OptInRealBig publicly debating SpamCop on the legality of spam is like Charles Manson publicly debating Vincent Bugliosi on the legality of committing mass murder.
Software patents are a pain in the neck. I hate to think that Europeans will have to suffer under the same type of system we poor Americans have to suffer under.
There, I'm on-topic.
Now, I can't believe someone wasted a mod point going all the way through threads from two days ago just to mod down my one-line Soviet Russia post as "Troll."
We just know how Star Trek fans are all out paintin' the town red on Friday nights.
What UPN should do is just send small cheap TV sets to every collectible card shop in the country, so fans of the series can watch the show while playing Magic: The Gathering in the back.
While they're at it, they should send some Red Bull and Cheetos, too.
Not only are the names not spelled the same, they aren't even friggin' pronounced the same way!
What's next, is the estate of John Wheeler going to sue MAPS over the term "black hole"?
Hey, maybe Stephen Hawking should sue babyuniverse.com for using his expression.
And whoever coined the expression "quantum leap" sure has something to sue over. That's been used everywhere from car commercials to science fiction TV shows.
You know who would love this? John Stossel at ABC. I bet he'd do a "Gimme a Break" segment on it.
I was looking through all these posts to see if anyone had placed a link to a picture of the actual monument, and couldn't find one, so I poked around a bit, and found a photo of the monument here. Just click on the one on the right and you can see a bigger version.
In light of the more secretive file-sharing networks, I think the RIAA's next strategy is just going to be to open up the phone book from every city, town, and village in the country and file suit against every single American citizen, nearly every one of which will have to settle with the RIAA for a few thousand dollars, because it will be less expensive than hiring a lawyer to prove, say, that one doesn't even own a computer.
It doesn't matter who's actually right in a legal case. It only matters who has the lawyers. And the RIAA has the lawyers.
After the music industry has made hundreds of millions of dollars from suing every single American, the MPAA will follow suit (no pun intended) with their own campaign of legal terrorism, and then the patent trolls will roll out with patent infringement suits against absolutely everyone.
Welcome to the Age of Lawyers.
Lawyers are the new American nobility. You are either a lawyer or a lawyer's subject. In the 21st Century, all Americans who are not lawyers will be forking over whatever money they have to pay for lawyers to defend themselves against other lawyers.
Lawyers will be living in mansions surrounded by the rest of us, who will toil endlessly, day and night, to earn our masters' legal protection.
Astronomer Clifford Stoll similarly makes compelling arguments against computers in the classroom (libraries as well) in his books Silicon Snake Oil and High-Tech Heretic.
I saw Clifford Stoll in person at a lecture given in front a group of librarians. He animatedly pointed out, with his lecture notes written on his hand, that in the distant future the jobs that people do will still require old-fashioned learning and hands-on experience.
"If I were around even a hundred years from I now I wouldn't want to visit a dentist who's learned his trade from a CD-ROM," he explained, "I would want a dentist who had hands-on experience at a dental school."
He talked about how software packages make the outrageous claim that they can "make learning fun," when actual learning takes self-discipline, hard work, and effective human teachers.
As for me, I love being able to order books from the library online, and have them sent from faraway libraries to the one down the street from my office, but I still sometimes feel a bit cheated that I had the Dewey Decimal System and its card catalog lookup method drilled into my head from an early age, only to have the latter removed from the library and replaced with a row of computers. When our library system first implemented this change, the computers were far more difficult to operate than the alphabetized drawers of the card catalog. Nowadays, with the web-based system, it's much easier to find exactly what I want, but I still sometimes miss the thrill of the hunt, as it were, flipping through cards organized by subject, title, and author, searching for just the right book.
Any chance Apple is just building a defensive portfolio to keep the trolls at arm's length?
Who knows what kind of patents on music software are already out there... patent trolls line up to sue companies like Apple, and the latter can hardly be blamed for trying to insulate itself from such attacks.
Of course, if it were Microsoft, I'd be all outraged and stuff.
I wish I could do that at work and be considered insightful, I could do with a raise.
Heh, that makes two of us, buddy.
