cosmic microwave background radiation data *also* implies dark matter, and doesn't have such an easy alternative explanation. Isn't the background radiation easily explained by postulating a closed universe with wrap-around or reflection at the edges? Yeah, it's a crackpot theory, but I find it much easier to accept then the theory that "inflation" occured shortly after the big bang at speeds many magnitudes greater than the speed of light...
I think that they mean is that Blu-Ray's DRM doesn't fit in with Microsoft's vision of the PC being the center of home entertainment; it won't be allowed to transfer content over a network. Yes, this means Linux and OS X will have the same problem.
Some bank already require a thumbprint for cashing a check. If they would require a thumbprint for opening any kind of credit account, that would seriously cut down on the damage done by identity theft, wouldn't it? But it's not just the banks. How about if all catalog sales companies refuse to ship to any address other than the billing address of the credit card? How about if online purchases always require all customers to use single-use card numbers? How about if everybody stops accepting Social Security Numbers as both userid and password? Face it, there are already hundreds of thousands of people with access to all the information they currently need to borrow money or make purchases in your name. For some reason, we just assume every one of those people is honorable.
Let's look at a third scenario: somebody, possible you, scans only the first chapter of the book and makes it available for free download. Thousands of people that otherwise would never have looked at the book download the first chapter and read it. If the first chapter is really good, perhaps half the people that downloaded it actually go out and buy the book. Now you get more royalties, the publisher gets more royalties, and hundreds of people get to enjoy a really good read that they otherwise would never have known about. It's win-win-win... that is, unless the first chapter really sucks, in which case anybody that bothered to download it will probably never look at anything from that author ever again.
And yes, they should go after the people that are unlawfully distributing the copyrighted material, not the people that are downloading it. Unfortunately, most P2P programs by default automatically re-share anything you download (and most people are too stupid to disable this "feature"), so most downloaders are in fact potential uploaders.
Did you build a shelter out of Linux CDs? No, that requires AOL CDs... they are a lot more plentiful and easier to come by! I say we all donate our AOL CD collections for disaster relief... if they use them to re-shingle a roof, it would be the best purpose an AOL CD has ever been used for!
If you are able to listen to the audio side of the disc on your PC, you should be able to download to your iPod. The CD/DVD drives in my Sony PC won't read a dual disc audio side, period. Strangely enough, the DVD side works perfectly on the PC... and usually includes the same audio tracks. If somebody can tell me how to rip dual disc audio to MP3, I'd be eternally grateful. The Sony PC support site just has a warning that says dual discs may not work.
Best way to "reallocate company resources": late at night, when nobody is looking. Ever notice how the last guy to leave at night never seems to have a lack of hardware?
Gee, what are the chances that creators of those maps got at least part of their funding from public subsidies, therefore shouldn't those maps be owned by the people that paid for them, not some frickin' corporation? As far as I know, there aren't any public transportation systems that aren't heavily subsidized (unlike the US Post Office, which has not been subsidized for the last 20 years).
use hydrogen as a fuel-source For the last time, hydrogen is NOT a fuel source; it is an energy storage medium. That's like saying "Use batteries as a fuel source!" Unless, of course, you know something about portable hydrogen-powered fusion reactors that I don't...
the shift knob has been modified to allow a robot arm to be attached. This may be a naive question, but wouldn't an autonomous vehicle be one of the few really good applications for an automatic transmission?
List them, please. And show why they couldn't be reverse-engineered. Too lazy to do your own Google search, I see? How about this one, which was eventually reverse-engineered... over a thousand years later! Many others can be found by searching for "Lost technlogy".
Re:Naming Worms - Virii's pride
on
Name That Worm
·
· Score: 4, Funny
You mean, you're not likely to brag about being the creator of the "Sociopath trying to compensate for tiny penis" worm?
Patents enhance the public good because without patents, inventors would have to resort to trade secrets. Before patents, many innovations and improvements died with their inventor, because they were kept as jealously guarded secrets. Patents were invented as a way of stopping the loss of new technology, while at the same time affording the inventor the same benefits as a trade secret, albeit for a limited time. Hence WE ALL benefit from patents; technological progress has expanded greatly since they were implemented, and technology is seldom lost anymore. Inventors still have the option of not filing a patent and relying on trade secret for protection of ideas. But as we have because much better at reverse-engineering, nobody resorts to trade secret anymore.
