Boils down to the same thing. They want to insure that the people who are talking about geological matters in areas that are important to the respective states actually know what they are talking about. It's the same with a lot of professions, having to prove a certain minimum competence in the field before being allowed to practice in that field. Doctors, lawyers, etc.
Um, yes, there is. They have it in Texas too, as seen here.
Does it really strike besides me as not being that odd a thing? Consider how many earthquakes California has been through... does it really seem nonsensical that they would only want people who can prove they know what they are talking about saying that they may or may not be able to predict earthquakes?
Would it have been that much more of a burden for BSA to actually do their job correctly? Yeah, illegally copied software is a problem. BSA's goon-squad tactics are not the answer. (Yes, goon squad. They apparently can't parse the word "Open" in relation to the word "Office".)
Well, I'd rather campus security was patrolling the campus, keeping the somewhat crazy homeless people out of the library, responding to actual calls, and whatnot rather then going door to door asking students to "Please stop sharing files, m'kay?"
Is it theft? Okay, yes, it is. Are there better things for the campus cops to do? Why yes, there is. It is not the responsibility of the campus police to enforce Hollywierd's IP laws. It is not their responsibility to scan hard drives for the latest Backdoor Boys songs...
Hollywood and Congress need a clue applied with a bat, damn quick.
Yes and no. It's not California's fault for things like what Enron, etc. were doing. It is their fault for not having enough power plants through caving in to every special interest group that wants to protect some almost endangered field rat or type of mosquito. (I kid you not. One of the things in the way of building at a particular site was that it would disrupt the breeding ground of a particular species of mosquito.)
Hrm... does this actually make the Australian politicians more responsive/responsible to the voters? Of course, I could also see a lot more pork barrel legislation to keep those voters happy.....
Sorry, often times it does cost to defend yourself in court. There is the expenses incurred in having a lawyer (or more then one) for your side. There is also the loss of income because you are not working while you are in court defending youself. Sure, you can hope, if you win, that the judge will take your legal costs onto the judgement, and factor in some punitive damages, but it's not guarenteed.
I hear you on the Cable thing. In one of the apartments I used to live in, we ending up having free cable for oh, about 10 months. Here's the kicker... we wanted to pay for it, because while the free cable we were getting had a good number of channels, we wanted to get HBO as well (okay, mostly for the Dennis Miller show, but hey...)
Called the cable company an inordinate number of times to try and get them to come out. Every time when we told them that we were already getting cable for free but we wanted to start an account with them and add HBO, the clueless numbfuck at the other end of the phone refused to go any further. "You already have cable. You're obviously not going through us. You'll have to find out which company you're dealing with." As if TW didn't have a monopoly on cable in town...
Near the end of that 10 months, apparently they fired every incompetent operator, as they suddenly sent a cable repairman out to us, who finally hooked up HBO, and tried to present us with a bill for 10 months of cable. We told him what he could do with his bill, and the law student who lived in the apartment had about a 30 minute discussion with the local TW reps. We ended up not paying for those 10 months at all, getting another 2 months free, and a $100 credit to our account for any other channels or PPVs.
I also fail to see how it would be "devastating". Just because Google won't be using it now (but as pointed out, will likely be using it in a few years time), it doesn't mean that no-one will be using it now.
Sure, Intel & HP "lost" a potentially very big customer. But there are a lot of businesses out there that will be using the Itanium...
Okay, yes, technically, given the billions of dollars that MS has, yes, they could lose millions each year on a number of products. But guess what? They don't like doing so. All businesses are in the 'business' of making money. If they can find some way to increase their cash flow, or at least reduce the amount they are losing, it would be completely bone-headed of them not to take it.
Yes, and it requires, what, a simple majority? Which means that it's possible that not everyone in the House and Senate voted for it. Which means that there are Representatives and Senators who voted against it.
Also, there are always changes in the House and Senate. Politicians retire, change their minds, get "influenced" by someone else. If you're going to take the viewpoint that just because they passed this bad law, they'll never correct it, well, go bury your head in the sand. You'll feel better when you're ignoring everything.
Well, it takes a good bit longer then 4 minutes to read a book. I can and have found songs by artists where I like that one or two songs by them, but I can't stand the rest of the album, or in fact, the rest of their body of work.
Whereas, most books take at least an hour to read, if not more (some books, much more), and quite honestly, after reading a couple books by Grisham, I have no desire to ever read anything by him again. Same with several other authors. Yet I will still listen to all kinds of music.
Ah, but the amount of taxation that caused the Revolution is tiny compared to current U.S. taxes. That was the point that I was trying to get across. (Apparently, I failed.)
Kind of ironic, considering how much we pay in taxes now...
