I have always been frustrated that creators often drive their franchises/ideas into the ground or kill them when they die. I know that creators should have absolute control, but it is a shame that Star Wars will likely die with Lucas, Calvin and Hobbes will die with BW and Peanuts will die with CS. I guess the alternative may be worse than the status quo, but still, when commercial entertainment interests become part of our shared emotions/heritage the only thing that will lose is our pocket books.
* Anti-bacterial deoderant * Anti-bacterial shower soap bar * Anti-bacterial toothpaste * Anti-bacterial mouthwash * Anti-bacterial liquid hand soap * Anti-bacterial hand lotion (why?!)
I agree to some extent with your point but it has to be said that otc anti-bacterial products such as these are unlikely to confer resistance to to different classes of antibiotics such as this one. All antibiotics are not the same.
The possible danger is very real. That's evolution for you.
I'm going to be upgrading a compute heavy web server to a dual (or even quad!) AMD system soon. Does anyone have any good links for reasonable vendors that can preconfigure dual and quad AMD systems (as a good starting point)?
News sites got to make a buck somehow. Seems to me that registration is a reasonable way to do it. Remember (unlike some other sites I know of) they have large staffs of *gasp* reporters.
What I don't understand is why we haven't seen class action lawsuits brought against Micro$oft (and a few others) from the consumer end. If some smart lawyers out there want to make a buck this is the place to be (IMO). Examples:
1. M$ changing EULA's during software updates. This is the ultimate, IMO. A company should not be able to change the EULA after the fact under any circumstances, and if they do you should be able to opt out and get your money back. I could easily imagine nefarious schemes to really screw consumers using these tactics.
2. Gator (I know, not M$) installing software without the users knowledge. The media companies are suing Gator (as they should), but consumers should as well because 99.9% of them don't even know they are opt-ing in to anything.
3. Security and liability. Somewhere down the line, security holes in M$ software started costing consumers and companies millions, perhaps billions. The developers of said software should bear some legal responsibility to make secure code. If they don't then there is no incentive for M$ to even fix the bugs in a timely manner.
4. Monopolistic practices hurt the consumer. Software bundling and misleading statements are akin to practices made by the tobacco industry 20 years ago. By hurting the consumer, the consumer should have a legal right to recoup costs due to said illegal activities.
I can't believe in a world where McD's pays millions for coffee spills, juries award millions for defective products and lawyers litter the streets like sharks that we cannot find a legal loop hole to win some of these cases....
-Sean
The obligatory star wars reference...
on
Geeky Child Names?
·
· Score: 2
I personally always thought Wedge was a cool name...
The problem with this is that analysis like this are simply interesting reading and speculation. Nothing more. Barely science and really not past the hypothesis stage (there is no evidence he is correct).
I can find good arguments for both why or why not other worlds may have life or intelligent life.
I once wrote a piece of software for assisting staffers in calculating payrolls at a big ten university. This was used for budgets, paychecks, accounting, etc. Anyways, some of the employees started complaining that their paychecks were slightly off from what they should be. (Usually less than $.05) I found that I was summing the paychecks individually, propogating a rounding error. But that didn't completely fix the problem!
It turns out (after a lot of research) that the budget office officially rounded down (floored) and the payroll office rounded to nearest! So here I was getting blamed for the annoyed employees, but it was really the worst sort of bureaucracy... one that can't be easily fixed.
When are our corporate leaders going to put away greed in favor of fiscal responsibility? They are overpaid, over-valued and over-hyped. I can't believe that some execs make and own large percentages of the entire company, causing the stock price of the silent masses to be controlled by the actions of these idiot few. These guys even take loans for themselves ($366 million for ex-worldcom ceo)!
But the changes required to avoid the patents, in my opinion, are likely to be more expensive than licensing the patent itself. It is very difficult to find a gene product that can be used without cellular purification....
In this article on SFGate, the MS spokesman said today that they won't support Java after 2004, and here is what he had to say:
"The decision to remove Microsoft's Java implementation was made because of Sun's strategy of using the legal system to compete with Microsoft," [Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan]
I guess M$ really does like illegal competition....
Heh, Heh. Yes, I did my fair share of dumb things when I was 11 not when I was in high school, though. I did a bunch of other stuff in grad school to. I assisted a physical chemistry lab once a week and I spent the entire time during lecture sticking odd things into liquid nitrogen...
Is this the beginning of a new business model for the RIAA? The steps:
1. Someone starts a p2p service. 2. Users of said service trade copyrighted material. 3. RIAA sues said service to prevent copyright infringement along the service's (virtual) pipes. 4. Service pays RIAA, files bankruptcy slightly later. 5. Goto step 1
Hmm, is it just me or is this a *really* big waste of venture capital and angel investing? You are paying the RIAA for the ability to trade priviledged material. The thing is, your copy is still illegal and someone is picking up your tab.
