Life itself basically violates the laws of thermodynamics.... if thought of as a closed system.
This was a really odd opener. If we think of a diesel engine as a closed system then despite refueling it weekly we could marvel at how it violates conservation of energy. You seem to have a decent grasp of thermodynamics, so I'm assuming this was more a thought exercise.
Perhaps geography provides a better example. People who argue for creationism as an alternative to evolution may just as well be claiming that the continent of Africa is the size of Belgium. Evolution is as close to fact as anything can possibly be. Questions remain but these are not best handled in a school. For one thing, how many teachers would be qualified to get in to cutting edge biology?
It's only worth teaching alternatives if a genuine disagreement exists in mainstream science. Creationism is childish and ignorant junk; it has no place in the science classroom. Discussions of how science works, including historical disagreements, would be very useful.
One question I'd like to ask Darwin, if he were still alive, is this: If man evolved from apes, then why do we still have apes? Why didn't all species evolve like man supposedly did?
Seriously, pick-up a decent book on evolutionary biology. Even AIG advise against this argument.
It's semantics and philosophy. What he's suggesting is akin to digging a hole on the beach and then citing that as evidence for completely revising our understanding of how moon craters are formed.
No, but you may get modded down for excessive use of hyperbole in a public place. Who is this Slashdot you speak of?
Piracy does affect artists, but then so do the dubious actions of record companies. It's difficult to appreciate an impact though on artists when their slice of music sales is typically so low that record deals become more about trying to build enough popularity to earn enough from merchandise and touring. Piracy hurts artists, but it hurts everyone else in the chain far more. Unlike this curious Mr. Slashdot I don't think that all piracy is good. I instead opt to buy far fewer discs than I did in the past. DRM fucks up my ability to enjoy the content I buy, and money given is being used against me in the belief that I am by default a criminal. I'd rather buy from indies and go gigging. If I buy a DVD I cant rip then it's returned as faulty to the store.
You're flamebait, and also a dick for playing the martyr to the mods card. Despite appearances to the contrary, it's dicks that are not welcome here.
People keep saying that this disclosure would hamper a prosecution. Seriously, how? Whether you respond with a reference to legislation, or vague ruminations regarding jurors being influenced, you're either mistaken or have discovered a surprisingly little know get out of jail free card.
Now, if Plod himself had been hacking emails then we have a different situation.
Yeah, it's as if a bunch of fucking hipsters found an old coin-op and began marvelling at the idea of leaving messages for future generations in the form of high scores attached to mysterious three-letter pseudonyms.
Yeah, The United States would be in breach of the Berne Convention for behaving this way. Without a reference law or some precedent this seems to be purely anecdotal.
Which jurisdictions make copyright more difficult to enforce if done later rather than sooner? I know that trademarks can risk being considered generic if not defended, but I haven't seen a similar situation for copyright.
That could be true in the case of copyright but not necessarily so if its use is governed by a license. Of course it may then be a question if whether or not the licence is legally enforceable.
True, but there have to vagueness. Would it be more reasonable to simply say "whatever us necessary to provide the service", and then refer to the definition if the service? This would seem safe so long as users have the right to have their data if the service should change in an undesirable way?
That is a very valid point! I think it's one of those areas in which we'll have to allow practicality to override the letter of the law. For example, I buy a DVD whose terms prohibit retransmission yet I stream it wirelessly to my TV. It may be against the letter of the licence, but it's hopefully not the kind of thing they intended to exclude. One would hope that what they want to prevent is transmission outside of the home/family.
If I email myself some GPLed code, does the fact that the email is going to travel through third parties count as distribution?
I think in some licences they worked around the problem of having to effectively copy something in order for it to run - such as a program being copied in to memory.
Yeah, the phrase "To the extent we think it necessary for the Service" would not be a terribly good defence for Dropbox if they took a user's screenplay and sold it to Disney. Sure they could try to argue that making money from selling a user's screenplay is necessary for "the service" but they'd be very lucky to find a court that would accept such an interpretation.
