You are correct; without substantial resources, it is extremely difficult to successfully enforce your intellectual property rights against a major software company.
Of course, this highlights the importance of membership in the EFF. The more dosh they have, the more lawyers they can buy to help people like
Avery.
I'd worry more about actual Fire
on
Hardwoodware
·
· Score: 1
Of course the case itself is not going to have problems since spontaneous combustion point for most hardwoods is around 370 deg F, if I remember correctly.
HOWEVER...
He's using a 'Satin Finish' polyurethane varnish. I beleive this stuff is pretty flamabile. Combined with any sawdust or woodchips that manages to make its way to hot surfaces of his video card or processor heastring, could cause some flamability problems.
Also, the polyurethane is much more likely to build up a static chage than an aluminum case. I could be looking at the pictures wrong, but it doesn't look like he has his mobo grounded to the powersupply either, something that happens automatically in metal cases. I could be mistaken.
When you consider safety, cost and effort, I don't think there's much reason to build a wood case, unless you're going for the look of the thing.
I think that a lot of the people who visit your page think that you are a bit of a loony and a lot of a profiteer. While I like the fact that you offer 'free' rings in exchange for a donation to certain charities, I can't help but feel that you are probably not using the best of peer-reviewed science to back up your ideas.
Despite this, I bet you feel that what you're doing is pretty important.
Tell us then, Why do you think no medical experts come forth to do studies on your devices or reccomend their use?
For some this will be a vindication of your ideas. For others it will be a glimpse into one of the minds that makes the web as truly a strange and wonderful place that it is.
While I beleive your references are sound, I don't think your conclusions about the inevitable outcome of the fight are.
First of all, those who are currently 'beat down', Napster, Scour, MP3.com, etc... were stupid. They were trying to make money off of an already existing artificially scarce resource.
What the 'Second Generation' P2P models all strive for is freedom of information duplication and transmission, even over control. Take Gnutella, for example. Everyone in my office used Napster, once upon a time. Those that were too lazy to setup Napigator once Napster started filtering now use Bearshare, which uses Gnutella protocol. I'm using it right now. Gnutella use is skyrocketing, according to the Salon Article, and I beleive it.
The *only* way for the record industry to get rid of Gnutella is to somehow make it illegal, as the MPAA has tried to do with DeCSS with very little success.
Layer all the other 'free' P2P clients such as Freenet and CDC's new project on top of that. It can't be stopped.
Look at Usenet. Gigabytes and gigabytes of the most illegal information ever in the form of Warez, pirate MP3's, porn, bomb-making instructions, etc... pass through the alt hierarchy on a daily basis. Newsfeeds has a NNTP servers dedicated to both MP3 downloads and Warez downloads, yet you don't see anyone trying to shut them down.
The 'publishers', the RIAA, the MPAA, and all the existing book publishers are fighting a rear-guard retreat. Sure, they have more money, more influence, and can crush any one person into fine paste, but what they don't realize is that they're not fighting individuals or even other companies. They're fighting progress.
The Roman Empire tried to do it. Look where they are now. The Catholic Church tried to do it, and even succeeded for many centuries, but were eventually beaten down by the invention of the printing press. The nation-states of Europe tried to do it, when they colonized the rest of the world. Now the information industries of America are trying to do it.
Just like their predecessors, they *will* fail. You can't fight time.
First, I'm dissapointed that this technology didn't originate in the United States. It's a sad thing, proof of the fact that government controls on crypto have inhibited U.S. companies from developing strong, easy crypto solutions.
'Push of a button'. Gawd, I'd love to see that same button installed by default on M.S. Outlook, or Netscape Mail without a complex PGP install beforehand.
This said, however, I would like to praise those who continue to break down the walls of encryption FUD that the United States government law enforcement has pushed onto the American peopole, even if they work from outside. The American government strongly opposes encryption of all kinds in the hands of Americans or non-Americans because of the possibility that it will be used by terrorists and criminals. This *proves* to both USians and the rest of the world that this is not the case. There is a valid market for crypto.
