We had a similar law in the UK until about 10 years ago. Prior to it being repealed, I thought it was absurdly anachronistic. However, since it was repealed, supermarkets have been stocking, and massively discounting, high-profile books (Harry Potter and the like). The downside is that it's become almost impossible to find a small, independent bookshop, and even the large chains are struggling. In response, the large chains are cutting the breadth of their stock, instead stocking more of the high profile titles, and similarly discounting them. The net effect on the consumer? You can get Harry Potter or 2 dozen other titles for £2, but you're screwed if you want something else. I think it's fair to say that most/. readers want to buy books other than John Grisham, Harry Potter, and celeb biography du jour.
Thankfully, Amazon fills the gap. However, browsing a decent, well-stocked book store is a far more pleasant experience than browsing Amazon.
I read this as saying the judge can use the fact that you withheld any information (incriminating or not) to decide that you are guilty.
Hey, we still have jury trials:-)
Being less facetious, the rights you are read upon arrest in England and Wales are [1]:
You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.
A little less scary than your quote. In particular, witholding information does not harm your defence (like your example would require), unless you only bring it up once the case has reached a court. The court must still hear evidence beyond reasonable doubt in order to find guilt. In other words, it's saying that an alibi you mention immediately will be considered more credible than an alibi you've taken 6 months (& half a dozen lawyers) to think up.
[1] I couldn't find an authorative resource for Scotland, hence the English and Welsh one will suffice. I believe in Scotland, the warning is the simpler: "You do not have to say anything. But anything you do say may be noted in evidence.", but I'm not sure.
In the UK they don't have the 5th amendment, so they can legally torture the password out of you there.
Actually, we do have a right to silence in the UK. This is broader than the US 5th amendment.
In the US, you can't be compelled to incriminate yourself. In the UK, you can't be compelled to say anything, whether it incriminates yourself, someone else, or no-one at all. I realise we have recent legal changes in the UK that specifically compel someone to produce passwords/encryption keys, but, as far as I know, this has yet to be tested in court.
My assumption, and I haven't read the article, so it is only an assumption, is that the 3cm range is intended to allow the format to ignore any form of security. In other words, if you have a device within 3cm of another device, there won't be another device within 3cm eavesdropping on the connection.
Not to mention, and sorry for taking this further off-topic, deep-fried mars bars and deep-fried pizzas. Us Scots know how make scary food. My personal favourite, from a recent visit to Edinburgh, vegetarian haggis samosas (from a baked potato shop at the top of Cockburn St, if anyone is curious).
Safari (obviously, on windows or a Mac) has this built in; open the activity window, navigate to a site using Flash, and double-click on the multi-MB file shown in the activity window. It saves to the desktop (on Mac) with the filename get_video.flv. I'm fairly certain that there's Firefox extensions to do this too; which would cover any platform that can play Flash.
As someone who uses Tiger; the $100 per year for.Mac is worth it for the Backup software alone. You're right, I hardly use most of the other features, but I've had enough hassle with other backup software (or, more accurately, with restoring files from other backup software) that I'm willing to pay for reliable backup software (And, given my habit of fat-fingering rm commands, I tend to test the restoration quite frequently...). As to buying Leopard, Tiger works for me. Of course, I will probably upgrade eventually; probably around the same time my.Mac sub is due for renewal:-)
MP3, on the other hand, is owned, patented, and licensed by the Fraunhofer Institute. MP3 is actually a good example of what I was saying; it was, as you mentioned, patented and licenced by the Fraunhofer institute, as well as Thomson Electronics. Manufacturers were paying licence fees to them for years, thinking that these were the only MP3 patents to worry about.
Then, last year (I think, it might have been earlier?), Sandisk had products seized by the police at a trade show (in Germany, I believe), due to a patent infringement suit brought by an Italian company claiming patent infringement.
And this year, a firm in Texas bought a patent from S Korea related to portable MP3 players, and started suing.
Also this year, in the US, Alcatel-Lucent won a lawsuit against MS for $1.5 billion for infringement of their MP3 (and MPEG) related patents (a case currently winding it's way through the labyrinthine appeals process).
It is entirely possible to unwittingly violate a patent; a situation that I would argue makes software patents intolerable. But, the moral of the story is, where there's money, there's lawsuits.
