my solution was to "waste" a CDR on the person (the file took up about 1% of the capacity of the cd).
Is it a "waste" when the CDR is less expensive than the floppy disk that you would have preferred? Just because the floppy is closer to the file size doesn't mean that it is the better choice.
I'm not privy to the details of the contracts, however it could easily be a penalty in to the millions, my machine was down for two and a half hours, however my loss of productivity was less than one hour (and many of our people were similar, work can still be done without computers, my job position has been around for over 100 years, I'm sure they didn't rely on a laptop for the first 70 or 80 of those.)
The deals with the vendors shifts the responsibility to them for QA, if they screw up, they pay. Keep in mind that in-house QA can miss things just as much as vendor QA can (and in fact, our in-house QA has a pretty poor track record!)
Plus, there's enough address to give each subscriber many thousand. And they don't need to change. No more charging for a static IP...
And you've just listed one of the biggest reasons why we don't yet have IPv6, and why the major ISPs are in no hurry to do so. Do you have any idea how much extra they charge for an extra IP, let alone for a static one? if everyone already had multiple statics that revenue stream would dry up instantly.
By the time you are dealing with large enterprise customers, you aren't dealing in EULAs anymore, you're dealing in negotiated contracts where the legal department of each company goes over each and every clause in the contract. I was talking with some of our IT folks as this unfolded (as my work machine was one of the ones affected) apparently after we were bitten badly by a vendor bug a few years ago, we re-negotiated with most of our software vendors. Our contracts now include penalty clauses for this sort of thing. There's a good bet that this bug just cost Mcafee several thousands (possibly many times more) of dollars on our contract alone.
As for "a small percent" in our company the patch apparently affected approximately 11,000 computers out of approximately 30,000 total (many of whom were saved because the problem was noticed, and the patch blocked, before they could download it) I don't consider 33% to be a "small percent"
Although this isn't directly related to this particular occurrence, I think Google has some serious security issues to deal with on the entire gmail platform. I am a forum admin, and I find that the vast majority of spammers who sign up for accounts do so with a gmail account. most of these appear to be bots, they are only marginally slowed down by our captcha, so I suspect they have no trouble with google's either. The fact that such a large percentage of the spam comes from accounts set up through gmail tells me that spammers find it to be the easiest email system to break in to with automated tools. If I had the option I would simply ban all registrations from gmail accounts, it would eliminate the vast majority of our forum spam. Unfortunately though too many of our legitimate users also use gmail accounts.
for the one and only feature I actually need in a map. ACCURACY. Why is it that ALL software based maps I have found to date are 2-3 YEARS behind the paper maps sold at the gas stations?
At work I have a TomTom GPS with the latest North American map, including all corrections that are available to it, I have access to google maps, mapquest, yahoo, etc via an Internet connected laptop, and my blackberry has it's mapping application as well, and yet I still have to pull out a physical printed paper map book any time I'm in a subdivision that was created in the past 3 years (sometimes longer.) Software maps should be EASIER to keep up to date, my current paper map is now a year and a half old, and is still more current than any online or software based map I can find (and I've tried just about all the online ones, as well as a half dozen or more handheld ones).
not to mention impossible to use on most of the systems that I access regularly that can't handle passwords over 8 characters long, nor allow passwords less than 6 characters long.
I have to deal with all sorts of ridiculous password rules at work... among my favourites...
- on a system I use twice a month, a 30 day password change policy where you can't re-use the last 8 passwords. That's a guarantee I'll never remember it! - on the same system above, I can reset my forgotten password by using the password from a different system that NEVER needs changing... well why don't we just use THAT password to log in then??? - another system that I use every 2 weeks, a 30 day password change policy where if you miss the 28-30 day window to change your password you are LOCKED OUT and can not set a new password, you must call IT to have it reset. (so basically I have to call IT every few weeks) - a system that enforces a 7 digit numerical password that must change every 60 days (numerical? exactly 7 digits? I bet you try a few phone numbers and you'll find anyone's password) - a system that requires exactly 6 alphabetic characters followed by exactly 2 numeric characters (is that supposed to help security somehow??) - and my favourite "secure" system... must be 6 digits long, must have exactly 2 numeric digits, the remaining characters must be alphabetic (no special characters allowed) must have at least 1 uppercase and at least 1 lowercase letter... this system is new, so I don't know what the password expiry policy is yet, but I'm betting it's set to "post it note on the monitor"
And then there's the corporate blackberry password policy... If I ever find the person who set this one I'm going to strangle them! - device auto locks every 5 minutes - password must be changed every 45 days and can not be one you have used before - password must be a combination of letters and numbers (that alone makes it a pain to type on a blackberry keypad!) - password must be minimum 4 characters long I spend my entire bloody day entering the stupid password on my blackberry!!!!!!!
