Being European with a serious interest in Hague not being implemented in its proposed form (I run a controversial English website out of Denmark, which would be sued in no time under US law), I went to noepatents to read more about the European effort against the Hague treaty.
I read their brief note on the treaty, and was quickly lead to their petition linked right next to the Hague description. I wanted to sign it, but the petition does not mention Hague by name and in fact, it's not against Hague directly! It's about epatents.... which I find quite misleading. If it's really the case that my signature will not be used in the case against the Hague treaty, then can someone maybe tell me where I can petition against it?
Or am I missing the point?
Potential terminology mixups are cleared up here (emphasis mine): "The treaty is called the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, and is being negotiated under the little known Hague Conference on Private International Law."
...for the environment, specifically to reduce Global Warming (this list is from www.hotearth.net)
Actually, I think nr. 1 should be to kill a human. Seriously, this is the nr. 1 best thing you can do for the environment. And make sure it's someone from a developed country, where we polute the most.
No, I don't hope you actually do it, but I wonder what polution would look like, if we were just 1 billion people on earth (not to mention problems with overcrowding, access to clean water, food shortage etc). Well, here goes:
10 - Plant two or more trees around your home.
9 - Put energy-saving lightbulbs in the three most used lights in your house.
8 - When you replace your refrigerator, buy a high-efficiency model.
7 - Buy food and other products with reusable or recyclable packaging.
6 - When you replace your washing machine, buy a low-energy, low-water use model.
5 - Install a solar thermal system to help provide your hot water.
4 - Recycle all of your homeís newsprint, cardboard, glass, and metal.
3 - Leave your car at home two days a week.
2 - Insulate your home, tune up your furnace, and install efficient shower heads.
1 - When you buy your next car, purchase a fuel-efficient model that gets up to 32 mpg or more.
Nevertheless, most cosmologists, including Dr. Guth and Dr. Linde, agree that the universe ultimately must come from somewhere, and that nothing is the leading candidate.
When these laws went into effect, I think I remember reading that the only similar laws existed in Libya.
Maybe the laws aren't identical, but on Iceland no English words are allowed, and every word which enters the country has to get an Icelandic translation. So the word 'computer' does not allowed there (but most likely used). Also, right now in Croatia a similar 'cleaning' of the language is taking place - they are getting rid of all the old Yugoslavien words, and replacing them with sometimes strange made-up Croatian variations (that's what Croats tell me anyway). France itself has laws that state that radiostations have to play at lease 30% French sung songs, so you often (more often than most Americans are aware) get english singers to rewrite their songs to French to benefit from these laws.
The DMCA looks sane in comparison. These language laws specify things like the relative font sizes of English and French signs in various contexts, and whether English is permitted at all.
If you have decided that you want to protect your language, then what's insane about being specific;)
I completely understand (but don't support) the Canadian approach. To native English speakers it might seem strange why anyone would object to letting the people use whatever words, they want, but in Denmark, where I am from, I would say that over 90% of people between 15 and 40 speak english near fluently, and maybe half that many speak a third language. In my daily life in Denmark, I speak English about 50% of the time. I have several foreign friends and it seems much more normal to speak English with them, than it does speaking Danish. One friend has lived, studied and worked in Denmark for 6 years without ever speaking the language, simply because it's not a problem - he speaks English. With only 5 million citizens in Denmark, it's easy to see where the language is going, and why someone would go to great lengths to stop such a development.
... you might want to skip all the 'Lessig is the man' and 'thank you for being here'-introduction by fastforwarding to 10 mins. into the.ram presentation.
I think it's true that it's hard to convert the mainstream user - I would still be typing on my old klik-klak IBM keyboard if it wasn't for my CTS.
However, from what I heard, it can be damn expensive, if one or more of your employees get wrist problems from typing - they can't continue work, and demand insurance or compensation. One of my friends worked for the the Danish railway system, doing some slave typing tasks, got CTS and ended up getting over three times as much in compensation as he got in wages, the three months he was there... and he's still getting money coming in every month (ok, that's Denmark).
I use a Datahand, and they claim that some companies have experienced increased productivity (up to 13% gain) on heavy duty typing tasks from using their keyboard. Ie. more productivity, less chance of employees getting wrist problems from investing in an alternative input device. If employers aren't insisting on their typers/coders using ergonomic input devices, it can cost them money AND the employees their health (and yes, CTS does suck).
... is a really nice piece from Time Magazine from last week about the new CEO at Ford and how he's pushing for green industrial revolution (he's actually a Ford too:).
Ford is well aware that there is precious little evidence to date that being green brings in greenbacks. And sustainability will require profitability. "Can we do this and make money? We have to," says Ford. "Has it ever been done? No. But it hasn't been tried either."
