> The U.S. needs a distributed power generating system ASAP.
AHEM. Is more than fifty years ago soon enough for you?
> Lots of small solar and wind generators all over the nation. Every block should have one.
Pick any block in Manhattan. A _large_ solar or wind generator wouldn't even be a drop in a hurricane as far as the power that's needed, just for that block.
> Right now, "officials" are saying this probably isn't terrorism. > But I bet it's giving al-Qaeda some ideas.
If they've not watched movies from the past 40 years, which depicted these same "ideas", or history of similar power outages going back to the 60's.
> If an accident can make this happen, > I'm sure a cleverly-placed explosive can make it happen much more easily.
They planned for the cleverly-placed explosives already, that's what this "grid" concept is all about.
> Let's not confuse the roles of a repairman and an instructor, > both of which can come into play in technical support. > The repairman is paid to come in, fix something, and leave. > You don't care how the Roto-Rooter guy cleans out your pipes... > However, when you call technical support and ask how to do something, > you are not asking for repair -- you're asking for instruction. > You are asking to be taught...
There are a number of distinct reasons that people call for tech support, including:
1) To get their computer working so they can get their work done, 2) To get a repair for a defective system, 3) To report a bug and start the process of getting a patch.
I do internal tech support at work, and I call vendor tech support people for all of these reasons.
The quoted comment seems to be addressing #1 in my list. What I'd like to point out is that the only reason people who want #1 have to learn _anything_ from tech support is because they have to be "talked in for a landing." Since tech support is provided over the telephone, the customer has to learn what to do to fix their computer, not because they want instruction, but because the tech support analyst needs the customer to be their hands-on worker.
I also note that, when I'm trying to do #2 and #3, I often have to go through two layers of tech support who think I want #1. Par for the course.
> Now faced with the question > "How does Linux deal with copyright issues and licensing?" > one can always point to the SCO case > (assuming that the trial gets resolved in IBM's favor) > and quote the precedent, which is usually good enough in the US.
There may not be (and IMHO, probably won't be) a trial.
If SCO and IBM settle out of court, there is no precedent.
Even if the settlement says that SCO should pay IBM, it could be a secret settlement, and there still would be no precedent to slay the FUD.
> Why dont we setup fake servers serving files with names that match the file.
Have at it, if you have the legal budget/knowhow to defend yourself.
You'll have RIAA attorneys spinning legally convincing lies about you. They don't have to tell the truth to get you into court, and in court, the more expensive attorneys tend to win more often.
> Americans think at least half the world speaks English.
Better-informed Americans (a small miniority of the class) would be aware that Spanish is well on the way to becoming the predominant language in the USA.
But, IMHO, English could become the next Latin: the dead language that everybody has to learn if they're going to try and influence the world.
BTW, every "% of humanity" statistic has to consider that most humans are Chinese.
Sometimes I have one of the little kids inside starving for something, and it won't let me do anything else until it's satisfied.
The way out for me is to vary my activities between physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, family, etc. (or however you slice this for yourself).
Trying to keep some balance between these aspects of my life keeps me out of the rut.
But, I still get into the rut sometimes when I get out of balance. That's life.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, and then tne next disaster occurs because the "Trusted" system is flawed, revealing the folly of the one-fix-solves-all approach.
But, Palladium will already have it's foot in the regulatory door.
Sigh.
> Is there a Springfield in Ohio?
You must be from Oregon.
> Whoever is at the top should be non-profit and transparent.
That's an unstable situation.
There should be no "top."
> what if it's flawed and actually causes unintentional damage?
Easy enought to indemnify: include a copy of the Windows EULA in the worm.
as in the illegal freelance heating engineer in the movie "Brazil."
Now he's fixing our internet ductwork.
Hooray.
> The U.S. needs a distributed power generating system ASAP.
AHEM. Is more than fifty years ago soon enough for you?
> Lots of small solar and wind generators all over the nation. Every block should have one.
Pick any block in Manhattan. A _large_ solar or wind generator wouldn't even be a drop in a hurricane as far as the power that's needed, just for that block.
> Right now, "officials" are saying this probably isn't terrorism.
> But I bet it's giving al-Qaeda some ideas.
If they've not watched movies from the past 40 years, which depicted these same "ideas", or history of similar power outages going back to the 60's.
> If an accident can make this happen,
> I'm sure a cleverly-placed explosive can make it happen much more easily.
