Piracy: The language grows, words acquire new meanings. Get used to it.
Pricing: MS can price it however they want. Giving away copies is not fair use (why not sell them? MS won't know the difference. Two wrongs don't make a right, etc.
OK, f*ck the DMCA, how do we work around this one?
Now I am suddenly 10x as sympathetic to "the cause." And so will a heck of a lot of other people who have taken it for granted for 20+ years that they could time-shift their programming. I don't like piracy, but this strikes at the heart of fair use.
(If the FBI is listening, I, um, wasn't soliciting a conspiracy to violate the DMCA or anything. It was a rhetorical question. Yeah, that's the ticket.... Hey, what's that helicopter circling overhead for? Hello? AHHHH! Send... civil... libertarians..^%$^[NO CARRIER]
Have I been out of it? Has there been a lead-up to this?
However, it does appear to be in its early stages. There's a difference between proposing and implementing, which is why agencies are forced to to issues a "notice of proposed rulemaking," have periods for public comment, hearings, etc. They've had their shares of idiotic proposals.
Don't panic... yet. Raise a ruckus, however; no profanity.:)
Re:Einstein on a bicycle
on
Einstein Unveiled
·
· Score: 2, Informative
It's not rocket science -- he taught there 1931-33. Note the caption on the photo. Caltech later dropped the ball and lost him to Princeton.
NYT 12/1999 ($$$): The original magazine article titled "$6 Billion in Online Holiday Sales by the End of This Month! $24 Billion in Internet Ads by 2003! 2.3 Trillion E-Biz Predictions by 2010!".:)
NYT 5/2002 ($$$): Jupiter "crumbles" (uh-oh! better get some quotes out)
there are people out there who care enough to send you personalized, thoughtful solicitations
Oh really? You must be lucky. I got one this morning literally entitled "[FIRSTNAME], 50% Off Vivitar Digital Camera!"
No, my first name is not FIRSTNAME -- that's more of a nickname.
They wouldn't send it to you if they thought you didn't really, really be interested in the product they're selling.
Yeah. A recurring favorite here is "NEW 3 Stooges Talking Wall Clock"
Also, it's pink and tasty.
If one really could eat email spam, what color and taste would it have? Nutritional value? I'm thinking something like pork rinds.
Einstein on a bicycle
on
Einstein Unveiled
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I went to grade school across the street from Cal Tech, and it was said that Einstein was often seen bicycling around on his 3-speed. Something about that lack of pretense has always charmed me, and I would think he is already one of the most human famous scientists. He spent much of the last 20 years of his life concerned with averting nuclear war.
It has to be a major hit with a SPECIFIC target group that actually spends money.
Oh, I already explained what I had in mind, along with the correct target group. See, the cost is quite reasonable, more so if we steal one.
This is going to get me on some terrorist watch list, isn't it? Note to the FBINSACIA (the tri-spy-agency): Just kidding. I was gonna put confetti in it, really.
Well, there's a big difference between a word and an expression, as between a protein and a human being. You can't infer the human being from the protein, let alone know whether it's some teen who hangs out at 7-11.
I checked and could not find even a single use of this expression online. There are but 38 hits for interstratum, and it is not in any dictionary including the OED. That makes it either something new, something very unusual, or just a very long typo.
I'd think "suborbital" would suffice. Ahem, "sub" mean "below" and "orbital," well...
Consider who is bringing you this information and take it with a grain of salt. Jupiter is in the business of consulting, and is on nearly every reporter's Rolodex as a source of that all-important statistic to anchor whatever tech story they're writing. So right off the bat they have a potential conflict of interest -- accuracy v. self-promotion as "the source" the data.
If you listen carefully, nearly every time a web usage statistic is cited it will be attributed to either Jupiter or Forrester Research -- another (surprise) consulting firm. Listen to the news for these names and you'll be impressed how lazy and naive reporters can be, they often do a lot less research than it appears.
