Not to mention a bug which has been around since the beginning: why can't messages read in one newsgroup be marked as read in groups to which they are crossposted?
The problem with all these things is that if you do one thing for one group it HAS to be done for the others, and unfortunately it's normally the minorities and not the majorities. One examplt. MOBO, the Music Of Black Origin awards. If I started up the MOWO awards do you think there would be cries of it being racist?
You're conflating defense of civil rights with political correctness, here. You are perfectly free to create a MOWO awards (aka CMA;-) ) if you want - yes, you might get some people protesting that it's racist, but the government wouldn't do anything to stop you. There's a huge difference between societal pressure and government coercion - the ACLU is concerned with limiting the latter.
If you're trying to make a point, it helps if your point is relevant.
Disclaimer - I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU (and the NRA, for that matter)
Much as I think keyloggers, etc. are despicable, the parent is incorrect. This type of software is usually marketed to companies or organizations which then install it on their computers. The intended use is to monitor the computer usage of employees. In this case, the employees are not the owners of the computer, and it is in the interest of both the keylogger maker and the company installing it that it not be automatically removed by anti-virus or anti-spyware software.
If the keylogger were installed on a computer without the owner's knowledge, in that case the EULA would not apply and the owner of the computer could do whatever s/he wished.
If you examine the history of copyrights, you'll find that their impetus came, not from autors, but from publishers who were trying to secure a perpetual income stream.
I'd have no problem if copyrights were vested only in authors/creators, and were non-transferable. That way, an author could license a publisher (or multiple publishers) to create editions of hir works, but would retain the ability to seek sanctions against unauthorized duplication.
And, of course, copyrights should be valid for a strictly limited time period.
So, in your little world, any criticism of your brilliant ideas must be a troll, because no rational person could possibly fail to be awed by your genius? Sorry, but before you grow up and move out of your parents' house, you should probably grow a bit thicker skin.
I was just pointing out that in the real world, if you are presenting a proposed solution to a perceived problem, that you have to be prepared to show how it can work, not just squeeze out a little brain-fart and expect everyone to applaud. Even if your ideas were workable, which they are not for reasons I've already stated, they would, if implemented, in so many different ways, suck.
Since you don't seem able to engage in a civil discussion of the merits of your proposal, I don't have any more time to waste with you. Buh-bye.
repeat after me, IRC is not WWW. Infact, the two have nothing to do with each other.
Who said anything about IRC?
Also, did I say "make a test before someone goes online"? no, I did not.
These were not your words? "Another good idea about this is that in order to become a citizen of the internet, you'd have to pass a skill testing exam."
the idea of corporations giving up their control is far fetched, but not impossible, and they could be forced to do it.
Who is going to force them? It would have to be national legislatures, and if you seriously think the US Congress, for example, is going to force the major US telecom companies to divest themselves of their assets, you are deluded.
... people like you hinder progress.
I simply fail to see how putting an ineffectual organization like the UN in charge of the Internet (whatever that means) can, in any way, be seen to be "progress".
I mean think about it, a lot of the online community can be divided into two groups, locals and tourists. The locals have their own culture of sorts that transcends borders. The locals gather into almost self governing communities (slashdot, fark, SA forums, IRC channels) where ideas and information is shared that could better the community, or the over all internet country.
Repeat after me: The WWW is NOT the Internet!
Root servers world wide could be moved into embassies for the internet and thus protected from the laws of their respective countries and be the only physical locations of this new country. Businesses that operate solely on the internet wouldn't pay taxes to the internet since thats what paying for an internet connection does.
Do you have any idea how DNS works? Take a look at the list of root servers sometime - they are all run - for free- as a public service by various organizations in the US and abroad. And WTF are "embassies for the internet"?
Now, this wouldn't be feasible because of infrastructure I think. Major corporations owning the actuall wires that delivery packets from point a to point b and so forth. But why couldn't that be replaced with a solely wireless network? Either that, or the infrastructure becomes property of the internet country.
Right. I'm sure AT&T, BT, Sprint, and all the national PTTs will happily give up control of their infrastructure.