I'm not sure the Darwin awards have much to do with risk taking, nor did my original comment. I think here there is an implied level of stupidity critical for a death to be pushed into the Darwin catagory. Any kid who is going to hit pure red phosphorous with a screw driver is taking a risk, but not a smart one. The same goes for that kid who is willing to put others in danger by disabling large numbers of smoke detectors in public places.
Quoate 1: Finally, David, whose safety precautions had thus far consisted of wearing a makeshift lead poncho and throwing away his clothes and changing his shoes following a session in the potting shed
Quote 2: the house was rocked by an explosion in the basement. There they found David lying semiconscious on the floor, his eyebrows smoking. Unaware that red phosphorus is pyrophoric, David had been pounding it with a screwdriver and ignited it.
Quote 3: David pulverized the ores with a hammer, thinking that he could then use nitric acid to isolate uranium. [...] David made his own [nitric acid] by heating saltpeter and sodium bisulfate, then bubbling the gas that was released through a container of water, producing nitric acid. He then mixed the acid with the powdered ore and boiled it, ending up with something that "looked like a dirty milk shake."
Quote 4: Another year, David was expelled from camp when [...] he stole a number of smoke detectors to disassemble for parts he required for his experiments.
This kid is a walking advertisement for the Darwin Awards...
Negligence in software development costs other people/entities money. Cleary, liability is an issue.
I'm not sure, however, if all you programmers really want this cat out of the bag. Could you imagine someone suing you because something you developed didn't work and caused someone to lose money?
Or better yet, when will we get artificial etiquette for trolls.
-Sean
Re:God, Dr. Wolfram, and Asceticism
on
Wolframania
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
He is one of those rare individuals that consistantly produce.
Uhh, I hate to disagree with you but how is going into hiding to write a book "producing"? When a person is risen to the level of celebrity scientist, they are going to get press when they want it, no matter what they say. He is neither the first person to marvel at CA's and while cool, we have yet to see whether his ideas are truely significant or not.
Slashdot Mirror
I have always been frustrated that creators often drive their franchises/ideas into the ground or kill them when they die. I know that creators should have absolute control, but it is a shame that Star Wars will likely die with Lucas, Calvin and Hobbes will die with BW and Peanuts will die with CS. I guess the alternative may be worse than the status quo, but still, when commercial entertainment interests become part of our shared emotions/heritage the only thing that will lose is our pocket books.
-Sean
Looking through my roomate's things, I find:
* Anti-bacterial deoderant
* Anti-bacterial shower soap bar
* Anti-bacterial toothpaste
* Anti-bacterial mouthwash
* Anti-bacterial liquid hand soap
* Anti-bacterial hand lotion (why?!)
I agree to some extent with your point but it has to be said that otc anti-bacterial products such as these are unlikely to confer resistance to to different classes of antibiotics such as this one. All antibiotics are not the same.
The possible danger is very real. That's evolution for you.
The real danger is over prescribing of effective antibiotics in unnecessary cases. How many times have you taken antibiotics for a cold? for the flu? Doctors even think it may be unnecessary for bronchitis.
That said the original poster is correct, use of those products is really unnecessary.
-Sean
I'm going to be upgrading a compute heavy web server to a dual (or even quad!) AMD system soon. Does anyone have any good links for reasonable vendors that can preconfigure dual and quad AMD systems (as a good starting point)?
-Sean
So Taco,
How does it feel to be able to legally bring down most servers on the net at will?
-Sean
Read the friggen post, for god's sake. It's interesting and it's about a button and misuse of a button, and it has little to do with the article.
...)
(carry on
-Sean
Damn, I wish I could get a letter like that so I could sell lots of copies of empty mp3's. . .
News sites got to make a buck somehow. Seems to me that registration is a reasonable way to do it. Remember (unlike some other sites I know of) they have large staffs of *gasp* reporters.
-Sean
(WANL == We are not lawyers)
What I don't understand is why we haven't seen class action lawsuits brought against Micro$oft (and a few others) from the consumer end. If some smart lawyers out there want to make a buck this is the place to be (IMO). Examples:
1. M$ changing EULA's during software updates. This is the ultimate, IMO. A company should not be able to change the EULA after the fact under any circumstances, and if they do you should be able to opt out and get your money back. I could easily imagine nefarious schemes to really screw consumers using these tactics.
2. Gator (I know, not M$) installing software without the users knowledge. The media companies are suing Gator (as they should), but consumers should as well because 99.9% of them don't even know they are opt-ing in to anything.
3. Security and liability. Somewhere down the line, security holes in M$ software started costing consumers and companies millions, perhaps billions. The developers of said software should bear some legal responsibility to make secure code. If they don't then there is no incentive for M$ to even fix the bugs in a timely manner.
4. Monopolistic practices hurt the consumer. Software bundling and misleading statements are akin to practices made by the tobacco industry 20 years ago. By hurting the consumer, the consumer should have a legal right to recoup costs due to said illegal activities.
I can't believe in a world where McD's pays millions for coffee spills, juries award millions for defective products and lawyers litter the streets like sharks that we cannot find a legal loop hole to win some of these cases....