I mean, just today I was sitting in a staff meeting and the topic of computer problems comes up. Now, mind you, I'm the only person working in my department that really knows anything at all about computers, and they carried on this conversation as if I wasn't even in the friggin' room. The only time they looked my way was to demand an answer to the nagging question of exactly when the new computer was going to arrive, since I'm the one who ordered it.
I believe that Sony might be able to clobber Apple, but that Apple's cachet and hipness might well carry the day for them.
Sony is a good, solid brand. I own and love a Sony digital camera and have had treasured Walkman units throughout the years, but Sony is not quite as hip of a brand as Apple.
But I might end up surprised. With enough artist support and advertising, Sony might do economically better with their store.
This one makes me laugh and cry at the same time.
on
Spammer Sues SpamCop
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I don't think I've ever seen a more obvious example of a SLAPP suit.
The bright spot for me is that SpamCop must be putting some kind of dent in Richter's business if Richter feels like he's got to sue to make SpamCop go away.
Funny how the tricky guys are the ones who talk about using the legal system to "send a message" to anyone who might defy them.
PanIP, the RIAA, and Scott Richter all seem to be cut from the same cloth. Their message seems to be we may not be entitled to a dime but don't you dare defy us, or we'll press this lawsuit until you're bankrupt.
Just lovely having people like this around.
One quote from the article that made me laugh out loud was this one:
He said that he already rejected an offer from Spitzer to settle the case for $100,000.
Oh, yeah, I bet. If Spitzer wanted to settle for $100,000 and Richter turned him down, Spitzer would've dropped it, don't you think?
The other quote that gave me quite a chuckle was, "Messing with us is a big mistake." Oh, yeah, nothing hurts a state attorney general's re-election bid worse than the ill will of a notorious and unrepentant spammer.
Re:keep left sign gangs already spotted?
on
Robocones
·
· Score: 1
and when will we get chased by gangs of "keep left" signs?
Probably around the same time that we get kidnapped by babies and assaulted by Hell's Grannies.
I hope the public school systems take similar preventative measures.
Criminals are fairly enterprising, though. I can imagine a fencing operation getting started to capitalize on all the stolen school notebook computers.
You know, these programs to give elementary school students notebook computers sound really great on paper. They sound progressive, tech-savvy, and even hip, but I have grave doubts about it.
What bothers me is that there are a few dangerous criminals out there who read newspapers, and I imagine that upbeat stories about ten- and eleven-year-old kids walking up and down the street to and from school with $1350 notebook computers in the their backpacks are likely to give a handful of enterprising criminals some unpleasant ideas.
I picture a dozen or so kids blissfully strolling home from school when a dirty white van pulls up. Two guys with masks on pop out of the back of the van, point guns at the kids, demand that all backpacks be removed and placed on the ground, load a dozen backpacks into the van and drive straight to their favorite crooked pawn shop.
If a school system is going to provide notebook computers for its young students, or require them to own their own, I think it would be wise of them to keep quiet about it.
So far a bunch of school systems have implemented such plans without any reported dramatic increase in students getting robbed, but I fear that once the word gets out among an areas criminals that there's easy pickings walking around wearing backpacks, all heck could break loose.
I hope we'll be seeing a reduction in scenarios like the Midwestern couple who owns a jewelry store:
Wife: Honey, the deaf Nigerian man is on the phone and he wants another $10,000 worth of raw diamonds. He wants to put the order on five different credit cards.
For me, what comes to mind is an image of the USPTO as a small roadside ice cream stand that hands out weapons-grade plutonium.
At least this company is attacking big companies that can defend themselves. I'm surprised they're not going the PanIP route and going after small companies, settling for miniscule amounts from a large number of defendants. Or would that stragegy backfire?
I agree. I have bought cheap two-button scroll mice at Office Max that were free after rebate and they work just fine in OS X. No driver installation was necessary.
Slashdot Mirror
OptInRealBig publicly debating SpamCop on the legality of spam is like Charles Manson publicly debating Vincent Bugliosi on the legality of committing mass murder.
Software patents are a pain in the neck. I hate to think that Europeans will have to suffer under the same type of system we poor Americans have to suffer under.
There, I'm on-topic.
Now, I can't believe someone wasted a mod point going all the way through threads from two days ago just to mod down my one-line Soviet Russia post as "Troll."
