I have the tune to Bubble Bobble (most addictive song I could think of) stuck in my head permanently. I use it as my alarm in the morning, and various sound alerts through the day. It's permanently stuck in my head, but I'm so used to it that it doesn't bother me.
If I get another tune stuck and I decide I don't want it in there, I just hum a few bars of Bubble Bobble, and they fight it out. Nothing's ever survived.
As a cyclist I've seen a fair few arguments and studies like this one against wearing a helmet, but most people just use the 'common sense' argument for wearing one.
I don't wear a helmet, and in general I'd rather learn the arguments for changing my behaviour. Does anyone have a good link to well conceived arguments or studies that say you should wear one?
If copyright is supposed to encourage the arts by providing future financial security, then surely varying the rate for past works decreases that security by putting across the message that the timeframe may change in the future.
If this is the case, then I can see an argument for increasing copyright term on new works (not that I agree with it), but surely older works should go into the public domain on schedule, as the artists have received what was promised.
It's the equivalent of saying you'd pay an artist $1000 every year for the next 60 years. They can decide that yes, 60k is worth this amount of work. If you then start changing this around, the artist might be getting 95k or, in a possible future backlash, 40k. They then can't use this as a basis for viability. This, then, at least partially invalidates this incentive.
Of course, this is all based on the assumption that this is the purpose of copyright, which I think is a pretty big assumption these days. I'd be interested in seeing a list of other justifications for it.
Is it just me, or was the entire point of all Asimov's (apropriate) works not that, even given His 3 laws, robots would Find A Way?
Forgive my dramatic capitalisation, but Asimov's entire point seemed to be that these 3 laws, despite being pretty obvious, were deeply flawed and not at all thought through. Even in the movie (spoiler follws, even though the movie spoiled itself well enough) the whole point was that the computer interpreted enslavement as being better than the possibility of self-harm, from a species' point of view.
Essentially, 3 laws are not enough. Humanity must be encoded through learning (eg. neural nets) or teaching (eg. expert systems). Scope and context really really do matter.
The last line reminds me of a wonderful under-known Python sketch from Mr. Pither's cycling tour, set in a doctor's surgery.
Doctor Morning.
Pither Oh, a very good morning to you too, Doctor
Doctor Ah, I understand you had an accident? [...] where were you hurt?
Pither Oh, fortunately, I escaped without injury.
Doctor Well what is the trouble?
Pither Please, could you tell me the way to Iddesleigh?
Doctor I'm a doctor, you know.
Pither Oh yes, absolutely. Normally I would have asked a policeman or a minister of the Church, but finding no one available, I thought it better to consult a man with some professional qualifications, rather than rely on the possibly confused testimony of a passer-by.
Doctor Oh alright. (he scribbles something on a piece of paper and hands it to Pither) Take this to a chemist.
Pither Thank you.
Cut to exterior of a chemist's shop. A chemist comes out holding the paper and points up the street. Pither thanks him and mounts his bike.
This is at least the second Monty Python related naming... there was a type of giant python found in Queensland, Australia that was named "Montypythonoideriversleighensis".
I work in the chip&pin indistry, and the US have stated that they will not be moving to C&P at all.
You're right with the rest of your post though. C&P does make transactions safer... for the banks. The liability has merely shifted away from them, and to either the retailer (for non-C&P transactions) or the customer (where the pin was entered).
The banks have several argument about why C&P is safer. For example, the card now never needs to leave the cardholder's presence, and so the retailer cannot put extra transactions through. While this is true to a degree, and the banks require that the C&P device displays the amount before authorisation, the merchant copy of the receipt must contain enough information to reproduce the transaction offline. By definition, this means the merchant gets all required card data.
In any case, a huge percentage of card fraud, over 80% I believe, is card not present (mail order or e-com). C&P does nothing to reduce this.
Personally, my bank hasn't yet released chip cards, and I'm glad of it. I know this won't last for long, another year tops I'd guess, but by then I hope to have a more secure (for me) way of carrying credit easily.
As several others have pointed out, being an author is not the same os being an IP advocate. I'd strongly advise reading Cory Doctorow's point of view on this... I'm too lazy to find a ref right now, but he includes it at the start of the electronic versions of his book (get the latest at http://craphound.com/someone).
As a personal example, being a D2 fan I've actually read a fair few things you've written online, but without a recommendation I probably wouldn't buy anything you've published for sale. No, it's not because I've got anything against your writing (quite the opposite), it's just that there is so much out there that I want to read first. Cory Doctorow used to be in the same category until I downloaded and read the above novel... he's moved up significantly up my list, and I also recommend him strongly to friends.
Of course, the obvious retort is that I could just download his next novel too. I may indeed, but having a physical book has many advantages that an elctronic copy lacks, such as ease and comfort of use.
I think it's fair enough that you're sticking to a traditional model; it certainly has it's advantages. However, for your own good and, I would argue, the good of society as a whole, I'd advise broadening your horizons in this respect, and at least consider the other possibilities.
