And patents are not meant for art, but (simplifying and generalizing) the products of engineering: transistors, stronger-than-known magnets, chemicals, kinetic insights (swinging sideways on a swing ~_~), etc.
Yes, just like there's an art of programming there's an art of engineering (and, heck, an art of medicine). That doesn't mean I think of programmers, engineers or doctors as artists.
This case is because AT&T has been selling ringtones at extortionate prices under the premise that it covers a public performance license, but has never paid those licensing fees for all those ring tones.
So ASCAP should sue AT&T for making available the songs to everyone on the street?
Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), an organization that collects royalties for song writers and publishers, is forecasting that overall ringtone sales in the US will fall 7 percent in 2008 to approximately $510 million.
Let's say it dropped to $480 million, and AT&T sold a fourth of that, i.e. $120 million. Let's say they charge $9.6 per ringtone. That's 12.5 million ring tones.
Under the Thomas-Rasset statutory damage precedent, AT&T should pay ASCAP $1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion dollars).
Just don't expect Apple to make it convenient for you to distribute it.
Right, but is it acceptable if Apple de facto forbids (i.e. prevents) him from distributing it on his own? Is it acceptable if Apple prevents him from installing it on his own phone?
That's what I hear Apple is doing. If that's the case, I find it reprehensible too.
Or even then...How would a good looking Firefox harm Firefox?
If the time spent making firefox look good could be spent on other things, the harm of a good-looking firefox is that said other things are missing; they could be performance, stability, bug fixes, new features.
Now, I said "if". I'm not certain the condition is satisfied: if I'm working on performance-optimizing some application I run a lot, I'm not going to work on making it look pretty if I think it looks just fine. I figure people who like the performance just fine isn't going to move away from working on the pretty either. (As long as they're volunteer developers).
The size of the opportunity cost also depends on how big the return on investment is, in looks and performance, comparatively. If one mythical man-month can make firefox look 200% better or be 50% more performant, well... 200 > 50. Though I'm not sure how you quantify pretty;-) user approval rating, maybe?
So in short: how would a good looking firefox harm firefox? I have no clue!;) But I know that the answer "none" is something you arrive at only after some consideration.
Not to meet women. Trust me, I know. qty =~ 0. You might have better chances studying CS or hanging out in a LUG or joining the Navy. Trust me, I know:(
Closed source companies have to add useless and failed features to their products, otherwise the time spend has been wasted and investors may sue the company.
If adding said features hurts the value of the product, doesn't the fiduciary duty dictate that you don't add them?
Can't the cost of implementing a feature, including it and then removing it be chalked up as marketing research? "We invested money to find out that our product is the most valuable without Clippy"?
Or are investors really thinking the way you suggest?
Copyright gives the author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain.
I'm not really sure how to interpret "load executable code". Is there non-executable code? What makes it code, then?
Browsers load and execute javascript. Is javascript not code, or is it not executed, or does it break the rules, or is there some option I'm missing?
Is GLSL also code? That means you can't run third party color filters like the compiz plugin which simulates colorblindness. I'm sure that's an important restriction... wait, what?
Can anyone explain to me what "load executable code" does and doesn't cover? And even better, what's the motivation for the distinction?
All of the weapons take only [one or two] shots to kill someone.
You might like Nexuiz (more), then. If you play just a little defensively and you don't overcrowd the map, you can typically survive quite a few shots from most weapons. Even with just the default 100 HP, you can survive a few shots from almost half the weapons.
What's great: if you're close enough, you can hear what other players pick up, so you can gain an advantage by figuring out where on the map they are and where they're going (so you can ambush them).
Wouldn't that cause billions of damages to CP producers?
That would take the distribution of 25000 images (at $80,000 apiece). (let billions = 2*10^9 in...)
My guess is that there are many more images than that illegally downloaded every year. Let's pat ourselves on the back for the damage we're doing to those nasty people!
we can find almost anything erotic, including things far stranger than prepubescent sex.
