Have you ever actually bid on a "Name Your Own Price" hotel room on Priceline.com? Have you visited sites such as betterbidding.com that teach bidding strategy, e.g. free re-bid zones? Do your friends ask you for bidding assistance?
TFA and all the comments so far assume that "software makers" are not already legally liable for "flaws." They are.
The law of products liability, and the law of warranty (Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code), applies to software just like any other product or human activity. The reason it is impractical to sue over defective software in all but the biggest-money cases is the cost of litigation.
In order to prove that a given software product is defective, or its developers negligent, you need expert witness testimony. You need to have expert witnesses either disassemble the code, or to analyze source code that one has obtained by means of a subpoena or through discovery. The expert witnesses would then testify that the coding does or does not meet the standard of care that would have been used by a reasonable developer. You also need an expert witness to testify as to causation, in other words that the identified flaw caused the harm or damages suffered by the plaintiff.
And expert witnesses aren't cheap, they charge many hundreds of dollars per hour.
This is why early commercial software developers quickly came to demand End User License Agreements that disclaimed all warranties, so they could not readily be sued and subjected either to the caprice of nontechnical judges, or to an infinite-spiral of expert witness costs.
If boards of directors value negotiating skills in CEOs, why don't they value negotiating skills in employees? Why am I as a job applicant supposed to fill out a webform with my "expected salary" -- in other words to agree to negotiate my salary by webform -- in order to be considered? By definition they are selecting out applicants with negotiating skills.
I also have modpoints and would also mod you artfully dissonant. Send it to Hustler Magazine with an SASE and see if they buy it. And work on your standup routine.
1. There aren't any roads, rail or otherwise, between Nome and Anchorage, a distance of ~1000 miles. Google Maps won't even give walking directions, and "Your search for transit directions from Anchorage, AK to Nome, AK appears to be outside our current coverage area. Please consult our list of participating public transit agencies."
2. Train tracks are a different, narrower gauge in the U.S. (and in every country except Russia). So you'd need to change trains, probably across the platform in Nome.
3. The proposed train route ends in Victorville, CA. Who the hell wants to have to get off the train in Victorville?
The iris scan instantly matched suspects to past criminal records, but the fingerprint scanning still needed some work, says William Conlon, Brocktonâ(TM)s chief of police. âoeIt has a lot of promise, it just wasnâ(TM)t quite ready when we had it,â he says.
In other words, MORIS is finicky?
Neither player has taken the time, nor cared, to attempt to understand the reasoning behind FISMA, for two different reasons. Google is too immature as a company to realize that GSA FISMA certification doesn't cut any ice with other U.S. Government agencies and their Designated Approving Authorities. OTOH, Microsoft is too arrogant as a company to admit its cloud offerings even need to comply with FISMA.
I'm betting on MS to win this uberpisching contest because they're a hoary and bloated bureaucracy and U.S. Government customers will understand where they are coming from. Google is a bunch of children.
If I ever work for a private spaceship company, and they use illegal parts, software, music, or sunglasses, I will be sure and turn them in to the United Space Alliance for my reward.
If somebody did a study that discovered that video games are harmless fun, do you think it would get published? Do you think those who authored the study would get future funding, or tenure?
You build a product that might possibly injure somebody, you buy insurance. But if the product does injure somebody, they can't sue your insurance company. Heavens to Betsy, some juror might find out that an insurance company is really the defendant! Can't have that, juries are dumb! We'll make them sue the programmers or engineers. We'll have some stooge geek sitting in the dock, and we'll pretend through the entire trial that the engineer is really going to be personally liable for paying the verdict instead of our insurance company.
So if I scan a T-shirt at the store, it will flash up on my smartphone, "We don't have XXL, but our XL shirts are pre-shrunk, so they'll fit even if you wear XXL"?
Mod parent up, way up. There are far higher priorities than GPL for lawyers who want to help fight injustices and right wrongs, the previous poster nailed many of them, and you can get attorney fees awarded some of the time. Yes, IAAL, and I diddefend Craig Etling, the first guy to be arrested for smoking in a bar in California. You're welcome. If OP's friend wants to wet his beak IP-wise, he could try his hand at defending RIAA/MPAA/Righthaven lawsuits.
