To a certain extent, you could do it by "reversing the plugs" -- for example, have the bicep-replacement recieve the signals intended for the tricep, and vice-versa. Of course, relaxing both muscles would cause a double pull instead of a double relax, so it'll be a lot more sensible (at least during early stages) to use it in artificial limb replacements instead of for augementation of existing limbs.
As a heart replacement, logically one would also embed a pacemaker-like device either to control or convert singnals so it would pump correctly... (just don't let Microsoft install Universal Plug & Play on the thing...)
Er, nuclear missiles don't exist? Then what were all those nuclear disarmament advocates who were camped out across the street from the White House all those years so worked up about?
In fact, the Library of Congress suggests that bypassing protection to copy is protected under the DCMA, but bypassing protection to view is illegal: ----------------------------- The Library of Congress interpretation of the DCMA From http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/legislation/dmca.pd f Emphasis changed for this audience.
Section 1201 divides technological measures into two categories: measures that prevent unauthorized access to a copyrighted work and measures that prevent unauthorized copying of a copyrighted work. Making or selling devices or services that are used to circumvent either category of technological measure is prohibited in certain circumstances, described below. As to the act of circumvention itself, the provision prohibits circumvention in the first category of technological measures, but not the second.
This distinction was employed to assure that the public will have the continued ability to make fair use of copyrighted works. Since copying of a work may be a fair use under appropriate circumstances, section 1201 does not prohibit the act of circumvention of a technological measure that prevents copying. By contrast, since the fair use doctrine is not a defense to the act of gaining unauthorized acess to a work, the act of circumventing of a technological measure to gain access is prohibited. -----------------------------
Later on, seven exceptions to the circumvent-to-view are mentioned -- the right of the Library of Congress to make exceptions through rule-making; for library, archive, and educational nonprofits to decide if they want to buy the work; reverse engineering of computer programs for compatibility purposes; encryption research; protection of minors; personal privacy; and secruity testing.
Frankly, if my interpretation of the LoC's interpretation of the DMCA is correct, our best argument is that css-auth/DeCSS has as its primary purpose the creation of backup copies, not the playing of DVDs.
I'm not opposed to the government of the PRC because it is communist, but because it has an authoritarian government. Just like Taiwan in the 1950's-1980's, but without the virtue of having a bigger, more restictive rival to make it look good by comparison.
Oh, well. Twenty more years of increasing capitalism and a peaceful transition to political liberty is what China needs. I hope it gets it.
I've seen the claim that children are executed in the U.S. claim a lot. I've responded by asking for a specific example. I have yet to have someone give me a specific example. I have accordingly dismissed the claim.
Can you give me a specific example of a child executed in the United States in the last thirty years?
China-phobia? Phobias by definition are irrational. But distaste for a government that runs over its own citizens with tanks seems to me to be a reasonable distaste. And being concerned about the intentions a nation armed with nuclear weapons able to hit the U.S. seems to me to be a reasonable concern.
China wants to be seen as a major world power. The only other choice to achieve that goal is to start a massive military buildup, which would be more expensive and provoke adverse reactions in neighbors.
Nuclear weapons? Britain, France, India, Israel, South Africa, and Pakistan have all done it. Big public works? Even Egypt has the Aswan Dam. Winning lots of sports events? Even a splinter country under foreign occupation like East Germany did that.
Manned spaceflight, however, is an exclusive, prestigious club. The only other nations to achieve it were superpowers. It's the ultimate prestige project.
Remember, in the recent decade, it's not always the best product that wins, just the first.
Really? First wins?
The IBM PC beat the Apple II and the TRS-80. Windows beat Macintosh. 1-2-3 beat VisiCalc. Excel beat 1-2-3. Wordperfect beat WordStar. Word beat Wordperfect. Nestcape beat Mosaic. IE beat Netscape.
Being first is ultimately meaningless. (Which is the flaw in the Amazon.com buisness plan. They aren't going to be the Wal-Mart of the Web -- they're going to be the the K-Mart of the Web).
A related thought - you see people taking dogs for walks - have you ever seen a cat be taken for a walk?
