That's right. Because you're expected to do your job. If you need information, go find it. It doesn't matter how many people you have to push your way past. Find what you need, and act on it. You may annoy several folks along the way (do try to be somewhat cordial about it), but you'll become invaluable simply because you're the one who gets the job done.
Here's my advice for the submitter:
1. Make a plan. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just identify the problem and find the solution that you think will best solve it. If it's training, then make that your plan. If it's simply some reference materials, then make that your plan.
2. Sit down with your boss when you get a chance and say, "Hey, we've got this hole in our operations. It's a big problem for the company as a whole as we're not able to respond as well as we should be. Here's the plan I'd like to execute."
3. If you've got a good boss, your plan will actually be increased seven fold just to ensure that it gets done right. If you've got a mediocre boss, you'll get what you asked for. If you've got a REALLY bad boss, you won't get anything other than a "make due". Since you're already "making due", you're not going to lose anything. Plus you have some ammo in case your boss's boss ever happens to question the operations of your department.
4. ???
5. Profit!!! (Just to be complete.);-)
I know that coporate life seems like a bottomless pit sometimes. But no one else is going to change it, so you might as well make your own best effort. As long as you make something of an effort not to tick off every higher-up you meet, you should gain at least some leverage. Good luck!:-)
...doesn't mean you should. There are a lot of ways the things around you can be used and abused. Sometimes the use is a good one (e.g. potatos are great for getting broken lightbulbs out of their sockets), but I just can't think of any way that a phone webserver would be useful. More likely, it'll run up the guy's wireless bill and open him to various attacks.
And now Majesco is off creating some of the worst Plug and Play TV Games on the market. Instead of creating hardware for the actual arcade games (which would have made the systems 100% authentic), they delivered the Nintendo versions of Frogger and Konami Classics as if they were the same as the arcade versions! In addition, the Frogger stick only has a single game, making it one of the worst values in a very crowded market.
Hmm, I think I understand what you (and others) are saying. Basically, the power draw is controlled entirely by the power supply, thus there is no concern over the chip drawing too much amperage. Changing the voltage thus changes the overall power available, resulting in a lower rate at which the chip's capacitors charge. If the capacitors charge too slowly, it could potentially result in a cycle that is longer than the clock rate. This is bad because the state of the chip won't finish propogating before the next clock switch, potentially screwing up the internal logic. Close enough?
This sounds like a really BAD idea to me. Low Voltages can produce the exact opposite of the intended effect. Instead of lowering the power consumption, you'll get higher amperage spikes as the equipment draws more power to compensate. The result is that you could be damaging your electronics and not even know it.
I'll grant that modern manufacturing methods have greatly increased the survivability of hardware under less than ideal conditions. However, that shouldn't be taken to mean that you can't do serious hardware damage by operating outside of the device's specifications.
Not really. According to TFA, the damage can be repaired by rerunning the OS X install CD. The real story is how to access the EFI prompt. Why someone decided to hype the ability to screw up your boot record instead, I have no idea.
I may be mistaken, but I believe they used the double-chevrons in place of two instances of the letter "A". Thus the logo refers to AtariAge. Ask over there if you want a more firm answer.
Oh, and get your mind out of the gutter, will you?
In the case of SG1, it makes a certain amount of sense to have a General lead a team - to handle first contact, diplomacy, etc.
I disagree. Colonel is the equivalent rank of "Captain" in the Navy. (Thus the reason for a full Colonel commanding the Pegasus and Daedulus.) Traditionally, Naval Captains have had massive leeway in handling contact situations, diplomacy, and other political functions. An Admiral is almost never called upon to perform these functions as he is too busy managing ship deployments, commanding fleets, and/or performing tactical planning. If someone more specialized than a Captain is needed, an Ambassador is tasked with the job. (This has been seen in Stargate on several occasions.)
The fact that a Colonel is tasked with the job of leading SG teams is a reflection on how dangerous the job is, and how much Washington believes that it needs to be handled by a Senior Officer. In most situations, even a Major would be far too high of a rank to be commanding a single team. Sending a General out to command teams would be nothing more than the show thumbing its nose at the real rank structure of U.S. Armed Forces.
