Now, I don't have an iPhone, but even I know that you CAN edit MP3s and use them as ringtones VERY easily just not officially. And there are a LOT of applications that do this
now.
I have Windows Mobile phones and they are not that good. I'm not in the market for an iPhone either. I love my Symbian phones though. But I will say this for the iPhone, it's not about the hardware - it's how you use it.
Give me a break about how your WM phone already does more than the iPhone. Or how it has a better camera and 3G. Take touchscreens, they are not new, but they work better on the iPhone. And that's because the software is much, much more user friendly than what Microsoft makes. That's why I would consider an iPhone, but never again Windows Mobile.
Why should Apple have allowed free use of MP3-ringtones? They should not. The music is a licensed piece of property that belongs to the artist. If you want to edit and reuse it, make sure it's fair use and in accordance with the terms of use. For Apple it's crucial to stay legal and not mess with the music industry I guess. Don't expect them to forget it.
Sorry for the late reply. I don't think we spoke too soon. After all there have been school shootings in Europe, but I would call them very, very rare.
And the more interesting clue is that they were "inspired" by their American cousins. I'm not blaming the US in anyway. This is simply a case of a dangerous meme virus spreading all over the world. And just like in ordinary murder cases the copycats come out of the woodwork when it hits the press. That's why police don't want to tell everything to the press.
Gun culture is probably quite important to how and if these shootings can occur again. Finland has a solid gun culture rooted in national defense and a history of Russian aggression. And in my own country, Norway, we have if possible even more guns per capita (1:1). And we let our Home Guard men keep their AG-3 rifles at home. These guns have been used by members of the Guard to kill their wives and such. The usual reasons for homicide. Acquiring a gun outside of the armed forces is hard unless you're a member of a gun club. And illegal guns are only used by criminals. The police here still don't carry guns. As of yet we have not had any schools shootings. It could however change very soon now that a fellow Nordic person has done this.
We can't overlook the importance of securing our schools against madmen and murderers. However that's exactly why I think that RFID technologies are useful and should be developed for this purpose. Not that they will solve the problem. Mental health services and early detection have to be main weapons against this kind of thing. But being able to close our schools to keep unwanted elements outside is not a bad thing.
"..and that the system can be set up to limit access to doors for certain people at certain times, including shutting the main doors of a school to pupils during classtime."
I think that must be one of the best arguments for this kind of thing. Or at least for the United States of America where this kind of thing happens! FYI killing sprees in schools is not an issue in Europe.
As for the school bullies, you really think they won't find Johnny Victim without it? And child predators hardly need the RFID to identify school children. Just to point out the obvious, school age children don't walk home at night in their school uniforms. They change as quickly as they can because they want to wear more fashionable clothes and because they don't want to wear down their expensive uniforms.
The Irony is that the US is censoring and limiting rights on the web every day!
Forget about the rightful ownership of intellectual property that the MPAA/RIAA are fighting for. The real issue is the prosecution of any and all that publish their thoughts on their blog or website. You can get sued for writing something not favorable to a major corporation or politician even if it's actually true!
Europe is the only region where rights are being protected and new one's created to match the new technologies. Where the US sees a "fine" working monopoly in iTunes, Windows or other products the Europeans see a limit on their freedoms. Regardless of the company's origin the EU's Court of Justice works to protect it's citizens and ensure that their rights are not circumvented by EULAs.
When the British scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web, at the pan-European research facility CERN, he did not know how important it would become. But decades later the threat against the freedom his technology offers is being severly limited by the US leadership, corporate America and their minions.
Russia, as far as I am concerned, is only taking after the leader in censorship. No, not China. The so called firewall of China has been proven a weak illusion. The really scary threats against freedom today is the lack of access to justice in the US. There's a reason SLAP-lawsuits are the favorite tool of corporations against small individuals. How can you fight a major corporation on a single salary? Take away justice from America, and you have Russia.
Being a fine troll such as yourself I find it interesting that at least this way your anti-European racism comes to light. Europe is the continent of enlightenment, where democracy was invented, and will lead humanity into a new dawn. Oh, and least we don't attack innocent countries for lack of WMDs.
If you really want to talk about why local beats global look at the innovations they are creating. Kvasir is just a boring and very plain search engine.
However if you look at the fantastic Sesam.no they have some great services that beat Google. A search for a name will give you a combination of actual phonebook data, blogs, newspaper articles, addresses, maps, driving directions and even their corporate roles and stock ownership. And not to mention actual *knowledge* of local geography and language. It helps that Norway is a very transparent society where information is free, public and available.
