It was made to have a small footprint, it is only a little wider than your body, size shouldn't be a problem.
But the human body is somewhat amorphous. I can turn, squeeze, suck-in-my-gut, etc. to get in and out of tight situations. I am a fast walker and invariably I find myself squeezing past people, jumping on and off of the curb, and taking other various detours. At 10-17 MPH this would be even more common. The segway just won't work well in highly populated areas.
I think the best way to look at it is like this. If you are pro-Microsoft then you are probably ok with the settlement since it is fairly cushy. You are not going to send in the equivalent of a "me too" post and you know that you're not going to see the original ruling overturned.
If you are middle ground then you probably won't be moved enough to do anything. You definitely aren't going to want to be seen taking Microsoft's side.
If you are anti-Microsoft then you have been steaming for years and are bursting with comments. The settlement proposed would make you anger all the more potent (and verbal).
Just because they didn't find anything it doesn't mean he wasn't going to do something. If I am a cop and I see a kid with a gas mask at a protest I am going to definitely just looking for him to do something wrong. I'd rather the kid be detained, questioned and released then ignored so that he can cause destruction.
Whenever a dissident is found with a big recycling container full of glass bottles (imagine that, an environmentalist who recycles!), the police always like to claim that it is bomb-making materials. Read the text of the hearing transcript and it is clear that the facts aren't exactly clear.
From the transcript: There were two Molotov cocktails that were in various states of finality. There was one which actually had the wick in it, I understand, from the FBI agent, and it was tested. The materials were tested to determine what was inside, and it was later determined -- the FBI determined that it did contain [p]etroleum products.
Do you keep gas and a wick in your glass to be recycled?
When they picked him up in New York he had no id, a gas mask, a lighter and a black mask. Just your average tourist? Sounds like he wasn't planning on taking in a Broadway show.
He also has not been totally cleared yet. They are still investigating so I am sure we will hear his name again soon.
From the transcripts: "In fact, Your Honor, the defendant was also -- when he was arrested by the NYPD had no identification on him. What he had was a lighter, a black mask, and a gas mask."
I did say a lot and not all. A lot is a very vaque term and I used it intentionally. A company that has been beaten and bruised by Microsoft over the years is much more likely to take the time (and money in the case of the lawyers who wrote these things) to comment on the case. The companies that have ridden on the coattails of Microsoft are not going to respond at all because they don't want to piss off Microsoft and they don't want to appear to be siding with the "criminal."
I did start a couple of them but they are, for the most part, mired in legalese that I just can't deal with right now. It is true that my assumption is speculation and only time will tell but I did qualify it by using an entirely vaque quantitive term - a lot.
I did overstate by using the word destruction. I meant more along the lines of demoralization (can a company be demoralized?) or just plain beaten I guess.
The fact that a majority of the opinions are against the settlement is really a testament to common sense.
Actually it is not. It is a testament to the fact that people are much more likely to complain than they are to compliment. Ask the manager at your local grocery store or a restaurant owner which they get more of.
The fact is that a lot (not all mind you) of the respondents are either companies that have a vested interest in the destruction of Microsoft (AOL, Oracle, Sun, etc.) or anti-Microsoft zealots. I think that if you polled the whole country you would find a lot more Microsoft sympathizers than these comments would indicate.
I am not saying I am one of those so please don't flame me.
The trademark owner doesn't have to sue. They can just get it in the sunrise period. That'sthe whole point. After that they wouldn't sue. Under dot-us they are bound to the uniform dispute resolution policy.
Take a look at the letter or the website and a lot of your questions will be answered.
I agree that in the computing public, even those pro-Microsoft, have lost a lot of faith in them. Unfortunately, at least where I work, we have to cater to the users. Just the upgrade from NT4 to 2000 was a political nightmare even though it went without a hitch. People are paranoid as all hell about any changes.
By the way, the last 3 VP's is not that difficult for most people because they are pretty humurous. Dick Cheney's safe location, Al Gore's internet, and Dan Quayle's potatoe [sic].
From the site:
Existing.US registrants (domain name holders) within the "locality space" will retain rights to their existing Internet addresses. In fact, existing domain name holders will benefit from many of the operational improvements and improved security and service levels NeuStar will introduce within.US.
Well since you are registering a third level domain - ***.ks.us - you should be fine. They are not getting rid of the locality specific domains and Sony doesn't have any special claim on third level domains. You can
From the site:
Existing.US registrants (domain name holders) within the "locality space" will retain rights to their existing Internet addresses. In fact, existing domain name holders will benefit from many of the operational improvements and improved security and service levels NeuStar will introduce within.US.
