It is common on Slashdot to confuse criminal law and civil law whenever it is convenient.
"Innocent until proven guilty" has no meaning outside of a criminal charge. Mens rea as defined in a penal code has no meaning beyond the penal code.
Taxing a computer because of it's potential for abuse or to provide compensation for copyright abuse is a policy decision, not a determination of guilt or innocence.
there was an episode that involved the daughter of the family downloading music. It was 100% blatant propaganda, complete with the corner record store going out of business
all but three of the independent, locally owned, record stores within sixty-five miles of here have closed. that leaves three stores to serve a metro population of 1.7 million.
Gnu/linux is now officialy at 7%)...Also its a known fact that oem are only 30% of the desktop computer market the withe box account for the remaining 70%.
"Known facts" on Slashdot can be difficult to nail down, and "official" even harder.
Locally, white box builders are looking particularly sickly at the consumer level. Only one managed to get an in add in print (in a throwaway shopping paper) before Christmas.
U.S.v. Microsoft was a civil case that ended in a settlement, as most do. No one is ever "convicted" in a civil court, because no one is on trial for a crime. There is a finding of fact and a decision based on the law. Remedies are found, but punishment is rare and kept in strict proportion. Demanding your pound of flesh invites disaster.
That's actually the biggest problem with Microsoft's current business model. With each new generation of their software they have to convince a substantial portion of their install base that to upgrade
XP was released in August 2001. It now has 60% of the entire PC market. Linux and the Mac are so far distant as to be scarcely visible at all. OS Platform Stats
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that XP owns 90% of the home PC market. When Longhorn goes gold it will become the standard install on every OEM system and for most buyers the upgrade will be automatic.
Pop-ups are blocked in SP2. In the MSN toolbar, in the Google toolbar. in Yahoo....
They won't notice the lack of viruses until later
I have never seen a virus in eight years of running Windows at home. It is not that difficult. If I decide not to renew Norton's Internet Security service, I can get the equivelant for free from my cable ISP.
Bullshit. Linux is already on thousands upon thousands of desktops, mine included
which would sound more impressive if Windows didn't have an installed base of 250-300 million and the OEMs weren't still shipping 7-9 million Windows systems a month.
the situation is more nearly analogous to using your magic cloning ray to take a COPY of the ferrari. Only assholes would begrudge other people free cars in this manner. Only assholes begrudge people free music
Your magic cloning ray doesn't make designing and building the handcrafted prototype free of cost. You want Ferrari engineering, you can damn well pay for Ferrari engineering. No free lunch.
When they 'care about DRM' they're irritated because their VCR recordings look bad off (macrovision) satellite signals. They think their VCR is broken. Or they cant play a dvd (of the wrong region) in their computer. They think their dvd is broken. Or they think a CD that wont play is broken. Etc
DVD recordable disks have crowded blank video cassettes out of our corner drugstore. Dishes sprout everywhere and no one gives a damn about the VCR gathering dust in the basement.
In the North American market you have to be actively searching for Region X DVDs to find them. There is no way you can stumble across one by chance.
DRM is a non-issue to most users and will likely never become a major public irritant in the U.S.
your average rape, hommicide, assault, robbery, etc, is against a poor person, and frankly, the criminal justice system doesn't really care about poor victims
Income doesn't seem to be a factor in rape:
About half of all rape victims are in the lowest third of income distribution; half are in the upper two-thirds. (Violence against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.
About 81% of rape victims are white; 18% are black; 1% are of other races. (Violence against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.)_____
your average warez distributor is ripping off rich copyright owners, the kinds of people who are chummy with lawmakers
Your warez distributer rips off everyone whose career and income depends on s timely and successful commercial release of a hot new game or other program, take a look at the credits for a major production like Half-Life.
Valve provides gainful employment for a lot of folks, and not many of them are rich.
The law discourages private acts of vengeance (which usually end in death) by providing a meaningful public alternative, a later day horse thief serves time in prison, he is not hung from the nearest tree by the first man to find him.
The odds are pretty damn good that if you have been sentenced to do 10-20 for "non-violent" crime a) you are not a first offender, b) you are not small-time, c) and you were tried on distinct, multiple, felony counts.
