The biggest consumer victory over the last years isn't really related to copyright. It's the whole Internet in general.
Cheap, high speed cable access. Almost everyone has an email address these days, even my mum has two.
Even taking into account the enormous amount of crap out there, viruses, script-kiddies, etc, there is still an enormous amount of fantastic and free (as in beer and speech) software for the taking, useful information, online dictionaries - you can find something for almost every subject.
The dot com bubble spoiled (or educated depending on your view) people to expect things for free, but the biggest consumer victory is the wealth of information and content available to all who seek it.
Those who are old enough, try and remember the time before you had regular internet access.
Yes, people may be clamping down on copyrights, yes there are idiotic patents out there, and Microsoft is currently pouring money into nanotechnology in an attempt to turn humanity into a "perfect" society.
On balance the "good internet" outweighs the bad (at least for now). Having that resource available beats the shit out of being able to download the latest Britney Spears mp3. (as in fact would repeatedly punching yourself in the nuts, but you get the idea)
Anything to enable interaction and collaboration is a fantastic idea, but sometimes you need that personal touch. Roll on the VR version of your concept. I'm sitting in Sydney in my comfy slippers, virtually working in a 3d simulated environment in San-Francisco with programmers from all over the world.
True. If you take a decision that you want to work on a contract basis for overseas companies (or even domestic companies) then it is probably essential that you have a company.
As you rightly point out, it could be a lot of trouble dealing with an employee relationship over international boundaries. Certainly the responsibility for simplification of the "selling" of such services falls to the vendor, and not the customer.
Even for me doing work for companies is Austtralia, it makes sense to have a separate legal entity for all sorts of reasons, taxation - income tax in particular, not to mention potential liability and insurance issues.
We've done some work for an Irish company, and if we had to do it on a personal basis it wouldn't fly at all. But any company can pay an invoice.. after all, they do it every day for other services or domestic contractors.
Disadvantages for you I can think of are timezones and exchange rates.
The A$ is currently worth not very much at all (too lazy to look it up) so working "over here" would not be possible - A$50 is a decent enough hourly rate in Sydney, which I think is about 16 pounds and around US$25. I doubt, therefore that someone in the US or UK would want to Telework to Aus. (but contact me with outsourcing opportunities *grin*).
Timezones. I used to have an office in Switzerland (I am based in Sydney) during the.com boom times. It was hell trying to co-ordinate properly. Language, culture, timezones and the asshole quotient (French people) made it difficult to work effectively - and we had an office!!
It is amazing that an 8 hour time difference and a lack of understanding on the other side made it difficult. I was regularly attending meetings at 2am and staying back until 7 or 8 on a daily basis. We couldn't change hour working hours much as we had Aussie customers to deal with.
Now I am working from home by necessity, and I must say I find it more effective, but this is a factor of who I work with rather than the location.
Motivation is key. Time management is a must. Install instant messaging client to reduce comms cost and provide a feeling of connectivity - you can page people to say hi, ask a question.
Working from home you can also get a sense of Isolation, of not being part of the "real world".
It was good recently that I had to go work in the city, put on a suit and get on the train. I enjoyed the variation, it got me out of the house - and also made me appreciate my lair more when I got back home!
... I guess anything with Phoenix BIOS can't safely be used for mission-critical systems then.
I remember reading an interesting article somewhere about a guy who got his mac back by using some remote software on there. It reported its IP address every time the theif connected to the net and as I recall, the guy was uploading scripts to it and so forth to get it to do various things to help recover the box.
I remember thinking at the time that this was a neat idea, but having a third-party with the power to frag my hard drive does not fill me with comfort.
Regardless of how the system works at the technology level, it is potentially open to attack via social engineering... "Hi Phoenix, it's Fred from SCO... those nasty Linux people have pinched my laptop... yep, frag it please..."
I wonder how hard it would be to create some code to close open relays on popular mail servers such as MS Exchange?
