so, next January, we'll be treated to a news release from the RIAA, proclaiming that P2P and file-sharing services have cost them, *gasp*, $67 million in 2002!
It's an interesting place to study linguistics, because New Zealand is one of the very few places (if not the only place) where there is a fairly complete aural record of the evolution from it's roots in the United Kingdom to it's modern form.
Language is a hard target to pin down. Even in countries that try to limit linguistic migration (such as France) can't slow it down significantly, even in times without huge revolutions in communication.
Dear Lord! You mean they have a record of all the ears which have heard the English language over the years!?!?!?! I'd think recordings of spoken language would suffice, but...
and, i thought that the "standard" American accent was midwestern, not western? My God, we're all trying to emulate the speech of those on the left coast?!?!?!
the world was going to go to hell in a handbasket when:
* kids started using calculators instead of slide rules
* kids started typing homework on PCs with spell checkers
* kids started using the 'net as their research source, rather than the library
really, now. it's an interesting sign of the times, but then again, there have always been kids who've used the vernacular in their writing, whether it be poor grammar, slang, or whatnot.
No, this isn't astroturfing, just plain old garden variety M$ FUD.
If it were astroturfing, the writer would attempt to convey the message that, hey, i'm just your average joe, and here's why i think GPL sucks and M$ rocks.
instead, the text of the posting says:
Because many businesses may not understand the GPL and its potential implications, Microsoft offers this document as a checklist and to provide important background information.
(italics mine.)
in any case, a google search shows this article to be M$'s GPL "FAQ", available at http://www.microsoft.com/korea/business/downloads/ licensing/Gpl_faq.doc
OK, so there's been some interesting discussion here about how Tivo might be able to benefit financially from this sort of data collection. In fact, it might help defend against the networks' claims that we Tivo owners are "stealing" their content through time-shifting and fast-forward (editorial comment politely omitted).
of course, it'll be interesting to see how they measure commercial viewership wrt PVRs (real-time viewers per slot? time-shift viewers per slot? fast forward x1, x2, x3 viewers per slot or per commercial?)
anyway, I've noticed a couple of things on Tivo, that lead me to wonder whether Tivo's already deriving revenue from content providers (not an intrinsically bad thing, but it could force Tivo to be beholden to their new meal tickets...):
Tivo had a *ton* of Goldmember links (videos, ads, etc) on their main page recently.
also, as i was watching network tv this weekend, i noticed that, as a commercial hyping a new (ABC?) series was playing, a "press (thumbs up icon) to schedule recording" message showed up on the top right of the screen.
wonder what Tivo got paid for *those* placements..? Anyone out there in the know?
Take a look back in the coverage of the trial (CNN/Money will probably suffice).
When asked about opening up the Windows API, a Microsoft VP testified that doing so would be bad, since it would allow folks to clone Windows.
Now, out of the blue, Salon decides that opening up Windows would also make it more vulnerable to attacks (is that anything like "more pregnant", btw?).
Can't you just picture the guy leaving the courtroom and saying, "D'oh! I shoulda said that it'd lead to more viruses, too! (Dials Phone) Hello? Salon editor's desk?"...
Well, instead of trying to get policies written to prohibit certain uses, couldn't you instead appeal to your bosses' sense of fear?
That is, explain that the current firewall setup puts the schools at all kinds of risk: virii, copyright violations, etc, etc.
Then, propose that the proper firewall setup will allow only certain types of "safer" access. (Make sure to throw in a comment about how this should have been done by your predecessor(s) when the network was set up.)
Once you've got approval, your email should include a blurb saying that additional requests will be handled on a case by case basis. (And, don't be queasy about asking faculty members what they're asking for, and how it relates to their educational objectives...)
Looking at their education main page, I believe that this is an annual license fee. However, let's assume you're the head of I.T. for a school district. Do you really think you're going to get a better deal than that for those licenses?
Don't think so. So, you swallow your indignation (if you have any), and buck up...
