"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you." -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
Sinking to their level of questionable ethics and spurious tactics only makes our claims questionable in the eyes of those around us. If we are to convice congress/ the public/ the courts to take action we must take care that we are a credible group making a credible claim. Cheating, lying and breaking ethical boundries will get us knowhere in the battle to win the support of the public or the courts.
Wouldn't this count as a form of illegal bundling? IANAL but....
Lets look at it this way, if I purchase a new NetAPP from either them or CDW the only option I have is to purchase the bundled deal (both the software license and the hardware) as they consider it one single entity. However, if I choose to sell it I can only transfer legal ownership of the hardware and not the software.
So, if I sell my NetAPP (hardware only) I should thus retain the license for the software and be able to purchase the hardware only from NetApp (though why anyone would do this with a newer model I don't know). However, if I request to do so they have and will respond that they are sold as one and I can not buy one without the other... Thus would they not be violating the bundling laws by forcing me to purchase one item to get the other when they can be sold separately and this is provable by their very own license?
It just seems unenforceable if someone will challenge the whole thing in court. I would think that between property laws (First Right Of Owner) and general contract law enforceability that this would be struck down pretty quick.
As a second thought, what would prevent another company from creating software (GPL anyone?) for all of this second market hardware? Would the hardware vendors be able to do anything about it?
DiamlerChrystler's Jeep Divisin does do this. Recently my partner and I went to the website, designed out his dream Jeep Liberty and then it gave us the option to send the design to several dealers. With in 48 hours we had quotes rolling in over the web. We chose the one with the best price and best additional offerings. I called them up with my order number, they charged a $500 deposit on my credit card.
Four weeks laters they called us a to let us know the Liberty was in and that we could pick it up. We picked it up that very same day. The sticker on the window even had our names on it and said "Especially built for...".
We will definitly be doing this again next time we want to get a vehicle.
I wonder how many of these subpoena's have to be sent to ISP's before they simply stop recording the IP info? Already it has been reported that DePaul University in Chicago is saying that it no longer has the user info for that IP...
Are there any laws that require ISP's to keep track users & IP's? From the laws that I have looked over (without doing any real research) it looks like the law only requires them to turn over any relevant info availble.
With what has to be mounting cost I can imagine that small ISP's are dumping this info so when the request comes in they say- "Got nothing". How much longer before the cost gets to high for the larger ones?
Something to keep in mind is that MS does not offer a newer version of Java because of Sun. A while back Sun sued MS for offering an implementation of Java that was not fully compatiable with Java.
As part of the settlement MS was barred by Sun from shipping a newer version of Java or updating the current version. Microsoft actually had to go back to Sun to get permission to fix some bugs/ security holes in the old Java runtime.
Really, Sun is a victim of its own foolishness. Yeah, MS was selling a broken implementation, and yes they should have been stopped. But preventing MS from shipping any JRE they developed in house simply meant that they would basically ship nothing (as XP does not ship with Java, it must be downloaded- either MS's old Java or Sun's lastest JRE). Now that they stopped them they said "Hey, no one is using the new stuff on Windows!?!?"- well DUH! Most Windoz users have no idea about Java, no less who makes it or if they needed (heck most dont know about Flash)
I am sorry, I feel no pity for Sun here. They may not have started this fight or layed the foundation, but they certainly built upon it with the settlement they hammered out with MS on Java a long time ago.
What I want to know is where can I find Bill's personal e-mail adddress?!?! Either he has one that he checks himself (a personal one) or he is simply reflecting on other users experiences.
Maybe I do have a use for that last offer... "Get Millions of Emails Addresses CHEAP! xDvjey"
Interestingly enough this is how the US Constitution was written. The Constitutinal Congress laid out the frame work and then general points that needed to covered. They then sent this information to good old TJ (Thomas Jefferson, for those not from Virginia) and he wrote out the Constitution (and the Decl. Of Independence). From there each person in the group made recommendations for changes and even gramatical corrections.
Anyway, the point is that only one person did the writing, thus keeping the document cohesive in nature, but many contribuited to its finer points and broad layout. Having only one writer also ensured a good natural flow and single writing style.
Just goes to show that most things are rehashed old history.
The problem with that is that in many cases the spammers are not legally selling what they are offering. Take the recent case posted on/. where the spamers personal info was posted (can't find the story now or I would link to it). In that case when Symantec was approached (because the guy was selling Norton Anti-Virus by spamming ppl) Symantec reported they were investigating him for selling pirated copies.
It stands to reason that spammers who use fraudulent claims, methods or unethical tactics are more than likely not legitimate marketers and thus not being used by legitimate companies.
In short it would probably do no good to go after the companies being marketed because most of them are probably being scammed by the spammer too.
I may be off my mark here as IANAL but there is a big difference. AOL has proven that a) there has been a tangible violation of the law b) they have tracked the violater back to a particular system(s) c) they are suing the violator and not the company the violator is using to send email.
