But big companies have convinced the world that patents are evil; and thus their effectiveness are being destroyed through FUD.
Big companies love patents. They only dislike certain patents that make it difficult to sell a product or limit their ability to enter/influence/control a market.
Patents are just tools. The true measure is how the tools are used and/or abused. And these days, patents are useful to big companies plenty. Just look at MS and the whole Linux licensing thing.
Software has long been sold as a license transaction, not a physical item or intellectual property transaction.
Entertainment products are still treated as physical items, when really the manufacturer would prefer it be a license but without the right to back up the "software". By keeping the distinction fuzzy, the argument can be left unresolved.
Because of this, my biggest fear with all the fires stoked by the *AA orgs is not that they actually expect to be able stop casual or large-scale copying, but that they keep the argument alive long enough to scream that it can't be stopped. Then they say that because of that, they should be subsidized by taxes on blank media (like what happened with DAT or what happens now with blank discs in Canada). In essence, control the argument so that your point can't be refuted, then say the problem is endemic and find a "solution" that generates revenue but still leaves you with your original "problem" that can be trotted out anytime someone raises a valid point about your original argument.
keep the iPhone out of the lucrative corporate market
So?
Apple doesn't target large business/enterprise markets. They never have. Their products are always marketed as tools for empowering individuals. If you didn't know better and could only guess from reviewing their advertising, you might think that businesses don't use personal computers. Often in these cases they behave more like a consumer electronics company rather than a PC maker.
Apple has never shipped HP or Dell level volumes and they've never seemed interested in trying. They get waiting lists for some of their products as it is.
Adding enterprise app accessibility would only introduce bugs, increase complexity, and reduce the overall user-friendlyness of the device, none of which would be Apple's fault (and I'm not even a fanboi). Besides, can anyone imagine Jobs up on stage at some show, introducing the latest email or ERP integration piece? No one drools over that kind of stuff.
It's clear that part of Apple's rep for simplicity is due to the avoidance of the products and systems that can't be made simple. Enterprise apps are necessary and useful, but their deployment and use are a clusterfuck and probably always will be. Apple can't change that, so why take the downside?
(Depriving the owner of much or all of the VALUE of his property may have occurred - which is typically why these non-theft crimes are similar enough to be confused with actual theft.) Which should qualify as a theft of a trade secret.
I can see where identity theft can be broken down into trespassing (obtaining personal data) and fraud (applying for credit cards you have no intention of paying off), since the victim is not denied use of their identity. It just has less value. But this seems like splitting hairs in support of file sharing.
Nope, still not theft. Some people may still think it wrong, and I'd agree it's different to copying alread-published data (but not that it's hugely wrong - in fact, since it hurts a corporation, I'd consider it right - I disagree with limitation of liability and corporate personhood in general). I'm not sure what you're getting at, but by this definition you wouldn't consider copying of personal information theft until some other action more criminal happened with the content. So if I'm copying SSN data and giving it to someone else who then commits identity theft, I'd be innocent since I stole the data from a business and didn't deny them the right to it.
This code is just good enough...for me to poop on!
One other thing, can I assume that this is in the Mens toilets only? Most women won't touch anything that has been in a bathroom (like magazines and newspapers) so I'm guessing keyboards are out, too.
Sounds reasonable. But then how does the copyright holder distinguish between the purchaser engaging in illegal distribution vs being the victim of theft? The article never covers that. I think I can guess how the **AA will react to any watermarked file floating around the net with Joe User's name/account reference embedded in it. They'll call a SWAT team and have Joe's house raided. No proof. Sorry, Joe, for the mess. We're on to harassing the next person we vaguely suspect of illegal distribution.
Tech Liberation Front is also reporting that the raid was carried out with the help of a SWAT team.
Cripes, what exactly did the lawyers tell the police was happening in there?
But they need Jobs to sell the innovations to the public and the media. No one does that better. He gives Apple its style, not its technical ideas. Without him and without a worthy replacement (can anybody name a successor?), the same thing that happened to them in the Sculley era might repeat itself: riding a few years on the strength of their existing winners, then a slow decline until suffocation or rescue.
The main problem is that Jobs and the company are viewed primarily as symbiotic to one another. Can we really imagine Apple run by anybody else?
True, I forgot about gas. For the time being, our imports of natural gas are fairly low. mainly because of the issues involved in shipping and transfer.
In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.
While I'm glad to see that WalMart is making an effort to promote energy efficiency, everyone in the article kept tying more efficient light bulbs to our dependence on foreign oil. The last time I checked, the US generates very little electricity from oil. It's coal and nuclear these days.
Can't we get people to try more compact cars to go with their compact bulbs, or at least straighten out the details on our energy generation story?
Ziff Davis noted that the magazine will carry with it much of Computer Gaming World's editorial style and tone. Because of this, the organization confirmed that it has decided to no longer publish Computer Gaming World. The new magazine and web initiative will carry on the editorial, production and art staff of Computer Gaming World.
The official MS shilling aside, it sounds like it's going to be the same magazine. Even though it was "Computer" GW, it's not like there were other platforms that have enough games to warrant a monthly magazine.
Games for MacOS and/or Games for Linux would just be a pamphlet with the same headline over and over: "Inside this issue! Halo, and this month's newest 75 variants of GPL'd Solitaire!"
Sayeth I, who no longer loses large amounts of time to big games now that I'm using Linux.
