I have a broadband account with CableOne.net - they have a similar policy written into their fair use aggreement.
"You must comply with the then current bandwidth, data throughput, file storage and other limitations on the Services. Users must ensure their activity does not improperly restrict, inhibit, or degrade any other user's use of the Services, nor represent (in the sole judgment of Cable One, Inc.) an unusually large burden on the network itself. The Cable One network is designed for typical usage by a computer user seated at his or her keyboard. Computer activity resulting in excessive or sustained bandwidth consumption such as from unattended computer activity may burden the network and such usage may be restricted. Cable One may, without notice, modify the speed, interrupt, or prohibit such data traffic. In addition, users must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict, inhibit, disrupt, degrade or impede Cable One, Inc.'s ability to deliver the Services and monitor the Services, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services."
As I am an extremely active user - I too host things on bittorrent alot. When I got my account with them I spoke with one of the people in charge and explained out in advance - they aggreed to amend my account. I think it is a matter of communication - you have to let them know that you are an above average user in advance. Most broadband ISP's - that suddenly experience huge changes in bandwith from one user would get interested given the amount of machines that are highjacked to send spam.
Anyhow - I would consider switching providers if they will not tell you what the limit is (something I hate about my provider - they are very vague - does anyone know of a company which is specific?).
Couldn't agree more. No one will arrest someone for a "cell phone camera". However, based on my experience (and I have a couple years of it) from downloading pirated movies off bittorrent and other places, most movies that are posted (to the net) are screeners or if they where taped with the person was sitting in the box (up top). Bluntly speaking - I don't know if I agree with the 92 percent statistic they give for number of pirated films that are "recorded by people sitting in the audience" in theaters.
This won't really make a difference in pirated movies online - it will simply stop the small time piraters (like some guy that makes a copy for his friend). I mean if your going to make money off stolen films you are probably going to find a better way to do it then stand in a noisy theater and try to tape a film. Politicians aren't stupid - they know this... however they have to do something to respond to the money they get from the MPAA (Pressure = Money).
Laws- Mankinds way of justifing stupidity (not a troll - simply my 2cp)
Classic Myth: watching violence does not effect behavior.
Sorry - if violence on TV and in real life effects behavior why should video games be anything different?
Studies have shown that young children watching violent acts at young ages are easily impressionable and have a decent chance of repeating the violent act. It is called social or observational learning (a form of classical conditioning). For a good refrence is the study by Albert Bandura (1963) - he had young children observe adults hit, and punch an inflated doll (a BoBo doll). The children later showed aggressive behavior towards the doll. Subsequent research showed that children will imitate characters on film - even cartoon characters.
The reason why we as adults don't notice the problem - is that we react differently, usually in the form of psychic numbing (a reduction in emotional arousal and distress at viewing violence) rather then acting out the acts.
Most little kids have no idea who Martha Stewart is (and she is not a violent criminal anyways) - I doubt that has any influence on thier behavior...
Mod comments up that actually know what they are talking about (the above is not flamebait - simply some basic facts...)
Simple. Election Year is comming up. They can mention this and get results. It will probably not have taken effect yet, so they can tout it to the general public.
Remember, the average computer user has no idea of how spam works - just like the average person does not know the difference between a telemarker and a market research caller. People (a good many of them) think that spam is sent out by the corporations that are advertised in the spam - not some person from Argentina that doesn't give a crap about U.S. Law.
Anyhow - that is what gets this bill passed. Do you really believe that some Senator checks his own email and reads spam - heck no. That is what secretaries are for. The same is with this bill. I really doubt that anyone of these people has actually tried to track down spam before. Oh well... legislation usually reflects what the public wants - and to your average AOL user... this is perfect.
I agree that TV programs have declined in their style and attractiveness quite a bit. However saying, that games are the reason for causing people to watch less TV probably is not a 100% true statement.
Does anyone read the rankings? (of most popular shows) The Simpsons (a popular show for young males 18-24) remains about number 30 every week. That is in comparison to all TV shows (while others that are watched by mostly a different type of people (soap opera's) have remains also in the same spot. More or less what I am saying is that overall TV viewership is on the decline. Counterstrike... yea right.
The Internet is more likely to be the cause. (oh, TV has always sucked to a group of people - saying TV is any better than 5 years ago is crap. People that were our age [right now] 5 years ago probably though TV was crap also.)
