Coincidentally, the banner ad showing at the top (yes, I don't disable ads... some are interesting) has the $59 ValueWeb server special with 1 terabyte of bandwidth.
This reminds me of the guy who put up an Adobe Golive PDF book for download. Wired article here. Since nobody reads links, the short story is that it was downloaded 10,000 times in 36 hours and faced a possible $15,000 bandwidth bill (which was later rescinded by Level 3, his hosting company).
Earthlink wasn't so charitable to a Halo fan who put up a movie previewing Halo and saw it downloaded 100,000 times. Earthlink charged him $30,000 for the 4500 gigabytes downloaded.
The moral here is that if you're going to put up anything which might be downloaded quite a lot (or if you're expecting a slashdotting), make sure your host doesn't charge through the nose for extra bandwidth. Or, if the file is over 5MB in size (and under 1GB), make a freecache.org link and let others mirror it for you automatically.
then a note goes on your credit card history that you disputed the charge...
Does it? I'm not aware of that. But anyway, the point isn't that you keep using the in-flight phone and disputing the charge, the point is that if you felt you were ripped off because of service that wasn't even close to usable (dropping 10 calls in a row certainly qualifies) then you shouldn't have to pay for such crap. Or, instead of disputing the charge with your bank/credit card company, write to the airline and ask for a refund and explain the circumstances. You'd be surprised what you'd get out of it. Then, until the airline announces improved service, you shouldn't use the phone again unless you're a real glutton for punishment.
I once asked why, and was told that they don't want you to not be able to hear any announcement that might be made during those "critical" times.
This makes sense. The airline-provided in-flight headphones can be turned off when broadcasting a message, or even have the message piped through the earphones. No such luck for a personal item blaring in someone's ears.
$30 isn't unreasonable at all, even if you discount the length of the flight. When you think about it, nobody really *needs* to surf the web or check their email in-flight. For those that really do need to due to business reasons, etc. the $30 is simply the cost of doing business. Or if you need to arrange a time to meet with family or arrange transportation, the $10 for 30 minutes option will save everyone tons of time and is certainly worth it as well.
From a consumer perspective, $30 is equal to a full month of high-speed access, and $10 gets you a full month of unlimited dialup. But that doesn't take into account the additional infrastructure necessary -- satellite connection, safe in-flight wireless, equipment maintenance (sure to be higher for a bumpy aircraft), etc. This is very much comparable to many of the tourist-priced internet cafe places. I think it's a bargain!
It took about 10 attempts to get it to work, the instructions were inaccurate, when something went wrong it just produced a random tone... when i actually got it to work the call was so noisy I could hardly make out a word she said.
Worst $10 call ever...
Next time that happens, call your credit card company and reverse the charges due to "service not as advertised". Lufthansa (or whoever provides the service) will then have to eat the cost of the call. If more and more people do this, it'll force them to either drop the service (due to chargeback costs) or improve the quality.
However, the WIPO has done it by arguing for law in one area such as Patents to be selectively interpreted so that it applies to other areas, and the persons doing the selecting would be the legal representitives of large corporations, whose lawyers are (coincidentally) WIPO members.
I don't know what you're referring to here. Could you provide details on these selective patents? What kind of interpretation are you talking about, and what other areas are these patents being enforced in?
You do know that a whole manufacturers organization like the Florida Orange Grower's Association can jointly file for a trademark?
Of course. Providing that the trademark isn't already registered in the same industry.
Also, isn't a lot of this protected by 'consumer' representation laws? And if it isn't, shouldn't those laws be fixed instead of adding more IP laws? Or are you argueing that consumer protection also falls under IP law?
I'm saying that the impetus for the creation of a lot of IP laws is likely due, in part, to consumer protection. And who's to say that consumer protection laws need fixing? But assuming they do, one way of fixing them might be to introduce some legislation saying that a second company cannot carry on trade using the logos or business/product name as a first company as this could deceive consumers into thinking that the second company is the origin of those particular marks. But then, haven't we just introduced trademark law all over again?
3. "Hey, it's only copyright... not part of the US constitution, so who cares."
Look up "straw man arguement" on Google. I certainly never said that copyright wasn't part of the US constitution. You've delivverd a little sermon on things I and many if not most Slashdot readers already know, missed apparently every point I made, and attempted to put words into my mouth. Is there anything else you would care to do to try to win your arguement?
