And of course that "underscores some of the weaknesses in U.S. space efforts." Actually, I would say it underscores the strength: they managed to fix the problem using ingenuity and scarce resources. Also, a "scrap of cloth" != "a rag". Calling it a rag implies someone just forgot a whole piece of cloth. A scrap of cloth implies it ripped or was otherwise accidentally and through no negligence (well, not gross negligence anyways, they may still have checked more carefully) deposited.
This is actually the core of the problem. We don't have a base on the Moon (for instance) not because we couldn't, but because there is simply no compelling reason to do so. Technical issues of course prevent us from doing it just because we can. There isn't even a scientific reason to justify the cost at this point. Although it would have to be a pretty valuable resource to justify a Mars base when you figure in return costs (and the difficulty of creating rocket fuel on Mars itself.)
To give ScientiaMobile the benefit of the doubt, it is possible they simply don't know how the licensing system works and don't realize that changing the license later on doesn't restrict uses of earlier versions that had been distributed under GPL. This would make them idiots, however. Presuming, of course, that OpenDDR doesn't use the newer version of the database (which I am assuming they don't and seems to be the idea from skimming TFA.)
The alternative is that they are simply assholes deliberately trying to abuse the system. So they are either idiots or assholes.
Operation Downfall. Estimated US casualties were somewhere around 500,000 to a million dead, conservatively. And the Japanese predicted the US's plan of attack precisely, so it could have been two to three times that easily. And five to ten million dead Japanese, which is around 6-13% of their population at the time. Again, that was probably conservative.
So he fell asleep. Could happen to anyone, only a story because this involves a politician. Wait, still not a story. Even if he lied about going the speed limit and wearing a seatbelt. Not wearing a seatbelt is stupid, true, but most people go at least 70 in a 65. 75 is quite common.
It is in the eyes of the Iranian media. Wait, the summary didn't mention that that was were that term was taken from? Huh, funny. Almost like the summary is trying to be sensationalist or something. It also didn't mention the X-37B was in that exact orbit before the Chinese launched their laboratory? And that they are not in "tandem", they only get close every 170 orbits? Yeah, the X-37B is definitely still there to spy on the Chinese. Only possible explanation.
Actually, from what I could gather of the BBS article it looks like the Tiangong matched the X37-B's orbit, not the other way around (the X037 was launched to 300km at an inclination of 42.79 from the equator. The Tiangong's altitude was "similar", and an orbital inclination of 42.78). There was some speculation in the first article that the X-37 was reprogrammed to look at the Tiangong, but there is absolutely no way that was its original mission. The facts are more in line with the Chinese spying on the American mission, actually, but that is extremely unlikely given the rather more permanent nature of the space station. Most likely? Both were put in that orbit for the same reason: to keep an eye on the Middle East, which is of interest to everyone.
LOTR online made shit-tons after it went F2P and was (as I understand it) on the brink of failing before that. Regardless, F2P games need constant development after they go F2P to produce more money, and that development is not free. And many can succeed never being pay-to-play (League of Legends, for example). It works as a model, developers just need to learn to do it properly.
Yes and no. Lots (lots and lots) of people bought the converter boxes (I happened to be working at a retail store during that period), so I don't know how much it did for the HDTV adoption. Did a lot to boost the converter box makers wallets with government cash (everyone got 2 $40 coupons for the boxes), though, at $50 a pop for what should have been at most $20 box.
Freedom of assembly. More importantly, freedom of press. Both include the "freedom to be heard." I.E. the government cannot restrict the spread of a newspaper, nor the ability for people at a gathering to both speak and be heard by others.
This isn't a "right to be heard" in every sense, but it is a right to be able to be heard if others choose to listen. "Freedom to listen" is perhaps a better way of putting it.
And of course the freedom to petition the government is a freedom to be heard by the government.
Those issues are why I said "nearly." And none of them are important to the average consumer. Not anymore, anyways. LCDs in the 90s had problems from some of those issues, but most made in the past 7-8 years are more than adequate for the average viewer to not even notice those. Not coincidentally, that is also when LCD's began to become extremely popular (replacing plasma, which doesn't have most of those issues but is pricey and has other problems.)
What's "freedom of speech" worth if you cannot get heard?
