I'm disappointed that California didn't pursue criminal charges.
I was disappointed initially as well, but after thinking about it, it makes some degree of sense that they didn't. After all, who would they press charges against? The CEO? A coder? The guy who actually did the software modifications after the machines were certified?
It would be much more difficult to prove malice or ill-intent of one 'mastermind' in a criminal trial, as so many different people are involved in the organization.
While I think the fine could have been higher, this allows them to hit Diebold where it really hurts: with their shareholders.
This is a very good decision. It makes me feel a little bit better, there are still reasonable judges out there with regard to copyright/trademark/patent law. One can only hope we can get some true reform through congress, but I'm not holding my breath.
The day I see Quickbooks(as one example) for Linux then that is the day I can kill Windows for good.
You've got it dead on. Tax and accounting software are major hurdles for the FOSS movement. Tax software has to be correct, and has to be updated every year. It would be one thing for there to be FOSS tax software... but we dont even have closed source ported programs. Other than that, I don't see much inhibiting linux... well, the whole copyrighted dvd thing... but that will work itself out in time.
If my kid cant remember to charge a phone, do you think that they should be driving?
I understand where you're coming from, however, my Mother doesn't always remember to keep her phone charged, and a good friend of mine lost her charger a few weeks ago (god knows how... she keeps the thing in her car.) As well, with alot of these phones, talking on them for any extended period of time completely kills the battery. They need Centrino for cell phones.
If the phone goes off, it is assumed that they were speeding. If they complain, so be it, they dont need to drive.
There is some logic in your statement, however, to assume that your teen would never forget to charge the phone (or plug it into the charger upon getting into a vehicle) would be rather shortsighted. It's one thing if the phone is sporadically dying for five minutes and then coming back on (IE... enough time for a drag race or something), but phones do die.
I'm stuck with a Linksys WMP54G wireless card, with the broadcom chipset. Needless to say, wireless internet does not work, at all. Does Xandros solve the problem of having to configure NDISwrapper manually?
While the format wars are bad for the cutting-edge people that have to purchase something new, they end up being better for the consumer in the long run. Look at Beta VS VHS. The formats competed, and consumers decided which format they liked better. The format that could record a full film onto one cassette won, despite the fact that it was not 'technically superior.' If all of the studios had settled upon Beta from the very beginning, we'd all have to record in LP or EP just to fit a movie on one tape.
One of my professors has a parallel situation. He started his career at The University of Baton Rouge (or perhaps it was another Lousiana Public University, anyway.) He said that his first semester teaching at my current school (another public university in a different state) he gave almost all of the research papers he graded very very high grades. It worked out well for me because I had him his first semester here. He was grading at my school on the same scale he used in Louisiana, and he said that the students just weren't as good at writing. However, this year, he says he's revamped his grading process. We'll see what I get on my paper...
Are you sure? That's definitely not true in the city of traffic lights, L.A. I get stuck at intersections all the way along Victory or Ventura Blvd in the dead of night. Almost no traditional traffic lights have sensors anyway as far as I can tell.
In a lot of big cities, the induction sensors have not been installed, and are not planned. This is for the simple reason that, most of the day, there are so many vehicles going in both directions that the sensors would not be able to accomplish much of anything. Most downtown areas are like this. As I understand it, however, New York, NY, does have a significant number of the inductions sensors.
George Lucas, from what I hear, is having a much more active role in the script writing. My guess, the script will go a little something like this:
Indiana Jones drives an 18 wheeler into the Taj Mahal after discovering that it contains some Nazi Memorabila. He engages in an epic battle with some ancient Nazi general, who cuts off his hand. In a later scene, he goes to visit his father, who is on his deathbed, in an iron lung in a hospital. Between heavy breaths, Connery lets Ford know that the german woman from Last Crusade is actually his sister.
At this point the movie will end... gotta have material for a sequel, yknow.
I haven't found out where the "Meeesta Jones" Jackie-Chan-esque kid fits into the plot yet...
I used OO in Windows XP (I know... I know, it's not by choice, the XP, that is.) Anyway, I think that anyone who uses OO in Windows recognizes it's mass shortcomings (which makes it difficult for me to recommend to others.) If they made OO integrate properly with Windows Widgets... then I'll be impressed... and excited.
BPI forgot to mention one important fact. Sales are really up because Milli Vannilli came out with a new album. For some weird reason, British people like him.
Then again, British people like Benny Hill.
::Note: I am, in fact, a rabid Benny Hill fan... although I am not British.::
As a web designer, I have to tell you that it's not easy to support all browsers equally. Granted getting the site to work in Mozilla is a given, but some of the mundane errors that crop up when trying to get them to work properly is extremely annoying, and half the time the errors make no sense at all.
