I was able to load a few of the comments. I never saw one "trollie" comment. Here are some examples:
I want the internet to be regulated like any other utility. That is what it is - a utility. Everyone in this day and age needs to have internet access. It is not a question of IF they need it. Accessibility to the internet pervades all aspects of life, and it will destroy innovation and creativity of small businesses to have to pay non-standardized prices for their internet traffic. Stop pandering to the money, and start pandering to the people - contrary to what the money thinks, the PEOPLE are the ones you serve.
---
Members of the FCC,
Individuals granted the power to rule over such a critical technology, during such a critical time in the development of our species. Create a respectable legacy.
Regarding moving forward with regulations to maintain an ‘Open Internet’, it is critical that ISPs are re-classified as Title ll public utility providers, so that both consumers and innovators are guaranteed fair opportunity in the foreseeable future, and ISPs are prevented from gradually creating an innovation crushing, tiered network over the next few decades. Use the power you have now to create a lasting change, for if the regulation is weak in its foundation, with time it will collapse under the force of the corrupt interest of multi-billion dollars companies’ lobbying efforts.
Thank You,
Laser Nite MIT Class of 2017
---
I demand net neutrality. People deserve equal access to bandwidth regardless of how much they can afford to pay. The internet is an integral communication and educational tool in our society.
---
reclassify broadband internet as a title II common carrier telecommunications service
I want the internet to be regulated like any other utility. That is what it is - a utility. Everyone in this day and age needs to have internet access. It is not a question of IF they need it. Accessibility to the internet pervades all aspects of life, and it will destroy innovation and creativity of small businesses to have to pay non-standardized prices for their internet traffic. Stop pandering to the money, and start pandering to the people - contrary to what the money thinks, the PEOPLE are the ones you serve.
---
Just like everything else in this country, it seems the internet is now going to be owned by big corporations. They are to follow in the footsteps of BIG PHARMA and BIG OIL. We, as Americans, think that we have a voice, that this is a democracy. That may no longer be the case. I believe we have no voice. Our politicians, our food, our choices are now owned by the big corporations. If we do not have net neutrality, it will be the final nail in the coffin of democracy around the world and the corporation will be the dictator.
The music industry is still trying to cover their own ass. They know they are going to lose this fight, so if they push everyone else out of the business first they can take it over like they have every other avenue.
Supporting them now is like caving to the first offer to a street vendor in Thailand.
I am bias and not afraid to admit it, we offer MP3s for $.10 - $.20 that are encoded at 128bit to 192bit. That's good enough to burn.
You have to be 17 (legally) to see and R rated movie.
Accually you don't, ratings are simply a guide, and there is no legal recourse for allowing anyone into any movie, with the exception of NC-17, where an owner can be charged with contributing to the delinquecy of a minor.
Look at some of the ideas presented, such as SRI International who wants to:
minutes.degrees.tendegrees.geo. The exact form of the naming convention will be available as a simple downloadable XML schema from the top level.geo domain. No other names are anticipated beyond a few administrative domains.
For example, consider a server with DNS name 10e20n.geo. Since it is a server at the second level of the hierarchy (tendegrees.geo), it is responsible for a 10 degree x 10 degree "cell" of the world. The service area of the cell spans from longitude 10 degrees East and latitude 20 degrees North to longitude 20 degrees East and latitude 30 degrees North.
Or VRx who wants.faq so any answer for blah can be found at blah.faq, 800 & 888 to map toll free numbers (which seems odd to me, you dial 1-800-555-5555 and goto 555-5555.800?) These are just a few of their ideas.
Diebold Incorporated wants.atm for Automatic Teller Machines, which seems like at least one thing you are going to have to goto physically to make much use of it.
And one of my favorites is.SUX which is set up by Jerky Networking, not so much for the name, but that Jerky is wanting it, anyone else remember the Jerky Boys?
I have seen a lot of posts on here about how it's free software and shouldn't be charged for. The GPL never says this. Instead it says you can charge whatever you want for it, however if you distribute a binary you have to make the source available for no more cost then that of the media to distribute and your time (basically.)
If I put together a distribution I can charge anything for it, say $100,000, but what the GPL protects is anybody from saying here is a bunch of binaries, if you want the code it is $100,000.
