"Continental Europe has a legal code derived from the Napoleonic code."
So do parts of North America, what's your point? On this side of the pond, it's not the national government that sets the standard for who's flavor of common law a state or province uses.
And while we're on the subject, the Napoleonic Code (nor English Common Law) have any sway on constitutional, criminal or civil law in any meaningful way. That level of law gets trumped by anything, especially laws passed by the legislature, and is only referenced in cases where neither the legislature or even the courts have yet to rule one way or another in a particular matter.
"E.g. people in Continental Europe need to carry ID papers with them when in public. Cops can stop you and interrogate you -- because. The law says you are free, but you better carry ID. And watch your mouth (you might break the law)."
Yes, that's why Louisiana and Quebec are such police states...
The behavior of the police has next to nothing to do with Napoleonic Code/Common Law and has everything to do with constitutional and criminal law.
"doing something novel and innovative,"
You work for Microsoft, don't you?
"the state argued (on behalf of the German retailers) that the temporary nature of the sale would COMPEL Germans to buy more stuff."
Nice links you got there. Since Germany is something of a federal republic, can you at least name the state this supposed suit took place in?
"Maybe if more Canadian shows and artists were GOOD, we wouldn't have to baby them on to the scene with handouts."
On the PRI stream of my satellite radio, there's occasionally an airing of CBC Radio's "As It Happens." I feel for you, man. The show opens with this God-awful jazz flute muzakified version of "25 Miles" ("Oh my God, you killed Motown! You bastards!")* and it goes downhill from there when the hosts start talking. They're just so... fucking... CANADIAN!!!!! Oh dear Lord, just skip the program and fast forward to the audio feed from the Jim Lehrer show already!
The only purely Canadian show that has made it south of the 49th on its own merits that I know of (and watch) is Atomic Betty. I kinda liked Due South for a bit, but y'all can only take half-credit for that one. Other than that... Take it back! Please! Have mercy on us! We'll even take Quebec off your hands if you'll just take all your freakin' content back! No more Celine, Alanis or Shania! Oh, the humanity!
* (OK, so they're probably not supposed to be the same tune, but how can you hear that theme and not immediately think of Edwin Starr?)
It's called "due process." It's mentioned in the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution. Microsoft was tried by a competent court of EU law and was found guilty by said court. This is part of the punishment for having been found guilty, and this form of punishment is neither cruel nor unusual (Eighth Amendment).
Even rabid libertarians must agree that the state suits some purpose by enforcing the law and empowering the wronged to seek compensation after having a ruling in their favor. That is what this is.
"It's an industry that needs help being policed..."
Enron needed to be policed. Spam needs to be policed. Telemarketers need to be policed. Any industry that relies on fraud, embezzlement or harassment to turn a profit needs to be policed. And, as the video game industry does not (yet) fall into any of these categories...
Oh, and one more industry should be policed: politics. If the state legislators in Springfield have this much free time on their hands, perhaps its time to shorten the length of the legislative session in Illinois.
"Creating a microscopic black hole is tricky, since one needs a reasonable amount of neutronium, but may possibly be achievable by jamming large numbers of atomic nuclei together until they stick. This is left as an exercise to the reader."
My God! It's every physics textbook I've ever read!
Yeah, because no power plants in the US burn liquid hydrocarbons.
"Oh, gee, damn, you've all switched to hydrogen fuel cells. So much for gasoline. Here, lemme process some of the methane from our refineries to top off your H2 tanks for ya."
"What? You need some natural gas? Oh, we find lots of that, too!"
You might have an argument if we took the French or Belgian route and went nuke (or even built more coal-fired plants), but as long as natural gas is as sexy as it is (mostly because they can turn off their NG turbines when the summer is over instead of producing surplus electricity during the winter), they're crying all the way to the bank either way.
" Modding a PS should not be a suprise as many games from Japan don't work in a US version."
That makes for a good excuse, but how many modders actually do it for that reason? How many of them actually know any Japanese? And why would they use a pirated copy instead of purchasing and importing a legal Japanese copy?
"and responding quickly to consumer feedback by launching the much-improved N-Gage QD handset within a matter of months,"
Considering that most of those complaints were lodged well before the system was actually released, I'm not sure if the "quickly" adverb applies here. Complaints about the location of the cartridge slot and good ol' side-talking were made before the unit ever went into serious production, and yet they went ahead anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
"Continental Europe has a legal code derived from the Napoleonic code."
So do parts of North America, what's your point? On this side of the pond, it's not the national government that sets the standard for who's flavor of common law a state or province uses.
And while we're on the subject, the Napoleonic Code (nor English Common Law) have any sway on constitutional, criminal or civil law in any meaningful way. That level of law gets trumped by anything, especially laws passed by the legislature, and is only referenced in cases where neither the legislature or even the courts have yet to rule one way or another in a particular matter.
"E.g. people in Continental Europe need to carry ID papers with them when in public. Cops can stop you and interrogate you -- because. The law says you are free, but you better carry ID. And watch your mouth (you might break the law)."
Yes, that's why Louisiana and Quebec are such police states...
The behavior of the police has next to nothing to do with Napoleonic Code/Common Law and has everything to do with constitutional and criminal law.
"doing something novel and innovative,"
You work for Microsoft, don't you?
"the state argued (on behalf of the German retailers) that the temporary nature of the sale would COMPEL Germans to buy more stuff."
