It goes even farther than that. The two dots over the letter actually started out (long ago) as a little "e". But people started just using dots because it was easier.
I propose that copyright works enter the public domain after ten years. That's more than enough time to make a living from an artistic work. If you can't make money from a song, movie, book, etc. in ten years, you probably aren't going to make much at all.
How many blockbuster movies break even the first weekend? Not many, I know, but it's something to consider. Why do we need such long copyright terms when artists are paid so much so soon after a work is released.
When this plan is shot down, as a compromise, let's propose the one mentioned in the article.
There are so many responses to this question, I'd kinda like to see a poll to find out what the "winning" opinion is.
My humble opinion is that if you have a computer already, go to college with that. Give yourself a few weeks to see how everything works out. If you're like me, you'll find that a good desktop is all you'll need. Computers were plentiful in the campus labs, so I could easily work away from my room, and I could access my computer from anywhere in any case.
Now, the coolness factor of wireless access all over campus might've tipped the scales in favor of getting a laptop. But, we didn't have that at the University of Michigan by the time I graduated last year.
If you don't have a computer already, I don't know what to tell you. It depends on your budget and how eager you are to make the decision right now. IF you can, I'd still wait. It won't kill you to be without a computer for a week. Besides, maybe you can get good deals through your University (maybe).
Re:Yeah Right...
on
Making Change
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· Score: 2, Insightful
But using a dollar coin in a vending machine is a dream compared to coaxing the machine to take a dollar bill. The only problem is that a lot of older machines don't take dollar coins.
Yeah, I noticed that Trinity and the ghosts were both driving Cadillacs. But it didn't occur to me that Cadillac is a GM division and all the other cars were GM too.
Unfortunately, this doesn't explain . . . why the people of Zion don't remember the other Matrix reloads (remember what the architect said about how old everything is).
It makes me wonder, were there 23 people on the council at Zion? Also, they specifically mentioned that all the council members were older. Maybe they're the 23 people who restarted Zion and maybe they're in on the scheme.
Instead of laughing at people who enjoy the "Matrix Philosophy," why not take the opportunity to show them some of the so-called Real Philosophy that you know and love? If they like pop philosophy, they may also be interested in a little more.
That's rather misleading and points more to the inefficiencies of language. If you presented the person with a color wheel and asked them to identify the color, I'm sure that you would find out that the memory of the color is not quite so quantized.
I would argue that the deficiency in language doesn't just exist by itself. It reflects on our own way of processing things.
Language is a perfect example of how we quantize data. It's not just a method we use to communicate with others. Language is also very important in how the brain stores and processes information. Thus, it can give us an insight into how our brains work.
I understand that we often say things like "dark red," and "golden yellow," but that's just adding more precision to our discrete way of thinking of things. It's like going from 4bit color to 8bit.
Also, when you look at a rainbow, you still see discrete bands of color, right? Even though the wavelength of light changes constantly from red to violet?
I was trying to avoid the whole philosophic debate. I understand your point and even agree with it. But, a real dog has much more complex "programming" than the AIBO. As a result, the AIBO is much more likely to make mistakes, and act bored when it shouldn't (assuming the goal of AIBO is to act like a real dog).
The AIBO may, in fact, be bored in its own AIBO way, but it's nothing we humans could identify with. Our minds are too complex - much closer to a real dog's than to an AIBO.
The brain breaks things down into digital (discrete) information too. I can think of one example, shamelessly stolen from an issue of Discover: colors. When you look at a color spectrum, it's a continuous range of colors, yet we tend to see and remember red, orange, yellow, and so on.
This doesn't prove anything, but it's something to think about.
Re:What about my AIBO?
on
AI Going Nowhere?
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· Score: 3, Insightful
It was still pretty much explicitly programmed to do those things. It's not really bored, it was just programmed to act bored, etc. Even the image recognition is a testament to the intelligence of the programmers, but not really to the AIBO itself.
IMAP! I don't know why more places don't use this. Especially if they already let your store mail on the server and access it via webmail. IMAP is just another access method to add.
Plus, I would think it would be kinda hard to get that proof. You'd need records from his ISP and things like that. Law enforcement officers might be able to get at it with a warrent. But what's a bounty hunter supposed to do?
