Sending the 0101010's of Microsoft Windows XP + serial to your buddy for him to use without paying is not covered by the first ammendment or any other law
Maybe my legal interpretations are a little rusty, but I believe that the "sending the 0101010's" part is free speech. If, after the fact, a private party (Microsoft) feels that another private party (the sender) has infringed on their copyright, they have the option to slap a civil suit on that individual.
Now, when you drag in the FBI, you're no longer dealing with private parties. You're now treating civil court matters with public law enforcement agencies. Does anyone else see a problem here? The first court decisions on cases in which a rich private party hires the FBI to strong-arm their less-rich opponent(s) could set some pretty disturbing legal precendents.
I'd really rather not live in a country where corporations can employ law enforcement agencies to arrest and detain me for a civil court case any time they wanted to. I was under the impression that the US Constitution was designed to prevent just such an action and to empower individuals with certain rights and liberties. But, as previous posts mentioning facism point out, that is becoming less and less the reality of this particular society.
You're assuming an awful lot about the driving ability of the average person out on the roads.
Exactly. It occurs to me that tha vast majority of "accidents" are personnel problems rather than technical problems. People who don't want to drive safely never will.
While I have nothing against such a new technology, it doesn't really solve anything.
Although I can already imagine the pedos listing N'Sync and Lizzie McGuire as their "interests"...
Sure, it's a shame and we know it's going to happen. Look at it this way... Sick people are out there. Always have been, always will be. But I'd rather they be hanging out in a chatroom than, say, my church's youth groups or going camping with the [boy|girl]scouts.
If they aren't doing this stuff, they need to, to stay in business.
Do you honestly believe that? Maybe I'm just too cynical, but let's face facts here. Alot of businesses stay in business with a second-rate product. And alot of customers get screwed, often because they neither know nor care the difference. For the select few of us who monitor such things as requests to our ports, where is the salvation? They can afford not to cater to us because they have throngs of consumers don't don't rock the boat.
An ISP customer who gets charged for his ISP's poor network has about as much legal recourse as a Windows user whose data gets corrupted/deleted by a bug in Microsoft software (last week a bug in Visual Studio ate 4 hours worth of code by deleting the code and then saving the file without asking me, and Microsoft has no liability for the time/money my employer loses as a result).
"Survival of the fittest" doesn't mean that the best product wins. It means that the company who can best sell their product wins.
While I don't see metered bandwidth as being too big a deal (after all, other household utilities are metered, and I wish my phone was one of them since I make maybe 20 local calls a month), I have to question the responsibility of the ISP in this situation. Recalling the days of Nimda and the 10 hits per second it was sending my web server at one point... Over the course of a month, those little requests add up:
50 bytes per request * 10 requests per second * 60 * 60 * 24 * 30 = over a Gb.
Sure, the 10-per-second was an extreme case, but even 1/10 that result is still unacceptable for metered bandwidth. What legal responsibility does the ISP have to keep their network from hitting you with spoof data and other such unwanted/uncontrollable-from-your-end packets? From what I've seen in the agreements people sign with ISPs, none. It always seems to be a "we can charge you what we want and cut off your connection when we want and you can do nothing about it" agreement.
What about if their network is having problems somewhere away from your node that causes packet loss? You have to transfer more data from your node because their network is losing alot of it. Do they charge you for that?
Metered bandwidth is fine if they can keep control over their service. The Internet is still going through alot of development and, honestly, I've yet to find an ISP that can handle it. Whether it's over-booking broadband and cluttering the network, having little or no security policies in place for dealing with infected user machines (or infected servers... AT&*cough*), or having a generally unreliable network, "bandwidth" is a big picture that includes a hell of alot more than the upstream/downstream between me and their nearest switch.
-cyber0ne
PS... does anyone have any references to actual court cases over metered bandwidth involving my concerns stated above, or any other similar concerns? I was discussing this same topic with a friend a couple days ago and we were interested to know if anyone's ever had to explain such technical terms to a judge before.