We aren't talking about kids downloading porn here - we are talking about some youngster browsing the internet and accidentally stumbling across something.
Try this - you have a 8 year old that is a fan of Britney Spears. She does a search on the internet to look her up. There is an extremely good chance that she will simply stumble accross some bad stuff.
That said - I am against the law. You can either have Free Speech or you can't. Halfway Free Speech does not exist.
Most places have editors - but to an extent, writers are given the right to publish what they want.
The reason being, if you write something for say, the Times, it will be printed millions of times - the cost of that involved is a lot, so there are many safeguards in check to prevent unauthorized publications. To upload something to the Internet, requires far less effort, therefore, fewer safegaps and stopguards are in place. If it took several million dollars to publish a paper in the web... you bet there would be good editors and whatnot.
Simply a matter of dollars and cents. However, if the paper had gotten less publication, he would have still had a job.
True a good portion of current WiFi hotspots don't require accounts - but also the amount of users swapping songs over WiFi is not that high yet.
Should the number increase the RIAA will simply sue them for aiding copyright infringment or whatnot and boom - suddenly logging systems will exist (they may not have them now - but somehow they will make them).
Privacy is good - when it is used correctly, but as soon as it becomes a cover for breaking the law, the courts will rule against it. Refusing to log on a WiFi, should the RIAA get a court order to do so (which is easy - simply show that someone is violating the law through such and such terminal), is like being an accessory to a crime. You cannot broadcast info from a police scanner over a ham radio network - you're allowing local people to get free info (more or less a ready to go crime set).
I dunno, but this won't last... systems that will are ones that have no centralized control. WiFi has admins (which some companies hold responsible) and therefore won't stand around to long. E5 / Freenet - those will be around, anonymous WiFi... I doubt it.
Madam Curie is also another exception to this rule. She and her husband both made significant contributions to science after they were married.
I think it depends on who you marry mostly - in Madam Curie's case - her husband Pierre was a helpmate. And anyways - the article states that most scientists drop out at 30 or after 5 years (of marriage). Well - if most people get married about 24 (assumming Geeks marry late) or so - 5 years later they're 30.
The law might only stop domestic spam - but that does not mean that judgements can be brought against companies outside the US - IF they do business in the US (many such spammers do - they have some assets that are reachable by the US).
Also the way I understand it, should class action lawsuits be granted - international spam may drop a fair amount - you can sue someone overseas. They ought to wait and see how the states laws work out before Congress makes one of their own tho.
Playing a violent video game probably is not enough to set someone off - it is playing the game, being depressed, the repeating teasings at school and whatnot.
The article does talk about that - that these youths where some of the rejects - some of the most picked on people in school. That is something of a common factor in school shootings - Joe Blow gets teased, put down by teacher, whatnot and can't handle it therefore he goes nuts... The critics aren't trying to say that violent video games are the main cause - simply a help.
More or less - someone should have checked these youths for depression a long time ago...
The fine does not worry me too much, simply the fact that he was arrested for attempting to distribute a device that would have caused damage to the sat. networks. This is very similar to the DeCSS cases some time ago - having DeCSS available on your website, for download, was considered illegal.
Think about it, that would mean that having a device that could decrypt a DVD available, could bring a $180 million "retribution payment" on your head. The same might be said for people that are sharing music files for others to borrow - should this case take precedent, people will get fined for the damage they "might" have caused - (Dear So&So, metallica.mp3 might have been downloaded 1 million times - please pay X amount of dollars). (Granted he was a repeat offender, but...)
I've read the book series about Tanya Grotter (there is more than one) while I was in Russia not too long ago.
Let me say this about the book. It is not the same as Harry Potter in anyway shape or form. It simply uses similar names and items. The storyline itself is different enough that I would not consider it a copyright violation.
What Tanya and her friends are doing - is trying to capitalize on the market potential of Harry Potter. A Harry Potter Book in Kazan, Russia costs about 140 Rubles (4 dollars) while you can buy a Tanya Grotter for slightly cheaper - 100 Rubles (3 dollars). Since the names are somewhat similar and the covers (of the Harry Potter Books and Tanya Grotter Books) both have the same style of artwork, a good many people buy the Tanya Grotter book as it is cheaper (and written by a Russian, meaning understandable, FYI - the Harry Potter books don't transalate well at all, Just how do you say muggle in a foreign language?)
