Since the company is the U.S. a law which is called the law of Parol Evidence applies. This law states that only things that are binding are the things written in a contract. If the contract said it would be completed in two months, but the execs said that it would be completed in one, then you have no obligation to finish it in one, even if they stated that. If they take you to court over that, you are not liable.
This actually happened to a friend of mine, who bought a new washer/dryer that the sales man said would last five years, but didn't actually offer a warranty. In about a year and a half, it died. They were unable to get it fixed/replaced for free because it wasn't in the contract.
It's the same law that lets people from Be$t Buy to sell computers to people, ("This computer will still be able to run all your programs after 10 years! It's the best you can get on the market! Yadda-yadda-yadda"). Salesmen can can lie to you all they want, and only the terms stated in the contract will be held in a court of law.
The only problem is telling the people upstairs....
Yeah, yeah, yeah, everyone is saying how it won't work because of tech issues like latency, battery, whatever. But, it seems we have forgotten an interesting possability: The networks themselves.
If a technology/movement/etc was about to come online that would make landlines and ISP's obsolete, or even just offer a viable alternative, you _know_ they are going to do something about it. Look at what the RIAA did when their members [thought they] lost money due to file sharing: hordes of uberlawyers came in and tried to shut it down. Look what happens whenever anyone minorly encroaches on Microsoft's domain: hordes of uberlawyers come in and try to shut it down. It's capitalistic darwinism: companies evolve until they are so powerful they can survive.
And survive they will. Anything that is considered an extreme threat to an entity, and that entity has the power to neutralize that threat, it is destroied. Look at the history books: Zeus, eating his children. Countless Emperors/Popes/Kings/Leaders killing their politcal rivals. Korea/Vietnam wars, trying to stop communism. Iraq/Afganistan, trying to stop terrorism.
And sorry to not be an optimist, but The Actual Part of Slashdot That Actually Means To Do What They Suggest (tm) vs. Bell, Verizion, AT&T, MSN, AOL Time Warner, and all of them!
I don't like the odds.
Law is an expression of the public will. Everyone who does anything in law knows this. So, if 1 in 6 Americans use P2P software, with many of them not even knowing that it is illegal (my mother assumes that one can copy cds, as long as you don't sell them) then wouldn't these laws not be an expression of public will?
Now, I know that someone might... er... will reply and say, "WELL WHAT ABOU TMURDER IF EVERYON KILLED OU WOULD DIE@!!!!11!"
Well, murder is an inherently evil act, but P2P sharing? If you believe that it is inherently evil, then you should quit your job and go to work for the RIAA.
Well, I have this huge file called PAGEFILE.SYS on my C:\ drive, I guess I have a virus (it's Windows' swap file, for those who use other OSes), right? Sigh.
I expect to see a "Korea's network obsolete" story here by tomorrow morning...;)
But seriously, how quickly are users going to clamor for more bandwidth? Sure, 9600 baud was great, you could send data uberfast, and that was all you needed. I remember my first 14.4K modem, where I could plug a phone line into it instead of having to place the handset on the reciever... Amazing it seemed. But now, modems seem like a joke.
Korea is much more socially techno than people in America. I mean, where else do you have local hangout places (bars, et al) outfitted with computers so that buddies can battle it out? Unless you are in the small minority of geeks who actually know how fast a T1 is, bandwidth is either slow or fast. In Korea, computers and technology are much more important socially, in both the high-class business world to the 3L33t G4M3M45T3RZ world. Here, if an executive or teen brandishes his or her new PDA, people "Oooh" and "Ahhh" and think, "I want one of those so people will think I'm rich." In Korea, people think, "I thought the X2Z56a revision of that PDA wasn't out yet..."
You get the idea. Koreans treasure their bandwidth more than Americans do, on average. When will they want more?
"The new profitability is attributed to changes in the technology for delivering ads which make it possible to embed advertising in news stories and tie the ads to articles related to reader's interests without resorting to pop-ups and banners."
