I don't see how this applies to the discussion... You aren't legally allowed to use a car on public roads unless you can prove you have a driver's license (sure, you can do it, but you're breaking the law. Good chance you won't get caught, though). But what does this have to do with easily sharing copywritten music?
I agree that its illegal, but my point is the car manufacturer should not be constrained in their design to enforce the law in this regard. My point is that apple is building limitations in their devices to protect someone else's legal interests, when its completely irrelevant to what the product does. It plays music. No one is physical injured, had their quality of life impact, or damaged the environment by this device playing music -- that should be the total 'external' design constraint, aside from physical properties of the construction materials and ability to makret/sell the product.
I'll skip the betamax situation since i'm not a lawyer, and as a canadian the legal result has no direct impact on me..
3. Because the RAW format for my Nikon or Canon cameras is proprietary, both of those companies have some proportional rights to the pictures I take with my cameras. No - their agreement with you is that you have full rights to the pictures. This has nothing to do with music, where you have very specific rights.
This is wrong. Nikon encrypts the NEF (RAW) file white balance information. I can be sued/injured under the DCMA for decrypting the settings of my exposure so that I can use it in another non-Nikon program. Its my picutre, my white balance configuration, Nikon's data. My output is not my own; Nikon could issue an injunction to prevent me from using my own information.
Are you criticizing the design of the product, or copyright law? Because the former is designed to obey the latter. It's not a chicken and egg thing - copyright came first.
I am criticising the unnecessary influence of copyright law on physical design. Copying an ipod design and selling it as "UbergrendlePod" should be illegal. Creating a device -- photocopier, VCR, iPod, DVD player, computer hard disk -- that has the capability of copyright circumvention should not be illegal. Apple has gone one step further and BUILT IN copyright protection features that consumers do not want, and aren't necessary for a portable music player.
1. I should not be allowed to use a car unless I can prove that I have a driver's license. Mag strip swipe by the ignition maybe?
2. I should not be allowed to fast forward commercials on my VCR or TIVO. In fact, its probably illegal for me not to watch the programs real time, since the rights structure for TV content is all 'broadcast' e.g. real time) related.
3. Because the RAW format for my Nikon or Canon cameras is proprietary, both of those companies have some proportional rights to the pictures I take with my cameras.
Its a mini harddrive, with an audio out, with a fancy gui -- that's all. All the abstraction layered ontop of it was a design decision, and we have the right as consumers to critcise those design decision. Especially when they are artificial constraints upon physical properties of the product.
I wish I had mod points for you. Its the only CRPG that I replayed from scratch multiple times. I also made sure I had a complete set of CDs, with a burned set of mod packs and patches, stored safely away for the future... over time it will get harder and harder to play.
Only thing that came close to Shadows of Amn was Planescape -- it too was genre bending.
I think we've lost alot with the emphasis on 3d graphics. I miss the isometric view and artistic vision of the game designers.
I think when you buy a solid brand name, its like an insurance policy. For example, in this case, maybe a Snapper mower doesn't cost twice as much as a Crapola 2000, but the retail price _is_ twice as much.
Many customers will consider the Snapper name _worth_ the price, as its a sign of quality. The premium is not necessarily for the value of the product, but also as compensation for less hassel, less complications, guaranteed performance.
For example, a Honda Civic is not that much better than a GM Cobalt from a feature/function perspective. But people will pay a 20-40% premium for the brand name and model. Why? Ease of ownership. Its not even cost of ownership...even with several repair bills a GM Cobalt probably has a lower TCO than a Civic, but the Civic is the #1 vehicle in Canada, probably for the last decade or so.
First off, as a Torontian and a lifelong lover of Tolkiens middle earth writings, I'd like to apologise to my fellow Slashdotters for my city hosting this offense-to-art.
One thing people should know is that Toronto's new opera house -- Canada's first dedicated opera house -- is opening next fall. For this debut, the Canadian Opera Company is producing its first complete Ring Cycle. Several prominent Canadian movie directors have been involved in direction (Atom Egoyan, Francois Girard) and the individual performances in years preceeding the cycle's debut have been very well received.
