What a $#&%ing whiner. He did the crime. "I was just looking for evidence of an alien conspiracy." He was man enough (or stupid enough) to do the crime, he should be man enough to face up to the consequences. He is like 40 years old or something. He isn't some teenager, wanking off in his parents basement. He did wrong, but he doesn't want to accept the consequences of his actions.
I met my wife on soc.penpals 14 years ago. She was living in South Africa at the time while I was living in the US. We have been married now for 10 1/2 years. Yesterday, when she was pissed at me for tracking mud into the house, I'd hardly say our relationship was a "fantasy".
But, why $5M to THIS particular school district. It is one of many across the country. While there are some bad areas in this country (Richmond, east Oakland, etc), there are many school districts that are more deserving of a $5M donation.
Personally, I think patents should be "if you don't use it, you lose it"
But, that's exactly not how a patent works. A patent does not grant you the right to use something, it specifically grants you the right to exclude others from using it.
I don't suppose there is any chance they will give some of this spectrum to amateur radio. *sighs* Hmmm. Perhaps a non-profit could raise some money to buy some for the hams.
That was actually quite an interesting article. I found the following excerpt particularly enlightening:
"...One of the concerns that Ms. Snyder's cooperating teacher, Nicole Reinking, expressed to Ms. Snyder throughout the semester was the importance of maintaining a professional working relationship with students and not to become overly familiar with them regarding her personal life. Among other things, Ms. Snyder had been inviting students to log onto her MySpace Web site, and Ms. Reinking counseled her repeatedly to stop doing so."
If this is the case, perhaps the school district and the university were quite well justified. In this case, the issue wasn't the website or the photo, but her conduct in the classroom and with the students related to the website. One might even say that her conduct was encouraging underage drinking not because she drank or took pictures, but because she in essence said to students, "Look, I'm cool, I get drunk at parties." That's much more nuanced than just the fact that she put the pictures up online since it involves actively promoting the pictures in the classroom.
There was more. The school district where she was a student teacher was the impetus behind this. The district told the university that if she was awarded a teaching certificate, the district would stop using student teachers from the university. I'm guessing that the university felt it needed the school district for the broader good of its other teaching students. I'm not saying the university was right to not fight the district to the death, but clearly it was a more rational choice. The school district, however...
Canada also has more standing timber than the US. Canada also has more available fresh water than the US. All we seem to have in the US is a military, but guess what's going to happen when we get thirsty.
It should go without saying, but to those who are offended---it's a joke.
Yes, as you discovered, the same series. My wife and I have been watching it on Discovery HD (broadcast, as far as I can tell, in 1080i). Agreeing to buy it on DVD was the only way I could get her to delete it off of our DVR. When I went to buy it, it was only $15 more to get it on Blu-Ray. Given that I have a PS3 (my wife bought me when she told me I couldn't play WoW anymore), I figured I'd gamble on Blu-Ray managing to stick around. I am guessing that David Attenborough will be much better than Sigourney Weaver.
As an aside, I'm starting to think that Sony was brilliant in putting Blu-Ray in the PS3. How many more people are going to do like me and buy some BR discs because they have a player anyhow? We certainly didn't get a PS3 for the BR. It is probably going to be a winner take all battle, and small advantages have a way of snowballing with things like this.
Seems to me, the PS3 is pushing 1080P capable devices into millions of homes (sales issues aside). Many games that are being released are at 1080P. I just ordered my first Blu-Ray DVD (BBC's Planet Earth series). I think that is something worth seeing at 1080P.
Ten years from now people will still be talking about Star Wars, Blade Runner, Planet of the Apes, and pretty much everything else on the list. Serenity won't even be a foot note.
None of these movies can even hold a candle to Killer Klowns from Outer Space.
However, are the patents about the process of VOIP, or are they some specific implementation aspect? VOIP as a concept may be covered by prior art or obviousness, but is the lawsuit about something more specific like a compression scheme or something?
Have any of us bothered to look at the patents? Are they good and valid? Did Verizon truly invent something, and thus, perhaps, because of their investment, deserve some level of protection against theft in exchange for them contributing to the overall body of knowledge? Perhaps these patents are bogus, but I haven't seen anyone in this discussion yet attack Verizon/the PTO on the merits of the patents.
I agree that the patent system is broken, but, as I've said before, patents are more important to the little guy than the big guy. Without patents, if I as a little person invent something, there is nothing to stop Microsoft or IBM or some GE from copying my invention. Then, it just becomes a matter of who can out market who, and the little guy will lose this battle.
Perhaps the music industry should just give up on selling cd's, allow free download of music, and resort to making money from product placement. We could have lyrics such as the following:
I love you baby, like Pepsi.
Won't you let me take you to dinner at Micky Dee's.
