"The Internet - first created by government agencies, only really useful once the private sector got in. Maybe we ought to do THE SAME THING with NASA!"
Who said we shouldn't? The point is that at first, it's much to expensive to do as a private enterprise. Just as the massive exploration attempts in the 1400s were mostly funded by governments, but later you were certainly able to make commercial trips. (The Internet is another perfect example of this; probably only the government would have had the resources to start the Internet. Once it was going, private companies could get in, but chances are for it to develop on its own would have required the cooperation of many companies on a scale that has only been seen rarely.)
"Universal postal service - incompentently run and maintained by force."
Incompetently run? How so? The USPS is a marvel. Sure, they have a bad reputation for being slow and losing a lot of letters, but it's almost entirely undeserved.
"Want to start your own first class mail service? They'll shut you down! (this happened in Buffalo some decades ago)"
This I agree is stupid.
"Free education - you get what you pay for. The government can keep that one, thanks."
Having a half-decent education system is still better than leaving those who can't afford it out in the cold.
"Going to space and landing on the moon? Accomplished without the consent of some of the people that had to pay for it. I love space exploration as much as anyone, but I don't claim that I have a right to tax others to finance my hobbies."
And I don't think the government should spend as much as they do on military power and more on the EPA, but I can't do anything about that either.
"As for satellites, aren't many, if not most, of those private efforts now anyway? And wouldn't it still be better if they could be?"
And who said they couldn't be? The point you're arguing is that the government does many things of use, not that it's preventing people and companies from doing useful things.
"don't call me a racist for thinking that private boycott is a more effective means of ending racial discrimination."
Yeah, because we know how many people boycotted shops down south earlier in the century. That worked real well. (I'm not calling you a racist for thinking that way; I'm just pointing out that your idea is stupid.) And BTW, before you say that there's still racism and discrimination, yes, of course there is. But I'd argue the situation is still leagues better than it would be if the government had let people do whatever and actively discriminate.
Yes, of course this is true, but that doesn't mean that people should ignore the quality of the equipment. Reviews like this are still quite useful if you want to know what equipment you should get in order to play back your van Karajan recording of the Beethoven cycle for instance.
And indeed, if the changes fall under the requirements for copyrighted work (they must be creative), the new versions are under copyright. That's why arrangements of copyrighted pieces are protected. However, if a company simply prints up classical music, that is really not copyrightable, so you are free to copy.
In any case, that doesn't have anythnig to do with the matter at hand since even if printing the music would mean that the printed version was copyrighted the *original music* would still be public domain.
"...if they didn't wouldn't they be in effect saying that anyone can go ahead and take their IP property? Legally speaking of course."
Nope. Of trademarks, patents, and copyrights, you are only required to actively protect trademarks. (I think; maybe patents as well. But I'm *positive* there's nothing in the statutes that obligate holders of copyright to do so.)
IANAL, but follow many aspects of law quite closely.
It should mean that the samples new to the 32L fell under copyright, and if the old samples were revised the new versions are under copyright. However, though IANAL, I'm almost certain that the release of the 32L wouldn't affect the status of the original samples, copyrighted or not.
"Crackers might have discovered the same bug earlier, or at the same time."
Better to take the chance that they don't know about a hole while it's being patched than announce the details of the exploit publicly and remove all doubt that they know...
I am of the opinion that the proper course of action upon finding a security hole is to warn the company of the specifics, but otherwise keep it quite for a reasonable amount of time. After a reasonable time has passed, or when they release a patch and a reasonable time for updating systems has passed, then releasing the exploit publicly. Releasing it before there has been a chance to patch *gurantees* that it can be exploited in the interm, and brings almost no benefit over the first strategy.
"By the wording of the DMCA, yes, even suggesting how to defeat that pitiful copy protection is illegal. 'Circumvention' doesn't have to be complex lines of code. It can be and is something this simple. This law has got to go. I am amazed at how little mass media coverage it's gotten. It's one of those issues that isn't just 'geek', it's a serious rights issue that can impact people in ludicrous situations like this one."