Given the timing, I see this production of LOTR as an attempt to undermine the COC's upcoming prominence. LOTR already has a large mindshare amongst the population in general due to the movies, and it has a RING in it (do not underestimate the mundacity of musical producers marketing skills!). Mirvish's theatres on King St West are facing increasing competition from other fringe theatres, plus movies, plus now a real Opera house in Toronto.
Given these competitive pressures, plus the prevalence of the 'ring' theme in media, the LOTR musical should be seen for what it is -- a market friendly family event @ $120 a ticket. I doubt half of the eventual audience will even know that Tolkien was English or taught at Oxford.
I understand what you're arguning -- be mercenary about your job applications.
However, certifications are a scam of the highest order. A universtiy degree/college diploma takes 3-5 years to complete, but once its completed its universally accepted and never expires. Certiciations? 2 year renewal revenue streams.
I decided to avoid a career path in IT where certifications are needed. Its a hamster wheel from which there is no escape, and most likely if you're higher for such specific activites, your a commodity akin to kleenex.
Yojimbo is the commonly told story, but the sequel Sanjuro is just as enjoyable. 2 pre-made, ready to film movies.
He's already lifted from the Hidden Fortress heavily, why not continue working it? I doubt 99% of his target audience even know of Yojimbo, let alone the plot to Sanjuro.
PS Sanjuro has the best final sequence to an action movie, ever.
Although I agree that Microsoft's primary concern is to protect their marketshare and revenue, i don't think its fair to paint their other concerns in a nefarious light.
If, as an unwitting noobie user, price compare (as I would with any other product) and find a cheaper price online at eBay, I'd probably buy it. Best price wins, right? Except Microsoft holds a monopoly and fixes the prices effectively... so it doesn't really benefit you to shop around. Buying cheap on eBay is a risky venture.
Also, trojans, spyware, etc ARE indeed loaded on these questionable packages. How many ISOs of WinXP are floating around the net? How many would you actually trust?
I have problems with a) microsoft price-fixing, b) anti-trust practices with OEMs, and c) overly restrictive (and probably illegal anyways) end user agreements. But that doesn't mean that stopping piracy for profit is illegitimate.
Its a valid concern. I think the scenarios though vary between a) right to legal counsel, vs b) criminal conspiracy.
Sitation a:
"We have discovered that we inadvertently violated federal election laws pertaining to product Diebold A1. What are the legal ramifications? What do we need to disclose, if anything?"
Situation b:
"We can save alot of money selling product Diebold A1, but it violates federal election laws. How do we avoid being caught? What evidence should we forge to avoid legal culpability?"
I agree 100%. In a counter-intuitive fashion, eBay continually degrades year after year in terms of user experience, fee structure, fraud, etc.
Yahoo auctions, and others, were never quite successful at defeating eBay since they tried to be too much like eBay IMHO. eBay has the benefit of being the largest _current_ marketplace. But if Google could deliver a low-fee replacement leveraging its other properties (gmail, groups, maps, gbank?) they might be able be successful. The great thing I like about Google is their low-complexity UI and experience -- something eBay is definitely lacking.
My biggest hope for Google is for them to introduce and back a micropayments infrastrucutre. THAT would change the world.
Yes I'm aware of abortion clinic bombers. If they were threatening Yahoo with attacks for running pro-choice advertisements or message posts, and Yahoo instituted a policy banning the subject material, then I'd have the same position.
I'm aware of alot of bad things radical christians (IRA anyone?) have done.
let me make my point more clear: Yahoo is overreacting to the islamic terrorism boogeyman, specifically in the fallout of this cartoon debacle. Do no confuse their actions as a politically correct approach to respecting all religions: Jesus Christ; Jevovah; and the Flying Spaghetti Monster are all not filtered. This is caving into fear of ONE group that is prominent in recent years... and Yahoo's self-censorship does nothing other than embolden those who use violence; its proof that their technique works.
I've gone from -1 Flamebait to +5 Insightful back to -1 Flamebait in the last 30 minutes. I'll be interested where this ends up!:)
On the whole, Christians don't threaten death to company executives or members of the press if they disagree with their opinions. Jews, Christains, Atheists...there's lots of wackos amongst those groups, but in the last few decades radical islam wins hands down for self-righteous violence and terror.