The user interface is not enough, just supporting non-English languages is easy - actually using it is hard.
Wrong, Europe is not under the bear. In fact what you don't seem to realize is that Europe's relationship with Russia is more complex. As for energy policy one European country, Norway, is the world's third largest exporter of oil and gas. In the south North-African countries are just beginning to supply Europe. But we are keeping tabs on how Russia behaves, not giving into their tantrum politics (Ukraine). EU-Russia relationship
And Europe is doing plenty to encourage development of democratic institutions and free press in Russia. But fighting a tyrant like Putin, his friends and KGB troops is not exactly easy. I don't see a massive US campaign helping the oppressed Russian journalists?! At least in Europe we are aiding the democratic Russian forces in the European Court of Justice.
Oh, and where's your comment on US censorship?
You really messed up on this one! How many OSes are available on the Mac platform? Three major OSes: Mac OS, Linux and Windows! Both natively and virtual. How about that?
I seriously doubt that since this is a criminal investigation filed by the Swedish police of their own volition. There is no other party involved in this case. Remember how the US pressured the Swedish government into this? They never filed a lawsuit, they just made the Swedes investigate a *criminal* breach of the law. This is not a civil case with claims of damage (AFAIK).
the marines would realize they are all Germans anyway (German is the largest ethnic group in the US)
That's an amusing part of American culture. From a European point of view hardly any Americans qualify as "Europeans" on the basis of their supposed "German-Scottish-Italian-American" ancestry.
The peoples of Europe are far more homogenous within our individual nations, and so even a mixed Caucasian-ethnic background makes the claim moot. Heck, even marriages within Europe makes your ethnic-national status questionable. White people have ethnic backgrounds too. It's a tribal thing believe it or not.
And unless you moved to the US as a grown-up you will never be considered European by Europeans. The culture you grow up in is more important. If your mother or father came from a European country, and married someone in the US, you would still not be considered a European - simply American. But we would still love you:)
Actually we've had this kind of filtering for years now here in Norway and most ISPs are connected to the filter run by the national police. It's easy to get around it of course if you know how.
The other thing is of course the filter does not work the way it's supposed to! Lots of people have reported on internet forums and newspaper debates that their legitimate surfing has incurred the wrath of The Filter. Some of the just reported that legal porn sites were included. It's not like we feel sorry for them.
But the principles of free speech versus censorship should obviously be considered very important! They are central values in our constitution as well. But wouldn't you know it? The public does not know, care and did't get to vote on it. Welcome to democracy!
The EU is NOT a country and does NOT represent Europe as a whole. It is in fact a group of countries - and only represents 27 countries out some 47 European nations! I realise not many Americans know this but the EU is not a federal nation like the US. The EU is simply a group of cooperating nations.
And as for the statistics you were refering to - it tends to be popular to view them country vs EU group but there is no such country all the same. The EU has some of the largest economies so it's more interesting than say the poorest ex-communist non-EU European nation. You could find statistics that features European countries, and the US, versus the OECD average. That does not make the OECD a country!
Europe now has six entries in the Dirty Dozen
This would be the only correct thing in your post - except Russia really should not be included in the European group for obvious reasons such as lacking democracy, terrible legal environment, organised crime and emerging economy status. Russia might belong to Europe for cultural, historical and geographical reasons - but not for social, political and economical reasons! Mexico is close to the US - but not exactly on even terms!
Yes, of course, Ireland (Eire) is great European country! I did not mean to imply otherwise. England on the other hand. I have strong doubts about their claims to be European. Notice I did not say the UK;)
Besides the point was that Magna Carta is but one of the European charters that existed at the time. The original post reeks of ignorance to think that the great nations of Europe would have anything to do with Magna Carta. As if England ruled Europe or English law was synonymous with European law.
No, I wanted simply to point out that countries like France and Germany had equally interesting and perhaps even better systems of laws! After all today the world is far more influenced by the Code Civil and the German codification tradition than Common Law.
By calling the UK a vassal state I was trying to point out that they needed more surveillance to help them defeat interal and external forces (terrorists) that want to harm the UK.
Why? Because of the war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and the conflict with Iran. All of the conflicts listed are connected with the UK's ties to the US. No other country in Europe has those kinds of ties! Spain had close ties before the Madrid attacks, but not afterwards..