oh, and that's not to mention the online bank that has a requirement for your password to be entirely numeric and between 4 and 6 digits (after sending a mailing out talking about how to create strong passwords to everyone, and then they won't let you follow their own advice!)
Stole? Are you insane? I paid for what I used for training or took what was freely available with the consent of those who created it/
If you now teach someone else how to do something that you learned, do you then turn around and pay your original teacher again? If not, how is this any different from what we are discussing?
That teacher worked once, and got paid once, you copied their knowledge for someone else and YOU got paid instead of the original teacher. if you were to do that with a song you would be facing hefty fines and possibly prison time with todays laws.
If I create a song, for some reason I get paid any time anyone uses the song even 70 years after I die, and yet if I create a sidewalk I get paid only until the sidewalk is complete, the people walking on it for decades afterwards don't owe me a cent.
There is no "natural right" to owning an idea. The only "right" you have is the one society gave you as part of a legal contract. The legal contract was that you would have a LIMITED monopoly on the idea so as to encourage you to create. How does it encourage you to create anything if doing so once is enough to live on for life? Shouldn't we encourage people to CONTINUE to create after their first creation? how does payment long after you are dead encourage you to create more?
What benefit is there to society if you never give your creation away?
a) not the sole distribution method for aforementioned legal content
google certainly isn't the only place to get anything.
b) the amount of illegal content is significantly larger than the amount of legal content.
have you ever turned off "safe search"? there's TONS of illegal stuff indexed by google, including minor illegal things like copyright infringement and hate speech, all the way up to crimes that actually hurt people like ponzi schemes, child porn, identity theft rings and virus producers.
The only thing different is that Google indexes LOTS of types of illegal content.
The difference is volume, do things on a small scale, nobody notices, do things on a big scale and nobody dares touch you, but do things in the middle somewhere and you're doomed to failure!
One problem with many safety features is complacency, when you know something "can't" hurt you, you tend to not bother trying to stay safe around it. In some cases injury rates actually INCREASE with safer products because people stop being careful, and this particular technology is a great candidate for that increase, it will do nothing to stop you from getting injured by the wood kicking back (the leading cause of injuries on table saws), and who knows how well it will work after 10 years of sawdust accumulate in the electronics, but people know they have a "safe" saw so they'll happily jam their hand right in there without thinking.
If the saw blade flies out of the machine and hurts someone, they have every right to sue (assuming they followed the manufacturer's instructions when they installed the blade) however if they didn't realize that a device designed for cutting wood could also cut humans, it's entirely their fault.
Thanks for the explanation, I was familiar with the old fashioned way of doing things, what I was wondering was if there was a feedback mechanism in place to pull the pedal down for acceleration during cruise control on modern vehicles so that they would "feel" right to people (there are many systems out there in automotive and other applications that aren't there because they are needed, or even because they are good to have, but simply because they make things behave the way people are used to and expect (even if it is actually less desirable) Thank you for clarifying how these pedals work though.
If I engage the cruise control on my vehicle, the pedal physically moves to adjust the speed, it is plausible that a similar action could be at play here
That's great and all, but if I was keeping the physical piece of "paper" I wouldn't need to print it in the first place, and if I did need to print it, I would want it to be permanent, so I wouldn't be ever re-using the sheet. I print things either because other people need them, so I'd be giving away all my expensive plastic sheets in no time flat. Or because I need to keep a permanent copy, so I would never re-use the plastic. Many of those I didn't give away would have been cut up to make quick reference cards, labels, etc.