Anyway, a large part of those taxes were taxes that were being levied only on the Colonies, and were designed to apparently put the colonies firmly in the pocket of a conglomerate of businessmen. Most of the taxes (like the tea tax, which led to the Boston Tea Party) were designed to force purchase of a "minimum amount" of English goods, so the owners of those companies could get much richer, without having to worry about any 'vocal opposition', as the colonies had no representation in the House of Lords or House of Commons. (You might recall "No taxation without representation". It doesn't mean that they were against all taxes. It's just that they wanted to have as equal a voice as any other citizen of England in the taxes that were being levied on them.)
The net result of the revolution was that the government that was to be formed was ostensibly to be different from the British one. Didn't succeed all that well though...
Kierthos (Yes, yes, insightful, but off-topic as hell...)
However, security by obscurity is basically shoving your head in the ground and not seeing any problems. Just because Microsoft doesn't tell anyone about a number of problems doesn't mean that word doesn't get out. I mean, how many people outside of the MS development team can easily access/acquire the source code to Windows so they can find the existing problems?
Let's have less security through obscurity and more security through actual security and proper maintainence.
Kierthos (Yes, it's probably a pipe dream, I know.)
Actually, according to Duhaime's Law Dictionary, Libel is defamation by writing (such as in a newspaper or letter). Defamation is defined as an attack on the good reputation of a person.
So, by a strict interpretation, even is something is true, it could be libel. (Although, it should be harder to collect a judgement for such.)
Alas, I don't have Black's Law Dictionary available, and their definition of libel is probably more exact as with regards to U.S. Law....
It doesn't have to be directly over the South Pole. Just have LOS on it. Therefore, it could be placed at a point where you can give it an orbital speed.
What gets me is that they're doing this because of the lack of geostationary satellites over the Antarctic... so, would it cost less to park a satellite in the proper spot in space? I mean, we already waste a fuck-ton of money with NASA... they can at least do something besides poor unit conversions and installing space telescope lenses backwards...
I didn't know Antarctica had its' own fairy-Congresscritter! Normally, you need to have one of those pork-barrel-lovin' sons of guns to get anything done...
In other words, it's YAWOFTM (Yet Another Waste Of Taxpayer Money).
Kierthos (So many better things to spend it on, so little actual incentive to help people in this country...)
Slashdot Mirror
In response, the National Crossbow Association said "Nyah!"
Kierthos
British television fee? Care to explain?
Kierthos
Boils down to the same thing. They want to insure that the people who are talking about geological matters in areas that are important to the respective states actually know what they are talking about. It's the same with a lot of professions, having to prove a certain minimum competence in the field before being allowed to practice in that field. Doctors, lawyers, etc.
Kierthos
Um, yes, there is. They have it in Texas too, as seen here.
Does it really strike besides me as not being that odd a thing? Consider how many earthquakes California has been through... does it really seem nonsensical that they would only want people who can prove they know what they are talking about saying that they may or may not be able to predict earthquakes?
Kierthos
BS Alliance? And BS stands for Bullshi.... no, too easy...
Kierthos
Would it have been that much more of a burden for BSA to actually do their job correctly? Yeah, illegally copied software is a problem. BSA's goon-squad tactics are not the answer. (Yes, goon squad. They apparently can't parse the word "Open" in relation to the word "Office".)
Kierthos
Well, I'd rather campus security was patrolling the campus, keeping the somewhat crazy homeless people out of the library, responding to actual calls, and whatnot rather then going door to door asking students to "Please stop sharing files, m'kay?"
Is it theft? Okay, yes, it is. Are there better things for the campus cops to do? Why yes, there is. It is not the responsibility of the campus police to enforce Hollywierd's IP laws. It is not their responsibility to scan hard drives for the latest Backdoor Boys songs...
Hollywood and Congress need a clue applied with a bat, damn quick.
Kierthos
Yes and no. It's not California's fault for things like what Enron, etc. were doing. It is their fault for not having enough power plants through caving in to every special interest group that wants to protect some almost endangered field rat or type of mosquito. (I kid you not. One of the things in the way of building at a particular site was that it would disrupt the breeding ground of a particular species of mosquito.)
Kierthos
Hrm... does this actually make the Australian politicians more responsive/responsible to the voters? Of course, I could also see a lot more pork barrel legislation to keep those voters happy.....
Kierthos
Sorry, often times it does cost to defend yourself in court. There is the expenses incurred in having a lawyer (or more then one) for your side. There is also the loss of income because you are not working while you are in court defending youself. Sure, you can hope, if you win, that the judge will take your legal costs onto the judgement, and factor in some punitive damages, but it's not guarenteed.
Kierthos
I hear you on the Cable thing. In one of the apartments I used to live in, we ending up having free cable for oh, about 10 months. Here's the kicker... we wanted to pay for it, because while the free cable we were getting had a good number of channels, we wanted to get HBO as well (okay, mostly for the Dennis Miller show, but hey...)
Called the cable company an inordinate number of times to try and get them to come out. Every time when we told them that we were already getting cable for free but we wanted to start an account with them and add HBO, the clueless numbfuck at the other end of the phone refused to go any further. "You already have cable. You're obviously not going through us. You'll have to find out which company you're dealing with." As if TW didn't have a monopoly on cable in town...
