Don't forget to run SpinRite on the drive (after replacing or otherwise dealing with the fan), you might get a few more years or sectors out of tha sucka. [SpinRite, as you probably know, can magically transform bad sectors into good ones.]
My wife never knew she had sleep apnea before she met me. IF YOU DON'T HAVE AN S.O., AND YOU GET TIRED DURING THE DAYTIME, sleep with someone or videotape yourself sleeping. If you stop breathing occasionally you need to go to a doctor for a sleep study / CPAP etc. The life you save could be your own.
It is called NewSkin®, made by MedTech Systems in Colorado, and it is probably available in your local drug store. The stuff is similar to the consistency and odor of model-airplane glue, you brush it on your cuts and bruises (it is also available as an aerosol spray) and it forms an instant scab. It is simply the best stuff out there for minor wounds. Your kids won't tolerate it though, 'cause it stings.
As I mentioned in the article I posted to Slashdot yesterday, I had to trash my Seiko MessageWatch because the company decided to exit the FM data business, leaving me with an expensive piece of scrap metal. Is Bill G. giving guarantees as to how long MS is committed to broadcasting the time, weather, sports, and email?? Will watch buyers again be left holding the bag in a short period of time when MS finally decides this business model doesn't work any better for MS than it did for Seiko?? Why the *^&% should I again shell out the big bux for a watch that I am eventually going to wind up smashing with a sledgehammer like I did the MessageWatch??
odd to me because you are saying that this placebo worked very well. Why would that be. Why is the confidence in aluminum high enough for it to work, and if these people are crazy, why would they suddenly stop hearing the voices or noticing their symptoms?
Hey, I never described the tinfoil hat as a "placebo." I never pass judgment on the truth or falsity of whatever the client is telling me. Law is much like the related occupations of psychiatry and bartending. In fact, if you knew the -truth- about mind control rays, &*(^HEY STOP! YOU'RE HURTING MY BRAIN!!
When I first opened my law practice, I shared a legal secretary with another lawyer.
Part of my real-world education in solo practice was that, from time to time, I would get calls from prospective clients who were aggrieved by (alleged) mind-control rays and who wanted me to represent them against the U.S. Government or whomever. I would patiently listen to their stories, and offer to take their cases for $10,000 up front. (Mercifully, no one bit, or the state bar would have had my ass.)
I had fun, but I got tired of being so patient a listener as I had other (billable) demands on my time. I mentioned my surprise (at the number of such calls) to my secretary, who said, "Oh. You just have to tell them to make a tinfoil hat and they'll go away. Works every time." And it did!
100% of prospective mind-ray clients who were instructed to make tinfoil hats went away, presumably satisfied. I even got one or two nice notes in the mail, and a couple of referrals.
Moral: There's no substitute for an experienced legal secretary.
The FCC regulates radio frequency transmissions, states and localities may not. See Part 15 of the FCC Regs which regulate low power (= 100 mW RF output) devices. Your local governmental busybodies may (or may not) regulate your business license / zoning / etc. as in any other business situation. Call your attorney for an appointment (duh).
Oh, and don't forget, each of the 8 Verizon customer service reps, each of whom will either endlessly transfer your call and/or put you on forever-hold, will always give you the same inane shpiel about how they are going to give you "Excellent Service."
My Kyocera 6035 works great with Sprint. Sprint's coverage is better than it used to be, it works all the way from LA to Vegas; it works all the way from LA to the East Coast (except, for some reason, between Flagstaff and Amarillo where it only works in larger towns e.g. Tucumcari and Albuquerque). You can always roam if you really have to. Their customer service is awful, but you are unlikely to need it very often.
I also have a film school degree, and I have never worked in the film business, nor have any of my classmates (I constantly watch credits for their names), except for one guy who made tens of millions making really stupid pictures about cute fuzzy stuffed-animal aliens.
I chose my major 'cause I wanted to study microcomputers, and back then there were no computer courses offered except COBOL for mainframes. But I'm proud of my academic major and I wouldn't trade it for the world. The basic problem is not that you can't succeed without going to X school. THE PROBLEM IS THAT HIRING MANAGERS ARE SO FUCKING OBTUSE.
In my life I have designed analog and digital hardware, supervised an electronics assembly line, disassembled operating systems, ran scientific instrumentation labs, culled the slushpile at software publishing companies, edited videotape, been a roadie, written the TV news, done white-hat hacking, passed the bar exam, practiced law, most recently I passed my CISSP and have done some vulnerability assessments.
