Actually I goofed and said Challenger when I meant Columbia, but yeah, maybe our discolored non-native Islamic fundamentalist President really did blow it up... back before he hatched plans to terrorize us from the Oval Office./sarcasm
Not that his tactic would prove to be original, mind you, since George W. firmly holds the patent on that particular business method....
Since there was very recent news that China hopes to build their own space station by 2020, I'd wager that a Moon mining base will be more than a decade off even for them industrious railroad-building Chinamen.
It does if they "live" on it and that's all the natural resources they control. Historically that was always a very real possibility for farmers. The point was to help people understand and appreciate, remember?
... the citydwellers - with their antibiotic EVERYTHING, who can't tell the difference between good and bad soil from the smell of it, who have never grown anything past that shriveled Venus fly trap plant at age ten - start having to make critical decisions and invariably wind up making them badly and then start going hungry.
(What I'm saying is that if they really want something like that to be educational it has to directly impact the participants' stomachs, there has to be visceral conseqeunces; short of that it's still just a game.)
Ummm, against what, my obsolete Phenom (I) X4 9850? Funny how true fanbois can read the same review as an objective person and walk away with entirely different conclusions, eh?
The AnandTech review was even less forgiving of AMD's underdog status, and basically recommended passing and either waiting for the allegedly awesome new Bulldog line or jumping ship for Intel. Hell, when Sandy Bridge both outperforms AND underconsumes (power), you oughtta be seriously questioning that underdog affection. I certainly am.
I don't think that Tim Rutten has ever read The True Believer, by Eric Hoffer. Sure, it's an "old" book, but its contents are still perfectly relevant. Both Tim and everyone else should get it and read it. At least then you'll comprehend this bizarre behavior even if you can't enjoy or condone it.
Because, you know, the surface of a Triscuit would be pretty much perfect for a solar cell? Uh-oh... is Sladhdot gonna receive a takedown notice now because I called 'em that?
The talented bad guys actually DO get away with it, all the time, consistently, because they're good at manipulating other people. These are not only professional "criminals"; they're also our lawyers, chosen CEOs, and politicians. Did I forget labor union leaders and theocrats like the cardinals and Pope?
... you could be the not-so-proud owner of one of the other affected brands (e.g. Toshiba) NOT included in the suit, and get nothing at all except the finger and a Simpsons-like "Ha-ha!".
Once again, the consumers of a class action lawsuit lose, and the lawyers win.
There, FTFY. You KNOW they got their golden parachutes even while the "business" tanked. It's not a coincidence that lawyers, CEOs, and politicians are all indistinguishable: they're all paid to screw with (over) people.
I received one of these from the joint FCC-SamKnows bandwidth project. Its firmware has been customized to allow monitoring and reporting, but other features have been left alone. To the point, it has a "Traffic Meter" feature, with control and statistics functions that will keep track of monthly upstream or downstream bandwidth usage, or both. It has several options for keeping you from going over a set limit, including messages, flashing an LED, and a complete cut-off. My previous D-Link DGL-4300 was ridiculously expensive but had no such feature. When the SamKnows project is done in a few years I can re-flash this with other OpenRouter firmware like Tomato.
Right now it's telling me that I'm already 7.6 GB into my new AT&T cap, dammit....
I run Windows and I still don't use that stuff... I'm totally open source - err, open-minded - and I don't mind sharing my computer with a botnet and my credit card with poor Russkis, Nigerians, and Chinamen. All for one and one for all, I say!
Chemistry researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory say they've improved the efficiency of typical solar cells by a whopping 80%....
So those crappy auto recharge panels I bought on clearance last month are almost twice as good now? How'd they do that from 2000 miles away? Wow, I gotta go plug 'em in!
So some sea critter ate the memory chips, specifically? This reminds me of a story about the fish kids in ocean schools: "I can't turn in my homework... I put it on a memory stick and the octopus ate it!"
The reason these companies will never open-source even their 'failures' is because the greed is so consuming that they will squat on the IP of even the failed projects hoping to some day milk some extra cash from it.
Case in point: the 1990s DOS game Ascendancy. It was developed by a tiny outfit named The Logic Factory; not at all Big Corporate Business even. Its source has never been released. A sequel was promised for over a decade (Duke Nukem Forever, anyone?), though it never materialized. The game eventually found its way to abandonware sites, but recently they were served with C&D notices. Why? Because the original developers, after some FIFTEEN YEARS (remember, this was a DOS game), had dusted off the thing and ported it to the iPhone/iWhatever and wanted to again 'protect' their precious IP.
So this IP squatting isn't corporate behavior, it's human behavior. It's selfish or tribalistic greed.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually I goofed and said Challenger when I meant Columbia, but yeah, maybe our discolored non-native Islamic fundamentalist President really did blow it up... back before he hatched plans to terrorize us from the Oval Office. /sarcasm
Not that his tactic would prove to be original, mind you, since George W. firmly holds the patent on that particular business method....
