According to SONY's own affadavit, Canadians did absolutely nothing to counter this outrage. For my part, I'm incredibly perplexed about why. What public representative would not froth at the opportunity to get themselves publicity by defending the 'little guy'?!!
Thank you so much for setting the record straight. I have had 'SS' on my ticket every time I've flown Jet Blue, but not on any other airline. The thing that bothered me the most was the BS that flew back and forth between the TSA and the airline. It became clear that it was Jet Blue that caused me the hassle but TSA would not say how the process worked.
I now plan to persue a course of action to get them to
a) explain the process by which I was 'randomly' selected (EVERY TIME I'VE FLOWN WITH THEM)
b) clear up the record so that I no long have the hassle.
c) Buy shares and show up at the next shareholders' meeting to cause some shit.
There's a slight typo:
DUFF1220 decoded à la Homer Simpson:
Duff = Beer - translation: "Mmmmmmmm, Beer! Good." - QED: Proof of humanity.
1220 is the expiry date: Dec. 20th.
Here's my experience in a remote area with no other wi-fi around:
I have individually set up Linksys g and n (draft) and then also belkin g and n (draft) and tested them for range in a 20 acre area by walking around with a USB wifi detector.
The linksys g had a fairly limited range but managed to travel 500-700 feet in a strange pattern that was not circular.
The linksys n (draft) had an inferior range and a stranger pattern still. I made it out as being to lobes along the axis of the antennae. I returned the unit and do not recommend that anyone buy it. It sucks!!
The belkin g was satisfactory with a range of about 1000 feet and the Belkin n (draft) was about the same.
When I actually tested it with a laptop and walked around the area, the net result was a much more limited range of operability.
The key to all this is to be able to do wireless bridging. Nowhere on Belkin's site (for example) do they mention it at all, but if you call support, they will take you through it. This is the major advantage of the throughput of the draft n standard: if you don't have the range, just daisy-chain the units and spread them to give yourself adequate coverage (to a maximum of four). NOTE: The penalty for each additional unit, is that throughput is dropped by a quarter.
Regardless of The Royal Bank of Canada's little software upgrade issue (which was an error, not deliberate), bankers would totally freak if their organizations did anything that even hinted at things like Microsoft's WGA. It's obvious that Mr. Cullen is a neophyte who has no idea of the degree of sleaze that he's signed himself up for.
CRIA were sniffing around our campaign offices DURING the election - that's when politians are most available.
The fact of the matter is that the recording industry is actually at odds with artists and concert promoters. The reason is that if a certain amount of pirating goes on, it's a form of guerilla marketing. Net net, awareness of the artist grows because more people are listing... sales evolve from that.
The CRIA, in contrast, represents the 'successful' artists who have multi-million dollar marketing campaigns tied directly to sales. If a Canadian pirates a Barbara Streisand song, Babs and the record label lose money. If the same thing hapens to Mugwump Freezer, someone hears them and might go to the concert and maybe pass the song on - much like radio airplay sold (sells?) music.
These guys (CRIA) are dinosaurs with their fingers in the dykes. There is no way that they can prevent piracy - if they hadn't been so greedy in the first place, people would be buying legit tunes from them.
The NSA has recently submitted a secret resolution to the UN to have the country recognized as the United States Security Republic. To get the resolution to pass, phone calls made by high-ranking UN officials to their mistresses and hookers have been tracked and used as 'leverage' to get the resolution through.
Since the take-over of the country by the NSA, the 'new' USSR is tabulating the campaign to limit internal movement by requiring documents to be provided for all internal travel by air... So far, millions of former Americans have had dangerous weapons such as children's scizzors, combs, wine bottle openers and nail clippers confiscated. With positive results like this, further limits to dangerous citizens are being considered.
Any questions about the NSA result in being immediately put on a secret list.
Any attempts to travel by people on the list are met with full body searches and hard X-raying of dangerous photographic films of family events such as birthdays and anniversaries.
The equation is simple: do we want to do everything we can to encourage adoption of Linux or do we want to be 'pure'?
The key is that Linux can be both.
There will always be room for a distro that has non-proprietary drivers which don't leverage all the assets of every piece of hardware. On the other hand, when my laptop WiFi does not work because of some proprietary driver, I just want to be able to use it, Goddammit!!
Think about the major distros: they already include proprietary code: SuSE had all kinds of drivers and other software that is not included in OpenSuSE. The choice is there.
