whats needed is to make it illegal to patent any DNA sequence found in nature (be it plant, animal or human). If the company has cooked up a sequence in a lab (ala Monsanto), yeah sure, give them a patent on it. Further to this though there would be a complete ban on any patent covering any part of the human genome. So when we start doing genetic manipulation and gene therapy on humans in the future, we dont have a situation where someone has gene therapy and then gets sued for having kids and passing on the gene therapy to them or something like that.
Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if the Church is trying to stop people who are "not authorized to have e-meters" from getting them (including those who might want to bust the myth that the e-meter does whatever the Church claims it does)
We NEED to build the latest designs of reactors out of Europe and Asia and not the 1950s style Pressurized Water Reactors. We NEED to get past the fear of nuclear proliferation and allow spent nuclear fuel to be reprocessed If both of these things are done, it solves a lot of the current problems with nuclear power. Newer reactor designs (pebble bed etc) are a lot safer. Breeder Reactors and Reprocessing help solve the nuclear waste problem by taking all the waste currently sitting in cooling ponds and storage sites around the US and extract more energy from it. The result after waste has been reprocessed and run again and again and there is no more reprocessing that can be done to it is (IIRC) easier to store and takes less time to become totally inert than the current waste comming from existing reactors. New reactor designs and other modern technology can use nuclear fuel (not just Uranium) that PWRs cannot.
Exchange does allow IMAP and other protocols. But, the exchange server admin has to turn them on. And many exchange server admins DON'T because there are security and other implications in doing so.
Although IANA MCSE so I dont know all the reasons why turning on IMAP etc would be bad or all the reasons why an exchange server admin would not want to turn them on.
Of course, for those who use Linux for most things but are forced into Outlook for email, the solution is to use either a VMWARE install running Outlook. Or better yet, run Outlook under WINE. Given the large number of people who only need Windows for access to their Outlook mailboxes/calendars/etc it seems logical that someone would be doing their best to keep it working under WINE (if not the WINE devs directly, then the Crossover Office people who have a business interest in making Outlook run as close to flawlessly as possible)
Calling Exchange an email server is like calling EMACS a text editor. Exchange does calenders (including shared calenders and options so others can see your calender), meetings, appointments and more.
What I want to know is, what is the difficulty in producing an outlook replacement on linux that speaks all the proprietary stuff. If people can reverse engineer MSN messenger, Office Document formats and all sorts of other proprietary MS junk, why cant people figure out Exchange? Or is there more to it? (fear of patent lawsuits perhaps?)
Does writing a letter (a real physical letter) to your congressman/senator/MP/representitive/elected politician still work?
Or do they destroy all letters sent to the government now in case they contain Anthrax, Model Rocket Fuel or other material that is illegal to mail as a result of the "war on terror"?
Any time you have a law like this being proposed (especially one being proposed again and again), there is some special interest group or big company or lobby group pushing for it. Who is doing it in this case and why pick Utah as the place to lobby for it? (a testbed to get similar laws passed in other states?)
More than likely the great firewall of china will block you from connecting to a non-chinese server. That or (more likely) the version of WoW chinese players get has been modified so that you cant use non-chinese versions of expansion packs with it or connect to non-chinese servers.
I don't know of mobile phone companies here in.au that block IM. Vodafone don't, I was using my phone connected to my PC via USB (and using my phone data connection) while I waited for my DSL to be hooked up and I was able to access any IM I liked.
Now US carriers blocking IM to preserve SMS revenues I can understand...
And we have regulators who would go after any telco who tried to block it. In fact, many major ISPs are now offering VoIP as part of your Internet connection
If the government tried to ban VoIP in this country, they wouldn't survive the next election.
Maybe thats the problem for people in countries in Latin America and Africa and elsewhere where telephone and Internet service is controlled by state-run/state-backed monopolies. Maybe the people in these countries need to kick the government out (although that assumes that there is a government running the country and not a military general and an army with orders to shoot anyone who has such unclean thoughts as "lets kick the government out" or "lets fight the state-run telco")
Yeah but you can make an episode of a more mainstream (i.e. popular) crime show like Law & Order, CSI, Bones, Criminal Minds, Mentalist etc for about the same price tag and get higher ratings. Ergo, the more mainstream crime shows get airtime.
If you walk into a CD store and buy a CD, you pay tax on it. If you buy a CD from Amazon, you are also supposed to pay tax on it (lots of people don't declare it but under the law you are supposed to do it) Why shouldn't the same thing apply just because the music is digital bits on your hard disk or iPod instead of digital bits of a round shiny bit of plastic?
So if it can do this for Windows Media, why not iTunes? Is it a case of "patches wanted" or does iTunes do it differently (in a way that you cant support decryption-with-a-user-provided-decryption-key?