Are they actually better at that (sucking vacuum) than we are? Do I need to remind you of Challenger, the "9/11 of space"?
Since there was very recent news that China hopes to build their own space station by 2020, I'd wager that a Moon mining base will be more than a decade off even for them industrious railroad-building Chinamen.
It does if they "live" on it and that's all the natural resources they control. Historically that was always a very real possibility for farmers. The point was to help people understand and appreciate, remember?
Ummm... didja mean repeal, or was that a deliberate poke at semantics?
... the citydwellers - with their antibiotic EVERYTHING, who can't tell the difference between good and bad soil from the smell of it, who have never grown anything past that shriveled Venus fly trap plant at age ten - start having to make critical decisions and invariably wind up making them badly and then start going hungry.
(What I'm saying is that if they really want something like that to be educational it has to directly impact the participants' stomachs, there has to be visceral conseqeunces; short of that it's still just a game.)
Ummm, against what, my obsolete Phenom (I) X4 9850? Funny how true fanbois can read the same review as an objective person and walk away with entirely different conclusions, eh?
The AnandTech review was even less forgiving of AMD's underdog status, and basically recommended passing and either waiting for the allegedly awesome new Bulldog line or jumping ship for Intel. Hell, when Sandy Bridge both outperforms AND underconsumes (power), you oughtta be seriously questioning that underdog affection. I certainly am.
I don't think that Tim Rutten has ever read The True Believer, by Eric Hoffer. Sure, it's an "old" book, but its contents are still perfectly relevant. Both Tim and everyone else should get it and read it. At least then you'll comprehend this bizarre behavior even if you can't enjoy or condone it.
Wikipedia
Amazon
erichoffer.net
... what could go wrong?
What, you don't have arms? Unless you were born that way you should still know what they are. ;-)
Because, you know, the surface of a Triscuit would be pretty much perfect for a solar cell? Uh-oh... is Sladhdot gonna receive a takedown notice now because I called 'em that?
Does this mean you're ready to revolt or ready to restock the cave for a long timeout?
The talented bad guys actually DO get away with it, all the time, consistently, because they're good at manipulating other people. These are not only professional "criminals"; they're also our lawyers, chosen CEOs, and politicians. Did I forget labor union leaders and theocrats like the cardinals and Pope?
Seconded. Do we have a quorum, then? To arms!
... you could be the not-so-proud owner of one of the other affected brands (e.g. Toshiba) NOT included in the suit, and get nothing at all except the finger and a Simpsons-like "Ha-ha!".
There, FTFY. You KNOW they got their golden parachutes even while the "business" tanked. It's not a coincidence that lawyers, CEOs, and politicians are all indistinguishable: they're all paid to screw with (over) people.
I received one of these from the joint FCC-SamKnows bandwidth project. Its firmware has been customized to allow monitoring and reporting, but other features have been left alone. To the point, it has a "Traffic Meter" feature, with control and statistics functions that will keep track of monthly upstream or downstream bandwidth usage, or both. It has several options for keeping you from going over a set limit, including messages, flashing an LED, and a complete cut-off. My previous D-Link DGL-4300 was ridiculously expensive but had no such feature. When the SamKnows project is done in a few years I can re-flash this with other OpenRouter firmware like Tomato.
Right now it's telling me that I'm already 7.6 GB into my new AT&T cap, dammit....
I run Windows and I still don't use that stuff... I'm totally open source - err, open-minded - and I don't mind sharing my computer with a botnet and my credit card with poor Russkis, Nigerians, and Chinamen. All for one and one for all, I say!
So is a Java suit anything like a Zoot suit? Always wanted one o' them. Will the Gap be selling these?
So those crappy auto recharge panels I bought on clearance last month are almost twice as good now? How'd they do that from 2000 miles away? Wow, I gotta go plug 'em in!
So some sea critter ate the memory chips, specifically? This reminds me of a story about the fish kids in ocean schools: "I can't turn in my homework... I put it on a memory stick and the octopus ate it!"
Boy, I'll bet you're strongly against unlimited copyright and patent term extension, too, huh? (Yeah, that was sarcasm.)
Boy, I'll bet you're strongly against unlimited copyright and patent term extension, too, huh? /sarcasm
The reason these companies will never open-source even their 'failures' is because the greed is so consuming that they will squat on the IP of even the failed projects hoping to some day milk some extra cash from it.
Case in point: the 1990s DOS game Ascendancy. It was developed by a tiny outfit named The Logic Factory; not at all Big Corporate Business even. Its source has never been released. A sequel was promised for over a decade (Duke Nukem Forever, anyone?), though it never materialized. The game eventually found its way to abandonware sites, but recently they were served with C&D notices. Why? Because the original developers, after some FIFTEEN YEARS (remember, this was a DOS game), had dusted off the thing and ported it to the iPhone/iWhatever and wanted to again 'protect' their precious IP.
So this IP squatting isn't corporate behavior, it's human behavior. It's selfish or tribalistic greed.
Nothing will deter me, gent!