I think the key is to just simply get manufacturers to start producing drivers. Period. It would be so great to see the penguin on every box of every kind of hardware that you purchase.
Patrick Moore is a fucking asshole! Reason? The fact that he did not do his due-diligence all those years ago. When you factor in the real cost to life of the various methods of the production of power, they all suck. Nuclear tends to suck less. If you want to find out why, just read all the other arguments, I'm too tired to go through all the pros and cons again, but I'm sure you'll find it there.
My issue has always been with knee-jerk reactionaries like this who really don't think the problem through. This guy has been an asshole so long that he does not realize the harm he had directly or indirectly caused to the environment by his short-sighted actions. My question is: will he take responsibility for his role in degrading our enviroment? What will he do to rectify the situation?
Regardless, I have no use for people like him and his cronies and I hope that they have a nasty bout of of some sort of lung ailment due to the pollution they're responsible for. Moreover, if it kill them, it will increase the amount of oxygen needed for the rest of us and reduce the pollution due to their methane-producing flatulence and halitosis.
Ok, let's drop the gloves. I'm a right-wing pinko-hater too, but, sir, are dead wrong. The reason for using Linux is in no way evangelistic nor is it about propagating some sleazy activist agenda. It's about value, plain and simple. As any decent wealth-builder knows, the way you make money is by spending it efficiently on something that will give you a higher return that the initial price. Commodity hardware depreciates faster than fame in a one star movie, so leveraging used equipment that would otherwise need to be scrapped and re-purchased makes imminent sense. Add to that: minimal downtime, significantly reduced virus threats, lower maintenance and longer up-times etc. etc. The end goal being that the return comes from giving kids an edge who would not otherwise have it. A hand up, not a hand out.
What you fail to see is the bigger picture: your government does not have a fundamental belief in education, as is evidenced by your obvious ignorance.
The entire well-educated Pacific Rim is frothing at the prospect of pumping cheap products at a prodigious rate into the debt-shackled American economy. India is out-educating Americans in software development and taking market share there. Europeans consistently out-perform American educational standards. I don't think even you can argue that China will surpass the U.S. G.D.P. between 2035 and 2050. So, if you're going to put your hard-earned wealth anywhere and really make a difference, do the right thing: improved education will equal improved competitiveness. Hell, even Bill and Belinda Gates have figured that one out!!
Allow me to fill you in a bit: the reason for the choice of hardware is that I'm building a Linux server http://www.k12ltsp.org/ with some old, dumb work stations for a computer lab at a school of disadvantaged kids. This on my own time and my own dime. The idea is to end up with a model that can provide easy, cheap, reliable horsepower while leveraging some existing hardware. Laser printing has a net-net lower cost per page.
So, flame away. But remember that you're flaming someone who is giving kids a hand up, not a hand out. I'm just wondering what your contribution to society is.
I don't need to stoop to your level to post a response. Please take the time to read the reasonable, cogent reply to your missive from a decent concerned citizen... ([OT] HP LJ2600"N" )
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Novell's still got Windows - big deal! The good news is that the users in the company that sells Linux who are running Linux will be confronted with the #1 issue that most Linux users face: hardware driver hell.
I've installed all sorts of different distros on servers, desktops and laptops. The install is always the same: easy, fast and I'm up and running in no time. Except... In virtually every machine I've installed into, there's been one hardware hassle after another. Be it multi-function printers, USB Ethernet cards, winmodems, graphics cards, sound cards and camera docking stations just to mention a few. Don't even get me started on games. Oh, and what about built-in WiFi on laptops? - ARRRRGGG!!
The most important thing here is that Novell employees will be confronted with these self-same issues. The good thing about this is that Something Will Get Done. That is the wonderful thing about Linux. If you can think it, people are working on a solution.
The world isn't perfect, but it IS getting better. So, stop your mealy-mouthed belly-aching about how Novell is not 'pure' and just be glad that they're giving it a shot.
Now, if I could just get HP's new 2600N networked colour laser to work with FedoraCore5.... (Thanks, HP, for the Linux driver (NOT!!!) that you said you would provide for most of your hardware, you assholes!!)
I was recently involved in a software project which handled credit card transactions. As part of the project, I felt that it was important to get informed about the proper proceedures with regards to sensitive information such as credit cars etc. I went to Visa & Mastercard to get spec. on the above.
