Easter is a Jewish Holiday, and predates Christians by some centuries at the very least. In most languages the term for Easter derives from the Jewish term Pessach. One may still argue that the holiday was celebrated in that time of the year so to undermine pagan celebrations, but it is unlikely this was arranged by Christians.
As I understand it, ethic is something accepted by society at large as contributing somehow to the common good. So, what is ethical or unethical depends on the society you are inserted. I assume that the return policy of most stores presumes that you will only return a product because it didn't fit your needs, not because you couldn't sell it at a nice surplus. So, in the sub-society consisting of the consumers and retailers, I'd say that yes, returning a good under such conditions is unethical. Please note I never said that reselling it was unethical, only the act of returning it if it couldn't be sold as someone said happened to PS3s at launch time - at least not in a capitalist society. If you defend socialism, as someone who replied to my OP seems to, then it becomes unethical.
Re:Couple Thoughts
on
Where are Wii?
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· Score: 4, Insightful
I don't get it. You want to beat them because they are using capitalism to... make money?
They aren't forcing you to sell your Wii to them. Or other people to buy theirs. So what's the big deal? I understand people who buy Wii/PS3 in a retail store and simply return them if they can't be sold with hefty margins, are probably being unethical. But after all, it is their Wii. They can sell it if they wan't. It is up to a) consumers don't be stupid and don't pay the prices they ask for and b) Nintendo ramp up production. If some big company kept you from selling some good, or say some software or media, you purchased from them, how would you feel?
but perhaps I should've used !clockworkorange, since in the movie (never read the book) being exposed to violence had a different effect than what this research seems to imply.
This reminds me of Chavez referendum in Venezuela.
Do you agree to: GIVE UNLIMITED POWER TO THE PRESIDENT _AND_ REDUCE THE WEEKLY WORKLOAD BY SIX HOURS? [ ] YES [ ] NO
And I was thought that was pretty lame, and a miracle it wasn't approved, now I see the same tactic in this US visa form. Picture this. Someone applies for a visa, and fails (Believe me, it happens all the time, and it's seemingly random). He/She tries again, and is forced to answer YES to "Have you ever been refused admission to the U.S., or been the subject of a deportation hearing or sought to obtain or assist others to obtain a visa, entry into the U.S., or any other U.S. immigration benefit by fraud or willful misrepresentation or other unlawful means? Have you attended a U.S. public elementary school on student (F) status or a public secondary school after November 30, 1996 without reimbursing the school? [ ] Yes [ ] No ". So, they can deny his visa again and again, after all, he *could* be a beneficiary of fraud...
How do you american people feel with such a form? Do you feel that it is just, since foreigners have obviously no business in your country? Or do most people in US simply have no knowledge of this? How would you feel if you had to fill a form similar to this one to enjoy your vacations abroad?
Sorry for the ranting, but it is so stupid it really pissed me off.
That's not the right way to think!!
on
Is SETI Worth It?
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· Score: 1
Bush would think something along the lines of " if we don't go looking for weapon of mass destruction in Iraq, we can never prove they never had any to begin with!".
I run Virtue with Tiger. It was never quite fully functional with some apps, like Adium, but it got the job done. Too bad the development has stopped due to Spaces. I don't wan't to troll, but it seems that Spaces can't show an window/app in all desktops? It is one of the features I miss most in Virtue (it is there, but won't work with the apps with which I most need it). I also think the Exposé like transitions seem kind of bland, I'd like more fancy effects like real 3D transitions.
You have a point. Most argentinians are of Spanish descent, of course, but there is a strong Italian component as well. Argentina resembles Europe more than other Latin American countries, so it has been a popular destination for europeans in the post war period looking for a new country. This includes some former Nazi officials. We have a say the people from Argentina are Italians which speak Spanish and pretend to be English... The question is, the population in there is quite homogeneous, socially speaking, hence my comparison with a WASP meeting. Perhaps it is multicultural for american standards, I don't know.
That said, I thought your original post quite funny because Brazil is strongly multicultural. About 28M brazilians are of Italian descent. There is an untold number of people of German descent in the southern states as well - in one of them, 20% of the population has German as their first language. In the states of Sao Paulo and Parana there is large contingents of Japanese emigrants too. And unlike Argentina, here there are significant parts of the population of african and native descent.
