Actually, its "Old world", "New World", and "Third World". America is the New World (so "second". in your terminology). Its silly of course, because Africa etc were populated thousands of years before Europe (Old World).and standards of living vary wildly across all oth these regions.
Anyway how do you measure quality of life? By the number of wives you have? American Nerds don't do very well compared to the average African man on that scale!
I agree that not all of the third world is starving. I have been there.
But they sure as hell dont need a $100 laptop. They can make exellent use of $50 Pentium 2's in solid steel cases though. These are easily maintained, reliable, and 10 or so can build you an internet cafe that will feed your family for years to come. Indeed, 20 of them will earn you a (1970's) Mercedes Benz in under a year (and, if you use them to run computer literacy classes several hours a day, you can build reasonable house as well.)
what are the patent numbers, which countries are they valid in
That would be the USA. No other countries have software patents. Which means, even in the highly unlikely senario that any of MS patents are valid in the USA, you can relax (and go on using the technology) everywhere else.
Not only that, AFAIK, the USA is the only coutry where you could sue the end users. Everywhere else, you would only be able to sue people who actually SOLD something incorporating the patent. Also AFAIK, except in the USA, even if you could sue, damages would be assessed as that fraction of the value of what was bought that was attributable to the patented component. (If your Ford car included a brake pipe that infringed a Westinghouse patent, then Ford could only be sued for the value of the brake pipe, and very probably only for the incremental value/savings of that brakepipe instead of an alternative design.) Furthermore, the infringer has to be given due warning of the fact that they are infringing, and oportunity to cease infringing, before a penalty would apply.
The US patent system and legal system are both horribly broken by the standards of the rest of the world.
This news announcement relates to the UK's Hutchinson 3G network, which is branded as '3'. I have had a phone on this network for two years. For two years they have totally blocked internet access to all other IP addresses than their own - ie I cannot access my onw web site (or PostgreSQL server) with my own phone. I also have not made a call on the phone in 3 months, because the O2 network phone I have is cheaper to use.
In short, unless this network delivers TCP/IP functionallity properly, and fast this will turn out to a bankrupt also-ran getting a final puff of publicity before its forthcoming demise. A lot of people would love this - not least the rival netowrks who will be able to point to 3's failure and say "see what happens when you let people use 3G for fully featured tcp/ip".
Consider that Nigeria's V-Mobile network has been offering general TCP/IP for over a year in the bigger cities: From Nigeria I CAN access my PostgreSQL server (in the UK) from the very same phone (obviously with a different sim card), and you will understand that the UK is massively behind many third world countries in the area.
There is a very simple explanation for this: In the UK, laws permitting companies to fleece their customers are rigorously enforced. In Nigeria the law is taken less seriously.
Hang about - we are talking about Europe here. In Europe, contractual clauses forbiding reverse engineering are considered unethical and therefore unenforcible! We may not have the same rights as the USA, but sometimes we are actually better - we also do not have software patents.
You can't go ordering companies that do business both within and outside the US to take arbitrary actions outside the US in response to civil suits within the US. Yes you can - you are forgetting the USA is a superpower* thus they are exempt from having to comply with the strictures of logic or morality and can do WTF they like - as they do with the WTO, UN and various other world bodies. This may make the US rather unpopular outside its shores, but most Americans don't realise anywhere else exists anyway, so No problem
*Like Superman is exempt from the laws of physics, only different
However, that said, if the subject of the order is in a different country, they can choose to ignore the order on the assumption that their home country will not prosecute or extradite them.
Unfortunately a very risky assumption. Tony Bliar has signed a rather stupid agreement that the US can extradite anyone from the UK for anything without even having evidence against them. This is not a reciprocal agreement. The US was not obliged to do anything in return. In fact, GWB has not even ratified it but our fool courts honour it because we have signed it!
And once in the US, everyone knows Brits are the villains - and they play them on TV!
US judge says "fight for the right to drown your friends and enemies in Spam!" If you value your internet, get your favourite corporation to lobby their tame congress-critters hard on this one!
But will they launch cruise missiles at the perpetrators?
Until the US government takes at least the same level of action against phishers it has taken against online gambling establishments, phishing will continue unabated.
I refer the honourable gentlemen to the satement i made some moments ago:
If the US Government can prevent banks (credit cards) from handling the proceeds of internet gambing, how comes they can't do the same for handling the proceeds of goods advertised by Spam (etc)?
