The question is whether or not Skyhook was compatible but rejected anyway.
Yes, that's what the court case is about, but my point is somewhat different. My point is that it really shouldn't be necessary to take a company to court to get this to show some proof--any proof whatsoever--that this is the case.
All it would take to convince me otherwise is someone testifying that their system was broken because Skyhook was installed and configured properly on it. I suspect that Skyhook wouldn't be paying their lawyers a Whole Lot of Money(tm) to take this to court and lose if they thought that Google could produce such a person.
... but after skimming through the code, I'm not terribly surprised to hear that it has issues, because there are virtually no comments or design docs.
Each one of the coders probably thinks the other coders are responsible for security, because it's nobody knows exactly what the other modules actually do. It's not written down anywhere.
To be fair, this isn't the only system I've seen like this... and kudos to the team for sticking their code out where everyone can see it. I'm sure that there are similar problems in many widely-used systems, but since they're closed source, we can only guess about the details.
If this is true, then it is deeply disturbing and a symptom of a serious problem in the control that companies can have over other companies in the current legislative environment.
Back in the old days, companies such as Microsoft couldn't simply deem that competing applications were "non-compatible"--they had to actually go to the effort of making sure that Windows would hobble them. (Remember "Windows isn't done until Lotus won't run"?)
I interpret the evidence differently; Apple seems absolutely delighted with their 80% market share for MP3 players and 70% market share for downloadable music sales. I think they'd love to have a similar position in mobile platforms, although I agree that they will abandon markets that do not permit sufficient differentiation to support their target margins.
It's not a glitch in MS Word. Word is doing what it's supposed to do. The people using Word messed up, from what I can tell from the translation.
Blaming Microsoft for this glitch is like blaming Google for the fact that the lawyers probably could have Googled for instructions for how to remove the extra info, but didn't.
In internet time, predicting what the most popular mobile OS will be in 2014 is like predicting what kind of music our grandchildren will like.
But as long as we're making predictions, here's mine: in 2014, the most popular popular mobile OS will be whatever the folks at Apple start secretly working on some time next year, and that doesn't get hyped out of all possible hope of satisfying consumer expectations until some time in late 2013.
I'm given an amazing piece of art, by someone who left it on my doorstep with a note "This is for you", and I display it in my museum. A lot of people enjoy it, and a lot of people get direct benefit from it because of things it teaches our society. Some guy on the other side of the planet is imprisoned because he allegedly stole a piece of art that looks the same as what I have on display; should I prevent people from accessing the piece of art?
Your metaphor is inaccurate on two key points. The "art" is stolen, and there's no question about that whatsoever. There's also no question to whom the "art" belongs, and that they want it returned to them.
To complete the metaphor, in this specific case the "art" is clearly labeled with the information that displaying it publicly is a felony according to US law.
... why they're so casual about releasing information about people that may well get those people killed or imprisoned, and in the meanwhile they're not willing to take any responsibility for their actions.
Oracle and NetApp have long, close ties through their customers (many, many Oracle customers run their databases on NetApp gear; it's one of the platforms Oracle specifically recommends). This lawsuit basically pitted the customers against themselves, which never works out well for the vendors.
Parent post has it half right... What they mean by "white men" is "OkCupid users who identify themselves as white men."
There's also a few other sizable demographics that might be interesting, such as "People who identify themselves as white men and who don't do any sort of online dating."
Try finding three major tech companies that aren't linked with Microsoft in some way.
And when the link is "the lawyers hired by TradeComet include some of the same lawyers Microsoft hired to do similar work in the past" and you're getting pretty close to playing "six degrees of Kevin Bacon".
If there's a smoking gun somewhere, this ain't it. If this is the best Google's general counsel can do, maybe there isn't a smoking gun anywhere.
I would guess that most takedown notices look pretty much alike.
Might as well save the money that a lawyer would charge to cut and paste this document... because you're probably going to pay that money to your lawyer for something else.
Do you mean "When do we move to Japan?" or "When shall we need to lift a finger again?"
For the former, well, I don't speak or read Japanese, so I don't think it would work out very well for me unless the English translations of the user manuals are really good. I don't think I want a robot that I don't know how to turn off (or, in some cases, how to turn on).
As for the latter, well, I still enjoy doing things myself, and plan to get off the couch some time in the next hour or so.
From now on, I'm going to use a pseudonym here. If my employer knew I read slashdot, he'd probably expect me to fix the computers around the office or something.
Slashdot Mirror
We only has his word on this.
Is the documentation for this claim posted on wikileaks yet?
Or is he just asking us to trust him, at the same time he's telling us to not trust anyone else?
The question is whether or not Skyhook was compatible but rejected anyway.
Yes, that's what the court case is about, but my point is somewhat different. My point is that it really shouldn't be necessary to take a company to court to get this to show some proof--any proof whatsoever--that this is the case.
