he copyright practices in the rest of Europe are irrelevant to a discussion of American copyright law
Reading the article, one would think that copyright, as we know it, was an American invention, which is is not. Therefore I think it is relevant.
Since the article appears to be a discussion of the Founding Fathers v. the DMCA, a US-centric view is to be expected. European copyright law isn't mentioned because it's really not relevant. I challenge you to find for me one sentence in the article that says ANYTHING about US copyright law outside the boundaries of the US.
Similar systems are already in use in the Canadian military...displays the results based on what you do (hold your fire? shoot at the wrong target? miss? etc.).
That's not really the same thing. The only form of interaction with the scenario is a simulated firearm, so it's essentially a video game. Police academies have been using the same systems for 20 years. The system they're developing isn't about being able to shoot the right guy at the right time; rather it accepts voice commands and is meant to train soldiers how to deal with stressful NON-shooting situations. Soldiers in the US Army are already fairly good at shooting.
And when a new surveilance method is introduced, then the fourth ammendment restriction against search and seizure automatically applies until a court decides that the search method is reasonable. I imply here that someone not related to the FBI should have the chance to make their case that the search is unreasonable, if they so believe.
This would be great, except that our legal system doesn't work that way. The presumption of innocence is a fundamental aspect of law and extends to everyone, including FBI agents with Spies-R-Us catalogs. If we create a closed list of "approved surveillance tools", what's to stop someone from coming up with a list of "approved modes of free speech"? Then again, they've already made a mockery of the 2nd Amendment in this way, so I'm really just referring to our system under "ideal" conditions.
I got the feeling that Verizon was sending the trainees out to deliver the CLEC loops, while sending the more competent (a relative term!) techs out to service Verizon customers.
I can't speak for the part of Verizon that used to be Bell Atlantic, but just before the merger, the part that used to be GTE went and laid off/bought out almost all its techs with more than 10 years experience and replaced 'em with new (inexperienced) hires to "save money". They used to send new guys to "ride alnog" with an experienced tech to learn the ropes, but there were now more new guys than old guys. I install business phone systems and have to deal with Verizon a lot. Since then I have seen Verizon screw-ups triple.
Ultimately though, the solution is to decrease demand by increasing efficiency at the consumption end (i.e. turn down the damn air conditioning). Fat chance.
Californians, on average, use 15% less power than people in other states. There is already a strong conservation ethic at work here. The problem is that there hasn't been a new power plant built in the state for ten years, and in that time we've had considerable growth. We need more generating capacity, period.
When x-ray machines first became available to dentists, there was supposedly a problem with ill-informed x-ray techs giving their family jewels a couple shots or radiation before a "hot date" in order to lower the risk of undesired impregnation. This was perhaps merely an urban legend, but it did result in a requirement of extra safety instruction in x-ray tech training.
Not totaly true. Lucent make the DSLMAX boxes. They simply take a fiber, or ethernet, or ATM line, and supply it to upwards 64 coper lines. My Apartment complex uses these boxes. They take a fiber link from the CO, and supply each apartment with DSL service. works quite well because the coper link is only about 50 feet.
Not totally false either. Your situation is similar to any other DSL setup. The fiber is the data feed to/from the ISP, and the Lucent box overlays the DSL on everyone's copper. You have unbroken copper between your wall jack and the DSL point of origin. In your case the fiber comes before the "last mile", so it's not material to the DSL portion of your connection. What he has is a length of fiber between his home and the point of origin. If you had (say) a MUXer consolidating the fourth floor lines down in the telco, piping it up to the fourth floor, then deMUXing the signal and distributing to each apartment, you'd be just as screwed as he is.
