It has no provision regarding eliminating "business method" (read: software) patents. This bill won't do anything but clog up the patent office more with so-called opposition requests.
It would be interesting if the Judiciary committee could be swayed to eliminate software patents. If your congressman is on the committee, let them know how you feel.
I'm going to post now to head off the "OMG the USA has eleventy billion people" trolls.
I had the pleasure of being a volunteer for the recount in Ohio this past presidental election. A hand recount of 3% of the vote in each county was done. It was slow, boring, and incredibly accurate. If you live in an urban area, have 20 or 30 bi-partisan (preferably non-partisan, but that is a different discussion) teams doing recounts. It scales quite well.
It will probably take a few days to get exact results. Exit polls will serve as a check as well as an early indicator of which races you may want to watch (CNN didn't have to wait for any results to call Indiana or Kentucky for Bush).
Something else that should be looked at closely is the blatant trampling of the 5th Amendment in DUI cases.
In many states your license is revoked for 1 year if you refuse to blow into the breathalyzer. Assuming you were under the influence, you'd be incriminating yourself if you do use the breathalyzer.
Many people will reply that having a license is a privlege and can be revoked at the state's whim. I then ask those same people if other privleges such as voting (which is not an inherent right in the USA, but ought to be) should be taken away on the spot if you fail to give the authorities your DNA when they ask for it.
Thanks for pointing that out. The warez shops use BT because its fast, not because it was designed in any way to be good for warez. I think BT is fine just the way it is. When you start decentralizing trackers and adding anonymity, then you sacrifice speed, which is why BT is good.
Everyone seems to want $NEW_FILE_SHARING_PROGRAM to be both fast and anonymous. It isn't going to happen anytime soon. If you want to be anonymous, use MUTE, Freenet, etc. If you want speed, use BT.
As has been repeated ad nauseum in this discussion, the difference is that you have choices in your GNU/Linux distro of choice.
When you set up your distro, you are given a choice of what to install (KDE, Gnome, etc.). When you install WinXP, you are required to install IE 6, WMP 9, etc. This requirement shuts out 3rd-party vendors while keeping MS market share. That is what is illegal -- using one's monopoly in one area to increase market share in another.
I certainly do agree with most of what you said. But I have heard that many traditionalist Muslims are very upset that their culture is being destroyed by "corrupt" (open to debate) western influences.
As far as "hating freedom". It is sad that the discourse is dumbed down to that level. And, as I noted in a previous post,/. must have removed my sarcasm tags when speaking about how they hate freedom.
IIRC, we get much more oil from Canada than one would think. I think its more than we get from OPEC countries. Of course, if someone can provide good data, I stand corrected.
They've got it backwards! We don't want to restrict American information, we want to export as much of it as possible! We have to make the world a safer place by ensuring that every street corner in the world has a McDonalds and Starbucks! Not to mention Plasma TVs and DVD players so that our current enemies are too busy drooling in front of the television to be worried about such a thing as killing Americans! (Don't laugh, I'm halfway serious.)
Halfway is too serious (I apologize in advance if I'm missing your argument). If I'm not mistaken, some people used an airplane as a bomb because of (among other reasons) what you are describing above. This type of "culture exportation" is what is driving fundamentalist thinking in the Muslim world.
Or then again, it may be simply because the "suiciders" "hate freedom".
Its sad because he's absolutely right. The opposition will spin the bill into an "attack on the family" and he'll have a hell of a time defending it. At least it seems that way. We don't have competitive elections in most offices where I live.
You can thank the sheeple, who lack the critical thinking skills to not be swayed by this political propaganda.
I don't have a problem with Indian programmers taking jobs if they are better programmers. I do have a problem with them undercutting me based on the fact that $7/hr in India is luxurious.
A simple bill that ensures that all exporters to our country must have labor standards equal to or better than our own would eliminate unfair advantages.
You'll see each and every IT job go to a country with more rational labor laws.