If they came up with a way to do this with plain paper (say some form of laser etching which required no toner/ink/film/etc) I'd be interested, but as long as it only works with it's own proprietary "paper" this is pretty much useless.
I imagine it would also be useful in determining where they most need to expand their network.
"Hmm, apparently we have had a 400% increase in customers in Boise over the last year... we probably should roll out another tower in the area to improve service."
Also, as far as I know isn't the location data just from like triangulation? So the feds might not be able to prove that you were at a particular address, but they could prove that you were within 10 blocks of that address.
And if it was used just to determine where their network needs expanding, why do they need to know WHO was on the tower? all they actually need is the number of people!
Now it could be related to billing, but then they just need to know which tower you were on and when (not where exactly you were) but then again, it shouldn't need that information unless you actually placed/received a call/sms/data packet
Thing is, only one of those professions has a justifiable need to see anyone naked, and that's the doctor, and they need to see the person naked because they can't treat what they can't see.
I would also be offended if the doctor wanted to see my child naked if they were complaining of a broken arm, I'd expect only that they'd need too see the arm. It's not about WHO is seeing it, it's about WHY they are seeing it. I'd be ok with a complete stranger seeing me naked if they were the one pulling me out of my bed after my house caught fire and I was unconscious from smoke inhalation. but I'm NOT ok with even my doctor seeing me naked just because he wants to.
There is no need for a TSA screener to see ANYONE naked, in fact it could be argued that there is no need for a TSA screener to even exist. There are many places where someone can do just as much, or more, damage than on an airplane that have no security at all, and nobody claiming it is needed. (when was the last time you were strip-searched to go in to a movie theatre? A concert hall? An office tower? A county fair?)
freedom of movement used to be. but because the constitution was written before the advent of the modern jetliner they didn't think to include it specifically.
All current production cars already have this. Every car produced for sale in North America or Europe (at least) is required to have a manually-operated emergency brake
I've seen many vehicle that do not have a manual emergency brake. In fact many of these vehicles have an electronic switch to operate the parking brake, these systems scare me... a lot. There are 3 things that I never want to have any possibility of failure on the vehicle, steering, emergency brake, and engine shut-off. As long as those 3 work, I can survive pretty much any emergency, in fact I could probably handle the failure, or at least partial failure of any one of the 3 in most circumstances. (which is good, because even your most reliable systems can potentially fail)
here's what I have at home, and it drives me nuts.
I have 1 monitor, and 1 TV hooked up, the TV spends most of it's time off, and depending on various things may or may not be plugged in when the computer boots up. I currently have things set up as 1 large desktop as I want to be able to drag things between the screens (so separate Xsessions is out of the question) I don't need a second task bar.
If the TV is unplugged when the computer boots up, the computer sees 1 desktop the size of my monitor. if the TV is plugged in when the computer boots up, the computer sees 1 desktop the combined size of the TV and the monitor.
Here's where my problem lies: If I boot the computer with the TV plugged in, and then turn off the TV, most of my windows still insist on opening on the TV, even though it's off. If the TV was not plugged in when I boot up, most of my windows insist on opening with their upper left corner at the bottom edge of my main screen.
I just can't get windows to open on the screen where I want them to!
I want a different virtual desktop on each monitor, it would make everything extremely easy. As is, everything is a royal pain to work with.
No, the patent process is meant to encourage patenting of the specific method used to solve the problem, not the general end goal of having the problem solved.
As things are, I could patent teleportation, and even though I haven't come up with how to do it, I could claim royalties from anyone in the future who does.
The system is badly broken. We badly need to get back to the idea that you can't patent anything unless you have a device that performs the function, and then only that method can be patented, any other method of achieving the same goal would still be valid.
Real cryptographers don't try to keep the intended recipient of the message from being able to access the encryption key either. The problem is that DRM is a flawed system, you can't stop the intended recipient of a message from doing what they like with your message after they receive it... in the end they will find a way to break your system, and the fact that you had to make it possible for them to decrypt it means that you can't rely on them not being able to decrypt it.
