Let me first say that I strongly dislike what's going on with patents now, software and otherwise.
I like that inventors get a chance to make a buck off their inventions, that's the productive and creative part that congress orig. talked about when they granted patents.
I'm strongly displeased at the use/mis-use of patents today. They're used as stragic weapons against competetors. They're used to block new technology. They're used to destroy governments and individual rights (think Africa and South America with AIDS drugs). The current patent crap (for instance, patenting of genetic material found in natural foods and herbs) is simply a means to give multinational corps. final fascist control over the world economy. All work will have to be for them, because you'll need their protection and cross-licensing to do anything. You will not be able to wipe your ass with leaves grown in your own back yard if Bayer finds some "cooling gell" in that species that they want to patent. Software patents are making it illegal to work or create for yourself, as without the protection of MS/HP/DELL, your thoughts will have been patented by someone else and you will be breaking the law by using a wheel of your own creation (even if you didn't copy anything).
But in this case, I'll settle for "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." MS/HP/DELL/Netgear/etc. want it their way when it helps them and call for invalidation/threats/whatever/manuvering/spin when they have to pay.... Time for you suckers to pay....I hope they ream you raw too, as I'll happily know that you are eating part of that $4 just to keep the sales numbers up. Better yet, I'd love to see you buy 10M of those chips, only to have them sitting in your fab plants because nobody wants to buy your product at the inflated price.
If they want real reform, they should help to change patent law away from the mess it's in now, otherwise these industry blow-hards should just shut up and keep paying! You know, you can't win all the time..
They don't really want reform though, they simply want control and they're mad at the fact that they DON'T have the patent. They'd do just the same thing roles reversed.
Perhaps the force IS with them.... Why, I learned Pascal as my FIRST programming language when the first Star Wars movie came out!
Now, the LAST Star Wars movie has come out, but I've switched to the dark side and I am now coding in C, perhaps the LAST language that I'll want to learn before I'm destroyed by my son!... It's amazing...No, It's the power of the force.
Consider also, the GPL does not force you to distribute to EVERYONE, only the people who have received binaries from you. This would be the obvious case when passing a text document around. Like all other GPL code, the receipients can consider if they want to pass it on further.
I really don't see this as a problem. There's no way that they could possibly mean that all your documents would need to be made available for everyone. Why, the only way that everything you write could be immediatly available for download by everyone would be to use a Windows machine!
Well put, another way that I explain Open Source to people is to compare to clothing.... The suit wearing crowd really gets this analogy...
Imagine if you could get designer suits from Armani and all the other expensive guys for free, because the tailors got together and worked out a really great way of making them....your only responsibility is to pay your tailor to get them properly fit for you, as this is a personal process... Most people understand this concept, and think it's a good deal.
People generally like the idea of having personal service. Most people don't have a problem paying for a taylor, hairdresser or barber, and they'll pay a taylor more than they'll pay for a shirt off the rack at "Target."
Open source is really about shifting from the "feed-lot" mentality, where everyone gets the same program with the same bugs, and a chosen few get all of the "intellectual property" money to a more balanced model, where the programmers are craftsmen/craftswomen are important and no one person gets all the cash. Sure, it takes more than a single programmer to accomplish really big things, but this is a "barn raising" for the entire community rather than a "land grab" to enrich just a few individuals for their entire lives and the entire lives of all of their progeny.
AND THERE ISN"T TWO WAYS TO LOOK AT THIS. I agree with the 1st ammendment. I believe in free-speech too.
SPAM IS NOT FREE SPEECH. WEBSITES ARE FREE SPEECH AND MASS MAILINGS THROUGH USPS ARE FREE SPEECH. SPAM IS NOT FREE SPEECH AND NEITHER IS TELEMARKETING!
The difference is based upon the level of invasion towards the listener that the speaker is inflicting when contacting the listener. The difference is also upon who's paying for the medium, and where the destination is.
For instance, consider websites, the listener here is an active participant, and MUST somehow seek out the speach they wish to listen to. This form of speech is MOST protected, and rightly so. Consider also, the medium of cable TV, purchased movies and books. Even these types of speech are in jepardy by the proto-fascist Republicans (as seen on Drudge today) when gov. types want to impose restrictions on cable TV. Consider for a second, this is a product that costs money, and was deliberately sought out by the customer, not something that landed in their front yard without their control.
A second example might be a public speaker, like a guy on the street corner yelling about how God's gonna destroy all of us. This person does inconvience some with his speach, but the overall level is balanced by the fact that not ALL he says is protected (public decency standards and violent speech), and that listeners can go home if they wish.
The MOST UNPROTECTED SPEECH is unsolicited speech that intrudes on the legal "castle" or home. In this location, I am presumed to have specifically sought to NOT have others speak at me without an invitation! SIMPLY HAVING THE MEDIUM IS NOT AN IMPLICIT INVITATION TO SPEECH! This is mostly the same considering my e-mail, as I have sought nothing out, there is absolutely no protection for the spammer or telemarketer. What stupid reasoning could you possibly be using to consider that the spammer has the right to bombard me with solicitations when I'm seeking legal refuge in my only legal sanctuary! I've purchased a product (THE MEDIUM as you called it) for my own uses, not the speaker's. I've paid for this product, when the speaker/spammer pays for the product (i.e. free yahoo mail, television or whatever)they can call the shots. In this case (my phone and internet) I've paid, so I get to extend or not extend invitations to others to speak to me.
Remember that I'm not infringing on your right to have a website with penis enlargment info, beastiality pictures and whatever products you wish to hawk, I simply have the equiv. right NOT to hear you if I don't want! In my home, I'm legally presumed king of my domain, and I'm NOT obligated to sort out people that I don't want to hear from. I entertain as I wish, and I am under no obligation to listen to anyone. You (spammer/telemarketer) are under the obligation to demonstrate that you've been invited! You should notice that I've NOT grouped spammers/telemarketers with the people who mail the equiv. types of offers. In this case, THEY are paying the fees to ship the product, so they have the right to send. Further, my mailbox is technically the property of the US Postal Service. I also have the right to NOT pick mail out of this box that I don't want. Technically, no mail enters my home uninvited. With television, I've made the implied exchange of watching commercials in exchange for getting a free product. I've made no such exchange with e-mails, I've paid for a service, the useful service of which the spammer is robbing me of.
This country is so f*cked when people will even entertain the notion that telemarketers and/or spammers have a "free-speech right" to call/contact me at my home, at my expense, at whatever time they feel! They don't... They have the right to purchase commerials, buy billboards and hire blimps, but they DO NOT have the right to call me or force open my window shades to see their billboards or force me to turn on my TV to see their commercials.
DEATH.... that's the only answer in this case. I can certainly understand why a judge would be a little nervous about sending someone up for 7 years in this case, when death is clearly the proper punishment for such a crime. Viagra and Cortaslim until such time as you are dead.
No, as I recall, the anti-trust settlement between the government and MS occured something like 3 days after 9/11.
I've always been suspicious that those infamous "NSA_KEYS" had something to do with the settlement..... I could easily see MS proposing something like "drop this nonsense and we'll give you boys all the inside crypto keys you want, we'll keep Windows insecure and you can keep everyone owned.."
