When the first one hits the water and inflates, you can use it as a shield.
Sailor1:"Damn, I missed." Sailor2:"Shoot him again." Sailor1:"This isn't a video game, I'm trying to save the guy." Sailor2:"You'd better hurry, he's gonna camp behind the first one." Sailor1: *foomp*
Copyright reform - what I wouldn't give to require submitting a reference source to the LoC as part of Copyright registration. Yes, if it's important enough to actually protect, you should have to put forward some effort in the process. The LoC should be chartered with providing the public with the work in question when the Copyright expires, rather than depending on you to make good on your end of the contract (and yes, it's a real honest-to-god contract.) It burns my nuts that 75+ years of monopoly are exchanged for a "whups, the source doesn't exist anymore, sorry, my bad."
Individuals have rights. Corporations are simply a group of people who collaborate. The individuals still have rights, but their association doesn't magically create a "corporate person." I understand the whole convenience-for-tax-purposes element. A corporation isn't a sentient entity, and thus cannot have an expectation of... anything. (The people operating the company have lots of expectations, but that's a completely different conversation.)
Power dissipated in a conductor, copper or nichrome doesn't matter, is dictated by V=IR. If you have a 1-ohm copper conductor, it will dissipate the same power as a 1-ohm chunk of nichrome. Both will dissipate about 144W from your 12V car battery. Note- the 1-ohm chunk of copper will be substantially longer than the 1-ohm chunk of nichrome.
That said, the thermal conductivities of the two materials differ substantially. Copper is a better conductor of heat, and will move the heat out of the wire faster than the nichrome will.
Electric resistance is, by definition, 100% efficient in terms of generating heat. Power dissipated is the product of voltage and current: P = VI. If you apply voltage across a resistor, *all* of the power dissipated in the resistor shows up as heat, regardless of how much power is dissipated.
Don't confuse an undersized heater with "inefficiency." Asking a 500W space heater to heat a warehouse will result in poor system performance. That doesn't reflect on the efficiency of the heater at all.
I disagree. If MegaCorp has an exclusive license with you, that has value. If you are killed, the license is void, and now everyone has access to the works. MegaCorp loses it's advantage by killing you. However, MegaCorp would be very interested in killing the creators of CompetingCorp's library...
Ain't a perfect solution, but it's a huge improvement over the copyright cartels we have now. The earliest works from The Three Stooges (circa 1930) won't come out of copyright protection in the US until 2025. The last of The Stooges passed away in 1993 (the originals were all gone by 1975.) That's nuts!
You own it, until 14 years pass or you die. Within that period, you can license it as you see fit. However, if you license it to MegaCorp for the next 10 years, then slide under a bus the following day, the copyright goes *piff* and the work becomes public property immediately. No permanent licensing, no passing it along to your heirs.
The "inalienable" part tethers the copyright to the blood-and-guts person who did the creating. Copyright is supposed to be an incentive for folks to create new things, no to be a welfare program for corporate interests.
Look, if you're going to publish your "manifesto," it's gotta have more verbage. Folks won't take the outline version seriously. And posting it to Slashdot just won't do. You'll need to hijack a schoolbus full of nuns and kittens, hold them at gunpoint at the public library, and put on a hell of a show for the local media, lest they preempt you for the latest episode of "Big Brother: Who's Watching the Watchers?."
Oh, and body armor. Definitely.
On a more serious note, chucking the entire copyright and patent systems is swinging to the opposite still-busted extreme from what we have now. Instead of pseudo-permanent ownership of IP elements, you'll end up breeding a pack of predatory IP-stealers who are well funded, and who are capable of getting your product to market faster and cheaper than you can.
Might I make a suggestion? Push copyright and patent durations back to something more sane - 10-20 years maybe? Make them inalienable - they're stuck to the original creators, and corporations don't qualify as "creators." People create; corporations are simply collections of people who agree to work for a common goal. When the work's creator dies, the IP immediately reverts to the Public, regardless of who it's licensed to. (Note: you can't motivate a corpse into creating additional works.) Finally, bring back the copyright registration requirement. If it's worth the protection, it's worth some effort on your part. The registration should include posting a source master to the Library of Congress, such that the escrowed copy may be presented to the People at the expiry of the copyright term, regardless of your ability to make that happen.
My elementary school teachers often threatened that "this would go down on you permanent record." I thought they were just blowing smoke. Maybe they weren't full of crap after all.
No, no, no... traveling fast doesn't kill anyone. Ever been in an aircraft? Nobody dropped dead moving at 400 mph. It's the abrupt change in speed that kills you... or the need to dissipate kinetic energy without the benefit of a vehicle (should you be ejected from one that's moving.)
