Key word is donated. They're not donating, if they manage to pull this off. They are settling. They cannot (at least in a reasonable world) settle a lawsuit and then try and claim that the settlement costs are tax-deductable charity write-offs.
As to step 3, I would hope that there is at least some common sense involved as to whether fine the hosting Australian or not. If it's some kiddie porn site, by all means, fine them. If it's a suicide prevention site, or a reference site on the Koran, then by all means, don't.
Hey, I just realized that if the msnbc.com site was hosted by an Aussie, or actually any major news site, they would be "guilty" under this law, as they almost always have something there about crime/racism/religion.
The company that marketed the product in the United States was the one who broke the law. The "Russian hacker" was ensuring that the Adobe e-books brought into Russia could be copied safely and completely as is allowed by Russian law.
And it's argueable how much damage he caused as it's real difficult to declare how much Adobe may or may not have lost as a result of the program in question.
And the U.S. is a republic, and it doesn't stop our elected idiots from pandering to the corporations/special interests/whoever will get them re-elected and then passing stupid laws (DMCA).
The only practical way to insure that the majority of the "people" want a law is to ditch the representative government model and go to one person - one vote and make voting mandatory. And guess what... that isn't practical.
Okay, it may not be a lot of cash for Bill Gates (although I can't see anyone, no matter how rich, being exceptionally pleased about a two billion dollar a year fine), but if such a fine was put into place for as long as MS refuses to play by the EU rules, it would have an impact on MS.
In simplest terms, that's 2 billion a year that they could spend on other things. And it would have at least a minor impact on their stock, at least after the fine was announced. Finally, who is to say that the EU would stop there? Couldn't they continue to fine MS for numerous other reasons?
You do realize that "Iron Monkey" is like 8 years old, and you probably could have rented a copy, right?
I'm not arguing that it's a bad movie (it's not), or that Ang Lee doesn't deliver (he does), but this movie does not belong in the same "category" of recent releases to compare against movies like "The One". Although, frankly, how anyone can compare "Iron Monkey" vs. "The One" is beyond me. It's like trying to decide who'd win in a fight between Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-Fat, their styles are just too different to easily decide.
Umm, you're right. I don't get it. Why would I, as a developer, want to continue paying M$ every year to do something that I could either write on my own, find an easier way to do it with other existing programs, or just ignore?
Alerts on stock quotes? Limited market and already available (and if you play in the stock market enough where you would need alerts available often enough to justify the costs, you probably should just get a broker to handle things for you.)
Weather forecasts and flight delays? Limited market and easily accessible already. Weather Channel, Headline News, Airport information.
Contact lists? AIM, ICQ, hell IRC even.
Yeah, it is sooo damn nifty that they want to make all of this available to developers and charge them for it, but big whoop, I can get most of this stuff already without having to go to M$. And the user will pay indirectly, because the developer will need to cover the costs of renting these services from M$.
I agree. One step access to electronic documents can be handled in so many easy ways (like carrying a copy oof it on your laptop, carrying a spare disk, having the doc on a web page). Contact lists? Oh you mean like AIM, or ICQ? Calendars? Big deal, use a handheld. Instant alerts on stocks? Okay, show of hands, how many people have enough money tied up in stocks where this is a major concern? Answer: Not that many any more compared to last year. Weather forecasts and flight delays can be found online so easily already that it's not even funny. And the rest of it is just as easy to find.
Sure, M$ is stuffing all of this in one "easy to get" system, but quite honestly, anyone who needs all/many of these things on a regular basis already has a method of getting what they need worked out. M$ is (once again) innovating nothing. They're hoping and praying they can sink their teeth in deeper into the collective wallets of anyone who is gullible enough to fall for their spiel.
It might be due to heat dissipation, but if so, that's not a good thing anyway. How many people place their game consoles in a TV cabinet or next to their VCR? If it's going to overheat and have load problems this easily, I can't see a whole lot of incentive to buy the silly thing.
Well... since Solid Gear Metal 2 is coming out, I don't see a lot of incentive to do anything but sit in front of a PS2 for prolonged periods of time.
Well, Hollywood crapola aside, I really can't see most leaders of terrorist organizations being on part of a suicide mission. Let's face facts, the leaders want to be around afterwards to celebrate and plan the next attack. They can't do that if they are dead.
