This is where the insistence that DRM and "Trusted Computing" and
software patents must be abolished comes from. These are all tools that
corporations use to protect their property. RMS does not believe they should
have property like this... that it should all be made available to users with no
control by corporations.
RSM isn't the only driver of the elimination of software patents. There is another of opinion (one I happen to agree with) that simply doesn't believe software should be patnented. It should be copyrighted. The patents go to physical things: cpus, video chip sets, motherboards, etc... Software is just another creative endeavor. They don't patent books, so they shouldn't patent software. I don't know of any big names pushing this line of thought, but I have seen regular commentary on this in both legal classes that I have audited and in forum discussions at various conferences, such as the Sage conference in LA a couple of years ago.
Much of what we see in the blogosphere is pure opinion supported with selective representation of fact, half-truths, and the occasionally bald-faced lie. In fact, it has been shown repeatedly that "big name" bloggers (regardless their ideaological stripe) are not above representing pure propaganda as lily white truth. Does ethical journalism matter in this environment? Will it matter that a journalist include the fullest picture of the story possible if people are turning to partisan ideologues with specific agendas and an interest in misrepresentation for their news?
Techs get paid to do a job...fix computers. Most people want their computer restored to the way it was when it stopped working properly. They do not want to be badgered into trying some new OS or new office suite or anything else. So a tech should not be preaching the open source bandwagon, if they are getting paid.
If, on the other hand, you are doing something for a friend cause their computer is fubared, go right ahead and suggest Ubuntu, Firefox, and whatever. Suggest, not install and make them use. If you suggest it and they go for it, hey, more's the happier.
I know, for instance, that Winamp doesn't suit my desires as I have tried it. Ubuntu is fine, but I'm lazy and getting WoW to run under Ubuntu is more work than I'm looking for. I want to play the game, not tinker with my computer. I run firefox for everything that doesn't require Exploder, but I still have to have explorer because Opera doesn't work with my bank's website. But, not everyone is going to want to figure out even as little as I bothered to find. The average user is going to want consistency in their computing experience. And, quite frankly, for the nimrod with no skills, windows still offers the most cost effective experience (lets face it, Macs are outrageously over priced, even if the OS and interface are better at this time...which would change if they became a more dominant computing platform, yessiree bob).
is put in their class syllabus that all papers required by the instructor for the class below to the instructor. The instructor is requesting specific work (a paper) in accordance with a specific return (a grade). In which case, this is work on assignment, as it were and the assigner has all rights to the work done. Then they can publish these papers to turnitin all they want. However, this won't keep students from cheating. It will just make them better at it.
And yet, they still failed to realize that software should never be patented. It should be copyrighted. The patent office should be kicking back every software patent application as "too stupid for words".
The huge amount of sequals of previous games, and games based on crappy movie, cartoon, book, etc. licenses? Having 25 different '2007' editions of various sports games with very little additions to them does not mean quality.
The game publishing industry is driven mostly by the same people who drive the rest of the entertainment industry (after all, most game publishers are owned by mega-media corporations). This means that the game publishing industry will be stodgily uncomfortable with risk. Risk to these people is anything that hasn't made money before; ergo, you will see lots of sequels (most crappy, the rare one occasionally good), lots of games based on other properties that have made money. That's just the way media corporations function.
Why the disproportionate emphasis on gas prices in our culture, then?
The American psyche is centered on the idea (illusory or not) of freedom. And we have attached to that idea the symbol of the automobile. We have, as a culture, over the last 50 years or so, begun defining people by the car they drive. Men in minivans are whipped. Women in SUVs are lesbians. Everyone in a sports car is either wealthy or glamorous (depending on their state of obesity) or both. Big comfortable cars are called "luxury" cars (and have luxury prices). The prius is the end all be all of environmental conservatism now. But we have the car fixed in our collective psyche as a must have of american culture, and necessity of any life (and in cities with rotten public transport systems, it is). That necessity status that cars have is what makes gas prices so ubiquitous in our world. Higher gas prices are big oil attacking our freedoms, limiting our range and mobility, and status. Lower gas prices widen these things.
1) a decent ergonomic chair. I recommend the Herman Miller Aeron chair. I used one at work for 3 years and actually saw an improvment in my overall back health during that time. Drawback - costs $900. But I think it is worth it. That chair saved me from some serious pain during 10 hour days in front of the computer.
2) get up and take a brisk 5-10 minute walk every couple of hours. And do some stretching ( the best stretch I can recommend: lie on your back and pull your knee to your chest (1 leg at a time. THis will stretch your gluts and lower back, keeping you from sitting with your pelvis pushed forward, which causes some serious straing on the back.)
Bruckheimer has nothing to do with this movie except fund it.