There is none. Bupkiss, nada, rien, nil, null and void.
Given the fact that there is a 'tax' of 3.5-4.5% on every credit card transcation, don't you think it would behove the majors (Amex, Visa, Mc) to provide crypto code so that it could be used as a template for storing CC info? They make billions and are always whining about fraud. So, why is it that the consumer is left totally hung out to dry?
Let's divide the issue into it's two components: 1-Hardware and 2-Teaching
1 -Hardware: Your windowing manager will drive everything else you do if you choose Linux. For Gnome or KDE, you need a minimum of 128 Meg of RAM (regardless of processor) to even start running with acceptable performance. Load OpenOffice and you probably need more. So, scavenge or buy addition RAM and fill each box to the tits.
2 - Teaching: Educators and propeller-heads like me always seem to think that just having computers will make kids smart. This is completely and utterly wrong. Less is more in this area. If you're going to teach, teach them universal skills. Show them how to cut, copy and paste using the keyboard. Explain the F1 key and how to search and read documentation. Give them a fundamental understanding of how to create, store and manage files. Cause a crash on a machine so that they can learn how important backing up is. In short, teach them how to learn, not how to follow a pattern of behaviour.
I see this so often: students are 'shown' Excel but come away only learning the features of Excel, not how to use it to create solutions for their needs. They are not being taught, they are being trained. This approach is incredibly wrong-headed and needs so much work to change the mind-sets of those creating the curriculum.
One other thing I found was this: I canvassed kids for the ones who didn't have a computer at home. When families receive a computer it makes their lives so much better. You might try this approach too.
I'll go along with everything except the backwater remark.
My error was not to have used quotes and attributed them.
Here is Dave Snyder of the American Insurance Association who said that supporters of... reform in Congress include some notably consumer-friendly senators like Chuck Schumer of New York, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and John Chafee of Rhode Island.
Legislation that has been proposed would "establish some fairness in the basic class-action settlements," Mr. Snyder said. Among its provisions would be mandatory notice to relevant public officials before a settlement could be finalized. The legislation's effects would include moving cases out of "backwater" courts chosen for their plaintiff-friendly, "provincial" qualities, Mr. Snyder adds.
Quotes around "backwater" are his, not mine.
My point is this: it's the degree of the abuse of the law that's at issue. If the justice system had been willing to allow the parties to set aside monies in escrow until such time as the patent office could render its final, final descision, I would have had no problem with the award in question.
The problem was that a back-water Southern judge set forth a view that was an ultimatum: ie. that he was likely to rule to ban all sales of Blackberries and shut down the network.
As an example, in 1996, Loewen Corp, a Vancouver-based funeral company was forced into near bankruptcy by a jury ruling in the order of $500 million
http://walterolson.com/articles/loewen.html/
Why do you think your insurance premiums are through the roof? Why is your health care egregiously expensive? If you take time to add up the hidden cost of ridiculous legal battles, insuring against the threat of same is choking growth and hindering your robust economy.
Don't play the anti-American card either. It's a cop-out. Just because I have an external vantage point does not mean that I'm anti-American, just anti litigiousness. This kind of heavyweight tactic is not only hurting foreign companies, it's hurting American companies and Americans.
The notion of a wireless e-mail network existed before NTP came along. NTP was just smart enough to nail a few patents on a rudimentary idea. After that, a whole lot of nothing was accomplished. No device or network was built. The apparent strategy was to sit around until someone else built a wireless e-mail system -- RIM, as it turned out, in a different country -- and unleash the lawyers.
I don't need to decend to personal insult to get my point accross. There will always be differences of opinion on these issues. But let's take your points and dissect them:
I'm interested in knowing just how RIM lied to a federal judge(yes I read the Globe and Mail article too) - but I'm convinced that their demostration was flawed; as opposed to a deliberate attempt at deceit that you suggest.
Buying off a congressman is something that you had better be prepared to substantiate.
Blackberries have always been and are routinely given to politicos during election campaigns - yes, they're a loss leader and yes people get hooked on them - but what better way to run a campaign than to have a Blackberry? This is an essential communications tool. It's better than Palm because the batteries last so much longer and it's a superior phone too. The sync component, if implemented makes work seamless.
In short, I'm not prepared to back down. It's the lethargy of the US Patent office, combined with a very protectionist legal system that's to blame here (not to mention NTP's incredible greed).
