Re:Big Brother and the iTunes Company
on
iTunes is Malware?
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· Score: 0, Offtopic
Sorry, I misread the article. It's about the music you're currently listening to. Mod me down:(
Re:Big Brother and the iTunes Company
on
iTunes is Malware?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I don't know about all stores online, but the e-commerce site I run keeps a database of purchases for both my own book-keeping and customer support needs (like, track a shippment, order history.) The data is already there, I don't understand how it becomes spyware when the data is mined to look for similar music that might match what you already have purchased through the store.
bravo.
it's not the ipod directly, but the level of encoding of the audio file, the headphones you listen on and even your own ability to hear the entire spectrum from 20 - 20k hertz.
It's funny that the same human brain that created this breakthrough can't match its capacity, but it is still smart enough to create a device that can.
This is the entire human/machine paradox wrapped up into one sentence. We posess the innovative genius to eventually create machines which are for all intents and purposes, smarter than we are. Even though these machines are smarter, will they ever match human ingenuity? Are we as a race ready to accept man-made devices that become smarter than the man who created them?
Re:PatentHawk charges $125/hour
on
The Patent Epidemic
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· Score: 2, Interesting
This is akin to "New study shows Microsoft Windows to be faster, more secure than Linux" by the independent outfit Tfosorcim Corp.
and since when does the UN = France anyway? How stupid are you?
Um, you mean the same France that is one of only 5 countries that has veto power in the UN Security Council? Yeah, how DO I equate them?
something to do with the fact that they don't suffer jack-asses (read: you) as lightly as they do here in the States. Dumb-ass
Man, do you like, have a small penis or something? This kind of attack is warranted in an intellectual debate?
The US wouldn't exist if France hadn't bankrupted itself funding our revolution against Britain.
* cough * WWII - repaid.
Open your eyes, read books, talk to people and, above all else, get your head out of your ass.
You realize that talking like this doesn't make you sound smarter or more worthy of having your viewpoint accepted. Rather, it makes you sound uninformed, because those that don't have truth on their side often try to shove their viewpoint down the throats of others by talking the loudest, making the most noise, and being the most controversial. Call me names all you like, if that makes you feel like more of a man, but it's really not very becoming.
I have only one wish, and that's that the Java hyper-enthusiasts would depart from my university's staff. The amount of Java classes here is ridiculous.
Yeah, my CS classes started out with Java. I don't want to start a huge debate, but I think it's a decent learning language, especially good for 100 level courses. Of course, you should move on past that... We ended up having a good mix of five or six languages while dabling in a couple others, but starting with Java was a good way to introduce the concepts of OOPLs without the added difficulty C++ brings with it.
It is the Feds versus the States and the Feds versus the People
How true. Everything from the abuse of interstate commerce laws to abuse of executive privledge and secret laws are all the fed's grab for more power. There is no true state power since SCOTUS decided that fed law can trump state law.
The way I see it, Sony breached a contract. This is easily resolved in court, and anyone who had their contract breached by Sony should go ahead and file an independent lawsuit (not a class action lawsuit). You can hire a local attorney and move forward.
Yeah, but as is the subject of about half of the postings on Slashdot, those with money can handle suits, those without cannot. Here the state is saying that they have the size to actually take on Sony and stand up for blanket violations against the general populous of the state. Me and my $20/hour attorney (because I can't afford more, and probably barely that) will never have the ability to take on the likes of Sony, no matter what wrongdoing they've wrong-done.
They're going to fight Sony with millions of taxpayer dollars, and if they win, the taxpayers won't see a cent, but a bunch of state lawyers and Sony lawyers will be wealthier
You're right about that one. Makes me nuts. "We're suing on behalf of the people, but we're keeping the winnings." Although on the other hand, if they spend millions to sue and gain millions, does it not both punish Sony but also replace int the coffers the original tax dollars spent? So in essence, the people do see the money, because it helps replace the money that could have been otherwise spent on improvement projects. I dunno, I'm conflicted.
FYI, for other anarchocapitalists out there, my solution is true moderated arbitration mechanisms in a free market, not the law or the courts.
And communism looks great on paper.
Let us return to the days when the law was simple to read, and simple to enforce.
