Do you have savings to take 6 months with no income
I'm glad someone brought that up... if you don't (or aren't working toward that goal - and by that I include paying off debts like credit cards first), and you're currently employed, then you're an idiot. Plain and simple.
And if you claim that that's bullshit, and you can't save that kind of money, then you need to go read some investment books. I highly recommend pretty much anything from The Motley Fool, as well as The Millionaire Next Door. It's not that hard, and saving for your retirement and for short-term unemployment is the best thing you can do.
Anyway, if you don't have those kinds of funds, seriously think about securing a new position before leaving the old one. Otherwise you're going to be in a world of hurt. And realize that while 3-6 months of savings is good, plan ahead for what you're going to do when that money runs out and you still haven't found a position. Don't be negative, just be realistic -- part of that includes planning for worst cases. (And, actually, if you don't have a job in 6 months then you also need to figure out what to do for health insurance - COBRA runs out at that point. Don't go uninsured, since any future insurer will then be able to point at "previously existing medical condition" to avoid paying for many things).
Can you get out without dropping innocent colleagues in the shit?
Doubtful, but there's little he can do about that at this point... if the managers are overworking their staff, it's not his fault. And getting out may be the best thing to do. Yeah, more will fall on his coworkers, but that was due to bad decisions by management, not by him (I hope).
As far as the mass exodus bit goes: unless you have a business plan to work on for yourself and your coworkers -- complete with funding -- then there's no point. All you're doing is walking away from the company, ensuring you can't even get unemployment benefits, and screwing the company while you're at it. If you're unhappy with the job, then leave. Or at least start looking for a new gig. Don't take all this crap about "be happy you have a job!" because some jobs just aren't worth it.
Yes, not having a job sucks - I was let go from my company (along with 60% of the other employees) ~18 months ago. And I found a new job in a bit over a month. But wow did that suck. If I hadn't been let go, then I would've been looking anyway, because I'm quite sure that the job went to hell in a handbasket.
Wow, way to read the rest of the paragraph! I explictly stated that the automatic advance is unavailable on TiVo's.
It streams the show as you play it, so you don't have to wait, and it doesn't take up drive space on the second machine.
Woop de do. TiVo streams as well. And queues. I can request as many programs to be sent over from any number of HMO enabled TiVos and it'll queue up the requests and transfer them. Yes, it takes up space. It also allows me to start the transfer from the current point (useful for finishing off a program in another room), or from the start. And I still have full trick play capability -- FF, RW, skip back, skip forward, all up to wherever it is in the current buffer. You can't do that with Replay -- either that or it is using HD space. Pick one. Not to mention one of the other issues with Replay, that it won't record live TV while watching another show.
Oh, and network problems? CPU load? Non-issues for TiVo. If either recorder on Replay has issues on either one, you may as well forget it since it's all realtime.
huh? I can think of only 1 feature that Tivo w/HMO has that can't be done on a ReplayTV, that's streaming mp3's. What other features am I missing?
Wishlists, advanced searches, filtering by genre, better conflict resolution, and list of shows recorded/not recorded (and why)/deleted.
If you do like MP3s then HMO is worth it for that alone -- a Replay Receiver on eBay is the same price as the initial HMO purchase ($99) and additional HMO purchases are only $49. HMO gives you the same functionality, plus far better web access to TiVo (updates occur every 15 minutes via TiVo Central on broadband, versus once a day with Replay).
Your price is also off slightly - an 80 hour TiVo is currently $299, since they just instituted a $50 discount. But that literally happened Monday, so I'd be surprised if you had that info. As for a 160 hour TiVo -- well, sorry, closest I can do is 180 hour. For $499. That price may drop $50 in the near future to reflect TiVo's recent price drop. Of course, you can buy a 40 or 80 hour TiVo and upgrade it quickly and easily yourself if you are comfy with it... I've done several myself without issues.
Uh... no. You have the right to time shift the show for your own purposes. You do not have the right to share the tape with friends. I know that this has become an accepted practice, and I've certainly done it myself (taping stuff off of TiVo for friends now), but it's quasi-legal at best. If you charge for it then it certainly isn't legal. But in any case it's not fair use -- I suggest you go read the provisions of fair use in copyright law and try and figure out which one applies.