This of course ticks off the Harry Potter People, but I don't think you can Tanya Grotter for blatant copyright violations (other than similar names)...
Microsoft is a business - they do things to make money - or to save money. Right now they waste tons of money and time on spam fighting. One of Microsoft's "pluses" to their email systems is that it is "spam-proof". This of course appeals more to the everyday user and gives them a public friendly image.
While what they are doing may be in part motivated by the community (I am happy that they are doing something about it), but you can promise yourself that they will recieve something from it.
Product activation does not bug "Joe Smoe" who buys his software at Wal-mart that much, hence they keep it as the benifets are worth more than the minuses.
Very few businesses make money listening to everything the public wants - as you cannot please everyone. Product Activation was simply a way to fight piracy and honestly, the one to two minutes of my time it takes to activate something I bought doesn't bug me that much. The people that created those products spent a lot of time making them and have the moral right to know that they are not being stolen from them... (IMO)
Anyhow - I dunno, but I doubt that Bill Gates is community motivated here...
Re:young vs old
on
Ageism in IT?
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· Score: 3, Informative
Sacrifice quality for cheaper and faster - in the dot com sector yes, but not everywhere.
Certain jobs will always have ageism. Dot Coms - change and evolve too fast for many people to stay in date. Therefore a younger person may be able to do many things better than an old one. Experience has shown me that those are jobs that have a constant change (where ageism is) - for example, the web, TV shows (what shows beside soap operas and the simpsons have really long lives?) and what not.
Jobs such as programming code for the Dep. of Defense, programming code for mirror making systems at Honeywell Corp. and managing a sat. network - experience and degree are always more valued (and sometimes required). Ageism is not a threat - it is a sign of a normal healthy economy. People at age 40 should have a STABLE job (unless they can live with the risk that it will be harder to find work), not work for an internet startup that dies every 2 months (at least find a stable website - those that are stable, probably will be willing to take exp. over age).
Anyhow - nothing new here, ageism has been, always will be and probably will not go away for long time, regardless of money - startup's (companies) will always pick cheap while long standing is far more willing to higher for a long run.
(sidenote: A friend of mine works for Honeywell Corp. - He is almost 50 and has no problems with ageism - they even pay him to go back to school ever so often to stay up to date).
It all boils down to money and control. Simply put people know that there is a type of power that can be gotten through preventing others from being able to duplicate your feat. If something is reverse enginneered, then someone may be able to not only figure out how your device works - but actually improve it. That would put you out of business.
Therefor, the MPAA wants to have complete control of its technology - it limits compition to a set amount of players and gets around anti-trust law effectively.
However - reverse enginneering (or taking something apart to see how it works) is one of the reasons why Open Source software is so successful, it enables people to improve on others work and make better things. However... the money factor is considerably less - compare the Linux industry's profits with those of the Movie industry. Companies - especially ones that where founded a fair while ago, and do expensive stuff (make movies - Blair Witch exception) are obviously going to want to be able to make the most money.
I don't think that the MPAA would care that much about pirates (if they got a cut of the sales - just a governments today may ignore smugglers in return for favors and like), what they are worried about is someone will take their secret and make a better way (DivX-), Project Mayo) and put them Out of Business... so of course they go to extremes, because in the business world... you can't be overly cautious.
I think most informed people do - most people on/. would vote against people that are so easily influenced by special interest groups.
Voter apathy is not the problem on/. - its a problem for the general Joe Schmoe who works at X corporation. The general public does not give a sh*% about what the people on/. think and therefor do not consider those issues when they vote. For instance take the last election, it is full of examples of where people do not care one bit about politics (some lady on NPR voted for Bush - because he looked nicer...)
You have to remember that out of all the people in the world - people whose lives are seriously affected by such laws enough to care about the issues is a small number. i.e. - there are many CS/Technology related majors at the U of M. About 1/2 think the teachers are dumb and believe they know best - these people talk alot but do nothing when it comes to elections. About 1/4 simply haven't learned enough yet to make decisions. And the last 1/4 cares and votes there minds... Most people not in technology related majors don't give a damn at all. (Because the laws have little or no effect on them)
Voter apathy... I dunno, people have and always will care about only that which affects them directly and in an important mannner - Voter apathy is IMO when something affects a person directly but they just don't care. Remember, You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink it.
