There are guys that go to college campuses and preach all kinds of insane shit just to get thrown off campus. That way they can sue.
He's the same thing, only in the attention==power sense, and with national attention because he's a lawyer and can file a little paperwork. He doesn't believe his own garbage.
They'd just create a new legal entity. It's free and takes about 10 seconds in the US... in fact, you can do it online.
I think the solution is twofold. First, convince the big two or three ad networks not to participate in this. It should be simple enough to report a site that is deceptive, and contains nothing but ads. I'm pretty sure Google would be willing to give up its adsense for domains if enough people complained. They can even ban payouts to repeat offenders.
Then, you make it such that private domain auctioning is grounds for a revocation by ICANN. Only reputable registrars can allocate domains. Build in a warning process that requires that you can be contacted by email from ICANN. So you're left with two options, develop your site with real content or do nothing with it. Either way, you don't profit.
On my particular distro, I play movies with something called "Movie Player". When I want to work with my various office-type documents, I use "Word Processor, Database, Presentation and Spreadsheet". When I want to edit images, I use "GIMP Image Editor" and when I want to go to a website I use "Firefox Web Browser". IM happens in "GAIM Internet Messenger". When I want to make a CD or DVD, I use "CD/DVD Creator"
I think those Canonical folks hear yah, even if the original devs don't.:)
A/. poster (who apparently IS a lawyer) said yesterday that it's at least grounds for a class action suit if people could show damages from the threat of litigation or recurring infringement claims. I'm not much of a developer, and I'm certainly no lawyer, but it sounds like an opportunity to forcibly call their bluff and show the corporate world that MS is FoS.
Naturally, it's impossible for a guy like me to encourage anyone to do this because it's asking people to risk everything while I risk nothing, but I'll quietly hope that people decide to anyway.:)
If the line doesn't have a dial tone, that's your first indication that something is wrong.
Keep in mind, you are allowed to call 911 and tell them you're testing your speeddial. They'll confirm your location, and you'll know your line is working. Do this every once in awhile to make sure you're ok.
I leave a very simple (requires no wall power) phone plugged into the land line, which is not activated, for exactly this purpose. I use my cell exclusively (work pays the bill) and if I need 911 and the cell is unusable I can go to the regular phone.
If I ever decide I need a phone line in the house, I'll shop around for Voip.
I know lots of people that have gone this same route.
People on Slashdot need to realize that chicks DO differentiate between a guy who lives in a nice house or condo, and a guy who lives in mom's basement, surrounded by arcane computer equipment and old comic books (read: heaven). Unfortunately, most also care if you drive a dilapidated 1990's compact car with french fries on the passenger seat or a brand-new BMW, too.
It may seem lame, but they have to put up with their friends later too, you know.;)
Ultimately I agree with you, but that particular solution involves owning (and storing, and maintaining) two or three old cars. Most people would rather have one new one that does each of those chores, but not quite as well.
I'll say this though, there are plenty of cars out there that can handle towing with the appropriate tow package, fit quite a few people, have space for your groceries, and aren't giant monstrosities.
I do like seeing my buddy go out of his way to fill his explorer with e85 though. Good on him.:) The shame is that he had to decrypt his vin number to find out he could do that. Why don't they make that a selling point and put a badge on the car?!
Not so much. It has more to do with who has the best product then a preference for one co or the other. Right now, for a number of reasons, the best office suite in the world comes from Microsoft, and we can afford to buy it, so we do. Most businesses don't care about the OSS fanboy BS, they just want the job done the best way possible.
I know it's been said before, but the funny thing about that is that they don't HAVE to do well on the operating systems. Yes, Vista is crap, but MS will still make money selling PLENTY of copies of it. In the meantime, they can put a lot of money into buying up other companies, just like they've always done, and just like Google does. Why sink $10 into software you can already profit on when you can take that $10 and buy a substantial share in a whole second market?
You'll notice the 3-articles-per-hour on Vista not selling well has pretty much stopped since the one about MS's recent earnings.
Those guys in Redmond know what they're doing. You don't get to be the biggest software company in the world for decades by making all stupid moves.
No, I just have a tendency to think out how I want a conversation to go before I have it, even if I'm pretending I'm in someone else's shoes.:)
My workplace can afford the MS Office licenses, and so I've installed O2k7 on everyone's workstation... because honestly, it's better than OpenOffice. It's just that OOo makes a decent replacement if you can't afford MS and don't want to go to jail.
I don't think the answer HAS to be so dramatic as "F-you, I quit... and wait to hear from my lawyers."