Yep. The way to do it is to stand still with the cat on the leash until it walks a few steps the direction you want to go. Then stop and wait again. And again. And repeat. And occasionally prod the cat with your foot when it lays down in protest. Then give up four hours later and carry the cat home.
Unfortunately, Norway is not a proper member of the EU, we're only barely a member of the European common market, so we have no say in how the new directive will be worded, but will just have to incorporate the new directive into Norwegian law.
Really? The (likely distorted) view I was given by various U.S., Canadian, and U.K. media was that Norway, by not being a member of the EU, was not bound to conform to EU decisions. That is, you got free trade through EFTA and the EFTA-EU agreement, but did not have to listen to Brussels.
Yes, Amazon has lower overhead overall then B&N. Barnes & Noble has the advantage that it actually turns a profit on the brick-and-mortar operations, which essentially makes the BN.com warehousing free and serves as "deep pockets" for on-line discount wars.
And the focus on books was just to serve as an example of what can happen in the music, DVD & video, electronics & software, toys & video games, and home improvement areas -- all units which Amazon says are further from making a profit than the books division.
I just don't think being first is going to cut it in the long term. As Amazon starts hurting brick-and-mortar retailers, they're going to respond with their own Web sites, with their own established brand names. And those web sites will be competeing with prices subsidized by their brick-and-mortar revenue streams, market research already being done by their brick-and-mortar stores, and the addition of web addresses to the ads they're already buying.
No, they won't like canniballizing their own sales -- but they'll prefer it to letting Amazon eat their lunch.
Amazon can turn a profit any time they want... all they have to do is turn off the marketing machine and stop spending so much on infrastructure.
Nope. As Forbes points out, Amazon's "marketing" costs include packing and shipping books and CDs, and the costs of storing things in its warehouses. That means a major part of their so-called "marketing" costs are intrinsic to each sale itself, and cannot be cut.
At the same time, the entry of competitors is going to cut into Amazon's latitude. Amazon originally discounted a larger number of their books than they do now; the result is a number of customers have defected to BN.com, which has a borader selection of still-discounted books. Amazon's book division can't turn a profit if it returns to the old pricing scheme; it also can't turn a profit (in the long run) if BN.com consistently undercuts it on the same products.
Amazon itself admits its current buisness model is unsustainable in the long run. It is simply my analysis that Amazon will not be able to successfully transition to a sustainable model that justifies anywhere near its current valuation.
Actually, companies have always been valued partly on their current earnings, partly on their assets, and partly on their expected future earnings. For example, a company that is expected to earn 10 million next year will be valued at less than one expected to earn 100 million, assets and current earnings being equal.
No, what Amazon did was convince people that a long term buisness plan and a brand name were worth billions of dollars despite massive losses in a rapidly changing sector of the economy.
My prediction: Amazon dies in five years having never turned a profit and having been killed off by smaller, faster, smarter rivals with less debt. The brand name is sold to another retailer by the bankruptcy court, and eventually fades away.
What's truly great is that this actually provoked a serious response.
I mean, running a COBOL-based "business-to-business e-commerce framwork using advanced object-oriented methodogies and optimized for intranets running on the powerful Windows2000 platform" on CP/M 2.1?
All you forgot was to say that your intended hardware platform was a cluster of 12 750 megahertz Z80s linked with fiber-optic cabling, 2 GB MFM hard drives, and 512 MB of iron-core memory.
Embedix Linux -- by Lineo Targets 32-bit x86 and PowerPC systems, requires 8mb RAM and 3mb ROM. Based on Linux 2.2 kernel, includes own GUI.
Mobile Linux -- by Transmeta Not much detail available as to requirements, but seems to be targeted for fairly beefy hardware relative to a PDA.
ELKS (Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset) -- by independent hackers Targets 8088/8086 x86 processors. Requires up to 640k of RAM. Linux-like, but not Linux proper. Doesn't include a GUI (see NanoGUI below).
NanoGUI -- by independent hackers Based on the old "mini-x" released for Minix. Mini-x ran under 8086es, but whether NanoGUI retains that capability is hard to find out (please enlighten me!). If it does, it's the natural choice to add to ELKS for a ultralightweight 16-bit "Linux".
