"I'd rather rationalize my mp3 theft by saying CD prices are too high."
Pretty good answer. RIAA will probably be rationalizing their price-fixing by saying the settlement will cost them squat, so hey! Free round [4 years] of free music to all involved, courtesy of RIAA and the lack of public guilt in defrauding them.
So at an average of two calls per day from people changing phone numbers, that bid would pay you to answer 410,000 calls per day? Okay, only 1/3 population would sign up, but 130,000 calls per day is still quite hefty.
And that wouldn't even cover the enquiries from telemarketers wanting to check a phone number. Suppose you made an internet form to do so, you'd still need a fair few Oracle licenses, and a Solaris server or two.
You wouldn't be able to publish the list; it's necessary for privacy that the telemarketer needs to ask "is 01291 272 272 okay to call", rather than just "tell me who I can't call"
"Taking 6 months now to make sure that it starts out right will be a ton better then needing years later to correct issues with the call list."
Okay, take a hint here from English lawmakers, and generalise it -- there are way too many US laws which address a specific instance of x and ignore x itself. Don't ban advertisement unsolicited emails, ban commercial unsolicited electronic messages, for example.
And don't throw it to the lawyers to enforce, either. A good law doesn't need sue and countersue and countercountersue to balance things, it should be an elegant solution. Burden of proof on the caller and such like.
And as this guy's campaign contributions, they look like the regular suspects who bribe-euh-*assist* the whole house; disney giving their standard salary for example. Need more than that to criticize.
"Why not simply put the destination site into every referrer you send? You'd be telling the site that you've already be there."
Just don't send one. Plenty of browsers don't support them, and if a site blocks requests without a referer(sp!) tag, then they won't be listed on google, whose robot uses no referer.
In related news, by visiting London, you agree not to create any maps displaying my house. Anyone doing so will be most severely punished.
As the HIGNFY team so ridiculed the opposition of MI5 to letting the Bond film be set in their building: "They're afraid that it would reveal the location of... one of London's most distinctive landmarks"
"Is there any kind of EULA to which a user must agree before using the printer? Something such as "By using this printer I agree to only use Lexmark toner etc etc..."?"
Even if there was, it wouldn't be a contract for the same reason as software EULAs aren't. It would carry the same legal status as going up to someone in the street and showing them a poster which reads "by viewing this poster, you agree to give me your wallet"
Try it sometime. In court, compare your poster to the software EULAs that so many people believe to be legally valid contracts.
Re:DRM - Digital rights monopoly
on
Real DRM
·
· Score: 1
"DRM is only meant to maintain the rights of the RIAA and MPAA and nothing else"
Let's not keep hitting the RIAA decoy target. DRM is there to screw the customers of Virgin records, who represent Massive Attack
Re:As much as I hate DRM..
on
Real DRM
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
"At least this is being made by a company with a history of providing some linux clients."
Here we see the difference between Linux and GNU. Just because it runs on a free operating system does not make RealPlayer any less vile. Infact, one of the things I most dislike about Mandrake 8.1 is the inclusion of such software.
Does free software matter not in the new linus cult of "Let's take all the proprietry crap we can find and run it on linux"? You may as well run windows (from a stability viewpoint, as much as a freedom one, if you have RealPlayer installed) -- what's the use of GNU/Linux, if you're just going to run it as MS/Real/Linux?
"If a new system has bugs, people can (and sometimes do) die. This tends to be a pretty powerful incentive to keep an old, working system going."
So why do ambulances use the same roads as regular commuter traffic? Sometimes, practicality and convenience dictate that mission-critical systems need to use the same off-the-shelf technology that the rest of business is using.
Grid networking. Specifically, grid-wireless-networking. All it takes is for one WiFi router every few miles, and occasional high-speed links to other parts of the (inter)network.
"Napster, CD burners, and the like simply didn't exist a few years ago."
And the reason that you can only buy CDs in a musical store today? Because tapes were great. Tapes last longer than CDs. But you can copy tapes. Everyone has double tape-decks. People are making compilations to listen to in the car. Oh, the horror!
The solution? Use CDs. Why? 'Cos they can't be copied! Nice one, let's go with that plan. So within a couple years, the tape section dwindes to one shelf, as CDs become default.
