How about increasing CAFE standards? How about providing tax disincentives for driving gas guzzling Hummers?
You are right, not signing kyoto is not equivalent to not reducing emissions but you are dreaming if you think our emissions are going to shrink without the government giving industry a shove in that direction.
Hmmm, do you think GWB's plan for "clean coal" is going to reduce our carbon emissions? I guess you might argue that the Bush administration desire to built a lot of nuclear plants will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Great, I am looking forward to having Chernobyl near my home...
You can easily find a dozen "gallery of software patent horrors" by googling.
Finding a gallery of "good" software patents seems much harder. Can anyone point me to such a "gallery" or list?
Here are a few software patents (off the top of my head) that I consider reasonable (i.e. they patent something non-obvious):
* RSA encryption
* Diffe-hellman key exchange
* IDEA encryption
It is not so much that I object to software patents as a whole it is just that I think
is a very large number (10000?). Also, if consider the function
bad_to_good_ratio(int time)
This function appears to be generating a divergent series (i.e. limit is infinity as time goes to infinity).
I agree, "non obvious" is the problem
on
Paul Graham on Patents
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
I am I ok with ETH-Zurich patenting the IDEA encryption algorithm because this algorithm IS truly non-obvious. You, me and Joe Q. Hacker are not going to infringe on this patent accidentally.
One click shopping or Apples patent on the "3 pane interface" for itunes are stupidly obvious. A person coding in a drunken fog should not be able to create an infringing program by accident (IDEA passes this test, one click and 3-panes does not).
The reason many folks (like me) jump on the anti-software patent bandwagon is a lack of confidence that anything short of abolishing software patents will be effective. Obvious patents benefit powerful corporations who can set their minions to the task of patenting belly button lint and other "innovations". With all the vested interest in bad patents it is easy to see why we are skeptical that meaningful reform (i.e. enforcement of the "non-obvious" clause) will occur. Of course if software patents cease to exist then the slippery slope of what is "non-obvious" disappears.
Mind you I don't think we will be successful in abolishing US software patents (not without a bloody "cultural revolution" a la Mao Tse Tung) but the disgust engendered by horribly bad patents naturally inspires an excessive reaction in the opposite direction.
BTW, if you think it is an accident that bad patents are issued left and right, think again. You won't find Microsoft, Oracle and Amazon spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress to properly fund the patent office. The patent office is underfunded because the people who get face time with our leaders like it that way.
Perhaps you are over on hotmail. Over on gmail where I have my personal email account I get 5-10% junk email tops (i.e. gets past their filter) and I use my gmail address on usenet and at various commercial sites.
I also like that gmail has a "this is a phishing attack" button in addition to the "this is spam" button. Does any other freemail provider have a "phishing" feedback button? Does anyone know what actions google takes with the phishing emails? E.g. do they forward them to uce.ftc.gov?
I happen to be, at this very moment, sporting a ponytail and wearing sandals (no socks) reading slashdot here at work (a well known network equipment company in silicon valley) as I wait for a build to finish.
My boss doesn't have a ponytail but I have seen him wearing sandals on many an occasion.
I think what the guy did is great! In fact, I think it should be a new sport. Contestants can compete to see who can dupe more lazy journalist in a month. I'd be happy to donate money towards a cash prize for such an event as long as the hoodwinked news organizations get their crow served up publically.
Years ago there used to be this thing called "journalism school" in which all sorts of arcane knowledge was taught like "ethics" and "more than one primary source". Modern media needs to be exposed for the joke that it is.
For instance... Your MUA could still accept all email but any messages from senders not on your white list get flagged with a skull and cross bones, scripts are disabled and when you click on links the HAL/2001 sound clip "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that" plays in Dolby 5.1 surround sound.
Then, when you go to add "Phisher Man" to your white list, your MUA asks you some questions along the way:
* is "Phisher Man" a financial institution? * is "Phisher Man" a personal friend? * is "Phisher Man" a merchant?
etc. If you answer "yes" to the financial institution question, your MUA checks to see that "Phisher Man" is registered with the appropriate authorities (e.g. his email is signed with a public/private key that itself has been signed by "Trusty Co." that proves his identity has been verified or, at the very least, he has paid some decent bribes to the right people). If Phisher has not registered and you still want to add him to your financial institution white list your MUA warns you that "you may lose your house, family, wife and kids if this person is not who he says he is, are you really sure you want to do this?".
Heck I think even my parents could learn to use this system and they are serious luddites.
Muslims are rioting in response to the cartoon. Other people are criticising the cartoon for being culturally insensitive. No western state has censored the cartoon.