I hope he's for real, and that he actually has some influence. And that maybe he has more sense than his legal advisers.
offtopic:
I had a look at the link to Brainfingers, especially their Success Stories, and saw this about one of their users:
He experiences "electrical storms" in his body, which appear as involuntary muscle contractions and his body starts shaking. Professor Doherty, who has been working with this individual, reports that during these storms it looks as if the individual is going through electrical shock.
.....This individual has used the Cyberlink system for approximately 14 times. At first, he had little control. When the "electrical storms" occurred, the signals, as indicated by the Cyberlink graphical display, went off the display or reached maximum values.
Electrical storms.... Can anyone tell me what this is all about?
Nuclear is not the most expensive source of energy. Solar is.
Although not the most credible source in the world, the statement that nuclear energy is the most expensive energy source in the world came from an interview on CNN with the director (or whatever his title may be) of Greenpeace US. But it does sound likely that solar power is very expensive as well. Of cause there are infinite ways of meassuring the cost of an energy source (that people fear a nuclear power plant disaster could be considered a cost).
Secondly, I don't know where you got the impression that the trains were leaking radioactive waste. The German waste is immobilized in glass and is very resistant to decomposition.
Have a look at the link I posted in the original:)
In fact, lifecycle analysis has shown that renewables have a significant impact on human health. Some studies have even shown that nuclear has one of the lowest impacts on the environment and human health!
Ok, that sounds very interesting - do you have any sources?
Wind energy (for example) does have its costs. People living nearby complain about noise polution and other talk about wind-polution (something about currents being altered, birds crashing and paragliders bitching). Sure there's a cost.
Just for the record - I would MUCH rather that the US use any other energy source to solve its energy crisis than fossil fuels, including nuclear energy. However (again according to the Greenpeace interview) even if Bush went ahead and started building all the nuclear plants, they felt were needed, the crisis wouldn't be met until 5 years from now.... whereas with other (Greenpeace) proposed natural energy sources, things could change within 2 or 3 years.
For all you diehard pegasus mail fans who can't wait for version 4 to come out in a month or so, here is a snippet from the features list on Pegasus mail v4 progress page:
* Python scripting language. Pegasus Mail has a completely new object-oriented interface for use by extensions and plugins. We have taken advantage of this interface to provide a special plugin layer for the Python scripting language, a widely-used Open Source scripting engine. Using this, it will be possible to develop your own scripts to do just about anything, and integrate them into Pegasus Mail. And yes, we will be making sure that we don't fall into the same traps as Microsoft regarding problems with scripts executed by mail.
Pmail is not open source, and only runs on windows, but it's free, always has been, and it's the oldest windows mail client in the world! I only know Perl, but being the pmail fan I am, I guess I'll have to look into Python soon:)
I have been a member of.5e (half-empty) since I saw it on/. It's a really cool weblog and more like kiro5hin than/. The community there is very helpful and active. The kind of ideas ppl come up with gets pretty far out at times - well worth a visit.
Just a shame the release is overshadowed by Slashcodes... hmm...
If those numbers for France are accurate, that's pretty impressive. However, nuclear energy is THE most expensive source of energy, and the problems with waste are significant (just ask the Germans whos land leaking trains of nuclear waste have travelled trough) - nobody wants it in their backyard.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for nuclear energy, but I just think other sources, such as wind energy is much cooler!Windenergy accounts for 14% of Denmarks total energy production and Denmark only really started getting into the wind scene in 1997. Most countries could benefit from windmills, but if not, there is solar/bio/tidal/etc power out there.
Yeps, nuclear is better than burning fossil fuels, but natural energy is cheaper and risk-free.
Magnequench (what a name - nearly as lame as Traf-O-Data;) has a guide to their patents in pdf here.
It says they have most of them till around 2007 in the States in a bit earlier in Europe and Japan. Guess they wanna max their profits before it's expire time. BTW, the company should be listed as MQI in the Hong Kong stock exchange, but I can't find it anywhere.
How far back in the 70s? This article (gotten from another comment here) is an interview with the guys who started the first BBS, and they started on January 16, 1978. When did you start?
I used to be really into Twin Peaks and spent lotsa time on USEnet (or was it FIDOnet?) to discuss meanings of the episodes. Well, it got pretty far out, to say the least. For example, someone noticed that all the 3 digit hotel room numbers which were ever shown, added up to 12. Since David Lynch is a ment, it made perfect sense that he did this on purpose. Then there were all the anagrams, like 'Agent Cooper' == 'One Great Cop'.