These Terms of Service are a binding contract between you and us regarding your use of this Site. If you use this Site, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service.
so, if i use their site, then i'm bound by their linking verbage. of course, they don't define the term "use".
so, if i don't use their site, but rather, come across a URL of theirs from another source (let's say, a search engine), then i've never used their site, and can't be held to their linking provisions?
anyway, the terms of service also say that you're not allowed to data mine, run crawlers or run bots. so, if they chose to smack Google, they don't have to rely on deep-linking, they can call it non-conforming use of their site.
So, the telecom companies, which are "riddled with debt", but have "deep pockets" (there's one to noodle on!) will now enter a spectrum auction for wireless... cable. riiiight...
Does this make anyone else think of "The Emperor's New Clothes"...?!
* a comfortable enough workstation that I don't get uncomfortable in 20 minutes or so of intense activity
* a source of music just loud enough to block out office noise, but not loud enough to make me notice it. (If it's music I really *like*, I'm in trouble, since I'll pay attention to the music.)
* A phone with a ringer that I'm able (and allowed) to shut off and/or let calls go straight to voice mail.
* an email client that I'm allowed to configure to not notify me of arriving emails
* a cubicle out of the way of major foot traffic
* orientation in the cubicle so that I don't feel that people are looking over my shoulder (I don't care if i can see them coming -- what i hate is the feeling that i'm being "vultured" -- a sure fire productivity killer for me).
* the ability to get up, walk around, and think through things. given a 5-minute walkaround (not, mind you, an excuse to visit my neighbors), i can begin to get in the zone before I start coding / debugging / whatever.
phone and email are the worst -- especially when they're combined with a mandatory response time standard set by the company.
It didn't occur to anyone in our much feared power plants that... if Y2K caused their computers to go crazy they could just set back their clocks.?
Nope. Your grid control systems (not to mention the trading and financial systems behind the power operations systems) wouldn't be able to sync up time correctly in a timely manner.
imagine telling everyone that they need to turn their clocks back a given amount at approximately the same time. oh, wait -- that never happens during DST clock changes, does it?;^)
anyway, the confusion that would ensue, when individual entities associated with the grid would manage not to do the conversion correctly (and believe me, the proliferation of systems is amazing) would have crippled the power companies' ability to manage the grid, keep power flowing between generators and to consumers.
A: Didn't you RTFM? Everybody knows that you have to configure the system correctly and intelligently in order to keep people out of it! Why don't you go to Windows, where the default install is the only one they expect people to execute?
This is such a lot of steaming BS, that I can't even hope to express myself elegantly enough.
what were your group projects like in undergrad? If they were at all typical, they were probably pretty frustrating. Either you did all the work yourself, and felt like you were carrying freeloaders, or you were swamped, and felt like you were dead weight to the team.
well, or you were a freeloader, and hopefully, aren't a coder today.
anyway, what's your experience with collaboration today? it's a pretty powerful technique, especially when utilized to take advantage of specialized knowledge or experiences.
i'll take a half-dozen journeyman coders with the guts to admit that they don't know it all (and the willingness to collaborate) over a dozen hotshot cowboy coders any day! Want to re-invent the wheel and scale all learning curves on each project? Teach students that collaboration is evil.
Look... in any situation in which you put a student (or employee!) under duress, one of the side effects is the creation of an esprit de corps and an "us vs. them" mentality. You breed a desire to collaborate! Think back to your most difficult CS course... didn't you band together with fellow students to gain mastery over the material? Damn straight you did!
All the facts in this particular case need to be understood before passing judgement. But, of the facts available to us today, it seems that the student here asked directed questions about a portion of the assignment. Once he got answers, a small part of his code looked like someone else's.
did he cheat? i dunno. but you can bet that both of the students were asked about collaboration, and one (or both) admitted that the student in question came to the other and asked questions about the assignment. Yeah; and correlation implies causation. uh huh.
in any case, i'd take the student who has the drive to ask questions, find solutions, and solve problems hands down over another student who was willing to submit an inadequate solution just because "that's the way it's done here".
