Darwin said it best. Microsoft has to compete or they're dead in the water. They can't compete if they jack up their prices. The MS mentality is to offset court expenses with product prices, but that road is mined heavily. They should know better than this, really. Oh wait... nevermind.
Bad EULA's are extremely *hard* to enforce. They tend to infringe on human rights, which include fair use of products and services, to *all*. I agree to every EULA and do whatever normally would occur to me as fair use; if I happen to miss the part of the contract where I have to hand over my dead grandmother's ashes to some guy in a suit, I don't care, because no court in the land would ever uphold that and consider it part of the product usage.
> The only real method of fixing this is to charge for e-mail.
I disagree. Spammers will simply screw customers *harder* to get more money to cover the operating costs. They won't care if email costs money, but it will make them much more vicious. They will likely have to do massive targeting research to ensure they get the maximum effect from each little email. New email addys would likely receive less spam in a paid system.
There has existed a business model very similar to the spammers' model, for quite some time; junk snail mail. The costs of sending junk snail has no effect to the countless bouts of the crap clogging up mailboxes everywhere. The only difference is that when it costs money to send, you would likely root out all the lame idiots who spam for dollars, but have no infrastructure for doing so... they would disappear, or become soaked up by corporations bent on spamming. My point is, the paid email model will result in tighter groups of spammers earning money together in an organized way.
> Re:Am I hearing this right? No. It looks as though the Project David guys took a CodeWeavers project and slapped the Project David logo on it, thus claiming it as their project (which is really bad for oh about a million reasons).
We've heard that Project David could be a CrossOver Office rip-off. To what extent is David a fraud and what are your options to combat those who would misrepresent themselves using your products for VC or even illegal/infringing sales revenue?
> That said, what i don't like is novices that "cheapskates" that buy these things, use them, screw up their computer while they are still under warranty, then take them to a service provider (me, others) and then have the units fixed for free.
Likely much worse when they sell them on Ebay after messing with them. Obviously not all powerbooks on Ebay have been modded, but some of them might have been. Caveat Emptor.
The/. abstract suggested that there might not be many uses for GBA GPS, so I offered one; track your kids. If the satellite can find them and tell them where they are, it can sure as hell tell *you* where they are!
GPS for the Parent
on
GPS for GBA
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
It's 11pm, do you know where your kids are? Well... now you do!
> Don't keep shooting the messengers with this totalitarian "either you're with us or you're against us" war cry. Read a few books about the history (up to current times) of islamic countries, preferably those without obvious political bias, and a pattern emerges.
When I read this part of your comment, I had to think of George Bush Sr. and Jr.; it was like an eye-opener. I think the Bushes are totalitarian, and that's never been a good thing, historically.
There was a video game designed that allows you to get a sense of terrorism. You're overlooking an Arabic city/village and you play the role of the US gov't. You have to kill the terrorists by sending cruise missiles. But what happens when you send one is the pure genius of the video game designer. Each time a bomb explodes and kills anyone, more and more terrorists spring up. Anyone who mourns the death of their relatives, friends, families, neighbours, will become a terrorist.
When I saw that, it became obvious that there is no way to defeat terrorism, but time itself; time and healthy foreign policy.
Germany is really cracking down today! Either that, or perhaps the Sasser writer gave up the Phatbot author? I'm guessing that one arrest lead to the other, considering Phatbot is a Sasser derivative.
> a golf ball sized chunk could produce the energy equivalent of 10 tons of conventional explosives
What if journalists and scientists agree to only discuss the *positive* uses of scientific invention? That way, some uneducated terrorists from The Great Wherever won't get new ideas using Google keyword searches like "explosives", "bombs", "nukes". You know the phrase, When in Rome; I think it could apply to science! If we just conceal the potentials for violence, we may avoid these practices somewhat. But much of the scientific community has a love affair with death, it seems. Why? The death-dealing potential of any scientific invention is proportionately equivalent to the fundraising influence of said project; yet science should be a noble pursuit, IMHO, not a monetary one. Sadly, the two (money and science) are inseparable with the high cost of equipment, facilities and so forth, compounded by the need for science by the powerful, as a method of retaining power and building power. One day, it's going to be a lot simpler.
