>AOL has been punished enough in the press. Given the circumstances I don't think that any legal action is necessary.
Others are of the opinion that the people responsible should spend decades in prision, and that the company should pay fines and restitution at the kinds of levels that would reduce them from a multi-billion-dollar-corporation to a startup looking for venture capital.
Somehwere in between that extreme and yours, there will be some appropriate consequences.
> since it does not repeat, it is called a transendental(sp?) number
Pi is transcendental, but that is not exactly the reason. It is transcendental because it cannot be represented in any finite serious of algebraic or arithmetic operations. Many irrational numbers are not transcendental.
There are a lot more people, far more densely packed, in a typical airport secrity check area. Why not just blow up one of those? The building and the equipment there is probably more valuable than an aircraft, and a terrorist would not even have to do all that careful planning. You might not be able to get through the checkpoint with so much as a plastic fork or a bottle of hair conditioner, but you can certainly walk right up *to* the crowded checkpoint with anything you can carry.
"the damage to the firms name when you have to either show up in a wrinkled suit (8 hours of flying will do that), 2 hours late to find something more appropriate to wear, or jeans and t-shirt."
Well now nobody is going to be able to arrive on a business trip with toothpaste, hair care products, and cologne/perfume.
My company actually allows me to expense that stuff, and part of my normal ritual is to go to a store and buy the stuff. I don't even bother buying brand-x or travel size...
But most are really going to have to adjust. Contact lens wearers might be really seriously affected.
"My other hunch was someone at Microsoft may have fucked up"
That appears strongly to have been the case.
"or someone at Microsoft was actually engaging in fraudulent behaviour and giving your keys away to other people."
We have not ruled out the possibility, but I believe someone in support took the rap. I actually feel pretty bad about that, but they backed me into a corner where I had to respond with guns blazing (and with the letter-writing abilities of the legal department at my pretty big company.)
>> There is an individual who was the last person to take custody of the vehicles. That person committed multiple counts >> of grand theft auto.
> Almost certainly, he did not, under the law.
But it appears that the operators *did* know the shop was going to be shut down, which means they took in cars knowingly, which speaks to intent as opposed to negligence.
I'd report the car stolen, just the same, with a description of the last person who touched it.
> A MSDN-subscription is a subscription to the MSDN-online service hosted at MICROSOFT.COM . there are no "cracked" > MSDN-subscriptions.
Apparently, people used keygens to get activations before they were ever sold. So in that sense, there certainly are "cracked" subscriptions, and the impression I get is that when a customer hits one, the customer loses, and the person with the clandestinely-generated code keeps using it.
>Of course he purchased it at a substantial "discount".
I am "the guy" you refer to, and my discount was on the order of 20%, and the reseller involved was referred by the Microsoft rep who deals with the large-ish company account for my employer that I'm not going to name.
And, eventually, I was satisfied. When they finally did acknowledge the problem and took action, they took really agressive action. I actually think I got somebody fired, because they tried to accuse a certain sales rep.
I don't feel great about the experience. But I sure as hell am not going to entertain the implied assumption that I bought through anything like a disreputable source.
I'm quite cynical on this topic because of my experiences with MSDN. Even though I've been an MSDN subscriber for a LONG time (a lot longer than I want to admit), I was treated very poorly when I received MSDN activation codes that were supposedly pirated. I had to (literally) threaten to sue (yes, Microsoft) before someone got a fire lit under their chair (to my surprise), and took care of my situation, eight weeks after my purchase, and after several people had essentially accused me of infringement even as I had sales receipts and original media in my hand.
"Now however if they found tons of systems outside of the university cropping up, and saw the key on a serials board, they might invalidate it and issue us a new one."
Or, they might just invalidate it and leave it to the folks in your IT organization to explain why they need to buy retail licenses from now on...
There is an individual who was the last person to take custody of the vehicles. That person committed multiple counts of grand theft auto.
If he wants to make a defense that he is a victim of a government conspiracy, then HE can talk about "the city", but unless he can defend his actions, he is responsible, as the last person to lock the door.