If that held true, no one in some of the more socalist counties of Europe would hold any "non-outsourceable" jobs. Honestly, businesses make quite a bit of money in Italy and Germany, both countries that have paid vacation and high tax rates. I would venture to guess that those workers are paid "more than they are worth" due to extra-market commie ideals.
So, yes, life would be magically better if employers were forced to pay workers more than the market dictates.
Nine times out of 10 the person on the line can say approximately where they are. That should take no more than 3 seconds. In cases where someone dials, but cannot speak or is forcibly removed from the phone, this is a problem.
Regarding that problem, there are several issues. A traceroute or database of who is using top-level IPs and their locations is a workaround. Perhaps a better idea is new and open VoIP standards. There could be a way to code the "area" into the data packet if an emergency number is dialed. Of course, the end-user must be responsible for keeping this updated.
I watched that documentary. It was quite insightful.
True enough. If corporations are going to be endowed with the rights of people, then they should all be locked away since they are clinically sociopathic.
True enough. Have a look at credit card debt. The jobs are leaving, but the expenses are staying high. Creditors carry very little risk any longer (especially since the signing of the bankruptcy bill). Predatory lending is a great way to bilk those people that use their credit cards for necessary expenses such as medical care.
Most of those laid off get new jobs at reduced wages. The middle class will consume as they are told no matter what their income is. So long as they do, the outsourcing game of 3-card monte will always benefit them.
Slashdot Mirror
Bill info on Thomas
It has no provision regarding eliminating "business method" (read: software) patents. This bill won't do anything but clog up the patent office more with so-called opposition requests.
It would be interesting if the Judiciary committee could be swayed to eliminate software patents. If your congressman is on the committee, let them know how you feel.
You'll be changing your tune when they bust your ass for using ssh.
Recall that China is a dictatorship. There needn't be any due process in order to throw you in a prision for the rest of your life.
I'm going to post now to head off the "OMG the USA has eleventy billion people" trolls.
I had the pleasure of being a volunteer for the recount in Ohio this past presidental election. A hand recount of 3% of the vote in each county was done. It was slow, boring, and incredibly accurate. If you live in an urban area, have 20 or 30 bi-partisan (preferably non-partisan, but that is a different discussion) teams doing recounts. It scales quite well.
It will probably take a few days to get exact results. Exit polls will serve as a check as well as an early indicator of which races you may want to watch (CNN didn't have to wait for any results to call Indiana or Kentucky for Bush).
Judging by your "+2, Funny", I'd say that it was.
Something else that should be looked at closely is the blatant trampling of the 5th Amendment in DUI cases.
In many states your license is revoked for 1 year if you refuse to blow into the breathalyzer. Assuming you were under the influence, you'd be incriminating yourself if you do use the breathalyzer.
Many people will reply that having a license is a privlege and can be revoked at the state's whim. I then ask those same people if other privleges such as voting (which is not an inherent right in the USA, but ought to be) should be taken away on the spot if you fail to give the authorities your DNA when they ask for it.
Touche, good sir!
Next time I get mod points, you'll be up one on the rest.
Hey, I'd like to make sure I get my fill of the ol' lady every 2 or 3 days, but it doesn't always work out that way.
Thanks for pointing that out. The warez shops use BT because its fast, not because it was designed in any way to be good for warez. I think BT is fine just the way it is. When you start decentralizing trackers and adding anonymity, then you sacrifice speed, which is why BT is good.
Everyone seems to want $NEW_FILE_SHARING_PROGRAM to be both fast and anonymous. It isn't going to happen anytime soon. If you want to be anonymous, use MUTE, Freenet, etc. If you want speed, use BT.
OS X doesn't use its monopoly (since it doesn't have one) to increase its market share in another area. Therefore, the argument is moot.
As has been repeated ad nauseum in this discussion, the difference is that you have choices in your GNU/Linux distro of choice.
When you set up your distro, you are given a choice of what to install (KDE, Gnome, etc.). When you install WinXP, you are required to install IE 6, WMP 9, etc. This requirement shuts out 3rd-party vendors while keeping MS market share. That is what is illegal -- using one's monopoly in one area to increase market share in another.
