Perhaps not. If you look at the history of the Children's Internet Protection Act... it or variants of it were submited to Congress at least 9 times over the course of 2.5 years, until it was finally passed as a rider on an appropriations bill.
Also, there's the tactic of submitting a really extreme bill, which gets rejected, and then submitting a bill that's only moderately extreme, so senators are swayed by thinking "this one isn't so bad".
Windows has had this for a while, via its Windows Script Host. You could associate it with.js or.vbs files, and just double-click them to run. I ended up using them just because the limitations with normal batch files is so great.
Also, the upcoming JScript.NET will have similar functionality, but will be cross-platform.
Hear hear. A big problem with Slashdot is that, to get moderated up, posters have to scrawl out their ideas as quickly as possible to be able to get any moderation points. The one thing I liked about kuro5hin was that, as a poster, you have the time to write coherent well thought-out posts, and still get those posts moderated up.
If a Slashdot member wanted a way to make slashdot better, this would certainly be a good one... pay the money, read complete articles, and take the time to write good posts.
A massive confrontation like this unfortunately leaves little room for personal interaction. Sure, you might have the last minute Kennedy to Khrushchev calls, but other than that, the plot would involve millions of people being blown up without even knowing the individual who pressed the button. Moviegoers want to watch movies that have some relevance to their life, and interpersonal relationships is one of the more complex and challenging topics for movies to explore.
Seriously... how can individual states, without the support of the other 41 states, force Microsoft to be split up, or open source windows, or release all the APIs? Would such a ruling only apply within the 9 states? How could that possibly work?
Only a federal court can make sweeping antitrust rulings. The federal courts have already spoken, so how can a few states go against that ruling?
I believe this is basically the treadmill idea, where the skiier stays basically stationary relative the the real earth, it's just that the ground is moving beneath them. So no centripetal force problems. This has the benefit that the snow pack isn't doing anything funny like going upside-down.
... First, they're not cheap. The drive sells for between $122 and $144. The cartridges are around $100 dollars each, but one 64Mbit Flash cartridge comes with the Flash Linker. Second, the Flash Advance Linker allows you to make legal, although dubiously legal, backup copies of GBA games, so if you buy one, you're slipping into that gray area of copyright protection. Buy at your own risk....
A more difficult problem might be routing of reply packets... if you're constantly switching IPs, then the webpage you requested two seconds ago is being delivered to the AP you were connected to back then.
eg. If he could be made an example of, and if he would write about being busted in his column, then it would be a commensurate discouragement to others.
Cringely could probably be identified if someone wanted to try badly enough. For instance, he probably connects to *.pbs.org fairly often, trailed closely by slashdot.org and internet searches for ultra-wide-band related things.
Granted, that'd take a lot of work, but given the extent to which Cringely is encouraging others to emulate him and cause ISP's everywhere (and his ISP in particular, perhaps maybe even) grief, there might be people who would invest the time.
The conclusion was predictable, I suppose. But their explanations are interesting:
The trade-off between the proprietary and open approaches amounts to choosing between relying on foreign skills and developing local skills. The proprietary approach requires higher up-front costs and, in many cases, higher long-term costs. The open approach requires a much lower up-front cost (anywhere from zero, to the cost of buying a CD, to avoid a slow Internet download), but requires a bigger investment in a local skills base to enable local software development.
In terms of a national strategy, the choice is clear.
If South Africa chooses the proprietary route, the cost in many cases will be higher, and much of the expenditure goes out of the country. The country becomes dependent on foreign companies for much of our technological requirements, and hostage to currency fluctuations.
If South Africa chooses the open route, the cost will often be lower, and much of the cost will remain in the country. Further, South Africa can break dependence on foreign companies, and potentially become a player in the world software development and software services markets.
The mantra of the 90's seemed to be "buy marketshare now, make money later". Because of the global economy, we're in the make-money phase. Broadband use is still low, so perhaps the market hasn't had time to benefit from economies of scale yet.
Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, and others will be basing some of their new 3G phones off of a psion-derivative, Symbian OS. Hopefully this will result in a consistent API that stands a fighting chance against Windows CE in the cell-phone market.