Edison and his team did more than invent a light bulb.
Think about what is required to generate and distribute electric power on a commercial scale, about what is needed to make electric power safe for use in the home, in business, in industry.
You need to design and set standards for power stations, overhead lines, household wiring, insulation, fuses, plugs, sockets and switches, relays, motors and god alone knows how much else.
Remember it all has to work with the materials and manufacturing techniques available in 1880. Remember too that your residential customers will have no understanding that electricity can kill or ignite fires, no sense of the danger in something as simple as touching a contact.
You will need to train "electricians," and "electrical engineers," skilled trades and professions that scarcely exist in the modern sense before Edison.
Stanley Motor Carriage offers a good look at a restored Stanley, plus scans of original technical manuals, promotional brochures, etc.
The Stanley twins were stubborn, high-handed, New Englanders who built for a very select market. But Ford and GM were free to invest millions in R&D and by 1914 the Stanleys had fallen hopelessly behind. Until 1914, Stanleys were built without condensers, meaning you had to worry about running out of both fuel and water every time you drove out into the country.
If we all drive slow light cars the accidents wouldn't be as bad in the first place.
The problem is that North American driving conditions are so variable. Weather. Distance. Traffic. Terrain. Drivers in the north can expect brutal cold, snow, ice and gale-force winds in winter. The ultra-light urban commuter car designed for L.A. doesn't cut it for them.
Since broadband is always on it should be able to provide all the alarm services needed for a household. Fire, Burgarly, and medical are just starts.
Broadband service can be light years removed from the reliability of POTS. Every component of the system would require extended back-up power. Several hours at minimum, I would think, which is asking a lot of an affordable, consumer-grade, UPS. "Smart Home" systems with trustworthy off-site monitoring and emergency response do not come cheap.
Re:It's allways a refreshing thing to see...
on
Sin City Trailer
·
· Score: 1
Die Hard was the movie that made Willis a Hollywood star. It is easy to forget what a departure John McClane was from the cartoonish action-adventure heroes of the 'eighties.
The SDR doesn't care if the software that you download isn't type accepted by the FCC or does things that Congress doesn't like, like listening to their cell phone calls.
Using software rather than hardware does not make the intercept of a cell phone call legal.
Slashdot Mirror
there is nothing to be gained by flogging a dead horse.
ignoring the odd embedded system, the O/S line that began with DOS is extinct.
"Innocent until proven guilty" has no meaning outside of a criminal charge. Mens rea as defined in a penal code has no meaning beyond the penal code.
Taxing a computer because of it's potential for abuse or to provide compensation for copyright abuse is a policy decision, not a determination of guilt or innocence.
all but three of the independent, locally owned, record stores within sixty-five miles of here have closed. that leaves three stores to serve a metro population of 1.7 million.
out of the money you borrowed to produce your picture. $80-$100 million for a major theatrical release.
Number of infections 0-49
Number of sites 0-2
Geographical Distribution: Low
Threat Containment: Easy
Removal: Easy
Virus Definitions: (Live Update) Dec 29
Payload: Exploits system vulnerabilities and may degrade performance.
I hope you'll pardon me for saying that this rates as something less than headline news, even over a long holiday weekend.
"Known facts" on Slashdot can be difficult to nail down, and "official" even harder.
Linux's share in the W3 Schools stats is 3.1%.
White boxes may be in decline, with 40% of the market, not 70% as you suggest. Dell, HP Taking Market Share From White Box PCs (October 7, 2004) There are economies of scale.
Locally, white box builders are looking particularly sickly at the consumer level. Only one managed to get an in add in print (in a throwaway shopping paper) before Christmas.
U.S.v. Microsoft was a civil case that ended in a settlement, as most do. No one is ever "convicted" in a civil court, because no one is on trial for a crime. There is a finding of fact and a decision based on the law. Remedies are found, but punishment is rare and kept in strict proportion. Demanding your pound of flesh invites disaster.
