Even IF Judge Jackson comes back and finds MS has violated anti-trust laws, the sentencing from this trial is several years off from being enacted.
So while we're thinking of the best thing in the current moment, maybe we should be thinking about what's best in a few years from now.
It's really tempting to say, "Hey, let's break up MS, like Ma Bell back in the eighties." But Microsoft is no ma bell. The biggest difference that while Ma Bell restricted access to its long distance lines, Microsoft only inhibited it.
And besides, what happens when you break up Microsoft? Three or Four baby microsofts still capable of overpowering their competitors for a long time to come.
Ok, so you think that more competition in the office arena will jump in now that MS Office is spun off into another company? Think again. This theoretical new division would still OWN MS office and still be years ahead of their closest competitor.
I read "Ender's Game", and liked it so much that I read "Lost Boys." This was a mistake.
The main plot of "Lost Boys" is obscured in all these little details. Instead of sticking with the main plot, the book explores into ad nauseum every little detail that takes place in their daily lives. The focus of the book is also wrong. Character development occurs primarily on the father of the family, leaving the son, the most important character like a distant, obscure, emotionless entity that happens to lives in the same house. Moreover, in order for the end to make any sense, the reader is forced to make a "leap of faith" he didn't have to when the story first started. In one sense it is a murder mystery that ends as a fairy tale.
"Lost Boys" started out as a short story. It just didn't scale well to a novel.
"Ender's Game" was a _very_ good novel. After reading "Lost Boys", I'm tempted to skip reading "Ender's Shadow".
Does anybody else remember this? There was a site that posted a photograph on the net, breaking the owner's copyright. The owner sued, not only the person who posted the picture, but the sites that linked to the picture, and to the sites that linked to the sites that linked to the picture.
The suit on the sites that linked to the copyright violater was eventually dropped, but not after making enough noise to scare the bejesus out of several website owners.
There's are more lawsuits happening over people linking to other sites. Right now, Ticketmaster is fighting tickets.com in court. If you want a ticket, go to tickets.com and in many cases tickets.com will link you to the ticketmaster webpage. Ticketmaster is suing because tickets.com is making it's business off the Ticketmaster web page.
I do NOT see any difference between linking to a site or publishing the URL for a web page to specifically buy tickets. Moreover, you can't be held liable for merely linking to a site that provides illegal content. But my guess is, the courts will see it differently. Especially with the Ticketmaster lawsuit.
It's the end of the World Wide Web as we know it, and I'm going to puke.
There ought to be a book on how to ruin a brand name -- perhaps if no other reason, people won't refer to the Amiga as the textbook example.
The Amiga was ruined by three companies overall: Commodore, Escom, and now Gateway. If there was ever the chance that I was going to buy an neo-Amiga box, it went out the window with this latest announcement.
The Amiga brand name was worth a couple million dollars to Gateway, which was how much they paid for it. They funded it for almost the last couple years, working on it, communicating with the general public. And with today's announcement it almost seems certain that Gateway lost all the "Amiga" market reputation that was left.
This is/was the final straw for the Amiga that we wished for. There is no more hope. It's all over -- finished. Stick a fork in the Amiga -- it's done.
I like slashdot, for the most part, it posts timely, topical news, faster than I get it anywhere else. But I feel I must point out that Slashdot Moderation in it's present and potentially future form is akin to Censorship.
This isn't so bad when there is an article like: "Linux 2.2.x" kernel released, but rather on the more controversial subjects, such as the Kansas School Board. In that case, if a minority voice is not present, a discussion isn't taking place and the result resembles something more like "one hand clapping".
Slashdot Moderators do not moderate the same way an editorial page editor would. Most newspaper editors make sure that minority voices do indeed appear, and that's the problem. If a minority opinion is well voiced, that post has a greater chance of being ignored or marked down by a greater majority of moderators, than the same post voicing the majority opinion.
Will moderating the moderators work? Doubtful. Because you have the same problem. If someone thinks the minority opinion is worth a couple more points, a meta moderator can still punish the moderator for it. Besides who's going to moderate the Meta-Moderators?
Too bad you can't set up a firefly-like system where based upon your preferences and what you've read before, the slashdot engine automatically figures out which comments you will probably be the most interested in, and ranks the comments accordingly.
E.g. I'm not interested in spam or "first poster" articles. But I am interested in what other software developers think are important, but I don't care about which comments might interest Libertarians....etc.
Maybe you didn't know this, but buying and playing video games is a privilege, and not a right. I mean, can you really see the headlines on the front page of the New York Times? "'Teens video game restriction threatens US Constitution, Freedom."