Next, the NYT profiled them a couple of years ago in the Sunday Magazine. I don't have a link, but recommend you consider buying it (and I never do that!). Basically, it detailed how little experience the average analyst has; how difficult and unscientific it is to come up with data on things like banner ad clicks or to extrapolate tech trends; and quoted one analyst admitting that they were instructed, should the media call with a question they couldn't answer, they should make something up. Often they are spectacularly wrong, but who calls them on it? Again, the all-important goal is to get their name in the press, Jupiter is willing to give an opinion, it's free advertising. Note how Jupiter's name made it into even this short posting?
I hate to think of businesses making important decisions based on such loosely-derived bits of data. So when I see a spam prediction such as here, I know there's a fair chance it's either an uneducated guess or simply pulled out of someone's ass. Maybe they're right, but I'd like to hear about their methodology. If they say they just went to the Oracle at Delphi (don't those names sound familiar?) then get on with our lives. Spam will still be a problem either way; there are proven ways to fight it; realistically we will never allow it to get to such levels.
I encourage anyone interested not to believe me and do their own research. IMHO, this is one of the biggest scams this side of the pollsters and brokerage houses. I am deeply contemptuous of their work. Just a statement of opinion, not libel, no siree.
P.S. May I throw in that I don't like seeing spam victims blamed for their plight. I have been scrupulous with my email for years and still the spam is inexorably growing, largely because of some idiot who opted-in to a dozen things mistakenly typing in my email address instead of his. Now my address is burned into a CD somewhere. Fault is unnecessary; and regardless of fault, the blame lies with the spammer. Naive users do not "deserve" to have their email paralyzed, rather they deserve our sympathy and help.
Interesting. Of course Finland hasn't been invaded for a while, or gone to war, the latter to its credit. Here in the States we're apparently to go to war every ten years or so -- I missed that in the rule book, oops.
The draft in the U.S. was suspended in the 70's after the Vietnam debacle. Draft registration was revived by President Carter, but we still have an all-volunteer army/navy/etc., making the decision whether to go to war rather different.
I feel awkward enough being a Yankee in the capital of the Confederacy. I mentioned the W.Va.^H^H^H^H^HWV thing because I only learned of it recently. The way it was taught in school (CA), the civil war was pretty simple: the north went north, the south went south. But surpise, places like WV and MD were *bitterly* divided and could have gone either way. Occupation by federal troops helped steel their resolve.:)
You seem to have more than a passing involvement in Farscape's fate -- both in knowledge and the single topic of all 3 of your posts -- for which I am grateful.
No, but you shouldn't have to pay anything, ads and stuffed D'Argo dolls should more than pay the tab. And your cable is $10 cheaper than mine, dammit.
If this guy is really into space, and has a lot of money, what do you think the chances are we could talk him into buying an inexpensive $800,000 fan-financed episode of Farscape? Wishful thinking? Anyone know his address?:)
These rich folks and their diversions put my hobbies to shame..... They put even my hobby aspirations to shame!
A little follow-up -- according to this article reimbursement goes to the states -- the law provindes nothing for Justice -- and was $10 million for the 9 states that quit a year ago.
Microsoft could offer a selective install option like, say, Apple does, but it doesn't want to. I refuse to believe there are serious technical obstacles -- even if they can't extirpate all of, say, the browser code, all they have to do it sabotage access to it. Why would anyone do this is they didn't at least save disk space? Well, they wouldn't, but Microsoft doesn't wan to give up even this much control, and worried what vendors who preinstall the OS might do.
MS (correctly) perceives that it is doomed if it does not branch out into newer and different industries from its stalwart OS. It is not enough to keep its OS's on as many machines as possible, because its monopoly will not hold forever, and when it breaks so will their profit margins. The Web caught it off-guard; now it thinks it can conquer it. The easiest and most familiar way to do so is to bootstrap via the OS advantage. Hence its aggressive efforts to slot IE into everyone's desktop including Apple's (which seems to have gone away now).
Also, MS has for years now used a scorched earth policy towards any competitor. It viewed the government as just another opponent. Its recent recent experience appears to be making it less arrogant and more political. There was even an NYT magazine article on the kinder, gentler Steve Ballmer.