No, of course you never said that. You'll notice (or maybe not) that I was being facetious in saying that. However, perhaps I did miss the main thrust of your constitutional reference. Could you explain further what you meant by:
"Uhm, because they support trademarks, copyrights, patents amd suc, but disagree with the WIPO about them all falling under a common category that is not found in common law or the US constitution."
The building's denizens are hiring architects to help fix it. I think that's part of Gehry's plan for participatory design. Leave it so unfinished that the inhabitants have to make their own nests!
So this is an example of new Open Schematic architecture? The plans are there for anybody to modify to fix bugs and introduce new features they want.:)
Too bad robots.txt disallows indexing of article.pl pages! Link to the shtml page (http://slashdot.org/articles/04/05/09/1840217.sht ml?tid=126&tid=217&tid=95) instead:
Check robots.txt. All article.pl links are disallowed! Your link will do absolutely nothing. If you want to create a proper link, you'll need to link to the non-perl page, eg:
The test went fairly well, but it wasn't without incident. After reviewing the field test, the project lead recommended adding the following warning label:
that says, post humously != post humorously, you do realize that posthumously means after death? As in, a way of retaining even more than AC-level anonymity?
I think I need my humor checked.
Yeah, I realize what it means. In fact, I might even work in a pun about being Buddhist/Hindu or whatever and gaining karma or something. It's not meant to be knee-slapping, pee-in-your-pants hi-larious. But at best maybe it'll elicit a chuckle from those who actually get it. Judging from the number of people who reply AC and tell me to learn to effin spell... there's quite a few of them who don't.
Yes and no. I read it as the lawsuit would be to force the companies to license their IP or else refrain from using it. Missing was the option where there is no intent to offer licenses in the first place and only have a lawsuit to prevent them from using it at all.
Heh... well, I had a bit of help for the Eliza responses but the Domino's lines are original. As I explained in another reply, I sometimes had to try several different ways of phrasing from the Domino's dude in order to get a sensible response but the output from Eliza is actually genuine.
Where did you get that? A deleted scene from the Matrix Reloaded, where the Oracle tries to order a pizza to no success?
A combination of my warped brain for the Domino's lines and the output of this web page. Type in the Domino's lines and you should get the Eliza responses back verbatim. Of course, Eliza often chooses randomly between several variants so it might take a few tries but I didn't fake the Eliza responses.
Writing one? I used an online Eliza program to generate that dialogue, then copy and pasted it in. Of course, the real time wasting part was when it came back with nonsensical responses so I modified the Domino's lines for maximum hilarity in the Eliza responses.
Hm... that could get quite interesting, especially if you had a natural sounding text to speech convertor and good speech recognition software. Or if you had too much time on your hands and wasted it getting Eliza to give good responses:
****
Domino's Dude: Thank you for calling Dominos. Would you like to hear our specials? Eliza Bot: Oh, I like to hear our specials. Domino's: Okay, two large pepperoni and cheese, six pack of Coke, $12.99. Two medium hawaiin and our disgusting bread product, $9.99. Eliza: Please go on. Domino's: That's it for the specials. What can I get for you? Eliza: Does that question interest you? Domino's: Look, my job is to take orders and make sure the pizza's delivered fresh. Eliza: Why do you say your job is to take orders and make sure the pizza's delivered fresh? Domino's: That's all they pay me for, so what will it be tonight? Eliza: Can you elaborate on that? Domino's: I just want to take your order. Can I start with your phone number? Eliza: Perhaps you don't want to start with my phone number? Domino's: Okay, how about you just tell me what you want then. Eliza: You're not really talking about me, are you? Domino's: Who else... I'm not here for fun. Eliza: Did you come to me because you are not here for fun? Domino's: Hey, I didn't pick the phone up and make the call ok? Eliza: That is quite interesting. Domino's: Look, just let me take your order! Eliza: Why are you concerned about my order? Domino's: The boss is going to kill me if I don't. Eliza: Come, come, elucidate your thoughts. Domino's: My boss is a real jerk! Eliza: What does that suggest to you? Domino's: I think he's an asshole! He probably doesn't even care about his employees. Eliza: Do you really think so? Domino's: Of course... just the other day he screamed at John because he was putting on too many toppings. Eliza: Can you elaborate on that? Domino's: John wants to make customers happy so he usually throws in extra cheese. Eliza: I see. Domino's: and then the boss gets upset because it's costing him a few cents extra! Eliza: That is quite interesting. Domino's: No shit... you think he would realize a happy customer is a repeat customer Eliza: Oh... think he would realize a happy customer is a repeat customer? Domino's: Maybe if Sesame Street explained it in baby talk! Eliza: You don't seem quite certain. Domino's: How can I be certain when he's so unpredictable? Eliza: Do you want to be able to be certain when he's so unpredictable? Domino's: I guess so. Eliza: Tell me more. Domino's: oh FUCK my boss is coming Eliza: What does that suggest to you? Domino's: Sir, I'm on the line with a customer right now. Eliza: How long have you been on the line with a customer right now. Domino's: Christ... he wants to speak to you. Eliza: Oh...? Domino's: Manager here, how can I help you? Eliza: Perhaps you don't want to help me? Domino's: Who is this? Some kind of fucking joke? Eliza: What answer would please you the most? Domino's: You bitch, I can't believe Paul called some fucking chat line. Eliza: Have you tried? Domino's: No, I'm not going to try... I'm here to make money not waste it. Eliza: How long have you been not going to try... you're here to make money not waste it? Domino's: Damn straight... been doing this now for five years. Eliza: What does that suggest to you? Domino's: Aside from the fact that I need a vacation? Eliza: Can you elaborate on that? Domino's: The wife nags me every night, telling me I work too much. Eliza: I'm not sure I understand you fully. Domino's: She thinks that because I work from afternoon to late at night, I don't give her enough. Eliza: Does that trouble you? Domino's: She's a nice girl, I guess I want her to be happy but she doesn't understand me. Eliza: Suppose you got her to be happy but she doesn't understand you? Domino's: Hey, I could live with her not understa
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Coincidentally, the banner ad showing at the top (yes, I don't disable ads... some are interesting) has the $59 ValueWeb server special with 1 terabyte of bandwidth.
...especially when you consider that both NeXT and Be were started by former Apple VPs (Steve Jobs and Jean-Louis Gassee).
This reminds me of the guy who put up an Adobe Golive PDF book for download. Wired article here. Since nobody reads links, the short story is that it was downloaded 10,000 times in 36 hours and faced a possible $15,000 bandwidth bill (which was later rescinded by Level 3, his hosting company).
Earthlink wasn't so charitable to a Halo fan who put up a movie previewing Halo and saw it downloaded 100,000 times. Earthlink charged him $30,000 for the 4500 gigabytes downloaded.
The moral here is that if you're going to put up anything which might be downloaded quite a lot (or if you're expecting a slashdotting), make sure your host doesn't charge through the nose for extra bandwidth. Or, if the file is over 5MB in size (and under 1GB), make a freecache.org link and let others mirror it for you automatically.
then a note goes on your credit card history that you disputed the charge...
Does it? I'm not aware of that. But anyway, the point isn't that you keep using the in-flight phone and disputing the charge, the point is that if you felt you were ripped off because of service that wasn't even close to usable (dropping 10 calls in a row certainly qualifies) then you shouldn't have to pay for such crap. Or, instead of disputing the charge with your bank/credit card company, write to the airline and ask for a refund and explain the circumstances. You'd be surprised what you'd get out of it. Then, until the airline announces improved service, you shouldn't use the phone again unless you're a real glutton for punishment.
What protocol do they use in arrivals? 802.36DD?
I once asked why, and was told that they don't want you to not be able to hear any announcement that might be made during those "critical" times.
This makes sense. The airline-provided in-flight headphones can be turned off when broadcasting a message, or even have the message piped through the earphones. No such luck for a personal item blaring in someone's ears.
$30 isn't unreasonable at all, even if you discount the length of the flight. When you think about it, nobody really *needs* to surf the web or check their email in-flight. For those that really do need to due to business reasons, etc. the $30 is simply the cost of doing business. Or if you need to arrange a time to meet with family or arrange transportation, the $10 for 30 minutes option will save everyone tons of time and is certainly worth it as well.
From a consumer perspective, $30 is equal to a full month of high-speed access, and $10 gets you a full month of unlimited dialup. But that doesn't take into account the additional infrastructure necessary -- satellite connection, safe in-flight wireless, equipment maintenance (sure to be higher for a bumpy aircraft), etc. This is very much comparable to many of the tourist-priced internet cafe places. I think it's a bargain!