Maybe you didn't know this either, but the government already regulates what you CAN and CAN'T watch on TV. Maybe you missed out on the case of the 7 dirty words you can't say on TV that was argued before the supreme court. Oh, don't feel bad, it's not your fault, the case was settled at least a decade before you were born.
Here's a little lesson in labeling products to take home and study. Newspapers have, for a lack of a better word, content. Information in them are important as they affect how this country works. Video games, well..., um..., don't. And moreover, they're not trying to provide speech, but rather something more like an "immersive gaming environment."
Oh, btw, I didn't call my representative. He already knows it. You apparently don't.
I'm SOOOooo Sorry. There are far worse things than labeling video games and movies and music videos, but apparently we hit the I'd-rather-die-than-to-not-play-my-violent-nintend o-video-games crowd here in slashdot land. There are far worse things in the world than you not being able to sit on your fat phuking ass playing your first-person shooter video game, while eating doritos and listening to vintage 2livecrew albums. Even if it's just dangers to American Freedoms, yes, Bobby, there are, still, far worse things than the government requiring you to sit on your mommy's lap while you reload your virtual rail gun. And the sad thing is, most of these have never been mentioned on slashdot.
Freedom was never lost from what we knew and chose to ignore, but from what we didn't know because we were never told.
In the meantime, ponder this issue:
If my mommy or daddy gets fired, will I need to sell my N64 to eat?
The problem with your argument is that when you think about it, anything transmitted over the internet is really just a series of bytes. The courts have made clear distinctions that what counts is not the fact that you're sending bytes over a T1 line, but what the context and content of those bytes are. The context of those keystrokes he's typing in is, in fact, cryptographic software. And that makes it illegal.
Let's say a developer in the US sends an email with a code fragment including crypto software outside the U.S. According to the courts, this counts as an export violation. However, it is not a violation if he writes his email using plain english to describe the changes without using any code fragments.
The other question you seem to be asking is, "Can you export crypto software imported from other countries?" Still, the answer is no, you can't. Technically, the US sees cryptographic software as a munition, and it is listed with the other munitions restricted for export. So, ask yourself this question: "Would it be illegal for me to export a hand-grenade that I imported from europe without seeking US approval?" No.
Who knows if this will help you. I saw a banner advertising them over at tomshardware.com. Look at their Athlon review, and keep reloading until you see the banner.
It's not a "blow" to our generation, since good politicians back in those days were really thought as heros. Clearly, that's not the case now.
JFK has been remembered as one of our greatest presidents, more or less. He may not have been before he died. After his death, he became immortalized.
And his 3 year old son, saluting his slain father... It's legendary. (Comic books couldn't write a better plot) That single moment will be one of the most defining moments of the last century.
Deep down inside, a lot of our "elders" still remember a time when politics was relatively innocent, and politicians could be trusted. Many believed that JFK jr. would one day return to the White House restoring the dignity to the presidency that had been tarnished by presidents past.
I guess for us GenXers, it's hard to miss something we never had, political leaders that made us dream for a better future.
I have been a child of a USPS mail clerk for many, many years now --So, I'm a tad biassed.;^) There are many things that aren't being mentioned about the USPS, and I just kinda wanted to point these out.
1. The more the Junk Mail that is shipped out, the lower your first class stamp will be. Why? Because the people who have to send mass mailings actually have to PAY to get the USPS to ship it. Current USPS regulations also require that bulk mailings be presorted by zip code when they come into the local branch office. The result, less sorting, and more money for the USPS. And remember kiddies, since the USPS is a government owned corporation (of sorts), it's required to pass savings on to customers.;^)
Compare this model to the Internet model of e-mail, where spam doesn't lower the cost of your internet costs.
2. The USPS is the only body governed by law to handle letter delivery. (Parcels, Overnight, and 2nd day air are special services that other companies can compete with the USPS for.) In other words, it's going to take at least an act of congress to open up competition on the letter delivery side.
3. They cut costs whereever possible to keep the price of a first stamp down. e.g. They use Linux to run their character recognition software. More savings.
4. There's just nothing like getting a personal letter in the mail. Wow. Someone actually took the time to write a letter to you. When was the last time you felt this way about an e-mail.
5. Most e-mail that is sent right now, is sent in the clear. Most paper mail, however, is sent in an envelope.
6. The USPS investigates illegal use of its services, including mail-order scams. It also monitors any employee that handles mail, from mailbox to mailbox to ensure unauthorized opening of the contents. (of course, the government can still open up your mail with a court order, but at least they can't run it through a communist-sympathizer filter during transmit.)
Slashdot Mirror
Cool. Now the cool geeks will have kitty cams on the web, rather than the passe' web cams of years past.