This problem of Dumb laws has occured thoughout history and has always corrected itself - i.e. Once upon a time child labor in sweatshops [1900's] was a great thing, now its just the opposite. As more people start to use linux, more people will become informed until the law affects the general public - I say linux because of all the issues surrounding it [open source, DeCSS, GPL'd stuff and whatnot], whereas any idiot can claim to be a napster advocate and not know jack about the issues...
So what to do? [Shameless Linux Plug] - Encourage people to try new things - like linux, they will ask questions eventually on thier own and get involved and informed... until then - we wait...
[BTW - Change the story description - its not/. worthy]
Naaa.... if Amazon loses case, they still have half a dozen stupid patents anyway.
IMO - as someone who actually chose to shop elsewhere, the reason why the boycott failed is that it was nothing more than talk, if people actually got a leader and put up a site and whatnot it might have worked...
But why am I complaining - that's too much effort anyhow.
IMO [NOT A TROLL] half a million p2p projects are out there. Most of them are vaporware or under development.
However they are going slow as bananas - for obvious reasons. The people making p2p are legit, while most p2p users are not (pirates and like - come on, how many legit people are on napster?). The people that want to use p2p the most are the pirates - i.e. its safer... however ironically they are the ones that are willing to put in the least amount of effort...
Don't get me wrong, I want p2p - I just think that it is funny everytime someone starts complaining about how sloooooooowwww it is going when they are not willing to contribute that much.
What p2p needs is a set of rules/standards - or a company to make and release a freeware version of something and keep it updated. Ordinary programmers meeting over the internet is going to take forever - example:freenet - to produce a working product.
I agree with you comments except for one slight problem.
People wouldn't try to get Amish barn raisings declared illegal because they threaten innovation. They would find some safetly regulation not met and get them stopped - the real reason being that they are losing business. Microsoft is losing business to Linux, so they act typical... they try to get Linux shutdown.
I don't think that anything hurtful could come of this article, however it is simply another sign that more is on the way. Rather than simply blow it off an another cheesey attempt at FUD - take notice and buckle up. MS is somewhat worried now, if Linux continues to rise... they may go to war - after all isn't that the standard laws of business?
Linux comming to the masses is something that the community has yet to address, currently the community (excluding companies) develops Linux kind of on its own time frame and for its own purposes. Like someone once said in a post - Programmer A releases a program that works for him. Programmer B tries it out and adds 50%, Programmer C uses it and C patches it another 10%.
People so far or at least hobbyists usually do things for their own reasons. (i.e. rarely go the extra mile)
However much more is starting to be expected. The article states: "Beyond the 2.4 kernel, Linux developers are asking for the incorporation of a journaling file system, more work on Linux clusters and on the scheduler, additional scalability, high availability, internationalization, and printing and systems management." - Linux developers want more... and they may not be willing to work for it.
Given that the Linux community is well organized and making significant progress, currently I think that their be no problem meeting demands of users and the masses, more people will simply join in and help out. One thing to watch though is what the opposition does... generally the more dangerous a threat is to a company the tougher the resistance.
If Mr. Ballmer was serious about his statement perhaps the coders/linux hobbyists of the kenrel and whatnot should sit back and examine if they're in it for themselves or the masses and a long haul...
Sony can NOT allow the selling of EQ items and characters. Doing so makes them liable for the value of those items and could render them vunerable to lawsuits. For instance, I sell an item A to player B. The server crashes and my item is lost (before sale is complete). If sony allowed the selling of items, I could hypothetically sue them for the real world value (i.e. what I sold it for on eBay).
Sony probably would lose money because of that due to high lawyers fees and stupid lawsuits... Also as any real EQ player knows - the gameplay would degrade a fair amount. Every so often... I bump into someone that either is a newbie that was twinkled (EQ Slang for recieving items from a high level character for free with the sole purpose of boosting their low level character) by their friends or bought a character. They are absolute idiots and most of the time get in the way.
Sony knows this. As the Online RPG Market is very competitive and hot right now, (Asheron's Call - UO - EQ and others) they have taken steps to prevent the ruining of the game.
IMO - these people are total idiots hoping that the publicity their lawsuit recieves (from being posted on places like/.) will make Sony settle the lawsuit.... Sheesh...
Slashdot Mirror
I have a broadband account with CableOne.net - they have a similar policy written into their fair use aggreement.
