Their goal is to outlaw general purpose computing devices in the home. All of their insane ploys are just intended to demonstrate the "need" for such total prohibition. Keep it all in context: the more bad ideas they can vomit forth, the more than can claim that a nuclear option is required.
30 days may actually be too long. Serial scammers will just need to plan their initial bogus positive transactions 30 days ahead (they already create their JoeNotAScammer23123 accounts well ahead of time), and they can come and go within a month.
What's wrong with simply revealing both parties' feedback simultaneously, as soon as both of them have provided it?
You fool! You could have "con"sulted a cool half million out of them for that solution.
Seriously, I can't see any flaw in it. There's no disincentive to leaving feedback, and as long as you continue to receive reminders as now, you're not any more likely to forget. I can't see the downside, which makes it rather bizarre that eBay seems to have gone the wrong way.
Did you just stop reading after 'method and system of playing games on a network'? What part of Essex's MUD covered "tournament ladders, online rankings [or] advertisements"?
Yup. On login, Netrek servers presented (still do, actually) clients with several lists of top (for varying definitions of "top") players. If those aren't "ladders", as covered in the patent, I don't really know what is.
I don't recall XPilot or Bolo doing that, but didn't XFire do something similar?
Because a person forfeits their right to life when they taunt a supposedly-caged animal, right?
That's a very interesting question. Why don't you baste yourself in BBQ sauce, climb into a tiger's enclosure, and debate the point with it? I'm sure that you'll be able to persuade it that you enjoy an inalienable "right" to life.
No, it did not. It "found no evidence". Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Counter argument: of course they Goddamn taunted it. Look at them. It's just a shame that it only took out the apparently least shitbrained of the three, who made the mistake of standing up for his "friends", while they abandoned him at the first opportunity.
Bingo. FOSS is just never going to hack it in the mass market because it lacks a coherent brand or product. "People" want A Thing That Just Works. Now, before I get nerd spittle all over me, the focus there isn't on the Just Works part, it's the "A Thing". Singular. Having to decide between a Dell and a Thinkpad is as much of a decision as Joe User wants to make - look at the success of Apple's walled garden if you doubt that. Joe really doesn't want to have to worry about combinations of software and hardware.
Until there's a [KDE|GNOME]/X/GNU/Linux equivalent of Apple, Linux installs are always going to be niche and nerd outside of the datacentre. Really, truly, they are. Don't look at me: I've got my stable of distros, but I'll be buying a Mac Mini for my wife. She's "People" - you and I aren't.
Speaking of killing, why don't they just push for the death penalty for copyright infringement? I mean, it's about as proportional as paying $1.5 million for ripping a Britney Spears CD.
OTOH, you could view it as them playing the long game. They know that their business model is shot to hell, and that today there's nothing that they can do about it because general purpose computing devices ultimately treat all bits equally, so they've lost their cartel monopoly on high quality distribution.
However, look at what they're doing in response: sowing FUD, reframing the debate, and buying politicians. I believe that their long term goal is to put the genie back in the bottle and outlaw general purpose computing devices that treat arbitrary bits as copyable by default. Perhaps it's not a credible goal, perhaps its even risible, but bear in mind that they've already got Redmond in their corner, so it's not completely beyond the pale.
Don't write off the ??AAs. They are rich, powerful, they consider that they they enjoy a right to be profitable, and they are utterly without ethics or effective oversight. I suspect that eventually we'll be relying on Europe to prevent a Intel/Microsoft/??AA super-cartel from forcing a computing monoculture on us where arbitrary bits are uncopyable by default.
Laugh if you like, but first consider who the next President is likely to be, and her unabashed view that Washington actually should be run by lobbyists and corporate interests.
Slashdot Mirror
OTOH, "most people" don't administrate systems, or have to worry about local users escalating themselves to root.
Their goal is to outlaw general purpose computing devices in the home. All of their insane ploys are just intended to demonstrate the "need" for such total prohibition. Keep it all in context: the more bad ideas they can vomit forth, the more than can claim that a nuclear option is required.
30 days may actually be too long. Serial scammers will just need to plan their initial bogus positive transactions 30 days ahead (they already create their JoeNotAScammer23123 accounts well ahead of time), and they can come and go within a month.
What's wrong with simply revealing both parties' feedback simultaneously, as soon as both of them have provided it?
You fool! You could have "con"sulted a cool half million out of them for that solution.
