If I take the sg flat panel as an example... 1600x1024 max resolution, anything smaller than 800x512 can be "magnified" to fit the vertical resolution, and centered. I.E, a 640 x480 gets magnified to a 1280x960 and centered. 800x600 through 1280x1024 get centered without magnification. I.E., you won't be using all the pixels at the "fractional" resolutions that aren't divisors of the max. resolution.
With the cheezey CGI alien (probably ripped from a '93 computer animation video) holding out the universal sign of DNA: a double helix.
...they can look at the graphic which shows human DNA at the atomic level, recognize that two chromosomes [sic] are missing, and [...] enter the missing atomic structure of the chromosomes that were left out.
I wonder if this means she can claim prior art against the aliens' cloning project.;)
Seriously...this does illustrate the problem. Hypothetically, ten years from now, we discover that this person has an immunity to disease x, she'll be able to collect royalties on treatments derived from any samples she provides.
This does, of course, require that the person in question be recognized as an "economic driver", which she won't be, therefore no patent.
It's not like we had a choice in Tomb Raider.
on
Men Playing as Women
·
· Score: 4
Maybe we'll have to wait for TR 8 or 9, when we find out that Lara Croft is actually related to Pitfall Harry, and we get to play either char.;)
Seriously... I think "tactical crossdressing" is an appropriate description. In some games, the female models are indeed harder to hit, especially with sniping weapons. But nobody outruns blast damage, so always pack a rocket launcher and a couple of grenades.
"Products", as in 10 mil. tons of landfill...
on
Muppets Sold
·
· Score: 1
...either molded into the shape of, or printed with the image of, an IntProp resource, and sold to the masses as a novelty (thereby making the "products" landfill). As opposed to a product that has some intrinsic value over substitute products, other than an image.
Mrs. Mokma might as well say such, it's about as feasible. I want to know what she's being paid for her "story". I think a review of financial accounts is in order.
"By acquiring The Jim Henson Company, we gain some of the most powerful and enduring kids' and family brands worldwide and get access to the world's biggest and most important media market," said Thomas Haffa, chief executive of EM.TV.
Meaning...new episodes of Sesame Street will contain post-production digital billboards painted onto buildings, the street, and Oscar's trash can. Access to a market is nothing to a media company if it isn't exploited.
Along with Etoys (lawsuit), Egghead (spam), and any movie studio associated with the MPAA (lawsuit). The list gets larger...
I didn't see this specifically said, but it looks like NWA (Northwest Arrogance?) sustained some form of damage to their bottom line, possibly by a breach of contract. They didn't have any substantial leads, so they went after the maintainers of the attendants' website.
This is akin to a situation where Etoys' shareholders decide to recoup some lost share price by suing, among others, everyone who ever posted critical comments on an online forum, and confiscating the personal computers of the site maintainers.
Speaking about speech, Eric Wieffering and Tony Kennedy get a "Sound Bite of the Year" nomination for clipping John Roberts' quote. IANAL, but I consider (misrepresentation == slander). Roberts comes across as a Nazi supporter, but (a) he might be describing a specific situation, and (b) the rest of a paragraph may put the comment into a different light. I would like to read the rest of that interview. 15 yard penalty, repeat the down.
Here's another thing that isn't mentioned. If it turns out that the union had nothing to do with the sickout, and that it was implemented by non-union or non-active union workers, that kind of leaves the union (and unions in general) in a much reduced role. Note the lack of help from the union towards the two non-officials (they could be playing the part, of course).
[joke, tag for the humor impaired] How dare you cross the power of the Mighty Righties and their right to shove their heads up their asses and force the world to see through their rectal filters! The Army of The Eternally Righteous will purge you from the Earth to burn in the Fiery Depths of Hell for all Eternity! [/joke]
Ok, maybe that's more of a paraphrase than a joke, because this post won't be viewed on a public library church-approved filtered PC/terminal.
I'll save my other actual comments for another post.
I haven't read the draft in a while but I have read it, which is more than I can say for the article's writer. What's missing from the article is that UCITA applies to hardware, which means that any software that doesn't pay royalties to the hardware producers is under threat.
