Whose legal system? Oh, i don't know, the UN charter (which the US both wrote and signed). Article 51 (the self defense bit) also covers declaration of war, which must be done through the UN. Then, the UN is the group that must give permission for military action. The US didn't bother to do that.
As for "to hell with the world court", your country fought hard to have Slobidan Milosevick sent to the world court and tried for his crimes, so don't ignore it when it suits you.
Well, for two reasons, i'd go the UN, and ask to declare war on the purps (if they were a country), and if not, i'd ask the World Court (of which Canada is actually a member) to handle it.
Why?
1) Because thats the legal way of doing things
2) Because, quite franctly, Canada doesn't have and doesn't need the militart strengtht that Americans are using right now.
As usual, the US has embarked upon a military action which it feels will help it to survive, and eliminate its enemies. On the surface thats fine, but how they intend to do it has serious flaws.
1) Airplanes cannot conquer groud. That is, unless you have a soldier in an American uniform standing in Afghanistan, then they haven't won. While Rumsfeld says that they are not in the business of nation building, thats exactly what they are trying to do. However, they forget that more ordnance was dropped in Vietnam then in all other US wars combined, and they lost that one.
2) Smart bombs aint so smart. Despite all those nice B&W videos from the Gulf war, smart bombs more often then not miss their intended targets (the stats from the Gulf were around 30% i think, but don't quote me on that). This is a combination of GPS drift, targetting inaccuracy, technical errors, and simply aiming at the wrong thing, but it menas that 70% of the time, you're hitting something you didn't want to. And when there are civillians living 200m away, it means that you hit them. "Surgical strikes" do not exist, and won't for some time.
3) The American public won't accept another Vietnam. As i already said, the only way to accomplish the US's objectives in Afghanistan is to send in groud forces. Special forces are fine for capturing wanted criminals, but to topple and rebuild the country, you need GI's. Now, as was proved by the soviets, its damned hard to fight an entrneched, geurilla-like enemy in the mountains, and heavy losses will be suffered if they try. There are too many voters who are Vietnam vets, and the US simply won't do it. Period. Despite what he intended, i have to qutote George W - "We aren't going to shoot a $2m misile at a $10 tent at hit a camel in the butt". Well, yet you are.
Autocad, in my opinion, is a program that has taken the WIMP GUI, use of the mouse and keyboard interface to its highest level. Granted, new people still use the Windows menus, but if you know what you are doing, you can completel a drawing super-quick simply by using a combination of keyboard shortcuts/commands/data entry, and the mouse as left click, enter, and repeat last command. This interface obsiously doesn't work for everything, but they have managed to use it extremely well. We need more people thinking like that.
I'm not certain on the specifics, but for an American commander-in-cheif to launch nuclear weapons, even a counterstrike, they need two people to agree. For a pre-emptive strike, you need more. There is a rule called the two-man rule, which (i believe) states that the remaining command authority (bush or whichever subordinate is in command if he dies), and one other senior command authority (SDef, General, etc), must both agree to do it. There are very strict rules. Bush can't just flip a coin and go boom.
As a gernal rule for this day and age (since the cold-war nuclear possibility no longer exists), US/NATO nuclear policy is very simple and clear:
Only the use of weapons of mass destruction (ie, nukes, bio, or chem weapons) against members of NATO will result in a nuclear response. Since there is no risk of NATO losing a conventional war against anyone in the world, that is the only time nuke's would be used.
Meddling? Is that what you call it? I call it humanitariuan intervention versus persuing American economic interests...
First off, the World War's were not a european civil war. Europe isn't, and has never been a country. It is a series of countries, who in 1939, had two agressors who decided to try and conquor the continent.
The US likes to get involved when it will protect its interests. The reason it has gotten so involved in the middle east is because of oil. Everyone knows that oil runs America, and you people can't get along without more then your fair share of it. Why do you think the US supports israel? Because it needs a non-OPEC, non-arab country in the middle east to help protect its interests. The US got involved in Guatemala, Brazil, Chile, etc, to help topple socialist governments. Why? Because at the time Americans were terrified of anyone with an ideology of socialism. They supported the fascists in these countries to turn them into capitalist trading partners.
On the other hand, why didn't the UN get involved in Rwanda? There was a genocide going on, and the only person trying to stop it was Canadian Romeo Demare, and his troops. Why didn't the US get involved in Cambodia? I mean, there were only 1.2 million people slaughtered. Right, no american interests. In fact, Cambodia was fighting with Laos, which helped out the US. Why aren't they getting involved in Afganistan? Because of sanctions. There are only 1.5 million people starving to death, but then there's a terrorist leader and oppresive government in the country, so we should sanction them.