And even though some European cities have some cameras installed - it is very different from the levels of surveillance in London and the UK.
Who ever labelled it "flamebait" must not have understood the irony.
So what you are saying is that because we have cameras in other European cities they are all more or less like London? And do you also claim there are no cameras in the US?? Please, acknowledge that London is a very unique example of heavy surveillance! Even if other cities in the Europe/world have cameras installed - it does not equal the amount in the UK! And it certainly does not leave the US a glowing example to follow. Point fingers when the US has no cameras anywhere.
Now the EU is affirming their "right to pirate" which simply confirms everything they believe.
No, actually this is the Spanish Court asking the European Court of Justice (ECJ) how this specific EU-given law was meant to be interpreted. This specific law never decided copyright issues in Europe - however other national and EU directives do (EUCD). You, sir, obviously do not know much about European laws.
Will it nullify it as it's essentially unenforceable now?
No, because laws given at the EU (supernational) level does NOT mean individual countries cannot have other laws - as long as they're not in conflict with the supernational laws or their intentions. So they might be allowed to have stricter national laws or procedures.
Its nice to see that the EU still abides by the Magna Carta
Except Europe was never party to the Magna Carta of the English. What's more is that European countries belong to the Civil Law tradition (based on Roman law) and never shared the same system as the English. European countries of course had similar charters, but the EU would never, ever have any reason to uphold Magna Carta.
est 1215
P.S. The document commonly known as Magna Carta today is not the 1215 charter, but a later charter of 1225, and is usually shown in the form of The Charter of 1297 when it was confirmed by Edward I.
The vassal state of the United Kingdom, servant to the US, is NOT representative of Europe and it's 47 countries. The many nations of Europe do NOT have a lot cameras installed. Talk about feathers and hens! London being the great example does not apply to ANY other city in Europe. But then again ignorant Americans with no knowledge of the world is just a stereotype, huh?
I believe you missed the point here. Bonjour is not part of iTunes or iChat but a network discovery service also known as Zeroconf. Sound familiar? Removing iTunes is pointless since Bonjour only comes preinstalled with OS X. It does not have anything to do with iTunes for Windows or OS X.
The Vikings are busy raiding Irish monestaries until they get a cease and desist letter.
Actually since Norway found oil and is the world's third largest exporter, Sweden has IKEA and the Danes enjoy their Carlsberg beer we have given up raiding Britain and Ireland:)
According to the UN list of best countries to live in (2006) Norway is 1st, Sweden 5th and Denmark 15th.
Slashdot Mirror
Now, I don't have an iPhone, but even I know that you CAN edit MP3s and use them as ringtones VERY easily just not officially. And there are a LOT of applications that do this now.
And you CAN in fact view the filesystem on an iPhone easily - just have a look here
I have Windows Mobile phones and they are not that good. I'm not in the market for an iPhone either. I love my Symbian phones though. But I will say this for the iPhone, it's not about the hardware - it's how you use it.
Give me a break about how your WM phone already does more than the iPhone. Or how it has a better camera and 3G. Take touchscreens, they are not new, but they work better on the iPhone. And that's because the software is much, much more user friendly than what Microsoft makes. That's why I would consider an iPhone, but never again Windows Mobile.
Why should Apple have allowed free use of MP3-ringtones? They should not. The music is a licensed piece of property that belongs to the artist. If you want to edit and reuse it, make sure it's fair use and in accordance with the terms of use. For Apple it's crucial to stay legal and not mess with the music industry I guess. Don't expect them to forget it.
Sorry for the late reply. I don't think we spoke too soon. After all there have been school shootings in Europe, but I would call them very, very rare.
And the more interesting clue is that they were "inspired" by their American cousins. I'm not blaming the US in anyway. This is simply a case of a dangerous meme virus spreading all over the world. And just like in ordinary murder cases the copycats come out of the woodwork when it hits the press. That's why police don't want to tell everything to the press.
Gun culture is probably quite important to how and if these shootings can occur again. Finland has a solid gun culture rooted in national defense and a history of Russian aggression. And in my own country, Norway, we have if possible even more guns per capita (1:1). And we let our Home Guard men keep their AG-3 rifles at home. These guns have been used by members of the Guard to kill their wives and such. The usual reasons for homicide. Acquiring a gun outside of the armed forces is hard unless you're a member of a gun club. And illegal guns are only used by criminals. The police here still don't carry guns. As of yet we have not had any schools shootings. It could however change very soon now that a fellow Nordic person has done this.