Check... You'll see, settlement talks during GW's tenure were even in NY as I recall!
They've been found guilty after all... No other convicted criminal is/has been allowed to keep their illegally gotten wealth after being convicted!... It's unprecidented, but TOTALLY slipped by in the hysteria after 9/11!..... There's a government connection here, they certainly wouldn't let me keep the money after robbing a bank!... It's unprecidented!
I've never had a problem with the Tivo hardware. I really like it. I've almost bought one a few times.... But, as with a lot of the other people posting here, I had a problem with paying $12/month (I think that's it) for the electronic equiv. of TV Guide. This has always kept me from getting one. Well, that and one more thing....
What REALLY burned me though, was the stories of overnight "downgrades" and the EULA with crap about how "Company reserves the right to alter the user experience at will..blah..blah..." I think everyone remembers hearing something about TIVO caving into industry demands to remove features that Hollywood didn't like....
Now that Comcast has signed their warrant, it's time for Tivo to strike back and destroy a few other control based business models that come from Hollywood....
1) How about FREE programming guides, paid for by advertising in the corners. I get that crap currently in the corner of my Comcast menu, and I PAY for that service.
2) How about putting in/back ALL of the features that users want!
3) How about offering up the source for Tivo units to the community as GPL and allowing anyone who wants to, to hack their unit with all the best possible free tools? I know that someone will point me to some of the sites on the web, I've seen them. I also know that they exist at the pleasure of Tivo, and by reading the boards, nobody really wants to do anything that would piss the overlords off too much. When I say access, I mean the whole shebam, with no lurking around bb's looking for clues as to how to activate the commercial skip feature or whatever.
Tivo could strike back here, it's not too late to save the platform if they act now. Comcast doesn't want to play? They think that they can homebrew an answer and keep all the money? Fine! How about we let EVERYONE know how this sucker works and turn the dogs out on you.
I think that quick action, in the vein of Mozilla organization/license for the platform would make the Tivo platform IMPOSSIBLE to stop. If they wait too long, their platform will be marginalized and will be worthless. Now's the time to move. If they do, they could still save a tidy business in selling specialty hardware and would get additional revenue from ads on the guides. Of course, it wouldn't be the same fat cut they took before, but it would keep them alive. AND by keeping it open, they would deny the monopoly lock for others.
If Tivo were to do something like that.... i.e. free feeds based on advertising and an open platform with the features I want, I'd go buy one tommorrow. Hell, I'd buy three, one for really watching and two for experiments.
The GPL is radioactive to companies that get their market share based upon control and healthy food for companies that offer service and quality. I think it's time to start throwing the nukes around just to show big media who's in charge....The customer! This could happen just in time to clear the "broadcast flag" crap scheduled for hardware this July! Scorched earth for big media!
As I recall, Robert Mugabe (I think?) refused to accept gifts of genetically modified corn to his country from the US. As a condition of accepting the gift, he required that the corn be milled, thereby destroying it's capability to grow/sprout/etc, and rendering it impossible for Monsanto and the other giants from having a legal case against him.
I'm really surprised that the farmers are so stupid as to go along with this. Only a few months ago, Wired had an article about the new herbicide resistant coca plants in South America. The plants, as it turns out, were not modified in the lab, but through agressive breading in proximity to the American spraying efforts. No breaking of the law, just simple work. Why are these silly farmers accepting the same treatment? How long before US farmers come up with a soy bean that is resistant to roundup?
I guess it just works out to choice...If US farmers want Monsanto's hands in their pants, they're entitled to choose that. Why heck, as the story points out, it makes farming really easy and feels pretty good at first. I just know that, like taxes, once the hands are there, they're not going to go away, and they'll only squeeze harder over time. Eventually, the farmers will find that they no longer have any choice... suckers...
I mean, what's the purpose otherwise? I can easily see, unfortunately, a future where even being driven by your car, it's STILL illegal to be over the DUI limit.
Why, soon, I'll have to get out of my car to smoke too!
I'm sort of a "tinfoil hat wearing" type of guy, but this seems really transparent to me. With everything that's been happening lately, perhaps tinfoil will become the latest fashion trend, but... Remember that the state of Oregon proposed this same thing perhaps a year ago, Slashdot did an article on it then...
Think of this logically, as some of the others here already have. If the state were interested in taxing you based upon milage, they would simply record your odometer readings at each emmissions inspection and bill you accordingly for your tabs. Yeah, I know about the in-state/out-state argument, why not just ignore that and set the median tax at something reasonable.
If the state were interested in reducing polution and oil consumption, they'd simply increase the already in place tax on gas and let the people in their Prius' slip through with their good milage. There are not really that many of them, and you could always give truckers a rebate at the end of the year if you feel sorry for them. Yeah, you COULD buy gas in Nevada or Oregon or Mexico, but you'd use up that gas getting back across the border, making any savings moot. Besides, the number of people living on the border is pretty fractional.
Seems clear to me, the intention is NOT about simply taxing vehicle use based upon how far you drive, but something more nefarious. Something like the car rental places have been implementing. Looks like California wants to incorporate GPS into the new "black boxes" discussed on cnet a few days ago, those boxes that the government & insurance industry wants to put into your cars in order to give you better rates and let you prove that you're law abiding. They'd have the ability to track all vehicles.
Each of the other taxation methods (checking odometer / gas tax) are simpler and already have the infrastructure necessary to implement in place. Both would accomplish the desired goal (more money for state based upon usage). Because something like this would be all new and would involve MUCH new infrastructure, it seems clear that simple revenue is NOT the intent of this proposal.
California is a big enough market, that they cause defacto standards for cars. The lawmakers know this, and I'm guessing that they are acting as the "stalking horse" in order to get all cars in America fitted with such devices. I don't think the insurance industry alone has the clout to pull this off over the objections of the car driving public, but if each of the players asks for some little addition, they might all be able to get their way. Think of it like this, insurance wants feature A, Feds wants feature B, and state wants feature C. Expect all three features in one DMCA protected box that you must not tamper with, under penalty of law. Expect lawyers to get access to ALL recorded information.
I would expect this proposal to move just about as quickly and silently as the copyright modifications moving through the Senate currently... Think fast and quiet.
Don't act shocked by Best Buy's policies. They've deliberately made an effort to make their pricing confusing in order to cull an extra few dollars out of the "unwashed masses" that come through their doors. You are exactly right that they (BB) are attempting to rid themselves of the smart consumers. Their policy seems to be more about differential pricing and impulse purchases than about offering a fair deal to everyone. That's just the way they operate, they've picked their target/strategy and they'll try to milk it for everything they can take. Get over it, spread the word, and shop somewhere else! I'm not saying that you (writer) have any problem with it, I've just seen some of the other "OUTRAGED" responses and feel they're misguided.
We all know that rebates will most likely NOT get sent in, extra money for them... Most people will buy the service policy AND throw the unit away when it breaks 6mos. later. Don't fall for these stunts... That's the best way to transmit the message to the Best Buy management. Punish them on the bottom line. That's all they've thought of, so it must be important to them. Show them that you are watching too. Say "NO" to the service plan, no matter how many times they ask, then walk out without purchasing anything when they try again (for the 4th time).
