Let me propose what I think is an easy solution to this problem.
Instead of allowing the user that submitted the story a link to any URL, only allow them to link to their Slashdot profile.
The user could still put links to an external website in their Journal. They would also still gain some fame and notoriety if their articles are frequently submitted.
I think with the external links being 2 clicks away, and not linked directly from the front page would curb some of the people abusing the system, as well as people complaining about it.
Thanks for the heads up on this bill. It may not be the ideal way to fix the copyright problem, but at least it's a start in the right direction.
I checked on the EFF Action Center and found this issue listed... a quick and easy way to send a fax to my congressman. I'd encourage everyone in the US to do the same!
It's not a gambling site, but if are just looking to practice your skills for free, try irc.poker.net.
It's an IRC server with various pokerbots that has been running for many years. It has hold'em, omaha, 7stud and other games. It has fixed limit, nolimit games as well as tournaments. I used to play there pretty heavily around 96-97.
TiVo lets you buy the units without service. They were forcefully upgraded without the user's knowledge, and that upgrade reduced functionality. That isn't right.
Yes, "forcefully" is the correct word there. TiVo does not provide a way for you to manually set the date and time. If you want your date and time to be correct (and not drift) you need to connect it to a phone line.
Lets not forget, there are some very legitimate reasons why someone would not need TiVo's service. Such as someone living in Canada or some other area which the service doesn't cover. Or someone with multiple TiVos and only wishing to have the service on 1 of them.
If TiVo wanted service to be manditory on all units, they should have done that. They shouldn't be "punishing" users that have found a useful way to use one of their boxes without service.
1 - Force us to pay tax in the state we buy things.
For example, If I, living in New York, buy something in Massachusetts, I would pay 5% MA sales tax on my internet purchases. I think they could get away with this constitutionally. They could equivicate this as me driving to MA and buying something there. However, this would cause a lot of internet businesses moving to states with out sales taxes, like New Hampshire or Oregon.
2 - Force to company to collect sales taxes from the state which the customer is from.
Using the example from above, I would have to pay 7% NY sales tax on my internet purchases in MA. I don't think this one would be constitutional. Plus imagine the nightmare for the companies keeping track of all the different taxes!
3 - Force the customer to pay taxes to the state they reside in for out-of-state purchases.
What could the federal government do here? I guess they could force companies to report all purchases made to each state. Just like employers do with W-2 forms. The each customer would have to pay sales taxes each year, probably right on their state income tax forms. I can only image this being another bureaucratic nightmare.
None of these things seem to favorable, or easily inforcable. What the about big mail order houses? aren't they raising a fuss about this as well?
That "poor guy" made the decision to take a job as un-ethical as telemarketing. He knows going into the job he will get abuse, and personally, I think he deserves it.
I consider telemarketing to be the worst kind of spam... at least with postal spam or email spam I can easily dismiss it, and it ususally doesn't interrupt what I'm doing at the moment.
It seems as my other favorite Google Easter egg is gone as well.... "so long and thanks for all the fish" used to have Yahoo! as it's first result. They probably changed this when Yahoo started using Google.
I think "crappy software" used to go to Microsoft as well, and now that is gone.
There is nothing illegal about closed source. Closed source is a smart business idea in many cases. However, the big beef I have with Microsoft is how they put out these "quasi-standards" they force everyone to follow... then not release the specs on those standards... requiring us Linux folks to reverse-engineer everything. Interoperability is not in Microsoft's vocabulary unless it is interoperabilty with another MS product.
If anything, that is one thing the DOJ should do... not force them to open all their code, but at least force them to open their standards.
"I all ever wanted to know I learned from a man page."
Well.... not really. Sometimes to learn a topic you need a quality book in front of you. No one puts out more quality books, on topics that matter to the open source populace, as O'Reilly has. I've never read an O'Reilly book that I didn't like.... I can't say the same for the other "Using Foo in 14 days for Dummies" publishers.
The only thing that prevents from using my Palm even more is the ability to quickly put information into it. Graffiti is fine for scratching down addresses and lists and the like... However, anything more than a sentence or two is kind of a pain. This is a Palm accessory I have really been waiting for.
I hope the price isn't to outrageous... Maybe Santa will get me one if it is available in time.:)
I was a Junior in college when our Physics department hired 2 new professors. They were married. They both grew up in Cuba, went to school in Russia and were now teaching in the States.
We physics students were taught that upside-down triangle thingy was a "del". Now, we have this new professor with a Cuban-Russian accent, that we can barely understand, keep talking about a "nabla". "Nabla!?", it took a few classes to finally figure out what she was talking about.:)
I think you may be fooling yourself. I think Bill Gates may morally justify his actions to himself by thinking that he is bringing the world into the computer and information age.... however, I believe, deep down he just craves the power.
Microsoft's main business is to make software. Why do they make such crappy software? Bill Gates and many of the Microsoft employees are very rich people. It shouldn't be all about the money anymore. Microsoft has a unique position... they hold so much market share, and have a lot of money... they could really concentrate on making some quality software... However, they don't.
