Firstly, there is nothing wrong with them accepting the prize money, or getting other money from sponsors, and establishing such awards themselves. Alfred Nobel was just a prviate Swedish citizen. For that matter there is nothing preventing you or I from doing the same.
Secondly, unless the money spent is in the neighborhood of $20 million (not likely), there would be no hope of setting up an annuity equivalent to a Nobel prize (which are worth about $1 million each).
Thirdly, rejecting a prize is insulting and generally doesn't make people willing to hear your suggestions as to how the money should be otherwise spent.
Many systems have been tried: subscription, passes, "free" registration, micropayments, and so on.
People have been well trained to expect a free flow of information on the internet, with no encumberances. Ironically, the least annoying revenue generator from the user's perspective is advertising, since most people are well trained to ignore ads anyway.
I am aware of only one other method that has not been completely supplanted by advertising, and that is merchandising-only sites (e.g., Homestar Runner). However, this is rare and is itself a form of advertising (don't you think it would be obnoxious if everyone started wearing t-shirts from their favorite web sites?).
Don't laugh... in my workplace (EE dept in a public university), the breaker boxes are locked by union demand, so that if you blow a breaker, you have no choice except to call maintenance and have them send somebody up. When this happens, it usually takes them an hour to arrive. So a roomful of electrical engineers, who could probably design their own circuit breaker if necessary, are sitting on their thumbs waiting for a union lackey to show up with the key...
IANAL, but I did have to pass the stupid law exam to be licensed as a professional engineer in Ontario. One thing I remember is that, under Canadian law, you cannot sue unless damages are incurred. This makes sense, in that a case where no damages are alleged would be a waste of the court's time.
However, in IP cases, it seems like the damages can include loss of potential sales, or reduction of the value of a brand.
As one consequence, I have heard other people argue that the GPL might not withstand a legal challenge, because violating it cannot incur monetary damages. Again, IANAL, but I'm sure some clever lawyer could come up with a counter-argument.
Except relicense it with anything other than the GPL, and except keeping your modifications closed source. Ironically quite restrictive, compared MS-PL.
It's not an act -- the guy is actually loony. (Or at least, he has an extremely active imagination.) Here are some other famous outbursts by him.
One example: in 1988, he ran against Janet Reno for DA of Dade County: Thompson's unique campaign message was that Reno was unfit for the job because, as a closeted lesbian with a drinking problem, she was great candidate for blackmail by the criminal element. Jack never explained why this remained a threat even after he exposed her "secret." Reno cruised at the polls.
Let me be the first to make the rejoinder: the summary suggests no possible cause for the warming trend. However, it's pretty much indisputed that the trend in the climate is towards warming.
Now the questions are: do you think that warming is harmful, and if so, what do you do about it? It is well understood that CO2 has an insulating effect, so reducing atmospheric CO2 should counteract the warming... whether or not you agree that it is the cause.
Which leads to another question -- is reducing atmospheric CO2 the easiest way to counteract warming? I wonder how much it would cost to cover large stretches of the Earth's surface with mylar and reflect the sun's energy back into space, and how easy it would be.
The mark of a good user interface is that it is either intuitive (i.e., the function of particular widgets is obvious), or where this is not possible, that it is easy to learn.
Of course the user has to start with a basic amount of computing experience. But you would expect people with windows experience to do well when switching to macs, because the mac interface is well designed, even though it is not the same as windows. So the question of whether the average windows user can figure out the linux interface is a good one.
I would prefer to see technical solutions over legal ones. How about:
- Free with every account, you get a credit-card sized, battery powered random number generator. In addition to your password, you have to enter the number displayed on the generator, which changes every thirty seconds. (These exist.)
- The bank only lets you access your account from a computer you designate. This could be done through the MAC adress of your NIC, or through a hash function based on your hardware configuration. Authorizing a new computer requires a phone call to the bank from a phone number that you designate. (This phone call could be handled by an automated operator.)