Is there a US Government at all? Is the US Government controlled by a moral cesspit like Al Quaida say it is? Has Gw Bush sold his soul to the devil? Is the internet controlled by Aliens from the planet Zog? Stay tuned for more news - same channel same time next week!
As MS have a monopoly, then they should be forced to support the OSes or open-source them (their choice)
Given the fact that huge numbers of Win2k and Win98 systems are, and will remain in use, they must be patched deliver homeland security.
If MS won't release patches, surely it is incumbent on the US Government to force them to OpenSource them so that others can. The US government IS still supposed to deliver homeland security?
What OpenOffice really need to do is to give the option to allow deleting of paragraphs to work the way they do in other word processors - so that the formatting propagates forwards and not backwards. And make page breaks visible so you can delete a page break without deleting the formatting of a header immediately following it.
Who give a flying %&$£ about art if the functionality is stuffed.
They are more than likely will purchase new hardware
Why if the old kit still works? Because Billy Gates said so? WTF?
If a computer works, why deinstall the OS and install one that wont run on the limited hardware anyway?
Even if they do buy a new computer for doing new stuff, on most of the planet I live on, they will either keep the old one for doing old stuff, or give it to a relative to do old stuff. What planet are you on?
I have a perfectly good P1 laptop with Win98 installed. I use it as a dumb terminal, and my partner uses it for playing Solitaire.
Since it has a built-in Bizarro brand Winmodem, it would not be able to dial anything if I loaded Linux, and who cares what OS you use to run hyperterrm and Solitare.
Do you really think I will give Dell £600 for a new laptop just because MS say they are no longer supporting Win98? Hell I have never managed to get them to support it in the past, I don't think I'll see a huge difference.
Its not on the internet, doesnt have USB and XP machines have no floppy drives, so its not likely to get virused.
We have several P1 laptops at work also running Win98 which are used to display floppies written by ATE machines that cost $20k each. New laptops have no floppy drives and the diagnostics woint run on XP or Linux. Are we supposed to buy new ATE kit because MS arent "supporting" something they have not ever supported (IMHO).
You are promoting landfill and profiteering by Gates and Dell. Get a life.
There is not a single UNIX machine in the world that does not have it. I can go to Timbuktu, login to their sole Indy box and start editing right away
If you can find a local diesel vendor for the generator!
However, every single Unix machine, and each user login, is sure to have the key mapping for vi programmed differently, so you still need to use edt to be productive.
I'd be a talking like a pirate, but I have had a nogging to much o' rum, and taking ain't what I'm best at. Ye'd best heed the forestay, Jim, or we'll all be overboard. Pass another bottle of Wray and Nephew, if you'd be so kind... and watch the blasted wheel as you go! (billions of blistering blue barnacles)
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Nope - the reason that Dell have Windows on there is because of those 90 day trial software packages.
Norton etc PAY to put that sh*te on the hard drive. This makes the cost of Windows negative to the likes of Dell.
If Vista really does not need anti-virus software, and Norton etc disappear, THEN Ubuntu will rule. I however, will continue using FreeBSD.
I am in England too. Please send me some Nigerian Guiness.
Anyway how do you measure quality of life? By the number of wives you have? American Nerds don't do very well compared to the average African man on that scale!
But they sure as hell dont need a $100 laptop. They can make exellent use of $50 Pentium 2's in solid steel cases though. These are easily maintained, reliable, and 10 or so can build you an internet cafe that will feed your family for years to come. Indeed, 20 of them will earn you a (1970's) Mercedes Benz in under a year (and, if you use them to run computer literacy classes several hours a day, you can build reasonable house as well.)
That would be the USA. No other countries have software patents. Which means, even in the highly unlikely senario that any of MS patents are valid in the USA, you can relax (and go on using the technology) everywhere else.
Not only that, AFAIK, the USA is the only coutry where you could sue the end users. Everywhere else, you would only be able to sue people who actually SOLD something incorporating the patent. Also AFAIK, except in the USA, even if you could sue, damages would be assessed as that fraction of the value of what was bought that was attributable to the patented component. (If your Ford car included a brake pipe that infringed a Westinghouse patent, then Ford could only be sued for the value of the brake pipe, and very probably only for the incremental value/savings of that brakepipe instead of an alternative design.) Furthermore, the infringer has to be given due warning of the fact that they are infringing, and oportunity to cease infringing, before a penalty would apply.
The US patent system and legal system are both horribly broken by the standards of the rest of the world.
IANAL, but I play one on my keyboard.
