OK, so lobbyists don't usually flat-out "buy" Members of Congress (although there have been lots of recent exceptions like the Duke Conningham or Freezer Dude Jefferson cases). But Members don't support bad legislation like DMCA because "they have songwriters," etc. in their districts. Lobbyists write the legislation. Lobbyists schmooze Members over free dinner or free Capitol Hill receptions or free or underpriced private jet rides. Lobbyists get their clients to give to the candidate's PAC, or have their clients' employees give, or have their clients' employees trade checks with a party campaign committee so it looks like Rep. X is getting a contribution from his or her own party committee. It's gotten to the point where Members seem to think there are no points of view other than are represented by some lobbyist. Look at phenomena such as Tech Policy Summit, an echo chamber composed of public-policy mavens from big tech corporations. Public policy is supposed to be for the public. The public interest might occasionally coincide with that of some big corporation, such as Google's stand in favor of net neutrality -- even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Tomorrow Google might merge with a telco and suddenly start lobbying in the opposite direction. Look at Sony, a company that used to lobby for fair use, then they bought a movie studio.
As for crowing about how few people "call in," do Congressmembers really believe the only calls that should count are those drummed up by lobbying organizations? I'll bet most people here on Slashdot believe calling or writing a Congressmember, on any issue, would be futile / a waste of time.
Mr. Feldzamen claims to have passed the Virginia bar exam, but I can't find any evidence he was ever admitted to the Virginia bar, or to any state bar (he's not in Martindale-Hubbell). He cites the Virginia bar exam -- which I also passed (IAAL, licensed to practice in CA and VA) -- as one of his examples of a "complete fraud." In fact, when I took the Virginia bar exam it had over a dozen one-hour essay components, testing each and every possible subject. By contrast, the California bar exam, had essay tests covering six randomly chosen subjects out of a possible 15 or so, and it had other non-multiple-choice components. The multiple-choice section of every state's bar exam, the Multistate Bar Exam, is no walk in the park. So I don't understand how he includes bar exams in his claim that the tests are invalid. If anything, the low pass rate of bar exams, typically 50% or less among a candidate pool of mostly recent law school grads, suggests that they are very hard indeeed.
One of the oddities of the court system is that no court cares, nor can any court know for certain, what you can "afford" or how much money you "have." Nobody knows whether a losing party to a lawsuit has (or does not have) cash hidden under a mattress, or a rich uncle with six months to live. Maybe Mr. Salahi will be able to get a job when he gets out of college and Mr. Kaplan will be able to file a wage garnishment. Maybe someday Mr. Salahi will inherit real estate or win the lottery. Since the lawsuit was based on an "intentional tort," could be Mr. Salahi won't be able to avoid it even if he files for bankruptcy. A judgment creditor can subject a judgment debtor to various kinds of unpleasantness and hassle even if the debtor is truly "judgment proof." Judgments in California earn 10% annual interest, and they can be renewed every 10 years, forever. IAAL.
I will never know why I lost the initial hearing, or why I lost the appeal.
Maybe on the merits? Mr. Salahi's website describes Mr. Kaplan as a "fraudulent journalist," which is another way of alleging he's incompetent to do his job, which the law calls "libel per se."
Anyway, the offending website is still up, so presumably Mr. Kaplan can sue Mr. Salahi yet again and win a second judgment for another $7,575.
New Scientist is reporting that scientists have clocked matter traveling at 99.999% the speed of light.
They probably paid the phone bill. A check mailed to a creditor travels through the postal and banking systems at 99.999999% of c. Conversely, a check payable to you travels through the postal system, and clears the bank, at 0.000000001% of c.
"Avvo" is a riff on the "AV" rating that Martindale-Hubbell, law directory publishers, issues to what it regards as top-grade lawyers (usually big-firm corporate lawyers).
In the legal profession, it is said that the "A" students become law professors; the "B" students become judges; and the "C" students make all the money.
Parent's sig: When members of a profession start referring to non-members as "laymen," it's time to start shooting them.
mbstone's corollary: When members of a profession start referring to non-members as "marks," a member who shoots a non-member is from then on known as a "marksman."
Back when Radio Shack had this annoying habit, I would answer, "Ben Franklin, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C.," and yep, the clerk would invariably type it in. I'm sure the White House mailroom still gets RS catalogs addressed to ol' Ben.
I just say, I'm going to use my Ben Franklin Card today. If the store clerk then asks for my phone number or email address, I just remind them of the airtight Ben Franklin Card privacy policy.
I hate to generalize about public defenders. Actually, no, I don't. The public defender, like you and I, is a human being who is instinctually programmed to maximize Slack. Slack, for a public defender, is maximized when the client pleads guilty. The privately retained attorney also seeks to maximize Slack, however, he or she also has marketing concerns (i.e. the need for a steady supply of paying clients: a reputation for zealously representing clients increases word-of-mouth and enhances the probabililty that there will be more paying clients). The PD will have 50 new clients on Monday, and thus has no need of marketing.
