In this case we're talking about whether or not to spend money to stop losing money.
No, we're talking about spending money to prevent your customers from being robbed due to deficiencies in your product.
Same thing.
For an obvious (to slashdotters) analog, compare the total number of damages in billions of dollars caused by security deficiencies in Microsoft products, to the amount of actual financial liability incurred by Microsoft itself.
Here in the United States we live in something called a free country, where we allow individuals to make stupid decisions. As a result, for better or worse, we tend to have a system when the stupid get poorer and the smart get richer. Compare the total number of dollars lost by idiots who play the lottery to the actual financial liability incurred by the state governments which run those lotteries. When you buy a lottery ticket you take a risk that you're going to lose your money. When you buy software from Microsoft you take a risk that it's not going to work perfectly. When you buy a gift card, you take a risk that it's going to get stolen. As long as these risks are presented upfront, there shouldn't be any lawsuits involved in the first place.
Suppose the company in question is Circuit City. How many hundreds of thousands of customer dollars have to be stolen before the amount of dollars that the thefts cost Circuit City corporate warrants them doing something about it?
The money does not have to be stolen to warrant them doing anything about it, only the potential for the money to be stolen needs to be made aware to the person in charge of making the decision. How much in potential losses are needed depends too much on the specifics such as how hard the system is to fix, how much additional protection the fixes will protect, whether or not there is already a sufficient warning on the product, how much benefit the consumers receive from using the gift cards, what percentage of consumers use the gift cards, whether or not there are laws against charging service fees for the gift cards, how long the average float time is for the gift cards, etc, etc, etc, etc. The "Fight Club formula" is a good summary of these factors.
If you don't like capitalism you shouldn't be in Circuit City anyway.
In this case, if the cost of closing the security hole is more than the estimated value of the loss of customer loyalty plus the value of any out of court settlements, then it won't get fixed.
Isn't this the way it should work? Why spend money to fix a problem that virtually no one cares about?
In the case of fight club it's completely different, because we're talking about the loss of lives, not the loss of money. In this case we're talking about whether or not to spend money to stop losing money. A simple greater than or less than approach seems perfectly reasonable.
?In theory, I think there might be potential for what you?re concerned about here, but there?s concerns for peoples? pockets getting picked, too,? said the spokesperson.
does not mean anything remotely close to
One retailer notes that the odds of this occuring are about at the level of being pickpocketed.
AP Chemistry - 9 credits
AP Computer Science AB - 8 credits
AP Calc BC - 8 credits
AP Physics C Mechanics - 4 credits
AP Physics C E&M - 4 credits
AP English - 4 credits
AP some language - 8 credits
AP History - 4 credits
AP Economics - 4 credits
First semester - 21 credits
Second semester - 21 credits
Summer - 8 credits
Third semester - 21 credits
Fourth semester - 21 credits
Getting a degree in two years - Priceless
I managed to get a CS degree in 3 years without taking summer classes and only taking slightly more than the recommended course load. Also I transferred after my first year, which lost a few credits. I'm sure it could be done in 2 years if you took summer classes, more AP tests (I only took Math, Chemistry, CS, and Physics), and the maximum load each semester. The hardest part is managing the prerequisite chains. You need to do some careful planning to pull that part off. Also your choice of minor will probably be limited.
Time still costs money, and that's what I need the most.
My point is that if what you are doing is actually useful, you can find a way to make money. The vast majority of sourceforge is complete crap. Most of the rest simply isn't better than the alternatives. For the few programs which are useful and have no better alternative, there are ways to generate revenue without resorting to begging. What those methods are depend on the particular program in question.
Money can be the difference between us surviving the next disk crash or power supply failure. If people donated just a little bit, may it be in terms of hardware, rack space, etc, it would help alot of the 'little guys' survive.
I'm not going to donate my money to help people do things "the old fashion way" just because they refuse to use a free alternative for distribution and hosting. If you want to charge for hardware, rackspace, etc, the solution is very simple: charge a fee to access your website. I think you'll find that 99% of the people are content to download your software, documentation, news, whatever through much lower cost channels, including sourceforge and peer-to-peer networks.
That's because server space, bandwidth, coffee, electricity, computers, and workspace all cost money.
