While I agree that the automotive industry isn't very analogous to the software industry, you're right for the wrong reason.
Speaking from within the industry, I can assure you that when automotive manufacturers can, we keep our manufacturing processes secret, and when we can't, we patent the living hell out of them. Just because you can take the car apart doesn't mean you can duplicate it.
You can reverse engineer software too, but that's as different from having the source as reverse engineering a vehicle is from having the mountains of detailed blueprints and manufacturing specifications used to make it.
and then after the modem answers , and they hang up , it rings again....
sometimes 3 or 4 times, once someone tried for 3 hours. (I put it off the hook after that)
It's more likely that someone tried to send a fax to your modem line. Even the dimmest human being is likely to give up in boredom after less than three hours even if they don't cotton on that they're dialing the wrong number. A fax machine is not going to get bored, and many older & cheaper ones won't give up until you manually cancel the transmission.
It's also possible they'll conclude that they wrote down your email address incorrectly, or that you've switched ISPs - especially if you've changed your email address a lot in the past.
One big advantage spam-wise about having the domain catch your names is that you can assign arbitrary addresses to login sites. If I want to check out meatlego.com and they want an email address, I just enter meatlego@drfrog.net.
If meatlego sell or lose that address to a spammer, I just blacklist that particular "Addressed to" address and don't ever receive anything from meatlego, their spammer friend, or anyone else the spammer passes that address onto.
No matter what Mr. Bradbury says, you can't copyright titles.
Oh, I think Ray is aware of this... I Sing The Body Electric was the exact title of a Walt Whitman poem before he appropriated it for his story.
Off the top of my head, Something Wicked This Way Comes is a Shakespeare quote, while The Golden Apples Of The Sun is a Yeats quote.
I'm sure there are others, but that should suffice to show that Bradbury knows damn well that it's permissible to reference another's work in a title.
Re:My experiences with Gmail invitations
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Gmail in the News
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No, it's gone now, so apparently you were the first to try it. When you get your first invite, can I have one? Please?;)
You can send it to gmail@drfrog.net (it'll be forwarded to my main account and that way I'll know what it is right away).
Assuming you're game, thanks!
You're not going to get audiophile-quality sound off an FM broadcast.
The article blurb refers to 'digital' radio. Wouldn't that give better sound, supposedly? I took it to refer mostly to the new satellite radio services.
Then why's it OK for him and not OK for say Halliburton?
Not okay for Halliburton to what? Make money? I have no problem with that. I don't even believe that anything and everything related to 9/11 or Iraq necessarily needs to be profit-free.
Next time Michael Moore gets a sweetheart deal from my government without going through a normal bidding process I'm gonna be pissed though.
Having a coffee addiction is nasty when you get sick and can't stomache it (eg gastro) and are forced to withdraw from caffiene while feeling particularly nasty for other reasons..
So chew three Penguins (the caffeinated mint, not the waterfowl!;).
Yes, I took ONE EXAMPLE because it was the only one offered. What would you have me do, make up some examples the poster didn't include so my response could be more comprehensive? That would be a 'straw man.'
I didn't 'turn it into a straw man' because 1) I used the example provided, and 2) the point was irrelevant to the topic at hand in the first place. However correct it is to say that not anyone should be able to turn an ATM into a jukebox, it's got nothing ot do with the ability of people to turn a home computer into a jukebox, which people can and should be able to do.
Your mischaracterization of my original post, which was available for quoting in its entirety at the cost of a couple of clicks at most, bespeaks trollishness far more than the actual 'straw man' which you offer of a comment I didn't make.
It's absolutely true that 'in many situations' users don't have any need to install software, which I don't and didn't deny, but those typically aren't the cases where Windows is the dominant OS. My comment discussed one of the factors which makes Windows dominant in the sector which was under discussion, viz. home and small office, where the user typically does perform 'admin' functions such as installing software.
In situations where that isn't the case, obviously the lack of easy application installation isn't a factor. I think it's not coincidental that those are the very areas where Windows is losing ground.
Uh, yeah... I can't count the number of times I've had my cash-withdrawing pleasure ruined because the yahoo in front of me tried to install RealPlayer on it and got his disk stuck in the cash delivery slot.
My comment didn't address such systems, because they're not relevant to the topic at hand. Windows has a position of overwhelming dominance on the desktop of home and office systems for a number of reasons, and I think one of the reasons Linux isn't currently competitive in that sphere is the relative difficulty of installing software.
