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User: phriedom

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  1. Why blame software. on Latest Columbia News · · Score: 1

    "The Software would have a larger potential for blame... I.E. the programmer did not make klaxons go off when sensors give bad readings, or there was any instance of throwing out data."

    IMHO, there is no basis for this statement.

  2. Re:infringement - sad times are these on CNN Doesn't Like Being Spoofed · · Score: 1

    "I could go on and on, especially on consistent failure to properly report historical facts. CNN = disinfotainment"

    I agree.

    "People who mislead the public are essentially committing either treason against them or are parodying the real news. Either way, I fail to see the need to protect them. CNN is a mega moneymaking media machine. They are the rainmakers."

    Right and wrong shouldn't depend on how much you like the people involved. This isn't about making fun of CNN, or of the "news" industry, you're still free to do both. But none of that makes it okay for anyone to use and abuse their trademark, even if they are bastards. I'm not defending CNN, I'm defending the law.

  3. Re:infringement - sad times are these on CNN Doesn't Like Being Spoofed · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What if this template isn't used for parody? What if it is used to create a believable bogus story that get forwarded around and reprinted in a local newspaper? When people find out it is bogus, don't you think some of them will think CNN screwed up? This isn't theoretical, it happened. So doesn't this unauthorized use of the CNN trademark hurt CNN's reputation? That shouldn't be allowed. Even if CNN is only 3 letters and their reporting sucks they still deserve the same protection of the law that we all enjoy.

    "Why cant Ted Turner just call the webmaster and say, Hey, can you cut the shit? Mano a mano?"

    So you just hate lawyers. Okay, go ahead, but it still doesn't make sense to say it would be fine if Ted Turner wrote a letter himself instead of having someone do it for him. And at this point, all CNN has done is write a letter, despite the article's claim that CNN "shut them down."

  4. leaders or no? on Cognitive Dissident: Interview with John Perry Barlow · · Score: 2, Insightful

    from the article:"It strikes me that existing political institutions -- whether it's the administration or Congress or large corporations -- only respond to other institutions. I don't care how many individuals you have marching in the streets, they're not going to pay attention until there's a leader for those individuals who can come forward and say I represent the organization of those individuals and we're going to amass the necessary money and votes to kick you the hell out of office."

    Well, I can't find the article, but I read an opposing viewpoint that promoted a leaderless movement. The biggest advantage was that "they can't stop your movement with one bullet." When I look at history and see how the deaths of MLK, the Kennedys, and more recently Rabin, destroyed a movement, it gives me pause. I don't know how a leaderless movement works, but it is an idea worthy of discussion.

    Then again, maybe a leaderless movement can still have institutions.

  5. Re:Personal watercraft on Steam Powered Underwater Jet Engine · · Score: 1

    Thank you for the link. That is food for thought. I'm going to speculate wildly, since that's what we do here at /., and say that I'd bet that steam vac works like an iron. Which is to say, I think it has some heat element that it sprays water on to get little bursts of steam. I'd guess that such a process is unsuitable for producing a steady pressurized flow of steam as would be needed for the new jet drive. It sure would be cool if I'm wrong though. The classic pressurized boiler is pretty dangerous, so if an instant-steam process could be scaled-up to a personal watercraft size, and you could get rid of the oily 2-stroke and the fragile and inefficient impellar, you would make up for the extra weight of fuel + water. It sure would be a fun exercise in optimization.

  6. Re:State Wide is not enough on Telemarketers Sue to Block Do-Not-Call List · · Score: 1

    They DO have jurisdiction, since the company calling you is doing business in your state by calling you. So perhaps your state just needs to take it more seriously. Are you reporting these criminals to your State Attorney General? In an ideal world, you wouldn't have to, but he's a politician, so you have to complain to get some attention.

  7. Personal watercraft on Steam Powered Underwater Jet Engine · · Score: 1

    I wonder how small an effective boiler can be made. Gives new meaning to the idea of letting the engine warm up. People have been working with steam power for a very long time, but new materials for the steam generation part could perhaps give this invention an incredible array of applications.wow.