Idealism is sweet. But politicians exist to create laws - it's how they prove that they're actually doing something in Congress (or wherever they are.) So as long as there are politicians, and as long as there are special interests and lobbying, there will be more laws.
The way you portray this is as if it's a human rights violation -- they're regulating commercial speech, not torturing people...
Well, while I am against the regulation of speech in any setting, I am simply trying to state that the actions of France often leave a bad taste in the mouths of Americans. I never said the reverse wasn't also true, which I'm sure it is. However, somehow despite these things, we seem to have a better relationship with countries like Germany and Italy despite the huge gaping differences between the countries. I was just trying to identify why it is that people have such a problem with France - including myself.
"Hi, officer. I'm Bob Smith" is providing identification. There is NO requirement to produce any sort of ID card.
While this is certainly ideal, I wonder if again the Supreme Court would uphold that right. Their track record hasn't really been great, and they haven't been tested against this issue yet...
It's true that most of my time in France was spent in Paris (not all, but most.) And I heartily agree that not all people are jerks, and that the Parisians are certainly more densly populated with jerks than other parts of the country (just as say, NYC and LA are probably more jerk-dense than other parts of the US.)
I think you'll find that people everywhere are less than pleasant when you start acting as though you have some natural advantage purely by dint of being american. Now I realise I'm making an assumption here, but based on your previous diatribes, I'd feel fairly confident putting money on it.
Really? That's funny... because I wasn't made to feel that way in Mexico, Canada, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Ireland, Chile... Tell me, have you travled so much as to be able to render these valid opinions? Have you spent time in the country you are so heartily defending? Or if you live there, have you spent time in the US or the other countries I've mentioned? Because a whole lot of them are not all for the Iraq war, but still didn't treat me like dog dung for simply being American.
I think it's pretty damn adequate. Tell me how much they net in EU, and then I'll believe you.
Perhaps more interestingly would be comparing the $870+M against what they currently pay in retainers to their team of lawyers to try to fight stuff like this. It may not be that high, but I'm willing to bet it dips into the hundreds of millions.
May I suggest "The Little Pengiun" Shiraz out of Australia? Self promotion warning: I wrote a review of it here. But the point (so you don't have to click) is that it's hands down my favorite red wine. Go Australia!
And how did they do that, denouncing the illegal invasion of Iraq, which lead to the current ongoing train wreck in said country?
Among other things, how about France's illegaltradeofoil with Iraq against the UN sanctions and Oil for Food programs? Or perhaps their ongoing (since 1975) campaign to outlaw the use of English words in french advertising and government and scientific papers, like the word "email" because it's too English?
France and the french (yeah, I've been there several times on business) are a bunch of snobs who regularly thumb their noses at America, so screw 'em. There are just a few examples of how France is responsible for their own reputation over here.
Basically, the whole thing is over potential. The proponents of infant stem cells say that those stem cells may work better and the adult stem cell people are finding ways to use stem cell therapy without the requiring the sacrifice of another human life for a potential benefit.
Mod up my friend SeanDuggan. The ill-informed (*cough* Slashdot) crowd is very willing to always jump on the latest scientific bandwagon as long as it somehow conflicts with the views of anyone who dares say "life" in regards to abortion, stem cell research, etc.
Fact is, there is a theory that MAYBE those stem cells are better, but in reality they're just proving to be easier to harvest right now. Extracting stem cells from embryos is something we can do, and extracting stem cells from adults is just something we're coming into being able to do. Do we know that embrionic stem cells will work better? No, it's a theory.
I see nothing wrong with avoiding the controversy by better learning to harvest adult stem cells. Somewhere up the post chain here someone was modded funny for suggesting that this is a win-win, but it is, and what is wrong with that?
It's all in the math. MS profits are around $2B/quarter on $9.xB in revenue (reference). That's $8B in profit on top of a war chest of what is it now - $50B? So instead of $8B/year in profits, it's $7.8B. Although, profits are up year over year despite sluggish sales growth, so assume a moderate $.5B profit rise next year, which basically wipes out this fine.
Add to that the fact that MS will either appeal/have overturned/comply and wipe out the fine anyway... Pooooooor Microsoft.