I seriously doubt these programmers don't already have a computer and workspace. Server space, bandwidth, and electricity are free thanks to sourceforge.
If the work you do benefits others more than the alternatives, there is a way to make money doing that work. Find that way, and you can quit begging others for money.
Convert the credit card numbers into a series of letters. 0=A, 1=B, 2=C, etc. Then if someone breaks into your Microsoft SQL Server, all they'll get is a random string of letters, not your customers' credit card information.
Well, I have news for you. It is a birth right. The number one thing that all of us do from the day we're born is copy, take in, and immitate. There is nothing inherently wrong, destructive, or self centered about copying.
Copyrights are not what they're cracked up to be, and play ruin on those who have the most value to offer society. With a mathematician who could have otherwise coppied a math book and added a few of his own formulas, the copyright market forces him to waste his resources on creating an entirely new book as a seperate market offer. Meanwhile, the Madonna's of the world lavish in wealth while being a relatively unproductive tiny minority. Not that I care about her wealth, but am pissed that it comes at the expense of screwing over productive people.
You're right. The DMCA has not been proven to be a crime. However, I believe it is obvious to any reasonable person with the full facts that the DMCA restrictions on importation and interstate commerce are constitutional.
If that is the case, why isn't he being prosecuted? Why would the prosecutor drop a winnable case, after going through all this trouble already?
Because without Dmitry's testimony, it is highly unlikely that the government will be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty. With his testimony, the case against Elcomsoft should be easy to win.
Well, the guv'mint did say that Dmitry was a former employee of Elcomsoft, when Dmitry has been and still is employee by Elcomsoft. So they did lie in that aspect.
I mentioned that in my post. I consider it to be quite minor and unintentional, so I think the word "lie" is an overstatment.
The rest of guv'mint press release is pretty much a spin, really saying nothing. Dmitry has always cooperated with the guv'mint, just by telling the truth.
I highly doubt that Dmitry's lawyer would have let him testify against himself by making the admissions which he made in federal court if there wasn't some sort of dead. He may not have lied, but I highly doubt he would have told the truth.
E.g., "Acknowledge his conduct in the offense". That's a spin. If a guy is apprehended for a crime. He is _not_ a criminal until proven to be so. Dmitry has _not_ been proven guilty in court. In fact, for this case, even the "offense" (crime) has not been proven in court. Nothing has been proven in court.
If Dmitry didn't commit the crime (and I hate to break it to you, but he did), then Dmitry can sue for libel. Since he did commit the crime, I bet he won't be suing.
In fact, the guv'mint dropped the case against Dmitry. Now, what does that say about the guv'mint's case? Perhas it's bunk?
It says that the government doesn't think it can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that both Dmitry and Elcomsoft are guilty. It most certainly does not say that Dmitry is innocent.
Dood, you got to recognize spin when you see one. It is really easy. Spin is everywhere. No, it is not conspiracy, spin is what people do when they want to protect themelves, gain an advantage, etc.
Spin is spin, and "it turns out that this was all a lie" is spin. When I read the slashdot article, I thought there was a plea bargain. When I went on to read the actual announcement, it became apparent that it was just another case of slashdot making up facts. If anyone is to blame for being misleading, it is slashdot.
There was some sort of capitulation by Sklyarov. He agreed to travel thousands of miles to appear at the trial. He agreed to regularly report by telephone to the U.S. govt. He acknowledged several key facts in the case against Elcomsoft.
The press release was not misleading to those who read it through and did not have any preconceived notions. This is why several people corrected the slashdot article when it was first published.
To say that he is going to testify "against" his employer seems to be a bit much. The various articles say that he will testify and that it is unsure which side will call him first. - tycun (Score 5)
For the rich, their stocks and real property will automatically go up in price to match inflation effects, while any debts they have will go down in real value.
Stocks will go up, but the rise in price will not meet inflation. Some stocks, such as banks and insurance companies, will rise very little (or even fall). Others, such as oil companies, will likely rise at a rate nearing inflation. Those companies with high debt would rise the most, possibly exceeding inflation. Most companies will rise somewhere in between, below inflation.
