Just to add to this line of thinking, would it be surprising if MS bought or just started up their own flavor of Cable/DSL Broadband? I'd heard the rumor that some of the dwindling Baby Bells could be in trouble of being thrust into anti-trust court again, which would make them ripe for purchasing, I would think. Thus, a company with alot of cash laying around could buy out a division of it, like Broadband/DSL, and have your own access to a nice tidy infrastructure.
I'm surprised any of these suits would have ever gotten anywhere. These seem to clearly be an issue of one person expressing their -opinion- about various things. Either GM, (the company or the product) and Ford, (etiher the company or the product.) Get upset all you want, it's their constituational right to have an opinion and express it.
There are 2 things that strike me about this article.. The Chinese won't like the scheme of software liscencing. If they buy a copy, they own the copy, I'm sure they won't want to effectively "lease" it.
The other thing that comes to mind, is I have to wonder if this isn't the beginning of a strategy for MS to cultivate a new, cheaper pot to draw devlopers and even manufacturers from. No need to deal with Unions there..that would be nice, wouldn't it? You might not be able to manufacture as many products that are listed as non-export..but what if you developed them there, then exported them to the US?
Yikes! My head is spinning! That's so HUGE and convoluted, you'd have to be some sort of [Dilbert] Manager from the Marketing Division to understand it!
And now that we'll be adding a far more functional mouse-like device to our cell phones and PDA's, we'll be able to use them for a far wider range of games now. Atari's Centipede has just been waiting in the wings to be ported to an even smaller device for portability and play, because by now you're surely bored of Snake!
Curiously enough, has anyone tried to persue those folks who put out pop-up ads for unauthorized use of bandwidth? How about trying to run them down under Anti-Spam laws? They are, are they not, unsolicited advertisements, just the same as one would get in an email?
I'm curious...how much is "excessive" when it comes to broadband, bandwidth? I mean, the name "broadband" implies that you've got a broad amount of it, right?
Webster's dictionary uses words like Spacious, Open, Full and Liberal to describe "broad." I guess I'm curious to see what their EULA/SLA that they signed up for says about their bandwidth caps.
In other news today, we find that the FBI is overbudget by $59.5M this year. Independent analysts and slashdot readers point to the increased costs of equipment siezure and storage, then transport and return of same said equipment.
Ross Anderson indicates: The question is: security for whom? The average user might prefer not to have to worry about viruses, but TCPA won't fix that: viruses exploit the way software applications (such as Microsoft Office) use scripting. He might be worried about privacy, but TCPA won't fix that; almost all privacy violations result from the abuse of authorised access, often obtained by coercing consent. If anything, by entrenching and expanding monopolies, TCPA will increase the incentives to price discriminate and thus to harvest personal data for profiling.
The most charitable view of TCPA is put forward by a Microsoft researcher: there are some applications in which you want to constrain the user's actions. For example, you want to stop people fiddling with the odometer on a car before they sell it. Similarly, if you want to do DRM on a PC then you need to treat the user as the enemy.
Seen in these terms, TCPA and Palladium do not so much provide security for the user, but for the PC vendor, the software supplier, and the content industry. They do not add value for the user. Rather, they destroy it, by constraining what you can do with your PC - in order to enable application and service vendors to extract more money from you.
I believe the thing to remember about this is that while industry will provide us with products, only the consumer decides if that product is in demand. While a business may find these products useful, home audiences are not likely to. With that in mind, the industry may find their portion of the home market dwindling. And while the "average" user might be content with using the same thing at home that they use at work, I believe when they realize that they are being constrained [read: restrained] that perhaps we'll begin the process of escaping this straitjacket that is being laced up around us.
If it doesn't fix the problems that the "average" user runs into, why would it be of interest to them? If a business analyses it's money spent on security and trust, versus the money it spends on virus', other IT-expenses that flow from these issues, including the cost of rolling out a new OS..where is their money best spent? MS does a great job of soaking you with their advertisement, until you just can't live without their newest product. Then they discontinue the one you like, shift liscencing, and give you no choice but to upgrade. TCPA sounds great for closed and secure environments, even some corporate environements.
I don't know about you, but I remember "growing up" in the information age, where computers empowered us. Are we wanting to wrap ourselves up now in this restraint and limit what we can do to what a corporation believes is right for us? I do not wish to be an animal that is herded by the shepherd of Corporate America.
