The UK has about the same system as Canada, and it works well there too (having worked at a polling station and on the count). One of the problems the US faces is they have around 6 times as many elected officials per head of population, so there's a lot more to be decided on each ballot paper. Therefore the simple 'put an X here then count it' isn't necessarily the right solution for the US.
Or maybe it is, and they should cut down on the elections for city dog catcher.
"In fact, unless reversible computing is achieved, computer chips are expected to reach their maximum performance capabilities within the next three decades"
So if Moore's law holds true, by that point processors will have barely passed the 3 million GHz level. Clearly we need to get this working now!
I brought up slashdot while waiting for a batch file to run to help me test the stock and distribution control system we're trying to release a patch for today.
Quickly checks client list.
Goes back to testing, unaffected but slightly rattled..
"How does that work then? According to Heise, federal law only lets people make a single backup copy of software, and that makes the GPL void under US law."
But surely that doesn't apply anyway - If I install distro X on my PC and laptop I didn't make excess backup copies, I made, erm, frontdown copies. Under a standard commercial license I'd be ripping you off, but the GPL allows for multiple frontdown copies.
But if they *do* buy influence that's illegal. I wonder if the muddyness serves to keep everyone safe - "you can't prosecute us until you work out which wrong thing we're doing"!
If donations *don't* buy influence, and I'm a shareholder in a company that makes political contributions, can I sue the directors of the company for misappropriation of company funds?
$50 billion in lost sales costs 2 million jobs. So each job earns $25,000 Take out the physical costs of the items sold, the taxes paid by the companies on operations and payroll, plus profits to the owners. Figure each job therefore is worth $15,000. A lot more than minimum wage, a lot less than a normal person needs.
I broadly agree with what you say, but I disagree with your examples. Filesharers don't hire the musicians to do anything, they just take what already exists. The doctor and others you cite gave up their time, exclusively for me, and didn't get compensated - I stole their time, which arguably is theft. Avril Lavigne gave up her time, but didn't get compensated by the filesharer, who hadn't agreed to pay her in the first place, but did enjoy the fruits of her labor. Morally wrong? Yes. Actual theft? Not so sure.
Incidentally, I'm not trying to defend filsharers - I think what they do is wrong, which is why I've never downloaded copyrighted mp3s. But theft has a specific legal meaning, and it appears this isn't it.
A father of a file-sharer said "I don't think anybody knew this was illegal, just a way to get some music."
They missed the rest of the quote "...without paying anyone for it, just, you know, for free, like when I go shopping at Target without paying. That's not illegal, right?"
"In Charleston, W.Va., college student Amy Boggs said she quickly deleted more than 1,400 music files on her computer after the AP told her she was the target of a subpoena. Boggs said she sometimes downloaded dozens of songs on any given day, including ones by Fleetwood Mac, Blondie, Incubus and Busta Rhymes."
missing the bit where she said "...But you won't tell anyone about that, right? Or that I was born on July 24th, 1981, OK?"
"That said, in the cases we prosecute, we believe that using the term theft is not misleading. While there may be technical differences between certain types of infringing activity, conduct that triggers the criminal statutes is analogous to theft."
1. Lawyers provide a service that is not, in itself, a bad thing, but which is often conducted in a way that many people find distasteful. They charge money for this service, generally collecting from multiple clients, often billing by the hour. 2. So do prostitutes 3. Lawyers and prostitutes are anologous 4. Lawyers ARE prostitutes.
Actually I was trying to ridicule their argument, but I suspect many people won't see anything wrong with my reasoning:/
Fridges are devices designed to maintain cool temperatures within an enclosed space. That is all they do, yet only a very few, really high-end models are actually controlled by a thermostat. If fridges aren't equipped with the thing that would let them best do what they are made for, why would we realistically expect them to get an IP address, for {deity/obscenity]'s sake?
Very true, and I can see that having a goal to work for is a useful way of solving a problem we didn't know we had - to use the classic example, I'm sure if I was the one handing out the 'free research money' I wouldn't have come up with the problem of sticky saucepans and inspired Teflon. But who knows what we would have got if we'd said "Here's a billion dollars - go invent something that will make driving better"
Of course it wouldn't have got us to space, and that would have been a bad thing. So if we were going to spend the money anyway, it's nice to get Teflon 'for free':)
This is something that I've often wondered about - yes NASA has created a number of things that have improved life for the rest of us, but is it really a good return? Couldn't we have given a fraction of that money to the same clever people and said "please invent me some UV-filtering sunglasses" while we went off and spent the rest on healthcare, or beer, or whatever?
Not an attack on you, btw - I can understand that the end goal of space flight can motivate greater innovation than a simple request for invention, I just wonder if the effect is that great.
