In the US, most cellphone plans have a set number of minutes of use included, and you pay a large amount for going over that number of minutes. All use of the phone is counted, both incomming and outgoing calls.
Of course, the originator of the call pays for his end of the call, but in the case of a telemarketer that would be a very low "corporate bulk-rate" pricing for a normal land-line.
Copyright only regards the specific expression of something, and not ideas.
What you say is true in the strict sense. However, I am not sure that the conclusion you are drawing about old code not "tainting" new code is correct. Otherwise why would one need "cleanroom" implementataions of software?
If the code were covered under patent, even the cleanroom version would be in violation. Instead, under copyright, you need to be able to prove that the new code isn't "derived" from the earlier code. Knowlegde of the earlier code is said to "taint" the authorship of the second set of code.
If IBM does use this as a defense and settles in order to spend as little as possible, could this then imply that SCO does have rights to Linux code?
Of course, we could re-write the offending bits, but perhaps SCO manages to get that info sealed. Or perhaps, even if re-written, SCO claims that the new code is tainted by knowledge of the now removed code.
I hope IBM goes for a full win, rather than an easy settle.
Yep, you are ALL partially correct, and I will therefore partially retract my statement.
I will admit that the stability is MUCH better on NT based systems (W2K, XP), but the machine I use the most, which is at work, is still Win98. That is where I have the occasional IE crashes that also freeze the whole machine.
I will grant that it might be something else in the background, like Novell, etc. causing the crash, but at the time it happens I was only activly using IE, so that is where I place the blame. (Also, IIRC, the blue screen text points the finger at IE as well.)
(E.A.R., Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt by the way.)
Microsoft probably would have liked to license the patent, but the owner of (privatly held) Eolas said he had no interest in licencing the patent to Microsoft.
I have read that he wanted to help the competing browsers, but if that were true I would think that he would have given them a licence. Since he hasn't (that I am aware of) it makes me question this "helpful" stance.
Oh well, time will tell. Eventually Microsoft will convince everyone that having to blindly click on an OK button for every Active X is a good thing. Given Microsoft's security record, perhaps it is......
Perhaps they are afraid of further "publication" of SCO code? In that case perhaps they could simply say, "In module foo.c we found some duplicative lines. Note that they were NOT in lines 1-156 or 172-5000." (where the foo.c is assumed to contain 5000 lines)
Remember a year or so ago when Microsoft was bandying about the concept of "renting" one's software. Well, Wolfram Research recently changed their rules regarding upgrades to Mathematica, such that it is almost as bad.
Under the new rules Wolfram will only "support" product as old as the previous MINOR revision. This would be fine with me except that "support" extends to the ability to pay for an upgrade (vs. just buying the package all over again). In order to keep up with the yearly minor version increment, you have to pay for "maintainence" at $500/yr. Then when they decide to do a major version number increment you have to pay for the upgrade for an additional $525.
I don't have a problem paying for the upgrade every few years, but paying for support/maintence, that I never will need to call in on, just to have the priveledge to upgrade is a little hurtful to someone who has been a customer for >10yrs.
And yes, this is my personal copy, used mostly for fun, and very occasionally for something work related.
Of course, some of us just happen to like the RPN method of entry.
When I was in school I had an HP28s (I think that was the number, it was the clamshell model). It was practically a requirement for some of my classes for all the reasons previously mentioned.
It broke...:(
Since I no longer require the matrix algebra, etc. I bought a HP32SII. The main reason was that it was the cheapest RPN calculator I could find.
If TI would sell an RPN calculator, I would probably buy it.
The autohiding menus frustrate me no end. Half the time I go to use a function, I wind up spending more time searching for it because the menus keep changing.
First, I have to "read" all the items on the menu, instead of having the position practically implemented in muscle memory. Second, after quickly reading every item and not finding the one I am looking for, I either assume that didn't remember the correct dropdown menu for that function (and compound the error by looking elsewhere), or I have to *pause...* on the expansion arrows. When the menu finally expands about 3 seconds later, the process begins again, read every item, etc.