I suppose now that DOS has been banned, there will be underground DOS user groups popping up, and the need for new chalking for them to know where they should go, and when to meet. A whole new realm of ancient users staring at white text on a black screen in basements, closets, back alleys..far from the prying eye of those who would ban their sacred DOS.
Of course our friends and MicroSoft will be the ones looking closely at this ban. Because they'll want to insure you're upholding the EULA for that version of DOS you're using illegally. They want their cut of the action too!
How do they expect an administrator to respond to a DoS attack on their network, even if it is legal? You block and report the offender, pass the word. Last I checked, the US still operates under Innocent Until Proven Guilty. I suspect it may be easier to prove the guilt of DoS than P2P; and certainly an Admin is more likely to lean against DoS than a P2P user.
Some of what you're saying is true. However, not even half of the $60B is going towards fixing it. You have realize that the figure we're looking at likely includes the cost of lost productivity for the poor sole who found the bug, and now has to re-type their entire report, re-enter their entire manufacturing design, etc..
So, won't it be interesting to look out your window and find one of these runes on the side of the building across the street...say, a rival company? There they are, broadcasting their secrets to the world. How convenient, you can just login from the window near your desk.
Hmmm...that reminds me...I should go check our Wireless configuration.
It seems to me that broad, and vague terms, such as "anything that threatens the 'safety' of Russia" is pretty typical of how things are world-wide in this sort of matter, not to mention how they've really always been in the days of the USSR. While Russia strives to move forward from it's past, it cannot leave behind, in a matter of years, all the feelings, thoughts and ways of thinking that it has built up in its history.
Besides, perhaps we should take a close look at our own Patriot Act. This too grants broad, and vague powers, we just went there first. Russia is following.
We've had the technology to 'simulate' gravity since the industrial revolution. Haven't you seen 2001 the movie?
I've seen it. It's a fine movie for it's time. While we may have the tecnology to simulate gravity in space, why haven't we employed it yet? Shuttle missions don't seem to have the need for it, since their stays in microgravity are generally short. But have any of the space stations currently, or previously in service used some sort of gravity system?
Take note of how the article points out these candidates were put through rigorous tests before being selected. They wanted ones that had some specific characteristics for mental elastisty. Those are some pretty rough demands.
Here, after only 3 months, the one individual interviewed (which we don't know which group he was in,) was in rough shape when it came time to get back on his feet. It sounds like we've got along way to go, to get someone whose capable of remaining in microgravity for 2 years, in order to get to Mars. That, or we're going to have to design a ship that employs some form of gravity simulator.
It's good to see progress, but we're still a long way from being able to send men to Mars.
Is it all a big game and gamble we play along with, because not doing so is generally frightening enough that we do want to play this game. And interestingly enough, one of the Insurance Companies in the Midwest recently announced that it wouldn't be accepting any more new home owners for Kansas or Missouri.
Apparently from the storm damage of the last 2 years, they've paid out more than they took in, and thus are having to figure out where to cut corners, and thus cut their losses. In the future, I wonder how wide-spread disasters will cause issues for insurance, like the current wildfires that are running around in the western side of the US.
Certainly they weren't "Acts of God" since we've got a suspect in the Colorado fires.
I think you missed a key point - It's only sellers who gross over $1k/month that eBay is offering this too, not eBay's entire userbase.
You, sir, are correct. I must admit, I started thinking about my post after I'd submitted it. Thing, of course, I was distracted by the fact my coffee was getting cold. Anyway, you're quite right. eBay has probably managed to maneuver this offering, because it can point to a group of regular users, and say, "These are our contractors."
I guess the big question now is: who will find the next big group of web-related folks, who are contractor-like, if this goes through? A question one might consider is: are money and comissions, and such, the only thing that defines us as contractors or employees? Can our "pay" be given in some other form, and still be valid? Because/. pays in "Karma" does that make me a freelance writer?"
While writing for/. may be enjoyable, it's certainly going to be a stretch for this situation. However, it's meant to make you think about what defines an employer/employee relationship.
Anyone else think there's a web-organization that can claim more members?
That's easy. AOL.
A very good point! But, the question is, how does one get them to be considered pseudo-employee's, opposed to customers of a service? I suspect that's the hook that eBay is using.
I have to admit, this whole idea sounds pretty interesting to me. Then again, I have a so-so health insurance company, from my own mickey-mouse company, which admittedly plays half of the monthly premiums. Certainly all this is better than a sharp stick in the eye (which would require I go to the doctor, of course). However, I know that the total cost of my plan is the same as if I was just this single guy who walked in off the street. (I just pay half since the company pays the other half.)