My bigger concern is that, while Canada has so far resisted the Americans on this issue, with the added weight of the EU applying pressure on this same issue, the politicians (who are very much bought and paid for by big business anyway) will simply conclude that Canada is obviously the last place in the world that hasn't done this, and therefore happily take away our freedoms in the name of "progress"
Depends on how you copy it. In Canada the blank media levy is actually a trade off, in exchange for us paying a levy on blank media, it is actually perfectly legal for us to copy music, provided we follow a few simple rules. - you must have the original in your possession to make a copy. (no provisions are made as to how you acquire this original CD, however it must be done without breaking any other laws, so shoplifting is out, however buying it new or used is ok, as is trading it, being given it, etc) - you may not give away or sell a copy.
This leads to the following situations currently: 1) I buy a music CD, I then take it home and make a copy, I then give the ORIGINAL to my friend. End result, we both have a copy, and no Canadian laws were broken.
2) I buy a music CD, I then take it home and make a copy, I then give the COPY to my friend. End result, we both have a copy, however we broke the law in doing so.
3) I buy a music CD, I then lend it to a friend who makes a copy and returns the original. End result, we both have a copy, and no Canadian laws were broken.
4) I buy a music CD, my friend then lends me a blank CD which I copy this album to and return to him. End result, we both have a copy, however we broke the law in doing so.
Now obviously, being that the end result in all 4 cases is identical, proving which method was used would be very difficult... This has also led to some confusion in the digital arena, as it has been very difficult to say if a downloader is the one making a copy, or the uploader. The courts however decided a while back that in Canada downloading is perfectly legal (you are making a copy for personal use), however uploading is not (you are giving away a copy, and not the original) The media companies of course are trying to change this, however they also have to be careful, because they don't want to give up their revenue stream on the blank media levy either, and it would be very hard to argue that the levy is just if the action is illegal (how do you tax an illegal activity? or worse yet, how do you tax an illegal activity that may not have even happened! That is just asking for a lawsuit!)
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then use a CDRW, still cheaper than the floppy disk.
my solution was to "waste" a CDR on the person (the file took up about 1% of the capacity of the cd).
Is it a "waste" when the CDR is less expensive than the floppy disk that you would have preferred? Just because the floppy is closer to the file size doesn't mean that it is the better choice.
I'm not privy to the details of the contracts, however it could easily be a penalty in to the millions, my machine was down for two and a half hours, however my loss of productivity was less than one hour (and many of our people were similar, work can still be done without computers, my job position has been around for over 100 years, I'm sure they didn't rely on a laptop for the first 70 or 80 of those.)
The deals with the vendors shifts the responsibility to them for QA, if they screw up, they pay. Keep in mind that in-house QA can miss things just as much as vendor QA can (and in fact, our in-house QA has a pretty poor track record!)
Plus, there's enough address to give each subscriber many thousand. And they don't need to change. No more charging for a static IP...
And you've just listed one of the biggest reasons why we don't yet have IPv6, and why the major ISPs are in no hurry to do so. Do you have any idea how much extra they charge for an extra IP, let alone for a static one? if everyone already had multiple statics that revenue stream would dry up instantly.
By the time you are dealing with large enterprise customers, you aren't dealing in EULAs anymore, you're dealing in negotiated contracts where the legal department of each company goes over each and every clause in the contract.
I was talking with some of our IT folks as this unfolded (as my work machine was one of the ones affected) apparently after we were bitten badly by a vendor bug a few years ago, we re-negotiated with most of our software vendors. Our contracts now include penalty clauses for this sort of thing. There's a good bet that this bug just cost Mcafee several thousands (possibly many times more) of dollars on our contract alone.
As for "a small percent" in our company the patch apparently affected approximately 11,000 computers out of approximately 30,000 total (many of whom were saved because the problem was noticed, and the patch blocked, before they could download it) I don't consider 33% to be a "small percent"
Although this isn't directly related to this particular occurrence, I think Google has some serious security issues to deal with on the entire gmail platform. I am a forum admin, and I find that the vast majority of spammers who sign up for accounts do so with a gmail account. most of these appear to be bots, they are only marginally slowed down by our captcha, so I suspect they have no trouble with google's either. The fact that such a large percentage of the spam comes from accounts set up through gmail tells me that spammers find it to be the easiest email system to break in to with automated tools.