They planned for the cleverly-placed explosives already, that's what this "grid" concept is all about.
> By development methods, do they mean "use of the vi editor"?
No, they mean the use of filenames on the command line.
> I would REALLY like to see someone file a class-action suit
> against these clowns, charging them with extortion and fraud
IANAL, but aren't extortion and fraud crimes, where as class action suits are civil actions?
Crimes and civil actions are handled by different branches of the justice system.
Maybe you don't have a choice, but when I had this problem with @home-att-comcast, they eventually admitted that my node was overloaded.
When they couldn't tell me when they'd upgrade, I switched to a DSL provider.
Dropped my TV cable, too.
Now I see in the news that's a trend.
> Let's not confuse the roles of a repairman and an instructor,
> both of which can come into play in technical support.
> The repairman is paid to come in, fix something, and leave.
> You don't care how the Roto-Rooter guy cleans out your pipes...
> However, when you call technical support and ask how to do something,
> you are not asking for repair -- you're asking for instruction.
> You are asking to be taught...
There are a number of distinct reasons that people call for tech support, including:
1) To get their computer working so they can get their work done,
2) To get a repair for a defective system,
3) To report a bug and start the process of getting a patch.
I do internal tech support at work, and I call vendor tech support people for all of these reasons.
The quoted comment seems to be addressing #1 in my list. What I'd like to point out is that the only reason people who want #1 have to learn _anything_ from tech support is because they have to be "talked in for a landing." Since tech support is provided over the telephone, the customer has to learn what to do to fix their computer, not because they want instruction, but because the tech support analyst needs the customer to be their hands-on worker.
I also note that, when I'm trying to do #2 and #3, I often have to go through two layers of tech support who think I want #1. Par for the course.
Wouldn't it be more effective to sick a Rugby league on SCO?
> Now faced with the question
> "How does Linux deal with copyright issues and licensing?"
> one can always point to the SCO case
> (assuming that the trial gets resolved in IBM's favor)
> and quote the precedent, which is usually good enough in the US.
There may not be (and IMHO, probably won't be) a trial.
If SCO and IBM settle out of court, there is no precedent.
Even if the settlement says that SCO should pay IBM, it could be a secret settlement, and there still would be no precedent to slay the FUD.
"Do Not Distribute" sounds like a good title for distribution of mis-information widely and with credibility.
> Why dont we setup fake servers serving files with names that match the file.
Have at it, if you have the legal budget/knowhow to defend yourself.
You'll have RIAA attorneys spinning legally convincing lies about you. They don't have to tell the truth to get you into court, and in court, the more expensive attorneys tend to win more often.
> How about Universal Political Codes for politians?
Quick way to get the product criminalized.
Reference the micro-subplot in Sagan's "Contact" about Ad-nix, Preach-nix and Jive-nix. (That was my favorite part of the whole book.)
> Americans think at least half the world speaks English.
Better-informed Americans (a small miniority of the class) would be aware that Spanish is well on the way to becoming the predominant language in the USA.
But, IMHO, English could become the next Latin: the dead language that everybody has to learn if they're going to try and influence the world.
BTW, every "% of humanity" statistic has to consider that most humans are Chinese.
Sometimes I have one of the little kids inside starving for something, and it won't let me do anything else until it's satisfied.
The way out for me is to vary my activities between physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, family, etc. (or however you slice this for yourself).
Trying to keep some balance between these aspects of my life keeps me out of the rut.
But, I still get into the rut sometimes when I get out of balance. That's life.
Good point; perhaps there should be a parallel system to breed the worst examples of poetry.
> but has already thrown out 2 good tanks of red/blue because his yellow ran out.
Small price to pay to be able to take your pr0n on the plane.
Doesn't a trade secret stop being a trade secret when the secret gets out?
If someone got the offending code other than directly from SCO, then it's no longer a trade secret, right?
Why can't someone who got the extortion letter subpoena SCO to identify the infringing code?
Using a more secure password to log into a less secure box.
It wastes your time, and annoys the pig.
Two words: Identity Theft.
It's a significant, growing problem: people find out some fraud has taken out credit cards and/or mortgages in their name, and then defaulted.
The trend gets written up about once per year in the press, and that's just when the reporter is having a slow day.
How long can it take someone working full-time to do the job by hand?
Four cubic feet a year would equal a teacher's salary.
Just run both pieces of code through the same compiler and see if the object code comes out identical.