I'm a foreign resident of Japan, and this policy is invasive enough that after years here as a tax-paying resident with a Japanese spouse and child, we are thinking of packing our things and moving back to Canada.
First off, I'd encourage everyone who opposes this policy to register their views with this online petition.
I would also encourage you to write a letter to the Ministry of Justice at:
General Affairs Division, Immigration Bureau, Ministry of Justice
1-1-1 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-8977, Japan Tel: +81 (0)3-3580-4111 URL: http://www.moj.go.jp/
Also, send a copy to the Japanese National Tourist Organization, making clear the impact on tourism, at their Japanese headquarters and your regional office listed at the URL below:
Not only is this policy an invasion of privacy, but also discriminatory in its application. Of the major terrorist incidents in Japan, none has been committed by a foreigner -- 1995 Tokyo Sarin Gas attacks, bombing of government office buildings in Hokkaido in the 70s, assassination of the Mayor of Nagasaki... all perpetrated by Japanese nationals.
Further, fingerprinting is dubious at best in preventing terrorist attacks. A terrorist organization capable of a serious attack on Japan is capable of entering the country without passing through immigration. From the point of view of politics, however, fingerprinting foreigners is an easy way to make it appear as though you're getting tough on terrorism and foreign crime.
Lastly, The Japanese government has produced an introductory video on the new scheme that you really have to see to believe. As the guy in the video says "I'll pass it on to all my friends". I get the feeling this won't have the effect the Japanese government intends it to have.
They've also put out a PDF version of the poster for this program.
are making the same comment... most of whom don't realise that that is Frank Abbagale's entire point for the length of the article, and they're arguing a nitpick argument over a single poorly chosen word in the opening line.
This article suggests that the relationship between the KHTML team and Apple is much improved over what it once was. They maintain a blog/svn at webkit.org and have a relatively open development process for a traditional closed-source shop.
If you want to see what else Apple gives back to the community, you can find it yourself at their main Open Source page, which includes links to their OS kernel (mainly Apple + NeXT), userland (mostly FreeBSD), Launchd (Apple), etc.
Apple also runs macports.org, which is a community-driven ports system for OS X, following along the example of the BSD ports systems. Apple contributes hardware & some development resources (not sure if they're paid for this or if it's voluntary, but they are there).
US law has very limited application outside the US, whether the US government likes it or not. See Jon Johansen as an example of a failed attempt to do so. Other examples are the fact that Canadians can legally download copyrighted works from P2P file sharing networks for their own private use, something that would be illegal in the US.
Another example of a failed attempt to apply US law outside the US is the Helms-Burton Act wherein non-US companies were forbidden to trade with Cuba. The EU promptly passed a law binding in all its member countries declaring the act unenforceable within the EU. The UK passed similar measures. Canada passed the Foreign Extra-territorial Measures Act, forbidding Canadians or Canadian companies from complying with "extra-territorial measures of the United States"; it further requires under penalty of fine that any attempt to enforce such a measure in Canada be reported to the Attorney General of Canada. Further, a measure was passed stating that any loss/damages suffered by Canadians, even those residing in the US, could be recovered under Canadian law. Mexico passed a similar law.
One of the few times US law is applicable outside the US, is when it's applied to US citizens. A US citizen who commits murder in another country may end up (under certain circumstances) being extradited back to the US to face charges under the US justice system. But even in some such cases US law turns out to be, for all practical purposes, unenforceable -- see the Cuban Pyjama Crisis, wherein Wal-Mart Canada, although it is a Canadian subsidiary of a US-headquartered firm ended up putting Cuban goods back on its shelves
While 'CMYK' is offered in the Palette, GIMP, by default, works only in RGB, grayscale and index color modes. [...] partial CMYK support is available with the Separate plug-in
That said, I agree - for 90% of the users out there, these apps have more than enough functionality, and do a fantastic job.
I would be tempted to agree with your interpretation. However, even distribution appears to be a grey area. Some rulings indicate sharing files on a file-sharing network is legal.
"The mere fact of placing a copy on a shared directory in a computer where that copy can be accessed via a P2P service does not amount to distribution," [Judge] Finckenstein wrote. "Before it constitutes distribution, there must be a positive act by the owner of the shared directory, such as sending out the copies or advertising that they are available for copying."