  8. Re:My feeling on Kazaa Fights Back · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'd like to offer a bit of a tweak to your analogy, if you don't mind.

    Instead of:"Kazaa, and the auto parts store, reply that their major goal is to make money off their legitimate department. They reply that their business model is being impaired by such an atrocious lawsuit."

    How about: "Kazaa, and the auto parts store, reply that they are only sponsoring the swap meet to generate foot traffic for their legitimate business. Their goal is to grow the legitimate business and stop sponsoring the swap meet, and they would have succeeded already if the auto makers' {who have a monopoly on auto-parts in our example) would make them a fair deal on wholesaling. But the Monopolists only want parts sold through their own channels."

    According to Kazaa, the RIAA members should not be allowed to enforce their government-granted copyright/monopoly until they stop abusing their monopoly by extending it to distribution channels. I don't think the judge will buy it, and I don't think Kazaa was trying to convince the judge so much as mounting a PR campaign. But what do I know.

  9. Re:The War Is On on Shutting down Kazaa · · Score: 1

    Sure you do. But how do yo think it is going to be reported? Reporters are trying to make a story. Its going to be "The accused allegedly had over 15,000 illegal mp3 files, and over 20,000 pictures of hard-core pornography, and a collection of pornogrpahics movies, all taken from the internet." Then they will get from soundbites from some acquaintances.

  10. Re:The War Is On on Shutting down Kazaa · · Score: 1

    "As far as your description of the would-be guy to get nailed in the RIAA's test case of suing an individual, honestly it doesn't sound likely. It sounds like a stereotypial geek your describing. Why on earth would the RIAA pick a person to sue based on hygene and looks? Also, porn isn't exactly illegal. I doubt the porn would even get so much as a blurb in the media, unless it's child porn."

    I think they would select someone who could easily be seen as the Bad Guy by the press and the general public. Finding a college student with 40 gigs of illicit mp3's who is using P2P on the University connection shouldn't be very hard, so why not also associate P2P with a creepy guy too if you can do it. Porn just makes him creepier, at least to the general public.

  11. Re:Ahem on P2P File Sharing Could Cost You A Bundle · · Score: 1

    "So a person goes and STEALS music. He gets sued and has to pay money / sit in jail. What's wrong about that ? If you start seeing people who get sued for downloading songs they ALREADY OWN, then raise hell."

    We're not talking about a suit. We're talking about Fedral felony. Do you think the punishment fits the crime? Personally, I think jail time for sharing a file on a P2P network is over-the-top. And I think the FBI has more important things it should be doing.

  12. Re:The War Is On on Shutting down Kazaa · · Score: 1

    "Let the RIAA/MPAA start suing consumers who utilize p2p in their spare time. I don't think you fully understand what kind of sh*t storm that would rain down on the entertainment industry once this starts....There are MILLIONS, and MILLIONS of p2p file swappers...Once you label all these diverse people as "criminals" or "thieves", or even imply that they are (people in the crossfire for example)they will ALL revolt.The "general populace" you speak of *is* engaged in this activity."

    I think that when the RIAA first goes after end users of P2P networks for copyright infringement, they are going to pick out the most egregious and unsympathetic violators. These will be university students, probably at a California State run University so that they can be painted as clogging up the State owned Internet lines and bogging down the traffic for all the other students. They will have raid arrays full of music, movies, and porn. The more disgusting the porn, the better for the RIAA. The violator will also be inarticulate, ugly, and probably have poor hygene. The RIAA will concoct some absurd dollar number about the value of the "stolen" media he posseses and an even larger number alleging the value of what he distributed to others based on expert testimony and logs. The RIAA will win. The general populace will mostly agree that those dirty hackers did something wrong and will not do anything remotely akin to a revolt.

    More on the general populace: Per the 2000 census, less than half of the US households have internet access. IMHO: of those, it is probably a small percentage that understand what Fair Use is and how it is being threatened. Of the people who do value Fair Use, only some of those think it is okay to violate copyright wantonly and distribute copyrighted material. It is going to be a pretty small revolt.