Like an overprotective mother hen, the FBI, DOJ, and NSA have been working to keep americans safe inside of a non-crypto egg. We can't break out, as long as they have so many claws in both the legal process and communications industries. Usually eggs are good at keeping outside influcences out, but I strongly beleive that efforts like this from Germany (and the rest of the world) will be the beginning of a crypto hailstorm the likes of which will at once confound and terrify the ill-prepared USLE agencies and liberate Americans from the oppression created by a simple lack of privacy.
Now let's support these guys and let them know how much we want these phones in the U.S.. At about $2.6k, they'll cost as much as a top of the line workstation, but as the userbase grows, you can bet the price will shrink.
I agree. It's one thing for martian material to be blasted into space where it orbits for millions, perhaps billions of years before it impacts in Antarctica. This is direct from Mars to Washington D.C. without all those bothersome millenia of celestial mechanics in the way.
So the solution is apparent: The telcos should donate the existing fiber to the landowners and lay new fiber in a surface conduit. Which I think they should make nice and big and paint fluorescent lime green with orange polka dots:P
Hmmm... In the year 2080, an elementary school class is taking a field trip in a shuttle-bus powered by corn oil:
Teacher: Okay, students. If you'll look out the left window, you'll see the length of the 'FiberTrain'. It's that lime-green thing with the orange dots all over it.
Student: My sister's hair looks like that!
Teacher: It used to be a track for a horrible device that we now refer to as 'Environmentally Incorrect'. Back in the twentieth century, people referred to them as 'locomotives' or 'steam engines'.
Student: They were used to transport homeless people across the country, right?
Teacher: That's right, Billy! Now what are they used for?
Student: They transmit data feeds to homeless people?
Teacher: Billy gets a star! After the corporate wars of the 2030's, anyone who had property that conflicted with existing intellectual ownership had to forfeit the property. Luckily something like that could never happen today in the good ol' United States of America Online-Time-Warner-Ford-Sony-Gates Co.
Of course I want my medical records available to doctors if I collapse. But that problem is solved quite simply with a medic alert bracelet. Lots of people use them. Lots of people CHOOSE to use them.
I agree totally. There's no reason to build databases for 'society's good', which looks like Scott wants to do. It's always better to allow individuals to control their personal information in the style of 'medic alert' bracelets.
I have a wide array of allergies, some of them life-threatening and quite a few that require emergency medical treatment. (Adrenaline shots, anyone? I hate it when my throat closes up.) I would really rather *not* my insurance company to accidentally stumble across that information, because you can be sure my rates would silently start to rise if they did. In the event I pass out on the street and start turning blue, I *do* want that information in the hands of the paramedics on the scene and the doctors in the ER. They don't even have to wait for a database query. They can just pull the bracelet off my arm.
That Corporations, and therefore all companies have 'legal rights' in much the same way a living breathing person does. A corportation can declare bankruptcy, regardless of the fact that it's CEO and board took the money and ran. A coporation can also earn income and pay taxes (when it doesn't find a way to wriggle out of them via all the business-targeted loopholes in the tax code.)
The real crime here is that while a corporation or a company is realy a posession even if it is owned by hundreds or thousands of people, it serves as a protective sheild for real criminal behavior.
It is said that a society grows more corrupt the more laws it has. Well, rather than imposing new laws that punish a corporation or its members for wrongdoing, I propose instead removing laws and tax code that grant corporations 'person status'. Remove the laws and tax code that allow a corporation to profit instead of its owners. Remove everything that grants rights to a corporation, and I think you'll start to see a little better accountability.
It's certainly a lot more like 'Pyraminds' than any of the other Pratchet books, both in plot, tone, and style. You remember that Djelibebe (sp?)spent the last third of Pyramids in 'folded' space in between Tsort and Ephebe? A lot of 'Theif' takes place after the Glass Clock starts ticking.
How many licks does it take...
on
Launchcast Sued
·
· Score: 2
How many lawsuits does the RIAA have to be engaged in before it's members start pulling out due to the extreme cost?
How expensive is/was the Napster litigation? If I'm any judge, I'm guessing that the RIAA isn't going to see a dime, even if they obliterate Sean and Co. with BFG 10k's. How expensive will the Aimster legislation be? How many ISP's will they have to sue for carrying the 'alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.*' hierarchy?