I think I'd want this conversation to go something like:
BOSS: "Meh, install office anyways." ME: "I can't." BOSS: "Why not?" ME: "It's criminal copyright infringement. I don't want to go to jail... would you?" BOSS: "You're not going to go to jail." ME: "If you fire Bob over there and he calls the 800 number, _I_ go to jail. I don't want to go to jail." BOSS: "This licensing thing is a bunch of bullshit." ME: "I know man, it's a pain in my ass too. But it's Microsoft... what are you gunna do?" BOSS: "Alright well, what's the other office thing you were talking about?" ME: "OpenOffice. It's like Sun Microsystem's version of office. It's the software I've had Sally over there using for a month and she hasn't noticed it's not Microsoft Office yet." BOSS: "And it's free? Why is it free?" ME: "Sun competes with Microsoft and it's good PR for them to give away a full professional Office suite that rivals Microsofts. It's also what they call 'open source', so thousands of people work on it all the time adding features and making sure it's competitive with Microsoft's Office. Right now it's _the_ alternative. It'll actually even read and write in Microsoft's formats pretty well. It has its own Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and some other stuff." BOSS: "Give it to Bill and John too, see what they think." ME: "Cool. I'll take care of it tonight and send you an email when it's done."
Of course, there's always the argument that it's horribly irresponsible to be in a position where you HAVE to break the law to be able to feed your family, but I think a calm conversation like this is probably both most likely, and mutually beneficial. And before someone bitches... the part about Sun and OpenOffice is largely to name-drop Sun Microsystems, because people's biggest concern with OpenOffice seems to be that they're concerned it's some bogus shareware knock-off of Office. If you throw in the bit about Sun, and say they love busting MS's chops by releasing a full, professional version of office, it seems to fly better with people. They think they're sticking it to Microsoft in a clever way... and feel wickedly in-the-know. Later they can BS with their manager over dinner about how the IT guy told them about this really nice Office package that has no licensing fees because of a longstanding industry rivalry, and how he was insightful enough to leverage it for the companies benefit... and how if it doesn't work out, hopefully we'll have the capital to license up on the MS one down the road.
The only thing you have to worry about is when they start to notice that its Microsoft Office compatibility is not perfect. At that point you have to be ready to remind them that it's a small inconvenience when compared to the $500 per seat you'd have to spend to avoid it.
Oh, that and the whole thing goes to shit if you're using Exchange.
Slashdot Mirror
He's full of shit.
There are guys that go to college campuses and preach all kinds of insane shit just to get thrown off campus. That way they can sue.
He's the same thing, only in the attention==power sense, and with national attention because he's a lawyer and can file a little paperwork. He doesn't believe his own garbage.
Wait a tick...
Who DOESN'T really really hate trial attorneys?
They'd just create a new legal entity. It's free and takes about 10 seconds in the US... in fact, you can do it online.
I think the solution is twofold. First, convince the big two or three ad networks not to participate in this. It should be simple enough to report a site that is deceptive, and contains nothing but ads. I'm pretty sure Google would be willing to give up its adsense for domains if enough people complained. They can even ban payouts to repeat offenders.
Then, you make it such that private domain auctioning is grounds for a revocation by ICANN. Only reputable registrars can allocate domains. Build in a warning process that requires that you can be contacted by email from ICANN. So you're left with two options, develop your site with real content or do nothing with it. Either way, you don't profit.
If there's no profit in it, nobody will do it.
On my particular distro, I play movies with something called "Movie Player". When I want to work with my various office-type documents, I use "Word Processor, Database, Presentation and Spreadsheet". When I want to edit images, I use "GIMP Image Editor" and when I want to go to a website I use "Firefox Web Browser". IM happens in "GAIM Internet Messenger". When I want to make a CD or DVD, I use "CD/DVD Creator"
:)
I think those Canonical folks hear yah, even if the original devs don't.
Amen to that!
A /. poster (who apparently IS a lawyer) said yesterday that it's at least grounds for a class action suit if people could show damages from the threat of litigation or recurring infringement claims. I'm not much of a developer, and I'm certainly no lawyer, but it sounds like an opportunity to forcibly call their bluff and show the corporate world that MS is FoS.
:)
Naturally, it's impossible for a guy like me to encourage anyone to do this because it's asking people to risk everything while I risk nothing, but I'll quietly hope that people decide to anyway.
I'm sure you're right. I get tired of the Hitler stuff easily now, but I otherwise love the channel.
:)
Hey, at least if I'm rotting my brain it's on Discovery or History, and not MTV or VH1.
You forgot ancient civilizations and prehistoric earth. Maybe my "blue ribbon" schools and teachers weren't as great as they said. :(
If the line doesn't have a dial tone, that's your first indication that something is wrong.
Keep in mind, you are allowed to call 911 and tell them you're testing your speeddial. They'll confirm your location, and you'll know your line is working. Do this every once in awhile to make sure you're ok.
In a former life I had to be fingerprinted to become a security guard... and that was just to play card games in a truck with a coworker.
Programmer for a financial institution? I'm surprised they're not taking her first-born child as collateral.
This doesn't happen often, but I think this /. article is now officially dead in the first 3 comments. :)
Everything below is just fluff.
I leave a very simple (requires no wall power) phone plugged into the land line, which is not activated, for exactly this purpose. I use my cell exclusively (work pays the bill) and if I need 911 and the cell is unusable I can go to the regular phone.
If I ever decide I need a phone line in the house, I'll shop around for Voip.
I know lots of people that have gone this same route.
I was always under the impression that he was pretty accurate, even if wildly predictive. Is he usually this far off?
I drive a cargo van... do the math!
See, that attitude is a problem!