Secondly, there must be a supplier SOMEWHERE that treats the customer like they're smart and offers a fair deal without the tricks. Seems like that merchant should be looked to as the "place where cool & tech. savy people" shop. That would help boost their sales as almost EVERYONE would want to be flattered by being thought of as "hip" and "tech. savy" just for shopping there. You get the idea, it spirals up... Help those places to succeed!
Changing this works a little like the election strategy, when you get another customer to switch, you actually hurt Best Buy TWICE! Once when they lose the customer, and again when they vote with their dollars for the competition, making them relativly weaker in the marketspace.
Anyone reading this, start the change by putting down some places where you've felt like you got an AWESOME deal without any tricks, from a sales guy that you trusted and who didn't try to sell you with a bunch of technobabble (that you know is false). The list of Cool places to shop starts here --> (you reply)
yeah, I suppose that you are right about the "I am not entitled to any particular kind of job" thing, but it's all in the eye of the beholder which jobs are the best...
1) I suppose getting "a LOT" more than minimum wage makes up for all the crappy things you get called when you institute some stupid policy that the CEO thought up, or helps you forget the way they think up extra secure ways of "letting you go" when your attitude starts to get bad...
2) I suppose that working in a climate controlled environment (chilled server room with fans/noise all the time) is good if you live in the tropics. Most IT guys end up shoved into a corner of the server room with a bundle of CAT5 running right overhead and a shelf of backup tapes right behind the pile of old PC carcases on the floor.
3) I suppose that sitting down helps you build that trophy gut faster, especially when all you eat is McDonalds because you can't leave the building without alerting "EVERYONE" about who's the backup man. Makes lunch an "event" that everyone can enjoy.
4) And the #4 reason to whine..... No reason to worry about a timeclock when you get paged at 2:36AM about the transaction server to Taiwan that crashed. Yeah, no need for a timeclock when they have you on an electronic leash alright....
All in all, putting work behind you at 5:00 is prob. the most important thing to me. If I'm married to a job, I expect to be a partner in the operation, or at least calling some MAJOR shots about how things are handled. Seems like IT guys don't get that.
Seems to me, IT guys only get to pick the color of the PC's after the budget has been set and the purchasing dept. has negotiated the best deal with the vendor that the operations mgr. decided on. Picking Linux or any other interesting stuff could help with your "exit strategy" while keeping with what the bosses want makes you a tool to the rest of the company.
And last, but not least.... Remember to smile while you are dealing with all the stupid users who __pick___(a: forgot their passwords, b: broke their machines, c: need you to come "right now", d: introduced a trojan).....yeah, always smile...people like that.... NOBODY trusts an unhappy IT guy.
Since a few of you are quoting a Wired article, let me remind you all of another article regarding the DOD's stated mission of "Dominating" the space arena and to deny other nations the ability to launch any platforms to space which we would deem to be contrary to our interests. See Wired magazine; "Peace is war" April 2002.
As you might recall from the article, Rumsfeld and others within the DOD have simply stated that space is too important to allow other nations to participate fully without our approval. Period. As an example, consider US lobbying and conditions in regards to the European GPS system.
from the article
These three statements neatly outline the Bush administration's strategy. Rumsfeld I: Dump that corny old ABM Treaty of 1972 - the Soviets no longer exist. Explore any technique that counters missiles launched by lunatics.
Rumsfeld II: Control space, no matter how much that ambition annoys other governments. Rumsfeld III: Forget about civilized states with sane governments. The challenge at hand is entrenched, stateless terrorism. The proper response is death from above. Or, in the Pentagon dialect, "denying sanctuary with persistent surveillance, tracking, and rapid engagement, with high-volume precision air strikes in all times and weathers, and in all terrains."
Operation of a space elevator will not be allowed where it conflicts with our interests, this includes business interests too. Any venture providing access to space would most certainly have to have their payloads approved by the US government, even if the launching platform is 5000 miles out into the pacific somewhere.
Seems pretty clear, even if a private interest were to attempt to create a space elevator, they might find an un-invited "partner," regardless of their wishes. Soooo, might as well go with the flow and accept the DOD money right off the bat. No other way the project's gonna get done.
How about supergun or space elevator?
on
China Goes Nuclear
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· Score: 4, Interesting
I keep hearing stories about the Japanese working on some type of orbital projectile launcher, same type of thing Gerald Bull was working on before his untimely death. I don't know if they are true, but this would provide a safe way of getting non-human cargo to orbit without the risk of explosion. Encased blocks of radioactive waste could be shot to orbit, then nudged towards the sun by an orbiting sat.
How about the space elevator I keep hearing about here on Slashdot?... No explosive danger there either! Small/medium sized containers could be hoisted to orbit, then directed towards the sun with just a little force. Could make the containers or lift cars with some type of balistic parachute too, so if the cord breaks, the containers land safely in the sea where they can be recovered without exposure.
I'm not too fond of the idea of exploding radioactive bottle-rockets, but the way things are going, we may not have to think like that for too much longer. There are lots of new technologies that could help us safely get our waste to the sun. Best part about that...it's not on earth anymore! No need to worry about theft from the terrorists now and no need to worry about warning the the rabbit-people 50,000 years from now. Yucca mountain may just become a "low-level" waste type site for materials that just don't need to be hoisted to the sun, like all those slightly used Tyvec suits and minimally contaminated whatnot.
The idea of putting our nuclear waste on the sun isn't so far fetched. We just need to come up with a safe way of handling it until it gets there.
Yeah, it's that way....I mean, look at what we spend for nukes, armed parity/domination of the world, etc. Talk about money that could be used to lift up others... after the last 4 years, I could use some "lifting up." Think how good we would have it if we didn't waste that money the way we do..... Wanna do something for the people of this country, while spending the 1B per month?
I'm really moved by the idea of Rikshaws with mobile information on them. I'm sure that someone here could come up with a battery operated info server, I can kinda see the outlines but I'm not knowledgable enough for detail. I really love the look of the one in the photos.
I'm really moved because that 15-year old girl (in the story) will have her best chance ever of getting cached pages with up to date news, courses, mail, etc. Even if her parents DO take her out of school, she will still have better access to information.
The moments that she could sneek would fill her mind more than anything else she could possibly have seen before. That's a start... it's there for her to absorb.
I just wanna know who's gonna have the "wifi rickshaw" w/crypto at the Rep. convention?... Sounds like street mayhem! As a patriot, we can't afford to lose the "wifi rickshaw" race India.
I'm not really opposed to this, and it does seem to be in direct opposition to a lot of "company e-mail policies" as it's written too.
I dont think that companies should get a pass on these types of written correspondences. These days, it's just too easy to hatch a "dominate the globe" policy at the corp. level and then eliminate the evidence through a "document destruction policy" like those at Arthur Anderson/Enron/MS/etc.... I've seen a clear policy of "destroy everything" with regard to e-mail and written transactions at almost every company I've been at. Seems more like the policy is geared towards eliminating any incriminating evidence rather than simply keeping space on the server to a manageable level. That's too bad, because I've seen some smoking guns that SHOULD be loosed on the world.
On the other hand, these types of policies are instituted because it's just too easy for lawyers to get ahold of those records for the purposes of "fishing expeditions," think SCO and their associated scum. Lawyers can just come in with the vague outline of some scheme and get all of a company's e-mails to help create a real case where none existed before. The cost of handing off an entire archive isn't trivial, and discovery is just too easy to do.
