Considering that Word's macros might need to launch another app, by means of the Shell command, it's a feature, not a bug. I've used it frequently in macros. It became a vulnerability when Word was made "Internet aware" and started logging onto the net at every opportunity.
Robots - had them since the 1970s!
on
Robots in Hospitals
·
· Score: 3, Informative
We had "robotic" delivery carts for linens, food and supplies in the 1970s.
Their flaw: they could be stymied by standing in their way and refusing to move, which made them of limited use in pediatrics because the kids kept harassing the robots.
"it's great to see that the FCC is standing firm to protect sad lonely guys holed up in their bunkers listening to strangers over the airwaves from the interference of sad young(er) lonely guys holed up in their bunkers looking at strangers over the ether."
FYI It's WAY more important than "protecting sad lonely guys holed up in their bunkers" - Ham radio is often the ONLY thing working after a natural disaster... all that broadband goes bye-bye with just ONE downed power line. HAM operators, OTOH, have a network that can work off car batteries when they need to.
The only communications left in Mexico City after their disastrous quake in the early 80s was HAM. Phone lines and satellite were all close to FUBAR. The first news out of Mexico City came via an odd bounce to a Kiwi HAM, who was about to sign off. He stayed on the air and spent the next several hours spreading news and relaying messages. I spent hours translating messages coming out of Mexico and relaying them to the Red Cross or other authorities - and the operators with the licenses were there more hours than I was.
The ISPs I have sites on take DMCA takedown requests seriously... if the complaint is not traceable to a REAL person or corporation, they ignore them as a crank complaint.
The few times I have had to issue a takedown request, I have done under my legal name and included my phone number.
"So in essence the even if the other side is wrong, my page is down for 10 days, minimum. Wow, what great protection; someone else with a plausible enough lie can take down arbitrary pages on my site for 10 days."
Yes, they could. It's better than forever, and as the creator of a lot of copyrighted material that is occasionally used without my permission, I can attest that it's useful. So far, no one has been willing to contest my takedown notices.
"In practice there is no penalty for filing a false DCMA takedown request ("Oops, our mistake, you're right"), but there is a penalty for failing to take down an innocent page."
The penalty for filing false takedown notices... for starters, ISPs will ignore your requests if you are a luser with a penchant for crying wolf, or if the info you provide doesn't lead to a real person. And if it can be shown your requests are systematically and fraudulently directed against competitors, it's crossing into serious civil and criminal legal problems.
It would be difficult for someone to orchestrate a campaign to take down info by rotating DMCA requests... your reply to the ISP applies to those pages immediately, so they can jump to step 2, telling the complainant to shut up and file an infringement suit if they are serious.
"I am waiting for the day when people start sending(read: abusing) these kind of take down notices in order to shut down a site they don't like, or even worse, competition."
When you send a take-down complaint, you MUST swear (as in a legal swearing subject to perjury charges) that you are indeed the holder of the copyright on the material you are complaining about. Make a nuiisance of yourself and you can have some interesting chats with the Feds and your victim's lawyers.
"Perhaps some sort of law that defines a procedure for preventing things like this, maybe?"
There is a clearly defined procedure in the DMCA for ISPs... on receipt of the complaint, they MUST notify the site owner and MUST take down the material within a certain time.
On their part, the site owner MUST file a reply to the takedown within a certain time. When the ISP gets the reply, which is a legal document swearing to the ownership of the material, they MUST restore the material or allow its reposting (the ISP's part is over).
The complaining party (the claimant to the copyright) MUST at this point either file a formal copyright infringement suit in the federal court closest to the web site owner's place of business or shut up. Repeat complaints are NOT allowed.
"what do you want to bet that Ken Browns entire progamming experience is in VB?"
He reportedly has a BA in English... his actual computing experience probably comnsists of turning on his computer and starting up his word processor and web browser.
10,000 lines... from the perspective of a writer, is about 400 standard manuscript pages, double spaced.
I know novelists who can write a 400-pager - from plot idea to submission to their publisher - in under six months. That's with the pages edited, spell checked, and proofread. If you know the goal and have the tools, it's NOT A BIG DEAL!
The contract between Nov ell and Canopy provided that Novell would get a portion of any revenues from lawsuits
Hardly secret, as the Utah courts have already noted. Novell sued them and WON for their share of the proceeds. SCO tried the usual tricks of getting greedy and trying to rewrite the contract unilaterally, trying to bring in oral agreements, then as usual, got shafted by their own evidence.
best quote: The district court perspicuously noted that the Canopy position "requires the court to reach the anomalous conclusion that by taking the attorney fee provision out of the agreement it really was writing the provision into the agreement."
"I wish universities would put their English students to work writing docs for the piles of open source software out there, rather than sticking them with meaningless brain-dead assignments."