In all the coverage I've seen of the damage investigation the scientists and reporters have made clear that the Shuttle had essentially no repair capability, so even if the problem had been found, there was nothing they could do about it.
They never seem to point out that there was one thing they could do, which was stop anyone trying to land in it. Fire the thing at the moon (I've seen Space Cowboys, so I know it can be done!) and let the shuttle crew camp out until they could be rescued.
It always sounds like they expected the crew to bound happily aboard, perhaps sharing a rueful smile at the knowledge that they were going to die, but hey, there's nothing we can do about it right?
One of the factors highlighted in the ZDNet report is that of commercialisation. The position paper states that using the GPL would remove the option for the government to commercialise and profit from its work.
Call me old fashioned (and having said that I know I'm going to get at least one post that says "You're old fashioned"), but I thought governments were about internal order, external defense and maintenance of currency. Even being relatively liberal they should still only be concerned with generally looking after their citizens, not creating software.
After all, the British govt. providing the NHS really limits its ability to make money by running private hospitals. And if they didn't provide all those policemen they could make a fortune as a private security firm!
So I bring up Slashdot this morning for my routine skim of the headlines and see this article. It all sounds horribly familiar, and sure enough, it's the test that my site is acting as a mirror for.
Fortunately I'm the second mirror, and there's bitstream available, so a quick check on my site shows little extra traffic. But for a moment I had an image of a webhost in Hong Kong melting:(
I'm surprised this comes up so often. I would have thought that by now NVidia and all the other companies would have big notices on the wall of their dev offices:
"When cheating benchmarks, DO NOT use the name of the benchmark app as an indicator"
Slashdot Mirror
The UK has about the same system as Canada, and it works well there too (having worked at a polling station and on the count). One of the problems the US faces is they have around 6 times as many elected officials per head of population, so there's a lot more to be decided on each ballot paper. Therefore the simple 'put an X here then count it' isn't necessarily the right solution for the US.
Or maybe it is, and they should cut down on the elections for city dog catcher.
Cheers, Paul
"In fact, unless reversible computing is achieved, computer chips are expected to reach their maximum performance capabilities within the next three decades"
So if Moore's law holds true, by that point processors will have barely passed the 3 million GHz level. Clearly we need to get this working now!
So it's too good for a 0.1 release, but not good enough for $130. Hmm...
How about a 0.2 release, and $99? Or we could leave the price, and bump the numbering up to 10.5 - that would be worth $130 of anyone's money!
Cheers, Paul
I brought up slashdot while waiting for a batch file to run to help me test the stock and distribution control system we're trying to release a patch for today.
Quickly checks client list.
Goes back to testing, unaffected but slightly rattled..
A common quote here is:
"How does that work then? According to Heise, federal law only lets people make a single backup copy of software, and that makes the GPL void under US law."
But surely that doesn't apply anyway - If I install distro X on my PC and laptop I didn't make excess backup copies, I made, erm, frontdown copies. Under a standard commercial license I'd be ripping you off, but the GPL allows for multiple frontdown copies.
Cheers, Paul
I'll take the 'A's, hands up who wants to work on the 'B's...
Cheers, Paul
"How long before I get a trackball embedded in my mouse?"
That depends on how hard you can throw the trackball.
Cheers, Paul
But if they *do* buy influence that's illegal. I wonder if the muddyness serves to keep everyone safe - "you can't prosecute us until you work out which wrong thing we're doing"!
It's an idea I've mentioned before, but...
If donations *don't* buy influence, and I'm a shareholder in a company that makes political contributions, can I sue the directors of the company for misappropriation of company funds?
Cheers, Paul
$50 billion in lost sales costs 2 million jobs. So each job earns $25,000 Take out the physical costs of the items sold, the taxes paid by the companies on operations and payroll, plus profits to the owners. Figure each job therefore is worth $15,000. A lot more than minimum wage, a lot less than a normal person needs.
I broadly agree with what you say, but I disagree with your examples. Filesharers don't hire the musicians to do anything, they just take what already exists. The doctor and others you cite gave up their time, exclusively for me, and didn't get compensated - I stole their time, which arguably is theft. Avril Lavigne gave up her time, but didn't get compensated by the filesharer, who hadn't agreed to pay her in the first place, but did enjoy the fruits of her labor. Morally wrong? Yes. Actual theft? Not so sure.
Incidentally, I'm not trying to defend filsharers - I think what they do is wrong, which is why I've never downloaded copyrighted mp3s. But theft has a specific legal meaning, and it appears this isn't it.
Cheers, Paul
A couple of choice quotes:
A father of a file-sharer said "I don't think anybody knew this was illegal, just a way to get some music."
They missed the rest of the quote "...without paying anyone for it, just, you know, for free, like when I go shopping at Target without paying. That's not illegal, right?"