The position of the bars on a manual typewriter relates directly to the position of the keys. The bars were arranged in a linear fashion, with each key directly in line with one bar in this line. Look at your keyboard. Notice how each row of keys is staggered from the others? This is another legacy from the Sholes design. You can figure out the order of the type bars Sholes decided to use by taking a ruler or other straight-edge and lining it up vertically along the side of the '1' key on your keyboard. Now move the ruler to the right until it lines up with the next key: the 'Q'. Go to the next: the 'A'. Continue on like this and you get the exact same order of the line of type bars on Sholes QWERTY machine: 1QA2ZWS3XED4CRF5VTG6BYH7NUJ8MIK9,OL0.P;
If you look at a manual typewriter, you'll see that you cannot move a type bar without moving the key that actuates it, as the key mechanisms can't cross over one another. Each key is nothing more than a pad on the end of a lever. The opposite end of the lever connects to the lower end of the type bar, which is itself a lever (bent 90 degrees at the fulcrum). Key goes down, other end of key-lever goes up, lower end of type-bar-lever goes up, type head on the other end flies forward and strikes paper. Simple design that worked well. That's why people bought it. Others had invented type-machines before Sholes patented his in the 1860's (William Burt - 1829, Xavier Projean - 1833), but they were too complicated to be usefull.
Re:That makes no sense.
on
Flywheel UPS
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· Score: 1
How big a disc do you need if you use depleated uranium? Also you could mount the thing with the disc vertical. So it simply becomes a thick wall.
It's not actually a wheel, it's a drum. Besides, it's not just weight that matters; maximum rotation velocity is equally important. While depleted uranium may have excellent density, it doesn't have the structural strength to handle high rotation speeds. You get more kinetic energy from a flywheel half as dense that can spin more than twice as fast without delaminating (falling apart).
Yes, the first one is an urban legend, but yours is just made-up as well. The truth of the matter is that noone alive today has the definitive answer as to why the QWERTY keyboard was used.
That is not the truth of the matter. The QWERTY layout was indeed developed to increase typing speed. The reason has to do with the original Sholes typewriter being a finger-powered mechanical device. Like all manual typewriters since, each character on the Sholes model was set on the end of a metal bar that struck the paper when its key was pressed. The original keyboard layout was alphabetical. The problem was, that when a typist learned to type fast, the bars attached to letters that lay close together on the keyboard became entangled with one another when they were struck in quick succession. Sholes' solution was to calculate which letters were most often used in English and then position them as far from one another as possible. This lessened the chance of clashing type bars and allowed typists to work faster. Manual typewriters are a thing of the past now, but there's too much "user base" for the QWERTY layout to change it. Not quite as amusing as the way space shuttle solid rocket boosters ended up being the same in diameter as the width of an ancient roman war chariot, but the end result is similarly an artifact.
Re:So big... I want a little one!!
on
Flywheel UPS
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· Score: 1
Why are they so big and expensive? You should be able to produce a flywheel UPS for use with PC's within a small enclosure. Anyone have any good reasons?
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it's a precisely balanced flywheel and it's supported by magnetic bearings in a vacuum. They didn't just fill a coffee can with cement and stick it on the end of a motor.
"I guess what I worry about most is, what happens when the politicians' biggest relevance is that they're the guys with control of the guns?"
Truly they have the largest concentration of guns; but the US has a fairly well armed citizenry. Martial law would only work if you can convice your soldiers that "the folks back home" are all Dangerous Anarchists or some such. As a former soldier myself, I suspect many of those same soldiers would turn to their political leaders and say "You're on your own pal. If you want civilians oppressed, call the LAPD."
"Seriously, though, the Net isn't a hotbed of political activity"
And that, my friend, is precisely the point. Taking action against DMCA et al would be participation in the current political system. The trend lately has been near-total disregard for the system. A government that passes laws that are then ignored by everyone will eventually wither and die. In a future where offshore banking is commonplace, even taxation can become irrelevant.
"Throughout history we see how entire nations have fallen under the sway of charismatic leaders, and do we want to return to an era in which democracy falls to the first person who can make a good speech?"
The nature of ubiquitous communication means that ALL good speech makers have nearly equal access. Historically, charismatic leaders seized power not by making good speeches, but by taking control of a position which guaranteed they'd be heard by all, while their opponents stood on street corners. In the future, EVERYONE will essentially be on a streetcorner.
Landing a plane when you have no physical feedback is harder. You can feel a real plane react to the control inputs, whereas a sim you get all your info thru your eyeballs.
BTW- I remember landing the Learjet on the carrier after about fifty tries, flying just on the edge of stalling and reversing thrust just before hitting the deck. Flight sims are great. They'd never let me do that for REAL.