I suspect that eBay won't be picking up any of the slack for premiums on this health insurance, so people might find it's not the bargin that they expect for such a potentially large user base. If anyone fits into the 80,000 user-base that eBay is talking about, I'm sure it'd be elightening to know what their potential premiums are.
Health insurance has always been a huge game of numbers and betting on the odds. Betting on the odds that you are, or aren't going to get sick, are or aren't going to need major medical, are or aren't going to need an operation, etc. And in that big game, the more people you have on the plan, the more likely you're going to find alot of people who pay you for insurance, but don't need those things.
An insurance company is out to make money, just like you and me, who get a job to make money (or sell things on eBay in this case.) So, if you offer them a large customer base, 80,000 people, then that's a big enough market you start to drop your prices signifigantely.
This will be an interesting precident to set in the marketplace of health insurance. If it goes through and works,..when will we get to have/. insurance? Any web-following then, with sufficient numbers, should be able to follow suit and get big discounts on a group plan. With enough people, you even get to have the nice and spiffy plans where you can pick the sort of benefits you want.
Whose going to manage these benefits? Will eBay have a new department for assisting their people with benefit claims?
Hmm...imagine if http://www.yahoo.com/ or http://www.msn.com/ were able to follow suit and offer health insurance. Anyone else think there's a web-organization that can claim more members?
With http://www.pricewatch.com/ out there to help folks find the best deal on a Whitebox, pricing has even become competitive in that field. Having had a number of folks who look to me to help them find a good deal on a PC, I've done lots of shopping and talking to people. I would suggest that it comes down to a couple of things.
1.) How much can you spend? 2.) Avoid such and so, who have bad track records. 3.) Does the local shop/whitebox builder have good support, if we have a problem?
If you get #3, and they don't use questionable hardware, then usually the'll have a fair price. Anywho..just my $0.02.. (which is probably only worth a red cent.)
Slashdot Mirror
Just to add to this line of thinking, would it be surprising if MS bought or just started up their own flavor of Cable/DSL Broadband? I'd heard the rumor that some of the dwindling Baby Bells could be in trouble of being thrust into anti-trust court again, which would make them ripe for purchasing, I would think. Thus, a company with alot of cash laying around could buy out a division of it, like Broadband/DSL, and have your own access to a nice tidy infrastructure.
I'm surprised any of these suits would have ever gotten anywhere. These seem to clearly be an issue of one person expressing their -opinion- about various things. Either GM, (the company or the product) and Ford, (etiher the company or the product.) Get upset all you want, it's their constituational right to have an opinion and express it.
Or has that been changed recently too?
Well, one of these would make our little jaunt into "Warchalking" more useful, now wouldn't it?
There are 2 things that strike me about this article.. The Chinese won't like the scheme of software liscencing. If they buy a copy, they own the copy, I'm sure they won't want to effectively "lease" it.
The other thing that comes to mind, is I have to wonder if this isn't the beginning of a strategy for MS to cultivate a new, cheaper pot to draw devlopers and even manufacturers from. No need to deal with Unions there..that would be nice, wouldn't it? You might not be able to manufacture as many products that are listed as non-export..but what if you developed them there, then exported them to the US?
Yikes! My head is spinning! That's so HUGE and convoluted, you'd have to be some sort of [Dilbert] Manager from the Marketing Division to understand it!
Quick...must...click......before head...explodes!
And now that we'll be adding a far more functional mouse-like device to our cell phones and PDA's, we'll be able to use them for a far wider range of games now. Atari's Centipede has just been waiting in the wings to be ported to an even smaller device for portability and play, because by now you're surely bored of Snake!
Curiously enough, has anyone tried to persue those folks who put out pop-up ads for unauthorized use of bandwidth? How about trying to run them down under Anti-Spam laws? They are, are they not, unsolicited advertisements, just the same as one would get in an email?
I'm curious...how much is "excessive" when it comes to broadband, bandwidth? I mean, the name "broadband" implies that you've got a broad amount of it, right?
Webster's dictionary uses words like Spacious, Open, Full and Liberal to describe "broad." I guess I'm curious to see what their EULA/SLA that they signed up for says about their bandwidth caps.
In other news today, we find that the FBI is overbudget by $59.5M this year. Independent analysts and slashdot readers point to the increased costs of equipment siezure and storage, then transport and return of same said equipment.
Story at eleven.