I understand your position now... thing is, if you produce something that can only be used to circumvent copyright, then you're liable. The feature that allowed Replay to send shows over the Internet was one such device -- there is no way it can be used such that it doesn't violate copyright. Ok, maybe if you send yourself the show... which is simply inane. You simply don't have the right to email the show to someone else, even if they could've watched it in the first place. I agree that it seems silly, but that's how it works, and I think it's a fairly reasonable restriction.
That's what was wrong with Replay, and why they got sued. TiVo won't get sued because they've put some very strong encryption in place that isn't likely to get broken. Plus each TiVo knows what other TiVo's it can talk to, and will only talk to those TiVos (theoretically breakable, except that the kernel and all software on S2's is locked down with more encryption).
And while I can agree with you to some extent on DRM, the reality is that the companies want overly draconian DRM. For example, the cable companies and studios wanted HDTV recording devices to respond to several different flags (record, don't record, record only once), have time limits on the recordings (so they would auto-delete after a provider set time period), and even the ability to remotely delete recordings at their whim. All of which are absurd. I can theoretically go for a record/don't record flag, but only if the rules under which it can be used are very stringent (e.g. - PPV movies). Fortunately the consumer electronics manufacturers have all told the cable cos/studios to go fuck themselves, and HDTV has progressed beyond the point of alteration now.
Similarly, I deeply dislike having to put in a game CD to play a game. It's ridiculous... the only person it hurts is me, the guy who actually bought the game. The pirates aren't affected because they crack around it quickly, but I still have to do the CD shuffle everytime I want to play a different game. Blech.
That's why I'm largely anti-DRM -- because the DRM technologies rarely hurt the copyright infringer, but often impede the legitimate user.
If its the fault of the people that fail due diligence, then its the fault of the cable and broadcast companies for putting out stuff that can be redistributed.
No. Now you're making the argument that if I don't lock my house it's fine for you to wander in and do whatever you want. Even if it's just to look. It's still illegal trespass, and it's theft if you actually take anything.
Copyright law states that you may not redistribute without consent of the copyright holder. That's all the protection they should need. Arguing otherwise leads to inane cases like the above, and it will lead to all this DRM crap that we're having to put up with now (such as CDs that don't play in all CD players).
The motivation is two-fold. Firstly, to try and convince the media companies to not sue them into oblivion (again!). Secondly, advertising on the PVR, merchandising, reselling of anonymous user data (*), and all the other methods that TiVo is already using in an effort to become profitable.
As for "required sacrifice" -- uh... it's not getting them much right now. The number of Replay accounts is really very, very low. They've been a failure in the marketplace. If you ask most people what a DVR/PVR is, they won't know. If you ask them if they've heard of TiVo you might get a better response. If you ask them who Replay is, they're probably going to give you their opinion of Instant Replay rulings in professional sports.
The downside of these features far outweighs the upside at this time.
* - I don't know if Replay's EULA allows for this. If it doesn't, I suspect a new EULA will change that.
Heck, I have an 8000+ MP3 collection. And every single one of them is ripped and encoded off of a CD I own. Admittedly, I'm soon going to be adding some stuff downloaded from the Internet. From the band's site, for free, with their permission.
Replay's show sharing feature was allegedly for sharing between Replay boxes only. Except that they didn't protect it at all and made the protocol trivial to spoof. It's called due diligence, and both of Replay's former owners failed at it. D&M looks like they're going to try harder (or, rather, avoid the issue entirely).
Tivo doesn't have these features to start with, and is doing extremely well...
I'm a TiVo advocate, but honestly, I wouldn't say they're doing "extremely well". They're yet to turn a profit, although the quarterly losses are dropping at a nice rate and their subscriber base continues to increase.
That said, TiVo does have these features... kind of. There's a secret code to turn 30-second skip on (Stop Play Stop 3 0 on the main TiVo menu IIRC). It's not quite as extensive as the newer automatic commercial Skip Replay gave you, but it's the same as their skip button on the remote.
As for show sharing, with HMO (yes, an additional cost) you can share between any TiVos that are on the same TiVo account and subnet. It's considerably more restrictive than Replay's offering, but it's also going to keep TiVo from being sued into bankruptcy. Twice. And it works quite well for what it is -- my wife and I use it all the time between our TiVos and it's great. Most of the TiVo users in the know are still hoping for collaborative scheduling between TiVos, but that's a ways off.