And this never ended. The more people looked into it, the more strange shit came out. Some (me included) started speculating wether this all happened subconsciously for David Lynch. That maybe he didn't even know, but somehow he couldn't help adding twistedness to the script. And just like Mr. Lampe says here, I really got caught up in the looney evindence and lost perspective completely.
Spending 20+ mins on the pod race and 30- secs on Anakin leaving his mother to maybe never see her again was missing out on possibly the biggest character development scene in the whole movie. I mean, Anakin - kid, 10 years old - who doesn't know if he will EVER see his mother again, does call for a bit more depth than:
Anakin: Will I see you again?
Mother: What does your heart tell you?
Anakin: [ehh... I dunno, seeyoulaterbye]
> Sure you can repressent documents, and with stylesheets rewrap them into a design of your choise
Well, this is exactly what I use XML for, and so does IBM for the entire ibm.com (sorry, can't find the link, but read an entire article a few months ago). There are also one or two other megacorps using XML.
In the XML solution I am working on now, all the XML is generated on the fly and converted with an XSLT engine (Sablotron and PHP) so I don't really have a use for XMLquery, do I? I mean, I can just use SQL to get whatever I want.
Slashdot Mirror
Always funny, when people refer to themselves in the third person:
fvdl writes: "[...] The porting was done by Frank van der Linden of Wasabi Systems [...]"
Well, hey, Frank you deserve the publicity!
-Kraft
What EXACTLY do you mean by 'No income tax'?
-Kraft
Out of curiosity, would you care to list some of the questions you ask during an interview?
-Kraft
Ehh... what?! I live in France, and this price just seems far-fetched. Is that $1250 dollars a month? Pr. person??
-Kraft
I'm very picky about what I petition, so....
Being European with a serious interest in Hague not being implemented in its proposed form (I run a controversial English website out of Denmark, which would be sued in no time under US law), I went to noepatents to read more about the European effort against the Hague treaty.
I read their brief note on the treaty, and was quickly lead to their petition linked right next to the Hague description. I wanted to sign it, but the petition does not mention Hague by name and in fact, it's not against Hague directly! It's about epatents.... which I find quite misleading. If it's really the case that my signature will not be used in the case against the Hague treaty, then can someone maybe tell me where I can petition against it?
Or am I missing the point?
Potential terminology mixups are cleared up here (emphasis mine):
"The treaty is called the Hague Convention on Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters, and is being negotiated under the little known Hague Conference on Private International Law."
-Kraft
-Kraft
...for the environment, specifically to reduce Global Warming (this list is from www.hotearth.net)
Actually, I think nr. 1 should be to kill a human. Seriously, this is the nr. 1 best thing you can do for the environment. And make sure it's someone from a developed country, where we polute the most.
No, I don't hope you actually do it, but I wonder what polution would look like, if we were just 1 billion people on earth (not to mention problems with overcrowding, access to clean water, food shortage etc). Well, here goes:
10 - Plant two or more trees around your home.
9 - Put energy-saving lightbulbs in the three most used lights in your house.
8 - When you replace your refrigerator, buy a high-efficiency model.
7 - Buy food and other products with reusable or recyclable packaging.
6 - When you replace your washing machine, buy a low-energy, low-water use model.
5 - Install a solar thermal system to help provide your hot water.
4 - Recycle all of your homeís newsprint, cardboard, glass, and metal.
3 - Leave your car at home two days a week.
2 - Insulate your home, tune up your furnace, and install efficient shower heads.
1 - When you buy your next car, purchase a fuel-efficient model that gets up to 32 mpg or more.
-Kraft
-Kraft
If you have decided that you want to protect your language, then what's insane about being specific
I completely understand (but don't support) the Canadian approach. To native English speakers it might seem strange why anyone would object to letting the people use whatever words, they want, but in Denmark, where I am from, I would say that over 90% of people between 15 and 40 speak english near fluently, and maybe half that many speak a third language. In my daily life in Denmark, I speak English about 50% of the time. I have several foreign friends and it seems much more normal to speak English with them, than it does speaking Danish. One friend has lived, studied and worked in Denmark for 6 years without ever speaking the language, simply because it's not a problem - he speaks English. With only 5 million citizens in Denmark, it's easy to see where the language is going, and why someone would go to great lengths to stop such a development.
Just my 2 øre.
-Kraft
... you might want to skip all the 'Lessig is the man' and 'thank you for being here'-introduction by fastforwarding to 10 mins. into the .ram presentation.
-Kraft
I think it's true that it's hard to convert the mainstream user - I would still be typing on my old klik-klak IBM keyboard if it wasn't for my CTS.
However, from what I heard, it can be damn expensive, if one or more of your employees get wrist problems from typing - they can't continue work, and demand insurance or compensation. One of my friends worked for the the Danish railway system, doing some slave typing tasks, got CTS and ended up getting over three times as much in compensation as he got in wages, the three months he was there... and he's still getting money coming in every month (ok, that's Denmark).
