anyways, how can they settle such a case even? ok i'm not from usa but this really doesn't fit in my sense of a working legal system. it's like i would get stabbed(and luckily i'd live) by a millionaire on a public place, and then the stabber would get away by just paying me? no, he should and would get charged with assault/trying of manslaughter/murder whatever the local phrase for such attack( or would this be civil vs. criminal court thingy?).
It's a civil case, which operates under dramatically different rules than a criminal case operates under.
Basically, once the settlement has been reached, the plaintiff(s) file a series of motions for continuance and then when the settlement is consummated, they tell the judge that they're dropping the case. This is nothing close to a verdict; indeed, settlements have little to no effect on any other cases.
first of all, if they're willing to pay aren't they admitting that they are behaving wrongly
Far from it. A settlement is not considered an admission of wrongdoing or liability (unless one of the terms of the settlement is that the defendant make a public proclamation of such). Indeed, most settlements are in cases where the defendant has the far stronger case and the greater likelihood of winning. The plaintiff attorney's goal is to prevent the case from ever going to trial and instead get a settlement for his client(s); the odds are generally against the plaintiffs once it goes to trial. The defendant settles in these cases because, especially if they're a large corporation, it's cheaper to settle early rather than pay their lawyers' fees (especially if appeals and such are counted), to say nothing of the non-zero (though, on average, less than 40%) probability of them losing.
For a litle while, Danny Tholen (one of the helpers on the mdk kernel) had a multimedia kernel in Cooker contribs, using backported preempt and so forth patches.
Oh and the new caddy look has really grown on me, love to see the 16 (even if it's just a 10 or 12 cylendar) actually make it to the showroom.
Indeed. If I could afford the $35-40k, I'd get a CTS right now (well, actually I'd hold off until they go the 3.6L VVT V6 for 2004...). Far better than shelling out $60k for a 5-series BMW...
Re:Instead, better choices from current companies?
on
Build-to-Order Cars?
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· Score: 1
the target demographic for Cadillac Seville probably has so few customers wanting manual transmissions
The main reason that GM's not doing manuals for Sevilles (because, believe me, the Seville STS would probably double its sales if it had a manual option) is because it's difficult to do a manual with a Northstar (which is a schweet engine... 4.6L, 300hp, 20+ mpg, running on regular gas) without annihilating many of the performance and economy characteristics of the Northstar.
Of course, I'm dismayed to see the STS be put out to pasture (to be replaced with a RWD model built on the same basic platform as the Cadillac CTS, SRX, and the next-generation Opel/Vauxhall Omega). I still hope that GM transfers the current-generation STS, the best FWD car ever built, to Saab, maybe a little bit smaller, and maybe with the 3.5L "Shortstar" V6....
Indeed. Streamlining some of the production and procurement systems is part of why GM is mounting a comeback by rolling out more new or significantly upgraded models than anybody else at this point. They basically sat out for a decade getting the entire process streamlined (relative to what it was) in order to swoop in.
I'm biased (I'm a GM-fanboy...), but I would not be surprised to see GM back at 40% market share in a few years.
Re:Unions brings up an interesting issue.
on
Build-to-Order Cars?
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· Score: 2, Interesting
How long do you think that'll last before FIAT buys another?
What with the death of Agnelli, I doubt FIAT will be buying anybody soon. Indeed, GM is making noise about increasing their ownership of FIAT.
As for GM, I suspect that they're too big to be acquired. The closest anybody came was Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, who, flush with stock valuations thanks to the media bubble, was prepared to buy GM in order to get control of Hughes (ie DirecTV).
Though Buchan has beat me to it, if you don't want KDE or GNOME, do a minimal install with urpmi, and then you can get most of the wm's you've listed from Mandrake contribs with urpmi.
And a new album is due in late '04 or early '05...
Re:Clearly an analysis
on
Is Louder Better?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Uh... I'm not sure I'd say that Rush is the same musical style. Hell, over the domain he used, you've got synthpop (Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows), grunge (Counterparts), and nu-metal (meaning Tool or Korn, mainly) (Vapor Trails).
Re:This guy doesn't get it
on
Is Louder Better?
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· Score: 3, Informative
Geddy Lee (who was the only band member present for the mixing) has said a lot of the clipping wasn't discovered until late in the process and he ended up trying to compensate for it in the mixing. That may well be why (as the article elaborates) the guitars, bass, and drums all clip at the same times; Geddy decided that the only way to cover up the drums clipping was amp the guitar so it was clipping.
Agreed with you on Vapor Trails. Best Rush album since Moving Pictures, and I might even say best since Hemispheres. Then again, I can't really rank Rush albums; there've been times that Presto or Hold Your Fire are what I'd call the best.