The question is - has the average user actually lost trust in Microsoft? I know so many average (and below-average) users who know next to nothing about the security problems. At work all the patches are delivered invisibly to them and at home they have dial up connections and don't stay on long enough to be a real target. The few people who have fallen victim to the Outlook viruses feel more embarassed at their own stupidity than they feel angry at Microsoft.
The public conception of Microsoft is very far from that of the average Slashdot reader. I overheard on the subway the other day a woman raving about how much she loves Windows XP. She was telling this other woman that she added memory and upgraded to XP and it is like having a brand new machine. I felt like asking her if she downloaded the UPnP patch but I try to avoid talking to people on the subway. I also work with hundreds of people who love Windows 2000.
So there in lies part of the problem. The public doesn't really know and for the most part doesn't care about the problems. Try going to an average user and explaining all of this to them and see if you don't get the look. We have to seriously root for Microsoft to fix the security holes not because they need to improve their image but because the average user doesn't care.
You are right on the money. I have a fairly uncommon family name but I live in New York and there is another person with the same full name (not sure about middle initial). That person's name actually pops up in the newspaper every so often because they work doing PR at a New York City hospital.
Perhaps if you read the whole quote it would clear things up - "Free registration of second-level domains under.us were supposed to go live shortly."
From the website:
What are some of the expected changes to.US?
Soon, for the first time in history,.US registrations will be available at the second level (e.g., johnsmith.us, publicservice.us, mycompany.us). Currently names are only available in the "locality space" at the third level and above (e.g., www.county.arlington.va.us).
This is not exactly how the sunrise period works. During the sunrise period only valid US trademark holders (or pending trademark holders) can register a dot-us domain name. Just having a dot-com doesn't mean that you have a dot-us.
After the sunrise period is over the remaining domains will be allocated randomly in cases of multiple people registering the same domain.
Here in New York the MTA went from www.mta.nyc.ny.us to just www.mta.info. Before that I also had to search for them (as I just did to get their old address) but now I can easily memorize it.
The Supreme Court in 1996 actually reduced the power of juries fairly significantly in patent lawsuits by saying that ""Judges, not juries, are better suited to find the acquired meaning of patent terms"
Basically judges interprets the patent and the jury nods their head. So don't always blame my peers.
There is a story behind the name. I spent many years using my first initial and my last name as my userid everywhere. This was inherited from the very early days in college and it stuck. In the last year or so I got sick of it but all the cool names were taken so I was talking with somebody about Fraggle Rock and inspiration stuck. Of course, in today's litigious society I swapped it around to become RazzleFrog (as opposed to RazzleFrock which sounded like something you would wear).
While Amex fees may be higher it is the de-facto standard for corporate cards and therefore it is a huge advantage that PayPal now accepts them.
Re:Licensure does not Mean What You Might Think
on
Losing the War on Patents
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Spoken like a true lawyer. What you forget is that these "unscrupulous companies" are receiving the legal advice on unscrupulous lawyers, whether internally or externally. The lawyers go into these cases expecting a settlement. They get paid boatloads of cash either way and it is usually a lot less work than going to court. I'm curious how many of these settlements happen between lawyers while playing golf and charging the client $300/hr.
Also, on your comparison of techies and lawyers, most corporate techies I know work in cramped cubicles while most corporate lawyers (the real ones not the aides and assistants) I know have large offices swimming in mahogony and plush leather chairs. I think there is a slight difference there.
Another rant of the uninformed. Selling "stuff" online was not obvious in the late 80's. They also don't have a patent on selling "stuff". They have a patent for a technique for "electronic sales and distribution of digital audio or video signals," specifically over a "telecommunications line."
It is not our patent system that is "horrifically broken". It is up to the court system (checks and balances of our 3 branches of government) to make the final decision on patents. The problem is that people are taking patents that are for something very specific and trying to apply them to general uses. There is nothing wrong with the patent, there is something wrong with the money hungry lawyers who know that there is no such thing as losing a lawsuit for them.
Bertelsmann, the company that owns CDNow, is a VERY big company with lots of money to spare. If they want to fight this to the death I think they can long outlast SightSound.
Slashdot Mirror
It was made to have a small footprint, it is only a little wider than your body, size shouldn't be a problem.