In the RIAA vs. Verizon case RIAA was suing to get the subscriber information without ever proving that there were specific incidences of copyright violation (instead charging that P2P is ONLY used to steal music). In addition they did not sue copyright violators (as a "Jane or John Doe") and then use supoenas to get the personons name. Instead they sued Verizon to get the information directly. Verizon's argument from the begining was that that RIAA was skipping step one- 1) Show evidence of a crime and step two- 2) Seek to take action against said anonymous criminal (this may seem odd, but our legal system allows us to sue an unknown person/ group and fill in their name later). Instead RIAA sued the people who "facilitated" the crime and stated that all of Verizons customer records should be on display to the RIAA Nazi SS forces without proof or ponderance in court.
AOL, as stated, is instead going directly after the offenders and using the power of the courts to get specific information about specific crimes, not all customer information at will and on demand.
If I was not clear I am sorry. My clients do not use AOL, but they do use Bellsouth and Charter Comm. "Business" accounts that are really Residential accounts that Bellsouth & Charter have done two things with:
1. Charged more money 2. Changes the Terms of Service to allow more users and servers
The problem for these businesses comes in contacting vendors, personell, individuals or the rare business partner who is on AOL. Because the accounts from Bellsouth DSL and Charter Communications Pipeline Cable Internet are in the same netblock as residential users they are blocked from using their own server to send email to AOL.
The biggest problem that I see with this move by AOL is for businesses with their own E-Mail Servers. Many of my clients use Exchange, Lotus, etc as their email server for the groupware features. Since many of these clients are small to medium businees they operate on Business DSL and cable connections.
There are two problems that I have begun to notice. One, that the DSL and Cable providers are not doing a good job with PTR records and consequently the reverse DNS usually is something like xxx.xxx.xxx.atl.bellsouth.net instead of mail.companyname.com. Secondly, Bellsouth and others are now blocking ALL relaying through their servers that do not end in @bellsouth.net.
This means that for some of my clients they are being blocked from sending email to AOL. Why? Because for Bellsouth (and many others) having a Static IP means that they simply set a reservation on their DHCP server. This means that they are "dynamic" IP's even though the companies are paying $10 to $20 more per month to have "static" IP's. Also, these "Business Accounts" are drawing IPs from the same blocks as residential IPs. In one case the IP address for my client at home (down the street from his office) is usually only a few numbers off from his mail servers "static" IP.
While I can understand why AOL is doing this, I do not see how this solution is going to fix things. AOL is assuming that the problem is ignorant users and malicious spamers and that ALL ISP's are doing things like they should. We all know this is not true. Many T1 providers do not even setup proper Zones and PTR's for the IP's. On smaller ISP providers there is often no differentiation from Dynamic IP blocks and Static blocks, as they also use "reservation" based systems.
The flaw in AOL's thinking is that they can fix a broken protocal by filtering messages based on RFC's being followed by ISP's. I dont see this working well for long.
This sounds on the surface like a good idea, but if many (most?) Sys Admins will not close their mail servers up to prevent relaying will they load this app? If I understand this right for this to be effective a lot of people would have to load this software. Given that many of the systems out there are corporate systems that run MS Exchange or Lotus Domino or Novell GroupWise will they even be able to load this? Just wandering thoughts.
I was told the same thing by boh HP & Dell. However, I guess i was a little more upset. So, I called my HP rep and my Dell rep. Both of them told me the same thing and showed me the verbage in the warranty/ support agreement. Basically, what it works out to is you still have your warranty on your hardware, you just get no support. Also, if you make any changes to Firmware/ BIOS (Wireless Intersil chip Firmwares, BIOS rewrites, IEEE 1394 firware, etc) then your warranty is voided. However, the crux of the problem is that they ONLY provide the troubleshooting/ diagnostics software in Windows format. In fact if you downgrade to a lower version of Windows than they support they will not honor the suppport or warranty agreemen".
What this works out to is that as long as nothing goes wrong that requires a diagnostics application you are ok and they will cover it. However, if they need to run diagnostics and or try firmware changes or systems checks if you can not run THEIR diag application they will not do a warranty swap... unless you get a very forgiving/ nice/ sympathetic customer support rep.
So... what it works out to is they do not want to spend the money to re-write all of their apps for the many OS'es out there. Also, they do not want to train their "technical support people" how to read reports from a multitude of programs on different OSes.
I can understand this to some degree as it would drive up cost and thus make their product less competive then other products out there. In the PC market that would be devastating seeing as how cost is often one of the few differentiators between products. What it works out to is that until the "others" do it each company has no reason to want to and a disincetive to offering warranty on Linux or other Non-windows OSes.
>>>First, to clarify the present situation: GE owns Hughes Electronics/DirecTV
Actually it is General Motors that owns Hughes and not GE. GE operates its own statalite group that is managed PanSat (now/soon to be) a division of EchoStar- part of the merger cancelation agreement.
Rumor has it that GE may actually be interested in getting DirectTV for its Cable News/ NBC division. But this would be a major departure for GE as they have pretty much divested themselves of all of the Broadcast/Distribution systems (ie: Cable, Radio Stations, etc)
One of the things often overlooked in the last mile debate is the effects that laying large amounts of Copper/Fiber/Etc in a local area. Not only are there cost associated with physically laying the cable but also longterm cost carried by the municipalities.
