If it ain't signed it's not a contract, at least in the civilized world.
Furthermore, if a contract has provisions which are particularly unfair, a signature is not enough: e.g., in Italy you have to sign twice, in France you have to write by hand "read and approved."
In many countries, the government tech body (FCC) chooses the best standard, maybe thwe second best, based on bribes, and every one uses that one standard and makes the best of it. Seems to work better, especially in their cell phones
At least in the cell phone case, the whole world decided on a standard. Only one country didn't follow the others: guess which?
I've never used Windows (I went from DOS to HP-UX to Linux) and I have never used IE; I lived in France from 1998 to 2000, marrily and frequently buying tickets on SNCF web site. Since then I've been using their site at least every three months, and I occasionaly still buy train tickets there.
If what your friend told you is true, it must have been a temporary glitch.
But it is a nontrivial effort to go from a set of letter shapes to a digital font.
This is, by far, the simplest part of creating a font; so simple that an autotracer does a pretty good job. What's difficult is properly hinting a TrueType font (indeed, there are almost no properly hinted such beasts; hinting a Type1 font is much easier) and choosing the right spacing between characters. The only parts of a font that I would consider a program are the TT hinting and the OpenType contextual sostitution instructions.
As far as I know even a US court agreed that a font is nothing more than a collection of data (coordinates of Bezier curves); oddly, the same court stated that these data were copywritable (see Luc Devroye account on the SSi/Adobe case).
Clearly this leaves out the most difficult and creative part: designing the typeface. It's a form of art, and only the complete mess the US copyright statutes are could fail to protect them while protecting a collection of data!
There's a funny part to this mess: IANAL, but I understand that a font released under the GPL would "contaminate" any pdf embedding it, with really interesting results...
but then, why is it not unethical for me to work 80 hour weeks for a few months to keep my job by keeping my project up and running?
It is unethical to demand you so. And it is even illegal, at least in the civilized world.
European prices include VAT, which is between 16 and 22%. If you add, say, 20% to 82 cents you get... 99 cents. So the USD price is the same as the EUR one.
Now, my question is: is the real price in the US 99 cents, or you have to add sales taxes to that?
I got a PhD in (Pure) Maths at Brown in 1997 and I got a tenured position (in Europe, though) 2 years ago, so I suppose I'm qualified to say something: if you like the idea, definitevely go for it!
The market is really, really, really cyclic: there are years when Harvard graduates with decent teaching experience cannot get a job (like the end of the 90's) and there are years when it's difficult to find decent candidates. Here in Europe it's easier since the cycles are different in each country, so people move around.
If you want to stay in the US (which I didn't, BTW), I'd advise you to get a MSc in Computer Science while working towards your PhD: at least at Brown (but I suppose this is common), you may do that for free. In this way, if the job market is really bad, you can always find a decent (and so much better paid) job: a good part of my colleagues did so, and many ended up getting a job in the real world.
Feel free to write me if you want to ask some more.
Just done a tracerout from Italy to Canada: 6 it-uk.uk.ten-155.net (212.1.192.98) 43.027 ms 40.527 ms 40.807 ms 7 canet.ca.ten-155.net (212.1.196.174) 156.944 ms 192.211 ms 183.248 ms
So, who would care if the US were to disappear now? Sure, I wouldn't, since I'd still be able to mail-order some maple sugar:)
Unless you're buying a registered item (i.e., a car), you pay VAT in the country where you buy. I've just got a camera from Germany and I payed the 16% German rate, rather than the 19.6% French rate.
When Switzerland will be finally forced to join the rest of Europe, all mail-order companies will move there!:)
Actually, the page acknowledges to be a parody, at the very bottom and with a font size="-3". For the linguistically challenged:
pssst, this site is a test to find out how long it will take Yahoo! to exercise its rights, as others did before. Results: from the original publication (3/11/99) to the legal threats (12/1/00), it took 70 days. Bravo!
IT WORKS. Look to Canada. We have a system that functions. One of the best free systems around. Sadly, the US keeps stealing our doctors cuz they get paid better elsewhere. Doesn't that tell you something? Doctors are probably well-paid enough in Canada that they don't really need the money. I suspect a large part of it is the ridiculous beaurocracy that acompanies an government program.
Actually, having lived in Italy, USA, Canada and France, I have to say that there is more (or much more) burocracy in the US health system; and it's definitevely more evil. As far as quality goes, a student plan in the US sucks; better: it sucks a lot!
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If it ain't signed it's not a contract, at least in the civilized world. Furthermore, if a contract has provisions which are particularly unfair, a signature is not enough: e.g., in Italy you have to sign twice, in France you have to write by hand "read and approved."
In the meanwhile, you seem to have problems with latin: it's terra incognita
Prepaid credit cards: you transfer the amount by wire, and then it's yours to use as you see fit.
