1-800-GOOG-411 + Google Mapping translated to voice might look something like this:
411: Which business or address User: 123 Main Street, Anywhere USA 411: '123 Main Street', wait I'll connect you, you can also say 'Get Directions'... User: Get Directions 411: Which address or city center are you at User: 456 Center Stree, Anywhere Else, USA 411: Continue 2 miles, turn right at Smith Street...
Text messages or voicemails would work even better.
That could be the cause, or it might be the incentive systems in more dysfunctional governmental divisions.
If someone in government IT proposes an extensive backup system, better security, etc., they become responsible for the effort, and if anything goes wrong they can be blamed, even if the overall solution is a vast improvement over none at all. On the other hand, if no one steps up, the worst thing that could happen is some extra overtime and possibly the firing of a low-level scapegoat with little job security--despite high profile cases such as FEMA and Alberto Gonzales, publicity and accountability for government administrative errors is rare.
The workaround I found for this annoyance is to install the IE Tab plugin which opens IE in a new tab--the only thing IE is good for other than displaying non-standard HTML.
2.) Your location is already public. In other words if you are on the street, people already see you there. You go to a mall, the cameras will record your location, you go to work - the co-workers will know where you are. The police can technically follow you around to know your location, without needing a search warrant.
In other words "your location" does not = "your property".
IANAL but have taken a fair amount of law classes as part of a pre-law degree. It's not that simple--law is all about balancing competing principles such as privacy and the public good. One key principle is 'reasonable expectation of privacy'. If I fly a plane over your factory to learn the secrets of your patented process, is that legal because view from the air is publically available? Since your location is 'public', would you have any objection to someone hacking your phone and broadcasting it to the world?
And you might be interested to learn that cops can't just follow you around hoping you commit a crime or whatever. You might want to read up on the Fourth Amendment. I know that these days I also forget that government is meant to serve us, and that government essential has no rights that aren't stated in the constitution (unfortunately it seems that both of those statements have been reversed lately...).
Let's see if I can out-pedant a pedant (comments on the grammatical merits of verbing a noun will be summarily ignored):
Since the grandparent is presumably referring to the federal election cycle, mod 4 isn't zero for every election year. In the interest of over-analyzing a joke:
'I think that depends on whether the year falls within the set of numbers zero to infinity, step 4.'
Read my lips. Patents don't last. No form of IP lasts. Monopolies that are not coercively protected by the state do not last. If you rely on a patent to make you money, you will shortly go out of business or spend most of your monopoly profits fighting legal battles in court.
Generally I agree that this is how patents can and do in most cases and in most industries. However, the system only works if 1) the patent is specific enough to allow for innovation and relatedly 2) that alternative technoliges that satisfy the patent can be created
As numerious, often sensationist, slashdot stories point out, point #1 is far from guaranteed, especailly in the IT world. Point #2 is much more pertinent to medicine since it is quite possible that either there is only one effective method for curing a virus or solving other medical problems and that finding alternatives that don't violate patents can take decades in exteme cases. The facts show that many pharma companies don't license based on a financial assessment that the short term profits from licensing are far smaller than the monopoly profits created by cornering the market on a high-demand drug, medical device, etc.
(One common but flawed Slashdot comment that I'd like to head off at the pass: the ridiculous notion that taxpayers are somehow "paying for the invention twice" by first funding the research, and then paying monopoly prices for the drugs. That reasoning is specious, because the public is paying once for two discrete steps. First, an institution creates an idea for curing a disease, like "let's inhibit this protein as a cure multiple sclerosis." Taxpayer dollars cover that step. Second, a company takes that idea and spends $$$$$$$ to develop a drug that executes this principle. That's paid for by customer purchases and health insurance. They're two distinct steps - not "the same thing" being bought twice.)
It sounds like you're not including the 'monopoly tax' that medical manufacturers can add. The fact that company investment costs are paid by insurance companies and customer purchases does not avoid the 'paying twice' problem because there is no reason for monopolies to limit drug prices to cover investment costs plus a 'fair profit'.
To the extent that a company can retain it's patent-based monopoly over drug/device manufacturing (difficult for phama companies in many third world countries) they are charging American taxpayers an additional monopoly tax for products that they already subsidized (where do you think the insurance $ originates from?). Sounds like paying twice to me.