Cheers, Noims
Incidentally, despite appearances, I am not affiliated with Cory Doctorow in any way *:)
I put together a new machine about 6 months back and looked around a fair bit. I'm based in Ireland, but this probably covers most of Europe...
http://www.komplett.ie/ consistently has great prices and good stuff. There are a few Komplett sites for Europe.
scan.co.uk often have great prices, but I got seriously burnt by their incredibly bad customer service a few years back (dodgy graphics card), and will never shoip there again.
There are plenty of good places out there, but I think you do have to strike a balance between price and service.
I'm looking for existing EU patents that show up the system. In his article RMS mentions patents on progress bars and accpeting payment by credit card... are there any other popular choices, or better still a page with lists of them?
Recently I've come up against one that, while I haven't read the actual text of, seems to cover downloading a file from a central authority that lists rates for several currencies, and using these rates to convert a price from a local currency to a foreign one.
I just checked my parents' place in Dublin and the road names are completely wrong. OK, so they might be old names, but if that's the case they're over 30 years old.
Also, the relatively new light rail system in Dublin is completely missing, which could confuse users. This could be interesting in dating satellite images if they're next since it took a fair while to build.
Ex-GAIN employees in the "Integrity Advisory Committee"??? That's like Richard Stallman working for the Patent Office!
Exactly.
That's why I can actually see the wisdom in this. While I do think it's an awful thing, I believe that no committee making these kinds of decisions should be one-sided.
The question is, what are the leanings of the other members of the committee? One post seems to imply that 'we' should be happy with them.
In other words, the fox should advise on the security of the hen-house since the alternative is the farmer having 100% control, and sometimes you're the fox!
Slashdot Mirror
How's this for a headline:
US fighting for ruling that would allow unlimited foreign intelligence agency surveillance of US citizens.
Not that snappy, so maybe:
US fights for foreign surveillance of US citizens
I keep a pet earworm.
I have the tune to Bubble Bobble (most addictive song I could think of) stuck in my head permanently. I use it as my alarm in the morning, and various sound alerts through the day. It's permanently stuck in my head, but I'm so used to it that it doesn't bother me.
If I get another tune stuck and I decide I don't want it in there, I just hum a few bars of Bubble Bobble, and they fight it out. Nothing's ever survived.
As a cyclist I've seen a fair few arguments and studies like this one against wearing a helmet, but most people just use the 'common sense' argument for wearing one.
I don't wear a helmet, and in general I'd rather learn the arguments for changing my behaviour. Does anyone have a good link to well conceived arguments or studies that say you should wear one?
I find your lack of faith... disturbing.
Noims.
If copyright is supposed to encourage the arts by providing future financial security, then surely varying the rate for past works decreases that security by putting across the message that the timeframe may change in the future.
If this is the case, then I can see an argument for increasing copyright term on new works (not that I agree with it), but surely older works should go into the public domain on schedule, as the artists have received what was promised.
It's the equivalent of saying you'd pay an artist $1000 every year for the next 60 years. They can decide that yes, 60k is worth this amount of work. If you then start changing this around, the artist might be getting 95k or, in a possible future backlash, 40k. They then can't use this as a basis for viability. This, then, at least partially invalidates this incentive.
Of course, this is all based on the assumption that this is the purpose of copyright, which I think is a pretty big assumption these days. I'd be interested in seeing a list of other justifications for it.
Noims.
> Well, you know what? Space is hard, and far. Maybe we just aren't ready for the journey yet.
Space isn't that far away... only about an hour's drive, albeit straight up.
Is it just me, or was the entire point of all Asimov's (apropriate) works not that, even given His 3 laws, robots would Find A Way?
Forgive my dramatic capitalisation, but Asimov's entire point seemed to be that these 3 laws, despite being pretty obvious, were deeply flawed and not at all thought through. Even in the movie (spoiler follws, even though the movie spoiled itself well enough) the whole point was that the computer interpreted enslavement as being better than the possibility of self-harm, from a species' point of view.
Essentially, 3 laws are not enough. Humanity must be encoded through learning (eg. neural nets) or teaching (eg. expert systems). Scope and context really really do matter.
Is it just me, or does reading this feel like playing nethack, only less rewarding? -- more --
The last line reminds me of a wonderful under-known Python sketch from Mr. Pither's cycling tour, set in a doctor's surgery.
Doctor
Morning.
Pither
Oh, a very good morning to you too, Doctor
Doctor
Ah, I understand you had an accident? [...] where were you hurt?
Pither
Oh, fortunately, I escaped without injury.
Doctor
Well what is the trouble?
Pither
Please, could you tell me the way to Iddesleigh?
Doctor
I'm a doctor, you know.
Pither
Oh yes, absolutely. Normally I would have asked a policeman or a minister of the Church, but finding no one available, I thought it better to consult a man with some professional qualifications, rather than rely on the possibly confused testimony of a passer-by.