Linux can compete in ATM systems because that concern isn't relevant; it can't compete on the desktop... oh hell, why am I bothering? IHBT, right?
I think what's really needed is a simple, easy, near-automatic method for installation and removal of applications that works for all distros.
Being able to click on a single file and have a fairly standard installer sequence pop up would be ideal for GUI, but I'd even settle for a standard CLI method, hold the endless switches and dependencies please.
What ruined Minority Report for me were the plot holes you could drive a Mack truck through. There is one team of three precogs, it takes most of a day for the precops to prevent a single murder, and this is supposed to scale to nationwide by next week?
Assuming that Spielberg stays true to the intent of Well(e)s (i.e. a serious horror story of a helpless Earth, followed by redemption through sheer luck) he'll have to do some serious spellbinding to keep the suspension of disbelief from busting a leafspring.
Frankly, I doubt he's up to it, and while Cruise has *some* talent he's, yes, worlds away from being able to carry a McGuffin that size on his lonesome.
"an opening especially in the wall of a building for admission of light and air that is usually closed by casements or sashes containing transparent material (as glass) and capable of being opened and shut" sounds like a patent!
I'm sorry, but since when was any vote-counting system designed to interpret what a voter's intent was, beyond correctly-cast votes?
That's what all voting systems are designed to do; determine which candidate the voter intended to support. An accurate system does it reliably every time, and a robust system allows for rechecking.
If people don't/can't vote correctly using even the simplest methods, then perhaps even they did not know what their intent was.
Sometimes the problem is at the counting end. If the initial counting mechanism fails through no fault of the voters, then it's a damn good thing to be able to determine who they intended to vote for.
You have a slightly different idea of low-tech than I do, but then I started voting making big X's on a ballot with names printed on it.
I truly fail to see why you're so enamoured of this system you describe; I can only assume you've never had any extremely close races in your county, because you've described no mechanism for a recount.
From your description there is is no way for an official to correct errors, either in the old mechanical system (e.g. a mechanical counter jams right after a periodic review) or the new (faulty electronic counter ceases recording votes).
You've replaced a bad (because unverifiable) system with another just as bad and possibly worse.
In Pennsyvania we did one better. The new elecronic voting machines work just like the old mechanical ones.
Then why did you replace them at all?
They election officials record (seperately) how many people cast votes on each machine. At the end of the day, you know if all of your numbers match up.
What do you do if they don't match up? If one of the "electronic odometers" barfs between the periodic checks, how do you determeine what votes were cast in between?
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While I agree that the automotive industry isn't very analogous to the software industry, you're right for the wrong reason.
Speaking from within the industry, I can assure you that when automotive manufacturers can, we keep our manufacturing processes secret, and when we can't, we patent the living hell out of them. Just because you can take the car apart doesn't mean you can duplicate it.
You can reverse engineer software too, but that's as different from having the source as reverse engineering a vehicle is from having the mountains of detailed blueprints and manufacturing specifications used to make it.
sometimes 3 or 4 times, once someone tried for 3 hours. (I put it off the hook after that)
It's more likely that someone tried to send a fax to your modem line. Even the dimmest human being is likely to give up in boredom after less than three hours even if they don't cotton on that they're dialing the wrong number. A fax machine is not going to get bored, and many older & cheaper ones won't give up until you manually cancel the transmission.
One big advantage spam-wise about having the domain catch your names is that you can assign arbitrary addresses to login sites. If I want to check out meatlego.com and they want an email address, I just enter meatlego@drfrog.net.
If meatlego sell or lose that address to a spammer, I just blacklist that particular "Addressed to" address and don't ever receive anything from meatlego, their spammer friend, or anyone else the spammer passes that address onto.
Oh, I think Ray is aware of this... I Sing The Body Electric was the exact title of a Walt Whitman poem before he appropriated it for his story.
Off the top of my head, Something Wicked This Way Comes is a Shakespeare quote, while The Golden Apples Of The Sun is a Yeats quote.
I'm sure there are others, but that should suffice to show that Bradbury knows damn well that it's permissible to reference another's work in a title.
No, it's gone now, so apparently you were the first to try it. When you get your first invite, can I have one? Please? ;)
You can send it to gmail@drfrog.net (it'll be forwarded to my main account and that way I'll know what it is right away).
Assuming you're game, thanks!
