Let's say I have 4 big glass windows at my place of business, on a public street.
On three of those windows I have a big sign at the top that says "Jobs, Please Read" another with "Sales, Please Read" and another with "Press, Please Read". The windows are plastered with information that you would expect under those headings.
The fourth window is clear and has no sign.
One day I plaster an important and confidential message to the fourth window, in a lower corner and in a small font.
Are the passers by who bend down to read that message breaking any law or even any ethical code for that matter? If they talk about is it wrong?
I'm not happy with where the US is going with their copyright and patent legislation, I'm even more unhappy about the fact that Canada seems to just follow the US in these matters.
but...
My dad used to drive drunk occasionally when he was young. He's in AA now and thinks that drunk drivers should lose their licenses and go to jail.
Hypocrisy? Perhaps. But maybe he just wised up in his old age.
It's interesting that originally imaging systems used custom developed hardware, with multiple chip image processing subsystems etc. Now they use off the shelf hardware.
This trend is everywhere, embedded systems use more powerful chips as more powerful chips get cheaper. Even devices such as ultrasound scanners are using higher end and more powerful chips.
I think the clash will happen eventually, so I don't think it's that reactionary.
Medical equipment - Usually use embedded OSes and Dragonball, 486s, ARM or Mot 68000 series chips, not the latest and greatest from Intel/AMD. They sure won't be running Palladium. I found that arguement by the author to be, well stupid.
Hmmm, I've worked for two different medical companies (one doing medical imaging the other doing HIV testing) and both use off the shelf PC's and Unix boxes. Most high end medical scanners, such as MRIs, NMIs, and CTs use standard PC or Unix workstations for the operators console.
I find your assertion that the author is stupid to be, well, perhaps "a underinformed" opinion.
Liability is probably less than for commercial airlines -- they are not "flying" over any populated areas so the risk is pretty low.
Like most people you are forgetting that insurance is one of the few industries run entirely on logic and mathematics -- their actuaries calculate the risk and the cost and multiple it out to get your premium.
That's why hunters in Canada can get a couple of million dollars in liability insurance as part of their OFAH membership -- it only costs the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters a couple of bucks per *random* member...
Ahh, but as Canadian from a small town my first exposure to Hitchhiker's was when TVO played the BBC series. Maybe I'm biased because I saw it on the small screen first.
I have heard this "the radio play was much better" from several Brits so I'll take your word for it.
There is a truely excellent BBC version of this already made for TV back in the 80's
The Hollywood version is sure to disappoint after this practically word for word BBC version.
Since Hitchhiker's was originally a radio play it would be a lot of fun to start a pool on what a hollywood screen writer will have to do to the story to make it "work" for film:-)
I'm about to send a letter to my alumni association cc'ed to President Johnson threatening to with draw my yearly alumni support. I would suggest all alumni do the same.
The concerns I'm listing are:
The outright purchase of student mindshare is abhorent and cheapens my alma mater (and my degree:-)
C# is a new, developing language that is pretty much stolen from Java had has little technically to offer the freely available (and established) Java environments, which Waterloo is already using.
Microsoft is a convicted monopolist and universities, especially engineering universities have an obligation to not extend and embrace that monopoly.
Waterloo's reputation was sold so very cheaply.
Not sure what difference it will make but I'll feel better...
It's not an innovation -- brick and mortar auction houses do all of this -- print catalogues, certify authenticity, keep items in escrow until they have the money, etc. etc. etc.
I really wish the Supreme Court would just come out and say "computerizing a common real world practice is not innovative" and end this whole charade.
Because of angles of viewing etc. this wouldn't make you invisible -- this would be great camoflage though -- you'd match the color and light of the background almost perfectly.
The most important part of camoflage is making recognizable features hard to see -- hands, faces, etc -- things our visual system is hardwired to pickup out of the background. This invisibility cloak would do that.
I imagine it looking like the Alien in that Arnold movie, hard to see unless it's moving and then the distortions give it away.
Of course is this a really old idea -- heck it a similiar idea was in comics in the 1970s (some super heros club house had this kind of device to hide it from view).
Go ahead and mod me down of this, I don't care my karmas at, ummm, "excellent":-/
For all you people you think that person from Peter Jacksons staff who released this is the real criminal I'd just like to point out the laws against knowingly acquiring stolen goods.
C'mon people -- all this time I've been hearing about how P2P networks allow people to space shift their movies and music collections. If TTT is really out there on P2P networks it is THEFT and people who download it obviously know the are aquiring stolen goods and deserve to be punished to the full extent of the law.
Even if they are stealing from the second biggest bunch of assholes to every run an industry.
Let's all stay on the side of truth and light here, ok?
Most elementary teachers stopped taking technical courses (math, physics, chemistry, etc.) in grade 9 or 10 and focused on english, history and other soft sciences. They are particularily ill-equiped to by training and by personality to learn new technical skills. The aging teacher population (at least here in Canada) exarcerbates the problem.