I've been thinking, we should change IANAL to IANALBIHAOA (I'm Not A Lawyer But I Have An Opinion Anyway).;-)
Funny thing, the U.S. dropped the tying claim altogether. They stuck to the 2 monopoly claim. This article describes the why and how (caution: may cause blurry vision).
My non-expert opinion is that DOJ sabotaged its own case on a go-easy directive from above. Actually, it may not have needed any such directive, as President Bush appointed people sympathetic to his views and the views of his supporters -- all people I would describe as antagonistic to antitrust generally. More than one conservative has proposed abolishing the department.
Actually they might be both characterized as states who ships have sailed. I like Mass. and lived there ten years; the disappointment in losing the Massachusetts Miracle tech industry, and now even Polaroid, was clear. The state is hardly at the end of the line, it's just waiting for rebirth, like after they finish that Big Dig interstate reconstruction.
As for WV, well, I bought gas there once! I too would like to know the political considerations. Really, they're not risking much money, and maybe they have less to lose by possibly alienating MS.
Last I heard, the states had $25 million to divvy up. California I believe had the largest share of expenses.
So Microsoft pays. It's a win-win, ha-ha. I doubt the states will be reimbursed more than actual costs. I also assume/hope the law has some safety valve against nonsense prolongation of the litigation, but this appeal sounds meritorious if doomed.
(And, it should be noted, an appeal costs peanuts compared to the $25 million -- tens of thousands, maybe. I'm sure Microsoft doesn't mind, they want to be sure this is done right.)
And how much are you paying for long distance these days?!
And how much are you paying for local service these days?! (We're seeing local competition, finally.)
I don't think I came out ahead, and now we have all these annoying ads for long-distance service and 1-800 alternatives. (On the bright side, Carrot Top has found gainful employment.)
But yeah, breaking up the Death Star was probably good for the economy. Yippee.;-)
Slashdot Mirror
Exactly! Send the whole damn mob.
Piracy: The language grows, words acquire new meanings. Get used to it.
Pricing: MS can price it however they want. Giving away copies is not fair use (why not sell them? MS won't know the difference. Two wrongs don't make a right, etc.
OK, f*ck the DMCA, how do we work around this one?
... civil ... libertarians..^%$^[NO CARRIER]
Now I am suddenly 10x as sympathetic to "the cause." And so will a heck of a lot of other people who have taken it for granted for 20+ years that they could time-shift their programming. I don't like piracy, but this strikes at the heart of fair use.
(If the FBI is listening, I, um, wasn't soliciting a conspiracy to violate the DMCA or anything. It was a rhetorical question. Yeah, that's the ticket.... Hey, what's that helicopter circling overhead for? Hello? AHHHH! Send
Have I been out of it? Has there been a lead-up to this?
... yet. Raise a ruckus, however; no profanity. :)
However, it does appear to be in its early stages. There's a difference between proposing and implementing, which is why agencies are forced to to issues a "notice of proposed rulemaking," have periods for public comment, hearings, etc. They've had their shares of idiotic proposals.
Don't panic
It's not rocket science -- he taught there 1931-33. Note the caption on the photo. Caltech later dropped the ball and lost him to Princeton.
A 1997 Wired story early described how analysts get paid for being quoted (Forrester denies this, sort of).
:)
A 2000 Salon article.
NYT 12/1999 ($$$): The original magazine article titled "$6 Billion in Online Holiday Sales by the End of This Month! $24 Billion in Internet Ads by 2003! 2.3 Trillion E-Biz Predictions by 2010!".
NYT 5/2002 ($$$): Jupiter "crumbles" (uh-oh! better get some quotes out)
And yesterday the Times parroted the Reuters story.
Parenthetically the Jupiter founder Josh Harris went on to another interesting project you may have heard of. (Sadly, it's long since disbanded.)
there are people out there who care enough to send you personalized, thoughtful solicitations
Oh really? You must be lucky. I got one this morning literally entitled "[FIRSTNAME], 50% Off Vivitar Digital Camera!"
No, my first name is not FIRSTNAME -- that's more of a nickname.
They wouldn't send it to you if they thought you didn't really, really be interested in the product they're selling.
Yeah. A recurring favorite here is "NEW 3 Stooges Talking Wall Clock"
Also, it's pink and tasty.