I don't see anything iffy here. DropBox are securing the rights to provide their service without being sued by some chancer. This story is pure Daily Mail style scaremongering. Coming up next, man sues his broadband provider because the packets he was sending to Slashdot traveled via a series of third party routers instead of being sent directly to Slashdot.
It seems a bit confusing. Here's some text from an open letter they published:
"Each program must be the original work of the entering developers. Programming teams whose code is derived from or including game-playing code written by others must name all other authors, or the source of such code, in their submission details."
This appears to be asking for original work, yet it asks teams to list the authors of code that they've included or derived code from. How is it original work if they've included code from other sources? Also, if they do allow code from existing projects then does the team really have to list the author of every little change that had been made to that code?
What aside is there? It's fairly clear that his claiming the work of others as his own is the issue.
Here's a quote from the an open letter announcing the ban.
"Each program must be the original work of the entering developers. Programming teams whose code is derived from or including game-playing code written by others must name all other authors, or the source of such code, in their submission details."
Or just moving around with the cord round your leg.
True. Let's add walking in slow motion while having the cord looped around a leg to possible risks. I'll accept that circus clowns and people with wooden legs should be wary - the latter mainly because they'd not likely notice a sensation of a cable being pulled taught around a leg.
Why is a 20 year old PDA still more sturdy than today's average laptop? What are manufacturers doing wrong?
Psion made some decent kit, but Etch A Sketch is way sturdier than any Psion PDA. It's also worth noting that there are practically no reports of Etch A Sketch bursting in to flames.
It can be done, but it's much easier when someone is falling in slow motion (rarely happens outside of movies) or if the cable is being pulled very slowly by someone or something. More common would be a sharp tugging motion, which causes the plug to come out. They do indeed come out more easily than a regular plug, but then that is the point. I typically only have that problem if I'm using mine in bed or in a crowded workspace - ideally one in which the objects on my desk are moving of their own accord.
Here's your post summed up.
1) Dropping a PDA on the floor is hardly comparable to a Dell Inspiron taking a dive. Glad it works decades later, but you may as well regale us with the tale of the potato you dropped on the floor - mentioning that you were able to wash it and make a nice meal, so therefore an egg dropped in the same way would probably be fine. False sense of security my ass. It's not as if anyone with any sense would decide to dance a jig around their desk simply because they believe their power adapter cable will come out before the frenzied dancing results in an expensive repair bill.
It's sensationalist to write "but for those who aren't, a MagSafe connector's disadvantages may outweigh the advantages." Yeah, the disadvantages may outweigh the advantages, but then the same is true of the armless baby example and pretty much anything electrical.
This isn't a fanboy response. There are some pretty good arguments for not using magsafe, but you found none of them. If power adapters can be standardised then certainly thats an argument against using a proprietary connector.
It was great, particularly with the TV tuner and the adapter for Master System cartridges. Yeah, battery life sucked, and the LCD screens of that era had far too much ghosting for fast-paced games. Columns was a pain for that reason.
Anon was going downhill when they got in to the whole purpose thing. Better to have stuck with being the IHM. Trying to turn a bunch of people out for lulz in to moral crusaders would make as much sense as Jimbo waking up one morning and telling Wikipedia editors that they're switching to writing erotic Star Trek fan fiction.
Yeah, I agree. It just needs good management and accountability. There's the notion that state run enterprises will be inherently inefficient, but the same is true for any company operating with a natural monopoly. Look at some of the rail companies in the UK. It's costing us more now in subsidies than it ever did when it was state-run, and the increase is way above inflation and possible increased passenger numbers.
That means that if a company, no matter how big or small, ever files a patent that relates to video compression, they have to suddenly join every single standards body just so they can tell those standards bodies that things they're looking into infringe on patents? At what point is this company supposed to move on and do engineering work?
I believe these companies would only be under an obligation to disclose patents if they are active in the setting of a related standard. The goal here us to prevent people from helping to develop a standard reliant on a patent they just happened to forgot they held.
Slashdot Mirror
Life itself basically violates the laws of thermodynamics.... if thought of as a closed system.
This was a really odd opener. If we think of a diesel engine as a closed system then despite refueling it weekly we could marvel at how it violates conservation of energy. You seem to have a decent grasp of thermodynamics, so I'm assuming this was more a thought exercise.