Of course, if using the shift key is circumventing encryption, the shift key is a circumvention device and hence is illegal. I guess we'll have problems typing capital letters from now on... (typing caps lock twice)
"If you can't see why this is a mistake, consider this. In a language with "=" for equality and ":=" for assignment, you only have learn one new thing: that ":=" means assignment. In C, you have to learn two things: "=" means assignment, NOT equality and "==" means equality. How stupid is that? Everyone already knows that "=" means equality; why change that? Everyone already knows that "kilo" means 1000; why change that?"
I'll agree that:= makes more sense and if we were to redo C, that would be one thing to look into changing; but you have to agree that in the grand scheme of things when learning programming, getting the =/== distinction is not one of the major steep parts of the learning curve. The errors usually are just typos after like the first day or so of being introducted to the separate notations. Just turn on warnings all the way so the compiler will tell you if you write if(a=b) so you don't spend 4 hours debugging that... *grumble*
Ah, and therein lay the crux of the matter. The problem is that *everywhere else* kilo-, mega-, etc. prefix units (to stop the megapolis argument) they denote powers of 10. A megavolt is a million volts. A kilometer is 1000 meters. A gigahertz is a billion hertz. Only in computer science have people redefined the units to refer to anything other than powers of 10. *That* is what the debate revolves around, and that is what is IMO the mistake of people early on. The solution is to make kilobytes officially be 1000 bytes (as the IEC has) and use a different unit for the powers of two.
"I'm surprised windows users even know about the delete key, since it's so much less confusing just to click on the red X on the toolbar."
What the heck does del have to do with closing programs? I use del all the time to, what's it called... Oh yeah, *delete characters*. (You know, the same thing as -> then backspace.)
In case you don't know, this is a complete hoax. Look on Snopes for it; I'm too lazy at the moment. The Astro Pen was developed by a private company and then sold to NASA at a modest price, avoiding the need to deal with pencil shavings and broken tips in electronic equipment.
I've found the same thing. Further, I've found that my writing also looks slightly better with.5mm lead than.7mm lead, which makes me wonder if the precision of the lines is the reason.
Just to make you feel a little less silly, the cartridges in new printers are almost always crippled in terms of capacity. I've heard Lexmark puts under half the amount of ink that appears in a new cartridge in the ones that come with new printers, so considering the cost of the printer itself as $0, you only paid a little more once you consider the amount of ink you actually got.
Can we have things that at least *approach* gramatical correctness in the stories?
"Neal Lane, the ex-science advisor to President Clinton, has written an article in Physics Today magazine, that explains why he thinks Benjamin Franklin, was an early American prototype of a civic scientist, i.e. someone who would 'probably address many of today's concerns with wisdom, practicality, and a deep sense of civic responsibility.'"
There should me no comma before *either* 'that' or 'was an early'.
It would prevent people from rooting through your trash however to find bills, bank statements, etc. since there would be essentially no way to find *your* mail in there.
Slashdot Mirror
"The Internet - first created by government agencies, only really useful once the private sector got in. Maybe we ought to do THE SAME THING with NASA!"
Who said we shouldn't? The point is that at first, it's much to expensive to do as a private enterprise. Just as the massive exploration attempts in the 1400s were mostly funded by governments, but later you were certainly able to make commercial trips. (The Internet is another perfect example of this; probably only the government would have had the resources to start the Internet. Once it was going, private companies could get in, but chances are for it to develop on its own would have required the cooperation of many companies on a scale that has only been seen rarely.)
"Universal postal service - incompentently run and maintained by force."
Incompetently run? How so? The USPS is a marvel. Sure, they have a bad reputation for being slow and losing a lot of letters, but it's almost entirely undeserved.
"Want to start your own first class mail service? They'll shut you down! (this happened in Buffalo some decades ago)"
This I agree is stupid.