Except that Bruckheimer is well known for being actively involved in the production of the films put out by his production company. He will be on the set, he will be in regular contact with the line producers of the film. I'm not saying this will necessarily make a good film. I'm just saying that Bruckheimer takes a more active role than the typical film executive producer. In fact, Bruckheimer was probably, as is his penchant, involved in the selection of the writer for the rewrite of the script (odds are, with two writers, that the original guy provided the first script and the second guy did the rewrite, but and made changes to about 30% of the film, thus providing enough original material that he gets a writing credit, but not enough that he gets sole screenplay credit).
Better a worse looking original than the ultra-pretty but ultra-crappy digitally enhanced versions released decades later with all the stupid stuff in them.
I'm not sure they can keep shareholder faith with Dunn still on the board. HP seems to be exceptionally poor at choosing which women they should hire for key positions...First they get Carly Fiorina, now Pat Dunn. I wonder how many of their male executives are incompetnent criminals and when we will start to hear more about them?
I didn't know about the Al Manar site; I have only seen two that were basically sites that solicited funds to specifically support acts of terrorism.
As for Isreal...Well, I seriously doubt anyone who is objective can think Israel is an ally of the United States. Allies don't encourage your citizens to commit treason and steal state secrets so they can sell them to our enemies, both acts Israel has committed more than once. And I despise any government that claims to be democratic but acts like a theocracy (talmudic law has undue influence in Israel). But, by the same token, I despise all open theocracies with equal venom, and most of the Arab world is theocratic. The best thing the United States could do in the Middle East for itself is withdraw all support from any nation there.
The Hezbollah sites you mention were not informational sites. They were sites actively soliciting funds for the carrying out of terrorist activities and they said so.
So you're saying its a different, smaller market that you can't make as many sales to and you need customize how you make your product because the gamers have different tastes and attitudes....
Yep, not a niche
a partiualrly educated guesser to know that there is a provision in the EULA regarding the loss or corruption of data. You agree to endemnify Microsoft against any such loss. Further, they make no guarantee of suitability of the OS for any particular purpose and make no claim that the product is reliable in any way.
Actually, only home and small business users suffer from this problem. Most large companies can leverage Microsoft into contracts that force Microsoft to cover various loss of business expenses and recovery expenses on things like this. The company I consult with not only has their contract set up to force Microsoft to take responsibility for these things, but has a monetary value on these issues set in excess of $20M a day that Microsoft would be responsible for if their product ever caused data loss or business interuption.
There are, I think, two reasons that fantasy games are the big draws in MMORPGs right now...First, the biggest movies and book series for the "mainstream" challenged amongst us, of recent times, have been fantasies: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Wheel of Time, Star Wars (yes, Star Wars is a fantasy, even it if has blaster rifles). People have already been immersed in these worlds, so the fantasy world is familiar to them. Which makes them comfortable and easy to get in to. Second, Computer games really aren't taht much of an area for story innovation. MMORPGs won't move beyond fantasy until someone has a successful non-fantasy MMORPG. People will point to EVE Online, but it's play numbers aren't nearly large enough to push other game makers to make sci-fi games. And Earth and Beyond died a miserable death (at least as much through EAs mismanagement as through mediocre game play and boring story lines). I think if someone could put out a good Alien MMORPG or a killer Cthulu game (there was one being discussed at one time), they might break the mold wide open. But it is still an industry of copy cats. And most of the copiers don't do that good of work.
People get mp3 players too be uniqute??? Hmmm. I thought people got MP3 players to play MP3. And to be honest, I haven't found an MP3 player that is as easy to setup and use, with the same kind of capacity as the iPod yet. The Zen tries, but ultimately fails for me. Besides, I like iTunes. But, it all comes down to personal preference. 60 million users like iPods. Fewer than that like the others.
It's a civil registry that has criminally punitive effects: i.e. it causes the person to be treated as though he has been convicted of a crime.
a judge will be weighing the evidence and making the decision.
Sounds suspicious to me. How can there be enough evidence to subject someone to monitoring as it is required by Ohio's Megan's Law if there isn't enough evidence to convict them of a rape?
Maybe the key evidence linking him is inadmissible in court (but still reliable)
Inadmissible is inadmissible. You can't use something that the court has deemed inadmissible for criminal sanctions to punish someone with the same sanctions, only applied in a "civil" court.
I think that companies learned their lesson from Sony's rootkit fiasco.
Appearently, Sony hasn't learned from the rootkit fiasco, because the rootkit is still showing up on new records released by BMG affiliates...Recent (as in last quarter) releases from RCA are still installing the dang thing.
Slashdot Mirror
This is where the insistence that DRM and "Trusted Computing" and software patents must be abolished comes from. These are all tools that corporations use to protect their property. RMS does not believe they should have property like this... that it should all be made available to users with no control by corporations.