"Speed Kills" is a crock, but it has been adopted by law enforcement folks, and they can't really back out of it now.
Ugh, automotive power is nasteee. Nominally 14V, unless it's cold outside, at which point it'll be closer to 18V. The ignition system will dump spikes into the rail that regularly approach 30V. Anything connected to the automotive supply is supposed to handle long excursions to 36V, and short excursions to 72V.
Beyond that, there usually isn't much "extra" power available for non-factory devices. I recently had the displeasure of installing an AC inverter into a Chevy Venture minivan. The alternator was groaning under the load, which was less than 400W. Had to keep a foot on the throttle to increase the idle speed or we'd discharge the battery. We had about 1kW of equipment, but could only run about half at any given time (the stock alternator is only rated for 90A at 12V.)
You could uuencode your entire SSL session and use Morse as the physical layer. If the concern is encryption, all forms of radio communication should be illegal.
Tin cans and wet string should be prohibited too, because you could send "secret messages" to your pal on the other side of your yard.
Most women are brainwashed at an early age to believe that sex and love are comparable. You can thank the cheesy romance novels, tabloids, magazines, and TV shows for that. In America, you can also thank your Purtanical roots for the messed up way we view sex.
DC tried this, and it just resulted in one company tearing up a street that the previous company tore up and re-paved. You've never seen so much redundant construction and horrible patch-jobs. Oh, and when Company A "accidentally" drops the backhoe bucket on Company B's fiber, Company B will be along shortly to dig up the street (again) to repair their infrastructure.
There's merit to having a common infrastructure, but it probably needs to be a municipal resource. That's a completely different type of monopoly, and is subject to a different type of corruption. I personally think "communications as a utility" is less evil than a communications infrastructure that's privately owned (and can be withheld on a corporate whim.)
When the copyright term is effectively (infinity - 1), it doesn't matter if you wait 10 days or 10 years. Copyright on works created today extend beyond my expected lifetime. An author is not obligated to license his works, so please explain how this situation promotes... anything?
I'll bet they don't specify a minimum ratio of content to ads, which would allow them to put a 1/8 page story block with the remainder being ads and still be compliant with the original agreement. "Look! Each page has at least one news story on it!"
Why do we always forget the Evil Overlord option? You could enact your plan for World Domination, starting locally, of course. Then replace the government officials with sock-puppets, and do as you please. No need to leave the country.
Yikes! Front access for the hard drives, rear access for the power and network connections, and side access for the hot-swappable CPU boards. Maybe there's a way to mount that beast of a chassis on full-extension slides to get side access, but that'd make the rear wiring a nightmare. Requiring an access path on the side of each rack would reduce it's footprint efficiency by half. Doesn't quite fit into your typical data center floorplan.
Don't forget about the artificial scarcity the publishers and distributors maintain as part of their business model. Used to be that there was an enormous barrier to entry to publishing. That barrier has been ripped away, but the "traditional media" conglomerates expect that business as usual will fly regardless of the media used to distribute their properties. An informed customer base is their worst enemy. If the customers know that the production cost for an eBook or an MP3 download is small compared to paper or disc, there's an attendant expectation of a lower price. When that doesn't happen, it's interpreted as gouging.
Further, ubiquitous media access means that the customer pool is under heavy competition. The available revenue source cannot be treated as "effectively infinite" anymore, limited only by the ability of publishers and distributors to push products into the eagerly gaping maws of consumers. Companies are competing for my entertainment dollars now, and competition is coming from cross-industry directions. I have to decide to purchase that eBook in favor of buying a theater ticket or a video game download. Traditionally, the book publisher has you in a store, and is only competing against other books. However, I can now stand in front of a theater and have to make a decision regarding book, ticket, or game. Oh, and then the smell of barbeque ribs distracts me, and I blow off the whole purchase decision. The old-school competition model doesn't exist any more, and the old-media cartels are so far behind in the game, it's likely they will suffocate from the choke-hold they so desperately try to maintain on the market.
Agreed. This would have been interesting if the shrubbery provided a link to motive power. Unfortunately, the plant matter is strictly decorative. Apparently bringing plants home in the back of my station wagon makes it "solar powered" too. I s'pose "go kart with a shrub on top" wouldn't be that interesting, would it?
Slashdot Mirror
When the first one hits the water and inflates, you can use it as a shield.
Sailor1:"Damn, I missed."
Sailor2:"Shoot him again."
Sailor1:"This isn't a video game, I'm trying to save the guy."
