DEMOCRACY, Mr Coward, which means that they can vote for who the hell they want, not who YOU tell them to. Neat, huh?
(Not being from the USA, I personally couldn't care which way the vote goes, mind you :) )
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Heh!
:/
The sad thing is, there are people out there who actually *believe* that!
Well, whilst it is a rather excessive solution, it could stop your users from receiving spam from unscrupulous ISPs - you just block all email from said ISPs :)