Re:this idea has been around for a while....
on
Laser-equipped 747
·
· Score: 1
How long until commericial airliners rip out passenger and cargo compartments on 747's and replace them with non-revenue generating missle-defense lasers? I think we've got a while, bunky.
I dunno - are there any serious objections to building the tunnel that I haven't though of?
Money. Even with favorable financing, payments on 60 billion dollars comes to more than $250 million a month. You'd have to charge space shuttle rates to make enough money just to pay off the loan. Even if you did plan to pull a dot-com and make up your losses on volume, Siberia and Alaska aren't the most...well connected of places. Most months, you'd have to pull the goods off the train at the end of the tunnel and put them on a ship or plane to get them down to the states.
What in the world are you talking about? Amazon isn't giving copyrighted material away for free here. They are offering links to lower-priced used versions of books and the people that sell Amazon the shiny-new versions are upset. This may come as a shock to you, but people have been selling used books since before Linus was born. Even more shocking, businesses have been getting into product placement tiffs with their suppliers for even longer. So, to borrow your style:
NOT EVERY OPINION YOU READ ON SLASHDOT IS RELATED TO LINUX. GET A CLUE.
Damn! Here I am, paying my company's T-1 bill and my DSL bill every month like a schmuck! Imagine my embarassment at learning there's a way to use the "communications infrastructure" without paying or helping to pay for it.
If you could post the details please, I'd appreciate it. It seems patently unfair that these voice over IP commies are getting their connection to the Internet for free while I have spent thousands of dollars maintaining a wired connection to a traditional telco service.
Without access to the free communications infrastructure you imply, my company just won't able to compete, which seems patently unfair.
That's exactly what will solve this problem: submission of your site to a quasi-governemental board so that they can judge your content and "allow" you to keep your domain name.
Why do you care if amazon.com takes amazon.person? Is that the first place you're going to look for it? Is that the first place your mom's going to look for it? Or are you going to go to the address that they've spent millions establishing a brand name for? Let them waste their money locking up every possible TLD, they'll just go bankrupt more quickly and eventually they'll all free up again.
I think in the end, ICANN is either going to radically change their policies or become irrelevant. Sooner or later, someone big will become feed-up enough or greedy enough to bolt out of the current DNS structure and that's the end of ICANN. There will probably be some confusing times ahead for DNS resolution, but trying to maintain an artificial scarcity in TLD's isn't doing anyone any good.
I'm going to go to work tomorrow and find some alternate DNS roots to put in our root server list. It's unlikely anyone will even notice, but I might sleep better.
oh it is a sad day when passing ruffians can say "troll" at will to young posters. Why, even those who type and post insightfully are at considerably moderating stress at this period in history
Oh crap. I'd pay money right now just for the honor of mod'ing that up.
Why can't you trade in karma for moderation points? Sure, you'd get the occasional horror of a Signal 11 mod'ing a whole article, but at least karma would be worth something.
Re:Strange, 2nd Waste Land Title
on
Look to Windward
·
· Score: 1
Well, actually, this book could be considered sort of a sequel to Consider Phlebas. It's a cool tie-in.
Re:Banks is Wonderful but Awful
on
Look to Windward
·
· Score: 1
My biggest complaint with Banks is that he doesn't write books as quickly as I can read them. I, too, had to buy this one overseas because I just couldn't wait. Culture fans won't be disappointed.
To add to the Banks list, if you can find it, read Against a Dark Background. It's not Culture, but it's still highly entertaining.
Well, of course it was taken out of context. How would this work, exactly?
You, Mr-Hip-Online-Merchant get your Internet service provided by MCI. One day you get a bill from AT&T, a company you have no contractual relationship with, in the mail demanding a cut of all the sales AT&T says came over its network? That wouldn't be worth the paper it's printed on.