Yes, the hijackers, along with many innocent people, are dead. I seriously doubt, however, that every last person involved with the planning, preparation, and execution of the attack is dead. That, of course, needs to change.
If retaliation will get the people who planned and organized this attack, then it's all good, in my opinion. Do you honestly think that the planners of this attack were the ones who were hijacking the planes?
And I happen to believe that if you show what happens to the people who organize and plan terrorist attacks, it does deter those who are still out there and haven't been caught/punished yet.
Lastly, it's not any national attitude. Some of these terrorist fruit loops hate the U.S. for no logical or sane reason. These are the same people who quote the Koran to give an excuse for killing Christians and Jews, while simultaneously ignoring the parts of the Koran that preach the ways of peace to the other peoples of God (which, coincidentally are Christians and Jews).
Depends... Germany decided that the CoS was a business and is taxing them accordingly. And when was the last time the Catholic Church tried to infiltrate the IRS? (Yes, the CoS tried. Partially succeeded too... some of them are still in jail, AFAIK.)
Probably not. Unless it is the graduates doing the suing, it shouldn't be an issue. Face it, it's the administration who is doing this. And what company, in their right mind, is going to turn away possible highly qualified employees because of something they might not have even been a part of.
Of course, if any of those graduates pull typical MIT pranks on Sony, then yes, I doubt they would be on the top of the hire list.
Blindness is a matter of choice? Yeah, right. And I must be somewhat insane to choose to stumble through life with vision so poor that corrective lenses only take me up to moderately poor vision. (At my rate of deterioration, I will be legally blind in about 15 years.) I did not make a conscious choice to have poor vision. And most of the homosexual people I know (hey, I live near a college campus) say they didn't make a conscious choice to be gay.
Besides which, if I could use the "power" of conscious thought to overcome my eye problems, I'd probably give myself x-ray vision and telekinesis as well.
The language is clunky. Very clunky. And I've personally found that they give you a lot of parts that you don't ever need unless you specifically only want to build the robots in the books they provide. (Ob note: for that matter, Extreme Creatures is mostly worthless, Robosports slightly less so. I'd say Vision Command was the "best" expansion for Mindstorms, but that's just my opinion.)
Also, the books they provide are practically worthless. I've played with Legos a lot, and I couldn't figure out some of their diagrams the first time out.
Frankly, I wish that you could order specific parts directly from Lego. I know I can order certain parts, but not the ones I really want, and where else am I going to get 12 sets of Lego 'tank treads'? EBay? (of course, if you actually can order the tank treads from Lego, they hide it well...)
Well, either you set up Passport on every single machine you use/have access to, which probably isn't the brightest idea in the world, or you "suffer" through having to fill in the data/passwords/whatever like the rest of us.
Personally, I'm not planning on using Password at all. But then, I still use Windows 95 on my machine at home.
And of course, when it does get hacked (I'm sorry, we're talking about M$ here, someone will hack it just because of that) and J. Random User ends up with thousands of $ worth of porn site use, or eBay charges, or whatever, what will be the reaction from M$?
A service pack? Abject denial?
It's simple... if you're providing an online service, you need to supply the best protection possible to your clients. And there is no indication that M$ has the slightest clue on how to do this.
Kierthos
Re:Finally, some news from Russia
on
Sklyarov Update
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Very true. Headline News has a "Global Minute" where they barely gloss over stories taking place outside of the U.S. (well, unless it's Isrealis attacking Palestinians, or vice versa... that seems to make the main news segment all the time). And I know of several supposedly international organizations that are so U.S.-centric that it's not even funny.
But you also have to realize that for a lot of news agencies, this isn't what they consider news. It's an "evil hacker" being prosecuted. And since many of the news agencies are owned by companies that support the DMCA (AOL Time-Warner springs to mind), they don't want to report the fact that someone has been arrested for performing an act that is legal in Russia but illegal in the U.S.A.
Ironic that the U.S. has the totalitarian jack-booted thugs now and Russia is claiming for release of one of their citizens...