Make no mistake -- Yahoo is behaving cowardly in this instance. This has nothing to do with respecting other cultures, and all about avoiding undue attention to the corporate entity. Clearly in this case, terrorism has be effective.
IIRC correctly, the #1 predator of homo sapiens the last million years or so the leopard. Almost as big and strong as a lion, but with better night vision and likes to hunt in underbrush. Effective along or in small groups.
I saw a National Geographic episode recently where two leopards were hunting together. Gazelles (impalas?) have very accute hearing...even in the pitch dark it was very difficult to sneak up on a dozing pack. So what one leopard does is stay with the pack, the other leopard travels about 2 km away and finds ANOTHER pack of gazelles. It charges right into the pack, and herds it towards the other sleeping pack... yum, chaos ensures, after which the leopards chow down like christmas dinner. Very clever tactical thinking, I pity our less advanced ancestors...
Two things to consider: educational background has little relevance to one's capabiltiy of doing many corporate jobs. He's proven that with an 11 year successful internal record. I've seen it personally time and time again. The best development manager I ever worked for was a philosophy major in university. I personally have fired an MIT grad and opted to retain the community college grad, based on actual peformance, work ethic, and team mindedness.
The other is the peter principle...one rises to the level of one's own inability. Unfortunately, the role of CEO requires very diffierent skills from top sales associate, or even head of marketing. His lack of success as CEO can just as easily be explained by a) inheriting a mess, b) lack of board support, and c) not the right man for the job. The educational question is probably just a hatchet job done to justify his removal after the fact -- "We've got a problem with Bob...find a reason to fire him!"
Yet another strong argument in favour of micropayments. Apple might have tried something prior to now, but the licensing terms of the RIAA has really knee-capped them in this regard. RIAA sees the iPod and iTunes as a threat...what they don't realise is that as long as one body is strong enough to maintain a virtual monopoly, they only have to regulate one source. They're not having as much luck with allofmp3.com it looks like...
Sometimes old hardware isn't worth saving because it contains too many complexities, or design mistakes, to keep running.
For every DC-3 or B-52 bomber that's flying 50+ years later, there's a dozen lesser models that never made it that far. One of the success factors for these planes were their elegance -- simple but sufficient components that are easily maintained and replaced.
Unfortunately I don't think the space shuttles fit into this category. We've learned alot from them...but probably more of 'what not to do' than 'lets build 20 more!'.
I think canibalising it for parts is a good short-term move, when the program wraps up though I agree they should find a way to preserve the learnings of the shuttle program. Lets hope its replacement is safer, cheaper, and more effective!
Its important to note that many major religions consider evil merely to be the absence of good. This is why for some, ammorality = evil, whereas for others ammorality = neutral.
Using the AD&D Players' Handbook to define a personal code of mortality is kind of like using a Dvorak magazine article to define an global enterprise IT architecture...
While not a _great_ movie, I always thought the more serious tone towards space travel in 2010 made it worthwhile to watch.
Granted, hard-core sci-fi films just aren't made in Hollywood. Even the 'best' sci-fi films tend to be more science-fantasy than science fiction: Dark City, Metropolis, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Brazil, 12 Monkeys, etc etc.
I'm still trying to figure out why its bad when Microsoft is restrictive, but when its Apple's modus operandi everyone ooohs and ahhhs over each technological development? If you buy Microsoft's products, you subscribe to their vision of the 'platform'... if it diverges from what you want to accomplish, then don't bother buying it!
Ultimately this will just drive the technologically inquisitive towards linux. Linux won't displace Windows or even OS/X today, or tomorrow, or next year. But after a generation of high school kids tweaking in their basement, and with linux ported onto every hardware platform known to man, it will be too late for Microsoft to do anything about it. If technology skills in linux are legion, but microsoft development is expensive and hard to find, the marketplace will shift by itself naturally.
I'm not too concerned about h/w makers and DRM. The PC industry is mostly comprised of 3rd party generic components...if there's a market for non-DRM hardware, you'll be able to buy it.
