Does it not seem like the RIAA is shooting themselves in the foot with this? I always thought one of the main points of playing tunes on the radio was advertising for the artists, enticing people to buy the whole album. No, the RIAA will just give back those fees as kick back to the station while telling them what they want to play. This way, The RIAA guaranties their control over the station for free (give back what they just got) and can crush independent radios playing a mix of music including non RIAA.
You don't even need to hit him in the face, just a nice reflection on the windshield of the copter would be enough to distract or even blind him. Some of those green lasers ARE quite powerful. You can get the low power ones (http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/Elite_Series-69-3.html
150mW is nothing to disregard. Don't shine it at someone's face...
I think he is talking about adding Madden on all the platforms for one year. Halo is an exclusive, so all the sales will be on one platform, while a game like madden gets its sales split up between 4 platforms.
I'm sure it will hurt the series in some way, but the original creator of God of War, David Jaffe, is still around. He worked on GoW 1 and 2 (along with Barlog).
From the summary: His exit comes just under four months after God of War series creative director, David Jaffe announced he was leaving SCEA's employ after 14 years.
you forgot the cause of a lot of security breach, virus infections and other problems
5) Most people are naturally trusting
They will trust their fellow man or the technology that they do not understand, mostly because they can not grasp what the other person would have to gain by lying to them (in an email spam for example).
The kind of skepticism you have in the streets about strangers is an acquired skill, drilled into you by your parents. Otherwise, as a kid, you would just follow the first stranger to promise you a candy. Most people are still in the infancy stage regarding technology. People offer them candy, they follow and get a nasty surprise (trojan, virus, worm, scam...). But most people consider themselves savy and insulted if you dare to mention such a thing...
Could it be that (shock and surprise!) you are not the target market for the wii?
The usual gamers and most people that spend lots of time on video games and expect deep engaging contents are NOT what Nintendo is aiming the wii at. I know it is disappointing for that crowd to not be the focus of the biggest console maker, but this is the choice Nintendo has made this generation: instead of targeting gamers and competing with the other 2, they went for the casual market and brought back gaming as a family activity.
I agree to everything you say on the Wii. It does have a lot of hype and it lacks new games. But this does not takes its qualities away. It is a perfect game for casual gamers. It is the only console where you can get anyone to play with you, from 6 to 80 years old. I've gotten my 6 year old niece to play wii sport (she loves the bowling game) or wii play (she likes fishing) and even my step mother (age 60+) played wii sport with us.
The people buying are not "gamers". They just enjoyed so much wii sport at a friend's house, that they are looking for one for themselves. The wii so far is pretty much a wii sport machine, but most of those people have been brought up on Mario and they will probably take the jump when galaxy is released.
I would not be surprised if the wii trailed the 2 other consoles on software/machine, as the people will really concentrate on a few games only, but this is not a real problem for nintendo, as they are making money on the console itself. 3rd party will need to understand their market to make money (look at ubisoft and rayman), but there will be potential for it.
So, the difficulty of finding a wii is not so much due to the hype than to the viral effect (about 20% coming to play with us at home want to get one afterward). Supply is only now catching up with the demand (a YEAR later!).
Oh, by the way, although MS is doing great sales with Halo3, This might be the only quarter they will get a positive cash flow again (on the xbox1, the quarters they released halo1 and halo2 were the only positive ones). This is the fact that worries me most about MS' future in the game market. So far, it is a money pit for them (about $2 billions per generation).
If I had mod points, I would give some to you. I've had to do that kind of trouble shooting on my own home computer and I can tell from experience that RAM is pretty hard to diagnose. Sure, running memtest over the night (8-10h or more) will probably catch it, but if you have to diagnose the failure in 30 minutes, there is no real good way to catch it.
In my case, my computer started to fail file validation for an MMO more and more regularly. Still stable as a rock (I had 1GB of ram), but will validating (basically running CRC on the files to make sure you have the latest version/are not cheating) I would fail regularly, download the file again and still fail sometimes. I also started to get what seemed like file corruption on my HDDs. I tried to isolate this problem to a single HDD (I had 3 in this computer), started running CRCs and file copies on the drives, but the errors would be inconsistant. After a week of that behavior, I took the plunge and went into a full debug session, running stability tests (prime95 for 8+ hours), hard drive manufacturer fitness tests and finally memtest for a night. Took over 6h of test for memtest to see the failure. The memory had been tested good 3 months earlier. First (and only so far) time I've experienced an integrated all silicon component failure.
