Astute/.'ers will recall His Billness having to withdraw an ad that claims his wares "makes hackers obsolete". Even more astute/.'ers will remember the day when Microsoft's own code was compromised. They can't even protect their own IP with their own products! If M$ can't keep its own IP secure with Windows, who can?
I'm frankly surprised that the insurance company actually agreed to pay. Keep in mind that the whole idea of an insurance company is NOT to pay.
Just like they did after 9/11, companies will probably start writing exclusions for this type of loss into their policies. If they don't, the price of the insurance will go sky high to the point that companies will simply go bare as the insurance costs more than the asset it's protecting.
Look where this beat-off that's renting the things, Larry Lambeth, is located. That's right, Spokane, Washington, the Town That Means Well. Yes, the same Spokane that took out a HUD loan to build a Nordstrom store when it already had two.
I can scarcely see doing this in "trendy" cities like Seattle or San Francisco, especially given the rampant unemployment and downsizing that's going on.. Spokane? A city that tries hard not to be trendy? Riiiight! In fact, one of its selling points is how un-trendy and un-cool it is.
Wonder if this will be the first case of a Segway getting repoed.
Why in the name of (insert name of deity of your choice here) is this even on Slashdot?? What, con-artist, stock manipulator, and patent abuser Jeff Bezos of Amazon.bomb sells it so it must be cool?
Folks, if you want to pay $40, you can often get an hour of AIRPLANE rental! Let's see here . . . overpriced yuppie toy or Cessna 152, hmmm . . . And for five grand, I could scare up a very nice (and very lightly used) car. These Segway jerkoffs want me to pay that for a scooter? Gimmie a break! As for replacing cars, the damn things are already illegal in several cities.
This is supposed to be "news for nerds." To my knowledge, no self-respecting nerd would be caught dead on one of these things. The only people who would are idiot ex-dot-commers with more money than brains.
Please,/. editors, no more Segway stories! This is hardly "stuff that matters."
I will agree with you once the free software subculture actually comes out with something that is NOT A CLONE of a commercial product.
Or comes out with things that are useful and practical for everyday people. Let's face it, most people don't give a rat's ass about what geeks think is "cool." Few people think it's fun to spend an afternoon editing your/etc/foo/bar/blab.conf files to get their ICQ client to work. We're JUST NOW getting a working browser and office suite. XFree86 is such a convoluted clusterfuck that it needs to be scrapped, but what are the geeks doing? Writing 3D GUIs for it, of course! Yeah, that's real useful.
I've heard that it has a lot more to do with protecting AT&T's monopoly on air phones. Most cell phones now operate in the 1.9GHz range, well above the 800MHz range of various components of instrument landing systems.
I'm not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. You are not a client. What I'm saying is probably 100% wrong and anyone who relies on it is a flaming idiot.
That said, I see several things wrong with your post. First off, *none* of that amount is punitive damages. They are statutory damages provided for under 17 USC 504. It should be noted that the amount in question is discretionary, the court may award it, but does not have to. I have a hard time believing that a jury would sock a college kid with $97B in damages.
Secondly, he could probably get around this via the "super discharge" provisions of Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Under Chapter 13, the only kinds of debts that are not dischargeable are child support, student loans, and damages resulting from DUI accidents. I'm assuming you're referring to the 523(a)(6) exception to discharge for willful injury to property of another. It does not apply to Chapter 13. In fact, there is no exception to discharge at all for punitive damages.
Now, before anyone does anything in reliance upon what I have posted, see the first few lines!
Like any conspiracy theory, it falls apart upon a judicious application of the aforementioned principle. Microsoft, like any big company, (and yes, Microsoft is a BIG company. It's not the nimble corporate machine it leads you to believe it is, but I digress . . . ) is given to mistakes, miscommunications, crossed wires, and other bureaucratic flubs. That's what this probably is. The bean counter forgot to tell the marketroids to tell the PHBs that license keys were supposed to have been given out.
Geeze, I understand and agree with most of the anti-Microsoft sentiments expressed on/., but this is ridiculous! What good story got rejected because this tripe was published, and on the front page no less?!?
Okay, so some guy gets the bright idea to run fiber through steam pipes . . . with how many miles of *dark* fiber out there already?!? And how many big telcos with the similar idea are already bankrupt or are about to go there (JDS Uniphase, anyone?)
This sounds like some idiot who thinks he can revitalize his city by "hookin' it up to that thar new internet thang. We done gunna make it real real real fast." They did the same thing in Washington with Tacoma. They even call it "The Wired City." And you know what? It's still a crime-infested shithole with no jobs!