One of my gripes with child pornography laws is that regarding child porn, "child" isn't defined as a prepubescent person but a person of age less than 18.
When I was 15, I wanted to have sex with 15 year old girls. I think (almost?) all guys share this experience, and everybody sees this as acceptable---except maybe her parents;-)
Now that I'm 25, I think of 15 year old girls as a bit on the young side. From what I'm told, it's also illegal for me to have sex with them. I also know that society would raise an eyebrow at it.
But, and this is the fun part: I think society would raise an eyebrow at it not because the young girls aren't sexually mature but because of the large age difference. That is, people would raise their eyebrows at it for the same reason they'd raise their eyebrow at a 38yo guy having sex with a 21yo girl. And that is not illegal.
Other gripes: it's illegal not because it's about non-consenting children but because it's about children. And politicians ban cartoon drawings of it. And politicians ban videos of 18yo girls that look 15. I've yet to see a story about them banning such things because they have empirical evidence that they cause more harm than good. Who knows, maybe masturbating at anime child porn would keep a pedophile a pedophile instead of turning him into a child molester.
If Canadians don't learn to vote strategically, he'll get in again and again.
I predict the Canadians won't vote strategically.
Let's first make sure I understand what you're saying. You're saying that the voters are split in three thirds, with two of them agreeing (to some extent, but much more than any other pair). You're saying the two semi-agreeing thirds should cooperate.
If the people belonging to the semi-agreeing thirds didn't have some disagreement, why aren't they one lump of size two thirds? If they do have such disagreement, aren't you asking one third of Canadian voters to give up on something they value? I'd think that third would say "why not the other third?".
The situation smells a lot like the ultimatum game: two players play; one player suggests a way to split a $100 bill, e.g. 60-40; the other play can either accept or reject; if he accepts, "the bank" pays them money according to the suggestion; if he rejects, no player gets anything.
In the real world, in some cultures (the economically and socially better off), you have to get damn close to 50-50 before players start accepting. Telling one third of voters to vote strategically (i.e. giving up something without the other third giving anything) sounds like it's too far from a 50-50 split to be feasible.
You're going to see people crying about the price of unsubsidized phones awful fast.
WTF?!
Here's something interesting: in Denmark, 3 (a phone service company) has just announced the HTC Magic, running Android.
They charge ~3600 DKK for the phone plus a half-year subscription (excluding the 200 DKK account creation and SIM card fee).
(1 USD =~ 5-6 DKK)
Here's the kicker: you can either pay 1200 DKK for the phone and 400 DKK per month in minimum usage, or 1800 DKK for the phone and 300 DKK per month, or 2400 DKK for the phone and 200 DKK per month.
What does that tell you? You pay 3600 DKK for the total package independently of whether you use 2400 or 1200 DKK of service. Let's say that 3 is unrealistically generous and sells you the 1200 DKK worth of service at cost (ROFL). That would make the 2400 DKK service roll in at a 100% profit margin.
That figure alone should make your eyes pop.
Next, compare it to another danish cellular telephony company, m1. They offer you 50 free text messages and 50 free call minutes per month. Anything beyond is charged at $0.03/SMS and $0.10/minute (roughly; see m1.dk if you want precise figures).
Note that 3 charges similar calling and SMS rates (except you don't get any for free). How on earth can m1 deliver the same as 3 except for free when 3 needs 200 DKK per month?
And why can't I buy the phone for ~3500 DKK from HTC and use m1 for my telephony service? I'd happily pay 3 their 150 DKK per month for unlimited internet on my phone if I could have the sweet telephony deal from m1.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark^Wtelephony.
Don't go FOSS because it's FOSS. Go FOSS because it's superior.
Not all FOSS is superior.
If you value software freedom over functionality, free software is superior exactly because it's free software.