"In Charleston, W.Va., college student Amy Boggs said she quickly deleted more than 1,400 music files on her computer after the AP told her she was the target of a subpoena. Boggs said she sometimes downloaded dozens of songs on any given day, including ones by Fleetwood Mac, Blondie, Incubus and Busta Rhymes."
missing the bit where she said "...But you won't tell anyone about that, right? Or that I was born on July 24th, 1981, OK?"
Cheers, Paul
I found this statement amazing:
:/
"That said, in the cases we prosecute, we believe that using the term theft is not misleading. While there may be technical differences between certain types of infringing activity, conduct that triggers the criminal statutes is analogous to theft."
1. Lawyers provide a service that is not, in itself, a bad thing, but which is often conducted in a way that many people find distasteful. They charge money for this service, generally collecting from multiple clients, often billing by the hour.
2. So do prostitutes
3. Lawyers and prostitutes are anologous
4. Lawyers ARE prostitutes.
Actually I was trying to ridicule their argument, but I suspect many people won't see anything wrong with my reasoning
Cheers, Paul
"Will Humanoid Robots Take All the Jobs by 2050?"
Hmm. I'm going to go with, erm, ooh, don't rush me, I think...
No
Anything else I can help with?
Cheers, Paul
So now the immigration officials can state with absolute authority:
"It's definitely you. I don't know who you are, or why you're here, but you're definitely you."
Great.
Cheers, Paul
Fridges are devices designed to maintain cool temperatures within an enclosed space. That is all they do, yet only a very few, really high-end models are actually controlled by a thermostat. If fridges aren't equipped with the thing that would let them best do what they are made for, why would we realistically expect them to get an IP address, for {deity/obscenity]'s sake?
Oh wait, marketing...
Cheers, Paul
Very true, and I can see that having a goal to work for is a useful way of solving a problem we didn't know we had - to use the classic example, I'm sure if I was the one handing out the 'free research money' I wouldn't have come up with the problem of sticky saucepans and inspired Teflon. But who knows what we would have got if we'd said "Here's a billion dollars - go invent something that will make driving better"
:)
Of course it wouldn't have got us to space, and that would have been a bad thing. So if we were going to spend the money anyway, it's nice to get Teflon 'for free'
This is something that I've often wondered about - yes NASA has created a number of things that have improved life for the rest of us, but is it really a good return? Couldn't we have given a fraction of that money to the same clever people and said "please invent me some UV-filtering sunglasses" while we went off and spent the rest on healthcare, or beer, or whatever?
Not an attack on you, btw - I can understand that the end goal of space flight can motivate greater innovation than a simple request for invention, I just wonder if the effect is that great.
Cheers, Paul
In all the coverage I've seen of the damage investigation the scientists and reporters have made clear that the Shuttle had essentially no repair capability, so even if the problem had been found, there was nothing they could do about it.
They never seem to point out that there was one thing they could do, which was stop anyone trying to land in it. Fire the thing at the moon (I've seen Space Cowboys, so I know it can be done!) and let the shuttle crew camp out until they could be rescued.
It always sounds like they expected the crew to bound happily aboard, perhaps sharing a rueful smile at the knowledge that they were going to die, but hey, there's nothing we can do about it right?
Cheers, Paul
Just had a little play, and noticed that the base price is really $1770 - you give up the internal modem, and swap the SuperDrive for a CDRW/DVD-ROM.
Cheers, Paul
One of the factors highlighted in the ZDNet report is that of commercialisation. The position paper states that using the GPL would remove the option for the government to commercialise and profit from its work.
Call me old fashioned (and having said that I know I'm going to get at least one post that says "You're old fashioned"), but I thought governments were about internal order, external defense and maintenance of currency. Even being relatively liberal they should still only be concerned with generally looking after their citizens, not creating software.
After all, the British govt. providing the NHS really limits its ability to make money by running private hospitals. And if they didn't provide all those policemen they could make a fortune as a private security firm!
Cheers, Paul
"Judge CK and Justice both bent over backwards to please Billy"
Sadly their bending over backwards involves the rest of us bending over forwards.
Cheers, Paul
Here mousey-mousey, lovely tasty mousey... :)
So I bring up Slashdot this morning for my routine skim of the headlines and see this article. It all sounds horribly familiar, and sure enough, it's the test that my site is acting as a mirror for.
:(
Fortunately I'm the second mirror, and there's bitstream available, so a quick check on my site shows little extra traffic. But for a moment I had an image of a webhost in Hong Kong melting
Cheers, Paul
I'm surprised this comes up so often. I would have thought that by now NVidia and all the other companies would have big notices on the wall of their dev offices:
"When cheating benchmarks, DO NOT use the name of the benchmark app as an indicator"