All it would take to convince me otherwise is someone testifying that their system was broken because Skyhook was installed and configured properly on it. I suspect that Skyhook wouldn't be paying their lawyers a Whole Lot of Money(tm) to take this to court and lose if they thought that Google could produce such a person.
Each one of the coders probably thinks the other coders are responsible for security, because it's nobody knows exactly what the other modules actually do. It's not written down anywhere.
To be fair, this isn't the only system I've seen like this... and kudos to the team for sticking their code out where everyone can see it. I'm sure that there are similar problems in many widely-used systems, but since they're closed source, we can only guess about the details.
If this is true, then it is deeply disturbing and a symptom of a serious problem in the control that companies can have over other companies in the current legislative environment.
Back in the old days, companies such as Microsoft couldn't simply deem that competing applications were "non-compatible"--they had to actually go to the effort of making sure that Windows would hobble them. (Remember "Windows isn't done until Lotus won't run"?)
I interpret the evidence differently; Apple seems absolutely delighted with their 80% market share for MP3 players and 70% market share for downloadable music sales. I think they'd love to have a similar position in mobile platforms, although I agree that they will abandon markets that do not permit sufficient differentiation to support their target margins.
It's not a glitch in MS Word. Word is doing what it's supposed to do. The people using Word messed up, from what I can tell from the translation.
Blaming Microsoft for this glitch is like blaming Google for the fact that the lawyers probably could have Googled for instructions for how to remove the extra info, but didn't.
In internet time, predicting what the most popular mobile OS will be in 2014 is like predicting what kind of music our grandchildren will like.
But as long as we're making predictions, here's mine: in 2014, the most popular popular mobile OS will be whatever the folks at Apple start secretly working on some time next year, and that doesn't get hyped out of all possible hope of satisfying consumer expectations until some time in late 2013.
That's probably why it crashed. It wasn't afraid not to.
Blain the Mono was one of my favorite parts.
Tastes differ.
I saw the jokes coming a hundred pages away, and I think that without a strong element suspense, King's works don't have as wide of an appeal.
I'm given an amazing piece of art, by someone who left it on my doorstep with a note "This is for you", and I display it in my museum. A lot of people enjoy it, and a lot of people get direct benefit from it because of things it teaches our society. Some guy on the other side of the planet is imprisoned because he allegedly stole a piece of art that looks the same as what I have on display; should I prevent people from accessing the piece of art?
Your metaphor is inaccurate on two key points. The "art" is stolen, and there's no question about that whatsoever. There's also no question to whom the "art" belongs, and that they want it returned to them.
To complete the metaphor, in this specific case the "art" is clearly labeled with the information that displaying it publicly is a felony according to US law.
I give it until Blaine the Mono, and then the audience will be distracted and wander off and the project will be cut.
Well, maybe they'll jiggle the timeline a little and do Wizard and Glass first. That would actually make a decent movie.
Oracle and NetApp have long, close ties through their customers (many, many Oracle customers run their databases on NetApp gear; it's one of the platforms Oracle specifically recommends). This lawsuit basically pitted the customers against themselves, which never works out well for the vendors.
Parent post has it half right... What they mean by "white men" is "OkCupid users who identify themselves as white men."
There's also a few other sizable demographics that might be interesting, such as "People who identify themselves as white men and who don't do any sort of online dating."
Hmm. Swedish fish have been following me around for a week or so.
Try finding three major tech companies that aren't linked with Microsoft in some way.
And when the link is "the lawyers hired by TradeComet include some of the same lawyers Microsoft hired to do similar work in the past" and you're getting pretty close to playing "six degrees of Kevin Bacon".
If there's a smoking gun somewhere, this ain't it. If this is the best Google's general counsel can do, maybe there isn't a smoking gun anywhere.
I would guess that most takedown notices look pretty much alike.
Might as well save the money that a lawyer would charge to cut and paste this document... because you're probably going to pay that money to your lawyer for something else.
Don't ask for advice about programming on slashdot unless you have a pile of salt grains ready.
Do you mean "When do we move to Japan?" or "When shall we need to lift a finger again?"
For the former, well, I don't speak or read Japanese, so I don't think it would work out very well for me unless the English translations of the user manuals are really good. I don't think I want a robot that I don't know how to turn off (or, in some cases, how to turn on).
As for the latter, well, I still enjoy doing things myself, and plan to get off the couch some time in the next hour or so.
And to think that I thought that all of those wall postings were because of a sudden surge in my popularity...
Well, at least I'm going to get a free iPhone out of it, or so I've heard.
Good one!
From now on, I'm going to use a pseudonym here. If my employer knew I read slashdot, he'd probably expect me to fix the computers around the office or something.
I've never even touched a playstation.