Also, self censorship does not equal state censorship. The consequence of violating social norms by saying something offensive (e.g. spouting racist ideology at a public KKK rally) are not the same as the consequences of speaking on a forbidden topic in a country with extensive state censorship (e.g. writing and talking about democracy in China). In the first case the U.S. police will protect your speech no matter how offensive they find it and in the second case the Chinese authorities will throw you in prison.
To equate state sponsored censorship with social pressures (e.g. political correctness) that encourage self censorship is just plain wrong.
If the claim is true and the bloggers haven't authorized the plagarism then that is an egregious infringement of copyright. Said bloggers should sue those lazy newspapers.
piracy tarriff is tacit approval to copy?
on
Dutch Pass iPod Tax
·
· Score: 1
Presumably the tarriff is meant to pay for the revenues lost due to uncontrolled copying.
It stands to reason then, that in the Netherlands, that if you own an iPod you can copy music off the internet to your hearts content because you've already "paid" for your crime in advance.
by your reasoning, apple should ship keyboards with just one key and have users tap their text in via morse code because we all know that one key is simpler than 104 keys.
No, they haven't nipped it in the bud because apple still supplies the user interface guidelines which still define a one button world.
Sure, having 3 buttons with ad hoc conventions for two of them is better than being stuck with only one button but not as good as having a UIG that includes how all 3 buttons are to be used.
Doesn't Germany have some law that requires the manufacturer of a product to have a disposal plan for their product when it goes end of life (and pay for that disposal)?
"IMO" sums things up nicely. I am open to the idea that the exit polls are garbage but, being a nerd, I value using the academic/scientific approach to support the claim rather than trying to shout louder than the other person.
Rather than simply say "the exit polls are garbage" how about looking for information to substantiate (or refute) the claim?
suggest how one might support or refute the claim. Perhaps you can show that exit polling is isomorphic to the halting problem and therefore incomputable.
I've also heard about how the exit polls were calling it for Kerry in Florida. Can some one please post a link to corresponding hard data for exit polls by various pollsters?
It would be interesting to analyse the exit poll data in conjunction with the data at the link shown above.
I would love for slashdot to arrange an interview with a GREEN (e.g. hired within the last 6 months) patent examiner.
She could tell us all about the training she received when hired:
newbie: shouldn't we actually read the
application before approving it? instructor: no, just stamp 9 of 'em with
the 'approved' stamp and every 10th one\
use the red 'rejected' stamp.
for a good laugh visit my girlfriend,
PHOSITA
.
Can anyone tell me when the USPTO killed PHOSITA? Was it when software patents were admitted? Technically Phosita is still on the books but we all know that she is dead...
But that cuts both ways. They decide to fuck with your credit card, good fucking luck getting the Russian police to give a shit about it.
Luckily I don't have to get the Russian police to give a shit -- I can call my credit card company and have them reverse the charge, cancel the card and issue a new card.
I don't know about your credit card company but mine recently called me after I used a card to book a hotel room in London. They called me because they had noticed unusual activity on my account.
Perhaps your credit cards don't allow you to dispute charges...
you wouldn't, by any chance, be a RIAA astroturf artist would you?
I'll I keep hearing from your side is lots of FUD (russians are scary, woooooo) and little compelling reason to avoid their service.
Again I ask, why doesn't RIAA close the loop? That is to say apply pressure where they have some power -- hear in the US! Why don't they get an injunction against credit card companies to disallow US customers from paying via credit card to AllofMP3? I'm very confident that AllofMP3 would stop illegally distributing music to me if I didn't pay them. The credit card companies have active business presences here in the US so RIAA should have no problem getting to them.
Instead of RIAA simply cutting off AllofMP3 (which I confidently assert is the single largest distributor of online music to US citizens) from US credit card payments they choose piddly ass cases against grandmothers and teenie boppers as a scare tactic.
Ignoring the easy shot against the big fish in favor of making examples of people who'd rather lose and settle out of court than win in court and see their life savings consumed in legal costs suggests to me that the big fish isn't the easy target you make them out to be...
P.S. I'll be sure to post here on slashdot as soon as RIAA whoops my ass for being an allofMP3 customer.
Slashdot Mirror
How about increasing CAFE standards? How about providing tax disincentives for driving gas guzzling Hummers?
You are right, not signing kyoto is not equivalent to not reducing emissions but you are dreaming if you think our emissions are going to shrink without the government giving industry a shove in that direction.
