What if I upload a file for public consumption and then decide that really wasn't such a great idea and go back and delete the file? Does Google still retain the right to do anything they want with a copy of the file? Is there a way to rescind or retract the license grant you effectively make by posting the file when you subsequently delete the file?
If you can do that, I don't think it's such a huge problem. But I don't like the idea that I could mistakenly post the wrong file and have no way to make it go away later....
"Now imagine the information that is lost was worth $38 billion."
The article it links to says:
"Now imagine wiping out a disk drive containing information for an account worth $38 billion (29 billion)."
Notice the difference. The article only claims the ACCOUNT was worth $38 billion. NOT the information. The slashdot poster is the one who translated it to mean the information was worth that much - NOT the AP article and not the state of Alaska.
I agree with crow on this, with one clarification. The employer only owns the part of the code that was written by the original poster, since he signed away his rights. He couldn't sign away other people's rights, though, so unless the employer is going to remove the code they do NOT own, they should have to follow the GPL.
The best way to handle it is to look up and contact the actual author of the code that is being violated and let THEM (or their lawyer) contact the legal department of this company.
So, let me get this straight....we want to put SETI in our DNA? Does this mean we should turn everyone on the planet into a component in a massive, global computer? Maybe we need a way to include the whole earth? And while we're at it, maybe we can program this computer to come up with a really cool question whose answer would be "42" too???? Sounds like a pretty novel idea to me!;)
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I actually LIKED the first two movies. Granted, Phantom Menace didn't exactly rise to the level of Empire Strikes Back, but it was still an alright movie. I didn't really see anything wrong with Episode II - I actually enjoyed it a lot.
You would think from all the ranting and raving you always see on here that I'm in the minority, but well, you know.....those two films DID make a LOT of money..... So, SOMEONE out there must have liked them because they sure spoke with their wallets. *shrug*
I dunno. Sometimes I think people had some unrealistic expectations of the prequels, based on memories of movies they saw as kids 20 years ago. Imagine yourself as the same kid from 20 years ago watching the two prequels and I'd be willing to bet you'd have liked it a lot better than you do now as an adult.
I think we all tend to complain when we call someone at tech support and they end up being in another country and have a low grasp of the English language, therefore making it very hard to communicate with them....so, what I want to ask is if the tech support/help desk people over there get as annoyed with the language barrier as WE do? Is it as frustrating to them that they can't get the point across to us as it is us to them?
And I think we all know that they get calls from the morons that WE hate getting calls from too, so I'm just wondering how much WORSE that goes over when there's a language barrier to make it even harder. (How DO you explain that the cup holder isn't really a cup holder when you don't know what a cup holder even is??:)
RMS talks about having quit his job 20 years ago....
What the heck does he do for money now?? Rent still has to be paid....food bought....clothes bought..... Does he have a job? Where does his income come from? Does he do consulting? Or just make money talking about free software?
Just wondering....I've never seen it mentioned anywhere.....
True. The whole thing looks like a lawsuit just waiting to happen.
The other question that one has to wonder about is whether there will be any content filters on it?
I mean, if you think about it, in schools and libraries that have Internet access, typically, they're required to have filters to try to keep out "inappropriate" content from minors. Will this service be filtered? Or will it be unfiltered?
If you filter it, the adults will scream censorship.
If you don't filter it, then who's responsible when little Johnny starts browsing porn? Will the city go after itself for providing porn to a minor? And can parents sue the city for facilitating it?
Yeah, men, so take heed when your girlfriend or wife seems a little too anxious for you to drink the drink she made for you every day and then breaks out a rule a few days later on you....:)
Well, it sure sounds like I'm in the minority, but I signed up for DSL from what was then Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) last spring and really have mostly good things to say about it! I hated the long wait between signing up and activation, but true to their word, it was ready when they said it would be. I've been using it steady now since the very beginning of June and only have the occasional disconnect, but it generally reconnects within a minute or two. Certainly not as bad as my old dialup problems!
Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. I haven't done any timings, but transfers are VERY noticeably faster than the old dialup connection. The other nice thing is that when I signed up, they had a special where the modem kit was only 99 bucks and your first month was free! So, by the time I had to actually pay for a month, the price had been dropped from 49.95 to 39.95 a month... That was nice.:)
My only really big complaint was that it was a PAIN to configure the account intially. For some reason, the brainiacs at Bell Atlantic decided to make a program that you could either download or load from CD that you ran that would connect up the first time and collect billing information and user information from you and submit it all to their machines and create your account. The problem is, it's a Windows program!!!!! So, for someone like me who doesn't RUN Windows, it was a pain. I ended up borrowing a laptop from work and carrying it home to create the account. Once it was created and I had a userid and password, it only took a minute to plug the info into my Linux box and I was up and running!:) I just wish BA/Verizon would make the signup form available as a secure web page that you could fill out from a working connection instead of requiring a Windows program to run....