I heard that second prize is you get a tv aerobics instructor to go with you to your next sci-fi convention and pretend to be your girlfriend.
First prize is William Shatner records the outgoing message for your answering machine.
Because in Soviet Russia, software patents YOU!
They should use womp rats.
They're not much bigger than two meters.
So what if a bunch of kids on Tatooine don't have live targets anymore? They should be using their T16s for more constructive things, anyway.
We just know how Star Trek fans are all out paintin' the town red on Friday nights.
What UPN should do is just send small cheap TV sets to every collectible card shop in the country, so fans of the series can watch the show while playing Magic: The Gathering in the back.
While they're at it, they should send some Red Bull and Cheetos, too.
Man, did that series really run for six years?
I wonder where Nell Carter is now.
Oh, whoops, she died, like, last year.
You have... got... to... be... kidding.
Not only are the names not spelled the same, they aren't even friggin' pronounced the same way!
What's next, is the estate of John Wheeler going to sue MAPS over the term "black hole"?
Hey, maybe Stephen Hawking should sue babyuniverse.com for using his expression.
And whoever coined the expression "quantum leap" sure has something to sue over. That's been used everywhere from car commercials to science fiction TV shows.
You know who would love this? John Stossel at ABC. I bet he'd do a "Gimme a Break" segment on it.
I was looking through all these posts to see if anyone had placed a link to a picture of the actual monument, and couldn't find one, so I poked around a bit, and found a photo of the monument here. Just click on the one on the right and you can see a bigger version.
In light of the more secretive file-sharing networks, I think the RIAA's next strategy is just going to be to open up the phone book from every city, town, and village in the country and file suit against every single American citizen, nearly every one of which will have to settle with the RIAA for a few thousand dollars, because it will be less expensive than hiring a lawyer to prove, say, that one doesn't even own a computer.
It doesn't matter who's actually right in a legal case. It only matters who has the lawyers. And the RIAA has the lawyers.
After the music industry has made hundreds of millions of dollars from suing every single American, the MPAA will follow suit (no pun intended) with their own campaign of legal terrorism, and then the patent trolls will roll out with patent infringement suits against absolutely everyone.
Welcome to the Age of Lawyers.
Lawyers are the new American nobility. You are either a lawyer or a lawyer's subject. In the 21st Century, all Americans who are not lawyers will be forking over whatever money they have to pay for lawyers to defend themselves against other lawyers.
Lawyers will be living in mansions surrounded by the rest of us, who will toil endlessly, day and night, to earn our masters' legal protection.
Hooray!
Astronomer Clifford Stoll similarly makes compelling arguments against computers in the classroom (libraries as well) in his books Silicon Snake Oil and High-Tech Heretic.
I saw Clifford Stoll in person at a lecture given in front a group of librarians. He animatedly pointed out, with his lecture notes written on his hand, that in the distant future the jobs that people do will still require old-fashioned learning and hands-on experience.
"If I were around even a hundred years from I now I wouldn't want to visit a dentist who's learned his trade from a CD-ROM," he explained, "I would want a dentist who had hands-on experience at a dental school."
He talked about how software packages make the outrageous claim that they can "make learning fun," when actual learning takes self-discipline, hard work, and effective human teachers.
As for me, I love being able to order books from the library online, and have them sent from faraway libraries to the one down the street from my office, but I still sometimes feel a bit cheated that I had the Dewey Decimal System and its card catalog lookup method drilled into my head from an early age, only to have the latter removed from the library and replaced with a row of computers. When our library system first implemented this change, the computers were far more difficult to operate than the alphabetized drawers of the card catalog. Nowadays, with the web-based system, it's much easier to find exactly what I want, but I still sometimes miss the thrill of the hunt, as it were, flipping through cards organized by subject, title, and author, searching for just the right book.
Any chance Apple is just building a defensive portfolio to keep the trolls at arm's length?
Who knows what kind of patents on music software are already out there... patent trolls line up to sue companies like Apple, and the latter can hardly be blamed for trying to insulate itself from such attacks.
Of course, if it were Microsoft, I'd be all outraged and stuff.
Yikes... spell-check your sig, dear friend.