You're probably right that a fake warrant would work, however... well, I'd hate to see the penalty for being caught for theft _AND_ impersonating federal authorities. PYITAP (pound you in the a** prison) is invented for such occasions I would guess...
Mod parent up. I consider myself a bit of a software gear-head (love to try everything and the kitchen sink, tweak until the cows come home, etc) and I've stopped experimenting with the plug-ins. Most work -- by themselves! But once you get 20 or 30 plugins running, the often conflict in terms of user experience, and ultimately lead to browser instability.
Don't get me wrong...I won't be going back to IE. But I think a 'vanilla' version of Firefox or Opera is what most people will be considering, when moving away from IE. a better approach would be to 'adopt' plugins into the base code with each major release...gradually increase the featureset, that can be enabled/disabled via the default install.
I was in Futureshop here in Toronto the other day...came face to face with an advertisement for "Bambi 2"... BAMBI 2??!?!? They're making a sequel to a 50 year old movie for crying out loud...
We'll still see a Toy Story 3 one day, just not in the immediate future. Its as inevitable as the an american manufacturing job being outsourced to China...
Warren Buffett is good at making money. For him to do anything else would be a waste of talent.
On the other hand, he's proven himself to be a great judge of character, and a reasonable and moral man.
His foundation's objective will be to 'do something big'. $49 billion. What could you do with that?
Cure one for of nasty cancer maybe? Focus 100% on treating, curing, and eliminating AIDS? Build a new education model for the 21st century that all countries could implement, that is both flexible and practical?
Heck, maybe they just buy the top 10 or 20 medical patents outright, give them away for free, and let the free market adapt?
$49 million is slightly more than an endowment fund for a unversity. Its actually more than a university. Its a way to break a paradigm... few people are enabled to do that.
Slashdot Mirror
I don't see how this applies to the discussion... You aren't legally allowed to use a car on public roads unless you can prove you have a driver's license (sure, you can do it, but you're breaking the law. Good chance you won't get caught, though). But what does this have to do with easily sharing copywritten music?
I agree that its illegal, but my point is the car manufacturer should not be constrained in their design to enforce the law in this regard. My point is that apple is building limitations in their devices to protect someone else's legal interests, when its completely irrelevant to what the product does. It plays music. No one is physical injured, had their quality of life impact, or damaged the environment by this device playing music -- that should be the total 'external' design constraint, aside from physical properties of the construction materials and ability to makret/sell the product.
I'll skip the betamax situation since i'm not a lawyer, and as a canadian the legal result has no direct impact on me..
3. Because the RAW format for my Nikon or Canon cameras is proprietary, both of those companies have some proportional rights to the pictures I take with my cameras. No - their agreement with you is that you have full rights to the pictures. This has nothing to do with music, where you have very specific rights.
This is wrong. Nikon encrypts the NEF (RAW) file white balance information. I can be sued/injured under the DCMA for decrypting the settings of my exposure so that I can use it in another non-Nikon program. Its my picutre, my white balance configuration, Nikon's data. My output is not my own; Nikon could issue an injunction to prevent me from using my own information.
Are you criticizing the design of the product, or copyright law? Because the former is designed to obey the latter. It's not a chicken and egg thing - copyright came first.
I am criticising the unnecessary influence of copyright law on physical design. Copying an ipod design and selling it as "UbergrendlePod" should be illegal. Creating a device -- photocopier, VCR, iPod, DVD player, computer hard disk -- that has the capability of copyright circumvention should not be illegal. Apple has gone one step further and BUILT IN copyright protection features that consumers do not want, and aren't necessary for a portable music player.
Following your logic, consider the following:
1. I should not be allowed to use a car unless I can prove that I have a driver's license. Mag strip swipe by the ignition maybe?
2. I should not be allowed to fast forward commercials on my VCR or TIVO. In fact, its probably illegal for me not to watch the programs real time, since the rights structure for TV content is all 'broadcast' e.g. real time) related.
3. Because the RAW format for my Nikon or Canon cameras is proprietary, both of those companies have some proportional rights to the pictures I take with my cameras.