Whay American refuses to realize that that Americans have the same rights as everyone else on earth. Every human is garaunteed equality, food, shelter, education, and a host of other things. I think that the US should follow the example of other countries and go to war to protect these rights in people. For the richest country in the world, you sure aren't acting like it.
There are a few things you forget to mention about your "ever generous country". (I am Canadian, and am in fact ashamed of many things my country has done. I am simply retorting this comment).
After WWII, the US imposed its own private rules upon Japan, going so far as two hand-write its constitution, which stands until today. Because of the US, the emperor at the time (Hirohito?), who should have been charged with inciting war, bus wasn't due to American intervention.
Over the past 40 years, America has helped causes which further its own interests. How many people have died because of US-lead embargoes against regimes with starving populations (Afghanistan, Iraq)? Where was the US when thousands of Hutu's were slaughtered in Rwanda? Canada was there, and received no support from the US until it was too late.
Where was the US when 1.2 million Cambodians were killed in the seventies? They were fighting along side Cambodia against Laos.
A few million here, and a few billion there isn't exactly generous giving. The US constitues 6% of the world's population, at 60% of the world's wealth. Most of that is gained by exploiting foreign labour and materials. When was the last time there was a drought in the US that killed people? Not since the 20's. For the richest country in the world, the US is very unforgiving of foreign debt, or of countries who don't support it. That 10-trillion tax cut could feed the entire continent of Africa for over a decade. A billion in aid to a rich country is nothing. Try defending people on the basis that they are people, not their potential in trade with the US.
I don't remember which book of his it was, but it started with a plane hitting the capitol building, and ended with biological attacks against the US.
Thank goodness i'm canadian.
Students know best
on
Dorm Storm?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
There are many universities where admin simply gives the task to students. They build and run their own routers, wiring, etc, off one large connection to the rest of the U.
Whether or not you do that is irrelevant, however... Give some of the kids some admin responsibilities (or pay?), and let them deal with some of the simple problems. Lots of those kids can probably fix things anyways.
You'd think that NASA, of all people, would store important data in a format thats easy to use later. Or at least keep a copy of the protocol specs around.
However, if we want to keep data stored in a digital format over the long run, how do we do it? Right now, you'd say CDR. But 20 years down the line, how many people will have a CDROM drive? They've only been around about 6 years!
Part of the cost of feeding someone is the cost of distribution, shipping, etc. Think about it: we have a system of commercial food resellers (grocery stores) in north america. In rural africa, where there are fewer types of food to be distributed/sold, that isn't needed. What is needed is a logical way of shipping/distributing food, so it gets to people who need it (rather then to militaries). If you went to safeway and bought a quarter million pounds of flour, i think they'd see something wrong and not allow you to do it. On the other hand, if the stores in a city were out of flour, and you had grain, they'd buy flour from you regardless of corporate buying strategies.
For those who were there, remember the protests of Quebec, Prague, Seattle, etc. There were the little people trying to gget their voices heard. Remember, the profits of the five largest american companies FOR ONE YEAR would feed the starving in africa for decades.
-MR
Re:I want to be a space cowboy too!!
on
Duct Tape
·
· Score: 1
Yes, but its a little more complicated then that.
As someone mentioned, you need to smash together two semi-spheres of U-235 or Pl-239 to get a sustainted nuclear reaction (aka bomb).
Now, for him to have kept refining materials WHICH WERE HARD TO GET into 110lb of ultra-pure uranium or plutorium would have taken forever! The US government carefully monitors the movement of radioactive materials, at least in large quantities. For someone to buy enough pitchblend to do that would not go unnoticed. Marie Curie spent years refining tonnes of pitchblend in a school-house shed to do the same thing. She wound up with a little but of radium. Thats why Foreign countries can't do it easily: because of lack of availability of materials.
Also, if terrorists attacked US interests with nuclear weapons, your government (i'm canadian and don't support USicans) would go after them with everything they had, probably ignoring international treaties and boundaries in persuit of a public hanging.
...when pigs fly and IPv6 is implemented
on
Smart Routers
·
· Score: 5
The whole idea of smart routers is nice, but it has two major problems.
