the team prosecuting the case has already earned $60 million in legal fees
Normally I try to look for the other side of the story, and give the benefit of the doubt to who/whatever is being maligned by the Slash&burn summary or the groupthink. In this case, however, I find it very difficult. While fees != profit, it's hard to believe that the investigation, research, and preperation expenses would amount to more than a third of that figure. Additionally, the acceptance of a settlement indicates that they could care less about either setting a precedent or actually taking MS to task. I guess that shouldn't surprise me, but I'm still disappointed.
Re:Statistical analysis
on
SCO Vs. Groklaw
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Not that I think she isn't a real person, but such a test would be meaningless.
A) It wouldn't mean that the one person writing all of the posts isn't a shill from IBM. B) Sometimes people write differently depending on the mood they're in. One minute they might be using proper grammar and punctuation, the next OMG PONIES~1!!!
Right, one set for the public, and one for the IRS, the latter of which is affected by things like prior year losses being carried over, etc.
Nonetheless, prior-year losses are listed as such, and the IRS is not going to believe you took at $10M loss this year if your prospectus says you had record profits. There are variances to be sure, but if they are diametrically opposed, then one of them is a lie and someone's probably going to jail.
Currently, the concept of "Solely Man-Made Global Warming" is not independently verifiable!
And it never will be, until we can make our own planets and use them for experiments. Nobody questions that the sun will turn into a red dwarf, despite the fact that we've never seen it happen. Some science involves extrapolating past data to give us a likely indivation of future performance. It's no guarantee, but it would be foolish to simply discard the data.
I'm probably more skeptical of the detriment of climate change than most people. As long as the process doesn't runaway and we make changes over the next century, I think humanity will be fine, (and possibly better off than before if conditions get wetter and greener, as I suspect they will). Nonetheless, it's difficult to argue that humanity has NOT made substantial contributions to this process of change, to the point where other factors are essentially irrelevant, and that if we do not take action, conditions could become extremely inhospitable to our species. It's a risk that's not worth taking, especially since there's little-to-no upside to remaining dependant on fossil fuels.
In reality, however, when asked "Who's responsible for this?" the fingers point every way except inward. CYOA. Everybody expects everyone else to do the work of inspecting the code, but few people actually do.
There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but they're just that.
I guess you missed the tree falling implications. Nobody looks at the source, let alone every skilled programmer who has nothing better to do with their time.
Most of the anime DVDs I purchase don't have DRM. Why? The Anime companies figured out that [their] customer base is technically skilled enough that DRM is less than an annoyance.
Or maybe they just didn't feel like paying $15,500 to license CSS and $25,000 to license Macrovision.
Nah, you're probably right. They probably did a lot of market research and decided "only nerds buy Anime!"
Also, having the full source available for all those packages doesn't hurt, either...
If a tree falls in the forest...
Source availability is largely irrelevant. Any application longer than Hello World is virtually impossible for even a skilled set of eyes to debug. Firefox, for example. The only benefit of source availability is to make your own changes/contributions.
I'm not saying there's any reason to stick with Vista -- there's really isn't at this point -- but if that's the sole reason you uninstalled, it's easily remedied.
They have one set of numbers for the stockholders, one set for the IRS and another for the public.
Nonsense. Can you say securities violation and/or tax fraud? If the numbers didn't jive, they'd be guilty of market manipulation. If you really believe they're doing that, go ahead and feel free to file a complaint and/or tip here.
There are plenty of players which either natively, or through minimal reconfiguration, play region-free. There are also a variety of sources. If there are no retailers near you, I used (Buy-it-Now) eBay to purchase the Philips DVP-642, which plays almost anything you can throw at it, including VCDs, DiVX, xvid, etc. for $50-$60. Additionally, I purchased the "Planet Earth" DVDs online (BBC, Region 2, PAL) and it played them flawlessly doing realtime PAL->NTSC conversion.
VLC player will also ignore region codes. Unfortunately it's not the most user friendly player, but it gets the job done.
So it isn't entirely hassle free at this point. You still have to find and buy a specific model of player (and possibly unlock it), but those are generally trivial one-time hassles which will provide you with years of unrestricted DVD playback.
What do you mean by "not available legally?" Are you referring to region codes, which have no legal teeth, or are you saying that the film has been banned in the US?
Bikes aren't practical for at least 30% of the year in many places (i.e., those more than ~30 degrees away from the equator), even if you don't count the rain in many other places, and the need to transport things like groceries, children, and associated equipment. And as long as people have cars, they'll use them for the convenience, even if gas was expensive. If you raised gas prices to a point where most people couldn't afford to consume it daily, that would likely be a similar point where poor people couldn't afford it ever. Of course, that may be the price we have to pay, but there are more considerations than simply "build a bike path and they will come."
Slashdot Mirror
the team prosecuting the case has already earned $60 million in legal fees
Normally I try to look for the other side of the story, and give the benefit of the doubt to who/whatever is being maligned by the Slash&burn summary or the groupthink. In this case, however, I find it very difficult. While fees != profit, it's hard to believe that the investigation, research, and preperation expenses would amount to more than a third of that figure. Additionally, the acceptance of a settlement indicates that they could care less about either setting a precedent or actually taking MS to task. I guess that shouldn't surprise me, but I'm still disappointed.
Not that I think she isn't a real person, but such a test would be meaningless.
A) It wouldn't mean that the one person writing all of the posts isn't a shill from IBM.