[GPL-compatible Free Software Licenses]
The modified BSD license.
(Note: on the preceding link, the modified BSD license is listed in the "General" section.)
This is the original BSD license, modified by removal of the advertising clause. It is a simple, permissive non-copyleft free software license, compatible with the GNU GPL.
If you want a simple, permissive non-copyleft free software license, the modified BSD license is a reasonable choice. However, it is risky to recommend use of ``the BSD license'', because confusion could easily occur and lead to use of the flawed original BSD license. To avoid this risk, you can suggest the X11 license instead. The X11 license and the revised BSD license are more or less equivalent.
[GPL-Incompatible Free Software Licenses]
The original BSD license.
(Note: on the preceding link, the original BSD license is listed in the "UCB/LBL" section.) This is a simple, permissive non-copyleft free software license with a serious flaw: the ``obnoxious BSD advertising clause''. The flaw is not fatal; that is, it does not render the software non-free. But it does cause practical problems, including incompatibility with the GNU GPL.
We urge you not to use the original BSD license for software you write. If you want to use a simple, permissive non-copyleft free software license, it is much better to use the modified BSD license or the X11 license. However, there is no reason not to use programs that have been released under the original BSD license.
Basically because of the advertising clause in the original BSD license, that license is considered GPL-incompatible. GPL incompatibility basically means that you cannot incorporate code licensed under those terms into a GPL project in any way. For instance, it is technically a GPL violation to link a GPL'd program (either statically or dynamically) to OpenSSL, though many projects look the other way (gaim, however, does not look the other way there, for instance).
It was a bit hard to get used to buying... for Dummies books, but I got over the stigma. However I never could bring myself to buy a "Complete Idiot" book. Sorry, I can't go that far. Then there would be "effing dumbass" books, and we just can't have that.
I'm waiting for the "...for the Subhuman" series myself...
Note that Linus only refers to Hungarian notation in functions, not variables. I've seen people bash Hungarian function notation (where it's beyond stupid) and then use pVar and so forth all over their code.
Indeed, there is some evidence that a secret society did exist that passed on the secrets of pyramid design and construction. Some have even gone so far as to speculate that this may be one of the roots of the modern Masonic Fraternity.
Personally, as one who has been initiated, passed, and raised, I find such things interesting to contemplate when bored, but take just about all theories of pre-medieval origins for the Craft with a monstrous grain of salt.
Officially they only support IE on Windows, but I've used it with Mozilla on Linux... just don't try to ask them for support if you're not using the approved system.
Really that's quite understandable. It's a commity for deaf people. If you've remedied that situation, you're not deaf, and thus not necessarily welcome in the deaf community.
Put it another way: you're a member of your college's radical student union, picketing weekly against exploitation of the proletariat, when you have an epiphany that unfettered anarcho-capitalism is the one true social system. Do you think you'd be at least a little shunned by your old pals?
The NFL recently set up GSIS, which basically allows you to use a Java applet which receives stats from the league as they're input by the offical scorer at the game (I actually know (through a fan board) the official scorer for the Scottish Claymores). You can use a stripped down version of the applet on NFL.com, and you can register yourself as a member of the media (it's scandalously easy to do, though not as much as when the username/password for NFLMedia.com was media:media) to get a full version (which will give you the full game stats and play-by-play mere minutes after the game is finished in your choice of PDF or XML). Using this, you could reverse-engineer the protocol and write your own server (though I forget whether the NFL claims a copyright on the game statistics they distribute).
RTFP. He's a sysadmin in the financial business, where IM that's not encrypted and securely logged is basically illegal (per SEC regulations). There are some (non-free) IM solutions that offer that functionality, though.
Well, since you've never used metacity, you obviously don't have any idea what you're talking about. The window manager is supposed to be unobtrusive. The window manager really needs to just work without requiring you to configure everything. That's what metacity does.
I briefly used metacity, last summer, when Mandrake made it the default in GNOME. From what I saw, metacity simply did not "just work". It was a pain in the ass trying to get it to a sane configuration that approached what I had with sawfish, only to find that it couldn't be configured to have sawfish-esque functionality; at the very least the dialogs offered no options and searches on gnome.org could not find gconf keys to accomplish what I wanted. Finally I said, "Fuck it," and I killall -15'd metacity and went back to sawfish. Since then, the only times I've used metacity are for the few seconds it takes to killall -15 it and start sawfish.
The point is that no program can work out of the box for every user. Configuration and customization will always be required for a substantial portion of any userbase. By removing configuration options, you guarantee that not only will your program not work out of the box for a substantial portion of users, but that it will never work for that portion of the users.