Its a mini harddrive, with an audio out, with a fancy gui -- that's all. All the abstraction layered ontop of it was a design decision, and we have the right as consumers to critcise those design decision. Especially when they are artificial constraints upon physical properties of the product.
I wish I had mod points for you. Its the only CRPG that I replayed from scratch multiple times. I also made sure I had a complete set of CDs, with a burned set of mod packs and patches, stored safely away for the future ... over time it will get harder and harder to play.
Only thing that came close to Shadows of Amn was Planescape -- it too was genre bending.
I think we've lost alot with the emphasis on 3d graphics. I miss the isometric view and artistic vision of the game designers.
RIP Black Isle.
I think when you buy a solid brand name, its like an insurance policy. For example, in this case, maybe a Snapper mower doesn't cost twice as much as a Crapola 2000, but the retail price _is_ twice as much.
Many customers will consider the Snapper name _worth_ the price, as its a sign of quality. The premium is not necessarily for the value of the product, but also as compensation for less hassel, less complications, guaranteed performance.
For example, a Honda Civic is not that much better than a GM Cobalt from a feature/function perspective. But people will pay a 20-40% premium for the brand name and model. Why? Ease of ownership. Its not even cost of ownership...even with several repair bills a GM Cobalt probably has a lower TCO than a Civic, but the Civic is the #1 vehicle in Canada, probably for the last decade or so.
First off, as a Torontian and a lifelong lover of Tolkiens middle earth writings, I'd like to apologise to my fellow Slashdotters for my city hosting this offense-to-art.
One thing people should know is that Toronto's new opera house -- Canada's first dedicated opera house -- is opening next fall. For this debut, the Canadian Opera Company is producing its first complete Ring Cycle. Several prominent Canadian movie directors have been involved in direction (Atom Egoyan, Francois Girard) and the individual performances in years preceeding the cycle's debut have been very well received.
Given the timing, I see this production of LOTR as an attempt to undermine the COC's upcoming prominence. LOTR already has a large mindshare amongst the population in general due to the movies, and it has a RING in it (do not underestimate the mundacity of musical producers marketing skills!). Mirvish's theatres on King St West are facing increasing competition from other fringe theatres, plus movies, plus now a real Opera house in Toronto.
Given these competitive pressures, plus the prevalence of the 'ring' theme in media, the LOTR musical should be seen for what it is -- a market friendly family event @ $120 a ticket. I doubt half of the eventual audience will even know that Tolkien was English or taught at Oxford.
I understand what you're arguning -- be mercenary about your job applications.
However, certifications are a scam of the highest order. A universtiy degree/college diploma takes 3-5 years to complete, but once its completed its universally accepted and never expires. Certiciations? 2 year renewal revenue streams.
I decided to avoid a career path in IT where certifications are needed. Its a hamster wheel from which there is no escape, and most likely if you're higher for such specific activites, your a commodity akin to kleenex.
Yojimbo is the commonly told story, but the sequel Sanjuro is just as enjoyable. 2 pre-made, ready to film movies.
He's already lifted from the Hidden Fortress heavily, why not continue working it? I doubt 99% of his target audience even know of Yojimbo, let alone the plot to Sanjuro.
PS Sanjuro has the best final sequence to an action movie, ever.
I think it would be fairly difficult to get CounterStrike:Source running through a webclient. IE is fairly bloated code to begin with...
;)
Although I agree that Microsoft's primary concern is to protect their marketshare and revenue, i don't think its fair to paint their other concerns in a nefarious light.
If, as an unwitting noobie user, price compare (as I would with any other product) and find a cheaper price online at eBay, I'd probably buy it. Best price wins, right? Except Microsoft holds a monopoly and fixes the prices effectively... so it doesn't really benefit you to shop around. Buying cheap on eBay is a risky venture.
Also, trojans, spyware, etc ARE indeed loaded on these questionable packages. How many ISOs of WinXP are floating around the net? How many would you actually trust?
I have problems with a) microsoft price-fixing, b) anti-trust practices with OEMs, and c) overly restrictive (and probably illegal anyways) end user agreements. But that doesn't mean that stopping piracy for profit is illegitimate.
