WiFi is a way around the last-mile monopoly (which, as you say, is what they're fighting.) Given a dense enough distribution of access points, it can certainly compete with the cable/DSL folks in that arena. However, even if WiFi is successful there (and it would probably take an act of Congress at this point given the resources the telcos and cable companies are diverting to stop it) that still leaves the backbones, and I don't know what would replace all that fiber and the corporations that own it.
Or until they get obsolesced by something else. What that would be, I don't know, but progress marches on. Sooner or later something will come along to make all the telcos and cable companies in the country obsolete. Like the RIAA and the Internet, I hope they don't see it coming until it's too late.
[RIAA's Brad] Buckles said the recording industry had never, nor would it ever, assume someone's identity to access that person's phone or bank records.
Why should we believe anything any RIAA mouthpiece says? I might believe that they haven't done this yet, but if they aren't intending to then why are they lobbying for this exemption? What is with these people?
Orrin Hatch made similar commentary, that it should be legal to destroy the computers of copyright infringers. If I were from his home state that one comment would have lost him my vote.
A more interesting question would be whether a certain type of work selects for Asperger's Syndrome or a similar disorder. Bram Cohen claims to have it, and in spite of the problems it has caused him says that it aids his concentration, his ability to focus on his work. Many great programmers I've known over the years (not all by any means, but a significant number) almost seem to lack social skills in direct proportion to their technical abilities. I'm not trying to infer cause and effect, but from a purely anecdotal perspective there does seem to be something at work here.
Many years ago (ouch, forty maybe?) I remember Ralph Nader making a cameo appearance on Rowan and Martin's Laugh In. He said, "I understand that General Motors has a new guarantee on their tires... you're guaranteed four of them."
Yes, and you could tell from Theo's initial response that it was that wide distribution that really torqued him into a pretzel. Nobody likes having their dirty laundry aired in public (it immediately alienates the very people with which you are trying to communicate: as a tactic it should be a last resort) and it is that massive CC list that makes me ponder what Mr. Buesch's real motive could have been. From a practical standpoint, if he'd just wanted to resolve the issue he should have done what you said. Instead, he managed to turn a simple request into a two-day running conflict.
Maybe this is just an example of two developers with limited social skills stepping on each others toes. I don't know, it sure looks that way to me. Wouldn't be the first time I've seen something like this, that's for sure. Programmers are people too.
While the merits of distributing a solid-state audio player to every child are certainly debatable, the idea of supplying iPods is not. Why should Apple receive a state subsidy when there are many less expensive and more capable MP3 players out there? Just so the kids will feel good about themselves? Half of the things will probably be stolen the first week after they're handed out. In any event, this is a complete waste of taxpayer dollars, if the idea is to allow children to receive audio lessons. And no, I didn't RTFA, I just felt the need to spew a random comment.
I think the correct answer is "all of the above". We are witnessing a phase change in literally every industry, every manufacturing and marketing sector on the planet. All of this has been induced by really one thing: the Internet. This is most easily seen by the consumer in its effects on retail operations, both small and large (do you really think Wal-Mart could have grown as fast as it did without modern information technology?) but it goes much deeper. As someone who has spent his entire working life as a software developer for industry (lots of them) I can tell you that everything is changing, everything is in flux. Much of it is for the better, of course, but there will be some eggs broken along the way. That's the unavoidable part of change, and trying to maintain the status quo ante usually does more harm in the long run.
I agree, but the problem is that simply changing the channel isn't enough for some people. Just knowing that other people can view things which they personally find offensive is enough to put them on the warpath. I really don't know what to do about folks like that. Intolerance is a disease, and I just don't know if there's a cure.
Let me put this in a little context: the patent system, as it existed prior to Congress' dicking around with it, was, in part, responsible for the creation of the greatest economic engine in the history of the world. You can argue around that statement all you want, but if nothing else the original patent system didn't bring invention and continuous improvements in industrial efficiency to a grinding halt, like it's doing now.