Just today I got an email from some HR cretin that I won't be interviewed because I have not spent the past 5 years doing IT audits. The last guy turned me down because I haven't spent the last 5 years using some specific proprietary $7000 software package that is just like every other package that does the same thing; and the person before him wouldn't hire me to design circuits 'cause my degree isn't in Engineering. Law firms won't interview me for lawyer jobs 'cause I didn't go to one of the Top 25 law schools -- even though I have a clip file full of cases I've won.
The bottom line is that the hiring system sucks, not necessarily the education system.
I don't know if this is the biggest IP case of 2002, but it's one of the funniest: Mattel v. Universal [warning: pdf link], which concerns MCA Records' release of a single called "Barbie Girls" (which, of course, drew a lawsuit from lawsuit-happy Mattel). Judge Alex Kozinski, one of the most hilarious judicial opinion-writers of our time, called this "the battle between "speech-Zilla and trademark-Kong."
Remember that even seemingly minor disputes are very important to the people involved!
Juries protect the rights of people who are accused of crimes, and they protect injured people from insurance companies that won't pay claims (the defendant in any given civil case is nearly always an insurance company). Today's Bushie-Republican judges almost always rule in favor of the rich and powerful, and against the poor and weak, no matter what the merits of the case. Someday you or someone you love might actually benefit from having 12 ordinary people in the box!
Yes, computer professionals are thought of as unfeeling and/or unable to assign a dollar value to things that can't be objectively quantified, say, "pain and suffering" damages in civil injury cases. The more I read Slashdot, the more I am convinced that this stereotype is TOTALLY, 100% VALID.
Yes, the system was designed in an age long ago when jurors' time was less valuable than today; and there are many rules that don't make sense, even to many lawyers. The only consolation I can offer is that most of the rules are there for a reason, lawyers are not exempt from jury duty (at least not in California), and you are performing a valuable public service that you would really appreciate if you were in the other guy's shoes.
IAAL, and I get bounced out of the blue chairs even quicker than you do.
People have too much time on their hands due to unemployment? What a crock! What I want to know is why there haven't been any new articles posted to Slashdot for over five minutes!!
I stand corrected, but a web site author who can't afford a lawyer is never going to get to see the inside of the courtroom to make legal arguments such as the status of the plaintiff corporation as a "public figure."
In the People v. O.J. Simpson case, Simpson's lawyers demanded the contact sheet from the police crime scene photos. They didn't get the contact sheet -- which conclusively reveals the order in which the photos where taken -- until the trial was nearly over:
THE COURT: The court will entertain a motion to shorten time. All right. Any other Brady issues we need to discuss?
MR. SCHECK: There is the matter of the contact sheets.
THE COURT: I'm sorry?
MR. SCHECK: The contact sheets.
THE COURT: All right.
MR. SCHECK: We believe, your Honor, that the testimony yesterday of the other--this week of Mr. Rokahr is extremely significant. It is significant because it establishes that the picture of Detective Fuhrman pointing at the glove occurred at night, not at 7:00 in the morning or about an hour and a half after daybreak. More significantly, it puts Detective Fuhrman in an area by the evidence at a time when he is unsupervised or unobserved, I should say, by others, and it is in complete contradiction not only with his testimony, but an apparent contradiction with the testimony of other officers. The pictures speak for themselves and are extremely powerful evidence.
Now, the problem that we've had in this case, as the court is well aware, is that we have been requesting, A, a photo log or a listing of the order and/or time that pictures were taken, or B, an opportunity--or contact sheets, or C, an opportunity to make contact sheets to the negatives. This was pursued in discovery in pretrial and it was pursued during the trial. Now, Miss Clark got up here yesterday and said that she was able to look at the photographs and see numbers on the face of the photograph and she herself had put together a stack of the photographs in order so that she knew the sequence. Well, that is something that Dr. Lee, Dr. Wolf, Dr. Baden, myself, the other lawyers on this team, could not do for a number of reasons. No. 1, there are different photographs--photographers in this case and the numbers--there were more than one, for example, picture no. 35. No. 2, as the court noted and Mr. Rokahr noted in some of these pictures, the--you can't see the number. And most important of all, your Honor, as the court noted itself yesterday, the best proof, the real proof as to what pictures were taken in what order are the numbers on the Kodak print. That is the real proof. That is the hard-core proof.
THE COURT: Frame number on the film.