Hmmm, do you think GWB's plan for "clean coal" is going to reduce our carbon emissions? I guess you might argue that the Bush administration desire to built a lot of nuclear plants will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Great, I am looking forward to having Chernobyl near my home...
You can easily find a dozen "gallery of software patent horrors" by googling.
Finding a gallery of "good" software patents seems much harder. Can anyone point me to such a "gallery" or list?
Here are a few software patents (off the top of my head) that I consider reasonable (i.e. they patent something non-obvious):
* RSA encryption
* Diffe-hellman key exchange
* IDEA encryption
It is not so much that I object to software patents as a whole it is just that I think
sizeof(bad_software_patents) / sizeof(good_software_patents)
is a very large number (10000?). Also, if consider the function
bad_to_good_ratio(int time)
This function appears to be generating a divergent series (i.e. limit is infinity as time goes to infinity).
I am I ok with ETH-Zurich patenting the IDEA encryption algorithm because this algorithm IS truly non-obvious. You, me and Joe Q. Hacker are not going to infringe on this patent accidentally.
One click shopping or Apples patent on the "3 pane interface" for itunes are stupidly obvious. A person coding in a drunken fog should not be able to create an infringing program by accident (IDEA passes this test, one click and 3-panes does not).
The reason many folks (like me) jump on the anti-software patent bandwagon is a lack of confidence that anything short of abolishing software patents will be effective. Obvious patents benefit powerful corporations who can set their minions to the task of patenting belly button lint and other "innovations". With all the vested interest in bad patents it is easy to see why we are skeptical that meaningful reform (i.e. enforcement of the "non-obvious" clause) will occur. Of course if software patents cease to exist then the slippery slope of what is "non-obvious" disappears.
Mind you I don't think we will be successful in abolishing US software patents (not without a bloody "cultural revolution" a la Mao Tse Tung) but the disgust engendered by horribly bad patents naturally inspires an excessive reaction in the opposite direction.
BTW, if you think it is an accident that bad patents are issued left and right, think again. You won't find Microsoft, Oracle and Amazon spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress to properly fund the patent office. The patent office is underfunded because the people who get face time with our leaders like it that way.
Perhaps you are over on hotmail. Over on gmail where I have my personal email account I get 5-10% junk email tops (i.e. gets past their filter) and I use my gmail address on usenet and at various commercial sites.
I also like that gmail has a "this is a phishing attack" button in addition to the "this is spam" button. Does any other freemail provider have a "phishing" feedback button? Does anyone know what actions google takes with the phishing emails? E.g. do they forward them to uce.ftc.gov?
I happen to be, at this very moment, sporting a ponytail and wearing sandals (no socks) reading slashdot here at work (a well known network equipment company in silicon valley) as I wait for a build to finish.
My boss doesn't have a ponytail but I have seen him wearing sandals on many an occasion.
I think what the guy did is great! In fact, I think it should be a new sport. Contestants can compete to see who can dupe more lazy journalist in a month. I'd be happy to donate money towards a cash prize for such an event as long as the hoodwinked news organizations get their crow served up publically.
Years ago there used to be this thing called "journalism school" in which all sorts of arcane knowledge was taught like "ethics" and "more than one primary source". Modern media needs to be exposed for the joke that it is.
hitchhiker's guide
For instance ... Your MUA could still accept all email but any messages from senders not on your white list get flagged with a skull and cross bones, scripts are disabled and when you click on links the HAL/2001 sound clip "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that" plays in Dolby 5.1 surround sound.
Then, when you go to add "Phisher Man" to your white list, your MUA asks you some questions along the way:
* is "Phisher Man" a financial institution?
* is "Phisher Man" a personal friend?
* is "Phisher Man" a merchant?
etc. If you answer "yes" to the financial institution question, your MUA checks to see that "Phisher Man" is registered with the appropriate authorities (e.g. his email is signed with a public/private key that itself has been signed by "Trusty Co." that proves his identity has been verified or, at the very least, he has paid some decent bribes to the right people). If Phisher has not registered and you still want to add him to your financial institution white list your MUA warns you that "you may lose your house, family, wife and kids if this person is not who he says he is, are you really sure you want to do this?".
Heck I think even my parents could learn to use this system and they are serious luddites.
Muslims are rioting in response to the cartoon. Other people are criticising the cartoon for being culturally insensitive. No western state has censored the cartoon.
Also, self censorship does not equal state censorship. The consequence of violating social norms by saying something offensive (e.g. spouting racist ideology at a public KKK rally) are not the same as the consequences of speaking on a forbidden topic in a country with extensive state censorship (e.g. writing and talking about democracy in China). In the first case the U.S. police will protect your speech no matter how offensive they find it and in the second case the Chinese authorities will throw you in prison.