RSM isn't the only driver of the elimination of software patents. There is another of opinion (one I happen to agree with) that simply doesn't believe software should be patnented. It should be copyrighted. The patents go to physical things: cpus, video chip sets, motherboards, etc... Software is just another creative endeavor. They don't patent books, so they shouldn't patent software. I don't know of any big names pushing this line of thought, but I have seen regular commentary on this in both legal classes that I have audited and in forum discussions at various conferences, such as the Sage conference in LA a couple of years ago.
Much of what we see in the blogosphere is pure opinion supported with selective representation of fact, half-truths, and the occasionally bald-faced lie. In fact, it has been shown repeatedly that "big name" bloggers (regardless their ideaological stripe) are not above representing pure propaganda as lily white truth. Does ethical journalism matter in this environment? Will it matter that a journalist include the fullest picture of the story possible if people are turning to partisan ideologues with specific agendas and an interest in misrepresentation for their news?
Expanding your skills doesn't help you get a job using those skills if you can't take credit for doing the work.
Techs get paid to do a job...fix computers. Most people want their computer restored to the way it was when it stopped working properly. They do not want to be badgered into trying some new OS or new office suite or anything else. So a tech should not be preaching the open source bandwagon, if they are getting paid.
If, on the other hand, you are doing something for a friend cause their computer is fubared, go right ahead and suggest Ubuntu, Firefox, and whatever. Suggest, not install and make them use. If you suggest it and they go for it, hey, more's the happier.
I know, for instance, that Winamp doesn't suit my desires as I have tried it. Ubuntu is fine, but I'm lazy and getting WoW to run under Ubuntu is more work than I'm looking for. I want to play the game, not tinker with my computer. I run firefox for everything that doesn't require Exploder, but I still have to have explorer because Opera doesn't work with my bank's website. But, not everyone is going to want to figure out even as little as I bothered to find. The average user is going to want consistency in their computing experience. And, quite frankly, for the nimrod with no skills, windows still offers the most cost effective experience (lets face it, Macs are outrageously over priced, even if the OS and interface are better at this time...which would change if they became a more dominant computing platform, yessiree bob).
is put in their class syllabus that all papers required by the instructor for the class below to the instructor. The instructor is requesting specific work (a paper) in accordance with a specific return (a grade). In which case, this is work on assignment, as it were and the assigner has all rights to the work done. Then they can publish these papers to turnitin all they want. However, this won't keep students from cheating. It will just make them better at it.
business persons in this country are so unethical. Well, now they know. Business ethics 101 is all about cheating.
And yet, they still failed to realize that software should never be patented. It should be copyrighted. The patent office should be kicking back every software patent application as "too stupid for words".
The huge amount of sequals of previous games, and games based on crappy movie, cartoon, book, etc. licenses? Having 25 different '2007' editions of various sports games with very little additions to them does not mean quality.
The game publishing industry is driven mostly by the same people who drive the rest of the entertainment industry (after all, most game publishers are owned by mega-media corporations). This means that the game publishing industry will be stodgily uncomfortable with risk. Risk to these people is anything that hasn't made money before; ergo, you will see lots of sequels (most crappy, the rare one occasionally good), lots of games based on other properties that have made money. That's just the way media corporations function.
Why the disproportionate emphasis on gas prices in our culture, then?
The American psyche is centered on the idea (illusory or not) of freedom. And we have attached to that idea the symbol of the automobile. We have, as a culture, over the last 50 years or so, begun defining people by the car they drive. Men in minivans are whipped. Women in SUVs are lesbians. Everyone in a sports car is either wealthy or glamorous (depending on their state of obesity) or both. Big comfortable cars are called "luxury" cars (and have luxury prices). The prius is the end all be all of environmental conservatism now. But we have the car fixed in our collective psyche as a must have of american culture, and necessity of any life (and in cities with rotten public transport systems, it is). That necessity status that cars have is what makes gas prices so ubiquitous in our world. Higher gas prices are big oil attacking our freedoms, limiting our range and mobility, and status. Lower gas prices widen these things.
1) a decent ergonomic chair. I recommend the Herman Miller Aeron chair. I used one at work for 3 years and actually saw an improvment in my overall back health during that time. Drawback - costs $900. But I think it is worth it. That chair saved me from some serious pain during 10 hour days in front of the computer. 2) get up and take a brisk 5-10 minute walk every couple of hours. And do some stretching ( the best stretch I can recommend: lie on your back and pull your knee to your chest (1 leg at a time. THis will stretch your gluts and lower back, keeping you from sitting with your pelvis pushed forward, which causes some serious straing on the back.)
Your thoughts aren't conservative. They're stupid. That's why they were modded down.
Bruckheimer has nothing to do with this movie except fund it.