"After all the screaming about software patents on this list, we get a nice demonstration from IBM about what they are really good for. I, for one, am glad that IBM kept busy filing them."
Uh... RTFA, because they are COPYRIGHTS, not patents.
On a related note, isn't it illegal to sell grass to someone while saying it's marijuana?
Yes, in AZ it is illegal to sell not only illegal substances, but things you claim are illegal. Much to the chagrin of some "drug dealers" who thought they were safely ripping off some teenagers (who could hardly complain they were defrauded in a drug deal), they got hit with the same penalties as if the stuff had been real.
I'm single and have no kids or major commitments, but I do not want to destroy my IT career either for the future. I can't get unbiased advice where I am, so perhaps Slashdot can lend me some wisdom?"
Go for it. Explaining "I got an offer to tour with a band and deicded to eithe r become the next Kieth rigchards or just get it out of my system" shouldn't cause any problems.
"EV1Servers.Net joins other
Fortune 1000 companies"
The word "other" implies that EV1 is also a Fortune 1000 company, and it is not. SCO's ability to write misleading crap remains intact.
It's more about COMFORT than economy
on
DIY HVAC
·
· Score: 1
"this sounds like a good solution for those who are getting screwed with outrageously high electric bills"
No. Basic zone control via air flow control is mostly about comfort and preventing hot and cold spots. It does save a bit of money, but mostly because you don't have to overcool one area to make another cool enough to tolerate.
If you get into advanced control, with schedules for individual zones, temperature diferentials between zones, and all the things this project seems to make possible, you could save more money.
However, the most important part of an energy-saving system is the hand that controls the thermostat. I remember some TV coverage at the height of the California electricity crunch... a woman complaining about her huge electricity bill, while her two kids played on the carpet behind her in t-shirts and shorts. If she had turned the t-stat down 10-15 degrees and put the kids in warmer clothes she would have saved a bundle.
All the basic moneysavers apply: sun screens for windows in hot climates (worth a fast 20 drop in indoor temperature), insulation in the attic, weatherstripping and caulking, storm or dual pane windows... whatever gets you the fastest return on investment.
The hardest part about doing this is finding a project willing to work with you. Most of the time, my offers have not even been answered. The few that did answer did not seem overly enthused with helping someone put together a basic user help setup (pdf booklet, html based help, and updated man pages.) I basically had to beg some programmers for info.
Now that IS sad. Apparently the "not invented here" mentality or else "we're too l33t for our code" gets in the way of product improvement. And the "product" is more than the code.
I have looked at the sourceforge "help wanted" listings. All too often it's one of the "me too" projects, in pre-alpha, wanting someone to create a K3w1 interface and web page for them. They haven't decided on features yet, but they know they want it k3wl!
Here's what I get from the professionals I work with at the start of a job:
Software design specification: what it is supposed to DO when finished
Module by module descriptions of functions
lists of commands, error messages, variables, outputs, and the significance of all this (if a command returns something, what does it mean?)
if I'm lucky they will have dummy screens done, or even a semi-working prototype of the software... buggy, but still useful to a writer
Given this much, I can create an 80% accurate manual, and find a lot of bugs, long before the coders are done. From there, it's just a matter of keeping up with the inevitable changes to GUI screens, feature creep/kill, and doublechecking any areas that have been worked on to make sure all the changes were declared. Usually, there is enough time during the final code freeze for me to finish off the manuals. After final compile, we doublecheck that the help files are properly linked to context.
"Not just any type of cancer, but a very rare form was found in at least 2 employees on one location. Something that is not statisticly possible unless the chemicals they worked with were the cause"
Your knowledge of statistics is flawed. You are starting with the bulletholes in the barn and drawing the bullseye around them... "cancer clusters" exist, and few of them check out to be anything more than an aberration. If the chemicals REALLY caused that kind of cancer, there shopuld have been more cases, wherever those chemicals were in use.
"Did they all live near factories that may have also contributed to the enhanced risk?"
Yes... the Silicon valley area was a fruit factory, and the levels of pesticides are heavy. One can also look at the old Aluminum plant, the many plating and painting shops (which were totally unregulated for decades), etc. It's not as though there weren't plenty of places to be exposed to nasty chemicals.
"Attorneys in a major Silicon Valley cancer cluster lawsuit against IBM have uncovered a ``corporate mortality file'' in which IBM tracked the deaths of more than 30,000 workers -- and the lawyers claim the company knew its electronics workers were dying of cancer more often than normal."
One would have to compare the employeees with persons of a similar age and location. Significantly, the IBM plant is in an area where pesticide use was heavy (orchards in the area), and asbestos contaminates the air naturally. Looking at the first two plaintiffs, one had worked in the fruit processing industry for decades (can we say pesticides?), was obese (recently shown to be a significant factor in breast cancer development - and her suit was based on breast cancer. The other one was a heavy smoker. Smoking has recently been shown to increase the risk of non-hodgkins lymphoma - exactly what the man has.
