Notice how Finland is reported as 50% of all households having guns? The per-capita household gun ownership in Canada is also quite high. Take a look at Japan's statistics again when comparing suicides and non-gun deaths. It isn't so lopsided, then.
Gun ownership in New York and New Jersey are strictly controlled, yet they have some of the highest homicide rates in the nation.
The saying "guns don't kill people, people kill people" is especially true in the U.S. It really isn't a gun thing, it is an attitude/culture thing. Take away the guns and we'd still dwarf Europe in per-capita violent crime and deaths.
...a discussion about EULAs came up in the thread with the Microsoft guy. My contention then was some legal dept wrote it a decade ago and much of it is boilerplate the no one reads. You're just providing an example for my argument.
In this case, it wasn't YOU that didn't read it, it was the Blizzard guys. EULAs have gotten out of hand. Many of them have language in there that doesn't pertain to anything related with the product at all. It is in there because no one wants to pay the lawyer another couple hours of billing time to review any modifications.
You are SOL and your only real option is to get your money back from where you bought the game. If you do decide to hire a lawyer and go after Blizzard, expect to pay the lawyer 1000x the difference in the used/new prices of the box -- and probably not get anywhere.
It would be fun, though, if I won the lotto. Blizzard has proven themselves nothing but a bunch of dicks over their treatment of FreeCraft/Ale and the alternative server networks. I'd love to have the money to fuck them over with their own legalese.:-)
I have half-a-dozen DVDs that just got the pox and died. They were stored in their jewel boxes on a shelf, and most played only two or three times. However, after a year or two they started developing little "dots" and started skipping and pausing when played.
It looked like someone spilled soda on the discs, except the dots were too small and all a uniform size. Also, they were not on the surface, but underneath the top layer.
So, unless "taking care of the media" means "store them enveloped in an inert gas, with heavy lead shielding and rigid temperature control", I'll be making backups regardless of any anti-circumvention law or efforts by Macrovision.
This isn't really true. The terminology in the EULA is legal boilerplate that is common in almost ALL commercial software. I've seen the same crap over and over, even in situations where it doesn't apply at all -- like hardware drivers.
Terms and phrases like "merchantability", "fitness" and "suitable" have specific legal meanings that don't necessarily mean what the common man think they mean. It is like the idiots trying to put stickers on textbooks saying evolution is just a "theory" and not knowing the *actual* definition of "theory". (Hint: Electricity and Gravity are both "just theories".)
He was just waffling around saying "the entire industry has been fucked by the lawyers" because it wasn't polite.
DVD's I haven't watched in over 6 months get donated straight to my local public library. Then LOTS of people can watch them for free.
I've donated over 100 movies in the last year. I'll bet the DVD consortium will just love that.
How much are you going to get on a used DVD on E-Bay? Considering damn near every new DVD is $15 at WalMart (Lord of the Rings and multi-disc sets being the exception), what difference does it make?
Hell, I've filled in a lot of my "must have" collection from Walmart spending $10 a disc, including tax. They're now an impulse buy.
The Kaleidescope product isn't exactly a threat to that.
However, adding legally-licensed DVD playback to Linspire is cheaper, faster and simpler than Windows. Their modified version of Xine w/the properly licensed codec costs $4.95 and installs from Click-n-Run in 30 seconds on a decent broadband connection.
WinDVD is $49.95 (10x the price) and after you download and save you must then install and reboot. Not 30 seconds by any stretch.
I can live with dual-BSD or dual-GPL licenses. Won't slow me down a bit.
In the real world, while Oracle is a top player they are not alone. This is a perfect opportunity for DB2, Sybase and *shudder* Microsoft's SQL Server to make a serious play for marketshare.
I'm not a Bush worshiper. I didn't vote for him, either election, and think his policies are too heavy-handed in many cases.
The Executive Branch -- Bush -- doesn't fund squat, Congress does. The $950 million wasn't even a pledge but rather a request to Congress.
Finally, it BETTER damn well not be all paid thru right now. Those pledges from Nations were for the LONG TERM. In many cases, over a period of a COUPLE YEARS. This was done on purpose not only to spread out the cost impact, but to make sure the money is better managed and not just splurged on crap and in a year, 90% of those affected didn't see any benefit.
Of course, there is nothing to say this won't happen anyway...