Let's look at a few things about Microsoft.
1. Microsoft really doesn't have many innovations. They usually take someone else's idea, do it their own way with a lot of semi-useless bells and whistles, and put their propaganda machine behind it.
2. What about that propaganda machine? Instead of just making a quality product, they try to force you to use it or try make you believe it is the standard. Like how they force you to install IE to install Visual Studio. How about how they how they get the media outlets that they own to proclaim MS Product A is better than Competitor Product B?
3. They concentrate on adding more features to their products then actually trying to make an efficient, stable product. They change formats from version to version, pretty much forcing you to upgrade. I doubt if Microsoft has ever re-written a program from scratch. You follow the MS Word path lately?
4. Buggy software.... and they don't even admit to calling them bugs. I am amazed by some of the things they release. I know every software company seems to have this problem, but Microsoft seems to be one of the worst.
Now maybe I am thinking a bit idealistic... nothing can be perfect. However, I think Bill Gates has the influence with Microsoft, so if he really wanted to make some quality products, he could push the company to do so..... but he doesn't. He drives the company to sell the most software and dominate the industry. Bill Gates is in it for the power and control.
Try searching for: So long and thanks for all the fish
You get a lot of links to to Douglas Adams sites, and other sites that have put that quote on their "We've Moved!" page.
However, the interesting link is the first one.... Yahoo!
I wonder if this is some kind of comment about many people moving from Yahoo! to Google for their search engine needs.
In fact, I used to be a faithful Yahoo! user until Google came around. Before Google, no search engine could beat humans cataloging web sites. Now, Google does a better job searching than Yahoo!, and you don't get all the other crap that you get on Yahoo!'s page. (If I wanted Britney Spears and Pokemon actions, I'd search for them dammit!)
Slashdot Mirror
Let me propose what I think is an easy solution to this problem.
Instead of allowing the user that submitted the story a link to any URL, only allow them to link to their Slashdot profile.
The user could still put links to an external website in their Journal. They would also still gain some fame and notoriety if their articles are frequently submitted.
I think with the external links being 2 clicks away, and not linked directly from the front page would curb some of the people abusing the system, as well as people complaining about it.
I checked on the EFF Action Center and found this issue listed... a quick and easy way to send a fax to my congressman. I'd encourage everyone in the US to do the same!
Actually, they turned out a profit by selling their research meterials on ebay:
For Sale: Unique Gambling Penny
Scientifically proven to land on tails 59.439% of the time!*
(*Special throwing instructions included.)
It's not a gambling site, but if are just looking to practice your skills for free, try irc.poker.net.
It's an IRC server with various pokerbots that has been running for many years. It has hold'em, omaha, 7stud and other games. It has fixed limit, nolimit games as well as tournaments. I used to play there pretty heavily around 96-97.
We got addicted TetriNET and PuzzleBobble for a little while.
I hit the mother load when I found Puzzle Pirates, which was mentioned today on slashdot.
This year, when a Rochester, NY radio station was changing formats they played nothing but ABBA for a week.
It created quite a bit of buzz and eventually changed into an all-70's station.
TiVo lets you buy the units without service. They were forcefully upgraded without the user's knowledge, and that upgrade reduced functionality. That isn't right.
Yes, "forcefully" is the correct word there. TiVo does not provide a way for you to manually set the date and time. If you want your date and time to be correct (and not drift) you need to connect it to a phone line.
Lets not forget, there are some very legitimate reasons why someone would not need TiVo's service. Such as someone living in Canada or some other area which the service doesn't cover. Or someone with multiple TiVos and only wishing to have the service on 1 of them.
If TiVo wanted service to be manditory on all units, they should have done that. They shouldn't be "punishing" users that have found a useful way to use one of their boxes without service.
30 6 * * *
Don't you sleep in on the weekends?
So... lets see how they could do this:
1 - Force us to pay tax in the state we buy things.
For example, If I, living in New York, buy something in Massachusetts, I would pay 5% MA sales tax on my internet purchases. I think they could get away with this constitutionally. They could equivicate this as me driving to MA and buying something there. However, this would cause a lot of internet businesses moving to states with out sales taxes, like New Hampshire or Oregon.
2 - Force to company to collect sales taxes from the state which the customer is from.
Using the example from above, I would have to pay 7% NY sales tax on my internet purchases in MA. I don't think this one would be constitutional. Plus imagine the nightmare for the companies keeping track of all the different taxes!
3 - Force the customer to pay taxes to the state they reside in for out-of-state purchases.
What could the federal government do here? I guess they could force companies to report all purchases made to each state. Just like employers do with W-2 forms. The each customer would have to pay sales taxes each year, probably right on their state income tax forms. I can only image this being another bureaucratic nightmare.
None of these things seem to favorable, or easily inforcable. What the about big mail order houses? aren't they raising a fuss about this as well?
2001-04-03 14:01:01
:)
...what people will do for a stupid T-Shirt..
I don't see it that way.