I always thought Sun spent way too much time bitching about microsoft instead of actually doing anything about it. McNealy's jokes always came across as a "we don't like them, but we don't have the balls or ideas to compete with them."
So instead they've spend the last five years shedding money and employees, without coming up with any decent new ideas.
Slashdot Mirror
Help him out. The myth is reviewed at snopes.com. Maybe his dad reads snopes just for stories to unload on him.
I was right there with you until
But big companies have convinced the world that patents are evil; and thus their effectiveness are being destroyed through FUD.Big companies love patents. They only dislike certain patents that make it difficult to sell a product or limit their ability to enter/influence/control a market.
Patents are just tools. The true measure is how the tools are used and/or abused. And these days, patents are useful to big companies plenty. Just look at MS and the whole Linux licensing thing.
I do something similar, and it makes me wonder sometimes just how my brain works.
When I'm watching a recording on the DVR, I often forget to FF through the ads,
but,
when I'm watching something live, I almost always instantly reach for the remote to try to FF, only to be informed by the tv that I can't.
sheesh.
Format is irrelevant. He can target them at IMAX or video cell phones, expectations will be low. Very low.
Exactly!
Software has long been sold as a license transaction, not a physical item or intellectual property transaction.
Entertainment products are still treated as physical items, when really the manufacturer would prefer it be a license but without the right to back up the "software". By keeping the distinction fuzzy, the argument can be left unresolved.
Because of this, my biggest fear with all the fires stoked by the *AA orgs is not that they actually expect to be able stop casual or large-scale copying, but that they keep the argument alive long enough to scream that it can't be stopped. Then they say that because of that, they should be subsidized by taxes on blank media (like what happened with DAT or what happens now with blank discs in Canada). In essence, control the argument so that your point can't be refuted, then say the problem is endemic and find a "solution" that generates revenue but still leaves you with your original "problem" that can be trotted out anytime someone raises a valid point about your original argument.
The internet is the largest issue of Penthouse magazine you ever saw...
So?
Apple doesn't target large business/enterprise markets. They never have. Their products are always marketed as tools for empowering individuals. If you didn't know better and could only guess from reviewing their advertising, you might think that businesses don't use personal computers. Often in these cases they behave more like a consumer electronics company rather than a PC maker.
Apple has never shipped HP or Dell level volumes and they've never seemed interested in trying. They get waiting lists for some of their products as it is.
Adding enterprise app accessibility would only introduce bugs, increase complexity, and reduce the overall user-friendlyness of the device, none of which would be Apple's fault (and I'm not even a fanboi). Besides, can anyone imagine Jobs up on stage at some show, introducing the latest email or ERP integration piece? No one drools over that kind of stuff.
It's clear that part of Apple's rep for simplicity is due to the avoidance of the products and systems that can't be made simple. Enterprise apps are necessary and useful, but their deployment and use are a clusterfuck and probably always will be. Apple can't change that, so why take the downside?
If I am an unfunded mentalist, what sorts of things can I do to improve my cash flow?
You must live in a town without a Frys. Too bad. They make CompUSA look sad.
Understood.
Wow, did I just have a polite and mutually educational conversation on slashdot? I think I better go lie down...
I can see where identity theft can be broken down into trespassing (obtaining personal data) and fraud (applying for credit cards you have no intention of paying off), since the victim is not denied use of their identity. It just has less value. But this seems like splitting hairs in support of file sharing.
Oh, I missed that. Why not then just print the code on the TP?
when you need him?
This code is just good enough...for me to poop on!
One other thing, can I assume that this is in the Mens toilets only? Most women won't touch anything that has been in a bathroom (like magazines and newspapers) so I'm guessing keyboards are out, too.
I'm not an executive, just an..hey waiiit a minute...
Sounds reasonable. But then how does the copyright holder distinguish between the purchaser engaging in illegal distribution vs being the victim of theft? The article never covers that. I think I can guess how the **AA will react to any watermarked file floating around the net with Joe User's name/account reference embedded in it. They'll call a SWAT team and have Joe's house raided. No proof. Sorry, Joe, for the mess. We're on to harassing the next person we vaguely suspect of illegal distribution.
Tech Liberation Front is also reporting that the raid was carried out with the help of a SWAT team. Cripes, what exactly did the lawyers tell the police was happening in there?
But they need Jobs to sell the innovations to the public and the media. No one does that better. He gives Apple its style, not its technical ideas. Without him and without a worthy replacement (can anybody name a successor?), the same thing that happened to them in the Sculley era might repeat itself: riding a few years on the strength of their existing winners, then a slow decline until suffocation or rescue.
The main problem is that Jobs and the company are viewed primarily as symbiotic to one another. Can we really imagine Apple run by anybody else?
Why use RFID if it only works when the passport is open? What makes it better than barcodes?
You're right. If your customers make things difficult for you to make progress, you should just tell them to go away.
Slashdot has every right to not make IE support a priority, but it seems odd to neglect up to a third of your user base in the name of advancement.
True, I forgot about gas. For the time being, our imports of natural gas are fairly low. mainly because of the issues involved in shipping and transfer.
Sayeth I, who no longer loses large amounts of time to big games now that I'm using Linux.
Speak for yourself. I have all my old business buddies back up my data for me.
Hear, hear!
I always thought Sun spent way too much time bitching about microsoft instead of actually doing anything about it. McNealy's jokes always came across as a "we don't like them, but we don't have the balls or ideas to compete with them."
So instead they've spend the last five years shedding money and employees, without coming up with any decent new ideas.