"You must comply with the then current bandwidth, data throughput, file storage and other limitations on the Services. Users must ensure their activity does not improperly restrict, inhibit, or degrade any other user's use of the Services, nor represent (in the sole judgment of Cable One, Inc.) an unusually large burden on the network itself. The Cable One network is designed for typical usage by a computer user seated at his or her keyboard. Computer activity resulting in excessive or sustained bandwidth consumption such as from unattended computer activity may burden the network and such usage may be restricted. Cable One may, without notice, modify the speed, interrupt, or prohibit such data traffic. In addition, users must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict, inhibit, disrupt, degrade or impede Cable One, Inc.'s ability to deliver the Services and monitor the Services, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services."
As I am an extremely active user - I too host things on bittorrent alot. When I got my account with them I spoke with one of the people in charge and explained out in advance - they aggreed to amend my account. I think it is a matter of communication - you have to let them know that you are an above average user in advance. Most broadband ISP's - that suddenly experience huge changes in bandwith from one user would get interested given the amount of machines that are highjacked to send spam.
Anyhow - I would consider switching providers if they will not tell you what the limit is (something I hate about my provider - they are very vague - does anyone know of a company which is specific?).
Couldn't agree more. No one will arrest someone for a "cell phone camera". However, based on my experience (and I have a couple years of it) from downloading pirated movies off bittorrent and other places, most movies that are posted (to the net) are screeners or if they where taped with the person was sitting in the box (up top). Bluntly speaking - I don't know if I agree with the 92 percent statistic they give for number of pirated films that are "recorded by people sitting in the audience" in theaters.
This won't really make a difference in pirated movies online - it will simply stop the small time piraters (like some guy that makes a copy for his friend). I mean if your going to make money off stolen films you are probably going to find a better way to do it then stand in a noisy theater and try to tape a film. Politicians aren't stupid - they know this... however they have to do something to respond to the money they get from the MPAA (Pressure = Money).
Laws- Mankinds way of justifing stupidity (not a troll - simply my 2cp)
Classic Myth: watching violence does not effect behavior.
Sorry - if violence on TV and in real life effects behavior why should video games be anything different?
Studies have shown that young children watching violent acts at young ages are easily impressionable and have a decent chance of repeating the violent act. It is called social or observational learning (a form of classical conditioning). For a good refrence is the study by Albert Bandura (1963) - he had young children observe adults hit, and punch an inflated doll (a BoBo doll). The children later showed aggressive behavior towards the doll. Subsequent research showed that children will imitate characters on film - even cartoon characters.
The reason why we as adults don't notice the problem - is that we react differently, usually in the form of psychic numbing (a reduction in emotional arousal and distress at viewing violence) rather then acting out the acts.
Most little kids have no idea who Martha Stewart is (and she is not a violent criminal anyways) - I doubt that has any influence on thier behavior...
Mod comments up that actually know what they are talking about (the above is not flamebait - simply some basic facts...)
Simple. Election Year is comming up. They can mention this and get results. It will probably not have taken effect yet, so they can tout it to the general public.
Remember, the average computer user has no idea of how spam works - just like the average person does not know the difference between a telemarker and a market research caller. People (a good many of them) think that spam is sent out by the corporations that are advertised in the spam - not some person from Argentina that doesn't give a crap about U.S. Law.
Anyhow - that is what gets this bill passed. Do you really believe that some Senator checks his own email and reads spam - heck no. That is what secretaries are for. The same is with this bill. I really doubt that anyone of these people has actually tried to track down spam before. Oh well... legislation usually reflects what the public wants - and to your average AOL user... this is perfect.
I agree that TV programs have declined in their style and attractiveness quite a bit. However saying, that games are the reason for causing people to watch less TV probably is not a 100% true statement.
Does anyone read the rankings? (of most popular shows) The Simpsons (a popular show for young males 18-24) remains about number 30 every week. That is in comparison to all TV shows (while others that are watched by mostly a different type of people (soap opera's) have remains also in the same spot. More or less what I am saying is that overall TV viewership is on the decline. Counterstrike... yea right.
The Internet is more likely to be the cause. (oh, TV has always sucked to a group of people - saying TV is any better than 5 years ago is crap. People that were our age [right now] 5 years ago probably though TV was crap also.)
We aren't talking about kids downloading porn here - we are talking about some youngster browsing the internet and accidentally stumbling across something.
