Why would it cost $4k to _convert_ a car? I'm betting it would cost 3 times that. A TV might only cost twice as much as a microwave but you couldn't convert one for the same money.
You are discounting labor, which would be huge, and the difficulties of dealing with a car not designed to be a hybrid being altered to work as a hybrid. I would imagine just fitting the new equipment could be a real problem. For instance, where do you stick the batteries?
So how is the original poster's $4K figure relevant?
Just how does a measure like this restrict free speech?
Because on/. anything that interferes, however tangentially, with the any of preferred pastimes (however vulgar or pointless) of some overweight, socially stunted, acne-bespeckled computer geek living in his parents' basement is an attack on our sacred God-given right of free speech.
In other words, it restricts free speech as much as your parents grounding you for forging a "B" out of a "D" on your report card: None at all.
Remember, this is the crowd that argues: "Hardcore porn never hurt me so there's nothing wrong with it."
Or, "Kids will make intelligent choices on their own and parents shouldn't interfere."
And simultaneously, "Parents should take repsonsibility for their kids, but everyone in society has the right (or even duty) to undermine parents at every turn."
All these arguments, commonly heard in these parts, are the well-considered opinions of people who have no experience with the real world.
No, I haven't heard that commercial, I've read about the possible link between thimerasol and the current explosion of childhood autism, despite what the FDA says about its safety.
Just because there is some organization trying to rip off the gullible and easily intimidated doesn't mean there isn't an issue.
No excitotoxins means no Doritos. Man, that is so anti-American I could plotz.
Seriously though, while some things you do are too much trouble for me (I have no interest in fixing my car, or even changing the oil), all of these are good ideas and worth considering.
I'm hardly a conspiracy nut, but the truth is that companies are poisoning our planet, our bodies and our minds and the government way too often turns a blind eye towards it (e.g., Who would possibly think injecting mercury into babies could be a harmless thing?!) I don't think you need to run off and live in a shack in the woods writing incoherent screeds against technology, but there are a lot of things that are commonly accepted that shouldn't be (ubiquitous food additives, mind-rotting TV, music and movies, poorly-tested and/or over-prescribed drugs, the list goes on).
System Shock from around 1991 had something similar as an effect of stimulants you could use in the game.
Once again, something that while interesting, is hardly unobvious, gets patented. Too bad that Russian guy invented Tetris in the mid 80's... if he'd done it now he could easily patent the game.
Imagine what the video game industry explosion would have been like if this patent nonsense had existed in the 70's. Here's my take: It would have never happened.
You can filter yourself using a simple hosts file to block all.xxx domains.
Of course, this will never work because the pr0n industry wants people to stumble onto their wares, they do everything they can to trick people to their sites. They don't want to cordon themselves off in their own TLD because, apparently, this deceit is a part of their marketing they do not want to relinquish. They do not believe that people should be able to secure their computers against pr0n, otherwise they wouldn't typosquat and all that other nonsense. I mean, it's not like the demand isn't there, but I guess the sleaze of their product inevitably spreads to their business practices.
Party A makes legal threats to Party B Party B ignores threats since Party A doesn't have a leg to stand on
The problem is that then next step is:
Party A ruins Party A because you can always find a venue that will take up any case however absurd, and proceeds to throttle Party B to death with legal fees by dragging it through the courts for years.
Party A wins despite not having a leg to stand on.
It all comes back to the fact that the American judicial system has been infiltrated by aliens, which is the only thing that could explain the utter nonsense coming out of it on a daily basis.
Those cassette tape recorders are going to destroy the record industry. Just think how bad it would be if you could record television shows on cassette...
I don't know what's worse, the **AA flogging the same dead horse that was pummeled into equine pudding 30 years ago or the fact that/. laps it up like a starving cat in the Carnation factory.
First, I don't believe Microsoft committed widespread bribery of the federal government to get out of their antitrust conviction. AFAIk, they were actually found guilty in that case.
Yeah, I think what happened is the new administration came in and said, "Oh yeah, antitrust, eh? Well, look MS, don't do it anymore, OK?", patted them on the butt and sent them on their way.