If I had the option I would simply ban all registrations from gmail accounts, it would eliminate the vast majority of our forum spam. Unfortunately though too many of our legitimate users also use gmail accounts.
for the one and only feature I actually need in a map. ACCURACY.
Why is it that ALL software based maps I have found to date are 2-3 YEARS behind the paper maps sold at the gas stations?
At work I have a TomTom GPS with the latest North American map, including all corrections that are available to it, I have access to google maps, mapquest, yahoo, etc via an Internet connected laptop, and my blackberry has it's mapping application as well, and yet I still have to pull out a physical printed paper map book any time I'm in a subdivision that was created in the past 3 years (sometimes longer.)
Software maps should be EASIER to keep up to date, my current paper map is now a year and a half old, and is still more current than any online or software based map I can find (and I've tried just about all the online ones, as well as a half dozen or more handheld ones).
not to mention impossible to use on most of the systems that I access regularly that can't handle passwords over 8 characters long, nor allow passwords less than 6 characters long.
I have to deal with all sorts of ridiculous password rules at work... among my favourites...
- on a system I use twice a month, a 30 day password change policy where you can't re-use the last 8 passwords. That's a guarantee I'll never remember it!
- on the same system above, I can reset my forgotten password by using the password from a different system that NEVER needs changing... well why don't we just use THAT password to log in then???
- another system that I use every 2 weeks, a 30 day password change policy where if you miss the 28-30 day window to change your password you are LOCKED OUT and can not set a new password, you must call IT to have it reset. (so basically I have to call IT every few weeks)
- a system that enforces a 7 digit numerical password that must change every 60 days (numerical? exactly 7 digits? I bet you try a few phone numbers and you'll find anyone's password)
- a system that requires exactly 6 alphabetic characters followed by exactly 2 numeric characters (is that supposed to help security somehow??)
- and my favourite "secure" system... must be 6 digits long, must have exactly 2 numeric digits, the remaining characters must be alphabetic (no special characters allowed) must have at least 1 uppercase and at least 1 lowercase letter... this system is new, so I don't know what the password expiry policy is yet, but I'm betting it's set to "post it note on the monitor"
And then there's the corporate blackberry password policy... If I ever find the person who set this one I'm going to strangle them!
- device auto locks every 5 minutes
- password must be changed every 45 days and can not be one you have used before
- password must be a combination of letters and numbers (that alone makes it a pain to type on a blackberry keypad!)
- password must be minimum 4 characters long
I spend my entire bloody day entering the stupid password on my blackberry!!!!!!!
oh, and that's not to mention the online bank that has a requirement for your password to be entirely numeric and between 4 and 6 digits (after sending a mailing out talking about how to create strong passwords to everyone, and then they won't let you follow their own advice!)
Stole? Are you insane? I paid for what I used for training or took what was freely available with the consent of those who created it/
If you now teach someone else how to do something that you learned, do you then turn around and pay your original teacher again? If not, how is this any different from what we are discussing?
That teacher worked once, and got paid once, you copied their knowledge for someone else and YOU got paid instead of the original teacher. if you were to do that with a song you would be facing hefty fines and possibly prison time with todays laws.
If I create a song, for some reason I get paid any time anyone uses the song even 70 years after I die, and yet if I create a sidewalk I get paid only until the sidewalk is complete, the people walking on it for decades afterwards don't owe me a cent.
There is no "natural right" to owning an idea. The only "right" you have is the one society gave you as part of a legal contract. The legal contract was that you would have a LIMITED monopoly on the idea so as to encourage you to create. How does it encourage you to create anything if doing so once is enough to live on for life?
Shouldn't we encourage people to CONTINUE to create after their first creation? how does payment long after you are dead encourage you to create more?
What benefit is there to society if you never give your creation away?