EVERY President tries to steer funds to their buds. It is the nature of politics. Hell, compared to some term-limitless Senators and Congressman (Robert Byrd of WV comes to mind), Bush is a rank amatuer!
Do I like it? No. But I'm also realistic about it.
Just out of curiosity, whom other than Haliburton actually has experience in the type of reconstruction going on in Iraq? Whom would you rather see the money going to?
If you think graft, cronyism and corruption is bad in the U.S., you need to get out more. The U.S. is a playpen compared to Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Bush, like EVERY President, promises big money. But Congress is the one that actually holds the purse strings.
Didn't you see the news YESTERDAY where Bush tripled his funding request to Congress for tsunami aid to $950 million?
Oh, wait. You were too busy bashing the U.S. to let a simple thing like hitting news.google.com (where it was a top story in it's category for most of the day) get in your way.
I now have this vision of 4 scruffy terrorists in a room, three iPods hooked in to the array and the 4th guy listening to some U2 track and going "what? What'd I do?"
With Thunderbird, if you save a letter to send later, you have no way (that I can find) to send it, you have to restart the program for it to send it self, (in other words, there is no send button, just a recieve button)... Maybe I am wrong, or have the concept mixed up, but, that's how I see it.
And how do you propose people use code under the LGPL if they don't get a patent license to go with it?
You get a patent license, you just can't sub-license.
It goes like this:
Programmer A writes code to read/write MS Office formats, includes the notice required by Microsoft, and distributes the code with a program.
Everyone who downloads/uses the program is covered by the license.
Those that want to use the source, either changing & redistributing or incorporating and redistributing need to separately agree to the MS license -- by including the required notification and link. So don't remove the link to MS' license! How hard is that?
It sounds a lot like OpenSSL to me.
Considering that the patent license is available to anyone, free of charge, just by linking to the license and printing the notice of included code, I don't see the issue.
As far as The GPL/LGPL very much addresses patents. In particular, if the code is patented, it can't be distributed under the GPL/LGPL. goes, you're wrong. Read it again. I quote the Preamble of the LGPL:
"Therefore, we insist that any patent license obtained for a version of the library must be consistent with the full freedom of use specified in this license."
Which part of the MS licenst contradicts this? http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.a sp?url=/library/en-us/odcXMLRef/html/odcXMLRefLegalNotice.asp
The only questionable part is that you may not make derivatives of the MS Schema itself.
If you read the fine print, just by putting the link to MS' license and a one-line statement about "this product contains Microsoft stuff..." that is acceptance of the license.
They don't require signatures, lawyers, etc.
Similar to the old BSD-style and OpenSSL style licenses.
In the letter to the European Union's Interchange of Data between Administration (IDA) commission, there are these lines:
The technical documentation is available on the Internet for anyone to copy and read
The schemas are based on the W3C standard for XML
The license is royalty-free
The license is perpetual
The license is very brief and available to anyone
I believe that covers your questions about "worldwide" and "perpetual".
However, the license itself plainly states you are not allowed to sub-license. The only case for revocability stated is: "Microsoft reserves the right to terminate this license grant if you sue Microsoft or any of Microsoft's affiliates for patent infringement over claims relating to reading or writing of files that comply with the Office Schemas. This license is perpetual subject to this reservation."
However, it does seem quite broad:
"Microsoft hereby grants you a royalty-free license under Microsoft's Necessary Claims to make, use, sell, offer to sell, import, and otherwise distribute Licensed Implementations solely for the purpose of reading and writing files that comply with the Microsoft specifications for the Office Schemas."
I can see an LGPL library for handling MS-OFFICE formats. Also, remember the GPL addresses copyrights and NOT patents, which this license covers. You right your own code, it is your copyright, not Microsoft's.
The others -- in SFF models those connectors not only take up space but are begging for static short when someone touches it after walking across the carpet.
Real estate is the main reason, though. Both on the motherboard (floppy connectors, extra IDE connectors, etc.) and on the case.
I wasn't implying banning the manufacture of legacy connectors, just making ONE (or a couple) of legacy free motherboards for people like me.
With all the existing stuff including full sized, SFF, PC-104, DIMM-PC and other types of stuff for serial-connect and legacy connections it'll be 50 years before it goes away completely.
The mouse and keyboard ports are identical (or close enough) so you can easily plug them in to each other. Of course, that doesn't work. Yes, I know they are color coded but sometime I'm not in a position to see the color and just do it by feel. Not to mention people who are totally color blind.