There is just one problem with Microsoft focusing on hosted services to compete with Google. Just ask yourself: do you trust Microsoft with your data? These are the same people that have repeatedly forgotten to renew domain registrations. The same people that let hackers download their crown jewels (Windows source). Do you really trust them not to disclose your company data to your fiercest competitors? Or even worse, do you trust them not to steal you business model and start competing with you? Partnering up with Microsoft has been the kiss of death for more companies than I can name...
AOL's future can be predicted very easily by examining two simple curves. The first is AOL's incremental revenue per customer; note how it has been trending downward for several years now. The second is AOL's marginal cost to aquire each new customer; note how it has been steadily increasing ever since AOL started. Now note have the two curves cross in 2005. That's right, AOL now spends more to aquire each new customer than it gets in revenue from each new customer (on average). Any questions?
You're confusing Google's users with it's customers. Google's customers (the people from whom it derives it's revenue stream) are all advertisers. If Microsoft can successfully cut off the flow of ad revenue to Google, then it can kill Google even despite the fact that everybody on the planet uses their free search engine. No, I don't think Microsoft can cut off all ad revenue, but they can certainly make a dent in Google's profits.
The taboo sense of a word, Dr. Burridge said, "always drives out any other senses it might have had." How does he explain, then, the new Direct TV ads built around use of the word "sucks"? In this case, it appears the accepted meaning of the word (is of poor quality) has driven the taboo sense. Is everyone else too young to remember when "sucks" was an expression not to be used in polite conversation... unless you were referring to pacifiers?
Not as one-sided as you think. What would happen if a record company actually did pull their songs from iTunes? I can imagine a huge backlash of boycott, increased pirating perhaps even a note on iTunes stating "That song is no longer available on iTunes, but you can get it for free from (long list of free mp3 sites)..." No, Apple and the RIAA are currently in a fragile equilibrium; neither one would benefit from disturbing that balance.
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cosmic microwave background radiation data *also* implies dark matter, and doesn't have such an easy alternative explanation. Isn't the background radiation easily explained by postulating a closed universe with wrap-around or reflection at the edges? Yeah, it's a crackpot theory, but I find it much easier to accept then the theory that "inflation" occured shortly after the big bang at speeds many magnitudes greater than the speed of light...
I think that they mean is that Blu-Ray's DRM doesn't fit in with Microsoft's vision of the PC being the center of home entertainment; it won't be allowed to transfer content over a network. Yes, this means Linux and OS X will have the same problem.
Some bank already require a thumbprint for cashing a check. If they would require a thumbprint for opening any kind of credit account, that would seriously cut down on the damage done by identity theft, wouldn't it? But it's not just the banks. How about if all catalog sales companies refuse to ship to any address other than the billing address of the credit card? How about if online purchases always require all customers to use single-use card numbers? How about if everybody stops accepting Social Security Numbers as both userid and password? Face it, there are already hundreds of thousands of people with access to all the information they currently need to borrow money or make purchases in your name. For some reason, we just assume every one of those people is honorable.
It's the sound of hundreds of chairs in being violently thrown across rooms in Redmond...
Let's look at a third scenario: somebody, possible you, scans only the first chapter of the book and makes it available for free download. Thousands of people that otherwise would never have looked at the book download the first chapter and read it. If the first chapter is really good, perhaps half the people that downloaded it actually go out and buy the book. Now you get more royalties, the publisher gets more royalties, and hundreds of people get to enjoy a really good read that they otherwise would never have known about. It's win-win-win... that is, unless the first chapter really sucks, in which case anybody that bothered to download it will probably never look at anything from that author ever again. And yes, they should go after the people that are unlawfully distributing the copyrighted material, not the people that are downloading it. Unfortunately, most P2P programs by default automatically re-share anything you download (and most people are too stupid to disable this "feature"), so most downloaders are in fact potential uploaders.
Did you build a shelter out of Linux CDs? No, that requires AOL CDs... they are a lot more plentiful and easier to come by! I say we all donate our AOL CD collections for disaster relief... if they use them to re-shingle a roof, it would be the best purpose an AOL CD has ever been used for!
Sony's right hand, I'd like to introduce you to Sony's left hand... it's obvious the two of you have never met!
If you are able to listen to the audio side of the disc on your PC, you should be able to download to your iPod. The CD/DVD drives in my Sony PC won't read a dual disc audio side, period. Strangely enough, the DVD side works perfectly on the PC... and usually includes the same audio tracks. If somebody can tell me how to rip dual disc audio to MP3, I'd be eternally grateful. The Sony PC support site just has a warning that says dual discs may not work.