Then we can cruise to my crib in my car, Chevy---it is the heartbeat of America.
Tonight is going to be hot cuz I took my Levitra.
*sighs* It was meant as a passing remark. I didn't even really intend for anyone to take notice on it. I certainly didn't mean to upset anyone. I wasn't criticizing anyone. I really, really, really don't understand what about my original statement has some people so upset. To those who I did upset, I'm sorry.
I'm trying really, really, really hard not to flame, but I do think you should be a little faster on the uptake. I was summarizing the initial post in the thread to which I responded, i.e http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=227477&cid=184 28665. That poster did not use the words correlation or causation. I did not mention the original article except indirectly though the post to which I responded, i.e. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=227477&cid=184 28665. *shrugs*
Um, did anyone follow the thread? The post to which I responded made the real point that it wasn't believed that having a neat desk CAUSED the productivity. Rather, it was believed to be the "hidden node" of creativity that was the related factor. I was just summarizing it with a beloved phrase. As a PhD statistician who does research in modern statistics, I certainly was not nor would I advocate that we not study correlations---I make my living developing new methods to look at relationships between variables, for gosh sake!!!
One presumes that the licensing fees go into the other $40.
BTW, I have a PS3 that my wife bought me after I mentioned I might start playing WoW again. I play it once every week or two, and I desperately miss WoW. *sighs*
I'm not arguing they should lower the price. I'm saying if they are receiving a net $20/sale (as the math shows) that after they pay off their production costs, they should be profiting $20/sale, not $1/sale.
The article says that they need to sell 1 million units before they get into the black and start making $1 per sale. It also says that many games cost $20M+ to produce. Assuming the $20M mark, and assuming that production costs don't increase with sales (do programmers get royalties?), that means they are paying off their investment at $20/sale. If this is so, why do they not start making $20/sale after selling 1M units?
When I was living in Nampula, Mozambique, i would frequently see backpackers in the local internet cafe using Skype. Not sure what good the BT thing would do you on that, but I think that USB Skype thingy might come in handy.
However, with that said, a good, cheap GSM phone would be a real boon. Prepaid SIM cards are basically free in many countries. Heck, in South Africa, you can get them with more credit on them than the card costs. And, as long as you are not roaming in a different country, most will have free incoming calls.
Slashdot Mirror
What a $#&%ing whiner. He did the crime. "I was just looking for evidence of an alien conspiracy." He was man enough (or stupid enough) to do the crime, he should be man enough to face up to the consequences. He is like 40 years old or something. He isn't some teenager, wanking off in his parents basement. He did wrong, but he doesn't want to accept the consequences of his actions.
I met my wife on soc.penpals 14 years ago. She was living in South Africa at the time while I was living in the US. We have been married now for 10 1/2 years. Yesterday, when she was pissed at me for tracking mud into the house, I'd hardly say our relationship was a "fantasy".
But, why $5M to THIS particular school district. It is one of many across the country. While there are some bad areas in this country (Richmond, east Oakland, etc), there are many school districts that are more deserving of a $5M donation.
But, that's exactly not how a patent works. A patent does not grant you the right to use something, it specifically grants you the right to exclude others from using it.
I don't suppose there is any chance they will give some of this spectrum to amateur radio. *sighs* Hmmm. Perhaps a non-profit could raise some money to buy some for the hams.
That was actually quite an interesting article. I found the following excerpt particularly enlightening:
"...One of the concerns that Ms. Snyder's cooperating teacher, Nicole Reinking, expressed to Ms. Snyder throughout the semester was the importance of maintaining a professional working relationship with students and not to become overly familiar with them regarding her personal life. Among other things, Ms. Snyder had been inviting students to log onto her MySpace Web site, and Ms. Reinking counseled her repeatedly to stop doing so."
If this is the case, perhaps the school district and the university were quite well justified. In this case, the issue wasn't the website or the photo, but her conduct in the classroom and with the students related to the website. One might even say that her conduct was encouraging underage drinking not because she drank or took pictures, but because she in essence said to students, "Look, I'm cool, I get drunk at parties." That's much more nuanced than just the fact that she put the pictures up online since it involves actively promoting the pictures in the classroom.
There was more. The school district where she was a student teacher was the impetus behind this. The district told the university that if she was awarded a teaching certificate, the district would stop using student teachers from the university. I'm guessing that the university felt it needed the school district for the broader good of its other teaching students. I'm not saying the university was right to not fight the district to the death, but clearly it was a more rational choice. The school district, however...
You need our oil more than we need your movies
Canada also has more standing timber than the US. Canada also has more available fresh water than the US. All we seem to have in the US is a military, but guess what's going to happen when we get thirsty.
It should go without saying, but to those who are offended---it's a joke.
