I know it sounds like typical western arrogance to suggest it, but I think the example of major cities in Europe and North America is informative here. You'll see that people will (mostly) honor traffic lights, but they will (mostly) ignore speed limits. It's probably because traffic light violations are (pardon the expression) black and white: either the light was red, or it wasn't, and a simple still camera can prove it one way or the other. By comparison, speed is more difficult to determine and prove (as anyone who has beaten a speeding ticket can confirm). The notion that radar guns and cameras will be effective in convicting perpetrators in a chaotic traffic environment is naive.
Meanwhile, this sounds like a great opportunity to practice some grassroots democratic activity on a subject that you have a chance of getting people behind: genuine public safety. Start educating the public about the traffic injury/fatality rates, and petition the government to do something sensible about it. Like traffic lights. Governments - even corrupt and lazy ones - do respond to public pressure on issues like this: ones with no ideological or political agenda,* which have the potential to make them look good to the masses, and maybe give them an opportunity to impose a little public order (which isn't always a bad thing). In any case, neither approach (traffic controls or speed-radar-vigilantism) will do one damn bit of good if the community doesn't support it. Not passively, but actively supporting it. You need a movement, not tech toys.
*Aside from pissing off any libertarianists in the population, but that's something that both left and right agree on:)
That was because God withdrew his protection from you for the abomination of wanting to watch Superman III. Everyone knows that only the first two Christopher Reeve films were any good.
No, they're trying to patent methods for determining when to disable something remotely. Jailbreaking was just one of the clues they would look at, along with other things that might indicate that the phone has been stolen... something the anonymous submitter either didn't understand, or chose to misrepresent.
RTFA. Apple is not saying the intend to brick phones just for being jailbroken. They are talking about technology for determining when a phone has been stolen (or similar unauthorized use). I can understand people saying they don't want Apple doing this for them, but the idea itself isn't Evil. As someone whose phone was stolen.... gosh, I can see a certain appeal to it.
Yeah, I know it's a little crazy to suggest looking at what it being patented instead of reading the article summary, but the focus of this application are the techniques they might use to determine whether the person using the phone is the owner (or someone else on the owner's "approved user" list), or someone else. The technology to just brick a jailbroken phone is pretty trivial... and not the subject of this patent application.
In principle, you have a point that's worth examining in reasoned discussion. But in fact, this argument by Maes is one of the nuttiest misapplications of the slippery-slope argument I've heard in months.
Even so, John Hickenlooper - the Democratic candidate, running against both Maes and Tom Tancredo (who sees murderous illegal Mexicans behind every bush) - has got to be smiling a little after this.
"This all started when Tony Blair was elected. The first time."
Wow! Are there still people alive who remember back that far? I mean, that was before the first Harry Potter book came out, which was like forever ago!
Oh yes... and how to type an exclamation mark without a "1/!" key? You typed an apostrophe (non-curled), hit backspace (which didn't delete in those days), then typed a period. Or the other way 'round; it didn't matter'^H.
At the risk of being serious, factual, and pedantic, you didn't use lowercase "i" for the numeral "1"; you used lowercase "l" (el).
@anyone thinking this is a joke: It's true. Since it was perfectly obvious from the context whether the character was supposed to be a numeral or an alpha character, many typewriters didn't bother including a separate key for the numerals "0" and "1". For example
I've been on the online scene since the Fidonet era, circa the 1980's, and I'm still trying to learn new online slangs all the time.
I've been online since the CompuServe and BITNET era (mid-80s), and I'm not trying to learn new online slang. If those kids want me to understand them, they can use English; and if they don't want me to understand them... good, because I'm really not that interested.
The reason this is controversial is because giving players the ability to put themselves in the shoes of a current military opponent makes it more difficult to dehumanize that opponent to the point that they are easy for our troops to kill without suffering the pangs of guilt over killing a human being. As soon as the enemy combatant is a person to the solider, sailor, airman, or marine, those troops are made less effective. Whether doing this is a necessary and justified component of military strategy, or a debasement of our humanity for political ends... that's the question, isn't it?
There are two classes of law: civil and criminal. In criminal law, the government (on behalf of The People) is the plaintiff. In civil law, it is not, and the plaintiff is... someone else. Patent infringement falls under civil law, and defendants who lose do so because they are ruled to have violated it.
So again: you're either trolling (i.e. trying really hard to be ignorant), or... simply ignorant.
As far as I'm concerned that ugly red "ORACLE" on the splash screen for OpenOffice is reason enough to hate them; at least the Sun branding was tasteful. And the icons for the individual apps (Writer, Calc, Impress, etc.) didn't all look alike.
Slashdot Mirror
I know it sounds like typical western arrogance to suggest it, but I think the example of major cities in Europe and North America is informative here. You'll see that people will (mostly) honor traffic lights, but they will (mostly) ignore speed limits. It's probably because traffic light violations are (pardon the expression) black and white: either the light was red, or it wasn't, and a simple still camera can prove it one way or the other. By comparison, speed is more difficult to determine and prove (as anyone who has beaten a speeding ticket can confirm). The notion that radar guns and cameras will be effective in convicting perpetrators in a chaotic traffic environment is naive.