Seriously, I can't see any flaw in it. There's no disincentive to leaving feedback, and as long as you continue to receive reminders as now, you're not any more likely to forget. I can't see the downside, which makes it rather bizarre that eBay seems to have gone the wrong way.
That's seems very cynical and unethical. Can't I just cut out the middle man and start robbing the general public directly?
Did you just stop reading after 'method and system of playing games on a network'? What part of Essex's MUD covered "tournament ladders, online rankings [or] advertisements"?
Yup. On login, Netrek servers presented (still do, actually) clients with several lists of top (for varying definitions of "top") players. If those aren't "ladders", as covered in the patent, I don't really know what is.
I don't recall XPilot or Bolo doing that, but didn't XFire do something similar?
But should I vote for Tweedle Dum, or Tweedle Dee?
I'm looking at you, Pidgin. The account setup list doesn't even hint that XMPP is AKA jabber. That's self destructive pedantry right there.
Wash your mouth out with SOAP. Everything is a Web 2.0 technology.
I need to correct you on something: it wasn't my zoo. I believe that the ambulance you want to chase went that way.
Should you ever meet a real woman, ask her if she agrees with this evolutionary chart.
The only reason my wife keeps me around is to open jars. If they ever figure that out, we're doomed.
That's a very interesting question. Why don't you baste yourself in BBQ sauce, climb into a tiger's enclosure, and debate the point with it? I'm sure that you'll be able to persuade it that you enjoy an inalienable "right" to life.
No, it did not. It "found no evidence". Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Counter argument: of course they Goddamn taunted it. Look at them. It's just a shame that it only took out the apparently least shitbrained of the three, who made the mistake of standing up for his "friends", while they abandoned him at the first opportunity.
Yes, I could.
Hey, Ibrahim, how's our bandwidth demand? Sharply down, you say? So, our expenditure is down as well, right? And our revenue? Still constant. Hmm.
Say, Ibrahim, about those cables. If you felt like taking some vacation time before fixing them, that'd be OK with me. See you in April.
But, how would you know that for sure unless... you've... installed...
ALAAAAAARM! Slashbot incursion in progress! Quarantine sectors 7-G though 27b/6!
I think "Zonk" is the name of the script. The last human "editor" left to "work" at BoingBoing 3 years ago.
Bingo. FOSS is just never going to hack it in the mass market because it lacks a coherent brand or product. "People" want A Thing That Just Works. Now, before I get nerd spittle all over me, the focus there isn't on the Just Works part, it's the "A Thing". Singular. Having to decide between a Dell and a Thinkpad is as much of a decision as Joe User wants to make - look at the success of Apple's walled garden if you doubt that. Joe really doesn't want to have to worry about combinations of software and hardware.
Until there's a [KDE|GNOME]/X/GNU/Linux equivalent of Apple, Linux installs are always going to be niche and nerd outside of the datacentre. Really, truly, they are. Don't look at me: I've got my stable of distros, but I'll be buying a Mac Mini for my wife. She's "People" - you and I aren't.
Speaking of killing, why don't they just push for the death penalty for copyright infringement? I mean, it's about as proportional as paying $1.5 million for ripping a Britney Spears CD.
OTOH, you could view it as them playing the long game. They know that their business model is shot to hell, and that today there's nothing that they can do about it because general purpose computing devices ultimately treat all bits equally, so they've lost their cartel monopoly on high quality distribution.
However, look at what they're doing in response: sowing FUD, reframing the debate, and buying politicians. I believe that their long term goal is to put the genie back in the bottle and outlaw general purpose computing devices that treat arbitrary bits as copyable by default. Perhaps it's not a credible goal, perhaps its even risible, but bear in mind that they've already got Redmond in their corner, so it's not completely beyond the pale.
Don't write off the ??AAs. They are rich, powerful, they consider that they they enjoy a right to be profitable, and they are utterly without ethics or effective oversight. I suspect that eventually we'll be relying on Europe to prevent a Intel/Microsoft/??AA super-cartel from forcing a computing monoculture on us where arbitrary bits are uncopyable by default.
Laugh if you like, but first consider who the next President is likely to be, and her unabashed view that Washington actually should be run by lobbyists and corporate interests.
Look, their owning company's stock price hit almost 9 1/2 cents a share yesterday!
I'm sure it'll be perfectly equitable. 50% to Celine Dion, 50% to Bryan Adams.
I think you meant 'fewer'.
You make a good point. OLPC are far, far worse than Apple, because they excuse their fiduciary incompetence by babbling about the greater good.