But the human body is somewhat amorphous. I can turn, squeeze, suck-in-my-gut, etc. to get in and out of tight situations. I am a fast walker and invariably I find myself squeezing past people, jumping on and off of the curb, and taking other various detours. At 10-17 MPH this would be even more common. The segway just won't work well in highly populated areas.
I think the best way to look at it is like this. If you are pro-Microsoft then you are probably ok with the settlement since it is fairly cushy. You are not going to send in the equivalent of a "me too" post and you know that you're not going to see the original ruling overturned.
If you are middle ground then you probably won't be moved enough to do anything. You definitely aren't going to want to be seen taking Microsoft's side.
If you are anti-Microsoft then you have been steaming for years and are bursting with comments. The settlement proposed would make you anger all the more potent (and verbal).
Just because they didn't find anything it doesn't mean he wasn't going to do something. If I am a cop and I see a kid with a gas mask at a protest I am going to definitely just looking for him to do something wrong. I'd rather the kid be detained, questioned and released then ignored so that he can cause destruction.
Whenever a dissident is found with a big recycling container full of glass bottles (imagine that, an environmentalist who recycles!), the police always like to claim that it is bomb-making materials. Read the text of the hearing transcript and it is clear that the facts aren't exactly clear.
From the transcript: There were two Molotov cocktails that were in various states of finality. There was one which actually had the wick in it, I understand, from the FBI agent, and it was tested. The materials were tested to determine what was inside, and it was later determined -- the FBI determined that it did contain [p]etroleum products.
Do you keep gas and a wick in your glass to be recycled?
When they picked him up in New York he had no id, a gas mask, a lighter and a black mask. Just your average tourist? Sounds like he wasn't planning on taking in a Broadway show.
He also has not been totally cleared yet. They are still investigating so I am sure we will hear his name again soon.
From the transcripts: "In fact, Your Honor, the defendant was also -- when he was arrested by the NYPD had no identification on him. What he had was a lighter, a black mask, and a gas mask."
Guess they should have waited to do something.
I did say a lot and not all. A lot is a very vaque term and I used it intentionally. A company that has been beaten and bruised by Microsoft over the years is much more likely to take the time (and money in the case of the lawyers who wrote these things) to comment on the case. The companies that have ridden on the coattails of Microsoft are not going to respond at all because they don't want to piss off Microsoft and they don't want to appear to be siding with the "criminal."
I did start a couple of them but they are, for the most part, mired in legalese that I just can't deal with right now. It is true that my assumption is speculation and only time will tell but I did qualify it by using an entirely vaque quantitive term - a lot.
I did overstate by using the word destruction. I meant more along the lines of demoralization (can a company be demoralized?) or just plain beaten I guess.
Was that a mispost? I don't think I said anything about the quantity of the comments.
The fact that a majority of the opinions are against the settlement is really a testament to common sense.
Actually it is not. It is a testament to the fact that people are much more likely to complain than they are to compliment. Ask the manager at your local grocery store or a restaurant owner which they get more of.
The fact is that a lot (not all mind you) of the respondents are either companies that have a vested interest in the destruction of Microsoft (AOL, Oracle, Sun, etc.) or anti-Microsoft zealots. I think that if you polled the whole country you would find a lot more Microsoft sympathizers than these comments would indicate.
I am not saying I am one of those so please don't flame me.
So far offtopic but I can't resist:
Here in the US currency paper is composed of 25% linen and 75% cotton. No trees.
The trademark owner doesn't have to sue. They can just get it in the sunrise period. That'sthe whole point. After that they wouldn't sue. Under dot-us they are bound to the uniform dispute resolution policy.
Take a look at the letter or the website and a lot of your questions will be answered.
I agree that in the computing public, even those pro-Microsoft, have lost a lot of faith in them. Unfortunately, at least where I work, we have to cater to the users. Just the upgrade from NT4 to 2000 was a political nightmare even though it went without a hitch. People are paranoid as all hell about any changes.
By the way, the last 3 VP's is not that difficult for most people because they are pretty humurous. Dick Cheney's safe location, Al Gore's internet, and Dan Quayle's potatoe [sic].
At the risk of a redundant mod:
.US registrants (domain name holders) within the "locality space" will retain rights to their existing Internet addresses. In fact, existing domain name holders will benefit from many of the operational improvements and improved security and service levels NeuStar will introduce within .US.
