when it comes to the security measures it's hardly surprising. All those pop-up warnings are enough to cause dandruff, and there are features in the filesystem that silently replaces files even if you have edited them and know what you are doing.
Example: Install Apache HTTP server, edit the config file httpd.conf with vim and try to make it stick. (at least under Vista Ultimate with default settings).
Of course - you are running software not approved by M$ - so of course it doesn't work!
The question is still if the radar gun was operated correctly and if the figures recorded does match the vehicle in question. Only a video recording of the measurement will be sufficient evidence. If it isn't on print it should be dismissed as insufficient evidence.
Well - incompetence means that nothing will happen while malice means that whatever happens is intentional and not in the public interest. If I have to choose I'll go for incompetence because then all actions should average out to a nothing.
But one may wonder - can it get worse? Well... Jeb Bush may be appointed... Since George W isn't eligible for a third period.
Or shall we wait a few years and see either Jenna or Barbara Bush become elected? Then it's really a family affair and it may be time to rename the office from "President" to "Majesty".
This is of course not acceptable in an open society. If there were one or two fake reporters in a press conference where other reporters were able to ask questions this wouldn't be a problem. (who has seen the average reporters asking reasonable questions all the time?)
If it was meant as an announcement and not a press conference then call it an announcement and don't fake it.
The person(s) behind this stunt should be thrown out the window head first as soon as possible. The current behavior is what you expect from a non-democratic country, so it's easy to assume that this is something that sticks a long way up to the top. How far may it go? President? This isn't the only case where strange or out-of-the ordinary actions have occurred. Too many incidents have been seen, some of them related to the USA PATRIOT Act
Can it be that Microsoft is trying to figure out if the solution is infringing on any of their patents and that they then are able to kill the whole project unless they are to provide the OS.
In the end it seems likely that the alleged patent violations are harming the economy and development in a country in decline. The whole system seems corrupt and there are fights over the remains.
The US dollar has fallen to almost half it's value compared to the Swedish Krona in a few years. It's falling compared to other economies too.
To cut the losses, both economical and trust-wise it's time for a complete rebuild of the legal system regarding property rights and estimation of value loss. Suing people for ridiculous amounts of money won't help either. Software patents should be declared invalid - retroactively so that all court rulings regarding software patent breaks can be invalidated.
And the practice of being able to pick patent fees from the users of a technology that has a certain patent is completely hopeless. If anybody should be held responsible it's the manufacturer - not the user. If the manufacturer is in a foreign country - use the customs office to take care of the problem for all future cases.
Especially software patents are bad - because they often are applied to a certain detail, and the patents should have been dismissed as obvious. The effort to write code may be great for one programmer but made on the fly by another without even realizing that the first programmer has gotten a patent for the solution. Who is to blame? Who is responsible? Is it really "protection of assets" going on or is it just a spanner in the works of development and ultimately decreases the ability of the country to compete on the international market?
What most rulings in cases regarding software patents fails to take into account is that software is a volatile international thing - almost like the air we breathe or the water we drink - and it has no boundaries. (unless you build a really great firewall or resort to computers only able to run a nationally assigned OS and programming language). Each case where a patent software is granted is another nail in the coffin for development.
The use of patents forces you to look back all the time to make sure nobody infringes on your patent or tries to make it invalid. The current economic lifespan of a patent should be reduced to 3 to 4 years after which it only causes harm. If less effort is put into patents and more into development you will see a lot of more development done.
The public trust in the legal system will be reduced even more.
It's sad that the effort put in by the police at personal property crime is so low that most cases are dismissed within a few months while they can pull in a huge number of people for an effort like this.
And then the police are complaining about that ordinary people takes the law into their own hands.
And when running the first page through the W3C HTML Validator you will get 65 errors and the title "This page is not Valid (no Doctype found)!"...
THAT's EMBARRASSING - And expecting that anybody really would want to look at their HTML code... Only reason may be that they wrote the pages themselves and don't want to stand out as morons when it comes to writing HTML code.
On the other hand - it can also be a marketing trick.
And if the person that reads their HTML is located outside the US what leverage do they have?
Mostly seems to be about "how stupid can one get?"
If you are going to make a hack that calls in the SWAT team - assign them to some place of the Aryan Brotherhood, locally known drug outfit or something like that and leave ordinary people.
Or if you really want to embarrass them send them to the local church after midnight.
The problem is that the faxes can be in the fax inbox for days...
Anything that is important may go by the snail mail, the email may work if it's signed.
It's just too bad that even big outfits has fallen to spam relaying even today. Checked the mail log and it contained an entry from mail5.warnerbros.com.
If your agenda is to make statements as a unified body, you can't do that. It would be like if the US kicked everyone out of the UN except them, then claimed to have unanimous global support for their war of terror. It just doesn't work.
It's not really the same thing - if a representative doesn't show up for a number of votes that representative has voided his/her rights to vote - it's not like another representative is kicking them out.