I RMA'd the part and got new working ones, but this is just to emphasize the point that a *SERIOUS* computer diagnosis is required to find that kind of problem. Symptoms of ram failures are erratic, inconsistant and shared by a bunch of other failures (can look like HDD failure, spyware, virus...). Add to this that such technicians will have to diagnose in a limited time and I would be less likely to accuse them of gouging.
If you think that Moore's Law is about the frequency of the processor, you are badly mistaken (but it's mostly not your fault as this is what it has been summarized to in the media).
Moore's Law is a law of economics, scale and progress. The gist is that computing power at a given cost will double every 18 months. It does not matter if this progression is achieved by cranking the frequency (MHz rule) or by increasing the number of transistor and parallel processing (Core rule). This is all about the economics of processing power.
It comes from the fact that the industry transitions to a new, finer technology every 12-18 months and hence can build more, faster transistors in a given area of silicon.
The problem is that each new transition comes with new challenges and as long as the challenge is not overcome or at least has a roadmap to a solution, there is a risk the progression stops here. This happens every few years. This mostly tells us they have plans for progressions for the next 10-15 years and unless we have newer discoveries in the mean time (which has always happened so far), we will not overcome this limit. 10 years is a long time in term of scientific discoveries...
Hey NBC: I have chosen not to have cable, but want to pay you for Heroes. Guess what my only alternative will be if you pull it from iTunes?
Just watching it, legally, online on the NBC website? They offer all their episodes barely hours after the first broadcast. For free so far (ad-supported I guess). They may have plans to get their own online distribution?
We're the US, the greatest country on Earth! Why aren't we getting it first?
I know you said that i jest, but there is a reason: Europe is much further along in its conversion to digital TV (including HDTV) and the tuner they use in a DVB-T, the european norm. US use the ATSC norm for over the air digital broadcast and penetration is not nearly as good.
Although, on this one, your are getting f***ed quite deeply;)
That's where the fun is: They "win" without even paying a cent. They succeeded in adding the openness term to the auction. Now, they just need to place *ONE* minimal amount bid and look at the other players rip each other's throat to block them access to the airwaves. But, by placing the bet, they ensure that the openness clause will take effect
In the end, they'll just have to put out a device on the standard.
Now, they definitely could use that spectrum to actually create a last mile connection network. As they are rumored to already own a bunch of dark fiber, they would have a top to bottom network infrastructure. Enough to scare the telcos. Maybe Google will enter that market to ensure a free (as in unrestricted) connection to their customers. Maybe they'll just stick to online service and enter devices on a free network. The uncertainty will push the telcos to bid higher and they certainly don't have as much cash laying around as Google does...
I don't know if they'll have enough time to rebuild the craft in time for the event.
They still have a backup module that will be used for the X-prize Cup in October. They are just working without a backup right now and will be more careful till october. After ther X-prize cup, they will have the next rockets ready anyway, so although it *IS* a bad day and a costly accident, this will not set them back too badly in their plans.
One of the big difference between the US and Europe is about how information is seen. In the US, the information belongs to the person collecting it. In Europe, it belongs to the person it describes. As such, in Europe, all information people have about you is declared and YOU have a right to get it removed, changed or prevent the organisation to sell it in a much better way than in the US. The fear is NOT the ID card itself, it is about all the info your government will collect and then most probably resell to the highest bidder.
The fact that many or most of the defendants are actually guilty will greatly weaken any class-action suit.
I'm sorry, who said they were guilty? When had the court condemned them and who where those criminals?
The fact that you take action that may break a law does not make you guilty until a court recognize it so. There have been no guilty verdict that I know of, only settlements and dismissal (without prejudice in the case of settlements) and now one dismissal with prejudice and guilty verdict AGAINST the RIAA (Atlantic records).
The US justice doctrine is innocent until proven guilty. By saying that those people are guilty, you are robbing them of their right AND buying the RIAA's logic, hook and sinker.
For example, the judgment has proven that the proofs given by the RIAA are either illegal or not receivable by most courts, as they were obtained by people without the right to do so (unlicensed private investigators). And most of those "proofs" were flimsy at best.