Now, the RIAA is very, very rich, but you still can't put out a volcano with a few firetrucks, if you get my drift. I know those 'wookie-defense' RIAA laywers don't work for free, and the people they're suing, at least in Aimster's case I think, are more likely to file Ch11 or Ch13 before they pay legal fees and court costs.
Of course, the answer to the to problem, at least from the RIAA's end, is to start buying legislation on wholesale, just like the oil industry is doing. Maybe we'll get to see Hillary Rosen run for Prez in 2004?
Best Pratchett's put out in a while...
on
Thief of Time
·
· Score: 3
...In my opinion at least. While the emphasis is still on parody and satire, 'Theif' harkens back to some of the earlier pratchet books, 'Light Fantastic' and 'Pyramids' in particular, in that it doesn't focus on the parody as much as the story and characterization. Compare this to 'Soul Music' and 'Hogfather', which were mostly parody, with a little bit of plot thrown in.
The characters, while many of them appeared in previous books, are all quite nicely fleshed out in this one. Susan was flat in 'Soul Music' and at best a cardboard cutout in 'Hogfather', but she really takes on quite a bit of depth in this one. Other characters, most notably Lady LeJean, are entertaining to read and are not jokey as much as they are dynamic. Lu Tze is a little over the top and Jeffery and Lobsang didn't nearly get the time they deserved, however.
This is probably because Pratchet has a bad habit of not giving equal dialogue or internal monologue to some of his characters. For example, Sam Vimes internal monologue will comprise a good fifth of any given watch book, and Angua will get quite a bit too. Carrot Ironfoundersson's internal monologue, like Lobsang and Jeffery's is never indicated, and their thoughts are *only* shown by their actions and dialogue. This would be okay if Pratchett did this consistently with all or just one of his characters.
All in all, 'Theif' is probably the best book Pratchet has written since 'Small Gods'. I would reccomend it for new and experienced Pratchett readers.
I think many geeks, myself included, have been looking for quality MP3 players for our home audio shrin^H^H^H^H^Hsytems for quite some time. All the big audio producers have been so far unwilling to produce such a thing because of the current IP-rights clusterfuck going on between RIAA and the computer industry. While the technology is available and in demand, you can be sure as hell that Sony sure won't produce an MP3 stereo compononent.
This new development is letting the genie out of the bottle, so to speak, even if it is vapour. It lets the people who would otherwise hold off on such a product in favor of handhelds and portables realize that they're about to lose out on a new market. Who's going to be next to make a MP3 component? Diamond? The folks who brought you TIVO?
Sony may never come out with an MP3 component for your stereo system, but you can sure as hell bet that once a demand is evident, it will be met one way or the other.
Re:web filtering is good for children and america
on
Congress@Work
·
· Score: 1
Okay, I'll bite.
Hmm... This should either have a +1 (Funny) or a -1(Troll) tag. I can't decide which, but the line about 'bodily fluids' makes me lean towards (Funny)
Biotech Hobbyist Kits?!?
on
The DNA Bomb
·
· Score: 2
"Others argue the Earth's crisis is severe enough that they'll battle corporate America by any means necessary. "Ethics, schmethics," writes New York-based techno-artist and researcher Natalie Jeremijenko, who develops biotech hobbyist kits and supports Bunting's efforts with Irational.org. "There is not an 'ethics' that is separate from the motivation for doing something in the first place and the accountability or responsibility one feels for it. "
Biotech Hobbyist Kits?!! WTF?! How do you cram all the necessary tools, viral samples, cultures, microscopes, etc... into a KIT?
Boy, I sure hope those don't fall into the hands of the local Aryan Nation/Nation of Islam chapter. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In this case, I think it would be the *most* dangerous thing...
For.biz, Businesses will have to supply proof of their type of business, and no, this does not mean a business card. More like official representation like tax forms, licenses, etc...
I was also going to suggest that this sounds like a case where Class Action Suit would be appropriate. UGO is defrauding a *lot* of people. Now, in the case of a class action, you probably won't get a lot of your money back, but I think you also don't get bent over for legal fees if you are a participant.