;)
People on Slashdot need to realize that chicks DO differentiate between a guy who lives in a nice house or condo, and a guy who lives in mom's basement, surrounded by arcane computer equipment and old comic books (read: heaven). Unfortunately, most also care if you drive a dilapidated 1990's compact car with french fries on the passenger seat or a brand-new BMW, too.
It may seem lame, but they have to put up with their friends later too, you know.
Ultimately I agree with you, but that particular solution involves owning (and storing, and maintaining) two or three old cars. Most people would rather have one new one that does each of those chores, but not quite as well.
:) The shame is that he had to decrypt his vin number to find out he could do that. Why don't they make that a selling point and put a badge on the car?!
I'll say this though, there are plenty of cars out there that can handle towing with the appropriate tow package, fit quite a few people, have space for your groceries, and aren't giant monstrosities.
I do like seeing my buddy go out of his way to fill his explorer with e85 though. Good on him.
Yup. And the word you hear quite often in this debate is "accountability".
They naturally assume that because you pay a software company they're somehow accountable, which is obviously not true when it's MS.
You've missed the third principle... that your average dummy even reads the url.
If he's about to go get stoned, maybe it'll work like a note-to-self so he doesn't forget his bank info.
Except Wacoms have pressure sensitivity, don't they?
Not so much. It has more to do with who has the best product then a preference for one co or the other. Right now, for a number of reasons, the best office suite in the world comes from Microsoft, and we can afford to buy it, so we do. Most businesses don't care about the OSS fanboy BS, they just want the job done the best way possible.
I know it's been said before, but the funny thing about that is that they don't HAVE to do well on the operating systems. Yes, Vista is crap, but MS will still make money selling PLENTY of copies of it. In the meantime, they can put a lot of money into buying up other companies, just like they've always done, and just like Google does. Why sink $10 into software you can already profit on when you can take that $10 and buy a substantial share in a whole second market?
You'll notice the 3-articles-per-hour on Vista not selling well has pretty much stopped since the one about MS's recent earnings.
Those guys in Redmond know what they're doing. You don't get to be the biggest software company in the world for decades by making all stupid moves.
No, I just have a tendency to think out how I want a conversation to go before I have it, even if I'm pretending I'm in someone else's shoes. :)
My workplace can afford the MS Office licenses, and so I've installed O2k7 on everyone's workstation... because honestly, it's better than OpenOffice. It's just that OOo makes a decent replacement if you can't afford MS and don't want to go to jail.
I just want to know what an "information warfare community" is.
Also, I'd like to know where I sign up for membership, because it _sounds_ bad-ass.
I don't think the answer HAS to be so dramatic as "F-you, I quit... and wait to hear from my lawyers."
I think I'd want this conversation to go something like:
BOSS: "Meh, install office anyways."
ME: "I can't."
BOSS: "Why not?"
ME: "It's criminal copyright infringement. I don't want to go to jail... would you?"
BOSS: "You're not going to go to jail."
ME: "If you fire Bob over there and he calls the 800 number, _I_ go to jail. I don't want to go to jail."
BOSS: "This licensing thing is a bunch of bullshit."
ME: "I know man, it's a pain in my ass too. But it's Microsoft... what are you gunna do?"
BOSS: "Alright well, what's the other office thing you were talking about?"
ME: "OpenOffice. It's like Sun Microsystem's version of office. It's the software I've had Sally over there using for a month and she hasn't noticed it's not Microsoft Office yet."
BOSS: "And it's free? Why is it free?"
ME: "Sun competes with Microsoft and it's good PR for them to give away a full professional Office suite that rivals Microsofts. It's also what they call 'open source', so thousands of people work on it all the time adding features and making sure it's competitive with Microsoft's Office. Right now it's _the_ alternative. It'll actually even read and write in Microsoft's formats pretty well. It has its own Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and some other stuff."
BOSS: "Give it to Bill and John too, see what they think."
ME: "Cool. I'll take care of it tonight and send you an email when it's done."
Of course, there's always the argument that it's horribly irresponsible to be in a position where you HAVE to break the law to be able to feed your family, but I think a calm conversation like this is probably both most likely, and mutually beneficial. And before someone bitches... the part about Sun and OpenOffice is largely to name-drop Sun Microsystems, because people's biggest concern with OpenOffice seems to be that they're concerned it's some bogus shareware knock-off of Office. If you throw in the bit about Sun, and say they love busting MS's chops by releasing a full, professional version of office, it seems to fly better with people. They think they're sticking it to Microsoft in a clever way... and feel wickedly in-the-know. Later they can BS with their manager over dinner about how the IT guy told them about this really nice Office package that has no licensing fees because of a longstanding industry rivalry, and how he was insightful enough to leverage it for the companies benefit... and how if it doesn't work out, hopefully we'll have the capital to license up on the MS one down the road.
The only thing you have to worry about is when they start to notice that its Microsoft Office compatibility is not perfect. At that point you have to be ready to remind them that it's a small inconvenience when compared to the $500 per seat you'd have to spend to avoid it.
Oh, that and the whole thing goes to shit if you're using Exchange.