Obviously, people can come to the conclusion that they made a bad decision. That's not the point. People have a very strong tendency to validate their prior decisions, however. This has been demonstrated over and over again in many research studies conducted by numerous social psychologists. They even have a name for it - "cognitive dissonance". It is a very powerful effect but clearly does not preclude the ability to question the wisdom of a prior decision.
I think you are closer to the truth than you suspect. The medical establishment likes stupid things defined as diseases and addictions for a very good reason - once something is classified as a disease or an addiction, medical insurance coverage is triggered and they get paid. That's why you see a proliferation of human activities being reclassified as diseases and addictions when before we just considered these people fuckups.
Those bsd, mit and virtually all other software licenses contain extensive warranty disclaimers that shield the developer from liability. You don't get the benefit of those warranty disclaimers if you release in the wild as public domain.
This is revisionist history. People did run out and buy windows 95. In fact, they stood in line overnight to get it. Let's face it; the bloom is off the rose. Things have changed considerably and no matter how you spin it, vista has been met with a lackluster reception. It's not that vista is so bad(it is but so was win95), it's that people don't care one way or another, i.e. windows is no longer cool. WinPCs are even parodied in the Mac adds as the dorky guy and everybody laughs. Believe it or not, there was a time when windows was the cool thing, at least in some circles.
IAAL and you would make a very good one as well. This is exactly the point I thought of when I read the article. In fact, mail fraud is undoubtedly the most often used predicate criminal act for civil RICO, and with good reason. It's almost impossible to conduct any business without using the mail in some way. If you allege that some enterprise is engaged in some type of ongoing fraudulent activity and they used the US mail on two or more occasions if furtherance of that fraudulent scheme, you are well on your way to satisfying the pleading requirements for civil RICO.
But then the whole impetus would be to file as early as possible so you don't get beat to the uspto door. In short, the net effect would be to increase the number of filings by those that can afford to do so(big corporations) and screw the small inventor with less funds that really can't afford to file a patent on every idea that crosses his mind even if he comes up with the idea first.
In firefox go to Preferences>Privacy. Tick "Accept cookies from sites". In the "Keep until" menu, select "I cose firefox". That will delete all cookies when you close firefox. You then click the "Exceptions" button and set the "Allow" option for all the websites you want to have leave their login cookies.
Thanks for the tip. Older versions of mandrake/mandriva have the same problem. I was wondering why the method described in the article didn't work. Deleting/etc/localtime and creating a new/etc/localtime link per your post fixed the problem.
Being a staunch supporter of Darwin certainly put Huxley senior in the rebel camp at the time but by the turn of the century his views were a pretty mainstream among the educated/logical positivist crowd, i.e. the scientific community.
Aldous Huxley certainly rejected all of this rationalist philosophy of his father and grandfather and did so in a bitingly sarcastic way in Ape and Essence, Chrome Yellow and Eyeless in Gaza. In his later works such as Island, The Perennial Philosophy and, to a lesser extent, After Many a Summer Dies the Swan, Huxley adopted a typically mystical world view. These later works were very popular in the late sixties, early seventies as he espoused the use of psychedelic drugs to experience and connect with the ultimate reality.
Ironically, this typical 19th century rationalist viewpoint is completely repudiated by Mr. Huxley's grandson, Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World and The Perennial Philosophy, among other works.
Everyone who has ever compiled a line of code has probably violated some silly software patent somehow. Microsoft is not immune from this attack/charge. In fact, MS has repeatedly been sued on IP viloations and has lost or settled for big bucks every time. The problem for MS is they have very deep pockets which makes them a very attractive defendant.
I am quite confident that if MS were to ever consider threatening any substantial linux vendor(ibm, rh, etc) with a patent claim, the threat of the inevitable counterclaim, especially from someone like ibm, would be enough to disuade any such action. For companies as large as MS, IBM and RH, patent portfolios are the ammunition used in a game of mutually assured destruction. They really don't come into play until one of the parties has nothing to lose by risking self-destruction because they're going down the tubes anyway(ala SCO).
Without a noncompete, the only basis for a lawsuit would probably be using your former company's proprietary trade secrets to compete with them in your new position. This type of claim is usually referred to as "breach of fiduciary duty/misappropriation of trade secrets". You mentioned the VP of sales giving you the bad news. For salesmen, companies have tried to contend that customer lists and knowledge of the company's custmers are trade secrets and have brought suit on that basis. Whether or not that type of assertion can hold up requires a careful inquiry into the specific facts of the case and the caselaw in the jurisdiction where you live. That can best be done by a local attorney.