So, although a lot of people do engage in file swapping and a lot do it with copyrighted material, I have not heard of any conviction for that fact. A person was actually condemned in Europe, but the amount of the fine was way below the settlement amount asked by the local publisher. The judge gave him a blanket fine covering all his infringement that amounted to a few cents a song.
Apple was once the established market leader for PC's. Not today. Sony Playstations once dominated the console market... yet there was Microsoft with the audacity to build and market something called the "X Box". And that audacity has cost them 2 Billions of dollars per iterations ($4B so far...). The fact that you can buy market share in an established procedure, the problem is to actually create a product that is competitive enough and cheaper enough to displace the entrenched competition. I would not use the xbox as such an example. So far, they are trading market space for money. In the same vein, Nintendo did the opposite: their last 2 generations have been told to have "lost" the console war, yet Nintendo made money hand over fist. They traded a bit of market share for a lot of profit.
How will Adobe's try act? Who knows? They certainly have the know-how and the mind share for office programs. Will they be ready to "invest" heavily and trade dollars for market share? Or will they get such a product that it can succeed on its own merit?
Also I've heard some schools require kids to do work in MS Office at home. Are they really telling parents they have to go out and spend $150-$400? Or do they THINK they're telling parents and kids to use something they already have? If they already have it, how many of those are pirated copies.
Most schools actually offer student programs to acquire LEGALLY MS software for cheap (from $10 to $200 for Office depending on which school).
Even if they did not, do you really thank that schools that push you to get $100 books and pay $1000/credit hour would even blink at making you pay $250 ONCE for your curriculum?
Then there is the configuration and maintenance cost. It costs people time to install and maintain a Linux OS loaded up with software. Support isn't always free for applications. A lot of OSS software I've seen pushes the "Here is the *tool* free, now pay us to train you, and/or make it work for you." How is that different from windows? Maintenance on a windows computer is usually even more expensive, both in time and in software needed. You will need an anti virus, a spyware blocker and do regular scans of both. You will have to keep your drivers up to date. You will have to patch the OS several times a month. All those activities can be mostly automated, but the same can be said under Linux. No real difference there. Maintenance in maintenance, whatever the software used...
While I have no love for J&J for this stunt, I have no sympathy for the Red Cross. Taste of their own poison serves them right. They may have done wonderful things in the past, and they are a terribly important organization overall, but they need a swift kick in the balls to get themselves back on track and helping people instead of going after inane bullshit. They have been a monstrous waste of resources as of late, and it is about time someone steps up and fixes it. You are mixing up the American Red Cross with the International Red Cross. One seems to be going on a money grab, the other is a rather well meaning organization that has done a lot of good, although they have been tainted by several national organization's scandals. The international Red Cross is almost always the first organization to react in an emergency of catastrophe of the highest scale.
It IS a bloody public domain symbol. How does one indicate on a sign where the first aid station is in a public place? That's right--red cross on a white background. And how did people come to recognize this symbol? This is NOT a public domain symbol, this is a symbol defined during the GENEVA convention for first aid and medical supplies during times of war. Another poster has quoted the relevant text of the convention that defines and REGULATES the use of this symbol. The goal is to avoid targeting those points and for soldiers to know where to get free treatment.
The ARC, as a national Red Cross organization, gets a license to use this, as long as it respects the charter. Any other entity (commercial included) should not be able to use that symbol.
How else can you explain all the "dark" fibre that has been installed, at great expense, and then (supposedly) not used? very simply: bad projections that never happened. During the peak of the dot com boom, people started to build the infrastructure to sustain the current growth. At the time, *everything* was turning into a web service and everyone and their dogs were creating new internet startups. The prediction for bandwidth was through the roof and backbone companies took notice and started building more infrastructure.
Next thing you know, the dot crash was here and all those companies that served useless but bandwidth intensive services died. The infrastructure had been built though and is still here. 6+ years later, we finally see the same services re-emerge, but with an actual business plan and revenue stream (for example internet storage).
The infrastructure does not vanish once it's been built. Predictions may not happen, but you still need to act on them to sustain business.
Google has been said to buy a lot of that dark fiber... We may learn one day for what usage...