Hmmmmm, wonder what Vista would look like under that scrutiny?...
Hmmmmmm.... Hey, I have a thought: if Microsoft does as it says and allows the Gov't to view it's code (without releasing it), should not this standard of examination be applied to Microsoft's software too so that we could have a better idea of just what level of quality we can expect from the private sector?
When I look south of the border and see that a judge in Virginia is making it clear that he's protecting the interests of his country-men over the interests of fairness, I find it so very, very frustrating. RIM has managed to fight off all the major phone manufacturers and grab a larger market share than Palm. An incredible feat in and of itself. Yet, a bunch of sleazy, ambulance-chasing lawyers who convinced a now-dead guy that he had the basis for a huge lawsuit has, with the backing of the American justice system, stolen millions from the coffers of this successful company and taken futures away from developers and investors alike. It's just criminal. RIM would have had an easier time going through the legal system in China, not to mention the help they got from the wonderfully quick response [NOT!] by the U.S. Patent office.
My hats off to RIM for having the huge balls to just settle the thing with these thieves, put this ugly mess behind them and move on with their lives. May NTP, all it's investors and everyone who's ever supported them rot slowly in hell. (But, apart from that, I have no opinion.)
Excellent heads up. I'm very surprised that this was not mentioned in the initial story.
Here's the header for the article: "The State Services Commission should be condemned for using a law firm with strong links to Microsoft to prepare a report on rival software systems using open standards, Green Party Information Technology Spokesperson Nandor Tanczos says. The report on the legal implications of open source software was prepared by Chapman Tripp, a law firm which has done extensive work for Microsoft in the past. "Asking Microsoft's general counsel and IT advisor to prepare what is supposed to be a neutral guide to open source software is just scandalous," Nandor says. See... Why did Microsoft lawyers pen "neutral" report?"
Write to:
Alexander Carruthers]
He heads up the firm.
Here's a sample of what I wrote to him:
Dear Mr. Carruthers:
Your firm's recent dissemination of information with regards to Open Source legal issues needs some serious revision.
To get a sense of what the IT community is saying, please read the comments that ensue from the article: Slashdot Article
Using an inflammatory term like 'infectious' to describe open source software will only serve to alienate the millions of contributors who give portions of their lives to developping alternatives to commercial software.
We all use both proprietary and open source software in our day-to-day lives. Your position paper only serves to make the NZ government look foolish for hiring your firm.
Slashdot Mirror
According to SONY's own affadavit, Canadians did absolutely nothing to counter this outrage. For my part, I'm incredibly perplexed about why. What public representative would not froth at the opportunity to get themselves publicity by defending the 'little guy'?!!
I now plan to persue a course of action to get them to
a) explain the process by which I was 'randomly' selected (EVERY TIME I'VE FLOWN WITH THEM)
b) clear up the record so that I no long have the hassle.
c) Buy shares and show up at the next shareholders' meeting to cause some shit.
There's a slight typo: DUFF1220 decoded à la Homer Simpson: Duff = Beer - translation: "Mmmmmmmm, Beer! Good." - QED: Proof of humanity. 1220 is the expiry date: Dec. 20th.
I have individually set up Linksys g and n (draft) and then also belkin g and n (draft) and tested them for range in a 20 acre area by walking around with a USB wifi detector.
The linksys g had a fairly limited range but managed to travel 500-700 feet in a strange pattern that was not circular.
The linksys n (draft) had an inferior range and a stranger pattern still. I made it out as being to lobes along the axis of the antennae. I returned the unit and do not recommend that anyone buy it. It sucks!!
The belkin g was satisfactory with a range of about 1000 feet and the Belkin n (draft) was about the same.
Here's a link of a test done by PC Mag: http://www.pcmag.com/image_popup/0,1871,iid=138336 ,00.asp
When I actually tested it with a laptop and walked around the area, the net result was a much more limited range of operability.
The key to all this is to be able to do wireless bridging. Nowhere on Belkin's site (for example) do they mention it at all, but if you call support, they will take you through it. This is the major advantage of the throughput of the draft n standard: if you don't have the range, just daisy-chain the units and spread them to give yourself adequate coverage (to a maximum of four). NOTE: The penalty for each additional unit, is that throughput is dropped by a quarter.