Whatever the outcome, it just seems like you and I (read the little guys) will have ALL of their e-mails "go down on our permanent records" while the big guys will always seem to have a good excuse why the mail server suddenly destroyed all the records for that pending lawsuit. I can just hear the lawyers now...."..yeah, it's funny how only the VP's e-mails dissapeared, and only for a 3 month period, but we've got him on a special server that's set to explode in flames every 90 days."
I think that this type of national policy will ultimately hurt the little guys/companies more than the real targets of such legislation. The big guys will just start having oral meetings without taking notes or some such method of non-trackable information sharing.
As with all government intervention, the "quick-fix" is never really that quick, and the problem is almost never fixed.
"Look at me! I'm an attention whore!" is the way you stay alive.
You want to let everyone around you know where you are, especially those SUV drivers mentioned above.
Only two things keep you alive on a motorcycle,
1) Out-thinking the others, like the mom, on her phone, in the mini-van, not paying attention at all and gonna switch lanes without a signal.
2) Announcing your presense and getting everyone on the street to see where/who you are, and to make them stare at you so you know that they REALLY SEE YOU!
Being an annoyance can help your visability as well as making you look pretty intimidating.
Lest us not forget that WE'VE been planting trojans in software shipped overseas too. I recall a story here regarding deliberately sabotaged software shipped to some Russian pipline project. As I recall, the trojaned pipeline test software was designed to operate the pipeline at 10X normal pressure and cause an explosion...which it properly did, setting back the Russian government's energy plans.
When other governments start using OSS, they may be freeing themselves of these US planted trojans. I believe THAT is the major fear of the US government... Not that they will fail to detect a foreign planted bug in some fighterjet, but that OUR planted bugs will be found by China/India/Pakastan/Iran/etc... This would also seem to explain our government's looking the other way with regard to the Microsoft settlement. Remember that the anti-trust settlement was made within a week or so of September 11. Remember also the "Green Lantern" project, where our government was activly looking for ways to co-opt peoples boxes.
Software than cannont be easily trojaned creates just one more difficulty for our spy agencies. As with the gangster who was using pretty secure encryption, the government is now forced to use things like hardware keystroke loggers (meaning they have to have physical access to the unit), sneek-and-peek, you get the idea.
The US government has an interest in keeping people using insecure systems. How easy to you think it was to open those Windows laptops captured in Afganastan? Why, the NSA had those famous "NSA-KEY" entrys to Windows!... Easy as pie. The last thing they want is for KSM and OBL to start putting strong-encrypted filesystems on their Linux laptops in Afganastan. No way to plant the backdoor!
Expect to see a lot more of this type of FUD... The US Government has plenty of time and money to make sure that their Linux systems are safe, they just don't want others using them...
I agree that the FUD supporters may be a little concerned right now. If SCO damages their (the other FUD supporter's) ability to sue with some type of negative verdict, it could be substantially more difficult to start more suits further in the future.
I just don't think that SCO could pull out now to defer a verdict. I really don't think IBM would even accept any type of settlement or dropping, even one where SCO walks away from their claims. Remember that IBM has counter-claims against SCO, and those are NOT going to be dropped. Walking away from the suit may even mean that IBM get's a declatory judgement about Linux not infringing without contest.
This trouble is even better, because it will force any future funding of SCO out into the open. If MS is really interested in supporting SCO, they're gonna have to throw them the lifepreserver soon... and they'll have to do it in broad daylight.
OK, I'll bite.... What happens to radio stations played in an audio equipment dealer's shop?
Does the car stereo shop have to pay because they have more than 4 speakers in the listening booth? Or does this only apply to 4 SIMULTANIOUS speakers? What about the different listening rooms, there might be 3 or 4 seperate stations being played at the same time.
Why does the space limitation apply to spaces UNDER the listed square footages and not bigger establishments?... That simply doesn't make sense.
If there are no easy answers for these questions, these laws should be struck as being unconstitutionally vague. Inquiring minds want to know
If you look at the charts, it looks like MANY people have been covering their short positions. That's the only reason I can figure that the stock price INCREASES after the bad/good news on the DC suit.
Looks to me like many of the shorts are now buying shares back to cover their short positions, and those swindlers at SCO are not really giving in to sell.
I simply recommend staying away from SCOX, it's really tough to outmanuver the stock swindlers on a company such as this. The company insiders and all the people on the SCOX insider phone-tree have been pumping up the share prices, selling back and then re-purchasing to manipulate the price. Simply stay away from these guys.... There's better money to be made somewhere else, and it doesn't tarnish your karma or expose you to the risks found here.
**anyone**:Yeah, but can someone tell me when I can get my Symbol font to work with Acrobat reader on my box? I've filed a bug report?..I think I've exhausted all leads?...Ok, I'll talk amongst myselves...
OK, I don't want to rain on his parade, it's a cool idea, and really good for people who don't want to work with proto-board or wire-wrap. I just see one BIG problem.....cost.
Having been into PIC's for a while now, I'm finding that cost is the final frontier when using/building small electronics. I can't imagine any of these building blocks being sold for less than $10-$15 each, and that's for the simple functions. By the time you get something really interesting going, it's gonna cost a LOT of money for all of the modules you'll need. MUCH more than it would to buy a PIC Demo board with programmer, LCD, and all the other features they throw into the box. From the links, it looks like he might have one of these processors in his boxen.
Here's a simple cost breakdown for one of the modules shown in the photo that I saw on the site:
1) Electronics: no less than $2 for any of the functions listed. PIC's are run from $2-18 in small qty, depending on features.
2) Wire: Sounds trivial, but it's gonna be $0.50 to attach two wires to a circuit board... That's a minimum for boxes that only have 2 wires, scale accordingly.
3) Packaging: small molded plastic box in qty $0.50. I know, I've been pricing them for my products.
4) Custom circuit board: minimum of $1.40 for small 1.5" X 2.5" 2-layer board.
5) Assembly: gonna cost $3 to stuff 20 small parts on that panelized board. No way around that, unless you've got a lot of spare time and are good with the iron.
6) Potting: gotta hold that stuff in the small enclosure. It's gonna be $0.50 here too.
7) Packaging/testing: it's gonna cost something to test and put that baby in a box. My estimate is at least $1 for each unit.
Really cool, but it looks really expensive.
For a cost comparison, you can purchase the PICDEM2+ board, with In-circuit debugger and development environment for $229.00 (digikey #DV164006-ND). You can also download the demo C compiler for free and start hacking immediatly.
With the features on that board, you can do 10-15 modules worth right off the bat....
AVR is a similar option, as is the 8051 and Z80. There's lots of small demo boards available.
If you like PLC type logic, try one of the cheaper units from Keyence or DirectLogic...these units are about $150 with all the features shown and more.... Both have high-speed counters, large memory and at least 8-in and 8-out....
Bottom line is this, don't be afraid of tinkering with parts...it's fun, cheap, and you'll learn a lot more by actually reading the datasheets and soldering wires yourself.