I mean they spent a lot of cash on brainwashing you to dislike France because they wouldn't join your half cocked crusade
<francebashing>The US doesn't spend any money on making us dislike France. France has got making us dislike them pretty much covered.
Wanna know why France really legalized file sharing? Because the US didn't.</francebashing>
Intelligent Design is for those who are intelligent enough to understand science, but cannot conceive... cannot accept... the possibility that this life is all there is. They NEED there to be an afterlife.. somewhere to go when they die.. because the alternative - that our consciousness ceases to exist when we die - is too much for them to handle....... If you're an Intelligent Design proponent... well, you're halfway on your way to accepting reality.
Perhaps it is you who is worthy of pity. People like you, and excuse the personal attack, but people like you show stunned amazement at how self-righteous creationists and religious groups are, yet assume with such confidence that there is in fact no higher power or life beyond death that you are willing to become that very self-righteousness incarnate.
According to your definition, I am an IDer. I believe mostly in evolution, although the arguments on both sides cause me to realize it still requires more research as more is discovered, learned, realized, or corrected every day, but I also believe in a God and an afterlife. This, my friend, does not make me "half way there," rather I believe it makes me much more enlightened than you and your ilk.
Continue, if you like, to reject the possibility of anything beyond what you can detect with your senses or read in a science journal. But even that is not always fact, as much as you may like it to be. Most of what we know about science - and it's just brushing the surface - is the BEST that we know at the time. Look at the past Slashdot postings regarding theories rejecting the existance of dark matter, different theories about the infinite (or not) nature of space, Big Bang vs. Big Expansion...
If you are willing to become an individual that believes everything he reads, it matters not what you read that you believe. You are the same as those that accept a religion and an afterlife. You accept mathematical theories of Big Bang, others accept the theory of the Bible as either a completely or partially historical document.
All this means is, come off of your pedestal. The fact is, we know very little, and in the time we have left, we'll all know very little more. Accept that you are as lost in this world as everyone else, and stop acting like because you read that evolution is so, that you are automatically eligible for MENSA.
Please backup your claim that a content producer will HAVE to license their content else it will break laws.
You've misread my statement. It's not the content producer, it's the hardware manufacturer that will have to obey the DRM that exists in the content - thus denying the ability to record a show on a DVR, or denying copy ability, or timeshift beyond 90 minutes, or whatever the DRM says. So the content providers KNOW that the hardware sold in the US will abide by their rules, thus killing fair use. That's what I meant.
Well fuck, I know I'll be modded to oblivion for this, but goddammit does this thinking kill me. Something like 80-90% of the population of the United States (and probably similarly around the world) believe in a creator or a higher power. Even if the believe is that all this creator did was to touch off evolution, there is still a creator (so the belief goes.)
The kind of thinking that the Slashdot crowd proports, basically categorizing everyone who believes in a creator as mentally retarded is incredibly base. This thinking assumes that every single biologist on the planet is an atheist, and I've gotta tell you that's just not true.
Stop putting down people who belive in God, whomever he/she is. This does not by itself make a person an idiot worthy of your pitty.
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry, I misread the article. It's about the music you're currently listening to. Mod me down :(
I don't know about all stores online, but the e-commerce site I run keeps a database of purchases for both my own book-keeping and customer support needs (like, track a shippment, order history.) The data is already there, I don't understand how it becomes spyware when the data is mined to look for similar music that might match what you already have purchased through the store.
Meow.
bravo. it's not the ipod directly, but the level of encoding of the audio file, the headphones you listen on and even your own ability to hear the entire spectrum from 20 - 20k hertz.
This is the entire human/machine paradox wrapped up into one sentence. We posess the innovative genius to eventually create machines which are for all intents and purposes, smarter than we are. Even though these machines are smarter, will they ever match human ingenuity? Are we as a race ready to accept man-made devices that become smarter than the man who created them?
This is akin to "New study shows Microsoft Windows to be faster, more secure than Linux" by the independent outfit Tfosorcim Corp.
