I find it rather annoying, and insulting, when corporations and registrars try to pretend a CCTLD is really a descriptive TLD. Eg,.tv, Tuvalu, is presented as "television";.fm (Federated States of Micronesia) for radio,.md (Moldova) as a medical domain. And I've seen.la (Laos) sold as both Los Angeles and Latin America.
People who use these are trying to present themselves as offically sanctioned in some way. But in reality, most if not all these domain registrars will sell them to anyone with the cash. And the stated purpose of CCTLDs, having a link to the country or region in question, is lost.
Since these CCTLDs are ultimately owned by sovereign states, they can (especailly if there is a change of government) arbitrarily change their conditions and fees, leaving anyone who depended on these sites to twist in the wind. Personally, I wouldn't have any sympathy for those affected.
The difference is that when you buy a "real copy" of something, you usually also acquire the privilege to call someone and complain when it doesn't work the way it's supposed to.
In the USA, that's process is called a law suit.
Oh really? And how many Americans have sued MS, despite billions of dollars in damage for lost time and data due to their software not working as advertised over the last 25 years?
This is also a common cause of famine in China: the central planners tell each region how much rice they will grow in a season, and the beauraucrats tell them that's how much rice was grown. When that fails to be the case, people starve
Yes, that did happen, during the Great Leap Forward, about 40 years ago. These days provincial governments still bullshit about economic growth statistics, but not so grievously.
And of course it's not just a communists who try to save face and walk into disaster. "Mission Accomplished!"
They'd have their restore disks had they bought legitimate copies.
They can use their pirated discs to restore their systems. You can buy them for about 50 cents in China if you misplace them. A lot less hassle than if they were using legit OEM versions.
Actually, according to TFA, it's corporate users with Symantic accounts who are being fucked up. Home users will just shrug and reinstall.
Hey, just use your restore disk to replace the files.
Oh, you don't happen to have a restore disk? Oh, you're running a pirated copy of Windows?
Wow, then I guess you're shit out of luck.
Actually, if you're using a pirated Windows install, you WILL have a restore CD, unlike many of those with OEM versions.
And by the time you read this, I'm sure the necessary files will be available on web sites and BT all over China, and in the friendly neighbourhood bootleg software store for 5RMB (about 50 cents). So don't smirk too much.
The perception in the West (rightly or wrongly) is that Mainland China pulls the strings in Hong Kong: Nothing happens without their blessing
Beijing has overruled HK court judgements a few times since the handover, in relation to cases trying to extend voting rights. There were large and noisy protests at his, it's not something that they do regularly. They have no interest in small time criminal matters like this.
HK has its own version of the RIAA that lobbies for copyright enforcement. They're corporate shills, for the same corporations as in the USA. Nothing to do with the Communist Party or national politics.
As for nothing happening here without Beijing's blessing: not really. For instance, the first Chief Executive of HK was forced to resign prematurely, despite being a lapdog of Beijing, bacause he was about as popular here as GWB is now in the US. Million-strong marches, in a city of 6 million, demonstrating against his policies. Beijing is throwing as many obstacles in the path of democratisation as it can, but it was promised in the Joint Declaration when HK was handed over to the PRC, so they can't simply deny it.
Unless it has changed drastically in the last couple of years, Hong Kong is a place where it is often times easier to get an illegal bootleg of a movie or album than it is to get a legitimate copy of it from a store.
Rubbish. I live in Hong Kong. Bootleg media have always been around, but there are legit music and DVD shops in every shopping mall. Bootleg shops were concentrated in a few areas, and temporary street stalls, but there are perhaps a fewe dozen outlets in the whole territory at any time, under pressure from periodic raids by the Customs Dept. Of course, if you want Spiderman 3 the week the movie opens, you can probably find a crappy cam version. As for software, the days of the "fully loaded" PC as was standard 10 years ago are long gone. Most PCs come with the whole shrinkwrapped and certified software deal now. Businesses need support, they have to buy legal software.
It's another story over the border in Shenzhen.
then the media companies do have a right to be paid for the copies and in the long term the penalties would very well need to be harsh.
You've lost me there. The media companies certainly want penalties to be harsh. You can steal physical DVDs and suffer much lower penalties. In the case of uploading old movies, movies that have already been shown on free to air TV in this case, it's hard to see any reason to treat it as a capital offence.
What's China's Excuse? (Sadly) this isn't the Chinese government kissing American butt. They've got some "bad" publicity last week, so this poor sap is being made an example of.
This was in Hong Kong, which has a separate legal system to China. As for the timing, it's been working its way through the court for years, he was convicted and sentenced in 2005, this report is of his appeal being rejected. The case was pushed by our local branch of the IFPA and HK Customs, which enforces copyright. They certainly did want to make an example of him, but it was nothing to do with Beijing. As TFA says, since he was charged, BT use has declined in HK. I certainly wouldn't use BT without a proxy.
No can do. Volkswagon refused. Something about not wanting to be associated with a war movie
They don't have a right to "refuse". The studio may just have preferred to deal with someone who'd be happy to get product placement instead of hostile to it.