Of course technically minded people very rarely make good elementary school teachers...
This problem is not just with computers -- their knowledge of biology and general science is just as bad but the impact is seen less (my daughter was recently taught that solar power was a viable energy source and only politics was preventing us from using it to heat our homes in Canada's winter:-/ )
This problem is going away until some good way of teaching technical subjects is found.
Until then I'll just point my daughter to articles about using soya bean oil instead of diesel fuel as a legitimate alternative energy project...
There's nothing worse than seeing a new technology,
sdk, ide, or... and when you install the evaluation the first thing you have to do is become and expert with the new tech.
Most successful technologies have made it really easy to download and start trying it out. If I can hook your application into mine in a couple of hours, I'll give it a try -- if it takes two days I won't.
Provide lots of examples and make sure your equivalent of hello world can be up and running in a few minutes work.
This doesn't mean target idiots, I don't need my mom to be able to install and run in 20 minutes but don't make me read the manual to learn that I have to move some directory into my jdk1.3 directory, edit the classpath, copy a jar file into some other directory and then...
Read their resume and look for lots of accomplishments and make sure that those accomplishments are theirs.
Every really good programmer I know (including myself:-) has a resume stuffed with tasks, responsibilities and roles. Good programmers get known for solving problems and they get the big ones assigned to them.
Look for somebody that keeps getting the work piled on them at every job they go to -- they were the big fish at their last job and they will be at yours.
In particular look for programmers that describe their previous job with something like:
Well, I got hired to rewrite the GUI for the print subsystem but after the first release I was assigned to fix the database management interface. I also redesigned the system library and then got stuck with reviewing the overall system design as well. Oh and I also had to spec out a new source code management system. And I almost forgot that I had to rework the schema for the...
The problem with appitude style tests is that they select for smart not for productive. You want both.
This makes the assumption that the people buying stuff from the spammers are only doing it because they don't have good spam filters in place, that
some how merely seeing the spam causes them to buy it and if only it could be filtered they would be able to save their money.
I submit that people who buy junk from email ads are the same people who watch and purchase from infomercials and they want to do it!
That's why it has to be fought at the source -- because I don't want my ISP spam filtering for me and Joe "Check out my BlueBlocker Sunglasses" Sixpack wants to see this crap.
I must admit I hated Wesley Crusher and the teenage persecution fantasies that Rodenberry played out using him as the vechicle. The whole teenage genius misunderstood by the lessor mortals around him must have been how Gene remembered his own childhood...
But my respect for the actor is growing with every article posted to Slashdot about him -- he can write at the very least:-)
Now, when are we going to see Voyager or DS9 movies?
There is still a way to get these licenses back and it is pretty easy using our Personal License Migration Service (PLMS)...
We did anticipate this scenario and developed a tool to help them update their licenses: the Personal License Update Utility.
this box was called the 'Enable Personal Rights Management' check box.
Why are all these "features" that are designed to restrict my fair use rights
for my legally acquired music or other sound files in order to benefit of a multi-conglomerate music
oligarcy all have names that include the word "Personal" in it.
Copyright protection is a privledge extended to writers and muscians in order to incite them to create content. It is not a right.
I have no problem with record companies distribution copy protected cds if and only if the copyright protection extended to them for these works is then withdrawn.
Somewhere along the line the original intention of intellectual property laws such as copyright and patents has been lost. Somewhere along the line some people started to think of them as rights.
I really hope legislators like Boucher can restore balance and some semblance of sanity.
The full DVD with the movie, games, deleted scenes, a 360 view of Hogwarts, etc. etc. is only $2 more expensive than the soundtrack for the same movie.
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i.e. if it gets a 2:1 glide ratio but is still has airspeed less than 60mph when it hits the ground I'd take that any day.
Who cares if your landing spot has to be within a mile or so if you can land on a side street or in a Walmart parking lot?
Excellent ratio of mod ups to mod downs, you've been reeling in the moderators like stupid sunfish!
Happy Trolling! And I'm happy to add you to my friends list.
I guess he should have put TWO smilies in there
On three of those windows I have a big sign at the top that says "Jobs, Please Read" another with "Sales, Please Read" and another with "Press, Please Read". The windows are plastered with information that you would expect under those headings.
The fourth window is clear and has no sign.
One day I plaster an important and confidential message to the fourth window, in a lower corner and in a small font.
Are the passers by who bend down to read that message breaking any law or even any ethical code for that matter? If they talk about is it wrong?
but ...
My dad used to drive drunk occasionally when he was young. He's in AA now and thinks that drunk drivers should lose their licenses and go to jail.
Hypocrisy? Perhaps. But maybe he just wised up in his old age.
It's interesting that originally imaging systems used custom developed hardware, with multiple chip image processing subsystems etc. Now they use off the shelf hardware.
