So we won't have to have physical access to log in and change votes with MS Access and no password? For the love of God, when is the mainstream press going to pick up on this?!?!?!?
And what would those terms be? Where can I read this settelment?
Why, you can read those terms at MSFreePC.com of course, in their unabridged entirety. After all, they are a perfectly legitimate claims center, correct? And any place where you can file a claim has to give you the full details of the settlement, right? Or does everybody supply that with printed claim forms just because they hate trees?
Nowhere on the site does it ask anyone to file a fradulent claim.
Well, not in so many words, no. But don't you think having a claim filed in your name with a false address, and your "signature" stating "that all of the information on this form is true and correct" is a little suspect?
Not a point of law.
Oh, you (and they) got me on this one - sorry, I'm not a lawyer, and I was thinking of the children. Won't someone please think of the children!?!?!:-)
A digital signature is the same as a regular signature unless the terms of the settelment preclude it.
"The settlement requires that all claimants print out, sign and mail their claim forms and certify the accuracy of their claims under penalty of perjury. See Settlement Agreement, section V.A.1.a. For this reason, the electronic submission of claims are not permitted -- claimants must actually sign their claim forms and mail them to the Settlement Claims Administrator. See Settlement Agreement, section V. A. Claim forms submitted through the www.msfreepc.com website will be invalid because they will not be signed. Instead, these claims will include only the claimant's typed name (called a "digital signature" by the website) which is invalid under the Settlement Agreement."
Maybe they don't have a case, I just think that there's plenty of things to be outraged about when it comes to Microsoft, and that our ire might be better directed towards their gaping security holes, crap default settings, shady business practices, etc., rather than getting all worked up over something that they may actually have a valid point about.
I think it's a great PR stunt for Lindows, and MS is playing right into their hands. Reading some of the comments in this thread, it's obvious that from a strictly PR standpoint, they can't loose. I just don't like MS Bashing for the sake of bashing MS. There's to many other far more legitimate reasons for hating them:-)
It's about the law, smart guy. Is it only supposed to apply when it's against Microsoft? I'll spare you the business lesson on the actual costs associated with donations, since being so stupid, I'd never be able to articulate it in a fashion in league with your far suprior intellect, as evidenced by your stunning vocabulary, Anonymous Biznitch.
RTFA. The site violates just about every term of the settlement, asks people to file fraudulent claims, and encourages people to maximize their benefit, thereby taking benefits away from public schools. Not to mention that if you file a claim on their site, it's ineligible because you weren't given all the info and you didn't sign it. And you give up any rights to file a claim directly, since you signed those rights over to Lindows. So your claim will be denied in either case, and your only hope is that Lindows will still pay you and give you your free PC when all of their claims are justly denied. Good luck with all that.
Notice I didn't use plural - it would only take one lawyer - any lawyer - to determine that they were asking for trouble with MSfreePC.com and the way they're going about it. I asked about this in the original story - how can they file claims for people when they aren't even giving people access to the documentation outlining the rules, qualifications and benefits of the class action? I'm sure they did it for the tons of free publicity, as well as the goodwill anyone would get for doing anything against MS, but I think this one may just cost them more than it's worth. I'm surprised it's MS that's contacting them and not the courts. If I were the Judge and I heard about a web site that's sole purpose was to circumnavigate my ruling and orders, I'd be gunnning for the people behind it. Seems to me they could be facing obstruction of justice charges, maybe even fraud.
Don't get me wrong, I hate MS as much as the next guy, but in this case, they are totally right. I think Lindows jumped the gun and didn't think this one out. It looks like they didn't even read the terms of the settlement.
Oh yeah, and what lawyer would ever let them say MS was "found guilty" when it's a civil proceeding?
I thought this was a feature... people with enough money to buy a $3000 scooter, but not smart enough to stop riding it when a warning light comes on get tossed on their face if they rapidly accellerate or try to drive over a log. What was the problem again? We can only hope that the fix will prevent it from happening only when no camcorder is detected within focal distance.