So I was driving through a rural area, where the only station was broadcasting the Limbaugh show, and he had some guest host on talking about "net neutrality." The guest host was just as good at ad-hominems and straw-men as is Limbaugh, then the host opined that the FCC should be abolished as an unnecessary, unelected government regulatory agency. Why, one of the commissioners is the child of an African-American politician!
There's something Limbaugh and I can agree upon.
I think people who don't agree with Limbaugh should be able to set up their own radio transmitters across the street from whatever local station carries Limbaugh, on the same frequency, and whoever can pump out the most wattage, wins!
Abolishing the FCC would enable Limbaugh wannabes to set up on any frequency they want. Who cares if the frequency belongs to the control tower at O'Hare?
Oops. It's not Check 21 but Federal Reserve Regulation CC that requires banks to credit the full amount of a deposited cashier’s check within one business day (12 CFR 229.10(c)(v)).
According to the California Court of Appeal opinion, neither the lawyer for the scam "victim" nor the lawyer for the bank identified the correct legal issue (apportionment of fault per the Uniform Commercial Code). And neither the lawyers nor the Court of Appeal picked up on the federal Check 21 law issue (the law that says banks are required to give credit against fake cashier's checks within one day after deposit).
The plaintiff's lawyer, because he didn't spot the UCC issue, almost certainly failed to discover or put on evidence that the bank was negligent in crediting the fake check.
Slashdot Mirror
Have you ever actually bid on a "Name Your Own Price" hotel room on Priceline.com? Have you visited sites such as betterbidding.com that teach bidding strategy, e.g. free re-bid zones? Do your friends ask you for bidding assistance?
TFA and all the comments so far assume that "software makers" are not already legally liable for "flaws." They are.
The law of products liability, and the law of warranty (Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code), applies to software just like any other product or human activity. The reason it is impractical to sue over defective software in all but the biggest-money cases is the cost of litigation.
In order to prove that a given software product is defective, or its developers negligent, you need expert witness testimony. You need to have expert witnesses either disassemble the code, or to analyze source code that one has obtained by means of a subpoena or through discovery. The expert witnesses would then testify that the coding does or does not meet the standard of care that would have been used by a reasonable developer. You also need an expert witness to testify as to causation, in other words that the identified flaw caused the harm or damages suffered by the plaintiff.
And expert witnesses aren't cheap, they charge many hundreds of dollars per hour.
This is why early commercial software developers quickly came to demand End User License Agreements that disclaimed all warranties, so they could not readily be sued and subjected either to the caprice of nontechnical judges, or to an infinite-spiral of expert witness costs.
If boards of directors value negotiating skills in CEOs, why don't they value negotiating skills in employees? Why am I as a job applicant supposed to fill out a webform with my "expected salary" -- in other words to agree to negotiate my salary by webform -- in order to be considered? By definition they are selecting out applicants with negotiating skills.
I bought some land in Albuquerque, and then I downloaded a torrent of a 3BR model home, but I can't get it to print in Adobe.
I also have modpoints and would also mod you artfully dissonant. Send it to Hustler Magazine with an SASE and see if they buy it. And work on your standup routine.
Reasons why this railroad won't run:
1. There aren't any roads, rail or otherwise, between Nome and Anchorage, a distance of ~1000 miles. Google Maps won't even give walking directions, and "Your search for transit directions from Anchorage, AK to Nome, AK appears to be outside our current coverage area. Please consult our list of participating public transit agencies."
2. Train tracks are a different, narrower gauge in the U.S. (and in every country except Russia). So you'd need to change trains, probably across the platform in Nome.
3. The proposed train route ends in Victorville, CA. Who the hell wants to have to get off the train in Victorville?
The iris scan instantly matched suspects to past criminal records, but the fingerprint scanning still needed some work, says William Conlon, Brocktonâ(TM)s chief of police. âoeIt has a lot of promise, it just wasnâ(TM)t quite ready when we had it,â he says. In other words, MORIS is finicky?
