Anyone know of any online bookstores that at least check a few pages of used books for highlighter marks and the like, and mention if they found any in the book description?
So, now every time I go to the fridge to get a snack during commercials, I'm a thief?
I heard a rumor that Hollywood is working on a way to force people to watch commercials using the same technique as in the movie A Clockwork Orange. They expect that this will completely eliminate the problem of theft.
It sounds like "nano" is about to become the new prefix of choice. It will be in front of every product in the same way that "e" became popular a couple years ago during the dot com era.
Why not simply bury your own cable? In our neighborhood, the ground is full of rocks. This means that many ways of burying cable, such as a vibrating plow blade or a Ditch Witch, are unworkable. Pretty much the only way to bury things is with a backhoe. Backhoe work is expensive. Our neighborhood has many miles of roads, and we would likely have to spend well over a hundred thousand dollars if we were to try to bury new cable in the neighborhood.
Burying new copper under our roads is particularly frustrating to think about, given that the existing phone cables buried by Qwest were overbuilt by a factor of three or more. In other words, some two-thirds of the pairs in the cables are spares right now, spares that would never get used by Qwest for revenue service. Qwest ought to be delighted at the chance of collecting monthly revenue from us for some of these pairs.
"Any policy that favours one thing over another isn't helpful," a Microsoft Europe spokeswoman told the Journal.
I noticed this too. Is this spokeswoman even aware of what policy means. Here's the dictionary definition.
a : a definite course or method of action selected from among alternatives and in light of given conditions to guide and determine present and future decisions b : a high-level overall plan embracing the general goals and acceptable procedures especially of a governmental body
In laymens terms "policy" is when you favour one thing over another.
customers will be forced to sit through 120 hours of non-stop commercials followed by back-to-back reruns of My Two Dads and Hart to Hart.
It's kind of sad, but I think it's things like this that are going to be TVs own undoing. Kind of remoinds me of a Star Trek episode I saw. Here's an excerpt from the script.
SONNY: Yeah, boob-tube... you know. I'd like to find out how the Braves are doin' after all this time. Probably still finding ways to lose.
DATA: (to Riker) Oh -- I think he means television, sir.
SONNY: Or maybe catch up on the soaps.
DATA: (to Sonny) That particular form of entertainment did not last much beyond the year Two Thousand Forty.
I'd say we might even be a bit ahead of the 2040 schedule.
If I need to take notes, I carry around a small notebook (about 3" x 5") and a pencil
That's blasphemy. As a nerd one must forsake the evil simplicity of pen and paper and learn how to embrace the more complicated, yet technologically superior ways of doing things.
all you end up with is a tiny PDA and a huge cell phone.
I'm personally waiting for the Taelons to invade so I can get a global link with it's large roll up screen.
Re:What is the message/point of this book?
on
The Venture Cafe
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· Score: 2, Informative
There is a sample chapter of the book that you might want to read to see if it interests you. The FAQ also has lots of interesting advise.
I was never involved in the dot-com bust (except via the stock market) so I really "missed out" on an important lesson here. And I'm not convienced that this book would help me out.
You should probably buy the book then. Personally I've gone through 6 jobs in the last 3 years. All of them.coms and all of them have gone bankrupt while I've been working for them. I've learned an awful lot about what not to do when starting a business. I know I could get a job working for a more stable company but I like working for small startups. You just have to keep a few things in mind.
Don't accept a reduced salary in exchange for more stock options. You need to be able to pay your bills and you don't want to end up in the hole if/when the company goes under.
When the shit hits the fan don't get stressed out. It's not your fault that the company is going down the tubes.
Don't rock the boat too much. I've worked for a few companies that have a really bad idea for a product. Like the company that had a toolkit so you could easily create WAP enabled web sites. Problem was the sample "hello world" included with the kit was over 1000 lines of code. I tried numerous times to point out to management that a toolkit is supposed to make things simpler not more complex but they just didn't get it. Anyway, when you see management making a mistake a good employee will bring it to their attention but ultimately management has the right to screw things up.