Overall, though, it's been a pretty positive experience except for that one headache with the user account creation.:)
How many times a year do we vote? MAYBE twice??? The average person can make it to vote with little more than a 5 minute detour from the trek to work in the morning. NOT a terrible burden to have your voice hear TWICE A YEAR!
And for the person that claimed only radicals and rich white guys vote....that's BULL. I know plenty of people who are NEITHER that vote.
The claim that the other people (non-rich, non-radical, non-white people) who don't vote are the most vocal with solutions to problems might be true....but the claim that we have to have online voting for them to actually vote is ludicrous! If these people REALLY have such great ideas and are THAT vocal...so vocal as to be considered passionate about their cause....then you would expect them to be even MORE willing to go out of their way to vote!!!! Sounds to me more like they're just extremely lazy big-mouths also known as Monday-morning quarterbacks and backseat drivers! If you want to help solve problems, you vote. If you don't like the candidates, then you become active and either try to FIND good candidates or you run yourself. Even if you write someone in, it's still a statement. And the notion that only people in those two parties can win is ridiculous. Ask people who live in Minnesota....their GOVERNOR is from NEITHER party!!! It CAN be done.
Now, don't get me wrong...there's a time and place for everything and SOME DAY, there will be the time for online voting....but the technology is not there now...it is WAY too easy to crack the system. I will put MONEY on someone's ability to break any system you can design right now...at least, any system that is simple enough that the average voter can use it!!!!
Please, people, laziness is no excuse for not voting and the claim that we have to make it easier for lazy people to vote is silly. If they don't care enough to get off their butts twice a year, then they shouldn't complain about the elections.
You know, you have some pretty idealistic thoughts there that sound nice on paper (so to speak), but I really don't suspect they'd hold up in court!
For one thing, you claim you wouldn't have to decrypt a message because you can claim self-incrimination.... Well, while I'm no lawyer, it seems to me that if you had an incriminating document (letter, files, etc) locked up in your house or office, the police can obtain a search warrant and force you to open up the lock and let them search the house or office and get that document and use it against you. It's done every day! Well, all encryption is, is a fancy lock! So, I don't think your theory would hold up in the real world!
Now, second point... (and one that most people seem to forget!) In the case of e-mail, when you encrypt an e-mail and send it to someone, THEY have the ability to decrypt it! So, certainly, even if the self-incrimation laws DID apply, it would not apply to THEM and then THEY could be forced to decrypt it!! And while YOU might be willing to sit in jail for a few months for contempt of court for not decrypting it, do you really think all of your friends would feel that strongly that THEY would go to jail to protect your precious rights?! I doubt it!!!
Just food for thought.... Remember, encryption is like a lock....it's only as secure as the people who have the keys!!!
In general, I'd say it's a good idea. I found a link (http://www.ieee.org/organizations/eab/pelicens.ht ml) on the IEEE web site with some good reasonings for it...
Take a look at that. Maybe even e-mail some people there and get more information. If you're NOT in IEEE, I'd strongly recommend you join. GOOD networking available that way for career advancement. (not to mention, auto insurance companies give major discounts to members of Professional Societies.:)
Nobody seems to be remembering why we REALLY have QWERTY keyboards. Yes, it had EVERYTHING to do with speed. See, the decision on a standard keyboard layout was made in the TYPEWRITER age. The Dvorak keyboard was faster - but that was a problem. Anyone who remembers old typewriters remembers the old metal bars that were flipped up to strike the ribbon and put the letter on the page. Sometimes if you hit keys close to each other a little to fast, the typewriter would jam and you'd have to reach up and pull the bars apart and then continue on. the Dvorak keyboard was too fast - it made the bars jam all the time. In short, typing needed to be SLOWED DOWN to keep from jamming the machine. Tradition and plain old resistance to change has kept us using them long since the days when it was necessary.
Slashdot Mirror
What if I upload a file for public consumption and then decide that really wasn't such a great idea and go back and delete the file?
Does Google still retain the right to do anything they want with a copy of the file?
Is there a way to rescind or retract the license grant you effectively make by posting the file when you subsequently delete the file?
