Because that doesn't advance the correct political agenda. "We must distinguish between mere bourgeois science, which is concerned with sterile facts and predictions, and Revolutionary Science, which is concerned with what will promote the Revolution."
it's true that I was taught North America was all but unpopulated when Europeans first arrived This is true for most places in the Americas. . Plague, inadvertently and inherently brought by very very early Spanish sailors, wiped out massive massive numbers of Native Americas. And it tended to travel faster than Europeans could colonize. The Pilgrims built their settlement on top of a Native American settlement. Why? Because a few years before the Pilgrims, plague had come through and killed off all the Indians there. Also part of the reason the natives near the Pilgrims needed allies (i.e. the Pilgrims) against their lesser killed off enemies. Native Americans just hadn't had their asses kicked by small pox, Bubonic plague, and a ton of other illnesses over a few centuries. And, therefore, had no defenses to the illnesses. The massive death of the Indians lead the Spanish to import African slaves for their plantation system, instead of solely relying on Native American slaves. (As an aside you'll notice the further north in the continents you go the better the slaves/natives were treated.) And, how do you think the Conquistadors were able to conquer so much with so few men? The natives had just gotten their asses kicked by illness. Hell, the Incan civil war that allowed Pizarro to conquer them was a direct result of their leaders dying from European illnesses about 5-10 years BEFORE Pizarro even showed up. . Think of HG Wells "War of the Worlds" except in reverse. Instead of the invaders (the Martians/Europeans) being killed off by a germ/virus, the invaded (Earthlings/Indians) got killed off. And remember the Europeans (a) thought these illness were normal, and (b) had no germ theory of illness (remember they were still cutting themselves to adjust their humours). So, the transmission of the illness was totally inadvertent. . So, yeah, when a lot of Europeans showed up, the continents were pretty empty. Especially the English/French who showed up much later than the Spanish, which gave the germs a lot of time to work their way through North America.
WMC is "good enough" but you really want something like MediaBrowser is you have a lot of ripped DVDs or saved videos.
It is currently free and open sourced. Although the authors want to move to a pay but open source model, mostly due to the popularity of it and how that eats into their time. They seem a bit slow to move onto that model however.
MB will automatically pull metadata info from the TVDB and Movie DB (open APIs) for your movies and videos (assuming they are named in a way MB understands). Based upon that metadata it'll do genre/studio/release date sorting, and keeps track of your watch & partly-watched videos. Has about 3-4 themes (supported by the respective authors) and within those themes a series of views (poster, banner, coverflow, thumbnail, etc.).
Also MB had a Music plug-in in the works (haven't tried it). And it can handle VMC and W7MC recorded videos. (also haven't tried personally) You can also look towards MyMovies but that is really DVD-centric. Although it is a great source for movie metadata.
WMC is "good enough" but you really want something like MediaBrowser is you have a lot of ripped DVDs or saved videos.
It is currently free and open sourced. Although the authors want to move to a pay but open source model, mostly due to the popularity of it and how that eats into their time. They seem a bit slow to move onto that model however.
MB will automatically pull metadata info from the TVDB and Movie DB (open APIs) for your movies and videos (assuming they are named in a way MB understands). Based upon that metadata it'll do genre/studio/release date sorting, and keeps track of your watch & partly-watched videos. Has about 3-4 themes (supported by the respective authors) and within those themes a series of views (poster, banner, coverflow, thumbnail, etc.).
You can also look towards MyMovies but that is really DVD-centric. Although it is a great source for movie metadata.
1) you have Kelo v. City of New London saying that any taking by the government is for "the public use", allowing the government to openly grab land at eminent domain prices and give it to their developer friends
2) you then have the EPA marking land as "brownfield" (i.e. bad bad very bad, not superfund bad, but bad), allowing the government to pay below eminent domain prices (i.e. rock bottom prices, "either your signature or brains will be on this contract" negotiation).
3) finally you have this being "Green". So, no court or citizens can morally oppose this (or else you hate the Earth, bad person) 4 or 3B, because "Green" is a double, a gift that keeps on giving) because this is "Green" your developer friends will get further government subsidies for building.
Man, they are good at graft and bribery in Chicago.
The average attorney salary is ~$60k per year. And that is with $300k+/yr equity partners pulling the average up. I was in my 1st year of law school when I found out that I was making more as an engineer (BSEE) than most lawyers were making. (Fortunately, my company was paying for school & guaranteeing me a job upon graduation that involved a pay-grade jump every year for 4 years.)
The truth is, there are just too many lawyers. Most of them can't find a job in a "real" law firm. So, instead they have to hang-up their own shingle and become sole practitioners. Sole practitioners usually take DUI cases or other minor disputes, often for clients that decide they're unhappy with the outcome and refuse to pay. Sole practitioners also get to be taxed on both halves of self-employment taxes, pay their own benefits and business insurance. Good times.
Add on top of that law school is ~$100k, which most people take out loans for. So, if you go to law school chances are high you'll graduate with the equivalent of a mortgage and no job.
It really doesn't make financial sense to get a law degree unless you have a lucrative specialty (e.g., patent or admiralty law), go to a cheap state school (e.g., ASU), or feel a moral duty akin to the priesthood.
1) A patent is a NEGATIVE right, not a positive right. A patent doesn't give me the right to practice my invention, only prevent others from doing so. For example,... I can patent an improvement to a GM engine (which they have patents on). But, because GM has existing patents on their engine, you can't start making knock-off GM engines that include your invention. Now, if you are clever, you can make an adapter kit that, once someone has bought a GM engine from GM, they can adapt their GM engine to make use of your invention. The reason is, patents tend to be layered unto of one another.
So, requiring that people sell their invention won't work because it tramples on other's patents. This is why some industries (e.g., semi-conductors) rely on cross-licensing deals.
2) The patent system is already a two-way street. You give the public knowledge of your invention (versus keeping it a trade secret), and the government gives you an invention. If you aren't willing to pay that price (give up your trade secret) you can go the Coke formula route and hope that no one comes up with a Pepsi or RC for your product.
Not that patent trolls aren't a problem, it is just that your solutions assume a different architecture than exists.
OK, first off I love Netflix Video On Demand feature. It was in fact one of the main reasons I setup my Media Center. I suggest either Anthony Perkin's (IIRC) MyNetflix plugin or the better vmcNetflix plugin (both for Vista)
But here is the deal: What you get is essentially VHS. Both in terms of features & resolution. No subsitiles option (forgien you have them; English you don't) No menus and therefore no special features.
Selection: This is an odd mix. You don't have the full Netflix selection. New releases are hit and miss. It really depends on what the studios let Netflix put on there. The selection compaired to other VoD systems is very good. Especially the TV shows (which aren't in HD anyhow). Also I al amazed by how quickly they are adding titles to the VoD service
So, Netflix VoD is not a replacement for TV. Or cable VoD services (for new releases) However, with your normal Netflix subscription (~$15) it is free. And that makes a huge difference. Now I have a massive selection of shows I can watch anytime I want. I have access to TV shows that really aren't rerun anymore.
The US is a nation of immigrants. Even those of us (or more accurately our families) who have been here since it was New Amsterdam have that sense of being immigrants. Which, on tangential note, is why the closing of the frontier hurt the character of this country.
Now what the US does (and used to do better, but we are still good at it) is brain drain the rest of the world. Immigration is a filtering process. It is hard. You have to have a high level of ambition, "get-up and go" to even make it from your continent to ours (even make it to Canada, which is easier).
The typical 3 generation scheme for immigration is (and you can see this clearly in the Mexican/Latino/Chicano/Hispanic immigrants) 1st generation, works shitting menial jobs, and works them hard & speaks little English; 2nd generation makes soundly into the middle class, proud to go college, speaks both English & their ancestral tongue; 3rd generation fully assimilated, expects to go to college as a right, is kind of comfortable and lazy, wonders why Grandma speaks that funny language.
