Years ago I bought a brand new 1980 Datsun 310-GX. I decided to get the service manual since I did alot of my own car repairs. Many of the illustrations dealing with vacuum hoses, brake lines, etc. had a little cartoon man with his mouth on the end of the tube, blowing or sucking in an exaggerated manner, to show the direction of air or fluid flow. It was pretty amusing and quite suggestive. I'll have to go see if I still have it in the garage...
I don't think they're just talking about knees. From the review:
Despite--or maybe because of--the OrbitTouch's similarity to the female anatomy, it's very comfortable to use. Your hands rest very naturally on the twin domes.
Is it just me or do others see a big difference in the quality of the aguments being put forth, pro and con. Salon has an interview with Morton David Goldberg, who is a top copyright lawyer and partner with Cowan Liebowitz and Latman in New York. He feels the Supreme Court shouldn't have even heard the case. His arguments don't seem very insightful or well thought out to me. At one point he makes the statement: "And the court, in another case from the 19th century -- there was a claim that a circus poster was not original, because originality is a requirement of the Constitution..." but actually originality is not explicitly required by the Constitution, but is inferred by the verbage "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts...". He also throws around a big scare about "creat[ing] a dangerous precedent by shifting power away from Congress and toward the judiciary". Baloney.
On the pro Eldred side, the opening brief filed by Lawrence Lessig, et al seems to make alot more sense. It basically says that the authors of the Constitution used specific language in the copyright clause to limit the length of time that a monopoly would be given to authors of creative works. By regularly extending that time, Congress is, in effect, circumventing the "limited time" in a piecemeal fashion and, in effect, creating unlimited copyright terms. They also do a good job of showing how the reversion of a copyrighted work to the public domain helps to further scientific and artistic progress and bring up interesting First Amendment issues surrounding it. Good read.
I beg to differ. Unions may be "bad" for you personally if you work in a union shop, in that you have to pay union dues and put up with (potentially) corrupt union leadership. But the threat of unionization helps keep non-union shops honest, even in traditionally non-unionized occupations. Even with the liberal worker protection laws in place today, I wouldn't want to go back to the pre-union days and have to rely on the goodwill of employers.
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of everyone, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it...He who receives an idea from me, receives instructions himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should be spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature...Inventions then cannot, in nature, be a subject of property. --Thomas Jefferson
It was never the object of those laws to grant a monopoly for every trifling device, every shadow of a shade of an idea, which would naturally and spontaneously occur to any skilled mechanic or operator in the ordinary progress of manufactures. Such an indiscriminate creation of exclusive privileges tends rather to obstruct than to stimulate invention. It creates a class of speculative schemers who make it their business to watch the advancing wave of improvement, and gather its foam in the form of patented monopolies, which enable them to lay a heavy tax upon the industry of the country, without contributing anything to the real advancement of the arts. It embarrasses the honest pursuit of business with fears and apprehensions of concealed liens and unknown liabilities lawsuits and vexatious accountings for profits made in good faith. (Atlantic Works v. Brady, 1017 U.S. 192, 200 (1882)).
What we are witnessing, and living through, is the decline of our civilization. This country was founded on high ideals and moral principles. Sadly, the ultimate goal today is to ruthlessly make as much money as possible. The current rampant abuse of the patent system is just the tip of the iceberg.
"Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands... The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature.
The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights."
Actually, the article did make a mention of animals in reference to current LCD screen technology: "Full-color displays also require expensive red/green/blue filters made of dichromated gelatin--fish glue." So I would imagine that PETA will recommend a laptop boycot soon;-)
A software developer once wanted to ask Stallman a question and started to say, "The light of Open Source serenely shines over the whole universe." Before he'd even finished the first line, Stallman suddenly interrupted, "Isn't that the poem of Eric Raymond?"
The developer answered, "Yes, it is."
Stallman said, "You've missed it."
Here is a cool link to an online UPC database that lets you scan an item's barcode with the CueCat and find out what it is (of course, you could read the item's label, but that wouldn't be any fun:)
Here's a link to an intersting interview with Courteny Love on Salon.com. It really pulls together all of the various arguments related to Napster/Digital Music/Piracy. A very good read.
OK, I read "The Whitepaper" and although they do mention a bit of new technology (new for MS anyway), it mainly seems to be the description of a new revenue model. Instead of selling you software (OK, selling you a license to use their sofware), you'll be renting software, storage space and services from MS (you didn't think this would all be free did you?). Sounds like Balmer's old idea of a yearly licensing fee for Windows, doesn't it?
Intel has a press release here that describes the Dot.Station, and has pictures! The unit seems to be the first aimed at service providers rather than the consumer. The Intel System Management Suite "will [allow the service provider to] be able to use the software management tools to manage customer accounts, update software, and perform remote diagnostics. This features helps service providers contain costs while providing a high level of customer service".