If you think they do have this right, please explain which laws apply. It's not copyright, patent or trademarks. Granted; a large company can make your life hell regardless of the justice of their claim.
I recall a long time ago a National Lampoon "advertisement", with a VW floating on a lake. The caption was "If Edward Kennedy had been driving a beetle, he'd be president today." I'm pretty sure VW wasn't asked for permission; and couldn't have stopped it if they wanted to.
The insanely bright (yup, you guessed it, blue this time) LEDs around the "eject" button on the docking station for my HP nc6230 laptop. Electrical tape doesn't work here since they're right at the edge of the button. The only way to kill these is to eject the laptop. Sucks.
Paint it over with some black enamel. Use a toothpick or a cotton bud if you don't have a very fine brush. I'm assuming they won't get too hot when blocked, as LEDs are pretty efficient, but worst case is it burns out and no more light.
Do you have anything besides insults to help propagate your cause? ...go fuck yourself ...you can shove it up your ass ...Get out of my face, shithead ...fucking prick
I don't remember displaying any violence.
You want to get that checked out. Blackouts and Tourette's.
You'd just love to make up any reason to take my guns away.
Sadly, being a violent nutjob with a hair trigger temper doesn't actually legally prevent you from having a gun, thanks to the tireless crusade of your NRA brethren.
However, the current implementation requires that I have a bloated reader that typically includes Additional Crap (tm) in the installation which installs by default (if even given the option). The reader insists in "improving performance" by running a program in my system tray for which I must remove the configuration myself (no option).
There are a number of methods for streamlining Adobe's reader. Eg.
Adobe Reader SpeedUp. But give Adobe credit where it's due, they opened the PDF format long ago, so there are several alternative PFD readers (and writers) available if you don't like Adobe's, and this can only increase if it becomes more widely used. It's basically wired into OSX already.
If at any time someone falsely convinces you that there is an immediate and deadly threat, and you take action that would be deemed appropriate under that kind of circumstance, the person who instigated the hoax and incited you to action is legally responsible.
Win-Win. The people you shot by "taking action" will still be dead, but you won't be at fault and will have a great story to tell the guys at your NRA conclave!
And the recent bullshit "kryptonite" story about a newly found ore that happened to be similar to the label on a movie prop in a Superman sequel.
Though the mainstream media lapped that one up too.
It seems "Star Trek/Wars" is the Paris Hilton of Slashdot. Any story that can be linked to the phrase gets a headline. The sad thing is when, like this one, the story is inherently important. Still 95% of the comments are going to be lame Trek jokes.
Bad journalism: how about "Dell will not include open-source software such as Wine..." which on its face implies that no open source software will be included; which was so absurd I knew it must be wrong. Of course, it's not "open source" that's being excluded, but "emulation" software (yeah, I know what WINE means, eWeek's headline was "No Emulation Software for Dell Systems" so take it up with them).
If it you find it on a subway platform or anchored to the foundations of a bridge, than the answer is yes.
If you were in Baghdad. When was the last subway or bridge bombed in the USA? It's hard to think of a lower risk. Hysteria over things "anchored to bridges" is what all this is about. Callit in and check it out by all means. Don't bring the city to a standstill. People watch too much 24.
The WWII booby trap was baited so obviously that it might as well have lit up with track lights and neon like in a Warner cartoon. Pistols. Ration packs. Binoculars...
So if it looks like a bomb, or if it DOESN'T look like a bomb, you treat it as a bomb. So you just spend your life hiding under your bed because absolutely anything outside is likely to be a bomb? Or maybe your bed is a bomb....
Slashdot Mirror
Well, ideally. But in practice...
People who use these are trying to present themselves as offically sanctioned in some way. But in reality, most if not all these domain registrars will sell them to anyone with the cash. And the stated purpose of CCTLDs, having a link to the country or region in question, is lost.
Since these CCTLDs are ultimately owned by sovereign states, they can (especailly if there is a change of government) arbitrarily change their conditions and fees, leaving anyone who depended on these sites to twist in the wind. Personally, I wouldn't have any sympathy for those affected.
>Last I looked it was 5rmb for MS Windows XP, same for MS Office XP. Not far off 50 cents (if you're using USD) I suppose.
I was just approximating, rather than try to explain the concept that other countries use different currencies.
Oh really? And how many Americans have sued MS, despite billions of dollars in damage for lost time and data due to their software not working as advertised over the last 25 years?
Yes, that did happen, during the Great Leap Forward, about 40 years ago. These days provincial governments still bullshit about economic growth statistics, but not so grievously.
And of course it's not just a communists who try to save face and walk into disaster. "Mission Accomplished!"
They can use their pirated discs to restore their systems. You can buy them for about 50 cents in China if you misplace them. A lot less hassle than if they were using legit OEM versions.
Actually, according to TFA, it's corporate users with Symantic accounts who are being fucked up. Home users will just shrug and reinstall.
Actually, if you're using a pirated Windows install, you WILL have a restore CD, unlike many of those with OEM versions.
And by the time you read this, I'm sure the necessary files will be available on web sites and BT all over China, and in the friendly neighbourhood bootleg software store for 5RMB (about 50 cents). So don't smirk too much.