So what now? Now, people can copy CDs. Someone with a long memory and a bit of common-sense might realise that music is naturally copiable, and that the 'protection' of CDs was just as illusory as any other method to enforce rules after a sale.
The sensible person might learn from this lesson, and choose the next recording format solely on quality and robustness, rather than on copy-prohibitation, which will surely be broken as easily as roman students writing down the words of a poet.
Do you think we'll get sensible people? I'd like to offer Peter Gabriel as an example. Someone who's a proper musician, so you'd expect him to be old and wise, someone not to parrot a record-label's tune.
Pete's just released his album on Windows Media Player format. To listen to it, you need Windows 98 or later, Windows Media Player 9, and an internet connection. You need to ask his website for permission to play the music. You can't play it in your Hi-Fi, nor in your car, nor on a serious computer, nor on a walkman, nor on an MP3 player, nor on any DJ equipment, nor on any radio-station equipment, nor on anything without an internet connection.
Now, if that's the voice of a wise man, I dread to think what the idiots will come up with.
"Not really. Even given that MS is selling the unit for less than it costs them to make it, you're still giving them money."
If you have evidence that they're doing this, you need to report it to the European competition commission, and to Trading Standards offices (worldwide, but certainly in Britain.) Such behaviour would be illegal, and would certainly force shops to stop selling these consoles until the case is proven, plus a huge fine if it is.
"So really, doesn't the RC5-64 project essentially just show us the length of the race track without giving us any data about the speed of the cars that will be driving on it?"
Rather than multiplying by processor speed, integrate over a function of processor speed, which is exponential.
NumberOfComputers / Integral (2Ghz * e ^ (0.8 t) = ProcessingNeeded
(where t is the unknown, and NumberOfComputer may also be a function of time (and even of itself!))
"Telling a manager "you'll need less staff" is not necessarily the best route to his heart, they might even take it as a threat."
You probably wouldn't tell them you needed less staff. You'd tell them that their current staff would have more time to work on any other projects he needs, without additional cost.
"Windows requires you to change everything every 2 years."
Writing software on Windows is like trying to build a town somewhere with regular earthquakes. Possible, but expensive, and frustrating.
When will people learn that it's easier to build their town on the solid ground? In an area where your neighbours will help you, and you can see how other peoples' designs work.
"You don't own anything with windows.Total Cost of licenseship."
Oh you do own something. You own a worthless CD, which if you recall common law, was a sale when you bought it.
Debates still range as to whether you can install your windows CD without having to agree to an additional contract. In the US, I believe there's an exception to copyright law which allows you to install a program you've bought without infringing copyright.
If you want to prove that EULA's are not a valid contract, you only need to look at proposed laws in the US, which would make them valid contracts. So if we need to make them valid, that means that currently, they're...? Ah! Not valid!
Of course, there's a difference between Valid and Enforcible, as we've seen from BSA and Microsoft tactics, hoodwinking local police into enforcing what they believe is an contract entered into when a customer installed the software.
"If I get caught with a camera at my place of work, I can and will get fired."
Interesting point -- I'd completely forgotten that most of the sites we visit require you to leave cameras with the marine at the door.
So will that lead to a special "phones for people working on classified material" category in phone dealers' customer lists? If I were selling phones (with access to their phone calls and text messages), it wouldn't go unnoticed that this might be an interesting group to listen to.
Second throughts: maybe interesting wasn't the right word. Nerdishly useful to spies, perhaps?
Does risking imprisonment to destroy unpopular speed cameras count? Example Story
(that was using a lorry no less. And don't forget that hundreds of people would have driven past this person while they were attacking the camera, and not one of them reported it. What does that say about public opinion?)
I'm a very private guy but if your walking down the street or sitting in a public place then you have to expect other people to see you.
However, most of us would not expect people worldwide to be watching us as we're in a pub or club, nor would we expect future employers to be able to do a google search of every photo containing our face on the historical web.
Select * from images.archive.org where face_match(image) like face_match(employee_photo[192]);
Slashdot Mirror
They spent $200 on an LCD?
Y'know they cost about a tenner each. I have a couple of spare ones lying around that people can borrow.
"But having to say "gnu/mpeg" all the time would be annoying as hell...."
Motion picture expert GNUs? MPEG for short.
"I'd rather rationalize my mp3 theft by saying CD prices are too high."