You haven't lived until you've worked for a dot com. I'd also highly recommend reading How to Crash and Burn your Java Project. I didn't write the article but I was on the Java project that inspired it so I know that it's based on a true story.
They're called "toner pirates". I heard the way they get you is by calling up and saying that they are selling toner at a 50% discount for only $200. This won't work with any medium to large size company but it works great with a Mom and Pop shop where the poor secretary who doesn't have a clue what toner costs thinks she is saving the company money and orders it.
It just depends on your definition of opt-in. Monsterhut just took the more liberal approach of any email collected with Direct Email Collector was opt-in. After all why else would you email be sitting on a web page?
This is not a blow to ISPs everywhere. I believe that the photos were posted on the German equivalent of MSN Photos. This is a site hosted and run by Microsoft. Typically if someone (like Steffi Graf) wants to have illegal photos removed from a web site they sue the individual/company running the web site not the ISP hosting it. Although in this case they both happen to be Microsoft.
All this case says is that in Germany I'm liable for the content on web sites I run. So if I create a site with a bunch of scripts that let people post anything they like then I should be screening the pictures to make sure their isn't anything illegal.
Having said that though, I personally don't think fake nude celebrity pics should be illegal but I guess that's another matter.
The problem for her though is that the Internet never forgets. Acording to google she still has to get the picture removed from at least a 1000 more sites.
It's not about the younger generation.
on
The Empire Stumbles
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· Score: 2, Interesting
We saw a cultural and generational coup d'etat this month
The younger generation has not suddenly embraced a new type of myth. Everyone, including the older generations has simply embraced a better movie. Just look at Rotten Tomatoes. Episode II got 58% (36% from the cream of the crop) . Spiderman got 87% (84% from the cream of the crop). Most of these critics are not the next generation, they're the old generation who simply know a better movie when they see it.
Issues 2001 has a overview of Gene Taylor's stance on various issues. Interestingly he doesn't seem to have any stance on technology issues although most of the other senators do.
I think this likely means the senator is not the most technically savvy senator (not that any of them are) and he may not even be aware of a lot of the current IP issues. You might want to try asking the senator a simpler question(s) to show him that his constituents are concerned about IP issues. If you ask him a difficult question he (and the rest of the audience) won't understand it and he'll just side step it.
Maybe this might encourage someone to start up an ADCo or maybe 802.11 will create some more competition.
I'm just glad I live in Canada where I have the choice between 3 different DSL providers or cable at about $35US/month. It seems like the states has really fumbled the ball when it comes to providing high speed Internet to everyone. The FCC should be creating more competition not less.
You can't have both enforced password formats and mandatory changing of passwords. The place where I work now forces you to change your password every 30 days and they "strongly" recommend that you use this program that randomly generates a password for you. Which means most people have their current password written on a sticky note stuck to their monitor because it's too hard to remember a new 10 character randomly generated password every 30 days.
Pick one or the other. Either have employees memorize a really tough password once (maybe once a year) or make them memorize easy passwords once a month.
IANAL so I don't know what the answer is. This seems to be similar to the Felten case. As you may recall Felten was pressured by the RIAA not to present his findings on SDMI. Eventually the RIAA backed down though. Personally I think the RIAA backed down because he was a Princeton professor and because they were getting a lot of bad press. I think they could have gone through with the law suit if they wanted to. Whether or not they would have won is another matter. Unfortunately it seems like in today's day and age corporation can get their way through threats of a law suit.
For this particular case I think that Slashdot and the major news sites will not get sued. Because they aren't giving people exact instructions and because they have enough money to stand up for themselves. I do think it's possible that some kid who creates a website with explicit instructions complete with pictures of how to circumvent the protection could get sued or at least get a cease and desist order. IANAL so I don't know if this kid would be breaking the law but I suspect he would be though. I do know that the threat of a law suit would be enough to force him to take down the web site.
Slashdot Mirror
So you mean to tell me that all the trouble we went through switching to Windows yesterday was for nothing?
