Actually, I don't think anyone doubts that there is global climate change. What differs scientist to scientist are the causes of said change.
You haven't seen Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) telling the Senate that global warming was a hoax (while brandishing Crichton's State of Fear book as the proof).
And he is the chairman on the Senate committee on environment!
You are generous when giving us 100,000 years. Civilization as we know it today started with the industrial revolution. We'll be lucky if it last beyond 400 years.
So, if I may ask, what do Slashdot readers see as fair? I would suggest that we need to look at different copyright and patent periods depending on the type and application of an item.
I think novels, essays, painting, music should be protected under copyright law. Programing inventions when non obvious, novel, and not merely an idea should be protected under patent law. I have that notion that some people creates things for art, I think it's reasonable that their work is protected as a copyright. Some people invent things to solve a problem. This should be protected as a patent.
Copyright duration. I would say lifetime of the author, and at least 50 years. In countries that allow copyrights to be traded, I would like to see it limited to 50 years (may be even less) once a copyright has been sold. It means somebody has expressed interest in reusing the work. So may be there is a common benefit to reduce the duration.
Patent duration. Something like 15 years. The cost of patenting should have an insurance premium against the public buying back the patent. (I'm totally thinking on the fly here. this make not makes economic sense). But here it is. Your premium goes to an insurance pool and depends on a buy back price you specify. Let say to protect your patent at $5 millions, you need to pay $5k (the premium is set by an insurance company). Each year the insurance company is required to use the collected premiums (minus a management fees) to buy back patents (for the price set by the inventor) and give it away to the public. The inventors gets one vote per patents and some kind of fancy dutch auction is used to dermined which patents are bought back.
Even if Google has become a verb, this is not a guarantee that Google the company will be successful. For instance I'm saying "I'm gonna tivo a show". Doesn't mean the Tivo the company will be around in a few years from now.
Want to change Intel's behaviour? Don't give them any press when they announce "real soon now" stuff, only when they actually ship. But if/. (and other media) print every press release, the press releases will keep coming.
Well, I really don't mind learning about these "real soon now" announcements on slashdot. And apparently neither do you.:D
He said "reduce greenhouse gas emissions". He didn't say "ban all pollution". Or anything about burning leaves for that matter.
Personally, I think at the very least we have a responsability to invest on more research on the topic and try not to cause irreversible changes.
I'd like to think that if we were in a situation where we threaten irreversibly our environment we would react better than the inhabitants from the Easter Islands.
China's innovation relies mostly upon remaking things already patented in the West
I understand that's exactly what Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan were doing at first. Copying things western countries made. Then they were making them faster, cheaper, smaller. So I don't see China copying and acquiring some know how as a problem to China's development.
Me being the hard-eyed libertarian type that I am, I think we should continue letting the free market handle it. Others prefer other approaches.
You make some good points, but let me ask you this. How can a patent system be anything like a free market?
Anybody can tell me what page the quote is on? I'm tired of trying to figure out why my acrobat reader can't find the world "patent" or "threat" in the document.
Doesn't seem obvious to me that this report is about patents.
Well, how about CUSTOMS TARIFFS designed to bring the price of low wages countries products more in line with those in the high wages coutries???
Well custom tariffs may cause your trading partners to impose additional tariffs on your own products. Which may not be the outcome you look for. There are more subtle or obivous ways to make the imports of foreign products less attrative and your export more attrative. A dollar devaluation would be one obvious way. Ironically, strictly enforcement of overly broad patent systems is one way the US is using to keep US salaries higher than other countries. Other subtle ways are for instance imposing import restriction based on health concerns. Think mad cow disease. Simarly I read that people in Japan have an obsession about consuming fresh products, and that there are quarantine rules that cause foreign food products to be less fresh than domestic ones. Also acts like a soft import restriction.
After I read "How to use Model-View-Controller" which explains very well how the MVC paradigm can be useful, I am not sure that web applications can actually benefit from using MVC. Since it is based on the user making a request, there is no need for the view to be linked to to a model and to update itself. The application can just get or check the data with each request.
Most of the Struts benefits come from the taglib that maps object to html tag.