It's not going to be cheap, though: expect 20-50$ commissions on each transaction.
I suppose RMS couldn't care less of the open source community: it's freedom he's after.
Actually, if GPLv3 could do what you say, that alone might constitute a good argument for supporting it.
I've never used Windows (I went from DOS to HP-UX to Linux) and I have never used IE; I lived in France from 1998 to 2000, marrily and frequently buying tickets on SNCF web site. Since then I've been using their site at least every three months, and I occasionaly still buy train tickets there.
If what your friend told you is true, it must have been a temporary glitch.
This is, by far, the simplest part of creating a font; so simple that an autotracer does a pretty good job. What's difficult is properly hinting a TrueType font (indeed, there are almost no properly hinted such beasts; hinting a Type1 font is much easier) and choosing the right spacing between characters. The only parts of a font that I would consider a program are the TT hinting and the OpenType contextual sostitution instructions.
As far as I know even a US court agreed that a font is nothing more than a collection of data (coordinates of Bezier curves); oddly, the same court stated that these data were copywritable (see Luc Devroye account on the SSi/Adobe case).
Clearly this leaves out the most difficult and creative part: designing the typeface. It's a form of art, and only the complete mess the US copyright statutes are could fail to protect them while protecting a collection of data!
There's a funny part to this mess: IANAL, but I understand that a font released under the GPL would "contaminate" any pdf embedding it, with really interesting results...
but then, why is it not unethical for me to work 80 hour weeks for a few months to keep my job by keeping my project up and running?
It is unethical to demand you so. And it is even illegal, at least in the civilized world.
European prices include VAT, which is between 16 and 22%. If you add, say, 20% to 82 cents you get ... 99 cents. So the USD price is the same as the EUR one.
Now, my question is: is the real price in the US 99 cents, or you have to add sales taxes to that?
You must be kidding: you can walk to Massachusetts in one hour and a half from a good part of Roe Dylan!
cd /usr/local/Adobe/Acrobat7.0/Reader/intellinux/bin
/usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0 (0xb7c45000)
ldd acroread|grep gt
libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0 =>
I got a PhD in (Pure) Maths at Brown in 1997 and I got a tenured position (in Europe, though) 2 years ago, so I suppose I'm qualified to say something: if you like the idea, definitevely go for it!
The market is really, really, really cyclic: there are years when Harvard graduates with decent teaching experience cannot get a job (like the end of the 90's) and there are years when it's difficult to find decent candidates.
Here in Europe it's easier since the cycles are different in each country, so people move around.
If you want to stay in the US (which I didn't, BTW), I'd advise you to get a MSc in Computer Science while working towards your PhD: at least at Brown (but I suppose this is common), you may do that for free. In this way, if the job market is really bad, you can always find a decent (and so much better paid) job: a good part of my colleagues did so, and many ended up getting a job in the real world.
Feel free to write me if you want to ask some more.
That'd be good in the winter, but, hey, it's going to be really hot at your place next summer!
Just done a tracerout from Italy to Canada:
:)
6 it-uk.uk.ten-155.net (212.1.192.98) 43.027 ms 40.527 ms 40.807 ms
7 canet.ca.ten-155.net (212.1.196.174) 156.944 ms 192.211 ms 183.248 ms
So, who would care if the US were to disappear now? Sure, I wouldn't, since I'd still be able to mail-order some maple sugar
Unless you're buying a registered item (i.e., a car), you pay VAT in the country where you buy.
:)
I've just got a camera from Germany and I payed the 16% German rate, rather than the 19.6% French rate.
When Switzerland will be finally forced to join the rest of Europe, all mail-order companies will move there!
It should read:
Sotto la panca la capra campa, sotto la campa la capra crepa.
Oh, it's simple: just move to a civilised country that values its citizens more than its corporations :-)
Actually, the page acknowledges to be a parody, at the very bottom and with a font size="-3". For the linguistically challenged:
pssst, this site is a test to find out how long it will take Yahoo! to exercise its rights, as others did before.
Results: from the original publication (3/11/99) to the legal threats (12/1/00), it took 70 days. Bravo!
Doesn't that tell you something? Doctors are probably well-paid enough in Canada that they don't really need the money. I suspect a large part of it is the ridiculous beaurocracy that acompanies an government program.
Actually, having lived in Italy, USA, Canada and France, I have to say that there is more (or much more) burocracy in the US health system; and it's definitevely more evil. As far as quality goes, a student plan in the US sucks; better: it sucks a lot!
It says that Linus is a Swede, while he's Finnish
(although he belongs to the Swedish minority: se_FI)
I have just checked out the European release dates: it won't get here (France) until then :-(((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((
Why so late? Why is France going to be the latest place? Why am I in France?