yeah right because all those scientists in the biotech companys have no clue. You are perhaps familiar with the iconographic pointy-haired manager? Biotech companies have a LOT more people than just the scientists with their hands in the pot.
They will take notice of a sign that says "Maximum clearance" though.:) Take it one step further - build a "Welcome to Whereversville" sign that crosses the entire road at a very low height. Make it cheap and easily replaceable. Make the truckers knock that sign down and risk damage to their vehicles long before they get to "the point of no return" where they can actually hurt the town and its residents.
How can you ensure the author's rights to fair compensation in a world where files are so easy to duplicate? It's clear that there is a business model issue here, so how would you fix it? Write on contract only. The contract can be with a single person with a ton of dollars or a ton of people each with a single dollar, or somewhere in between. Once the work is finished, collect your money and then publish it to the public domain. Viola! Ease of duplication is no longer the creator's enemy -- it is now their friend as each person who copies the finished work is no longer stealing from the creator, they are promoting the creator.
1st Objection - How does an author get started? Who is going to pay a penny for an unknown author to write something? 1st Answer - New authors just have to suck it up, the way the majority already do today and give away some of their work in order to develop a reputation.
2nd Objection - How is an author going to make a bazillion gazillion dollars if their book is super-duper popular? The price is fixed before release, what if they under-price it? 2nd Answer - If the book is super-duper popular, by definition that means there will be lots and lots of people who liked it enough to pony up for the NEXT book. So the author can increase their asking price for their next work based on the popularity of their previous work.
3rd Objection - How can millions of people all pay a dollar each to an author's escrow account? 3rd Answer - They can't, at least not without a lot of overhead. Today. But that's just a business opportunity waiting for the right person to come along and start the next paypal.
4th Objection - What if nobody is willing to pay the author's asking price? 4th Answer - That's business. Either lower the price, or cancel the offer. At least this way very little time and money gets spent on creating a product that no one wants to buy. It ain't a perfect system but at least the feedback comes from the actual consumers rather than some intermediate businessman whose only purpose is to sell eyeballs for advertising dollars.
From your own link:
This means that if you ship GStreamer with our binary mp3 plug-in, you need to be sure that you don't ship any GPL-licensed plug-ins that could end up being used together with the mp3 plug-in, as this would violate the GPL. Kinda puts the kibosh on the whole GStreamer concept doesn't it?
Not only that, but we now have some sort of government-manufactured rule-based system that assigns risk to 'potential terrorists'. Just wait for the inevitable leak of their methodology (via stolen laptops, incompetence, etc.) and you just gave real terrorists a way to evade suspicion. Hell, if they take any action at all based on these "profiles" then that's the leak right there. All these terrorists have to do is send in people and see if they get treated any differently.
And if these "do-gooders" are not going to take any action based on these "profiles" then what the fuck is the point of profiling in the first place?
How is it a silver lining that Congress may reconsider Congressionally mandated Federal control over the internet in the United States? Because they've got a pretty good track record so far. Net neutrality was the rule of the land until just recently. It is not something new, it is a return to the way it was only a few years ago. In 2005 the SCOTUS ruled that broadband internet was an "information service," and not a "telecommunications service." Thus freeing broadband ISPs from the laws that have enforced "network neutrality" for telephone service for decades.
Why would you need an anonymous network when you're only sharing files licensed under Creative Commons and the like? You do understand that anonymous speech has been a core principle in this country ever since James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay anonymously published the Federalist Papers?
All the newer Taser models record the date/time of each firing, along with duration, and some other data, downloadable via USB. 1) Downloadable - and presumably deletable - via USB. 2) Even if the records are not easily deletable, there's nothing but procedure to stop someone from switching units to one that was not fired. 3) Ain't no way some corrupt LE group is going to volunteer up such records if they don't have - so they won't be available to the local news investigators, nor anyone else seeking to publicize the situation.
You sir, are a fool and will kill someone some day! You're only fooling yourself! You sir, are a tool and will kill someone some day! You're only fooling yourself if you think ''speed kills.''
Zune has occupied the top spot for quite some time. Is this a failure? And it seems that Apple has probably had the other 4 slots out of the top 5. It is entirely possible that all 5 top sellers are very close in actual unit sales, e.g. straight outta my butt:
1) Zune 30,000 sales/month 2) Ipod A 29,000 sales/month 3) Ipod B 28,700 sales/month 4) Ipod C 28,600 sales/month 5) Ipod D 28,500 sales/month
Which would put Apple at almost 115K vs only 30K for MS.