Looks like a good product for its intended market.
Actually Intel had been selling complete PCs for year to OEMs. They were generally made in Korea, and always used Intel motherboards. They were OK, but not as configurable as they could have been.
Slashdot Mirror
Sex robots. There, I said it.
Years ago I bought a brand new 1980 Datsun 310-GX. I decided to get the service manual since I did alot of my own car repairs. Many of the illustrations dealing with vacuum hoses, brake lines, etc. had a little cartoon man with his mouth on the end of the tube, blowing or sucking in an exaggerated manner, to show the direction of air or fluid flow. It was pretty amusing and quite suggestive. I'll have to go see if I still have it in the garage...
Sorry to knock you off your high horse, but "virus" is not a collective noun. From dictionary.com:
virus n. pl. viruses
For more information on collective nouns, click here.
I don't think they're just talking about knees. From the review:
Despite--or maybe because of--the OrbitTouch's similarity to the female anatomy, it's very comfortable to use. Your hands rest very naturally on the twin domes.
=)
1. Six monkeys
2. One Computer
3. Rock
4. Urine
5. ???
6. Profit!
It was probably interest earned on their "pile of cash".
FAG is a German bearing manufacturer, actually one of the largest and oldest manufacturers of bearing in the world. (Website)
Wow. That was pretty slick the way you turned a copyright debate into a gun control debate. =)
Is it just me or do others see a big difference in the quality of the aguments being put forth, pro and con. Salon has an interview with Morton David Goldberg, who is a top copyright lawyer and partner with Cowan Liebowitz and Latman in New York. He feels the Supreme Court shouldn't have even heard the case. His arguments don't seem very insightful or well thought out to me. At one point he makes the statement: "And the court, in another case from the 19th century -- there was a claim that a circus poster was not original, because originality is a requirement of the Constitution..." but actually originality is not explicitly required by the Constitution, but is inferred by the verbage "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts...". He also throws around a big scare about "creat[ing] a dangerous precedent by shifting power away from Congress and toward the judiciary". Baloney.
On the pro Eldred side, the opening brief filed by Lawrence Lessig, et al seems to make alot more sense. It basically says that the authors of the Constitution used specific language in the copyright clause to limit the length of time that a monopoly would be given to authors of creative works. By regularly extending that time, Congress is, in effect, circumventing the "limited time" in a piecemeal fashion and, in effect, creating unlimited copyright terms. They also do a good job of showing how the reversion of a copyrighted work to the public domain helps to further scientific and artistic progress and bring up interesting First Amendment issues surrounding it. Good read.
I beg to differ. Unions may be "bad" for you personally if you work in a union shop, in that you have to pay union dues and put up with (potentially) corrupt union leadership. But the threat of unionization helps keep non-union shops honest, even in traditionally non-unionized occupations. Even with the liberal worker protection laws in place today, I wouldn't want to go back to the pre-union days and have to rely on the goodwill of employers.
Actually, the article did make a mention of animals in reference to current LCD screen technology: "Full-color displays also require expensive red/green/blue filters made of dichromated gelatin--fish glue." So I would imagine that PETA will recommend a laptop boycot soon ;-)
I don't think so. It's viral. See this link.
A software developer once wanted to ask Stallman a question and started to say, "The light of Open Source serenely shines over the whole universe." Before he'd even finished the first line, Stallman suddenly interrupted, "Isn't that the poem of Eric Raymond?" The developer answered, "Yes, it is." Stallman said, "You've missed it."
Here is a cool link to an online UPC database that lets you scan an item's barcode with the CueCat and find out what it is (of course, you could read the item's label, but that wouldn't be any fun :)
Here's a link to an intersting interview with Courteny Love on Salon.com. It really pulls together all of the various arguments related to Napster/Digital Music/Piracy. A very good read.
OK, I read "The Whitepaper" and although they do mention a bit of new technology (new for MS anyway), it mainly seems to be the description of a new revenue model. Instead of selling you software (OK, selling you a license to use their sofware), you'll be renting software, storage space and services from MS (you didn't think this would all be free did you?). Sounds like Balmer's old idea of a yearly licensing fee for Windows, doesn't it?
Intel has a press release here that describes the Dot.Station, and has pictures! The unit seems to be the first aimed at service providers rather than the consumer. The Intel System Management Suite "will [allow the service provider to] be able to use the software management tools to manage customer accounts, update software, and perform remote diagnostics. This features helps service providers contain costs while providing a high level of customer service".
Looks like a good product for its intended market.
Actually Intel had been selling complete PCs for year to OEMs. They were generally made in Korea, and always used Intel motherboards. They were OK, but not as configurable as they could have been.