--R
Even IF Judge Jackson comes back and finds MS has violated anti-trust laws, the sentencing from this trial is several years off from being enacted.
So while we're thinking of the best thing in the current moment, maybe we should be thinking about
what's best in a few years from now.
It's really tempting to say, "Hey, let's break up MS, like Ma Bell back in the eighties." But Microsoft is no ma bell. The biggest difference that while Ma Bell restricted access to its long distance lines, Microsoft only inhibited it.
And besides, what happens when you break up Microsoft? Three or Four baby microsofts still capable of overpowering their competitors for a long time to come.
Ok, so you think that more competition in the office arena will jump in now that MS Office is spun off into another company? Think again. This theoretical new division would still OWN MS office and still be years ahead of their closest competitor.
--R
I read "Ender's Game", and liked it so much that I read "Lost Boys." This was a mistake.
The main plot of "Lost Boys" is obscured in all these little details. Instead of sticking with the main plot, the book explores into ad nauseum every little detail that takes place in their daily lives. The focus of the book is also wrong. Character development occurs primarily on the father of the family, leaving the son, the most important character like a distant, obscure, emotionless entity that happens to lives in the same house. Moreover, in order for the end to make any sense, the reader is forced to make a "leap of faith" he didn't have to when the story first started. In one sense it is a murder mystery that ends as a fairy tale.
"Lost Boys" started out as a short story. It just didn't scale well to a novel.
"Ender's Game" was a _very_ good novel. After reading "Lost Boys", I'm tempted to skip reading "Ender's Shadow".
This isn't the first case of it's kind.
Does anybody else remember this? There was a site that posted a photograph on the net, breaking the owner's copyright. The owner sued, not only the person who posted the picture, but the sites that linked to the picture, and to the sites that linked to the sites that linked to the picture.
The suit on the sites that linked to the copyright violater was eventually dropped, but not after making enough noise to scare the bejesus out of several website owners.
There's are more lawsuits happening over people linking to other sites. Right now, Ticketmaster is fighting tickets.com in court. If you want a ticket, go to tickets.com and in many cases tickets.com will link you to the ticketmaster webpage. Ticketmaster is suing because tickets.com is making it's business off the Ticketmaster web page.
I do NOT see any difference between linking to a site or publishing the URL for a web page to specifically buy tickets. Moreover, you can't be held liable for merely linking to a site that provides illegal content. But my guess is, the courts will see it differently. Especially with the Ticketmaster lawsuit.
It's the end of the World Wide Web as we know it, and I'm going to puke.
There ought to be a book on how to ruin a brand name -- perhaps if no other reason, people won't refer to the Amiga as the textbook example.
The Amiga was ruined by three companies overall: Commodore, Escom, and now Gateway. If there was ever the chance that I was going to buy an neo-Amiga box, it went out the window with this latest announcement.
The Amiga brand name was worth a couple million dollars to Gateway, which was how much they paid for it. They funded it for almost the last couple years, working on it, communicating with the general public. And with today's announcement it almost seems certain that Gateway lost all the "Amiga" market reputation that was left.
This is/was the final straw for the Amiga that we wished for. There is no more hope. It's all over -- finished. Stick a fork in the Amiga -- it's done.
I like slashdot, for the most part, it posts timely, topical news, faster than I get it anywhere else. But I feel I must point out that Slashdot Moderation in it's present and potentially future form is akin to Censorship.
This isn't so bad when there is an article like: "Linux 2.2.x" kernel released, but rather on the more controversial subjects, such as the Kansas School Board. In that case, if a minority voice is not present, a discussion isn't taking place and the result resembles something more like "one hand clapping".
Slashdot Moderators do not moderate the same way an editorial page editor would. Most newspaper editors make sure that minority voices do indeed appear, and that's the problem. If a minority opinion is well voiced, that post has a greater chance of being ignored or marked down by a greater majority of moderators, than the same post voicing the majority opinion.
Will moderating the moderators work? Doubtful. Because you have the same problem. If someone thinks the minority opinion is worth a couple more points, a meta moderator can still punish the moderator for it. Besides who's going to moderate the Meta-Moderators?
Too bad you can't set up a firefly-like system where based upon your preferences and what you've read before, the slashdot engine automatically figures out which comments you will probably be the most interested in, and ranks the comments accordingly.
E.g. I'm not interested in spam or "first poster" articles. But I am interested in what other software developers think are important, but I don't care about which comments might interest Libertarians....etc.
--R
Maybe you didn't know this, but buying and playing video games is a privilege, and not a right. I mean, can you really see the headlines on the front page of the New York Times? "'Teens video game restriction threatens US Constitution, Freedom."