In support situations, I've dealt with TONS of "it isn't in the right plug" situations. USB solves this. Just plug the damn thing in where it fits and you're done. +1 for convenience
USB doesn't have pins, they are flat connectors. Pins get bent and broken. +1 for durability
My USB keyboard has a built in hub, so I can plug in other devices. +1 for convenience.
PS/2, like serial and parallel, have seen their day and it is time to move on.
I'm NOT saying take them away from the people that want them, just make me an option that doesn't have them. Thank you Apple.
...because all the mini-itx stuff hangs on so tightly to legacy crap.
I have been looking for YEARS for a legacy-free mini-itx type (SFF) motherboard and have yet to see one.
By legacy-free I mean: no PS/2, no parallel, no VGA, no serial (9-pin or 25-pin). I want USB 2.0, DVI, and gigE. Give it a mini-PCI and/or mini-AGP and I'd be happy.
I've seen Via *announce* a line with just VGA/USB/Ethernet and the rest as headers, but nothing else that fits the bill.
My only "issue" with the mini Mac is the 10/100 Ethernet instead of 10/100/1000. That, however, is what I consider a very minor flaw in what otherwise is my dream machine.
The only other Apple product I owned was the Newton, so it isn't a Mac fan-boy thing.
The mini-itx industry was just too damn hung up on legacy crap for me to ever really be more than just mildly interested in their products.
Slashdot Mirror
Nope.
Notice how Finland is reported as 50% of all households having guns? The per-capita household gun ownership in Canada is also quite high. Take a look at Japan's statistics again when comparing suicides and non-gun deaths. It isn't so lopsided, then.
Gun ownership in New York and New Jersey are strictly controlled, yet they have some of the highest homicide rates in the nation.
The saying "guns don't kill people, people kill people" is especially true in the U.S. It really isn't a gun thing, it is an attitude/culture thing. Take away the guns and we'd still dwarf Europe in per-capita violent crime and deaths.
They're just saying "don't expect to be able to use our bandwidth and download from us without being a customer first".
No, they are not. Your assessment is wrong.
If I purchase Office, run it under WINE and want to update it, I'm screwed -- yet I am a legit customer of Microsoft.
Considering you can't really update WINE thru WUS, WTF is the point?
-Charles
...before the first Starbucks, Walmart and McDonald's now appear on Mars?
...a discussion about EULAs came up in the thread with the Microsoft guy. My contention then was some legal dept wrote it a decade ago and much of it is boilerplate the no one reads. You're just providing an example for my argument.
:-)
In this case, it wasn't YOU that didn't read it, it was the Blizzard guys. EULAs have gotten out of hand. Many of them have language in there that doesn't pertain to anything related with the product at all. It is in there because no one wants to pay the lawyer another couple hours of billing time to review any modifications.
You are SOL and your only real option is to get your money back from where you bought the game. If you do decide to hire a lawyer and go after Blizzard, expect to pay the lawyer 1000x the difference in the used/new prices of the box -- and probably not get anywhere.
It would be fun, though, if I won the lotto. Blizzard has proven themselves nothing but a bunch of dicks over their treatment of FreeCraft/Ale and the alternative server networks. I'd love to have the money to fuck them over with their own legalese.
If the tin foil falls off or the angle improves, they instantly know where you are.
The existing tethers don't have even the option.
Besides, if you start screwing with it they will most likely come get you for a probation violation.
It isn't *perfect* but it is a definite step in the right direction.
-Charles
Untrue.
I have half-a-dozen DVDs that just got the pox and died. They were stored in their jewel boxes on a shelf, and most played only two or three times. However, after a year or two they started developing little "dots" and started skipping and pausing when played.
It looked like someone spilled soda on the discs, except the dots were too small and all a uniform size. Also, they were not on the surface, but underneath the top layer.
So, unless "taking care of the media" means "store them enveloped in an inert gas, with heavy lead shielding and rigid temperature control", I'll be making backups regardless of any anti-circumvention law or efforts by Macrovision.
-Charles
This isn't really true. The terminology in the EULA is legal boilerplate that is common in almost ALL commercial software. I've seen the same crap over and over, even in situations where it doesn't apply at all -- like hardware drivers.