1) It is another form of corporate censorship. Before the days of big ISP (i used to use a ma and pa operation!), a host was a host was a host: ie, if you had an ip, be it dialup or a t1, you could use your bandwidth as you pleased. Granted, and FTP server on a 33.6k connection was sad, but that was your choice. Now that bandwidth at the doorstep exists, we're limited in how we can use it: if @Home had their way, all you'd be able to use is their "premium content".
2) Its a new standard. It will never fly. The internet hasn't really changed since IPv4 & TCP/IP were implemented over a decade ago. Remember: we need IPv6, and we need "intellegent" routers if we want what people have been promised, the great "information superhighway". However, there are 10's of millions of hosts on the internet, and they all have to start using new protocols for packets, and IPv6. Before we start implementing major new changes online, we need an international, independent, governing body for DNS and the internet, not an American-controlled company. The internet used to be open and democratic, lets try and make it that way once more.
about a lot. Bear in mind that that's their job. They have to help draft laws about all variety of topics. Now, when a politician has a meeting about, say, softwood tree exports, they almost always get briefings, prepared by staffers, to give them all they need to know for situations they may encounter. If they can't answer a question or deal with an issue, they give a fluffy political answer. Remember, in general, there people aren't experts on anything. They simply know enough to get by.
What happened was the FBI got a warrant for the fellow who owns the indymedia domain name. I was closely following the Quebec protests on indymedia.org (as i had friends there), listening to the quebec indymedia 'net radio show, and a couple people called in to discuss this. The guy who owns the domain lives in seattle (as indymedia was started to cover the seattle protests 2 years ago).
Anyways, the reason they went after this guy is that someone had posted something to indymedia.org with an implied threat to george dubya (if i ever get the chance, he's got a chocolate milk with his name on it, see Stockwell Day). Therefore, the FBI went after the owner of the domain name (apparently propogating someone elses threat is illegal).
Kinda scary what this means for free information sites on the 'net. Since DNS is essentially American controlled, what does this mean for anyone who has an opinion that someone doesn't like?
Why?
Yes, Eazel makes free (open source?) software.
But they are a for-profit company, with investors who are out to make a buck. Nautilus is a very cool product. However, why would we want to donate money to a business??? If they can't make money, they should just release their source-code and give up.
you lose!
Remember, @Home and the like have service agreements which basically give them the right to kill your account with almost no reason. Most providers don't allow servers; it can be argued that ICQ is a server. Hopefully only a few will be picked on (the cost of suing an ISP/individual users, and finding them, and gathering evidence is only worth it if you try to make an example of someone), and the rest will be left alone.
In many senses ICANN is in fact a world government, as they control an essential service (flow/availablility of information). However, they are neither a democracy or republic - they are a dictatorship, but with multiple dictators (i'm not sure what you'd call this). ICANN could be run as an arm of the UN. That said, the UN is a very inefficient form of government, given that they are only as strong as those who believe in their rules. The UN is top heavy, and accomplishes little.
Its been shown time and time again that if you write a program, and especially if your license agreement is good, you aren't liable. This applies to everything, including radiation therapy machines (with which there have been incidents), and pc software (who's liable if there's a problem with a program you use and you lose everything?).
Basically, there needs to be some kind of legistlation to hold coders/software engineers who SELL a product responsible. ie, a universal clause that goes in every EULA for pay software (ie, freeware/gpl/etc immune) saying that if you payed for the software, the company that makes it is responsible for makeing sure it actually works, or something like that.
As for rentable-apps, well it'd mean that the developer was responsible if it went belly up... I know it seems flawed, but if a car-maker discontinues a car, they're still responsible if there's a design flaw (can you say Pinto?). Make the coders personally liable (ie, not Company XYZ, but the employee who works for the company). Just like a civil engineer who signs his name to a bridge, so too have professional coding standards. As for software keys, the whole idea is flawed. Software keys ALWAYS depend of a mathmatical formula to derive valid keys. If the company can create them, so can someone else. The best solution is that if you're outfitting huge offices with tonnes of rented software, you use hardware keys/dongles/whatever, and put an exiration in the code on the key. Harder to crack, and you can simply release a non-expiring key if your company went belly-up.
Well, up in Canada, where we do usefull research (who has the neutrino detector again?), we have a 100,000,000 pound press for testing materials and structures at the university of manitoba.
Slashdot Mirror
Whose legal system? Oh, i don't know, the UN charter (which the US both wrote and signed). Article 51 (the self defense bit) also covers declaration of war, which must be done through the UN. Then, the UN is the group that must give permission for military action. The US didn't bother to do that.
