Nope, if I read the article right, the cards just
certify your identity and that you do not have felony convictions. Can't be that hard to check.
Unfortunately, it's also completely useless. It's not that the government has actually a list with the names of terrorists that are going to blow up something in the near future, or do they??
If you let people bypass the scanners, all a terrorist needs is someone with such an ID card to carry a weapon into a security zone. It's not even risky - in the unlikely event that you get caught you just tell them you carried your gun accidentally. Just do it in Texas...
That's funny - even in the People's Republic of Massachusetts with its Blue Laws you can buy booze freely ('cept on Sundays, of course) until 2am.
And in socialist Germany here, they sell any-grade booze in the supermarkets and even from little kiosks with take-out windows in the street. They are called "water shacks" because that's the only thing they do not sell...
I still love the sign in Italian highway stops saying they won't sell spirits after 10pm to increase road safety.
One thing: What is it with this patent taking seven years to get
granted? Does this mean the patent office did not initially want to
approve it? Or did they suspend on the process until something
or someone prompted them to restart it?
The original IBM PC was based on, I think, the 8088 - an 8-bit bus version of the 8086 running at 4.77 MHz.
But... That was in 1981! As usual, IBM slept
right through the personal computer revolution, but then caught up quite well. Seeing the sentence
...never did achieve the status of such competitors as International Business Machines Corp. and Apple Computer Inc.
in 1979, everyone would have laughed out loud.
There actually was something like a personal computer from IBM before the PC, a thingy called IBM 5120 with two 8" diskette drives and either BASIC or APL as programming language.
Seems APL was popular them, even though you needed a special keyboard.
Has anyone thought about playing a DRM-protected/encrypted WMA file in a VMWARE or Wine session and recording the data stream that VMWARE or Wine sends to the sound card? It should be trivial either to intercept/dev/dsp in user space or have a "virtual soundcard" kernel module. Even easier than going through the soundcard and redigitalizing.
Imagine how cool you will look during break if you have a Linux box.
But does that make Linux and/or VMWARE a tool for circumventing copy protection? And thus illegal under DMCA? Reminds me of the time when Microsoft was insinuating that selling a PC without a copy of Windows amounted to piracy.
The "compact disk digital audio" logo on the discs is a trademark owned by Philips - if you have a copy-protected disk, it should not even be on it.
Even then, retailers should not induce the appearance of this disk being a bona-fide CD - in other words, they would have to put a big sign on it saying "This CD may not play in your CD player".
Or maybe color the CD bright red:-) See how many people would still buy it then.
Remember, it' apparently not only computers, but also some portable CD players, car stereos, high-end devices, and DVD players.
Recently Computerworld had an
article that the
Gartner Group sees a 50-50 chance of StarOffice taking 10% of the office productivity suites market by the end of 2004. Doesn't mean that it will be on Linux, but then it won't matter either.
This doesn't include the effect of VMWARE and Mac OS X on the markets.
You can always run VMWARE to give the user exactly the same environment as before, but way reduce management cost. If a virus hits Outlook again, simply restore from a clean saved state. Software upgrades will be easier. It doesn't take market share away from MS, but by introducing Linux systems eases the transition, exactly what MS has to fear most.
Mac OS X is a bona-fide BSD with Max user interface and full MS office suite.Most people will consider getting a shiny Mac as an upgrade from MS/Intel, not a downgrade. The killer would be, of course, OS X (=BSD + Aqua user interface) for Intel. MS could pull the plug on Office for Macs, but they might already lack market force for that.
Slashdot Mirror
Unfortunately, it's also completely useless. It's not that the government has actually a list with the names of terrorists that are going to blow up something in the near future, or do they??
If you let people bypass the scanners, all a terrorist needs is someone with such an ID card to carry a weapon into a security zone. It's not even risky - in the unlikely event that you get caught you just tell them you carried your gun accidentally. Just do it in Texas...
And in socialist Germany here, they sell any-grade booze in the supermarkets and even from little kiosks with take-out windows in the street. They are called "water shacks" because that's the only thing they do not sell...
I still love the sign in Italian highway stops saying they won't sell spirits after 10pm to increase road safety.
One thing: What is it with this patent taking seven years to get granted? Does this mean the patent office did not initially want to approve it? Or did they suspend on the process until something or someone prompted them to restart it?
No, Austria has the hang of it. They made Beethoven an Austrian and Hitler a German...
But... That was in 1981! As usual, IBM slept right through the personal computer revolution, but then caught up quite well. Seeing the sentence
in 1979, everyone would have laughed out loud.There actually was something like a personal computer from IBM before the PC, a thingy called IBM 5120 with two 8" diskette drives and either BASIC or APL as programming language.
Seems APL was popular them, even though you needed a special keyboard.
Imagine how cool you will look during break if you have a Linux box.
But does that make Linux and/or VMWARE a tool for circumventing copy protection? And thus illegal under DMCA? Reminds me of the time when Microsoft was insinuating that selling a PC without a copy of Windows amounted to piracy.
The "compact disk digital audio" logo on the discs is a trademark owned by Philips - if you have a copy-protected disk, it should not even be on it.
:-) See how many people would still buy it then.
Even then, retailers should not induce the appearance of this disk being a bona-fide CD - in other words, they would have to put a big sign on it saying "This CD may not play in your CD player".
Or maybe color the CD bright red
Remember, it' apparently not only computers, but also some portable CD players, car stereos, high-end devices, and DVD players.
No, you have to reinstall from CD and download the most recent drivers - they are using Windows CE (Celestial Edition)
You can always run VMWARE to give the user exactly the same environment as before, but way reduce management cost. If a virus hits Outlook again, simply restore from a clean saved state. Software upgrades will be easier. It doesn't take market share away from MS, but by introducing Linux systems eases the transition, exactly what MS has to fear most.
Mac OS X is a bona-fide BSD with Max user interface and full MS office suite.Most people will consider getting a shiny Mac as an upgrade from MS/Intel, not a downgrade. The killer would be, of course, OS X (=BSD + Aqua user interface) for Intel. MS could pull the plug on Office for Macs, but they might already lack market force for that.