So perhaps not an utter failure, but just being top spot on Amazon without actual sales numbers doesn't really persuade.
Anybody who finds a big difference between an "a" and a "the" just has to be a lawyer... I was thinking the same thing - then I noticed the poster's username is "justizguy" - how appropriate for a lawyer to misspell justice. I think that about sums up the american justiz system...
I often post things from work AC that are about my employer, If your employer has the smarts to figure out who you are when you post stuff about them from home non-AC, then they probably have the smarts to figure out who you are when you post from work as an AC.
They could be helping someone in real need instead, so it's important to avoid accidental dials/calls. Yeah, and it's important that people who call 911 don't give away the fact that they are calling 911 or are even present so that the person they are calling 911 about doesn't find them and blow their heads off.
Two semi-related notes... first, a couple months ago my battery died when I was reporting a street fight. When I checked my voicemail after it was done charging I had an irate message from a cop yelling, "DO NOT HANG UP ON THE BOSTON POLICE!" and threatening me with arrest! What an idiot. Most cops are smart enough not to deliberately record it when they try to abuse their power. I would have made a copy and kept it around, never know when something like that might come in handy.
This is the kind of story that shows up in Risks Digest all the time - an email digest that ought to be mandatory reading for anyone involved in technological development.
Clearly the goal is to reduce bogus 911 calls that occur when a cell phone's keys get accidentally pushed, like in a purse or someone's pocket. But the first question that should have been asked is just how much of a problem are such calls? Yes, we get the occasional anecdote of cell phones gone wild, but is it really such an overwhelming problem that it needs to be fixed at all?
Second, presuming it is so common that 'something must be done' -- then they should have come up with an escalating alarm - like say more than 5 consecutive calls to 911 or more than 10 minutes air-time connected to 911 and the phone plays a short recorded message through the phone so both parties can hear it saying that it is going to start making noise in a few more minutes unless the user - or the 911 operator on the other end - types in a short number to disarm it. Even if the user doesn't know what to do in response to the message, the 911 people will quickly become familiar with such warnings that they will know what to do. (I'm assuming that 911 operators have actual keypads at their stations, that might not be the case.)
if you are going to insist on being a pessimist, i can't help you, and frankly, i would call you stupid for not celebrating when the cause to celebrate is clearly before you Actually I thought you were decidedly stupid for saying that a system of censorship enforced by an oligopoly of distributors is in any way something to celebrate. It doesn't matter one whit if a government board an industry board mandates that a game be kept from general availability - the end result is identical. But I thought it would be rude to call you stupid first.
and credit card companies will yank your merchant account if your store does this and is found out. No they won't. A cash discount is not in violation of their merchant agreements. What is in violation is a surcharge or fee for using a credit card. It's a subtle difference - mainly in wording - but the OP wrote "cash discount" and so his description was correct.
Like the article mentioned, virtual account numbers are great for online purchases. It's one of the first features I look for. Citibank and Bank of America's virtual card services are both pretty nice, allowing you to set a spending limit for each number, as well as expiration dates. I believe Citibank also locks the number to the first merchant who charges to the virtual account. I've been using those numbers with MBNA, now BoA, for almost a decade. So far the biggest problem is their fraud department. MBNA actually made a public statement a few years back that they have never had a single case of fraud involving the virtual numbers. Yet their fraud department has been, and as of this sunday, still remains completely ignorant of them.
For those who don't know, you have to log in to a flash application using the same username/password that you use for access to your online statement. Once logged in you can generate a virtual aka disposable account number with a set limit and set expiration date. If you are using a VISA then BoA's system is also hooked into "Verified by VISA" which some merchants use at point of sale to have the user provide username/password to validate the charge.
But BoA/MBNA's fraud detection system doesn't take any of that into account. You make a charge that it doesn't like, it blocks the charge and deactivates your REAL account until you call them or they call you and validate you. Except the numbnuts doing the validate ask you a bunch of questions that anyone with the username and password that you just used to generate the disposable account number with could answer - e.g. a list of recent charges, your billing address, the method of your most recent payment (online, check, etc).
So, all they succeed in doing is screwing you up if you try to make a big or extraordinary purchase and they don't actually validate anything that a potential crook doesn't already know. It makes me think these fools are taking security lessons from the idiots at the TSA.
Slashdot Mirror
Biotech companies have a LOT more people than just the scientists with their hands in the pot.
1st Objection - How does an author get started? Who is going to pay a penny for an unknown author to write something?