This got me really thinking as to some other 'legal' aspects. If you give part of your CPU time to a non-profit group would you be able to write it off? How many more people would run Distributed.net or SETI@Home if you got to write off $.01 a block or some such thing?
I think it would be an interesting avenue to persue for the people running these sites. The only thing better then getting paid is getting paid from the government.
Seriously everyone needs to go listen to their songs, especially Foam. To quote:
'I'm a 6 foot tall mathematical rapper'
It's like playing the Beastie Boys through an old Radio Shack walkie talkie while scratching an old copy of Elton John and stepping on a cat. Good stuff to be sure.
I don't want to start a flame ware here, but how come Debian never gets any credit. They run a tight ship over there, and one could put up an argument that as far as server configurations go they are one of the best. Besides doing the initial install, keeping updated with dselect is as easy as a couple commands.
Now apply that to the mergers, you have Company A who wants to sell servers with linux. Get Debian worked out and after that point the cost to keep everything updated and security up to snuff is relativly low. Compaq would be much better off with such a company, or IBM or whoever else ZDNet wants to make up a story about.
When I was doing some reading about the backbone of the internet a couple years ago I ran into this same thing. Basically it's not that there are bullies on the backbones but there are two theories of backboning. The first camp thinks that getting rid of their packets as fast as possible gets them the most benifit. The second gets the packets as close to the destination as possible then dumps them. You can see how if everybody did one or the other it would work well, but the backbones are mix and match. The camps that want to get it as close as possible want many peering points and the 'dump the packets' camp wants just a few. Incidently these peer points are extremely overloaded at this point.
It has always been that you can buy special routing priveledges on these backbones, so I don't see the real point of this article.
On a side note, there is also other companies setting up 'internets' where they will garentee bandwidth, latency, and peer points to other networks, with complete security. I can't remember any names off hand, but there is a whole new demension starting to open up.
Accually it's really not. Social Security numbers are only for US Citizens. If you give up your US citizenship you no longer have to pay taxes, be drafted, etc, etc, etc, nor do you have a social security number. Now this sounds BAD, but we are in all citizens of our repective states. To get a visa, drivers license, etc you need to be a state citizen, in fact 000-00-0000 is a legal SSN, as held by the Supreme Court that you can put on any job application. Being a US citizen is a contractual agreement, just as taxes are a contractual agreement, hence names like 'Tax Code' (which I recommend reading some time.) Because it is a contract you don't have to agree to the terms and withdraw from it; this is NOT so with state taxes. The social security fund that you use as evidence of needing a SSN, is again allowed under the contract, so if you are not a member of the contract you do not have to pay into it. It's very simple really.
For further thought, think back to high school government. The Federal government can not make any laws they are not expressly allowed to by the constitution. This is why Federal taxes are not laws, and it is handled through a contract. It's some interesting reading. Take a look at the contracts and Supreme Court rulings around the turn of the century if you don't believe me, or anyone else who is interested can email me at ephraiml@crosswinds.net, I would be estatic to have further discussions.
In an interview on CNN or MSNBC last night about online stalkers there were two major points made. First is never give out any information about yourself. Second was that all packets should be signed with your social security number of all things. Don't these seem mutually exclusive to anyone else?
On a side note, social security numbers are not required to be a US citizen, in fact as long as you don't work for the government and don't keep money in any institution regulated or associated with the FDIC there is no need. On a side note the same goes for paying taxes. If this regulation goes through then in essense what is said by requiring a social security number for internet access is that it is a privledge and not a right for a citizen to possess. Scary thought to think that we may not have a right to communicate. Just some things to think about.
Ahh, but you forget that microwave can be used for commercial usage. There are ISP's who offer access through the 2.1 Ghz range (I think that is right.) The FCC opened that up to any usage that you want, and since they are talking about microwave in this article I assume that that is where the project will exist. In fact since it is free I have seen projects where people take their microwave (same frequency) and shoot it through an antenna on their roof. If the ISP in town doesn't pay their tarrif they turn on the microwave and all people between them and the ISP lose conductivity.
Supposedly it will be out by July 3-5. This is not news from Blizzard, but in their advertising contracts they are set to put out ads on the 5th I believe and they have no option in them to move that date. Of course they could always just advertise and not release, but at least it's a day to look forward to.