However, a music codec is just a way for me to store music on my computer and portable music player. Why should I care about compatibility? The reason I keep all of my music in MP3 is compatibility with my portable music player and a much greater chance of compatibility with any future portable player I buy. I would absolutely hate to have to re-rip my CD collection.
One potential problem with Ogg is that there may be patents covering it. One of the major flaws with allowing software patents, as opposed to copyright, is that it is possible to accidentally infringe a patent through simply not knowing it existed, or even simply not patenting something before someone else (early examples of the latter, in the case of hardware, are Alexander Graham Bell/Antonio Meucci and Alexander Graham Bell/Elisha Gray). The fact that no-one has claimed patent infringement over Ogg is probably as much to do with no-one making money out of Ogg (and hence it's not worthwhile suing) as to it absolutely not infringing anyone's patent. Once someone starts making real money from eg portable music players using Ogg, we'll find out if it's genuinely free from patent problems.
If I had a client who bought one of these things I would strongly suggest a stringent frequent backup policy. Seriously, how often do you get a chance to say "Let's try an infrequent backup policy"?
I don't normally respond to ACs, but I get the impression that you're a cop, and hence in a position to enlighten me a little. You mention:
a lot of statistical information out there showing a decline in deadly force interactions after police departments are supplied with tasers. Can you please point me towards some of it? My curiousity has been piqued about this issue now.
You also mention that pepper spray used to be considered dangerous; I would argue it still is. Not for the person being sprayed, but for whoever is wielding it. If you're confronted by someone who is a sufficient danger that you need a weapon, aren't you better off with one that doesn't require you to be that close to them?
Finally, I'm British, our police are not routinely armed. When I do see American police (I live near New York now), the fact that they're armed is something that makes me cautious. I suspect this effect is less on an American, since they're used to seeing police with guns, but I would still expect that a police officer with a drawn gun still has a massive deterrent effect. You presumably have more experience in this regard; does it help you to control a situation, or does it tend to exaggerate the situation? Does a taser have a similar effect?
When I said 'cops seem to mistakenly shoot someone' above, I was of course talking about the shooting appearing to be a mistake with the benefit of hindsight. Being a cop is not a job I envy; unlike most jobs, when they make a mistake, the results can be terminal, either for themselves or others.
How many lives have been saved by the use of Tasers? For instance, without a taser it may indeed be much more likely for cops to have to resort to guns and/or other less predictable violent means to protect themselves. I would speculate that a very, very small number of lives have been saved by tasers. I would assume, in a country like the US where the cops routinely carry guns, that when a police officer thinks they are in serious danger, they'll reach for their gun. Just like they did before tasers.
I would imagine the cops only reach for the taser when they know they are safe. It would be interesting to see whether there was a reduction in accidental/mistaken police shootings after tasers were issued to cops. Certainly, here in the New York area, the cops seem to mistakenly shoot someone every 3 months or so.
BTW, I don't know what strange maths you use to reach the conclusion that "The "Basic" version... is still considerably more expensive than Mac OS X Leopard":
Vista Home Basic upgrade: List Price - $100; Amazon.com price - $59.
Leopard upgrade: List price - $130; Amazon.com price: $110.
I make that as Leopard being just under double Vista Basic's price from Amazon.
How about if you ignore upgrade versions and go for full versions:
Vista Home Basic: List Price - $200; Amazon.com: $180
Leopard: List Price - $130; Amazon.com: $110.
You might want to try fink. A Mac with Linux installed in VMWare Fusion (or Parallels) is another solution. When I bought a Mac, I partitioned the HD with the intention of installing Linux on it. I never got around to installing Linux on that partition, fink and VMWare were sufficient for my needs.
They're so close to getting it right though; why not, when you order the CD from Amazon, allow you to download the MP3 while you're waiting for the 'couple of days' shipping?
I'm curious about the enforceability or otherwise of EULAs/shrink wrap licences in the US; do you have some references? My assumption (as a European now living in the US) was that it would vary from state to state, and probably wouldn't have been tested in court yet in a lot of states (hence, leaving them in a legal limbo).