If one really could eat email spam, what color and taste would it have? Nutritional value? I'm thinking something like pork rinds.
I went to grade school across the street from Cal Tech, and it was said that Einstein was often seen bicycling around on his 3-speed. Something about that lack of pretense has always charmed me, and I would think he is already one of the most human famous scientists. He spent much of the last 20 years of his life concerned with averting nuclear war.
Einstein on a bicycle. And he didn't wear a helmet.
It has to be a major hit with a SPECIFIC target group that actually spends money.
Oh, I already explained what I had in mind, along with the correct target group. See, the cost is quite reasonable, more so if we steal one.
This is going to get me on some terrorist watch list, isn't it? Note to the FBINSACIA (the tri-spy-agency): Just kidding. I was gonna put confetti in it, really.
Well, there's a big difference between a word and an expression, as between a protein and a human being. You can't infer the human being from the protein, let alone know whether it's some teen who hangs out at 7-11.
I checked and could not find even a single use of this expression online. There are but 38 hits for interstratum, and it is not in any dictionary including the OED. That makes it either something new, something very unusual, or just a very long typo.
I'd think "suborbital" would suffice. Ahem, "sub" mean "below" and "orbital," well...
Consider who is bringing you this information and take it with a grain of salt. Jupiter is in the business of consulting, and is on nearly every reporter's Rolodex as a source of that all-important statistic to anchor whatever tech story they're writing. So right off the bat they have a potential conflict of interest -- accuracy v. self-promotion as "the source" the data.
If you listen carefully, nearly every time a web usage statistic is cited it will be attributed to either Jupiter or Forrester Research -- another (surprise) consulting firm. Listen to the news for these names and you'll be impressed how lazy and naive reporters can be, they often do a lot less research than it appears.
Next, the NYT profiled them a couple of years ago in the Sunday Magazine. I don't have a link, but recommend you consider buying it (and I never do that!). Basically, it detailed how little experience the average analyst has; how difficult and unscientific it is to come up with data on things like banner ad clicks or to extrapolate tech trends; and quoted one analyst admitting that they were instructed, should the media call with a question they couldn't answer, they should make something up. Often they are spectacularly wrong, but who calls them on it? Again, the all-important goal is to get their name in the press, Jupiter is willing to give an opinion, it's free advertising. Note how Jupiter's name made it into even this short posting?
I hate to think of businesses making important decisions based on such loosely-derived bits of data. So when I see a spam prediction such as here, I know there's a fair chance it's either an uneducated guess or simply pulled out of someone's ass. Maybe they're right, but I'd like to hear about their methodology. If they say they just went to the Oracle at Delphi (don't those names sound familiar?) then get on with our lives. Spam will still be a problem either way; there are proven ways to fight it; realistically we will never allow it to get to such levels.
I encourage anyone interested not to believe me and do their own research. IMHO, this is one of the biggest scams this side of the pollsters and brokerage houses. I am deeply contemptuous of their work. Just a statement of opinion, not libel, no siree.
P.S. May I throw in that I don't like seeing spam victims blamed for their plight. I have been scrupulous with my email for years and still the spam is inexorably growing, largely because of some idiot who opted-in to a dozen things mistakenly typing in my email address instead of his. Now my address is burned into a CD somewhere. Fault is unnecessary; and regardless of fault, the blame lies with the spammer. Naive users do not "deserve" to have their email paralyzed, rather they deserve our sympathy and help.
As opposed to a pile of corn husks?
Interesting. Of course Finland hasn't been invaded for a while, or gone to war, the latter to its credit. Here in the States we're apparently to go to war every ten years or so -- I missed that in the rule book, oops.
The draft in the U.S. was suspended in the 70's after the Vietnam debacle. Draft registration was revived by President Carter, but we still have an all-volunteer army/navy/etc., making the decision whether to go to war rather different.
Of course we quit the Union, we....
:)
I feel awkward enough being a Yankee in the capital of the Confederacy. I mentioned the W.Va.^H^H^H^H^HWV thing because I only learned of it recently. The way it was taught in school (CA), the civil war was pretty simple: the north went north, the south went south. But surpise, places like WV and MD were *bitterly* divided and could have gone either way. Occupation by federal troops helped steel their resolve.