In short, unless this network delivers TCP/IP functionallity properly, and fast this will turn out to a bankrupt also-ran getting a final puff of publicity before its forthcoming demise. A lot of people would love this - not least the rival netowrks who will be able to point to 3's failure and say "see what happens when you let people use 3G for fully featured tcp/ip".
Consider that Nigeria's V-Mobile network has been offering general TCP/IP for over a year in the bigger cities: From Nigeria I CAN access my PostgreSQL server (in the UK) from the very same phone (obviously with a different sim card), and you will understand that the UK is massively behind many third world countries in the area.
There is a very simple explanation for this: In the UK, laws permitting companies to fleece their customers are rigorously enforced. In Nigeria the law is taken less seriously.
Hang about - we are talking about Europe here. In Europe, contractual clauses forbiding reverse engineering are considered unethical and therefore unenforcible! We may not have the same rights as the USA, but sometimes we are actually better - we also do not have software patents.
Surely Monty Python has a patent on this?
*Like Superman is exempt from the laws of physics, only different
Unfortunately a very risky assumption. Tony Bliar has signed a rather stupid agreement that the US can extradite anyone from the UK for anything without even having evidence against them. This is not a reciprocal agreement. The US was not obliged to do anything in return. In fact, GWB has not even ratified it but our fool courts honour it because we have signed it!
And once in the US, everyone knows Brits are the villains - and they play them on TV!
US judge says "fight for the right to drown your friends and enemies in Spam!" If you value your internet, get your favourite corporation to lobby their tame congress-critters hard on this one!
Militant Muslims have been telling you that for years :-)
Until the US government takes at least the same level of action against phishers it has taken against online gambling establishments, phishing will continue unabated.
If the US Government can prevent banks (credit cards) from handling the proceeds of internet gambing, how comes they can't do the same for handling the proceeds of goods advertised by Spam (etc)?
Is there a US Government at all? Is the US Government controlled by a moral cesspit like Al Quaida say it is? Has Gw Bush sold his soul to the devil? Is the internet controlled by Aliens from the planet Zog? Stay tuned for more news - same channel same time next week!
And you have a whole team of programmers that never make mistakes working for you?
Surely the real answer is to replace programmers with Spambots on steroids!
Given the fact that huge numbers of Win2k and Win98 systems are, and will remain in use, they must be patched deliver homeland security.
If MS won't release patches, surely it is incumbent on the US Government to force them to OpenSource them so that others can. The US government IS still supposed to deliver homeland security?
That would stop spam overnight.
You mean it was not the computers that voted for George W Bush? Then who the hell did?
on second thoughts...
Perhaps the record companies and musicians union might ask the RIAA to "cease and desist"?
SOmeone has lost the plot here. Must be me!
Never mind this stuff, We want to know about Debian on Sparc
Why not sue the fundies for staanding in the way of progress towards a credible solution?
Who give a flying %&$£ about art if the functionality is stuffed.
Why if the old kit still works? Because Billy Gates said so? WTF?
If a computer works, why deinstall the OS and install one that wont run on the limited hardware anyway?
Even if they do buy a new computer for doing new stuff, on most of the planet I live on, they will either keep the old one for doing old stuff, or give it to a relative to do old stuff. What planet are you on?
Since it has a built-in Bizarro brand Winmodem, it would not be able to dial anything if I loaded Linux, and who cares what OS you use to run hyperterrm and Solitare.
Do you really think I will give Dell £600 for a new laptop just because MS say they are no longer supporting Win98? Hell I have never managed to get them to support it in the past, I don't think I'll see a huge difference.
Its not on the internet, doesnt have USB and XP machines have no floppy drives, so its not likely to get virused.
We have several P1 laptops at work also running Win98 which are used to display floppies written by ATE machines that cost $20k each. New laptops have no floppy drives and the diagnostics woint run on XP or Linux. Are we supposed to buy new ATE kit because MS arent "supporting" something they have not ever supported (IMHO).
You are promoting landfill and profiteering by Gates and Dell. Get a life.
If you can find a local diesel vendor for the generator!
However, every single Unix machine, and each user login, is sure to have the key mapping for vi programmed differently, so you still need to use edt to be productive.
I'd be a talking like a pirate, but I have had a nogging to much o' rum, and taking ain't what I'm best at.
Ye'd best heed the forestay, Jim, or we'll all be overboard. Pass another bottle of Wray and Nephew, if you'd be so kind... and watch the blasted wheel as you go! (billions of blistering blue barnacles)