Perhaps geography provides a better example. People who argue for creationism as an alternative to evolution may just as well be claiming that the continent of Africa is the size of Belgium. Evolution is as close to fact as anything can possibly be. Questions remain but these are not best handled in a school. For one thing, how many teachers would be qualified to get in to cutting edge biology?
It's only worth teaching alternatives if a genuine disagreement exists in mainstream science. Creationism is childish and ignorant junk; it has no place in the science classroom. Discussions of how science works, including historical disagreements, would be very useful.
One question I'd like to ask Darwin, if he were still alive, is this: If man evolved from apes, then why do we still have apes? Why didn't all species evolve like man supposedly did?
Seriously, pick-up a decent book on evolutionary biology. Even AIG advise against this argument.
http://www.answersingenesis.org/get-answers/topic/arguments-we-dont-use
It's semantics and philosophy. What he's suggesting is akin to digging a hole on the beach and then citing that as evidence for completely revising our understanding of how moon craters are formed.
No, but you may get modded down for excessive use of hyperbole in a public place. Who is this Slashdot you speak of?
Piracy does affect artists, but then so do the dubious actions of record companies. It's difficult to appreciate an impact though on artists when their slice of music sales is typically so low that record deals become more about trying to build enough popularity to earn enough from merchandise and touring. Piracy hurts artists, but it hurts everyone else in the chain far more. Unlike this curious Mr. Slashdot I don't think that all piracy is good. I instead opt to buy far fewer discs than I did in the past. DRM fucks up my ability to enjoy the content I buy, and money given is being used against me in the belief that I am by default a criminal. I'd rather buy from indies and go gigging. If I buy a DVD I cant rip then it's returned as faulty to the store.
You're flamebait, and also a dick for playing the martyr to the mods card. Despite appearances to the contrary, it's dicks that are not welcome here.
You don't need to wish. Install software to do this.
People keep saying that this disclosure would hamper a prosecution. Seriously, how? Whether you respond with a reference to legislation, or vague ruminations regarding jurors being influenced, you're either mistaken or have discovered a surprisingly little know get out of jail free card.
Now, if Plod himself had been hacking emails then we have a different situation.
I think are conflating commercial with proprietary and closed source. OSS does not preclude commercial exploitation.
Sir, genius!
Yeah, it's as if a bunch of fucking hipsters found an old coin-op and began marvelling at the idea of leaving messages for future generations in the form of high scores attached to mysterious three-letter pseudonyms.
Yeah, The United States would be in breach of the Berne Convention for behaving this way. Without a reference law or some precedent this seems to be purely anecdotal.
"radioactive mutant lawyers"
Do you already have a director attached for this movie? If not, call my office on Monday.
Which jurisdictions make copyright more difficult to enforce if done later rather than sooner? I know that trademarks can risk being considered generic if not defended, but I haven't seen a similar situation for copyright.
That could be true in the case of copyright but not necessarily so if its use is governed by a license. Of course it may then be a question if whether or not the licence is legally enforceable.
True, but there have to vagueness. Would it be more reasonable to simply say "whatever us necessary to provide the service", and then refer to the definition if the service? This would seem safe so long as users have the right to have their data if the service should change in an undesirable way?
That is a very valid point! I think it's one of those areas in which we'll have to allow practicality to override the letter of the law. For example, I buy a DVD whose terms prohibit retransmission yet I stream it wirelessly to my TV. It may be against the letter of the licence, but it's hopefully not the kind of thing they intended to exclude. One would hope that what they want to prevent is transmission outside of the home/family.
If I email myself some GPLed code, does the fact that the email is going to travel through third parties count as distribution?
I think in some licences they worked around the problem of having to effectively copy something in order for it to run - such as a program being copied in to memory.
Yeah, the phrase "To the extent we think it necessary for the Service" would not be a terribly good defence for Dropbox if they took a user's screenplay and sold it to Disney. Sure they could try to argue that making money from selling a user's screenplay is necessary for "the service" but they'd be very lucky to find a court that would accept such an interpretation.