The name "trojan" refers to mythology (since Troy was considered a myth at the time), but I don't recall the details of why that name was picked.
The asteroids at the two points 60 degrees before and after were, just after discovery, named after the Greeks and Trojans named in the Illiad. The prefered shorthand do describe those objects as a group became "trojans", which was later generalized to all objects in similar orbits.
While e-mail is okay, snail mail is better, so spend some money on stamps.
Wrong! To quote them:
1. Written Comments
The Copyright Office will be placing all comments and reply comments that are submitted in electronic form on its Website (http:// lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/1201). Because of this, the Office prefers that comments and reply comments be submitted in electronic form, in one of the following formats: If by electronic mail: Send to ``1201@loc.gov' '' a message containing the name of the person making the submission, his or her title, organization, mailing address, telephone number, telefax number and e-mail address. The message should also identify the document clearly as either a comment or reply comment. The document itself must be sent as a MIME attachment, and must be in a single file in either Adobe Portable Document File (PDF) format (preferred), or in Microsoft Word Version 7.0 or earlier, or in WordPerfect 7 or earlier. If by regular mail or hand delivery: Send, to the appropriate address listed above, two copies, each on a 3.5-inch write-protected diskette, labeled with the name of the person making the submission, his or her title and organization. The document itself must be in a single file in either Adobe Portable Document File (PDF) format (preferred), or in Microsoft Word Version 7.0 or earlier, or in WordPerfect Version 7 or earlier. Anyone who is unable to submit a comment in electronic form should submit an original and fifteen paper copies by hand or by mail to the appropriate address listed above. It may not be feasible for the Office to place these comments on its website. All written comments (in electronic or nonelectronic form) should contain the name of the person making the submission, his or her title, organization, mailing address, telephone number, telefax number and e- mail address.
They intend to post the comments on their web site. To that end, they have said that they PREFER e-mail to hardcopy. To quote:
1. Written Comments
The Copyright Office will be placing all comments and reply comments that are submitted in electronic form on its Website (http:// lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/1201). Because of this, the Office prefers that comments and reply comments be submitted in electronic form, in one of the following formats: If by electronic mail: Send to ``1201@loc.gov' '' a message containing the name of the person making the submission, his or her title, organization, mailing address, telephone number, telefax number and e-mail address. The message should also identify the document clearly as either a comment or reply comment. The document itself must be sent as a MIME attachment, and must be in a single file in either Adobe Portable Document File (PDF) format (preferred), or in Microsoft Word Version 7.0 or earlier, or in WordPerfect 7 or earlier. If by regular mail or hand delivery: Send, to the appropriate address listed above, two copies, each on a 3.5-inch write-protected diskette, labeled with the name of the person making the submission, his or her title and organization. The document itself must be in a single file in either Adobe Portable Document File (PDF) format (preferred), or in Microsoft Word Version 7.0 or earlier, or in WordPerfect Version 7 or earlier. Anyone who is unable to submit a comment in electronic form should submit an original and fifteen paper copies by hand or by mail to the appropriate address listed above. It may not be feasible for the Office to place these comments on its website. All written comments (in electronic or nonelectronic form) should contain the name of the person making the submission, his or her title, organization, mailing address, telephone number, telefax number and e- mail address.
OTOH, there's no binding way of enforcing any of the other "for profit" licenses, either... so theoretically a 14 year old and a CD burner could LEGALLY pirate Microsoft software...
Nope. If a 14-year-old cannot be held to the provisions of the GPL or the MS EULA, he is still subject to the copying restrictions of the Software Copyright Act of 1982, which sets the rules that unlicensed copyrighted software is sold under.
This, BTW, is why the GPL will probably never be challenged by a corporation in court -- defeating the GPL simply means you are bound by the more restrictive rules of software copyright.
And they will require at least three frequency intervals on the radio dial between a low-power station and another station, rather than the two intervals initially suggested.
How much is three intervals? Assuming an FM station broadcasting at 104.3, what does "three intervals" for these stations mean?