No offense to my argentinian "hermanos", but Argentina is about as multicultural as a WASP meeting. I don't see why people are so upset with the case. People committed a crime (it is a criminal offense here), they go to jail. I wish more high-ups would go to jail when caught wrongdoing.
To all trolls that keep saying "stop doing business in Brazil", do you really think CISCO and others do business here because they want to be kind to us? They want us to have access to that-oh-so-nice-and-advanced american hardware so we can be happy? They want to sell their stuff and that's all. If they leave the market, someone else will take it. And in case you haven't noticed, China has been replacing US as a hardware provider. Perhaps they still haven't got routers as good as CISCO's, but they will eventually. And if american companies leave markets open to them, the quicker they will. So good luck for any american companies wishing to leave the brazilian market.
Besides, the ones who really suffer with the high taxes and corruption are brazilian people and consumers. I highly doubt CISCO passed on the savings they got to their clients. Stop whining just because some american company was caught red-handed.
This is/., you know. We assume readers have a certain level of familiarity with terms and acronyms used in technology/ gaming/ computer science/ rocket science/ Star Wars/ WoW/ pr0n/ topology/ quantum chromodynamics and related fields that might show up as articles, just like we assume no one will read the fscking article itself. That said, if you don't know what does RTS stands for, a quick trip to Google will enlighten you, but I doubt you will find the story or the comments particularly interesting.
Some have argued (on this very article) that knowing about licensing issues is a valuable service for the customer since most people want to be legal.
I assume some people may buy cracked software from some resellers thinking it is the real deal. I believe this doesn't happen often within the enterprise market, where you usually have respectable resellers. Even then, annoying the end user will not help you here.
But there's liberal, and there's absurd in what you allow.
Of course, and deciding which is which is part of the game. A high end 3D modelling program might sell well with a per seat license of a couple of thousand dollars, it might even be a bargain, since the market expects this kind of pricing and licensing. The secret is in discovering what your potential clients expect from you, and providing something more, that will help them in their business. As long as you keep that in good balance, most people will be happy to pay.
The legitimate user - or someone who practices what people call "casual piracy", and some people see as fair use - are the only ones to be nagged. Real pirates will crack the key authorization process and disable the phone home "feature". BTW, while you had the sense to allow for phoning home only if there is a internet conn, I don't like my software (I bought it, remember?) using my resources without adding value to me. This process only helps the seller, not the costumer.
So, only the costumer may see the pop-up screens or get that phone call - right in the middle of a very important project or meeting, smells good. The people who will use a crack never get to be annoyed with it. Perhaps someone who bought a one machine license and installed it in two or three may be caught - and you loose a costumer forever, provided he has any options.
If you don't want people to pirate your software, add some value to your product that the pirates can't. I know it sounds like PHB speak, and it is, but providing you actually do it instead of using it as a buzzword, it works. Give them a liberal license, let them install it on a fair number of machines, and be opened to negotiate discount licenses. Provide a decent support. Release a demo that gives good functionality to spread the word about your product, and encourage its sharing. Don't treat your costumer as thieves, and most of them will be happy to work with you. You will always loose some copies to piracy. If you do it right, most of them wouldn't buy them anyways so the fraction of actual sales you loose is very small.
I will be very pleased when all these unions employees get laid off and be replaced with non-union, cheaper employees, or by robots alltogether. Then maybe USA will be able to compete with China and Korea. Of course, by then US companies will have to export all their production since most americans won't be able to afford it.
So you have a car, someone steals or borrow it, robs a bank and the police trace the car to you. Is this enough reason to fight car registration?
The real problem lies with the MAFIAA mob tactics. These won't go away. In any case, they should have to prove you committed the offenses - just like someone should have to prove it was you driving the car. Just having a file with my ID on it is as much of a proof as a screenshot showing my IP address.
Since the RIAA will behave as it always has, I'd glady exchange DRM for watermarking. I wouldn't have to worry with interoperability then, and it won't make things worse (nor better) for people who share files.