The analogy given by the judge is that if simply making copyrighted works available to others amounted to distribution, then libraries would all be in violation of the law. Intent to distribute is a key issue here.
I actually have no clue what point you've been trying to make, aside from acting like a child and making an ass of yourself, but whatever it was, you could have saved yourself the embarrassment with 2 minutes on Google and probably answered whatever questions you had.
This states you're free to make yourself a private copy of a copyrighted work, so long as the intent is not one of: (a) selling/renting it (b) distributing (c) communicating to the public (d) performing to the public.
In idiot-speak: you can borrow your friend's CD and make yourself a copy; your friend can borrow your copy and make himself a copy; his friend can copy that copy -- all so long as the intent isn't distribution.
If the Act itself is not clear/detailed enough for you, and this is a topic you're actually fanatically interested in (as opposed to just being a means satisfying your urge to argue about topics you don't actually care about on Slashdot), then I'd suggest using Canada411 to look up a Canadian intellectual property lawyer who can answer your questions.
In Canada, making a copy for private use is allowed. Here's the government's explanation of the law.
The amendment to the Act legalized private copying of sound recordings of musical works onto audio recording media - i.e., the copying of pre-recorded music for the private use of the person who makes the copy.
Replace "German" with "Canadian" and you get another example of the US handing over a non-american to a 3rd country to be tortured: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar
A liberal in the US would be considered a right wing conservative in Canada Agreed.
Republicans would be called Libertarians. Ummm... no. A party that believes in meddling in personal freedoms (gay marriage, the war on drugs), massive spending on foreign wars, and dictating morals to its citizens is Libertarian by Canadian standards? Sorry you're way off base. The Republicans are definitely far more insane than any "conservative" party in Canada, but they're certainly not Libertarian by anyone's standards.
It is also why the average US citizen lives better. How do you quantify this? I grew up in Canada, worked in California for two years, spend another year working in Mexico, and have been living in Japan for the last two and a half years. At no point could I say that my quality of life was any better in the US than Canada. I'd put them roughly on par, though I missed a lot about home. I will admit the California weather was a bonus. If I hadn't had a decent-paying job, Canada would have been by far the better choice - health care, etc.
Oh, the US government is big but not on a per capita basis. How are you measuring this? If you're talking spending, Canada is running a surplus, the US is running a deficit.
We do not have a freedom of speech law Wow, I'm beginning to doubt you're actually Canadian. I mean, The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is covered in Social Studies class starting in elementary school with significant time spent on it in secondary.
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: a) freedom of conscience and religion; b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication; c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and d) freedom of association.
Errr, yes you can enable the GUI. There's even a screenshot -- though testing Apple's legal team and leaving your real name in a screenshot might not be the best idea.
It is possible to recover music from your iPod, just not supported. I suppose Apple is getting pressure from the recording industry to not enable this functionality, but a little google searching will turn up five or six apps each for Mac and Windows.
My laptop died a horrible death the other day due to me stupidly checking it in my luggage on an overseas flight. I picked up a new machine on the weekend, and got my entire collection back off my iPod within an hour. I used iPodRip, which, aside from being a little crashy, successfully recovered my collection. It left a temp dir (~/Music/iPodRip/temp) with over 1000 mp3s behind, but I deleted that when I noticed it later.
Mamood Ahmadi-Najad (president of Iran) denies the holocust happend and threatend Israel to be "wiped off the map"
They just threatened. The USA actually attacked Iraq.
To be perfectly clear, they didn't even go so far as to threaten to "wipe Israel off the map." No such idiom even exists in Persian. He did say he hoped its regime would collapse.
One should really blame poor translation and propagandists on that line.
The only drugs that should be far more tightly regulated than they are are antibiotics and antivirals, because incorrect use by one person harms other people.
Let's think of some other costs: (a) Hospitalisation (whether for overdose, detox, or related treatment) costs money to taxpayers (b) Crimes committed to afford buying more drugs result in policing and other costs (c) Addiction results in reduced capacity to work and support family, which results in social-work spend
Your argument seems to be that antibiotics shouldn't be legalised because their use by another will impact you - which implicitly indicates that legalisation would increase their use. If legalisation does affect usage, I'd argue that all drugs involve a cost to you.
That said, I think the focus should be on increased education as to the dangers of drugs. I don't mean "This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs", make a detailed school unit on the effects of use, physically and mentally, and on the societal problems that use entails: poverty, inability to support yourself and your family, and monetary costs to society.