Flash has the best video streaming available
Embedded {H.264,.wmv,.avi}, played with mplayer? My "Flash experience" is Flash+Firefox, and that's pretty bollocks. On the other hand, mplayer handles every single piece of crap you throw at it.
There is nothing in the idea or structure of a corporation that makes them innately evil.
No, they just all happen to be;-)
Who makes the decision to be evil? Who holds them accountable for that decision? As far as I can tell, if the CEO orders the company to do evil in the name of profit, he isn't failing his fiduciary duty, so it's only the board of directors which can have a say, after the fact. Which kind of person sits on the board of directors? Are they the kind of person we expect to be ethical?
Slashdot Mirror
"VIEW ME AS THE ARTIST I AM!"
And patents are not meant for art, but (simplifying and generalizing) the products of engineering: transistors, stronger-than-known magnets, chemicals, kinetic insights (swinging sideways on a swing ~_~), etc.
Yes, just like there's an art of programming there's an art of engineering (and, heck, an art of medicine). That doesn't mean I think of programmers, engineers or doctors as artists.
This case is because AT&T has been selling ringtones at extortionate prices under the premise that it covers a public performance license, but has never paid those licensing fees for all those ring tones.
So ASCAP should sue AT&T for making available the songs to everyone on the street?
Or maybe... let's see... From http://www.nypost.com/seven/03282008/business/ringtone_sales_fizzling_out_103910.htm
Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), an organization that collects royalties for song writers and publishers, is forecasting that overall ringtone sales in the US will fall 7 percent in 2008 to approximately $510 million.
Let's say it dropped to $480 million, and AT&T sold a fourth of that, i.e. $120 million. Let's say they charge $9.6 per ringtone. That's 12.5 million ring tones.
Under the Thomas-Rasset statutory damage precedent, AT&T should pay ASCAP $1,000,000,000,000 (one trillion dollars).
I'm all for! ;)
the historically accepted meaning of "begs the question"
My impression was that is was meant to imply circular reasoning.
"God exists because the Bible say so. The bible is true because the content comes from God."
Just don't expect Apple to make it convenient for you to distribute it.
Right, but is it acceptable if Apple de facto forbids (i.e. prevents) him from distributing it on his own? Is it acceptable if Apple prevents him from installing it on his own phone?
That's what I hear Apple is doing. If that's the case, I find it reprehensible too.
1) If you had a string, and wanted to replace part of that string with another string, how would you do it?
Python: def strrep(target, idx, len, bullet): return target[:idx] + bullet + target[idx+len:]
2) How would you add 5 to each element in an array of integers?
Haskell: map (+5) array -- I cheat and use a list.
3) How would you add 5 to a field of integers in an SQL table?
UPDATE TABLE foo SET field = field + 5
4) Write up any form of database "select" query.
SELECT jonaskoelker
FROM candidates
WHERE clue > 0
Why you'd name a field after me I don't know, but there you go ;-)
5) In your language of choice, take a variable containing the value 5 and construct a sentence that says "I have 5 children".
Guile (GNU embeddable scheme): (format #f "I have ~a children" a-variable-containing-the-value-5)
I sure hope no one will plagiarize my hard work! :D
Or even then...How would a good looking Firefox harm Firefox?
If the time spent making firefox look good could be spent on other things, the harm of a good-looking firefox is that said other things are missing; they could be performance, stability, bug fixes, new features.
Now, I said "if". I'm not certain the condition is satisfied: if I'm working on performance-optimizing some application I run a lot, I'm not going to work on making it look pretty if I think it looks just fine. I figure people who like the performance just fine isn't going to move away from working on the pretty either. (As long as they're volunteer developers).
The size of the opportunity cost also depends on how big the return on investment is, in looks and performance, comparatively. If one mythical man-month can make firefox look 200% better or be 50% more performant, well... 200 > 50. Though I'm not sure how you quantify pretty ;-) user approval rating, maybe?