Happy tinkering
Hey...the chicken bones are a valid fix too....
on
Debugging
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· Score: 4, Funny
These "rules" are great, but nothing beats the mystic power of a little goat blood and chicken bones waved over a misbehaving system.
Without these, the average user might be tempted to try and fix it themselves.... Next thing, my job is being "offshored" to a phone bank in India.
No, the chicken bones and a little incantation will keep my job right here, where it belongs.
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Let me first say that I strongly dislike what's going on with patents now, software and otherwise.
I like that inventors get a chance to make a buck off their inventions, that's the productive and creative part that congress orig. talked about when they granted patents.
I'm strongly displeased at the use/mis-use of patents today. They're used as stragic weapons against competetors. They're used to block new technology. They're used to destroy governments and individual rights (think Africa and South America with AIDS drugs). The current patent crap (for instance, patenting of genetic material found in natural foods and herbs) is simply a means to give multinational corps. final fascist control over the world economy. All work will have to be for them, because you'll need their protection and cross-licensing to do anything. You will not be able to wipe your ass with leaves grown in your own back yard if Bayer finds some "cooling gell" in that species that they want to patent. Software patents are making it illegal to work or create for yourself, as without the protection of MS/HP/DELL, your thoughts will have been patented by someone else and you will be breaking the law by using a wheel of your own creation (even if you didn't copy anything).
But in this case, I'll settle for "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." MS/HP/DELL/Netgear/etc. want it their way when it helps them and call for invalidation/threats/whatever/manuvering/spin when they have to pay.... Time for you suckers to pay....I hope they ream you raw too, as I'll happily know that you are eating part of that $4 just to keep the sales numbers up. Better yet, I'd love to see you buy 10M of those chips, only to have them sitting in your fab plants because nobody wants to buy your product at the inflated price.
If they want real reform, they should help to change patent law away from the mess it's in now, otherwise these industry blow-hards should just shut up and keep paying! You know, you can't win all the time..
They don't really want reform though, they simply want control and they're mad at the fact that they DON'T have the patent. They'd do just the same thing roles reversed.
Perhaps the force IS with them.... Why, I learned Pascal as my FIRST programming language when the first Star Wars movie came out!
Now, the LAST Star Wars movie has come out, but I've switched to the dark side and I am now coding in C, perhaps the LAST language that I'll want to learn before I'm destroyed by my son!... It's amazing...No, It's the power of the force.
Yeah, I like your line of thinking....
Consider also, the GPL does not force you to distribute to EVERYONE, only the people who have received binaries from you. This would be the obvious case when passing a text document around. Like all other GPL code, the receipients can consider if they want to pass it on further.
I really don't see this as a problem. There's no way that they could possibly mean that all your documents would need to be made available for everyone. Why, the only way that everything you write could be immediatly available for download by everyone would be to use a Windows machine!
Well put, another way that I explain Open Source to people is to compare to clothing.... The suit wearing crowd really gets this analogy...
Imagine if you could get designer suits from Armani and all the other expensive guys for free, because the tailors got together and worked out a really great way of making them....your only responsibility is to pay your tailor to get them properly fit for you, as this is a personal process... Most people understand this concept, and think it's a good deal.
People generally like the idea of having personal service. Most people don't have a problem paying for a taylor, hairdresser or barber, and they'll pay a taylor more than they'll pay for a shirt off the rack at "Target."
Open source is really about shifting from the "feed-lot" mentality, where everyone gets the same program with the same bugs, and a chosen few get all of the "intellectual property" money to a more balanced model, where the programmers are craftsmen/craftswomen are important and no one person gets all the cash. Sure, it takes more than a single programmer to accomplish really big things, but this is a "barn raising" for the entire community rather than a "land grab" to enrich just a few individuals for their entire lives and the entire lives of all of their progeny.
AND THERE ISN"T TWO WAYS TO LOOK AT THIS. I agree with the 1st ammendment. I believe in free-speech too.
SPAM IS NOT FREE SPEECH.
WEBSITES ARE FREE SPEECH AND MASS MAILINGS THROUGH USPS ARE FREE SPEECH.
SPAM IS NOT FREE SPEECH AND NEITHER IS TELEMARKETING!
The difference is based upon the level of invasion towards the listener that the speaker is inflicting when contacting the listener. The difference is also upon who's paying for the medium, and where the destination is.
For instance, consider websites, the listener here is an active participant, and MUST somehow seek out the speach they wish to listen to. This form of speech is MOST protected, and rightly so. Consider also, the medium of cable TV, purchased movies and books. Even these types of speech are in jepardy by the proto-fascist Republicans (as seen on Drudge today) when gov. types want to impose restrictions on cable TV. Consider for a second, this is a product that costs money, and was deliberately sought out by the customer, not something that landed in their front yard without their control.
A second example might be a public speaker, like a guy on the street corner yelling about how God's gonna destroy all of us. This person does inconvience some with his speach, but the overall level is balanced by the fact that not ALL he says is protected (public decency standards and violent speech), and that listeners can go home if they wish.
The MOST UNPROTECTED SPEECH is unsolicited speech that intrudes on the legal "castle" or home. In this location, I am presumed to have specifically sought to NOT have others speak at me without an invitation! SIMPLY HAVING THE MEDIUM IS NOT AN IMPLICIT INVITATION TO SPEECH! This is mostly the same considering my e-mail, as I have sought nothing out, there is absolutely no protection for the spammer or telemarketer. What stupid reasoning could you possibly be using to consider that the spammer has the right to bombard me with solicitations when I'm seeking legal refuge in my only legal sanctuary! I've purchased a product (THE MEDIUM as you called it) for my own uses, not the speaker's. I've paid for this product, when the speaker/spammer pays for the product (i.e. free yahoo mail, television or whatever)they can call the shots. In this case (my phone and internet) I've paid, so I get to extend or not extend invitations to others to speak to me.
Remember that I'm not infringing on your right to have a website with penis enlargment info, beastiality pictures and whatever products you wish to hawk, I simply have the equiv. right NOT to hear you if I don't want! In my home, I'm legally presumed king of my domain, and I'm NOT obligated to sort out people that I don't want to hear from. I entertain as I wish, and I am under no obligation to listen to anyone. You (spammer/telemarketer) are under the obligation to demonstrate that you've been invited! You should notice that I've NOT grouped spammers/telemarketers with the people who mail the equiv. types of offers. In this case, THEY are paying the fees to ship the product, so they have the right to send. Further, my mailbox is technically the property of the US Postal Service. I also have the right to NOT pick mail out of this box that I don't want. Technically, no mail enters my home uninvited. With television, I've made the implied exchange of watching commercials in exchange for getting a free product. I've made no such exchange with e-mails, I've paid for a service, the useful service of which the spammer is robbing me of.
This country is so f*cked when people will even entertain the notion that telemarketers and/or spammers have a "free-speech right" to call/contact me at my home, at my expense, at whatever time they feel! They don't... They have the right to purchase commerials, buy billboards and hire blimps, but they DO NOT have the right to call me or force open my window shades to see their billboards or force me to turn on my TV to see their commercials.
DEATH.... that's the only answer in this case. I can certainly understand why a judge would be a little nervous about sending someone up for 7 years in this case, when death is clearly the proper punishment for such a crime. Viagra and Cortaslim until such time as you are dead.