MR. SCHECK: The frame number on the negatives. Now, the problem I have, and I mentioned it to Mr. Hodgman yesterday, is that Mr. Hodgman is the lawyer and then later Mr. Yochelson, who was designated to be dealing with discovery for the Defense. And this court is aware, and Mr. Hodgman has conceded candidly with this court, that they had no photo logs, they had no ordering of pictures, that they did not believe, until we discovered this contact sheet from Bodziak, that these contact sheets could be made from the negatives, that there was no ordering. I am very, very troubled by the fact that Miss Clark is telling this court yesterday that she had a list of photographs and an ordering. Well, if she had it and they were determined--they had determined--she had determined through conversations with photographers or detectives on this case, that she knew which pictures were taken in which order, then we are being misled because we are only dealing with Mr. Hodgman and Mr. Yochelson who know of no information in the District Attorney's office or in law enforcement that contain an ordering of the photographs.
US libel laws are similar to those in the UK. Big companies with unlimited resources for lawyers can sue (or threaten to sue) small web sites, with relative impunity, on both sides of the pond. The amount of money one has available for lawyers (and other litigation costs) is a thumb on the scales of American (and English) justice. The only difference is, in England they have the "English rule" which means that the loser pays the winner's legal fees. So anybody taking on a corporate behemoth in the UK court system takes a far greater risk! Many US jurisdictions have anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) laws which can help tip the scales back toward the free (as in speech) speakers.
You have little to fear provided you get a lawyer right away. Your site is a parody, presumably protected by the First Amendment, and it does not appear to have any content that could be termed libelous or obscene. I would observe that your site a) isn't very funny; b) isn't very robust; c) doesn't do a good job of explaining to someone like me, who is unfamiliar with Seattle or its school system, what it is that aggrieves you about it; d) links back to the official site in such a way as to confuse people. Maybe they will violate your civil rights and you can countersue.
There is more unfairness. The plaintiff attorneys general have to release their (your) rights to sue, and there is a consent decree (injunction) that says the companies have to stop fixing prices, but only for a period of 5-10 years depending on the type of business practice involved. Then the defendants could (presumably) resume using Minimum Advertised Prices and other allegedly unfair business practices as alleged in the Third Amended Complaint.
If Slashdot readers really wanted to throw sand in the gears of the record companies, and if upfront money for legal expenses could be raised, the settlement agreement between the state AGs and the distributors says that if 500,000 people "opt out" of the settlement then the settlement is void and the lawsuit goes forward!
Suppose 500,000 or some large number of people opted out, hired lawyers, and demanded 1) more than $20; 2) a consent decree of longer duration; 3) removal of the clause that cuts off payments if too many claims are filed; and/or 4) the right to use peer-to-peer music sharing services as a remedy!
Again, (IAAL and I have to recite these words, sorry) this is not legal advice nor an advertisement nor a solicitation for legal services.
Screw "tact", the settlement absolutely SUCKS. No question about it. No ambiguity, or moderating factors. Suck, suck, suckity-suck.
You said it, I didn't.
Yet another complete BS class-action suit.
You can always opt-out, and go down to small claims court and file your own lawsuit. Bring all the receipts you saved for the overpriced records, tapes, and CDs you bought during the period in question. Hope you didn't miss the statute of limitations for those 8-tracks!
Slashdot Mirror
Don't forget to run SpinRite on the drive (after replacing or otherwise dealing with the fan), you might get a few more years or sectors out of tha sucka. [SpinRite, as you probably know, can magically transform bad sectors into good ones.]
My wife never knew she had sleep apnea before she met me. IF YOU DON'T HAVE AN S.O., AND YOU GET TIRED DURING THE DAYTIME, sleep with someone or videotape yourself sleeping. If you stop breathing occasionally you need to go to a doctor for a sleep study / CPAP etc. The life you save could be your own.
It is called NewSkin®, made by MedTech Systems in Colorado, and it is probably available in your local drug store. The stuff is similar to the consistency and odor of model-airplane glue, you brush it on your cuts and bruises (it is also available as an aerosol spray) and it forms an instant scab. It is simply the best stuff out there for minor wounds. Your kids won't tolerate it though, 'cause it stings.
ALWAYS use Priceline.com for hotels and rent-a-cars.
NEVER use Priceline.com for airlines, also NEVER use HOTWIRE or any other pig-in-a-poke service for airlines. You will be royally screwed.
Recommended for airlines: AA.com. Orbitz.com (and also for rent-a-cars when Priceline comes up empty).