OT: What the heck is the subscriber bonus? Am I to believe that Slashdot subscribers with good Karma can now default post at 3?? (I'm not going to try it, because that would be way too high a score for this post.)
How about a law against SPAM? I don't think it would be that hard to do. SPAM is easy enough to categorize by us users; there's got to be a lawyer somewhere who can write up a good legal definition for spam.
From looking at the spamhous.com site, it also seems to be possible to identify and collect evidence against these guys. All we need is a law providing for stiff fines or jailtime against spammers. Then we could prosecute.
Wow, that sounds exactly like how patents are supposed to work. Except Microsoft is acting as the patent office, and Microsoft benefits from improvements instead of the general public.
Hmmm, maybe we should be patenting software instead of copyrighting it.
Slashdot Mirror
Los Angeles already has http://www.la.ca.us/, which is a beautifully succinct, yet detailed, URL, IMHO.
You think the "gun nuts" don't have training and ranks?
It goes even farther than that. The two dots over the letter actually started out (long ago) as a little "e". But people started just using dots because it was easier.
How many blockbuster movies break even the first weekend? Not many, I know, but it's something to consider. Why do we need such long copyright terms when artists are paid so much so soon after a work is released.
When this plan is shot down, as a compromise, let's propose the one mentioned in the article.
My humble opinion is that if you have a computer already, go to college with that. Give yourself a few weeks to see how everything works out. If you're like me, you'll find that a good desktop is all you'll need. Computers were plentiful in the campus labs, so I could easily work away from my room, and I could access my computer from anywhere in any case.
Now, the coolness factor of wireless access all over campus might've tipped the scales in favor of getting a laptop. But, we didn't have that at the University of Michigan by the time I graduated last year.
If you don't have a computer already, I don't know what to tell you. It depends on your budget and how eager you are to make the decision right now. IF you can, I'd still wait. It won't kill you to be without a computer for a week. Besides, maybe you can get good deals through your University (maybe).
But using a dollar coin in a vending machine is a dream compared to coaxing the machine to take a dollar bill. The only problem is that a lot of older machines don't take dollar coins.
Product placement. Bah!
I noticed that with a lot of the CG. It looked like CG - like a REALLY good video game or something, but I could still see that it was CG.
It makes me wonder, were there 23 people on the council at Zion? Also, they specifically mentioned that all the council members were older. Maybe they're the 23 people who restarted Zion and maybe they're in on the scheme.
Instead of laughing at people who enjoy the "Matrix Philosophy," why not take the opportunity to show them some of the so-called Real Philosophy that you know and love? If they like pop philosophy, they may also be interested in a little more.
Language is a perfect example of how we quantize data. It's not just a method we use to communicate with others. Language is also very important in how the brain stores and processes information. Thus, it can give us an insight into how our brains work.
I understand that we often say things like "dark red," and "golden yellow," but that's just adding more precision to our discrete way of thinking of things. It's like going from 4bit color to 8bit.
Also, when you look at a rainbow, you still see discrete bands of color, right? Even though the wavelength of light changes constantly from red to violet?
The AIBO may, in fact, be bored in its own AIBO way, but it's nothing we humans could identify with. Our minds are too complex - much closer to a real dog's than to an AIBO.
This doesn't prove anything, but it's something to think about.
It was still pretty much explicitly programmed to do those things. It's not really bored, it was just programmed to act bored, etc. Even the image recognition is a testament to the intelligence of the programmers, but not really to the AIBO itself.
There has to be evidence somewhere of the transaction with the spammer. The company has to pay him somehow.
OT: What the heck is the subscriber bonus? Am I to believe that Slashdot subscribers with good Karma can now default post at 3?? (I'm not going to try it, because that would be way too high a score for this post.)
From looking at the spamhous.com site, it also seems to be possible to identify and collect evidence against these guys. All we need is a law providing for stiff fines or jailtime against spammers. Then we could prosecute.
It's called FirebirdSQL. Who's going to confuse that with the web browser Firebird?
Nope. I should have checked Google News first. Sony wanted to trademark the phrase, but backed down.
Didn't Sony recently trademark that phrase?
Samba 2.2 has ACL support - for XFS, at least. I know because I use it now. It's not just a TNG feature.
Hmmm, maybe we should be patenting software instead of copyrighting it.
Shhhhhh! Don't give them ideas. Do you remember what happened last year?