Getting laid on a regular basis sure doesn't hurt... and if that doesn't work, try Prozac!
Best way to "reallocate company resources": late at night, when nobody is looking. Ever notice how the last guy to leave at night never seems to have a lack of hardware?
Gee, what are the chances that creators of those maps got at least part of their funding from public subsidies, therefore shouldn't those maps be owned by the people that paid for them, not some frickin' corporation? As far as I know, there aren't any public transportation systems that aren't heavily subsidized (unlike the US Post Office, which has not been subsidized for the last 20 years).
use hydrogen as a fuel-source For the last time, hydrogen is NOT a fuel source; it is an energy storage medium. That's like saying "Use batteries as a fuel source!" Unless, of course, you know something about portable hydrogen-powered fusion reactors that I don't...
You mean... Moby dick wasn't just about a guy fighting a whale?!?
the shift knob has been modified to allow a robot arm to be attached. This may be a naive question, but wouldn't an autonomous vehicle be one of the few really good applications for an automatic transmission?
Just ask yourself the following: "Who has more money to pay lobbyists -- Diebold or the Open Source Movement?"
Lrf fve! Jr jvyy pbzcyl jvgu lbhe "snzvyl svefg" naq "nagv-greebevfz" pung ebbz ebbyf rira gubhtu gurl ivbyngr bhe Svefg Nzraqzrag evtugf! Go fuck yourself you fascist pigs! Bu fbeel, zl svatref jrer ba gur jebat xrlf. Lrf, "HFN! HFN! HFN! Qbja jvgu greebevfgf naq cbeab!"
When the fuck are we going to stand up to the fascist fuckers and finally tell them to get fucked? Fbeel, gur xrlf ner fyvccrel.
List them, please. And show why they couldn't be reverse-engineered. Too lazy to do your own Google search, I see? How about this one, which was eventually reverse-engineered... over a thousand years later! Many others can be found by searching for "Lost technlogy".
You mean, you're not likely to brag about being the creator of the "Sociopath trying to compensate for tiny penis" worm?
Patents enhance the public good because without patents, inventors would have to resort to trade secrets. Before patents, many innovations and improvements died with their inventor, because they were kept as jealously guarded secrets. Patents were invented as a way of stopping the loss of new technology, while at the same time affording the inventor the same benefits as a trade secret, albeit for a limited time. Hence WE ALL benefit from patents; technological progress has expanded greatly since they were implemented, and technology is seldom lost anymore. Inventors still have the option of not filing a patent and relying on trade secret for protection of ideas. But as we have because much better at reverse-engineering, nobody resorts to trade secret anymore.
Surely you must be joking, Mr. Kerstetter!
There is just one problem with Microsoft focusing on hosted services to compete with Google. Just ask yourself: do you trust Microsoft with your data? These are the same people that have repeatedly forgotten to renew domain registrations. The same people that let hackers download their crown jewels (Windows source). Do you really trust them not to disclose your company data to your fiercest competitors? Or even worse, do you trust them not to steal you business model and start competing with you? Partnering up with Microsoft has been the kiss of death for more companies than I can name...
AOL's future can be predicted very easily by examining two simple curves. The first is AOL's incremental revenue per customer; note how it has been trending downward for several years now. The second is AOL's marginal cost to aquire each new customer; note how it has been steadily increasing ever since AOL started. Now note have the two curves cross in 2005. That's right, AOL now spends more to aquire each new customer than it gets in revenue from each new customer (on average). Any questions?
You're confusing Google's users with it's customers. Google's customers (the people from whom it derives it's revenue stream) are all advertisers. If Microsoft can successfully cut off the flow of ad revenue to Google, then it can kill Google even despite the fact that everybody on the planet uses their free search engine. No, I don't think Microsoft can cut off all ad revenue, but they can certainly make a dent in Google's profits.
The taboo sense of a word, Dr. Burridge said, "always drives out any other senses it might have had." How does he explain, then, the new Direct TV ads built around use of the word "sucks"? In this case, it appears the accepted meaning of the word (is of poor quality) has driven the taboo sense. Is everyone else too young to remember when "sucks" was an expression not to be used in polite conversation... unless you were referring to pacifiers?
Not as one-sided as you think. What would happen if a record company actually did pull their songs from iTunes? I can imagine a huge backlash of boycott, increased pirating perhaps even a note on iTunes stating "That song is no longer available on iTunes, but you can get it for free from (long list of free mp3 sites)..." No, Apple and the RIAA are currently in a fragile equilibrium; neither one would benefit from disturbing that balance.