> All this "functionality" that is second thought to whiny little bitches like you *IS* what gives operating systems their complexity.
That's not what I meant. I mean that if you have bug-free systems, you can easily add features that are bug-free as well. Microsoft's problem is that they don't care. Why should they? They have never been financially forced to care.
> How did they find this guy? Was it that he was bragging like in the former MS worm cases, or was there a "higher technological power" involved?
From Reuter: "Spokesman Frank Federau for Lower Saxony police said the man was arrested on Friday. He did not have the name of the suspect but said he was a schoolboy who lived with his parents near the central German town of Rotenburg.
"He is the programmer of the first version of the worm," said Federau. He said he did not have any details of how the suspect was found.
Police did not know if the suspect had also created other versions of the worm. They took all the teenager's computers from his parents' house, Federau said.
"He is still free. He is not in custody. There will now be a court case," he added."
> how will this be transformed into an indictment?
Oh I'm sure they'll think of something. But they should be arresting Bill Gates for interfering with Modern Progress by intentionally distributing defective software and operating systems. The fact that Microsoft operates in this fashion in order to rape and pillage the economy, makes it criminal, ie: corporate racketeering.
Slashdot Mirror
Darwin said it best. Microsoft has to compete or they're dead in the water. They can't compete if they jack up their prices. The MS mentality is to offset court expenses with product prices, but that road is mined heavily. They should know better than this, really. Oh wait... nevermind.
Bad EULA's are extremely *hard* to enforce. They tend to infringe on human rights, which include fair use of products and services, to *all*. I agree to every EULA and do whatever normally would occur to me as fair use; if I happen to miss the part of the contract where I have to hand over my dead grandmother's ashes to some guy in a suit, I don't care, because no court in the land would ever uphold that and consider it part of the product usage.
> The only real method of fixing this is to charge for e-mail.
I disagree. Spammers will simply screw customers *harder* to get more money to cover the operating costs. They won't care if email costs money, but it will make them much more vicious. They will likely have to do massive targeting research to ensure they get the maximum effect from each little email. New email addys would likely receive less spam in a paid system.
There has existed a business model very similar to the spammers' model, for quite some time; junk snail mail. The costs of sending junk snail has no effect to the countless bouts of the crap clogging up mailboxes everywhere. The only difference is that when it costs money to send, you would likely root out all the lame idiots who spam for dollars, but have no infrastructure for doing so... they would disappear, or become soaked up by corporations bent on spamming. My point is, the paid email model will result in tighter groups of spammers earning money together in an organized way.
> Trent isn't doing the sound anymore
I think if you're going to make a statement like that, you could at least offer up a URL to qualify it. I'm miffed if this is true.
> When you run the world, you mean? ;-)
I don't think I'm qualified for that task, but I could be an admin, need be.
> Re:Am I hearing this right?
No. It looks as though the Project David guys took a CodeWeavers project and slapped the Project David logo on it, thus claiming it as their project (which is really bad for oh about a million reasons).
> Sounds like the government was trolled.
By Sega, no less!
Hit the money on the head if you ask me! :-)
We've heard that Project David could be a CrossOver Office rip-off. To what extent is David a fraud and what are your options to combat those who would misrepresent themselves using your products for VC or even illegal/infringing sales revenue?
> What does a link to pages and pages of batteries and power adaptors have to do with fried failed-mod Powerbooks?
:-)
The link is an Ebay search on the keyword powerbook!
1800 items found for powerbook
> That said, what i don't like is novices that "cheapskates" that buy these things, use them, screw up their computer while they are still under warranty, then take them to a service provider (me, others) and then have the units fixed for free.
Likely much worse when they sell them on Ebay after messing with them. Obviously not all powerbooks on Ebay have been modded, but some of them might have been. Caveat Emptor.
> Of course, once the GPS unit has computed your position, anything with RF transmission capability can phone home and relay that information.