I disagree. I've been designing websites for too many years, and the only time that it was truly difficult to design a website for multiple browsers was at the tail end of the browser wars when IE 4 and Netscape 4 were simultaneously introduced. Netscapes layer tags and IE's proprietary DHTML extensions were an absolute nightmare.
IE still has some proprietary extensions of various different things left in it, but standards, by and large, are the same. Sure, my sites looks a little bit different in each browser, but none of the advanced functions fail to work. And really, it seems like other browsers are the ones doing things correctly, and it's IE that's breaking the code.
James Whitty, who heads the Oregon pilot project for the state's transportation department, maintains the GPS would detect only whether the car is inside or outside of Oregon and how many miles it has traveled in state - not its every movement.
"There are people who hear 'GPS,' and they think it's some exotic military device," said Whitty, who said the state will not have the ability, or desire, to monitor drivers' traveling habits. The Oregon device would be a "glorified compass," he said.
Joan Borucki, chief deputy director at the California Transportation Commission and a member of the California Performance Review team that made the recommendation here, insists the device could not track residents' whereabouts.
If this is true, why not just create a device that is no more than a 'glorified' trip odometer that resets itself everytime the motorist fills up for gas? There are far fewer concerns about vehicle tracking in that instance.
Over the past 25 years, my parents have made two claims on their homeowners insurance (Always with allstate.) The first, in 1989, was for water damage related to pipes that burst. This happened because the house was broken into in the dead of winter and the theives left the back door open. The second time was in 2003, also for water damage, although we still can't figure out exactly why the pipes burst (different house.) Our insurance company tripled my parents premium. Needless to say, my parents are no longer insuring with allstate, for anything.
Why are they retiring Alvin now, 4 years before it's successor is planned to come into service (never mind any possible delays?) This makes as much sense as NASA's hubble retirement plan.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm disappointed that California didn't pursue criminal charges.
I was disappointed initially as well, but after thinking about it, it makes some degree of sense that they didn't. After all, who would they press charges against? The CEO? A coder? The guy who actually did the software modifications after the machines were certified?
It would be much more difficult to prove malice or ill-intent of one 'mastermind' in a criminal trial, as so many different people are involved in the organization.
While I think the fine could have been higher, this allows them to hit Diebold where it really hurts: with their shareholders.
This is a very good decision. It makes me feel a little bit better, there are still reasonable judges out there with regard to copyright/trademark/patent law. One can only hope we can get some true reform through congress, but I'm not holding my breath.
The day I see Quickbooks(as one example) for Linux then that is the day I can kill Windows for good.
You've got it dead on. Tax and accounting software are major hurdles for the FOSS movement. Tax software has to be correct, and has to be updated every year. It would be one thing for there to be FOSS tax software... but we dont even have closed source ported programs. Other than that, I don't see much inhibiting linux... well, the whole copyrighted dvd thing... but that will work itself out in time.
If my kid cant remember to charge a phone, do you think that they should be driving?
I understand where you're coming from, however, my Mother doesn't always remember to keep her phone charged, and a good friend of mine lost her charger a few weeks ago (god knows how... she keeps the thing in her car.) As well, with alot of these phones, talking on them for any extended period of time completely kills the battery. They need Centrino for cell phones.
If the phone goes off, it is assumed that they were speeding. If they complain, so be it, they dont need to drive.
There is some logic in your statement, however, to assume that your teen would never forget to charge the phone (or plug it into the charger upon getting into a vehicle) would be rather shortsighted. It's one thing if the phone is sporadically dying for five minutes and then coming back on (IE... enough time for a drag race or something), but phones do die.
I'm stuck with a Linksys WMP54G wireless card, with the broadcom chipset. Needless to say, wireless internet does not work, at all. Does Xandros solve the problem of having to configure NDISwrapper manually?
While the format wars are bad for the cutting-edge people that have to purchase something new, they end up being better for the consumer in the long run. Look at Beta VS VHS. The formats competed, and consumers decided which format they liked better. The format that could record a full film onto one cassette won, despite the fact that it was not 'technically superior.' If all of the studios had settled upon Beta from the very beginning, we'd all have to record in LP or EP just to fit a movie on one tape.
One of my professors has a parallel situation. He started his career at The University of Baton Rouge (or perhaps it was another Lousiana Public University, anyway.) He said that his first semester teaching at my current school (another public university in a different state) he gave almost all of the research papers he graded very very high grades. It worked out well for me because I had him his first semester here. He was grading at my school on the same scale he used in Louisiana, and he said that the students just weren't as good at writing. However, this year, he says he's revamped his grading process. We'll see what I get on my paper...