Maybe you didn't know this either, but the government already regulates what you CAN and CAN'T watch on TV. Maybe you missed out on the case of the 7 dirty words you can't say on TV that was argued before the supreme court. Oh, don't feel bad, it's not your fault, the case was settled at least a decade before you were born.
Here's a little lesson in labeling products to take home and study. Newspapers have, for a lack of a better word, content. Information in them are important as they affect how this country works. Video games, well..., um..., don't. And moreover, they're not trying to provide speech, but rather something more like an "immersive gaming environment."
Oh, btw, I didn't call my representative. He already knows it. You apparently don't.
I'm SOOOooo Sorry. There are far worse things than labeling video games and movies and music videos, but apparently we hit the I'd-rather-die-than-to-not-play-my-violent-nintend o-video-games crowd here in slashdot land. There are far worse things in the world than you not being able to sit on your fat phuking ass playing your first-person shooter video game, while eating doritos and listening to vintage 2livecrew albums. Even if it's just dangers to American Freedoms, yes, Bobby, there are, still, far worse things than the government requiring you to sit on your mommy's lap while you reload your virtual rail gun. And the sad thing is, most of these have never been mentioned on slashdot.
Freedom was never lost from what we knew and chose to ignore, but from what we didn't know because we were never told.
In the meantime, ponder this issue:
If my mommy or daddy gets fired, will I need to sell my N64 to eat?
The problem with your argument is that when you think about it, anything transmitted over the internet is really just a series of bytes. The courts have made clear distinctions that what counts is not the fact that you're sending bytes over a T1 line, but what the context and content of those bytes are. The context of those keystrokes he's typing in is, in fact, cryptographic software. And that makes it illegal.
Let's say a developer in the US sends an email with a code fragment including crypto software outside the U.S. According to the courts, this counts as an export violation. However, it is not a violation if he writes his email using plain english to describe the changes without using any code fragments.
The other question you seem to be asking is, "Can you export crypto software imported from other countries?" Still, the answer is no, you can't. Technically, the US sees cryptographic software as a munition, and it is listed with the other munitions restricted for export. So, ask yourself this question: "Would it be illegal for me to export a hand-grenade that I imported from europe without seeking US approval?" No.
Who knows if this will help you. I saw a banner advertising them over at tomshardware.com. Look at their Athlon review, and keep reloading until you see the banner.
It's not a "blow" to our generation, since good politicians back in those days were really thought as heros. Clearly, that's not the case now.
... It's legendary. (Comic books couldn't write a better plot) That single moment will be one of the most defining moments of the last century.
JFK has been remembered as one of our greatest presidents, more or less. He may not have been before he died. After his death, he became immortalized.
And his 3 year old son, saluting his slain father
Deep down inside, a lot of our "elders" still remember a time when politics was relatively innocent, and politicians could be trusted. Many believed that JFK jr. would one day return to the White House restoring the dignity to the presidency that had been tarnished by presidents past.
I guess for us GenXers, it's hard to miss something we never had, political leaders that made us dream for a better future.
I have been a child of a USPS mail clerk for many, many years now --So, I'm a tad biassed. ;^) There are many things that aren't being mentioned about the USPS, and I just kinda wanted to point these out.
;^)
1. The more the Junk Mail that is shipped out, the lower your first class stamp will be. Why? Because the people who have to send mass mailings actually have to PAY to get the USPS to ship it. Current USPS regulations also require that bulk mailings be presorted by zip code when they come into the local branch office. The result, less sorting, and more money for the USPS. And remember kiddies, since the USPS is a government owned corporation (of sorts), it's required to pass savings on to customers.
Compare this model to the Internet model of e-mail, where spam doesn't lower the cost of your internet costs.
2. The USPS is the only body governed by law to handle letter delivery. (Parcels, Overnight, and 2nd day air are special services that other companies can compete with the USPS for.) In other words, it's going to take at least an act of congress to open up competition on the letter delivery side.
3. They cut costs whereever possible to keep the price of a first stamp down. e.g. They use Linux to run their character recognition software. More savings.
4. There's just nothing like getting a personal letter in the mail. Wow. Someone actually took the time to write a letter to you. When was the last time you felt this way about an e-mail.
5. Most e-mail that is sent right now, is sent in the clear. Most paper mail, however, is sent in an envelope.
6. The USPS investigates illegal use of its services, including mail-order scams. It also monitors any employee that handles mail, from mailbox to mailbox to ensure unauthorized opening of the contents. (of course, the government can still open up your mail with a court order, but at least they can't run it through a communist-sympathizer filter during transmit.)