Now, whether Microsoft (or anyone) should be allowed to patent such thing... I don't know.
No, this is laughable even among laughable patents. But you can't blame Microsoft, as much as you might want to, you need to blame Congress, which allows this complete farce of a department to slowly undermine the entire economy of the U.S.
It's just a matter of time before something like the alleged patent on hyperlinks by BT actually gets issued and some company decides to hold the entire computer industry hostage. Hopefully, the economic damage won't be too great before our chumpresentatives decide to take a few minutes from their lobbyist-financed caviar and Dom Perignon snack-break and return the implementation of patents to something within the same area code of what was originally intended.
The system is screwed, you can't blame MS for using it. If they don't someone else, like SCO, perhaps, will do it.
My boss's wife is from Brazil and he's done business there and many other parts of the world. We've really got it good here in the U.S., but our leaders, of both parties, are doing their darnedest to screw it up... and not because they are stupid (although some are).
The number of registered lobbyists has something like quadrupled since 2000. One man/one vote is quickly becoming one million bucks/one vote. Of course, it's an inevitable consequence of the Federal government being so big. There's no way it could be any different... it's the government. It is even resembled what our Founding Fathers intended to create, and created, it wouldn't be such a problem.
How? He didn't sign a contract when he got the boxes?
Sure, someone was exploiting FedEx's generosity with boxes, so they need to find some way to stop the abuse, not gang up on the poor kid with expensive lawyers and poorly thought-out overreaching laws.
Of course, the DMCA could just read, "Big rich companies are now free to pick on anyone they want for any reason as long as Congressmen's campaigns get a piece of the action." That's how it was passed wasn't it.
I tell ya, we are rapidly approaching a time when anyone with money and power can attack anyone else, for any reason, under the guise of some byzantine law that no one understands, or agrees with, even the people who passed it.
In many countries like Brazil, it's completely impossible to run a business and abide by the labyrinthe of complicated and conflicting laws. Is this the kind of country we want in the U.S.?
Now, it's possible that FedEx has a case that this guy is abusing their trademark with the appropriately colored "Fed Ex" text on his site, but I can't see how he is harming them and the fact that they would... and could... cite the DMCA is just frightening. Is there no sense of perspective among these huge companies? All the guy is saying is that they make good boxes, but now they will generate not a small amount of bad will.
Now if the guy was selling the furniture, I also think they'd have a case. As it is, maybe he'll have to spray paint or otherwise obscure the company's logo. I thought these guys paid big bucks to plaster their names on anything they could like billboards, TV commercials, stadiums, people's foreheads...
I guess Mattel missed out by not using the DMCA when they pounded the crap out of that harmless little Barbie site several years ago. I guess the lawyers need someone to beat up or they start getting cranky.
You have good points. I should have said "fiction" when I said "mythology" as my last statement of my previous post.
However, my ad hominem statement was no less flip than yours. I failed to make a better case simply because given the 60-hour work weeks I've been having lately, I really haven't had the mental energy to defend it better. I just wanted to see how the person who had that obnoxious quote about the hammer as a sig would respond to an equally obnoxious quote. I was neither impressed or surprised.
The truth is that I really enjoy/. for the technical discussions and general nerd culture of which I am deeply ingrained, but once you get beyond computers, geeky TV shows and high technology, a large proportion of the inhabitants here are some of the most close-minded, bigoted and ignorant people you'll meet.
I'm glad that you, for one, are not one of those.
(And yes, I realize I'm still not defending my case...)
Slashdot Mirror
Why would it cost $4k to _convert_ a car? I'm betting it would cost 3 times that. A TV might only cost twice as much as a microwave but you couldn't convert one for the same money.
You are discounting labor, which would be huge, and the difficulties of dealing with a car not designed to be a hybrid being altered to work as a hybrid. I would imagine just fitting the new equipment could be a real problem. For instance, where do you stick the batteries?
So how is the original poster's $4K figure relevant?
Just how does a measure like this restrict free speech?
/. anything that interferes, however tangentially, with the any of preferred pastimes (however vulgar or pointless) of some overweight, socially stunted, acne-bespeckled computer geek living in his parents' basement is an attack on our sacred God-given right of free speech.