The issue for D&M is, what are they going to offer instead? Their pricing isn't cheaper (you can now get a brand new 80 hour TiVo for $299, or a refurb for $249), they don't have as many features (especially if you get HMO for an additional $99 or $49), and their software is buggier. I guess we'll see.
Or maybe their new slogan should be "Trying Not To Go Bankrupt a Third Time!".
Those features got them sued into oblivion. They'll get anyone sued into oblivion frankly, because the media companies won't abide it, and you're going to have a hard time convincing a judge that it's not a copyright violation to share shows.
Removing the commercial skip bit is lame, since there are VCRs that do this already and they've never been attacked. But D&M is obviously hoping to get friendlier with the media companies, and this is another thing they hate.
That said, as best I can tell they just removed the two features that made Replay preferable to TiVo... and the rest of their software is inferior. So I don't quite get where they hope to position the brand at.
True to some extent... but combinatorics, applied statistics (not the absolutely fucking useless theoretical calculus-based stats I took), and linear algebra are still useful. The problem is, most CS departments just use the MATH courses for these... and they're geared toward math majors. Actually, where/when I went to school the math majors discovered that 3 of our courses were too difficult even for them.
And, of course, the dipshit student that was on the advisory council was a dual major -- CS/Math.
By and large I agree... a lot of the naysayers statements don't hold water either. The kids are still being taught to write, it's just that cursive is going the way of the do-do bird. Shrug -- I can do cursive if forced, but when I write I do it in block print. And no, my handwriting isn't all that good, but it's legible. (BTW, you'd be SOL on that Q bit - I haven't seen a font that "properly" replicates a cursive capital Q, which looks something like a very fancy 2 -- probably because a cursive capital Q looks nothing like a capital Q).
The teacher that asked the 3rd graders if they had any emails they kept is full of it... ask those kids if they have any letters they keep and I bet the answer is also a resounding "No!". I'm sure there are letters their parents are keeping, but the kids don't realize yet what things may hold sentimental value decades hence. I, for one, do have emails still... I still have nearly every email my wife sent me when we were dating. They have value to me. I also have cards she gave me - same thing. Is one more valuable to me than the other? Nope.
Really, these are the same group of people who lamented the passing of reading, writing, and speaking Classical Greek and Latin from "educated" universities. The reality is that it's just not relevant to the majority of people anymore. And it's simply not viable to be educated on everything anymore -- the whole of human knowledge is too vast. We need to pick what we want general education in, and then allow people to decide (whether by choice or chance) what they want a specific education in. And, as you say, touch typing is going to be far more important than cursive.
Not really... the obvious question that springs to my mind on reading this is, "If you have enough in house talent to not need RH support, why are you even using RH?". If you want to support the company, or feel that they have the best, most stable distribution, that's fine. If it's because management said you must have a supported OS, and Redhat fit that bill, then you don't have a choice -- you need to go with one of the server offerings.
If you don't have a reason, then maybe you should rethink your reasoning for RH in the first place (I run RH9 at home, so I'm not anti-RH) and then go from there.
My suspicion is that you're better off with one of the server versions because they do offer support. Sure, you can go without, but at that point I see little advantage of paying the additional money for RH in the first place.
Isn't that the way civil law works in the USA? The RIAA hasn't only sued this guy, they've sued numerous others as well... and won.
It only works that way if the case actually goes to court and has a ruling handed down by a judge. Out of court settlements have absolutely zero influence on the law. I don't believe any suits have actually been brought to full term - instead the RIAA has settled every single one out of court, and all (I think) without admissions of guilt. Just money. And don't bring up the last one against 3 different students -- they all settled without a judge's ruling, and none admitted guilt (yes, I checked).
Suing people doesn't make a lick of difference until a judge actually rules on a case. To date, that hasn't happened. And I think the RIAA is afraid of that honestly -- they're simply using their much larger pockets to bully the little guys into line. And, frankly, defending yourself is inadvisable. You'll wind up paying far more in legal fees than you'd have to pay them -- and your lawyer will tell you this, straight up. The RIAA can easily drag the civil suit out over a number of years - they have the lawyers on retainer and it's a minor expense to them. Having a lawyer in court 4-8 hours/month for 2-3 years could cost you nearly $60,000 for court time alone (at $200/hr, which is low). And that doesn't count time spent doing research on the case - so double or treble it.
