Actually, if the government were required to use only open source software, it would suddenly be possible for open source to put food on lots of tables. You may not be able to make money selling the code, but the government would need tons of support, custom development, and other services, which is where open source companies have always planned to make their money.
Most artists are not making more money as a result of copyrights then they would without them. Take musicians, for example. They make very little from record sales -- almost all of that money goes to the record companies. The musician makes most of their money from live performances, just as they would if there were no copyrights at all.
Either you are a troll, or you don't know the difference between an noun and a verb. No, the pillow is not illegal, no matter how I use it. It is the _action_ of murder that is illegal, regardless of the tool used.
Constitutional protection or not, I don't believe guns should be outlawed. You gave no reasons for your assertion, so I'll just give the reasons for mine. As has been pointed out by others, we don't generally make an object illegal if it has legitimate legal uses. (There are counter examples, but I would argue that those things should not be outlawed...) Guns do have plenty of legal uses. Self defense is legal. Hunting is legal. Target competition is legal. What would your justification be for outlawing guns?
That presumes that copying the game is always illegal. If I buy any material protected by copywrite, it is perfectly legal for me to make as many copies as I wish for my own personal use. That applies to books, films, or whatever. I can make backup copies, copies to use in different locations, even copies to line my parrots cage if I wish. The backers of the DCMA want to take that legal right away. They were not able to do so directly, so they went after the tools.
You, and the DMCA, are confounding the concepts of a crime and a tool that may be used to commit a crime. Tools should not, and generally are not, outlawed simply because they could be used to commit crimes. I could use a gun to rob a bank -- should guns be outlawed? I could use a crowbar to rob a house -- should crowbars be outlawed? I could use a pillow to smother a grandmother -- should pillows be outlawed?
Many posters seem to want a manager who has plenty of technical knowledge. I don't think this matters at all. I've had managers with no tech knowledge whatsoever who did a great job. I've also had managers who knew more about coding then I do who sucked as managers. The skills required for being a good manager have nothing to do with the skills required to be a good coder. Managers need people skills. As a manager, you are responsible for the work of others, but you can't do all the work yourself even if you have the skills. That means you need to develop trust with the people who work for you, and that means trust both ways.
B and C flat are both valid names for the same note. The different names are used depending on the key in which the music is written. The same goes for B flat and C double flat -- the same note with different names in different contexts.
Re:Libertarian Politics Fails Here
on
Monsanto and PCBs
·
· Score: 2
On the contrary, this is a failure of the _current_ system -- it shows nothing about Libertarianism. What makes you thing Monsato's actions would be allowed or acceptable under a Libertarian government? From a Libertarian point of view, if your company poisons my land and kills my children, either the government throws your ass in jail or I get my gun.
I also enjoy Terminus, but I think it is an example of acurate physics being detrimental to game play. The problem is that in combat under full Newtonian physics, there is no way to gain a positional advantage on an opponent. They can always rotate their ship faster than you can re-position yours, so there's no sense moving your ship a particular direction -- just move at random to be harder to hit -- then point and shoot. Any time spent with your guns pointed away from the target so you can manuver is a waste, which makes combat pretty boring. With Wing Commander, the physics are not at all realistic, but they force more varied tactics, which makes combat much more interesting.
Re:not as easy as you might think
on
al Qaeda Hacks XP?
·
· Score: 5, Funny
So something like a flight simulator in a spreadsheet program would never make it into a released product...
I've read through your posts in this thread, and there is a consistent flaw in your reasoning that the other posters have not pointed out. Your argument for a O(n) algorithm assumes that division can be done in constant time, which is not the case. You don't get division for free. The algorithm for division is dependent on the magnitude of the numbers involved, regardless of base. (I don't recall the order of that algorithm... guess I could look it up:) )
Microsoft can be expected to obstruct the oversight comittee as much as possible. The Microsoft appointed member of the comittee will probably also obstruct the comittee. Not that too much obstruction is needed, since the comittee only has the power to report violations and the current administration does not seem eager to enforce the law. Please explain why you think anyone, and you in particular, can have any affect on Microsoft under these circumstances.