I modded you overrated but I prefer to reply to your post. Most/.s know what "leet speak" looks like. The poster you're referring to uses it with an obvious negative connotation, so it is clear he isn't endorsing it - rather he is accusing the researchers of acting as immaturely as teens who supposedly brag over themselves and use "leet speak".
If you can't understand that, at least type - and search - correctly. Had you Googled for "1337" instead of "1336", all the top hits would've shown you what was going. Of course, assuming you're not a troll, which I highly doubt.
SKU means stock keeping unit; it should mean the lowest level of product detail, as kept in stock. Why everyone suddenly started using it as a layman's term, beats me. I assure you it is not only here in/. though.
I was going to reply that X11 feels sluggish under OS X, then I realized I only used Apple's. Gotta try it someday. Anyways, can I run 3D-accelerated software - think Beryl/Compiz - using X11 this way, with good results? I remembered I once got Quake3 running from an Athlon with the display in a K6, one of them was running Mandrake and the other some Debian flavoured distro, but it was slow and required Nvidia drivers. This was ages ago, mind you.
When I have a 24" iMac. I want to know at a glance which commands are available for each of the apps that happen to be opened. Heck, I want to do that even in my 13,3" Macbook screen. I do understand that having an infinite width makes it easier to hit - but I am proficient enough in hitting my menus, thank you. Give me the option at least, some people who are power users will be happy, and the rest can use the easier default. I like my Apple machines, but I'd really love if Apple didn't oversimplify things all the times.
is your best bet right now. I am not sure if OS X can be properly virtualized, since it seems to check whether you are running it on Apple hardware - of course, if you are going to use an iMac, then you are indeed using Apple hardware, but it doesn't seem so to the OS. You'd need to use a hacked version I guess - oh the irony!
If you asked me, I would advise the contrary: run Linux in a virtual environment under OS X. Less trouble to get it running, no need to use hacked versions, and there is a good possibility that features such as Coherence from Parallels or the equivalent in VMWare Fusion might be available for Linux guests someday.
is not on creating better food. Is on creating food that is more profitable. Not profitable to the farmer, but to the producer of the seeds. It's all about controlling the market and ensuring their monopoly, like we all come to know from MS. So they will only worry about not creating "frankenfood" if they have to, and to the extent that it hurts their profits. And pardon me, but this BS that "natural food is not enough to feed the world" is just that, BS. Americans have been well fed for decades without genetic engineering.
You argue that creating a copy means nothing was actually taken, but both in stealing a movie, and stealing a car involve the producer of said product to lose money.
First, let's talk about the "stealing a movie" part. Steal is to take away something from other person. Since the person which you are copying retain the original copy, filesharing is NOT STEALING. It doesn't matter how many times politicians, the RIAA or/.ers repeat it. They are different concepts. It might be illegal, it might be wrong, be get your facts right for once.
Secondly, lets go for "the producer of said product to lose money". There are a lot of ways for producers to lose money. When someone steals a car from a consumer, the producer loses no money: he already sold the car. The consumer looses the good, NOT the producer. When you copy a copyrighted material, the consumer looses nothing -that's exactly why most people don't bother if someone copy anything from them. The producer looses his ability to make a potential sell. He is NOT losing money, only "potential money". Only potential because people will "buy" a lot of things when it is available for free they wouldn't otherwise buy. Not giving an Economics 101 class here.
Question is, there is a lot of things that make a producer loose money. When you introduce a substitute, they loose money. Should typewriters' makers sue the computer industry because they lost money? When I make a homemade computer, should Dell sue me because they've lost a sale? When someone releases a new version of Apache should MS sue them because they loose IIS potential sales? Should Netscape have sued MS when they started distributing IE?
You could probably guess what my opinion on copyright is. That opinion arrives from my belief that knowledge and its expressions belong in the public domain. But I am not entering into that here: file sharing, unauthorized copies, infringement of copyright is NOT THEFT. And the producers of "IP" do NOT LOOSE MONEY when someone copy "their property". Stop repeating that as a mantra.
Why, you're quite right! Harry indeed saw through Voldemort which seemed to be using Leggilimency to read Gregorovitch's mind that Gridenwald stole it from him. This one is solved.