Of course, there are still many who will use drugs. Given that this is the case, provide safe injection sites staffed by reigstered nurses so that these people can be monitored and an ambulance can be called if necessary.
With such a system in place, I think use of certain drugs (eg. pot) should be legalised outright and others should be de-criminalised (equivalent to getting a parking ticket or other fine).
As a software developer who often works remotely from a 867Mhz G4 revA 12" Powerbook, OS 10.4 has never been a problem for me, given >= 512MB. While I'd love a shiny new MacBook, I wouldn't consider my current machine slow. It's well within in the acceptable range.
I do agree that 400MHz with 128MB RAM *would* likely be slow though.
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First off, I'd encourage everyone who opposes this policy to register their views with this online petition.
I would also encourage you to write a letter to the Ministry of Justice at:
Also, send a copy to the Japanese National Tourist Organization, making clear the impact on tourism, at their Japanese headquarters and your regional office listed at the URL below:
Not only is this policy an invasion of privacy, but also discriminatory in its application. Of the major terrorist incidents in Japan, none has been committed by a foreigner -- 1995 Tokyo Sarin Gas attacks, bombing of government office buildings in Hokkaido in the 70s, assassination of the Mayor of Nagasaki... all perpetrated by Japanese nationals.
Further, fingerprinting is dubious at best in preventing terrorist attacks. A terrorist organization capable of a serious attack on Japan is capable of entering the country without passing through immigration. From the point of view of politics, however, fingerprinting foreigners is an easy way to make it appear as though you're getting tough on terrorism and foreign crime.
Lastly, The Japanese government has produced an introductory video on the new scheme that you really have to see to believe. As the guy in the video says "I'll pass it on to all my friends". I get the feeling this won't have the effect the Japanese government intends it to have.
They've also put out a PDF version of the poster for this program.
And while we're at it, stop contributing to Linux and the GNU userland! Red Hat charges good money for that - let them fix it!
are making the same comment... most of whom don't realise that that is Frank Abbagale's entire point for the length of the article, and they're arguing a nitpick argument over a single poorly chosen word in the opening line.
This article suggests that the relationship between the KHTML team and Apple is much improved over what it once was. They maintain a blog/svn at webkit.org and have a relatively open development process for a traditional closed-source shop.
If you want to see what else Apple gives back to the community, you can find it yourself at their main Open Source page, which includes links to their OS kernel (mainly Apple + NeXT), userland (mostly FreeBSD), Launchd (Apple), etc.
Apple also runs macports.org, which is a community-driven ports system for OS X, following along the example of the BSD ports systems. Apple contributes hardware & some development resources (not sure if they're paid for this or if it's voluntary, but they are there).
Errr. Perhaps you can explain yourself.
US law has very limited application outside the US, whether the US government likes it or not. See Jon Johansen as an example of a failed attempt to do so. Other examples are the fact that Canadians can legally download copyrighted works from P2P file sharing networks for their own private use, something that would be illegal in the US.
Another example of a failed attempt to apply US law outside the US is the Helms-Burton Act wherein non-US companies were forbidden to trade with Cuba. The EU promptly passed a law binding in all its member countries declaring the act unenforceable within the EU. The UK passed similar measures. Canada passed the Foreign Extra-territorial Measures Act, forbidding Canadians or Canadian companies from complying with "extra-territorial measures of the United States"; it further requires under penalty of fine that any attempt to enforce such a measure in Canada be reported to the Attorney General of Canada. Further, a measure was passed stating that any loss/damages suffered by Canadians, even those residing in the US, could be recovered under Canadian law. Mexico passed a similar law.
One of the few times US law is applicable outside the US, is when it's applied to US citizens. A US citizen who commits murder in another country may end up (under certain circumstances) being extradited back to the US to face charges under the US justice system. But even in some such cases US law turns out to be, for all practical purposes, unenforceable -- see the Cuban Pyjama Crisis, wherein Wal-Mart Canada, although it is a Canadian subsidiary of a US-headquartered firm ended up putting Cuban goods back on its shelves
Brings back good memories :)
From Wikipedia:
That said, I agree - for 90% of the users out there, these apps have more than enough functionality, and do a fantastic job.
The analogy given by the judge is that if simply making copyrighted works available to others amounted to distribution, then libraries would all be in violation of the law. Intent to distribute is a key issue here.
