Huh? The freemarket seems like an ideal solution to me. Why do we need an external solution that entails fining/regulating them? If a company makes inferior product, odds are that they'll lose a large percentage of their customers. They'll be forced to either change their practices or go out of business.
I have 20/400 vision in my left eye. Because of that, I perceive almost everything with my right eye. As a kid, this made taskes such as hitting a baseball or catching a football exceedingly difficult because I have piss-poor depth perception. It almost made those red & blue "3D" movies pointless for me. Will this mean that I can't read any informational displays that use this type of tech in the future?
IANAL, but something doesn't quite sound right here. Debt collection agencies typically outright buy someone else's contract at a discount. If I owed $10k to my credit card company and stopped paying my bill, they might sell my account to a collection agency for half that much so they don't have to deal with it. Now, if the collection agency is unable to collect a dime from me, they're out $5k unless they opt to sue me and can collect that way.
What I don't get is why a collection agency would buy this "debt". There is no contract between the RIAA and the woman. How can they possibly expect to collect? If they sue, what basis do they have? Either this story has some facts wrong, or the RIAA offered a very steep discount to the collection agency. If the later case, this really, really concerns me. Now the RIAA can collect money without even having to incur legal expenses!
This means that SCO wanted to play dirty on Linux er, IBM, by doing legal things on their back, this is, without IBM being present for the legal actions to take place - but judge Kimball didn't allow them to do so. Also, SCO also published their quarterly report.
Huh? SCO wanted to a break so they could circle their wagons and probably change their strategy. Just because they didn't want to ask permission from IBM to do that, doesn't mean that "they're playing dirty" or doing anything underhanded. Their case, of course, is suspect, but this particular action is pretty much a non-story. Turn the flames down--move along, there's nothing to see here.
You do a lot of rant-filed postings that are in the same vein as this. I agree with much you say most of the time (which is why I "friended" you long ago). However, what are you going to do with your umbrage? You're right: a majority of people are so content being apathetic, they don't make the effort to even look away from their TVs. But there's nothing that I can do about it. I've tried screaming and I've tried waxing philosophical. It doesn't help. Why should I try to help these people "see the light" when they don't even want to listen?
This radical change in my ideology has been rather recent. I just got tired of being pissed at things that I couldn't change. You and me (and a lot of slashdotters) are among the minority that "get it". We only have finite amount of energy and time on this planet. I feel that those resources are better utilized trying to directly better my situation rather than trying to improve it by proxy of helping everyone else. Some may call it selfish, but is it really? How can I be selfish when these people don't want my help? Remember, these people are completely happy bitching about the laws, yet they never vote. They bitch about their jobs being offshored and then they shop at WalMart.
Screw 'em I say. I exited the corporate world, switched off my TV and started my own business. I'm carving my own destiny and haven't looked back since. I grew tired of being a modern-day Sisyphus. If this country ever wakes up and opens their eyes, I'll be back to help. Elsewise I'm not wasting my time.
If I invent something and don't want to do anything with it, why should the gov't have the right to force me to share it? And who gets to dictate the terms of the licensing? The patent office that we already love to call inept?
I understand you're reasoning, but transfering power away from big corporations and giving it to big government doesn't really solve the problem, it just moves it around.
Everyone likes to point out that a first gen Palm Pilot is more powerful than the systems on the space shuttle. However, keep in mind that these machines are highly specialized, unlike a general computing platform. While a Swiss Army knife might be more "advanced" than a hunting knife, which would you rather have when the only thing you need a blade for is field dressing a whitetail deer? Furthermore, more often than not, a system's reliability is inversely proportional to it's complexity.
You make a valid point that the shuttle program (or it's successor) could hugely benefit from new tech. However, to imply that it's on it's way to being a usless antique is a mischaracterization.
grab older tracks that had been deleted and hence weren't making the record companies any money
Actually, 2/3 of the industry's profits are from artists' back catalog. Source
download tracks they owned on vinyl because they didn't have the time to rip them
A large portion of back catalog sales are because people who owned an album on vinyl are repurchasing them on CD. And then buying them again when a "remastered" edition comes out. And buying it yet again on a "greatest hits" collection, then the box set, ad nauseum. George Lucas took a large page from the recording industry's book.
There was a great article a while back in The Economist that talked about all this, I can't for the life of me find a link though. It was my original source for the first fact I stated.