No, as I recall, the anti-trust settlement between the government and MS occured something like 3 days after 9/11.
I've always been suspicious that those infamous "NSA_KEYS" had something to do with the settlement..... I could easily see MS proposing something like "drop this nonsense and we'll give you boys all the inside crypto keys you want, we'll keep Windows insecure and you can keep everyone owned.."
Check... You'll see, settlement talks during GW's tenure were even in NY as I recall!
They've been found guilty after all... No other convicted criminal is/has been allowed to keep their illegally gotten wealth after being convicted!... It's unprecidented, but TOTALLY slipped by in the hysteria after 9/11!..... There's a government connection here, they certainly wouldn't let me keep the money after robbing a bank!... It's unprecidented!
I've never had a problem with the Tivo hardware. I really like it. I've almost bought one a few times.... But, as with a lot of the other people posting here, I had a problem with paying $12/month (I think that's it) for the electronic equiv. of TV Guide. This has always kept me from getting one. Well, that and one more thing....
What REALLY burned me though, was the stories of overnight "downgrades" and the EULA with crap about how "Company reserves the right to alter the user experience at will..blah..blah..." I think everyone remembers hearing something about TIVO caving into industry demands to remove features that Hollywood didn't like....
Now that Comcast has signed their warrant, it's time for Tivo to strike back and destroy a few other control based business models that come from Hollywood....
1) How about FREE programming guides, paid for by advertising in the corners. I get that crap currently in the corner of my Comcast menu, and I PAY for that service.
2) How about putting in/back ALL of the features that users want!
3) How about offering up the source for Tivo units to the community as GPL and allowing anyone who wants to, to hack their unit with all the best possible free tools? I know that someone will point me to some of the sites on the web, I've seen them. I also know that they exist at the pleasure of Tivo, and by reading the boards, nobody really wants to do anything that would piss the overlords off too much. When I say access, I mean the whole shebam, with no lurking around bb's looking for clues as to how to activate the commercial skip feature or whatever.
Tivo could strike back here, it's not too late to save the platform if they act now. Comcast doesn't want to play? They think that they can homebrew an answer and keep all the money? Fine! How about we let EVERYONE know how this sucker works and turn the dogs out on you.
I think that quick action, in the vein of Mozilla organization/license for the platform would make the Tivo platform IMPOSSIBLE to stop. If they wait too long, their platform will be marginalized and will be worthless. Now's the time to move. If they do, they could still save a tidy business in selling specialty hardware and would get additional revenue from ads on the guides. Of course, it wouldn't be the same fat cut they took before, but it would keep them alive. AND by keeping it open, they would deny the monopoly lock for others.
If Tivo were to do something like that.... i.e. free feeds based on advertising and an open platform with the features I want, I'd go buy one tommorrow. Hell, I'd buy three, one for really watching and two for experiments.
The GPL is radioactive to companies that get their market share based upon control and healthy food for companies that offer service and quality. I think it's time to start throwing the nukes around just to show big media who's in charge....The customer! This could happen just in time to clear the "broadcast flag" crap scheduled for hardware this July! Scorched earth for big media!
Remember this happening in Africa too?
As I recall, Robert Mugabe (I think?) refused to accept gifts of genetically modified corn to his country from the US. As a condition of accepting the gift, he required that the corn be milled, thereby destroying it's capability to grow/sprout/etc, and rendering it impossible for Monsanto and the other giants from having a legal case against him.
I'm really surprised that the farmers are so stupid as to go along with this. Only a few months ago, Wired had an article about the new herbicide resistant coca plants in South America. The plants, as it turns out, were not modified in the lab, but through agressive breading in proximity to the American spraying efforts. No breaking of the law, just simple work. Why are these silly farmers accepting the same treatment? How long before US farmers come up with a soy bean that is resistant to roundup?
I guess it just works out to choice...If US farmers want Monsanto's hands in their pants, they're entitled to choose that. Why heck, as the story points out, it makes farming really easy and feels pretty good at first. I just know that, like taxes, once the hands are there, they're not going to go away, and they'll only squeeze harder over time. Eventually, the farmers will find that they no longer have any choice... suckers...
I mean, what's the purpose otherwise? I can easily see, unfortunately, a future where even being driven by your car, it's STILL illegal to be over the DUI limit.
Why, soon, I'll have to get out of my car to smoke too!
I'm sort of a "tinfoil hat wearing" type of guy, but this seems really transparent to me. With everything that's been happening lately, perhaps tinfoil will become the latest fashion trend, but... Remember that the state of Oregon proposed this same thing perhaps a year ago, Slashdot did an article on it then...
Think of this logically, as some of the others here already have. If the state were interested in taxing you based upon milage, they would simply record your odometer readings at each emmissions inspection and bill you accordingly for your tabs. Yeah, I know about the in-state/out-state argument, why not just ignore that and set the median tax at something reasonable.
If the state were interested in reducing polution and oil consumption, they'd simply increase the already in place tax on gas and let the people in their Prius' slip through with their good milage. There are not really that many of them, and you could always give truckers a rebate at the end of the year if you feel sorry for them. Yeah, you COULD buy gas in Nevada or Oregon or Mexico, but you'd use up that gas getting back across the border, making any savings moot. Besides, the number of people living on the border is pretty fractional.
Seems clear to me, the intention is NOT about simply taxing vehicle use based upon how far you drive, but something more nefarious. Something like the car rental places have been implementing. Looks like California wants to incorporate GPS into the new "black boxes" discussed on cnet a few days ago, those boxes that the government & insurance industry wants to put into your cars in order to give you better rates and let you prove that you're law abiding. They'd have the ability to track all vehicles.
Each of the other taxation methods (checking odometer / gas tax) are simpler and already have the infrastructure necessary to implement in place. Both would accomplish the desired goal (more money for state based upon usage). Because something like this would be all new and would involve MUCH new infrastructure, it seems clear that simple revenue is NOT the intent of this proposal.
California is a big enough market, that they cause defacto standards for cars. The lawmakers know this, and I'm guessing that they are acting as the "stalking horse" in order to get all cars in America fitted with such devices. I don't think the insurance industry alone has the clout to pull this off over the objections of the car driving public, but if each of the players asks for some little addition, they might all be able to get their way. Think of it like this, insurance wants feature A, Feds wants feature B, and state wants feature C. Expect all three features in one DMCA protected box that you must not tamper with, under penalty of law. Expect lawyers to get access to ALL recorded information.
I would expect this proposal to move just about as quickly and silently as the copyright modifications moving through the Senate currently... Think fast and quiet.
Don't act shocked by Best Buy's policies. They've deliberately made an effort to make their pricing confusing in order to cull an extra few dollars out of the "unwashed masses" that come through their doors. You are exactly right that they (BB) are attempting to rid themselves of the smart consumers. Their policy seems to be more about differential pricing and impulse purchases than about offering a fair deal to everyone. That's just the way they operate, they've picked their target/strategy and they'll try to milk it for everything they can take. Get over it, spread the word, and shop somewhere else! I'm not saying that you (writer) have any problem with it, I've just seen some of the other "OUTRAGED" responses and feel they're misguided.