I use a Datahand, and they claim that some companies have experienced increased productivity (up to 13% gain) on heavy duty typing tasks from using their keyboard. Ie. more productivity, less chance of employees getting wrist problems from investing in an alternative input device. If employers aren't insisting on their typers/coders using ergonomic input devices, it can cost them money AND the employees their health (and yes, CTS does suck).
-Kraft
-Kraft
I hope he's for real, and that he actually has some influence. And that maybe he has more sense than his legal advisers.
-Kraft
-Kraft
Although not for the disabled, if you just want a head controlled mouse (for 100 bux), then see the Natural Point.
-Kraft
Wind energy (for example) does have its costs. People living nearby complain about noise polution and other talk about wind-polution (something about currents being altered, birds crashing and paragliders bitching). Sure there's a cost.
Just for the record - I would MUCH rather that the US use any other energy source to solve its energy crisis than fossil fuels, including nuclear energy. However (again according to the Greenpeace interview) even if Bush went ahead and started building all the nuclear plants, they felt were needed, the crisis wouldn't be met until 5 years from now.... whereas with other (Greenpeace) proposed natural energy sources, things could change within 2 or 3 years.
-Kraft
-Kraft
I have been a member of .5e (half-empty) since I saw it on /. It's a really cool weblog and more like kiro5hin than /. The community there is very helpful and active. The kind of ideas ppl come up with gets pretty far out at times - well worth a visit.
Just a shame the release is overshadowed by Slashcodes... hmm...
-Kraft
If those numbers for France are accurate, that's pretty impressive. However, nuclear energy is THE most expensive source of energy, and the problems with waste are significant (just ask the Germans whos land leaking trains of nuclear waste have travelled trough) - nobody wants it in their backyard.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for nuclear energy, but I just think other sources, such as wind energy is much cooler! Windenergy accounts for 14% of Denmarks total energy production and Denmark only really started getting into the wind scene in 1997. Most countries could benefit from windmills, but if not, there is solar/bio/tidal/etc power out there.
Yeps, nuclear is better than burning fossil fuels, but natural energy is cheaper and risk-free.
-Kraft
Magnequench (what a name - nearly as lame as Traf-O-Data ;) has a guide to their patents in pdf here.
It says they have most of them till around 2007 in the States in a bit earlier in Europe and Japan. Guess they wanna max their profits before it's expire time. BTW, the company should be listed as MQI in the Hong Kong stock exchange, but I can't find it anywhere.
-Kraft
How far back in the 70s? This article (gotten from another comment here) is an interview with the guys who started the first BBS, and they started on January 16, 1978. When did you start?
-Kraft
I used to be really into Twin Peaks and spent lotsa time on USEnet (or was it FIDOnet?) to discuss meanings of the episodes. Well, it got pretty far out, to say the least. For example, someone noticed that all the 3 digit hotel room numbers which were ever shown, added up to 12. Since David Lynch is a ment, it made perfect sense that he did this on purpose. Then there were all the anagrams, like 'Agent Cooper' == 'One Great Cop'.
And this never ended. The more people looked into it, the more strange shit came out. Some (me included) started speculating wether this all happened subconsciously for David Lynch. That maybe he didn't even know, but somehow he couldn't help adding twistedness to the script. And just like Mr. Lampe says here, I really got caught up in the looney evindence and lost perspective completely.
I guess that paterns and similarities are all over the place, you just gotta look hard enough. Just like adding the ASCII values of the letters in Bill Gates name and it equals 666. It just doesn't prove anything.
-Kraft
Spending 20+ mins on the pod race and 30- secs on Anakin leaving his mother to maybe never see her again was missing out on possibly the biggest character development scene in the whole movie. I mean, Anakin - kid, 10 years old - who doesn't know if he will EVER see his mother again, does call for a bit more depth than:
Anakin: Will I see you again?
Mother: What does your heart tell you?
Anakin: [ehh... I dunno, seeyoulaterbye]
-Kraft
> Sure you can repressent documents, and with stylesheets rewrap them into a design of your choise
Well, this is exactly what I use XML for, and so does IBM for the entire ibm.com (sorry, can't find the link, but read an entire article a few months ago). There are also one or two other megacorps using XML.
In the XML solution I am working on now, all the XML is generated on the fly and converted with an XSLT engine (Sablotron and PHP) so I don't really have a use for XMLquery, do I? I mean, I can just use SQL to get whatever I want.
-Kraft
Kinda. The battery on the IBM thinkpad t20 can actually get so warm, that I can't keep it on my lap.
-Kraft