Because on
In other words, it restricts free speech as much as your parents grounding you for forging a "B" out of a "D" on your report card: None at all.
Remember, this is the crowd that argues: "Hardcore porn never hurt me so there's nothing wrong with it."
Or, "Kids will make intelligent choices on their own and parents shouldn't interfere."
And simultaneously, "Parents should take repsonsibility for their kids, but everyone in society has the right (or even duty) to undermine parents at every turn."
All these arguments, commonly heard in these parts, are the well-considered opinions of people who have no experience with the real world.
But that wasn't a 3D game, it was just an isometric view. Great game, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't 3D in any real sense.
Station!!!
Be excellent to each other, and... PARTY ON, DUDES!
Do you really think they would say "paper-like display in two years" and then throw something out in two months, and put it on the market?
Why not, software companies do it all the time?
Would this by any chance be an implementation of Eliza?
But we never got to see the dung beetles!
Are you sure that's a trait of successful bosses or just people who employ you? ;-)
No, I haven't heard that commercial, I've read about the possible link between thimerasol and the current explosion of childhood autism, despite what the FDA says about its safety.
Just because there is some organization trying to rip off the gullible and easily intimidated doesn't mean there isn't an issue.
That anti-american enough for you?
No excitotoxins means no Doritos. Man, that is so anti-American I could plotz.
Seriously though, while some things you do are too much trouble for me (I have no interest in fixing my car, or even changing the oil), all of these are good ideas and worth considering.
I'm hardly a conspiracy nut, but the truth is that companies are poisoning our planet, our bodies and our minds and the government way too often turns a blind eye towards it (e.g., Who would possibly think injecting mercury into babies could be a harmless thing?!) I don't think you need to run off and live in a shack in the woods writing incoherent screeds against technology, but there are a lot of things that are commonly accepted that shouldn't be (ubiquitous food additives, mind-rotting TV, music and movies, poorly-tested and/or over-prescribed drugs, the list goes on).
System Shock from around 1991 had something similar as an effect of stimulants you could use in the game.
Once again, something that while interesting, is hardly unobvious, gets patented. Too bad that Russian guy invented Tetris in the mid 80's... if he'd done it now he could easily patent the game.
Imagine what the video game industry explosion would have been like if this patent nonsense had existed in the 70's. Here's my take: It would have never happened.
Wrong on both accounts... Cyclops' eye beams exert force, but no heat. Of course, I haven't read comics in over 10 years, maybe they changed it.
;-)
You can relax, or freak out even more, I'm not sure which.
Right, that's why whitehouse.com was registered by a porn purveyor. Oh, wait... that was back in the Clinton days, so maybe you're right.
Is that like those bargain TV's I saw made by Panaphonics, Magnetbox and Sorny?
You can filter yourself using a simple hosts file to block all .xxx domains.
Of course, this will never work because the pr0n industry wants people to stumble onto their wares, they do everything they can to trick people to their sites. They don't want to cordon themselves off in their own TLD because, apparently, this deceit is a part of their marketing they do not want to relinquish. They do not believe that people should be able to secure their computers against pr0n, otherwise they wouldn't typosquat and all that other nonsense. I mean, it's not like the demand isn't there, but I guess the sleaze of their product inevitably spreads to their business practices.
Therefore, the new TLD will never work.
No, it should be more of a matter of:
Party A makes legal threats to Party B
Party B ignores threats since Party A doesn't have a leg to stand on
The problem is that then next step is:
Party A ruins Party A because you can always find a venue that will take up any case however absurd, and proceeds to throttle Party B to death with legal fees by dragging it through the courts for years.
Party A wins despite not having a leg to stand on.
It all comes back to the fact that the American judicial system has been infiltrated by aliens, which is the only thing that could explain the utter nonsense coming out of it on a daily basis.
Those cassette tape recorders are going to destroy the record industry. Just think how bad it would be if you could record television shows on cassette...
/. laps it up like a starving cat in the Carnation factory.