I summer in Vermont. My wife feeds me beer and has my ass hooked up to the grid. On a good day, I'm able to power a toaster.
Best of luck, Peter. Welcome to the spotlight!
The fact of the matter is that the recording industry is actually at odds with artists and concert promoters. The reason is that if a certain amount of pirating goes on, it's a form of guerilla marketing. Net net, awareness of the artist grows because more people are listing... sales evolve from that.
The CRIA, in contrast, represents the 'successful' artists who have multi-million dollar marketing campaigns tied directly to sales. If a Canadian pirates a Barbara Streisand song, Babs and the record label lose money. If the same thing hapens to Mugwump Freezer, someone hears them and might go to the concert and maybe pass the song on - much like radio airplay sold (sells?) music.
These guys (CRIA) are dinosaurs with their fingers in the dykes. There is no way that they can prevent piracy - if they hadn't been so greedy in the first place, people would be buying legit tunes from them.
It's OPEN, Bill. You've got a zillion programmers, feel free to speed it up!
Since the take-over of the country by the NSA, the 'new' USSR is tabulating the campaign to limit internal movement by requiring documents to be provided for all internal travel by air... So far, millions of former Americans have had dangerous weapons such as children's scizzors, combs, wine bottle openers and nail clippers confiscated. With positive results like this, further limits to dangerous citizens are being considered.
Any questions about the NSA result in being immediately put on a secret list.
Any attempts to travel by people on the list are met with full body searches and hard X-raying of dangerous photographic films of family events such as birthdays and anniversaries.
The war on terror continues...
The equation is simple: do we want to do everything we can to encourage adoption of Linux or do we want to be 'pure'?
The key is that Linux can be both.
There will always be room for a distro that has non-proprietary drivers which don't leverage all the assets of every piece of hardware. On the other hand, when my laptop WiFi does not work because of some proprietary driver, I just want to be able to use it, Goddammit!!
Think about the major distros: they already include proprietary code: SuSE had all kinds of drivers and other software that is not included in OpenSuSE. The choice is there.
I think the key is to just simply get manufacturers to start producing drivers. Period. It would be so great to see the penguin on every box of every kind of hardware that you purchase.
Patrick Moore is a fucking asshole! Reason? The fact that he did not do his due-diligence all those years ago. When you factor in the real cost to life of the various methods of the production of power, they all suck. Nuclear tends to suck less. If you want to find out why, just read all the other arguments, I'm too tired to go through all the pros and cons again, but I'm sure you'll find it there.
My issue has always been with knee-jerk reactionaries like this who really don't think the problem through. This guy has been an asshole so long that he does not realize the harm he had directly or indirectly caused to the environment by his short-sighted actions. My question is: will he take responsibility for his role in degrading our enviroment? What will he do to rectify the situation?
Regardless, I have no use for people like him and his cronies and I hope that they have a nasty bout of of some sort of lung ailment due to the pollution they're responsible for. Moreover, if it kill them, it will increase the amount of oxygen needed for the rest of us and reduce the pollution due to their methane-producing flatulence and halitosis.
But, apart from that, I have no opinion!!
Ok, let's drop the gloves. I'm a right-wing pinko-hater too, but, sir, are dead wrong. The reason for using Linux is in no way evangelistic nor is it about propagating some sleazy activist agenda. It's about value, plain and simple. As any decent wealth-builder knows, the way you make money is by spending it efficiently on something that will give you a higher return that the initial price. Commodity hardware depreciates faster than fame in a one star movie, so leveraging used equipment that would otherwise need to be scrapped and re-purchased makes imminent sense. Add to that: minimal downtime, significantly reduced virus threats, lower maintenance and longer up-times etc. etc. The end goal being that the return comes from giving kids an edge who would not otherwise have it. A hand up, not a hand out.
What you fail to see is the bigger picture: your government does not have a fundamental belief in education, as is evidenced by your obvious ignorance.
The entire well-educated Pacific Rim is frothing at the prospect of pumping cheap products at a prodigious rate into the debt-shackled American economy. India is out-educating Americans in software development and taking market share there. Europeans consistently out-perform American educational standards. I don't think even you can argue that China will surpass the U.S. G.D.P. between 2035 and 2050. So, if you're going to put your hard-earned wealth anywhere and really make a difference, do the right thing: improved education will equal improved competitiveness. Hell, even Bill and Belinda Gates have figured that one out!!