A more likely plan is this: AT&T is mulling replacing flat rates for service to the merchant with a percentage-of-sales rate, in a manner similar to the way that shopping malls charge rents to tenant stores. Maybe they charge a little bit extra if the sale comes in from a AT&T broadband customer, maybe they don't. What isn't going to happen is the scenario described in both those articles, where Joe-Random-Company gets a bill just because an AT&T customer bought something from them. Not unless AP departments achieve a whole new level of stupidity.
Gotta luv web-reporting.
Well, that's rather the point, isn't it? Napster isn't STEALING. People use it for that function, but there is nothing inherent in the program that ensures that you must use it to violate other people's copyrights. To use your own example, what if the RIAA goes after FTP clients next? Afterall, you can get MP3's off of FTP sites just as easily as off Napster.
Governments schmovernments. What about corporations or pissed off heavy metal drummers? What sort of protection can they offer after they tick off someone that can afford to hire a couple of heliocoptors and stuff them full of guys with guns? Is it even illegal in western countries to participate in the overthrow of a foreign government?
What if it turns out to be cheaper? What if pushing the e@h customers out to a colo'd connection allows the business delay bandwidth upgrades to their primary Internet connection? All e@h has to do is price the connection into their network at slightly less than the company would pay for equivelent bandwidth into the Internet at large. At a reasonable utilization, the connection ends up saving money.
The assumption that this results in a net higher cost is may not be correct.
According to Worldbank data there were 39 personal computers for every 1,000 people in 1988. For comparison the US had 459 per 1,000 and Canada had 330 per 1,000.
And with a per capita GNP of less than $3,000, Dell is not likely to see a surge of business out of this.
No. I would not love it. I'm not sure what is scarier: a government-run internet or that you think it's a good idea.
You can seriously sit there and think that a government run monopoly will bring innovation and efficiency to the internet? That it will be nimble and willing to provide cutting edge technology to the country? That it will provide free and unrestricted access to everyone? How long do you think Napster would last on a government internet? Hell, here's an on-topic question: how long do you think IP phones would last on a government internet before some bureaucrat decided they were a waste of precious communal bandwidth?
I realize your premise is based on magically staffing this monopoly with enlightened, caring, technically savvy bureaucrats, but honestly, really, you believe that will happen? You believe that it will stay that way after five years? After ten?
It's amazing the number of people that believe that centralized control is good. Or that sending your money into the government somehow means that it will be spent in a more efficient manner.
I would love to have a high speed Ipv6 network. I love IP phones, but you can't get it for free. Someone, somewhere, has to pay for it. Why is it so unreasonable to expect people to make money while providing you with that service?
Let me rephrase more clearly: If you commit a crime, it remains a crime, even if you choose to call it something different. Calling copyright infringment "sharing" doesn't make it legal.
About a year ago, some kid broke into my car and stole a bunch of CD's. He was later caught in the act of doing it to someone else and was arrested. At the time I was fairly happy that he was being punished for his crime, but now, now I realize he wasn't stealing, he was just trying to share!
If only RMS had redefined the language for me earlier, I would have realized the error of my ways and refused to press charges! Perhaps if I had spent more time as a youth watching Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood I would have learned the true meaning of sharing. I have only myself to blame.
I can only hope that one day I will be worthy of forgiveness from the convicted sharer.
Crime Tip of the Day: If you are going to break into cars, wear gloves. It may seem old-fashioned, but the police still look for fingerprints.
No, a better analogy would be because you bought a Toyota you should be given the plans and detailed instructions on how to build your own Toyota's and should be allowed to sell or give away Toyota's based on those plans.
Granted he got a bit off topic with all the gun control crap, but the point that there are different standards being applied to software is a valid one.
Read that little piece of paper that comes with the software next time. You haven't bought the software, so there is no infringment on your "rights to use it however you want".
You bought a right to use the software, not the software itself. Don't like the terms? Don't buy it.
Slashdot Mirror
How long until commericial airliners rip out passenger and cargo compartments on 747's and replace them with non-revenue generating missle-defense lasers? I think we've got a while, bunky.