OK, hear me out. I'm just not getting the whole "TiVo is da bomb and if you're still using VCRs then you're human refuse" tone. It's not just from these posts but in general.
No I think we mean, it's expensive but this gadget is so worth it, and if you like tv, and if you use your vcr a lot, and if you can afford it, you should try it. And once you do, you won't use your VCR again.
And your subjet Tivo simply not superior, that's a flamebait. But then your post is not. Go figure.
I have one of these digital cable box where most of the tv guide features are accessible through a screen that hides the stuff you are currently watching. I always hated it. It could take me 5 minutes to find out what other concurrent shows are of interest to me or what is showing next.
With tivo series2, the menu comes up instantaneously, I find stuff really quickly, and what I'm watching is still visible behind the menu. For me that's one of the neat features that came with my tivo. In addition to all the rest.
May I ask how ? I was under the impression that I would need
- a case $50
- a motherboard $50
- a processor $50
- a hard drive $100
Ok, I'm already over $200. I may be quoting high prices, but under $200, I don't know how you do it. I still need memory, a capture card. And how can I build something that is fairly silent, and that I can control with a remote?
just that the long term prognistics for this company aren't good
They just raised $25 million, and their quarter ending July 31, 2002 shows an operating loss of $1.1 million down from $35.6 million. So I'm not an expert in finance, but the chances they'll be around in 2 years from now, seem pretty good.
There are 3rd party apps that tie into tv listings just like TiVo does [...] TiVo is nice, and they make it work.
The whole difference is there. Nothing is free, and having relevant and accessible information about the upcoming shows and being able to record them with an easy to use remote control, without having to move from your sofa, or mess around with your computer, without having to find and rewind a tape, without even having to think how the damn thing work, that's worth what tivo is charging for. It's too bad that a lot people can't afford that, and I hope the cost of hardware goes down steadily.
Let's imagine for a minute that the universe is homogeneous. Look at any piece of the universe far enough from its edge, and this piece would look alike from a distance.
In the piece of universe, there would be an equal likelyhood that life starts and evolves into an intelligent lifeform. Step back a little bit. Step back more, so that you see a really big piece of the universe. You would then see many life points located almost uniformly within this big piece. A little bit like when it starts to rain and you see the drops on the ground.
Now, imagine that each of these points is like a balloon expanding (on average) because this intelligent lifeform is colonizing its neighborhood. Well, if it is a dummy intelligent lifeform (like us?), the balloon may never get to expand. Geez, I pushed the button and it nuked everything!
Well, if you wait long enough the balloons eventually touch one another, at which point... you get to meet another extraterrestrial lifeform.
I bet the chances of us seeing someone else is in fact high. You say the rate of evolution would be different, I don't think so. I bet it is about the same everywhere. I think, what happens sometimes is that you don't have enough resources to expand. But, then your neighbor eventually gets to you first, like in Warcraft...
Well, I think no system is perfect. And if the result in Florida was not so closed, nobody would really care about the voting system being used there. What happens is that the margin of winning in Florida seems to be under the margin of error of the system used. As a result is pretty hard to know who won Florida.
As for a better system, what you are looking for is a system where the margin of error on 6 millions votes is well under 200. Also, the system must provide great confidence that there was no fraud and that the vote represented the true intent of the voter. That does not seem easy to me.
Re:Businesses don't corrupt politicians...
on
A Letter from 2020
·
· Score: 1
Business isn't the problem. Humanity is, and by extension, _we_ are the problem.
May be, may be not. What is a business? An entity whose goal is to make money (sometime on behalf of their shareholders). Why whould they corrupt or let's say influence politicians? Well, to a certain extent, it's part of the job. I mean as an employee you are mainly accountable for making your company financially more successfull. Without any guards it means you can use pretty much any means to reach your goal. Corruption, being one of them, as long as you don't get caught.
Except of course if you have laws that ensure precisely that as a businessman you cannot use any means you like to reach your goal. You cannot lie about what you put in your cigarette, you cannot corrupt politicians, etc. What does it mean? Certain ways of doing business are a problem. And they must be dealt with as such.