You are correct about real property, but most of the wealth of the rich is in stocks, bonds, and other investments.
The poor on non-fixed incomes gain no benefit, since they have neither many assets nor much in the way of debt (because poor people aren't loaned much money).
The poor generally are involved in fixed long-term contracts such as rental agreements and car insurance.
Persons on fixed incomes get crushed, as their prices go up while their money goes down in value.
Depends on the type of fixed income, and whether or not it is adjusted for inflation. Those on fixed income which is not inflation adjusted and does not come from the government, who are unable to work may get screwed though.
And the irresponsible memebers of the middle class (those who have gone deep into debt to buy creature comforts) get bailed out, while the responsible ones (those who have been saving for the future in the bank or in bonds) watch their savings evaporate.
Debt is not irresponsible in itself. In fact, having a fair amount of fixed interest debt is an important part of sound financial planning. You don't want to wait until you need it to borrow, because if you do that you'll get stuck with high interest rates. Saving money in the bank or in bonds is not responsible in itself. In fact, having all of your money in the bank is one of the most irresponsible things you can do. Most of the middle class has more debt than fixed income investments.
Turns out that this was all a lie by the Justice Dept.
What exactly was a lie? He did enter into an agreement. The government never said that he admitted guilt. Sure, they screwed up the employment status, but that is likely a minor oversight, not a lie. Much more minor than slashdot's "lie", saying that he agreed to testify against Elcomsoft.
Over time I'd guess this will fall lower, but this is an amazing accomplishment for a fantasy movie.
And the greatest accomplishment of all is getting all the drooling slashdotters to pour their money into AOL-Time-Warner. Don't forget, if you pay the ticket-taker to let you in without a ticket, you don't give any money to AOL (though I discourage this illegal activity).
Inflation is generally not considered a good thing except by the economic illiterate.
Inflation is only a bad thing if it's ongoing and very high. Otherwise it is neither bad nor good, it merely takes wealth from the rich and gives it to the poor. Of course most economics book writers are relatively rich, so inflation is bad for them, hence the common misperception.
Slashdot Mirror
Same thing.
Here in the United States we live in something called a free country, where we allow individuals to make stupid decisions. As a result, for better or worse, we tend to have a system when the stupid get poorer and the smart get richer. Compare the total number of dollars lost by idiots who play the lottery to the actual financial liability incurred by the state governments which run those lotteries. When you buy a lottery ticket you take a risk that you're going to lose your money. When you buy software from Microsoft you take a risk that it's not going to work perfectly. When you buy a gift card, you take a risk that it's going to get stolen. As long as these risks are presented upfront, there shouldn't be any lawsuits involved in the first place.
The money does not have to be stolen to warrant them doing anything about it, only the potential for the money to be stolen needs to be made aware to the person in charge of making the decision. How much in potential losses are needed depends too much on the specifics such as how hard the system is to fix, how much additional protection the fixes will protect, whether or not there is already a sufficient warning on the product, how much benefit the consumers receive from using the gift cards, what percentage of consumers use the gift cards, whether or not there are laws against charging service fees for the gift cards, how long the average float time is for the gift cards, etc, etc, etc, etc. The "Fight Club formula" is a good summary of these factors.
If you don't like capitalism you shouldn't be in Circuit City anyway.
In this case, if the cost of closing the security hole is more than the estimated value of the loss of customer loyalty plus the value of any out of court settlements, then it won't get fixed.
Isn't this the way it should work? Why spend money to fix a problem that virtually no one cares about?
In the case of fight club it's completely different, because we're talking about the loss of lives, not the loss of money. In this case we're talking about whether or not to spend money to stop losing money. A simple greater than or less than approach seems perfectly reasonable.
There's usually no requirement that you actually go to class, only that you sign up for it and pass.