They've even started it early on Atlantis, and I like the change a lot. Ronon is a much more interesting chaaracter than Ford was (although his current situation is very interesting to me).
I'm actually amazed that they made the change so quickly. Many shows stick with a character for far too long even though he's completely unsuitable. In Ford's case it wasn't that he was out of place, or that he didn't belong. He was simply too happy-go-lucky to have survived in such a high risk environment for too long. The writers/producers showed amazing foresight by modifying his character in the way they did.
Other modifications to be aware of:
*) Peter Grodin, may he rest in peace. (I liked the guy too!) *) Caldwell, a standoff-ish, but natural character fit. *) Sergeant Bates, seemingly transferred off of Atlantis (thank God) *) Sergeant Markham, killed in the episode "The Brotherhood" *) Major Lorne, makes an excellent second-in-command with great chemistry between the characters *) The Athosians, thank God we don't have to listen to any more whining from Halling (the cripple) and Jinto (the boy)
The amazing part is that most of these changes happened so seemlessly that you don't even notice.:-)
By that logic, Richard Dean Anderson hasn't left either. I didn't say that the character died, I just said that they aren't an integral part of the show anymore.
IMHO, that's a good thing. People in real life tend to get promoted, transferred, and otherwise moved around. While we can use Movie Magic to delay such changes (e.g. Riker turns down command, SG1 is the only successful team, "Admiral" Kirk gets demoted, etc.), you can only delay it for so long before the plot goes stale. The constant cycling of SG-1 characters (save for Jonas Quinn, that just didn't work) keeps the Stargate Universe alive and fresh. If Jack was still leading every team into a mission, we (the fans) would have to start wondering:
a) Who he pissed off to keep getting passed over for promotion; or b) Why a general is leading a single team into the field?
Of course, it would have been cool if RDA had been tasked for a role as, say, a tactical assault coordinator (i.e. As a general he leads multiple teams into major battles), but he (IRL) really wanted a bit of distance from the show schedule.
Besides, you have to keep things somewhat realistic or the U.S. Armed Forces may stop officially endorsing the show. I mean, what other show has featured not just one, but TWO Chiefs of Staff of the USAF as actors on the show? (True story. The episodes were "Prodigy" and "Lost City" which featured Michael E. Ryan and John P. Jumper respectively.):-)
I guess it's a good thing that the Stargate: Atlantis video game is already released. I just want to know how they managed to not only have the game ready in time for the show, but managed to do it 20 years in advance! Man, those IMagic guys must have great management!;-)
It was part of the Borg saga. The Borg were supposed to attack at the end of Season II, but TNG ran out of money. THus we had to endure the "Riker Flashback Episode" while Best of Both Worlds waited until the next season.
If you have a star identical to the Sun 100 AU away (Pluto is 50 at its greatest), it will still be 40 times brighter than the full moon.
*cough*
Muller figures Nemesis' orbit ranges from 1 to 3 light-years away from the Sun.
A quick read of the article was also able to confirm that they are proposing a brown dwarf or a small singularity, not a yellow star like Sol.
Again, I'm not saying the guy is right. Just that space is a BIG place that can easily hide such things. If he can find a binary twin, then more power to him. If not, well he'll be in good company with many other scientists.
I don't think you truly appreciate how BIG our solar system is. If there's a twin to our star, it would seem so far away that it would seem like it had nothing to do with us. e.g. From Pluto, our Sun looks like nothing more than a particularly bright star. Now given how far away this star would be, its gravitational effects might be difficult to detect. In fact, IIRC, there are still quite a few odd effects that the discovery of Pluto didn't quite account for. (Not big enough.) So maybe we've finally found our Planet X. Except that it isn't a planet at all.:-)
Just for fun, think about what it would be like if Jobs had control of ABC.