1.2% starting rate, 8% regular (or less based based on your credit--I'm currently paying 5.9% on $10,000 which is almost better than my home loan) with no fee.
Mike Rowe shouldn't have much to worry about, despite his 'bad faith' offer. Trademark law only kicks in when it appears that someone is either attempting to profit from the original trademark, or if there is a possibility of confusion between the company owning the trademark and the work in question.
Neither case appears to apply to Mike Rowe's website since we don't type phonetically. Rather, any lawyer could easily make a case that this is a parody of Microsoft's site and thus 'fair use' of the trademark.
Advice to Mike Rowe: include subpages or main pages which parody Microsoft's website.
Your quote appears out of context from the report. While the report does talk about new American miliary capabilites, this section is talking about futuristic warfare in general (i.e. the damages we need to defend against):
Information systems will become an important focus of attack, particularly for U.S. enemies seeking to short-circuit sophisticated American forces. And advanced forms of biological warfare that can ?target? specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.
This is merely a glimpse of the possibilities inherent in the process of transformation, not a precise prediction. Whatever the shape and direction of this revolution in military affairs, the implications for continued American military preeminence will be profound.
(To find the report, search the site for 'genotype')
Re:Wouldn't it be more effective ...
on
Open Source in Oregon
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
This was an effective post in my mind. The slashdot community, while large and energetic has very little political voice in most issues. Any attempts to get techies involved in the hardball of real politics is a noble effort.
It actually looks like the Bush administration is (ironically enough) spam-savvy. I was sent the following piece of presidential spam a few months back.
(Received: from gop8.rnc.org (gop8.rnc.org [65.172.162.138]) by smtp.albany.edu (8.12.5/8.12.5) with SMTP id h4O8jRAG007365)
President George W. Bush May 16, 2003 Dear C, I am honored to be your President during this time of opportunity and challenge for our country. Our country has faced many tests and accomplished a great deal. But we still have so much to do to make our world more peaceful and America more compassionate that I intend to seek a second term as your President. Today, I authorized the creation of a campaign committee to build the grassroots team and collect the resources needed for victory. Will you let me know if you will be a part of my campaign in New York? And will you help get my campaign off to a strong start by contributing $1,000 or $750 today at www.GeorgeWBush.com/Donate ? The new Federal election law allows donations of up to $2,000 a person or $4,000 a couple. It will be months before Democrats settle on a candidate, but the election could be close. The strength of our grassroots effort will determine the outcome. I need the help of friends now. My responsibilities as President will require me to focus primarily on our nation's business for most of the next year. I'll depend on friends and supporters like you to get my campaign organized and operating across our country. Abroad, we have a duty to protect America by working for peace, opportunity and stability. We have no more urgent and important duty than to wage and win the War on Terrorism. We must make use of the moment history has given us to extend liberty to others around the world, because in the long term, freedom and hope are the best weapons against terror. And, we have a unique opportunity to harness American ingenuity and compassion to save tens of thousands of lives by defeating the scourge of AIDS. At home, our most urgent mission is to strengthen our economy and create jobs. To provide economic security and opportunity to every American, we must improve health care, give senior citizens long-promised prescription drug benefits, provide a quality education for every child, and insist on safe neighborhoods and schools. My goal is to build an ownership society where American families own their own homes, their own health coverage, their own retirement accounts and, if they want, their own businesses. And we are working to change the culture from one that too often said, "if it feels good, do it," to a responsibility society where people know they are accountable for what they do, for the children they bring into the world, and for loving a neighbor like they'd like to be loved themselves. A great country strives for great objectives. The two big goals at the center of my agenda are expanding peace and freedom throughout the world, and helping our country become a more compassionate and prosperous nation where everyone has an opportunity to work and succeed and realize the promise of America. To achieve these goals, America must be united. I have worked to bring dignity and honor to the White House and to change the tone in Washington. I have asked Democrats and Republicans to join with me in achieving great purposes. One of the paintings I have selected for the Oval Office portrays a man on horseback, leading a charge up a steep hill. His face is full of purpose and determination, and it is clear he expects to get the job done. The painting is called "A Charge to Keep," based on a Methodist hymn that's a favorite of mine, "A Charge to Keep I Have." I love the painting because it speaks to serving a cause that is greater than yourself. The picture reminds me every day that my most important job is to unite our country and provide leadership to overcome America's toughest challenge
I've read most of Vonnegut's books and overall the best is the short stories collection 'Welcome to the Monkey House'.
