I am a musician. I don't know exactly how well I and the band I'm in will do, but we'll find out. We'll all (I and the band of which I'm a member) be damned before we'll sell our soul to the labels for peanuts. Here's a link to some info about how the labels are dealing with artists re: online music D/L sales. http://www.recordingartistscoalition.com/napster.h tml
"Their funding is controlled by Congress, and their hiring pool is controlled by The Market. So this will continue until Congress changes the rules or gives them the billions of $$ that the job requires."
As I posted earlier in the thread, there has to be lobbyists that are paying off..erm, pressuring congresscritters to underfund the USPTO to keep the "get obvious/duplicate/stupid patent, wait till others develop, then sue" buisiness model alive and growing. Is there any way to "follow the money" in this case, and put pressure on both the lobbying entity and the congresscritter? Sometimes a little daylight (publicity) can really burn these unholy alliances.
"Clearly the USPTO cares little to not-at-all as to the actual content of a patent request, as long as what it describes hasn't been patented already."
Umm, I think there has been at least one example of duplicate, or practically duplicate patents already posted. It's too damned late, and I'm too damned tired to look, but IIRC there have been examples aplenty in past patent-related threads. I don't fault you, though..I was amazed that the USPTO wouldn't even bother to check for duplicates, at a minimum. Of course, the lobbyists are probably hauling the money to congress in dumptrucks, to make sure the USPTO is massively underfunded to create just such a litigation friendly cluster-fsck.
Oh, MAN!! *wipes eyes, catches breath*..if/. has a hall of fame for funniest posts, you've definitely got my vote..that HAS to be in at least the top 10. I'd get a patent on that pronto, before M$ does..or maybe you should hide..before M$ legal sues you for releasing their trade secrets.;)
hmm..I wonder..after M$ releases Longhorn/Trusted Computing/NGSCB, will they be able to convince a judge that linux is a circumvention device (and illegal under the DMCA) then? Maybe not right away, but maybe after TC/NGSCB has penetrated the market sufficiently? It doesn't sound very plausible, until you think about some of the stupid decisions that judges seem to be handing out more and more as time goes on. Makes me think that maybe the tinfoil hat guys burying hardware and software in their back yards might not need medication after all. Anyone got a shovel?
"Everyday the internet is becoming more of a corperate-controlled broadcast medium."
Commenting on that statement alone, absolutely correct. Emphasis on the one-way direction of content, from corporate distributors to passive consumers. I think "..it must design out the minority factors that inhabit cyberspace.." is *one* of the purposes and goals of such things as Trusted Computing/NGSCB, which is a damned scary thing in itself.
Perhaps the US might be more amenable to following the motions/rulings/agreements from the UN if the UN didn't tend to, say, put the worst violators of human rights in charge of the UN commitee on human rights (which then promptly bashed the US as a major human rights violator, which, coming from said countries, is laughable). The UN is not inherently right about everything. The UN has been used too many times by leaders of totalitarian regimes, and other countries that wish the US ill, to attack the US, cripple its' defense, trade, and industrial base. The Kyoto accord basically punishes the US for having a robust industrial base. The International Criminal Court would effectively neuter/replace the US justice system, and place its' citizens at jeopardy for whatever some country somewhere dreams up. Unless the political motives to bring down the US can be removed from such things, I don't see why the US should agree to having its' own throat cut.
"The fact is, if the US government attempted to outlaw Islam because the majority wanted it, the constitution wouldn't allow it."
You are correct, however, the supreme court *could* interpret the constitution differently. That has been a major bone of contention in the US..the appointment of justices to the supreme court, which affects *how* the constitution is interpreted. Also, if enough people *did* want a change in the constitution, it *can* be amended.
I read somewhere that as population increases in density, individual rights suffer to maintain order. I think the PA, along with other various trends in loss of personal freedoms and individual liberties and increasing world turmoil may be at least partly a function of the increases in world population densities. Up till relatively recently in history, there has always been unexplored/unsettled lands for citizens who had "had enough" of their gov/empire/whatever to go to, and be free of _any_ power but their own. In the past, citizens could just vote with their feet. Not these days. I just hope that the civilization here can last long enough without imploding until space travel becomes viable as a way to escape overbearing/overwhelming gov control. Seems to be a very slim hope, at the moment.
