The EU complained that Microsoft needed to allow interoperability with its formats, Microsoft offered to make source code available (their WSPP program); The EU responded by whining that source code takes work to figure out, so Microsoft didn't go far enough to promote interoperability.
Source code is a result of implementing a specification. Formats are defined by specifications, not by proprietary source code.
I just got finished browsing a portion of EMusic's catalog, and I don't have a subscription. I saw no indication that I wouldn't be able to browse all of EMusic's catalog and listen to at least some of the music without subscribing.
I smell a great way to mess with the British police. Sew big pockets into a coat and fill them with legitimate burned copies of FOSS; then go to public areas offering people cheap software. Is it legal to set up a folding table in public areas to sell software, perhaps a public market sort of thing?
The city was the appropriate entity to sue. The suit was about the city refusing to provide the list of email addresses that the kid wanted in order to investigate something the kid thought the mayor was doing wrong. The mayor may have pushed for the city to fight turning over the list, but the the decision to fight the kid's lawsuit would involve many other people, including the city's attorney. The situation was not as simple as it may seem, the whole decision depended upon whether email address lists have the same privacy protection as physical email lists. I think that this story could easily be spun into a loss of personal privacy.
The losing side compensating the winner's pro bono counsel is not an oxymoron. The city's residents, as loser of the lawsuit, now get to pay the kid's lawyer. It doesn't matter that the lawyer wasn't expecting the kid to pay him. What was pro bono to the kid is now an expense to the city. I really hate these cases; the city residents should not be the ones who pay, the mayor should be the one who pays. In actuality it could be the city's insurance company who pays, for now.
From what I can see, electronic parts and certain accessories are the only thing that RS carries that differentiates itself from Best Buy, CompUSA, Target, Wal-Mart and the other big box stores. It might be a good thing for RS to greatly reduce the number of stores and concentrate on geeky things that other brick and mortar stores don't carry. If RS did this, they would also have to replace ALL of their current sales people.
I wouldn't count on RS keeping it's electronics parts section: from tfa: RadioShack said the new plan could take 18 months, but it might be 36 months, to close as many as 700 stores and two distribution centers and to clear out at least half of the inventory stocked on shelves and counters to make room for products people want.It would be nice if RS thought that parts were "products people want", but somehow I doubt it. Part of the problem with RS parts (other than piss poor quality) is that the sales people don't have a clue. Actually, I think that it can be said that the biggest problem with RS is that the sales people don't have a clue, the second biggest problem is that RS has no focus on what it wants to carry. Why is a tiny store selling home theater systems and computers? Another example is satellite radio, everybody who sells satellite radio sells both XM and Sirius; RS carries ONLY Sirius radios.
Me too I only go to Radio Shack when I have to. I have started looking items at radioshack.com before I go to the store so that I know what Radio Shack calls the item and I have the catalog number. Beyond the cell phones and a few other common things, the people in the store have NO idea what the items in the store are called, hell, many of them don't even speak English. The people in various RS stores didn't have a clue about a video selector switch or a cigarette lighter power plug (catalog number 270-1509). I was frustrated at a RS clerk who told me that I was stupid because she had no idea what an XLR connector is; the result was that I was permanantly barred from that RS because I flipped a cable onto the counter and walked out of the store. When I went back to the store the next day to complain about the clerks's attitude, the store manager told me to get out of his store because I had been "throwing things" in HIS store.
In a small town recently, I went to an authorized RS dealer (which was also a craft and gift store) to get some audio cables and noticed that the prices on the RS items seemed even higher than I remember. I compared the prices of a few items with the RS catalog on the counter and found that the in-store prices were about 10 to 25% higher than the RS catalog prices. The Radio Shack owned stores that I have been to charged the same price as in the catalog. I asked the clerk about the price differences, she told me that the catalog prices were mail order prices and that store prices were higher because of shipping. I found the cables that I needed for $1 each at a nearby dollar store.
Copies of scientific journals can be difficult and/or expensive (and sometimes impossible) to obtain. Copies of issued US patents are easily and inexpensively obtained. The current price for a copy of a standard US patent is $3 (either paper or pdf). Patents can also be viewed online, for free.
I don't see that Google has removed any links for "xenu". Google has a note at the bottom of the page with a link to the Scientology DMCA complaint*. The DMCA complaint demanded that Google remove the link to "www.xenu.net". Google did not remove the link to www.xenu.net as the Scientology DMCA complaint had demanded.
The top result for a Google search for "xenu" is:
Operation Clambake - The Inner Secrets Of Scientology at www.xenu.net/
* The link to the DMCA complaint is http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/notice.cgi? NoticeID=232
"... corporate marketing slogans are not the same as corporate policy."