Just use a rat-protect tab.
I would hold out for the home version of the processing equipment. "Get Magic John for just $29.95 and never buy groceries ever again!!"
Where is the scanner that will scan my ass and allow me to order custom lasercut garments? This should have been implemented ten years ago.
It's not "digital projection." It's TELEVISION.
Neither player has taken the time, nor cared, to attempt to understand the reasoning behind FISMA, for two different reasons. Google is too immature as a company to realize that GSA FISMA certification doesn't cut any ice with other U.S. Government agencies and their Designated Approving Authorities. OTOH, Microsoft is too arrogant as a company to admit its cloud offerings even need to comply with FISMA.
I'm betting on MS to win this uberpisching contest because they're a hoary and bloated bureaucracy and U.S. Government customers will understand where they are coming from. Google is a bunch of children.
We're the phone company. We don't care. We don't have to.
1. Buy a steamroller.
2. Get government contract for SSD data destruction.
3. Profit!
Yes, but it's impossible to determine in advance which half.
(Props to William Wrigley, Jr.).
If I ever work for a private spaceship company, and they use illegal parts, software, music, or sunglasses, I will be sure and turn them in to the United Space Alliance for my reward.
If somebody did a study that discovered that video games are harmless fun, do you think it would get published? Do you think those who authored the study would get future funding, or tenure?
You build a product that might possibly injure somebody, you buy insurance. But if the product does injure somebody, they can't sue your insurance company. Heavens to Betsy, some juror might find out that an insurance company is really the defendant! Can't have that, juries are dumb! We'll make them sue the programmers or engineers. We'll have some stooge geek sitting in the dock, and we'll pretend through the entire trial that the engineer is really going to be personally liable for paying the verdict instead of our insurance company.
So if I scan a T-shirt at the store, it will flash up on my smartphone, "We don't have XXL, but our XL shirts are pre-shrunk, so they'll fit even if you wear XXL"?
Yeah, but they don't have 'em at Staples or Office Depot anymore.
Mod parent up, way up. There are far higher priorities than GPL for lawyers who want to help fight injustices and right wrongs, the previous poster nailed many of them, and you can get attorney fees awarded some of the time. Yes, IAAL, and I did defend Craig Etling, the first guy to be arrested for smoking in a bar in California. You're welcome. If OP's friend wants to wet his beak IP-wise, he could try his hand at defending RIAA/MPAA/Righthaven lawsuits.
So I was driving through a rural area, where the only station was broadcasting the Limbaugh show, and he had some guest host on talking about "net neutrality." The guest host was just as good at ad-hominems and straw-men as is Limbaugh, then the host opined that the FCC should be abolished as an unnecessary, unelected government regulatory agency. Why, one of the commissioners is the child of an African-American politician!
There's something Limbaugh and I can agree upon.
I think people who don't agree with Limbaugh should be able to set up their own radio transmitters across the street from whatever local station carries Limbaugh, on the same frequency, and whoever can pump out the most wattage, wins!
Abolishing the FCC would enable Limbaugh wannabes to set up on any frequency they want. Who cares if the frequency belongs to the control tower at O'Hare?
Oops. It's not Check 21 but Federal Reserve Regulation CC that requires banks to credit the full amount of a deposited cashier’s check within one business day (12 CFR 229.10(c)(v)).
According to the California Court of Appeal opinion, neither the lawyer for the scam "victim" nor the lawyer for the bank identified the correct legal issue (apportionment of fault per the Uniform Commercial Code). And neither the lawyers nor the Court of Appeal picked up on the federal Check 21 law issue (the law that says banks are required to give credit against fake cashier's checks within one day after deposit).
The plaintiff's lawyer, because he didn't spot the UCC issue, almost certainly failed to discover or put on evidence that the bank was negligent in crediting the fake check.
It may be the world's smallest battery, but it still won't be included.