I.E., a hardware manufacturer can specify that Software products M,S,F, and T, and hardware products I,N,T and C are the only software products that can be run with hardware P (versions I, II, and III). Furthermore, the hardware can be designed to fail (or cause software to fail) if it detects "unauthorized" software on the machine.
From the "Facts" section. CSS has facilitated enormous growth in the use of DVDs for the distribution of copyrighted movies to consumers I would like for Judge Kaplan to explain how this opinion can be construed to be a fact. Simply put, consumer demand drives growth, and consumers don't demand a format because of its restrictions. Any statement that the presence of a copy protection scheme "facilitates...growth" is conjecture (and,IMO, completely false).
One more note: In addition to Congress for passing the DMCA, consider the President, who appoints judges that make/overturn/support decisions on these issues.
It seems that the software works exactly as designed. And the design, as described, involves replacing existing TCP/IP services with AOL's, which effectively turn your PC into an AOL appliance. And that is the point.
The purpose of the functionality in question is to prevent and/or discourage new and current AOL users from using ISP-based (or other online service) communication. If the U.S. Gov't wasn't pandering to "contributors", there would be an anti-trust investigation (and suit) already in progress.
AOL IS NOT AN ISP. Everyone needs to print this out and attach it to your bathroom mirror, and on every telephone pole from here to the Moon. AOL is an online service provider (OSP), i.e. subscription-based media company, with an Internet gateway.
The distribution of an exclusion client shows the revenue model to be built around eyeball capture as much as (if not more than) subscription and/or usage fees. Basically, every minute an AOL user spends online with an ISP or other OSP is a minute not spent on AOL.
If AOL can say "We have exclusive access to all of our subscribers' bandwidth," they can increase their ad revenue by (a) increasing ads shown per time period, and (b) increasing price per ad.
I think Valenti's statement smacks of a point of view which holds individuals, in general, as sources of power, in the financial sense (References to The Matrix go here), who cumulatively create a power base for those that place themselves in between a resource and the individuals that consume it. It is the goal of subscribers of this point of view to maximize the power gained from each unit of resource used by an individual This is done by artificially (a)controlling the resource or access to the resource, (b) controlling the price of the resource, and (c) ensuring that the subscriber's environment is free from interferences of (a) and (b). For lack of better terms, I'll call this line of thought "Divine Right of the Market Maker"(DRMM).
The "strange ideology" as referred to, rejects the above notion. Without blind faith in service providers, subscribers to this point of view seek to minimize the effects DRMM followers place upon them, through (1) self-production, (2) self-provision, and (3) abstinence. I don't have a name for this line of thought, although "Educated" comes to mind.
Legislation, quasi-legislation, propaganda and deceit are required to bring a market under a DRMM-er's thumb. Once controlled, DRMM-ers seek to remove options (1) and/or (2), leaving individuals with provision through the DRMM-ers, or abstinence. Basically, DRMM-ers seek to make self-reliance impossible or illegal wherever they can, and where they can't, they attempt to fool the resource consumers into thinking their choices are limited.
I wouldn't use the argument of college students being "adults", when the mainstream concept of childhood in the U.S. involves children living off one's parents until out of college, and parents providing as little discipline as possible. (side note: if I hear one more parent tell their kid to "go to time-out", I'm going to vomit on them.) As a result, there are tons of adult-aged people with 8-year old mentalities.
Last I checked, the reason most students dropped out of school in freshman year is lack of preparedness, lack of work ethic, and lack of respect for most anyone (including themselves), with helping assists from weedout professors who see teaching as a burden and insist on making students feel (2x) that burden.
Besides, those burnout/dropout cases are lowering the cost for the rest of the population.
As for the bill, let it pass, and let Arizona sink into the desert. If the bill passes, maybe they'll find Kansas somewhere under the ground.
As for the power issue, I agree completely, and was about to post similar comments. Why do you think there has been such a push for deregulation? So far, corporations can do so much more than governments in the way of retaining concentrations of power and control, without having to be bound by those silly notions of individual rights.
Ten years of Simpsons. Holy shit, I'm getting old.