Yes, as you discovered, the same series. My wife and I have been watching it on Discovery HD (broadcast, as far as I can tell, in 1080i). Agreeing to buy it on DVD was the only way I could get her to delete it off of our DVR. When I went to buy it, it was only $15 more to get it on Blu-Ray. Given that I have a PS3 (my wife bought me when she told me I couldn't play WoW anymore), I figured I'd gamble on Blu-Ray managing to stick around. I am guessing that David Attenborough will be much better than Sigourney Weaver.
As an aside, I'm starting to think that Sony was brilliant in putting Blu-Ray in the PS3. How many more people are going to do like me and buy some BR discs because they have a player anyhow? We certainly didn't get a PS3 for the BR. It is probably going to be a winner take all battle, and small advantages have a way of snowballing with things like this.
Seems to me, the PS3 is pushing 1080P capable devices into millions of homes (sales issues aside). Many games that are being released are at 1080P. I just ordered my first Blu-Ray DVD (BBC's Planet Earth series). I think that is something worth seeing at 1080P.
Ten years from now people will still be talking about Star Wars, Blade Runner, Planet of the Apes, and pretty much everything else on the list. Serenity won't even be a foot note.
None of these movies can even hold a candle to Killer Klowns from Outer Space.
However, are the patents about the process of VOIP, or are they some specific implementation aspect? VOIP as a concept may be covered by prior art or obviousness, but is the lawsuit about something more specific like a compression scheme or something?
Have any of us bothered to look at the patents? Are they good and valid? Did Verizon truly invent something, and thus, perhaps, because of their investment, deserve some level of protection against theft in exchange for them contributing to the overall body of knowledge? Perhaps these patents are bogus, but I haven't seen anyone in this discussion yet attack Verizon/the PTO on the merits of the patents.
I agree that the patent system is broken, but, as I've said before, patents are more important to the little guy than the big guy. Without patents, if I as a little person invent something, there is nothing to stop Microsoft or IBM or some GE from copying my invention. Then, it just becomes a matter of who can out market who, and the little guy will lose this battle.
Perhaps the music industry should just give up on selling cd's, allow free download of music, and resort to making money from product placement. We could have lyrics such as the following: I love you baby, like Pepsi. Won't you let me take you to dinner at Micky Dee's. Then we can cruise to my crib in my car, Chevy---it is the heartbeat of America. Tonight is going to be hot cuz I took my Levitra.
*sighs* It was meant as a passing remark. I didn't even really intend for anyone to take notice on it. I certainly didn't mean to upset anyone. I wasn't criticizing anyone. I really, really, really don't understand what about my original statement has some people so upset. To those who I did upset, I'm sorry.
I'm trying really, really, really hard not to flame, but I do think you should be a little faster on the uptake. I was summarizing the initial post in the thread to which I responded, i.e http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=227477&cid=184 28665. That poster did not use the words correlation or causation. I did not mention the original article except indirectly though the post to which I responded, i.e. http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=227477&cid=184 28665. *shrugs*
I believe he was referring to as far as HD media is concerned. In other words, it is not available on HD-DVD.
Um, did anyone follow the thread? The post to which I responded made the real point that it wasn't believed that having a neat desk CAUSED the productivity. Rather, it was believed to be the "hidden node" of creativity that was the related factor. I was just summarizing it with a beloved phrase. As a PhD statistician who does research in modern statistics, I certainly was not nor would I advocate that we not study correlations---I make my living developing new methods to look at relationships between variables, for gosh sake!!!
In other words, and say it slowly with me, "Correlation does NOT equal causation."
And patent it...and sue...
One presumes that the licensing fees go into the other $40.
BTW, I have a PS3 that my wife bought me after I mentioned I might start playing WoW again. I play it once every week or two, and I desperately miss WoW. *sighs*
I'm not arguing they should lower the price. I'm saying if they are receiving a net $20/sale (as the math shows) that after they pay off their production costs, they should be profiting $20/sale, not $1/sale.
The article says that they need to sell 1 million units before they get into the black and start making $1 per sale. It also says that many games cost $20M+ to produce. Assuming the $20M mark, and assuming that production costs don't increase with sales (do programmers get royalties?), that means they are paying off their investment at $20/sale. If this is so, why do they not start making $20/sale after selling 1M units?
You should definitely take an alarm clock. When you have to wake up to catch a 0500 bus, you will be glad you have one.
When I was living in Nampula, Mozambique, i would frequently see backpackers in the local internet cafe using Skype. Not sure what good the BT thing would do you on that, but I think that USB Skype thingy might come in handy.
However, with that said, a good, cheap GSM phone would be a real boon. Prepaid SIM cards are basically free in many countries. Heck, in South Africa, you can get them with more credit on them than the card costs. And, as long as you are not roaming in a different country, most will have free incoming calls.