To equate state sponsored censorship with social pressures (e.g. political correctness) that encourage self censorship is just plain wrong.
Bruce Schneier has a good article explaining why you shouldn't be "bored"
c le/2006/01/16/AR2006011600779.html
http://www.schneier.com/essay-102.html
Al Gore does a good job covering the same ground (albeit a bit more verbosely) in his Martin Luther King day speech:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/arti
If the claim is true and the bloggers haven't authorized the plagarism then that is an egregious infringement of copyright. Said bloggers should sue those lazy newspapers.
when did I move to China?
Presumably the tarriff is meant to pay for the revenues lost due to uncontrolled copying.
It stands to reason then, that in the Netherlands, that if you own an iPod you can copy music off the internet to your hearts content because you've already "paid" for your crime in advance.
Still, that is a rather steep compulsory license.
Has anyone found a PDF version of the report? I'd like to print it out but printing HTML web pages sucks.
Thanks,
-j
by your reasoning, apple should ship keyboards with just one key and have users tap their text in via morse code because we all know that one key is simpler than 104 keys.
No, they haven't nipped it in the bud because apple still supplies the user interface guidelines which still define a one button world.
Sure, having 3 buttons with ad hoc conventions for two of them is better than being stuck with only one button but not as good as having a UIG that includes how all 3 buttons are to be used.
Doesn't Germany have some law that requires the manufacturer of a product to have a disposal plan for their product when it goes end of life (and pay for that disposal)?
"IMO" sums things up nicely. I am open to the idea that the exit polls are garbage but, being a nerd, I value using the academic/scientific approach to support the claim rather than trying to shout louder than the other person.
Rather than simply say "the exit polls are garbage" how about looking for information to substantiate (or refute) the claim?
suggest how one might support or refute the claim. Perhaps you can show that exit polling is isomorphic to the halting problem and therefore incomputable.
bork bork bork!
This information is interesting to look at:
http://ustogether.org/Florida_Election.htm
I've also heard about how the exit polls were calling it for Kerry in Florida. Can some one please post a link to corresponding hard data for exit polls by various pollsters?
It would be interesting to analyse the exit poll data in conjunction with the data at the link shown above.
Thanks.
I would love for slashdot to arrange an interview with a GREEN (e.g. hired within the last 6 months) patent examiner.
She could tell us all about the training she received when hired:
newbie: shouldn't we actually read the
application before approving it?
instructor: no, just stamp 9 of 'em with
the 'approved' stamp and every 10th one\
use the red 'rejected' stamp.
... sell wallets with shielding built in so that the RFID can not be read while your license is in your wallet.
Ditto for purses.
for a good laugh visit my girlfriend, PHOSITA . Can anyone tell me when the USPTO killed PHOSITA? Was it when software patents were admitted? Technically Phosita is still on the books but we all know that she is dead...
But that cuts both ways. They decide to fuck with your credit card, good fucking luck getting the Russian police to give a shit about it.
Luckily I don't have to get the Russian police to give a shit -- I can call my credit card company and have them reverse the charge, cancel the card and issue a new card.
I don't know about your credit card company but mine recently called me after I used a card to book a hotel room in London. They called me because they had noticed unusual activity on my account.
Perhaps your credit cards don't allow you to dispute charges
you wouldn't, by any chance, be a RIAA astroturf artist would you?
...
I'll I keep hearing from your side is lots of FUD (russians are scary, woooooo) and little compelling reason to avoid their service.
Again I ask, why doesn't RIAA close the loop? That is to say apply pressure where they have some power -- hear in the US! Why don't they get an injunction against credit card companies to disallow US customers from paying via credit card to AllofMP3? I'm very confident that AllofMP3 would stop illegally distributing music to me if I didn't pay them. The credit card companies have active business presences here in the US so RIAA should have no problem getting to them.
Instead of RIAA simply cutting off AllofMP3 (which I confidently assert is the single largest distributor of online music to US citizens) from US credit card payments they choose piddly ass cases against grandmothers and teenie boppers as a scare tactic.
Ignoring the easy shot against the big fish in favor of making examples of people who'd rather lose and settle out of court than win in court and see their life savings consumed in legal costs suggests to me that the big fish isn't the easy target you make them out to be
P.S. I'll be sure to post here on slashdot as soon as RIAA whoops my ass for being an allofMP3 customer.
Cheers,
--Jonathan