I believe the Post-It Note patent centers around the glue that stays on the back of the note when you peel the paper off your fridge or wherever. Patenting the mere use as a "sticky note" wouldn't fly, as adhesive labels have been around for decades.
Patents give you exclusive rights to a certain process or method of achieving an end result, not exclusive rights to the end result. You can patent a better mousetrap, but that doesn't mean only you can build mousetraps, even if no one else has made one before.
One problem with DC power is that it will quickly wear out mechanical switching devices. As contacts close, DC will jump the gap at some point and essentially "arc weld" the contact surfaces, eventually causing failure. The voltage could be lowered to mitigate this, but then you need to use wire as thick as your thumb to handle the amperage. High voltage AC is really the best bet, though the 60Hz frequency could stand an upgrade. But then again, lots of things use the 60Hz as a time reference...
Chromium can show up in a number of different forms. Elemental chromium is an nutritionally essential mineral. Other forms, such as hexavalent chromium, are carcinogenic.
11. Thus, there are no historical precedents or incidents justifying a need for copy protection measures. Further, there is no credible reason to believe the situation will be different for digital content delivered via broadcast or cable systems.
Unfortunately this is the single most important point, and you have no supporting proof supporting. It's merely here-say.
How do you suggest he prove the lack of historical precedence? Show the FCC the blank note pad on which he intended to make note of incidents, if he had found any? Hogwash! He's merely pointing out the it is the entertainment industry who is engaged in HEARSAY when they claim such protections are necessary, as it is THEY who provide no proof of actual damages. What THEY have is statisticaly dubious ESTIMATES of losses based on the absurd premise of "if they couldn't get it free or cheap, they'd pay full price". The FCC, as a government agency, should not impose regulations to solve a problem whose very existence has not been substantiated.
Academia USED to be the enemy of Big Brother, back when "tenure" meant something. Nowadays, with universities beholden to a dozen government bureaus for grant money, tenure is only granted with the contractual "understanding" that the scholar will be dismissed if he/she is not being "useful and productive"- i.e. studying only PROFITTABLE subjects and NOT harassing Sugar Daddy Uncle Sam. Academic impartiallity vanished when the government, in an attempt to curtail "waste", required full accounting of where every penny of a grant went, and then told universities where the money COULDN'T go.
Slashdot Mirror
he copyright practices in the rest of Europe are irrelevant to a discussion of American copyright law Reading the article, one would think that copyright, as we know it, was an American invention, which is is not. Therefore I think it is relevant.
Since the article appears to be a discussion of the Founding Fathers v. the DMCA, a US-centric view is to be expected. European copyright law isn't mentioned because it's really not relevant. I challenge you to find for me one sentence in the article that says ANYTHING about US copyright law outside the boundaries of the US.
Similar systems are already in use in the Canadian military...displays the results based on what you do (hold your fire? shoot at the wrong target? miss? etc.).
That's not really the same thing. The only form of interaction with the scenario is a simulated firearm, so it's essentially a video game. Police academies have been using the same systems for 20 years. The system they're developing isn't about being able to shoot the right guy at the right time; rather it accepts voice commands and is meant to train soldiers how to deal with stressful NON-shooting situations. Soldiers in the US Army are already fairly good at shooting.
And when a new surveilance method is introduced, then the fourth ammendment restriction against search and seizure automatically applies until a court decides that the search method is reasonable. I imply here that someone not related to the FBI should have the chance to make their case that the search is unreasonable, if they so believe.
This would be great, except that our legal system doesn't work that way. The presumption of innocence is a fundamental aspect of law and extends to everyone, including FBI agents with Spies-R-Us catalogs. If we create a closed list of "approved surveillance tools", what's to stop someone from coming up with a list of "approved modes of free speech"? Then again, they've already made a mockery of the 2nd Amendment in this way, so I'm really just referring to our system under "ideal" conditions.
I got the feeling that Verizon was sending the trainees out to deliver the CLEC loops, while sending the more competent (a relative term!) techs out to service Verizon customers.