Eudora - Adware, Freeware, or Payware
on
RFC for Spammers
·
· Score: 2
If you're using Outlook, you're probably also using Win32, or possibly MacOS, in which cases you can use Eudora, which offers better boolean filtering than it's Microsoft equivalent. What you don't get in Eudora is visual basic support, which neatly fubars the majority of VBS-script mail *assuming* you don't use Eudora's built in option to use IE as the message editor. It's also a good idea to get rid of WSH. You also don't get all those schedulers or public folders crap that PHB's like. AFAIK, all three version of Eudora include the complete filtering options.
While I think it's good that someone is trying to compete with Microsoft, I'm a little concerned about how easily two of the largest corporate behemoths on the planet have formed a partnership.
Does anyone else think that this could be overtones to a possible merger? And does it scare the hell out of anyone that if it does?
Of course, it begs the following speculation: If prime numbered trek series are good, and divisible treks are bad...
Trek 7: 'The Spacefight Club' - This series will be composed almost entirely of starship dogfights in space, with some minor plot thrown in to appease the critics. Alien hottie flesh will be in abudance.
Trek 9: 'What Starship Captains Want' - Female and 'sensitive' male starfleet officers will particpate in a romantic comedy set entirely inside Starfleet headquarters. There will occasionally be futuristic matte paintings in the background depicting a futuristic earth, but there won't be any action or fight scenes.
Trek 13: 'Starfleet Tactics' - Series written by Tom Clancy. This one will be a little more 'intellectual' than previous Treks, but will focus on political machinations, espionage, technical and scientific detail, and large-scale starship battles. Action will not be plentiful, but it will be frequent, and well written. Critics will hail it as a 'sleeper hit'.
Treks 14-16: Will nearly bankrupt Paramount due to the casting of David Spade, Tom Green, and Britney Spears as starship captains.
Trek 17: Will be filmed using a combination of live action, full-scale starship models that really explode, and state-of-the-art quantum computer-based animation. The series will depict a life-or-death struggle in space and on Earth for the future of humanity, with generous dashes of action, sex, comedy, and gratuitous explosions. Due to the damages incurred wiping out the City of San-Francisco with a neutron explosion for the grand finale of the series, Paramount will go bankrupt.
With Kevin Sorbo, you say? Being that I watch so little TV anymore, I've missed this one. I assume it's from the same writing and production staff that brought us 'Hercules' and 'Xena'?
While Sorbo's plastic smile and perfectly toned pectorals tend to make my stomach turn, I'll check it out.
Okay... Give me a second to put all thoughts of 'Quantum Leap' and 'Unecessary Roughness' out of my head. Now I'm putting all thoughts of 'Voyager' out of my head. Okay...
Okay...
Bakula is a good TV actor, one that I'm afraid will never really manage the leap to the silver screen because he keeps taking CRAP roles. This could be a very good move for him. That said, from what I've heard, this has the potential to be tons better than Voyager.
What would be really cool would be if Paramount got their heads out of their asses and realized that they were writing science fiction rather than political commentary.
Yeah, there is room for the former in the latter, but I'd *really* like to see a non-PC Trek universe when the Prime Directive was more of a guideline, female starship personell all wore skirts that showed their asses, and starship captains weren't afraid to throw down and open up the occasional can of phaser-powered whupass.
I want to see racism. I want to see sexism. I want to see the captain of the show bag all the cute alien hotties. I want facepaint rather than creative nose ridges.
And... like a previous poster put it, I want explosions. Lots of explosions. This is supposed to be the Star Trek equivalent of the old west, so lets get some kick-ass space dogfights going on.
This is a brilliant (dumbshit) move on Gracenote's part. Why, with all the attention they've paid to fairness and equitable behavior in the past (screwing CDDB users), you can be sure that this is a case of Gracenote spending time trying to uphold a piece of legislation that is necessary and supports freedom, equality, and ethical behavior (for Nazis).
I hope that the judge looks long and hard at the DMCA to see how it supports Gracenote's claims(unconstitutional), and tells Roxio what they can go do with themselves (Win a big fat cash settlement for legal fees) when he announces his decision at the outcome of the trial (Gracenote is a bunch of theiving pricks).