Most of the time its a legal thing. Many distros and packagers don't want to ship builds of FFMPEG (or any other program for that matter) that contain support for various patented codecs. Some distros block MP3, some don't. Some block MPEG video, some don't. Some block Windows Media, some don't. Some ship default versions with stuff blocked but ship separate versions in a special "non free" repo that have the patented codecs turned on.
Then of course you have Gentoo which (since its built from source) can turn on everything (AFAIK they even ship libdvdread for DVD CSS decoding)
I have a black ban on installing anything from Synamtec (or Mcafee for that matter) on any computer that I own. I use AVG for anti-virus and my router as a firewall.
Now if only I could find a way to stop windows from ever turning on the windows firewall.
I would be saying something somewhat like this (only more formal/professional sounding) I am writing to you to express my opposition to the new copyright bill. I do not support piracy or downloading illegal copies of content from the Internet. However, I do not believe that ISPs should be required to be copyright enforcement officers for the media companies, acting on vaguely worded notices of infringement. If the media companies believe that someone is infringing their copyright, they should be required to show proof of this infringement to both the ISP and the person accused of copyright violation.
If the law was changed to require the media companies to show proof (including details of when the violation took place and what items were illegally copied) and to produce a statement (from e.g. a lawyer or copyright officer authorized to act on behalf of the copyright holder of the work in question) declaring under penalty of perjury that they believe that infringement has taken place, I would support this law.
Of course, the real problem is that many p2p networks and programs like BitTorrent and emule and others makes it hard to gather proof of violation that a lawyer would be willing to agree to certify which is why the media companies are starting to abandon the practice of suing individuals for copyright infringement and instead looking to shut down pirates and pirate sites via ISPs.
You clearly havent worked at any of the places I have. I worked at a cellphone manufacturer a while back (who shall remain nameless) and had access to a whole pile of sensitive information (including such things as prototype phones that had not yet been announced, ideas invented by the company and in the process of being patented, full source code to most of their (at the time) current phones and full details of exactly what customizations, lockdowns, restrictions and changes made for each carrier in the firmware for their specific phones). Some of this is stuff that competitors would love to get their hands on (especially details of upcoming products, new features etc).
Industrial Espionage is BIG business and companies DO care if this stuff is stolen.
If you are working on anything military, its even more strict.
The clean desk policy and security stuff is something I have seen at other places with cube farms too. And there are good reasons for it too. The last thing you want is some cleaner earning 5c a night spotting something someone left out on the desk labeled "confidential" and deciding to steal it and offer it to the highest bidder.
Given that one of the largest studios in the industry, Activision Blizzard is owned by Vivendi Universal (one of the largest media companies on earth and, last I checked, owner of Universal Studios, one of the largest film production/distribution companies on earth)
Also, we have Sony who seem to have their fingers in media of all sorts (including games) AND the devices to play it back on.
EA arent a film studio (FMVs for Red Alert 3 not withstanding) but they act just like one.
A well built mainframe combined with a suitable power supply (e.g. backup generator etc) has up-times measured in YEARS. Also, you can upgrade any single part of the mainframe (even one of the CPUs) without even turning it off in many cases. There are likely mainframes in operation (at banks, insurance companies etc) that have been installed and turned on and have been running ever since without a reboot or power down.
Also, mainframes (especially the old Big Iron kind that need special power supplies and special raised floors and stuff) can move a LOT of data VERY fast. Which is GOOD when you are a big bank potentially processing 1000s of transactions a minute
Star Trek Enterprise had a pretty good ending IMO, showing Captain Archer present at the formation of the Federation (albeit as a holodeck recreation on NCC-1701D). The final scene showing 3 generations of Enterprise is pretty good.
Star Trek Voyager also had a good ending where they made it back to earth (and beat the Borg as well IIRC, its been a while since I watched the show)
I havent seen enough TOS to know how that one ended as a TV series. The real ending to TOS is where Kirk passes the mantle on to a new generation in the NCC-1701A in Generations and also dies in that film (and it was a proper ending at that)
Per TFS, TomTom may be forced to settle. Given that if they do, it means MS can go after others using linux (Motorola, Nokia and others). Wouldn't it make sense for companies who rely on linux for their business to somehow help out TomTom to prevent MS getting a precedent they can use in the future?
IANAL so I dont know how these things usually work.
Doesn't work like that usually, random bits are thrown in precisely to help prevent cryptanalysis IIRC (at least thats what I remember from reading Bruce Schiner and his cryptography books)
Good luck with that. With the exception of certain expensive fancy Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices (which can be hacked to remove the restrictions and allow you to write your own apps), essentially ALL CDMA phones sold use BREW and wont let you run stuff without carrier approval.
As for Linux, I doubt you could even MAKE a phone running the linux kernel with a CDMA radio and still comply with both the GPL and the Qualcomm NDAs
Slashdot Mirror
whats needed is to make it illegal to patent any DNA sequence found in nature (be it plant, animal or human). If the company has cooked up a sequence in a lab (ala Monsanto), yeah sure, give them a patent on it.