I can't speak for the part of Verizon that used to be Bell Atlantic, but just before the merger, the part that used to be GTE went and laid off/bought out almost all its techs with more than 10 years experience and replaced 'em with new (inexperienced) hires to "save money". They used to send new guys to "ride alnog" with an experienced tech to learn the ropes, but there were now more new guys than old guys. I install business phone systems and have to deal with Verizon a lot. Since then I have seen Verizon screw-ups triple.
Why don't they use a layer of copper, which has a much higher conductivity than aluminum. The only reasons I see for aluminum are:
... ...
Slightly higher tensile strength
aluminum oxide passivation layer
They used to use copper, but changed for two reasons:
1) cost
2) weight
Find a trick to make copper light and cheap, and I'm sure they'll go for it.
Ultimately though, the solution is to decrease demand by increasing efficiency at the consumption end (i.e. turn down the damn air conditioning). Fat chance.
Californians, on average, use 15% less power than people in other states. There is already a strong conservation ethic at work here. The problem is that there hasn't been a new power plant built in the state for ten years, and in that time we've had considerable growth. We need more generating capacity, period.
When x-ray machines first became available to dentists, there was supposedly a problem with ill-informed x-ray techs giving their family jewels a couple shots or radiation before a "hot date" in order to lower the risk of undesired impregnation. This was perhaps merely an urban legend, but it did result in a requirement of extra safety instruction in x-ray tech training.
Not totaly true. Lucent make the DSLMAX boxes. They simply take a fiber, or ethernet, or ATM line, and supply it to upwards 64 coper lines. My Apartment complex uses these boxes. They take a fiber link from the CO, and supply each apartment with DSL service. works quite well because the coper link is only about 50 feet. Not totally false either. Your situation is similar to any other DSL setup. The fiber is the data feed to/from the ISP, and the Lucent box overlays the DSL on everyone's copper. You have unbroken copper between your wall jack and the DSL point of origin. In your case the fiber comes before the "last mile", so it's not material to the DSL portion of your connection. What he has is a length of fiber between his home and the point of origin. If you had (say) a MUXer consolidating the fourth floor lines down in the telco, piping it up to the fourth floor, then deMUXing the signal and distributing to each apartment, you'd be just as screwed as he is.
The position of the bars on a manual typewriter relates directly to the position of the keys. The bars were arranged in a linear fashion, with each key directly in line with one bar in this line. Look at your keyboard. Notice how each row of keys is staggered from the others? This is another legacy from the Sholes design. You can figure out the order of the type bars Sholes decided to use by taking a ruler or other straight-edge and lining it up vertically along the side of the '1' key on your keyboard. Now move the ruler to the right until it lines up with the next key: the 'Q'. Go to the next: the 'A'. Continue on like this and you get the exact same order of the line of type bars on Sholes QWERTY machine: 1QA2ZWS3XED4CRF5VTG6BYH7NUJ8MIK9,OL0.P;
If you look at a manual typewriter, you'll see that you cannot move a type bar without moving the key that actuates it, as the key mechanisms can't cross over one another. Each key is nothing more than a pad on the end of a lever. The opposite end of the lever connects to the lower end of the type bar, which is itself a lever (bent 90 degrees at the fulcrum). Key goes down, other end of key-lever goes up, lower end of type-bar-lever goes up, type head on the other end flies forward and strikes paper. Simple design that worked well. That's why people bought it. Others had invented type-machines before Sholes patented his in the 1860's (William Burt - 1829, Xavier Projean - 1833), but they were too complicated to be usefull.
How big a disc do you need if you use depleated uranium? Also you could mount the thing with the disc vertical. So it simply becomes a thick wall.
It's not actually a wheel, it's a drum. Besides, it's not just weight that matters; maximum rotation velocity is equally important. While depleted uranium may have excellent density, it doesn't have the structural strength to handle high rotation speeds. You get more kinetic energy from a flywheel half as dense that can spin more than twice as fast without delaminating (falling apart).
Yes, the first one is an urban legend, but yours is just made-up as well. The truth of the matter is that noone alive today has the definitive answer as to why the QWERTY keyboard was used.