This is why the First Amendment to the US Constitution includes the right to peaceable assembly and to petition the government (basically, a right "to be heard" in the proper context for democratic debate and protest). I would consider the Internet to be a peaceable assembly, provided no laws are being broken (copyright is in fact a valid law established in the Constitution, so there is that) so it would automatically be protected under that Amendment already. Whether a judge thinks so or not is another question: they seem to have a habit of reading whatever the hell they want in the Constitution.
IMO it had more to do with the price dropping (a lot). I worked at retail a few years back (starting in 2006 when you could still find a few CRT TVs) that sold HD TVs: the price dropped rapidly. A 60" TV used to be multiple thousands of dollars. Now you can get one for a little over a thousand dollars. I actually think that is why SD models were dropped: because LCD prices came down. 10 years ago a 19" LCD monitor was a thousand dollars or so. Now it is under $100. SD TVs didn't cease to be made because TV makers forced people to upgrade: they stopped being made because no one was buying them anymore, because they could get so much better for not much more.
What I meant was now that everyone, or nearly everyone, is at the HD TV level, the improvement of going to a 3D TV is extremely minor, whereas the improvement of going from SD to HD was huge (screen size, resolution, thinner screens, etc). As you said, if people were at the SD level 3D might see widespread adoption, precisely because 3D TVs are just slightly better HD TVs. But most people aren't using SD TVs anymore, and certainly not the people who might even consider getting a 3D TV. So while the quality of 3D TVs is fine, it is more of a sideways upgrade from an HD TV and not the massive jump the TV makers would like and portray it as.
Consumers will flock to 3DTVs when there is basically nothing else on the market: otherwise, it just doesn't provide enough benefit to justify the added cost. This happened with HD too; did the TV makers really expect it to be different this time?
I think they might have. HD TVs sold in droves, for a while anyways, as people upgraded. They were a significant upgrade, and prices dropped while quality increased rapidly, causing a huge bubble for TV makers. It wasn't even that nothing else was available: HD TV's are simply far better than old CRT TVs, in nearly every possible way. 3D TVs are almost worse, in 3D mode, than regular HD TVs (although usually slightly better in non-3D mode), which means they simply will not sell. But based on the bubble, TV makers expected them to. Basically, they expected (or hoped, anyways) sales to continue at what they were, using 3D TVs to push that, not realizing they were in the middle of an upgrade bubble. Similar story with Blu-ray: DVDs were far (far far far) superior to VHS, so they sold well, whereas most people can't tell the difference between an upscaled DVD and a Blu-ray disc.
Except when you change a handful of diagrams and re-order a few chapters to produce a new edition of a text-book, your editing costs go towards zero, and even with the relatively few buyers, profits are incredible. Plus, you completely eliminate the second hand-market. This is routine practice for college (and to a lesser degree high-school) textbooks.
And then you have something like TF2, which not only quintupled it's player base by going free-to-play, but has a conversion rate of free players buying items of 20-30%. Lesson? Make your game fun and make the premium content a) worthwhile but b) not absolutely necessary to play the game, and you can make a lot of money. This makes for an interesting read (like how they found highly advertised 75% off sales increased revenue by 40x for Counter-Strike).
Minnesota isn't Texas. We don't shoot people here, we prefer to kill them by waiting for an eternity at a stop-sign waving them through even though we have the right of way.
4 per 1,000 is about right for simple user stupidity, so I'm not sure what your point is. If those people were using Linux, Linux would have a similar infection rate (actually, probably higher, since they would run root constantly and Linux has little protection against a stupid root user). Only iOS style walled-garden tactics can fix that problem for good. And XP is still at a rate of 15.9/1,000 machines.
Yes, because open sourcing and handing over a project to an institute of higher learning where the basic components of that project were developed is a sign of true pure evil.
Or, you know, a company making a business decision that supports FOSS. Whichever way Slashdot is leaning today.
Ever heard of circumstantial evidence? Doesn't directly link them, but can easily be enough to land a conviction in many cases. Hard to say much without more information, of course. Quick check at the WSJ link for that quote shows that Landis' trainer, a Mr. Baker, had stolen files up on his website from the lab, given to him by Landis' attorneys. Pretty damning evidence.
Slashdot Mirror
And of course that "underscores some of the weaknesses in U.S. space efforts." Actually, I would say it underscores the strength: they managed to fix the problem using ingenuity and scarce resources. Also, a "scrap of cloth" != "a rag". Calling it a rag implies someone just forgot a whole piece of cloth. A scrap of cloth implies it ripped or was otherwise accidentally and through no negligence (well, not gross negligence anyways, they may still have checked more carefully) deposited.