Re:1984, anyone? May be Farenheit 451 certainly.
on
A Letter from 2020
·
· Score: 1
Personally, I immediately thought of Bradbury's Farenheit 451 where in some future books become illegal, and you have firemen whose only job is to make sure every book is burned.
One way to make education better is to use the benefit of the Internet. That is, getting a bunch of people together who would not otherwise be able to do so. In the same way that the Internet has enabled bright people leaving far away from each other collaborating on the same project, an on-line university would make it possible to get together the best teachers and the right set of students. It would definitely be nice.
Slashdot Mirror
You haven't seen Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) telling the Senate that global warming was a hoax (while brandishing Crichton's State of Fear book as the proof).
And he is the chairman on the Senate committee on environment!
You are generous when giving us 100,000 years.
Civilization as we know it today started with the industrial revolution. We'll be lucky if it last beyond 400 years.
I think novels, essays, painting, music should be protected under copyright law. Programing inventions when non obvious, novel, and not merely an idea should be protected under patent law. I have that notion that some people creates things for art, I think it's reasonable that their work is protected as a copyright. Some people invent things to solve a problem. This should be protected as a patent.
Copyright duration. I would say lifetime of the author, and at least 50 years. In countries that allow copyrights to be traded, I would like to see it limited to 50 years (may be even less) once a copyright has been sold. It means somebody has expressed interest in reusing the work. So may be there is a common benefit to reduce the duration.
Patent duration. Something like 15 years. The cost of patenting should have an insurance premium against the public buying back the patent. (I'm totally thinking on the fly here. this make not makes economic sense). But here it is. Your premium goes to an insurance pool and depends on a buy back price you specify. Let say to protect your patent at $5 millions, you need to pay $5k (the premium is set by an insurance company). Each year the insurance company is required to use the collected premiums (minus a management fees) to buy back patents (for the price set by the inventor) and give it away to the public. The inventors gets one vote per patents and some kind of fancy dutch auction is used to dermined which patents are bought back.
Does this make sense? I don't know ... :D
Even if Google has become a verb, this is not a guarantee that Google the company will be successful. For instance I'm saying "I'm gonna tivo a show". Doesn't mean the Tivo the company will be around in a few years from now.
Well, I really don't mind learning about these "real soon now" announcements on slashdot. And apparently neither do you. :D
He said "reduce greenhouse gas emissions". He didn't say "ban all pollution". Or anything about burning leaves for that matter.
Personally, I think at the very least we have a responsability to invest on more research on the topic and try not to cause irreversible changes.
I'd like to think that if we were in a situation where we threaten irreversibly our environment we would react better than the inhabitants from the Easter Islands.
China's innovation relies mostly upon remaking things already patented in the West
I understand that's exactly what Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan were doing at first. Copying things western countries made. Then they were making them faster, cheaper, smaller. So I don't see China copying and acquiring some know how as a problem to China's development.
Me being the hard-eyed libertarian type that I am, I think we should continue letting the free market handle it. Others prefer other approaches.
You make some good points, but let me ask you this. How can a patent system be anything like a free market?
Anybody can tell me what page the quote is on? I'm tired of trying to figure out why my acrobat reader can't find the world "patent" or "threat" in the document.
Doesn't seem obvious to me that this report is about patents.
Well custom tariffs may cause your trading partners to impose additional tariffs on your own products. Which may not be the outcome you look for. There are more subtle or obivous ways to make the imports of foreign products less attrative and your export more attrative. A dollar devaluation would be one obvious way. Ironically, strictly enforcement of overly broad patent systems is one way the US is using to keep US salaries higher than other countries. Other subtle ways are for instance imposing import restriction based on health concerns. Think mad cow disease. Simarly I read that people in Japan have an obsession about consuming fresh products, and that there are quarantine rules that cause foreign food products to be less fresh than domestic ones. Also acts like a soft import restriction.
bachelor's degree in medieval history and philosophy
After I read "How to use Model-View-Controller" which explains very well how the MVC paradigm can be useful, I am not sure that web applications can actually benefit from using MVC. Since it is based on the user making a request, there is no need for the view to be linked to to a model and to update itself. The application can just get or check the data with each request.