In the 19th century Europe used to go out and bring resources from the rest of the world back to Europe (the Belgian Congo being the most brutal, IIRC). Now, the US leaves the physical resources (or pays a pretty good amount for them, relatively) but takes the best people.
So, what gets into the US is some of the best and brightest the foreign country has to offer. They of course can out compete the US students. Especially, when Grad School is their ticket into the country and jobs.
Now, what used to happen was that these people stayed in the US. Now with easy air travel and globalization, they are returning to their countries of origin.
What is going on with Apple? Let us count how bad this product launch is: 1) 33% price cut for the iPhone, which threw early adopters in a fit, and then the $100 "rebate". 2) iPod touch is crippled. The Bluetooth is physically there (supposedly) but not enabled. No editing calender appointments. No Notes app or the other apps from iPhone. Screen issues with the contrast & blackness versus the iPhone. 3) iPod Classic, slower less responsive UI. Old Video accessories don't work with the iClassic. 4) iPod Nano, the FatPod. Same slower UI as the Classic. No memory increase.
Seriously, in 10 days Apple seems to have found a way to piss everyone off. Now they go after the Linux community. How badly have they bungled this product launch?
1) As a non-iPhone owner or wanter, the brew-ha-ha over the $200 price cut irritates me not because of the price cut but the reaction is such that you better believe Apple won't ever make similar price cuts in the future. Plus you know a 16GB iPhone will come out as soon as the iPhone is released in Europe.
2) Once again, the iTouch will be jailbreaked and the iPhone apps ported to the iTouch, but this type of needless product differentiation crippling cause bad will. And, this hacking may break whenever Apple releases a firmware update. For example, the Linux lock-out of this story. Apple could have just given people the product they want in the first place. As the screams of people have shown, there is a market for a phoneless iPhone. The screen issues are unfixable but possibly explained by manufacturing variables.
3) The iClassic is the least changed and therefore least disliked of the new products. The software (DRM) incompatibility with video accessories is unnecessary.
4) Now the FatPod is merely ugly. It is a shame about the less responsive UI. And really it was time to bump up the storage to 16gb. One wonders if the storage was capped at 8Gb in an attempt to differentiate this versus the iTouch. After all if they are needlessly crippling the iTouch why not nerf the FatPod?
Is it just hurbis that has gotten Apple's head so far up its ass, or is this just a cyclical Apple implosion? If the latter, we are in for a few more years of Apple stupidity before they re-emerge with some new wonder product.
Judges have huge ego issues. They can't stand to be told that they are wrong. When they are told that they cite you for contempt. You have to understand that the courtroom is the last vestige of unfettered "aristocratic" power in America. They are Kings... pretty much literally in their courtrooms. They can't have you killed but they can have you locked up... indefinably. They can ruin the lawyer's livelihood. They can ruin you financially. They can restrict where to go and what to do.
And contempt orders really are not appealable. The judge, even if they are wrong, can fuck you over any way they want with a contempt order. The classic (and it has been a long time since I read it) case on contempt orders was Martin Luther King. Judge ruled wrongly on Issue X. Cited King for contempt, as part of that. The appealed running was... too bad, the contempt order is not appealable, you have to sit in jail until the appeals court overturns the underlying ruling on Issue X. You really can't go back and sue the judge for damages under that either. They have judicial immunity. The most you can do is try to get them not elected next time and if they are Federal judges they have life tenure.
You get used to that power. You get used to everyone acting in an sycophantic manner towards you. You get used to a world, where people are not allowed to say "No" to you. Then you become unable to handle criticism, however justified however politely worded. And of course, if the judge wants to act improperly or say something nasty, they just ask the court reporter to stop recording. You, on the other hand, don't have that luxury.
Also, remember when you have an issue with a judge who do you take it up with? Another judge. No conflict of interest there.
So, yeah. The judge is an idiot. Because they have the power to be an idiot and get away with it.
Whatever the law is for telegraphs should be the law for emails. It is basically the same things 1s & 0s (long & short dashes) transmitted over copper wires (or fiber now a days) relayed by a machine or person (depending on the tech). And even when relayed by a machine the Admin of the machine can read any email on the server. Email passes through multiple servers, at least the sending SMTP and the receiving POP/IMAP machines. I have no control over my ISP's POP server or the Admin thereof.
I assume there was no expectation of privacy in a telegraph and there should be none in an email. It would be nice, but it ain't how it works.
[Orin Kerr, June 18, 2007 at 11:49am] Trackbacks Sixth Circuit Blockbuster on E-Mail Privacy: In an earlier blog post on a pending case in the Sixth Circuit, Warshak v. United States, I figured there was no way the court would get to the merits of the Fourth Amendment issue lurking in the case: there were no facts yet and no decided statutory law, and surely the panel wouldn't be so reckless as to presumptively strike down a federal statute in the absence of facts or law given the procedural problems with the case. I had a funny feeling things would turn out differently when I learned who was on the panel, though, and that funny feeling turned out to be justified: the panel just issued a blockbuster decision that tries to answer how the Fourth Amendment applies to e-mail (all without any facts, amazingly) based on arguments from amicus briefs that the government didn't address all in the context of an appeal from a preliminary injunction. Wow. More on the decision later today.
UPDATE: Here's the key part of the opinion:
[Start Quote]
[W]e have little difficulty agreeing with the district court that individuals maintain a reasonable expectation of privacy in e-mails that are stored with, or sent or received through, a commercial ISP. The content of e-mail is something that the user "seeks to preserve as private," and therefore "may be constitutionally protected." Katz, 389 U.S. at 351. It goes without saying that like the telephone earlier in our history, e-mail is an ever-increasing mode of private communication, and protecting shared communications through this medium is as important to Fourth Amendment principles today as protecting telephone conversations has been in the past. See Katz, 389 U.S. at 352 ("To read the Constitution more narrowly is to ignore the vital role that the public telephone has come to play in private communication.") [End Quote]
Notably, the court's Fourth Amendent analysis combines aspects of the probabilistic, private facts, positive law and policy model (the above-quoted section being from the policy model section).
PowerDVD Yeah, I have to use a PC. Well, my laptop.
I usually copy a DVD or 3 to my laptop before going on a business trip. NetFlix has gotten me so DVD dependent that I can't watch normal TV anymore. So, the hotel TV is out (unless HBO just happens to have something on). (I am always stunned when I watch CNN that that is what network news has devolved into. 2-3 people screaming.)
My wife would never handle the 1.2x speed for things she watches. My actual DVD player appliance that I bought... mmm... 5 years ago when they finally dropped below $100. It doesn't do sound or subtitles during fast forward. Nor does it do 1.?x speeds. Just 1, 2, 4, & 8x. Whereas PowerDVD has 1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.5, 2, and up to 32x. Normally I watch at either 1.1 or 1.2x.
I used to hook my laptop up to the TV via the S-Video port, but that is cumbersome.
I have noticed that the older I get the louder I need music to be. Especially voice.
In fact I am 35 and I watch all DVDs with the subtitles. (Of course, part of that is that I watch a lot of DVDs at 1.2x to 2x speed, but... Really who the Hell could actually stand "A Scanner Darkley" at normal speed?)
But back to my point, as I age I am less and less able to sift background noise from speech. And we now live in an aging society.
Because civilization depends on having children
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Women Are Fleeing IT Jobs
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· Score: 3, Informative
Because civilization depends on having children. How many new workers entering the workforce will you have in 20 years? Well it depends on how many kids are born today. Workers, citizens, et al, have a 20 year pipeline. And yes we can import immigrants but how many? And can we assimilate them? You bitch about offshoring and H1-B visas. Well the solution is to have more kids. The ideal solution would have been to have more kids 20 years ago.