The halloween specials are some of the funniest things on TV ("I bet he's never seen his own reflection..." [*Pow*]). This series is the series that I'll spend $250 to pick up on DVD.
I remember a high school teacher, in a moment of ignorance, getting absolutly irate over the show, how it was a bad influence, etc, like it was the source of Pure Evil, and wasn't based upon half the families in the country. What a schmuck.
I can't see the direct connection between Simpsons and the other shows listed as imitators (besides the fact they're animations). Except for King of the Hill, and that's only because I haven't watched it enough. They're more like descendants or cousins, than copies.
And one more factor in the longevity of this series is the quality of animation. It's usually smooth-flowing and well-drawn, the antitheses of almost every post-WWII Hanna-"skip every other frame"-Barbera production.
Now, if Futurama can find it's groove. It seems to be relying too much on cliches and gimmicks. Mainly because Bender needs to be turned into a Fender.
True, Goebbels isn't just some PR hack. My mistake for grouping him.
On the other point, we almost agree, though. What you're calling deceptiveness looks like the (b) portion of what I'm talking about. I'm coming from the point of view that if one is supposed to be relating fact, deception is "evilness" of a sort, that is applied to a message with the intent of getting a result.
The "evilness" of a media tactic such as L-VIS is a function of (a) the extent to which a media tool claims to be factual, and (b) the extent to which the tactic alters fact. Live broadcasts, as such, are the ultimate in factual media (visual fact, not what is said), thus amplifying the effects of any alterations.
So yes, Goebbels (PR people everywhere, for that matter) is probably smiling right now. If he had his hands on this tech, we'd have probably had to drop an A-bomb on Germany, too.
AOL makes a good play that helps their side. If the FTC doesn't shoot it down, AOL has some way-serious, inbred, cross-marketing potential. I'm not talking about AOL-everywhere, although that's going to happen now. I'm talking about advertising packages. For example, Reebok will be able to run an ad campaign across TV/AOL/Movies/Magazines, at a bulk rate.
For TW, the merger may have been a must, and I take it as a sign that they gave up trying to cope with the Internet as a medium, and settled for AOL's 20 million customer base. Yay, they're to the 90's and 00's what network TV was to the 50's and 60's. [vomit]
No, AOL is not an ISP. AOL is a media company, which means "advertising pimp". Has been, will be. The Internet is just another tool for AOL, along with its private services and now Time, Warner Brothers, and TBS, to "market goods and services".
Oh, bloody hell, I forgot about that. TBS will now be in AOHelL. And I thought Time Warner's acquisition of TBS was bad.
The real scary part is combining limited access with huge market power. An earlier post mentioned TW's RoadRunner putting time-limits on streaming video that does not originate from an affiliated site. As an aside, I consider such action to disqualify RoadRunner as an ISP, and instead classify it as an online service.
But consider the possibilities: AOL uses its market share to "convince" large-dollar sites to make deals, because non-affiliates don't get full bandwidth. Users may grumble and moan, but where else is the typical AOL user going to go? An ISP? That would take thought, and require learning something. So, AOL can say "Hey, we've got 30 million people that won't be looking at all of your content if you don't have a deal with us. Bandwidth costs money, you know."
End result is that AOL pimps, makes billions, and puts itself between more revenue and the Internet and AOL user bases.
1) The speed limiting portion has nothing to do with rights, crimes, etc...it has to do with putting restrictions on a driver, as he's driving. This is ludicrous, which probably means it's a flashy headline to get people to take a "compromise" solution, which is more insidious and is what the instigators of the measure actually wanted.
2) That being said, I think the real intent here is to use GPS-based computers for information gathering. Think about it. In the US, mileage to/from business trips is tax-deductable. IRS could use these devices to verify such mileage. Traffic officials and city planners could get real-time info on delays or wrecks, and use the info to redirect/advise HERO (Highway Emergency RespOnse), police, and/or fire trucks to the scene, before the call gets to the call center.
Time to take some catnip and, like, project my astral being into the future, to find out...