I can't recall who said it, but it rings very true:
"They needed an amendment to the Constitution in order to prohibit alcohol. Why doen't they need one for marijuana, etc?"
You must have missed (among other reasons).
/. must have removed my sarcasm tags when speaking about how they hate freedom.
I certainly do agree with most of what you said. But I have heard that many traditionalist Muslims are very upset that their culture is being destroyed by "corrupt" (open to debate) western influences.
As far as "hating freedom". It is sad that the discourse is dumbed down to that level. And, as I noted in a previous post,
This I know. Bin Laden's fatwa was required reading in my Mid-East Studies course. /. must have filtered my sarcasm tags. :-)
IIRC, we get much more oil from Canada than one would think. I think its more than we get from OPEC countries. Of course, if someone can provide good data, I stand corrected.
They've got it backwards! We don't want to restrict American information, we want to export as much of it as possible! We have to make the world a safer place by ensuring that every street corner in the world has a McDonalds and Starbucks! Not to mention Plasma TVs and DVD players so that our current enemies are too busy drooling in front of the television to be worried about such a thing as killing Americans! (Don't laugh, I'm halfway serious.)
Halfway is too serious (I apologize in advance if I'm missing your argument). If I'm not mistaken, some people used an airplane as a bomb because of (among other reasons) what you are describing above. This type of "culture exportation" is what is driving fundamentalist thinking in the Muslim world.
Or then again, it may be simply because the "suiciders" "hate freedom".
But that solution doesn't use teh 1ntarw3bs. Don't you know that anything you can do can be done better on a computer?
It's got a whole lot of libertarians (sic) now, for whom 'liberty' really only has anything to do with taxes
You misspelled "neo-cons".
The free market is not to be questioned under any circumstances. You will heed the word of Milton Freidman.
In the truest sense of the word, of course.
But then it has no meaning as there is not a single capitalist country in the world.
You have engaged in circular reasoning. Your comment is hereby striken from the record.
Good Day!
Its sad because he's absolutely right. The opposition will spin the bill into an "attack on the family" and he'll have a hell of a time defending it. At least it seems that way. We don't have competitive elections in most offices where I live.
You can thank the sheeple, who lack the critical thinking skills to not be swayed by this political propaganda.
I don't have a problem with Indian programmers taking jobs if they are better programmers. I do have a problem with them undercutting me based on the fact that $7/hr in India is luxurious.
A simple bill that ensures that all exporters to our country must have labor standards equal to or better than our own would eliminate unfair advantages.
You'll see each and every IT job go to a country with more rational labor laws.
If that held true, no one in some of the more socalist counties of Europe would hold any "non-outsourceable" jobs. Honestly, businesses make quite a bit of money in Italy and Germany, both countries that have paid vacation and high tax rates. I would venture to guess that those workers are paid "more than they are worth" due to extra-market commie ideals.
So, yes, life would be magically better if employers were forced to pay workers more than the market dictates.
Nine times out of 10 the person on the line can say approximately where they are. That should take no more than 3 seconds. In cases where someone dials, but cannot speak or is forcibly removed from the phone, this is a problem.
Regarding that problem, there are several issues. A traceroute or database of who is using top-level IPs and their locations is a workaround. Perhaps a better idea is new and open VoIP standards. There could be a way to code the "area" into the data packet if an emergency number is dialed. Of course, the end-user must be responsible for keeping this updated.
I watched that documentary. It was quite insightful.
True enough. If corporations are going to be endowed with the rights of people, then they should all be locked away since they are clinically sociopathic.
True enough. Have a look at credit card debt. The jobs are leaving, but the expenses are staying high. Creditors carry very little risk any longer (especially since the signing of the bankruptcy bill). Predatory lending is a great way to bilk those people that use their credit cards for necessary expenses such as medical care.
Most of those laid off get new jobs at reduced wages. The middle class will consume as they are told no matter what their income is. So long as they do, the outsourcing game of 3-card monte will always benefit them.