Slashdot Mirror
Easter is a Jewish Holiday, and predates Christians by some centuries at the very least. In most languages the term for Easter derives from the Jewish term Pessach. One may still argue that the holiday was celebrated in that time of the year so to undermine pagan celebrations, but it is unlikely this was arranged by Christians.
As I understand it, ethic is something accepted by society at large as contributing somehow to the common good. So, what is ethical or unethical depends on the society you are inserted. I assume that the return policy of most stores presumes that you will only return a product because it didn't fit your needs, not because you couldn't sell it at a nice surplus. So, in the sub-society consisting of the consumers and retailers, I'd say that yes, returning a good under such conditions is unethical. Please note I never said that reselling it was unethical, only the act of returning it if it couldn't be sold as someone said happened to PS3s at launch time - at least not in a capitalist society. If you defend socialism, as someone who replied to my OP seems to, then it becomes unethical.
They aren't forcing you to sell your Wii to them. Or other people to buy theirs. So what's the big deal? I understand people who buy Wii/PS3 in a retail store and simply return them if they can't be sold with hefty margins, are probably being unethical. But after all, it is their Wii. They can sell it if they wan't. It is up to a) consumers don't be stupid and don't pay the prices they ask for and b) Nintendo ramp up production. If some big company kept you from selling some good, or say some software or media, you purchased from them, how would you feel?
but perhaps I should've used !clockworkorange, since in the movie (never read the book) being exposed to violence had a different effect than what this research seems to imply.
Do you agree to: GIVE UNLIMITED POWER TO THE PRESIDENT _AND_ REDUCE THE WEEKLY WORKLOAD BY SIX HOURS? [ ] YES [ ] NO
And I was thought that was pretty lame, and a miracle it wasn't approved, now I see the same tactic in this US visa form. Picture this. Someone applies for a visa, and fails (Believe me, it happens all the time, and it's seemingly random). He/She tries again, and is forced to answer YES to "Have you ever been refused admission to the U.S., or been the subject of a deportation hearing or sought to obtain or assist others to obtain a visa, entry into the U.S., or any other U.S. immigration benefit by fraud or willful misrepresentation or other unlawful means? Have you attended a U.S. public elementary school on student (F) status or a public secondary school after November 30, 1996 without reimbursing the school? [ ] Yes [ ] No ". So, they can deny his visa again and again, after all, he *could* be a beneficiary of fraud...
How do you american people feel with such a form? Do you feel that it is just, since foreigners have obviously no business in your country? Or do most people in US simply have no knowledge of this? How would you feel if you had to fill a form similar to this one to enjoy your vacations abroad?
Sorry for the ranting, but it is so stupid it really pissed me off.
Bush would think something along the lines of " if we don't go looking for weapon of mass destruction in Iraq, we can never prove they never had any to begin with!".
I run Virtue with Tiger. It was never quite fully functional with some apps, like Adium, but it got the job done. Too bad the development has stopped due to Spaces. I don't wan't to troll, but it seems that Spaces can't show an window/app in all desktops? It is one of the features I miss most in Virtue (it is there, but won't work with the apps with which I most need it). I also think the Exposé like transitions seem kind of bland, I'd like more fancy effects like real 3D transitions.
You have a point. Most argentinians are of Spanish descent, of course, but there is a strong Italian component as well. Argentina resembles Europe more than other Latin American countries, so it has been a popular destination for europeans in the post war period looking for a new country. This includes some former Nazi officials. We have a say the people from Argentina are Italians which speak Spanish and pretend to be English... The question is, the population in there is quite homogeneous, socially speaking, hence my comparison with a WASP meeting. Perhaps it is multicultural for american standards, I don't know.
That said, I thought your original post quite funny because Brazil is strongly multicultural. About 28M brazilians are of Italian descent. There is an untold number of people of German descent in the southern states as well - in one of them, 20% of the population has German as their first language. In the states of Sao Paulo and Parana there is large contingents of Japanese emigrants too. And unlike Argentina, here there are significant parts of the population of african and native descent.
No offense to my argentinian "hermanos", but Argentina is about as multicultural as a WASP meeting. I don't see why people are so upset with the case. People committed a crime (it is a criminal offense here), they go to jail. I wish more high-ups would go to jail when caught wrongdoing.