That it's really going to look like that traffic computer from The Fifth Element (the one in Corbin's taxi). The GPS-based unit will record your relative speed, and check for something like "speed over X miles per hour". The unit will forward any "violations" to a receiving company, and inform you of these violations while you're driving. This company will calculate ticketing charges according to a federal/state/local rates, add some "processing fees" for their own good, and send you a monthly bill. Non-payment of the bill results in your credit rating being trashed, and all disputes can be forwarded to the meatspace version of/dev/null, the Customer Service Dept.
Some percentage of the proceeds will go to the state/local governments, to replace the lost ticket income, and Big Government scores a double play, if not a trifecta. (a) There will be increased revenue from a back-door auto/gas tax. (b) There will be increased revenue for local/state governments, who can still write their own tickets, etc. (c) it can be marketed as a private-sector environmental initiative, with the "assistance" of the government, (d) if the "violations" are packaged as usage fees, it isn't a rights violation. (e) if the English implement a more rigid version, that gives the U.S. a worse case to say "well, our system won't really be that limiting...."
It's just too damn easy to happen. You can't just buy cars like you can PCs, there are too few manufacturers with too high a profile. They can be regulated into implementing these devices, particularly if bottom lines can be increased.
I'm in the process of moving to a new apartment (same complex). Roommates threw a party last night in the old apartment, but I'm on the hook for troubleshooting anything that goes wrong for this weekend.
After the festivites, I went to the new apartment to clean up dishes. While I was there, the roommates in the old apartment had just enough energy left to lock the door before passing out.
So now, I'm on call, separated from my pager, computer (with modem), and keys, until someone wakes up. Barf. I'll give them another hour or two, then I'll page myself until they get out of bed. Instead of getting sleep, I found my extra car key and spent the night in the office, watching system diagnostics.
We have just now attempted to actually do something productive with our systems, so I'll find out in a while if something was missed.
Slashdot Mirror
If I take the sg flat panel as an example... 1600x1024 max resolution, anything smaller than 800x512 can be "magnified" to fit the vertical resolution, and centered. I.E, a 640 x480 gets magnified to a 1280x960 and centered. 800x600 through 1280x1024 get centered without magnification. I.E., you won't be using all the pixels at the "fractional" resolutions that aren't divisors of the max. resolution.
...they can look at the graphic which shows human DNA at the atomic level, recognize that two chromosomes [sic] are missing, and [...] enter the missing atomic structure of the chromosomes that were left out.
It's DNA...I know this!which was, that non-u.s. intel agencies performed such actions for their own benefit (and benefit of their "patrons".
I wonder if this means she can claim prior art against the aliens' cloning project. ;)
Seriously...this does illustrate the problem. Hypothetically, ten years from now, we discover that this person has an immunity to disease x, she'll be able to collect royalties on treatments derived from any samples she provides.
This does, of course, require that the person in question be recognized as an "economic driver", which she won't be, therefore no patent.
Maybe we'll have to wait for TR 8 or 9, when we find out that Lara Croft is actually related to Pitfall Harry, and we get to play either char. ;)
Seriously...
I think "tactical crossdressing" is an appropriate description. In some games, the female models are indeed harder to hit, especially with sniping weapons. But nobody outruns blast damage, so always pack a rocket launcher and a couple of grenades.
...either molded into the shape of, or printed with the image of, an IntProp resource, and sold to the masses as a novelty (thereby making the "products" landfill). As opposed to a product that has some intrinsic value over substitute products, other than an image.
Mrs. Mokma might as well say such, it's about as feasible. I want to know what she's being paid for her "story". I think a review of financial accounts is in order.
"By acquiring The Jim Henson Company, we gain some of the most powerful and enduring kids' and family brands worldwide and get access to the world's biggest and most important media market," said Thomas Haffa, chief executive of EM.TV.
Meaning...new episodes of Sesame Street will contain post-production digital billboards painted onto buildings, the street, and Oscar's trash can. Access to a market is nothing to a media company if it isn't exploited.
As long as I have my ISP, my Willie Nelson albums, and a 12-pack. hehe.
:)
Serioulsy...I'll read the study before I open my mouth in a serious manner.