So in short: how would a good looking firefox harm firefox? I have no clue! ;) But I know that the answer "none" is something you arrive at only after some consideration.
CHA is a stat that can be faked and it gains by use
http://xkcd.com/189/
[wrt church] making babies is the #1 means of recruitment.
You're a catholic the moment dad came!
[join a chess club]
Not to meet women. Trust me, I know. qty =~ 0. You might have better chances studying CS or hanging out in a LUG or joining the Navy. Trust me, I know :(
"Wow, that didn't go over well. ctrl-z! ctrl-z!"
You can't put nethack in the background twice, you know...
you can always reload from a previous saved game.
Yeah, we know, but savescumming is frowned upon.
Closed source companies have to add useless and failed features to their products, otherwise the time spend has been wasted and investors may sue the company.
If adding said features hurts the value of the product, doesn't the fiduciary duty dictate that you don't add them?
Can't the cost of implementing a feature, including it and then removing it be chalked up as marketing research? "We invested money to find out that our product is the most valuable without Clippy"?
Or are investors really thinking the way you suggest?
I take a newly produced and copywritten album
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copywriting
Copywriting is the use of words to promote a person, business, opinion or idea.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright
Copyright gives the author of an original work exclusive right for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation, after which time the work is said to enter the public domain.
I hope this clears up the misunderstanding :)
You cannot load executable code.
I'm not really sure how to interpret "load executable code". Is there non-executable code? What makes it code, then?
Browsers load and execute javascript. Is javascript not code, or is it not executed, or does it break the rules, or is there some option I'm missing?
Is GLSL also code? That means you can't run third party color filters like the compiz plugin which simulates colorblindness. I'm sure that's an important restriction... wait, what?
Can anyone explain to me what "load executable code" does and doesn't cover? And even better, what's the motivation for the distinction?
All of the weapons take only [one or two] shots to kill someone.
You might like Nexuiz (more), then. If you play just a little defensively and you don't overcrowd the map, you can typically survive quite a few shots from most weapons. Even with just the default 100 HP, you can survive a few shots from almost half the weapons.
What's great: if you're close enough, you can hear what other players pick up, so you can gain an advantage by figuring out where on the map they are and where they're going (so you can ambush them).
it provides a language environment similar to c
There's no goto. There's no implicit goto. Your only "control flow" is conditional assignment (x = a ? b : c).
Among the primitive operations are matrix multiplication, matrix inversion and 1/length(vector), but no integer arithmetic.
It's about as similar to C as SQL is: not at all, really.
And don't forget the mouse gestures!
I'm mousing left handed. It's really a boon to not have to use both hands (or switch hands) to move between tabs, close tabs, open links in new tabs.
*sigh* You know you have issues when mouse gesture software improves your sex life :(
this ain't aloha [Ac]kbar
Google fight:
I'm sure they meant "Hello general" ;-)
Wouldn't that cause billions of damages to CP producers?
That would take the distribution of 25000 images (at $80,000 apiece). (let billions = 2*10^9 in ...)
My guess is that there are many more images than that illegally downloaded every year. Let's pat ourselves on the back for the damage we're doing to those nasty people!
we can find almost anything erotic, including things far stranger than prepubescent sex.
One of my gripes with child pornography laws is that regarding child porn, "child" isn't defined as a prepubescent person but a person of age less than 18.
When I was 15, I wanted to have sex with 15 year old girls. I think (almost?) all guys share this experience, and everybody sees this as acceptable---except maybe her parents ;-)
Now that I'm 25, I think of 15 year old girls as a bit on the young side. From what I'm told, it's also illegal for me to have sex with them. I also know that society would raise an eyebrow at it.
But, and this is the fun part: I think society would raise an eyebrow at it not because the young girls aren't sexually mature but because of the large age difference. That is, people would raise their eyebrows at it for the same reason they'd raise their eyebrow at a 38yo guy having sex with a 21yo girl. And that is not illegal.
