One of the tactics of a good scammer is to muddy the waters enough that a legal attack would get mired down in the details.
The terms of the 'contract' provide that the scammer can demand $50k. For them to get it, they'd have to come after you, which means you're the defendant. The battle would cost them a great deal, and the outcome would be uncertain at best. It would have to be an act of revenge more than an attempt to collect actual damages, and I'm pretty confident that a judge would toss it on first amendment grounds anyway.
From the site: Page Creators has ceased to operate. Route questions to pcoffice@pagecreators.net.
I suggest that we all take them up on their admonition to route questions to that email address. In fact, I have, oh, a couple of hundred questions that I'd like answered. I've always wanted to know the capital of North Dakota for example.
I'm sorry, but they are a commercial company and they have the right to put these terms in their contract. In fact, guess what! They already have. So QED on that one, I'm afraid.
Sure, you can put any nonsensical thing you want into a contract. It doesn't mean that such terms are enforceable. I could insert terms into a contract that give me the right to administer a severe beating to any signing party who pisses me off, but guess what would happen if I demanded a court enforce that? I'd like to see this company just try to get one of their $50,000 judgements for the simple act of posting a review on the net. The velocity with which it was tossed out of court would create quite the breeze.
I don't think so. It would be quite an expensive collection. I think there were 20 (or maybe even more) hour-long episodes. The last time I saw it, I think it was broadcast on one of the specialty channels like The Learning Channel or similar.
I saw this series when it was originally telecast, and I was an adult at the time. I didn't like it much. There was too much trembling awe at the majesty of the heavens and not enough factual information. I'll be interested to see what others who saw it as kids think of it now. Now, for a science series that really was well done, I don't think that you can beat The Mechanical Universe. If you ever get a chance, catch it.
Sure the calculus stuff may be a pain in the ass... If you can't make it through a CS degree, then I'd question if you've really got what it takes to be a programmer unless you're just shooting to do business programming.
<RANT>Calculus?! You know how much calculus I've used since I got my degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science? Zero. Frankly, if all someone wants to do is be a programmer, I question whether college is even necessary. It might get you your first job if you have nothing else to point to, but I'd hire someone who could show me a skillfully-rendered application that s/he wrote, degree or no. At least 75% of college is useless as far as contributing to later work. That tripe about forcing you to take general-ed classes in order to produce a more well-rounded individual is just their way of getting bodies into those departments so that they don't shrink to nothing. College is a racket. </RANT>
By the way, calculus was a pain. It was only years later that I discovered that it was my teachers, not me or the material. If you really want to understand calculus, get a book, Calculus Made Easy, by Silvanus P. Thompson. It was written in the early 1900s and has been republished in recent years. It was thru reading this book that the scales finally fell from my eyes.
Your requirements are somewhat in conflict, as you wouldn't need anything like what you described for telephone conversation. If what you're looking for is a headset for telephone use, let me recommend the VTech VT1511. It's 900 MHz, all electronics are contained in the headset (i.e., no additional stuff hanging from your belt), it has a boom mic that rotates up out of the way when not in use, the earpieces sort of hover near the ear and don't cover them so you can hear other sounds in the room, and it has a little dialpad that communicates with the headset via infrared. Very very nice unit which I use all the time.
The "questions" I'm seeing from other SlashDotters make this sound like a group therapy session. They start with a monolog about how alienated and difficult a childhood the questioner had, and typically want to know is this 15 year old having the same problems. It's discouraging that there's so much unhappiness among our number. Although I had many of these same childhood experiences, I didn't consider them problems. I was different, knew it, and it didn't matter. I suppose there were 'cool' kids around who thought I was a freak, but I must have been oblivious, so I didn't end up scarred as many seem to have been. Part of it may have been that I had a job starting at age 12, so I didn't have a lot of time to feel left out. Perhaps the secret is having something to do so that you're not aware of what you're missing.
Bluetooth might be the best way to control these modules. It's going to be so widely used that chips will be ultracheap. There'd be no need then to have wiring between the modules, and it would make control from outside easy (at least for short ranges).