We can't overlook the importance of securing our schools against madmen and murderers. However that's exactly why I think that RFID technologies are useful and should be developed for this purpose. Not that they will solve the problem. Mental health services and early detection have to be main weapons against this kind of thing. But being able to close our schools to keep unwanted elements outside is not a bad thing.
I think that must be one of the best arguments for this kind of thing. Or at least for the United States of America where this kind of thing happens! FYI killing sprees in schools is not an issue in Europe.
As for the school bullies, you really think they won't find Johnny Victim without it? And child predators hardly need the RFID to identify school children. Just to point out the obvious, school age children don't walk home at night in their school uniforms. They change as quickly as they can because they want to wear more fashionable clothes and because they don't want to wear down their expensive uniforms.
The Irony is that the US is censoring and limiting rights on the web every day!
Forget about the rightful ownership of intellectual property that the MPAA/RIAA are fighting for. The real issue is the prosecution of any and all that publish their thoughts on their blog or website. You can get sued for writing something not favorable to a major corporation or politician even if it's actually true!
Europe is the only region where rights are being protected and new one's created to match the new technologies. Where the US sees a "fine" working monopoly in iTunes, Windows or other products the Europeans see a limit on their freedoms. Regardless of the company's origin the EU's Court of Justice works to protect it's citizens and ensure that their rights are not circumvented by EULAs.
When the British scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web, at the pan-European research facility CERN, he did not know how important it would become. But decades later the threat against the freedom his technology offers is being severly limited by the US leadership, corporate America and their minions.
Russia, as far as I am concerned, is only taking after the leader in censorship. No, not China. The so called firewall of China has been proven a weak illusion. The really scary threats against freedom today is the lack of access to justice in the US. There's a reason SLAP-lawsuits are the favorite tool of corporations against small individuals. How can you fight a major corporation on a single salary? Take away justice from America, and you have Russia.
Being a fine troll such as yourself I find it interesting that at least this way your anti-European racism comes to light. Europe is the continent of enlightenment, where democracy was invented, and will lead humanity into a new dawn. Oh, and least we don't attack innocent countries for lack of WMDs.
If you really want to talk about why local beats global look at the innovations they are creating. Kvasir is just a boring and very plain search engine.
However if you look at the fantastic Sesam.no they have some great services that beat Google. A search for a name will give you a combination of actual phonebook data, blogs, newspaper articles, addresses, maps, driving directions and even their corporate roles and stock ownership. And not to mention actual *knowledge* of local geography and language. It helps that Norway is a very transparent society where information is free, public and available.
The user interface is not enough, just supporting non-English languages is easy - actually using it is hard.
Wrong, Europe is not under the bear. In fact what you don't seem to realize is that Europe's relationship with Russia is more complex. As for energy policy one European country, Norway, is the world's third largest exporter of oil and gas. In the south North-African countries are just beginning to supply Europe. But we are keeping tabs on how Russia behaves, not giving into their tantrum politics (Ukraine). EU-Russia relationship And Europe is doing plenty to encourage development of democratic institutions and free press in Russia. But fighting a tyrant like Putin, his friends and KGB troops is not exactly easy. I don't see a massive US campaign helping the oppressed Russian journalists?! At least in Europe we are aiding the democratic Russian forces in the European Court of Justice. Oh, and where's your comment on US censorship?
Especially since the Europeans invented the Web.
You really messed up on this one! How many OSes are available on the Mac platform? Three major OSes: Mac OS, Linux and Windows! Both natively and virtual. How about that?
I seriously doubt that since this is a criminal investigation filed by the Swedish police of their own volition. There is no other party involved in this case. Remember how the US pressured the Swedish government into this? They never filed a lawsuit, they just made the Swedes investigate a *criminal* breach of the law. This is not a civil case with claims of damage (AFAIK).
That's an amusing part of American culture. From a European point of view hardly any Americans qualify as "Europeans" on the basis of their supposed "German-Scottish-Italian-American" ancestry.
The peoples of Europe are far more homogenous within our individual nations, and so even a mixed Caucasian-ethnic background makes the claim moot. Heck, even marriages within Europe makes your ethnic-national status questionable. White people have ethnic backgrounds too. It's a tribal thing believe it or not.