If you can do that, I don't think it's such a huge problem. But I don't like the idea that I could mistakenly post the wrong file and have no way to make it go away later....
It depends on who you consider "they" to be.
The slashdot article says:
"Now imagine the information that is lost was worth $38 billion."
The article it links to says:
"Now imagine wiping out a disk drive containing information for an account worth $38 billion (29 billion)."
Notice the difference. The article only claims the ACCOUNT was worth $38 billion. NOT the information. The slashdot poster is the one who translated it to mean the information was worth that much - NOT the AP article and not the state of Alaska.
I agree with crow on this, with one clarification. The employer only owns the part of the code that was written by the original poster, since he signed away his rights. He couldn't sign away other people's rights, though, so unless the employer is going to remove the code they do NOT own, they should have to follow the GPL.
The best way to handle it is to look up and contact the actual author of the code that is being violated and let THEM (or their lawyer) contact the legal department of this company.
So, let me get this straight....we want to put SETI in our DNA? Does this mean we should turn everyone on the planet into a component in a massive, global computer? Maybe we need a way to include the whole earth? And while we're at it, maybe we can program this computer to come up with a really cool question whose answer would be "42" too???? Sounds like a pretty novel idea to me! ;)
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I actually LIKED the first two movies. Granted, Phantom Menace didn't exactly rise to the level of Empire Strikes Back, but it was still an alright movie. I didn't really see anything wrong with Episode II - I actually enjoyed it a lot.
You would think from all the ranting and raving you always see on here that I'm in the minority, but well, you know.....those two films DID make a LOT of money..... So, SOMEONE out there must have liked them because they sure spoke with their wallets. *shrug*
I dunno. Sometimes I think people had some unrealistic expectations of the prequels, based on memories of movies they saw as kids 20 years ago. Imagine yourself as the same kid from 20 years ago watching the two prequels and I'd be willing to bet you'd have liked it a lot better than you do now as an adult.
Just my opinion, for what it's worth....
-Ken
Just turn off your computer and go out and watch a soccer match or something. GUARANTEED not to get any spyware on your computer that way! O:)
I think we all tend to complain when we call someone at tech support and they end up being in another country and have a low grasp of the English language, therefore making it very hard to communicate with them....so, what I want to ask is if the tech support/help desk people over there get as annoyed with the language barrier as WE do? Is it as frustrating to them that they can't get the point across to us as it is us to them?
:)
And I think we all know that they get calls from the morons that WE hate getting calls from too, so I'm just wondering how much WORSE that goes over when there's a language barrier to make it even harder. (How DO you explain that the cup holder isn't really a cup holder when you don't know what a cup holder even is??
Ahhhhh, ok. Yeah, that would probably make sense.
Thank you!
RMS talks about having quit his job 20 years ago....
What the heck does he do for money now?? Rent still has to be paid....food bought....clothes bought..... Does he have a job? Where does his income come from? Does he do consulting? Or just make money talking about free software?
Just wondering....I've never seen it mentioned anywhere.....
True. The whole thing looks like a lawsuit just waiting to happen.
The other question that one has to wonder about is whether there will be any content filters on it?
I mean, if you think about it, in schools and libraries that have Internet access, typically, they're required to have filters to try to keep out "inappropriate" content from minors. Will this service be filtered? Or will it be unfiltered?
If you filter it, the adults will scream censorship.
If you don't filter it, then who's responsible when little Johnny starts browsing porn? Will the city go after itself for providing porn to a minor? And can parents sue the city for facilitating it?
Yeah, men, so take heed when your girlfriend or wife seems a little too anxious for you to drink the drink she made for you every day and then breaks out a rule a few days later on you.... :)
Well, it sure sounds like I'm in the minority, but I signed up for DSL from what was then Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) last spring and really have mostly good things to say about it! I hated the long wait between signing up and activation, but true to their word, it was ready when they said it would be. I've been using it steady now since the very beginning of June and only have the occasional disconnect, but it generally reconnects within a minute or two. Certainly not as bad as my old dialup problems!
:)
:) I just wish BA/Verizon would make the signup form available as a secure web page that you could fill out from a working connection instead of requiring a Windows program to run....
:)
Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. I haven't done any timings, but transfers are VERY noticeably faster than the old dialup connection. The other nice thing is that when I signed up, they had a special where the modem kit was only 99 bucks and your first month was free! So, by the time I had to actually pay for a month, the price had been dropped from 49.95 to 39.95 a month... That was nice.