To assert your Constitutional rights, you'll need ready access to $50K for lawyers (and perhaps expert witnesses); otherwise you'll get the Public Defender and it will be explained to you that your only option is to plead guilty, thereby avoiding being sentenced to 0xFF years in jail. IAAL.
OK, Linux-snob. Suppose for a minute that Linux becomes ready for prime time -- I can load it on my laptop and everything works without endlessly searching for drivers and recompiling kernels -- exactly what app am I supposed to use to sync to a Treo. Or am I supposed to buy a pig-in-a-poke Palm product to attempt to fix the problem with my existing Palm product, one that Palm could readily fix if they wanted customers.
I am still waiting (more than a year) for Palm to support Treo syncing with Windows XP Media Center Edition. It will be a cold day in hell before I buy any more Palm products, lest I be left in the lurch again.
This will open up a new market for people who want simple applications that run, say, on an 8088 with 640K RAM. You'll be able to print documents instantaneously!
People used to diss Nothing. Unattractive, defective, or useless things were considered better than Nothing. "Nobody for President" was thought to be a joke. Then came the 2000 election, and Nobody won. Now, Nobody's laughing.
General, the bombers are ready to go and the cruise missiles are fully fueled. And our intel group has pinpointed the source of the attack. It's coming from 127.0.0.1 .
I was looking at GoDaddy's page last night and was considering doing business with them. Then I came across this story: GoDaddy, the domain registrar (not the webhost) pulls someone's domain registration (not the website) without notice, process, or warning to the customer just because some large company requested it. The real-life equivalent would be the sheriff coming and evicting you from your home because someone made a noise complaint.
but not having to perform surgery on the nervous system has many advantages
You would still need to drill a hole in your skull and insert a little rubber grommet into the hole. Then, you tie a knot in the cord that is slightly larger than the grommet. This will keep people from accidentally tugging or jerking on the cord and pulling out part of your brain.
Only by the grace of God have you, or I, avoided (so far) ending up like Draper. Few people are more than a couple of bad breaks from life in a sleazy apartment or even a vehicle. Impending old age and health/mobility impairments may augur a bleak future for many techies who were more interested in tinkering than in raising VC.
Meanwhile, big successful technology companies are starting charitable foundations to help people in...Africa.
Every time I try to solder a connector on a piece of 300nm-thick coax I wind up trying to strip off the shielding, but cutting off the inner conductor as well. Either that, or I forget to put the connector shell onto the cable first....
The purpose of a small car at GM is to make buyers recoil at its tininess and buy a larger car. Witness the Chevy Cobalt. This car used to have lots of legroom, this year they took out all the legroom and it is just another showroom-upsell-car. Combine that with the utter contempt GM showed for the EV1 owners, and I'll keep checking the box that says, "Would not buy any car from GM."
Slashdot Mirror
As for crowing about how few people "call in," do Congressmembers really believe the only calls that should count are those drummed up by lobbying organizations? I'll bet most people here on Slashdot believe calling or writing a Congressmember, on any issue, would be futile / a waste of time.
Mr. Feldzamen claims to have passed the Virginia bar exam, but I can't find any evidence he was ever admitted to the Virginia bar, or to any state bar (he's not in Martindale-Hubbell). He cites the Virginia bar exam -- which I also passed (IAAL, licensed to practice in CA and VA) -- as one of his examples of a "complete fraud." In fact, when I took the Virginia bar exam it had over a dozen one-hour essay components, testing each and every possible subject. By contrast, the California bar exam, had essay tests covering six randomly chosen subjects out of a possible 15 or so, and it had other non-multiple-choice components. The multiple-choice section of every state's bar exam, the Multistate Bar Exam, is no walk in the park. So I don't understand how he includes bar exams in his claim that the tests are invalid. If anything, the low pass rate of bar exams, typically 50% or less among a candidate pool of mostly recent law school grads, suggests that they are very hard indeeed.
One of the oddities of the court system is that no court cares, nor can any court know for certain, what you can "afford" or how much money you "have." Nobody knows whether a losing party to a lawsuit has (or does not have) cash hidden under a mattress, or a rich uncle with six months to live. Maybe Mr. Salahi will be able to get a job when he gets out of college and Mr. Kaplan will be able to file a wage garnishment. Maybe someday Mr. Salahi will inherit real estate or win the lottery. Since the lawsuit was based on an "intentional tort," could be Mr. Salahi won't be able to avoid it even if he files for bankruptcy. A judgment creditor can subject a judgment debtor to various kinds of unpleasantness and hassle even if the debtor is truly "judgment proof." Judgments in California earn 10% annual interest, and they can be renewed every 10 years, forever. IAAL.
I will never know why I lost the initial hearing, or why I lost the appeal.
Maybe on the merits? Mr. Salahi's website describes Mr. Kaplan as a "fraudulent journalist," which is another way of alleging he's incompetent to do his job, which the law calls "libel per se."