I think it is pretty extreme to say that the tech sector is driving the way society is headed. Instead look perhaps what you are seeing is the economy changing in areas to the attitude of the tech sector. What you are really doing is redefining a capitolistic system in the tech sector. In a real economy the goods available will change to suit the consumers. All of your examples are also examples of how the system has changed in order to make more profit from goods that require no real resources (relativly.) To me what you have stated is nothing more then capitolism at work.
This is the worst route that the ISP could have taken. They made the attackers victorious in what they set out to do.
First let me tell everyone about some things you might not want to know. In my opinion DoS attacks are like taking the computers hostage, or any terrorist act. You don't agree with the politics of a group or you want attention. In any real world terrorism you can never, I repeat never give the terrorist anything they want, except for absolutely meaningless things. Even if they want peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches you give them a jar of peanut butter, some jelly, and some stail bread. On a more serious side if they pull the trick of covering themselves and hostages with a blanket and come out of the house (so the SWAT can't see who they are shooting) there is always a no pass line (generally 25 or so feet in front of the door. It is just as it sounds, the terrorist does NOT pass that line, if you have to kill hostages to kill the terrorist it is acceptable. These are the policies in place right now all the way from some little towns police force to the FBI.
Now you may ask why I went through all this. It's simple, if you ever give a terrorist what they want then terrorism becomes a viable option. The same will happen with DoS attacks or any other online attack. If you give one person what they want in an attempt to stop attacks you are going to cause many many more attacks with the same result sought. It's bad practice, and bad logic on the ISP's side of it. I repeat again that this was the WORST thing they could have done.
Whether or not it makes any -sense- for Microsoft to do what it is doing, does it not still have the legal -right- if not a legal obligation to protect its copyrights, or face an inability to enforce its position at a later date?
First let me make one thing clear: A trade secret is NOT copywritable. If you have a copyright on somthing it means that it is viewable (gets a little iffy in computer software, but I digress.) If you let out a trade secret, say I get the formula for Coke through legal means, I can do WHATEVER I want with it. There is nothing Coke can do. If I get Microsoft code through legal means that is held under trade secret I can do whatever I want with it.
A trade secret is used so you can have use for an unlimited time, copyrights and patents expire. A trade secret never does as long as it is kept a secret, if you don't keep it a secret you have no legal right to prosecute.
Every point in the letter gets to showing how Microsoft did not keep it a secret, or used illegal means to secure a trade secret, therefor nullifing any legal right they have. In fact the letter points right at the legal issues.
It may be marketed to 'industrial' audiences, but what about the home user who always seems to be making a 'mess' from what he or she (probably he 99% of the time) sees? I think we'll see a lot more banner ads for this one in odd places. Easy clean up, and rubber fetish fufilling. An odd combination, almost as odd as cybersex.
Even if Napster does ban users that pirate mp3s, it should be Metallicas job to PROVE it. If they can say that all 330,000+ users do in fact not own the CDs, fine ban them. However we are running into a very slippery slope if Napster agrees to ban anyone who simply downloaded a song. If this precident is set now, then it will be very soon until virtually every IP will be banned. Until it is shown that someone does not own the CD, the IP should not be banned. The beauty here is that it will be close to impossible to prove anything, but that's the type of culture we live in, if you can't prove guilt, or in this case a proponderance of the evidence, actions should not be taken.
Qt is far too easy to program, so I can see it doesn't hold a candle to Motif.
Ironic after the Visual Basic flames. Nowhere in his article did he say Motif was better because it was easier. Many things are easy, but it doesn't make them better. Windows is easier then Linux, so you beg the question as to why people use linux.
I do have to say that from personal experience I don't like Motif, but that's a different issue.
Trade secrets MUST have the following conditions met to be held up in court as a trade secret: 1) have novelty 2) represent an economic investment to the claimant 3) have involved some effort in development 4) the company must show that it made some effort to keep the information a secret
In addion to this, although it is not legal to use redistribute trade secrets, the general knowledge that is learned through things that are held under trade secrecy CAN be used in the future. Another point to remember is that if something is held under trade secret copyright and patent laws DO NOT apply. It is debatable in this case whether the company tried to keep it a secret (documents downloaded by hackers have fallen under trade secret laws, but because they were not secured enough so a hacker couldn't get access the hacker has been determined to not be liable for any damages.) Also any country where there are not trade secrecy laws could download this and redistribute it. Once a trade secret is not a secret it falls into public domain.
Some information gathered from Computer Ethics, Deborah G. Johnson, 1994.