"Free education - you get what you pay for. The government can keep that one, thanks."
Having a half-decent education system is still better than leaving those who can't afford it out in the cold.
"Going to space and landing on the moon? Accomplished without the consent of some of the people that had to pay for it. I love space exploration as much as anyone, but I don't claim that I have a right to tax others to finance my hobbies."
And I don't think the government should spend as much as they do on military power and more on the EPA, but I can't do anything about that either.
"As for satellites, aren't many, if not most, of those private efforts now anyway? And wouldn't it still be better if they could be?"
And who said they couldn't be? The point you're arguing is that the government does many things of use, not that it's preventing people and companies from doing useful things.
"don't call me a racist for thinking that private boycott is a more effective means of ending racial discrimination."
Yeah, because we know how many people boycotted shops down south earlier in the century. That worked real well. (I'm not calling you a racist for thinking that way; I'm just pointing out that your idea is stupid.) And BTW, before you say that there's still racism and discrimination, yes, of course there is. But I'd argue the situation is still leagues better than it would be if the government had let people do whatever and actively discriminate.
Yes, of course this is true, but that doesn't mean that people should ignore the quality of the equipment. Reviews like this are still quite useful if you want to know what equipment you should get in order to play back your van Karajan recording of the Beethoven cycle for instance.
I think there's a law that will take effect around the turn of the year that will make it illegal for telemarketers to block caller ID information.
And indeed, if the changes fall under the requirements for copyrighted work (they must be creative), the new versions are under copyright. That's why arrangements of copyrighted pieces are protected. However, if a company simply prints up classical music, that is really not copyrightable, so you are free to copy.
In any case, that doesn't have anythnig to do with the matter at hand since even if printing the music would mean that the printed version was copyrighted the *original music* would still be public domain.
"...if they didn't wouldn't they be in effect saying that anyone can go ahead and take their IP property? Legally speaking of course."
Nope. Of trademarks, patents, and copyrights, you are only required to actively protect trademarks. (I think; maybe patents as well. But I'm *positive* there's nothing in the statutes that obligate holders of copyright to do so.)
IANAL, but follow many aspects of law quite closely.
It should mean that the samples new to the 32L fell under copyright, and if the old samples were revised the new versions are under copyright. However, though IANAL, I'm almost certain that the release of the 32L wouldn't affect the status of the original samples, copyrighted or not.
"Crackers might have discovered the same bug earlier, or at the same time."
Better to take the chance that they don't know about a hole while it's being patched than announce the details of the exploit publicly and remove all doubt that they know...
I am of the opinion that the proper course of action upon finding a security hole is to warn the company of the specifics, but otherwise keep it quite for a reasonable amount of time. After a reasonable time has passed, or when they release a patch and a reasonable time for updating systems has passed, then releasing the exploit publicly. Releasing it before there has been a chance to patch *gurantees* that it can be exploited in the interm, and brings almost no benefit over the first strategy.
"Car Accidents are the person's fault."
Car accidents are *someone's* fault, but all to often its people who hold no blame. They are rear ended, or hit by a drunk driver, etc.
"By the wording of the DMCA, yes, even suggesting how to defeat that pitiful copy protection is illegal. 'Circumvention' doesn't have to be complex lines of code. It can be and is something this simple. This law has got to go. I am amazed at how little mass media coverage it's gotten. It's one of those issues that isn't just 'geek', it's a serious rights issue that can impact people in ludicrous situations like this one."
Of course, if using the shift key is circumventing encryption, the shift key is a circumvention device and hence is illegal. I guess we'll have problems typing capital letters from now on... (typing caps lock twice)
"If you can't see why this is a mistake, consider this. In a language with "=" for equality and ":=" for assignment, you only have learn one new thing: that ":=" means assignment. In C, you have to learn two things: "=" means assignment, NOT equality and "==" means equality. How stupid is that? Everyone already knows that "=" means equality; why change that? Everyone already knows that "kilo" means 1000; why change that?"