Allow me to fill you in a bit: the reason for the choice of hardware is that I'm building a Linux server http://www.k12ltsp.org/ with some old, dumb work stations for a computer lab at a school of disadvantaged kids. This on my own time and my own dime. The idea is to end up with a model that can provide easy, cheap, reliable horsepower while leveraging some existing hardware. Laser printing has a net-net lower cost per page.
So, flame away. But remember that you're flaming someone who is giving kids a hand up, not a hand out. I'm just wondering what your contribution to society is.
I don't need to stoop to your level to post a response. Please take the time to read the reasonable, cogent reply to your missive from a decent concerned citizen... ([OT] HP LJ2600"N" )
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Novell's still got Windows - big deal!
The good news is that the users in the company that sells Linux who are running Linux will be confronted with the #1 issue that most Linux users face: hardware driver hell.
I've installed all sorts of different distros on servers, desktops and laptops. The install is always the same: easy, fast and I'm up and running in no time. Except... In virtually every machine I've installed into, there's been one hardware hassle after another. Be it multi-function printers, USB Ethernet cards, winmodems, graphics cards, sound cards and camera docking stations just to mention a few. Don't even get me started on games. Oh, and what about built-in WiFi on laptops? - ARRRRGGG!!
The most important thing here is that Novell employees will be confronted with these self-same issues. The good thing about this is that Something Will Get Done. That is the wonderful thing about Linux. If you can think it, people are working on a solution.
The world isn't perfect, but it IS getting better. So, stop your mealy-mouthed belly-aching about how Novell is not 'pure' and just be glad that they're giving it a shot.
Now, if I could just get HP's new 2600N networked colour laser to work with FedoraCore5.... (Thanks, HP, for the Linux driver (NOT!!!) that you said you would provide for most of your hardware, you assholes!!)
Thanks so much for the update. The work I had done pre-dated CISP.
I was recently involved in a software project which handled credit card transactions. As part of the project, I felt that it was important to get informed about the proper proceedures with regards to sensitive information such as credit cars etc. I went to Visa & Mastercard to get spec. on the above.
There is none. Bupkiss, nada, rien, nil, null and void.
Given the fact that there is a 'tax' of 3.5-4.5% on every credit card transcation, don't you think it would behove the majors (Amex, Visa, Mc) to provide crypto code so that it could be used as a template for storing CC info? They make billions and are always whining about fraud. So, why is it that the consumer is left totally hung out to dry?
Caveat emptor. You've been warned.
Let's divide the issue into it's two components: 1-Hardware and 2-Teaching
1 -Hardware: Your windowing manager will drive everything else you do if you choose Linux. For Gnome or KDE, you need a minimum of 128 Meg of RAM (regardless of processor) to even start running with acceptable performance. Load OpenOffice and you probably need more. So, scavenge or buy addition RAM and fill each box to the tits.
2 - Teaching: Educators and propeller-heads like me always seem to think that just having computers will make kids smart. This is completely and utterly wrong. Less is more in this area. If you're going to teach, teach them universal skills. Show them how to cut, copy and paste using the keyboard. Explain the F1 key and how to search and read documentation. Give them a fundamental understanding of how to create, store and manage files. Cause a crash on a machine so that they can learn how important backing up is. In short, teach them how to learn, not how to follow a pattern of behaviour.
I see this so often: students are 'shown' Excel but come away only learning the features of Excel, not how to use it to create solutions for their needs. They are not being taught, they are being trained. This approach is incredibly wrong-headed and needs so much work to change the mind-sets of those creating the curriculum.
One other thing I found was this: I canvassed kids for the ones who didn't have a computer at home. When families receive a computer it makes their lives so much better. You might try this approach too.
I'll go along with everything except the backwater remark. ... reform in Congress include some notably consumer-friendly senators like Chuck Schumer of New York, Chris Dodd of Connecticut and John Chafee of Rhode Island.
My error was not to have used quotes and attributed them.
Here is Dave Snyder of the American Insurance Association who said that supporters of
Legislation that has been proposed would "establish some fairness in the basic class-action settlements," Mr. Snyder said. Among its provisions would be mandatory notice to relevant public officials before a settlement could be finalized. The legislation's effects would include moving cases out of "backwater" courts chosen for their plaintiff-friendly, "provincial" qualities, Mr. Snyder adds.
Quotes around "backwater" are his, not mine.