;-)
And that was pretty much what I meant.
Thanks for bailing me out!!! hehe
Could this project be based on the leaked MS code, or is it really a CrossOver Office ripoff? I can't tell, but Mike McCormack could.
The /. abstract suggested that there might not be many uses for GBA GPS, so I offered one; track your kids. If the satellite can find them and tell them where they are, it can sure as hell tell *you* where they are!
It's 11pm, do you know where your kids are?
Well... now you do!
> Don't keep shooting the messengers with this totalitarian "either you're with us or you're against us" war cry. Read a few books about the history (up to current times) of islamic countries, preferably those without obvious political bias, and a pattern emerges.
When I read this part of your comment, I had to think of George Bush Sr. and Jr.; it was like an eye-opener. I think the Bushes are totalitarian, and that's never been a good thing, historically.
There was a video game designed that allows you to get a sense of terrorism. You're overlooking an Arabic city/village and you play the role of the US gov't. You have to kill the terrorists by sending cruise missiles. But what happens when you send one is the pure genius of the video game designer. Each time a bomb explodes and kills anyone, more and more terrorists spring up. Anyone who mourns the death of their relatives, friends, families, neighbours, will become a terrorist.
When I saw that, it became obvious that there is no way to defeat terrorism, but time itself; time and healthy foreign policy.
Germany is really cracking down today! Either that, or perhaps the Sasser writer gave up the Phatbot author? I'm guessing that one arrest lead to the other, considering Phatbot is a Sasser derivative.
This has nothing whatsoever to do with Microsoft paying Sun $2bil.
> a golf ball sized chunk could produce the energy equivalent of 10 tons of conventional explosives
What if journalists and scientists agree to only discuss the *positive* uses of scientific invention? That way, some uneducated terrorists from The Great Wherever won't get new ideas using Google keyword searches like "explosives", "bombs", "nukes". You know the phrase, When in Rome; I think it could apply to science! If we just conceal the potentials for violence, we may avoid these practices somewhat. But much of the scientific community has a love affair with death, it seems. Why? The death-dealing potential of any scientific invention is proportionately equivalent to the fundraising influence of said project; yet science should be a noble pursuit, IMHO, not a monetary one. Sadly, the two (money and science) are inseparable with the high cost of equipment, facilities and so forth, compounded by the need for science by the powerful, as a method of retaining power and building power. One day, it's going to be a lot simpler.
Hagen das, pickles and pregnant women...
> All this "functionality" that is second thought to whiny little bitches like you *IS* what gives operating systems their complexity.
That's not what I meant. I mean that if you have bug-free systems, you can easily add features that are bug-free as well. Microsoft's problem is that they don't care. Why should they? They have never been financially forced to care.
> That you expect perfection only goes to show that you are an American.
I -- Am -- Canadian!
> There is no such thing as a perfect system, in any engineering discipline.
By perfect, I meant: without bugs. I wasn't talking about features. Sorry for the confusion.
> How did they find this guy? Was it that he was bragging like in the former MS worm cases, or was there a "higher technological power" involved?
From Reuter: "Spokesman Frank Federau for Lower Saxony police said the man was arrested on Friday. He did not have the name of the suspect but said he was a schoolboy who lived with his parents near the central German town of Rotenburg.
"He is the programmer of the first version of the worm," said Federau. He said he did not have any details of how the suspect was found.
Police did not know if the suspect had also created other versions of the worm. They took all the teenager's computers from his parents' house, Federau said.
"He is still free. He is not in custody. There will now be a court case," he added."
> Bottom line is that irresponsible writing of worms and viruses is a crime of indiscrimination and chaos, and deserves to be punished as such.
And writing intentionally crappy operating systems isn't? Ask yourself: what would happen if they wrote something that was *perfect*?
> how will this be transformed into an indictment?
Oh I'm sure they'll think of something. But they should be arresting Bill Gates for interfering with Modern Progress by intentionally distributing defective software and operating systems. The fact that Microsoft operates in this fashion in order to rape and pillage the economy, makes it criminal, ie: corporate racketeering.