Another good idea about this is that in order to become a citizen of the internet, you'd have to pass a skill testing exam. Nothing too complex, but something that would at least judge your ability to protect yourself againt most forms of maliciousness that exist on the internet, like protecting yourself against spam, how to install a firewall and an anti virus, what to look out for in emails to avoid running the latest virus attachment, ect. In otherwords, it wouldn't be a network certification or MCSE or anything like that. You don't even have to know how to make a website to be an internet citizen, just be able to protect yourself, which isn't all that hard nowadays anyways.
Oh, yeah - make everyone take a test before getting online. Just how do you do this? If I have a net connection, how do you make my wife take a test before getting online? What do you do - build this "Internet Test" into every OS on every computer? Sure.
I'm sorry, but this has to be the most brain-dead steaming pile of crap I've seen in a long time.
Sorry, but I disagree. This is not a "victimless crime". Its the same as if someone pulled up in front of your house and started using your water or electricity.
No, it's more like if you put a drinking fountain in your front yard, and someone came up and drank from it. Sure, you're paying for the water, but if you don't want people taking it, don't put up the fountain.
The analogy only goes so far. Bottom line, if you don't want people leeching off your AP, at least use WEP.
Besides, that's not how the patent system is supposed to work. If I patent a product, and you come along later with a similar-and-possibly-infringing product, I'm not going to buy you out - I might offer you a license to produce your own product using my patented tech, but you pay me for that - not the other way around.
It almost looks like DVForge is trying a bit of extortion here - "Let's produce a similar product, and then get the patent owner to buld it for us. We can get all teh anti-IP-patent geeks on our side. Yeah, that's the ticket!".
Excellent point. People who would install and use this software are (I hope) a non-representative subset of all computer users. I'd like to believe that more people have a clue than not, and the fact that these guys only have about 1 million members is kinda encouraging - when you think about how many Internet users there are. I hope.
...but it's not spyware: right on MarketScore web page they state In exchange for having their Internet browsing and purchasing activity observed, members have access to free email virus scanning and other benefits.
They have the user's explicit consent, so by your definition, it's not spyware. Stupid, maybe, but that's a whole other issue.
Re:It's as if icons peaked 2-4 years ago
on
A History of Icons
·
· Score: 1
I have to say it is incredibly annoying that "man" from 1970 still works better for getting information than any of these modern systems. With "man" I can quickly and unambigously determine if the information exists (so I don't waste time looking for nonexistent stuff), and if it does it always has the information I need (ie it lists *how to run that command*).
What's even more annoying is the tendency of application developers to NOT include a man page - expecting the user to either use their "Help" button (which, as the OP pointed out, is often useless) or, worse, hunt throught/usr/share/docs in hope of finding something relevant.
...since end-users are not liable for patent infringement, anyway - only the producer (and possibly (ob IANAL) distributor) of the allegedly infringing product would have any liability whatsoever.
Besides which, software patents are ridiculous - if I can think through the "patented" fucntion in my head, it's just logic and math. Some day, maybe TPTB will finally get that.
When you buy crops, and it grows crops itself, you have not rebuilt anything, so you can't be held liable that a plant is growing and produces seeds, that is a simple natural occurence!
The problem is that for most GM seeds, you don't actually buy the seed, you only license the use of it to produce one crop.
The thing is though, if everyone who felt the 2 major candidates weren't worth voting for, actually did vote for the 3rd party candidate they wanted, there would be pretty big shift.
The problem, of course, is that there are more than one "third party". The only way a real, viable third party can arise (and it's happened before) is by extensive grass-roots organizing well in advance of an election. You have to get enough committed voters for the new party that they can present a credible alternative.
The Libertarians are working on this, as are the Greens. The Reform party had a shot with Ross Perot, but since then have fallen apart. I just don't see a viable third party on the national scene for some time. Any prospective third party needs to get busy electing officials on the local and state levels, first.
So when you are faced with a choice between Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, you expect me to choose the lesser of two evils ?
Dude, the lesser of two evils is still better than the greater of two evils, now, isn't it?
Third parties are fine when there is not a really critical choice to be made in an election - and, I recognize that that is the case most of the time. When the choice is critical, however, voting for a third-party candidate is, in reality, saying that you don't really care which of the major-party candidates wins. If that's the case, just don't bother to vote.