I dunno - are there any serious objections to building the tunnel that I haven't though of?
Money. Even with favorable financing, payments on 60 billion dollars comes to more than $250 million a month. You'd have to charge space shuttle rates to make enough money just to pay off the loan. Even if you did plan to pull a dot-com and make up your losses on volume, Siberia and Alaska aren't the most...well connected of places. Most months, you'd have to pull the goods off the train at the end of the tunnel and put them on a ship or plane to get them down to the states.
You could just go to the web site and get a rt update of it's speed.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/english/where/
Strange, I get 4 for my $19.95
What in the world are you talking about? Amazon isn't giving copyrighted material away for free here. They are offering links to lower-priced used versions of books and the people that sell Amazon the shiny-new versions are upset. This may come as a shock to you, but people have been selling used books since before Linus was born. Even more shocking, businesses have been getting into product placement tiffs with their suppliers for even longer. So, to borrow your style:
NOT EVERY OPINION YOU READ ON SLASHDOT IS RELATED TO LINUX. GET A CLUE.
Damn! Here I am, paying my company's T-1 bill and my DSL bill every month like a schmuck! Imagine my embarassment at learning there's a way to use the "communications infrastructure" without paying or helping to pay for it.
If you could post the details please, I'd appreciate it. It seems patently unfair that these voice over IP commies are getting their connection to the Internet for free while I have spent thousands of dollars maintaining a wired connection to a traditional telco service.
Without access to the free communications infrastructure you imply, my company just won't able to compete, which seems patently unfair.
See! Even Mr. Coward understands the need to open up the TLD space. Imagine the hours of fun you could have if you were able to register a.dumbass!
Oh yeah, good one.
That's exactly what will solve this problem: submission of your site to a quasi-governemental board so that they can judge your content and "allow" you to keep your domain name.
Why do you care if amazon.com takes amazon.person? Is that the first place you're going to look for it? Is that the first place your mom's going to look for it? Or are you going to go to the address that they've spent millions establishing a brand name for? Let them waste their money locking up every possible TLD, they'll just go bankrupt more quickly and eventually they'll all free up again.
I think in the end, ICANN is either going to radically change their policies or become irrelevant. Sooner or later, someone big will become feed-up enough or greedy enough to bolt out of the current DNS structure and that's the end of ICANN. There will probably be some confusing times ahead for DNS resolution, but trying to maintain an artificial scarcity in TLD's isn't doing anyone any good.
I'm going to go to work tomorrow and find some alternate DNS roots to put in our root server list. It's unlikely anyone will even notice, but I might sleep better.
oh it is a sad day when passing ruffians can say "troll" at will to young posters. Why, even those who type and post insightfully are at considerably moderating stress at this period in history
Oh crap. I'd pay money right now just for the honor of mod'ing that up.
Why can't you trade in karma for moderation points? Sure, you'd get the occasional horror of a Signal 11 mod'ing a whole article, but at least karma would be worth something.
Let's try this link to one of my favorite sites, APOD:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ ast ropix.html
Good only on Tuesday.
Well, actually, this book could be considered sort of a sequel to Consider Phlebas. It's a cool tie-in.
To add to the Banks list, if you can find it, read Against a Dark Background. It's not Culture, but it's still highly entertaining.
Well, of course it was taken out of context. How would this work, exactly? You, Mr-Hip-Online-Merchant get your Internet service provided by MCI. One day you get a bill from AT&T, a company you have no contractual relationship with, in the mail demanding a cut of all the sales AT&T says came over its network? That wouldn't be worth the paper it's printed on. A more likely plan is this: AT&T is mulling replacing flat rates for service to the merchant with a percentage-of-sales rate, in a manner similar to the way that shopping malls charge rents to tenant stores. Maybe they charge a little bit extra if the sale comes in from a AT&T broadband customer, maybe they don't. What isn't going to happen is the scenario described in both those articles, where Joe-Random-Company gets a bill just because an AT&T customer bought something from them. Not unless AP departments achieve a whole new level of stupidity. Gotta luv web-reporting.