Demographics is destiny. If you don't reproduce your world view won't be around when you are not.
The design flaw of the secular social-democratic state is that it requires a religious-society birthrate to sustain it. Post-Christian hyperrationalism is, in the objective sense, a lot less rational than Catholicism or Mormonism. Indeed, in its reliance on immigration to ensure its future, the European Union has adopted a 21st-century variation on the strategy of the Shakers, who were forbidden from reproducing and thus could increase their numbers only by conversion. The problem is that secondary-impulse societies mistake their weaknesses for strengths--or, at any rate, virtues--and that's why they're proving so feeble at dealing with a primal force like Islam.
What's the better bet? A globalization that exports cheeseburgers and pop songs or a globalization that exports the fiercest aspects of its culture? When it comes to forecasting the future, the birthrate is the nearest thing to hard numbers. If only a million babies are born in 2006, it's hard to have two million adults enter the workforce in 2026 (or 2033, or 2037, or whenever they get around to finishing their Anger Management and Queer Studies degrees). And the hard data on babies around the Western world is that they're running out a lot faster than the oil is. "Replacement" fertility rate--i.e., the number you need for merely a stable population, not getting any bigger, not getting any smaller--is 2.1 babies per woman. Some countries are well above that: the global fertility leader, Somalia, is 6.91, Niger 6.83, Afghanistan 6.78, Yemen 6.75. Notice what those nations have in common?
Scroll way down to the bottom of the Hot One Hundred top breeders and you'll eventually find the United States, hovering just at replacement rate with 2.07 births per woman. Ireland is 1.87, New Zealand 1.79, Australia 1.76. But Canada's fertility rate is down to 1.5, well below replacement rate; Germany and Austria are at 1.3, the brink of the death spiral; Russia and Italy are at 1.2; Spain 1.1, about half replacement rate. That's to say, Spain's population is halving every generation. By 2050, Italy's population will have fallen by 22%, Bulgaria's by 36%, Estonia's by 52%. In America, demographic trends suggest that the blue states ought to apply for honorary membership of the EU: In the 2004 election, John Kerry won the 16 with the lowest birthrates; George W. Bush took 25 of the 26 states with the highest. By 2050, there will be 100 million fewer Europeans, 100 million more Americans--and mostly red-state Americans.
As fertility shrivels, societies get older--and Japan and much of Europe are set to get older than any functioning societies have ever been. And we know what comes after old age. These countries are going out of business--unless they can find the will to change their ways. Is that likely? I don't think so. If you look at European election results--most recently in Germany--it's hard not to conclude that, while voters are unhappy with their political establishments, they're unhappy mainly because they resent being asked to reconsider their government benefits and, no matter how unaffordable they may be a generation down the road, they have no intention of seriously reconsidering them. The Scottish executive recently backed down from a proposal to raise the retirement age of Scottish public workers. It's presently 60, which is nice but unaffordable. But the reaction of the average Scots worker is that that's somebody else's problem. The average German worker now puts in 22% fewer hours
TITLE 26 > Subtitle A > CHAPTER 1 > Subchapter B > PART I > 61
61. Gross income defined (a) General definition Except as otherwise provided in this subtitle, gross income means all income from whatever source derived, including (but not limited to) the following items: (1) Compensation for services, including fees, commissions, fringe benefits, and similar items; (2) Gross income derived from business; (3) Gains derived from dealings in property; (4) Interest; (5) Rents; (6) Royalties; (7) Dividends; (8) Alimony and separate maintenance payments; (9) Annuities; (10) Income from life insurance and endowment contracts; (11) Pensions; (12) Income from discharge of indebtedness; (13) Distributive share of partnership gross income; (14) Income in respect of a decedent; and (15) Income from an interest in an estate or trust. (b) Cross references For items specifically included in gross income, see part II (sec. 71 and following). For items specifically excluded from gross income, see part III (sec. 101 and following).
Let me repeat: "gross income means all income from whatever source derived" What is so hard to understand about that? What tax student didn't think this was taxable? It is the same as the barter-club people back in the 1980s.
Yeah, I stopped trying to use OO when I ran into its poor support for line numbering and more complex documents. Now I like the OO ethos and idea, but I have invested too much time into learning how to get Word to do what I want to throw all that away (why I fear Office Vista).
All day long at work I need to create documents like this: Section 1: no line numbers, special header/footer Sections 2-6: line numbers every 5 lines, restarting at each page. And paragraph numbers (I use numbered lists), numbering continuing from the previous section. Basically I use a style for the paragraph numbering as some paragraphs (section titles) aren't numbered and don't count. Section 5+n+2 (i.e. section 7 and odd until section 40): line numbers each line, restarting each section. No paragraph numbers. Section 6+n+2 (i.e. section 8 and even until section 40): no line or paragraph numbers Section 40: same as sections 2-6 Section 41: no line or paragraph numbers, different header/footers
I have no clue how to create this with OO, and i tried. Importing it in from Word results in OO picking one sections line numbering scheme and using that throughout the document. I guess I could use 41 documents with different line numbering schemes, but... come on.
There are also documents that I have to create a Table of Contents using 2 of Word's 3 methods of making a TOC (bookmarks & styles). I have yet to try that in OO, but have little hope for it.
I think OO is fine as long as you don't get too fancy. After that it starts to fall apart or operate in a way that is totally different from Word, which I have invested 18 years (Christ I am old) learning.
Now granted Word is far from perfect, but I have learned to get around most of its problems. I never trust a new feature until it has been in 3-4 Word versions. I try to stick with what I learned for Word 4 for Macintosh. For example, I would love to use the TaskPane to create a dynamic template where I checked off boxes and sections magically appeared or disappeared. But I have no faith that the TaskPane survived the Office UI restart. Plus, while cool and involving coding, the time I save would probably never equal the time I sunk into making the dynamic template.
So, OO good for normal document usage. Not so good for complex documents. Especially if you have invested heavily in using Word.
I agree. My problem with iTunes is that $2 per show (regardless of time) is just too damn much. That comes out to $40 per season for a 20 episode season. Well, on Amazon the DVDs run $20-30. On NetFlix they are a sunk cost. Why buy on iTunes?
Now I was bored once and decided to try iTunes-Videos out, but I couldn't find anything I wanted to watch. And the more I searched the more the $2 per episode bugged me. A 1 hour show, $2. A 30 minute show $2. If I think $2 is too much for an hour show, why would I spend $2 on half that? They really need to make the price per hour, versus per episode.
I want to know how much revenue the TV stations get in advertising per hour, per viewer. I looked it up once and (while it wasn't easily available) I believe it was about $0.25 per hour per viewer. Why am I being charged 8 times that?
Look if you want me to buy something transient (iTunes) it should cost significantly less than if I buy it in a substantially permanent form (DVDs). Also if you want me to buy something with out extra features (e.g. closed captioning, commentary, etc., and once again I am looking at you iTunes) it needs to be cheaper than something with those features (DVDs). But it isn't, it is more expensive. So, I am not buying.
Plus, I don't have cable (once again, fails the price to reward test) and even disconnected my OTA attena in the last reorganization of my house. So, no chance of even watching anything that is broadcast.
I only watch about 6 shows (Stargate: SG/Atlan, BSG, AU's Next Top Model, Amazing Race) when they air. Those shows aren't even on at the same time (year-wise, not week/time-wise). I can't even get AU's NTM in the US. So, I'll keep downloading them. Really if I was forced to, I would wait for the SciFi shows to come on DVD (like I do for the HBO shows [Wire, Deadwood, Rome]).
And if you are in the TV industry... could you hurry up with DVDs of all the seasons of Amazing Race and more Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere? Come on man, that you can make a sale of off.