Take a look at checkinstall
This cool package replaces the "make install" step of app installation, and can create a Slackware, RPM or Debian package and install it for you.
Using your own analogy, why should it be illegal for a body shop to tell you how to replace or modify your engine in order to make the new, cool radio work?
Once I purchase a bit of hardware, I own it. I can do anything I want to it, (in the case of iPod) run any damn software I want on it, and the manufacturer has no say in what I do. Apple would be perfectly justified in telling customers that modifying the iPod to play Real content will completely void the warranty, and to refuse to provide any support, but that should be all they can do.
In my county (Hawaii, USA) and, I believe, the entire state, you are supposed to have a licensed plumber to repair/replace a fixture, install a garbage disposal, etc. You need a licensed electrician to do virtually anything other than change a lightbulb. You need a licensed contractor for any construction or repair costing more than $1000. We also probably have the highest number of unpermitted and uninspected dwellings anywhere - mostly for just these reasons.
Slashdot Mirror
Not to mention a bug which has been around since the beginning: why can't messages read in one newsgroup be marked as read in groups to which they are crossposted?
You're conflating defense of civil rights with political correctness, here. You are perfectly free to create a MOWO awards (aka CMA ;-) ) if you want - yes, you might get some people protesting that it's racist, but the government wouldn't do anything to stop you. There's a huge difference between societal pressure and government coercion - the ACLU is concerned with limiting the latter.
If you're trying to make a point, it helps if your point is relevant.
Disclaimer - I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU (and the NRA, for that matter)
If the keylogger were installed on a computer without the owner's knowledge, in that case the EULA would not apply and the owner of the computer could do whatever s/he wished.
Of course, you can: Use alien: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/answers.ph p?action=viewarticle&artid=393
I'd have no problem if copyrights were vested only in authors/creators, and were non-transferable. That way, an author could license a publisher (or multiple publishers) to create editions of hir works, but would retain the ability to seek sanctions against unauthorized duplication.
And, of course, copyrights should be valid for a strictly limited time period.
I was just pointing out that in the real world, if you are presenting a proposed solution to a perceived problem, that you have to be prepared to show how it can work, not just squeeze out a little brain-fart and expect everyone to applaud. Even if your ideas were workable, which they are not for reasons I've already stated, they would, if implemented, in so many different ways, suck.
Since you don't seem able to engage in a civil discussion of the merits of your proposal, I don't have any more time to waste with you. Buh-bye.
Who said anything about IRC?
Also, did I say "make a test before someone goes online"? no, I did not.
These were not your words? "Another good idea about this is that in order to become a citizen of the internet, you'd have to pass a skill testing exam."
the idea of corporations giving up their control is far fetched, but not impossible, and they could be forced to do it.
Who is going to force them? It would have to be national legislatures, and if you seriously think the US Congress, for example, is going to force the major US telecom companies to divest themselves of their assets, you are deluded.
I simply fail to see how putting an ineffectual organization like the UN in charge of the Internet (whatever that means) can, in any way, be seen to be "progress".
Repeat after me: The WWW is NOT the Internet!
Root servers world wide could be moved into embassies for the internet and thus protected from the laws of their respective countries and be the only physical locations of this new country. Businesses that operate solely on the internet wouldn't pay taxes to the internet since thats what paying for an internet connection does.
Do you have any idea how DNS works? Take a look at the list of root servers sometime - they are all run - for free- as a public service by various organizations in the US and abroad. And WTF are "embassies for the internet"?
Now, this wouldn't be feasible because of infrastructure I think. Major corporations owning the actuall wires that delivery packets from point a to point b and so forth. But why couldn't that be replaced with a solely wireless network? Either that, or the infrastructure becomes property of the internet country.
Right. I'm sure AT&T, BT, Sprint, and all the national PTTs will happily give up control of their infrastructure.