It was one of his first books and includes stories such as a mathematician who accidentally discovered (while wandering on the beach) that we can live outside our bodies. This discovery revolutionizes human society by overcoming the needs of sex, property, etc. (although a few people still hold out) and the funniest part is the cerimonial parade where re-corporate to march every year.
Spamgourmet lets you create disposable email which forward a specific number of emails before disintegrating. And if you get penis enlargement spam at your nytimes.20.yourname@spamgourmet address, you know where it came from.
The method of building Cyc is pretty limited at this point because it relies on human intervention to create the 'rules of common sense'. (A reason that open source is so helpful to the project)
Until Cyc is allowed to self-generate rules this will limite Cyc's growth to the abilites of humans to feed it information on fact at a time. This will greatly limit the database's access to less popular or more technical topics and will slow down the process of learning.
Of course then there's the problem of context--determining is information is satire, fiction, etc. One way around the problem of context might be to feed Cyc different channels of information indicating that 'this is history, this is fiction' etc. and then when similar ideas or facts occur in several documents, to remember them as rules. This would allow the database to process current news, etc. and then ask for human intervention when a conflict is found.
While you're comments hold true for any business who wants to assemble their own boxes, this does not hold true for hobbyists who assemble them during leisure time. (Your time spent watching TV isn't worth $30/hr or whatever) So for most individuals, labor cost is not really an issue.
Slashdot Mirror
1-800-GOOG-411 + Google Mapping translated to voice might look something like this:
411: Which business or address
User: 123 Main Street, Anywhere USA
411: '123 Main Street', wait I'll connect you, you can also say 'Get Directions'...
User: Get Directions
411: Which address or city center are you at
User: 456 Center Stree, Anywhere Else, USA
411: Continue 2 miles, turn right at Smith Street...
Text messages or voicemails would work even better.
That could be the cause, or it might be the incentive systems in more dysfunctional governmental divisions.
If someone in government IT proposes an extensive backup system, better security, etc., they become responsible for the effort, and if anything goes wrong they can be blamed, even if the overall solution is a vast improvement over none at all. On the other hand, if no one steps up, the worst thing that could happen is some extra overtime and possibly the firing of a low-level scapegoat with little job security--despite high profile cases such as FEMA and Alberto Gonzales, publicity and accountability for government administrative errors is rare.
The workaround I found for this annoyance is to install the IE Tab plugin which opens IE in a new tab--the only thing IE is good for other than displaying non-standard HTML.
2.) Your location is already public. In other words if you are on the street, people already see you there. You go to a mall, the cameras will record your location, you go to work - the co-workers will know where you are. The police can technically follow you around to know your location, without needing a search warrant.
In other words "your location" does not = "your property".
IANAL but have taken a fair amount of law classes as part of a pre-law degree. It's not that simple--law is all about balancing competing principles such as privacy and the public good. One key principle is 'reasonable expectation of privacy'. If I fly a plane over your factory to learn the secrets of your patented process, is that legal because view from the air is publically available? Since your location is 'public', would you have any objection to someone hacking your phone and broadcasting it to the world?
And you might be interested to learn that cops can't just follow you around hoping you commit a crime or whatever. You might want to read up on the Fourth Amendment. I know that these days I also forget that government is meant to serve us, and that government essential has no rights that aren't stated in the constitution (unfortunately it seems that both of those statements have been reversed lately...).
Let's see if I can out-pedant a pedant (comments on the grammatical merits of verbing a noun will be summarily ignored):
Since the grandparent is presumably referring to the federal election cycle, mod 4 isn't zero for every election year. In the interest of over-analyzing a joke:
'I think that depends on whether the year falls within the set of numbers zero to infinity, step 4.'