Its a valid concern. I think the scenarios though vary between a) right to legal counsel, vs b) criminal conspiracy.
Sitation a:
"We have discovered that we inadvertently violated federal election laws pertaining to product Diebold A1. What are the legal ramifications? What do we need to disclose, if anything?"
Situation b:
"We can save alot of money selling product Diebold A1, but it violates federal election laws. How do we avoid being caught? What evidence should we forge to avoid legal culpability?"
Big difference between the two.
I agree 100%. In a counter-intuitive fashion, eBay continually degrades year after year in terms of user experience, fee structure, fraud, etc.
Yahoo auctions, and others, were never quite successful at defeating eBay since they tried to be too much like eBay IMHO. eBay has the benefit of being the largest _current_ marketplace. But if Google could deliver a low-fee replacement leveraging its other properties (gmail, groups, maps, gbank?) they might be able be successful. The great thing I like about Google is their low-complexity UI and experience -- something eBay is definitely lacking.
My biggest hope for Google is for them to introduce and back a micropayments infrastrucutre. THAT would change the world.
Yes I'm aware of abortion clinic bombers. If they were threatening Yahoo with attacks for running pro-choice advertisements or message posts, and Yahoo instituted a policy banning the subject material, then I'd have the same position.
:)
I'm aware of alot of bad things radical christians (IRA anyone?) have done.
let me make my point more clear: Yahoo is overreacting to the islamic terrorism boogeyman, specifically in the fallout of this cartoon debacle. Do no confuse their actions as a politically correct approach to respecting all religions: Jesus Christ; Jevovah; and the Flying Spaghetti Monster are all not filtered. This is caving into fear of ONE group that is prominent in recent years... and Yahoo's self-censorship does nothing other than embolden those who use violence; its proof that their technique works.
I've gone from -1 Flamebait to +5 Insightful back to -1 Flamebait in the last 30 minutes. I'll be interested where this ends up!
On the whole, Christians don't threaten death to company executives or members of the press if they disagree with their opinions. Jews, Christains, Atheists...there's lots of wackos amongst those groups, but in the last few decades radical islam wins hands down for self-righteous violence and terror.
Make no mistake -- Yahoo is behaving cowardly in this instance. This has nothing to do with respecting other cultures, and all about avoiding undue attention to the corporate entity. Clearly in this case, terrorism has be effective.
IIRC correctly, the #1 predator of homo sapiens the last million years or so the leopard. Almost as big and strong as a lion, but with better night vision and likes to hunt in underbrush. Effective along or in small groups.
I saw a National Geographic episode recently where two leopards were hunting together. Gazelles (impalas?) have very accute hearing...even in the pitch dark it was very difficult to sneak up on a dozing pack. So what one leopard does is stay with the pack, the other leopard travels about 2 km away and finds ANOTHER pack of gazelles. It charges right into the pack, and herds it towards the other sleeping pack... yum, chaos ensures, after which the leopards chow down like christmas dinner. Very clever tactical thinking, I pity our less advanced ancestors...
Two things to consider: educational background has little relevance to one's capabiltiy of doing many corporate jobs. He's proven that with an 11 year successful internal record. I've seen it personally time and time again. The best development manager I ever worked for was a philosophy major in university. I personally have fired an MIT grad and opted to retain the community college grad, based on actual peformance, work ethic, and team mindedness.
The other is the peter principle...one rises to the level of one's own inability. Unfortunately, the role of CEO requires very diffierent skills from top sales associate, or even head of marketing. His lack of success as CEO can just as easily be explained by a) inheriting a mess, b) lack of board support, and c) not the right man for the job. The educational question is probably just a hatchet job done to justify his removal after the fact -- "We've got a problem with Bob...find a reason to fire him!"
Yet another strong argument in favour of micropayments. Apple might have tried something prior to now, but the licensing terms of the RIAA has really knee-capped them in this regard. RIAA sees the iPod and iTunes as a threat...what they don't realise is that as long as one body is strong enough to maintain a virtual monopoly, they only have to regulate one source. They're not having as much luck with allofmp3.com it looks like...