Anyway, the offending website is still up, so presumably Mr. Kaplan can sue Mr. Salahi yet again and win a second judgment for another $7,575.
no dog
New Scientist is reporting that scientists have clocked matter traveling at 99.999% the speed of light.
They probably paid the phone bill. A check mailed to a creditor travels through the postal and banking systems at 99.999999% of c. Conversely, a check payable to you travels through the postal system, and clears the bank, at 0.000000001% of c.
"Avvo" is a riff on the "AV" rating that Martindale-Hubbell, law directory publishers, issues to what it regards as top-grade lawyers (usually big-firm corporate lawyers).
In the legal profession, it is said that the "A" students become law professors; the "B" students become judges; and the "C" students make all the money.
Parent's sig: When members of a profession start referring to non-members as "laymen," it's time to start shooting them.
mbstone's corollary: When members of a profession start referring to non-members as "marks," a member who shoots a non-member is from then on known as a "marksman."
Back when Radio Shack had this annoying habit, I would answer, "Ben Franklin, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D.C.," and yep, the clerk would invariably type it in. I'm sure the White House mailroom still gets RS catalogs addressed to ol' Ben.
I just say, I'm going to use my Ben Franklin Card today. If the store clerk then asks for my phone number or email address, I just remind them of the airtight Ben Franklin Card privacy policy.
I hate to generalize about public defenders. Actually, no, I don't. The public defender, like you and I, is a human being who is instinctually programmed to maximize Slack. Slack, for a public defender, is maximized when the client pleads guilty. The privately retained attorney also seeks to maximize Slack, however, he or she also has marketing concerns (i.e. the need for a steady supply of paying clients: a reputation for zealously representing clients increases word-of-mouth and enhances the probabililty that there will be more paying clients). The PD will have 50 new clients on Monday, and thus has no need of marketing.
To assert your Constitutional rights, you'll need ready access to $50K for lawyers (and perhaps expert witnesses); otherwise you'll get the Public Defender and it will be explained to you that your only option is to plead guilty, thereby avoiding being sentenced to 0xFF years in jail. IAAL.
OK, Linux-snob. Suppose for a minute that Linux becomes ready for prime time -- I can load it on my laptop and everything works without endlessly searching for drivers and recompiling kernels -- exactly what app am I supposed to use to sync to a Treo. Or am I supposed to buy a pig-in-a-poke Palm product to attempt to fix the problem with my existing Palm product, one that Palm could readily fix if they wanted customers.
I am still waiting (more than a year) for Palm to support Treo syncing with Windows XP Media Center Edition. It will be a cold day in hell before I buy any more Palm products, lest I be left in the lurch again.
This will open up a new market for people who want simple applications that run, say, on an 8088 with 640K RAM. You'll be able to print documents instantaneously!
They'll have few games to play, and they'll have to learn to compile the kernel just to get their homework done.
I doubt they keep checks on users. Why would they?
Just look for the Slashdot user with 4,096 "foes."
People used to diss Nothing. Unattractive, defective, or useless things were considered better than Nothing. "Nobody for President" was thought to be a joke. Then came the 2000 election, and Nobody won. Now, Nobody's laughing.
General, the bombers are ready to go and the cruise missiles are fully fueled. And our intel group has pinpointed the source of the attack. It's coming from 127.0.0.1 .
I was looking at GoDaddy's page last night and was considering doing business with them. Then I came across this story: GoDaddy, the domain registrar (not the webhost) pulls someone's domain registration (not the website) without notice, process, or warning to the customer just because some large company requested it. The real-life equivalent would be the sheriff coming and evicting you from your home because someone made a noise complaint.
but not having to perform surgery on the nervous system has many advantages
You would still need to drill a hole in your skull and insert a little rubber grommet into the hole. Then, you tie a knot in the cord that is slightly larger than the grommet. This will keep people from accidentally tugging or jerking on the cord and pulling out part of your brain.
Only by the grace of God have you, or I, avoided (so far) ending up like Draper. Few people are more than a couple of bad breaks from life in a sleazy apartment or even a vehicle. Impending old age and health/mobility impairments may augur a bleak future for many techies who were more interested in tinkering than in raising VC.
...Africa.
Meanwhile, big successful technology companies are starting charitable foundations to help people in
If they flunk the question about "What if your IDS detected an intrusion from 127.0.0.1," I'll tell them.
Every time I try to solder a connector on a piece of 300nm-thick coax I wind up trying to strip off the shielding, but cutting off the inner conductor as well. Either that, or I forget to put the connector shell onto the cable first....
The purpose of a small car at GM is to make buyers recoil at its tininess and buy a larger car. Witness the Chevy Cobalt. This car used to have lots of legroom, this year they took out all the legroom and it is just another showroom-upsell-car. Combine that with the utter contempt GM showed for the EV1 owners, and I'll keep checking the box that says, "Would not buy any car from GM."