I think you missed a key point - the Taguchi Method has traditionally been applied to engineering - i.e., the design phase - not marketing. The whole article is how this "method" is now being applied to marketing with great results. The quality of Japanese cars reference has to do with engineering, not marketing.
If you really want a lot of Spam, try posting to newsgroups whose topics are frequent subjects of Spam - try posting to penny-stock and other investing newsgroups for starters.
And make sure you follow all the links and open all the Spam you get- not on your primary machine, of course. Often they'll include images with an identifying filename that will tell them you've viewed it. If your bait addresses start popping up on their radar as someone who reads spam, you'll likely get bumped to the head of the line.
Last couple of suggestions - sign those guestbooks, and if you have an eBay account, change your user ID to one of those e-mail addresses, and place low-ball bids on a bunch of stuff you'll never win. Just remember that it'll be a while before you can change your ID again, and you'll have a history of ID changes that may not look good to future buyers and/or sellers.
According to this page, Melvil Dewey (1851-1931) anonymously published the system in 1876.
On the other hand, it seems that the Online Compyter Library Center does do quite a bit of work to maintain the system, which should entitle them to some rights - but it sure seems that if some guy published something anonymously in 1876, he probably intended it to be in the public domain. Seems to me, if the hotel was based on the original system, and not the one improved by subsequent owners, he should be ok - especially if they referred to it as the "Melvil Dewey System" or something.
I had no idea it was owned - how come they aren't going after the elementary schools that teach the system? Or is that included in their library's license? And how come we're teaching a proprietary, trademarked system? Next thing you know, they'll be teaching our kids Windows!!!
I registered a domain name last night for the girl who took our wedding photos. I paid for it, filled out the info, and now when I go there, I get ads for her competition. If that isn't an unfair business practice, I don't know what is.
If Washington is like any other state that I've dealt with that has a sales tax, you are supposed to pay sales tax on everything you buy out of state. That's what the original poster of this thread was talking about, I believe.
The out of state companies just aren't collecting sales tax for those states because 1) they don't have to, and 2) because it would be an accounting nightmare- especially for states that have different or additional sales tax for different counties (like NY and FL). I know for a fact that in Maine and Florida, if you buy something out of state, either through catalog or Internet sales (and presumably while on vacation as well), you're supposed to be a good little tax payer and send them a check at the end of the year. Of course that doesn't stop New Hampshire from putting Liquor Stores right across the state line so you don't have to drive any farther than you have to in order to get "tax-free" booze.
The problem is that on big ticket items, it really hurts the local guys, especially if they're near the border, or if the item doesn't cost much to ship (i.e., memory and CPU's). 6% or 7% tax savings can easily cover shipping or a trip across the line. But what most people don't realize is that they are legally obligated to cough up the tax on these items too.
I think the only practical way to implement collection of Sales Tax for online sales would be if all the states and counties who have a sales tax would agree on a single amount to be paid to the State, who would then determine and distribute what (if any) portion goes to what county.
Many Internet retailers (Adobe, for one) already charge sales tax to everyone who lives in a state that has it. Although not required, it keeps the states happy, and also their retail channel who doesn't have a choice if they are in a sales-tax state.
So it's not really a loophole, it's more like swapping copyrighted music. Most people either don't know it's illegal, or they don't think they can get caught so they don't care.
From what I read, they don't require the proof that the settlement requires, so how are they going to get the money? And what's stopping you from filing claims with both MS and Lindows? I doubt MS is going to share it's data with Lindows.
I like how 2 people modded this redundant, apparently without looking at the time stamps. Can it really be redundant if it's posted at the same time? Redundant is for posts that show an obvious lack of reading previous (not simultaneous) posts. At least that's what I read in the Mod FAQ before I started using my points.
You forgot "never put outgoing mail in your mailbox" when you were plagerizing the "blowhard". Oops- sorry, you have to RTFA to plagerize it:-)
The article's point is that ID theft on a large scale requires more than dumpster diving or a crooked gas station, and he's pointing out that what ID Theives are doing to cause a 4 to 5 billion dollar problem one person at a time can be easily automated and there's a 300,000 name database of ssn's and dob's waiting to happen.