One of the biggest problems here in Atlanta is the condition of the roads and the sewer system. Now, on the surface this may seem to not correlate to the laying cable but quite the opposite is true. Recently our new Mayor/ Admin team hired several consultants to review the condidtions of the roads (which anyone here can tell you are horrible) and to find out why our sewer upgade project is so far behind. The reason... the massive amount of incorrectly laid, documented or bad road repair work done during the.Com boom from laying cable. In essence all the road paches are breaking up and roads built to last 10 to 20 years are failing after only 3-7.
The sewer and water project are held up by many problems, but a major one is the fact that as they go to lay new pipe they are find cable bundles that are unlabled and even if they do find out who owns them they dont know who controlls them any longer as many companies are bankrupt or in reorganization.
The question becomes who has to bear the burden of cost of resolving the problems and questions? Do the taxpayers of a given town have to carry the cost of Big Business run amok laying miles of Fiber and Copper all over towns with little the local goverments can do to stop them?
One of the little known provisions of the Telco Act of 1996 was that local goverments HAD TO give access/ right of way to new cable runs. For months the streets here in Atlanta were torn up and traffic was snarled- and there was nothing the City/ State could really do because each time they took action the FCC or courts would stop them. In fact several cable pull sites were left abandoned after the patron companies had long gone bankrupt, leaving the city/ taxpayers with the burden of doing road repair and close up work.
So, while there are many options out there for the last mile, and Fiber or anyother may seem good often overlooked is the cost to the local infrastructure and municipalites.
Just my 2 cents on a big topic with little results!
When the company I currently work for wanted both a Credit Check and a Criminal check I agreed.. on three terms:
1. That they give me a copy of the companie's Dunn & Bradstreet credit check- if they needed to know my history, I would get theirs.
They ended up deciding that my credit score was sufficient, and so I got the companies!
2. That they would give me a copy of their workmans comp/ OSHA review in exchange for my Criminal Background history.
We did do this and everything worked out just fine there.
3. That we would review these items together, they would destroy their paperwork and I would destroy mine. Then we both signed a statement attesting to the review and distruction. The only thing kept in my files is the fact that it was done and I passed.
Just a suggestion as they get what they want but it cost them equally. If they need to know, then you do too and it gives you the chance to review things with them so that they do not get the wrong idea. Also, with the companies info wide open they better understand the privacy issues at stake.
Not to get nit picky but the reason Picard's clone was having the problems he had was because of the "drugs" (?) he was given to accelerate his growth. That is why he was dying and having so many problems. This also explains how he was 25 or so and why he and Picard were so close in age.
Having gone the same route I have to agree. So, to resolve the problem I went and got a SonyEricsson T-Mobile T-68 with bluetooth and use the bluetooth to connect to my iPAQ. Now I can check mail, check news, send instant messages (wish Trillian had a PocketPC version) and get the info I need. I even went and got a Belkin bluetooth adapter for my laptop and use it with the T68 when I am on the road.
The best part of having the two separate items is that when I need only one, I carry only one. There are a lot of cases where I want my phone, but dont need the blulky Palm/PocketPC. And there are even more cases where I want to be "unavailable" but need my PocketPC.
Despite all the talk about convergence, I have to say it is nice to have two devices- especially when the battery dies in one!
As a consultant working for a software/ hardware consulting firm I handle this kind of question a lot. The problem is it usually has nothing to do with price.
As a firm we regularly advise against hiring individuals or small firms for software projects. Why? They tend to disappear. With a larger firm along with a higher price you usually get: more support and stability. We had a case not to long ago where we advised a client to take a higher bid on a web project than the lowest bidder- and they chose otherwise. They chose a lone developer in North Carolina to develop the system, he got a job offer that was "really good" but promised to keep working. Three months later nothing new had happened and he tells us he is sorry but he is busy with "work"! (To which the client responded "Well what the hell do you consider our project and payments!). Two weeks later we get a single burned CD with some source code and a note saying he had to move, so sorry, thanks for the opportunity. We did get some money back but now we do not know where he is even located! Now we are scrambling to find a group that can finish the project on time and with out too much of a higher cost- more than likely we will have to start over.
Are all individual developers/ programmers like this? No, not at all but the process of finding this out is often difficult and painful. So... most companies go with larger firms that have more stability and offerings. With that comes overhead for the bidder and thus a higher cost. So, often the higher cost bid is chosen not because the other bid is too low but because there is no stability. Also with bigger companies there are multiple developers, better planning (usually, but trust me not always) and more experience. One of the other benefits of the larger deployment/ programming companies is that they usually have lots of references that can be reviewed and checked out in detail. Often with smaller firms or individuals many of the projects they have completed were with another company and they really don't count. When you work for someone else there is a support structure (accounting/ finance, more developers, better equipment & testing) that you do not have on your own.