Oh, really? I often print off articles, and when I click on the "printer friendly format" button, which is supposed to take the page to text-only, still left banners and other advertizing on the screen.
Well, I guess you can't go against advertizing without going against Capitalism, and if you do that now, in a time of just-war, you get yourself flogged and beaten by men in white hoods...
Stability means less work for sysadmins
on
Linux Is Cheaper
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I have a linux web/mail server running for a local non-profit organization of which the exectutive director is a friend of the family. Their website is very small, and doesn't need to be updated often. It gets about 100 hits a month.
I have had that server running for over 5 months now, and I haven't needed to physically visit the server in 4 months. That was because of a power outage; not even Linux is more powerful than God:) If they need the page to be updated, they send me the new text, and I update it via SSH.
The point I'm trying to make here is that this nonprofit has no IT department, no sysadmins. They are mainly 50 year old ladies who are smart enough to not ask what the difference between RAM and hard drives. They have a low cost webserver running, which is freeloading on a broadband connection they already have. They don't touch the server, which lies in the corner of an empty supply closet.
Well, it didn't take a supreme court order to split Microsoft in two.
Re:its a Ny Times (Free reg. blah blah), -1 redund
on
Lindows Legal Challenge
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· Score: 0, Redundant
Wait a sec, are you modding down the actual article post???
It's Microsoft, what did you think would happen?
on
Lindows Legal Challenge
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· Score: 4, Insightful
Okay, you take your proudct, that directly competes with Microsoft's. You change one letter of it, and market it. What do you think is going to happen?
The $200 and $300 computers are perfect for those people who just want to visit this new-fangled internet thing, or type something up. It provides a low-cost, low-risk entry into the digital world. This is why Microsoft feels threatened.
Now, Lindows is not Windows, that is true. It may not be able to run as many programs, etc, fill in whatever you want, but the average super-low cost user doesn't need this. All they want is word processing, and internet access.
If you don't want to spend $400 For Office XP, and $200 for Windows XP, because all you want to do is type and surf, you will opt for the PC that costs less than your OS.
Hmmm. It seems most people have forgotten what RPG stands for - Role Playing Games. The idea of an RPG is to create a character, and totally immerse yourself in that character.
I have tried Everquest, and DAoC, played them for about a month or two, and reverted back to my trusty MUD. That's right, I usually play MUDs, and I role play. I am the head of a kingdom, and have to keep up with daily affairs. I am not my character though. When someone gives me a funny look in real life, I don't care. I guess I'm used to it. But if someone gives my elitist character a strange look, he'll grill you for it. And I love RPing, because I can always win. Everyone RPing (if they do it right) can win. I don't have to fight someone to play either, I can socially interact. If I end an RP session feeling good, I just won. I don't care if I just lost a war. My character is probably pissed at the world, but I'm happy.
I was once kidnapped by a enemy kingdom, and held for a week real time, while my allies struggled, failed, rescued, got caught, then finally rescued me for good. And even though my character was chained to a wall most of the time, and not happy about it, that was an incredibly fun experience.
And guess what? Here are the advantages of a MUD over Everquest and Co.
1) The Graphics Engine is AWESOME! Because it's my imagination. The MUD gives me a base description, and my mind fills in the blanks. I can see characters/objects/landscapes/buildings as beautiful and as vivid as I want.
2) It's free! Most MUD's are free, even though I donate money occasionally.
3) Personal relationships - On the MUD I play, there are about 25 "hardcore" players. I know each of them by name. I have a relationship with them both in and out of character. I talk about OOC problems they might be having, and my character talks about IC problems their character might be having. On EQ, you probably won't be with the same person you grouped with last time.
4) You can play from anywhere there is an internet connection, and there's no software to install. Just a simple telnet client. You can go to your libary, your mom's house, anywhere where there is internet connection.