Not entirely true. I was surfing at lunch one day, looking to pick of a weight training bench. I wanted to check out the selection of the local Dick's Sporting Goods store so I (naively) went to dicks.com. Whoops. Glad *I* was the one responsible for reviewing HTTP logs.:-\
I also consider myself a libertarian and am against this bill. The two are actually quite congruent. SBC is trying to craft itself a gov't secured oligopoly. I say let the market and the voters decide without the burden of let another restrictive law.
You might as well as write the FDA, FAA, NASA, FBI, etc. asking them to change their way of doing things to. They're all departments headed by people appointed by the Executive branch. While in the abstract they may "serve" you, you're not how they get into, and keep, their power. I'm sure they couldn't care less what you personally think of their policies.
If you really must feel that you need to write someone to fulfill your civic duty, write a senator that sits on a committee that is intimately involved with the agency of your choice. These officals are much closer to the people than some agency bureaucrat.
Since patents are only valid for 17 years, makes you wonder if they're really shooting themselves in the foot? Assuming they get the retina imaging thing working this year, they'll only be able to reap the benefits of patent protection for 4 years. It would make more sense to patent something that was nearly marketable.
One of the few organizations with the clout to truly (and positively) influence policy when it comes to these matters. You can be a member for less than $50/year. The min membership might even be half that much, IIRC.
While your list is a good start, Phil Bradley has an excellent, and extremely comprehensive, analysis of how to use different search engines to find different things. Definitely bookmark-worthy.
True. Unfortunately there are way, way too many people armed with pirated copies of PS that basically only use it as a plugin manager. ("Isn't this kewl?! My clan name now has flames on it!11!!".)
I'd venture to say that Photoshop is probably one the most pirated pieces of software ever.
He's done a lot more than that. His original claim to fame was starting a computer consulting firm which he sold to Compuserve for $30M. He's also gotten into some HDTV stuff. More info here.
I legally enforceable contract requires four things: offer, acceptance, consideration and legality. Writing a computer virus may be considered an illegal act. Hence, the contract would not be enforceable and you'd never see your money. Even if there were no specific law, creating a virus would almost certainly be considered contrary to public policy and again deemed unenforceable by a court.
That attitude is rather alarmist. By the same logic, anyone who's ever been a victim of any type of crime should forever being looking over their shoulder. Real life doesn't work the same way as the movies.
SysInternals (who make some of the best freeware available for Windows) has PageDefrag. It defrags your registry hives and pagefile at boot, before Windows loads. Very slick program and free to boot.
Slashdot Mirror
I have 20/400 vision in my left eye. Because of that, I perceive almost everything with my right eye. As a kid, this made taskes such as hitting a baseball or catching a football exceedingly difficult because I have piss-poor depth perception. It almost made those red & blue "3D" movies pointless for me. Will this mean that I can't read any informational displays that use this type of tech in the future?
IANAL, but something doesn't quite sound right here. Debt collection agencies typically outright buy someone else's contract at a discount. If I owed $10k to my credit card company and stopped paying my bill, they might sell my account to a collection agency for half that much so they don't have to deal with it. Now, if the collection agency is unable to collect a dime from me, they're out $5k unless they opt to sue me and can collect that way.
What I don't get is why a collection agency would buy this "debt". There is no contract between the RIAA and the woman. How can they possibly expect to collect? If they sue, what basis do they have? Either this story has some facts wrong, or the RIAA offered a very steep discount to the collection agency. If the later case, this really, really concerns me. Now the RIAA can collect money without even having to incur legal expenses!
garcia,
You do a lot of rant-filed postings that are in the same vein as this. I agree with much you say most of the time (which is why I "friended" you long ago). However, what are you going to do with your umbrage? You're right: a majority of people are so content being apathetic, they don't make the effort to even look away from their TVs. But there's nothing that I can do about it. I've tried screaming and I've tried waxing philosophical. It doesn't help. Why should I try to help these people "see the light" when they don't even want to listen?
This radical change in my ideology has been rather recent. I just got tired of being pissed at things that I couldn't change. You and me (and a lot of slashdotters) are among the minority that "get it". We only have finite amount of energy and time on this planet. I feel that those resources are better utilized trying to directly better my situation rather than trying to improve it by proxy of helping everyone else. Some may call it selfish, but is it really? How can I be selfish when these people don't want my help? Remember, these people are completely happy bitching about the laws, yet they never vote. They bitch about their jobs being offshored and then they shop at WalMart.