Did you read the article and see where that figure came from? RTFA. He uses government figures to arrive at that amount, and then acknowledges that he might not be able to steal that much, but it would be in the "multiple billions"
But seriously, being a small company, we outsource our hosting to pair Networks, Inc., and to be honest, I wear too many hats here to get that far into it. I pat myself on the back for just learning how to set a custom user prefs for SpamAssasin so even messages "from" people on our whitelist don't make it if they have an executable attachment or mention Viagra. That alone weeded out over 700 messages over the weekend.
If the e-mail filter is smart enough to know it's Sobig.F, why isn't it smart enough to know the "from" is spoofed?!?!?
I set our filters to just delete anything with an executable attachment, but that didn't to crap for the stupid "Virus Detected" warnings.
One guy was sending us about 150 copies a day, and the others his PC sent out with our address as the "from" resulted in about 50-75 Virus warnings a day - from the first day it popped up until it expired. I had his IP address, and called and e-mailed his ISP (Birch.net) a dozen or more times, and they did squat. 150 x ~100k x # of people in his address book - not to mention the undeliverables and virus warnings - and they did nothing.
Before you send any money to a "fund" for this girl and her family, check it out first. I'm sure there will be dozens if not hundreds of PayPal accounts set up to scam money out of this
Don't get me wrong, I think setting up a fund, especially one where the first $2000 goes to the family for their settlement, and the rest goes into a scholarship for the girl, would be a great idea.
But you do have to ask yourself whether helping this one family would be best, or if your money would have more impact supporting a foundation like the EFF that would help more than just one family.
Slashdot Mirror
So we won't have to have physical access to log in and change votes with MS Access and no password? For the love of God, when is the mainstream press going to pick up on this?!?!?!?
And what would those terms be? Where can I read this settelment?
:-)
:-)
Why, you can read those terms at MSFreePC.com of course, in their unabridged entirety. After all, they are a perfectly legitimate claims center, correct? And any place where you can file a claim has to give you the full details of the settlement, right? Or does everybody supply that with printed claim forms just because they hate trees?
Nowhere on the site does it ask anyone to file a fradulent claim.
Well, not in so many words, no. But don't you think having a claim filed in your name with a false address, and your "signature" stating "that all of the information on this form is true and correct" is a little suspect?
Not a point of law.
Oh, you (and they) got me on this one - sorry, I'm not a lawyer, and I was thinking of the children. Won't someone please think of the children!?!?!
A digital signature is the same as a regular signature unless the terms of the settelment preclude it.
"The settlement requires that all claimants print out, sign and mail their claim forms and certify the accuracy of their claims under penalty of perjury. See Settlement Agreement, section V.A.1.a. For this reason, the electronic submission of claims are not permitted -- claimants must actually sign their claim forms and mail them to the Settlement Claims Administrator. See Settlement Agreement, section V. A. Claim forms submitted through the www.msfreepc.com website will be invalid because they will not be signed. Instead, these claims will include only the claimant's typed name (called a "digital signature" by the website) which is invalid under the Settlement Agreement."
Maybe they don't have a case, I just think that there's plenty of things to be outraged about when it comes to Microsoft, and that our ire might be better directed towards their gaping security holes, crap default settings, shady business practices, etc., rather than getting all worked up over something that they may actually have a valid point about.
I think it's a great PR stunt for Lindows, and MS is playing right into their hands. Reading some of the comments in this thread, it's obvious that from a strictly PR standpoint, they can't loose. I just don't like MS Bashing for the sake of bashing MS. There's to many other far more legitimate reasons for hating them
It's about the law, smart guy. Is it only supposed to apply when it's against Microsoft? I'll spare you the business lesson on the actual costs associated with donations, since being so stupid, I'd never be able to articulate it in a fashion in league with your far suprior intellect, as evidenced by your stunning vocabulary, Anonymous Biznitch.