Other gripes: it's illegal not because it's about non-consenting children but because it's about children. And politicians ban cartoon drawings of it. And politicians ban videos of 18yo girls that look 15. I've yet to see a story about them banning such things because they have empirical evidence that they cause more harm than good. Who knows, maybe masturbating at anime child porn would keep a pedophile a pedophile instead of turning him into a child molester.
horses [...] zebra [...] horse [...] zebras
But I want a pony!
If Canadians don't learn to vote strategically, he'll get in again and again.
I predict the Canadians won't vote strategically.
Let's first make sure I understand what you're saying. You're saying that the voters are split in three thirds, with two of them agreeing (to some extent, but much more than any other pair). You're saying the two semi-agreeing thirds should cooperate.
If the people belonging to the semi-agreeing thirds didn't have some disagreement, why aren't they one lump of size two thirds? If they do have such disagreement, aren't you asking one third of Canadian voters to give up on something they value? I'd think that third would say "why not the other third?".
The situation smells a lot like the ultimatum game: two players play; one player suggests a way to split a $100 bill, e.g. 60-40; the other play can either accept or reject; if he accepts, "the bank" pays them money according to the suggestion; if he rejects, no player gets anything.
In the real world, in some cultures (the economically and socially better off), you have to get damn close to 50-50 before players start accepting. Telling one third of voters to vote strategically (i.e. giving up something without the other third giving anything) sounds like it's too far from a 50-50 split to be feasible.
That's my take on it, fwiw...
You're going to see people crying about the price of unsubsidized phones awful fast.
WTF?!
Here's something interesting: in Denmark, 3 (a phone service company) has just announced the HTC Magic, running Android.
They charge ~3600 DKK for the phone plus a half-year subscription (excluding the 200 DKK account creation and SIM card fee).
(1 USD =~ 5-6 DKK)
Here's the kicker: you can either pay 1200 DKK for the phone and 400 DKK per month in minimum usage, or 1800 DKK for the phone and 300 DKK per month, or 2400 DKK for the phone and 200 DKK per month.
What does that tell you? You pay 3600 DKK for the total package independently of whether you use 2400 or 1200 DKK of service. Let's say that 3 is unrealistically generous and sells you the 1200 DKK worth of service at cost (ROFL). That would make the 2400 DKK service roll in at a 100% profit margin.
That figure alone should make your eyes pop.
Next, compare it to another danish cellular telephony company, m1. They offer you 50 free text messages and 50 free call minutes per month. Anything beyond is charged at $0.03/SMS and $0.10/minute (roughly; see m1.dk if you want precise figures).
Note that 3 charges similar calling and SMS rates (except you don't get any for free). How on earth can m1 deliver the same as 3 except for free when 3 needs 200 DKK per month?
And why can't I buy the phone for ~3500 DKK from HTC and use m1 for my telephony service? I'd happily pay 3 their 150 DKK per month for unlimited internet on my phone if I could have the sweet telephony deal from m1.
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark^Wtelephony.
Don't go FOSS because it's FOSS. Go FOSS because it's superior.
Not all FOSS is superior.
If you value software freedom over functionality, free software is superior exactly because it's free software.
Flash has the best video streaming available
Embedded {H.264, .wmv, .avi}, played with mplayer? My "Flash experience" is Flash+Firefox, and that's pretty bollocks. On the other hand, mplayer handles every single piece of crap you throw at it.
There is nothing in the idea or structure of a corporation that makes them innately evil.
No, they just all happen to be ;-)
Who makes the decision to be evil? Who holds them accountable for that decision? As far as I can tell, if the CEO orders the company to do evil in the name of profit, he isn't failing his fiduciary duty, so it's only the board of directors which can have a say, after the fact. Which kind of person sits on the board of directors? Are they the kind of person we expect to be ethical?
And for that reason (speaking as a non-american citizen) the first is somewhat difficult as well.
(goodbye karma?)