Do you think in 5 years I'll be able to pull these pictures off my CDR's? Much less to show my grandchildren...
That'll depend on if your CD's meet with TCPA compliance in 5 years, now doesn't it? Hmm..that's an even sadder thought than I believed it to be. :-(
Ross Anderson indicates: The question is: security for whom? The average user might prefer not to have to worry about viruses, but TCPA won't fix that: viruses exploit the way software applications (such as Microsoft Office) use scripting. He might be worried about privacy, but TCPA won't fix that; almost all privacy violations result from the abuse of authorised access, often obtained by coercing consent. If anything, by entrenching and expanding monopolies, TCPA will increase the incentives to price discriminate and thus to harvest personal data for profiling.
The most charitable view of TCPA is put forward by a Microsoft researcher: there are some applications in which you want to constrain the user's actions. For example, you want to stop people fiddling with the odometer on a car before they sell it. Similarly, if you want to do DRM on a PC then you need to treat the user as the enemy.
Seen in these terms, TCPA and Palladium do not so much provide security for the user, but for the PC vendor, the software supplier, and the content industry. They do not add value for the user. Rather, they destroy it, by constraining what you can do with your PC - in order to enable application and service vendors to extract more money from you.
I believe the thing to remember about this is that while industry will provide us with products, only the consumer decides if that product is in demand. While a business may find these products useful, home audiences are not likely to. With that in mind, the industry may find their portion of the home market dwindling. And while the "average" user might be content with using the same thing at home that they use at work, I believe when they realize that they are being constrained [read: restrained] that perhaps we'll begin the process of escaping this straitjacket that is being laced up around us.
If it doesn't fix the problems that the "average" user runs into, why would it be of interest to them? If a business analyses it's money spent on security and trust, versus the money it spends on virus', other IT-expenses that flow from these issues, including the cost of rolling out a new OS..where is their money best spent? MS does a great job of soaking you with their advertisement, until you just can't live without their newest product. Then they discontinue the one you like, shift liscencing, and give you no choice but to upgrade. TCPA sounds great for closed and secure environments, even some corporate environements.
I don't know about you, but I remember "growing up" in the information age, where computers empowered us. Are we wanting to wrap ourselves up now in this restraint and limit what we can do to what a corporation believes is right for us? I do not wish to be an animal that is herded by the shepherd of Corporate America.
I suppose now that DOS has been banned, there will be underground DOS user groups popping up, and the need for new chalking for them to know where they should go, and when to meet. A whole new realm of ancient users staring at white text on a black screen in basements, closets, back alleys..far from the prying eye of those who would ban their sacred DOS.
Of course our friends and MicroSoft will be the ones looking closely at this ban. Because they'll want to insure you're upholding the EULA for that version of DOS you're using illegally. They want their cut of the action too!
UDUG, unite!
How do they expect an administrator to respond to a DoS attack on their network, even if it is legal? You block and report the offender, pass the word. Last I checked, the US still operates under Innocent Until Proven Guilty. I suspect it may be easier to prove the guilt of DoS than P2P; and certainly an Admin is more likely to lean against DoS than a P2P user.
From Websters we find:
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin, from Greek palladion, from Pallad-, Pallas
1 capitalized : a statue of Pallas whose preservation was believed to ensure the safety of Troy
2 plural palladia : SAFEGUARD
So, with that in mind...I'm sorry, just what were we going to be protecting again?
Some of what you're saying is true. However, not even half of the $60B is going towards fixing it. You have realize that the figure we're looking at likely includes the cost of lost productivity for the poor sole who found the bug, and now has to re-type their entire report, re-enter their entire manufacturing design, etc..
So, won't it be interesting to look out your window and find one of these runes on the side of the building across the street...say, a rival company? There they are, broadcasting their secrets to the world. How convenient, you can just login from the window near your desk.
Hmmm...that reminds me...I should go check our Wireless configuration.
It seems to me that broad, and vague terms, such as "anything that threatens the 'safety' of Russia" is pretty typical of how things are world-wide in this sort of matter, not to mention how they've really always been in the days of the USSR. While Russia strives to move forward from it's past, it cannot leave behind, in a matter of years, all the feelings, thoughts and ways of thinking that it has built up in its history.
Besides, perhaps we should take a close look at our own Patriot Act. This too grants broad, and vague powers, we just went there first. Russia is following.
I've seen it. It's a fine movie for it's time. While we may have the tecnology to simulate gravity in space, why haven't we employed it yet? Shuttle missions don't seem to have the need for it, since their stays in microgravity are generally short. But have any of the space stations currently, or previously in service used some sort of gravity system?