My feeling is that, rather than allow Congress to attempt some kind of "patent reform" (remember, these are the same boneheaded traitorous fuckwits that screwed it up in the first place. Do you really trust them to do any better the second time around?) we'd be much better off just returning the patent system to its former state. Roll it back! Forget patent maintenance fees... they just cause grief to the small inventor, and for God's sake fund the Patent Office properly. A funded, well-run patent office will help put Yankee ingenuity back on map. Also, make damn sure the examiners and their managers know their jobs don't depend upon how many patents they grant, but how many bad patents get revoked! Dump software and business method patents right off the bat, and invalidate any that have already been granted. They were a mistake, all of them. Sorry, Bezos, you can take your "One Click" and shove it up your ass. And while we're at it, forget patenting my goddamn genome! Mother Nature has all the prior art on that one, so all those patents were invalid the moment they were granted. And that DMCA thing... get rid of it. It's helping a few outfits get richer, but other than that it's not helping.
It's going to take some tough changes to get this country back on track, no foolin', and they'd better happen soon.
Oh sure... but then again, a lot of other registrars looked good, but some of them screwed over a lot of their customers. Just goes to show how much ICANN "accreditation" means to the average domain owner. I have no particular love for Network Solutions, but like I said I haven't had any problems with my domains. If it ain't broke don't fix it, I suppose.
I dunno... I treat my SanDisk as a flash drive. I plug it in, a folder appears, and I drop my music into it. Really, it doesn't get much easier than that. And let's face it, iTunes on a Windows machine isn't the greatest.
It is sinking our culture. Interestingly, I think if you read some of Thomas Jefferson's discourse on the subject of intellectual property (although they hadn't invented such a ridiculous term back then) you'll find he had some very similar thoughts.
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It's like walking into a used-car dealership:
"So, I understand that you sell certified pre-owned cars here."
"Yep."
"What does 'certified pre-owned' mean?"
"It means we certify that it's used."
Ah. Good point.
WiFi is a way around the last-mile monopoly (which, as you say, is what they're fighting.) Given a dense enough distribution of access points, it can certainly compete with the cable/DSL folks in that arena. However, even if WiFi is successful there (and it would probably take an act of Congress at this point given the resources the telcos and cable companies are diverting to stop it) that still leaves the backbones, and I don't know what would replace all that fiber and the corporations that own it.
I'll buy that, and I didn't mean to imply that having Asperger's was simply a lack of proper socialization. It is a true syndrome, I know.
Or until they get obsolesced by something else. What that would be, I don't know, but progress marches on. Sooner or later something will come along to make all the telcos and cable companies in the country obsolete. Like the RIAA and the Internet, I hope they don't see it coming until it's too late.
Actually, I believe DPI stands for "Doesn't Produce Income."
As in, "Holy fuck, guys, look what happened to Hewlett Packard!"
His real name is Brass Knuckles, but the PR department felt that was too harsh.
The moment they add on a rider making it legal to hunt and stuff lawyers.
They probably wouldn't mind, so long as you stuffed them with money.
[RIAA's Brad] Buckles said the recording industry had never, nor would it ever, assume someone's identity to access that person's phone or bank records.
Why should we believe anything any RIAA mouthpiece says? I might believe that they haven't done this yet, but if they aren't intending to then why are they lobbying for this exemption? What is with these people?
Orrin Hatch made similar commentary, that it should be legal to destroy the computers of copyright infringers. If I were from his home state that one comment would have lost him my vote.
Windows ... something that you jump out of when there is a fire.
Or when your Vista box just lost your tax records for the past ten years and the IRS just decided to audit you.
Hey, I never claimed that I RTFA or did anything else remotely analytical. I just read Mr. Buesch's initial missive and stopped at Theo's response.
A more interesting question would be whether a certain type of work selects for Asperger's Syndrome or a similar disorder. Bram Cohen claims to have it, and in spite of the problems it has caused him says that it aids his concentration, his ability to focus on his work. Many great programmers I've known over the years (not all by any means, but a significant number) almost seem to lack social skills in direct proportion to their technical abilities. I'm not trying to infer cause and effect, but from a purely anecdotal perspective there does seem to be something at work here.
Possibly he needs a spokesperson.