Travelocity.com for hotels, only if Priceline comes up empty.
Tinfoil Wallpaper.
As I mentioned in the article I posted to Slashdot yesterday, I had to trash my Seiko MessageWatch because the company decided to exit the FM data business, leaving me with an expensive piece of scrap metal. Is Bill G. giving guarantees as to how long MS is committed to broadcasting the time, weather, sports, and email?? Will watch buyers again be left holding the bag in a short period of time when MS finally decides this business model doesn't work any better for MS than it did for Seiko?? Why the *^&% should I again shell out the big bux for a watch that I am eventually going to wind up smashing with a sledgehammer like I did the MessageWatch??
Somebody should start a movement to ban Blogging. Surely 259 members of Congress would sign on immediately just from hearing the term.
odd to me because you are saying that this placebo worked very well. Why would that be. Why is the confidence in aluminum high enough for it to work, and if these people are crazy, why would they suddenly stop hearing the voices or noticing their symptoms?
Hey, I never described the tinfoil hat as a "placebo." I never pass judgment on the truth or falsity of whatever the client is telling me. Law is much like the related occupations of psychiatry and bartending. In fact, if you knew the -truth- about mind control rays, &*(^HEY STOP! YOU'RE HURTING MY BRAIN!!
When I first opened my law practice, I shared a legal secretary with another lawyer.
Part of my real-world education in solo practice was that, from time to time, I would get calls from prospective clients who were aggrieved by (alleged) mind-control rays and who wanted me to represent them against the U.S. Government or whomever. I would patiently listen to their stories, and offer to take their cases for $10,000 up front. (Mercifully, no one bit, or the state bar would have had my ass.)
I had fun, but I got tired of being so patient a listener as I had other (billable) demands on my time. I mentioned my surprise (at the number of such calls) to my secretary, who said, "Oh. You just have to tell them to make a tinfoil hat and they'll go away. Works every time." And it did!
100% of prospective mind-ray clients who were instructed to make tinfoil hats went away, presumably satisfied. I even got one or two nice notes in the mail, and a couple of referrals.
Moral: There's no substitute for an experienced legal secretary.
The FCC regulates radio frequency transmissions, states and localities may not. See Part 15 of the FCC Regs which regulate low power (= 100 mW RF output) devices. Your local governmental busybodies may (or may not) regulate your business license / zoning / etc. as in any other business situation. Call your attorney for an appointment (duh).
Oh, and don't forget, each of the 8 Verizon customer service reps, each of whom will either endlessly transfer your call and/or put you on forever-hold, will always give you the same inane shpiel about how they are going to give you "Excellent Service."
1. I've never had a problem with *2.
2. I use the unit to send mail by dialing my ISP, so who cares.
3. I don't sweat the $5.
My Kyocera 6035 works great with Sprint. Sprint's coverage is better than it used to be, it works all the way from LA to Vegas; it works all the way from LA to the East Coast (except, for some reason, between Flagstaff and Amarillo where it only works in larger towns e.g. Tucumcari and Albuquerque). You can always roam if you really have to. Their customer service is awful, but you are unlikely to need it very often.
Don't miss the U.S. Bureau of Engraving & Printing tour (watch them print U.S. currency). Sorry, no free samples. For some reason they built the U.S. Holocaust Museum right next door.
I also have a film school degree, and I have never worked in the film business, nor have any of my classmates (I constantly watch credits for their names), except for one guy who made tens of millions making really stupid pictures about cute fuzzy stuffed-animal aliens.
I chose my major 'cause I wanted to study microcomputers, and back then there were no computer courses offered except COBOL for mainframes. But I'm proud of my academic major and I wouldn't trade it for the world. The basic problem is not that you can't succeed without going to X school. THE PROBLEM IS THAT HIRING MANAGERS ARE SO FUCKING OBTUSE.
In my life I have designed analog and digital hardware, supervised an electronics assembly line, disassembled operating systems, ran scientific instrumentation labs, culled the slushpile at software publishing companies, edited videotape, been a roadie, written the TV news, done white-hat hacking, passed the bar exam, practiced law, most recently I passed my CISSP and have done some vulnerability assessments.
Just today I got an email from some HR cretin that I won't be interviewed because I have not spent the past 5 years doing IT audits. The last guy turned me down because I haven't spent the last 5 years using some specific proprietary $7000 software package that is just like every other package that does the same thing; and the person before him wouldn't hire me to design circuits 'cause my degree isn't in Engineering. Law firms won't interview me for lawyer jobs 'cause I didn't go to one of the Top 25 law schools -- even though I have a clip file full of cases I've won.