Are you saying that a corporation can make any promises that it wants to in a "marketing slogan" and that the corporation doesn't have to back up those promises because the promises are not "corporate policy"? This sounds like one of those new wingnut Bush and company corporate "beliefs".
I used to be a fairly early adopter but I believe that I will be sitting out the entire HDTV goat rope until sanity prevails. The REALLY good thing that I can see with HDTV DRM is that consumers will be totally bewildered about the whole thing. With any luck at all, consumers will be so confused that they will delay adoption of the new technology until some sort of sanity is restored. Watching TV is going from a boob tube sitting in the living room to a very complex system, and that complexity will frustrate consumers. I seriously hope that enough consumers get so frustrated with the DRM associated with HD televison that they decide that their old NTSC televisons and DVDs are just fine. Another factor in the US is the planned forced transition to digital broadcast TV, which hopefully will trigger the beginning of a consumer backlash toward HDTV technology.
Downloading music or movies to which you don't have a license to do so may be illegal.
The RIAA is trying to get the sheepeople to believe that Downloading music or movies that you don't own is illegal and it appears that the RIAA has been successful in your case.
It seems that what the RIAA is wanting people to do is to buy CDs to play in their CD players (no backups) and to pay again to buy digital files for playing in their digital players. Also, if the original CD or digital file is defective, lost, stolen, or damaged; the RIAA wants people to buy a replacement CD or digital file.
It follows that he wants everything money won't buy, as well, not instead of. That, to me, is scary.
Why is that scary? There are many wonderful things that money won't buy. Some of the things that mony won't buy, such as love, may be scary; I don't understand finding it scary for people to want things that money can't buy. Money can buy sex, it can even buy somebody who says that they love you, but money cannot buy real love. Money cannot buy personal satisfaction, money can't buy you time, money can't buy your health (although it helps). I believe that the reason that many people who have money aren't satisfied and feel that they need even more money is that they don't realize that money doesn't buy the things that they are really missing.
The Right Wingers will not debate the issues; they always respond in one of three ways:
1. "The Bible says...."
They refuse to accept the existance of anything that challenges the infallibility of their interpretation of the Bible.
"Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. He also said, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem." Genesis 9:25-27 (justifying the ownership of slaves)
"The Bible clearly and consistently tells us that homosexual activity is a sin (Genesis 19:1-13; Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9). God does not create a person with homosexual desires. A person becomes a homosexual because of sin (Romans 1:24-27)" http://www.gotquestions.org/gay-marriage.html
2. "Most people believe..."
Right wingers fully believe that they are in the majority and that because their "majority" believes one way that they can't possibly be wrong. Also, everything that the GOP says is what the "majority" believes.
3. Some sort of wierd, twisted assertion:
"The world is less than 10,000 years old; carbon dating and fossils are wrong".
"If you allow gay marriages, then you have to allow people to marry their dogs"
"If marriage means everything, it means absolutely nothing. It will mean nothing to same-sex as well as opposite-sex couples. The current decline of the institution of marriage will be accelerated. Increasing numbers of couples will elect to simply 'live together'." Dr. James C. Dobson, of Focus on the Family (regarding gay marriage)
"This sort of marriage is not in the best interest of children." "God has a plan for marriage and this isn't it." "Allowing this kind of marriage will pave the way for all sorts of moral depravity." Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving (regarding interracial marriage)
"As far as I can tell, they're the only player lighting up the last mile"
In my area, Cox lights up the last mile, Verizon limps along with copper. In most areas of Washington, DC, Comcast and RCN light up the last mile and Verizon still uses copper.
There are those sorts of funds in the US too. This was a big thing when South Africa still had Apartheid, they didn't invest in South Africa or in companies that invested in South Africa; there was some question about how much good it did for the blacks in South Africa.
"Google should at least block all sites for a given keyword, not present propaganda only."
Perhaps Google's agreement with China requires Google to block only the objectionable sites and requires that Google return the propganda sites. If this is true, I am curious if there would be a side effect of Google returning more pro mainland Chinese / Chinese propganda sites to non-Chinese users.
In the United States shareholder value is legally paramount over any other concern. Corporate officers can be liable for monetary losses if the corporation willfully does something that does not maximize shareholder value.
Slashdot Mirror
The EU complained that Microsoft needed to allow interoperability with its formats, Microsoft offered to make source code available (their WSPP program); The EU responded by whining that source code takes work to figure out, so Microsoft didn't go far enough to promote interoperability.
Source code is a result of implementing a specification. Formats are defined by specifications, not by proprietary source code.
I just got finished browsing a portion of EMusic's catalog, and I don't have a subscription. I saw no indication that I wouldn't be able to browse all of EMusic's catalog and listen to at least some of the music without subscribing.