>Theft covers a number of crimes, the elements of none of which, that I can see, are fully satisfied here.
You take in a vehicle with the understanding that you will return it. You don't have a mechanics lien or anything like that. You simply keep the vehicle locked in a building to which you have the key. That's theft.
I think it should simply be, the last person to lock the facility, should be in jail, awaiting an arraignment hearing on however many counts of grand theft auto are indicated. It's that simple.
If that individual wants to make a defense that there was a conspiracy or something, that's his perogative.
But there was a person who was the last person to touch it, who knew or should have known that what he was doing was a major crime, and he should be in jail right now.
It doesn't matter why they wanted it, or whether they meant to do it. The last person to lock the thing down should be in jail right now, awaiting a hearing for X counts of GTA. If that individual believes he has been manipulated by a government conspiracy, perhaps he can make that argument to the judge.
>Because that's what the deal was. NOT paying is theft.
Failure to perform on the contract (for any of the parties to it), is an entirely separate issue from the fact that the person operating the facility is in possession of a number of automobiles, that should now simply be regarded as stolen.
Whatever liability a chop shop operator faces when the sherriff walks in, should be applied precisely the same way to the operator of this parking garage.
Why should you have to sue? Just call the police and your insurance company, and report it stolen. You know the location of the property, and the identity of the thief. They can sit in jail, or they can return your property. Or maybe, they can return your property and THEN go to prison anyway.
"Way to jump to conclusions. How do you know that they weren't working on a screenplay, or simply trying to find a phrase they heard mentioned somewhere? "
Here's one I have seen nobody suggest, but that immediately sprang to mind when I saw some of the searches:
A law enforcement officer doing research, whose case has just been compromised due to this data incident.
At first glance, the altered photo looks like the whole city has been bombed and is burning. The original photo just shows one building on fire, and it is not even very obvious that the fire is due to a bomb.
>You know that you get paid to be a resident of Alaska? They get a cut of the oil money from the state.
Yes, I know lots of people who have lived in Alaska.
You have not made the case that a bridge connecting a town to its airport should be dubbed "nowhere", and I do not accept the basic premise of the idea, no matter what subject you'd like to change it to.
>I hate Best Buy and their constant nagging about buying warranties.
Constant nagging? It's pretty much an industry standard for consumer product sales nowadays, not just Best Buy.
It's a profit center, and sales people are required to make the pitch. Required to make the pitch, as in, if they don't make it, they become former employees. That job sucks to begin with, and pitching warranties and credit applications forces them to do things that they hate even more, but they do it, because a job that sucks is better than not having the job, most of the time.
They ask you if you want it, so be direct and say no, I don't want it. If they ask you again, say, no, I don't want it and if you ask me again I will not buy this.
> Of course I only bought the boom box for my beach vacation, and took it back when I got home.
You hate the pitch, and they hate the renters. You deserve each other.
>If I had the money, I'd just buy the foreclosed homes and then re-sell them
WAY too much work. And you're getting a little bit ahead of yourself there -- despite the doom and gloom projections, the crash keeps on not coming.
Houses in my neighborhood continue to sell within a few days of listing, at or above asking price, which is generally pretty high by my reckoning.
One person's crash is another person's "growth rate leveling off".
I would not necessarily be shorting a futures market right now... Maybe it's really different in your neighborhood. I heard my market was cooked two years ago. Which, I think, means it went from 'jaw-droppingly insane' to merely, 'breathtakingly insane."
Slashdot Mirror
>AOL has been punished enough in the press. Given the circumstances I don't think that any legal action is necessary.
Others are of the opinion that the people responsible should spend decades in prision, and that the company should pay fines and restitution at the kinds of levels that would reduce them from a multi-billion-dollar-corporation to a startup looking for venture capital.
Somehwere in between that extreme and yours, there will be some appropriate consequences.
> since it does not repeat, it is called a transendental(sp?) number
Pi is transcendental, but that is not exactly the reason. It is transcendental because it cannot
be represented in any finite serious of algebraic or arithmetic operations. Many irrational numbers
are not transcendental.