If you're about to say that this only applies to tivoized devices, you should take a look at the market and see that the majority of corporate uptake of OSS has been in internet-connected appliances. Internet connected does not mean "tivoized". For example, Linksys used the Linux kernel on its routers, got forced to publish the source and now you have 3rd party firmware for those devices. So, they did participate and they did use Linux. This deal would still be valid under GPLv3. The only thing you are not allowed to do is FORBID anyone else to put modified code on your device by signing the code. You can be networked all you want and allow 3rd party code. Those are different issues.
Actually, Microsoft already provides such a service for their Media Center Editions users. The media center shell will get that data automatically, with a 2 weeks forward visibility.
I suppose that microsoft either pays for that service or just provides it from a known good stream and you pay for it in the cost of the OS (either Win XP MCE or some of the Vistas).
As all those streams, they are not always correct (programming DOES change unexpectedly), but usually, works just fine.
Actually, the biggest difference between the US and the EU is WHO owns the data. In the US, the data belongs to the entity that collects it. In the EU, the data belongs to the person it represents.
Once that difference sinks in, you'll see that all the rest is just a derivative of it. If the information belongs to you, the organizations collecting it need your authorization to do anything with it (especially share it) and are responsible if they lose it (as it belongs to you and they are only safe-keeping it).
THIS is the real difference and nothing that bill will address...
Over in the UK, people are being sent to France for surgery because they'd die on the waiting lists if they didn't go and France's system is? Anyone care to take a guess? Oh, yeah, right, it is a public system too. So, this is just a proof that public health care systems do not have to be slower than private ones, they just need the right organization. France has one of the best health care in the world and it IS paid by their taxes with very small copays at the time of service.
As for cost: Our health insurance is too good at insulating us from the costs of various procedures. We don't shop around for a good deal. Truth is: you cannot shop for a good deal. You can get the cost of the operation without insurance by asking the provider, but neither the provider nor the insurance will tell you what will the final cost be WITH the insurance. You insurance covers maybe 80% AND they have a special discount. That discount is a trade secret and will only appear on your bill AFTER the operation. Shop arround for something like LASIK and see by yourself...
Slashdot Mirror
Does it not seem like the RIAA is shooting themselves in the foot with this? I always thought one of the main points of playing tunes on the radio was advertising for the artists, enticing people to buy the whole album.
No, the RIAA will just give back those fees as kick back to the station while telling them what they want to play.
This way, The RIAA guaranties their control over the station for free (give back what they just got) and can crush independent radios playing a mix of music including non RIAA.
You don't even need to hit him in the face, just a nice reflection on the windshield of the copter would be enough to distract or even blind him.
Some of those green lasers ARE quite powerful. You can get the low power ones (http://www.wickedlasers.com/lasers/Elite_Series-69-3.html
150mW is nothing to disregard. Don't shine it at someone's face...
I think he is talking about adding Madden on all the platforms for one year.
Halo is an exclusive, so all the sales will be on one platform, while a game like madden gets its sales split up between 4 platforms.
I'm sure it will hurt the series in some way, but the original creator of God of War, David Jaffe, is still around. He worked on GoW 1 and 2 (along with Barlog).
From the summary:
His exit comes just under four months after God of War series creative director, David Jaffe announced he was leaving SCEA's employ after 14 years.
So, no. They lost both it seems...
you forgot the cause of a lot of security breach, virus infections and other problems
5) Most people are naturally trusting
They will trust their fellow man or the technology that they do not understand, mostly because they can not grasp what the other person would have to gain by lying to them (in an email spam for example).
The kind of skepticism you have in the streets about strangers is an acquired skill, drilled into you by your parents. Otherwise, as a kid, you would just follow the first stranger to promise you a candy.
Most people are still in the infancy stage regarding technology. People offer them candy, they follow and get a nasty surprise (trojan, virus, worm, scam...). But most people consider themselves savy and insulted if you dare to mention such a thing...
Could it be that (shock and surprise!) you are not the target market for the wii?
The usual gamers and most people that spend lots of time on video games and expect deep engaging contents are NOT what Nintendo is aiming the wii at. I know it is disappointing for that crowd to not be the focus of the biggest console maker, but this is the choice Nintendo has made this generation: instead of targeting gamers and competing with the other 2, they went for the casual market and brought back gaming as a family activity.