I don't see anything iffy here. DropBox are securing the rights to provide their service without being sued by some chancer. This story is pure Daily Mail style scaremongering. Coming up next, man sues his broadband provider because the packets he was sending to Slashdot traveled via a series of third party routers instead of being sent directly to Slashdot.
It seems a bit confusing. Here's some text from an open letter they published:
"Each program must be the original work of the entering developers. Programming teams whose code is derived from or including game-playing code written by others must name all other authors, or the source of such code, in their submission details."
This appears to be asking for original work, yet it asks teams to list the authors of code that they've included or derived code from. How is it original work if they've included code from other sources? Also, if they do allow code from existing projects then does the team really have to list the author of every little change that had been made to that code?
They could really benefit from clarifying this.
What aside is there? It's fairly clear that his claiming the work of others as his own is the issue.
Here's a quote from the an open letter announcing the ban.
"Each program must be the original work of the entering developers. Programming teams whose code is derived from or including game-playing code written by others must name all other authors, or the source of such code, in their submission details."
Open source is fine - so long as credit is given.
True. Let's add walking in slow motion while having the cord looped around a leg to possible risks. I'll accept that circus clowns and people with wooden legs should be wary - the latter mainly because they'd not likely notice a sensation of a cable being pulled taught around a leg.
Why is a 20 year old PDA still more sturdy than today's average laptop? What are manufacturers doing wrong?
Psion made some decent kit, but Etch A Sketch is way sturdier than any Psion PDA. It's also worth noting that there are practically no reports of Etch A Sketch bursting in to flames.
It can be done, but it's much easier when someone is falling in slow motion (rarely happens outside of movies) or if the cable is being pulled very slowly by someone or something. More common would be a sharp tugging motion, which causes the plug to come out. They do indeed come out more easily than a regular plug, but then that is the point. I typically only have that problem if I'm using mine in bed or in a crowded workspace - ideally one in which the objects on my desk are moving of their own accord.
Here's your post summed up.
1) Dropping a PDA on the floor is hardly comparable to a Dell Inspiron taking a dive. Glad it works decades later, but you may as well regale us with the tale of the potato you dropped on the floor - mentioning that you were able to wash it and make a nice meal, so therefore an egg dropped in the same way would probably be fine. False sense of security my ass. It's not as if anyone with any sense would decide to dance a jig around their desk simply because they believe their power adapter cable will come out before the frenzied dancing results in an expensive repair bill.
It's sensationalist to write "but for those who aren't, a MagSafe connector's disadvantages may outweigh the advantages." Yeah, the disadvantages may outweigh the advantages, but then the same is true of the armless baby example and pretty much anything electrical.
This isn't a fanboy response. There are some pretty good arguments for not using magsafe, but you found none of them. If power adapters can be standardised then certainly thats an argument against using a proprietary connector.
It was great, particularly with the TV tuner and the adapter for Master System cartridges. Yeah, battery life sucked, and the LCD screens of that era had far too much ghosting for fast-paced games. Columns was a pain for that reason.
This recurring prison rape fantasy is telling. Want to take seat and talk about it, or would it be more comfortable to remain standing?
Anon was going downhill when they got in to the whole purpose thing. Better to have stuck with being the IHM. Trying to turn a bunch of people out for lulz in to moral crusaders would make as much sense as Jimbo waking up one morning and telling Wikipedia editors that they're switching to writing erotic Star Trek fan fiction.
Yeah, I agree. It just needs good management and accountability. There's the notion that state run enterprises will be inherently inefficient, but the same is true for any company operating with a natural monopoly. Look at some of the rail companies in the UK. It's costing us more now in subsidies than it ever did when it was state-run, and the increase is way above inflation and possible increased passenger numbers.
That means that if a company, no matter how big or small, ever files a patent that relates to video compression, they have to suddenly join every single standards body just so they can tell those standards bodies that things they're looking into infringe on patents? At what point is this company supposed to move on and do engineering work?
I believe these companies would only be under an obligation to disclose patents if they are active in the setting of a related standard. The goal here us to prevent people from helping to develop a standard reliant on a patent they just happened to forgot they held.