Hehehe..I was wondering how long it would take for someone to notice that:-P Congrats! And, no, I'm not anal enough to run my posts through a speel chek.:-D
" Do you really type all of your slashdot comments in via a word processor, or type them into a WP and run a spell check before every post? If so, I admire your dedication to the integrity of proper language..."
Never said I did..just replying to the comment that open source word processors have no dictionary or spell checking, combined with the posters' atrocious spelling. The irony was just too much to resist:-P
"..(AND I COMPETATNTLY RUN SOLARIS SERVERS SO DONT TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT LINUX BEING A PANACEA (dictionaries please boys, oh sorry your word processor doesnt have one),.."
I hope you meant "competantly", or whoever your running those servers for is in deep shit. My word processor has both a dictionary and a thesaurus, as well as spell checking, but apparently yours doesn't. Nobody is claiming linux is a panacea. But, as far as security/exploits/virii/worms vulnerability goes, windows is much more vulnerable, as your own statement that your work uses Solaris servers shows. M$ has been spreading FUD about *nix, and linux in particular, precisely *because* buisinesses are finding that, indeed, OSS/FS *does* provide a better/cheaper solution. You might have better luck being taken seriously (even as an AC) if you used more facts in your arguments, instead of trollish/childish name calling. Have a nice day:-)
" I guess virus scanners suddenly don't do much for dealing with email worms and the like."
Oh, yeah..a M$ AV scanner. I'm reassured. With M$s' track record on bug fixes, I'm sure the virus definitions will be updated in a timely fashion. That's a much better solution than having the mail client not be able to launch executables or VBS (by default, IIRC), along with all the other glaring security issues that allow virii/worms to run and propagate easily on a windows O.S. I prefer a system in which a virus scanner is considered to be almost needless paranoia, for a home desktop, but that's just me, I guess.
"..You bitch every single fucking day that there's some security exploit, and when Microsoft addresses that, suddenly you're crying anti-trust."
I wasn't aware they that they fixed all the holes in their code, I thought they only said they added a firewall. Please point me to where the article said anything about addressing *that*, which is where the security issues arise. My eyes aren't so good anymore so, I must have missed it. Thanks.
Slashdot Mirror
I am a musician. I don't know exactly how well I and the band I'm in will do, but we'll find out. We'll all (I and the band of which I'm a member) be damned before we'll sell our soul to the labels for peanuts. Here's a link to some info about how the labels are dealing with artists re: online music D/L sales. http://www.recordingartistscoalition.com/napster.h tml
"Their funding is controlled by Congress, and their hiring pool is controlled by The Market. So this will continue until Congress changes the rules or gives them the billions of $$ that the job requires."
As I posted earlier in the thread, there has to be lobbyists that are paying off..erm, pressuring congresscritters to underfund the USPTO to keep the "get obvious/duplicate/stupid patent, wait till others develop, then sue" buisiness model alive and growing. Is there any way to "follow the money" in this case, and put pressure on both the lobbying entity and the congresscritter? Sometimes a little daylight (publicity) can really burn these unholy alliances.
They did. To the patent lawyers. I'll be here all week..try the veal.
"Clearly the USPTO cares little to not-at-all as to the actual content of a patent request, as long as what it describes hasn't been patented already."
Umm, I think there has been at least one example of duplicate, or practically duplicate patents already posted. It's too damned late, and I'm too damned tired to look, but IIRC there have been examples aplenty in past patent-related threads. I don't fault you, though..I was amazed that the USPTO wouldn't even bother to check for duplicates, at a minimum. Of course, the lobbyists are probably hauling the money to congress in dumptrucks, to make sure the USPTO is massively underfunded to create just such a litigation friendly cluster-fsck.
Oh, MAN!! *wipes eyes, catches breath* ..if /. has a hall of fame for funniest posts, you've definitely got my vote..that HAS to be in at least the top 10. I'd get a patent on that pronto, before M$ does..or maybe you should hide..before M$ legal sues you for releasing their trade secrets. ;)
hmm..I wonder..after M$ releases Longhorn/Trusted Computing/NGSCB, will they be able to convince a judge that linux is a circumvention device (and illegal under the DMCA) then? Maybe not right away, but maybe after TC/NGSCB has penetrated the market sufficiently? It doesn't sound very plausible, until you think about some of the stupid decisions that judges seem to be handing out more and more as time goes on. Makes me think that maybe the tinfoil hat guys burying hardware and software in their back yards might not need medication after all. Anyone got a shovel?