Slashdot Mirror
This isn't as funny as you think it is. "Bog" is the Russian word for "God."
unless, of course, he's half of a two-person team of hackers...
so, next January, we'll be treated to a news release from the RIAA, proclaiming that P2P and file-sharing services have cost them, *gasp*, $67 million in 2002!
oh. that'd be everywhere, then...
how is stealing speckle patterns gonna be any different from stealing credit card numbers from "secure" servers?
It's an interesting place to study linguistics, because New Zealand is one of the very few places (if not the only place) where there is a fairly complete aural record of the evolution from it's roots in the United Kingdom to it's modern form. Language is a hard target to pin down. Even in countries that try to limit linguistic migration (such as France) can't slow it down significantly, even in times without huge revolutions in communication.
Dear Lord! You mean they have a record of all the ears which have heard the English language over the years!?!?!?! I'd think recordings of spoken language would suffice, but...
and, i thought that the "standard" American accent was midwestern, not western? My God, we're all trying to emulate the speech of those on the left coast?!?!?!
same story, different decade...
the world was going to go to hell in a handbasket when:
* kids started using calculators instead of slide rules
* kids started typing homework on PCs with spell checkers
* kids started using the 'net as their research source, rather than the library
really, now. it's an interesting sign of the times, but then again, there have always been kids who've used the vernacular in their writing, whether it be poor grammar, slang, or whatnot.
If it were astroturfing, the writer would attempt to convey the message that, hey, i'm just your average joe, and here's why i think GPL sucks and M$ rocks.
instead, the text of the posting says:
Because many businesses may not understand the GPL and its potential implications, Microsoft offers this document as a checklist and to provide important background information.
(italics mine.)
in any case, a google search shows this article to be M$'s GPL "FAQ", available at http://www.microsoft.com/korea/business/downloads/ licensing/Gpl_faq.doc
It should be, "Greetings, creatures from beyond Earth."
of course, it'll be interesting to see how they measure commercial viewership wrt PVRs (real-time viewers per slot? time-shift viewers per slot? fast forward x1, x2, x3 viewers per slot or per commercial?)
anyway, I've noticed a couple of things on Tivo, that lead me to wonder whether Tivo's already deriving revenue from content providers (not an intrinsically bad thing, but it could force Tivo to be beholden to their new meal tickets...):
Tivo had a *ton* of Goldmember links (videos, ads, etc) on their main page recently.
also, as i was watching network tv this weekend, i noticed that, as a commercial hyping a new (ABC?) series was playing, a "press (thumbs up icon) to schedule recording" message showed up on the top right of the screen.
wonder what Tivo got paid for *those* placements..? Anyone out there in the know?
When asked about opening up the Windows API, a Microsoft VP testified that doing so would be bad, since it would allow folks to clone Windows.
Now, out of the blue, Salon decides that opening up Windows would also make it more vulnerable to attacks (is that anything like "more pregnant", btw?).
Can't you just picture the guy leaving the courtroom and saying, "D'oh! I shoulda said that it'd lead to more viruses, too! (Dials Phone) Hello? Salon editor's desk?" ...
Yes, but of course, if you remove the browser, you will still continue to not work with Windows...
That is, explain that the current firewall setup puts the schools at all kinds of risk: virii, copyright violations, etc, etc.
Then, propose that the proper firewall setup will allow only certain types of "safer" access. (Make sure to throw in a comment about how this should have been done by your predecessor(s) when the network was set up.)
Once you've got approval, your email should include a blurb saying that additional requests will be handled on a case by case basis. (And, don't be queasy about asking faculty members what they're asking for, and how it relates to their educational objectives...)
Windows upgrades $18
Core $15
Office $24
all three of the above $48
SQL server, Visio, FrontPage, Project, Publisher $5 (each)
Vis Studio $2
Looking at their education main page, I believe that this is an annual license fee. However, let's assume you're the head of I.T. for a school district. Do you really think you're going to get a better deal than that for those licenses?