To all trolls that keep saying "stop doing business in Brazil", do you really think CISCO and others do business here because they want to be kind to us? They want us to have access to that-oh-so-nice-and-advanced american hardware so we can be happy? They want to sell their stuff and that's all. If they leave the market, someone else will take it. And in case you haven't noticed, China has been replacing US as a hardware provider. Perhaps they still haven't got routers as good as CISCO's, but they will eventually. And if american companies leave markets open to them, the quicker they will. So good luck for any american companies wishing to leave the brazilian market.
Besides, the ones who really suffer with the high taxes and corruption are brazilian people and consumers. I highly doubt CISCO passed on the savings they got to their clients. Stop whining just because some american company was caught red-handed.
This is /., you know. We assume readers have a certain level of familiarity with terms and acronyms used in technology/ gaming/ computer science/ rocket science/ Star Wars/ WoW/ pr0n/ topology/ quantum chromodynamics and related fields that might show up as articles, just like we assume no one will read the fscking article itself. That said, if you don't know what does RTS stands for, a quick trip to Google will enlighten you, but I doubt you will find the story or the comments particularly interesting.
Some have argued (on this very article) that knowing about licensing issues is a valuable service for the customer since most people want to be legal.
I assume some people may buy cracked software from some resellers thinking it is the real deal. I believe this doesn't happen often within the enterprise market, where you usually have respectable resellers. Even then, annoying the end user will not help you here.
But there's liberal, and there's absurd in what you allow.
Of course, and deciding which is which is part of the game. A high end 3D modelling program might sell well with a per seat license of a couple of thousand dollars, it might even be a bargain, since the market expects this kind of pricing and licensing. The secret is in discovering what your potential clients expect from you, and providing something more, that will help them in their business. As long as you keep that in good balance, most people will be happy to pay.
The legitimate user - or someone who practices what people call "casual piracy", and some people see as fair use - are the only ones to be nagged. Real pirates will crack the key authorization process and disable the phone home "feature". BTW, while you had the sense to allow for phoning home only if there is a internet conn, I don't like my software (I bought it, remember?) using my resources without adding value to me. This process only helps the seller, not the costumer.
So, only the costumer may see the pop-up screens or get that phone call - right in the middle of a very important project or meeting, smells good. The people who will use a crack never get to be annoyed with it. Perhaps someone who bought a one machine license and installed it in two or three may be caught - and you loose a costumer forever, provided he has any options.
If you don't want people to pirate your software, add some value to your product that the pirates can't. I know it sounds like PHB speak, and it is, but providing you actually do it instead of using it as a buzzword, it works. Give them a liberal license, let them install it on a fair number of machines, and be opened to negotiate discount licenses. Provide a decent support. Release a demo that gives good functionality to spread the word about your product, and encourage its sharing. Don't treat your costumer as thieves, and most of them will be happy to work with you. You will always loose some copies to piracy. If you do it right, most of them wouldn't buy them anyways so the fraction of actual sales you loose is very small.
I will be very pleased when all these unions employees get laid off and be replaced with non-union, cheaper employees, or by robots alltogether. Then maybe USA will be able to compete with China and Korea. Of course, by then US companies will have to export all their production since most americans won't be able to afford it.
So you have a car, someone steals or borrow it, robs a bank and the police trace the car to you. Is this enough reason to fight car registration?
The real problem lies with the MAFIAA mob tactics. These won't go away. In any case, they should have to prove you committed the offenses - just like someone should have to prove it was you driving the car. Just having a file with my ID on it is as much of a proof as a screenshot showing my IP address.
Since the RIAA will behave as it always has, I'd glady exchange DRM for watermarking. I wouldn't have to worry with interoperability then, and it won't make things worse (nor better) for people who share files.
And they still manage to increase their economy by 10% or more each year? I knew these IP restrictions had something to do with it.
they should vote? You mean, there are actually politicians that are not corrupt!?
Vista has an anti-DRM mechanism built-in? Wow, and I thought Linux stood for free sofware... way to go Redmond!