The bottom line is that the hiring system sucks, not necessarily the education system.
I don't know if this is the biggest IP case of 2002, but it's one of the funniest: Mattel v. Universal [warning: pdf link], which concerns MCA Records' release of a single called "Barbie Girls" (which, of course, drew a lawsuit from lawsuit-happy Mattel). Judge Alex Kozinski, one of the most hilarious judicial opinion-writers of our time, called this "the battle between "speech-Zilla and trademark-Kong."
Um, wasn't it Attorney General John Ashcroft who settled the case his Justice Dept. had already won??
Remember that even seemingly minor disputes are very important to the people involved!
Juries protect the rights of people who are accused of crimes, and they protect injured people from insurance companies that won't pay claims (the defendant in any given civil case is nearly always an insurance company). Today's Bushie-Republican judges almost always rule in favor of the rich and powerful, and against the poor and weak, no matter what the merits of the case. Someday you or someone you love might actually benefit from having 12 ordinary people in the box!
Yes, computer professionals are thought of as unfeeling and/or unable to assign a dollar value to things that can't be objectively quantified, say, "pain and suffering" damages in civil injury cases. The more I read Slashdot, the more I am convinced that this stereotype is TOTALLY, 100% VALID.
Yes, the system was designed in an age long ago when jurors' time was less valuable than today; and there are many rules that don't make sense, even to many lawyers. The only consolation I can offer is that most of the rules are there for a reason, lawyers are not exempt from jury duty (at least not in California), and you are performing a valuable public service that you would really appreciate if you were in the other guy's shoes.
IAAL, and I get bounced out of the blue chairs even quicker than you do.
People have too much time on their hands due to unemployment? What a crock! What I want to know is why there haven't been any new articles posted to Slashdot for over five minutes!!
I stand corrected, but a web site author who can't afford a lawyer is never going to get to see the inside of the courtroom to make legal arguments such as the status of the plaintiff corporation as a "public figure."
US libel laws are similar to those in the UK. Big companies with unlimited resources for lawyers can sue (or threaten to sue) small web sites, with relative impunity, on both sides of the pond. The amount of money one has available for lawyers (and other litigation costs) is a thumb on the scales of American (and English) justice. The only difference is, in England they have the "English rule" which means that the loser pays the winner's legal fees. So anybody taking on a corporate behemoth in the UK court system takes a far greater risk! Many US jurisdictions have anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) laws which can help tip the scales back toward the free (as in speech) speakers.
You have little to fear provided you get a lawyer right away. Your site is a parody, presumably protected by the First Amendment, and it does not appear to have any content that could be termed libelous or obscene. I would observe that your site a) isn't very funny; b) isn't very robust; c) doesn't do a good job of explaining to someone like me, who is unfamiliar with Seattle or its school system, what it is that aggrieves you about it; d) links back to the official site in such a way as to confuse people. Maybe they will violate your civil rights and you can countersue.
There is more unfairness. The plaintiff attorneys general have to release their (your) rights to sue, and there is a consent decree (injunction) that says the companies have to stop fixing prices, but only for a period of 5-10 years depending on the type of business practice involved. Then the defendants could (presumably) resume using Minimum Advertised Prices and other allegedly unfair business practices as alleged in the Third Amended Complaint.
If Slashdot readers really wanted to throw sand in the gears of the record companies, and if upfront money for legal expenses could be raised, the settlement agreement between the state AGs and the distributors says that if 500,000 people "opt out" of the settlement then the settlement is void and the lawsuit goes forward!
Suppose 500,000 or some large number of people opted out, hired lawyers, and demanded 1) more than $20; 2) a consent decree of longer duration; 3) removal of the clause that cuts off payments if too many claims are filed; and/or 4) the right to use peer-to-peer music sharing services as a remedy!
Again, (IAAL and I have to recite these words, sorry) this is not legal advice nor an advertisement nor a solicitation for legal services.
Screw "tact", the settlement absolutely SUCKS. No question about it. No ambiguity, or moderating factors. Suck, suck, suckity-suck.
You said it, I didn't.
Yet another complete BS class-action suit.
You can always opt-out, and go down to small claims court and file your own lawsuit. Bring all the receipts you saved for the overpriced records, tapes, and CDs you bought during the period in question. Hope you didn't miss the statute of limitations for those 8-tracks!