I agree to everything you say on the Wii. It does have a lot of hype and it lacks new games. But this does not takes its qualities away. It is a perfect game for casual gamers. It is the only console where you can get anyone to play with you, from 6 to 80 years old. I've gotten my 6 year old niece to play wii sport (she loves the bowling game) or wii play (she likes fishing) and even my step mother (age 60+) played wii sport with us.
The people buying are not "gamers". They just enjoyed so much wii sport at a friend's house, that they are looking for one for themselves. The wii so far is pretty much a wii sport machine, but most of those people have been brought up on Mario and they will probably take the jump when galaxy is released.
I would not be surprised if the wii trailed the 2 other consoles on software/machine, as the people will really concentrate on a few games only, but this is not a real problem for nintendo, as they are making money on the console itself. 3rd party will need to understand their market to make money (look at ubisoft and rayman), but there will be potential for it.
So, the difficulty of finding a wii is not so much due to the hype than to the viral effect (about 20% coming to play with us at home want to get one afterward). Supply is only now catching up with the demand (a YEAR later!).
Oh, by the way, although MS is doing great sales with Halo3, This might be the only quarter they will get a positive cash flow again (on the xbox1, the quarters they released halo1 and halo2 were the only positive ones). This is the fact that worries me most about MS' future in the game market. So far, it is a money pit for them (about $2 billions per generation).
If I had mod points, I would give some to you.
I've had to do that kind of trouble shooting on my own home computer and I can tell from experience that RAM is pretty hard to diagnose. Sure, running memtest over the night (8-10h or more) will probably catch it, but if you have to diagnose the failure in 30 minutes, there is no real good way to catch it.
In my case, my computer started to fail file validation for an MMO more and more regularly. Still stable as a rock (I had 1GB of ram), but will validating (basically running CRC on the files to make sure you have the latest version/are not cheating) I would fail regularly, download the file again and still fail sometimes. I also started to get what seemed like file corruption on my HDDs. I tried to isolate this problem to a single HDD (I had 3 in this computer), started running CRCs and file copies on the drives, but the errors would be inconsistant. After a week of that behavior, I took the plunge and went into a full debug session, running stability tests (prime95 for 8+ hours), hard drive manufacturer fitness tests and finally memtest for a night. Took over 6h of test for memtest to see the failure. The memory had been tested good 3 months earlier. First (and only so far) time I've experienced an integrated all silicon component failure.
I RMA'd the part and got new working ones, but this is just to emphasize the point that a *SERIOUS* computer diagnosis is required to find that kind of problem. Symptoms of ram failures are erratic, inconsistant and shared by a bunch of other failures (can look like HDD failure, spyware, virus...). Add to this that such technicians will have to diagnose in a limited time and I would be less likely to accuse them of gouging.
If you think that Moore's Law is about the frequency of the processor, you are badly mistaken (but it's mostly not your fault as this is what it has been summarized to in the media).
Moore's Law is a law of economics, scale and progress.
The gist is that computing power at a given cost will double every 18 months. It does not matter if this progression is achieved by cranking the frequency (MHz rule) or by increasing the number of transistor and parallel processing (Core rule). This is all about the economics of processing power.
It comes from the fact that the industry transitions to a new, finer technology every 12-18 months and hence can build more, faster transistors in a given area of silicon.
The problem is that each new transition comes with new challenges and as long as the challenge is not overcome or at least has a roadmap to a solution, there is a risk the progression stops here. This happens every few years. This mostly tells us they have plans for progressions for the next 10-15 years and unless we have newer discoveries in the mean time (which has always happened so far), we will not overcome this limit. 10 years is a long time in term of scientific discoveries...
Hey NBC: I have chosen not to have cable, but want to pay you for Heroes. Guess what my only alternative will be if you pull it from iTunes?
Just watching it, legally, online on the NBC website?
They offer all their episodes barely hours after the first broadcast.
For free so far (ad-supported I guess). They may have plans to get their own online distribution?
We're the US, the greatest country on Earth!
;)
Why aren't we getting it first?
I know you said that i jest, but there is a reason: Europe is much further along in its conversion to digital TV (including HDTV) and the tuner they use in a DVB-T, the european norm.
US use the ATSC norm for over the air digital broadcast and penetration is not nearly as good.
Although, on this one, your are getting f***ed quite deeply
It's not obvious, It's done with a computer!