Is it surprising people are settling? Not a bit. Nobody wants to be the sacrificial lamb -- and you're kidding yourself if you think you do. Oh, and anyone with the resources to actually defend against this kind of thing won't be sued. They may be bullies, but they're not going to try and beat up the kid with bodyguards. Let him keep his lunch money -- there are far more undefended targets available.
I think that the law in the USA is going to hand over the financial control over every US citizen's wallets to the RIAA
Okay, time to learn the basics of the legal system.
The law had nothing to do with this case. First, it was a civil suit, so don't even bother thinking about cops and FBI agents and whatnot coming to beat your door down.
Second, it didn't go to court. There was no judge involved, there was no suit, there was no precedent. They settled out of court - which may or may not have been wise of the kid. The RIAA can't use this case in a future case as proof of why someone is breaking the law and should pay them $12,000. They can use it like a bully, with unclear language saying "in a previous incident such and such paid us a large sum of money for his actions" but they can't even claim that what he did was illegal -- the settlement explicitly excluded confession of guilt.
I'm not saying (in the slightest) that the RIAA or MPAA are nice guys, or that what they're doing isn't reprehensible, but if you don't understand the way the legal system works then you will be steamrolled by lawyers if you're accused of anything similar. You can still stand up and fight the good fight if you want. Better pray you have a clued in judge though.
In the US any telephone provider must provide universal service in their service area -- so you have to provide service to the rural areas as well as the high density ones.
For TV access satellite pretty much covers the rural segment -- there's relatively few places where you're in a rural setting that could receive broadcast TV but not satellite. There's probably a larger number that couldn't receive either one, but they're essentially screwed anyway.
What this doesn't address is the costs for getting sat (which are approaching zero as long as you're willing to buy service for 1 year and do the install yourself), or how to deal with local news and information.
Your cable provides, by law, a basic access account that carries only OTA stations and usually public service. On my local cable company it also includes the various shopping networks - probably because they actually pay the cable company for carrying and not the other way around. In any case, basic access is 22 stations here.
By law it cannot be more than $15. It's often as little as $10. So, yes, you can drop your internet access and get cable. Which one is more valuable to you?
I'm not really in favor of dropping OTA broadcasts entirely anyway... the idea misses the issue of local news and information, particularly for smaller markets. Of course, with the new media consolidation rules that may become a thing of the past anyway.
Heh... but what's being discussed here seems somewhat different.
You asked about setting up a honeypot via VM. A pretty good way to go about things.
This takes it one step further - not only is the honeypot (or even honeynet) in a VM, there's an outer layer that's "watching" the VM(s) and recording the activity. That's really, really good. If you could actually lure some serious attacks to the honeypot then you'd have much more accurate records of what occurred. And, obviously, the observer is supposed to be invisible and undetectable.
Of course, there's the issue of actually getting real attacks in the first place, instead of just a legion of script kiddies. But that's another ball of wax.
Certainly, otherwise the assignee can't press for damages, only future non-infringement.
If SCO didn't file the reassignment, then they're pretty well screwed (and the shareholders should rightfully rake management over the coals for it). They can take legal action against Linux companies and users to cease infringement, but they can't even recoup their lawyer fees for the cases. Their copyrights are effectively toothless.
And then everyone who donated will also be prosecuted and found liable. You can't get away that easy. It's called conspiracy. And I'm sure you can think of ways around that, to which other counters can happen. In the end you're still fucking someone else over when you know better.
Not to mention that Mr. No Assets probably won't have the education to do what you ask.
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Do you have savings to take 6 months with no income
I'm glad someone brought that up... if you don't (or aren't working toward that goal - and by that I include paying off debts like credit cards first), and you're currently employed, then you're an idiot. Plain and simple.
And if you claim that that's bullshit, and you can't save that kind of money, then you need to go read some investment books. I highly recommend pretty much anything from The Motley Fool, as well as The Millionaire Next Door. It's not that hard, and saving for your retirement and for short-term unemployment is the best thing you can do.
