Sprint isn't forcing people to pay this amount. In fact, I doubt people will. Since Sprint is the first to market with this service, I suspect that rival carriers will discunt their own offerings to try and cut into the market. Over time, supply and demand will force prices down.
Note that this should still have some effect, even if Sprint phones are locked into Sprint ringtones. Those who absolutely have to have a song at this price will probably consider switching services to a cheaper alternative.
You know, if you read the text of this spam law it has so many loopholes, and here's one: what defines a "California" email address? An ISP headquartered in California? A recipient based in CA? A server based in CA? Hotmail's based in Redmond. Yahoo, on the other hand, might benefit.
When I was in high school I worked in the Clorox R&D center in Pleasanton, CA. Clorox makes (among other things) bleach, Hidden Valley Ranch (hint: it doesn't start out white) and Fresh Step kitty litter.
I was in AP Chemistry at the time, and I had a friend whose mother worked at Clorox. I volunteered to work there as part of a work study program for credit.
Of course, the only way to test and improve kitty litter is to test it with actual kitty byproducts. Both solid and liquid. I can fondly remember the days of placing stir bars in liters of cat urine to mix them up, then pipette-ing samples to coat the litter.
And, of course, there was only one way to test its effectiveness--lean in and take a hearty whiff. Yes, of kitty poo, as well. The labs' job was to come up with combinations of surfactactants and clays that would, ideally, eliminate the smell altogether, or at least replace it with a pleasant smell. We even had "a professional nose" who would come in and sniff the samples, assigning each sample with descriptions like "kiwi" or "slight fruity scent".
To be quite honest, however, it was pretty fascinating. Not smelling cat feces, of course. But when you think about it, it's one of the few products that must satisfy the sensitivities of two species, including the sense of smell, as well as the cat's sense of touch. It must absorb odor as well as liquid; clump, and surround the kitty waste; and not disintegrate into too mush dust. Oh, and it also has to be biodegradable.
I was sold.
I signed up for a (paid) internship during the summer and made big money. And I always washed my hands before dinner.
You know, the interesting and slightly sad thing about today's search engines, compared to books, is that they give you exactly what you want--great for a targeted search, but bad for someone with an innate sense of curiosity.
Let me give you an example. If I have a print encyclopedia and I search for "Athens", I'm not going to be able to turn directly to the page. I'll have to flip through it, maybe coming across articles on "agriculture", "apples", and the first "alphabets". Sure, this takes time out of my search, but I'm a more knowledgeable person for it.
It's odd, however--while I would look upon this as a rewarding experience, I'd be mighty pissed if Google took me to a random site or two before serving up the page I wanted.
Obviously, the IP in question is generally either software and/or other copyrighted works owned by a company, agency, or artist. Since those entities have the most to gain, can you give us a sense of how the DOJ works with the corporations in question? In other words, does the DOJ proactively prosecute violations it detects, or does it generally act on the notification of an alleged victim?
As a related question, I'm aware that many companies now have "enforcement" divisions that try to root out piracy. What role do they play? My guess is that a company like Microsoft has as many or more resources than the DOJ, simply because Microsoft is a $XX billion company, and the DOJ is subject to the whims of Congress. Any comment?
Re:Just mentioned the Club...
on
The Big Kerplop
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· Score: 1
Wow, I read all of those too, and I had completely forgotten about most of those, including the Mad Scientist's Club. As well as Danny Dunn and Tom Swift.
About the only precocious thing I ever did was teaching myself to read, which was actually a form of self-torture in a house without a television. I recall reading everything I could get my hands on at the local library, even turning to crap like the Battlefield Earth series, just because they sucked up those summer hours....
As the (corrected) story now states, I believe I accurately quoted Kramer that eCos was in fact a Linux kernel. However, either he or I was wrong, and the story has since been corrected to reflect that fact. I appreciate the "open source fact checking", even though the mistake shouldn't have been there in the first place.
And the embedded information about the embedded embedded eCos kernel embedded in the GameBoy has since been dis-embedded, in an attempt to clarify the embedding wording. (*ahem*)
Lost amongst all of the discussion about Microsoft's tactics is a realization that this kind of story may vanish in six to nine months, when Microsoft's Rights Management Server begins selling (and is used by Microsoft itself, no doubt).
Microsoft's RMS, in conjunction with Outlook, would prevent emails from being forwarded or printed by individuals who had not been preapproved by the sender. (And methods like "Print Screen" don't work, either.) Obviously, this becaomes even harder to crack once Palladium/NGSCB takes effect in 2005.