Depends on the type of sub. The old WWII style with the front the same shape (okay, not exactly) like a powerboat actually run faster on the surface, not just because of diesel vs. electric power, but because it 'cut' through the water better. The new subs with the rounded conical nose run faster underwater then on the surface because of bow waves and such. Also, the rounded conical noses on subs provide a quieter profile when going through water, and most subs of the last few decades (well, at least up till the end of the Cold War) have been built to be quiet rather then fast. If the enemy can't find you, he can't stop you is the premise.
Kierthos
Re:$1200 is everything but cheap
on
$1200 Cheap!
·
· Score: 1
Well, after seeing the vast hordes of people rushing out to buy PS2's at any price (eBay had some going for $800), there will be people who pay $499 so they can have one right away rather then waiting a few weeks and getting a cheaper one.
As I don't plan on buying an XBOX at all until I see a good list of games that will run on it (and probably not even then... I like the console I have), it doesn't bother me. I have much better things to spend my money on then bundled games I may never play, or an extended warranty that may never get used. (Frankly, I don't know anyone who has ever had to call in a game console for repairs under a warranty unless they kicked the damn thing first.)
Kierthos
Re:$1200 is everything but cheap
on
$1200 Cheap!
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Here's the thing... let's say Merchant A has the $499 version, and Merchant B has the $1200 version which comes with all kinds of 'neat' toys that M$ thinks we want. Anyone who doesn't want some or all of the toys bundled with the $1200 version is going to go buy the $499 one assuming it's available. I mean, there are several types of games I personally loathe. I can't stand racing or football video games, so if any of those come bundled with the $1200 version (or let's face it, any version) I'm not going to buy it. I'd much rather have the option of buying the bare-bones system and picking up anything else I need as I need it.
M$ thinks it is providing more options, but what they are doing is limiting the number of bare-bones systems by bundling other goods. Doesn't matter if the best game in the world (YMMV) is in there, someone will not like it and go elsewhere. So how does this help the vendors selling the XBOXes? Do they try and buy a couple of each 'version' or do they stick with one and hope to hell it sells?
Am I surprised by M$ doing this? Hell no. They seem to think that they are the best judges of what everyone wants already, so it's not a shock to see them applying this to the XBOX. I'm just wondering how many vendors will end up stripping the bundled stuff out to sell the bare-bones systems to recoup some money. Or do they have the option of sending them back? (I only ask that because in a lot of stores, especially bookstores, product that doesn't sell gets shelved or destroyed...)
Wierd thing is, I know plenty of people who have been just walking along and 'wham!' they're given 50 or 100 plat by Joe Uber-level. Or stuff. How often does something like this happen in the real world? Not often.
Because plat and some items are so easy to get for some characters, they feel no intrinsic need to keep it. I've done the same at low levels myself. If it's not worth my time to shlep back to a merchant to sell some items I can't use, I give them to other PCs. Does it screw with the 'market'? Of course not, giving away cloth armour is so small of a deal as to not even be a blip on the screen. But it is a factor. Lots of Guilds help members get stuff with no mention of recompense (other then the implied 'next week you help me get something').
But yeah, at the mid-levels, especially for non-casters, plat becomes an issue only for production skills or a nice piece of gear.
The problem is, it takes resources to make that bottle of Coke. Glass or plastic and the various ingredients.
In EverQuest, if I need the resources to make something, I can either buy them, find them, kill mobs and loot their corpses for them, have a magician summon them, borrow from someone in my guild, etc. There are numerous ways to produce items without depleting resources because, there are no actual limits on what can be extracted from the 'environment' of EQ. (I.e. me and 500 other people can fish off the docks of Qeynos for weeks on end and we'll still catch little fishies.)
And because there are no resource costs associated with producing items or 'making' money, there is effectively an infinite supply. Only a small percentage gets 'recycled' by buying from NPC merchants. Trust me, after about 15th level, the only time most PCs use merchants is to either sell loot that no one else wants to buy (at a vastly lower then market value rate, which is one of the reasons no one uses the damn merchants) or to buy food and water when you don't have a pet caster to summon them for you.
Considering that I can kill mobs all day long and make money, and I suck at EQ, anyone who is good at it can make enough plat to outfit however they need.
Slashdot Mirror
Key word is donated. They're not donating, if they manage to pull this off. They are settling. They cannot (at least in a reasonable world) settle a lawsuit and then try and claim that the settlement costs are tax-deductable charity write-offs.