Need to start getting out the public word to counter Microsoft's 'education' tactics, smearing GPL and Open Source in favor of their 'Shared Source' FUD.
Slashdot Mirror
You are correct; without substantial resources, it is extremely difficult to successfully enforce your intellectual property rights against a major software company.
Of course, this highlights the importance of membership in the EFF. The more dosh they have, the more lawyers they can buy to help people like Avery.
Of course the case itself is not going to have problems since spontaneous combustion point for most hardwoods is around 370 deg F, if I remember correctly. HOWEVER... He's using a 'Satin Finish' polyurethane varnish. I beleive this stuff is pretty flamabile. Combined with any sawdust or woodchips that manages to make its way to hot surfaces of his video card or processor heastring, could cause some flamability problems. Also, the polyurethane is much more likely to build up a static chage than an aluminum case. I could be looking at the pictures wrong, but it doesn't look like he has his mobo grounded to the powersupply either, something that happens automatically in metal cases. I could be mistaken. When you consider safety, cost and effort, I don't think there's much reason to build a wood case, unless you're going for the look of the thing.
I think that a lot of the people who visit your page think that you are a bit of a loony and a lot of a profiteer. While I like the fact that you offer 'free' rings in exchange for a donation to certain charities, I can't help but feel that you are probably not using the best of peer-reviewed science to back up your ideas.
Despite this, I bet you feel that what you're doing is pretty important.
Tell us then, Why do you think no medical experts come forth to do studies on your devices or reccomend their use?
For some this will be a vindication of your ideas. For others it will be a glimpse into one of the minds that makes the web as truly a strange and wonderful place that it is.
While I beleive your references are sound, I don't think your conclusions about the inevitable outcome of the fight are.
First of all, those who are currently 'beat down', Napster, Scour, MP3.com, etc... were stupid. They were trying to make money off of an already existing artificially scarce resource.
What the 'Second Generation' P2P models all strive for is freedom of information duplication and transmission, even over control. Take Gnutella, for example. Everyone in my office used Napster, once upon a time. Those that were too lazy to setup Napigator once Napster started filtering now use Bearshare, which uses Gnutella protocol. I'm using it right now. Gnutella use is skyrocketing, according to the Salon Article, and I beleive it.
The *only* way for the record industry to get rid of Gnutella is to somehow make it illegal, as the MPAA has tried to do with DeCSS with very little success.
Layer all the other 'free' P2P clients such as Freenet and CDC's new project on top of that. It can't be stopped.
Look at Usenet. Gigabytes and gigabytes of the most illegal information ever in the form of Warez, pirate MP3's, porn, bomb-making instructions, etc... pass through the alt hierarchy on a daily basis. Newsfeeds has a NNTP servers dedicated to both MP3 downloads and Warez downloads, yet you don't see anyone trying to shut them down.
The 'publishers', the RIAA, the MPAA, and all the existing book publishers are fighting a rear-guard retreat. Sure, they have more money, more influence, and can crush any one person into fine paste, but what they don't realize is that they're not fighting individuals or even other companies. They're fighting progress.
The Roman Empire tried to do it. Look where they are now. The Catholic Church tried to do it, and even succeeded for many centuries, but were eventually beaten down by the invention of the printing press. The nation-states of Europe tried to do it, when they colonized the rest of the world. Now the information industries of America are trying to do it.
Just like their predecessors, they *will* fail. You can't fight time.
First, I'm dissapointed that this technology didn't originate in the United States. It's a sad thing, proof of the fact that government controls on crypto have inhibited U.S. companies from developing strong, easy crypto solutions.
'Push of a button'. Gawd, I'd love to see that same button installed by default on M.S. Outlook, or Netscape Mail without a complex PGP install beforehand.
This said, however, I would like to praise those who continue to break down the walls of encryption FUD that the United States government law enforcement has pushed onto the American peopole, even if they work from outside. The American government strongly opposes encryption of all kinds in the hands of Americans or non-Americans because of the possibility that it will be used by terrorists and criminals. This *proves* to both USians and the rest of the world that this is not the case. There is a valid market for crypto.