How is this any different when applied to google?
a) not the sole distribution method for aforementioned legal content
google certainly isn't the only place to get anything.
b) the amount of illegal content is significantly larger than the amount of legal content.
have you ever turned off "safe search"? there's TONS of illegal stuff indexed by google, including minor illegal things like copyright infringement and hate speech, all the way up to crimes that actually hurt people like ponzi schemes, child porn, identity theft rings and virus producers.
The only thing different is that Google indexes LOTS of types of illegal content.
The difference is volume, do things on a small scale, nobody notices, do things on a big scale and nobody dares touch you, but do things in the middle somewhere and you're doomed to failure!
If I do work today I don't continue getting paid for it 70 years after I'm dead... why should you?
One problem with many safety features is complacency, when you know something "can't" hurt you, you tend to not bother trying to stay safe around it. In some cases injury rates actually INCREASE with safer products because people stop being careful, and this particular technology is a great candidate for that increase, it will do nothing to stop you from getting injured by the wood kicking back (the leading cause of injuries on table saws), and who knows how well it will work after 10 years of sawdust accumulate in the electronics, but people know they have a "safe" saw so they'll happily jam their hand right in there without thinking.
If the saw blade flies out of the machine and hurts someone, they have every right to sue (assuming they followed the manufacturer's instructions when they installed the blade) however if they didn't realize that a device designed for cutting wood could also cut humans, it's entirely their fault.
Thanks for the explanation, I was familiar with the old fashioned way of doing things, what I was wondering was if there was a feedback mechanism in place to pull the pedal down for acceleration during cruise control on modern vehicles so that they would "feel" right to people (there are many systems out there in automotive and other applications that aren't there because they are needed, or even because they are good to have, but simply because they make things behave the way people are used to and expect (even if it is actually less desirable)
Thank you for clarifying how these pedals work though.
If I engage the cruise control on my vehicle, the pedal physically moves to adjust the speed, it is plausible that a similar action could be at play here
That's great and all, but if I was keeping the physical piece of "paper" I wouldn't need to print it in the first place, and if I did need to print it, I would want it to be permanent, so I wouldn't be ever re-using the sheet. I print things either because other people need them, so I'd be giving away all my expensive plastic sheets in no time flat. Or because I need to keep a permanent copy, so I would never re-use the plastic. Many of those I didn't give away would have been cut up to make quick reference cards, labels, etc.
If they came up with a way to do this with plain paper (say some form of laser etching which required no toner/ink/film/etc) I'd be interested, but as long as it only works with it's own proprietary "paper" this is pretty much useless.
I imagine it would also be useful in determining where they most need to expand their network.
"Hmm, apparently we have had a 400% increase in customers in Boise over the last year... we probably should roll out another tower in the area to improve service."
Also, as far as I know isn't the location data just from like triangulation? So the feds might not be able to prove that you were at a particular address, but they could prove that you were within 10 blocks of that address.
And if it was used just to determine where their network needs expanding, why do they need to know WHO was on the tower? all they actually need is the number of people!
Now it could be related to billing, but then they just need to know which tower you were on and when (not where exactly you were) but then again, it shouldn't need that information unless you actually placed/received a call/sms/data packet
Thing is, only one of those professions has a justifiable need to see anyone naked, and that's the doctor, and they need to see the person naked because they can't treat what they can't see.
I would also be offended if the doctor wanted to see my child naked if they were complaining of a broken arm, I'd expect only that they'd need too see the arm. It's not about WHO is seeing it, it's about WHY they are seeing it. I'd be ok with a complete stranger seeing me naked if they were the one pulling me out of my bed after my house caught fire and I was unconscious from smoke inhalation. but I'm NOT ok with even my doctor seeing me naked just because he wants to.
There is no need for a TSA screener to see ANYONE naked, in fact it could be argued that there is no need for a TSA screener to even exist. There are many places where someone can do just as much, or more, damage than on an airplane that have no security at all, and nobody claiming it is needed. (when was the last time you were strip-searched to go in to a movie theatre? A concert hall? An office tower? A county fair?)
freedom of movement used to be. but because the constitution was written before the advent of the modern jetliner they didn't think to include it specifically.