OK SlimShadey, I work with/against the PTO. If we could bribe them we probably would, but we can't and don't, and it certainly wouldn't be worth my livelihood if I got caught. I am sorry that incompetence is really what it is. You are dealing with (on both sides) a bureaucracy . A bureaucracy that involves somewhat competent but bored and certainly overworked people, where both sides are measured Draconianly on their "efficiency". Which means that both sides are racing to get through the current patent application and on to the next one, and whatever route gets you to the end most quickly with the highest hourly/disposal rates is what you have a tendency to do. Sometime I get a through and competent Office Action from the PTO, but it is rare and I hate it (while admiring the dedication to the job the Examiner showed) because it makes me slow down and do my job in that idealized way this are supposed to work. Because in reality patent applications are fought on technicalities. For example, "I sorry, Sec 103 (as clearly shown in your training manual) has a 3 part test, you only did part 1; so, my client gets his patent." Yeah the Examiner rarely understands the technology. And yeah they usually issue a rejection by comparing the figures of 2 patents to each other. And, yes, they usually reject a microelectronics application because the Moon is made out of green cheese. But this is a result of them being only given 8 (count 'em 8) hours to handle the entire application. What the fuck quality job do to expect from that?
You want better work? Have Congress stop raiding their budget to add to the General Fund. Congress sees the PTO as a profit center not a technical resource.
Now, Mr. Paranoid-Delusional, you go see a mental health worker and get some of your issues resolved. I know I am supposed to laugh and do "Ha ha, how drool that he claims corruption.", but in reality it just gets fucking old.
2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions. A. This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time.
OK let us do some legal parsing of the requirement "on a single Apple-labeled computer" Let us assume you have an Apple purchased PC, running Windows. Can you run OSX in a VM under a Windows host. 1) Well, the license requires "on", not "under", not "within" and most damning not "as the operating system of" so as long as the underlying PC is running the software you are "on" the PC. 2) Next, "Apple-labeled" We'll just stipulate this is means an "Apple-branded" or "Apple-sold" computer. No one (especially a judge) is going to go along with the idea that you can just peel off a label and stick on something and voila "Apple-labeled". However, I set up the problem so that you are using a PC purchased from Apple. So, no big deal. 3) "on a... computer" Here Apple has written the license to tie you to the hardware. The physical hardware. It doens't even mention the existance of a VM. With a VM the physical hardwrae ultimatly executes the VM's code. So, anything running within the VM is also running "on" the physcal hardware. Now you still need 1 license for each VM as earliier in the senentce you were limited to "one copy". But, if you choose to install and run that one copy in a VM as opposed to directly on the physical hardware you still only have 1 copy.
So, I see no reason why you can't run OSX within a VM if you follow the rules. This may not have been what Apple wanted, but they made the rules we are just playing within them.
Also, if VMWare uses this methodology to test running OSX within a Windows VM I see no legal reason why they can't have support for running OSX within VMWare. They are not selling OSX. You are either breaking the OSX license or not (depending on if you follow the rules). Vmware is not contributing as there are plenty of non-infringing uses for VmWare.
Now VmWare might run into an issue of virtualizing or passing through commands to the Trusted Computing infrastructure OSX needs, but that is a technical issue nto a legal one.
It should be noted that Sec 482 covers both tangible and intengible proprty, & domestic and international transfers. Also, note that the US is odd in that it taxes citizens and corps on theiir worldwide (not just domestic) income (see IRC Sec. 61, "from whatever source derived").
I use this technique; it also works w/ books &
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Games Take Away the Pain
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I use this technique. I get migraines (full on once per 6-8 weeks, mini-migraines once per 2 weeks).
And when I say migraine I don't mean "Oh, my head hurts." I mean "I see bright spots, Now one side of my head feels like a stiletto is being driven into it. I think I'll take a triptan (pill) and lie down and get nauseous for 6-12 hours. Then I think I'll feel weak with random short stiletto pains for 2-7 days." BTW, thank God for triptans. Until 5 years ago the doctor approved remedy was "take two sleeping pills and go to bed". I have trained myself to go unconscious as quickly as possible once a migraine starts. The triptan doesn't solve the initial headache, but it substantially reduces the secondary effects, making me an invalid for only 1-2 days as opposed to a full week.
Playing a game that consumes as much of my attention as possible greatly relieves that pain. And, while I am sure adrenaline doesn't hurt, it isn't needed. Reading a consuming book or watching consuming TV works just as well. Even computer programming works to dull the pain.
But "consuming" is the important point. Crap TV is useless. I have to care more, much more, about what is going on on the screen or in the book than I do about my head.
Another reason games and TV work better than reading, is that the migraine makes it hard to focus on text. The words jump around or bright spots appear in my field of vision. Things that are constantly changing and have large visual areas (vs the pinpoint area for reading) means that I can lose more of the information on the screen and still understand (or not even notice the visual error).
Why is this not in the Poltics section? We all know this is just going to devolve (if it hasn't started there) into an "Christians are stupid."/"Evolution is wrong." forum.
Was there any new scienctific insight that merits inclusion in the Science section of Slashdot? No?
Or was is a political act by a political group?
mmmm. Congratulations you got around my filters/preferences for the frontpage.
Seriously, just remake the damn games. Update the graphics. Move some things behind the scenes (make turn based RPGs pseudo-real time, by not showing the turn changes). Copy all the dialog, maps, etc.
I would love to play some of the RPGs and Simulations (X-Wing/Wing Commander) hits from the 80s/90s on my 2000s system.
Look how well Prince of Persia did and that was a total remake. It would take less people to remake X-Wing, Warcraft I, Balder's Gate, etc. The foundation and structure of a hit game are already there, just replaster the walls and slap some new paint on.
Seems like every time I'm in Europe there is a major strike happening.
Their workers are not as cowed as ours.
Well, the workers are going to be unemployed.
Europe's workers, with their 35 hour work week, are also veiwed as extremely lazy. I am sure that most of these strikers just look at this as another holiday.
People wonder why Europe has a skyhigh unemployment rate. Yeah, the luxurious dole (human, right, human right, what itn't a human right now a days?) is part of it, but really why the Hell would a company want to actually base very much of its workforce in Europe? You'll just get regulated and struck to death. At least Ireland is tolerable.
And on to the dole.
Has anyone else noticed Europe's amazing shrinking and aging population? Europe doesn't have enough taxable workers to support their welfare state beyond another 10-20 years. Europe's aged population will be such a burden on the public health and pension system that Europe will need about double the workers they have now to support it. Europeans are choosing not to have children. One of the things they kept from the Enlightenment was an overwhelming sense of nihilism that makes suicide by lack of procreation preferable to working to maintain their civilization.
Oh, yes Europe is getting plenty of immigrants, mostly Muslim. And when the immigrants are not murdering Dutch film makers or harassing gays in Amsterdam, Europe is pouring buckets of shit on them. Multiculturalism, an excuse for immigrants not to accept the culture of their new homeland, is forcing a divide and hostility between immigrants and natives. That is why the native Dutch are fleeing their homeland in droves. How long until the rest of Europe starts to encounter a Continental version of "white flight?"
So, in a few decades, these (mostly Muslim) immigrants that Atheist Europe shits on are going to be the workers paying for Europe's massive public health, pension, and welfare system. How likely do you think it will be that when these abused immigrants hold a majority that they will vote to continue transferring their wealth to a bunch of infidels?
Enjoy your socialist utopia, for the generation it has left.
Slashdot Mirror
Because that doesn't advance the correct political agenda.
"We must distinguish between mere bourgeois science, which is concerned with sterile facts and predictions, and Revolutionary Science, which is concerned with what will promote the Revolution."
it's true that I was taught North America was all but unpopulated when Europeans first arrived
This is true for most places in the Americas.