Near the end of that 10 months, apparently they fired every incompetent operator, as they suddenly sent a cable repairman out to us, who finally hooked up HBO, and tried to present us with a bill for 10 months of cable. We told him what he could do with his bill, and the law student who lived in the apartment had about a 30 minute discussion with the local TW reps. We ended up not paying for those 10 months at all, getting another 2 months free, and a $100 credit to our account for any other channels or PPVs.
Kierthos
I also fail to see how it would be "devastating". Just because Google won't be using it now (but as pointed out, will likely be using it in a few years time), it doesn't mean that no-one will be using it now.
Sure, Intel & HP "lost" a potentially very big customer. But there are a lot of businesses out there that will be using the Itanium...
Kierthos
Okay, yes, technically, given the billions of dollars that MS has, yes, they could lose millions each year on a number of products. But guess what? They don't like doing so. All businesses are in the 'business' of making money. If they can find some way to increase their cash flow, or at least reduce the amount they are losing, it would be completely bone-headed of them not to take it.
Kierthos
Yes, and it requires, what, a simple majority? Which means that it's possible that not everyone in the House and Senate voted for it. Which means that there are Representatives and Senators who voted against it.
Also, there are always changes in the House and Senate. Politicians retire, change their minds, get "influenced" by someone else. If you're going to take the viewpoint that just because they passed this bad law, they'll never correct it, well, go bury your head in the sand. You'll feel better when you're ignoring everything.
Kierthos
You do realize that legislation is allowed to come from Representatives other then Boucher and Doolittle, right?
Just because the DMCA was introduced by some Representatives/Congressmen doesn't mean that all Representatives/Congressmen are idiotic gits.
Kierthos
Well, it takes a good bit longer then 4 minutes to read a book. I can and have found songs by artists where I like that one or two songs by them, but I can't stand the rest of the album, or in fact, the rest of their body of work.
Whereas, most books take at least an hour to read, if not more (some books, much more), and quite honestly, after reading a couple books by Grisham, I have no desire to ever read anything by him again. Same with several other authors. Yet I will still listen to all kinds of music.
Kierthos
Ah, but the amount of taxation that caused the Revolution is tiny compared to current U.S. taxes. That was the point that I was trying to get across. (Apparently, I failed.)
Kierthos
and to avoid paying taxes
Kind of ironic, considering how much we pay in taxes now...
Anyway, a large part of those taxes were taxes that were being levied only on the Colonies, and were designed to apparently put the colonies firmly in the pocket of a conglomerate of businessmen. Most of the taxes (like the tea tax, which led to the Boston Tea Party) were designed to force purchase of a "minimum amount" of English goods, so the owners of those companies could get much richer, without having to worry about any 'vocal opposition', as the colonies had no representation in the House of Lords or House of Commons. (You might recall "No taxation without representation". It doesn't mean that they were against all taxes. It's just that they wanted to have as equal a voice as any other citizen of England in the taxes that were being levied on them.)
The net result of the revolution was that the government that was to be formed was ostensibly to be different from the British one. Didn't succeed all that well though...
Kierthos
(Yes, yes, insightful, but off-topic as hell...)
However, security by obscurity is basically shoving your head in the ground and not seeing any problems. Just because Microsoft doesn't tell anyone about a number of problems doesn't mean that word doesn't get out. I mean, how many people outside of the MS development team can easily access/acquire the source code to Windows so they can find the existing problems?
Let's have less security through obscurity and more security through actual security and proper maintainence.
Kierthos
(Yes, it's probably a pipe dream, I know.)
Why does this all look like a live-action version of the Cheapass Game "Patent #1"?
Kierthos
Well, if you want to get picky, the U.S.A. is a republic, not a democracy. Recite the Pledge of Allegiance to find this out.
Kierthos
Actually, according to Duhaime's Law Dictionary, Libel is defamation by writing (such as in a newspaper or letter). Defamation is defined as an attack on the good reputation of a person.
So, by a strict interpretation, even is something is true, it could be libel. (Although, it should be harder to collect a judgement for such.)
Alas, I don't have Black's Law Dictionary available, and their definition of libel is probably more exact as with regards to U.S. Law....
Kierthos
It doesn't have to be directly over the South Pole. Just have LOS on it. Therefore, it could be placed at a point where you can give it an orbital speed.
Kierthos
What gets me is that they're doing this because of the lack of geostationary satellites over the Antarctic... so, would it cost less to park a satellite in the proper spot in space? I mean, we already waste a fuck-ton of money with NASA... they can at least do something besides poor unit conversions and installing space telescope lenses backwards...
Kierthos
I didn't know Antarctica had its' own fairy-Congresscritter! Normally, you need to have one of those pork-barrel-lovin' sons of guns to get anything done...
In other words, it's YAWOFTM (Yet Another Waste Of Taxpayer Money).
Kierthos
(So many better things to spend it on, so little actual incentive to help people in this country...)