Slashdot Mirror
Also, there's the tactic of submitting a really extreme bill, which gets rejected, and then submitting a bill that's only moderately extreme, so senators are swayed by thinking "this one isn't so bad".
This will be back. Mark my words.
politechbot.com has less BS and is focused on politics, especially things like the DMCA (in fact, have a look at the DMCA postings there).
Nobody is going to implement CIFS (or any low-level filesystem drivers) in javascript, perl, etc. anyway.
Also, the upcoming JScript.NET will have similar functionality, but will be cross-platform.
The cat gets to go in and out 10 times a day... eg. the cat gets to be comfortable and happy even when the humans have to leave for a while.
- MAIL FROM:<bounce@[127.0.0.1]>
Why IBM decided to pursue criminal prosecution rather than releasing a simple bugfix is beyond me.RCPT TO:<address@domain.com>
If a Slashdot member wanted a way to make slashdot better, this would certainly be a good one... pay the money, read complete articles, and take the time to write good posts.
A massive confrontation like this unfortunately leaves little room for personal interaction. Sure, you might have the last minute Kennedy to Khrushchev calls, but other than that, the plot would involve millions of people being blown up without even knowing the individual who pressed the button. Moviegoers want to watch movies that have some relevance to their life, and interpersonal relationships is one of the more complex and challenging topics for movies to explore.
I know... dotcomms were just like the USSR... good concept, bad implementation.
Correct. A significant way that the US government is kept in check is that there are three equal branches of government, counter-balancing each other.
News For Nerds
newslinx.com -- acummulated tech news from The Register, Wired, Salon, MSNBC, etc.
Stuff that matters
overlawyered.com -- daily examples of our over-the-top legal system
politechbot.com -- similar, though with more of a slant towards free speech, less sensational stuff
None support disussion, but all update several times a day.
Well, yeah. :)
Only a federal court can make sweeping antitrust rulings. The federal courts have already spoken, so how can a few states go against that ruling?
I believe this is basically the treadmill idea, where the skiier stays basically stationary relative the the real earth, it's just that the ground is moving beneath them. So no centripetal force problems. This has the benefit that the snow pack isn't doing anything funny like going upside-down.
... First, they're not cheap. The drive sells for between $122 and $144. The cartridges are around $100 dollars each, but one 64Mbit Flash cartridge comes with the Flash Linker. Second, the Flash Advance Linker allows you to make legal, although dubiously legal, backup copies of GBA games, so if you buy one, you're slipping into that gray area of copyright protection. Buy at your own risk. ...
Since the shopping site is low on details, here's TechTV's 7-paragraph description of the product.
- "It was never used in the case," says Joshua Kaplan, founder of InTouch. "The defendants didn't bring it up."
Simple answer: it wasn't viable as legal evidence in a court of law?Where's my "+1, Ironic" mod when I need it?
A more difficult problem might be routing of reply packets... if you're constantly switching IPs, then the webpage you requested two seconds ago is being delivered to the AP you were connected to back then.
eg. If he could be made an example of, and if he would write about being busted in his column, then it would be a commensurate discouragement to others.
Granted, that'd take a lot of work, but given the extent to which Cringely is encouraging others to emulate him and cause ISP's everywhere (and his ISP in particular, perhaps maybe even) grief, there might be people who would invest the time.
Basically, the Middle East is monopolistic oil, and the US is monopolistic software.
In terms of a national strategy, the choice is clear.
If South Africa chooses the proprietary route, the cost in many cases will be higher, and much of the expenditure goes out of the country. The country becomes dependent on foreign companies for much of our technological requirements, and hostage to currency fluctuations.
If South Africa chooses the open route, the cost will often be lower, and much of the cost will remain in the country. Further, South Africa can break dependence on foreign companies, and potentially become a player in the world software development and software services markets.
The mantra of the 90's seemed to be "buy marketshare now, make money later". Because of the global economy, we're in the make-money phase. Broadband use is still low, so perhaps the market hasn't had time to benefit from economies of scale yet.
Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, and others will be basing some of their new 3G phones off of a psion-derivative, Symbian OS. Hopefully this will result in a consistent API that stands a fighting chance against Windows CE in the cell-phone market.