This is not to say that we have not had good experiences with individual developers (or bad ones with larger programming groups) but on the whole our client feels better when they have a company with assets to make grievances with and not some guy with an computer, car and PlayStation as his primary assets that we sue for.
What is being overlooked here is software development and support. Think of the number of applications that are out there that currently make calls to "middleware" in Windows OS's. Now, lets say my mother buys a new Dell but Dell has opted to take out IE & MS Media Player. My dear old mother starts to install programs that use IE and MS Media Player and suddenly they do not work. She is not going to understand or care about anything other than either a) her new computer is broken or b)she is not going to repurchase the latest versions of perfectly working programs. Are we going to expect all the other software companies that already have a difficult time competing to go back and re-release fixes for all of thier old applications for free?!?!!? The would go bankrupt!
The reality of it is there are too many dare I say legacy applications out there that will be disabled and create a support nightmare. Aditionally, think of the support problems. Your new girlfriend (or boyfriend) calls and wants some help with his or her computer. Which version do they have? Does it have IE built in or not? Defrag built in or not? Media player, HyperTerminal, or any list of other things.
The really big question is what constitutes "middleware"? Read the description provided by both MS & the 9 states. The concept of this "middleware" is not based on technology but a feeling some lawyers have. In theroy could the entire user interface not be "middleware"? Linux ships without a specific GUI, so could Windows, now we really have a support and programming nightmare.
Like it or not, MS has helped do one thing- provide a simplified base for the consumer . Not us programmers, hacksers, and computer junkies, but for our mothers, brothers and aunts. My mother need only know that she has a really fast Dell Pentium IV with Windows XP Home on it to go get a new program. The support for the enduser will only get worse if the number of different OS's and "modules" grows adinfinum.
IMHO while I do not really like MS, I have to agree a modular WinOS will wreak havoc in the consumer PC market and quite possibly set us back not from a technical standpoint but from a end user support and usablity standpoint.
I have not personally come across one of these "marvles of inovation" but have seen images of many on the net. All of the CD's that I saw had packaging that bore the the "CD Audio" logo in some way or place.
Marketing these CD's with the CD logo and thus representing them as Red Book standard- would that not be false advertising? Thus could you not file a class action suit and even get the FTC involved?
If nothing else would this not give us a way to at least know which ones are "good" and "bad"? I mean in the absence of a lable that warns would the lack of a "CD" lable would be good.
IANAL but this sounds like a plausable action to take to at least force the hand of the evil empire of the music monoliths.
I have been there... I was the geek in school, harrased for any number of reasons, and stand out as different in a crowd. Like you tossed into the mix I have manic-depression AND I am gay (talk about a double wammy!).
The point is that about a year ago a friend of mine gave me a kick in the ass and started taking me out to places. Introducing me to people. It not only helped me break out of my shell, but now I socialize with the people at work.
We hang out, we go out, we do all kinds of things. Mind you, none are gay, but I can have fun AND be different at the same time. I take pride in my differences, rather than worry about them.
Let us not be so quick here people. I must agree with two things said by
other posters:
Dolby Labs is entirely within their legal (and some say ethical)
rights to do what they are doing: protecting their years of work and
investment.
Dolby Labs aproched this in a far more positive light than most
companies have. Instead of saying "we are taking you to court" they
actually said "please!" (Shocking I know)
In addition they provided us with an out- they said lets work out a
licensing deal. Now, granted Dolby is not likely to provide us with the license
free of charge as it would undermine the licenses that they are paid for and
destroy the company (Dolby does not make items, the develop technology). In
reviewing what Dolby said, what the package was meant for and what most people
want it for we may have an opportunity here.
Perhaps we can convince Dolby Labs to provide to the Open Source
Community (say one of our Open Source groups) a free license to provide
decoding only to applications. This would let people who have purchased valid
AC3 encoded material to enjoy it on their {insert favorite *nix flavor
box}without damage or cost to Dolby. It appears that Dolby primarily makes the
money on the encoding side and not the decoding side. They may also request/ or
we may offer to limit the license for the use on *nix platforms only to avoid
competition with their Windowz licensees.
Rather than being a group of rabid IP haters or attacking every company
we should work with the company. Perhaps a reasonable deal worked out with as
prestigious a company as Dolby Laboratories would send a message and form
groundwork for deals with other companies.
Do you realize that it's microsoft that picks the sites that other people can go to with this new "feature"?
This is not true. If you read what both Microsoft's website and the article mention, users will download the list of their choice to use. So, if a person is on AOL then AOL could list at the top of their page "Download AOL SmartTags!" and users would be able to use AOL content not Microsoft content.
In addition, the SmartTags option is shipped in the DISABLED setting- meaning that a user would have to activily enable the option. Conversley a company could use the IEAK and enable the setting with their own SmartTags settings to link to things in the company database.
The point is, Microsoft does NOT controll either the content or the options. As always, it is up to the users to educate themselves and act. Maybe not a warm fuzzy feeling but... hey, its the way of the world.
Slashdot Mirror
"Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."
-Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
Sinking to their level of questionable ethics and spurious tactics only makes our claims questionable in the eyes of those around us. If we are to convice congress/ the public/ the courts to take action we must take care that we are a credible group making a credible claim. Cheating, lying and breaking ethical boundries will get us knowhere in the battle to win the support of the public or the courts.
IMHO
Wouldn't this count as a form of illegal bundling? IANAL but....
Lets look at it this way, if I purchase a new NetAPP from either them or CDW the only option I have is to purchase the bundled deal (both the software license and the hardware) as they consider it one single entity. However, if I choose to sell it I can only transfer legal ownership of the hardware and not the software.
So, if I sell my NetAPP (hardware only) I should thus retain the license for the software and be able to purchase the hardware only from NetApp (though why anyone would do this with a newer model I don't know). However, if I request to do so they have and will respond that they are sold as one and I can not buy one without the other... Thus would they not be violating the bundling laws by forcing me to purchase one item to get the other when they can be sold separately and this is provable by their very own license?
It just seems unenforceable if someone will challenge the whole thing in court. I would think that between property laws (First Right Of Owner) and general contract law enforceability that this would be struck down pretty quick.
As a second thought, what would prevent another company from creating software (GPL anyone?) for all of this second market hardware? Would the hardware vendors be able to do anything about it?
DiamlerChrystler's Jeep Divisin does do this. Recently my partner and I went to the website, designed out his dream Jeep Liberty and then it gave us the option to send the design to several dealers. With in 48 hours we had quotes rolling in over the web. We chose the one with the best price and best additional offerings. I called them up with my order number, they charged a $500 deposit on my credit card.
Four weeks laters they called us a to let us know the Liberty was in and that we could pick it up. We picked it up that very same day. The sticker on the window even had our names on it and said "Especially built for...".
We will definitly be doing this again next time we want to get a vehicle.
I wonder how many of these subpoena's have to be sent to ISP's before they simply stop recording the IP info? Already it has been reported that DePaul University in Chicago is saying that it no longer has the user info for that IP...
Are there any laws that require ISP's to keep track users & IP's? From the laws that I have looked over (without doing any real research) it looks like the law only requires them to turn over any relevant info availble.
With what has to be mounting cost I can imagine that small ISP's are dumping this info so when the request comes in they say- "Got nothing". How much longer before the cost gets to high for the larger ones?
Just a thought
Something to keep in mind is that MS does not offer a newer version of Java because of Sun. A while back Sun sued MS for offering an implementation of Java that was not fully compatiable with Java.
As part of the settlement MS was barred by Sun from shipping a newer version of Java or updating the current version. Microsoft actually had to go back to Sun to get permission to fix some bugs/ security holes in the old Java runtime.
Really, Sun is a victim of its own foolishness. Yeah, MS was selling a broken implementation, and yes they should have been stopped. But preventing MS from shipping any JRE they developed in house simply meant that they would basically ship nothing (as XP does not ship with Java, it must be downloaded- either MS's old Java or Sun's lastest JRE). Now that they stopped them they said "Hey, no one is using the new stuff on Windows!?!?"- well DUH! Most Windoz users have no idea about Java, no less who makes it or if they needed (heck most dont know about Flash)
I am sorry, I feel no pity for Sun here. They may not have started this fight or layed the foundation, but they certainly built upon it with the settlement they hammered out with MS on Java a long time ago.
Just my $0.002
What I want to know is where can I find Bill's personal e-mail adddress?!?! Either he has one that he checks himself (a personal one) or he is simply reflecting on other users experiences.
Maybe I do have a use for that last offer...
"Get Millions of Emails Addresses CHEAP! xDvjey"
Hmmmmm
Interestingly enough this is how the US Constitution was written. The Constitutinal Congress laid out the frame work and then general points that needed to covered. They then sent this information to good old TJ (Thomas Jefferson, for those not from Virginia) and he wrote out the Constitution (and the Decl. Of Independence). From there each person in the group made recommendations for changes and even gramatical corrections.
Anyway, the point is that only one person did the writing, thus keeping the document cohesive in nature, but many contribuited to its finer points and broad layout. Having only one writer also ensured a good natural flow and single writing style.
Just goes to show that most things are rehashed old history.
My $0.02
The problem with that is that in many cases the spammers are not legally selling what they are offering. Take the recent case posted on /. where the spamers personal info was posted (can't find the story now or I would link to it). In that case when Symantec was approached (because the guy was selling Norton Anti-Virus by spamming ppl) Symantec reported they were investigating him for selling pirated copies.
It stands to reason that spammers who use fraudulent claims, methods or unethical tactics are more than likely not legitimate marketers and thus not being used by legitimate companies.
In short it would probably do no good to go after the companies being marketed because most of them are probably being scammed by the spammer too.
I may be off my mark here as IANAL but there is a big difference. AOL has proven that a) there has been a tangible violation of the law b) they have tracked the violater back to a particular system(s) c) they are suing the violator and not the company the violator is using to send email.