This is actually the core of the problem. We don't have a base on the Moon (for instance) not because we couldn't, but because there is simply no compelling reason to do so. Technical issues of course prevent us from doing it just because we can. There isn't even a scientific reason to justify the cost at this point. Although it would have to be a pretty valuable resource to justify a Mars base when you figure in return costs (and the difficulty of creating rocket fuel on Mars itself.)
To give ScientiaMobile the benefit of the doubt, it is possible they simply don't know how the licensing system works and don't realize that changing the license later on doesn't restrict uses of earlier versions that had been distributed under GPL. This would make them idiots, however. Presuming, of course, that OpenDDR doesn't use the newer version of the database (which I am assuming they don't and seems to be the idea from skimming TFA.)
The alternative is that they are simply assholes deliberately trying to abuse the system. So they are either idiots or assholes.
Operation Downfall. Estimated US casualties were somewhere around 500,000 to a million dead, conservatively. And the Japanese predicted the US's plan of attack precisely, so it could have been two to three times that easily. And five to ten million dead Japanese, which is around 6-13% of their population at the time. Again, that was probably conservative.
Maybe, but this is also much, much less awesome.
So he fell asleep. Could happen to anyone, only a story because this involves a politician. Wait, still not a story. Even if he lied about going the speed limit and wearing a seatbelt. Not wearing a seatbelt is stupid, true, but most people go at least 70 in a 65. 75 is quite common.
Gah. BBS should read BBC. Also, X037 should be X-37.
It is in the eyes of the Iranian media. Wait, the summary didn't mention that that was were that term was taken from? Huh, funny. Almost like the summary is trying to be sensationalist or something. It also didn't mention the X-37B was in that exact orbit before the Chinese launched their laboratory? And that they are not in "tandem", they only get close every 170 orbits? Yeah, the X-37B is definitely still there to spy on the Chinese. Only possible explanation.
Actually, from what I could gather of the BBS article it looks like the Tiangong matched the X37-B's orbit, not the other way around (the X037 was launched to 300km at an inclination of 42.79 from the equator. The Tiangong's altitude was "similar", and an orbital inclination of 42.78). There was some speculation in the first article that the X-37 was reprogrammed to look at the Tiangong, but there is absolutely no way that was its original mission. The facts are more in line with the Chinese spying on the American mission, actually, but that is extremely unlikely given the rather more permanent nature of the space station. Most likely? Both were put in that orbit for the same reason: to keep an eye on the Middle East, which is of interest to everyone.
LOTR online made shit-tons after it went F2P and was (as I understand it) on the brink of failing before that. Regardless, F2P games need constant development after they go F2P to produce more money, and that development is not free. And many can succeed never being pay-to-play (League of Legends, for example). It works as a model, developers just need to learn to do it properly.
Yes and no. Lots (lots and lots) of people bought the converter boxes (I happened to be working at a retail store during that period), so I don't know how much it did for the HDTV adoption. Did a lot to boost the converter box makers wallets with government cash (everyone got 2 $40 coupons for the boxes), though, at $50 a pop for what should have been at most $20 box.
Freedom of assembly. More importantly, freedom of press. Both include the "freedom to be heard." I.E. the government cannot restrict the spread of a newspaper, nor the ability for people at a gathering to both speak and be heard by others.
This isn't a "right to be heard" in every sense, but it is a right to be able to be heard if others choose to listen. "Freedom to listen" is perhaps a better way of putting it.
And of course the freedom to petition the government is a freedom to be heard by the government.
Those issues are why I said "nearly." And none of them are important to the average consumer. Not anymore, anyways. LCDs in the 90s had problems from some of those issues, but most made in the past 7-8 years are more than adequate for the average viewer to not even notice those. Not coincidentally, that is also when LCD's began to become extremely popular (replacing plasma, which doesn't have most of those issues but is pricey and has other problems.)
What's "freedom of speech" worth if you cannot get heard?