Anyway, if you don't have those kinds of funds, seriously think about securing a new position before leaving the old one. Otherwise you're going to be in a world of hurt. And realize that while 3-6 months of savings is good, plan ahead for what you're going to do when that money runs out and you still haven't found a position. Don't be negative, just be realistic -- part of that includes planning for worst cases. (And, actually, if you don't have a job in 6 months then you also need to figure out what to do for health insurance - COBRA runs out at that point. Don't go uninsured, since any future insurer will then be able to point at "previously existing medical condition" to avoid paying for many things).
Can you get out without dropping innocent colleagues in the shit?
Doubtful, but there's little he can do about that at this point... if the managers are overworking their staff, it's not his fault. And getting out may be the best thing to do. Yeah, more will fall on his coworkers, but that was due to bad decisions by management, not by him (I hope).
As far as the mass exodus bit goes: unless you have a business plan to work on for yourself and your coworkers -- complete with funding -- then there's no point. All you're doing is walking away from the company, ensuring you can't even get unemployment benefits, and screwing the company while you're at it. If you're unhappy with the job, then leave. Or at least start looking for a new gig. Don't take all this crap about "be happy you have a job!" because some jobs just aren't worth it.
Yes, not having a job sucks - I was let go from my company (along with 60% of the other employees) ~18 months ago. And I found a new job in a bit over a month. But wow did that suck. If I hadn't been let go, then I would've been looking anyway, because I'm quite sure that the job went to hell in a handbasket.
No it doesn't. Commercial Advance is a feature
Wow, way to read the rest of the paragraph! I explictly stated that the automatic advance is unavailable on TiVo's.
It streams the show as you play it, so you don't have to wait, and it doesn't take up drive space on the second machine.
Woop de do. TiVo streams as well. And queues. I can request as many programs to be sent over from any number of HMO enabled TiVos and it'll queue up the requests and transfer them. Yes, it takes up space. It also allows me to start the transfer from the current point (useful for finishing off a program in another room), or from the start. And I still have full trick play capability -- FF, RW, skip back, skip forward, all up to wherever it is in the current buffer. You can't do that with Replay -- either that or it is using HD space. Pick one. Not to mention one of the other issues with Replay, that it won't record live TV while watching another show.
Oh, and network problems? CPU load? Non-issues for TiVo. If either recorder on Replay has issues on either one, you may as well forget it since it's all realtime.
huh? I can think of only 1 feature that Tivo w/HMO has that can't be done on a ReplayTV, that's streaming mp3's. What other features am I missing?
Wishlists, advanced searches, filtering by genre, better conflict resolution, and list of shows recorded/not recorded (and why)/deleted.
If you do like MP3s then HMO is worth it for that alone -- a Replay Receiver on eBay is the same price as the initial HMO purchase ($99) and additional HMO purchases are only $49. HMO gives you the same functionality, plus far better web access to TiVo (updates occur every 15 minutes via TiVo Central on broadband, versus once a day with Replay).
Your price is also off slightly - an 80 hour TiVo is currently $299, since they just instituted a $50 discount. But that literally happened Monday, so I'd be surprised if you had that info. As for a 160 hour TiVo -- well, sorry, closest I can do is 180 hour. For $499. That price may drop $50 in the near future to reflect TiVo's recent price drop. Of course, you can buy a 40 or 80 hour TiVo and upgrade it quickly and easily yourself if you are comfy with it... I've done several myself without issues.
Uh... no. You have the right to time shift the show for your own purposes. You do not have the right to share the tape with friends. I know that this has become an accepted practice, and I've certainly done it myself (taping stuff off of TiVo for friends now), but it's quasi-legal at best. If you charge for it then it certainly isn't legal. But in any case it's not fair use -- I suggest you go read the provisions of fair use in copyright law and try and figure out which one applies.
That's CommercialAdvance, and it's been around on VCRs for nearly a decade now. And there's never been a significant complaint that I'm aware of.
I understand your position now... thing is, if you produce something that can only be used to circumvent copyright, then you're liable. The feature that allowed Replay to send shows over the Internet was one such device -- there is no way it can be used such that it doesn't violate copyright. Ok, maybe if you send yourself the show... which is simply inane. You simply don't have the right to email the show to someone else, even if they could've watched it in the first place. I agree that it seems silly, but that's how it works, and I think it's a fairly reasonable restriction.