The hiding/unhiding process has therefore increased my time to pick a menu fuction from ~1 second to anywhere from 3 to 15 seconds, with a corresponding increase in frustration.
The federal RICO case is by far the most ambitious legal counterattack DirecTV has faced, though it is similar to a lawsuit Wilens filed last year in Los Angeles, on behalf of some of the same clients, including Sosa. A county judge dismissed that case last April under a California law aimed at discouraging lawsuits that stifle constitutionally-protected activities. The judge ruled that DirecTV's letters were sent in connection with litigation, and were therefore privileged
So if I read this correctly, if you want to extort somebody in California, you just have to make sure that the threat is one of being sued. That way your extortion threat is "in connection with litigation" and therefore "constitutionally-protected."
Absolutely amazing. I am glad I don't live in California. (Of course I am not sure that Michigan is any better, with the Super-DMCA laws here.)
Why are you running an SMTP server when you only get about 5 legit e-mails a day? Seems like a waste.
One reason that I can see for running your own mailserver, even for a small number of legit emails, is that you have the opportunity to reject mail based on the envelope sender (blacklist), before the mail has even been delivered.
I would think that it would be better that the spammer recieved a "user not found" immediatly (as some bulk mailer software might remove bad addresses), rather than my ISP collecting the mail first (thereby confirming that the address exists).
Note, I don't know if this would really make much of a difference or not. Given the generally sleazy nature of spammers, and the way they resell to eachother, it may not matter.
Next thing you know, the Dept. of Homeland Sec. will issue a regulation requiring the use of Palladium or similar tech. on all computers. After all it is for our 'safety.'
What happens if there IS code in Linux that SCO own? So far, everything I've read on Slashdot says there isn't and I have not read any posts that ask the 'what if...'
The question has not been asked because the answer has been stated already. If there is SCO code, then it will be cut out and replaced, as soon as SCO identifys the offending bits.
Right now SCO is saying, "You have something of mine in your house, but I am not going to tell you what or where it is, because then you might return it to me. Instead, I am going to charge you rent on the item, and if you don't pay I am going to go on TV and say you are a thief. Someday in the [relatively] distant future I will take you to court, but that might clear you, so I will delay as long as possible."
BTW reading the 2nd Amendment closely, you could argue that citizens should be allowed to have the SAME armament as a standing army (ie., sidewinders, daisy cutters, nukes).
IIRC, the Supreme Court held that to be case, but notably that decision happened before WWII and the advent of nukes. How this jives with the prohibition on automatic weapons, etc., I have no idea.
The method presented in the second article (only allowing one check out at a time) is what I thought Cringely meant when I read the first article.
I don't see why it shouldn't work, after all Apple is paving the way for electronic music distribution, as a store. Now we just have to implement the electronic library.
It could be as simple as time stamping an expiration time in the file. Of course you would need a plug-in for various players (winamp, etc) to "enforce" the time stamp. If you get two requests simultaneously one has to wait the three minutes until the first stamp has expired and then fire off the file to the next listener. If you get more than some set number of people in the queue, creating too long of a wait, the server could be set to place an order for another hard copy of the disk.
This would create the problem of winding up with 50 copies of the latest #1 chart hit, but in a few weeks, when the online demand has ebbed, you could resell the "used" disks to people who want to buy them at a lower price. (A good deal for the buyer as the "used" disk would probably still be in the wrapper!)
The biggest problem would probably be the necessity to keep detailed logs of what was distributed and when, so that when (not if!) you are dragged into court by the RIAA you could prove that you had purchased a physical disk for every concurrent user.
Your paragraph that begins "Now let's think of cyborgs..." reminds me of the main character in Anne McCaffrey's book "The Ship who Sang." Actually, more than just the main character, there are many characters in the series who are, in effect, more machine than human, yet human nonetheless.