I modded you overrated but I prefer to reply to your post. Most /.s know what "leet speak" looks like. The poster you're referring to uses it with an obvious negative connotation, so it is clear he isn't endorsing it - rather he is accusing the researchers of acting as immaturely as teens who supposedly brag over themselves and use "leet speak".
If you can't understand that, at least type - and search - correctly. Had you Googled for "1337" instead of "1336", all the top hits would've shown you what was going. Of course, assuming you're not a troll, which I highly doubt.
SKU means stock keeping unit; it should mean the lowest level of product detail, as kept in stock. Why everyone suddenly started using it as a layman's term, beats me. I assure you it is not only here in /. though.
I was going to reply that X11 feels sluggish under OS X, then I realized I only used Apple's. Gotta try it someday. Anyways, can I run 3D-accelerated software - think Beryl/Compiz - using X11 this way, with good results? I remembered I once got Quake3 running from an Athlon with the display in a K6, one of them was running Mandrake and the other some Debian flavoured distro, but it was slow and required Nvidia drivers. This was ages ago, mind you.
When I have a 24" iMac. I want to know at a glance which commands are available for each of the apps that happen to be opened. Heck, I want to do that even in my 13,3" Macbook screen. I do understand that having an infinite width makes it easier to hit - but I am proficient enough in hitting my menus, thank you. Give me the option at least, some people who are power users will be happy, and the rest can use the easier default. I like my Apple machines, but I'd really love if Apple didn't oversimplify things all the times.
is your best bet right now. I am not sure if OS X can be properly virtualized, since it seems to check whether you are running it on Apple hardware - of course, if you are going to use an iMac, then you are indeed using Apple hardware, but it doesn't seem so to the OS. You'd need to use a hacked version I guess - oh the irony!
If you asked me, I would advise the contrary: run Linux in a virtual environment under OS X. Less trouble to get it running, no need to use hacked versions, and there is a good possibility that features such as Coherence from Parallels or the equivalent in VMWare Fusion might be available for Linux guests someday.
is not on creating better food. Is on creating food that is more profitable. Not profitable to the farmer, but to the producer of the seeds. It's all about controlling the market and ensuring their monopoly, like we all come to know from MS. So they will only worry about not creating "frankenfood" if they have to, and to the extent that it hurts their profits. And pardon me, but this BS that "natural food is not enough to feed the world" is just that, BS. Americans have been well fed for decades without genetic engineering.
You argue that creating a copy means nothing was actually taken, but both in stealing a movie, and stealing a car involve the producer of said product to lose money.
First, let's talk about the "stealing a movie" part. Steal is to take away something from other person. Since the person which you are copying retain the original copy, filesharing is NOT STEALING. It doesn't matter how many times politicians, the RIAA or /.ers repeat it. They are different concepts. It might be illegal, it might be wrong, be get your facts right for once.
Secondly, lets go for "the producer of said product to lose money". There are a lot of ways for producers to lose money. When someone steals a car from a consumer, the producer loses no money: he already sold the car. The consumer looses the good, NOT the producer. When you copy a copyrighted material, the consumer looses nothing -that's exactly why most people don't bother if someone copy anything from them. The producer looses his ability to make a potential sell. He is NOT losing money, only "potential money". Only potential because people will "buy" a lot of things when it is available for free they wouldn't otherwise buy. Not giving an Economics 101 class here.
Question is, there is a lot of things that make a producer loose money. When you introduce a substitute, they loose money. Should typewriters' makers sue the computer industry because they lost money? When I make a homemade computer, should Dell sue me because they've lost a sale? When someone releases a new version of Apache should MS sue them because they loose IIS potential sales? Should Netscape have sued MS when they started distributing IE?
You could probably guess what my opinion on copyright is. That opinion arrives from my belief that knowledge and its expressions belong in the public domain. But I am not entering into that here: file sharing, unauthorized copies, infringement of copyright is NOT THEFT. And the producers of "IP" do NOT LOOSE MONEY when someone copy "their property". Stop repeating that as a mantra.
Why, you're quite right! Harry indeed saw through Voldemort which seemed to be using Leggilimency to read Gregorovitch's mind that Gridenwald stole it from him. This one is solved.