B) Sometimes people write differently depending on the mood they're in. One minute they might be using proper grammar and punctuation, the next OMG PONIES~1!!!
Followed by, "Will it bend?"
Pfft, that's nothing.
Right, one set for the public, and one for the IRS, the latter of which is affected by things like prior year losses being carried over, etc.
Nonetheless, prior-year losses are listed as such, and the IRS is not going to believe you took at $10M loss this year if your prospectus says you had record profits. There are variances to be sure, but if they are diametrically opposed, then one of them is a lie and someone's probably going to jail.
Science at least from a social point of view works not as a democracy, but more like horse racing.
They shoot you when you're no longer commercially viable?
"Even this moron who is as conservative as they come thinks that this crap is happening! You should too!"
Yeah, that's a convincing argument. I know whenever I hear someone quote a moron, I jump right on the bandwagon!
Currently, the concept of "Solely Man-Made Global Warming" is not independently verifiable!
And it never will be, until we can make our own planets and use them for experiments. Nobody questions that the sun will turn into a red dwarf, despite the fact that we've never seen it happen. Some science involves extrapolating past data to give us a likely indivation of future performance. It's no guarantee, but it would be foolish to simply discard the data.
I'm probably more skeptical of the detriment of climate change than most people. As long as the process doesn't runaway and we make changes over the next century, I think humanity will be fine, (and possibly better off than before if conditions get wetter and greener, as I suspect they will). Nonetheless, it's difficult to argue that humanity has NOT made substantial contributions to this process of change, to the point where other factors are essentially irrelevant, and that if we do not take action, conditions could become extremely inhospitable to our species. It's a risk that's not worth taking, especially since there's little-to-no upside to remaining dependant on fossil fuels.
In reality, however, when asked "Who's responsible for this?" the fingers point every way except inward. CYOA. Everybody expects everyone else to do the work of inspecting the code, but few people actually do.
There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but they're just that.
I guess you missed the tree falling implications. Nobody looks at the source, let alone every skilled programmer who has nothing better to do with their time.
There is a reason they can sell you a hamburger cooked and packaged for less than $1.00...
There sure is. It's because they sell you the 15 cent soda and the 25 cent fries for $0.90-$1.00 each.
That's because they're all a bunch of Film Actors Guildies in the US.
Most of the anime DVDs I purchase don't have DRM. Why? The Anime companies figured out that [their] customer base is technically skilled enough that DRM is less than an annoyance.
Or maybe they just didn't feel like paying $15,500 to license CSS and $25,000 to license Macrovision.
Nah, you're probably right. They probably did a lot of market research and decided "only nerds buy Anime!"
Also, having the full source available for all those packages doesn't hurt, either...
If a tree falls in the forest...
Source availability is largely irrelevant. Any application longer than Hello World is virtually impossible for even a skilled set of eyes to debug. Firefox, for example. The only benefit of source availability is to make your own changes/contributions.
http://www.google.com/search?q=disable+uac
I'm not saying there's any reason to stick with Vista -- there's really isn't at this point -- but if that's the sole reason you uninstalled, it's easily remedied.
They have one set of numbers for the stockholders, one set for the IRS and another for the public.
Nonsense. Can you say securities violation and/or tax fraud? If the numbers didn't jive, they'd be guilty of market manipulation. If you really believe they're doing that, go ahead and feel free to file a complaint and/or tip here.
As someone who doesn't want to see the industry shackled by a decade of Hayes-code-esque "decency laws"
Write your Senator and tell them to vote AGAINST S.652! Text as follows:
ATZ^M ATE1^M ATM1L3S11=50&D1&Q0#CLS=8^M ATDT18882255322^M AT#VTX^M [WAV DATA] ATH0
They never seem to understand _how_ to say "fuck off", or even why.
Nonsense.. we can do that!
just using windows can cause the machine to spazz out randomly
That's not a bug, it's a feature designed to engage the user emotionally.
If Gentoo has it, Debian's apt to get an install soon.
There's no switch that flips from "fun" to "not fun".
You've obviously never been attacked by real-life orcs.
There are plenty of players which either natively, or through minimal reconfiguration, play region-free. There are also a variety of sources. If there are no retailers near you, I used (Buy-it-Now) eBay to purchase the Philips DVP-642, which plays almost anything you can throw at it, including VCDs, DiVX, xvid, etc. for $50-$60. Additionally, I purchased the "Planet Earth" DVDs online (BBC, Region 2, PAL) and it played them flawlessly doing realtime PAL->NTSC conversion.
VLC player will also ignore region codes. Unfortunately it's not the most user friendly player, but it gets the job done.
So it isn't entirely hassle free at this point. You still have to find and buy a specific model of player (and possibly unlock it), but those are generally trivial one-time hassles which will provide you with years of unrestricted DVD playback.
What do you mean by "not available legally?" Are you referring to region codes, which have no legal teeth, or are you saying that the film has been banned in the US?
Bikes aren't practical for at least 30% of the year in many places (i.e., those more than ~30 degrees away from the equator), even if you don't count the rain in many other places, and the need to transport things like groceries, children, and associated equipment. And as long as people have cars, they'll use them for the convenience, even if gas was expensive. If you raised gas prices to a point where most people couldn't afford to consume it daily, that would likely be a similar point where poor people couldn't afford it ever. Of course, that may be the price we have to pay, but there are more considerations than simply "build a bike path and they will come."
Where's the difference?
The words in bold.