Read my lips. Patents don't last. No form of IP lasts. Monopolies that are not coercively protected by the state do not last. If you rely on a patent to make you money, you will shortly go out of business or spend most of your monopoly profits fighting legal battles in court.
Generally I agree that this is how patents can and do in most cases and in most industries. However, the system only works if 1) the patent is specific enough to allow for innovation and relatedly 2) that alternative technoliges that satisfy the patent can be created
As numerious, often sensationist, slashdot stories point out, point #1 is far from guaranteed, especailly in the IT world. Point #2 is much more pertinent to medicine since it is quite possible that either there is only one effective method for curing a virus or solving other medical problems and that finding alternatives that don't violate patents can take decades in exteme cases. The facts show that many pharma companies don't license based on a financial assessment that the short term profits from licensing are far smaller than the monopoly profits created by cornering the market on a high-demand drug, medical device, etc.
(One common but flawed Slashdot comment that I'd like to head off at the pass: the ridiculous notion that taxpayers are somehow "paying for the invention twice" by first funding the research, and then paying monopoly prices for the drugs. That reasoning is specious, because the public is paying once for two discrete steps. First, an institution creates an idea for curing a disease, like "let's inhibit this protein as a cure multiple sclerosis." Taxpayer dollars cover that step. Second, a company takes that idea and spends $$$$$$$ to develop a drug that executes this principle. That's paid for by customer purchases and health insurance. They're two distinct steps - not "the same thing" being bought twice.)
It sounds like you're not including the 'monopoly tax' that medical manufacturers can add. The fact that company investment costs are paid by insurance companies and customer purchases does not avoid the 'paying twice' problem because there is no reason for monopolies to limit drug prices to cover investment costs plus a 'fair profit'.
To the extent that a company can retain it's patent-based monopoly over drug/device manufacturing (difficult for phama companies in many third world countries) they are charging American taxpayers an additional monopoly tax for products that they already subsidized (where do you think the insurance $ originates from?). Sounds like paying twice to me.
Increase_Font("FI") --> "A"
PSA (I am not a stockholder/employee, etc.):
One of the best cards out there: Merril Lynch Reward
1.2% starting rate, 8% regular (or less based based on your credit--I'm currently paying 5.9% on $10,000 which is almost better than my home loan) with no fee.
Mike Rowe shouldn't have much to worry about, despite his 'bad faith' offer. Trademark law only kicks in when it appears that someone is either attempting to profit from the original trademark, or if there is a possibility of confusion between the company owning the trademark and the work in question.
Neither case appears to apply to Mike Rowe's website since we don't type phonetically. Rather, any lawyer could easily make a case that this is a parody of Microsoft's site and thus 'fair use' of the trademark.
Advice to Mike Rowe: include subpages or main pages which parody Microsoft's website.
(IANAL but I took several law classes in college)
Your quote appears out of context from the report. While the report does talk about new American miliary capabilites, this section is talking about futuristic warfare in general (i.e. the damages we need to defend against):
Information systems will become an important focus of attack, particularly for U.S. enemies seeking to short-circuit sophisticated American forces. And advanced forms of biological warfare that can ?target? specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool.
This is merely a glimpse of the possibilities inherent in the process of transformation, not a precise prediction. Whatever the shape and direction of this revolution in military affairs, the implications for continued American military preeminence will be profound.
(To find the report, search the site for 'genotype')
This was an effective post in my mind. The slashdot community, while large and energetic has very little political voice in most issues. Any attempts to get techies involved in the hardball of real politics is a noble effort.
It actually looks like the Bush administration is (ironically enough) spam-savvy. I was sent the following piece of presidential spam a few months back.
(Received: from gop8.rnc.org (gop8.rnc.org [65.172.162.138]) by smtp.albany.edu (8.12.5/8.12.5) with SMTP id h4O8jRAG007365)
President George W. Bush
May 16, 2003
Dear C,
I am honored to be your President during this time of opportunity
and challenge for our country. Our country has faced many tests and accomplished a great deal.
But we still have so much to do to make our world more peaceful
and America more compassionate that I intend to seek a second
term as your President.
Today, I authorized the creation of a campaign committee to build
the grassroots team and collect the resources needed for victory.