This was actually quite instructive for the young man. Now he knows what it means to give power to those who have no business wielding it. The U.S. today, particularly in the schools, is full of petty despots who make up the rules as they go along. There was the case of the girl whose school suspended her for eating in a subway station. There was the youg boy suspended for having a drawing of a gun. The list of the capricious (and frequently unconstitutional) exercise of authority goes on and on. Perhaps this particular case will serve to educate him and others on the dangers of power in the wrong hands.
Flansburg no doubt owns Flansburg's Y2K Emporium and is sitting on $10,000,000 of unsold goods. This is his bid to take another crack at producing a crisis in order to move that crap out of his warehouse. At least, that seems a much more plausible reason than the twaddle he's spouting in the article.
If I were a cell manufacturer, I'd include a statement with every phone: "There is an as-yet-indeterminant risk of literally frying your brain if you hold this device to your head when using it. If you want to be safer, we suggest you either use a headset, or purchase one of our expensive new Bluetooth-enabled phones with a snazzy wireless headset. If you ignore our warning and develop noggin rot, it's your own damned fault." It would have to be put in more genteel and dense legalese, but words to this effect. (Of course, when voters aren't responsible for not punching their ballots, this may or may not save them from liability...)
If I happen to leave the windows open in my house, I do not want strangers "for my own good" climbing in the window, poking around, checking the locks, and then "fixing" anything they find. I'm going to throw their butt in jail just like any other criminal.
This white hat cracker discussion reminds me of a sting the police conducted here a few Christmases ago. They put a new television in the back seat of a car and parked it unlocked in a shopping center lot. They were unsuccessful because passersby kept noticing the situation and would lock the car door. People will attempt to do good deeds, even if, as in your case and theirs, it's unwanted.
How much do you want to bet that the standard contains a protocol for sending your playlist and any watermarks to the RIAA? (Am I just cynical or have I gone over the line to paranoia? Hard to decide).
Q. What scientific questions can be answered by the data that we clickworkers are providing?
A. The first stage of this pilot project is only trying to answer some meta-science questions:
Is the public ready, willing, and able to help science?
Many years ago, volunteers (mostly housewives) were enlisted to help analyze thousands of photos of cloud-chamber tracings. Scientists were looking for evidence of a particular particle, and in those days only human inspection could be used. To make sure that the volunteers would find the trace if it showed up, photos with phoney traces were periodically inserted. As I recall, the program was considered a success. It seems to me that the question has been answered. And I would also think that a similar process of inserting known items to make sure the volunteers are doing a proper job could be used.
If even the ARMY has switched to Linux, what is everyone else waiting for?
Let me say something based on my years of DoD contracting. A military service isn't a monolith. It's a bunch of schmoes who generally can do what they want, within the limits of their responsibilities. Having been one of those schmoes, I know whereof I speak. So, "The Army" hasn't gone over to Linux; it's likely someone at the project manager level has managed to convince his sponsors at the Pentagon to let him try this (until the article is viewable, I'm going to have to guess). Which isn't to minimize the event, but it doesn't rise to the level of a general endorsement by the organization. If this works out, is successful, and gets everyone involved promotions, other projects will follow.
As far as the Pentagon thinking of using it, I'm not surprised. I do work for DoD, and am always amused when we have to design equipment that will survive events that will reduce the human operators to bloody bits splattered on the walls. I have a mental picture of this pointer device sitting there with a detached hand sitting on it...
p.s. don't bother making (Funny +5) comments like "I'm going to patent breathing or whatever" We've heard it before.
Well Mister User #1767, you mean you've heard it before. SlashDot has a constant influx of new readers who might enjoy the occassional item that you've encountered a hundred times and grown weary of. They might even (gasp) repeat an old joke! Perhaps you could cut people a little slack.
Man, this would be great for surfing the web and word-processing while driving my car. Combine that activity with my hands-free cell phone and I can really be productive at 75 miles per hour!
When you have international dealings, you need a common language. This is why English is the universal language of air traffic control. Having a tower of babble on the internet does no one any good, and English is as good a common language as any (although I'm sure the French would have a few things to say in that regard). I seriously doubt that Spanish is in any danger. If anything, it's becoming more widespread, as evidenced by its proliferation here in Southern California. Many of us Anglos can now understand Spanish at a basic level simply from having been around it so much. I have the feeling that we may end up with an English-Spanish patois here in a couple of generations.
. If you decide to call the thingamabob over there a wongle and everone else agrees, it is called a wongle foreverafter until folks decide that it should be called something else.