Try this - you have a 8 year old that is a fan of Britney Spears. She does a search on the internet to look her up. There is an extremely good chance that she will simply stumble accross some bad stuff.
That said - I am against the law. You can either have Free Speech or you can't. Halfway Free Speech does not exist.
Most places have editors - but to an extent, writers are given the right to publish what they want.
The reason being, if you write something for say, the Times, it will be printed millions of times - the cost of that involved is a lot, so there are many safeguards in check to prevent unauthorized publications. To upload something to the Internet, requires far less effort, therefore, fewer safegaps and stopguards are in place. If it took several million dollars to publish a paper in the web... you bet there would be good editors and whatnot.
Simply a matter of dollars and cents. However, if the paper had gotten less publication, he would have still had a job.
True a good portion of current WiFi hotspots don't require accounts - but also the amount of users swapping songs over WiFi is not that high yet.
Should the number increase the RIAA will simply sue them for aiding copyright infringment or whatnot and boom - suddenly logging systems will exist (they may not have them now - but somehow they will make them).
Privacy is good - when it is used correctly, but as soon as it becomes a cover for breaking the law, the courts will rule against it. Refusing to log on a WiFi, should the RIAA get a court order to do so (which is easy - simply show that someone is violating the law through such and such terminal), is like being an accessory to a crime. You cannot broadcast info from a police scanner over a ham radio network - you're allowing local people to get free info (more or less a ready to go crime set).
I dunno, but this won't last... systems that will are ones that have no centralized control. WiFi has admins (which some companies hold responsible) and therefore won't stand around to long. E5 / Freenet - those will be around, anonymous WiFi... I doubt it.
Madam Curie is also another exception to this rule. She and her husband both made significant contributions to science after they were married.
I think it depends on who you marry mostly - in Madam Curie's case - her husband Pierre was a helpmate. And anyways - the article states that most scientists drop out at 30 or after 5 years (of marriage). Well - if most people get married about 24 (assumming Geeks marry late) or so - 5 years later they're 30.
The law might only stop domestic spam - but that does not mean that judgements can be brought against companies outside the US - IF they do business in the US (many such spammers do - they have some assets that are reachable by the US).
Also the way I understand it, should class action lawsuits be granted - international spam may drop a fair amount - you can sue someone overseas. They ought to wait and see how the states laws work out before Congress makes one of their own tho.
Playing a violent video game probably is not enough to set someone off - it is playing the game, being depressed, the repeating teasings at school and whatnot.
The article does talk about that - that these youths where some of the rejects - some of the most picked on people in school. That is something of a common factor in school shootings - Joe Blow gets teased, put down by teacher, whatnot and can't handle it therefore he goes nuts... The critics aren't trying to say that violent video games are the main cause - simply a help.
More or less - someone should have checked these youths for depression a long time ago...
The fine does not worry me too much, simply the fact that he was arrested for attempting to distribute a device that would have caused damage to the sat. networks. This is very similar to the DeCSS cases some time ago - having DeCSS available on your website, for download, was considered illegal.
Think about it, that would mean that having a device that could decrypt a DVD available, could bring a $180 million "retribution payment" on your head. The same might be said for people that are sharing music files for others to borrow - should this case take precedent, people will get fined for the damage they "might" have caused - (Dear So&So, metallica.mp3 might have been downloaded 1 million times - please pay X amount of dollars). (Granted he was a repeat offender, but...)
I've read the book series about Tanya Grotter (there is more than one) while I was in Russia not too long ago.
Let me say this about the book. It is not the same as Harry Potter in anyway shape or form. It simply uses similar names and items. The storyline itself is different enough that I would not consider it a copyright violation.
What Tanya and her friends are doing - is trying to capitalize on the market potential of Harry Potter. A Harry Potter Book in Kazan, Russia costs about 140 Rubles (4 dollars) while you can buy a Tanya Grotter for slightly cheaper - 100 Rubles (3 dollars). Since the names are somewhat similar and the covers (of the Harry Potter Books and Tanya Grotter Books) both have the same style of artwork, a good many people buy the Tanya Grotter book as it is cheaper (and written by a Russian, meaning understandable, FYI - the Harry Potter books don't transalate well at all, Just how do you say muggle in a foreign language?)
This of course ticks off the Harry Potter People, but I don't think you can Tanya Grotter for blatant copyright violations (other than similar names)...