Except that Bruckheimer is well known for being actively involved in the production of the films put out by his production company. He will be on the set, he will be in regular contact with the line producers of the film. I'm not saying this will necessarily make a good film. I'm just saying that Bruckheimer takes a more active role than the typical film executive producer. In fact, Bruckheimer was probably, as is his penchant, involved in the selection of the writer for the rewrite of the script (odds are, with two writers, that the original guy provided the first script and the second guy did the rewrite, but and made changes to about 30% of the film, thus providing enough original material that he gets a writing credit, but not enough that he gets sole screenplay credit).
Better a worse looking original than the ultra-pretty but ultra-crappy digitally enhanced versions released decades later with all the stupid stuff in them.
I'm not sure they can keep shareholder faith with Dunn still on the board. HP seems to be exceptionally poor at choosing which women they should hire for key positions...First they get Carly Fiorina, now Pat Dunn. I wonder how many of their male executives are incompetnent criminals and when we will start to hear more about them?
The covergirl just got fired.
I didn't know about the Al Manar site; I have only seen two that were basically sites that solicited funds to specifically support acts of terrorism.
As for Isreal...Well, I seriously doubt anyone who is objective can think Israel is an ally of the United States. Allies don't encourage your citizens to commit treason and steal state secrets so they can sell them to our enemies, both acts Israel has committed more than once. And I despise any government that claims to be democratic but acts like a theocracy (talmudic law has undue influence in Israel). But, by the same token, I despise all open theocracies with equal venom, and most of the Arab world is theocratic. The best thing the United States could do in the Middle East for itself is withdraw all support from any nation there.
The Hezbollah sites you mention were not informational sites. They were sites actively soliciting funds for the carrying out of terrorist activities and they said so.
So you're saying its a different, smaller market that you can't make as many sales to and you need customize how you make your product because the gamers have different tastes and attitudes. ...
Yep, not a niche
In that case, all gaming is a niche market.
a partiualrly educated guesser to know that there is a provision in the EULA regarding the loss or corruption of data. You agree to endemnify Microsoft against any such loss. Further, they make no guarantee of suitability of the OS for any particular purpose and make no claim that the product is reliable in any way.
Actually, only home and small business users suffer from this problem. Most large companies can leverage Microsoft into contracts that force Microsoft to cover various loss of business expenses and recovery expenses on things like this. The company I consult with not only has their contract set up to force Microsoft to take responsibility for these things, but has a monetary value on these issues set in excess of $20M a day that Microsoft would be responsible for if their product ever caused data loss or business interuption.
There are, I think, two reasons that fantasy games are the big draws in MMORPGs right now...First, the biggest movies and book series for the "mainstream" challenged amongst us, of recent times, have been fantasies: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Wheel of Time, Star Wars (yes, Star Wars is a fantasy, even it if has blaster rifles). People have already been immersed in these worlds, so the fantasy world is familiar to them. Which makes them comfortable and easy to get in to. Second, Computer games really aren't taht much of an area for story innovation. MMORPGs won't move beyond fantasy until someone has a successful non-fantasy MMORPG. People will point to EVE Online, but it's play numbers aren't nearly large enough to push other game makers to make sci-fi games. And Earth and Beyond died a miserable death (at least as much through EAs mismanagement as through mediocre game play and boring story lines). I think if someone could put out a good Alien MMORPG or a killer Cthulu game (there was one being discussed at one time), they might break the mold wide open. But it is still an industry of copy cats. And most of the copiers don't do that good of work.
So, you think men are more likely to get away with crime, eh? Or is it just that women are worse criminals?
People get mp3 players too be uniqute??? Hmmm. I thought people got MP3 players to play MP3. And to be honest, I haven't found an MP3 player that is as easy to setup and use, with the same kind of capacity as the iPod yet. The Zen tries, but ultimately fails for me. Besides, I like iTunes. But, it all comes down to personal preference. 60 million users like iPods. Fewer than that like the others.
It's a civil registry that has criminally punitive effects: i.e. it causes the person to be treated as though he has been convicted of a crime.
a judge will be weighing the evidence and making the decision.
Sounds suspicious to me. How can there be enough evidence to subject someone to monitoring as it is required by Ohio's Megan's Law if there isn't enough evidence to convict them of a rape?
Maybe the key evidence linking him is inadmissible in court (but still reliable)
Inadmissible is inadmissible. You can't use something that the court has deemed inadmissible for criminal sanctions to punish someone with the same sanctions, only applied in a "civil" court.
I think that companies learned their lesson from Sony's rootkit fiasco.
Appearently, Sony hasn't learned from the rootkit fiasco, because the rootkit is still showing up on new records released by BMG affiliates...Recent (as in last quarter) releases from RCA are still installing the dang thing.
MOre opportunities to exploit a Microshaft product! Excellent