Generally, it's a very weak case but some employers will sue anyway for the in terrorem effect it has on their current employees. Make absolutely sure that the employer cannot demonstrate that you walked out with customers lists or other company sales aids. Make a big show out of returning all company materials in your posession to the company, i.e. mail it to them return receipt requested with a cover letter stating you are returning all company materials in your posession and that you have retained no copies. Generating customer lists and walking out the door really looks bad even if this type of info is later deemed not to be propriatary trade secrets. Everything you do now should be posturing for litigation. Make a paper trail that you are acting above board and that your employer is being a bully/jerk.
Contrast this to how courts treat perjury in non-patent matters: impeachment of a witness for unreliable testimony is often followed by prosecution for perjury and a lengthy jail sentence.
This is so far from the truth, I don't even know where to begin. Perjury in both civil and criminal trials is common; ask any trial lawyer. However, prosecutions for perjury are extremely rare, mostly because perjury is a very tough case to prove. You have to not only show the witness's testimony was false; you also have to show that the witness knew it was false, i.e. that the witness wasn't simply mistaken. Also, the term "impeachment" of a witness is a legal term of art. It means to cast doubt on the veracity of the witness's testimony, frequently by showing the witness made prior inconsistent statements. This happens every day in every court room in the US. The notion that witness impeachment often leads to perjury prosecutions and lengthy jail terms is simply preposterous. Bruce Perens should leave the law to the lawyers as he obviously has no clue.
Back in the day, I believe they did just that. IIRC when the fairness doctrine first came out, the networks were scrambling trying to find some conservative spokesmen in order to satisfy the rule. I specifically remember one hilarious episode of All In The Family that had this as a plot premise where Archie was tabbed as a conservative spokesman by a local TV station. On his first show, Archie came out with his plan to end airline hijackings. Archie wanted to give every passenger a hand gun when they entered the plane because then any potential hijacker "would be insane to try anything".
Have you ever considered not buying this DRMed crap?? It's the only effective message that a business understands, i.e. when DRM goes up, sales go down. We're not talking food, water, shelter, clothing, etc; we're talking mediocre to bad movies and even crappier pop music for the most part. Send a message - don't buy anything with DRM and let people know why you're not buying.
"(1) They control what hardware their OS will run on"
No, they control the software need to run the hardware they build.
Apple is a hardware company, always have been.
Apple's EULA eplicitly makes it illegal to run their OS on anything other than Apple hardware. I fail to see what kind of distinction you are trying to make here. They clearly seek to control what hardware can be used with their OS.
Jurisdictional issues(where can a defendant be sued) and choice of law issues(what law applies to the dispute, here, Russian or US) are distinct concepts requiring different analyses. It is certainly conceivable that juridiction is properly in the US but that Russian law applies. In such a case, a US court would apply Russian law to the dispute or abstain from exercising jurisdiction.
Since their acts take effect here, laws which govern the effect will rule.
This is a gross oversimplification of a very complex and technical area of law called choice of law or conflict of laws. The phrase "their acts take effect here" is meaningless; you could just as easily argue that their acts took effect in Russia since that's where payment is received.
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People have been saying that for the last 50 years and it hasn't happened yet. It's always 50 years away and always will be. AI is a failure.
Obviously, people can come to the conclusion that they made a bad decision. That's not the point. People have a very strong tendency to validate their prior decisions, however. This has been demonstrated over and over again in many research studies conducted by numerous social psychologists. They even have a name for it - "cognitive dissonance". It is a very powerful effect but clearly does not preclude the ability to question the wisdom of a prior decision.
I think you are closer to the truth than you suspect. The medical establishment likes stupid things defined as diseases and addictions for a very good reason - once something is classified as a disease or an addiction, medical insurance coverage is triggered and they get paid. That's why you see a proliferation of human activities being reclassified as diseases and addictions when before we just considered these people fuckups.
Those bsd, mit and virtually all other software licenses contain extensive warranty disclaimers that shield the developer from liability. You don't get the benefit of those warranty disclaimers if you release in the wild as public domain.
This is revisionist history. People did run out and buy windows 95. In fact, they stood in line overnight to get it. Let's face it; the bloom is off the rose. Things have changed considerably and no matter how you spin it, vista has been met with a lackluster reception. It's not that vista is so bad(it is but so was win95), it's that people don't care one way or another, i.e. windows is no longer cool. WinPCs are even parodied in the Mac adds as the dorky guy and everybody laughs. Believe it or not, there was a time when windows was the cool thing, at least in some circles.