It took about 10 attempts to get it to work, the instructions were inaccurate, when something went wrong it just produced a random tone... when i actually got it to work the call was so noisy I could hardly make out a word she said.
Worst $10 call ever...
Next time that happens, call your credit card company and reverse the charges due to "service not as advertised". Lufthansa (or whoever provides the service) will then have to eat the cost of the call. If more and more people do this, it'll force them to either drop the service (due to chargeback costs) or improve the quality.
Luckily I wasn't holding my coffee cup when I read that one!
mod up!
I don't know what you're referring to here. Could you provide details on these selective patents? What kind of interpretation are you talking about, and what other areas are these patents being enforced in?
You do know that a whole manufacturers organization like the Florida Orange Grower's Association can jointly file for a trademark?
Of course. Providing that the trademark isn't already registered in the same industry.
Also, isn't a lot of this protected by 'consumer' representation laws? And if it isn't, shouldn't those laws be fixed instead of adding more IP laws? Or are you argueing that consumer protection also falls under IP law?
I'm saying that the impetus for the creation of a lot of IP laws is likely due, in part, to consumer protection. And who's to say that consumer protection laws need fixing? But assuming they do, one way of fixing them might be to introduce some legislation saying that a second company cannot carry on trade using the logos or business/product name as a first company as this could deceive consumers into thinking that the second company is the origin of those particular marks. But then, haven't we just introduced trademark law all over again?
3. "Hey, it's only copyright... not part of the US constitution, so who cares."
Look up "straw man arguement" on Google. I certainly never said that copyright wasn't part of the US constitution. You've delivverd a little sermon on things I and many if not most Slashdot readers already know, missed apparently every point I made, and attempted to put words into my mouth. Is there anything else you would care to do to try to win your arguement?
No, of course you never said that. You'll notice (or maybe not) that I was being facetious in saying that. However, perhaps I did miss the main thrust of your constitutional reference. Could you explain further what you meant by:
The building's denizens are hiring architects to help fix it. I think that's part of Gehry's plan for participatory design. Leave it so unfinished that the inhabitants have to make their own nests!
:)
So this is an example of new Open Schematic architecture? The plans are there for anybody to modify to fix bugs and introduce new features they want.
Well done! You got modded up and also likely increased your pagerank for the links you provided as well. :)
Too bad robots.txt disallows indexing of article.pl pages! Link to the shtml page (http://slashdot.org/articles/04/05/09/1840217.sht ml?tid=126&tid=217&tid=95) instead:
nigritude ultramarine will help your nigritude get more ultramarine today!
Check robots.txt. All article.pl links are disallowed! Your link will do absolutely nothing. If you want to create a proper link, you'll need to link to the non-perl page, eg:
Find information on nigritude ultramarine today!
I prefer the shortened version:
A man walks into a bar... "OW!"
I figured we'd be hearing from Mr. Crusher telling us that we should simply reverse the polarity and we'd have a great repulsor laser.
The test went fairly well, but it wasn't without incident. After reviewing the field test, the project lead recommended adding the following warning label:
:)
"Do not look into laser with remaining eye."
Sorry, it had to be said.
that says, post humously != post humorously, you do realize that posthumously means after death? As in, a way of retaining even more than AC-level anonymity?
I think I need my humor checked.
Yeah, I realize what it means. In fact, I might even work in a pun about being Buddhist/Hindu or whatever and gaining karma or something. It's not meant to be knee-slapping, pee-in-your-pants hi-larious. But at best maybe it'll elicit a chuckle from those who actually get it. Judging from the number of people who reply AC and tell me to learn to effin spell... there's quite a few of them who don't.
Yes and no. I read it as the lawsuit would be to force the companies to license their IP or else refrain from using it. Missing was the option where there is no intent to offer licenses in the first place and only have a lawsuit to prevent them from using it at all.
Thanks. Should I try Playboy first? Maybe I can work in some three-way. :)
Whaddya expect for 120 characters? Shakespeare?
Heh... well, I had a bit of help for the Eliza responses but the Domino's lines are original. As I explained in another reply, I sometimes had to try several different ways of phrasing from the Domino's dude in order to get a sensible response but the output from Eliza is actually genuine.