RTFA. The site violates just about every term of the settlement, asks people to file fraudulent claims, and encourages people to maximize their benefit, thereby taking benefits away from public schools. Not to mention that if you file a claim on their site, it's ineligible because you weren't given all the info and you didn't sign it. And you give up any rights to file a claim directly, since you signed those rights over to Lindows. So your claim will be denied in either case, and your only hope is that Lindows will still pay you and give you your free PC when all of their claims are justly denied. Good luck with all that.
Notice I didn't use plural - it would only take one lawyer - any lawyer - to determine that they were asking for trouble with MSfreePC.com and the way they're going about it. I asked about this in the original story - how can they file claims for people when they aren't even giving people access to the documentation outlining the rules, qualifications and benefits of the class action? I'm sure they did it for the tons of free publicity, as well as the goodwill anyone would get for doing anything against MS, but I think this one may just cost them more than it's worth. I'm surprised it's MS that's contacting them and not the courts. If I were the Judge and I heard about a web site that's sole purpose was to circumnavigate my ruling and orders, I'd be gunnning for the people behind it. Seems to me they could be facing obstruction of justice charges, maybe even fraud.
Don't get me wrong, I hate MS as much as the next guy, but in this case, they are totally right. I think Lindows jumped the gun and didn't think this one out. It looks like they didn't even read the terms of the settlement.
Oh yeah, and what lawyer would ever let them say MS was "found guilty" when it's a civil proceeding?
I thought this was a feature... people with enough money to buy a $3000 scooter, but not smart enough to stop riding it when a warning light comes on get tossed on their face if they rapidly accellerate or try to drive over a log. What was the problem again? We can only hope that the fix will prevent it from happening only when no camcorder is detected within focal distance.
I think you missed a key point - the Taguchi Method has traditionally been applied to engineering - i.e., the design phase - not marketing. The whole article is how this "method" is now being applied to marketing with great results. The quality of Japanese cars reference has to do with engineering, not marketing.
Hey - that antenna they're using looks a lot like the one from this story. Of course, he only claims a LOS range of 10 Miles.
Here's a translation of the distance. The 2.4 GHz refers to the frequency used (similar to a cordless phone).
It's called mono :-)
If you really want a lot of Spam, try posting to newsgroups whose topics are frequent subjects of Spam - try posting to penny-stock and other investing newsgroups for starters.
And make sure you follow all the links and open all the Spam you get- not on your primary machine, of course. Often they'll include images with an identifying filename that will tell them you've viewed it. If your bait addresses start popping up on their radar as someone who reads spam, you'll likely get bumped to the head of the line.
Last couple of suggestions - sign those guestbooks, and if you have an eBay account, change your user ID to one of those e-mail addresses, and place low-ball bids on a bunch of stuff you'll never win. Just remember that it'll be a while before you can change your ID again, and you'll have a history of ID changes that may not look good to future buyers and/or sellers.
According to this page, Melvil Dewey (1851-1931) anonymously published the system in 1876.
On the other hand, it seems that the Online Compyter Library Center does do quite a bit of work to maintain the system, which should entitle them to some rights - but it sure seems that if some guy published something anonymously in 1876, he probably intended it to be in the public domain. Seems to me, if the hotel was based on the original system, and not the one improved by subsequent owners, he should be ok - especially if they referred to it as the "Melvil Dewey System" or something.
I had no idea it was owned - how come they aren't going after the elementary schools that teach the system? Or is that included in their library's license? And how come we're teaching a proprietary, trademarked system? Next thing you know, they'll be teaching our kids Windows!!!
This is old, old news. Long before the HP/Compaq merger. "Next up: Man killed by a Pepsi machine wins Darwin Award"
I registered a domain name last night for the girl who took our wedding photos. I paid for it, filled out the info, and now when I go there, I get ads for her competition. If that isn't an unfair business practice, I don't know what is.
If Washington is like any other state that I've dealt with that has a sales tax, you are supposed to pay sales tax on everything you buy out of state. That's what the original poster of this thread was talking about, I believe.