Don't think so. So, you swallow your indignation (if you have any), and buck up...
so, if i use their site, then i'm bound by their linking verbage. of course, they don't define the term "use".
so, if i don't use their site, but rather, come across a URL of theirs from another source (let's say, a search engine), then i've never used their site, and can't be held to their linking provisions?
anyway, the terms of service also say that you're not allowed to data mine, run crawlers or run bots. so, if they chose to smack Google, they don't have to rely on deep-linking, they can call it non-conforming use of their site.
Does this make anyone else think of "The Emperor's New Clothes"...?!
No?
ok... nevermind. it must be the ragweed, then...
* a source of music just loud enough to block out office noise, but not loud enough to make me notice it. (If it's music I really *like*, I'm in trouble, since I'll pay attention to the music.)
* A phone with a ringer that I'm able (and allowed) to shut off and/or let calls go straight to voice mail.
* an email client that I'm allowed to configure to not notify me of arriving emails
* a cubicle out of the way of major foot traffic
* orientation in the cubicle so that I don't feel that people are looking over my shoulder (I don't care if i can see them coming -- what i hate is the feeling that i'm being "vultured" -- a sure fire productivity killer for me).
* the ability to get up, walk around, and think through things. given a 5-minute walkaround (not, mind you, an excuse to visit my neighbors), i can begin to get in the zone before I start coding / debugging / whatever.
phone and email are the worst -- especially when they're combined with a mandatory response time standard set by the company.
Nope. Your grid control systems (not to mention the trading and financial systems behind the power operations systems) wouldn't be able to sync up time correctly in a timely manner.
imagine telling everyone that they need to turn their clocks back a given amount at approximately the same time. oh, wait -- that never happens during DST clock changes, does it?
anyway, the confusion that would ensue, when individual entities associated with the grid would manage not to do the conversion correctly (and believe me, the proliferation of systems is amazing) would have crippled the power companies' ability to manage the grid, keep power flowing between generators and to consumers.
In Microsoftese, this is called "innovation".
Of course, can you name one feature of IE that isn't dangerous? Well, other than clicking File/Close
A: Didn't you RTFM? Everybody knows that you have to configure the system correctly and intelligently in order to keep people out of it! Why don't you go to Windows, where the default install is the only one they expect people to execute?
>get ANY coding done, you are a liability when
>you finally make it to the workforce.
This is such a lot of steaming BS, that I can't even hope to express myself elegantly enough.
what were your group projects like in undergrad? If they were at all typical, they were probably pretty frustrating. Either you did all the work yourself, and felt like you were carrying freeloaders, or you were swamped, and felt like you were dead weight to the team.
well, or you were a freeloader, and hopefully, aren't a coder today.
anyway, what's your experience with collaboration today? it's a pretty powerful technique, especially when utilized to take advantage of specialized knowledge or experiences.
i'll take a half-dozen journeyman coders with the guts to admit that they don't know it all (and the willingness to collaborate) over a dozen hotshot cowboy coders any day! Want to re-invent the wheel and scale all learning curves on each project? Teach students that collaboration is evil.
Look... in any situation in which you put a student (or employee!) under duress, one of the side effects is the creation of an esprit de corps and an "us vs. them" mentality. You breed a desire to collaborate! Think back to your most difficult CS course... didn't you band together with fellow students to gain mastery over the material? Damn straight you did!
All the facts in this particular case need to be understood before passing judgement. But, of the facts available to us today, it seems that the student here asked directed questions about a portion of the assignment. Once he got answers, a small part of his code looked like someone else's.
did he cheat? i dunno. but you can bet that both of the students were asked about collaboration, and one (or both) admitted that the student in question came to the other and asked questions about the assignment. Yeah; and correlation implies causation. uh huh.
in any case, i'd take the student who has the drive to ask questions, find solutions, and solve problems hands down over another student who was willing to submit an inadequate solution just because "that's the way it's done here".
what's that? you hated Netscape? Oh, that's ok... just come on board to AOL, where you can keep on using that familiar IE interface.
hm? you loved it? great! keep an eye out for those "New and Improved AOL, now with Netscape!" CD's in the mail...