    There certainly isn't any political will to stop the RIAA, evidenced by their ability to get the Sonny Bono act passed (and the DMCA for that matter.) P2P users don't vote or contribute to political campaigns very much. Without any political force, what would some of riot-in-the-streets demonstrations accomplish? They would probably evoke a backlash in public opinion. So the only kind of "revolt" that I can see that might happen is that P2P users will be so mad at the RIAA, that they might not buy any more big label CD's. I think that is the best we can hope for and I'm all in favor of that. But honestly, of the million of P2P users out there, most of them are using P2P because they value music and won't like giving up buying CD's. I think that many P2P users will just abandon P2P if they think they could actually get in trouble for it. Others will rebuild the P2P networks so that the users cannot be identified and the P2P networks will live on.

    Me personally? I've got a Bill Withers song stuck in my head from one of the Superbowl Ads yesterday and I'm going to go over to djangos.com and see if I can find it used, because there is no way I'm putting a P2P client on my computer here at work.

  13. Re:Please... on Attorney Sues eBay over Negative Feedback · · Score: 1

    "It's not like he said anything all that bad - They probably did arrive late, which could be blamed on the shipping company or any other factor, And the part about them being in worse condition then advertised was also probably true, but that is open to interpretation."

    Most people here seem to have it backwards, including you. The guy doing the suing left the bad feedback about the magazines. The guy getting sued retaliated, saying Grace was totally dishonest and should be banned from Ebay.

    "If a user has to worry about being dragged into court for leaving negative feedback, then nobody is going to leave feedback and the system is going to be ruined."

    Naw, libel is about FALSE faming statements. Maybe if people get sued, they will think twice about making up negative feedback. The dollar amounts he is asking for are insane though.

  14. but in real life on How Much Does it Cost to Produce a Recording? · · Score: 1

    The more albums you sell, the more costs that show up. More expensive videos and more of them would be just one example that comes to mind.

  15. Re:Are they still at a loss? on XBox Chip With Legal BIOS · · Score: 1

    The big difference between the PS2 and the XBox is that Sony invested the money up front to make a low-cost integrated system, while Microsoft has to pay Nvidia, Intel, etc. for each box, and those guys are making money. Microsoft chose mature hardware and signed big long term contracts to get the initial costs down on the XBox. But that means the costs don't ever go down. You think a Celeron chip based on a P3 is getting any cheaper? I don't think so. It's already as cheap as it is going to get. Microsoft expect to lose money on the entire XBox division until the XBox 2 comes out.

  16. Re:Are they still at a loss? on XBox Chip With Legal BIOS · · Score: 1

    "Everyone knows Microsoft is taking a loss on the xbox, just like sony and nintendo are on theirs."

    Actually, people who comb through annual reports have reported that Sony and Nintendo DO NOT take a loss on their consoles. These same number crunchers have also reported that Microsoft loses more money the more Xboxes they sell.

  17. Re:Idiots all around on Microsoft to Buy Vivendi Games Division? · · Score: 1

    If you have bugeted $200/mo. for games, can't find anything good to buy, and want to play Metroid Prime, WHY NOT buy a Gamecube? Can't you get the console+memory+game for $200?

  18. Don't forget Europe on Microsoft to Buy Vivendi Games Division? · · Score: 1

    Xbox is also selling very poorly in Europe. Nintendo outsells the Xbox there, and of course the PS2 outsells them both combined by a factor of 2. As you said, Nintendo is not going away. They turn a profit.

  19. Re:Strongly disagree. on Judge Decides X-Men Aren't Human · · Score: 1

    Equating my views with "politically correct" and by extension a stale euphemism sounds like a straw-man argument to me. And that is double plus ungood.

    My position is that people give categories called "race" far more credence than they deserve. Catagories have utility. I propose to you that a category of "people with a high ratio of slow-twitch (vs. fast-twitch) muscles" is a more valid category than "a particular African breed." I don't think the idea of race is wrong, I think it is flawed, and overstated.

    Let's not forget that this discussion started because someone said mutants were a different race, Homo Superior, as if that had some scientific meaning or any relevance to their status as a human.