It's kinda the magic sentence to get your patent approved these days...
That's where the fun is: They "win" without even paying a cent. They succeeded in adding the openness term to the auction. Now, they just need to place *ONE* minimal amount bid and look at the other players rip each other's throat to block them access to the airwaves. But, by placing the bet, they ensure that the openness clause will take effect
In the end, they'll just have to put out a device on the standard.
Now, they definitely could use that spectrum to actually create a last mile connection network. As they are rumored to already own a bunch of dark fiber, they would have a top to bottom network infrastructure. Enough to scare the telcos. Maybe Google will enter that market to ensure a free (as in unrestricted) connection to their customers. Maybe they'll just stick to online service and enter devices on a free network. The uncertainty will push the telcos to bid higher and they certainly don't have as much cash laying around as Google does...
I don't know if they'll have enough time to rebuild the craft in time for the event.
They still have a backup module that will be used for the X-prize Cup in October. They are just working without a backup right now and will be more careful till october.
After ther X-prize cup, they will have the next rockets ready anyway, so although it *IS* a bad day and a costly accident, this will not set them back too badly in their plans.
One of the big difference between the US and Europe is about how information is seen.
In the US, the information belongs to the person collecting it. In Europe, it belongs to the person it describes. As such, in Europe, all information people have about you is declared and YOU have a right to get it removed, changed or prevent the organisation to sell it in a much better way than in the US. The fear is NOT the ID card itself, it is about all the info your government will collect and then most probably resell to the highest bidder.
The fact that many or most of the defendants are actually guilty will greatly weaken any class-action suit.
I'm sorry, who said they were guilty? When had the court condemned them and who where those criminals?
The fact that you take action that may break a law does not make you guilty until a court recognize it so. There have been no guilty verdict that I know of, only settlements and dismissal (without prejudice in the case of settlements) and now one dismissal with prejudice and guilty verdict AGAINST the RIAA (Atlantic records).
The US justice doctrine is innocent until proven guilty. By saying that those people are guilty, you are robbing them of their right AND buying the RIAA's logic, hook and sinker.
For example, the judgment has proven that the proofs given by the RIAA are either illegal or not receivable by most courts, as they were obtained by people without the right to do so (unlicensed private investigators). And most of those "proofs" were flimsy at best.
So, although a lot of people do engage in file swapping and a lot do it with copyrighted material, I have not heard of any conviction for that fact. A person was actually condemned in Europe, but the amount of the fine was way below the settlement amount asked by the local publisher. The judge gave him a blanket fine covering all his infringement that amounted to a few cents a song.
Apple was once the established market leader for PC's. Not today. Sony Playstations once dominated the console market... yet there was Microsoft with the audacity to build and market something called the "X Box".
And that audacity has cost them 2 Billions of dollars per iterations ($4B so far...).
The fact that you can buy market share in an established procedure, the problem is to actually create a product that is competitive enough and cheaper enough to displace the entrenched competition. I would not use the xbox as such an example. So far, they are trading market space for money. In the same vein, Nintendo did the opposite: their last 2 generations have been told to have "lost" the console war, yet Nintendo made money hand over fist. They traded a bit of market share for a lot of profit.
How will Adobe's try act? Who knows? They certainly have the know-how and the mind share for office programs. Will they be ready to "invest" heavily and trade dollars for market share? Or will they get such a product that it can succeed on its own merit?
Also I've heard some schools require kids to do work in MS Office at home. Are they really telling parents they have to go out and spend $150-$400? Or do they THINK they're telling parents and kids to use something they already have? If they already have it, how many of those are pirated copies.
Most schools actually offer student programs to acquire LEGALLY MS software for cheap (from $10 to $200 for Office depending on which school).
Even if they did not, do you really thank that schools that push you to get $100 books and pay $1000/credit hour would even blink at making you pay $250 ONCE for your curriculum?
Then there is the configuration and maintenance cost. It costs people time to install and maintain a Linux OS loaded up with software. Support isn't always free for applications. A lot of OSS software I've seen pushes the "Here is the *tool* free, now pay us to train you, and/or make it work for you."
How is that different from windows? Maintenance on a windows computer is usually even more expensive, both in time and in software needed. You will need an anti virus, a spyware blocker and do regular scans of both. You will have to keep your drivers up to date. You will have to patch the OS several times a month.