SA is just the very basic way to skew the position, which is done by the sats. The error stream is added with a known equation, then the military models also know this equation and subtract it off to get the real position. In war times this error can be increased DRAMATICALLY, many many times the error from what it is now. The military spec also can use land based transmitters so the accuracy can be increased to very very fine amounts, I have read of uses in some special construction projects, where the government has allowed the very accuate models to be used were able to measure changes down to millimeters.
The problem has always been that if GPS is too accuate it is relatively easy to take a rocket (an unsteerable projectile) and make it a very accurate balistic missle. In fact the national organization for rocket builders now has their new members list checked by the NSA or the FBI, because with GPS and a few servos you can make a missle that would be fairly accurate. You may not be able to pick out what window you want to hit but you can hit the building.
I don't believe National Security plays a role in many parts of our lives, but GPS is something that is too powerful not to be well regulated.
Many people forget that a house is normally wired with 4 conductor phone line ( green - red | black - yellow ) If you make sure that the black and yellow are connected in all the boxes, and the junction boxes in your house you can effectively have an additional private circut in your house. This is especially useful if you do have to deal with something propritary here. Another fact that most people forget is that RJ-45 is 8 conductor, where orange, orange-white, blue, and blue-white are used, so it is again possible to run an additional ethernet line through the same cable, or as I have done in the past put two analog phone lines down with the ethernet signal. In theory you may run into problems with induction fields, but I have never had a problem. You can also do other useful things, like use the black and yellow wires to run a mono feed of mp3s from your computer to your stereo.
The X-Project is here to make sure great ideas happen. With a prize of 10 million dollars on the line the last time I heard there was about 50 contestents. The contest? The first reusable orbital craft. If you can design a craft that can carry 3 people, reach high enough altitudes to enter into orbit, return to earth, and send another 3 people up within a week, you win. There is supposedly a constestant ready to launch this summer, and many more within three years. Who needs governments, we have competition.
Slashdot Mirror
I was able to load a few of the comments. I never saw one "trollie" comment. Here are some examples:
I want the internet to be regulated like any other utility. That is what it is - a
utility. Everyone in this day and age needs to have internet access. It is not a
question of IF they need it. Accessibility to the internet pervades all aspects of
life, and it will destroy innovation and creativity of small businesses to have to
pay non-standardized prices for their internet traffic. Stop pandering to the money,
and start pandering to the people - contrary to what the money thinks, the PEOPLE
are the ones you serve.
---
Members of the FCC,
Individuals granted the power to rule over such a critical technology, during
such a critical time in the development of our species. Create a respectable
legacy.
Regarding moving forward with regulations to maintain an ‘Open Internet’,
it is critical that ISPs are re-classified as Title ll public utility providers, so
that both consumers and innovators are guaranteed fair opportunity in the
foreseeable future, and ISPs are prevented from gradually creating an
innovation crushing, tiered network over the next few decades. Use the
power you have now to create a lasting change, for if the regulation is weak
in its foundation, with time it will collapse under the force of the corrupt
interest of multi-billion dollars companies’ lobbying efforts.
Thank You,
Laser Nite
MIT Class of 2017
---
I demand net neutrality. People deserve equal access to bandwidth regardless of how
much they can afford to pay. The internet is an integral communication and
educational tool in our society.
---
reclassify broadband internet as a title II common carrier telecommunications
service
I want the internet to be regulated like any other utility. That is what it is - a
utility. Everyone in this day and age needs to have internet access. It is not a
question of IF they need it. Accessibility to the internet pervades all aspects of
life, and it will destroy innovation and creativity of small businesses to have to
pay non-standardized prices for their internet traffic. Stop pandering to the money,
and start pandering to the people - contrary to what the money thinks, the PEOPLE
are the ones you serve.
---
Just like everything else in this country, it seems the internet is now going to be
owned by big corporations. They are to follow in the footsteps of BIG PHARMA and
BIG OIL. We, as Americans, think that we have a voice, that this is a democracy.
That may no longer be the case. I believe we have no voice. Our politicians, our
food, our choices are now owned by the big corporations. If we do not have net
neutrality, it will be the final nail in the coffin of democracy around the world
and the corporation will be the dictator.
Sorry second line should be:
Supporting them now is like caving to the first offer from a street vendor in Thailand.
