I have copyrighted, patented, and trademarked the words 'copyright', 'patent', and 'trademark' and all derivatives thereof. Any future Slashdot stories which refer to these topics in any way must be preapproved and pay the appropriate licensing fees. Contact my lawyers at Dewey, Cheatam, and Howe for licensing information. You have been warned.
Finally, a reason for AMERICAN citizens to bash ANOTHER COUNTRY for corrupt, draconian liberty-bashing moves against its own citizens in favor of the antiquated business models of the motion picture and recording industries! THANK YOU, SWEDEN for making me feel slightly less embarrassed about being an American, if just for a little while.
Hear that knocking? It's the Thought Police at your door. You'd better be ready with $100,000 in the bank to pay lawyers to help you defend every statement you've ever made, anywhere, anytime in your life. It doesn't matter if you're guilty or not. They'll come after you anyway, and it's going to cost years of your life and more money than you have to defend yourself against their allegations. Remember McCarthy? He's baaaack! BTW, everything I've ever said, in print, in daily speech, or on the Web, has been a 'parody' or 'satire' of some kind. I didn't really mean it. Honest. I love Big Brother.
Maybe we need to tell the MPAA and RIAA that Osama is a huge pirate of first-run copyrighted works, and then they'll get their friends in international law enforcement to find him and shut him down. This is brilliant. Whay hasn't anyone thought of it before?:)
I was just THINKING about building a boxen with an AMD processor in it, and the doorbell rang. It was three guys in black suits and dark sunglasses. They told me they were from Intel, and they tied me up, beat me with a rubber hose, ate all my pretzels, drank all my beer, and shot my dog. They said they'd kill me if I didn't buy Intel. Believe me, after that, I built my boxen using an Intel processor! And I started wearing a tinfoil hat, too.
Maybe 'Economics 101' boils down to: (1) Look for ways to reduce costs (2) Move jobs overseas to exploit cheap 3rd-world labor (3) Profit!
but 'Economics 102' adds: (1) Cheap 3rd-world workers spend new pay on basics like decent food, shelter, and medical care, thus greatly improving their lives, but have nothing left over to purchase still relatively expensive luxury goods and services provided by their American or European employer (2) Unemployed or now-underemployed former American or European employees now can't afford expensive luxury goods and services provided by former employer, either (3) Profits evaporate as sales plummet
Henry Ford understood this basic economic principle, and made sure his employees could afford to purchase the Model T's they built.
'Econ 103' goes on to explain how companies that move their labor and infrastructure costs overseas still get to deduct those expenses when it comes time to pay their US taxes, but none of that money stays here to generate income tax, sales tax, and other tax revenue, so government services must shrink. And every dollar moved offshore also costs many, many more dollars lost in other goods and services that lost employees can no longer purchase, resulting in additional jobs and tax revenues lost, etc.
Theft is depriving someone of profit or the ownership of property. If you download something you (a) want to try before you commit to buying it or (b) would never buy anyway but just want to take a look at, then you have not deprived anyone of profit. And downloading a copy of something doesn't deprive anyone of ownership. So it cannot be defined as theft. I've seen this since the dawn of personal computers, when Commodore 64 owners would accumulate boxes full of floppies of cracked C64 games that they had never even booted up, just to be able to say they had them. These kids couldn't afford to buy all of those games, anyway. No one lost any money. Occasionally, someone who would maybe have bought the game would get a copy for free, and that could definitely be construed as 'loss of profit', but as long as no one charged for the copy nobody else profited from the transaction, so the point could be argued. I agree that anyone who sells an illegal copy of commercial software is guilty of theft. But if there is no profit or property lost, how can it possibly be construed as theft? The problem is that our laws have not caught up with our technology, and the business models of content providers have not been modified to reflect reality. If movie studios, record companies, et. al., would aggressively pursue counterfeiters who actually profit from their activities, and leave casual copiers alone, I think they would be amazed at how much support they would garner from making consumers their allies instead of their enemies.
Let me guess... Microsoft Exchange mail servers will provide this ID. Others will be prevented from doing so by Microsoft trademarks, copyrights, and patents.:)
Techie, but lots of areas
on
Makers of MAKE
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I've written two articles for MAKE so far, one on hacking the C64 DTV game joystick, and one on setting up a dual-boot XP/Linux system using an installable single-CD Linux distro. So both of my articles have been 'standard' techie stuff. But there have been articles on a guy who set up a monorail in his backyard, a guy who modded his SUV to look like an 'official' vehicle so he could park anywhere, and other fun and semi-dangerous stuff. So it's covering a lot of ground.