Wake up, fellas. This was cool at the height of the boom whem Amazon.bomb sold for $400 and the lemmings bought it. But now that reality has set in, it's just another bunch of idiots buying into the Ponzi scheme - after it has collapsed!
I firmly believe that a hybrid form of apt-portage that would allow you to choose between "compile from source" and "use precompiled package" would pretty much be the ultimate software management system...
For some of the big stuff, it's already offered. For example, you can do
emerge mozilla
or worse,
emerge evolution
(for which Mozilla (!) is a dependency) and it will compile Mozilla or Evolution from source. (The latter took - I shit you not - six hours on my Duron 800 with 384MB RAM.) Or, you can do
emerge mozilla-bin
and it will use a precompiled binary.
Personally, I customized the hell out of/etc/make.conf and suffered. You are right, though, they need to offer the precompiled option for more stuff.
The poster criticized a Microsoft competitor and didn't get modded into oblivion? The poster deigned to utter a discouraging word on/. about an open-source product and got away with it? What is this world COMING TO?!? C'mon, libc is perfect in every way and when a fully-functioning HURD kernel is released in 2060 or so, it's gunna be awesome!
A glutton for punishment, are we? Well, here goes.
Wow...ok, so it's not a unanimous decisions by all the courts of the land. Not surprising.
Hey, YOU made the claim that it was.
You also qoute one imminent [sic] scholar who disagrees with the interpretation.
WTF is an "imminent" scholar? He's not a scholar yet but is about to be one? Sorry, but you have to be literate before you can argue the finer points of constitutional interpretation.
But reading trhough [sic] the peice [sic], it becomes obvious that he is arguing for a reinterpretation . . .
No, he is not arguing for a "reinterpretation." He is arguing that the individual rights reading of the Second Amendment is the correct one, even though he would like that not to be the case. RTFA!
From Prof. Levinson's article:
I cannot help but suspect that the best explanation for the absence of the Second Amendment from the legal consciousness of the elite bar . . . is derived from . . . the perhaps subconscious fear that altogether plausible, perhaps even "winning," interpretations of the Second Amendment would present real hurdles to those of us supporting prohibitory regulation.
Be that as it may, please explain to me why the term "people" in the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Tenth Amendment means individuals, yet the word "people" in the Second means the sovereign. If none of this makes any sense to you, may I suggest retaking civics?
You can attack the source (hey, as I said, I just googled), but you still haven't discredited the content.
I just discredited the content - the reading of the Amendment, Dr. Levinson's article, AND the fact that your source is nothing but anti-gun propaganda. Be more careful next time.
Your claim is an old chestnut, and an easily refutable one at that. Despite what the propaganda you posted claims, the courts have not been unanimous with regard to the Second Amendment. Furthermore, an eminent legal scholar, one who writes law-school textbooks on the Constitution (i.e., has forgotten more than you'll ever know about this issue), begs to differ with you. Further, many state constitutions contain provisions giving individuals the right to keep and bear arms.
In order to avoid embarrassments like this one in the future, try posting something other than Sarah Brady's talking points.
They'll continue the project by funding it through the "black budget." Congress doesn't even know how much it is. Hell, the Federation of American Scientists had to sue the CIA just to get same to release the 1997 aggregate amount appropriated. This was after the CIA rebuffed FAS's request for the 1947 number!
Make no mistake about it, they're going to continue developing this project even if Congress defunds it, if they haven't fully implemented it already.
The Shuttle was moving at speeds varying from Mach 6 to Mach 20. Fighter pilots who punch out at Mach 1 or so come out of it seriously fscked up. And that's with a solid-fuel rocket propelling them away from the now out-of-control aircraft.
The astronauts, AFAIK, would have had to use a pole to open the hatch, extend a ten-foot slide, and parachute out that way. This, of course, assumes they weren't padlocked in.
The upshot of this? Well, after the Challenger disaster (which was 100% preventable, 100% unnecessary and for which, like any other government fsckup, nobody lost their jobs) Congress nearly killed the shuttle program. This time, they probably will. Truth be told, they probably should.
IANAL, but this will probably not be successful. A judge will see exactly what this attorney is trying to do and dismiss the claim on summary judgment. This guy clearly does not have standing to sue to force eBay to collect sales taxes.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry Bill, I have to call bullshit on this one.
Astute /.'ers will recall His Billness having to withdraw an ad that claims his wares "makes hackers obsolete". Even more astute /.'ers will remember the day when Microsoft's own code was compromised. They can't even protect their own IP with their own products! If M$ can't keep its own IP secure with Windows, who can?