5)Almost no bandwidth is required - All you have is text
The writ of habeas corpus, or the idea that an individual cannot be held in custody without a charge, was suspended by Lincoln in a time of need. Even if it was unconstitutional, it was vital to the survival of America. But this action was completely Constitutional. Actually, the constitution reads: "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it"
Also, you say that Lincoln "invaded" the south. This makes it sound like the Confederacy was perfectly legal and just, and Lincoln himself ordered the pillaging of the south. This, however, was not the case. In Rousseau's opinion of the social contract, the Union was not being unjust or tyriannical, therefore had no need to be overthrown.
Finally, when you say the spirit of the law is dead, you are obviously forgetting the Supreme Court, who has the job of interpreting the spirit of the law.
Now, I don't want to get into a debate over SOL vs. LOL, or over the Civil War/War of the States/War of Northern Agression, or whatever you want to call it. I just want to get a few facts straight, and not have them misrepersented.
P.S. SOL vs. LOL was last years L/D debate topic:)
Think about it, does a project like this really require an ultra-large amount of funding?
This is not a hurdle in robot _building_, it is a hurdle in robot _programming_, or AI. It doesn't cost a large amount of money to build a robot. Where most of the work was done was in programming. And, if MIT is developing it, they are probably getting grad students to do the work for free.
BNC stands for Bayonet Neill-Concelman. The names British Naval Connector or Bayonet Nut Connector are sometimes used but are not correct. The connectors were named after their creators; Neill designed the "N-type" connector and Concelman designed the "C-type" connector. The BNC is a hybrid "N/C-type" with a mechanical extra; the bayonets.
Because, it sounds a whole lot less threatning when a government agency with more than three letters in it's name does it. Think about it, do you ever feel threatened by NORAD?
It sounds like a good idea and all, but does it work in real life?
With hot swappable memory and cpu's, isn't the risk of electrocution really, really, high. I, as a personal user, wouldn't stick my hand into a server and risk death. I would just get a second server to take over for the 10-15 minutes it would take to upgrade, if I wanted 100% uptime. But businesses already have a HUGE amount of servers, incase one of them fails. So the corporate advantages of it are not that big.
Slashdot Mirror
"13.2 percent carried a "Mature" or "M" rating, up from 9.9..." The extra 3.3 percent is SOLELY from Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball...
Since the company is the U.S. a law which is called the law of Parol Evidence applies. This law states that only things that are binding are the things written in a contract. If the contract said it would be completed in two months, but the execs said that it would be completed in one, then you have no obligation to finish it in one, even if they stated that. If they take you to court over that, you are not liable. This actually happened to a friend of mine, who bought a new washer/dryer that the sales man said would last five years, but didn't actually offer a warranty. In about a year and a half, it died. They were unable to get it fixed/replaced for free because it wasn't in the contract. It's the same law that lets people from Be$t Buy to sell computers to people, ("This computer will still be able to run all your programs after 10 years! It's the best you can get on the market! Yadda-yadda-yadda"). Salesmen can can lie to you all they want, and only the terms stated in the contract will be held in a court of law. The only problem is telling the people upstairs....
Yeah, yeah, yeah, everyone is saying how it won't work because of tech issues like latency, battery, whatever. But, it seems we have forgotten an interesting possability: The networks themselves. If a technology/movement/etc was about to come online that would make landlines and ISP's obsolete, or even just offer a viable alternative, you _know_ they are going to do something about it. Look at what the RIAA did when their members [thought they] lost money due to file sharing: hordes of uberlawyers came in and tried to shut it down. Look what happens whenever anyone minorly encroaches on Microsoft's domain: hordes of uberlawyers come in and try to shut it down. It's capitalistic darwinism: companies evolve until they are so powerful they can survive. And survive they will. Anything that is considered an extreme threat to an entity, and that entity has the power to neutralize that threat, it is destroied. Look at the history books: Zeus, eating his children. Countless Emperors/Popes/Kings/Leaders killing their politcal rivals. Korea/Vietnam wars, trying to stop communism. Iraq/Afganistan, trying to stop terrorism. And sorry to not be an optimist, but The Actual Part of Slashdot That Actually Means To Do What They Suggest (tm) vs. Bell, Verizion, AT&T, MSN, AOL Time Warner, and all of them! I don't like the odds.