Anyway - this makes it really clear that it was an attempt by Microsoft to buy a standard because it wasn't good enough in it self on technical merits. I wonder if the RICO acts can be applied to this whole affair?
In all - it has revealed a weakness in the standardization organizations in general, and it's time for them to rebuild their structure and public trust. Failure to do so will devalue the ISO standards as a whole.
but there is a danger here too - unless you can actually verify that vote-spamming doesn't occur. Another catch is the cross-section of society that is different when it comes to online-voting than regular voting, but that isn't necessarily a problem.
But in all - this seems to be the next step in democracy.
Seems to be a bunch of people that want to get some free time on slashdot.
And - yes I did take a look at their site and it was not really having any substance at all. So what is all the fuzz about? Even the anti-moveon must be a real bunch of losers just considering the ad... Viagra ads are much more fun.
Since Google is a company selling a product/service they can select their customers as they like.
If it was a governmental service that made this kind of discrimination it would have been a different case.
And anyway - I wouldn't have considered any of these ads unless this story was made, so maybe the complaint generated free advertisement for both parties.
some sites are next to hopeless to use from a usability point of view.
Not only is the layout wildly different from site to site, but also the semantics. And sometimes the access to some services aren't in a menu at all but hidden on a specific page that you don't really think it would be.
It may be time for PC manufacturers to also be able to listen to the consumers and actually ask them which OS they want (if any). This so that when a consumer buys a PC with expected performance he/she isn't forced to select a specific OS or version of OS.
It may be that when buying a PC it only comes bundled with XP Home, but the consumer needs XP Pro, in which case it's necessary to purchase the OS TWICE. Or if the consumer wants Linux it's not possible to get rid of the M$ Tax...
But Maxtor is Seagate nowadays... And anyway - WD is way worse than Maxtor... When a friend of mine has had about 80% failure-rate on his 120GB WD disks within 24 months I started to keep a great distance from them...
is that there hasn't been any explicit claims on any patents - just buzzing that there are infringements going on. Until there are at least references to the actual patents there can't be a case worth taking to court.
And even if brought to court - the case may be dismissed if the claims aren't good or if the situation is caused by unwillingness to reveal what the infringements are.
So in all - just call back to Redmond and ask about the details about the alleged infringements. Or write a letter.
On the other hand if everybody reading this sends a postcard to M$ HQ asking for specifics regarding the infringements they may be at least annoyed, but as long as the writing is sensible it's still legal. Just try to get a postcard with a penguin on for this!:-)
Well - it's time for all of us to learn all characters in the Unicode set. So maybe now you can have a domain www.räksmörgås.com and make it stick!
Of course - the RTL / LTR adds one new dimension, as does the different asian symbols, among them the hiragana, katakana and kanji character sets.
And just figure - all that easier for a lot of the obscure sites on the net when they can use some really odd characters combined with running IPv6 only. RIAA will probably get really worried...
weren't uncommon in the early 80's - but they had a ROM basic built in. When we got the PC there was suddenly need for a lengthy and cumbersome procedure before the computer even was remotely usable.
All those procedures performed in BIOS today are often unnecessary unless you run a legacy operating system like DOS that actually uses the BIOS. Linux as an example only uses BIOS for a limited amount of tasks while it does most of the hardware management in the kernel without much need for BIOS to be around. So replacing or at least speeding up the BIOS would be very nice.
Slashdot Mirror
Example: Install Apache HTTP server, edit the config file httpd.conf with vim and try to make it stick. (at least under Vista Ultimate with default settings).
Of course - you are running software not approved by M$ - so of course it doesn't work!
The question is still if the radar gun was operated correctly and if the figures recorded does match the vehicle in question. Only a video recording of the measurement will be sufficient evidence. If it isn't on print it should be dismissed as insufficient evidence.
But one may wonder - can it get worse? Well... Jeb Bush may be appointed... Since George W isn't eligible for a third period.
Or shall we wait a few years and see either Jenna or Barbara Bush become elected? Then it's really a family affair and it may be time to rename the office from "President" to "Majesty".
If it was meant as an announcement and not a press conference then call it an announcement and don't fake it.
The person(s) behind this stunt should be thrown out the window head first as soon as possible. The current behavior is what you expect from a non-democratic country, so it's easy to assume that this is something that sticks a long way up to the top. How far may it go? President? This isn't the only case where strange or out-of-the ordinary actions have occurred. Too many incidents have been seen, some of them related to the USA PATRIOT Act
, or with the act as an excuse.This at least calls from an infamous quote: You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.
And while you are at it - complete the poll for the anachronistic Amendment 2
Can it be that Microsoft is trying to figure out if the solution is infringing on any of their patents and that they then are able to kill the whole project unless they are to provide the OS.
The imminent death of the internet has been predicted too many times now, but it hasn't happened yet.
The real killer will be the one we don't see.
And anyway - the bandwidth limit will always limit the services available at any time. If a service uses too much noone will use it.
The US dollar has fallen to almost half it's value compared to the Swedish Krona in a few years. It's falling compared to other economies too.