Further to this though there would be a complete ban on any patent covering any part of the human genome. So when we start doing genetic manipulation and gene therapy on humans in the future, we dont have a situation where someone has gene therapy and then gets sued for having kids and passing on the gene therapy to them or something like that.
Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if the Church is trying to stop people who are "not authorized to have e-meters" from getting them (including those who might want to bust the myth that the e-meter does whatever the Church claims it does)
We NEED to build the latest designs of reactors out of Europe and Asia and not the 1950s style Pressurized Water Reactors.
We NEED to get past the fear of nuclear proliferation and allow spent nuclear fuel to be reprocessed
If both of these things are done, it solves a lot of the current problems with nuclear power.
Newer reactor designs (pebble bed etc) are a lot safer.
Breeder Reactors and Reprocessing help solve the nuclear waste problem by taking all the waste currently sitting in cooling ponds and storage sites around the US and extract more energy from it. The result after waste has been reprocessed and run again and again and there is no more reprocessing that can be done to it is (IIRC) easier to store and takes less time to become totally inert than the current waste comming from existing reactors.
New reactor designs and other modern technology can use nuclear fuel (not just Uranium) that PWRs cannot.
And of course, the drug companies make big profits off that.
Exchange does allow IMAP and other protocols. But, the exchange server admin has to turn them on. And many exchange server admins DON'T because there are security and other implications in doing so.
Although IANA MCSE so I dont know all the reasons why turning on IMAP etc would be bad or all the reasons why an exchange server admin would not want to turn them on.
Of course, for those who use Linux for most things but are forced into Outlook for email, the solution is to use either a VMWARE install running Outlook. Or better yet, run Outlook under WINE. Given the large number of people who only need Windows for access to their Outlook mailboxes/calendars/etc it seems logical that someone would be doing their best to keep it working under WINE (if not the WINE devs directly, then the Crossover Office people who have a business interest in making Outlook run as close to flawlessly as possible)
Calling Exchange an email server is like calling EMACS a text editor.
Exchange does calenders (including shared calenders and options so others can see your calender), meetings, appointments and more.
What I want to know is, what is the difficulty in producing an outlook replacement on linux that speaks all the proprietary stuff. If people can reverse engineer MSN messenger, Office Document formats and all sorts of other proprietary MS junk, why cant people figure out Exchange? Or is there more to it? (fear of patent lawsuits perhaps?)
Does writing a letter (a real physical letter) to your congressman/senator/MP/representitive/elected politician still work?
Or do they destroy all letters sent to the government now in case they contain Anthrax, Model Rocket Fuel or other material that is illegal to mail as a result of the "war on terror"?
Any time you have a law like this being proposed (especially one being proposed again and again), there is some special interest group or big company or lobby group pushing for it. Who is doing it in this case and why pick Utah as the place to lobby for it? (a testbed to get similar laws passed in other states?)
More than likely the great firewall of china will block you from connecting to a non-chinese server. That or (more likely) the version of WoW chinese players get has been modified so that you cant use non-chinese versions of expansion packs with it or connect to non-chinese servers.
I don't know of mobile phone companies here in .au that block IM.
Vodafone don't, I was using my phone connected to my PC via USB (and using my phone data connection) while I waited for my DSL to be hooked up and I was able to access any IM I liked.
Now US carriers blocking IM to preserve SMS revenues I can understand...
And we have regulators who would go after any telco who tried to block it.
In fact, many major ISPs are now offering VoIP as part of your Internet connection
If the government tried to ban VoIP in this country, they wouldn't survive the next election.
Maybe thats the problem for people in countries in Latin America and Africa and elsewhere where telephone and Internet service is controlled by state-run/state-backed monopolies. Maybe the people in these countries need to kick the government out (although that assumes that there is a government running the country and not a military general and an army with orders to shoot anyone who has such unclean thoughts as "lets kick the government out" or "lets fight the state-run telco")
Yeah but you can make an episode of a more mainstream (i.e. popular) crime show like Law & Order, CSI, Bones, Criminal Minds, Mentalist etc for about the same price tag and get higher ratings.
Ergo, the more mainstream crime shows get airtime.
If you walk into a CD store and buy a CD, you pay tax on it.
If you buy a CD from Amazon, you are also supposed to pay tax on it (lots of people don't declare it but under the law you are supposed to do it)
Why shouldn't the same thing apply just because the music is digital bits on your hard disk or iPod instead of digital bits of a round shiny bit of plastic?
So if it can do this for Windows Media, why not iTunes? Is it a case of "patches wanted" or does iTunes do it differently (in a way that you cant support decryption-with-a-user-provided-decryption-key?
Most of the time its a legal thing.