.
Plague, inadvertently and inherently brought by very very early Spanish sailors, wiped out massive massive numbers of Native Americas. And it tended to travel faster than Europeans could colonize.
The Pilgrims built their settlement on top of a Native American settlement. Why? Because a few years before the Pilgrims, plague had come through and killed off all the Indians there. Also part of the reason the natives near the Pilgrims needed allies (i.e. the Pilgrims) against their lesser killed off enemies.
Native Americans just hadn't had their asses kicked by small pox, Bubonic plague, and a ton of other illnesses over a few centuries. And, therefore, had no defenses to the illnesses.
The massive death of the Indians lead the Spanish to import African slaves for their plantation system, instead of solely relying on Native American slaves. (As an aside you'll notice the further north in the continents you go the better the slaves/natives were treated.)
And, how do you think the Conquistadors were able to conquer so much with so few men? The natives had just gotten their asses kicked by illness. Hell, the Incan civil war that allowed Pizarro to conquer them was a direct result of their leaders dying from European illnesses about 5-10 years BEFORE Pizarro even showed up.
.
Think of HG Wells "War of the Worlds" except in reverse. Instead of the invaders (the Martians/Europeans) being killed off by a germ/virus, the invaded (Earthlings/Indians) got killed off.
And remember the Europeans (a) thought these illness were normal, and (b) had no germ theory of illness (remember they were still cutting themselves to adjust their humours). So, the transmission of the illness was totally inadvertent.
.
So, yeah, when a lot of Europeans showed up, the continents were pretty empty. Especially the English/French who showed up much later than the Spanish, which gave the germs a lot of time to work their way through North America.
WMC is "good enough" but you really want something like MediaBrowser is you have a lot of ripped DVDs or saved videos.
It is currently free and open sourced.
Although the authors want to move to a pay but open source model, mostly due to the popularity of it and how that eats into their time. They seem a bit slow to move onto that model however.
MB will automatically pull metadata info from the TVDB and Movie DB (open APIs) for your movies and videos (assuming they are named in a way MB understands).
Based upon that metadata it'll do genre/studio/release date sorting, and keeps track of your watch & partly-watched videos.
Has about 3-4 themes (supported by the respective authors) and within those themes a series of views (poster, banner, coverflow, thumbnail, etc.).
Also MB had a Music plug-in in the works (haven't tried it).
And it can handle VMC and W7MC recorded videos. (also haven't tried personally)
You can also look towards MyMovies but that is really DVD-centric. Although it is a great source for movie metadata.
WMC is "good enough" but you really want something like MediaBrowser is you have a lot of ripped DVDs or saved videos.
It is currently free and open sourced.
Although the authors want to move to a pay but open source model, mostly due to the popularity of it and how that eats into their time. They seem a bit slow to move onto that model however.
MB will automatically pull metadata info from the TVDB and Movie DB (open APIs) for your movies and videos (assuming they are named in a way MB understands).
Based upon that metadata it'll do genre/studio/release date sorting, and keeps track of your watch & partly-watched videos.
Has about 3-4 themes (supported by the respective authors) and within those themes a series of views (poster, banner, coverflow, thumbnail, etc.).
You can also look towards MyMovies but that is really DVD-centric. Although it is a great source for movie metadata.
This will be an Eminent Domain bonanza!!!!
This is just a land grab trifecta
1) you have Kelo v. City of New London saying that any taking by the government is for "the public use", allowing the government to openly grab land at eminent domain prices and give it to their developer friends
2) you then have the EPA marking land as "brownfield" (i.e. bad bad very bad, not superfund bad, but bad), allowing the government to pay below eminent domain prices (i.e. rock bottom prices, "either your signature or brains will be on this contract" negotiation).
3) finally you have this being "Green". So, no court or citizens can morally oppose this (or else you hate the Earth, bad person)
4 or 3B, because "Green" is a double, a gift that keeps on giving) because this is "Green" your developer friends will get further government subsidies for building.
Man, they are good at graft and bribery in Chicago.
The average attorney salary is ~$60k per year. And that is with $300k+/yr equity partners pulling the average up.
I was in my 1st year of law school when I found out that I was making more as an engineer (BSEE) than most lawyers were making. (Fortunately, my company was paying for school & guaranteeing me a job upon graduation that involved a pay-grade jump every year for 4 years.)
The truth is, there are just too many lawyers.
Most of them can't find a job in a "real" law firm. So, instead they have to hang-up their own shingle and become sole practitioners.
Sole practitioners usually take DUI cases or other minor disputes, often for clients that decide they're unhappy with the outcome and refuse to pay.
Sole practitioners also get to be taxed on both halves of self-employment taxes, pay their own benefits and business insurance.
Good times.
Add on top of that law school is ~$100k, which most people take out loans for.
So, if you go to law school chances are high you'll graduate with the equivalent of a mortgage and no job.
It really doesn't make financial sense to get a law degree unless you have a lucrative specialty (e.g., patent or admiralty law), go to a cheap state school (e.g., ASU), or feel a moral duty akin to the priesthood.
1) A patent is a NEGATIVE right, not a positive right. ...
A patent doesn't give me the right to practice my invention, only prevent others from doing so.
For example,
I can patent an improvement to a GM engine (which they have patents on).
But, because GM has existing patents on their engine, you can't start making knock-off GM engines that include your invention.
Now, if you are clever, you can make an adapter kit that, once someone has bought a GM engine from GM, they can adapt their GM engine to make use of your invention.
The reason is, patents tend to be layered unto of one another.
So, requiring that people sell their invention won't work because it tramples on other's patents.
This is why some industries (e.g., semi-conductors) rely on cross-licensing deals.
2) The patent system is already a two-way street.
You give the public knowledge of your invention (versus keeping it a trade secret), and the government gives you an invention.
If you aren't willing to pay that price (give up your trade secret) you can go the Coke formula route and hope that no one comes up with a Pepsi or RC for your product.
Not that patent trolls aren't a problem, it is just that your solutions assume a different architecture than exists.
OK, first off I love Netflix Video On Demand feature. It was in fact one of the main reasons I setup my Media Center.
I suggest either Anthony Perkin's (IIRC) MyNetflix plugin or the better vmcNetflix plugin (both for Vista)
But here is the deal:
What you get is essentially VHS. Both in terms of features & resolution.
No subsitiles option (forgien you have them; English you don't)
No menus and therefore no special features.
Selection:
This is an odd mix.
You don't have the full Netflix selection.
New releases are hit and miss. It really depends on what the studios let Netflix put on there.
The selection compaired to other VoD systems is very good. Especially the TV shows (which aren't in HD anyhow).
Also I al amazed by how quickly they are adding titles to the VoD service
So, Netflix VoD is not a replacement for TV.
Or cable VoD services (for new releases)
However, with your normal Netflix subscription (~$15) it is free. And that makes a huge difference.
Now I have a massive selection of shows I can watch anytime I want. I have access to TV shows that really aren't rerun anymore.
The US is a nation of immigrants. Even those of us (or more accurately our families) who have been here since it was New Amsterdam have that sense of being immigrants.
Which, on tangential note, is why the closing of the frontier hurt the character of this country.
Now what the US does (and used to do better, but we are still good at it) is brain drain the rest of the world. Immigration is a filtering process. It is hard. You have to have a high level of ambition, "get-up and go" to even make it from your continent to ours (even make it to Canada, which is easier).
The typical 3 generation scheme for immigration is (and you can see this clearly in the Mexican/Latino/Chicano/Hispanic immigrants) 1st generation, works shitting menial jobs, and works them hard & speaks little English; 2nd generation makes soundly into the middle class, proud to go college, speaks both English & their ancestral tongue; 3rd generation fully assimilated, expects to go to college as a right, is kind of comfortable and lazy, wonders why Grandma speaks that funny language.