Kierthos
As to step 3, I would hope that there is at least some common sense involved as to whether fine the hosting Australian or not. If it's some kiddie porn site, by all means, fine them. If it's a suicide prevention site, or a reference site on the Koran, then by all means, don't.
Hey, I just realized that if the msnbc.com site was hosted by an Aussie, or actually any major news site, they would be "guilty" under this law, as they almost always have something there about crime/racism/religion.
Kierthos
The company that marketed the product in the United States was the one who broke the law. The "Russian hacker" was ensuring that the Adobe e-books brought into Russia could be copied safely and completely as is allowed by Russian law.
And it's argueable how much damage he caused as it's real difficult to declare how much Adobe may or may not have lost as a result of the program in question.
Kierthos
And the U.S. is a republic, and it doesn't stop our elected idiots from pandering to the corporations/special interests/whoever will get them re-elected and then passing stupid laws (DMCA).
The only practical way to insure that the majority of the "people" want a law is to ditch the representative government model and go to one person - one vote and make voting mandatory. And guess what... that isn't practical.
Kierthos
Okay, it may not be a lot of cash for Bill Gates (although I can't see anyone, no matter how rich, being exceptionally pleased about a two billion dollar a year fine), but if such a fine was put into place for as long as MS refuses to play by the EU rules, it would have an impact on MS.
In simplest terms, that's 2 billion a year that they could spend on other things. And it would have at least a minor impact on their stock, at least after the fine was announced. Finally, who is to say that the EU would stop there? Couldn't they continue to fine MS for numerous other reasons?
Kierthos
You do realize that "Iron Monkey" is like 8 years old, and you probably could have rented a copy, right?
I'm not arguing that it's a bad movie (it's not), or that Ang Lee doesn't deliver (he does), but this movie does not belong in the same "category" of recent releases to compare against movies like "The One". Although, frankly, how anyone can compare "Iron Monkey" vs. "The One" is beyond me. It's like trying to decide who'd win in a fight between Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-Fat, their styles are just too different to easily decide.
Kierthos
Umm, you're right. I don't get it. Why would I, as a developer, want to continue paying M$ every year to do something that I could either write on my own, find an easier way to do it with other existing programs, or just ignore?
Alerts on stock quotes? Limited market and already available (and if you play in the stock market enough where you would need alerts available often enough to justify the costs, you probably should just get a broker to handle things for you.)
Weather forecasts and flight delays? Limited market and easily accessible already. Weather Channel, Headline News, Airport information.
Contact lists? AIM, ICQ, hell IRC even.
Yeah, it is sooo damn nifty that they want to make all of this available to developers and charge them for it, but big whoop, I can get most of this stuff already without having to go to M$. And the user will pay indirectly, because the developer will need to cover the costs of renting these services from M$.
Kierthos
I agree. One step access to electronic documents can be handled in so many easy ways (like carrying a copy oof it on your laptop, carrying a spare disk, having the doc on a web page). Contact lists? Oh you mean like AIM, or ICQ? Calendars? Big deal, use a handheld. Instant alerts on stocks? Okay, show of hands, how many people have enough money tied up in stocks where this is a major concern? Answer: Not that many any more compared to last year. Weather forecasts and flight delays can be found online so easily already that it's not even funny. And the rest of it is just as easy to find.
Sure, M$ is stuffing all of this in one "easy to get" system, but quite honestly, anyone who needs all/many of these things on a regular basis already has a method of getting what they need worked out. M$ is (once again) innovating nothing. They're hoping and praying they can sink their teeth in deeper into the collective wallets of anyone who is gullible enough to fall for their spiel.
IMAO,
Kierthos
It might be due to heat dissipation, but if so, that's not a good thing anyway. How many people place their game consoles in a TV cabinet or next to their VCR? If it's going to overheat and have load problems this easily, I can't see a whole lot of incentive to buy the silly thing.
Well... since Solid Gear Metal 2 is coming out, I don't see a lot of incentive to do anything but sit in front of a PS2 for prolonged periods of time.
Kierthos
You may have heard of DARPA-net at some point, hm?