I think that's what the kids are playing. Good Stamp.
Cosby Show, ET, Cats, and 49'ers stamps are a waste of adhesive. Then again, the entire A&E section can go away.
I'd rather take Titanic than a goddamn SUV stamp. Now they're a waste of paper as well as a waste of gas.
Along with Etoys (lawsuit), Egghead (spam), and any movie studio associated with the MPAA (lawsuit). The list gets larger...
I didn't see this specifically said, but it looks like NWA (Northwest Arrogance?) sustained some form of damage to their bottom line, possibly by a breach of contract. They didn't have any substantial leads, so they went after the maintainers of the attendants' website.
This is akin to a situation where Etoys' shareholders decide to recoup some lost share price by suing, among others, everyone who ever posted critical comments on an online forum, and confiscating the personal computers of the site maintainers.
Speaking about speech, Eric Wieffering and Tony Kennedy get a "Sound Bite of the Year" nomination for clipping John Roberts' quote. IANAL, but I consider (misrepresentation == slander). Roberts comes across as a Nazi supporter, but (a) he might be describing a specific situation, and (b) the rest of a paragraph may put the comment into a different light. I would like to read the rest of that interview. 15 yard penalty, repeat the down.
Here's another thing that isn't mentioned. If it turns out that the union had nothing to do with the sickout, and that it was implemented by non-union or non-active union workers, that kind of leaves the union (and unions in general) in a much reduced role. Note the lack of help from the union towards the two non-officials (they could be playing the part, of course).
Just a thought...
[joke, tag for the humor impaired]
How dare you cross the power of the Mighty Righties and their right to shove their heads up their asses and force the world to see through their rectal filters! The Army of The Eternally Righteous will purge you from the Earth to burn in the Fiery Depths of Hell for all Eternity!
[/joke]
Ok, maybe that's more of a paraphrase than a joke, because this post won't be viewed on a public library church-approved filtered PC/terminal.
I'll save my other actual comments for another post.
I haven't read the draft in a while but I have read it, which is more than I can say for the article's writer. What's missing from the article is that UCITA applies to hardware, which means that any software that doesn't pay royalties to the hardware producers is under threat.
I.E., a hardware manufacturer can specify that Software products M,S,F, and T, and hardware products I,N,T and C are the only software products that can be run with hardware P (versions I, II, and III). Furthermore, the hardware can be designed to fail (or cause software to fail) if it detects "unauthorized" software on the machine.
From the "Facts" section.
CSS has facilitated enormous growth in the use of DVDs for the distribution of copyrighted movies to consumers
I would like for Judge Kaplan to explain how this opinion can be construed to be a fact. Simply put, consumer demand drives growth, and consumers don't demand a format because of its restrictions. Any statement that the presence of a copy protection scheme "facilitates...growth" is conjecture (and,IMO, completely false).
One more note: In addition to Congress for passing the DMCA, consider the President, who appoints judges that make/overturn/support decisions on these issues.
It seems that the software works exactly as designed. And the design, as described, involves
replacing existing TCP/IP services with AOL's, which effectively turn your PC into an AOL appliance. And that is the point.
The purpose of the functionality in question is to prevent and/or discourage new and current AOL users from using ISP-based (or other online service) communication. If the U.S. Gov't wasn't pandering to "contributors", there would be an anti-trust investigation (and suit) already in progress.
AOL IS NOT AN ISP. Everyone needs to print this out and attach it to your bathroom mirror, and on every telephone pole from here to the Moon. AOL is an online service provider (OSP), i.e. subscription-based media company, with an Internet gateway.
The distribution of an exclusion client shows the revenue model to be built around eyeball capture as much as (if not more than) subscription and/or usage fees. Basically, every minute an AOL user spends online with an ISP or other OSP is a minute not spent on AOL.
If AOL can say "We have exclusive access to all of our subscribers' bandwidth," they can increase their ad revenue by (a) increasing ads shown per time period, and (b) increasing price per ad.