As a former computer magazine editor myself, I kind of wondered about the viability of a dead-tree magazine for hackers in the age of the URL myself, especially one that costs fifteen bucks an issue. But MAKE has been very well-received, and they're supporting it with an active daily blog. I've enjoyed both issues so far, and am eagerly anticipating the next. It probably helps that it's from the O'Reilly book people, who really grok hackers, since they come from the same gene pool. Plus their production values are incredible. Full color on every page, high-quality paper, etc. Copies of MAKE will be around at least as long as those old National Geographics in your grandfather's attic.
Why not grow mushrooms on Mars? They're a great meat substitute. And they'd make great stools for the giant hookah-smoking caterpillars that live there!
Molly is an amazing writer, and she really knows web design. When I got busy and couldn't update my book "Special Edition: Using HTML 4", Molly took it over and reworked it from the ground up into a much better book. And she's not only a great web designer and writer, she's a fantastic human being. Check out her site at http://www.molly.com/
In this classic (cough!) film the nerd 'hero' sleeps with the cheerleader heroine (he is in disguise as 'Darth Vader'), satisfying her mightily. She then discovers his identity, and asks how he can be such a fantastic lover, and he reveals the secret: "We nerds never have girlfriends, so all we do is think about sex." After all, it has been proven by science (scientists are nerds, remember) that the brain is the most important sexual organ. It has also recently been proven (again, by nerd scientists who sit at their computers all day) that just THINKING about exercising is almost as effective at increasing strength as actually exercising. Therefore, it makes sense that just thinking about sex must make you better at it.
This invention has come along just in time. I was at the practical limits of being able to move my fat ass around by the meager power of my wimpy atrophied geek muscles alone. Now I can quit worrying about gaining more weight! Time to sit back down at my computer and order another delicious cheesy pizza!
I still fondly remember my old Commodore Amiga, running Mac OS, Windows, AmigaDOS, and UNIX simultaneously on separate pull-down screens. You could share files and even cut-and-paste between OS's. *sigh*
I see this move as a potential ADVANTAGE to Linux. One of the major problems with Linux is its mishmash of drivers. Apple computers will have a known set of hardware. Therefore shouldn't it be relatively easy to create a Linux distribution targeted to Apple hardware? (I know OS/X is based on UNIX, but dual-boot systems are cool.)
And when (notice I didn't say 'if') Windows is ported to Apple x86 machines, you could TRIPLE-boot them to OS/X, Linux, and Windows. And who wouldn't want that?
In fact, I seriously suspect this is what Jobs has in mind. He might even be working in collusion with Gates on this. Jobs sells Apple x86 boxen with OS/X on them, Gates follows behind and sells a version of WinXP that runs on the Apple boxes, hackers port Linux and cry *woot!*, and Jobs and Gates both make gobs of money. Makes sense to me.
It wouldn't surprise me if Apple boxes (especially laptops) outsell HP, IBM, and Dell combined by 2007.
Of course, once I said something about this on Slashdot, I got thinking how long it had been since I checked. So I went up and looked and, sure enough, classmates.com has since removed my wife's listing. So my apologies to classmates.com. Still, it took them one heck of a long time to get it done...
I've been trying for a year to get classmates.com to remove the listing for my wife, who died. It's seriously disturbing to go up there and see her still listed. So I don't go anymore.
The issues of who owns accounts, how they are handled when someone dies, and whether a host is responsible for verifying information in a public listing, have simply not yet been addressed, even though the web is 13 years old.
*sigh* You just don't get it... The Jedi always use their MIND CONTROL abilities to MAKE the Storm Troopers miss (except when they WANT them to fire an accurate blast so it can be deflected back). Remember, Obi-Wan said in Episode IV that all Storm Troopers have weak minds and are easily controlled. BTW, this is one of the first abilities Jedi learn, so it's done automatically at a subconscious level whenever they sense a Storm Trooper reaching for his blaster. See, anything can be explained with enough BS.
You don't need to rub libstick on a herring. Just feed it the lipstick. Lipstick already has herring in it. They put herring fish scales in lipstick to give it sparkle. So every time you kiss your girlfriend, you're essentially kissing a fish.
Cecil B. DeMille (The Ten Commandments, etc.) had the same problem as Lucas. Huge, powerful, sweeping scenes with gigantic sets, thousands of extras in cool costumes, and Oscar-winning special effects? Fantastic. Two proven and otherwise great actors trying to emote at each other? Puke-inducing. I don't know why, but the ability to create a movie with both seems to be a very rare talent.