In the 19th century Europe used to go out and bring resources from the rest of the world back to Europe (the Belgian Congo being the most brutal, IIRC). Now, the US leaves the physical resources (or pays a pretty good amount for them, relatively) but takes the best people.
So, what gets into the US is some of the best and brightest the foreign country has to offer. They of course can out compete the US students. Especially, when Grad School is their ticket into the country and jobs.
Now, what used to happen was that these people stayed in the US. Now with easy air travel and globalization, they are returning to their countries of origin.
What is going on with Apple?
Let us count how bad this product launch is:
1) 33% price cut for the iPhone, which threw early adopters in a fit, and then the $100 "rebate".
2) iPod touch is crippled. The Bluetooth is physically there (supposedly) but not enabled. No editing calender appointments. No Notes app or the other apps from iPhone. Screen issues with the contrast & blackness versus the iPhone.
3) iPod Classic, slower less responsive UI. Old Video accessories don't work with the iClassic.
4) iPod Nano, the FatPod. Same slower UI as the Classic. No memory increase.
Seriously, in 10 days Apple seems to have found a way to piss everyone off. Now they go after the Linux community. How badly have they bungled this product launch?
1) As a non-iPhone owner or wanter, the brew-ha-ha over the $200 price cut irritates me not because of the price cut but the reaction is such that you better believe Apple won't ever make similar price cuts in the future.
Plus you know a 16GB iPhone will come out as soon as the iPhone is released in Europe.
2) Once again, the iTouch will be jailbreaked and the iPhone apps ported to the iTouch, but this type of needless product differentiation crippling cause bad will. And, this hacking may break whenever Apple releases a firmware update. For example, the Linux lock-out of this story.
Apple could have just given people the product they want in the first place. As the screams of people have shown, there is a market for a phoneless iPhone.
The screen issues are unfixable but possibly explained by manufacturing variables.
3) The iClassic is the least changed and therefore least disliked of the new products. The software (DRM) incompatibility with video accessories is unnecessary.
4) Now the FatPod is merely ugly. It is a shame about the less responsive UI. And really it was time to bump up the storage to 16gb. One wonders if the storage was capped at 8Gb in an attempt to differentiate this versus the iTouch. After all if they are needlessly crippling the iTouch why not nerf the FatPod?
Is it just hurbis that has gotten Apple's head so far up its ass, or is this just a cyclical Apple implosion? If the latter, we are in for a few more years of Apple stupidity before they re-emerge with some new wonder product.
Judges have huge ego issues. ... pretty much literally in their courtrooms. They can't have you killed but they can have you locked up ... indefinably. They can ruin the lawyer's livelihood. They can ruin you financially. They can restrict where to go and what to do.
... too bad, the contempt order is not appealable, you have to sit in jail until the appeals court overturns the underlying ruling on Issue X.
They can't stand to be told that they are wrong. When they are told that they cite you for contempt.
You have to understand that the courtroom is the last vestige of unfettered "aristocratic" power in America. They are Kings
And contempt orders really are not appealable.
The judge, even if they are wrong, can fuck you over any way they want with a contempt order. The classic (and it has been a long time since I read it) case on contempt orders was Martin Luther King. Judge ruled wrongly on Issue X. Cited King for contempt, as part of that. The appealed running was
You really can't go back and sue the judge for damages under that either. They have judicial immunity. The most you can do is try to get them not elected next time and if they are Federal judges they have life tenure.
You get used to that power. You get used to everyone acting in an sycophantic manner towards you. You get used to a world, where people are not allowed to say "No" to you. Then you become unable to handle criticism, however justified however politely worded.
And of course, if the judge wants to act improperly or say something nasty, they just ask the court reporter to stop recording. You, on the other hand, don't have that luxury.
Also, remember when you have an issue with a judge who do you take it up with? Another judge. No conflict of interest there.
So, yeah. The judge is an idiot. Because they have the power to be an idiot and get away with it.
Whatever the law is for telegraphs should be the law for emails.
7 _06_23.shtml#1182181742
It is basically the same things 1s & 0s (long & short dashes) transmitted over copper wires (or fiber now a days) relayed by a machine or person (depending on the tech).
And even when relayed by a machine the Admin of the machine can read any email on the server. Email passes through multiple servers, at least the sending SMTP and the receiving POP/IMAP machines. I have no control over my ISP's POP server or the Admin thereof.
I assume there was no expectation of privacy in a telegraph and there should be none in an email. It would be nice, but it ain't how it works.
And now for some commentary from a real lawyer.
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_06_17-200
[Orin Kerr, June 18, 2007 at 11:49am] Trackbacks
Sixth Circuit Blockbuster on E-Mail Privacy: In an earlier blog post on a pending case in the Sixth Circuit, Warshak v. United States, I figured there was no way the court would get to the merits of the Fourth Amendment issue lurking in the case: there were no facts yet and no decided statutory law, and surely the panel wouldn't be so reckless as to presumptively strike down a federal statute in the absence of facts or law given the procedural problems with the case. I had a funny feeling things would turn out differently when I learned who was on the panel, though, and that funny feeling turned out to be justified: the panel just issued a blockbuster decision that tries to answer how the Fourth Amendment applies to e-mail (all without any facts, amazingly) based on arguments from amicus briefs that the government didn't address all in the context of an appeal from a preliminary injunction. Wow. More on the decision later today.
UPDATE: Here's the key part of the opinion:
[Start Quote]
[W]e have little difficulty agreeing with the district court that individuals maintain a reasonable expectation of privacy in e-mails that are stored with, or sent or received through, a commercial ISP. The content of e-mail is something that the user "seeks to preserve as private," and therefore "may be constitutionally protected." Katz, 389 U.S. at 351. It goes without saying that like the telephone earlier in our history, e-mail is an ever-increasing mode of private communication, and protecting shared communications through this medium is as important to Fourth Amendment principles today as protecting telephone conversations has been in the past. See Katz, 389 U.S. at 352 ("To read the Constitution more narrowly is to ignore the vital role that the public telephone has come to play in private communication.")
[End Quote]
Notably, the court's Fourth Amendent analysis combines aspects of the probabilistic, private facts, positive law and policy model (the above-quoted section being from the policy model section).
PowerDVD
... mmm ... 5 years ago when they finally dropped below $100. It doesn't do sound or subtitles during fast forward. Nor does it do 1.?x speeds. Just 1, 2, 4, & 8x. Whereas PowerDVD has 1, 1.1, 1.2, 1.5, 2, and up to 32x. Normally I watch at either 1.1 or 1.2x.
Yeah, I have to use a PC. Well, my laptop.
I usually copy a DVD or 3 to my laptop before going on a business trip. NetFlix has gotten me so DVD dependent that I can't watch normal TV anymore. So, the hotel TV is out (unless HBO just happens to have something on). (I am always stunned when I watch CNN that that is what network news has devolved into. 2-3 people screaming.)
My wife would never handle the 1.2x speed for things she watches.
My actual DVD player appliance that I bought
I used to hook my laptop up to the TV via the S-Video port, but that is cumbersome.
I have noticed that the older I get the louder I need music to be. Especially voice.
... Really who the Hell could actually stand "A Scanner Darkley" at normal speed?)
In fact I am 35 and I watch all DVDs with the subtitles. (Of course, part of that is that I watch a lot of DVDs at 1.2x to 2x speed, but
But back to my point, as I age I am less and less able to sift background noise from speech.
And we now live in an aging society.
Because civilization depends on having children. How many new workers entering the workforce will you have in 20 years? Well it depends on how many kids are born today. Workers, citizens, et al, have a 20 year pipeline. And yes we can import immigrants but how many? And can we assimilate them?