As for "to hell with the world court", your country fought hard to have Slobidan Milosevick sent to the world court and tried for his crimes, so don't ignore it when it suits you.
Well, for two reasons, i'd go the UN, and ask to declare war on the purps (if they were a country), and if not, i'd ask the World Court (of which Canada is actually a member) to handle it.
Why?
1) Because thats the legal way of doing things
2) Because, quite franctly, Canada doesn't have and doesn't need the militart strengtht that Americans are using right now.
As usual, the US has embarked upon a military action which it feels will help it to survive, and eliminate its enemies. On the surface thats fine, but how they intend to do it has serious flaws.
1) Airplanes cannot conquer groud. That is, unless you have a soldier in an American uniform standing in Afghanistan, then they haven't won. While Rumsfeld says that they are not in the business of nation building, thats exactly what they are trying to do. However, they forget that more ordnance was dropped in Vietnam then in all other US wars combined, and they lost that one.
2) Smart bombs aint so smart. Despite all those nice B&W videos from the Gulf war, smart bombs more often then not miss their intended targets (the stats from the Gulf were around 30% i think, but don't quote me on that). This is a combination of GPS drift, targetting inaccuracy, technical errors, and simply aiming at the wrong thing, but it menas that 70% of the time, you're hitting something you didn't want to. And when there are civillians living 200m away, it means that you hit them. "Surgical strikes" do not exist, and won't for some time.
3) The American public won't accept another Vietnam. As i already said, the only way to accomplish the US's objectives in Afghanistan is to send in groud forces. Special forces are fine for capturing wanted criminals, but to topple and rebuild the country, you need GI's. Now, as was proved by the soviets, its damned hard to fight an entrneched, geurilla-like enemy in the mountains, and heavy losses will be suffered if they try. There are too many voters who are Vietnam vets, and the US simply won't do it. Period. Despite what he intended, i have to qutote George W - "We aren't going to shoot a $2m misile at a $10 tent at hit a camel in the butt". Well, yet you are.
Autocad, in my opinion, is a program that has taken the WIMP GUI, use of the mouse and keyboard interface to its highest level. Granted, new people still use the Windows menus, but if you know what you are doing, you can completel a drawing super-quick simply by using a combination of keyboard shortcuts/commands/data entry, and the mouse as left click, enter, and repeat last command. This interface obsiously doesn't work for everything, but they have managed to use it extremely well. We need more people thinking like that.
-Michael Roy
I'm not certain on the specifics, but for an American commander-in-cheif to launch nuclear weapons, even a counterstrike, they need two people to agree. For a pre-emptive strike, you need more. There is a rule called the two-man rule, which (i believe) states that the remaining command authority (bush or whichever subordinate is in command if he dies), and one other senior command authority (SDef, General, etc), must both agree to do it. There are very strict rules. Bush can't just flip a coin and go boom.
As a gernal rule for this day and age (since the cold-war nuclear possibility no longer exists), US/NATO nuclear policy is very simple and clear:
Only the use of weapons of mass destruction (ie, nukes, bio, or chem weapons) against members of NATO will result in a nuclear response. Since there is no risk of NATO losing a conventional war against anyone in the world, that is the only time nuke's would be used.
-Michael Roy roy@videon.wave.ca
Meddling? Is that what you call it? I call it humanitariuan intervention versus persuing American economic interests...
First off, the World War's were not a european civil war. Europe isn't, and has never been a country. It is a series of countries, who in 1939, had two agressors who decided to try and conquor the continent.
The US likes to get involved when it will protect its interests. The reason it has gotten so involved in the middle east is because of oil. Everyone knows that oil runs America, and you people can't get along without more then your fair share of it. Why do you think the US supports israel? Because it needs a non-OPEC, non-arab country in the middle east to help protect its interests. The US got involved in Guatemala, Brazil, Chile, etc, to help topple socialist governments. Why? Because at the time Americans were terrified of anyone with an ideology of socialism. They supported the fascists in these countries to turn them into capitalist trading partners.
On the other hand, why didn't the UN get involved in Rwanda? There was a genocide going on, and the only person trying to stop it was Canadian Romeo Demare, and his troops. Why didn't the US get involved in Cambodia? I mean, there were only 1.2 million people slaughtered. Right, no american interests. In fact, Cambodia was fighting with Laos, which helped out the US. Why aren't they getting involved in Afganistan? Because of sanctions. There are only 1.5 million people starving to death, but then there's a terrorist leader and oppresive government in the country, so we should sanction them.