My point is this: it's the degree of the abuse of the law that's at issue. If the justice system had been willing to allow the parties to set aside monies in escrow until such time as the patent office could render its final, final descision, I would have had no problem with the award in question.
The problem was that a back-water Southern judge set forth a view that was an ultimatum: ie. that he was likely to rule to ban all sales of Blackberries and shut down the network.
As an example, in 1996, Loewen Corp, a Vancouver-based funeral company was forced into near bankruptcy by a jury ruling in the order of $500 million
http://walterolson.com/articles/loewen.html/
Why do you think your insurance premiums are through the roof? Why is your health care egregiously expensive? If you take time to add up the hidden cost of ridiculous legal battles, insuring against the threat of same is choking growth and hindering your robust economy.
Don't play the anti-American card either. It's a cop-out. Just because I have an external vantage point does not mean that I'm anti-American, just anti litigiousness. This kind of heavyweight tactic is not only hurting foreign companies, it's hurting American companies and Americans.
The notion of a wireless e-mail network existed before NTP came along. NTP was just smart enough to nail a few patents on a rudimentary idea. After that, a whole lot of nothing was accomplished. No device or network was built. The apparent strategy was to sit around until someone else built a wireless e-mail system -- RIM, as it turned out, in a different country -- and unleash the lawyers.
I don't need to decend to personal insult to get my point accross. There will always be differences of opinion on these issues. But let's take your points and dissect them:
I'm interested in knowing just how RIM lied to a federal judge(yes I read the Globe and Mail article too) - but I'm convinced that their demostration was flawed; as opposed to a deliberate attempt at deceit that you suggest.
Buying off a congressman is something that you had better be prepared to substantiate.
Blackberries have always been and are routinely given to politicos during election campaigns - yes, they're a loss leader and yes people get hooked on them - but what better way to run a campaign than to have a Blackberry? This is an essential communications tool. It's better than Palm because the batteries last so much longer and it's a superior phone too. The sync component, if implemented makes work seamless.
In short, I'm not prepared to back down. It's the lethargy of the US Patent office, combined with a very protectionist legal system that's to blame here (not to mention NTP's incredible greed).
Hmmmmm, wonder what Vista would look like under that scrutiny?...
Hmmmmmm.... Hey, I have a thought: if Microsoft does as it says and allows the Gov't to view it's code (without releasing it), should not this standard of examination be applied to Microsoft's software too so that we could have a better idea of just what level of quality we can expect from the private sector?
When I look south of the border and see that a judge in Virginia is making it clear that he's protecting the interests of his country-men over the interests of fairness, I find it so very, very frustrating. RIM has managed to fight off all the major phone manufacturers and grab a larger market share than Palm. An incredible feat in and of itself. Yet, a bunch of sleazy, ambulance-chasing lawyers who convinced a now-dead guy that he had the basis for a huge lawsuit has, with the backing of the American justice system, stolen millions from the coffers of this successful company and taken futures away from developers and investors alike. It's just criminal. RIM would have had an easier time going through the legal system in China, not to mention the help they got from the wonderfully quick response [NOT!] by the U.S. Patent office.
My hats off to RIM for having the huge balls to just settle the thing with these thieves, put this ugly mess behind them and move on with their lives. May NTP, all it's investors and everyone who's ever supported them rot slowly in hell. (But, apart from that, I have no opinion.)
Here's the header for the article: "The State Services Commission should be condemned for using a law firm with strong links to Microsoft to prepare a report on rival software systems using open standards, Green Party Information Technology Spokesperson Nandor Tanczos says. The report on the legal implications of open source software was prepared by Chapman Tripp, a law firm which has done extensive work for Microsoft in the past. "Asking Microsoft's general counsel and IT advisor to prepare what is supposed to be a neutral guide to open source software is just scandalous," Nandor says. See... Why did Microsoft lawyers pen "neutral" report?"
Dear Mr. Carruthers:
Your firm's recent dissemination of information with regards to Open Source legal issues needs some serious revision.
To get a sense of what the IT community is saying, please read the comments that ensue from the article: Slashdot Article
Using an inflammatory term like 'infectious' to describe open source software will only serve to alienate the millions of contributors who give portions of their lives to developping alternatives to commercial software.
We all use both proprietary and open source software in our day-to-day lives. Your position paper only serves to make the NZ government look foolish for hiring your firm.