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User: Rotten

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Comments · 173

  1. Re:OpenStreetMap on French Court Calls Free Google Maps Unfair Competition · · Score: 2

    Same maps that were altered/changed/wasted by google's IP range "contributors"?

  2. Re:Is everything you wish were different unfair? on French Court Calls Free Google Maps Unfair Competition · · Score: 1

    The marketplace haven't really changed, it's the same marketplace but now there's a new player offering things for free for some years, wiping out some competitors or pushing them away from the marketplace. And now....when their product it's a heavyweight champion...well...now they start to charge. That's unfair.

    The fairness of including someone else's information in their product it's another story.

    I'm a big supporter of the idea that information and knowledge should be free. But if that "freedom" has a price for the people who made that information, then it's no longer free. If the people who makes the information disappears, then the whole model has no sustainability. It's just a shortcut for google to make some quick money.
    I don't see google funding automated mapping projects. Are they? 'Cos they will need it soon.

  3. Re:True depending how you consider the whole issue on French Court Calls Free Google Maps Unfair Competition · · Score: 2

    I found myself a more specialized line of work, some line of work google won't move into. High precision mapping won't be the case for google maps in the next 10 years. Unless my work starts appearing for free on google maps.... get my point?

  4. Re:This was predicted to happen two years ago on French Court Calls Free Google Maps Unfair Competition · · Score: 1

    False: Linux is not windows, you can give it for free, people wanting windows will have to pay for windows. Linux it's a fair competition, not a free giveaway of the same product.

  5. True depending how you consider the whole issue on French Court Calls Free Google Maps Unfair Competition · · Score: 5, Informative

    As somebody working on the remote sensing/mapping/gis field for 10+ years. I tend to agree.

    It's a long debate, but clearly the new concept of "paid api" it's confusing.

    I perceived gmaps as a free tool in the beginning, but now, as they charge, it's no longer a tool, but a competitor.

    Many hi definition data available "freely" on google maps/google earth, it's the result of a private customer paying for that data, and the by some weird agreement between the companies that run the satellites and google, the information ended up "FREE" on google maps.

    A real life story:
    I paid 250+K for 1 meter imagery (ikonos) for a project that was covered in google maps using old 30m imagery (90's landsat). Months later google has the 1m coverage i ordered and paid for, available for FREE to anyone else.

    So i'm not only competing against google, but against people who no longer needs to order a quality work, since now it's there FREE.

    Duh! That's certainly UNFAIR.

  6. Re:Abiotic Oil on Stars Found To Produce Complex Organic Compounds · · Score: 2

    Oil needs a proper environment to stay as "Oil". When i read "below earth's crust"...well, your conspiracy theory is kind of weak to say the least.

    You are implying that you can find Oil in a 300+ Celcius degrees environment, wich is unreal.

  7. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish on Dennis Ritchie, Creator of C Programming Language, Passed Away · · Score: 1

    Godspeed Dennis.

  8. Old news and my OpenWRT does it better on Teach Your Router New Tricks With DD-WRT · · Score: 1

    Not exactly "news", both dd-wrt and truly open source open-wrt has been out outperforming stock firmwares for 5+++ years

  9. Re:31th page: on 30 Creative 404 Error Pages · · Score: 1

    Nah we can't call that a creative error page :P

  10. Tonight news at 11! on Swiped Tokens Expose Android Devices To Data Theft · · Score: 0

    "A hacker could collect a large store of tokens by first setting up a Wi-Fi access point with the same SSID of an unecrypted wireless network....."

    OMG REALLY!?

  11. Re:"Chemical" now a synonym for "toxin" on The Chemical-Free Chemistry Kit · · Score: 1

    When insecticides and agrochemicals in general got labeled as BIOCIDES, it was the first warning signal that our society was dumbing down at extreme pace.

    When the sole mention of uranium or arsenic (in natural state) started to sound alarms for some guys who started to "look for the culprit for that dangerous chemicals to be present in the water...must be the mining industry!!!" [of a remote hydrothermal area and the water in question was surging just meters of a volcanic system]...that day i lost all my hope. Society is stupid...or science has a comunicational problem w/society...or it's just the whole human race is doomed to be stupid forever.

    Fear....always fear....do you know a better control tool than fear?

  12. In soviet russia on UVB-76 Explained · · Score: 1

    In soviet Russia Speculations from wikipedia issue orders to you

  13. The Southern Thruway on China's Nine-Day Traffic Jam Tops 62 Miles · · Score: 1

    "The Southern Thruway" is a short story by "Julio Cortazar" that depicts the microeconomy and social interaction of a group of people struck in a days long traffic jam in Paris. He wrote it around 1960-1970.

    Sometimes reality turns fiction obsolete....

  14. Re:Cheap microscope on Researchers Zero In On Protein That Destroys HIV · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think the idea is to show that some advances are not money dependent. It's interesting to see a development on the enzyme/protein field, it's encouraging and sounds like it's moving in the right direction.

  15. Re:Special case on A Million Kids Misdiagnosed with ADHD? · · Score: 1

    Not so special, i can count 3 more cases like yours (physicist, mathematician, geologist) in a pretty narrow universe of occurrences (people whom i am intimate enough to know they were/would be diagnosed ADHD if tested)

  16. Re:Sigh on A Million Kids Misdiagnosed with ADHD? · · Score: 1

    Yes, an "active" kid means you have to play with him/her, run, jump and do a lot of "kid" stuff.

    Some parents want to push "Fast Forward" button to skip that part of parenting. And a ADHD diagnose helps a lot, specially for a generation that have a "pill" to solve every problem.

  17. They should be concerned about wii fit accidents on US Navy Considering Wii Fit and DDR For Boot Camp · · Score: 1

    specially accidents like this one: http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/videogames/2010/04/14/13582661.html

  18. Old malware.... on IBM Distributes USB Malware At Security Conference · · Score: 4, Funny

    IBM old malware is......OS/2?

  19. 2 articles that don't need to be posted anymore on Websites That Don't Need to Be Made Anymore · · Score: 3, Informative

    1) "top 8 things" style articles
    2) articles about apple loosing stuff

  20. So... on Millions of .de Domains Unreachable For Hours · · Score: 1

    Domains and DENIC officials were both unavailable, the only difference is that officials will be unavailable a bit longer...i bet it sucked to be them today.

  21. Site confussion on Russian Officials To Investigate Regional President's Alien Abduction Claims · · Score: 1

    I was sure i was reading "The Onion"...i even smiled while i went into the last sentence.

  22. Re:About time... on California's Santa Clara County Bans Happy Meal Toys · · Score: 1

    Totally agree.

    Parents can do a great job educating their kids, but kids are still exposed to real life. Growing a kid away from real life is impossible. If every kid in the classroom have the happy meal toy, your kid eventually will ask you to take him there....to get his toy, to be like everyone else.

  23. Secrets shipped to Argentina on Digital Photocopiers Loaded With Secrets · · Score: 1

    http://www.ambito.com/noticia.asp?id=518361

    You'll realize that secrets inside a photocopier are safe in a country where a "spy" hides under a desk and his tools are magnifying glasses and a flashlight.

  24. Re:How different? on Ideas For Exploiting NASA's SRTM Data · · Score: 1

    Not at all

  25. Santa can fix that! on Android's Success a Threat To Free Software? · · Score: 1

    If he gets me an android-enabled phone this christmas.

    Then i'll start writing free, open source, apps for it....but 'till then...my phone is too old for even thinking about writing apps for it.