Like an overprotective mother hen, the FBI, DOJ, and NSA have been working to keep americans safe inside of a non-crypto egg. We can't break out, as long as they have so many claws in both the legal process and communications industries. Usually eggs are good at keeping outside influcences out, but I strongly beleive that efforts like this from Germany (and the rest of the world) will be the beginning of a crypto hailstorm the likes of which will at once confound and terrify the ill-prepared USLE agencies and liberate Americans from the oppression created by a simple lack of privacy.
Now let's support these guys and let them know how much we want these phones in the U.S.. At about $2.6k, they'll cost as much as a top of the line workstation, but as the userbase grows, you can bet the price will shrink.
I agree. It's one thing for martian material to be blasted into space where it orbits for millions, perhaps billions of years before it impacts in Antarctica. This is direct from Mars to Washington D.C. without all those bothersome millenia of celestial mechanics in the way.
So the solution is apparent: The telcos should donate the existing fiber to the landowners and lay new fiber in a surface conduit. Which I think they should make nice and big and paint fluorescent lime green with orange polka dots :P
Hmmm... In the year 2080, an elementary school class is taking a field trip in a shuttle-bus powered by corn oil:
Teacher: Okay, students. If you'll look out the left window, you'll see the length of the 'FiberTrain'. It's that lime-green thing with the orange dots all over it.
Student: My sister's hair looks like that!
Teacher: It used to be a track for a horrible device that we now refer to as 'Environmentally Incorrect'. Back in the twentieth century, people referred to them as 'locomotives' or 'steam engines'.
Student: They were used to transport homeless people across the country, right?
Teacher: That's right, Billy! Now what are they used for?
Student: They transmit data feeds to homeless people?
Teacher: Billy gets a star! After the corporate wars of the 2030's, anyone who had property that conflicted with existing intellectual ownership had to forfeit the property. Luckily something like that could never happen today in the good ol' United States of America Online-Time-Warner-Ford-Sony-Gates Co.
Of course I want my medical records available to doctors if I collapse. But that problem is solved quite simply with a medic alert bracelet. Lots of people use them. Lots of people CHOOSE to use them.
I agree totally. There's no reason to build databases for 'society's good', which looks like Scott wants to do. It's always better to allow individuals to control their personal information in the style of 'medic alert' bracelets.
I have a wide array of allergies, some of them life-threatening and quite a few that require emergency medical treatment. (Adrenaline shots, anyone? I hate it when my throat closes up.) I would really rather *not* my insurance company to accidentally stumble across that information, because you can be sure my rates would silently start to rise if they did. In the event I pass out on the street and start turning blue, I *do* want that information in the hands of the paramedics on the scene and the doctors in the ER. They don't even have to wait for a database query. They can just pull the bracelet off my arm.
That Corporations, and therefore all companies have 'legal rights' in much the same way a living breathing person does. A corportation can declare bankruptcy, regardless of the fact that it's CEO and board took the money and ran. A coporation can also earn income and pay taxes (when it doesn't find a way to wriggle out of them via all the business-targeted loopholes in the tax code.)
The real crime here is that while a corporation or a company is realy a posession even if it is owned by hundreds or thousands of people, it serves as a protective sheild for real criminal behavior.
It is said that a society grows more corrupt the more laws it has. Well, rather than imposing new laws that punish a corporation or its members for wrongdoing, I propose instead removing laws and tax code that grant corporations 'person status'. Remove the laws and tax code that allow a corporation to profit instead of its owners. Remove everything that grants rights to a corporation, and I think you'll start to see a little better accountability.
It's certainly a lot more like 'Pyraminds' than any of the other Pratchet books, both in plot, tone, and style. You remember that Djelibebe (sp?)spent the last third of Pyramids in 'folded' space in between Tsort and Ephebe? A lot of 'Theif' takes place after the Glass Clock starts ticking.
How many lawsuits does the RIAA have to be engaged in before it's members start pulling out due to the extreme cost?
How expensive is/was the Napster litigation? If I'm any judge, I'm guessing that the RIAA isn't going to see a dime, even if they obliterate Sean and Co. with BFG 10k's. How expensive will the Aimster legislation be? How many ISP's will they have to sue for carrying the 'alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.*' hierarchy?