From the site:
Existing
Well since you are registering a third level domain - ***.ks.us - you should be fine. They are not getting rid of the locality specific domains and Sony doesn't have any special claim on third level domains. You can
.US registrants (domain name holders) within the "locality space" will retain rights to their existing Internet addresses. In fact, existing domain name holders will benefit from many of the operational improvements and improved security and service levels NeuStar will introduce within .US.
From the site:
Existing
The question is - has the average user actually lost trust in Microsoft? I know so many average (and below-average) users who know next to nothing about the security problems. At work all the patches are delivered invisibly to them and at home they have dial up connections and don't stay on long enough to be a real target. The few people who have fallen victim to the Outlook viruses feel more embarassed at their own stupidity than they feel angry at Microsoft.
The public conception of Microsoft is very far from that of the average Slashdot reader. I overheard on the subway the other day a woman raving about how much she loves Windows XP. She was telling this other woman that she added memory and upgraded to XP and it is like having a brand new machine. I felt like asking her if she downloaded the UPnP patch but I try to avoid talking to people on the subway. I also work with hundreds of people who love Windows 2000.
So there in lies part of the problem. The public doesn't really know and for the most part doesn't care about the problems. Try going to an average user and explaining all of this to them and see if you don't get the look. We have to seriously root for Microsoft to fix the security holes not because they need to improve their image but because the average user doesn't care.
You are right on the money. I have a fairly uncommon family name but I live in New York and there is another person with the same full name (not sure about middle initial). That person's name actually pops up in the newspaper every so often because they work doing PR at a New York City hospital.
Perhaps if you read the whole quote it would clear things up - "Free registration of second-level domains under .us were supposed to go live shortly."
.US?
.US registrations will be available at the second level (e.g., johnsmith.us, publicservice.us, mycompany.us). Currently names are only available in the "locality space" at the third level and above (e.g., www.county.arlington.va.us).
From the website:
What are some of the expected changes to
Soon, for the first time in history,
This is not exactly how the sunrise period works. During the sunrise period only valid US trademark holders (or pending trademark holders) can register a dot-us domain name. Just having a dot-com doesn't mean that you have a dot-us.
After the sunrise period is over the remaining domains will be allocated randomly in cases of multiple people registering the same domain.
Here in New York the MTA went from www.mta.nyc.ny.us to just www.mta.info. Before that I also had to search for them (as I just did to get their old address) but now I can easily memorize it.
The Supreme Court in 1996 actually reduced the power of juries fairly significantly in patent lawsuits by saying that ""Judges, not juries, are better suited to find the acquired meaning of patent terms"
Basically judges interprets the patent and the jury nods their head. So don't always blame my peers.
It's offtopic but I am maxed out anyway.
There is a story behind the name. I spent many years using my first initial and my last name as my userid everywhere. This was inherited from the very early days in college and it stuck. In the last year or so I got sick of it but all the cool names were taken so I was talking with somebody about Fraggle Rock and inspiration stuck. Of course, in today's litigious society I swapped it around to become RazzleFrog (as opposed to RazzleFrock which sounded like something you would wear).
This also explains my high 500000+ slashdot ID.
While Amex fees may be higher it is the de-facto standard for corporate cards and therefore it is a huge advantage that PayPal now accepts them.
Spoken like a true lawyer. What you forget is that these "unscrupulous companies" are receiving the legal advice on unscrupulous lawyers, whether internally or externally. The lawyers go into these cases expecting a settlement. They get paid boatloads of cash either way and it is usually a lot less work than going to court. I'm curious how many of these settlements happen between lawyers while playing golf and charging the client $300/hr.
Also, on your comparison of techies and lawyers, most corporate techies I know work in cramped cubicles while most corporate lawyers (the real ones not the aides and assistants) I know have large offices swimming in mahogony and plush leather chairs. I think there is a slight difference there.
Another rant of the uninformed. Selling "stuff" online was not obvious in the late 80's. They also don't have a patent on selling "stuff". They have a patent for a technique for "electronic sales and distribution of digital audio or video signals," specifically over a "telecommunications line."
It is not our patent system that is "horrifically broken". It is up to the court system (checks and balances of our 3 branches of government) to make the final decision on patents. The problem is that people are taking patents that are for something very specific and trying to apply them to general uses. There is nothing wrong with the patent, there is something wrong with the money hungry lawyers who know that there is no such thing as losing a lawsuit for them.
CDNow = Dot.com survivor, yet damaged and broke
Bertelsmann, the company that owns CDNow, is a VERY big company with lots of money to spare. If they want to fight this to the death I think they can long outlast SightSound.