My guess is either 104.7 (three.1 intervals of 104.4, 104.5, and 104.6 between 104.3 and 104.7) or 105.1 (three.2 intervals of 104.5, 104.7, and 104.9 between 104.3 and 105.1).
Yahoo! has a name (Yahoo!), a domain name (www.yahoo.com), and an IP number (??.??.??.??).
Similarly, radio stations have a name (The Groove), a call sign (WQRS), and a frequency (105.1).
Now, the reason many U.S. stations are known by their callsigns is because U.S. law requires the regular broadcast of those call signs. Steven E. Ehrbar
Where is the source? Read the GPL -- they don't have to release the source until they distribute the code. Mobile Linux hasn't been released yet, so they can sit on the source for now. Linus has promised it will be available RSN.
Slashdot Mirror
To a certain extent, you could do it by "reversing the plugs" -- for example, have the bicep-replacement recieve the signals intended for the tricep, and vice-versa. Of course, relaxing both muscles would cause a double pull instead of a double relax, so it'll be a lot more sensible (at least during early stages) to use it in artificial limb replacements instead of for augementation of existing limbs.
As a heart replacement, logically one would also embed a pacemaker-like device either to control or convert singnals so it would pump correctly...
(just don't let Microsoft install Universal Plug & Play on the thing...)
Steven E. Ehrbar
to protect us from nonexisitant threats.
Er, nuclear missiles don't exist? Then what were all those nuclear disarmament advocates who were camped out across the street from the White House all those years so worked up about?
Steven E. Ehrbar
In fact, the Library of Congress suggests that bypassing protection to copy is protected under the DCMA, but bypassing protection to view is illegal:d f
-----------------------------
The Library of Congress interpretation of the DCMA
From http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/legislation/dmca.p
Emphasis changed for this audience.
Section 1201 divides technological measures into two categories: measures that prevent unauthorized access to a copyrighted work and measures that prevent unauthorized copying of a copyrighted work. Making or selling devices or services that are used to circumvent either category of technological measure is prohibited in certain circumstances, described below. As to the act of circumvention itself, the provision prohibits circumvention in the first category of technological measures, but not the second.
This distinction was employed to assure that the public will have the continued ability to make fair use of copyrighted works. Since copying of a work may be a fair use under appropriate circumstances, section 1201 does not prohibit the act of circumvention of a technological measure that prevents copying . By contrast, since the fair use doctrine is not a defense to the act of gaining unauthorized acess to a work, the act of circumventing of a technological measure to gain access is prohibited.
-----------------------------
Later on, seven exceptions to the circumvent-to-view are mentioned -- the right of the Library of Congress to make exceptions through rule-making; for library, archive, and educational nonprofits to decide if they want to buy the work; reverse engineering of computer programs for compatibility purposes; encryption research; protection of minors; personal privacy; and secruity testing.
Frankly, if my interpretation of the LoC's interpretation of the DMCA is correct, our best argument is that css-auth/DeCSS has as its primary purpose the creation of backup copies, not the playing of DVDs.
Steven E. Ehrbar
But of course you're now going to have to fire Jon Katz, because now you're one of those big media conglomerates... ;-)
Steven E. Ehrbar
I'm not opposed to the government of the PRC because it is communist, but because it has an authoritarian government. Just like Taiwan in the 1950's-1980's, but without the virtue of having a bigger, more restictive rival to make it look good by comparison.
Oh, well. Twenty more years of increasing capitalism and a peaceful transition to political liberty is what China needs. I hope it gets it.
Steven E. Ehrbar
I've seen the claim that children are executed in the U.S. claim a lot. I've responded by asking for a specific example. I have yet to have someone give me a specific example. I have accordingly dismissed the claim.
Can you give me a specific example of a child executed in the United States in the last thirty years?
Steven E. Ehrbar
China-phobia? Phobias by definition are irrational. But distaste for a government that runs over its own citizens with tanks seems to me to be a reasonable distaste. And being concerned about the intentions a nation armed with nuclear weapons able to hit the U.S. seems to me to be a reasonable concern.