No. It's just unfortunately named.
Well, that's rather the point, isn't it? Napster isn't STEALING. People use it for that function, but there is nothing inherent in the program that ensures that you must use it to violate other people's copyrights. To use your own example, what if the RIAA goes after FTP clients next? Afterall, you can get MP3's off of FTP sites just as easily as off Napster.
Instead of camping out in airplane bathrooms, why don't you just buy a spare battery? Delivery guaranteed to be earlier than your Crusoe laptop.
Governments schmovernments. What about corporations or pissed off heavy metal drummers? What sort of protection can they offer after they tick off someone that can afford to hire a couple of heliocoptors and stuff them full of guys with guns? Is it even illegal in western countries to participate in the overthrow of a foreign government?
What if it turns out to be cheaper? What if pushing the e@h customers out to a colo'd connection allows the business delay bandwidth upgrades to their primary Internet connection? All e@h has to do is price the connection into their network at slightly less than the company would pay for equivelent bandwidth into the Internet at large. At a reasonable utilization, the connection ends up saving money.
The assumption that this results in a net higher cost is may not be correct.
According to Worldbank data there were 39 personal computers for every 1,000 people in 1988. For comparison the US had 459 per 1,000 and Canada had 330 per 1,000.
And with a per capita GNP of less than $3,000, Dell is not likely to see a surge of business out of this.
No. I would not love it. I'm not sure what is scarier: a government-run internet or that you think it's a good idea.
You can seriously sit there and think that a government run monopoly will bring innovation and efficiency to the internet? That it will be nimble and willing to provide cutting edge technology to the country? That it will provide free and unrestricted access to everyone? How long do you think Napster would last on a government internet? Hell, here's an on-topic question: how long do you think IP phones would last on a government internet before some bureaucrat decided they were a waste of precious communal bandwidth?
I realize your premise is based on magically staffing this monopoly with enlightened, caring, technically savvy bureaucrats, but honestly, really, you believe that will happen? You believe that it will stay that way after five years? After ten?
It's amazing the number of people that believe that centralized control is good. Or that sending your money into the government somehow means that it will be spent in a more efficient manner.
I would love to have a high speed Ipv6 network. I love IP phones, but you can't get it for free. Someone, somewhere, has to pay for it. Why is it so unreasonable to expect people to make money while providing you with that service?
Damn. That's what I get for trying to be subtle.
Let me rephrase more clearly: If you commit a crime, it remains a crime, even if you choose to call it something different. Calling copyright infringment "sharing" doesn't make it legal.
About a year ago, some kid broke into my car and stole a bunch of CD's. He was later caught in the act of doing it to someone else and was arrested. At the time I was fairly happy that he was being punished for his crime, but now, now I realize he wasn't stealing, he was just trying to share!
If only RMS had redefined the language for me earlier, I would have realized the error of my ways and refused to press charges! Perhaps if I had spent more time as a youth watching Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood I would have learned the true meaning of sharing. I have only myself to blame.
I can only hope that one day I will be worthy of forgiveness from the convicted sharer.
Crime Tip of the Day: If you are going to break into cars, wear gloves. It may seem old-fashioned, but the police still look for fingerprints.
To the extent that RMS's point is:
"You are free to release the code that you wrote with whatever license you feel is appropriate."
we are in complete agreement. That doesn't really seem to be his main point though.
No, a better analogy would be because you bought a Toyota you should be given the plans and detailed instructions on how to build your own Toyota's and should be allowed to sell or give away Toyota's based on those plans.
Granted he got a bit off topic with all the gun control crap, but the point that there are different standards being applied to software is a valid one.
Read that little piece of paper that comes with the software next time. You haven't bought the software, so there is no infringment on your "rights to use it however you want".
You bought a right to use the software, not the software itself. Don't like the terms? Don't buy it.