1st Answer - New authors just have to suck it up, the way the majority already do today and give away some of their work in order to develop a reputation.
2nd Objection - How is an author going to make a bazillion gazillion dollars if their book is super-duper popular? The price is fixed before release, what if they under-price it?
2nd Answer - If the book is super-duper popular, by definition that means there will be lots and lots of people who liked it enough to pony up for the NEXT book. So the author can increase their asking price for their next work based on the popularity of their previous work.
3rd Objection - How can millions of people all pay a dollar each to an author's escrow account?
3rd Answer - They can't, at least not without a lot of overhead. Today. But that's just a business opportunity waiting for the right person to come along and start the next paypal.
4th Objection - What if nobody is willing to pay the author's asking price?
4th Answer - That's business. Either lower the price, or cancel the offer. At least this way very little time and money gets spent on creating a product that no one wants to buy. It ain't a perfect system but at least the feedback comes from the actual consumers rather than some intermediate businessman whose only purpose is to sell eyeballs for advertising dollars.
And if these "do-gooders" are not going to take any action based on these "profiles" then what the fuck is the point of profiling in the first place?
What a great idea!
They should get Rowdy Roddy Piper to be their spokesman here too!
Net neutrality was the rule of the land until just recently.
It is not something new, it is a return to the way it was only a few years ago.
In 2005 the SCOTUS ruled that broadband internet was an "information service," and not a "telecommunications service." Thus freeing broadband ISPs from the laws that have enforced "network neutrality" for telephone service for decades.
If you simply must have a real unit of measurement, then I'll give it to you - it is size of exactly one Library of Congress.
Happy?
2) Even if the records are not easily deletable, there's nothing but procedure to stop someone from switching units to one that was not fired.
3) Ain't no way some corrupt LE group is going to volunteer up such records if they don't have - so they won't be available to the local news investigators, nor anyone else seeking to publicize the situation.
It is entirely possible that all 5 top sellers are very close in actual unit sales, e.g. straight outta my butt:
1) Zune 30,000 sales/month
2) Ipod A 29,000 sales/month
3) Ipod B 28,700 sales/month
4) Ipod C 28,600 sales/month
5) Ipod D 28,500 sales/month
Which would put Apple at almost 115K vs only 30K for MS.
So perhaps not an utter failure, but just being top spot on Amazon without actual sales numbers doesn't really persuade.
Finally! The proof I always knew existed!
SETI@Home is an Al Quaeda plot dedicated to the destruction of the universe!
Which is more important?
This is the kind of story that shows up in Risks Digest all the time - an email digest that ought to be mandatory reading for anyone involved in technological development.
Clearly the goal is to reduce bogus 911 calls that occur when a cell phone's keys get accidentally pushed, like in a purse or someone's pocket. But the first question that should have been asked is just how much of a problem are such calls? Yes, we get the occasional anecdote of cell phones gone wild, but is it really such an overwhelming problem that it needs to be fixed at all?
Second, presuming it is so common that 'something must be done' -- then they should have come up with an escalating alarm - like say more than 5 consecutive calls to 911 or more than 10 minutes air-time connected to 911 and the phone plays a short recorded message through the phone so both parties can hear it saying that it is going to start making noise in a few more minutes unless the user - or the 911 operator on the other end - types in a short number to disarm it. Even if the user doesn't know what to do in response to the message, the 911 people will quickly become familiar with such warnings that they will know what to do. (I'm assuming that 911 operators have actual keypads at their stations, that might not be the case.)
Wooosh!
Way to be pedantic!
Now, what exactly did your pedantifilia add to the discussion?
For those who don't know, you have to log in to a flash application using the same username/password that you use for access to your online statement. Once logged in you can generate a virtual aka disposable account number with a set limit and set expiration date. If you are using a VISA then BoA's system is also hooked into "Verified by VISA" which some merchants use at point of sale to have the user provide username/password to validate the charge.
But BoA/MBNA's fraud detection system doesn't take any of that into account. You make a charge that it doesn't like, it blocks the charge and deactivates your REAL account until you call them or they call you and validate you. Except the numbnuts doing the validate ask you a bunch of questions that anyone with the username and password that you just used to generate the disposable account number with could answer - e.g. a list of recent charges, your billing address, the method of your most recent payment (online, check, etc).
So, all they succeed in doing is screwing you up if you try to make a big or extraordinary purchase and they don't actually validate anything that a potential crook doesn't already know. It makes me think these fools are taking security lessons from the idiots at the TSA.