The list goes on here.
Are you sure? That's definitely not true in the city of traffic lights, L.A. I get stuck at intersections all the way along Victory or Ventura Blvd in the dead of night. Almost no traditional traffic lights have sensors anyway as far as I can tell.
In a lot of big cities, the induction sensors have not been installed, and are not planned. This is for the simple reason that, most of the day, there are so many vehicles going in both directions that the sensors would not be able to accomplish much of anything. Most downtown areas are like this. As I understand it, however, New York, NY, does have a significant number of the inductions sensors.
George Lucas, from what I hear, is having a much more active role in the script writing. My guess, the script will go a little something like this: Indiana Jones drives an 18 wheeler into the Taj Mahal after discovering that it contains some Nazi Memorabila. He engages in an epic battle with some ancient Nazi general, who cuts off his hand. In a later scene, he goes to visit his father, who is on his deathbed, in an iron lung in a hospital. Between heavy breaths, Connery lets Ford know that the german woman from Last Crusade is actually his sister.
At this point the movie will end... gotta have material for a sequel, yknow.
I haven't found out where the "Meeesta Jones" Jackie-Chan-esque kid fits into the plot yet...
Congress won't let them
So, I'm supposed to be disappointed that Congress is actually looking out for my money... at least to some extent?
Coming Soon:
A list of Things to do in Denver When You're Dead.
I used OO in Windows XP (I know... I know, it's not by choice, the XP, that is.) Anyway, I think that anyone who uses OO in Windows recognizes it's mass shortcomings (which makes it difficult for me to recommend to others.) If they made OO integrate properly with Windows Widgets... then I'll be impressed... and excited.
BPI forgot to mention one important fact. Sales are really up because Milli Vannilli came out with a new album. For some weird reason, British people like him.
::Note: I am, in fact, a rabid Benny Hill fan... although I am not British.::
Then again, British people like Benny Hill.
As a web designer, I have to tell you that it's not easy to support all browsers equally. Granted getting the site to work in Mozilla is a given, but some of the mundane errors that crop up when trying to get them to work properly is extremely annoying, and half the time the errors make no sense at all.
I disagree. I've been designing websites for too many years, and the only time that it was truly difficult to design a website for multiple browsers was at the tail end of the browser wars when IE 4 and Netscape 4 were simultaneously introduced. Netscapes layer tags and IE's proprietary DHTML extensions were an absolute nightmare.
IE still has some proprietary extensions of various different things left in it, but standards, by and large, are the same. Sure, my sites looks a little bit different in each browser, but none of the advanced functions fail to work. And really, it seems like other browsers are the ones doing things correctly, and it's IE that's breaking the code.
If only I had some spare 'political science' mod points, I'd give them to you. Sadly, I don't think many people will even get the joke.
And you thought European car manufacturers couldn't find more obnoxious headlights than HIDs.
James Whitty, who heads the Oregon pilot project for the state's transportation department, maintains the GPS would detect only whether the car is inside or outside of Oregon and how many miles it has traveled in state - not its every movement.
"There are people who hear 'GPS,' and they think it's some exotic military device," said Whitty, who said the state will not have the ability, or desire, to monitor drivers' traveling habits. The Oregon device would be a "glorified compass," he said.
Joan Borucki, chief deputy director at the California Transportation Commission and a member of the California Performance Review team that made the recommendation here, insists the device could not track residents' whereabouts.
If this is true, why not just create a device that is no more than a 'glorified' trip odometer that resets itself everytime the motorist fills up for gas? There are far fewer concerns about vehicle tracking in that instance.
Over the past 25 years, my parents have made two claims on their homeowners insurance (Always with allstate.) The first, in 1989, was for water damage related to pipes that burst. This happened because the house was broken into in the dead of winter and the theives left the back door open. The second time was in 2003, also for water damage, although we still can't figure out exactly why the pipes burst (different house.) Our insurance company tripled my parents premium. Needless to say, my parents are no longer insuring with allstate, for anything.
Hey! A giant petrified llama dropping.
Coating Promises Scratch-Proof CDs, DVDs, LCDs
What about laserdiscs?
I haven't been keeping up with Foxtrot lately, is this what Jason is going as for Halloween this year?
Is there a current, up-to-date list of the sued IP addresses? The EFF's doesn't seem to have been updated anytime recently.
Why are they retiring Alvin now, 4 years before it's successor is planned to come into service (never mind any possible delays?) This makes as much sense as NASA's hubble retirement plan.