All those activities can be mostly automated, but the same can be said under Linux.
No real difference there. Maintenance in maintenance, whatever the software used...
While I have no love for J&J for this stunt, I have no sympathy for the Red Cross. Taste of their own poison serves them right. They may have done wonderful things in the past, and they are a terribly important organization overall, but they need a swift kick in the balls to get themselves back on track and helping people instead of going after inane bullshit. They have been a monstrous waste of resources as of late, and it is about time someone steps up and fixes it.
You are mixing up the American Red Cross with the International Red Cross. One seems to be going on a money grab, the other is a rather well meaning organization that has done a lot of good, although they have been tainted by several national organization's scandals.
The international Red Cross is almost always the first organization to react in an emergency of catastrophe of the highest scale.
It IS a bloody public domain symbol. How does one indicate on a sign where the first aid station is in a public place? That's right--red cross on a white background.
And how did people come to recognize this symbol?
This is NOT a public domain symbol, this is a symbol defined during the GENEVA convention for first aid and medical supplies during times of war.
Another poster has quoted the relevant text of the convention that defines and REGULATES the use of this symbol. The goal is to avoid targeting those points and for soldiers to know where to get free treatment.
The ARC, as a national Red Cross organization, gets a license to use this, as long as it respects the charter. Any other entity (commercial included) should not be able to use that symbol.
How else can you explain all the "dark" fibre that has been installed, at great expense, and then (supposedly) not used?
very simply: bad projections that never happened.
During the peak of the dot com boom, people started to build the infrastructure to sustain the current growth. At the time, *everything* was turning into a web service and everyone and their dogs were creating new internet startups. The prediction for bandwidth was through the roof and backbone companies took notice and started building more infrastructure.
Next thing you know, the dot crash was here and all those companies that served useless but bandwidth intensive services died. The infrastructure had been built though and is still here. 6+ years later, we finally see the same services re-emerge, but with an actual business plan and revenue stream (for example internet storage).
The infrastructure does not vanish once it's been built. Predictions may not happen, but you still need to act on them to sustain business.
Google has been said to buy a lot of that dark fiber... We may learn one day for what usage...
If you're about to say that this only applies to tivoized devices, you should take a look at the market and see that the majority of corporate uptake of OSS has been in internet-connected appliances.
Internet connected does not mean "tivoized".
For example, Linksys used the Linux kernel on its routers, got forced to publish the source and now you have 3rd party firmware for those devices. So, they did participate and they did use Linux. This deal would still be valid under GPLv3. The only thing you are not allowed to do is FORBID anyone else to put modified code on your device by signing the code.
You can be networked all you want and allow 3rd party code. Those are different issues.
Actually, Microsoft already provides such a service for their Media Center Editions users.
The media center shell will get that data automatically, with a 2 weeks forward visibility.
I suppose that microsoft either pays for that service or just provides it from a known good stream and you pay for it in the cost of the OS (either Win XP MCE or some of the Vistas).
As all those streams, they are not always correct (programming DOES change unexpectedly), but usually, works just fine.
Actually, the biggest difference between the US and the EU is WHO owns the data.
In the US, the data belongs to the entity that collects it.
In the EU, the data belongs to the person it represents.
Once that difference sinks in, you'll see that all the rest is just a derivative of it.
If the information belongs to you, the organizations collecting it need your authorization to do anything with it (especially share it) and are responsible if they lose it (as it belongs to you and they are only safe-keeping it).
THIS is the real difference and nothing that bill will address...
Over in the UK, people are being sent to France for surgery because they'd die on the waiting lists if they didn't go
and France's system is? Anyone care to take a guess? Oh, yeah, right, it is a public system too. So, this is just a proof that public health care systems do not have to be slower than private ones, they just need the right organization. France has one of the best health care in the world and it IS paid by their taxes with very small copays at the time of service.
As for cost:
Our health insurance is too good at insulating us from the costs of various procedures. We don't shop around for a good deal.
Truth is: you cannot shop for a good deal. You can get the cost of the operation without insurance by asking the provider, but neither the provider nor the insurance will tell you what will the final cost be WITH the insurance. You insurance covers maybe 80% AND they have a special discount. That discount is a trade secret and will only appear on your bill AFTER the operation. Shop arround for something like LASIK and see by yourself...