The downside is that the sort of people who fall for phishing are not so tech-literate to begin with, so a tech solution might have the effect of scaring off the vulnerable users (so, problem solved either way). I can't think of a solution that would be completely transparent as far as the user is concerned.
And they always mutate to become more contagious and less deadly. It's not like the virus hates humanity, it just wants to reproduce. A virus that kills every host it infects is not a successful virus, because it needs the host to survive and propagate.
What if this secured facility gets compromised, an accident happens that leads to the infection of one of the staff, testtubes are improperly sterilized. I could name hundreds of things that could go wrong, and will not even start wildly speculating what would happen if 5HN1 somehow mutates with this virus.
You can make this argument about any virus. Your argument, taken to its logical conclusion, implies that we should not do any research on any harmful micro-organism for fear of it getting out. Ignoring harmful things and hoping they go away is not an intelligent strategy.
I am looking forward to the future, when only the nation state of Northern California will matter to me. We have the water. We have the brains. We can overrule the central California nitwits from (recent immigrants from Dumbfuckistan) by simply voting our progressive politics into action over their objections.
Are you talking about this? Because I have to say, that site is about as intelligent and well balanced as PETA or Fox News.
For the record, I oppose the war (so no ad hominems please), but I can't help playing devil's advocate.
Suppose the only lasting outcome of the war is the end of UN sanctions against Iraq. Given that these sanctions have led to enormous numbers of deaths (by some estimates), and supposing further that the insurgency eventually dies out, wasn't the war worthwhile on that basis alone?
I can guarantee that sanctions would not have been ended as long as Saddam (or one of his circle) was in power...
I love this idea. But not like the modern, wussy conclave, where everybody goes back to the hotel at the end of the day. I say, make it old school:
To reduce further delays, Gregory X (pope 1271-1276) introduced stringent rules relating to the election procedures. Cardinals were to be secluded in a closed area; they were not even accorded separate rooms. No cardinal was allowed to be attended by more than one servant unless ill. Food was to be supplied through a window; after three days of the meeting, the cardinals were to receive only one dish a day; after five days, they were to receive just bread and water. During the conclave, no cardinal was to receive any ecclesiastical revenue. Source
After a week of being locked in the senate chamber with only bread and water, the senators would surely come to some bipartisan agreement. What would be even better is if you could compress the walls by a foot a day. After about three months, you would either have a nominee or a sticky goo and the need to appoint a hundred new senators.
Oil prices are a problem, but less of a problem than bloated legacy carriers with inflexible structures (especially large entrenched unions). For example, airlines like Southwest and WestJet are consistently profitable in spite of high oil prices.
In fact, this is because air travel is no longer a luxury. People rarely quibble over small price differences on a luxury item: you won't buy one pair of designer jeans because they are a few dollars cheaper than another pair. Yet one of the most reliable observations of the industry is that people are willing to sacrifice almost any other frills for a cheaper fare. This means airlines have to be ruthlessly efficient to stay ahead of the competition, and bankruptcy tends to be a measure of those airlines that have failed to cut costs.
And long before oil prices rose, the airline industry was unstable. Pan Am, Eastern, TWA, Canadian, Swissair, Ansett, and others went under with oil at half its current price (or less).
I make no comment on "peak oil", only that airline instability is a poor measure of it.
So you're saying that software companies (say, for example, Microsoft) are actually not responsible at all when they release buggy code, and buyer beware?
Slashdot Mirror
How long before this will be used for artwork?
You don't need a printer to produce that kind of art.
(ps: that dress was dried out and now appears in an art gallery in Paris.)
What I want to know is, how long before a couple of nerds try this obvious application of the technology?
Firstly, there is nothing wrong with them accepting the prize money, or getting other money from sponsors, and establishing such awards themselves. Alfred Nobel was just a prviate Swedish citizen. For that matter there is nothing preventing you or I from doing the same.