Unless you're France. Every time the English language gets a little too noticable, the French government passes another law trying to command the tide to recede. They hated the idea of calling CDs CDs, so they came up with some new Frenchified term that by law had to be used in newspapers, books, ads, etc. The world had a good laugh at that one.
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The terms of the 'contract' provide that the scammer can demand $50k. For them to get it, they'd have to come after you, which means you're the defendant. The battle would cost them a great deal, and the outcome would be uncertain at best. It would have to be an act of revenge more than an attempt to collect actual damages, and I'm pretty confident that a judge would toss it on first amendment grounds anyway.
I suggest that we all take them up on their admonition to route questions to that email address. In fact, I have, oh, a couple of hundred questions that I'd like answered. I've always wanted to know the capital of North Dakota for example.
Sure, you can put any nonsensical thing you want into a contract. It doesn't mean that such terms are enforceable. I could insert terms into a contract that give me the right to administer a severe beating to any signing party who pisses me off, but guess what would happen if I demanded a court enforce that? I'd like to see this company just try to get one of their $50,000 judgements for the simple act of posting a review on the net. The velocity with which it was tossed out of court would create quite the breeze.
I don't think so. It would be quite an expensive collection. I think there were 20 (or maybe even more) hour-long episodes. The last time I saw it, I think it was broadcast on one of the specialty channels like The Learning Channel or similar.
I saw this series when it was originally telecast, and I was an adult at the time. I didn't like it much. There was too much trembling awe at the majesty of the heavens and not enough factual information. I'll be interested to see what others who saw it as kids think of it now. Now, for a science series that really was well done, I don't think that you can beat The Mechanical Universe. If you ever get a chance, catch it.
<RANT>Calculus?! You know how much calculus I've used since I got my degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science? Zero. Frankly, if all someone wants to do is be a programmer, I question whether college is even necessary. It might get you your first job if you have nothing else to point to, but I'd hire someone who could show me a skillfully-rendered application that s/he wrote, degree or no. At least 75% of college is useless as far as contributing to later work. That tripe about forcing you to take general-ed classes in order to produce a more well-rounded individual is just their way of getting bodies into those departments so that they don't shrink to nothing. College is a racket. </RANT>
By the way, calculus was a pain. It was only years later that I discovered that it was my teachers, not me or the material. If you really want to understand calculus, get a book, Calculus Made Easy, by Silvanus P. Thompson. It was written in the early 1900s and has been republished in recent years. It was thru reading this book that the scales finally fell from my eyes.
Your requirements are somewhat in conflict, as you wouldn't need anything like what you described for telephone conversation. If what you're looking for is a headset for telephone use, let me recommend the VTech VT1511. It's 900 MHz, all electronics are contained in the headset (i.e., no additional stuff hanging from your belt), it has a boom mic that rotates up out of the way when not in use, the earpieces sort of hover near the ear and don't cover them so you can hear other sounds in the room, and it has a little dialpad that communicates with the headset via infrared. Very very nice unit which I use all the time.
The "questions" I'm seeing from other SlashDotters make this sound like a group therapy session. They start with a monolog about how alienated and difficult a childhood the questioner had, and typically want to know is this 15 year old having the same problems. It's discouraging that there's so much unhappiness among our number. Although I had many of these same childhood experiences, I didn't consider them problems. I was different, knew it, and it didn't matter. I suppose there were 'cool' kids around who thought I was a freak, but I must have been oblivious, so I didn't end up scarred as many seem to have been. Part of it may have been that I had a job starting at age 12, so I didn't have a lot of time to feel left out. Perhaps the secret is having something to do so that you're not aware of what you're missing.
Bluetooth might be the best way to control these modules. It's going to be so widely used that chips will be ultracheap. There'd be no need then to have wiring between the modules, and it would make control from outside easy (at least for short ranges).
Plus, there some other folks working on the same sort of thing. They call them "Hyper-Redundant Robots". http://robby.caltech.edu/pictures.html
This was actually quite instructive for the young man. Now he knows what it means to give power to those who have no business wielding it. The U.S. today, particularly in the schools, is full of petty despots who make up the rules as they go along. There was the case of the girl whose school suspended her for eating in a subway station. There was the youg boy suspended for having a drawing of a gun. The list of the capricious (and frequently unconstitutional) exercise of authority goes on and on. Perhaps this particular case will serve to educate him and others on the dangers of power in the wrong hands.