The out of state companies just aren't collecting sales tax for those states because 1) they don't have to, and 2) because it would be an accounting nightmare- especially for states that have different or additional sales tax for different counties (like NY and FL). I know for a fact that in Maine and Florida, if you buy something out of state, either through catalog or Internet sales (and presumably while on vacation as well), you're supposed to be a good little tax payer and send them a check at the end of the year. Of course that doesn't stop New Hampshire from putting Liquor Stores right across the state line so you don't have to drive any farther than you have to in order to get "tax-free" booze.
The problem is that on big ticket items, it really hurts the local guys, especially if they're near the border, or if the item doesn't cost much to ship (i.e., memory and CPU's). 6% or 7% tax savings can easily cover shipping or a trip across the line. But what most people don't realize is that they are legally obligated to cough up the tax on these items too.
I think the only practical way to implement collection of Sales Tax for online sales would be if all the states and counties who have a sales tax would agree on a single amount to be paid to the State, who would then determine and distribute what (if any) portion goes to what county.
Many Internet retailers (Adobe, for one) already charge sales tax to everyone who lives in a state that has it. Although not required, it keeps the states happy, and also their retail channel who doesn't have a choice if they are in a sales-tax state.
So it's not really a loophole, it's more like swapping copyrighted music. Most people either don't know it's illegal, or they don't think they can get caught so they don't care.
From what I read, they don't require the proof that the settlement requires, so how are they going to get the money? And what's stopping you from filing claims with both MS and Lindows? I doubt MS is going to share it's data with Lindows.
That's MC Hawking to you, Biotch!
You comment cost me $LOL Dollars
D'oh! I get it now!!! $65 Billion or 65 Billion Dollars, not $65 Billion Dollars (65 billion dollars dollars).
Ok, I am insane now.
I like how 2 people modded this redundant, apparently without looking at the time stamps. Can it really be redundant if it's posted at the same time? Redundant is for posts that show an obvious lack of reading previous (not simultaneous) posts. At least that's what I read in the Mod FAQ before I started using my points.
:-)
This post, however, is clearly Offtopic
You're confusing the post with the Subject. Either that, or I totally missed what was redundant about the original story.
You forgot "never put outgoing mail in your mailbox" when you were plagerizing the "blowhard". Oops- sorry, you have to RTFA to plagerize it :-)
The article's point is that ID theft on a large scale requires more than dumpster diving or a crooked gas station, and he's pointing out that what ID Theives are doing to cause a 4 to 5 billion dollar problem one person at a time can be easily automated and there's a 300,000 name database of ssn's and dob's waiting to happen.
Did I already say RTFA?
Did you read the article and see where that figure came from? RTFA. He uses government figures to arrive at that amount, and then acknowledges that he might not be able to steal that much, but it would be in the "multiple billions"
Wouldn't that tick off Dev Null?
But seriously, being a small company, we outsource our hosting to pair Networks, Inc., and to be honest, I wear too many hats here to get that far into it. I pat myself on the back for just learning how to set a custom user prefs for SpamAssasin so even messages "from" people on our whitelist don't make it if they have an executable attachment or mention Viagra. That alone weeded out over 700 messages over the weekend.
If the e-mail filter is smart enough to know it's Sobig.F, why isn't it smart enough to know the "from" is spoofed?!?!?
I set our filters to just delete anything with an executable attachment, but that didn't to crap for the stupid "Virus Detected" warnings.
One guy was sending us about 150 copies a day, and the others his PC sent out with our address as the "from" resulted in about 50-75 Virus warnings a day - from the first day it popped up until it expired. I had his IP address, and called and e-mailed his ISP (Birch.net) a dozen or more times, and they did squat. 150 x ~100k x # of people in his address book - not to mention the undeliverables and virus warnings - and they did nothing.
Before you send any money to a "fund" for this girl and her family, check it out first. I'm sure there will be dozens if not hundreds of PayPal accounts set up to scam money out of this
Don't get me wrong, I think setting up a fund, especially one where the first $2000 goes to the family for their settlement, and the rest goes into a scholarship for the girl, would be a great idea.
But you do have to ask yourself whether helping this one family would be best, or if your money would have more impact supporting a foundation like the EFF that would help more than just one family.