My wife is a teacher, and I can tell you it is not always that easy. In our school district, parents have the right to challenge the showing of any movie in class. If this happens, the teacher needs to be able to justify showing the film, usually by showing how it fits in with what they are teaching. This seems like a perfectly reasonable system, but it is often abused by groups with a political or business agenda. For example, teachers in our school district are reluctant to show Disney films no matter how relevant they may be because they are invariably challenged by a parent.
Well, the RIAA isn't screwing themselves by trying to kill off mp3s, and your example demonstrates the point. The RIAA isn't happy about those twenty CDs you bought because you didn't learn about those bands from media that they can influence. They don't want you to know about any bands except the ones they promote. If musicians learned they could sell CDs without the RIAA members' help, they might not be so willing to sell themselves into indentured servitude to the record companies.
I'm not so sure about that. IANAL, but this would not be a case of trying to sue for actions that were not illegal at the time. In this case, the company in question is acussing someone of breaking the law when they are not. Whether you can sue for that, I don't know, but "ex post facto" doesn't seem to apply.
This is what happens when people who are too stupid to come up with their own ideas try to copy the ideas of creative people. They invariably misunderstand what was good about the original. To my mind, what makes Iron Chef so interesting to watch is the contrast between how over the top it is and how seriously the participants take it. Sure, they're wearing absurd costumes, battling in an arena like gladiators, but the contestants, judges, and the Iron Chefs take it all very seriously. Clearly the people at UPN don't get that. It looks like they are going to take the "over the top" element and exagerate it even further, but ignore the serious side.
They aren't talking about mining aggregate and shipping it to earth. The idea is to mine aggregate on mars and use it to build structures on mars instead of shipping building materials to mars.
Actually, some people do pay for WinZip. I did back when I was still using Windows. Theft is still theft, even if its easy and there is no chance of getting caught.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm getting laid off today...
The vi/emacs flamewar will never end because it is so much fun.
Actually, if the government were required to use only open source software, it would suddenly be possible for open source to put food on lots of tables. You may not be able to make money selling the code, but the government would need tons of support, custom development, and other services, which is where open source companies have always planned to make their money.
Most artists are not making more money as a result of copyrights then they would without them. Take musicians, for example. They make very little from record sales -- almost all of that money goes to the record companies. The musician makes most of their money from live performances, just as they would if there were no copyrights at all.
Either you are a troll, or you don't know the difference between an noun and a verb. No, the pillow is not illegal, no matter how I use it. It is the _action_ of murder that is illegal, regardless of the tool used.
Constitutional protection or not, I don't believe guns should be outlawed. You gave no reasons for your assertion, so I'll just give the reasons for mine. As has been pointed out by others, we don't generally make an object illegal if it has legitimate legal uses. (There are counter examples, but I would argue that those things should not be outlawed...) Guns do have plenty of legal uses. Self defense is legal. Hunting is legal. Target competition is legal. What would your justification be for outlawing guns?
That presumes that copying the game is always illegal. If I buy any material protected by copywrite, it is perfectly legal for me to make as many copies as I wish for my own personal use. That applies to books, films, or whatever. I can make backup copies, copies to use in different locations, even copies to line my parrots cage if I wish. The backers of the DCMA want to take that legal right away. They were not able to do so directly, so they went after the tools.
You, and the DMCA, are confounding the concepts of a crime and a tool that may be used to commit a crime. Tools should not, and generally are not, outlawed simply because they could be used to commit crimes. I could use a gun to rob a bank -- should guns be outlawed? I could use a crowbar to rob a house -- should crowbars be outlawed? I could use a pillow to smother a grandmother -- should pillows be outlawed?
Just to back you up, here's the old article
Security Community Reacts to Microsoft Announcement
by Hemos with 471 comments on Friday January 25, @11:25AM
The Counterpane article is the same as the earlier Security Focus article.
The article in Cryptogram may be new, but the section in question was published elsewhere and was discussed in an earlier slashdot article.
Since the proposed system charges $$ for resouce usage, the joke will be on you when the bill arrives.