Will you let me know if you will be a part of my campaign in New York?
And will you help get my campaign off to a strong start by
contributing $1,000 or $750 today at www.GeorgeWBush.com/Donate ?
The new Federal election law allows donations of up to $2,000 a
person or $4,000 a couple.
It will be months before Democrats settle on a candidate, but the
election could be close. The strength of our grassroots effort
will determine the outcome. I need the help of friends now. My
responsibilities as President will require me to focus primarily
on our nation's business for most of the next year. I'll depend
on friends and supporters like you to get my campaign organized
and operating across our country.
Abroad, we have a duty to protect America by working for peace,
opportunity and stability. We have no more urgent and important
duty than to wage and win the War on Terrorism. We must make use
of the moment history has given us to extend liberty to others
around the world, because in the long term, freedom and hope are
the best weapons against terror. And, we have a unique
opportunity to harness American ingenuity and compassion to save
tens of thousands of lives by defeating the scourge of AIDS.
At home, our most urgent mission is to strengthen our economy and
create jobs. To provide economic security and opportunity to
every American, we must improve health care, give senior citizens
long-promised prescription drug benefits, provide a quality
education for every child, and insist on safe neighborhoods and
schools.
My goal is to build an ownership society where American families
own their own homes, their own health coverage, their own
retirement accounts and, if they want, their own businesses.
And we are working to change the culture from one that too often
said, "if it feels good, do it," to a responsibility society
where people know they are accountable for what they do, for the
children they bring into the world, and for loving a neighbor
like they'd like to be loved themselves.
A great country strives for great objectives. The two big goals
at the center of my agenda are expanding peace and freedom
throughout the world, and helping our country become a more
compassionate and prosperous nation where everyone has an
opportunity to work and succeed and realize the promise of
America.
To achieve these goals, America must be united. I have worked to
bring dignity and honor to the White House and to change the tone
in Washington. I have asked Democrats and Republicans to join
with me in achieving great purposes.
One of the paintings I have selected for the Oval Office portrays
a man on horseback, leading a charge up a steep hill. His face is
full of purpose and determination, and it is clear he expects to
get the job done. The painting is called "A Charge to Keep,"
based on a Methodist hymn that's a favorite of mine, "A Charge to
Keep I Have."
I love the painting because it speaks to serving a cause that is
greater than yourself. The picture reminds me every day that my
most important job is to unite our country and provide leadership
to overcome America's toughest challenge
I've read most of Vonnegut's books and overall the best is the short stories collection 'Welcome to the Monkey House'.
It was one of his first books and includes stories such as a mathematician who accidentally discovered (while wandering on the beach) that we can live outside our bodies. This discovery revolutionizes human society by overcoming the needs of sex, property, etc. (although a few people still hold out) and the funniest part is the cerimonial parade where re-corporate to march every year.
A quick google search shows that generally this story isn't visible in the media, although the Washington Post did pick up on it:
0 53 907-2063r.htm
http://www.washtimes.com/upi-breaking/20030515-
Spamgourmet lets you create disposable email which forward a specific number of emails before disintegrating. And if you get penis enlargement spam at your nytimes.20.yourname@spamgourmet address, you know where it came from.
The method of building Cyc is pretty limited at this point because it relies on human intervention to create the 'rules of common sense'. (A reason that open source is so helpful to the project)
Until Cyc is allowed to self-generate rules this will limite Cyc's growth to the abilites of humans to feed it information on fact at a time. This will greatly limit the database's access to less popular or more technical topics and will slow down the process of learning.
Of course then there's the problem of context--determining is information is satire, fiction, etc. One way around the problem of context might be to feed Cyc different channels of information indicating that 'this is history, this is fiction' etc. and then when similar ideas or facts occur in several documents, to remember them as rules. This would allow the database to process current news, etc. and then ask for human intervention when a conflict is found.
Imagine the military possibilities of this base.
If they just waited until the moon passed over the US and dropped a penny . . .
While you're comments hold true for any business who wants to assemble their own boxes, this does not hold true for hobbyists who assemble them during leisure time. (Your time spent watching TV isn't worth $30/hr or whatever) So for most individuals, labor cost is not really an issue.