I tried for a while. They don't.
Beijing has overruled HK court judgements a few times since the handover, in relation to cases trying to extend voting rights. There were large and noisy protests at his, it's not something that they do regularly. They have no interest in small time criminal matters like this.
HK has its own version of the RIAA that lobbies for copyright enforcement. They're corporate shills, for the same corporations as in the USA. Nothing to do with the Communist Party or national politics.
As for nothing happening here without Beijing's blessing: not really. For instance, the first Chief Executive of HK was forced to resign prematurely, despite being a lapdog of Beijing, bacause he was about as popular here as GWB is now in the US. Million-strong marches, in a city of 6 million, demonstrating against his policies. Beijing is throwing as many obstacles in the path of democratisation as it can, but it was promised in the Joint Declaration when HK was handed over to the PRC, so they can't simply deny it.
Rubbish. I live in Hong Kong. Bootleg media have always been around, but there are legit music and DVD shops in every shopping mall. Bootleg shops were concentrated in a few areas, and temporary street stalls, but there are perhaps a fewe dozen outlets in the whole territory at any time, under pressure from periodic raids by the Customs Dept. Of course, if you want Spiderman 3 the week the movie opens, you can probably find a crappy cam version. As for software, the days of the "fully loaded" PC as was standard 10 years ago are long gone. Most PCs come with the whole shrinkwrapped and certified software deal now. Businesses need support, they have to buy legal software.
It's another story over the border in Shenzhen.
then the media companies do have a right to be paid for the copies and in the long term the penalties would very well need to be harsh.
You've lost me there. The media companies certainly want penalties to be harsh. You can steal physical DVDs and suffer much lower penalties. In the case of uploading old movies, movies that have already been shown on free to air TV in this case, it's hard to see any reason to treat it as a capital offence.
This was in Hong Kong, which has a separate legal system to China. As for the timing, it's been working its way through the court for years, he was convicted and sentenced in 2005, this report is of his appeal being rejected. The case was pushed by our local branch of the IFPA and HK Customs, which enforces copyright. They certainly did want to make an example of him, but it was nothing to do with Beijing. As TFA says, since he was charged, BT use has declined in HK. I certainly wouldn't use BT without a proxy.
They don't have a right to "refuse". The studio may just have preferred to deal with someone who'd be happy to get product placement instead of hostile to it.
If you think they do have this right, please explain which laws apply. It's not copyright, patent or trademarks. Granted; a large company can make your life hell regardless of the justice of their claim.
I recall a long time ago a National Lampoon "advertisement", with a VW floating on a lake. The caption was "If Edward Kennedy had been driving a beetle, he'd be president today." I'm pretty sure VW wasn't asked for permission; and couldn't have stopped it if they wanted to.
Yes. Since the emergency number in Australia is 000.
Paint it over with some black enamel. Use a toothpick or a cotton bud if you don't have a very fine brush. I'm assuming they won't get too hot when blocked, as LEDs are pretty efficient, but worst case is it burns out and no more light.
I don't remember displaying any violence.
You want to get that checked out. Blackouts and Tourette's.
Sadly, being a violent nutjob with a hair trigger temper doesn't actually legally prevent you from having a gun, thanks to the tireless crusade of your NRA brethren.
You've just demostrated why every asshole who thinks he should have a gun, shouldn't. And made me very glad I'm out of range.
There are a number of methods for streamlining Adobe's reader. Eg. Adobe Reader SpeedUp. But give Adobe credit where it's due, they opened the PDF format long ago, so there are several alternative PFD readers (and writers) available if you don't like Adobe's, and this can only increase if it becomes more widely used. It's basically wired into OSX already.
Well, your wife certainly has, though not necessarily with you.
Win-Win. The people you shot by "taking action" will still be dead, but you won't be at fault and will have a great story to tell the guys at your NRA conclave!
> Wiki is meant to be authoritive
...
No, this is wrong. That has to be one of the most perpetuated misunderstandings about Wikipedia. Wikipedia is NOT an authoritative source
Wikipedia IS MEANT TO BE authoritative. It often fails. But that's the ideal.
Though the mainstream media lapped that one up too.
It seems "Star Trek/Wars" is the Paris Hilton of Slashdot. Any story that can be linked to the phrase gets a headline. The sad thing is when, like this one, the story is inherently important. Still 95% of the comments are going to be lame Trek jokes.
Bad journalism: how about "Dell will not include open-source software such as Wine..." which on its face implies that no open source software will be included; which was so absurd I knew it must be wrong. Of course, it's not "open source" that's being excluded, but "emulation" software (yeah, I know what WINE means, eWeek's headline was "No Emulation Software for Dell Systems" so take it up with them).
If you were in Baghdad. When was the last subway or bridge bombed in the USA? It's hard to think of a lower risk. Hysteria over things "anchored to bridges" is what all this is about. Callit in and check it out by all means. Don't bring the city to a standstill. People watch too much 24.
So if it looks like a bomb, or if it DOESN'T look like a bomb, you treat it as a bomb. So you just spend your life hiding under your bed because absolutely anything outside is likely to be a bomb? Or maybe your bed is a bomb....