What is your source for this data? How was it determined that the US school system hasn't produced literate graduates since 1906?
I smell a great way to mess with the British police. Sew big pockets into a coat and fill them with legitimate burned copies of FOSS; then go to public areas offering people cheap software. Is it legal to set up a folding table in public areas to sell software, perhaps a public market sort of thing?
The city was the appropriate entity to sue. The suit was about the city refusing to provide the list of email addresses that the kid wanted in order to investigate something the kid thought the mayor was doing wrong. The mayor may have pushed for the city to fight turning over the list, but the the decision to fight the kid's lawsuit would involve many other people, including the city's attorney. The situation was not as simple as it may seem, the whole decision depended upon whether email address lists have the same privacy protection as physical email lists. I think that this story could easily be spun into a loss of personal privacy.
The losing side compensating the winner's pro bono counsel is not an oxymoron. The city's residents, as loser of the lawsuit, now get to pay the kid's lawyer. It doesn't matter that the lawyer wasn't expecting the kid to pay him. What was pro bono to the kid is now an expense to the city. I really hate these cases; the city residents should not be the ones who pay, the mayor should be the one who pays. In actuality it could be the city's insurance company who pays, for now.
Yeah, I know. Other than the ridiculous prices my problem was that the reason that I was given for the price differences was a lie.
Holy Jesus on a thong, this webpage would probably make those "Christians" threaten violence: http://www.cafepress.com/illbedamned/604339
From what I can see, electronic parts and certain accessories are the only thing that RS carries that differentiates itself from Best Buy, CompUSA, Target, Wal-Mart and the other big box stores. It might be a good thing for RS to greatly reduce the number of stores and concentrate on geeky things that other brick and mortar stores don't carry. If RS did this, they would also have to replace ALL of their current sales people.
I wouldn't count on RS keeping it's electronics parts section: from tfa: RadioShack said the new plan could take 18 months, but it might be 36 months, to close as many as 700 stores and two distribution centers and to clear out at least half of the inventory stocked on shelves and counters to make room for products people want.It would be nice if RS thought that parts were "products people want", but somehow I doubt it. Part of the problem with RS parts (other than piss poor quality) is that the sales people don't have a clue. Actually, I think that it can be said that the biggest problem with RS is that the sales people don't have a clue, the second biggest problem is that RS has no focus on what it wants to carry. Why is a tiny store selling home theater systems and computers? Another example is satellite radio, everybody who sells satellite radio sells both XM and Sirius; RS carries ONLY Sirius radios.
Me too I only go to Radio Shack when I have to. I have started looking items at radioshack.com before I go to the store so that I know what Radio Shack calls the item and I have the catalog number. Beyond the cell phones and a few other common things, the people in the store have NO idea what the items in the store are called, hell, many of them don't even speak English. The people in various RS stores didn't have a clue about a video selector switch or a cigarette lighter power plug (catalog number 270-1509). I was frustrated at a RS clerk who told me that I was stupid because she had no idea what an XLR connector is; the result was that I was permanantly barred from that RS because I flipped a cable onto the counter and walked out of the store. When I went back to the store the next day to complain about the clerks's attitude, the store manager told me to get out of his store because I had been "throwing things" in HIS store.
In a small town recently, I went to an authorized RS dealer (which was also a craft and gift store) to get some audio cables and noticed that the prices on the RS items seemed even higher than I remember. I compared the prices of a few items with the RS catalog on the counter and found that the in-store prices were about 10 to 25% higher than the RS catalog prices. The Radio Shack owned stores that I have been to charged the same price as in the catalog. I asked the clerk about the price differences, she told me that the catalog prices were mail order prices and that store prices were higher because of shipping. I found the cables that I needed for $1 each at a nearby dollar store.
Copies of scientific journals can be difficult and/or expensive (and sometimes impossible) to obtain. Copies of issued US patents are easily and inexpensively obtained. The current price for a copy of a standard US patent is $3 (either paper or pdf). Patents can also be viewed online, for free.
I don't see that Google has removed any links for "xenu". Google has a note at the bottom of the page with a link to the Scientology DMCA complaint*. The DMCA complaint demanded that Google remove the link to "www.xenu.net". Google did not remove the link to www.xenu.net as the Scientology DMCA complaint had demanded. The top result for a Google search for "xenu" is: Operation Clambake - The Inner Secrets Of Scientology at www.xenu.net/ * The link to the DMCA complaint is http://www.chillingeffects.org/dmca512/notice.cgi? NoticeID=232
"... corporate marketing slogans are not the same as corporate policy."