Assuming this code could be written, one would then write a selection of Viruses and/or worms which would carry this application as the payload.
It would be all the more amusing if this were an email virus. Then we could very easily purchase a CD containing millions of fresh names for only $19.95.
*grin* I'm chuckling over "frenched out" - I'm gonna use that expression myself in future...
I'm not advocating that a return to cold-war era politics with two (or more) superpowers providing "balance" is a good idea.
However, when one country has the ability to pretty much take what it wants, act how it wants and when it wants with impunity, and that country has a record of doing the wrong thing (Cuba , Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran) then I think I have the right to be a little concerned.
(Until of course the US tanks surround Sydney and start rounding up British citizens)
I agree with you that a sole, benign superpower could be a deterrent - but the USA is not that beast.
The US has not "earned the right" to be the arbiter of good and evil, nor does it have the right to impose its will on others (although it certainly has the ability and the will to do so.
I'm more afraid of the US attitude towards other nations causing catastrophe than I am of terrorists.
Ummm... not quite right. I certainly don't get any US federal subsidies on my cable connection, and I doubt my ISP does anything other than *purchase* bandwidth...
Laughable. The biggest potential for abuse of the GPS system comes from the USA itself.
The USA is not the arbiter of right-and-wrong, good-versus-evil in the world. Other countries have just as much right as the US to have technologies such as GPS, or, even *gasp* WMD.
The real worry that the US Govt. has here is simple - "What happens if we want to invade another country and the world won't play ball?"
Anything that even slightly loosens the US domination of military and weapons technology is a good thing.
The European Union today decided to go ahead with Galileo, the constellation of 30 satellites which will compete with the U.S. GPS system.
Competition is good right? People will be free to chose which positioning system to use? Sounds like the values America supposedly stands for to me...
The U.S. abolished selective availability three years ago partly to make GPS more useful for all mankind, but also to dissuade other countries from developing their own navigational satellite system, and thus be dependant on the U.S. for both peaceful and military purposes.
But it's still US Property, controlled owned (and presumably licenced by US companies). Why shouldn't Europe have one too?
Good thing for commercialization of space, or bad thing for world peace?"
Just cool new geek toys, and maybe a price-drop in GPS?
I'd toyed about the concept of building a virus with a beneficial payload, but gave it up as it's is ethically cloudy to say the least.
For instance, new vulnerabilty reported? Write a virus that exploits (and patches) it. It could conceptually at least spread at the same speed as the original virus.
While that may not always be practical (it would depend obviously on the vulnerability and how complex the patch was) there is the ethical consideration that I have absolutely no rights (read that Eula!) to "attack" your system and "fix" it. Plus, my idea of a "fix" (this product doesn't do DRM correctly) may not equate to yours ("this program does do DRM correctly").
Another alternative would be to replicate the virus logic, with a benign payload "Hey! Sysadmin! Did you know you are vulnerable to - you should go get patch from..."
Laptop = expensive, and not really what I need it for.
Until someone comes up with a decent solution I suppose I could always send her to the local internet cafe;)
... is something that provided a very cheap screen/kb/mouse combination which wirelessly connected to a new session on a linux box. That way, I don't need to scatter boxes all over the house and multiple people could use it all at once.
Mike
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry, I should have qualified my remark with most people "that I know/meet." That was the intent of the remark.
The biggest consumer victory over the last years isn't really related to copyright. It's the whole Internet in general.
Cheap, high speed cable access. Almost everyone has an email address these days, even my mum has two.
Even taking into account the enormous amount of crap out there, viruses, script-kiddies, etc, there is still an enormous amount of fantastic and free (as in beer and speech) software for the taking, useful information, online dictionaries - you can find something for almost every subject.
The dot com bubble spoiled (or educated depending on your view) people to expect things for free, but the biggest consumer victory is the wealth of information and content available to all who seek it.