That's what was wrong with Replay, and why they got sued. TiVo won't get sued because they've put some very strong encryption in place that isn't likely to get broken. Plus each TiVo knows what other TiVo's it can talk to, and will only talk to those TiVos (theoretically breakable, except that the kernel and all software on S2's is locked down with more encryption).
And while I can agree with you to some extent on DRM, the reality is that the companies want overly draconian DRM. For example, the cable companies and studios wanted HDTV recording devices to respond to several different flags (record, don't record, record only once), have time limits on the recordings (so they would auto-delete after a provider set time period), and even the ability to remotely delete recordings at their whim. All of which are absurd. I can theoretically go for a record/don't record flag, but only if the rules under which it can be used are very stringent (e.g. - PPV movies). Fortunately the consumer electronics manufacturers have all told the cable cos/studios to go fuck themselves, and HDTV has progressed beyond the point of alteration now.
Similarly, I deeply dislike having to put in a game CD to play a game. It's ridiculous... the only person it hurts is me, the guy who actually bought the game. The pirates aren't affected because they crack around it quickly, but I still have to do the CD shuffle everytime I want to play a different game. Blech.
That's why I'm largely anti-DRM -- because the DRM technologies rarely hurt the copyright infringer, but often impede the legitimate user.
We do. It's called the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Problem is, it doesn't work as well as it should.
If its the fault of the people that fail due diligence, then its the fault of the cable and broadcast companies for putting out stuff that can be redistributed.
No. Now you're making the argument that if I don't lock my house it's fine for you to wander in and do whatever you want. Even if it's just to look. It's still illegal trespass, and it's theft if you actually take anything.
Copyright law states that you may not redistribute without consent of the copyright holder. That's all the protection they should need. Arguing otherwise leads to inane cases like the above, and it will lead to all this DRM crap that we're having to put up with now (such as CDs that don't play in all CD players).
The motivation is two-fold. Firstly, to try and convince the media companies to not sue them into oblivion (again!). Secondly, advertising on the PVR, merchandising, reselling of anonymous user data (*), and all the other methods that TiVo is already using in an effort to become profitable.
As for "required sacrifice" -- uh... it's not getting them much right now. The number of Replay accounts is really very, very low. They've been a failure in the marketplace. If you ask most people what a DVR/PVR is, they won't know. If you ask them if they've heard of TiVo you might get a better response. If you ask them who Replay is, they're probably going to give you their opinion of Instant Replay rulings in professional sports.
The downside of these features far outweighs the upside at this time.
* - I don't know if Replay's EULA allows for this. If it doesn't, I suspect a new EULA will change that.
Wow... someone who gets it!
Heck, I have an 8000+ MP3 collection. And every single one of them is ripped and encoded off of a CD I own. Admittedly, I'm soon going to be adding some stuff downloaded from the Internet. From the band's site, for free, with their permission.
Replay's show sharing feature was allegedly for sharing between Replay boxes only. Except that they didn't protect it at all and made the protocol trivial to spoof. It's called due diligence, and both of Replay's former owners failed at it. D&M looks like they're going to try harder (or, rather, avoid the issue entirely).
Tivo doesn't have these features to start with, and is doing extremely well...
I'm a TiVo advocate, but honestly, I wouldn't say they're doing "extremely well". They're yet to turn a profit, although the quarterly losses are dropping at a nice rate and their subscriber base continues to increase.
That said, TiVo does have these features... kind of. There's a secret code to turn 30-second skip on (Stop Play Stop 3 0 on the main TiVo menu IIRC). It's not quite as extensive as the newer automatic commercial Skip Replay gave you, but it's the same as their skip button on the remote.
As for show sharing, with HMO (yes, an additional cost) you can share between any TiVos that are on the same TiVo account and subnet. It's considerably more restrictive than Replay's offering, but it's also going to keep TiVo from being sued into bankruptcy. Twice. And it works quite well for what it is -- my wife and I use it all the time between our TiVos and it's great. Most of the TiVo users in the know are still hoping for collaborative scheduling between TiVos, but that's a ways off.