Why not simply bury your own cable? In our neighborhood, the ground is full of rocks. This means that many ways of burying cable, such as a vibrating plow blade or a Ditch Witch, are unworkable. Pretty much the only way to bury things is with a backhoe. Backhoe work is expensive. Our neighborhood has many miles of roads, and we would likely have to spend well over a hundred thousand dollars if we were to try to bury new cable in the neighborhood.
Burying new copper under our roads is particularly frustrating to think about, given that the existing phone cables buried by Qwest were overbuilt by a factor of three or more. In other words, some two-thirds of the pairs in the cables are spares right now, spares that would never get used by Qwest for revenue service. Qwest ought to be delighted at the chance of collecting monthly revenue from us for some of these pairs.
I noticed this too. Is this spokeswoman even aware of what policy means. Here's the dictionary definition.
In laymens terms "policy" is when you favour one thing over another.SONNY: Yeah, boob-tube... you know. I'd like to find out how the Braves are doin' after all this time. Probably still finding ways to lose.
DATA: (to Riker) Oh -- I think he means television, sir.
SONNY: Or maybe catch up on the soaps.
DATA: (to Sonny) That particular form of entertainment did not last much beyond the year Two Thousand Forty.
I'd say we might even be a bit ahead of the 2040 schedule.
Discovery.com also has an interesting article about creating Mars aircraft based on bees.
Mr. KASTENMEIER. I compliment you on your presentation, Jack. Actually, even though you are not a lawyer, you didn't seem the least bit uncomfortable.
Mr. RAILSBACK. He really sounds like a lawyer.
- Don't accept a reduced salary in exchange for more stock options. You need to be able to pay your bills and you don't want to end up in the hole if/when the company goes under.
- When the shit hits the fan don't get stressed out. It's not your fault that the company is going down the tubes.
- Don't rock the boat too much. I've worked for a few companies that have a really bad idea for a product. Like the company that had a toolkit so you could easily create WAP enabled web sites. Problem was the sample "hello world" included with the kit was over 1000 lines of code. I tried numerous times to point out to management that a toolkit is supposed to make things simpler not more complex but they just didn't get it. Anyway, when you see management making a mistake a good employee will bring it to their attention but ultimately management has the right to screw things up.
You haven't lived until you've worked for a dot com. I'd also highly recommend reading How to Crash and Burn your Java Project. I didn't write the article but I was on the Java project that inspired it so I know that it's based on a true story.It's an excellent tutorial. I just think it belongs on a new slash site.
Try Google for more info.
It's very handy because most profs don't suspect a thing when you look at your watch during a test.
All this case says is that in Germany I'm liable for the content on web sites I run. So if I create a site with a bunch of scripts that let people post anything they like then I should be screening the pictures to make sure their isn't anything illegal.
Having said that though, I personally don't think fake nude celebrity pics should be illegal but I guess that's another matter.
The problem for her though is that the Internet never forgets. Acording to google she still has to get the picture removed from at least a 1000 more sites.
I think this likely means the senator is not the most technically savvy senator (not that any of them are) and he may not even be aware of a lot of the current IP issues. You might want to try asking the senator a simpler question(s) to show him that his constituents are concerned about IP issues. If you ask him a difficult question he (and the rest of the audience) won't understand it and he'll just side step it.
I'm just glad I live in Canada where I have the choice between 3 different DSL providers or cable at about $35US/month. It seems like the states has really fumbled the ball when it comes to providing high speed Internet to everyone. The FCC should be creating more competition not less.
The main problems with the system seem to be
Pick one or the other. Either have employees memorize a really tough password once (maybe once a year) or make them memorize easy passwords once a month.
For this particular case I think that Slashdot and the major news sites will not get sued. Because they aren't giving people exact instructions and because they have enough money to stand up for themselves. I do think it's possible that some kid who creates a website with explicit instructions complete with pictures of how to circumvent the protection could get sued or at least get a cease and desist order. IANAL so I don't know if this kid would be breaking the law but I suspect he would be though. I do know that the threat of a law suit would be enough to force him to take down the web site.