The music industry is still trying to cover their own ass. They know they are going to lose this fight, so if they push everyone else out of the business first they can take it over like they have every other avenue.
Supporting them now is like caving to the first offer to a street vendor in Thailand.
I am bias and not afraid to admit it, we offer MP3s for $.10 - $.20 that are encoded at 128bit to 192bit. That's good enough to burn.
CD Cost: ~$1.50USD
MusicRebellion
Have a look at this stance on DRM, yes I'm an employee, but I wish we could make the big five see the logic.
Our position on the DRM.
You have to be 17 (legally) to see and R rated movie.
Accually you don't, ratings are simply a guide, and there is no legal recourse for allowing anyone into any movie, with the exception of NC-17, where an owner can be charged with contributing to the delinquecy of a minor.
Look at some of the ideas presented, such as SRI International who wants to:
.geo domain. No other names are anticipated beyond a few administrative domains.
.faq so any answer for blah can be found at blah.faq, 800 & 888 to map toll free numbers (which seems odd to me, you dial 1-800-555-5555 and goto 555-5555.800?) These are just a few of their ideas.
.atm for Automatic Teller Machines, which seems like at least one thing you are going to have to goto physically to make much use of it.
.SUX which is set up by Jerky Networking, not so much for the name, but that Jerky is wanting it, anyone else remember the Jerky Boys?
minutes.degrees.tendegrees.geo. The exact form of the naming convention will be available as a simple downloadable XML schema from the top level
For example, consider a server with DNS name 10e20n.geo. Since it is a server at the second level of the hierarchy (tendegrees.geo), it is responsible for a 10 degree x 10 degree "cell" of the world. The service area of the cell spans from longitude 10 degrees East and latitude 20 degrees North to longitude 20 degrees East and latitude 30 degrees North.
Or VRx who wants
Diebold Incorporated wants
And one of my favorites is
I have seen a lot of posts on here about how it's free software and shouldn't be charged for. The GPL never says this. Instead it says you can charge whatever you want for it, however if you distribute a binary you have to make the source available for no more cost then that of the media to distribute and your time (basically.)
If I put together a distribution I can charge anything for it, say $100,000, but what the GPL protects is anybody from saying here is a bunch of binaries, if you want the code it is $100,000.
Just thought it should be mentioned.
This got me really thinking as to some other 'legal' aspects. If you give part of your CPU time to a non-profit group would you be able to write it off? How many more people would run Distributed.net or SETI@Home if you got to write off $.01 a block or some such thing?
I think it would be an interesting avenue to persue for the people running these sites. The only thing better then getting paid is getting paid from the government.
Seriously everyone needs to go listen to their songs, especially Foam. To quote:
'I'm a 6 foot tall mathematical rapper'
It's like playing the Beastie Boys through an old Radio Shack walkie talkie while scratching an old copy of Elton John and stepping on a cat. Good stuff to be sure.
EJL
I don't want to start a flame ware here, but how come Debian never gets any credit. They run a tight ship over there, and one could put up an argument that as far as server configurations go they are one of the best. Besides doing the initial install, keeping updated with dselect is as easy as a couple commands.
Now apply that to the mergers, you have Company A who wants to sell servers with linux. Get Debian worked out and after that point the cost to keep everything updated and security up to snuff is relativly low. Compaq would be much better off with such a company, or IBM or whoever else ZDNet wants to make up a story about.
When I was doing some reading about the backbone of the internet a couple years ago I ran into this same thing. Basically it's not that there are bullies on the backbones but there are two theories of backboning. The first camp thinks that getting rid of their packets as fast as possible gets them the most benifit. The second gets the packets as close to the destination as possible then dumps them. You can see how if everybody did one or the other it would work well, but the backbones are mix and match. The camps that want to get it as close as possible want many peering points and the 'dump the packets' camp wants just a few. Incidently these peer points are extremely overloaded at this point.
It has always been that you can buy special routing priveledges on these backbones, so I don't see the real point of this article.
On a side note, there is also other companies setting up 'internets' where they will garentee bandwidth, latency, and peer points to other networks, with complete security. I can't remember any names off hand, but there is a whole new demension starting to open up.