AP Chemistry - 9 credits
AP Computer Science AB - 8 credits
AP Calc BC - 8 credits
AP Physics C Mechanics - 4 credits
AP Physics C E&M - 4 credits
AP English - 4 credits
AP some language - 8 credits
AP History - 4 credits
AP Economics - 4 credits
First semester - 21 credits
Second semester - 21 credits
Summer - 8 credits
Third semester - 21 credits
Fourth semester - 21 credits
Getting a degree in two years - Priceless
I managed to get a CS degree in 3 years without taking summer classes and only taking slightly more than the recommended course load. Also I transferred after my first year, which lost a few credits. I'm sure it could be done in 2 years if you took summer classes, more AP tests (I only took Math, Chemistry, CS, and Physics), and the maximum load each semester. The hardest part is managing the prerequisite chains. You need to do some careful planning to pull that part off. Also your choice of minor will probably be limited.
Time still costs money, and that's what I need the most.
My point is that if what you are doing is actually useful, you can find a way to make money. The vast majority of sourceforge is complete crap. Most of the rest simply isn't better than the alternatives. For the few programs which are useful and have no better alternative, there are ways to generate revenue without resorting to begging. What those methods are depend on the particular program in question.
Money can be the difference between us surviving the next disk crash or power supply failure. If people donated just a little bit, may it be in terms of hardware, rack space, etc, it would help alot of the 'little guys' survive.
I'm not going to donate my money to help people do things "the old fashion way" just because they refuse to use a free alternative for distribution and hosting. If you want to charge for hardware, rackspace, etc, the solution is very simple: charge a fee to access your website. I think you'll find that 99% of the people are content to download your software, documentation, news, whatever through much lower cost channels, including sourceforge and peer-to-peer networks.
That's because server space, bandwidth, coffee, electricity, computers, and workspace all cost money.
I seriously doubt these programmers don't already have a computer and workspace. Server space, bandwidth, and electricity are free thanks to sourceforge.
If the work you do benefits others more than the alternatives, there is a way to make money doing that work. Find that way, and you can quit begging others for money.
It surprising that someone would take me seriously after making such ridiculous comments. TWAJS.
And... If I saw a table of data ALKS-AETD-KJHU-KJHO next to Name, Address, Billing Address... I'm gonna know exactly what that is....
That's why I always reverse the credit card number first. Just to fool hackers like you.
Convert the credit card numbers into a series of letters. 0=A, 1=B, 2=C, etc. Then if someone breaks into your Microsoft SQL Server, all they'll get is a random string of letters, not your customers' credit card information.
Suppose you decide to store the latter half of the card number in a cookie, and some other site decides to store the beginning part in a cookie
It's worse than that. The beginning part of the CCN is just a designation for your bank.
Well, I have news for you. It is a birth right. The number one thing that all of us do from the day we're born is copy, take in, and immitate. There is nothing inherently wrong, destructive, or self centered about copying.
Copyrights are not what they're cracked up to be, and play ruin on those who have the most value to offer society. With a mathematician who could have otherwise coppied a math book and added a few of his own formulas, the copyright market forces him to waste his resources on creating an entirely new book as a seperate market offer. Meanwhile, the Madonna's of the world lavish in wealth while being a relatively unproductive tiny minority. Not that I care about her wealth, but am pissed that it comes at the expense of screwing over productive people.
You're right. The DMCA has not been proven to be a crime. However, I believe it is obvious to any reasonable person with the full facts that the DMCA restrictions on importation and interstate commerce are constitutional.
Please state what crime did he commit?
Conspiracy to import DMCA software into the United states. Conspiracy to distribute DMCA software in the United states.
And get this in your head, US is just one of the countries in the world where every country has their own sovereign power.
Get this into your head. When you import something into the United States you have to follow U.S. law.
If that is the case, why isn't he being prosecuted? Why would the prosecutor drop a winnable case, after going through all this trouble already?
Because without Dmitry's testimony, it is highly unlikely that the government will be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty. With his testimony, the case against Elcomsoft should be easy to win.
Well, the guv'mint did say that Dmitry was a former employee of Elcomsoft, when Dmitry has been and still is employee by Elcomsoft. So they did lie in that aspect.
I mentioned that in my post. I consider it to be quite minor and unintentional, so I think the word "lie" is an overstatment.
The rest of guv'mint press release is pretty much a spin, really saying nothing. Dmitry has always cooperated with the guv'mint, just by telling the truth.
I highly doubt that Dmitry's lawyer would have let him testify against himself by making the admissions which he made in federal court if there wasn't some sort of dead. He may not have lied, but I highly doubt he would have told the truth.