This trend is everywhere, embedded systems use more powerful chips as more powerful chips get cheaper. Even devices such as ultrasound scanners are using higher end and more powerful chips.
I think the clash will happen eventually, so I don't think it's that reactionary.
I find your assertion that the author is stupid to be, well, perhaps "a underinformed" opinion.
Like most people you are forgetting that insurance is one of the few industries run entirely on logic and mathematics -- their actuaries calculate the risk and the cost and multiple it out to get your premium.
That's why hunters in Canada can get a couple of million dollars in liability insurance as part of their OFAH membership -- it only costs the Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters a couple of bucks per *random* member ...
I'm gonna take a while to get me head wrapped around that one :-)
Hmmm, might be time to try tracking the radio play down -- shorten the commute to work for a while :-)
I have heard this "the radio play was much better" from several Brits so I'll take your word for it.
The book was indeed pretty good :-)
The Hollywood version is sure to disappoint after this practically word for word BBC version.
Since Hitchhiker's was originally a radio play it would be a lot of fun to start a pool on what a hollywood screen writer will have to do to the story to make it "work" for film :-)
The concerns I'm listing are:
Not sure what difference it will make but I'll feel better ...
I really wish the Supreme Court would just come out and say "computerizing a common real world practice is not innovative" and end this whole charade.
The most important part of camoflage is making recognizable features hard to see -- hands, faces, etc -- things our visual system is hardwired to pickup out of the background. This invisibility cloak would do that.
I imagine it looking like the Alien in that Arnold movie, hard to see unless it's moving and then the distortions give it away.
Of course is this a really old idea -- heck it a similiar idea was in comics in the 1970s (some super heros club house had this kind of device to hide it from view).
For all you people you think that person from Peter Jacksons staff who released this is the real criminal I'd just like to point out the laws against knowingly acquiring stolen goods.
C'mon people -- all this time I've been hearing about how P2P networks allow people to space shift their movies and music collections. If TTT is really out there on P2P networks it is THEFT and people who download it obviously know the are aquiring stolen goods and deserve to be punished to the full extent of the law.
Even if they are stealing from the second biggest bunch of assholes to every run an industry.
Let's all stay on the side of truth and light here, ok?
Of course technically minded people very rarely make good elementary school teachers ...
This problem is not just with computers -- their knowledge of biology and general science is just as bad but the impact is seen less (my daughter was recently taught that solar power was a viable energy source and only politics was preventing us from using it to heat our homes in Canada's winter :-/ )
This problem is going away until some good way of teaching technical subjects is found.
Until then I'll just point my daughter to articles about using soya bean oil instead of diesel fuel as a legitimate alternative energy project ...
Oh, ... wait a minute.
There's nothing worse than seeing a new technology, sdk, ide, or ... and when you install the evaluation the first thing you have to do is become and expert with the new tech.
Most successful technologies have made it really easy to download and start trying it out. If I can hook your application into mine in a couple of hours, I'll give it a try -- if it takes two days I won't.
Provide lots of examples and make sure your equivalent of hello world can be up and running in a few minutes work.
This doesn't mean target idiots, I don't need my mom to be able to install and run in 20 minutes but don't make me read the manual to learn that I have to move some directory into my jdk1.3 directory, edit the classpath, copy a jar file into some other directory and then ...
Every really good programmer I know (including myself :-) has a resume stuffed with tasks, responsibilities and roles. Good programmers get known for solving problems and they get the big ones assigned to them.
Look for somebody that keeps getting the work piled on them at every job they go to -- they were the big fish at their last job and they will be at yours.
In particular look for programmers that describe their previous job with something like:
The problem with appitude style tests is that they select for smart not for productive. You want both.
I submit that people who buy junk from email ads are the same people who watch and purchase from infomercials and they want to do it!
That's why it has to be fought at the source -- because I don't want my ISP spam filtering for me and Joe "Check out my BlueBlocker Sunglasses" Sixpack wants to see this crap.
I must admit I hated Wesley Crusher and the teenage persecution fantasies that Rodenberry played out using him as the vechicle. The whole teenage genius misunderstood by the lessor mortals around him must have been how Gene remembered his own childhood ...
But my respect for the actor is growing with every article posted to Slashdot about him -- he can write at the very least :-)
Now, when are we going to see Voyager or DS9 movies?
I have no problem with record companies distribution copy protected cds if and only if the copyright protection extended to them for these works is then withdrawn.
Somewhere along the line the original intention of intellectual property laws such as copyright and patents has been lost. Somewhere along the line some people started to think of them as rights.
I really hope legislators like Boucher can restore balance and some semblance of sanity.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Full Screen Edition) DVD $15.99
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack $13.99
The full DVD with the movie, games, deleted scenes, a 360 view of Hogwarts, etc. etc. is only $2 more expensive than the soundtrack for the same movie.