Doctor
Oh alright.
(he scribbles something on a piece of paper and hands it to Pither)
Take this to a chemist.
Pither
Thank you.
Cut to exterior of a chemist's shop. A chemist comes out holding the paper and points up the street. Pither thanks him and mounts his bike.
This is at least the second Monty Python related naming... there was a type of giant python found in Queensland, Australia that was named "Montypythonoideriversleighensis".
Noims.
And they say Slashdotters are anal-retentive.
Shows what they know. We're not anal-retentive, we're pedantic. There's a difference!
NoimsI work in the chip&pin indistry, and the US have stated that they will not be moving to C&P at all.
You're right with the rest of your post though. C&P does make transactions safer... for the banks. The liability has merely shifted away from them, and to either the retailer (for non-C&P transactions) or the customer (where the pin was entered).
The banks have several argument about why C&P is safer. For example, the card now never needs to leave the cardholder's presence, and so the retailer cannot put extra transactions through. While this is true to a degree, and the banks require that the C&P device displays the amount before authorisation, the merchant copy of the receipt must contain enough information to reproduce the transaction offline. By definition, this means the merchant gets all required card data.
In any case, a huge percentage of card fraud, over 80% I believe, is card not present (mail order or e-com). C&P does nothing to reduce this.
Personally, my bank hasn't yet released chip cards, and I'm glad of it. I know this won't last for long, another year tops I'd guess, but by then I hope to have a more secure (for me) way of carrying credit easily.
Cheers,
Noims
As several others have pointed out, being an author is not the same os being an IP advocate. I'd strongly advise reading Cory Doctorow's point of view on this... I'm too lazy to find a ref right now, but he includes it at the start of the electronic versions of his book (get the latest at http://craphound.com/someone).
As a personal example, being a D2 fan I've actually read a fair few things you've written online, but without a recommendation I probably wouldn't buy anything you've published for sale. No, it's not because I've got anything against your writing (quite the opposite), it's just that there is so much out there that I want to read first. Cory Doctorow used to be in the same category until I downloaded and read the above novel... he's moved up significantly up my list, and I also recommend him strongly to friends.
Of course, the obvious retort is that I could just download his next novel too. I may indeed, but having a physical book has many advantages that an elctronic copy lacks, such as ease and comfort of use.
I think it's fair enough that you're sticking to a traditional model; it certainly has it's advantages. However, for your own good and, I would argue, the good of society as a whole, I'd advise broadening your horizons in this respect, and at least consider the other possibilities.
Cheers,
Noims
Incidentally, despite appearances, I am not affiliated with Cory Doctorow in any way *:)
I haven't seen a list of MEPs who voted against striking it down, or those who abstained.
If anyone has a list it would certainly be useful when the next elections roll around.
Cheers,
Noims.
Obviously you meant 'pedantic'.
Sorry. It was annoying me.
NoimsThere are plenty of good places out there, but I think you do have to strike a balance between price and service.
NoimsAnd that, my liege, that is how we know the earth to be banana shaped.
Obviously, given that the film was set in 932 AD, in another thousand years the comet will look very much like the earth of today!
NoimsI'm looking for existing EU patents that show up the system. In his article RMS mentions patents on progress bars and accpeting payment by credit card... are there any other popular choices, or better still a page with lists of them?
Recently I've come up against one that, while I haven't read the actual text of, seems to cover downloading a file from a central authority that lists rates for several currencies, and using these rates to convert a price from a local currency to a foreign one.
Wow. I wish I'd thought of that.
NoimsThe lads at El Reg are certainly enjoying their puns today:
Revenge of the SIP
Star Wars: Asterisk Vs SIPFoundry
You'd swear they were fishing for jobs in the tabloids!
I just checked my parents' place in Dublin and the road names are completely wrong. OK, so they might be old names, but if that's the case they're over 30 years old.
Also, the relatively new light rail system in Dublin is completely missing, which could confuse users. This could be interesting in dating satellite images if they're next since it took a fair while to build.
Noims
If you really wanted to see life on Mars, surely a probe equipped with a little prick and bush would be more useful.
Noims... always glad to bring the conversation down a notch or two.Exactly.
That's why I can actually see the wisdom in this. While I do think it's an awful thing, I believe that no committee making these kinds of decisions should be one-sided.
The question is, what are the leanings of the other members of the committee? One post seems to imply that 'we' should be happy with them.
In other words, the fox should advise on the security of the hen-house since the alternative is the farmer having 100% control, and sometimes you're the fox!
Cheers,Noims.
That's not being pedantic, it's being anal-retentive.
There's a difference!!!
Noims.
Another one named in tribute to comedy:
An extinct python whose remains were found at Riversleigh in Queensland, Australia, was christened "Montypythonoideriversleighensis".
Noims.
Ah yes. The AquaMoose.
So it came to your village too?
AquaMOOOOOSE! AquaMOOOOSE!
Noims