I'd like to thank you for your post. You have given me a certain measure of confidence that the occasional letter I send to my congress respresentative's office actually does something.
And you've opened up the argument against people who like to complain on/. that "in the time it took you to bitch, you could have made a difference. Please re-phrase your complaint in the form of a relatively intelligent letter and address it to your representative."
That's because the US isn't a democracy, it's a republic. Most citizens simply don't want to be bothered with the responsibilities of a true democracy (I am no exception). We elect people to make decisions for us.
Why does everything have to be designed for cell phones? Just freaking buy an extra battery and stop talking while you drive and you'll be fine, rather than trying to figure out some way to cheat thermodynamics and create a perpetual motion phone.
I can imagine some more industrial applications for such a technology. For example, a car will always vibrate when it's moving. The engine vibrates (some parts more than others), and the motion along the ground causes vibration. It occurs to me that a device in the car's mechanics that harnesses such vibration and does nothing more than help keep the battery charged would have, at the very least, made it less likely for my battery to have died at work last week.
Larger vehicles with more vibrations would benefit as well. I imagine putting many, many such devices along the hull and engine room(s) of naval vessels for the sole purpose of helping to keep those backup batteries charged would be nice. Not much energy is yielded, but every little bit helps when the going gets rough. This isn't what the article said the Navy meant by funding such technology, but I'd imagine that, as it improves and yields more energy, they wouldn't mind such an application.
Also, to continue along the Navy path, does the conversion of vibrations into electrical energy reduce the effect of the vibrations? I would imagine so, though I'm no physicist. Lining submarines with next-generation versions of such devices would not only harness a little bit more electrical power, but would make it quieter to the surrounding water while in operation.
-cyber0ne
"A machine that doesn't require fuel, electrical wires, sunlight, or batteries can be embedded deep inside a structure, never to be touched again."
Never to be touched again? Who's he kidding? Reliable equipment is usually reliable because of good ongoing (preventative) maintenance and support, not because it was designed to be perfect.
I take it you prefer to program like Mel? (if that link doesn't work, just google "the story of mel." that's where I got that link.)
While I certainly won't defend Word or Microsoft in general, I will say that a little more disk space (25 years ago 20K was alot, but I think times have changed) is a small price to pay for a good, modular, robust design in a program.
"people will have to register for a 'Do Call' list"
Isn't that the problem, really? 99.99% of people don't read the 10 or 20 pages of legal mumbo jumbo before clicking "ok" on a website or saying "yes" on the telephone to something else that sounds like a perfectly reasonable offer/idea/etc. Thus, almost everyone on the existing lists (there are exceptions, sure) has, in some way or another, "register[ed] for a 'Do Call' list."
Actually, I should have elaborated more. My reply was mostly a gastrointestinal discharge of console rants.
I haven't played Sunshine yet, though my friend enjoyed it to a degree. My personal recommendation is Super Monkey Ball (the first one... I haven't played the sequel yet). It's, in its own way, a pretty sick game. Nearly failed some classes because of it:)
I actually don't play the "mature" games that everyone raves about (and I agree with another post near here about how our definition of "mature" is a little blurred in this context). I go for playability over blood content for the most part. I'm looking forward to purchasing the new Zelda gave for just that reason. Supposedly the cartoony look they gave it allowed for much smoother game play and all around more stuff one can do in the game.
My idea of an entertaining video game has never been "shoot some monsters with a big gun, watch blood spill all over the place, then go get a soda while the game goes through several minutes of video footage."
Ok, I'm getting a little tired of the whole "kids' console" image that people are trying to pin on Nintendo. EVERY system has little kid games. Young children are a large part of the market and a company would have to be stupid not to have games for that demographic.