Many distros and packagers don't want to ship builds of FFMPEG (or any other program for that matter) that contain support for various patented codecs. Some distros block MP3, some don't. Some block MPEG video, some don't. Some block Windows Media, some don't. Some ship default versions with stuff blocked but ship separate versions in a special "non free" repo that have the patented codecs turned on.
Then of course you have Gentoo which (since its built from source) can turn on everything (AFAIK they even ship libdvdread for DVD CSS decoding)
I have a black ban on installing anything from Synamtec (or Mcafee for that matter) on any computer that I own.
I use AVG for anti-virus and my router as a firewall.
Now if only I could find a way to stop windows from ever turning on the windows firewall.
I would be saying something somewhat like this (only more formal/professional sounding)
I am writing to you to express my opposition to the new copyright bill. I do not support piracy or downloading illegal copies of content from the Internet. However, I do not believe that ISPs should be required to be copyright enforcement officers for the media companies, acting on vaguely worded notices of infringement. If the media companies believe that someone is infringing their copyright, they should be required to show proof of this infringement to both the ISP and the person accused of copyright violation.
If the law was changed to require the media companies to show proof (including details of when the violation took place and what items were illegally copied) and to produce a statement (from e.g. a lawyer or copyright officer authorized to act on behalf of the copyright holder of the work in question) declaring under penalty of perjury that they believe that infringement has taken place, I would support this law.
Of course, the real problem is that many p2p networks and programs like BitTorrent and emule and others makes it hard to gather proof of violation that a lawyer would be willing to agree to certify which is why the media companies are starting to abandon the practice of suing individuals for copyright infringement and instead looking to shut down pirates and pirate sites via ISPs.
You clearly havent worked at any of the places I have. I worked at a cellphone manufacturer a while back (who shall remain nameless) and had access to a whole pile of sensitive information (including such things as prototype phones that had not yet been announced, ideas invented by the company and in the process of being patented, full source code to most of their (at the time) current phones and full details of exactly what customizations, lockdowns, restrictions and changes made for each carrier in the firmware for their specific phones). Some of this is stuff that competitors would love to get their hands on (especially details of upcoming products, new features etc).
Industrial Espionage is BIG business and companies DO care if this stuff is stolen.
If you are working on anything military, its even more strict.
The clean desk policy and security stuff is something I have seen at other places with cube farms too.
And there are good reasons for it too. The last thing you want is some cleaner earning 5c a night spotting something someone left out on the desk labeled "confidential" and deciding to steal it and offer it to the highest bidder.
Given that one of the largest studios in the industry, Activision Blizzard is owned by Vivendi Universal (one of the largest media companies on earth and, last I checked, owner of Universal Studios, one of the largest film production/distribution companies on earth)
Also, we have Sony who seem to have their fingers in media of all sorts (including games) AND the devices to play it back on.
EA arent a film studio (FMVs for Red Alert 3 not withstanding) but they act just like one.
A well built mainframe combined with a suitable power supply (e.g. backup generator etc) has up-times measured in YEARS.
Also, you can upgrade any single part of the mainframe (even one of the CPUs) without even turning it off in many cases.
There are likely mainframes in operation (at banks, insurance companies etc) that have been installed and turned on and have been running ever since without a reboot or power down.
Also, mainframes (especially the old Big Iron kind that need special power supplies and special raised floors and stuff) can move a LOT of data VERY fast. Which is GOOD when you are a big bank potentially processing 1000s of transactions a minute
Star Trek Enterprise had a pretty good ending IMO, showing Captain Archer present at the formation of the Federation (albeit as a holodeck recreation on NCC-1701D). The final scene showing 3 generations of Enterprise is pretty good.
Star Trek Voyager also had a good ending where they made it back to earth (and beat the Borg as well IIRC, its been a while since I watched the show)
I havent seen enough TOS to know how that one ended as a TV series. The real ending to TOS is where Kirk passes the mantle on to a new generation in the NCC-1701A in Generations and also dies in that film (and it was a proper ending at that)
Per TFS, TomTom may be forced to settle. Given that if they do, it means MS can go after others using linux (Motorola, Nokia and others). Wouldn't it make sense for companies who rely on linux for their business to somehow help out TomTom to prevent MS getting a precedent they can use in the future?
IANAL so I dont know how these things usually work.
Doesn't work like that usually, random bits are thrown in precisely to help prevent cryptanalysis IIRC (at least thats what I remember from reading Bruce Schiner and his cryptography books)
Good luck with that. With the exception of certain expensive fancy Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices (which can be hacked to remove the restrictions and allow you to write your own apps), essentially ALL CDMA phones sold use BREW and wont let you run stuff without carrier approval.
As for Linux, I doubt you could even MAKE a phone running the linux kernel with a CDMA radio and still comply with both the GPL and the Qualcomm NDAs