Kierthos
Well, Hollywood crapola aside, I really can't see most leaders of terrorist organizations being on part of a suicide mission. Let's face facts, the leaders want to be around afterwards to celebrate and plan the next attack. They can't do that if they are dead.
Yes, the hijackers, along with many innocent people, are dead. I seriously doubt, however, that every last person involved with the planning, preparation, and execution of the attack is dead. That, of course, needs to change.
Kierthos
If retaliation will get the people who planned and organized this attack, then it's all good, in my opinion. Do you honestly think that the planners of this attack were the ones who were hijacking the planes?
And I happen to believe that if you show what happens to the people who organize and plan terrorist attacks, it does deter those who are still out there and haven't been caught/punished yet.
Lastly, it's not any national attitude. Some of these terrorist fruit loops hate the U.S. for no logical or sane reason. These are the same people who quote the Koran to give an excuse for killing Christians and Jews, while simultaneously ignoring the parts of the Koran that preach the ways of peace to the other peoples of God (which, coincidentally are Christians and Jews).
Kierthos
Depends... Germany decided that the CoS was a business and is taxing them accordingly. And when was the last time the Catholic Church tried to infiltrate the IRS? (Yes, the CoS tried. Partially succeeded too... some of them are still in jail, AFAIK.)
Kierthos
Probably not. Unless it is the graduates doing the suing, it shouldn't be an issue. Face it, it's the administration who is doing this. And what company, in their right mind, is going to turn away possible highly qualified employees because of something they might not have even been a part of.
Of course, if any of those graduates pull typical MIT pranks on Sony, then yes, I doubt they would be on the top of the hire list.
Kierthos
Blindness is a matter of choice? Yeah, right. And I must be somewhat insane to choose to stumble through life with vision so poor that corrective lenses only take me up to moderately poor vision. (At my rate of deterioration, I will be legally blind in about 15 years.) I did not make a conscious choice to have poor vision. And most of the homosexual people I know (hey, I live near a college campus) say they didn't make a conscious choice to be gay.
Besides which, if I could use the "power" of conscious thought to overcome my eye problems, I'd probably give myself x-ray vision and telekinesis as well.
Kierthos
The language is clunky. Very clunky. And I've personally found that they give you a lot of parts that you don't ever need unless you specifically only want to build the robots in the books they provide. (Ob note: for that matter, Extreme Creatures is mostly worthless, Robosports slightly less so. I'd say Vision Command was the "best" expansion for Mindstorms, but that's just my opinion.)
Also, the books they provide are practically worthless. I've played with Legos a lot, and I couldn't figure out some of their diagrams the first time out.
Frankly, I wish that you could order specific parts directly from Lego. I know I can order certain parts, but not the ones I really want, and where else am I going to get 12 sets of Lego 'tank treads'? EBay? (of course, if you actually can order the tank treads from Lego, they hide it well...)
Kierthos
Well, either you set up Passport on every single machine you use/have access to, which probably isn't the brightest idea in the world, or you "suffer" through having to fill in the data/passwords/whatever like the rest of us.
Personally, I'm not planning on using Password at all. But then, I still use Windows 95 on my machine at home.
Kierthos
Hmmm... didn't know that. And the reason for this is? (I might have to move to Maryland...)
Kierthos
And of course, when it does get hacked (I'm sorry, we're talking about M$ here, someone will hack it just because of that) and J. Random User ends up with thousands of $ worth of porn site use, or eBay charges, or whatever, what will be the reaction from M$?
A service pack? Abject denial?
It's simple... if you're providing an online service, you need to supply the best protection possible to your clients. And there is no indication that M$ has the slightest clue on how to do this.
Kierthos
Very true. Headline News has a "Global Minute" where they barely gloss over stories taking place outside of the U.S. (well, unless it's Isrealis attacking Palestinians, or vice versa... that seems to make the main news segment all the time). And I know of several supposedly international organizations that are so U.S.-centric that it's not even funny.
But you also have to realize that for a lot of news agencies, this isn't what they consider news. It's an "evil hacker" being prosecuted. And since many of the news agencies are owned by companies that support the DMCA (AOL Time-Warner springs to mind), they don't want to report the fact that someone has been arrested for performing an act that is legal in Russia but illegal in the U.S.A.