Sailor2:"You'd better hurry, he's gonna camp behind the first one."
Sailor1: *foomp*
"If violence isn't your last option, you aren't using enough violence." - Someone Else
Copyright reform - what I wouldn't give to require submitting a reference source to the LoC as part of Copyright registration. Yes, if it's important enough to actually protect, you should have to put forward some effort in the process. The LoC should be chartered with providing the public with the work in question when the Copyright expires, rather than depending on you to make good on your end of the contract (and yes, it's a real honest-to-god contract.) It burns my nuts that 75+ years of monopoly are exchanged for a "whups, the source doesn't exist anymore, sorry, my bad."
Individuals have rights. Corporations are simply a group of people who collaborate. The individuals still have rights, but their association doesn't magically create a "corporate person." I understand the whole convenience-for-tax-purposes element. A corporation isn't a sentient entity, and thus cannot have an expectation of ... anything. (The people operating the company have lots of expectations, but that's a completely different conversation.)
Power dissipated in a conductor, copper or nichrome doesn't matter, is dictated by V=IR. If you have a 1-ohm copper conductor, it will dissipate the same power as a 1-ohm chunk of nichrome. Both will dissipate about 144W from your 12V car battery. Note- the 1-ohm chunk of copper will be substantially longer than the 1-ohm chunk of nichrome.
That said, the thermal conductivities of the two materials differ substantially. Copper is a better conductor of heat, and will move the heat out of the wire faster than the nichrome will.
Electric resistance is, by definition, 100% efficient in terms of generating heat. Power dissipated is the product of voltage and current: P = VI. If you apply voltage across a resistor, *all* of the power dissipated in the resistor shows up as heat, regardless of how much power is dissipated.
Don't confuse an undersized heater with "inefficiency." Asking a 500W space heater to heat a warehouse will result in poor system performance. That doesn't reflect on the efficiency of the heater at all.
I disagree. If MegaCorp has an exclusive license with you, that has value. If you are killed, the license is void, and now everyone has access to the works. MegaCorp loses it's advantage by killing you. However, MegaCorp would be very interested in killing the creators of CompetingCorp's library ...
Ain't a perfect solution, but it's a huge improvement over the copyright cartels we have now. The earliest works from The Three Stooges (circa 1930) won't come out of copyright protection in the US until 2025. The last of The Stooges passed away in 1993 (the originals were all gone by 1975.) That's nuts!
You own it, until 14 years pass or you die. Within that period, you can license it as you see fit. However, if you license it to MegaCorp for the next 10 years, then slide under a bus the following day, the copyright goes *piff* and the work becomes public property immediately. No permanent licensing, no passing it along to your heirs.
The "inalienable" part tethers the copyright to the blood-and-guts person who did the creating. Copyright is supposed to be an incentive for folks to create new things, no to be a welfare program for corporate interests.
Look, if you're going to publish your "manifesto," it's gotta have more verbage. Folks won't take the outline version seriously. And posting it to Slashdot just won't do. You'll need to hijack a schoolbus full of nuns and kittens, hold them at gunpoint at the public library, and put on a hell of a show for the local media, lest they preempt you for the latest episode of "Big Brother: Who's Watching the Watchers?."
Oh, and body armor. Definitely.
On a more serious note, chucking the entire copyright and patent systems is swinging to the opposite still-busted extreme from what we have now. Instead of pseudo-permanent ownership of IP elements, you'll end up breeding a pack of predatory IP-stealers who are well funded, and who are capable of getting your product to market faster and cheaper than you can.
Might I make a suggestion? Push copyright and patent durations back to something more sane - 10-20 years maybe? Make them inalienable - they're stuck to the original creators, and corporations don't qualify as "creators." People create; corporations are simply collections of people who agree to work for a common goal. When the work's creator dies, the IP immediately reverts to the Public, regardless of who it's licensed to. (Note: you can't motivate a corpse into creating additional works.) Finally, bring back the copyright registration requirement. If it's worth the protection, it's worth some effort on your part. The registration should include posting a source master to the Library of Congress, such that the escrowed copy may be presented to the People at the expiry of the copyright term, regardless of your ability to make that happen.
I'd be happy to allow the name change if the corn subsidies were discontinued. How about that?
My elementary school teachers often threatened that "this would go down on you permanent record." I thought they were just blowing smoke. Maybe they weren't full of crap after all.
So, uh, the retroactive copyright extensions didn't happen?
No, no, no ... traveling fast doesn't kill anyone. Ever been in an aircraft? Nobody dropped dead moving at 400 mph. It's the abrupt change in speed that kills you ... or the need to dissipate kinetic energy without the benefit of a vehicle (should you be ejected from one that's moving.)