Way off-topic, but eh...
I wish I could do that at work and be considered insightful, I could do with a raise.
Heh, that makes two of us, buddy.
I mean, just today I was sitting in a staff meeting and the topic of computer problems comes up. Now, mind you, I'm the only person working in my department that really knows anything at all about computers, and they carried on this conversation as if I wasn't even in the friggin' room. The only time they looked my way was to demand an answer to the nagging question of exactly when the new computer was going to arrive, since I'm the one who ordered it.
I believe that Sony might be able to clobber Apple, but that Apple's cachet and hipness might well carry the day for them.
Sony is a good, solid brand. I own and love a Sony digital camera and have had treasured Walkman units throughout the years, but Sony is not quite as hip of a brand as Apple.
But I might end up surprised. With enough artist support and advertising, Sony might do economically better with their store.
The bright spot for me is that SpamCop must be putting some kind of dent in Richter's business if Richter feels like he's got to sue to make SpamCop go away.
Funny how the tricky guys are the ones who talk about using the legal system to "send a message" to anyone who might defy them.
PanIP, the RIAA, and Scott Richter all seem to be cut from the same cloth. Their message seems to be we may not be entitled to a dime but don't you dare defy us, or we'll press this lawsuit until you're bankrupt.
Just lovely having people like this around.
One quote from the article that made me laugh out loud was this one: Oh, yeah, I bet. If Spitzer wanted to settle for $100,000 and Richter turned him down, Spitzer would've dropped it, don't you think?
The other quote that gave me quite a chuckle was, "Messing with us is a big mistake." Oh, yeah, nothing hurts a state attorney general's re-election bid worse than the ill will of a notorious and unrepentant spammer.
and when will we get chased by gangs of "keep left" signs?
Probably around the same time that we get kidnapped by babies and assaulted by Hell's Grannies.
I hope the public school systems take similar preventative measures.
Criminals are fairly enterprising, though. I can imagine a fencing operation getting started to capitalize on all the stolen school notebook computers.
You know, these programs to give elementary school students notebook computers sound really great on paper. They sound progressive, tech-savvy, and even hip, but I have grave doubts about it.
What bothers me is that there are a few dangerous criminals out there who read newspapers, and I imagine that upbeat stories about ten- and eleven-year-old kids walking up and down the street to and from school with $1350 notebook computers in the their backpacks are likely to give a handful of enterprising criminals some unpleasant ideas.
I picture a dozen or so kids blissfully strolling home from school when a dirty white van pulls up. Two guys with masks on pop out of the back of the van, point guns at the kids, demand that all backpacks be removed and placed on the ground, load a dozen backpacks into the van and drive straight to their favorite crooked pawn shop.
If a school system is going to provide notebook computers for its young students, or require them to own their own, I think it would be wise of them to keep quiet about it.
So far a bunch of school systems have implemented such plans without any reported dramatic increase in students getting robbed, but I fear that once the word gets out among an areas criminals that there's easy pickings walking around wearing backpacks, all heck could break loose.
Unfortunately, we will se NO reduction in lame jokes from Californicates and New Yuckers like you...
Would a donut make you feel better?
I hope we'll be seeing a reduction in scenarios like the Midwestern couple who owns a jewelry store:
Wife: Honey, the deaf Nigerian man is on the phone and he wants another $10,000 worth of raw diamonds. He wants to put the order on five different credit cards.
Husband: Hot-diggidy! Another vacation in Malibu!
For me, what comes to mind is an image of the USPTO as a small roadside ice cream stand that hands out weapons-grade plutonium.
At least this company is attacking big companies that can defend themselves. I'm surprised they're not going the PanIP route and going after small companies, settling for miniscule amounts from a large number of defendants. Or would that stragegy backfire?
The Halloween installment of This Modern World from 2003 mentions this frightening topic. In case anyone here didn't see it, here's the link.
You ain't kiddin'.
When I started buying those mice and giving them to the Mac users in my office they thought I was a miracle worker.
Wow! Two buttons! And a scroll wheel! You're a genius!
I agree. I have bought cheap two-button scroll mice at Office Max that were free after rebate and they work just fine in OS X. No driver installation was necessary.