To cut the losses, both economical and trust-wise it's time for a complete rebuild of the legal system regarding property rights and estimation of value loss. Suing people for ridiculous amounts of money won't help either. Software patents should be declared invalid - retroactively so that all court rulings regarding software patent breaks can be invalidated.
And the practice of being able to pick patent fees from the users of a technology that has a certain patent is completely hopeless. If anybody should be held responsible it's the manufacturer - not the user. If the manufacturer is in a foreign country - use the customs office to take care of the problem for all future cases.
Especially software patents are bad - because they often are applied to a certain detail, and the patents should have been dismissed as obvious. The effort to write code may be great for one programmer but made on the fly by another without even realizing that the first programmer has gotten a patent for the solution. Who is to blame? Who is responsible? Is it really "protection of assets" going on or is it just a spanner in the works of development and ultimately decreases the ability of the country to compete on the international market?
What most rulings in cases regarding software patents fails to take into account is that software is a volatile international thing - almost like the air we breathe or the water we drink - and it has no boundaries. (unless you build a really great firewall or resort to computers only able to run a nationally assigned OS and programming language). Each case where a patent software is granted is another nail in the coffin for development.
The use of patents forces you to look back all the time to make sure nobody infringes on your patent or tries to make it invalid. The current economic lifespan of a patent should be reduced to 3 to 4 years after which it only causes harm. If less effort is put into patents and more into development you will see a lot of more development done.
Seems to be a lot of screaming for little wool as it comes when shaving a pig...
I would REALLY hate it if Max Headroom would fall for these new fonts.
It's sad that the effort put in by the police at personal property crime is so low that most cases are dismissed within a few months while they can pull in a huge number of people for an effort like this.
And then the police are complaining about that ordinary people takes the law into their own hands.
THAT's EMBARRASSING - And expecting that anybody really would want to look at their HTML code... Only reason may be that they wrote the pages themselves and don't want to stand out as morons when it comes to writing HTML code.
On the other hand - it can also be a marketing trick.
And if the person that reads their HTML is located outside the US what leverage do they have?
Mostly seems to be about "how stupid can one get?"
Or if you really want to embarrass them send them to the local church after midnight.
Anything that is important may go by the snail mail, the email may work if it's signed.
It's just too bad that even big outfits has fallen to spam relaying even today. Checked the mail log and it contained an entry from mail5.warnerbros.com.
Anyway - this makes it really clear that it was an attempt by Microsoft to buy a standard because it wasn't good enough in it self on technical merits. I wonder if the RICO acts can be applied to this whole affair?
In all - it has revealed a weakness in the standardization organizations in general, and it's time for them to rebuild their structure and public trust. Failure to do so will devalue the ISO standards as a whole.
I'm starting to think that spammers should get familiar with the business end of a Desert Eagle .50 or similar device.
But in all - this seems to be the next step in democracy.
O.G. Phone - is that a phone specific for Original Gangsters or maybe this set of Original Gangsters (sorry Swedish site)? :-)
And - yes I did take a look at their site and it was not really having any substance at all. So what is all the fuzz about? Even the anti-moveon must be a real bunch of losers just considering the ad... Viagra ads are much more fun.
If it was a governmental service that made this kind of discrimination it would have been a different case.
And anyway - I wouldn't have considered any of these ads unless this story was made, so maybe the complaint generated free advertisement for both parties.
Not only is the layout wildly different from site to site, but also the semantics. And sometimes the access to some services aren't in a menu at all but hidden on a specific page that you don't really think it would be.
It may be that when buying a PC it only comes bundled with XP Home, but the consumer needs XP Pro, in which case it's necessary to purchase the OS TWICE. Or if the consumer wants Linux it's not possible to get rid of the M$ Tax...
and it is sure useful in some applications, but other may be hindered by the lack of a PCI slot or two...
But Maxtor is Seagate nowadays... And anyway - WD is way worse than Maxtor... When a friend of mine has had about 80% failure-rate on his 120GB WD disks within 24 months I started to keep a great distance from them...
And even if brought to court - the case may be dismissed if the claims aren't good or if the situation is caused by unwillingness to reveal what the infringements are.
So in all - just call back to Redmond and ask about the details about the alleged infringements. Or write a letter.
On the other hand if everybody reading this sends a postcard to M$ HQ asking for specifics regarding the infringements they may be at least annoyed, but as long as the writing is sensible it's still legal. Just try to get a postcard with a penguin on for this! :-)
Of course - the RTL / LTR adds one new dimension, as does the different asian symbols, among them the hiragana, katakana and kanji character sets.
And just figure - all that easier for a lot of the obscure sites on the net when they can use some really odd characters combined with running IPv6 only. RIAA will probably get really worried...
All those procedures performed in BIOS today are often unnecessary unless you run a legacy operating system like DOS that actually uses the BIOS. Linux as an example only uses BIOS for a limited amount of tasks while it does most of the hardware management in the kernel without much need for BIOS to be around. So replacing or at least speeding up the BIOS would be very nice.