All current production cars already have this. Every car produced for sale in North America or Europe (at least) is required to have a manually-operated emergency brake
I've seen many vehicle that do not have a manual emergency brake. In fact many of these vehicles have an electronic switch to operate the parking brake, these systems scare me... a lot.
There are 3 things that I never want to have any possibility of failure on the vehicle, steering, emergency brake, and engine shut-off. As long as those 3 work, I can survive pretty much any emergency, in fact I could probably handle the failure, or at least partial failure of any one of the 3 in most circumstances. (which is good, because even your most reliable systems can potentially fail)
here's what I have at home, and it drives me nuts.
I have 1 monitor, and 1 TV hooked up, the TV spends most of it's time off, and depending on various things may or may not be plugged in when the computer boots up.
I currently have things set up as 1 large desktop as I want to be able to drag things between the screens (so separate Xsessions is out of the question)
I don't need a second task bar.
If the TV is unplugged when the computer boots up, the computer sees 1 desktop the size of my monitor. if the TV is plugged in when the computer boots up, the computer sees 1 desktop the combined size of the TV and the monitor.
Here's where my problem lies: If I boot the computer with the TV plugged in, and then turn off the TV, most of my windows still insist on opening on the TV, even though it's off. If the TV was not plugged in when I boot up, most of my windows insist on opening with their upper left corner at the bottom edge of my main screen.
I just can't get windows to open on the screen where I want them to!
I want a different virtual desktop on each monitor, it would make everything extremely easy. As is, everything is a royal pain to work with.
No, the patent process is meant to encourage patenting of the specific method used to solve the problem, not the general end goal of having the problem solved.
As things are, I could patent teleportation, and even though I haven't come up with how to do it, I could claim royalties from anyone in the future who does.
The system is badly broken. We badly need to get back to the idea that you can't patent anything unless you have a device that performs the function, and then only that method can be patented, any other method of achieving the same goal would still be valid.
Real cryptographers don't try to keep the intended recipient of the message from being able to access the encryption key either. The problem is that DRM is a flawed system, you can't stop the intended recipient of a message from doing what they like with your message after they receive it... in the end they will find a way to break your system, and the fact that you had to make it possible for them to decrypt it means that you can't rely on them not being able to decrypt it.
My bigger concern is that, while Canada has so far resisted the Americans on this issue, with the added weight of the EU applying pressure on this same issue, the politicians (who are very much bought and paid for by big business anyway) will simply conclude that Canada is obviously the last place in the world that hasn't done this, and therefore happily take away our freedoms in the name of "progress"
Depends on how you copy it. In Canada the blank media levy is actually a trade off, in exchange for us paying a levy on blank media, it is actually perfectly legal for us to copy music, provided we follow a few simple rules.
- you must have the original in your possession to make a copy. (no provisions are made as to how you acquire this original CD, however it must be done without breaking any other laws, so shoplifting is out, however buying it new or used is ok, as is trading it, being given it, etc)
- you may not give away or sell a copy.
This leads to the following situations currently:
1) I buy a music CD, I then take it home and make a copy, I then give the ORIGINAL to my friend. End result, we both have a copy, and no Canadian laws were broken.
2) I buy a music CD, I then take it home and make a copy, I then give the COPY to my friend. End result, we both have a copy, however we broke the law in doing so.
3) I buy a music CD, I then lend it to a friend who makes a copy and returns the original. End result, we both have a copy, and no Canadian laws were broken.
4) I buy a music CD, my friend then lends me a blank CD which I copy this album to and return to him. End result, we both have a copy, however we broke the law in doing so.
Now obviously, being that the end result in all 4 cases is identical, proving which method was used would be very difficult...
This has also led to some confusion in the digital arena, as it has been very difficult to say if a downloader is the one making a copy, or the uploader. The courts however decided a while back that in Canada downloading is perfectly legal (you are making a copy for personal use), however uploading is not (you are giving away a copy, and not the original)
The media companies of course are trying to change this, however they also have to be careful, because they don't want to give up their revenue stream on the blank media levy either, and it would be very hard to argue that the levy is just if the action is illegal (how do you tax an illegal activity? or worse yet, how do you tax an illegal activity that may not have even happened! That is just asking for a lawsuit!)