But see, the field _does_ require energy to be used. Maxwell's Demon is only when the demon consumes no energy or uses no energy to operate.
Law is an expression of the public will. Everyone who does anything in law knows this. So, if 1 in 6 Americans use P2P software, with many of them not even knowing that it is illegal (my mother assumes that one can copy cds, as long as you don't sell them) then wouldn't these laws not be an expression of public will? Now, I know that someone might... er... will reply and say, "WELL WHAT ABOU TMURDER IF EVERYON KILLED OU WOULD DIE@!!!!11!" Well, murder is an inherently evil act, but P2P sharing? If you believe that it is inherently evil, then you should quit your job and go to work for the RIAA.
Instead of using all these methods that are blatently obtrusive, they should buy blogspot, livejournal, and the other blogs online.
I expect to see a "Korea's network obsolete" story here by tomorrow morning... ;)
But seriously, how quickly are users going to clamor for more bandwidth? Sure, 9600 baud was great, you could send data uberfast, and that was all you needed. I remember my first 14.4K modem, where I could plug a phone line into it instead of having to place the handset on the reciever... Amazing it seemed. But now, modems seem like a joke.
Korea is much more socially techno than people in America. I mean, where else do you have local hangout places (bars, et al) outfitted with computers so that buddies can battle it out? Unless you are in the small minority of geeks who actually know how fast a T1 is, bandwidth is either slow or fast. In Korea, computers and technology are much more important socially, in both the high-class business world to the 3L33t G4M3M45T3RZ world. Here, if an executive or teen brandishes his or her new PDA, people "Oooh" and "Ahhh" and think, "I want one of those so people will think I'm rich." In Korea, people think, "I thought the X2Z56a revision of that PDA wasn't out yet..."
You get the idea. Koreans treasure their bandwidth more than Americans do, on average. When will they want more?
Oh, really? I often print off articles, and when I click on the "printer friendly format" button, which is supposed to take the page to text-only, still left banners and other advertizing on the screen.
Well, I guess you can't go against advertizing without going against Capitalism, and if you do that now, in a time of just-war, you get yourself flogged and beaten by men in white hoods...
I have a linux web/mail server running for a local non-profit organization of which the exectutive director is a friend of the family. Their website is very small, and doesn't need to be updated often. It gets about 100 hits a month. :) If they need the page to be updated, they send me the new text, and I update it via SSH.
I have had that server running for over 5 months now, and I haven't needed to physically visit the server in 4 months. That was because of a power outage; not even Linux is more powerful than God
The point I'm trying to make here is that this nonprofit has no IT department, no sysadmins. They are mainly 50 year old ladies who are smart enough to not ask what the difference between RAM and hard drives. They have a low cost webserver running, which is freeloading on a broadband connection they already have. They don't touch the server, which lies in the corner of an empty supply closet.
Is this a Microsoft employee who just doesn't want to do any work? Err, that was redundant, sorry 'bout that.
Well, having a linux distrib in your wallet is much more attracting to the ladies than, say, a condom.
Yeah, that darned "Internet stuff." Too bad it never got off the ground, it could have been big...
Well, it didn't take a supreme court order to split Microsoft in two.
Wait a sec, are you modding down the actual article post???
Okay, you take your proudct, that directly competes with Microsoft's. You change one letter of it, and market it. What do you think is going to happen?
The $200 and $300 computers are perfect for those people who just want to visit this new-fangled internet thing, or type something up. It provides a low-cost, low-risk entry into the digital world. This is why Microsoft feels threatened.
Now, Lindows is not Windows, that is true. It may not be able to run as many programs, etc, fill in whatever you want, but the average super-low cost user doesn't need this. All they want is word processing, and internet access. If you don't want to spend $400 For Office XP, and $200 for Windows XP, because all you want to do is type and surf, you will opt for the PC that costs less than your OS.
Hmmm. It seems most people have forgotten what RPG stands for - Role Playing Games. The idea of an RPG is to create a character, and totally immerse yourself in that character.