I'm frankly surprised that the insurance company actually agreed to pay. Keep in mind that the whole idea of an insurance company is NOT to pay.
Just like they did after 9/11, companies will probably start writing exclusions for this type of loss into their policies. If they don't, the price of the insurance will go sky high to the point that companies will simply go bare as the insurance costs more than the asset it's protecting.
Look where this beat-off that's renting the things, Larry Lambeth, is located. That's right, Spokane, Washington, the Town That Means Well. Yes, the same Spokane that took out a HUD loan to build a Nordstrom store when it already had two.
I can scarcely see doing this in "trendy" cities like Seattle or San Francisco, especially given the rampant unemployment and downsizing that's going on.. Spokane? A city that tries hard not to be trendy? Riiiight! In fact, one of its selling points is how un-trendy and un-cool it is.
Wonder if this will be the first case of a Segway getting repoed.
Why in the name of (insert name of deity of your choice here) is this even on Slashdot?? What, con-artist, stock manipulator, and patent abuser Jeff Bezos of Amazon.bomb sells it so it must be cool?
Folks, if you want to pay $40, you can often get an hour of AIRPLANE rental! Let's see here . . . overpriced yuppie toy or Cessna 152, hmmm . . . And for five grand, I could scare up a very nice (and very lightly used) car. These Segway jerkoffs want me to pay that for a scooter? Gimmie a break! As for replacing cars, the damn things are already illegal in several cities.
This is supposed to be "news for nerds." To my knowledge, no self-respecting nerd would be caught dead on one of these things. The only people who would are idiot ex-dot-commers with more money than brains.
Please, /. editors, no more Segway stories! This is hardly "stuff that matters."
Terribly sorry, I cannot resist.
1. Build a Beowulf cluster of geothermally-powered brick-encased referigerators in Soviet Russia.
2. Chuck 'em into a pool of molten iron.
3. Journey to the center of the Earth.
4. ???
5. Profit!
Quoth the poster:
I will agree with you once the free software subculture actually comes out with something that is NOT A CLONE of a commercial product.
Or comes out with things that are useful and practical for everyday people. Let's face it, most people don't give a rat's ass about what geeks think is "cool." Few people think it's fun to spend an afternoon editing your /etc/foo/bar/blab.conf files to get their ICQ client to work. We're JUST NOW getting a working browser and office suite. XFree86 is such a convoluted clusterfuck that it needs to be scrapped, but what are the geeks doing? Writing 3D GUIs for it, of course! Yeah, that's real useful.
I've heard that it has a lot more to do with protecting AT&T's monopoly on air phones. Most cell phones now operate in the 1.9GHz range, well above the 800MHz range of various components of instrument landing systems.
You can do exactly that. The law states that no person may conspire with another to spam.
IANAL!
I am not a lawyer.
Lawyer not am I.
I'm not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. You are not a client. What I'm saying is probably 100% wrong and anyone who relies on it is a flaming idiot.
That said, I see several things wrong with your post. First off, *none* of that amount is punitive damages. They are statutory damages provided for under 17 USC 504. It should be noted that the amount in question is discretionary, the court may award it, but does not have to. I have a hard time believing that a jury would sock a college kid with $97B in damages.
Secondly, he could probably get around this via the "super discharge" provisions of Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Under Chapter 13, the only kinds of debts that are not dischargeable are child support, student loans, and damages resulting from DUI accidents. I'm assuming you're referring to the 523(a)(6) exception to discharge for willful injury to property of another. It does not apply to Chapter 13. In fact, there is no exception to discharge at all for punitive damages.
Now, before anyone does anything in reliance upon what I have posted, see the first few lines!
-1 Redundant . . . mod away.
Like any conspiracy theory, it falls apart upon a judicious application of the aforementioned principle. Microsoft, like any big company, (and yes, Microsoft is a BIG company. It's not the nimble corporate machine it leads you to believe it is, but I digress . . . ) is given to mistakes, miscommunications, crossed wires, and other bureaucratic flubs. That's what this probably is. The bean counter forgot to tell the marketroids to tell the PHBs that license keys were supposed to have been given out.
Geeze, I understand and agree with most of the anti-Microsoft sentiments expressed on /., but this is ridiculous! What good story got rejected because this tripe was published, and on the front page no less?!?
Okay, so some guy gets the bright idea to run fiber through steam pipes . . . with how many miles of *dark* fiber out there already?!? And how many big telcos with the similar idea are already bankrupt or are about to go there (JDS Uniphase, anyone?)
This sounds like some idiot who thinks he can revitalize his city by "hookin' it up to that thar new internet thang. We done gunna make it real real real fast." They did the same thing in Washington with Tacoma. They even call it "The Wired City." And you know what? It's still a crime-infested shithole with no jobs!