Whay American refuses to realize that that Americans have the same rights as everyone else on earth. Every human is garaunteed equality, food, shelter, education, and a host of other things. I think that the US should follow the example of other countries and go to war to protect these rights in people. For the richest country in the world, you sure aren't acting like it.
-Michael Roy
roy@videon.wave.ca
There are a few things you forget to mention about your "ever generous country". (I am Canadian, and am in fact ashamed of many things my country has done. I am simply retorting this comment).
After WWII, the US imposed its own private rules upon Japan, going so far as two hand-write its constitution, which stands until today. Because of the US, the emperor at the time (Hirohito?), who should have been charged with inciting war, bus wasn't due to American intervention.
Over the past 40 years, America has helped causes which further its own interests. How many people have died because of US-lead embargoes against regimes with starving populations (Afghanistan, Iraq)? Where was the US when thousands of Hutu's were slaughtered in Rwanda? Canada was there, and received no support from the US until it was too late.
Where was the US when 1.2 million Cambodians were killed in the seventies? They were fighting along side Cambodia against Laos.
A few million here, and a few billion there isn't exactly generous giving. The US constitues 6% of the world's population, at 60% of the world's wealth. Most of that is gained by exploiting foreign labour and materials. When was the last time there was a drought in the US that killed people? Not since the 20's. For the richest country in the world, the US is very unforgiving of foreign debt, or of countries who don't support it. That 10-trillion tax cut could feed the entire continent of Africa for over a decade. A billion in aid to a rich country is nothing. Try defending people on the basis that they are people, not their potential in trade with the US.
-Michael Roy
umroyma0@cc.umanitoba.ca
I don't remember which book of his it was, but it started with a plane hitting the capitol building, and ended with biological attacks against the US.
Thank goodness i'm canadian.
There are many universities where admin simply gives the task to students. They build and run their own routers, wiring, etc, off one large connection to the rest of the U.
Whether or not you do that is irrelevant, however... Give some of the kids some admin responsibilities (or pay?), and let them deal with some of the simple problems. Lots of those kids can probably fix things anyways.
data standards.
You'd think that NASA, of all people, would store important data in a format thats easy to use later. Or at least keep a copy of the protocol specs around.
However, if we want to keep data stored in a digital format over the long run, how do we do it? Right now, you'd say CDR. But 20 years down the line, how many people will have a CDROM drive? They've only been around about 6 years!
Perhaps we should go back to paper???!?!?
-MR
Part of the cost of feeding someone is the cost of distribution, shipping, etc. Think about it: we have a system of commercial food resellers (grocery stores) in north america. In rural africa, where there are fewer types of food to be distributed/sold, that isn't needed. What is needed is a logical way of shipping/distributing food, so it gets to people who need it (rather then to militaries). If you went to safeway and bought a quarter million pounds of flour, i think they'd see something wrong and not allow you to do it. On the other hand, if the stores in a city were out of flour, and you had grain, they'd buy flour from you regardless of corporate buying strategies.
-MR
Actually, the majority of the people at those events had a university education. Granted, an arts degree isn't exactly marketable skills, but still...
-MR
For those who were there, remember the protests of Quebec, Prague, Seattle, etc. There were the little people trying to gget their voices heard. Remember, the profits of the five largest american companies FOR ONE YEAR would feed the starving in africa for decades.
-MR
Yes, but its a little more complicated then that. As someone mentioned, you need to smash together two semi-spheres of U-235 or Pl-239 to get a sustainted nuclear reaction (aka bomb).
Now, for him to have kept refining materials WHICH WERE HARD TO GET into 110lb of ultra-pure uranium or plutorium would have taken forever! The US government carefully monitors the movement of radioactive materials, at least in large quantities. For someone to buy enough pitchblend to do that would not go unnoticed. Marie Curie spent years refining tonnes of pitchblend in a school-house shed to do the same thing. She wound up with a little but of radium. Thats why Foreign countries can't do it easily: because of lack of availability of materials.
Also, if terrorists attacked US interests with nuclear weapons, your government (i'm canadian and don't support USicans) would go after them with everything they had, probably ignoring international treaties and boundaries in persuit of a public hanging.
-MR
glorified autopilot. Yee haw!
-MR
The whole idea of smart routers is nice, but it has two major problems.