Nice links you got there. Since Germany is something of a federal republic, can you at least name the state this supposed suit took place in?
"Better security"
Ah, but what's the standard? Better security than Firefox, or simply better security than IE6?
"Tab Browsing"
We'll have to see the specifics of their implementation, won't we? For example, will I be able to force IE7 to operate in just one window?
"Conformance to standards"
Yes, but for Microsoft's definition of the word "standard." Rarely does it have anything to do with how the rest of the world uses that word.
"We have competing cable providers (Comcast and RCN)"
We play both kinds of music: country and western!
I'm an MCSE and I for one am insulted by you comparing me to a Mensa member!
Ala carte channel ordering would also be nice while you're at it.
"Maybe if more Canadian shows and artists were GOOD, we wouldn't have to baby them on to the scene with handouts."
On the PRI stream of my satellite radio, there's occasionally an airing of CBC Radio's "As It Happens." I feel for you, man. The show opens with this God-awful jazz flute muzakified version of "25 Miles" ("Oh my God, you killed Motown! You bastards!")* and it goes downhill from there when the hosts start talking. They're just so... fucking... CANADIAN!!!!! Oh dear Lord, just skip the program and fast forward to the audio feed from the Jim Lehrer show already!
The only purely Canadian show that has made it south of the 49th on its own merits that I know of (and watch) is Atomic Betty. I kinda liked Due South for a bit, but y'all can only take half-credit for that one. Other than that... Take it back! Please! Have mercy on us! We'll even take Quebec off your hands if you'll just take all your freakin' content back! No more Celine, Alanis or Shania! Oh, the humanity!
* (OK, so they're probably not supposed to be the same tune, but how can you hear that theme and not immediately think of Edwin Starr?)
"I don't want to belong to any club that will accept me as a member."
--Groucho Marx
"If I had to buy a new one each time it broke, I would be poor."
Double-edged sword. If you had to buy a new one each month, you'd move to a different manufacturer.
I used it as an example for the presumably American parent.
It's called "due process." It's mentioned in the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution. Microsoft was tried by a competent court of EU law and was found guilty by said court. This is part of the punishment for having been found guilty, and this form of punishment is neither cruel nor unusual (Eighth Amendment).
Even rabid libertarians must agree that the state suits some purpose by enforcing the law and empowering the wronged to seek compensation after having a ruling in their favor. That is what this is.
"It's an industry that needs help being policed..."
Enron needed to be policed. Spam needs to be policed. Telemarketers need to be policed. Any industry that relies on fraud, embezzlement or harassment to turn a profit needs to be policed. And, as the video game industry does not (yet) fall into any of these categories...
Oh, and one more industry should be policed: politics. If the state legislators in Springfield have this much free time on their hands, perhaps its time to shorten the length of the legislative session in Illinois.
"Long Island Sucks, and it's gonna kill is all !"
So are you trying to say that Long Island doesn't suck, or simply that it won't kill us all?
"Creating a microscopic black hole is tricky, since one needs a reasonable amount of neutronium, but may possibly be achievable by jamming large numbers of atomic nuclei together until they stick. This is left as an exercise to the reader."
My God! It's every physics textbook I've ever read!
"It's just that noone can find them for some reason."
Sounds like those USA PATRIOT Act abuses...
He's a witch! Burn him!
However, on a somewhat more serious note...
"It took an hour just to talk about all the security revamps in the kernel. Unfortunately, its all 'MS confidential' for now... "
... I think you have a real future working on a rumormill blog. You're supposed to post this stuff as an AC, though. :)
Yeah, because no power plants in the US burn liquid hydrocarbons.
"Oh, gee, damn, you've all switched to hydrogen fuel cells. So much for gasoline. Here, lemme process some of the methane from our refineries to top off your H2 tanks for ya."
"What? You need some natural gas? Oh, we find lots of that, too!"
You might have an argument if we took the French or Belgian route and went nuke (or even built more coal-fired plants), but as long as natural gas is as sexy as it is (mostly because they can turn off their NG turbines when the summer is over instead of producing surplus electricity during the winter), they're crying all the way to the bank either way.
"Because there is value in being trustworthy."
Only in the long term. Investors, however, want short-term profits.
" Modding a PS should not be a suprise as many games from Japan don't work in a US version."
That makes for a good excuse, but how many modders actually do it for that reason? How many of them actually know any Japanese? And why would they use a pirated copy instead of purchasing and importing a legal Japanese copy?
Yes, but would the concrete dry faster if you put more peasants on the task?
Yes, but is it any fun to play? Even if you don't have a ch1xx0r sitting around in her underwear? :
"remember how many versions of MS-DOS shipped without a decent text editor"
What? You mean there were actually versions of MS-DOS that didn't have the beloved edlin?
ED IS THE STANDARD TEXT EDITOR!!!!!
"How much do you reckon the instant building would cost if it was manufactured in China?"
Probably not much cheaper. IIRC, the US is still a big producer/exporter of concrete as it is.
"and responding quickly to consumer feedback by launching the much-improved N-Gage QD handset within a matter of months,"
Considering that most of those complaints were lodged well before the system was actually released, I'm not sure if the "quickly" adverb applies here. Complaints about the location of the cartridge slot and good ol' side-talking were made before the unit ever went into serious production, and yet they went ahead anyway.
What I like is the headline, calling them "maritime muggers" instead of "pirates." Has *AA finally succeeded in co-opting the term? :)
Spoken like a man who had no cats.