Who talks like this?
and since when does the UN = France anyway? How stupid are you?Um, you mean the same France that is one of only 5 countries that has veto power in the UN Security Council? Yeah, how DO I equate them?
something to do with the fact that they don't suffer jack-asses (read: you) as lightly as they do here in the States. Dumb-assMan, do you like, have a small penis or something? This kind of attack is warranted in an intellectual debate?
The US wouldn't exist if France hadn't bankrupted itself funding our revolution against Britain.* cough * WWII - repaid.
Open your eyes, read books, talk to people and, above all else, get your head out of your ass.You realize that talking like this doesn't make you sound smarter or more worthy of having your viewpoint accepted. Rather, it makes you sound uninformed, because those that don't have truth on their side often try to shove their viewpoint down the throats of others by talking the loudest, making the most noise, and being the most controversial. Call me names all you like, if that makes you feel like more of a man, but it's really not very becoming.
Yeah, my CS classes started out with Java. I don't want to start a huge debate, but I think it's a decent learning language, especially good for 100 level courses. Of course, you should move on past that... We ended up having a good mix of five or six languages while dabling in a couple others, but starting with Java was a good way to introduce the concepts of OOPLs without the added difficulty C++ brings with it.
How true. Everything from the abuse of interstate commerce laws to abuse of executive privledge and secret laws are all the fed's grab for more power. There is no true state power since SCOTUS decided that fed law can trump state law.
Yeah, but as is the subject of about half of the postings on Slashdot, those with money can handle suits, those without cannot. Here the state is saying that they have the size to actually take on Sony and stand up for blanket violations against the general populous of the state. Me and my $20/hour attorney (because I can't afford more, and probably barely that) will never have the ability to take on the likes of Sony, no matter what wrongdoing they've wrong-done.
They're going to fight Sony with millions of taxpayer dollars, and if they win, the taxpayers won't see a cent, but a bunch of state lawyers and Sony lawyers will be wealthierYou're right about that one. Makes me nuts. "We're suing on behalf of the people, but we're keeping the winnings." Although on the other hand, if they spend millions to sue and gain millions, does it not both punish Sony but also replace int the coffers the original tax dollars spent? So in essence, the people do see the money, because it helps replace the money that could have been otherwise spent on improvement projects. I dunno, I'm conflicted.
FYI, for other anarchocapitalists out there, my solution is true moderated arbitration mechanisms in a free market, not the law or the courts.And communism looks great on paper.
Let us return to the days when the law was simple to read, and simple to enforce.Idealism is sweet. But politicians exist to create laws - it's how they prove that they're actually doing something in Congress (or wherever they are.) So as long as there are politicians, and as long as there are special interests and lobbying, there will be more laws.
Well, while I am against the regulation of speech in any setting, I am simply trying to state that the actions of France often leave a bad taste in the mouths of Americans. I never said the reverse wasn't also true, which I'm sure it is. However, somehow despite these things, we seem to have a better relationship with countries like Germany and Italy despite the huge gaping differences between the countries. I was just trying to identify why it is that people have such a problem with France - including myself.
While this is certainly ideal, I wonder if again the Supreme Court would uphold that right. Their track record hasn't really been great, and they haven't been tested against this issue yet...
It's true that most of my time in France was spent in Paris (not all, but most.) And I heartily agree that not all people are jerks, and that the Parisians are certainly more densly populated with jerks than other parts of the country (just as say, NYC and LA are probably more jerk-dense than other parts of the US.)
Really? That's funny... because I wasn't made to feel that way in Mexico, Canada, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Ireland, Chile... Tell me, have you travled so much as to be able to render these valid opinions? Have you spent time in the country you are so heartily defending? Or if you live there, have you spent time in the US or the other countries I've mentioned? Because a whole lot of them are not all for the Iraq war, but still didn't treat me like dog dung for simply being American.
Perhaps more interestingly would be comparing the $870+M against what they currently pay in retainers to their team of lawyers to try to fight stuff like this. It may not be that high, but I'm willing to bet it dips into the hundreds of millions.
May I suggest "The Little Pengiun" Shiraz out of Australia? Self promotion warning: I wrote a review of it here. But the point (so you don't have to click) is that it's hands down my favorite red wine. Go Australia!