Ironic that the U.S. has the totalitarian jack-booted thugs now and Russia is claiming for release of one of their citizens...
Kierthos
Depends on the type of sub. The old WWII style with the front the same shape (okay, not exactly) like a powerboat actually run faster on the surface, not just because of diesel vs. electric power, but because it 'cut' through the water better. The new subs with the rounded conical nose run faster underwater then on the surface because of bow waves and such. Also, the rounded conical noses on subs provide a quieter profile when going through water, and most subs of the last few decades (well, at least up till the end of the Cold War) have been built to be quiet rather then fast. If the enemy can't find you, he can't stop you is the premise.
Kierthos
Well, after seeing the vast hordes of people rushing out to buy PS2's at any price (eBay had some going for $800), there will be people who pay $499 so they can have one right away rather then waiting a few weeks and getting a cheaper one.
As I don't plan on buying an XBOX at all until I see a good list of games that will run on it (and probably not even then... I like the console I have), it doesn't bother me. I have much better things to spend my money on then bundled games I may never play, or an extended warranty that may never get used. (Frankly, I don't know anyone who has ever had to call in a game console for repairs under a warranty unless they kicked the damn thing first.)
Kierthos
Here's the thing... let's say Merchant A has the $499 version, and Merchant B has the $1200 version which comes with all kinds of 'neat' toys that M$ thinks we want. Anyone who doesn't want some or all of the toys bundled with the $1200 version is going to go buy the $499 one assuming it's available. I mean, there are several types of games I personally loathe. I can't stand racing or football video games, so if any of those come bundled with the $1200 version (or let's face it, any version) I'm not going to buy it. I'd much rather have the option of buying the bare-bones system and picking up anything else I need as I need it.
M$ thinks it is providing more options, but what they are doing is limiting the number of bare-bones systems by bundling other goods. Doesn't matter if the best game in the world (YMMV) is in there, someone will not like it and go elsewhere. So how does this help the vendors selling the XBOXes? Do they try and buy a couple of each 'version' or do they stick with one and hope to hell it sells?
Am I surprised by M$ doing this? Hell no. They seem to think that they are the best judges of what everyone wants already, so it's not a shock to see them applying this to the XBOX. I'm just wondering how many vendors will end up stripping the bundled stuff out to sell the bare-bones systems to recoup some money. Or do they have the option of sending them back? (I only ask that because in a lot of stores, especially bookstores, product that doesn't sell gets shelved or destroyed...)
Kierthos
Wierd thing is, I know plenty of people who have been just walking along and 'wham!' they're given 50 or 100 plat by Joe Uber-level. Or stuff. How often does something like this happen in the real world? Not often.
Because plat and some items are so easy to get for some characters, they feel no intrinsic need to keep it. I've done the same at low levels myself. If it's not worth my time to shlep back to a merchant to sell some items I can't use, I give them to other PCs. Does it screw with the 'market'? Of course not, giving away cloth armour is so small of a deal as to not even be a blip on the screen. But it is a factor. Lots of Guilds help members get stuff with no mention of recompense (other then the implied 'next week you help me get something').
But yeah, at the mid-levels, especially for non-casters, plat becomes an issue only for production skills or a nice piece of gear.
Kierthos
The problem is, it takes resources to make that bottle of Coke. Glass or plastic and the various ingredients.
In EverQuest, if I need the resources to make something, I can either buy them, find them, kill mobs and loot their corpses for them, have a magician summon them, borrow from someone in my guild, etc. There are numerous ways to produce items without depleting resources because, there are no actual limits on what can be extracted from the 'environment' of EQ. (I.e. me and 500 other people can fish off the docks of Qeynos for weeks on end and we'll still catch little fishies.)
And because there are no resource costs associated with producing items or 'making' money, there is effectively an infinite supply. Only a small percentage gets 'recycled' by buying from NPC merchants. Trust me, after about 15th level, the only time most PCs use merchants is to either sell loot that no one else wants to buy (at a vastly lower then market value rate, which is one of the reasons no one uses the damn merchants) or to buy food and water when you don't have a pet caster to summon them for you.
Considering that I can kill mobs all day long and make money, and I suck at EQ, anyone who is good at it can make enough plat to outfit however they need.
Kierthos