Why not go to a billion, or six billion, or even 42 billion? I don't think they should be happy until every man, woman, and child on earth is running seven copies of Firefox, whether or not they own a computer!
Slashdot Mirror
The article goes on: "Criminals are said to be stocking up on pliers and practicing their nail-pulling skills."
I have copyrighted, patented, and trademarked the words 'copyright', 'patent', and 'trademark' and all derivatives thereof. Any future Slashdot stories which refer to these topics in any way must be preapproved and pay the appropriate licensing fees. Contact my lawyers at Dewey, Cheatam, and Howe for licensing information.
You have been warned.
Finally, a reason for AMERICAN citizens to bash ANOTHER COUNTRY for corrupt, draconian liberty-bashing moves against its own citizens in favor of the antiquated business models of the motion picture and recording industries!
THANK YOU, SWEDEN for making me feel slightly less embarrassed about being an American, if just for a little while.
Hear that knocking? It's the Thought Police at your door. You'd better be ready with $100,000 in the bank to pay lawyers to help you defend every statement you've ever made, anywhere, anytime in your life. It doesn't matter if you're guilty or not. They'll come after you anyway, and it's going to cost years of your life and more money than you have to defend yourself against their allegations. Remember McCarthy? He's baaaack!
BTW, everything I've ever said, in print, in daily speech, or on the Web, has been a 'parody' or 'satire' of some kind. I didn't really mean it. Honest. I love Big Brother.
Maybe we need to tell the MPAA and RIAA that Osama is a huge pirate of first-run copyrighted works, and then they'll get their friends in international law enforcement to find him and shut him down. :)
This is brilliant. Whay hasn't anyone thought of it before?
(1) Put link to own server on Slashdot.
(2) Server instantly is slashdotted and goes up in flames.
(3) ????
(4) Profit!
I was just THINKING about building a boxen with an AMD processor in it, and the doorbell rang. It was three guys in black suits and dark sunglasses. They told me they were from Intel, and they tied me up, beat me with a rubber hose, ate all my pretzels, drank all my beer, and shot my dog. They said they'd kill me if I didn't buy Intel. Believe me, after that, I built my boxen using an Intel processor! And I started wearing a tinfoil hat, too.
Maybe 'Economics 101' boils down to:
(1) Look for ways to reduce costs
(2) Move jobs overseas to exploit cheap 3rd-world labor
(3) Profit!
but 'Economics 102' adds:
(1) Cheap 3rd-world workers spend new pay on basics like decent food, shelter, and medical care, thus greatly improving their lives, but have nothing left over to purchase still relatively expensive luxury goods and services provided by their American or European employer
(2) Unemployed or now-underemployed former American or European employees now can't afford expensive luxury goods and services provided by former employer, either
(3) Profits evaporate as sales plummet
Henry Ford understood this basic economic principle, and made sure his employees could afford to purchase the Model T's they built.
'Econ 103' goes on to explain how companies that move their labor and infrastructure costs overseas still get to deduct those expenses when it comes time to pay their US taxes, but none of that money stays here to generate income tax, sales tax, and other tax revenue, so government services must shrink. And every dollar moved offshore also costs many, many more dollars lost in other goods and services that lost employees can no longer purchase, resulting in additional jobs and tax revenues lost, etc.
It's never as simple as it first seems.
Theft is depriving someone of profit or the ownership of property.
If you download something you (a) want to try before you commit to buying it or (b) would never buy anyway but just want to take a look at, then you have not deprived anyone of profit. And downloading a copy of something doesn't deprive anyone of ownership. So it cannot be defined as theft.
I've seen this since the dawn of personal computers, when Commodore 64 owners would accumulate boxes full of floppies of cracked C64 games that they had never even booted up, just to be able to say they had them. These kids couldn't afford to buy all of those games, anyway. No one lost any money. Occasionally, someone who would maybe have bought the game would get a copy for free, and that could definitely be construed as 'loss of profit', but as long as no one charged for the copy nobody else profited from the transaction, so the point could be argued.
I agree that anyone who sells an illegal copy of commercial software is guilty of theft. But if there is no profit or property lost, how can it possibly be construed as theft?
The problem is that our laws have not caught up with our technology, and the business models of content providers have not been modified to reflect reality. If movie studios, record companies, et. al., would aggressively pursue counterfeiters who actually profit from their activities, and leave casual copiers alone, I think they would be amazed at how much support they would garner from making consumers their allies instead of their enemies.
Let me guess... :)
Microsoft Exchange mail servers will provide this ID. Others will be prevented from doing so by Microsoft trademarks, copyrights, and patents.