Terms and phrases like "merchantability", "fitness" and "suitable" have specific legal meanings that don't necessarily mean what the common man think they mean. It is like the idiots trying to put stickers on textbooks saying evolution is just a "theory" and not knowing the *actual* definition of "theory". (Hint: Electricity and Gravity are both "just theories".)
He was just waffling around saying "the entire industry has been fucked by the lawyers" because it wasn't polite.
-Charles
DVD's I haven't watched in over 6 months get donated straight to my local public library. Then LOTS of people can watch them for free.
I've donated over 100 movies in the last year. I'll bet the DVD consortium will just love that.
How much are you going to get on a used DVD on E-Bay? Considering damn near every new DVD is $15 at WalMart (Lord of the Rings and multi-disc sets being the exception), what difference does it make?
Hell, I've filled in a lot of my "must have" collection from Walmart spending $10 a disc, including tax. They're now an impulse buy.
The Kaleidescope product isn't exactly a threat to that.
-Charles
However, adding legally-licensed DVD playback to Linspire is cheaper, faster and simpler than Windows. Their modified version of Xine w/the properly licensed codec costs $4.95 and installs from Click-n-Run in 30 seconds on a decent broadband connection.
WinDVD is $49.95 (10x the price) and after you download and save you must then install and reboot. Not 30 seconds by any stretch.
When you install Linspire it gives you the option to create user accounts. It explains that it is a real good idea to create an account.
It is *not* default root.
I can live with dual-BSD or dual-GPL licenses. Won't slow me down a bit.
In the real world, while Oracle is a top player they are not alone. This is a perfect opportunity for DB2, Sybase and *shudder* Microsoft's SQL Server to make a serious play for marketshare.
That knocking sound you hear is opportunity.
-Charles
I'm not a Bush worshiper. I didn't vote for him, either election, and think his policies are too heavy-handed in many cases.
The Executive Branch -- Bush -- doesn't fund squat, Congress does. The $950 million wasn't even a pledge but rather a request to Congress.
Finally, it BETTER damn well not be all paid thru right now. Those pledges from Nations were for the LONG TERM. In many cases, over a period of a COUPLE YEARS. This was done on purpose not only to spread out the cost impact, but to make sure the money is better managed and not just splurged on crap and in a year, 90% of those affected didn't see any benefit.
Of course, there is nothing to say this won't happen anyway...
EVERY President tries to steer funds to their buds. It is the nature of politics. Hell, compared to some term-limitless Senators and Congressman (Robert Byrd of WV comes to mind), Bush is a rank amatuer!
Do I like it? No. But I'm also realistic about it.
Just out of curiosity, whom other than Haliburton actually has experience in the type of reconstruction going on in Iraq? Whom would you rather see the money going to?
If you think graft, cronyism and corruption is bad in the U.S., you need to get out more. The U.S. is a playpen compared to Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Bush, like EVERY President, promises big money. But Congress is the one that actually holds the purse strings.
-Charles
Bullshit.
Didn't you see the news YESTERDAY where Bush tripled his funding request to Congress for tsunami aid to $950 million?
Oh, wait. You were too busy bashing the U.S. to let a simple thing like hitting news.google.com (where it was a top story in it's category for most of the day) get in your way.
I now have this vision of 4 scruffy terrorists in a room, three iPods hooked in to the array and the 4th guy listening to some U2 track and going "what? What'd I do?"
-Charles
Know Thy Enemy
-Charles
With Thunderbird, if you save a letter to send later, you have no way (that I can find) to send it, you have to restart the program for it to send it self, (in other words, there is no send button, just a recieve button)... Maybe I am wrong, or have the concept mixed up, but, that's how I see it.
File Menu --> Send Unsent Messages
And how do you propose people use code under the LGPL if they don't get a patent license to go with it?
a sp?url= /library/en-us/odcXMLRef/html/odcXMLRefLegalNotice .asp
You get a patent license, you just can't sub-license.
It goes like this:
Programmer A writes code to read/write MS Office formats, includes the notice required by Microsoft, and distributes the code with a program.
Everyone who downloads/uses the program is covered by the license.
Those that want to use the source, either changing & redistributing or incorporating and redistributing need to separately agree to the MS license -- by including the required notification and link. So don't remove the link to MS' license! How hard is that?
It sounds a lot like OpenSSL to me.
Considering that the patent license is available to anyone, free of charge, just by linking to the license and printing the notice of included code, I don't see the issue.