Sometimes old hardware isn't worth saving because it contains too many complexities, or design mistakes, to keep running.
For every DC-3 or B-52 bomber that's flying 50+ years later, there's a dozen lesser models that never made it that far. One of the success factors for these planes were their elegance -- simple but sufficient components that are easily maintained and replaced.
Unfortunately I don't think the space shuttles fit into this category. We've learned alot from them...but probably more of 'what not to do' than 'lets build 20 more!'.
I think canibalising it for parts is a good short-term move, when the program wraps up though I agree they should find a way to preserve the learnings of the shuttle program. Lets hope its replacement is safer, cheaper, and more effective!
Its important to note that many major religions consider evil merely to be the absence of good. This is why for some, ammorality = evil, whereas for others ammorality = neutral.
Using the AD&D Players' Handbook to define a personal code of mortality is kind of like using a Dvorak magazine article to define an global enterprise IT architecture...
Hey, we have a number of anti-spam statues here*, isn't Australia where most people in the Commonwealth send their criminals?
;)
Ba-dum-bum!
* sadly, no we don't
** can we have a Summer Games althete(s) as compensation?
While not a _great_ movie, I always thought the more serious tone towards space travel in 2010 made it worthwhile to watch.
Granted, hard-core sci-fi films just aren't made in Hollywood. Even the 'best' sci-fi films tend to be more science-fantasy than science fiction: Dark City, Metropolis, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Brazil, 12 Monkeys, etc etc.
I'm still trying to figure out why its bad when Microsoft is restrictive, but when its Apple's modus operandi everyone ooohs and ahhhs over each technological development? If you buy Microsoft's products, you subscribe to their vision of the 'platform'... if it diverges from what you want to accomplish, then don't bother buying it!
Ultimately this will just drive the technologically inquisitive towards linux. Linux won't displace Windows or even OS/X today, or tomorrow, or next year. But after a generation of high school kids tweaking in their basement, and with linux ported onto every hardware platform known to man, it will be too late for Microsoft to do anything about it. If technology skills in linux are legion, but microsoft development is expensive and hard to find, the marketplace will shift by itself naturally.
I'm not too concerned about h/w makers and DRM. The PC industry is mostly comprised of 3rd party generic components...if there's a market for non-DRM hardware, you'll be able to buy it.
You're probably right that a fake warrant would work, however... well, I'd hate to see the penalty for being caught for theft _AND_ impersonating federal authorities. PYITAP (pound you in the a** prison) is invented for such occasions I would guess...
Mod parent up. I consider myself a bit of a software gear-head (love to try everything and the kitchen sink, tweak until the cows come home, etc) and I've stopped experimenting with the plug-ins. Most work -- by themselves! But once you get 20 or 30 plugins running, the often conflict in terms of user experience, and ultimately lead to browser instability.
Don't get me wrong...I won't be going back to IE. But I think a 'vanilla' version of Firefox or Opera is what most people will be considering, when moving away from IE. a better approach would be to 'adopt' plugins into the base code with each major release...gradually increase the featureset, that can be enabled/disabled via the default install.
I was in Futureshop here in Toronto the other day...came face to face with an advertisement for "Bambi 2"... BAMBI 2??!?!? They're making a sequel to a 50 year old movie for crying out loud...
We'll still see a Toy Story 3 one day, just not in the immediate future. Its as inevitable as the an american manufacturing job being outsourced to China...
Warren Buffett is good at making money. For him to do anything else would be a waste of talent.
On the other hand, he's proven himself to be a great judge of character, and a reasonable and moral man.
His foundation's objective will be to 'do something big'. $49 billion. What could you do with that?
Cure one for of nasty cancer maybe? Focus 100% on treating, curing, and eliminating AIDS? Build a new education model for the 21st century that all countries could implement, that is both flexible and practical?
Heck, maybe they just buy the top 10 or 20 medical patents outright, give them away for free, and let the free market adapt?
$49 million is slightly more than an endowment fund for a unversity. Its actually more than a university. Its a way to break a paradigm... few people are enabled to do that.