Additionally I'd like to point out that this is truely the worst way to treat customers. The ASSumption being made here is that everyone who tries to leave your store is stealing from you.
It's worse than that, they only ask for a receipt if they see you with a Circuit City bag (at least in NJ); ergo the assumption is that every paying customer is a thief. Hardly the sort of act to inspire customer loyalty.
This leads to something that bugs me about both MS Office (and OpenOffice). I spend time to set up either programme on a particular machine to behave how I like (eg, bind the insert key to a macro that does nothing in Word, 'cos its the easiest way I've found to disable Overwrite mode). Anyone have any idea how to migrate these settings to another computer? I'll settle for just migration between two identical versions, but it'd be really great if it would be possible to migrate between different versions (obviously, OpenOffice to MS Office and vice versa isn't going to happen, so I mean two different versions of the same suite).
Re:And why is the US myth leader?
on
Why Myths Persist
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
I've spent some time living in the US, but I'm originally from the UK. The American people, in general, are friendly, warm, and very trusting. The American government, on the other hand, is pretty venal and corrupt. I think these two factors contribute to the growth of conspiracy theories; the populace have lost trust in their government and have sought out alternate authorities to put their trust in.
Slashdot Mirror
Thankfully, Amazon fills the gap. However, browsing a decent, well-stocked book store is a far more pleasant experience than browsing Amazon.
Hey, we still have jury trials
Being less facetious, the rights you are read upon arrest in England and Wales are [1]: You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence. A little less scary than your quote. In particular, witholding information does not harm your defence (like your example would require), unless you only bring it up once the case has reached a court. The court must still hear evidence beyond reasonable doubt in order to find guilt. In other words, it's saying that an alibi you mention immediately will be considered more credible than an alibi you've taken 6 months (& half a dozen lawyers) to think up.
[1] I couldn't find an authorative resource for Scotland, hence the English and Welsh one will suffice. I believe in Scotland, the warning is the simpler: "You do not have to say anything. But anything you do say may be noted in evidence.", but I'm not sure.
Actually, we do have a right to silence in the UK. This is broader than the US 5th amendment.
In the US, you can't be compelled to incriminate yourself. In the UK, you can't be compelled to say anything, whether it incriminates yourself, someone else, or no-one at all. I realise we have recent legal changes in the UK that specifically compel someone to produce passwords/encryption keys, but, as far as I know, this has yet to be tested in court.
My assumption, and I haven't read the article, so it is only an assumption, is that the 3cm range is intended to allow the format to ignore any form of security. In other words, if you have a device within 3cm of another device, there won't be another device within 3cm eavesdropping on the connection.
Not to mention, and sorry for taking this further off-topic, deep-fried mars bars and deep-fried pizzas. Us Scots know how make scary food. My personal favourite, from a recent visit to Edinburgh, vegetarian haggis samosas (from a baked potato shop at the top of Cockburn St, if anyone is curious).
Safari (obviously, on windows or a Mac) has this built in; open the activity window, navigate to a site using Flash, and double-click on the multi-MB file shown in the activity window. It saves to the desktop (on Mac) with the filename get_video.flv. I'm fairly certain that there's Firefox extensions to do this too; which would cover any platform that can play Flash.
As someone who uses Tiger; the $100 per year for .Mac is worth it for the Backup software alone. You're right, I hardly use most of the other features, but I've had enough hassle with other backup software (or, more accurately, with restoring files from other backup software) that I'm willing to pay for reliable backup software (And, given my habit of fat-fingering rm commands, I tend to test the restoration quite frequently...). As to buying Leopard, Tiger works for me. Of course, I will probably upgrade eventually; probably around the same time my .Mac sub is due for renewal :-)
There is an irony that you're posting this on the internet...
Then, last year (I think, it might have been earlier?), Sandisk had products seized by the police at a trade show (in Germany, I believe), due to a patent infringement suit brought by an Italian company claiming patent infringement.
And this year, a firm in Texas bought a patent from S Korea related to portable MP3 players, and started suing.
Also this year, in the US, Alcatel-Lucent won a lawsuit against MS for $1.5 billion for infringement of their MP3 (and MPEG) related patents (a case currently winding it's way through the labyrinthine appeals process).