Accually it's really not. Social Security numbers are only for US Citizens. If you give up your US citizenship you no longer have to pay taxes, be drafted, etc, etc, etc, nor do you have a social security number. Now this sounds BAD, but we are in all citizens of our repective states. To get a visa, drivers license, etc you need to be a state citizen, in fact 000-00-0000 is a legal SSN, as held by the Supreme Court that you can put on any job application. Being a US citizen is a contractual agreement, just as taxes are a contractual agreement, hence names like 'Tax Code' (which I recommend reading some time.) Because it is a contract you don't have to agree to the terms and withdraw from it; this is NOT so with state taxes. The social security fund that you use as evidence of needing a SSN, is again allowed under the contract, so if you are not a member of the contract you do not have to pay into it. It's very simple really.
For further thought, think back to high school government. The Federal government can not make any laws they are not expressly allowed to by the constitution. This is why Federal taxes are not laws, and it is handled through a contract. It's some interesting reading. Take a look at the contracts and Supreme Court rulings around the turn of the century if you don't believe me, or anyone else who is interested can email me at ephraiml@crosswinds.net, I would be estatic to have further discussions.
In an interview on CNN or MSNBC last night about online stalkers there were two major points made. First is never give out any information about yourself. Second was that all packets should be signed with your social security number of all things. Don't these seem mutually exclusive to anyone else?
On a side note, social security numbers are not required to be a US citizen, in fact as long as you don't work for the government and don't keep money in any institution regulated or associated with the FDIC there is no need. On a side note the same goes for paying taxes. If this regulation goes through then in essense what is said by requiring a social security number for internet access is that it is a privledge and not a right for a citizen to possess. Scary thought to think that we may not have a right to communicate. Just some things to think about.
Ahh, but you forget that microwave can be used for commercial usage. There are ISP's who offer access through the 2.1 Ghz range (I think that is right.) The FCC opened that up to any usage that you want, and since they are talking about microwave in this article I assume that that is where the project will exist. In fact since it is free I have seen projects where people take their microwave (same frequency) and shoot it through an antenna on their roof. If the ISP in town doesn't pay their tarrif they turn on the microwave and all people between them and the ISP lose conductivity.
Supposedly it will be out by July 3-5. This is not news from Blizzard, but in their advertising contracts they are set to put out ads on the 5th I believe and they have no option in them to move that date. Of course they could always just advertise and not release, but at least it's a day to look forward to.
I think it is pretty extreme to say that the tech sector is driving the way society is headed. Instead look perhaps what you are seeing is the economy changing in areas to the attitude of the tech sector. What you are really doing is redefining a capitolistic system in the tech sector. In a real economy the goods available will change to suit the consumers. All of your examples are also examples of how the system has changed in order to make more profit from goods that require no real resources (relativly.) To me what you have stated is nothing more then capitolism at work.
This is the worst route that the ISP could have taken. They made the attackers victorious in what they set out to do.
First let me tell everyone about some things you might not want to know. In my opinion DoS attacks are like taking the computers hostage, or any terrorist act. You don't agree with the politics of a group or you want attention. In any real world terrorism you can never, I repeat never give the terrorist anything they want, except for absolutely meaningless things. Even if they want peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches you give them a jar of peanut butter, some jelly, and some stail bread. On a more serious side if they pull the trick of covering themselves and hostages with a blanket and come out of the house (so the SWAT can't see who they are shooting) there is always a no pass line (generally 25 or so feet in front of the door. It is just as it sounds, the terrorist does NOT pass that line, if you have to kill hostages to kill the terrorist it is acceptable. These are the policies in place right now all the way from some little towns police force to the FBI.
Now you may ask why I went through all this. It's simple, if you ever give a terrorist what they want then terrorism becomes a viable option. The same will happen with DoS attacks or any other online attack. If you give one person what they want in an attempt to stop attacks you are going to cause many many more attacks with the same result sought. It's bad practice, and bad logic on the ISP's side of it. I repeat again that this was the WORST thing they could have done.
Whether or not it makes any -sense- for Microsoft to do what it is doing, does it not still have the legal -right- if not a legal obligation to protect its copyrights, or face an inability to enforce its position at a later date?
First let me make one thing clear: A trade secret is NOT copywritable. If you have a copyright on somthing it means that it is viewable (gets a little iffy in computer software, but I digress.) If you let out a trade secret, say I get the formula for Coke through legal means, I can do WHATEVER I want with it. There is nothing Coke can do. If I get Microsoft code through legal means that is held under trade secret I can do whatever I want with it.