The article blurb refers to 'digital' radio. Wouldn't that give better sound, supposedly? I took it to refer mostly to the new satellite radio services.
Not okay for Halliburton to what? Make money? I have no problem with that. I don't even believe that anything and everything related to 9/11 or Iraq necessarily needs to be profit-free.
Next time Michael Moore gets a sweetheart deal from my government without going through a normal bidding process I'm gonna be pissed though.
If he didn't someone else will.
So chew three Penguins (the caffeinated mint, not the waterfowl! ;).
Same amount of caffeine, no swallowing.
No, no, no, it's "People in grass houses shouldn't stow thrones."
No, it's "People in glass houses should dress in the basement. Especially you, Darl."
With the XBox RPG "Sudeki" I mean... but I've always wanted to say that anyway! ;^)
They seemed quite enthusiastic about the idea at first, but they chickened out in the end.
They won't admit that they ever even considered it now.
I didn't 'turn it into a straw man' because 1) I used the example provided, and 2) the point was irrelevant to the topic at hand in the first place. However correct it is to say that not anyone should be able to turn an ATM into a jukebox, it's got nothing ot do with the ability of people to turn a home computer into a jukebox, which people can and should be able to do.
Your mischaracterization of my original post, which was available for quoting in its entirety at the cost of a couple of clicks at most, bespeaks trollishness far more than the actual 'straw man' which you offer of a comment I didn't make.
It's absolutely true that 'in many situations' users don't have any need to install software, which I don't and didn't deny, but those typically aren't the cases where Windows is the dominant OS. My comment discussed one of the factors which makes Windows dominant in the sector which was under discussion, viz. home and small office, where the user typically does perform 'admin' functions such as installing software.
In situations where that isn't the case, obviously the lack of easy application installation isn't a factor. I think it's not coincidental that those are the very areas where Windows is losing ground.
My comment didn't address such systems, because they're not relevant to the topic at hand. Windows has a position of overwhelming dominance on the desktop of home and office systems for a number of reasons, and I think one of the reasons Linux isn't currently competitive in that sphere is the relative difficulty of installing software.
Linux can compete in ATM systems because that concern isn't relevant; it can't compete on the desktop... oh hell, why am I bothering? IHBT, right?
Being able to click on a single file and have a fairly standard installer sequence pop up would be ideal for GUI, but I'd even settle for a standard CLI method, hold the endless switches and dependencies please.
Assuming that Spielberg stays true to the intent of Well(e)s (i.e. a serious horror story of a helpless Earth, followed by redemption through sheer luck) he'll have to do some serious spellbinding to keep the suspension of disbelief from busting a leafspring.
Frankly, I doubt he's up to it, and while Cruise has *some* talent he's, yes, worlds away from being able to carry a McGuffin that size on his lonesome.
"Thank you for sharing, misterpies. Would anyone else in the group like to express a desire?"
I suspect that you meant to use "it's" rather than "its" throughout your treatise on being properly anal about grammar.
"an opening especially in the wall of a building for admission of light and air that is usually closed by casements or sashes containing transparent material (as glass) and capable of being opened and shut" sounds like a patent!
which is really what you need in order to deal with a big pile of SCO.
should be restricted to .com domains. That's what the TLD was supposed to mean. Any other TLD should be first-come, first-served.
That's what all voting systems are designed to do; determine which candidate the voter intended to support. An accurate system does it reliably every time, and a robust system allows for rechecking.
If people don't/can't vote correctly using even the simplest methods, then perhaps even they did not know what their intent was.
Sometimes the problem is at the counting end. If the initial counting mechanism fails through no fault of the voters, then it's a damn good thing to be able to determine who they intended to vote for.
You have a slightly different idea of low-tech than I do, but then I started voting making big X's on a ballot with names printed on it.
I truly fail to see why you're so enamoured of this system you describe; I can only assume you've never had any extremely close races in your county, because you've described no mechanism for a recount.
From your description there is is no way for an official to correct errors, either in the old mechanical system (e.g. a mechanical counter jams right after a periodic review) or the new (faulty electronic counter ceases recording votes).
You've replaced a bad (because unverifiable) system with another just as bad and possibly worse.
Then why did you replace them at all?
They election officials record (seperately) how many people cast votes on each machine. At the end of the day, you know if all of your numbers match up.
What do you do if they don't match up? If one of the "electronic odometers" barfs between the periodic checks, how do you determeine what votes were cast in between?
Damn Northists...