Now, the RIAA is very, very rich, but you still can't put out a volcano with a few firetrucks, if you get my drift. I know those 'wookie-defense' RIAA laywers don't work for free, and the people they're suing, at least in Aimster's case I think, are more likely to file Ch11 or Ch13 before they pay legal fees and court costs.
Of course, the answer to the to problem, at least from the RIAA's end, is to start buying legislation on wholesale, just like the oil industry is doing. Maybe we'll get to see Hillary Rosen run for Prez in 2004?
...In my opinion at least. While the emphasis is still on parody and satire, 'Theif' harkens back to some of the earlier pratchet books, 'Light Fantastic' and 'Pyramids' in particular, in that it doesn't focus on the parody as much as the story and characterization. Compare this to 'Soul Music' and 'Hogfather', which were mostly parody, with a little bit of plot thrown in.
The characters, while many of them appeared in previous books, are all quite nicely fleshed out in this one. Susan was flat in 'Soul Music' and at best a cardboard cutout in 'Hogfather', but she really takes on quite a bit of depth in this one. Other characters, most notably Lady LeJean, are entertaining to read and are not jokey as much as they are dynamic. Lu Tze is a little over the top and Jeffery and Lobsang didn't nearly get the time they deserved, however.
This is probably because Pratchet has a bad habit of not giving equal dialogue or internal monologue to some of his characters. For example, Sam Vimes internal monologue will comprise a good fifth of any given watch book, and Angua will get quite a bit too. Carrot Ironfoundersson's internal monologue, like Lobsang and Jeffery's is never indicated, and their thoughts are *only* shown by their actions and dialogue. This would be okay if Pratchett did this consistently with all or just one of his characters.
All in all, 'Theif' is probably the best book Pratchet has written since 'Small Gods'. I would reccomend it for new and experienced Pratchett readers.
I think many geeks, myself included, have been looking for quality MP3 players for our home audio shrin^H^H^H^H^Hsytems for quite some time. All the big audio producers have been so far unwilling to produce such a thing because of the current IP-rights clusterfuck going on between RIAA and the computer industry. While the technology is available and in demand, you can be sure as hell that Sony sure won't produce an MP3 stereo compononent.
This new development is letting the genie out of the bottle, so to speak, even if it is vapour. It lets the people who would otherwise hold off on such a product in favor of handhelds and portables realize that they're about to lose out on a new market. Who's going to be next to make a MP3 component? Diamond? The folks who brought you TIVO?
Sony may never come out with an MP3 component for your stereo system, but you can sure as hell bet that once a demand is evident, it will be met one way or the other.
Okay, I'll bite.
Hmm... This should either have a +1 (Funny) or a -1(Troll) tag. I can't decide which, but the line about 'bodily fluids' makes me lean towards (Funny)
Hmm... Advanced thought-policing and big brothering from the same country that's currently having problems with the 'Monkey Man'.
/ india.monkeyman/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/south/05/17
"Others argue the Earth's crisis is severe enough that they'll battle corporate America by any means necessary. "Ethics, schmethics," writes New York-based techno-artist and researcher Natalie Jeremijenko, who develops biotech hobbyist kits and supports Bunting's efforts with Irational.org. "There is not an 'ethics' that is separate from the motivation for doing something in the first place and the accountability or responsibility one feels for it. "
Biotech Hobbyist Kits?!! WTF?! How do you cram all the necessary tools, viral samples, cultures, microscopes, etc... into a KIT?
Boy, I sure hope those don't fall into the hands of the local Aryan Nation/Nation of Islam chapter. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In this case, I think it would be the *most* dangerous thing...
For .biz, Businesses will have to supply proof of their type of business, and no, this does not mean a business card. More like official representation like tax forms, licenses, etc...
I was also going to suggest that this sounds like a case where Class Action Suit would be appropriate. UGO is defrauding a *lot* of people. Now, in the case of a class action, you probably won't get a lot of your money back, but I think you also don't get bent over for legal fees if you are a participant.