Many posters seem to want a manager who has plenty of technical knowledge. I don't think this matters at all. I've had managers with no tech knowledge whatsoever who did a great job. I've also had managers who knew more about coding then I do who sucked as managers. The skills required for being a good manager have nothing to do with the skills required to be a good coder. Managers need people skills. As a manager, you are responsible for the work of others, but you can't do all the work yourself even if you have the skills. That means you need to develop trust with the people who work for you, and that means trust both ways.
B and C flat are both valid names for the same note. The different names are used depending on the key in which the music is written. The same goes for B flat and C double flat -- the same note with different names in different contexts.
On the contrary, this is a failure of the _current_ system -- it shows nothing about Libertarianism. What makes you thing Monsato's actions would be allowed or acceptable under a Libertarian government? From a Libertarian point of view, if your company poisons my land and kills my children, either the government throws your ass in jail or I get my gun.
I also enjoy Terminus, but I think it is an example of acurate physics being detrimental to game play. The problem is that in combat under full Newtonian physics, there is no way to gain a positional advantage on an opponent. They can always rotate their ship faster than you can re-position yours, so there's no sense moving your ship a particular direction -- just move at random to be harder to hit -- then point and shoot. Any time spent with your guns pointed away from the target so you can manuver is a waste, which makes combat pretty boring. With Wing Commander, the physics are not at all realistic, but they force more varied tactics, which makes combat much more interesting.
So something like a flight simulator in a spreadsheet program would never make it into a released product...
Back under your bridge, troll.
You drive on the road in GTA3? I much prefer the sidewalk.
I've read through your posts in this thread, and there is a consistent flaw in your reasoning that the other posters have not pointed out. Your argument for a O(n) algorithm assumes that division can be done in constant time, which is not the case. You don't get division for free. The algorithm for division is dependent on the magnitude of the numbers involved, regardless of base. (I don't recall the order of that algorithm... guess I could look it up :) )
Microsoft can be expected to obstruct the oversight comittee as much as possible. The Microsoft appointed member of the comittee will probably also obstruct the comittee. Not that too much obstruction is needed, since the comittee only has the power to report violations and the current administration does not seem eager to enforce the law. Please explain why you think anyone, and you in particular, can have any affect on Microsoft under these circumstances.
My wife is a teacher, and I can tell you it is not always that easy. In our school district, parents have the right to challenge the showing of any movie in class. If this happens, the teacher needs to be able to justify showing the film, usually by showing how it fits in with what they are teaching. This seems like a perfectly reasonable system, but it is often abused by groups with a political or business agenda. For example, teachers in our school district are reluctant to show Disney films no matter how relevant they may be because they are invariably challenged by a parent.
Well, the RIAA isn't screwing themselves by trying to kill off mp3s, and your example demonstrates the point. The RIAA isn't happy about those twenty CDs you bought because you didn't learn about those bands from media that they can influence. They don't want you to know about any bands except the ones they promote. If musicians learned they could sell CDs without the RIAA members' help, they might not be so willing to sell themselves into indentured servitude to the record companies.
I'm not so sure about that. IANAL, but this would not be a case of trying to sue for actions that were not illegal at the time. In this case, the company in question is acussing someone of breaking the law when they are not. Whether you can sue for that, I don't know, but "ex post facto" doesn't seem to apply.
This is what happens when people who are too stupid to come up with their own ideas try to copy the ideas of creative people. They invariably misunderstand what was good about the original. To my mind, what makes Iron Chef so interesting to watch is the contrast between how over the top it is and how seriously the participants take it. Sure, they're wearing absurd costumes, battling in an arena like gladiators, but the contestants, judges, and the Iron Chefs take it all very seriously. Clearly the people at UPN don't get that. It looks like they are going to take the "over the top" element and exagerate it even further, but ignore the serious side.
They aren't talking about mining aggregate and shipping it to earth. The idea is to mine aggregate on mars and use it to build structures on mars instead of shipping building materials to mars.
Actually, some people do pay for WinZip. I did back when I was still using Windows. Theft is still theft, even if its easy and there is no chance of getting caught.