That is not the truth of the matter. The QWERTY layout was indeed developed to increase typing speed. The reason has to do with the original Sholes typewriter being a finger-powered mechanical device. Like all manual typewriters since, each character on the Sholes model was set on the end of a metal bar that struck the paper when its key was pressed. The original keyboard layout was alphabetical. The problem was, that when a typist learned to type fast, the bars attached to letters that lay close together on the keyboard became entangled with one another when they were struck in quick succession. Sholes' solution was to calculate which letters were most often used in English and then position them as far from one another as possible. This lessened the chance of clashing type bars and allowed typists to work faster. Manual typewriters are a thing of the past now, but there's too much "user base" for the QWERTY layout to change it. Not quite as amusing as the way space shuttle solid rocket boosters ended up being the same in diameter as the width of an ancient roman war chariot, but the end result is similarly an artifact.
Why are they so big and expensive? You should be able to produce a flywheel UPS for use with PC's within a small enclosure. Anyone have any good reasons? Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it's a precisely balanced flywheel and it's supported by magnetic bearings in a vacuum. They didn't just fill a coffee can with cement and stick it on the end of a motor.
Truly they have the largest concentration of guns; but the US has a fairly well armed citizenry. Martial law would only work if you can convice your soldiers that "the folks back home" are all Dangerous Anarchists or some such. As a former soldier myself, I suspect many of those same soldiers would turn to their political leaders and say "You're on your own pal. If you want civilians oppressed, call the LAPD."
And that, my friend, is precisely the point. Taking action against DMCA et al would be participation in the current political system. The trend lately has been near-total disregard for the system. A government that passes laws that are then ignored by everyone will eventually wither and die. In a future where offshore banking is commonplace, even taxation can become irrelevant.
The nature of ubiquitous communication means that ALL good speech makers have nearly equal access. Historically, charismatic leaders seized power not by making good speeches, but by taking control of a position which guaranteed they'd be heard by all, while their opponents stood on street corners. In the future, EVERYONE will essentially be on a streetcorner.
Landing a plane when you have no physical feedback is harder. You can feel a real plane react to the control inputs, whereas a sim you get all your info thru your eyeballs. BTW- I remember landing the Learjet on the carrier after about fifty tries, flying just on the edge of stalling and reversing thrust just before hitting the deck. Flight sims are great. They'd never let me do that for REAL.
I believe the Post-It Note patent centers around the glue that stays on the back of the note when you peel the paper off your fridge or wherever. Patenting the mere use as a "sticky note" wouldn't fly, as adhesive labels have been around for decades. Patents give you exclusive rights to a certain process or method of achieving an end result, not exclusive rights to the end result. You can patent a better mousetrap, but that doesn't mean only you can build mousetraps, even if no one else has made one before.
One problem with DC power is that it will quickly wear out mechanical switching devices. As contacts close, DC will jump the gap at some point and essentially "arc weld" the contact surfaces, eventually causing failure. The voltage could be lowered to mitigate this, but then you need to use wire as thick as your thumb to handle the amperage. High voltage AC is really the best bet, though the 60Hz frequency could stand an upgrade. But then again, lots of things use the 60Hz as a time reference...
Chromium can show up in a number of different forms. Elemental chromium is an nutritionally essential mineral. Other forms, such as hexavalent chromium, are carcinogenic.
-
Unfortunately this is the single most important point, and you have no supporting proof supporting. It's merely here-say.
How do you suggest he prove the lack of historical precedence? Show the FCC the blank note pad on which he intended to make note of incidents, if he had found any? Hogwash! He's merely pointing out the it is the entertainment industry who is engaged in HEARSAY when they claim such protections are necessary, as it is THEY who provide no proof of actual damages. What THEY have is statisticaly dubious ESTIMATES of losses based on the absurd premise of "if they couldn't get it free or cheap, they'd pay full price". The FCC, as a government agency, should not impose regulations to solve a problem whose very existence has not been substantiated.Academia USED to be the enemy of Big Brother, back when "tenure" meant something. Nowadays, with universities beholden to a dozen government bureaus for grant money, tenure is only granted with the contractual "understanding" that the scholar will be dismissed if he/she is not being "useful and productive"- i.e. studying only PROFITTABLE subjects and NOT harassing Sugar Daddy Uncle Sam. Academic impartiallity vanished when the government, in an attempt to curtail "waste", required full accounting of where every penny of a grant went, and then told universities where the money COULDN'T go.