May I ask -- "who are you?"
You seem to have more than a passing involvement in Farscape's fate -- both in knowledge and the single topic of all 3 of your posts -- for which I am grateful.
it's not a space flight, it's an interstratum transport venture
:)
Re "interstratum transport venture":
(1) What the heck is it?
(2) Could you say "interstratum transport venture" 6 times fast?
Thx.
No, but you shouldn't have to pay anything, ads and stuffed D'Argo dolls should more than pay the tab. And your cable is $10 cheaper than mine, dammit.
If this guy is really into space, and has a lot of money, what do you think the chances are we could talk him into buying an inexpensive $800,000 fan-financed episode of Farscape? Wishful thinking? Anyone know his address? :)
These rich folks and their diversions put my hobbies to shame..... They put even my hobby aspirations to shame!
A little follow-up -- according to this article reimbursement goes to the states -- the law provindes nothing for Justice -- and was $10 million for the 9 states that quit a year ago.
Microsoft could offer a selective install option like, say, Apple does, but it doesn't want to. I refuse to believe there are serious technical obstacles -- even if they can't extirpate all of, say, the browser code, all they have to do it sabotage access to it. Why would anyone do this is they didn't at least save disk space? Well, they wouldn't, but Microsoft doesn't wan to give up even this much control, and worried what vendors who preinstall the OS might do.
MS (correctly) perceives that it is doomed if it does not branch out into newer and different industries from its stalwart OS. It is not enough to keep its OS's on as many machines as possible, because its monopoly will not hold forever, and when it breaks so will their profit margins. The Web caught it off-guard; now it thinks it can conquer it. The easiest and most familiar way to do so is to bootstrap via the OS advantage. Hence its aggressive efforts to slot IE into everyone's desktop including Apple's (which seems to have gone away now).
Also, MS has for years now used a scorched earth policy towards any competitor. It viewed the government as just another opponent. Its recent recent experience appears to be making it less arrogant and more political. There was even an NYT magazine article on the kinder, gentler Steve Ballmer.
I've been thinking, we should change IANAL to IANALBIHAOA (I'm Not A Lawyer But I Have An Opinion Anyway). ;-)
Funny thing, the U.S. dropped the tying claim altogether. They stuck to the 2 monopoly claim. This article describes the why and how (caution: may cause blurry vision).
My non-expert opinion is that DOJ sabotaged its own case on a go-easy directive from above. Actually, it may not have needed any such directive, as President Bush appointed people sympathetic to his views and the views of his supporters -- all people I would describe as antagonistic to antitrust generally. More than one conservative has proposed abolishing the department.
Well it was part of Virginia until y'all got principled on us! (Kudos!)
Actually they might be both characterized as states who ships have sailed. I like Mass. and lived there ten years; the disappointment in losing the Massachusetts Miracle tech industry, and now even Polaroid, was clear. The state is hardly at the end of the line, it's just waiting for rebirth, like after they finish that Big Dig interstate reconstruction.
As for WV, well, I bought gas there once! I too would like to know the political considerations. Really, they're not risking much money, and maybe they have less to lose by possibly alienating MS.
Last I heard, the states had $25 million to divvy up. California I believe had the largest share of expenses.
So Microsoft pays. It's a win-win, ha-ha. I doubt the states will be reimbursed more than actual costs. I also assume/hope the law has some safety valve against nonsense prolongation of the litigation, but this appeal sounds meritorious if doomed.
(And, it should be noted, an appeal costs peanuts compared to the $25 million -- tens of thousands, maybe. I'm sure Microsoft doesn't mind, they want to be sure this is done right.)
And how much are you paying for long distance these days?!
;-)
And how much are you paying for local service these days?! (We're seeing local competition, finally.)
I don't think I came out ahead, and now we have all these annoying ads for long-distance service and 1-800 alternatives. (On the bright side, Carrot Top has found gainful employment.)
But yeah, breaking up the Death Star was probably good for the economy. Yippee.