If you're using Outlook, you're probably also using Win32, or possibly MacOS, in which cases you can use Eudora, which offers better boolean filtering than it's Microsoft equivalent. What you don't get in Eudora is visual basic support, which neatly fubars the majority of VBS-script mail *assuming* you don't use Eudora's built in option to use IE as the message editor. It's also a good idea to get rid of WSH. You also don't get all those schedulers or public folders crap that PHB's like. AFAIK, all three version of Eudora include the complete filtering options.
While I think it's good that someone is trying to compete with Microsoft, I'm a little concerned about how easily two of the largest corporate behemoths on the planet have formed a partnership.
Does anyone else think that this could be overtones to a possible merger? And does it scare the hell out of anyone that if it does?
Oh lordy! Somebody mod this guy up, please...
Of course, it begs the following speculation: If prime numbered trek series are good, and divisible treks are bad...
Trek 7: 'The Spacefight Club' - This series will be composed almost entirely of starship dogfights in space, with some minor plot thrown in to appease the critics. Alien hottie flesh will be in abudance.
Trek 9: 'What Starship Captains Want' - Female and 'sensitive' male starfleet officers will particpate in a romantic comedy set entirely inside Starfleet headquarters. There will occasionally be futuristic matte paintings in the background depicting a futuristic earth, but there won't be any action or fight scenes.
Trek 13: 'Starfleet Tactics' - Series written by Tom Clancy. This one will be a little more 'intellectual' than previous Treks, but will focus on political machinations, espionage, technical and scientific detail, and large-scale starship battles. Action will not be plentiful, but it will be frequent, and well written. Critics will hail it as a 'sleeper hit'.
Treks 14-16: Will nearly bankrupt Paramount due to the casting of David Spade, Tom Green, and Britney Spears as starship captains.
Trek 17: Will be filmed using a combination of live action, full-scale starship models that really explode, and state-of-the-art quantum computer-based animation. The series will depict a life-or-death struggle in space and on Earth for the future of humanity, with generous dashes of action, sex, comedy, and gratuitous explosions. Due to the damages incurred wiping out the City of San-Francisco with a neutron explosion for the grand finale of the series, Paramount will go bankrupt.
With Kevin Sorbo, you say? Being that I watch so little TV anymore, I've missed this one. I assume it's from the same writing and production staff that brought us 'Hercules' and 'Xena'?
While Sorbo's plastic smile and perfectly toned pectorals tend to make my stomach turn, I'll check it out.
Okay... Give me a second to put all thoughts of 'Quantum Leap' and 'Unecessary Roughness' out of my head. Now I'm putting all thoughts of 'Voyager' out of my head. Okay...
Okay...
Bakula is a good TV actor, one that I'm afraid will never really manage the leap to the silver screen because he keeps taking CRAP roles. This could be a very good move for him. That said, from what I've heard, this has the potential to be tons better than Voyager.
What would be really cool would be if Paramount got their heads out of their asses and realized that they were writing science fiction rather than political commentary.
Yeah, there is room for the former in the latter, but I'd *really* like to see a non-PC Trek universe when the Prime Directive was more of a guideline, female starship personell all wore skirts that showed their asses, and starship captains weren't afraid to throw down and open up the occasional can of phaser-powered whupass.
I want to see racism. I want to see sexism. I want to see the captain of the show bag all the cute alien hotties. I want facepaint rather than creative nose ridges.
And... like a previous poster put it, I want explosions. Lots of explosions. This is supposed to be the Star Trek equivalent of the old west, so lets get some kick-ass space dogfights going on.
This is a brilliant (dumbshit) move on Gracenote's part. Why, with all the attention they've paid to fairness and equitable behavior in the past (screwing CDDB users), you can be sure that this is a case of Gracenote spending time trying to uphold a piece of legislation that is necessary and supports freedom, equality, and ethical behavior (for Nazis).
I hope that the judge looks long and hard at the DMCA to see how it supports Gracenote's claims(unconstitutional), and tells Roxio what they can go do with themselves (Win a big fat cash settlement for legal fees) when he announces his decision at the outcome of the trial (Gracenote is a bunch of theiving pricks).
Need to start getting out the public word to counter Microsoft's 'education' tactics, smearing GPL and Open Source in favor of their 'Shared Source' FUD.