"As an OSS user, you ARE the Beta tester, developer, end user and marketing department. "
If you restrict your user base to those who can be all of the things you mention, including expert coders, you will never make it out of the geek ghetto. I'm the user. I do report bugs in the software I use frequently, so I guess I'm the QC persons too. I do not write code, not do I plan to learn how. When QC staff tells programmers they have a problem, it's the programmer's problem to fix it.
Of course you have Windows XP Pro, Nero, and dvdrecord........ Which were all paid for, and legally licensed under your name. As your "copy" of autocad 2003, and all these beautiful softwares with EULA that to be ligitimatly use require you to PAY for the right to used them. Of course you did get all these legally. I know I miss the point.....
Yes, you TOTALLY missed the point, which was that SuSE distributed a version on DVD, and despite knowing that the users were going to have a DVD player and maybe even a burner, didn't bother to make sure that burner and player software were installed and configured. They took the easy way out and expected EVERY user to track down the necessary information and download other files to install and configure the DVD burner/player.
Implying that I am a software pirate helps Linux improve? How? I have a LEGAL copy of Win2000 and the DVD software that came with the burner is also legal. Looking at the Program files, everything I have on my system is legal: either FOSS or purchased.
Slashdot Mirror
Considering that Word's macros might need to launch another app, by means of the Shell command, it's a feature, not a bug. I've used it frequently in macros. It became a vulnerability when Word was made "Internet aware" and started logging onto the net at every opportunity.
Their flaw: they could be stymied by standing in their way and refusing to move, which made them of limited use in pediatrics because the kids kept harassing the robots.
FYI It's WAY more important than "protecting sad lonely guys holed up in their bunkers" - Ham radio is often the ONLY thing working after a natural disaster ... all that broadband goes bye-bye with just ONE downed power line. HAM operators, OTOH, have a network that can work off car batteries when they need to.
The only communications left in Mexico City after their disastrous quake in the early 80s was HAM. Phone lines and satellite were all close to FUBAR. The first news out of Mexico City came via an odd bounce to a Kiwi HAM, who was about to sign off. He stayed on the air and spent the next several hours spreading news and relaying messages. I spent hours translating messages coming out of Mexico and relaying them to the Red Cross or other authorities - and the operators with the licenses were there more hours than I was.
Phoenix AZ has a 16,000+ acre park inside the city limits. (for you Europeans, AFAIK, it's about the size of the Republic of San Marino in Italy)
The few times I have had to issue a takedown request, I have done under my legal name and included my phone number.
Yes, they could. It's better than forever, and as the creator of a lot of copyrighted material that is occasionally used without my permission, I can attest that it's useful. So far, no one has been willing to contest my takedown notices.
"In practice there is no penalty for filing a false DCMA takedown request ("Oops, our mistake, you're right"), but there is a penalty for failing to take down an innocent page."
The penalty for filing false takedown notices ... for starters, ISPs will ignore your requests if you are a luser with a penchant for crying wolf, or if the info you provide doesn't lead to a real person. And if it can be shown your requests are systematically and fraudulently directed against competitors, it's crossing into serious civil and criminal legal problems.
It would be difficult for someone to orchestrate a campaign to take down info by rotating DMCA requests ... your reply to the ISP applies to those pages immediately, so they can jump to step 2, telling the complainant to shut up and file an infringement suit if they are serious.
And look at counternotices on: this page
There is a formal procedure that ISPs follow, and considerable protection for both the copyright owner and the page owner.
When you send a take-down complaint, you MUST swear (as in a legal swearing subject to perjury charges) that you are indeed the holder of the copyright on the material you are complaining about. Make a nuiisance of yourself and you can have some interesting chats with the Feds and your victim's lawyers.
There is a clearly defined procedure in the DMCA for ISPs ... on receipt of the complaint, they MUST notify the site owner and MUST take down the material within a certain time.
On their part, the site owner MUST file a reply to the takedown within a certain time. When the ISP gets the reply, which is a legal document swearing to the ownership of the material, they MUST restore the material or allow its reposting (the ISP's part is over).
The complaining party (the claimant to the copyright) MUST at this point either file a formal copyright infringement suit in the federal court closest to the web site owner's place of business or shut up. Repeat complaints are NOT allowed.
He reportedly has a BA in English ... his actual computing experience probably comnsists of turning on his computer and starting up his word processor and web browser.
I know novelists who can write a 400-pager - from plot idea to submission to their publisher - in under six months. That's with the pages edited, spell checked, and proofread. If you know the goal and have the tools, it's NOT A BIG DEAL!
Hardly secret, as the Utah courts have already noted. Novell sued them and WON for their share of the proceeds. SCO tried the usual tricks of getting greedy and trying to rewrite the contract unilaterally, trying to bring in oral agreements, then as usual, got shafted by their own evidence.