I have tried Everquest, and DAoC, played them for about a month or two, and reverted back to my trusty MUD. That's right, I usually play MUDs, and I role play. I am the head of a kingdom, and have to keep up with daily affairs. I am not my character though. When someone gives me a funny look in real life, I don't care. I guess I'm used to it. But if someone gives my elitist character a strange look, he'll grill you for it.
And I love RPing, because I can always win. Everyone RPing (if they do it right) can win. I don't have to fight someone to play either, I can socially interact. If I end an RP session feeling good, I just won. I don't care if I just lost a war. My character is probably pissed at the world, but I'm happy.
I was once kidnapped by a enemy kingdom, and held for a week real time, while my allies struggled, failed, rescued, got caught, then finally rescued me for good. And even though my character was chained to a wall most of the time, and not happy about it, that was an incredibly fun experience.
And guess what? Here are the advantages of a MUD over Everquest and Co.
1) The Graphics Engine is AWESOME! Because it's my imagination. The MUD gives me a base description, and my mind fills in the blanks. I can see characters/objects/landscapes/buildings as beautiful and as vivid as I want.
2) It's free! Most MUD's are free, even though I donate money occasionally.
3) Personal relationships - On the MUD I play, there are about 25 "hardcore" players. I know each of them by name. I have a relationship with them both in and out of character. I talk about OOC problems they might be having, and my character talks about IC problems their character might be having. On EQ, you probably won't be with the same person you grouped with last time.
4) You can play from anywhere there is an internet connection, and there's no software to install. Just a simple telnet client. You can go to your libary, your mom's house, anywhere where there is internet connection.
5)Almost no bandwidth is required - All you have is text
Well, we're poor, so we are being bad for the coal. We need it. Badly. :)
The writ of habeas corpus, or the idea that an individual cannot be held in custody without a charge, was suspended by Lincoln in a time of need. Even if it was unconstitutional, it was vital to the survival of America. But this action was completely Constitutional. Actually, the constitution reads: "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it"
:)
Also, you say that Lincoln "invaded" the south. This makes it sound like the Confederacy was perfectly legal and just, and Lincoln himself ordered the pillaging of the south. This, however, was not the case. In Rousseau's opinion of the social contract, the Union was not being unjust or tyriannical, therefore had no need to be overthrown.
Finally, when you say the spirit of the law is dead, you are obviously forgetting the Supreme Court, who has the job of interpreting the spirit of the law.
Now, I don't want to get into a debate over SOL vs. LOL, or over the Civil War/War of the States/War of Northern Agression, or whatever you want to call it. I just want to get a few facts straight, and not have them misrepersented.
P.S. SOL vs. LOL was last years L/D debate topic
Think about it, does a project like this really require an ultra-large amount of funding? This is not a hurdle in robot _building_, it is a hurdle in robot _programming_, or AI. It doesn't cost a large amount of money to build a robot. Where most of the work was done was in programming. And, if MIT is developing it, they are probably getting grad students to do the work for free.
BNC stands for Bayonet Neill-Concelman. The names British Naval Connector or Bayonet Nut Connector are sometimes used but are not correct. The connectors were named after their creators; Neill designed the "N-type" connector and Concelman designed the "C-type" connector. The BNC is a hybrid "N/C-type" with a mechanical extra; the bayonets.
Because, it sounds a whole lot less threatning when a government agency with more than three letters in it's name does it. Think about it, do you ever feel threatened by NORAD?
Wow, there are already 92 people signed up. No one from my area though. Amazing how fast this goes.
It sounds like a good idea and all, but does it work in real life? With hot swappable memory and cpu's, isn't the risk of electrocution really, really, high. I, as a personal user, wouldn't stick my hand into a server and risk death. I would just get a second server to take over for the 10-15 minutes it would take to upgrade, if I wanted 100% uptime. But businesses already have a HUGE amount of servers, incase one of them fails. So the corporate advantages of it are not that big.