I think I see where you're going with this. If Jobs became the new CEO of Disney, Jobs would gain full control of ABC. If Jobs gained full control of ABC, he would have all the powers of a television network. If he had all the powers of a television network, then he'd have all the powers to make a deal with other television networks. If he had all the powers to make deals with other television networks, then he could sit down with Fox and buy the rights to Firefly. The he could restart the series, hopefully ignoring the unfortunate events of the movie, and the browncoats could win! Right? Right? Wahoo! You can't take the sky from me!
But how is Disney a parasite of their own property? They own Mickey Mouse. They've always owned Mickey Mouse. They still use him as a key ingredient in many of their product. (i.e. Creating new works derived from their old ones.)
How is Atari a parasite of their work? They paid to have a brand new 2600-on-a-chip made so that they could produce a compatible console with 40 of their old games.
How is Intellivision Productions a parasite? The original programmers continue to bring the original games back to life by producing an official emulator, and finishing previously unreleased games.
How is Peter Jackson a parasite? He licensed the rights to Lord of the Rings to produce blockbuster movies that paid true homage to the concept. (Well, for the most part. I still take issue with some of it.:-))
The parasites are the SCOs of the world. The guys who buy up rights to DRDOS so they can sue Microsoft. That grab for original Unix rights so they can pretend that they have a case against a massive company. These guys are scum, plain and simple. My plan wouldn't eliminate all of them (there's no way to without becoming draconian), but it would at least free many materials that would otherwise be acquired by scum and misused, or forever lost to history for fear that the same scum would grab the rights and extort money for them.
It was a mechanist to foster CREATION of new materials, not protection of old.
The key is that no one ever expected the derivitive works to become such an important part of business. Does Disney make much money off the Steamboat Willy cartoon? No. Probably not any at all. But every Mickey Mouse cartoon and use of Mickey as a mascot after it is a derivitive work. Should Disney allow Steamboat Willy into the Public Domain, it is very possible that improper marketing of these "public domain" works could cause damage to Disney's reputation in the market. That is why they're worried about letting go of it.
IMHO, Disney's position is reasonable. What they did to protect themselves was not. The solution I'm proposing would air out a LOT of the works that were suddenly lost do to the market's inability to archive, restore, and make derivitive works of these items.
When a company goes out of business its assets (and a (c) is an asset) are divided up amongst its creditors and owners (shareholders). There's no telling who ends up with it, but someone does, and they would have the right to renew.
To clarify, my point was that if the copyrights went into limbo (as they often do), they would actually have a chance to expire. Today the copyrights go into limbo and no one can afford the cost of tracking down the real owner until someone else starts making money off the property. (Even in an indirect fashion.) Then some slimeball finds the original creator, buys the rights, and sues the pants off everyone.
A renewable copyright would force one of two things to happen:
1. The copyright would expire and enter public domain. 2. The current owner would renew the copyright every five years, thus making it clear who the current custodian is for licensing deals.
It's not a perfect system (nothing is), but it's a heck of a lot better than what we have now. How many early computer programs have been lost to rot?:-(
There used to be a fairly large market of pirate devices. However, JAKKS legitimized the concept by producing their arcade joysticks under proper licensing. It wasn't long before Atari, Coleco, Intellivision, Sega, Capcom, and Konami were all chomping at the bit to get their piece of the market. Now you can barely get near the toy section at Wal-mart without seeing hundreds of the little PNP buggers. Some of them are pretty cool (e.g. Ms. Pacman/Galaga) and some of them are not so cool (e.g. Intellivision Lives! Controller, blech), but nearly all of them are legal. (I've heard reports of a few no-name systems making their way into stores. The game hacks on them are not very appealing to begin with, so it's not really an issue.)