Groklaw has already covered it.
best quote: The district court perspicuously noted that the Canopy position "requires the court to reach the anomalous conclusion that by taking the attorney fee provision out of the agreement it really was writing the provision into the agreement."
So ... SUGGEST IT TO THEM!
Uh ... RTFA, because they are COPYRIGHTS, not patents.
Yes, in AZ it is illegal to sell not only illegal substances, but things you claim are illegal. Much to the chagrin of some "drug dealers" who thought they were safely ripping off some teenagers (who could hardly complain they were defrauded in a drug deal), they got hit with the same penalties as if the stuff had been real.
I'm single and have no kids or major commitments, but I do not want to destroy my IT career either for the future. I can't get unbiased advice where I am, so perhaps Slashdot can lend me some wisdom?"
Go for it. Explaining "I got an offer to tour with a band and deicded to eithe r become the next Kieth rigchards or just get it out of my system" shouldn't cause any problems.
"EV1Servers.Net joins other Fortune 1000 companies"
The word "other" implies that EV1 is also a Fortune 1000 company, and it is not. SCO's ability to write misleading crap remains intact.
No. Basic zone control via air flow control is mostly about comfort and preventing hot and cold spots. It does save a bit of money, but mostly because you don't have to overcool one area to make another cool enough to tolerate.
If you get into advanced control, with schedules for individual zones, temperature diferentials between zones, and all the things this project seems to make possible, you could save more money.
However, the most important part of an energy-saving system is the hand that controls the thermostat. I remember some TV coverage at the height of the California electricity crunch ... a woman complaining about her huge electricity bill, while her two kids played on the carpet behind her in t-shirts and shorts. If she had turned the t-stat down 10-15 degrees and put the kids in warmer clothes she would have saved a bundle.
All the basic moneysavers apply: sun screens for windows in hot climates (worth a fast 20 drop in indoor temperature), insulation in the attic, weatherstripping and caulking, storm or dual pane windows ... whatever gets you the fastest return on investment.
Now that IS sad. Apparently the "not invented here" mentality or else "we're too l33t for our code" gets in the way of product improvement. And the "product" is more than the code.
I have looked at the sourceforge "help wanted" listings. All too often it's one of the "me too" projects, in pre-alpha, wanting someone to create a K3w1 interface and web page for them. They haven't decided on features yet, but they know they want it k3wl!
Here's what I get from the professionals I work with at the start of a job:
Given this much, I can create an 80% accurate manual, and find a lot of bugs, long before the coders are done. From there, it's just a matter of keeping up with the inevitable changes to GUI screens, feature creep/kill, and doublechecking any areas that have been worked on to make sure all the changes were declared. Usually, there is enough time during the final code freeze for me to finish off the manuals. After final compile, we doublecheck that the help files are properly linked to context.
Your knowledge of statistics is flawed. You are starting with the bulletholes in the barn and drawing the bullseye around them ... "cancer clusters" exist, and few of them check out to be anything more than an aberration. If the chemicals REALLY caused that kind of cancer, there shopuld have been more cases, wherever those chemicals were in use.
Yes ... the Silicon valley area was a fruit factory, and the levels of pesticides are heavy. One can also look at the old Aluminum plant, the many plating and painting shops (which were totally unregulated for decades), etc. It's not as though there weren't plenty of places to be exposed to nasty chemicals.
One would have to compare the employeees with persons of a similar age and location. Significantly, the IBM plant is in an area where pesticide use was heavy (orchards in the area), and asbestos contaminates the air naturally. Looking at the first two plaintiffs, one had worked in the fruit processing industry for decades (can we say pesticides?), was obese (recently shown to be a significant factor in breast cancer development - and her suit was based on breast cancer. The other one was a heavy smoker. Smoking has recently been shown to increase the risk of non-hodgkins lymphoma - exactly what the man has.
If you restrict your user base to those who can be all of the things you mention, including expert coders, you will never make it out of the geek ghetto. I'm the user. I do report bugs in the software I use frequently, so I guess I'm the QC persons too. I do not write code, not do I plan to learn how. When QC staff tells programmers they have a problem, it's the programmer's problem to fix it.
Yes, you TOTALLY missed the point, which was that SuSE distributed a version on DVD, and despite knowing that the users were going to have a DVD player and maybe even a burner, didn't bother to make sure that burner and player software were installed and configured. They took the easy way out and expected EVERY user to track down the necessary information and download other files to install and configure the DVD burner/player.
Implying that I am a software pirate helps Linux improve? How? I have a LEGAL copy of Win2000 and the DVD software that came with the burner is also legal. Looking at the Program files, everything I have on my system is legal: either FOSS or purchased.
What WAS your point, anyway?