Are you saying that a corporation can make any promises that it wants to in a "marketing slogan" and that the corporation doesn't have to back up those promises because the promises are not "corporate policy"? This sounds like one of those new wingnut Bush and company corporate "beliefs".
I used to be a fairly early adopter but I believe that I will be sitting out the entire HDTV goat rope until sanity prevails. The REALLY good thing that I can see with HDTV DRM is that consumers will be totally bewildered about the whole thing. With any luck at all, consumers will be so confused that they will delay adoption of the new technology until some sort of sanity is restored. Watching TV is going from a boob tube sitting in the living room to a very complex system, and that complexity will frustrate consumers. I seriously hope that enough consumers get so frustrated with the DRM associated with HD televison that they decide that their old NTSC televisons and DVDs are just fine. Another factor in the US is the planned forced transition to digital broadcast TV, which hopefully will trigger the beginning of a consumer backlash toward HDTV technology.
Downloading music or movies to which you don't have a license to do so may be illegal.
The RIAA is trying to get the sheepeople to believe that Downloading music or movies that you don't own is illegal and it appears that the RIAA has been successful in your case.
It seems that what the RIAA is wanting people to do is to buy CDs to play in their CD players (no backups) and to pay again to buy digital files for playing in their digital players. Also, if the original CD or digital file is defective, lost, stolen, or damaged; the RIAA wants people to buy a replacement CD or digital file.
It follows that he wants everything money won't buy, as well, not instead of. That, to me, is scary.
Why is that scary? There are many wonderful things that money won't buy. Some of the things that mony won't buy, such as love, may be scary; I don't understand finding it scary for people to want things that money can't buy. Money can buy sex, it can even buy somebody who says that they love you, but money cannot buy real love. Money cannot buy personal satisfaction, money can't buy you time, money can't buy your health (although it helps). I believe that the reason that many people who have money aren't satisfied and feel that they need even more money is that they don't realize that money doesn't buy the things that they are really missing.
The Right Wingers will not debate the issues; they always respond in one of three ways:
...."
..."
1. "The Bible says
They refuse to accept the existance of anything that challenges the infallibility of their interpretation of the Bible.
"Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. He also said, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem." Genesis 9:25-27 (justifying the ownership of slaves)
"The Bible clearly and consistently tells us that homosexual activity is a sin (Genesis 19:1-13; Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9). God does not create a person with homosexual desires. A person becomes a homosexual because of sin (Romans 1:24-27)" http://www.gotquestions.org/gay-marriage.html
2. "Most people believe
Right wingers fully believe that they are in the majority and that because their "majority" believes one way that they can't possibly be wrong. Also, everything that the GOP says is what the "majority" believes.
3. Some sort of wierd, twisted assertion:
"The world is less than 10,000 years old; carbon dating and fossils are wrong".
"If you allow gay marriages, then you have to allow people to marry their dogs"
"If marriage means everything, it means absolutely nothing. It will mean nothing to same-sex as well as opposite-sex couples. The current decline of the institution of marriage will be accelerated. Increasing numbers of couples will elect to simply 'live together'." Dr. James C. Dobson, of Focus on the Family (regarding gay marriage)
"This sort of marriage is not in the best interest of children." "God has a plan for marriage and this isn't it." "Allowing this kind of marriage will pave the way for all sorts of moral depravity." Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving (regarding interracial marriage)
It would not be a matter of ignoring Scripture, it would be a matter of ignoring what some people claim is scripture.
"As far as I can tell, they're the only player lighting up the last mile"
In my area, Cox lights up the last mile, Verizon limps along with copper. In most areas of Washington, DC, Comcast and RCN light up the last mile and Verizon still uses copper.
The top Google search for the word 'failure' is now MichaelMoore.com
If it is distributed by p2p and DRM'd, I would not pay more than $2 for a feature length movie or $1 for a short subject.
I'm sure that the studios would consider this to be a positive development.
Paying DVD retail prices for a DRM'ed movie that is distributed by P2P is not a positive development for consumers.
Paying 1 or 2 US dollars for a DRM'ed movie distributed by P2P would be a positive development.
There are those sorts of funds in the US too. This was a big thing when South Africa still had Apartheid, they didn't invest in South Africa or in companies that invested in South Africa; there was some question about how much good it did for the blacks in South Africa.
"Google should at least block all sites for a given keyword, not present propaganda only."
Perhaps Google's agreement with China requires Google to block only the objectionable sites and requires that Google return the propganda sites. If this is true, I am curious if there would be a side effect of Google returning more pro mainland Chinese / Chinese propganda sites to non-Chinese users.
In the United States shareholder value is legally paramount over any other concern. Corporate officers can be liable for monetary losses if the corporation willfully does something that does not maximize shareholder value.