Pretty good answer. RIAA will probably be rationalizing their price-fixing by saying the settlement will cost them squat, so hey! Free round [4 years] of free music to all involved, courtesy of RIAA and the lack of public guilt in defrauding them.
"So at an average of two calls per day from people changing phone numbers."
Sorry, I meant to say "one call per two years", which is what the calculations are based upon
So at an average of two calls per day from people changing phone numbers, that bid would pay you to answer 410,000 calls per day? Okay, only 1/3 population would sign up, but 130,000 calls per day is still quite hefty.
And that wouldn't even cover the enquiries from telemarketers wanting to check a phone number. Suppose you made an internet form to do so, you'd still need a fair few Oracle licenses, and a Solaris server or two.
You wouldn't be able to publish the list; it's necessary for privacy that the telemarketer needs to ask "is 01291 272 272 okay to call", rather than just "tell me who I can't call"
"Taking 6 months now to make sure that it starts out right will be a ton better then needing years later to correct issues with the call list."
Okay, take a hint here from English lawmakers, and generalise it -- there are way too many US laws which address a specific instance of x and ignore x itself. Don't ban advertisement unsolicited emails, ban commercial unsolicited electronic messages, for example.
And don't throw it to the lawyers to enforce, either. A good law doesn't need sue and countersue and countercountersue to balance things, it should be an elegant solution. Burden of proof on the caller and such like.
And as this guy's campaign contributions, they look like the regular suspects who bribe-euh-*assist* the whole house; disney giving their standard salary for example. Need more than that to criticize.
"Why not simply put the destination site into every referrer you send? You'd be telling the site that you've already be there."
Just don't send one. Plenty of browsers don't support them, and if a site blocks requests without a referer(sp!) tag, then they won't be listed on google, whose robot uses no referer.
In related news, by visiting London, you agree not to create any maps displaying my house. Anyone doing so will be most severely punished.
As the HIGNFY team so ridiculed the opposition of MI5 to letting the Bond film be set in their building: "They're afraid that it would reveal the location of... one of London's most distinctive landmarks"
"Is there any kind of EULA to which a user must agree before using the printer?
Something such as "By using this printer I agree to only use Lexmark toner etc etc..."?"
Even if there was, it wouldn't be a contract for the same reason as software EULAs aren't. It would carry the same legal status as going up to someone in the street and showing them a poster which reads "by viewing this poster, you agree to give me your wallet"
Try it sometime. In court, compare your poster to the software EULAs that so many people believe to be legally valid contracts.
"DRM is only meant to maintain the rights of the RIAA and MPAA and nothing else"
Let's not keep hitting the RIAA decoy target. DRM is there to screw the customers of Virgin records, who represent Massive Attack
"At least this is being made by a company with a history of providing some linux clients."
Here we see the difference between Linux and GNU. Just because it runs on a free operating system does not make RealPlayer any less vile. Infact, one of the things I most dislike about Mandrake 8.1 is the inclusion of such software.
Does free software matter not in the new linus cult of "Let's take all the proprietry crap we can find and run it on linux"? You may as well run windows (from a stability viewpoint, as much as a freedom one, if you have RealPlayer installed) -- what's the use of GNU/Linux, if you're just going to run it as MS/Real/Linux?
"If a new system has bugs, people can (and sometimes do) die. This tends to be a pretty powerful incentive to keep an old, working system going."
So why do ambulances use the same roads as regular commuter traffic? Sometimes, practicality and convenience dictate that mission-critical systems need to use the same off-the-shelf technology that the rest of business is using.
Grid networking. Specifically, grid-wireless-networking. All it takes is for one WiFi router every few miles, and occasional high-speed links to other parts of the (inter)network.
"Napster, CD burners, and the like simply didn't exist a few years ago."
And the reason that you can only buy CDs in a musical store today? Because tapes were great. Tapes last longer than CDs. But you can copy tapes. Everyone has double tape-decks. People are making compilations to listen to in the car. Oh, the horror!
The solution? Use CDs. Why? 'Cos they can't be copied! Nice one, let's go with that plan. So within a couple years, the tape section dwindes to one shelf, as CDs become default.
So what now? Now, people can copy CDs. Someone with a long memory and a bit of common-sense might realise that music is naturally copiable, and that the 'protection' of CDs was just as illusory as any other method to enforce rules after a sale.