Secondly, unless the money spent is in the neighborhood of $20 million (not likely), there would be no hope of setting up an annuity equivalent to a Nobel prize (which are worth about $1 million each).
Thirdly, rejecting a prize is insulting and generally doesn't make people willing to hear your suggestions as to how the money should be otherwise spent.
Wow. Before this post I had never seen someone talk directly out of their ass.
Many systems have been tried: subscription, passes, "free" registration, micropayments, and so on.
People have been well trained to expect a free flow of information on the internet, with no encumberances. Ironically, the least annoying revenue generator from the user's perspective is advertising, since most people are well trained to ignore ads anyway.
I am aware of only one other method that has not been completely supplanted by advertising, and that is merchandising-only sites (e.g., Homestar Runner). However, this is rare and is itself a form of advertising (don't you think it would be obnoxious if everyone started wearing t-shirts from their favorite web sites?).
Wow, for a second there I was afraid that nobody would find a way to link this back to "the war".
Don't laugh ... in my workplace (EE dept in a public university), the breaker boxes are locked by union demand, so that if you blow a breaker, you have no choice except to call maintenance and have them send somebody up. When this happens, it usually takes them an hour to arrive. So a roomful of electrical engineers, who could probably design their own circuit breaker if necessary, are sitting on their thumbs waiting for a union lackey to show up with the key ...
IANAL, but I did have to pass the stupid law exam to be licensed as a professional engineer in Ontario. One thing I remember is that, under Canadian law, you cannot sue unless damages are incurred. This makes sense, in that a case where no damages are alleged would be a waste of the court's time.
However, in IP cases, it seems like the damages can include loss of potential sales, or reduction of the value of a brand.
As one consequence, I have heard other people argue that the GPL might not withstand a legal challenge, because violating it cannot incur monetary damages. Again, IANAL, but I'm sure some clever lawyer could come up with a counter-argument.
Domesday is something like a census of Britain circa 1085. It has nothing to do with internet outages, which is more akin to doomsday.
you can do whatever you want with the source
Except relicense it with anything other than the GPL, and except keeping your modifications closed source. Ironically quite restrictive, compared MS-PL.
It's not an act -- the guy is actually loony. (Or at least, he has an extremely active imagination.) Here are some other famous outbursts by him.
One example: in 1988, he ran against Janet Reno for DA of Dade County:
Thompson's unique campaign message was that Reno was unfit for the job because, as a closeted lesbian with a drinking problem, she was great candidate for blackmail by the criminal element. Jack never explained why this remained a threat even after he exposed her "secret." Reno cruised at the polls.
Let me be the first to make the rejoinder: the summary suggests no possible cause for the warming trend. However, it's pretty much indisputed that the trend in the climate is towards warming.
... whether or not you agree that it is the cause.
Now the questions are: do you think that warming is harmful, and if so, what do you do about it? It is well understood that CO2 has an insulating effect, so reducing atmospheric CO2 should counteract the warming
Which leads to another question -- is reducing atmospheric CO2 the easiest way to counteract warming? I wonder how much it would cost to cover large stretches of the Earth's surface with mylar and reflect the sun's energy back into space, and how easy it would be.
Would you be happy to take your eight year old for a walk through the bad part of town? Because, hey, that's reality.
Echelon
The mark of a good user interface is that it is either intuitive (i.e., the function of particular widgets is obvious), or where this is not possible, that it is easy to learn.
Of course the user has to start with a basic amount of computing experience. But you would expect people with windows experience to do well when switching to macs, because the mac interface is well designed, even though it is not the same as windows. So the question of whether the average windows user can figure out the linux interface is a good one.
I would prefer to see technical solutions over legal ones. How about:
- Free with every account, you get a credit-card sized, battery powered random number generator. In addition to your password, you have to enter the number displayed on the generator, which changes every thirty seconds. (These exist.)