We all know that rebates will most likely NOT get sent in, extra money for them... Most people will buy the service policy AND throw the unit away when it breaks 6mos. later. Don't fall for these stunts... That's the best way to transmit the message to the Best Buy management. Punish them on the bottom line. That's all they've thought of, so it must be important to them. Show them that you are watching too. Say "NO" to the service plan, no matter how many times they ask, then walk out without purchasing anything when they try again (for the 4th time).
Secondly, there must be a supplier SOMEWHERE that treats the customer like they're smart and offers a fair deal without the tricks. Seems like that merchant should be looked to as the "place where cool & tech. savy people" shop. That would help boost their sales as almost EVERYONE would want to be flattered by being thought of as "hip" and "tech. savy" just for shopping there. You get the idea, it spirals up... Help those places to succeed!
Changing this works a little like the election strategy, when you get another customer to switch, you actually hurt Best Buy TWICE! Once when they lose the customer, and again when they vote with their dollars for the competition, making them relativly weaker in the marketspace.
Anyone reading this, start the change by putting down some places where you've felt like you got an AWESOME deal without any tricks, from a sales guy that you trusted and who didn't try to sell you with a bunch of technobabble (that you know is false). The list of Cool places to shop starts here --> (you reply)
yeah, I suppose that you are right about the "I am not entitled to any particular kind of job" thing, but it's all in the eye of the beholder which jobs are the best...
1) I suppose getting "a LOT" more than minimum wage makes up for all the crappy things you get called when you institute some stupid policy that the CEO thought up, or helps you forget the way they think up extra secure ways of "letting you go" when your attitude starts to get bad...
2) I suppose that working in a climate controlled environment (chilled server room with fans/noise all the time) is good if you live in the tropics. Most IT guys end up shoved into a corner of the server room with a bundle of CAT5 running right overhead and a shelf of backup tapes right behind the pile of old PC carcases on the floor.
3) I suppose that sitting down helps you build that trophy gut faster, especially when all you eat is McDonalds because you can't leave the building without alerting "EVERYONE" about who's the backup man. Makes lunch an "event" that everyone can enjoy.
4) And the #4 reason to whine..... No reason to worry about a timeclock when you get paged at 2:36AM about the transaction server to Taiwan that crashed. Yeah, no need for a timeclock when they have you on an electronic leash alright....
All in all, putting work behind you at 5:00 is prob. the most important thing to me. If I'm married to a job, I expect to be a partner in the operation, or at least calling some MAJOR shots about how things are handled. Seems like IT guys don't get that.
Seems to me, IT guys only get to pick the color of the PC's after the budget has been set and the purchasing dept. has negotiated the best deal with the vendor that the operations mgr. decided on. Picking Linux or any other interesting stuff could help with your "exit strategy" while keeping with what the bosses want makes you a tool to the rest of the company.
And last, but not least.... Remember to smile while you are dealing with all the stupid users who __pick___(a: forgot their passwords, b: broke their machines, c: need you to come "right now", d: introduced a trojan).....yeah, always smile...people like that.... NOBODY trusts an unhappy IT guy.
Since a few of you are quoting a Wired article, let me remind you all of another article regarding the DOD's stated mission of "Dominating" the space arena and to deny other nations the ability to launch any platforms to space which we would deem to be contrary to our interests. See Wired magazine; "Peace is war" April 2002.
As you might recall from the article, Rumsfeld and others within the DOD have simply stated that space is too important to allow other nations to participate fully without our approval. Period. As an example, consider US lobbying and conditions in regards to the European GPS system.
from the article
Operation of a space elevator will not be allowed where it conflicts with our interests, this includes business interests too. Any venture providing access to space would most certainly have to have their payloads approved by the US government, even if the launching platform is 5000 miles out into the pacific somewhere.
Seems pretty clear, even if a private interest were to attempt to create a space elevator, they might find an un-invited "partner," regardless of their wishes. Soooo, might as well go with the flow and accept the DOD money right off the bat. No other way the project's gonna get done.
I keep hearing stories about the Japanese working on some type of orbital projectile launcher, same type of thing Gerald Bull was working on before his untimely death. I don't know if they are true, but this would provide a safe way of getting non-human cargo to orbit without the risk of explosion. Encased blocks of radioactive waste could be shot to orbit, then nudged towards the sun by an orbiting sat.
How about the space elevator I keep hearing about here on Slashdot?... No explosive danger there either! Small/medium sized containers could be hoisted to orbit, then directed towards the sun with just a little force. Could make the containers or lift cars with some type of balistic parachute too, so if the cord breaks, the containers land safely in the sea where they can be recovered without exposure.
I'm not too fond of the idea of exploding radioactive bottle-rockets, but the way things are going, we may not have to think like that for too much longer. There are lots of new technologies that could help us safely get our waste to the sun. Best part about that...it's not on earth anymore! No need to worry about theft from the terrorists now and no need to worry about warning the the rabbit-people 50,000 years from now. Yucca mountain may just become a "low-level" waste type site for materials that just don't need to be hoisted to the sun, like all those slightly used Tyvec suits and minimally contaminated whatnot.
The idea of putting our nuclear waste on the sun isn't so far fetched. We just need to come up with a safe way of handling it until it gets there.
Yeah, it's that way....I mean, look at what we spend for nukes, armed parity/domination of the world, etc. Talk about money that could be used to lift up others... after the last 4 years, I could use some "lifting up." Think how good we would have it if we didn't waste that money the way we do..... Wanna do something for the people of this country, while spending the 1B per month?
I'm really moved by the idea of Rikshaws with mobile information on them. I'm sure that someone here could come up with a battery operated info server, I can kinda see the outlines but I'm not knowledgable enough for detail. I really love the look of the one in the photos.
I'm really moved because that 15-year old girl (in the story) will have her best chance ever of getting cached pages with up to date news, courses, mail, etc. Even if her parents DO take her out of school, she will still have better access to information.
The moments that she could sneek would fill her mind more than anything else she could possibly have seen before. That's a start... it's there for her to absorb.
I just wanna know who's gonna have the "wifi rickshaw" w/crypto at the Rep. convention?... Sounds like street mayhem! As a patriot, we can't afford to lose the "wifi rickshaw" race India.
I'm not really opposed to this, and it does seem to be in direct opposition to a lot of "company e-mail policies" as it's written too.
I dont think that companies should get a pass on these types of written correspondences. These days, it's just too easy to hatch a "dominate the globe" policy at the corp. level and then eliminate the evidence through a "document destruction policy" like those at Arthur Anderson/Enron/MS/etc.... I've seen a clear policy of "destroy everything" with regard to e-mail and written transactions at almost every company I've been at. Seems more like the policy is geared towards eliminating any incriminating evidence rather than simply keeping space on the server to a manageable level. That's too bad, because I've seen some smoking guns that SHOULD be loosed on the world.
On the other hand, these types of policies are instituted because it's just too easy for lawyers to get ahold of those records for the purposes of "fishing expeditions," think SCO and their associated scum. Lawyers can just come in with the vague outline of some scheme and get all of a company's e-mails to help create a real case where none existed before. The cost of handing off an entire archive isn't trivial, and discovery is just too easy to do.