For those who haven't read the book, it is junior-high-school level sci-fi, in which the main character is a toddler who, after nearly being killed in an accident, is identified as having high mental abilities and is "saved" by contracting her mind in exchange for a life supporting, robotic body and training through her youth.
As an adult, and still under contract for her training, she becomes the "brain" of an intellegent ship; effectively the ship becomes her "body". (The complex math, etc. that is necessary for hyperspace travel requires a trained human mind to manage.) Such "ships" however are kept in bondage by contract methods similar to what we hear about the RIAA and musicians of today; the cost of repairs and upkeep of her "body" are repaid by adding time to her "contract".
Back to the point, although all that remains of her organic-human self is encased in a small metal box, she is still a human individual and proves this repeatedly through the series of books.
Ok I wanted to provide a nice quotation but wasn't find it quickly, but...
IIRC, there is a statement that the states et al. cannot pass laws that contradict the US Constitution. Note the "prohibited by it to the States". So if the constitution gives the right to peaceably assemble, then a State/Local govt. cannot overrule that right.
Don't forget that given the extensions on copyright, there are extremely few examples of items which would apply under DMCA and yet have expired copyright (or ever will... thus Lessig's arguments in Eldred)
I hope when you say "parent troll" you were referring to the original "leave immediatly" comment, not my sand dunes comment.
For the record, I agree with you 100%. I live in SE Michigan, and just got back from spending a few days enjoying Lake Michigan at Hoffmaster State Park in Muskeegon, so that is what was on my mind.
I could name a quite a few other worthwhile stops. Macinac Island. Tahquamenon Falls. More lighthouses than the rest of the US combined. (more boats too, IIRC) Even things as simple as watching the ships go through the locks at Sault St. Marie can be quite a sight. Perhaps not one to travel half way around the globe for, but while one is in the area....
Believe me, I have traveled to most of the US, (I think I have only missed a few of the NE states, Vermont, Maine, etc.) and for enjoying natural resources, Michigan is probably only second to Alaska in many things.
On the other hand, the original query was for stereotypical "geek" vacation tips. So perhaps visiting the new Ford Rouge plant could be interesting. (haven't been myself yet, so I can't say for sure, but the news articles sound interesting.)
If you are leaving to the west, do stop and spend an afternoon on the sand dunes on Lake Michigan. Unique ecology, beautiful beaches, and over 20% of the worlds fresh water.
Admittedly, a beach is a beach is a beach, and someone from Australia (which has beaches!) probably wouldn't care other than the fresh water part.
Personally I would like to spend some time travelling around Australia....
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, the originator of the call pays for his end of the call, but in the case of a telemarketer that would be a very low "corporate bulk-rate" pricing for a normal land-line.
What you say is true in the strict sense. However, I am not sure that the conclusion you are drawing about old code not "tainting" new code is correct. Otherwise why would one need "cleanroom" implementataions of software?
If the code were covered under patent, even the cleanroom version would be in violation. Instead, under copyright, you need to be able to prove that the new code isn't "derived" from the earlier code. Knowlegde of the earlier code is said to "taint" the authorship of the second set of code.
Of course, we could re-write the offending bits, but perhaps SCO manages to get that info sealed. Or perhaps, even if re-written, SCO claims that the new code is tainted by knowledge of the now removed code.
I hope IBM goes for a full win, rather than an easy settle.
Yep, you are ALL partially correct, and I will therefore partially retract my statement.
I will admit that the stability is MUCH better on NT based systems (W2K, XP), but the machine I use the most, which is at work, is still Win98. That is where I have the occasional IE crashes that also freeze the whole machine.
I will grant that it might be something else in the background, like Novell, etc. causing the crash, but at the time it happens I was only activly using IE, so that is where I place the blame. (Also, IIRC, the blue screen text points the finger at IE as well.)
(E.A.R., Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt by the way.)
Microsoft probably would have liked to license the patent, but the owner of (privatly held) Eolas said he had no interest in licencing the patent to Microsoft.
