Never EVER underestimate fools. For example this guy probably was worried sick that his beloeved Internet connection is going to be yanked away from him and eventually figured it out and rushed to tell everyone else about it!
Possibly because companies have "standards" written by people that don't understand technology that dictate that every function must have a comment explaining its purpose. This can get truly atocious with OO languages where you often have trivial accessor functions like the one in this example.
Secondly, let me see you put your money where your mouth is. Give me your checking account number and routing transit number and let me do some so rewriting of 0's and 1's of my own.
Firstly that's not true, because nobody advertises their open ports... blaster and the other worms probe addresses, look through address books etc. and run scans and probes to find vulnerable computers. Secondly, even if you did that, nobody who stals stuff from your home can use that as a defense. Its unlikely that the cops would spend any effort to find the thief, since you acted so stupidly, but if the person were caught somehow they're still culpable.
Quite possibly. I'm not defending Microsoft. I'm arguing that just because Microsoft's software is buggy doesn't make mean that people who explot those bugs are any less culpable.
You're stupider than I thought. If you're wearing a bulletproof vest and kevlar helmet on a battle field you're more secure than if you're not. That doesn't mean you're invulnerable and should go stand in front of the main gun of a tank.
Why do people keep making this ridiculous argument? If I leave the door to my home unlocked, it may be stupid of me, but that doesn't make anyone who comes in and steals stuff any less of a criminal. If walk around a bad neighborhood with a wad of cash in my hand and get mugged, that makes me an idiot, but anyone who mugs me is still a criminal.
You might be able to protect yourself better by using non-MS software, but that does not mitigate the actions of the criminals who create destructive worms and viruses in any way.
Trying to extract $500k from a 19yo kid would probably fetch them more bad press than any actual compensation they would receive. Instead they come across as being compassionate and understanding. Nothing strange about it... just a good PR move (which we all know has always been their primary strength)
What happens anyway in the US legal system if someone is fined a $500,000 when they have a few hundred bucks to their name, and no or low income? An oversimplified answer is they file for bankruptcy protection, lose virtually all their posessions besides their primary residence, means of transport to work and other essentials and personal effects of no monetary value, need to have all significant expenses in the future approved by a judge and so on till they emerge from bankruptcy. Then they spend about 10 years unable to get a credit card or bank loan because their credit rating is so low.
I'm glad you think that way. Tell me where you live and break in to your home. Its your fault for have breakable glass windows or whatever other vulnerability I exploit to get in, so I shouldn't be punished if I get caught.
Our ray guns also make paper with some very specific patterns on them look like tin foil to you people. Our rays also detect those patterns and send some subtly different (but no less effective) mind control rays to make you think you've got enhanced free will. Its all quite amusing, really.
While an individual recording on a digital medium might not last for all that long, with digital media you can make a perfect replica, provided you do it before it has degraded beyond what the error correction can handle
Instead of expecting a given CD to last forever, maybe it's better to do long-term rewrite old data onto the then-best form of digital storage every 20 years, or so. That would also have the advantage of saving physical space as bit density increases over time. You could conceivable have a special kind of cartridge that holds hundreds of disks that can be accessed automatically (kind of like the tape libraries used for large backups) to make the process less labor intensive
Unfortulately we are much more a nation that is electing "representatives" that are wholly owned and operated by various corporate interests, and have showm more than once tht they're willing to throw away individial rights, innovation and anything else that comes in the way of corporate profits.
The business does pay corporate taxes, payroll taxes etc. If you want to provide tax breaks to encourage businesses to move into your state, either accept that some people are going to be working remotely, or require that businesses that take adgantage of the tax breaks only hire local employees. Taxing employees while providing them little benefit for the taxes they pay (compared to the benefits that you would receive living in the same state and paying the same amount of taxes) is just wrong.
I might even support it if they taxed only a fraction of his income... but in my opinion, taxing 100% of his income is just plain wrong.
He doesn't use NY roads, his kids don't use NY schools, he deosn't get to vote for NY legislators, senators or anything, he doesn't use NY public transport. Why should he pay NY tax?
A minor nit, but a restocking fee is not a fee for putting the item back on the shelf... its a fee charged to compensate them for the cost of either buying more disks to ensure they have enough disks to meet anticipated demand, and thus ending up with more disks than they need once you actually do return it
I think they're well within their rights to charge this fee, (and its still way cheaper than what most people would have paid before) but they should be at least disclose the fees in the fine print on their big signs proclaiming "the end of late fees"
Slashdot Mirror
Its a position paper. Look up the term sometime.
Only if you use a broken browser that doens't currectly correctly handle application/pdf MIME types and goes by file extensions.
Never EVER underestimate fools. For example this guy probably was worried sick that his beloeved Internet connection is going to be yanked away from him and eventually figured it out and rushed to tell everyone else about it!