Many years ago (ouch, forty maybe?) I remember Ralph Nader making a cameo appearance on Rowan and Martin's Laugh In. He said, "I understand that General Motors has a new guarantee on their tires ... you're guaranteed four of them."
Yes, and you could tell from Theo's initial response that it was that wide distribution that really torqued him into a pretzel. Nobody likes having their dirty laundry aired in public (it immediately alienates the very people with which you are trying to communicate: as a tactic it should be a last resort) and it is that massive CC list that makes me ponder what Mr. Buesch's real motive could have been. From a practical standpoint, if he'd just wanted to resolve the issue he should have done what you said. Instead, he managed to turn a simple request into a two-day running conflict.
Maybe this is just an example of two developers with limited social skills stepping on each others toes. I don't know, it sure looks that way to me. Wouldn't be the first time I've seen something like this, that's for sure. Programmers are people too.
While the merits of distributing a solid-state audio player to every child are certainly debatable, the idea of supplying iPods is not. Why should Apple receive a state subsidy when there are many less expensive and more capable MP3 players out there? Just so the kids will feel good about themselves? Half of the things will probably be stolen the first week after they're handed out. In any event, this is a complete waste of taxpayer dollars, if the idea is to allow children to receive audio lessons. And no, I didn't RTFA, I just felt the need to spew a random comment.
I think the correct answer is "all of the above". We are witnessing a phase change in literally every industry, every manufacturing and marketing sector on the planet. All of this has been induced by really one thing: the Internet. This is most easily seen by the consumer in its effects on retail operations, both small and large (do you really think Wal-Mart could have grown as fast as it did without modern information technology?) but it goes much deeper. As someone who has spent his entire working life as a software developer for industry (lots of them) I can tell you that everything is changing, everything is in flux. Much of it is for the better, of course, but there will be some eggs broken along the way. That's the unavoidable part of change, and trying to maintain the status quo ante usually does more harm in the long run.
I agree, but the problem is that simply changing the channel isn't enough for some people. Just knowing that other people can view things which they personally find offensive is enough to put them on the warpath. I really don't know what to do about folks like that. Intolerance is a disease, and I just don't know if there's a cure.
Let me put this in a little context: the patent system, as it existed prior to Congress' dicking around with it, was, in part, responsible for the creation of the greatest economic engine in the history of the world. You can argue around that statement all you want, but if nothing else the original patent system didn't bring invention and continuous improvements in industrial efficiency to a grinding halt, like it's doing now.
... they just cause grief to the small inventor, and for God's sake fund the Patent Office properly. A funded, well-run patent office will help put Yankee ingenuity back on map. Also, make damn sure the examiners and their managers know their jobs don't depend upon how many patents they grant, but how many bad patents get revoked! Dump software and business method patents right off the bat, and invalidate any that have already been granted. They were a mistake, all of them. Sorry, Bezos, you can take your "One Click" and shove it up your ass. And while we're at it, forget patenting my goddamn genome! Mother Nature has all the prior art on that one, so all those patents were invalid the moment they were granted. And that DMCA thing ... get rid of it. It's helping a few outfits get richer, but other than that it's not helping.
My feeling is that, rather than allow Congress to attempt some kind of "patent reform" (remember, these are the same boneheaded traitorous fuckwits that screwed it up in the first place. Do you really trust them to do any better the second time around?) we'd be much better off just returning the patent system to its former state. Roll it back! Forget patent maintenance fees
It's going to take some tough changes to get this country back on track, no foolin', and they'd better happen soon.
Oh sure ... but then again, a lot of other registrars looked good, but some of them screwed over a lot of their customers. Just goes to show how much ICANN "accreditation" means to the average domain owner. I have no particular love for Network Solutions, but like I said I haven't had any problems with my domains. If it ain't broke don't fix it, I suppose.
I dunno ... I treat my SanDisk as a flash drive. I plug it in, a folder appears, and I drop my music into it. Really, it doesn't get much easier than that. And let's face it, iTunes on a Windows machine isn't the greatest.
It is sinking our culture. Interestingly, I think if you read some of Thomas Jefferson's discourse on the subject of intellectual property (although they hadn't invented such a ridiculous term back then) you'll find he had some very similar thoughts.
No, because it said "video not available."