-Sean
I personally always thought Wedge was a cool name ...
-Sean
It's an Athlon-based, dual-head laptop. Yes, that's right - dual-head LAPTOP.
Uhh, at 6kg (13.23 lbs), I think I might come up with better term to describe it.
-Sean
The problem with this is that analysis like this are simply interesting reading and speculation. Nothing more. Barely science and really not past the hypothesis stage (there is no evidence he is correct).
I can find good arguments for both why or why not other worlds may have life or intelligent life.
-Sean
Is the plan to try to get these into space? CNN is reporting another reusable rocket powered vehicle that will be able to do this.
-Sean
I once wrote a piece of software for assisting staffers in calculating payrolls at a big ten university. This was used for budgets, paychecks, accounting, etc. Anyways, some of the employees started complaining that their paychecks were slightly off from what they should be. (Usually less than $.05) I found that I was summing the paychecks individually, propogating a rounding error. But that didn't completely fix the problem!
... one that can't be easily fixed.
It turns out (after a lot of research) that the budget office officially rounded down (floored) and the payroll office rounded to nearest! So here I was getting blamed for the annoyed employees, but it was really the worst sort of bureaucracy
-Sean
When are our corporate leaders going to put away greed in favor of fiscal responsibility? They are overpaid, over-valued and over-hyped. I can't believe that some execs make and own large percentages of the entire company, causing the stock price of the silent masses to be controlled by the actions of these idiot few. These guys even take loans for themselves ($366 million for ex-worldcom ceo)!
-Sean
I battle word, excel, powerpoint and window 2000 everyday. Does this mean I'm finally going to win?
-Sean
Course it would kinda suck if your phone rang when you were asleep.
...
...
Or having sex, or eating, or exercising, or talking on another phone
And we thought carnivore has scary implications now
-Sean
But the changes required to avoid the patents, in my opinion, are likely to be more expensive than licensing the patent itself. It is very difficult to find a gene product that can be used without cellular purification....
-Sean
In this article on SFGate, the MS spokesman said today that they won't support Java after 2004, and here is what he had to say:
"The decision to remove Microsoft's Java implementation was made because of Sun's strategy of using the legal system to compete with Microsoft," [Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan]
I guess M$ really does like illegal competition....
-Sean
Heh, Heh. Yes, I did my fair share of dumb things when I was 11 not when I was in high school, though. I did a bunch of other stuff in grad school to. I assisted a physical chemistry lab once a week and I spent the entire time during lecture sticking odd things into liquid nitrogen...
-Sean
Is this the beginning of a new business model for the RIAA? The steps:
1. Someone starts a p2p service.
2. Users of said service trade copyrighted material.
3. RIAA sues said service to prevent copyright infringement along the service's (virtual) pipes.
4. Service pays RIAA, files bankruptcy slightly later.
5. Goto step 1
Hmm, is it just me or is this a *really* big waste of venture capital and angel investing? You are paying the RIAA for the ability to trade priviledged material. The thing is, your copy is still illegal and someone is picking up your tab.
-Sean
I'm not sure the Darwin awards have much to do with risk taking, nor did my original comment. I think here there is an implied level of stupidity critical for a death to be pushed into the Darwin catagory. Any kid who is going to hit pure red phosphorous with a screw driver is taking a risk, but not a smart one. The same goes for that kid who is willing to put others in danger by disabling large numbers of smoke detectors in public places.
-Sean
Quoate 1: Finally, David, whose safety precautions had thus far consisted of wearing a makeshift lead poncho and throwing away his clothes and changing his shoes following a session in the potting shed
...
Quote 2: the house was rocked by an explosion in the basement. There they found David lying semiconscious on the floor, his eyebrows smoking. Unaware that red phosphorus is pyrophoric, David had been pounding it with a screwdriver and ignited it.
Quote 3: David pulverized the ores with a hammer, thinking that he could then use nitric acid to isolate uranium. [...] David made his own [nitric acid] by heating saltpeter and sodium bisulfate, then bubbling the gas that was released through a container of water, producing nitric acid. He then mixed the acid with the powdered ore and boiled it, ending up with something that "looked like a dirty milk shake."
Quote 4: Another year, David was expelled from camp when [...] he stole a number of smoke detectors to disassemble for parts he required for his experiments.
This kid is a walking advertisement for the Darwin Awards
-Sean
Negligence in software development costs other people/entities money. Cleary, liability is an issue.
I'm not sure, however, if all you programmers really want this cat out of the bag. Could you imagine someone suing you because something you developed didn't work and caused someone to lose money?
-Sean
When will we get
Artificial Intelligence for the Stupid
Or better yet, when will we get artificial etiquette for trolls.
-Sean
He is one of those rare individuals that consistantly produce.
Uhh, I hate to disagree with you but how is going into hiding to write a book "producing"? When a person is risen to the level of celebrity scientist, they are going to get press when they want it, no matter what they say. He is neither the first person to marvel at CA's and while cool, we have yet to see whether his ideas are truely significant or not.
-Sean