Pick up a Flashback 2.0 game system sometime. It's produced by the current Atari Co. and loaded with real 2600 games. The chipset is a real 2600-on-a-chip, and can even be modified to play the original 2600 cartridges! Atari even got a license to put two Activision games (Pitfall! and River Raid) into the system. You might be surprised at how nice (and legal!) it is.:-)
While I don't like what Disney did with the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, I can understand why they did it. Some property is so valuable that letting its rights lapse could do irreparable harm to its owners. Obviously, the founding fathers had intended for everyone to suck it up and deal with it, but modern history has shown that there can be some real value in controlling old property. (e.g. All those Plug 'N Play TV Games rely on old copyrights to compete in the market.) Yet at the same time, there is huge swaths of literature and entertainment that are being lost daily through overprotective copyright protection.
I'm really starting to think that what we need is a default copyright that's shorter than ever before, but is at the same time renewable. My idea is that the auto-copyright should be granted for 10 years. Should the owner of the property wish to extend that protection to 20 years, he must register his copyright. Once that 20 years is up, the current owner of the copyright must file for an extension every 5 years thereafter. The final cap on the copyright would be the life + 75 years used today.
That would allow for all the property that would otherwise be lost to be reclaimed. e.g. If a company goes out of business, you only have to wait a few years before you can start sharing an archive of their work. But at the same time Mickey Mouse gets the protection he needs to prevent freeloaders from misusing a copyright that is still very much alive. I'm not sure we could ever convince lawmakers, but it would solve a lot of problems.
The first thing I thought of when I saw the headline: Will Steve Jobs soon be the new CEO of Disney?
I wouldn't put it past him, though I'm sure that many would think it a strange idea. He's already shown that he can be very charismatic, and that he knows how to run a company. IHMO, having Jobs at the helm of Disney might actually be an improvement. Disney's been dying for years due primarily to poor leadership. Unfortunately, they're just to big to completely die off. So getting Jobs to inject some of his own magic back into the Kingdom might just be what the doctor ordered.:-)
P.S. I noticed your previous post about physics lectures. You might find this link to be of great interest. It kind of helps visualize the Special Theory of relativity.
Slashdot Mirror
If a hypothesis involving gravitons is explained by experimental evidence, then this hypothesis could be elevated to theory.
:-/
However, we're still left with the age old question: If gravity is manifest as a particle, why can't we shield against it?
Until that question is answered, the graviton theory is going nowhere, fast.
I'm lucky if they tell me what day it is.
;-)
:-)
That's right. Because you're expected to do your job. If you need information, go find it. It doesn't matter how many people you have to push your way past. Find what you need, and act on it. You may annoy several folks along the way (do try to be somewhat cordial about it), but you'll become invaluable simply because you're the one who gets the job done.
Here's my advice for the submitter:
1. Make a plan. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just identify the problem and find the solution that you think will best solve it. If it's training, then make that your plan. If it's simply some reference materials, then make that your plan.
2. Sit down with your boss when you get a chance and say, "Hey, we've got this hole in our operations. It's a big problem for the company as a whole as we're not able to respond as well as we should be. Here's the plan I'd like to execute."
3. If you've got a good boss, your plan will actually be increased seven fold just to ensure that it gets done right. If you've got a mediocre boss, you'll get what you asked for. If you've got a REALLY bad boss, you won't get anything other than a "make due". Since you're already "making due", you're not going to lose anything. Plus you have some ammo in case your boss's boss ever happens to question the operations of your department.
4. ???
5. Profit!!! (Just to be complete.)
I know that coporate life seems like a bottomless pit sometimes. But no one else is going to change it, so you might as well make your own best effort. As long as you make something of an effort not to tick off every higher-up you meet, you should gain at least some leverage. Good luck!
...doesn't mean you should. There are a lot of ways the things around you can be used and abused. Sometimes the use is a good one (e.g. potatos are great for getting broken lightbulbs out of their sockets), but I just can't think of any way that a phone webserver would be useful. More likely, it'll run up the guy's wireless bill and open him to various attacks.
And now Majesco is off creating some of the worst Plug and Play TV Games on the market. Instead of creating hardware for the actual arcade games (which would have made the systems 100% authentic), they delivered the Nintendo versions of Frogger and Konami Classics as if they were the same as the arcade versions! In addition, the Frogger stick only has a single game, making it one of the worst values in a very crowded market.
