"Bad" and "good" here depend on what side you're on.
I would say both unions and copyright laws protected more people at one time than they do now. Over time people protect their interests by making their protections more exclusive. Lawyers are hackers and this is the sort of thing they hack. I'm not sure these changes have any bearing on the usefulness of copyright law or of unions as ideas. The implementations, on the other hand, need to adapt to power struggles over their benefits.
I thought I was employing a humoristical device known as sarcasm in response to the parent's attempt to pin all of California's woes on immigrants, but seemingly it failed, I get moderated "troll", and the bigots get to ride off in their shining new +1 positive karma armor.
Woe!
According to reliable sources, southern California's traffic woes are 70% attributable to illegal immigrants. Vote with your dollar! Boycott the companies that, by selling their products to illegals, encourage this tragedy. It's the only solution.
"Circumstances have changed in the years since I worked for NASA on the exploration initiative. We have a Republican White House and a Republican Congress," he said in the interview. "I don't know if the United States' fiscal position is better or worse, but it is certainly different. We are also at war."
Uses lots of words, says nothing... check.
"...worked as the technology deputy for the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, an early predecessor to the Missile Defense Agency..."
When I said format obsolescence I meant both hardware and software. Are your 8-tracks still useful? Computer punch cards? How about your relatively new, shiny laser discs? Sure, the ASCII text on your PDA will still be readable, if the screen still works, and the bus still works. I'm saying there are a lot of points of failure.
As far the PDA's storage medium, it's susceptible to normal background radiation and perhaps design flaws (comparable to the acid in cheap paper) that will cause the data to become corrupt over time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_error#Causes_of_ Soft_Errors/
If you had an analog PDA that might be tolerable, but digital is a lot more prone to becoming useless due to small errors.
Due to limitations in both hardware and software, the digital world has yet to produce a format with anywhere near the potential archival longevity of acid-free rag paper.
Despite all the stated fragility of books, I will bet you any commodity you care to name, in any quantity, that most of my books will still be functional long after your PDA.
Simply put, the more places at which the process required for the item to be usable might break down -- delivery via communications link, format obsolescence, vendors going out of business -- the more fragile the item is.
Slashdot Mirror
I would say both unions and copyright laws protected more people at one time than they do now. Over time people protect their interests by making their protections more exclusive. Lawyers are hackers and this is the sort of thing they hack. I'm not sure these changes have any bearing on the usefulness of copyright law or of unions as ideas. The implementations, on the other hand, need to adapt to power struggles over their benefits.
Yes, but once we're at the bottom, everyone will send their programming work here.
Episode III may be disappointing but I hear the next one, "A New Hope", is going to be great!
I thought I was employing a humoristical device known as sarcasm in response to the parent's attempt to pin all of California's woes on immigrants, but seemingly it failed, I get moderated "troll", and the bigots get to ride off in their shining new +1 positive karma armor. Woe!
According to reliable sources, southern California's traffic woes are 70% attributable to illegal immigrants. Vote with your dollar! Boycott the companies that, by selling their products to illegals, encourage this tragedy. It's the only solution.
I read it. It just has nothing to do with your PDA.
Uses lots of words, says nothing... check.
Knows what the real purpose of NASA is... check.
Sounds perfect.
When I said format obsolescence I meant both hardware and software. Are your 8-tracks still useful? Computer punch cards? How about your relatively new, shiny laser discs? Sure, the ASCII text on your PDA will still be readable, if the screen still works, and the bus still works. I'm saying there are a lot of points of failure.
As far the PDA's storage medium, it's susceptible to normal background radiation and perhaps design flaws (comparable to the acid in cheap paper) that will cause the data to become corrupt over time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_error#Causes_of_ Soft_Errors/
If you had an analog PDA that might be tolerable, but digital is a lot more prone to becoming useless due to small errors.
Due to limitations in both hardware and software, the digital world has yet to produce a format with anywhere near the potential archival longevity of acid-free rag paper.
Despite all the stated fragility of books, I will bet you any commodity you care to name, in any quantity, that most of my books will still be functional long after your PDA. Simply put, the more places at which the process required for the item to be usable might break down -- delivery via communications link, format obsolescence, vendors going out of business -- the more fragile the item is.