The issue for D&M is, what are they going to offer instead? Their pricing isn't cheaper (you can now get a brand new 80 hour TiVo for $299, or a refurb for $249), they don't have as many features (especially if you get HMO for an additional $99 or $49), and their software is buggier. I guess we'll see.
No, because they're not being removed from your old unit, only from the new units that D&M will release.
Or maybe their new slogan should be "Trying Not To Go Bankrupt a Third Time!".
Those features got them sued into oblivion. They'll get anyone sued into oblivion frankly, because the media companies won't abide it, and you're going to have a hard time convincing a judge that it's not a copyright violation to share shows.
Removing the commercial skip bit is lame, since there are VCRs that do this already and they've never been attacked. But D&M is obviously hoping to get friendlier with the media companies, and this is another thing they hate.
That said, as best I can tell they just removed the two features that made Replay preferable to TiVo... and the rest of their software is inferior. So I don't quite get where they hope to position the brand at.
Childhood's aliens are merely subcontractors for another more powerful race with apocalytic intentions
I suppose you could call it apocalyptic... but I wouldn't really.
And while it's been a long time since I read CE, I don't think they were reptilian.
Saying more gives away far too much to anyone who hasn't read it... and it's a very worthwhile read.
Part of Nethack is knowing what battles to fight... and how the hell to get genocides to wipe out mind flayers.
Hate the bastards. Especially since they make you forget things you've identified.
True to some extent... but combinatorics, applied statistics (not the absolutely fucking useless theoretical calculus-based stats I took), and linear algebra are still useful. The problem is, most CS departments just use the MATH courses for these... and they're geared toward math majors. Actually, where/when I went to school the math majors discovered that 3 of our courses were too difficult even for them.
And, of course, the dipshit student that was on the advisory council was a dual major -- CS/Math.
By and large I agree... a lot of the naysayers statements don't hold water either. The kids are still being taught to write, it's just that cursive is going the way of the do-do bird. Shrug -- I can do cursive if forced, but when I write I do it in block print. And no, my handwriting isn't all that good, but it's legible. (BTW, you'd be SOL on that Q bit - I haven't seen a font that "properly" replicates a cursive capital Q, which looks something like a very fancy 2 -- probably because a cursive capital Q looks nothing like a capital Q).
The teacher that asked the 3rd graders if they had any emails they kept is full of it... ask those kids if they have any letters they keep and I bet the answer is also a resounding "No!". I'm sure there are letters their parents are keeping, but the kids don't realize yet what things may hold sentimental value decades hence. I, for one, do have emails still... I still have nearly every email my wife sent me when we were dating. They have value to me. I also have cards she gave me - same thing. Is one more valuable to me than the other? Nope.
Really, these are the same group of people who lamented the passing of reading, writing, and speaking Classical Greek and Latin from "educated" universities. The reality is that it's just not relevant to the majority of people anymore. And it's simply not viable to be educated on everything anymore -- the whole of human knowledge is too vast. We need to pick what we want general education in, and then allow people to decide (whether by choice or chance) what they want a specific education in. And, as you say, touch typing is going to be far more important than cursive.
Not really... the obvious question that springs to my mind on reading this is, "If you have enough in house talent to not need RH support, why are you even using RH?". If you want to support the company, or feel that they have the best, most stable distribution, that's fine. If it's because management said you must have a supported OS, and Redhat fit that bill, then you don't have a choice -- you need to go with one of the server offerings.
If you don't have a reason, then maybe you should rethink your reasoning for RH in the first place (I run RH9 at home, so I'm not anti-RH) and then go from there.
My suspicion is that you're better off with one of the server versions because they do offer support. Sure, you can go without, but at that point I see little advantage of paying the additional money for RH in the first place.
Isn't that the way civil law works in the USA? The RIAA hasn't only sued this guy, they've sued numerous others as well... and won.
It only works that way if the case actually goes to court and has a ruling handed down by a judge. Out of court settlements have absolutely zero influence on the law. I don't believe any suits have actually been brought to full term - instead the RIAA has settled every single one out of court, and all (I think) without admissions of guilt. Just money. And don't bring up the last one against 3 different students -- they all settled without a judge's ruling, and none admitted guilt (yes, I checked).