You bitch about offshoring and H1-B visas. Well the solution is to have more kids. The ideal solution would have been to have more kids 20 years ago.
Demographics is destiny. If you don't reproduce your world view won't be around when you are not.
The design flaw of the secular social-democratic state is that it requires a religious-society birthrate to sustain it. Post-Christian hyperrationalism is, in the objective sense, a lot less rational than Catholicism or Mormonism. Indeed, in its reliance on immigration to ensure its future, the European Union has adopted a 21st-century variation on the strategy of the Shakers, who were forbidden from reproducing and thus could increase their numbers only by conversion. The problem is that secondary-impulse societies mistake their weaknesses for strengths--or, at any rate, virtues--and that's why they're proving so feeble at dealing with a primal force like Islam.
What's the better bet? A globalization that exports cheeseburgers and pop songs or a globalization that exports the fiercest aspects of its culture? When it comes to forecasting the future, the birthrate is the nearest thing to hard numbers. If only a million babies are born in 2006, it's hard to have two million adults enter the workforce in 2026 (or 2033, or 2037, or whenever they get around to finishing their Anger Management and Queer Studies degrees). And the hard data on babies around the Western world is that they're running out a lot faster than the oil is. "Replacement" fertility rate--i.e., the number you need for merely a stable population, not getting any bigger, not getting any smaller--is 2.1 babies per woman. Some countries are well above that: the global fertility leader, Somalia, is 6.91, Niger 6.83, Afghanistan 6.78, Yemen 6.75. Notice what those nations have in common?
Scroll way down to the bottom of the Hot One Hundred top breeders and you'll eventually find the United States, hovering just at replacement rate with 2.07 births per woman. Ireland is 1.87, New Zealand 1.79, Australia 1.76. But Canada's fertility rate is down to 1.5, well below replacement rate; Germany and Austria are at 1.3, the brink of the death spiral; Russia and Italy are at 1.2; Spain 1.1, about half replacement rate. That's to say, Spain's population is halving every generation. By 2050, Italy's population will have fallen by 22%, Bulgaria's by 36%, Estonia's by 52%. In America, demographic trends suggest that the blue states ought to apply for honorary membership of the EU: In the 2004 election, John Kerry won the 16 with the lowest birthrates; George W. Bush took 25 of the 26 states with the highest. By 2050, there will be 100 million fewer Europeans, 100 million more Americans--and mostly red-state Americans.
As fertility shrivels, societies get older--and Japan and much of Europe are set to get older than any functioning societies have ever been. And we know what comes after old age. These countries are going out of business--unless they can find the will to change their ways. Is that likely? I don't think so. If you look at European election results--most recently in Germany--it's hard not to conclude that, while voters are unhappy with their political establishments, they're unhappy mainly because they resent being asked to reconsider their government benefits and, no matter how unaffordable they may be a generation down the road, they have no intention of seriously reconsidering them. The Scottish executive recently backed down from a proposal to raise the retirement age of Scottish public workers. It's presently 60, which is nice but unaffordable. But the reaction of the average Scots worker is that that's somebody else's problem. The average German worker now puts in 22% fewer hours
TITLE 26 > Subtitle A > CHAPTER 1 > Subchapter B > PART I > 61
61. Gross income defined
(a) General definition
Except as otherwise provided in this subtitle, gross income means all income from whatever source derived, including (but not limited to) the following items:
(1) Compensation for services, including fees, commissions, fringe benefits, and similar items;
(2) Gross income derived from business;
(3) Gains derived from dealings in property;
(4) Interest;
(5) Rents;
(6) Royalties;
(7) Dividends;
(8) Alimony and separate maintenance payments;
(9) Annuities;
(10) Income from life insurance and endowment contracts;
(11) Pensions;
(12) Income from discharge of indebtedness;
(13) Distributive share of partnership gross income;
(14) Income in respect of a decedent; and
(15) Income from an interest in an estate or trust.
(b) Cross references
For items specifically included in gross income, see part II (sec. 71 and following). For items specifically excluded from gross income, see part III (sec. 101 and following).
Let me repeat:
"gross income means all income from whatever source derived"
What is so hard to understand about that?
What tax student didn't think this was taxable? It is the same as the barter-club people back in the 1980s.
Yeah, I stopped trying to use OO when I ran into its poor support for line numbering and more complex documents.
... come on.
Now I like the OO ethos and idea, but I have invested too much time into learning how to get Word to do what I want to throw all that away (why I fear Office Vista).
All day long at work I need to create documents like this:
Section 1: no line numbers, special header/footer
Sections 2-6: line numbers every 5 lines, restarting at each page. And paragraph numbers (I use numbered lists), numbering continuing from the previous section. Basically I use a style for the paragraph numbering as some paragraphs (section titles) aren't numbered and don't count.
Section 5+n+2 (i.e. section 7 and odd until section 40): line numbers each line, restarting each section. No paragraph numbers.
Section 6+n+2 (i.e. section 8 and even until section 40): no line or paragraph numbers
Section 40: same as sections 2-6
Section 41: no line or paragraph numbers, different header/footers
I have no clue how to create this with OO, and i tried. Importing it in from Word results in OO picking one sections line numbering scheme and using that throughout the document. I guess I could use 41 documents with different line numbering schemes, but
There are also documents that I have to create a Table of Contents using 2 of Word's 3 methods of making a TOC (bookmarks & styles). I have yet to try that in OO, but have little hope for it.
I think OO is fine as long as you don't get too fancy. After that it starts to fall apart or operate in a way that is totally different from Word, which I have invested 18 years (Christ I am old) learning.
Now granted Word is far from perfect, but I have learned to get around most of its problems. I never trust a new feature until it has been in 3-4 Word versions. I try to stick with what I learned for Word 4 for Macintosh. For example, I would love to use the TaskPane to create a dynamic template where I checked off boxes and sections magically appeared or disappeared. But I have no faith that the TaskPane survived the Office UI restart. Plus, while cool and involving coding, the time I save would probably never equal the time I sunk into making the dynamic template.
So, OO good for normal document usage. Not so good for complex documents. Especially if you have invested heavily in using Word.
I agree. My problem with iTunes is that $2 per show (regardless of time) is just too damn much. That comes out to $40 per season for a 20 episode season. Well, on Amazon the DVDs run $20-30. On NetFlix they are a sunk cost. Why buy on iTunes?
... could you hurry up with DVDs of all the seasons of Amazing Race and more Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere? Come on man, that you can make a sale of off.
Now I was bored once and decided to try iTunes-Videos out, but I couldn't find anything I wanted to watch. And the more I searched the more the $2 per episode bugged me. A 1 hour show, $2. A 30 minute show $2. If I think $2 is too much for an hour show, why would I spend $2 on half that? They really need to make the price per hour, versus per episode.
I want to know how much revenue the TV stations get in advertising per hour, per viewer. I looked it up once and (while it wasn't easily available) I believe it was about $0.25 per hour per viewer. Why am I being charged 8 times that?
Look if you want me to buy something transient (iTunes) it should cost significantly less than if I buy it in a substantially permanent form (DVDs). Also if you want me to buy something with out extra features (e.g. closed captioning, commentary, etc., and once again I am looking at you iTunes) it needs to be cheaper than something with those features (DVDs). But it isn't, it is more expensive. So, I am not buying.
Plus, I don't have cable (once again, fails the price to reward test) and even disconnected my OTA attena in the last reorganization of my house. So, no chance of even watching anything that is broadcast.
I only watch about 6 shows (Stargate: SG/Atlan, BSG, AU's Next Top Model, Amazing Race) when they air. Those shows aren't even on at the same time (year-wise, not week/time-wise). I can't even get AU's NTM in the US. So, I'll keep downloading them. Really if I was forced to, I would wait for the SciFi shows to come on DVD (like I do for the HBO shows [Wire, Deadwood, Rome]).