Not recycling, but here are a few things people have done with old CDs: 1, 2, 3, 4
Flansburg no doubt owns Flansburg's Y2K Emporium and is sitting on $10,000,000 of unsold goods. This is his bid to take another crack at producing a crisis in order to move that crap out of his warehouse. At least, that seems a much more plausible reason than the twaddle he's spouting in the article.
If I were a cell manufacturer, I'd include a statement with every phone: "There is an as-yet-indeterminant risk of literally frying your brain if you hold this device to your head when using it. If you want to be safer, we suggest you either use a headset, or purchase one of our expensive new Bluetooth-enabled phones with a snazzy wireless headset. If you ignore our warning and develop noggin rot, it's your own damned fault." It would have to be put in more genteel and dense legalese, but words to this effect. (Of course, when voters aren't responsible for not punching their ballots, this may or may not save them from liability ...)
This white hat cracker discussion reminds me of a sting the police conducted here a few Christmases ago. They put a new television in the back seat of a car and parked it unlocked in a shopping center lot. They were unsuccessful because passersby kept noticing the situation and would lock the car door. People will attempt to do good deeds, even if, as in your case and theirs, it's unwanted.
That's not enough to forestall all types of attacks. Ping flooding, which doesn't require a connection, for example.
How much do you want to bet that the standard contains a protocol for sending your playlist and any watermarks to the RIAA? (Am I just cynical or have I gone over the line to paranoia? Hard to decide).
Q. What scientific questions can be answered by the data that we clickworkers are providing?
A. The first stage of this pilot project is only trying to answer some meta-science questions:
Is the public ready, willing, and able to help science?
Many years ago, volunteers (mostly housewives) were enlisted to help analyze thousands of photos of cloud-chamber tracings. Scientists were looking for evidence of a particular particle, and in those days only human inspection could be used. To make sure that the volunteers would find the trace if it showed up, photos with phoney traces were periodically inserted. As I recall, the program was considered a success. It seems to me that the question has been answered. And I would also think that a similar process of inserting known items to make sure the volunteers are doing a proper job could be used.
Where's the 'incoherent' mod when you need it?
Let me say something based on my years of DoD contracting. A military service isn't a monolith. It's a bunch of schmoes who generally can do what they want, within the limits of their responsibilities. Having been one of those schmoes, I know whereof I speak. So, "The Army" hasn't gone over to Linux; it's likely someone at the project manager level has managed to convince his sponsors at the Pentagon to let him try this (until the article is viewable, I'm going to have to guess). Which isn't to minimize the event, but it doesn't rise to the level of a general endorsement by the organization. If this works out, is successful, and gets everyone involved promotions, other projects will follow.
As far as the Pentagon thinking of using it, I'm not surprised. I do work for DoD, and am always amused when we have to design equipment that will survive events that will reduce the human operators to bloody bits splattered on the walls. I have a mental picture of this pointer device sitting there with a detached hand sitting on it ...
Well Mister User #1767, you mean you've heard it before. SlashDot has a constant influx of new readers who might enjoy the occassional item that you've encountered a hundred times and grown weary of. They might even (gasp) repeat an old joke! Perhaps you could cut people a little slack.
Man, this would be great for surfing the web and word-processing while driving my car. Combine that activity with my hands-free cell phone and I can really be productive at 75 miles per hour!
When you have international dealings, you need a common language. This is why English is the universal language of air traffic control. Having a tower of babble on the internet does no one any good, and English is as good a common language as any (although I'm sure the French would have a few things to say in that regard). I seriously doubt that Spanish is in any danger. If anything, it's becoming more widespread, as evidenced by its proliferation here in Southern California. Many of us Anglos can now understand Spanish at a basic level simply from having been around it so much. I have the feeling that we may end up with an English-Spanish patois here in a couple of generations.
Unless you're France. Every time the English language gets a little too noticable, the French government passes another law trying to command the tide to recede. They hated the idea of calling CDs CDs, so they came up with some new Frenchified term that by law had to be used in newspapers, books, ads, etc. The world had a good laugh at that one.