It was interesting listening to the NGSCB presentations at WinHEC. All I heard were MS employees describing how NGSCB would prevent company secrets from being leaked. Given the context of this story, is that a good or bad thing?
All this ruling means is that the corporations which make the software aren't liable for what the users use the software for./. users don't represent the companies, you're THE USERS.
And taken with the Verizon ruling (and you KNOW the RIAA will cite it) all this means is that the only people they can go after are you, the USERS.
In addition to an official "first look" at an Opteron server designed by server ODM Newisys, the ZD team has prepared detailed benchmarks of the Opteron's performance, and filed a report on the new nForce3 chipset from Nvidia.
We'll also be testing Opteron workstations as soon as they're completed. I expect the first reviews will be using the nForce3.
A 533-MHz FSB Pentium 4 will run fine on Canterwood, Intel told us this morning. No word yet on whether or not Dell, Gateway, et al will stop shipments, or how long the delay will be. Or what the problem actually is, for that matter.
Frankly, I'm surprised that this entire story hasn't received more attention. On one hand, the premise of the story is correct--the terms of the license allow Via to develop its own pinouts and architecture, similar to AMD--that's Intel's intent in signing the deal, according to insiders at the company. The Via platform will indeed be a platform.
The most interesting bit in my mind, however, is what happens to this rogue bus license owned by S3. Recall that S3 Inc. signed a patent cross-license with Intel, then exited the graphics business, became Sonicblue, and sold off its assets to a joint venture with Via called S3 Graphics. That's why the current deal excludes S3 Graphics.
However, Sonicblue is also auctioning off its assets. That means there's going to be an Intel bus license up for grabs, possibly. However, as we wrote here, Sonicblue's legal team says the license can't be transferred without Intel's permission. That should make the auction more interesting, certainly...
We wrote one of the earliest stories on Acacia Research here, complete with detailed royalty information, interviews with Acacia representatives, and exactly how the online porn industry planned to fight back. We also covered the Virgin Radio license agreement in this story.
Personally, I feel that there are a wealth of smaller companies that Acacia will be able to sue or otherwise persuade to license their technology. Virgin was also a significant win.
By the way, we also published a second story last Friday on the connection between Microsoft's SPOT smart objects and a wireless games distribution platform from Atari that was field-tested, but never produced. (You thought the Xbox was huge...) With pics!
99.99 percent of software developers never get laid. Or at least that's what arbitrary statistics say. Come on now...
And there's quite a difference between a news reporter and a columnist/pundit. Different motivations, different responsibilities, and, you might argue, different audiences.
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Sprint isn't forcing people to pay this amount. In fact, I doubt people will. Since Sprint is the first to market with this service, I suspect that rival carriers will discunt their own offerings to try and cut into the market. Over time, supply and demand will force prices down.
Note that this should still have some effect, even if Sprint phones are locked into Sprint ringtones. Those who absolutely have to have a song at this price will probably consider switching services to a cheaper alternative.
You know, if you read the text of this spam law it has so many loopholes, and here's one: what defines a "California" email address? An ISP headquartered in California? A recipient based in CA? A server based in CA? Hotmail's based in Redmond. Yahoo, on the other hand, might benefit.
When I was in high school I worked in the Clorox R&D center in Pleasanton, CA. Clorox makes (among other things) bleach, Hidden Valley Ranch (hint: it doesn't start out white) and Fresh Step kitty litter.
I was in AP Chemistry at the time, and I had a friend whose mother worked at Clorox. I volunteered to work there as part of a work study program for credit.
Of course, the only way to test and improve kitty litter is to test it with actual kitty byproducts. Both solid and liquid. I can fondly remember the days of placing stir bars in liters of cat urine to mix them up, then pipette-ing samples to coat the litter.
And, of course, there was only one way to test its effectiveness--lean in and take a hearty whiff. Yes, of kitty poo, as well. The labs' job was to come up with combinations of surfactactants and clays that would, ideally, eliminate the smell altogether, or at least replace it with a pleasant smell. We even had "a professional nose" who would come in and sniff the samples, assigning each sample with descriptions like "kiwi" or "slight fruity scent".
To be quite honest, however, it was pretty fascinating. Not smelling cat feces, of course. But when you think about it, it's one of the few products that must satisfy the sensitivities of two species, including the sense of smell, as well as the cat's sense of touch. It must absorb odor as well as liquid; clump, and surround the kitty waste; and not disintegrate into too mush dust. Oh, and it also has to be biodegradable.