As far as The GPL/LGPL very much addresses patents. In particular, if the code is patented, it can't be distributed under the GPL/LGPL. goes, you're wrong. Read it again. I quote the Preamble of the LGPL:
"Therefore, we insist that any patent license obtained for a version of the library must be consistent with the full freedom of use specified in this license."
Which part of the MS licenst contradicts this?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.
The only questionable part is that you may not make derivatives of the MS Schema itself.
-Charles
If you read the fine print, just by putting the link to MS' license and a one-line statement about "this product contains Microsoft stuff..." that is acceptance of the license.
They don't require signatures, lawyers, etc.
Similar to the old BSD-style and OpenSSL style licenses.
In the letter to the European Union's Interchange of Data between Administration (IDA) commission, there are these lines:
The technical documentation is available on the Internet for anyone to copy and read
The schemas are based on the W3C standard for XML
The license is royalty-free
The license is perpetual
The license is very brief and available to anyone
I believe that covers your questions about "worldwide" and "perpetual".
However, the license itself plainly states you are not allowed to sub-license. The only case for revocability stated is: "Microsoft reserves the right to terminate this license grant if you sue Microsoft or any of Microsoft's affiliates for patent infringement over claims relating to reading or writing of files that comply with the Office Schemas. This license is perpetual subject to this reservation."
However, it does seem quite broad:
"Microsoft hereby grants you a royalty-free license under Microsoft's Necessary Claims to make, use, sell, offer to sell, import, and otherwise distribute Licensed Implementations solely for the purpose of reading and writing files that comply with the Microsoft specifications for the Office Schemas."
I can see an LGPL library for handling MS-OFFICE formats. Also, remember the GPL addresses copyrights and NOT patents, which this license covers. You right your own code, it is your copyright, not Microsoft's.
-Charles (IANAL)
Actually, VGA would be the one I could live with.
The others -- in SFF models those connectors not only take up space but are begging for static short when someone touches it after walking across the carpet.
Real estate is the main reason, though. Both on the motherboard (floppy connectors, extra IDE connectors, etc.) and on the case.
I wasn't implying banning the manufacture of legacy connectors, just making ONE (or a couple) of legacy free motherboards for people like me.
With all the existing stuff including full sized, SFF, PC-104, DIMM-PC and other types of stuff for serial-connect and legacy connections it'll be 50 years before it goes away completely.
What's wrong with a PS/2 port?
The mouse and keyboard ports are identical (or close enough) so you can easily plug them in to each other. Of course, that doesn't work. Yes, I know they are color coded but sometime I'm not in a position to see the color and just do it by feel. Not to mention people who are totally color blind.
In support situations, I've dealt with TONS of "it isn't in the right plug" situations. USB solves this. Just plug the damn thing in where it fits and you're done. +1 for convenience
USB doesn't have pins, they are flat connectors. Pins get bent and broken. +1 for durability
My USB keyboard has a built in hub, so I can plug in other devices. +1 for convenience.
PS/2, like serial and parallel, have seen their day and it is time to move on.
I'm NOT saying take them away from the people that want them, just make me an option that doesn't have them. Thank you Apple.
...because all the mini-itx stuff hangs on so tightly to legacy crap.
I have been looking for YEARS for a legacy-free mini-itx type (SFF) motherboard and have yet to see one.
By legacy-free I mean: no PS/2, no parallel, no VGA, no serial (9-pin or 25-pin). I want USB 2.0, DVI, and gigE. Give it a mini-PCI and/or mini-AGP and I'd be happy.
I've seen Via *announce* a line with just VGA/USB/Ethernet and the rest as headers, but nothing else that fits the bill.
My only "issue" with the mini Mac is the 10/100 Ethernet instead of 10/100/1000. That, however, is what I consider a very minor flaw in what otherwise is my dream machine.
The only other Apple product I owned was the Newton, so it isn't a Mac fan-boy thing.
The mini-itx industry was just too damn hung up on legacy crap for me to ever really be more than just mildly interested in their products.
-Charles
It is quite obvious from their cash settlements/awards that Intergraph has finally figured out what:
3. ???
is.
-Charles
a) encrypt/password-protect it, then
b) upload it
If you limit sharing to your friends, you're completely safe.
You better have a lot of "friends". The whole idea behind Bittorrent was the more people using it, the faster it is.
If you're just going to share encrypted warez with a dozen people, there isn't any benefit to doing it via BT than via FTP.
-Charles