Most of the Struts benefits come from the taglib that maps object to html tag.
OK, hear me out. I'm just not getting the whole "TiVo is da bomb and if you're still using VCRs then you're human refuse" tone. It's not just from these posts but in general. No I think we mean, it's expensive but this gadget is so worth it, and if you like tv, and if you use your vcr a lot, and if you can afford it, you should try it. And once you do, you won't use your VCR again. And your subjet Tivo simply not superior, that's a flamebait. But then your post is not. Go figure.
I have one of these digital cable box where most of the tv guide features are accessible through a screen that hides the stuff you are currently watching. I always hated it. It could take me 5 minutes to find out what other concurrent shows are of interest to me or what is showing next.
With tivo series2, the menu comes up instantaneously, I find stuff really quickly, and what I'm watching is still visible behind the menu. For me that's one of the neat features that came with my tivo. In addition to all the rest.
May I ask how ?
I was under the impression that I would need
- a case $50
- a motherboard $50
- a processor $50
- a hard drive $100
Ok, I'm already over $200. I may be quoting high prices, but under $200, I don't know how you do it. I still need memory, a capture card. And how can I build something that is fairly silent, and that I can control with a remote?
just that the long term prognistics for this company aren't good
They just raised $25 million, and their quarter ending July 31, 2002 shows an operating loss of $1.1 million down from $35.6 million. So I'm not an expert in finance, but the chances they'll be around in 2 years from now, seem pretty good.
There are 3rd party apps that tie into tv listings just like TiVo does [...] TiVo is nice, and they make it work.
The whole difference is there. Nothing is free, and having relevant and accessible information about the upcoming shows and being able to record them with an easy to use remote control, without having to move from your sofa, or mess around with your computer, without having to find and rewind a tape, without even having to think how the damn thing work, that's worth what tivo is charging for. It's too bad that a lot people can't afford that, and I hope the cost of hardware goes down steadily.
They don't show absolute number but declining and gaining. So may be that's why.
In the piece of universe, there would be an equal likelyhood that life starts and evolves into an intelligent lifeform. Step back a little bit. Step back more, so that you see a really big piece of the universe. You would then see many life points located almost uniformly within this big piece. A little bit like when it starts to rain and you see the drops on the ground.
Now, imagine that each of these points is like a balloon expanding (on average) because this intelligent lifeform is colonizing its neighborhood. Well, if it is a dummy intelligent lifeform (like us?), the balloon may never get to expand. Geez, I pushed the button and it nuked everything!
Well, if you wait long enough the balloons eventually touch one another, at which point
I bet the chances of us seeing someone else is in fact high. You say the rate of evolution would be different, I don't think so. I bet it is about the same everywhere. I think, what happens sometimes is that you don't have enough resources to expand. But, then your neighbor eventually gets to you first, like in Warcraft...
JL
As for a better system, what you are looking for is a system where the margin of error on 6 millions votes is well under 200. Also, the system must provide great confidence that there was no fraud and that the vote represented the true intent of the voter. That does not seem easy to me.
May be, may be not. What is a business? An entity whose goal is to make money (sometime on behalf of their shareholders). Why whould they corrupt or let's say influence politicians? Well, to a certain extent, it's part of the job. I mean as an employee you are mainly accountable for making your company financially more successfull. Without any guards it means you can use pretty much any means to reach your goal. Corruption, being one of them, as long as you don't get caught.
Except of course if you have laws that ensure precisely that as a businessman you cannot use any means you like to reach your goal. You cannot lie about what you put in your cigarette, you cannot corrupt politicians, etc. What does it mean? Certain ways of doing business are a problem. And they must be dealt with as such.
Personally, I immediately thought of Bradbury's Farenheit 451 where in some future books become illegal, and you have firemen whose only job is to make sure every book is burned.
One way to make education better is to use the benefit of the Internet. That is, getting a bunch of people together who would not otherwise be able to do so. In the same way that the Internet has enabled bright people leaving far away from each other collaborating on the same project, an on-line university would make it possible to get together the best teachers and the right set of students. It would definitely be nice.