In the RIAA vs. Verizon case RIAA was suing to get the subscriber information without ever proving that there were specific incidences of copyright violation (instead charging that P2P is ONLY used to steal music). In addition they did not sue copyright violators (as a "Jane or John Doe") and then use supoenas to get the personons name. Instead they sued Verizon to get the information directly. Verizon's argument from the begining was that that RIAA was skipping step one- 1) Show evidence of a crime and step two- 2) Seek to take action against said anonymous criminal (this may seem odd, but our legal system allows us to sue an unknown person/ group and fill in their name later). Instead RIAA sued the people who "facilitated" the crime and stated that all of Verizons customer records should be on display to the RIAA Nazi SS forces without proof or ponderance in court.
AOL, as stated, is instead going directly after the offenders and using the power of the courts to get specific information about specific crimes, not all customer information at will and on demand.
Just my $0.02
If I was not clear I am sorry. My clients do not use AOL, but they do use Bellsouth and Charter Comm. "Business" accounts that are really Residential accounts that Bellsouth & Charter have done two things with:
1. Charged more money
2. Changes the Terms of Service to allow more users and servers
The problem for these businesses comes in contacting vendors, personell, individuals or the rare business partner who is on AOL. Because the accounts from Bellsouth DSL and Charter Communications Pipeline Cable Internet are in the same netblock as residential users they are blocked from using their own server to send email to AOL.
The biggest problem that I see with this move by AOL is for businesses with their own E-Mail Servers. Many of my clients use Exchange, Lotus, etc as their email server for the groupware features. Since many of these clients are small to medium businees they operate on Business DSL and cable connections.
There are two problems that I have begun to notice. One, that the DSL and Cable providers are not doing a good job with PTR records and consequently the reverse DNS usually is something like xxx.xxx.xxx.atl.bellsouth.net instead of mail.companyname.com. Secondly, Bellsouth and others are now blocking ALL relaying through their servers that do not end in @bellsouth.net.
This means that for some of my clients they are being blocked from sending email to AOL. Why? Because for Bellsouth (and many others) having a Static IP means that they simply set a reservation on their DHCP server. This means that they are "dynamic" IP's even though the companies are paying $10 to $20 more per month to have "static" IP's. Also, these "Business Accounts" are drawing IPs from the same blocks as residential IPs. In one case the IP address for my client at home (down the street from his office) is usually only a few numbers off from his mail servers "static" IP.
While I can understand why AOL is doing this, I do not see how this solution is going to fix things. AOL is assuming that the problem is ignorant users and malicious spamers and that ALL ISP's are doing things like they should. We all know this is not true. Many T1 providers do not even setup proper Zones and PTR's for the IP's. On smaller ISP providers there is often no differentiation from Dynamic IP blocks and Static blocks, as they also use "reservation" based systems.
The flaw in AOL's thinking is that they can fix a broken protocal by filtering messages based on RFC's being followed by ISP's. I dont see this working well for long.
IMHO
Does this means that the networks will be showing blipits and Max Headroom next?
This sounds on the surface like a good idea, but if many (most?) Sys Admins will not close their mail servers up to prevent relaying will they load this app? If I understand this right for this to be effective a lot of people would have to load this software. Given that many of the systems out there are corporate systems that run MS Exchange or Lotus Domino or Novell GroupWise will they even be able to load this? Just wandering thoughts.
I was told the same thing by boh HP & Dell. However, I guess i was a little more upset. So, I called my HP rep and my Dell rep. Both of them told me the same thing and showed me the verbage in the warranty/ support agreement. Basically, what it works out to is you still have your warranty on your hardware, you just get no support. Also, if you make any changes to Firmware/ BIOS (Wireless Intersil chip Firmwares, BIOS rewrites, IEEE 1394 firware, etc) then your warranty is voided. However, the crux of the problem is that they ONLY provide the troubleshooting/ diagnostics software in Windows format. In fact if you downgrade to a lower version of Windows than they support they will not honor the suppport or warranty agreemen".
What this works out to is that as long as nothing goes wrong that requires a diagnostics application you are ok and they will cover it. However, if they need to run diagnostics and or try firmware changes or systems checks if you can not run THEIR diag application they will not do a warranty swap... unless you get a very forgiving/ nice/ sympathetic customer support rep.
So... what it works out to is they do not want to spend the money to re-write all of their apps for the many OS'es out there. Also, they do not want to train their "technical support people" how to read reports from a multitude of programs on different OSes.
I can understand this to some degree as it would drive up cost and thus make their product less competive then other products out there. In the PC market that would be devastating seeing as how cost is often one of the few differentiators between products. What it works out to is that until the "others" do it each company has no reason to want to and a disincetive to offering warranty on Linux or other Non-windows OSes.
Just my 2 cents.
>>>First, to clarify the present situation: GE owns Hughes Electronics/DirecTV
Actually it is General Motors that owns Hughes and not GE. GE operates its own statalite group that is managed PanSat (now/soon to be) a division of EchoStar- part of the merger cancelation agreement.