There are a lot more people, far more densely packed, in a typical airport secrity check area.
Why not just blow up one of those? The building and the equipment there is probably more valuable
than an aircraft, and a terrorist would not even have to do all that careful planning. You might not
be able to get through the checkpoint with so much as a plastic fork or a bottle of hair conditioner,
but you can certainly walk right up *to* the crowded checkpoint with anything you can carry.
Frankly I'm surprised it hasn't happened.
"the damage to the firms name when you have to either show up in a wrinkled suit (8 hours of flying will do that), 2 hours late to find something more appropriate to wear, or jeans and t-shirt."
Well now nobody is going to be able to arrive on a business trip with toothpaste, hair care products, and cologne/perfume.
My company actually allows me to expense that stuff, and part of my normal ritual is to go to a store and buy the stuff. I don't even bother buying brand-x or travel size...
But most are really going to have to adjust. Contact lens wearers might be really seriously affected.
"My other hunch was someone at Microsoft may have fucked up"
That appears strongly to have been the case.
"or someone at Microsoft was actually engaging in fraudulent behaviour and giving your keys away to other people."
We have not ruled out the possibility, but I believe someone in support took the rap. I actually feel pretty bad about that, but they backed me into a corner where I had to respond with guns blazing (and with the letter-writing abilities of the legal department at my pretty big company.)
>> There is an individual who was the last person to take custody of the vehicles. That person committed multiple counts
>> of grand theft auto.
> Almost certainly, he did not, under the law.
But it appears that the operators *did* know the shop was going to be shut down, which means they took in cars knowingly, which speaks to intent as opposed to negligence.
I'd report the car stolen, just the same, with a description of the last person who touched it.
> The Beer making process requires:
Patience. Something few people have.
> A MSDN-subscription is a subscription to the MSDN-online service hosted at MICROSOFT.COM . there are no "cracked"
> MSDN-subscriptions.
Apparently, people used keygens to get activations before they were ever sold. So in that sense, there certainly are "cracked" subscriptions, and the impression I get is that when a customer hits one, the customer loses, and the person with the clandestinely-generated code keeps using it.
>Of course he purchased it at a substantial "discount".
I am "the guy" you refer to, and my discount was on the order of 20%, and the reseller involved was
referred by the Microsoft rep who deals with the large-ish company account for my employer that I'm not going to name.
And, eventually, I was satisfied. When they finally did acknowledge the problem and took action, they took really agressive action. I actually think I got somebody fired, because they tried to accuse a certain sales rep.
I don't feel great about the experience. But I sure as hell am not going to entertain the implied assumption that I bought through anything like a disreputable source.
"I suspect you'll find you purchased your copy from someone who is in the active game of counterfeiting MSDN or purchasing counterfeit MSDN software."
Incorrect.
"You'll probably find what Microsoft was really after was information about where you got your bogus copy of MSDN from."
I purhcased from what Microsoft calls a "Select Reseller."
"Was this MSDN subscription substantially less than the normal retail price ?"
No. You certainly seem to be making some wild assumptions here.
I bought my subscription through the same channel that I use to purchase for my company -- volume in the thousands.
I'm quite cynical on this topic because of my experiences with MSDN. Even though I've been an MSDN subscriber for a LONG time (a lot longer than I want to admit), I was treated very poorly when I received MSDN activation codes that were supposedly pirated. I had to (literally) threaten to sue (yes, Microsoft) before someone got a fire lit under their chair (to my surprise), and took care of my situation, eight weeks after my purchase, and after several people had essentially accused me of infringement even as I had sales receipts and original media in my hand.
"Now however if they found tons of systems outside of the university cropping up, and saw the key on a serials board, they might invalidate it and issue us a new one."
Or, they might just invalidate it and leave it to the folks in your IT organization to explain why they need to buy retail licenses from now on...
>Cities can't sit in jail
There is an individual who was the last person to take custody of the vehicles. That person committed multiple counts of
grand theft auto.