Wake up, fellas. This was cool at the height of the boom whem Amazon.bomb sold for $400 and the lemmings bought it. But now that reality has set in, it's just another bunch of idiots buying into the Ponzi scheme - after it has collapsed!
For some of the big stuff, it's already offered. For example, you can do
or worse, (for which Mozilla (!) is a dependency) and it will compile Mozilla or Evolution from source. (The latter took - I shit you not - six hours on my Duron 800 with 384MB RAM.) Or, you can do and it will use a precompiled binary.Personally, I customized the hell out of /etc/make.conf and suffered. You are right, though, they need to offer the precompiled option for more stuff.
(This is rhetorical and not meant as a troll.)
Mein Gott!
The poster criticized a Microsoft competitor and didn't get modded into oblivion? The poster deigned to utter a discouraging word on /. about an open-source product and got away with it? What is this world COMING TO?!? C'mon, libc is perfect in every way and when a fully-functioning HURD kernel is released in 2060 or so, it's gunna be awesome!
You must be referring to something like this.
(Note that I think it's total crap and a scam . . . I just thought the connection you made was interesting.)
A glutton for punishment, are we? Well, here goes.
Hey, YOU made the claim that it was.
WTF is an "imminent" scholar? He's not a scholar yet but is about to be one? Sorry, but you have to be literate before you can argue the finer points of constitutional interpretation.
No, he is not arguing for a "reinterpretation." He is arguing that the individual rights reading of the Second Amendment is the correct one, even though he would like that not to be the case. RTFA!
From Prof. Levinson's article:
I cannot help but suspect that the best explanation for the absence of the Second Amendment from the legal consciousness of the elite bar . . . is derived from . . . the perhaps subconscious fear that altogether plausible, perhaps even "winning," interpretations of the Second Amendment would present real hurdles to those of us supporting prohibitory regulation.
Be that as it may, please explain to me why the term "people" in the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Tenth Amendment means individuals, yet the word "people" in the Second means the sovereign. If none of this makes any sense to you, may I suggest retaking civics?
I just discredited the content - the reading of the Amendment, Dr. Levinson's article, AND the fact that your source is nothing but anti-gun propaganda. Be more careful next time.
WHY do I feed these trolls??
The demo doesn't BSOD like 98 did.
Bzzzt! Wrong, troll boy.
Your claim is an old chestnut, and an easily refutable one at that. Despite what the propaganda you posted claims, the courts have not been unanimous with regard to the Second Amendment. Furthermore, an eminent legal scholar, one who writes law-school textbooks on the Constitution (i.e., has forgotten more than you'll ever know about this issue), begs to differ with you. Further, many state constitutions contain provisions giving individuals the right to keep and bear arms.
In order to avoid embarrassments like this one in the future, try posting something other than Sarah Brady's talking points.
Class dismissed.
Old news, but so was Washington's, and the US Supreme Court let it stand.
OT, but the Microsoft-sponsored gutting of Washington's antispam law is all but dead.
This'll get modded down, but here goes . . .
Must be nice to be able to blow five grand on a toy.
Obviously someone with more money than brains. Or a paid shill.
Whaddya expect? Arthur Andersen did his accounting!
They'll continue the project by funding it through the "black budget." Congress doesn't even know how much it is. Hell, the Federation of American Scientists had to sue the CIA just to get same to release the 1997 aggregate amount appropriated. This was after the CIA rebuffed FAS's request for the 1947 number!
Make no mistake about it, they're going to continue developing this project even if Congress defunds it, if they haven't fully implemented it already.
A mission patch did survive.
Assuming, of course, that Congress doesn't vote to kill the program like they almost did when the Challenger exploded.
The Shuttle was moving at speeds varying from Mach 6 to Mach 20. Fighter pilots who punch out at Mach 1 or so come out of it seriously fscked up. And that's with a solid-fuel rocket propelling them away from the now out-of-control aircraft.
The astronauts, AFAIK, would have had to use a pole to open the hatch, extend a ten-foot slide, and parachute out that way. This, of course, assumes they weren't padlocked in.
The upshot of this? Well, after the Challenger disaster (which was 100% preventable, 100% unnecessary and for which, like any other government fsckup, nobody lost their jobs) Congress nearly killed the shuttle program. This time, they probably will. Truth be told, they probably should.
IANAL, but this will probably not be successful. A judge will see exactly what this attorney is trying to do and dismiss the claim on summary judgment. This guy clearly does not have standing to sue to force eBay to collect sales taxes.