IAAL and you would make a very good one as well. This is exactly the point I thought of when I read the article. In fact, mail fraud is undoubtedly the most often used predicate criminal act for civil RICO, and with good reason. It's almost impossible to conduct any business without using the mail in some way. If you allege that some enterprise is engaged in some type of ongoing fraudulent activity and they used the US mail on two or more occasions if furtherance of that fraudulent scheme, you are well on your way to satisfying the pleading requirements for civil RICO.
Because no one is forcing you to go out and buy this junk. If you don't like the deal, don't get the movie.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_ publications/company_level_imports/current/import. html
Now go piss off.
But then the whole impetus would be to file as early as possible so you don't get beat to the uspto door. In short, the net effect would be to increase the number of filings by those that can afford to do so(big corporations) and screw the small inventor with less funds that really can't afford to file a patent on every idea that crosses his mind even if he comes up with the idea first.
In firefox go to Preferences>Privacy. Tick "Accept cookies from sites". In the "Keep until" menu, select "I cose firefox". That will delete all cookies when you close firefox. You then click the "Exceptions" button and set the "Allow" option for all the websites you want to have leave their login cookies.
No, Mark Prior is a perennially injured pitcher for the Chicago Cubs. Oh, it's "Pryor"; never mind.
You can say that again. I have several kiwi friends and they can be pretty tough birds to deal with.
Thanks for the tip. Older versions of mandrake/mandriva have the same problem. I was wondering why the method described in the article didn't work. Deleting /etc/localtime and creating a new /etc/localtime link per your post fixed the problem.
Aldous Huxley certainly rejected all of this rationalist philosophy of his father and grandfather and did so in a bitingly sarcastic way in Ape and Essence, Chrome Yellow and Eyeless in Gaza. In his later works such as Island, The Perennial Philosophy and, to a lesser extent, After Many a Summer Dies the Swan, Huxley adopted a typically mystical world view. These later works were very popular in the late sixties, early seventies as he espoused the use of psychedelic drugs to experience and connect with the ultimate reality.
Ironically, this typical 19th century rationalist viewpoint is completely repudiated by Mr. Huxley's grandson, Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World and The Perennial Philosophy, among other works.
I am quite confident that if MS were to ever consider threatening any substantial linux vendor(ibm, rh, etc) with a patent claim, the threat of the inevitable counterclaim, especially from someone like ibm, would be enough to disuade any such action. For companies as large as MS, IBM and RH, patent portfolios are the ammunition used in a game of mutually assured destruction. They really don't come into play until one of the parties has nothing to lose by risking self-destruction because they're going down the tubes anyway(ala SCO).
Generally, it's a very weak case but some employers will sue anyway for the in terrorem effect it has on their current employees. Make absolutely sure that the employer cannot demonstrate that you walked out with customers lists or other company sales aids. Make a big show out of returning all company materials in your posession to the company, i.e. mail it to them return receipt requested with a cover letter stating you are returning all company materials in your posession and that you have retained no copies. Generating customer lists and walking out the door really looks bad even if this type of info is later deemed not to be propriatary trade secrets. Everything you do now should be posturing for litigation. Make a paper trail that you are acting above board and that your employer is being a bully/jerk.
It's just pining for the fiords.
When you start illegally selling copyrighted works as opposed to gratis distribution, it moves from civil to criminal.
Back in the day, I believe they did just that. IIRC when the fairness doctrine first came out, the networks were scrambling trying to find some conservative spokesmen in order to satisfy the rule. I specifically remember one hilarious episode of All In The Family that had this as a plot premise where Archie was tabbed as a conservative spokesman by a local TV station. On his first show, Archie came out with his plan to end airline hijackings. Archie wanted to give every passenger a hand gun when they entered the plane because then any potential hijacker "would be insane to try anything".
Have you ever considered not buying this DRMed crap?? It's the only effective message that a business understands, i.e. when DRM goes up, sales go down. We're not talking food, water, shelter, clothing, etc; we're talking mediocre to bad movies and even crappier pop music for the most part. Send a message - don't buy anything with DRM and let people know why you're not buying.
http://edu.kde.org/kstars/
It usually comes bundled in the education package along with some other useful apps.
This is a gross oversimplification of a very complex and technical area of law called choice of law or conflict of laws. The phrase "their acts take effect here" is meaningless; you could just as easily argue that their acts took effect in Russia since that's where payment is received.