Steven E. Ehrbar
China wants to be seen as a major world power. The only other choice to achieve that goal is to start a massive military buildup, which would be more expensive and provoke adverse reactions in neighbors.
Nuclear weapons? Britain, France, India, Israel, South Africa, and Pakistan have all done it. Big public works? Even Egypt has the Aswan Dam. Winning lots of sports events? Even a splinter country under foreign occupation like East Germany did that.
Manned spaceflight, however, is an exclusive, prestigious club. The only other nations to achieve it were superpowers. It's the ultimate prestige project.
Steven E. Ehrbar
Remember, in the recent decade, it's not always the best product that wins, just the first.
Really? First wins?
The IBM PC beat the Apple II and the TRS-80.
Windows beat Macintosh.
1-2-3 beat VisiCalc.
Excel beat 1-2-3.
Wordperfect beat WordStar.
Word beat Wordperfect.
Nestcape beat Mosaic.
IE beat Netscape.
Being first is ultimately meaningless. (Which is the flaw in the Amazon.com buisness plan. They aren't going to be the Wal-Mart of the Web -- they're going to be the the K-Mart of the Web).
Steven E. Ehrbar
A related thought - you see people taking dogs for walks - have you ever seen a cat be taken for a walk?
Yep. The way to do it is to stand still with the cat on the leash until it walks a few steps the direction you want to go. Then stop and wait again. And again. And repeat. And occasionally prod the cat with your foot when it lays down in protest. Then give up four hours later and carry the cat home.
Steven E. Ehrbar
You yourself called it a hierarchical tree. How about replacing file/folder with leaf/branch?
Steven E. Ehrbar
Unfortunately, Norway is not a proper member of the EU, we're only barely a member of the European common market, so we have no say in how the new directive will be worded, but will just have to incorporate the new directive into Norwegian law.
Really? The (likely distorted) view I was given by various U.S., Canadian, and U.K. media was that Norway, by not being a member of the EU, was not bound to conform to EU decisions. That is, you got free trade through EFTA and the EFTA-EU agreement, but did not have to listen to Brussels.
Steven E. Ehrbar
Yes, Amazon has lower overhead overall then B&N. Barnes & Noble has the advantage that it actually turns a profit on the brick-and-mortar operations, which essentially makes the BN.com warehousing free and serves as "deep pockets" for on-line discount wars.
And the focus on books was just to serve as an example of what can happen in the music, DVD & video, electronics & software, toys & video games, and home improvement areas -- all units which Amazon says are further from making a profit than the books division.
I just don't think being first is going to cut it in the long term. As Amazon starts hurting brick-and-mortar retailers, they're going to respond with their own Web sites, with their own established brand names. And those web sites will be competeing with prices subsidized by their brick-and-mortar revenue streams, market research already being done by their brick-and-mortar stores, and the addition of web addresses to the ads they're already buying.
No, they won't like canniballizing their own sales -- but they'll prefer it to letting Amazon eat their lunch.
Steven E. Ehrbar
Amazon can turn a profit any time they want... all they have to do is turn off the marketing machine and stop spending so much on infrastructure.
Nope. As Forbes points out, Amazon's "marketing" costs include packing and shipping books and CDs, and the costs of storing things in its warehouses. That means a major part of their so-called "marketing" costs are intrinsic to each sale itself, and cannot be cut.
At the same time, the entry of competitors is going to cut into Amazon's latitude. Amazon originally discounted a larger number of their books than they do now; the result is a number of customers have defected to BN.com, which has a borader selection of still-discounted books. Amazon's book division can't turn a profit if it returns to the old pricing scheme; it also can't turn a profit (in the long run) if BN.com consistently undercuts it on the same products.
Amazon itself admits its current buisness model is unsustainable in the long run. It is simply my analysis that Amazon will not be able to successfully transition to a sustainable model that justifies anywhere near its current valuation.
Steven E. Ehrbar
Actually, companies have always been valued partly on their current earnings, partly on their assets, and partly on their expected future earnings. For example, a company that is expected to earn 10 million next year will be valued at less than one expected to earn 100 million, assets and current earnings being equal.