- The bank only lets you access your account from a computer you designate. This could be done through the MAC adress of your NIC, or through a hash function based on your hardware configuration. Authorizing a new computer requires a phone call to the bank from a phone number that you designate. (This phone call could be handled by an automated operator.)
The downside is that the sort of people who fall for phishing are not so tech-literate to begin with, so a tech solution might have the effect of scaring off the vulnerable users (so, problem solved either way). I can't think of a solution that would be completely transparent as far as the user is concerned.
And they always mutate to become more contagious and less deadly. It's not like the virus hates humanity, it just wants to reproduce. A virus that kills every host it infects is not a successful virus, because it needs the host to survive and propagate.
This bug could end life on the planet Earth for man if it were to escape during this time of frequent flights and fast travel.
How would that occur, exactly, if its mortality rate less than 5 per cent (and those who recover are immune)?
What the fuck is wrong with you?
What if this secured facility gets compromised, an accident happens that leads to the infection of one of the staff, testtubes are improperly sterilized. I could name hundreds of things that could go wrong, and will not even start wildly speculating what would happen if 5HN1 somehow mutates with this virus.
You can make this argument about any virus. Your argument, taken to its logical conclusion, implies that we should not do any research on any harmful micro-organism for fear of it getting out. Ignoring harmful things and hoping they go away is not an intelligent strategy.
I am looking forward to the future, when only the nation state of Northern California will matter to me. We have the water. We have the brains. We can overrule the central California nitwits from (recent immigrants from Dumbfuckistan) by simply voting our progressive politics into action over their objections.
Are you talking about this? Because I have to say, that site is about as intelligent and well balanced as PETA or Fox News.
For the record, I oppose the war (so no ad hominems please), but I can't help playing devil's advocate.
...
Suppose the only lasting outcome of the war is the end of UN sanctions against Iraq. Given that these sanctions have led to enormous numbers of deaths (by some estimates), and supposing further that the insurgency eventually dies out, wasn't the war worthwhile on that basis alone?
I can guarantee that sanctions would not have been ended as long as Saddam (or one of his circle) was in power
"General" prosperity by definition must include the slaves. I doubt they would agree that ancient Greece was such a great place.
I love this idea. But not like the modern, wussy conclave, where everybody goes back to the hotel at the end of the day. I say, make it old school:
To reduce further delays, Gregory X (pope 1271-1276) introduced stringent rules relating to the election procedures. Cardinals were to be secluded in a closed area; they were not even accorded separate rooms. No cardinal was allowed to be attended by more than one servant unless ill. Food was to be supplied through a window; after three days of the meeting, the cardinals were to receive only one dish a day; after five days, they were to receive just bread and water. During the conclave, no cardinal was to receive any ecclesiastical revenue.
Source
After a week of being locked in the senate chamber with only bread and water, the senators would surely come to some bipartisan agreement. What would be even better is if you could compress the walls by a foot a day. After about three months, you would either have a nominee or a sticky goo and the need to appoint a hundred new senators.
Oil prices are a problem, but less of a problem than bloated legacy carriers with inflexible structures (especially large entrenched unions). For example, airlines like Southwest and WestJet are consistently profitable in spite of high oil prices.
In fact, this is because air travel is no longer a luxury. People rarely quibble over small price differences on a luxury item: you won't buy one pair of designer jeans because they are a few dollars cheaper than another pair. Yet one of the most reliable observations of the industry is that people are willing to sacrifice almost any other frills for a cheaper fare. This means airlines have to be ruthlessly efficient to stay ahead of the competition, and bankruptcy tends to be a measure of those airlines that have failed to cut costs.
And long before oil prices rose, the airline industry was unstable. Pan Am, Eastern, TWA, Canadian, Swissair, Ansett, and others went under with oil at half its current price (or less).
I make no comment on "peak oil", only that airline instability is a poor measure of it.
So you're saying that software companies (say, for example, Microsoft) are actually not responsible at all when they release buggy code, and buyer beware?