Rumor has it that GE may actually be interested in getting DirectTV for its Cable News/ NBC division. But this would be a major departure for GE as they have pretty much divested themselves of all of the Broadcast/Distribution systems (ie: Cable, Radio Stations, etc)
Just wanted to clarify that.
One of the things often overlooked in the last mile debate is the effects that laying large amounts of Copper/Fiber/Etc in a local area. Not only are there cost associated with physically laying the cable but also longterm cost carried by the municipalities.
.Com boom from laying cable. In essence all the road paches are breaking up and roads built to last 10 to 20 years are failing after only 3-7.
One of the biggest problems here in Atlanta is the condition of the roads and the sewer system. Now, on the surface this may seem to not correlate to the laying cable but quite the opposite is true. Recently our new Mayor/ Admin team hired several consultants to review the condidtions of the roads (which anyone here can tell you are horrible) and to find out why our sewer upgade project is so far behind. The reason... the massive amount of incorrectly laid, documented or bad road repair work done during the
The sewer and water project are held up by many problems, but a major one is the fact that as they go to lay new pipe they are find cable bundles that are unlabled and even if they do find out who owns them they dont know who controlls them any longer as many companies are bankrupt or in reorganization.
The question becomes who has to bear the burden of cost of resolving the problems and questions? Do the taxpayers of a given town have to carry the cost of Big Business run amok laying miles of Fiber and Copper all over towns with little the local goverments can do to stop them?
One of the little known provisions of the Telco Act of 1996 was that local goverments HAD TO give access/ right of way to new cable runs. For months the streets here in Atlanta were torn up and traffic was snarled- and there was nothing the City/ State could really do because each time they took action the FCC or courts would stop them. In fact several cable pull sites were left abandoned after the patron companies had long gone bankrupt, leaving the city/ taxpayers with the burden of doing road repair and close up work.
So, while there are many options out there for the last mile, and Fiber or anyother may seem good often overlooked is the cost to the local infrastructure and municipalites.
Just my 2 cents on a big topic with little results!
When the company I currently work for wanted both a Credit Check and a Criminal check I agreed.. on three terms:
1. That they give me a copy of the companie's Dunn & Bradstreet credit check- if they needed to know my history, I would get theirs.
They ended up deciding that my credit score was sufficient, and so I got the companies!
2. That they would give me a copy of their workmans comp/ OSHA review in exchange for my Criminal Background history.
We did do this and everything worked out just fine there.
3. That we would review these items together, they would destroy their paperwork and I would destroy mine. Then we both signed a statement attesting to the review and distruction. The only thing kept in my files is the fact that it was done and I passed.
Just a suggestion as they get what they want but it cost them equally. If they need to know, then you do too and it gives you the chance to review things with them so that they do not get the wrong idea. Also, with the companies info wide open they better understand the privacy issues at stake.
Not to get nit picky but the reason Picard's clone was having the problems he had was because of the "drugs" (?) he was given to accelerate his growth. That is why he was dying and having so many problems. This also explains how he was 25 or so and why he and Picard were so close in age.
Having gone the same route I have to agree. So, to resolve the problem I went and got a SonyEricsson T-Mobile T-68 with bluetooth and use the bluetooth to connect to my iPAQ. Now I can check mail, check news, send instant messages (wish Trillian had a PocketPC version) and get the info I need. I even went and got a Belkin bluetooth adapter for my laptop and use it with the T68 when I am on the road.
The best part of having the two separate items is that when I need only one, I carry only one. There are a lot of cases where I want my phone, but dont need the blulky Palm/PocketPC. And there are even more cases where I want to be "unavailable" but need my PocketPC.
Despite all the talk about convergence, I have to say it is nice to have two devices- especially when the battery dies in one!
As a consultant working for a software/ hardware consulting firm I handle this kind of question a lot. The problem is it usually has nothing to do with price.
As a firm we regularly advise against hiring individuals or small firms for software projects. Why? They tend to disappear. With a larger firm along with a higher price you usually get: more support and stability. We had a case not to long ago where we advised a client to take a higher bid on a web project than the lowest bidder- and they chose otherwise. They chose a lone developer in North Carolina to develop the system, he got a job offer that was "really good" but promised to keep working. Three months later nothing new had happened and he tells us he is sorry but he is busy with "work"! (To which the client responded "Well what the hell do you consider our project and payments!). Two weeks later we get a single burned CD with some source code and a note saying he had to move, so sorry, thanks for the opportunity. We did get some money back but now we do not know where he is even located! Now we are scrambling to find a group that can finish the project on time and with out too much of a higher cost- more than likely we will have to start over.
Are all individual developers/ programmers like this? No, not at all but the process of finding this out is often difficult and painful. So... most companies go with larger firms that have more stability and offerings. With that comes overhead for the bidder and thus a higher cost. So, often the higher cost bid is chosen not because the other bid is too low but because there is no stability. Also with bigger companies there are multiple developers, better planning (usually, but trust me not always) and more experience. One of the other benefits of the larger deployment/ programming companies is that they usually have lots of references that can be reviewed and checked out in detail. Often with smaller firms or individuals many of the projects they have completed were with another company and they really don't count. When you work for someone else there is a support structure (accounting/ finance, more developers, better equipment & testing) that you do not have on your own.