Screw 'em I say. I exited the corporate world, switched off my TV and started my own business. I'm carving my own destiny and haven't looked back since. I grew tired of being a modern-day Sisyphus. If this country ever wakes up and opens their eyes, I'll be back to help. Elsewise I'm not wasting my time.
And how do you quantify the risk? 1% chance? Taking that route, he'd be pulling more numbers out thin air than the consultants did.
If I invent something and don't want to do anything with it, why should the gov't have the right to force me to share it? And who gets to dictate the terms of the licensing? The patent office that we already love to call inept?
I understand you're reasoning, but transfering power away from big corporations and giving it to big government doesn't really solve the problem, it just moves it around.
Everyone likes to point out that a first gen Palm Pilot is more powerful than the systems on the space shuttle. However, keep in mind that these machines are highly specialized, unlike a general computing platform. While a Swiss Army knife might be more "advanced" than a hunting knife, which would you rather have when the only thing you need a blade for is field dressing a whitetail deer? Furthermore, more often than not, a system's reliability is inversely proportional to it's complexity.
You make a valid point that the shuttle program (or it's successor) could hugely benefit from new tech. However, to imply that it's on it's way to being a usless antique is a mischaracterization.
There was a great article a while back in The Economist that talked about all this, I can't for the life of me find a link though. It was my original source for the first fact I stated.
Not entirely true. I was surfing at lunch one day, looking to pick of a weight training bench. I wanted to check out the selection of the local Dick's Sporting Goods store so I (naively) went to dicks.com. Whoops. Glad *I* was the one responsible for reviewing HTTP logs. :-\
I also consider myself a libertarian and am against this bill. The two are actually quite congruent. SBC is trying to craft itself a gov't secured oligopoly. I say let the market and the voters decide without the burden of let another restrictive law.
The FBI is DOJ, not DHS.
You might as well as write the FDA, FAA, NASA, FBI, etc. asking them to change their way of doing things to. They're all departments headed by people appointed by the Executive branch. While in the abstract they may "serve" you, you're not how they get into, and keep, their power. I'm sure they couldn't care less what you personally think of their policies.
If you really must feel that you need to write someone to fulfill your civic duty, write a senator that sits on a committee that is intimately involved with the agency of your choice. These officals are much closer to the people than some agency bureaucrat.
Since patents are only valid for 17 years, makes you wonder if they're really shooting themselves in the foot? Assuming they get the retina imaging thing working this year, they'll only be able to reap the benefits of patent protection for 4 years. It would make more sense to patent something that was nearly marketable.
Bah... do you honestly think that the DHS is going to listen to you?
One word: ACLU
Proud dues-paying member since 2003.
One of the few organizations with the clout to truly (and positively) influence policy when it comes to these matters. You can be a member for less than $50/year. The min membership might even be half that much, IIRC.
What do you expect from the company that "invented" those multimedia, pop-up elements that take over the entire browser window (aka "Shoshkeles)?
While your list is a good start, Phil Bradley has an excellent, and extremely comprehensive, analysis of how to use different search engines to find different things. Definitely bookmark-worthy.
True. Unfortunately there are way, way too many people armed with pirated copies of PS that basically only use it as a plugin manager. ("Isn't this kewl?! My clan name now has flames on it!11!!".)
I'd venture to say that Photoshop is probably one the most pirated pieces of software ever.
He's done a lot more than that. His original claim to fame was starting a computer consulting firm which he sold to Compuserve for $30M. He's also gotten into some HDTV stuff. More info here.
er, I meant "offer/acceptance, consideration, legality and capacity". (Should have hit preview) :-\
I legally enforceable contract requires four things: offer, acceptance, consideration and legality. Writing a computer virus may be considered an illegal act. Hence, the contract would not be enforceable and you'd never see your money. Even if there were no specific law, creating a virus would almost certainly be considered contrary to public policy and again deemed unenforceable by a court.
Sure it is! If the grafedia system ever goes dark, I'm sure you could use it with your CueCat Scanner.
You profited from criminal activity and now you're profited again by helping clean up a racket you helped perpetuate?
Stop patting yourself on the back, you magnanimus SOB.
That attitude is rather alarmist. By the same logic, anyone who's ever been a victim of any type of crime should forever being looking over their shoulder. Real life doesn't work the same way as the movies.
SysInternals (who make some of the best freeware available for Windows) has PageDefrag. It defrags your registry hives and pagefile at boot, before Windows loads. Very slick program and free to boot.