Take note of how the article points out these candidates were put through rigorous tests before being selected. They wanted ones that had some specific characteristics for mental elastisty. Those are some pretty rough demands.
Here, after only 3 months, the one individual interviewed (which we don't know which group he was in,) was in rough shape when it came time to get back on his feet. It sounds like we've got along way to go, to get someone whose capable of remaining in microgravity for 2 years, in order to get to Mars. That, or we're going to have to design a ship that employs some form of gravity simulator.
It's good to see progress, but we're still a long way from being able to send men to Mars.
Then perhaps this could be applied to web-based organizations, like the folks over at http://www.yahoo.com/ perhaps?
Is it all a big game and gamble we play along with, because not doing so is generally frightening enough that we do want to play this game. And interestingly enough, one of the Insurance Companies in the Midwest recently announced that it wouldn't be accepting any more new home owners for Kansas or Missouri.
Apparently from the storm damage of the last 2 years, they've paid out more than they took in, and thus are having to figure out where to cut corners, and thus cut their losses. In the future, I wonder how wide-spread disasters will cause issues for insurance, like the current wildfires that are running around in the western side of the US.
Certainly they weren't "Acts of God" since we've got a suspect in the Colorado fires.
You, sir, are correct. I must admit, I started thinking about my post after I'd submitted it. Thing, of course, I was distracted by the fact my coffee was getting cold. Anyway, you're quite right. eBay has probably managed to maneuver this offering, because it can point to a group of regular users, and say, "These are our contractors."
I guess the big question now is: who will find the next big group of web-related folks, who are contractor-like, if this goes through? A question one might consider is: are money and comissions, and such, the only thing that defines us as contractors or employees? Can our "pay" be given in some other form, and still be valid? Because /. pays in "Karma" does that make me a freelance writer?"
While writing for /. may be enjoyable, it's certainly going to be a stretch for this situation. However, it's meant to make you think about what defines an employer/employee relationship.
That's easy. AOL.
A very good point! But, the question is, how does one get them to be considered pseudo-employee's, opposed to customers of a service? I suspect that's the hook that eBay is using.
I have to admit, this whole idea sounds pretty interesting to me. Then again, I have a so-so health insurance company, from my own mickey-mouse company, which admittedly plays half of the monthly premiums. Certainly all this is better than a sharp stick in the eye (which would require I go to the doctor, of course). However, I know that the total cost of my plan is the same as if I was just this single guy who walked in off the street. (I just pay half since the company pays the other half.)
I suspect that eBay won't be picking up any of the slack for premiums on this health insurance, so people might find it's not the bargin that they expect for such a potentially large user base. If anyone fits into the 80,000 user-base that eBay is talking about, I'm sure it'd be elightening to know what their potential premiums are.
Health insurance has always been a huge game of numbers and betting on the odds. Betting on the odds that you are, or aren't going to get sick, are or aren't going to need major medical, are or aren't going to need an operation, etc. And in that big game, the more people you have on the plan, the more likely you're going to find alot of people who pay you for insurance, but don't need those things.
..when will we get to have /. insurance? Any web-following then, with sufficient numbers, should be able to follow suit and get big discounts on a group plan. With enough people, you even get to have the nice and spiffy plans where you can pick the sort of benefits you want.
An insurance company is out to make money, just like you and me, who get a job to make money (or sell things on eBay in this case.) So, if you offer them a large customer base, 80,000 people, then that's a big enough market you start to drop your prices signifigantely.
This will be an interesting precident to set in the marketplace of health insurance. If it goes through and works,
Whose going to manage these benefits? Will eBay have a new department for assisting their people with benefit claims?
Hmm...imagine if http://www.yahoo.com/ or http://www.msn.com/ were able to follow suit and offer health insurance. Anyone else think there's a web-organization that can claim more members?
With http://www.pricewatch.com/ out there to help folks find the best deal on a Whitebox, pricing has even become competitive in that field. Having had a number of folks who look to me to help them find a good deal on a PC, I've done lots of shopping and talking to people. I would suggest that it comes down to a couple of things.
1.) How much can you spend?
2.) Avoid such and so, who have bad track records.
3.) Does the local shop/whitebox builder have good support, if we have a problem?
If you get #3, and they don't use questionable hardware, then usually the'll have a fair price. Anywho..just my $0.02.. (which is probably only worth a red cent.)