"Speed Kills" is a crock, but it has been adopted by law enforcement folks, and they can't really back out of it now.
Thank you for using "preemptive." Due to pervasive management middle-speak, folks don't seem to know that the word exists anymore.
Take note, musicians ... this is ironic. (Yes, Ms. Morissette, I'm talking to you.)
Ugh, automotive power is nasteee. Nominally 14V, unless it's cold outside, at which point it'll be closer to 18V. The ignition system will dump spikes into the rail that regularly approach 30V. Anything connected to the automotive supply is supposed to handle long excursions to 36V, and short excursions to 72V.
Beyond that, there usually isn't much "extra" power available for non-factory devices. I recently had the displeasure of installing an AC inverter into a Chevy Venture minivan. The alternator was groaning under the load, which was less than 400W. Had to keep a foot on the throttle to increase the idle speed or we'd discharge the battery. We had about 1kW of equipment, but could only run about half at any given time (the stock alternator is only rated for 90A at 12V.)
You could uuencode your entire SSL session and use Morse as the physical layer. If the concern is encryption, all forms of radio communication should be illegal.
Tin cans and wet string should be prohibited too, because you could send "secret messages" to your pal on the other side of your yard.
Most women are brainwashed at an early age to believe that sex and love are comparable. You can thank the cheesy romance novels, tabloids, magazines, and TV shows for that. In America, you can also thank your Purtanical roots for the messed up way we view sex.
DC tried this, and it just resulted in one company tearing up a street that the previous company tore up and re-paved. You've never seen so much redundant construction and horrible patch-jobs. Oh, and when Company A "accidentally" drops the backhoe bucket on Company B's fiber, Company B will be along shortly to dig up the street (again) to repair their infrastructure.
There's merit to having a common infrastructure, but it probably needs to be a municipal resource. That's a completely different type of monopoly, and is subject to a different type of corruption. I personally think "communications as a utility" is less evil than a communications infrastructure that's privately owned (and can be withheld on a corporate whim.)
When the copyright term is effectively (infinity - 1), it doesn't matter if you wait 10 days or 10 years. Copyright on works created today extend beyond my expected lifetime. An author is not obligated to license his works, so please explain how this situation promotes ... anything?
I'll bet they don't specify a minimum ratio of content to ads, which would allow them to put a 1/8 page story block with the remainder being ads and still be compliant with the original agreement. "Look! Each page has at least one news story on it!"
Why do we always forget the Evil Overlord option? You could enact your plan for World Domination, starting locally, of course. Then replace the government officials with sock-puppets, and do as you please. No need to leave the country.
Yikes! Front access for the hard drives, rear access for the power and network connections, and side access for the hot-swappable CPU boards. Maybe there's a way to mount that beast of a chassis on full-extension slides to get side access, but that'd make the rear wiring a nightmare. Requiring an access path on the side of each rack would reduce it's footprint efficiency by half. Doesn't quite fit into your typical data center floorplan.
Don't forget about the artificial scarcity the publishers and distributors maintain as part of their business model. Used to be that there was an enormous barrier to entry to publishing. That barrier has been ripped away, but the "traditional media" conglomerates expect that business as usual will fly regardless of the media used to distribute their properties. An informed customer base is their worst enemy. If the customers know that the production cost for an eBook or an MP3 download is small compared to paper or disc, there's an attendant expectation of a lower price. When that doesn't happen, it's interpreted as gouging.
Further, ubiquitous media access means that the customer pool is under heavy competition. The available revenue source cannot be treated as "effectively infinite" anymore, limited only by the ability of publishers and distributors to push products into the eagerly gaping maws of consumers. Companies are competing for my entertainment dollars now, and competition is coming from cross-industry directions. I have to decide to purchase that eBook in favor of buying a theater ticket or a video game download. Traditionally, the book publisher has you in a store, and is only competing against other books. However, I can now stand in front of a theater and have to make a decision regarding book, ticket, or game. Oh, and then the smell of barbeque ribs distracts me, and I blow off the whole purchase decision. The old-school competition model doesn't exist any more, and the old-media cartels are so far behind in the game, it's likely they will suffocate from the choke-hold they so desperately try to maintain on the market.
Agreed. This would have been interesting if the shrubbery provided a link to motive power. Unfortunately, the plant matter is strictly decorative. Apparently bringing plants home in the back of my station wagon makes it "solar powered" too. I s'pose "go kart with a shrub on top" wouldn't be that interesting, would it?