Go to the store and look at the case of Game Cube games. Yes, you'll see little kid games like Mario Sunshine and Kirby Eats More Stuff (or something like that). But you'll also notice a selection of more "mature" games such as Resident Evil Zero, Mortal Kombat, and Ass Raping Pedophile Warriors (or something like that).
If you chose to buy another console then that's fine. Buy what you want, play it, be happy. But don't make up crap about its competitors in an attempt to further justify your purchase when no justification is necessary.
The Saturn, The Dreamcast... it just didn't work out for them. Don't get me wrong, the Dreamcast was a pretty cool system. But, alas, their last competative play in the market was the Genesis. And that was, what, 12 years ago (correct me if I'm wrong on that number, it's just a guess)?
Of course, they still make great games for other consoles, arcades, etc. One of the reasons I bought a Game Cube was for Sega's Super Monkey Ball.
I would hardly consider a/. post to be an accurate measure of a nation's culture and education. Do you make the same judgements of little kids in AOL chatrooms asking "asl?" and claiming to me "l337"? Face it, there are vast differences in {formal|casual} {spoken|written|typed} language, and it's not only American linguistic experts who will confirm that.
"people get paid a lot of money for administering servers etc."
Names, man... I need NAMES! This "a lot of money" concept interests me but I can't seem to find it anywhere, despite years of qualifications and tireless job searches.
"it's not the 15 year old who should be punished - it's the well paid but idle sysadmin who allows his web server to be graffitised"
So, by your logic, it was my friend's fault for allowing herself to be raped? And she should be punished for having low security? I'll have to agree with the other reply to this post, but I'll save you the repeated curses and slander. After all, it's most likely not your fault that you're an idiot. It was your parents who allowed you to be an idiot and they should be punished severely for it.
Slashdot Mirror
Sending the 0101010's of Microsoft Windows XP + serial to your buddy for him to use without paying is not covered by the first ammendment or any other law
Maybe my legal interpretations are a little rusty, but I believe that the "sending the 0101010's" part is free speech. If, after the fact, a private party (Microsoft) feels that another private party (the sender) has infringed on their copyright, they have the option to slap a civil suit on that individual.
Now, when you drag in the FBI, you're no longer dealing with private parties. You're now treating civil court matters with public law enforcement agencies. Does anyone else see a problem here? The first court decisions on cases in which a rich private party hires the FBI to strong-arm their less-rich opponent(s) could set some pretty disturbing legal precendents.
I'd really rather not live in a country where corporations can employ law enforcement agencies to arrest and detain me for a civil court case any time they wanted to. I was under the impression that the US Constitution was designed to prevent just such an action and to empower individuals with certain rights and liberties. But, as previous posts mentioning facism point out, that is becoming less and less the reality of this particular society.
You're assuming an awful lot about the driving ability of the average person out on the roads.
Exactly. It occurs to me that tha vast majority of "accidents" are personnel problems rather than technical problems. People who don't want to drive safely never will.
While I have nothing against such a new technology, it doesn't really solve anything.
Although I can already imagine the pedos listing N'Sync and Lizzie McGuire as their "interests"...
Sure, it's a shame and we know it's going to happen. Look at it this way... Sick people are out there. Always have been, always will be. But I'd rather they be hanging out in a chatroom than, say, my church's youth groups or going camping with the [boy|girl]scouts.
If they aren't doing this stuff, they need to, to stay in business.
Do you honestly believe that? Maybe I'm just too cynical, but let's face facts here. Alot of businesses stay in business with a second-rate product. And alot of customers get screwed, often because they neither know nor care the difference. For the select few of us who monitor such things as requests to our ports, where is the salvation? They can afford not to cater to us because they have throngs of consumers don't don't rock the boat.
An ISP customer who gets charged for his ISP's poor network has about as much legal recourse as a Windows user whose data gets corrupted/deleted by a bug in Microsoft software (last week a bug in Visual Studio ate 4 hours worth of code by deleting the code and then saving the file without asking me, and Microsoft has no liability for the time/money my employer loses as a result).