Whatever the outcome, it just seems like you and I (read the little guys) will have ALL of their e-mails "go down on our permanent records" while the big guys will always seem to have a good excuse why the mail server suddenly destroyed all the records for that pending lawsuit. I can just hear the lawyers now...."..yeah, it's funny how only the VP's e-mails dissapeared, and only for a 3 month period, but we've got him on a special server that's set to explode in flames every 90 days."
I think that this type of national policy will ultimately hurt the little guys/companies more than the real targets of such legislation. The big guys will just start having oral meetings without taking notes or some such method of non-trackable information sharing.
As with all government intervention, the "quick-fix" is never really that quick, and the problem is almost never fixed.
You want to let everyone around you know where you are, especially those SUV drivers mentioned above.
Only two things keep you alive on a motorcycle,
1) Out-thinking the others, like the mom, on her phone, in the mini-van, not paying attention at all and gonna switch lanes without a signal.
2) Announcing your presense and getting everyone on the street to see where/who you are, and to make them stare at you so you know that they REALLY SEE YOU!
Being an annoyance can help your visability as well as making you look pretty intimidating.
Lest us not forget that WE'VE been planting trojans in software shipped overseas too. I recall a story here regarding deliberately sabotaged software shipped to some Russian pipline project. As I recall, the trojaned pipeline test software was designed to operate the pipeline at 10X normal pressure and cause an explosion...which it properly did, setting back the Russian government's energy plans.
When other governments start using OSS, they may be freeing themselves of these US planted trojans. I believe THAT is the major fear of the US government... Not that they will fail to detect a foreign planted bug in some fighterjet, but that OUR planted bugs will be found by China/India/Pakastan/Iran/etc... This would also seem to explain our government's looking the other way with regard to the Microsoft settlement. Remember that the anti-trust settlement was made within a week or so of September 11. Remember also the "Green Lantern" project, where our government was activly looking for ways to co-opt peoples boxes.
Software than cannont be easily trojaned creates just one more difficulty for our spy agencies. As with the gangster who was using pretty secure encryption, the government is now forced to use things like hardware keystroke loggers (meaning they have to have physical access to the unit), sneek-and-peek, you get the idea.
The US government has an interest in keeping people using insecure systems. How easy to you think it was to open those Windows laptops captured in Afganastan? Why, the NSA had those famous "NSA-KEY" entrys to Windows!... Easy as pie. The last thing they want is for KSM and OBL to start putting strong-encrypted filesystems on their Linux laptops in Afganastan. No way to plant the backdoor!
Expect to see a lot more of this type of FUD... The US Government has plenty of time and money to make sure that their Linux systems are safe, they just don't want others using them...
I agree that the FUD supporters may be a little concerned right now. If SCO damages their (the other FUD supporter's) ability to sue with some type of negative verdict, it could be substantially more difficult to start more suits further in the future.
I just don't think that SCO could pull out now to defer a verdict. I really don't think IBM would even accept any type of settlement or dropping, even one where SCO walks away from their claims. Remember that IBM has counter-claims against SCO, and those are NOT going to be dropped. Walking away from the suit may even mean that IBM get's a declatory judgement about Linux not infringing without contest.
This trouble is even better, because it will force any future funding of SCO out into the open. If MS is really interested in supporting SCO, they're gonna have to throw them the lifepreserver soon... and they'll have to do it in broad daylight.
OK, I'll bite.... What happens to radio stations played in an audio equipment dealer's shop?
Does the car stereo shop have to pay because they have more than 4 speakers in the listening booth? Or does this only apply to 4 SIMULTANIOUS speakers? What about the different listening rooms, there might be 3 or 4 seperate stations being played at the same time.
Why does the space limitation apply to spaces UNDER the listed square footages and not bigger establishments?... That simply doesn't make sense.
If there are no easy answers for these questions, these laws should be struck as being unconstitutionally vague. Inquiring minds want to know
If you look at the charts, it looks like MANY people have been covering their short positions. That's the only reason I can figure that the stock price INCREASES after the bad/good news on the DC suit.
Looks to me like many of the shorts are now buying shares back to cover their short positions, and those swindlers at SCO are not really giving in to sell.
I simply recommend staying away from SCOX, it's really tough to outmanuver the stock swindlers on a company such as this. The company insiders and all the people on the SCOX insider phone-tree have been pumping up the share prices, selling back and then re-purchasing to manipulate the price. Simply stay away from these guys.... There's better money to be made somewhere else, and it doesn't tarnish your karma or expose you to the risks found here.
(TaPao, high commissioner;planet Vulcan): "Kirk, Dis battle is to de death....Bring on the Learpa...."
**anyone**:Yeah, but can someone tell me when I can get my Symbol font to work with Acrobat reader on my box? I've filed a bug report?..I think I've exhausted all leads?...Ok, I'll talk amongst myselves...
OK, I don't want to rain on his parade, it's a cool idea, and really good for people who don't want to work with proto-board or wire-wrap. I just see one BIG problem.....cost.
Having been into PIC's for a while now, I'm finding that cost is the final frontier when using/building small electronics. I can't imagine any of these building blocks being sold for less than $10-$15 each, and that's for the simple functions. By the time you get something really interesting going, it's gonna cost a LOT of money for all of the modules you'll need. MUCH more than it would to buy a PIC Demo board with programmer, LCD, and all the other features they throw into the box. From the links, it looks like he might have one of these processors in his boxen.
Here's a simple cost breakdown for one of the modules shown in the photo that I saw on the site:
1) Electronics: no less than $2 for any of the functions listed. PIC's are run from $2-18 in small qty, depending on features.
2) Wire: Sounds trivial, but it's gonna be $0.50 to attach two wires to a circuit board... That's a minimum for boxes that only have 2 wires, scale accordingly.
3) Packaging: small molded plastic box in qty $0.50. I know, I've been pricing them for my products.
4) Custom circuit board: minimum of $1.40 for small 1.5" X 2.5" 2-layer board.
5) Assembly: gonna cost $3 to stuff 20 small parts on that panelized board. No way around that, unless you've got a lot of spare time and are good with the iron.
6) Potting: gotta hold that stuff in the small enclosure. It's gonna be $0.50 here too.
7) Packaging/testing: it's gonna cost something to test and put that baby in a box. My estimate is at least $1 for each unit.
Really cool, but it looks really expensive.
For a cost comparison, you can purchase the PICDEM2+ board, with In-circuit debugger and development environment for $229.00 (digikey #DV164006-ND). You can also download the demo C compiler for free and start hacking immediatly.
With the features on that board, you can do 10-15 modules worth right off the bat....
AVR is a similar option, as is the 8051 and Z80. There's lots of small demo boards available.
If you like PLC type logic, try one of the cheaper units from Keyence or DirectLogic...these units are about $150 with all the features shown and more.... Both have high-speed counters, large memory and at least 8-in and 8-out....
Bottom line is this, don't be afraid of tinkering with parts...it's fun, cheap, and you'll learn a lot more by actually reading the datasheets and soldering wires yourself.
Happy tinkering
These "rules" are great, but nothing beats the mystic power of a little goat blood and chicken bones waved over a misbehaving system.
Without these, the average user might be tempted to try and fix it themselves.... Next thing, my job is being "offshored" to a phone bank in India.
No, the chicken bones and a little incantation will keep my job right here, where it belongs.