I don't know what's worse, the **AA flogging the same dead horse that was pummeled into equine pudding 30 years ago or the fact that
Wake me when it's over.
First, I don't believe Microsoft committed widespread bribery of the federal government to get out of their antitrust conviction. AFAIk, they were actually found guilty in that case.
Yeah, I think what happened is the new administration came in and said, "Oh yeah, antitrust, eh? Well, look MS, don't do it anymore, OK?", patted them on the butt and sent them on their way.
I think porcelain would work much better if you are going to...
Oh, wait... it said tinker in your case.
Never mind.
Now, whether Microsoft (or anyone) should be allowed to patent such thing... I don't know.
No, this is laughable even among laughable patents. But you can't blame Microsoft, as much as you might want to, you need to blame Congress, which allows this complete farce of a department to slowly undermine the entire economy of the U.S.
It's just a matter of time before something like the alleged patent on hyperlinks by BT actually gets issued and some company decides to hold the entire computer industry hostage. Hopefully, the economic damage won't be too great before our chumpresentatives decide to take a few minutes from their lobbyist-financed caviar and Dom Perignon snack-break and return the implementation of patents to something within the same area code of what was originally intended.
The system is screwed, you can't blame MS for using it. If they don't someone else, like SCO, perhaps, will do it.
My boss's wife is from Brazil and he's done business there and many other parts of the world. We've really got it good here in the U.S., but our leaders, of both parties, are doing their darnedest to screw it up... and not because they are stupid (although some are).
The number of registered lobbyists has something like quadrupled since 2000. One man/one vote is quickly becoming one million bucks/one vote. Of course, it's an inevitable consequence of the Federal government being so big. There's no way it could be any different... it's the government. It is even resembled what our Founding Fathers intended to create, and created, it wouldn't be such a problem.
Yes, but then the lawyers start getting bored and might sue someone inside the company just for something to do.
How? He didn't sign a contract when he got the boxes?
Sure, someone was exploiting FedEx's generosity with boxes, so they need to find some way to stop the abuse, not gang up on the poor kid with expensive lawyers and poorly thought-out overreaching laws.
Of course, the DMCA could just read, "Big rich companies are now free to pick on anyone they want for any reason as long as Congressmen's campaigns get a piece of the action." That's how it was passed wasn't it.
I tell ya, we are rapidly approaching a time when anyone with money and power can attack anyone else, for any reason, under the guise of some byzantine law that no one understands, or agrees with, even the people who passed it.
In many countries like Brazil, it's completely impossible to run a business and abide by the labyrinthe of complicated and conflicting laws. Is this the kind of country we want in the U.S.?
Now, it's possible that FedEx has a case that this guy is abusing their trademark with the appropriately colored "Fed Ex" text on his site, but I can't see how he is harming them and the fact that they would... and could... cite the DMCA is just frightening. Is there no sense of perspective among these huge companies? All the guy is saying is that they make good boxes, but now they will generate not a small amount of bad will.
Now if the guy was selling the furniture, I also think they'd have a case. As it is, maybe he'll have to spray paint or otherwise obscure the company's logo. I thought these guys paid big bucks to plaster their names on anything they could like billboards, TV commercials, stadiums, people's foreheads...
I guess Mattel missed out by not using the DMCA when they pounded the crap out of that harmless little Barbie site several years ago. I guess the lawyers need someone to beat up or they start getting cranky.
You have good points. I should have said "fiction" when I said "mythology" as my last statement of my previous post.
/. for the technical discussions and general nerd culture of which I am deeply ingrained, but once you get beyond computers, geeky TV shows and high technology, a large proportion of the inhabitants here are some of the most close-minded, bigoted and ignorant people you'll meet.
However, my ad hominem statement was no less flip than yours. I failed to make a better case simply because given the 60-hour work weeks I've been having lately, I really haven't had the mental energy to defend it better. I just wanted to see how the person who had that obnoxious quote about the hammer as a sig would respond to an equally obnoxious quote. I was neither impressed or surprised.
The truth is that I really enjoy
I'm glad that you, for one, are not one of those.
(And yes, I realize I'm still not defending my case...)