This is not to say that we have not had good experiences with individual developers (or bad ones with larger programming groups) but on the whole our client feels better when they have a company with assets to make grievances with and not some guy with an computer, car and PlayStation as his primary assets that we sue for.
Just my 2 cents.
What is being overlooked here is software development and support. Think of the number of applications that are out there that currently make calls to "middleware" in Windows OS's. Now, lets say my mother buys a new Dell but Dell has opted to take out IE & MS Media Player. My dear old mother starts to install programs that use IE and MS Media Player and suddenly they do not work. She is not going to understand or care about anything other than either a) her new computer is broken or b)she is not going to repurchase the latest versions of perfectly working programs. Are we going to expect all the other software companies that already have a difficult time competing to go back and re-release fixes for all of thier old applications for free?!?!!? The would go bankrupt!
The reality of it is there are too many dare I say legacy applications out there that will be disabled and create a support nightmare. Aditionally, think of the support problems. Your new girlfriend (or boyfriend) calls and wants some help with his or her computer. Which version do they have? Does it have IE built in or not? Defrag built in or not? Media player, HyperTerminal, or any list of other things.
The really big question is what constitutes "middleware"? Read the description provided by both MS & the 9 states. The concept of this "middleware" is not based on technology but a feeling some lawyers have. In theroy could the entire user interface not be "middleware"? Linux ships without a specific GUI, so could Windows, now we really have a support and programming nightmare.
Like it or not, MS has helped do one thing- provide a simplified base for the consumer . Not us programmers, hacksers, and computer junkies, but for our mothers, brothers and aunts. My mother need only know that she has a really fast Dell Pentium IV with Windows XP Home on it to go get a new program. The support for the enduser will only get worse if the number of different OS's and "modules" grows adinfinum.
IMHO while I do not really like MS, I have to agree a modular WinOS will wreak havoc in the consumer PC market and quite possibly set us back not from a technical standpoint but from a end user support and usablity standpoint.
*shrug*
-JLKI have not personally come across one of these "marvles of inovation" but have seen images of many on the net. All of the CD's that I saw had packaging that bore the the "CD Audio" logo in some way or place.
Marketing these CD's with the CD logo and thus representing them as Red Book standard- would that not be false advertising? Thus could you not file a class action suit and even get the FTC involved?
If nothing else would this not give us a way to at least know which ones are "good" and "bad"? I mean in the absence of a lable that warns would the lack of a "CD" lable would be good.
IANAL but this sounds like a plausable action to take to at least force the hand of the evil empire of the music monoliths.
I have been there... I was the geek in school, harrased for any number of reasons, and stand out as different in a crowd. Like you tossed into the mix I have manic-depression AND I am gay (talk about a double wammy!).
The point is that about a year ago a friend of mine gave me a kick in the ass and started taking me out to places. Introducing me to people. It not only helped me break out of my shell, but now I socialize with the people at work.
We hang out, we go out, we do all kinds of things. Mind you, none are gay, but I can have fun AND be different at the same time. I take pride in my differences, rather than worry about them.
Give it at try.
Let us not be so quick here people. I must agree with two things said by other posters:
In addition they provided us with an out- they said lets work out a licensing deal. Now, granted Dolby is not likely to provide us with the license free of charge as it would undermine the licenses that they are paid for and destroy the company (Dolby does not make items, the develop technology). In reviewing what Dolby said, what the package was meant for and what most people want it for we may have an opportunity here.
Perhaps we can convince Dolby Labs to provide to the Open Source Community (say one of our Open Source groups) a free license to provide decoding only to applications. This would let people who have purchased valid AC3 encoded material to enjoy it on their {insert favorite *nix flavor box}without damage or cost to Dolby. It appears that Dolby primarily makes the money on the encoding side and not the decoding side. They may also request/ or we may offer to limit the license for the use on *nix platforms only to avoid competition with their Windowz licensees.
Rather than being a group of rabid IP haters or attacking every company we should work with the company. Perhaps a reasonable deal worked out with as prestigious a company as Dolby Laboratories would send a message and form groundwork for deals with other companies.
Just my 2 cents.
Do you realize that it's microsoft that picks the sites that other people can go to with this new "feature"?
This is not true. If you read what both Microsoft's website and the article mention, users will download the list of their choice to use. So, if a person is on AOL then AOL could list at the top of their page "Download AOL SmartTags!" and users would be able to use AOL content not Microsoft content.
In addition, the SmartTags option is shipped in the DISABLED setting- meaning that a user would have to activily enable the option. Conversley a company could use the IEAK and enable the setting with their own SmartTags settings to link to things in the company database.
The point is, Microsoft does NOT controll either the content or the options. As always, it is up to the users to educate themselves and act. Maybe not a warm fuzzy feeling but... hey, its the way of the world.