This is why the First Amendment to the US Constitution includes the right to peaceable assembly and to petition the government (basically, a right "to be heard" in the proper context for democratic debate and protest). I would consider the Internet to be a peaceable assembly, provided no laws are being broken (copyright is in fact a valid law established in the Constitution, so there is that) so it would automatically be protected under that Amendment already. Whether a judge thinks so or not is another question: they seem to have a habit of reading whatever the hell they want in the Constitution.
The UN declared it a human right.
The UN is a country now?
...no US government ever bothered to fight the first amendment...
Hahahah, hohoho, hehe, good one. Wait, you seriously think that? Someone needs history lessons.
That also isn't all the First Amendment is, BTW. It does include the freedom to be heard when speaking.
IMO it had more to do with the price dropping (a lot). I worked at retail a few years back (starting in 2006 when you could still find a few CRT TVs) that sold HD TVs: the price dropped rapidly. A 60" TV used to be multiple thousands of dollars. Now you can get one for a little over a thousand dollars. I actually think that is why SD models were dropped: because LCD prices came down. 10 years ago a 19" LCD monitor was a thousand dollars or so. Now it is under $100. SD TVs didn't cease to be made because TV makers forced people to upgrade: they stopped being made because no one was buying them anymore, because they could get so much better for not much more.
What I meant was now that everyone, or nearly everyone, is at the HD TV level, the improvement of going to a 3D TV is extremely minor, whereas the improvement of going from SD to HD was huge (screen size, resolution, thinner screens, etc). As you said, if people were at the SD level 3D might see widespread adoption, precisely because 3D TVs are just slightly better HD TVs. But most people aren't using SD TVs anymore, and certainly not the people who might even consider getting a 3D TV. So while the quality of 3D TVs is fine, it is more of a sideways upgrade from an HD TV and not the massive jump the TV makers would like and portray it as.
Consumers will flock to 3DTVs when there is basically nothing else on the market: otherwise, it just doesn't provide enough benefit to justify the added cost. This happened with HD too; did the TV makers really expect it to be different this time?
I think they might have. HD TVs sold in droves, for a while anyways, as people upgraded. They were a significant upgrade, and prices dropped while quality increased rapidly, causing a huge bubble for TV makers. It wasn't even that nothing else was available: HD TV's are simply far better than old CRT TVs, in nearly every possible way. 3D TVs are almost worse, in 3D mode, than regular HD TVs (although usually slightly better in non-3D mode), which means they simply will not sell. But based on the bubble, TV makers expected them to. Basically, they expected (or hoped, anyways) sales to continue at what they were, using 3D TVs to push that, not realizing they were in the middle of an upgrade bubble. Similar story with Blu-ray: DVDs were far (far far far) superior to VHS, so they sold well, whereas most people can't tell the difference between an upscaled DVD and a Blu-ray disc.
Except when you change a handful of diagrams and re-order a few chapters to produce a new edition of a text-book, your editing costs go towards zero, and even with the relatively few buyers, profits are incredible. Plus, you completely eliminate the second hand-market. This is routine practice for college (and to a lesser degree high-school) textbooks.
And then you have something like TF2, which not only quintupled it's player base by going free-to-play, but has a conversion rate of free players buying items of 20-30%. Lesson? Make your game fun and make the premium content a) worthwhile but b) not absolutely necessary to play the game, and you can make a lot of money. This makes for an interesting read (like how they found highly advertised 75% off sales increased revenue by 40x for Counter-Strike).
So shoot me, I don't live in the US.
Minnesota isn't Texas. We don't shoot people here, we prefer to kill them by waiting for an eternity at a stop-sign waving them through even though we have the right of way.
4 per 1,000 is about right for simple user stupidity, so I'm not sure what your point is. If those people were using Linux, Linux would have a similar infection rate (actually, probably higher, since they would run root constantly and Linux has little protection against a stupid root user). Only iOS style walled-garden tactics can fix that problem for good. And XP is still at a rate of 15.9/1,000 machines.
Yes, because open sourcing and handing over a project to an institute of higher learning where the basic components of that project were developed is a sign of true pure evil.
Or, you know, a company making a business decision that supports FOSS. Whichever way Slashdot is leaning today.
Ever heard of circumstantial evidence? Doesn't directly link them, but can easily be enough to land a conviction in many cases. Hard to say much without more information, of course. Quick check at the WSJ link for that quote shows that Landis' trainer, a Mr. Baker, had stolen files up on his website from the lab, given to him by Landis' attorneys. Pretty damning evidence.