The sensible person might learn from this lesson, and choose the next recording format solely on quality and robustness, rather than on copy-prohibitation, which will surely be broken as easily as roman students writing down the words of a poet.
Do you think we'll get sensible people? I'd like to offer Peter Gabriel as an example. Someone who's a proper musician, so you'd expect him to be old and wise, someone not to parrot a record-label's tune.
Pete's just released his album on Windows Media Player format. To listen to it, you need Windows 98 or later, Windows Media Player 9, and an internet connection. You need to ask his website for permission to play the music. You can't play it in your Hi-Fi, nor in your car, nor on a serious computer, nor on a walkman, nor on an MP3 player, nor on any DJ equipment, nor on any radio-station equipment, nor on anything without an internet connection.
Now, if that's the voice of a wise man, I dread to think what the idiots will come up with.
"If they [Dread Lordess Hiliary] sold copies of TV shows using DivX .AVI's for a reasonable price, they'd find themselves making quick/easy cash."
Porn? Quick, easy cash? P2P downloads? That's a great idea... I wonder why nobody's emailed them to suggest it?
"Not really. Even given that MS is selling the unit for less than it costs them to make it, you're still giving them money."
If you have evidence that they're doing this, you need to report it to the European competition commission, and to Trading Standards offices (worldwide, but certainly in Britain.) Such behaviour would be illegal, and would certainly force shops to stop selling these consoles until the case is proven, plus a huge fine if it is.
"So really, doesn't the RC5-64 project essentially just show us the length of the race track without giving us any data about the speed of the cars that will be driving on it?"
Rather than multiplying by processor speed, integrate over a function of processor speed, which is exponential.
NumberOfComputers / Integral (2Ghz * e ^ (0.8 t) = ProcessingNeeded
(where t is the unknown, and NumberOfComputer may also be a function of time (and even of itself!))
"Telling a manager "you'll need less staff" is not necessarily the best route to his heart, they might even take it as a threat."
You probably wouldn't tell them you needed less staff. You'd tell them that their current staff would have more time to work on any other projects he needs, without additional cost.
"Windows requires you to change everything every 2 years."
Writing software on Windows is like trying to build a town somewhere with regular earthquakes. Possible, but expensive, and frustrating.
When will people learn that it's easier to build their town on the solid ground? In an area where your neighbours will help you, and you can see how other peoples' designs work.
"You don't own anything with windows.Total Cost of licenseship."
Oh you do own something. You own a worthless CD, which if you recall common law, was a sale when you bought it.
Debates still range as to whether you can install your windows CD without having to agree to an additional contract. In the US, I believe there's an exception to copyright law which allows you to install a program you've bought without infringing copyright.
If you want to prove that EULA's are not a valid contract, you only need to look at proposed laws in the US, which would make them valid contracts. So if we need to make them valid, that means that currently, they're...? Ah! Not valid!
Of course, there's a difference between Valid and Enforcible, as we've seen from BSA and Microsoft tactics, hoodwinking local police into enforcing what they believe is an contract entered into when a customer installed the software.
"If I get caught with a camera at my place of work, I can and will get fired."
Interesting point -- I'd completely forgotten that most of the sites we visit require you to leave cameras with the marine at the door.
So will that lead to a special "phones for people working on classified material" category in phone dealers' customer lists? If I were selling phones (with access to their phone calls and text messages), it wouldn't go unnoticed that this might be an interesting group to listen to.
Second throughts: maybe interesting wasn't the right word. Nerdishly useful to spies, perhaps?
I said up in arms, not simply concerned
Does risking imprisonment to destroy unpopular speed cameras count?
Example Story
(that was using a lorry no less. And don't forget that hundreds of people would have driven past this person while they were attacking the camera, and not one of them reported it. What does that say about public opinion?)
I'm a very private guy but if your walking down the street or sitting in a public place then you have to expect other people to see you.
However, most of us would not expect people worldwide to be watching us as we're in a pub or club, nor would we expect future employers to be able to do a google search of every photo containing our face on the historical web.
Select * from images.archive.org where face_match(image) like face_match(employee_photo[192]);
"I wanna know how he can get away with encouraging people to violate the DMCA"
You consider it immoral to try and run the software of your choice on one of your own computers?
Obligatory columbine link -- Marilyn Manson providing the best yet article about it