I actually have no clue what point you've been trying to make, aside from acting like a child and making an ass of yourself, but whatever it was, you could have saved yourself the embarrassment with 2 minutes on Google and probably answered whatever questions you had.
Here's the English version of the government website: Canada Copyright Act (Section 80)
This states you're free to make yourself a private copy of a copyrighted work, so long as the intent is not one of: (a) selling/renting it (b) distributing (c) communicating to the public (d) performing to the public.
In idiot-speak: you can borrow your friend's CD and make yourself a copy; your friend can borrow your copy and make himself a copy; his friend can copy that copy -- all so long as the intent isn't distribution.
If the Act itself is not clear/detailed enough for you, and this is a topic you're actually fanatically interested in (as opposed to just being a means satisfying your urge to argue about topics you don't actually care about on Slashdot), then I'd suggest using Canada411 to look up a Canadian intellectual property lawyer who can answer your questions.
In exchange we pay a levy on recordable media.
When people start dying from exposure walking from their driveway to their front door in Cornwall, I would expect power consumption to start going up.
Replace "German" with "Canadian" and you get another example of the US handing over a non-american to a 3rd country to be tortured: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar
deltree: it's been years since I used NT, but if I remember right rd /s/q dirname should do what you're after.
2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms:
a) freedom of conscience and religion;
b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;
c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and
d) freedom of association.
s/Canadian IRS/Revenue Canada/ :P
s/SSN/SIN/
Come on man, it's Roscoe P. Coltrane... everyone knows the guy is from Hazzard County, Georgia! Foiled once again.
I bought an F901iC in 2004 with a fingerprint scanner built in. Works surprisingly well.
Errr, yes you can enable the GUI. There's even a screenshot -- though testing Apple's legal team and leaving your real name in a screenshot might not be the best idea.
Now that is what I call compact code! I don't know of any other project that's pulled off so much functionality in so few lines of code.
But the bug/lines of code ratio of 23/15 is a little high for my tastes. Perhaps it's time to look at Visual SourceSafe.
It is possible to recover music from your iPod, just not supported. I suppose Apple is getting pressure from the recording industry to not enable this functionality, but a little google searching will turn up five or six apps each for Mac and Windows.
My laptop died a horrible death the other day due to me stupidly checking it in my luggage on an overseas flight. I picked up a new machine on the weekend, and got my entire collection back off my iPod within an hour. I used iPodRip, which, aside from being a little crashy, successfully recovered my collection. It left a temp dir (~/Music/iPodRip/temp) with over 1000 mp3s behind, but I deleted that when I noticed it later.
You forget that our national pastime is hockey...
To be perfectly clear, they didn't even go so far as to threaten to "wipe Israel off the map." No such idiom even exists in Persian. He did say he hoped its regime would collapse.
One should really blame poor translation and propagandists on that line.
The only drugs that should be far more tightly regulated than they are are antibiotics and antivirals, because incorrect use by one person harms other people.
Let's think of some other costs:
(a) Hospitalisation (whether for overdose, detox, or related treatment) costs money to taxpayers
(b) Crimes committed to afford buying more drugs result in policing and other costs
(c) Addiction results in reduced capacity to work and support family, which results in social-work spend
Your argument seems to be that antibiotics shouldn't be legalised because their use by another will impact you - which implicitly indicates that legalisation would increase their use. If legalisation does affect usage, I'd argue that all drugs involve a cost to you.
That said, I think the focus should be on increased education as to the dangers of drugs. I don't mean "This is your brain, this is your brain on drugs", make a detailed school unit on the effects of use, physically and mentally, and on the societal problems that use entails: poverty, inability to support yourself and your family, and monetary costs to society.
Of course, there are still many who will use drugs. Given that this is the case, provide safe injection sites staffed by reigstered nurses so that these people can be monitored and an ambulance can be called if necessary.
With such a system in place, I think use of certain drugs (eg. pot) should be legalised outright and others should be de-criminalised (equivalent to getting a parking ticket or other fine).
As a software developer who often works remotely from a 867Mhz G4 revA 12" Powerbook, OS 10.4 has never been a problem for me, given >= 512MB. While I'd love a shiny new MacBook, I wouldn't consider my current machine slow. It's well within in the acceptable range.
I do agree that 400MHz with 128MB RAM *would* likely be slow though.