"Survival of the fittest" doesn't mean that the best product wins. It means that the company who can best sell their product wins.
While I don't see metered bandwidth as being too big a deal (after all, other household utilities are metered, and I wish my phone was one of them since I make maybe 20 local calls a month), I have to question the responsibility of the ISP in this situation. Recalling the days of Nimda and the 10 hits per second it was sending my web server at one point... Over the course of a month, those little requests add up:
50 bytes per request * 10 requests per second * 60 * 60 * 24 * 30 = over a Gb.
Sure, the 10-per-second was an extreme case, but even 1/10 that result is still unacceptable for metered bandwidth. What legal responsibility does the ISP have to keep their network from hitting you with spoof data and other such unwanted/uncontrollable-from-your-end packets? From what I've seen in the agreements people sign with ISPs, none. It always seems to be a "we can charge you what we want and cut off your connection when we want and you can do nothing about it" agreement.
What about if their network is having problems somewhere away from your node that causes packet loss? You have to transfer more data from your node because their network is losing alot of it. Do they charge you for that?
Metered bandwidth is fine if they can keep control over their service. The Internet is still going through alot of development and, honestly, I've yet to find an ISP that can handle it. Whether it's over-booking broadband and cluttering the network, having little or no security policies in place for dealing with infected user machines (or infected servers... AT&*cough*), or having a generally unreliable network, "bandwidth" is a big picture that includes a hell of alot more than the upstream/downstream between me and their nearest switch.
-cyber0ne
PS... does anyone have any references to actual court cases over metered bandwidth involving my concerns stated above, or any other similar concerns? I was discussing this same topic with a friend a couple days ago and we were interested to know if anyone's ever had to explain such technical terms to a judge before.
I'd like to thank you for your post. You have given me a certain measure of confidence that the occasional letter I send to my congress respresentative's office actually does something.
/. that "in the time it took you to bitch, you could have made a difference. Please re-phrase your complaint in the form of a relatively intelligent letter and address it to your representative."
And you've opened up the argument against people who like to complain on
Seriously, thank you.
That doesn't sound very democratic to me.
That's because the US isn't a democracy, it's a republic. Most citizens simply don't want to be bothered with the responsibilities of a true democracy (I am no exception). We elect people to make decisions for us.
low-budget live-action anime adaptations
Don't Forget Dragonball
Why does everything have to be designed for cell phones? Just freaking buy an extra battery and stop talking while you drive and you'll be fine, rather than trying to figure out some way to cheat thermodynamics and create a perpetual motion phone.
I can imagine some more industrial applications for such a technology. For example, a car will always vibrate when it's moving. The engine vibrates (some parts more than others), and the motion along the ground causes vibration. It occurs to me that a device in the car's mechanics that harnesses such vibration and does nothing more than help keep the battery charged would have, at the very least, made it less likely for my battery to have died at work last week.
Larger vehicles with more vibrations would benefit as well. I imagine putting many, many such devices along the hull and engine room(s) of naval vessels for the sole purpose of helping to keep those backup batteries charged would be nice. Not much energy is yielded, but every little bit helps when the going gets rough. This isn't what the article said the Navy meant by funding such technology, but I'd imagine that, as it improves and yields more energy, they wouldn't mind such an application.
Also, to continue along the Navy path, does the conversion of vibrations into electrical energy reduce the effect of the vibrations? I would imagine so, though I'm no physicist. Lining submarines with next-generation versions of such devices would not only harness a little bit more electrical power, but would make it quieter to the surrounding water while in operation.
-cyber0ne
"A machine that doesn't require fuel, electrical wires, sunlight, or batteries can be embedded deep inside a structure, never to be touched again."
Never to be touched again? Who's he kidding? Reliable equipment is usually reliable because of good ongoing (preventative) maintenance and support, not because it was designed to be perfect.