I have read that he wanted to help the competing browsers, but if that were true I would think that he would have given them a licence. Since he hasn't (that I am aware of) it makes me question this "helpful" stance.
Oh well, time will tell. Eventually Microsoft will convince everyone that having to blindly click on an OK button for every Active X is a good thing. Given Microsoft's security record, perhaps it is......
IE does crash, it just takes the whole system down with it. Leaving one to place blame on anything or everything rather than just IE.
Perhaps they are afraid of further "publication" of SCO code? In that case perhaps they could simply say, "In module foo.c we found some duplicative lines. Note that they were NOT in lines 1-156 or 172-5000." (where the foo.c is assumed to contain 5000 lines)
In college, I knew a girl named Tru Love.
Under the new rules Wolfram will only "support" product as old as the previous MINOR revision. This would be fine with me except that "support" extends to the ability to pay for an upgrade (vs. just buying the package all over again). In order to keep up with the yearly minor version increment, you have to pay for "maintainence" at $500/yr. Then when they decide to do a major version number increment you have to pay for the upgrade for an additional $525.
I don't have a problem paying for the upgrade every few years, but paying for support/maintence, that I never will need to call in on, just to have the priveledge to upgrade is a little hurtful to someone who has been a customer for >10yrs.
And yes, this is my personal copy, used mostly for fun, and very occasionally for something work related.
When I was in school I had an HP28s (I think that was the number, it was the clamshell model). It was practically a requirement for some of my classes for all the reasons previously mentioned.
It broke... :(
Since I no longer require the matrix algebra, etc. I bought a HP32SII. The main reason was that it was the cheapest RPN calculator I could find.
If TI would sell an RPN calculator, I would probably buy it.
A link for more reading about The Tragedy of the Commons as a general phenomenon.
The autohiding menus frustrate me no end. Half the time I go to use a function, I wind up spending more time searching for it because the menus keep changing.
First, I have to "read" all the items on the menu, instead of having the position practically implemented in muscle memory.
Second, after quickly reading every item and not finding the one I am looking for, I either assume that didn't remember the correct dropdown menu for that function (and compound the error by looking elsewhere), or I have to *pause...* on the expansion arrows. When the menu finally expands about 3 seconds later, the process begins again, read every item, etc.
The hiding/unhiding process has therefore increased my time to pick a menu fuction from ~1 second to anywhere from 3 to 15 seconds, with a corresponding increase in frustration.
So if I read this correctly, if you want to extort somebody in California, you just have to make sure that the threat is one of being sued. That way your extortion threat is "in connection with litigation" and therefore "constitutionally-protected."
Absolutely amazing. I am glad I don't live in California. (Of course I am not sure that Michigan is any better, with the Super-DMCA laws here.)
One reason that I can see for running your own mailserver, even for a small number of legit emails, is that you have the opportunity to reject mail based on the envelope sender (blacklist), before the mail has even been delivered.
I would think that it would be better that the spammer recieved a "user not found" immediatly (as some bulk mailer software might remove bad addresses), rather than my ISP collecting the mail first (thereby confirming that the address exists).
Note, I don't know if this would really make much of a difference or not. Given the generally sleazy nature of spammers, and the way they resell to eachother, it may not matter.
Next thing you know, the Dept. of Homeland Sec. will issue a regulation requiring the use of Palladium or similar tech. on all computers. After all it is for our 'safety.'
The question has not been asked because the answer has been stated already. If there is SCO code, then it will be cut out and replaced, as soon as SCO identifys the offending bits.
Right now SCO is saying, "You have something of mine in your house, but I am not going to tell you what or where it is, because then you might return it to me. Instead, I am going to charge you rent on the item, and if you don't pay I am going to go on TV and say you are a thief. Someday in the [relatively] distant future I will take you to court, but that might clear you, so I will delay as long as possible."
IIRC, the Supreme Court held that to be case, but notably that decision happened before WWII and the advent of nukes. How this jives with the prohibition on automatic weapons, etc., I have no idea.