Where did you get that? A deleted scene from the Matrix Reloaded, where the Oracle tries to order a pizza to no success?
A combination of my warped brain for the Domino's lines and the output of this web page. Type in the Domino's lines and you should get the Eliza responses back verbatim. Of course, Eliza often chooses randomly between several variants so it might take a few tries but I didn't fake the Eliza responses.
Writing one? I used an online Eliza program to generate that dialogue, then copy and pasted it in. Of course, the real time wasting part was when it came back with nonsensical responses so I modified the Domino's lines for maximum hilarity in the Eliza responses.
Hm... that could get quite interesting, especially if you had a natural sounding text to speech convertor and good speech recognition software. Or if you had too much time on your hands and wasted it getting Eliza to give good responses:
...?
****
Domino's Dude: Thank you for calling Dominos. Would you like to hear our specials?
Eliza Bot: Oh, I like to hear our specials.
Domino's: Okay, two large pepperoni and cheese, six pack of Coke, $12.99. Two medium hawaiin and our disgusting bread product, $9.99.
Eliza: Please go on.
Domino's: That's it for the specials. What can I get for you?
Eliza: Does that question interest you?
Domino's: Look, my job is to take orders and make sure the pizza's delivered fresh.
Eliza: Why do you say your job is to take orders and make sure the pizza's delivered fresh?
Domino's: That's all they pay me for, so what will it be tonight?
Eliza: Can you elaborate on that?
Domino's: I just want to take your order. Can I start with your phone number?
Eliza: Perhaps you don't want to start with my phone number?
Domino's: Okay, how about you just tell me what you want then.
Eliza: You're not really talking about me, are you?
Domino's: Who else... I'm not here for fun.
Eliza: Did you come to me because you are not here for fun?
Domino's: Hey, I didn't pick the phone up and make the call ok?
Eliza: That is quite interesting.
Domino's: Look, just let me take your order!
Eliza: Why are you concerned about my order?
Domino's: The boss is going to kill me if I don't.
Eliza: Come, come, elucidate your thoughts.
Domino's: My boss is a real jerk!
Eliza: What does that suggest to you?
Domino's: I think he's an asshole! He probably doesn't even care about his employees.
Eliza: Do you really think so?
Domino's: Of course... just the other day he screamed at John because he was putting on too many toppings.
Eliza: Can you elaborate on that?
Domino's: John wants to make customers happy so he usually throws in extra cheese.
Eliza: I see.
Domino's: and then the boss gets upset because it's costing him a few cents extra!
Eliza: That is quite interesting.
Domino's: No shit... you think he would realize a happy customer is a repeat customer
Eliza: Oh... think he would realize a happy customer is a repeat customer?
Domino's: Maybe if Sesame Street explained it in baby talk!
Eliza: You don't seem quite certain.
Domino's: How can I be certain when he's so unpredictable?
Eliza: Do you want to be able to be certain when he's so unpredictable?
Domino's: I guess so.
Eliza: Tell me more.
Domino's: oh FUCK my boss is coming
Eliza: What does that suggest to you?
Domino's: Sir, I'm on the line with a customer right now.
Eliza: How long have you been on the line with a customer right now.
Domino's: Christ... he wants to speak to you.
Eliza: Oh
Domino's: Manager here, how can I help you?
Eliza: Perhaps you don't want to help me?
Domino's: Who is this? Some kind of fucking joke?
Eliza: What answer would please you the most?
Domino's: You bitch, I can't believe Paul called some fucking chat line.
Eliza: Have you tried?
Domino's: No, I'm not going to try... I'm here to make money not waste it.
Eliza: How long have you been not going to try... you're here to make money not waste it?
Domino's: Damn straight... been doing this now for five years.
Eliza: What does that suggest to you?
Domino's: Aside from the fact that I need a vacation?
Eliza: Can you elaborate on that?
Domino's: The wife nags me every night, telling me I work too much.
Eliza: I'm not sure I understand you fully.
Domino's: She thinks that because I work from afternoon to late at night, I don't give her enough.
Eliza: Does that trouble you?
Domino's: She's a nice girl, I guess I want her to be happy but she doesn't understand me.
Eliza: Suppose you got her to be happy but she doesn't understand you?
Domino's: Hey, I could live with her not understa