:= makes more sense and if we were to redo C, that would be one thing to look into changing; but you have to agree that in the grand scheme of things when learning programming, getting the =/== distinction is not one of the major steep parts of the learning curve. The errors usually are just typos after like the first day or so of being introducted to the separate notations. Just turn on warnings all the way so the compiler will tell you if you write if(a=b) so you don't spend 4 hours debugging that... *grumble*
I'll agree that
"It's realy a fundamental thing and I don't understand why people are so resistant to it."
Because I would bet if you took a random poll of people on the street 80% would say that 1 kilobyte is exactly 1000 bytes.
"I mean it's still a binary device, even if you don't like to think in binary it still is."
Then why are we using decimal prefixes?
Ah, and therein lay the crux of the matter. The problem is that *everywhere else* kilo-, mega-, etc. prefix units (to stop the megapolis argument) they denote powers of 10. A megavolt is a million volts. A kilometer is 1000 meters. A gigahertz is a billion hertz. Only in computer science have people redefined the units to refer to anything other than powers of 10. *That* is what the debate revolves around, and that is what is IMO the mistake of people early on. The solution is to make kilobytes officially be 1000 bytes (as the IEC has) and use a different unit for the powers of two.
"I'm surprised windows users even know about the delete key, since it's so much less confusing just to click on the red X on the toolbar."
What the heck does del have to do with closing programs? I use del all the time to, what's it called... Oh yeah, *delete characters*. (You know, the same thing as -> then backspace.)
And ~ is essential in many URLs.
Up, down, mute perhaps?
At least that's what I'd map them to.
Can RFID tags be programmed? If so, it'd be possible to change the serial no. that they transmit each time a book is checked out and returned.
In case you don't know, this is a complete hoax. Look on Snopes for it; I'm too lazy at the moment. The Astro Pen was developed by a private company and then sold to NASA at a modest price, avoiding the need to deal with pencil shavings and broken tips in electronic equipment.
I've found the same thing. Further, I've found that my writing also looks slightly better with .5mm lead than .7mm lead, which makes me wonder if the precision of the lines is the reason.
Just to make you feel a little less silly, the cartridges in new printers are almost always crippled in terms of capacity. I've heard Lexmark puts under half the amount of ink that appears in a new cartridge in the ones that come with new printers, so considering the cost of the printer itself as $0, you only paid a little more once you consider the amount of ink you actually got.
"So far , I have never seen an 'HP' recycled cartridge from HP. 100% crush rate = 0% recycling."
HP outsources this. I've bought cartrages that are recycled HP cartrages, though the packages have another company's name on it. $20 vs. $30.
Don't forget Rick Boucher too; he's introduced legislation that is significantly in our favor.
"There should me no comma before *either* 'that' or 'was an early'."
Um, yeah. That should say "There should be..." in the last sentence. Figures it's a grammar post that I make a typo in...
Can we have things that at least *approach* gramatical correctness in the stories?
"Neal Lane, the ex-science advisor to President Clinton, has written an article in Physics Today magazine, that explains why he thinks Benjamin Franklin, was an early American prototype of a civic scientist, i.e. someone who would 'probably address many of today's concerns with wisdom, practicality, and a deep sense of civic responsibility.'"
There should me no comma before *either* 'that' or 'was an early'.
Maybe you should get a more thourough grasp of the English language before you criticize.
Just a snippet of the definitions from The OED:
1h) Of an aircraft or spacecraft: to travel through the air or through space.
4c) Of stairs: To descend or ascend without change of direction.
8a) Of persons and animals: To move with a start or rush; to spring, start, hasten, rush.
9a) Of things: To be forced or driven off suddenly or with a jerk; to start. Of a limb: To be parted suddenly from the body.
Just to show you that "fly" doesn't have as narrow a definition as you seem to want to believe.
It would prevent people from rooting through your trash however to find bills, bank statements, etc. since there would be essentially no way to find *your* mail in there.