Hmm, I think I understand what you (and others) are saying. Basically, the power draw is controlled entirely by the power supply, thus there is no concern over the chip drawing too much amperage. Changing the voltage thus changes the overall power available, resulting in a lower rate at which the chip's capacitors charge. If the capacitors charge too slowly, it could potentially result in a cycle that is longer than the clock rate. This is bad because the state of the chip won't finish propogating before the next clock switch, potentially screwing up the internal logic. Close enough?
Thanks for clearing that up.
This sounds like a really BAD idea to me. Low Voltages can produce the exact opposite of the intended effect. Instead of lowering the power consumption, you'll get higher amperage spikes as the equipment draws more power to compensate. The result is that you could be damaging your electronics and not even know it.
I'll grant that modern manufacturing methods have greatly increased the survivability of hardware under less than ideal conditions. However, that shouldn't be taken to mean that you can't do serious hardware damage by operating outside of the device's specifications.
Not really. According to TFA, the damage can be repaired by rerunning the OS X install CD. The real story is how to access the EFI prompt. Why someone decided to hype the ability to screw up your boot record instead, I have no idea.
I may be mistaken, but I believe they used the double-chevrons in place of two instances of the letter "A". Thus the logo refers to AtariAge. Ask over there if you want a more firm answer.
Oh, and get your mind out of the gutter, will you?
That last sentence should read:
Sending a General out to command a team would be nothing more than the show thumbing its nose at the real rank structure of U.S. Armed Forces.
In the case of SG1, it makes a certain amount of sense to have a General lead a team - to handle first contact, diplomacy, etc.
I disagree. Colonel is the equivalent rank of "Captain" in the Navy. (Thus the reason for a full Colonel commanding the Pegasus and Daedulus.) Traditionally, Naval Captains have had massive leeway in handling contact situations, diplomacy, and other political functions. An Admiral is almost never called upon to perform these functions as he is too busy managing ship deployments, commanding fleets, and/or performing tactical planning. If someone more specialized than a Captain is needed, an Ambassador is tasked with the job. (This has been seen in Stargate on several occasions.)
The fact that a Colonel is tasked with the job of leading SG teams is a reflection on how dangerous the job is, and how much Washington believes that it needs to be handled by a Senior Officer. In most situations, even a Major would be far too high of a rank to be commanding a single team. Sending a General out to command teams would be nothing more than the show thumbing its nose at the real rank structure of U.S. Armed Forces.
They've even started it early on Atlantis, and I like the change a lot. Ronon is a much more interesting chaaracter than Ford was (although his current situation is very interesting to me).
:-)
I'm actually amazed that they made the change so quickly. Many shows stick with a character for far too long even though he's completely unsuitable. In Ford's case it wasn't that he was out of place, or that he didn't belong. He was simply too happy-go-lucky to have survived in such a high risk environment for too long. The writers/producers showed amazing foresight by modifying his character in the way they did.
Other modifications to be aware of:
*) Peter Grodin, may he rest in peace. (I liked the guy too!)
*) Caldwell, a standoff-ish, but natural character fit.
*) Sergeant Bates, seemingly transferred off of Atlantis (thank God)
*) Sergeant Markham, killed in the episode "The Brotherhood"
*) Major Lorne, makes an excellent second-in-command with great chemistry between the characters
*) The Athosians, thank God we don't have to listen to any more whining from Halling (the cripple) and Jinto (the boy)
The amazing part is that most of these changes happened so seemlessly that you don't even notice.
By that logic, Richard Dean Anderson hasn't left either. I didn't say that the character died, I just said that they aren't an integral part of the show anymore.
:-)
IMHO, that's a good thing. People in real life tend to get promoted, transferred, and otherwise moved around. While we can use Movie Magic to delay such changes (e.g. Riker turns down command, SG1 is the only successful team, "Admiral" Kirk gets demoted, etc.), you can only delay it for so long before the plot goes stale. The constant cycling of SG-1 characters (save for Jonas Quinn, that just didn't work) keeps the Stargate Universe alive and fresh. If Jack was still leading every team into a mission, we (the fans) would have to start wondering:
a) Who he pissed off to keep getting passed over for promotion; or
b) Why a general is leading a single team into the field?