[ramble]
I think Valenti's statement smacks of a point of view which holds individuals, in general, as sources of power, in the financial sense (References to The Matrix go here), who cumulatively create a power base for those that place themselves in between a resource and the individuals that consume it. It is the goal of subscribers of this point of view to maximize the power gained from each unit of resource used by an individual This is done by artificially (a)controlling the resource or access to the resource, (b) controlling the price of the resource, and (c) ensuring that the subscriber's environment is free from interferences of (a) and (b). For lack of better terms, I'll call this line of thought "Divine Right of the Market Maker"(DRMM).
The "strange ideology" as referred to, rejects the above notion. Without blind faith in service providers, subscribers to this point of view seek to minimize the effects DRMM followers place upon them, through (1) self-production, (2) self-provision, and (3) abstinence. I don't have a name for this line of thought, although "Educated" comes to mind.
Legislation, quasi-legislation, propaganda and deceit are required to bring a market under a DRMM-er's thumb. Once controlled, DRMM-ers seek to remove options (1) and/or (2), leaving individuals with provision through the DRMM-ers, or abstinence. Basically, DRMM-ers seek to make self-reliance impossible or illegal wherever they can, and where they can't, they attempt to fool the resource consumers into thinking their choices are limited.
[/ramble]
derobert's post needs a few "up points".
And for my 2 pc:
I wouldn't use the argument of college students being "adults", when the mainstream concept of childhood in the U.S. involves children living off one's parents until out of college, and parents providing as little discipline as possible. (side note: if I hear one more parent tell their kid to "go to time-out", I'm going to vomit on them.) As a result, there are tons of adult-aged people with 8-year old mentalities.
Last I checked, the reason most students dropped out of school in freshman year is lack of preparedness, lack of work ethic, and lack of respect for most anyone (including themselves), with helping assists from weedout professors who see teaching as a burden and insist on making students feel (2x) that burden.
Besides, those burnout/dropout cases are lowering the cost for the rest of the population.
As for the bill, let it pass, and let Arizona sink into the desert. If the bill passes, maybe they'll find Kansas somewhere under the ground.
As for the power issue, I agree completely, and was about to post similar comments. Why do you think there has been such a push for deregulation? So far, corporations can do so much more than governments in the way of retaining concentrations of power and control, without having to be bound by those silly notions of individual rights.
Ten years of Simpsons. Holy shit, I'm getting old.
The halloween specials are some of the funniest things on TV ("I bet he's never seen his own reflection..." [*Pow*]). This series is the series that I'll spend $250 to pick up on DVD.
I remember a high school teacher, in a moment of ignorance, getting absolutly irate over the show, how it was a bad influence, etc, like it was the source of Pure Evil, and wasn't based upon half the families in the country. What a schmuck.
I can't see the direct connection between Simpsons and the other shows listed as imitators (besides the fact they're animations). Except for King of the Hill, and that's only because I haven't watched it enough. They're more like descendants or cousins, than copies.
And one more factor in the longevity of this series is the quality of animation. It's usually smooth-flowing and well-drawn, the antitheses of almost every post-WWII Hanna-"skip every other frame"-Barbera production.
Now, if Futurama can find it's groove. It seems to be relying too much on cliches and gimmicks. Mainly because Bender needs to be turned into a Fender.
True, Goebbels isn't just some PR hack. My mistake for grouping him.
On the other point, we almost agree, though. What you're calling deceptiveness looks like the (b) portion of what I'm talking about. I'm coming from the point of view that if one is supposed to be relating fact, deception is "evilness" of a sort, that is applied to a message with the intent of getting a result.
The "evilness" of a media tactic such as L-VIS is a function of (a) the extent to which a media tool claims to be factual, and (b) the extent to which the tactic alters fact. Live broadcasts, as such, are the ultimate in factual media (visual fact, not what is said), thus amplifying the effects of any alterations.
So yes, Goebbels (PR people everywhere, for that matter) is probably smiling right now. If he had his hands on this tech, we'd have probably had to drop an A-bomb on Germany, too.
AOL makes a good play that helps their side. If the FTC doesn't shoot it down, AOL has some way-serious, inbred, cross-marketing potential. I'm not talking about AOL-everywhere, although that's going to happen now. I'm talking about advertising packages. For example, Reebok will be able to run an ad campaign across TV/AOL/Movies/Magazines, at a bulk rate.