"Everyday the internet is becoming more of a corperate-controlled broadcast medium."
Commenting on that statement alone, absolutely correct. Emphasis on the one-way direction of content, from corporate distributors to passive consumers. I think "..it must design out the minority factors that inhabit cyberspace.." is *one* of the purposes and goals of such things as Trusted Computing/NGSCB, which is a damned scary thing in itself.
Perhaps the US might be more amenable to following the motions/rulings/agreements from the UN if the UN didn't tend to, say, put the worst violators of human rights in charge of the UN commitee on human rights (which then promptly bashed the US as a major human rights violator, which, coming from said countries, is laughable). The UN is not inherently right about everything. The UN has been used too many times by leaders of totalitarian regimes, and other countries that wish the US ill, to attack the US, cripple its' defense, trade, and industrial base. The Kyoto accord basically punishes the US for having a robust industrial base. The International Criminal Court would effectively neuter/replace the US justice system, and place its' citizens at jeopardy for whatever some country somewhere dreams up. Unless the political motives to bring down the US can be removed from such things, I don't see why the US should agree to having its' own throat cut.
"The fact is, if the US government attempted to outlaw Islam because the majority wanted it, the constitution wouldn't allow it."
You are correct, however, the supreme court *could* interpret the constitution differently. That has been a major bone of contention in the US..the appointment of justices to the supreme court, which affects *how* the constitution is interpreted. Also, if enough people *did* want a change in the constitution, it *can* be amended.
I read somewhere that as population increases in density, individual rights suffer to maintain order. I think the PA, along with other various trends in loss of personal freedoms and individual liberties and increasing world turmoil may be at least partly a function of the increases in world population densities. Up till relatively recently in history, there has always been unexplored/unsettled lands for citizens who had "had enough" of their gov/empire/whatever to go to, and be free of _any_ power but their own. In the past, citizens could just vote with their feet. Not these days. I just hope that the civilization here can last long enough without imploding until space travel becomes viable as a way to escape
overbearing/overwhelming gov control. Seems to be a very slim hope, at the moment.
Hehehe..I was wondering how long it would take for someone to notice that :-P Congrats! And, no, I'm not anal enough to run my posts through a speel chek. :-D
" Do you really type all of your slashdot comments in via a word processor, or type them into a WP and run a spell check before every post? If so, I admire your dedication to the integrity of proper language..."
:-P
Never said I did..just replying to the comment that open source word processors have no dictionary or spell checking, combined with the posters' atrocious spelling. The irony was just too much to resist
Strat
"..(AND I COMPETATNTLY RUN SOLARIS SERVERS SO DONT TELL ME ANYTHING ABOUT LINUX BEING A PANACEA (dictionaries please boys, oh sorry your word processor doesnt have one),.."
:-)
I hope you meant "competantly", or whoever your running those servers for is in deep shit. My word processor has both a dictionary and a thesaurus, as well as spell checking, but apparently yours doesn't. Nobody is claiming linux is a panacea. But, as far as security/exploits/virii/worms vulnerability goes, windows is much more vulnerable, as your own statement that your work uses Solaris servers shows. M$ has been spreading FUD about *nix, and linux in particular, precisely *because* buisinesses are finding that, indeed, OSS/FS *does* provide a better/cheaper solution. You might have better luck being taken seriously (even as an AC) if you used more facts in your arguments, instead of trollish/childish name calling. Have a nice day
Strat
" I guess virus scanners suddenly don't do much for dealing with email worms and the like."
Oh, yeah..a M$ AV scanner. I'm reassured. With M$s' track record on bug fixes, I'm sure the virus definitions will be updated in a timely fashion.
That's a much better solution than having the mail client not be able to launch executables or VBS (by default, IIRC), along with all the other glaring security issues that allow virii/worms to run and propagate easily on a windows O.S. I prefer a system in which a virus scanner is considered to be almost needless paranoia, for a home desktop, but that's just me, I guess.
"..You bitch every single fucking day that there's some security exploit, and when Microsoft addresses that, suddenly you're crying anti-trust."
I wasn't aware they that they fixed all the holes in their code, I thought they only said they added a firewall. Please point me to where the article said anything about addressing *that*, which is where the security issues arise. My eyes aren't so good anymore so, I must have missed it. Thanks.