  20. Re:This isn't a bad thing on Verizon Loses Suit Over Subpoena of Subscriber Info · · Score: 1

    "Let's not get our panties knotted when the RIAA actually follows the correct legal/moral path in their struggle to survive."

    What is objectionable is that they got the "correct" legal path changed so that they would have less due process to deal with. IMHO, this particular aspect of the DMCA erodes the priciple of "presumed innocent." Come to think of it, most of the DMCA does that. Anyways, it is lamentable that the judge interpreted the law in the broader sense that made it apply to Verizon even when Verizon isn't hosting any files. Not surprising, but a bit sad. My beef is not that the RIAA is trying to go after the offenders, but HOW they are doing it, and HOW the legal and political processes are accomodating them.

  21. Re:Come on! on Verizon Loses Suit Over Subpoena of Subscriber Info · · Score: 1

    How is that relavent to the question of "should an ISP have to turn over a user's name and address without a court order because a user is accused of violating the DMCA?"

  22. Re:too easy... on Verizon Loses Suit Over Subpoena of Subscriber Info · · Score: 2, Informative

    No, I'm pretty sure that is not how it works in the US, since that is counter to everything our laws are founded on. And I AM sure that is not how it works here in my state. Here, the ticket is mailed to the registered owner of the car who must choose from : (1) Thats me, I did it; (2) I swear under penalty of perjury that I was not driving my car at the designated time, in which case a live person checks the picture against the drivers license picture and the ticket is dismissed if they don't match. or (3) I sold this car before the date of the ticket and here is the proof. They may have added another choice since a high-profile case where a state rep. was speeding in a state fleet grey sedan that had a license plate number very similar to a totally innocent person who drove a blue pickup truck and received the ticket in the mail.

  23. Re:Strongly disagree. on Judge Decides X-Men Aren't Human · · Score: 1

    "Real races I mean. Not silly arbitrary amalgations..."

    What are real races?

    At some level all race is arbitrary. Yes I can see that the archtypical Scandinavian is distinct from the archtypical Italian, but who decides if these caucasians are the same race or different? Are Persians the same race as Arabs? Are short Germans the same race as tall Germans? If genetics can show us common ancestry but little else, then it isn't definitive.

    Your example of dog breeds is a great example. It is arbitrary. It is just an artificial construct by some panels of "experts." Everyone can see that Malanoise are different from Teruvians (sorry if I spelled those wrong), but they undoubtedly share common ancestry. Does that make them different races? Does a mixed-breed dog have no race or 2 races? If the AKC in the US and the other one in the UK (Royal Kennel Club?) don't agree on a breed, then how does one define the race.

    Biaka, Zulu, and Massai are all different, but the entire idea of race is fictional, people made it up, it isn't "real."

  24. Re:Iridium and GPS on Slashback: Iridium, Synthesis, Drives · · Score: 1

    If you can really make a GPS jammer for a few hundred bucks, and the components are easily accquired, then the jammers are disposable. You don't place them just at potential targets. You just blanket the city with them in a 1 mile grid, favoring vacant lots and open fields. These targets are not valuable enough to use a radio-seeking missle on, nor would you want to expose your aircraft to danger to destroy stupid little GPS jammers. It is a pretty good idea, since it is a low cost system that frustrates a high-cost system.

    The the previous post that suggested that the US military might want to have a system that doesn't rely on GPS seems pretty sharp to me.

  25. One legitimate complaint on DMCA Invoked Against Garage Door Openers · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I read 80 posts and no one has grasped the one legitimate complaint that I see. The use of the Skylink universal remote stops the code from rolling, reducing the security, without informing the buyer, and potentially tarnishing the image of the Rolling Code Security System, because the Skylink remote uses the same codes every time.

    All the patent infringement claims, and the DMCA claim look bogus to my untrained eye, but Skylink IS doing something wrong: they are not telling the customer the entire truth. IMHO, the best result would be for the courts to force Skylink to tell customers that their products disable the Rolling Code Security System in order to interoperate.