And unless you moved to the US as a grown-up you will never be considered European by Europeans. The culture you grow up in is more important. If your mother or father came from a European country, and married someone in the US, you would still not be considered a European - simply American. But we would still love you :)
Actually we've had this kind of filtering for years now here in Norway and most ISPs are connected to the filter run by the national police. It's easy to get around it of course if you know how.
The other thing is of course the filter does not work the way it's supposed to! Lots of people have reported on internet forums and newspaper debates that their legitimate surfing has incurred the wrath of The Filter. Some of the just reported that legal porn sites were included. It's not like we feel sorry for them.
But the principles of free speech versus censorship should obviously be considered very important! They are central values in our constitution as well. But wouldn't you know it? The public does not know, care and did't get to vote on it. Welcome to democracy!
The EU is NOT a country and does NOT represent Europe as a whole. It is in fact a group of countries - and only represents 27 countries out some 47 European nations! I realise not many Americans know this but the EU is not a federal nation like the US. The EU is simply a group of cooperating nations.
And as for the statistics you were refering to - it tends to be popular to view them country vs EU group but there is no such country all the same. The EU has some of the largest economies so it's more interesting than say the poorest ex-communist non-EU European nation. You could find statistics that features European countries, and the US, versus the OECD average. That does not make the OECD a country!
This would be the only correct thing in your post - except Russia really should not be included in the European group for obvious reasons such as lacking democracy, terrible legal environment, organised crime and emerging economy status. Russia might belong to Europe for cultural, historical and geographical reasons - but not for social, political and economical reasons! Mexico is close to the US - but not exactly on even terms!
Yes, of course, Ireland (Eire) is great European country! I did not mean to imply otherwise. England on the other hand. I have strong doubts about their claims to be European. Notice I did not say the UK ;)
Besides the point was that Magna Carta is but one of the European charters that existed at the time. The original post reeks of ignorance to think that the great nations of Europe would have anything to do with Magna Carta. As if England ruled Europe or English law was synonymous with European law.
No, I wanted simply to point out that countries like France and Germany had equally interesting and perhaps even better systems of laws! After all today the world is far more influenced by the Code Civil and the German codification tradition than Common Law.
By calling the UK a vassal state I was trying to point out that they needed more surveillance to help them defeat interal and external forces (terrorists) that want to harm the UK.
Why? Because of the war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and the conflict with Iran. All of the conflicts listed are connected with the UK's ties to the US. No other country in Europe has those kinds of ties! Spain had close ties before the Madrid attacks, but not afterwards..
And even though some European cities have some cameras installed - it is very different from the levels of surveillance in London and the UK.
Who ever labelled it "flamebait" must not have understood the irony.
So what you are saying is that because we have cameras in other European cities they are all more or less like London? And do you also claim there are no cameras in the US?? Please, acknowledge that London is a very unique example of heavy surveillance! Even if other cities in the Europe/world have cameras installed - it does not equal the amount in the UK! And it certainly does not leave the US a glowing example to follow. Point fingers when the US has no cameras anywhere.
Except Europe was never party to the Magna Carta of the English. What's more is that European countries belong to the Civil Law tradition (based on Roman law) and never shared the same system as the English. European countries of course had similar charters, but the EU would never, ever have any reason to uphold Magna Carta.
P.S. The document commonly known as Magna Carta today is not the 1215 charter, but a later charter of 1225, and is usually shown in the form of The Charter of 1297 when it was confirmed by Edward I.
The vassal state of the United Kingdom, servant to the US, is NOT representative of Europe and it's 47 countries. The many nations of Europe do NOT have a lot cameras installed. Talk about feathers and hens! London being the great example does not apply to ANY other city in Europe. But then again ignorant Americans with no knowledge of the world is just a stereotype, huh?
Well he did actually claim removing iTunes would remove the vulnerability. So *you* try reading it again and actually understanding his confusion.
I believe you missed the point here. Bonjour is not part of iTunes or iChat but a network discovery service also known as Zeroconf. Sound familiar? Removing iTunes is pointless since Bonjour only comes preinstalled with OS X. It does not have anything to do with iTunes for Windows or OS X.
P.S. Yes, you can get Bonjour for Windows.
Actually since Norway found oil and is the world's third largest exporter, Sweden has IKEA and the Danes enjoy their Carlsberg beer we have given up raiding Britain and Ireland :)
According to the UN list of best countries to live in (2006) Norway is 1st, Sweden 5th and Denmark 15th.