Of course, it would have been cool if RDA had been tasked for a role as, say, a tactical assault coordinator (i.e. As a general he leads multiple teams into major battles), but he (IRL) really wanted a bit of distance from the show schedule.
Besides, you have to keep things somewhat realistic or the U.S. Armed Forces may stop officially endorsing the show. I mean, what other show has featured not just one, but TWO Chiefs of Staff of the USAF as actors on the show? (True story. The episodes were "Prodigy" and "Lost City" which featured Michael E. Ryan and John P. Jumper respectively.)
I guess it's a good thing that the Stargate: Atlantis video game is already released. I just want to know how they managed to not only have the game ready in time for the show, but managed to do it 20 years in advance! Man, those IMagic guys must have great management! ;-)
It was part of the Borg saga. The Borg were supposed to attack at the end of Season II, but TNG ran out of money. THus we had to endure the "Riker Flashback Episode" while Best of Both Worlds waited until the next season.
*cough*
A quick read of the article was also able to confirm that they are proposing a brown dwarf or a small singularity, not a yellow star like Sol.
Again, I'm not saying the guy is right. Just that space is a BIG place that can easily hide such things. If he can find a binary twin, then more power to him. If not, well he'll be in good company with many other scientists.
And no, I'm not saying that I agree with guy. Just pointing out that it's not as simple as it seems.
I don't think you truly appreciate how BIG our solar system is. If there's a twin to our star, it would seem so far away that it would seem like it had nothing to do with us. e.g. From Pluto, our Sun looks like nothing more than a particularly bright star. Now given how far away this star would be, its gravitational effects might be difficult to detect. In fact, IIRC, there are still quite a few odd effects that the discovery of Pluto didn't quite account for. (Not big enough.) So maybe we've finally found our Planet X. Except that it isn't a planet at all. :-)
Just for fun, think about what it would be like if Jobs had control of ABC.
...
:-P
I think I see where you're going with this. If Jobs became the new CEO of Disney, Jobs would gain full control of ABC. If Jobs gained full control of ABC, he would have all the powers of a television network. If he had all the powers of a television network, then he'd have all the powers to make a deal with other television networks. If he had all the powers to make deals with other television networks, then he could sit down with Fox and buy the rights to Firefly. The he could restart the series, hopefully ignoring the unfortunate events of the movie, and the browncoats could win! Right? Right? Wahoo! You can't take the sky from me!
Um...
That is what you were getting at, wasn't it?
But how is Disney a parasite of their own property? They own Mickey Mouse. They've always owned Mickey Mouse. They still use him as a key ingredient in many of their product. (i.e. Creating new works derived from their old ones.)
:-))
How is Atari a parasite of their work? They paid to have a brand new 2600-on-a-chip made so that they could produce a compatible console with 40 of their old games.
How is Intellivision Productions a parasite? The original programmers continue to bring the original games back to life by producing an official emulator, and finishing previously unreleased games.
How is Peter Jackson a parasite? He licensed the rights to Lord of the Rings to produce blockbuster movies that paid true homage to the concept. (Well, for the most part. I still take issue with some of it.
The parasites are the SCOs of the world. The guys who buy up rights to DRDOS so they can sue Microsoft. That grab for original Unix rights so they can pretend that they have a case against a massive company. These guys are scum, plain and simple. My plan wouldn't eliminate all of them (there's no way to without becoming draconian), but it would at least free many materials that would otherwise be acquired by scum and misused, or forever lost to history for fear that the same scum would grab the rights and extort money for them.
It was a mechanist to foster CREATION of new materials, not protection of old.
The key is that no one ever expected the derivitive works to become such an important part of business. Does Disney make much money off the Steamboat Willy cartoon? No. Probably not any at all. But every Mickey Mouse cartoon and use of Mickey as a mascot after it is a derivitive work. Should Disney allow Steamboat Willy into the Public Domain, it is very possible that improper marketing of these "public domain" works could cause damage to Disney's reputation in the market. That is why they're worried about letting go of it.