No, what Amazon did was convince people that a long term buisness plan and a brand name were worth billions of dollars despite massive losses in a rapidly changing sector of the economy.
My prediction: Amazon dies in five years having never turned a profit and having been killed off by smaller, faster, smarter rivals with less debt. The brand name is sold to another retailer by the bankruptcy court, and eventually fades away.
Steven E. Ehrbar
What's truly great is that this actually provoked a serious response.
I mean, running a COBOL-based "business-to-business e-commerce framwork using advanced object-oriented methodogies and optimized for intranets running on the powerful Windows2000 platform" on CP/M 2.1?
All you forgot was to say that your intended hardware platform was a cluster of 12 750 megahertz Z80s linked with fiber-optic cabling, 2 GB MFM hard drives, and 512 MB of iron-core memory.
Steven E. Ehrbar
Embedix Linux -- by Lineo
Targets 32-bit x86 and PowerPC systems, requires 8mb RAM and 3mb ROM. Based on Linux 2.2 kernel, includes own GUI.
Mobile Linux -- by Transmeta
Not much detail available as to requirements, but seems to be targeted for fairly beefy hardware relative to a PDA.
ELKS (Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset) -- by independent hackers
Targets 8088/8086 x86 processors. Requires up to 640k of RAM. Linux-like, but not Linux proper. Doesn't include a GUI (see NanoGUI below).
NanoGUI -- by independent hackers
Based on the old "mini-x" released for Minix. Mini-x ran under 8086es, but whether NanoGUI retains that capability is hard to find out (please enlighten me!). If it does, it's the natural choice to add to ELKS for a ultralightweight 16-bit "Linux".
Steven E. Ehrbar
The name "trojan" refers to mythology (since Troy was considered a myth at the time), but I don't recall the details of why that name was picked.
The asteroids at the two points 60 degrees before and after were, just after discovery, named after the Greeks and Trojans named in the Illiad. The prefered shorthand do describe those objects as a group became "trojans", which was later generalized to all objects in similar orbits.
Steven E. Ehrbar
WRONG! Read the fscking link -- they say they PREFER e-mail -- and for snail-mail, you must send them 16 copies of your letter.
Steven E. Ehrbar
Wrong! To quote them:
Steven E. Ehrbar
They intend to post the comments on their web site. To that end, they have said that they PREFER e-mail to hardcopy. To quote:
Steven E. Ehrbar
OTOH, there's no binding way of enforcing any of the other "for profit" licenses, either... so theoretically a 14 year old and a CD burner could LEGALLY pirate Microsoft software...
Nope. If a 14-year-old cannot be held to the provisions of the GPL or the MS EULA, he is still subject to the copying restrictions of the Software Copyright Act of 1982, which sets the rules that unlicensed copyrighted software is sold under.
This, BTW, is why the GPL will probably never be challenged by a corporation in court -- defeating the GPL simply means you are bound by the more restrictive rules of software copyright.
Steven E. Ehrbar
And they will require at least three frequency intervals on the radio dial between a low-power station and another station, rather than the two intervals initially suggested.
.1 intervals of 104.4, 104.5, and 104.6 between 104.3 and 104.7) or 105.1 (three .2 intervals of 104.5, 104.7, and 104.9 between 104.3 and 105.1).
How much is three intervals? Assuming an FM station broadcasting at 104.3, what does "three intervals" for these stations mean?
My guess is either 104.7 (three
Steven E. Ehrbar
Here's an analogy:
Yahoo! has a name (Yahoo!), a domain name (www.yahoo.com), and an IP number (??.??.??.??).
Similarly, radio stations have a name (The Groove), a call sign (WQRS), and a frequency (105.1).
Now, the reason many U.S. stations are known by their callsigns is because U.S. law requires the regular broadcast of those call signs.
Steven E. Ehrbar
Yes, it's GPLed.
Where is the source? Read the GPL -- they don't have to release the source until they distribute the code. Mobile Linux hasn't been released yet, so they can sit on the source for now. Linus has promised it will be available RSN.
Steven E. Ehrbar