I was sold.
I signed up for a (paid) internship during the summer and made big money. And I always washed my hands before dinner.
Let me give you an example. If I have a print encyclopedia and I search for "Athens", I'm not going to be able to turn directly to the page. I'll have to flip through it, maybe coming across articles on "agriculture", "apples", and the first "alphabets". Sure, this takes time out of my search, but I'm a more knowledgeable person for it.
It's odd, however--while I would look upon this as a rewarding experience, I'd be mighty pissed if Google took me to a random site or two before serving up the page I wanted.
Obviously, the IP in question is generally either software and/or other copyrighted works owned by a company, agency, or artist. Since those entities have the most to gain, can you give us a sense of how the DOJ works with the corporations in question? In other words, does the DOJ proactively prosecute violations it detects, or does it generally act on the notification of an alleged victim?
As a related question, I'm aware that many companies now have "enforcement" divisions that try to root out piracy. What role do they play? My guess is that a company like Microsoft has as many or more resources than the DOJ, simply because Microsoft is a $XX billion company, and the DOJ is subject to the whims of Congress. Any comment?
Wow, I read all of those too, and I had completely forgotten about most of those, including the Mad Scientist's Club. As well as Danny Dunn and Tom Swift.
About the only precocious thing I ever did was teaching myself to read, which was actually a form of self-torture in a house without a television. I recall reading everything I could get my hands on at the local library, even turning to crap like the Battlefield Earth series, just because they sucked up those summer hours....
As the (corrected) story now states, I believe I accurately quoted Kramer that eCos was in fact a Linux kernel. However, either he or I was wrong, and the story has since been corrected to reflect that fact. I appreciate the "open source fact checking", even though the mistake shouldn't have been there in the first place.
And the embedded information about the embedded embedded eCos kernel embedded in the GameBoy has since been dis-embedded, in an attempt to clarify the embedding wording. (*ahem*)
Lost amongst all of the discussion about Microsoft's tactics is a realization that this kind of story may vanish in six to nine months, when Microsoft's Rights Management Server begins selling (and is used by Microsoft itself, no doubt).
Microsoft's RMS, in conjunction with Outlook, would prevent emails from being forwarded or printed by individuals who had not been preapproved by the sender. (And methods like "Print Screen" don't work, either.) Obviously, this becaomes even harder to crack once Palladium/NGSCB takes effect in 2005.
It was interesting listening to the NGSCB presentations at WinHEC. All I heard were MS employees describing how NGSCB would prevent company secrets from being leaked. Given the context of this story, is that a good or bad thing?
All this ruling means is that the corporations which make the software aren't liable for what the users use the software for. /. users don't represent the companies, you're THE USERS.
And taken with the Verizon ruling (and you KNOW the RIAA will cite it) all this means is that the only people they can go after are you, the USERS.
We'll also be testing Opteron workstations as soon as they're completed. I expect the first reviews will be using the nForce3.
A 533-MHz FSB Pentium 4 will run fine on Canterwood, Intel told us this morning. No word yet on whether or not Dell, Gateway, et al will stop shipments, or how long the delay will be. Or what the problem actually is, for that matter.
The most interesting bit in my mind, however, is what happens to this rogue bus license owned by S3. Recall that S3 Inc. signed a patent cross-license with Intel, then exited the graphics business, became Sonicblue, and sold off its assets to a joint venture with Via called S3 Graphics. That's why the current deal excludes S3 Graphics.
However, Sonicblue is also auctioning off its assets. That means there's going to be an Intel bus license up for grabs, possibly. However, as we wrote here, Sonicblue's legal team says the license can't be transferred without Intel's permission. That should make the auction more interesting, certainly...
Who cares how fast IBM has this running in the lab--let's see how fast those fab lines are running before we get too excited.
Personally, I feel that there are a wealth of smaller companies that Acacia will be able to sue or otherwise persuade to license their technology. Virgin was also a significant win.
Mitnick says he was misquoted by YIL. Ziff-Davis has since closed YIL. Coincidence? I think not!
By the way, we also published a second story last Friday on the connection between Microsoft's SPOT smart objects and a wireless games distribution platform from Atari that was field-tested, but never produced. (You thought the Xbox was huge...) With pics!
Seems informative...
99.99 percent of software developers never get laid. Or at least that's what arbitrary statistics say. Come on now...
And there's quite a difference between a news reporter and a columnist/pundit. Different motivations, different responsibilities, and, you might argue, different audiences.