That "poor guy" made the decision to take a job as un-ethical as telemarketing. He knows going into the job he will get abuse, and personally, I think he deserves it.
I consider telemarketing to be the worst kind of spam... at least with postal spam or email spam I can easily dismiss it, and it ususally doesn't interrupt what I'm doing at the moment.
It seems as my other favorite Google Easter egg is gone as well.... "so long and thanks for all the fish" used to have Yahoo! as it's first result. They probably changed this when Yahoo started using Google.
I think "crappy software" used to go to Microsoft as well, and now that is gone.
Here's some of the best newlywed advice, I've ever seen.
Tell that little punk to stop calling here!!
However, everytime I read an article like this, my wrists start to tingle, and I feel an urgent need to stretch.
:)
Any other time, my wrists feel fine.
I think my therapy solution would be to stop reading articles about repetitive stress injuries...
Whatever it is, it's really annyoing.
Stick to the default color scheme, please!!
No, that really isn't the point of this trial.
There is nothing illegal about closed source. Closed source is a smart business idea in many cases. However, the big beef I have with Microsoft is how they put out these "quasi-standards" they force everyone to follow... then not release the specs on those standards... requiring us Linux folks to reverse-engineer everything. Interoperability is not in Microsoft's vocabulary unless it is interoperabilty with another MS product.
If anything, that is one thing the DOJ should do... not force them to open all their code, but at least force them to open their standards.
"I all ever wanted to know I learned from a man page."
Well.... not really. Sometimes to learn a topic you need a quality book in front of you. No one puts out more quality books, on topics that matter to the open source populace, as O'Reilly has. I've never read an O'Reilly book that I didn't like.... I can't say the same for the other "Using Foo in 14 days for Dummies" publishers.
The only thing that prevents from using my Palm even more is the ability to quickly put information into it. Graffiti is fine for scratching down addresses and lists and the like... However, anything more than a sentence or two is kind of a pain. This is a Palm accessory I have really been waiting for.
:)
I hope the price isn't to outrageous... Maybe Santa will get me one if it is available in time.
Ahh... the memories.
:)
I was a Junior in college when our Physics department hired 2 new professors. They were married. They both grew up in Cuba, went to school in Russia and were now teaching in the States.
We physics students were taught that upside-down triangle thingy was a "del". Now, we have this new professor with a Cuban-Russian accent, that we can barely understand, keep talking about a "nabla". "Nabla!?", it took a few classes to finally figure out what she was talking about.
I think you may be fooling yourself. I think Bill Gates may morally justify his actions to himself by thinking that he is bringing the world into the computer and information age.... however, I believe, deep down he just craves the power.
Microsoft's main business is to make software. Why do they make such crappy software? Bill Gates and many of the Microsoft employees are very rich people. It shouldn't be all about the money anymore. Microsoft has a unique position... they hold so much market share, and have a lot of money... they could really concentrate on making some quality software... However, they don't.
Let's look at a few things about Microsoft.
1. Microsoft really doesn't have many innovations. They usually take someone else's idea, do it their own way with a lot of semi-useless bells and whistles, and put their propaganda machine behind it.
2. What about that propaganda machine? Instead of just making a quality product, they try to force you to use it or try make you believe it is the standard. Like how they force you to install IE to install Visual Studio. How about how they how they get the media outlets that they own to proclaim MS Product A is better than Competitor Product B?
3. They concentrate on adding more features to their products then actually trying to make an efficient, stable product. They change formats from version to version, pretty much forcing you to upgrade. I doubt if Microsoft has ever re-written a program from scratch. You follow the MS Word path lately?
4. Buggy software.... and they don't even admit to calling them bugs. I am amazed by some of the things they release. I know every software company seems to have this problem, but Microsoft seems to be one of the worst.
Now maybe I am thinking a bit idealistic... nothing can be perfect. However, I think Bill Gates has the influence with Microsoft, so if he really wanted to make some quality products, he could push the company to do so..... but he doesn't. He drives the company to sell the most software and dominate the industry. Bill Gates is in it for the power and control.
After the Andover.net IPO, Hemos can afford a huge mansion.... perhaps like the one Bill Gates has. Just make sure the bathroom is Y2K compliant .
Seriously.... I hope everything turns out ok for you, Hemos.
All I seem to get from this article is a long-winded diatrabe trying to say that ESR is a commie-pinko bastard.
This article is more of a rant than any kind of constructive criticism.
Try searching for: So long and thanks for all the fish
You get a lot of links to to Douglas Adams sites, and other sites that have put that quote on their "We've Moved!" page.
However, the interesting link is the first one.... Yahoo!
I wonder if this is some kind of comment about many people moving from Yahoo! to Google for their search engine needs.
In fact, I used to be a faithful Yahoo! user until Google came around. Before Google, no search engine could beat humans cataloging web sites. Now, Google does a better job searching than Yahoo!, and you don't get all the other crap that you get on Yahoo!'s page. (If I wanted Britney Spears and Pokemon actions, I'd search for them dammit!)
I hope those mice are smarter than these stupid things.