Another good idea about this is that in order to become a citizen of the internet, you'd have to pass a skill testing exam. Nothing too complex, but something that would at least judge your ability to protect yourself againt most forms of maliciousness that exist on the internet, like protecting yourself against spam, how to install a firewall and an anti virus, what to look out for in emails to avoid running the latest virus attachment, ect. In otherwords, it wouldn't be a network certification or MCSE or anything like that. You don't even have to know how to make a website to be an internet citizen, just be able to protect yourself, which isn't all that hard nowadays anyways.
Oh, yeah - make everyone take a test before getting online. Just how do you do this? If I have a net connection, how do you make my wife take a test before getting online? What do you do - build this "Internet Test" into every OS on every computer? Sure.
I'm sorry, but this has to be the most brain-dead steaming pile of crap I've seen in a long time.
No, it's more like if you put a drinking fountain in your front yard, and someone came up and drank from it. Sure, you're paying for the water, but if you don't want people taking it, don't put up the fountain.
The analogy only goes so far. Bottom line, if you don't want people leeching off your AP, at least use WEP.
It almost looks like DVForge is trying a bit of extortion here - "Let's produce a similar product, and then get the patent owner to buld it for us. We can get all teh anti-IP-patent geeks on our side. Yeah, that's the ticket!".
Excellent point. People who would install and use this software are (I hope) a non-representative subset of all computer users. I'd like to believe that more people have a clue than not, and the fact that these guys only have about 1 million members is kinda encouraging - when you think about how many Internet users there are.
I hope.
...but it's not spyware: right on MarketScore web page they state
In exchange for having their Internet browsing and purchasing activity observed, members have access to free email virus scanning and other benefits.
They have the user's explicit consent, so by your definition, it's not spyware. Stupid, maybe, but that's a whole other issue.
WooHoo!!
Naturally, on April 1.
Oh, well
Glass does not "flow" or "melt": http://tafkac.org/science/glass_flow.html
Furrfu
What's even more annoying is the tendency of application developers to NOT include a man page - expecting the user to either use their "Help" button (which, as the OP pointed out, is often useless) or, worse, hunt throught /usr/share/docs in hope of finding something relevant.
...since end-users are not liable for patent infringement, anyway - only the producer (and possibly (ob IANAL) distributor) of the allegedly infringing product would have any liability whatsoever. Besides which, software patents are ridiculous - if I can think through the "patented" fucntion in my head, it's just logic and math. Some day, maybe TPTB will finally get that.
The problem is that for most GM seeds, you don't actually buy the seed, you only license the use of it to produce one crop.
So, pass that doobie to me!
The problem, of course, is that there are more than one "third party". The only way a real, viable third party can arise (and it's happened before) is by extensive grass-roots organizing well in advance of an election. You have to get enough committed voters for the new party that they can present a credible alternative.
The Libertarians are working on this, as are the Greens. The Reform party had a shot with Ross Perot, but since then have fallen apart. I just don't see a viable third party on the national scene for some time. Any prospective third party needs to get busy electing officials on the local and state levels, first.
Dude, the lesser of two evils is still better than the greater of two evils, now, isn't it?
Third parties are fine when there is not a really critical choice to be made in an election - and, I recognize that that is the case most of the time. When the choice is critical, however, voting for a third-party candidate is, in reality, saying that you don't really care which of the major-party candidates wins. If that's the case, just don't bother to vote.
Take a look at checkinstall This cool package replaces the "make install" step of app installation, and can create a Slackware, RPM or Debian package and install it for you.
'Organizing and displaying photographs based on time' surely has some prior art??!!
Once I purchase a bit of hardware, I own it. I can do anything I want to it, (in the case of iPod) run any damn software I want on it, and the manufacturer has no say in what I do. Apple would be perfectly justified in telling customers that modifying the iPod to play Real content will completely void the warranty, and to refuse to provide any support, but that should be all they can do.
In my county (Hawaii, USA) and, I believe, the entire state, you are supposed to have a licensed plumber to repair/replace a fixture, install a garbage disposal, etc. You need a licensed electrician to do virtually anything other than change a lightbulb. You need a licensed contractor for any construction or repair costing more than $1000. We also probably have the highest number of unpermitted and uninspected dwellings anywhere - mostly for just these reasons.
Oh, FSCK! that profile matches me eggzactly!