Suing people doesn't make a lick of difference until a judge actually rules on a case. To date, that hasn't happened. And I think the RIAA is afraid of that honestly -- they're simply using their much larger pockets to bully the little guys into line. And, frankly, defending yourself is inadvisable. You'll wind up paying far more in legal fees than you'd have to pay them -- and your lawyer will tell you this, straight up. The RIAA can easily drag the civil suit out over a number of years - they have the lawyers on retainer and it's a minor expense to them. Having a lawyer in court 4-8 hours/month for 2-3 years could cost you nearly $60,000 for court time alone (at $200/hr, which is low). And that doesn't count time spent doing research on the case - so double or treble it.
Is it surprising people are settling? Not a bit. Nobody wants to be the sacrificial lamb -- and you're kidding yourself if you think you do. Oh, and anyone with the resources to actually defend against this kind of thing won't be sued. They may be bullies, but they're not going to try and beat up the kid with bodyguards. Let him keep his lunch money -- there are far more undefended targets available.
I think that the law in the USA is going to hand over the financial control over every US citizen's wallets to the RIAA
Okay, time to learn the basics of the legal system.
The law had nothing to do with this case. First, it was a civil suit, so don't even bother thinking about cops and FBI agents and whatnot coming to beat your door down.
Second, it didn't go to court. There was no judge involved, there was no suit, there was no precedent. They settled out of court - which may or may not have been wise of the kid. The RIAA can't use this case in a future case as proof of why someone is breaking the law and should pay them $12,000. They can use it like a bully, with unclear language saying "in a previous incident such and such paid us a large sum of money for his actions" but they can't even claim that what he did was illegal -- the settlement explicitly excluded confession of guilt.
I'm not saying (in the slightest) that the RIAA or MPAA are nice guys, or that what they're doing isn't reprehensible, but if you don't understand the way the legal system works then you will be steamrolled by lawyers if you're accused of anything similar. You can still stand up and fight the good fight if you want. Better pray you have a clued in judge though.
In the US any telephone provider must provide universal service in their service area -- so you have to provide service to the rural areas as well as the high density ones.
For TV access satellite pretty much covers the rural segment -- there's relatively few places where you're in a rural setting that could receive broadcast TV but not satellite. There's probably a larger number that couldn't receive either one, but they're essentially screwed anyway.
What this doesn't address is the costs for getting sat (which are approaching zero as long as you're willing to buy service for 1 year and do the install yourself), or how to deal with local news and information.
Your cable provides, by law, a basic access account that carries only OTA stations and usually public service. On my local cable company it also includes the various shopping networks - probably because they actually pay the cable company for carrying and not the other way around. In any case, basic access is 22 stations here.
By law it cannot be more than $15. It's often as little as $10. So, yes, you can drop your internet access and get cable. Which one is more valuable to you?
I'm not really in favor of dropping OTA broadcasts entirely anyway... the idea misses the issue of local news and information, particularly for smaller markets. Of course, with the new media consolidation rules that may become a thing of the past anyway.
Heh... but what's being discussed here seems somewhat different.
You asked about setting up a honeypot via VM. A pretty good way to go about things.
This takes it one step further - not only is the honeypot (or even honeynet) in a VM, there's an outer layer that's "watching" the VM(s) and recording the activity. That's really, really good. If you could actually lure some serious attacks to the honeypot then you'd have much more accurate records of what occurred. And, obviously, the observer is supposed to be invisible and undetectable.
Of course, there's the issue of actually getting real attacks in the first place, instead of just a legion of script kiddies. But that's another ball of wax.
Certainly, otherwise the assignee can't press for damages, only future non-infringement.
If SCO didn't file the reassignment, then they're pretty well screwed (and the shareholders should rightfully rake management over the coals for it). They can take legal action against Linux companies and users to cease infringement, but they can't even recoup their lawyer fees for the cases. Their copyrights are effectively toothless.
I think I'll take the cute hotel-staff masseuse, you can keep the chair of the future.
He doesn't want to have sex with you either.
And then everyone who donated will also be prosecuted and found liable. You can't get away that easy. It's called conspiracy. And I'm sure you can think of ways around that, to which other counters can happen. In the end you're still fucking someone else over when you know better.
Not to mention that Mr. No Assets probably won't have the education to do what you ask.