And if you are in the TV industry
OK SlimShadey, I work with/against the PTO. If we could bribe them we probably would, but we can't and don't, and it certainly wouldn't be worth my livelihood if I got caught. I am sorry that incompetence is really what it is.
You are dealing with (on both sides) a bureaucracy . A bureaucracy that involves somewhat competent but bored and certainly overworked people, where both sides are measured Draconianly on their "efficiency". Which means that both sides are racing to get through the current patent application and on to the next one, and whatever route gets you to the end most quickly with the highest hourly/disposal rates is what you have a tendency to do. Sometime I get a through and competent Office Action from the PTO, but it is rare and I hate it (while admiring the dedication to the job the Examiner showed) because it makes me slow down and do my job in that idealized way this are supposed to work. Because in reality patent applications are fought on technicalities. For example, "I sorry, Sec 103 (as clearly shown in your training manual) has a 3 part test, you only did part 1; so, my client gets his patent."
Yeah the Examiner rarely understands the technology. And yeah they usually issue a rejection by comparing the figures of 2 patents to each other. And, yes, they usually reject a microelectronics application because the Moon is made out of green cheese. But this is a result of them being only given 8 (count 'em 8) hours to handle the entire application. What the fuck quality job do to expect from that?
You want better work? Have Congress stop raiding their budget to add to the General Fund. Congress sees the PTO as a profit center not a technical resource.
Now, Mr. Paranoid-Delusional, you go see a mental health worker and get some of your issues resolved.
I know I am supposed to laugh and do "Ha ha, how drool that he claims corruption.", but in reality it just gets fucking old.
2. Permitted License Uses and Restrictions.
... computer" Here Apple has written the license to tie you to the hardware. The physical hardware. It doens't even mention the existance of a VM. With a VM the physical hardwrae ultimatly executes the VM's code. So, anything running within the VM is also running "on" the physcal hardware. Now you still need 1 license for each VM as earliier in the senentce you were limited to "one copy". But, if you choose to install and run that one copy in a VM as opposed to directly on the physical hardware you still only have 1 copy.
A. This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time.
OK let us do some legal parsing of the requirement "on a single Apple-labeled computer"
Let us assume you have an Apple purchased PC, running Windows. Can you run OSX in a VM under a Windows host.
1) Well, the license requires "on", not "under", not "within" and most damning not "as the operating system of" so as long as the underlying PC is running the software you are "on" the PC.
2) Next, "Apple-labeled" We'll just stipulate this is means an "Apple-branded" or "Apple-sold" computer. No one (especially a judge) is going to go along with the idea that you can just peel off a label and stick on something and voila "Apple-labeled". However, I set up the problem so that you are using a PC purchased from Apple. So, no big deal.
3) "on a
So, I see no reason why you can't run OSX within a VM if you follow the rules. This may not have been what Apple wanted, but they made the rules we are just playing within them.
Also, if VMWare uses this methodology to test running OSX within a Windows VM I see no legal reason why they can't have support for running OSX within VMWare. They are not selling OSX. You are either breaking the OSX license or not (depending on if you follow the rules). Vmware is not contributing as there are plenty of non-infringing uses for VmWare.
Now VmWare might run into an issue of virtualizing or passing through commands to the Trusted Computing infrastructure OSX needs, but that is a technical issue nto a legal one.
Well done.
Now for those wishing extra reading, Google for "Transfer Pricing for Intangible Property under Section 482"
That is Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Sec 482 (26 U.S.C. 482).
Explained in more depth in Treasury Regulation 1.482-1(a)(1), et al. (scroll down).
It should be noted that Sec 482 covers both tangible and intengible proprty, & domestic and international transfers. Also, note that the US is odd in that it taxes citizens and corps on theiir worldwide (not just domestic) income (see IRC Sec. 61, "from whatever source derived").
I use this technique. I get migraines (full on once per 6-8 weeks, mini-migraines once per 2 weeks).
And when I say migraine I don't mean "Oh, my head hurts." I mean "I see bright spots, Now one side of my head feels like a stiletto is being driven into it. I think I'll take a triptan (pill) and lie down and get nauseous for 6-12 hours. Then I think I'll feel weak with random short stiletto pains for 2-7 days."
BTW, thank God for triptans. Until 5 years ago the doctor approved remedy was "take two sleeping pills and go to bed". I have trained myself to go unconscious as quickly as possible once a migraine starts. The triptan doesn't solve the initial headache, but it substantially reduces the secondary effects, making me an invalid for only 1-2 days as opposed to a full week.
Playing a game that consumes as much of my attention as possible greatly relieves that pain. And, while I am sure adrenaline doesn't hurt, it isn't needed. Reading a consuming book or watching consuming TV works just as well. Even computer programming works to dull the pain.
But "consuming" is the important point. Crap TV is useless. I have to care more, much more, about what is going on on the screen or in the book than I do about my head.
Another reason games and TV work better than reading, is that the migraine makes it hard to focus on text. The words jump around or bright spots appear in my field of vision. Things that are constantly changing and have large visual areas (vs the pinpoint area for reading) means that I can lose more of the information on the screen and still understand (or not even notice the visual error).
Why is this not in the Poltics section?
We all know this is just going to devolve (if it hasn't started there) into an "Christians are stupid."/"Evolution is wrong." forum.
Was there any new scienctific insight that merits inclusion in the Science section of Slashdot? No?
Or was is a political act by a political group?
mmmm.
Congratulations you got around my filters/preferences for the frontpage.
Seriously, just remake the damn games.
Update the graphics. Move some things behind the scenes (make turn based RPGs pseudo-real time, by not showing the turn changes). Copy all the dialog, maps, etc.
I would love to play some of the RPGs and Simulations (X-Wing/Wing Commander) hits from the 80s/90s on my 2000s system.
Look how well Prince of Persia did and that was a total remake. It would take less people to remake X-Wing, Warcraft I, Balder's Gate, etc. The foundation and structure of a hit game are already there, just replaster the walls and slap some new paint on.
Seems like every time I'm in Europe there is a major strike happening.
Their workers are not as cowed as ours.
Well, the workers are going to be unemployed.
Europe's workers, with their 35 hour work week, are also veiwed as extremely lazy. I am sure that most of these strikers just look at this as another holiday.
People wonder why Europe has a skyhigh unemployment rate. Yeah, the luxurious dole (human, right, human right, what itn't a human right now a days?) is part of it, but really why the Hell would a company want to actually base very much of its workforce in Europe? You'll just get regulated and struck to death. At least Ireland is tolerable.
And on to the dole.
Has anyone else noticed Europe's amazing shrinking and aging population? Europe doesn't have enough taxable workers to support their welfare state beyond another 10-20 years. Europe's aged population will be such a burden on the public health and pension system that Europe will need about double the workers they have now to support it. Europeans are choosing not to have children. One of the things they kept from the Enlightenment was an overwhelming sense of nihilism that makes suicide by lack of procreation preferable to working to maintain their civilization.
Oh, yes Europe is getting plenty of immigrants, mostly Muslim. And when the immigrants are not murdering Dutch film makers or harassing gays in Amsterdam, Europe is pouring buckets of shit on them. Multiculturalism, an excuse for immigrants not to accept the culture of their new homeland, is forcing a divide and hostility between immigrants and natives. That is why the native Dutch are fleeing their homeland in droves. How long until the rest of Europe starts to encounter a Continental version of "white flight?"
So, in a few decades, these (mostly Muslim) immigrants that Atheist Europe shits on are going to be the workers paying for Europe's massive public health, pension, and welfare system. How likely do you think it will be that when these abused immigrants hold a majority that they will vote to continue transferring their wealth to a bunch of infidels?
Enjoy your socialist utopia, for the generation it has left.