Those who are old enough, try and remember the time before you had regular internet access.
Yes, people may be clamping down on copyrights, yes there are idiotic patents out there, and Microsoft is currently pouring money into nanotechnology in an attempt to turn humanity into a "perfect" society.
On balance the "good internet" outweighs the bad (at least for now). Having that resource available beats the shit out of being able to download the latest Britney Spears mp3. (as in fact would repeatedly punching yourself in the nuts, but you get the idea)
First Minors, what's next? Pensioners?
... according to a story in todays Sydney Morning Herald they are violent enough already
you had me 'till "egoless programming" ;)
Anything to enable interaction and collaboration is a fantastic idea, but sometimes you need that personal touch. Roll on the VR version of your concept. I'm sitting in Sydney in my comfy slippers, virtually working in a 3d simulated environment in San-Francisco with programmers from all over the world.
And you never need to iron your suit.
True. If you take a decision that you want to work on a contract basis for overseas companies (or even domestic companies) then it is probably essential that you have a company.
As you rightly point out, it could be a lot of trouble dealing with an employee relationship over international boundaries. Certainly the responsibility for simplification of the "selling" of such services falls to the vendor, and not the customer.
Even for me doing work for companies is Austtralia, it makes sense to have a separate legal entity for all sorts of reasons, taxation - income tax in particular, not to mention potential liability and insurance issues.
We've done some work for an Irish company, and if we had to do it on a personal basis it wouldn't fly at all. But any company can pay an invoice.. after all, they do it every day for other services or domestic contractors.
I think if you are a UK citizen working for a US company (remotely) then, the following would apply:
VAT is not chargeable as it is an "export" sale.
US company pays your company.
As an employee of "your company" you are responsible for NI, VAT (on inputs, so mostly refunds I imagine) and PAYE. Mike
Sorry, I forgot to add... I really really miss my whiteboard. Great to grab a few of the team and a whiteboard to collaborate.
Telephone doesn't cut it, regular meetings help, but I still miss my whiteboard. Even though the markers hardly ever worked.
Disadvantages for you I can think of are timezones and exchange rates.
.com boom times. It was hell trying to co-ordinate properly. Language, culture, timezones and the asshole quotient (French people) made it difficult to work effectively - and we had an office!!
The A$ is currently worth not very much at all (too lazy to look it up) so working "over here" would not be possible - A$50 is a decent enough hourly rate in Sydney, which I think is about 16 pounds and around US$25. I doubt, therefore that someone in the US or UK would want to Telework to Aus. (but contact me with outsourcing opportunities *grin*).
Timezones. I used to have an office in Switzerland (I am based in Sydney) during the
It is amazing that an 8 hour time difference and a lack of understanding on the other side made it difficult. I was regularly attending meetings at 2am and staying back until 7 or 8 on a daily basis. We couldn't change hour working hours much as we had Aussie customers to deal with.
Now I am working from home by necessity, and I must say I find it more effective, but this is a factor of who I work with rather than the location.
Motivation is key. Time management is a must. Install instant messaging client to reduce comms cost and provide a feeling of connectivity - you can page people to say hi, ask a question.
Working from home you can also get a sense of Isolation, of not being part of the "real world".
It was good recently that I had to go work in the city, put on a suit and get on the train. I enjoyed the variation, it got me out of the house - and also made me appreciate my lair more when I got back home!
Ooops! Sorry, I meant "third party" in the context of the story (Phoenix) and not in relation to my recollections of the other guy...
I should learn to be more precise!
Mike
... I guess anything with Phoenix BIOS can't safely be used for mission-critical systems then.
I remember reading an interesting article somewhere about a guy who got his mac back by using some remote software on there. It reported its IP address every time the theif connected to the net and as I recall, the guy was uploading scripts to it and so forth to get it to do various things to help recover the box.
I remember thinking at the time that this was a neat idea, but having a third-party with the power to frag my hard drive does not fill me with comfort.