XP was released in August 2001. It now has 60% of the entire PC market. Linux and the Mac are so far distant as to be scarcely visible at all. OS Platform Stats
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that XP owns 90% of the home PC market. When Longhorn goes gold it will become the standard install on every OEM system and for most buyers the upgrade will be automatic.
They won't notice the lack of viruses until later
I have never seen a virus in eight years of running Windows at home. It is not that difficult. If I decide not to renew Norton's Internet Security service, I can get the equivelant for free from my cable ISP.
which would sound more impressive if Windows didn't have an installed base of 250-300 million and the OEMs weren't still shipping 7-9 million Windows systems a month.
Your magic cloning ray doesn't make designing and building the handcrafted prototype free of cost. You want Ferrari engineering, you can damn well pay for Ferrari engineering. No free lunch.
The XP Home version of Longhorn will probably look a lot like MCE, and I would not be at all surprised to see them merged.
Your average guy doesn't do his shopping in Nepal.
DVD recordable disks have crowded blank video cassettes out of our corner drugstore. Dishes sprout everywhere and no one gives a damn about the VCR gathering dust in the basement.
In the North American market you have to be actively searching for Region X DVDs to find them. There is no way you can stumble across one by chance.
DRM is a non-issue to most users and will likely never become a major public irritant in the U.S.
Income doesn't seem to be a factor in rape:
About half of all rape victims are in the lowest third of income distribution; half are in the upper two-thirds. (Violence against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.
About 81% of rape victims are white; 18% are black; 1% are of other races. (Violence against Women, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Justice, 1994.)_____
your average warez distributor is ripping off rich copyright owners, the kinds of people who are chummy with lawmakers
Your warez distributer rips off everyone whose career and income depends on s timely and successful commercial release of a hot new game or other program, take a look at the credits for a major production like Half-Life.
Valve provides gainful employment for a lot of folks, and not many of them are rich.
The odds are pretty damn good that if you have been sentenced to do 10-20 for "non-violent" crime a) you are not a first offender, b) you are not small-time, c) and you were tried on distinct, multiple, felony counts.
It's rare for the federal government to claim jurisdiction in cases of rape or murder.
1% of federal prisoners are serving time for sex offenses, 3% for homicide, aggravated assault, or kidnapping, 4% of a prison population of 180,000. Federal Bureau of Prisons QUICK FACTS September 2004
To be among the 38% sentenced to more than ten years, you have to had mucked up your life pretty badly.
Think about what is required to generate and distribute electric power on a commercial scale, about what is needed to make electric power safe for use in the home, in business, in industry.
You need to design and set standards for power stations, overhead lines, household wiring, insulation, fuses, plugs, sockets and switches, relays, motors and god alone knows how much else.
Remember it all has to work with the materials and manufacturing techniques available in 1880. Remember too that your residential customers will have no understanding that electricity can kill or ignite fires, no sense of the danger in something as simple as touching a contact.
You will need to train "electricians," and "electrical engineers," skilled trades and professions that scarcely exist in the modern sense before Edison.
The Stanley twins were stubborn, high-handed, New Englanders who built for a very select market.
But Ford and GM were free to invest millions in R&D and by 1914 the Stanleys had fallen hopelessly behind. Until 1914, Stanleys were built without condensers, meaning you had to worry about running out of both fuel and water every time you drove out into the country.
The problem is that North American driving conditions are so variable. Weather. Distance. Traffic. Terrain.
Drivers in the north can expect brutal cold, snow, ice and gale-force winds in winter. The ultra-light urban commuter car designed for L.A. doesn't cut it for them.
Broadband service can be light years removed from the reliability of POTS.
Every component of the system would require extended back-up power. Several hours at minimum, I would think, which is asking a lot of an affordable, consumer-grade, UPS. "Smart Home" systems with trustworthy off-site monitoring and emergency response do not come cheap.
Die Hard was the movie that made Willis a Hollywood star. It is easy to forget what a departure John McClane was from the cartoonish action-adventure heroes of the 'eighties.
Microsoft was the first foreign corporation admitted into the China Software Industry Association (2002). Microsoft Joins in China Software Industry Association World traders play by world rules.
Using software rather than hardware does not make the intercept of a cell phone call legal.