I take it you prefer to program like Mel? (if that link doesn't work, just google "the story of mel." that's where I got that link.)
While I certainly won't defend Word or Microsoft in general, I will say that a little more disk space (25 years ago 20K was alot, but I think times have changed) is a small price to pay for a good, modular, robust design in a program.
Let me guess... Super Monkey Ball for the Nintendo Game Cube. Sega and Dole make for some VERY strange bedfellows.
Haven't played the sequel yet...
"people will have to register for a 'Do Call' list"
Isn't that the problem, really? 99.99% of people don't read the 10 or 20 pages of legal mumbo jumbo before clicking "ok" on a website or saying "yes" on the telephone to something else that sounds like a perfectly reasonable offer/idea/etc. Thus, almost everyone on the existing lists (there are exceptions, sure) has, in some way or another, "register[ed] for a 'Do Call' list."
Actually, I should have elaborated more. My reply was mostly a gastrointestinal discharge of console rants.
:)
I haven't played Sunshine yet, though my friend enjoyed it to a degree. My personal recommendation is Super Monkey Ball (the first one... I haven't played the sequel yet). It's, in its own way, a pretty sick game. Nearly failed some classes because of it
I actually don't play the "mature" games that everyone raves about (and I agree with another post near here about how our definition of "mature" is a little blurred in this context). I go for playability over blood content for the most part. I'm looking forward to purchasing the new Zelda gave for just that reason. Supposedly the cartoony look they gave it allowed for much smoother game play and all around more stuff one can do in the game.
My idea of an entertaining video game has never been "shoot some monsters with a big gun, watch blood spill all over the place, then go get a soda while the game goes through several minutes of video footage."
Ok, I'm getting a little tired of the whole "kids' console" image that people are trying to pin on Nintendo. EVERY system has little kid games. Young children are a large part of the market and a company would have to be stupid not to have games for that demographic.
Go to the store and look at the case of Game Cube games. Yes, you'll see little kid games like Mario Sunshine and Kirby Eats More Stuff (or something like that). But you'll also notice a selection of more "mature" games such as Resident Evil Zero, Mortal Kombat, and Ass Raping Pedophile Warriors (or something like that).
If you chose to buy another console then that's fine. Buy what you want, play it, be happy. But don't make up crap about its competitors in an attempt to further justify your purchase when no justification is necessary.
The Saturn, The Dreamcast... it just didn't work out for them. Don't get me wrong, the Dreamcast was a pretty cool system. But, alas, their last competative play in the market was the Genesis. And that was, what, 12 years ago (correct me if I'm wrong on that number, it's just a guess)?
Of course, they still make great games for other consoles, arcades, etc. One of the reasons I bought a Game Cube was for Sega's Super Monkey Ball.
"how many grown-ups are going to want to earn the wages of a register jockey?"
Post: Experienced C, C++, Java Programmer... Will Work For Food.
Why destroy it? Hard drive platters make excellent wind chimes. C'mon people, be artistic!
I would hardly consider a /. post to be an accurate measure of a nation's culture and education. Do you make the same judgements of little kids in AOL chatrooms asking "asl?" and claiming to me "l337"? Face it, there are vast differences in {formal|casual} {spoken|written|typed} language, and it's not only American linguistic experts who will confirm that.
"people get paid a lot of money for administering servers etc." Names, man... I need NAMES! This "a lot of money" concept interests me but I can't seem to find it anywhere, despite years of qualifications and tireless job searches.
"it's not the 15 year old who should be punished - it's the well paid but idle sysadmin who allows his web server to be graffitised"
So, by your logic, it was my friend's fault for allowing herself to be raped? And she should be punished for having low security? I'll have to agree with the other reply to this post, but I'll save you the repeated curses and slander. After all, it's most likely not your fault that you're an idiot. It was your parents who allowed you to be an idiot and they should be punished severely for it.