1) It is another form of corporate censorship. Before the days of big ISP (i used to use a ma and pa operation!), a host was a host was a host: ie, if you had an ip, be it dialup or a t1, you could use your bandwidth as you pleased. Granted, and FTP server on a 33.6k connection was sad, but that was your choice. Now that bandwidth at the doorstep exists, we're limited in how we can use it: if @Home had their way, all you'd be able to use is their "premium content".
2) Its a new standard. It will never fly. The internet hasn't really changed since IPv4 & TCP/IP were implemented over a decade ago. Remember: we need IPv6, and we need "intellegent" routers if we want what people have been promised, the great "information superhighway". However, there are 10's of millions of hosts on the internet, and they all have to start using new protocols for packets, and IPv6. Before we start implementing major new changes online, we need an international, independent, governing body for DNS and the internet, not an American-controlled company. The internet used to be open and democratic, lets try and make it that way once more.
-MR
about a lot. Bear in mind that that's their job. They have to help draft laws about all variety of topics. Now, when a politician has a meeting about, say, softwood tree exports, they almost always get briefings, prepared by staffers, to give them all they need to know for situations they may encounter. If they can't answer a question or deal with an issue, they give a fluffy political answer. Remember, in general, there people aren't experts on anything. They simply know enough to get by.
-MR
What happened was the FBI got a warrant for the fellow who owns the indymedia domain name. I was closely following the Quebec protests on indymedia.org (as i had friends there), listening to the quebec indymedia 'net radio show, and a couple people called in to discuss this. The guy who owns the domain lives in seattle (as indymedia was started to cover the seattle protests 2 years ago).
Anyways, the reason they went after this guy is that someone had posted something to indymedia.org with an implied threat to george dubya (if i ever get the chance, he's got a chocolate milk with his name on it, see Stockwell Day). Therefore, the FBI went after the owner of the domain name (apparently propogating someone elses threat is illegal).
Kinda scary what this means for free information sites on the 'net. Since DNS is essentially American controlled, what does this mean for anyone who has an opinion that someone doesn't like?
-MR
Why? Yes, Eazel makes free (open source?) software. But they are a for-profit company, with investors who are out to make a buck. Nautilus is a very cool product. However, why would we want to donate money to a business??? If they can't make money, they should just release their source-code and give up.
-MR
you lose! Remember, @Home and the like have service agreements which basically give them the right to kill your account with almost no reason. Most providers don't allow servers; it can be argued that ICQ is a server. Hopefully only a few will be picked on (the cost of suing an ISP/individual users, and finding them, and gathering evidence is only worth it if you try to make an example of someone), and the rest will be left alone.
-MR
In many senses ICANN is in fact a world government, as they control an essential service (flow/availablility of information). However, they are neither a democracy or republic - they are a dictatorship, but with multiple dictators (i'm not sure what you'd call this). ICANN could be run as an arm of the UN. That said, the UN is a very inefficient form of government, given that they are only as strong as those who believe in their rules. The UN is top heavy, and accomplishes little.
-MR
no one!
Its been shown time and time again that if you write a program, and especially if your license agreement is good, you aren't liable. This applies to everything, including radiation therapy machines (with which there have been incidents), and pc software (who's liable if there's a problem with a program you use and you lose everything?).
Basically, there needs to be some kind of legistlation to hold coders/software engineers who SELL a product responsible. ie, a universal clause that goes in every EULA for pay software (ie, freeware/gpl/etc immune) saying that if you payed for the software, the company that makes it is responsible for makeing sure it actually works, or something like that.
As for rentable-apps, well it'd mean that the developer was responsible if it went belly up... I know it seems flawed, but if a car-maker discontinues a car, they're still responsible if there's a design flaw (can you say Pinto?). Make the coders personally liable (ie, not Company XYZ, but the employee who works for the company). Just like a civil engineer who signs his name to a bridge, so too have professional coding standards. As for software keys, the whole idea is flawed. Software keys ALWAYS depend of a mathmatical formula to derive valid keys. If the company can create them, so can someone else. The best solution is that if you're outfitting huge offices with tonnes of rented software, you use hardware keys/dongles/whatever, and put an exiration in the code on the key. Harder to crack, and you can simply release a non-expiring key if your company went belly-up.
-MR
Just in case mastercard wins...
If they do, however, we're all in a lot of trouble... the thought police are coming...
home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~umroyma0
-MR
Well, up in Canada, where we do usefull research (who has the neutrino detector again?), we have a 100,000,000 pound press for testing materials and structures at the university of manitoba.
My press could crunch your press.
-MR