ESRB Ratings System for those under 18 decrypted:
AO = Awesome
M = Monsturously Fun
T = Terrific
E = Entertaining
EC = Educational Crap
A game's rating can be great advertising... (just like a movie's rating)
Microsoft is a business - they do things to make money - or to save money. Right now they waste tons of money and time on spam fighting. One of Microsoft's "pluses" to their email systems is that it is "spam-proof". This of course appeals more to the everyday user and gives them a public friendly image.
While what they are doing may be in part motivated by the community (I am happy that they are doing something about it), but you can promise yourself that they will recieve something from it.
Product activation does not bug "Joe Smoe" who buys his software at Wal-mart that much, hence they keep it as the benifets are worth more than the minuses.
Very few businesses make money listening to everything the public wants - as you cannot please everyone. Product Activation was simply a way to fight piracy and honestly, the one to two minutes of my time it takes to activate something I bought doesn't bug me that much. The people that created those products spent a lot of time making them and have the moral right to know that they are not being stolen from them... (IMO)
Anyhow - I dunno, but I doubt that Bill Gates is community motivated here...
Sacrifice quality for cheaper and faster - in the dot com sector yes, but not everywhere.
Certain jobs will always have ageism. Dot Coms - change and evolve too fast for many people to stay in date. Therefore a younger person may be able to do many things better than an old one. Experience has shown me that those are jobs that have a constant change (where ageism is) - for example, the web, TV shows (what shows beside soap operas and the simpsons have really long lives?) and what not.
Jobs such as programming code for the Dep. of Defense, programming code for mirror making systems at Honeywell Corp. and managing a sat. network - experience and degree are always more valued (and sometimes required). Ageism is not a threat - it is a sign of a normal healthy economy. People at age 40 should have a STABLE job (unless they can live with the risk that it will be harder to find work), not work for an internet startup that dies every 2 months (at least find a stable website - those that are stable, probably will be willing to take exp. over age).
Anyhow - nothing new here, ageism has been, always will be and probably will not go away for long time, regardless of money - startup's (companies) will always pick cheap while long standing is far more willing to higher for a long run.
(sidenote: A friend of mine works for Honeywell Corp. - He is almost 50 and has no problems with ageism - they even pay him to go back to school ever so often to stay up to date).
It all boils down to money and control. Simply put people know that there is a type of power that can be gotten through preventing others from being able to duplicate your feat. If something is reverse enginneered, then someone may be able to not only figure out how your device works - but actually improve it. That would put you out of business.
Therefor, the MPAA wants to have complete control of its technology - it limits compition to a set amount of players and gets around anti-trust law effectively.
However - reverse enginneering (or taking something apart to see how it works) is one of the reasons why Open Source software is so successful, it enables people to improve on others work and make better things. However... the money factor is considerably less - compare the Linux industry's profits with those of the Movie industry. Companies - especially ones that where founded a fair while ago, and do expensive stuff (make movies - Blair Witch exception) are obviously going to want to be able to make the most money.
I don't think that the MPAA would care that much about pirates (if they got a cut of the sales - just a governments today may ignore smugglers in return for favors and like), what they are worried about is someone will take their secret and make a better way (DivX-), Project Mayo) and put them Out of Business... so of course they go to extremes, because in the business world... you can't be overly cautious.
I think most informed people do - most people on /. would vote against people that are so easily influenced by special interest groups.
/. - its a problem for the general Joe Schmoe who works at X corporation. The general public does not give a sh*% about what the people on /. think and therefor do not consider those issues when they vote. For instance take the last election, it is full of examples of where people do not care one bit about politics (some lady on NPR voted for Bush - because he looked nicer...)
/. worthy]
Voter apathy is not the problem on
You have to remember that out of all the people in the world - people whose lives are seriously affected by such laws enough to care about the issues is a small number. i.e. - there are many CS/Technology related majors at the U of M. About 1/2 think the teachers are dumb and believe they know best - these people talk alot but do nothing when it comes to elections. About 1/4 simply haven't learned enough yet to make decisions. And the last 1/4 cares and votes there minds... Most people not in technology related majors don't give a damn at all. (Because the laws have little or no effect on them)
Voter apathy... I dunno, people have and always will care about only that which affects them directly and in an important mannner - Voter apathy is IMO when something affects a person directly but they just don't care. Remember, You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink it.