Why don't you go and look at the window manager in windows or in Mac OS X -- two desktops renowned for good user interfaces -- and ask yourself how configurable they are. They answer is they aren't. At all. Metacity is much more configurable out of the box than either system.
I use Windows on a fairly regular basis, and I can barely work with its window manager. TweakUI helps a little. As bad as Windows is, MacOS (any version) is worse, AFAIC. I'll grant that metacity is better than the Windows and Mac WMs, and given a choice, I'd take metacity. I'll also grant that SARS is better than cancer or AIDS, and given a choice, I'd take SARS.
gconf keys with no user interface are commonly used in the gnome desktop for advanced options that aren't really needed. And if you don't think that gconf-editor is sufficiently intuitive, why don't you stop whining and write some fucking code.
It's gconf itself (not the editor) that I have a problem with. I have yet to see a Registry-esque configuration system that surpasses user-readable configuration files. Maybe part of the problem is the fact that there is no real documentation as to what keys are available (this is true, as far as I can tell, of both the Windows Registry, and of gconf). Windows went from a simple, easy-to-understand, well-documented system of human- and machine-readable INI files to an obtuse, poorly-documented system based on a non-human-readable database. gconf at least is XML underneath, but XML isn't that human-readable.
Feel free to ignore this; the very word metacity (where the fuck does that word come from?) will, unless a new version comes down the pipe that blows my socks off, continue to make me retch.
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It's a civil case, which operates under dramatically different rules than a criminal case operates under.
Basically, once the settlement has been reached, the plaintiff(s) file a series of motions for continuance and then when the settlement is consummated, they tell the judge that they're dropping the case. This is nothing close to a verdict; indeed, settlements have little to no effect on any other cases.
Far from it. A settlement is not considered an admission of wrongdoing or liability (unless one of the terms of the settlement is that the defendant make a public proclamation of such). Indeed, most settlements are in cases where the defendant has the far stronger case and the greater likelihood of winning. The plaintiff attorney's goal is to prevent the case from ever going to trial and instead get a settlement for his client(s); the odds are generally against the plaintiffs once it goes to trial. The defendant settles in these cases because, especially if they're a large corporation, it's cheaper to settle early rather than pay their lawyers' fees (especially if appeals and such are counted), to say nothing of the non-zero (though, on average, less than 40%) probability of them losing.
For a litle while, Danny Tholen (one of the helpers on the mdk kernel) had a multimedia kernel in Cooker contribs, using backported preempt and so forth patches.
Indeed. If I could afford the $35-40k, I'd get a CTS right now (well, actually I'd hold off until they go the 3.6L VVT V6 for 2004...). Far better than shelling out $60k for a 5-series BMW...
The main reason that GM's not doing manuals for Sevilles (because, believe me, the Seville STS would probably double its sales if it had a manual option) is because it's difficult to do a manual with a Northstar (which is a schweet engine... 4.6L, 300hp, 20+ mpg, running on regular gas) without annihilating many of the performance and economy characteristics of the Northstar.
Of course, I'm dismayed to see the STS be put out to pasture (to be replaced with a RWD model built on the same basic platform as the Cadillac CTS, SRX, and the next-generation Opel/Vauxhall Omega). I still hope that GM transfers the current-generation STS, the best FWD car ever built, to Saab, maybe a little bit smaller, and maybe with the 3.5L "Shortstar" V6....
Indeed. Streamlining some of the production and procurement systems is part of why GM is mounting a comeback by rolling out more new or significantly upgraded models than anybody else at this point. They basically sat out for a decade getting the entire process streamlined (relative to what it was) in order to swoop in.
I'm biased (I'm a GM-fanboy...), but I would not be surprised to see GM back at 40% market share in a few years.
What with the death of Agnelli, I doubt FIAT will be buying anybody soon. Indeed, GM is making noise about increasing their ownership of FIAT.
As for GM, I suspect that they're too big to be acquired. The closest anybody came was Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, who, flush with stock valuations thanks to the media bubble, was prepared to buy GM in order to get control of Hughes (ie DirecTV).
The Saturn ION is "skinnable"...
Though Buchan has beat me to it, if you don't want KDE or GNOME, do a minimal install with urpmi, and then you can get most of the wm's you've listed from Mandrake contribs with urpmi.
And a new album is due in late '04 or early '05...
Uh... I'm not sure I'd say that Rush is the same musical style. Hell, over the domain he used, you've got synthpop (Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows), grunge (Counterparts), and nu-metal (meaning Tool or Korn, mainly) (Vapor Trails).
Geddy Lee (who was the only band member present for the mixing) has said a lot of the clipping wasn't discovered until late in the process and he ended up trying to compensate for it in the mixing. That may well be why (as the article elaborates) the guitars, bass, and drums all clip at the same times; Geddy decided that the only way to cover up the drums clipping was amp the guitar so it was clipping.