Possibly because companies have "standards" written by people that don't understand technology that dictate that every function must have a comment explaining its purpose. This can get truly atocious with OO languages where you often have trivial accessor functions like the one in this example.
Firstly, look up the term "analogy" sometime.
Secondly, let me see you put your money where your mouth is. Give me your checking account number and routing transit number and let me do some so rewriting of 0's and 1's of my own.
Firstly that's not true, because nobody advertises their open ports... blaster and the other worms probe addresses, look through address books etc. and run scans and probes to find vulnerable computers. Secondly, even if you did that, nobody who stals stuff from your home can use that as a defense. Its unlikely that the cops would spend any effort to find the thief, since you acted so stupidly, but if the person were caught somehow they're still culpable.
Quite possibly. I'm not defending Microsoft. I'm arguing that just because Microsoft's software is buggy doesn't make mean that people who explot those bugs are any less culpable.
You're stupider than I thought. If you're wearing a bulletproof vest and kevlar helmet on a battle field you're more secure than if you're not. That doesn't mean you're invulnerable and should go stand in front of the main gun of a tank.
Show me where Microsoft makes the claim that their software is impregnable
Why do people keep making this ridiculous argument? If I leave the door to my home unlocked, it may be stupid of me, but that doesn't make anyone who comes in and steals stuff any less of a criminal. If walk around a bad neighborhood with a wad of cash in my hand and get mugged, that makes me an idiot, but anyone who mugs me is still a criminal.
You might be able to protect yourself better by using non-MS software, but that does not mitigate the actions of the criminals who create destructive worms and viruses in any way.
Trying to extract $500k from a 19yo kid would probably fetch them more bad press than any actual compensation they would receive. Instead they come across as being compassionate and understanding. Nothing strange about it... just a good PR move (which we all know has always been their primary strength)
What happens anyway in the US legal system if someone is fined a $500,000 when they have a few hundred bucks to their name, and no or low income?
An oversimplified answer is they file for bankruptcy protection, lose virtually all their posessions besides their primary residence, means of transport to work and other essentials and personal effects of no monetary value, need to have all significant expenses in the future approved by a judge and so on till they emerge from bankruptcy. Then they spend about 10 years unable to get a credit card or bank loan because their credit rating is so low.
I'm glad you think that way. Tell me where you live and break in to your home. Its your fault for have breakable glass windows or whatever other vulnerability I exploit to get in, so I shouldn't be punished if I get caught.
Our ray guns also make paper with some very specific patterns on them look like tin foil to you people. Our rays also detect those patterns and send some subtly different (but no less effective) mind control rays to make you think you've got enhanced free will. Its all quite amusing, really.
That's a completely meaningless analogy.
Its intended to be representative of Debian developers.
Debian confirms it?
20 years was meant to be an example, not the gospel truth that everyone must follow
While an individual recording on a digital medium might not last for all that long, with digital media you can make a perfect replica, provided you do it before it has degraded beyond what the error correction can handle
Instead of expecting a given CD to last forever, maybe it's better to do long-term rewrite old data onto the then-best form of digital storage every 20 years, or so. That would also have the advantage of saving physical space as bit density increases over time. You could conceivable have a special kind of cartridge that holds hundreds of disks that can be accessed automatically (kind of like the tape libraries used for large backups) to make the process less labor intensive
Unfortulately we are much more a nation that is electing "representatives" that are wholly owned and operated by various corporate interests, and have showm more than once tht they're willing to throw away individial rights, innovation and anything else that comes in the way of corporate profits.
The business does pay corporate taxes, payroll taxes etc. If you want to provide tax breaks to encourage businesses to move into your state, either accept that some people are going to be working remotely, or require that businesses that take adgantage of the tax breaks only hire local employees. Taxing employees while providing them little benefit for the taxes they pay (compared to the benefits that you would receive living in the same state and paying the same amount of taxes) is just wrong.
I might even support it if they taxed only a fraction of his income... but in my opinion, taxing 100% of his income is just plain wrong.
how the heck does he get to work then? fly?
Do you even know what the word "telecommuting" means? Look it up.
He doesn't use NY roads, his kids don't use NY schools, he deosn't get to vote for NY legislators, senators or anything, he doesn't use NY public transport. Why should he pay NY tax?
PS: I am a NY resident myself.
A minor nit, but a restocking fee is not a fee for putting the item back on the shelf... its a fee charged to compensate them for the cost of either buying more disks to ensure they have enough disks to meet anticipated demand, and thus ending up with more disks than they need once you actually do return it
I think they're well within their rights to charge this fee, (and its still way cheaper than what most people would have paid before) but they should be at least disclose the fees in the fine print on their big signs proclaiming "the end of late fees"
Either the person who modded this has no idea what "troll" is, or this is a pretty blatant abuse of mod points.