E.g., "Acknowledge his conduct in the offense". That's a spin. If a guy is apprehended for a crime. He is _not_ a criminal until proven to be so. Dmitry has _not_ been proven guilty in court. In fact, for this case, even the "offense" (crime) has not been proven in court. Nothing has been proven in court.
If Dmitry didn't commit the crime (and I hate to break it to you, but he did), then Dmitry can sue for libel. Since he did commit the crime, I bet he won't be suing.
In fact, the guv'mint dropped the case against Dmitry. Now, what does that say about the guv'mint's case? Perhas it's bunk?
It says that the government doesn't think it can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that both Dmitry and Elcomsoft are guilty. It most certainly does not say that Dmitry is innocent.
Dood, you got to recognize spin when you see one. It is really easy. Spin is everywhere. No, it is not conspiracy, spin is what people do when they want to protect themelves, gain an advantage, etc.
Spin is spin, and "it turns out that this was all a lie" is spin. When I read the slashdot article, I thought there was a plea bargain. When I went on to read the actual announcement, it became apparent that it was just another case of slashdot making up facts. If anyone is to blame for being misleading, it is slashdot.
There was some sort of capitulation by Sklyarov. He agreed to travel thousands of miles to appear at the trial. He agreed to regularly report by telephone to the U.S. govt. He acknowledged several key facts in the case against Elcomsoft.
The press release was not misleading to those who read it through and did not have any preconceived notions. This is why several people corrected the slashdot article when it was first published.
For the rich, their stocks and real property will automatically go up in price to match inflation effects, while any debts they have will go down in real value.
Stocks will go up, but the rise in price will not meet inflation. Some stocks, such as banks and insurance companies, will rise very little (or even fall). Others, such as oil companies, will likely rise at a rate nearing inflation. Those companies with high debt would rise the most, possibly exceeding inflation. Most companies will rise somewhere in between, below inflation.
You are correct about real property, but most of the wealth of the rich is in stocks, bonds, and other investments.
The poor on non-fixed incomes gain no benefit, since they have neither many assets nor much in the way of debt (because poor people aren't loaned much money).
The poor generally are involved in fixed long-term contracts such as rental agreements and car insurance.
Persons on fixed incomes get crushed, as their prices go up while their money goes down in value.
Depends on the type of fixed income, and whether or not it is adjusted for inflation. Those on fixed income which is not inflation adjusted and does not come from the government, who are unable to work may get screwed though.
And the irresponsible memebers of the middle class (those who have gone deep into debt to buy creature comforts) get bailed out, while the responsible ones (those who have been saving for the future in the bank or in bonds) watch their savings evaporate.
Debt is not irresponsible in itself. In fact, having a fair amount of fixed interest debt is an important part of sound financial planning. You don't want to wait until you need it to borrow, because if you do that you'll get stuck with high interest rates. Saving money in the bank or in bonds is not responsible in itself. In fact, having all of your money in the bank is one of the most irresponsible things you can do. Most of the middle class has more debt than fixed income investments.
Turns out that this was all a lie by the Justice Dept.
What exactly was a lie? He did enter into an agreement. The government never said that he admitted guilt. Sure, they screwed up the employment status, but that is likely a minor oversight, not a lie. Much more minor than slashdot's "lie", saying that he agreed to testify against Elcomsoft.
Over time I'd guess this will fall lower, but this is an amazing accomplishment for a fantasy movie.
And the greatest accomplishment of all is getting all the drooling slashdotters to pour their money into AOL-Time-Warner. Don't forget, if you pay the ticket-taker to let you in without a ticket, you don't give any money to AOL (though I discourage this illegal activity).
notslashdot.org was created on Mon, Feb 19, 2001. slashdotsucks.com was created on 31-Oct-2000. If anyone copied, it was they.
Inflation is generally not considered a good thing except by the economic illiterate.
Inflation is only a bad thing if it's ongoing and very high. Otherwise it is neither bad nor good, it merely takes wealth from the rich and gives it to the poor. Of course most economics book writers are relatively rich, so inflation is bad for them, hence the common misperception.
So does that mean that this is legal?