This problem of Dumb laws has occured thoughout history and has always corrected itself - i.e. Once upon a time child labor in sweatshops [1900's] was a great thing, now its just the opposite. As more people start to use linux, more people will become informed until the law affects the general public - I say linux because of all the issues surrounding it [open source, DeCSS, GPL'd stuff and whatnot], whereas any idiot can claim to be a napster advocate and not know jack about the issues...
So what to do? [Shameless Linux Plug] - Encourage people to try new things - like linux, they will ask questions eventually on thier own and get involved and informed... until then - we wait...
[BTW - Change the story description - its not
Naaa.... if Amazon loses case, they still have half a dozen stupid patents anyway.
IMO - as someone who actually chose to shop elsewhere, the reason why the boycott failed is that it was nothing more than talk, if people actually got a leader and put up a site and whatnot it might have worked...
But why am I complaining - that's too much effort anyhow.
B&N aint any better - they just a dumb a company.
IMO [NOT A TROLL] half a million p2p projects are out there. Most of them are vaporware or under development.
However they are going slow as bananas - for obvious reasons. The people making p2p are legit, while most p2p users are not (pirates and like - come on, how many legit people are on napster?). The people that want to use p2p the most are the pirates - i.e. its safer... however ironically they are the ones that are willing to put in the least amount of effort...
Don't get me wrong, I want p2p - I just think that it is funny everytime someone starts complaining about how sloooooooowwww it is going when they are not willing to contribute that much.
What p2p needs is a set of rules/standards - or a company to make and release a freeware version of something and keep it updated. Ordinary programmers meeting over the internet is going to take forever - example:freenet - to produce a working product.
Yawn... [I prefer IRC or HL anyway]
I agree with you comments except for one slight problem.
People wouldn't try to get Amish barn raisings declared illegal because they threaten innovation. They would find some safetly regulation not met and get them stopped - the real reason being that they are losing business. Microsoft is losing business to Linux, so they act typical... they try to get Linux shutdown.
I don't think that anything hurtful could come of this article, however it is simply another sign that more is on the way. Rather than simply blow it off an another cheesey attempt at FUD - take notice and buckle up. MS is somewhat worried now, if Linux continues to rise... they may go to war - after all isn't that the standard laws of business?
Linux comming to the masses is something that the community has yet to address, currently the community (excluding companies) develops Linux kind of on its own time frame and for its own purposes. Like someone once said in a post - Programmer A releases a program that works for him. Programmer B tries it out and adds 50%, Programmer C uses it and C patches it another 10%.
People so far or at least hobbyists usually do things for their own reasons. (i.e. rarely go the extra mile)
However much more is starting to be expected. The article states: "Beyond the 2.4 kernel, Linux developers are asking for the incorporation of a journaling file system, more work on Linux clusters and on the scheduler, additional scalability, high availability, internationalization, and printing and systems management." - Linux developers want more... and they may not be willing to work for it.
Given that the Linux community is well organized and making significant progress, currently I think that their be no problem meeting demands of users and the masses, more people will simply join in and help out. One thing to watch though is what the opposition does... generally the more dangerous a threat is to a company the tougher the resistance.
If Mr. Ballmer was serious about his statement perhaps the coders/linux hobbyists of the kenrel and whatnot should sit back and examine if they're in it for themselves or the masses and a long haul...
Not a troll or flame - simply my opinion.
/.) will make Sony settle the lawsuit.... Sheesh...
Sony can NOT allow the selling of EQ items and characters. Doing so makes them liable for the value of those items and could render them vunerable to lawsuits. For instance, I sell an item A to player B. The server crashes and my item is lost (before sale is complete). If sony allowed the selling of items, I could hypothetically sue them for the real world value (i.e. what I sold it for on eBay).
Sony probably would lose money because of that due to high lawyers fees and stupid lawsuits... Also as any real EQ player knows - the gameplay would degrade a fair amount. Every so often... I bump into someone that either is a newbie that was twinkled (EQ Slang for recieving items from a high level character for free with the sole purpose of boosting their low level character) by their friends or bought a character. They are absolute idiots and most of the time get in the way.
Sony knows this. As the Online RPG Market is very competitive and hot right now, (Asheron's Call - UO - EQ and others) they have taken steps to prevent the ruining of the game.
IMO - these people are total idiots hoping that the publicity their lawsuit recieves (from being posted on places like