IMHO, Disney's position is reasonable. What they did to protect themselves was not. The solution I'm proposing would air out a LOT of the works that were suddenly lost do to the market's inability to archive, restore, and make derivitive works of these items.
When a company goes out of business its assets (and a (c) is an asset) are divided up amongst its creditors and owners (shareholders). There's no telling who ends up with it, but someone does, and they would have the right to renew.
:-(
To clarify, my point was that if the copyrights went into limbo (as they often do), they would actually have a chance to expire. Today the copyrights go into limbo and no one can afford the cost of tracking down the real owner until someone else starts making money off the property. (Even in an indirect fashion.) Then some slimeball finds the original creator, buys the rights, and sues the pants off everyone.
A renewable copyright would force one of two things to happen:
1. The copyright would expire and enter public domain.
2. The current owner would renew the copyright every five years, thus making it clear who the current custodian is for licensing deals.
It's not a perfect system (nothing is), but it's a heck of a lot better than what we have now. How many early computer programs have been lost to rot?
There used to be a fairly large market of pirate devices. However, JAKKS legitimized the concept by producing their arcade joysticks under proper licensing. It wasn't long before Atari, Coleco, Intellivision, Sega, Capcom, and Konami were all chomping at the bit to get their piece of the market. Now you can barely get near the toy section at Wal-mart without seeing hundreds of the little PNP buggers. Some of them are pretty cool (e.g. Ms. Pacman/Galaga) and some of them are not so cool (e.g. Intellivision Lives! Controller, blech), but nearly all of them are legal. (I've heard reports of a few no-name systems making their way into stores. The game hacks on them are not very appealing to begin with, so it's not really an issue.)
:-)
Pick up a Flashback 2.0 game system sometime. It's produced by the current Atari Co. and loaded with real 2600 games. The chipset is a real 2600-on-a-chip, and can even be modified to play the original 2600 cartridges! Atari even got a license to put two Activision games (Pitfall! and River Raid) into the system. You might be surprised at how nice (and legal!) it is.
While I don't like what Disney did with the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, I can understand why they did it. Some property is so valuable that letting its rights lapse could do irreparable harm to its owners. Obviously, the founding fathers had intended for everyone to suck it up and deal with it, but modern history has shown that there can be some real value in controlling old property. (e.g. All those Plug 'N Play TV Games rely on old copyrights to compete in the market.) Yet at the same time, there is huge swaths of literature and entertainment that are being lost daily through overprotective copyright protection.
I'm really starting to think that what we need is a default copyright that's shorter than ever before, but is at the same time renewable. My idea is that the auto-copyright should be granted for 10 years. Should the owner of the property wish to extend that protection to 20 years, he must register his copyright. Once that 20 years is up, the current owner of the copyright must file for an extension every 5 years thereafter. The final cap on the copyright would be the life + 75 years used today.
That would allow for all the property that would otherwise be lost to be reclaimed. e.g. If a company goes out of business, you only have to wait a few years before you can start sharing an archive of their work. But at the same time Mickey Mouse gets the protection he needs to prevent freeloaders from misusing a copyright that is still very much alive. I'm not sure we could ever convince lawmakers, but it would solve a lot of problems.
The first thing I thought of when I saw the headline: Will Steve Jobs soon be the new CEO of Disney?
:-)
I wouldn't put it past him, though I'm sure that many would think it a strange idea. He's already shown that he can be very charismatic, and that he knows how to run a company. IHMO, having Jobs at the helm of Disney might actually be an improvement. Disney's been dying for years due primarily to poor leadership. Unfortunately, they're just to big to completely die off. So getting Jobs to inject some of his own magic back into the Kingdom might just be what the doctor ordered.
P.S. I noticed your previous post about physics lectures. You might find this link to be of great interest. It kind of helps visualize the Special Theory of relativity.