Meanwhile, this sounds like a great opportunity to practice some grassroots democratic activity on a subject that you have a chance of getting people behind: genuine public safety. Start educating the public about the traffic injury/fatality rates, and petition the government to do something sensible about it. Like traffic lights. Governments - even corrupt and lazy ones - do respond to public pressure on issues like this: ones with no ideological or political agenda,* which have the potential to make them look good to the masses, and maybe give them an opportunity to impose a little public order (which isn't always a bad thing). In any case, neither approach (traffic controls or speed-radar-vigilantism) will do one damn bit of good if the community doesn't support it. Not passively, but actively supporting it. You need a movement, not tech toys.
*Aside from pissing off any libertarianists in the population, but that's something that both left and right agree on :)
At least he used all of the right letters (without accents). Every time I see someone type "wala!" I want to punch them in their semi-literate face.
That was because God withdrew his protection from you for the abomination of wanting to watch Superman III. Everyone knows that only the first two Christopher Reeve films were any good.
No, they're trying to patent methods for determining when to disable something remotely. Jailbreaking was just one of the clues they would look at, along with other things that might indicate that the phone has been stolen... something the anonymous submitter either didn't understand, or chose to misrepresent.
RTFA. Apple is not saying the intend to brick phones just for being jailbroken. They are talking about technology for determining when a phone has been stolen (or similar unauthorized use). I can understand people saying they don't want Apple doing this for them, but the idea itself isn't Evil. As someone whose phone was stolen.... gosh, I can see a certain appeal to it.
Absolutely correct.
Yeah, I know it's a little crazy to suggest looking at what it being patented instead of reading the article summary, but the focus of this application are the techniques they might use to determine whether the person using the phone is the owner (or someone else on the owner's "approved user" list), or someone else. The technology to just brick a jailbroken phone is pretty trivial... and not the subject of this patent application.
I live in Western Michigan.
In principle, you have a point that's worth examining in reasoned discussion. But in fact, this argument by Maes is one of the nuttiest misapplications of the slippery-slope argument I've heard in months.
Even so, John Hickenlooper - the Democratic candidate, running against both Maes and Tom Tancredo (who sees murderous illegal Mexicans behind every bush) - has got to be smiling a little after this.
"This all started when Tony Blair was elected. The first time."
Wow! Are there still people alive who remember back that far? I mean, that was before the first Harry Potter book came out, which was like forever ago!
Oh yes... and how to type an exclamation mark without a "1/!" key? You typed an apostrophe (non-curled), hit backspace (which didn't delete in those days), then typed a period. Or the other way 'round; it didn't matter'^H.
At the risk of being serious, factual, and pedantic, you didn't use lowercase "i" for the numeral "1"; you used lowercase "l" (el).
@anyone thinking this is a joke: It's true. Since it was perfectly obvious from the context whether the character was supposed to be a numeral or an alpha character, many typewriters didn't bother including a separate key for the numerals "0" and "1". For example
That's brilliant! I am now going to start expanding acronyms using the phonetic alphabet.
Zulu Oscar Mike Golf! Romeo Oscar Foxtrot Lima!
I've been online since the CompuServe and BITNET era (mid-80s), and I'm not trying to learn new online slang.
If those kids want me to understand them, they can use English; and if they don't want me to understand them... good, because I'm really not that interested.
The term for this is "alcohol abuse".
I have it on fairly good authority that structures of this shape are capable of standing upright.
The difference here is that games are "first-person" and interactive, and those other media aren't.
Mod Gabe's Grandpa +1, Wise.
The reason this is controversial is because giving players the ability to put themselves in the shoes of a current military opponent makes it more difficult to dehumanize that opponent to the point that they are easy for our troops to kill without suffering the pangs of guilt over killing a human being. As soon as the enemy combatant is a person to the solider, sailor, airman, or marine, those troops are made less effective. Whether doing this is a necessary and justified component of military strategy, or a debasement of our humanity for political ends... that's the question, isn't it?
There are two classes of law: civil and criminal. In criminal law, the government (on behalf of The People) is the plaintiff. In civil law, it is not, and the plaintiff is... someone else. Patent infringement falls under civil law, and defendants who lose do so because they are ruled to have violated it.
So again: you're either trolling (i.e. trying really hard to be ignorant), or... simply ignorant.
Clearly the Darwin Effect has not been as thorough as one would hope.
Either you're trolling or you don't understand what patent law is.
As far as I'm concerned that ugly red "ORACLE" on the splash screen for OpenOffice is reason enough to hate them; at least the Sun branding was tasteful. And the icons for the individual apps (Writer, Calc, Impress, etc.) didn't all look alike.
Step on the butterfly! Please!