A trade secret is used so you can have use for an unlimited time, copyrights and patents expire. A trade secret never does as long as it is kept a secret, if you don't keep it a secret you have no legal right to prosecute.
Every point in the letter gets to showing how Microsoft did not keep it a secret, or used illegal means to secure a trade secret, therefor nullifing any legal right they have. In fact the letter points right at the legal issues.
It may be marketed to 'industrial' audiences, but what about the home user who always seems to be making a 'mess' from what he or she (probably he 99% of the time) sees? I think we'll see a lot more banner ads for this one in odd places. Easy clean up, and rubber fetish fufilling. An odd combination, almost as odd as cybersex.
Even if Napster does ban users that pirate mp3s, it should be Metallicas job to PROVE it. If they can say that all 330,000+ users do in fact not own the CDs, fine ban them. However we are running into a very slippery slope if Napster agrees to ban anyone who simply downloaded a song.
If this precident is set now, then it will be very soon until virtually every IP will be banned. Until it is shown that someone does not own the CD, the IP should not be banned.
The beauty here is that it will be close to impossible to prove anything, but that's the type of culture we live in, if you can't prove guilt, or in this case a proponderance of the evidence, actions should not be taken.
Qt is far too easy to program, so I can see it doesn't hold a candle to Motif.
Ironic after the Visual Basic flames. Nowhere in his article did he say Motif was better because it was easier. Many things are easy, but it doesn't make them better. Windows is easier then Linux, so you beg the question as to why people use linux.
I do have to say that from personal experience I don't like Motif, but that's a different issue.
Trade secrets MUST have the following conditions met to be held up in court as a trade secret:
1) have novelty
2) represent an economic investment to the claimant
3) have involved some effort in development
4) the company must show that it made some effort to keep the information a secret
In addion to this, although it is not legal to use redistribute trade secrets, the general knowledge that is learned through things that are held under trade secrecy CAN be used in the future. Another point to remember is that if something is held under trade secret copyright and patent laws DO NOT apply. It is debatable in this case whether the company tried to keep it a secret (documents downloaded by hackers have fallen under trade secret laws, but because they were not secured enough so a hacker couldn't get access the hacker has been determined to not be liable for any damages.) Also any country where there are not trade secrecy laws could download this and redistribute it. Once a trade secret is not a secret it falls into public domain.
Some information gathered from Computer Ethics, Deborah G. Johnson, 1994.
SA is just the very basic way to skew the position, which is done by the sats. The error stream is added with a known equation, then the military models also know this equation and subtract it off to get the real position. In war times this error can be increased DRAMATICALLY, many many times the error from what it is now. The military spec also can use land based transmitters so the accuracy can be increased to very very fine amounts, I have read of uses in some special construction projects, where the government has allowed the very accuate models to be used were able to measure changes down to millimeters.
The problem has always been that if GPS is too accuate it is relatively easy to take a rocket (an unsteerable projectile) and make it a very accurate balistic missle. In fact the national organization for rocket builders now has their new members list checked by the NSA or the FBI, because with GPS and a few servos you can make a missle that would be fairly accurate. You may not be able to pick out what window you want to hit but you can hit the building.
I don't believe National Security plays a role in many parts of our lives, but GPS is something that is too powerful not to be well regulated.
Many people forget that a house is normally wired with 4 conductor phone line ( green - red | black - yellow ) If you make sure that the black and yellow are connected in all the boxes, and the junction boxes in your house you can effectively have an additional private circut in your house. This is especially useful if you do have to deal with something propritary here. Another fact that most people forget is that RJ-45 is 8 conductor, where orange, orange-white, blue, and blue-white are used, so it is again possible to run an additional ethernet line through the same cable, or as I have done in the past put two analog phone lines down with the ethernet signal. In theory you may run into problems with induction fields, but I have never had a problem. You can also do other useful things, like use the black and yellow wires to run a mono feed of mp3s from your computer to your stereo.
The X-Project is here to make sure great ideas happen. With a prize of 10 million dollars on the line the last time I heard there was about 50 contestents. The contest? The first reusable orbital craft. If you can design a craft that can carry 3 people, reach high enough altitudes to enter into orbit, return to earth, and send another 3 people up within a week, you win. There is supposedly a constestant ready to launch this summer, and many more within three years. Who needs governments, we have competition.