My only really big complaint was that it was a PAIN to configure the account intially. For some reason, the brainiacs at Bell Atlantic decided to make a program that you could either download or load from CD that you ran that would connect up the first time and collect billing information and user information from you and submit it all to their machines and create your account. The problem is, it's a Windows program!!!!! So, for someone like me who doesn't RUN Windows, it was a pain. I ended up borrowing a laptop from work and carrying it home to create the account. Once it was created and I had a userid and password, it only took a minute to plug the info into my Linux box and I was up and running!
Overall, though, it's been a pretty positive experience except for that one headache with the user account creation.
-Ken
How many times a year do we vote? MAYBE twice??? The average person can make it to vote with little more than a 5 minute detour from the trek to work in the morning. NOT a terrible burden to have your voice hear TWICE A YEAR!
And for the person that claimed only radicals and rich white guys vote....that's BULL. I know plenty of people who are NEITHER that vote.
The claim that the other people (non-rich, non-radical, non-white people) who don't vote are the most vocal with solutions to problems might be true....but the claim that we have to have online voting for them to actually vote is ludicrous! If these people REALLY have such great ideas and are THAT vocal...so vocal as to be considered passionate about their cause....then you would expect them to be even MORE willing to go out of their way to vote!!!! Sounds to me more like they're just extremely lazy big-mouths also known as Monday-morning quarterbacks and backseat drivers! If you want to help solve problems, you vote. If you don't like the candidates, then you become active and either try to FIND good candidates or you run yourself. Even if you write someone in, it's still a statement. And the notion that only people in those two parties can win is ridiculous. Ask people who live in Minnesota....their GOVERNOR is from NEITHER party!!! It CAN be done.
Now, don't get me wrong...there's a time and place for everything and SOME DAY, there will be the time for online voting....but the technology is not there now...it is WAY too easy to crack the system. I will put MONEY on someone's ability to break any system you can design right now...at least, any system that is simple enough that the average voter can use it!!!!
Please, people, laziness is no excuse for not voting and the claim that we have to make it easier for lazy people to vote is silly. If they don't care enough to get off their butts twice a year, then they shouldn't complain about the elections.
hmph.
My thoughts. (like them or not)
You know, you have some pretty idealistic thoughts there that sound nice on paper (so to speak), but I really don't suspect they'd hold up in court!
For one thing, you claim you wouldn't have to decrypt a message because you can claim self-incrimination.... Well, while I'm no lawyer, it seems to me that if you had an incriminating document (letter, files, etc) locked up in your house or office, the police can obtain a search warrant and force you to open up the lock and let them search the house or office and get that document and use it against you. It's done every day! Well, all encryption is, is a fancy lock!
So, I don't think your theory would hold up in the real world!
Now, second point... (and one that most people seem to forget!) In the case of e-mail, when you encrypt an e-mail and send it to someone, THEY have the ability to decrypt it! So, certainly, even if the self-incrimation laws DID apply, it would not apply to THEM and then THEY could be forced to decrypt it!! And while YOU might be willing to sit in jail for a few months for contempt of court for not decrypting it, do you really think all of your friends would feel that strongly that THEY would go to jail to protect your precious rights?! I doubt it!!!
Just food for thought.... Remember, encryption is like a lock....it's only as secure as the people who have the keys!!!
-Ken
(my thoughts...my opinions...nobody else's.)
In general, I'd say it's a good idea. I found a link (http://www.ieee.org/organizations/eab/pelicens.ht ml) on the IEEE web site with some good reasonings for it...
:)
Take a look at that. Maybe even e-mail some people there and get more information. If you're NOT in IEEE, I'd strongly recommend you join. GOOD networking available that way for career advancement. (not to mention, auto insurance companies give major discounts to members of Professional Societies.
Good luck out there!
-Ken
Nobody seems to be remembering why we REALLY have QWERTY keyboards. Yes, it had EVERYTHING to do with speed. See, the decision on a standard keyboard layout was made in the TYPEWRITER age. The Dvorak keyboard was faster - but that was a problem. Anyone who remembers old typewriters remembers the old metal bars that were flipped up to strike the ribbon and put the letter on the page. Sometimes if you hit keys close to each other a little to fast, the typewriter would jam and you'd have to reach up and pull the bars apart and then continue on. the Dvorak keyboard was too fast - it made the bars jam all the time. In short, typing needed to be SLOWED DOWN to keep from jamming the machine. Tradition and plain old resistance to change has kept us using them long since the days when it was necessary.
-Ken