As a former computer magazine editor myself, I kind of wondered about the viability of a dead-tree magazine for hackers in the age of the URL myself, especially one that costs fifteen bucks an issue. But MAKE has been very well-received, and they're supporting it with an active daily blog. I've enjoyed both issues so far, and am eagerly anticipating the next. It probably helps that it's from the O'Reilly book people, who really grok hackers, since they come from the same gene pool. Plus their production values are incredible. Full color on every page, high-quality paper, etc. Copies of MAKE will be around at least as long as those old National Geographics in your grandfather's attic.
Why not grow mushrooms on Mars? They're a great meat substitute. And they'd make great stools for the giant hookah-smoking caterpillars that live there!
Molly is an amazing writer, and she really knows web design. When I got busy and couldn't update my book "Special Edition: Using HTML 4", Molly took it over and reworked it from the ground up into a much better book. And she's not only a great web designer and writer, she's a fantastic human being. Check out her site at http://www.molly.com/
In this classic (cough!) film the nerd 'hero' sleeps with the cheerleader heroine (he is in disguise as 'Darth Vader'), satisfying her mightily. She then discovers his identity, and asks how he can be such a fantastic lover, and he reveals the secret: "We nerds never have girlfriends, so all we do is think about sex." After all, it has been proven by science (scientists are nerds, remember) that the brain is the most important sexual organ. It has also recently been proven (again, by nerd scientists who sit at their computers all day) that just THINKING about exercising is almost as effective at increasing strength as actually exercising. Therefore, it makes sense that just thinking about sex must make you better at it.
This invention has come along just in time. I was at the practical limits of being able to move my fat ass around by the meager power of my wimpy atrophied geek muscles alone. Now I can quit worrying about gaining more weight! Time to sit back down at my computer and order another delicious cheesy pizza!
I still fondly remember my old Commodore Amiga, running Mac OS, Windows, AmigaDOS, and UNIX simultaneously on separate pull-down screens. You could share files and even cut-and-paste between OS's. *sigh*
And when (notice I didn't say 'if') Windows is ported to Apple x86 machines, you could TRIPLE-boot them to OS/X, Linux, and Windows. And who wouldn't want that?
In fact, I seriously suspect this is what Jobs has in mind. He might even be working in collusion with Gates on this. Jobs sells Apple x86 boxen with OS/X on them, Gates follows behind and sells a version of WinXP that runs on the Apple boxes, hackers port Linux and cry *woot!*, and Jobs and Gates both make gobs of money. Makes sense to me.
It wouldn't surprise me if Apple boxes (especially laptops) outsell HP, IBM, and Dell combined by 2007.
Of course, once I said something about this on Slashdot, I got thinking how long it had been since I checked. So I went up and looked and, sure enough, classmates.com has since removed my wife's listing. So my apologies to classmates.com. Still, it took them one heck of a long time to get it done...
The issues of who owns accounts, how they are handled when someone dies, and whether a host is responsible for verifying information in a public listing, have simply not yet been addressed, even though the web is 13 years old.
You can actually carve a flying pig into sizzling sausage patties as it zooms by, just by using a light sabre and the Force. Mighty fine eatin'! Yum!
*sigh* You just don't get it...
The Jedi always use their MIND CONTROL abilities to MAKE the Storm Troopers miss (except when they WANT them to fire an accurate blast so it can be deflected back). Remember, Obi-Wan said in Episode IV that all Storm Troopers have weak minds and are easily controlled. BTW, this is one of the first abilities Jedi learn, so it's done automatically at a subconscious level whenever they sense a Storm Trooper reaching for his blaster.
See, anything can be explained with enough BS.
You don't need to rub libstick on a herring. Just feed it the lipstick. Lipstick already has herring in it. They put herring fish scales in lipstick to give it sparkle.
So every time you kiss your girlfriend, you're essentially kissing a fish.
Cecil B. DeMille (The Ten Commandments, etc.) had the same problem as Lucas. Huge, powerful, sweeping scenes with gigantic sets, thousands of extras in cool costumes, and Oscar-winning special effects? Fantastic. Two proven and otherwise great actors trying to emote at each other? Puke-inducing. I don't know why, but the ability to create a movie with both seems to be a very rare talent.
Why not go to a billion, or six billion, or even 42 billion?
I don't think they should be happy until every man, woman, and child on earth is running seven copies of Firefox, whether or not they own a computer!
Ghostbusting!!!
Dr. Peter Venkman: "Why worry? Each one of us is carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator on his back."