For TW, the merger may have been a must, and I take it as a sign that they gave up trying to cope with the Internet as a medium, and settled for AOL's 20 million customer base. Yay, they're to the 90's and 00's what network TV was to the 50's and 60's. [vomit]
No, AOL is not an ISP. AOL is a media company, which means "advertising pimp". Has been, will be. The Internet is just another tool for AOL, along with its private services and now Time, Warner Brothers, and TBS, to "market goods and services".
Oh, bloody hell, I forgot about that. TBS will now be in AOHelL. And I thought Time Warner's acquisition of TBS was bad.
The real scary part is combining limited access with huge market power. An earlier post mentioned TW's RoadRunner putting time-limits on streaming video that does not originate from an affiliated site. As an aside, I consider such action to disqualify RoadRunner as an ISP, and instead classify it as an online service.
But consider the possibilities: AOL uses its market share to "convince" large-dollar sites to make deals, because non-affiliates don't get full bandwidth. Users may grumble and moan, but where else is the typical AOL user going to go? An ISP? That would take thought, and require learning something. So, AOL can say "Hey, we've got 30 million people that won't be looking at all of your content if you don't have a deal with us. Bandwidth costs money, you know."
End result is that AOL pimps, makes billions, and puts itself between more revenue and the Internet and AOL user bases.
0) Hey, Spam doesn't taste that bad, after all. ;)
1) The speed limiting portion has nothing to do with rights, crimes, etc...it has to do with putting restrictions on a driver, as he's driving. This is ludicrous, which probably means it's a flashy headline to get people to take a "compromise" solution, which is more insidious and is what the instigators of the measure actually wanted.
/dev/null, the Customer Service Dept.
2) That being said, I think the real intent here is to use GPS-based computers for information gathering. Think about it. In the US, mileage to/from business trips is tax-deductable. IRS could use these devices to verify such mileage. Traffic officials and city planners could get real-time info on delays or wrecks, and use the info to redirect/advise HERO (Highway Emergency RespOnse), police, and/or fire trucks to the scene, before the call gets to the call center.
Time to take some catnip and, like, project my astral being into the future, to find out...
That it's really going to look like that traffic computer from The Fifth Element (the one in Corbin's taxi). The GPS-based unit will record your relative speed, and check for something like "speed over X miles per hour". The unit will forward any "violations" to a receiving company, and inform you of these violations while you're driving. This company will calculate ticketing charges according to a federal/state/local rates, add some "processing fees" for their own good, and send you a monthly bill. Non-payment of the bill results in your credit rating being trashed, and all disputes can be forwarded to the meatspace version of
Some percentage of the proceeds will go to the state/local governments, to replace the lost ticket income, and Big Government scores a double play, if not a trifecta. (a) There will be increased revenue from a back-door auto/gas tax. (b) There will be increased revenue for local/state governments, who can still write their own tickets, etc. (c) it can be marketed as a private-sector environmental initiative, with the "assistance" of the government, (d) if the "violations" are packaged as usage fees, it isn't a rights violation. (e) if the English implement a more rigid version, that gives the U.S. a worse case to say "well, our system won't really be that limiting...."
It's just too damn easy to happen. You can't just buy cars like you can PCs, there are too few manufacturers with too high a profile. They can be regulated into implementing these devices, particularly if bottom lines can be increased.
I'm in the process of moving to a new apartment (same complex). Roommates threw a party last night in the old apartment, but I'm on the hook for troubleshooting anything that goes wrong for this weekend.
After the festivites, I went to the new apartment to clean up dishes. While I was there, the roommates in the old apartment had just enough energy left to lock the door before passing out.
So now, I'm on call, separated from my pager, computer (with modem), and keys, until someone wakes up. Barf. I'll give them another hour or two, then I'll page myself until they get out of bed. Instead of getting sleep, I found my extra car key and spent the night in the office, watching system diagnostics.
We have just now attempted to actually do something productive with our systems, so I'll find out in a while if something was missed.