If he wants to make a defense that he is a victim of a government conspiracy, then HE can talk about "the city",
but unless he can defend his actions, he is responsible, as the last person to lock the door.
>Theft covers a number of crimes, the elements of none of which, that I can see, are fully satisfied here.
You take in a vehicle with the understanding that you will return it. You don't have a mechanics lien or anything like that. You simply keep the vehicle locked in a building to which you have the key. That's theft.
I think it should simply be, the last person to lock the facility, should be in jail, awaiting an arraignment hearing on
however many counts of grand theft auto are indicated. It's that simple.
If that individual wants to make a defense that there was a conspiracy or something, that's his perogative.
But there was a person who was the last person to touch it, who knew or should have known that what he was doing was a major crime, and he should be in jail right now.
It doesn't matter why they wanted it, or whether they meant to do it. The last person to lock the thing down should be in jail right now, awaiting a hearing for X counts of GTA. If that individual believes he has been manipulated by a government conspiracy, perhaps he can make that argument to the judge.
You would take it better if he had dropped out to do drugs, or to do some religious thing?
People drop out, it's common as dirt. There's ALWAYS more parking spots after spring break than before the fall term starts. At EVERY school.
>Because that's what the deal was. NOT paying is theft.
Failure to perform on the contract (for any of the parties to it), is an entirely separate issue
from the fact that the person operating the facility is in possession of a number of automobiles,
that should now simply be regarded as stolen.
Whatever liability a chop shop operator faces when the sherriff walks in, should be applied precisely the same way to the operator of this parking garage.
>If that happened to me, I'd report my car stolen.
My guess is, fine print on the parking receipt says they aren't responsible.
> then yes, I am going to sue.
Why should you have to sue? Just call the police and your insurance company, and report it stolen. You know the location of the property, and the identity of the thief. They can sit in jail, or they can return your property. Or maybe, they can return your property and THEN go to prison anyway.
How is it not theft?
"Way to jump to conclusions. How do you know that they weren't working on a screenplay, or simply trying to find a phrase they heard mentioned somewhere? "
Here's one I have seen nobody suggest, but that immediately sprang to mind when I saw some of the searches:
A law enforcement officer doing research, whose case has just been compromised due to this data incident.
At first glance, the altered photo looks like the whole city has been bombed and is burning. The original photo just shows one building on fire, and it is not even very obvious that the fire is due to a bomb.
I've noticed, that I never seem to see anything related to Egyptian archaeology that doesn't have Hawass' face all over it.
>You know that you get paid to be a resident of Alaska? They get a cut of the oil money from the state.
Yes, I know lots of people who have lived in Alaska.
You have not made the case that a bridge connecting a town to its airport should be dubbed "nowhere", and I do
not accept the basic premise of the idea, no matter what subject you'd like to change it to.
>I hate Best Buy and their constant nagging about buying warranties.
Constant nagging? It's pretty much an industry standard for consumer product sales nowadays, not just Best Buy.
It's a profit center, and sales people are required to make the pitch. Required to make the pitch, as in, if they don't make it, they become former employees. That job sucks to begin with, and pitching warranties and credit applications forces them to do things that they hate even more, but they do it, because a job that sucks is better than not having the job, most of the time.
They ask you if you want it, so be direct and say no, I don't want it. If they ask you again, say, no, I don't want it and if you ask me again I will not buy this.
> Of course I only bought the boom box for my beach vacation, and took it back when I got home.
You hate the pitch, and they hate the renters. You deserve each other.
>If I had the money, I'd just buy the foreclosed homes and then re-sell them
WAY too much work. And you're getting a little bit ahead of yourself there -- despite the
doom and gloom projections, the crash keeps on not coming.
Houses in my neighborhood continue to sell within a few days of listing, at or above asking price, which is generally pretty high by my reckoning.
One person's crash is another person's "growth rate leveling off".
I would not necessarily be shorting a futures market right now... Maybe it's really different in your neighborhood. I heard my market was cooked two years ago. Which, I think, means it went from 'jaw-droppingly insane' to merely, 'breathtakingly insane."