Agreed with you on Vapor Trails. Best Rush album since Moving Pictures, and I might even say best since Hemispheres. Then again, I can't really rank Rush albums; there've been times that Presto or Hold Your Fire are what I'd call the best.
Record companies have some new plague to run in our streets...
Incorrect. From The GNU License List:
Basically because of the advertising clause in the original BSD license, that license is considered GPL-incompatible. GPL incompatibility basically means that you cannot incorporate code licensed under those terms into a GPL project in any way. For instance, it is technically a GPL violation to link a GPL'd program (either statically or dynamically) to OpenSSL, though many projects look the other way (gaim, however, does not look the other way there, for instance).
I'm waiting for the "...for the Subhuman" series myself...
Note that Linus only refers to Hungarian notation in functions, not variables. I've seen people bash Hungarian function notation (where it's beyond stupid) and then use pVar and so forth all over their code.
Indeed, there is some evidence that a secret society did exist that passed on the secrets of pyramid design and construction. Some have even gone so far as to speculate that this may be one of the roots of the modern Masonic Fraternity.
Personally, as one who has been initiated, passed, and raised, I find such things interesting to contemplate when bored, but take just about all theories of pre-medieval origins for the Craft with a monstrous grain of salt.
Officially they only support IE on Windows, but I've used it with Mozilla on Linux... just don't try to ask them for support if you're not using the approved system.
They've provided a nice club for conspiracy nuts to pontificate about. As a Freemason, I must say that that was kind of Old Eli...
Well, he's not deaf, now is he?
Really that's quite understandable. It's a commity for deaf people. If you've remedied that situation, you're not deaf, and thus not necessarily welcome in the deaf community.
Put it another way: you're a member of your college's radical student union, picketing weekly against exploitation of the proletariat, when you have an epiphany that unfettered anarcho-capitalism is the one true social system. Do you think you'd be at least a little shunned by your old pals?
Uh... it's not categori[sz]ed under humo(|u)r....
The NFL recently set up GSIS, which basically allows you to use a Java applet which receives stats from the league as they're input by the offical scorer at the game (I actually know (through a fan board) the official scorer for the Scottish Claymores). You can use a stripped down version of the applet on NFL.com, and you can register yourself as a member of the media (it's scandalously easy to do, though not as much as when the username/password for NFLMedia.com was media:media) to get a full version (which will give you the full game stats and play-by-play mere minutes after the game is finished in your choice of PDF or XML). Using this, you could reverse-engineer the protocol and write your own server (though I forget whether the NFL claims a copyright on the game statistics they distribute).
RTFP. He's a sysadmin in the financial business, where IM that's not encrypted and securely logged is basically illegal (per SEC regulations). There are some (non-free) IM solutions that offer that functionality, though.
I salute you! Bravo, Dr. Fu Ling-Yu!
Making 'make...' jokes is a sign that you haven't 'make whoopee''d in a long time...
I briefly used metacity, last summer, when Mandrake made it the default in GNOME. From what I saw, metacity simply did not "just work". It was a pain in the ass trying to get it to a sane configuration that approached what I had with sawfish, only to find that it couldn't be configured to have sawfish-esque functionality; at the very least the dialogs offered no options and searches on gnome.org could not find gconf keys to accomplish what I wanted. Finally I said, "Fuck it," and I killall -15'd metacity and went back to sawfish. Since then, the only times I've used metacity are for the few seconds it takes to killall -15 it and start sawfish.
The point is that no program can work out of the box for every user. Configuration and customization will always be required for a substantial portion of any userbase. By removing configuration options, you guarantee that not only will your program not work out of the box for a substantial portion of users, but that it will never work for that portion of the users.
I use Windows on a fairly regular basis, and I can barely work with its window manager. TweakUI helps a little. As bad as Windows is, MacOS (any version) is worse, AFAIC. I'll grant that metacity is better than the Windows and Mac WMs, and given a choice, I'd take metacity. I'll also grant that SARS is better than cancer or AIDS, and given a choice, I'd take SARS.
It's gconf itself (not the editor) that I have a problem with. I have yet to see a Registry-esque configuration system that surpasses user-readable configuration files. Maybe part of the problem is the fact that there is no real documentation as to what keys are available (this is true, as far as I can tell, of both the Windows Registry, and of gconf). Windows went from a simple, easy-to-understand, well-documented system of human- and machine-readable INI files to an obtuse, poorly-documented system based on a non-human-readable database. gconf at least is XML underneath, but XML isn't that human-readable.
Feel free to ignore this; the very word metacity (where the fuck does that word come from?) will, unless a new version comes down the pipe that blows my socks off, continue to make me retch.