Among other things, how about France's illegal trade of oil with Iraq against the UN sanctions and Oil for Food programs? Or perhaps their ongoing (since 1975) campaign to outlaw the use of English words in french advertising and government and scientific papers, like the word "email" because it's too English?
France and the french (yeah, I've been there several times on business) are a bunch of snobs who regularly thumb their noses at America, so screw 'em. There are just a few examples of how France is responsible for their own reputation over here.
Man, I wish it worked that way. But the US Supreme Court apparently thinks differently.
Mod up my friend SeanDuggan. The ill-informed (*cough* Slashdot) crowd is very willing to always jump on the latest scientific bandwagon as long as it somehow conflicts with the views of anyone who dares say "life" in regards to abortion, stem cell research, etc.
Fact is, there is a theory that MAYBE those stem cells are better, but in reality they're just proving to be easier to harvest right now. Extracting stem cells from embryos is something we can do, and extracting stem cells from adults is just something we're coming into being able to do. Do we know that embrionic stem cells will work better? No, it's a theory.
I see nothing wrong with avoiding the controversy by better learning to harvest adult stem cells. Somewhere up the post chain here someone was modded funny for suggesting that this is a win-win, but it is, and what is wrong with that?
It's all in the math. MS profits are around $2B/quarter on $9.xB in revenue (reference). That's $8B in profit on top of a war chest of what is it now - $50B? So instead of $8B/year in profits, it's $7.8B. Although, profits are up year over year despite sluggish sales growth, so assume a moderate $.5B profit rise next year, which basically wipes out this fine.
Add to that the fact that MS will either appeal/have overturned/comply and wipe out the fine anyway... Pooooooor Microsoft.
<francebashing>The US doesn't spend any money on making us dislike France. France has got making us dislike them pretty much covered. Wanna know why France really legalized file sharing? Because the US didn't.</francebashing>
Perhaps it is you who is worthy of pity. People like you, and excuse the personal attack, but people like you show stunned amazement at how self-righteous creationists and religious groups are, yet assume with such confidence that there is in fact no higher power or life beyond death that you are willing to become that very self-righteousness incarnate.
According to your definition, I am an IDer. I believe mostly in evolution, although the arguments on both sides cause me to realize it still requires more research as more is discovered, learned, realized, or corrected every day, but I also believe in a God and an afterlife. This, my friend, does not make me "half way there," rather I believe it makes me much more enlightened than you and your ilk.
Continue, if you like, to reject the possibility of anything beyond what you can detect with your senses or read in a science journal. But even that is not always fact, as much as you may like it to be. Most of what we know about science - and it's just brushing the surface - is the BEST that we know at the time. Look at the past Slashdot postings regarding theories rejecting the existance of dark matter, different theories about the infinite (or not) nature of space, Big Bang vs. Big Expansion...
If you are willing to become an individual that believes everything he reads, it matters not what you read that you believe. You are the same as those that accept a religion and an afterlife. You accept mathematical theories of Big Bang, others accept the theory of the Bible as either a completely or partially historical document.
All this means is, come off of your pedestal. The fact is, we know very little, and in the time we have left, we'll all know very little more. Accept that you are as lost in this world as everyone else, and stop acting like because you read that evolution is so, that you are automatically eligible for MENSA.
You've misread my statement. It's not the content producer, it's the hardware manufacturer that will have to obey the DRM that exists in the content - thus denying the ability to record a show on a DVR, or denying copy ability, or timeshift beyond 90 minutes, or whatever the DRM says. So the content providers KNOW that the hardware sold in the US will abide by their rules, thus killing fair use. That's what I meant.
Well fuck, I know I'll be modded to oblivion for this, but goddammit does this thinking kill me. Something like 80-90% of the population of the United States (and probably similarly around the world) believe in a creator or a higher power. Even if the believe is that all this creator did was to touch off evolution, there is still a creator (so the belief goes.)
The kind of thinking that the Slashdot crowd proports, basically categorizing everyone who believes in a creator as mentally retarded is incredibly base. This thinking assumes that every single biologist on the planet is an atheist, and I've gotta tell you that's just not true.
Stop putting down people who belive in God, whomever he/she is. This does not by itself make a person an idiot worthy of your pitty.
Or a better solution - how about the FCC itself fades into history?