Regardless of how the system works at the technology level, it is potentially open to attack via social engineering... "Hi Phoenix, it's Fred from SCO... those nasty Linux people have pinched my laptop... yep, frag it please..."
I wonder how hard it would be to create some code to close open relays on popular mail servers such as MS Exchange?
Assuming this code could be written, one would then write a selection of Viruses and/or worms which would carry this application as the payload.
It would be all the more amusing if this were an email virus. Then we could very easily purchase a CD containing millions of fresh names for only $19.95.
Nothing wrong with jacking off over Carrie Ann Moss all day.
Where does the idea that US does not want others to access to these technologies come from?
Mostly you get this stuff from newspapers. Usually when they are quoting senior US administration officials (can anyone say "strike North Korea?")
*grin* I'm chuckling over "frenched out" - I'm gonna use that expression myself in future...
I'm not advocating that a return to cold-war era politics with two (or more) superpowers providing "balance" is a good idea.
However, when one country has the ability to pretty much take what it wants, act how it wants and when it wants with impunity, and that country has a record of doing the wrong thing (Cuba , Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran) then I think I have the right to be a little concerned.
(Until of course the US tanks surround Sydney and start rounding up British citizens)
I agree with you that a sole, benign superpower could be a deterrent - but the USA is not that beast.
The US has not "earned the right" to be the arbiter of good and evil, nor does it have the right to impose its will on others (although it certainly has the ability and the will to do so.
I'm more afraid of the US attitude towards other nations causing catastrophe than I am of terrorists.
Ummm... not quite right. I certainly don't get any US federal subsidies on my cable connection, and I doubt my ISP does anything other than *purchase* bandwidth...
Laughable. The biggest potential for abuse of the GPS system comes from the USA itself.
The USA is not the arbiter of right-and-wrong, good-versus-evil in the world. Other countries have just as much right as the US to have technologies such as GPS, or, even *gasp* WMD.
The real worry that the US Govt. has here is simple - "What happens if we want to invade another country and the world won't play ball?"
Anything that even slightly loosens the US domination of military and weapons technology is a good thing.
The European Union today decided to go ahead with Galileo, the constellation of 30 satellites which will compete with the U.S. GPS system.
Competition is good right? People will be free to chose which positioning system to use? Sounds like the values America supposedly stands for to me...
The U.S. abolished selective availability three years ago partly to make GPS more useful for all mankind, but also to dissuade other countries from developing their own navigational satellite system, and thus be dependant on the U.S. for both peaceful and military purposes.
But it's still US Property, controlled owned (and presumably licenced by US companies). Why shouldn't Europe have one too?
Good thing for commercialization of space, or bad thing for world peace?"
Just cool new geek toys, and maybe a price-drop in GPS?
I'd toyed about the concept of building a virus with a beneficial payload, but gave it up as it's is ethically cloudy to say the least. For instance, new vulnerabilty reported? Write a virus that exploits (and patches) it. It could conceptually at least spread at the same speed as the original virus. While that may not always be practical (it would depend obviously on the vulnerability and how complex the patch was) there is the ethical consideration that I have absolutely no rights (read that Eula!) to "attack" your system and "fix" it. Plus, my idea of a "fix" (this product doesn't do DRM correctly) may not equate to yours ("this program does do DRM correctly"). Another alternative would be to replicate the virus logic, with a benign payload "Hey! Sysadmin! Did you know you are vulnerable to - you should go get patch from ..."
Laptop = expensive, and not really what I need it for. Until someone comes up with a decent solution I suppose I could always send her to the local internet cafe ;)
There's not a service fee - it's connecting wirelessly back to your PC using a base station, rather than a cellphone billed per-byte.
... is something that provided a very cheap screen/kb/mouse combination which wirelessly connected to a new session on a linux box. That way, I don't need to scatter boxes all over the house and multiple people could use it all at once. Mike