It is entirely possible to unwittingly violate a patent; a situation that I would argue makes software patents intolerable. But, the moral of the story is, where there's money, there's lawsuits.
One potential problem with Ogg is that there may be patents covering it. One of the major flaws with allowing software patents, as opposed to copyright, is that it is possible to accidentally infringe a patent through simply not knowing it existed, or even simply not patenting something before someone else (early examples of the latter, in the case of hardware, are Alexander Graham Bell/Antonio Meucci and Alexander Graham Bell/Elisha Gray). The fact that no-one has claimed patent infringement over Ogg is probably as much to do with no-one making money out of Ogg (and hence it's not worthwhile suing) as to it absolutely not infringing anyone's patent. Once someone starts making real money from eg portable music players using Ogg, we'll find out if it's genuinely free from patent problems.
Just curious; is part of the difference that the employer has to pay for healthcare in the US?
You also mention that pepper spray used to be considered dangerous; I would argue it still is. Not for the person being sprayed, but for whoever is wielding it. If you're confronted by someone who is a sufficient danger that you need a weapon, aren't you better off with one that doesn't require you to be that close to them?
Finally, I'm British, our police are not routinely armed. When I do see American police (I live near New York now), the fact that they're armed is something that makes me cautious. I suspect this effect is less on an American, since they're used to seeing police with guns, but I would still expect that a police officer with a drawn gun still has a massive deterrent effect. You presumably have more experience in this regard; does it help you to control a situation, or does it tend to exaggerate the situation? Does a taser have a similar effect?
When I said 'cops seem to mistakenly shoot someone' above, I was of course talking about the shooting appearing to be a mistake with the benefit of hindsight. Being a cop is not a job I envy; unlike most jobs, when they make a mistake, the results can be terminal, either for themselves or others.
I would imagine the cops only reach for the taser when they know they are safe. It would be interesting to see whether there was a reduction in accidental/mistaken police shootings after tasers were issued to cops. Certainly, here in the New York area, the cops seem to mistakenly shoot someone every 3 months or so.
Vista Home Basic upgrade: List Price - $100; Amazon.com price - $59.
Leopard upgrade: List price - $130; Amazon.com price: $110.
I make that as Leopard being just under double Vista Basic's price from Amazon.
How about if you ignore upgrade versions and go for full versions: Vista Home Basic: List Price - $200; Amazon.com: $180 Leopard: List Price - $130; Amazon.com: $110.
Hmm, which one is 'considerably more expensive'?
You might want to try fink. A Mac with Linux installed in VMWare Fusion (or Parallels) is another solution. When I bought a Mac, I partitioned the HD with the intention of installing Linux on it. I never got around to installing Linux on that partition, fink and VMWare were sufficient for my needs.
They're so close to getting it right though; why not, when you order the CD from Amazon, allow you to download the MP3 while you're waiting for the 'couple of days' shipping?
I'm curious about the enforceability or otherwise of EULAs/shrink wrap licences in the US; do you have some references? My assumption (as a European now living in the US) was that it would vary from state to state, and probably wouldn't have been tested in court yet in a lot of states (hence, leaving them in a legal limbo).
Europe doesn't have software patents (yet; let's hope it stays that way).
It's worse than that, they only ask for a receipt if they see you with a Circuit City bag (at least in NJ); ergo the assumption is that every paying customer is a thief. Hardly the sort of act to inspire customer loyalty.
Pot, meet kettle...
Great, thank you. Now I feel like an idiot that I've never found that...
This leads to something that bugs me about both MS Office (and OpenOffice). I spend time to set up either programme on a particular machine to behave how I like (eg, bind the insert key to a macro that does nothing in Word, 'cos its the easiest way I've found to disable Overwrite mode). Anyone have any idea how to migrate these settings to another computer? I'll settle for just migration between two identical versions, but it'd be really great if it would be possible to migrate between different versions (obviously, OpenOffice to MS Office and vice versa isn't going to happen, so I mean two different versions of the same suite).
I've spent some time living in the US, but I'm originally from the UK. The American people, in general, are friendly, warm, and very trusting. The American government, on the other hand, is pretty venal and corrupt. I think these two factors contribute to the growth of conspiracy theories; the populace have lost trust in their government and have sought out alternate authorities to put their trust in.