The method presented in the second article (only allowing one check out at a time) is what I thought Cringely meant when I read the first article.
I don't see why it shouldn't work, after all Apple is paving the way for electronic music distribution, as a store. Now we just have to implement the electronic library.
It could be as simple as time stamping an expiration time in the file. Of course you would need a plug-in for various players (winamp, etc) to "enforce" the time stamp. If you get two requests simultaneously one has to wait the three minutes until the first stamp has expired and then fire off the file to the next listener. If you get more than some set number of people in the queue, creating too long of a wait, the server could be set to place an order for another hard copy of the disk.
This would create the problem of winding up with 50 copies of the latest #1 chart hit, but in a few weeks, when the online demand has ebbed, you could resell the "used" disks to people who want to buy them at a lower price. (A good deal for the buyer as the "used" disk would probably still be in the wrapper!)
The biggest problem would probably be the necessity to keep detailed logs of what was distributed and when, so that when (not if!) you are dragged into court by the RIAA you could prove that you had purchased a physical disk for every concurrent user.
Your paragraph that begins "Now let's think of cyborgs..." reminds me of the main character in Anne McCaffrey's book "The Ship who Sang." Actually, more than just the main character, there are many characters in the series who are, in effect, more machine than human, yet human nonetheless.
For those who haven't read the book, it is junior-high-school level sci-fi, in which the main character is a toddler who, after nearly being killed in an accident, is identified as having high mental abilities and is "saved" by contracting her mind in exchange for a life supporting, robotic body and training through her youth.
As an adult, and still under contract for her training, she becomes the "brain" of an intellegent ship; effectively the ship becomes her "body". (The complex math, etc. that is necessary for hyperspace travel requires a trained human mind to manage.) Such "ships" however are kept in bondage by contract methods similar to what we hear about the RIAA and musicians of today; the cost of repairs and upkeep of her "body" are repaid by adding time to her "contract".
Back to the point, although all that remains of her organic-human self is encased in a small metal box, she is still a human individual and proves this repeatedly through the series of books.
Ok I wanted to provide a nice quotation but wasn't find it quickly, but...
IIRC, there is a statement that the states et al. cannot pass laws that contradict the US Constitution. Note the "prohibited by it to the States". So if the constitution gives the right to peaceably assemble, then a State/Local govt. cannot overrule that right.
Don't forget that given the extensions on copyright, there are extremely few examples of items which would apply under DMCA and yet have expired copyright (or ever will... thus Lessig's arguments in Eldred)
For the record, I agree with you 100%. I live in SE Michigan, and just got back from spending a few days enjoying Lake Michigan at Hoffmaster State Park in Muskeegon, so that is what was on my mind.
I could name a quite a few other worthwhile stops.
Macinac Island.
Tahquamenon Falls.
More lighthouses than the rest of the US combined. (more boats too, IIRC)
Even things as simple as watching the ships go through the locks at Sault St. Marie can be quite a sight. Perhaps not one to travel half way around the globe for, but while one is in the area....
Believe me, I have traveled to most of the US, (I think I have only missed a few of the NE states, Vermont, Maine, etc.) and for enjoying natural resources, Michigan is probably only second to Alaska in many things.
On the other hand, the original query was for stereotypical "geek" vacation tips. So perhaps visiting the new Ford Rouge plant could be interesting. (haven't been myself yet, so I can't say for sure, but the news articles sound interesting.)
[sarcasm]
Well then, by all means this patent should be made undisclosed. This is the security of our nations music for God's sake!
[/sarcasm]
Seriously... it's not just a hole in the ground.
Take a raft trip.
If you are leaving to the west, do stop and spend an afternoon on the sand dunes on Lake Michigan. Unique ecology, beautiful beaches, and over 20% of the worlds fresh water.
Admittedly, a beach is a beach is a beach, and someone from Australia (which has beaches!) probably wouldn't care other than the fresh water part.
Personally I would like to spend some time travelling around Australia....